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Amiga Update (2000-05-06)
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors-
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional e-mail
"SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW" || News Source)
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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000506
A M I G A / C O R E L A W I N N E R
A M I G A A N D J A V A
A M I G A L I S T S C O M M U N I T Y P A R T N E R S
A M I G A M E E T I N G 2 K R E P O R T F R O M L O D Z
K I C K S T A R T S H O W I S G E T T I N G C L O S E
A M I W E S T N O T I C E
A N T I G R A V I T Y O P E N L E T T E R T O C O S A
A N T I G R A V I T Y G E T S B O X E R
A M I G A J O B S S E R V I C E B E G I N S
S T A R G A T E I S N O W F R E E W A R E
H Y P E R I O N ' S S C H E D U L E
F X P A I N T S E C O N D U P D A T E D O N E
V A P O R W A R E ' S M E T A L W E B U P D A T E D
T E C H N O D A T A B A S E O O A V A I L A B L E
R E L E A S E O F V O Y A G E R 3 . 2 +
3 R D P L A N E T L A U N C H E S M A S T E R B A N K
M U S H R O O M T E M P O R A R I L Y U N A V A I L A B L E
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Those of you who prowl the net regularly have probably already
discovered "Amiga World". For those who haven't, let me suggest you
take a look. "Amiga World" is the new web-based publication for
Amigans from Amiga itself. It's available on the Amiga web site at
www.amiga.com. As you wander through its pages, you may see some
familiar names. The publication is managed by Fletcher Haug, of "Amiga
Informer" fame, and many of the contributers to "Amiga World" came
from "Amiga Informer", including guess who? We hope to make "Amiga
World" a premier publication for the Amiga community at large.
Speaking of publications, things have taken a strange but not
necessarily bad-as-it-could-be turn in England. The following
statement was recently posted on the Czech Amiga News site:
"2.5.2k Biggest Free Amiga games magazine
David Connolly: "Following on from CS&E's successful takeover of
Amiga Survivor magazine, I am pleased to announce that A1200! magazine
has not disappeared completely! Obviously people who have paid good
money for our new magazine will now get Amiga Survivor, but every
month CS&E will, in addition, produce A1200! magazine which will be
sent out free to anyone that requests it (you can e-mail
interactive@csande.com). Without an audited figure some companies may
feel they can get away with the equivalent of me saying we print
500,000 copies so whilst in fact the actual print figure will be
around the 15,000 mark I will invest in an audited free circulation
figure so legitimate companies can advertise with a legitimate
audience. A1200! magazine is already confirmed as the biggest selling
Amiga magazine in the UK due to our mailing list."
David Connolly, CS&E"
Not just publications are in the news, as you will see when you read
through this issue. As always, we hope you enjoy it.
Brad Webb,
Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor:
A reader writes:
11 Apr 2000
Brad,
Last month's Wired had an article on "obsolete" computers, mentioning
Commodore 64 and Amigas, at least in passing; not very interesting,
actually.
This month's Linux Journal has a couple of brief mentions of Amiga,
about the attempts to resurrect it; the writer Jason Kroll was pretty
complimentary, even tweaked the Linux community for _still_ having
nothing like the Toaster.
Greg
AU Answers:
Hi Greg,
I suppose we should be grateful for any mention of the Amiga in the
press, though I've noticed some of those writing about the Amiga
lately don't have a clue what's going on. Thanks for pointing out
these articles for us.
Brad
-------------
A reader writes:
10 Apr 2000
> Did Joe Torre really sleep in the lobby Saturday night? Boing shoes
and all?
Absolutely not! We party'ed like the first day home with a new Amiga.
We laughed our a***s off telling stories and spreading and stomping
rumors. I was the last man to leave, the very last location at 7:30AM
I'm prowd to say!
I missed my early AM plane home, and so I'm pretty sure I was just
meditating about what a great show it was...
JoeT
AU Answers:
Hi Joe,
Just had to run this note from Joe Torre in response to our comment
about him in the last issue. That party line is one of the best I've
read in a long time.
Live long and prosper, Joe. Keep the faith and the shoes ...
Brad
-------------
A reader writes:
30 Apr 2000
Dear Brad Webb
It is really an interesting approach that Amiga Inc has come up with
and I support their ideas very much. But because the new AmiVerse is
hardware independent I would like to know from which platform I get
the best performance.
It is of course a difficult question but if developers create their
new programs on a 500 Mhz PC a 200 mhz PowerPC could maybe be too
slow. Who knows?
Best regards,
Andreas
AU Answers:
Hi Andreas,
It's probably too early to know which platform will perform best with
the Amiga system software. I suppose in theory, the fastest hardware
overall would perform the best when using a hardware independent
solution. In practice, I'm sure there will be many subtle influences
on system performance. We'll probably have to wait for a while after
the software is in general use to really know the answer to either of
your questions.
