@database "ar123.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report 1.23, September 3, 1993"

                               @{" Open Magazine " link "menu"}
            
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                       International Online Magazine

                
September 3, 1993                                                  No. 1.23
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


                            From STR Publishing

                        [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport

@endnode

@node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report"
@toc "menu"
                        WHERE TO FIND AMIGA REPORT
                        --------------------------

    Click on the button of the system nearest you for more information.


FidoNet Systems
---------------
@{"    OMAHA AMIGANET    " link P2-1-11} ........................................Omaha, Nebraska
@{"       NOVA BBS       " link P2-1-1} ...................................Cleveland, Tennessee
@{" IN THE  MEANTIME BBS " link P2-1-2} .....................................Yakima, Washington
@{"  CLOUD'S CORNER BBS  " link P2-1-3} ..................................Bremerton, Washington
@{"    BIOSMATICA BBS    " 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 P2-1-13} ........................................Ontario, Canada
@{"   METNET TRIANGLE    " link P2-1-14} ............................Kingston Upon Hull, England

Non-FidoNet Systems
-------------------
@{"  FREELAND MAINFRAME  " link P2-1-7} ....................................Olympia, Washington
@{"       LAHO BBS       " link P2-1-8} .....................................Seinajoki, Finland
@{"     FALLING  BBS     " link P2-1-9} .................................................Norway
@{"   COMMAND LINE BBS   " link P2-1-10} ........................................Toronto, Canada
@{"    RENDEZVOUS BBS    " link P2-1-12} ............................................New Zealand

@endnode

See the end of this document for numbers to each BBS.
___________________________________________________________________________


/// 09/03/93 Amiga Report 1.23   "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
    --------------------------
    · The Editor's Desk     · CPU Report           · New Products
    · Dealer Directory      · AR Online            · AR Confidential
    · SimLife AGA           · MBX1230XA            · Brilliance

                           » Cortland AmigaFest «
                            » Delphi Takeover! «
                    » Soft-Logik Announces TypeSmith 2.0 «

===========================================================================
                 Amiga Report International Online Magazine
                 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
                            » FEATURING WEEKLY «
                  Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information
      Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
              Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports
===========================================================================
         PORTAL · DELPHI · FIDO · INTERNET · BIX · NVN · AMIGANET
===========================================================================
@node P1-1 "From the Editor's Desk"
@toc "menu"

/// From the Editor's Desk                        "Saying it like it is!"
    ----------------------


Some interesting things have been happening this week in the Wonderful 
World of Computers.  Delphi is being purchased by News Corporation, there
was a big conference of BBS sysops discussing the pornography issue, and
there has been a rumor going around that Commodore is going to sell off the
Amiga line of computers to RJR Nabisco, who intends to turn the entire
platform into an automated cookie control system.

Just kidding!  The first two are true, but I doubt Nabisco would know what
to do with a system as advanced as the Amiga. <big grin>

The Delphi takeover should prove very interesting in the coming weeks.  The
new services being added should help Delphi grow considerably.  Being fifth
largest isn't bad, but when you have the likes of Compu$erve and GEnie
above you, it makes for a nice challenge!  Delphi is one of the best online
bargains available today, and we'd like to see it get even better!  We wish
you well!

On another note, we a have a new treat for you beginning this week.  We
have a new proprietary AmigaGuide Brush Viewer which will allow us to
include pictures in the magazine, tied to buttons just like the normal
text!  Check out Robert Niles' story on it for more details.

                            Rob @ Amiga Report


@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P2-2 "AR Staff"
@toc "menu"

The Amiga Report Staff                          Dedicated to serving you!
======================


                                Editor in Chief
                                ===============

                                 Robert Glover

 Portal:                             Rob-G
 Delphi:                             ROB_G
 FidoNet:                           1:285/11
 Internet:                      ROB_G@Delphi.COM


                               Associate Editors
                               =================


                              Technical Department
                              --------------------

                                  Robert Niles

 Portal:                            RNiles
 Delphi:                            RNILES
 FidoNet:                         1:3407/104
 Internet:                     RNILES@Delphi.COM


                              Graphics Department
                              -------------------

                                  Mike Troxell

 Portal:                         One day, maybe?
 FidoNet:                          1:362/508
 Internet:                  M.Troxell1@genie.geis.com



                   ________________________________________



                         Contributing Correspondents
                         ===========================
                                 Jun Akiyama
                                Peter  Ingham 
                                 Brian King
                                 Marc Rifkin
                                John A.Scotto



          PC DIVISION           ATARI DIVISION           MAC DIVISION
          ===========           ==============           ============
          Roger D. Stevens      Ralph F. Mariano         R. Albritton


@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-2 "CPU Status Report"
@toc "menu"

/// CPU Status Report                     Late Breaking Industry-Wide News
    -----------------


 
DELPHI TAKEOVER ANNOUNCED!


NEW YORK, September 1, 1993 -- The News Corporation Limited (NYSE: NSW; ASX;
NCP; LSE:  NEWCP) announced today an agreement in principle to acquire Delphi
Internet Services, Inc., the fifth largest online service in the United States.

Based in Cambridge, MA, Delphi is the largest provider of full Internet access
to home PC users.  It is also the fastest growing of the industry's "Big 5"
consumer online services including Prodigy and CompuServe. Delphi will become
a part of News Corporation's News Technology Group, which is headed by Stanley
K. Honey.  Terms of the agreement were not released.

"Delphi's leading technology will enhance The News Corporation's role in the
rapidly evolving worldwide interactive media marketplace.  It will provide a
series of additional products and services, including an electronic newspaper
unlike any other and an electronic version of TV Guide, which will empower
consumers to deal with the ever-increasing number of channels," said Rupert
Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The News Corporation.

With the acquisition of Delphi, News Corporation, for the first time, can give
consumers a convenient and practical way to enjoy and use the wealth of
information and services available to them, including resources within News
Corporation's global media empire," said Gus Fischer, Chief Operating Officer
of News Corporation.

Delphi offers home PC users an easy and inexpensive way to access and utilize
the Internet -- the data superhighway connecting an estimated 20 million
people and nearly two million computers.  With the guidance of Delphi's 300
online experts, or moderators, even the novice computer user can easily
browse through the world's largest electronic "community" and information
resource.  These Delphi moderators also act as online librarians by
cataloging valuable Internet databases onto an easy-to-use menu system.

"We have gained a tremendous competitive advantage in joining the News
Corporation global media family," noted Daniel J. Bruns, President and CEO of
Delphi.  "In turn, because of our leading state-of-the-art technology, we
provide a key part of the strategic interactive media marketplace for News
Corporation as it expands its information network on a worldwide basis."

"Consumers will soon have an unlimited number of choices for accessing
information because of the many changes in the industry," said Robert A.
Young, Delphi's Vice President of Business Development.  "Delphi can give
consumers ease of use, whether it's interactive cable TV, PCs or hand-held
computers, coupled with the innovation and scope of News Corporation's media
offerings."


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



SOFT-LOGIK ANNOUNCES TYPESMITH VERSION 2.0


TypeSmith is described in the new August 1993 issue of DTP World.

Version 2.0 of the font creator and editor adds these new features:

   1. Create Bitmap fonts for both Adobe Type I fonts, Soft-Logik
      DMF fonts, Amiga Bitmap and Windows PostScript (.FON). You can
      also load in bitmap pictures and save them as bitmap fonts.

   2. Automatic hinting. TypeSmith will load hints created by other
      programs and will save them without changing them.

   3. Auto Tracing. Just select a picture and TypeSmith will autotrace
      it quickly turning in into an outline font.

   4. Screen redraws are up to 100% faster.

   5. Rulers, draggable guides, improved Print Preview, clipboard
      support, version tracking and more ARexx commands.

Upgrade for existing TypeSmith customers is $50. TypeSmith 2.0 Retail
price is $199.95. Available September, 1993.

Requires AmigaDOS 2.0, 2 MB Ram and Hard Drive or 2 floppy drives.

TypeSmith supports Adobe Type I, Soft-Logik, CompuGraphic intellifont
and Amiga Bitmap font formats.

To order, call Soft-Logik at 800-829-8608.

Kevin Davidson, Asst. Moderator AmigaZone Vendor Support - PORTAL
               <soft-logik@cup.portal.com>
        SOFT-LOGIK BBS (PCP MOSLO) (314) 894-0057



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



         WARNER BROS. TO PREMIER NEW ANIMATED TV SERIES AT WOCA

                  GVP's ImageFX used in Creation of a
               New Animated TV Series called Animaniacs!


        King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, August 31, 1993 -- GVP and Warner
Bros. are pleased to announce a world premier for Animaniacs, Warner
Bros. new animated TV series at GVP's booth during the Pasadena World of
Commodore Amiga trade show.  Rusty Mills, an animation director for
Warner Bros., will be presenting a clip of Animaniacs in a seminar that
explains how Warner Bros. has been using GVP's ImageFX image processing
software to create portions of the exciting and technically advanced
animation program.

        The seminar will be held on Saturday, September 11th at 11:00am
and is open to all trade show attendees; seating is limited to 300.  The
animated series is scheduled to begin airing on national TV during the
week of September 13th, 1993.

        "This is an exciting opportunity for GVP to showcase its cutting
edge ImageFX image processing system and related peripherals to an
audience keen on seeing real life uses for their Amiga and GVP add-ons,"
said Steve Peoples, Marketing Manager for GVP.

        Rusty Mills will also be at the GVP booth throughout the day on
Saturday and will be answering questions about his use of ImageFX.

        GVP is a privately held company that was founded in 1988. Today
it is the world's largest developer of peripherals for the Commodore Amiga.

Kermit Woodall
Nova Design, Inc.


            __________________________________________________



INTEL LOSES ULSI APPEAL, AMD NEW TRIAL SCHEDULED 

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA -- In the court battle saga between Intel and its
microprocessor chip rivals, two milestones have been announced. A date for a
new trial in the microcode case between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices
(AMD) case has been set and the United States Court of Appeals in Washington
DC has declined Intel's petition to rehear the Intel versus ULSI patent
infringement suit. 

In the battle with AMD, Intel claims AMD does not have a right to use microcode
for its 80C287 processor. The battle is over whether or not the statement
"microcomputers and peripheral products" in a 1976 agreement renewed in 1982
gives AMD the right to Intel microcode. However, there is concern in the
computer industry that if AMD loses here, it could mean the end of clones of
Intel microprocessors. 

It appeared late last year that AMD had lost until the company convinced the
court that Intel had withheld documents that would have proven AMD's assumption
that the original intent of the statement included the microcode. Intel calls
the documents "press releases" which have no bearing on the case. AMD calls the
documents "key" to the case and claims the jury may have decided differently
had it seen the documents. The new trial date has been set for November 1,
1993. 

In the ULSI case, Intel lost in its claims that a former Intel employee, who
became an employee of ULSI, brought over documents that were Intel's private
property. In the trial that ended in June, a jury ruled the documents were not
private property but were public documents, vindicating ULSI. However, ULSI
also denies the documents were used in the development of its math coprocessor
products. 

Intel announced at that time it would take the case to the United States Court
of Appeals, but has now been denied. ULSI's Vice President of Sales and
Marketing Robert O'Brien said: "The court mandate effectively slams the door
shut on Intel's attempt to restrain ULSI from selling it's Math Co family of
math co-processors for the 386 and 486-SLC/DLC systems." Intel officials said
it isn't over yet, however, as Intel has asked the US Supreme Court to review
the case. No word is forthcoming as to whether or not the Supreme Court will
agree to do so and no time frame for a decision from the highest court is
available, Intel officials said. 



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



UPCOMING IDC CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON PC MARKETPLACE 

FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS -- Recognizing that the PC industry has become an
increasingly global market, International Data Corp., (IDC), is planning a
one-day conference in San Jose, California, which will examine the current
status of the PC marketplace and offer a preview of where that market is
headed. 

IDC's PC Market Outlook will be held September 28 and, according to the
company, will provide "comprehensive market and technology forecasts, fresh
primary research on emerging markets, access to IDC's expert analysts from
around the globe, and a forum for discussion about the hot topics in the PC
market today." 

A company spokesperson told Newsbytes that the conference registration costs
$495 for the whole day. IDC clients get a break because it only costs them
$295, the spokesperson said. 

The company says that Compaq's recent introduction of the home market-oriented
Presario illustrates the new strategies vendors are adopting to adjust to the
shifting topography of the PC market. According to IDC, "With Pentium chips
becoming more available in desktops and servers, and with IBM's expected new
product launches across the PS/1, PS/2, ValuePoint, and Thinkpad PC families,
this market will continue to evolve." 

The ability to design, source, manufacture, deliver, and price products
competitively are the key factors contributing to success, according to the
company. It also says that PC Market Outlook will offer "reliable, accurate,
worldwide expertise to help identify and target opportunities for growth." 

In announcing the conference, John Gantz, IDC's senior vice president for
Personal Systems and Workgroup Applications, said: "One of our goals is to make
the conference as interactive as possible. PC and peripheral hardware
manufacturers, software vendors, marketing executives, channel partners, end
users, and anyone else who wants access to the latest expert analysis of the PC
market should attend." 

More information about PC Market Outlook can be obtained from Mike Ault at
800-343-4952. 



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



APPLE SHIPPING NEWTON MESSAGEPAD IN QUANTITY

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA -- Apple Computer has announced that its Newton
MessagePad personal digital assistant (PDA) is shipping in quantity to
dealers, computer superstores, campus resellers and K-12 institutions
nationwide. The product is expected to be available by the Labor Day
weekend, priced from $699 to $949, depending on configuration. 

The company says that the nationwide introduction follows a a sell-out
introduction in the New York and Boston areas, after its introduction in Boston
on August 2, 1993. 

Apple claims that the Newton MessagePad's communications capabilities - faxing,
wireless messaging, electronic mail, beaming, and printing - allow users to
send, receive and share information through telephone lines, wireless networks,
and computer networks. 

In announcing the quantity shipments, Ted Briscoe, general manager of PIE
Sales, Apple USA, said: "The MessagePad is the fastest-selling new product
Apple has ever offered. Our resellers in the Northeast have been inundated with
orders for the MessagePad. We have ramped up our manufacturing and are excited
about extending shipments to all areas of the US." 

