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Amiga Update (1998-02-06)
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors-
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter)
BACK FOR THE FUTURE ||
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Gateway 2000, Inc.
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980206
A M I G A I N C . S P E A K S !
N E W C H I P D E C I S I O N N O T F I N A L W O R D
C U C U G D O W N F O R N O W
V I D E O T O A S T E R / F L Y E R S Y M P O S I U M
P L A N N E W A M I G A M A G A Z I N E I N U K
V U L C A N H I R I N G P R O G R A M M E R S
S I L L Y S O F T W A R E - R E A L L Y !
O F F I C I A L S C A N D O U B L E R S
P P C D A T A T Y P E S
F 1 S O F T W A R E O P E N F O R B U S I N E S S
O X Y P A T C H E R T O U S
U S L E G A L P G P 5 A V A I L A B L E
V U L C A N B A R E S I T S S O U L
F E A T U R E - T H E A M I G A I N F O R M E R A N N E X !
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Today's issue is an excellent example of what makes doing the "Amiga
Update" both a joy and, sometimes, a frustration. As you look through
the issue you'll see a number of items with today's date on them.
There's nothing more fun than getting an issue to you with news
releases from the same day.
The frustration is when you have an issue all set to go and something
extraordinary lands in your mailbox. Today it was a very long, very
insightful and very unusual release from Vulcan. A premier software
developer for the Amiga, Vulcan's release is like little we've run
before. Per their wishes we've included it as they wrote it, uncut and
unedited except for reformatting to our page size and correcting some
mis-punctuation that crept in (just missing apostrophes in
abbreviations). Read it for yourself - no, it's not announcing the end
of the world. The Vulcan story has made this issue larger than we
prefer - we hope no one has mailbox problems as a result. If you do,
please inform us. We're never quite sure how large to let issues grow
and feedback is appreciated.
We don't see the Amiga situation in quite the difficult terms Vulcan
does, but then we're not trying to make a living from the Amiga games
market. We do applaud their efforts to keep functioning in that
market. They've proven to be a special company and we hope they're
around for a long time to come.
Also special is "The Amiga Informer". We're pleased to bring you
another installment from the folks at TAI. We hope you enjoy it as
well as the rest of the issue.
A few words on the "Informer" are worth adding. "Amiga Update" is not
a subsidiary of TAI, and in fact predates it. We mention this because
an advertisement soon to appear in "The Informer" assumes otherwise,
and we'd like to head off any confusion. We ARE voluntarily associated
with TAI because of the quality in-depth journalism it's bringing to
the Amiga community. You can read news here as it happens, and in TAI
in more depth than we can present it. It's an association we value
very much and intend to keep. If anything, we'll strengthen that
association over time.
We hope you enjoy this issue.
Brad Webb,
Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A I N C . S P E A K S !
February 6th, 1998
To our AMIGA Community
By Darreck Lisle, Events Coordinator AMIGA, Inc.
Friends, have you been hearing those cries of, "The end is near? The
end is near!" on the Internet and in your favorite Amiga magazine?
We've heard them too, but with a difference! You see, what we're
hearing is that the end of the 'bad old days' is here and the Amiga
has a bright future ahead of it!
Now, we're not going to say this will be easy and it certainly won't
happen overnight. There are many things that need to be done. Not all
of these things are obvious and few of them are what you would call
high visibility changes. What we've got to do is dig the cellar again
and rebuild the foundations of the Amiga and the Amiga market.
You should already be seeing the results of this. For example:
There are over a dozen licensees of the Amiga making Amigas and Amiga
clones. New models with new features have already shipped. In the
coming months you'll be seeing a lot more about these machines and
you'll learn about companies with names like DCE, Index Information
Systems, Micronik, Quick Pak, Nova Sector. You'll be able to buy
Amigas that are faster, and more powerful, than ever before. As more
of these machines get in the hands of the writers and editors out
there, you'll find out about them.
The Amiga games market is growing and taking control! Commodore
determined the base configuration a game maker could count on for his
audience. Now games like Myst, The Shadow of the Third Moon, Quake and
others require CDROM, hard drives, and 4 megs or more of RAM. And
guess what? The games are selling faster than ever because if a user
didn't already have these features in their Amiga, they're getting
their Amiga's upgraded!
New software applications are coming out and old applications are
getting upgraded. You can get Aladdin 4D 5.0, Tornado 3D 1.0, Electric
Dreams, Wildfire, Directory Opus Magellan, ImageFX 3.0 and many, MANY,
more titles.
The Amiga trade shows are getting bigger and better than ever. Last
year the Midwest Amiga Expo, St. Louis' Amiga '97 and Koln's Computer
'97 set new attendance records for both Amiga dealer/company
participation and for user attendance as well! This year we are
looking forward to St. Louis' Amiga '98, International Amiga '98 in
Toronto, Canada, AmiWest in Sacramento, the 1998 Midwest Amiga Expo
(which promises to be twice as big yet again!), and shows again in the
UK and Germany as well.
Things aren't just happening within the Amiga community, no sir!
Wired magazine and several news services have run stories about the
Amiga revival. Mainstream computer magazines have been referring to
1998 as the year that alternative computer platforms, like the Amiga,
will be gaining market share again. Amigas are still used in mission
critical applications where reliability and integration has been the
key. The Amiga goes to war in the M1 Abrams tank, up into space with
the Space Shuttle and down to the ocean floor to help explore the
wreck of the Titanic for James Cameron's film. Of course, nearly
everyone's local television and cable station still has several Amigas
in house for video work if you want something a bit closer to home!
You're going to be seeing a lot more of our work take form over this
year. More new "Powered by Amiga" based machines. An upgraded AmigaOS.
Coordinated developer resources and user group resources.
1998 is going to be a fun ride!
Darreck Lisle
Events Coordinator
Amiga, Inc.
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N E W C H I P D E C I S I O N N O T F I N A L W O R D
03 Feb 1998
{The following statemen is from the ICOA, Industry Council for Open
Amiga. Brad}
I talked to Amiga Inc today and can clarify a few points, mainly from
Joe Torre's Q&A.
* Amiga Inc have not chosen the next processor yet. They are still
talking to chip makers, both well known and not well known. They do
not want to sell the Amiga short and wish to chose the best
price/performance processor that can take the Amiga into the next
decade and keep it there, ahead of the crowd.
* Because of this, they recognise that there will be a deficiency in
processing power compared to the other platforms, which will not be
corrected until the next processor is chosen and HW and SW can be
created for it.
* Thus they are keen to promote an interim architecture, a HW machine
still based on a 68K processor but utilising an alternative
co-processor, thus the announcement of the 68K+PPC or Alpha or
whatever. This is NOT an announcement of support for Phase 5. It is a
directive to any HW manufacturer out there that they can proceed to
produce to this architecture. Thus there can be PowerUp, there can be
a Boxer with PPC or Alpha, there could be Pios with a 68K + PPC
processor card.
