====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter) KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING || ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 990122 O P E N L E T T E R F R O M J E F F S C H I N D L E R P E T R O S P E A K S I N A U S T R A L I A N E W A M I G A S E C T I O N , N E W T E K N I Q U E S C H A N G E S A T N E W T E K A N O V E L U S E F O R A M I G A A M I G A 9 9 D O O R P R I Z E S C O N T E S T S A T A M I G A 9 9 M O R E O N A M I G A A C T I V E N O R W E G I A N M A G W A N T S S T A F F G A M E S S O U R C E C O D E R E L E A S E D D E V E L O P M E N T S T O P S A T I S E N G A R D S T A R G A T E A R R I V E S N E W Y O R K I S U P G R A D E D T W O N E W G A M E S : A L I V E M E D I A S O F T A P A C H E F O R A M I G A , F O R F R E E R E G I S T R A T I O N S E R V I C E F O R A U T H O R S E U R O C O N V E R T E R D E B U T S M U S I C C D M A D E O N A M I G A A R T S T U D I O P R O F E S S I O N A L Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: Wow, our second issue of the year already. January is nearly over, and considering what some of the weather has been like here, that's good news for me. We have a number of good news items for you as well. There's nothing spectacular here, just a steady stream of new products and services arriving on the Amiga scene. In a community like ours, with so much that is unsettled, we should all be grateful for such a situation. Not everything is positive, of course. It never is. See the story from Isengard below However, for the most part there are good things to read this time, including some different and unusual stories. We hope you enjoy them. I have a request for you this time. Somehow, we've lost all copies of an issue from our archive server. We're not sure how it happened, but if anyone out there has a copy of issue 960503, we'd be very grateful if you'd send it our way. Thanks in advance! Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail to the E-ditor: 9 Jan 1999 Greetings & happy New Year to all Amiga users and as well to Pee See infidels! I expected the excellent magazine Amiga Informer to merge with Amazing Amiga long time ago! Wishing them best of prosperity. As long as I'm on this planet. I will be an AMIGA user/supporter....Also, couldn't the fine people from AUI, CU Amiga & Amiga Shopper get a "Green Card" & come to the States and support the Amiga in one form or another?...Doomsday cometh for Fuehrer Bill Gates!...tony PS: You may reprint this message anywhere, anytime anyplace you want! === Tony, I'm sure most Amigans wish them the best in their merger. As for the folks in Europe, they may have other ways of keeping busy than emigrating here. They seem to be having a resurgence of sorts for Amiga magazines. Besides the "AmigaActive" magazine we told you about last time (more details in this issue) we catch rumors of another called "Amiga Style". It's supposed to be a games magazine. Brad ~~~~~~ 8 Jan 1999 Hi, I read this in your Newsletter and I am wondering is it for real? If so how can I contact the software company? . . . Y O U R A M I G A A S A P H O N E X-Phone Telephone Software Information Apocalypse Software Warren === Warren, You can reach Apocalypse Software at their website: www.vmc.de/cscholling/html_cs/eng_as.html We haven't found many links to them, or their name in most Amiga databases, so we thought we'd answer your letter in this issue as others probably have the same question. Thanks for asking it. Brad ~~~~~~ 9 Jan 1999 Well Brad, with the demise of Amiga Informer, looks like we are almost on our own here in North America. We here at FWD computing will sorely miss them, but not give up. There is, for those who are REALLY paying attention, a lot of new and good software coming out for the Amigas. Some of these are: Candy Factory Pro, Fantastic Dreams, Cybergrafx V4, Envoy V3, SuperView Productivity Suite, Winbench98, Eat the Whistle, Olofight, Top Games gold 1 to 3 (three Cds), 500 Screen savers2, Anime Babes Collectors CD, Red hat Linux 5.1, the Vulcanology, the new version of Magellan. etc. Quite a number of these new CDs and disks support the PowerPC, so I strongly suggest that everyone who can should just opt for one of these. Those who have them for the most part seem to be happy with them. Get a tower system for your computer. they are available for 500, 1200, 4000 and the 3000 (and maybe more I do not know about) in order to expand what you have and take advantage of a graphics card. Please do not just stick around with an unexpanded machine and complain about lack of support. If you opt for a PC you will be constantly upgrading just to use any new software. We have enough patches and improvements already around and some in the works that were they compiled together we could have our own version of 3.5 ready to go on CD, and "maybe" on disk, but what a collection of disks that would be. Rather than wait for Amiga Inc, Amiga Int and Gateway to lead...we should all be leading them. Get involved in the UGN, attend and support Amiga Computer shows, really support the remaining dealers and encourage new ones to start up. We here at FWD computing are trying to keep in stock all the latest software we can for the Amiga....not just to look at, but to have it here for the users. We have not given up, just tried to offer good service to users. When the business warrants it we will go to offering credit card service, but not till then (most users do not know what credit cards cost the dealer, or that a dealer can be stuck with a long term contract he is responsible for even if he goes under). Thanks to all of our customers from 1998! Frank Davis FWD Computing fdavis@iquest.net http://members.tripod.com/~FWDcomputing/ Working to make computing fun! === Fran, It's a real pleasure to hear from a dealer who's got a positive approach and some good advice to give. When you see all the products listed together, it does help you to realize the world hasn't ended yet. I long ago started creating my own "3.5", as I think many other users have. One advantage of the Amiga community is