====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional e-mail I'LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I TAKE DELIVERY || Newsmagazine) ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 991018 O S 3 . 5 S H I P D A T E I W I N P R E S S C O N F E R E N C E R E P O R T I W I N C O R P T A K E N O V E R F U S I O N P P C S T A T E M E N T A M I G A C T I V E O N S T A N D S ( I N B R I T A I N ) P E R S U A S I V E S O F T W O R X S T A T E M E N T I M A G I N E S T I L L B E I N G D E V E L O P E D C O N T A C T M A N A G E R A V A I L A B L E S T A R G A T E 2 . 2 I S O U T P O W E R P A C K V O L I F R O M E Y E L I G H T N E W S F R O M H A A G E & P A R T N E R V I R T U A L G P G A M E A V A I L A B L E A M I R C F R O M V A P O R W A R E S O U N D P R O B E S A M P L E R M F T P - I I A V A I L A B L E F R O M V A P O R W A R E V E R S I O N 1 . 8 B O F N E W S R O G Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: We live in anomalous times. There's so much to think and talk about within the Amiga community, and yet there's not that much real news. It's possible we'll have to scale back our target of two AUs a month for a while. Regardless, we'll bring you the news when it happens. Our other role is to provide entertaining rumors. We don't know how entertaining the current rumors are, but here's what we've picked up lately. Remember, these are all just rumors. First, Amiga the company is all but gone. The AmigaObjects project is cancelled. Rick LeFaivre has gone on to other Gateway work. The new employees brought in by Jim Collas during his days at the helm of Amiga are all laid off. Dr. Havemose is gone also. Second, Amiga International in Germany will be disbanded at the end of this month. They're only being kept around to sell the remaining stock of Amiga items. Is there any truth to either of those rumors? We don't know, but they've been getting enough circulation on line that we thought we'd include them here. Remember, just rumors ... On a much more positive note, we've communicated with Fleecy Moss about Amino, Aqua and the Phoenix Consortium. Here's some of what he had to say to us: "Bill [McEwen] and I have formed a company called Amino Development, LLC, which we intend to use to provide THE total digital convergence solution that the world will use. To do this, we intend to partner with various outstanding companies which, we feel, develop products in a manner that is in harmony with the Amiga philosophy. However, we are not going to target talking ovens and flashing watches, and tell the Amiga community that this is their future, we are going to apply a dual market approach, one that speaks to both the global digital convergence market, and one that speaks exclusively to the anti wintel, something different, power user, philosophy before profit market that found a natural home with the classic Amiga. "Phoenix is a group of developers that want to create an environment and organisation in which they can work together for common standards, mutual benefit etc. We are a member, but we are not the driving force behind it. We are as equal as every other developer in the organisation. "AQUA is the name of the architecture that we intend to develop. "We don't want to say too much, and in fact didn't want to say anything until we had partners, money and staff. The Amiga community has had too many dreams turn into dust and we don't want to be another one, but the depression after the Collas and Schmidt announcements was so deep that we felt just a small announcement was warranted. "Over the next few weeks, we hope to complete the creation of our company and will release more then. If it all falls apart, then it all falls apart, and we apologise in advance...we are trying though..." Something tells me no apologies will be required even if it falls apart. I think most Amigans are just pleased that someone is trying to build a future we can participate in. It's going to be a tough fight, but there are a lot of us on your side. We'd like to point out to the readers that it's very early days yet for all of these items, so be patient. We'll keep you apprised of progress, and we'll include a few juicy rumors, clearly labeled, as they come along also. Below we have a mixed bag of news this time around - some good, some not so good. That's the way it is right now, and probably will be for a while. One thing to keep in mind though - while there's news, we're not dead yet, and the future can still be shaped. One quick word about letters. We've been receiving a great number of letters from readers lately - no surprise there! We regret that we can't answer them all and aplogize to the writers of those we've had to leave out. Please don't stop writing - it's important to us to know what our readers our thinking. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail to the E-ditor: 11 Oct 1999 We are running four Amiga 2000 computers with Video Toasters. I am concerned about Y2K problems with the Amigas. Should I be? Larry Thanks. ~~~~~~ Larry, As far as I know, there's nothing to be worried about. Can the readers enlighten us about Y2K problems with Amigas running Toasters? Anything there to be concerned about, including perhaps with utilities often used with Toasters? Thanks, Brad ====== 17 Sep 1999 Brad - After reading Mr. Schmidt's 14 Sep 99 letter, I was very disappointed with AI's new plans. I remind Mr. Schmidt we could have had an Amiga-based set-top-box two years ago from Viscorp! I only hope AI will have a liberal enough licensing program to allow current Amiga developers (and the Phoenix Platform Consortium) to continue with their ideas of what a new Amiga should be. Since we likely won't be seeing new generation Amigas soon, is anyone making the A4000T? Quikpak supposedly reached an agreement with the German attorney (regarding their inventory of A4000 parts) quite some time ago. Is the company that ended up with those parts now producing A4000Ts? I haven't heard any followup on this subject from any Amiga news source. Thanks for Amiga Update. Mike ~~~~~~ Mike, My understanding was the A4000 parts once owned by QuikPak were sent to Amiga Int. in Germany. I have no idea what has happened to them since; whether actual units have been made from them or not. If anyone knows, please tell us and we'll pass the information along. Thanks, Brad ====== 26 Sep 1999 Dear Brad It is a sad time but not unusual for those of us devoted to the Amiga concept. I still look forward to this letter in my mailbox and thanks for at least trying to disseminate some information. I hope the Phoenix lives up to its name. I am still here as are thousands of others. I am upgrading my 2000 big box because the damn thing at 10 years old is STILL MORE STABLE than windows 95 and 98!! and I still like voyager aweb and ibrowse better than ie5 and netscape ( though Netscape has potential) the 060 and egs board are on order Now if I can get the hang of Linux... Dan ~~~~~~ Dan, Like you, I have great hopes for the Phoenix Consortium, the Amino company and the Amiga community working together. Some of the best Amiga minds from throughout our history are involved in the various facets of this potential rebirth.If anyone can launch a computer's rebirth , Amigans can. We'll keep you posted. Brad ====== 26 Sep 1999 MY barely computer-literate daughter told me today about some great device that looks like a turtle (LOGO??) that you plug into your computer and then you draw lines on the screen and the device vaccuums the floor in the pattern you have drawn. Is THIS what Gateway is going to do with the Amiga????? It makes me sick at my stomach! Macey ~~~~~~ Macey, Yours is one of the scariest letters is seen in a while! It would be bitter irony indeed if Gateway could go so far as to make us hate the name Amiga because of what they put it on. Better to drop the name entirely. Brad ---------------------------------------------------------------------- O S 3 . 5 S H I P D A T E October 14, 1999 OS3.5 to be shipped soon! The long awaited AMIGA OS3.5 will be shipped to the dealers and distributors worldwide, starting October 18. To order, please contact your local dealer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I W I N P R E S S C O N F E R E N C E R E P O R T By Mathias Ortmann (Author of UAE) {Note: this item was posted to the Net by Mr. Ortmann. Brad} 2 Oct 1999 This morning, I attended the Iwin press conference in Unterhaching. Although in theory, 23 people should have come (there was room for 30, and according to [1], "7 places are still available"), there were only *three* guests (and I hadn't even bothered to apply for an invitation), the other two being from http://www.amiga-news.de/ (a more detailed report should appear there tonight). Martin Steinbach arrived with nothing but ten copies of the Iwin "press kit", consisting of printouts of the PDF files we already know (product specs and the five-year roadmap), plus two sample ads ("Would you like this to be your new girlfriend? - Everything you were dreaming fo for such a long time" and "High end computing for game-console prices! Las amigas vuelven en casa..."). There was no video (as promised on [1]: "Iwin - an introduction") and no "Iwin Insurance 1.0" or "Iwin VideoStore" presentations. We had a three-hour talk with Martin. Unfortunately, he failed to give a single convincing answer during that time. He claimed that the Iwin custom chips were basically UAE source code cast in silicon and that the sample chip design and production was done mostly for free by their hardware partners. He tried to explain the fact that he is a Merant employee with tax reasons (about the photos posted at compcity.nl, he claimed that some of them showed the Merant office, while the others showed the actual Iwin office, and the Merant pictures "should not have been published"). Regarding Tulip and the "Commodore" name, he stated that the price doubled from 18 to 36 million (he didn't specify a currency - I believe he meant Austrian Schillings, as he is from Austria) after an interview was published early. He said that "black boxes" will be shown during the Indianapolis show on the upcoming weekend, but made conflicting statements about the meaning of "black box" (just empty boxes vs. working beta hardware) and that they would not attend HEW due to problems with AInc. Germany. Regarding the fake files in the download section, he refused to give an answer and told me to ask Rue Ann instead. The Holiday Inn lunch buffet was okay. Of course, most of the seats remained unused. :-) I left with lots of promises (he wants to send me the missing video, a *working* PowerSE demo CD and tons of info material) and the uneasy feeling of having been lied to for three hours in a row. [1] /News/Press/Press_relations/October_Conference/ body_october_conference.