Latest changes:

• SimpleMail is converted internal to Unicode
• New localisations added
• Two new columns added in mail list: "POP3 Server" and "Received"
• Little layout changes in mail writing window
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In order to subscribe the mailinglist please send a mail to blitz-list-subscribe@netsoc.ucd.ie. For unsubscribing please send a mail to blitz-list-unsubscribe@netsoc.ucd.ie.

Download:
amiblitz2_distro.lha

Original message:
The Blitz2000 site is dedicated to bringing you the best information and resources about the programming language AmiBlitz2 (formerly Blitz Basic 2). It has been updated and a new version of AmiBlitz2 has been released (v2.24 - both an update and a full user-distribution). Loads of other smaller updates have been made (mainly more documentation and source examples).

This concerns all P2P clients using the Morpheus protocoll. See also description of Morpheus on the ASP.

This often enables me to deactivate the respective keys, which respond to a certain pattern. So there are faithful users too - who nevertheless stumble upon such things from time to time - and help program authors to embank pirate copying.

I would like to offer the following to those users:

Who will send me keyfiles for my programs (or the respective generators), up to now not recognized as "pirate keys" by those, will receive an original keyfile at a time. In especially fiddly cases I will charge even more. For multi-transmittal applies: "The first to send in, will win".

Naturally data will be kept in confidence and anonymous if desired (the real name is only required for the keyfile).

Older hardware is, of course, still compatible,

Download: MMKeyboard.lha

• AmiMCDMI - Reworked toolbar for AmiMDC
• AminetIdxMI - New toolbar set for AminetIdx
• AudioMI - Extended toolbar for AudioMaster
• AWebMI - Reworked navigation board for Aweb
• CharonMI - Redesigned toolbar for Charon
• GiambyMI - New toolbar for GiambyNetGrabber
• IBrowseMI - A navigation board for IBrowse with additional images by Kristóph Gruber
• MiamiPhoneMI - Glow icons toolbar set for MiamiPhone
• SimplePostMI - Reworked toolbar for SimplePost
• VideoMI - New toolbar for MUI Video
• VoyagerMI - Extended navigation board set for Voyager

• some at least imaginary MGA hits removed, report if this new Safe causes any MF/MGA hits

• mus/misc/AD516-AHI.lha (12K), Readme
• dev/misc/AD516-Dev.lha (27K), Readme

Yours Olaf Köbnik

Amiga Arena - Interview campaign
It is thanks to Nicolas Ramz with his "ScummVM" Amiga68k port that it is possible to play old games by LucasArts like for example "Day of the Tentacle" on the Amiga. The Amiga Arena talked to Nicolas Ramz about his work on "ScummVM" and how he's seeing the future of Amiga. Special thanks go to Christian Busse for his tireless translations for the Amiga Arena!

Interview in German
Interview in English

Shareware news
After a long time could the Amiga Arena find the developer of the shareware software "ScanTek" and has the following information:

The burner has a buffer of 4 MB and is equipped with the proven BURN-Proof technology that almost completely excludes a burning of defective CDs.

Compared to the version 1.2 nothing important has been changed. Just the code has been revised a little bit and Bernhard Wörner has fixed one or another small bug in the requesters.

In the next version (probably next Saturday) will then the MP3 import be ready. In the current 1.4 beta (unreleased) it works already quite well. This version has just to be tested.

• Added a special mode in the prefs under "Connect" for AmigaXL users to use a timer based signal instead of the socket signal. (not fully tested yet)

• Fixed graphic bug introduced in 1.7: character erasure was one pixel too big horizontally and vertically.
• Changed default screen selection (when no modeid is given): now opens a 4 (under AGA) or 8 (under CGX) bit depth screen of the same size as the WB, or of the size given by the Width and Height tooltypes. If that fails, clone the WB screen (that was the default behaviour previously). Using a lower depth screen should improve the speed (and it is necessary for the ColourCycle option to work).
• Added Colour option to change the Matrix colour. [Rafo]
• Added ColourCycle option to cycle through all colours of the palette, like the WB blanker does...
• Changed ThreadsLength to be a percentage of the screen height (threadslength=100 means 1 thread per column in average, 50 means 2 threads, etc.). Default value 75.
• Changed commodity name from "Matrix Blanker" to "MatrixBlanker" for MagicExchange usage. [DET Nicolas]
• Minor fixes and improvements...

