After the creditor congregation last week in unison agreed to accept the recovery plan of the insolvent old company the newly founded Ascaron Entertainment GmbH can touch-and-go. It has taken over all the rights including the Ascaron brand and also is employer of the present staffers.

The winners:

• 1st prize: Roman Sudlitz (Prizes: Extreme, PuzzleBobs, Mousepad donated by AmigaPage)
• 2nd prize: Jean Yves Auger (Prizes: Extreme, Mousepad donated by AmigaPage)
• 3rd prize: Peter Balogh (Prizes: Extreme, Poster)
• 4th prize: Michael Goken (Prizes: Extreme)

• 10.02.02 new: The Punisher (Digital) done by Psygore
• 10.02.02 new: Wacky Darts (Code Masters) done by Bored Seal & Codetapper
• 10.02.02 new: Spy Vs Spy 3: Arctic Antics (Wicked Software/First Star Software) done by Codetapper
• 10.02.02 new: Spy Vs Spy 2: The Island Caper (Wicked Software/First Star Software) done by Codetapper
• 10.02.02 improved: Great Courts 2 (Blue Byte) supports two more versions
• 10.02.02 new: Galactic Conqueror (Titus) done by CFOU!
• 10.02.02 updated: The Final Battle (Mirrorsoft) misc changes
• 10.02.02 new: Escape from Colditz (Digital Magic Software) done by Bored Seal
• 10.02.02 fixed: Disposable Hero (Euphoria/Gremlin Graphics) keyboard access in highscores corrected
• 10.02.02 new: Magnetic Dreams (Digital) done by Psygore
• 10.02.02 new: Battle Valley (Hewson) done by Bored Seal
• 08.02.02 improved: Geisha (Cocktel Vision) supports German version too, misc other changes
• 08.02.02 new: Carcharodon - White Sharks (Demonware) done by Galahad
• 06.02.02 improved: Rotor (Arcane) blitter waits added, snoop mode fix
• 06.02.02 new: The Final Battle (Mirrorsoft) done by Bored Seal
• 06.02.02 improved: Elvira - The Arcade Game (Flair Software) music/sound fixed, blitter waits added and more

About the image converter ArtPRO
ArtPRO supports a variety of file formats like ILBM, GIF, TIFF, BMP, and PCX. It can even load more using datatypes. ArtPRO also supports some raw formats like chunky. Images can be saved as bitplane, chunky or truecolor, as binary or source.
ArtPRO's source generator is capable of creating copper lists and sprites. The program offers very fast down calculation of images of very good quality, has a palette optimizer and real time colour bias also working with true colour pictures.

Development to be continued?
ArtPRO was written in 100% assembler. Who seriously would like to continue development might contact Frank Pagels. It really would be a pleasure if someone would do so.

Because all text informations about countries, cities and organizations are saved with special index numbers as filename it was nearly impossible for the user (without knowledge of the program interna) to change/extend the informations by himself.

I've just uploaded the second Amiga release, and the first platform release for 4.1.3. Some minor 4.1 problems may crop up, but I expect this to be a pretty solid release.

4.1.3 for the other 2 platforms will occur over the next few days, bringing everyone up to speed.

The informations stated in an earlier update are still valid. No big breakthroughs in the last week (but none are planned, though ;) ).
The Exec Kernel is running in a Simulator (parallel to the normal system). In this time it is ported to the hardware platform.
The rest of the components is in different states of finishing. Some are finished but are waiting for the final converting onto the new kernel (this means just only a recompilation of it).

This is a hint for those who want to start with developing for OS4: Develop for 68k. The sources will be fixed with minor changes to OS4 (it means only one or two lines are added to the sourcecode). You can use the normal Exec API. We will release a beta version for developers that will document the new functions (about 20). It should be a change to PPC at least.

• PNGTool.lha (109K), Readme
• CopyIcon44.lha (9K), Readme

• BrainTeaser (March/April)
• Kaliko Minigolf (March/April)
• Pirate's Puzzle (April/June)

• warpscumm_0.1.0b.lha
• warpsdl_0.1usr.lha

Other new additions to the games section are: Merchant Colony, Virocop, Impossamole, Darkmere, Fire and Ice, Katakis, Jaguar XJ220, R-Type II and many more.

I've finally got around to finishing off all of my Amiga compiles, and they've all been uploaded. Details below.

News first!

68000 Support
I've decided to drop 68000 support - I'm going by the assumption that if a user has enough memory to play some of these variants, then they will have a better processor than the bog standard one. All variants will now be targetted for the 68020. Demands from some of the Zangband-based variants are increasing, and with the addition of Lua into Angband and Zangband, and inveitably into their offspring, then a basic unexpanded 68000 system just wouldn't be able to cope.