MessagePads were first sold on the trade show floor at Macworld Boston and then
by resellers in the New York and Boston areas. 

Apple says that the Newton products and accessories will carry Apple's standard
one-year limited warranty on parts and labor along with mail-in service. The
company also says that "built-in up-and- running support is also provided for
as long as the customer owns their product." Up-and-running support includes
set-up and installation, Newton operating system support, and assistance with
configuration, compatibility and troubleshooting. 

The company plans to provide all service and support through the Apple
Assistance Center at 800-SOS-APPL during the hours of 6 am to 6 pm Pacific
Time, Monday through Friday. 

As reported extensively by Newsbytes previously, the Messagepad is 7.25-inches
high by 4.5-inches wide by 0.75-inches deep and weighs 0.9 pounds. It is
powered by a Advanced RISC Machines reduced instruction-set computing (RISC)
610 processor running at 20 megahertz (MHz), has 4 megabytes of read-only
memory (ROM), 640 kilobytes (KB) of RAM, and offers Apple's own custom system
application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). 

The PDA has a low-power, reflective liquid crystal display (LCD) display at a
resolution of 336 by 240 picture elements (pixels) covered by a transparent
tablet with passive pen for handwriting input. For communication and
translation of data between desktop machines the unit offers a Localtalk
compatible serial port; a single Personal Computer Memory Card International
Association (PCMCIA) 2 card slot; and a low- power, half-duplex, infrared
transceiver which can transfer data from one Messagepad to another at 9600 baud
from a distance of no more than 1 meter. 



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



INTUIT & CHIPSOFT TO MERGE 

MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA -- Intuit Inc., and ChipSoft Inc., have announced the
signing of a definitive agreement to merge. 

The companies maintain that the merger is expected to be completed by December,
1993. However, it is subject to approval by the stockholders of each company
and other "customary conditions." 

Samantha Lagerlof, spokesperson for the companies, told Newsbytes that the two
companies thought it would be a "perfect merger" because their product lines
were "very complimentary." The companies have been doing business with each
other for some time. 

Intuit's products include the Quicken personal finance software, and the
QuickBooks small business bookkeeping software. ChipSoft markets the TurboTax
and MacInTax individual tax preparation software products and the TurboTax
ProSeries tax preparation software. 

Lagerlof also told Newsbytes that the two companies have "been bundling
TurboTax and MacInTax with Quicken for sale during tax season for four years." 

According to the companies, ChipSoft will become a wholly owned subsidiary of
Intuit, with operations continuing in San Diego, Tucson and Boca Raton. Intuit
operations will continue in Menlo Park, Palo Alto and London, England. 

Under terms of the deal, the holders of ChipSoft common stock will receive on a
tax-free basis .446 of a share of Intuit common stock for each share of
ChipSoft common stock in a transaction valued by the companies at about $225
million. Approximately 7,250,000 shares of Intuit stock will be exchanged for
ChipSoft stock representing approximately 39 percent of the combined company on
a pro forma basis. Intuit will also assume all outstanding ChipSoft options.
The transaction will be accounted for as a purchase. 

In announcing the deal, Scott D. Cook, CEO and president of Intuit, said: "We
are excited about creating a complete financial software and services company
with this merger of equals. ChipSoft's strengths in tax preparation software
are extremely complementary with Intuit's strengths in personal finance and
accounting software and related services." 

Charles H. Gaylord Jr., chairman and CEO of ChipSoft, said: "We now have the
opportunity to develop seamlessly integrated products which marry tax with
personal finance and accounting." 

According to the companies, Cook will continue as CEO of Intuit, and Gaylord
will continue as chairman of ChipSoft, remaining responsible for ChipSoft's new
business operations. He will also become executive vice president of Intuit.
William H. Harris Jr., currently president and COO of ChipSoft, will assume the
title of executive vice president of Intuit and general manager of the ChipSoft
subsidiary. 

The plan is for Cook to remain chairman of the Intuit board of directors, which
will consist of three of the current Intuit directors and two of the current
ChipSoft directors. 

The companies say that the holders of approximately 38 percent of the
outstanding ChipSoft common stock and about 48 percent of the outstanding
Intuit common stock have agreed to vote their shares in favor of the merger.
ChipSoft has also granted Intuit an option to purchase newly-issued shares
equal to approximately 19.9 percent of its currently outstanding stock. 

Lagerlof told Newsbytes that the companies do not expect any products to be
discontinued as a result of the merger. Also, she added that they do not expect
any layoffs. On the contrary, she said, they expect "they will require in the
future more technical support staff." 



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



COMPAQ TO HOST INDUSTRY TECH SUMMIT 

HOUSTON, TEXAS -- Compaq Computer Corporation will host a conference and
exhibition this month that it says will offer "the broadest and most unique
array of technical programs to take place at an industry gathering." 

Called Innovate '93, the show will take place at the George R. Brown Convention
Center in Houston from September 13 through 17. Compaq says more than 300
technology specialists, many from major corporations, consulting firms, and the
media will conduct the seminars and tutorials. "The impressive line-up of
technology sessions offered at Innovate '93 truly demonstrates the spirit of
this worldwide technology summit - a gathering of the industry to share
thoughts, insight and information on the trends of today, which are fast
becoming the computing standards of tomorrow," says Joe Nahil, Compaq VP of
corporate communications. 

The 125 technical sessions will be divided across four tracks, including
enterprise and corporate strategies; operation, service and support; technology
development, and technology integration. Compaq says some of the highlights of
the event include a discussion of mobile companion products, the engineering
issues and marketing impact of low energy, or "green" computing, and a
roundtable discussion of wireless computing issues. The implementation of
multimedia technologies on local area networks and future trends in server
technology will also be discussed. 

Compaq spokesperson Mike Berman told Newsbytes Innovate '93 will feature four
keynote speakers. Compaq President Eckhard Pfeiffer will be speaking at 9AM on
Tuesday. Microsoft Executive VP Steve Ballmar will speak Tuesday afternoon at 3
PM. Ballmar will discuss the role partnerships play in Microsoft's strategic
direction. On Wednesday morning Intel President and CEO Andy Grove will talk
about how companies can re-engineer their corporations with advanced PCs and
microprocessors. Thursday morning Novell Chairman and CEO Ray Norda will share
his thoughts on how to survive in the decade of the 90s. 

Berman said registration for the complete conference, including keynote
speeches, seminars, and exhibits costs $600 if the registration is made prior
to September 10. At the door the cost will be $700. If you just want to attend
the keynote speeches and view the exhibits the cost is $10 for pre-registration
and $20 at the door. 

(Jim Mallory/19930902/Press contact: John Sweney, Compaq Computer Corporation,
713-374-0484; Reader contact: Compaq, 713-374-1459, 800-345-1518 (general
information) or 800-235- 2133 (800-932-0804 in Texas only) for show info or
registration) 



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



NEW IBM GROUP TO FOCUS ON EASE OF USE 

SOMERS, NEW YORK -- By a combination of pulling together existing work and
launching new initiatives, the IBM Personal Computer Co. is creating a Center
for Natural Computing that will focus on making computers easier to use. 

The center, which starts its formal life with a staff of about 36 people,
according to company spokesman Michael Corrado, will explore ways to let
computing build the innate and cognitive aspects of human behavior, the company
said. In other words, it will try to make computers work more the way people
naturally expect them to work. 

An example of the kind of thing the center will do is the Trackpoint, a
pointing device that IBM introduced a few months ago for some of its notebook
computers, Corrado said. It consists of a tiny lever mounted in the middle of
an ordinary computer keyboard, and serves the purpose of a mouse while allowing
the user to keep his or her fingers on the keyboard. 

The new center's function will be not only to do its own research but to pull
together research from a variety of sources and help turn it into IBM products,
Corrado added. 

He would not say how much money IBM plans to put into the effort, but "it's a
big push here and it's coming from Bob Corrigan's office down." Robert Corrigan
is president and chief executive of IBM Personal Computer Co., a business unit
of IBM. 

The center will investigate a variety of hardware and software including mice,
keyboards, touch screens, and pen computing. 



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



NEC SUPPLIES COLOR LCDs TO APPLE COMPUTER

TOKYO, JAPAN -- NEC will supply Apple Computer with color TFT (thin film
transistor)-type LCDs in what amounts to the largest color LCD shipment to
a third party firm for NEC. 

NEC will ship 9.4-inch-type multi-color TFT LCDs to Apple Computer in the US
this October. This is a 640 x 480 pixel-type LCD. NEC expects to ship 30,000
units to Apple's plants in the US including the Fountain plant in Colorado. The
color LCD costs 120,000 yen ($1,200) per unit. 

Apple Computer will use this LCD on its new color notebook-type personal
computer. Currently, Apple Computer obtains a supply of color LCDs from Japan's
Sharp. The units are shipped to Apple's Irish plant. 

NEC has been expanding its LCD business and has already announced plans to set
up additional LCD production lines at its plant in Northern Japan. According to
the firm's business plan, NEC aims to gain 40 billion yen ($400 million) in
sales in fiscal 1994. This is 2.5 times more than what it expects to make this
year. 

NEC currently sells only 10 percent of all its LCDs to third party firms, but
will increase this percentage to 30 percent by the end of this fiscal year. NEC
hopes its Apple deal will go a long way toward achieving that goal. 

NEC is also planning to manufacture the color LCDs at its US plant in
Roseville, California, in the near future. One plan is to convert semiconductor
chip production lines to LCD production there. 


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



SEVEN MILLION US TELECOMMUTERS PREDICTED BY 1997 

WASHINGTON, DC -- According to some statistics pulled together by telephone
equipment maker PhoneMate, the number of home offices is growing at a steady
rate due both to telecommuting and new businesses. 

BIS Strategic Decisions reports that the company's latest data shows 4.5
million people in the United States now telecommute at least part-time, a 15
percent increase from last year and the research firm sees 7 million
telecommuters by the end of 1996 

Telecommuting improves productivity, cuts commuter driving time and consequent
air pollution, and reduces office space requirements, according to BIS
Strategic Decisions' Jon Hulak. 

The research firm also claims that there are now about 39 million home office
workers in the United States, including both owner- operated businesses and
telecommuting installations. 

More than 12 million of those workers were either fired or encouraged to leave
companies under early retirement plans and opened up their own businesses
either to tide them over until permanent positions opened up or as permanent
careers. 

Unsurprisingly, the PhoneMate sponsored report quotes Noramae Munster, owner of
a small home-based, San Pedro, California graphic design firm as saying that
the basic tools for a home office include a good telephone, an answering
machine, and fax capabilities. 

Jim Oblak, vice president of marketing for PhoneMate, which makes telephone
answering machines and portable phones, says: "Home office workers really don't
need to spend a lot on business equipment, with a little research, outfitting a
modern home office can cost as little as $2,200." 

Of course most home office experts also say that the average home business will
also need at least a basic computer. 



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



JUDGE DENIES MICROSOFT INJUNCTION AGAINST STAC 

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- Stac Electronics is gloating over the denial of
Microsoft's motion for a preliminary injunction against its compression
product Stacker 3.1. 

Judge Edward Rafeedie in US District Court in Los Angeles, California, said the
issues in the case need to be decided at trial. 

The battle began when, spurned by Stac Electronics, Microsoft made a deal with
Verisoft to include a modified version of its software compression product, now
called Doublespace, in the MS-DOS 6.0 operating system. Stac filed suit when
pre-release copies of the DOS 6.0 operating system were distributed in January
of this year, claiming the compression product is in violation of two of its
patents. 

Microsoft filed a countersuit against Stac and company president and chairman
of the board, Gary Clow, for patent infringement, breach of contract,
conspiracy to commit fraud, and other claims. Microsoft claims both Stacker 3.0
and the new Stacker 3.1 products are in violation of its copyrights, but sought
only to enjoin Stacker 3.1 as the 3.0 version had been on the market for some
time. Stac officials claim Microsoft timed the injunction to coincide with the
release of Stacker 3.1, but Microsoft officials deny Stac's allegations. 

Stac has reported losses, layoffs, and lower earnings and is vocal in blaming
Microsoft for its woes. Gary Clow, president and chief executive officer of
Stac said, concerning today's announcement: "We are very pleased that Judge
Rafeedie agreed with us, ruling in our favor against Microsoft's motion, and we
now look forward to going to trial in December on our original complaint." 

John Mason, senior corporate attorney for Microsoft said: "The ruling is not a
determination of the merits of our case. It means only that the court declined
to enjoin sales of Stacker v. 3.1 prior to trial. We will continue to
aggressively pursue all aspects of our case, including issues not covered by
our motion for preliminary injunction. We look forward to presenting our entire
case at trial." 

The trial date is currently scheduled for December 14, 1993. 



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



SEGA ORDERS FRAM CHIPS FOR GAMES 

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO -- Electronic games maker Sega Enterprises has
placed a multi-million order for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM)
chips from Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Ramtron International
Corporation. The chips will be used in Sega video game cartridges. 

Sega says it selected the FRAM chips to replace its  present non-volatile
memory method, a combination of a lithium battery, a controller chip, and a
static RAM (SRAM) chip. 

The new order is the second from Ramtron, following a 100,000-chip order about
three months ago. It's the  largest FRAM chip order for Ramtron to date. Jack
Morgan, Ramtron's marketing VP, says FRAM will be the next generation of
semiconductor memory. "We expect FRAM memory to be included in additional SEGA
game titles as well as in countless other consumer products as Ramtron moves
forward." 

FRAM chips retain the information stored in them when the power is turned off
or interrupted, and holds promise for non-volatile personal computer system
memory as larger capacity chips are developed. 

Ramtron spokesperson Lee Brown told Newsbytes that the agreement with Sega
precluded him from disclosing the total value of the deal, but did say the
order is for about two million units. Brown said the chips will be used in
games that have not been introduced to the market yet. "We are building the
chips now and plan to ship them before the end of the year." 



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



BBS OPERATORS PONDER ADULT IMAGE ISSUE 

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO -- When more than 2,000 BBS system operators
(sysops) got together at the prestigious Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs
recently for the second annual ONE BBSCON trade show, one of the issues they
discussed was user access to and downloading of adult images. 

About 100 sysops and other interested parties attended a panel discussion about
adult images online, trying to find out how to walk the fine line between
making a service available that their customers obviously want and staying
clear of the police. 