Brad
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A M I G A / C O R E L A W I N N E R
Snoqualmie, WA, April 1, 2000 - Amiga Incorporated, is pleased to
announce that its new multi-media consumer interface is well supported
by Corel LINUX OS and other Corel applications including the newly
released WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux.
Amiga's multi-media consumer interface runs extremely smooth and fast
on Corel LINUX OS, and the compatibility between these great products
has provided Linux developers with a new and exciting way to create
incredible multi-media titles, and games for Linux.
"Amiga pioneered the creation of multi-media, and easy to use
graphical interfaces 20 years ago, and today begins the path of the
reintroduction of a legend. The New Amiga is the creation and embrace
of leading technologies and combining them with the 20 years of
experience in multi- media development environments," said Bill
McEwen, president and chief executive officer of Amiga. "Corel has
leading products within their categories, and we are excited about
their supporting Amiga towards the future."
"Linux developers now have choices when it comes to leading edge
applications," added McEwen.
"Corel is dedicating extensive resources to develop Linux, and
receiving such a positive endorsement based on Amiga's experience with
our products is tremendous," said Dr. Michael Cowpland, president and
chief executive officer of Corel Corporation. "Corel takes pride in
producing quality products, and we are thrilled to provide our Corel
LINUX OS to Amiga's world-class systems. We look forward to working
with Amiga as they continue developing products and technology for
current and future computing devices which are focused on making
computers and the Internet a natural part of everyday life."
Corel and Amiga first announced they were working closely to support
the new Amiga Operating Environment in July 1999. The two companies
formed a new relationship to ensure that Corel's award-winning
software applications were supported on Amiga's new line of products.
Corel and Amiga continue to discuss possible future alliances.
There will be full support for the existing install base of Amiga
users, and more announcements will be forthcoming about the current
Amiga and the next generation of those machines.
Corel Corporation
Corel Corporation is an internationally recognized developer of
award-winning business productivity, graphics and operating system
solutions on the Windows , Linux , UNIX , Macintosh and Java
platforms. Corel also develops market-leading, Web-based solutions
including applications, contents, e-commerce and online services. For
access to these services and more information go to www.corel.com or
www.corelcity.com. Corel is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. Corel's
common stock trades on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol CORL
and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol COR.
This press release contains statements that are forward looking as
that term is defined by the United States Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on current
expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual
results will differ due to factors such as shifts in customer demand,
product shipment schedules, product mix, competitive products and
pricing, technological shifts and other variables. Readers are
referred to Corel's most recent reports filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Corel and the Go further logo are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Corel Corporation or Corel Corporation Limited. Linux is a
registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other products, fonts,
company names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of
their respective owners.
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A M I G A A N D J A V A
18 April, 2000
Amiga Announces Plans to Embrace Sun's JavaTM Technology as the
software platform for forthcoming New Amiga products
Amiga is the home of a large number of the world's leading edge
multimedia developers, artists and users.
Historically, the Amiga platform has targeted providing the most
compelling multimedia content to desktop systems, the new Amiga
platform will continue that tradition on desktops and address
connected, multimedia digital appliances such as webphones, digital
TVs, and web pads. Now the world's most creative multimedia engineers
can leverage the JavaTM platform to target a vast array of new
products and solutions.
The underlying technology used in the Amiga system is a Sun Java
branded version of PersonalJava developed by the Tao Group. Tao's
software is a media-rich environment that was designed from the ground
up to run on a wide range of low cost, processor and memory
constrained consumer devices that offer a wide range of multimedia
capabilities.
Within Amiga's new target markets, several key standards groups are
adopting Java technology; HAVi, OSGi and DVB are three examples. Amiga
is adopting the popular Java platform for developers creating new
generation content and applications that could also be used on
industry standard devices such as in home networking and digital
television. The millions of Java technology developers will be able to
deploy their innovative content on a wide range of new products that
will excite consumers.
"We are excited to see a longtime favorite of the multimedia
developer community turn to Java technology as their programming
platform of choice. The deeply loyal Amiga developer community will be
able to leverage the wealth of Java development tools and support to
build new, highly innovative and fun applications. We are also pleased
that Amiga will work with the Tao Group, a company dedicated to
compatible implementations with media rich capabilities," said Curtis
Sasaki, Director of Product Marketing, Consumer Technologies, Sun
Microsystems, Inc.
