@database "ar410.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #4.10 -- July 24, 1996" =========================================================================== July 24, 1996 @{" Turn the Page " link MENU} Issue No. 4.10 =========================================================================== ,a c4%&; 1%%%b 9%=~ " m; mmmm; nmm mmmmm .,pmq,. m; j#6 ##6 j### ### ,#'~ ~`g, j#6 ##&; ##&; #### ### ,#f `# ##&; jP##6 ###6 jP### ### .##' " jP##6 #'$#&; #$#&; #'### ### i## #'$#&; jP l##6 #l##6 jP ### ### &## jP l##6 #' $#&; # $#&;#' ### ### &## #' $#&; j#mmmd##6 # l##6P ### ### ?## mmmw j#mmmd##6 #' $#&; # $##' ### ### ##; $#$ #' $#&; jP l##6 # l#P ### ### `#l ,&#'jP l##6 #' ###mm # $' mm###mm mm###mm `#q,.,p#' #' ###mm (R) "~^~" &&&&q, , ,P `b d' tm d' ,P d&&&P ;P .,d' ,c&&q, &&&&q, ,c&&q, q&,e&q ;P' d&&&P ;P' `& d' `b ;P' `b dP~ `P d' ;P'`&; dB&&&&P ;P ,P d' P ;P ;P d' `&; &, , d' .,d' &, .,d' d' d' , &&& &&'`&&&P' ;B&&&P' `&&&P' &&& `&P' d' ;P &&& "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" Copyright 1996 FS Publications All Rights Reserved @endnode @node MENU "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc MAIN Amiga Report 4.10 is sponsored in part by: @{" ClickBOOM " link AD1}, authors of the upcoming @{" Capital Punishment " link AD1}, and by @{" AmiTrix Development " link AD2}, publishers of the upcoming @{" AWeb-II " link AD2}. =========================================================================== == 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. 4.10 July 24, 1996 | \\// == ==============| "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" |============= |______________________________________________| @endnode @node JASON "Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== EDITOR =========================================================================== Jason Compton ============= Internet Address -------- ------- jcompton@shell.portal.com 1203 Alexander Ave jcompton@xnet.com Streamwood, IL 60107-3003 USA Fax Phone --- ----- 847-741-0689 708-736-1286 @endnode @node KATIE "Assistant Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == ASSISTANT EDITOR == =========================================================================== Katherine Nelson ================ Internet -------- Kati@cup.portal.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 ADDISON "Contributing Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== CONTRIBUTING EDITOR =========================================================================== Addison Laurent =============== Internet -------- addison@jobe.shell.portal.com @endnode @node EDITORIAL "compt.sys.editor.desk" @toc OPINION =========================================================================== compt.sys.editor.desk By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Finally, it's (almost) all over (again). By the time you read this, a long day of meetings at VIScorp will have ended, meetings between corporate officers and bankers, all working out the terms of the Amiga purchase. It will soon be time to close the book on another brief chapter in Amiga history and start working to make sure that the next 12 months are entirely unlike the last 12. In the meantime, life goes on. Katherine Nelson and I will be at Amiga Convention '96 in Montreal next weekend--I hope to see as many of you there. AWeb II has finally been released commercially, and I'm hearing tales of IBrowse's release as well. Perhaps the best news in a long time is that since the release of the Amiga Developer CD last month, over 2,000 have been sold. To me, that says there are at least 2,000 people who are incredibly anxious to develop better software for the Amiga. Laid end to end, those people would stretch over 2 miles. More importantly, their efforts will give us all something new to do for quite a long time to come. I hope everybody still has their seatbelt on from last year. Things are only going to get more interesting, I think. Sure, things aren't perfect. I wish I had the answers to all of the policy questions we all want to hear addressed. After talking with Don Gilbreath and Raquel Velasco of VIScorp today, a few more things are falling into place. So sit back and enjoy. Jason @endnode @node COMMERCIAL "Commercial Products" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Commercial Products =========================================================================== @{" Capital Punishment " link AD1} The upcoming action game from ClickBOOM @{" AWeb-II " link AD2} The WWW Browser, coming from AmiTrix @{" Editor's Choice " link EDITORCHOICE} Jason's picks @{" Portal Information Systems " link PORTAL} A great place for Amiga users. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @endnode @node AD1 "Capital Punishment Is Coming..." @toc MAIN THEY say: "Amiga games suck" THEY say: "Developers are gone" THEY say: "No more good games" THEY say: "Amiga is dead" ...well, WE say: F*@% THEM !!! ------------- We are clickBOOM - the angriest team in cyberspace We have developed an amazing combat epic for Amiga called Capital Punishment It is what players asked for: playable fluid fast realistic... And what they hoped for: violent wild engrossing adrenaline-pumping... And it's coming soon to blow your Amiga away! You'll engage in battle against warriors, ninjas, aliens, and an assortment of other fearsome opponents in some of the goriest fighting scenes ever seen in a video game. Amiga Computing - "Capital Punishment could take fighting games into the next millennium" Amiga Format - "Capital Punishment has been proclaimed as the ultimate video game". Amiga Report - "Capital Punishment is a very smooth and engrossing game" CU Amiga - "Frame rate is higher than any fighting game I've seen" Visit "clickBOOM" web page for more information; chance to win one of 5 free Capital Punishment games; and to download playable beta demos: http://www.io.org/~clkboom/amiga/ Internet e-mail: clkboom@io.org beware...Punishment is coming @endnode @node AD2 "AmiTrix Development, Publishers of AWeb-II" @toc COMMERCIAL =========================================================================== AmiTrix Development, 5312 - 47 Street, Beaumont, Alberta, T4X 1H9 Canada Phone/Fax:1+403-929-8459 Email:sales@amitrix.com www.networkx.com/amitrix =========================================================================== Direct Mail Order Price List July - 1996 ============================ (Prices subject to change without notice.) Product Description CAN $ US $ ------------------- ------- ------- AWeb-II (AWeb2.0/HTML-Heaven2.0 WWW Software) $ 55.00 $ 45.00 SCSI-TV HD controller for CDTV with 2.5" Drive Adapter $190.00 $149.00 SCSI-TV for CDTV, with-out Adapter $180.00 $142.00 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 expander kit with extra cable) Amiga-Link/Envoy Expander Kit (1-unit) $175.00 $135.00 Amiga-Link Expansion Kit (1-unit) $135.00 $105.00 Amiga-Link Accecories: 2-way Floppy Port Splitter $ 39.00 $ 31.00 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 *Special - One Only* DblScan 4000 Video Card $265.00 $190.00 The P-Net Box, a ParNet Adapter $ 15.00 $ 12.00 AM33C93A-16PC SCSI controller for 3000/2091/HC+8 $ 26.00 $ 20.00 A3000 U202/U203 chip ram control PALs - each $ 15.00 $ 12.00 External Active SCSI Terminator - C50 male $ 29.75 $ 23.50 Internal Active SCSI Terminator - IDC50 male $ 19.00 $ 15.00 External Passive SCSI Terminator - C50 male/female $ 12.25 $ 9.75 External SCSI Drive Box - (Mini-Tower e/w: C50/Internal bus/C50 pass-thru) $145.00 $115.00 DIY Cable Kit (Internal) for Mini-T Ext. SCSI Box $ 30.00 $ 23.50 DB23 solder-type connector - male, female, or chrome hood - each $ 1.65 $ 1.25 Repair Services: ---------------- - A1200/4000 CIA replacements, General repairs $ Call $ Call - SMD equipment fixed charge $ 35.00 $ 28.00 - Labour rate per hour $ 35.00 $ 28.00 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 Orders should include a Bank Draft/Money Order or Postal MO, payable to AmiTrix Development in CAN or US dollars. COD orders inside Canada only. Shipping costs may vary for quantity orders/alternative method of shipment. Canadian customers add 7% GST to all orders. =========================================================================== @endnode @node MAIL "Reader Mail" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Reader Mail =========================================================================== Date: 08 Jul 96 10:31:40 -500 From: bka@idirect.com (Brad Avery) Subject: Reader mail Jason, After reading a letter, by Nigel Milnes, in issue 4.09 of the 30th of June 1996, I finally broke down & decided it was time to write in. In the letter Nigel claimed that he bought a 12MHz 68000 chip & put it in his A500 resulting in faster system performance as well as MMU support. This is simply not possible. The 12MHz rating on the chip Nigel bought means it is capable of running at 12MHz & the 8MHz rating on the standard C= one means it is capable of running at 8MHz. Just because a cpu is capable of running at a certain speed, does not mean it will run at that speed automatically. A cpu only runs as fast as the crystal clocking it. In the case of the A500 C= used a 7.14MHz cpu clock. They used the 8MHz version cpu because it was rated high enough to handle their 7.14MHz clock. By Nigel putting a 12MHz cpu in his system, it acheives no speed increase (as verified by his SysInfo test) because the cpu is still being clocked at 7.14MHz. The only way to speed up the system would be to alter the clock signal - to a maximum of 12MHz in his current situation. This however, if possible, would throw the systems timing off, since one clock is dependent on another in the A500, and would most likely render the system unusable. The MMU capability he speaks of, doesn't seem right either. The 68000 had no internal MMU, it used the 68451 external MMU. The 68020 used the 68851 (I believe) & the > 68020 cpu's (non EC version) have one built in. Not being too familiar with ImageFX, I'd have to wonder if it used non MMU based virtual memory like Image Studio does. I hope nobody ran out & wasted their money buying a 12MHz 68000 chip, because the A500 doesn't use an independent cpu crystal & therefore cannot be changed to properly clock a higher rated cpu. Brad Avery Toronto,Ontario CANADA P.S. I love the magazine. Keep up the good work! --- --- --- --- --- From: penguin@isns1.shasta.com (Larry Penland) Date: Sun, 07 Jul 1996 02:59:31 Subject: The Winning EDGE ONLINE Hello Jason, I read the letter from Michael Ingleby in AR4.09. It struck me that while a MIDI interface built into the NEXT GENERATION AMIGA is a good idea, it is less than a winning strategy for the future. The great majority of the public "don't know from Midi and could care less". What the Amiga has needed for a long time is built in connectivity (read networking) but that is not a killer either. Most Amigas will live far from one another. There is a technology coming on line that could be the next killer application, CABLE MODEMs. Motorola (among others) has started producing new modems to connect over cable television. Each manufacturer has his own take on what they are but there seems to be some common specs. Fiber optic cable will carry the information from system to system,and into the Internet, but coax cable will carry television and digital information from the system headend to the home. Coax has a theoretical bandwidth of 30 megabits per second (30Mbps), but actual throughput will be lower because the bandwidth is shared among the cable subscribers. The Motorola Cybersurfer cable modems have the ability to download from the cable headend at 10 Mbps and to upload from your computer at 768 kilobits per second (768 Kbps). This compares to 33.6 Kbps for the current fastest analog telephone modems, and 128 Kbps for ISDN. Television cable systems will have to rebuild their systems to allow bi-directional amplification and communication, and many are making plans to do that. Then each system will need to choose the modem technology that they will use. TCI, the largest cable company in the world is getting ready to launch the @HOME network. It seems to be supporting several modems,including the Motorola. The articles and advertisements that I have seen do not list how these cable modems will connect to the computer. So in search of more info, I got onto the @HOME webpage (www.home.net). The specs listed there call for a minimum system (PEE CEE of course) that includes a 10 base Ethernet networking card. For those who don't know,10 Base is 10 Mbps. Sound familiar? So it appears that the cable modem connection is going to be via ethernet interface. If this is the case, and since the Amiga could use good networking in professional arenas, a built in 10base ethernet on the low end machines would position them for the new high speed connections into the Internet via cable modem and on University and College networks. For the highend machines it would be nice to have the interface easily upgradable to the newer 100 base ethernet. A MIDI interface would be nice but since the cable modem would allow a permanent connection into the internet it will touch many more needs in the future. Of course both would be even better. --- --- --- --- --- Date: 10 Jul 96 17:18:34 +0500 From: george@aic.net.au (George L) Subject: ImageFX upgrades Jason, I'd like to publicly say thanks to Nova Design Inc for a great product (ImageFX) and even better support. A few weeks ago, I purchased ImageFX 2.1a from a local Amiga dealer for the full price of $400AU. After reading AR408, I learned that version 2.6 was available and that ver2.1's price had been reduced. I wrote a letter to Nova Design enquiring about the upgrade deal, and from 'outta the blue' I promptly received a free upgrade to version 2.6 Its service like this that makes me proud to own an Amiga... Keep up the good work, Regards, George. --- --- --- --- --- Date: Wed, 03 Jul 1996 09:21:05 -0700 From: Dean Husby Subject: Reader Mail I just read the article 'EZ135 Follow up' in AR4.09. I thought Paul's review the first time was based on greed. More speed and megs... But, you have to give someplace for that extra speed. In this case, as poor Paul found out, was quality. It sounds like he's bent his drive head out of alienment. A Syquest repair. He should ship the drive to them demanding it to be repaired... He claims the Zip to be 'Dog Slow' and is too light. (That I agree on. You cannot use it in the upright position because it will fall over. ((I use Both cable ports))) To fix this problem, you can buy a LEAD strip and attach it to the back/side of the drive if you feel it's that needed. But 'Dog Slow'? Not quite! The Zip drive runs at about 940k on my A3000 (sysinfo) and does have a access time of about 29ms. IF you optimize the disk it runs much quicker since it's the search time that slows down the drive and not the actual Data Transfer rate. I've owned my Zip: Drive since DEC. '95 and have 7 disks currently. I have it chained to 4 other devices in my external SCSI case. (easy to make!) With No problems in Set up/formating/conflicts. I have dropped 3 of my Zip: Disks about 4 feet onto tile with NO DATA loss. This proved my choice was the right one. Spin up and loading/unloading are a dream. 