@database "ar505.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #5.05 -- May 31, 1997"
===========================================================================
  May 31, 1997                @{" Turn the Page " link MENU}             Issue No. 5.05
===========================================================================

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                 "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"

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

Amiga Report 5.05 is sponsored in part by:


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

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

@{" Amiga Informer Magazine " link NEWS49}  The fastest-growing American print magazine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    @{"     Where to Get AR      " link WHERE}             @{"     Advertisements      " link COMMERCIAL}
 Mailing List &  Distribution Sites     Online Services, Dealers, Ordering
               ______________________________________________
         //   |                                              |       //
========//====|  Amiga Report International Online Magazine  |======//=====
==   \\//     |  Issue No. 5.05                May 31, 1997  |   \\//    ==
==============|  "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"  |=============
              |______________________________________________|
@endnode
@node JASON "Editor"
@toc STAFF

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This magazine thing is a strange job.  Sometimes it's not so much about
disseminating information to the public as it is making sure that the
public's imagination doesn't run away from them.  Sort of what we could
call the "constant stream of information" theory--unless Amiga users get a
constant stream of information (which is of course impossible) there is a
chance that their imagination will try to fill in those gaps.

That's where the press is supposed to step in and fill the dead space with
reassurance and reminders.  So here's what I think is a much-needed
reminder that--hey, put your imagination away and stop pining for older,
"better" times because it's actually quite good.

Through a complicated walk through my mind I got to thinking about what it
costs to equip an Amiga to the nines today, compared with two years ago.

In the summer of '95 you would have paid something in the vicinity of
US$1500 if you wanted an 060 card.  Tack on another $600 if you want a
graphics card.  So, $2100 to take your Amiga to the top of the charts in
power.

Now, thanks to some cost-reduction and competition, an 060 card (by most
accounts better than the one you would have bought back then) can be had
for half that.  A new-generation graphics card, on average, about US$400.
So, about half as much money for newer, better products.  Not too shabby,
I'd say.  Count in other costs exogenous to the whiles of the Amiga market,
like RAM and HD prices, and you're spending even less.

Before you simply say that it's the march of technology making things
cheaper, I'd like to point out that the general trend as of late has been
not just to make existing products cheaper, but introducing the next
generation of performance at lower prices as well.  Case in point, the
introduction of the CyberVision 64/3D and Picasso IV at prices well below
their predecessors.  The PowerPC cards from Phase5 are similarly going to
clock in at an overall lower price than previous new accelerators have.
And on the low end of things, I've just received information on a
forthcoming A1200 030/33 accelerator boasting 4 megs of onboard RAM at the
price of US$115.

Now.  I hope that's settled a few nerves, because I don't have the sort of
information you might be looking for.  Gateway still hasn't sent out any
spec sheets on the next Amiga and we shouldn't expect them to any time
soon.  But in the meantime, there's plenty of stuff to do.  Surely, the 50+
news items and the absolutely massive WOA report will keep you busy for
some time--it certainly kept me busy trying to get the issue together.
Enjoy!

-Jason

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

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

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

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

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

@{"     Amiga Informer Magazine   " link NEWS49}  The USA's fastest growing magazine

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

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

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

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

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

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

AWeb-II (AWeb-II v3.0 / HTML-Heaven v2.1 WWW Software)  $ 60.00     $ 45.00
AWeb-II (v2.1 to v3.0 Upgrade)                          $ 27.00     $ 20.00

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

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

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

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

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

Amiga-Link Accessories:

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


The P-Net Box, a ParNet Adapter                         $ 15.00     $ 12.00
AM33C93A-16PC SCSI chip for A3000 (WD-08 equivalent)    $ 26.00     $ 20.00
A3000 U202/U203 chip ram control PALs - each            $ 15.00     $ 12.00
External Active SCSI Terminator - C50 male              $ 29.75     $ 23.50
Internal Active SCSI Terminator - IDC50 male            $ 19.00     $ 15.00
External Passive SCSI Terminator - C50 male/female      $ 12.25     $  9.75
DB23 solder-type connector
- male, female, or chrome hood - each                   $  1.65     $  1.25


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

Canadian customers add 7% GST to all orders.

Payments may be made with a Bank Draft/Money Order, Postal MO, or VISA to 
AmiTrix Development in CAN or US dollars.  VISA orders charged in CAN $.

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

Shipping costs may vary for quantity orders/alternative method of shipment.
===========================================================================

@endnode

@node AD3 "Amiga Legacy Magazine"
@toc COMMERCIAL

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

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

...premiering in June 1997...

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

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

1997's issues of Legacy will contain footage from Dave Haynie's acclaimed
Deathbed Vigil documentary, including never before seen footage!

Let Legacy SHOW It To You!

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

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

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

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

Subscription Rates:

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

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

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

[Illinois residents add 8.25% sales tax.]

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

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

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

Welcome to the Amiga Legacy!

@endnode

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


         [  AudioLab16R2: digital audio NL-editing/DSP software ]

For  more  informations about  the  AudioLab16R2 family  of products please
e-mail to: maurizio@ivg.it


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

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


Different  versions  are  available  for  every  ZII/ZIII  audio  boards in
production  or,  if  you don't have a board yet, the standard Amiga chipset
(Standard version only) (1):


      Hardware         AudioLab Version

    - SoundStagePro    AudioLabR2-SoundStage
    - SoundStage       AudioLabR2-SoundStage
    - DelfinaPro       AudioLabR2-Delfina
    - Delfina          AudioLabR2-Delfina
    - DelfinaLite      AudioLabR2-Delfina
    - Prelude          AudioLabR2-Prelude
    - Toccata          AudioLabR2-Standard
    - Maestro          AudioLabR2-Standard (2)
    - DracoAudio       AudioLabR2-Standard
    - AmigaAudio       AudioLabR2-Standard


(1) Every version supports direct read/write access to Studio16 audio files
    for use with the AD516/AD1012 boards by Sunrize.   You  can  apply  DSP
    operators to your Studio16 files and get the processed material written
    back to disk while preserving SMPTE timecode informations.

(2) Maestro driver not available yet. Every other driver is available NOW.



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


      Program                                Platform 

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




The  following manifacturers  are  technical partners,  providing  official
drivers and accepting orders:

    - Applied Magic Inc.  USA      (AudioLab16R2-SoundStage only)
    - Petsoff L.P.        FINLAND  (AudioLab16R2-Delfina only)
    - A.C.T.              GERMANY  (AudioLab16R2-Prelude only)



AudioLab16R2 on the WWW (official sites):

    - http://www.amagic.com/html/al16ss.html
    - http://www.sci.fi/~petsoff/al16df.htm
    - http://www.act-net.com/al16pr.htm



AudioLab16R2 on AR (technical details):

    - issue 503
    - issue 504


AudioLab16R2 is  sponsor  of  AmigaReport  and  "The Amiga Audio Cards" WWW
site (http://www.iki.fi/pporkka).

@endnode
@node MAIL "Reader Mail"
@toc MENU

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

From: Dirk Tust <Dirk.Tust@mni.fh-giessen.de>

Hello Jason!

It's good to read a new issue of Amiga Report after many weeks of waiting.
Although I have left the Amiga community some years ago I still have a look
at the development of the Amiga from time to time, and your AR is an
excellent way to do so.

However, in issue 5.04 you reported about one MPEG audio compression scheme
and, after listing some names for it, you decided to call it "MPEG3".
Unfortunately, this is defintely the wrongest one (greetings to Murphy 8-)
).  To enlighten you, here is a short description of the MPEG family.


MPEG-1
------

Video: non-interlaced video with frames up to 4095*4095 pixels
theoretically, real implementations mostly use 352*240 at 30 frames/s and
352*288 at 25 frames/s

Audio: 16 bit PCM audio mono or stereo at 32/44.1/48 kHz sampling rate

There are three encoding schemes for audio which are called Layer 1, Layer
2, and Layer 3.  The different layers are optimized for different intended
target bitrates of 192, 128, and 64 kb/s per audio channel respectively
with maximum total rates of 448, 384, and 320 kb/s respectively.

System: How to mix video and audio data streams into one data stream


MPEG-2
------

Video: interlaced and non-interlaced video with frames up to 16383*16383
pixels theoretically, real implementations with 720*480 at 30 frames/s,
720*576 at 25 frames/s (both used in DVD Video), 1920*1080 at 30 frames/s
(US digital television, maximum values)

Audio: same as MPEG-1 Audio, extended with specs for:
- sampling rates 16/22.05/24 kHz
- surround sound channels compatible with MPEG-1 Audio
- surround sound channels _not_ compatible with MPEG-1 Audio 

System: as above, with compatible extensions


MPEG-3
------

intended for High Definition TV (e.g.  1920*1080 pixels), but dropped
because MPEG-2 was sufficent for this, too


MPEG-4
------

video and audio encoding for very low bitrates (ca.  64 kb/s), still under
development


More information is available via http://www.mpeg.org.

Summary and conclusion: The right name is "MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3".

Best wishes,
Dirk Tust


-    Thanks for the summary, Dirk.  I understand the confusion the term
     "MPEG3" doubtless causes among those who really understand MPEG but
     the fact is that most of the resources our readers will be looking
     through will indeed refer to MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 as "MPEG3" or simply
     "MP3".  In a way that seems appropriate if the real "MPEG-3" is a
     defunct standard.  -Jason

********

From: ratkins@osix.com.au (Robert Atkins)
Subject: Why people wanted the Gateway AR issue...

Jason,

There are two sources of information I believe for Amiga buyout related
news.  Official press releases in comp.sys.amiga.announce, and the news and
editorial of AR.  It's just not worth the trouble of believing anything
else these anymore. 

Up until a couple of days after "the announcement", nothing had turned up
in c.s.a.a on my news server, and that's why *I* was hanging on for the
buyout issue of AR. 

I think that's why people still wanted the GW buyout issue -- so we had the
real story from the source we trust.  Thanks.

@endnode

@node NEWS1 "HotListHandler 1.10"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

HotListHandler 1.10 (30-Mar-97)

AUTHOR

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

DESCRIPTION

HotListHandler (HLH) will manage your hotlist!

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

HLH FEATURES

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

NEW FEATURES

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

HLH SUPPORTS

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

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

REQUIREMENTS

Amiga OS 3.0+

AVAILABILITY

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

PRICE & DISTRIBUTABITY

Shareware: $10 US
Distribution: Not restricted.
Copyright (c) 1996-1997 Robert Nienkemper

@endnode
@node NEWS2 "AHI Audio System R4"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

AHI Audio System

VERSION

Release 4

AUTHOR

Martin Blom <lcs@lysator.liu.se>

DESCRIPTION

Retargetable Audio for AmigaOS

(When refering to this software, the correct term is 'AHI audio system' or
just 'AHI', never 'Audio Hardware Interface'!  'AHI' is pronounced
'atchii', as in 'God bless!'.)

Starting with version 3 of AHI, the MC68000 processor is also supported.
However, many features are lacking:

* 16 bit samples are converted to 8 bits before they are mixed.
* No HiFi mixing routines are available.
* No stereo samples
* No DSP effects are available.
* Less precision on some calculations
* Slower

As you can see, this version is very primitive.  Get yourself an
accelerator!  I cannot guarantee that I will continue to support this
processor in the future.

Quick overview

* Driver based

Each supported sound card is controlled by a library-based audio driver.
For a 'dumb' sound card, a new driver should be written in a few hours.
For a 'smart' sound card, it is possible to utilize an on-board DSP, for
example, to maximize performance and sound quality.  For sound cards with
own DSP but little or no memory, it is possible to use the main CPU to mix
channels and do the post-processing with the DSP.  Available today are
drivers for

* Aura (sampler only)
* Delfina
* DraCo Motion
* Paula (8/14/14c bit)
* Prelude
* Toccata
* Wavetools
* 8SVX (mono) and AIFF/AIFC (mono & stereo) sample render

* Fast, powerful mixing routines (yeah, right... haha)

The device's mixing routines mix 8- or 16-bit signed samples, both mono and
stereo, located in Fast-RAM and outputs 16-bit mono or stereo (with stereo
panning if desired) data, using any number of channels (as long as 'any'
means less than 128...).  Tables can be used speed the mixing up
(especially when using 8-bit samples).  The samples can have any length
(including odd) and can have any number of loops.

* Support for non-realtime mixing

By providing a timing feature, it is possible to create high- quality
output even if the processing power is lacking, by saving the output to
disk, for example as an IFF AIFF or 8SXV file.  There are so-called HiFi
mixing routines that can be used, which use linear interpolation and gives
32 bit output.

* Audio database

Uses ID codes, much like Screenmode IDs, to select the many parameters that
can be set.  The functions to access the audio database are not too
different from those in 'graphics.library'.  The device also features a
requester to get an ID code from the user.

* Both high- and low-level protocol

By acting both like a device and a library, AHI gives the programmer a
choice between full control and simplicity.  The device API allows several
programs to use the audio hardware at the same time, and the AUDIO:
dos-device driver makes playing and recording sound very simple for both
the programmer and user.

* Future Compatible

When AmigaOS gets device-independent audio worth it's name, it should not
be too difficult to write a driver for AHI, allowing applications using
'ahi.device' to automatically use the new OS interface.  At least I hope
not.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

AmigaOS release 2.
MC68020 processor strongly recommended.

AVAILABILITY

Aminet, for example:
ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/dev/misc/ahidev.lha
ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/mus/misc/ahiusr.lha
ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/docs/misc/ahiman.lha

WWW:
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~lcs/ahi.html

PRICE

Free.  But if you use it in a shareware of commercial product, I would like
a registered copy for me and each of the audio driver authors (this is
merely a wish, you don't have to do it if you don't think we deserve it). 
See the AHI User's Guide for more information.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

Copyright 1994-1997 Martin Blom.
Freely distributable in unmodified form.
See the AHI User's Guide for more information.

@endnode
@node NEWS3 "AHI R4 Extra Utilities"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

AHI extra utilities

VERSION

Speak Freely6.1b
Newtracker3.56/AHIr2
AHI-Noteplayer 1.4
HardDiskRecord 1.1
AHI-SoundDT40.6 patched
ProtrackerDT1.11

AUTHOR

Martin Blom<lcs@lysator.liu.se>

Bjornar Henden<bhenden@sn.no>
John Walker<http://www.fourmilab.ch>
Commodore-Amiga, Inc.Hell?

DESCRIPTION

Speak Freely

This is a quick port if John Walker's "Speak Freely" (Unix version).  The
AUDIO: device that is part of the AHI package (see
Aminet:mus/misc/ahiusr.lha or
<URL:http://www.lysator.liu.se/~lcs/ahi.html>) is used to play and record
sound.  This means that it was a walk in the park to port the program, and
that it also supports sound cards.

Newtracker

This is a program to compose music modules.  It should be compatible with
the ProTracker module-format.  Some of the advantages:
- requires 2.0 and asl.library v38
- font-sensitive gadget user interface
- multiple windows, most of them sizeable
- opens on any public screen
- select screenmode
- support for xpk
- doesn't mess up your hires pointer
- correctly allocates audio.device
- builtin sampler (not the best)

Some of the disadvantages:
- no documentation
- maybe too few functions at the moment

Original program written by Bjornar Henden, this version hacked to use AHI
by Martin Blom.  My changes include:

  Replaced audio.device opendevice/closedevice with AHI routines.
  Added an audio mode requester.
  Added the new AHI variables to the prefs file.
  Redirected all audio hardware banging to AHI.
  Changed sample loading to fast-memory instead of chip.
  Removed CIA timer code, AHI's timing is used instead (yes, it
works with the filesave driver!).
  Commented out the Filter and Funk effects (Funk works
perfectly, but it's such a lame effect that I wont support it).

r2:
  I had the channels (left/right) swapped.
  The quadrascopes works with sound cards now.
  Some error checking added.

AHI-Noteplayer

This is a DeliTracker NotePlayer for the AHI audio system.  Based on the
Toccata NotePlayer Genie by Delirium Softdesign.

HardDiskRecord

This is the binary distribution of HardDiskRecord, a simple program that I
wrote to demonstrate how to use AHI for recording.  The full source is
included in the AHI Developer's Archive.

AHI-SoundDT

This is just yet another of those quick'n dirty one-day hacks for AHI.
This time a small patch for sound.datatype that makes it use the AHI audio
system version 4 instead of audio.device.  Hopefully Jonathan Gapen will
finish his new sound.datatype featuring 16 bit sound soon, but in the mean
time this hack may be useful.

ProtrackerDT

Protracker datatype, using AHI version 2 or later.  Quite hackish, but it
works.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

AmigaOS release 2.
MC68020+ processor strongly recommended.
AHI audio system version 4.

AVAILABILITY

Aminet, for example:
ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/comm/net/ahi-sf-6.1b.lha
ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/mus/edit/NewTracker-AHI.lha
ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/mus/play/AHI-NotePlayer.lha
ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/mus/misc/HardDiskRecord.lha
ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/util/dtype/AHI-SoundDT.lha
ftp://ftp.germany.aminet.org/pub/aminet/util/dtype/ProtrackerDT.lha

WWW:
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~lcs/ahi.html

PRICE

Free.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

Freeware.
Freely distributable in unmodified form.

@endnode
@node NEWS4 "STU - System Test Utility V8"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

STU - System Test Utility

VERSION

8.0

AUTHOR

Tony Preston, apreston@k2nesoft.com

DESCRIPTION

STU is an Amiga system diagnostic.  Its purpose is to test disk drives and
memory on any model Amiga using the operating system functions.  With this
program you can test all available memory and the disk functions of the
system.  The user has the ability to test individual drives for errors.

NEW FEATURES

There are a few small bug fixes for some enforcer hits.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

STU will run on any Amiga running OS 1.3 or later.

AVAILABILITY

Available from any Aminet site such as:

ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/aminet/disk/util/stu.lha

The latest version can always be downloaded from:
The Amiga Zone BBS  (609) 953-8159

DISTRIBUTABILITY

The STU archive may be downloaded to any BBS or distributed on any CD-ROM
archive or FTP site.

OTHER

Copyrighted 1997 Custom Services.  All rights reserved.

STU is a shareware product.  The fee for registration is $10

@endnode

@node NEWS5 "PC-Task 4.2 with FPU Emulation Available!"
@toc NEWS

Attention!

PC-Task 4.2 is now available!

PC-Task 4.2 is the latest release of the 486 PC Emulator.  This update
includes full FPU emulation!  Now you can watch Quake without 3rd party FPU
emulation software.

New features of PC-Task 4.2 include:
o Full FPU emulation
o Faster graphics and Cybergraphics modes
o Improved Dynamic compilation (with loading Windows and programs as well)
o Increased compatibility

Loading Doom and Windows can be up to 30% faster than version 4.1.  See our
web site for FREE upgrade for 4.0/4.1 users and a demo at:

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pctask

More speed tests have been done, so check them out!

Quasar Distribution

@endnode

@node NEWS6 "CheckHTML V1.2"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

CheckHTML

VERSION

1.2

RELEASE DATE

29.04.1997

AUTHOR

Kai Hofmann (i07m@zfn.uni-bremen.de)
(http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~i07m/)

DESCRIPTION

CheckHTML checks whether a HTML document is conforming with the HTML (3.2)
DTD.  This will be done by using the sgmls parser from James Clark, the
HTML DTD and a small Shell script.

CheckHTML can verify HTML 3.2 and HTML 2.0 documents.  Newer HTML versions
can be easily supported by placing the new DTD into the 'sgml:' directory
and adding their public identifer to the 'CATALOG' file.  The upcoming XML
standard could be easily supported the same way!

AVAILABILITY

http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~i07m/amiga/CheckHTML.html

ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/comm/www/CheckHTML.lha
And all other Aminet sites.

SEE ALSO

- ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/lang/sgmls.lha
- The SGML Handbook, Charles F. Goldfarb
- ISO 8879 (Standard Generalized Markup Language), International
    Organization for Standardization
- http://www.w3c.org

PRICE

This is Freeware!

DISTRIBUTION

SGMLUG hereby grants to any user: (1) an irrevocable royalty-free,
worldwide, non-exclusive license to use, execute, reproduce, display,
perform and distribute copies of, and to prepare derivative works based
upon these materials; and (2) the right to authorize others to do any of
the foregoing.

IMPORTANT NOTE

This package may not be included on any further Aminet CD-ROMs unless
authors contributing their software to the CD-ROM, (without mentioning
distribution "NoCD") are granted a copy of the CD completely free of
charge.

@endnode

@node NEWS7 "Directory Opus 5 Magellan Announced"
@toc NEWS

Press Release: Immediate May 11th 1997

GPSoftware demonstrates its continuing support for the Amiga by announcing
the release of the NEW version of Directory Opus the World of Amiga show in
London May 17/18.

The new product will be demonstrated on the GPSoftware/Wizard Developments
stand at the show and will be available for purchase as a full product or
an upgrade for existing Opus 5.5 users.

-------------------------------------------------
Welcome to Directory Opus 5 Magellan!

From its first release in early '95, many Amiga users have seen the raw
power provided by Opus 5 with its unique concept integrating Workbench
Replacement Mode (tm), file management and custom functionsin the one
package.  These concepts were further refined in the Opus 5.  release in
May '96.  During this time of great uncertainty for the Amiga platform as a
whole, we have been buoyed by the support of Opus users, many of whom have
given us continual encouragement as well as much valuable feedback and
suggestions on future directions for Opus 5. 

Through your support Opus 5 has now become firmly established as the
premier workbench replacement and file management program for the Amiga.

Thanks!

With this new version we have attempted to return your loyalty with ongoing
support for the Amiga platform and a continuation of our development plan
for Opus 5.  We have also tried to add as many of your user suggestions as
possible which are consistent with the metaphor of Opus.

We hope you will enjoy the advanced features in this new version which we
call the Directory Opus 5 Magellan version. 

Summary of Enhancements:

The Magellan version is not just a simple upgrade but the product of 12
months of intensive development of many components of the Opus 5 system and
enthusiastic testing by our beta testers.  This version gives you many new
features with superior useability especially in Workbench Replacement
Mode(tm) with greater control over icons, actions on and with icons, plus
many new features such as Start Menus, extra popup sticky menus and new
background images to name but a few.

After extensive testing we have also improved the compatibility with
Workbench and other Amiga programs with in-built support for the NewIcons
system, better Cybergraphics support, faster icon layout, dragging and
display routines and so on.  A rewritten OpusFTP module complements these
changes and not only gives you up to five times faster access to the
Internet but now has a full GUI for the Address Book and operational
parameters.

New features include:-
. Enhanced Lister functionality including:-
. Command functions can now act on icon mode listers; 
. New popup menus;
. Optional Space Gauge showing free space on drives 
. Inline Editing for Name mode listers
. Enhanced Opus FTP including:-
. New GUI Address book
. New GUI for configuration system
. Up to 5 times faster access with less memory usage
. Individual directory cache exclusive to each FTP Lister
. Optional idle timer 
. Auto index download for AmiNet index files.
. A new integrated system of Start Menus.
. New Desktop Folder mechanism:- Drag and drop items to the desktop with the
   support of optional popup menus
. New Icon Positioning system:- Configure areas where icons will appear and
   their priority.
. Global control of icon labels and icon borders.
. Direct byte-for-byte copy of icons.
. Icon label splitting for long labels.
. New Icon Command function for special "command" files.
. New Icon Information requester with extensive popup options.
. Faster icon dragging routines.
. Use traditional Workbench icon positions for icons or exclusive Opus
   positioning.
. New Popup menus with shadow look.
. New Environment GUIs for greater control over Opus configurations.
. Cybergraphics support for dragging icons and general display speed with
   full 24 bit backdrops.
. Integrated NewIcons support not just for icons but for all system images
   including graphic button banks.
. Improved compatibility with MUI, DataTypes, MCP and a number of other
   programs.
. New environment variables to allow you to customise Opus functionality
   even more.
. Rewritten Text Viewer for faster access and better scrolling especially on
   Cybergraphics screens.
. New Filetypes including ability to match on disks.
. New Scripts system of disk inserted/disk notification gives control over
   new disks or newly mounted remote file systems.
. New Command Functions plus enhanced Argument Variables.
. Buttons/Images: Full NewIcon image support plus more support for image and
   animation file formats including DPaintV/PPaint AnimBrushes.
. Groups: Can now contain icon-less items plus you may now add left-out
   commands to groups.
. New ARexx commands.
. More than 40 new callback hooks for easier user programming of Opus

Availability 

The Directory Opus 5 Magallan version will be on demonstration and
available for purchase direct from us on the Wizard/GPSoftware stand at the
World of Amiga show at the Novotel in London May 17/18.

We apologise!  Our priority has been to get this new Magellan version ready
and available for the WoA show so as to show off new Amiga developments.
So I just have not had time to notify existing users.  All registered users
will be notified by mail with a special upgrade offer sometime around the
start of June. 

NOTE: Because of show schedules and resulting time and travel delays,
stocks of the Directory Opus 5 Magellan version will most likely not be
available for sale from main distributors apart from Wizard until
approximately end of May or early June. 

Check out Opus Magellan's New Features from our web page:-

-- 
Regards, Dr Greg Perry
GPSoftware, PO Box 570, Ashgrove, Brisbane, Australia 4060
Phone/Fax +61 7 33661402
Email:zzgperry@mailbox.uq.oz.au
URL:http://www.livewire.com.au/gpsoft

@endnode

@node NEWS8 "Games Master System V0.6B"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

Games Master System (GMS)


VERSION

0.6B (Released 11 May 1997)


AUTHOR

Paul Manias (paul@ethos.co.nz)


DESCRIPTION

The Games Master System is a developers kit that is aimed at enhancing the
functionality of the Amiga OS, with emphasis on games programming.  It is
based on the Amiga shared library standard, so will work with any
programming language such as C, Assembler, E, Basic etc.

The system can be ported across to other platforms besides the Amiga, and
in future GMS programs could be run on other platforms without
recompilation (CPU's must match or they have to be emulated).

Here are just a few of the GMS features:

 - Fast blitter functions, including CPU assisted blitting.
 - Full sprite support.
 - In-built proportional fading functions.
 - Sound support, includes intelligent channel play-back.
 - Support for raster/copperlists with built-in special FX.
 - External structure and object pre-processing, allows user editing of
   program data.
 - Smart saving/loading of files, including auto de/packing.
 - Support for all kinds of input devices (joysticks, joypads etc).
 - A system debugger is provided.
 - A preference program that allows editing of things such as default
   screen dimensions, resolutions, mode promotion etc.
 - Multi-tasking and screen-switching is supported.

The system has a very modern design and includes full resource tracking and
safe task destruction features.  A debugger has been included which GMS
functions co-operate with, so there is no need for special patches or
debugging tools.  Functions are written with garbage protection features
and where possible, software based memory protection.  GMS can recover from
many programming errors that usually result in software failures.

Full documentation and 260k of example source in C, Assembler and E is
included within the archive.


NEW FEATURES

Some of the new features present in V0.6B are:

 - Transparent chunky 2 planar implemented.
 - Picture resizing/scaling for LoadPic().
 - IceBreaker (the GMS debugger) is now available and working.
 - GMSPrefs is available and working.
 - 24 bit colour as standard (no more 12 bit colours).
 - Compiled code will be compatible with 680x0 machines that do not have
   the Amiga hardware or the Amiga OS (eg Macs).
 - Full resource tracking.
 - Task destruction features - just press Left Amiga and Delete to
   automatically kill a GMS program.


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

There are no must-have requirements, but an AGA Amiga is necessary for
about 5% of the demos.  KingCON or any other enhanced shell with a scroll
back buffer is desirable for running IceBreaker.


AVAILABILITY

GMS is available on all up to date Aminet sites, for example:

  ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/misc/gms_dev.lha (460k)


PRICE

This beta version is free.


DISTRIBUTABILITY

The distribution of the Games Master System is limited to Aminet and may
not be redistributed without permission from the Author.  The Games Master
System is (c) Copyright 1996-1997 Paul Manias / DreamWorld Productions.

@endnode
@node NEWS9 "fMSX Amiga 1.4"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

fMSX Amiga 1.4

AUTHOR

Hans Guijt (h.guijt@inter.nl.net)

DESCRIPTION

fMSX Amiga emulates an MSX computer on an Amiga. Features include:

- Full emulation of the MSX1 system.
- Fair emulation of the MSX2 system.
- Support for reading/writing MSX disks and disk images.
- Can play all types of MSX ROMs, including ROMs bigger than 32KB.
- Support for the PSG, SCC, and SCC+ sound chips (through AHI or native).
- Support for MSX memory sizes of up to 4Mb.
- Can be controlled through ARexx.

'MSX' is an 8-bit computer system with surprisingly good graphics and sound
capabilities.  How does graphic resolutions of up to 512 * 424, up to 256
colors on screen, and 9 channel music sound?

To demonstrate, several MSX pictures (taken from fMSX while running) have
been uploaded to aminet (pix/illu/msx_emu.lha).

Software is not included with the package, but many packages (mostly games)
can be found on FTP sites:

ftp.saitama-u.ac.jp/pub/msx/
altair.komkon.com/pub/MSX/
ftp.funet.fi/pub/msx/
riaph.irkutsk.su/pub/

Hundreds of games are available from these sites, and some form a worthy
addition to the Amiga software collection.

Of course fMSX Amiga is fully multitasking, runs in an intuition screen,
and has a font-sensitive user interface.

NEW FEATURES

Most of the VDP (the MSX2 blitter) was rewritten in assembly.  This speeds
MSX2 games up enormeously and removes many of the crashes that previous
versions of fMSX suffered when running MSX2 games.  Of the 101 megaROMs
that were tested 80 worked fine!

At last, AHI support was added to fMSX.  Now you can listen to the full
musical scores of classic Konami games such as Nemesis 2 or 3, Salamander,
F1 Spirit, Gryzor, or Metal Gear 2.  Because of the way AHI works a fast
processor is recommended, though.  Of course the old style sound emulation
is still supported.

Line interrupts were added to the screen 5 emulation.  This makes it
possible to play games such as Aleste (recommended!), Zanac-Ex, Quarth, and
Ashguine 2.

fMSX can now be controlled through an ARexx port!  Example scripts and
relevant documentation are included.

Other new features include less aggressive blitting and user-selectable
double buffering (both good for CyberGfx owners), slightly rewritten
highspeed mode (it should work fine on ECS now), and a host of minor
bugfixes and features.

As a special gimmick fMSX allows you to change the font used by the MSX. 
Several fonts are included in the package.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Required are:

- AmigaOS 2.0
- 68020 processor
- 350 kilobytes chip ram
- 1000 kilobytes other ram

Recommended:

- AmigaOS 3.0
- 68030 processor, at least 25MHz
- Those 1000 kilobytes of 'other' ram had better be fast ram!

Note that fMSX Amiga does *not* require the AGA chipset.  In fact it runs
on any chipset upto and including graphics cards!

AVAILABILITY

fMSX Amiga 1.4 is available from any aminet site, such as:

ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/emu/fmsx_1.4.lha

PRICE

It's free.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

fMSX Amiga 1.4 is publically supported freeware.  If you are interested in
the source, and you're not afraid of function pointers and huge amounts of
assembly mixed with C, you can request it from me.

@endnode
@node NEWS10 "BattleDuel V1.6.96"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

BattleDuel V1.6.96

AUTHOR

Jochen Terstiege <j.terstiege@cww.de>
Michael David <m.david@cww.de>
Marco Seine <m.seine@cww.de>

DESCRIPTION

BattleDuel is a game like 'Artillery Duel' on the C-64:

Two players fight against each other with cannons placed in a windy
mountainous landscape.  To hit the other they change the power and angle of
the cannons.  A duel is finished if one of the cannons is totally damaged.


Some features:

- up to 4 players
- computer opponents
- normal duel mode, 2 tournament modes, practice mode
- ECS/AGA/GraphicBoard support (only one program)
- network support: nullmodem, modem, parnet and TCP/IP
- nice graphics and sound effects
- full multitasking
- OS friendly
- support for publicscreens

NEW FEATURES

- bomber now works correct in network mode
- possible sync-error with parachute solved
- improved recognition of error correction (modem)
- window position is saved (publicscreen)
- support for OwnDevUnit.library
- it was not possible to deactivate the "Shakescreen" option
- the game can be controlled with a gamepad
- new highscore window
- several small bugs were removed

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Kickstart 2.0, Harddisk, Flickerfixer recommended, 1 MB chip memory

AVAILABILITY

Complete version

ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/game/2play/BattleDuel.lha (1215133)

Update from V1.6.80

ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/game/patch/BattleDuel_Update.lha
(135990)

PRICE

Shareware fee of $15 US / DM 20

DISTRIBUTABILITY

BattleDuel is Shareware!
Copyright (C) 1997 Jochen Terstiege, Michael David, Marco Seine

@endnode

@node NEWS11 "WOA UK Gateway Address Videotape"
@toc NEWS

From Amazing Computing/Amiga
Due to the high interest in this event and due to the misinformation and
some misunderstanding by some net users, Amazing Computing has made the
London press conference (May 16, 1997) with Jim Taylor, Senior Vice
President of Global Marketing for Gateway 2000, and Petro Tyschtschenko of
Amiga International available on video.  Discover what was really said in
their speeches and in the question and answer session.

Jim Taylor outlined Gateway 2000's philosophies, Petro Tyschtschenko
outlined the present and future position of Amiga International, and both
men fielded questions from the floor.  Nowhere has this conference been
completely reported (of course AC's July issue will cover the high points)
as thoroughly as this unbiased taped event.  Be a Fly on The Wall and see
for yourself the direction and promises that have been made to the Amiga
community.

Also, discover what PIOS has to say.  What are their plans, what is their
foundation, and how are they going to work in this new environment.  Take
advantage of this special opportunity to discover PIOS current products and
future plans.  The PIOS Press conference and question and answer session
has also been included on this video at no extra charge.


For pricing and order information, please see Amazing's web site at
http://www.pimpub.com or Dial 1-800-345-3360 M-F 9-5 EDST.

Watch your head!  The site is still under construction with new items added
daily.  Visit often!

@endnode

@node NEWS12 "AAA Awards Announcement"
@toc NEWS

The AAA Awards - You're in the Jury!

Contact:
Martin Sahlin
Amiga Computer Group
Skolgatan 14
SE-903 22  UMEE
Sweden

+46-[0]90-139798 (07:00 - 08:00, 16:00 -> CET)

martin.sahlen@amiga-cg.se

More information: AAA Awards Homepage - http://www.amiga-cg.se/aaaa/


Umee, Sweden - Friday, April 18, 1997.  Amiga Computer Group (ACG), an
amiga user association based in Umee, Sweden, hereby announce the
introduction of the annual ACG Amiga Achievement Awards (the AAA Awards) -
an award program aimed at strengthening the Amiga Community.

Background

The Amiga computer has always been recognized for its devoted users and
developers.  Even after the Commodore bankruptcy in 1994, and also the
ESCOM bankruptcy in 1996, Amiga users are still supporting and using their
favourite system, often with even more intensity than ever before.  There
is great potential in the Amiga Community.  Amiga users are innovative,
both in terms of hardware and software.  The Commodore commercials of 1989
stating "Amiga - A Computer for the Creative Mind" are still valid as ever
before.  However, in times like these, when the future of the Amiga is
somewhat uncertain, all members of the Community need motivation and
inspiration to go on working the Amiga magic.  The Amiga has still so many
boundaries to break, and we all need to work together to show it to the
world.  That's where the AAA Awards come in.  The AAA Awards are intended
to be a source of inspiration and motivation for users, developers and
other people working for and with the Amiga.  The AAA Awards may also be a
source of unification, bringing about groundbreaking international Amiga
projects.  Regard them as the achievement awards of the Amiga Community.