"The New Amiga is a breath of fresh air for the industry, and has a
talent pool of developers who continue to lead the way in the creation
of dynamic software products," commented Bill McEwen, President and
CEO, Amiga. "Sun and the Java platform provide us with great tools, a
large number of potentially new developers, and a well supported
platform, and experience in emerging markets. The Tao intentTM
implementation is unique in being able to provide the key system
requirements needed to run the Java platform in mobile and consumer
products."
Francis Charig, Chairman of Tao Group says, "Combining the world's
most advanced community of multimedia artists and engineers with the
new industry standard software [Java] is the next natural step
forward. It is wholly appropriate that Sun, Tao and Amiga work closely
together and the result shall be a wealth of Java technology-based
media content for the consumer and other markets."
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A M I G A L I S T S C O M M U N I T Y P A R T N E R S
18 April, 2000
Amiga's Partners
Tao-Group
The first partnership came from the announcement with Tao-Group which
has been moving along great. We will soon be showing the first round
of the Amiga/Tao system. There is a great deal of work to be done. We
are far enough along to launch the new developer system for Tao at the
St. Louis show.
Haage & Partner
We have entered into a long term relationship with Haage and Partner
that will provide API's and a path towards to the future OS. This
includes new updated versions of Storm IDE. They have also committed
to porting all of their software to the new platform. We are also
excited to work with H&P on a new version of the WarpOS that will
allow the new Amiga to run on PPC accelerator cards. This means that
an Amiga that has a PPC card running WarpOS will be able to run the
new Amiga on that card! That's right. The new Amiga running on the
current A1200s! More on H&P will become public as we continue to move
forward and work through the testing programs. We are very excited
about this relationship.
Hyperion
Hyperion and Amiga have entered into an agreement for the porting of
several games to the new Amiga. This along with the great work that
Ben and his team have done in working on a new 3D gaming engine for
the new Amiga. They have been working very closely with the Amiga
development team and Tao-Group to make the development of games for
the Amiga a cut above the rest. We are very pleased to be have them as
members of the new team.
Epic Marketing
Thomas Steiding has been a great supporter from the beginning. Epic
has announced that not only will they be making their games available
on the new system, but that they have secured the rights for many new
games. More on Epic with a follow on announcement later.
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A M I G A M E E T I N G 2 K R E P O R T F R O M L O D Z
26 Apr 2000
In 08.04.2000 in Lodz, Poland show called "Amiga Meeting 2k" was
organized. The organizers was X-SOFT Company - a local Amiga dealer
and University of Lodz. The show was at University of Lodz -
Mathematics Part. Following companies/usergroups/organizations took
part of "Amiga meeting 2k":
* ELBOX Computer
* AIRI
* Amiga User Group Lodz
* A/Vision Company
* editors of "eXec" - polish magazine for Amiga Users
* editors of "Amiga Vademecum: - polish magazine for Amigans
At the show we seen at about 500-800 polish Amiga users.
The show had two parts:
1. presentations od Amiga and Amiga software; below you can see
themes of each of them
Amiga - a computer for individualists
"eXec" - conference with editors
"Amiga Vademecum" - conference with editors
Amiga in DTV
Make CD - presentation of program
Amiga OS 3.5
Linux - an alternative for Amiga OS
Future of Amiga
2. Show of 20 working Amigas in great configs (such as
A4000/CVPPC/PPC)
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K I C K S T A R T S H O W I S G E T T I N G C L O S E
3 May, 2000
kickstart show update
There are just a few short weeks to go until K3, the third Kickstart
Amiga Show takes place. The show is being held by The Kickstart Amiga
User Group (http://www.kickstart-amiga.co.uk), based in Ottershaw,
Surrey.
The Date: Saturday May 27th 2000
The Time: 12-5pm
The Place: Brook Hall, Brox Road, Ottershaw, Surrey
Admission: £1 per person
The third Kickstart Show is nearing and already we have a fantastic
line-up of activities and stands for you.
In addition to the two Amiga A1200 Magic Packs from Amiga Inc (one to
bwe given away in a prize draw for all show goers, the other
exclusively for Kickstart members), a host of hardware from Analogic
and Epic and software from Forematt to give away, we have over 25
stands selling new and second user Amiga software and hardware, and
demonstrating Amiga applications.
In our Games Arena, we have multiplayer Quake and Multiplayer Super
Skidmarks contests running (see our web site for the advance sign-up
form). You can win a host of prizes from joysticks to hard drives.
You also have the chance to buy the fully registered version of the
incredibly popular and equally impressive Moovid video player
software. Registering software with overseas authors is often
difficult and time-consuming - at the Kickstart Amiga Show you can do
it in £ Stirling and immediately.
All this and more is already confirmed, with more to be added in the
coming weeks.
For more information, please look at the Kickstart Web Site
(http://www.kickstart-amiga.co.uk).