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      // \\\\  /. \\\\__ \/ __//    \\  \\____.  /// \\\\  /. \\
      \\___\¯ /___///___\  /___\     \\_________//\\___\¯ /___//
       ¯    \/    ¯ ¯    \/.  |¯      ¯|z!o     ¯  ¯    \/    ¯
               A M I G A      |#020131 |      U P D A T E
                              |________|
  "SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW"
======================================================================
        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.      
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
        B I L L ' S   S H O R T   U P D A T E   F O R   J A N 

      A M I G A   O S   4 . 0   D E V E L O P M E N T   N E W S

          A N D   A   S H O R T   U P D A T E   O N   3 . 9 

                  U P D A T E   O N   A L T - W O A

             A M I G A   E X P O   U P D A T E   N E W S 

                   A M I G B G   S H O W   N E W S  

       S I I A   S H O W   U P C O M I N G   I N   F R A N C E 

    I S S U E   O N E   O F   I T A L I A N   " B I T P L A N E " 

        E L B O X   S T A T E M E N T   O N   M E D I A T O R 

             O P E N   L E T T E R   F R O M   M A T A Y 
 
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:

 Welcome to another Amiga year! Each new year we see as a community
gives me hope for the future. And that despite having only a few
stories for you this month. We've received suggestions that we become
a bi-monthly publication because of the shrinking amount of real news
in the Amiga community. However, we will resist that for now as it
would make what stories we do have older than we'd like when you
receive them. We'd rather send smaller issues, at least once a month.
 One thing you'll notice about this issue - there are many update
stories about upcoming Amiga shows. Looks like fun. Hey, a year where
Amiga Inc. continues to survive in a "down" economy, and make progress
against their business plan, plus we have several shows to enjoy
throughout the world, could be very interesting and positive. At
least, we'll start the year hoping so.
 Brad Webb,
 Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor:

31 Dec 2001 

Hello Brad

 I just read your latest Update. In it you corrected the information
about AmiWest from 2001 to read 2002.
 
 Ah-ha! I think you still have the date wrong. You list AmiWest 2002
as being on 28 and 29 July 2002. July 28 is Sunday and July 29 is
Monday. Normally AmiWest is held on the last weekend in July, Saturday
and Sunday, not Sunday and Monday.
 
 According to my calendar the AmiWest Show should be on Saturday, 27
July and Sunday, 28 July 2002.
 
 At least the 27th and 28th are the dates I plan on attending.

Regards,

Harry 
~~~~~~
Harry,
 Sigh. I just print 'em as I get 'em sometimes. I suspect your
calendar reading skills got the right information. Maybe it's a clever
trick on AmiWest's part to keep getting a bit of information in the
E-mail to the E-ditor section. :-)
 Thnks for the correction,
 Brad
======

5-Jan-02

Mr. Webb,
     Yes, I remember your "Dos Lab" Articles in "JUMPDISK".
I would be extremely surprised if Microsoft did not engineer 
Amiga's demise.  
Walt

 You've certainly been a part of the community for some time. Thanks
for staying with us! "Jumpdisk" was quite the publication. (And I
appreciate being remembered.)
 When I look at recent Microsoft product announcements and plans, it
does look to me as if they are after the market Amiga has staked out.
Yes, it makes me nervous.

Regards,
 Brad
======

Brad,

 How do I change my email address? I can't find a way to do that in
the newsletter... someting you might want to add.

Myron
~~~~~~
 Myron,
 Sending us a note is the best way. amigaupdate@globaldialog.com is
the address to use, if there's anyone else out there wondering.
 Brd
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        B I L L ' S   S H O R T   U P D A T E   F O R   J A N 

Greetings one and all:

 I have received many e-mails reminding me of the need to announce the
STB OEM partner. We at Amiga are well aware that it was scheduled for
last week and, we were expecting the legal department of the partner
to have approved the press release. Unfortunately when one is dealing
with multi-billion dollar companies it can, more often than not, take
longer than planned.
 