The Awards

The AAA Awards are presented by Amiga Computer Group (ACG), a
non-profit-making Amiga User Association based in Umee, Sweden together
with its associates world-wide.  The AAA Awards logo has been designed by
Bjvrn Hagstrvm (orgin@medio.mh.se), of "AmiTech '97" and "Svenska
AmigaMagazin" logo fame.  The AAA Awards consist of fine hand-written
diplomas with motivation and the honorable official recognition.  The AAA
Awards are divided in two groups: International and National.  The AAA
Award International and the AAA Award Sverige (Sweden) will be handled by
Amiga Computer Group.  Amiga user groups in other countries may apply for
exclusive representation in their own native country.  Please see the AAA
Awards Homepage for more information on this, or contact Amiga Computer
Group by phone or mail.

Everyone is welcome to suggest candidates for the AAA Awards.  If you do
so, please include a brief explanation as to why this person or group of
persons should receive the AAA Award.  Also include your own name and
addresses, as we may want to ask some additional questions.  There are
basically no limits as to who you may suggest.  Private persons, companies,
associations, etc.  The AAA Awards may be presented posthumously, and you
may also suggest yourself.  The criteria for the AAA Awards are very
simple:

"The awards should go to he/she/that/those which/who has/have done the
greatest achievement in contributing to the upkeeping of AMIGA.  values
during the past year."

Suggestions for the 1997 AAA Awards will be accepted until January 5th 1998
through the AAA Awards Homepage, e-mail or regular mail.  All suggestions
will be considered by the ACG-appointed jury and its international
associates in early 1998, and three final nominees for each category will
be made official.  Anyone may then vote at the AAA Awards Homepage for the
nominee he/she feels should receive the AAA Award.  This voting period will
span over one month.  Exact dates will be announced at a later time through
the AAA Awards Homepage, Amiga-related newsgroups etc.  ACG and its
associates world-wide will then solemnly announce the AAA Awards Winners
1997.


First Winners

The first AAA Awards will be presented at the AmiTech 97 show in Stockholm,
Sweden 25 - 27 April 1997.  This will signify the launching of the awards.
Those awards will be presented for long-term achievement.  The jury has
decided as follows:

AAA Award International

Dave Haynie

"For his contributions to the computer development in general, and a true
commitment to the Amiga platform, bringing a unique personal touch to the
machine.  And of course for being cool."

AAA Award Sverige

Thomas Svenson

"Fvr sin starka drivkraft och entreprenvrsfvrmega i att frdmja Amigans
fortlevnad och utveckling i Sverige."

("For his strong driving force and entrepreneural ability in promoting the
survival and development of the Amiga in Sweden.")


Contributions

Companies, associations and such that wish to contribute to the AAA Awards
by donations or likewise, may see the AAA Awards Homepage or contact ACG
president Martin Sahlin at martin.sahlen@amiga-cg.se for more information.
We offer great advertising opportunities at the AAA Awards Homepage.


Supporting

Visit the AAA Awards Homepage and download a AAA Awards Button which you
may include in your own WWW pages.  Please do not refer to the image on our
server at your homepage, since that will result in our server being
over-loaded with requests.


Updates

All the latest news regarding the AAA Awards will be made official at the
AAA Awards Homepage.  Please check back regulary, the pages are yet not
completed.


Acknowledgements

The AAA Awards is copyright 1997 Amiga Computer Group.
The AAA Awards logo is copyright 1997 Amiga Computer Group and
Bjvrn Hagstrvm.
The national and international AAA Awards are
copyright 1997 Amiga Computer Group.

AMIGA. is a registered trademark of Amiga International.


More Information

AAA Awards Homepage - http://www.amiga-cg.se/aaaa/
Amiga Computer Group Homepage - http://www.amiga-cg.se/

@endnode

@node NEWS13 "MCC-Install 43.8"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

MCC-Install

VERSION

43.8

RELEASE DATE

21.04.1997

AUTHOR

Kai Hofmann (i07m@zfn.uni-bremen.de)
(http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~i07m/)

DESCRIPTION

MCC-Install is an installer script for MUI Custom Classes that is highly
modular to be reusable for other installer scripts.

MCC-Install features:

- Follows the V43 Installer Style Guide
- Correctly supports the different user levels
- Install new/update mode
- Uninstallation
- Supports Installers prior to V43
- Highly automated
- Very flexible
- Very intelligent (for an installer-script ;-)
- It uses WrapGuide (if present) for the AmigaGuide documentation if
  running under a pre V39 system.
- Autodetects the CPU/FPU
- Autodetects the OS version
- Autodetects the MUI version
- Autodetects existing files within the distribution archive
- Installs the optimal 68010-68060 binary if available
- Supports the following document formats: ASCII, AmigaGuide
- It supports the following languages: English, German, French, Danish,
  Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Finnish, Greek, Czech
- Supports source code installation for the following programming
  languages:
  C, Assembler, Amiga-E, Modula II, Oberon
- It can be reused by (hopefully) all other MUI custom classes since the
  authors of custom classes need to change only a few things:
* The #copyright variable
* The #min_mui_version and #min_mui_revision variables
* The #language_mcc and #language_mcp variables
* The P_CustomExists, P_CustomInstall and P_CustomUninstall procedures
* The 'APPNAME' tooltype within the MCC-Install icon

NEW FEATURES

- Separate archive
- Added Documentation

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Installer

AVAILABILITY

http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~i07m/amiga/mui/MCC-Install.html

ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/mui/MCC-Install.lha
And all other Aminet sites.

PRICE

This is Giftware!

DISTRIBUTION

Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and without license
or royalty fees, to copy and distribute this software and its documentation
for any purpose, provided that the copyright notice and the following
paragraphs appear in all copies of this software, to:

- All who will distribute this software for free!
- All free accessible Internet servers!
- All Aminet sites
- Fred Fish for his great Amiga-Software-Library
- The German SAAR AG PD-Library
- Angela Schmidt's Meeting Pearls serie
- All Simtel sites and CD-ROMs
- All others who do NOT take more than US$ 5.- for one disk that
includes this software!

This package may not be included on any further Aminet CD-ROMs unless
authors contributing their software to the CD-ROM, (without mentioning
distribution "NoCD") are granted a copy of the CD completely free of
charge.

@endnode

@node NEWS14 "MCCLib 12.1"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

MCCLib

VERSION

12.1

RELEASE DATE

21.04.1997

AUTHOR

Kai Hofmann (i07m@zfn.uni-bremen.de)
(http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~i07m/)

DESCRIPTION

MCCLib serves as a basis for writing public MUI Custom Classes including
preference classes.  It is a competitor to "mccheader.c" giving a custom
class developer the basic library initialization code.

MCCLib features:

- Supports 68000-68060 including FPUs
- Automatically generates version-string including copyright and CPU
  information
- Supports preference classes including preference images
- Well formatted/readable source code

NEW FEATURES

- Separate archive
- Added Documentation

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

MUI 3.1 Developer
SAS-C

AVAILABILITY

http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~i07m/amiga/mui/MCCLib.html

ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/mui/MCCLib.lha
And all other Aminet sites.

PRICE

This is Giftware!

DISTRIBUTION

Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and without license
or royalty fees, to copy and distribute this software and its documentation
for any purpose, provided that the copyright notice and the following
paragraphs appear in all copies of this software, to:

- All who will distribute this software for free!
- All free accessible Internet servers!
- All Aminet sites
- Fred Fish for his great Amiga software library
- The German SAAR AG PD-Library
- Angela Schmidt's Meeting Pearls series
- All Simtel sites and CD-ROMs
- All others who do NOT take more than US$ 5.- for one disk that includes
  this software!

This package may not be included on any further Aminet CD-ROMs unless
authors contributing their software to the CD-ROM, (without mentioning
distribution "NoCD") are granted a copy of the CD completely free of
charge.

@endnode

@node NEWS16 "F1GP-Ed 3.32"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

F1GP-Ed

VERSION

3.32

AUTHOR

Oliver Roberts

E-Mail:Oliver@POBoxes.com
WWW:http://www.nanunanu.org/~oliver/

Address:  30 Tillett Road
Norwich
NR3 4BJ
ENGLAND

DESCRIPTION

An editor for use with the Formula One Grand Prix or World Circuit game
(published by MicroProse Software).  It is very easy to use, with a
standard 2.0 look graphical user interface (even on KS 1.x!) and on-line
help should you need it.

Allows you to alter most of the in-game setup, including computer car
performance, car/helmet/pitcrew colours, car fragility and many other
things (and I MEAN many!).  Sound samples can also be replaced, cockpit
graphics changed, and lap records and setups printed.

Changes can be saved directly to a copy of the game which is running in
memory, or to the main file used by the game for a more permanent change.

Also incorporated in the main program are a number of memory patches,
including Toni Wilen's GPPatch and Grant Reeve's PatchF1GP.

F1GP-Ed breathes new life into an ageing, but excellent game.  1994, 1995,
1996 and 1997 sample datafiles supplied for those who don't want to mess
about.

The program itself is auto-enhancing, which means that it will run on a
basic A500 with KS 1.2, but will make use of KS 2.x or KS 3.x specific
routines on suitable machines to make itself even better.

Supported languages:

English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish,
Norwegian and Czech.

NEW FEATURES

o GPPatch "turbo keys" can now be disabled
o "Exit to DOS - Are you sure?" requester in the game can now be skipped
o The time it takes for a pitstop can now be adjusted
o Colours can now be imported from (and exported to) IFF image / palette
  files
o "Practice Fuel Load" feature has been improved - the fuel load calculated
  will now be exactly the same as the fuel load in a race of the same
  number of laps
o Localized a lot of the older strings that couldn't be translated before
o Optimized (40% reduction) the data used to draw the images in the colour
  editors - this means the colour editors will open faster initially and
  the images will be drawn a little bit faster.

And, of course, some bug fixes ;-)  

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Formula One Grand Prix or World Circuit game by Geoff Crammond, published
commercially originally by MicroProse Software.

Approximately 1.5Mb of free ram needed to load the game and the editor to
be able to use the memory patches.  But, the editor itself and most of the
features will work on machines with less memory.

AVAILABILITY

F1GP-Ed Web Page:
http://www.nanunanu.org/~oliver/F1GP-Ed/

Aminet:
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/game/misc/F1GP-Ed.lha (472309)

PRICE

Shareware fee:  United Kingdom - 6 UKP
Rest of the World - 7 UKP / US$ 15 / DM 20

See documentation for further details.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

F1GP-Ed is a Shareware product and it may be distributed freely provided
none of the files (including the executable) are tampered with in any way
whatsoever.

A registration fee is requested if the product is found to be useful by the
user.  Registering means helps insure that I continue to develop the
program, and as a bonus all features will be enabled.

Copyright (c) 1994-1997 Oliver Roberts, All Rights Reserved.

*** Not officially endorsed by MicroProse Software ***

@endnode

@node NEWS17 "MidiTracker V1.1"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

MidiTracker V1.1


AUTHOR

Sven Thoennissen
Karlsgraben 35
52064 Aachen
Germany

svent@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
sa80@corona.tng.oche.de (if the other email doesn't work)


DESCRIPTION

MidiTracker is a MIDI sequencer that uses the 'tracker' concept for
composing songs, hence the name.  :-) Unlike other tracker programs that
have MIDI capabilities, MidiTracker has been designed specifically for MIDI
composing and does not use Amiga audio (except for the metronome).  If you
have used trackers before, then it shouldn't take you too long to get
accustomed to MidiTracker.

The intention with MidiTracker is to keep everything as dynamic as possible
thus giving you more freedom and control over your MIDI data within a
tracker environment.  For example, have you ever had the problem of wanting
to realtime record pitchbend, modulation, aftertouch and sustains but the
tracker either didn't get the notes properly or wasn't capable of doing so?
MidiTracker can do it.


NEW FEATURES

Important changes since 1.0:

- Keyboard Actions Window (trigger transport-controls via synth)
- Import OctaMED MMD1 modules.
- Import GM-type-1 files (SMF).
- The Stacker/Remapper is not disabled if MT is unregistered.
  People asked me and wanted to test the MIDI-thru feature so
  here it is.
- Block-randomize function (in Block-menu).
- Tempo BPM values from 1-27 are also allowed.
- SysEx Editor
- MIDI In/Out Filter
- New Score window layout, looks like a timeline now.


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

- Kick 2.04, better 3.0+
- 68020 with fastram would be good
- MIDI interface plus equipment (e.g. synthesizer, keyboard)
  strongly recommended for composing


AVAILABILITY

MidiTracker is available on all Aminet sites, eg.

 ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/aminet/mus/midi/MidiTracker1_1.lha

It is also available at its support mailbox in Germany:
Corona BBS, Sysop is Mathias Frankenbach.
+49 241 39164USR V34+
24846V34 Zyxel D
4090012 V34 Zyxel 2864ID (ISDN + V34)
4090013 ISDN Master
Login: MidiTracker
Password: MidiTracker


PRICE

Shareware DM 50,- or US $35.00 or AUS $45 (at the Australian Registration
Site).


DISTRIBUTABILITY

MidiTracker is Shareware.  The archive as provided by myself may not be
altered.  It can be distributed everywhere if it's free of charge.
MidiTracker is (c) Copyright 1996-1997 Sven Thoennissen.

@endnode

@node NEWS18 "Re-Release of Deathbed Vigil in NTSC"
@toc NEWS

Due to popular demand, IAM is making available a limited number of
additional VHS NTSC copies of the "Deathbed Vigil...  and other tales of
digital angst".  This moving 90 minute video celebrates the stars of the
Commodore-Amiga engineering team, and tells the tales of management gone
wrong.  This tape has received rave reviews. 

More info about the video is available at:

http://www.iam.com/amiga/deathbed.html


Each of these copies will be hand-signed by Dave Haynie.

The tapes may only be ordered directly through IAM (online or via phone,
fax or mail), and IAM will only accept new orders for the tapes through
June 30, 1997.  (VHS PAL format tapes are avaialble through LH Publishing
in the UK, but are no longer available directly through IAM.)

These additional tapes will be produced only as ordered, so it may be up to
6 weeks before your order is shipped.  The price of the tapes is US$35 plus
US$6 shipping and handling (worldwide).  If ordered with other IAM
products, the tape will ship seperately with only the regular shipping and
handling charge (no additional s/h for the video). 

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

http://www.iam.com
sales@iam.com

phone (orders only) +1 610 853 4406
fax: +1 610 853 3733

@endnode

@node NEWS19 "Eucalyptus 1.0a"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

Eucalyptus

VERSION

1.0 (alpha)

COMPANY

Isengard Developments

AUTHOR

Paul Schifferer

DESCRIPTION

Eucalyptus is a new e-mail program for the Amiga.  Features include:=

- Supports multiple user accounts
- Unlimited message folders
- Full-featured address book
- Multiple message read windows
- Multiple signature files
- PGP signature/encryption/key-transfer
- Spell-checking
- Extensive filtering system
- Scheduled message delivery
- Integrated SMTP/POP3 clients (and possible IMAP support)
- Configurable external viewers for different media types
- Full multi-threaded operations

This product is a pre-release alpha.  Not all features are fully
operational, and the software may contain bugs.  Use it at your own risk.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Amiga OS 2.04 or better
ClassAct gadget classes (included in archive)
Internet connection

AVAILABILITY

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/3517/Eucalyptus.gz (249621)
Or request the most recent version from <isengard@geocities.com>.

PRICE

Free

DISTRIBUTABILITY

This product is freeware, copyright (c) 1997 Isengard Developments.

@endnode

@node NEWS15 "Visage 39.14"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

Visage

VERSION

39.14

AUTHOR

Magnus Holmgren
Kvarnbergsv=E4gen 5
S-444 47  Stenungsund
Sweden

E-mail: cmh@lls.se
2:203/512.10@fidonet

DESCRIPTION

Visage is a picture viewer for all Amigas with OS 3.0 or better.  The goal
is to have a rather fast viewer, with lots of features.  Picture quality is
not the most important thing.

Features include:

* Can display IFF ILBM, JPEG, PNG and datatype pictures.

* Full AA, ECS, CyberGraphX and RTG (I hope! ;) support.

* Supports PCHG (Palette CHanGe) and SHAM (Sliced HAM) IFF ILBM
  pictures.

* Can display "deep" pictures in all formats on ECS Amigas, rendered
  in HAM, "normal" color (graphics card recommended) or grayscale.

* Xpk support for IFF ILBM pictures.

* Can scale any rendered picture to fit the screen.

* Extensive monitor support. Uses a BestModeID()-like function to
  find a suitable mode (if needed).

* Several slideshow options, including a random and a sort mode,
  making Visage nice for use with screen blankers as an external
  module.

* Background loading of next picture while viewing the current, if
  there is enough memory (this can be disabled).

* Can read pictures from a named pipe.

NEW FEATURES

In 39.14:

  * Some bugs and quirks fixed.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

OS 3.0

AVAILABILITY

Any Aminet site, e.g.:

ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/show/Visage.lha

Via WWW, at:

http://www.lls.se/~cmh/

PRICE

None.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

Copyright (c) by Magnus Holmgren 1995-97

Visage is freely distributable.

@endnode
@node NEWS20 "Amiga Elm 10.12"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

Amiga Elm

VERSION

10 (10.12)

AUTHOR

Andreas M. Kirchwitz
E-Mail: elm-fan@zikzak.in-berlin.de

DESCRIPTION

AmigaElm is an "Electronic Mail Reader" which allows you to read and write
mail.  Normally you'd need a properly installed UUCP or IP package (eg,
AmigaUUCP, Feulner-UUCP, Dillon-UUCP, wUUCP or AmiTCP plus INetUtils) to
receive and send mail, but AmigaElm is highly configurable so that you can
take a mail-folder from a UNIX box, answer the messages and bring the
answers back to the UNIX box.

AmigaElm is easy to install and to use.  The user interface is very
intuitive and similar to the well-known UNIX "elm".  Beginners can control
all basic functions with menus and some nice GadTools requesters.  Advanced
users can use aliases, prioritized message tagging, various filename-offers
when saving messages and lots of options to configure AmigaElm to fit your
needs.  In a system with multiple users, AmigaElm allows separate
configuration files for each user.

AmigaElm can be invoked in a special "terminal mode" (all input/output
from/to console).  This is useful for running AmigaElm in the current shell
window or over a serial line (eg, with AUX-Handler).

AmigaElm offers basic internal MIME (multimedia mail) functionality (eg,
sending 8-bit-text and binaries over 7-bit-lines) and supports "MetaMail"
(a full-featured package for handling all kinds of MIME messages -- also
available on Aminet, see section "AVAILABILITY") and "ReqTools" library 2.x
(reqtools.library is included).

AmigaElm has built-in support for cryptographic applications (eg, PGP). 
Encryption and decryption of messages is user-configurable.

NEW FEATURES

Changes since version 8 and 9 (summary):

 - Now RFC1522/Quoted-Printable decoding not only for sender's realname,
   but also for subject and receipient's realname.
 - New in .elm/elmrc: "PrintCmd" finally implemented.  You can define your
   own printing command.  (was broken in version 9)
 - Fixed bug with very long lines (introduced in Elm version 7).  Don't
   worry about this...  Elm always prints a warning message, if it feels
   that something is wrong with the line length, the folder length or a
   message offset.
 - Config variables "AnswerReturnReceipt" and "AnswerReturnView" are now
   ignored when folder is specified with option "-f".  See manual for other
   "limitations" when option "-f" is used.
 - In compact header display (built-in pager) only the first line of long
   header lines will be displayed.  Use "show header" function to display
   complete header lines.
 - Now displays one more line per page on index screen.
 - Significantly enhanced terminal mode: now displays title bar and
   shortens it (compact format) if it becomes too long.  Makes Elm look
   more like Unix "elm".

(see file "History.Txt" for complete list of changes)

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

AmigaOS 2.0 (or higher)

And for normal usage: a properly installed UUCP or IP package.  But can be
configured to run without a UUCP or IP package for processing ready-made
mail-folders (eg, from your work or university).

AVAILABILITY

FTP/Internet: Aminet and mirrors

  ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/comm/mail/AmigaElm-v10.lha (217590)

UUCP/E-Mail : mail-server@cs.tu-berlin.de

  Send mail to the address above and put the
  line "send /pub/aminet/comm/mail/AmigaElm-v10.lha"
  in the body.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

Shareware, Copyright by Andreas M. Kirchwitz
Source code only available to registered users.

@endnode

@node NEWS21 "SoundStage Pro Rev B/C"
@toc NEWS

TITLE
  
SoundStage Pro (Hardware)

VERSION
  
Revision B (Rev.C of the SoundStage series)
  
COMPANY
  
Applied Magic Inc
2234 Ruthford Rd
Carlsbad, CA, 92008
  
Toll Free: 1-888-MAGIC-55
or Phone:619-931-6417
FAX:619-931-6440
email:  product_info@amagic.com
  
web:  http://www.amagic.com/
orhttp://www.applied-magic.com/
orhttp://www.sorceror.com/

DESCRIPTION
  
SoundStage and now the SoundStage Pro series is a professional digital
audio board for Amiga 3000(T) and 4000(T) computers.  It hardware is based
on a Texas Instruments 40MFlop DSP, which is used to manage all audio I/O
up to six different sources.  Audio I/O consists of 4 balanced +4dBu input
and outputs, and 2 channel (1 stereo pair) AES/EBU digital input and
output.   Digital I/O also supports the SP/DIF standard.

For further details and software features please look at the Applied Magic
Inc web pages, or for SoundStage information directly, go to
http://www.amagic.com/html/sound4.html.

NEW FEATURES
  
The SoundStage Pro incorporates 20bit audio samplers and digital to analog
convertors to acheive the best signal to noise ratio.  Previous hardware
revisions only used 16bit parts.  Many other audio quality issues have been
addressed.
  
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
  
An Amiga with a Zorro-III bus (SuperBuster-11 required). 
AmigaOS 3.x.
  
PRICE  

SoundStage Pro with ProducerAUDIO software $1899 US.
AudioLab16 for SoundStage $149 US.
Timecode option $149 US.
  
AVAILABILITY
 
Shipping from 21-April-1997.
Timecode option will ship in May.

POSTED BY
 
David A Newman
Director of Engineering
Applied Magic Inc
dan@amagic.com

@endnode

@node NEWS23 "LotsaBlankers 1.01"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

LotsaBlankers

VERSION

1.01

AUTHOR

Dag Ågren
email: dagren@abo.fi

DESCRIPTION

LotsaBlankers is a blanker package for the Garshneblanker - system.  Plus
that it features a replacement for the original Garshnelib.library, that
has better AGA support.  The blankers themselves are a set of five
excellent blankers, most coded in highly optimized assembler for the best
speed.  The blankers are also configurable to a high degree:

LotsaSnow-Very simple, snowflakes that fall down your screen,
  but many of them!

LotsaStars-Rides through a space of colorful stars, uses a
  special colorcycling method to give the stars
  beatiful trails.

LotsaPlasma-Generates a double plasma and animates it with two-
  dimensional color-cycling, you must see it to get
  the picture!

LotsaLego-Builds random constructions of Lego building blocks,
  it is for all of us who miss the days when we were
  kids and spent hours building with these.

LotsaDistortion-Renders a distortion and moves it around the
  screen. Picture a twirl that bounces around on your
  desktop, or a magnifying glass!


NEW FEATURES

v1.01 26.4.1997

o FIXED: Division by zero bug in LotsaDistortion.
o ADDED: FPU version of LotsaDistortion.


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

You need the following to use LotsaBlankers:

o GarshneBlanker v3.6
o AmigaOS v3.0 or higher.
o 020 or better processor.
o AGA chipset or 100% compatible.

Most of the blankers also look better if you have a faster processor.
LotsaDistortion does in practice require a 68030.


AVAILABILITY

LotsaBlankers will be available on our homepage at:

http://www.abo.fi/~mamannev/circlesoft/lotsablankers.html

Currently it's only available on aminet as:

ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/aminet/util/blank/LotsaBlankers.html


DISTRIBUTABILITY

LotsaBlankers is Freeware.

Copyrighted to CircleSoft 1996 - 1997.

@endnode

@node NEWS22 "Atlantis 1.1"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

Atlantis

VERSION

1.1

RELEASE DATE

2 May 1997

AUTHOR

Staffan Palmroos (crush@lysator.liu.se)
(http://www.lysator.liu.se/~crush)

DESCRIPTION

Atlantis is THE game map editor for two-dimensional multi-directional
scrolling platform games using the technique of block graphics.  Atlantis
has features rarely or never seen in other packages of the same category:

* Multiple editing windows
* 'Display cache' for faster redrawing
* Overview mode
* Multiple Undos
* Flood filling with patterns
* Point out important places with 'marks'
* Bubble help
* Arexx Interface
* Localized
* Commodities support
* Screenmodes support
* Adapts to low-memory situations by disabling various features
* Supports VMM (virtual memory)
* File notification
* Optional Auto-save
* Uses MUI for a powerful and flexible GUI
* Only requires OS V37 (2.04)
* Extensive AmigaGuide documentation

CHANGES

* Fixed a serious bug in the save-routine
* Fixed some graphic bugs in the block window
* Added a skeleton rexx script
* Atlantis no longer complains if it can't find the prefs file

REQUIREMENTS

* All Amigas with AmigaOS 2.04 (V37) or higher
* 68000 processor (A special 68020 version is included in the archive)
* MUI 3.3 (not included)
* About 500Kb memory (mostly because of MUI)

AVAILABILITY

Atlantis can be downloaded from:

* http://www.lysator.liu.se/~crush/Atlantis.lha

or any Aminet site, for example:

* ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/aminet/dev/misc/Atlantis.lha (195382)

PRICE

Atlantis is SHAREWARE!

The shareware fee is

* 15 UKP
* 20 USD
* 30 DM
* 120 FIM
* 160 SEK

DISTRIBUTION

Atlantis is Copyright (c) Staffan Palmroos.

Permission is hereby granted to redistribute the program archive as long as
the archive itself and all the files in the archive is not modified in any
way.  It is not allowed to redistribute parts of the archive.

@endnode

@node NEWS24 "The 6809e Emulator V1.01"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

The 6809e Emulator

VERSION

1.01

AUTHOR

Steven Goodwin

No E-Mail, Web page or FTP site :-(


DESCRIPTION

A program to emulate the 6809e processor (as found on the Dragon 32
computer).  It comes with a GUI-based virtual machine/debugger and a
command line assembler. 

Features:

* Example programs, ready to run!
* Load and save are NOT disabled!!!!!!!!!!!!
* Multiple Hex view windows
* Multiple Disassembler windows
* Stacks (both user and system)
* Symbols
* Breakpoints
* Memory view/modify
* Control bar 
* Self modifying code 
* Very fast hard-coded assembler, supporting most directives 
   (including dbc, fcc etc)
* Saves virtual machine/raw data
* Memory-mapped text display screen


NEW FEATURES

1.01 is a PAL/NTSC update.


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

68000.  This product uses self-modifying code, and CCR, so any MMU and/or
CPU above 68000 will crash!


AVAILABILITY

Aminet, for example: 

ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/aminet/misc/emu/D32.lha


DISTRIBUTABILITY

 Freely distributable.
 Copyright 1995-7 by Steven Goodwin.
 This version uploaded by the author.

@endnode

@node NEWS25 "PEEK_POKE"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

PEEK_POKE

AUTHOR

Simon N Goodwin (simon@studio.woden.com)

DESCRIPTION

Powerful and dangerous STRUCTURED PEEK and POKE for the Amiga Shell

Would you like to be able to read analogue joysticks, switch the audio
filter, check library and device versions, reset MIDI devices, blink the
power LED, check your Amiga chip set or CPU type, start and stop floppy
drive motors or change the sex of the narrator device - all from the
comfort of your shell or a script file?

All these and much more - including numerous ways to crash the machine
- are now available via structured PEEK and POKE extensions for the
Amiga Shell. These make automatic program configuration simpler and
prevent the need to write and test 'trivial' stand-alone utilities to
check or tweak system variables or registers. They've very convenient
when hacking but positively dangerous for people who don't know their
way around the Amiga system.

Examples of ease of use:

peek long hex lib=exec 62
  returns the top limit of Chip memory (e.g. $200000, $80000 etc.).

POKE CIAA 0 2
  turns the audio filter off

FEATURES:

o Permits access to all system library, device and resource variables
o Read bytes, words, long words or strings from any memory address
o Convenient access to memory pointers, using indirect addressing
o Supports input and output in decimal, hexadecimal or binary formats
o Access to CIAA, CIAB and CUSTOM chip registers by name and offset
o AmigaGuide & text documentation with many examples including scripts

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Any Amiga or emulator with Kickstart 2.0 or above.

AVAILABILITY

Available on Aminet, e.g.
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/cli/PEEK_POKE.lha (24K)

PRICE

Absolutely nothing.

OTHER

Well-annotated stand-alone assembler source file included.
The author cannot be held responsible if PEEK_POKE causes damage.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

Copyright (c) 1996-7 by Simon N Goodwin.
It's freely distributable.

--
Cheers, Simon N Goodwin, simon@studio.woden.com AKA simon@silicon.studio.co.uk

@endnode

@node NEWS26 "Same Difference 1.01"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

Same Difference

VERSION

1.01

AUTHOR

Steven Goodwin

No E-Mail, Web page or FTP site :-(

DESCRIPTION

Same Difference allows you to compare, list and edit changes between two
text files.

It shows both files, side by side, in a scrolling list with each difference
hightlighted in different colours.  These changes can be edited by the
line, or block (i.e.  a sequence of consequtive lines that are all
different).  You can:
 
* Replace
* Insert
* Append
* Clear

or just edit the text directly yourself.


NEW FEATURES

1.01 is a PAL/NTSC update.


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

None


AVAILABILITY

Aminet, for example:
 
ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/aminet/misc/edit/SameDiff.lha


DISTRIBUTABILITY

 Freely distributable.
 Copyright 1996-7 by Steven Goodwin.
 This version uploaded by the author.

@endnode

@node NEWS27 "SMT V2.31"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

SMT - Steevs MIDI Trigger


VERSION

2.31


AUTHOR

Steven Goodwin

No E-Mail, Web page or FTP site :-(


DESCRIPTION

SMT plays samples from a MIDI keyboard, or the Amigas own
keyboard. These samples can be played as required. 

Featuring:

* As many samples as memory allows
* Variable pitch on samples
* Software MIDI Thru
* Filter out MIDI channels
* Output sound on next free channel, specific channel, or
  on alternate channels
* Three demo enviroments - Virtual Piano, House, GM Drums
* Backing MOD (start/stop/pause with any combination of 
  joystick/mouse/keys)
* Program note range
* Sampling looping


NEW FEATURES

2.31 is a PAL/NTSC update.


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

None


AVAILABILITY

Any Aminet site, for example:

ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/aminet/mus/misc/SMT_23.lha


DISTRIBUTABILITY

 Freely distributable.
 Copyright 1995-7 by Steven Goodwin.
 This version uploaded by the author.

@endnode

@node NEWS28 "Anarchy Software Formed"
@toc NEWS

Announcing the existence of ANARCHY SOFTWARE
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Producers of software for the AMIGA.  And the IBM, but we won't talk about
that here :)

WHO?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anarchy Software is the name myself (David Stroud) and a friend of mine
have given our combined programming efforts.  A kind of software label, if
you will.

WHY?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because.  I've programmed a couple of things in recent times, and I wanted
an outlet for them.  My friend is doing a computer science degree (so is
involved with those other computers, the name of which I've been trying to
forget for a long time :).  And the Amiga needs all the support it can get
at this time...  every little helps.  Allegedly.

WHAT?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Amiga side of things, I've programmed a few simple games, and some C
programs may become available sometime in the future, when I become a
competent enough C programmer.

They're not ground-breaking.  Yet.  No snazzy 3D graphics, gouraud shading,
texture mapping, etc.  I'll leave that to those that can.  That's not to
say the games don't look nice, though.  The best is done with limited
artistic ability to make them good enough to at least look at.  And I hope
they're well written, with features that work.

WHERE?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Http://www.nebula.demon.co.uk/anarchy/

WHEN?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now.  And for the last few months, in case you hadn't noticed.

SO?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please take a look.  Constructive comments, encouragement etc.  always
welcome:

Email: Anarchy@nebula.demon.co.uk

Thankyou,

David Stroud, Anarchy Software.

@endnode

@node NEWS29 "wfmhcybergfx_r3d.library V40.2"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

  wfmhcybergfx_r3d.library

VERSION

  40.2

AUTHOR

 Miloslaw Smyk

 E-Mail:  thorgal@dedal.man.szczecin.pl

 WWW:  http://wfmh.man.szczecin.pl/~thorgal

 IRC:  Thorgal

 S-Mail:  Miloslaw Smyk
  ul. Orawska 22/34
  70-131 Szczecin
  POLAND

DESCRIPTION

This is external display library for Real3D v3.11 and CyberGraphX, which
has some special features.

FEATURES

- rendering on 15/16/24-bit deep screens directly to windows you use for
  modelling,

- simultaneous rendering to several windows at once,

- two optional dithering modes - Floyd-Steinberg and ordered 4x4 for high
  quality 15- and 16-bit deep renderings,

- contents of any window can be saved as IFF file,

- small preferences editor that lets you change dithering modes and save
  your preferred settings to disk,

- you can have more than one copy of Real3D using this library at the same
  time.

NEWS

v40.2 - Some heuristics added that prevent it from rendering in non-view
  windows.  No more trashed Animation windows!  Busy-looping in prefs
  window fixed - oops!  :) This also resolves problems with 68060 some of
  you might have had.  Documentation updated with new info and new e-mail.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

  - gfx-board with CyberGraphX
  - Real3D v3

AVAILABILITY

  From aminet (gfx/board/wfmhcybergfx.lha) or from my homepage
  http://wfmh.man.szczecin.pl/r3d

PRICE

  US$ 20 or 30DM for registration
  special price 25PLZ for people living in Poland

  The software is free for people who registered previous version.

  For details see doc-file.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

  The unregistered version is freely distributable if it is done
  in a noncommercial way and the contents of the archive are kept
  intact.  The registered version is not freely distributable.

@endnode

@node NEWS30 "ClickBOOM Conversion Wish List"
@toc NEWS

CLICKBOOM "CONVERSION WISH LIST" PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Toronto, May 5, 1997: PXL computers and clickBOOM would like to inform all
Amiga users of a brand new concept for the gaming future of our favourite
computer.  It is called "conversion wish list", and it is located on our
web site at http://www.clickboom.com

For several years Amiga lacked conversions of big hits from other
platforms.  We at clickBOOM decided to change all that, and earlier this
year announced Myst conversion.   Being the best selling CD-ROM game ever,
Myst is a perfect starting point for the future in which big games will
appear on the Amiga, as well.

Choosing Myst as the first conversion was a simple task, for it truly is a
special game.  However, for our next projects we would like to convert
games you, Amiga players, would like to play the most.  Hence --
"conversion wish list"!

It is clickBOOM's plan to asses Amiga market needs in the best possible way
-- by asking users to vote for the games they would like to see appear on
the Amiga.  We have assembled a list of the biggest titles from consoles
and PC, and it is up to you to let us know which ones you would like to see
on the Amiga as soon as possible. 