------
For show enquiries and stand bookings please contact Ray McCarthy (Show
Promoter) at ray-mccarthy@cwcom.net or call (01737) 215432.
For all other enquiries, please contact Chris Green (PR Co-ordinator) at
chris@amigainsight.com or call (07971) 273850.
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A M I W E S T N O T I C E
28 Apr 2000 Our fellow AMIGANS throughout the world:
The Sacramento Amiga Computer Club (SACC) is proud to be involved in
AmiWest 2000, the only all-AMIGA computer show on the west coast of
the United States. We are publishing a special edition of our club
magazine, the Amigazette, for the show. We want to offer advertising
space to you in this special publication at some very attractive
rates.
Our Amigazette has been published since the club was founded in 1986.
We have one of the largest and most active local AMIGA user groups in
the country. We mail to our own membership every month and to 19 other
clubs in the states of Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, New
York, Illinois, Connecticut and Virginia. We are proud to be one of
the few print publications in the U.S. exclusively supporting the
AMIGA classic computer family and those who are developing software
and hardware for it.
As SACC President, I am also proud that one of our members, John
Zacharias, is organizing AmiWest 2000. This is the third year of the
show and the list of exhibitors is growing daily. We will be
distributing our special edition Amigazette through our SACC booth at
AmiWest 2000.
We're contacting you now so that you can be in on the ground floor as
an advertiser in this special 11x17 format, 8.5 x 11 size Amigazette.
Your ad will be distributed at AmiWest 2000 as well as through our
expanding mail channels. Your ad can go to perhaps the most loyal
group of users of any computer platform in the world - AMIGANS! And
all for some of the lowest rates available.
Let us know soon so that we can reserve your space now. Obviously,
space is limited and we cannot accept new ads after July 1, 2000. Get
back to us as soon as possible. I think you can see that, at these
rates, space reservations won't be available for long.
AD Rates are:Full page 8 1/2 x 11 $30.00 Half page 4 1/4 x 11 or 5
1/2 x 8 1/2 $18.00 Quarter page 4 1/4 x5 1/2 or 2 3/4 x 8 1/2 $10.00
Business size 2 1/2 x 4 or 4 x 2 1/2 $ 5.00
So respond today. E-mail our editor, Chuck Washburn, at
chela@calweb.com. That will get the (Boing!) ball rolling. And be back
for the future with the AMIGA!
Amiga Forever,
Brian Deneen
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A N T I G R A V I T Y O P E N L E T T E R T O C O S A
April 14, 2000
An open letter response from Anti Gravity to COSA
We recently received this email from Steve Crietzman (President of
COSA). We drafted this somewhat tongue-in-cheek response to state as
clearly as possible our position in regards to the philosophy of open
source in general and to the AmigaOS in particular.
Steve Crietzman (President of COSA) wrote:
Hello,
I am the president of the Campaign to Open Source AmigaOS, COSA for
short, AKA the Open Amiga Group.
For quite some time now, we have been campaigning to have the AmigaOS
released as open source, and it looks as if we may finally succeed now
that Amino, Fleecy, Bill etc. are at the helm.
It's clear that Amino are putting their resources into a
"next-generation" Amiga system and OS.
But for the classic range, the next-generation looks like this:
o The BoXeR will be recognised as the hardware successor to the
Classic
Amiga, and Anti Gravity will be recognised as the future hardware
developer of the Classic Amiga.
o COSA will be recognised as the developers of the Classic Amiga
operating
system.
So we share something in common. We're both committed to the future
of the CLASSIC Amiga.
I am sure it would be useful if we could maintain an 'open line' to
each other, to share ideas, to tie 'future hardware' to 'future
operating system'.
That's why I am contacting you.
While I don't have anything specific to add, I was thinking that by
combining our resources, or working together, we can define a
migration path for the Classic Amiga - hardware and OS combined - the
open-source AmigaOS project, and the BoXeR as the hardware.
Let me know what you think, and feel free to contact me if you'd like
to explore possibilities or have any ideas.
Keep up the good work on the BoXeR!
Best regards,
Steve Crietzman President, Campaign to Open Source AmigaOS/Open Amiga
Hello Steve,
During the early part of the 20th century Russia dominated the
northern part of Asia. This vast country lived under a system of Czars
who had completely lost touch with the people. No one knew the
workings of the system and the bureaucracy had become so huge that
even the government could not manage its own tasks. The people
suffered from misinformed decisions and were contantly relayed to
other departments and offices while the Cszar lounging in "Redman
Square" living in luxury oblivious to their plight. This would turn
out to be a "fatal error!" Any attempt for the people to take the
initiative and do something to solve real problems was deemed an
"illegal operation." The people suffered, then became irritated and
finally upset to the point of rebellion.
