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Amiga Update (1999-01-08)
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors-
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter)
WE'RE STILL PUBLISHING! ||
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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990108
T H E F O R M E R I N F O R M E R . . .
P E T R O I N O Z ; U P D A T E
A M O Z I L L A - A M I G A N E T S C A P E !
S E C U R I T Y F L A W I N M A J O R B R O W S E R S
I P R O B E I S O N I T S W A Y
A M I G A ' 9 9 A S T R O N A U T
A N N E X A T A M I G A ' 9 9
A I R F A R E S A L E A N D A M I G A ' 9 9
M I D W I N T E R ' 9 9 , A P A R T Y I N S W E D E N
A A A A W A R D S S E E K N O M I N E E S
K I C K S T A R T S H O W # 2
A M I G A U N I V E R S E ( T H E O T H E R A U )
A M I G A U N I V E R S E A W A R D S A N N O U N C E D
A M I G A N E T W O R K N E W S I S 2
N O R W E G I A N S , T A K E N O T E . . .
A M I G A W A T C H C O M M U N I Q U E # 2
A A A A W A R D S A R E B A C K
U G N N E W S L E T T E R E X C H A N G E
W I L L M A K E 3 D A D D O N F O R P I C A S S O I V
T O R N A D O 3 D U P D A T E N E W S
E X P A N D E D I M A G I N E S U P P O R T
Y O U R P H O N E A S A N A M I G A O R . . .
. . . Y O U R A M I G A A S A P H O N E
I N T E R N A L A 1 2 0 0 F L I C K E R F I X E R
N E W F O R Y O U R T O A S T E R
I D D P O R T M O N I T O R S O F T W A R E
O L O F I G H T I S R E A D Y - A R E Y O U ?
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Now it can be told. We've known for some time that one of the best
would soon be no more. "The Amiga Informer", the paper publication
we've had an association with since shortly after its inception,
published its last issue with #17, for January/February of 1999. The
Amiga market in the US has shrunk to where two magazines are more than
it can support. As a result, AI is merging with "Amazing
Computing/Amiga", one of the first Amiga magazines. "Amazing" will
keep its venerable name, and "Informer" publisher Fletcher Hauq will
join the "Amazing" staff.
Most readers probably know I wrote for the "Informer" as well as
editing and publishing this newsletter, so there's a very real sense
of loss for me to see this fresh and inovative publication die a
premature death. We at AU hope the merger will lead to a stronger and
reinvigorated "Amazing", and that's a real possibility as the strengths of
both publications are combined.
With AI vanishing from the scene, it's possible there will be some
changes in "Amiga Update" as well. Obviously, the "Informer
Annex"section will not be as it was, but we may publish some of the
material that would otherwise have appeared in the "Informer". Who
knows, we might even still call this material "Informer Annex". We're
not sure, we're still working out the details. As we figure it out,
we'll let you know.
Almost as if to balance our loss, we've seen announcements of a new
British Amiga publication about to be launched. To be called
"AmigaActive" and published by Pinprint Publishing, "AmigaActive" will
supposedly take a "mature look" at games, multimedia, hardware,
creativity, the Internet, user projects, technical help and other
topics. In other words, a fully featured magazine. It's being billed
as a monthly, complete with cd/rom, and a price of 4.99 UK pounds.
Sounds mighty good to us. As we learn more, we'll pass it along.
As you can see, not all the news is bad and we have plenty enjoyable
news for you this time. New software, new hardware, innovative
products. It's all here, and we're pretty sure you'll enjoy reading
about it.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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E-mail to the E-ditor:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
18 Dec 1998
Subject: Amigas in general
Hey Brad,
I saw an ad on one of the Amiga Web pages describing the Lithium
battery replacement for the original NiCAD backup battery. The ad read
something like this "If your Amiga is over 4 years old, the NiCAD
battery may be leaking, so we offer this Lithium... ". I started
thinking... Gee how many IBM users even keep their PC's over 4 years
?? And how can an Amiga still be usable after 4 years ?? Then I
started thinking about what prompted me to buy my A4000 as a
replacement for my A500 (which I still have), the only reasons were
because the A4000 had expansion slots and I wanted the latest and
greatest Amiga. I didn't know about drive bay expansion boxes at that
time but with an accelerator card and a new graphics card my A500
would still be perfectly usable !! I bought that A500 in 1988... 10
years ago !! Everyone knows that a 10 year old computer is a dinosaur
don't they ?? Apparently not Amiga users... we must be pretty warped
or maybe we know something other computer users don't ??
I would be willing to bet that the typical Amiga user has some other
products in their home that are old but he/she is not willing to part
with.
I remember back in '69 or '70, an acquaintance handing me a pair of
headphones and telling me to listen to the "Stereo" effects on a song
by a new Rock group named Led Zepplin... the song was Whole Lotta Love
and I was totally blown away. What's funny is, that song sounds just
as good today and seems to be TIMELESS... not dated... which is a
quality the Amiga seems to possess.
These are just some of the reasons why I Love my Amiga.
Tony
~~~~~~
Tony,
I'll bet every reader understands exactly what you mean. I know I do.
Thanks,
Brad
~~~~~~
~~~~~~
21 Dec 1998
Subject: Happy xmas!!
Thanks 4 your wonderful newsletter.
You keep my faith on Amiga alive!.
Merry Xmas and a very happy new year from Padova, Italy.
Nardotto
~~~~~
Nardotto,
That's our goal. Thanks for letting us know we're reaching it. Hope
you had a Happy xmas also, and may you - and all our readers - have a
wonderful new year.
Brad
~~~~~~
~~~~~~
20 Dec 1998
Subject: Archives search engine?
Would it be possible for someone to write a search engine
so one would search your archives at Adventure Central? It'd
be a nice thing to have.
BTW, I'm dropping in on the Auckland, New Zealand, Amiga group
in a few weeks. They're starved for info about the Amiga there,
so I forwarded a couple of your newsletters to them.
--Gary
~~~~~~
Gary,
If someone wants to take on the challenge of writing a search engine,
I'd be happy to discuss it. I don't have the time to do it myself.
By all means have the folks in New Zealand send subscription requests
to us if they'd like. We'd be delighted to welcome them.
Alternatively, someone there could subscribe and set up his/her own
mailing list to re-distribute AU. Whatever is most convenient, and
thanks for sending a couple of copies their way. We appreciate it very
much.
Brad
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T H E F O R M E R I N F O R M E R . . .
Joint Press Release from Eldritch Enterprises and PiM Publications,
January 5, 1999.