It is very simple, and it will truly shape the Amiga's future!

As always, feel free to contact us with your suggestions and 
comments at info@clickboom.com

Best regards,
PXL computers and clickBOOM

@endnode


Light Designs has developed a new amiga game called QUASAR WARS.
The game is a mix between a shoot-em-up and a simulator with a smooth
multi-scroll at 50 fps, intelligent enemies...
It works in any Amiga with 1Mb and will be distributed as shareware.
You can find a demo in Aminet, pub/aminet/game/misc/quasarw.lzh

http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/game/misc/Quasarw.lzh

You can contact Light Designs at :
                           lightdesigns@redestb.es

@endnode

@node NEWS31 "Amiga Review Issue 4 Announcement"
@toc NEWS

*****Are you aware of the newest UK Amiga paper magazine?*****

MediaSoft Magazines have recently released issue four of Amiga Review, the
mail-order only, value for money magazine that covers all aspects of the
Amiga market, from games to DTP and programming.

The latest issue features interviews with Larry Hickmott at LH Publishing,
Sadeness Software, Red When Excited (the people behind Blitz Bombers) and
Pure Amiga (the Amiga web site), as well as reviews of PageStream,
Drawstudio, Burn Out, and previews of Myst, Nemac and Worms.

The main cover feature this issue is the complete guide to writing music
with your Amiga.  We take a look at how bedroom bands such as White Town
have managed to top the charts by writing on budget equipment from their
bedrooms, and how you could do it too using your Amiga. 

Continuing our aim to constantly improve and better Amiga Review, the
magazine has now been split into five sections, each with their own look:

- Seriously Amiga, containing all the serious news, features and reviews
- Amiga Gamer, containing all the gaming content
- Amiga Interview, this speaks for itself!
- Amiga Opinion, reader opinions, and letters including columns such as
  Rant and Objects of Desire, as well as company columns from Mutation
  and Vulcan Software
- Amiga Aspects, at the back of the magazine, a regular column dedicated to
  every aspect of Amiga usage, from music to ARexx, the WWW, comms and
  art and graphics.

Amiga Review is growing stronger with every issue and will be here to stay.
MediaSoft Magazines have just initiated a large marketing campaign to
increase awareness and readership of the magazine, and are negotiating with
Crystal Software & Distributions in the Netherlands to provide distribution
throughout Europe, the USA and Australia.

We have found a market niche in mail order publications, our A5 titles cut
production costs by half, meaning cheaper cover prices and lower
advertising rates all benefitting the end reader.

We are now also supporting an individual charity for each one of our
magazines.  Amiga Review has chosen to support ChildLine, the UK Charity
which provides a 24 hour freephone line for children in trouble or danger.

We believe firmly in the Amiga computer, and we use nothing but Amigas to
produce our publications in house.  We are soon to release The Noise, a
music magazine and Cyber.cafe, aimed at the internet, both of which will be
produced on Amigas.  The Amiga has been down, but it's coming back
brighter."

If you would like to be placed on the mailing list you will receive a
complimentary copy of every issue of Amiga Review from issue four onwards,
please e-mail your site name and snail address to
list@mediasft.demon.co.uk.

*******EXCHANGE BANNERS FOR FREE! Increase our hits together!*******

Amiga Review has also just been updated on MediaNet, our electonic zine
that features daily news, and all our publications on line. 

(http://www.mediasft.demon.co.uk/)

Features, interviews, news, and reviews can all be found on-line.  We are
now taking the internet version of AR as seriously as the paper version.

As part of our marketing campaign, we want to link with as many other Amiga
sites as possible, through banner exchanging.  It's simple: you place our
banner on your site, and we'll place yours on ours.

Simply fill out the form on the advertising section of MediaNet - it will
take you under a minute to do.

We are initiating a marketing campaign on MediaNet on the 15th June.  This
will include advertising it on Yahoo!, within some of the major Amiga and
Internet magazines, and of course, links to related sites.

-----> Watch out for our news on our Internet Clean Up Campaign soon.

**ALSO!  Make sure you keep us up to date with your latest developments.  
If you have products for review, press releases, reader offers or any other
proposals please contact the editor, David Pettifer
(david@mediasft.demon.co.uk) or deputy editor, Matt Parsons
(mattp@mediasft.demon.co.uk).  We'll be pleased to hear from you. 

This message was from DAVID PETTIFER at MediaSoft Magazines.

Telephone: +44 (0)1983 867377 Ext 1001
Facsimile: +44 (0)1983 867482
Pager:     +44 (0)1426 141249

MediaSoft Magazines is a member of The David Group Limited.
Registered Office: Communications Hse, Isle of Wight, PO37 7LU
URL: http://www.mediasft.demon.co.uk/

For more information send an e-mail to info@mediasft.demon.co.uk and our
auto responder will return a list of subjects available.

MediaSoft Magazines - Telling it how it is.

@endnode

@node NEWS32 "Imagine 6 Feature List and Upgrade Info"
@toc NEWS

IMAGINE 6 features:
------------------

 * New GUI..Up to date with the present OS

 * Inverse Kinematics

 * New Preferences Editor

 * Optimized for the 040 and 060

 * PPC support

 * New Special FX:
    Jiggle.. Make objects behave like jello
    Jitter.. Make the camera shake like something big hit the ground

 * New Textures

 * Linear Fog Fall off

 * New Staging functions to make character animation very easy

 * Animating Deform Tool

 * Free Form 2d Spline Editor with PS font support

 * New & Improved lens flare options

 * Volumetric light sources

 * JPEG file support

 * ASL file requester support

 * New Complete Electronic Manual with interactive index

 * Free Technical www support

 * (this is only a partial list)



Registered Imagine-Amiga users:
------------------------------
Subscribe to the Amiga Constant Upgrade Program (CUP) for only $100.  You
will receive no less than 4 updates over the next 12 months.  If you have
web-access, you will have access to more frequent updates.  You will be
given a user-name & password to access the new code.

When Imagine6 is finished, the price will be $200 so it's advantageous to
register with the CUP program.


If you don't presently own Imagine:
----------------------------------
You can purchase Imagine5.0 for $100.  Once you're registered, you can
enroll in the CUP program for Imagine6.0.  You won't find a better 3D
program at this price!


You're not sure about Imagine?:
------------------------------
Check http://www.coolfun.com.  You can download a FREE demo version of
Imagine.   You should have an FPU.

The webpage also features: tutorials, free objects, current information,
cool artwork & animations.


How to reach IMPULSE?:
---------------------

  Impulse, Inc.
  8416 Xerxes Avenue North
  Minneapolis, Minnesota 55444

  In Canada or USA:       1-800-328-0184
  Elsewhere in the world: 1-612-425-0557

  FAX: 1-612-425-0701

  Email: SALES@coolfun.com

  Web:   http://www.coolfun.com


The future of the Amiga rests on you and Impulse.  Impulse will do their
best to continue writing the kind of 3D software that has made Imagine the
leader for over 8 years.  Your support is necessary to continue to make
this possible.

@endnode

@node NEWS33 "VideoTurtle RGB to S-Video Converter"
@toc NEWS

The VideoTurtle is a video-convertor product.  It converts RGB known as TV
RGB, 15.7 KHz, into S-Video.

So many systems use TV RGB Monitors as their primary display.  Slight
problem, though!  TV RGB Monitors are no longer made for general consumer
use.  The choice for us has been to either buy a used monitor, or somehoew
use a regular TV.  Not much of a choice is it?

VideoTurtle, from Turtle Enterprises, gives you a better choice, and in
many cases, even better than the old monitor!  By taking the output from
your home computer/video games system, attaching a cable to the
VideoTurtle, and an S-Video cable to the S-Video TV, you are ready to go! 
Plug and Play!

Some systems come with TV RGB but with distinctions, and VideoTurtle can
handle that with mere jumper changes!  All in all, no software drivers to
load, or certain video modes to use, to utilize the VideoTurtle!

Tex Comp Ltd is the authorized distributer of the VideoTurtle. To order
call (800)846-3474. Technical help from Turtle Enterprises is (818)967-3341! 
The price of the VideoTurtle is $149.95. Shipping is 4 weeks. 

For more information, mail ab453@cleveland.freenet.edu.

@endnode

@node NEWS34 "SViewNG PowerUP Modules"
@toc NEWS

1.6.97

Release of SViewNG powerUP (TM) modules
---------------------------------------

Registered users of SuperView/SViewNG have been informed that optional
powerUP (TM) plugin modules for SuperView-Library are available now.
Official release date is 1st June 1997.

The PPC module plugin package does include at least 26 PPC plugin modules
for existing SuperView-Library SVObjects and SVOperators, as well as
commonly shared support functions.

New modules are currently under development and are going to be added to
the release package when available, so the module count may be permanently
growing.

As an example, how operations are to be speeded up by powerUP (TM) PPC
plugin modules, we took a 716x580 sized 24 Bit graphics and turned it by
125.3 degrees with SuperView- Library's "RotateFree" operator, which makes
heavy use of integer and floating point operations as well as various
transient math functions.

 Here are the measured times:

   CyberStorm 060/50                ca. 21 seconds
   CyberStorm 060/50 plus 603e/150  ca.  2 seconds

This obviously is more than 10 times faster.  Actually it's more, since we
a) rounded the times up (it must have been around 1 second, actually) and
b) there had not been much 64 Bit RAM on the CyberStorm board.  The
operation perhaps mainly took place on the slow A4000 motherboard RAM...


The optional PPC plugin modules are available now for registered users -
for a fee, which is equal to the normal SViewNG registration fee.  Some
commercial programs, which offer licensed SuperView- Library support, will
probably be shipped with these modules later on, too.  There will also
follow module packages with exclusive add-ons for specific commercial
programs.

@endnode

@node NEWS35 "IPISA '97 Call for Papers"
@toc NEWS

IPISA '97
Incontro Programmatori Internazionali Sistemi Alternativi
International Programmers' Meeting for the Development of Alternative
Systems
Seventh Edition
Call for Papers

November 1997 - Milano, Italy

IPISA is an annual meeting autonomously organized by a group of computer
science professionals.  Until last year, it used to focus on programming
and applications for the Amiga line of computers.

Starting with this edition the meeting is open to projects, experiences and
products which have been developed on the following platforms: Amiga, BeOS,
GNU, Inferno, Java, Linux, NetBSD, Network Computer, OpenStep, TeX, X11,
Internet, etc.

As in the previous events, it will be possible to discuss research programs
or job contacts with people otherwise difficult to reach.

The organizers invite authors to submit proposals in the form a short and
detailed abstract, which is to be received by June 15, 1997.  Papers to be
published in the proceedings can be accompained by a public talk by the
author (depending on his or her will).  The papers can be submitted in
English or in Italian.

If the author desires to personally exhibit his or her work, it is
necessary to specify the estimated duration of the talk.  Authors will
receive confirmation of their participation by July 1, 1997, and will have
to send the complete papers and related software by October 1, 1997.

The exact date, place and subscription instructions for the Conference will
be disclosed in future press releases.

IPISA is a non-profit event and subscription costs are aimed to cover the
expenses.

Surface Mail
(preferred for papers submission)

IPISA '97
c/o Sergio Ruocco
via Di Vittorio 4
I-20019 Settimo Milanese (MI)
Italy

Internet:
ruoccos@comm2000.it (Sergio Ruocco)

Web: http://www.bhuman.it/ipisa/

@endnode

@node NEWS36 "McFiler 4.4"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

McFiler

VERSION

4.4

AUTHOR

Roberto Bizzarri
E-Mail:robiz@mbox.vol.it
FidoNet:  2:334/201.34

DESCRIPTION

This program was born to achieve a better way to catalogue and archive
files on your floppies, although it can be used as well with files stored
on any other media device.  It features functions able to quickly trace,
view, unpack, rename, discard a file, as well as hide it from your list.

You'll have at your disposal two nice routines, "FitDisk" and "SingleFit",
which will allow you to optimize your collection of files to fit in the
least possible number of disks.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

McFiler requires OS 2.0+ (v37+) and "reqtools.library" v38+ ((c) by Nico
Francois & Magnus Holmgren - included in the archive).

AVAILABILITY

ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/aminet/biz/dbase/McF44.lha
(128Kb)
...and all Aminet mirror sites.

PRICE

Requested shareware fee is $15 US.  The sole limitation of the unregistered
version regards the maximum capacity of archiving: the program won't go
farther after having stored 250 files.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

This piece of software is to be distributed "as is" with no warranty of any
kind.  The author won't be held responsible for any damage occurred by its
[mis]use.

OTHER

For any question or suggestion please email me!

Roberto Bizzarri

E-Mail:robiz@mbox.vol.it
FidoNet:  2:334/201.34

@endnode

@node NEWS37 "RBProductions Announces Scientific Amiga Website"
@toc NEWS

For Immediate Release

RBProductions are pleased to announce the Scientific Amigan website:

http://www.goodnet.com/~cyrano/

Scientific Amigan - Dedicated to scientific and technical use of the Amiga
platform.

The Scientific Amigan website offers software, links and articles of
interest to the technical Amiga user.  The website is constantly being
expanded to include:

o The full contents of the origninal Scientific Amigan disk library, plus
  new additions.

o The full text of each Scientific Amigan magazine published, available for
  download (PostScript), on-line (HTML) reading, or hardcopy order.

o Information on technical uses of the Amiga throughout the world.

o Information and links regarding hardware and applications of interest to
  the technical Amiga user.

Technical computing is much more than programming; Data acquisition,
scientific computation, system simulation, modeling and
analysis,statistical analysis, home automation and robotics...  the
potential technical uses of the versatile Amiga platform abound.

Originally billed as The Key to Technical Productivity With Your Amiga and
published by Walt Lounsbery, Scientific Amigan suspended publication in
August, 1995.

RBProductions have secured the rights to republish the Scientific Amigan
material (Walter A.  Lounsbery retains the original copyright).

RBProductions
835 West Warner Road
Suite 101-251
Gilbert, AZ 85233
(602) 545-6162 fax/bbs
http://www.goodnet.com/~cyrano/
cyrano@goodnet.com

@endnode

@node NEWS38 "Impulse Announces Imagine 6.0"
@toc NEWS

Impulse Announces Continued Support For the Amiga: Imagine 6.0

Impulse Inc.  of Minneapolis Minnesota announced the continued support for
the Amiga Computer.  Recently Impulse released Imagine version 5.0 to all
Amiga users for a price of $100.00.  Due to the success of this program,
development has begun on a completely new version of the Imagine 3D
software package for the Amiga.  The new version will be sold as the Amiga
constant update program (ACUP) and the cost will be $100.00 for registered
5.0 Imagine users.  If you do not yet have version 5.0 you may order it
directly from Impulse for $100.00 The Impulse web site at
http://www.coolfun.com/amiga.htm will give you all the details for version
5.0 of Imagine. 

Impulse will accept advance orders for the 6.0 version but will not charge
any credit cards or cash checks untill the software is ready to ship.  You
may place your order via fax 612-425-0701, phone in the US 1-800-328-0184
outside the US 612-425-0557, or e-mail sales@coolfun.com.  Please include
name, address, phone, e-mail address, and payment information.  Imagine is
one of the best know 3D software packages on the Amiga platform and will
continue to be with the support of the Amiga community.  Impulse is excited
about the future and the rebith of the Amiga. 

Thank You
Larry Halvorson
V.P. Sales
Impulse Inc.

@endnode

@node NEWS39 "AmiTrix Announces AWeb-II V3"
@toc NEWS

===========================================================================
AmiTrix                   PRESS RELEASE                      April 18, 1997
===========================================================================

AmiTrix Development announces AWeb-II, v3.0
-------------------------------------------

AmiTrix is proud to announce the pending release of AWeb-II, version 3.0. 
This all new version of AWeb, the culmination of six months of work, is now
nearing completion, and in the final testing stages during preparation of
the package.  Totally re-written and re-designed for greater flexibility in
future updates, it retains it familiar GUI with some additions, and more
configurable options.  More complete details will be forthcoming soon.

Release date: The final shipping date is not certain as yet, but projected
------------  for the latter part of May/97.


Some of the new features of AWeb-II v3.0 are:

o Full support for frames, table backgrounds, and more HTML features.

o Now has support for server push and client pull.

o Added support for proxy authorization.

o Internal FTP support.

o A new public plugin interface.  Plugin modules can do their rendering
  directly in the AWeb browser window.  The API (Application Program
  Interface) is available as a separate archive, contact Yvon Rozijn
  <yrozijn@xs4all.nl> for further information.

o Standalone images are now shown in the AWeb window, or can use an
  optional external image viewer.

o More versatile cookie protection and a cookie alert requester.  Cookie
  save file is now in readable form.

o Greatly enhanced and expanded Arexx command set.

o Now with Clipboard support, added Control Menu items, including copy
  selected text from a page.

o New, fully configurable user buttons, below the existing toolbar.

o The Image and Link popup menues are now fully configurable.

o New URL template popup menu on the URL field.

o A new info window with HTTP transfer headers, meta information and
  current documents links.

o The Network status window now shows CPS rate.

o New powerful hotlist manager.

o Enhanced cachebrowser with find functions and able to delete multiple
  file entries.

o The Search function now highlights the text found.

o Improved greyscale palette.

o Added Project Menu item: edit HTML source.

o New Settings Menu items: load settings, save settings as, GUI settings.

o The No-proxy, No-cookie, and Do-not-cache lists are now sorted and
  support pattern matching.

o ...and many, many other things including updates to HTTX and AWebNews
  plugins, and HTML-Heaven.


MSRP remains unchanged at $45.00US / $60.00CAN plus $5.00 shipping.

Current owners of AWeb may upgrade to 3.0 for $20.00US / $27.00CAN,
plus shipping.  Canadian orders add 7% GST to the total amount.

Customers purchasing or upgrading to AWeb-II v3.0 will receive a free
update to v3.1 when it becomes available at a future date.

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

NOTES:- We now have VISA for direct sales, orders should be submitted via
=====   fax with card details and signature for authorization.

 - You can now reach our web site using the new "http://www.amitrix.com" URL.

Dealer and Customer inquiries welcomed!  For more information, ordering
AmiTrix products or dealer locations, contact us at:

AmiTrix Development,
5312 - 47 Street,
Beaumont, Alberta, T4X 1H9
Canada

Email: sales@amitrix.com (preferred if possible)

Phone or Fax: 1+ 403-929-8459

(Please leave your mailing address, phone/fax number, &/or email address 
on phone messages when requesting information.)

You may also contact us via email at the following addresses.

Email: support@amitrix.com
 or
http://www.amitrix.com/index.html
===========================================================================

@endnode

@node NEWS40 "GamaSoft Announces Alliance Program"
@toc NEWS

GamaSoft (GamaSoft LLC, a division of Pantheon Systems LLC)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GamaSoft, the Detroit, MI-based Amiga software publisher and distributor,
announced on May 6, 1997 that it is forming a new alliance of dealers and
software developers.

This alliance, called the GamaSoft Dealer-Direct Network (DDN), will allow
dealers of software distributed by GamaSoft to take advantage of:

-- Special dealer incentives, spiffs, and sales contests for various
   GamaSoft products
-- Professionally produced multimedia selling tools for GamaSoft
   products, available as props for the sales floor.
-- Special pre-release merchandise
-- T-shirts, banners, posters, and other promotional goods
-- The GamaSoft Network Partner logo, a sign of quality and legitimacy
   for the dealer

Any dealer who wishes to join the DDN must make a query by emailing
twalling@pantheon.macomb.mi.us with all of the dealer's contact
information.  Selected dealers will become GamaSoft Network Partners, with
all the benefits listed above.

Said Ted Wallingford, Production Director of GamaSoft, "One of the pitfalls
in the Amiga market has been lack of marketing power--not only for the
Amiga itself, but also for the truly sellable products within the Amiga
market.  Too many great software products have disappeared from the Amiga
market because people chose not to buy them, maybe because of a nervous
feeling about the Amiga.  Well, the Dealer-Direct Network is our response.
With a strong alliance of uniform marketeers, and a slick, active sales
program, we're going to starting turning the tide."

GamaSoft conducts distribution and publishing of software products for the
Amiga computer system.  Products in exclusive North American distribution
include Web Cruiser, New York, Voodoo 2.0, and MOca.  GamaSoft also
conducts direct sales of DrawStudio.  Direct sales and dealer sales are
conducted from the same office.

GamaSoft LLC
2644 Botsford St.
Hamtramck, MI 48212
(313) 365-8414

Contact: Ted Wallingford

@endnode

@node NEWS41 "Cloanto Releases PowerPC Blitting Library"
@toc NEWS

CLOANTO RELEASES POWERPC BLITTING LIBRARY FOR PERSONAL PAINT 7

The "personal_ppc_blit.library" for Personal Paint 7 and other Cloanto
programs has just been released on Aminet (biz/cloan/PBlit_PPC.lha).  Like
previous 68K CPU blitting libraries, this library allows Personal Paint to
work on bitmaps in Fast RAM instead of Chip RAM in supporting RTG
environments.  The PowerPC version adds to this advantage a considerable
performance boost.

Benchmarked on a PowerPC 603e running at 150 MHz, this software-only
blitter performed twice as fast as an AGA hardware blitter.  The tests were
conducted on a PowerUP board by Phase 5, running a mixed combination of
average blitter operations (not just simple copies, but complex blitter
logic).  These results are particularly impressive in consideration of the
performance overhead associated to 68K-PowerPC interprocess communication,
task switching and memory sharing, which among other things involve
frequent CPU cache flushing.  As more parts of the Amiga OS are ported to
native PowerPC code, and with the fast evolution of Amiga PowerPC
compilers, these results can only get more and more exciting.

We proudly believe to be the first company shipping PowerPC code to Amiga
users.  In spite of the very difficult times for Amiga software developers,
at Cloanto we continue to invest more than ever in the Amiga, and we are
working on new versions of popular titles like Personal Paint.  We would
like to thank the entire Amiga community for its continued support and
trust in our software.

For more information write to info@cloanto.com, or visit the Cloanto web
site at http://www.cloanto.com.

@endnode

@node NEWS42 "Directory Opus 5 Magellan Announced"
@toc NEWS

Welcome to Directory Opus 5 Magellan!

From its first release in early '95, many Amiga users have seen the
raw power provided by Opus 5 with its unique concept integrating Workbench
Replacement Mode (tm), file management and custom functions
in the one package. These concepts were further refined in the Opus 5.5
release in May '96. During this time of great uncertainty for the Amiga
platform as a whole, we have been buoyed by the support of Opus users,
many of whom have given us continual encouragement as well as much valuable
feedback and suggestions on future directions for Opus 5. 

Through your support Opus 5 has now become firmly established as the
premier workbench replacement and file management program for the Amiga.


Thanks!

With this new version we have attempted to return your loyalty with
ongoing support for the Amiga platform and a continuation of our development
plan for Opus 5.  We have also tried to add as many of your user
suggestions as possible which are consistent with the metaphor of Opus.

We hope you will enjoy the advanced features in this new version which we
call the Directory Opus 5 Magellan version.


Summary of Enhancements

The Magellan version is not just a simple upgrade but the product of 12
months of intensive development of many components of the Opus 5 system and
enthusiastic testing by our beta testers.  This version gives you many new
features with superior useability especially in Workbench Replacement
Mode(tm) with greater control over icons, actions on and with icons, plus
many new features such as Start Menus, extra popup sticky menus and new
background images to name but a few.

After extensive testing we have also improved the compatibility with
Workbench and other Amiga programs with in-built support for the NewIcons
system, better Cybergraphics support, faster icon layout, dragging and
display routines and so on.  A rewritten OpusFTP module complements these
changes and not only gives you up to five times faster access to the
Internet but now has a full GUI for the Address Book and operational
parameters.

New features include:-


Enhanced Lister functionality including:-


Command functions can now act on icon mode listers; 
New popup menus;
Optional Space Gauge showing free space on drives 
Inline Editing for Name mode listers


Enhanced Opus FTP including:-


New GUI Address book
New GUI for configuration system
Up to 5 times faster access with less memory usage
Individual directory cache exclusive to each FTP Lister
Optional idle timer 
Auto index download for AmiNet index files.


A new integrated system of Start Menus.

New Desktop Folder mechanism:- Drag and drop items to the desktop with the
support of optional popup menus

New Icon Positioning system:-

Configure areas where icons will appear and their priority.
Global control of icon labels and icon borders.
Direct byte-for-byte copy of icons.
Icon label splitting for long labels.
New Icon Command function for special "command" files.
New Icon Information requester with extensive popup options.
Faster icon dragging routines.
Use traditional Workbench icon positions for icons or exclusive Opus
positioning.
New Popup menus with shadow look.
New Environment GUIs for greater user control over Opus configuration
options.
Cybergraphics support for dragging icons and general display speed with
full 24 bit backdrops.
Integrated NewIcons support not just for icons but for all system images
including graphic button banks.
Improved compatibility with MUI, DataTypes, MCP and a number of other
programs.
New environment variables to allow you to customise Opus functionality even
more.
Rewritten Text Viewer for faster access and better scrolling especially on
Cybergraphics screens.
New Filetypes including ability to match on disks.
New Scripts system of disk inserted/disk notification gives better control
over new disks or newly mounted remote file systems.
New Command Functions plus enhanced Argument Variables.

Buttons/Images: Full NewIcon image support plus more support for image and
animation file formats including DPaintV/PPaint AnimBrushes.

Groups: Can now contain icon-less items plus you may now add left-out
commands to groups.

New ARexx commands.

More than 40 new callback hooks for easier user programming of Opus - See
Opus SDK

Availability

The Directory Opus 5 Magallan upgrade version will be on demonstration and
available for purchase direct from us on the Wizard/GPSoftware stand at the
World of Amiga show at the Novotel in London May 17/18.  Come and see it
demonstrated by Leo Davidson and Dr Greg Perry

Pricing

Direct from GPSoftware, the Magellan upgrade will be priced at our usual
upgrade fee of Australian $65.00 plus $A10 package and air mail postage.

From Wizard Developments at WoA the price will be approximately GBP 30.00.
Prices from other distributors such as Micro R&D, Wonder and Schatztruhe
will be equivalent.

We apologise!  Our priority has been to get this new Magellan version ready
and available for the WoA show so as to show off new Amiga developments.
So I just have not had time to notify existing users.  All registered users
will be notified by mail with a special upgrade offer sometime around the
start of June.  (When I get back from Europe.)

NOTE: Because of show schedules and resulting time and travel delays,
stocks of the Directory Opus 5 Magellan version will most likely not be
available for sale from main distributors apart from Wizard until
approximately end of May or early June.

Dr Greg Perry, GPSoftware, Brisbane.
GPSoftware PO Box 570, Ashgrove, Brisbane, Australia 4060
Phone/Fax +61 7 33661402
Email: zzgperry@mailbox.uq.edu.au

@endnode

@node NEWS43 "Air Mail Pro Announced"
@toc NEWS

Toysoft Development Inc.
131 64 Ave N. W.
Calgary, Alberta
T2K 0L9 Canada

Phone: 1-403-680-1656
Email: toysoft@spots.ab.ca
From: Danny Wong

May 12, 1997

Re: Air Mail Pro press release
Availibility: Mid May, 1997

Toysoft Development Inc.  the makers of the only commercial email program
for the Amiga has announced the release of Air Mail Pro for Magic User
Interface (MUI) and Class Act environments.

Air Mail Pro is a powerful and yet easy to use Internet email program for
sending and receiving messages using SMTP and POP protocols.  Air Mail Pro
has all the features of the original version plus more.

New features in Air Mail Pro includes: more preferences are added for user
customization, log file to keep track of all incoming and outgoing
messages, new interface for composing messages, multiple ASCII signatures,
automatically get notified when a user receives your message (only works if
both users are using Air Mail Pro), additional forms are included, import
and export Address book, supports multiple email accounts.  A new Helper
preference has been added to support MIME formatted messages.  Air Mail Pro
can now display any types of pictures eg: GIF, IFF, JPEG or PNG or play any
types of sounds eg: IFF, AU or WAVE and animations such as MPEG, CDXL, AVI
or Quicktime using the external helper programs.

Both MUI and ClassAct version are identical in features and can be
installed on the same system without any conflicts.  The MUI version
requires MUI v3.2 or higher and the ClassAct version includes all the
BOOPSI libraries, a minimum of one meg of free RAM is recommended after
TCP/IP stack is loaded.

Air Mail Pro is compatible with AmiTCP, Miami, TermiteTCP and Mlink.  Air
Mail Pro is $40.00 US plus $5.00 US for shipping and handling in North
America and $7.00 US for shipping and handling worldwide.  Please state the
MUI or ClassAct version when ordering.

Registered users of Air Mail v4.2 MUI version will automatically be given
free upgrade thru email.  If you have not gotten your free upgrade please
contact Toysoft Development Inc.  All other registered users of Air Mail
can upgrade to Air Mail Pro MUI or ClassAct version for $15.00 US plus
$5.00 US for shipping and handling in North America and $7.00 US for
shipping and handling worldwide.  Also contact Toysoft Development Inc.
for competitive upgrades.

For more information please contact:

Toysoft Development Inc.
131 - 64 Ave N. W.
Calgary  Alberta
T2K 0L9 Canada

Tel: 1-403-680-1656
Email: toysoft@spots.ab.ca
WWW: http://www.spots.ab.ca/~toysoft

Danny Wong
Toysoft Development Inc.

@endnode

@node NEWS44 "Amiga Industrial Council and Open Amiga Workgroup"
@toc NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The AMIGA INDUSTRIAL COUNCIL and The OPEN AMIGA WORKGROUP (ICOA)

For the past nine months, an international cross section of Amiga
developers, original Amiga and Commodore veterans and informed Amiga users
(The ARise Initiative), have been discussing, debating, analysing and
deliberating over the future of the Amiga platform.

This culminated in the creation of the Industry Council/Open Amiga working
group (ICOAWG), a formal project built around the two most promising ideas
to come from the study.

The Industry Council proposes a co-operative forum of serious Amiga
designers and developers, providing them with a forum in which they can
debate, create and plan for the future of the platform as a single set of
focused concerns rather than competing against each other and wasting time
and resources re-inventing the wheel.

The Open Amiga is seen as one of the by-products of the Industry Council. 
First, it would work towards the establishment of a common set of Open
API's, protocols and specifications.  Secondly it would lobby for the
creation of a shrink-wrapped Amiga operating system that could run
potentially on any platform, platform specific HALs (Hardware Abstraction
Layers) providing the translations that would allow Open AmigaOS to run on
disparate systems.

A week ago, the formal project proposal was dispatched to Gateway for their
consideration and inclusion in their future plans for the Amiga.

We are pleased to announce that Gateway responded favorably to the outreach
by the ICOA, without endorsing ICOA or any strategy thus far offered.

This weekend, at the World of Amiga show in London, representatives of ICOA
workgroup will be giving a presentation at the Amiga Society's Developers
Conference (DEVCON), on Saturday.  If you are an Amiga Developer, please
attend.  If you are an Amiga User, please stop by at the Finale
Developments booth at WOA.  They have kindly offered us a space to present
the ICOA initiative.  We look forward to seeing you there.

For any further information please contact the project manager, Fleecy Moss
at fleecy@netreach.net

Skal Loret
Director of Communications
The Jay Miner Society for The Advancement of Personal Computing
skal@nac.net


The Industry Council Open Amiga Initiative (ICOA) is sponsored and
supported by the Jay Miner Society for The Advance of Personal Computing. 
A non-profit society incorporated in the State of New York.  JMS has no
economic association with any company, nor does the JMS specifically
endorse any Amiga-oriented Companies, Products or Commercial Concerns.

The Jay Miner Society for Independent Computing
140 West 24th St., NY, NY 10011, USA.

14 May 1997

@endnode

@node NEWS45 "Phase5 Expands PowerUp Product Line"
@toc NEWS

phase 5 digital products expands the PowerUp product line 

Oberursel, Germany, May 12 1997: phase 5 digital products today announced
the expansion of the PowerUp product family for Amiga computers.  Beside
the two products that had been announced earlier, the Cyberstorm PPC and
the Blizzard 603e Power Board, there will be an additional model for the
A12000, the Blizzard 603e+ Power Board, which combines the PowerPC RISC
processor with an 68040 or 68060 CPU, as well as a model for the Amiga
1500/2000, the Blizzard 2604 Power Board.  Additionally, it has been
decided that all PowerUp boards will come with SCSI on board instead of
being an option, which adds additional value to these products. 

With this expanded product line, phase 5 digital products offers a complete
line of PowerUp accelerators for the Amiga 1200, 1500/2000, 3000 and 4000
models, and provides a smooth upgrade path for owners of 68030-, 68040- or
68060-based accelerators.  Additionally, phase 5 will release a fast
graphics card as an add-on to those PowerUp models that go into the desktop
and tower models, namely the Cyberstorm PPC and the Blizzard 2604 Power
Board.  The 1997 PowerUp accelerator product line includes the follwoing
models:

Cyberstorm PPC
--------------

The Cyberstorm PPC accelerator is the high-end PowerUp accelerator for
Amiga 3000/4000(T) systems and systems with a compatible processor slot.
It features a high-performance PowerPC604e RISC processor in different
clock speeds and a socket for either a 68040 or a 68060 processor, a memory
expansion option for up to 128 MByte of ultra-fast 64-bit memory, a
Wide-Ultra-SCSI controller on board and an expansion slot for
high-performance expansions such as the CyberVisionPPC (see below).  This
board is ideally suited for all A3000/A4000 users who already own an
accelerator with either a 68040 or 68060 processor; for Cyberstorm users it
will be the PowerUp upgrade offer.

Blizzard 603e Power Board
-------------------------

The Blizzard 603e Power Board is the inexpensive PowerUp accelerator for
Amiga 1200 systems.  It features a high-performance PowerPC603e RISC
processor @ 175 MHz clock speed and a socket for a 68030 companion
processor @ 50 MHz, a memory expansion option for up to 64 MByte of
high-speed memory, and a Fast-SCSI-II controller on board.  This board is
ideally suited for all A1200 users who already own an accelerator with a
socketed 68030 processor; for Blizzard 1230-II, Blizzard 1230-III and
Blizzard 1230-IV users it will be the PowerUp upgrade offer.

Blizzard 603e+ Power Board
--------------------------

The Blizzard 603e+ Power Board is the high-end PowerUp accelerator for
Amiga 1200 systems.  It features a high-performance PowerPC603e RISC
processor @ 200 MHz clock speed and a socket for a 68040 or 68060 companion
processor, a memory expansion option for up to 64 MByte of high-speed
memory, and a Fast-SCSI-II controller on board.  This board will be ideally
suited for all A1200 users who already own an accelerator with a 68040 or
68060 processor; for Blizzard 1240T/ERC and Blizzard 1260 users it will be
the PowerUp upgrade offer.

Blizzard 2604e Power Board
--------------------------

The Blizzard 2604e Power Board is the high-end PowerUp accelerator for
Amiga 2000 (in the UK Amiga 1500) systems.  It features a high-performance
PowerPC604e RISC processor and a socket for either a 68040 or a 68060
companion processor, a memory expansion option for up to 128 MByte of
ultra-fast 64-bit memory, a Wide-Ultra-SCSI controller on board and an
expansion slot for high-performance expansions such as the CyberVisionPPC
(see below).  This board is ideally suited for all A1500/A2000 users who
already own an accelerator with either a 68040 or 68060 processor; for
Blizzard 2040/2060 users it will be the PowerUp upgrade offer.