Panelists for the workshop, which was chaired by EXEC-PC Vice President of
Operations Greg Ryan, included Jim Maxey, founder and president of Event
Horizons Inc., and operator of Event Horizons BBS, a board specializing in
graphic images; electronic frontier Foundation's Shari Steele; Larry Wood,
forum administrator of CompuServe's Graphics Forums; and Lee Noga, owner of
Lion's Den International, Inc., a worldwide distributor, producer, and
publisher of CD-ROMs, many of which include adult images. 

Sysops are concerned about the adult image issue because the stakes are high.
Law enforcement officers have swooped down on several board bulletin board
locations across the country, confiscating all of their hardware, software, and
business records. In Des Plaines, Illinois a board operator was arrested
recently in what is believed to be the first prosecution of its kind in that
state's history 

More and more boards are including the X-rated material for a simple reason -
their subscribers want it. The question is how to offer what users desire and
still stay clear of the law. The panelists, some of whom have had close up and
personal encounters with federal and state law enforcement agencies, said there
are still a lot of questions unanswered. However it appears that more boards
will add adult images to their offerings, but are looking for ways to keep it
legal. 

It's also a source of big money. With thousands of users accessing the
estimated five percent of the nation's boards that offer adult material at
annual fees of $25 to $50, hundreds of thousands of revenue dollars are at
stake. 

Suggestions from the panelists included doing everything possible to assure
that subscribers accessing the adult material area over 18 years of age. Users
accessing adult material on BBS systems can expect to be asked to mail in a
copy of a document that establishes age, such as a driver's license. If they
aren't already, they can also expect to start paying for connection to boards
that carry adult material with a credit card. Jim Maxey says both Secret
Service and FBI agents have told him that if a board user has a major credit
card, there's a good probability he or she is over 18. 

What can you, the board users, expect in the future? Look for dazzling
graphics, faster data transfer, and continued access to adult theme material.
But you better be over 18 years of age, and be able to prove it. We've come a
long way since Playboy Magazine came in a plain brown wrapper. 



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



BELLSOUTH APPEALS MTel NWN AWARD 

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI -- BellSouth filed an appeal of
a Federal Communications Commission order which gives Mobile Telecommunications
the right to build what it calls a nationwide wireless network, or NWN. 

The NWN would use Mtel's proprietary messaging technology and software and
enable people to both send and receive messages on notebook and palmtop
computers, or devices like the Apple Newton. In addition, the system enables
subscribers to confirm receipt of messages, using pocket-sized acknowledgment
receivers currently under development. 

BellSouth owns MobileComm, which like MTel's SkyTel, has a nationwide
satellite-fed paging service. Its appeal of the FCC order, based on a
"pioneer's preference" given because MTel risked money proving its NWN
technology, was filed in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
BellSouth was joined in the appeal by Freeman Engineering Associates Inc.,
which also wants to create something like the NWN. 

Separately, Freeman and Global Enhanced Messaging Venture, filed petitions with
the FCC asking that it reconsider the award. Both assert they meet the
standards which MTel met when it was given its "pioneer's preference." That
designation was created under the guidance of former FCC chairman Al Sikes, now
with Hearst Corp., to encourage risk-taking by technology firms. Under the
rules, companies which prove they have pioneered the creation of new technology
get first crack at licenses. 

In a press statement, MTel stated that these filings would not impede the
company's plans to develop, construct, and operate NWN. The company won its
preference in June, and intends to file a formal license application to
construct NWN as soon as permitted under the FCC's rules, and commence
commercial operations once it gets the license. "These filings are not
unexpected and unfortunately are a common response to unsuccessful applicants
in the regulatory process," said Chairman John N. Palmer, in a press statement.
"We will continue our efforts to make NWN a commercial reality within two
years." 


             The preceding stories are (c) 1993 by NewsBytes.
                        Reprinted with permission.

@endnode
            __________________________________________________

@node P5-1 "AlertPatch v2.19"
@toc "menu"

ALERTPATCH v2.19 AVAILABLE FOR FTP


TITLE

        AlertPatch - replacement patch for exec.library/Alert()

VERSION

        Distribution version 2.19

AUTHORS

        David Swasbrook

        E-mail address: dswa1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (expires 01-Jan-94)


DESCRIPTION

        AlertPatch replaces the system exec.library/Alert() with
        two custom routines to give the user a choice of how the
        alert is to be displayed, either as an intuition window or
        a system alert with additional information.

FEATURES

        1. Alerts now displayable as windows. With options to
           Continue, Suspend or Reboot for all alert types.

        2. Displays description of alert and name of the offending
           task.

        3. Dumps contents of CPU data and address registers and
           displays a text representation.

        4. Can list or get information on alert numbers from cli or
           listview.

        5. Sound support through a sound daemon such as MSD or UPD.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

        OS release 2.04 or newer is required.

        "matrix.library" version 23.557 required. (included in archive)

        Hypertext compatable document. (ie. MultiView/AmigaGuide)

        Distribution is archived with lha so program to
        un-archive them is needed.

UPDATE
        This archive is an update of the AlertPatch217.lha archive.
        New features:

                * Sounds for Custom and Window Alerts

                * Timeout of Custom and Window Alerts

HOST NAME

        Software has been uploaded to the Aminet Site:

        wuarchive.wustl.edu      128.252.135.4   pub/aminet/

        and will be readily available on other Aminet sites.

DIRECTORY

        /pub/aminet/util/misc

FILE NAMES

        AlertPatch219.lha   -   AlertPatch binaries and documentation

PRICE
        Shareware. Contributions are gratefully accepted.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

        Freely distributable as long as the contents of the archive
        are kept in tact. AlertPatch is shareware, and may not be
        included in any other distribution or used for commercial
        use without my express permission.

OTHER
        E-mail address for bug reports and fixes:
        dswa1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (expires 01-Jan-94)


@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P5-2 "Less v1.6z"
@toc "menu"


LESS 1.6Z AVAILABLE FOR FTP


TITLE

        Less -- An Amiga-ized Unix-style Text Reader

VERSION

        1.6Z

AUTHORS

        Raymond Zarling

        E-mail address: rayz@csustan.edu


DESCRIPTION

        Less is a flexible Text Reader, descended from the Unix
        program of the same name.  All of the Unix features are
        present in this Amiga port, plus some Amiga-specific
        enhancements.

FEATURES

        1. Forward and backward movement through the file, by
           lines, pages, half pages, percentage, etc.

        2. File being viewed may be larger than avaiable memory.
           Can view multiple input files of any cumulative size,
           since they are read seqentially.  Works well with
           pipes, too.

        3. Searches based upon Unix-style regular expressions.

        4. Flexible positioning of output window, or you may
           choose to use the existing CLI or AUX: window for output.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

        OS release 1.2 or newer is required; Less has been tested
        with OS releases through 3.0.

        Distribution is archived with lha so program to
        un-archive them is needed.

UPDATE
        This is a small update to Less 1.5Z, which received limited
        distribution, and a major update to version 1.4Z from Fish
        disk 511.

HOST NAME

        Software has been uploaded to the Aminet Site:

        wuarchive.wustl.edu      128.252.135.4   pub/aminet/

        and will be readily available on other Aminet sites.

DIRECTORY

        /pub/aminet/text/misc

FILE NAME

        Less16Z.lha

PRICE
        There is no charge for use of this software.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

        Freely distributable as long as the contents of the archive
        are kept intact.

OTHER
        E-mail address for bug reports and fixes:
        rayz@csustan.edu


@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P5-3 "MUI v1.3"
@toc "menu"


MAGIC USER INTERFACE v1.3 AVAILABLE FOR FTP


TITLE

     MUI - MagicUserInterface

RELEASE

     1.3

AUTHOR

     Stefan Stuntz  (stuntz@informatik.tu-muenchen.de)

SHORT

     A system to create and maintain GUIs.

DESCRIPTION

     MUI is an object oriented system to create and maintain
     graphical user interfaces. From a programmers point of view,
     using MUI saves a lot of time and makes life much easier.
     Thinking about complicated terms like window resizing or
     font sensitivity is simply not neccesary.

     On the other hand, users of MUI based applications have the
     ability to customize nearly every pixel of a programs
     interface according to their personal taste.

     This distribution is interesting for both, users and
     programmers. Please have a look at the supplied demo
     programs and at the documentation to see what MUI has to
     offer.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

     MUI requires AmigaDOS 2.04 or higher.
     For developers, MUI comes with C, Oberon, Modula, Amiga-E
     and Assembler interfaces.

NEW FEATURES

     *** Important news since version 1.0 ***

     - Added system configuration switch to adjust window refresh
       type, possibilities are simple refresh and smart refresh.

     - Speeded object creation about 10%.

     - Included Manx, Assembler, Modula, Oberon and Amiga-E interfaces.

     - Implemented MUIA_Window_Screen attribute. This allows opening a
       MUI window on an explicitly defined intuition screen.

     - Rewrote the image caching mechanism. This should fix some bugs
       and system crashes with non existing external image files.

     - Better MOUSEMOVE and INTUITICKS handling to improve performance.

     - Attention... very powerful feature... :-)
       Implemented two new attributes for group class:
       MUIA_Group_PageMode   (TRUE/FALSE)      group is a page group.
       MUIA_Group_ActivePage (0...numchilds-1) display this child.
       Page groups always show exactly one of their childs. The number
       of this child can be changed dynamically, even in an open window.
       New demo "Pages" demonstrates the new page groups.

     - Included AppWindow support. See MUIA_Window_AppWindow,
       MUIA_Application_DropObject and MUIA_AppMessage for details.
       New demo "AppWindow" for demonstration.


     - ... and lots of other bug fixes ...

HOST NAME

    Aminet (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu)

DIRECTORY

    /pub/aminet/dev/gui

FILE NAME

    mui13.lha

FIDO FILE REQUEST

    2:246/46  (+49-8151-78880 ) magic name "MUI"
    1:267/131 (+1-518-883-5326) magic name "MUI"

PRICE

    Registered versions of MUI are available for $15US.
    See documentation for details.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

    The archives are freely distributable in original and
    unmodified form. See documentation for details.

    MUI is (c) Copyright 1993 by Stefan Stuntz.


@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P5-4 "Window Daemon v1.0"
@toc "menu"


WINDOW DAEMON v1.0 AVAILABLE FOR FTP


TITLE

        Window Daemon - Control Intuition Windows and Screens

VERSION

        Distribution version 1.0

AUTHOR

        David Swasbrook

        E-mail address: dswa1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (expires 01-Jan-94)


DESCRIPTION

        Window Daemon gives extended control to intuition windows
        and screens through HotKeys and Arexx.

FEATURES

        1. Commodities Support.

        2. HotKey and Arexx support to manipulate the currently active
           window and screen. Standard window controls are avalable
           such as Zip, Close, Size, ToFront, ToBack, NextScreen, etc...

        3. Able to close the parent window of a drawer when opened on
           "Workbench" if CONTROL is held down. (Only available under
           kickstart V39 or higher)

        4. Specialized options to forcefully close windows and screens,
           and also to remove tasks that own the active window.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

        OS release 2.04 or newer is required.

        "matrix.library" version 23.668 required. (included in archive)

        Hypertext compatable document. (ie. MultiView/AmigaGuide)

        Distribution is archived with lha so program to
        un-archive them is needed.

HOST NAME

        Software has been uploaded to the Aminet Site:

        wuarchive.wustl.edu      128.252.135.4   pub/aminet/

        and will be readily available on other Aminet sites.

DIRECTORY

        /pub/aminet/util/misc

FILE NAMES

        WindowDaemon1.lha   -   Window Daemon binaries and documentation

PRICE
        Shareware. Contributions are gratefully accepted.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

        Freely distributable as long as the contents of the archive
        are kept in tact. Window Daemon is shareware, and may not be
        included in any other distribution or used for commercial
        use without my express permission.

OTHER
        E-mail address for bug reports and fixes:
        dswa1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (expires 01-Jan-94)


@endnode
                      ------------------------------
@node P5-5 "WhiteLion v1.3"
@toc "menu"


WHITELION v1.3 AVAILABLE VIA FTP


TITLE
        WhiteLion
VERSION
        1.3
AUTHOR
        Martin Grote
        chandler@uni-paderborn.de

REQUIREMENTS

        WhiteLion should run on any Amiga with OS 1.2 or higher.
        OS2.04 is required for Settings requester.

DESCRIPTION

        WhiteLion is an Othello/Reversi playing program where the main effort
        has gone into making it both fast and strong. There is a built-in
        usage and rules explanation and a Settings requester.

FEATURES

        - different strategies on different levels
        - speed, move search time < 5 sec on 68000 machine (FD version)
        - animation when drawing new disks
        - small 'busy window' during search process
        - support of PAL, NTSC and Interlaced resolutions
        - GadTools driven Settings requester (OS 2 required)
        - introduction story, explanation of usage and rules
        - full multitasking support

HOST NAME
        Aminet sites, such as ftp.uni-paderborn.de

DIRECTORY
        pub/aminet/game/think

FILE NAME
        WhiteLion13.lha

PRICE
        WhiteLion is ShareWare, so some options are preserved for the
        registered version. The registration fee is US $7, DM 10 or 4 british
        pounds. The FD version on Aminet is free.



@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-3 "Online Weekly"
@toc "menu"

/// ONLINE WEEKLY Amiga Report Online                The lines are buzzing!
    ---------------------------------



From the Interactive Forum on Delphi
------------------------------------


     1-SEP 18:06  DELPHI/News Corp
     News Corporation plans to acquire DELPHI
     From: RUSTY        To: ALL

We're pleased to announce agreement in principle for The News Corporation
Limited to acquire DELPHI.  The announcement was made this evening (September
1, 1993) by News Corporation Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rupert
Murdoch, during a speech broadcast via satellite to company locations in Los
Angeles, New York, London, and Sydney, Australia.

News Corporation is a multinational media company headquartered in Sydney.
Some of News Corporation's well known businesses include Twentieth Century
Fox, Fox Television, HarperCollins Publishing, TV Guide, Mirabella Magazine,
Sky TV, Star TV, and large number of newspapers in Great Britain, the US, and
Australia including the Boston Herald, the New York Post, and the Times of
London.