 We did receive the OK to announce to our developers and this was done
last week. All NDA developers know the details of the signed OEM deal.
However, we are going to have to wait a little while longer for the
rest of the Amiga community to see the public release.
 
 I am sorry for the delay, but it will be worth the wait. In fact, we
will probably have a couple more that we can announce at the same
time.
 
 We should have the public announcement out by next week.

Stay tuned !

Bill McEwen
CEO Amiga Inc.
bill@amiga.com

{Note from Brad: STB=Set Top Box; NDA=Non Disclosure Agreement;
OEM=Original Equipment Manufacturer.}
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      A M I G A   O S   4 . 0   D E V E L O P M E N T   N E W S 

Leuven, Belgium, January 21, 2002.

 Let me start off by wishing everybody in the Amiga community all the
best in 2002!
 
 As you know, on November 1, 2001 Hyperion Entertainment entered into
a license agreement with Amiga Inc. to produce Amiga OS 4.0 for PPC
based systems.
 
 Since my presentation in Cologne at the Amiga 2001 show on November
17-18, very substantial progress was made which I am now ready to
share with you.
 
 Some of you have expressed some misgivings about the lack of progress
reports on OS 4.0 development but I hope I can count on your
understanding as all of us have been extremely busy, even through the
holiday season, to bring you what is unquestionably the most ambitious
OS upgrade since Amiga OS 3.0.
 
 Now I know that many of you are sceptical because of the scope of the
project and because similar promises were made in the past.
 
 To those people I would like to point out that Hyperion Entertainment
does not enter into contracts lightly and that we have a track-record
carrying out commercial development and contract-work for Windows,
Mac, Linux, Amiga and Amiga DE/Elate.
 
 We have brought together a truly impressive development team of some
25 people building on the OS 3.5 and 3.9 development team whilst
adding several well-known and respected Amiga developers to the mix.
 
 Im very pleased to say that Dave Haynie has agreed to serve as a
technical consultant.
 
 Youll be hard-pressed to find a more experienced team for the job!
 
 The feature-set of OS 4.0 has now been finalised to a large extent.
 
 We cant guarantee that every single feature listed here will make it
in the initial release of OS 4.0 but this the feature-set that we have
contractually committed to delivering.
 
 You will also note that for the first time in many, many years very
substantial work is being done on Intuition, one of the core elements
of the Amiga OS. Having a PPC native version of Intuition available
will make a very noticeable difference speed-wise.
 
 We intend for OS 4.0 to be disk-based or at least partly disk-based
and partly flashrom based even for current Amigas. More about that in
a later update.
 
 We also intend for OS 4.0 to be installed effortlessly from CD and
from scratch without the need for an existing OS install.
 
 As we have taken on more work (Intuition etc.) and folded some of the
functionality originally planned for OS 4.2 into OS 4.0, this
inevitably means the original February release-date might slip
somewhat but all in all we believe that the end-result will be
technologically more satisfying.
 
 Come end of January, I hope to have the biggest chunk of the legal
work for OS 4.0 behind me which will allow me to provide you with more
regular updates.
 
 I know full well that your patience has been sorely tested over the
last years so I understand your impatience and even your scepticism
but I can assure you that the Amiga OS is in good hands and that we
will deliver.
 
 In closing, I would like to invite everybody out there who (out of an
understandable frustration with the neglect of the Amiga OS by its
respective past owners) decided to take matters in his own hands, to
work with us, rather than against us.
 