Quick Table:

        CyberStorm PPC    Blizzard 603e    Blizzard 603e+    Blizzard 2604
        --------------    -------------    --------------    -------------

CPU:    PowerPC 604e      PowerPC 603e     PowerPC 603e      PowerPC604e
        150-200 MHz       175 MHz          200 MHz           150-200 MHz

0x0 CPU:68040/60          68030            68040/60          68040/60
        25-50 MHz         50 MHz           25-50 MHz         25-50 MHz

Amigas: A3000/4000(T)     A1200            A1200             A2000

Out:    June 97           June 97          July 97           August 97

Price:  150 MHz: $709     $429             $599              150 MHz: $739
        180 MHz: $849                                        180 MHz: $879
        200 MHz: $969                                        200 MHz: $999

PowerUP 150 MHz: $669     $399             $529              150 MHz: $699
Upgrade 180 MHz: $769                                        180 MHz: $799
Price:  200 MHz: $869                                        200 MHz: $899

(Prices listed in US$.  Prices are without the required 68040 or 68060
chip.)


CyberVisionPPC - A high-end graphic card for use with the Cyberstorm PPC
and the Blizzard 2604 Power Board

The CyberVisionPPC is a high-performance graphic card which can be
installed on the expansion slot of the PowerPC604e-based PowerUp
Accelerators, the Cyberstorm PPC and the Blizzard 2604 Power Board.  It is
scheduled for delivery in August, and will become available simultaneously
with the Blizzard 2604 Power Board.   Especially for the Blizzard 2604 the
use of the CyberVisionPPC is highly recommended as the slow access to the
ECS chip memory or Zorro-II-based graphics boards in the A1500/A2000 may
limit the system performance in applications with lots of graphic output;
but also the performance of the Cyberstorm PPC will benefit significantly
from the data transfer rates of up to 100 MB/s (from the processor into the
video memory) in demanding applications such as fast 3D visualization and
similar tasks.

Not only the ultra-fast access of the processor into the video memory, but
also the internal speed and functionality of the CyberVisionPPC will
provide a breathtaking performance.  The CyberVisionPPC is equipped with
the powerful PERMEDIA graphics controller, which provides an outstanding 3D
performance of up to 42 million textured 3D pixels per second, with
hardware-accelerated rendering functions such as z-buffering,
gouraud-shading, fogging, blending and anti-aliasing.  As the design of the
PERMEDIA hardware suits perfectly for OpenGL implementations, it's 3D
performance can support the CyberGL functionality of CyberGraphX V3 Native
which comes along with the PowerUp boards.  In combination with the high
floating-point performance of the PowerPC604e processor a breathtaking
performance in professional 3D applications can be achieved by this
implementation.  Additionally, the PERMEDIA processor supports functions
like color space conversion, chroma keying and XY-scaling which will be
used by the software MPEG decoding routines of CyberGraphX V3 Native.

The CyberVisionPPC used 64-bit wide SGRAM with a data transfer rate of up
to 660 MB/s; this in combination with the fast RAM-DAC allows display
resolutions of up to 1280x1024 pixel in true color mode and with a high
refresh rate of at least 70 Hz.  The boards comes along with 4 MB of
display memory as standard.

The recommended price for the CyberVisionPPC will be at US$299.00;
customers of a PowerUp upgrade can buy this board for a special rate of 
US$239.00.

@endnode

@node NEWS46 "Cloanto Launches Personal Paint 7.1"
@toc NEWS

CLOANTO LAUNCHES PERSONAL PAINT 7.1 AT WORLD OF AMIGA SHOW IN LONDON

After weeks of sleepless nights, we have the pleasure to announce that the
Personal Paint 7.1 package will be launched at the World of Amiga show in
London this week-end.  The new CD-ROM not only contains the first Amiga
PowerPC code ever shipped (excluding developer tools), but also adds dozens
of new features, including:

* Finely-tuned 68000, 68020, 68030 and 68040 editions of Personal Paint 7.1

* New Rexx scripts, including text animation and animation paths

* Improved blitter emulation and support of third-party graphics.library
  enhancements to store bitmaps in Fast RAM instead of Chip RAM

* Improved support for environments like Siamese RTG, UAE, PowerPC and
  popular Amiga utilities

* Loads TIM graphics directly from Sony PlayStation CDs, with extended TIM
  saving options for developers

* New user interface languages (now totalling 16 languages)

* Improved and extended manuals (in English, German and Italian)

* Cloanto Internet graphics DataTypes (GIF, JPEG, PNG and XBM)

* GIF utilities by third parties

* Special bonus: Cloanto ColorType 3.1 software

Some of these enhancements, including a free upgrade of the main program
from version 7.0 to version 7.1, will be released on Aminet in the
"biz/cloan" directory immediately after the show.  For additional
information, please write to info@cloanto.com, or visit the Cloanto "Web
Workbench" at http://www.cloanto.com/amiga/.

@endnode

@node NEWS47 "Amiga Informer's New Web Site"
@toc NEWS

******FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE******

The Amiga Informer Zine, the new Amiga print publication, is
announcing that our newly redesigned web site is up and running. You
can visit our new site at:
http://www.amigainformer.com
Our new site has been completely redesigned by Ted Wallingford of Pantheon
Systems using Amiga computers.  You will find our site much more pleasing
to the eye and a great deal kinder to use as you browse selected articles
reprinted from issue 7.

The Informer site includes many new features.  You will find a new Public
Service Database that allows vendors, user-groups and individuals to join
and become included in future Amiga related mailings.  You will also find a
search engine that will allow you to do specific searches of the posted
articles and news items.  There are hot links on our front page that
connect you to some of the best Amiga sites on the web for quick access to
the latest news.  In addition, we list a wide variety of Amiga vendors on
our front page with quick links to their sites.  This is a great way to get
the best prices on those items you've been wanting to purchase.  All the
vendors listed on our front page support The Amiga Informer and we hope you
will support them in turn.

Other features planned for our site but not yet available will be First
Virtual and PGP protected on-line subscribing, a full archive of many past
articles, full searching of achived articles, Music of the Month as you
browse, downloadable links to programs mentioned by columnists in Informer
articles, and a feedback section for subscribers to air their thoughts on
future issue content.

It is no secret we want you to subscribe to The Informer, but, that doesn't
mean we won't fully reprint articles to our web site.  We want you to have
access to the information contained in The Informer regardless whether you
subscribe or not.  However, we don't post all the articles from the print
edition and articles are posted to our web site approximately 2-3 weeks
after they are received by our subscribers.  This delay makes it much more
advantageous to subscribe if you want to get all the details hot off the
press.  Right now, the information on our web site is from issue 7 which
was in our subscribers hands on or about April 15th.

Please visit our new web site at http://www.amigainformer.com and see for
yourself what our new site is all about.

Thanks for your support,

Fletcher Haug
Editor
eldritch@mhv.net

@endnode

@node NEWS48 "Opportunity With Learning Moves"
@toc NEWS

Opportunity With Learning has moved to a new location at 98 Pine Ridge Rd.
Reading, MA.  We are proud to be supporting both the Amiga and Windows 95
versions of the multimedia program, Physics Laboratory in Mechanics.
Please make a note of our new address.  Our phone number remains the same.

We currently are offering a 10% discount on all PC and Amiga orders placed
before July 31, 1997.  Visit our web page listed below for prices, system
requirements, and a demo of Physics Lab.

Lori

--
Opportunity With Learning - Educational Software for the Future
98 Pine Ridge Rd.,  Reading, MA  01867-3819
Lori Vinciguerra - President
  Internet: owl@davinci.reading.MA.US
  www: http://pages.prodigy.com/ralph/owl.htm

@endnode

@node NEWS49 "Amiga Informer To Change Distribution Method"
@toc NEWS

********************** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ************************


By now many in the Amiga community may have seen at least one issue of The
Amiga Informer.  If you have, you know that The Informer is a publication
dedicated to promoting the continued use and application of the Amiga
computer.  If you haven't seen one, now is the time to take a look.

We have been in publication for nearly 16 months and have continued to
grow.  Some of you might recall that the first Informer contained only 8
pages.  In contrast, the soon-to-be released issue 8 will contain 32 pages.
We have continued to grow in spite of a questionable future by providing
readers with a useful resource free of fluff and full of fact.  We take
pride in our publication and the service and responsiveness we give to our
subscribers.  We are also proud of the fact that we are the only North
American commercial Amiga publication that is produced entirely using Amiga
computers.

In the past, The Informer was distributed primarily through select Amiga
dealers that included a complimentarily issue with each Amiga order.  This
served to introduce The Informer to the community at large, letting them
know we were available and that we were committed to the future.  While
this method of distribution served us well, it is time for a change.  Since
our subscriber base has continually grown, and we have gained retail sales
partners among Amiga dealers, we will be limiting the number of issues we
distribute as complimentary copies.  While we will continue to distribute
some complimentary issues through some dealers, you will find they will no
longer be as easy to obtain.  Complimentary issues will continue to dwindle
in supply.

If you like The Informer and want to get every issue in a timely manner,
the only certain way to be assured of getting an issue is to subscribe or
to purchase an issue from a retailer.  In fact, a subscription is a wise
way to go.  It assures that you get the latest issue delivered to your door
while granting you certain special benefits.  These benefits include:

> Delivery by email of Brad Webb's Amiga Update electronic newsletter. 
This newsletter quickly brings you the latest news and announcements with
the expedience of email.

> Free classified ad space in our Marketplace section to advertise your
used Amiga products.

> 10% discount on any product ordered from Liage International.

> Automatic entry in our bimonthly prize drawings of great Amiga products.*

A one year subscription of 6 issues to The Informer is (all in US dollars):
$14 for USA subscribers, $16 for Canadian subscribers, or $21 for
subscribers in all other countries.  If you are interested, there are
several ways for you to subscribe.  You can:

> Call us at 914-566-4665 and subscribe with you Visa or Mastercard.

> Call or Fax us at 914-566-4665 and request that we Fax you one of our
subscription forms.  You can send or Fax you subscription back to us.

> Email us at eldritch@mhv.net and request that we email you a subscription
form.  You can email, Fax or send it back to us.

> Visit our web site at www.amigainformer.com and fill out the on-line
subscription form and we will send you a bill along with your first issue.

> Send a check or Money Order made out to ELDRITCH ENTERPRISES to: The
Informer, PO Box 21, Newburgh NY 12551-0021

We at The Informer believe the Amiga will soon enter a new era.  After many
years of mismanagement and failed opportunities, the Amiga is finally in
the hands of a company that looks as thought they will make some good
decisions.  Our aim is to grow with this new wave of Amiga computing and
continue to provide our readers with the most useful, informative and
detail orientated publication around.  Our hope is that you will ride that
wave with us.

Thanks for your support,

Fletcher Haug
Editor
eldritch@mhv.net
http://www.amigainformer.com

*No purchase necessary.  Prize drawings open to anyone.  If not
subscribing, send one postcard for each drawing with your name, address,
phone number, email address and the date to: The Amiga Informer, PO Box 21,
Newburgh NY 12551-0021.  Postcard must be titled "Free Informer Prize
Drawing" and be dated at least 2 weeks before each drawing.  Drawings are
held bimonthly.

@endnode

@node NEWS50 "Australian Amiga Gathering Update"
@toc NEWS

AUSTRALIAN AMIGA GATHERING
Update 30/5/97


The countdown begins to the weekend of the Australian Amiga Gathering 97 to
be held at the Sydney Showground.

Many Australian & Overseas companies will be represented at the show.

Amadeus Computers
http://www.amadeus.com.au

Amiga Genius

Computa Magic P/L

Gsoft

GPsoftware
http://agnus.livewire.com.au/gpsoft/index.html

Resource Managment Force
http://www.mpx.com.au/~normanp/index.html

Tech Media
http://www.techmedia.zip.com.au

Unitech Electronics

North West User Group

Commodore Hornsby User Group

Greg Ball Electronics

St Johns Park High School

Sharewaree Booth
http://www.pnc.com.au/~mother/shareware.html

Digita
http://www.digita.com/index.html

Cloanto
http://www.cloanto.com

ProDAD
http://www.prodad.de

DKB
http://web.idirect.com/~amiga/dkb.html

Golden Image
http://www.reserve.co.uk/gold/

Bio-Con

Phase 5
http://www.phase5.de/homee.html

WizardDevelopments

DraCo
http://www.draco.com/draco

Haagge & Partner
http://ourworld.compusereve.com/homepages/Haage_Partner

HiQ
http://www.hiq.co.uk

MotherBoard Computers
http://www.pnc.com.au/~mother

Geodesic Design Inc
http://www.mindeye.com

Stay Tuned For More !

Michael Burak

Australian Amiga Gazette
Suite 19, 9-11 Abel Street,  Penrith NSW 2750,  Australia
Ph: (047) 222-803Fax: (047) 215-277
Email: mother@pnc.com.au 
Web: www.pnc.com.au/~mother/AAG.html

@endnode

@node NEWS51 "Amiga Browser Market Share Analysis"
@toc NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 31, 1997

Amiga Browser Market Share Changes

Amicrawler.Com today released the reults of the Amiga web browser market
share for the month of May 1997.  The most widely used was IBrowse, from
Omnipresence International, with a 67.8% market share.  AmigaVoyager
(VaporWare) followed a distant second with a 21.8% share (up from 14.6% in
March), and AWeb (AmiTrix Development) with 6.8% (down from 16.1%).

The long-term data compiled over the months between March and May 1997 show
IBrowse with 72.1%, AmigaVoyager with 17.1%, and AWeb with 10.2%.  Browsers
such as AmigaMosaic with 0.3% and ALynx with 0.1% have shown a steady
decline. 

A similar study performed by BrowserWatch shows IBrowse with a 74.8% market
share, AmigaVoyager with 21.9%, and AWeb with 3.2%, among graphical Amiga
web browsers.  This study used a smaller sample of only 1,661 visitors over
many weeks, while the Amicrawler study used a sample size of over 220,000
visitors.

For further information, please visit the Amiga Browser Watch at
http://www.amicrawler.com/bwatch/.

David Tiberio http://amicrawler.com
dtiberio@amicrawler.com

@endnode

@node NEWS52 "STFax 1.360"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

STFax

VERSION

1.360

AUTHOR

Simone Tellini

E-Mail:   wiz@pragmanet.it
WWW:      http://www.pragmanet.it/~tellini/main.html
FidoNet:  2:332/502.18

DESCRIPTION

It all began almost an year ago, when for the first time I needed to send a
fax...  "Well", I said, "I've got a fax modem, I can send it from home...".

Unfortunately I had no fax software: the ones provided with the modem were
just for MS-Dos and Windows, as usual.

So I started looking around for fax programs for my Amiga: there were only
two commercial packages, but as I'm almost always out-of-money, I thought
it was a good idea to look in the shareware before.

I did, but with no luck: I just saw a couple of programs, one worst than
the other.

Thus, I sat down and began to type...

I tried to put in STFax all the functions I thought I would need, like:

- Nice, handy user interface
- Phonebook
- Scheduler
- Reports
- ARexx port
- Datatypes support for image conversion
- On-line help
- Printer driver to redirect all print-outs to a fax file

and so on...

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

STFax requires OS 2.0+ (v37+) and "reqtools.library" v38+
(Copyright by Nico Francois & Magnus Holmgren).

AVAILABILITY

http://www.pragmanet.it/~tellini/STFax/STFax.html

Aminet mirrors:  comm/misc/STFax.lha

PRICE

Requested shareware fee is $35 US (LIT 45000 for Italy,
LIT 50000 for Europe).

DISTRIBUTABILITY

This piece of software is to be distributed "as is" with no
warranty of any kind. The author won't be held responsible
for any damage occurred by its [mis]use.

@endnode

@node NEWS53 "SBase Pro Upgrade Offer"
@toc NEWS

[This is actually a news item a few months old but it's slipped through the
cracks.  Our apologies to Mr. Hardware. -Jason]

For Immediate Release

Wednesday, February 5th 1997

Contact:     Joe Rothman
             Mr. Hardware Computers
             59 Storey Ave.
             Central Islip, NY 11722-2332 USA
             516-234-8110 Voice or Fax

Central Islip, NY - Wednesday, February 5th 1997 Mr.  Hardware Computers
announced today that they are offering a special upgrade price for anyone
currently in possession of a previous release of SBase4 or SBase4Pro Amiga.
We don't care if you were the original purchaser or not.  All we need is
the registration number from the version you currently own.

On April 29th 1996 Mr.  Hardware Computers purchased all rights to the
Amiga version of SBase4Pro from Oxxi, Inc.  We did not publicize this
purchase because we fully expected to have been able to release an expanded
new version of SBase4 by January 1997.  However, we have run into numerous
difficulties, including a total lack of contracted support from Oxxi, Inc.


Although work continues on brand new Mr.  Hardware Computers labeled
versions of all SBase4 products, it has recently come to our attention that
many people do not realize that SBase4 isn't dead.  We have also found out
that many people are needlessly using buggy versions of the current SBase4
and SBase4Pro releases.  If you are among the thousands of Amiga users who
are still using SuperBase Personal, SuperBase Professional, older versions
of SBase4, or SBase4Pro, you can upgrade to SBase4Pro v1.30n for the
following prices in US dollars.

From                                   Cost Including Shipping
--------------------------------------------------------------
SuperBase Amiga any version               - $60.00
SuperBase Professional Amiga any version  - $30.00
SBase4 Amiga any version                  - $50.00
SBase4Pro Amiga version v1.30m or older   - $20.00

There are many good reasons for upgrading your current software to
SBase4Pro v1.30n.  These include many bug fixes and some new features that
have been implemented since the version you are currently using was
created.  Your participation in this upgrade program will also make it
easier for us to continue with the further development of SBase4 and
SBase4Pro.

Mr.  Hardware Computers is 100% Amiga and 100% committed to the further
development of SBase4 and SBase4Pro for the Amiga.  We have some incredible
new ideas and development programs we will be implementing in the future. 
We invite you to help us prove that the Amiga is better at running business
software than any other computer platform available anywhere.

@endnode

@node NEWS54 "Sagittarius Software Lowers Prices"
@toc NEWS

07-MAY-97

Sagittarius Software - Price reduction on Vulcan Software titles!


Vulcan Software Limited is planning to enhance their line of products by
producing high-quality CD-ROM titles for Amiga systems.  Because of this
change in direction, all current Vulcan software titles are being
liquidated at closeout prices to make room for upcoming products.  Take
advantage of these incredibly low prices while they're available -- we will
be sold out soon!

VULCAN SOFTWARE PRICE LIST - MAY 1997



BlobZ  (AGA)               $20.99
Bograts (AGA)              $20.99
Burnout (AGA + 6MB RAM)    $28.99
Hillsea Lido               $20.99
JETPilot                   $24.99
Timekeepers                $20.99
Timekeepers Expansion Disk $12.99
Tiny Troops                $25.99
Valhalla III               $25.99

Our products can be ordered online, by mail, by FAX, or by telephone.  
(Mail orders, please add $2.50 to total bill for shipping)

Checks, Money Orders, MC, VISA, and Discover are accepted methods of
payment.

Sagittarius Software
1706 Canton Road
Akron, OH  44312
USA

http://sagsoft.ald.net
E-Mail: sales@sagsoft.ald.net
FAX   : 1-330-794-2170 (10am - 6pm EST Mon-Sat)
Phone : 1-800-426-7687

@endnode

@node NEWS55 "Legacy Magazine to Feature Deathbed Vigil Footage"
@toc NEWS

LEGACY TO FEATURE DEATHBED VIGIL DOCUMENTARY IN 1997 ISSUES

May 25, 1997
Chicago, IL

Looking for a new, fresh way to stay in touch with the latest for your
Amiga?  Want a poignant glimpse into the rise and fall of Commodore at the
same time?

Now you can have it all delivered to you on video!

Subscribe to Legacy: The Groundbreaking Amiga Magazine on Video!

Now is the best time to subscribe to Legacy--the new magazine dedicated to
bringing you and your Amiga the latest info.  The hottest products, the
coolest tricks, and the future--all on video!

Not only are we planning to bring you everything from graphics tutorials
you can use to a complete overview of the tools you should be watching for
on the Internet, but in 1997 Legacy will be running scenes from Dave
Haynie's legendary Deathbed Vigil documentary, back in publication by IAM.
Included will be footage never before seen, and not available on the
regular commercial release!

Legacy will be published 5 times a year (3 in 1997) and contain over 60
minutes of coverage in each issue.  Starting in June, Legacy will be
distributed through direct subscriptions as well as Amiga dealerships.  We
are currently in negotiations with European companies to ensure sales
overseas as well.

Be a part of the Legacy: Legacy is interested in contributions from Amiga
users!  While we will do most of the segments in-house, we're particularly
interested in showing off Amiga still or animated artwork, and
incorporating Amiga-scored music in Legacy.

Subscriptions are being taken now!

8 issues (1997 and 1998): Just $11.45 per issue!
3 issues (1997 only)    : Just $12.95 per issue!
Sample issue (Issue #1) : $14.95

Shipping and handling per tape is $2.05 within the US.
Illinois residents add 8.25% sales tax.

To subscribe, send a check or money order payable to "Legacy Maker" to:
Legacy Maker
PO Box 60711
Chicago, IL  60626
USA

To subscribe by credit card, fill out the details of your card (type,
account number, expiration date) on a form with your subscription
information and mail to the above address.

To subscribe by phone, call 773-465-5158.

Subscription prices (includes domestic S&H):

Eight issues: $112.00
Three issues:  $45.00
Sample (#1):   $17.00


For more information, contact Jason Compton at jcompton@xnet.com

Legacy's web page is located at http://www.xnet.com/~jcompton/legacy.html

@endnode

xxx FEATURE

@node FEATURE1 "Monster World of Amiga UK Report"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
      World of Amiga UK Report: Flashes From the Archives Of Oblivion
  Luke Osbaldeston                                          lo3@ukc.ac.uk
===========================================================================

[Mr. Osbaldeston is back for the second year in a row with an extremely
comprehensive look at the recent World of Amiga UK show.  Mr. Osbaldeston
has a number of strong opinions on Amiga companies and personalities, which
to the best of our ability we've retained in the article, without
sacrificing our accountability.  With that, over to Luke. -Jason]

The World of Amiga Show
17th & 18th of May 1997
Novotel
Hammersmith
London
United Kingdom

"Osbaldeston's 3rd law of computer shows states that there will
_definitely_ be some people in attendance who are either very fat, or very
thin." This year's show certainly proved this law absolutely, with some
monstrously fat people there, one or two of which are quite well known.  
Don't worry, names _will_ be dropped later on ;-) (You might like to check
out the piece I wrote about last year's show in AR 4.06.  It could help
you understand this article a little better.)

Okay, solid.  Rather like last year's show, 'love was in the air, every
sight and every sound.' Well, perhaps not quite love, but Gateway.  Could
there be some more hot news from this show like last year's now in
retrospect VIScorp debacle ?  (The scum basters !) The quick answer is no.
For the long answer I guess you'll have to read all this and make your own
mind up.

When I arrived at the naughty Novotel, I was surprised, and at first a
little heartened, to see that there was no real queue to speak of, unlike
last year.  My reward for arriving early I presumed.  In actual fact this
wasn't the case, as shall be explained later - much later.  I was grateful
none-the-less for being admitted almost immediately - buying a ticket this
year was a sage decision, as there was a queue of people paying on the
door.  Ha !  Of course, this is the kind of punishment one likes to see the
lumpenproletariat have to endure ;-)

Okay, so now I am inside.  Same room as last year's show unsurprisingly,
which some of you might know means a rather bland grey low-ceilinged room
which someone had obviously decided didn't need any air conditioning, even
though that day was the hottest of the year so far in this country.
Someone at the Novotel must have figured along the same lines as the late
great Bill Hick's father, i.e.  that a/c 'wastes gas.' Even though I was
the only person I saw all day at the show to be wearing just shorts and a
t-shirt (both green) I spent a fair amount of the day perspiring.  Not
pleasant, but not nearly as bad for me as it was for everyone else.  You
probably know what the standard uniform is for the computer freaks for the
most part at these shows, black leather jackets _must_ be worn at all times
(to hide their nauseating 'negative' arms amongst other things)
irrespective of weather conditions.  Still, they all probably had B.O.
already, so what did it matter ?   In fact, I think they wear those black
leather jackets to keep the stench in, which is thoughtful of them.  Pity
they can't keep their mouth's closed too, and keep the redolence of cheese
& onion crisps, nicotine, coke and 3 days worth of plaque to themselves
also ;-) Those involved were probably mostly students from Kent ...

So, using the devilishly clever technique I pioneered to describe last
year's show, I will describe the exhibitors clockwise from the left
perimeter.  It's easier to figure than it might sound.  Okay, the first
exhibitor, from the entrance and to the left was the mighty Gasteiner.  In
terms of Star Wars characters, I don't know, perhaps they are like Admiral
Ackbar from Return of the Jedi.  Not really mighty, but good to see them
again.  They too were one of the architects of this year's show by all
accounts.  Again they had 'bargains galore, even holes in the floor (sic
)'.  I can't say enough about their stand.  Actually, I can.  They didn't
have any computers setup displaying any software etc., just piles of
goodies to be bought cheaply.  I remember being impressed last year because
I bought an 8mb ram simm for 75 pounds (get your own bloody currency
converter this year) - a 16mb simm cost me approximately 55 pounds earlier
this year.  Sigh.  How times and prices have changed, huh ?  And by the
way, the 16mb simm was for my Amiga too.  They had the their usual piles of
old cack for sale, faulty bits and pieces that may do something for you, if
you fancied taking a chance, though I didn't, and it seemed like most other
people felt that way too, as by the end of the Saturday, not much of their
'dodgy' gear had gone.  Still, they claimed to be giving a 'free' zal (game
- in this case the Chaos AGA pack) away to anyone who spent 10 notes or
more, providing they had stocks left.  They also had a very poor joke up
concerning a '26 speed (or some such) CD ROM' for the Amiga.  It was such a
poor joke, a guy, sorry no, strike that, not a guy, a _huge_ guy who must
have weighed at least 20 stone or so I'd have thought (what did I tell you
about fat people ?  ) had to explain it to a couple of funkwits who still
didn't get it.  The 'joke' was that the name of this device had the acronym
of F.A.R.T.  Bloody hell.  BLOODY HELL.  Their stand did a brisk trade for
most of the day.  So, a good stand for bargains, but nothing particularly
exciting.

Okay, left boy, left, there was the bar.  If anyone read my account of last
year's show you will know how I felt then about the bar - I still feel the
same now.  Suffice to say a pint of lime cordial and lemonade cost me 2
pounds.  2 funking pounds !  No air conditioning !  Basters !  I think they
made the funking bar prices up as they went along.  Cake-sucking
mutha-crushers !  to use Granada's dubbing policy whenever they show the
film 'Robocop' (in-joke for North of England readers.  Just what is a
cake-sucker though?  And how can being called one possibly be offensive?)

The next exhibitor was Snap Computer Supplies.  Again, like Gasteiner no
machines setup, just lots of computer consumables to be purchased, disks,
inkjets etc.  No real hardware for sale.  Their prices seemed okay, worth a
look if you were after six thousand floppy labels.  Their CD-R'S were a
little dear though.  They didn't look like they were doing a particularly
outstanding amount of trade to me.  Do you need to know more ?  No.  Good.

I guess next up came Eyetech.  Oh Eye !  Famous in this part of the cosmos
for their CD 32 expansion stuff and other nice bits and pieces, infamous
for their campaign of mis[?]information concerning the ide interface on the
A1200, and how it should be buffered, "or else your machine will funking
blow up !" Hmm.  I was going to say that they didn't have any computers
setup doing anything much though I am not 100% about this.  I don't recall
seeing any software running on their stand.  They apparently had a thing
called the PortPlus, and, wait for it, the NEW PortJnr, which are both high
speed serial and parallel expansions for the A1200.  The also had their
version of the 'let's jump on the band-wagon and make a tower' tower system
for the A1200.  Out of all the systems I have seen, this one is possibly
the easiest to fit, but the messiest of the lot, in that you leave your
A1200 in the bottom half of its plastic case, and then ram, yes, _ram_ it,
understand, you RAM it into a full tower case.  I guess it'll work, but I
don't think I like it much.  Apparently they had a new version of their
dirty low-down 'buffered' ide interface for the A1200 available too, as
well as, here I quote, " ...  much, much more - all at unbeatable show
prices." Well, _some_ of their prices were pretty cheap, for instance Blitz
Basic 2.1 for 10 pounds is pretty good going (they sold out) but some of
their hardware prices seemed verbatim as their normal ads in the paper
Amiga mags published here.  Hardware wise though they were a cut above many
stands, so 'Hats off to Eyetech.' They had a guy from the now defunct AUI
magazine serving for them, just one of the many 'celebrity' sales
assistants to be found around the show.  Their stand did a very good trade
nearly all day as a consequence - maybe.

After Eyetech were the little known Wisedome Ltd.  They have just published
a couple of CD roms in this country at least, one called the History of the
World Cup, the other a World Atlas or something like that anyway.   The
History of the World Cup cd was very well received by CU Amiga Magazine in
this country, and I guess they were there in order to flog a few as a
result.  The guy operating their stand was a very mellow looking bloke,
'keeping an eye on the world passing by his window'.  They had a machine
setup demonstrating their wares, mainly the football cd.  To paraphrase the
loathsome Brian Sewell, 'I don't care tuppence for football', so I wasn't
really that interested.  I didn't let this interfere with my strictly
impartial observance of the stand though.  They seemed to do reasonable
business, on and off.

Next are Digita.  Their stand was remarkably similar to last year's.  Once
again, no machines setup to display their rather good software - why the
funk not ?  Perhaps they think we are all such die-hards at those shows
that we already know what their stuff can do.  Maybe.  One machine wouldn't
have hurt though surely ?  They had the usual suspects regarding software,
Wordworth 6 & Office (yes, I did upgrade from using Wordworth 2 those of
you who might remember me using it to write last year's report - I'm now
using Wordworth 5), Personal Paint 7, Turbo Calc et al., on both floppy
and cd rom etc.  Their stand was manned by the 'cute' Jeremy Rihill, big
boss at Digita, nice to see him getting his hands dirty flogging a few
copies, and a guy called Dan, who was quite helpful.  I guess Jeremy is, in
Star Wars terms, probably Bib Fortuna, "and I mean that most sincerely,
folks." They did have some of their software going for pretty decent
prices, and certainly I would have agreed with anyone who said that there
were bargains to be had on their display.  Their stand did good business I
guess for the most part.  Very important that a company like Digita are
supported, so do what you can for them.  I personally signed a crucifer in
blood.

Keeping left and turning left too, a couple of stands not on the Exhibition
Catalogue map or detailed inside either.  Late arrivals ?  The first was
Finale Development.  Just a sec, I'll find their flyer.  Okay.  They do
"Innovative Applications for AmigaOS and pOS Computers." Apparently.  Blah
blah blah, they publish ClassAct, which I have heard of but never used, and
they are 'committed to a "no compromises" paradigm of software
development.' In other words, cobblers.  Joke.  [BTW, I helped write the
lines Luke's making fun of here.  :) -Jason] They had an A4000 on their
stand with one of the biggest, most expensive looking monitors I can recall
ever seeing (a Philips) showing off some of their stuff.  They were running
the Finale Web Cruiser on it, and it looked pretty good too.  They mention
some other stuff too, MOca, a Java based app, Voodoo, an Emailer, and New
York New York, start spreading the news, I'm leaving today, I wanna be a
part of it ...  yes, a newsgroup reader type thang, as well as Digital
Quill, which I was hoping was an Amiga version of the now legendary
Spectrum utility, The Quill, which was used for writing text-based
adventures on the Spectrum, but no, in fact Digital Quill is a boring text
editor !  Their stand was rather basic looking but not bad though, and they
do seem to be supporting the Amiga, so good on ya Finale.  I don't think
they actually had anything for sale at the show, so trade wise it was hard
to call, but people did seem to be showing an interest, and Finale
themselves seemed to have come all the way from America [The corporation is
based in America but the presenter, Alain Penders, came from Belgium], so
what can I say ?  Full marks for effort methinks, and buy their products if
you can.  They reminded me of the join at approximately 1 minute into
Strawberry Fields.   Why ?  I don't know.

Next to Finale was Budget Computer Software.  To their credit, their name
says it all really, to their minus, their prices weren't that cheap I
thought.   They had various games, and a few small consumables for sale.  No
computers setup though.  I guess they didn't really need them.  They didn't
look like they really sold that much to me, but who knows ?  There was a
large space and gap between the next stand, with an area where you could
just crash down to take the weight off your feet etc.  Rather disgustingly,
I saw someone drinking Coke.  Some people have no shame.

The next stand was certainly not just one of the busiest, and biggest, and
best too, but also one of the most eagerly anticipated by myself.  It was
the Phase 5 stand, part of the rather good CU Amiga Magazine stand.  I'm
sure most of you are aware of Phase 5 and their naughty hardware.  On show
they had a couple of 4000's, both connected to nice 17" Microvitec
monitors.  Inside they had Cybervision cards (presumably the latest version
?) and, well, imagine that scene from Monty Python & The Holy Grail where
Michael Palin sees the grail above a castle and you get the idea, da da
daaa, yes, a couple of PowerPC accelerators too.  Having watched the demos
they had running for most of the day, it seemed to me that the graphics
cards were doing most of the work.  They had the WB window displaying some
full-screen mpeg's - which I thought in itself was pretty impressive,
though a little useless pragmatically wise, and the PPC doing, or at least
trying to, some Mandlebrot type fractal gubbins in another window on WB.
The fractal window though did keep on slowing down quite worryingly I
thought, and wasn't really that impressive anyway.  They are gonna need
something a little more than that to impress the masses with.  Perhaps I
was missing some eruditely impressive part though.  It was hard to get near
the machines themselves as the stand was busy all day.

There were a couple of Phase 5 guys on hand to answer questions and the
like, but I didn't really have anything to ask so I didn't say a bloody
word - I just looked on knowingly, stifled a chorus of 'Springtime for
Hitler and Germany' and wandered on ;-) I picked up the latest flyer
concerning all their planned PPC products (including a couple of new ones)
and had a gander, but it is unlikely that there is anything much mentioned
on it that isn't on their web site.  All in all, though a little small, and
only part of another stand too, I was reasonably impressed, and at least
they had made some effort.  Plus the PPC cards really do seem to exist,
which is something I guess.  Just have to wait and see what they are like
when they go on sale.

The CU Amiga stand itself was pretty good - much MUCH better than the
dreadful Amiga Format stand, which I will detail later.  They had the
putative TFX on playable demo at CU Amiga, not that it looked very
playable, but at least you could see what you were missing - not much
really !  They had Mat Bettinson (in trim) and his magic 3000 (I think)
and some video conferencing gear which was having problems when I saw it,
as well as some special show subscriptions too I guess.  They had at least
3 machines set up doing different things.  It was a pretty good stand
overall, though perhaps a little too easy for the public to get on, as it
did seem to clog up a bit from time to time.  A small yet confident show of
strength methinks.  Both CU Amiga and Phase 5 should be applauded and
supported for making some effort.

