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Amiga Update (1997-12-15)
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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 ||
======================================================================
AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Gateway 2000, Inc.
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971215
B O X E R F R O M I N D E X A N D B L I T T E R S O F T
T U T O R I A L F O R I M A G E F X
Y E S V I R G I N I A , T H E R E I S A N A M I G A
A M I N E T C D 2 2 - 1 G O F G O O D I E S
I N T A M A - A B O U T T O L A U N C H
H O L I D A Y P R I C E S F R O M G A M A S O F T
F I N A L O D Y S S E Y
T H R E E F R O M S C H A T Z T R U H E
T W O T O S A D E N E S S
A M I G A C D M A G A Z I N E S T A R T E D
L A T E S T U L T R A A C C O U N T S
G A T E W A Y S H O W ' 9 8
P E R S I S T E N C E O F V I S I O N
N E W A M I G A W E B S I T E
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Despite the deafening silence from Gateway 2000, Amiga Incorporated
and even Amiga International, news about the Amiga continues to pour
in. We know the Amiga companies are doing things, though they're not
prepared to talk about it very much right now. Apparently the rest of
the Amiga community knows this as well, since the community continues
to generate new products, new publications and new enthusiasm. It's a
bit of a strange situation but not a bad one. We need to hear
something from Gateway and subsidiaries before their silence causes
discouragement, but right now the Amiga world seems to be doing well.
Those of you who've gotten used to "The Amiga Informer Annex" section
may wonder where it is this time. It's not far away, but production
schedules forced this issue of AU to be sent out without an Annex. We
hope to have it back for our next issue.
Two of our stories are worthy of special comments. First, the story on
the International Amiga Marketing Association, which is just starting
to get itself organized. There's a big job ahead of those behind
Intama to get such an organization up and running and to keep it
going. If it can be done, Intama could be a very powerful force for a
a better Amiga future. We wish them well.
Some of our readers outside the U.S. may wonder who Virginia is in our
"Yes, Virginia ..." story. Long ago a U.S. paper published a Christmas
editorial entitled "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause" in response
to a letter from a young girl who'd been told there was no Santa. At
this time of year, that story came to mind when we spotted the two
Internet postings we've put under that heading.
And since it is the Holiday Season, at least where I sit writing this,
let us wish you all the joys of that season, whatever your holidays
may be.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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B O X E R F R O M I N D E X A N D B L I T T E R S O F T
{The following was found on the Blittersoft web pages. It provides a
good summary of features for the new BoXeR Amiga compatible
motherboard from Index in the UK. BoXeR had formerly been called the
Connect design by Index. Brad}
BoXeR - The New Amiga Motherboard! The BoXeR motherboard delivers a
medium cost home/semi-professional Multi-Media computing motherboard
based on the Amiga Chip Set and Operating System. This will allow
complete machines to be priced between the A1200 and A4000, providing
low purchase price and expansion options, while delivering a
performance in excess of the A4000.
Blittersoft do not have a final shipping date or prices. This
information will be available shortly.However, any interested
customers/dealers can register their interest by completing our BoXeR
Information Request Form (http://www.blittersoft.com)
The BoXeR will be sold in three ways :
* As the heart of the new Blittersoft range of "Black Box" Amiga
systems.
* As a single motherboard solution to the customer, to build their own
unique system.
* Through OEM dealers who may customise the unit to their own
particular markets.
The BoXeR - Main Features :
* 100% Amiga compatible.
* Baby-AT motherboard based on Amiga technology - fits in ANY standard
PC Desktop/Tower case.
* Motorola 68040 or 68060 at 25-75MHz supported in a single processor
socket.
* On board 2Mb CHIP RAM.
* 4 x 72 pin standard SIMM sockets allowing up to 2Gb FAST RAM.
* Dual IDE Hard disk interface, with standard pitch 40 pin header.
* Flash ROM 2Mb, 32 bit wide. Used to provide kickstart ROM's and
resident modules.
* Floppy disk drive interface, operating as DF0:, including 0.5sec
delay on RDY.
* CD-ROM audio input connector and mixer.
* Real Time Clock, using NiCad.
* Keyboard port is a standard DIN connector for PC keyboard or Amiga
keyboard (Auto-detection).
* 2 x 16 bit Active ISA slots, in-line with 4 x Zorro 3 slots.
* Amiga Video slot
Connectors :
* Printer port, 26 pin header.
* AV slot - provides audio, composite and RGB signals.
* RGB video (on rear AV board).
* Serial port 10 pin header
* Joystick and mouse port, 10 pin headers.
* Audio header, 4x1.
* Power In - standard PC 12 pin connector
* IDE - 40 pin (Dual)
* Floppy drive DF0:/DF1: header.
Key Design Points :
* The all-new leading-edge design uses the AGA chip set for
compatibility but has completely redesigned logic to achieve the
highest performance and most flexible design.
* Supports 68040 or 68060 from 25MHz - 75MHz.
