@database "ar208.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #2.08 -- March 4, 1994"

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

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                       International Online Magazine

                "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information."

                   Copyright  1994 Skynet Publications
                            All Rights Reserved

                                      //                                  
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%//%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% March 4, 1994                  \\//                   Issue No.  2.08 %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

@endnode

@node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report"
@toc "menu"
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                      Where to find Amiga Report                       %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

  Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system.

                             FidoNet Systems 
                              ---------------

  FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report!

@{"     OMAHA AMIGANET      " link P2-1-9} ..................................Omaha, Nebraska
@{"          NOVA           " link P2-1-1} .............................Cleveland, Tennessee
@{"       BIOSMATICA        " link P2-1-4} .........................................Portugal
@{"    AMIGA JUNCTION 9     " link P2-1-5} ...................................United Kingdom
@{"     BITSTREAM BBS       " link P2-1-6} ..............................Nelson, New Zealand
@{"   REALM OF TWILIGHT     " link P2-1-7} ..................................Ontario, Canada
@{"    METNET TRIANGLE      " link P2-1-8} ......................Kingston Upon Hull, England
@{"   AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM    " link P2-1-10} ................................Helsinki, Finland
@{" RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING " link P2-1-11} ...........................................France
@{"      GATEWAY BBS        " link P2-1-12} ..............................Biloxi, Mississippi
@{"       TALK CITY         " link P2-1-13} ...............................Waukegan, Illinois
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@{"     COMM-LINK BBS       " link P2-1-17} .......................Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada
@{"    PHANTOM'S  LAIR      " link P2-1-18} .......................Glendale Heights, Illinois
@{"    Tierra-Miga BBS      " link P2-1-19} .....................................SanDeigo, Ca
                           Non-FidoNet Systems 
                            -------------------

@{"    IN THE  MEANTIME     " link P2-1-2} ...............................Yakima, Washington
@{"   FREELAND MAINFRAME    " link P2-1-50} ..............................Olympia, Washington
@{"           LAHO          " link P2-1-51} ...............................Seinajoki, Finland
@{"         FALLING         " link P2-1-52} ...........................................Norway
@{"      COMMAND LINE       " link P2-1-53} ..................................Toronto, Canada
@{"       RENDEZVOUS        " link P2-1-54} ......................................New Zealand
@{"  LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL   " link P2-1-55} ..........................................Germany
@{"   STINGRAY DATABASE     " link P2-1-56} ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany
@{"  T.B.P.  VIDEO SLATE    " link P2-1-57} .............................Rockaway, New Jersey
@{"     AMIGA CENTRAL       " link P2-1-58} .............................Nashville, Tennessee
@{"   CONTINENTAL DRIFT     " link P2-1-59} ................................Sydney, Australia
@{"    GURU MEDITATION      " link P2-1-60} ............................................Spain
@{"  MOONLIGHT SONATA DLG   " link P2-1-61} .........................................Findland
@{"    DOOM OF DARKNESS     " link P2-1-62} ..................................Bremen, Germany
@{"       REDEYE BBS        " link P2-1-63} ..................................Munich, Germany
@endnode

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

@{"    Columns and Features    " link P1} News, Reviews, and More!
@{"     About AMIGA REPORT     " link P2} Staff, Copyright information
@{"      Dealer Directory      " link P3} Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers
@{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-Up Information
@{"     FTP Announcements      " link P5} New Files Available for FTP
@{"   AR Distribution Sites    " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT

                ____________________________________________
         //    |                                            |        //
%%%%%%%%//%%%%%| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |%%%%%%%//%%%%%
%%   \\//      | Issue No. 2.08               March 4, 1994 |    \\//    %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%| "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" |%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
               |____________________________________________|             
                                                                          
    The Editor's Desk      Compuserve Conference    FTP Announcements
    Reader Mail            Dealer Directory         Distribution BBS's
    UseNet Reviews         Product Announcements    Emulation Rambler 
 
                            SPECIAL FEATURES 

  Philosophical Wax ........................................Jason Compton
  MS-DOS Blues .............................................Shane Bumpurs                                                                      

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%              @{" DELPHI " link P4-1}  @{" PORTAL " link P4-2}  @{" FIDO " link P2-1}  @{" INTERNET " link P4-5}           %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

@endnode

@node P1-1 "The Editor's Desk"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% The Editor's Desk                                     By Robert Niles %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Well, did you hear? Stac won against the computer industry giant Microsoft.
Nobody thought they would. But personally I'm glad they did. As for the
first time those at Microsoft know that they are going to have a hard
time beating up on the little guys. $120 Million might not mean much to
Microsoft, but it's a good slap in the face.

Well the @{" CD32 " system "display cd32_bb.iff"} sales in Europe are looking good. A report from the UK
stated that the CD32 is the leading CD game machine over there. The CD32
is taking up 39.4% of the market, with the second place winner going to
MegaCD. And Philips CD-I taking up the rear with only 1.8%.

Someone also report seeing an advertisement in Canada. I don't know how 
that might come along for those who are in the US, but it's a start. It 
looked as if the commercial was done by one of the local dealers.

I did see a boring CD-I commercial the other day. It wasn't all that bad,
but was extremely repetative, and a little hoaky. This guy want to know the
meaning of life. So somehow he gets to the "Wall". Anyways the "Wall" goes
and shows him about some of the software available. And a few other 
off the "Wall" people came into view ...like a female named "help".

Very strange indeed, but it does underscore one point. That marketing
is an important part of selling a product or service. Mareting is
precisely what CBM needs to do. I don't care about the costs. Ask
anyone who sell a product or service.

We found out that since CBM Australia is no longer in existance that
there will be warrentee support for those of you covered. A company 
called CompuAid will be taking over. I don't have more information
on that but will try to get it to those concerned next week.

Edward Anderson (edwarda@ee.pdx.edu) has asked that we carry a
classifieds section in AR. Now I'm all for this, except for the
problem in which it could increase the size of AR quite a bit.
I have no idea how much, but this is what he proposes:

---cut---

I had thought about the size increase myself, and I personally would not 
mind. It only takes me 5 minutes to download Amiga Report at 2400, but I 
understand some people have download limits.  

I don't think it's ever a good idea to limit the size of any magazine even if
if it's an online magazine.  I was always more excited when I could download
a larger AR###.LHA file (More Amiga Stuff!).  IMHO I feel that a classifieds
section is at least as important as the 'Dealer Directory'.  A local amiga
user will probably be closer to me than a dealer (more approachable too).
If either of these sections are large, I'd feel that the Amiga Computing seen
is a hot bed of activity.

Also, We could control the size of the Classified's Section by having
a highly formalized classified Ad:

	BOLD ATTENTION GETTER
	3 - 4 Lines
	Name
	Phone#
	Email

We could put these ads in two column format.  Price is free, of course.

What do you think?

---cut---

So please let either him or I know what you think on this.

In the meantime, let's get on with the show!


@endnode

@node P4-1 "Delphi"
@toc "menu"

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


 Amiga Report International Online Magazine is available every week 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 AMIGAREPORT and press RETURN.

  DELPHI's best plan is the 20/20 plan.  It gives you 20 hours each month
  for the low price of only $19.95!  Additional hours are only $1.50 each!
             This covers 1200, 2400 and even 9600 connections!

          For more information, and details on other plans, 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.

  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 P2-2 "AR Staff"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                        The Amiga Report Staff                         %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

  
                                 Editor
                                 ======

                               Robert Niles

 Portal:                         RNiles
 FidoNet:                      1:3407/103
 Internet:             rniles@hebron.connected.com
 Fax:                         509-966-3828
 US Mail:                     P.O. Box 8041
                            Yakima, Wa 98908

  

                            Emulation Editor
                            ================

                             Jason Compton
 Internet:                 jcompton@tcity.com


                            European Editor
                            ===============

                              Jesper Juul
 Internet:               norjj@stud.hum.aau.dk

@endnode


@node P4-5 "Amiga Report Mailing List"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                      Amiga Report Maillist List                      %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


No Official Amiga Report Distribution Site in your local calling area? Are
you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get Amiga
Report each week?  If so, have we got a deal for you!

If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report
in UUENCODED form each week as soon as the issue is released.  To be put
on the list, send Email to rniles@hebron.connected.com.  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.

Many thanks to PORTAL Communications for setting this service up for us!

P.S.:  Please be sure to include your Email address in the text of your
request message, it makes adding it to the list much easier.  Thanks!

** 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 P1-2 "Amiga News"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Amiga News                                                          %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Jaeger Software at Portal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Amiga Zone is pleased to announce the addition of another
new company to our Vendor area.  

"Go amiga;3" to get to the Vendor area, then select your choice
from the menu. Any and all of our Vendor areas can be added to
your Portal subscriptions. Just enter the area of your choice
and type "sub" to subscribe.

Here is info about our newest vendor: Jaeger Software, Inc. :
--------------------------

Welcome to the Jaeger Software, Inc. customer support area.
Jaeger Software is a small company based in Rockville, Md that 
specializes in computer flight simulation. From the detailed aerodynamic 
model to the lightning-fast frame rate, the Fighter Duel series is known 
for simulating the "feel" of flying. With a full selection of aircraft and 
added features, the latest entry, Fighter Duel Pro 2 delivers the flight 
simulation package for the serious aviator.

Regional, National and International tournaments using Fighter Duel Pro 2 
are regulary staged. To get in on them, contact Drew Dorman, national
tournament coordinator at 1-314-367-3916 or email him at
GHOST.RIDER@genie.geis.com.
  
Jaeger representative, Matt Shaw will check in regularly to answer any
questions on Jaeger products. 

As of 2/1/94 Jaeger has released four products.

Fighter Duel - Corsair vs. Zero RELEASED 12/91:
- The original Hi-res Interlace WWII flight simulator.
- Featured 24-29 frame per second smoothness even while playing over 
  modem.

Fighter Duel Pro 1.0 RELEASED 11/92:
- Brought the individually modelled aircraft number to 16.
- You may fly against two enemy aircraft at one time.
- Added analog rudder control.
- Introduced our unique ability to connect a second Amiga as a Rearview.
- New Tournament and score keeping abilities.

Fighter Duel Pro Flight Recorder RELEASED 3/93:
- All the features of FDPro1 with the ability to use FDPro's accurate
  aerodynamic model to make smooth and natural looking flight path data for
  use in popular Amiga 3D rendering software such as Newtek's Lightwave 3D,
  Impulse's Imagine, and Virtual Reality Lab's VistaPro.
- Flight Recorder is used as a tool on such tv show's as NBC's SeaQuest DSV.
 
Fighter Duel Pro 2 RELEASED 1/94:

FDPro2 has all the features of FDPro1 plus..

- Compatibility with both AGA and original chipsets.  Thirty-five percent
  performance increase with Amiga 1200 & 4000 models displaying the
  AGA 640 x 400 Hi-res No Flicker video mode.
- The super planes, including the German ME-262 jet, the rocket-powered 
  Komet, the TA-152H version of the FW-190, the ME-110, the Japanese 
  KI-84, the Russian Yak-3, the American  F2G Corsair and P-61 Black 
  Widow, and arguably the best fighter of WWII, the British Mark XIV 
  Spitfire. This brings the number of individually modelled and flight 
  tested aircraft to a total of twenty-five.
- Fly against a 4 aircraft formation, with individual fuselage colors and
  markedly improved aggressiveness and tracking abilities.  Plus, change 
  the foe aircraft type during flight.
- A redesigned gunnery system that accurately plots bullet trajectories 
  and includes a sophisticated lead-computing gunsight.
- Keyboard equivalents for all aircraft functions.
- Instant view keys for use in all modes with the ability to lock the 
  view, including the rear view playermode.
- View control with "Hat" switch on Thrustmaster and the new CH 
  Flightstick Pro analog sticks.
- A shaded sky distinguished by smoothness and color accuracy. 
- Additional types of aircraft damage, war emergency power boost, plus 
  unlimited ammo option.
- A new and improved pre-flight interface using point and click selections.
- Automatic detection and utilization of advanced processors and larger 
  memory systems.
- New one-player modes including a tourney start against a foe, a wingman
  mode where you fly wing with one computer controlled aircraft and battle
  two others, and a stationary gunnery mode where you man an anti-aircraft 
  machine gun while attacked by computer controlled aircraft.
- The two-player hookup system now features 1200-9600 baud modem as well as
  null modem cable support and phonebook storage of your FDPro 2 opponent's
  phone numbers.
- A "chat" mode that allows in-flight communication in two-player modes, 
  plus the ability to send preset comments with a single keystroke.
- With a two-player hookup it is now possible to battle computer-controlled
  foes, either as a M-E110 or P-61 pilot and gunner, or lead and wing 
  formation



CBP Announces Service for Computer Artists and Videographers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 1, 1994

For Immediate Release
Contact: Belle Daily


CBP is pleased to announce Geoffrey Williams' Computer Artist and 
Videographer Report. Written for professionals creating video or graphics
using the Amiga computer or Video Toaster, the CAV Report helps them keep
abreast of the rapidly changing market. 
    
Subscribers receive the monthly Computer Artist and Videographer Report, a 
six page newsletter containing the latest news, business forecasts and 
advice. Often with news just a few days old, it offers information far 
more timely than from any other printed source, and it presents it in a 
clear, honest, and direct fashion. It also includes a regular column on 
business techniques and practices for the working professional. The report 
contains no advertising or filler. 

They also receive the Intro Disk, which uses the standard Installer to add 
the latest libraries and other important utilities to the subscriber's 
computer. It includes a powerful disk cataloger with databases for disks 
available through CBP, and useful compression software.

The most unique part of the service is the monthly disk, each one on a 
specific graphics or video topic. Each disk has an extensive hypertext 
interface written by Geoffrey Williams that makes using them a snap, even 
for those new to computers. The problems with using the included freely 
distributable programs have been eliminated, as they are automatically 
configured, and fully integrated into the hypertext interface. Running a 
program is as simple as clicking on its name in the text that describes 
what it does. Besides just giving you useful tested software, the disks 
give you an understanding of what the software does and under what 
situations you would want to use it, as well as background information 
about the topic itself and interactive glossary definitions. 

Geoffrey is well known for his extensive knowledge of FD software, and 
he gathers it from sources around the world.

Also included is the quarterly HyperMedia Journal, a hypertext disk based 
magazine with articles, tutorials, and reviews, much of it interactive. 
Tutorials can take control of the program they are discussing, and teach 
interactively, and readers can click on unfamiliar terms for instant 
definitions. It includes original material as well as electronically 
distributed news and articles. 
 