Next to CU Amiga was Direct Software.  They are riding the crest of a wave
at the moment in this country with various things they are doing making the
small headlines.  The most well known of these is their 'Power' Amiga. 
This is simply an Amiga with some Zorro slots, a 060, 22 mb of ram (and
there's the rub) a graphics card with '64 bit' capability, some pci slots,
and perhaps something else too which I don't recall - research, what
research ?  In actual fact, there is nothing remotely 'Power' about their
Amiga at all, it's basically banged together out of things you could quite
easily do yourself. 

I don't wish to seem down on Direct without due cause, but I for one am
completely unimpressed with their 'Power' Amiga, which, by the way, was
distinctly conspicuous by its absence.  All they had was a rather poor
rolling video with some half-baked gamess on it.  The software that they
did have for sale was pretty dear too - certainly my local branch of Game
is cheaper for much of its Amiga software, and they are a high-street
dealer at that.  Oh dear.  All these things didn't stop the Direct stand
being full for most of the day.  I still don't know why.  I guess people
must have thought there was something worth seeing there.   They didn't, if
I remember correctly, have any computers setup.  I'll probably get some
mail now for having a go at them, but I'm not, this is just the way how I
saw things.  Good luck to them if they can make a go of things.  I hope
they manage to release the excellent game Trapped over here.  I mailed the
author, Michael Piepgras, ages ago telling him he should get a UK
distributor, but do people ever listen to me ?  No, not usually, then when
it turns out I am correct (often) I have to be the first one to tell them,
'I told you so you cracker.'

Okay, next up were Weird Science.  Again, no machines setup.  They sell
mainly cd roms for the Amiga.  They were also flogging their Network PC
thang too, which sounds like a neat device, it can connect a PC & Amiga
together and access drives etc.  from each.  Useful, though _very_ slow in
doing it.  They were offering two free cd roms with every purchase.  Okay I
guess if you have a cd rom.  Their stand was reasonably busy, though not
made so by me.  Not bad I guess, though it didn't excite me.

Ah ha ah.  Next in line, Wizard Developments.  Wizard indeed.  Any machines
setup ?  No.  At least, not on 'their' part of their stand directly.  They
were also harbouring some other Amiga exhibitors rather akin to CU Amiga on
their stand though, and these other people did have some Amigas setup.  
Wizard themselves had a few bargains, though nothing that bursts my spleen
thinking back.  I picked up a copy of Opus Magellan from them for 30 bills
being a registered Opus user (Pirate rant - listen, if you have a pirate
copy of Opus, or Wordworth, or any of those other few still in development
on the Amiga programs, go and kill yourself.  I'm not joking.  Pirate stuff
on the pc if you want to.  Pirate PSX stuff if you want to.  They can
survive it.  The Amiga simply cannot at the moment, so all you
cracker-assholes reading this who use pirate copies, just go and rid the
world of your probably perverted genes and kill yourselves.  It is your
only chance of redemption, just like Anakin Skywalker.  So think on.  Or
buy the original software.  That would work too.) 

However, you could buy the entire Opus package, i.e.  version 5.5 and
Magellan for only 40 nicker.  Bloody hell, I'm doing something wrong
somewhere.  More on this later.  (Some of you may now realise that I have
upgraded my version of Opus from last year's 4.12 too.  You see, I have put
my money where my mouth is.  A little anyway.) So Wizard did a pretty good
trade all day it would seem, I left it until approx.  4:10 pm until I
picked my copy of Magellan up.  I still had to wait a bit then to be
served.  Don't they know who I am?!  The soon to be written "Osbaldeston's
10th law of computer shows" is that Osbaldeston should get priority in any
queue he might join ...

Next to Wizard, but forming part of the 'franchise' as it were, stood the
robust, nay, dare I say it, 'stout', figure of Kermit Roosevelt, sorry,
Woodall.   Looking a little like a dwarven warrior from the hinterland with
his broad shoulders, he was indeed a figure to behold.  I was little
distressed to see him wearing approximately the same clothes he had for the
Gateway show a few weeks back - are things _that_ bad in the Amiga market ?
;-) Anyway, he had his big black Image FX banner above him, and was selling
copies of it, or at least Wizard were, for just 95 pounds, a large saving
and no mistake.   He had an Amiga to stand in front of, which he did very
well, the Amiga was running, presumably, Image FX version 2.6 I guess.
Perhaps it was Aladdin.  I'm not really into image processing, however, if
the guy can make the effort to come from America to show off his wares,
then definitely a big Wigan kiss to him.  He looks like he might be from
Wigan actually, apart from he's a native of America I guess.  

In the Star Wars analogy he would probably be Max Rebo.  Yeah, that sounds
about right.  He was also part of the 'diplomatic envoy' who witnessed the
'rebel assault', lead by for a second year running Andy Davidson and his
'retinue of funkwits', on the dev con later on in the evening, though that
information is classified for the moment.  Anyway Kermit does seem like a
good guy, and one we should all be rubbing our thighs with in appreciation
of his efforts - it's a large weight, but he carries it well.  I had
nothing to say to him though at the time, nothing, do you understand ? 
Many other people did though, and I overheard at least one proposal of
marriage ;-) Again, support this man and his program - you know it makes
sense.

Okay, along a bit, keeping to the left, breaching the gap in floor space,
and, made it, it was the final part of the triptych that was the Wizard
dungeon.  This stand consisted of IrseeSoft from Guten Tag Germany (their
name probably loses something in the translation) and GP Software from
bonza Australia.  IrseeSoft had a guy there who by all accounts _was_ Mr. 
Irsee Soft himself.  He was demonstrating TurboPrint 5.  I have nothing
more to say about him, except he seemed quite busy all day and again, he
had made some effort to attend so all I can say is jolly well done sir. 
Let him be a lesson to us all in these dark times.  Turboprint looks pretty
good, so get thyself a copy if needest.  Next to Irsee was GP as stated. 
Does GP stand for General Practitioner ?  Yes, and no.  In this case, there
is a doctor involved, but he is Greg 'The Bear' Perry, hence GP, unless he
just sneakily calls himself Dr.  'cos his initials _are_ G.P.  Who knows ?
I did mean to ask him what he was a Doctor of, but forgot.  Oh dear.

So, the hirsute Greg Perry was there, along with his trusty sidekick and
beautiful Opus beta tester Leo 'Nudel' Davidson, equally hirsute, though in
a different manner.  I meant to ask him too what the Nudel business was all
about but forgot that as well.  Must have been those illegalities I took
the evening before.  Greg, Leo and Kermit would make quite a good front row
in a scrum, with Greg being the hooker, Leo openside prop, and Kermit
blindside prop.  I'm talking rugby league of course.  And I used to know
Les Boyd too !  Two 'big lads' anyway Leo and Greg, though Greg isn't that
tall.  They had Opus Magellan running on their solitary machine, which Leo
was demonstrating to all and sundry all day pretty much.  It was his own
machine too.  

Little does he know I secretly attached a bugging device to it in a
clandestine manner, and have been bugging him since !  I spoke to Leo just
after I had bought the Magellan upgrade.  He kindly showed me upon request
(yet again, no doubt, for him) some of the improvements etc.  to Magellan.
Personally I think the cli is better than Opus, I just bought it for
something to talk about ;-) We had a bit of a natter, then Greg came along,
shook my hand for buying a copy of Magellan, then him and I had a bit of a
chat.  I had to buttonhole him for paying 65 bills for Opus & then the
Magellan upgrade separately, when I could have scored them both for 40 if I
had waited for the show.  Needless to say, he had no answer for me.  Well,
actually he did, and I can't grumble too much, he had flown from Australia
after all.  Foremost amongst the things we spoke about, and this is a
subject I had discussed with a fellow Amiga owner a few weeks previously,
was a possible port of Opus to the PC.  Shock!  Horror!  It's true.  A very
good idea I think, and this is what I had said to the fellow Amiga owner a
few weeks previously.  If a port of Opus could be done with as much
functionality on the PC, and as a replacement for, dare I say it, obviously
the Emperor Palpatine of the piece, 'Windows', then buying a PC would
become a much better thing all round I thought.  I certainly told this to
Greg.  He said that it was still being investigated at the moment -
doubtless the proverbial 'feasibility study.' They deserve to make some
money from Opus it is so good, and although when I asked him he said they
had sold somewhere between 5000 to 10000 copies of Opus, this is nothing
compared to how many sales could be made from the PC, providing a decent
version of Opus could be done.  I for one would be all for an Opus on the
PC.  (I hope that this subject wasn't supposed to be kept secret, Greg ?
You never said so anyway...) They could use sales of it to subsidise the
Amiga Opus until (if?) things get better again.

If Kermit Woodall earned much respect for making the trek from America to
attend, then strewth, how do you quantify Greg Perry's efforts ?  He came
from the other side of the world to attend.  Definitely top of the podium
for effort.  He is Donovan Bailey to Kermit's Ato Bolden - I don't know who
Frankie Fredericks is.  In Star Wars terms, Greg can only be Nien Nunb ! 
(laughter.) It was good to meet these two stalwart (I knew I'd get it in
somewhere, 'stalwart') Amiga figures, and as I said to Greg with my parting
shot, the very best of luck to them.  It's ironic that a computer, which
some may say is in its death throes, still has probably the best file
manager, call it what you will, anywhere in the world.  If there is any
justice, Gateway will buy Opus and package it as part of the next OS for a
new Amiga.  It is _essential_ that people buy this product for the Amiga,
so you must support GP Software if you don't already.  People might think I
am preaching to the converted as regarding piracy on the Amiga when it
comes to the readership of Amiga Report, but I know for a fact that this
definitely _isn't_ the case, that there are many pirates still who have
Amigas and read AR.  It is to these people that I am speaking to.  Well, to
the very few of them with any kind of intelligence and moral fibre, anyway.

Okay, free ad for GP Software over with ;-) Next to them was Amiga Em
Magazine.  This is part of the Larry Hickmott empire, Larry probably being
more Sanders than Moff Tarkin, but you get the idea.  He had Draw Studio on
his stand, along with various other bits and pieces.  I don't know if the
Dean brothers were there (Graham and Andy, not Roger and Martyn,) the
authors of Draw Studio.  The stand was okay, it seemed pretty busy, to be
honest it didn't do much for me, but it was okay, and served its purpose
well enough.  I don't think other than a machine with Draw Studio running
on it they had 'owt else.

Next to Larry was Analogic Computers.  They are a specialist Amiga repair
centre.  They had a 4000 on their stand doing nothing really.  They repair
Amigas, in case that wasn't clear.  I can't think of anything much more to
say.  I think they had a few 1200's for sale.  Case closed.

Next to Analogic was one of Epic Marketing's stands, the other being
opposite them, in the centre of the room.  The centre ?  Yes, pay
attention, remember I'm going clockwise around the left perimeter of the
room, and I'm still on the outside yet.  At least, I think it was an Epic
stand, the top of the stand was covered up with something, so I don't know
what the name was on it.  Either way, it looked like Epic.  I'll leave
describing their stand until I get to their main stand mentioned
previously.

Discs Direct were next up.  As you may imagine, they sold discs,
consumables etc., no computers setup, no big deal really.  Don't recall any
exceptional bargains.  Next please.

Ah.  I see.  I understand.  Yes, okay, fine.  Next were the mighty Pios
Computers AG.  Mighty, mighty indeed - have you ever seen Peter Kittel ?  
No, I thought not.  [It was a tough call, but I had to edit what followed.
It involved a lot of sweaty guys and was funny but sometimes you just have
to bite the bullet and exercise editorial control.  -Jason]

Pios had with then one of their naughty but nice TransAm things.  I had a
look through the port-hole on the side of the machine facing into the hall.
Lo and behold, I see Dave Haynie's name on the board.  (c) 1996 too.  The
TransAm was setup, but they had a Keenya there, running MacOS.  I don't
wish to seem deflatory, but I wasn't that impressed, though I was pleased
that at least they had made an effort.  Also present was John Smith, whom
I'm sure enough of us are familiar with, along with two of the ex Escom
staff from last year's show, Ash(ley) Thomas and Andrew Elia.  They both
stunk up the dev con later, but I'll bore you with that in a while.  I'll
tell you, if being able to type 'Keenya', 'TransAm' and 'Maxxtrem' on a
screen running MacOs is what the Pios gig is all about then count me in - I
was very impressed.  (Irony there for certain American readers.) The Pios
stand was busy for pretty much all of the day.  I got a voucher for 50
bills off a Pios machine, should I want one.  We'll see.  That was it
really, a small stand, quite inoffensive, not particularly impressive
software wise, but at least they turned up.  I think that they are probably
the Biggs Darklighter's of the show - will they share the same fate though?

The one and only ICPUG were next to Pios.  Bloody hell, they have been
around even longer than the Amiga I think.  Nice to see them, to see them,
nice.  They had a 1500 running something.  Might just have been WB.  
Nothing exciting, unless you were after some Pet software, so apart from
the obligatory well done for turning up, I'll move on.

Oh dear.  Next to ICPUG were Siren Software.  I had a bit of a run in with
them over something I bought from them, but I won't mention it here - if
anyone wants details email me.  They didn't have any machines setup (just
like last year), just a lot of gear for sale, but rather suspiciously, no
prices posted on anything much, it was a case of ask how much, then haggle
if you could.  They remain a little dodgy I feel, even though I have dealt
with them before, so beware if you are gonna buy anything from them, make
sure you are certain first.  Their stand wasn't that exciting, and they
seemed to be trying to flog a copy of some crappy Amiga Format book to
anyone who would even look in their general direction.  I didn't need any
expensive bog roll, so I didn't bother.

There was a bit of a gap between Siren and the next stand.  In this gap for
sometime stood Andy Davidson, surrounded by weak-minded fools who seem to
think he is the next coming, when all he has done is write some dodgy
artillery clone.  Several times over.  I've nothing against him though, and
if he has enjoyed any success from his efforts then fair enough.  He signed
a few Worms posters around and about, but you will have to wait until the
dev con section for more from him.

So next up were Guildhall Leisure.  They are well known in this country for
selling the Acid range of zals, along with various other re-releases as
well.  They had a _lot_ of software for sale at the show.  No machines
setup at all, just boxes on boxes of games games games!  Their posted
prices didn't seem that cheap to me, however, a guy came up to me and asked
what did I want, said he would 'do me a deal.' I told him I wanted some
quality heroin.  He said he meant what did I want software wise from
Guildhall.  I mentioned Blitz Basic.  Their poster said 19.95 pounds.  He
said 14.  I said okay.  Now, I think I'll go write some game, what sort?  
I might try an artillery clone, they seem simple enough.  He wanted to sell
me some games too, but when you have played NetHack (3.2.1) then you don't
_need_ any other games.  So I told him, but I don't think he understood me.
I left.

Okay, that completes the left perimeter of the hall.  Now for the right
interior perimeter, starting from the entrance.  First up, HiSoft.  Hello!
Remember my mentioning the film Star Trek 5 on their stand last year ?  
Obviously no-one had changed the cd, as it was playing again this year,
though to greatly diminished numbers it has to be said.  They also managed
to sneak a picture of a Fender Strat in again !  Bloody hell, what is it
with them and Strats ?  Anyway, stand wise, it was reasonably neat.  They
had scrapped the open-plan design of last year's stand, although it was
still slightly open-plan I guess.  The Net & Web sign was probably lurking
somewhere too.  They were demonstrating, or at least possibly
demonstrating, their new product, called, The Whippet, which no doubt will
sell like the proverbial dime bags of crack up in Barnsley - you need to be
English to get that probably.  This item is a high-speed serial port for
the A600 / A1200.  I guess you shove it into the PCMCIA slot and hope for
the best.  They also had the cd rom version of Cinema 4D, so their info
says, as well as the Squirrel CDR.  cd rom recording system, which I didn't
see and would definitely have noticed if I had.  Termite TCP was mentioned
(is this some kind of anti-septic mouthwash for insects ?) - now with
email, net and ftp clients!  Oh my gosh!  Plus Studio 2.  Plus, 'of course,
lots and lots of bargains !' I don't recall any.  They did have some stuff
going cheaper than normal, but still not exactly cheap.  Perhaps I am just
a cheapskate.  Their stand was certainly one of the better ones though,
perhaps in the top five even.  I guess they are probably Gargan when it
come to Star Wars.

Next to HiSoft were HiQ.  They do that Siamese.  Their stand was pretty
neat in a way, in that they had a nice large demonstration going on, with
some seats set out that you could go and sit on and watch, then ask
questions of the guy doing the demo.  Or just bug him.  It was more than a
little reminiscent of the Scala stand from last year.  Apparently you had
to ' ...  ask Steve what all the fuss is about.' I didn't ask him, as I
don't know who he was, and I personally couldn't discern any fuss.  A PC
and an Amiga.  Big deal.  Sheesh.  I know perhaps that sounds a little
arrogant, but I'm just not that bothered about it.  Of course, I hope they
do well, they certainly seem like they deserve to.  Their stand was neat,
neato in fact, it's just a pity from my point of view that I wasn't really
that interested in it.  Of course, I follow the development of these
products, I just don't get that excited by them.  Oh well, as I say, they
had the Siamese thang running, and I think that they had another Amiga just
looking sorry for itself too.  Paul Nolan's name (the creator of the
Siamese methinks) was mentioned predominantly on the stand, but I don't
know if he was around, I didn't see him.  But then I don't know him, so
perhaps I did see him after all.

Along and to the right was the Blittersoft stand.  They had several
machines setup, one Amiga running Linux, one was a Power Mac, not really
doing much, they had a PC I think not doing much either, and probably a few
more Amigas too, but none of them were that exciting.  However, they were
doing a terrific trade all day, often several people deep.  Surprising in a
way, because their prices weren't cheap at all, but they did have several
products that I didn't recall seeing for sale anywhere else, such as
high-density internal floppy drives for the 1200, of which I scored one.  
It cost 55 notes - again, not cheap as I say, but I've been thinking about
getting one for a while, so I finally did - got a 'free' cd rom with it
too.  They were selling all the Micronik line of gear, which for those who
don't know it, is reasonably good stuff.  They do all tower stuff for the
1200, including the now nearly mythical Zorro board 'adder', which adds
several Zorro II slots to your 1200.  However, I've yet to see this piece
of hardware reviewed yet anywhere, so how good or bad it is I don't know. 
I can't really list all the stuff that Micronik do, but it seems reasonably
well made, just a little dear to buy.  The drive I bought didn't come with
any instructions or anything, however, it was a simple enough job to fit. 
It works well too, no patches needed, just plug it in and you are away,
everything knows you've got an hd instead of a dd, including wb.  Nifty.  
So good in fact that I started to cry.

Blittersoft also were selling the Phase 5 stuff like the Blizzards and what
have you, again though with only a small saving to be made.  For example,
they were selling the A1240T/ERC, a 68040 accelerator for the 1200.  This
is usually sold for approximately 250 pounds over here, but they were
selling them for 230 pounds at the show.  Not really much of a saving I
thought.  Eagle Computer(s?) were also kind of based on the long thin
Blittersoft stand, which ran along the back of both the HiSoft & HiQ
stands, to form a triumvirate of pretty good stands.  Eagle didn't seem to
have anything much though, and it was a little difficult to try and tell
where Eagle started and Blittersoft finished.  A good stand though for
diverse and quality products, they had the Picassole IV board there, oh all
sorts of neat stuff.  A good stand overall from a good company by all
accounts.  Star Wars wise they were probably most like Marty Robbins.

Do a little dance, and you would be at the next stand on the right, which
would be Power Computing.  Another 'stalwart' Amiga company (who recently
have taken to flogging pc stuff as a sideline ? ), the first thing to note
about them was that they boasted not one, but _two_ celebrity salesmen -
David 'Donald' Pleasance, and Jonathon something or Other, another
ex-CBM-UK'er, whose last name I don't recall.  Well, David Pleasance, what
can I say ?  It was good to see him, though not necessarily in this
capacity.  I figured he was just helping Power out for the two days or so,
but for all I know he works for them full-time, assuming he isn't involved
with Tangent Music Design anymore etc., more on which in a moment.

The Power stand was better than last year.  I can't really comment about
prices, as I don't recall really seeing any, and last year some of their
show prices were just the same a their usual adverts, but overall it seemed
better than last year's display.  They had their new game Big Red Adventure
playing on a machine at one end of the stand, with sales people occupying
the rest of the stand.  They had quite a high ratio of sales staff to
punter, which was good if you were gonna buy anything, and they did seem to
do a good trade.  I don't think that they had any other machines setup
though.  David Pleasance is a bit of a stocky guy, a man 'used to good
living' by all accounts.  So in fact is the Power boss Tony Ianari, I think
that is how you spell his name.  I bought a copy of "Everybody's
Girlfriend" off Mr.  Pleasance.   In fact, I'm listening to it as I type.

Not a bad album.  In case you aren't aware of the cd, it is an Amiga
produced music cd, made by the aforementioned Tangent Music Design.  DP
plays on at least one track on the album, Para Mi Amiga, a tribute to Jay
Miner.  Mr.  P plays the 'Spanish / flamenco' guitar on it for want of a
better description.  He wrote the tune himself too.  Not bad, though his
articulation is a little fuzzy 'n' buzzy in places.  Everybody's Girlfriend
Blues is okay as well I guess.  The album ends with a cheap Satriani
attempt.  Mind you Satriani is pretty cheap anyway.   Overall not a bad
album - pick it up if you get chance.  A piece of musical Amiga history.

Some of the Amiga lyrics are funny - often unintentionally perhaps.  Cost
me 5 notes, though it should have been 6, but Mr.  P didn't have the squid
change from a tenner, so I got it for 5.  Yay !  Last year they were
approximately 10 pounds to buy, however, the copies being sold this year
were minus the rear liner notes from the jewel box, hence it being sold
cheap.  I asked P how many copies had been sold overall and he said
something like 7000.  Not bad methinks.  That was it really for Power. 
Nice to talk to Dave though.  I guess he must be General Jan Dodonna from
Star Wars if I am gonna keep ploughing this rapidly boring SW analogy.

A little stand next, Sadeness Software.  No machines set up, they sell
mainly pd type stuff.  Nothing really to report from them, perhaps a few
bargains, but nothing I felt I had to have - if you have access to the
internet and hence Aminet, I guess you don't often need the services of a
pd house.  I thank you.

(coughs slightly) Next were Amiga Format.  Their stand was poor, piss-poor
in fact.  A solitary machine running WB was the best they could offer.  
The only other thing they had were lots of copies of their mag, old issues
and the current one.  Not just in terms of booths, CU Amiga outsrips it
quite easily.  I should hasten to add obviously I have no affiliation to
any Amiga mag, I simply _DISSEMINATE THE TRUTH_ - sound familiar ?  Both
Nick Veitch and Ben Vost kept on disappearing from the stand for long
periods of time.  Not that you could tell much of a difference ;-) More on
these two later.  Definitely the Greedo of the show.  That's it.

Next door to AF was Scala.  Who remembers their farcical 'theatre' from
last year ?  Me too.  This year they had gone for a much simpler stand,
simply trying to flog Scala.  I don't recall seeing any machines setup, but
don't quote me on that, there may well have been some.  If so, they must
have been pretty unremarkable.  But then again, I've never found Scala
particularly exciting.  Good of them to turn up, I guess, and they were
selling Scala 'cheaper' than normal.  Other than that, I don't recall
anything much more of note.  So now onto the reason d'etre - Amiga
International.

Amiga International were there demonstrating the new Amigas - WB 4,
Dec-Alpha Risc processors, AAAA chipset, 16mb ram standard, dsp sound, cd
rom as standard, midi port, I could go on, but I won't, as this is a
complete lie.  I don't mean Amiga Int.  being there was a lie, no, they
were there okay, but no new Amigas.  At least, not yet.  Instead, they had
probably the largest, floorspace wise, of all the stands, in exactly the
same place the Amiga Technologies stand had been the year before - not
necessarily a good omen, but perhaps not a bad one either.  A grey omen
then.  Starting at the corner nearest the Scala stand, machine wise they
had a Micronik tower 1200 setup, connected to a gen-lock, overlaying a
real-time video picture from a mounted video-camera onto, yep, you might
have guessed it, a Star Trek film.  I don't know which one, but it had
William Shatner in it.  Does that help ?  Does it _always_ have to be Star
Trek ?  Try some hard core porn, I'm sure that will get a large crowd.  The
Micronik tower had a clear perspex panel in one side so you could see what
was going on inside, and we all know what a lot of moving parts there are
in a 1200 ;-) Useful I guess to clock how it all goes together.

On the next corner of the AI stand was an HiQ Siamese thang.  You know the
sp with these things by now.  On the next corner of the stand was a woman.
A Woman !  Good god man, don't say that !  Yes, I'm very sorry to say that
a woman was at this show.  Actually, she was minding the shop for Gateway
whilst the big bosses were otherwise occupied.  Which reminds me, as you
walked around the AI stand, it became apparent that inside the stand was
some space not accessible to the public.  There was a small window into
this space, through which could be seen a few guys no doubt up to no good.
For the most part there were two Gateway guys in there, Jim Taylor and
another guy whose name I don't think I caught, and Petro T, well, I'm sure
you all know him.  Is it Gateway policy that every employee wears the same
beige jacket ?  From time to time they frogmarched some poor sap in there
from elsewhere in the show, bent their arms up their back, kneed them in
the bollocks and shouted something at them.  I'm not quite sure what. 
Actually, they just took various people into the 'space' to chat with them,
sound them out etc.  As I'm sure you will mostly be aware, there had been a
press conference at the Novotel on Friday the 16th.  I didn't attend that,
but you should have all read the transcription of what said on CUCUG by
now, so I won't bother with what the flyer I was given said.

The woman manning the desk (neat turn of phrase huh ?) was quite helpful
and pleasant, though she couldn't tell me anything much.  Oh well.  She
tried.  She did give me a free Amiga mouse-mat though.  And a flyer from
last year with the Q-Drive on it :-( And the Surfer pack.  Whatever
happened to the Surfer pack ?  That could have been a good idea.  On the
final corner were yet more Micronik tower 1200's, one of them was named a
1300, the other a 1500 I think - strange choice of number I'd have thought.
I think one had Zorro slots and the other didn't.  It's all nice stuff the
Micronik stuff as I have said.  At this juncture, and as you may have seen,
the AI stand was pretty much full of other people's stuff, mainly Micronik.
It struck me that maybe AI and Micronik were 'up to something' so I decided
to buttonhole another person about it - I like my buttonholing.  The guy I
spoke to was a 'large German gentleman', sweating a little, but weren't we
all ?  Perhaps he had something to hide though, and that is why he was
sweating ?

I asked him what had gone on at the press conference the day before.  He
told me pretty much what you will have probably read and heard by now,
though in a slightly different manner naturally.  He seemed quite happy
about what had been said, and was happy overall with the situation of
things.  It seemed that as things stood, Micronik were doing quite well out
of the Amiga.  Greg Perry had had a quite different opinion about the press
conference when I had asked him - he felt that not nearly enough was being
committed too.  Hmm.  Opposing opinions then.  But then, that is the beauty
of the world, that we can all live in peace and harmony with our differing
opinions (breaks into chorus of 'Everything is beautiful') - and you
thought I was a cynic, no ?  If it came to a fight, I think I would back
Greg Perry over the Micronik guy - he was bigger than Greg, and heavier,
but I know these Aussies, and they are a tenacious lot.  Greg has a lower
centre of gravity, and very likely could use it to devastating effect over
the taller German.  But then again, who remembers the lethal 'Jurgen' from
Shadow Fighter ?  'Halt !' indeed.  I digress.

I then quizzed Mr.  Micronik over the fact the AI had Micronik stuff all
over their stand and what was the reason behind this ?  His answer wasn't
really - the gist of it was that it was good for AI to have something on
their stand.  I never quite grasped his answer to this exactly, it sounded
a little like babble, and not just because of his accent either, perhaps I
had touched a nerve, I don't know.  He was a decent bloke though, and we
spoke for some time.  He didn't give too much away, but he did seem as I
say quite happy with the current situation.  He did mention that there
might be a new OS out in November, when pressed, he said that there could
be a new version of WB.  I think Greg Perry mentioned this too.  And that
was it really for the AI stand.  Nothing for sale, so I guess the Micronik
guy was right over that, they had to have something on display. 
Considering they didn't have their own stand Micronik they did pretty
bloody well publicity wise.  AI's stand was pretty busy all day, not
surprising, with people flowing around it.  Let's hope next time they have
some new home-grown products on it.  Or at least an effigy of Bill Gates we
can hang.  And then burn.  I suppose AI are the Obi Wan's of the piece -
how will their young apprentice turn out though ?

Next to AI then round the corner was Epic Marketing.  They had two stands I
think as you should have read.  Their main stand gave me a bit of a laff,
mainly because it featured some pretty naff takes on that fake Roswell
footage currently doing the rounds.  Someone had mocked a little man up,
complete with damaged right leg - quite amusing.  They had a rolling video
showing off some of their wares and coming attractions - fortunately there
wasn't a repeat of last year's 3D porn pictures debacle, or if there was, I
didn't see it.  They had made a little effort to make their stand look
lively and it did, though a little tacky, though that is to be expected
with the subject matter, i.e.  ufo's, aliens, 'cobblers and
cracker-assholes.' You get the picture.  Their satellite stand over the way
was much smaller, but seemed to be selling the same type of stuff.  I
didn't buy anything, but I did have a look.  And a listen.  No computers
setup I think, just the video.  They were selling mainly CD roms, pd.  and
the like - you know the routine.  Also, they are starting to branch out
into commercial games apparently with the Amiga with their Islona label, so
good luck to them there.  They were also running a competition to explain
what PC really stood for.  'Personal Computer' last time I looked.  Epic's
remit is ' ...  to carry on supporting the Amiga, which is why we are
continually developing new products that will create an interest in this
great machine.' So I for one thank them for the music, the song they're
singing, thanks for all the joy they're bringing.  Quite a busy stand on
and off.  In the Star Wars world, they are probably Pandit Ravi Shankar.  
Go figure.

And now, live from Cheshire, is the last stand.  Oh, thank you Lord !  This
great honour goes to Golden Image.  They are a well know company in this
country, selling mainly hardware for the Amiga, accelerators, hard-drives,
that kind of thing, 'all at unbelievable prices.' Hmm.  It's true - I
couldn't sleep that evening.  A thought just kept on running through my
mind all the time - "Golden Image's prices are just unbelievable !  I don't
believe it !" Actually, their prices seemed pretty average to me.  I seem
to recall that they had the Chaos Engine 2 running on a machine there. 
Other than that I don't think that there was anything too much of note to
note.  And that, my friends, was that, regarding stands.  I do believe I
have covered every single exhibitor at the show.  Now watch someone prove
me wrong ...

There were some well known Amiga faces to be seen, and I think I have
mentioned everyone whom I saw, recognised and remembered, though there may
have been others.  There were a couple well known features missing though -
the Walkers for example, both scruffy Jeff and the machine itself.  
Perhaps Gateway aren't gonna do anything with it after all.  We'll see.  Or
rather we won't, or didn't anyway, not at this show.  Team 17 have
apparently jacked the Amiga in, so they weren't there either - no great
loss for me personally, and not seeing Steve McGill this time could only be
classed as a pleasant experience ;-) Yeah, Amiga stalwarts, right ?

Overall, I think personally the show was better than last year's show.  I'm
not just saying that because the Amiga has a new owner, though that is at
least part of the reason.  In actual fact, the overall number of attendees
at the show was definitely down, as alluded to in the opening couple of
paragraphs, or at least it certainly was on the Saturday.  Not surprising
really, though a little disappointing.  Perhaps people were just staying at
home watching the F.A.  Cup final, a little akin to the Superbowl in
America, except for not nearly as good as the SB.  Perhaps.  It was a
better show by the fact that people like Phase 5 had turned up this year,
with some genuinely new products which may well be of help - certainly
there was a rumour that the PowerPC cards Phase 5 are working on may play
some part in a new Amiga, which might not be a bad thing.  Blittersoft were
another welcome addition.   What I think became apparent is that another
year cannot go by without something else decent happening for the Amiga -
the numbers can't be allowed to atrophy any more.

After the show closed at approx.  5.00 pm there was a bout of hospitality
generously provided by CU Amiga magazine at the ludicrously overpriced bar.
Unfortunately, I didn't hang around long enough to really sample any of the
free booze etc., as I intended to crash the developers conference planned
to start at 5.30 pm, as it struck me that this is where the real action
would be going down.  As usual, I was right ;-)

I hot-footed it up to the Salon Bourg part of the Novotel - pretentious,
moi ?  The room did its job though, and I do like roaming around hotels
into places I shouldn't be - stealing things !  Ha !  Kermit Woodall was to
be the front man, being filmed by his sidekick big Don Hicks.  Kermy stood
in front of a lectern that had the Amiga logo on it.  Very effective.  The
lectern was off to the left of the room, looking from the back.  In the
middle of the front part of the room was a large desk with a solitary
computer on, an Amiga I presume but I never got close enough to look at it.
Surrounding this computer were far too many people, including for various
spells, Ash Thomas, Andrew Elia, Ben Vost, Ash's mate Tushar (I think) and
way too many other people too.  I was sitting in the midst of Andy Davidson
& his band of bummers (which placed me to the extreme right of the room
looking from the back, roughly in the middle front to back).

All the people around the computer were apparently trying to get some IRC
thang sorted out, and finally did so - how many did it take to do it again
?  The room was quite noisy at around 5.30 pm when the 'conference' was
supposed to start, so Kermit tried the little known public speaking
technique of simply talking above the noise, but with his normal speaking
voice.  As a consequence about 3 people heard him.  The idea rippled slowly
through the attendees though, and things quietened down after a short time.
All he said at first was that the irc thing wasn't working as yet, and that
he would speak as soon as it had been fired up.  The irc thing was an
attempt to relay as much of the conference live to the internet.  A
laudable idea, it's a pity that some more capable people weren't in charge
of doing it ;-)

So, finally Kermit started his 'presentation'.  He stated that the
conference had been hastily put together by some people called the Industry
Council Open Amiga, amongst others.  He made some people stand up in order
that we applaud them for organising the conference, so a few of us clapped.
There was a right-angled projector displaying the goals of the conference
on a screen, unfortunately though the text it used was too small to be read
easily unless you were at the front, so that was a bit of a waste of time
really.  However, it was from this list of objectives displayed that Kermit
was going to try to take his cue.

He probably did a few more introductions, then cracked on.  I didn't write
down everything that the projector was displaying for obvious reasons
really, so don't ask.  The info is probably available on someone's web page
somewhere.  In fact, try http://www.znet.com/~colin/icoa - I can assure you
that that is first and last web address I'll give out.  Kermit said that a
guy called Wayne Hunt deserved our thanks - [he set up the page on
amiga.org for the efforts Kermit has been putting together -Jason] The
blokes from Gateway & that Petro emotion sidled in roughly around now, and
sat quietly at the back, pretty much directly behind where I was sitting. 
However, they didn't stop very long, as you will see.

Ben Vost mentioned some stuff about someone writing a driver for a new HP
product - yeah yeah big deal.  Although Vost's points weren't really
accepted by most people (who were, after all, only there to find out what
Gateway were gonna do with the Amiga ;-)) because they weren't really
interested in what he had to say, and were a pretty hostile crowd too for
that matter, at least he made an effort, which in the end saved him from
the imminent physical assault I had planned to give him later on.  I must
have been feeling happy - I'm hard but fair after all I guess.