* Designed to achieve low system cost.
* Supports 4x standard 72 pin SIMM's for total FAST memory of 2Gb.
* High-speed CHIP memory read/write technology which can boost access
by up to 30%.
* Mounts in standard PC baby-AT case. (Huge selection of cases
available from a wide range of suppliers at the lowest price points)
* Processor connector to support a low cost PowerPC upgrade (in
development). This expansion allows the on-board 680x0 to remain in
place so that the upgrade is little more than a PowerPC on a card.
* MPEG/Genlock module with high quality output and broadcast quality
genlocking is in development.
* Has live working 16-bit ISA slots to support low cost peripherals
such as Modems, Ethernet and Sound cards.
* FlashROM allows software and hardware updates.
* CD-ROM File System in ROM allows booting from CD's.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T U T O R I A L F O R I M A G E F X
2 Dec 1997
Catalyzer: Video Tutorial for ImageFX
Legacy Maker, Inc. of Chicago, IL is pleased to announce its latest
videotape product for Amiga computers.
ImageFX is the engine. Your Amiga's tank is full of gas. This video is
the Catalyzer. Learn about the power and secrets of ImageFX from one
of its most reknown experts. Bohus Blahut, whose ImageFX knowledge is
so extensive Nova Design entrusted him with the creation of their
latest ImageFX demo tape, guides you through four projects on this one
hour videotape.
Catalyzer explores ImageFX through four project-based tutorials.
* Stunning Region Handling
* Powerful Text Effects
* Warp and Swirl Animations
* The secret of animating ImageFX's famous Lightning effect
Catalyzer demystifies ImageFX's batch processors, AutoFX and IMP.
Even Kermit Woodall, VP of Nova Design, says Catalyzer is "An amazing
tutorial video for ImageFX! It taught me things I didn't know about
our own software!"
Catalyzer For ImageFX includes a support floppy disk with all the
material you'll need to follow along with the videotape.
Catalyzer is shipping now! Legacy Maker is proud to refer customers to
these supporting Amiga dealers:
Wonder Computers (www.wonder.ca)
Safe Harbor (www.sharbor.com)
CompuQuick (www.infinet.com:80/~comquick/)
National Amiga (www.nationalamiga.com)
Or, order direct from Legacy Maker at 773-465-5158. Catalyzer's SRP is
$39.95. Visa and Mastercard are accepted. E-mail inquiries are welcome
to jcompton@xnet.com. Visit the Catalyzer website at
http://www.xnet.com/~jcompton/catalyzer.html.
About Legacy Maker
Legacy Maker Inc., based in Chicago, IL, is a publisher of creative
video products for and using Amiga computers. Legacy Maker produces
and sells Legacy, the videotape-based magazine for Amiga users.
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Y E S V I R G I N I A , T H E R E I S A N A M I G A
{The following two items were recently spotted in the Amiga newsgroups
on the Net. We reproduce them here so a wider audience can see them -
and perhaps smirk happily. We thank the original "posters" who put
them on the net for all to see. Brad}
From: "Maurice R Fleisher"
Subject: Amiga still going strong
Date: 03 Dec 97
Hi Amigans everywhere, thought you might like to see parts of an article
appearing in the current edition of a UK publication called Technologica.
It is a technical media mag. and the article is part of a special feature
on a high-end video facilities company in London.
quote:
"Apart from the single SGI Indy desktop CPU and the Alphas, there is also
one further interesting computer which attracts the warm glow of admiration
from many members of the *amgfx* staff - the *Amiga A4000/30*! This is in
constant use and many of the *amgfx* staff are still big Amiga fans.....
...Mike telling me that he owns no less than FIVE Amigas himself.
The A4000, like all the Alpha boxes in the room, is in daily use creating
scenes in Lightwave, though it is the only machine in their equipment
portfolio which can handle Mac files as the A4000 has an extremely stable
software based Mac emulator.....
.....even though Commodore ceased trading some time ago , it seems likely
that new business interests in the Amiga shall soon result in a 3D
Workstation being released based on the Amiga architecture - after all it
is Lightwave and *Video Toaster* being used on Amiga 1200s and 4000s which
resulted in Newtek being able to steal a march on many other 3D software
developers in the late 1980s.
Even today, animators working on high profile jobs such as *Star Trek
Voyager* and *Deep Space Nine* still use Amigas at home for modelling
sessions at weekends"
unquote:
Way to go!
Maurice
--
Maurice R Fleisher mailto:maurice@vident.u-net.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VIDEO ENTERPRISES <http://www.vident.u-net.com>
High Wycombe. UK
Connected via Wirenet - the UK's first Amiga only internet provider
From: "Kirk Strauser"
Subject: Sighting: Wired Magazine
Date: 4 Dec
I'm not sure if this has been reported yet, but... Wired Magazine 5.12
(December '97) page 56:
Sixth Coming
The Commodore Amiga, dubbed "the world's first multimedia PC" by Byte,
is back - again.
etc., etc., etc. It was a sympathetic article, although short (it's a
news story in the "Electric Word" section). They even state that
"Amiga owners have kept the machine alive in a quasi-underground
market." For once, we're actually mentioned in a major computer
magazine, and not made to looks like a bunch of raving idiots! Whoooh!
