Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

Requires Hard drive, WB3 

The best Spectrum emulator 

• Greatest benchmark gets updated 

Plot complex maths functions 

«.Turbo replacement for More 

Replace the old F 

A rapid AVI playen 

U 

4096 Colours on Workbench V , 

NntaUb* \ 

A great new image processor 

AH! UPDATH • GiE"f M!9 8Al»LIMGi PAGZSTAZAM '62

"World of A12OO" A «Top 1OO Games" 

CO* FREE with wry 

SCOLOGY TOTAL MEMORY EXPANSIONS 

Discology is trie ultimate in disk copying 

power for the Amiga. The package 

the Discology Disk, manu- 

cology cartridge for making 

of heavily protected 

rograms with an external 

ANTIVIRUS 

drive. 

logy will also 

it disks, 

disks for 

Anti Virus Professional is the most pow 

erful tool for detecting and removing 

viruses Anti Virus pro will check and 

BEFO 

YOUR SYSTEM !!! 

d drives, floppy disks and 

ROM drives for viruses, 

forward to 

includes a 

page 

PLEASE PHONE FOR A FULL INFORMATION 

£19 EACH OR BUY 

BOTH for 

MODEMS 

Our highly rated, top quality feature packed modems are ideal for 

Amiga users. All modems include our FREE MODEM ACCESSORIES 

PACK (worth ;£!?.??) which includes a cable to connect the modem 

to the Amiga. NCOMM comms software, Amiga Guide to Comms and a 

list of Bulletin Boards from which you will be able to download vast 

amounts of free software as well as have access to E-MAIL facili 

ties. ^ 

• MNP 2-4 Error Correction • MNP 5 Data Compression • 

Fax Class I and II compatible, Group 3 • Hayes Compatible^ 

• Full 80 page manual • 12 Months guarantee 

14400 MODEM £ 

33600 MOI 

NET AND WEI £34.99 

ALSO AVAILABLE... 

EXTERNAL FLOPPY DRIVE £49.99 

A600/A1200 INTERNAL 

FLOPPY DRIVE £44.99 

A500 INTERNAL FLOPPY DRIVE £49.99 

MOUSE £12.99 

3.5' HARD DRIVE CABLE £17.50 

2.5' HARD DRIVE CABLE £9.99 

FRESH FONTS CD £19.99 

■ ^ ■ A1200 trapdoor fitting memory expansions feature a battery backed clock and a socket for an 

.r>*:./A. accelerator FPU. Unlike other memory expansions that conflict with the PCMCIA port, our 

- , TOTAL memory expansions include unique software that will enable the maximum amount 

of memory to be used even with a PCMCIA fitting device. 

zARLY DOUBLES THE SPEED O 1200 

4MB MEMORY EXPANSION £69.99 

8MB MEMORY EXPANSION £89.99 

PHOTO CD-MANAGER £19.99 

AMIGA POWER SUPPLY £34. 

CLOCK CARTRIDGE £19. 

CACHE CDFS £44. 

EPIC ENCYCLOPEDIA 

CD(full version) £19.99 

WORLD OF A1200 CD and TOP 100 A120I 

GAMES CD £7.49 EACH or FREE with 

every CD ROM drive!!! 

when purchased with above 

DATAFLYER 

/kSCSI+ 

fcNow includes CD 

ROM drivers and 

I instructions. 

The Dataflyer is a 16 bit 

SCSI II controller card that 

^converts trie signals on 

the internal IDE interface 

- to also run SCSI 

J~~s at the same 

; the IDE hard 

drive. The Dataflyer SCSI+ will operate up to 5 SCSI 

devices such as CD-ROMS, hard drives, Syquest remov 

able drives, tape back up drives etc. Unlike other SCSI 

interfaces, the Dataflyer SCSI+ is compatible with all 

known accelerators etc and it does not stop you from util 

ising any of the important expansion ports on your 

A1200/A600. The Dataflyer SCSI* easily installs into the 

A1200/A600 (simply pushes in, no need to remove the 

metal shield) and provides a 25 way D connector through 

the blanking plate at the back of the A1200. Full instruc- 

DATAFLYER ONLY 

SI device 

when purchsed with a 

SQUIRREL ONLY 

or 

when 

purchsed with a 

SCSI device 

SURF SQUIRREL 

T^ when 

purchsed with 

a SCSI device

ZIP DRIVES 

Highly rated SCSI drive 

will store 100mb per 

cartridge, Comes 

Complete with power 

supply, SCSI cable, 

Instructions and cartridge. 

ZIP DRIVES £159.99 OR 

£199.99 with Squirrel 

ACCELERATORS 

APOLLO 123 

" ITE £99 

NOW 33MHZ! 

i quality low cost 68030 

MMU and FPU all running at 33mh. B 

y backed clock. Easy trapdoor fining. An 

performance for such a low price. Will take a 4mb or 8mb SIMM. 

Fully PCMCIA compatible even with 8mb! Not PCMCIA compati 

ble with 8mb fitted. 

APOLLO 1230 PRO £149 < 

TWIN SIMM TECHNOLOGY 

All the features you asked for at an afford 

formance 68030 with FPU and MMU running at 

72pin SIMM sockets can take upto 32mb each. Simms 

be mixed (f.e. a 4mb and 8mb will give 12mb) and can be sin 

gle or double sided. Fully PCMCIA compatible regardless of 

how much memory is fitted. Easy trapdoor fitting with bat 

tery backed clock 

APOLLO 

1240/1260 

68040/68060+MMU ba___ 

A1200 accelerator. Features 

battery backed clock and a 72 pi 

socket for a standard 72 pin SIMM (up i 

Fully featured, fan cooled trapdoor fitting 

APOLLO 1240/25 



224.99 

289.99 

£449.99 

4MB SIMM £19.99 

8MB SIMM £39.99 OR 

16MB SIMM £79.99 WHEN 

32MB SIMM £169.99 WHtN 

PURCHASED WITH AN APOLLO ACCELERATOR 

CD-ROM D 

SCSI CD-ROM DRIVE 

jlly featured SCSI CD-ROM drive for use with the A1200 or 

A600, Features include superb metal enclosure with in-built 

mains power supply. Includes all software, cables and instruc 

tions tor immediate use. Full CD32 emulation and Audio CD 

player software included. No extras needed! Just plug in and 

■ go. Choose either PCMCIA fitting Squirrel interface or internal 

ly fitting Datafiyer SCSI interface. 

TOTAL CD-ROM DRIVES 

2 speed £129.99 

4 speed £179.99 

6 speed £219.99 

5 speed £259.99 

Prices include Squirrel. 

Add £30.00 for Datafiyer or Surf Squirrel 

NEW FULLY 

BUFFERED 

INTERFACE 

CM0M drive system for 

. Fully featured, top quality 

a top quality enclosure wtlh 

ilt in power supply. All cables, instructions, software including 

(32 emulator and audio CD player etc., included for immediate 

e. The CDROM interface supply plugs inside the A1200 (excep- 

nally easy to Tit by anybody) and provides a connector in the b!ank- 

; plate at the rear of the A1200, next to the mouse so 

PLEASE PHONE FOR FURTHER 

DETAILS AND INFORMATION SHEET 

UL 

ULTRA 8 SPE 

169.99 

199.99 

ION RENO CD-RO. 

SQUIRREL £114.99 

Superb top quality CD ROM DRIVE 

complete with Squirrel for imme- 

\ diate use on the Amiga A120O 

r a600. Includes CD32 emution, 

audio CD player etc as 

. own CD power sup- 

; etc. Can also br 

a personal audio CD oiaye 

s stereo headphone 

RENO CD WITH SQUIRREL £114.99 

2.5" HARD DRIVE 

. 

' 

high speed 2.5 IDE hard drives 

the Amiga A1200 & A600 com 

ers come complete with fitting 

, screws, partitioning software, 

full instructions and 12 months 

guarantee. All drives supplied 

by us are formatted, parti- 

'. tioned and have Workbench 

for the A600 and WB3 for 

0) installed for immediate 

use. Fitting is incredibly simple; if you can plug the mouse into 

the mouse socket, you can plug the hard drive into the hard 

drive socket. 

YOU-WATT FITTING SERVICE FOR PERSONAL CALLERS, PIEASEPHONE FOR, 

FREE 'HOW TO FIT YOUR HARDDRIVE' 

disk to increase the drive's capacity with every hard drive ordered 

85mb 

A50

Action news 

Oo blah dee, oo blah dah, life goes on 

yeaaah. So does the world of Amiga 

gaming. Hugh Poynton sorts it out... 

Cygnus8 64 

Oo er, I haven't been doing my job properly, 

I've managed to completely miss the previous 

7, the Eds gonna kill me. Hugh Poynton 

reviews Cygnus 8, a game whose title could 

confuse stupid people. 

Peripherals 

Hugh Poynton reviews Logic 3's new 

range of peripherals for the Amiga 

Jet pilot 

Take a spin in Vulcan's latest and great 

est flight sim with AC's resident stiff 

Tommy gun 68 

Salsa slaughter! Hugh Poynton confronts 

Homicidal pizza topping Tommy Gun in 

Mutation Software's latest offering. 

Aurora 69 

We chart the rise of Aurora, an exciting new 

Amiga games developer from across the water 

Absolute beginners 74 

Part 2 of Hugh Poynton's interview with 

Chris Page, student, Amiga games 

programmer and soon to be rich bloke... 

Blockhead 77 

Fit some blocks into holes. No no, it is 

interesting. Find out by reading Hugh Poynton's 

preview of Applause's new puzzler. 

oni 

EVIEWS 

PageStream_ 

Careth Lofthouse reviews the latest 

DTP package from Soft-Logik 

Laser guidance ES 

Hugh Poynton is as happy as a housewife on a 

tumble dryer with this new collection of CD releases 

EATURES 

Radio waves 

Sampling special 

Neil Mohr reveals how to get into sam 

pling without spending a fortune 

The last instalment on 

running your own BBS 

Amiga Computing 

MARCH 1997 

Art effect 1.5 

Mr Mohr touches up the Spice Girls with the 

new version of this popular paint package 

Rave new world 

Hugh Poynton interviews rave guru, Scott Hallam, 

about how he uses a humble, 

A500 to produce 

top choonsi 

The latest in the series which gives 

you hints and tips on C Programming

HE COVERDISKS 

Tiny Troops 

Excellent new demo of Vulcan Software's fun 

strategy game involving diddy 

people 

Tool-ey Unbelievable 

Another collection of utilities that make life all 

the more easier 

News 

EGULARS 

The latest in the fortunes of Amiga plus 

the most recent Web developments 

USnews 

Roving reporter, Katherine Nelson, divulges 

the latest from across the pond 

Acas 

Neil Mohr, like a cheap bottle of gin, 

will make all your problems go away. 