However, as bad as AF might now be, at least they were there - I don't
recall CU Amiga being anywhere in the room.  I can only assume that they
were still downstairs with their hospitality, unless they sneaked in later
on when I wasn't looking.  I don't know if they planned their hospitality
before they know of the developers conference, but perhaps it might have
been an idea to call it off, so that people could concentrate on the
conference only.  Perhaps Mat Bettinson was hiding somewhere, but I don't
think he was there at the dev con.  Mind you, it could be argued that they
didn't miss much really, just the usual slanging match.

Kermit was making a little headway with the subjects to be covered, and
someone brought up a question as to why iff wasn't still supported in
PhotoShop I think, or some program like that anyway.  Turns out it was,
just in a roundabout fashion.  [If anybody's interested, I had a small but
turbulent discussion with a noted Photoshop third party support guy about
IFF, Photoshop, and the Amiga.  E-mail me and maybe I'll sum it up
sometime.  -Jason] Someone made a good point about did EA & CBM still own
the iff format or the like, though no-one seemed quite sure as to the
answer.  A question came in from the irc - one of only two I think that
made it.  It was something along the lines of 'Who is coding the new OS ?'
A good question - anyone know the answer ?  I don't recall it being
answered at the conference.  Developer only stuff was mentioned, but this
was pooh-poohed by many.

And then it had to happen.  It was _always_ going to happen.  Bear in mind,
this was supposed to be a developers conference.  But that didn't matter. 
I guess it was never gonna stop the inevitable.  Which, for those of you
who remember last year's conference when VIScorp turned up, meant Andy
Davidson having a bit of a spat with Bill Buck.  Last year, this seemed
entirely appropriate - VIScorp were 'greasy basters' (tm), so much so that
try and pin them down about anything and they flirted away under the
pressure.  This year though things were different - Gateway truly have
bought the Amiga, they own it completely, so their loyalty to it in that
sense is beyond question.  What Mr.  Davidson and his pack of dopey attack
dogs wanted to know though was, "What is happening ?" Meaning what is
happening with the development of the Amiga as a computer ?

Like many of us, Andy had missed the press conference the day before, when
I guess his questions would have been more appropriate, though I understand
that at the press conference no questions were taken from the floor anyway.
So AD started tearing the place up with his almost unceasing ululation
concerning the Amiga.  I have no axe to grind against Mr.  Davidson, he
seems like a decent enough guy and has certainly made an effort where the
Amiga is concerned regarding developing software for it - well, Worms
anyway.  He is quite articulate in speaking, although the actual words he
used tended to form a more synesthetical semantic than a syntactical one -
maybe he was just so worked up he couldn't quite control his anger -
definitely a candidate for the Luke Skywalker 'don't give in to hate'
school of public address.

Needless to say, he kept on haranguing Kermit about the subject of what was
gonna happen to the Amiga.  It wasn't for Kermit to answer such a question,
as he said, so then, when it had become known that Gateway & Petro were
sitting at the back of the room, all attention was turned to them, with a
'come on, we dare you to answer us' type attitude.  As I say, if this had
been VIScorp I for one would have agreed with this approach, but I didn't
feel personally that Gateway deserved to be put under this kind of
pressure.  Sure, we all want to know what is going to happen about the
Amiga, but it seemed to me that hassling them at this early stage only did
more harm than good.  Of course, some people may disagree with that - fair
enough.  In the end though I think I will be vilified anyway - so what
_did_ hounding them achieve ?  Nothing, they just got up and left without
so much as a goodbye.  Petro tried to make a reply to AD and his crew on a
few occasions, but all he could do was toe the party line and keep stating
what had been apparently said at the press conference, namely that the
Amiga will be supported, but no real mention of a new machine, which of
course doesn't mean there won't be one.

The conference kind of slipped into an uproar for a few minutes, with
no-one really holding court.  Some people were a little hot under the
collar, and loud words were spoken by many.  This really wasn't in Kermit's
remit, though he did a good job I thought of trying to hold everything
together.   Very diplomatic.  With all the sporadic conversations breaking
out around various groups in the room, things did get a little messy,
though big Don the camera man stepped in on more than one occasion to try
and sort things out.  He looked like he had cracked a few heads in his
time.  I personally think he was carrying a piece - don't these naughty
Americans know we don't allow such naughtiness in this country ;-)

A guy sitting on the end of the row which housed myself and the rest of
AD's mob kept piping up, usually to drop names etc.  He was called Ian
Robson, and was somewhat floppy haired and flame-eyed - never heard of him
personally, but I won't forget him now.  "Oh, my cousin worked on Blade
Runner.  A friend of mine worked on GoldenEye !" Nice.  He made one or two
salient points I'll give him that, but often he just seemed to make
statements that no-one else had anything to say to.  I can only assume he
was a developer of some description, and I think he said he was a producer
of some sort too.  Films and or tv perhaps.  Or then again ...  he was okay
though, his heart was probably in the right place, even if his mind wasn't
;-)

The Gateway crew, as mentioned, had probably picked up on the bad vibes
coming from certain members of the audience, and slipped out a little later
on, when the heat was temporarily off them.  Believe me, at one point 'I
thought we wuz gonna have ourselves a lynchin'.' I think some people who
were sitting near me, sorry, strike that I don't think it, I _know_ it,
just liked the sound of their own voices.  Certainly the guy sitting next
to Andy Davidson managed to have the most annoying drawl I've heard in a
long time.  Kermit struggled manfully on with the things mentioned on the
projection.  I don't seem to have covered much of them do I though ?  No,
well, check the web site for the info boyo.  Besides of which, the main
reason why I went to the conference was that I thought there might be a bit
of excitement, and there was !  Development conferences are boring
otherwise !  Probably.

Actually, Gateway didn't go just at that moment, no, the funniest thing had
yet to happen.  Greg Perry had slipped into the room sometime after the
conference had started, and sat down, along with one or two other people,
including Peter Kittel.  As I have said, various conversations kept on
breaking out between different factions in the room, not least of which was
a conversation with the Gateway boys, Petro, and probably some other
people, all sitting at the back.  It was a little rude of everyone, talking
whilst Kermit was trying to do his thang.  Greg Perry hadn't been sitting
down long, when he suddenly galvernised into typical Aussie action, though
I mean that in a complementary sense.  To paraphrase the great man, "If
people want to have a conversation then can they piss-off out the back !"
He, like several of us no doubt who weren't taking part in one of these
conversations, was having difficulty hearing what was being said at the
front.  At one point even poor Andrew Elia stood at the front and tried to
quiet the dissenting voices.  Again, I don't blame people for wanting to
know, but they had had their say and it was starting to get a little
tiresome, so much so that some of the otherwise partisan crown were
starting to get a little brassed off with AD & his mob keep hogging the
floor with their 'let's hassle Gateway' stance.  A woman who happened to be
at the conference made some comment to the same effect to AD & his lot,
though it fell on largely deaf ears.

After Greg Perry's kind offer to the ignorant masses holding conversations,
Gateway and Petro did indeed 'piss off out the back'.  Oh dear.  And the
hastily devised plan by this guy Robson & Davidson was to have been to get
them up at the front whilst they were grilled on the subject.  Yeah, right.
I'm sure they intended to stand there too.  The other well known Doctor,
Peter Kittel, chimed in at this point.  He said that bugging them was
probably being counterproductive and we should give them time.  Apparently,
he said, Gateway have been speaking to a lot of people and are trying to
sort things out.  For all I know, all of this information will have been
superseded anyway if they have made a press statement etc.  Big Pete was
right though so it seemed to me.

Again, new products were mentioned for November, I think it was Kittel who
said this too.  After Bill Buck was slammed, and the editor (like you
didn't all know already) of AR was mentioned, Jason Compton, that just
about wrapped up Kermit's section.  He had started approx.  5.35 pm and
kept going to around 7.20 pm or so, and I did think that he had done a
pretty good job, all things considered, and 'shook his hand, and walked
away' after the conference itself had finished.

There was still at least one more laugh to be had though.  As Kermit was
finishing, he introduced the ICOA, and a representative of their's, who was
gonna 'speak' to us now just to explain what the ICOA were all about etc. 
To describe this young man is quite hard without appearing nasty, which I
certainly don't wish to be.  If you are from the UK, and are familiar with
them, imagine one of those Open University tv presenters circa 1970 and you
get the picture.  Truly, I thought this lad had just stepped out of a time
machine and we were gonna get a lecture on the diverse nature of the East
Anglian marshland or the like.  Instead, what we got was a description of
the ICOA & its goal delivered in John F Kennedy style, without the
charisma.  By that, I mean it was f a s t !  I don't think the guy stopped
to take a single breath ;-) I don't know his name, but there could of been
a reason for it, perhaps they had to be out of the room by a certain time.
I guess he would probably be, er, I don't know, Boba Fett from Star Wars. 
Probably not, actually, but I can't be bothered looking up another name :-(
I've been typing this cobblers for over 570 minutes now and am starting to
get a little fed up - everyone has limits.

Because of the bullet-style delivery of the young guy, I heard very little
of his speech, and took even less in.  I think everyone else was the same.
After Kermit's easy going style, it was just a little too hard to take.  A
bit like eating some cheese, then a chocolate bar straight afterwards.  He
did mention some Jay Miner Society for Computing or the like, but I'm sure
you can find out about this elsewhere.  Strangely enough, although quite a
few people had filtered out at this point along with Gateway (who Ian
Robson said he was gonna get to come back - they didn't needless to say,
but I guess he tried) everyone stayed pretty quiet whilst he spoke.

You might be wondering what happened to the irc thing ?  Well, bugger all
really.  Ash remained sitting at the machine nearly all the conference, and
only chimed in twice I think.  The odd person went up to see what was going
on every so often, but nothing much came of it.  I don't know if anyone
reading this was following the irc thing as it happened, if so, you will
have a much better idea as to what it was like.  The junior Open University
guy wrapped his words up after several minutes, and then that was it
really, the show was over.  I think Kermit said one or two things more, but
other than that we were left to out own devices.

Some Swedish journalists buttonholed Andy Davidson almost immediately (I
_do_ like the buttonhole expression) and started asking him various
questions, so that was his ego taken care of ;-) They also had a massage
from the Swedish Prime Minister for him.  Oh, honourable mention goes to
Carl Sassenrath who made an appearance via the irc - a small cheer went up
when he 'spoke.' I don't recall what he wanted though - perhaps just some
free pr.  Anyone who wanted to go to the front of the room to speak to him
via the irc could do so if they wanted to, but I didn't bother.  The
conference started to break up, people started to drift off.  I sat around
for a while just clocking everyone and seeing what action may have been
going on, but there was nothing really.  Ian R went over and pestered big
Don.  Perhaps Don's camera had got him excited.  I guess the conference
itself finished at approx.  19:42, and at 19:50 a good many people had left
- overall I'd have said that there were probably at least a hundred or so
at the conference originally.  At the show itself, I don't know.  My ticket
number was 3000 odd, so make your own mind up about that.  In case anyone
is wondering who the Han Solo of the event was, of course, that was me ;-)

Okay, before I finish, here come the disclaimers - needless to say, this is
my take on the show and conference.  If I have made a factual mistake(s) of
any description, then I apologise unreservedly to those people involved -
this is what happens when you write something almost entirely from memory.
For the most part though this article is _my_ opinion.  If anyone has any
problems with anything I have said, take it up with _me_, not with AR.  My
email address is at the top of the piece.  Of course, some of you might not
like my 'style' of writing if you can call it that - well, to those of you,
again, I am sorry if that is the case, but it's just tough shit.  I guess
it is my own little self-indulgence for having the patience to sit down and
type all of this guff.  It is _very_ likely I have forgotten something I
was going to say, something I was going to have mentioned etc., and this
for me is the most annoying part, and the part that needs the biggest
apology.  However, a line has to be drawn somewhere as to when something is
finished, and that is now.

So, that's about it really.  I enjoyed the show and as I have said, I
thought it was better than last year's.  I thought that there might have
been more of a good vibe, considering the Gateway news, but I didn't really
feel it if there was.  However, things certainly do seem more optimistic
than last year.  All we can do is wait and see I guess.  And support the
few companies still supporting the Amiga that are left.  This is
imperative.  Unfortunately I don't have anything to match last year's Bill
Buck door episode to sign off with, so instead I'll leave you with a quote
from Faust, part 2, by Goethe, which seems particularly apposite at this
point, both from the Amiga's point of view, and from a personal one too. 

"But their spirit shall recover,
 Sing new songs, forget your pain,
 For this soil has bred forever,
 Greatness it will breed again."

*********

I'd like to dedicate the spirit of this article to my grandmother, Edith 
Yates, who died during its creation.

*********

@endnode

@node FEATURE2 "More CDTV Retrospective"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
                         CDTV Retrospective Update
  Peter Olafson                                           peteroo@aol.com
===========================================================================

Just when you thought you'd read everything there was to read about CDTV
games, I'm back with an update. 

In the wake of my two-part retrospective (in ARs 5.01 and 5.02), I've
received Email from two people shedding new light on titles whose status
couldn't be nailed down for the article.

In addition, I reached Gail Wellington -- former head of Commodore's CDTV
unit, now vice president of marketing for Philips' CD-i division -- who was
able to lend additional insight into CDTV's failure.

"The biggest problem with CDTV was money - money for development of
software and money for marketing," she wrote in an Email.  "Commodore was
already in trouble and had had some layoffs.  The funds just weren't
available to support much development.  I think the total development
funding, including the Grolier's bundle commitment, was about $5 million."

"Philips spent that much on three titles."

"We had 35 titles within three months of when we launched and 70 not long
after.  Of course, not all were games.  There were the Xphias titles,
Grolier's, Garden Fax, a title about military aircraft and others.  Several
were roll-overs, as you said, which is typical with any new platform unless
there is huge development money available from the hardware manufacturer. 
Second-generation things were planned, but the development funding dried up
completely and lots of them ended up never happening."

"There also was some dissension within C=, since CDTV was not developed as
part of the main engineering group, but by a small separate team.  This
resulted in people within the company not giving it their wholehearted
support and is, in part, why it was considered a 'crazy younger brother.'

As for unreleased titles, money evidently prevented completion of Garfield:
A Winter's Tail CDTV.  The game had given the developer more trouble than
the earlier Snoopy: The Case of the Missing Blanket and it wanted "a
fortune" to finish it, wrote Ms.   Wellington.  (I was unable to locate
Garfield's developer, The Edge Interactive, to obtain a comment.)

She also recalled that Infogrammes also had "a couple of other CDTV games,
at least one of which was finished." (She didn't remember the name -- it
was a "flying shooting game" -- but reports that it had a great
soundtrack.)

And Ms.  Wellington also confirmed the existence of unreleased CDTV
versions of LucasArts' Loom and Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade --
reporting that they were in "near-final form" when she left Commodore in
the spring of 1992.

"I don't know what happened thereafter," she wrote.  "I'm surprised they
never did come out."

Apparently they came close.  For a correspondent from Germany reports
seeing pre-production CDTV versions of Indiana Jones and The Secret of
Monkey Island and offered some speculation about their fate. 

He reports trying out a gold-disk Monkey Island in 1992 at Germany's CeBIT
fair and finding it a more or less straight port of the disk-based version.
With one difference: The four-voice music had been replaced by 16-bit CD
audio. 

The Indiana Jones CD was said to be "broken," and the writer indicates that
MI, while playable, could have sustained similar damage from "rough
handling."

His hunch is that, "through a chain of confusion," the gold masters somehow
wound up as product samples.  Thus, scratch the disks, and scratch the
games. 

"I can't prove that," he acknowledges, "and my view is pessimistic.  But
given how Commodore operated these days this would be the shortest possible
way to disaster.  And pretty embarrassing for Commodore to call LucasArts
[and say,] 'Um, we somehow managed to break the, um, CD gold masters you
sent us.  Could you please, um, cut another three CDs for us?"

"At that time CD writers and CD-R discs were not a common sight.  I
remember from a visit at Sonopress in 1991 (back then the second largest CD
manufacturer in Germany; a subsidiary of Bertelsmann, the world's third
largest media company) that customers had to deliver the data to go onto CD
in the form of a tape.  The tape contents were then converted into ISO 9660
format and a golden CD-R was cut."

"At this stage you could either decide to have a production master made
from the CD-R or first use the CD-R sample for prior product testing.  Lose
or break the CD-R and you'd have to pay for most of mastering process
again."

Which, given the money woes described above, might have been more than CBM
could chew. 

Finally, another German correspondent confirms the release of the
Shiftrix/Lettrix two-pack on our "Only CBM Knows for Sure" list.  He's
spotted it in a local shop. 

It's apparently been there since 1991, he writes, but is still selling for
29 DM (about $20).

@endnode

xxx REVIEW

@node REVIEW1 "AudioLab 16 Review"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                       Review: AudioLab 16 Part One
                             By: @{" Bohus Blahut " link BOHUS}
===========================================================================

If you've read my last few articles, you'll note that I've been waxing
wisttully about my days playing around with the native 8bit audio on the
Amiga.  However, most computer platforms now support 16bit CD quality
audio.  Just as many Amiga users were eager to shatter the HAM8 graphics
barrier by adding 24 bit display boards, many audiophiles now seek to boost
the Amiga's aural performance by adding one of several 16 bit audio cards.

One of the earliest of these 16bit cards was the SunRize Studio16 card. 
This is a card aimed to replace an analog multitrack recorder in a sound
studio.  Many of my colleagues used it to create soundtracks for films,
or record bands.  Sadly, this card is no longer available.  In its stead
are several other 16 bit audio cards for the Amiga like the Toccata, and
the Delfina.  The problem is that there hasn't been a single piece of
software that supported several audio cards for editing, converting, and
other operations.  Enter AudioLab 16. 

If I were to compare AL16 to another piece of software, it would be
ImageFX.  ImageFX lets you load up 24 bit pictures into a RAM buffer, and
uses any of a myriad of displays to show you the image.  If you have an ECS
machine, it can give you a rough preview of the image.  IFX can also take
advantage of an advanced graphics card.  In both cases, IFX enables you to
work in full 24bit quality no matter what your preview looks like. 

The same is true of AL16.  If you're using the native Amiga audio, AL16
will work in full 16 bit quality internally, and produce a 14 bit preview
out the Amiga's 8-bit audio connectors!  If you have one of several
supported audio cards, you can hear the full 16 bit version.  This
flexibility allows you to use AudioLab 16 in a regular Amiga, and not have
to change the way you work when you upgrade to using an audio card. 

When you first open up AL16, you're greeted with a little window asking
whether it should open up on a public or custom screen.  Every time you
close the program, it asks whether you'd like to save the layout of your
windows.  This makes it easy to keep your workspace neat, which becomes
pretty necessary with a program like this. 

There are a lot of windows, which may be daunting to some.  Since I use
MacroSystems' MovieShop editing software every day, I have become used to
programs that are a veritable WindowFest.  This may make AL16 seem
complicated at first, but any sophisticated multi-step process is going to
seem complex to the uninitiated.  To aid in this, AudioLab 16 is logically
laid out.  The GUI is a little sparse, but not unfriendly to getting the
job done. 

AL16 covers the bases well, and has many of the components of a
full-fledged sound studio.  There are tools for file conversion, DSP
special effects, editing, mixing, remote triggering, multitracking, and
more.  Almost all of the things that you need to get done in an audio
project are here.  In fact, there is so much to cover, we've split this
article into two parts.  This time we'll cover some of the basics, and
leave complex and multilayered processes like multitracking till next
issue. 

For this look at Audio Lab 16, we'll be using an Amiga 4000 equipped with
16 megs of RAM on an '040 Warp Engine.  This machine is hooked up to a 17
inch monitor using a Retina Z3 and CyberGraphx.  (The extra real estate of
a monitor this size is definitely helpful with a program with this many
options.) There's no extra audio hardware in this machine, so we'll use
AudioLab's ability to squeeze 14bit of performance out of native Amiga
hardware.  Next time, we'll use a Toccata card in an '040 2000, and the
we'll also test AL16 with the DraCo version of theToccata. 

The test sample is the music from our upcoming demo video for The Vantage
Point.  We've licensed a brilliant performance of the song "Brazil", and
it's ideal for testing out this software.  The recording features lots of
panned stereo effects, and is an extra dimensional recording from the 60's.
(For you audiophiles out there, the recent resurgence of Lounge Music has
brought with it CD reissues of several superlative recordings from the 60's
featuring experimental stereo techniques, and outstanding instrumental
performances.  Some titles to check out are "Persuasive Percussion" from
Varese Sarabande, and "Space Capades" from Capitol records) I recorded the
music through the Toccata using MovieShop software, and exported it in
several formats. 

The way that AudioLab16 keeps the various phases of work separate is by
grouping related windows.  Clicking on an item in the 'Environments' list
brings up various groupings of windows, dependant on the work you're doing.
The first Environment is the 'I/O Mapper'.  This is where you perform file
conversions, play files, and record sounds.  You get to these various
functions through another list manager of windows. 

Since we simply want to load up "Brazil" and play it, we use the first
optionFile: Analog.  This will automatically detect and load formats like
AIFF, Studio 16_3, WAV, RAW, MAUD, and 8SVX, and play the sound through
whatever output device you're configured for.  After hitting 'Execute' the
sound starts playing through the 4000's audio outputs almost instantly.
The "Brazil" file is over twenty megs long, and AL16 played it from the
hard drive flawlessly.  The output is quite good, definitely good enough to
serve as a preview for most work that you might be doing.  (I'd also like
to point out that I've hooked up the 4000 to a stereo system.  Even 16 bit
audio is going to sound pretty crappy coming out of the speakers of a 1084
monitor.)

Once we're finished playing the sample, we need to convert it to AIFF,
Maestro, or MAUD to continue working on it within AL16.  You choose one of
these three formats as the internal format that AL16 will use for all of
its work.  This means that if you are planning on a project with several
audio samples in different formats, you'll first have to convert them to
one of the above three formats.  If the samples are stereo, you'll also
have to unzip them into two separate Right and Left Channel files. 

All of this conversion is a step that I wish were unnecessary.  To go back
to the ImageFX analogy, IFX will load a myriad of file types, and convert
them to 24 bit IFF internally.  You don't have to first go through and
convert all of your pictures to a single format first.  It would be nice if
AL16 could simply autodetect and convert files at the same time. 

While it is good to be able to unzip stereo files to be able to work with
individual channels, all of the work involved can be cumbersome.   For
simple effects like reverb, I'd like to be able to add it to both channels
at the same time.  What if you perform the reverb on both separate
channels, then re-zip the file, only to find it unsuitable?   That's a lot
of steps to have to re-create. 

As far as sources for sounds, the Web is replete with sound files.  The
problem is that these are often ripped from movies and songs, and are
subject to copyright restrictions.  It's fine to use these for just playing
around, but as far as creating a product for a client, these files are
strictly verboten.  Since much of my work is in editing, I usually record
sounds myself using a Nagra (an analog portable recorder), or DAT.   For
music, I use CDs that I bought from Token Music [(612) 437.1708] that
include in the purchase price a licensing fee. 

I've also purchased several sound effect CDs.  There is an excellent pair
of CDs available from Sound Ideas: "SFX on CD Rom".  The first disc has
audio CD tracks of 300 awesome sound effects, and the on the same disc the
same effects already in WAV format.  The second CD has 1000 effects in WAV
format only.  The only problem I have with the discs is that the sounds are
recorded at 22kless than half the quality of a CD. 

This isn't a problem with the first disc, since I can simply re-record the
sounds from it, but the second disc doesn't feature the tracks in audio
format.  Fortunately.  AL16 has the ability to convert the sample clock
without changing the quality of the sound, allowing me to convert all of
the WAV files up to 32k or 48k, whichever you're using.  Even thought they
are sourced at 22k, the sounds are pretty good.  If what you're doing is
multimedia or kiosk applications, then 22k is the ideal compromise between
quality and space. 

AL16 also has the facility to rip sounds right off of an audio CD, provided
your CD player supports this.  I wasn't able to test this, since none of
our CD roms drives are able to pull digital data off of CDs.   There is
also the ability to record through a parallel port sampler, which we will
test in the near future. 

So, the I/O Mapper gets sounds into and out of AL16.  It also lets you
convert to other formats, especially if you plan on moving to other modules
of the program.  I used AIFF as the internal write format, and converted
all of my work to that format.  Now we move to the Signal Processor
Environment to start messing around with Real Time effects, and sample
editing. 

The 'Signal Processor Environment' consists of a large window with a list
of several effect operators, range controls, and file selection.   Each
Operator opens up another smaller window allowing you to change parameters
of the effect.  It is here that you can also set ranges, or portions of
your sample to be effected.  This is also a good way to preview an effect
on a sample before committing to rendering time. 

Yes, the effects are rendered.  The 20 Meg "Brazil" file took little time
to render on an '040 machine.  What makes AL16 special, though, is the
ability to preview many effects in real time!  Most effects like Reverb,
Tap, and Time Stretch have a realtime preview for immediate feedback.  This
is where most of your time will go, playing around with sounds and making
them sound really freaky. 

Note that you can't stretch and pull at a sound too much without it
starting to distort and lose some quality.  It's just like taking a small
graphic and blowing it up to twice its size.  The image starts to look
blocky because the computer has to "invent" data to put in the empty
spaces.  Although, don't forget to let creativity creep in.  Weird
distortions might be exactly the effect that you're looking for. 

If you're performing these effects on separate stereo files, once you've
added the effect to both left and right, you can interleave the files back
together into a single stereo sample.  Here are some of the more radical
effects that you can expect to play around with. 

  Comb Filter     Lets you pull a single frequency out of a sample
  Delay 'N' Tap   Delay with user definable 'N' number of echoes
  Distortion      Like stomping on distortion pedal for electric guitar.  
                   Wanna be Trent Reznor?  Apply this operator to your 
                   voice.
  Flanger         Adds a sweeping quality to sound.
  Hum Remover     Removes 50/60 kHz hum from sound.  Good for removing 
                   cable hum.
  Pitch Shifter   Changes pitch of sound without changing duration.  
                   Change Dirty Harry into Dirty Shirley Temple.
  Room            Reverb with selectable size of virtual "room".
  Time Inverter   A fancy way to say "playing samples backwards".
  Time Stretch    Change the duration of a sample without changing its 
                   pitch.  Good for trying to cram in dialogue where it
                   just doesn't fit.

There's a lot to cover here, and now that we've gone through the basics,
next issue we'll get serious.  We'll get into applying some of these
effects, and using some of the other facilities of Audio Lab 16.  We'll
work with the signal generation tools, the remote triggers, and the
multitracker mixer.  We'll see, er...  hear the difference that adding an
audio card can make.  Until then, check out the demo version of AudioLab 16
on AmiNet. 

(Just to remind you how cool the Amiga is, I wrote this review in Final
Writer while playing a song in AudioLab 16 and also was transferring a 25
Meg file over ethernet to another Amiga!)

@endnode

@node REVIEW2 "Clarity 16"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                      Review: Clarity 16 from HiSoft
  Michael Vissers                                   michel@hell.xs4all.nl
===========================================================================

"Revolutionary sound".  Yes, back in 1985 the Amiga was the best you could
get in sound quality.  4 channel, 8 bit stereo sound.  Now look at the
Amiga.  1997, and we still have 4 channel, 8 bit stereo sound.  It's rather
sad.  While for the PC you can get 16 bit sound cards for only $30, we are
stranded...or aren't we ?  New soundcards are appearing everywhere, like
the Delfina and the Soundstage for example.  But also the somewhat older
soundcards like the Toccata seem to get more attention.  Especially with
AHI, the new retargetable audio software for the whole Amiga family.

Of course those new soundcards are, although still a bit pricey, very
interesting and it's good to know that there are still companies developing
for the Amiga.  However, those cards are all zorro cards, which means
people, like me, with an A500, A600 or A1200 (without zorro expansion) are
not able to use them.  The Clarity 16 however, is an external "soundcard",
which can be connected to the parallel and serial ports on every Amiga.

THE PACKAGE

The Clarity 16 comes in a big box, containing the Clarity 16, an audio
cable for connecting to the in- or out-put, 2 disks with software and
examples and a 56-page manual.

FEATURES

The Clarity 16 is a small box with 2 audio inputs, 2 audio outputs, 1 midi
in and 1 midi out.  The Clarity 16 is capable of sampling and playing 16
bit stereo audio up to 44.1 kHz (CD quality).  The midi interface included
is compatible with existing midi software.

THE SOFTWARE

The software supplied with the Clarity 16 supports, next to sampling,
playing and cut&paste, different editing functions like overlay insert, mix
and fading but also filtering and echo.  Real-time effects are possible
too.  Next to sample edit functions, the software also contains a small
sample and midi sequencer.

TEST

Well, the moment I came home I hooked up the Clarity 16.  The first thing I
wanted to do was to sample something.  Didn't matter what, as long as I
could hear the difference between 8 and 16 bit.  So I grabbed a CD
connected the player to the Clarity 16, pushed play and started the
monitoring as described in the manual.  Nothing...only some noise.  Some
fiddling with cables, restarting the software and even the machine, somehow
did the trick.  I finally heard something.  I was monitoring the sampling
through my Amiga outputs.  Logical, since the parallel port was busy
reading samples from the sampler.

But the sound was way too loud, so I had to decrease it.  But nowhere a
volume knob on the box, or a input volume slider in the program could be
found.  I couldn't set the input volume so I ended up using a mixingboard
between my CD player and the Clarity 16.

Then I created a new sample, 16 bits stereo at 44,1 kHz, and as large as
possible.  I selected a CD and started the monitor to find the part I
wanted to sample.  But when I actually started the sampling I was already
too late.  Why ?  Well, it's not possible to switch from monitoring to
sampling directly.  You have to end the monitor and start sampling at
another window.  I finally managed to start in time for the part I wanted.
But I couldn't hear when I sampled enough, since the program doesn't output
any sound while sampling.  So I connected a headphone to my mixingboard to
be able to hear when I had sampled what I wanted.

Now I wanted to hear what I had sampled and pressed the play button.  Again
I heard nothing.  The software can play using either the Clarity 16 or the
Amiga.  Ofcourse I wanted to hear it through the Clarity 16 so selected the
Clarity, and removed the audio cable from my Amiga and plugged them in the
Clarity 16 (yes, here also a mixingboard could come in handy).  Again I
pressed the play button and...WOW!  Now that's what I call a nice sound.

Next came the editing part.  Since I wanted a usable sample I had to
cut&paste a bit.  I selected a range and searched for the "play range"
button.  But unfortunately I only found a menu item with this function. 
Not even a shortcut key.  I selected the item and the range was played. 
The software fails again, since no pointer displaying where in the range it
was playing was implemented.  This made the cut&paste operations a bit
hard.

Finally I wanted to save the sample.  I selected AIFF (the software
supports IFF, AIFF and it's own format) and saved the sample.  I tried
loading it in Symphonie, but due to a bug it ended up as trash.  Converting
the sample to WAV solved the problem, so I could use the sample.

(Since I don't own any MIDI equipment I couldn't test the MIDI
interface...sorry)

OPINION

The Clarity 16 is really cool.  Both the input and the output quality is
top notch.  I sampled a bit without a CD playing and couldn't hear any
noise unless I set my amplifier real loud.  Eventhough there is enough in
my room to cause interference, the Clarity 16 doesn't pick up any.  The
samples are clear and both the high and low frequencies sound fine.  What I
missed though are a input volume knob and inputs to connect the Amiga to
the Clarity 16 so it can mix these two signal together.

The software however is terrible.  It crashed 2 twice the fist day I used
it.  It misses a lot of desperately needed functions like a playing
position pointer and a quick way to switch from monitor to sampling and is
awkward to use.

CONCLUSION

The Clarity 16 could have been a great product, if only HiSoft had taken
the trouble to rewrite the software.  Since there is no 16 bit parallel
sampler standard (unlike the 8 bit samplers) there is only one way to
support it, and that is by using AHI.  However I haven't seen a driver for
the Clarity 16 yet so...  I'd say skip it, until an AHI driver is
available.

If you own a A500, A600 or A1200 and you really want 16 bit quality, go
bother HiSoft, and demand AHI drivers, or get them to release programmer
information so that someone else can make one.

FINISHING TOUCH

The Clarity 16 is still available for about $150-$170 (I think).

Thanks must go to OCS for supplying a Clarity 16 for review...

OCS Computers
Van Goghstraat 1-5
3331 VM Zwijndrecht
Holland
ocs@indi.nl

HiSoft's web site is http://www.hisoft.co.uk

@endnode

@node REVIEW3 "Melody Z-II Sound Card Review"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                      Review: Melody Z-II Sound Card
  Ralph Debusmann                                     rade@coli.uni-sb.de
===========================================================================

We already know of the positive impact of hobbyists on the Amiga - most
notably the Aminet of course.  Also done by hobbyists is a new and quite
ingenious piece of hardware - the Melody sound board for one of your Zorro
II/III-slots.  The card was designed by four German students in their spare
time, the KATO-Development-Group.  I was happy to be able to borrow board
#23 (of 24 built boards from the first series) and have a quick look at it.

So what is the Melody and what is the motivation behind it?  First of all,
the melody tries to substitute the Paula custom chip, i.e.  Paula's main
purpose: sound output.  While the Amiga's sound output remained the same
(8bit, 14bit with "cheats") during the last 12 years (!) PeeCees already
have 16bit sound output for many years.  The Melody sound board gives your
Amiga 16bit sound output at 44.1 KHz.

The second motivation behind the Melody board is that the developers wanted
to have a gadget which allows to listen to MPEG-Audio files from within a
multitasking environment - not easily possible since processor-driven
MPEG-Audio decompression (mpega) takes lots of CPU time even on a 060.
Thus the perhaps most interesting thing the Melody offers is the Texas
Instruments DSP, which not only allows 16bit audio output but also has the
capability to decode ISO-MPEG (Layers 1+2) in realtime.  That simply means
that you can listen to Audio-MPEGs with your Amiga while the decoding
process only takes a few percent and your main processor is free for other
tasks.

Installing the Melody is a breeze.  I just plugged in the Zorro II-board
into one of my A4000's free slots and had all the above described niceties
built into my Amiga.  The Amiga's native sound output (Paula) can be put
into the Melody card and is put through to your stereo.  This makes it
possible to listen to Paula's and the Melody's output simulataneously.  On
the software side I got a program called MPEGPlay to play MPEG-Audio Layers
1+2 and 16bit audio files in AIFF, WAVE and AUD format through the melody -
nice GUI included.  A special version of the "toccata.library" emulates the
Toccata soundcard on the Melody.  This makes for AHI-compatibility of
course and gives you the chance to run many applications which already
offer Toccata compatibility.  Proper AHI-compatibility through an own
Melody audiomode will be available soon.

After installing, you can use the melody for various tasks.  You can
utilize it for playing MODs, XMs and S3Ms using AHI under HippoPlayer or
DeliTracker, and you can play 16bit audio files including MPEG Audio
(Layers 1+2).  As a composer Melody can give you real 16bit output in
applications such as Symphonie or SoundStudio.  I confess that I as a
non-musician mostly played MPEGs (MP2s) through the Melody.

