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21.Nov.1999
Steven Flowers by e-mail


The Pulse Issue 9
Alive Mediasoft is shipping the English magazine The Pulse for free on a regular basis, which at the same time is a catalog for ordering the products advertised therein.

While there are usually 2000 copies shipped, this christmas it will be 5000, with 700 not covered by the database of ALive Mediasoft. If you are therefore interested in a copy, you can order it worldwide, free, by e-mail or the link above, from Alive Mediasoft.

If you have already ordered the magazine, please do not order again. Copies are shipped right now, and especially oversea shipments (USA, Australia) can take a while.

Contents: The Pulse Issue 9
REVIEWS...
  • Heretic 2 (exclusive first review)
  • Hell Squad (exclusive first review)
  • Whales Voyage 2 (exclusive first review)
  • Mikro Mortal Tennis (exclusive first review)
  • Bertie's Animal Kingdom (exclusive first review)

CLASSIC REVEIWS...
  • Rise of the Robots
  • Chaos Engine

BUYERS GUIDE...
  • Amiga OS 3.5
  • Power Tower
(ps)

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21.Nov.1999
Thomas Lorenz by e-mail


FusionPPC status
Paul Lesurf (Blittersoft) had a long talk with Jim Drew about FusionPPC. The current status is:
  1. As previously announced, FusionPPC for Amiga was not released on November 20th as scheduled.
  2. FusionPPC development for Amiga is continuing as normal.
  3. Jim Drew explained that the project is in advanced state of completion, and everything is done to have a release version ready by christmas.
  4. Like stated in the prepayment contract, all customers are free to cancel the contract with Microcode Solutions in writing. The money is transferred back within 30 days after recieving the cancelling note. This was stated clearly on the webpage, top of the online ordering form.

Paul Lesurf asks people to have patience until FusionPPC for Amiga is released. Jim and Joe are working hard to present an excellent package for PPC Amiga, and due to Paul Lesurf, it will be worth the waiting. (ps)

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21.Nov.1999
AWD [News]


Ami@reek
At the link above, latest Amiga news are posted in Greek. (ps)

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21.Nov.1999
Czech Amiga News


AmiDog's Movie Player v1.30
On November 20th, version 1.30 of the Movie Player has been released. Changes from the previous version:
  • reworked shell user interface
  • completely rewritten AmigaOS code
  • MPEG: VLayer support
  • MPEG: some optimizations in the decoder
  • MPEG: faster YUV->RGB converting
  • MPEG: greyscale window on Workbench with 15/16/24 bit
  • MPEG: 2-width HAM about 40% faster
  • MPEG: greyscale playback about 20% faster
  • QT: index creation many hundred times faster
  • QT/AVI: CVID decoder bugged in v1.26
  • QT/AVI: YUY2 decoder playing movies upside down
  • bugfix: a char array being copied to unallocated memory

The QT parser has some bugs in the playback code, and this version is for now missing a GUI. If you want one, you can get one from version 1.25/1.26.
Download: AMP130.lha. (ps)

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21.Nov.1999
Czech Amiga News


MSD95 V1.5
MSD95 is an Amiga filesystem allowing to read IBM-PC partitions and floppy disk (the latter by using the mfm.device). Supported are FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32 with or without long filenames. Download: msd95v15.lha. (ps)

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20.Nov.1999
Fred Fish in gg-ML


Coordinator wanted for AmigaOS Geek Gadgets
Since Fred Fish is lacking the time and motivation for some time now to look after the AmigaOS version of Geek Gadgets, a new coordinator is wanted for the Amiga version.

If you are interested in taking this job, you should have good organisational and communicative talents, being an active member of the Amiga community, and have enough time to look after all aspects of AmigaOS GG.

Additionally, someone is wanted who can generate a new snapshot on regular basis. For this, an Amiga 68060 would be nice, since a 68040 takes several days for compiling all sources, so creating a snapshot can take several weeks. Even while there is no need for manual editing most of the time. (ps)

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20.Nov.1999
Czech Amiga News


MPEG+Sound module project for CV64/3D
The Cybervision64/3D offers a S3-Scenic-Highway (LPB) bus. This allows for adding useful expansions like a MPEG decoder or such. While the hardware is readily available, the needed Amiga software is missing. Those interested in writing such software, can get further informations about the project from the title link, or write an e-mail to rob@vgr.com. (ps)

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20.Nov.1999
Fun Time World


fxPaint test and MP3 software overview
At Fun Time World, a review of the image processing software fxPaint and an overview over MP3 software have been released. (ps)

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20.Nov.1999
Dimitris a Gourlis in c.s.a.g.


Cinemaware Webring
Dimitris a Gourlis has created a webring about the games by Cinemaware (It came from the Desert, Defender of the Crown). You can join this webring at the title link. (ps)

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20.Nov.1999
Amiga.org


HEW '99 report by Caghan Demirci
The article is very detailed, and contains one piece of information or another that escaped some people so far. Like, Epic's "Simon the Sorcerer 2" might be released early next year as Amiga version if at least 500 preorders are recieved. (ps)

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20.Nov.1999
Czech Amiga News


JST v2.9
The degrader "JST" has been released as version 2.9. It now offers an emulation of the CD32 joypad. Download: jst.lha (ps)

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20.Nov.1999
AWD [News]


Eyelight - Millennium Amiga Poll
From November 19th to December 19th, Eyelight is conducting the Millennium Amiga Poll.
Reason for this poll is to find out how many Amiga users there are, and what they want. To encourage participation, Eyelight offers prices for more than 5000 USD.

Every day, a PowerPack Volume I + bonus cupon, a Tornado3D t-shirt + bonus cupon and a bonus cupon are given away. Every week, a Tornado3D SE package + bonus cupon can be won.

The detailed form can be downloaded from the title link. (ps)

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20.Nov.1999
Czech Amiga News


Atéo Concepts News
The serial driver of the AtéoSer/AtéoIO card now works correctly. Error handling took so much time since it was both a soft- and hardware issue. As a fix for the software there will be an update at the Atéo Concepts website next week. The hardware issue makes a small modification of the Atéo bus necessary, which can be done by yourself - there will be a manual on the website, or you can send in the board after calling in (phone +33 (0)2.40.85.30.85).

Atéo has a limited number of A4000 keyboards in stock, which can i.e. be connected directly to the Atéo tower. Price is 36.90 Euro.

Atéo bus works correctly with OS 3.5. If problems should occur, the usual patches are to blame. Otherwise try an additional "COLD" argument when calling the 'StartAteoBus' command.

Release of the scandoubler has been delayed due to the AtéoSer issues and the prototype being delivered early September instead of end of July, but should be available by the end of the year.
Atéo Concepts warns that Picasso96 V2.0 does not work with the Pixel64 due to a bug in the files. When the bug is fixed, a P96 update will be available in the download area. On the other hand, CyberGfx does also support the Pixel64 now.