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I W I N C O R P T A K E N O V E R On Monday, the 4th of October negotiations with "FOCKE SYSTEMS Ges.m.b.H" in Austria were finished resulting in a takeover of Iwin Corporation. Negotiations already started a month ago, but both parties were forced to keep silent during the negotiations. Focke Systems Ges.m.b.H first announced that the management will stay, but in a rushly called in meeting last night, the President of Focke Systems Ges.m.b.H - Mr. Gerhard Frank - announced that the management of Iwin Corporation will be replaced. Only Rue Ann Mark will stay as CEO and Chairman of the new firm "Iwin Hardware Products". Iwin Corporation will be split into three new independent firms. "Iwin Software Products" which will continue the development of Server and workstation computers and the C-Series. "Iwin Consulting" which will be responsible for installations, support and training. New CEO's, presidents and chairmans have to be found for "Iwin Consulting" and "Iwin Software Products". A seperate press-release will be sent out as soon as they have been found and elected. The current management has resigned from their positions. Martin Steinbach and Peter Steck will continue to be available for "Iwin Hardware Products" and "Iwin Software Products" for general questions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- F U S I O N P P C S T A T E M E N T 14 Oct 1999 To all Amiga emulation users, Blittersoft would like to make a statement regarding the response to the Fusion PPC Amiga situation. Whilst Microcode Solutions announced the 60 day countdown on September 20th, there was not the required 500 prepayments that were supposed to trigger this. As announced by Microcode Solutions, Blittersoft made the commitment for 500 orders to enable this product to actually see the light of day. This was made with some confidence given the many users who stated they would pay after the countdown began. Unfortunately, despite over 600 pledges, we have seen about a third actually prepay. Many have declined to authorise and the situation is that we have backed this process believing the Amiga community who made a commitment would actually follow through and keep their word. This is despite the countdown being close to half way. Whilst I accept that there will be those who circumstances may effect the ability to complete their pledge, I think it is fair to say that this would cater for a handful. It is sad to report that many people who pledged must have done so without ever considering the consequences of failing to meet this pledge. Well, the consequences are that Blittersoft will not make this type of gesture again. The same situation could well happen with the PCx PC software. Again, there have been many requests (about 350) and it is Microcode's intention is to begin the countdown for this after the Fusion PPC is released and 500 pledges become 500 payments. Blittersoft will be prepared to make the same gesture and back the product to the tune of 500 orders if we receive the level of support promised by the Amiga emulation community. Everyone knows the situation with Amiga development. Piracy is still a big problem and now it seems that even planned schemes to secure development can also not be trusted. The bottom line is that the Amiga needs quality support by it's users if there is still to be quality development. I will end with a simple request: If you did pledge your suppport to pre-pay Fusion PPC and have not done so, please reconsider and do so now. Best wishes, Paul Lesurf Blittersoft ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A C T I V E O N S T A N D S ( I N B R I T A I N ) 2 Oct 99 {Posted to the neb ty Angus Manwaring. Brad} Just in case you've not heard, the new Amiga magazine AmigActive is on sale in newsagents now. It looks pretty good to me, nice and glossy, it's not as thick as we'd like, but the content appears to be high. There's also a 35 meg (I think) demo of T-Zero on the cover disk. From what I've seen the magazine looks like a fine effort, well worth checking out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P E R S U A S I V E S O F T W O R X S T A T E M E N T 26 Sep 1999 Future of Amiga Statement In our opinion, the Amiga - as we know it - simply is dead. And this since years. There's still a number of software delivered, that at least somehow has kept the so-called Amiga community alive so far, but in our opinion it's more than unlikely that we ever will face a real Amiga successor, that does provide a sufficient level of backward compatibility, thus being able to build a working and persuading way of smooth migration. Maybe once AROS