PiM Publications, publishers of Amazing Computing/Amiga, and Eldritch
enterprises, publishers of The Amiga Informer, are proud to announce
that they have combined their efforts into one publication. This
magazine will maintain the Amazing Computing/Amiga title and continue
to be distributed through PiM Publications. Fletcher Haug, the
Editor-in-chief of The Amiga Informer, will join the staff of Amazing
and bring with him many of the resources from The Informer. " It is
vital that the Amiga community retain a print publication in North
America," said Haug. "By combining the efforts of The Informer and
Amazing, I feel we will be able to give our readers and the community
a stronger publication that combines the best qualities of both
magazines. I am looking forward to working with PiM Publications on
this project."
Since North America was served by Amazing Computing/Amiga and The
Amiga Informer, both magazines were in competition for the same
advertising dollars and subscribers. In recent months, it has become
clear the North American Amiga would benefit from a single newsstand
distributed publication. "These are critical times for the Amiga
marketplace as Amiga Inc. prepares the Next Generation Amiga and OS
3.5 remains in development," stated Amazing's Managing Editor, Don
Hicks. "We believe the best way to serve this industry is to combine
our efforts and build a stronger communication network from the two
publications. With this alliance, we can offer Amiga vendors an
unparalleled opportunity to the Amiga marketplace in North America
while giving our readers the best possible service."
The Amiga Informer magazine was launched in April, 1996 and grew to
be a respected publication providing Amigans with insightful
information and news compiled by freelance authors worldwide. Issue 17
of The Amiga Informer was recently released and it will be the last
issue printed. As part of the arrangement between Amazing and The
Informer, PiM Publications will fulfill any outstanding subscriptions
from The Informer with issues of Amazing Computing/Amiga. Eldritch
Enterprises closed as a business, effective December 31, 1998. Further
information will soon become available at The Amiga Informer website
(www.amigainformer.com) and the Amazing Computing website
(www.pimpub.com).
Amazing Computing/Amiga was the world's first monthly Amiga magazine
and remains the longest running Amiga publication. For over 13 years,
AC has provided the Amiga community with balanced, thoughtful
reporting on the Amiga market. The AC staff has also been instrumental
in providing video tapes and transcripts of the major events in the
Amiga community. With the combined efforts of Amazing's Amazing
Authors and The Amiga Informer's quality staff, the Amiga community
has an opportunity to build an even better future publication.
We hope that the combining of Amazing Computing/Amiga and The Amiga
Informer will prove to make a stronger publication that can continue
to serve the Amiga community and carry it to the next level of Amiga
computing. With the combined efforts of both magazines' staff focused
in the same direction, we believe that the community will be better
served and will continue to get the information it needs to move
forward to the future.
Sincerely,
Fletcher Haug, The Amiga Informer Magazine
Don Hicks, Amazing Computing/Amiga
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P E T R O I N O Z ; U P D A T E
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
22 December 1998
Petro Tyschtschenko's Visit to Australia Now Includes Melbourne
With Petro Tyschtschenko's visit fast approaching, the Melbourne
Amiga community will be pleased to know that Petro Tyschtschenko will
now be including Melbourne in his itinerary during his upcoming visit
to Australia in January 1999.
Mr Tyschtschenko will be in Melbourne on Mon 11 and Tue 12 January,
and as is the case for Perth and Sydney, there will be an opportunity
to meet him while he is there.
Persons wishing to meet Petro Tyschtschenko in Melbourne, should send
an email to the contact address above, with: `Petro Visit Melbourne'
as the Subject.
Then, in the body of the email, they should give some background
information about themselves, as well as any comments that they may
care to make relating to the Amiga's future in Australasia.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have
already emailed me, even if it's only been to make their views known.
Your response to these postings can only show that the Amiga still
has strong support in Australasia, and should send a strong message to
Petro Tyschtschenko and Amiga Inc. that they should do something about
it.
Basil Flinter
Coordinating the Amiga in Australasia
Mail to: flinter@tpg.com.au
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A M O Z I L L A - A M I G A N E T S C A P E !
4 January, 1999
Welcome To aMozilla
Welcome to the aMozilla Project home page. The aMozilla Project has
been esablished with the sole aim of porting the worlds best browser,
Netscape 5 Communicator to the Amiga Platform.
When the source code to Netscape 5 was made available, everyone in
the Amiga community immediately expected ports to become available
overnight, as we had seen with the likes of Doom, Descent and Abuse.
However, this didn't materialise, as the Netscape project was just so
large. It was too much for one man to handle, and so the Amiga
community were left dissapointed once again.
The situation as it was was unsatisfactory. The Amiga had three very
good browsers in Voyager, IBrowse and AWeb, , but it wasnt enough. For
while the community was happy with the current choice, it was in every
one's heart that if the Amiga was ever going to regain its rightful
place in computing histroy, it would need to attract new customers,
and it is a sad fact, but a fact nonetheless, that known brands
attract people. We know that even if one of the Amiga browsers became
the best browser ever, the others would remain unconvinced.
The gaming world had already cottoned on, games such as Quake, Myst,
Wipeout 2097, Settlers 2 were begining to show that the Amiga was once
again becoming a viable platform. Now all we needed was some apps. The
promise of Opera was due to satisfy this demand, but inexplicably it
was cancelled. And so, aMozilla was born.
Perhaps the most ambitious project ever seen on Amiga. We plan to
port the worlds greatest web browser to the Amiga, and we fully intend
on making it the best version on any platform. There will be two
developments running concurrently, the 68k Port, and the PPC Port. We
take our heart from K.O.S.H, we aim to nurture the community spirit
into creating a thing of greatness. For while aMozilla is not K.O.S.H,
the principles are similar. We will have in place a structure of
Working Groups and Mailing Lists to create a complete development
environment. We ask for Amiga users worldwide to step forward and take
their seat on the project. As of 1st January, development will begin
on Amiga Netscape. You have been warned.
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S E C U R I T Y F L A W I N M A J O R B R O W S E R S
Wellington, December 23, 1998: Students in New Zealand have
discovered a potentially serious security flaw this week in all major
Web browsers. Oliver Lineham and Arun Stephens, students and part-time
Web developers from Lower Hutt, New Zealand have found a bug with
cookies, a commonly used method of information storage on the Internet
which allows Web pages to display customised information, including
sensitive information such as credit-card numbers.
The bug, dubbed Cookiemonster, allows one server to set a cookie, and
for that cookie to be retrieved by an entirely different unrelated
server. Current and past versions of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Internet
Explorer, Netscape(NASDAQ:NSCP) Navigator and Opera implement cookies
incorrectly, and will allow cookies to be set for .co.nz, for example.
There are implications of this flaw, involving private data being sent
unknowingly to Web sites, increased Internet data costs, slowing down
of Internet connections, and interference with other servers, both
intentional and unintentional.