It's important to note, however, that in many ways it will be business as usual
for DELPHI -- just on a larger scale.  DELPHI's management team will remain the
same, we'll be operating out of the same facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
and we'll remain committed to providing high-value innovative services with an
emphasis on personal interaction. Maintaining the community feeling of DELPHI
is important to us and it is important to News Corporation.

We're all very excited about this transition because it ensures a dominant and
expanding role for DELPHI in the interactive future.

We've created this forum to provide a place for members to air questions about
News Corporation and the future of interactive media in general. We're eager to
receive your input and to hear your comments.  It may be a while before we can
arrange a personal appearance by Bart Simpson, but rest assured we're working
on it ;-)

Thanks for your input and support.  There are some very exciting times ahead!

Rusty Williams
VP/General Manager of DELPHI



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


 
     1-SEP 19:19  DELPHI/News Corp
     RE: News Corp/DELPHI press release (Re: Msg 2)
     From: WALTHOWE     To: ALL

Exciting news indeed! I look with great interest at the the tidbits in the
releases such as "electronic newspapers" (individualized?), online TV Guide,
and interactive cable TV. I've been wondering how DELPHI was going to move
beyond the Sprintnet and Tymnet dependence, and this seems to open all sorts
of new possibilities for the future.

We're in the big leagues now, and we're leading the way!
   O-O-
    J  )  Walt
  (   )
   ())


@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-4 "Amiga Tip of the Week"
@toc "menu"


/// Amiga Tip of the Week
    ---------------------
    by Robert Niles (with special thanks to Matt Schultz)

Alot of you have wondered why the Amiga displays those grey screens
upon it's start up, or you may have seen from time to time, the
computer lock up and there's a red screen staring you in the face.
Or have you ever heard that so-and-so's computer wouldn't work and
the caps-lock key kept flashing?

Well it's doing this for a reason...and it's trying to let you know
about it. Thanks to the informative posting on FidoNet's Amiga
Technical Echo by Matt Schultz, he simply, and in lay-man's terms
provides an outline of the process that the Amiga goes through during 
it's start-up procedure. His message is below (edited for clarity):

------------
I captured this message a few months ago.  You may want to print it 
out.  I keep a copy in my wallet. :-)    

Amiga system test is a complicated set of routines which it must go 
through before you can do any work on it. During the system test the 
Amiga is attempting to let you know if the system is well. Here is a 
list of the start-up activities:  

1. Clear all chips of old data 
2. Disable DMA and interrupts during the test. 
3. Clear the screen. 
4. Check the hardware ....checks to see if 68000 is functioning. 
5. Change screen color. 
6. Do a checksum test on all ROMS. 
7. Change screen color. 
8. Begining of system startup. 
9. Check RAM at $C0000,and move SYSBASE there 
10. Test All CHIP RAM. 
11. Change screen color. 
12. Check that software is coming in ok. 
13. Change screen color. 
14. Setup CHIP RAM to receive data. 
15. Link the libraries 
16. Check for additional memory and link it 
17. Turn the DMA and interrupts back on. 
18. Start a default task. 
19. Check for 68010,68020, and or 68881. 
20. Check to see if thee is an exception ...processor error 
21. If so do a system reset.  

During this system test the Amgia is sending vital information to the 
screen with colors. If the system checks out ok, you will see the 
following sequence that you have seen so meany times.  

DARK GRAY : The initial hardware tested OK. the 68000 is running
            and the registers are readable.  
LIGHT GRAY: The software is coming in and seems OK.  
WHITE     : The intialization test have passed.  

If something is wrong with your system, you may see the following:  

RED   : If an error was found in ROMS. 
GREEN : Error found in the CHIP RAM. 
BLUE  : Error was found in the custom chips. 
YELLOW: If 68000 found an error before the error trapping software 
        (GURU) was running.   

The Keyboard has it's own processor, RAM and ROM. A selftest is 
peformed on power-up in the following sequence.  

1. Performs checksum on ROM's 
2. Checks 64 bytes of RAM. 
3. The timer is tested. 
4. Performs handshake with computer and gives results of selftest.  

If the keyboard does not pass the test it will notify you that it is 
not working properly. This information is indicated with the blinking 
of the CAPS-LOCK light.  

One Blink   : Keyboard ROM check failed. 
Two Blinks  : Keyboard RAM checked failed. 
Three Blinks: Watch dog timer failed 
Four Blinks : A short between two row lines or special control
              keys.  

If you are having problems with the Amiga, perhaps these codes will 
help you and your repairman.  This article was first authored by 
Roy Frisque and published on the newsletter Scanlines. Roy obtain 
his information from the Amiga Transactor.

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

/// Amiga Report Mailing List
    -------------------------


Are you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get
Amiga Report each week?  Have you been spending more money that you want
on long distance phone calls to download it from one of our Distribution
Sites?  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 Amiga-Report-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu.  Your
account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy.
For example, GEnie has a limit of about 40K per message, and most of our
issues are well over that limit.

Please do not send general Email to Amiga-Report-Request, only requests
for subscription additions or deletions (or if you are not receiving an
intact copy).  All other correspondence should be directed to the editor
at ROB_G@Delphi.COM.

Many thanks to Bob Caron 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!



@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-5 "AR avail via the WWW"
@toc "menu"


/// Amiga Report Available via the World Wide Web!
    ----------------------------------------------
    By Michael Witbrock
    (mjw@cs.cmu.ed witbrock@x25.bix.com)


Although AmigaGuide is still the best way to browse Amiga Report, the
magazine is  now also available in a form which may be more convenient for
people with direct Internet access.

Amiga Report is being converted weekly to a document readable via the World
Wide Web, allowing immediate access without the chore of dearchiving and
downloading to an Amiga.  Within a day (often less) of its release, each
Amiga Report starting from AR118 will be  converted into an HTML hyper-
document that behaves as similarly as possible to the AmigaGuide version,
and will be made available at this URL:

<a
href="http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/mjw/Computer/Amiga/OnlineMags.htm
l">
OnlineMags
</a>

For those who don't recognize that, a URL is a Uniform Resource Locator,
which specifies access method and location information for information
readable with WWW browsers such as NCSA mosaic. NCSA mosaic is a self
contained program running under the X window system, and is  available
for anonymous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in directory /Mosaic.

Even if you don't plan to read AmigaReport by this means, I strongly
recommend that you get a copy of NCSA mosaic and play with it. The
amount of information (in the form of pictures, sounds, text, and mpeg
movies) it makes easily available is astounding, and the program itself
is a marvel of good user interface design. I hope that someone will use
the recent attempts at PD TCP/IP networking solutions and port the
program to the Amiga.

Happy browsing!


@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-6 "Amiga Fest"
@toc "menu"


/// Show Report:  Amiga Fest at SUNY Cortland
    -----------------------------------------
    By John A. Scotto


This is an unofficial report on the goings on at last week's (22 August)
Amiga Fest at SUNY Cortland.

First let me explain what the Amiga Fest was to start off. The Central
New York Amiga Aggregate (local user group) arranged the Fest as a way for
Amiga users, sales people, and technical people to be brought together under
one roof for one day of Amiga talk and info. The main thrust was to show the
average user how to get more out fo his/her computer. SUNY Cortland was
chosen as the site as it was reasonably centrally located and
cooperative toward the group's aims.


The events kicked off at 10:00 and included the following:

             Video Toaster Demos - both taped and live
             OpalVision Demo - Live
             EMPLANT - running MAC software
             Animations - Award Winners continuously running
             Multimedia Demos - AmigaVision and SCALA
             AGA Graphics Displays
             12 Amiga Computers - 10 AGA, 2 OCS/ECS
             2 Amiga Dealer Displays - ICL and Computer Cents
             Amiga Developers


The above were spaced across 8 hours and were well received by the 100 or so
participants. The Toaster and OpalVision demos were eyepopping as were many
of the animations and AGA graphics. Both of the developers present were
pelted with questions about Commodore software, and etc. The dealer displays
were limitied to info or software demos - no sales on site. Of course, there
was also plenty of music playing on the various systems which provided quite
a good display by itself even if not planned that way. That is a capsule
summary of the Fest, next follows my personal assessment of the Fest's
effectivness.

The official participant numbered no more than 100 or so, however, being a
University campus there were plenty of unofficial participants and a lot
of my conclusions are based on the reactions I saw in them. Toaster,
OpalVision, AGA graphics got them looking but was almost always followed by
questions about what the "average user" could do. The truth is that is a
valid question since most of the high end graphics are marketed toward a
selective audience. However, the answer was there on the 22nd. MULTIMEDIA -
people who started by saying that the "Amiga (once they figured out what an
Amiga was!) was really nice for games but not much else" were silenced and
impressed by the likes of SCALA and AmigaVision. Multimedia is the latest PC
buzzword and everyone from novice to expert associates it with
"professional" computers.  As people who knew very little about Amigas or
PCs learned how easy it was to take those high end graphics and sound and
build office presentations or interactive classroom lessons on an Amiga they
looked at the computer in a different light. Many folks were also amazed to
see MS-DOS and MAC software running on the same platform.

Does this sound too bright? Actually the response to seeing average computer
users able to take the various bits and pieces and put them together with
relative ease brought quite a few compliments for ths Amiga.  One flub
though - the EMPLANT due to operator error crashed several times con-
siderably dimming the initial excitment it generated. By the time the
problem was corrected most of the MAC interested folks were gone. I believe
that overall this Fest served as very useful way to gain some exposure for
the Amiga to people who do not usually even know it exists. My experience
also reinforced the idea that the Amiga can compete on a level playing field
with IBM/MAC - if the presentation is right. Multimedia, Cross Platform
Performance, and Graphics as a tool not an end seemed to be a winning combo.

Now the problem is that most of these people will go to there local PC hack
and ask about Amigas and they will bad mouth Commodore and then try to sell
a 486DX (plus soundblaster, plus SVGA card, etc). Hey that's enough of me on
the soap box. Overall, a good time was had by all. Amiga enthusiasts in CNY
rarely have had such an opportunity to share good info and tips. The Amiga
got some well earned respect as a "serious" computer. With more of these
type events and a higher profile for those who use their Amiga for
professional ends who knows what we might accomplish?



@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-7 "UseNet Review - Brilliance"
@toc "menu"


/// Usenet Review:  Brilliance
    --------------------------
    By Marc Rifkin
    (MarcR@cup.portal.com)



PRODUCT NAME

        Brilliance 1.0


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        Brilliance is a paint and animation program which supports AGA,
ANIM-8, and is capable of true 24-bit painting (displayed as HAM).


COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:           Digital Creations
        Address:        PO Box 97
                        Folsom, CA  95673-0097
                        USA

        Telelphone:     (916) 344-4825
        Fax:            (916) 635-0475
        BBS:            (916) 983-3288


LIST PRICE

        $250.00 (US)


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

        Brilliance works with all Amigas with a minimum 1 megabyte of RAM.


COPY PROTECTION

        A hardware device (dongle) must be plugged into the joystick port.
Also, the user must enter a serial number the first time Brilliance is
installed.  The dongle makes this copy protection quite annoying, but
Brilliance is still worth it.


MACHINES USED FOR TESTING

        Amiga 4000 (040, 10MB RAM)
        Amiga 1200 (GVP 40Mhz 030, 10MB RAM)
        Amiga 3000 (12 MB RAM)


FEATURES

        Brilliance is actually two programs.  "Brilliance" is register color
only (no HAM) with 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and Extra Halfbright (EHB); and on AGA
64, 128 and 256 colors.  "TrueBrilliance" is true color (15-bit or 24-bit)
in memory and uses HAM (or HAM8) for display.  A single program would seem
to make more sense; but considering how differently they treat some of the
functions, one program would be too large.

        Many people have Deluxe Paint, and several are using the AGA
version.  DPaint has become the benchmark to which any other paint/animation
program is compared.  The biggest difference with Brilliance is speed; the
magnify mode comes up instantly, the menus can be toggled off and on easily,
and the drawing tools are very responsive.  I'll make other comparisons with
DPaint as I discuss other features.

        Brilliance's user interface is composed of stackable, button-only,
slices of screens.  There are no drop-down menus; and as you move the
pointer over various tools, a window tells you the name of that tool.  This
makes it very easy to get working quickly.  You can stack slices all the way
up to the top of the screen and still make them vanish with the tap of the
SPACE bar.  In Brilliance, drawing operations occur in real time, but in
TrueBrilliance, there is a lag after you finish a drawing operation when it
is updating its 24-bit internal image.  Also, brush and filled tools will do
a temporary preview before you release the button.  For example, if you have
a gradient-filled rectangle with transparency turned on, Brilliance will
draw the rectangle, transparency and all, if you hold the mouse still.  But
then you can still move the pointer and reshape the rectangle before
committing it.

        Brilliance has all of the standard drawing tools, but some have
extensive control.  The rectangle and circle/ellipse tools allow you to draw
either from the center or the corner.  The curve tool has a Bezier curve
mode where you place four control points and can then move them freely
before committing the drawing with the right mouse button.  I wish all of
the tools could use the control point approach.

        The Text tool supports scalable fonts, and unlike Deluxe Paint (where
you type right on the screen), you type into a requester and the text
becomes the current brush.  But just like DPaint, you cannot create text
with a gradient -- you have to place it down first then fill it.

        Although the airbrush tool is more adjustable than DPaint's,
providing radius, focus and shape, it is still just a sprinkle-brush and not
a true airbrush.  It is virtually impossible to get a soft looking line -- it
always gets over-dithered.  This is a particularly major disappointment with
TrueBrilliance where a soft airbrush should be possible (all other 24-bit
paint programs have it) and was done in Digital Creations' own DCTVPaint.

        If you make a mistake, there's an UNDO button.  And if you made two
or more mistakes, you can keep hitting UNDO again and again, removing parts
of your drawing.  Then you can REDO and add back what you just took away.
UNDO/REDO is modified by sizing the buffer that holds your changes.

        Brilliance has a good variety of drawing modes, all of which are
well implemented.  They are: (Solid) Color, Tint, Colorize, Brighten,
Darken, Stencil (Draw), Mix, Smooth, Smear, Avg Smear, Range, Cycle, Random,
Dither 1 and 2, Negative, Halfbright (in EHB mode) and Not.  Stencil lets
you modify the shape of the stencil with drawing tools, Range cycles colors
you draw over according to the current gradient.  Dither is a selectable
(usually checkerboard) pattern.  You can always toggle between Color and
whatever mode you have selected.