* The ICOA is open to creating a HW working group to standardising
this architecture.
* More importantly, SW developers will require a common API to write
to for this architecture, one that makes maximum use of the
architecture whilst providing a common interface, allowing Amiga SW to
run on any 68K+ machine. The ICOA already has an SDE WG in the works
and would be very amenable to the creation of a WG to create this
industry wide standard.
* As Joe mentioned, Alain Penders, Olaf Barthel and I have been
working under contract for AInc since late November on putting
together a technical spec for OS3.5, one that provides as much as
possible within the time and resource limitations that exist. We have
contacted many in the developer community to ask them for their
advice, comment and co-operation. Jeff did not want to announce this
since it is Gw2K policy not to announce anything until it is ready but
since Joe spilt the beans, then now ppl can know the truth, that Amiga
Inc have been doing as much as they can in the background, contrary to
what certain other ppl may have been trying to imply.
I hope that this clarifies a few points - if there are any other
questions then I will try to answer them but this will have to be done
on the understanding that the three of us are under strict NDA and
that Amiga Inc do follow the GW2K policy of no announcements until the
product is ready.
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C U C U G D O W N F O R N O W
6 Feb 1998
Just a little update to let you know that the Amiga Web Directory web
site (http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html) will probably be down until
Monday the 9th or Tuesday the 10th. The server which hosts the CUCUG
site has suffered some mechanical problems which are being addressed.
We thank you for your concern and your patience.
-Kevin Hisel
CUCUG
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V I D E O T O A S T E R / F L Y E R S Y M P O S I U M
05 Feb 1998
The Professional Video Toaster/Flyer Users Group announces the SAN
DIEGO SYMPOSIUM on March 6,7,8.
See the latest versions of software/hardware.
This is your chance to learn from the people that create and use the
products that make the T/F the best bang for the buck anywhere. Meet
them in a more personal setting and ask the questions that you want to
ask. Come see the latest innovations, learn, party and have fun in San
Diego, home to the SuperBowl 1998.
Hear from:
Tim Jenison - Video Toaster inventor/Newtek founder
Joe Tracy - Flyer Guru, Editor-In-Chief of Newtekniques
Aussie - from Ozware: Co-Pilot Video/Audio, Multicam, Fast Frames
Bohus Blahut - from Legacy Maker: Compositing, Layering ImageFX
Jeff White - of Visual Inspirations: Control Tower, Visual Effects
Dan Wolf - of MegageM: AV8R Pro++
Nova Designs - ImageFX team
Pro Wave team: RenderFX, ProMix
Arpeggio team: Tunebuilder
Newtek's Lightwave team: Lightwave for Video, Compositing, Flying
Logos
Tom Lively: Networking with T/F, Amiga OS
and more third party developers to come........
Over 40 classes in a classroom environment.
Flyer edited video awards dinner Friday.
Party on Saturday.
Increase your knowledge & profitability with the Toaster/Flyer.
More details on theWebsite at:
http://www.sdtoaster.com/
http://www.sdtoaster.com/schedule.html Schedule of Topics
http://www.sdtoaster.com/transportation.html Transportation
http://www.sdtoaster.com/accommodations.html Accommodations
http://www.sdtoaster.com/pricing.html Pricing Info
http://www.sdtoaster.com/sponsors.html Sponsor Links
http://www.sdtoaster.com/feedback.html Feedback
Early Registration until Feb. 13th.!
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P L A N N E W A M I G A M A G A Z I N E I N U K
New UK Amiga Magazine Amiga Energy Planned
Infinite Frontiers, producers of the popular Star Trek Amiga
diskzine, The Final Frontier and the highly rated slideshow series,
Holodeck and Illusions are pleased to announce the addition of another
'zine to its sucessful line of paper 'zines which currently includes
The Final Frontier Phase II, Visions, The Continuing Voyages and The
Cybertronian Times...
AMIGA ENERGY
Amiga Energy is currently being planned for a first issue release in
the next 4-6 weeks. The 'zine, as with all Infinite Frontiers
releases, is produced on Amiga systems by Amiga fans and will be an A5
mono publication, published on a bi-monthly basis.
Pre-orders for the first issue are now being taken. Projected prices
are £1.25 for the standard version and £1.75 with floppy disk
covermount. Postage and packing is charged at 25p for UK mainland and
50p for worldwide...
We are pleased to thank Petro at Amiga International, Inc. and Lisa
at Vulcan Software for thier help and support.
Amiga Energy will feature a mixture of news, articles, reviews
(hard&software) covering all sectors of the Amiga market. Of course we
will also include readers ads and letters as soon as we can!
For more details, information on advertising or general queries (or
if you want to send a letter for the letters page!) write to us at the
address below or email us via:
infinite.frontiers@mcmail.com
Our website is currently under construction at:
http://www.infinitefrontiers.mcmail.com/
Please send IMOs, UK drawn cheques and postal orders, made payable to
Infinite Frontiers to Amiga Energy, Infinite Frontiers, PO Box 8966,
Great Barr, Birmingham, B43 5ST, ENGLAND.
About Infinite Frontiers
Infinite Frontiers was started as a small sci-fi group producing
paper fanzines several years ago, by Simon Plumbe. Currently in
existance as a non-profit making organisation, co-ordinated by Simon
Plumbe and Colin Gunn, Infinite Froniters exists to entertain and
educate.
1991 saw the launch of our first major sucess, The Final
Frontier.This Star Trek fanzine was a little different to most in that
it was on Amiga floppy disk. The mag featured not only text, but
artwork from Tobias Richter and eventually from Mark Platts & Gary
Moffat plus music from the likes of Bjorn Lynne and Allister Brimble.
Infinite Frontiers other Amiga based releases included the Holodeck
series of Star Trek slideshows (including the worlds first high
density 1.76Mb Amiga disk slideshow) , the Illusions series of sci-fi
& fantasy slideshows, and CD World.
More recently, while we carry on developing the floppy based work we
have branched back out into paper-based 'zine publishing. Current
releases include, The Final Frontier Phase 2 (Star Trek), Visions
(general sci-fi & fantasy), The Continuing Voyages (Star Trek
fiction), and The Cybertronian Times (Transformers). Several other
titles are in development.
The Amiga has gone hand in hand with Infinite Frontiers providing us
with the tools we have needed to create our productions. The Amiga is
absolutely vital to our paper publications (we use both Wordworth and
Final Writer for layout plus ProText, DPaint V, Personal Paint 7.1 and
other packages). The Amiga also played a very important part in the
convention for fans of Star Trek we held in Birmingham, England during
August of 1996.
