Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
StarShip 5 MINUTE Weekend Newscast (1993 10 29)
Welcome to the
____
/ ___) *StarShip* 5-MINUTE Weekend Newscast
/ (_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/ ___)
/ (__ very weekend the *StarShip* on GEnie presents a new 5-MINUTE Weekend
(_____) Newscast in Communications Room 10 in the Real-Time Conference Area.
Featuring late-breaking stories from the Amiga community, these dynamic,
scrolling newscasts cycle every 5 minutes, so you can stop by between 6PM and
3AM Eastern time on Friday, or 3PM and 3AM Eastern time on Saturday or Sunday
and learn everything that happened during the preceding week. Industry news,
product announcements, upgrades, rumors, special *StarShip* activities, trade
show reports, GEnie usage tips, humor, recommended files to download...
... the works -- and it ONLY takes 5 minutes!
Each 5-MINUTE Weekend Newscast is available on *StarShip* Menu #10 during the
following week. Periodically, newscasts are combined and made available for
downloading from the *StarShip* Library.
____________________________________________________________
// \
|| -*- IMPORTANT! -*- |
|| |
|| As long as individual stories are kept intact and credit |
|| is given, this material may be reproduced in ALL or PART |
|| on a privately owned BBS or in a user group newsletter. |
|| See wording for proper credit at the end of this Newscast. |
\\____________________________________________________________/
|| |
|| |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Special thanks to...
Denny Atkin, Journalist Extraordinaire
Tim Walsh, AmigaWorld Senior Editor
For generous assistance to the *StarShip* News!
Here we go!...
DateLine: October 29, 1993
This 5-MINUTE Newscast presents the following stories:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Amiga News Bits This Week:
- The Commodore Stock Watch
- Grapevine Group struggling to keep up with orders
- Important Software Updates and Upgrades
2. Interactive Multimedia LiveWire Magazine for the Amiga
3. Hollyware releases Music-X 2.0 & Notator-X
4. *StarShip* Conferences Next Week - Poker Night on Monday Night!
5. AugmenTek Announces the Release of RexxVar
6. Axiom Announces Anim Workshop version 2
7. Axiom Announces WaveMaker for the Toaster
8. The A500 SLOTS Expansion from TMA
9. Last Minute Halloween References
10. ICD Shares Tip for Using Two Kickstarts on Their Hardware
Don't Forget! Daylight Savings Time ends Saturday night. Set those clocks
back one hour. And while you're at it, don't even think twice about it,
replace the batteries in your smoke alarm.
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
1st of 10 Stories
Amiga News Bits This Week
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
____ Commodore Stock Watch
/ ___) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/ (_ *StarShip* News Network -- October 29, 1993
/ ___)
/ (_
(____)very week, we'll provide you with the closing stock price of
Commodore International, (CBU) traded on the NYSE.
Commodore's Closing Stock this week looked about the same all week, in
fact it looked the same LAST week, too. It is holding steady at 3
dollars a share even.
*** *** ***
* * * * * *
* * * * *
** * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * * *
*** * *** ***
No change in price from last week.
/| |\
/ | | \
/ |--------------------| \
\ |--------------------| /
\ | | /
\| |/
-*-
News and gossip from The Grapevine Group
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
___ ___ *StarShip* News Network -- Oct 29 1993
(_ )( _)
/ /_/ /
/ __ /
_/ / / /i ho all!
(___)(__)
This month (so far), we have received over 12,000 phone calls/orders for our
multitude of new and refurbished items we scrounged from the dusty shelves of
Commodore! Let's face facts here...12,000 calls is a LOT of calls.
With that many calls coming in, there WILL be some orders that take a lot
longer to get out the door. All we ask is that folks have a wee bit more
patience than normal when ordering from the thousands of items we have found
still available at Commodore. You wouldn't believe some of the cool items we
located...some we thought were extinct!
At any rate...if you need information about one of the many new items we have
in stock, please give us a call at 800-292-7445 or 914-357-2424. Help us to
help you, meaning, if the line is busy, please try again. There are so many
folks calling, it's a J-O-B to keep things running efficiently...but we are
trying are best.
Thanx a Zillion
Chuck Leazott (AKA Mister Z Hisself), for The Grapevine Group, Inc.