will allow to at least port a few applications to other platforms, but this solely won't make an Amiga successor. As neither would make the sole capability to run UAE, since this already is possible on EVERY major platform. Development of a real new platform, consisting of a real new OS and real new hardware INCLUDING a decent software-emulation for 68k/PPC backward compatibility in our opinion will fail because of either one or all of the following reasons: - no one to take the riscs - no financial backing - no full-time efforts - not enough people willing or able to actively contribute - not really enough people exactly sharing a common goal - nearly everyone has a different opinion, thus: different goals - a number of people only are interested in their OWN views (and EGOs), i.e. trying to prove themselves - own business is seen more important than a common goal or vision (naturally) - at the beginning, it takes small teams to follow visions, not large groups - too expensive (in production and end-user pricing) - etc. This all could be watched in newsgroups and other public places recently. We nevertheless will support the Amiga rest-market (68k/PPC) as long as possible. However, for the future, we do recommend to take a look at other systems, like BeOS, Linux, Mac or Windows (not necessarily in this order). It may be the better choice, than waiting for any kind of "Amiga sucessor", that maybe actually won't be one. Hello, wake up! The dream is over! P.S.: ...or at least buy a G4 board and register your software. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I M A G I N E S T I L L B E I N G D E V E L O P E D Imagine for Amiga 2nd October 1999 - We would like to assure everyone that Imagine for the Amiga is still in active development, and will continue to be developed in light of the future Amiga development plan details released from the Amiga parent company/Gateway. Imagine is currently in the Constant Upgrade Program phase, where the current release is version V5.16. Further PowerPC support, and many enhancements, will be added in future ACUP releases. A brief list of additions and changes for the V5.16 release are detailed below: - Reworked Detail and Stage editor menus to bring them into line with Imagine For Windows. - Detail editor: Save object "overwrite requester" improved. - Added Lightwave and 3DStudio object export functions. - Added three new primitive object types - Hemisphere, Rod and Box. - Added new "sharp edges" option to the relevant primitive objects. - Added new right mouse button "popup menu" functionality. - Added support for double-clicking an object type within the primitive object window. - Added support for double-clicking a render size type within the sub-project/render resolution window. - Added "path length" option to Detail editor. - Added two new "lite" procedural textures - Purplehaze and Caustics. - Added three new procedural textures (in 040 and 060 CPU versions) - SSFBumps, SSPBumps and SSRBumps. - Optimized PPC version of the MPEG video creator; Now utilises the custom PPC maths routines. - Improved GUI; This includes the main editors, and the requesters. - Added default X & Y aspect ratios to rendering resolution types. - Added an Imagine Splash screen. This uses the OS3.x Datatypes, and also supports the 24Bit datatype system if available. - ...and Miscellaneous other changes/enhancements which are detailed in the included AmigaGuide documentation. Further information and screenshots can be obtained from the main Imagine for Amiga webpage at: http://www.cadtech.demon.co.uk/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C O N T A C T M A N A G E R A V A I L A B L E 26 Sep 1999 The Contact Manager from VaporWare is a unique product for the Amiga. It's best described as a diary / address book which allows you to store all your contacts' user information, favourite web & ftp sites and IRC server/channels. It has been designed as a replacement to all the different bookmarks, addressbooks and similar GUI's that are built into the many different Amiga Internet and comms programs. Contact Manager is versitile enough to work as an API between other, non net related programs. For instance setup an arexx script in Wordworth to pool information to mail merge into documents. ie. say you want to send a standard document to a number of friends, simply create a script that grabs names and addresses from the 'users' section within Contact Manager, then merge and print them to your document. Contact Manager offers a number of features not found in many of the internal bookmark/addressbooks, as seen below. Information Storage & Interaction One user can have different types of information. Include their address, email address, phone number, fax number, web site, ftp site, ICQ number, etc. All these options can be utilised by other software. Voyager can use the web information, Microdot-II can use the email address, STFax Pro can use the fax number, STRicq can utilise the ICQ number and so on. Some programs may use Contact Manager in other ways too, such as pressing To: in Microdot-II. One GUI, many programs You can store all the information you require within one simple