Kirk Strauser | Member // | Teknique on Undernet/#AmigaCafe,
kstrauser@pcis.net |Team AMIGA \X/ | http://www.pcis.net/kstrauser/
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A M I N E T C D 2 2 - 1 G O F G O O D I E S
9 December, 1997
Suggested Retail Price DM 25.00 Subscription price DM 19.80
US$ 14.04 US$ 11.12
******
Ordering information:
The most convenient method of placing an order is to use our
electronic order form located at http://www.schatztruhe.de/order.html.
You can also send an E-Mail to stefano@schatztruhe.de including your
address and the products you wish to order.
******
Aminet CD 22, dated December 1997, contains 1 gigabyte (uncompressed)
of software in thousands of archives. Since the release of Aminet CD
21 more than 500 MB new software has appeared. The current edition
includes a full version of Digita's Wordworth 5SE, the famous word
processiong software. An inexpensive upgrade path to Wordworth 6 is
offered.
Contents of Aminet 22
Directory Size Files Contents
biz 32 MB 85 Business software
comm 37 MB 232 Communications
demo 95 MB 75 Graphics & sound demo
dev 28 MB 118 Development software
disk 7 MB 28 Disk & HD tools
docs 50 MB 103 Documents
game 144 MB 277 Games
gfx 41 MB 91 Graphics software
hard 3 MB 18 Hardware related
misc 21 MB 57 Miscellaneous
mods 174 MB 458 Music modules
mus 16 MB 53 Music software
pix 225 MB 222 Pictures
text 5 MB 31 Text software
util 46 MB 287 Utilities
--
Stefan Ossowskis Schatztruhe Gesellschaft für Software mbH
Veronikastr. 33 - 45131 Essen - Germany
Phone: ++49-201-788778 Fax ++49-201-798447
mailto:stefano@schatztruhe.de
http://www.schatztruhe.de/
Visit our Web site and join our mailing-list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I N T A M A - A B O U T T O L A U N C H
The International Amiga Marketing Association (INTAMA) is an
organization of consultants, retailers, service providers, developers,
manufacturers, and publications serving the Amiga computer platform.
The organization was formed to strengthen the Amiga marketing channel.
All activites performed by the International Amiga Marketing
Association are aimed at improving and furthering the marketing of
amiga computers and their related products and services.
Keep in mind this organization has not been formed. NRS {Neather Realm
Software, apparently. Brad} and other members of the Amiga community
are currently proceeding with surveys of retailers and distributors in
all major countries. Once these surveys are completed we will be one
step closer to legally forming this association.
If you have questions please contact Michael Kramer at Neather Realm
Software. NRS is currently sponsoring the International Amiga
Marketing Association. Please direct all e-mail to
neather@neather.com.
{After downloading the above from the INTAMA web page, we contacted
them for more information. We also asked about Neather Realm Software.
Here's some of what we learned, in a note from Michael Kramer. We
thank him for his information and quick response to our questions.
Brad}
14 Dec 1997
If there is no easy, inexpenseve method of distributing information to
retailers and distributors it shall be nearly impossible to support
this market effectively. Right now there is no freely available
mailing database of retailers that is accurate (no effective way to
get hold of retailers)...Amiga Inc. doesn't even have an accurate
listing of their retailers (due to companies going oui of business and
coming back), because of this we need to have some organization that
can keep that information accurate and provide everyone within the
industry with the information they need.
We also will be more influential in getting dealers and developers
interested in the Amiga. In certain ways more than Amiga Inc. ever
could . Because of our network, new dealers or developers would have
instant access to vital industry information. I've spoken with a lot
of small developers that would be willing to enter this market
provided there is a means of distributing information cost
effectively. But if there isn't, it is unlikely they will come to the
Amiga because of the market being so disperse. There are a lot more
Amigans out there than people think, problem is they are spread across
the planet. So in order to sell a minimum acceptable number of units
it is vital to have a network of dealers, distibutors, and so forth
that one can easily, and more importantly, cheaply, communicate with.
For the last few years, NRS has primarily been an IBM developer and
consulting company. It is our intent to eventually come back full
force to {the Amiga} market. However, if there is no easy, inexpenseve
method of distributing information to retailers and distributors it
shall be nearly impossible to support this market effectively. Right
now there is no freely available mailing database of retailers that is
accurate (no effective way to get hold of retailers)...Amiga Inc.
doesn't even have an accurate listing of their retailers (due to
companies going oui of business and coming back), because of this we
need to have some organization that can keep that information accurate
and provide everyone within the industry with the information they
need.