C.LEAZOTT1 on GEnie
For more information contact, THE GRAPEVINE GROUP INC., 3 Chestnut St,
Suffern, NY 10901. Their phone number information is:
Order line: 1-800-292-7445
Fax line: 914-357-6243
Order Status/Customer service line: 914-368-4242/ 914-357-2607
International Order Line: 914-357-2424
9-6 ET Mon-Fri
-*-
Important Updates and Upgrades in the Files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*StarShip* News Network -- Oct 29, 1993
The Newest AmigaGuide has been released from Commodore. It is a
bug-squashing release, and includes new distribution and free licensing
information for developers. GEnie File# 21302
Golden Gate's free software upgrade from vortex was uploaded to the GEnie
software libraries. For those of you with this killer emulation package,
don't overlook Files # 21298 and 21297.
Robin Evans has updated his ARexx Guide file. You can get the WHOLE thing
again, or just download the patch. This is a great reference, and, by the
way, what he is using to teach ARexx Classes on GEnie with. Patch #21271
Complete 21270
The newest World Wide Amiga BBS Guide is out! GEnie File# 21263
Commodore's INSTALLER program has an update and a release is available now
in the *StarShip* libraries. GEnie File# 21301
The newest Aladdin script for SysMom's NetSearch column in LiveWire is now
available, so you can visit all those neat electronic nooks and crannies
that you read about with Aladdin. GEnie File# 21409
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
2nd of 10 Stories
Interactive Multimedia LiveWire Magazine for the Amiga
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
____ *StarShip* News Network -- Oct 29, 1993
(_ _)
/ /
_/ / t's here, it's live, and the entire *StarShip* is darn proud of it.
(____)It's the Multimedia issue of LiveWire, GEnie's monthly magazine. Like
any really cool project, we received word at the last minute that it was a
'go' for the November issue, and rather than wait a month, our intrepid
LiveWire Editor, Peggy Herrington, wanted to just go for it.
Of course, Peggy and I knew that the Amiga could do it in the short time
frame. But wow, was it a lot of work.
The issue is a free download so that everyone can enjoy reading and looking
at the animations in it. Get it while it's still hot, from GEnie's page 20,
the FREE download area of LiveWire magazine. It was created with CanDo, from
INOVAtronics, and lots of blood, sweat and tears. But you don't have to have
CanDo to make it work.
The first thing you'll notice after you download it and run it is an opening
screen which stays only briefly, then you go to the contents page, which has
all the article titles and by each one small presents or Christmas balls.
Both the words and the graphics of the contents page will let you navigate
through the magazine.
But don't move too fast, Look at that beautiful flickering candle, and
notice the subtle stamping of the snowflake design in the background. These
are just a few of the really nice graphic touches which Zak Jarvis added to
Bruce Robison's theme graphics for the issue as we tried to get this pulled
together.
When I couldn't line up the buttons right, Zak could, and when I couldn't
figure out how in the world to make the palettes match, Zak was right there
making them smoothly work just the way we needed them to.
I was amazed at what we could do in about a week's worth of work, 16 colors,
and an Amiga. We'd all love to hear how you enjoy it, and if you'd like to
see more of these kinds of productions. You can talk about it in Category 7
of the *StarShip* bulletin Board, in topic 8. And don't miss the
opportunity to find out all the funny stories about the making of this
production in the special conference which we'll have in a week or so
online. Watch the *StarShip* announcements for a time, then come and meet
all the people who made this happen. Find out why some of the graphics were
chosen for some of the articles, and learn ALL about how that Christmas
Lemming escaped from the Software Library file # 13353!
Eye Candy Does Not Come Easy
Don't expect one every week, my family was already beginning to wonder if I
still existed in the real world before this was finished. Pretty things
take time. And Murphy had his say in this, too, just as I was about to add
the music to the final version, my Amiga 3000 started going flakey on me.
It seems I've got some chip ram that's gone south. We were lucky that we
even got the final version compiled into a run time file - and it doesn't
have any music.
I'll upload the music file we were going to use, it's a peppy MOD file of
Jingle Bells, since the theme for the issue was Christmas. You can use your
favorite mod player in the background and just pretend that I got it added,
OK?
Lest you think that the magazine is all flash and no meat, think again,
there are some fine articles of interest to GEnie members inside. All we
did was give those well written words a pretty picture frame.