Development of an audio board with DSP, MIDI, MPEG compression etc. is planned. Suggestions and ideas can be send to Atéo Concepts. (ps)

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19.Nov.1999
Sid4Amiga


Sid4Amiga version 3.24 released
Download: Sid4AmigaV3_24.lha (ps)

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19.Nov.1999
amiga-news.de


HEW '99 Special
First short previews 12./14.11.1999
Pictures of the first day Impressions - 12.11.1999
Details and pictures of the Met@box processorcard for A1200 - 13.11.1999
Pictures of the second day Impressions II - 13.11.1999
Pictures of the last day Impressions III - 14.11.1999
HEW '99 Report from Caghan Demirci - 29.11.1999


Links to other reports and pictures:
UGN IRC Logs
Pictures from Virtual Dimension
Livereport and Annex Performance from Amiganation
Pictures from javosoft Computer
Pictures from AmigaImpact
Report in german and pictures from AmigaLand


Detailed report
(Translation by Martina Jacobs - Thank you very much!)

AMIGA International, Inc.

The booth of Amiga International was way the biggest and most beautiful one the fair. It took a compressor eight hours to pump up that tremendous Boing-Ball. The Amiga museum was very interesting, where in addition to all the Amiga models ever made the "Walker" were exhibited, which never came to production. The presentation of the operatingsystem update AmigaOS 3.5 was the highlight and of course it was sold at the show. Also A1200 machines and the popular Amiga merchandising products were sold.

There were no new Amigas to show and the MCC was off topic, as it became clear during the weeks before the fair. However, there was a developer machine by Haage & Partner exhibited inside of a displaycase at the AMIGA booth. This machine was a POP board from IBM (CHRP), which can be licensed by any developer who wants to produce a big number of pieces. During an interview Jürgen Haage said that Haage & Partner is planing a nativ PPC port of AmigaOS after developing AmgaOS 3.5. The cooperation of AMIGA by giving Haage & Parter the necessary licenses to do so, is the most important assumption to make this come true. Haage & Partner already negotiats with AMIGA.

Inside the AMIGA booth guests of Tanja and Taras, Petro's children, were supported with tasty sausages, coffee and other drinks in an outstanding way . Petro Tyschtschenko, president of Amiga International, answerd numerous questions. Many users in a distinct manner showed him their frustration and temper about Gatway's decision to drop the MCC . Various users felt downright cheated by those many not fulfiled promises. All this temper were shaked out on Petro. Surely not an easy job, but in the meantime Petro calles himself a "manager of crisis". Unfortunatly many users don't think of, that Petro was the only one who put something into production, for he cared for the development of the operatingsystem update AmigaOS 3.5 and pushed it.

Certainly not to leave behind the music group ANNEX, who delighted the visitors of the fair with several songs an their dance-perfomances. In any case to mention is the visit by Diana and Bob Scharp, who are organizing the Gateway Computer Shows in St. Louis. Furthermore there were many small sub-boothes with Amiga, e.g. the one of Amiga-Club im BTX & Internet and the internet café, which was organizsed by UGN and where the IRC conferences were held - in the meantime usual for any big show. The IRC conferences were organized by Hendrik Höner and Christoph Dietz. The machines for the conferences were at their disposal by Amiga International. At other sub-boothes Amiga magazines like amigaOS, Amiga-Magazin and AmigActive from England were introduced. AmigaPlus were represented at another booth. More sub-boothes are discribed seperately below.

Haage & Partner

At the booth of Haage & Partner users got the occation to buy a lot of good software. Jürgen Haage, his wife an Markus Nerding as well as many co-workers answered questions of numberless users. For almost every product presentations were shown at the booth. Survey following:

STFax 4.0, the ultimate fax solution with 120 professional announcement texts in both, German and English. Many of the features have been enhanced, e.g. remote access, fax on demand, forwarding of faxes and background printing. Furthermore this version contains an enhanced support for USRobotics with improved quality of sound.

NetConnect 3.0, the all-in-one internet bundle with Voyager 3.0 incl. Java-script, AmIRC 3, NetInfo 2, the new mFTP as well as MetalWeb, the WYSIWYG HTML editor.

Warp3D, the highly optimized 3D driversystem for CyberVison 3D/Virge3D and others.
WaruUP, the hightspeed PowerPC kernel for Amiga.
StromMESA, an OpenGL compatible graphics library.
H&P advertises: The combination of PowerPC, 3D graphics card, WarpOS, Warp3D and StormMESA/OpenGL makes your Amiga a highend machine.

Storm DSK, the developer survival kit, containing everything indispensable for professional development. The bundle includes: StromC 3.0 68K ANSI C/C++ Compiler, StormC 3.0 PowerPC ANSI C/C++ Cross-Compiler, StromPowerASM 68K and PowerPC Cross-Assembler, StormWIZZARD V2.2 as current version of the desktop tools, StormMesa - 100% compatible OpenGL library for 68K and PowerPC, Developer CD V1.3 incl. the Amiga Refernz Manuals as AmigaGuide, PowerPC 68K Emulator Beta-Programm.

amigaWriter, the Word Processor with multilingual word-division, chapter-management, automatic list of contents, WYSIWYG style footnotes, extensive DTP funktions, pattern documents, enhanced printing, spell checking with correction propositions and support for TrueType. Unfortunatly version 2 wasn't finished in time before the show.

Tornado 3D Version 3.0, the incredible 3D rendering and animation programm with complete new GUI and an enormous number of features: clothes and threads, mannequins (human figures), improved particle system/force fields, extended inverse cinematic, sculptor (form editor), support for 3D sounds, animation control assistent, project planer, render engines and much more.

For graphics the classics VideoFX 2, X-DVE, FontMachine and of course ArtEffect 3.0 were sold at the show. The grahics programm for picture and video editing and creation of animations, as well as file convertion, ImageFX Version 4.1 is new on the list of H&P.

Also PageStream 4.0, the all-in-one DTP bundle incl. drawing funktions, index and list of contents, PDF export, HTML import/export, chapter dependent stile patterns and variables, multiple chapter/page number, manual printing, overview printing, visitingcard and lable printing.

The AMIGA Developer CD 2.1 containing all the news for AmigaOS 3.5 and for the previous versions of the operatingsystem was dearly desired. This bundle even includes the StormC 68K C/C++ Compiler Version 3.0 among other software and files . However, the CD doesn't contain the PowerPC-Compiler and Power-Assembler, but if you purchase the CD you obtain the opportunity to get StromC Version 4.0 for a special price.

Even a few hardware were offered. One could buy the graphic tablets and the multi I/O card HyperCOM 3+ from VMC, too.

Schatztruhe

At the booth of Schatztruhe of Stefan Ossowski one could see numerous software and among this a real feast for the eyes: the hand-airbrushed Micronik-Tower of Heinz Andreolla from Rüti in Swizerland. This tower is absolutly unique. Heinz took the tower completely apart, and brushed and painted multiple layers inside and outside of it. The Boing-Balls are sometimes raising, somtimes falling, sometimes smaller, sometimes bigger, sometimes more pale, and sometimes real colourful, telling the history of Amiga, which raised in the begining, then was colourful on top, and - as it looks like by now - slowly disapears into the underground again.

A special gimmick on the tower is a little Boing-Ball, which rotates around it's diagonal axis. This ball is driven by a 3.5 voltage ballbearing-engine. It took Heinz two month to work out the tower. Also Heinz together with Oliver Tacke is painting new GlowIcons. Some of the first icons one could already admire at the show. Unfortunatly a few of the icons are still faulty (too small), but those will be corrected and available soon.