Subscribers receive a total of 17 disks and the monthly printed report.

Geoffrey Williams is an Amiga columnist and respected writer on video and 
multimedia, and his writing appears regularly in professional publications. 
He has created videos, interactive kiosks, and multimedia presentations for 
a wide variety of industrial clients. The CAV Report is published by 
Creative Business Presentations, a company that has done computer based 
presentations and publishing on an international scale. 

Subscription price is $80 per year. For more information, contact 
CBP, 1833 Verdugo Vista Drive, Glendale, CA 90218, (818) 240-9845.



CBP Publications announces Geoffrey Williams' History of Games
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Immediate Release
Contact: Belle Daily 

CBP Publications is pleased to announce Geoffrey Williams' History of 
Games, a digital interactive hypertext book. Witty, entertainingly 
written, and exhaustively researched, Geoffrey Williams' History 
of Games is one of the most extensive game histories ever written. 
It also goes beyond traditional publishing by incorporating a powerful 
graphics based hypertext interface, allowing the reader to click on icons
or key words to jump to other subjects, follow hypertext links, or play 
the game described in the text. 

Geoffrey has carefully collected the best PD games in the various 
categories and added additional games he wrote to make the collection 
more complete.  Readers will be able to interactively play over 100 
games, for thousands of hours of reading and entertainment.

The topics covered include board games, card and dice games, arcades 
(pinball to video), the history of computing and computer games, gambling,
carnival games, puzzles, eyeplay (the history of optical illusions), word 
play (everything from self-referential sentences to word play poetry and 
party games), mathematical games, games of logic, and even a little magic.

The intitial release is on floppy diskette for the Amiga computer, with a 
CD-ROM for the Mac, PC, and Amiga platforms available in the last quarter 
of 1994. For more information, contact:
 
CBP, 1833 Verdugo Vista Drive, 
Glendale, CA 91208, (818) 240-9845.   

@endnode

@node P1-3 "CIS conference with ASDG"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% CIS conference with ASDG                                             %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

10:08:31 PM EST Friday, February 11, 1994

NarkM/MOD:
I would like to welcome Perry Kivolowitz of ASDG to our Conference. Perry
is the President of ASDG.  ASDG has been an Amiga developer since the
beginning.

I ask that everyone keep from asking 'marketing' questions, or questions
about particular issues dealing with the sales of Amiga products. These
engineers have agreed to speak with us about current technology and
announced technology.

Since this is a formal conference, please ask questions by typing a '?"
first.  When I tell you to go ahead, then send your question. At the end
of your question--type GA to indicate the end of your
question so that the guest can answer.

If you have a follow up comment, enter a ! and I'll recognize you. 
(1-6,pk-asdg)
And I'm sure that I'll be able to answer your
questions in detail since we're a small crowd
tonight.

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Well I'll start with--What is new in Adpro v2.5?

(1-6,pk-asdg)
ok, There are a LOT of new things in ADPro 2.5...
I'll try to summarize...
First and foremost is an entirely new user interface.
In fact, several new user interfaces.
We have made ADPro 2.5 completely style guide compliant
and quite user configurable. Our surveys of our
customers suggested that some people preferred a button
oriented user interface for ease of use,
while others preferred a list based user interface for
speed. In the new version we offer both, and both
formats can be intermixed freely.
The results are that the new ADPro is even more easy
to use than our previous product, and actually improves
people's productivity at the same time. Beta testers
reported being able to move through 20 to 40 percent
more work simply due to user interface changes.
On another front, there's a lot more display boards
supported in the new version and how display boards
are supported at all has improved greatly. You can
now run ADPro directly on many display boards, the
WorkBench, or any other public screen for that matter.
ADPro will render in a Window, and on many display
baords, will render in a window along with its
user interface.

Some of the display boards added are all EGS
boards, the Retina, and Retina ZIII, also the
Picasso, the Video Toaster, and others.
On another front, user written arexx programs
are now fully part of the user configurable user
interface (hows that for gratuitous use of the
word user?)
Also, there are more than 100 pre-written ARexx
programs which are now part of the ADPro
environment. FRED, the much misunderstood ADPro
Animation Editor has been improved and with so
many pre-written ARexx programs, it is quite
likely that an average user would NEVER have
to learn ARexx at all - just point and click
to combine the ARexx programs into larger
and more sophisticated applications.
There are some new operators, some new formats
and a great deal of new flexibility in compositing.
There's an improved manual - with 9 tutorials
amounting to 150 new pages of quality text.
That's only scratching the surface, there's a lot
more. ga

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Wow.. impressive.  Has Gigamem been tested to work with ADPro?

Yes it has - in fact it should be common knowledge that
GigaMem was written FOR ADPro, I understand. And, we are
including a coupon for a substantial discount on GigaMem
in the ADPro box.
ga

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Paul.. go ahead.

(1-7,Paul Idol)
This is just a wacked out notion, but is there any chance that Ad Pro will
ever support PhotoShop plug-ins?  I don't know anything
about the technical details, but it sure would be great.   GA

(1-6,pk-asdg)
ok
Photoshop PI's (I saw your same request to those "other" people) wo uld
represent quite a challenge to get working on the Amiga. We are licensed
Adobe Photoshop developers due to our
presence on other platforms - really the only thing
running in your favor is that the Mac is also a
Motorola based machine - other than that - just
about everything that can be different - is.
ga

(1-10,Mike Smith)
Is there a way to have a small 24bit Picasso window and run Adp
ro in 8 colors?

(1-6,pk-asdg)
ADPro's user interface will now run on any screen which
makes itself available as a public screen. ADPro can also
run directly on several other screen types that, while
not public, are still accessible. You can run ADPro
on the Picasso screen with a 24 bit window sitting next to it
yes.
ga

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
How is ASDG Products used in the production of Babylon 5?

(1-6,pk-asdg)
ok
Our envolvement with B5 goes way
way
way
back.
We developed several key pieces of technology which made
the pilot possible. At that time, Foundation Imaging had been waiti ng for
more than a year for a digital video interface to
come out of Newtek. We were called in, and created our
Abekas support for them.

This support was critical as there was no other
viable means of moving such a large amount of video imagery onto an d off
of our beloved Amiga.
So, every CG shot in B5 did (and still does) go through ADPro
to get to video.
Secondly...
We were developing our morphing technology right
when their script called for a morphing antagoinist.
Foundation had both GVPs and BBSs morphing product
at the time and had rejected both as unworkable.
A fellow there was at the time doing a review
for Amiga World on morphing products and it became
known to them that we were doing one too. They
flew out to our site and did some tests and were
convinced that (what became) MorphPlus was the
way to go. I went out there several times
during the filming of the pilot and actually
created several of the key morphing shots myself
on my Amiga 3000 at my own home.
...
Currently,
our involvement with B5 continues...
Our Abekas digital video stuff is now used by
them on 4 platforms - Amiga, Mac, SGI and
Windows. Our morphing products are used by them
on both the Amiga and Macintosh - there's an
extremely cool creature coming - whose details
I won't divulge but suffice to say that this
is an entirely CG generated creature with
some detailed effects that haven't really
been imagined before.
They continue to ADPro for just about everything.
ga

(1-7,Paul Idol)
So to be clear, there are no plans for PI support?  Sorry to be so..  well
 GA

(1-6,pk-asdg)
ok
That is correct, we (at least) have not considered
the idea before you posed it.
ga

(1-10,Mike Smith)
The Picasso thing again - I don't have to run Adpro in 24bit (slow) mode
to see a small window in 24 bit? (I'm still waiting !! for my upgrade) ga

(1-6,pk-asdg)
I beleive that you can run the Picasso in two ways...
First, you can place ADPro's user interface directly on the Picasso and
render in a window right there..second, you can run ADPro on
the Amiga and render seperately to the Picasso - something that's changed
in the new ADPro is that you don't need display board
SAVERs anymore. Simply select the display boards screen type
as if it were another Amiga screen type and hit EXECUTE, the
image appears there. For backwards compatibility, I think theres
a way to call display boards as if they were savers too.
ga

(1-8,Wolf Faust) Well, but what about PhotoCD?

(1-6,pk-asdg)
I'd be happy to provide PhotoCD - how about we contract
the German company who purchased a license to make ADPro
support for us? What that be acceptable?
ga

(1-8,Wolf Faust)
Well, did you talk to Olaf the programmer of PhotoWorX?

(1-6,pk-asdg)
No - I haven't yet - just thought of the idea - if you talk
to him let him know he should drop me some email/phone etc.
ok?

(1-8,Wolf Faust)
ok

(1-6,pk-asdg)
There. PhotoCD.
Next? :-)

(1-7,Paul Idol)
Yikes.  Ok - Elastic Reality.  What are the differences generally between
it and AdPro - is EA higher or lower, will the products converge, is there
PhotoCD support for it <g> etc.   GA

(1-6,pk-asdg)
ok
ElasticReality was developed concurrently for the Mac and Silicon G
raphics workstations. The SGI version was released first and is a much
more powerful product due to the speed with which we can prototype new
ideas on the SGI. It entered an already crowded SGI morphing market and in
short order has destroyed the market for anyone else. No BS. A substantial
amount of all the shaping shifting you see on TV and in the movies is done
with ER SGI. I can give examples, if you'd like. The Mac version is also a
capable product with a similar user interface as the SGI version.

Both versions share EXACTLY the SAME internal code as MorphPlus.
Therefore, in theory, anything those products can do, MorphPlus
can do, aliet with more difficulty due to the user interface advatages
that ER has.

The idea of porting ER to the Amiga has been discussed at great
length and is still being discussed. There isn't a day that goes
by without someone (actually - alot of someones) asking for it.
The issues which must be addressed are pretty difficult. Mostly,
we need to be able to have the faith that if we adopt a specific
graphics display board to host ER's GUI onto, that that board
be the one with the widest appeal. It simply won't do to have
ER run on a standard Amiga screen - altrhough if too much time pass es, we
may opt for that.
ga

(1-7,Paul Idol)
Thanks.  One ER thing I've read about that I'd love to have on the Amiga,
interface aside, is the vector-based (?) i.e. non-point-based mor phing. 
GA

(1-6,pk-asdg)
you mean the NON vector based approach ....
Morph Plus uses vectors, ER turned that inside out
and provides total control over the morphing process
using only shapes. Since you're doing shape shifting, why
not use Shapes? You know, I wish Ben were here so he
could take credit for inventing it. :-)
ga

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Pk.. since you mentioned SGI.. briefly what do you think of Indy? 
(1-6,pk-asdg)
ok
Indy is a way cool machine but it isn't really the
low priced PC SGI originally hoped people would
perceive it as. As a base price unit, it
doesn't come with much memory or a hard disk, but adding
memory and a harddisk is cheap (if you don't buy it from SGI).
Consider that an R4000 MIPS processor is anywhere from 5 to 50 times the
speed of a fast 68040. The machine can really scream.
And that's a pun - if you didn't get it.
ga

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
hehe.. Mike Smith.. go ahead.

(1-10,Mike Smith)
Let's face it ... The Picasso RULES!!! (Don't you agree?) ga

(1-6,pk-asdg)
Let's Face It - Somebody better rule so that some standards
will emerge :-)
ga

(1-14,sja)
Perry, ASDG is one of (few) major software developers left in the Amiga
market.  What are ASDG's thoughts of the future?  You've expanded to other
platforms, do you envision more moves in that direction. 
(1-6,pk-asdg)
ok
To borrow the words of some major league ball player...
De Amiga Been Berry Berry Good To Me...
You won't see us run away from the machine - as the fact
that we're releasing the biggest changes to ADPro ever would
suggest. But I must say, Commodore is nowhere. They have
ceased to be a player in the computer industry. And, there's
no reason to beleive that anything will change that soon.
On the other hand, there are 4,000,000 people who
(much to the "embarrasment" of Commodore according
to John Dilulo) who have made a choice to stick
with that machine. So in summary? I can tell you
that the Amiga counts for a very big chunk of our
income. I've invested 7 years of my life to it. And
for good or ill, I'm here to stay at least a bunch
longer.
ga

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Pk, you might want to read the Haynie & Jesup CO and follow
the 20 questions to Commodore Marketing..
I spoke to John Dilillu by the way..

(1-14,sja)
Perry, what's up with CEDPro?  I switched to something else a while ba but
would like to give an updated CEDPro a try.

(1-6,pk-asdg)
ok
CED....ahhhhhh CED.....
We've updated it - massively.
Version 3.5 is out now - and it's quite good. You
really should give it a look. The author, by the
way, is now a full time staff person at ASDG and
is responsible for a lot of the high speed display
board support in the new ADPro.
ga
(1-14,sja) Is there an upgrade provision?  Or just pick it up at my
dealer? There is an upgrade program - yes. Give us a call. Also,
there's some secret keystroke combination in the new
ADPro which enables another cool feature which the
author of CED snuck in on me. If you twist my arm,
I'll spill the beans.
ga

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Twist!!

(1-7,Paul Idol)
TWIST!

(1-10,Mike Smith)
spill!!

(1-14,sja)
Twist, twist!  <grin>

(1-6,pk-asdg)
ok

(1-6,pk-asdg)
Before I get to that :-)
Another thing added to ADPro 2.5 is direct support for
the Fargo Primera in Dye Sub mode. This support
obviates the necesseity to purchase Fargo's
own dye sub option (but actually purchasing it
does give you some other benefits). The Fargo
was a heavily asked for feature - so heavily in
fact that we could not ignore it. Also added
is support for the Digital Broadcast 32 and
direct support for the DPS PAR.
Any more ADPro questions? Before I spill?

(1-7,Paul Idol)
Ok.  As a motion picture guy, albeit with little money, what I want to
know is how does AdPro handle autoscrolling and manipulation of super-
bitmaps and which 3d party boards support superbitmaps?  GA

(1-6,pk-asdg)
ok
The beans I was going to spill bears upon this - as far as
(1-6,pk-asdg) which display boards support it? All display boards which
ADPro supports (with the exception of the DCTV and (hehe) the HAM-E) are
granted ADPro's support of super bitmaps as part of their
suppoort - if you mean - which support it with hardware
based scrolling, that's a different question and one which
I don't have the answers to at my fingertips. The
thing I was going to divulge is ADPro 2.5's support for joysticks. Yes,
joysticks.