NRS is currently funding this {INTAMA} because NRS and our supporters
do not believe the Amiga will survive without something similar to
this...we need organization and leadership...Gateway will undoubtedly
provide this in some areas...but their company isn't going to be able
to do everything (not their fault, there is a lot to do). Many of the
things we suggest, and can fund (with the proper support) can achieve
goals and provide a stable supply of information to industry members
while providing developers with a cheap way of contacting all members
of the marketing channel.
To you and your readers Happy Holidays.
Michael Kramer
--
Neather Realm Software (a.k.a. NRS)
URL: http://www.neather.com
E-mail: neather@neather.com
TEL (330) 945-9047 FAX (330) 928-1738
----------------------------------------------------------------------
H O L I D A Y P R I C E S F R O M G A M A S O F T
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- December 3, 1997
GamaSoft is pleased to announce a very special money-saving offer just
in time for the holidays! From now until December 31, 1997, Voodoo,
our highly-regarded e-mail manager, and New York, our fantastic news
client, can be purchased together for just $65.00! That's a
considerable savings off the regular price! This offer applies only to
direct sales, and will not be honored by dealers.
Additionally, any one who buys both New York and Voodoo from one of
our Partner Dealers will be eligible to receive a $5 discount from
GamaSoft on future purchases of our software. (Discount applies only
to software purchased from GamaSoft directly.) To qualify for this
offer, just present your proof of purchase of Voodoo and New York from
your dealer at the time of your next GamaSoft purchase. The proof of
purchase must be dated December, 1997, and may be FAXed to GamaSoft at
the time of your next GamaSoft purchase.
Voodoo is the Amiga's greatest e-mail management program, rated a high
score from the Amiga Informer magazine (issue 11). Voodoo includes
support for many types of mail systems, a built-in POP3/SMTP client,
internal attachment viewing, and an intuitive message list that can be
sorted by author, date, or subject.
New York is the only serious newsreader for the Amiga. It includes a
hierarchal iconic display of the newsgroup structure, message thread
sorting, an internal base-64 decoder for file attachments, and support
for Voodoo or your favorite e-mailer. New York also includes a
built-in composition tool for public postings.
So get the best, most well-supported internet tools available for the
Amiga--Voodoo and New York--now available at a fantastic bundle
price.For more information or to purchase securely online, please see
our homepage at www.mich.com/~twalling/gamasoft
Happy Holidays! -- Thanks, Ted Wallingford Production Director
Pantheon Systems -- GamaSoft www.pantheonsys.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
F I N A L O D Y S S E Y
The Final Odyssey CDRom is now officially released
The Final Odyssey, Vulcan's third Amiga CD ROM release was officially
launched on the 11th December 1997.
STORY
Greek Mythology informs us that the King of Minos imposed an annual
tribute for 6 girls to be shipped to Crete and thrown as food to the
hideous creature called the Minotuar who resides in a vast magical
labyrinth in Athens.
In this elaborate adventure game you play the part of Theseus who is
responsible for taking the poor girls to their death, however you have
another plan in mind. To break this revolting tradition and to ensure
no more innocent victims need to face this destiny it is up to you to
solve the complex puzzles and mysteries of the Labyrinth and
eventually destroy the Minotaur as well as locating all the girls that
have been imprisoned and getting them out safely. The Final Odyssey
combines logic puzzle solving with plenty of action and strategy, you
will be armed with the most sophisticated weaponry and be thrown into
a mind melting logical world of traps, enemies, puzzles and mini
quests. The unique dungeon designs create constantly changing levels
in gloriously animated splendour coupled with true 3d sound effects
which all help to create a world that is very hard to leave.
MINIMUM SPECIFICATIONS
Any Amiga, Hard Drive, 68000 CPU, 2Mb Memory (1Mb Chip & 1Mb Any),
2xSpeed CD-Rom Utilizes if Available: AGA Chipset, Extra Chip, Extra
Fast, Faster CPU, Faster CD-Rom
GAME SPECIFICATIONS
* 5 Massive Worlds Containing over 500 Screens of Action with a Host
of Brain Bending, Logical Puzzles Special Random Arenas with Many Maze
Transformations and Underground Levels
* Superbly Animated Hero with Many Intriguing, Interactive Characters.