it's ability to supply us with enough pieces to upgrade the operating system on our own. User groups, the remaining Amiga publications and the Net all provide good information to help others do the same. Thanks for the note, Brad ---------------------------------------------------------------------- O P E N L E T T E R F R O M J E F F S C H I N D L E R An Open Letter to the Amiga Community - December 1998 Amiga has always had certain strengths that have never been matched by any other operating system. It's small, efficient, and multimedia-centric. As Allan Havemose as often said, "We just did it right." Even today the Amiga can outperform and outrun today's dominant operating system. There has been a great deal of excitement and concern over the last few weeks about the future for the Amiga. With the recent announcement in Germany of our OS partner QNX and the demonstration of what this package can do, we began speeding forward to the future. When Amiga Inc. was formed our goal was to determine the best road for Amiga to take. We wanted to: o Continue the current development path and create another version of the operating system. o Build a new team from scratch and re-write the OS with the new features necessary to be competitive. o Locate an operating system with the same ideals and spirit that the Amiga has. We joined in a partnership with QNX to create the NG Amiga. But that didn't mean that we intended to forget about the classic system users and the faithful Amiga community. We're going to continue working on getting 3.5 out the door, but we also need to get started working on the new operating system. We are committed to a long and exciting future for the Amiga, and the community that has kept this magnificent architecture alive. Amiga 3.5 is a work in progress; it has NOT been abandoned. We learned over the last several weeks, that what we believed we were getting from our partners in the project was not always what they understood they were to deliver. So we are going back to each and every partner in the 3.5 project to make sure that what they are working on is what our customers require. It is critical that we deliver what we promised--a complete package. Some of you have been concerned about the future of Amiga and our commitment to our developers and the community. Please know that your questions and e-mails have not been ignored. We are working very hard to complete the final phases of 3.5 and get the developer programs and final specifications worked out with our partner QNX. We want to deliver the most robust and exciting operating system ever. We will do it. Thanks for your patience and support. The Amiga is on the right path, and we look forward to delivering both 3.5 and the NG Amiga soon. Keep the faith. We're close. Jeff Schindler General Manager Amiga Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P E T R O S P E A K S I N A U S T R A L I A {During his recent visit to Australia, Managing Director of Amiga International Inc. Petro Tyschtshenko was interviewed by several members of the press. We can't reprint their stories word for word, but we can bring you some interesting quotes. Brad} * From http://technology.news.com.au/techno/4197226.htm Title: Tenacious Amiga on comeback trail By Garth Montgomery, writing on 19 January ... Gateway expects to generate $100 million revenue from Amiga in the year 2000, and Mr Tyschtshenko is confident of meeting the target. The specifications call for an entertainment machine focused on multimedia games and real-time animation, Internet and networking support, plus digital interface standards for convergence processing hardware. ... However, demand {for Amigas} still exists, according to Mr Tyschtshenko. He generated 10 million Deutschemarks ($9.5 million) in sales between March 1997 and December 1998, with only six staff selling A1200 machines developed in 1991. ... Revenue now comes mainly from poker machines and a booming wedding video industry on the {Indian} sub-continent. * From http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/990119/hardware/it2.html Title: Information Technology - hardware Amiga on track to a comeback By Nathan Cochrane, writing on 19 January ... ``Commodore never got in touch with the users of the computer,'' Tyschtschenko said. ``It's important to understand what people are doing. In the hard times, when I wasn't aware what was happening from day to day, with the bankruptcy I got encouraging e-mails from users. They said `don't give up'. ``The community is very creative and I cared for these people.'' ... He says a multimedia workstation based around the PowerPC chip and running AmigaOS 3.5 could sell next year for less than $US1500 and deliver comparable performance to NT or Mac machines costing several times that amount. A DVD-based set-top interactive box with Net access is also planned. ... ``Regarding the processor platform, I've spoken to Schindler and he told me they (Amiga Inc, the design arm of Amiga) would like to make up their mind late in the European summer for processors. ``There are so many things going on so they would like to grab the best technology they can.'' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W A M I G A S E C T I O N , N E W T E K N I Q U E S NewTekniques Adds New Amiga/Toaster/Flyer Section! For Immediate Release January 22, 1999 (Santa Ana, CA) NewTekniques magazine has announced a new 16-page black and white section that will cover the Amiga, Video Toaster, and Video Toaster Flyer beginning with the February/March 1999 issue. Called, "The Gateway," this new section will appear in the middle of the magazine with 16 pages of dedicated Amiga, Toaster, and Flyer news, tutorials, and reviews, plus advertisements from Amiga, Toaster, and Flyer companies. Each issue will have 10-11 pages of editorial coverage and 4-5 pages of ads. "NewTekniques takes reader feedback very seriously," says NewTekniques associate publisher, Joe Tracy. "One request we've received from our Amiga, Toaster, and Flyer readers is that they'd like to see more print coverage. We had to come up with a way of doing