You can enable joystick based scrolling by hitting the following
key sequence WHEN A RENDER WINDOW IS OPEN AND
ACTIVE!!!! ready:
Amiga Alt Space Alt Amiga
make sure you don't hit the control key too.
Once you've done this, the enabled state will
be saved.
Hit the fire button to scroll faster.
ga

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
I am sure we are going to see this appear in a game mag now. :-)

(1-7,Paul Idol)
Why the secrecy?

(1-6,pk-asdg)
You really want to know?...
ok
It was secret because the programmers knew that I would
never sanction such a frivolous bit of nonsense so they
kept it secret and out of the manual so I wouldn't
find out till it was released.
Now you know. :-)
ga

Let's give some stuff away to the die hards.!

(1-10,Mike Smith)
yeah

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Steve, it is usually the high roll that gets it?

(1-14,sja)
Yep, do a /roll 100

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
hehe.. then others would accuse of us of being bought. :-)
Ok.. get your practice rolls out of the way!

(1-6,pk-asdg)
Lets start with giving away....
An ADPro 2.5, a PCP, and a Pro Control - $495 (approx) value.

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Oooh!

(1-7,Paul Idol)
Are we rolling for real, or just show yet?

(1-7,Paul Idol)
 Wow!!!!!

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Everyone ready?

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Roll!!

(***DICE***) Leslie T. Bartiromo rolled (100) 80

(***DICE***) Mike Smith rolled (100) 11

(***DICE***) BobR rolled (100) 87

(***DICE***) Paul Idol rolled (11) 1

(***DICE***) MarkM/MOD rolled (100) 8

(***DICE***) sja rolled (100) 53

(***DICE***) Paul Idol rolled (100) 28

(***DICE***) BobR rolled (100) 4

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
BobR wins.. :-)

(1-10,Mike Smith)
hey perry let's give away a CED!

(1-6,pk-asdg)
ok.... This time, no sysops ;-)

(1-6,pk-asdg)
We'll give away an ADPro 2.5, a PCP, a Pro Control AND a ced. a little
more than 600 bucks value.

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Ready ... ?  Set.. Go!

(***DICE***) Mike Smith rolled (100) 46

(***DICE***) Leslie T. Bartiromo rolled (100) 76

(***DICE***) Paul Idol rolled (100) 35

(1-3,MarkM/MOD)
Is that it..?  If so.. Leslie... you win!  Come on down!

(1-2,Leslie T. Bartiromo)
Alright!

*******************************************************
* That is right!  If you were not there you missed out on a chance 
* on $1100 dollars worth of ASDG software!
*
* Was there more?  Sure!  Perry stayed with us until the wee hours 
* ofthe morning!
*
* This file may be freely distributed in any medium so long as the file 
* remains intact with no changes -- including this notice.
* The conference was moderated by Mark D. Manes.
*
* If you wish to subscribe to CompuServe simply dial 1-800-787-RUSH. *
* Copyright 1994 AForums Ltd.
*
*******************************************************
@endnode

@node P1-4 "UseNet Review - Amiback 2.0g"
@toc "menu"
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% UseNet Review - AmiBack 2.0g                       by Mike Schwager %%
%%                                         mschwage@next3.corp.mot.com %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

PRODUCT NAME

	Ami-Back, version 2.0g


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	Hard disk backup software for the Amiga.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Moonlighter Software Development
	Address:	3208-C East Colonial Drive, Suite 204
			Orlando, Florida 32803
			USA

	Phone:		(407) 384-9484
	Fax:		(407) 384-9391


LIST PRICE

	$79.95 (US).  I paid about $45 (US) for it.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		The program has no official RAM requirements, but I
		recommend 1 MB of RAM or more.


	SOFTWARE

		None


COPY PROTECTION

	None


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 500, Rev. 5 Motherboard, 1 Meg Agnus installed.
	2 Meg Fast RAM (3 Meg RAM total).
	52 Meg hard drive, Supra SCSI controller.
	1 external 880K floppy.
	AmigaDOS 1.3.

	Amiga 500, Rev. 5 Motherboard, 1 Meg Agnus.
	4 Meg Fast RAM (5 Meg RAM total).
	157 Meg hard drive, Supra SCSI controller.
	1 external 880K floppy.
	AmigaDOS 1.3.


INTRODUCTION

	Summary (out of 5 stars, with a '+' for extra points):

		Manual:       *****
		Tech Support: **+
		Robustness:   **+
		Ease of use:  ***+
		Overall:      ***

	Ami-Back bills itself as "The Ultimate Backup Utility".  I don't know
about that.  To me, the ultimate utility would be rock-solid, very easy to
set up and use, fast, and worry-free.  Personally, I would bill Ami-Back as
"The Pretty Good Backup Utility".  It comes up short in some ways.  It is an
almost-good product.  Were it less buggy, I would be very, very happy.

	Ami-Back comes on 1 disk, and includes versions for both the
AmigaDOS 1.3 and 2.0.  I'm still an AmigaDOS 1.3 user, so that's the only
version I was able to test.  Your mileage may differ.

	[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  It turns out that I am an Ami-Back user too.
	Some of the features (and problems) of Ami-Back described in this
	review are different in the AmigaDOS 2.0 version.  - Dan]


INSTALLATION

	Installation was simple.  Pop the disk in the drive, double click the
Install icon, and away it goes.  There's not a whole lot to it.  Ami-Back
just puts the binaries and libraries in their proper places.  In "Expert"
install mode, you are able to place the binaries wherever you'd like.

	After installation, you either double-click on Ami-Back's icon, or
run Ami-Back from the CLI.  Personally, I'm a CLI user.  Ami-Back opens up
its own non-interlaced screen.  The colors are not settable, but they're a
reasonable mix of gray, white, and black.  Pretty utilitarian, but then
that's what it's all about, no?  The main screen is very simple - logo and
copyright information on the left, and 4 large buttons on the right:
"Backup", "Restore", "Scheduler", and "Quit".  I have not used the scheduler
at all, as I'm a poor old floppy drive user who must be there when the
backups are running.  "Backup" and "Restore" are naturally the more
important buttons here.

	At this point, I should mention that the manual, though not verbose,
is really quite adequate for the job.  Often, I will want to skim over a
manual, looking for the meaty stuff and mentally throwing away the
nonessentials.  Sometimes that gets me into trouble as I might miss an
important item in my haste.  Ami-Back's manual is clear and gets right to
the point.  It takes you through the necessary steps, in the order you need
to do them, to get your backup going.  I followed the manual pretty closely
when first using the program.  It coincides with the program and its
structure and order very well.

	The first thing you do is configure the program.  There are three
menus on the main Ami-Back screen, and under the Preferences menu is the
"Program Configuration" item.  Configuring the program mostly means
specifying the locations of the various log and configuration files for your
different backups.  The default locations are the s: directory, but you can
change them here.

	Once you've saved the program configuration, you need to set up a
backup configuration.  The backup configuration window contains most of the
important backup file and directory selection filters and gadgets.  It's
where most of the work is done to get Ami-Back set up.  You select the "New
Configuration" menu item to give your configuration a name.  Then you select
the "Backup Configuration" menu item.  This procedure is a little confusing
(you can forget to select "New Configuration"), so you need to take care
that you're saving the proper config file with the proper config selections.

	In the Backup Configuration screen, all your disk devices show up as
icons near the top.  You can select as many as you'd like with the mouse, or
go ahead and type directory or partition names in the string gadget just
below the icons, separating them with a space.  You can then select a
destination which can be floppies, a tape drive, an AmigaDOS file, or one of
your partitions.  You can select the backup type; Ami-Back will do standard
AmigaDOS partitions as well as image backups of UNIX and/or Mac partitions.
You can choose to verify the backup or not, and you can set up a filename or
directory filter.  I hope they improve that filter; it was rather confusing
to use.  It can use a facelift.  I don't use it much.  It looks like it's
pretty powerful, but for what I do it's not worth any hassle.  For example,
AmiBack is fast enough that I just let it back up my #?.o files in my work
directories.  You can also tell AmiBack to backup files only within a
certain date range.

	Additionally, there are a bunch of little buttons that control
various things:  whether to set the archive bit after backing a file up,
whether to turn on compression, whether or not you want Ami-Back to warn you
before it overwrites a floppy, etc.


BACKUPS

	Once you are done setting up the backup configuration, you save it.
Now you can load it whenever you want to do that particular backup.  Once the
proper configuration is loaded, all you need to do is click the "Backup"
button on the main screen.  

	After you click the "Backup" button, AmiBack will scan the entire
partition(s).  Normally this goes quite quickly, say within a minute or two
for a 10 Meg partition, but having fancy filters will slow it down.  Once it
completes the scan, a "Backup Information" screen shows up.  There, all kinds
of useful information is shown:  estimated and actual Files, Bytes, and
Disks used, bar meters showing percent completion on the current media and
on the backup as a whole, the name of the file currently being compressed
and backed up, status of the backup destination devices (Ready, Not Ready,
or In Use), time spent backing up, time spent waiting for the user, and
estimated time till completion (of the backup, of course).

	At this point you have the option of starting the backup or
canceling it and redoing your configuration.  Click on Begin, and away you
go!  Ami-Back does not assume that the floppies currently in the drives are
backup disks.  You must pop in the disks after hitting "Begin"; a nice little
safety feature.  However, you can tell AmiBack not to put up a requestor
prior to writing to each floppy after the first ones.  Personally, I like
having that feature.  I just keep all nonessential floppies out of harm's
way.  But realize that it can be dangerous.

	Once AmiBack starts, it watches the floppy drives asynchronously.
This means that after Ami-Back finishes writing to a disk (say, in DF0:), it
continues writing to your other floppy (say, DF1:).  While it is writing,
you can pop out the old floppy in DF0: and insert a new one.  Ami-Back
displays helpful messages like "DF0: Not Ready" when it's time to change the
disk in DF0:, and "DF0: Ready" after you have inserted a new disk.  If you
are vigilant, backups go about as fast as it takes to write continuously to
the floppy drives, even with a 68000-based Amiga.


PERFORMANCE

	AmiBack uses 44K of Chip RAM and 283K of Fast RAM when it is first
loaded.  It uses more RAM depending on how much data you are trying to back
up.  For example, backing up a 10 Meg partition with 1,300 files causes an
additional 66K of Fast RAM to be used.  So I'd say it's not well suited for
Amigas with only 512K RAM, but it should work OK in 1 Meg.

	AmiBack multitasks quite well.  Naturally you must make sure that
you don't need your floppies while running your backups (if you back up to
floppy).  However, you can pretty much do whatever else you want while the
backups are running.  The usual caveats apply when trying to do "Live"
backups.  As with any machine, if your data is important to you, it's best
to just leave the computer alone until backups have finished.

	AmiBack didn't seem to exhibit any anomalies with other software on
the Amiga.  I have all sorts of little utilities running on my machine and I
didn't notice any incompatibilities.

	[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  Ami-Back 2.0 exhibits Enforcer hits if you have
	the ASDG Dual Serial Card siosbx.device mounted.  However, Ami-Back
	2.0h fixes this problem.  (The software patch is free and on Aminet
	and the Moonlighter BBS.)  - Dan]

	This software cranks when backing up to floppies.  I can do 50 Meg
in a couple of hours, user time and backup time included.  AmiBack uses a
non-DOS disk format, which is good I think.  The disks get written to and
verified as fast as, say, doing a DiskCopy (with verify).  This is even on
my 68000-based setup.  On my last backup with the 68030 accelerator, I was
timing floppies at about 1-1/2 minutes each.  I guess this speed may be
because the compression is not as outstanding as it could be.  My latest
backups took 41 disks for about 50 Meg or so of files - with compression on.
I should mention that perhaps 2 or 3 Meg of that is "lha" files, which
won't compress any more no matter what you do.


RESTORING

	I've never done a full restore for a broken hard disk.  However, I
just ran a selective restore to restore a single file.  It was quick and
easy.  You go to the "Restore Configuration" menu, which takes you to the
Restore Configuration screen.  There you can tell AmiBack where to put your
restored files, what media the files are on, whether you want to do a
selective or complete restore, whether to overwrite existing files, etc.
Once configured to your liking, you click the "Use" button.  This gets you
back to the main screen where you can now click the "Restore" button.
AmiBack will ask for the name of the index file which it created when it did
the backup.  Once installed, AmiBack seems to know exactly where the file is
stored.  Right away it asked me to insert disk 5 of my backup, and within
nary two minutes, my 500K lha file was restored.  It took maybe 4-5 minutes,
start to finish.


AREXX

	AmiBack claims to provide AREXX support.  I didn't test this feature.


DOCUMENTATION

	A 70-page User Guide.  Short, sweet, to the point.  I give the
manual an 'A'.  (*****)


LIKES AND DISLIKES

	The floppy disk write routines are excellent.  This thing goes fast!

	The file filter configuration is frustrating and confusing.  I spent
a long time trying to figure out how to get it to backup only 1 directory and
all its contents.  Impossible to do from the file filter; you must do that
on the Backup Configuration screen.  Well, I couldn't figure out how to do
it there until through a stroke of luck I was able to speak with the right
guy at Moonlighter.  See the "Bugs" section for more information.

	If one of your disks goes bad in the middle of a backup, AmiBack
knows how to backtrack to the beginning of that disk, and you can put in a
new one.  Ahhh...!  So nice.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	I don't know about any others.  Is ExpressCopy still out there?
Well, it was a buggy piece of junk.  I received it from Supra with a ROM
upgrade a couple of years back, and forget it!

	I've used Matt Dillon's backup program, and though that works ok
it's not nearly as fast or convenient as Ami-Back.  It's really nice not to
have to redo an entire backup after the 10th disk out of 11 turns out to
have an error.

	Using "lha" or a similar compression program seems like too much of
a hassle.  AmiBack is sweet in that it combines a lot of flexibility,
configurability, and usefulness in one package.

	Quarterback seems to be the one other big player in the Amiga market.
Unfortunately I don't know how it compares to Ami-Back.


BUGS

	Some scary ones at the beginning.  I couldn't get the software to
"label" a backup, so I just don't use that feature.  It would guru
invariably when I tried.  And, some 33% of the time the software would guru
just as I tried to start a backup.  My last phone call to Tech Support
brought an enlightened soul, who suggested I remove the configuration file.
That seemed to work.  Subsequently, I couldn't get it to guru at all during
my last backup.

	But, during my last backup I had another scary happenstance.  It was
backing up a partition, and I had left the room.  When I came back I see the
floppy drive is spinning but AmiBack doesn't seem to be doing a dang thing.
The only thing that's happening is the "Backup Time" clock is advancing.  It
wouldn't respond to any controls.  So, I had to reboot my machine.  A
subsequent backup of the same partition worked properly.  Well, I haven't 
tried to restore from it however....