4 seconds until I can use it. Paul also said that the ZIP was the way to go in the end, I'm glad he's seen the light, but with more and more Amiga users hailing the JAZ drive now, with it's fast speed and 1 gig space... I do hope people listen and not buy the Syquest rip off coming out... Thanks Dean (TFM on #amiga) --- --- --- --- --- From: rknop@mop.caltech.edu Subject: Reader Mail Hi Jason -- this for either the "Reader Mail" or the "Opinion" section of AR, whatever you think best. These are just some thoughts I had seeing Robert Davis' article on being on the internet in AR409. I think that many people, Amiga users in particular, underestimate the value of a Unix shell internet account. There are three primary advantages to such an account. (1) It's easy to set up. (2) It's fast. (3) It's available from anywhere you have a computer with a modem and any plotz terminal program. Sure, it's limited, and sure, it doesn't cost that much more to have a PPP account nowadays. However, there is much to be said for it, and you can do _most_ of what you end up really wanting to be able to do with an internet account anyway. As regards the first point. On a local BBS I call, every so often somebody will log on and post how they are having a terrible time getting AmiTCP to work. Invariably, the sysop or somebody else suggests that I might be able to help, since I'm a bit of an AmiTCP junkie. (Not only did I write a few small pieces of Napsaterm, but I've got AmiTCP running both on an A3000 with an ethernet card (tmnwh.caltech.edu) and over a PPP account.) And, invariably, I fail to get the poor chap going. Always, I know going into it, that the only way for me to really help would be to go to his computer, sit down, and futz around until I got things working. With a shell account, you run your terminal program. Lots of people know how to run terminal programs. It's trivial in comparison to getting AmiTCP running. You log on, and things work. Sure, Unix isn't intuitive, but if you are an Amiga shell user, you won't find Unix that prohibitive. And it has perfectly usable E-mail programs (I recommend Pine) along with a host of other utilities. The second point, speed. This is the most significant one. When people discuss the internet account they're trying to get, I suggest perhaps a shell account. They always say, oh, no, you can't do the internet without graphics nowadays. Well, sure, there're a lot of graphics out there. But IMHO the most important part of the internet is E-mail -- which is text, text, text. Even cruising the web, sure, the graphics are pretty, but most of the _information_ you're actually after is text based. Now, here's the rub. If you're using a 14.4K modem, or even a 28.8K modem, a web page with big graphics -- the sort of page which inspired you to get a graphical internet connection in the first place -- will take bloody _forever_ to load. When I use AWeb or another Amiga browser from home, I generally turn off automatic image loading and only load a few of the images I think I want to see. With a Unix shell account, you can run lynx, which is a perfectly effective world wide web browser. No graphics, but all the text. And, it's faster! On two or three fronts. One, you don't wait for the graphics to load. Two, rendering the plain ASCII text is faster for lynx than rendering the fonts is for graphical browsers (this is a minor effect). Three -- and I doubt most people fully appreciate this -- if you visit a long document, the whole document doesn't have to go through the 14.4Kbaud or 28.8Kbaud bottleneck that is your modem. You visit a 100Kbyte text document, being interested in only a small piece of it. If you are running the browser on your computer over a PPP connection, the full 100K has to be sent over the modem to your computer. If you're running Lynx on a Unix shell account, the server you have your shell account on gets the 100K document, and all that gets sent over the modem is the text that's visible on your screen. The third point, availability. Once you've finally got your Amiga set up to run your PPP account, you can probably fairly easily access it -- from _that_ Amiga. A Unix shell account, you can access from pretty much any terminal. You can even telnet into it, generally, from another account (e.g. a friend's)! If your Amiga has a hard drive crash, you don't have to be disconnected from your E-mail when all you can do is borrow your friend's PC. So, this has become long and rambling. But, to summarize my point, yes, there are things a PPP account has to offer, and advantages to having your Amiga fully "on the internet." On the other hand, for most of what most people do on the internet, a text-based shell account is a perfectly fine solution -- and it's easier, often somewhat cheaper, and faster than a PPP account. If what you want is to be able to cruise the web to look for textual information there, and to receive and send E-mail, don't a priori eschew a Unix shell account because it's not "the hot thing." -Rob Knop --- --- --- --- --- From: jmason@dynanet.com Subject: I think I know what the problem is with the EZ135 or AR Mail Date: Thu, 04 Jul 1996 16:34:17 GMT I own several computers, and while I haven't encountered any problems using the EZ on my A2000 yet, I expect I will. I hope to make this story as short as possible, but I must say that it is complicated. In fact, reading this from bottom to top may be a good idea... My troubles all started when I decided to re-tool my substandard 486DX2/66. I bought a SCSI controller, a replacement EIDE controller, and the EZ. I installed the SCSI card, its drivers and the EZ, and its drivers first... Surprisingly, there were no headaches involved in this process. So I thought to myself, "Great, my luck must have changed, usually this requires hours of tinkering because of IRQ conflict this, EMM386 that, and HDD failure 'what?'" Well, the EIDE controller fix that notion right quick. After installation everything seems fine. Until the SQDRIVER.SYS line in my CONFIG.SYS, then my machine hangs... Well after a long exchange of email with EIDE card's tech support people, we came to the conclusion that it was fault in the motherboard (it's motherboard from hell BTW). I also called Syquest around this time and was told to try using the software supplied with my SCSI card. Things were fine and I was told that there shouldn't be a problem using the SCSI card's software. Now here's the bit that will be of interest to AMIGA users with EZ135 drives. Recently, cartridges formatted after I began using the generic driver have become grossly unreliable. I became very concerned and started by contacting Syquest. I asked them if it could be electromagnetic interference affecting the drive or the SCSI cable, I asked if it were possible brownouts were the cause, I also asked if it were because I was using generic drivers and disk utility software. All the tech support representative I sent email to could come up with was "You could get the cartridges replaced by calling ourcustomer [sic] service @ 1 800 245-2278." That didn't tell me if there might be a fault in my EZ Drive, or the cartridges, the SCSI cable, the placement of the drive (relative to other equipment), or the software I was using. So I started to re-evaluate the situation, and I stumbled onto what I think is the answer. I started trying to recover the data on the cartridges before I reformatted them to see if the problem was consistent. And then I noticed it. A consistency between all the cartridges with errors. They all had roughly 50MB of space remaining. Then it struck me. When I was using the Syquest software, the drive didn't seem to actually get formatted. Instead it seems as if the software altered the file structure. After all, how can you have IBM software "hidden" on a Macintosh formatted cartridge. When I used the generic software, it too seemed not to physically format the drive, it only partitioned it (I'm assuming that's what it did). This leads me to believe (and reading the little insert that comes with each cartridge supports) is that that portion of the cartridge containing the Mac/DOS/Windows software still exists and this is what causes the problem. I can't say if a low level format will solve the problem, or if it will simply cause more problems. What I think the AMIGA community needs to do is let the folks at Syquest know they are not amused. And see if whoever developed the Zip tools for the Iomega Zip drive can create similar software for the EZ135 Drive. I've tried sent email to Syquest and to Adaptec (the makers of my SCSI card) but have yet to receive a reply. So if I find out anything new, I'll let you know. @endnode @node OPINION1 "Notes From The Frontier" @toc OPINION =========================================================================== Notes From The Frontier Frank Salvatini franksal@xnet.com =========================================================================== NFTF 7/96 So I'm all freeze-frame, snapshot, bound-up in limbo-like nowheresville. I feel like a passenger during a Transporter malfunction. You know, dust all over the place, but going nowhere at the speed of light. This is the emotional condition of Amiganauts everywhere. As I talk to fellow club members and Amiga users around the world via the internet newsgroups, I find a general ennui, a malaise vaguely reminiscent of post-traumatic stress disorder. In fact, I'd probably call it that except the trauma is far from "post", and way the hell past "pre". We're definitely adrift in the middle of a huge sea of trauma, latitude 0, longitude 0 (isn't zero-zero island supposed to be around here somewhere:^). Anyway, a good number of Amiganauts seem rather despondent at the Viscorp-Escom receedings (as opposed to PROceedings). What with AT and Viscorp both spewing uncertain directions, vague promises, and NDA excuses, and Amigans riding roller-coaster rumors and swinging on vines of hope (what do you think would have happened to Tarzan if his vines were made of hope?), there are a hell of a lot of desertions to the PC and Mac platforms. Desertions by still loyal Amigans who look back with longing at the tombstones of dead girlfriends, knowing full well that they're settling for security and stability and mediocrity, and that the wilder, more passionate ride is over. They're doing a dead man's float in their individual pools of grief and anger and loss. Yup, this is the climate of the Amiga frontier. And, I say, to hell with it all. I'm tired of watching legal, and corporate and technical developments like an entymologist studying his bugs. Bugs disgust me and so do the latest "press releases," the hyper-hopeful-hype, and the killer app vaporware that has been the Amiganaut's steady diet for the last three years! I'm tired of being asked to visualize the large, juicy steak I'll be getting from the bone fragment I'm tossed. Now don't get me wrong. I've nothing but praise for the likes of the loyal companies that put their money where their mouth is. Hooray and extremely high kudos for Nova Design, and Stylus, Inc., and Wonder, and Safe Harbor and Software Hut, and Paxtron and Pios and Phase 5 and Oregon Research, and Chaocity and Quikpak and Softwood, and Softlogic, and Digita and Cloanto and Almathera and, yes, even NewTek and Scala,Inc.,(boy, I'm starting to feel better as I type this list:^). Well done, people. And Because you stuck with us thru thin (was there ever "thick"?), I'm sticking with you. That's right. I'm not jumping ship. I'm not deserting. Oh, sure, I use Mac's and PC's at work, but that's because I have to. I realize that though the press hype is all about those platforms "catching up" to the Amiga's capabilities, the fact - yes, fact - is that they are not there yet! Understand? NOT THERE YET! Win95's interface is still in your face, and Macintosh still makes me feel like I'm in a bicycle race with my training wheels on. No, it's only the Amiga that causes me to choose to be at the computer instead of having to be. With all the above metioned companies, I have software that I'll be using for years to come to produce what I both need and want to produce. But the big difference is that I'll enjoy doing it on the Amiga! The above lament was simply a plea to Viscorp or AT or Escom or whoever the hell owns our beloved technology, that time is getting to be more and more a commodity we have less and less of. We just don't have the time (or the inclination) to read or listen to your bullshit anymore. What set-top box? The idea of browsing Internet Web Pages on my TV set may give my Optamologist wet dreams, but not me! Who do you think is going to read text on TV's - especially text that's been created for SVGA output? Who do you think is going to RENT pieces of software for their everyday needs at what will no doubt be usurious prices? Perhaps you believe that marketing (a synonym for hype and lying) will create a demand for these useless products and methods. After all, look how Wild Bill Gates managed to convince the sheep that Wintel is the cat's meow. How Apple convinced the Graphic Arts industry's lambs that their overpriced, overprotective, memory-gluttonous hardware and software should be the industry standard. ("Hey, I'll just pass the cost on to the client, heh..heh.."). Well, I've said this before but it bears repeating: "Amiga users are not sheep, they're wolves." Remember that as you pick up your shepherd's staff. Now, Viscorp, or At, or Escom, if my "take" on this is ill-informed, or uninformed, or misinformed then please understand it is because I've been informed by you. Ciao for now... Frank Salvatini - The Prez - The Amiga Connection - Roselle, Illinois. @endnode @node NEWS1 "Techno-1 Licenceware" @toc NEWS Techno-1 Licenceware Techno-1 licenceware now has 3 titles for sale: Jimmys, Software House & Survivor. All programs come with a printed manual, same day delivery, top quality disks and full support. Techno-1 needs more good quality programs. If you have anything that you think people might like then send it to the address at the bottom of this text. ALL PROGRAMMERS CHOOSE THEIR OWN ROYALTIES as I feel they deserve to do what they want with their work. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Name: Jimmys Type: Platform Game Cost: 4.99 (UK) Add another 50p for oversea postage Jimmys was put together by a 6 strong team of Amiga enthusiasts and was first intended as a commercial release but due to the Amiga scene in Denmark the programmer decided to sell it as a licenceware title. Your mission is to guide Jimmy through 24 stages located at four different places (the house of fun, deepspace melon, the woods and the hectic harbour). Jimmy is a skilled bubblegum shot and can kill the monsters by shooting them with bubbles, furthermore the bubbles can be used as tempory platforms. There are LOADS of secret passages and secret room to discover. The music is kicking and the graphics are brill. I normally don't like platform games but I was hooked on Jimmys for days. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Name: Software House Type: Managerial Game Cost: 4.99 (UK) Add another 50p for oversea postage You are the owner of a software house, you must create your game and must choose carefully what type of game you release. You must advertise, deal with piracy, build new offices, hire/fire and then keep your fingers crossed and hope nothing unexpected happens. Please note that you will need 2 megs of chip memory to play Software House. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Name: Survivor Type: Captive/Dungeon Master type Game Cost: 3.99 (UK) Add another 50p for oversea postage You are a scientist aboard a spacestation, you have an accident and render yourself unconcous, when you awaken you find you are the only one still alive, well, except for the hundreds of aliens that are now breeding aboard your spacestation! You must choose your charactor and space station then search and destroy the aliens and more importantly their eggs. You can find weapons, armour and other items whilst expoloring the station to help your task. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Cheques should be payable to TECHNO-1 CONTACT TECHNO-1 AT: Techno-1 BBS: +44 (0)1793 610632 24 hours 7 days email : graham_osborne@iowight.demon.co.uk Voice : 0589 559619 (mobile) Snail : 152 Marlborough Road, Swindon, Wiltshire. SN3 1LU. UK @endnode @node NEWS2 "The Informer Newsletter" @toc NEWS New to the Amiga scene is The Informer Newsletter. The Informer is a print newsletter devoted to the Amiga user. In this time of uncertainty for the Amiga, it is hard to know what is fact and what is fiction in the Amiga community. Many users have difficulty finding support or getting help for their problems, or just finding infor- mation on the Amiga in general. In some areas, it is even difficult to find an Amiga magazine. What The Informer does is supply you with information about the Amiga in a concise, capsuled format. We'll help you get in touch with dealers and developers, provide you with info on development projects, and help you come to grips with the internet. You'll read about useful programs and how to get them. We provide Email ad- dress, BBS listings, Web page URL's, phone numbers, and other means to communicate with Amiga companies and people. In addi- tion, you'll get the latest news about the Amiga computer and the Amiga community at large. And to top it off, everything from start to finish is produced using only Amiga computers, proving the versatility of this wonderful machine. If you would like to receive a free sample issue of The Informer (in the US or Canada), send your postal mailing address to: The In- former, PO Box 21, Newburgh, NY 12551-0021 or Email it to: fletcher.haug@bbs.mhv.net. -- Fletcher Haug, user of the UniBoard System @ mhv.net E-Mail: Fletcher.Haug@bbs.mhv.net @endnode @node NEWS3 "PowerPC News Final Issue" @toc NEWS [PowerPC news had been fairly supportive of the Amiga community's slow migration to the PowerPC camp. We at Amiga Report are sad to see them go...-Jason] ============================<<>>========================== The Electronic News Magazine for the Internet Web server at http://apt.usa.globalnews.com/powerpc/ppchome.htm ***July 9th 1996: Vol. 3, No.50*** circulation: 80,000 **FINAL ISSUE**FINAL ISSUE**FINAL ISSUE**FINAL ISSUE**FINAL ISSUE** We have experimented with the free publishing model and so far, despite the massive popularity of PowerPC News, this free publishing model is just another way of going bust. This also a good time to move away from focussing on a single microprocessor. The editor of PowerPC News will be moving to the paid web-based publication Online Reporter, reporting on the technical and business developments on the Internet. We will continue to cover the PowerPC and other RISC and CISC chip technologies in Computergram, our daily news paper. All of these can be found at the ComputerWire site, on http://www.computerwire.com/ - Peter White, Chief Executive peterwhite@computerwire.com ==== POWERPC NEWS:================================================ 1523) POWERPC AND THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE As PowerPC News goes to press for the last time, we look at the state of the PowerPC industry today - and the progression from Intel-beater to Just Another RISC chip. --------Administrivia------------------------------------------------- TO RETRIEVE FULL TEXT OF ITEMS IN POWERPC NEWS Send an e-mail message to news@aptdata.co.uk Place in the SUBJECT of your message the item numbers of the items you wish to receive. For example: To: news@aptdata.co.uk Subject: 1000 1008 3000 Your e-mail address will be picked up automatically. MAIL PROBLEMS?: If you are having any problems retrieving stories or removing yourself from the list please: mail human@aptdata.co.uk EDITORIAL COMMENTS or questions: mail chrisr@aptdata.co.uk TO FIND OUT ABOUT ADVERTISING in PowerPC News mail julianm@aptdata.co.uk ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1996 PowerPC News. This publication is free for the Internet community and may be reposted without restriction. @endnode @node NEWS4 "Info Pack On Amiga Convention '96" @toc NEWS The Official Info Pack on the Amiga Convention '96 Release 2.1 ---------------------------------------------------------------- **************************************************************** Please feel free to spread this file around wherver you can, as long as it is not altered. We don't want people to show up at the wrong city or during the wrong month! If you are a magazine, please feel free to put this in your magazine.All that we ask in return is that you e-mail or call us to tell us that you have put the information into the magazine. Also, if you would like to have an article written for your magazine after the convention about what happened at Amiga Convention '96 please e-mail *************************************************************** --------------------------------------------------------------- * NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS * - Dave Haynie (forme C= engineer, Senior H/W engineer at SCALA) will address the public. - Dale Larson (former C= engineer, president of IAM), will be present at Amiga Convention '96 to do some presentation. - Al Mackey (author of the popular games MegaBalls series), will also be present for doing presentation. - Our *OFFICIAL* WWW sites is up and running since friday the 17th of May! the url is http://www.acropolis.net/ac96/ (thanks goes to Manos Konstantiniadis aka Guybrush for setting up and managing our WWW pages!). - We are in discussion with some well known engineers working at VIScorp to attend the show (not confirmed yet). --------------------------------------------------------------- In August, in Montreal, the fourth annual Amiga Convention will take place! This convention will gather the Amiga community together from all across the world to show its support for the Amiga! We hope to make this show an event in the long fight to make the Amiga a well known computer in North America again. WHY: We are putting on the Amiga Convention '96 to support our favorite computer, the Amiga! We feel that for too long, the Amiga has been ignored, and now that the Amiga is owned by people who actually will support it well, we want to help them out in any way we can. We also want to get a lot of people together to have a really cool time! WHERE: The Howard Johnson Hotel in Montreal, large enough to hold over 1,000 people, not including the surrounding rooms. ADDRESS: Howard Johnson (514)-842-3961 475 Sherbrooke West Street Montreal (Quebec) Canada H3A 2L9 WHEN : 3 & 4 of August 1996 TIME : 10:00 - 20:00 (8:00 PM) Saturday 9:00 - 18:00 (6:00 PM) Sunday ENTRANCE COST: 7 Canadian dollars COMPETITIONS: Gfx (3d) -------- 1st place : $300 2nd place : $200 3rd place : $100 Music (mod 4 chan.) ----------------- 1st place : $300 2nd place : $200 3rd place : $100 Demo (2 megs max.) ------------- 1st place : $500 2nd place : $300 3rd place : $100 COST FOR RENTING TABLES : $150 - 1 day, $250 - 2 days, for one table of 6' by 3' and chairs. These tables are aimed towards dealers and developers. FREE TABLES: We will also have free tables, for anyone who wishes to BRING THEIR AMIGA, whether to show off something cool, or just to help someone else who might need one at the time. However, at the free tables you get less space than the pay tables, it is first-come first- serve, and you cannot sell products at the tables! That is strictly for the rented tables. ACCESABILITY: The show is easily accesable by bus and subway, as well as having lots of parking space in the vicinity for cars. WHY DEALERS SHOULD COME: We offer tables at an incredibly rate, a price which includes electrical outlets and electricity. You also get the chance to show and sell your wares to a crowd of Amiga owners, all of whom have money to spend and are influenced by how big a prescence you have at the show. WHY PEOPLE SHOULD COME: We will have stands from many major dealers and developers. It will also have a lot of friendly Amiga owners there, plus a booming sound system and TV setup that will show crazy demos and products. It will be a wild good time for all! BRING YOUR AMIGA AND HAVE A BALL * Just 5 minutess walking distance from the Metro Station McGill. * We will have Audio/visual equipment setup for presentations of demos, programs, hardware, new products, etc. * The Howard Johnson has a Restaurant, a Bar, and more. * For special room rates please contact us or the hotel. CONTACT: To get the latest info about the Amiga Convention '96 and get more details about it please check out our WWW sites at url http://www.acropolis.net/ac96/ If you want to buy a table, get more information on the show, or just talk to the organizers, e-mail either or , or call (514)-649-9756 (in Canada) and ask for Frederic or (514)-933-8095 (in Canada) and ask for Jeremie. regarding the Amiga Convention '96. You can also mail the organizers at: Frederic Tessier 922 Deschamps Sainte-Julie (Quebec) J3E 1N9 Canada @endnode @node NEWS5 "Escom Lays Off Employees" @toc NEWS July 8, 1996 Escom Lays Off Employees As Stock Investigation Begins A WALL STREET JOURNAL News Roundup Escom AG, the giant German computer retailer that filed for protection from creditors last week, said it plans to lay off 1,900 of its 4,440 European employees and close an undisclosed number of stores. Meanwhile, Germany's Securities Trading Supervisory Office confirmed Friday that it is investigating alleged insider trading in Escom shares. The regulator said it had noticed a suspicious surge in the number of Escom shares traded, and a plunge in the stock's price, in the weeks preceding the company's announcement last Wednesday. "The turnover seen was very suspicious in comparison with previous levels," Anke Reeh-Schild, a spokeswoman for the office, said in response to an inquiry from Reuter News Service. Volume Jumps Ninefold She said that in the three weeks before Escom's announcement, volume in its shares had risen eight or ninefold from previous average levels. "The probe could take a few months," Ms. Reeh-Schild said. "At the moment it is a routine investigation against persons unknown." Escom could not be reached for comment. Separately, an Escom spokeswoman told the Associated Press that Chairman Helmut Jost is planning on a 1997 payroll of 2,500 European employees, 43% less than current staffing. In Germany, as many as a dozen of Escom's 130 stores could be closed, said Marc Ullrich, head of the Escom Computervertriebs-GmbH subsidiary. Escom has more than 450 stores across Europe and earlier this month announced it was closing 65 of its 235 U.K. branches. The company, Europe's second-largest computer retailer, with an estimated 2.35 billion marks ($1.55 billion) in sales last year, filed for creditor protection to save it from bankruptcy after a new estimate put its 1995 losses at 180 million marks, up from a March forecast of 125 million marks. Ms. Reeh-Schild said the insider-trading investigation would first center on electronically analyzing transaction volumes and price movements. Then banks would be asked for the names and addresses of customers on whose behalf the shares had been traded. Generally Illiquid Between June 3 and July 2, the day before Escom made its announcement, the company's share price slumped 49% to 4.63 marks from 9.15 marks. It ended trading Friday at 2.85 marks. A total of 105,128 Escom shares were traded on June 3, and in the following weeks volumes in the generally illiquid share surged, reaching more than one million shares on several days. Insider dealing was outlawed in Germany in 1994 as part of a drive to make the German financial center more attractive to investors and traders. The maximum punishment is five years in jail, but so far prosecutors have resorted to fines, with four sentences passed to date. The highest fine was imposed on the son of an owner of beverage machinery manufacturer Krones, who was ordered to pay 600,000 marks last year and risk paying an additional 1.8 million marks if he breaks any laws within the following two years. @endnode @node NEWS6 "Sysmon V0.13" @toc NEWS TITLE Sysmon V0.13 second public beta release. AUTHOR Etienne Vogt (Etienne.Vogt@obspm.fr) DESCRIPTION Sysmon is a system monitoring package based on a shared library and Shell based support commands. Main features are : - Precise CPU usage timing for all tasks with very low overhead. - System message logging daemon like UNIX syslogd (useful for debugging). - Safe System shutdown script (useful for BBS's and networked machines). SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaOS 2.04 or higher (V37). Hard disk and Fast RAM recommended. AVAILABILITY On any aminet site. It was uploaded to : ftp://ftp.cnam.fr/pub/aminet/util/moni/Sysmon013b.lha (74835) PRICE Free. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freeware (C) Copyright 1995 by Etienne Vogt. The sysmon.library can be used freely by freeware software, requires a free registration to me for shareware software and a written license agreement from me for commercial software. OTHER This is a public BETA release, so I would like people to report any crashes/gurus/incompatibilities or other unexpected behaviour back to me. CHANGES Sysmon now works on the 68060. New commands have been added to the Sysmon monitor program. @endnode @node NEWS7 "The Amiga Locale Homepage" @toc NEWS The AMIGA Locale Homepage http://www.intercom.no/~andersb/locale The aim of this page is to create a center for translations and translators. First of all you will find information about what programs are available in a specific language. As of the 22 May, Norsk and Greek are available, but more is being made. This still means that I need someone to take care of these languages: Dansk, Deutsch, Frangais, Italiano, Espaqol, Nederlands, polski, Portugujs, Suomi, Svenska and maybe even more that I can't think of. If you think you can help with one of the languages, contact me at the email mentioned later. Futhermore, I want to create a network of translators, to help programmers get their programs translated. If you can translate programs which support locale into a language, please contact me, or look on the web-page for more information. For comments, suggestions or flames, contact: Email: andersb@intercom.no (Anders Bakkevold) url: http://www.intercom.no/~andersb/locale @endnode @node NEWS8 "DiskProtection V1.2" @toc NEWS TITLE DiskProtection V1.2 AUTHOR Patrick Ohly Weechstr. 