One could find Urban Müller (Mr. Aminet) at the booth of Schatztruhe, too. We were able to ask him a number of questions about Aminet, which he moderates together with Matthias Scheler. We were interested in who is permitted to upload files to Aminet. Urban explained this to us, and we continued to write notes on it which we tell you in a summary below.

First of all everybody is of principle permitted to upload an archiv to Aminet. The archives are collected inside a special directory on the server in Paderborn. Before the archives get on Aminet - and by this on all mirrors - those are beeing checked for viruses and corrupt files. Above all they are verifying if the readme-files are proper. By the way Urban called our attention to the bad habit to include the version number with the filename. A lot of programmers are not able to give up this habit. There are two reasons why this is not good. First the filenames are changing continously and by this programms are hard to link to each other, and second it becomes harder to search for previous versions, cause previous version have to become deleted in order not to let burst the Aminet. So, it would be kind if the version number could be place inside the readme-file.

Further we asked Urban, why he dosn't agree with LZX-archives inside the Aminet, since LZX-archives are smaller than LHA-archives. Urban explained, he will agree with LZX-archives on Aminet as soon as LZX will be 100% portable to any operatingsystem. Unfrotunatly this is not possible, yet. What means that a few operatingsystems would be locked out from using LZX-archives.

Dr. Greg Perry from GP Software answerd questions of DirOpus users. A patch which fixes problems with AmigaOS 3.5 can be downloaded at the mentioned webside.

individual computers - Jens Schönfeld

Jens Schönfeld and Jörg 'Schueschmie' Sendrowski showed us the prototype of the new ethernet card. This is a full-sized Zorro card containing 10MBit ethernet and the "usual" expansionports. The card uses RJ45 ("Twisted Pair") as well as BNC ("thin ethernet" or "Lakritz") connectors. Also interesting is the SilveSurfer, a serial port for A1200 and Buddha. For the SilverSurfen even an adapter for A600 is available. This serial port makes up to 460800 Baud, is MIDI compatible and keeps big Fifos for low CPU charge. Additonal to this hardware there was a SCMS-Copybit-Killer. The Copybit-Killer allows multiple digital copying via TOSLINK optical cables between Minidisc, DAT, DCC, CDR and that is the reason why it is only usable for privat purposes.

Eyetech Group Ltd

Alan Redhouse showed us varaible hardware which is mainly used for industrial applications. Those are several components and modules which are to plug into the floppy port. Those keep an image of a bootdisk. He showed us a karaoke machine which used a small LC display and Scala to display the text of a song, while the music was played from an integrated CDRom drive. The necessary hardware sticks into a 19" shelf, hence is optimal for any insdustrial application. According to Allan Redhouse the Amiga Operatingsystem proved itself as definite stable and reliable, whereas the use of other systems brought up problems and crashes again and again.

Amiga Zentrum Thüringen e.V.

Wie talked to Kai Mache and Rolf Hoffmann. The AZT, surely known by some users from the "Fun of Computing" , mainly calls themself an address for users wanting to meat and get to know other users, in oder to discuss about their favourit subject and to help each other with problems. The subject of AZT's little sub-booth at Amiga definite was Linux. They lend help and the club also created a CD with all the necessary files to install Linux. Of course there are thorough manuals on the CDRom, too. The CD can also be ordered after the show from Thomas Mache, Lindenberg 59, 98693 Ilmenau, at a price of 25,- DM

KATO Development Group

Jörn Plewka, Thorsten Gruner and Thorsten Hansen showed us the new Twister 1200 NG, which is produced by DCE. A multi I/O card with automatic dataflow control and 460800 baud independent from the CPU in use. Twister 1200 NG is compatible to the Melody 1200 soundcard.

Further we could astonish at the new Zorro 2-fast-ethernet card Unity Net. Here some of the specifications: 100 Mbps and 10 Mbps (100Base-TX and 10Base-T), 64kB databuffer, auto-negotiation IEEE 802.3, full autoconfig (no harware settings needed), full duplex in 10Mbps mode, RJ-45 connection (Twisted Pair), automatic speed detection inside the network and SANA 2-driver. This card will be available in late january 2000 at the earliest.

EASys! by Tom Neidhardt

EASys! builds an OS enhancement for the standard Workbench, which is 100% compatible to OS3.5, and holds many additional features. Here some of the features: multithreading on WB, www pages as icon, send WB files as email, internet doc (unfoldable), office doc (unfoldable), system doc including drag 'n drop docs for presentations, editor, printing, and global help, and many many more. Further details are available by the link above. EASys! Version 4.6 coming soon on CDRom together with extended background stuff. Innovativ (Felix Schwarz) will deal with the sales. There is a test report for version 3.5 in amigaOS' issue from mai `99. The provisional product "MARInA" fits well as demo for snooping into the software, and is available on Aminet in the aminet/util/wb directory.

Vendors

We had no extended look at the vendors, but tenor of the conversations was, that there were not enough hardware for sale. Only a few PPC cards, graphics cards and accelaration cards were available at the fair. Nevertheless, the turnovers weren't lower than the year before at all, what after all means that the turnovers might have been much bigger, if there were more hardware for sale at the show.

At the booth of COOLbits people could purchase software updates from products of IrseeSoft. Further there were Bühler Elektronik, TGV-Haupt, ACT electronic and Elbox at the show.

RBM digitaltechnik

First your eyes were catched by the coloured tower cases, which RBM will soon offer painted with any colour wanted. We couldn't disregard the "Swopper", which has nothing to do with Amiga at all but nevertheless is interesting. "Swopper" is a chair like seat, which works like a big round ball, but doesn't roll away. Unfortunatly at a price of 800 to 900 DM this is a quite expensive fun.

Certainly ScanQuix 5 were presented. ScanQuix now supports the ICS colour management and offers further new features. The power failture system AmstroNG and Towerhawk 1200/4000 were shown, too.

Felix Schwarz von Innovative presented his new graphical editing programm fxPAINT at the booth of RBM. fxPAINT offers everything necessary for todays professional designers: painting tools and surfaces, highly comfortable to operate, many special effects, open concept for enhancements, integrated modules for convertion and administration of pictures, webdesign tools. fxPAINT is furthermore the first application fully using the features of OS 3.5 and of course supports PPC. Felix did an extented presentation for us and we realy were filled with enthusiasm.

Amiga-Club im BTX & Internet

The Amiga-Club im BTX und Internet takes the task to help Amiga users with all their problems concerning Amiga. It is important that the members help each other, by that contacts become closer and a good community is builded. To do so on the websides of the club a number of forums are available and thats also why the club were at the show. At their booth at the fair users could ask questions about any subject, many small problems could be fixed at the booth. The booth had a lot visitors, and many peoples who knew each other only by the forums had long conversations. Volker Mohr presented an Amiga laptop, which he put together himself laborious.

Aaron Digulla presented AROS. AROS is an new implementation of AmigaOS, which is open-source. Linux is used as developer system, cause it is available for free and stable, and allows a quite comfortable development of its own source code. AROS is to imagin as a kind of emulator, emulating the features of AmigaOS similar to UAE in which UAE builds a hardware emulation, whereas AROS actualy emulates the operatingsystem.