For anyone without the needed 2 megs of ram to run it in, the *StarShip*
staff will CONSIDER doing a second version and uploading it to the Amiga
Library which is optimized for low ram and runs from disk instead of out of
memory. You may leave a message requesting this in Mail to the Sysops or
on the bulletin board. If there are enough requests, we'll get to work on
it.
Right now, though, I'd just like the weekend off...
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
3rd of 10 Stories
Hollyware releases Music-X 2.0 & Notator-X
___ ___ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(_ )( _) Marina del Rey, CA -- October 1993
/ /_/ /
/ __ /
_/ / / /ollyware Entertainment, the company that acquired MicroIllusions,
(___)(__) is extremely pleased to announce that the software upgrade you've
been waiting for is finally here. MUSIC-X 2.0
Programmed and written by the original authors and introducing a stellar
addition to our programming staff, the author of Notator-X, the newest
addition to our music software library, Notator-X increases the flexibility
of Music-X 2.0 and any third party music software.
This is a must have offer!
HOLLYWARE is committed to supporting Music-X 2.0 and offers extended
technical support with a staff dedicated to assist you.
Music-X 2.0 upgrades are only available directly from HOLLYWARE. The cost
of this advanced MIDI power house is only $100.00. You'll find the upgrade
price is very modest compared to the new features that have been added.
Just another way of thanking the loyal users of Music-X.
Orders are now being accepted for the Music-X 2.0 upgrade. Orders which are
postmarked before November 1st, 1993 will have FREE shipping and handling.
IF YOU ARE READING THIS NOW IN THE 5-MINUTE NEWS, The free shipping offer
has been extended for you to November 8th, 1993. To take advantage of this
offer, you MUST mention when you write or when you call to order your
upgrade that you read about it in the *StarShip*'s 5-MINUTE News - or you
won't get the later deadline!
Music-X 2.0, like a fine instrument, is crafted from the heart. More than
an excellent tool, Music-X is also a work of art.
So it was with the original version of Music-X and it continues with MUSIC-X
2.0, compromises and shortcuts have not been tolerated with this latest
version of Music-X. Music-X 2.0 has all of the features of teh original
program with the addition of new modules. Included with Music-X 2.0 is the
latest addtion to our Music Software library, NOTATOR-X.
New Features of Music-X 2.0:
Amiga Audio Player
This version has expanded to support more than a dozen additional MIDI
commands, making your Amiga perform as a 16-channel, polyphonic synthesizer
playing a maximum of four notes at one time. Music-X now can recognize
Attack Velocity, when playing Amiga samples.
New Modules
Music-X now comes with additional Modules to increase its power and
flexibility. Some of the new modules are:
- DeFlam To remove the grace notes and finger crushes that may
have occurred while recording the sequence.
- Quantizer An improved Quantizer module
- RexxEdit With the RexxEdit module, and the ARexx software, you
can make your own customized macros to work with Music-X
- PrintEventList allows you to print out the Event list of your
sequences for editing purposes.
Works with the "One Stop Music Shop" from The Blue Ribbon Soundworks Ltd.
and has been tested on the Alesis ADAT and AI-2 equipment.
The suggested retail price is $199.95. Remember, upgrade for HALF that
cost!
For more information, contact HOLLYWARE entertainment, 13464 Washington,
Marina del Rey, CA 90291, (310) 822-9200.
-*-
NOTATOR-X
_ _ ~~~~~~~~~
/ \ / ) Marina del Rey, CA -- October 1993
/ \/ /
/ /\ /
(_/ \_/ otator-X is a score writing package and is designed to work, not
only with Music-X 2.0, but with any sequencer program that supports the MIDI
file format.
Scores can be created from scratch or by importing Music-X or any MIDI
files. Notator-X and Music-X will work in unison (memory permitting, 2 Megs
minimum) allowing data to be exchanged internally without the necessity of
any file saving.
Features:
- Each page can have up to 32 tracsk on 18 staves.
- Notator-X's display is a true WYSIWYG and scores can be viewed
in any of three selectable viewing sizes. Printer Page sizes and
output quality is limited only by the printer.
- Notator-X's Lyrics Editor will automatically align the lyrics under
the notes of the staff, including words split up over several notes.
- With Notator-X you may have up to five lines of verses with a
maximum of three different endings in a score.
- Notator-X allows Notes, Chords, Rests, Dynamics, Angled Beams,
Groups, Ties, Octave Symbols, Text frames and much more.