interface. No need to worry about Microdot-II's addressbook, Voyager's bookmarks, STFax Pro's phonebook, AmFTP's server list etc. Retrieve Information From Anywhere! Textinput (the built in Vapor text editor that ships with Microdot-II, Voyager, AmIRC, STFax Pro amongst others) now supports the ability to insert Contact Manager information into any document. While writing a message with Microdot-II, you could insert a name, email address, phone number or any other Contact Manager field, directly into that document. You will never have to remember a friends email address ever again! Groups & Subgroups Contact Manager allows you to create groups for different kinds of users/addresses. AmFTP, for instance, does not allow you to create groups or sub-groups within its server list, however this can be achieved via Contact Manager. Multi-user support If you are using Genesis as your TCP/IP stack, then Contact Manager will support and allow multiple users within one interface. If there's more than one user in your house (other family members, perhaps), each user can have their own configurations, password protected, so that their information remains private. Plugin links AmIRC (from v2.1) now ships with an internal Contact Manager plugin, allowing you to add users to the Contact Manager from within AmIRC (based on the current userlist), and also to add your favourite channels to Contact Manager's channel list. You can even search for entries within Contact Manager from within AmIRC. Please remember, Contact Manager is shareware. If you use it, please register the software and help support Amiga software development. Download Contact Manager today from the VaporWare web site and see how much easier it'll be to manage your sites and friends. There is a Contact Manager Mailing List run by VaporWare for users to discuss the software. Please feel free to sign up for it, your question may be answered there. http://www.vapor.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S T A R G A T E 2 . 2 I S O U T Toysoft Development Announces StarGate 2.2 October 4, 1999 Toysoft Development Inc. is pleased to announce the release of StarGate v2.2. StarGate is an email and news client for Workbench 3.x. Features in v2.2 are: o Random forms when composing a new message o Deleting a message will open the next unread message o Support for Virtual Card file. You can now send and receive business cards. This includes users from Windows platforms o Added support for External editor o Supports Followup when reading news articles o Batch picture download. Select news groups and StarGate will scan for any binary files. StarGat can also display the picture as it downloads or save them for later viewing Additional features: Mail ---- o Supports multiple E-mail accounts. Accounts can be turned off at anytime. o Detailed address book with multiple email acccount support. o When sending email you can address users by their first or last name. o Auto preview of messages. o Peek mail. Preview your mail on the mail server before downloading. o Support PowerPC for MIME decoding and encoding of files. o Direct http links to your web browser. o Easy file attachments using UU or MIME methods. o Button, Large or Small 256 color icon interface. o Toolbar support for text formating. eg: Bold, Underline, Italic and Colors o Optionally send mail as embeded HTML News ---- o Integrated with StarGate Mail. eg: AddressBook, Folders, Filters, etc.. o Post articles include files in UU or MIME format. o Decode files in UU and MIME format. o Batch article download. o Article filing to custom folders. o Retrieve article at a specific position eg: skip the first 50 article.s o Supports embeded HTML. Use your web browser to view HTML articles. o Double click on URL hot links or email address to send an email. For more information please visit http://www.toysoft-dev.com To download the demo version double click http://www.toysoft-dev.com/stargate.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P O W E R P A C K V O L I F R O M E Y E L I G H T October 7th, 1999 ROME, ITALY (October 7th, 1999) Eyelight is proud to announce that the first volume of the PowerPack series is ready and shipping. PowerPack Volume I: Image Maps, is a collection of professionally painted and acquired image maps suitable for any rendering package. PowerPack Volume I: Image Maps, is shipped on CD-Rom and contains over four hundreds high-resolution, high-quality, image maps in seamless TARGA format. In addition to normal maps, there is also a large selection of seamlessly tileable images and predistorted spherical images for pixel perfect reflection mapping. "Every Computer Graphics textbook I have read says complex texturing is the most important thing when rendering realism is expected" comments Massimiliano Marras, Eyelight founder and CEO "I'm pretty sure the PowerPack's many images can cope even with the most demanding creations." Enhanced by an easy to use index system that can be read by any modern Web Browser, the PowerPack is compatible with virtually any rendering package and any operating system. It also features appetizers from further volumes of the PowerPack series: Organic 3D models and Animated Maps. Eyelight is a 3D Graphics and animation firm located in Rome, Italy, whose flagship software product is Tornado3D, a modeling animation and rendering package for Amiga and DraCo computers. PowerPack Volume I is priced at 29.95 EURO (approx 30.00 USD) and is available direct from Eyelight's web site as well as from the many Eyelight-approved dealers worldwide. Both an online viewable table of contents, and a free Appetizer demo are available on http://www.eyelight-it.com/ppack.html Eyelight Via del Serafico, 64 00142 Rome Italy voice: +39-06-51965486/7 fax: +39-06-51965488 e-mail: sales@eyelight-it.com www: http://www.eyelight-it.