This project gets ahead only slowly at this time. About 60 % of the work is done, which mainly is due to that of 60 registered developers only a hand full gets active on this regular. Many developers are motivated, but there are problems with time. After all the project progressed far enough that we were able to play a mine-game. We asked Aaron who else he would like to have in the team, and of course he said that Olaf Barthel would be great. :-)

APC&TCP Computerclub

The APC&TCP Computerclub offers many performances. Some of this are directly deald by the central office, others by several members of the club. And quite that is the power and of course the main meaning of a computerclub. A lot of members like to help other members. This is done at the users' home or by the club magazine NoCover, which one could get on disk, via email or from the homepage of the club.

APC&TCP-sale cares for updates and patches for many programms, and supports developer of games. At their booth one could purchase a lot of games. Markus Pöllmann showed a demo of Phoenix, a outerspace game.

Epic Marketing

Epic-Marketing presented the new game "Dafel Bloodline". That is a Zelda like role game which will support AGA and graphics cards, will use a new sourround sound system and will contain many aktion elements.

Lukas Hartmann told us about his realtime strategy game "Soeki - The plague", which he together with Atomatirx (4 ppl) are developing on BeOS and will then be ported to Amiga, if there will be any moving on. The story of the game is very extended. It starts with an over-populated earth and a group of peoples getting teleported to a planet far away. That planet is build out of five islands, of which one is contaminated radioactive. Of course the people have to wear protection suites on that contaminated island what later turns out as a good thing, cause there enrages a virus on each of the islands turning human into monsters. Only the people wearing protection suites don't get affected by that virus. Everybody can imagin how the story continues....

We also met Paul Burkey, the programmer of Foundation (now Foundation - The Directors Cut) at the booth of Epic Marketing. An update for Foundation - The Directors Cut which will fix little bugs will be realeased soon.

Titan Computer

The highlight at the booth of Titan surely was the presentation of the demo of Heretic II. This game is beeing ported to Amiga by Hyperion Software. The programmers Thomas and Hans-Jörg Frieden as well as Christian Sauer told us, that a fast PowerPC and for the best a 3D graphics card is recommended for the game, as for Shogo.

Ingo Kleefisch presented his morphing programm "Fantastic Dreams", which now even can save single sequences as animations. Also the programmers of the well known CDR-software "BurnIt", Michael Siegel and Axel Deising, were at the booth of Titan. Michael Garlich, the chief of Titan-Computer, told us the decision of Gateway not to develope the MCC anymore put him to worse, cause he believed in those promises and invested a lot of money for licenses.

Summary

As you surely could read between the lines of the short previews, the show wasn't a "banger". All in all less visitors, only on saturday there were a quite good visitation. This time appearently only those people have come to the show who realy wanted to buy someting or to talk to the developers and to meet other Amiga users. As one could imagin before there were no single sign of the revolutionary development we heard about long time ago. Nevertheless, there are some good starts, but unfortunatly all this is still not "to hand", nothing we would be able to buy here and today. I talked to many users who came with a lot of money to the show, but left it again with the money. This in mind I'm astonished by the vendors beeing quite satisfyed by their turnovers not less than previous jear. This shows definite that there is a existing marked. It would be nice if something "real" would be brought t ging new starts (PPC) would realy come to development, because for me I'm fed up with those keep-up-slogans any way. OS 3.5 is a begining, but now the developers of hardware must come along.

This show was a great experience for me. I got to know an incredible number of people personaly who I only knew by email or phone before. I had a lot of intense and extended conversations, which gave me a better understanding of a number of interrelations. I want say thank you very much for the kindness I recieved everywhere. This all was great fun for me and motivated me to go on with Amiga News. One word about those many rumours at the show, as usual at any show. Certainly I've heard some, but I rather stick to facts and will wait until I'm able to report facts.

I hope that I didn't forget anybody or anything important, and that I didn't confuse specifications or anything else. If so, please sent me a short email.
(ps) (ps)

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19.Nov.1999
Benjamin Dauhrer in ANF


PowerOS mailinglist
Due to the many e-mails every day with questions about PowerOS, a PowerOS mailinglist has been opened. More informations available from posinfo.listbot.com. (ps)

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19.Nov.1999
Thomas Lorenz in ANF


FusionPPC - remark and request
The article below is taken from the Fusion mailinglist.
Since so far only a quarter of the placed preorders have been backed up with payments (which results in Microcode Solutions having to write the whole code themselves -> delays in Amiga and PC version), Jim Drew sees four options for the Amiga version:

  • paying back the prepaiments, aborting the project!! (NO!!)
  • continuing the project, finishing by christmas. BUT: Only for those who pre-ordered and pre-payed (hardware dongle) (not so great either)
  • bumping the price to 299 USD (probably by christmas, too) (oops, expensive...)
  • hoping that those who stated interest in FusionPPC will finally place their prepayment so the project can be finished quickly by external reinforcements.

Jim Drew is ready to hear other suggestions. Due to the large investments done so far, he is reluctant to drop the project.

Read the original message from Jim Drew:

"Well, as the clock winds down, we realize that we are not going to meet the deadline for the Amiga PPC release of FUSION. There are numerous reasons, with the most significant reason being that we have received only a small portion of the funds from the 500 that were require to pre-order. We were to use this money for hiring outside sources for writing portions of the code, which we have now been doing ourselves. This whole thing upsets us very much, as if we had known that the pre-payments were never going to arrive, we would have spent the time on the PC version and have it available already (we will always re-coup expenses in the PC market). We are disappointed that less than 1/4 of the people who pledged to pre-pay have not. Because of this, we have only a few choices:
  1. Completely abandon the project and refund the money to those individuals who did pre-pay.
  2. Continue the project with our normal staff and have the emulation available by Christmas, only to those who pre-paid (no sales to those who did not pre-pay... and use a hardware based dongle to eliminate piracy).
  3. Continue the project with our normal staff, and raise the price of the emulation now to $299.95.
  4. Please with the public to pay if you pledged to pre-pay and hope that the money comes in so that we can send out some of the work to expidite the process.

We don't know what to do. We have a ton of work done, and we don't really want to toss it away. Any suggestions?

Jim Drew, Microcode Solutions" (ps)

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19.Nov.1999
Total Vision


Total Vision News
An update for the video MPEG player Frogger version 1.43 and an update for SoftCinema (version 0.7) is available for download. (ps)

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18.Nov.1999
Daniel Schulz by e-mail


ANNEX not splitted!
In the net there is a rumor that ANNEX has split. I do not know who tells such rumors, or what for, but it is 100% sure that ANNEX has NOT split, and does not plan to do so for a long time.

There have been only three of us in Cologne, but you can read that on our homepage. On the contrary, we are planning to present a vinyl release to the market, and to announce this on this occassion, too!