MIGA GUIDE 

Neil Mohr talks you 

through getting the 

most out of 

Photogenics 

What on earth is a 

Wildcard? Find out 

here 

Going dotty - Phil 

South reveals 

what ya do 

Larry Hickmott gives 

you advice on desktop 

publishing 

Space for you dear readers to let off steam 

on whatever subject takes your fancy 

Old Davey Boy 

Cusick reviews the 

best from the PD 

Netscape on 

Amiga - we 

show you how 

Paul Overaa helps 

J, with sequencer 

problems 

Help with back 

ups courtesy of 

ARexx 

4 Paul Overaa shows 

■ you how to use date 

stamps 


MARCH 1997 

OVER 

STORY 

World wide 

AMIGA 97 

The exclusive survey 

revealing what the 

Amiga community thinks 

about the direction of 

the machine in 1997

Olone female figure strides for 

wards. She has an impossibly cur 

vaceous figure. Large, pert breasts, 

firm well rounded thighs and a 

waist that any woman would kill for. Is this 

the classic adolescent female figure of 

desire. Bridget Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, 

Pamela Anderson, women who, whilst 

undoubtedly alluring were ultimately sex 

objects?. 

Perhaps. After all, Lara Croft's sexuality is 

her trademark and there is little doubt that 

her appearance will arouse more feminist 

criticism than male appreciation. 

However, there is another side to this new 

feminine heroine. Her teeth are clenched, her 

eyes hard and glaring. Her whole stance rep 

resents cold, hard and highly aggressive 

female sexuality. It is only with a second 

glance that we see in the pictures the gun in 

her left hand and certainly it takes a back 

ground position in comparison to her pureiy 

physical presence. 

Does this kind of image do anything to for 

ward the, so to speak, female struggle for 

equality or does it merely signify yet another 

attack on women by a stereotypically male 

misunderstanding of femininity? The obvious 

answer seems to clearly lie with the latter 

idea. After all, yet again the woman has been 

reduced to a merely sexual being, only capa 

ble of expressing her personality through her 

physical characteristics. At the same time, 

however, there seems to be a side to this fig 

ure which has a much more positive aspect, 

a side which I feel can not and should not be 

ignored. 

For a start, Lara Croft is totally dominant. 

Her figure, her stance and perhaps most 

importantly, her expression puts her firmly in 

control. This woman is far from a fool and 

any man who dares to mess will be sorely 

burnt for his troubles. Whilst her sexuality is 

overt to say the least, it has clearly been 

depicted as a tool to be used as part of her 

control technique. 

For women as a whole, such a figure 

appears far from demeaning. It seems that 

over the last century advances for women 

have largely been to the detriment of her 

femininity and indeed, sexuality. In our fight 

for equality we seem to be attempting to 

increasingly enter the traditional male 

The AC team 

EDITOR 

DEPUTY EDITOR 

ART EDITOR 

PRODUCTION EDITORS 

STAFF WRITER 

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS 

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 

AD SALES 

AD PRODUCTION 

MARKETING MANAGER 

PRODUCTION MANAGER 

DATABASE MANAGER 

Tina Hackett 

Neil Mohr 

Graham Parry, 

Tym Leckey 

Justine Bowden, 

Alan McLacMan 

Hugh Poynton 

Dave Cusick 

(Catherine Nelson 

Paul Overaa 

Phil South 

Gareth Lofthouse 

Sue Horsefield 

Barbara Newall 

Steve Tagger 

Alan Capper 

Victoria Quinn Harkin 

List Rental Enquiries 

0171 831 9251 

Pixelated 

- 

Pleasures 

When Tomb Raider for the PC was released a 

few months ago, the games heroine Lara Croft 

caused much controversy. Men liked her, 

I women hated her. Ultra slinky sex vixen bimbo 

or feminist crusader against the phallus wielding 

oppressors? Caroline 'Don't call me babe' 

Lofthouse decides 

domain of career development and financial 

independence. This is all well and good, but 

there certainly seems to be a point where 

women's sexuality is somehow stamped 

under the carpet in an attempt to prove our 

similarities and thus equality to men. 

Lara Croft represents an advance in com 

puter game vision in that it gives the female 

heroine power and dominance, not merely 

through the addition of a male muscular 

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR DavidWren 

MANAGING DIRECTOR Ian Bloomfield 

DISTRIBUTION COMAG {01895) 4440SS 

SUBSCRIPTION 0151-357 2961 

Member of the Audit Bureau of Grcularons 

22,051 

Jin-jun 1996 

Published by IDG Media. Media House, Adi inpon Park. 

Macc'es-Hstd SKIO 4NP 

Tel: 0I6I5 87888S, Fax: 01625 87M4* 

EMail contacts1 

Editorial edit@acomp.demon.co.uk 

Advertising sds@icomp.demon.co.uk 


MARCH 1997 

We regret Amp? Computing cannot offer 

technical help on a penonil basis either by phone 

or in writing. Ail reader enquries should be submit 

ted to the address in this panel. 

Amiga Computing o on independent puMcatkM) and 

Pmgo Fechnologies is not responsible for any of the 

aflkks in this issue or for ony off the opinions expressed 

©1996 IDG Media .No material may be 

reproduced in whole or in part without written per 

mission. While every care is taken, the publishers 

cannot be held legally reponsible for any errors in 

articles, listings or advertisements. 

Ail prices listed in die editorial content of this 

magazine are inclusive of VAT unless stated 

12 i«u« wteriptfHt«».»(UK), MM (EEC) 

imi (WorM) 

Ongoing quarterly direct debit £10.99 (UK only) 

Printed and bound by Duncan Webb Offset 

(Maidstone) Ltd 

physique but through an almost aggressively 

powerful appreciation and control of her sex 

uality. She is depicted as a figure totally aware 

of her physical qualities and in that context, 

appears able to use it to her own advantage. 

Rather than merely criticise yet another 

apparent debasement of women, we should 

perhaps hail the creators of Lara Croft for cre 

ating an exciting and incredibly powerful 

vision of female sexual aggression. 

IDG 

MEDIA 

US Reader* - Amiga Computing (ISSN 0959- 

9630) is published monthly by IDG Media. 

England, a subsidiary of the IDG Corp. Periodical 

postage paid pending at Boston. MA and addi 

tional mailing offices. Send enquiries to: 

IDG Micdesfield 

US yearly subscription ate: USA Gold J70. 

USA Standard $« 

For eight years Amiga Computing has 

been the leading magazine for Amiga 

enthusiasts.Amiga Computing promises to 

inform, educate and entertain its readers 

each month with the most dedicated 

coverage of die Amiga available

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800-735-2633 

Memory Upgrades 

GVP-32 60ns 4mb Simm 

GVP-32 60ns 16mb Simm 

99.95 

259.95 

lx8-70ns Simm 

19.95 

lx8-80nsSimm 

17.95 

lx9-70ns Simm 

20.95 

4x8-70ns Simm 

39.95 

72-pin SIMM Special 

lx32-60nsSimm (4mb) 

19.95 

2x32-60jis Simm (8mb) 

39.95 

4x32-60u.s Smiiii (16mb) 

79.95 

8x32-60ns Simm (32mb) 169.95 

l6x32-60ns Simm (64mb) 

DRAM Special 

489.95 

lx4-70nsSC/ip 

9.95 

lx4-70ns Page Zip 

9.95 

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256x4-70ns Page Dip 

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3.95 

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3.00 

Hard Drives 

W.I). 2.3" S 10mb IDE 

Toshiba 2.5 ' 1.3gb IDE 

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2.5" Hard Drive Cable 

2.5" Hard Drive Bracket 

Amiga Software 

149.00 

399.95 

189.95 

299.95 

8.95 

14.95 

Alien Breed 3D AGA/CD32 19.95 

Alien Breed 3D 11 (Hot) 

39.50 

Aminet Share 4 

7.95 

Aminet 14-16 

18.95 

Am in t-t Set 3-4 

39.00 

Amiga Developer CD 1.1 

17.95 

Amiga Repair Kit CD 

39.00 

Asim CDPS 2.0 

22.95 

Capital Punishment AGA 39.50 

CBM Amiga UNIX Multiuser 49.95 

Chaos Engine CD32 

9.95 

Deep Core CD32 

9.95 

Defender of Crown II CD32 9.95 

D/Generation CD32 

9.95 

Directory Opus 5.0 

39.95 

Fred Fish CD 

15.95 

trie Schwartz CD Archive 19.95 

Euroscene 1 CD 

6.95 

Eye of the Beholder 

29.95 

FantaSeas CD 

22.95 

GaleWay 3 I New) 

19.95 

Geek Gadgets 

19.00 

Insight Technology CD32 

19.95 

Lemmings CD 

9.95 

Light ROM 3 CD 

29.95 

Light ROM 4 CD 

39.95 

Magic illusions CD 

13.95 

Megaball 4 AGA/Non AGA 18.95 

Microcosm CD32 

9.95 

Nigel Mansell's CD32 

9.95 

Ham* IV (Hot) 

42.95 

Pinball/Sleep Walker CD32 9.95 

Photo CD Manager 

32.95 

QuarterBackTool Deluxe 

39.95 

Sports FOotbail CD32 

9.95 

Turbo Print Pro4.1 (Hot) 79.95 

Wild Wheel 

9.95 

Wing Commander 

29.95 

Worms CD32/Amiga (Hot! 19.95 

Zoo! CD32 

9.95 

Tech (408) 626-2633 

Fax (408)625-6588 

BBS (408)625-6580 

\ 

P.O. Box 4398 Carmel, CA 93921, U.S.A. 