        Gradient modes are: Horizontal, Vertical, Linear, Highlight,
Spherical and Radial.  Gradients are created by clicking and placing colors
on a scrollable clothesline.  You can alter a numerical value that will give
more apparent colors than the ones you place down.  That relieves you from
having to select all of the colors of a range in the palette -- you could
just pick the two ends.

        Brushes can be sized, flipped, bent, sheared, rotated or outlined.
You can have eight alternative brushes, each represented by an icon on the
brush screen.  Brushes can be loaded from or saved to the Clipboard.
Animbrushes are fully supported with morphing.  You can really appreciate
the buttons-based design if you've used DPaint's menus and windows for
animbrushes.  The morphing is not bad, but the regions that are created in
the process are divided by what looks like lightning bolts.  For real
morphing, you'll want a real morphing program.

        The Stencil operates in two ways -- by colors and by drawing shapes.
Color selection is easy by toggling on the ever-present selection palette or
you can lasso an area on the screen and all the colors inside get chosen.
Switching between color selection and drawing shapes is a breeze.
TrueBrilliance has a color variance feature to get a range of colors by
selecting just one.  One interesting effect is that the stencil will warp
gradients that are drawn overlapping it.

        For those of you who use DPaint, animation is probably either a
practiced science or a mystical art.  With Brilliance, it is straightforward
and fast.  DPaint AGA is notoriously slow and even locks up when you try to
play some animations.  A drag-bar in Brilliance allows you to scroll through
the frames; and if you move too fast, it skips until you stop on one.  Frames
can be created, added, deleted and copied.  Similar to the Move Requester of
DPaint is the Tween screen.  Tweening allows you to animate a brush over all
or part of an animation in X, Y, Z movement and rotation as well as
opacity.  Each aspect can be independently set for ease-in or ease out.  And
the best part is you can edit the position and rotation of the start and end
values both numerically and visually (with a special editing screen).
Unfortunately you cannot load or save these numbers, which would allow more
complex paths.  You can do a wireframe preview and if you don't like it
after rendering, you can UNDO it, frame by frame.

Brilliance uses custom file requestors which have various buttons
relevant to different types of files.  One common function is an Info
button that will tell you about a file you have located with the
requestor (like image format or number of frames).  Brilliance can
load register based images with up to 256 colors, grey scale images ,
and DCTV display images.  TrueBrilliance can load HAM, HAM8, and 15 or
24-bit pictures.  Both can read/write ANIM OPT5 (the old standard)
and ANIM OPT 8.


DOCUMENTATION

        Documentation is a single, small, spiral-bound book.  It contains
Installation, Tutorials and Reference for both Brilliance and
TrueBrilliance.  The Tutorials are comprehensive but not exciting.  The
Reference is extremely useful in explaining the few things that aren't
apparent just by using the program.


LIKES AND DISLIKES

        Everything is well organized and operates smoothly.  I just wish
they had gone a little further in some areas, rather than just doing what
everyone else already had in a paint program (like more flexible animation
frame editing).  Also, there's no ARexx or support for third party graphics
boards.

        Here's one complaint about Brilliance.  I enjoy the way that DPaint
lets you interrupt anything with the SPACE bar or ESCape.  You could also
switch from a rectangle to a line to a circle in mid-action.  You can't do
either with Brilliance.  Not everything can be aborted or changed.


COMPARISONS TO OTHER PRODUCTS

        I have been comparing this to DPaint a lot and my verdict is:  keep
DPaint on your hard drive for a few weeks while you get used to Brilliance.
But soon you won't need DPaint.  Since TrueBrilliance lacks a real airbrush
as well as alpha (transparency) mapping, you'll still need a program like
ADPro, ImageFX or OpalPaint.  Those programs also have many more drawing
modes and file formats.


BUGS

        None found.


VENDOR SUPPORT

        I haven't had any problems serious enough to call Digital Creations
yet.  I also own DCTV, which also was very stable in its first release- and
soon the 1.1 version came out which added the features many thought were
missing in 1.0.  I expect the same to happen with Brilliance.


WARRANTY

        The warranty is 90 days and requires the customer to pay all
shipping charges.


THE REVIEWER

        Marc Rifkin - Graphic and Multimedia Production
        MarcR@cup.portal.com

        121 Shasta Road
        Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462 USA
        Phone: 215-825-4149
        Fax:   215-825-3966



@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P1-8 "AR_Viewer and Amiga Report"
@toc "menu"


/// We have a VIEWER!
    -----------------
    by Robert Niles


With special thanks to John Enright, author of the future GameSmith (TM)
Development System, we are happy to present to you the first edition of 
Amiga Report with pictures and a proprietory viewer. John was nice enough
to work with me on this viewer, letting me nit-pick at it, getting it to
where we both fealt it was good enough to be released.

The viewer is compatable with 1.3/2.x/3.0 operating systems and can view
picture files up to and including HAM8 and 256 color AGA pictures.
AR_Viewer should be placed within your C: directory, your current working
directory or somewhere within your searched paths.

It opens up on the WorkBench screen with a border around the picture file.
All standard gadgets can be used, and the picture can be moved around as
well. When displaying a picure on the Workbench screen, the picture must
use the same colors assigned to the Workbench screen, making some pictures
look ...well... not all that good (but hopefully to be corrected in a 
future version). There is a pull-down menu with the option of "Custom 
Screen". Selecting that will bring up a custom screen, and the picture 
will be viewed as it was meant. ...as demonstrated here with this picture
button of the @{" CD32 " system "AR_viewer CD32.bru"} console.

Now this may be a strange way to view picture files, but it gives us the
flexability needed to control the size of the pictures that we wish to
include with Amiga Report. You won't have to download an additional 100k 
Amiga Report file when it could have been kept down to something smaller.

With this viewer, you can continue to browse through and read Amiga Report
while the picture is still being shown. This is good were an item in the
text is describing something in the picture. Also you may view as many
pictures as memory allows at once. Good for comparisons.

We hope you like this addition to Amiga Report, if you have any comments,
suggestions, or complaints, please feel free to @{" send us a note " link P2-2}.

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

/// Delphi:  It's Getting Better All The Time!
    ------------------------------------------


 Amiga Report International Online Magazine is available every  week  in
 the  Amiga Forum on DELPHI.  Amiga Report readers are invited to join
 DELPHI and  become a part of the friendly community of computer
 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 Password: type STREPORT 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 1-800-544-4005

                  DELPHI - It's getting better all the time!


@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P1-9 "UseNet Review - 1230XA"
@toc "menu"


/// Usenet Review:  Microbotics 1230XA Accelerator for Amiga 1200
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    By Brian King
    (umking21@ccu.umanitoba.ca)



PRODUCT NAME

	Microbotics M1230XA-50 68030 accelerator for Amiga 1200


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	A 50MHz 68030 accelerator card for the A1200 with full Memory
Management Unit (MMU), 68881/68882 socket, RAM SIMM socket, clock/calendar
and EEPROM configuration scheme.


COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Microbotics, Inc.
	Address:	1251 American Parkway,
			Richardson, Texas (TX), 75081
			USA

	Telephone:	(214) 437-5330


LIST PRICE

	List price unknown.  I paid $399 (US) for the 50MHz 68030 version
with no floating point unit (FPU) and no RAM SIMM.

	The unit is also available in 33MHz and 40MHz-EC versions, with and
without RAM and FPUs.  EC denotes the absence of an MMU.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		Amiga 1200 personal computer, with available LocalBus belly
		slot.

		A hard drive is recommended but not required.

	SOFTWARE

		OS 3.0, 3.1 compatible.
		Excellent compatibility.


COPY PROTECTION

	None.

	The configuration and test software is hard-drive installable.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 1200.
	2 Meg Chip RAM, no Fast RAM.
	Kickstart Version 39.106, Workbench Version 39.29.

	Additional 4 Meg (70ns) Fast RAM added via SIMM socket on M1230XA.

	50MHz 68882 FPU added (no oscillator necessary).


GENERAL INFORMATION

	So you want to add speed to your new A1200?  40MHz isn't fast enough?
You REALLY need that MMU... SCSI/SCSI-II isn't a priority?

	THIS is the accelerator for you!

	I've primarily been using my 1200 as a console and terminal, since
the two Meg Chip RAM is not sufficient for many tasks any more.  Yes, gone
are the days when your Amiga could run quickly and multi-task efficiently
with only two Megs of RAM.  Count on 3-8 Megs for most serious applications.

	I had the need for 32-bit RAM expansion, knowing that this would
instantly double the speed of my A1200, and also would allow the addition of
a math coprocessor.  My initial leanings were towards the Microbotics
MBX1200Z, which came complete with clock/calendar, SIMM socket, and FPU
socket.

	When I learned of a new Microbotics product which includes all these
features, PLUS 50MHz acceleration with a TRUE 68030, I knew I had to have
one.  Not only has this board dramatically increased the overall speed of my
machine, but also it has allowed me finally to run some of the Amiga's more
sophisticated software (VistaPro, Art Department Pro, Lightwave, SAS/C 6.3,
Deluxe Paint IV, etc.) which until now was out of my reach.

	Overall speed improvement estimates are:

	Item				Speed Increase
	==============================================
	Hard drive			40-50  %
	Graphics			70-100 %
	Serial port performance		10-15  %

	AIBB 6.0 results are as follows:

	Integer		Graphics	Floating	Machine
	=====================================================================
	11.70		4.72		19.16		A600,  2 MB Chip RAM
	 4.99		2.05		 9.07		A1200, 2 MB Chip RAM
	 1.99		1.93		 2.00		A3000/25 + Fast RAM
	 1.30		0.66		 0.60		A4000/040 + Fast RAM
	 1.10		1.05		 1.11		A1200 - See below...
	 
	Thus, as indicated, the A1200 with M1230XA is 11.7 times faster at
integer math operations than the A600 (no surprise here!).

	The last entry needs some explanation.  The M1230XA comes with
excellent configuration software (SetXA), which allows setting of many board
parameters including RAM wait-states.  When you configure the board for
50MHz, and 70ns RAM SIMMs, SetXA sets the wait-states to 4, which turns out
to be rather conservative.  Instead, I set the wait-states to 3, which not
only runs reliably, but also runs faster as indicated by AIBB.

	The machine was 1.10 times faster with 3 wait states than with 4.
However, doing this IS a risk, although I've had no problems with this so
far.

	AIBB also revealed the HUGE difference between the RAM access of the
A4000 and the M1230XA.  The A4000 simply cannot keep up to the 68030-equipped
A1200 in sheer RAM access speed.


SOFTWARE

	The included SetXA utility is excellent, eliminating the need for
many jumper blocks from the board and providing easy configuration.
However, the software is rather conservative in its settings for
wait-states, as outlined above.

	Another problem with the software is its need.  Once the board is
configured, you should not have to run the SetXA utility again.
Unfortunately, the M1230XA does NOT AutoConfig its RAM on startup, and the
SetXA software must be placed early in your startup-sequence in order to add
the Fast RAM to the system.  By this time, however, your drive buffers and
graphics/Intuition libraries are already in Chip RAM.  The operating
system will run more quickly with this data in Fast RAM.

	While this is a problem, it is a minor one.  It would be interesting
to see how having graphics/Intuition in Fast RAM would affect the above
speed comparisons.  Also, games that need extra memory and don't behave will
not be able to access this memory.  I hope that most newer games will allow
hard drive installation, or not need more than 2 Megs of RAM.

	Kickstart/AmigaDOS 3.1 is supposed to allow full AutoConfig ability.
It seems that the present PCMCIA address space is right in the middle of the
AutoConfig space.  This doesn't stop the GVP accelerator from
AutoConfiguring, however!  Seems a small slip by Microbotics.

	The other included software is the TestRAM program, which does cyclic
testing of RAM and is great for finding that bad RAM chip or area.  I used
it extensively when experimenting with the RAM wait-state settings, since I
was worried about changing the SetXA defaults, but no errors occurred.


HARDWARE

	As noted above, this thing really FLIES!  Also, the clock/calendar
module is fully AmigaDOS compatible, allowing you to use the existing
system's Time and Date commands.

	The full 68030 is a boon to programmers using tools like Enforcer, as
well as allowing the Kickstart ROMs to be mapped into Fast RAM.  Even though
this gobbles up 512K of your system RAM, it is recommended for full speed
processing.  If memory is really tight, you can always disable the FastROM
option with the AmigaDOS CPU program.

	The SIMM socket is excellent quality, featuring the metal-latch type
connection, rather than the typical plastic catches on most SIMM sockets.

	The FPU socket is a typical PGA socket, and takes a fair amount of
force to insert your own 68881 or 68882.  This is typical, however, and good
contact is made.


DOCUMENTATION

	The included documentation consists of two double-sided 8.5" x 11"
pages, the User's Guide, and a registration card.  Although the production
quality is low (no booklet, colour, etc.), the content is very clear and
concise.

	The User's Guide is laid out nicely, including a detailed diagram of
the M1230XA circuit card.  The Guide progresses through the following
sections:

		1. General Description
		2. Basic Installation
		3. SIMM Memory Installation
		4. Math Coprocessor (FPU) Information
		5. Realtime Clock Information
		6. SetXA Configuration Software Guide
		7. Troubleshooting

	The only concern about any of these sections lies in the Basic
Installation section, Part 3:

	"..firmly press it completely onto the card edge.  Because the
	 connector is so wide, it may require some strength to press the
	 card onto the Amiga's bus."          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

	Wow! SOME STRENGTH??? I had to reef on the sucker with a screw-driver
as a lever, along with my hands stuck in there to keep things aligned.
Getting it in was extremely difficult and frustrating, and getting it out
will be damned impossible.  It took about 5 minutes of aggravation until a
solution was ironed out.

	In all fairness to Microbotics, I don't believe the problem lies at
their end; and once the board is fitted, it makes great contact.
Commodore's L-shaped bus slot makes insertion and removal very difficult,
and NOT for the faint of heart.