- Loads Notator-X, Music-X, MIDI 0 and MIDI 1 files without using
complicated file conversion utilties.
- Saves files out in Notator-X, Music-X and MIDI 1 file formats.
The suggested retail price for Notator-X is $79.95.
For more information, contact HOLLYWARE entertainment, 13464 Washington,
Marina del Rey, CA 90291, (310) 822-9200.
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
4th of 10 Stories
Next Week's *StarShip* Conference Calendar
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| *StarShip* Amiga Conferences |
| |
| |
| _ _ _ |
| / \ / ) / ) |
| / \/ /____ _ _ ____ _ _ / /_ ____ ___ |
| / // )( \_/ )/ __ )/ \/ \ / )/ __ )/ __) |
| / /\ // /) / \ // ___// _ _ \ / /) // ___// / |
| (_/ \_/(____/ \_/(____)(_/ \/ \_)(____/(____)(_/ |
| |
| |
| Except where noted, Conferences begin at 10PM Eastern Time in the Amiga |
| Conference Rooms at Page 555;2. Amiga Programmers meet Wednesday nights |
| at Pro/Am on Page 670. TWO HelpDesks EVERY Night: 9PM Eastern & Pacific |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday |Wednesday| Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
|The Event | Telecomm |Multimedia| AmiGames| Music | Graphics | Party! |
|__________|__________|__________|_________|__________|__________|__________|
| 31 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| | | | | |5-MIN News|5-MIN News|
| The | Poker |Multimedia|AmiGames!| Music: | 6PM-3AM | 3PM-3AM |
| Amiga | Night | | with | MOD | -*- | -*- |
|Gathering | in | Toaster | Peteroo | CountDown| Graphics | Party |
| | RSCARDS | Night | & Zach! | with | w/ Syl! | Night! |
| | | w/ Yury! | |SideWinder|Brill & 2D| |
|__________|__________|__________|_________|__________|__________|__________|
/\
/ \ Meet other Amiga folks across the graphical poker
~||~ interface of the RSCARDS front end, and have a great
|| time at our monthly Poker night. Use File # 20383 in
|| the *StarShip* library to play by clicking/pointing!
\\________________________________________________________
TWO HelpDesks EVERY Night! 9PM Eastern AND 9PM Pacific!
Bring your Amiga/GEnie problems for on-the-spot assistance!
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
5th of 10 Stories
AugmenTek Announces the Release of RexxVar
_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/ \ SeaTac, WA -- October 24, 1993
/ - \
/ ___ \
(_/ \_)ugmenTek unveils RexxVar, a simple but powerful way of exchanging
data between ARexx variables and any program that uses input and output
files. The output from a command or program (including a meaningful error
code) can be placed in either one ARexx variable or in a stem array, while
the input to a command or program can be read from either an ARexx variable
or stem array.
For example, to sort the values in a stem array called "lines." (whose
indices ranges from 1 to n, and n is in "lines.0"), one would type:
Address REXXVAR 'Sort from REXXVAR:lines. to REXXVAR:sorted_lines.'
The "sorted_lines." stem array would be created with an increasing integer
index, starting at 1. The total number of "sorted_lines." values is placed
in "sorted_lines.0". One can also sort words in a variable in a similar
fashion.
Substrings in a variable as well as stem array values can be delimited by any
character (or none) on input or output.
Support is also included for arbitrary (i.e., not necessarily numeric or
increasing in order) stem index values. For example:
indices = 'TED BILL'
fullname.BILL = 'William'
fullname.TED = 'Theodore'
fullname.BOB = 'Robert'
Address REXXVAR "Type from REXXVAR:fullname./nl/indices"
will output only the values relating to the desired indices:
Theodore
William
In combination with AmigaDOS commands and programs, this facility can
provide a familiar and quick-coding means of importing and exporting
file data (COPY command), passing data among AREXX programs (COPY
command with PIPE:), listing of stem variable values (TYPE command),
creation of stem arrays from variable values and vice versa (COPY
command), extraction of environment variable values (GETENV command),
editing of a variable's or stem array's values (your favorite
editor), and more.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
RexxVar requires AmigaDOS/Kickstart(TM) 2.04 or higher, and the suggested
retail price is $25.00 (US.) Please allow $3.00 for shipping and handling.