Custom Chips 

1.3 Kickstart Rom 



3.0RomlbrA4000 

3.1 RomforA5/600/2000 

3.1 RomforAlZ/30/4000 

8372A lmb Agnus 

8375 lmb Agnus 

8372B 2mb Agnus (A3000) 

8373 Super Denise 

8364 R7 Paula 

5719 Gary 

8520 A-1 CIA 

8520 Surface Mount 

Super Buster Rev.l I 

Super Dmac Rev.4 

Ramsey Rev,7 

Fat Garv 

W.D. SCSI Chip 8A 

A2620-30 Rom Rev.7 

A2091 Rom Rev.7 

Upgrade Kits 

Internet: 5ales@visionsoft.com 

Homepage: http://www.visionsoft.com 

13.95 

22.95 

26.95 

49.95 

44.95 

59.95 

34.95 

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39.95 

29.95 

16.95 

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23.50 

29.95 

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39.95 

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29.95 

AS 320 3.1 Kit for 

A500/600/20O0/2500 104.95 

AS 312/330/340 3.1 Kit for 

Al2(>0/3O00(T)/400ii 119.95 

Software & Manuals Only 64.95 

All upgrade kits include Manuals, 

Software and Kickstart Rom(s) 

Peripherals & Hardware 

Guru ROM V.6 (Low Profile) 70.95 

Guru ROM V.6 

62.95 

A500 880K Int Floppy Drive 49.95 

A3000T Hi Den Floppy Dr. 149.95 

A500/1200 Power Supply 

49.95 

A2000 Power Supply 

109.00 

A2/3OOO Keyboard 

79.95 

A4000 Keyboard 

89.95 

Safe Skin for A12/20/30/4000 19.95 

Keyboard Adapter A2000 Keyboard 

to A4000 System 

9.95 

KB-1Q Keyboard Adapter 

39.95 

15-23 Pin Monitor Adapter 24.95 

Micro R&D C64 Power Sup. 35.00 

Ext. SCSI Case 2HH/1FH 159.95 

Exl. SCSI Case 4HH/2FH 219.95 

A320 Video Adapter 

15.95 

RCA Video Cable 

5.95 

RF Modulator 

7.95 

Microway Flicker Fixer 

220.00 

ICDAdSCSI2000 

49.95 

Microbiotics 1200 Clock 

19.95 

CBM 2065 Ethernet Card 239.00 

PC Software Clearance 

Beast Within CD 

49.95 

The California Collection Cf > 9.95 

Campaign 11 

29.95 

Chess Master 4000 Turbo 

39.95 

ComancheCD 

19.95 

Education Platinum CD 

9.95 

Eye of Beholder Trilogy CD 49.95 

MPC Wizard 2.0 CD 

9.95 

Power Tools CD 

7.95 

UNIX Power Tools CD 

19.95 

Using WWW w/Mosaic CD 9.95 

Wing Commander Deluxe CD 19.95 

ITEMS 

Arnica Technologies bidudet CD ROM 

1241 Q-Drive *%£$££ 

Quad speed external Pearl 111 CD 

CD-ROM Drive for 

a i :oo. via pcmcia. Only... 

No additions! c-1 in nc 

tnltrfact require!. 5 1/7.V J 

Vidi Amiga 24 RT Video Digitizer 

5209.00 

Power Computing Ltd (UK) 

High Density Floppy Drives 

E.76mbxi Internal Drive AmOOfTl W 

1.76mb XI External Driw: 

M-tcc 68020 A500 Accelerator 

Accepts Standard 72-pin SIMM 

$169.00' 

Apollo 630 Turbo for A600 

68020/25mhz & 68030/33mh/ 

Call 

Apollo 1240 Turbo for A1200 

68040/25 mh^ 

$375.00 

Apollo A500/2000 2meg Chin RAM 

SI 79.00 

AM-Tradc Computer (Germany) 

High Density Floppy Drives 

A40U0IT) 

A2000 

$109.00 

$114.00 

Alfa Data Multiface I/O Card III 

2 Serial & I Parallel Ports 

599.95 

Asim CDFS 3.7 w/ Fred Fish CD 

CD ROM Driver for All Amigas 

Special Price: S49.95 

PC Task 4.0 

Advanced 486 Software Emulator 

Call for pricing 

GVP I/O Extender 

2 Serial (h I Parallel Ports 

$115.95 

Amiga Technologies 

A4000T System 

040/25mhz/6mb/Igb HD 

060/50mh//6mb/Ij;bHP 

A1200HD System 

68020 I4mh2 CPU, 2mep Chip RAM 

880 Floppy Drive, Hard Drive 

Magic Software Bundle 

1438S Monitor 

14" ftibe, anti-glare, .2Smm doi pilch, 

Hori l5-40fcHz,Ven. 45-9011/ 

Ml764 Monitor 

7" diagonal PST Invar Mask, ,28mm dot 

pilch, Hori 15-MkHz. Vert 45-12SH/ 

Call for Pricing 

Commodore A600 System 

1 meg Chip RAM, 880 Floppy Drive 

Software Bundle 

S299.00 

w/540mb Hard Drive $449.00 

Village Tronic Graphics Boards 

Picasso IV (Zorro III) 439.00 

Picasso II Plus 299.00 

Picasso II (Refurbished) 199.00 

Alt Prices are in US Dollars. We ship 

worldwide by UPS, Federal Express, 

Airborne Express & US Postal Air 

Mail. All in stock items are processed 

and shipped out the same day. 

Math-Co Processor & CPU 

M68882 25mhz FX-PLCC 

M68882 33mhzFN-PLCC 

M68882 50mhzRC-PGA 

M68010CPU 

68O40RC 25mhz 

Crystal Oscillators 

35.95 

39.95 

69.95 

15.50 

95.95 

8.95 

CD ROM SCSI Drives 

NEC4XInt/£xt 95/159.00 

NEC8Xlnt/Ext 225/289.00 

Panasonic 8X Int/F.xt 195/259.00 

Ibshiba 16XIntfExt 295/359.00 

Mice & Joysticks 

Wizard Beige/Black Mouse 

Powerplayer lovstick 

WICO Black lovstick 

Gravis Gamepad 

CD 32 [oypad 

22.95 

6.95 

7.95 

12.95 

12.95 

EXPANSION 

a 

DataHyerSCSI+ 1200 

Datrflyer 2/3000 IDE 

79.95 

DataFlyer 2/3000 SCSI 

89.95 

DataFlyer 500 Ram Board 99.00 

DataFlyer 2000 Ram Board 89.00 

DataFlyer 500 SCSI 

149.00 

Baseboard 1200 

19.95 

Rapid Fire SCSI 11 Card 

MegaChip for A500/2000 

MultiStart II for A500/2000 

3128 Expansion Board 

Cobra 33 for A1200 

Ferret SCSI II forAl200 

The Clock for A 12(10 

Oregon Research 

Ibmwse+Termite TCP 

! browse 

Squirrel Zip/Jaz 'Fools 

Surl Squirrel 

Termite TCP 

Phase 5 

CyberVisinn 3D Zmb/lmb 

Mpeg Decoder 

Monitor Switch 

CyberStorm Mark II 

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CyberVision64 Memory 

CyberGraphics Software 

Blizzard 2060 Turbo 

Blizzard 1230 IV Turbo 

Blizzard 1260 Turbo 

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Modems & Telecom 

Supra Fax 14.4 Ext. 

Supra Fax 33.6 Ext. 

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AWeb-iIV.2.1(New) 

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135.00 

185.95 

25.95 

189.00 

149.95 

89.00 

1 3.95 

89.00 

39.95 

24.95 

139.00 

59.95 

Call 

Call 

Call 

899.00 

199.00 

79.00 

49.00 

899.00 

269.95 

799.95 

169.95 

199.00 

149.00 

269.00 

44.95 

7.95 

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Defective products will be replaced with the same item only. Software is non-returnable. Other returns subject to 25% 

restocking fee. Shipping & Handling charges are non-refundable. Price & availability are subject to change without 

nonce. We do not guarantee hardware and software compatibility. We are not responsible for any typographical errors.

Late Night Opening 

Wednesday & Thursday 

till 7.30pm 

Open Suri'i.iy 

I1 I lam to4pm_ 

COMPUTER CENTRE 

Amiga 

A1200 

Magic Pack 

Includes. Wordworth V4SE. Dataitore. 

OrKanlser.Turbocale 3.5, Personal 

P.liniV4.4.l>hoIoKpniti IJSB, 

Pinli.illMinuiWhiii. 

Very Limited Stocks 

Available, Early 

Purchase Recommended 

tow cost delivery Tel: 0113 231 -9444 

•2-4 Week Days £3.99 

•NextWeekDay £5.99 

•Saturday Delivery £ 15.00 

Delivery subject to stock availability 

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E-Mail: sales@firstcom.deition.co.uk WEB: www.firstcom.detnon.co.uk 

Hardware CD ROM Drives 

£379.99 

\M1438S Monitor Only!! * 

First Starter Pack 

• AI ZOO dust cover 

• 10 x DSDD disks + 1: 

• Top quality joystick 

■All 

for only 

• Deluxe mouse mat -., 

• 3 x AI 200 games £ I 7.77 

PRIMA 

High Quality 200 Watt PSU. 

Amiga A1200 

Magic Pack 

Inc. 170Mb HD 

&ScalaMM300 

Includes same software pack 3 

Magic Pack, But also includes 

Sc.ilaMM300(Rcq.-1M))f. 

£479.99 

IThe PrimaATOM PSU 

Heavy Duty PSU £69.99 

Colour Co-Ordinatei! Casing. 

4 x The Power of Std. Amiga PSU 

II Month Warranty. 

i Hard Drives 

3.5" Hard Disk Drives 

IDE SCSI 

540Mb..£l 17.99 270Mb £99.99 

850Mb..£l33.99 540Mb...£ 149.99 

l.08Gig.£160.99 l.08Gig.£249.99 

2.IGig...£229.99 2.1 Gig...£345.99 

3.2GiE...£299.99 4.3GiH....£797.99. 

Build Your Own 

SCSI Hard Drive 

• SCSI case with built in PSU£69.99 

• SCSI Hard Drive, Sclcit from above 

• SCSI Squirrel Interface£45.00 

• 12 Month W.irr.inty. 

Sportster 

• Penoii.il Voice M.i 

• Fax on Demand 

■ CallDitcriminalio 

• BABT Approved 

• 14,400 Data/14,400 Fax £85.99 

• 33,600 Data/I 4,400 Fan i 161,99 

Amiga SurfWare 

software pack 

The complete software suit 

for all your Modem needs. 

• Net Software «Web Browser 

• E-mail •IRC....Onl/ 

Also Includes:- £29.99 

30 Days FreeTrial with Demon 

GP FaX Software only£44.99 

Send and Receive Fax Software for Amiga 

Computers with a F,iDi:i Modem. 

Canon 

2.5" Hard Drives for A600/ 

A1 200 with installation kit 

inc. software, screws, cables 

and instructions 

Seagate Conner 

80Mb £64.99 l20Mb.£80.99 

l70Mb...£85.99250Mb.£l 19.99 

420Mb.£l 29.99 540Mb.£l 39.99 

810Mb.£ 1 49.99 1.0Gig.£21 9.99 

f 3.SMH.Driveinstall kit£!9.99 1 

1 •■....- ■'■..-...,, c vi ,.ii.;: ft.:! 11 

Modems 

Printers 

CITIZEN 

PRIMA 

Monitors 

Ultra CD ROM Drives 

6 X £189.99 

8 X £199.99 

16 X £229.99 

Kit No Drive 

£119.99 

Quick & Eaiy to install, fits via the Internal IDE 

Connector, does not interfere with uiiitinj; H.D. 