Amiga Energy is a way we hope to give something back. We have plans
for Amiga Energy and hope it will compliment the two current UK
produced Amiga magazines, and, we hope, come some way to fill the gaps
left by the cancellation of the Amiga magazines we have lost in the
last couple of years. As part of our thankyou, instead of just 1 disk
on the coverdisk version of the magazine (which will be the normal
situation), issue 1 will have covermounted our licenseware 2 disk
release, Holodeck 10.
Thank you for your attention,
Sven Harvey (co-editor, Amiga Energy)
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V U L C A N H I R I N G P R O G R A M M E R S
February 4th, 1998
Vulcan Software Is Looking For Talented Programmers
Vulcans D.S.P. team who are responsible for the Amiga CDRom project
(Almagica Scions of A Forgotton World) are looking for talented
programmers to join their team.
Various programming tasks are open, that cover:
AI-Sub system
Communication-Sub system
GFX Sub system
Music/Sfx-Sub system
Main system
Full details of the requirements are explained in depth at the vulcan
website http://www.vulcan.co.uk or you can contact one of the
follwoing D.S.P. team members:
Bjorn Hagstrom
Jimmy Westerlund
Fredrik Svensson
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S I L L Y S O F T W A R E - R E A L L Y !
{The following refers to a real WWW site - we checked it out. We
didn't, however, work up the courage to try any of the software at the
site - yet. Actually, some of it looks quite fun. Brad}
3 Feb 1998
The Silly Software web site has some Amiga games written by us (Silly
Software) which are now availible for download.
Cheers
Deano
deano@zetnet.co.uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/sillysoftware/
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O F F I C I A L S C A N D O U B L E R S
4 February 1998
"Powered by AMIGA" License For MicroniK Scandoubler
MicroniK Computer Service from Leverkusen, Germany, is licensed by
AMIGA International, Inc. to sell own Scandoublers under the "Powered
by AMIGA" logo.
MicroniK was one of the first companies to produce so called
"Scandoublers" which enable AMIGAs to be connected to standard PC
monitors. For the moment, the licence ist exclusively given to
MicroniK until June 30th, 1998.
"It is important that we explore an open AMIGA platform, use industry
standard components to make it cheaper to produce, faster to develop
and easier to upgrade", said Petro Tyschtschenko, Managing Director
AMIGA International, Inc.and responsible for worldwide Sales and
Marketing.
For further information check http://www.micronik.de/index3_e.html,
the MicroniK website
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P P C D A T A T Y P E S
4 February, 1998
Andreas_Kleinert
Hi, just wanted to put a small note, that two PPC optimized OS 3
datatypes are on the way, consisting of the normal 68k datatype plus
an (optional) ELF module for the PPC part. These two datatypes are
akJFIF (for JPEG files) and akPNG (for PNG files). Usage of the PPC
part is limited to registered users (via keyfile) and for use with the
AWeb-II WWW browser only - other callers will automatically be
scheduled in a fallback to 68k code. To be uploaded to Aminet
tomorrow, if no technical problems do appear.
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F 1 S O F T W A R E O P E N F O R B U S I N E S S
06 February, 1998
Upon the recent completion and conversion of the F1 Software
catalogue, I have now officially become open to the public for trade.
F1 Software contains Amiga titles never before seen in the USA,
ranging from games, to utilities, educational software, musician aids,
and many other category's.
The catalogue is freely downloadable, both in a HTML format, and
Amigaguide, from http://www.mushy-pd.demon.co.uk/f1software/index.html
and comes complete with screenshots, full title descriptions, and
everything else you could possibly need to know.
If you would like to contact me, you can do so by email at
mushypd@redrose.net or by telephone at (717) 367 6210. My postal
address is on the webpage, and placed through-out the catalogue.
Thanks for your time.
Andrew "Mushroom" Kellett
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O X Y P A T C H E R T O U S
6 February, 1998
New Generation Software of Germany has authorized Dimensions
Computers of the USA to distribute and promote their "Oxypatcher"
software. Oxypatcher is a program to enhance the performance of any
Amiga using an 040 or 060 processor. The Oxyron Patcher handles calls
to the processor's FPU (68882 math co-processor), which the native OS
library system does quite poorly, resulting in a performance increase
of up to 20 times when using New Generation's product.
Oxypatcher is currently the only software package available for all
040/060 users, except those with Phase5 accelerators, who have
Cyberpatcher, which only works in conjunction with a Phase5
accelerator card. In virtually all cases, Oxypatcher is equal to or
faster than even Cyberpatcher. More information on the Oxyron patcher
is available in German and English at:
http://homepages.microdata.de/~michael/OXYPAT.HTM
It is thus sincerely recommended that all owners of QuikPak, ACT
Apollo, GVP/GVP-M, and A3640 boards, including all 68040 A4000 and
A4000T computers, as well as 4000T/060 models look into the Oxyron
Patcher. This software package can provide you with an inexpensive yet
major performance increase.
Dimensions Computers is a full-service Amiga dealer offering a
comprehensive online catalog, found at the URL below. In accordance
with their usual competitive pricing, they are offering a preliminary
price of only $25 per copy of OxyPatcher!
Dimensions Computers can be contacted by dealers, distributors, and
endusers seeking more information on the Oxyron Patcher in the
following ways:
World Wide Web: http://nrex.net/dimensions/
E-Mail: dimensions@nrex.net
Telephone: (888) 534-6367
Or simply click one of our banners on the Amiga Web Directory!
Accepting VISA/MASTERCARD/COD/PREPAY Orders with SSL Security on-line.
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U S L E G A L P G P 5 A V A I L A B L E
6 February, 1998
On 28-Jan-1998, it was reported (correctly) that Amiga PGP5 is only
available to NON-US citizens.
I have since (4-Feb-1998) updated Amiga PGP5 to be legal for import
and use by US/Canadian citizens as well.
There is now TWO versions of Amiga PGP5.
The patented RSA Encryption/Decryption routines have been removed in
the USA/Canada version to allow for legal use and downloading.
Would you be so kind as to advise your readers of the (updated) NEW
versions.
The web address is still the same: http://www.amitar.com.au/~stef/
Thank you very much for your time and effort...
Stefan Zakarias
{stef@amitar.com.au}
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V U L C A N B A R E S I T S S O U L
6 Feb 1998
STATEMENT TO THE AMIGA COMMUNITY From VULCAN SOFTWARE LIMITED
---
Wow! where to begin? We have been inundated with emails regarding our
future plans for 1998, some best wishes, some disgust, some confusion
and some worries.
As Vulcan is the oldest, most active, longest surviving Development
and Publishing company the Amiga has left I feel a certain
responsibility towards the Amiga community and would like to make an
official statement to endorse some facts about the Amigas commercial
market and Vulcans plans for the future.