For more information, contact AugmenTek, 3606 S. 180th St. C-22, SeaTac, WA
98188-4339, (phone) 206-246-6077. You can reach Stephen Rondeau through
internet mail at: sbr@halcyon.com
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
6th of 10 Stories
Axiom Announces Anim Workshop version 2
_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/ \ Burnsville, MN -- October 1993
/ - \
/ ___ \
(_/ \_)xiom Software announces Anim Workshop version 2. Anim Workshop is
a program for the Amiga and Video Toaster that allows the user to create,
edit, process and add sounds to an Amiga animation. Anim Workshop version 2
now supports AGA screen modes and Anim5, Anim7 and Anim8 animations. Also
new to version 2 is a new interface with improved file list features, full
DCTV support, and more ARexx functions. Batch process a list of images
using ADPro or Image F/X operators to create processed animations. Anim
Workshop provides a powerful set of tools that can be used to create an
animation from a list of images or seperate an animation into IFF files,
insert or delete frames, convert colors, flip, scale, or perform any other
image operation on the entire animation. A full-featured anim player allows
the user to step through, tag frames for processing, change frame timing,
and play the animation with sound.
Anim Workshop version 2 Requires:
- ADPro or Image F/X required for some image processing features
- Workbench version 2.0 or higher
An Upgrade is available from Axiom for owners of Anim Workshop v1.0 for
$40.00.
Anim Workshop version 2 has a list price of $159.95 and will be available
in November.
For more information, contact Axiom Software at 1668 East Cliff Road,
Burnsville, MN, 55337, phone (612) 94-0596.
-*-
*StarShip* Amiga *Flash*
7th of 10 Stories
Axiom Announces WaveMaker
____ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/ ___) Burnsville, MN -- October 1993
/ /
/ (__
(_____)reating eye-catching flying logo animations just got a whole lot
easier. Axiom Software announces WaveMaker, a program for the Video Toaster
that makes it easy to create professional flying logo animations for
LightWave 3D. Simply select your logo and choose how you want it to fly on
and off the screen. Choose from a comnbination of animated background
elements:
- Streaks
- Circles
- Swirling arcs
- Starfield
- Fireworks
- Confetti
- and many more!
There are dozens of motions and background elements to choose from.
WaveMaker also includes several pre-fabricated animations that your logo
can be plugged into. The Animation Sequence function allows you to batch
render any number of LightWave scenes. WaveMaker comes with a videotape
that shows the different logo motions, animated backgrounds, and pre-fab
animations. Compatible with the Video Toaster 4000.
WaveMaker Requires:
- Video Toaster system version 2.0 or 3.0
- Workbench version 2.0 or higher
WaveMaker has a suggested list price of $249.95 and will be available in
November.
For more information, contact Axiom Software at 1668 East Cliff Road,
Burnsville, MN, 55337, phone (612) 94-0596.
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
8th of 10 Stories
The A500 SLOTS Expansion
__________ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/___ ____/ Phoenix, AZ -- October 28, 1993
//
//
// MA announces a new product for the A500: The A500 SLOTS expansion.
/__/ SLOTS allows the use of most A2000 cards on the A500.
SLOTS connects to the expansion edge of the A500 and comes in configurations
of 2, 4 and 5 expansion slots with the expansion boards having optional IBM
XT/AT (8 bit, 16bit) card slots. These slots allow for use of XT/AT emulator
boards such as the A2088 and the A2286. As with the A2000, when used with an
emulator board, these XT/AT slots can use IBM compatible cards. SLOTS is
also great to use with less expensive A2000 Harddrive controllers and memory
cards.
(NOTE: The larger configurations--(4 or more slots)--should be used only on
systems with one of the many expanded power supplies available. A2000 cards
can draw lots of power! However, if the 2 slot board is used, 1 A2000 card
can be used with the standard A500 power supply. Even 2 cards might be
possible depending on what has been added to the system. Also, SLOTS is not
compatible with A2000 multi I/O cards.)
If you can't afford to get an A2000, then SLOTS is the next best alternative
for A500 users!