It's been a while since I've had any feedback from a 68000 user - if what I'm doing is such a bad move, please do not hesitate to contact me, and I can put together 68000-targetted executables.

New code
Well, not exactly new code, but all of the variants now use the same Amiga-specific code. Previously, Zangband and it's variants used the most up-to-date code, and Angband was still stuck with some old code that was several years old. Not any more - Angband now benefits from the new code too. I've altered some bits and pieces, but you probably won't notice much of a difference. The main difference is that Angband graphics now work the way they should do, along with masking. Also, if you use the Adam Bolt tiles, these will now work with all versions, not just the Zangband-based ones.

Lua
The Lua-based variants all compile and run successfully for the Amiga. I have compiled all of the Angband alpha releases (2.9.4, 2.9.5, 2.9.6, 2.9.6.alpha2 and 2.9.6alpha3) and all of the Zangband dev releases (2.7.0 Pre-release 1, 2.7.0 Pre-release 2, 2.7.0 Pre-release 3 and 2.7.0 final). If you're eager to take a look, the Zangband dev releases are available below, along with the versions with Shayne Steele's option and branding patches. Angband alphas remain unreleased.

Uploads
These have no long been done, so you'll have to wait for Robert to move them all to their respective locations.

Conglomoband 0.0.1 - conglomoband-001-ami.lha (1437K)

CyAngband 0.3.2 - cyangband-032-ami.lha (506K)

D11-Angband 1.1.0 - d11angband-110-ami.lha (580K)

EyAngband 0.4.0d - eyangband-040d-ami.lha (658K)

Gumband 2.2.0a - gumband-220a-ami.lha (784K)

Hengband 1.0.9r1
There's a little bit of a problem on the graphics for this variant - light doesn't seem to bahave the way you'd expect it to. You won't see the yellow glow around the player, and floors won't light up as you'd expect. Apart from this, it's OK. All lighting behaves properly in ASCII mode.

hengband-109r1-ami.lha (1414K)

NTAngband 0.2 - ntangband-02-ami.lha (1286K)

PernAngband 5.1.1 - pernangband-511-ami.lha (1612K)

UnAngband 0.4.8g - unangband-048g-ami.lha (830K)

Zangband 2.6.2 & Option Patch 1.6 & Branding Patch 1.3
Shayne Steele's patches have been included here - for further details of the patches, check out his site.

zangband-262o16b13-ami.lha (961K)

Zangband 2.7.0 Dev Release
Chance to check out the current stable dev release with Lua scripting.

zangband-270-ami.lha (1184K)

Zangband 2.7.0 Dev Release & Option Patch 1.7 & Branding Patch 1.4
Zangband with the latest versions of Shayne Steele's patches - again, check out the details of the patches at his site.

zangband-270o17b14-ami.lha (1189K)

CD32 (other than English)
Disk version (other than German)

The Amiga Arena talked to Stefan Blixth about his new programs and a very comprehensive comment by Stefan completes the interview. The interview is available in German and English.

PuzzelBOBS news
On the PuzzelBobs support site of the Amiga Arena is the module "Rockers Galore" by "Up Rough System" available for download! Matching the puzzle game this module offers a relaxed dub sound! Just copy it into the directory "Module" of PuzzelBOBS!

Aural illusion V. 3.0 source released
The until now unreleased source code of the unfortunately never published sound sampler Aural illusion V 3.0 by "Blachford Technology" is now available for download and for free continuation of development. According to Nicolas Blachford can this code used without restrictions.

• Improve text Requester:
  More easy to select vectorial font
  Font Path can be changed.
• Bug Fix:
  Control anim requester
  Movie Factory
  pp_CheckBox
  Processing tool: Linked Freehand
• Increase to 50 the number of gadgets usable in arexx dialog
• New Arexx Command:
  pp_ScreenToFront
  pp_PlaceGui
  pp_Convert2RGB
  pp_ScalePicture
  pp_GetLocale.
• AdjustLevels and AutoLevels work well now with Stencil
• Improve AppIcon (add the possibilities to load Icon)
• Jpeg size detection is much faster.
• Add a menu to the undo/redo button:
  Free Current Undo/Redo
  Free All Undo/Redo
• Improve RAW saving, with a requester.
• When PfPaint can't load a picture, it tries to load it as a RAW picture.

This is a 'last resort' plugin, there will be files it will not work on due to formatting differences, but it can be used for files for some files which no plugins exist yet (I tested it on an Outlook 2000 email, worked with no glitches, works with a few glitches on some Mac text files).

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