A possible scenario where interference with other servers is involved
could occur when two British online retailers, A and B, are in
competition. A sets a cookie that causes the cookie-based
shopping-basket and ordering system to malfunction on B's site.Any web
user who has previously been to A's site will find it impossible to
order from B's in the future. This is achieved by setting a .co.uk
cookie with the same name as one used by B.co.uk.
The cookie specification, written by Netscape Communications
Corporation allows cookies to be defined for a particular domain name,
such as company.com, and company.co.nz. The specification also states
that for there must be three dots in the specified domain if the
country, like New Zealand, implements second-level domains, such as
.co.nz. This will mean that a cookie can be set for .company.co.nz,
but not for .co.nz. This bug affects all countries' Web sites that
have second-level domains, including New Zealand, Australia, Britain
and Japan.
A Web page containing information pertaining to the Cookiemonster
exploit, including a working demonstration of the exploit, is
available at http://www.paradise.net.nz/~glineham/cookiemonster.html.
The students believe that this bug poses security risks, and are
surprised that it has been overlooked for so long.
Arun Stephens, a 16 year old seventh form high school student and
Oliver Lineham, a 17 year old computer science student at university,
both run businesses providing Web development and other Internet
related services.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I P R O B E I S O N I T S W A Y
{The following information about the upcoming Amiga web browser
IProbe was taken from the author's web site. We hope he won't be too
upset with us. Brad}
23-Dec-98
Yes it is christmas, and there's no archive to download!
I have my last exams in the middle of january, after this, then I
intend to pick up all the loose ends in the current version of IProbe,
and release that as a preview (presumably early february) A real V1.0
will then follow a few months later, and after that, then work on
"Serious IProbe" will start, which will be the shareware version with
stylesheets etc.
Original statement (22-Aug-98)
Due to my lacking satisfaction with current Amiga browsers, then I've
decided to write my own.
What I disliked most was the lacking speed & features, unfriendly
cachebrowser and of course the stability problems. So you should
expect IProbe to do a lot better in these areas .
The browser is based on HTMLview.mcc, which will soon be released.
However IProbe itself will probably not be released before christmas.
I estimate that it's probably 62% done, which makes it useable, but
not releaseable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A ' 9 9 A S T R O N A U T
NASA Astronaut Steven R. Nagel Will Speak at Amiga 99 Banquet
December 20th, 1998
Amigan-St. Louis is excited to announce NASA's Steve Nagel (Colonel,
USAF Ret.), and NASA Astronaut, Commander of the Space Shuttle, and
100th Astronaut in Space, will be a guest speaker at the Amiga 99
Banquet. Commander Nagel's subject will be "Computers in Space".
Commander Nagel will also highlight some of the Amiga Computers use in
the space program.
Cost of the Banquet is $35, plus an admission ticket to the show.
Banquet tickets must be ordered in advance. No banquet tickets can be
sold at the show, due to the hotel requiring advance notice of the
number of people attending.
Please send a check or money order, in U.S. funds to:
Amigan-St. Louis
c/o Amiga 99 - Tickets
P.O. Box 672
Bridgeton, MO 63044
You may also order Banquet tickets, and Admission tickets by toll
free number. (There is an additional $5 service charge for ordering by
phone.)
Call: 1-800-59-AMIGA (2644) Ask to purchase Amiga 99 tickets.
Although we have more room than last year, seating is limited. Unlike
last year, we will only accommodate the number we can comfortably seat
in the room, so order your tickets early. Don't be left out.
Note: No refunds on tickets.
Amiga 99 Ticket Pricing
Advance At Door
Show floor Admission Two Day $ 17 $ 20
One Day $ 12 $ 15
Banquet Sat. 13th, 7 pm $ 35 N/A
Classes Fri-Sun N/A N/A
Tickets for the three days of classes, March 12 - 14 and the two days
of floor exhibits, March 13 and 14, may also be ordered in advance. A
full class schedule will be posted as the show approaches.
Please see our web site for more information about the Gateway
Computer Show-Amiga 99.
http://www.amiga-stl.com/
Amiga 99 will be held at the Henry VIII Hotel in Bridgeton, MO. (St.
Louis) March 12-14, 1999.
Sincerely,
Bob Scharp
Amigan-St. Louis
bscharp@icon-stl.net
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A N N E X A T A M I G A ' 9 9
PRESS RELEASE:
Amiga 99
January 4th, 1998
Amigan-St. Louis brings you even more excitement for Amiga 99, the
Gateway Computer Show. Attendees to the three day Amiga Computer show
in St. Louis, March 12 - 14 will be treated to the fantastic sounds of
ANNEX.
ANNEX, on their first visit to the U.S. or North America, are coming
specifically to perform on Saturday and Sunday to the loyal Amiga
computer enthusiasts at Amiga 99.
This is the singing group that recorded the Amiga theme song, "Back
for the Future". Having performed at Cologne's Computer 98 show, and
earlier at London's Amiga show, we are very pleased to be able to
bring you this special event. Many thanks to Amiga International for
their help in making this unprecedented event possible.
ANNEX's newest music CD along with their original Amiga music CD will
be available at the Amigan-St. Louis booth both Saturday March 13, and
Sunday March 14. You can also purchase these CD's by mail from
Amigan-St. Louis. Send a check or money order, in U.S. funds, for $10
per CD, and $4 shipping (U.S.) to:
Amigan-St. Louis
c/o CDs
P.O. Box 672
Bridgeton, MO 63044
Attend Amiga 99 and meet the ANNEX singing group in person. Amiga 99 is bringing you more excitement than any Amiga show in years! Stay tuned for all the latest news, events, exhibitors, and happenings at Amiga 99 by watching our web site.
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A I R F A R E S A L E A N D A M I G A ' 9 9
6 Jan 1999
From Bob Scharp:
Hello,
I wanted to get this out immediately. I was just informed
by Best Way Travel, our official Travel Agency, that
there is a big airfare sale with TWA. About half off
the regular price plus our 5% special. Alot of cities
are affected.
Call Best Way Travel to get these special rates at:
1-800-325-4942 or 314-291-0110
These rates will only last a few days, so don't wait.
If you get this message and you live locally, it's
because it is so important to some folks, that I
hope you will pass the word.
BTW...if you haven't checked out the news section of
our web site lately, do so. We just put up a great
contest for programming and drawing, plus information
about some special guests coming from Germany and
Houston.
Regards,
Bob
---------------------------------------------------------
Bob Scharp, bscharp@icon-stl.net
web page: www.amiga-stl.com
Amigan-St. Louis
P.O. Box 672
Bridgeton, MO 63044 The Smile's back, because
U.S.A. the Amiga is back! :)
---------------------------------------------------------
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M I D W I N T E R ' 9 9 , A P A R T Y I N S W E D E N
22-Dec-98
Midwinter 99
Northern Sweden's largest computer event 1999?