The cost is as follows:
SLOTS2 $ 29.95
SLOTS2+ (with 2 XT/AT slots) $ 44.95
SLOTS4 $ 57.95
SLOTS4+ (with 3 XT/AT slots) $ 77.95
SLOTS5 $ 69.95
SLOTS5+ (with 4 XT/AT slots) $ 89.95
Shipping & Handling $ 3.00
For more information, contact T M A, 6826 N12th Way, Phoenix, AZ, 85014,
(phone) 602-241-6643
TMA also has a keyboard adapter that
allows use of the A2000 detached ***********************************
keyboard. Great for tower projects or __________ __ __ __
for the convenience of having a /___ ____/ /__| /__| /_ |
moveable keyboard. For the A500! // // || // || // ||
// // || // || //__||
COMING SOON FROM TMA: // // ||_// || / ___ |
/__/ // |__/ || // ||
A multi I/O board that adds 2 parallel
and 2 serial ports inexpensively! And ***********************************
an adapter that allows use of IBM
compatible disk drives on the Amiga!
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
9th of 10 Stories
Last Minute Halloween References
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*StarShip* News Network -- Oct 28, 1993
-. .-
_..-'( . . )`-.._
./'. '||\\. |\___/| .//||` .`\.
./'.|'.'||||\\|.. \'o.o'/ ..|//||||`.`|.`\.
./'..|'.|| |||||\``````=(|||)=''''''/||||| ||.`|..`\.
./'.||'.|||| ||||||||||||. .|||||||||||| ||||.`||.`\.
/'|||'.|||||| ||||||||||||| ||||||||||||| ||||||.`|||`\
'.|||'.||||||| ||||||||||||| ||||||||||||| |||||||.`|||.`
'.||| ||||||||| |/' ``\||`` ''||/'' `\| ||||||||| |||.`
|/' \./' `\./ \!|\ /|!/ \./' `\./ `\|
V V V }' `\ /' `{ V V V
` ` ` V ' ' '
bat from: - Janne Saarme - InterNet:luumu@fenix.pp.fi
____
" (_ _)
/ /
/ /
_/ /
(____)t was a dark and stormy night. If you could have seen through the storm
clouds above, there would have been a full moon. And it was on THIS Halloween
night that we went trick or treating, my little brother and I. I was in the
5th grade in 1993.
I'll never forget it, it was the first time I ever knocked on the door of The
New Neighbors who had moved onto our street two weeks ago. There were sheets
still at the windows, hanging precariously, and sometimes you could watch the
shadows of people cross them. Mom said she was sure their curtains would
arrive soon. I kept wondering what the eerie glow was late at night, the one
that didn't flicker wildly on the walls like the light of a TV set. I kept
wondering what this terrible screeching noise was which rang out when the
windows were open. Mom gave me one of "Those Looks" and then followed it with
a motherly smile. Yeah, Mom, I'm sure I'll grow out of it, sure. I kept
wondering, but to myself.
Someone in the Neighborhood Watch Group had prepared printed out sheets with
safety tips on them. I colored in the pictures to make them look a little
more gross as Dad intoned them over and over again. Funny, there was no name
on the flier, but it looked really slick. I saw an initial at the bottom,
checked off. "Yes, Dad, I know. We don't go in anywhere. Come on, I'm in the
5th grade now, you DON'T have to come up to the door!" My heart was sinking
rapidly. Surely he would understand a guy has to grow up. He could convince
Mom we could go door to door, yeah, I think he can.
And suddenly, before I knew it, my father was standing clear down on the
corner, and we were approaching the darkened porch of The New Neighbors. The
storming had abated, but it was still cloudy. Candles inside of a number of
jack-o-lanterns lit the sidewalk up to the porch, so we knew they were
expecting kids tonight. The thunder started booming again louder and I looked
up, seeing no lightning. How odd. We drew closer to the porch, and I knew
before my little brother, that the storm WAS IN THE NEIGHBORS PORCH! He was
dragging me up the stairs and reaching for the doorbell as the sounds of this
peculiar localized storm grew louder. Geeez, what WAS this?
Before I could stop him, my anxious little sibling had pushed the doorbell.
The storm noise faded and the door began to open. It was dark inside. An
eerie orange glow seemed to come from behind a dark hooded shape of a ...
person? and then there was a bone chilling scream. I didn't know who they
were killing, but I was determined it wasn't going to be us. I tried pulling
my brother back, and even glanced behind me to see how far my Dad was away.
Geeez, he was talking on the corner to a neighbor. And then, the hooded shape
bent down, and I could see an eerie glowing, moving PUMPKIN just hanging in
mid air, with blood running down over it. I didn't even breathe, just grabbed
my brother and ran! A moment later, when the screaming wasn't staying at the
house porch, I realized that this scream was me...