 Ben Hermans, LL.M Managing partner Hyperion Entertainment VOF

Amiga OS 4.0 provisional feature list

 Exec Second Generation (Exec SG)
 
 Exec is the kernel of the AmigaOS and is currently written in 68K
assembly.
 
 Exec is being re-written in C and new functionality will be
introduced to
 
 allow the deployment of OS 4.x on any suitable PPC hardware.

The following features are planned:

   o Hardware abstraction layer
   o Virtual memory
   o New library interface
   o Resource tracking and management
   o Optional memory protection
   o WarpOS backwards compatibility

68K Just in Time emulation

PPC native TCP/IP stack

   o - implemented as a single shared library
   o - compatible with the Amiga standard "bsdsocket" API, as defined 
       by the  AmiTCP product
   o - enhanced API for more control over the inner workings and
     configuration
   o - built-in DHCP client (e.g. for cable modems)
   o - Internet Superserver (inetd)
   o - IP filtering and networking address translation
   o - drivers for asynchronous PPP (dial-up networking) and PPP over
     Ethernet (for ADSL and cable modems)
   o - AmiSSL V2.0

PPC native filesystem (FFS2)

 FFS2 is a fully backwards compatible re-implementation in C of the
Fast File System. It supports media > 4 GByte, and a new variant of
the file/directory name storage format which allows for long file
names (up to 108 characters).

Recovery and Salvage tools

 Comprehensive suite of salvage and recovery tools including Salvage,
Undelete, Unformat, Repair, RDBSalv, ReOrg/Defrag, Check Integrity
etc.

PPC native RTG system

 The PPC native RTG system (based on Picasso 96 V3) allows for the use
of modern graphics cards on the Amiga. Drivers for all current Zorro
II/III cards as well as drivers for the Permedia 2/3, Voodoo 3, Matrox
G450/G550 and ATI Radeon are planned. An arithmetically optimised PPC
native version of layers.library is also planned.

Warp3D

 New version of Warp3D, the powerful yet low-level 3D API which is
both available on the classic Amiga and intent/Amiga DE and which
allows developers to rapidly migrate 3D content between both
platforms. Drivers for Permedia 2/3, Voodoo 3, Matrox G450/G550 and
ATI Radeon are planned.

OpenGL 1.3 support (Mesa 4.0)

 OpenGL is a cross-platform (Mac, Linux, Windows, AmigaDE etc.)
high-level 3D API originally developed by Silicon Graphics. Support
for OpenGL 1.3 will be provided by porting the open source project
Mesa (which now passes all SGI compliance tests) which will sit on top
of Warp3D so that graphics-card functionality not currently offered by
the OpenGL API may be supported nonetheless.

PPC native RTA system (AHI)

 A Retargetable Audio System allows the use of plug-in soundcards (PCI
or Zorro II). AHI by Martin Blom is currently the de facto standard on
the Amiga and a PPC native version will be offered with support for a
wide variety of soundcards including but not limited to all current
Amiga soundcards and the Soundblaster 128 and Live (EMU10K1) cards.

PPC native Intuition and Reaction

 Reaction is the BOOPSI based GUI system for the Amiga, introduced in
OS 3.5 and extended in OS 3.9. Existing ROM classes will be enhanced
or even rewritten for a betterand more consistent look. The requester
handling will be improvedas well as the Intuition menus. Moreover a
new preferences system will allow the user to change more aspects of
the GUI.

Other features:

   o Drag and Drop support
   o New ghosted look

Intuition will sport the following new features (more planned):

   o New DrawInfo pens
   o Enhanced window borders
   o Resolution-adaptive system gadgets
   o User-selectable styles for system glyphs and 3D frames with 
     support for
     external plug-ins
   o Configurable look for proportional gadgets
   o New-style (3D recessed) disabled look for gadgets where 
     applicable
   o Gad-Tools enhancements (pop-up capability for cycle gadgets 
     etc.)
   o Full-user control of Workbench palette

SCSI drivers for SCRIPTS based SCSI controllers

WarpInput API (working title)

 WarpInput is an API for multimedia controller devices (akin to
DirectInput on Windows) which allows a programmer to provide support
through one API for a wide variety of input-devices such as keyboard,
mouse, joysticks (analog and digital), track-ball, Playstation
controller etc.