PRIMA 

Quad SCSI CD ROM 

• Quality Sanyo Drive 

• Own Internal PSUI7W 

• Fast SCSI Transfer Rates 

• 12 Month Warranty 

*A SCSI Controller is Req 

% AMIGA 

New 


Monitors 

Multi-Sync Monitors 

14" I438s....£269.99 

Includes Built In Stereo Speakers. 

17" 1764 £579.99 

17" 1701 £529.99 

V34+ Fax 

Modem 

Amazing Price/Performance 

• 33.6 Baud Rate«Class I Fax 

• BABT & CE approved. 

Only...£l 19.99 

Complete with cables & Amiga N-comm Software 

Bargains 

V32Bis 14,400 Fax Modem £49.99 

V22Bis 2400/9600 Modem £24.99 

Amiga SurfWare bundle when 

purchased with anv Modem 

only...£I9.99 

Modem Accessories 

Phone Line Extension Cables... 

5M.£6.99 10M.£8.99 I5M.£IO.99 

Dual Socket Adaptor £6.99 

ACCESSORIES 

Printer SwiiihBon 2 way £12.99 

Canon 8)30 

£159.99 

Printer Switch Bon 1 «i) 

1.8 Mru,. printer cable 

£I7.»» 

£4.9' 

Canon BJ( 

/ioc go 

.l(.i 

■ .«( ABC Colour printer 

IMctreprintcrclblr 

£119.99 SMetrepnmercibk 

/ I OQ QQ S""ipT ("t ***f u A HC)(g u»* 1* plr> prtfrf*'- 10 Metre printer cable t 

Cdouf print er. 7 20 r 73Oflpi tr*d*r- Jtattar ***d option*! atil+« 

CanonBJC-JIOOCol. £209.99 Citizen Projet lie £164.9? 

tSSSRSoaSSSTTSSh ^^^SÎSKKSSSas: 

S^^SffiSSE"13*1" Ci.izenPHndv.600c £376.99 

Stylus 200 

EPSON 

J10 dp., i-lppm Bliik. CoIouf I 

Stylus 100 Colour 

TlOdp;. J (ppmBljti., IppmC. 

Stylus 500 Colour 

^^ . . _ 

What HEWLETT 

Wi'/iM PACKARD 

£139 99 HP340ColourPorubli- £179.99 

£179.99 HP400Colour £154.99 

i - FuHto-our, fiQfl!c3-XriJpirtm>oLl(W*Jt0ctpiCol, 

£249.99 HP 690 Colour £149.99 

£189.99 HP870Colour 

(395.99 

£339.99 

£569.99 

2DD 8 Hr. Warranty MS.9 

500 B Hr. Warranty £75.9 

Iron-On Transfer Paper* 12.9 

Epson T20 dpi Paper Pack £ 11.99 

T-Shirt Transfer Pack £POA 

BC-06 Photo Care 11 

BC-O!Flucret»nt 11 

CanonBC-22 Photo Kil l3 

Canon BC- 

Canun Bubble-Jet Papc L I 4.99 

HP D|e90PKoto Cartridge £29.9? 

HP Photography Paper £9.9» 

HP Banner Paper £9.99 

HP DeskJet Paper Pack

VIDI Amiga 24 (RT)+ 

Colour Real Time 

Amiga video 

capture system 

£139.99 

VIDI Amiga 24 (RT) Pro 

Professional Colour 

Real Time Amiga 

video capture system 

for only..... £129.99 

Genlock 290 

£99.99 

Gen ock 292 

Fusion Genlock 

Only!! £99.99 

Entry level Genlock 

Graphics I Graphics Software 

New!! Epson GT-5000 HfNe 

£329.99 

Epson GT-8500 

£450.99 

EPSON • «o < sputi «.„ r...*. 

scunners • nieup.«.«!.«r,!. 

Epson GT-9500 

SsT- £629.99 

Epson Flatbed Scanner 

Software & Cable...£49.99 

Hand Scanners 

Power Scan v4. £89.99 

2S6 j'scjle on AGA An-ipt. M jilcile non AGA 

PowerScanCol. £174.99 

Phptogenics 2 CD 

& 14-Bit 

Graphics Manipulation 

Requires ichipH fast 

RAM minimum. 

Hart) Diik & 

CD Rom Driv*. 

|Cinema4DVer 3 

£169.99 

Amiga Ray-Tracing software 

Rcq. 3Mb of RAM, and 

Kickstart 2 or higher. 

K.start 1.0 or higher. 

only!! £89.99 

Scala MM400 

£279.99 

Recommended. 6Mb of 

RAM, Kickstart 3.0 or 

higher. & Hnrd Disk. 

Special Offers 

X-CAD2000 £19.99 

Vista Pro Lite £4.99 

Full version, with Manuals. 

Blitz Basic 2.1 £29. 

Music Home Office Cables 

Technosound 

Turbo 2 Pro 

8(12 bit Stereo Sampler plus 

man/ mare advanced features 

A bargain at only L i- V . W 

Mega-Lo-Sound 

8 bit direct-to-disk sampler 

Great value only.. £27.99 

ProMIDI 

Interface 

• MIDI in. MIDI thru 111 MIDI ■ 

• Compatible with ill MIDI ■-■•(:. i 

only!! £19.99 

• 2 x 3metre MIDI cables £9.99 

AURA 16/8 

£74.99/£29.99 

Octamed compatible 

16 or 8 bit stereo direct-to-disk 

PCMCIA samplers 

OctamedSound Studio 

Lttnit vonion of the ben /■■)■) qa 

Wizard 560-dpi 

Amiga Mouse 

£12.49 

Alfa Data 400-dpi 

Mega Mouse + 

£12.99 

2 Button Mega Mouse-E £9 

Mousetnat 4mm £2.49 

Zip Stick joystick £9.99 

Gravis Amiga joystick£ 19.99 

RoboshiftmOU^w»ici.5witCh £9.99 

Amiga Contol Pad 

Kickstart 2.04/2.05 

CIA 8520A I/O chip 

FPU25mhzPLCC 

FPU33mhzPLCC 

Peripherals 

£9.99 

£24.99 

£18.99 

£34.99 

£39.99 

Final Writer 5 

Word ProcessoriPublisher 

Latest version of this award 

Final Writer Lite 

Requires Kick 5 tart 2.04 or above, 

2Mb of Ram and I Floppy Drive, 

Hard Drive installable if desired. 

£39.99 

Wordworth 6 CD 

ft Any Amt| 

DMb.ilM 

■CD Rom 

• On Line I 

1.04 or higher 

£39.99 

IWordworth 6 Office CD 

IWurdworth A •Dltutare I •Organiser 3 

'"— £49.99 

iMini Office ^££d 

l^n.n.nli l,i *(î.^ lui'.« Dim U: I :!■■ 

£46.99 

Final Data £39.99 

• Requires Workbench 1.3 or i 

1Mb of memory & I floppy tJri- 

Amiga Modulator 

£34.99 

Zydec Speakers 

ZyFi-2....£26.99 

ZyFiPro..£57.99 

AlfaData 

Crystal Trackball 

Only...£34.99j 

Amiga PSU 

£34.99 

Heavy Duty 

PRIMA 

Zlu £69.99 

20 Q watts'of Power 

Clock Cart. Vista Lite-3 

TurboTech 

Real-Time 

lock Cartridge| 

£14.99 

Vista Pro Lite 

Requires 2Mb of Ram 

& Hard Disk With 

Kickstart 2.04 or above. 

£9.99 

I imif.--rl Off... 

Twist 2 £74.99 

Relational Database 

• Requires Workbench 2.1 or 

above & 2Mb of memory 

Final Calc £94.99 

• Requires Workbench 2.0 or 

above, 2Mb of memory min.. 

H.Disk with 5Mb of free space 

TurboCalc 4 £49.99 

Directory 

Opus 5.5 £45.99 

• Requires Workbench 2.0 

or above,and a Hard Drive. 

Other Titles Available 

Disk Magic 2 £34.99 IBrowse Cl 

Maxon Magic £26.99 

Oevpac 3 £63.99 

Gamcsmith £79.99 

Hisoft BASIC 1 £43.99 

HisoftC++£J4?.99 

High Speed Pascal £69.99 

Quarterback Disk Suite £34.99 

Net&Web £29.99 

Net & Web 2 £66.99 

Termite £3 1.99 

Termite TCP £47.99 

Lightwave3D£429.99 

GB Route Plus & GB Route Edit £29.99 

liNet 17 

liNetSet I 

••Net Set 1 

(11,99 

£13,99 

112.99 

(11.99 

(12.99 

'11.99 

£13.99 

UJ.H 

Set 3 £16.99 

IlliiHiPlui (11.99 

ft.« 

i CD Vnl J £17.99 

itivl.l (11.99 

l.ltionivl (16.99 

(12.99 

CD-PD I IS.9? 

CD-PD 2 (S.99 

CD-PD J 

Colour Ubrary 

no Collect* 

Emuli 

, Unti 

Entou 

£L99 

£11.99 

£1.99 

(17.99 

(ll.9« 

Epic Collection 1 (IJ.« 

; Epk lnt.Entii[]opcdij(lS.»9 

EuroCDvl (IL99 

rtnnw»re (16.99 

si Univene tIT.tt 

pn Delight 2 (11.99 

Geek Gidgiti 

GIFS 

(17,99 

117.99 

£lt.99 

Amiga-CD32 S«rti] Network ob. 

Amiga Parnet pîiei Network £ 

Modem Cable 9-25/25-25 £9.99 

Null Modem Cable £9.99 

Amiga-VGA Monitor £12.99 

Amiga-TV Cable £2.49 

Amiga-CM8833 Monitor £9.99[ 

Amiga-Scart Cable £9.99 

Printer Cable (1.8 metre) £4.99 

Disk Drive/Monitor Ext. £14.99 

Analogue PC'.stick Adapt. £7.99 

I Mouse/Joystick Extension £4.99 

Mouse/Joystick Autoswitch £9.991 

MIDI Cables (3 metre x2) £9.99| 

Centronics-Centronics £9.99 

SCSI D25-50 way Cent. £11.99 

SCSI D25-50 way Micro-D £15.99 I 

SCSI Adaptors from.. £ 15.99 

SCSI Terminators from... £ 19.99 \ 

Internal SCSI Cables from..£9.99 

2.5" IDE Hard Drive Cable £5.99 I 

Amiga-3.5" Hard Drive 

Custom Cable Suppliers 

For all your custom cable requirements 

jusi give us a call, we can usually supply 

most cables next wording day. 