Well, that was my first experience face to face with The New Neighbors and
their Amiga computer. They told me how they had downloaded (Oh, yeah, *I*
know what that means, but you might want to explain it to Mom...) the
graphics clipart for the flier, the sound effects and the spooky animations.
So THAT was what the funny noises were late at night? And the eerie glow was
a computer monitor.
"Geeez, Mom, see, there wasn't anything weird about it after all. I don't
know what you got so worked up about..." and with a shrug, I explained to her
how they'd used digitized screaming."
From The New Neighbor's
~~~~ Bag Of Tricks ~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
^^
/\__{^^}__/\
/\// _ _ \\/\ TRKORTRT92ANIM.LZH - Bill Grapham's spectacular
/@@@\/ \/\ww/\/ \/@@/| and smooth halloween anim of
/@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@/ | File# 17124 a rendered Jack O'Lantern.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ | ~~~~~~~~~~~
| | |
| | | BLOB.LZH - Blood dribbling over your
| | | File# 9381 monitor screen. Cool, man!
| T R I C K | | ~~~~~~~~~~
| | |
| O R | | HALLOWEENIFF.LHA - The way cool Clip Art used
| | | File# 17202 in the flier.
| T R E A T | | ~~~~~~~~~~~
| | |
| | . HORROR.LHA - One of the creepiest MODs
| | /| of Halloween music they
>- - - - - - - - - - | File# 17293 could find.
| | | ~~~~~~~~~~~
| | /
| | / STORMY_THUNDER.LHA - Thunder sample, What a way
|___________________|/ spooky storm!
File# 21024
~~~~~~~~~~~
# 18339 SCREAM.LHA - Digitized Screams
# 20861 EVIL_LAUGHTER.LHA - Says it all, eh?
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
10th of 10 Stories
ICD Shares Tip for Using Two Kickstarts with ICD Hardware
From the ICD Support RoundTable on GEnie
Page 1220
A Tale of Two Kickstarts
______ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(__ __) Copyright ICD -- October 1993
/ /
/ /
(_/his section describes how to configure your system to use both Workbench
1.2/1.3 and Workbench 2.x together on the same system. This information is
particularly useful to owners of Kickstart ROM switching devices such as the
ICD Kickback.
Before proceeding, please keep in mind that there are essentially no
important differences between the FFS provided under 1.3 and 2.x except that
the FFS under 2.x is ROM-based rather that floppy-based. The fact the FFS is
stored in different locations can cause a problem when switching back to
Kickstart 1.3.
If you prep your hard drive under 2.x and you have a copy of the FFS in the
L: directory, the ICDPrepHD program will write that information as part of
the RDB (Rigid Disk Blocks) on the drive (it is not written out as a file).
When you switch back to 1.3 and attempt to boot from the hard drive, and
since there is no FFS file for the system to load, it knows to load the FFS
from the RDB.
If you prep your drive under 2.x and you DO NOT have a copy of the FFS in the
L: directory, the ICDPrepHD program will NOT write the FFS to the partition
blocks (the FFS is ROM ). This causes a problem when you switch back to 1.3.
Since there is no FFS file to load AND there is no FFS written to the RDB,
the system will give up trying to mount those partitions and will report them
as NDOS: or "Not a DOS Disk".
It is not really NOT necessary to re-prep your hard drive to use Kickstart
2.x or its features
Method 1: 1.3 & 2.0 Multiple Startup-Sequence
~~~~~~~~
This describes how to change your Workbench 1.2/1.3 startup- sequence to tell
if you are running Workbench 1.2/1.3 or 2.x and boot the system using the
appropriate startup-sequence file. Sample Startup-sequence files are given
below. This method should be used if your drive is already set up to use
Workbench 1.3.
NOTE: A text editor is needed to create and edit startup- sequences.
~~~~ Workbench provide three editors: MicroEMACS (on the Extras disk),
ED and EDIT (these are in the Workbench C: directory. Consult your AmigaDOS
manuals for the usage of these editors.
You will need to rename you Workbench 1.3 startup-sequence file to Startup13
and you should create a drawer on your hard disk named WB20 (or something to
that effect). All of your Workbench 2.x files and sub-directories should be
copied into this drawer. Copy the Workbench 2.x startup- sequence file to
your Workbench 1.3 S: drawer and rename it to Startup20. The following lines
should be added to the top of the Startup20 file using a text editor.