This statement is very long indeed and comes from the heart,
hopefully it will answer all the questions `I receive daily` about the
decisions and changing direction of Vulcan aswell as giving a true
account of our experiences over the last 4 years in the Amiga market.
I dont know what reaction this statement will receive but, as it is
based on our commitments, efforts and dreams for the Amiga platform
then I am hoping it will be understood.
TRUTH
-----
Not many companies have really spoken out about the past, current and
future Amiga market, instead wild rumours seem to circulate based on
past events and lies, I feel it is about time to lay down some facts
about the Amiga market, some are not what people want to hear, some
are already well known, some simply are so unbelievable they make you
weep. Nevertheless with our 4 years experience in this ever changing
market I feel we are in a very good position to be able to comment
truthfully and openly about the Amiga market which is based on our
experience and ventures.
Background & Overview
---------------------
Since 1994 Vulcan has been developing and Publishing Amiga games for
the Amiga market. To date we have released 10 x floppy titles, 3 x
CDRom titles and have several Amiga CDRom titles still in production
which includes some PPC specific projects.
PAST
----
In 1994 we developed our first title, as you all know, this cult
classic (Valhalla) was either hated or loved, either way this title
was developed, manufactured and Published, but most importantly it was
distributed in retail outlets around the UK using a software
distribution company.
The point here is that this fully boxed floppy based title was
available in the shops!
At that time in the UK there were 8 Amiga magazines, all of which
reviewed the title, carried demos of the title and advertised the
title not to mention newspaper coverage, radio coverage, television
coverage with personal appearances and interviews.
The upshot was, that if an Amiga user heard about Valhalla and liked
the product then the next time they went into their computer shop they
could pluck it from the shelf and buy it.
PERFECT MODEL
-------------
Sounds perfect doesnt it? And it was, as it meant a developer could
develop a product, a publisher could publish a product, a distributor
could distribute a product, a magazine could advertise and review the
product, a retailer could sell the product and a user could buy the
product.
When the Amiga market in the UK worked like this it was fair all
round, and everybody made money from their efforts as tens of thousand
of units could be sold in the first week of launch.
WHAT DID IT RELY ON
-------------------
The above model relied completely on one thing to make it all work,
and that was, that there had to be a good healthy `available pool` of
Amiga buying users and accessibility.
Sure the Model would fail if inferior products were developed but
overall the only reason a publisher published, a distributor
distributed and a retailer sold was due to the users purchase.
Adding to this model the Amiga user could only purchase the product
if they new about it from magazines and other media and also had
access to the product via shops, so its easy to see that the whole
intricate commercial Amiga software market was finely balanced and
self perpetuating.
Of course the Amiga users had to have an Amiga! :)
WHAT WENT WRONG
---------------
The 69 thousand dollar question, many things went wrong with this
model, becoming apparent in the middle of 1994.
Dont forget, that at this time in the UK you could go into any high
street electrical store and buy an Amiga computer and many pieces of
software from publishers as it was a rife and healthy commercial
market.
What went wrong can be blamed on many things but to start with, this
was the year that Commodore went into liquidation, reasons why have
always been given and attributed but for now I am only interested in
what happened with the Amiga commercial market.
HARDWARE TO BLAME?
------------------
In 1994 the most popular Amiga computer in the UK was the A500, Some
lucky users had souped up A500`s in the `desktop form` of the A1500
and there were also some A2000`s.
Commodore tried to push the Amiga hardware forward, the market saw
the A500+ were a percentage of loyal users upgraded instantly, we saw
upgraded Operating Software, we saw the dying CDTV, we saw the A600
which sounded great with its 1Mb chip but was smaller and cheaper
looking, we saw the dying CD32 (way ahead of its time) and we
eventually saw the A1200 with 2Mb chip, AGA chipset and 68020 CPU.
Throughout this gradual advancement we saw many third party devices
such as external/internal Hard Drives, ram expansions, extra floppy
drives, flicker fixers, monitors, accelerators, OS chip upgrades and
many more interesting devices for connection.
Sure these hardware improvements were absolutely vital to the Amiga`s
future (as if a technology stays still it dies) but with so many
failings of hardware launches the UK Amiga community was definitely
becoming split and diversity was rife.
For example you had Amiga users screaming for AGA specific or CD32
specific or Hard Drive Installable specific aswell as floppy A500
users still wanting 1Mb floppy based titles.
This was not too much of a big problem but developers and publishers
had to strike a balance whether to support the low spec machines for
bigger sales or higher spec machines to advance the market or in some
cases both but there was something vitally important missing and that
was an owner of the Amiga who could officially advance its technology.
OTHER COMPETITION
-----------------
Just around the corner in 1994 something was happening, it was called
the PC, now the PC was used all around the world but mainly in
educational and business situations. The big change was when PC
hardware prices tumbled and PC technical specifications rose, both at
incredible rates and I also believe a game `I had never heard of`
called DOOM had something to do with it!
Suddenly average home computer users could find themselves in a
position were they could afford a PC, after all thats what they used
at work or at school and its technology was being pushed and advanced
at incredible rates and DOOM offered something unique and wonderful to
games enthusiasts.
PUBLISHERS
----------
The big publishers at this time (many who had begun on the Amiga
platform) saw an opportunity to develop for this growing market, and
why not? After all they were mainly business motivated and with the
Amigas technology in a temporary halted state it seemed a good gamble.
I remember at that time (in June 94) when Vulcan was working on our
next Amiga title `Valhalla II` that all the companies we spoke to on a
regular basis kept saying that they were going to PC formats. It was a
strange time as I began to notice distributors and retailers and users
alike all asking if we were developing for PC, `no` we said, `whats
wrong with the Amiga market?` we said, `its a big market and we have
only just begun`...
AS TIME WENT ON
---------------
From June 94 to June 95 it became apparent that this delicate
commercial Amiga market model had been altered, with no new Amiga
hardware to compete, with Amiga users moving to PC, magazines moving
to PC, Developers and Publishers moving to PC, distributors moving to
PC and retailers moving to PC the whole thing was hit hard.
By the time Vulcans third Amiga floppy title `TimeKeepers` was
released in June 95 there was no longer a distribution network in the
UK, our Amiga products (and others) found it harder to be available to
Amiga users via the shop shelf.
This was mainly due to the distributors who would only distribute a
title if it was on the PC format as this was the format that the
retailers could sell and the users were buying in vast quantities.
Now sure there were still Amiga users around the country who wanted
Amiga titles but due to the way business decisions dictate market
changes the majority market soon became the minority market and things
got harder.