Minimal USB stack

PPC native datatypes

New HDToolbox replacement

Support for TrueType/OpenType fonts
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         A N D   A   S H O R T   U P D A T E   O N   3 . 9 

24 Jan 2002

Euro update for AmigaOS 3.9 from Haage&partner
 
 Finally we are able to release the Euro update for AmigaOS 3.9. It
took a bit longer because there were some more things to consider.
Many thanks to the all involved people. This update especially
contains keymaps and Amiga bitmap fonts that make it possible to use
the Euro symbol on the Amiga. It also contains a German Euro keymap
for AmigaOS XL. Download

{Taken from the Czech Amiga News website, http://amiga.realdreams.cz/
 Brad}

 Haage&partner website http://www.haage-partner.com/e.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                 U P D A T E   O N   A L T - W O A

9 Jan 2002 14:40:17 +0100

Huddersfield Amiga User Group


 The North of England's Second Great Amiga Show coming up on the 23rd
February 2002
 
 3 floors of attractions including a much larger games area and a
series of Workshops throughout the day.

More details available now at:-

http://www.alt-woa.org

 HAUG officially announces the Amiga Arena, a new attraction for 2002,
Amiga Inc and partners will be demonstrating their hardware and
software at a special location at the show.
 
 Fleecy Moss of Amiga® reports that a few people have been asked to
arrange a demo on the Amiga stand - Matthew Kille of Zeoneo, and Ron
van Herk from Computer City are two that have agreed.
 
 Fleecy has also asked SSEYO who are unable to answer yet, and said
"we should have a Zaurus or two there to represent Sharp".



 Zeoneo aims to build a reputation for high standards in Amiga
software production. Their exclusive commitment to the AmigaOS and
AmigaDE systems will result in a number of products being released
over time, beginning with our first two PDA titles Convex and Planet
Zed. Zeoneo will demonstrate their products at the show running on a
desktop PC, and a couple of PDAs -- including the new Sharp SL5000D.
 
 Zeoneo might very well have something new to demonstrate, but details
of that won`t be given out until the actual release date.
 
 The Zeoneo Web Site details the two products currently on sale for
AmigaDE.



 Computer City also operate under the Sultan (systems & software)
brand and have published the EuroCD series, and more recently Audio
Evolution and MediaPoint, now developed by Sultan.
 
 Computer City plan to bring MediaPoint RTG, the first version of the
next-generation MediaPoint, which will support graphics cards,
soundcards and new filetypes. They also plan to demonstrate Audio
Evolution 4, the successor to Audio Evolution targeted directly at the
AmigaOne and other powerful PPC Amiga computers.

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

           A M I G A   E X P O   U P D A T E   N E W S 

Amiga Expo Announces New Exhibitors and More


 It's an exciting new year for Amiga Expo as we've begun 2002 by
signing up a brand new bunch of exhibitors and speakers for the show
happening on March 29th-31st at the Marriott Hunt Valley Inn.
 
Exhibitors

 MAME (Multi Arcade Machine Emulator) developer Arcade-in-a-Box will
be exhibiting their all-in-one solution for creating a home arcade
experience.
 
 Video Hardware will be exhibiting and demoing Newtek's Video
Toaster[2] and the latest Lightwave.
 
 Extreme Corporation will be showing Amiga Extreme - their new AmigaOS
XL Amiga solution.
 
 Ideas2Reality will be showing the Reality Station and their line of
Amiga, PPC and x86 solutions.
 
 FWD Computing will have their line of CDROMS for Amiga, Linux and
Windows or sale at the show.

Speakers

 We'll have speakers showing MAME products, video editing solutions,
Amiga advancements, classic computer and game celebrities and much
more.
 