	During my last Tech Support call to the Enlightened Voice, I
discovered that unless you hit a return in the Backup Configuration's
"Source" string gadget, partitions or directories typed there will not be
accepted.  This was the cause of much frustration for me.  So you need to
make sure you put a return after the last word in the string gadget!

	One time I went to Load a Configuration, and I got a tone through my
speaker.  My machine was locked up.  That was just once, though.


VENDOR SUPPORT

	You may call Moonlighter Software for Tech Support, 9am-5pm, Monday
through Friday.  They are on the East coast of the USA.  The guys there
seemed moderately knowledgeable.  As I mentioned above, the last time I
called, the voice on the other end diagnosed my one bug as a probable
configuration file problem, and told me to reload it.  Previously, another
voice said something like "Gee, I don't know... I've seen that problem...
we'll have to take a look at that."  I felt sort of like I had heard, "the
check's in the mail."  Reportedly, they have Bix accounts and Bix gateways to
the Internet, but I never got responses to my email.  Maybe it never got
there.

	Also, on the support BBS they say there's minor upgrades.  I haven't
tried the support BBS.

Overall, support gets a 'C'.  (**+)


WARRANTY

	"As is."


CONCLUSION

	AmiBack was a little more of a hassle to get going than I would have
liked.  I have a pet peeve about backup software:  make it one zillion
percent robust, simple (or at least, look simple), robust, relatively easy
to learn, and did I mention that it has to be robust?  One doesn't mess
around when hours and hours - nay, even man-years - of work are at stake.
AmiBack gets a B for simplicity, a C for robustness, a B+ for ease of
learning.  Overall, I give it a B- (***).  It's a decent program, to be
sure.  I wish I felt just a little more at ease with it.  "Bullet Proof Data
Backup Protection for the Amiga" does not Guru because it's unhappy with the
config file, nor spin my floppy drive aimlessly.

	However, it is fast.  I like how it handles the floppies.  It is
quite configurable, and in all fairness it is a very thoughtful program.
It's nice that they remember us lowly 1.3 Amigans.  And there has never been
a bug so nasty as to make it unusable.  In short, I use it on a regular
basis.  And that, dear friends, is why they make backup software.


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	Copyright 1994 by Mike Schwager.  All rights reserved.


@endnode

@node P1-5 "Usenet Review - Liberation Cd32"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% UseNet Review - Liberation CD32                   by Brian S Mogged %%
%%                                             brian.s.mogged@uwrf.edu %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

PRODUCT NAME

	Liberation CD-32, version "Ratt V2.00b : Wyvern V2.00"


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	A 3-dimensional adventure/action game for the CD-32, set in the dark
future.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Mindscape Internation LTD
	Address:	Priority House, Charles Avenue, Malting Park,
			Burgess Hill,
			West Sussex RH15 9PQ
			UK

	Telephone:	0444 246333
	FAX:		0444 248996


LIST PRICE

	I do not know, but I paid $49.95 (US).


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		Commodore CD-32
		Mouse (optional)

	SOFTWARE

		None.


COPY PROTECTION

	None.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	A CD-32 and a mouse.


INSTALLATION

	No installation is necessary.  Just put the disc into the CD-32
and go.


A HISTORY OF LIBERATION

	The world of Liberation is set in the 29th century, where Earth is
dying.  Earth is being destroyed by commercial exploitation from large mega
corporations.  One mega corporation, Bio-Corp, developed a variety of high
technology items for its sister corporation, Securi-Corp.  Securi-Corp
handles almost all law enforcement activities for the government.  Since the
government is concerned with other affairs, these corporations are truly in
control of Earth.  Your hero (the player that you control) has learned an
important fact:  androids sold by Bio-Corp for police security go berserk
when they are exposed to magnetic interference.  These berserk androids
usually cause a few deaths.  The corporation is covering it up by placing
people into detention centers.  The object of the game is to explore the
detention center, rescue these political prisoners, and find enough evidence
to bring the mega-corporation to justice.  The hero cannot go into the
detention center himself, so he sends four robots into the detention center.

	Liberation is a sequel to Tony Crowther's "Captive."  Since I have
not played Captive, I cannot say how similar this game is to the original,
but I can say that it is completely playable without any knowledge of
Captive.


GAMEPLAY

	In Liberation, the main display may be changed by the user.  By
default, the top of the screen is your Device VDU (Video Display Unit).  The
middle of the screen is the three-dimensional view, with the "droids panel"
on the sides.  On the bottom is the text screen.


THE DEVICE VDU (VIDEO DISPLAY UNIT)

	Each robot can have two active device which can be scanners, video
bug surveillance, game preferences, city mappers, and other items that I
have not seen yet.  Most of these items have a display and a option panel
that can be selected and changed.  Since there are eight robots, there can be
up to eight displays active.  The default display plan displays four of these
panels.


THE DROIDS PANEL

	The droids panel lets you instantly see the current status of your
droids, switch position of members in your party, let you select an
android's backpack, and allows you to split up the party.  This area of the
screen can be turned off so you can have a larger 3-dimensional view.


THREE DIMENTIONAL VIEW AREA

	This is the first-person, three-dimensional window where you see
everything that the currently selected robot sees.  This landscape is very
lush with some of the best texture bitmaps that exist in any Amiga game.
People and objects represented by textured-filled polygons (which look good
too!).  You can tilt the robot's head to look up, down, left, and right.
You have not played this game until you tilt your head upwards just in time
to see a police copter in the sky.


TEXT WINDOW

	This window has all the text from the current session of the game.
I have played it for ten hours straight and it STILL stores everything that
was said.


TALKING AND MANIPULATING

	In this three-dimensional environment, you can talk to people, pick
up objects, give objects, shoot people, and use objects.  When the player
talks to a person in the game, the text of what that person says appears in
the text window.  Sometimes the game says what is on placed on the screen,
sometimes not.  But most of the time, it will bring up a response screen that
has a menu your possible responses.  The conversation will continue until
you move away, shoot the person, or say "good bye", or the other person
decides to end the conversation.

	Grabbing an item is just as simple as moving your cursor in the 3-D
view window or the current android window and holding down a button.  The
player can now move the cursor with the item into any window to be dropped,
given to other people, or placed back into inventory.


SHOOTING A PERSON IN COLD BLOOD

	To shoot, swing a object, or punch in the game, you press the joypad
button.  Since you have four robots and you have four buttons, each button
controls one robot.  Fire fights in this game go very fast, and the outcome
of the battle becomes almost painfully apparent in this game.


DOCUMENTATION

	Documentation is a 64-page pamphlet approximately the same shape and
size as a booklet inside a normal CD.  It gives a very brief description of
the world, and then describes how most of the functions work and how to use
the CD-32 joypad.  The rest of the manual describes how to use the mouse and
confusingly describes the repair systems of the droid.

	The game manual is very informative, but is very hard to read.  Even
after reading the manual about five times, I could still learn something if
I took the time and read it a sixth time.  The manual is too brief in most
parts.  For example, it mentions only off-handedly that you cannot save
inside of buildings using the CD-32 built in non-volatile RAM.  I still do
not understand the system for doing self-repair on the robots.  But still,
the manual does not tell you important facts, like that the current mission
information is in the scroll text window when you start the game.  So for
four days I really did not know where I should go until I (by mistake)
scrolled up the text window and saw the mission briefing.


LIKES

	What pulls me to play this game every night for the rest of my life?

	I love the demo.  It is about six minutes long, very good, and gets
you in the mood for the game.

	Both the mouse interface and the CD-32 controller interface are very
good.  The CD-32 controller at first felt awkward, but after a few hours of
play, I felt as if I had played the game throughout my life.

	The graphics are excellent.  I haven't see this style of graphics on
the Amiga done with so much detail!!  You really feel like you are there.
The outside graphics look very dark and gritty.  The interior views look
very close to what I would expect to see inside a building.  I loved the
picture of the dog on the wall.

	The configurability of this game is incredible.  You can move around
windows, turn on/off selected windows, turn on/off voice, sound and music,
and select levels of detail that you can turn on/off.  This allows you to
have information on the screen that you consider important.

	The scrollable text window holds previous conversations.  It makes
remembering old information just a scroll of the window away.

	The music is not annoying.  I find the music very soothing and
enjoyable.

	The sound and voice are pleasant.  Gun shots ring out.  Very clear
sound complements the music and the game.  Voice (when present) is very
welcome and give some good atmosphere.

	Very fast CD-ROM access gives this game a very smooth feel.  The
waits when loading are very short, and loading is necessary only when going
inside or outside of a building.

	VERY BIG.  You won't run out of places to explore in this game!  This
game is huge.  I was just blown away on how big it is.  What is even better
is there are over 4000 missions in the game.  Even better is that it
randomizes elements in the game so it will play different every time.  This
almost promises a longevity I have not seen in a game for a while!

	And any game that gives you an opportunity to kill K-9 is a good game
in my book!


DISLIKES

	Maybe the game is TOO BIG and COMPLEX.  I still feel overwhelmed when
I play the game.  If you want to play this game, plan to spend a huge amount
of time.

	Combat is a little on the blah side.  Not very much you can do.  Just
shoot your gun and run away.

	I get many of my items robbed from me too often!!!  It happens too
often.  I just get really upset about it.  The worst part is that I usually
realize that my gun is stolen right when I try to shoot it.

	Voice is not always running in the game.  Sometimes the person that
you are talking to speaks and sometimes the person doesn't.  It really drives
me up the wall.


IMPROVEMENTS

	Well maybe a little better CD-32 control pad system.  I still
sometimes shoot people while I am talking.  Voice should be used throughout
the game.  Maybe a training game that is just in a small house.  Maybe let
me walk by a person without getting robbed!


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	Hired Guns by Psygnosis came into my mind instantly when I first
started to play this game.  I believe that Hired Guns is much better at
combat, but Liberation has a very good plot and good graphics.

	Since I do not have the original Captive, I can not compare this
software to the original game.


BUGS

	There are a few bugs with this game.  The list of bugs that followed
was produced by Dave Cole (Dave_Cole@guru.apana.org.au).  Dave ran
Liberation on a PAL CD-32 with a version number Ratt V2.00 : Wyvern V1.92.

     * Guru's occasionally (only 2 times for me).  It has reset for some
          people, when there are too many people in the room. (I haven't
          noticed this however.)

     * When initiating a conversation, sometimes a person will accuse
          you of "clobbering" them.  Other people have said that if you
          shoot a thief, then everyone else say that you have shot them.
          (Haven't noticed this myself, but could be the reason.)

     * Sometimes when you go to talk to someone, garbage such as "87#&^j"
          will come up in their window, and your response window doesn't
          always have a response (have to cycle through several responses
          before one actually shows up).

     * When using the Mapper - Comms, in a taxi, it will say "Autopilot
          initiated" (or something like that), yet it will not go anywhere
          if the destination is in the current zone.
          (You have to leave the zone, and then re-select the destination).

     * When talking to people about the "Captive", and they ask you for
          some dosh, you can select "well.." or "let's see.." and then
          select something like "I'll have to go to the bank and come back
          later.." they will give you the info anyway.  Now this could be
          on purpose, as they can't be bothered waiting around, yet one of
          them said at the end of their speech "..Thanks for the dosh".

     * The amount of time played, displayed in the disk access menu, is not
	  always accurate.  To start off with (up to about 8 hours), it was
	  OK, but then it said that I'd been playing for 386 days, then 1058
	  days, and finally 2685 days!

     * The percentage of game done is sometimes stuffed for a little while
          (usually just after saving), as when you've only completed 1%,
          it may say that you've completed 99%.

     * Harri Pesonen (harry@elfuerte.fipnet.fi) says:
          I have noticed a strange bug.  When I check the different body
          parts in the Repair state, it seems that the left leg of one
          robot is the same as the head of another, and the same as the
          right leg of the third, and the same as the left hand of the
          fourth, etc.

     * When you look "up", the wall image is upside down (i.e., the down
          image reversed).

     * Percentage of game played sometimes just stays as "New Game"
          (I haven't noticed this yet, but it has reset the time for me).

     * The most annoying (and worst bug), is as follows:  Game wouldn't save
	  in flash RAM, as it said that it was "too big and to try in the
	  city, and that if that didn't work try another zone."  The thing
	  is, this happened while I was outside, in the city, and I did try
	  other zones, but to no avail.  It did save to the RAM disk
	  though.  HOWEVER, because of its being unable to save to the
	  flash-RAM, it somehow WIPED the game which was previously there,
	  thus still not allowing me to save the RAM-disk version to
	  flash-RAM.  When looking at the game-save slots (after I had
	  removed the recoverable ram disk), all I had in there was one
	  locked save game of Diggers (seven slots in length).  Now surely
	  the game doesn't need 93 slots?  I have had saves which take only
	  47, and with the most that I know of about 80.  Because of this
	  bug, about 15 hours or so has to be replayed.  Hopefully, all the
	  info that I wrote down will still be valid (wishful thinking).

	I had the "reversed graphics when looking up" problem, but I myself
have not had the other problems as of this time.


VENDOR SUPPORT

	Since Mindscape has no known address in the United States,  I have
written them a letter since I can not find an e-mail address for the company.
I have not received a response from the vendor at this time.


CONCLUSIONS

	Liberation - finally, a product that gives you a reason to own the
CD-32.  The game is so big, it is guaranteed not to be pushed into a corner
for a long time!  I haven't had this much fun with an RPG style game since
Final Fantasy II for the Super Nintendo.

	I definitely give it five blasters rounds out of five.

	Brian.s.Mogged@Uwrf.edu		<- send all mail to this address.
@endnode

@node P1-6 "MS-DOS Blues"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% MS-DOS Blues                                       by Shane Bumpurs %%
%%                                            UH9311@VicVX1.Vic.UH.EDU %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

I have upgraded from an IBM Reply 50Mhz-486slc to an
IBM ValuePoint DX33- with OverDrive Processor. This 
is a work funded machine or I wouldn't have one.

I still can't format a disk with file manager and run anything else.

I get and "out of resources" error when running Excel and I've got 16Megs.

When I run in 24-bit 640x480 mode the mouse flickers and kinda drags along.

I still can't get any better sound than beeps and boops. (unless I plunk
   cash down for a sound card. I don't think so Tim.)  The windows sounds
   using the speaker-driver freeze the machine on high-quality mode.

I still haven't found a ray-tracer that makes better output than the Amiga 
   ones.