I should also note two drawbacks I found out using the Melody.  The one is
that the samplerate and -resolution are fixed at 44.1 KHz/16bit.  (i.e.
CD-Audio-rate) This decision has been taking to keep the price low.  While
reading through the preceding paragraphs you might also have noticed that I
did not talk about MP3-(MPEG Layer 3) compatibility.  The actual DSP only
decodes Layers 1+2 and thus fails when you face it with a song in Layer 3
format.  Although Layer 2 still provides for good compression ratios (about
1:7 to 1:8) and near-CD quality, Layer 3 is *the* hype format (ratios 1:9
to 1:12) in the Internet.  A cure in form of a chip upgrade is also in
sight for this problem, but as Layer 3-chips seem to be too expensive at
the moment, this should be regarded as a future option.

Concluding I should note that I've never had a nicer gadget plugged into my
A4000 than the Melody sound board.  I am even thinking about buying one
(the price of the upcoming non-developer boards should be around $175) just
for the fun it offers.  You can have dozens of near-CD quality-songs (in
MPEG Layer 2) on your harddisk or self-burned CDs and access to them via a
simple mouseclick.  And playing them takes no almost no processor time.
Playing 16bit music modules or samples whilst having real 16bit output also
is a nice option, although several features are missing in the standard
configuration of the Melody - to make for a reasonable price.  I should
notice last but not least that the Melody has been built in a very modular
way which allows for many upgrades (e.g.  a m56k-DSP, sampling facilities
and even a serial port extension like Hypercom).

For much more detailed information:
http://members.aol.com/tgruner
and
http://home.pages.de/~kato

@endnode

@node REVIEW4 "Insert104 Review"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                      Review: Insert104 from MicroBit
                             By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

Insert104 from MicroBit

There's just no getting around it.  Amiga keyboards are expensive.  You
could pay upwards of US$60 or US$70 if you need to replace the keyboard to
your "big box" Amiga.  Over the years, people have tried to do various
things to alleviate this problem.  When expansion boxes have been built for
CD32s, they've typically superceded the option all CD32 users have to hook
up an Amiga keyboard to the AUX port in favor of giving the users a PC
keyboard port.  Most recently for the rest of us, Lazarus Technologies of
Canada sold the KB-10, an affordable PC keyboard translator box.  It
exhibited a rather unfortunate flaw, however, in that it tended to lock
up when the system locked up, forcing a cold reboot if you'd crashed the
machine so bad it couldn't bring up the Guru screen.

The Insert104 comes from MicroBit Research and is sold through National
Amiga of Canada.  In a tiny little piece of PVC pipe cap is a small circuit
board with a microcontroller, which has been filled with epoxy.  Extending
from that are two short lengths of cable--one plugs into a "Windows 95" PC
keyboard, the other plugs into the keyboard port of a 2000, 3000(T), or 4000T
(A4000 and CD32 users need a small adapter).  You can use an older, 101-key
PC keyboard but it's far less convenient.

The Insert104 maps the Amiga keyboard onto the PC keyboard rather well, now
that PC keyboards have "left and right Windows" keys.  The "menu" key flips
through screens (a rather handy function) and a couple of keys not used on
the Amiga keyboard are pressed into service as well.  No trouble.

So far I really haven't been able to find anything wrong with the
Insert104.  I do have to say I liked the KB-10's feature of using the
Insert and Delete keys to flip forward and back through screens, but the
use of the menu button to flip forward somewhat makes up for it.  (Numlock
flips you back, but that doesn't seem as intuitive).

Now, I like my Amiga keyboard just fine but it's heavy and expensive to
replace.  PC keyboards, on the other hand, tend to be very light and
they're exceptionally cheap.  From consumer surplus catalogs, I've seen PC
keyboards for US$15, and undoubtedly somebody's seen them elsewhere for
less.  The Insert104 sells for CDN$40, or about US$29.  That means that
replacing your Amiga keyboard is rather cheaper with an Insert104 and PC
keyboard, and of course replacing THAT keyboard will be cheaper still.  I
highly recomment the Insert104 if your keyboard is starting to get flaky.

National Amiga
519-858-8760 voice
519-858-8762 fax
http://www.nationalamiga.com

@endnode

@node REVIEW5 "Topolino Review"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                        Review: Topolino from Raach
                             By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

Right now, I'm using a Pyramid three-button Amiga mouse, which I pressed
into service about two years ago.  Some people don't like the flatness of
the Pyramid mice, but I'm pretty happy with it.  I've dropped it on the
hard floor many, many times.  The plastic clips which help hold it together
have broken with the abuse, although the screws are still in place.  The
mouse works fine, but one of these days it's going to die.  The Pyramid
mouse isn't being made anymore--in fact, rather few Amiga mice are.  What
there is in terms of selection isn't bad, but if you have a special need or
are looking for something other than your basic black or white, you're
pretty much stuck.

On the other hand, the PC market has churned out just about every kind of
mouse you'd ever want to see.  All sorts of different shapes and sizes,
lots of trackballs and remote control mice and other toys.  These are
generally off limits to Amiga users, since they work on PC serial ports.
Hacks and a commercial product or two exist to let you use a PC serial
mouse on your Amiga serial port, but of course that means giving up your
Amiga serial port.  Very few of us have more than just the one, and
besides, they all require special drivers, making them useless unless
you're running under Workbench.

The Topolino changes all that.  A small silver project box is all that's
entailed, with a microcontroller and not much else inside.  The whole
affair is only a few inches long, but plug it in to any Amiga mouse port
and you instantly have access to just about any PC mouse-type device there
is.  No configuration or software support required, the mice are instantly
as much a part of the Amiga as a standard-issue boxy A500 mouse is.

I didn't personally use any of the more esoteric PC mice with the Topolino
but I did witness a demonstration: a Topolino was hooked up to the VIScorp
ED prototype box Jim Goodnow brought with him to the St. Louis Amiga show
this past March, and a Logitech hand-held remote control trackball was used
in the demonstration of the machine.  Both were quite interesting.

For my part, I experimented with a few varieties of PC mouse.  One, a
cheapie from a no-name clone company, exhibited an oddity which the
Topolino's creator, Stefan Raach, tells me has popped up from time to time.
Some extremely cheap PC mice don't actually wire up the middle mouse
button.  The Topolino fully supports the MMB but if the mouse is not
properly set up, you may find yourself wildly clicking away and getting
nothing.  A slightly better quality PC mouse performed like a champ, and
the novelty "crayon" PC mouse I hooked up worked as well as can be
expected.

The Topolino sells for 49 DM, or about US$29.  For that price, you
certainly could buy an Amiga mouse and be done with it, so the Topolino
doesn't immediately represent a huge cost savings.  It is true that you can
get PC serial mice for under $10, but caution is advised because of the MMB
defect.  If the MMB is unimportant to you and you burn through mice like
crazy, those cheapie mice paired with a Topolino may be the best thing.
Alternately, if you want a more ergonomic or stylistic mouse from the PC
world, the Topolino is an affordable ticket to get you there.

Ingenieurburo Raach
phone: +49 07587 1201
fax:   +49 07587 1202
e-mail: info@raach.com
http://www.raach.com

@endnode

@node REVIEW6 "The Emulation Rambler"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                           The Emulation Rambler
                             By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

For openers: My apologies for a complete lack of a review of PC-Task 4 and
PCx yet.  Next issue, I promise.  Here's a preview: Both are definitely
more capable than their predecessors and match up well, but both are also
something of a disappointment considering how long we waited for their
release.

A few months ago, I posted a message to comp.sys.amiga.emulations a lament
about what I perceived to be an "emulation gap", where emulators were not
being ported to the Amiga from other platforms (or being developed
independently) despite the fact that the Amiga was perfectly capable of the
task.

Apparently, that fact was on a lot of other people's minds as well, because
very soon after, the situation began changing.  Within a few weeks, two
emulators of the Sega Master System (and Game Gear) appeared.  A little
while later, the arcade emulator MAME materialized for the Amiga.  And now,
Mark Van Hal has released DarkNESs, the first publicly available Nintendo
8-bit emulator for the Amiga.  Another is scheduled to follow very soon.
Is this great or what?

AMAME: Currently in version .20 on the Amiga, MAME is designed to emulate a
number of different arcade games which shared common-ish hardware, mostly
from the early 80s.  A number of the MAME games are personal favorites:
Pengo, Donkey Kong Jr., Mr. Do, Mario Bros, and a number of others.  AMAME
is still pretty rough around the edges and isn't as up to date as its PC
and Mac counterparts but, in time, I'm sure it'll be a winner.

AmiMasterGear: From Juan Gomez, the author of AmiMSX2 and AmiGameBoy comes
this assembly-optimized emulator of the Sega Master System and Game Gear.
As is trademark, the emulator defies you to multitask or use mode
promotion, but what it does offer is quite a bit of speed and partial sound
emulation.  Compatibility is fairly high.

MasterGear: Mark Van Hal's port of Marat Fayzullin's MasterGear is in some
ways completely the opposite of AmiMasterGear.  There is no custom GUI
screen (however there is now a GUI window), no sound, and multitasking and
mode promotion are possible.  (If you do choose to promote, be sure to
disable double buffering.)  If it wasn't for the lack of sound I'd prefer
MasterGear for the CyberGraphX element but for now it's pretty even money,
depending on how important sound or graphics card use is to you.

DarkNESs: A very early release version.  DarkNESs supports the common ROM
image formats of PC NES emulators, but is not fully compatible with all of
the different types of Nintendo game configurations.  At present, DarkNESs
is entirely in C and is quite slow--the author gets about 5-8% performance
on his 030 setup.  There seems to be something wrong in the way it is
compiled as the performance doesn't get much better--I got 16% on an 040/40
and 18% on an 060/50.  Van Hal tells me he's looking into it.  I'm quite
interested to see where this leads--so far, DarkNESs is too slow to be
playable and lacks sound (a common problem since very few people know how
the NES' sound works), but in time it could be excellent.

ANES: Not released yet, but the project has been announced and the authors
promise some very fast performance in store for users--although sound is
again a problem.  Below are some excerpts from mail one of the authors sent
me:

-  From: Morgan Johansson <morgan.johansson@mbox301.swipnet.se>

   It all started a sunny day (nah, it was probably quite rainy) in the
   beginning of may 1997.  I just tried out a PC NES emulator (called
   Nesticle) using Pc-Task (!)..  It was slow but it worked.  And then I
   started to think about why nobody have written a NES emulator for the
   Amiga.  The NES has bitplane graphics, just like the Amiga, so there is
   NO slow chunky2planar conversions needed, which you need in for example
   "shapeshifter" or "pctask".  My friend joined me in this project
   (Fredrik Schultz)..  We had never done anything like this before so it
   sure was (and still is) a great challenge.  We got some NES technical
   specifications (they are NOT easy too find, because the guys who
   actually has the documentation, often doesn't wants to share it!  Too
   bad..) First, we started working on the cpu emulation.  We have never
   worked with the 6502 processor before so it was a bit hard in the
   beginning...

   Well, the cpu emulation is now finished.  (if you don't count those
   awfull bugs, crawling all over the place!) :) The graphics conversion is
   also finished, and also most of the sprite routines.

   We've got lots of support in this project.  And I mean lots!  I've been
   answering lots of e-mails concerning A/NES every day for the last weeks
   now.  But I don't mind..  :)

   Most people wonder if we are going to support Cybergraphics /
   graphicboards The current answer is no!  Not for the moment.  We are now
   using OCS/ECS/AGA (yes, it runs on OCS!), hardware screens for getting
   maximum speed.

   Also alot of questions is concerning sound, if we're gonna support it. 
   Well, as we have got NO technical information about how the sound works
   on a NES, it's at the moment impossible.  The people out there who
   actually have information how the sound works, doesn't wants to share
   it..  It's a pity!

   And speed then?  How fast will it run?  Well, it's incredible fast on my
   060.  And it runs about 50fps on my friends 020/28mhz with fastmem
   so...:)

--

And there you have it.

Also, Microcode Solutions has released press preview copies of their Atari
8-bit and Apple II emulators, dubbed ACE and A-II, respectively.

ACE is the highlight of the two.  Finally, a usable Atari 400/800 emulator
for the Amiga!  While ACE promises to support the later models of the Atari
line, at this point it actually emulates a modified Atari 400 which looks
like an 800.  That's still good enough to play around with most of the fun
Atari software out there.  ACE supports the popular .XFD disk image format
(the .ATR format is the .XFD format with 16 extra bytes which you'll have
to strip by hand) and I've found it to be delightfully compatible, although
some games with complex graphical tricks do confuse it.  For something
which is, as we've been told, not quite done, I'll take what I can get.
Sound seems to be quite well emulated.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get the original Alternate Reality to
run on the Atari, which is one of the things I was specifically hoping to
do.  I sent the images off to Jim Drew who said he got them working
fine--so we are at a bit of an impass.  The bottom line is that ACE is a
welcome product and anybody who's been frustrated with the extremely slow
Unix port of Atari800 will be quite pleased to see it.

A-II, on the other hand, is so far quite a disappointment.  It really
doesn't seem to offer much that Apple2000 doesn't do already.  Most notable
is the speed slider and the ability to toggle write-protect on the disk
images (which, among other things, allows you to play Wizardry.)  Support
for machines beyond the Apple II+ is promised but as of today, only the
Apple II+ is emulated, meaning that the emulator is pretty much the same as
Apple2000.  Apple2000 is easier to use in one regard--neither mode
promotes, but Apple2000's image requester screen is on the Apple screen,
while A-II goes to the workbench for its ASL requester.  If you're using a
manual monitor switch like I am on a graphics card without a passthrough
(like the CV64/3D), this is INCREDIBLY inconvenient.

ACE and AII will be sold together in a package for about US$40.  The idea
was bandied about to place both on a CD with a large quantity of Atari and
Apple FD software, which makes it sound like a pretty good buy to me.

So, all of a sudden we're far more up to date with emulation!  Good deal.

Emulation fan tip:  If you've got ridiculous amounts of emulation software
built up on your hard drive as I do, you should seriously consider a ZIP
drive.  They're now US$140 for external models and are perfect for this
sort of "when I'm in the mood" use.

ACE and AII will be available from Blittersoft through dealers worldwide. 
AMAME is not in general Aminet release but you can link to it through the
Emulators on the Amiga page,
http://www.pncl.co.uk/~martinc/emulators/index.html.  AmiMasterGear,
MasterGear, and DarkNESs are available on Aminet in misc/emu.

@endnode

xxx CHARTS

@node CHARTS1 "Charts, April 20, 1997"
@toc FTP

| The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 20-Apr-97
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
MiSpeedMeter.lha   comm/tcp    14K   0+V1.2 of cps counter for Miami 2.0+ (
BMPdt407.lha       util/dtype  21K   1+Bmp picture datatype v40.7 for >= OS
APatchBeta.lha     util/boot    8K   0+Speed up patch for your 68020+ Amiga
mpega.lha          mus/play   241K   0+MPEG I,II & III audio decoder V2.4 (
GrabURL.lha        comm/www    71K   0+Utilities to fetch HTTP files. (15/0
HL2000.lha         comm/bbs     2K   0+A Clock for countdown to the year 20
ar504.lha          docs/mags   72K   0+Amiga Report 5.04, April 16, 1997
Ilona12.lha        comm/tcp    39K   1+Stand-alone bot for IRC, featuring M
mn_ansitest.lha    comm/mebbs   3K  95+ANSI Test Door for MEBBSNet
TBL-CD.lha         demo/tg97  4.5M   1+Captured Dreams/TBL - 1st at TG97!
gs403_data.lha     gfx/show   682K   0+Ghostscript4.03 data archive, get a 
wait11.lha         util/wb     14K   0+Wait replacement with progressbar
gs403_fnts-std.lha gfx/show   1.4M   0+Ghostscript4.03 HQ fonts archive
AGPatch-1.0.lha    util/sys     2K   0+Fix AmigaGuide v40 to show older gui
ged462.lha         text/edit  930K   0+GoldED Programmer's Editor 4.6.2
xwins.lha          game/wb     32K   0+Very nice WB game (like wallstones)
gs403_040fpu.lha   gfx/show   422K   0+Ghostscript4.03 040fpu bin, bugfix 1
kaunistu.lha       mods/jorma 141K  46+Kaunistune by Vesuri (from Leucemia)

| The highest rated programs during the week until 20-Apr-97
| Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you
| download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu :
| RATE <path> <num>
| where <path> is the file you want to judge and <num> is a mark from 0..10
| with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but
| don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
Miami20g.lha       comm/tcp   694K   7+TCP/IP stack for easy Internet acces
pretium.lha        biz/misc   132K   1+Checkbook accounting demo V 1.1
netstat18.lha      comm/misc  120K   2+The Essential UK Online Timer. Updat
KuangEleven28.lha  comm/tcp   244K   1+Kuang Eleven 2.8-The ULTIMATE script
Point_Rock4.lha    demo/mag   602K   4+Issue 4 of a new Hard Rock Amigaguid
Petition.lha       docs/misc    1K   2+Amiga Games Petition
rtgmaster_user.lha gfx/board  211K   0+Rtgmaster User Archive
CyberAVI19.lha     gfx/show    76K   4+AVI animation player for CyberGraphX
CyberQT11.lha      gfx/show    74K   4+QuickTime animation player for Cyber
mathX111.lha       misc/math  282K   9+Math program, V1.11, MUI
AmigaAnim.lha      pix/anim    67K   4+Amiga Animation for Web Pages
EvenMore036.lha    text/show  112K   1+Font sensative text viewer (BETA)
FastIPrefs4035.lha util/boot   37K   6+FastIPrefs 40.35 & FastWBPattern 40.
dtypeslib452.lha   util/libs  130K   2+New datatypes.library, V45.2
mui38usr.lha       util/libs  1.0M   9+MagicUserInterface 3.8, user files
SerialPrefs26.lha  util/sys    60K   4+V2.6 - Extended Serial Preferences f
EagleWB.lha        util/wb    237K   3+Eagle pic, 800x600x256, a great WB B
AmIRCsounds.lha    comm/tcp   240K   3+IFF samples to use with AmIRC
Logic.lha          game/think 290K   7+Great Game!
Xtruder33.lha      util/virus 435K   3+Virus killer with extensive checking
WB_BootPic7.lha    pix/boot   362K   5+Workbench Boot Pictures for Amiga OS
TBL-CD.lha         demo/tg97  4.5M   1+Captured Dreams/TBL - 1st at TG97!
AlienF1.lha        game/demo  139K   4+A fast, full texture-mapped F1 Game
MasterMind.lha     comm/cnet    3K  17+Mastermind door for CNet
GuitBust.lha       mods/rock  504K   4+GuitarBusting by T-REX/PRIDE
PowerDrops.lha     mods/sets  434K 188+PT-MODs (1) from Olof Gustafsson
PowerFlops.lha     mods/sets  598K 188+PT-MODs (2) from Olof Gustafsson
SwitchbackMods.lha mods/sets  306K 118+Mods from Rebels Switchback by Chrom
SPlayer_v1.6a.lha  mus/play   172K   2+Update to 1.6a now ! (or else)
PackDev1_9.lha     util/arc    24K   4+Packs DFx, DHx etc., XPK support, V1

@endnode

@node CHARTS2 "Charts, June 1, 1997"
@toc FTP

| The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 1-Jun-97
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
modemd.lha         comm/misc   29K   0+Displays the LEDs of your Modem on W
ShapeShifter38.lha misc/emu   244K   0+Macintosh II emulator, V3.8
Miami21amain.lha   comm/tcp   407K   0+Internet TCP/IP stack (main archive)
CyberAnim12.lha    gfx/show    52K   0+IFF ANIM3/5/7/8 player, supports Cyb
MiamiPM11.lha      comm/misc    5K   0+Miami (reg) packetmonitor, bugfixed.
Miami21areg020.lha comm/tcp   206K   0+Internet TCP/IP stack (reg. 020 bina
Miami21aeval.lha   comm/tcp   187K   0+Internet TCP/IP stack (demo binary)
Twister038b.lha    game/think  30K   0+The Ultimate Rubik's Cube program. (
MiamiSSL11.lha     comm/tcp    46K   0+SSL (Secure Socket Layer) for Miami
GMPlayGUI14.lha    mus/midi   116K   0+Nice and working GUI for GMPlay1.2+
HoisAGA.lha        demo/aga   472K 220+The first AGA-Demo by Team Hois, sim
Multimedia.lha     docs/help   23K   0+1.6 QT,AVI,MPEG,MPI&II&III FAQ
ViNCEd.lha         util/shell 302K   0+The final CON: solution, ^Z, XTerm, 
Netris1.00B.lha    comm/net   125K   0+4-player Internet Tetris via AMarque
gifanimkit.lha     gfx/conv    14K   0+The *NEW* GIF-ANIM-Saver for UConv w
GMPlay13.lha       mus/midi   6.6M   0+Plays MIDI-Files with your Amiga (02
StudioUp214c.lha   biz/patch  779K   0+V2.14c Update of Studio Prof. Printe
BenchTrash.lha     util/wb     48K   0+Global trashcan 4 WB, w. eject suppo
am1_10htm.lha      docs/mags  123K   0+The Amiga Monitor: May 1997 (1_10) H
PeekMail0_8.lha    comm/mail   23K   0+Check if there's new e-mail.

| The highest rated programs during the week until 1-Jun-97
| Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you
| download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu :
| RATE <path> <num>
| where <path> is the file you want to judge and <num> is a mark from 0..10
| with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but
| don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
AlgoMusic2_1.lha   mus/misc   1.2M   1+Creates algor. techno tunes. A must-
AlgoMusic2_1Up.lha mus/misc   151K   1+Needs installed AlgoMusic V2.0
AlgoMusic2_1fi.lha mus/misc    20K   0+Patch fixing a bug in AlgoMusic V2.1
cnet4demo.lha      comm/cnet  1.2M   3+CNet/4 Professional BBS DEMO
HotStartup.lha     disk/misc   15K   5+Runs a script every time you insert 
ar-gate.lha        docs/mags   13K   1+Amiga Report Gateway Issue, May 18 1
ar504.lha          docs/mags   72K   6+Amiga Report 5.04, April 16, 1997
AB3DTrainer.lha    game/patch  26K  10+Cheat program for Alien Breed 3D
Cannon2Cheater.lha game/patch  54K   2+Play every level of CannonFodder2
Faery_Patch.lha    game/patch  56K   2+Unofficial Faery Tale Adventure HDpa
soliton140.lha     game/think 198K   3+Solitaire card game, V1.40 (MUI)
Quine1_0.lha       misc/sci    11K   3+Quine McCluskey function resolver (M
AmIRCMPEGA.lha     comm/tcp     2K   0+Mpega script for AmIRC
DemonRobot.lha     mods/crash 133K   5+Med module.  Blast-beat speed metal 
Saucer.lha         pix/jake    85K   3+The Saucer Is Landing.
STFax.lha          comm/misc  205K   4+STFax 1.360 - Powerful and user-frie
New8n1.lha         comm/misc   91K   1+Replaces serial.device.  V37.38
hippoplayer.lha    mus/play   651K   6+V2.39, module player. Try it!
xwins.lha          game/wb     32K   6+Very nice WB game (like wallstones)
CGXPrefs.lha       gfx/board   31K   3+PrefsPrg for CGX3 vars & tooltypes(M
Blox_Face.lha      game/data  301K  55+New set of BLOX levels
MacFind.lha        util/wb     77K   0+Find files the Macintosh way (v2.1)
narrate.lha        comm/tcp    10K   0+AmIRC SPEAK script with GUI v1.2
BackMan.lha        disk/bakup 276K  27+The backup system v1.4 (OS3+ MUI3.3+
April.lha          pix/jake    83K   7+April (HAM-6 320 x 400)
Fullmoon.lha       pix/jake    83K   7+Fullmoon (HAM-6 320 x 400)
ldmndrvs.lha       util/sys     1K   1+Faster loading of monitor drivers
YAMscripts.lha     comm/mail   31K   1+Useful ARexx scripts for YAM (rel 6)

@endnode

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

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

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

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

subscribe areport

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

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


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

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

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


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

     pub/aminet/arc/

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

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

     uuxt x ar.uu

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

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

@endnode
@node AMINET "Aminet"
@toc WHERE

                                  Aminet
                                  ======

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

===========================================================================
                Amiga Report International Online Magazine
                 May 31, 1997              Issue No. 5.05
                       Copyright 1997 FS Publications
                             All Rights Reserved
===========================================================================

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

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

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

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

     1.  Please use English.

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

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

     4.  Please send us your article in ASCII format.

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

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

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

AMIGA ZONE MOVES TO CALWEB!

THE AMIGA ZONE MOVES FROM PORTAL TO CALWEB INTERNET SERVICES

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE AMIGA ZONE IS MOVING TO CALWEB INTERNET SERVICES.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


CalWeb has arranged a special signup offer for you!

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

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

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

The signup is FREE.

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

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

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

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

         http://www.amigazone.com

running on CalWeb's server.  Ckeck it out!

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

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

A splendid time is guaranteed for all.  

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

@endnode
@node BBS_ASIA "Distribution BBSes - Asia"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                         Distribution BBSes - Asia
===========================================================================

-= IRAN =-

* MAVARA BBS *
0098 21 8740815


-=JAPAN=-

* GIGA SONIC FACTOR *
Email: kfr01002@niftyserve.or.jp
+81-(0)564-55-4864

@endnode
@node BBS_AUSTRALASIA "Distribution BBSes - Australasia"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                     Distribution BBSes - Australasia
===========================================================================


-=NEW ZEALAND=-

* BITSTREAM BBS *
FidoNET 3:771/850.0
AmigaNET 41:644/850.0
+64-(0)3-548-5321


-=VICTORIA=-

* NORTH WEST AMIGA BBS *
mozza@nwamiga.apana.org.au
Fido: 3:633/265.0
BBS Phone/Fax: +61 3 9331 2831
@endnode
@node BBS_EUROPE "Distribution BBSes - Europe"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                        Distribution BBSes - Europe
===========================================================================


-= BELGUIM =-

* VIRTUAL VORTEX BBS *
vzpirit@hotmail.com
+32-2-3873391


-=DENMARK=-

* NEMESIS AMY BBS *
boersting@hoa.ping.dk
Fido: 2:238/43
+45 75-353726


-=FINLAND=-

* HANG UP BBS * (telnettable)
helpdesk@hangup.dystopia.fi
+358 - 09 - 278 8054

* LAHO BBS *
+358-64-414 1516   +358-64-414 0400
+358-64-414 6800   +358-64-423 1300

* KINDERGARTEN *
matthias.bartosik@hut.fi
+358-0-881 32 36


-=FRANCE=-

* DYNAMIX BBS *
erlsoft@mcom.mcom.fr
+33.1.48.89.96.66 Minitel to Modem

* RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING *
Fidonet: 2/320/104-105-106
+33-1-45845623   +33-1-53791200


-=GERMANY=-

* DOOM OF DARKNESS *
marc_doerre@doom.ping.de
+49 (0)4223 8355 19200
AR-Infoservice, kai@doom.gun.de

* IMAGINE BBS *
Sysop@imagine.commo.mcnet.de
+49-69-4304948
Login: GAST (Download area:  "Amiga-Report")

* LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL *
andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de
49-30-8110060   49-30-8122442
Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report"

* REDEYE BBS *
sysop@coolsurf.de
Modem/ISDN: +49-89.54662690
Modem only:+49.89.54662680

* STINGRAY  DATABASE *
sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de
+49 208 496807

* VISION THING BBS *
++49(0)345 663914
System Password: Amiga


-=GREECE=-

* HELLAS ON LINE *
cocos@prometheus.hol.gr
Telnet: hellas.hol.gr
++301/ 620-6001, 620-6604, 620-9500

* LOGIC SYSTEMS BBS *
Paddy@hol.gr
(301) 983-4645

* ODYSSEY BBS *
odyssey@acropolis.net
Amiganet: 39:250/1.0
++301-4123502   23.00-09.00 Local Time
WWW: www.acropolis.net/~konem/odygb.html


-=IRELAND=-

* FWIBBLE!  *
E-Mail: 9517693@ul.ie
Fidonet: 2:263/900.0
Phone: +353-902-36124    Midnight to 8am (GMT)
Freq "Readme.txt" for details


-=ITALY=-

* AMIGA PROFESSIONAL BBS *
+(39)-49-604488

* AMIPRO BBS*
+39-49604488

* DB-LINE SRL *
amiga@dbline.it
WWW: www.dbline.it
+39-332-767383

* FRANZ BBS *
mc3510@mclink.it
+39-(0)6-6627667

* IDCMP *
Fidonet 2:322/405
+39-542-25983

* SPEED OF LIFE *
FidoNet 2:335/533
AmigaNet 39:102/12
+39-931-833773


-=NETHERLANDS=-

* AMIGA ONLINE BS HEEMSTEDE *
Email: sysop@aobh.xs4all.nl
Fidonet: 2:280/464.0, 2:280/412.0
+31-23-5471111   +31-23-5470739

* THE HELL BBS *
Email : root@hell.xs4all.nl
FidoNet: 2:281/418.0
+31-(0)70-3468783

* MACRON BBS HEILOO *
Email: macron@cybercomm.nl
FidoNet: 2:280/134.0
+31-(0)72-5340903

* TRACE BBS GRONINGEN *
Martin@trace.idn.nl
FidoNET 2:282/529.0
+31-(0)-50-410143

* WILD PALMS *
radavi@xs4all.nl
WWW: www.xs4all.nl/~radavi/wildpalms/wildpalm.html
+31-(0)30-6037959

* X-TREME BBS *
u055231@vm.uci.kun.nl
+31-167064414


-=NORWAY=-

* BODØ BBS *
bbsoft@sn.no
+47 7552 2008


-=POLAND=-

* SILVER DREAM!'S BBS *
+48 91 540431


-=PORTUGAL=-

* CIUA BBS *
denise.ci.ua.pt
FidoNet 2:361/9
+351-34-382080/382081


-=RUSSIA=-

* NEW ORDER BBS *
sysop@neworder.spb.ru
FidoNet: 2:5030/221.0
+7-812-3270054


-=SPAIN=-

* GURU MEDITATION *
+34-1-383-1317

* LA MITAD OSCURA *
jovergon@offcampus.es
Fido: 2:341/35.19
+34-1-3524613

* MAZAGON - BBS - SYSTEMS *
jgomez@maze.mazanet.es
FTP: ftp-mail@ftp.mazanet.es
+34 59 536267
Login: a-report


-=SWEDEN=-

* CICERON *
a1009@itv.se
+46 612 22011


-=SWITZERLAND=-

* USE COMMUNICATIONS POP ZUG *
wenk@use.ch
+41 41 763 17 41


-=TURKIYE=-

* NEEDFUL THINGS *
Erdinc.Corbaci@beygir.bbs.tr
90-216-3629417


-=UKRAINE=-

* AMIGA HOME BBZ *
Oleg.Khimich@bbs.te.net.ua
FidoNet: 2:467/88.0
+380-482-325043


-=UNITED KINGDOM=-

* AMIGA JUNCTION 9 *
sysadmin@junct9.demon.co.uk
FidoNet: 2:440/20
+44 (0)372 271000

* CREATIONS BBS *
mat@darkside.demon.co.uk
2:254/524@Fidonet
+44-0181-665-9887

* DEMON FEARS AMIGA BBS *
mike@timp8.demon.co.uk
FidoNet: 2:250/194.0
+44-161-627-3360

* DRAUGHTFLOW BBS *
Ian_Cooper@draught.demon.co.uk
+44 (01707) 328484

* METNET CCS *
metnet@demon.co.uk
FidoNet: 2:2502/129.0  2:2502/130.0
+44-1482-442251   +44-1482-444910

* OCTAMED USER BBS *
rbfsoft@cix.compulink.co.uk
+44 (01703) 703446

* SCRATCH BBS *
kcci1@solx1.susx.ac.uk
+44-1273-389267


-=YUGOSLAVIA=-

* UNIVERSE BBS *
sule@universe.bc.co.ui
+381-(0)21-741084
@endnode
@node BBS_NAMERICA "Distribution BBSes - North America"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                    Distribution BBSes - North America
===========================================================================


-=ARIZONA=-

* MESSENGER OF THE GODS BBS *
mercury@primenet.com
602-326-1095


-=BRITISH COLUMBIA=-

* COMM-LINK BBS *
steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com
Fido: 1:153/210.0
604-945-6192


-=CALIFORNIA=-

* TIERRA-MIGA BBS *
torment.cts.com
FidoNet: 1:202/638.0
619.292.0754

* VIRTUAL PALACE BBS *
tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu
916-343-7420

* AMIGA AND IBM ONLY BBS *
vonmolk@crash.cts.com
AmigaNET: 40:406/7.0
(619)428-4887


-=FLORIDA=-

* LAST! AMIGA BBS *
(305) 456-0126


-=ILLINOIS=-

* PHANTOM'S LAIR *
FidoNet: 1:115/469.0
Phantom Net Coordinator: 11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0
708-469-9510 708-469-9520

* THE SAGE'S TOWER *
johnh@ezl.com
FidoNet: 1:2250/7
618-259-1844

* STARSHIP CUCUG *
khisel@prairienet.org
(217)356-8056

* THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS *
FIDONet-1:115/384.0
312-384-0616   312-384-6250 (FREQ line)


-=LOUISIANA=-

* The Catacomb *
Geoff148@delphi.com
504-882-6576


-=MAINE=-

* THE KOBAYASHI ALTERNATIVE BBS *
FidoNet: 1:326/404.0
FTP: ftp.tka.com
(207)/784-2130   (207)/946-5665


-=MEXICO=-

* AMIGA BBS *
FidoNet  4:975/7
(5) 887-3080

* AMIGA SERVER BBS *
5158736

* TERCER PLANETA BBS *
FX Network 800:525/1
[525]-606-2162


-=MISSISSIPPI=-

* THE GATEWAY BBS *
stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil
FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0
601-374-2697


-=MICHIGAN=-

* DC PRODUCTIONS *
dcpro!chetw@heifetz.msen.com
616-373-0287


-=NEW JERSEY=-

* T.B.P.  VIDEO SLATE *
201-586-3623

* DLTACOM AMIGA BBS *
dltacom.camphq.fidonet.org
Fidonet: 1:2606/216.0
(201) 398-8559


-=NEW YORK=-

* THE BELFRY(!) *
stiggy@belfry.org
WWW: www.belfry.org
718.793.4796   718.793.4905


-=ONTARIO=-

* COMMAND LINE BBS *
416-533-8321

* CYBERSPACE *
joehick@ophielia.waterloo.net
(519) 579-0072   (519) 579-0173

* EDGE OF REALITY BBS *
murray.smith@er.gryn.org
Fido: 1:244/320.0
(905)578-5048


-=QUEBEC=-

* CLUB AMIGA DE QUEBEC *
Internet: snaclaq@megatoon.com
Voice: (418) 666-5969
(418) 666-4146   (418) 666-6960
Nom d'usager: AMREPORT   Mot de passe: AMIGA

* GfxBase BBS*
E-mail: ai257@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu
Fidonet: 1:167/192
514-769-0565


-=TENNESSEE=-

* AMIGA CENTRAL! *
root@amicent.raider.net
615-383-9679

* NOVA BBS *
FidoNet 1:362/508.0
615-472-9748


-=VIRGINIA=-

* NETWORK XXIII DATA SYSTEM *
gottfrie@acca.nmsu.edu
804-266-1763
Login: anon   Password: nopass


-=WASHINGTON=-

* FREELAND MAINFRAME *
freemf.wa.com
(360)412-0228

* PIONEERS BBS *
FidoNet: 1:343/54.0
206-775-7983
Login: Long Distance   Password: longdistance   Or FREQ: AR.lha
@endnode
@node BBS_SAMERICA "Distribution BBSes - South America"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                    Distribution BBSes - South America
===========================================================================