this without cutting out any LightWave or Aura coverage. Using black & white pages in the middle of the magazine was the solution!" "The Gateway" will have its own editor in chief. NewTekniques "Amiga in Motion" columnist, Dhomas Trenn, has been named the editor of this section. Before NewTekniques, Trenn was a regular columnist for CU-Amiga and The Amiga Informer magazines. "Since joining the NewTekniques team, I have had a lot of ideas for increasing coverage for Amiga, Toaster, and Flyer users," says Trenn. "With my new position and the expanded magazine, we can make this a reality." The plan has been in the works for several months and had to meet specific financial requirements for approval. The project was given the green light late last year and has been in production ever since. One of the key elements to making this section possible is the Amiga, Toaster, and Flyer advertisers. Companies that will appear in the first issue of "The Gateway," making the section possible, are Dimension Technologies, DVS Direct, The Lively Computer, Amiga '99, Software Hut, Videolink, OZware, and Videology. "These companies each have made an investment in the Amiga, Toaster, and Flyer community that is greatly appreciated," says Tracy. "We also greatly appreciate our regular readers who got the ball rolling on this solution with their requests for expanded coverage." In addition to the new print section, "The Gateway" will have its own reader-only area on the Web, separate from the current NewTekniques bonus area. This area will contain more bonus coverage, columns, reviews, and downloads to coincide with articles in the print magazine. "If you were to add the new print section and the new bonus area on the Web, it would total about 25+ pages of dedicated coverage for the Amiga, Toaster, and Flyer," says Tracy. Each issue of the print side will contain Amiga, Toaster, and Flyer news, the Flying High column (strictly tutorials), a Toaster column, a feature covering areas like "improving the performance of your Amiga," a question and answer column and a review. The bonus Web site will include Bob Ketchum's "Idea Factory," a new "better business" column by Kevin Hanley, a tips column by Tim Roberts, additional Amiga coverage, and reviews. The bonus section will open in conjunction with the shipping of each issue. Subscribers can also expect to see future articles by Jason Compton, Fletcher Haug, Bohus Blahut, Paul Lara, Greg Scott, and other long-time Amigans. "It's great to see that NewTekniques has been listening to the needs of Toaster/Flyer users," says Hanley who runs his own video business and is the brains behind The Ultimate Flyer Demo. "Now, we will all have a lot to look forward to with each and every issue of NewTekniques!" The February/March issue of NewTekniques ships on February 15 to subscribers. Pages 21 - 36 contain "The Gateway" section. "The Gateway" will be a regular section in each print edition of NewTekniques. The bonus area for the first issue of "The Gateway" will open on February 20. Instructions to access "The Gateway" online will appear on February 20 at http://www.newtekniques.com/bonus. "We want the bonus area for 'The Gateway' to be on-line before the reader receives each issue of the printed version," says Trenn. "This way the downloadable files and extra material are immediately available." Print coverage of the Amiga, Toaster, and Flyer has been drastically reduced throughout the world. So could this be considered a gamble for NewTekniques? "It's never a gamble when you invest in readers," says Tracy. "We're increasing our LightWave coverage, Amiga coverage, Toaster coverage, and Flyer coverage. I believe when you take time to invest in readers and answer their suggestions that they will take time to invest in you. It's a win-win situation." For information on subscribing to NewTekniques, visit http://www.newtekniques.com/TekTicker/Subscribe/subscribe.html. If you are not a subscriber and want to receive the February/March issue, then call 1-800-346-0085 to subscribe and tell the person taking your order that you want your subscription to start with the February/March issue. If you are interested in contributing to "The Gateway" or have ideas for what coverage you would like to see, please email Dhomas Trenn at dhomas@youngmonkey.ca. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C H A N G E S A T N E W T E K NewTek Implements Strategic Staff Changes (January 7) NewTek today announced that it has promoted Donetta Colboch to executive vice president of sales and marketing, Julian Critchfield to executive vice president of engineering, Steve Doubleday to CFO/executive vice president of finance and administration, Pinakin Katbamna (PK) to vice president of sales and Brad Peebler to vice president of marketing. The has company reorganized its engineering, marketing, operations and sales groups to focus on next generation products. "NewTek will be introducing some very exciting 'next generation' products during 1999," said Tim Jenison, CEO and founder of NewTek. "The industry knowledge and experience each of these individuals bring to their posts will not only be paramount for our new products and strategies, but will help propel us into the new millennium." "NewTek has the best selling 3D software in the film, video and broadcast markets with a 50% market share, according to a research study we completed in 1998, " said Wanda Meloni, sr. analysts with Jon Peddie Associates. "Appointing these high-profile and high-energy individuals into key positions at NewTek is definitely a win-win situation for all involved, especially NewTek's customers." New Executive Vice Presidents Donetta Colboch, executive vice president sales and marketing. In her new role, Colboch will oversee NewTek's sales and marketing worldwide. She will drive the development of strategic sales and marketing plans and have bottom line accountability for the companies sales and marketing growth. Julian Critchfield, executive vice president engineering. Critchfield will head up NewTek's hardware and software engineering department. Under