* Awesome Lighting & Reflection Effects
* 3D Stereo Sound, Loads of Monsters Each with Their Own Advanced
Artificial Intelligence
* Tons of Nasties (Flamers, Arrows, Electric Bolts, Pits, Spikes,
Rolling Rocks, Bouncing Balls, Homing Missiles, One-Way Paths,
Invisible Walls, Trap Doors, Transporters, Lava Bombs and Fall-Away
Tiles)
* Lots of Pickups (Food, Money, Weapons, Scrolls, Potions, Keys)
* 5 Weapons (Crossbow, Plasma Rifle, Chain Gun, Fireblade and Nuke)
* Plus a Free Two Player Hi-Resolution Bonus Game upon completion &
Full Speech On-Line CD Manual
SUPPORTS THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES
English, German, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Finnish and Danish
rrp: 29.99 (English Pounds)
Available from all good retail outlets around the world or direct from
our primary distributor:
Weird Science Limited Telephone: (0116) 246 3800
CHEAT MODE
To have infinite lives for reviewing and to play a specific level, run
the game from the CLI with the tag of immortal, for example:
Odyssey:68020+ immortal3
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T H R E E F R O M S C H A T Z T R U H E
Ossowski's Schatztruhe Announces Availability of Myst, Shadow of the
3rd Moon and Uropa 2
A couple of new exciting CD-ROM-based Amiga Games have been released or will be
released within the next days. Order now to ensure that you'll receive your
favourite games before Christmas!
Game price available
Myst US$57.00 - DM 99,00 12/12/97 - 12.12.97
Shadow of the 3rd Moon US$51.00 - DM 89,00 NOW - ab sofort
Uropa 2 US$51.00 - DM 89,00 NOW - ab sofort
The most convenient method of placing an order is to use our
electronic order form located at http://www.schatztruhe.de/order.html.
You can also send an E-Mail to stefano@schatztruhe.de including your
address and the products you wish to order.
Myst
The best selling game of all times
After a long period of waiting Myst, the mystery adventure, is now
available for the Amiga. The game is available completely in english,
so package, manual, all menus and the speech are completely in
english.
The CyberGraphX version is running in 24Bit mode with 16 million
colours.
We apologize, but to the delay of PPC availability, we were unable to
have a PPC optimized Myst for this time. An upgrade will be available
for download from Aminet.
Myst CD also contains a 14 minute self-contained QuickTime movie
"Making of Myst", where authors take you behind the scenes of making
of this magnificent game!
Myst uses AHI sound system by Martin Blom. The latest full version is
provided on the CD. You do not have to install AHI, Myst will simply
utilize it from a CD if it is not already installed on your HD.
(although it is not necessary to install it, we recommend you do it
for your everyday use, as more and more software uses it).
Further important features of Myst:
* 100% OS friendly
* fully multitasking
* high-res graphics (640x400, 256 colours minimum)
Myst installation program allows you to choose how much data you want
to install to hard drive. The more you install to HD, the faster
access Myst will have to those files, therefore the faster it will run
(this is especially usefull if you have a slow CD or CPU).
Installation possibilities:
* 5Mb will only install the code and AHI
* 40Mb will install all the sounds
* 270Mb installs all the gfx
* 310Mb installs all the gfx+sound
Minimum technical requirements for AGA-Amigas: 68020, CD-ROM drive
(2x), 8MB RAM, 5MB free on harddisk. Minimum technical requirements
for Amigas with graphics board (CyberGraphX): 68020, CD-ROM drive
(2x), 8MB RAM, 5MB free on harddisk.
Optimum technical requirements for AGA-Amigas: 68060, CD-ROM drive
(12x), 16MB RAM, 100MB free on harddisk. Optimum technical
requirements for Amigas with graphics board (CyberGraphX):: 68040,
CD-ROM drive (12x), 16MB RAM, 100MB free on harddisk.
Program: english
Documentation: english
Published by: ClickBoom, Canada
Shadow of the 3rd Moon
The action flightsimulator
Enter your jet and fight up to 48 missions in fascinating
landscapes.Experience fights against intelligent enemies with a high
grade of realism in the presentation of all activities.
Short overview:
* High-End Voxelengine based on new 3dTIS routines
* absolute realistic flight-feeling with amazing gameplay
* 6 different campaigns
* up to 48 missions
* digital Soundtrack direct from CD
* realistic fog-, fire-, smoke and watereffects
* fantastic landscape with mountains, rivers and valleys
* Mouse-, Keyboard and Stickcontrol
* advanced enemy intelligence
System requirements: Amiga with CD-ROM drive, min. 68EC030, min. Kick
3.0, AGA or graphics card (CyberGraphX), 13MB on harddisk, 1MB
Chip-RAM, 4MB Fast-RAM. Supports also: optimized for 68040 and 68060.
Programm: english, german, italian
Documentation: english, german, italian
Published by: Titan Computer, Germany
Uropa 2
Strategy and Action in 3D
Uropa2 is a combination of 3D isometric and 3D light sourced vector
game which is based on the moon of Uropa. Battle the evil Kapones and
seek out the mastermind of their operations!
Background:
During the interstellar wars against the alien invasion forces, a vast
majority of earths colonies sustained major damage to their structures
and defence systems. The invasion force was repelled at great human
loss, the earth colonies were slow to develop to their former
civilized position.
To prevent such wide spread destruction from being forced upon the
Earth colonies, they banded together with mother Earth to form a peace
keeping force. This peace keeping force is known as Intercorp.