ACG is arranging a demo party on January 29-31 1999 in Umeå, Sweden
ACG is a computer user group focusing on Amiga, but is also active in
the fields of everything from PC(win95) to UNIX. We have several
groups throughout the country, and among many other things we have
arranged about 10 "demo parties". The parties have been very
succesful, both from our point of view as well as the visitors'. We
have had around 150 participants from all of Sweden, although
primarily the north of Sweden. The platforms present vary, with
everything from Amiga to Windows 98.
A "demo party" is an event, usually held at a school or gymnastics
hall, where computers and owners gather gather, exchange experiences
and develop their creativity. Demo parties usually take place during a
weekend with no interruptions.
Midwinter 99 will be held at the Noliahallarna, northern Sweden's
largest fair halls, located in Umeå. We anticipate around 500
visitors, divided on two halls; one for games and multimedia and one
for "creativity" featuring a stage where guest companies/speakers will
hold seminars. The hallway between the two halls will feature sales
booths for guest companies.
Midwinter 99 is intended both for the regular home computer user as
well as the more advanced and creative such. Creativity is stimulated
by the competitions in music, graphics, programming and demo which
will be held. For less creative people, we will have competitions in
several well-known games.
Midwinter 99 is something that hasn't existed in northern Sweden
before. A creative computer event which offers the companies in
northern Sweden a unique opportunity to meet their customers in a nice
and inspiring environment, an environment where computers and their
owners are put in focus.
(http://www.amiga-cg.se)
(http://hack.amiga-cg.se/midwinter)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A A A A W A R D S S E E K N O M I N E E S
AAA Awards Open for Nominees
The AAA Awards Are Back - Time To Suggest!
For Immediate Release
Umeå, Sweden - Friday, December 18, 1998.
The AAA Awards are back - better than ever! Featuring new national
awards in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom, it's now time to give
us YOUR opinion at http://www.aaa-awards.org/suggest.html !
The Categories
These are this year's categories, which we are happy to receive YOUR
suggestions for! For new categories, we've given a brief account of
the user group responsible.
"The awards should go to he/she/that/those which/who has/have done
the greatest achievement in contributing to the upkeeping of AMIGA®
values during the past year."
AAA Award International
AAA Award Belgium - NEW!
Waaslandia Amiga-Only Club
Waaslandia Amiga-Only Club is the oldest Amiga user group in Belgium,
and also the biggest one at the moment. Waaslandia has organised two
Amiga shows in 1998: ComputerShow 98 and InfoMedia '98. We are
planning other Amiga fairs in the future. Together with the AAA Awards
team we have decided to organise the next Belgian AAA Awards. We hope
to receive a positive reaction from the Belgian Amiga people.
AAA Award Spain - NEW!
Amiga Users Club of Spain
The "Amiga Users Club of Spain" is a non-profit organization for
promoting Amiga computing and helping Spanish speaking Amiga users.
The club is trying to accomplish it's goals by organizing gatherings
("Radykal Party") and publishing a magazine in Spanish ("Amiga
Channel"), and another in English ("AmiChannel News").
AAA Award Sweden
AAA Award UK - NEW!
AmigaSoc
AmigaSoc are the official UGN representatives for the UK and provide
a range of on-line services for helping people to track down their
local user group or finding people suitable for the creation of new
groups. We also provide an Amiga dealer locator and a free on-line
classifieds section. We provide a free on-line advice service for UK
Amigans. We organised the 1997 WOA Hammersmith Developers' Conference
and all the seminars for the 1998 WOA Hammersmith show.
Get your suggestions to us at
http://www.aaa-awards.org/suggest.html
+46-90-71 00 20 (open 24 hrs)
The next Amiga Format will also include a mail-in form which you can
use!
Closing date: February 10, 1999.
Contact Information
AAA Award International - The AAA Awards Committee
http://www.aaa-awards.org
info@aaa-awards.org
AAA Award Belgium - Waaslandia Amiga-Only Club
http://titan.glo.be/~waasland
waasland@glo.be
AAA Award Spain - Amiga Users Club of Spain
http://www.saug.org
angel@saug.org
AAA Award Sweden - Amiga Computer Group
http://www.amiga-cg.se
info@amiga-cg.se
AAA Award UK - AmigaSoc
http://uk.amigasoc.org
andrew@uk.amigasoc.org
Acknowledgements
The AAA Awards is copyright © 1997-98 Amiga Computer Group. The AAA
Awards logo is copyright © 1997 Amiga Computer Group and Björn
Hagström. The national and international AAA Awards are copyright ©
1997-98 Amiga Computer Group. AMIGA® is a registered trademark of
AMIGA International, Inc. / Gateway, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
K I C K S T A R T S H O W # 2
Second Kickstart Amiga Show Announced
After the phenomenal success of their previous sale, the Kickstart
User Group, based in Ottershaw, Surrey have announced the date for
their second Kickstart Amiga Show.
The Place: Brook Hall, Brox Road, Ottershaw in Surrey
The Date: Saturday February 27th 1999
The Time: 1pm-5pm
Admission fee: £1
Amiga International are officially supporting this year's show, and
Petro Tyschtschenko has kindly donated a complete A1200 Magic Pack
along with an assortment of Amiga goodies (stickers, badges, mice,
mouse mats etc.) all of which will be given away to show goers
throughout the day.
The show will consist of a sale of Amiga hardware and software, games
competitions throughout the day, demonstrations of Amiga applications
and new hardware and the opportunity to join the Kickstart User Group.
In all it's a great day out where you can have fun, get help with your
Amiga problems and meet other Amiga users.
What's on at the show:
The second Kickstart Show will be bursting with even more Amiga
activities than last year, showing both Amiga owners and their friends
exactly what Amiga can REALLY do:
Stands: 18 stands selling new and second-user Amiga software and
hardware. Refreshments will also be on sale and a Kickstart membership
stand will also be on hand to answer questions and handle membership
enquiries from show-goers.
Competitions: Amiga International are supporting the show by offering
a complete A1200 Magic Pack (worth #200) for the grand draw, which
each show-goer is automatically entered into. There will also be
various Amiga give-aways throughout the day and great prizes for the
various gaming contests planned.
Games: Three gaming competitions are planned: A multiplayer Doom
tournament (with as many as five simultaneous players in each game), A
Sensible Soccer tournament and a Skidmarks contest (with as many as
eight simultaneous players in each game).
Demonstrations: Kickstart members will be on hand to demonstrate
various applications, such as Mac emulation under Fusion, PC Emulation
under PCX and Amiga emulation using Amiga Forever. Also on show will
be new hardware innovations, such as the AteoBus busboard and Pixel64
graphics card and various A1200 & A600 tower conversions.