If you want to get an impression how things are going on at ANNEX, you should have a look at our homepage. ANNEX is continuing, and will not split as long as there is an Amiga user left on the world!!! Even if that user has to be myself!! :-) See ya at the next big show. (ps)

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18.Nov.1999
Roman Schaub in ANF


PTOW now freeware
The periodic table of elements (short: ptoe) is a list that shows all the known elements in a certain order. This program shows such a list and the information about the elements contained in it. (ps)

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18.Nov.1999
Vapor.com


AmTelnet version 2.1.3beta released
Download: amtelnet_213beta.lzx (ps)

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18.Nov.1999
Markus Fellhauer in ANF


A/NES emulator CGFX version 1.10
Download: anescgfx.lha - 72 kB. (ps)

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18.Nov.1999
Detlef Zirpel in ANF


Which OS is the best?
At the title link, you can vote what you like about which Operating System and what you dislike. The Amiga - OS dropped from position three to position six during the last months. Whoever agrees with me that the Amiga - OS is better should announce it there as soon as possible. And then lets see ...
PS: Thanks to Detlef's call, AmigaOS is back where it belongs :-) (ps) (ps)

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18.Nov.1999
Jens Schönfeld by e-mail


individual Computers says thank-you
Silversurfer number 400 has just left the house, which proves: the Amiga market is alive! Independant magazines in Germany and Great Britain have tested the product to be bug-free and absolutely outstanding. The fact that there's another card on the market which is an exact copy of the Silversurfer from the outside is a compliment for me: there's nothing to improve!

Of course, the EOF mode of Miami was supported from the beginning, but since I consider this self-explanatory this feature was not advertised big-time. The next version of Miami will auto-detect the Silversurfer, and use the EOF mode without the user having to activate it manually.

There has been much positive feedback on the HEW '99. Only the length of the supplied cable (25cm) was reason for criticism. Since this was known before, starting November '99 the Silversurfer is shipped with an adapter cable which reaches the backside of really every tower. Starting mid December '99, there will also be a slot back allowing to attach the serial port alongside the A1200 mouse port - but there will be seperate news available then. (ps)

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18.Nov.1999
amiga-news.de


IWin... a neverending story
In a record time of under six weeks, Iwin has changed it's complete product line, has been sold to Focke, but former employees have bought back the company. Well done, other companies take months, if not years for this. To set this in the right light, Iwin-Corp. of course did not forget to register well-sounding domains like iwin-amiga.de or iwin-mcc.de. At least that's what's described on the web pages. As we already expected from IWin, big words raise hopes that they would soon deliver THE ultimate Amiga system, soon...

Once more, dear IWin Corporation: After the last press conference, which could safely be described as disaster, here's our request: Show us your miracle systems, let us participate in your unbelievable developments; as said so many times before, a well done website in combination with good PR does not convince us. We want to see the system, be able to check it technically, and only then we will stop calling it a fake. (ps)

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18.Nov.1999
Czech Amiga News


SoftCinema v0.7
On November 15th, version 0.7 of the animation player SoftCinema has been released. The shareware program supports several codecs of AVI and QuickTime (QT/MOV). This includes IntelIndeo (3.1, 3.2, 4, 5), SMC and RLE.

It rund on an Amiga with PPC (ppc.library), AGA or CGX, AHI and 8 MB free RAM. The unregistered version is limited to 20 seconds playback. Download: SoftCinema.lha (ps)

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18.Nov.1999
Czech Amiga News


3DRave Dev V1.0
On November 15th, version 1.0 of the developer archive of the 3DRave library for CyberGraphX V4.1+ has been released. It contains the cgx3drave.library, programming examples, includes and a game demo. This version is only functional with BVisionPPC or CVisionPPC drivers. Support for CyberVision64/3D and PicassoIV + VooDoo1 is planned. Download: cgx3drave_10.lha. (ps)

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18.Nov.1999
Czech Amiga News


SecOS status report
SecOS by Trogladite Software is a software package including diverse functionalities like login, user administration, logfile viewer etc. for networking Amigas.

Invalidation Detection detects upon login if the harddrive is validated. If this is not the case, the login is delayed until the harddrive has validated itself. This keeps users from loging into the account of the predecessor. Additionally, user-defined scripts can be executed upon login and logoff.

Users can now be organised in groups, and their access rights be set accordingly.

Among others, an editor for administrating group and user information is planned. An information programm showing how many users are logged in etc. Work is being done on a logfile viewer controlling three seperate logfiles (server, remote, security), offering search and filter functionality as well as starting macros automatically when specific entries appear in the logfiles. (ps)

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18.Nov.1999
Czech Amiga News


PhotogenicsNG ML at ONElist
There is now a mailing list for PhotogenicsNG at ONElist. The mailing list is intended for discussions and exchanging tips and hints. You can subscribe by sending an e-mail to PhotogenicsNG-subscribe@onelist.com.

Additionally, Paul Nolan announced in a press release that he has already started porting Photogenics to LINUX. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Andreas R. Kleinert


New akMPEG version 3.03 (68k + PPC)
Download: akMPEG2.lha (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Haage & Partner


H&P News
STFax 4, NetConnect 3, Tornado3D 3, PageStream 4, ImageFX 4 and PowerStation are now available. The delivery of pre-orders will be done within the week. Haage & Partner begs your pardon for small delays.

Issues with Tornado3D and NetConnect
Sadly there are issues with the latest versions of Tornado3D v3 and NetConnect 3. Have a look at the support of Tornado3D and NetConnect. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Andre Beer in ANF


New update for GeoWorld - geography for the Amiga
Today a new update for GeoWorld has been released. The update contains all missing flags and a new start picture. More information and download under the title link. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Jeppe Nielsen in ANF


HomeLand - new real-time strategy game
Jeppe Nielsen writes:
A new demo called HomeLand, is online. It's a new real-time strategy game, with some original features. You can create you own customizible units (with some limitations of course). These units are created from tecnologies that you research. There are currently only 14 different technologies, but it's due to expand. Any suggestions and ideas are welcome, so please email me if you think of something cool to be added. Screenshots and download are available from my homepage. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Daniel Bindel in ANF


Lambda site update
The Lambda site has been updated again. Intensive work is being done on the OpenGL implementation and other interfaces (3D, graphics and steering) are under development. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Amigaland in ANF


AmigaLand show report with pictures
The German show report from the Home Electronics World '99 describes the experience from the perspective of the AMIGALAND team. Interesting because giving an impression of the thoughts of an Amiga retailer, Mrs. Vokinger. (German only, however.) (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Steve Crietzman by e-mail


COSA Progress Update
Read the "Open Letter to the Amiga Community" by COSA, which summarizes all news about the COSA project:

From:       "Steve Crietzman" president@savetheamiga.org.uk
Subject:    Open Letter to the Amiga Community
Date:       Wed, 17 Nov 1999 13:01:03 -0000

An Open Letter to the Amiga Community:

 COSA Progress Update

 November 17, 1999

 Dear Fellow Amigans:

 COSA feels it is time that we followed up on our open letters to Tom
Schmidt with a letter to the people that really matter: you, the
members of the Amiga community.

 We have so much news to report, and so much progress has been
made in recent weeks, that we felt it was time that we the community
on to date on our progress.

I want to start by thanking everyone who has written us with good
comments and suggestions over the past several weeks.  I also
want to assure you all that we have read each and every e-mail
message sent to us very carefully, and considered the issues you
have raised in great detail.

It is clear to us that there is still a great deal of confusion amongst the
community as to what COSA is doing, and what we are trying to achieve.
The responsibility for this lies with me, for not properly communicating
our plans to the Amiga community.  I would like to make amends for that
now, by taking a leaf out of Jim Collas's book, and providing you with
regular updates on our progress from this point forwards.

I would like to start by tackling the main issues of confusion: explaining
who COSA is, where we came from, and why we're here.

COSA, the Campaign to Open Source AmigaOS, had it's beginnings
soon after the Amiga executive updates of September 14th and
17th.  We were formed to bring together the Amiga community, and
to discuss ways forward for the Amiga.