Critchfield's leadership, NewTek's engineering department will be consolidated to better integrate all of NewTek's hardware and software products. This integration will be essential for NewTek's next generation products, slated for introduction later the year. Steve Doubleday, CFO and executive vice president finance and administration. Doubleday will now head up finance and administration with responsibility for all p&l, accounting, human resources and day to day operations. This department consolidation will streamline operations and better mirror traditional finance and administration departments. New Vice Presidents Pinakin Katbamna, vice president worldwide sales. Katbamna will spearhead NewTek's entire sales organization. Katbamna will be responsible for all sales channels including e-commerce, e-business, distributor and dealer relations, and international sales. Katbamna will also focus on saturating new markets including gaming and government. Brad Peebler, vice president of marketing. Peebler, as vice president of marketing, will oversee strategic direction of marketing for NewTek's complete product line including LightWave 3D, Inspire 3D, Aura, Calibar and The Video Toaster. He will have a strong focus on developing marketing plans for NewTek's next generation products slated for introduction starting in mid 1999. He will also spearhead partner relationships, product marketing, and marketing communications. The staff changes are effective immediately. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A N O V E L U S E F O R A M I G A FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Central Islip, NY Friday, January 8, 1999 Headyn Thecloudes Publishing announced today the mystery/science fiction novel Mirror of Suspicion has been completely produced on the Amiga. The novel's first chapter is posted on the Mirror of Suspicion website, http://www.li.net/~mirror. which was also created on the Amiga. The web site has generated so much interest that Pamela decided to publish the entire novel on her Amiga. Mr. Hardware Computers provided the expert technical support needed to make this happen. Reader's comments are available on the website now that copies of the book are on sale. Pamela used PageStream3 to typeset Mirror of Suspicion. The book is printed on a state of the art 1200 DPI duplexing laser printer. Mr. Hardware used his Amiga and the internet to locate an excellent book binding system that's imported from the Netherlands. Each book is personalized with the author's signature. "Everything came out beatifully," the happy writer was quoted as exclaiming. Future publications will be produced in the same way, showing that Amiga, even in adversity, can still do it all, better. Author Pamela Renee, aka Ms. Software, says "Amiga is still the computer for the creative mind". Pam was one of the spokespersons for the well known Commodore 1989 ad campaign. She appeared in print ads and a promotional video called Creative People on the Amiga with her husband, Joe Rothman. Pamela says she wouldn't endorse a product she didn't believe in. The Amiga makes it possible to easily express new thoughts and ideas. To Pamela that makes it the best computer. "I'm a talented writer who has been encouraged by the publishing world. They like my work, but there isn't a genre they can squeeze it into. The same narrow thinking that makes the corporate world so PC dependent, makes them want to always publish the same thing over and over again. The Amiga and the internet give me the power to say fie on the big publishing houses. Let's let the public decide what they want to read." If you are looking for something different, Mirror of Suspicion is a Mystery/Science Fiction Novel set in the new millenium. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A 9 9 D O O R P R I Z E S PRESS RELEASE: Amiga 99 -Door Prizes! January 18, 1999 Door Prizes! Yes, everyone loves door prizes. Amigan-St. Louis, producers of the Gateway Computer Show-Amiga 99 are pleased to announce a major addition to our already exceedingly nice selection of door prizes. Two 1/2 hour periods of 727 simulator time, in a real airline simulator. TWA has graciously rented us two 30 minute periods in their Boeing 727 aircraft simulator at St. Louis as door prizes. Winners of either of these door prizes will be escorted to the TWA training department at midnight, Saturday evening, just after the banquet to experience the trill of a lifetime. Imagine being at the controls of a real aircraft simulator. Any of us who have enjoyed flying the computer simulators can only imagine the thrill of handling this gigantic piece of hardware. Now two lucky winners will actually get behind the controls of TWA's 727 airline simulator. The same kind that airlines all over the world use to train their pilots. You can appreciate what an exciting experience this will be for the winners. The lucky individuals will have the opportunity to fly with a real pilot in this simulator, and will receive an official flight logbook, in which we will list the 30 minutes of time spent flying this marvel of flight training. These two prizes make an exciting addition to all the fine prizes that so many companies are providing. Check our web page at: http://www.amiga-stl.com under Amiga99/prizes to see a more complete list. Check back because the list is growing every week. Tickets may be ordered by calling: 1-800-59-AMIGA (26442). Don't wait any longer, purchase your tickets to Amiga 99, the Gateway Computer Show being held in St. Louis, MO, Friday March 12 - Sunday March 14 at the Henry VIII hotel. Winners will be selected from the Saturday prize drawing at the close of Saturdays show. Winners must be present to win and only this time slot is available for the prize. Simulator will be flown in night mode, with motion off. The Amiga... It's taking off, and so is Amiga 99! Bob Scharp bscharp@icon-stl.