Banquet

 We plan to host a celebrity panel at our banquet discussing the
future of computing across many platforms. Be served wonderful food in
a festive atmosphere amongst your fellow enthusiasts and hear about
what's to come!

Free Exhibit Space

 There is also a limited amount of space available, at no charge, to
anyone interested in exhibiting their MAME or arcade game cabinets at
the show. People interested in exhibiting classic computers and
console game machines are also invited to take advantage of this free
display space. You must contact us immediately if you'd like to
participate.
 
 Visit our web site (www.amigaexpo.com) and order your tickets online
or by phone or mail. You best hurry as advance purchase discounts will
be ending soon, the discount rooms at the hotel are filling up and the
banquet has LIMITED seating that is selling out fast!

Kermit Woodall
www.amigaexpo.com 
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                 A M I G B G   S H O W   N E W S  

30 Jan 2002


 AmiGBG 2002 is the name of an Amiga fair that will be held in
Gothenburg, the pearl of the westcoast, in 2002, more precisely on the
2nd of march which is a saturday.
 
 Last time an Amiga fair was organized in Sweden was back in 1998 when
the now discontinued AmiTech was organized in Wasahallarna in
Stockholm.
 
 Now we think that it´s about time for a new fresh start for the Amiga
here in Sweden. To help the amigausers that are still active to get
together and establish new connections this is an attempt to gather
the forces. If you happen to be curious or even a beginner on the
Amiga and want to know what will happen for the time ahead this is a
golden opportunity to get an answer to all your questions. We are all
facing an exciting future and the best way to take a joint step into
the new era is to get together on AmiGBG 2002 in Gothenburg!


Tickets to AmiGBG 2002 released 2002-01-17
The Ticket shop is now finished.


New exhibitor: EB 2002-01-17
Explosives, Brother! will attend the fair.


Pictures of the venue now online 2002-01-15
On the "Where" page you can now find pictures of the venue where 
AmiGBG 2002 will take place.


New exhibitor: S.U.A - Swedish Usergroup of Amiga 2002-01-11
A new exhibitor is ready for AmiGBG 2002, S.U.A - Swedish Usergroup 
of Amiga.

http://www.weemeet.net/wwwamigbgcom/omamigbg/omamigbg.asp
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      S I I A   S H O W   U P C O M I N G   I N   F R A N C E 
 
Biggest Alternative Computer Show in the world for November in France

23 Jan 2002
 
 Hello from France, The 2002 autumn will be the birth of the great
SIIA (International Alternative Computer Exposition in French) in the
little town of Sainte Marie de Redon (South of Britanny) near Nantes
and Rennes. This expo would like to be THE best expo in the world of
alternative computing ! All the formats will be represented : AmigaOS,
TOS, RiscOS, Linux, BeOS, QNX, BSD, CPC and many, many more... This
expo will be implemented on one week end in november 2002. Some hotels
services will be available near Sainte Marie with good prices. You can
go to the expo by car, train, boat (on the Vilaine river) and by plane
(tourism plane). The cost to be represented at the expo with a stand
will be very cheap (maybe free). This mail is done to invite you to
join us to the party ! You can have some information with : Mail :
webmaster@toutou-net.com frederic.boisdron@atosorigin.com Phone : +33
299 720 663 (after 5:00 PM) +33 677 358 726 (portable) Or by Paper
mail : BOISDRON Frédéric La Belle Etoile 35600 SAINTE MARIE
----------------------------------------------------------------------

     I S S U E   O N E   O F   I T A L I A N   " B I T P L A N E " 