Magazine launch: Being unveiled at the Kickstart Show will be the
first issue of the new monthly Kickstart magazine Amiga Insight. This
magazine, produced totally by club members on Amiga hardware, will
have a monthly mix of news, product reviews, tutorials and informed
debate about the latest Amiga topics - indeed everything from the fate
of OS3.5 to why 880K floppy disks should be killed off!
For show enquiries and stand bookings, please contact Rob Gilbert
(Secretary).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A U N I V E R S E ( T H E O T H E R A U )
31 Dec 1998
Friday. Jan One. The year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and
ninety nine. It happens.
We've arrived
Amiga Universe - your source of news and information. Your source of
views, reviews and help. Your source of all things Amiga!
AU gives you more!
Amiga Universe give you more news, with our as-it-happens updates.
Find out about the latest happenings straight away, not a week later.
We give you more views, with our columnists writing for your pleasure
each and every month. We invite guest contributions, such as hardware
and software reviews and previews. We invite you to speak out with a
guest column, or to join our mailing list where we discuss all and
sundry involving the Amiga world, with luminaries such as Gary Peake
and Petro Tyschtschenko. Come and talk to other AU fans in real time
on the AU IRC channel. Learn about the Amiga with our features and
tutorials. AU give you all this, and we can give you more!
AU gives you less!
Less hype, less vapour, less bull. We get news from the top bods in
the Amiga world, if they say something it's likely to go!
AU gives you a voice!
Our mailing list and IRC channel give you a voice in the Amiga world.
We actively involve our members in AU events, such as the 1998 Awards.
You don't have to be on our list to contribute! Send us your points of
view, reviews and news, and we can guarantee, if it's Amiga, it'll be
published! You'll never get a better oppurtunity to make yourself
heard!
Help us help you
Any comments about the site are welcome. Praise, constructive
criticism, suggestions, offers of domain names (bwa ha ha) we want it
all. Just mail us at comments@amigauni.u-net.com and let us know what
your opinion is!
Best Regards
Peter Price (Agima) http://www.amigauni.u-net.com/
Maintainer, Amiga Universe Coming soon - AU99. Jan One - be ready
We are all KOSH - http://www.kosh.net
Member of the AmiBench team and Team AMIGA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A U N I V E R S E A W A R D S A N N O U N C E D
{Please note: AU in this article always refers to Amiga Universe, not
"Amiga Update". Brad}
1st January 1999
Victory!
Awards handed out as voting close for AU Awards '98
At the end of 1998, Amiga Universe held an open ended vote on various
categories in the Amiga world. Many votes were recieved, and here are
the results :
Amiga Game of 1998 - Quake
Under the stipulation that the game must already be out, six
different games were voted for. Foundation took an early lead, in the
face of opposition from ADoom, Genetic Species, Shadow of the Third
Moon and Myst. However, Quake made a late charge to come from nowhere
and claim the award.
Amiga Application of 1998 (Non-commercial) - YAM v2
Fighting with Voyager, ScalOS and FBlit, amongst others, Marcel
Beck's brilliant e-mail package won through, but only just.The
question is, would it have won more votes if the program was complete?
A great victory for Marcel, who was happy to win the award.
Amiga Application of 1998 (Commercial) - NetConnect 2
The complete Internet connection package, seemingly the foundation on
which a surprising number of internet users have connected with,
scooped the commercial award, fighting off ImageFX, Tornado 3D and
both big word processors from Digita and Softwood, amongst others.
Amiga Developer(s) of 1998 - Vaporware + Haage & Partner
For their excellent range of Internet applications, Oliver Wagner and
the team saw off competition from people and teams such as Holger
Kruse, Alien Design and Shareware App winner Marcel Beck. They
couldn't fight off Haage & Partner, who equalled them, making the
developer award a split.
Amiga Hardware of 1998 - PowerPC cards
This could so easily have been won by the BlizzardVisionPPC, but of
course this wasn't available at voting time. As it stands, Phase5
still romped home leaving the Power Tower, Ariadne II and
Pixel64eating their dust. The PowerPC card range scored the biggest
win, with five times more votes than anything else in the category.
Amiga Show of 1998 - World of Amiga
Best known this year as the place where AI made either the "big
announcement" or the "big mistake" depending on which way you view it.
It fought off competition from two other shows, Computer98 in Cologne,
and Amiwest, from our friends in the US of A.
Amiga Personality of 1998 - Fleecy Moss
Former Amiga Inc. employee Fleecy stuck two fingers up at his former
employers when the community proved his popularity by walking away
with twice as many votes as people like Petro Tyschtschenko, Andrew
Korn and Carl Sassenrath. Now leading the K.O.S.H. project, and a
columnist on our site, it was the best start to the new year.
Amiga Wooden Spoon (Biggest mistake) of 1998 - Amiga Inc
Joe Torre - gone. Fleecy Moss - gone. The hopes of 90% of the Amiga
community - gone with them. EMAP Images (former publishers of the
much-missed CU Amiga) fought them all the way, but in the end AI won
through for the way they have destroyed the dreams of a large
proportion of the community. Digital Corruption also got a vote,
probably for much the same thing.
Amiga Website of 1998 - Amiga Web Directory
Other sites voted for included Amiga Universe (wahay!), AmiBench and
Amiga.org. In the end, a confused Kevin "where was this vote?" Hisel
accepted the award on the behalf of the Web Directory.
Amiga Achievement of 1998 - Chris Wiles + the Amiga community
Chris became the only person to win two awards, coupling this with
his win in the commercial app. category. His hard work and dedication
in finally getting Netconnect 2 out on the streets. He shares this
award with the whole community, who people voted for based on our own
dedication to the Amiga. Chris and ourselves had to fight off such
nominees as Gary Peake and personality winner Fleecy Moss.This ones
for the community. Stick it on your site, we've all won this award
purely for being here.
Amiga Lifetime Achievement Award of 1998 - Petro Tyschtschenko
This wasn't an open voted award, there was only ever going to be one
winner.An emotional Petro was overjoyed to find the award in his
e-mail, calling it "one of the best presents ever". The staying power
he has shown when he could have gone to greener pastures is just one
of the many ways he has proven his dedication to this Amiga community.