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C O N T E S T S A T A M I G A 9 9 Amiga99 Show Sponsors Graphic and Programming Contest PRESS RELEASE: Amiga 99 - Screen Saver & Art Contest! January 4, 1999 Amigan-St. Louis, producers of the Gateway Computer Show-Amiga 99 are pleased to announce a Graphic and Programming Contest! In cooperation with Amiga, Inc, who have agreed to help sponsor this contest, we have come up with a contest that will help the Amiga, and create some fun and excitement. Here are the basics... Graphics and Programming Contest Brought to you by Amigan-St. Louis with thanks to Amiga Inc. Rules on the Graphics and Programming Contest All entries must be sent to: Amigan-St. Louis Graphics & Programming Contest P.O. Box 672 Bridgeton, MO 63044 No entries will be accepted that are postmarked after Feburary 20, 1999. They must be received by March 1, 1999 to be entered into contest. There are two sections to this contest. 1. Graphics 2. Programming All decisions of the judges are final. Note: Judges only read the English language. More than one category may be entered by the same person. All entries must be plainly marked with: Title of entry Number disks or zip cartridges (i.e.: 1 of 1, or 1 of 3 etc.) Name of person entering Address of person entering Phone number of person entering. Email address of person entering if one is available. Example: Boing Ball Express 1 of 1 by John Doe 1 Amiga Lane Amigaville, SD. 11111 222-282-8888 JDoe@icon-stl.net Entries can be LhA or JPG to save disk space. They may be sent in on floppies, or zip cartridge. If sending floppies, send two sets, in case of damage. Pack contents carefully. Disks and zip cartridges will not be returned. They become the property of Amigan-St. Louis. All entries, including programs, pics, slides, and anims must be declared as Public Domain. Updates or changes to rules will be posted on web page only at: http://www.amiga-stl.com/sccontest.html No notice of changes is required. It is up to the participant to keep abreast of the rules. We will try to keep changes to a minimum. Please use a virus checker before and while doing all this work. Work submitted containing a virus will be disallowed. Awards will be presented at the closing of Amiga 99, March 14, 1999. Although we would like all participants to attend, we realize some cannot due to distance, cost and other problems. If a participant wins, and is not present, a check in U.S. FUNDS will be mailed to the address given on contest entry. All taxes are the responsibility of the winner. Details... a little more on the Graphic Development...Pics Slides & Anims Each of the three Graphics winners will receive: $100 All images must be a (minimum of) 640 x 480 screen. (Standard VGA A minimum of 256 colors, or 256 shades of grey is acceptable. In other words, you can draw a black and white picture for the contest, but it must be on at least a 256 color screen. Subject matter must be viewable by all ages. (This is a "G" contest folks!) Images themes can be Amiga Computer related, although it is not restricted to that. Sound is optional, but will enhance your chances of winning. There are three (3) categories of Graphics: Pic: Pics shown independently of others. (A stand alone picture complying with the IFF, GIF, TIF, HAM, Ham8 or similarly accepted formats.) Slide Show Pics: Pics shown in conjunction with others. (eg: Subject could depict the ease of adding an Amiga peripheral, such as an accelerator board.) Again, Pics must comply with the IFF, GIF, TIF, HAM, Ham8 or similar format guidelines. Animations: A series of pics following the anim, anim7 or anim8 guidelines. Anims are not to exceed 1 minutes or 1.2 Meg file size. A "Thumbnail" of each pic, slide show or animation is requested. On the Programming... A Screen Saver Program. Prize for best program is $200. Program will be judged for it's ability to: Show pics, slide shows and animations in the Graphics contest. It must support, but is not limited to: IFF, GIF, TIF, PNG, HAM and Ham8. i.e.; minimum of 256 colors on 640 x 480 VGA screen. Animations, conforming to the anim, anim7 and anim8 standards must be supported. Program must have the ability of playing sound. Program must be easy to operate. Program must work with Amiga workbench 3.x. Entry into contest is agreement that the program is public domain. It's author must state so in the initial code. Entry into contest is agreement that program can be used and distributed by: Amiga Inc. and Amigan-St. Louis free of charge with no royalties or fees, now or in the future. Optional - For more credit, add some or all of the following features: Program should load all of the above pics, slides and anims from uncompressed or compressed forms. Provide menu options with keyboard equivalents that comply with the Amiga standards. Provide support for 8 bit sound. Provide support for 16 bit sound. Provide on-line help when "Help" key is pressed. Provide support for menus. Examples are listed below. New Open (Load) Open (Load) recent Save Save As Print Sort Find Quit Provide support for current graphic cards: Picasso II, IV CyberVision64/3D and CyberVision PPC Graffiti GVP Spectrum 2mb card Provide support for ARexx. We all hope this will create some fun and excitement. Let's see how many folks can create some good programming and artwork for the show. Good Luck to all. If you have any questions, please email me at: bscharp@icon-stl.net Bob Scharp Amigan-St. Louis ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M O R E O N A M I G A A C T I V E 14 Jan 1999 Amiga Active - starting the Millennium early. A new UK based Amiga Magazine is planned by PinPrint publishing for launch this spring. Amiga Active will be a monthly, full colour glossy magazine, with high production values and a cover-mounted CD for just UKP 4.99. Dynamic and forward-looking, Amiga Active will be produced by people who understand the Amiga, addressing the wants and needs of today's Amiga user and embracing the Amiga user of tomorrow. Amiga Active will take a fresh look at the Amiga market with innovative content; in-depth news, reviews and features, and everything you need to guide you into the new era of Amiga computing. Amiga Active has funding, dummy issues have been drawn up, and some of the best known names in Amiga journalism have agreed to write for us. The only thing that we are waiting for is a distribution deal, which we are currently negotiating. For any Amiga magazine to succeed, newsstand distribution is essential. In presenting our case to the distribution companies, we need to demonstrate the degree of interest in the title. Therefore we request all interested parties visit our temporary website at http://www.btinternet.com/~pppsales/amiga.html, where you can register your support for the magazine. Why wait for the millennium? Get AmigActive! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N O R W E G I A N M A G W A N T S S T A F F Would you like to be a STAR, a helpfull person? Would you? We need help for AmigaPosten, the only Norwegian Amiga magazine. We want 5 new writers for AmigaPosten, 2 for writing stuff, 1 with a database over evry reader and 2 who does promotion for AmigaPosten. So if you are interested, then e-mail uss at: michal@newmedia.no, or if you have ideas for the magazine, nice tips and so on, please e-mail at our second adress: Aposten@mailcity.com Remember: In the "michal@newmedia.no" I only want serious e-mail with questions about the magazine and questions for a job here. We dont pay, but we want to give the Amiga comunity in Norway something to read! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- G A M E S S O U R C E C O D E R E L E A S E D Monday, January 11th, 1999: Raven Software and Activision have announced the source code release for Raven's blockbuster classics Heretic and Hexen. "As a result of the enormous popularity of the DOOM * source code, we are extremely excited to see what the gaming public can do with the Heretic and Hexen code," says Brian Raffel, vice president of Raven Studios. "It is our hope that people will create such modifications as GL Heretic and GL Hexen and support higher resolutions, greater multiplayer capabilities, mods, and ports to new operating systems like BeOS and Linux. The possibilities are as endless as the community's imagination." The file is approximately 1 meg in size and comes complete with installer, legal information and readme files. Download it today and let your imaginations run wild! (For more ideas on what you can actually DO with this source code, pay a visit to DOOM World. Pretty exciting stuff!) The Heretic/Hexen source code is released for non-profit use. * The DOOM source code is released for non-profit use. DOOM® is a registered trademark of Id Software, Inc. The Id SoftwareTM name is a trademark of Id Software, Inc. Raven, Heretic and Hexen are registered trademarks of Raven Software Corporation. ©1996-1998 Raven Software Corporation. Activision® is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- D E V E L O P M E N T S T O P S A T I S E N G A R D We have recently suffered a hardware failure of our Amiga development system. Due to this unfortunate circumstance, and the fact that the cost of replacing/upgrading the equipment to an operational state is far too expensive in the current Amiga market, Amiga development of Eucalyptus and Blacks Editor is indefinitely suspended. We hope that Amiga, Inc. will have a suitable and cost-effective Amiga solution in the near-future. Until then, there is nothing further we can do. Online support for our software will continue as best it can without the ability to fix bugs and release updates. Development of Eucalyptus for other platforms (Windows95/98, BeOS, Linux, and Solaris) continues, and Blacks Editor is slated to be ported to BeOS. We regret any inconvenience this may cause, and hope to be with you again in the Amiga community of the future. Paul Schifferer Isengard Developments ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S T A R G A T E A R R I V E S Jan 20, 1999 Toysoft Development Inc. is pleased to announce the development of a new e-mail client for the Amiga computers. StarGate includes many basic email features such as message attachment and message decoding. StarGate comes with a very extensive and detailed address book that supports multiple email accounts, personal and business addresses. Preferences are also simplified to make it easy to use. Other features in StarGate are the ability to do quick preview of messages, automatically store the sender's email address and name into the address book, user selectable column views for all mailboxes and folders, multiple accounts with multiple mail servers, enhanced signature and tag lines, more detailed error handling. StarGate supports button or 256 color icons interface. Additional features that are not found in other e-mail clients are custom forms with sounds, peek at your mail server before downloading and direct link to your defined web browser and many more features. Experience the coming of StarGate. Portal opening Feb 1, 1999. See http://www.toysoft-dev.com/stargate.html for a preview. To learn more about Toysoft Development Inc. please visit http://www.toysoft-dev.com or call 1-403-680-1656 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W Y O R K I S U P G R A D E D FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 15, 1999 Finale Development today announced that a NewYork II major upgrade will be made available at Amiga '99 in St. Louis this March. This news comes early, but Finale wanted to let both its current and potential customers know that the much anticipated upgrade is nearing release. Just a few of the additions include; o Offline reading with batch/cache downloading. o "Read & Cache" feature. o Improved subscription manager with search function. o Customizable toolbar images, 64 color image set available. o Posting of attachments using MIME. o Cross Posting ability. o AutoWraps posts to 72 charactors per RFC. o Bug fixes to the UUDecoder and Cache Loader. Purchasers of the current version, dated after January 15th, will be entited to a FREE upgrade to NewYork II. Please save your purchase receipt. A new mailing list has been created to better support the product and discuss plans for a future release in an open forum. To join, place "Subscribe" in the subject of an email to; NewYorkII-request@finale-dev.