Amiga CD ROM's 

Delivery £1.50 per title or £3.99 for 4+ 

| 

IO7BWeirdTe.tures [II.?) 

Grjphi«5tnwtionil £17,99 

l7Bil*LSDVol. I (17.99 Amiga Developers CD Ver I.I £12.99 GuinnciiO.it ot Relordi£l7 

I7BH& LSD Vol.2 (17.91 

Tin* CO lonfjin ill the nulviili needed lo develop »ftwirv Horror Scnuliom (18* I 7 99 

[7Bil & LSD Vol.1 in.11 

lor Ih» Aniifi From *mi(i TtchnoÔfict com« Iht COfnpltW Mullrill {17.99 

I7BI1 Collection (10 ff 

Illuliom in 3D 

(t.99 

17BH Communion (M 91 

ImigtPDCD 

(17.99 

17Bit PhliF« 

l7BilSlhDimcniion 

(t It 

(17,9* 

:Vc,."Gcek Gadgets CD £17.99 

Inlo-lht-Ntl 

(17.99 

(4.99 

417.9* 

JD IrnagevOOjecti £1.99 

to gel s; j ned proerdenrninp on the Ar 

Ught ROM * 

O4.fl 

AGA E.pentntt INFWI2.9J 

AGA Experience 2 NFA(I 1.9» Buy Weird Science Network 2 CD & 

Lijhi ROM Gold 

Magic Publither 

(17.99 

£]9.M 

ACA Toolleil 97 £1.99 

CD-3 2, Serial Network Cable. 

Migit WB Enhjn 

(B.99 

elopcriCD£lI.9? 

Amiga Repair Kit £19.99 

Foronly,£35.99 

Htln 

(199 

Spot.alFX(l7!! 

New.'.'EPICM/M Encyclopedia £25.99 

MultinKdiaToolkit I*2£I799 

Multimedia Bickdropi£l7 99 

0JK M 

NetworkCDl (11.99 

Noihin[hutCIFlAGA(IJ.»9 

Nothing bulTctrii £9.99 

New.'.'Women of the Web £21.99 

Over450Megs of information on over ISO of 

[he worlds most beautiful women. 

-Contains No NudidCy* 

New!! Magic Publisher 4 CD set£39.99 

Inc. Wordworth 4 TD, Final Writer 4 SE, 

10,000 Fonts and 5,000 Clips and more. 

Sounds Terrific 2 & Octamed 6 

Two terrific titles bundled together to 

purfeccEy compliment each other 

Both titles for only. £ I 8.99 

Octamed Sounds Studio CD £22.99 

Total I f rev imped new version of this top selling 

AmiN-'t I 7-n ,..,-.., .,. £12.99 

Scoop Purchase!! Insight Dinosaurs 

Designed for the CD32/CD-TV but usable 

on any Amiga with CD. Now Only £4.99 

Ideal Xmas Gift!'- 

GuinnessDiscofRecords £17.99 

CD Version of the ever-popular fact filled 

book. 

Oh Yes More Wor 

Photogcnitt 1 

Rtiro Guld CD 

Sci-Fi Sentitian 

Sound fX Stnu 

Sound Library 

Sdi.Trmf2JOcl 

Source Code 

I (B.99 

£89.99 

(22.99 

(9,99 

(17.99 

(17.99 

(I T.99 

(11.99 

(17.99 

d6£l7.99 

(17.99 

Spite» Auronom, (15.91 

SprtiilFX Vol.1 £17.99 

The Sptilrum CD 96 l 1(5* 

The PenonilSuite £I7.»9 

Utility 1 (PDSoft) £17.99 

Uiihiiei E«perifnce £11.99 

Weird St. AMOS PD £16.99 

Weird Sc. An.mjtioni(16.?? 

Weird 5c. Clip An H.99 

Weird Sc.UPD Gold (17.9? 

Women Of The Web (20.99 

Woriibtnth Add-Om £10.99 

WoHd Allll £14.»9 

WoHdlri(o95 (17.99 

Women of the Web (11.99 

in 

FREE!! Prima Shareware CD-ROM worth £ I 0 with every order

QuikPak replies... 

Ohis month Amiga Computing undertook a huge survey of the Amiga com- machines instead of the Video Professional market, 

munity (see cover story page 21). The aim was to determine what The Video market is currently providing the only purchasers of A4000Ts 

support is left for the machine and the direction the platform . - that is why we devote so much development to them," said 

should go in 1997. We took our results lo QuikPak-front-run- ,*£^3^F' "^ Robinson. 'The A12G0 Escom brought back was a huge mistake. 

ner to buy Amiga-to see what they thought... B^ 1992 systems re-introduced at ridiculous prices...hey, I'm a 

Dan Robinson, the Amiga Development Manager, agreed ^k fanatic and even I wouldn't pay a thousand Canadian dollars 

with the majority of survey respondents who said the Amiga ^k for a computer I purchased for 599 dollars in the spring of 

urgently needs an improved OS with better Internet/network B, 1.994. We do have an entry level system ready to go, but the 

support, plus improved graphical and audio facilities. B big question is, will anyone buy one?" 

QuikPak also realises the importance of a move to faster The demands for all-powerful Amigas at ever cheaper 

processing speeds (probably using DEC Alpha chips), but its prices do not impress Robinson either, 

specific development plans will only be announced when "Cheap, cheap, cheap...to these people who whine about 

the company's bid is accepted. Hopefully, this will be con- \W cheap PC IBM clones,! say so buy one and shut the f"k up," 

eluded in the very near future. a^ A j wjSjir Robinson said. The

Qnternet on the up 

Online Information 96 took place at Olympia recently and attracted 22 per cent more people 

than last year's event. As the world's largest exhibition and conference for the on-line informa 

tion industry, it showed the industry was growing and it has already sold 70 per cent of space 

for next year's show. 

Showing that '96 was a positive year for on-line developments, Demon Internet announced 

1996 was its most successful year to date. Cliff Stanford, Demon internet founder and manag 

ing director said, "Our aim in 1996 was to ensure that Demon Internet customers had the best 

possible service and to make their access to the Internet as simple as possible." Demon gave 

users extras such as homepages and a free 5mb virtual Web server. It predicts, though, that 1997 

will be even bigger. 

On the other hand however, results published by Key Note say that although the Internet is 

transforming the workplace, the internet revolution is still being snubbed by home users in the 

UK. in 1996 only 3 per cent of homes were connected to the Internet compared to 14 per cent 

of American homes - showing the UK is way behind in terms of accepting the net. 

It predicts that this will change and rise to 4 per cent by the end of next year and 12 per cent 

by the year 2000. In terms of actual homes connected, this means that the 900,000 users in 

1997 will rise to 2,600,000 by the end of the century. 

ASTER VISION 

liyama has announced a new 15" monitor which 

supersedes the current model, the Vision Master 15. 

The new model, the Vision Master 350 will cost £260 

and comes with a three year warranty. New features 

include 0.28mm dot pitch fiat square tube, a 350mm 

diagonal viewable screen with non-glare and anti 

static coating, 29-69KHz horizontal and 50-160Hz 

vertical scanning frequencies, and push button digital 

user controls. 

MIGA FOUNDATION NETWORK 

A new enterprise has been set up in 

Norway to collate as much data as possible 

on all things Amiga. Jon Lennart Berg wants 

to set up an internet based service for 

Amiga users all over the world. He told 

Amiga Computing why he wants to set up 

such a service. 

"Ever since the death of Commodore, the 

voice of the Amiga community across the 

world has been a silent one. It is under 

standable developers are keeping their dis 

tance because the backbone we called 

Commodore, is no longer there to keep 

them updated with vital information - 

information about the common hardware 

setup, general interest and total market 

demand. And by all means, companies 

should not be expected to obtain such 

information themselves." 

His scheme sounds ambitious, "The list 

of services such a network could do is end 

less. My first goal is an on-line information 

service, providing world-wide overview of 

all things Amiga related, including market 

demand for specific software. 

Also, user-groups and retailers that are 

giving their support should be represented, 

and the list updated. But most importantly, 

a full scale hardware/software report, this 

will be the most important service the net 

work will supply." 

His intentions are then to target compa 

nies to get them to port software onto the 

Amiga - he even hopes to get Warcraft-ll 

onto the Amiga. He also hopes to address 

the issue of piracy. 

For more information write to: 

The Amiga Foundation Network 

Jon Lennart Berg 

BlvingeVn. 19 

N-3173 Vear 

Norway 

Membership Fee is : 25-Nkr, 2 English 

pounds, or 5 US dollars. 

DISTRIBUTED 

Fl Software/Licenceware has said that it 

is interested in hearing from program 

mers of high quality Amiga software who 

would like to have their programs dis 

tributed via the Fl Licenceware scheme. 

Fl had to put a hold on taking on 

any new titles over the past three 

months due to technical difficulties, but 

it claims this is all sorted out and Fl is 

ready to push ahead and add to the 

existing 150 exclusive titles currently in 

its catalogue. 

For more details contact Steve Bye 

at Fl Software, 31, Wellington Rd, 

Exeter, Devon. EX2-9DU. Or, for a 

faster response, e-mail Steve at 

steve^f l lw.demon.co.uk. 

The new 

Vision 

Master 15 


MARCH 1997 

Chart Time 

CTI have released its December Charts which 

reveal that Turbo Print Pro! 5.0 is still at number 

one for Amiga Productivity, Aminet 16 is also 

still at number one in the CD charts and Hugo 

tops the bill for Amiga games, followed closely 

by SWOS and Capital Punishment. 

Newsies Step 

Foreword 

If you live in the Huddersfield area and want to 

know how to get more from your Amiga, you 

may like to pop along to the Huddersfield 

Amiga User Croup. Meetings are held fortnight 

ly and topics include DTP, graphics, Comms and 

Wordprocessing, as well as how to get your 

Amiga connected to the Internet. Phone Geoff 

(01484 543534), Tony (01484 460888) or 

Robert (01484 654291) for more details. 

AmigaPhile 

pressies 

For the Amiga Fanatic in your life, you may be 

interested in the Amiga Atlanta 10th anniver 

sary video. The two hour + video includes the 

evenings events and speakers and is available 

in either NT5C or PAL standards, with discounts 

available for other Amiga usergroups that 

would like to arrange a group purchase for 

their members. 