I remember many heated conversations with distributors trying to get
them to stock our Amiga titles and often blamed them for killing the
Amiga market but at the end of the day the Amiga platform had no active
owner, no new hardware development, fewer users, fewer developers, fewer
publishers and allot of PC competition.
AND ON...
---------
Vulcan had a decision to make, we either went with the flow and
switched to PC or.....and heres the or.....adapt to the changing
market and base our companies future on a dream. We chose the latter,
we believed that it would only be a matter of time before a new owner
was found for the Amiga and when it was supported again we believed we
would be right at the top of the proverbial ladder as a mainstream
development and publishing company on the Amiga platform.
HOW TO SURVIVE WITH NO COMMERCIAL RETAIL MARKET
-----------------------------------------------
Many people over the years have enquired as to how Vulcan managed to
survive in the Amiga market were others could not and this has been
the key to our existence. In June 95 to account for the lack of retail
support in the UK we set-up Vulcan Mail Order to provide our products
direct to the Amiga user.
VULCAN MAIL ORDER
-----------------
This turned out to be an excellent move for Vulcan at the time as it
meant that Vulcan as a developer and Publisher could now distribute
and sell our own products direct to the user which meant allot more
revenue was generated for per title (as we cut out the middle men) and
allowed us to sell our titles cheaper (around 12.99 as opposed to
24.99) which resulted in more Amiga users buying our software due to
the price drop and the direct personal attention they received through
our company.
Because of this unique set-up (being 3 companies in 1) we were able
to continue as normal and did not notice the pinch in the Amiga market
as other companies had, towards the end of 95 we released Hillsea Lido
and had just started signing external development teams to our label,
the year ahead 1996 was looking great!
PIONEERING
----------
In 1996 Vulcan took on a pioneering role and we dedicated allot of
our time to getting our products back in the UK shops, alas without
much success. We did however start to supply many independent retail
outlets in the UK with our software range but could not convince any
UK mainstream distributor to stock our products in favour of PC
titles.
Beginning our expansion and aswell as selling our products to Mail
Order users and UK retail outlets we started to convert and develop
our titles for the German market.
Running up to the middle of 1996 we saw Valhalla III and the
TimeKeepers Expansion being released with now 6 external development
teams signed to the Vulcan label.
To keep pushing forward we founded Vulcans own International
Distribution Company whos main purpose was to distribute our products
by bulk retail and wholesale outlets around the world. Vulcan
Distribution supplied our products to retailers spanning 14 countries,
Vulcan Mail Order supplied our products to many thousands of
registered users, Vulcan Development signed up many teams and
individuals. Briefly (now and then) we glimpsed at the Amiga markets
commercial situation, but only briefly.
RECAP AND WARNINGS
------------------
To recap, by the middle of 96, there was still no Amiga owner (or
perhaps there was a brief handling by an Eskimo? or something), very
slowly we began to notice some new changes. Amiga magazines were
starting to close and many Vulcan registered users were asking to be
removed from the Vulcan database as they had moved to the PC platform.
Now this change should have been more noticeable to us and a bigger
warning sign but as we had now entered the world distribution market,
were now supporting other languages, were receiving allot of publicity
and talking to allot more developers, we got carried away with our own
companies expansion.
The run up to the end of 96 saw us release Bograts AGA and
Jetpilot.....Happy X-mas! :)
THE SMACK IN THE MOUTH
----------------------
January 1997 was the hardest month of Vulcans entire existence, I
still joke about the fact that Santa Claus delivered a Playstation or
Multimedia PC to every household for Xmas of 96.
Literally overnight Vulcans Amiga Mail order sales plummeted, now we
are not just talking about latest release performance, if we were then
I could understand the change but we are talking about all Vulcan
titles that sold regular and maintained a constant level for years
suddenly decreasing to an all time low. We lost over 4,000 registered
Amiga users in a 4 week period, Vulcan Distribution saw previous bulk
purchasing retailers around the world go bankrupt, we saw wholesalers
ceasing to order, we saw more Amiga magazines fold, we saw development
companies go into liquidation, we saw developers leave the Amiga
platform, we saw hell itself and all at Vulcan had to come to terms
with this new reality.
PLODDING ON
-----------
End of January 97 we plodded on, releasing Burnout AGA and Tiny
Troops, we feared the worst and were proven right, the sales were not
there in any quantity to justify the investment. Sure we could say its
the type of title but sales right across the spectrum of the entire
range were getting smaller and smaller, registered users, retailers
and web ordering was diminishing fast.
By March 1997 we had 2 Amiga magazines left in the UK and in vain we
saw many small Amiga companies start up and try to do something like,
Mediasoft who tried to publish a new Amiga fanzine, Direct software
who promised new hardware bundles, both of which folded, we saw long
established mail order companies like Premier Mail Order collapse
along with others. The commercial Amiga software market was at rock
bottom with only the strongest companies surviving.
COMPETITION
-----------
Thinking back to March 97 we saw PC computers in shops, not just in
shops but in a world of their own, namely PC World were they had
slowly been selling to millions of users all around the world. Walk in
and be bombarded with hundreds of PC system choices that had plenty
hardware and software support.
Now Im not talking an 020 CPU, 2Mb Memory, extended keyboard with a
floppy drive attached for 350.00 via mail order, No no, Im talking all
singing all dancing complete systems at 133Mhz, 16Mb memory, Graphics
Cards, Hard Drives, modems, Monitors, keyboards, floppy drives, sound
cards, software bundles and a bill gates special promotion devil hat
for 500.00 in every shop in the high street that has been advertised
to the hilt in every paper, magazine, television program you can
imagine.
Now anyone in the Amiga community knows that the Amiga has a far
better approach to things but lets face it if your a family purchaser
who uses a PC at work and your kids use a PC at school or your a
student who uses a PC at college or your a games freak who simply must
have Doom, Quake, Tomb Raider, Star Trek, Theme Hospital and zillions
of other software tiles and applications `right now` then it doesnt
take Einstein to figure out what the average computer purchaser will
buy.
I mean, just look at the Investment, the hardware, the software, the
promotions and the technology that the PC has had over the previous
years compared to the orphaned Amiga with no owner.
MIRACLE
-------
Would you believe it! We couldnt! Just as everything was about to hit
the fan, in March 97 the Amiga found an owner, not just any owner but
an owner with money, namely Gateway 2000.
Immediately Vulcan planned for the future! Our dreams that held us
tight were going to happen, our hopes raised at the prospect of new
Amigas being made, perhaps a complete unit ready to buy that will be
marketed, distributed all over the world and available to users in the
high street shops at a price that would compete with current PC`s and
with technology to match.
Vulcans plans for the rest of 1997 was to make Amiga titles for
higher specifications, we chose to go CDRom only with all future
titles knowing that we could catch up with PC competition, we started
catering from other language support to ensure world wide penetration,
we invested heavily in our company and started to live again, we
signed up more development teams, we started on higher specification
development strategies catering for graphics cards and sound cards.