1, WG E0/1 76131 Karlsruhe Germany Tel.: +49 721 615662 eMail: patrick.ohly@stud.uni-karlsruhe.de IRC: Irish DESCRIPTION DiskProtection encrypts data totally invisible for the user while writing to disk. All blocks are encrypted, so the directories are protected, too. DiskProtection supports all exec devices, i.e. harddrive partititions, floppy disks, but not the RAM-disk. Any filesystem can be used. It features: - encryption with IDEA, FEAL, DES, SCRM and custom algorithms - (XPK-)interface for additional algorithms - configurable with easy to use preferences program - encryption can be changed anytime - resident passwords (for use with mailboxes) - access protection - builtin screenblanker - GUI driven, localized - German and English documentation (ASCII, DVI, AmigaGuide) - context sensitive online help - ... CHANGES New Features: - fast, but unsafe encryption algorithm - DPInit, a tool to start DiskProtection without mounting anything - example source code for your own encryption libraries Bug Fixes: - "Hide in File" was somehow buggy - sorting order of XPK libraries was reversed SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS DiskProtection requires OS2.0 and Triton-Library 1.4 A minimum distribution is included in this archive, but you should better look out for the complete archive "util/libs/tri14usr.lha" on AmiNet: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/libs/tri14usr.lha (217107) AVAILABILITY NOT available on AmiNet due to USA export restrictions for cryptographic software. Look at the AmiNet site in Paderborn for the file "/pub/aminet/util/crypt/DiskProt11.lha": ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/aminet/util/crypt/DiskProt11.lha (340258) You will always find the most current version on my WWW home page: http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~un60 PRICE 20,- DM shareware fee DISTRIBUTABILITY DiskProtection © 1994,95 Patrick Ohly It's freely distributable as long as all files are distributed unchanged. DiskProtection is shareware, however the public version is not crippled in any way! @endnode @node NEWS9 "McFiler V4.1" @toc NEWS TITLE McFiler VERSION 4.1 AUTHOR Roberto Bizzarri E-Mail: robiz@mbox.vol.it FidoNet: 2:332/901.31 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 - included in the archive). AVAILABILITY ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/aminet/biz/dbase/McF41.lha (157Kb) ...and the bugfix (v4.1a): ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/aminet/biz/dbase/McF41a.lha (58Kb) PRICE Requested shareware fee is $10 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. If you do not want the Shareware version, take a look to v3.2 ("McFiler3.2.lha" or "McF32.lha" on Aminet). OTHER For any question or suggestion please email me! Roberto Bizzarri E-Mail: robiz@mbox.vol.it FidoNet: 2:332/901.31 @endnode @node NEWS10 "Image Engineer 3.0" @toc NEWS TITLE Image Engineer 3.0 AUTHOR Simon Edwards Email: sbeyallara.cs.rmit.edu.au DESCRIPTION Image Engineer is a shareware image processing application. It can be used for tasks varying from converting images between different file formats, rendering 24 bit images down to standard Amiga screen modes, enhancing badly scanned images, applying special effects even up to advanced image composition. What you can use it for is basically limited by what you can think of. - Very fast, coded in 100% 68020 assembler - Multiple image editing - Dithered Colour or grey preview images. - Zoom in preview images. - Processing done in 8 bit grey or 24 bit colour - ARexx support - Thumbnail previews shown for most effects. - Font sensitive, resizable GUI with keyboard shortcuts, using the BGUI Library. - User configurable menus. - Uses the Superview Library for loading and saving. Superview currently supports:- BMP (Win,OS/2) IFF-YUVN (misc) PNM (*nix) C64 (Koala, Doodle) IMG (GEM/V*nt*ra) QRT/POV EPS(F)-Header JPEG (JFIF) SGI FBM (*nix) MAC (MacPaint) SunRaster (RAS) GIF upto 89a PCD (PhotoCD) SVG Graphics Icon (W*nd*ws) PCX upto V3.0 Targa IFF-ACBM PICT-2 (Mac) TIFF (V5.0) IFF-DEEP Pictor/PCPaint/PIC Utah RLE IFF-ILBM PNG (Network Gfx) WPG OS3-DataTypes picture.datatype V43 - Can display images using Superview Library. Superview Library currently supports ECS, AGA, EGS7, OpalVision, Retina, CyberGraphics, PicassoII, Merlin. - Supports AGA where available. - Render images to standard Amiga screen modes including HAM6 and HAM8. - Dither images using Floyd-Steinberg, Burkes, Stucki, Sierra, Jarvis and Stevenson-Arce error diffusion algorithms. - Image processing effect implemented as disk based modules. Modules exist for:- Autocrop Hue Brightness Local Contrast Stretch Bulge Lowpass filter Composite (with alpha channel) Maximum filter Contrast Median filter Contrast Stretch Minimum filter Convert To Colour Negative Convert To Grey Posterize Convolve (user defineable) Reflect X Displace (with alpha channel) Reflect Y Histogram Equalisation Remove Feature False Colour Resize Gamma Rotate Halftone Saturation HighBoost filter Scale Highpass filter Sharpen Histogram Threshold Twirl More to be released in the future. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - 68020 or higher processor. - OS V2.04+ - 2Mb of RAM bare minimum, at least 4Mb recommended. - Superview Library to be installed. Available by FTP/Internet: AmiNet and mirrors ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/show/SView541.lha AVAILABILITY FTP/Internet: AmiNet and mirrors ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/edit/ImEngV3.0.lha (773893 Bytes) Available via WWW on the Image Engineer Support Page: http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/~s9407349/ PRICE The unregistered version is limited to images of size 400x400. Registration for a keyfile is only 35 US dollars. DISTRIBUTABILITY The unregistered version of Image Engineer V3.0 is freely distributable as long as no charge is made for it other than a small fee for the cost of the media. Copyright 1995-96 Simon Edwards. All rights reserved. OTHER Information about the current status of Image Engineer, work in progress and on-line documentation is available on the WWW. (See AVAILABILITY) @endnode @node NEWS11 "VIScorp Amiga Acquisition" @toc NEWS VIScorp News: July 24, 1996 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Chicago, IL July 24, 1996 Permission Granted to Distribute without Alteration VIScorp Proceeds with Amiga Acquisition On Thursday, the 18th of July, 1996, the final contract of purchase was signed between the bankruptcy trustee solicitor, Bernhard Hembach, and the president and CEO of VIScorp, William Buck, with approval of the 'pool of banks' for the entire remaining inventory and intellectural property. Until the 18th of August, 1996, VIScorp has time to establish the necessary companies to carry on with its current business. In the meantime, the business will be run with the approval of the bankruptcy trustee Hembach under the name AMICA Technologies GmbH i.K. From the 19th of August, 1996, the business will finally be run under the name, control and ownership of VIScorp. Contact: Florine Radulovic, Director of Communications, VIScorp flo@vistv.com At the Financial Relations Board Contact: Ted Gage, General Information tjg@chi.frbd.com Contact: Bess Gallanis, Media bag@chi.frbd.com @endnode @node NEWS12 "Message to Community" @toc NEWS VIScorp Message: July 24, 1996 Chicago, IL July 24, 1996 An Open Message to the Amiga Community from Bill Buck, CEO, VIScorp: 1. Escom AG and Amiga Technologies GmbH are in bankruptcy and will cease to exist as corporate entities. VIScorp has reached an agreement with the Trustee for the liquidation of these companies and with the creditors of these companies for the purchase of "Amiga." There were at least eleven different banks or companies that had claims to be "owners" of the technology and/or the inventory. Escom had liabilities of over $250 million. Imagine the confusion... 2. The steps that we had to follow through the last three months were painstaking. As the situation at Escom deteriorated, we had to continually re-negotiate our purchase contract. We could not speed-up the process. Many things we wanted to begin immediately we have had to delay. The situation at Amiga and Escom were extremely troubled. This was in part because of the difficult financial and management situations at Amiga and Escom, but also because of how poorly organized the intellectual property had been under Commodore. In the course of the Commodore bankruptcy many problems developed that were never repaired. 3. The final (and last of three) purchase contract was signed on Friday, 19 July. It cannot be changed; it has been executed. The intellectual property of the former Commodore and the inventory of the former Amiga Technologies will be owned finally by VIScorp. The final paperwork will be completed in the next 30 days. During this month, VIScorp GmbH will be registered and Amiga Technologies will continue to operate temporarily in bankruptcy for VIScorp. 4. Petro Tyschtschenko and his staff will continue to operate from Germany. Raquel Velasco and Petro Tyschtschenko will be the new General Managers of Amiga, to be known as VIScorp GmbH. Al Duncan, a former General Manager of Commodore will join VIScorp to manage the sales and distribution of VIScorp and Amiga products in North America. Petro will continue to operate from Germany and manage the existing business. Raquel is looking for someone from the community to manage the re-organization of the sales and distribution in Europe. Please contact Raquel if you are the right person for this job. 5. The engineering efforts of the former Amiga Technologies and the on-going engineering of VIScorp will be combined and professionally managed. We intend to begin to implement the plans we outlined in Toulouse very shortly. 6. Please excuse our lack of communication with the community over the last months. We were severely restricted from communicating our activities. Please resend your emails to any of the VIScorp staff if they have not been answered by this letter. We simply could not answer all the emails. 7. Do not expect miracles from VIScorp, expect slow, but steady progress. Thank you for your continued support. Best Regards, Bill Buck @endnode @node NEWS13 "040-ERC Boards" @toc NEWS 040-ERC Boards With the beginning of July 1996, phase 5 digital products will release the Blizzard 1240 T/ERC, a low cost 68040 based accelerator board especially for tower housed Amiga 1200 main boards. Due to the mechanical dimensions and the high power consumption together with the heat emission of the 68040 processor and the therefor needed active cooling cap the board will not fit into standard A1200. The abbreviation ERC stands for EcoReCycling meaning the processors used on this board are recycled and tested 68040 processors operating at 40MHz with MMU/FPU. By using these processors a very competitive pricing of DM549,- for the Blizzard 1240 T/ERC is possible. The board is axpandable to a total amount of 128 MB of RAM by standard 72 pin SIMM. All other specifications are the same as those for the well known BLIZZARD 1260; so later upgrades to the 68060 processor can be easily done. Like it's Big Sister the, Blizzard 1240 T/ERC can be expanded by the SCSI Kit IV. Also good news for all A2000 users. A Blizzard 2040 ERC will be available equipped with the same recycled and tested 68040 CPU eith MMU/FPU running at 40 MHz clock frequency. All other specifications are exactly the same as for the BLIZZARD 2060. The Blizzard 2040 ERC will be sold for DM 699,-- and like the Blizzard 1240 T/ERC upgradeable to the 68060 processor. Last not least with release date in September the ERC version of the Cyberstorm MKII board will be available. The Cyberstorm MKII 040/40ERC will have the same specifications as the 68060 version. This turbo board can be used in all A3000, A3000T, A4000 and A4000T and can hold up to 128 MB local Fast RAM. Off cours this board can also easily upgraded to the 68060. The pricing for the 68040 version with MMU/FPU running at 40 MHz will be DM 749,--. Additional information: phase 5 digital products In der Au 27, 61440 Oberursel Tel +49 6171 583787 Fax +49 6171 583789 @endnode @node NEWS14 "NTitler Pro V2.0" @toc NEWS TITLE NTitler Pro VERSION 2.0 AUTHOR Michiel den Outer EMail: michiel@luna.nl SMail: Michiel den Outer Populierenlaan 59 2925 CP Krimpen a/d Yssel The Netherlands DESCRIPTION With NTitler Pro you can create 3D text animations for use in your multimedia and video presentations. The features are: -extremely simple to use graphical interface -animations are played in realtime! -5 different 3D vector fonts -IFF bitmap pictures can be used with the following effects: -backdrop -stencil front -stencil back -alpha channel -colour cycling -resolutions up to hires interlaced overscan -genlock compatible -animated 24 bit copper lists -explosion and implosion effects -fading effects New features in this latest version: -Anim5 export Now you can use NTitler animations in multimedia presentation systems like Scala and import them in paint packages like DPaint and PPaint. -5 different 3D vector fonts -lowercase support -IFF sound samples import: Multimedia! SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Workbench 2.04, 68020 processor, 2MB of RAM. AVAILABILITY Aminet sites: gfx/misc/ntpro.lha PRICING The requested shareware fee is DM 50, 20 English Pounds or US$ 30. Upon registration you will receive a keyfile that enables the disabled features. DISTRIBUTABILITY Shareware @endnode @node NEWS15 "CyberVision64/3D" @toc NEWS Oberursel, July 96: With the beginning of August 1996, phase 5 digital products will release a new generation graphics board, the CyberVision64/3D at a very competitive pricing. Designed for use as either a Zorro-II or Zorro-III board it will work in all Amiga 2000, 3000 and 4000(T) series models as well as with tower modifications of Amiga 1200 series models equipped with Zorro-II backplanes. CyberVision64/3D's modular design allow low entry prices at high end perfomance and optimal expandibility. Core of the new board will be the new graphics chip Virge with 3D capabilities produced by the well known manufacturer S3. The chip is able to do complex 3D functions in hardware, like shaded and textured surfaces with trilinear filtering as well as shading and fogging for very realistic real tome 3D rendering. In conjunction with the new CyberGraphX 3D library CyberVision64/3D is offering a wide range of complex 3D functions for software developers reducing development time and expense for developers supporting the new CGX3D standard. In addition to those features, a MPEG decoder can be added to the feature connector allowing real time MPEG audio and video decoding at full size custom screens or in workbench windows, allowing high quality display by using the 16 and 24 bit modes of the workbench provided by CyberGraphX. For stereo audio output a dedicated line output jack is provided. The second optional expansion will be a monitor switcher with integrated scan line doubler designed to fit into the Amiga's slot providing automatic switch over from the Amiga's original Signal to the CyberVision64/3D's output. Mechanical dimensions of the switcher and the CyberVision64/3D allow the