A young man named Joseph Stalin recognized this growing
dissatisfaction among the people and realized that the only way to
cause change would be for the masses to band together against the
reigning regime and the Bolsheviks were born. Enlisting the help of
the great socialist philosopher Karl Marx, they drafted a plan to
overthrow the Czar. Marx believed that only through the elimination of
personal property would the people band together with enough strength
to overthow the emperorship. Their eco-political philosophy took hold
as the people, destitute, saw hope in their plan. Gradually they
gained control of areas of the country and eventually overthrew the
Czars.
As long as the Czar was their enemy, everyone lived in harmony. They
shared everything in common for the good of the "cause." But with the
overthrow of the regime, an interesting thing happened. The "cause"
moved from revolution to implementation. Immediately the people began
to fragment in dozens of different directions. Everyone wanted "their
place" and "their way" in the new order. Stalin, losing his grip on
the people, gained control of the military and subdued the
insurrections. The new communist regime reverted to many of the
tactics it had hated so much in the Czars.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a young powerful country
flexed its maturing capitalist muscles. Despite going through some
lean years, the United States emerged from World War II as a
superpower. It was based upon the principles that each individual had
the right to his own property and incentives for the individual to
invent new markets, create new products and develop new alliances for
personal benefit as well as for the good of the economy. The profit
motive coupled with good ol' Yankee ingenuity caused American economy
to explode. No two business men operated the same way, they each
created their own style. This system became the envy of the world,
copied by all, except in the leadership of the Soviet Nations.
With the people suffering and the economy dying, the Soviets tried
desperately to maintain control of their once impenetrable empire. But
the people who had enabled the revolution against the Czars would no
longer live under the rule of the Soviets and the iron curtain fell,
leaving only the entrepreneurs standing throughout the world.
Amigans have always been good capitalists, wanting to make money from
their ideas. As a result the Amiga is the only personal computer to
create new markets. Open sourcing anything works as long as there is a
monolithic enemy, but it collapses when the enemy falls. This trend
has already begun to occur with the 26 implementations so far this
week of Linux. Closed source, open architecture is the American way,
the most successful way. Americans need to see the guts of the
architecture in order to tinker and invent, but they need to own their
inventions to get rich and fuel new ideas.
We at Anti Gravity believe in open architecture, closed source
capitalism. There is still a lot of money left in the Amiga Operating
system. We plan to make money from it and we hope everyone else in the
Amiga community makes money as well. We'll all make more money if we
own what we make and keep the trade secrets to ourselves.
May the Amiga never be divorced from making money, because making
money by inventing things is REALLY FUN! With the new Amie OS, the
people in the Linux community can make money and have fun. The users
can have fun because the Amiga will be doing mystical magical things
again. Long live the BoXeR, the completely capitalist computer for
everyone who has ever loved an Amiga.
Sincerely,
The Anti Gravity Products Team
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A N T I G R A V I T Y G E T S B O X E R
Press Release
April 2, 2000
{Last issue we reported on the sale of the BoXeR. Here is the official
announcement. Brad}
Anti Gravity purchases the BoXeR!
On March 31, 2000 Anti Gravity Products reached an agreement with
Mick Tinker and Blittersoft for the purchase of all the intellectual
property rights as well as the world-wide manufacturing, distribution
and sales rights of the BoXeR. Mick Tinker will become the Director of
BoXeR Development, and Paul Le Surf of Blittersoft will become the
head of United Kingdom operations.
More announcements will be forthcoming in the next few weeks
regarding product line, manufacturing and markets. Please check these
pages regularly for updates.
Anti Gravity personnel wish to thank the many people who came to our
booth at the Amiga 2K show. We very much appreciated your candor as
well as your support and suggestions.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I G A J O B S S E R V I C E B E G I N S
Köln/Germany, 14-Apr-2000 - The effects of the lack of qualified
labour in the computer-branch are more and more noticable, even on the
Amiga-market. Numerous small and middle-class companies as well as
private developers are searching for creative minds, especially
programmers, designers and journalists.
The editorial staff of Amiga plus, supported by the team of
Amiga-News.de, is pleased to present a free internet employment agency
service With "Free Amiga Jobs" the labour market shall be stimulated
by forming contacts between employers and employees to fortify the
software- and hardware-developments for the Amiga. Both employers and
employees can make use of this public service without any costs.
"Free Amiga Jobs" can be found in the world wide
web at "http://www.amiga-news.de/jobs/".