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- T W O N E W G A M E S : A L I V E M E D I A S O F T Goal! Season 98-99 Goal! Season 98-99 is the latest installment in this excellent football series. Alive mediasoft will soon be releasing the latest update for Goal! which features all the new teams from The Premier League through to the Third Division, as well as the best of the European and international teams. You also now have the option to play league and cup competitions. New screenshots and information will be available very soon. Phoenix Fighters Alive mediasoft's latest signing is an exciting little number called Phoenix Fighters. You will see from the screenshots that PF is an overhead shoot-em up game. Until you get to see the demo running, you can't fully appreciate this. PF has incredibly high speed, super smooth scrolling. This really is a pleasure to play. There are many different missions to play - and I do mean many! The main objective is clearly to reach the exit, but along the way you are set smaller missions and tasks which you must acheive before you can progress to the next stage. There's also a Race mode. This is a high-paced, high adrenalin mode where you race a computer controlled opponent to the exit. There's also an obstacle course mode where you must fly around collecting gems and bringing them back to base. One of the best features is the Dog Fight Mode. I don't think the title needs an explanation, but for those who haven't played many flight games before, this is one of the best ways to test your skill - against a friend (or enemy!) All the modes are excellent, but then there's the added bonus of being able to play any mode in a split-screen fashion so two of you can play against each other on the same Amiga and same monitor. A full feature list and demo will be available soon. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A P A C H E F O R A M I G A , F O R F R E E 19 Jan 1999 Announcement for immediate release: Amiga Apache Web server with PHP Web scripting language: now available for free. Apache is now the most popular Web server available in over 2 million sites in the world. Many pages made available by Web servers are generated dinamically with scripting languages, being Perl one of the most popular with over 1 million users. But for Web scripting PHP (http://www.php.net) is one of the fastest growing languages being used in over 300.000 sites in the world. Since PHP is a language available in an Open Source project, it was now made available in pre-compiled archives for the Amiga. The binary archive may be found at http://www.php.net/binaries.php3. The documentation of PHP language may be found in several formats (HTML, PDF, RTF, etc...) at: http://www.php.net/docs.php3. This version of PHP 3.0.6 is available in two formats for the Amiga: one as a standalone CGI based executable and another as language module built-in the Amiga Apache executable. These versions were built with support to: * mSQL Relational Database Management System client library version 2.0.5. There is a version of mSQL for the Amiga at: http://altern.org/cfc/msql/. * MySQL Relational Database Management System access * XML parsing with expat XML parser library * PDF (Adobe Acrobat) documents on-fly generation with PDFlib version 0.6 * GIF images on-fly generation with GD library version 1.3 This version (1.3.3) of Amiga Apache (http://www.dsdelft.nl/~apache/) was built with PHP 3.0.6 as internal module by Manuel Lemos. If you need further assistance, send message to mlemos@acm.org. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- R E G I S T R A T I O N S E R V I C E F O R A U T H O R S 11 Jan 1999 AmigaSoc UK User Group Offers Registration Services Calling All Shareware Authors AmigaSoc UK is pleased to announce the start of our shareware registration programme. In an effort to encourage more people to register shareware, AmigaSoc will be visiting all future UK Amiga shows (starting with the Kickstart sale on Feb 27th). At each show we hope to be able to offer a range of shareware programs that can be registered then and there without having to worry about currency conversions or sending off travellers cheques to far flung corners of the globe. If you are the author of a shareware program and you are interested in letting AmigaSoc help obtain registrations for your program then we would like to hear from you. Please email chrisl@uk.amigasoc.org or contact us via the feedback form on our website, and help us create a valuable service for all members of the Amiga community. More information will be made available at http://uk.amigasoc.org/sharew are/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E U R O C O N V E R T E R D E B U T S 11 Jan 1999 A freeware Euro converter, for AmiBroker, was released on request, on January 7. You may only find it at my website. If you use it, all I ask is that you give me feedback. This program can be used to convert, up or down, a whole database, in any revalued currency, in one operation. Let's hope you never have to use it for that purpose! Currently, the main use is to convert databases, in certain currencies, to Euros. The revised 1.01 version can stop at a predetermined date. This major feature will be usefull to most who still need to convert their database(s) to Euros. That means everyone involved with the new currency & AmiBroker, since it was requested *after* the inauguration date. A few other minor problems in the initial release are also fixed. Because of two digits years, the program has an approximate lifespan of about 60 years, or more (depending upon your earliest database date). Practice before Saving, and use at your own risk. Cheers! The World of AmiBroker Support http://webhome.idirect.com/~ddalley ddalley@idirect.