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W S F R O M H A A G E & P A R T N E R 28 Sept 99: STFax 4.0 available STFax 4 was written with the intention of creating a centralised communications tool for the consumer and SOHO market. The main intention of STFax 4 is to offer advanced features, yet retain ease of use, supporting a number of different communication mediums, such as fax, voice, data, and, later, email and GSM/SMS. STFax 4 offers scalability, adapting to the home user needing a simple answer/fax machine replacement, through to a company requiring automated fax and voice message distribution across small network of computers. Enhanced flexibility also enables a travelling businessman to install onto his notebook, running under UAE, connect his GSM phone and send/receive a fax, receive/reply/send an SMS message, write/send/receive email or even remotely access the local STFax 4, situated within the office. The new features o 120 professional recorded messages (English and German) o improved usability o many extended features o much improved Remote Access system o much improved Fax on demand system o auto-forward of incoming faxes o background printing o plays a sample when a new fax/file/message arrives o improved USRobotics support (quality improvement) System Requirements Processor / CPU: 68020 Operating System: AmigaOS 3 or better RAM: 2 MB Fast, 1 MB Chip Graphics System: any Storage: Hard Disk, CD-ROM Others: 14.4k Modem (US Robotics, ZyXEL, Dynalink, all Rockwell based modems) STFax does *not* support ISDN modems and cards yet. graphics board or 2Mb of chip to display big faxes 68030/50 is the minimum needed to playback voice messages to Amiga audio Prices and Availability Availability: beginning of October Version: 4.0 Format: CD-ROM Price Full Version: 98 DM Price Update: 59 DM Price Sidegrade: 79 DM (of GPFax, TrapFax, MultiFax, FaxQuix; please tell us your registration number!) A demo of version 3.7 is available on our FTP server. STFax is a product of Active Technologies and Simone Tellini. It is distributed by Active Technologies and Haage & Partner (world-wide except for UK). 28 Sept 99: NetConnect 3 available soon NetConnect 3 is the latest version of the award-winning NetConnect package from Active Technologies. NetConnect 3 is the easiest and most comprehensive Internet compilation for the Amiga to date, and is designed to enable any Amiga user from novice to expert to get onto and use the Internet. More Details Please visit our homepage for more news and information: http://www.haage-partner.com/e.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- V I R T U A L G P G A M E A V A I L A B L E Paolo Cattanis Virtual GP Released: August 1999 Versions available: CD Rom Game Genre: Racing Simulation System requirements: AGA or GFX card Amiga, 6 MByte Ram, Harddrive Price: DM 89.- / 45,40 EURO Introduction: Paolo Cattanis Virtual GP is the best fomular one car racing simulation since the classic Microprose game Formula One Grand Prix. It includes all 16 1999 tracks, all teams and drivers with their abilities. The game features the best 3D engine of any Amiga racing game so far. But more important, Virtual GP is probably the most acurate simulation of formula one racing ever, on any platform! Features: All 16 championship tracks All teams of the 1999 season Race complete championship season or just single races Qualifying, Warm Up and Race 3D texture mapped graphics In game speech Choose from 6 different camera angles Spectacular crashes Opponenets that will learn your tricks Download Demo http://www.epic-marketing.de/VGP_UK.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I R C F R O M V A P O R W A R E 26 Sep 1999 AmIRC was the first VaporWare application to be shown to the Amiga world. Its author, Oliver Wagner, has worked too many late nights on the program to count, and continues to update it to this day. AmIRC's main strengths lie in its interface - it's one of the easiest IRC clients to use on any platform, yet it also keeps the power users happy with advanced ARexx scripting and its plugin API, allowing unique new features to be added. It also features a URL grabber to capture any URLs mentioned in any channels or query windows, a lag-o-meter to measure your system's lag from the server, and strong builtin flood protection including a staggered output queue to stop you flooding yourself off the server. For IRCing on the Amiga, AmIRC should be your number one choice. Please remember, AmIRC is