On October 4th, after several weeks of discussion and exchanging of
ideas, we came to the conclusion that what makes the Amiga special
and unique, is the operating system.  The technology may be falling
behind, but our operating system still has something special and unique
to offer the world, and that's what has really kept us with the platform
through the last several years.

With this in mind, our discussions then focused on ways to preserve and
expand the Amiga operating system.  We discussed many
possibilities.  But we realised we also needed to think long-term.  Not
just about the immediate future of the operating system, but it's long-
term survival and growth, in a highly competitive, ever-changing
computing industry.

We concluded that to survive in this market, Amiga OS needs to be
overhauled and upgraded.  It needs to be brought up-to-date to take
advantage of new hardware and concepts in software engineering that
have emerged over the past six years.

Amiga OS also needs to be made available to the masses.  As much
as we wish it wasn't true, the traditional Amiga market is shrinking.  The
classic Amiga range is no longer competitive or attractive to the masses,
and therefore people will not be rushing to their local computer stores to
buy new Amigas.

For it's long-term survival and growth, Amiga OS also needs to be made
available to a wide variety of CPUs, or what Jim Collas referred to as
"operating environments."

Devoid of Gateway's official support for an aggressive expansion of the
Amiga OS in this way, we need to search for another large group of
people with the necessary commitment and ability to "make it happen."

We need to look no further than the high degree of talent that already
exists in the Amiga developer community.  We have AROS.  We have the
Aminet freeware developers.  We have commercial developers.  And
we have over 100 registered developers who have already pledged
to work on an open-source Amiga OS if it becomes available.

Collectively, the worldwide Amiga development community has the
manpower and experience necessary to bring the Amiga operating
system into the 21st century, and keep the Amiga vision alive.

The Amiga community needs to unite like never before.  We can no
longer rely on anyone but ourselves, because there is no-one else
left.

No Commodore.  No Escom.  No Gateway.

Just the Amiga community of users, developers and dealers - no
parent company to guide us.

With no parents, it becomes time we became responsible for
ourselves - that we collectively pull our resources together, and
convince Gateway to let the community have a go where others
have failed.

COSA has been in contact with many key players in the Amiga
community to discuss the way forward.  These include Amiga
International, Amino, Haage and Partner, AROS, Project IMP,
PowerOS, and even Tom Schmidt at Amiga Inc.  We are
partners in this process.

Collectively, we are working together to create a roadmap for the
future development of the Amiga operating system.

It is important people realise that we are not creating a new
Amiga OS.  We are not replacing it, either.  Our proposal is for the
community to collectively drive future upgrades of the current Amiga
operating system.  To take what we already have, and build upon
it.

By "community," we do not exclude anyone.  Anyone with an Amiga
or who understands the Amiga is included.  Haage and Partner,
the current developers of OS 3.5, are most certainly not excluded
from taking part in this process.

Our vision includes Haage and Partner at the forefront of Amiga
OS development, supported by a worldwide team of open-source
developers.  We are hopeful of reaching an agreement/compromise
with H&P over a role for their company and developers in the future
development of an open-source AmigaOS.

Together, we hope to present a united plan to Amiga Inc to bring the
Amiga operating system closer to the community.  It is way past time
that the community takes charge of it's own destiny, and we believe
open-sourcing the OS is the easiest and most common-sense, long-
term way to do this.

In the coming weeks, a Frequently Asked Questions section will
be created on COSA's website to address the most common
questions, concerns, ideas, and thoughts presented to us.  We
will also be publishing a green paper that details a possible
migration from the current closed-source system to an inclusive
open-source system, whereby everyone - Haage and Partner,
AROS, PowerOS, Aminet developers, everyone - is able to
contribute and work on the Amiga OS project - building on
what we already have, and improving it.

The weeks and months ahead hold much promise.  All we ask
from you, the community, is to give us time, and a little breathing
room.

We do not yet have all the answers, but as time passes, more and
more questions are being asked, more answers to these questions
found, and the mist that obscures the path ahead is clearing.

We realise the community has been let down many times in the past,
and we do not expect to earn your trust or faith overnight. All we ask
is that you give us a chance, and that you give us time.  We hope,
however, that over the long-term, COSA will be able to earn your
trust and restore your faith in the Amiga platform and it's future.

Because at the end of the day, it is the Amiga community that we
serve.  COSA is here to help bring the community together, into
discussion and dialogue, and help us collectively find a way out of
the fog that currently obscures the future of everyone's favourite OS.

>From recent events, it would seem that AROS, Project IMP,
PowerOS, Haage and Partner, Amiga International and COSA
are all in total agreement that discussion and co-operation, and
not competition, is the way forward for our community.

COSA has succeeded in bringing these groups to talk to each
other.  Now COSA hopes to play a role in finding an open-source
solution that will satisfy these groups and bring a bright future to
the Amiga operating system, and we intend to do just that.

If we stand together as a community, we can collectively ensure
the success of our favourite operating system, AmigaOS.  If we are
divided, we will all collectively fail.

We ask that the community gives the process that COSA has fostered
a chance to develop and grow, and allow these groups to co-operate with
each other and find a common settlement that will be of benefit to
Amigans everywhere.

Your own contributions to this process would be much appreciated.
Visit our website for details on how you can help this process succeed.

COSA is here to help Amigans everywhere by giving Amiga OS a bright
future.

Best regards,

Steve Crietzman
President, Campaign to Open Source AmigaOS
On behalf of our members and partners
http://www.savetheamiga.org.uk/
(ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Alexander Lohmann in ANF


New MAME version for PowerPC
Download: mameppc36b8.lha - 4.2 MB (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Jens Langner in ANF


Picasso96 version 2.0 released
After months of development, the Picasso96 team has decided to release the *final* version 2.0. Many changes and optimizations have been done since the last release in February 1999, and now the new Picasso96 version has really earned the tilte *final*. It should be installed on every system with gfx board. One of the new features, among others, is support for the Draco Altais gfx board. More details at the title link. Download: Picasso96.lzx - 493 kB and the PGP signature Picasso96.lzx.sig. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Carl Licke


Upd8 Update Version 1.1
With this program, you can check websites you keep visiting for changes. The program informs you which pages have changed.
For me, Upd8 is a program I couldn't live without :-). (ps) (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
The FMP in d.c.s.a.m


Karsten Obarski Tribute Project
With Karsten Obarski, a man is standing behind track-based sound programs like Soundtracker, Fasttracker, Impulsetracker, Screamtracker etc., who wrote the first program of this kind, Soundtracker, and in the golden era of Amiga provided the soundtrack for many games. But hardly anybody knows his name.

The Karsten Obarski Tribute Project has three goals:
  • make the name and person Karsten Obarski known for what he did and which music he created
  • collect as many greetings for him as possible
  • make contact with him and deliver the greetings

To achieve this, FMP is looking for support. You can place one of three tribute banners on your homepage, and send information and comments about Karsten Obarski. A music contest is planned. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Apex Designs


Payback Status Report #4
In part due to the soundtrack, in part to make the game as good as possible, the scheduled release date of Payback has been moved from December '99 to end of February 2000. Because of this, there will be more extras etc. in the game.