Throughout the rest of 97 we published Strangers, Uropa2 and Finally
Odyssey which were all re-vamped and turned into Multi language Amiga
CDRom titles.
Hellpigs the Multi-CDRom adventure was going to be awesome, Wasted
Dreams was looking incredible, Hard Target the virtua cop clone is
looking fantastic, Genetic Species is absolutely outstanding,
Breed2000 was being revamped, Valhalla IIII was re-written to cater
for full actor speech, 3D Games creator was re-designed to cater for
Graphics cards, JetPilot expansion was initiated, Desolate was signed,
overall 1997 was looking great with renewed hope, Phase 5 with PPC
boards, Vulcan signing the World Foundry with PPC projects like
Explorer and Maim & Mangle, investing in development hardware, PPC
boards, Graphics Cards, faster processors, going to Cologne and
meeting the new owners of the Amiga, new contacts, new possibilities,
everyone I spoke to was excited, magazines were happy, developers were
happy, publishers were happy, I was ecstatic at Sadeness starting in
the games market, finally some good competition, I helped AliveMedia
start up their games publishing company and finally felt like the
market was coming together, I was encouraged by Aurora works entering
the publishing market from across the water, Amiga shows began popping
up, Ohio, Italy, Germany Belgium, what a brilliant beginning to the
rest of 1997 indeed!
...but all the while....software sales were falling, companies were
closing, projects were being cancelled......
Forget it! because Amiga speeches were being made, hope was back with
vengeance, everyone I spoke to was on a high, other developers stated
CDRom only titles, more projects were being developed for graphics
cards, high CPUs and now PPC specific......we saw the potential in the
platform, we opened up Vulcan America to supply our titles to America
and Canada, our expanding development and publishing responsibilities
became more demanding so we transferred our Mail order operations to
Weird Science Limited and we transferred our Distribution company to
GTI in Germany so we could spend more energy in our development dream,
we established a development network of support and help for all our
new Amiga development teams, we concentrated on bigger and better
Amiga CDRom productions, we were on the road to glory! Nothing could
alter our destiny, nothing can stop the Amiga being reborn!
.....this is where we were wrong.....
2 things, just 2 little things kicked us where it
hurts....................
.....one thing is something we RELIED on, and the other is something we
ASSUMED.
SOMETHING WE RELIED ON
----------------------
The Amiga has something unique, a community, many individuals and
companies who believe in the Amiga and its future with many users
around the world. All sounds great but lets analyse it in detail to
get a complete picture of what the Amiga community is made up from and
what makes it work commercially.
You've got Amiga magazines all around the world who love doing what
they do, putting so much of their lives into their jobs and all need
advertising revenue and Amiga users buying their magazines to
continue.
You've got Amiga web promoters who, review Amiga software and hardware
and offer excellent Amiga support to users around the world with
information and news, they do this because they love doing it and many
are non-profit orientated.
You've got hardware development companies like Index and Phase5 who
are trying to push the Amigas hardware forward, realising there is a
commercial gap to be filled and doing what they do out of inspiration,
they depend totally on the Amiga users buying their hardware.
You've got shops and mail order companies around the world who sell
hardware and peripherals who advertise in magazines who all rely on
Amiga user upgrading their hardware.
You've got shops and mail order companies selling software around the
world who advertise in magazines who all rely on Publishers publishing
and Amiga users purchasing new software.
You've got dedicated Amiga distribution companies who exist in the
minority market who all rely on the Amiga retailers purchasing the
Software.
You've got thousands of talented artists, musicians, coders,
developers and teams who invest their time, money and lives to create
software on their prized platform because its in their blood who all
rely on the Amiga Publishers Publishing their creations.
You've got Amiga publishers who publish Amiga products, invest their
time, money and lives into producing and marketing Amiga titles and
making them available in the market place to retailers and
distributors who rely on the Amiga developers developing and the Amiga
users purchasing the software.
The list goes on and on but the moral of the story and the
`simplistic flow chart` dictates that every single related Amiga
company and active individual in the Amiga commercial market all rely
on each other, and all rely ultimately on one thing to make it all
possible!
One thing that makes everything else work.
One thing to give it a purpose and a way of making a living.
One thing to ensure magazines keep printing new issues.
One thing to ensure hardware developers continue to progress.
One thing to keep all the retail outlets in business.
One thing to ensure the publishers remain.
One thing to ensure the developers remain.
One thing to keep the Amiga Alive!
And that one thing is the Amiga user Buying the merchandise, whether
its magazines, hardware or software.
I cant speak for magazines sales but there are fewer magazines around
with extremely low ABCs compared to 94.
I cant speak for Hardware sales but I do know we get so many
complaints about supporting CDRoms, Graphic Cards, fast CPUs, Hard
Drives and even AGA...and why Genetic Species wont be on floppy for
the A500 :)
However I can speak for software sales and sadly this element has
decreased ridiculously over the last 4 years from mail order, retail
and wholesale all around the world.
They say that hundreds of thousands of Amiga users still use their
Amigas, I honestly dont know the number but I do know that Amiga
software piracy is rife and with the total Amiga buying user base at
its lowest current level, that there is simply no longer enough users
left who BUY software to justify the developers and publishers
investment.
PIRACY
------
A quick note about piracy. It does sadden me to see our latest Amiga
releases and other recent Amiga titles available on pirated CD`s. It
tears me up to think that people are making money from the illegal
duplication instead of my developers, my company, my distributors and
all the other hard working people in the Amiga industry who deserve
that revenue, however I do not blame the pirates or the piracy for the
current Amiga situation.
Piracy is rife in any industry whether its, designer jeans, music,
video or other computer platforms but because the buying share of
these markets is large enough, it can sustain the illegality and still
continue.
The Amiga market however cannot sustain the piracy due to its size,
an Amiga users who uses pirated software cannot really care about the
Amigas future so do not enter into the equation but the Amiga users
who truly cares about the Amiga`s future make up the users who BUY.
USERS WHO BUY
-------------
The Amiga user who BUYs is the thing we relied on (and many other
companies too).
Yes there are allot of you out there who have upgraded your machines,
bought your towers, bought your CD drives, bought your Memory and CPU
upgrades and bought all the latest software and my hat comes off to
you, I understand that you also share the same frustrations as we do
and that you have done everything in your power to help keep the Amiga
market alive, but unfortunately your numbers are at an all time low
right across the scale all around the world. This results in
developers, publishers, distributors, retailers and mail order
companies all feeling the squeeze and licking their wounds.