shareware. If you use it, please register the software and help support Amiga software development. Download AmIRC 3.2 and see why it's the best IRC client for the Amiga. If you registered AmIRC 1.x or AmIRC 2.x, you can update to version 3.2. There is an AmIRC Mailing List run by VaporWare for users to discuss the software. Please feel free to sign up for it, your question may be answered there. Features o Advanced Low Level Plugin API. o Single Window Iconification. o Lag-o-meter shows lag from the server o Individual window logging. o Intuitive channel window with userlist and mode display. o Builtin high speed DCC drivers, incl. Secure Chat. o ARexx port includes event trapping. o IRCNet and UnderNet extensions. o Oper and clone announcement. o Builtin IdentD, disables itself if needed. o Bind sound effects, auto deiconify or ARexx to events. o Last nick history, TAB key cycles through. o URL grabber saves any URLs to send to your web browser. o Supports colored text for both input (WYSIWIG) and output. o CTCP/DCC flood protection. o Timestamping of lines and inline clickable URLs. http://www.vapor.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S O U N D P R O B E S A M P L E R Amiga Version News 02/10/99 - The final curtain looks set to fall on the Amiga Soundprobe. Further work on the Amiga version seems more and more unlikely as time passes. Whilst Soundprobe has become a popular editor, the Amiga user base just isn't capable of supporting future developments. The only hope now is that the PC version can be ported back to the Amiga, but by the time this happens (year or so), the Amiga will be even further behind, possibly making it impossible to port. We'll still try and support the Amiga version, if you have any real problems (bugs), please do let us know, but you may need to be patient as we're both final year students (i.e. very busy!), you may need to keep reminding us. http://www.soundprobe.freeserve.co.uk/news.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M F T P - I I A V A I L A B L E F R O M V A P O R W A R E 26 Sep 1999 mFTP-II is a File Transfer Protocol client that allows the transferring of files from one computer to another. Some sites may be restricted, requiring the use of an assigned user name and password, while most sites (such as business and corporations) allow anonymous FTP, in which you will usually give your email address as the password. mFTP-II also allows you to upload files to any remote computer. This is an ideal way to maintain your web page, uploading files and pages. You can even open two FTP connections and then transfer files between those sites! Please remember, mFTP-II is shareware. If you use it, please register the software and help support Amiga software development. Registered users of AmFTP can cross-upgrade to mFTP-II at a discount (Online only) There is an mFTP Mailing List run by VaporWare for users to discuss the software. Please feel free to sign up for it, your question may be answered there. Requirements o Workbench 2.x o MUI 3.x o TCP/IP compatible stack Genesis, Miami, AmiTCP, .. Features o Multithreaded and object oriented design o Connect to multiple FTP sites at once o Site-to-Site transfer (via you) o High speed async. transfers o Batch download facility o Resume partially received files o Optional Contact Manager 'Phonebook' as GUI o Download, DirTool and ADT GUI Layouts, per host o ADT Support and filter feature o Drag & drop GUI functionality o ADT-Find search for Aminet servers http://www.vapor.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- V E R S I O N 1 . 8 B O F N E W S R O G 16 Oct 1999 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ShadowWorks Software announces the Version 1.8b update to NewsRog, the most advanced newsreader available for the Amiga platform. NewsRog has a wealth of features for the power user, many of them unavailable in any other newsreader on any platform. Version 1.8b includes 15 changes and improvements to version 1.8. For a full list of major changes in this version, as well as descriptions of major NewsRog features and example screenshots, see the NewsRog preview page at: http://www.frii.com/~srk/ShadowWorks/Preview/NR.html The version 1.8b update is free to registered users and may be downloaded from the "Updates" section of the above web page. PRICING AND AVAILABILITY NewsRog is priced at (US) $35 plus shipping and handling. Orders may be placed by telephone by calling: (US) 1-303-659-4028 Or online via major credit cards from either of the following pages: http://www.questarproductions.com/NRorder.html (unsecure) https://www.dimensional.com/questar/NRorder.html (secure) Free NewsRog updates may be downloaded from the Support web page. REQUIREMENTS NewsRog requires: o MUI 3.8 or later o 8 Mb RAM & 8 Mb HD (more recommended) o AmiTCP, Miami, or other compatible networking software o A 68020 or faster CPU (68040+ recommended) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: All back issues available at: http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/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 ======================================================================