use of both cards in th lower slot of A3000 / A4000 models keeping 3 Zorro-III slots free for other expansion boards. With all these features the CyberVision will be available in Germany at suggested retail prices of DM 449,- with 2 MB and DM 599,- with 4 MB video RAM. The MPEG module expected to be released at the same time will be available at DM 349,- and the scan doubler / monitor switcher is will cost DM 149,-. Developers registered in the PowerUP program can purchase the CyberVision64/3D at a special developers price. A very special offer will be available for users of the CyberVision64. There will be no MPEG modul available for the predecessor, since the add on bus of the Trio64 used on the CyberVision64 is no longer supported by S3 and other manufacturers. Due to the immense development required for the implementation of that add on bus a MPEG module would have to be sold for more than DM 500,-. Because of this, CyberVision64 users who wish to use MPEG can purchase the CyberVision64/3D together with the MPEG module for DM 499,- from phase 5 digital products. Additional information: phase 5 digital products In der Au 27, 61440 Oberursel Tel +49 6171 583787 Fax +49 6171 583789 @endnode @node FEATURE1 "Amigas at Disney" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== Amigas At Disney By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== On our (Amiga Report Assistant Editor Katherine Nelson and I) recent vacation to Orlando, Florida and the Disney World theme parks, about the LAST thing I expected to see was an Amiga. I always HOPE to see one, but honestly, I wasn't hoping too hard. After all, it's not every day someone will leave one sitting out as obviously as the 1084S at the Ontario Science Center (last winter) or in the recent movie Brain Candy (also a 1084S)... But I was wrong. We were watching the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, roughly in the center of the audience area seating, when Katie leaned over to me, pointed at the show control area in the front aisles of the seating and said, "Hey, is that a 1084?" Intrigued, I looked down there. I spotted a 14-inchish monitor, beige in color, but with a blue screen and some sort of white text on it. We couldn't make anything out from the distance, and while at first I thought it might indeed have been a 1084, I decided it was probably just a VGA monitor on a PC. It sorta looked like they were just running a DOS application in a white-on-blue text mode. But after the show was over, we had to know for sure. So we made our way down close enough...and sure enough, there was a 1084. Under it was a dirty, beat-up, but still functional Amiga 2000 (with a keyboard whose spill-guard skin was so old it was brown). In the center of the equipment (lots of switches and knobs, of course) was another 2000. There was a tech still at the first 2000's chair. "Do you mind me asking what you're using your Amigas for?" I asked him, hoping that our amazing recognizance of the machines would put a smile on his face. Well, it didn't. It turns out that our new friend wasn't exactly an Amiga person himself, just one of the guys who runs the show. But he was at least familiar with what he was working on. The first machine we spotted, the one with the blue and white display, was running a microphone-monitoring program. Basically, it kept track of the activity and level of all of the cast and crew microphones for the show. The software, so we learned, was designed by Sennheiser. While I didn't press him to let me play with the machine, it looked rather 1.3ish. The other system, he explained, was using a setup designed by Richmond Sound and was in effect the control center for the entire show, accepting relay triggers from the various cues and touchplates on the stunt show stage and handling them in the proper manner with the rest of the equipment. Quite a job, if you ask me. We never quite figured out if there was a third system up and running. Our friend told us that the systems had been in place for a good 7 or 8 years and that the original crew who had them installed were all long gone--which might explain why I had a really tough time getting him to give me the name of a person I could talk to discuss the quite impressive fact that Disney/MGM Studios puts one of their biggest draws in the hands of a computer that far too few people own. By one of the most interesting coincidences I've seen in quite some time, Richmond Sound of Canada just put a Web site online. In an interesting move, Richmond has chosen the URL http://www.show-control.com/ as their own. (Pretty clever, if you ask me.) The site profiles their three major product lines for show and effect control--all of which are Amiga based, a fact RSD states quite proudly. The site also lists some of Richmond's clients--quite an impressive resume, for both Richmond and the Amiga. If you need a reason to feel a bit better about the impact Amigas have made on technology in real life, pop by and take a look. I've gotta tell you, sometimes when I see or hear of an old A2000 at a company, I wonder if it's really in use, if it might be able to find a better home. But the folks at Disney/MGM, courtesy of Richmond Sound, seem to be putting theirs to pretty good use. If you're at Disney/MGM in the future, do me a favor and do as I did, pop down and just mention to the techs there that you noticed their Amigas. Who knows? They just might figure it out. :) @endnode @node FEATURE2 "Bird Talk" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== Bird Talk rich924@aol.com =========================================================================== In this day we are changing computers quicker than minds. I donated my C-64 away, since I did not need it to prop open my window because of my new air-conditioner. =) (Please no flames, I really love and miss my C-64). I have a bunch of old computers around, the PC's become outdated so quickly, you can't find uses for them because they will not do anything sophisticated like the Amiga. For a while I was running my A-500 para-netted to my A-3000. The A-500 had 1 meg internal, a high-density drive internal with an external low-density drive. It has a GVP-A500+ attached to its side with 100 meg scsi hard drive and 4 megs of ram. I could not see abandoning the platform, but the 68030 at 30 mhz with 10 megs was too good. I started using the A-500 less and less. I then formed the idea of having ARexx controlled software playing iff samples for the birds. I found DeliTacker from Peter Kunath and Frank Riffel. It was very configurable and had ARexx controls! Only my PC had an audio digitizer so I needed SoundZap on the Amiga to convert the .WAV to a .IFF. The A-500 has been playing 4 iff samples, three times a day, repeating the sample for 4 mintues. This gives the birds a 16 minute lesson 3 times a day. The software actually rotates through a list of 5 iff files, and only plays 4 in one lesson. I have had the A-500 running like this for a year now. Oh yeah, the A-500 was doing all this with out the GVP-A500+ HD! It has been running everything with just 1 meg of ram and 2 floppies! My birds have a vocabulary of 30+ words, and I keep hearing people talk about how smart they are (birds in general). I now have a box with two buttons on it that they can press and play an iff file. The box has a Basic Stamp2 microcontroller in it, which has a serial port on it. The Basic Stamp2 is a 24 pin SMT dip! It is over-kill, but I had one around. I programmed it to monitor the buttons and send a "1" or a "2" down the serial line at 9600,N,8,1 . The serial port on the Amiga is set to the same spec using prefs. ARexx is monitoring the serial port, and will play the respective file associated with the "1" or "2". In my case "1" is Laura (my girlfriend) saying "I love you" and "2" is me saying "Hello". Being that I just rigged the buttons to the cage an hour ago the birds are a little scared of it and have not tested it yet. I will be posting information on my web page about the experiment, the address is http://members.aol.com/rich924, my E-mail address is rich924@aol.com. Future modifications may be to have more buttons or keep the two and have one select the IFF and the other play the IFF Sources: Listings of the ARexx files, startup-sequence, configuration files and stamp program are in bird.lha Delitracker is from Peter Kunath and Frank Riffel. I found the file on Aminet S-mail Frank Riffel, Merkstr. 27, 82405 Wessobrunn, Germany SoundZap is from Michael Cramer (mrc113@psuvm.psu.edu) Basic Stamp2 is from Parallax http://www.Parallaxinc.com @endnode @node REVIEW1 "Review: AGA Experience 2 CD" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: AGA Experience 2 CD By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== The AGA Experience is back, with another ton of (almost) entirely AGA software and graphics for Amiga users. Quite a bit, to my mind, makes this CD even better than its precursor. Of course I'm pleased that they've renewed their Amiga Report license, but that's the least of my concerns. The much-hyped HTML information pages, with an early version of AWeb, are fine but nothing to get over-excited about. Of more interest to me is the wealth of genuinely good stuff on here for AGA computers. In order: Animations--There's actually not much here, but just about everything is of at least "good" quality. Demos--While not pretending to be a comprehensive collection, there are really an awful lot (well over 100 megs) here, AND Sadeness has taken the trouble to screen them for you for compatibility. When you click on a demo, you'll be told if it works with your machine, if it will exit back to Workbench when it's done, and you're given the final option to run it or not. A necessity, and a very nice touch. Games--A quite good collection of mostly AGA-only games and a few assorted utilities, HD installers, and cheats. Enough to keep you busy for quite some time unless you've already played everything on Aminet twice. Pictures--Some really beautiful JPEGs in here. Everything is click and go. Slideshows--Take them or leave them. Exclusive--A nice collection in here. Previews of Capital Punishment (almost works on my 4000T/040), Gloom Deluxe, Pinball Prelude, and others. Utilities--A good starter collection for all occasions. Includes a number of good PD utilities as well as previews and demos of Cinema4D, StormC, and others. Of particular interest--at least to me--is the collection of emulators. They must have been reading my mind. :) Diskmags--As I mentioned, a licensed collection of recent Amiga Reports is here. As well, there's quite a few of the best Amiga online and disk magazines, including RAW, AmigaPD, and others. Sound--A small collection of decent quality mods, ready to run from the disk. As well, there's a few trackers and sound utilities. Not bad. Icons+--The sort of thing that makes WB-tweakers go wild. Lots and lots and lots of new icons (and Newicons) to make your system look that much better. And yes, these all seem to fit together quite well. As a sampler CD, it's tough to get much better than this. I'd recommend it highly as a part of any "hey, the Amiga really is cool" live demonstration. The directory takes just about zero time to get up and running. Nice work. Complaints? Well, the screen mode it tries to put you in (if you take advantage of all of the preference-setup icons offered) is Pal High Res Laced. Need I point out how painful this is to look at, particularly with the color choices they've made? It's just bad news. The CD is available at a reasonable price and is a great catchall collection. Highly recommended. Sadeness/NFA 13 Russell Terrace Mundesley Norfolk NR11 8LJ ++ 44 1263 722169 voice @endnode @node REVIEW2 "Review: Amiga CD Sensation: Demos R 4-Ever" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Amiga CD Sensation: Demos R 4-Ever By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Not to be confused with the " Sensations CD" line from Epic Marketing, this title comes from Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe but the name tells it all. This CD is demos, demos, demos. Over 2,000 of them, in fact, making this a huge collection of the collective wisdom and experience of demo coders on the Amiga. The organization on the CD is structured but not as helpful as I would have liked. AGA-only demos are separated into their own directory of ready-to-run files and the rest of the ready-to-run demos are alphabetized in "Big Bunch", over 200 megs of demos. Ouch. DMS-compressed demos or those requiring special disk consideration are in the Diskstuff directory, which is further divided up by category, including AGA-only. Special types of demos, intros and "minis" (those under 50k, but not necessarily 40k or 4k competition demos because those are elsewhere) are partitioned off as well. Demos entered at party competitions have their own storage space as well. The CD has three quick setup icons, which configure your assigns (to use the on-disc utilities such as DMS), colors, and workbench screen to what is ostensibly the optimal configuration for viewing demos. What that means, of course, is PAL. Rounding out the set is a music directory with a few treats, and a handful of slideshows, as well as a collection of Degrader-type tools to make navigating the CD's contents on anything but stock A500 and A1200s possible. As a collection, I'd have to rate this quite highly. I'm always a sucker for creative work preserved indefinitely for low cost. The actual use of the CD could have been so much better, though. While each demo comes with a readme file to indicate what degrader measures must be taken to get the demo to work, it does not make any effort to do them for you. Having just reviewed AGA Experience 2, which does go that extra mile, I can't speak so glowingly about this collection. Also, while the Diskstuff directory does separate out a few choice demos for those looking for a good demo in a hurry, the rest of the demos are not at all ranked by quality. A few more highlights would have been appreciated. The packaging is certainly memorable. Rather than coming as a boring jewel box, they've tried to make it look like a covermounted CD on a magazine. Actually, it's just a piece of cardboard that's roughly magazine sized, with the CD's information on the back, but it's the thought that counts. This has the downside that all you get is a sealed plastic sleeve with your CD instead of a full jewel box. Hope you have one handy, or are a big fan of CD wallets. If you need a demo CD and haven't already picked up Euroscene 2 or the Aminet collections, give this some consideration. It's more comprehensive than AGA Experience 2, but unfortunately not as easy to use. @endnode @node REVIEW3 "Review: Spherical Worlds" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Spherical Worlds By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== While Ken Anderson takes a quick break, it's my turn to review some games again. Enter Spherical Worlds, from the 4Matted development team, produced by NEO of Austria. I suppose the quickest way to describe Spherical Worlds is as a roughly Alien Breed (I, II, and Tower Assault) genre of game. You control a player, in this case a spherical battle droid, and steer it around