Intercorp is the military arm of the Earth Colonies and is funded by a
user pay policy. Any action that Intercorp engages in, is paid for by
the colony or colonies making the request.
Intercorp is structured into three main Task Forces. The Central Task
Force is made up of Humans and Intelligent droids known as Tekites.
The Humans are the command and both Humans and Tekites provide the
main attack and counter attack forces of Intercorp. The Key Task Force
is made up of intelligent droids known as Kapones. The Kapones provide
ongoing defence at major or important installations owned by the Earth
colonies. The third section is the Centurion Task Force. It numbers
100 of the elite Tekites. You are the newest addition to the Centurion
Taskforce.
The Centurions are a covert strike force which are mainly used in
covert intelligence operations or tactical strikes against enemy
installations prior to the Central Task Force arrival.
The colony of Uropa2 is based on a small moon revolving around the
planet of Jupiter, at one time known as Europa. The moon was almost
destroyed during the wars, but due to the rich resources on the moon,
the colonists re-built the moon and renamed it Uropa2. The moon is
situated on the outer reaches of the Earth controlling zone and
because of its strategic position, has been set up as a major link in
communications and detection of hostile fleets entering the zone.
There are twelve bases, scattered across Uropa2 , which are networked
together providing a unique system of integration. Each base is
capable of space and sub-space surveillance at different detection
levels. Only the central communication base, Castalia, is capable of
direct contact with Intercorp.
Uropa2 detection systems were placed under the control of human
colonists.These colonists have no weapons or defence training and as a
result of their peaceful nature, the protection of the colony was
charged to Key Task Force of Intercorp.
From suspected reasons of greed, the Key Task Force on Uropa2 has
rebelled against Intercorp and has gained command of the moon.
Communications with the moon have ceased and the fate of the colonists
is unknown. The Kapones are acting as mercenaries for one of
Intercorps interstellar enemies and have been tasked with the
destruction of Uropa2.
Technical background:
* 10 gigantic, strategy based missions
* 3D isometric Action adventure
* 3D vector light-sourced locaions
* Myriads of tactical problems to solve
* Full digital speech troughout
* Progressive weapons and status capabilities
* Linear plot progression
* Full blown 3D rendered intro animation
* Highly configurable to allow for individual preferences
* Extra Hovar Wars game with serial link up for 2 players
System requirements:
Amiga with 4xCD-ROM drive, Harddisk, 2MB RAM (1MB Chip- & 1MB
Fast-RAM).Supports also: AGA Chipset, more memory, faster CPUs and
faster CD-ROM drives.
Programm: english, german, ital., french, norwegian, finnish, danish,
swedish, portugese, czech.Documentation: english, german, ital.,
french, norwegian, finnish, danish, swedish, portugese,
czech.Published by: Vulcan Software Limited, England
Stefan Ossowskis Schatztruhe Gesellschaft für Software mbH
Veronikastr. 33
* 45131 Essen
* Germany
Phone: ++49-201-788778 Fax ++49-201-798447
EMail: stefano@schatztruhe.de WWW: http://www.schatztruhe.de/
Visit our Web site and join our mailing-list.
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T W O T O S A D E N E S S
Sadeness Software signs Forgotten Forever and Dafel:Bloodline!
Sadeness Software have signed 2 more games to their publishing label,
the first, for those of you who haven't seen it is Forgotten Forever,
is a realtime strategy war game like Dune II or Command & Conquer.Dune
II was released on Amiga and was the best realtime strategy war game
ever. Some time later Command & Conquer was born, but unfortunately it
was PC only. At last we have the answer for Amiga owners.
The Second of their new signings is a superb RPG called
Dafel:Bloodline, Dafel:Blodline (originally known as Child of
Darkness), mixes the old Zeldatype game to modern Beat-em-ups with
good old RPG characters, speech puzzles thrown in for good measure.
The game runs on any AMIGA with AGA chipset displaying the graphics in
glorious 128 colours. All the characters in the game are controlled by
sophisticated AI routines, so the game will always play differently,
even if you completed it once before.
Not forgetting, Sadeness Software have already signed the fantastic
Foundationand onEscapee, they are certainly going strong in the
publishing industry.onEscapee will be released just in time for
Christmas, although Foundation will not be ready until Jan/Feb 98.
They have said to be 95% of completing the signing of what they said
is one of the most advanced Amiga games they have seen, but will not
as yet release anymore information until things have been finalised.
For anymore information Contact Sadeness at rich@sadeness.demon.co.uk
or check out their website http://www.sadeness.demon.co.uk for more
info about their product range.
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A M I G A C D M A G A Z I N E S T A R T E D
12 Dec 1997
Totally Amiga Magazine
"The First American CD Amiga Magazine!"
Totally Amiga Magazine is now available on CD-ROM!! Bring on the
interactive experience!
Content of Totally Amiga Magazine:
Industry News -- Up-to-the-minute industry announcements! Reviews ---
Feature reviews: Uropa 2 and The Final Odyssey! Previews ---- We
preview Myst!