We shouldn't slate him for selling watches, we should thank him for
staying around and helping keep the flag flying. Without Petro's
dedication, enthusiasm and hard work, the flag would have been down
long ago.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A N E T W O R K N E W S I S 2
28 December, 1998
"a filtering service on the Amiga Usenet newsgroups - all
interesting posts are summarised here, along with links to local
copies of the full article"
Message of the day
ANN is two years old! Today, on 28-Dec-98, ANN celebrated its second
birthday.I spent the entire afternoon writing down a look back at what
happened on ANN during the last twelve months. For a "behind the
scenes" report, for a text on what to expect of the future, for an
insight of how ANN is created, for visitor statistics and various
numbers, please take a look at [http://www.ann.lu/misc/about2.html]
ANN's 2nd birthdaytext.Experimental forum: The experimental forum has
been updated to v0.3. Please take a look at [http://yweb.net/ann/]
yweb.net/ann/ and let me know what you think.
Christian Kemp
----------------------------------------------------------------------
N O R W E G I A N S , T A K E N O T E . . .
6 Jan 99 1
*To norwegian Amiga users*
Come on, visit #amigano at Ircnet! The channel has quite a few
regulars, but there should be far more people visiting the channel.
The channel has got a homepage at http://come.to/amigano/, though
it's not been updated for a while and doesn't really offer a lot at
the moment. Looks nice, though.
If you haven't tried IRC yet, download the AmIRC demo from
www.vapor.com and configure it to use one of these servers:
irc.ludd.luth.se
irc.cd.chalmers.se
Connect, write
/join #amigano
in the channel window and you are ready to go. :)
Good luck!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A W A T C H C O M M U N I Q U E # 2
January 04, 1999
Amiga Watch Communique 2 is posted (fwd)
From McLellan Wyatt:
Hello Everyone,
Tech Head Stories, the electronic journal of narrativity and
technology presents Amiga Watch, an ongoing series of commentary and
analysis of the Amiga Scene. The second Communique, More Than Just
Another Pretty Face has just been posted. It examines the implications
of a new GUI for the operating system in the context Amiga identity
and digital video editing. Set your browser to
http://tech-head.com/amiga2.htm
Be seeing you,
Roger Wyatt
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A A A A W A R D S A R E B A C K
The AAA Awards Are Back - Time To Suggest!
Umeå, Sweden - Friday, December 18, 1998.
The AAA Awards are back - better than ever! Featuring new national
awards in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom, it's now time to give
us YOUR opinion at http://www.aaa-awards.org/suggest.html !
The Categories
These are this year's categories, which we are happy to receive YOUR
suggestions for! For new categories, we've given a brief account of
the user group responsible.
"The awards should go to he/she/that/those which/who has/have done
the greatest achievement in contributing to the upkeeping of AMIGA®
values during the past year."
AAA Award International
AAA Award Belgium - NEW!
Waaslandia Amiga-Only Club
Waaslandia Amiga-Only Club is the oldest Amiga user group in Belgium,
and also the biggest one at the moment. Waaslandia has organised two
Amiga shows in 1998: ComputerShow 98 and InfoMedia '98. We are
planning other Amiga fairs in the future. Together with the AAA Awards
team we have decided to organise the next Belgian AAA Awards. We hope
to receive a positive reaction from the Belgian Amiga people.
AAA Award Spain - NEW!
Amiga Users Club of Spain
The "Amiga Users Club of Spain" is a non-profit organization for
promoting Amiga computing and helping Spanish speaking Amiga users.
The club is trying to accomplish it's goals by organizing gatherings
("Radykal Party") and publishing a magazine in Spanish ("Amiga
Channel"), and another in English ("AmiChannel News").
AAA Award Sweden
AAA Award UK - NEW!
AmigaSoc
AmigaSoc are the official UGN representatives for the UK and provide
a range of on-line services for helping people to track down their
local user group or finding people suitable for the creation of new
groups. We also provide an Amiga dealer locator and a free on-line
classifieds section. We provide a free on-line advice service for UK
Amigans. We organised the 1997 WOA Hammersmith Developers' Conference
and all the seminars for the 1998 WOA Hammersmith show.
Get your suggestions to us at
http://www.aaa-awards.org/suggest.html
+46-90-71 00 20 (open 24 hrs)
The next Amiga Format will also include a mail-in form which you can
use!
Closing date: February 10, 1999.
Contact Information
AAA Award International - The AAA Awards Committee
http://www.aaa-awards.org
info@aaa-awards.org
AAA Award Belgium - Waaslandia Amiga-Only Club
http://titan.glo.be/~waasland
waasland@glo.be
AAA Award Spain - Amiga Users Club of Spain
http://www.saug.org
angel@saug.org
AAA Award Sweden - Amiga Computer Group
http://www.amiga-cg.se
info@amiga-cg.se
AAA Award UK - AmigaSoc
http://uk.amigasoc.org
andrew@uk.amigasoc.org
Acknowledgements
The AAA Awards is copyright © 1997-98 Amiga Computer Group. The AAA
Awards logo is copyright © 1997 Amiga Computer Group and Björn
Hagström. The national and international AAA Awards are copyright ©
1997-98 Amiga Computer Group. AMIGA® is a registered trademark of
AMIGA International, Inc. / Gateway, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
U G N N E W S L E T T E R E X C H A N G E
22 Dec 1998
Hi there,
It's been some time now since we first brought up the Newsletter
Artcile Exchange, which was of course the most requested thing for the
UGN to do. Thing is, we've had little feedback or even submissions to
it over this time, so Im asking for everyone out there to go to the
UGN's homepage, read up on the NAE, and see what you can do.
If you're the editor for your local Amiga User Group mag, then why
not post us some of your articles and let the whole world see it. If
you're not, but you feel you can write a good article, well... why not
:)
More details can be found at http://ugn.amiga.org, and the actual
files for the NAE can be found at ftp.amiga.org/ugn/newsletters/.
Please help us make this project a sucess :)
Wayne A. Martin - Amiga User Group Network.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
W I L L M A K E 3 D A D D O N F O R P I C A S S O I V
23December, 1998
From Village Tronic
After the survey about the 3Dfx add-on module for the PicassoIV ended
on 20th December 98 we want to tell the Amiga community the results of
the survey before christmas as a little present. As our Amiga
department expected we received over 520 preorders and 687 interests
until today.
This gives us the needed feedback and support we need to develop such
a product.
So you can expect that the 3dfx Add-on modul will be released next
year.
More information and technicals guides will follow in January.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T O R N A D O 3 D U P D A T E N E W S
Tornado3D
Between January & February 1999 Eyelight will release the following
products:
Tornado3D v2.1
another free upgrade bringing seweral new features and bug fixes
Tornado3D PowerPack
a jam packed CD with over 300 MB of objects, maps, projects and
animations with an easy HTML navigator
Tornado3D v2.1 Manual
the new, expanded and improved manual, both in freely downloadable
HTML format and printed as part of an update pack that includes
Tornado3D v2.1 and the PowerPack
Tornado3D v2.0 SE
a manual-less, introductory, version of Tornado3D that will bring
basic 3D capabilities in the $99 price range
Tornado3D v3.0 will be ready by April 1999.