30 Jan 2002

 Finally available is issue #1 of "Bitplane" - the only Amiga printed
magazine in italy with a bi-monthly CD-Rom. This issue also has
another free CD, Amiga.it issue 1. Bitplane is the only Amiga printed
magazine in Italy. It's bi-monthly, subscription only, 64 pages with
cover CD magazine. Issue 1 has a special report from Pianeta Amiga
2001 and the Amiga 2001 show. The review of Amiga OS XL, the italian
Amiga 3.9 book, Prostation Audio, Physics Laboratory Junior, Aminet
44, Amiga.it 8, Light Rom 8 and Brave new World. There are also
tutorials of PHP, Candy Factory and Workbench. A complete guide to
Linux, QNX and MorphOS. A preview of Freespace and the review of Shogo
and Payback. Last but not least comes the Emulazione with emulator
news and reviews. The magazine is available at 7.75 euros + postage.
For subscription please consult our website www.bitplane.it or e-mail
us at info@bitplane.it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      E L B O X   S T A T E M E N T   O N   M E D I A T O R 

29 Jan 2002

MEDIATOR AND SHARK FULLY COMPATIBLE

 Some news services have quoted untrue statements made by Mr. Harald
Frank, VMC, in the Mediator Mailing List about products made by Elbox
Computer.

Here we would like to explain:

 Since 16 January 2002, Mr. Harald Frank has been systematically
breaching the netiquette binding in the Mediator Mailing List by way
of sending messages offensive and abusive against our company,
employees of our company, our products and -- most of all -- even our
product users.
 
 Mr. Harald Frank presented himself in these messages as a person
completely devoid of elementary principles of personal humane culture.
It is evident now that his technical knowledge on hardware comes from
gossips from third persons -- and his ideas do not reflect actual and
valid technical knowledge.

To make it clear beyond any doubt on our products:

 ALL the Mediator versions (Mediator PCI 1200, Mediator PCI ZIV and
Mediator PCI 4000), starting with the very first piece sold may work
completely problem-free with SharkPPC (+) G3/G4 cards. (There is NO
need for any hardware update).
 
 Due to Mr. Harald Frank statements, which were far from cultural and
used offensive language, grossly breaching Yahoo Terms of Service, we
have applied to the Yahoo administrators to remove him from this list.

Best regards,

Mariusz Wloczysiak
ELBOX COMPUTER, Press Department
http://www.elbox.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

            O P E N   L E T T E R   F R O M   M A T A Y 

                                             Warsaw, Poland 2002-01-08

 Some time has passed since I wrote a similar letter. As the beginning
of a new year is a good time for changes I would like to share with
you some information which will surely get your interest.
 
 Half a year has passed since we introduced in the market our main
product, the first PCI bridge for Amiga 3000/4000 computers which
could be connected to the Zorro 3 slots - "Prometheus". It was an
interesting period for us, which allowed us to gain a lot of valuable
experience. First of all I would like to thank very much all the
Prometheus users for buying our product and for the faith you have in
us. Also I would like to thank all those who appreciated our efforts
and objectively judged the company and the product. We always try to
keep our promises. I would consider it my personal failure if I had
disappointed you.
 
 For several months we have been working really hard trying to keep up
the development of our company in such difficult times for the IT
market. We entered a fruitful co-operation with many firms and people,
for example the unwavering Amiga Inc. (our first game for Amiga DE -
Boing'em is already on the market, and next are being prepared); with
a little help from us Amiga is creating AmigaOS 4.0. Irreplaceable
Hyperion provides us with its wonderful 3D drivers and the great team:
Alexander Kneer and Tobias Abt continue to give us newer and newer 2d
drivers. I would like to thank all the above mentioned as well as a
whole lot of other companies and people whose names I cannot specify
for lack of space [I'm awfully sorry!] for a possibility of
co-operation, their patience and trust they have in us; I do hope that
our acquaintance/co-operation will prove even more fruitful in future
than it has proved so far.
 