Rumors -- We dig up some tasty tidbits about the Amiga industry!
Game Cheats --- Level skip for The Strangers AGA; Hidden characters in
Capital Punishment etc....
Technical Information --- Technical information about the Amiga
Game Demos -- Play what we review! Read the review, play the game!
Emulators --- This month we add more emulators to the compilation
Monthly Utilities --- More utilities than you can shake a stick at!
Mod Players --- There is nothing like Mod Players to enhance the
interactive experience!
Mods --- Listen to your favorite mods while reading Totally Amiga
Magazine CD!
Catalogs ---- Purchase superb PD Software at cheap prices!! Screen
Shots ---- Upcoming titles
System Requirements:
ECS/AGA; 2megs; Double-Speed CD-Rom; Kickstart 2.o or better
U.S. Rates
$8.99 (Single issue) $29.99 ( 4 CDS / 1-Year (10% off the newsstand
price!))
Canada Rates
$10.99 (Single issue) $39.99 (4 CDS / 1-Year (10% off the newsstand
price!))
World
$20.99 (Single issue) $83.96 (4 CD/1-Year (All overseas subscriptions
are shipped via Airmail))
Get Interactive!!!
Please make all checks and moneyorders payable to: Neo-Media
Publications (Please allow 4-8 weeks for check clearance)
Mail your order to:
Totally Amiga Magazine CD
P.O. Box 65
Barnstead, N.H. 03218-0065
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L A T E S T U L T R A A C C O U N T S
2 Dec 1997
TITLE
UltraAccounts 4.4
AUTHOR
Richard Smedley
PO Box 59
Sutton-In-Ashfield
Nottinghamshire
NG17 3HP
England
rsmedley@cix.co.uk
http://www.cix.co.uk/~rsmedley/ultra4.html
DESCRIPTION
UltraAccounts is a home accounts program which has been designed
to make things as simple and easy to use as possible - so that
even people who don't know anything at all about keeping accounts
(or using computers) should be able to use UltraAccounts without
any problems at all.
Features include:
- Supplied in 6 languages: English, Frangais, Deutsch, Nederlands,
Italiano & Polski.
- Easy-to-use user interface. All windows are font sensitive and
fully resizable, and all windows are multitasking (you can open
and use several windows at the same time).
- Supports up to 50 seperate accounts, each with its own opening
balance and minimum & maximum amounts. Money can be easily
transferred from one account to another.
- Create up to 50 transaction tags, for grouping your transactions
into categories. Each tag can have its own budget settings.
- Full payslip support, including multiple wage configurations.
Find out how much tax has been deducted from your wages at the
touch of a button!
- Standing orders and timed transfers are automatically entered
into your accounts for you. Supports debit & credit standing
orders. Transactions entered from these timed events can be
edited or erased *without* duplicate entries being created.
- Easily pre-define the details of commonly-used transactions and
transfers, such as doing the shopping or paying the gas bill.
You no longer have to keep re-typing all the details whenever
you enter one of these transactions.
- Full graph facilities. Produce pie, bar or line graphs, with
optional future projections. Very useful for seeing trends, or
looking for odd peaks of income/expenditure.
- Reminders. Make sure you don't miss important events, such as
birthdays/anniversaries or bills that need paying.
- Full printout facilities. Accounts & transactions lists can be
easily printed, or saved as an ASCII file. Graphs can also be
printed.
- Flexible search facilities, to help you find those elusive
transactions!
- Check VAT registration codes (UK only), to make sure that the
people charging you VAT are genuinely registered to charge it.
- All data files are encrypted and optionally password protected,
to protect your data.
- Fully configurable export formats.
NEW FEATURES
- Now includes German, Italian & Polish versions.
- Powerful new search routines.
- New display options for the Balances & Account windows.
- Check company VAT registration codes (UK only).
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
- Minimum requirements: AmigaOS 2.0, 2 meg ram.
- Recommended: AmigaOS 3.0, hard drive, additional memory, and
an accelerator.
AVAILABILITY
UltraAccounts can be downloaded from the UltraAccounts home page
at the following URL:
http://www.cix.co.uk/~rsmedley/ultra4.html
(303,460 bytes)
PRICE
Standard registration fee is 10 Pounds Sterling (or equivalent),
with poverty registrations accepted at reduced amounts.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Shareware, unregistered copies are freely distributable.
UltraAccounts is Copyright Richard Smedley 1997
----------------------------------------------------------------------
G A T E W A Y S H O W ' 9 8
Gateway Computer Show - Amiga 98 -
Endorsed by The Gateway Amiga Club, Inc.
News about Amiga98 is Heating Up!
Coming March 14th - 15th, 1998
to the Harley Hotel in St. Louis.
Brought to you by Amigan-St. Louis
Featuring:
* the 3rd International Developers Conference
* Amiga Inc.
* Amiga International's Petro Tyschtschenko
* And many others soon to be mentioned.
