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Amiga Update (1996-06-11)
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/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Amiga Update -News and Rumors
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ ||(A Very Occasional Newsletter)
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga Technolgies, GmbH
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960611
C O M P L E T E D B R O W S E R S A T L A S T !
I B R O W S E A N D A W E B
V A L H A L L A T H R E E A V A I L A B L E
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About this issue:
The Internet and the Amiga have had an interesting relationship. Though
Amigans are among the most knowledgable users of the Internet and World
Wide Web, we've not had a fully functional "browser" to call our own. While
"Netscape" supports many computers, the Amiga is not one of them. We've had
to make do with half finished versions of Mosaic, IBrowse, Voyager and
AWeb. At least there are a lot of choices, all are available in free
versions and together they provide most of the capabilities you'll find in
browsers for other machines, except for frame support.
The other problem has been the difficulty in installing networking
software on the Amiga. Basically, you've needed one or two of the browsers,
Ami/TCP as a network "stack" and some sort of PPP protocol software or
MLink. Then you had to figure out how to install all that, and make it work
together.
Those of us who made it through the maze have found the Amiga every bit as
capable as other computers in net surfing, plus the Amiga's multitasking
has made it much more comfortable than using a PC or Mac. The Amiga
wanders the net very much like a Unix computer does, and Unix is the net's
native environment (Despite what the Windows NT folks would have you
believe).
It looks like life is going to get better soon for the non-hacker Amigan.
Announcements from Oregon Research and AmiTrix development promise relief.
AmiTrix has what is probably the most stable freeware/shareware browser now
available for the Amiga in AWeb. It lacks some of the more advanced
features of the competition, but recent announcements of the fully
commercial version tell of closing the gap. We have quite a bit of
information on the upcoming commercial AWeb below, along with information
on the still usable freeware and shareware versions.
Perhaps more interesting is the very short notice from Oregon Research.
They're announcing a commercial version of "IBrowse", a very capable
browser from the folks who did the first Amiga browser, AMosaic. The most
encouraging part of their announcement is something called Termite TCP. A
competitor to Ami/TCP, it promises to be the first easy to install
networking software for the Amiga, for use in Internet/WWW work. It
incorporates PPP (Point to Point Protocol) so you don't have to locate and
install another separate package. We've been using Oregon Research's
"Termite" terminal emulator program for some time at "Amiga Update" and
find it excellent, so we have high hopes for the package. We'll try to keep
you posted on all these packages as they become available.
Note that the best results with any WWW browser require at least a 256
color standard display (not HAM) so you need an AGA machine or one of the
many Amiga graphics cards to get the most out of this software. The other
alternative, of course, is to buy the Amiga Surfer package. This A1200
based model with all the software you'll need already installed is now
becoming available in the US. Prices are just under $800. Check with your
Amiga dealer.
We also have information about a new game from Britain's Vulcan Software.
The Valhalla series from those folks is first rate and an excellent example
of what Amiga gaming can be like at its best. If you like adventure games
or just clever programming, check this out. Interestingly, these games have
been programmed in a variety of BASIC (yes, BASIC) called "Amos". It took
quite a bit of convincing before I'd believe they weren't done in C or
maybe assembler. Simply amazing.
Whew. That's a lot of text from The Editor. Let's move on to the important
stuff. Brad.
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I B R O W S E A N D T E R M I T E T C P B Y J U L Y
Greetings,
Termite TCP and IBrowse are expected to both be shipping by the end of this
month. The retail price of Termite TCP is $69.95 and the retail price
of IBrowse is $49.95. We will be offering direct intro specials of $59.95
for TTCP and $39.95 for IBrowse or $89.95 for both. If you are a registered
owner of Termite the bundle will only be $79.95.
Termite TCP is a complete TCP/IP package with integrated PPP and
completely replaces the need for AmiTCP.
Best regards,
Bob Luneski
Oregon Research
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A W E B B R O W S E R C O M M E R C I A L R E L E A S E
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AmiTrix PRESS RELEASE June 3, 1996
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Announcing AWeb-II, the Amiga Web Browser & HTML Generator!
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AmiTrix Development is pleased to announce the first commercial release of
the popular WWW Browser "AWeb" by Yvon Rozijn, along with the first
commercial release of the "HTML-Heaven" suite of code generating tools by
Paul Kolenbrander. Both programs will be bundled together with additional
tools in the new AWeb-II package to be published & distributed by AmiTrix.
AWeb-II will include the following:
- AWeb v2.0, now with support for background images, localization, icons,
hierarchical hotlist, background/text/link colours, image borders,
centering, enhanced lists, user-configurable ARexx menu, more ARexx
commands, limited frame support, history window, external default images,
plug-in support for mail/FTP/telnet/news, automatic TCP stack start/stop,
and other new HTML 3.2 tags, with more to come.