No matter what, development is making constant progress. The code for sound mixing is now available in assembler, and has no impact on the game's framerate. A special feature of the sound engine is that it can mix up to 100 sounds together to fit the 12 available channels by playing the loudest ones. This makes it possible to add sounds to virtually every object (fire, phones, walking people etc.).

The special scripting language has been expanded by commands allowing non-linear paths of action. Now, all the levels have to be created.

Four additional screenshots are available. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Amiga.org


TWOM2: Ghelae and the Death-Sword
F1 Software announced a new fantasy adventure, TWOM2. Goal is to save the world (uh, really? ;-) (mb)) by leading Ghelae through the fantastic world Kawamoon with its orcs, werewolves, dragons and goblins.

The game offers over 30 interactive characters, detailed graphics, numerous puzzles and more. Scheduled release date is December 5th, 1999. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Amiga.org


MMU.library v40.51 released
Version 40.51 of the MMU-library as well as several library-related tools have been released on Aminet. The library enables ROM-mapping, memory-protecting parts of an application and more.

Download: util/libs/MMULib.lha (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Amiga.org


The Amiga Volunteer Project
The Amiga Volunteer Project (TAVP) is a non-profit organisation targeted at supporting software development for the Amiga, so high-quality programs are released faster and the software situation for the Amiga is improved.

To achieve this, the organisation is currently contacting Amiga developers to ask them if they need help, and in which areas.

TAVP itself is looking for people interested in working for the organisation for free. Wanted are programmers, musicians and more.

Additionally, TAVP is contacting several PC developers for porting their programs to Amiga, and possibly earn some money for the organisation by selling them. This money would be used for the organisation. The founders are not interested in making money themselves with the organisation.

Whoever is interested in participating in TAVP, can send an e-mail to official_tavp@hotmail.com. The e-mail should state name, country and computer equipment as well as a description of how one intends to help the project. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
amiga-news.de


www.irseesoft.de
A supplementary driver disk has been announced for mid December, offering the following drivers for TurboPrint:
  • Canon BJC 1000, 2000, 4400, 6100, 7100
  • Epson Stylus Photo 750, 1200
  • Epson Stylus Color 460, 660, 760, 860, 900
(ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Falk Lücke by e-mail


Eternity News - Tales of Tamar
It's cold outside... but the latest news offer the ultimate possibility to change your system into a secondary heater, so get it running!

The German Tales of Tamar Demo 1 is ready, and will soon be released on the AmigaFuture cover CD. Soon after the AmigaFuture release, the demo will be given to the other magazines, too, not without being fully localized. A little bit later the demo will be released to the general public, too.

The demo is not fully playable, it offers a first feeling of the world Tamar. IRC-chat, FTP-download and online games are already functional, however, and updates are planned, like a build-in Mastermind clone in ToT outfit...

The upcoming second Tales of Tamar demo will be able to play as stand-alone version in connection with the server, but the round-based game will be time-limited...
As can easily be seen from these words, development has not stopped despite the long absence of an update to the version number on the homepage http://www.tamar.net; it is making big progress. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Steffen Haeuser in fidonet.AMIGA.GER


Heretic II
Heretic II was presented on the show. One system had problems making Heretic run. Steffen Haeuser writes about it:
On Saturday it turned out the problem was a bug of my chunkyppc.library (yes, it's my fault :) I will fix the bug tonight). chunkyppc.library ran correctly when CGX was installed. When Picasso96 was installed, too. But not if both are running parallel (on two different gfx boards). And that was the problem with the second system, so there is no specific problem by Heretic 2. (ps)

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17.Nov.1999
Martina Jacobs in ANF


New 68060.library and FlashUpdate by Phase5
On the Phase5 FTP site, there are new libs for MC68060 and a new FlashUpdate for PPC boards available.
68060.library version 46.7: Lib ID String corrected, Init for LC/EC060 disabled, some switches for the utility.library path reenabled.
FlashUpdate: ppc.library version 46.28, new 68060/ppc.library for Blizzard (see above) and new CDRive file system. (ps)

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16.Nov.1999
Stuart Walker by e-mail


Wipeout 2097 troubles
There is a serious problem when installing the Warp3D archive which is located on the Wipeout2097 CD. Some libraries don't have a larger version number than the Warp3D libraries of the Warp3D V2 archive, so that the Warp3D installer doesn't copy the appropriate files. This results into a PPC exception requester opening after the setup requester is confirmed, and after the screen resp. window becomes black. This probably only happens, if a Warp3D V2 installation was already present and if the new archive from the CD was installed afterwards.

To solve this problem, the following should be done:
1. Delete the file 'LIBS:Warp3DPPC.library' (or uninstall Warp3D as a whole)
2. Reinstall the Warp3D archive from the WO2097 CD or copy the file 'Warp3DPPC.library' to LIBS: by hand. (ps)

[News message: 16. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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16.Nov.1999
Jörn Plewka by e-mail


Twister1200 available again since HEW! High End, Low Cost...
Due to a misunderstanding, some cards have been sold on the show not including documentation. Be careful during installation, the new card is now installed head-down towards the keyboard of the A1200! Twister1200 Rev. 2 has been modified mechanically by DCE. As reasons cost saving and compatibility to other products is named. Support is still provided by Katodev, by e-mail, WWW, Fax and, if need be, phone after 6:00 PM.

We, Katodev, have been asked by users attending the show why another serial card is reintroduced to the market. After testing, also at the HEW, and experiences made by users, still no other competitor is able to ensure a flawless transmission with only mediocre transmission speeds (keyword: auto flow control). Reasons are limitations in hard- or software. High transmission speeds are therefore in jeopardise. Additionally, contrary to promises, a competitor's product creates a rather high CPU-load in comparison. Compatibility to Melody1200 is also contrary to promises not possible for any competing product without soldering. If Miami's load-decreasing EOF mode is supported by others is unknown. All statements without guarantee, misunderstandings might have occured. (ps)

[News message: 16. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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16.Nov.1999
Marko Seppänen by e-mail


Image Engineer PlugIn - special offer
Read the press release from Image Engineer, which offers certain PlugIns for a limited time for very special prices:

Image Engineer plug-in discount!

Shareware plug-ins under name Visual Engineering for image manipulation program, Image Engineer, are now very very cheap. After pricecheck I decided to drop prices permanently and for a limited time shock you with an unbeatable offer.

For now on these will be the official prices:
  • Visual Border 25 $
  • Visual Logo 25 $
  • Visual Puzzle 9 $

SHOCKING OFFER!!

To the end of November, there will be a special offer. First, with either Visual Border and Visual Logo, you'll get Visual Puzzle for free. But, that's not all. If you order both Visual Border and Visual Logo together, you will not just get Visual Puzzle for free, but you'll get these 3 plug-ins for a shockprice:
  • Visual Border & Visual Logo = 45 $ (250 FIM, 43 EUR)
    +Visual Puzzle for FREE

ORDERING

Secure credit card ordering is a quick way to register.

Use URL - https://secure.reg.net/product.asp?ID=5195

all orders sent before 1.12.1999 are valid.

File "VE-Main.lha" downloadble at website of Visual Engineering and with some days of delay from Aminet, has detailed information about registration using different methods.

All minor and major updates with new effects are FREE OF CHARGE. And look at the amount of FREE plug-ins, you already have.