LIKES AND DISLIKES

	LIKES

	o	The SetXA EEPROM configuration software is excellent and
		eliminates jumper blocks.

	o	Instructions, while skimpy, provide all necessary
		information.

	o	The SPEED!!!

	o	The RAM!!!!!

	DISLIKES

	o	Non-AutoConfig RAM expansion, while not terrible, is slightly
		annoying!  (See above review for details and explanations.)

	SUGGESTIONS

	o	Two SIMM sockets would have been better, but there is not
		enough room.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	There are a number of other accelerator products out there, including
GVPs, ICDs, CSAs and soon more.  However, if you don't need SCSI-II
capabilities, then this board exceeds the GVP A1230+ board in specs, and
costs only slightly more.  Here is a comparison chart:


Board	Speed	RAM?	RAM Amount	Clock/Cal	Full 68030 (MMU)
=======================================================================
M1230XA	50MHz	YES	up to 128MB	YES		YES
A1230+	40MHz	YES	up to 128MB	NO		NO

	The clock/calendar option is worth $30 US anyway, and the MMU is
necessary for the serious programmer and for virtual memory support,
as well as UNIX/Linux/Mach support.


BUGS

	None found.


VENDOR SUPPORT

	No experiences yet.


WARRANTY

	One year, complete.


CONCLUSIONS

	If your need is for speed, then this board is simply the fastest
right now!  The RAM speed excels over that of the A4000/40, and
drive speed nearly doubles due to the processor speed and FAST RAM.

	Until a 68040 accelerator appears for the A1200, this card will
provide king-of-the-hill performance.  Microbotics is said to be working on
a 68040 version of this product, but cost will be prohibitive to most mere
mortals.

	King Rating = 96%


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

            Copyright 1993 Brian D. King.  All Rights Reserved.
                        Reprinted with permission.



@endnode
---------------------------
@node P1-10 "GameSmith D.S."
@toc "menu"


Bithead Technologies proudly announces it's near completion of the 
GameSmith (TM) Development System.  First commercial release slated 
for January - March '94 time frame following completion of an extensive
Beta test program.  The IFF ILBM (AR_Viewer) loader provided with 
Amiga Report is just a small piece of a professional development system
for experts and novices alike who want to create truely arcade quality
games, demos, etc. on the Amiga.  This system has been 4 years in
development, and provides unrivaled power and ease of use.  The
GameSmith (TM) Development System works with the 'C' or assembler
development environment of the user's choice.

Official press release is forthcoming, but here are just a few details:

  * The fastest, most complete, programmable animation system for the
    desktop, encompassing more than 70 independent user functions.
  * Interrupt driven sound system capable of playing IFF (including
    stereo) or raw sound samples from Fast RAM in any octave.
  * A utility for putting together character animations for use in
    your programs.  Allows creation of complex data objects with 
    "intelligence".  Features binary anim file creation, source code 
    output, compressed and encrypted data, collision detection, special
    effects, and more; all controllable from an easy to use graphical 
    user interface.
  * FULLY AGA COMPATIBLE!
  * Many other features such as an easy display system, joystick
    polling, vector routines, AmigaDOS librarian, timer, and many more
    functions and utilities.
  * Royalty free sale and distribution of products developed with the 
    system.
  * Most routines written in 100% assembler for the utmost in speed.

This system provides the low-level muscle to handle even the most 
demanding game situation, and frees the user from months or sometimes 
years of development time required to accomplish these professional 
effects.

All coding has been completed, and all known bugs removed.  The manuals
are being written and a Beta test phase will be initiated shortly.



                            -John Enright-
                         (A.K.A. Max Bithead)
                    President, Bithead Technologies
                            Sept. 1st, 1993

@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 or through Tymnet from anywhere in
North America.  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, online, 24 hours a day.
   Portal has dedicated a 2.5 GIGabyte disk drive to the Amiga Zone.
   We have virtually unlimited space for files and new uploads. 

 - The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable
   software, online.  All of it.  Every disk.  Well-organized so
   it's easy to find exactly what you're after.

 - 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,
   and many others including Compute's Amiga Resource with over
   4 Megabytes of exclusive Compute magazine disk stuff you won't find
   elsewhere.

 - 35 "regular" Amiga libraries with thousands of files.  Hot new
   stuff arrives daily.  Since Portal has FTP connections we can get
   new freely-distributable software online within MINUTES of its 
   being announced on Usenet.

 - No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as
   often as you want, and never feel pressued doing it.  Start downloading
   files with your first session on Portal. 

 - 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.
   Instead of stumbling around in frustration you can talk to the
   people who design your hardware, who write your software.

 - 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.  Usenet feeds into Portal many times each hour.
   There are 14 Amiga-specific Usenet newsgroups with hundreds of
   articles posted every day, including postings by Commodore 
   personnel.  Since Usenet is distributed worldwide, your questions
   and answers can be seen by literally hundreds of thousands of
   people the same day you post them.  

 - 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:

1-408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
1-408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day
1-408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day
or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA,
or enter "portal" from any Tymnet "please log in:" prompt, USA & Canada
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 or Tymnet    2.50 22.95  32.45  44.95  94.95
 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% or Tymnet 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 and Tymnet available 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.
   Tymnet 9600bps services 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 P1-11 "UseNet Review - Simlife"
@toc "menu"


/// Usenet Review:  SimLife
    -----------------------
    By Jun Akiyama
    (akiy@netcom.com)



PRODUCT NAME

        SimLife, V1.00 Jun 18 1993 14:11:56


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        Build your own ecosystem and give life to creatures, designing
animals and plants down to the genetic level.  Brought to you from the
makers of SimCity, SimAnt, SimEarth, and SimFarm (well, on other platforms,
anyway).


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:           Maxis, distributed by Mindscape International
        Address:        2 Theatre Square
                        Suite 230
                        Orinda, CA 94563-3346

        Telephone:      (510) 254-9700
        FAX:            (510) 253-3736


LIST PRICE

        The list price as indicated in the Mindscape catalog included with
the game is 34.99 pounds.  (Mindscape is a British company.)  Exchange rates
as of this writing would make that equivalent to $59.64 (US).

        I was able to buy this product from a local store for $39.99 (US).


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

        HARDWARE

                There are two versions of this software: one for AGA
                machines (A1200, A4000), and another for all Amiga
                computers.  (From this point on in the article, unless I
                specifically refer to the AGA version or the Standard
                version, "SimLife" will refer to both AGA and Standard
                versions.)

                The AGA version has golden stickers on the box saying "A1200
                Enhanced" and "Enhanced version for Amiga 1200/4000 only."
                The AGA version requires a machine which can handle AGA
                graphics such as the A1200 and the A4000.  However, I do not
                know if AGA emulator boards (such as the Retina card) would
                be able to use this game.  The AGA version also requires 2
                MB of RAM.  A hard drive is recommended.

                The Standard version for all Amigas requires a minimum of 1
                MB of RAM (although 2 MB is recommended).  A hard drive is
                recommended.

                There is a little ReadMe note on the disk for the AGA
                version with the following information:

                        If you intend to play SimLife in HiRes Mode with
                        only 2 Megabytes of RAM, you will only be able to
                        play with Tiny and Small worlds. This is due to
                        memory constraints. If you fit more memory, you will
                        be able to play all configurations.

                I do not know if the above note also applies to the Standard
                version.

                If you don't have a hard drive, don't worry.  The program
                can be decompressed onto three floppy disks.  (Disk swapping
                is always so much fun, and can often relieve the tension in
                any program.  Right?)

                A warning to those running on slower CPUs -- the game is
                quite CPU intensive! Although the game can run on any Amiga
                platform, I would not want to see this game running on a
                68000-equipped machine as it tends to slow down even on my
                A4000.  It has no problems running with my 68040, even with
                copyback mode on.

                Also, the AGA version runs in PAL mode, although this can be
                avoided (as explained later).

        SOFTWARE

                The AGA version requires Workbench 3.0 and above.
                The Standard version requires at least Workbench 1.3.


COPY PROTECTION

        None.  At all.  Period.  End of sentence.  We should give Maxis a
great big huzzah.  Really.  I did.

        The game installs beautifully onto a hard drive, without having to
make any directory assigns.  Another huzzah.

        The game boots from Workbench, and multitasks well, except for a few
litle problems (see below for details).

        The game will save its data (save games, new species, etc.) using a
file requester, so you have the power to place it wherever you wish.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

        Amiga 4000/040
        2 MB Chip RAM, 4 MB Fast RAM
        Kickstart 39.106, Workbench 39.29


INSTALLATION

        As mentioned previously, the game is installable onto either the
hard drive or onto three floppies.

        As in most Maxis games, SimLife comes in two different resolutions:
hi-res, or low-res.  The hi-res version is recommended for those with at
least 2 MB of memory, and a multiscan monitor.  (I guess the multiscan
monitor is necessary to eliminate the flicker through DblPAL.  The Standard
version, although it does not use DblPAL, may use a flicker fixer instead.)

        Installation itself is a breeze.  The installation program is
started by booting up Disk 1, after which you will be asked whether you wish
to have hi-res or low-res graphics and to install onto either the hard drive
(in which case it also asks for a directory, creating it if necessary) or
floppy drive.  Then follow the on-screen instructions on which of the four
disks the program wants, and after minimal disk-swapping, the game is
installed.


GETTING STARTED

        When starting up the game from Workbench, you must not leave any
windows open which have tasks running.  The requester saying "Could not
close Workbench.  Close all windows and restart!" will pop up.  This means,
for example, that you must not have any shells, GNU Emacs windows, nor
ASokoban games running at the time you start the game.  After you close
the windows or iconify them, double click on the not-too attractive game
icon, and start the game again.  Once you start the game, you will notice a
depth gadget at the top right hand corner; don't bother using it, as I found
it does nothing.  Use the Left-Amiga M combination to flip through the
screens to get back to Workbench if you need to multitask.  Be forewarned
that the game takes up a lot of CPU cycles, and most everything else will be
pretty slow.

        One of the first things you notice when you first boot the hi-res
AGA version is that it's in DblPAL mode.  (I don't know what the Standard
version does.)  For those people running in PAL, this is not a problem; for
those of us running NTSC, the bottom 25% of the screen is clipped off.  I
use the public domain commodity ForceMonitor to promote all PAL screens to
Multiscan:Productivity (my Workbench resolution), and the program seems to
work fine.  You might have to press Left-Amiga M to flip the screen
sometimes to bring the SimLife screen to the front.  In addition, if you're
using a DblNTSC Workbench and wish to use SimLife AGA in DblNTSC,
ForceMonitor can do that too; just be aware that you'll need to autoscroll a
little bit to see the entire screen.  (I also installed the low-res AGA
version, and the screen opens up in PAL mode.  Therefore, the same steps as
above will probably have to be taken to open up a full-size screen.)

        After installation, the first instinct of all human beings having
used a computer for more than five minutes is to dive into a program without
having read the manual.  Usually, only after the user has looked at all the
menu items, pressed all the buttons, and basically gotten confused and
frustrated do they open the manuals.  In SimLife, looking at all the menu
items and pressing all the buttons take a really long time, and getting
confused and frustrated takes a very short one.  Luckily, Maxis includes a
pretty comprehensive tutorial.

        The tutorial world makes the user go through all of the basic
functions of all of the menu items and buttons, so that the user can
understand the 204 page user manual better afterwards.  I thought the
tutorial to be very helpful and well organized, although I found the "Click
on window to continue" prompts a bit irritating.  (The windows kept
disappearing on me, since you're all wrapped up in placing Lucia's Llamas
all across the land and clicking away, during which the window suddenly pops
up and you inadvertently "Click on the window to continue."  Of course,
there's the "Redisplay Current Message" menu item, but it's still annoying,
nonetheless.)


GAME PLAY

        The game itself revolves basically around observation.  It is no
horrendously thumb-numbing shoot-'em up game, nor is it a mind-wrenching
dungeon-delving adventure.  (Only BLAZEMONGER can be both at the same time,
and then some. :-))  Most of the time, I found myself influencing the world
in some manner, then waiting to see what happened in reaction to it.  I guess
if there is a god, that's what he's doing at this moment.

        However, don't take this in the wrong way; you wouldn't buy this
game if you wished for action, adventure, blood, guts, and glory.  You're
going to have to be pretty patient with this game; it takes a long time for
something to happen, just like in real evolution!  Don't expect your
humpback whales to start walking on land in one minute; it takes a lot longer
than that.  Sit back, and observe, young ones.

        First, you create the earth upon which your creatures and plants
will reside.  Such parameters as average moisture, average temperature,
numbers of rivers and lakes (and seas -- no distinction between salt and
fresh water), and even the numbers of toxins and mutagens can be
configured.  Don't worry if the world you get doesn't suit your godly
aesthetic sense; during the game itself, you can raise or sink land (a la
Populous) and increase or decrease rain fall and temperature.  Heck, spell
your name with a land mass.  You also get to choose the size of the world --
tiny, small, large, medium, and large.  Continental drift does not seem to
be integrated into this game, but I'm sure you can emulate it through
ingenious manipulations of the land.

        After creating your landmasses, it's time to place your plants and
creatures.  The program gives several options on how to place them.  You can
place individual creatures wherever you wish (which is very close to
painting with a paint program with a brush with the grid turned on), or you
can have the program place creatures for you; the options available for you
to control the computer's placement of the creatures include placing them in
a group or individually scattered, on land only, in water only, or any other
combination.  You can also choose to place individual species or the entire
catalog of plants or animals onto the map.  (Of course, you can place those
humpback whales on land, if you wish, or throw some ground squirrels into
the water; either way, you are punished (rewarded?) by a pretty quick "Oooh"
sound, signaling the demise of some of your creations.)

        Each one of these species consists of a group of settings
corresponding to the creature's (or plant's) biological descriptions.  For
example, you can control whether your animal will be a high intelligence
carnivore which walks and lives in the mountains and has a long gestation
time but few children (like a llama), or if it will be a low intelligence
filter-feeder which flies and lives in the ocean with a short gestation time
and bears many children (like something from a cheap B movie).  Also, you
can design the picture of the creature/plant in child/seed and adult/plant
modes, so you can distinguish them on the screen easily.  You decide.  Yes,
it can get pretty silly, but I think that's one of the features of the game.