I still witness StRaNgE shut downs in Windows at my work place.

I still can't play any REAL neat games from Windows.

I still can't play any REAL neat games without renaming my config.sys &
   autoexec.bat

I am still wondering where and what stealth memory is REALLY.

I still want a New Amiga.

The neat games are on the IBM because the cash is there.  I have played
Wolfenstein 3D, Blake Stone, and Doom.  They're cool indeed but there is
no real reason why they couldn't be ported to the Amiga.

Honestly, I think we will all be whipping a dead horse unless Commodore
doesn't change their ways.  I have my old Amiga down because my Monitor
croaked and I'm not sure if I should buy a new one or not.  The monitary
news looks bleak (if its true).  Commodores image is like the invisible
man.  No one has seen it, so no one will trust it.  I'm waiting for the
Amiga 5000 I _WILL_ buy it if they make it till the end of this year
when I hear it will be out.  They have a good product that only the
so called "fanatical" customers will endorse.  It is a great machine and
has great potential, its just a shame when anyone that knows about it
mentions it they get a response like, "Amiga what?  What is that? From
Commodore?  Like the 64 no doubt."  I'm honestly sorry the world chose
VHS versus Betamax and is now choosing IBM versus Amiga.  I'll stand fast
because I have the so called best of IBM and I'm not impressed.  Macs are
OK but they are still less interesting than the Amiga.

-------------------------------------- 
The road to success - Sooner or Later?
-------------------------------------- 

I think the following things will get Commodore back on track with
the key lying in the CD32 court.  I'll talk as if Commodore were 
listening. (its kindof a dream of mine.)

Continue with CD32 but do U.S. Advertising, only in America can a cool
commercial change peoples buying habits quickly.  Or maybe not Europe
could do with similar commercials.

Suggestions for Commercials:
============================================================================
Do a snazzy quick flashing commercial with heart thumping music with 
flashy text of Commodore CD32 and show some kids playing it wildly.  Have
a wicked sounding voice guy introduce it calling it the first 32 bit CD etc.
Use black backgrounds to project a hard core game image.  Then flash lotsa 
pictures of Platform games (Zool, James Pond etc) and ending the commercial 
with Microcosm playing on screen.  If possible try to squeeze in some sport
game (socker, football, hocky anything will do) for the older kid-sport 
jock types.  Also throw in Mortal Kombat (if available) or Body Blows 
too this will associate a hit game on other platforms and give even 
more appeal. (As more nifty games come in update the commercial especially
any 3D Wolfenstein Style games.)

Maybe a second commercial later on after the first one comes on, do the 
CD-player bit.  Use white backgrounds because it gives a clean cut image 
in mind.  Still have the same kind of flashy text but have a different
announcer guy with maybe a British accent talking about the CD-Quality
sound etc. Show the CD-Player interface and play a few pieces of Beethoven,
Rolling Stones (if possible), and something a bit rock-pop modern like
Pocket Full of Kryptonite from the Spin Doctors.  Have the announcer 
give the goodies on its movie playing ability and give somekind of relative
quality versus VHS etc. Then zoom onto the MPEG player bit and maybe 
list 2 or 3 titles that are already available "at you nearest dealer"  
Absolutely give a 800 number to find nearest dealer.
============================================================================

Get AAA out as fast as possible leaning development toward the New Generation
CD^64 but for goodness sake do whatever possible to make someway for it
to still play CD32 titles.  Anything maybe a AGA cartridge or piggyback board
or something easy to install.  This is crutial, if not CD32 user will be 
ticked and won't upgrade because the next generation after AAA will 
"probably" not run AAA stuff.  If you can't swing it, at least to a decent
upgrade offer for CD32 owners.

After the AAA version is ready.  Do similar commercials lean heavily on
the graphics (show pictures-no specs yet).  Lay on the thick voiced announcer
to then talk about the CD speed and 16 million colors in real time and 3d
graphics rendering engine, enhanced sound etc. all while crisp music is 
playing.  It doesn't have to be a real CD just real crisp music, I'm sure
if you used a real CD someone would want some cash for it so better off
without it.

It wouldn't hurt after this stuff hits and stirrs up a bit to talk about
the workstation of the future, Amiga 4000 etc.  Specs are good here!
IF your gonna do a Mac hybrid with the emplant like the rumors say, 
throw in the compatibility thing then mention IBM compat. with 
"hardware emulation modules" coming soon. Do the A5000 thickly coat 
the commercial with mention of the RISC cpu upgrade allowing 
Microsoft NT Compatibility.  Show the OS off man for sure show more than
one process going at the same time.  Format a disk, run terminal software,
spread sheet or word processor then, mention (as if we didnt expect) the
chess game running in the back ground.  This would be sufficient to
curtail the IBMers from trying the same thing their poor old terminal
software would croak, if it would even run while formating a disk.

The CD^64, Emplant 4000 and A5000 are based of of the rumor mill in
AR201.  But this plan would bring things back to "normal" for Commodore
even possibly put things back in the green like the old C64 days.

Anyway I feel better now I think I can go to sleep now knowing I said my
piece.

             (Arguments are welcome I have too much to do 
              already and it would just top my day off.)

Shane Bumpurs - Computer Addict
@endnode


@node P1-7 "Reader Mail"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                              Reader Mail                              %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From:	Steve_Herring@matrix.rain.com (Steve Herring)
Subject: NewTek Announcement

I've heard that NewTek is going to be requesting Toaster created
video/graphics from user groups.  These Toaster creations will be
demonstrated in Las Vegas at the National Association of Broadcasters
Convention (NAB).  If anyone has a creation they'd like some exposure for,
contact Christina Knighton at NewTek, or leave Internet E-Mail to me, and I
can give you more info.  When I get the letter to User Groups, I'll send it
to Amiga Report!  

Videos should be at LEAST first generation S-VHS.  And graphics files are
preferred to be in RGB format. 

For more info, leave E-Mail to me, Steve Herring at:
Steve_Herring@matrix.rain.com

or call Christina Knighton at NewTek:
1-800-847-6111 

Tell her that you heard it from Steve Herring! :)

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

From:	sprovost@BIX.com
Subject: world of commodore info

hi!!just read ar 2.07, great setup!
you mentioned that you heard that world of commodore in new york was cancelled
sadly this is true, i talked to Karen at Ramige management and she confirmed
my suspicions. she found out that Jeff S had resigned after winter ces.
after finding this out karen decided to cancel the show due to the fact
that there is no one in the CEO slot in commodore now. she does not want
to risk it until there is someone running the show. she did confirm that
pasedena in december is still on!!!

Also i just got a a1200 with wb 3.0 and can't get multiview working for
Amiga Report (reports "wrong data type")      
any ideas?

thanks
stephen

[Ed: Can anyone with 3.x help him with the problem with the datatypes?]

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

From:	Roy Teale <tealro@wwc.edu>
Subject: something for Amiga Report

*** Happiness is a working A2630  ***
( and a Picasso ][ )

As luck(?) would have it, the very day that AmigaReport 207 (see "Slow-
Machine, Great Display Blues" in that issue) came out, my A2630 came back
from Kasara Microsystems.  Where nobody else could help me, Kasara came
through.  The board worked great the first time I plugged it in!  So,
much thanks to John from Kasara, and they can count on me doing business
with them in the future.

BTW, The Picasso ][ works just perfect in my A2000/2630 setup.
I am very impressed!  (I know, I know...  I should try using it in an
A3000.)  I'm really looking forward to AmigaDOS3.1, as well as
software updates for the Picasso drivers (which are available for
anonymous ftp at terrapin-station.umd.edu as they are released).  So far,
A2000/3000 users are limited to a 16-color Workbench with Picasso (of
course, this is a limit imposed by AmigaDOS, not the Picasso).

Any users out there who wish to get on the Picasso mailing list (whose
purpose is to inform and to discuss, not to flame) can send a message
to picasso-request@terrapin-station.umd.edu.  The message should
say:  "subscribe Picasso" in the body of the message (you can leave
the Subject: line blank).

@endnode

@node P1-8 "UseNet Review - Bars and Pipes Pro v2.0"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% UseNet Review - Bars and Pipes Pro v2.0             by Pasi Kovanen %%
%%                                             tron@westlink.fipnet.fi %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

PRODUCT NAME

	Bars and Pipes Professional version 2.0 ("BPPro") (18 February 93)


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	Bars and Pipes Professional is one of the Amiga's most advanced MIDI
sequencing programs.  The newest version has added many multimedia
capabilities.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		The Blue Ribbon Soundworks Ltd.
	Address:	1605 Chantilly Drive
			Suite 200
			Atlanta, Georgia 30324
			USA

	Telephone:	(404) 315-0212
	Telefax:	(404) 315-0213


LIST PRICE

	2295 FIM, approximately $350 (US).  The US street price is a bit
above $200, I think.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		At least 1 meg of RAM (2 meg recommended).

		For MIDI usage, a synthesizer with MIDI is necessary.
		For multimedia applications, it's not necessary.

		Works with accelerated Amigas.

	SOFTWARE

		None.


COPY PROTECTION

	BPPro is serialized:  when installed for the first time, a
registration number must be typed in.  The number is printed on the disk
label.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 1200:
		2 MB of Chip RAM
		AGA chipset
		Kickstart 3.0
		Workbench 3.0
		240 MB Maxtor hard disk

		GVP JAWS A1230:
			68030/40
			68882/40
			4 MB of Fast RAM,

		A MIDI interface

	Korg M1 synthesizer


INSTALLATION

	Installation is done with Blue Ribbon's installing software.
I'd prefer the Commodore Installer.


INTRODUCTION

	I will concentrate on the sequencing capabilities, because I'm not
so interested in building my own multimedia presentations.  BPPro is a
sequencer with thousands of functions and many original ideas.  It's not as
conventional as Dr. T's Keyboard Controlled Sequencer (KCS) and is not a
"tracker" program.


REVIEW

	A couple of years ago, I had a quick look at the original Bars and
Pipes Pro.  It looked fine and powerful, but without the manual it was really
difficult to use (yes, it was a pirate version, I confess).  I used OctaMED
with my M1 and it was nice to use, though music created with OctaMED sounds
like... well, music created with OctaMED.  Some friends recommended that I
get Dr. T's KCS.  I gave it a chance, but everything had to be done with
numbers.  "I had enough of mathematics in High School" (finally over!) I
thought and deleted KCS from my hard drive.

	A few months ago, I decided to buy BPPro II.  It came and I had a
quick look at it.  It looked even more fine and powerful, but without
reading the manual it was really difficult to use.  So I read the manual,
and the program started opening to me.

	Basically, BPPro works just like any other sequencer.  One has an
unlimited amount of tracks to record on.  Any track can use any MIDI
channel.  But that's as conventional as BPPro gets BPPro.  Every track has
its own pipeline (I wonder how they invented the program's name :-)) with a
"valve".  The valve controls the musical flow.  The pipe can be connected to
three parts:  the MIDI-in part, the note part, and the MIDI-out part.  When
you record music, the notes go through the MIDI-in part and get to the note
part.  When BPPro plays the notes, the go through the MIDI-out part.
Surprising, eh?

	Why all these parts? The most powerful little things in BPPro are
called Tools.  Tools are modules, separate from BPPro, that are used for
tasks like transposing, quantization, echoing, and even unquantization!
There are dozens of tools in the program, and I have only tried a few of
them.  If one puts a tool just before the note part of the pipe, every note
recorded will be processed with that tool.  But if one places the tool in
the MIDI-out part, the notes will be recorded unchanged and then processed
every time they go to MIDI-out.  One can place many tools into every
pipeline, and thus it's very easy to try different quantizations and
transpositions.  

	There can be dozens of windows open, and one can change parameters
for tools in real-time while the song plays. 

	Accessories are a bit like tools, but they cannot be placed on the
pipeline.  Accessories are also modules and control BPPro's extensive ARexx
functions, Standard MIDI File importing and exporting, and system exclusive
recording, among other things.  They are like programs that open on BPPro's
screen. 

	Tools and Accessories have fun names and icons.  "Toasty" controls
the Toaster, "SMoose" loads and saves SMUS songs and has a picture of a pink
moose(!!), "ANIMal" plays animations, "G-LOCKenspiel" controls the GVP G-Lock
genlock, and so on.

	There are many ways to edit the recorded piece of music.  When one
double-clicks on the track, an editing window opens.  Here one can select
classical notation (which can be printed), hybrid (which shows notes as
lines), piano-roll, guitar tablature (for guitar freaks) or list editing.  I
find hybrid the easiest way for editing the notes.  One edits the music with
a wand, hand, and other editing tools (these are not the Tools explained
above).  With the hand, one grabs notes and drags them to new positions.  The
wand alters lengths.  Rubber deletes notes, and Pen creates new ones.  Hard
parts of a song can be recorded by step editing.

	Also, pattern editing facilities exist but I haven't had experience
with them yet.  When I looked at them for the first time, the program crashed
(I got scared, you know).

	Editing the tempo is very easy.  You draw a tempo line onto the
tempo map with the mouse.  You can easily create linear, sudden, or
exponential tempo changes.  My only complaint is that I would like to have
the tempo line relative to the selected "main" tempo; i.e., if I changed the
main tempo from 125 BPM to 120 BPM, the tempo line also should drop by 5 BPM.

	Also, mixing is easy.  The Mix Maestro window has sliders and knobs
for every channel in the song, and movements of these gadgets can be
recorded in real time.  The knob usually controls panning (MIDI controller
number 10) but you can change it to control something else.  (Panning
doesn't work with the Korg M1, by the way.).  The slider works like the
volume slider in a mixing board and usually affects MIDI volume
(MIDI controller number 7).

	Song Construction is a nice window.  Here you can break your song
into named sections (A, B, C, etc.) and put the sections in any order you
wish.

	The multimedia support is extensive with full SMPTE support.  It
also has support for Scala, the Video Toaster, Sunrise AD516 card, and its
own slide show program.  The SMPTE tracks can be set to real-time mode.
Real-time tracks do not react to tempo changes.

	Every track can have its own time signature.  This can create really
exciting results, I think (I haven't tried this yet).


DOCUMENTATION

	Documentation is in a bound manual almost 400 pages long.  It is a
bit boring to read (I didn't expect a best-seller, but...) and it lacks a
tutorial.  This isn't so nice, because the program has many, many functions
and you don't learn them just by reading.  But the easiest way to learn how
to use this program is simply to use the program.


LIKES

	Tools are a wonderful invention.  I can change my music in almost
every way I like without destroying the original recording.  Non-destructive
editing rules!