-=BRAZIL=-

* 68000 BBS *
vaclav@centroin.com.br
AmigaNET-BR: 120:5521/1
+55-21-393-4390   [16-06h (-3GMT)]

* LITHIUM SYSTEMS BBS *
pa100137@datacontrol.com.br
051-632-2805 (00:00 - 08:30)

* STUFF OVERLOAD BBS *
dan_cab@lepus.celepar.br
AmigaNET-BR: 120:120/0
+55-41-252-9389
@endnode
@node DEAL_ASIA "Dealers - Asia"
@toc DEALER

===========================================================================
                              Dealers - Asia
===========================================================================


-=JAPAN=-

Grey Matter Ltd.
1-22-3,Minami Magome
HillTop House 2F suite 201
Ota-ku,Tokyo 143
Tel:+81 (0)3 5709-5549
Fax:+81 (0)3 5709-1907
BBS: +81 (0)3 5709-1907
nighty@gmatter.japan-online.or.jp


-= MAYLAYSIA =-

Innovations Lights & Magic (M) Sdn Bhd,
A1106, University Towers, 28, Jalan Universiti,
46200, Petaling Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Tel: +6 03 7544544
Fax: +6 03 7544588
skchiew@pc.jaring.my
@endnode
@node DEAL_AUSTRALASIA "Dealers - Australasia"
@toc DEALER

===========================================================================
                           Dealers - Australasia
===========================================================================


-=AUSTRALIA=-

Amadeus Computers
1/534 Old Northern Rd
Round Corner, NSW 2158
Voice: 02 9651 1711
Fax: 02 9651 1710
WWW: www.amadeus.com.au
amadeus@ca.com/au

Amiga Genius
826 Hunter St.
Newcastle West, NSW 2302
Ph: +61 49 623-222   Fax: +61 49 623-583
cdgtb@hunterlink.net.au

Amiga 'n PC Centre Pty Ltd
644 South Road Glandore
Adelaide, SA 5037
Phone: (08) 8293 8752
Fax: (08) 8293 8814
melbice@cobweb.com.au

Amiga Technologies (Not ESCOM related)
17 Thompson Circuit
Mill Park, VIC 3082
Phone: (03) 9436 5555
Fax: (03) 9436 9935
WWW: http://lion.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~laburacj/amitech.html
laburacj@lion.cs.latrobe.edu.au

Amilight Pty Ltd
47A Tate Street
South Perth, Western Australia, 6151
Phone: (09) 367 4422
Fax: (09) 3674482
WWW: www.vianet.net.au/~dwark
dwark@vianet.net.au

Amitar Home Computer Systems
Unit 1, 25 Gillim Drive
Kelmscott, WA 6111
Phone: (09) 495 4905
Fax: (09) 495 4905
WWW: http://crystal.com.au/~amitar/
amitar@crystal.com.au

Byte One
24 Silverton Drive
Ferntree Gully, VIC 3156
Phone: (03) 9752 3991
gordon@ozramp.net.au

Computa Magic Pty Ltd
44 Pascoe Vale Road
Moonee Ponds, VIC 3039
Phone: (03) 9326 0133
Fax: (03) 9370 8352

Computer Affair
337 Penshurst Street
Willoughby, NSW 2068
Phone: (02) 9417 5155
Fax: (02) 9417 5542
WWW: www.computeraffair.com.au
sales@computeraffair.com.au

Computer Man
611 Beaufort Street
Mt.  Lawley, WA 6050
Phone: (09) 328 9062
Fax: (09) 275 1010
WWW: www.iinet.net.au/~cman
cman@iinet.net.au

Desktop Utilities
PO BOX 3053
Manuka, ACT 2603
Phone: (06) 239 6658
Fax: (06) 239 6619
WWW: ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/~dtu
100026.1706@compuserve.com

Don Quixote Software
PO BOX 786
Toowoomba, QLD 4350
Phone: (076) 391 578
Fax: (076) 320 145
donq@tmba.design.net.au

Exclusive Computer Systems
Street: 34 Weston Street Weston, N.S.W.  2326
Postal: P.O.  Box 68, Weston, N.S.W.  2326
Phone: (049) 361213
Fax: (049) 36 1213
Email: peter.archer@fastlink.com.au

Fonhoff Computer Supplies
Baulkham Hills, NSW 2153
Phone: (02) 9639 7718
Fax: (02) 9639 5995
WWW: http://godzilla.zeta.org.au/~jfonhof
jfonhof@zeta.org.au

GSoft
Shop 4, 2 Anderson Walk
Smithfield, SA 5114
Phone: (08) 8284 1266
Fax: (08) 8284 0922
gsoft@cobweb.com.au

Image Domain
92 Bridge St
Fortitude Valley, Brisbane Queensland
Voice: 617-3216-1240   Fax: 617-3852-2720
imagedomain@msn.com

Motherboard Computers
Suite 19, 9-11 Abel Street
Penrith, NSW 2750
Phone: (047) 222 803
Fax: (047) 215 277
WWW: www.pnc.com.au/~mother
mother@pnc.com.au

MVB
506-508 Dorset Road
Croydon, VIC 3136
Phone: (03) 9725 6255
Fax: (03) 9725 6766

Sigmacom
Suite 16, 20-24 Gibbs Street
Miranda, NSW 2228
Phone: (02) 9524 9846
Fax: (02) 9549 4554
WWW: www.sigma.com.au

Software Buyers Service
PO BOX 734
Belmont, VIC 3216
Phone/Fax: (052) 431 445
arne@euphoria.bay.net.au

Software Circus
27 Darling Street
Kensington, NSW 2033
Phone: (02) 9313 8484

Synapse Computers
190 Riding Road
Hawthorne, Brisbane Queensland 4171
Voice/Fax: +61 7-3899-0980
WWW: www.powerup.com.au/~synapse/
synapse@powerup.com.au

Unitech Electronics Pty. Ltd. / Maverick Amiga
8B Tummul Place
St. Andrews, Sydney 2566
Voice: +61 2 9820 3555
Fax: +61 2 9603 8685

Valhalla: Games and Hobbies
493 Wellington Street
Perth, 6000
Phone: (09) 321 2909

Westcomp
96 Bentinck Street
Bathurst, NSW 2795
Phone: (063) 322 611
Fax: (063) 322 623


-=NEW ZEALAND=-

CompKarori
LG/F Karori Shopping Mall
Karori, Wellington
Tel: +64 4 476-0212
Fax: +64 4 476-9088
WWW: www.compkarori.co.nz
sales@compkarori.co.nz

Dezigna Systems
PO BOX 33-959
Takapuna, Auckland
Voice: 0064-9-478-9657
Fax: 0064-9-410-8788
dzign@ihug.co.nz
@endnode
@node DEAL_EUROPE "Dealers - Europe"
@toc DEALER

===========================================================================
                             Dealers - Europe
===========================================================================


-=AUSTRIA=-

A.R.T.  Computeranimation Ges.m.b.H.
Feldstrasse 13
3300 Amstetten
Tel: +43 7472/63566-0
Fax: +43 7472/63566-6

Solaris Computec Ges.m.b.H.
Mariahilfpark 1
A-6020 Innsbruck
Tel: ++43-512/272724
Fax: ++43-512/272724-2
solaris@computec.co.at


-=BELGIUM=-

AVM Technology
Rue de Rotheux, 279
B-4100 Seraing
Voice: +32 (0)41 38.16.06
Fax: +32 (0)41 38.15.69
defraj@mail.interpac.be

CLICK!  N.V.
Boomsesteenweg 468
B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen
Voice: +32 (0)3 828.18.15
Fax: +32 (0)3 828.67.36
vanhoutv@nbre.nfe.be

Generation Amiga
Rue Hotel des Monnaies, 120-122
B-1060 Bruxelles
Voice: +32-2-538.93.60
Fax: +32-2-538.91.35
WWW: www.genamiga.arc.be/genamiga/
Email: genamiga@arcadia.be


-=BULGARIA=-

KlubVerband ITA Gmbh
1309 Sofia
P.F.13, KukushStr.  1-2
Contact: Dr. ING B. Pavlov
Tel: +359-2-221471
Fax: +359-2-230062
KVITA@VIRBUS.BG


-=DENMARK=-

Data Service
Att.  Soren Petersen
Kaerhaven2a 2th
6400 Sonderborg
Phone/Fax: +45 74 43 17 36
sorpe-95@sdbg.ih.dk


-=FINLAND=-

Gentle Eye ky
PL 8
33841 Tampere
Phone: 358-3-363-0048
Fax: 358-3-363-0058
WWW: www.ge.vip.fi
ge@vip.fi

Lincware Computers Ltd
Lovkullankuja 3
10300 KARJAA
Voice: +358-50-5573696
Fax: +358-11-231511
linctech@freenet.hut.fi


-=FRANCE=-

ASCII Informatique
10 Rue de Lepante
06000 NICE
Tel: (33) 93 13 08 66
Fax: (33) 93 13 90 95

Quartz Infomatique
2 bis, avenue de Brogny
F-74000 ANNECY
Tel./Fax: +33 50.52.83.31
tcp@imaginet.fr


-=GERMANY=-

AMItech Systems GmbH
Ludwigstrasse 4
D-95028 Hof/Saale
Voice: +49 9281 142812
Fax: +49 9281 142712
WWW: www.hof.baynet.de/~mediatech
mediatech@hof.baynet.de

dcp, desing+commercial partner GmbH
Alfredstr.  1
D-22087 Hamburg
Tel.: + 49 40 251176
Fax: +49 40 2518567
WWW: www.dcp.de
info@dcp.de

Hartmann & Riedel GdbR
Hertzstr.  33
D-76287 Rheinstetten
Voice: +49 (7242) 2021
Fax: +49 (7242) 2167
rick@morrison.inka.de
Please call before visiting

Hirsch & Wolf OHG
Mittelstra_e 33
D-56564 Neuwied
Voice: +49 (2631) 8399-0
Fax: +49 (2631) 8399-31

Pro Video Electronic
Gabelsbergerstr.6
D-63739 Aschaffenburg
Voice: +49-(0)6021-15713
Fax: +49-(0)6021-15717
WWW: www.provideo.de
provideo@primanet.de


-=ITALY=-

C.A.T.M.U.  snc
Casella Postale 63
10023 Chieri (TO)
Tel/Fax: +39 11 9415237
fer@inrete.it (Ferruccio Zamuner)

Cloanto Italia srl
Via G.  B.  Bison 24
33100 Udine
Tel: +39 432 545902
Fax: +39 432 609051
WWW: www.cloanto.com
info@cloanto.com


-=NETHERLANDS=-

Chaos Systems
Watermolen 18
NL-1622 LG Hoorn (NH)
Voice: +31-(0)229-233922
Fax/Data: +31-(0)229-TBA
WWW: gene.fwi.uva.nl/~marioh/
marioh@fwi.uva.nl

Computer City
Zebrastraat 7-9
3064 LR Rotterdam
Voice: +31-10-4517722
Fax: +31-10-4517748
WWW: www.compcity.nl
info@compcity.nl

Computer + Repair Schoonbrood
Rodeput 15
63695N Simpelveld
Voice: 0031-455680048
Fax: 0031-455680049
CRS@CUCI.NL


-=NORWAY=-

Applause Data AS
Storgaten 31
Postboks 143
2830 Raufoss
Voice: +47 61 19 03 80
Fax: +47 61 19 05 80
WWW: www.applause.no
post@applause.no

DataKompaniet ANS
Trondheim Innovation Centre
Prof.  Brochs gt.  6
N-7030 Trondheim
Tel: +47 7354 0375
Fax: +47 7394 3861
WWW: www.datakompaniet.no
post@datakompaniet.no

Sezam Software
Ulsmågveien 11a
N-5o5o Nesttun
Tel/Fax: +47 55100070 (9-20)
ABBS: +47 55101730 (24t)
Email: oleksy@telepost.no


-=SPAIN=-

Amiga Center
Argullós, 127
08016 Barcelona
Tel: (93) 276 38 06
Fax: (93) 276 30 80

Amiga Center Alicante
Segura, 27
03004 Alicante
Tel: (96) 514 37 34

Audio Vision
San Jose, 53
Gijon (Asturias)
Tel: (98) 535 24 79

Centro Informático Boadilla
Convento, 6
28660 Boadilla del Monte (Madrid)
Tel: (91) 632 27 65
Fax: (91) 632 10 99

Centro Mail
Tel: (91) 380 28 92

C.R.E.
San Francisco, 85
48003 Bilbao (Vizcaya)
Tel: (94) 444 98 84
Fax: (94) 444 98 84

Donosti Frame
Avda.  de Madrid, 15
20011 San Sebastián (Guipuzcoa)
Tel: (943) 42 07 45
Fax: (943) 42 45 88

Eurobit Informatica
C/.  Gral.  Garcia de la Herran, 4
11100 - San Fernando
Cadiz
Tel/Fax: (956) 896375

GaliFrame
Galerías Príncipe, 22
Vigo (Pontevedra)
Tel: (986) 22 89 94
Fax: (986) 22 89 94

Invision
San Isidro, 12-18
28850 Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid)
Tel: (91) 676 20 56/59
Fax: (91) 656 10 04

Invision
Salamanca, 53
46005 Valencia
Tel: (96) 395 02 43/44
Fax: (96) 395 02 44

Norsoft
Bedoya, 4-6
32003 Orense
Tel: (988) 24 90 46
Fax: (988) 23 42 07

PiXeLSOFT
Felipe II, 3bis
34004 Palencia
Tel: (979) 71 27 00
Fax: (979) 71 28 28

Tu Amiga Ordinadors
C/ Progreso, 6
08120 La LLagosta (Barcelona)
Tel: +34-3-5603604
Fax: +34-3-5603607

vb soft
Provenza, 436
08025 Barcelona
Tel: (93) 456 15 45
Fax: (93) 456 15 45


-=SWEDEN=-

Orebro Videoreklam
Slottsgatan 12
703 61 OREBRO
Tel/Fax: +46 (0)19-123807
WWW: www.flevel.co.uk/videoking
videoking@mbox200.swipnet.se

Tricom Data Vision - Stockholm
Birkagatan 17
113 36 Stockholm
Voice: +46-(0)8-7360291/92
Fax: +46-(0)8-7460293
support@tricom.se

Tricom Data Vision - Uppsala
Svartbacksgatan 41
753 32 Uppsala
Voice: +46-(0)18-124009
Fax: +46-(0)18-100650
info@tricom.se


-=SWITZERLAND=-

RELEC Software & Hardware AMIGA
Village du Levant 2B CH 1530 PAYERNE
Tel: +26 660 02 82
Fax: +26 660 0283
Relec@com.mcnet.ch

Studio 4D
Deinikonerstrasse 14
6340 Baar
Voice: +41 41 763 17 47
Fax: +41 41 763 17 48
studio4d@zug.use.ch


-=UNITED KINGDOM=-

5DLicenceware
1 Lower Mill Close
Goldthorpe
Rotherham
South Yorkshire S63 9BY
Tel/Fax: 01709 888127
WWW: www.ware5d.demon.co.uk
phil@ware5d.demon.co.uk

Almathera Systems Ltd
Southerton House
Boundary Business Court
92-94 Church Road
Mitcham, Surrey  CR4 3TD
Voice: 081 687 0040
Fax: 081 687 0490
Sales: almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk
Tech: jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk

Brian Fowler Computers Ltd
90 South Street
Exeter, Devon  EX1 1EN
Voice: (01392) 499 755
Fax: (01392) 493 393
brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk

Computer Magic
Unit 8 
Freemans Yard
Doncaster Road, Barnsley  S71 1QH
Tel: 01226 218255 / 0378 425281

Visage Computers
27 Watnall Road
Hucknall, Nottingham
Tel: +44 (0)115 9642828
Tel/Fax: +44 (0)115 9642898
visage@innotts.co.uk
@endnode
@node DEAL_NAMERICA "Dealers - North America"
@toc DEALER

===========================================================================
                          Dealers - North America
===========================================================================


-=CANADA=-

Animax Multimedia, Inc.
Willow Tree Tower
6009 Quinpool Road, Suite 802
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3K 5J7
Ph: (902) 429-1921
Fax: (902) 429-1923
WWW: www.animax.com/
info@animax.com

APC Computer Services
402-5 Tangreen Crt
Willowdale, Ont.  M2M 3Z1
Voice/Fax: (416) 733-1434
WWW: www.interlog.com/~shadow/apccomp.html
shadow@interlog.com

Atlantis Kobetek Inc.
1496 Lower Water St.
Halifax, NS / B3J 1R9
Phone: (902)-422-6556
Fax: (902)-423-9339
atkobetek@ra.isisnet.com

Atlas Computers & Consulting - Derek Davlut
400 Telstar Avenue Suite 701
Sudbury, ON / P3E 5V7
Phone: (705) 522-1923
Fax: (705) 522-1923
s2200147@nickel.laurentian.ca

CineReal Pro-Video
272 Avondale Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario K1Z 7G8
Phone/Fax: (613) 798-8150 (Call first to fax)
cinereal@proton.com

Computer Shop of Calgary, Ltd.
3515 - 18th Street S.W.
Calgary, Alberta T2T 4T9
Ph.  1-403-243-4358
Fx: 1-403-243-2684
WWW: www.canuck.com/cshop
austin@canuck.com

Computerology Direct
Powell River, BC  V8A-4Z3
Orders/inquiries: 604/483-3679 (24h)
Ask for HEAD SALES REP for quicker response!

Comspec Communications Inc
74 Wingold Ave
Toronto, Ontario M6B 1P5
Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348
Sales: (416) 785-3553
Fax: 416-785-3668
bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com, bryanf@accesspt.north.net

ElectroMike Inc.
1375 Boul.  Charest Ouest
Quebec, Quebec G1N2E7
Tel: (418) 681-4138, (800) 463-1501
Fax: (418) 681-5880

Forest Diskasaurus
35 Albert St., P.O.Box 84
Forest, Ontario N0N 1J0
Tel/Fax: 519-786-2454
saurus@xcelco.on.ca

FranTek
5-353 McArthur Avenue
Vanier, Ontario K1L 6N5
Phone: (613) 746-7854 ext 3
Fax/Modem: (613) 746-7854
WWW: www.travel-net.com/~frantek
frantek@travel-net.com

GfxBase Electronique, Inc
1727 Shevchenko
Montreal, Quebec
Voice: 514-367-2575
Fax: 514-367-5265
BBS: 514-769-0565

Le Groupe PowerLand
630 Champagne
Rosemere, Quebec J7A 4K9
Voice: 514-893-6296
Fax/BBS: 514-965-7295
mchabot@nationalnet.com

National Amiga
London, Ontario
Fax: 905-845-3295
WWW: www.interlog.com/~gscott/NationalAmiga.html
gscott@interlog.com

Oby's Amiga Computing Shop
16 Keziah Crt.
Sudbury, Ontario P3B-2T9
Voice: 705-675-3331
Fax: 705-675-1333
WWW: icewall.vianet.on.ca/pages/obys
obys@vianet.on.ca

Oshawa Amiga
Oshawa, ON L1J 5J8
Phone: (905) 728-7048
WWW: web.idirect.com/~oshamiga
mjacula@idirect.com

Randomize Computers
R.R.  #2
Tottenham, Ont.  L0G 1W0
vox: 905-939-8371
fax: 905-939-8745
WWW: www.randomize.com
randomize@interlog.com

SpectrumTech Electronics
Contact: Derek Clarke
412-1205 Fennell Avenue East
Hamilton, ON L8T 1T1
Voice: (905) 388-9575
BBS: (905) 388-2542
ste@spectrum.gryn.org

Valley Soft
P.O.  Box 864
Pembroke, Ontario K8A 7M5
Phone: (613) 732-7700
Fax: (613) 732-8477
WWW: www.renc.igs.net/~valsoft

Wonder Computers Ottawa Retail Store
1315 Richmond Road
Ottawa, Ontario K2B 8J7
Voice: (613) 721-1800
Fax: 613-721-6992
WWW: www.wonder.ca

Wonder Computers Vancouver Sales Office
2229 Edinburgh St.
New Westminster, BC W3M 2Y2
Voice: (604) 524-2151

young monkey studios
797 Mitchell Street
Fredericton, NB   E3B 3S8
Phone: (506) 459-7088
Fax: (506) 459-7099
sales@youngmonkey.ca


-=UNITED STATES=-

A&D Computer
211 South St.
Milford, NH 03055-3743
Voice/Fax: 603-672-4700
BBS: 603-673-2788
amiga@mv.mv.com

Alex Electronics
597 Circlewood Dr.
Paradise, CA 95969
Voice/Fax: 916-872-3722
BBS: 915-872-3711
WWW: www.wordbench.com/
alex@wordbench.com

Amigability Computers
P.O.  Box 572
Plantsville, CT 06479
Voice: 203-276-8175
caldi@pcnet.com

Amiga-Crossing
PO Box 12A
Cumberland Center, ME 04021
Voice: 800-498-3959 (Maine only
Voice: 207-829-3959
Fax: 207-829-3522
amiga-x@tka.com

Amiga Exchange
PO BOX 1381
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Voice/Fax: 310-534-3817
BBS: 310-325-1796
robertwt@ix.netcom.com

Amiga Library Services
610 Alma School Rd, #18
Chandler, Az 85224-3687
Voice: 800-804-0833
Fax: 602-491-0048
orders@ninemoons.com

Amiga Video Solutions
1568 Randolph Avenue
St.  Paul, MN 55105
Voice: 612-698-1175
Fax: 612-224-3823
BBS: 612-698-1918
wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu

Applied Multimedia Inc.
89 Northill St.
Stamford, CT 06907
Voice: (203) 348-0108

Apogee Technologies
1851 University Parkway
Sarasota, FL 34243
Voice: 813-355-6121
Apogee@cup.portal.com

Armadillo Brothers
4379 South State
Salt Lake City, Utah 84107
Voice: 801-262-4454
Fax: 801-262-4441
WWW: www.armadillobrothers.com
brent@armos.com

Computer Advantage
7370 Hickman Road
Des Moines, IA 50322
Voice/Fax: 515-252-6167
Number1@netins.net

Computer Concepts
18001 Bothell-Everett Hwy, Suite "0"
Bothell, WA 98012
Voice: (206) 481-3666

Computer Link
6573 middlebelt
Garden City MI 48135
Voice: 313-522-6005
Fax: 313-522-3119
clink@m-net.arbornet.org

The Computer Room
2760 South Havana Street
Aurora, Colorado 80014
Voice: 303-696-8973
WWW: www.computerroom.com
Email: sales@computerroom.com

The Computer Source
515 Kings Highway East
Fairfield, CT 06432
Voice: (203) 336-3100
Fax: (203) 335-3259

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

Computerwise Computers
3006 North Main
Logan, UT 84322

Concord Computer Solutions
2745 Concord Blvd.  Suite 5
Concord, CA 94519
Orders: 1-888-80-AMIGA
Info/Tech: 510-680-0143
BBS/Fax: 510-680-4987
WWW: www.ccompsol.com/
moxley@value.net

CPU Inc.
5168 East 65th St.
Indianapolis, IN 46220
Voice: 317-577-3677
Fax: 317-577-1500
cpuken@indy.net

CyberTech Labs
PO Box 56941
North Pole, Alaska  99705
Vox: (907) 451-3285
BBS1: (907) 488-2547
BBS2 & Fax: (907) 488-2647
71516.600@CompuServe.com

DC Productions
218 Stockbridge Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49001
Phone: (616)373-1985   (800)9DC-PROD
dcpro!chetw@heifetz.msen.com

Digital Arts
1321 North Walnut
P.O.  Box 5206
Bloomington, IN 47807-5206
Voice: (812)330-0124
Fax: (812)330-0126
BIX: msears

Digital Castle
4046 Hubbell Ave.  Suite 155
Des Moines, IA 50317-4434
Voice: (515) 266-5098
Sheep@netins.net

Digital F/X, Inc.
1930 Maple, Suite 7
North Bend, OR 97459
Voice: (800) 202-3285 / (541) 756-6693
WWW: www.digital-fx.com
DFX@Mail.coos.or.us

Discount Computer Sales
1100 Sunset Strip #5
Sunrise, FL 33313
Voice: 954-797-9402
Fax: 954-797-2999
DCS@aii.net, DCS@interpoint.net

Electronic Connection
635 Penn Ave
West Reading, PA 19611
Phone: 610-372-1010
Fax: 610-378-0996

Hawkeye Communication
1324 Fifth Street
Coralville, Iowa 52241
Voice: 319-354-3354
Hawkcom@inav.net

HHH Enterprises
Contact: Tom Harmon
PO Box 10
Hartwood, VA 22471
Voice: (540) 752-2100
ko4ox@erols.com

HT Electronics
211 Lathrop Way, Ste. A.
Sacramento, CA 95815
V: (916) 925-0900
F: (916) 925-2829
BIX: msears

HT Electronics
422 S. Hillview Dr.   
Milipitas, CA 95035   
V: (408) 934-7700 
F: (408) 934-7717 
BIX: msears

Industrial Video, Inc.
Contact: John Gray
1601 North Ridge Rd.
Lorain, OH  44055
Voice: 800-362-6150, 216-233-4000
af741@cleveland.freenet.edu

Kipp Visual Systems
360-C Christopher Ave.
Gaithersburg Md, 20878
Voice: 301-670-7906
kipp@rasputin.umd.edu

Krulewich Enterprises
554 Vega Dr
Corpus Christi, TX 78418
Voice: (512) 937-4624
1040.3444@compuserve.com

The Lively Computer - Tom Lively
8314 Parkway Dr.
La Mesa, CA 91942
Voice: 619-589-9455
Fax: 619-589-5230
tlively@connectnet.com

Magic Page
Contact: Patrick Smith
3043 Luther Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27127
Voice/Fax: 910-785-3695
spiff@ix.netcom.com

MicroSearch
9000 US 59 South, Suite 330
Houston, Texas
Voice: 713-988-2818
Fax: 713-995-4994

MicroTech Solutions, Inc.
17W745 Butterfield Road, Suite F
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Phone: 630-495-4069
Fax: 630-495-4245
WWW: www.mt-inc.com
info@mt-inc.com

Mr. Hardware Computers
P.O.  Box 148 / 59 Storey Ave.
Central Islip, NY 11722
Voice: 516-234-8110
Fax: 516-234-8110
A.M.U.G. BBS:  516-234-6046

Multimedia Network Consultants
Bellamah N.E.
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87111
Voice: 505-292-3504
WWW: www.netcom.com/~hitscom
hitscom@ix.netcom.com

Paxtron Corporation
28 Grove Street
Spring Valley, NY 10977
Voice: 914-576-6522
Orders: 800-815-3241
Fax: 914-624-3239

PSI Animations
17924 SW Pilkington Road
Lake Oswego, OR  97035
Voice:  503-624-8185
PSIANIM@agora.rain.com

Raymond Commodore Amiga
795 Raymond Avenue
St.  Paul, MN 55114-1521
Voice: 612-642-9890
Fax: 612-642-9891
BBS: 612-874-8342
WWW: www.visi.com/~raycomp
raycomp@visi.com

Safe Harbor Computers
W226 N900 Eastmound Dr
Waukesha, WI 53186
Orders: 800-544-6599
Fax: 414-548-8130
WWW: www.sharbor.com

Slipped Disk
170 E 12 Mile Rd
Madison Heights, Michigan 48071
Voice: (810) 546-DISK
BBS: (810) 399-1292

Software Plus Chicago
2945 W Peterson Suite 209
Chicago, Illinois
Voice:  312-878-7800

System Eyes Computer Store
730M Milford Rd Ste 345
Merrimack, NH 03054-4642
Voice: (603) 4244-1188
Fax: (603) 424-3939
j_sauter@systemeye.ultranet.com

TJ's Unlimited
P.O.  Box #354
North Greece, NY 14515-0354
Voice: 716-225-5810
BBS: 716-225-8631
neil@rochgte.fidonet.org

Zipperware
76 South Main St.
Seattle, WA  98104
Voice: 206-223-1107
Fax: 206-223-9395
WWW: www.speakeasy.org/zipperware
zipware@nwlink.com
@endnode
@node OPINION "Editorial and Opinion"
@toc MENU

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

@{"   compt.sys.editor.desk   " link EDITORIAL}  Keeping perspective...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node NEWS "News & Press Releases"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                           News & Press Releases
===========================================================================

@{" Phase5 Expands PowerUP " link NEWS45}  Now with A2000, 040/060+PPC A1200 cards!

@{"  PC-Task 4.2 Available " link NEWS5}  PC emulation, now with FPU support

@{"   AHI Audio System R4  " link NEWS2}  The AHI RTG Audio package

@{"   AHI Extra Utilities  " link NEWS3}  Support and third-party AHI utils

@{"   DirOpus 5 Magellan   " link NEWS7}  New enhancements over DirOpus 5.5

@{"  Legacy and Deathbed   " link NEWS55}  The videomag to feature Haynie's documentary

@{" Deathbed Vigil Returns " link NEWS18}  IAM re-releases Haynie's documentary

@{"  Gateway at WOA Video  " link NEWS11}  Video for sale of Gateway's press conference

@{" Australian Show Update " link NEWS50}  The latest list of who's attending

@{"  ClickBOOM Conversions " link NEWS30}  Check out ClickBOOM's Wish List!

@{"   Scientific Amigan    " link NEWS37}  Scientific Amigan is back!

@{"      AWeb-II V3.0      " link NEWS39}  AWeb gets bigger and better

@{" IPISA Call For Papers  " link NEWS35}  The November developer conference

@{"  Amiga Review Issue 4  " link NEWS31}  MediaSoft announces Amiga Review #4

@{"  Imagine 6 Announced   " link NEWS38}  Impulse continues the 3D development

@{" Imagine 6 Feature List " link NEWS32}  Imagine to get 060 and PowerPC support!

@{"   Personal Paint 7.1   " link NEWS46}  New features and bonuses in free upgrade

@{" www.amigainformer.com  " link NEWS47}  The Informer launches a new site

@{" Opportunity w/Learning " link NEWS48}  The educational publisher moves

@{" Amiga Informer Changes " link NEWS49}  Magazine expands, free distribution cut

@{" System Test Utility V8 " link NEWS4}  Hardware diagnostic software

@{"     CheckHTML V1.2     " link NEWS6}  Verifies HTML 3.2 standards in documents

@{" Games Master System .6 " link NEWS8}  Latest version of the gamebuilding package

@{"     fMSX Amiga 1.4     " link NEWS9}  Expanded MSX2 support in this version

@{"   BattleDuel 1.6.96    " link NEWS10}  New version of the Artillery game

@{"   AAA Awards Release   " link NEWS12}  Vote for Amiga excellence

@{"    MCC-Install 43.8    " link NEWS13}  Installer for MUI custom classes

@{"      MCCLib 12.1       " link NEWS14}  Basis library for writing MUI custom classes

@{"      Visage 39.14      " link NEWS15}  Picture viewer with emphasis on speed

@{"   HotListHandler 1.10  " link NEWS1}  Share hotlists between browsers

@{"    F1GP-Editor 3.32    " link NEWS16}  Newest version of Formula 1 editor

@{"    MidiTracker V1.1    " link NEWS17}  MIDI sequencer with tracker paradigm

@{"   Eucalyptus V1 Alpha  " link NEWS19}  New e-mail reader for AmigaOS

@{"     Amiga Elm 10.12    " link NEWS20}  AmigaOS port of the UNIX mailreader

@{"     SoundStage Pro     " link NEWS21}  New revision of pro audio board

@{"      Atlantis 1.1      " link NEWS22}  Editor for 2-d block game maps

@{"   LotsaBlankers 1.01   " link NEWS23}  Add-on/replacement for Garshneblanker

@{"  6809e Emulator V1.01  " link NEWS24}  Emulates the 6809e CPU

@{"        PEEK_POKE       " link NEWS25}  Bash around hardware from the shell

@{"  Same Difference 1.01  " link NEWS26}  Compare and change two text files

@{"        SMT 2.31        " link NEWS27}  Play samples from a MIDI (or Amiga) keyboard

@{"    Anarchy Software    " link NEWS28}  New Amiga development team announced

@{"  wfmhcybergfx_r3d.lib  " link NEWS29}  Support library for Real3D under CGX

@{"      VideoTurtle       " link NEWS33}  Take Amiga-style RGB signals to S-video

@{"SViewNG PowerUP Modules " link NEWS34}  SView-library to go PowerPC

@{"      McFiler 4.4       " link NEWS36}  Track and catalog floppy files

@{"GamaSoft Dealer Alliance" link NEWS40}  Program for dealer product support

@{"PPaint 7 PowerPC Library" link NEWS41}  PPaint 7 can use PPC cards for blitting

@{"   DirOpus 5 Magellan   " link NEWS42}  GPSoft outlines the latest upgrade

@{"AirMail Pro from Toysoft" link NEWS43}  The e-mail reader with MUI or ClassAct

@{"Amiga Industrial Council" link NEWS44}  New non-profit grassroots outreach

@{" Report from amicrawler " link NEWS51}  Amiga browser market share data!

@{"      STFax 1.360       " link NEWS52}  Shareware Amiga fax program

@{" SBase4Pro Upgrade Deal " link NEWS53}  New revision, upgrades for all users

@{" Sagittarius Price Drop " link NEWS54}  Vulcan distributor lowers prices

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

===========================================================================
                             Featured Articles
===========================================================================

@{" World of Amiga UK Report " link FEATURE1}  Luke Osbaldeston takes you through the show

@{"    CDTV Retrospective    " link FEATURE2}  More info on the machine's history

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

===========================================================================
                                  Reviews
===========================================================================

@{"     AudioLab 16    " link REVIEW1}  A first look at the "ImageFX of Audio"

@{"     Clarity 16     " link REVIEW2}  Checking out the 16-bit sampler

@{"       Melody       " link REVIEW3}  The low-cost 16 bit DSP audio card   

@{"      Insert104     " link REVIEW4}  Cheap PC keyboard adapter

@{"      Topolino      " link REVIEW5}  Hook up serial mice to an Amiga

@{"  Emulation Rambler " link REVIEW6}  NES, MasterGear, Atari 8-bit and more!

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

===========================================================================
                               Aminet Charts
===========================================================================

                             @{" 20-Apr-97 " link CHARTS1}

                             @{" 01-Jun-97 " link CHARTS2}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

               Editor:               @{" Jason Compton    " link JASON}

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

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

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

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

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

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

                         @{"   The AR Mailing List   " link MAILLIST}

                         @{"         Aminet          " link AMINET}

                         @{"     World Wide Web      " link WWW}

                         @{"   Distribution Sites    " link BBS}

                         @{"   Commercial Services   " link ZONE}

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

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

                          Arranged by Continent:

                          @{"      Asia       " link BBS_ASIA}

                          @{"   Australasia   " link BBS_AUSTRALASIA}

                          @{"     Europe      " link BBS_EUROPE}

                          @{"  North America  " link BBS_NAMERICA}

                          @{"  South America  " link BBS_SAMERICA}

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

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

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

                          Arranged by Continent:

                          @{"      Asia       " link DEAL_ASIA}

                          @{"   Australasia   " link DEAL_AUSTRALASIA}

                          @{"     Europe      " link DEAL_EUROPE}

                          @{"  North America  " link DEAL_NAMERICA}

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

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