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M U S I C C D M A D E O N A M I G A 7 Jan 1999 Howdy Brad, I'd like to announcing my new Album '2Badsheep for all Amiga Music fans. Amiga made and inspired. I invite you to visit my website and hear some mp3 songs off this disc. http://www.txdirect.net/~sidewind/newcd.htm This Album is Amigasynth/technopop and euro styles.) You can also find my original Amiga produced CD, Future Shock 2 available for a special price. http://www.txdirect.net/~sidewind/ ========================================================= S I D E WINDER PRODUCTIONS the unlimited music experience (art and sheep too) http://www.txdirect.net/~sidewind/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A R T S T U D I O P R O F E S S I O N A L ArtStudio Professional The new version of ArtStudio was extended about many efficiently functions. o It makes possible the searching of lists and whole hard discs / CD-Roms. o ArtStudio runs on every graphic board and in every resolution because of window technique. o The screen mode is free choosable by screen mode requester. o Supports PopUpMenu`s and Drag o More than one picture overview-window can open o Creates categories automatically on basis of directory-structur. o Windows are free adjustable therefore many individual settings are possible for every catalogue. o The program supports now over 50 graphic formats which will be recognized automatically. o Vectorformats like Postscript, WMF, WPG, AMF, DSDR aso. o Animationsformats: Anim5,7,8 FLI, FLC, AVI, MPEG, QUICKTIME and further exotic formats like e.g. "TIM" well-kown from the Playstation or FAX, ICON, FONT a.s.o. o Supports ScanQuix directly o You can merge two or more catalogs o Many additional tools for converting, manipulation and displaying of pictures. o Animationviewer o Creates complete HTML-pages for presentation on Internet automatically. o Reads prictures from LHA, LZH and LZX -Archives. o Creats LHA and LZX archives. o Pictures can be converted in other graphic formats, for examble JPEG, IFF, SunRaster, SGI, IFFDEEP, YUV etc. o Over 40 powerful functions of picture manipulation exists and are now included, for examble MotionBlur, Sharpen or Mirroring. o CyberGFX supporting, the miniature pictures can be displayed in TrueColour (24 bit), now. o Showing of all pictures in 16 Mill. colours, it's also possible into one window on the ArtStudio screen. o The miniature pictures have a great picture quality because of Bi-interpolation and Floyd-Steinberg-Dithering. o Loading-routines and converting have been optimized which makes it possible an essential faster reading of the pictures into the catalogue. o When using 24 bit mode the miniature pictures can be saved also as JPEG formats by very low consumption of hard disc memory. o Drivers are available for ECS, AGA, Graffiti, Retina, Picasso and Cybergraphics. o It's possible to include external picture viewers which are separated in every graphic format. o Additional tools for viewing, converting or picture manipulating by CLI, WB or other programs. o Extended search function. o The functions for converting, copying or deleting of pictures can be automated now. o Directly exportation of pictures into other programs like AdPro, ArtEffekt, XiPaint, DPaint5 and so on. o Lots of ARexx scripts are included in this consignment. o The program and the guide are now available in English. o Easily handling. o full Draco compatible when using the 68xxx routines o improved preference setting, now in HiRes too o output the catalogue on printer with or without the miniature pictures or into a file o new loadermodules: now 55 loaders avaible o new viewermodules: Graffiticard Viewer (now for ECS-User 256 colors on screendisplay for every graphicformat) o further ARexx-Scripts o JPEG-Loader 3 times faster as before o optimize routines for 68040/060 Amigas and PowerPC routines for full light-speed. :) o and some little improvements o The external viewers can set for each graphicformat or for all formats Because of this, it`s more comfortable to set the external viewers o LHA/LHZ/LZX support, archives were recognized automatically and searched for pictures. Of course it`s possible to catalogue different pictureformats containing in a LHA-LZX files. ArtStudio also recognized pictures which are stored in subdirectories in LHA-LZX files resp. containing spaces in their filenames. o You can see the contents of a LHA/LZX-archives in the Image information-window o Importmodul for PictureManager catalogues, they will transform in ArtStudio`s catalogue format automatically. o AppIcon on Workbench, because of that you can catalogue a drawer simply by drop it`s icon on ArtStudio`s AppIcon. A ArtStudio catalogue has to be opened before you can do this. o easier loading of pictures resp. catalougues. ArtStudio saves the last directory-path which you have used automatically. After a newstart ArtStudio knows the last path and you can continue the cataloging of your pictures. o SpeedUpScript, to improve the speed for 40% especially useful for PhotoCD`s. First you have to start the script than ArtStudio o many little improvements for better handling o external FLI/FLC Player for CyberGFX o external AVI-Player for AGA and CyberGFX o external QUICKTIME-Player for AGA and CyberGFX Price: 69.- DM Update from V1.0 to V3.1: 29.- DM Update from V2.0 to V3.1: 29.- DM Update from V2.5 to V3.1: 29.- DM CrossUpdate: 39.- DM Technical hotline for registered users: Motion Studios Wildermuthplatz 3 D-28211 Bremen Tel. : +49-(0)421/24 99 66 Fax. : +49-(0)421/24 95 56 email : MotionStudios@mail.netwave.de www.titancomputer.de/motionstudios/indexe.html Hotline hours: Mo. - Fr. 16.30 - 18.00 Uhr Distribution through: Titan Computer Mahndorfer Heerstr. 80a D-28307 Bremen Tel. : +49-(0)421/48 16 20 Fax. : +49-(0)421/48 16 20 Opening hours: Mo. - Fr. 10.00 - 13.00 und 15.00 - 19.30 Uhr Sa. 10.00 - 14.30 Uhr ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: All back issues available at: http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html Stop by and check out our archive! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1999 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. ====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ A M I G A /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ amigaupdate@globaldialog.com ======================================================================