	Hybrid editing works fine.

	BPPro can record System exclusive dumps long "enough", whereas KCS
is limited to 16 KB only.

	Importing and exporting MIDI files is easy.

	BPPro is expandable; for example, SuperJAM! can be integrated.


DISLIKES

	Bugs :(. (Look below)

	The program has very strange windows.  They may look "cool" with
Kickstart 1.3, but with Kickstart 2.0 or better I would like to see
gadtools.library used and normal Amiga windows.  Drop AmigaDOS 1.3 support!

	There's no direct, good support for Amiga's 8-bit samples.  A tool
called "SamplePhone" does play samples, but every sample plays only on one
pitch.

	Step recording should have a quick access to note lengths.  For
example, F1 should create a whole note, and F5 a sixteenth note.

	I would like to see more extensive pattern support.

	Access to some features requires little complicated maneuvers.  More
buttons and keyboard support are wanted.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	I've tried to use KCS but it seemed far too ugly and difficult to
use.

	I'm a beta-tester for OctaMED Professional and have been using that
program for over two years now.  The direct tracker style is good for
"computer music styles" like techno, not for "living" music.  Also it's very
difficult to export songs from OctaMED to other sequencers.  Nowadays I
mainly use BPPro.


BUGS

	Lots of bugs.  :(

	The printing of the notes is quite buggy.  Sometimes, notes are
printed without their stems.

	When I save extra-hires notes into an IFF file with the Save command,
BPPro tends to go into "fireworks mode" (crash) very often.  Also normal
printing sometimes crashes.

	The hybrid editor usually works fine, but the notation editor has
zillions of bugs.  The notating resolution does nothing, and sometimes BPPro
won't even show the notes (staff centering doesn't work).

	The punch-in recording should start playing one measure before the
selected point, and then switch on recording.  For about two weeks, it
always started directly on the punch-in point.  Now it works fine, though.
Very strange.

	I had some trouble a while ago, when the program used to crash
almost every time I started it... and if it did start, it still crashed in a
few seconds.  I re-installed BPPro and tried about everything, but nothing
helped.  Then I realized the problem:  I had my Video Backup System on the
serial port, and it constantly inputs video data to the Amiga.  BPPro is the
first program I've seen to crash when it receives that signal.

	And this one is really serious.  Two times has BPPro crashed when
saving the song, thus destroying both the older and newer version.  That's
unacceptable.


VENDOR SUPPORT

	It does exist, but not here in Finland.  60 days of free technical
support.


WARRANTY

	I'm not sure about any warranties, but I think they are not
essential with software products.


CONCLUSIONS

	Despite the long list of dislikes and bugs, BPPro is a good
sequencer, the best for the Amiga I think.  If Blue Ribbon only fixed those
bugs and added some comfortableness, this would be an almost perfect
sequencer.


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	Every typo Copyright 1994 Clumsy Fingers Ltd.

	Unfortunately I do not have USENET access.  For any comments or
upgrade notices, please contact my friend Tapio Ronkainen,
tron@westlink.fipnet.fi.  He'll send your messages to me (I hope...).

- Pasi Kovanen

@endnode

@node P1-9 "Philosophical Wax"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Philosophical Wax                                    By Jason Compton %%
%%                                                  (jcompton@tcity.com) %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

There's a thread on comp.sys.amiga.misc going about the predjudice in the
general and computer news media against the Amiga and Commodore in general.
I've noted it before and won't make a general, damning statement even
though the list is endless.  Instead, I want to focus on one particular
organization which long-time readers of Amiga Report might remember:
                            NewsBytes.

Back when Amiga Report carried NewsBytes reports weekly, I noticed that
the coverage of Amiga information in them suddenly seemed to dry up one day.
Puzzled, I did a bit of asking around and got their mail address, sent off
a letter explaining who I was and asked my question: "Why not more
support?"  I got a letter back asking me, in effect, why NewsBytes was in
Amiga Report in the first place, since according to her (Wendy Woods,
NewsBytes editor) we had no right to publish it.  I told Rob Glover
(Remember him?  Our old editor?) who was puzzled since he got permission to
run it.  No, Ms. Woods told me, we had to pay a bunch of money to her and
that Visa or MasterCard would be fine.  Still no answer to my question,
but since I felt so bad for creating the situation I didn't say anything.
For a little while.  Finally, once we lost NewsBytes coverage, I wrote her
back ONCE AGAIN asking for an explanation for the lack of Amiga coverage.
That was probably a month and a half ago.  Thanks, Wendy, for being so
prompt.

On a brighter side, Commodore International and MOST of its subsidiaries
are still in business.  :)

Seriously, Commodore should have hired Atari's publicist.  A company with
a stock value of 75 cents tells the world they've got a cool game
machine, and it goes up above 10 dollars?  It wasn't overnight, but
still...a company that can't build its own machines has people excited?
And we get upset when Commodore shuts plants down and 1200s are in short
supply?  Yep, it could be better and it could be worse for us.

On a final note:  It has been encouraging to see the submissions increase
for AR.  I think we're on a path to do well.  I also wish the best of
luck to CD^32View Magazine.  I hope it works out as well for you as it
has here.

@endnode

@node P1-10 "Emulation Rambler"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Emulation Rambler                                    By Jason Compton %%
%%                                                  (jcompton@tcity.com) %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                                                                          ]
Welcome back, emulation fans.  I'll delve into Emplant Part Four, with
some 4.0 and some A-Max updates...

Emplant Updates and a Quicker Way
---------------------------------

Emplant V4.0 is out, with the long-promised Amiga serial support.  I don't
have it up and running yet.  There have been the usual installation
problems, but that's usual.  L. Todd Masco has set up a mailing list for
the new updates.  To get on the list, send some mail to
emplant-request@clinton.com.  There are over 60 people on the list now
and 4.0 IS mailing.  Something got garbled in my copy, however, which is
why I don't have it yet.  The mailings are pretty fast.  I got it Tuesday,
and I heard about it no earlier than this past Sunday.  It's considerably
easier than trying to get through to Utilities Unlimited's BBS.

Benchmarks!  Yeah!
------------------

I turn my column over to Mauricio Piacentini for a time, who has been
instrumental in providing me with benchmarks and reviewing Emplant-run
software I can't get my hands on (you'll see that momentarily)  For now,
here are his Speedometer readings for an Amiga 4000/040 with EGS Spectrum
board and Mac emulation software V3.91.  I'll include the entire list,
since it's the only one this issue...ready?


 System Information:
 Computer: Mac Quadra 900
 CPU: MC68040
 FPU: Integral FPU
 MMU: Mac II AMU
 Color Quickdraw: 2.30 (32 Bit QD)
 System Version: 7.1.6
 Finder Version: 7.1
 AppleTalk Version: Not Loaded
 LaserWriter Version: Not Found
 StyleWriter Version:Not Found
 ImageWriter Version: Not Found
 ROM Version: $0178
 ROM Size: 256
 Bit Depth: 8
 Horizontal DPI: 72
 Vertical DPI: 72
 Primary Screen Size: 640 x 480
 Physical RAM: 14336K
 Logical RAM: 14336K
 Addressing Mode: 32 bit
 Alias Manager: Present
 Apple Events: Present
 Comm. Toolbox: 7.1.6
 Script Manager: 7.1.6
 Text Edit: Version 5
 Time Manager: Version 3 (Extended)
 
 P.R. Results (Uses Mac Classic as 1.0):
 CPU: 14.416
 Graphics: 4.557
 Disk: 2.872     Name of Hard Disk tested: MACDiskao
 Math: 113.936
 Performance Rating (OLD PR): 19.102
 Performance Rating (NEW PR): 6.094
 
 Benchmark Results (Uses Mac Classic as 1.0):
 KWhetstones: 1666.666     228.310
 Dhrystones: 18072.289     18.548
 Towers: 17.828
 QuickSort: 15.147
 Bubble Sort: 17.234
 Queens: 18.320
 Puzzle: 19.485
 Permutations: 19.543
 Fast Fourier: 158.662
 F.P. Matrix Multiply: 120.129
 Integer Matrix Multiply: 18.413
 Sieve: 12.889
 Benchmark Average: 55.376
 
 FPU Tests (Uses Mac II as 1.0):
 FFPU Fast Fourier: 8.944
 FPU KWhetstones: 3749.999     5.250
 FPU F.P. Matrix Mult.: 7.166
 FPU Test Average: 7.120
           
 Color Tests (Uses Mac II as 1.0):
 Black & White: 0.000
 4 Colors: 0.000
 16 Colors: 0.000
 256 Colors: 2.138
 Color Test Average: 2.138
                                                                         ]
Just to recap, when I last posted his results under I believe Emplant 3.4,
the CPU rating was .3 lower and the Math rating was 40 points lower.  Not
too bad of an improvement, I'm led to say.  One thing that puzzles me is
that the FPU average is actually LOWER this time, at 7.12 compared to the
previous 7.336.  Strange.  Perhaps the FPU routines were not improved at
the expense of better regular math routines.  I can't say.  Any theories?

A program that doesn't work!
----------------------------

I've actually found a program that just does not work with any acceptable
functionality on the Emplant:  Graphical Analysis by Vernier Software.
It's basically a small program which allows you to enter data and plot it
on a few different types of graphs.  The problem is that all of the data
gets garbage tacked onto the end of it.  The result is unacceptable.  The
copyright date is 1991, so I cannot be sure if it is a System 7.1 or 32-
bit addressing conflict.  I can't verify either from Emplant (24-bit mode
eludes me), but I do know it runs on A-Max II under System 6.0.5.  It
also works on "real" Macs under 6.0.7, and I am almost positive I have
seen it on System 7.

More Mauricio!
--------------

I admit, I have been falling a little behind in terms of getting
more Mac programs to test out.  I promise this will improve, and I
won't hesitate to update you on new programs I encounter even after
the Emplant/A-Max IV series has ended.  Mauricio comes to my rescue
with some information on programs I wouldn't have much chance of
rounding up on my own...
Adobe Photoshop 2.5: "Performs flawlessly with Emplant 3.91, and
it's very fast...24-bit modes are too slow to use, except for a
quick view of your work-in-progress."  (he does say that 256 is
usable).
Fractal Painter 2.0: "A strange bug: it can only be used one time!
When it quits, it tries to write something to the file 'Painter
settings', and this file can't be used again!!  The solution is to
reinstall the file, or move a previous saved copy over to the
corrupted one.  Not very good..."
After Effects 1.1: "Works solidly with Emplant."
Premiere: "Quicktime editing is ok, Quicktime playback on my system is
equal to a Quadra 900".
Paint Alchemy Photoshop plug-in: "Crashes every time it previews
something.  I think this is not an Emplant problem, because Paint
Alchemy crashes randomly when used with a Quadra 800, so let's not blame
Jim on that."

If anyone has a suggestion as to how to move large amounts of files back
and forth between Emplant (we're talking faster than using the transfer
utility), let him know at mauricio.piacentini%mandic@ax.apc.org.  For
that matter, let me know, so I can let everyone else know.  His current
plan is to use a PC-formatted Syquest cartridge and access it by both
sides.

Promises for the future
-----------------------

I've got PageMaker coming, I've got some more games and assorted
utilities to run, and I now have A-Max IV.

FLASH!
------

I DO have Emplant Mac V4.0 right now.  Next week will be a complete look,
but for now, here's some selected bits of information from the text files
in the new release:

Amiga serial and back-and-forth text clipping is now supported.

The new multi-os.device bugs are being hammered out.

Some i/o has been improved.

The menus have changed and the config screen can be iconified.

Both Emplant serial ports now support AppleTalk.

Chauna is Jim's wife.

Finally, the best piece of news for potential Emplant buyers: Emplant
now supports the original v1.1 and v1.2 256k Mac ROMs, the ones
without high density support.  Apparently, Mac dealers and suppliers
are literally throwing these things away, and can be had for very
cheap, if for anything at all.  Emplant will use them and still
supports high density drives.

That's it for this week.  Keep the emulators warm.

P.S. There's also a comment in there that reads: "Special input to
Denny Atkin for his input and unbiased reviews.  :-)".  I know who Mr.
Atkin is, but I don't get the joke.

@endnode

@node P5-1 "Amiga RealTime Monitor"
@toc "menu"
 
TITLE

     ARTM  Amiga RealTime Monitor

RELEASE

     2.0

AUTHOR

     Franz-Josef Mertens  (fjmumerlin.tynet.sub.org)

SHORT

     A system to monitor and change system structures

DESCRIPTION

     ARTM 2.0 (Amiga Real Time Monitor) displays and controls
     system activity such as tasks, windows, libraries, devices,
     resources, ports, residents, interrupts, vectors, memory,
     mounts, assigns, locks, fonts, hardware, res_cmds, semaphores
     a little SystemMonitor and display the last Alert. 

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

     ARTM requires Amigados 2.04 or higher.

NEW FEATURES

     Function Semaphoren is added.
     Semaphoren could be released and or removed.
     The ARTM window is sizeable.
     Create an ARTM.guide 
     Onlinehelp with HELP-KEY over guide created
     Create an Installer script
     EnforcerHits removed

HOST NAME

    AMINET (E.G. WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU)

DIRECTORY

    /PUB/AMINET/UTIL/MONI

FILE NAME

    ARTM20.LHA - include all files (program guides etc.)

PRICE

    ARTM is shareware.
    Registered versions are available for $15US or 20DM.
    See documentation for details.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

    The archive are greely distributable in original and
    unmodified form. See documentation for details.

    ARTM is (C) copyright 1991-94 by Franz-Josef Mertens & D.Jansen
@endnode

@node P5-2 "DDLI v3.20
@toc "menu"

TITLE

    The Duniho and Duniho Life Pattern Indicator

VERSION

    V3.20

AUTHOR

    Fergus Duniho

    E-mail:  fdnh@troi.cc.rochester.edu
    Netmail: The Holodeck BBS 1:2613/336

DESCRIPTION

    The DDLI is a personality indicator measures for four different sets of
    preferences that result in a total of sixteen different psychological
    types.  These four sets of preferences are

        How we orient our lives:

            Extraversion vs. Introversion

        How we prefer to gather information:

            Sensing vs. iNtuition

        How we prefer to make decisions:

            Thinking vs. Feeling

        Which sort of lifestyle we prefer:

            Judging vs. Perceiving

    These 16 types correspond to the psychological types that Carl Jung
    described in _Psychological Types_.  They also corresond to the 16
    Myers-Briggs types measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

    The DDLI asks you a series of multiple choice questions and calculates
    its results from your answers.  It asks you to rank each of your
    answers on a scale from 1 to 7. It also asks you questions on other
    sets of preferences that are supposed to match various combinations of
    the above four sets. This is so it provides a check on itself, as it
    can be fallible.