Prelimitary features of v3.0:
* Clothes and strings, for soft object animation.
* Mannequins, male, female and alien characters, fully changeable
with simple evolutionistic parameters to create an infinite number of
life forms already boned and ready for animation
* "Footed Full Time" Inverse Kinematics for effortless character
animation.
* MeshMapping
* Flocks and Herds, full featured mass-animation of semi-intelligent
groups of objects that fly, navigate or swarm, avoiding obstacles and
interacting among themselves
* Nurb Sculptors
* 3D sound tracing, mikes and loudspeakers allow to play sounds and
record them with full spatial information and effects such as echo and
distance fades
* Sound and lip sync, allows to define morph targets to simulate
lip-sync and to tie sound effects to the actions, like for example
footsteps or sword clanging
* RadMapping, another powerful cubic mapping technology that allows
to simulate the effect of Radiosity at high speed
* Multi monitor capabilities
* Project scheduler, to manage and render several projects at once,
also over network of different machines
* 2D shaper, full "traditional" 2D modeler, with adaptive Bezier
curves, tracing capabilities and lofting
* Internal virtual memory support cuts in half rendering memory
requirements with minimal speed loss
* Render engines, freely redistributable render engines for variety
of platforms
* Faster PPC rendering, with full custom math library
* SmartApt, auto-detection and optimization of the code for the
processor found
* Even faster CybervisionPPC (Permedia 2) support
* Customers of Tornado3D v2.0 full edition will be able to download
for free Tornado3D v3.0 from Eyelight`s web site.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E X P A N D E D I M A G I N E S U P P O R T
CAD-Technologies and Impulse Announce Expanded Imagine Support
January 02, 1999
We are pleased to announce that we have entered into an agreement
that will see CAD-Technologies provide an Imagine for Amiga support
WEB site, and also become the official worldwide distributor(*) for
Imagine on the Amiga platform.
(*) - Except North/South America & Japan, where Impulse still handles
distribution.
----------
Amiga Imagine users will benefit from having a dedicated official
support area; Latest news, product information, downloads, tutorials,
ordering information etc, is available at:
http://www.cadtech.demon.co.uk/
We would also like to take this opportunity to inform that Imagine
for the Amiga is still in active development. The Constant Upgrade
Program is underway, as we work towards the new Version6 release.
(V5.14 is the current version)
Members of the C.U.P. have benefited with additions being implemented
to date including (but not limited to):
PowerPC support,
Updated GUI,
Optimized procedural textures for 68040 & 68060 CPU's,
Imagine executable rendering and editing enhancements,
Standard filerequesters,
External picture & animation viewer support with
preview quickrenders in upto 24Bit,
...etc.
Further details are available on the support site.
Many suggestions from users on the Imagine mailing list have already
been implemented, with more to come in future update releases.
The costs for Imagine updates are as follows: Version5 to Version6
upgrade = $100 Any other Imagine version to V6 = $200 Cross-grade from
other 3D software = $please ask
Payment can be accepted with either Credit card, Cash, Cheque, or
Postal order.
Full ordering information is available on the support site.
We're very happy that this new agreement has been reached between us.
The partnership will allow us to bring the very best tools to you, the
artists who appreciate the tools we make.
Imagine for Amiga support site:
http://www.cadtech.demon.co.uk/
Questions or comments can be emailed to: sales@cadtech.demon.co.uk
Impulse (America & Japan distribution)
http://www.coolfun.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Y O U R P H O N E A S A N A M I G A O R . . .
Newsitem about Amiga Handycover
After the big success with Airbrushcovers in different designs and
also limited series, was now developed a special Amiga-design by
Airbrush Paradise Tingler. The decision for Amiga is due to the fact,
the users of Amiga-computers identify themselves especially with their
systems and they also have announced big interest for this product.
All handycovers are originally handmade (airbrushdesigned) and so
surely unique. Because of quality only original products were worked
up. This products very often becomes to favourite collector-objects.
Up from January are at first the Nokia products available, further
products are already planned and will be following. You will find
informations about this product under
http://www.airbrush-design.com
A simply possibility to order exists. The Price depends on the
ordered model between DM 129 - DM 159
If You don't have Internet, ask Airbrush Paradise Tingler from
Rottweil
Phone: 049 (0) 741-15194
----------------------------------------------------------------------
. . . Y O U R A M I G A A S A P H O N E
X-Phone Telephone Software Information
Apocalypse Software
Now to the facts. And they are uncontradicted:
* the program is called X-Phone
* the graphical user interface is based on MUI (MagicUserInterface)
* It masters all standard-functions of a telephone with answering
machine
* In addition, many special ISDN functions are useable via VMC-ISDN:
* CLIP/CLIR (Calling Line Identification Presentation/Restriction)
* Hold/Retrieve
* Suspend/Resume
* 3 Party Conference/Arcofi Conference
* Likewise there are many functions you vain look for in a normal
telephone (also ISDN):
* individual MSN configuration
* a phonebook with many options
* different adjustable and programmable ringer for MSNs and callers
* muting with and without music (A/µ-Law/external) for the caller
* freely programmable answering machine with background music,
announcement music for the caller during recording, sound files freely
mixable
* voice mailbox controllable via ARexx
* capture of conversations while simultaneous speaking
* playing announcements, music etc. during the running conversation
* encoded transfer/scramble
* show a picture of the interlocutor
* Besides many, many other trifles.
Here an example out of the preferences:
Arcofi preferences for microphone and speaker (seperately
configurable for handset and free hand usage of course)
Beside this you can select the mute type here: Normal mute, musik or
external musik from XIN.
In addition, a selection of loud hearing and mute is configurable
here.
The end does the protocol selector: You can select between A-Law or
µ-Law.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I N T E R N A L A 1 2 0 0 F L I C K E R F I X E R
MicroniK News
30 December, 1998
We wish all our clients and partners a Happy New Year.
Brand new:
Scandy Flicker-Fixer for internal A1200 Up to now available is the
newScandy Flicker-Fixer for theAmiga 1200 with the original Desktop
case and 1200 Tower. With the Scandy Flicker-Fixerby MicroniKS(VGA)-
or Multisync - monitor can easily be connected to the Amiga 1200. The
15.6 kHz signal of the Amiga is doubled to 31 kHz.
The big advantage:
You can also use the certain monitors of the pc-area. As a unique
feature the Scandy Flicker-Fixer "deflicker" the high-resulotion Amiga
Screen-Mods. The infamous "Interlace-flicker" belongs to the past.