 Now I would like to present to you the results of our hard work.
First of all, "Prometheus". We have finished the work on the firmware
upgrade. What does it mean? From now on, "Prometheus" can operate more
PCI cards, and especially Fast Ethernet cards, TV tuners and
soundcards. The drivers for these cards will appear very quickly after
we do the upgrade. The first one will probably be available in this
month. I would like to remind you here that our drivers are completely
free and the firmware upgrade will be free as well. To make things
easier for you, we prepared two options for providing you with the
upgrade. Option one is for people who do not want (or are not keen on
doing so) to do anything on their own. Those of you can send your
Prometheus cards to us (or your local dealer) and the upgrade will be
done and the card returned to you. Of course, you will have to pay the
shipment costs and wait. Therefore, there is a second option: you can
order a programming device which allows to flash the Prometheus chips
just like any flashROM. The device is connected to the serial port,
flashing lasts some seconds and that is all. For people who already
own Prometheus boards, the programming device is FREE. You just have
to order it from your local dealer or directly from us.
 
 This does not, of course, apply to people who will buy our board from
now on. The chips there are upgraded with the latest firmware flash,
so you do not have to worry. The next change is connected with the
Euro coming to the EU. From now on, the suggested price of the
Prometheus board is 219 EURO. To convince you even stronger to buy our
product, we now add to each Prometheus sold some bonus software - a
great program for learning English language - English Teacher 5.
 
 And last, but not least: our webpage has changed. Many things have
been rebuilt, the files section should now be more clear, as well as
the whole page. We hope you will like it. We are launching the foreign
side of our Shop very soon, therefore people from countries without
local dealers will be able to buy our products. I hope that is good
news for you. We will inform you as things progress, according to our
slogan "No promises, just solutions". We have not forgotten about the
PPC cards. We are working together with independent developers and it
seems like we will be able to give you the solutions for the time
Amiga OS 4.0 is shipped.

Please support us!

Yours,
Filip Dab-Mirowski
CEO

http://www.matay.pl/
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Amiga Update on the net:
 All back issues available at:
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Stop by and check out our archive! 
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Copyright 2002 by Brad Webb.    Freely distributable, if not modified.
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• Mediator PCI 3000D
  Mediator PCI 3000D is dedicated for Amiga 3000D computers. It allows for simultaneous use of 5 PCI cards and 6 Zorro III/II cards.
  
  
• Mediator PCI 3/4000T
  Mediator PCI 3/4000T is dedicated for Amiga 3000T and Amiga 4000T computers. It allows for simultaneous use of 5 PCI cards and 4 Zorro III/II cards.

The Mediator PCI busboard line is designed to enable expanding Amiga computers with a wide range of standard PCI cards like graphic cards, Ethernet and Fast Ethernet network cards, modem cards, ISDN cards, USB and SCSI cards, sound cards and multimedia cards: TV tuner and MPEG-2 hardware decoders.

Expanding the Amiga with the Mediator PCI busboard opens the way to employing the power of the latest PowerPC G3/G4 processors in Amiga, around which SharkPPC and SharkPPC+ cards are based.

Amiga Arena will finish its online activities until 31.01.2002. Finally there were personal as well as private reasons for taking this step.

I want to thank a lot all developers and online-magazines, print-magazines as well as the users for your support and the long time of good teamwork! Without you Amiga Arena would not have been possible! It is impossible to mention all of you by names.

To the end I present the games "Cygnus 8" and "Mobile Warfare" by Applaud Software for download. Amiga Arena will be also stayed online after the special price offer has been finished.

• 29.01.02 new: Merv the Merciless (Probe Software) done by Galahad
• 29.01.02 new: World Class Rugby '95 (Audiogenic) done by Codetapper
• 29.01.02 new: World Class Rugby - 5 Nations Edition (Audiogenic) done by Codetapper
• 29.01.02 new: World Class Rugby (Audiogenic) done by Codetapper
• 29.01.02 new: E.T.'s Rugby League (Audiogenic) done by Codetapper
• 29.01.02 improved: Rampage (Activision) minor update
• 29.01.02 new: FIFA Soccer (Electronic Arts) done by JOTD
• 29.01.02 improved: D/Generation (Mindscape) support for AGA version added, misc changes to OCS version