    The DDLI comes with extensive support material.  Included are full
    length descriptions of each one of the 16 types, the "Personality Type
    Summary" by Jon Noring, and my own description of the Life Pattern
    personality model.

NEW FEATURES

    A "No Preference" option for each question.

    Instructions at the beginning of the program.

    Recognizes that "X" preferences are compatible with other
    preferences.

    Fidonet Netmail address added.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

    None

HOST
    Any AMINET Site such as wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4)

DIRECTORY

    /pub/aminet/misc/misc

ARCHIVE NAME

    DDLI320.lha

@endnode

@node P5-3 "EAGUI.library v2.1"
@toc "menu"

TITLE

     EAGUI.library

VERSION

     2.1

AUTHOR

     Marcel Offermans
          2:281/614.1@fidonet
          marcel@dutw30.tudelft.nl

     Frank Groen
          2:281/614.2@fidonet
          fgroen@tudw12.tudelft.nl

DESCRIPTION

     The Environment Adaptive Graphic User Interface (EAGUI) is a system
     which allows you to build interfaces that, as the name suggests, adapt
     to the environment they're run in. It uses normal GadTools and BOOPSI
     gadgets, and does not modify them in any way. This allows programmers to
     implement EAGUI in existing applications easily.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

     EAGUI needs at least Release 2 of the AmigaOS, and is Release 3 aware.

HOST NAME

     Available on AmiNet
     ftp.uni-paderborn.de (131.234.2.32)

DIRECTORY

     /pub/aminet/dev/gui

FILE NAMES

     EAGUI21.lha (43014 bytes)

DISTRIBUTABILITY

     Copyright (C) 1993, 1994 Marcel Offermans and Frank Groen. You may
     distribute this package for free only if you don't make any money out of
     it yourself. If you do, or use it in a ShareWare or Commercial program,
     you must contact us first for a license.

OTHER

     The archive can also be freq'ed from The Amiga Developers Domain (TADD)
     at (2:281/614@fidonet). Using the magic filename EAGUI always gets you
     the latest available version. You can reach TADD at +31-15-157954 or
     alternatively +31-15-144825.

@endnode

@node P5-4 "GRn v2.1"
@toc "menu"

TITLE

  GRn - Gadtools Read News

VERSION = RELEASE

  2.1

COMPANY

  none

AUTHOR

  Michael B. Smith <mbs@adastra.cvl.va.us>

DESCRIPTION

  GRn is Gadtools Read News, a fully-featured, Gadtools-based newsreader
  for the Amiga, running Release 2.0 or above. Some special features are
  available on higher releases.

  GRn supports locally stored news (via AmigaUUCP, C News, or NNTPxfer)
  and NNTP in a variety of ways (AS225r2, AmiTCP 2.2 or above, DNet, AUW
  and direct connection via serial.device or serial clone).

  GRn 2.1 is an update to GRn 2.0. Several new features have been added,
  and several bugs have been fixed. Refer to GRn.guide for detailed
  information on operating GRn. The file INSTALL tells you how to install
  GRn (sorry, Installer script didn't happen).

  Significant changes between GRn 2.0 and GRn 2.1:

    New Features:

	+ AmiTCP is now supported
	+ AUW is now supported
	+ ReplyPrefix configuration variable added
	+ GRnSaveDir configuration variable added
	+ MODEID=SCREENMODE argument added
	+ When GRn opens a Custom Screen, it now sets AutoScroll.
	+ New GRn icon
	+ Use the system busy pointer on v39 and up
	+ NOSCAN only applies to the scan at startup
	+ Add From: header to all news and mail created
	  (NOTE: this requires a fixed postnews for AmigaUUCP.)
	+ LAST=SUBSCRIBELAST argument added
	+ Keyboard shortcuts for the article list were added
	+ UserShells are now supported for all external programs (this
       means they can be AmigaDOS scripts, AREXX programs, etc.)
	+ eXtract command added
	+ A Distribution header is no longer added by default, unless an
	  article being replied to had one
    Bug Fixes:
	+ serial.device input no longer busy-loops
	+ NNTP articles are not retrieved a second time for Save, Print,
       Reply, Forward, etc.
	+ You may now "Mark" an article as UNREAD, even when it is the
       only article in a newsgroup
	+ GRn now works better with tin
	+ Refresh of borders on v37 and v38 is complete
	+ The proper detailpen is now used in the subscription window
	+ Requestors are now draggable
	+ Subject/From headers over 512 characters will no longer cause
       GRn to write over memory it does not own
	+ No longer allow cancellation of arbitrary articles
	+ Properly close socket.library if NNTP server connection failed.
	+ Large fonts will not mess up the subscribe window any longer
	+ The last article in a newsgroup may be marked as unread.
	+ On v39 and above, mouse and keyboard movements are dealt with
       correctly, when both are used to adjust a listview.
	+ "Followup-To: poster" is now honored
	+ The HOSTNAME argument is no longer treated as a synonym for the
       NNTPSERVER argument.

REQUIREMENTS

  Any Amiga with Workbench Release 2.0 or better.
  To use NNTP requires an NNTP connection to *somewhere*.

HOST NAME

  Hopper.ITC.Virginia.EDU
  (Probably also on Aminet)

DIRECTORY

  pub/amiga

FILE NAME

  GRn-2.1.lha

PRICE & DISTRIBUTABILITY

  GRn 2.1 is copyright 1992 - 1994 by Michael B. Smith.
  GRn is copyright 1991 - 1992 by Michael H. Schwartz.

  Freely distributable but not public domain, GRn is freeware. You are
  free to send me money if you want. My address is in the documentation.

@endnode

@node P5-5 "LazyBench v1.14"

TITLE

    LazyBench

VERSION

    1.14

COMPANY

    None

AUTHOR

    Werther 'Mircko' Pirani
    e-mail: werther@karunko.nervous.com

DESCRIPTION

         LazyBench is a little utility for lazy people with a hard
    disk crammed full of goodies which are too difficult to reach
    because they are buried away in drawers inside drawers inside
    drawers inside drawers...

          LazyBench installs itself as a commodity, adds an item under
    the Workbench "Tools" menu and waits in the background.  Use its
    hot key combination to pop up its window, then select an item from
    the list displayed to launch your favourite application with no
    need to mess around with windows and drawers:  if you can click on
    it, LazyBench can launch it!

          This is LazyBench V1.14:  OS 2.xx only, font sensitive,
    Style Guide compliant and fully configurable.


    Features:

    * No extra libraries, handlers or devices required;
    * Very small: just 18116 bytes!
    * Supports both Tools and Projects;
    * Unlimited number of entries in the configuration file which is a
      plain text file  containing a list of paths to your applications.
      The configuration file can be edited/created with any text editor
      or from within LazyBench itself.
    * Supports virtual screens in any resolution. No matter how big your
      screen is, LazyBench always pops up its window in the upper left
      corner of the visible part of the Workbench screen. Alternatively,
      you can make LazyBench open its window at a fixed position.
    * Each LazyBench gadget (including the ListView scroller) has a
      single key equivalent, so you could use it even without a mouse!
    * Supports standard commodities Tool Types like CX_POPUP, CX_HOTKEY
      and CX_PRIORITY, plus many more to give you full control over its
      behaviour and GUI;
    * 100% font sensitive. You can choose to use either the System Font,
      the Workbench Icon Font or the Screen Font: LazyBench changes its
      window dimensions accordingly!


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

    Kickstart/Workbench 2.0 or higher.

HOST NAME

    Any AMINET host, i.e.
    ( ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) )


DIRECTORY

    /pub/aminet/os20/wb

FILE NAME

    LazyBench114.lha (size: 23718 bytes, docs included!)

PRICE

    Absolutely free! :-)

DISTRIBUTABILITY

    Freely Distributable. Copyright (c) 1993,94 Werther 'Mircko' Pirani

LANGAUGE

    English

@endnode

@node P5-6 "MUI File Request v1.1"
@toc "menu"

NAME

    MUI Fido File Request 1.1

DESCRIPTION

    MUI Fido File Request is a GUI for selecting files from a filelist,
    which almost every Fidonet mailbox provides for download.

    The list of selected files is written to a .REQ-file in your
    outbound directory.

    The next time you call up your Fido Boss these files are
    automatically downloaded by your Fidonet communications software.

CHANGES

    1.0 Initial release (23.01.94)

    1.1 (17.02.94)

    - clipboard support
    - 4D addressing is used for the request file
    - multiple nodes
    - download of the selected files
    - XPK support
    - appending of passwords to the selected filenames

HARD- AND SOFTWARE-REQUIREMENTS

    - Amiga OS 2.04
    - WB 2.1 (if you want to make use of localization)
    - Stefan Stuntz' Magic User Interface 2.0 or better

INSTALLATION

    Installer script supplied.

DOWNLOAD

    Any Aminet site, e.g.

      Switzerland  litamiga.epfl.ch       128.178.151.32  pub/aminet/
      Scandinavia  ftp.luth.se            130.240.18.2    pub/aminet/
      Germany      ftp.uni-kl.de          131.246.9.95    pub/aminet/
      Germany      ftp.uni-erlangen.de    131.188.1.43    pub/aminet/
      Germany      ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de    130.149.17.7    pub/aminet/
      Germany      ftp.uni-paderborn.de   131.234.2.32    pub/aminet/
      USA          ftp.wustl.edu          128.252.135.4   pub/aminet/
      USA          ftp.cdrom.com          192.153.46.2    pub/aminet/
      USA          merlin.etsu.edu        192.43.199.20   pub/aminet/

DIRECTORY

    comm/fido

FILE NAME

    MUIFFR11.lha

FURTHER SOURCES

    FIDO:
        Mowgli 2:242/7     +49-(0)241-40 59 49
               2:2452/107

DISTRIBUTABILITY

     Freely distributable, but copyrighted.

AUTHOR

    Martin Steppler

    Internet: steppler@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
    ADSP:     steppler@cookies.adsp.sub.org
    Fido:     2:242/7.12 Martin_Steppler@mowgli.fido.de
    FidoLite: 2:2452/107.12

@endnode

@node P4-2 "Portal"
@toc "menu"

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


                   Portal Communications' Amiga Zone

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

The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, which was
formerly on the People/Link System.  Plink went out of business in May,
1991 and The Amiga Zone's staff moved to Portal the next day. The Zone has
just celebrated its second anniversary on Portal. The Amiga press raves
about The Amiga Zone, when compared to its competition.

If you live in the San Jose, CA area, then you can dial Portal directly. If
you live elsewhere, you can reach Portal through any SprintNet (formerly
Telenet) indial anywhere in the USA.  If you have an account on another 
Internet-connected system, you can connect to Portal using the UNIX Telnet 
programs, from anywhere in the industrialized world.  Delphi and BIX users 
can now Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use.

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

  Over 1.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific files

  The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online.

  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, ASDG,
   Soft-Logik, Black Belt, Apex Publishing, Stylus, Prolific, NES.

  35 "regular" Amiga libraries with thousands of 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 pressued doing it.

  Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you
   will recognize.  Special conferences.  Random chance prize contests.
   Famous Amiga folks aren't the exception on Portal, they're the norm.

  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, HyperAmi,
   Director and Landscapes are fed right into the Zone message bases.
   Read months worth of postings.  They don't scroll off, ever!
   No need to clutter your mailbox with them.

  FREE unlimited Internet Email.  Your Portal account gets you a
   mailbox that's connected to the world.  Send letters of any length to 
   computer users in the entire industrialized world.  No limits. 
   No extra charges. No kidding!
   
  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,
   NeXT, UNIX, Science Fiction, Writers, amateur radio, and a graphics
   SIG with thousands of GIF files to name just a few.  ALL Portal SIGs
   are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever.

  The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra)
   An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine.
 
  Portal featues an exciting package of Internet features: IRC, FTP,
   TELNET, MUDS, LIBS.  Free to all Portal customers with your account.
   Internet Services is a menu driven version of the same kinds of 
   utilities you can also use from your Portal UNIX shell account.
 
  All the files you can FTP. All the chatting you can stand on the IRC.  
   And on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you can talk live, in real time 
   with Amiga users in the U.K., Europe, Australia, the Far East, 
   24 hours a day. 

  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)

  And 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.

How does all that sound?  Probably too good to be true. Well, it IS true.

Portal Signup or for more information:

   408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
   408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day
   408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day

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

PORTAL'S CURRENT RATES:

All prices shown are in U.S. Dollars
                                                Total Total  Total  Total
                                                Cost  Cost   Cost   Cost
                                          Fee   1 hr. 5 hrs. 10 hrs.30 hrs.
                          Startup Monthly Per   Per   per    per    per
                          Fee     Fee     Hour  month month  month  month
                          $       $       $     $     $      $      $

Portal                    19.95   19.95         
 2400/9600/14.4Kbps, *direct 24 hrs        0.00 19.95  19.95  19.95  19.95
 2400/9600bps nonprime Sprint              2.50 22.95  32.45  44.95  94.95
 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +%           5.50-10 29.95  69.95 119.95  varies
 2400/9600bps non prime # PCPursuit        1.00 20.95  24.95  29.95  49.95

* plus cost of phone call if out of Portal's local dialing area
  Direct rates also apply to connections made to Portal using the
  UNIX "telnet" program from an account you may already
  have on an Internet-connected system. 
% 9600 bps Sprintnet in over 300 cities areas
+ $10 rate prevails at smaller US Cities
# PCPursuit is a service of US Sprint. Portal is a PCPursuit
 "Direct Access Facility" thus connection to Portal with a PCP account
 is simply a matter of entering C PORTAL,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD  at the
 SprintNet login prompt instead of C PORTAL. 

Note: 

   Portal Direct 9600/14400 bps service is availble for both USR HST
   modems, and any V32/V32.bis modems. There are dozens of direct-dial
   high speed lines into Portal.  No busy signals!

   SprintNet 9600bps service is V.32 modem protocol only.
   Again, Portal does NOT surcharge high speed modem users!

   Portal subscribers who already have an account on an Internet-capable
   system elsewhere, can use that system's "telnet" program
   to connect to Portal for $0.00 an hour. That's right ZERO. From anywhere
   in the world.  If you're in this category, be sure to ask the Portal 
   reps, when you signup, how to login to Portal from your existing
   Internet account.  