Shoppers 

frustration 

Isn't it the most annoying feeling when you've 

just bought something only to find it available 

five pounds cheaper down the road? A new UK 

only Web site has been set up to remove this 

annoyance for those looking for a computer- 

related bargain. It has over WOO computer 

products listed and where they can be bought 

from at the best price. Simply type in 

www, s treetprice. com 

Stop press! 

With events moving so fast in the Amiga world 

at the moment, it's hard to give you up-to-the- 

minute news in a monthly magazine. However, 

we aim to keep you informed on a weekly 

basis through our Internet site. This ensures 

you hear the news as soon as we do - the 

minute a story breaks we will post it on the site. 

At the time of writing this issue, no deal to buy 

Amiga Technologies had been completed. 

Please follow the News link from our main 

home page (http://www.acomp.demon.co.uk/)

NEW OWNER YET 

At the time of writing, the Amiga still doesn't have a 

new owner. Negotiations are ongoing and it appears 

QuikPak continues to be a front-runner. However, as 

Dan Robinson told us, QuikPak's patience is also run 

ning out. "The deal will close sometime this 

month...preferably this week...it better or we plan to 

withdraw our offer and get on with other core busi 

ness." He continued, 'The Amiga market is dying a 

slow death and six more months of negotiations will 

benefit no one. Hopefully Mr. Hehmbach will realise 

this at some point." 

EW FROM 

HA AGE 

Haage and Partner has announced that it is 

currently developing a new Word Processor 

called Easy Writer. Details are brief at the 

moment but Haage says that it will especially 

fit the needs of students and business people 

Plug-Ins for Art Effect 1.5 are also now avail 

able. Some can be downloaded from the Web 

site - such as ScanQuix 3 and Toolbox Icons. 

You can also buy two packages both priced at 

S45 US. One is called PowerEffects and lets 

you add effects such as Page Curl to curl up a 

corner of the page, or Wave to create wave 

effects. Also included are the colour effects like 

Lightchange, Alien and Prism. 

The other, called SuperView, lets Art Effect 

read 32 and write 20 additional file formats. 

One in particular, is the ability to read the 

PhotoCD format. 

~d~| Pagecurl 

Color ♦ 

lurl Opacity 

Shading V ] 

Background ♦ 

Corner ♦ 

Hew Plug-Ins are now 

available for Art Effect 1.S 

Foreground color 

I 1000 

Use background color 

Ausfuhren 

Lower right corner 

WAY 

We would like to apologies to anyone who 

is waiting for their 10 Out of 10 Essential IT 

product. The orders are currently being 

processed and will be with you very soon. 

The value of Amiga Technologies has also been 

thrown into question. Mr Robinson said, "in our 

opinion the assets, technology etc. are not worth the 

20 Million he seems to be holding out for. They may 

have been (and I mean maybe) last year when 

Viscorp made its initial offer...but that was last year." 

QuikPak are looking to its future plans whatever 

happens and revealed, "We have some exciting plans 

for the Amiga computer should we be successful in 

our attempt to either acquire AT, or the parts we are 

interested in - namely an exclusive right to the 


MARCH 1997 

Amiga Computer. We are not interested in (he set- 

top market and tried to co-operate with Viscorp ( Bill 

Buck) for months." 

Robinson continued, "The Liquidator knows our 

top offer, if there is someone lurking around with 

more cash than us then I guess they will emerge with 

the technology. That said, they will still have to deal 

with us. We do have all the chips and the capacity to 

make more, not to mention a very large ciaim as a 

secured creditor." 

PEEDY SOLUTIONS 

US Robotics has announced 

release of a new modem which 

is upgradeable to the high 

speed X2 56Kbps technol 

ogy. XI technology 

allows Internet con 

nection at twice the 

speed available over 

standard telephone 

lines. 

Priced at £229, 

the Sportster Flash 

has flash memory and 

owners can register for 

the X2 upgrade which 

they can get free of charge 

from the company's bulletin 

board. Flash memory also allows for 

any future upgrades to new technology. 

M 

The new Sportster Flash 

Modem from US Robotics

Amiga Mice 

Replacement Mice £6.95 

MegaMouse 400 £9.95 

MegaMouse Plus (3 Button) £10.95 

Optical Mouse £29.95 

New Golden Image 

TrackBall £19.95 

Pen Mouse £12.95 

(ideal for CAD) . , 

Ram Boards 

A500 512K Ram Board w/o clock ...£15.00 

A500+ 1Mb Ram Board w/o clock...£20.00 

A600 1Mb Ram Board w/o clock ...£20.00 

A600 1Mb Ram Board with clock ...£30.00 

A1200 4Mb Ram Board with clock...£49.00 

A1200 8Mb Ram Board with clock...£65.00 

FPU 33MHz £20.00 

Controllers 

Al&Power Hard Drive controller A500 .. .£99 

AT-Bus Hard Drive controller A2000 £69 

Oktagon 2008 SCSI controller £99 

Muldface III £79 

PCMCIA Controller for CDRom for A1200 £69 

NEW MULTI I/O CARD 

FOR AMIGA 1500/2000/4000 

Active S port high speed serial card. 

Multiboard Support 57600 Baud rate on all 

channels simultaneously, _£299 

New AlfaQuatro 

Specially made hardware and software. Allows 

4 ATAPI devices, ie, 2 IDE hard disk & 2 IDE 

CD Rom to Amiga 4000 internal IDE 

controller, through Aifapower on Amiga 

500/500+ and possibly Amiga 1200 comes, 

with full IDE Fix software £59 

Joysticks & Joypads 

Amiga Joysticks .£9.95 

Amiga foypads -£9.95 

Multi Media Speakers 

100 watt (pmpo) £30.00 


240 watt (pmpo) £45.00 


300 watt (pmpo)* ..£59.95 

* 3D surround sound 

Floppy Drives 

External Floppy Drive 

for all Amigas ' £39.95 

Internal Floppy Drive 

A500/500+..'. £35.00 

, ■ 

Internal Floppy Drive A600/1200+ 

A-Grade Double Density box of 50 disks ...£13.00 

including colourful labels 

IDE Hard Drives 

HARD DRIVES + AT-BUS CONTROLLER FOR 

AMIGA 500(+)/A1500/A2000/A3000/A4000 

AT-Bus hard drive controller £69.00 

Aifapower hard drive controller £99.00 

Aifapower-640 640Mb 

hard drive £199.00 

Aifapower- 1.2G 1.2Gig 

hard drive £259.00 | 

Other sizes please vitig 

Memory for Aifapower-Plus (new) 

marked Aifapower-Plus 

4Mb SIMMS £20.00 

8MB SIMMS £30.00 

16MB SIMMS £79.00 

Memory for Aifapower (old) 

Every 2Mb Zip-Rams £89.95 

IDE 2.5" Hard Drives 

FOR AMIGA 600/1200 

IDE-170 170Mb hard drive £79 




IDE 3.5" Hard Drives 

FOR AMIGA 1200/4000 



IDE-LOG l.OGig hard drive £175 

IDE-1.2G 1.2Gig hard drive £165 



Miscellaneous Products 

DO floppy disks (50) 

inrtudiuji mubicabnmd disk labels £13.00 

DD floppy disks (100) 

includes multicoloured disk labch £25.00 

3.5" Hard Drive Kit for A600/1200 

tbumilaftwan £15.00 

Colourful Mouse Mat 

Animal Jungle design and Dinosaur design ...£5.00 

Optical Mouse Mat £5.00 

2 in 1 Scanner/Mouse Pad 

Can be wed at a auma pad £5.00 

Contoured Wrist Pad £3.00 

Plain Wriscrest £2.00 

CD Cleaners - 1/2 price 

CD Rom Cleaner £3.00 

Automatic CD Rom Cleaner (huttrypovmd) ...£'10.00 

Laser I.ens Cleaner £4,50 

Complete CD Rom for all Amigas 

Quad Speed CD Rom for A500 £129 

meeds Alfapower V6.8 or higher) 

Quad Speed CD Rom for A600/A1200 £149 

(inc CD32 emulation) 

Quad Speed CD Rom 

forA1500/A2000/ 

A4000 £109 

Special Offer 

r this Month 

640Mb 

Hard Drive £99 

1.2Gig3.5" 

Hard Drive .£165 

1.7Gig3.5" 

Hard Drive £179 

2.5Gig3.5" 

Hard Drive ~£239 

170Mb 2.5" 


420Mb 2.5" 


A1200 4Mb 

Ram Board with dock £49 

A1200 8Mb 

Ram Board with dock £65 

Greyscale Scanner from £79 

Greyscale Scanner with OCR 

limited stocks £99 

8 Speed CD Rom .£169 

16Mb Viper 

1230 33MHz £199 

4Mb Apollo 

1220 25MHz with FPU £79 

Accelerator Boards 

A1220 APOLLO 

A1220 APOLLO 

Accelerator Board + 4Mb 

A1230 VIPER 

Accelerator Board 33MHz 

A1230 VIPER 

£99.95 

£79.00 

£119.95 

Accelerator Board + 4Mb 33MHz ...£169.95 

A1230 VIPER 

Accelerator Board + 8Mb 33MHz ...£180.00 

All prices include VAT. Please add £3.50 P&P for items under £30.00, £5.00 for items over £30.00, 

£8.00 P&P for Scanners, Speakers & Hard Drives, £10.00 courier for next day. Tax Free Export Orders Welcome. 

Golden Image acccpB Access, Visa, Cheques & 1'ostal Orders. E&OK. Prices subject to change without notice. Goods subject to availability, Specifications subject to change without notice 

Goldenlmage (UK) Ltd 

Unit 65, Hallmark Trading Estate, Fourth Way, Wembley, Middx IIA9 OLB 

Sales Hotline No: 0181 900 9291 Fax: oisi 900 9281 

http://www.reserve.co.uk/gold Talking Pages: 0800 600900

US bargain bin 

Bue to the success of its holiday sale, Intangible Assets Manufacturing has announced it 

will continue to sell at the lowered prices permanently. One exception to this plan is 

the DiskSalv4/MRBackup bundle, which has been reduced in price further to S49US. 

Also, 1AM regrets that the Deathbed Vigil video and t-shirts have been sold out. 

However, Dale Larson, el Presidents of 1AM (yes, that is his title), has searched for and found 

more of the Boing Ball logos that he had been including with orders over the holidays. They 

will continue to be shipped with any order made directly with 1AM, until the new stock is 

exhausted. There is estimated to be a two-month supply. The exact logos that will be sent are: 

Square Boing Ball logo, a rectangular Boing Ball logo with the word "Amiga" and a rectangular 

rainbow checkmark logo with the word "Amiga". All logos are made of metal 

In another promotion, 1AM is offering a second Annual Amiga Developers Conference poster 

to customers ordering more than S1OOUS in merchandise directly. There are over a dozen of 

these posters to give away. 

mica Zone extended 

The Amiga Zone, an on-line resource for Amiga users since 1985, has announced an addi 

tional method to access its system. There is now a World Wide Web interface for the 

AmigaZone SIC Membership in AmigaZone is still required to access these files and mes 

sages, however. The site is located at http://amigazone.com/. 