        Even during the game, you can pick out each animal on the screen and
change its genome features.  You can make one of those llamas to suddenly
turn into a flying super-stealthy acute-visioned fly-sized animal, if you
want.  Make that humpback whale asexual!  Create some immortal chickens!  The
program will keep track of each and every single living creature on your
earth.

        As the days pass by, the seasons roll past, and the years flit away
into history, you get to watch evolution in action as animals and plants
mutate into different species.  If you're feeling bored, you can really play
divinity and fly a comet into the earth, induce a plague, introduce a
sexually transmitted disease, or even (gasp!)  bring civilization onto the
land (whereupon little bulldozers start appearing, creating luxury homes and
leaving pollution behind them)!

        While you're at it, you can start to change the basic physics of
nature on your planet.  If you suddenly feel that seeds should have more
food value than animals, you can do so.  You have total freedom to make
flying take less movement costs than walking, or to raise the mutation
rate.  It's all up to you.

        Of course, all this would go to naught if the program didn't keep
track of what happened when, and all other records.  The game keeps track of
when what species was introduced, what is eating what, the population of
each species, diversity graphs, and basically all of the data a biologist
would love to have on an ecosystem.

        Yes, there are many, many settings and variables you can change, but
who said life was uncomplicated?


DOCUMENTATION

        There are three manuals included with the game: the user manual, the
SimLife lab book, and the addendum and quickstart guide.

        The user guide is a comprehensive 204 page text, complete with
glossary and an index (which deserves the third huzzah).  Many illustrations
grace the pages of this manual to ease identification of the many windows,
buttons, and menus in the game.  All in all, I found it to be very easy to
use.

        There is also an addendum and "quickstart" guide for the Amiga
version of the game which tells you of the installation procedures and a
keyboard shortcut chart in the back.

        Lastly, there is a SimLife lab book in which you are to "make a
photocopy of it for your personal use and mark that up.  No selling copies
of the lab book in dark alleys to minors while wearing a trench coat."
Basically, this lab book allows you to record the various settings of the
program.  Will I ever use it?  I don't think so.  If you see someone selling
copies of it in dark alleys to minors while *not* wearing a trench coat,
it's probably some other pervert.  Not me.


LIKES, DISLIKES, AND OPINIONS

        I really like the premises upon which this product was built.  The
idea of watching life evolve and being able to observe (and influence)
directly the interactions of different species ("You scratch my back, and
I'll eat you") can only be done on computers (for now).

        However, for a non-biologically oriented person like me, I felt
pretty overwhelmed by the number of options, settings, and variables
presented before me.  Now, I'm not saying that this is a drawback
necessarily (although the "However" at the beginning of the paragraph may
say otherwise); it's just that sometimes, simple is best.  For people who
want to sit around for hours, twiddling each little gene and adjusting
settings, then loading, saving, then recording each session, this program
may be ideal.  However, I did not have the patience to sit out decades and
decades of artificial time to see what happened to a species of plant.  I
suppose I could play this game at a more shallow level without getting into
the specifics (like manipulating the genes for water storage in a plant),
but then, I would feel as though I'm not playing the game to the fullest.
Maybe it's just me.  I don't know.

        Therefore, for those people who enjoy working with many variables,
and would like to have the power (and time) to adjust nearly each and every
aspect of life, this game is for you.  For others, it may be a type of
diversion close to a fractal program; you can watch a lot of things moving
on the screen, then come back a few hours later and check the history to see
what's still alive and when things went extinct.

        Perhaps if there were some real "scoring" mechanism for SimLife as
there was for SimCity (in which money was a limited resource; in SimLife,
life itself can be created pretty much infinitely, and without any cost,
which I find pretty unrealistic), the game could be more playable.  Although
the "physics" aspect of the game limits the player somewhat, the game play
is hindered by allowing the player simply to say "poof" and add some more
animals here and delete some plants here.

        In addition to the built-in scenarios, included in the directory
itself are several "saved" games which are interesting.  For example, one of
the scenarios is as follows:

                The main workers are the Square Pegs, who chase the Round
        Wholes, and Marketers, who chase Customers.  Money Trees, with
        golden flowers that give off a red scent, are the main food source
        for the workers.  The Water Bottles are where the workers congregate
        and drink.  The Executive Wash Room/Lounge (in the lower left
        corner) is where the executives congregate, drink and use the
        trees.  Everyone wants to catch the Runnin' BigBucks, but they are
        hard to catch -- they avoid everyone but upper management.  Everyone
        has grass growing under their feet, but tries to hide it, or at
        least eat it.  The shopping carts are the candy dispensers and
        popcorn machines.  Upper Management sits around and waits for the
        BigBucks to come.

        The game is an obvious port from the Macintosh platform, as the
requesters are taken right from the Macintosh operating system.  I found
some of these requesters annoying, probably because I'm used to seeing
Workbench compliant programs these days.  The game play is hindered at
points because of this noncompliance, as some menus (such as from the Help
button) do not pop up readily, meaning you may have to click on a button
multiple times, which is irritating.  Because the game is pretty slow at
times, the reaction time of a button press may be delayed.  Maybe more care
could have been taken by the people at Maxis to round out the user interface
to that more suitable for the Amiga, and not just supposed that the
Macintosh interface would suffice for the picky tastes of some Amiga users
(myself included).  I think it would have sped things up a little bit too.

        Lastly, let me try to warn a few people.  I don't think you're going
to be able to use this program to recreate the movie Jurassic Park.  (There
are no omnivorous animals, so it'd be hard to create humans in the first
place.  And, no using "frog" DNA in dinosaurs, either.)  Nor do I think you
are going to be able to recreate life on earth as it is today, because of
such limitations.  Perhaps with a lot of patience and time, you might be
able to; but then again, a game is a game.  Maybe Maxis will come out with
SimInteractionBetweenHumansAndOtherBeingsOnEarth someday.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

        Of course, in comparing this game with the other "Sim" games, I
think that this game is the most "simulation"-like than the other "Sim"
games.  As said above, unlike SimCity, there are really no limited
resources, and there is really no big objective in SimLife.  SimAnt had an
objective to take over the entire yard.  SimEarth gave the objective of
evolving a lifeform intelligent enough to go to another solar system.  I
guess that the main objective of SimLife would be to create a stable
ecosystem through the creation of your own lifeforms.  Maybe it's just me.
I just might not have the patience to sit this one through.


BUGS

        It seemed as though there was a strange bug when the program used
the "autospeciate" feature to create a new species from an old one (when
organisms diverge so much from their originals that they wouldn't be able to
mate with the old ones) and the user deleted some of the organisms (or did
something that irritated the program), the pictures for each of the organisms
shifted around, the wrong image representing some of the species.
Therefore, I sometimes saw sharks flying across mountains, and squirrels
suddenly turned into humpback whales when it walked to the left.  I haven't
contacted Maxis about this, as I'm not really too sure when this occurs
(except for the aforementioned approximate details).  If anything ensues,
I'll submit a followup article.


VENDOR SUPPORT

        I have never talked to anyone at Maxis, as far as I know, unless
they have undercover agents or something.

        The registration card has to be sent to England (to Mindscape), and
the technical support hotline is an international call.  However, I'd think
calling Maxis directly (in California) would be better, so take a look at
the phone numbers up above for details.

        I am in no way, shape nor form, associated with Maxis.  I just play
their games (or rather, run their simulations).


WARRANTY

        Sending in the registration card entitles the user to "technical
support, advance notification of upgrades, and special offers on future
Mindscape products," says the registration card.


CONCLUSIONS

        All in all, I feel SimLife to be a very accomplished simulation with
a whole plethora of variables and a world of outcomes to be explored.

        On a scale from one to ten ducks (one duck being the equivalent to
"Pond Scum," and ten ducks garnering a "Totally ducky!" description), I'd
probably give it seven ducks.


BLAZEMONGER NOTICE

        For you BLAZEMONGER II players out there, this review, in its
entirety (including the headers), is the secret password for level
323,832,123.021. Just type it in during the .00002 millisecond title screen,
and you're there.  Wow.  How did the BLAZEMONGER programmers know?



@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P4-3 "Holonet"                                    
@toc "menu"

/// Holonet:  Inexpensive Internet Access
    -------------------------------------


                                *** HOLONET ***


HoloNet is an easy to use Internet Access BBS.

HoloNet is based on custom BBS software which provides an easy to use menu
driven interface.  HoloNet is ideal for those looking for an easy way to
use Internet services.  HoloNet does not currently provide UNIX shell
access.

Services include:

    o  Convenient Access
       A local call in 850+ cities nationwide.

    o  Online Publications
       Include USA Today Decisionline, Newsbytes, Datanet Computer News,
       Eeeekbits, and Boardwatch Magazine.

    o  USENET
       Averages over 30MB of USENET news per day.  The following news
       readers are available: NN, TIN, and RN.

    o  Internet E-Mail
       Members have an Internet E-mail address similar to:
       member@holonet.net

    o  Internet Access
       Access to telnet, talk, finger, IRC, and FTP.
       (note: you must comply with the policies of any networks you use)

    o  Single and Multi-player Games
       Board, card, fantasy, and puzzle games.

    o  Support for Eudora
       Excellent off-line Macintosh e-mail reader.

    o  UUCP E-mail and USENET feeds
       Link LAN E-mail systems and BBSes to the Internet.

How to try HoloNet for FREE:
      Telnet: holonet.net
       Modem: 510-704-1058 (Berkeley, CA) at 1200, 2400, 9600, or
              14400 bps.  There are free demo numbers nationwide, for an
              automated response containg a list of access numbers, send
              e-mail to access@holonet.mailer.net

How to get more information:
      E-mail: info@holonet.net
       Modem: 510-704-1058 at 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14400bps
       Voice: 510-704-0160
         Fax: 510-704-8019

HoloNet is a service mark of Information Access Technologies, Inc.

           Copyright © 1992 Information Access Techologies, Inc.
                           All Rights Reserved.


@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P1-12 "Lost Treasures of Infocom"
@toc "menu"


/// Usenet Review:  The Lost Treasures of Infocom
    ---------------------------------------------
    By Peter Ingham
    (ping@ping.actrix.gen.nz)



PRODUCT NAME

        The Lost Treasures of Infocom


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        A collection of the more significant Role-Playing Games (RPG's)
originally published by Infocom in the late 70's/early 80's.

        The original Zork was developed at MIT by Dave Lebling and Marc
Blank and inspired by "advent".  Like advent, Zork is a text-based adventure
with an English-like parser, so you type in English sentences to control the
game.  They formed/joined Infocom to market microcomputer implementations
and extend the genre.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:           Activision / Infocom
        Address:        PO Box 67001
                        Los Angeles, CA  90067
                        USA

LIST PRICE

        Unknown.
        Price paid $NZ 160 (approximately $90 US).
        USA mailorder prices are around $40-50.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

        HARDWARE

                NONE.

                Very little RAM is needed.  Remember - this stuff was written
                to run on the microprocessors of the early 1980's.
                "Hitchhikers Guide" for example uses only 175K.

                Hard drive not required, but can be used.

                Works on 68000 Adspeed accelerator.  I haven't heard of any
                problems on other CPU's.

        SOFTWARE

                NONE.

                Runs under Kickstart 1.3 and 2.0.  (I've not tried any
                others; there are no documented incompatibilities).


COPY PROTECTION

        None.  Installs on a hard drive.

        Saves games as ordinary AmigaDOS files in the directory the
particular game is run from.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

        Amiga 500 Rev 6
        1MB Chip RAM, 2MB Fast RAM
        Commodore A590 hard drive
        AmigaDOS 2.04


REVIEW

        The package includes 20 of the "classic" text-based adventure games
released by Infocom in the early 80's:

                Zork
                Zork II
                Zork III
                Beyond Zork
                Zork Zero
                Enchanter
                Sorcerer
                Spellbreaker
                Deadline
                Witness
                Suspect
                Lurking Horror
                Ballyhoo
                Infidel
                Moonmist
                Planetfall
                Stationfall
                Suspended
                Starcross
                Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

        The games utilise the Infocom "Zork Interpreter" and data files
which control the operation of the game.  These are set up to run from
Workbench with a simple icon click.

        Whereas in the original implementations (at least my experience with
them on Apple II) the data file was continually accessed off the disk, in
this incarnation, the files are read into memory.  This explains why a game
that ran on a 32K Apple II needs a massive 175K to run on an Amiga 500!

        Most of the games (particularly the earlier ones) run in a text
window on the Workbench screen and seem to multitask quite happily.  Some of
the later games include graphics and sound and run on their own
screens.


DOCUMENTATION

        Two printed manuals are provided:

                The Manual
                The Hint Book

        The Manual contains the original printed material for each of the
games in a single book.  This provides special instructions understood by
each game, background information and scenario for each game.

        The Hint book provides tips, and answers to get you going once you
get stuck.  This is full of spoilers.  In the original release, this
information was NOT provided with the games, but was available from Infocom
should you get hopelessly stranded.  Nice to have it provided.

        A set of maps for the games is also included (and like the hint book,
this was available as an add-on originally).

        Does it tell you everything you NEED to know?  Yes, but you have to
hunt for it sometimes (this is not a criticism!!).

        Everything you WANT to know?  Definitely not!!!  That's the point of
an adventure game.  The hint book (which a REAL adventurer would never use)
DOES give the answers to most of your questions (including those you don't
know you need to be asking... yet).


LIKES AND DISLIKES

        The games cover a range of difficulties.  Unfortunately, the
documentation does not give any indications as to which games are advanced
and which are better for novices.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

        These Infocom games are the originals (or close to them).  Most other
computer-based RPG games trace their ancestry back to them.

        The games were renowned (in their day) for the power of their text
parser.  For example, it understands commands like "press all but the blue
button."


CONCLUSIONS

        Want to buy a 15-year old computer game???

        Want to buy 20 of them???

        YES... in my case.

        If you want flashy graphics, sound tracks and spoon feeding, then
this product is not for you.

        If you want solid puzzles, a lot of mental gymnastics, strategy and
a variety of scenarios, get it.


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

        Copyright 1993 Peter S. Ingham.  All rights reserved.
        This review is freely distributable for non-profit use.