- HTML-Heaven v2.0, with new ToolChest and Charrie programs, added support
for HTML 3.2 tags, HTML tutorial, and WYSIWYG editing using AWeb with
almost any ARexx compatible text editor. Create your own Web Pages and
documents with ease by simple point & click insertion of tags from the
tool lists, and now Charrie adds HTML entities as well. More new features
are under development.
- AWebMail & AWebFTP ARexx plug-ins by Josef Faulkner.
- FTPMount v0.8 FTP filesystem plug-in by Evan Scott.
- HTTX, an HTML to text conversion program by Gabriele Favrin.
- A free upgrade will be provided to registered purchasers of AWeb-II once
the addition of table support and further HTML 3.2 features have been
completed.
The authors wish to assure the existing registered users of the shareware
versions of AWeb v1.x and HTML-Heaven v1.x that they will be able to upgrade
to the new version.
AmiTrix is proud to have been selected as the exclusive distributor for
AWeb and HTML-Heaven! Along with AWeb-II, SCSI-TV, SCSI-TV570, AmigaLink,
and other new products to be released in the coming months, we look forward
to the continued revival of the Amiga.
A new demo version of AWeb v1.2 has now been uploaded to AmiNet for you to
try out, some of the advanced features are not enabled in it, of course.
AWeb-II requires at least 2MB Ram, Workbench/Kickstart 3.0 or better, a
TCP/IP stack to access the WWW, and appropriate GIF/JPEG datatypes.
Scheduled release date for AWeb-II is July 1/96, MSRP will be $45.00 US.
Dealer and Customer inquiries welcomed, for more information or ordering
AmiTrix products, contact us at:
AmiTrix Development,
5312 - 47 Street,
Beaumont, Alberta, T4X 1H9
Canada
Phone or Fax: 1+ 403-929-8459
(Please leave your mailing address, phone/fax number, and/or email)
(address on phone messages when requesting information.)
You may also contact us via email at the addresses shown below.
Email: sales@amitrix.com
or: support@amitrix.com
http://www.networkx.com/amitrix/index.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
MORE ...
If you're using the non-commercial, registered shareware version or the
freeware demonstration version, you will be interested in this announcement
from AWeb's author. Brad.
-- AWEB NEWS -- AWEB NEWS -- AWEB NEWS -- AWEB NEWS -- AWEB NEWS --
AWeb 1.2
========
Today (31/5) I have uploaded AWeb 1.2 to Aminet. It is a demo version
with limited features. See the readme file for more information.
Name: comm/tcp/AWeb.lha
Registered users should not download AWeb 1.2.
AWeb 1.3 *** For registered users only!! ***
============================================
Registered users can get the full-featured AWeb 1.3 from the AWeb
home page: <http://www.xs4all.nl/~yrozijn/aweb/>
Please don't download this version if you haven't registered. It
will not work for you.
Don't register any more
=======================
AWeb will be distributed commercially in the near future. Very soon
an announcement will be posted in the appropriate c.s.a.* newsgroups.
Because of the commercial distribution, I cannot accept new
registrations any more.
For those who have registered AWeb before I will release upgrades along
with the commercial versions. If you don't have registered yet, you will
have to wait for the commercial release, planned 1st of July.
If you have sent your registration earlier but didn't get your key
file yet, don't worry. I will send you your key file as soon as I have
actually got the money.
STILL MORE ...
The following additional information about the 1.3 version of AWeb was
discovered on the net. Brad.
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 96
What it means? Hold on, here's the statement from the AWeb 1.3 docs.
[...]
Very limited frame support. AWeb does not yet support frames, but
it recognizes the <FRAME> tag and shows a hyperlink for each
document. You will still see those annoying "your browser doesn't
support frames, download NetScape here" messages, but at least you
can access the information.
(tolerant, compatible)
[...]
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V A L H A L L A G A M E R E L E A S E D
There aren't a lot of new games for the Amiga these days. Most of those
that exist are from Britain, and news about them stateside is hard to come
by. Some of the most interesting and innovative games of recent memory are
the "Vallhalla" series, a sort of quest or adventure games which feature
well done speech synthesis and colorful, action graphics. Following is a
notice we recently received from Britain announcing the latest in the
series. This game can be ordered directly from Vulcan Software by phone
(+44 1705 670269)if your Amiga dealer doesn't have it or can't get it.
Brad.
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996
From: Barry Vaughan
Subject: Valhalla 3
Valhalla 3 has been released (hooray!)
The game looks a bit different, the graphics have been replaced by
a sort of side projection instead of the top down they used to have,
but everything else seems the same. The story looks really naff, all
the women in the land have been kidnapped by an evil queen who wants
the prince to marry her daughter, so he has to rescue them and find
his true love.
Still it looks good and the interface hasn't changed so I guess it will
still play alright.
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Copyright 1996 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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