SOMETHING WE ASSUMED
--------------------
From March to December 1997 (10 months) Vulcan prepared for the
Amigas future, I know things dont happen overnight but with the Amiga
market being at its most critical and at its lowest point ever I knew
that if Vulcans dreams and hopes for the Amiga as a commercially
successful platform did not materialise in that specific period of
time then the Amiga market would never recover.
Perhaps its time to share Vulcans vision, I know from my experience
and my logic that the only way the Amiga computer can ever make a
commercial comeback (and I enforce the word commercial) and for the
Amiga to once again have stupendous and vast software development,
once again have millions of buying software users, once again have
huge publicity with a plethora of magazines, once again have hundreds
of publishers, retail outlets, distributors, once again have continued
and advanced 3rd party hardware development, once again be the leading
computer in technological advancements and as a result once again be
the best home computer used throughout the world, it all comes down to
one essential ingredient called...................Money.
Certainly by licensing the Amiga technology and allowing many
companies to build components, motherboards, and complete systems
allows the Amigas technology to progress but we must ask ourselves a
simple question, who is going to buy this upgraded technology?
Certainly not the new computer purchaser in the high street, as for
one they cant see it in their shops, would be hard pushed to hear
about its availability, cannot see the vast software support to the
scale of other platforms and certainly would not be turned on by the
end price of the components or systems being sold.
So that simply leaves the existing Amiga users and loyal enthusiastic
upgraders.
The problem is that this number alone is way too small. This means
that re-sellers of systems and components need to rely on mail order
and specialised outlets and due to small potential sales it requires
higher purchase prices which causes the vicious circle creating fewer
upgraders. Not even thinking about the small amount of developers and
publishers who would support this new technology due to the small
amount of potential software sales.
You see the idea of technological advancement with PPC, Graphics
Cards, 3D Chips, better motherboards faster CPUs, towers etc. is all
very well and all something I believe the Amiga needs but the current
Amiga community or market is already way too small to make any of this
worth while.
To me it seems that, the companies and users who really care about
the Amigas future and have stuck it out through the worst of times and
invested a good number of years of their life into the Amiga and want
to build the Amigas future suddenly have the whole responsibility,
with all the risk, expense and investment to bring the Amiga back to
glory, this is something that will not happen at the current level, no
matter how hard Phase5, Index and other hardware companies try, no
matter how hard developers push the limits, no matter how hard
Publisher promote, no matter how hard the re-sellers sell and no
matter how hard the existing users buy, this approach is never going
to work due to the size of the existing user base and it will never
encourage new users to the platform as there is no cohesion, no
distribution, no marketing, no price benefits, no software support and
no overall direction for it to become apparent and compete in the
world computer industry.
MONEY
-----
The only way the Amiga has a chance of revival in Vulcans opinion is
Money!
Money poured into the cream plastic until it spews out the sides,
money at the level of Sonys investment into its Playstation.
We are talking a complete base Tower computer system, with High
resolution Monitor, keyboard, floppy drive, a 24xSpeed CDRom, 1Gig to
10Gig hard drive, a modem, A graphics card with 4Mb on board, 3D
Chipset, 32Mb memory, combined 060 CPU with 200Mhz PPC board, Mpeg
decoders, sound card, external speakers, (backward compatible only)
AGA chipset, new operating system, pre-installed web broswers, Email
applications, word processors, spreadsheet and accountancy software,
and bundled games software which has all been invested into and
acquired for the purpose and finally the word AMIGA on the outside.
This is not good enough on its own, no far from it, this needs to
manufactured in masses by one company or at least co-ordinated by one
company, this needs to be sold to distributors and re-sellers all
around the world, this item needs to be available to buy in every shop
on the planet, this system need to be backed up by world-wide
advertising and marketing promotional campaigns in consumer press,
magazines, radio and television adverts, it needs to be launched as an
awesome computer with an incredible future that is an alternative the
current PC platform and finally this system has to be around the user
buying price of 400 to enable it to work.
Anything less, anything removed, anything left out and the Amiga has
not got a hope in hell of catching up in the ever moving commercial
computer market....even the above specs will only work with dedicated
software, massive marketing and extremely low price point.
No money will be made by the company who initiates these actions, on
the contrary money will be lost as the hardware and software would
cost far more than the distribution price, but the money spent now
will be creating a future goldmine with greater potential than any one
can imagine.
If this `base level` launch was combined with investment in future
hardware advancements, investment in software support to allow
developers to excel it would give reasons for publishers, magazines
and shops to once again think `Amiga` and this dream will become a
reality.
Currently the Amiga community has all the people and companies
available to make the above system a reality...the thing lacking is
the direction and the money.
REFLECT
-------
So to reflect, Vulcans Amiga vision and Vulcans existence in the
commercial Amiga market relies on 2 things which are not making
themselves apparent. Throughout the last 10 months our Amiga
development and Publishing continues whilst the commercial Amiga
market gets worse. If Vulcan continues its recent strategy on the same
level of waiting for the Amiga market to recover whilst still
investing in a decreasing and more diversified market then it would
only be a matter of time before Vulcan Software would cease to exist
and only the 2 mentioned things can alter that fate for us and others.
As we have invested so much of our lives into the Amiga market, we do
not wish or intend to leave it, but rather see it through to its
ultimate destiny, as with any good book or film the Amiga market is
the similar where you never know whats going to happen next.
The only way Vulcan can remain active in the Amiga market and to
support its future to the full is if we can stay financially sound,
strong in resource and talents and function as a successful business.
This is why in 1998 Vulcan plan to develop entertainment titles for
the PC and Playstation platforms where there is a combined and large
active user base. Certainly we are aware that these markets are
saturated but these market do have active distribution network with
millions of potential customers.
AMIGA TITLE CANCELLATIONS
-------------------------
To enable a smooth transition to other platforms we have invested a
great deal in our teams and development operations and as a
consequence many Amiga development projects have been cancelled
namely, Breed2000 CDRom, 3D Games Creator CDRom, JetPilot expansion
CDRom and Valhalla IIII CDRom so the teams and individuals can
concentrate on other formats and other projects. This is a decision
that didnt come easy for us but one that is vital to our future plans
that enable us to support the Amiga.
AMIGA TITLE CONSEQUENTIAL EFFECTS
---------------------------------
As a consequence of the last 10 months the development team
responsible for Hellpigs the Multi-CD adventure title has halted
development of that title and also decided to move onto other business
ventures.
AMIGA TITLE PENDING
-------------------
Currently the Wasted Dreams development team is waiting another few
months to see if anything happens in the Amiga market that would
indicate a reason to continue with their development plans.
AMIGA TITLE FUTURE RELEASES
---------------------------
Genetic Species CDRom is all ready for a February 98 launch and close
behind it we will see Desolate CDRom and Hard Target CDRom closely
followed by the Genetic Species World Creator CDRom.