@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P4-4 "NVN"
@toc "menu"

/// NVN WANTS YOU!                        Another Network Supports Amiga!
    --------------



                       National Videotext Network (NVN)


National Videotext Network (NVN) has recently added an Amiga Forum to it's
growing lists of available services.  The Amiga Forum is ready and waiting
for you!

Order an extended NVN Membership of 6 or 12 months, pay for it in advance
and receive a bonus in connect time at no additional charge.  Choose from
two subscription plans:

6-Month Membership
------------------

Pay just $30 for a 6-month Membership and receive a usage credit that
entitles you to $15 of connect-time in the Premium services of your choice.
Your total savings using this plan would be over $20!*

12 Month Membership
-------------------

Pay $50 for a full year's Membership and get even more free time online.
We'll give you a $25 usage credit to use in your favorite Premium services
or try out new ones.  You could save as much as $45.*

For more information about either of these plans, give us a call at
1-800-336-9096.


                            -=* 9600 BAUD USERS *=-
                  $6/hour non-prime time - $9/hour prime time

                       You can join NVN one of two ways.
                By voice phone 1-800-336-9096 (Client Services)
                                      or
                        via modem phone 1-800-336-9092.


@endnode
***************************************************************************
@node P4-6 "BIX"
@toc "menu"

/// BIX - Byte Information Exchange             Lots of information!
    -------------------------------


BIX is the premier online service for computing professionals and enthusiasts.
While other online services cater to computer novices, BIX is the place for 
knowledgeable people to go for answers to tough questions.  You're likely 
to find many others in similar situations who can offer advice, give 
technical assistance, or point you in the right direction.

BIX is divided into areas called conferences, each devoted to a 
particular area of interest.  They range from algorithms to windows,
from writers to amiga.  Conferences are categorized into groups,
usually referred to as exchanges, so that you can browse through
whatever groups interest you and see a list of the conferences it 
contains.

These are some of the exchanges on BIX:

amiga.exchange - the place for Amiga developers and enthusiasts
byte - the full text of each issue of BYTE magazine; source code too 
e.and.l - Entertainment and Leisure; music, pets, games, more
ibm.exchange - everything from OS/2 to PC clones
mac.exchange -  Mac news, support, software, advice
professionals - consultants, engineers, financiers gather here
programmers - some of the best brains in the business!
wix - the Information Exchange for Windows; Windows Magazine online
writers.ex - the professional and amateur writer's exchange


************FULL INTERNET ACCESS!************

BIX also features access to the Internet - you can use FTP to transfer
files from sites all over the world, telnet to log on to other online 
services, schools, and research sites, and send Internet mail to millions 
of people at services like DELPHI, CompuServe, America Online, MCI Mail, 
and other sites and services.  Services like "WHOIS" and "Finger" are 
also available, with more features on the way (like USENET newsgroups; 
our newsreader is currently being tested and should be available very 
soon!)  There are no usage fees or special charges for Internet access - 
it's all part of your BIX subscription. 


================================
Rates and Connect Information:
================================

BIX membership costs $13 per month, plus connect time.  There are several 
different ways to connect:

SprintNet*              $3/hour evenings/weekends   $9/hour weekdays
Tymnet:**               $3/hour evenings/weekends   $9/hour weekdays
(SprintNet and Tyment rates shown are for 48 contiguous US states only.)
                                                        
Tymnet Canada:          $4/hr eves/wkends           $9/hour weekdays
Tymnet Hawaii:          $10/hr eves/wkends          $20/hour weekdays   
Telnet(via Internet):   $1/hour, round the clock
Direct dial (Boston):   $2/hour, round the clock (up to 9600 bps)
 
 * SprintNet daytime hours are from 6am to 7pm, M-F, ET.
** Tymnet daytime hours are from 7am to 6pm, M-F, ET.



To find your local SprintNet number, call SprintNet at (800) 877-5045,
ext. 5.  Internationally, call (404) 859-7700.

To find a local Tymnet number, call Tymnet at (800) 937-2862.  
Internationally, call (703) 442-0145.

================

There is no surcharge for 9600 bps access via either telecom carrier.

There is no surcharge for up to 10mb of Internet mail per month (sent
and received).  There will be a charge of $1 per 100,000 bytes 
thereafter.

================

20/20 PLAN OPTION (for USA-48 users only):

Volume users can choose the 20/20 Advantage Plan, which is $20 per month
and includes the first 20 hours of access by any combination of methods 
from the contiguous United States.  Additional use is $1.80 per hour 
(additional use for telnet access is $1 an hour).  The 20/20 Plan's cost is 
in addition to the $13 monthly fee.  

INTERNATIONAL USERS:

If you wish to connect internationally through Tymnet or SprintNet, 
please contact your local PTT.  BIX accepts prepaid international calls,
direct dial, or telnet connections.  In order to make a "collect" (not 
prepaid) call to BIX, your account must be verified before the charges 
are accepted.  When you complete the registration, we'll mail you a BIX
Membership Agreement by regular US Mail.  Whe you receive it, sign it 
and return it to us by mail.  When we receive it here, we'll authorize
your account to make reverse charged calls.

If you want to access BIX right away, contact your local PTT to set up a 
prepaid account.  You'll pay your local carrier for your calls to BIX in
advance, so there's no waiting period or verfication needed. Or, connect 
at BIX via telnet to x25.bix.com.

SprintNet international calls from most locations are $24 an hour.
Tymnet international charges vary, but are generally between $20-$30 an hour.

=========================
Billing Information: 
=========================

You can charge your monthly BIX membership fees to your Visa, 
Mastercard, Discover, or American Express card.

You may have your company invoiced for one or more BIX memberships with 
a BIX Corporate Account.  To do so, send by US Mail or fax a Purchase Order 
including a Purchase Order number, invoice address, contact person, a 
phone number where we can reach the contact person, and the company's 
fax number.  Please direct it to the attention of Connie Lopes, who
handles corporate accounts.  Our fax number is 617-491-6642.  Your 
corporate account will generally be set up within 24 hours.


========================
To Sign Up For BIX:
========================

   Dial by modem 1-800-695-4882 or 617-491-5410 * 
   (use 8 data bits, no parity, full duplex)

   Press a few carriage returns until you see the Login:(enter "bix") 
   prompt, then type  bix

   At the Name? prompt, type bix.amrpt

* Users already on the internet can telnet to x25.bix.com instead.
  At the USERNAME: prompt enter bix, then bix.net at the Name? prompt.
  Once your account is registered, you can connect the same way, except
  at the Name? prompt you'll enter your BIXname and then your password.


Using the above procedure will allow users in the 48 contiguous United 
States to take advantage of our special "5 for $5" offer.  This offer 
lets you use up to 5 hours of evening/weekend time on BIX during the 
current calender month (whatever month you sign up in), for $5.  
Additional time is $1.80 per hour ($1 per hour for telnet).  At the end 
of the calender month, you will be placed into our standard rate plan, 
at $13 monthly plus connect charges.  You may also join the 20/20 Plan 
at this time.

If you have other questions, please contact BIX Member Services 
at (800) 695-4775; send a fax to BIX at (617) 491-6642; or send Internet
mail to info@bix.com.

BIX Member Services hours are 12pm - 11pm, Monday through Friday, ET.  


@endnode
***************************************************************************

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

/// Dealer Directory                               Serving our readers!           
    ----------------



                           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
                              GEnie:  B.GRAY


                CLICK! Microcomputer Applications B.V.B.A.
                            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


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


                               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
                       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


                                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


                              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



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

@endnode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@node P1-13 "AR Confidential"
@toc "menu"


/// AR Confidential                    We heard it through the grapevine!
    ---------------


 - New modem standard?

   A proposed standard for 16.8K bps and 19.2K bps is supposedly in the
   works.  Dubbed V.32terbo (ter meaning three, as in the third V.32
   standard), this could offer current V.32bis owners an easy upgrade
   path.  Reports indicate that a simple firmware upgrade (possibly a
   chip change too) is all that would be required.  More on this as it
   develops.   



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

@node P1-14 "Humor Department"
@toc "menu"

/// The Humor Department           Jokes, Quotes, Insults, Shameless Plugs
    --------------------


            "Beware the man who sells remanufactured antiques."



@endnode

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

===========================================================================
                  Amiga Report International Online Magazine
September 3, 1993      * YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE *            No. 1.23
                     Copyright © 1993 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.
===========================================================================
 
                                    Only
                  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                  *       _    _       __  ___    _       *
                  *      /\\  |\\   /| || //  \  /\\      *
                  *     /  \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __  /  \\     *
                  *    /--- \\|  \X || || \\_||/--- \\    *
                  *   /______________________________\\   *
                  *  /                                \\  *
                  *                                       *
                  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                             Makes it possible!!

@endnode

@node "menu" "Amiga Report 1.23  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} Dealer Addresses and Numbers
@{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-up information
@{"     FTP Announcements      " link P5} Files available for FTP
@{"   AR Distribution Sites    " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT



/// 09/03/93 Amiga Report 1.23   "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
    --------------------------
    · The Editor's Desk     · CPU Report           · New Products
    · Dealer Directory      · AR Online            · AR Confidential
    · SimLife AGA           · MBX1230XA            · Brilliance

                           » Cortland AmigaFest «
                            » Delphi Takeover! «
                    » Soft-Logik Announces TypeSmith 2.0 «

===========================================================================
                 Amiga Report International Online Magazine
                 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information"
                            » FEATURING WEEKLY «
                  Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information
      Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
              Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports
===========================================================================
         @{" PORTAL " link P4-2} · @{" DELPHI " link P4-1} · @{" FIDO " link P2-1} · @{" INTERNET " link P4-5} · @{" BIX " link P4-6} · @{" NVN " link P4-4}
===========================================================================


@endnode

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

@{"    From the Editor's Desk    " link P1-1} Saying it like it is!
@{"      CPU  Status Report      " link P1-2} Computer Products Update
@{"        Online Weekly         " link P1-3} The lines ARE buzzing!
@{"    Amiga Tip of the Week     " link P1-4} The Amiga startup procedure
@{"     AR available on WWW      " link P1-5} Read it on the InterNet!
@{"    Show Report: AmigaFest    " link P1-6} In "SUNY" Cortland
@{"  UseNet Review - Brilliance  " link P1-7} by Digital Creations
@{"        The AR Viewer         " link P1-8} We have a brush viewer!
@{"  UseNet Review - The 1230XA  " link P1-9} An accelerator by Microbotics
@{" GameSmith Development System " link P1-10} From BitHead Technologies
@{"   UseNet Review - Simlife    " link P1-11} by Maxis/Mindscape
@{"   UseNet Review - Infocom    " link P1-12} The Lost Treasures of Infocom
@{"        AR Confidential       " link P1-13} A new modem standard?
@{"     The Humor Department     " link P1-14} Jokes, Quotes, & Shameless plugs

@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}  It's getting better all the time!
@{"   Portal   " link P4-2}  A great place for Amiga users...
@{"  Holonet   " link P4-3}  Inexpensive Internet Access
@{"    NVN     " link P4-4}  National Videotex Network
@{"  InterNet  " link P4-5}  Subscribe to the AR Mailing List
@{"    BIX     " link P4-6}  For Serious Programmers and Developers
@endnode

@node P5 "FTP Announcements"
@toc "menu"

@{"  AlertPatch v2.19  " link P5-1} Patch for exec.library's Alert()
@{"     Less v1.6z     " link P5-2} Unix-style text reader for the Amiga
@{"      MUI v.13      " link P5-3} System to create and maintain GUIs
@{" Window Daemon v1.0 " link P5-4} Control Intuition windows and screens
@{"   WhiteLion v1.3   " link P5-5} An Othello/Reversi game
 
@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 Starnet BBS *
                            Robert Niles, Sysop
                            FidoNet  1:3407/104
                509-966-3828  Supra V.32bis  24hrs - 7 days
                            Yakima, Washington
@endnode           
	       ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-3 "Cloud's Corner"
@toc "menu"


        
                          * CLOUD'S CORNER BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
               Starnet/MebbsNet Support Site West Coast USA
                          * Running Starnet BBS *
                            Larry Cloud, Sysop
                             FidoNet  1:350/30
                 206-377-4290  USR HST DS  24hrs - 7 days
                           Bremerton, Washington
@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
                   Internet:  user_name@junct9.royle.org
      Line 1  +44 (0)372 271000  14400  V.32bis/HST   Fido 2:253/510
      Line 2  +44 (0)372 278000  14400  V.32bis only  Fido 2:253/520
      Line 3  +44 (0)372 279000  2400   V.42bis/MNP   Fido 2:253/530
                  Sysop Email:  sysadmin@junct9.royle.org
@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-6
@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
                 ------------------------------------------

           Amiga Report can be FREQ'd each week from the systems
              listed above.  Use the filename AR.LHA and you
                     will always get the latest issue.

                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-7 "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 P2-1-8 "LAHO"
@toc "menu"



                               * LAHO BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland
                             * Running MBBS *
                           Juha Makinen,  Sysop
                        +358-64-414 1516, V.32/HST
                        +358-64-414 0400, V.32/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 upcoming
CD-ROM drive. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in
a DesqView window. 

We have over 6000 files online (no CD-ROM yet) containing titles for PC
and Amiga or both like GIF-pictures, music-modules and text-files. The
upload/download ratio is a very lousy 1:100.  (i.e. you upload a 20k file
and may download 2MB).

Messages are mainly written in Finnish, but English is widely used by
Swedish-speaking and international callers.

Download-access will be granted when asked. Also Amiga-areas are available
for those who will need them to avoid 'wars' between PC and Amiga users.
Access to sex pictures and stories are only for persons over 18 years
and given when requested.

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) on their first call.

The system is 4.5 years old and sponsored by the local telephone company,
Vaasan Laanin Puhelin Oy.

   SysOps:   Lenni Uitti        (Main SysOp)
             Juha Makinen       (SysOp of the Amiga-areas)
             Tero Manninen      (SysOp of the PC-areas)
             

@endnode
                 ------------------------------------------
@node P2-1-9 "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 P2-1-10 "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 P2-1-11 "Omaha Amiganet"
@toc "menu"

                            * OMAHA AMIGANET *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                           Andy Wasserman, Sysop
                              24hrs - 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 P2-1-12 "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 P2-1-13 "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: 1:221/202
                             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 P2-1-14 "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
                     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