SHORT DESCRIPTIONS OF PLUG-INS:

(Please see the website of Visual Engineering for eye-candy)
  • Visual Border
    Takes an image and applies different kind of border effects to it. Useful for a website designer and as a video background graphic maker.
    In numbers there's currently roughly more than 50 different types of effects, but as you can easily apply different kind of border -effects to the same image, there's actually thousands of different kind of effects.
    Image Engineer itself offers possibility to use alphachannel masks, but Visual Border uses them more effectively.
  • Visual Logo
    Takes black and white text and outputs different kind of logos.
    Currently there's tens of different kind of effects with easy to use adjustments.
    Philosophy of Visual Logo is that all the effects can easily be composited together, so there's actually lots of different kind of effects.
  • Visual Puzzle
    Takes an image and creates a random puzzle.
    There's corner pieces, edge pieces and the rest.
    It's possible to create own puzzlepieces.

INTERNET

Visual Engineering website (new sample images added)
http://wwnet.fi/users/smarko/visual

Image Engineer website
http://www.amigaworld.com/support/imageengineer

EMAIL

Marko Seppänen
marko.seppanen@wwnet.fi

PS. Image Engineer works fine with new and shiny Amiga OS 3.5. (ps)

[News message: 16. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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16.Nov.1999
Robert Kon by e-mail


Transmeta: Crusoe
January 19th, 2000, is scheduled to see the introduction of the new Crusoe processor. The source code contains a "secret" message. (ps)

[News message: 16. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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16.Nov.1999
Andreas Magerl by e-mail


APC & TCP - new products
Since the HEW, four new products for Amiga are available from APC & TCP. The CD-ROM "The Best of Airsoft Softwair" contains a collection of the FULL versions of the group that did CD32 Installer, NewInstaller, Rainboot and more.

The Scene Archives 9 is a sequel of the successful scene demo CD-ROM "The Best of Scene Archives".
A strategy game for Amiga is finally available again: SeaSide. Currently, only the German version is available. An English version will be released in some weeks. The game requires AGA, 4 MB RAM and a CD-ROM drive.

With the Info/Beginner CD-ROM, the club offers a CD which is especially targeted at Amiga newbies and club members. Readily installed tools everyone should have are included on the CD-ROM as well as all demo versions of APC&TCP, all issues of NoCover, the complete homepage (which is in itself 300 MByte in size), and various material by different club members. The CD-ROM is only available directly from APC&TCP, and is of course continuously expanded and updated. (ps)

[News message: 16. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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16.Nov.1999
Aaron Digulla in ANF


DNS Server for AROS.ORG down
The DNS server for the AROS.ORG domain is down. The project continues nevertheless! The FTP server is in the meantime available at ftp://sbb.hepe.com/pub/aros/; the WWW server not, sadly. (ps)

[News message: 16. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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16.Nov.1999
Michael Lange in ANF


CyberGraphX v4.2 update
This update, among other small issues, removes the incompabilities with AmigaOS 3.5. This update requires the original CGX V4 CD. The archive only contains the patches for cgxsystem.library. Download: cgxsysUpdate42.lha. (ps)

[News message: 16. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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16.Nov.1999
Alexander Kurtz by e-mail


Update of Aminet GUI
The Aminet GUI now offers a chat. Right now this is sadly unavailable for the current Amiga browsers! I hope the new versions of the NG browsers fix this shortcomming! Additionally, there is a guestbook, where everyone is free to leave news, ideas or criticism for me. For all who like discussing with other users, I added a forum. Here you can discuss about the Amiga, and you are free for asking for and giving advice about Amiga problems. Everyone who has a problem can ask, and everyone in the know can answer. So get to your keyboards... A small change has been applied to the mirror list. A small flag stands in front of each server, stating the host's country... Finally, the GUI can now be downloaded as LHA or LZX archive, to make Aminet access yet faster. The files can be found under Service/Downloads, and are about 880 kByte in size. (ps)

[News message: 16. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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16.Nov.1999
Stefan Robl by e-mail


CGXBlanker update
Version 1.20 of CGXBlanker is now configurable with a preferencer, offers some new features compared to the last version, and a very nice new blanker ("Flower") has been added. More details at the title link.
PS: In the old archive, I forgot the 020 version of the blanker, only a 040 version was included... archive 1.21 now contains a 020+ and a 040+ version, and I have added an Installer script for easy installation. (ps)

[News message: 16. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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15.Nov.1999
Alexander Kurtz by e-mail


Aminet GUI
The Aminet GUI is available at the new URL www.aminet.de starting immediately... (ps)

[News message: 15. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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15.Nov.1999
Oliver Wagner by e-mail


AmigaNCP 2.1
AmigaNCP is an implementation of the Psion link protokoll, which is used in Psion S3/S3a/S3C, Psion 55 Palmtop ROMs and others. Download: amigancp_21.lzx (ps)

[News message: 15. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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15.Nov.1999
PowerOS


PowerOS news
Claus Herrmann writes in the news:
The HEW (Home Electronics World) is over now. I want to send a quick thanks to the users who visited me and asked me all those questions! At the same time, I want to make an announcement: PowerOS will also be implemented for the AmiJoe by Met@Box! I cann tell you I am proud (and so far only) owner of an AmiJoe 1200 G3. A big thanks to Met@Box for this! Details (specs and photos) soon on my homepage on a seperate page. (ps)

[News message: 15. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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15.Nov.1999
diverse


More pictures from HEW '99
Dennis Pauler writes that there are commented pictures of the Cologne show available from Virtual Dimension.

Thomas Graf informed us that the Home Electronics World Area at AmigaNation has photos of the show and MPEG's of the Annex live performance. Show report and Annex performance.

Yet more pictures are available from javasoft Computer. (ps)

[News message: 15. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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15.Nov.1999
Rene Koenig by e-mail


Amiga Hard Hacks
Amiga Hard Hacks now has an own domain, www.hardhacks.de. On this page, you find pinouts, hardhacks, and and and... everything about Amiga hardware. Questions to: webmaster@hardhacks.de. (ps)

[News message: 15. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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15.Nov.1999
Oliver Tacke by e-mail


GlowIcons CD-ROM
Oliver Tacke writes:
Dear Amiga community, in Cologne we (Heinz Andreolla and myself) have given away CD-ROMs with numerous GlowIcons. Sadly we now have to say it is very bugged. I did a bad mistake, so most of the icons are too small - only a little bit, but enough to make a real clean-up with drawers containing lots of icons impossible.

Another problem is that during the stress during the last days before the show, several binaries were copied to the CD-ROM. I consider it unfair to blame Heinz as software pirate for this, like some people did. It was a mistake, really, and if I hadn't delivered the icons only a few days before the show started, Heinz would have had enough time to avoid this mistake.

Short: we beg your pardon. Consider the distributed CD-ROM as a demo version. I will now sit down at my system to correct everything as fast as possible. Moreover, I will do some improvements and expansions, like correctly adjusting the drawer colors to OS3.5. Considering the number of icons, I beg your pardon for not being able to do this in one week. I will hurry, anyways.

A first fixed archive with roughly 250 icons is finished and will be available shortly. The final version will probably be included in the Aminet CD-ROM Nr. 35, and, if wanted, on Aminet or the reader's CD of the amigaOS. (ps)

[News message: 15. Nov. 1999, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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