in a top-down world, shooting bad guys, avoiding traps and collecting money and keys so you can open doors and buy items. This, in a nutshell, is the game. But if you insist on the plot, I'll fill you in. Basically, it's you against an unknown alien force on a planet which sounds a lot like the planet from Alien. That's about all you need to know. You'll be going up against the terrain as well as the bad guys, as there are plenty of opportunities to fall down holes and your droid does NOT maneuver very well. It takes a while to get it going, and seemingly even longer to slow it down. As such, you'll take lots of headers off the screen until you get the hang of the game, and even though there is the option to continue, you don't always get to start back on the same level. You are initially armed with an unlimited-ammo (but limited auto) machine gun of some power and a small supply of homing rockets that can fire over walls and doors to hit individual targets. You can buy more goods as the game progresses. And the best part is, you can figure all of this out without documentation. I did, because my documentation came only in German. Oops. Graphically, the game is not a stunning tour-de-force but the action is at least very crisp. Music and sound is acceptable. The game is not AGA-enhanced but at the very least seems to be compatible on just about any configuration you can throw at it (no problems whatsoever installing to hard drive and playing off of 040 machines). It even works on the Cyberstorm 1260, providing you disable the special 060 caches. One of the standouts of Spherical Worlds is the rather nice rendered intro that accompanies the game, as well as the (Alien Breed inspired, perhaps?) pretty level-transition pictures shown as you await your next challenge in the game. Spherical Worlds isn't the 3D-pounding intensity that a lot of software developers have been trying to pump out lately. In fact, it's a nice breather. While I wouldn't say the game is a sleeper, you definitely have time, at least early on, to plan out your strategy. When you get sloppy, that's when you start plummeting to your death, or forgetting that the floor panel you're crossing is so unstable you need to speed up or else... My only complaints are few. The control system may be clumsy for a reason, but it makes getting started very difficult. Having only three lives is pretty harsh considering you can easily lose them all before reaching the third level, just by falling to your death around various corners. But Spherical Worlds is a job well done. NEO Business Park Vienna Buateil D1 Wienerbergstr. 7 7 OG A-1100 Wien Austria ++43 1 60 740 80 voice ++43 1 60 740 806 fax http://www.info.co.at/neo web @endnode @node REVIEW4 "Review: Bandits on the Information Superhighway" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Bandits On the Information Superhighway by Dan Barrett By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Ok, we'd better get this out of the way. I know it was my first question about the book and I'm sure a lot of other people feel the same way, so here goes. No, BLAZEMONGER is not listed in the index of the book, but yes, it is mentioned. There. Now that's out of the way... Dan Barrett undertook a fairly major task that any normal mortal would have most likely screwed up. That is, in 200 pages or so, tackle a serious issue of modern society without confusing the novice audience or insulting the experienced audience, explaining enough basics to keep novices in line and, above all else, not turning the book into a reference for those who seek to constrict access on the net. It all works out. Dan takes readers through the net and the possible pitfalls and scams users can wind up getting caught in--including some of the more exaggerated fallacies of the net. Little time is wasted throwing out just some of the potential sources of trouble for net users, such as the general lack of privacy for most data transmission. Also discussed early on is the distinct possibility that just about anything you read online has a measurable probability of being a complete fabrication done for amusement or for illicit profit. That out of the way, Dan moves into more specific areas of danger, such as how to keep information secure (or at least to understand the potential risks of allowing it to be public), how to (somewhat) safely make purchases on the net, and how to eyeball potential scams and fake messages. (Of particular note is the spoofed Bill Gates announcement of the cancellation of Word.) A lot of what Dan says here you could easily have learned somewhere else under a different name, or under different circumstances. (Pyramid schemes are bad. Be extremely careful when 1-900 numbers get involved. Don't give away your password to anybody ever never ever.) But Dan gives other valuable information, such as a lengthy discourse on spamming vs. crossposting (and how the latter, while it can be annoying to some, is not a bandwidth or drive-space hog). And, although many of us already realize that you can't get a virus or format your hard drive just by reading a piece of E-mail, Dan states in black and red that no, there is no such thing as a Good Times virus. When Dan tackles the more personal side of the net--actually meeting, befriending, and possibly even romancing people online--things do get a bit dicey, because he's dealing with people who have actually been very hurt and violated through such experiences but at the same time doesn't want to scare anybody away or turn them into paranoid maniacs. You wind up doing a lot of emotional bouncing in that section of the book. The book gets into methods for users to help themselves if they've been scammed, and wraps up with a (somewhat self-serving, I feel, for the panelists involved) panel discussion section discussing the future of the net and the security and safety of it. Interspersed through the entire book are both real-life and concocted examples of what to look for (and what to avoid), as well as quotes from various knowledgeable people and actual anecdotal experiences, which all give the book a very nice touch. On the whole, while the book didn't tell me volumes that I hadn't learned from being on the net for a few years, it does have a lot of useful reference material. For beginners, or for those who are misinformed about the real risks of the net (and by that, I mean those who think it's a den of iniquity for nobody but crooks and scam artists all out to steal your soul), I'd say it's a required read. (Oh, yes. While the book is hardly Amiga-specific, we do get the occasional mention in a friendly, contextual way.) Bandits On the Information Superhighway-- Published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. By Daniel J. Barrett - If you don't YELL when you SAY IT... 103 Morris St. Suite A Sebastopol, CA 95472 USA 707-829-0515 voice 707-829-0104 fax sara@ora.com e-mail http://www.ora.com/ @endnode @node REVIEW5 "Review: Video Backup System 3.2" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Video Backup System 3.2 from LSP By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Ask me--or just about anyone else--what the most important thing you can do with your hard drive is, and they'll tell you it's to make frequent backups. And what's the thing that so few people actually do? Yes, the same. Let's face it...making backups is a pain. You can back up to a big old stack of floppies...but this is very tedious for any sizable amount of data. You can back up to a tape drive or removable media drive like a Zip...which isn't quite as bad, but that's an extra hardware cost for a lot of people. Enter the concept of Video Backup. Lots of us computer enthusiasts have purchased a VCR at SOME point in our lives. And videotapes are significantly less expensive than a Zip cartridge. So, even though they're a bit bulky, why not put them to good use? The VBS comes as three components. The sole floppy disk contains the VBS software for both 68000 and 68020+ Amigas. A standard double-male RCA cable is included for connecting your Amiga's composite video output (standard on some machines, or requiring an A520 adapter on others) to your VCR, and a special serial port device with two male RCA leads connects to both a video monitor and your VCR's video out. (Neat, huh?) VBS' interface is easy enough to use on a high res (non-laced) video screen, although the 1702 I was forced to use made it just a tad blurrier than I would have liked. (It was also a bit too low on the screen.) The short of it is that you can select to back up any number of files from the hard drive partition of your choice onto video cassette. The software visually represents the programs (which looks quite interesting on your monitor) and the display is recorded by the VCR. The tape can be stored more or less indefinitely, and can be restored to any other partition or device you choose at a later date. VBS will help you keep track of your backups by creating log and report files recording the files stored on video. You can use counter references to find the correct area of your tape for each backup (the program puts a short title before the actual program code so you can scan through the tape visually if necessary. The process of making a backup does take a little getting used to. Since VBS cannot actually control your VCR, you have to hit record on your VCR and then commit to the backup by clicking the mouse, after VBS goes through its preparatory steps for creating backups. With just a bit of practice, you'll be able to use VBS to backup at any time by using its timer feature in conjunction with the one on your VCR. Obviously, this is useful if you can't watch the Amiga all day. Restoring backups is a bit more confusing. VBS stores the directory tree data at the start of the recording. VBS reads this information off of the tape when you want to restore it, but because of the way the video monitor is set up, VBS can't actually TELL you when it has all of the info it needs. (The documentation leads me to believe that you can, but I'm not clear on it.) So after a few seconds of playback, you need to stop the tape and return to the VBS screen to select the files for recovery. After rewinding the tape a bit (just to be sure, in case you overshot the mark), you can commence the restoration. Floppy backups are possible--VBS will even store them track-by-track, so presumably you could store your demo collection on VHS. (Of course, you may get better mileage just recording your demos...) On a 68020, you can compress data and get on average 85 megs per hour of videotape. (While I've heard of using the tapes in LP mode, I chose to go with SP for my review.) This puts a $2 VHS tape at about 170 megs of storage--better than a ZIP or EZ135 disk that costs several times more and holds less. On the other hand, these drives communicate with your Amiga in hundreds of k per seconds. At 85 megs per hour, the VBS is significantly slower. Cost versus convenience, isn't that always the way? In my tests of VBS, involving backing up both binary and text files from one drive and restoring on another, I had absolutely zero hitches, in both Fast and Compressed mode. If anything is going to convince me to do backups, this will. Speed aside, the only minus to the VBS is the length of the two cables on the serial device. You need to have your computer, monitor, and VCR all VERY close to each other. My Toshiba TIMM was absolutely useless for this package, it was just too big to get the cables around. (They're roughly 3 feet in length) Of course, the same goes for a Zip or EZ135, but they're smaller. The provided manual is sufficient, but if I ran the world I would have laid it out a bit differently, categorizing by "Backup" and "Restore", rather than by "Disk" (floppy) and "File". It's usable. LSP's Video Backup System is about the cheapest way I can think of to reliably back up your hard drives--and it really does work. Physically, it's a bit of a pain, and it will require you to have some sort of composite-out capabilities (For 3000 users, a special video board is available) as well as to boot your machine in a video configuration. I strongly recommend you consider this an alternative to removable media if backups are your priority. Lyppens Software Productions 152 E. 84th St. #2D New York, NY 10028 USA 212-744-0973 voice @endnode @node CHARTS1 "Aminet Charts: 08-Jul-96" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 8-Jul-96 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- ar409.lha docs/mags 82K 0+Amiga Report Magazine, June 30, 1996 PictDT43.lha util/dtype 259K 0+Picture.datatype V43.751 for AGA/CGr libg++-WARNING.txt dev/ade 1K 6 Recompile instructions mcx255.lha util/cdity 75K 0+Multi Function Commodity MagiC64.lha misc/emu 284K 0+The fastest C64 emulator for Amiga V NewsAgent14.lha comm/tcp 50K 1+NNTP News header/article browser. MiniMail.lha comm/mail 103K 0+V1.4b - An integrated E-mail system mcxp318.lha util/cdity 72K 0+MUI Preferences for MultiCX Visage.lha gfx/show 168K 0+Picture viewer for OS 3.0+. V39.9 AmiBot.lha comm/tcp 98K 0+IRC bot for use with AmiTCP v3 or la DLDiz17.lha util/arc 10K 45+Extracts and shows file_id.diz. amigavoy.lha pix/back 40K 1+Star Trek Voyager Background-pic for AmiPhone1.91.lha comm/net 140K 1+AmiTCP based voice chat program | The highest rated programs during the week until 8-Jul-96 | Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you | download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu : | RATE | where is the file you want to judge and 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 |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- ToolManager21b.lha util/boot 490K 164+ToolManager 2.1 (Binaries and Docume SneechV1_5.lha game/2play 390K 16+NEW Vers of *THE BEST* Multi Snake G voxel087.lha gfx/aga 788K 13+Voxel Engine 0.87 by Silicon Motion MCP110.lha util/cdity 395K 22+MAJOR UPDATE! The mother of the WB-U Base64Coders.lha comm/mail 10K 1+Fast base64 (MIME) decoder/encoder. mui33usr.lha dev/gui 797K 18+MagicUserInterface V3.3, user files xtrdem2a.lha game/demo 482K 4+XTreme Racing Demo2, including new V AlgoMusic1_6.lha mus/misc 654K 1+Plays great algorithmic techno tunes AWeb.lha biz/demo 352K 5+AWeb 1.2 DEMO, limited features Morton.lha game/demo 430K 2+Cute but tricky platformer amimsx23.lha misc/emu 266K 2+Great MSX/MSX2 emulator for Amiga Co GMPlay12_Upd.lha mus/midi 25K 1+GMPlay update V1.1 -> V1.2 FontDT-1.3.lha util/dtype 30K 3+DataType for Amiga fonts Executive.lha util/misc 527K 32+UNIX-like task scheduler (V1.30) thor23_bbs.lha comm/mail 74K 4+BBS archive for THOR 2.3 (QWK/FIDO/B AmiPhone1.91.lha comm/net 140K 1+AmiTCP based voice chat program PhxAss432.lha dev/asm 259K 5+PhxAss V4.32 68xxx Macro Assembler ar409.lha docs/mags 82K 0+Amiga Report Magazine, June 30, 1996 dgtrainerV1_1.lha game/patch 2K 2+New version (1.1) of trainer for DeL metaview.lha gfx/conv 35K 6+MetaFileViewer-Convert AMF,WMF to CG GMPlay12.lha mus/midi 1.4M 1+Plays MIDI-Files with your Amiga (02 aplay211.lha mus/play 589K 0+APlayer - An allround Amiga music pl Esprita4000.lha pix/back 33K 2+Incredible 800x600 8-colour WB backd Mos8-ami.lha pix/back 192K 3+Two MacOS8(Copland) alike backdrops. 