In order to use the "chat" function from the Web site, you must use the WildCat Navigator, 

which can be found at http://www.mustang.com/. The AmigaZone is still telnettable at the 

normal address of amigazone.com and will still be based on the Wildcat BBS software. 

Two types of accounts are currently available. The first is a free two-week trial account with 

several limitations. The second is the full account, costing S19.95US per month, with unlim 

ited access to the Amiga Zone, including the file library. Call 916-641-9320 for details of both 

and tell them the Amiga Zone sent you. For more information about the new interface or the 

Amiga Zone, visit the other Web site at http://vMw.amigazone.com/. 

uikPak Announce 

QuikPak, the manufacturer of the Amiga 4000T, has 

posted an open letter to the Amiga com 

munity. In the letter, QuikPak details 

instances of its loyalty to the 

Amiga platform and Amiga 

users. The company then 

states that since there 

seems to be no progress in a 

deal between Amiga 

Technologies and VIScorp, 

that it, as an Amiga 

Technologies creditor, has 

made an offer to the bankruptcy 

trustee of AT. 

Despite the fact it have not yet 

received a response, QuikPak 

expects the negotiations with the 

trustee to proceed quickly. QuikPak 

goes on to state that it would appreciate 

input from the various aspects of the Amiga 

community, including users, dealers, develop 

ers, distributors and other manufacturers. The 

letter is signed by Dave Ziembicki, CEO. Any 

inquiries/comments should be sent to Dan Robinson, 

Director of Business Development of Amiga 

Computers. He can be reached via e-mail at quik- 

pak@ix.netcom.com and other contact information can 

be found at http://www.amigasupport.com/quikpak/. 

In other news, QuikPak has announced pricing and 

configurations for the "luggable" Amiga 4000. All mod* 

els will include 2 megs of chip RAM, 16 megs of fast 

RAM, 2 gig hard drive, 6x CD-ROM with pre-installed 

AsimCDFS and a high resolution LCD display. 

Two of the models have the 68040 25mhz proces- 

sor. The first has a manu 

facturer's suggested retail price of 

S4495US. The second also includes the NewTek 

Video Toaster and Video Toaster Flyer and has an MSRP 

of S9495US. The remaining two models have the 

68060 50mhz processor. The first of these has an 

MSRP of S4995US. The second also includes the Video 

Toaster and Video Toaster Flyer, and has an MSRP of 

S9995US. 

There is no pricing information available for the 

other new QuikPak machine, the A5050T, which fea 

tures a Pentium and an Amiga built into one comput 

er. Also, there is an entry on the Web site for a com 

puter model called the A1630LD, listed as coming 

soon. No other information was available and Dave 

Ziembicki would not comment. 


MARCH 1997 

by Katherine Nelson 

IDEO 

PROMOTION 

Nova Design has acquired a new video 

which wiii demonstrate some of the capa 

bilities of its ImageFX and Aladdin4D soft 

ware. The tape is about 

nine minutes long and fea 

tures music from Thomas 

Krehbiel of Nova Design. 

All editing and effects were 

done on Amiga or Draco 

systems. Contact Nova 

Design for information on 

obtaining this new video at 804-282-1157. 

The video was created/produced by a 

Chicago-based company known as The 

Vantage Point, with the talents of lead artist 

Bohus Blahut For other video work utilis 

ing the Amiga, call The Vantage Point at 

773-465-5158, or send e-mail to 

bohus@xnet.com. 

Contact point 

Intangible Assets Manufacturing 

828 Ormond Avenue 

Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604 USA 

voice: 610-853-4406 

fax: 610-853-3733 

e-mail: info:: iam.com 

sales: iam.com 

www: http://www.iam.com/ 

The Amiga Zone 

ftp: amigazone.com 

telnet: amigaione.com 

www: http://www.amigaione.com/ 

QuikPak Corporation 

phone: 888-784-5725 

fax:610-666-8086 

e-mail: quikpaW ix.netcom.com 

www: http://www.amigasupport.cont/ 

quikpak/ 

Nova Design, Inc. 

1910 Byrd Ave., Suite 214 

Richmond, VA 23230 USA 

Orders: 804-282-1157 

Fax: 804-282-3768 BBS: 804-965-0234 

The Vantage Point 

Bohus Blahut - Modern Filmmaker 

phone: 773-465-5158 

e-mail: bohus ; \net.com

PiLxlipn AMIGA REPLACEMENT CHIPS AND SYSTEM UPGRADES 

REPLACEMENT & UPGRADE CHIPS 

(Factory New) PRICE 

1.3 ROM O/S S12.50 

2.04 ROM O/S $19,95 

2.05 ROM (V37.350I (A500 & A2000) SI9.95 

2.04 ROM A3000 (Sel of 2 Rom 0'1) S34.50 

2.1 Workbench for floppy users (complete O/S 

without support file] S7.95 

3.1 ROM (A500/A20DG) S49.95 

3.1 ROM (A3000/A4000) S6J.50 

3.1 ROM (A1200) S62.50 

3.1 ROM|s] Software/Manual SI 24.00,'S 137.50 

HOW Switcri'Swilch-Itt with speaker S17.5D 

3.1 manual only S69.95 

3.1 Software S10.O0 

3.1 Workbench lor floppy users (compiele 

O/S without support file) S7.95 

A20S1 7.0 ROM Upgrade S19.95 

A2620/30 7.0 ROM Upgrade S19.95 

8520 CIA S11.95 

8372A/8375 Agnus wilh diagnostic disk/guide S29.95 

8375-B (2MB) (A3000) 318069-03 " S25.50 

8375-10 Agnus (318069-10} PAL S17.95 

8375-18 Agnus (318069-18) 2 meg PAL S15.95 

Paula (83E4) A500/A2000 S10.95 

Denise (8362) A500'A2000 S10.95 

Super DsnEsa 8373 w/diagnostic disk S19.95 

Gary 5719 A500/A2000 S10.95 

Busier 5721 (A2000) S16.95 

68003-BMHz CPU (DIP) S11.50 

68003-16MH; CPU (DIP) $22.50 

68030-RC50 PGA $84.50 

68882-25 PGA $24,95 

Western Digital SCSI ch:p 8A $27.50 

Video Hybrid ■ (A500 390229-03] S9.95 

GVP Upgrade Chip Series II $29.95 

SURFACE MOUNTED DEVICES 

(For A1200. A3000. A4000. CD32) 

8520 PLCC (391078-02) S19.50 

Amber (390538-03) S24.50 

DM AC 4 (390537-04) S34.50 

Lisa|391227-01) S24.50 

Ramsey (tev.4) 390544-04 S19.95 

Ramsey (rev. 7) 390541-07 S36.50 

Alice 8374 (391010-01) S2E.50 

Ga1(XU9) (390123-01)) S21.95 

Gayle (315107-02] $15.95 

Budge (391425-01) $33.95 

1'a.XlrOll is North America's largest wholesale supplier of Amiga replacement and upgrade chips 

Super Denise (391554-01) S29.95 

Paula 8364 (391077-01) S27.95 

Gary (390540-02] S32.95 

Super Buster Rev. 11 (390539-11) S34.50 

Bridgetie (391380-01) $29.50 

Video DAC (351422-01) $19.95 

68000CPU (350084-07) $13.95 

68020-16(391506-01) $18.95 

MC 68882RC25A PGA New (390434-01) $19.95 

UC68882RC20APGA S30.00 

MC 68a82RC33A PGA $37.50 

XC 68862RC40A PGA $69.95 

MC 68O30FE25B OFP (390399-05] $19 95 

MC 68030RC50 PGA $79.95 

MOTHERBOARDS (Factory New) 

CD32 (no RAM memory) NTSC S33.95 

CD32 complete with RAM/iested NTSC S109.95 

CD32 ccmplete with RAM/tested (PAL) S39.95 

CD32 replacement CD mechanism S39.95 

A500 (rev. 3] inc all chips $39.95 

A500 (He* 5/6) S89 50 

A600 S134 00 

A1200 (NTSC) Limited quantny 3.0 O/S all me.TOfy New $300.00 

A1200 (PAL) Limited quantity 3.0 O.'S all merrary Ne*...S300 00 

A2000 LATE Hev. 8372/2.05 S399.95 

A3000(16MH?) S254.50 

A300Q (25MHz) S294.50 

A3000T (Tower) 25MH; $389.95 

C64 (refurbished, tested all chips) S29.95 

C64 untested, all chips clearance 2/S25.00 

AMIGA FLOPPY DRIVES (Factory New) 

High Dens. External (loppy lor all Amigas S114 95 

High Density Internal Floppy Drive: 

A4000 S104.95 

A2000 $109.50 

A500 Internal 660k $38.95 

A600/1200 Internal S47.S0 

A2000 Internal 880k $39.95 

A3000 Internal 880k $49.95 

A4000 Internal 880k S49.95 

CD32 Replacement CD mechanism $39.95 

1541 (refurbished) S39.95 

1571 (limited qjantity) S49.95 

POWER SUPPLIES (Factory New) 

A500 S38.95 

A500/A600/A12M Big Ft. (200 Watt) Micro PjD S79.95 

A500 power sugply (used) 220 volts Europe $19.95 

• A3000 COMPUTER KIT (NTSC) NEW: Put together your own computer. Kit 

includes new A3000 motherboard, daughter board, A3000 power supply and 

4 megs of ZIP memory (16MHz or 25MHz units available) CALL FOR 

PRICES 

• A520 Video Modulator Adapter Kit with cables and instructions (NTSC). 