19 lines with 50 touches each
----------------------
Further information:
Nico Barbat
Rheinaustr. 37
D-51149 Köln
Germany
Tel. +49 221 4304656
eMail: nico@barbat.de
FAJ Online: http://www.amiga-news.de/jobs/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
S T A R G A T E I S N O W F R E E W A R E
3 May, 2000
Danny Wong of Toysoft Develoment recently made the following
announcement -
"With much considerations I have decided to release StarGate as
freeware to the Amiga community. The latest version v2.5 contains bug
fixes and minor features. Additional features have not yet been
implemented and may not be in the future. StarGate is the premier
email and news client for the Amiga. It requires MUI v3.6 and greater.
Please goto http://www.toysoft-dev.com for the download.
You will be required to download the v2.1 archive first."
Toysoft Development Inc. is at www.toysoft-dev.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
H Y P E R I O N ' S S C H E D U L E
Leuven, 17 April 2000
Introduction
In the next few days Hyperion entertainment software will celebrate
its first birthday. When we started this venture, our stated goal was
to bring high-end, high-quality entertainment software to the Amiga.
We feel that we are well on our way to accomplish this. Over the past
year, we built up an impressive code-base that will allow us to
dramatically cut down on the development time of new Amiga
conversions. Part of this code-base has already been made available to
the Amiga development community: MiniGL, chunkyppc.library, an
improved version of Warp3D (together with Sam Jordan) etc.
We mastered two of the most impressive 3D engines out there: the
Quake II engine and the LithTech engine. Together with Titan we
brought Smacker, an industry standard video-codec, to the Amiga.
We are now ready to accelerate our development cycle over the course
of the next few months.
At this point we would like to address some frequently asked
questions.
Why does Hyperion only port old PC games?
Whilst it is true that we have licensed some titles from December
1998, we do not limit ourselves to older games, as will become
apparent in the next few weeks. Titles like Shogo, Heretic 2 and SiN
were chosen for a reason. First of all, it should be remembered that
the current Amiga PPC hardware is already two-three years old and that
it will be hard-pressed to keep up with state of the art PC games.
Secondly, we prefer to port older, quality titles rather than newer
games nobody will remember six months down the road. Finally, it
should be remembered that most of the time there is period of many
weeks and usually even months between the time a title is released on
the PC and the time it is actually finished and the last patch is made
available.
Will Hyperion support new Amiga hardware based operating systems not
developed by the Amiga Corporation?
The answer is simple: no. Leaving aside considerations such as
further market fragmentation which would lead to sharply reduced sales
in the Amiga market and the fact that we would need to rebuild our
code-base, we want to make it clear, once and for all, that licenses
are tied to a specific operating system, not to a specific hardware
platform. If it were otherwise, we would just get a license for PPC
and we could port for any OS running on PPC including MacOS, AmigaOS,
Linux PPC, Beos etc. In reality our license agreements limit the scope
of our rights to AmigaOS meaning ports for AROS, PowerOS, MorphOS,
Neutrino/QNX etc. are LEGALLY IMPOSSIBLE and would require prior
re-negotiation of our license agreements. We would think it highly
doubtful that large entertainment software companies would even
consider this without very substantial upfront royalty payments which
would be impossible to recuperate due to low sales. Obviously, the new
Amiga OS based on Elate IS covered by our existing license agreements
as it is an OS developed and marketed by the Amiga Corporation. We
therefore can and will support the new Amiga OS.
Work in progress. An overview.
Heretic 2: The Amiga conversion of Heretic 2 was completed some weeks
ago but is currently stuck in Quality Assurance at Activision due to
problems with the test-machine we sent them. We have dispatched James
Sellman to Santa Monica in an attempt to get these problems out of
the way. Heretic 2 was demoed extensively on two machines at the
Saint-Louis show and despite running continuously for two days, never
produced a crash.
SiN: Development of SiN is progressing very rapidly thanks to the
code and knowledge-base we built up for Heretic 2. We anticipate
completion in 2-3 months at most. More information will follow soon.
Shogo: Porting Shogo:MAD proved to be quite a challenge. Our
contract-work for Monolith on the software renderer for LithTech V2
(all platforms) has caused further delays but we are now rapidly
nearing completion. More information will follow.
LithTech V1 & V2: The significance of the Shogo port goes far beyond
the specific game in question. Hyperion is bringing this world-class
3D engine to the Amiga platform which will allow for easy porting of
upcoming titles based on LithTech. The list of licensees for the
LithTech engine is growing rapidly (see:
www.monolithnews.com/lithtech2_licensees.html) and each and every one
of this titles can be brought to the Amiga in a matter of weeks.
Moreover, Hyperion has the right to extend its agreement with
Monolith to cover all LithTech based titles developed and owned by
Monolith which includes at the time of writing the very promising
(and as of yet
unreleased) titles Sanity and No-one Lives Forever (for further
information see: www.monolithnews.com). If you want an absolutely
stunning demonstration of what LithTech V2 can do, go and download
Monolith's promotional video at http://www.lith.com/lithtech/release.