Scandy Flicker-Fixer will be directly connected with the main board
of the A1200 and can be used in the Plug´n´Play way directly after
installing. No solder or Software-Driver are necessary. For connection
of a S(VGA) -or Multiscan-monitor the Scandy Flicker-Fixer offers a
15-pin VGA connector, which can be fastened at the A1200 or the Tower.
Price: 195,-DM
----------------------------------------------------------------------
N E W F O R Y O U R T O A S T E R
05 Jan 1999
*NEW PRODUCT* Toaster Wipes & Effects CD by Alternate Video
Alternate Video - Toaster Wipes and Effects Vol. 1 No. 1
First of a series of NEW EFFECTS DISKS
For Toaster 4000 4.X and 3.X
Features:
85 + Matte and Regular Wipes. Many animated
30 + color wipes - some also animated
50 + brushes - includes brushes of the artwork from the color wipes.
35+ backgrounds
30 toaster fonts (includes PS Fonts)
2 toaster utilities
Cost is $50.00 US or $75.00 Can
*NEW PRODUCT* Toaster Wedding Wipes & Effects CD by Alternate Video
Features:
80 + Matte and Regular Wipes. Many animated
240 + color wipes - some also animated
50 + brushes - includes brushes of the artwork from the color wipes.
60+ backgrounds
This CD is a comprehensive collection of wipes, effects, and
backgrounds dedicated to weddings. The wipes cover the full range of
wedding events - cutting the cake, arrivals, bouquet toss, toasts, and
bride&groom. there is a large collection of flower wipes and fancy bar
wipes for almost any circumstance. The power of this collection is
that you have choices in not only the color of some of the wipes (long
stem rose comes in 4 different flower colors) but you also have a
choice of either white or black people (the first disk to offer this
option). This CD will give your productions a whole new look. More
wipes and effects will follow in 6-8 months.
Cost is $90.00 US or $140.00 Can
we accept VISA,certified cheque, money order
Videolink Inc.
-Official Newtek Center for Canada
==
Bruce Richardson
President
Email: brich@videolink.ca
Videolink Inc.
53 Lucy Ave.
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M1L 1A1
Web: http://www.videolink.ca
Long Distance
(Canada only): 1-800-567-8481
Local: 1-416-690-1690
Fax: 1-416-690-0136
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I D D P O R T M O N I T O R S O F T W A R E
23 Dec 1998
** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE **
IDD announces the release of the IDD Port Monitor software. With this
software and an Amiga computer, you can wire sensors from doors,
windows, or anything else to your computer. The software runs in the
background, scanning the sensors and reporting its readings. The
software runs on ANY Amiga computer (AmigaDOS 1.3, 2.x, 3.x).
You can use any of the sensors sold in electronics and home security
shops that are designed for wired security systems. These include reed
switches for door and windows starting at around a dollar each. You
can also use vibration and glass breakage detectors, or even infrared
and ultrasound sensors to detect motion in an area. In fact, you can
use digital keypads and lock & key switches to activate or disable the
the system remotely. You can find all of these devices at electronics
and security shops, including Radio Shack.
You connect the sensors to the computer through the joystick
controller ports. This leaves your serial and parallel ports free for
your modem and printer. Note that no hardware is included with the
Port Monitor, it is up to you wire an interface to your sensors. This
isn't hard to do, and the documentation tells you everything you need
to know.
Using the included configuration program, you can tell the software
to respond to a sensor by playing a sound file, speaking with the
Amiga's voice, recording the event to disk, sending output to your
printer, dialing a phone number with your modem, sending an ARexx
command, and more.
You can use the IDD Port Monitor as a home security system, or use it
just for the fun of having your computer respond when someone opens a
door or walks into a room. The software allows you to choose to have
it respond differently at different times of day. It also reports the
time of sensor events with accuracy of one hundreth of a second,
making it suitable for scientific measurement.
The IDD Port Monitor is now shipping and sells for $34.95 and is
currently only available directly from IDD. For more information see
our web page at <http://www.pobox.com/~idd>.
IDD Software
209 Brom Bones Lane, Longwood, FL 32608
<idd@pobox.com>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
O L O F I G H T I S R E A D Y - A R E Y O U ?
6 Jan 99
PRESS RELEASE
OloFight is finished! Official release of this outstanding title was
at Computer '98 show(Cologne) and then available from all good Amiga
dealers around the world!
OloFight is a beat'em up game which introduces many innovations over
similar existing Amiga titles. It's produced in Italy by a new software
house, The Real Ologram.
FEATURES:
- 10 different fighters with more than 400 animation frames each
- 25fps animations
- 10 special moves for each of the fighters
- power-ups to strenghten fighters and 'buy' 4 special moves of
varying power (out of the ten available for each player), whose
control is easier than in other similar titles
- realistic collision detection: the more precise your moves are, the
more harm they will cause!
- more than 3000 (three thousand!) colours on screen at the same time
on any AGA Amiga
- objects moving on different parallax layers, behind/in front of
fighters
- floor with 3D perspective motion!
- background music adapting itself to the game events
- 100% rendered graphics
- animated backgrounds
- shadow effect reflecting fighters' movements
- multilingual support
- many playing modes (story, survival, time attack, one-on-one, etc.)
It will also handle high-scores for each of the modes through our web
server, thus allowing you to rival with other players all over the
world!
In OloFight's world, every match increases the players' experience,
according to the difficulty of the match itself. As a character gets
more experience, both his skills and his special moves get stronger.
On top of that, new special moves are discovered. A more powerful
fighter means a higher score and consequently higher position in the
various ranks, including the general ones which are managed by our web
server, thus making you compete with other users worldwide.
REQUIREMENTS:
The game is available on floppy disks and CD, runs on any AGA-based
Amiga with at least 0.7Mb ChipRAM and 1.8Mb FastRAM. If you own the
floppy version or if you want to install it from the CD, 10Mbytes of
HD space are required.
A patch for Gfx board will come soon!
RECOMMENDED:
MC68030+, extra RAM, CD-Drive 4X (if played from the CD drive).
WHERE TO GET IT:
The game can be bought from us and from all Amiga dealers.
The most convenient method of placing an order is to use our
electronic order form located at http://www.ologram.com/order.html.
You can also send an E-Mail to sales@ologram.com or a FAX including
your address (the phone number is required!), the payment method and
what version you want to buy (floppy or CD).
A demo is available on our web site at http://www.ologram.com
and on Aminet (dir game/demo).
The Real Ologram di Fabrizio Stoduto
via Epitaffio,100 P.co Nuovo Mondo lotto M
80014 Giugliano (NA) - ITALY -
Fax +39-081-5514711, +39-081-5068334
ologram@ologram.com http://www.ologram.com
Visit our web site.
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Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
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Copyright 1998 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E
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