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!]

That number again:  408-973-9111.

Portal Communications accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any
amount by personal check or money order.  The Portal Online System is
a trademark of Portal Communications. 


@endnode

@node P3 "Dealer Directory"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                           Dealer Directory                            %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%



                           Almathera Systems Ltd
                              Challenge House
                              618 Mitcham Rd
                              Croydon, Surrey
                             CR9 3AU  England
                         VOICE: (UK) 081 683 6418
              Internet: (Sales) almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk
                  (Technical) jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk


                           Amigability Computers
                               P.O. Box 572
                          Plantsville, CT  06479
                            VOICE: 203-276-8175
                        Internet:  amiga@phantm.UUCP
                             BIX:  jbasile
              (Send E-mail to subscribe to our mailing list)


                            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


                        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


                       CLICK! Amiga Specialists N.V.
                            Boomsesteenweg 468
                        B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen
                             Belgium - Europe
                         VOICE:  03 / 828.18.15
                           FAX:  03 / 828.67.36
                     USENET:  vanhoutv@click.augfl.be
                             FIDO:  2:292/603.9
                         AmigaNet:  39:120/102.9


                        Comspec Communications Inc
                  Serving your computing needs since 1976
                              74 Wingold Ave
                             Toronto, Ontario
                             Canada   M6B 1P5
                     Computer Centre:   (416) 785-8348
          Service, Corporate & Educational Sales: (416) 785-3553
                            Fax:  416-785-3668
                   Internet:  bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com
                              bryanf@accesspt.north.net


                       Computers International, Inc.
                             5415 Hixson Pike
                          Chattanooga, TN  37343
                           VOICE:  615-843-0630


                             DataKompaniet ANS
                             Pb 3187  Munkvoll
                             N-7002  Trondheim
                              Norway - Europe
                          VOICE/FAX:  72 555 149
                      Internet:  torrunes@idt.unit.no


                               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


                               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


                                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:  519-457-2986
                            FIDO:  1:221/125
                        AmigaNet:  40:550/1
                          MaxNet:  90:204/1
                        iNET: 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
                          3100 W Peterson Avenue
                             Chicago, Illinois
                           VOICE:  312-338-6100


                           Wonder Computers Inc.
                             1315 Richmond Rd.
                      Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8J7
                           Voice:  613-596-2542
                           Fax:    613-596-9349
                           BBS:    613-829-0909


                                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


                             DataService Oy
                               P.O. Box 50
                           Kuurinniityntie 30
                               02771 ESPOO
                            Findland, Europe
                      Voice: +358 (9) 400 438 301
                      Fax:   +358 (9) 0505 0037


          (Dealers:  To have your name added, please send Email!)

@endnode 


@node P2-3 "In Closing"
@toc "menu"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                       _    _       __  ___    _                       %%
%%                      /\\  |\\   /| || //  \  /\\                      %%
%%                     /  \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __  /  \\                     %%
%%                    /--- \\|  \/ || || \\_||/--- \\                    %%
%%                   /______________________________\\                   %%
%%                  /                                \\                  %%
%%              Amiga Report International Online Magazine               %%
%%                      March 4, 1994 ~ Issue No. 2.08                   %%
%%                 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 per-
mission. However, translation into a language other than English is accept-
ble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be dis-
tributed 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 pub-
ication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its  staff and con-
ributors 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 Copy-
right 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 specifically requests
not to be reprinted.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

@endnode


@node P1 "Columns and Features"
@toc "menu"

@{" From the Editor's Desk " link P1-1} Saying it like it is!
@{"       Amiga News       " link P1-2} News and Announcements
@{"     CIS Conference     " link P1-3} With ASDG staff
@{"     UseNet Review      " link P1-4} AmiBack 2.0g
@{"     UseNet Review      " link P1-5} Liberation CD32
@{"      MS-DOS Blues      " link P1-6} And marketing the Amiga
@{"      Reader Mail       " link P1-7} The readers speak!
@{"     UseNet Review      " link P1-8} Bars and Pipes Pro v2.0
@{"    Philsophical Wax    " link P1-9} Commentary from the Rambler!
@{"   Emulation Rambler    " link P1-10} Feeling the need for speed


@endnode

@node P2 "About Amiga Report"
@toc "menu"

@{" For Starters " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT
@{"   AR Staff   " link P2-2} The Editors, and Contributers
@{"  In Closing  " link P2-3} Copyright Information

@endnode

@node P4 "Commercial Online Services"
@toc "menu"

@{"   Delphi   " link P4-1}  Getting better all the time!
@{"   Portal   " link P4-2}  A great place for Amiga users...
@{"  InterNet  " link P4-5}  Subscribe to the AR Mailing List
@{"    BIX     " link P4-6}  For Serious Programmers and Developers
@endnode

@node P5 "Files Available for FTP"
@toc "menu"

@{"       ARTM v2.0       " link P5-1} Systems monitor to change system structures
@{"      DDLI v3.20       " link P5-2} Duniho and Duniho Life Pattern Indicator
@{"  EAGUI.library v2.1   " link P5-3} Enviroment Adaptive GUI
@{"       GRn v2.1        " link P5-4} GadTools Read News (newsreader)
@{"    LazyBench v1.14    " link P5-5} Launches files from TOOLS menu
@{" MUI File Request v1.1 " link P5-6} GUI for selecting files

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The most downloaded files from wustl.edu during the week until 28-Feb-94

File                 Dir        Size Description
-------------------  ---        ---- -----------
PPShow40.lha         gfx/show    79K+ILBM/ANIM/GIF/JPEG/DataTypes viewer
SysInfo323.lha       util/moni   48K SysInfo v3.23
motowb.lha           util/wb     30K+Motorola backdrops for MagicWB.
DiskSpareDevic16.lha disk/misc   15K+Use 984kB or 1.968MB floppy disks!
Incinerator.lha      game/demo  236K 3d Missile Command type game playable demo
MWB_Icons-1.1.lha    util/wb     39K+Another MagicWB icon collection
AGA-Klondike1-3.lzh  game/think 394K+Klondike AGA, Works on 1200/4000
lx103.lha            util/arc    34K+Fast LhA compatable dearchiver/decompresso
whats-up.lha         mods/pro   464K+4 Non-blondes techno mod
RDS20.lha            gfx/3d     123K+Random dot stereogram generator v2.0

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@endnode



                 -----------------------------------------
@node P2-1-1 "NOVA"
@toc "menu"


                               * NOVA BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                          * Running Starnet BBS *
                         Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop
                            FidoNet  1:362/508
                 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS)
                 615-472-9748  USR DS 16.8  24hrs - 7 days
                           Cleveland, Tennessee
@endnode           
                ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-2 "In The MeanTime"
@toc "menu"


        
                          * IN THE MEANTIME BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                            * Running AXShell *
                            Robert Niles, Sysop
                            rniles@imtired.itm.com
                509-966-3828  Supra V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                            Yakima, Washington


                          ******* Notice *******

After 13 September 1993, In The MeanTime will no longer be on FidoNet, thus
we will no longer be accepting File REQuests (FREQs). We WILL be still 
accepting calls and will have the latest edition of Amiga Report online.
Downloads to first time callers are still accepted. For the west coast 
call @{"Cloud's Corner" link P2-1-3} to FREQ the latest edition of Amiga Report.

Those who call for the latest edition of Amiga Report, and who do not with
to establish an account, log in as guest with the password of "guest".
At the prompt type "ARMAG" (without the quotes).

@endnode           
	       ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-3 "Cloud's Corner"
@toc "menu"


                          * CLOUD'S CORNER BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
         MebbsNet/Starnet Support/Distribution Site West Coast USA
                         * Running MEBBSNet BBS *
                            Larry Cloud, Sysop
                            FidoNet:  1:350/30
                            MaxNet:  90:180/10
                  Internet:  larryc@hebron.connected.com
                 206-377-4290  USR HST DS  24hrs - 7 days
                           Bremerton, Washington


New users can call and get ANY copy of Amiga Report.  These are considered
"free" downloads, they do not count against any file ratio.  The latest issue
of Amiga Reports can be Freq'ed (FileREQusted) from here as "AR.LHA", as "AR"
or as ARxxx.LHA where xxx is the issue number.  Freq's are valid at ANY time.

For users interested in reading AR, but who do not have access to AmigaGuide,
you can freq ARBUL and get the AR in bulletin form.  This service is provided
for persons who do not have Amigaguide (such as IBM users).  Please note that
any pictures distributed with the "regular" Amiga Reports archive will NOT be
sent with this freq.  This file is not available for dial-in users, but you
can read bulletin #5 with your capture buffer open and get the same file.

NOTE:  This system is currently down.

@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-4 "Biosmatica"
@toc "menu"


         
                            * BIOSMATICA BBS *
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Portugal
                    * Running Excelsior/Trapdoor/UUCP *
                           Celso Martinho, Sysop
                             FidoNet  2:361/9
                  +351-34-382320  V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-5 "Amiga Junction 9"
@toc "menu"


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

      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

                   Internet:  user_name@junct9.royle.org

@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-6 "BitStream BBS"
@toc "menu"



                             * BITSTREAM BBS *
               The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                       * Running Xenolink 1.0 Z.3 *
                            Glen Roberts, Sysop
                             FidoNet 3:771/850
               +64 3 5485321  Supra V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                            Nelson, New Zealand

@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-7 "Realm of Twilight"
@toc "menu"


                         * 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 P2-1-8 "Metnet Triangle"
@toc "menu"


                          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 P2-1-9 "Omaha Amiganet"
@toc "menu"

                            * 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 P2-1-10 "Amiga-Night-System"
@toc "menu"


                          * 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 P2-1-11 "Ramses Amiga Flying"
@toc "menu"


                        * 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 P2-1-12 "Gateway BBS"
@toc "menu"


                            * 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 P2-1-13 "Talk City"
@toc "menu"


                               * TALK CITY *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
   708-372-0190 - 2400bps   708-372-0268 - V32 14.4K  708-372-0283 USR DS 14.4K
     Fido Net 1:115/372,0  Phantom Net 11:2115/2.0  Clink Net 911:6080/4.0 
                            UUCP tcity.com

        Over 3 Gig of Files Online  |  More and More things everyday.

With Three IBM CD-ROMs online, 10 lines, support for all platforms, and a REALLY
dedicated sysop (The Mayor).


@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-14 "Amiga BBS"
@toc "menu"


                               * 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 P2-1-15 "The Stygian Abyss"
@toc "menu"



                         * 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 P2-1-16 "Amiga Do PC BBS"
@toc "menu"


                            * 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 P2-1-17 "Comm-Link BBS"
@toc "menu"


                             * 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 P2-1-18 "Phantom's Lair"
@toc "menu"


                            * 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 P2-1-19 "Tierra-Miga BBS"
@toc "menu"

                             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 P2-1-50 "Freeland Mainframe"
@toc "menu"



                          * 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 P2-1-51 "LAHO"
@toc "menu"



                               * LAHO BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland
                             * Running MBBS *
                            Lenni Uitti, SysOp
                      Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-areas)
                     Juha Makinen, SysOp (Amiga-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.32 MNP
                            Seinajoki, Finland

Our machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and a CD-ROM
drive. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in
a DesqView windows.

We have over 7000 files online (both for the Amiga and PC) + 650MB stuff
on the Aminet CD-ROM disk.

Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of
Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of
the Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR1??.LHA) even on their first call.

The system has been running since 1989 and is sponsored by the local
telephone company, Vaasan Ladnin Puhelin Oy.



@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-52 "Falling BBS"
@toc "menu"



                              * FALLING BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Norway
                             * Running ABBS *
                          Christopher Naas, Sysop
                  +47 69 256117  V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                    EMail:    naasc@cnaas.adsp.sub.org
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-53 "Command Line BBS"
@toc "menu"



                           * 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 P2-1-54 "Rendezvous BBS"
@toc "menu"


                             * RENDEZVOUS BBS *
           Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - New Zealand
                  New Zealand Excelsior! BBS Support Site
                  * Running Excelsior! Professional BBS *
                            David Dustin, Sysop
                  Internet: postmaster@eclipse.acme.gen.nz
                +64 6 3566375  Supra V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                       Palmerston North, New Zealand


@endnode
                 -------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-55 "Leguans Byte Channel"
@toc "menu"


                         * 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 P2-1-56 "Stingray Database BBS"
@toc "menu"


                          * 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 P2-1-57 "T.B.P. Video Slate"
@toc "menu"


                          * T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE *
                  Official Amiga Report 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.             
             Instant Access to all.  Download on the first call.          
                                                                          
       Hardware:  Amiga 500 Tower custom at 14 MHz, 350 Meg maxtor,        
           125 Meg SCSI Maxtor, 125 Meg IDE Maxtor, Double Speed CD rom,  
                                  9 meg RAM                               


@endnode
                 --------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-58 "Amiga Central"
@toc "menu"


                            * 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 P2-1-59 "Continental Drift"
@toc "menu"


                         * CONTINENTAL DRIFT BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                       * Running DLG Pro software *
                   Murray Chaffer & Andre Lackmann, Sysops
                              +612 949-4256
                            24 hours -  7 days
                            Sydney, Australia 


@endnode
                 --------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-60 "Guru Meditation"
@toc "menu"



                            * 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 P2-1-61 "Moonlight Sonata DLG"
@toc "menu"

                  M O O N L I G H T   S O N A T A   D L G

                      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

                         Keyboards: Erno Tuomainen

                      BBS Software: Dialog Pro BB/OS

@endnode

@node P2-1-62 "Doom of Darkness"
@toc "menu"


                        * 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.platinum.werries.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.platinum.werries.de

@endnode

@node P2-1-63 "RedEye BBS"
@toc "menu"

                               REDEYE BBS
                    * Running EXCELSIOR/UUCP/AFAX *
       "Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Germany/Europe"
                         Sysop: Thorsten Meyer
                Internet: sysop@redeye.greenie.muc.de
                Line 1: +49-89-5460535 (V.32b, Zyxel EG +)
                Line 2: +49-89-5460071 (USR Courier V32b terbo)
                           24hrs - 7 days
                           Munich, Germany

                  Areas for Amiga, PCs, Lotus Notes Group,
                  Amiga Report, Game Byte, Graphic Stuff,
                  3D-Exchange, 3D-tools, 3D-objects,
                  McAffee, GUS, PAS, DOOM, WINDOWS-NT, OS/2
                  Online CD, Online Games, USENET, INTERNET,
                  FIDO ECHOS, Developer

@endnode