Worms Armageddon: Development was delayed because of lack of
development resources. We are still targeting an early beta-version
for the end of Q2.
Freespace: Development will start soon. Expected completion by early
Q3.
The future...
Hyperion is on the verge of finalising at least three more agreements
for top quality entertainment titles to be released in the year 2000.
Upgrade your machine and stay tuned!
http://www.hyperion-software.com/news_000417.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
F X P A I N T S E C O N D U P D A T E D O N E
25 Apr 2000
The second update for fxPAINT has been completed and offers many new
features. Thanks to many optimizations, a higher speed could be
achieved. The most important changes since EK #1:
· fxVIDEO-System: Tutorial-videos are now possible directly from
within fxPAINT!
· new drawing utility: bevelcircle
· 6 new effects (Edge-Detect, Sharpen, Texture, "Deep inside",
DisplaceMap and
a new buttonborder-effect)
· real antialiasing for text
· improved tableau-support
· vastly improved fxALBUM (especially improved HTML-Album-creation)
· wap.plugin: fxPAINT is the first and only program on the AMIGA,
that can read
and write WBMP-images!
· AXIS-color calibration system for optimized screen-display
· Mousewheel-support for mice that support the NewMouse-standard
(e.g. VMC 4D+ mouse)
· improved loader- and saver-speed thanks to the PPC
Furthermore many improvements in detail have been made, that were
inspired by users.
http://fxpaint.innovative-web.de
----------------------------------------------------------------------
V A P O R W A R E ' S M E T A L W E B U P D A T E D
23 April, 2000
MetalWeb is the first visual HTML editor for AmigaOS. The philosophy
behind the software is that you should not need to understand HTML in
order to create pages within MetalWEB. You can create web pages via a
DTP style editor or the 'old way' via a tabbed, coloured text based
source window. Indeed, like the award-winning Dreamweaver you can open
both the edit and source window, work within one of the windows,
whilst the other window updates, automagically!
The latest version of Metalweb is intuitive, fast, and easy to use.
Now you really can create a website without extensive HTML knowledge!
Please remember, MetalWeb is shareware. If you use it, please
register the software and help support Amiga software development.
Download MetalWeb today and see how much easier it is to create your
HTML documents.
Features
o New Source Editor, with coloured tag highlighting
o Easy to use imagemap editor
o Cut, copy and paste text from/to clipboard.
o Edit HTML directly, or use WYSIWYG layout
o Visual image sizing
o Visual creation/modification of tables
o Wordwrap
o Supports many HTML tags
o Easy creation of frames
o Embedded object support
o User friendly GUI
o Works in conjunction with web browsers, eg. Voyager3
o ARexx port
There is a MetalWeb Mailing List run by VaporWare for users to
discuss the software. Please feel free to sign up for it; any
questions you have may be answered there.
http://www.vapor.com/products/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
T E C H N O D A T A B A S E O O A V A I L A B L E
12 Apr 2000
Hi there !
TECHNODATABASE OO is now available !
It's now a 100% Amiga interactive CDrom as it runs with SCALAMM400 or
player. (PAL needed).
A 400 megs bonus (hundreds of demos, gfx and sound utilities, mods,
mp3, pictures, anims, texts, web sites and so on...) is also offered.
A pure delight for technomaniacs and one of the few french interactive
amiga CDroms.
Price : $20 for Europe shipping included ($25 for other countries).
More infos at :
www.noname.fr/village/bartechno/dz/laviedesz/boutik.html
chridez@club-internet.fr
Also available : DPIXELS and TECHNODATABASE98.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
R E L E A S E O F V O Y A G E R 3 . 2 +
16 Apr 2000
V³ 3.2 released
===============
How to obtain
-------------
V³ main archive (Browser, Libraries, Image decoders, SSL module)
· v3_32.lha (1196510 Bytes)
· v3_32.lzx (1068699 Bytes)
V³ update to 3.2 from 3.1 (only contains modified files)
· v3_update_31_32.lzx (343411 Bytes)
· v3_update_31_32.lha (355680 Bytes)
VFlash Shockwave Flash Player
· vflash_1.2.lha (564608 Bytes)
· vflash_1.2.lzx (500510 Bytes)
Apdf PDF viewer (includes V³ inline PDF plugin)
· please download the archive suitable for
your CPU, *AND* Apdf_common & Apdf_fonts
For detailed instructions, please see
http://elesueur.free.fr/Apdf
FTP:
ftp.vapor.com, /pub/amirc/
ftp.us.vapor.com, /pub/amirc/
ftp.ch.vapor.com, /pub/vapor/amirc/
WWW:
http://v3.vapor.com/
http://bespin.siliconcircus.co.uk/vapor/
http://vapor.meanmachine.ch/
(for more mirror sites, see http://v3.vapor.com/)
This is a full release. It has undergone thorough testing by both the
alpha testers and by numerous public beta testers, and should be
stable as a rock.