AMIGA DIRECTION
---------------
Our future Amiga development is based on extremely high
specifications and will take advantage of Graphics Cards, fast CPUs
and 060/PPC boards.
We are actively supplying a selection of our developers with PPC
boards and along with Explorer 2260 and Maim&Mangle we will see other
exciting high specification Amiga titles being developed and published
by Vulcan through 1998.
PUBLISHING
----------
We will still operate our Amiga Publishing operations and actively
sign new Amiga development teams and individuals. As long as there are
developers developing for the Amiga we will always be available as a
mainstream commercial publisher.
OVERVIEW
--------
I hope all the above will clarify Vulcans future plans and that it
shows that our plans are not carried out in spite or malice but are
simply choices that our company is forced to make if we are to
continue. Vulcan as with many other Amiga companies have worked
extremely hard and you will find no one more loyal to the Amigas
future than we `are` and `have been`, but we simply cannot change the
Amigas future with all our efforts alone.
2 things are needed if the Amiga is going to survive, 1 thing is in
your grasp and the other is the responsibility of the owner of the
Amiga.
Live Long & Prosper!
Paul Carrington BA Director Vulcan Software Limited
---------------------------------------------------
(c) 1998 Vulcan Software Ltd. This document must not be altered or
extracted, if used in a news context it must remain `as is` with no
editing to ensure statement adheres to Vulcans wishes.
Kind Regards
Paul Carrington BA (Director)
Vulcan Software Limited http://www.vulcan.co.uk
----------------------------------------------------------------------
_ __ _ __ _ ____ _ _
The AMIGA /\\ |\ || |\ || || \\ /
I N F O R M E R /__\\ | \ || | \ || ||-- \\
/ \\__| \||_ | \||_ ||___ _/\\_ Section
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Draw studio v1.1 CD Review
==========================
Originally appearing in issue 7 of The Informer, Apr/May 1997
DrawStudio is an hybrid illustration package that blurs the borders
between a structured drawing program (such as ProVector) and a
traditional paint program (such as PersonalPaint). With the release of
DrawStudio, desktop publishers and graphic artists alike will find a
program that fills a needlong neglected.
The CD includes DrawStudio v1.1, ImageStudio v2.3.0, and
TextureStudio. These programs are not covered by this review, but
their inclusion more than makes up for the higher cost of the CD
version. Also included on the CD are a wealth of textures,
photographs, postscript fonts, clip art, special effects and more.
DrawStudio requires a minimum of 3 Mb RAM, 020+ CPU, Amiga OS 2.04+
and a hard drive. I recommend a decent 030 CPU for anything greater
than 8-Bit work, an FPU and 6 Mb of RAM. This review was conducted on
an A1200 with a 060 CPU w/FPU, 4X CD-ROM and 32 Mb of RAM.
Installation couldn't be easier, just drag and drop the program icon
from the CD to your hard drive. The program cannot be run from the CD.
The supplied 96 page manual is well written and informative.
DrawStudio requires Magic User Interface to run. By now, most Amigans
realize the benefit of MUI, and it should be installed on every Amiga
system.
There is so much to DrawStudio I don't know where to begin. It is an
art program, but with a different approach. Unlike a traditional paint
program, every single object you create has it's own attributes. Once
an object is created, you can go back to it at any time to change any
feature. Object attributes are changed through menus that allow
everything from pen thickness to pattern fills. Objects and text can
be filled with gradients, patterns, or any bitmap graphic image. Areas
of bitmaps can be made transparent, allowing the background to show
through. Text handling (Adobe Type 1) is superb, allowing for warping,
text on a curve or along any line. Bezier line manipulation is
extensive with editing, cutting and joining features that can make any
shape.
Multiple projects can be opened at one time and DrawStudio supports
multiple pages. A powerful feature is layering. Layers are like
transparent sheets placed over a page, enabling you to see the layer
(and its objects) below. This allows you to, say, draw a background on
one layer and then add foreground objects on the next layer. There is
also a snap feature that helps you connect any shape or line to the
exact point on any other object you want, without overlay. The align
feature gives you many ways to align objects to themselves, or to the
page. Full ARexx support and included scripts provide automatic
shadowing and multi-shaped boxes. Hotkeys make often used effects a
snap.
The program offers many display options. You can work in 1-Bit (black
and white and very fast), 8-Bit gray, 8-Bit color or 24-Bit. All
objects are stored internally in 24-Bit, providing smooth printing
output. File support is strong with the ability to load and save
IFF-ILBM, GIF, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, and PCX bitmaps. DrawStudio can also
import DR2D-IFF (Amiga standard structure format) and save PostScript
and EPS. There is also promised support for illustrator 88 and illus
(PageStream 3+) import/export filters. DrawStudio bitmap exporting is
superb with DPI resolutions adjustments and powerful anti-aliasing.
This feature is essential for creating professinial web page graphics
or titles, a task for which DrawStudio is well suited.
I could continue with the many features of DrawStudio, but must now
turn to the dislikes. Hmm. I don't have any of real importance though.
If I must complain, I think that some of the object attribute features
are too deeply buried in menus,but configuration of Hotkeys solves
this. The amount of provided ARexx scripts are quite limited also. I
ran into some strange intermittent pixel interference at the bottom of
pages when changing between various screen display modes. There was
also some printing alignment trouble when using the Enprint printer
driver, but when using TurboPrint 5, print output seemed to be fine.
Finally, the manual could use a better index, but since many programs
don't even provide a printed manual, I shouldn't really complain.
DrawStudio is a fabulous program. For an early release version it
contains a wealth of features. It ran flawlessly, without a single
crash or hang. It will take a long time to find the limits to this
program's potential. In the DTP/webpage development area, DrawStudio
is a God send, and I expect to use it extensively. The authors, Graham
and Andy Dean, are devout and long time Amiga developers and have
designed a top quality program that deserves our support. While not a
replacement to a traditional paint program, it is an essential
supplement to any serious graphic artist's set of programs. Once you
use it, you will wonder how you ever did without. This program
deserves an A.
LH Publishing offers the following support: phone: +44 (0)
1908-370-230; Fax: +44 (0) 1909-640-371; Email;
larry@em.powernet.co.uk; URL: http://www.ajdean.co.uk/studio/ds/html.
The website will offer new import/export filters for free when
available. A demo version of DrawStudio is also available at the
website. The retail price for DrawStudio is Approximately US $120. LH
Publishing, 13 Gairloch Ave. Bletchley MK2 3DH, England
Rating: A
Fletcher Haug
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Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at:
http://www.sharbor.com/amiga/news/ (in html format)
Australian Mirror Site: http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/index.html
All back issues available (in ASCII text) at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html
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Copyright 1998 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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