Assign ENVARC: DH0:WB20/prefs/env-archive
Assign C: DH0:WB20/c
Assign L: DH0:WB20/l
Assign S: DH0:WB20/s
Assign T: DH0:WB20/t
Assign DEVS: DH0:WB20/devs
Assign LIBS: DH0:WB20/libs
Assign FONTS: DH0:WB20/fonts
Assign SYS: DH0:WB20
Create a new startup-sequence file with your text editor using the following
information and copy it to the Workbench 1.3 S: drawer. Make sure you name
this file "Startup- Sequence".
version >nil: graphics.library 37
IF WARN
failat 21
echo "Booting Workbench 2.x"
execute s:Startup20
ELSE
failat 21
echo "Booting Workbench 1.3"
execute s:Startup13
Method 2: 1.3 & 2.x Boot Partitions
~~~~~~~~
This method will allow you to have separate partitions on your hard drive for
Workbench 1.3 and 2.x.
Step 1 - Create two (2) bootable partitions on your selected device using the
~~~~~~ ICDPrepHD program. The Workbench 1.3 partition must be listed first
(Kickstart 1.3 will always boot from the highest priority partition). This
example uses DH0: as the 1.3 partition and DH1: as the 2.x partition.
Step 2 - The ICDPrepHD program will prompt you to insert your Workbench
~~~~~~ disks. When you have finished installing Workbench 1.3, ICDPrepHD
will prompt you to install Workbench again (this is because there are two
bootable partitions on the drive). Just click Cancel to skip this.
Step 3 - Reboot the computer using the Kickstart 2.x ROM and boot the
~~~~~~ computer using the Workbench 2.x Install disk. When Workbench is
loaded, run the proper "Install" program provided by Commodore.
Step 4 - When you have completed installing Workbench 2.x, remove all floppy
~~~~~~ disks and reboot the computer using the CTRL - AMIGA - AMIGA key
combination and hold down BOTH mouse buttons until you see the Boot Select
screen. This screen will allow you to choose which bootable device
(partitions or floppies) that you want to load Workbench from. You should see
the two boot partitions you created plus any floppy drives you may have
attached. If you wish to load Kickstart 2.x, click on the "DH1" button and
Workbench 2.x will proceed to load.
This article is copyright 1993 ICD, Inc. All rights reserved.
Reprinted from Chapter 8 of the ICD PrepHD Software User's
Manual, with full permission from Tom Harker, President, ICD.
-*-
Over a GIGABYTE of Amiga files in our Library!
Catch your limit of Fred FISH Disks from the *StarFish* Library.
If you are after a SINGLE PROGRAM on a Fish Disk, SEARCH for it
before downloading the disk. Most are available separately!
_______________________________________________________________
| |
| |
| Permission is hereby granted to quote ALL or PART of this |
| Newscast on a privately owned BBS or in a user group news- |
| letter provided you include the following credit: |
| |
| Reprinted by permission from the *StarShip* 5-MINUTE News |
| on GEnie. |
| |
| If you would add the following, we'd appreciate it! |
| |
| Joining GEnie is easy! Use half duplex at 300/1200/2400 |
| baud. Dial 1-800-638-8369 (Canada 1-800-387-8330). Type |
| HHH at CONNECT. At the U#= prompt, * |
| type AMIGA and press Return. \ * * / |
|________________________________________________ * * ________|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * * ~~~~~~~
* * * * * * * * * * * *
We'd like to know if you reprint * The *
part or all of the *StarShip* * *StarShip* *
5-MINUTE News. Tell us by leaving * on GEnie *
mail to the SysOps on GEnie at * * _
page 555 or reach us through / * * *
internet mail to: * * * *
deb@genie.geis.com * * * *
* * / * *
* \ *
____________________________________________________________________
Don't Forget to Send in Your NEWS Tips
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The *StarShip* 5-MINUTE Newscast is always on the lookout for
new products, incredible Amiga stories, software hints or tips
and news tips.
Send your NEWS to the *StarShip* Staff at the main Amiga menu
on GEnie or leave Internet mail to: deb@genie.geis.com
The *StarShip* 5-MINUTE Weekend News is prepared each week from
new Amiga headlines. We'd love to hear from YOU!
_____________________________________________________________________
You don't have to wait, you can read your Amiga News THIS week
in the *StarShip*'s 5-MINUTE Weekend News!