* Even more excitement than Amiga 97.
!! Don't miss it !!
Watch for our adds in Amazing Computing
and other Amiga magazines and newsletters.
Get on our mailing list and watch this site
http://www.amiga-stl.com
At the Amiga97 Show
There were 900 folks who attended...
Exhibitors:
Anti Gravity Products, Amazing Computing / Amiga, Amiga Atlanta, Inc.,
Amiga Items, Amiga Legacy, Amiga Report Magazine, AmiTech & Amiga
Dayton, A.R.C.U.G., Brewster Productions, Compuquick Media Center,
Inc., Gateway Amiga Club Inc., FASTRAX, HiSoft, Intangible Assets
Manufacturing, Micro R. and D. Inc., MoneySmart-Grafica Software,
National Amiga, NewTek, Inc., Nova Design, Inc., Oregon Research,
OZware , The Personal Computer Journal, P.J.Nordmann-FX , ProvTech,
Scharp Designs, Silent Paw Productions, Inc.,
SoftLogik Publishing Corporation and Y/C PLUS Inc..
Personalities:
Jason Compton, Don Hicks, Kevin Hissel, Dale Larson and Eric Schwartz
of E.S. Productions.
User Groups:
Amiga Atlanta, Inc.,
Amiga Users Group of Kansas City,
A.R.C.U.G., Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group,
Gateway Amiga Club,
North Alabama Society of Amiga Users - (NASAU), New Orleans Commodore
Klub - (NOCK), Knox Computer Club and
Rocky Mountain Amiga User's Group.
"Just to name a few"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
P E R S I S T E N C E O F V I S I O N
13 Dec 1997
NAME
Persistence of Vision
VERSION
V3.02c Nov 30 1997
DISTRIBUTION
Freely distributable (see povlegal.txt).
AUTHOR
Joel NewKirk (POV-Team AMIGAn, POV-Team)
newkirk@wearefamily.com
http://www.wearefamily.com/newkirk/
DESCRIPTION
3D raytracing graphics renderer, with GUI, no modeller.
Scenes described in flexible ASCII scenefiles, similar to
many programming languages. Although docs and renderer are
English only, the GUI is fully localized (English and Italian
available).
POV-Ray is a freely distributable, powerful 3D raytracer. It
can generate photo realistic images from simple (or complex 8^)
scene descriptions using dozens of object primitives (including
complex mathematical functions like quadrics, quartics, poly-
nomials, and 4D Juliaset fractals) and unlimited layering of
several complex procedural (or image file-based) textures.
Includes blob objects, (metaballs) multiple texture layering,
texture blend/averaging, mapping of each value or range of
values from a procedural pattern OR image as a discrete texture,
pigment, or surface normal, again with theoretically unlimited
layering. Other features include atmosphere, fog and 'halo'
rendering, focal blur, area lights, radiosity calculations
(diffuse inter-reflection - IE blue walls add blue tint to
nearby objects), 'soap-bubble' irridescence, math functions
(including trig functions) available in scenefiles for object &
texture control. (IE, x=cos(clock*2*pi),y=sin(clock*2*pi)
animates an object on a circular path).
Its scene file format parallels programming languages, supporting
for loops, conditional statements, variables, and more.
Clock external variable available, ranges from 0.0000 to 1.0000
during the course of built-in animation loop. External programs
or scripts can be called at key points during the main rendering
and animation loops, to generate, modify, or process data/images
"on-the-fly".
NEW FEATURES
V3.02c introduces datatype support for image loading (height fields
& image maps), re-written display and memory pool code (20% faster)
GUI now fully localized, except messages from renderer (not yet
localized), and supports sequential renders automatically.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
AmigaOS v2.x, any CPU arrangement (with specific archive), 6MB drive
space, 2 MB RAM. HTML browser for docs.
RECOMMENDED
AmigaOS v3.x (datatypes & 24-bit display), 8+MB RAM. v43 picture
datatype and PNG datatype, available on support page.
SUPPORT
Joel NewKirk, povamiga@geocities.com,
or povamiga@amigaworld.com
(mailinglist, subject "subscribe")
http://amigaworld.com/support/povamiga/
AVAILABILITY
http://www.amigaworld.com/support/povamiga/
ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/aminet/gfx/3d/pov*
And all other Aminet sites.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
N E W A M I G A W E B S I T E
2 Dec 1997
Amiga Universe is a new website available at
http://www.ludd.luth.se/~bmw
The site is a subject oriented search directory for Amiga stuff. Every
link is controlled and evaluated before they are added to the site. It
also provides free non-commercial advertising and an Amiga Lexicon as
well as much more....
Check it out and give me your comments!
Regards,
Tomas Karlsson
Webmaster at Amiga Universe
email: tomkar-7@sm.luth.se
http://www.ludd.luth.se/~bmw
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1997 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Brad Webb/AmigaUpdate
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ ||
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