The VFlash and Vpdf plugins are not included in this distribution
archive, in order to keep it to a reasonable size. Please visit
http://v3.vapor.com/ for download information.
The VFlash PPC module needs a new version of ppc.library, which is
available from ftp://ftp.meanmachine.ch/pub/amiga/ppclib/
As usual, the existance of this release does not imply that further
development will stop :) In fact, the next version is already in the
works.
-----------------------------
Newsflash: Changes since V3.1
· support for HTTP file upload
· many bugfixes, including the longstanding random
crashes or misbehaviors induced by the History list
Not-So-Newsflash: Changes since V3.0a
· Support for <FONT FACE>, with customizable mappings.
Extremly useful in conjunction with ttf.library
(http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/ragriffi/ttflib.htm)
· Support for individual table and table cell backgrounds
· Direct support for FBlit (http://www.tpec.u-net.com),
totally eliminating the need for intermediate chip mem
buffering of images and thus heavily improving rendering
speed on AGA systems
· Heavily improved and faster SSL module
· Heavily improved PNG support
· Fixed printing with TurboPrint
· Improved plugin API again. A V plugin version of
the Apdf PDF file viewer is now available
· Heavily improved VFlash plugin
· Numerous bugfixes and minor enhancements in all
parts of the code, from HTML over networking to
Javascript
Please see the V.ReadMe file included in the
archive for a full list of changes.
{NOTE: no sooner had the above release arrived, than the following
popped up on the web. Brad}
16 Apr 2000
hi gang,
Amazing ain't it? A week between updates. Voyager 3.2 is now out. The
Vapor.com website and th V3 Portal site aren't updated yet {they
should be by the time you see this issue of AU. Brad} but the 3.2
update and full 3.2 archives are on the download sites already.
Basically a few more javascript commands are implemented, some
refimenment to the FONT FACE handling, and a bug fix on crashing
caused by the history file or something
Posted by Marion E. Wyatt {Thanks Marion from Amiga Update!}
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3 R D P L A N E T L A U N C H E S M A S T E R B A N K
24 April, 2000
Third·Planet·From·The·Sun is a new Amiga developer and online
retailer whose web site at www.3pfts.com showcases MasterBank v3.0, a
financial program for the Amiga. The site has extensive details on
MasterBank along with many screen shots and secure online credit card
processing.
http://www.3pfts.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
M U S H R O O M T E M P O R A R I L Y U N A V A I L A B L E
12 Apr 2000
Hi there !
TECHNODATABASE OO is now available !
It's now a 100% Amiga interactive CDrom as it runs with SCALAMM400 or
player. (PAL needed).
A 400 megs bonus (hundreds of demos, gfx and sound utilities, mods,
mp3, pictures, anims, texts, web sites and so on...) is also offered.
A pure delight for technomaniacs and one of the few french interactive
amiga CDroms.
Price : $20 for Europe shipping included ($25 for other countries).
More infos at :
www.noname.fr/village/bartechno/dz/laviedesz/boutik.html
chridez@club-internet.fr
Also available : DPIXELS and TECHNODATABASE98.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
10 Apr 2000
Mushroom Software (also known as F1 Software) will be closing down
for approximately 6 months, due to some personal conflicts which will
be going on over that period of time Questions, enquires & other
business related questions can be directed to mushypd@redrose.net
where they will be answered as soon as possible.
Im going to be divorcing from my wife, and quite possibly losing my
green card (please dont publish this bit) which means I have to
concentrate my money, time, and efforts, on keeping my greencard, in
order to remain here in america. If i was sent back to england, I know
I wouldnt be able to keep F1 for very long. I know the Amiga community
is very honest to its sources, and I want to keep this tradition. If
you have any questions, you can always contact me first.
We will return however, with an even better lineup of software, and
far more PC titles, to keep our existing customers more than happy.
I would like you to mention the above (except why im leaving for a
while) as ive supported the Amiga community for almost 9 years now,
and i really feel bad that I have to bail out for such dumb
circumstances. It really sucks as i`ve had to cancel 2 brand-new Amiga
software signups, but i promise you as a fellow Amiga user & coder, I
will be back in the near future, with several new games, including a
network version of a stunt-car-racer type game (Internet playable, PC
version 30% done) which is compatible transparently with PC and Amiga
due in the beginning of next year
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2000 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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