68060inside.lha pix/boot 37K 10+Bootpic and/or backgroundpic 68060 i Depart.jpg pix/trace 97K 3+Cool LW StarTrek based render DragnetWB.lha pix/wb 201K 2+This is the AMIGA-Workbench ! @endnode @node CHARTS2 "Aminet Charts: 22-Jul-96" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 22-Jul-96 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- FastIPrefs4028.lha util/boot 31K 0+FastIPrefs 40.28 & FastWBPattern 40. PictDT43.lha util/dtype 260K 0+Picture.datatype V43.753 for AGA/CGr VoyView.lha comm/www 11K 1+A file Viewer/Player for Voyager. V1 megafloppy.lha disk/misc 18K 0+Save 1120 kb on a floppy !! BETA MPEGIntuition.lha gfx/show 175K 0+Ver 2.4 MPEG with SOUND (GUI 4 mp & mwm108.lha comm/www 122K 0+Magic Web Maker v1.08. TheHuntIsOn.lzh game/shoot 338K 1+New 3D Maze Game for All Amigas amicdfs231.lha disk/cdrom 123K 0+AmiCDFS (AmiCDROM) v2.31 CedFix.lha biz/patch 3K 0+A patch for CED 3.5c & CGraphX CheckMMU.lha util/moni 2K 0+Checks if your CPU really has an MMU FX111.lha util/wb 72K 0+Workbench Soundeditor, supports up t VT2.86.lha util/virus 793K 0+V2.86 of the famous Viruskiller by H Pseudokick.lha util/boot 3K 0+A powerful Kickstart loader MacWB.lha util/boot 66K 0+The successor of WB95 conquers the W ShShSurvey.lha misc/emu 3K 0+Shapeshifter-Survey,PLEASE ANSWER qlib-v100.lha util/wb 31K 0+Show Ver/Rev of DTypes,Classes,Libs AnimInWindow.lha gfx/show 38K 0+A animation player in window IBrowseButtons.lha comm/www 3K 0+IBrowse replacement Navigation/Pictu | The highest rated programs during the week until 22-Jul-96 | Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you | download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu : | RATE | where is the file you want to judge and 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 |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- SneechV1_5.lha game/2play 390K 18+NEW Vers of *THE BEST* Multi Snake G Base64Coders.lha comm/mail 10K 3+Fast base64 (MIME) decoder/encoder. MagiC64.lha misc/emu 284K 2+The fastest C64 emulator for Amiga V AlgoMusic1_6.lha mus/misc 654K 3+Plays great algorithmic techno tunes AWeb.lha biz/demo 436K 1+AWeb 1.2b DEMO, limited features Morton.lha game/demo 430K 4+Cute but tricky platformer amimsx23.lha misc/emu 266K 4+Great MSX/MSX2 emulator for Amiga Co GMPlay12_Upd.lha mus/midi 25K 3+GMPlay update V1.1 -> V1.2 Executive.lha util/misc 527K 34+UNIX-like task scheduler (V1.30) ar409.lha docs/mags 82K 2+Amiga Report Magazine, June 30, 1996 NH32P1v2.lha game/role 1.0M 2+Official Amiga Nethack 3.2.1 binarie metaview.lha gfx/conv 35K 8+MetaFileViewer-Convert AMF,WMF to CG GMPlay12.lha mus/midi 1.4M 3+Plays MIDI-Files with your Amiga (02 aplay211.lha mus/play 589K 2+APlayer - An allround Amiga music pl Esprita4000.lha pix/back 33K 4+Incredible 800x600 8-colour WB backd Heil95.lha pix/misc 18K 7+A new true Win 95 logo. Heil Bill! mcx255.lha util/cdity 75K 2+Multi Function Commodity mcxp318.lha util/cdity 72K 2+MUI Preferences for MultiCX YAM12.lha comm/mail 135K 18+MUI Internet mailer for AmiTCP AmiFTP-1.607.lha comm/tcp 271K 2+Easy to use GUI FTP client for OS 2. xtrdem2a.lha game/demo 482K 6+XTreme Racing Demo2, including new V AmFTP153.lha comm/tcp 196K 19+AmFTP - ftp/Archie/ADT/ADT-Find Clie Testament1.lha game/demo 693K 1+Preview of 3D action game. AGA only. navpro.lha gfx/3d 128K 4+Visualiser of the Navigator VR Rende MKL_Match.lha pix/art 108K 3+Great picture of a flaming match by Visage.lha gfx/show 168K 2+Picture viewer for OS 3.0+. V39.9 killhappy.lha util/virus 11K 5+Removes the "Happy New Year 96" viru shocon12a.lha comm/tcp 6K 4+Displays hardware config. to remote @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@amigalib.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 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.bengala.saccii.net.au/ar/main.html http://www.livewire.com.au/amiga/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 July 24, 1996 Issue No. 4.10 Copyright 1996 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 Portal. Distribution on public domain disks is acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. no more than $5 US). 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 or VIScorp. 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 EDITORCHOICE "Editor's Choice" @toc COMMERCIAL =========================================================================== Editor's Choice =========================================================================== These are selected products, reviewed by myself, that I've liked. So, I've landed them and decided to sell them. All prices are in $US. John McDonough's The Music Maker, a Contemporary New Age CD composed on the Amiga, is available through Amiga Report. The crisp, clean sounds and calm melodies present a welcome alternative to many pounding alternatives. Available for US$12.00 plus $3 shipping in the US. Non-US orders, please contact before ordering. Check or money order accepted addressed to @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}, shipments made by the artist. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Issue | Approximate | Amiga Report | | Product | Reviewed | Retail Price | Reader Price | ---------------------------------|----------|--------------|--------------| | | | | | |GPFax Amiga Fax Software | 2.30 | $100.00 | $60.00 | | (Class 1 and 2) | | | | | | | | | |Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 1 | 2.25 | $69.00 | $30.00 | | (Includes early Transition | | | | | graphics converter and loads| | | | | of artwork) | | | | | | | | | |Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 2 | 2.26 | $99.95 | $46.75 | | (Includes entire Nature's | | | | | Backdrop series) | | | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Orders may be placed via check, money order, or postal cheque, made out to Jason Compton. Visa/Mastercard accepted via post or E-Mail. No CODs. Mail all orders to @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}. Orders will be processed by Amiga Report and drop-shipped from Micro R+D. In the US, add $5/$10/$20 for UPS shipping, ground/blue/red label, respectively. Overseas: It is recommended that you consider $20 to be the minimum cost for shipping. If you plan to order more than one item, E-mail for shipping cost. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sidewinder's Future Shock II CD is now available through Amiga Report. Featuring 15 Amiga-generated tunes totalling 71 minutes, Eric Gieseke's work is captured on an Amiga-independent media. Available for US$12.00. Please add $5 for shipping. Make check or money order payable to @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}. Orders will be drop-shipped from Sidewinder Productions. For overseas orders, please contact through E-Mail before ordering. @endnode @node PORTAL "Portal" @toc ONLINE =========================================================================== Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users =========================================================================== The Portal Information Network's Amiga Zone The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information "Not just another UNIX Shell account!" ------------------------------------------------------- Portal is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, a full-service online SIG (Special Interest Group) for Amiga owners and users. We promise, and WE DELIVER ongoing & aggressive Amiga support! Now, more than ever, with so many Amiga magazines gone or shrunken, you need a viable, professionally-maintained resource for information, software, and a link to the world-wide Amiga community. You can dial into Portal to access the Amiga Zone in many ways: direct dial to our San Jose, CA high-speed modems (you pay for the phone call if it's not local), or though any SprintNet or Compuserve indial anywhere (with a small hourly fee) or via the World-wide Internet "telnet" program to portal.com (no hourly fee). Even Delphi and BIX users can Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use. Portal is NOT just another shell service! Its Online system is fully menu-driven with on-screen commands and help, and you can easily customize it for your favorite terminal program and screen size. Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include: * 2.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific file space - we have so much Amiga Stuff online, we've lost count! * The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online. ALL 1100 disks! * Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files or 100 email letters at once, of any size, with one command. * Amiga vendor areas with many companies participating. * So many incoming lines you'll probably NEVER get a busy signal * 40 "regular" Amiga libraries with over 12,000 files. Hot new stuff arrives daily. * No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as often as you want, and never feel pressured doing it. * Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. We have given away thousands of bucks worth of Amiga prizes - more than any other online service. * Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga related and get quick replies from the experts. * Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, AMosaic, LightWave, ImageFX, Picasso II & others feed right into the Zone message bases. Read months worth of postings. No need to clutter your mailbox with them. * FREE unlimited Internet Email with 5 meg of free storage. Your email is private, secure, and never censored or monitored. * A FREE UNIX Shell account with another 5 meg of free storage. You can run AMosaic and other Browses via your shell and explore the vast World Wide Web! Intermediate to advanced users can use any standard UNIX mail and news utilities, compilers, and other tools. Ask for your free UNIX book when you sign up. * A home for your own Web page! Your UNIX Shell on Portal is linked to Portal's Web Server. Create your own WWW pages for the whole world to access. No extra charges! * Portal has the Usenet. Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly imagine. Newsgroups are not censored! * Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun, UNIX, Science Fiction, Disney, and dozens more. ALL Portal SIGs are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. You never worry "Ooops... Am I paying more for this area?" again! * Portal was THE FIRST online service to offer a full package of Internet features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS wrapped into user-friendly menus. And you get FREE unlimited usage of all of them. * Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files! Reply to mail and messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent automatically the next time you log into Portal. (PortalX requires Workbench 2.04 or higher) * Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price. To join Portal or for more information call: 1-800-433-6444 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time 1-408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time 1-408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day 1-408-725-0560 (modem 96/14400) 24 hours every day or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in, or "portal" at any CI$ network dialin, or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere, and then enter "online" and then "info" or send email to "sales@portal.com" Visit the Amiga Zone Web page at http://www.portal.com/~harv Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service representative, "The Amiga Zone sent me." Ask for the "Interactive" account to get the Amiga Zone, the Online System and a UNIX Shell for only $19.95 a month. The Portal Information Network accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a trademark of The Portal Information Network. SLIP, UUCP, custom domain and corporate accounts are also available. @endnode @node BBS_ASIA "Distribution BBSes - Asia" @toc BBS =========================================================================== Distribution BBSes - Asia =========================================================================== -=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 * EMail: mozza@nwamiga.apana.org.au Fido: 3:633/265.0 BBS Phone/Fax: +61 3 9331 2831 USR Courier V.Everything @endnode @node BBS_EUROPE "Distribution BBSes - Europe" @toc BBS =========================================================================== Distribution BBSes - Europe =========================================================================== -=FINLAND=- * HANG UP BBS * Email: helpdesk@hangup.nullnet.fi +358 - 0 - 278 8054 * LAHO BBS * +358-64-414 1516 +358-64-414 0400 +358-64-414 6800 +358-64-423 1300 * KINDERGARTEN * Email: matthias.bartosik@hut.fi +358-0-881 32 36 -=FRANCE=- * DYNAMIX BBS * Email: erlsoft@mcom.mcom.fr +33.1.48.89.96.66 Minitel to Modem * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING * Internet: user.name@ramses.fdn.org Fidonet: 2/320/104-105-106 +33-1-45845623 +33-1-53791200 -=GERMANY=- * DOOM OF DARKNESS * Email: marc_doerre@doom.ping.de +49 (0)4223 8355 19200 AR-Infoservice, contact Kai Szymanski kai@doom.gun.de * IMAGINE BBS * Email: Sysop@imagine.commo.mcnet.de +49-69-4304948 Login: GAST (Download area: "Amiga-Report") * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL * Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de 49-30-8110060 49-30-8122442 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report" * REDEYE BBS * Internet: sysop@coolsurf.de Modem/ISDN: +49-89.54662690 Modem only:+49.89.54662680 * STINGRAY DATABASE * EMail: 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 * EMail: cocos@prometheus.hol.gr Telnet: hellas.hol.gr ++301/ 620-6001, 620-6604, 620-9500 * ODYSSEY BBS * email: odyssey@acropolis.net Amiganet: 39:250/1.0 ++301-4123502 23.00-09.00 Local Time http://www.acropolis.net/~konem/odygb.html -=IRELAND=- * FWIBBLE! * Fidonet: 2:263/900.0 E-Mail: 9517693@ul.ie Phone: +353-902-36124 Midnight to 8am (GMT) Freq "Readme.txt" for details -=ITALY=- * AMIGA PROFESSIONAL BBS * Amy Professional Club, Italian Amos Club +(39)-49-604488 * AMIPRO BBS* AR and AMINET distributor +39-49604488 * FRANZ BBS * EMsil: mc3510@mclink.it +39/6/6627667 * IDCMP * Fidonet 2:322/405 +39-542-25983 * SPEED OF LIFE * FidoNet 2:335/533 AmigaNet 39:102/12 The AMIGA Alchemists' BBS +39-931-833773 -=NETHERLANDS=- * AMIGA ONLINE BS HEEMSTEDE * Fidonet: 2:280/464.0, 2:280/412.0 Internet: michiel@aobh.xs4all.nl +31-23-282002 +31-23-470739 * THE HELL BBS * Fido-Net : 2:281/418.0 e-mail : root@hell.xs4all.nl +31-(0)70-3468783 * TRACE BBS GRONINGEN * FidoNET 2:282/529.0 Internet Martin@trace.idn.nl +31-(0)-50-410143 * X-TREME BBS * Internet: u055231@vm.uci.kun.nl +31-167064414 -=NORWAY=- * FALLING BBS * EMail: christon@powertech.no +47 69 256117 -=POLAND=- * SILVER DREAM!'S BBS * SysOp: Silver Dream +48 91 540431 -=PORTUGAL=- * CIUA BBS * FidoNet 2:361/9 Internet: denise.ci.ua.pt +351-34-382080/382081 -=RUSSIA=- * NEW ORDER BBS * E-Mail: norder@norder.spb.su FidoNet: 2:5030/221.0 +7-812-2909561 -=SPAIN=- * GURU MEDITATION * +34-1-383-1317 * LA MITAD OSCURA * E-Mail: jovergon@offcampus.es Fido: 2:341/35.19 +34-1-3524613 * MAZAGON - BBS - SYSTEMS * E-mail: jgomez@maze.mazanet.es FTP: ftp-mail@ftp.mazanet.es +34 59 536267 Login: a-report -=SWEDEN=- * CICERON * E-mail: a1009@itv.se +46 612 22011 -=SWITZERLAND=- * LINKSYSTEM LINK-CH1 * contact: rleemann@link-ch1.aworld.de +41 61 3215643 ISDN: +41 61 3832007 Local newsgroup link-ch1.ml.amiga-report -=UKRAINE=- * AMIGA HOME BBZ * E-Mail: Oleg.Khimich@bbs.te.net.ua FidoNet: 2:467/88.0 +380-482-325043 -=UNITED KINGDOM=- * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 * Internet: sysadmin@junct9.demon.co.uk FidoNet: 2:440/20 +44 (0)372 271000 * CREATIONS BBS * E-Mail: mat@darkside.demon.co.uk 2:254/524@Fidonet +44-0181-665-9887 * DRAUGHTFLOW BBS * Email: Ian_Cooper@draught.demon.co.uk +44 (01707) 328484 * METNET CCS * Email: metnet@demon.co.uk FidoNet: 2:2502/129.0 2:2502/130.0 +44-1482-442251 +44-1482-444910 * OCTAMED USER BBS * EMail: rbfsoft@cix.compulink.co.uk +44 (01703) 703446 * SCRATCH BBS * EMail: kcci1@solx1.susx.ac.uk Official Super Skidmarks site +44-1273-389267 @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 * EMail: steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com Fido: 1:153/210.0 604-945-6192 -=CALIFORNIA=- * TIERRA-MIGA BBS * FidoNet: 1:202/638.0 Internet: torment.cts.com 619.292.0754 * VIRTUAL PALACE BBS * Sysop Email: tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu 916-343-7420 * AMIGA AND IBM ONLY BBS * EMail: vonmolk@crash.cts.com AmigaNET: 40:406/7.0 (619)428-4887 -=FLORIDA=- * LAST! AMIGA BBS * (305) 456-0126 -=ILLINOIS=- * EMERALD KEEP BBS * FidoNet: 1:2250/2 AmigaNet: 40:206/1 618-394-0065 * 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 * STARSHIP CUCUG * Email: 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 * E-mail: Geoff148@delphi.com 504-882-6576 -=MAINE=- * THE KOBAYASHI ALTERNATIVE BBS * FidoNet: 1:326/404.0 (207)/784-2130 (207)/946-5665 ftp.tka.com for back issues of AR -=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 * InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0 601-374-2697 -=MICHIGAN=- * DC PRODUCTIONS * Email: dcpro!chetw@heifetz.msen.com 616-373-0287 -=NEVADA=- * PUP-TEK BBS * EMail: darkwolf@accessnv.com 702-553-2403 -=NEW JERSEY=- * T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE * 201-586-3623 * DLTACOM AMIGA BBS * Internet: dltacom.camphq.fidonet.org Fidonet: 1:2606/216.0 (201) 398-8559 -=NEW YORK=- * THE BELFRY(!) * stiggy@belfry.org 718.793.4796 718.793.4905 http://www.belfry.org/ -=ONTARIO=- * COMMAND LINE BBS * 416-533-8321 * CYBERSPACE * joehick@ophielia.waterloo.net (519) 579-0072 (519) 579-0173 * EDGE OF REALITY BBS * EMail: 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! * Email: root@amicent.raider.net 615-383-9679 * NOVA BBS * FidoNet 1:362/508.0 615-472-9748 -=VIRGINIA=- * NETWORK XXIII DATA SYSTEM * EMail: gottfrie@acca.nmsu.edu 804-266-1763 Login: anon Password: nopass -=WASHINGTON=- * FREELAND MAINFRAME * Internet - 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=- * AMIGA DO PC BBS * Fidonet: 4:801/44 Internet: fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br +55-192-33-2260 Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT) Weekends: 24 hours @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 Email: nighty@gmatter.japan-online.or.jp @endnode @node DEAL_AUSTRALASIA "Dealers - Australasia" @toc DEALER =========================================================================== Dealers - Australasia =========================================================================== -=QUEENSLAND=- Image Domain 92 Bridge St Fortitude Valley, Brisbane E-mail: imagedomain@msn.com Voice: 617-3216-1240 Fax: 617-3852-2720 Synapse Computers 190 Riding Road Hawthorne, Brisbane 4171 Voice/Fax: +61 7-3899-0980 -=NEW SOUTH WALES=- Unitech Electronics Pty. Ltd. / Maverick Amiga 8B Tummul Place St. Andrews, Sydney 2566 Voice: +61 2 9820 3555 Fax: +61 2 9603 8685 -=NEW ZEALAND=- CompKarori LG/F Karori Shopping Mall Karori, Wellington Tel/Fax: +64 4 476-0212 Email: sales@compkarori.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 EMail: 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 Email: 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 INTERNET: vanhoutv@nbre.nfe.be FIDO: 2:292/603.9 -=BULGARIA=- KlubVerband ITA Gmbh 1309 Sofia P.F.13, KukushStr. 1-2 Tel: +359-2-221471 Fax: +359-2-230062 Email: KVITA@VIRBUS.BG Contact: Dr. ING B. Pavlov -=DENMARK=- Data Service Att. Soren Petersen Kaerhaven2a 2th 6400 Sonderborg Phone/Fax: +45 74 43 17 36 EMail: sorpe-95@sdbg.ih.dk Nemesis Amy BBS EMail: boersting@hoa.ping.dk Fido: 2:238/43 USR 33k6 V.E. +45 75-353726 -=FINLAND=- Lincware Computers Ltd Lovkullankuja 3 10300 KARJAA Voice: +358-50-5573696 Fax: +358-11-231511 EMail: 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 (automatique): +33 50.52.83.31 E-Mail: tcp@imaginet.fr -=GERMANY=- AMItech Systems GmbH Ludwigstrasse 4 D-95028 Hof/Saale VOICE: +49 9281 142812 FAX: +49 9281 142712 EMail: bsd@blacky.netz.sub.de dcp, desing+commercial partner GmbH Alfredstr. 1 D-22087 Hamburg Tel.: + 49 40 251176 Fax: +49 40 2518567 EMail: info@dcp.de WWW: http://www.dcp.de Hartmann & Riedel GdbR Hertzstr. 33 D-76287 Rheinstetten EMail: rick@p22.aop.schiele-ct.de Fido: 2:2476/12.22 Voice: +49 (7242) 2021 Fax: +49 (7242) 5909 Please call before visiting, or we may be closed. Hirsch & Wolf OHG Mittelstra_e 33 D-56564 Neuwied Voice: +49 (2631) 8399-0 Fax: +49 (2631) 8399-31 Pro Video Elektronik Roßmarkt 38 D-63739 Aschaffenburg Tel: (49) 6021 15713 Fax: (49) 6021 15713 -=ITALY=- C.A.T.M.U. snc Casella Postale 63 10023 Chieri (TO) Tel/Fax: +39 11 9415237 EMail: fer@inrete.it (Ferruccio Zamuner) Fido: 2:334/21.19 Cloanto Italia srl Via G. B. Bison 24 33100 Udine Tel: +39 432 545902 Fax: +39 432 609051 E-Mail: info@cloanto.it CompuServe: 100145.15 -=NETHERLANDS=- Chaos Systems Watermolen 18 NL-1622 LG Hoorn (NH) Voice: +31-(0)229-233922 Fax/Data: +31-(0)229-TBA E-mail: marioh@fwi.uva.nl WWW: http://gene.fwi.uva.nl/~marioh/ -=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 -=NORWAY=- DataKompaniet ANS Trondheim Innovation Centre Prof. Brochs gt. 6 N-7030 Trondheim Tel: +47 7354 0375 Fax: +47 7394 3861 EMail:datakompaniet@interlink.no WWW:http://www.interlink.no/datakompaniet Sezam Software Ulsmĺgveien 11a N-5o5o Nesttun Tel/Fax: +47 55100070 (9-20) ABBS: +47 55101730 (24t) Email: oleksy@telepost.no -=SWEDEN=- DataVision Box 1305 753 11 Uppsala Street Address: Sysslomansgatan 9 Orders: +46 (0)18-123400 Shop: +46 (0)18-124009 Fax: +46 (0)18-100650 -=UNITED KINGDOM=- Almathera Systems Ltd Southerton House / Boundary Business Court 92-94 Church Road Mitcham, Surrey / CR4 3TD VOICE: (UK) 081 687 0040 FAX: (UK) 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 Internet: brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk Visage Computers 27 Watnall Road Hucknall / Nottingham Tel: +44 (0)115 9642828 Tel/Fax: +44 (0)115 9642898 EMail: 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 EMail: info@animax.com http://www.animax.com/ APC Computer Services 402-5 Tangreen Crt Willowdale, Ont. M2M 3Z1 Voice/Fax: (416) 733-1434 EMail: shadow@interlog.com WWW: www.interlog.com/~shadow/apccomp.html Atlantis Kobetek Inc. 1496 Lower Water St. Halifax, NS / B3J 1R9 Phone: (902)-422-6556 Fax: (902)-423-9339 E-mail: 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 EMail: s2200147@nickel.laurentian.ca CineReal Pro-Video 272 Avondale Avenue Ottawa, Ontario K1Z 7G8 Phone/Fax: (613) 798-8150 (Call first to fax) EMail: 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 Email: austin@canuck.com WWW: http://www.canuck.com/cshop Computerology Direct Powell River, BC V8A-4Z3 Call 24 hrs. orders/inquiries: 604/483-3679 Amiga users 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 Internet: 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 EMail: saurus@xcelco.on.ca 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 Email: mchabot@nationalnet.com National Amiga Oakville, Ontario Fax: 905-845-3295 EMail: gscott@interlog.com WWW: http://www.interlog.com/~gscott/NationalAmiga.html Oby's Amigo Computing Shop 765 Barrydowne Rd Sudbury, Ontario P3A 3T6 Voice/Fax: (705)524-5826 Email: obys@vianet.on.ca http://icewall.vianet.on.ca/pages/obys Randomize Computers R.R. #2 Tottenham, Ont. L0G 1W0 vox: 905-939-8371 fax: 905-939-8745 email: randomize@interlog.com www: www.interlog.com/~randomize/ Software Supermart 11010 - 101 Street Edmonton, Alberta T5H-2T1 Voice: (403) 425-0691 Fax: (403) 426-1701 EMail: ssmart@planet.eon.net SpectrumTech Electronics 412-1205 Fennell Avenue East Hamilton, ON L8T 1T1 Voice: (905) 388-9575 BBS: (905) 388-2542 E-Mail: ste@spectrum.gryn.org Contact: Derek Clarke Wonder Computers Ottawa Retail Store 1315 Richmond Road Ottawa, Ontario K2B 8J7 Voice: (613) 721-1800 Fax: 613-721-6992 Wonder Computers Vancouver Sales Office 2229 Edinburgh St. New Westminster, BC W3M 2Y2 (604) 524-2151 voice young monkey studios 797 Mitchell Street Fredericton, NB E3B 3S8 Phone: (506) 459-7088 Fax: (506) 459-7099 EMail: sales@youngmonkey.ca -=UNITED STATES=- A&D Computer 211 South St. Milford, NH 03055-3743 Voice/Fax: 603-672-4700 BBS: 603-673-2788 Internet: amiga@mv.mv.com Alex Electronics 597 Circlewood Dr. Paradise, CA 95969 Voice: 916-872-0896 BBS: 915-872-3711 EMail: alex@ecst.csuchico.edu WWW: http://www.km-cd.com/~alex/ Amigability Computers P.O. Box 572 Plantsville, CT 06479 VOICE: 203-276-8175 Internet: 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 Internet: amiga-x@tka.com Amiga Library Services 610 Alma School Rd, #18 Chandler, Az 85224-3687 Voice: (800) 804-0833 Fax: (602) 491-0048 E-Mail: orders@amigalib.com Amiga Video Solutions 1568 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105 Voice: 612-698-1175 Fax: 612-224-3823 BBS: 612-698-1918 Net: wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu 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 Portal: Apogee Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com Armadillo Brothers 753 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, Utah VOICE: 801-484-2791 Internet: B.GRAY@genie.geis.com Computer Advantage 7370 Hickman Road Des Moines, IA 50322 Voice/Fax: 515-252-6167 Internet: 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 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 Email: moxley@value.net http://www.ccompsol.com/ CyberTech Labs PO Box 56941 North Pole, Alaska 99705 Vox: (907) 451-3285 BBS1 : (907) 488-2547 BBS2 & Fax: (907) 488-2647 EMail: 71516.600@CompuServe.com Fido: 1:355/17.0 DC Productions 218 Stockbridge Avenue Kalamazoo, MI 49001 (616)373-1985 (800)9DC-PROD Email: 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 EMail: Sheep@netins.net Electronic Connection 635 Penn Ave West Reading, PA 19611 Phone: 610-372-1010 Fax: 610-378-0996 HT Electronics E-Mail: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com BIX: msears 422 S. Hillview Dr. 211 Lathrop Way, Ste. A. Milipitas, CA 95035 Sacramento, CA 95815 V: (408) 934-7700 V: (916) 925-0900 F: (408) 934-7717 F: (916) 925-2829 Industrial Video, Inc. 1601 North Ridge Rd. Lorain, OH 44055 VOICE: 800-362-6150, 216-233-4000 Contact: John Gray Internet: af741@cleveland.freenet.edu Kipp Visual Systems 360-C Christopher Ave. Gaithersburg Md, 20878 301-670-7906 kipp@rasputin.umd.edu The Lively Computer - Tom Lively 8314 Parkway Dr. La Mesa, CA 91942 Voice: 619-589-9455 Fax: 619-589-5230 Net: tlively@connectnet.com Magic Page 3043 Luther Street Winston-Salem, NC 27127 Voice/Fax: 910-785-3695 E-mail: Spiff@ix.netcom.com Contact: Patrick Smith MicroSearch 9000 US 59 South, Suite 330 Houston, Texas VOICE: 713-988-2818 FAX: 713-995-4994 MicroTech Solutions, Inc. 1885 N. Farnsworth Ave. Suites 6-7-8 Aurora, IL 60505-1162 Voice: 708-851-3033 Fax: 708-851-3825 BBS: 708-851-3929 Email: info@mt-inc.com WWW: http://www.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 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 Internet: PSIANIM@agora.rain.com Raymond Commodore Amiga 795 Raymond Avenue St. Paul, MN 55114-1521 VOICE: 612.642.9890 FAX: 612.642.9891 Safe Harbor Computers W226 N900 Eastmound Dr Waukesha, WI 53186 Orders: 800-544-6599 Fax: 414-548-8130 WWW Catalog: www.sharbor.com Slipped Disk 170 E 12 Mile Rd Madison Heights, Michigan 48071 Voice: (810) 546-DISK BBS: (810) 399-1292 Fido: 1:120/321.0 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 EMail: 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 FIDO: 1:2613/323 INTERNET: neil@rochgte.fidonet.org Zipperware 76 South Main St. Seattle, WA 98104 VOICE: 206-223-1107 FAX: 206-223-9395 E-Mail: zipware@nwlink.com WWW: http://www.speakeasy.org/zipperware @endnode @node OPINION "Editorial and Opinion" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Editorial and Opinion =========================================================================== @{" compt.sys.editor.desk " link EDITORIAL} (almost) There! @{" Notes From The Frontier " link OPINION1} Abandon ship? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" 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 =========================================================================== @{" VIScorp Amiga Acquisition " link NEWS11} Signed, sealed... @{" Message to Community " link NEWS12} VIScorp's CEO speaks out @{" Escom Lays Off Employees " link NEWS5} The beginning of the end... @{" 040-ERC Boards " link NEWS13} Phase5's new low cost boards @{" CyberVision64/3D " link NEWS15} Wow! @{" Techno-1 Licenceware " link NEWS1} Three new inexpensive games @{" The Informer Newsletter " link NEWS2} A new North American resource @{" Amiga Conv. Info Pack " link NEWS4} Can you make it to Montreal? @{" Sysmon V0.13 " link NEWS6} Keep track of system activity @{" The Amiga Locale Page " link NEWS7} The translation clearinghouse @{" DiskProtection V1.2 " link NEWS8} Protection through encryption @{" McFiler V4.1 " link NEWS9} Catalog your collections @{" Image Engineer 3.0 " link NEWS10} Shareware image processing @{" NTitler Pro V2.0 " link NEWS14} Video titling in 3D @{" PowerPC News Ends " link NEWS3} The death of an online magazine --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" 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 =========================================================================== @{" Amigas at Disney " link FEATURE1} Keeping track of Jones... @{" Bird Talk " link FEATURE2} Make ARexx sing for you --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" 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 =========================================================================== @{" AGA Experience 2 CD " link REVIEW1} The experience intensifies @{" Amiga CD Sensation-Demos" link REVIEW2} Demos, demos, demos... @{" Spherical Worlds " link REVIEW3} NEO's latest offering @{" Bandits on Superhighway " link REVIEW4} Dan Barrett's book @{" Video Backup System 3.2 " link REVIEW5} Inexpensive volume backup --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" 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 =========================================================================== @{" 08-Jul-96 " link CHARTS1} @{" 22-Jul-96 " 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: @{" Addison Laurent " link ADDISON} --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" 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 PORTAL} --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" 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