Run any Amiga on your television S10.50 

• AMIGA COMPATIBLE KEYBOARDS - KB100 is a sophisticated in-line 

adapter box for use with IBM keyboards. Use the KB100 on your 

A5007A2000/A30007 A4G00. (A600/A1200 require soldering.) S49.95 

• Complete service manuals. Some manuals may be photocopied. 5 day 

delivery on some manuals. A500, A500+, 590, A1000, 1230 printer, 1802, 

1902, 1902A, 1934, 2002, 2091, 2300, 2630, CDTV, 1581, C65 S19.95 

A500 schematics. A600, 1084S, 1084S-D1, 1084ST, 1936A, 1960, A2000S24.00 

A1200, A3000, A3000T, A4000, CD32 S39.95 

• 1084S MONITOR MOTHERBOARD WITH BUILT IN FLYBACK TRANS 

FORMER - This new board will cure 90 percent of 1084S monitor prob 

lems. Simply switch the motherboard and your monitor problems are 

solved! This motherboard with the flyback factory mounted is the exact 

replacement and works with 1084S models only. It's easy to install.S69.95 

• AMIGA MONITORS - We have a large supply of refurbished 1084(S), 

1902,1930, 1802.1702 monitors, etc. For example, the 1084(S) is $169.95 

with cable. 90 day warranty CALL 

• SUPERGEN (Internal Genlock) for A2000 - By Progressive Image 

Tech/Digital Creations. Most flexible Genlock and video overlay device for 

all Amigas. Supergen provides a flexible broadcast quality Genlock at a 

very, very affordable price. Comes with external control box and cable. 

Includes a 90 day warranty instruction book. This is a factory refirb unit sell 

ing for a fantastic low price of $179.95 

Paxtron 

CORPORATION 

A590 SI 9.95 

A1200 110 volts original factory $38.95 

CD32 Original / Factory (110 vofls) S21.95 

CD32 Original / Factory (220 volls] $14,95 

CD32 Big Foot (200 Watt) Micro R/D $74.50 

A2000 110/220V. internal original S69.95 

A20OO Big Fool (300 Watt) Micro R/D $144.50 

A300O internal (110'220 volls] $110.00 

A3000 Big Foot (250 watts) Micro R'D $144.50 

A3000 Tower 5124.00 

A4000 internal [110 rolls) ...S119.00 

A4000 int. 300 Wall Big Foot (eichange) S169.95 

1084S Phillips Flyback Transformer only $38.95 

1084-D1 Phillips/Daewoo Flyback only $38.50 

10S4-D2 Daewoo Flyback Translormer only ......$33.50 

1084S new Motherboard'FlyBack see below 

1084S power supply beard (refurbished) S29.95 

C64 nonrepairable $14.95 

CS4 repairable $19.95 

C64 5.2 amp Heavy Duty (also 1750 REU) S39.95 

C65 110 Volt S21.95 

C123 external 5.2 amps $39.95 

1541 11/1581 $7.50 

KEYBOARDS (Factory New) 

A500 (limited quanlity) $39.95 

A500 $26.50 

C128D (limited quantity] $24.95 

A1200 S34.95 

A2000 US version (Amiga Technologies) $74.50 

A3000 US version (Amiga Technologies) $74.50 

A4000 US version (Amiga Technologies), =74.50 

A2000 keyboard adapter to A4000 $8.95 

ADD ON BOARDS (Factory New) 

68020-030 (A4000) $67.95 

A2058 (BK) (A2000) Expansion board 8K SS9.95 

A501 original Ram Exp. - 512K (A500) $17.95 

Microway Flickerfixer S224.00 

Slingshot Pro/pass thru (Micro R/D) S37.50 

A105O RAM Expander (A100Q) 256K $10.95 

APOLLO ACCELERATORS 

1230 Lite Stffc 63030 W.MMu+FPU fcr A1200 computers $144.95 

1230/50MH? 68030 for A1200 computers S239 00 

1240/25MHZ 68040 for A1200 computers S369 95 

1240/40MHZ 68040 for A1200 computers S459.95 

1260/50MHZ 68050 lor A1200 computers S729.95 

1£00 SCSI Module for Apctlo A1200 accelerators SI 29.00 

2030/25MHz68030.68832+SCSI-2forA2000S299.95 

• ONLY AT PAXTRON • 

28 Grove Street, Spring Valley, NY 10977 

914-578-6522 • 800-815-3241 800-595-5534 - 888 PAXTRON • FAX 914-578-6550 

Hours: 9-5 pm ET Mon.-Fri. • Add $6.00 UPS Charges • MC/VISA • Prices subject to change 

E-Mail for orders & correspondence: paxtroncorp@rcknet.com WE SHIP WORLDWIDE! 

2O30.'5OMhz 68030-68882-SCSI-2 for A20G0S389.95 

204O/25MHZ 68040-SCSI-2 forA2000 S449.O0 

2040/40MHZ 68040J-SCSI-2 forA2000 $529.00 

2060/50MHz 68060.-SCSI-2 for A2000 S849.95 

3O6O.'50MH; 58050.SCSI-2 for A3000 Desktop .$829.95 

3O4O.'40MHz 68040+SCSI-2 for A3000 Desktop $559.95 

4WOM0MH; 68M0-SCS1-2 for A3000T S A4C00(T| S559.95 

4060/5QMHZ 68060-SCSI-2 for A3000T S A4000(T) £819.95 

Mini Meg 2Mb Chip RAM Board $135.00 

SX32 5299.00 

PHASE 5 ACCELERATORS 

Blizzard !250Turbo Board $749.95 

Blizzard 1230-IV Turbo Board S269.95 

Optional Blizzard 1260 or 1230-IV SCSI Kit S169.95 

Blizzard 2050Turbo Board S849.95 

Cybersiorm Mark II 0EO/5QMHz S849.95 

Cybersiorm Fast SCSI-2 Module S179.95 

CyberVtsion 64/3D 2Mb Call 

CyberVision 64/3D 4Mb S389.95 

CyberVision 64/3D MPEG Module Call 

CyberVision 64/3D Scan Doubler/Momior Switch...Call 

CyberGraphX Software $49.95 

MOUSE CONTROLLERS (Factory New) 

Amiga 1352 S22.50 

Wizard 3-button (for alf Amigas) S22.95 

A4000 S26.85 

Amiga CDTV S15.95 

Amiga A1200 mouse port replacement kil $7.95 

CD32 controller $11.75 

DIAGNOSTICS 

Advanced Am>ga Analyzer (see beow) S59.95 

Final Test diagnostic disk by Amiga ., $7.95 

Amiga Trouble shooting Guide S7.95 

Commodore Diagnostician II $6.95 

Service Manuals SEE BELOW 

CLEARANCE SALE 

A500 Computer INTSC) with P/S S119.95 

A520 (New) Video Modulator Adapier $12.50 

2.04/3.1 ROM Switch - (Switch lit) with speaker...$17.50 

15-23 pin adapter cable... S19.95 

Monitor Cables - 30 Different types CALL 

Monitors: 1034S. 1802, etc SEE BELOW 

Laser printer memory board 0K (Al1 HP units)....$24.95 

Sony OD6150 data cartridge $7.5D 

Joystick - Captain Grant (for all Amgas] $2.99 

ADVANCED AMIGA ANALYZER 2.0 

An Inexpensive Diagnostic Analyzer That Works On All Amigas 

ft complete diagnostic hardware and software analyzer [uses point and click 

software interface.! The analyzer cable plugs into all Amiga ports simultaneously and 

ihrough sophisticated software, displays 8 screens to work from. Shows status of data 

ports, memory (buffer) checker, system configuration and auto test. Reads diagnostic 

status of any read/write errors from track 0 to track 79. Software automatically tells 

what errors are found and the chips/components responsible. 85 to 90% of the 

problems presented to service centers are found with this analyzer. Saves you lots of 

money on repairs and no end user or repair shop can afford to be without one. Don't 

be fooled by iis low cost. Simply plug in cables from the analyzer box. This 

diagnostic tool is used by end users and Amiga repair centers 

worldwide and is the only one of its kind. Over 15,000 sold. 

New low price 

Amiga "Q-Drive" 1241 CD ROM Drive for the A1200 

The Amiga Technologies "Q-Drive" 1241 is a PCMCIA interface for the Amiga 1200 

(CD32 emulator), tt is a super fast CD-ROM drive equipped with a PCMCIA connector. 

Price: $179.95 (Quantity pricing available) 

*** WANTED •** 

Get Cash for your A2000 computers. 

New or Used (NTSC or PAL). 

We pay top dollar. We also pay UPS shipping charges. 

ATTENTION DEALERS 

Paxtron has been appoinled as a North American distributor for ACT Apollo and 

Phase 5 accelerators. Give us a chance to quote you our best prices. 

New enlarged Web page: www.paxtron.com 

Our web page is continually updated with latest products and price changes. Visit us and 

check it out. Enter your order Ihere or by E-mailing us at paxtroncorp@rcknet.com. 

ATTENTION DEALERS: II you would like lo receive our dealer catalog fax us your letterhead.

Extracting 

Cover Disk 

files 

Before putting the cover disks anywhere 

near your computer, write protect them 

by moving the black tab in the top corner 

of the disk, so you can see through the 

hole. Doing this makes sure you cannot 

damage your disks in any way. There is 

also no reason why the cover disks need 

to be written to, so even if the computer 

asks you to write enable the disks, don't 

do rt 

To extract any single archive, simpty 

double dick its icon, and follow the on 

screen instructions, if you want to 

extract the program to Ram, select the 

NOVICE level on the welcome screen, 

and press proceed once on the current 

screen, and then again on the next The 

program can then be found in your Ram 

disk. Normally most programs need fur 

ther installing, so read the documents on 

how to do this. 

Hard Drive 

Users 

Hard drive users do not have to boot 

with the first disk, but you must make 

sure you have the Amiga's Installer pro 

gram in your C drawer. To make sure 

your hard drive has the correct files in 

place double click on the SetupHD icon. 

This will check if you have the Installer 

program and if not will copy it across. Do 

not worry as 'rt will not write over any 

existing Files. 

All you hard drive owners will find 

MultiExtract very useful. It is a separate 

method of extracting the cover disk flies. 

It allows you to extract a number of files 

in one go, to your hard disk or Ram. 

When you run MultiExtract, you will be 

presented with a number of check boxes, 

each representing one of the programs 

on that cover disk. Just de-select all the 

programs you do not want extracting, 

and then press proceed. All the selected 

programs can now miraculously be 

found in the selected destination. 

-Installing-

less than half an inch for none metric people. 

From the main menu screen you can 

choose to have a single or two player game 

and also the type of controls you want to use 

- mouse is highly recommended. 

Troop selection lets you pick how many 

and what type of troops you want. Just scroll 

through the lined up troops at the bottom 

and click the ones you want to fight with. 

When finished, press the subtle war button to 

kick off. At the top left and right you can get 

Control panel 

Scan Map - Shows a 

mini version of the 

current level, click on it 

to be able to scroll 

around the current level 

T/iV ^"TBRv, 

v':r

To use the following 

program you need 

to have the Magic 

User Interface 

installed on your 

system. Without it 

you will not be able to run any MUI pro 

gram. MUI is available from any good 

PD house. 

EvenMore 

Author: Chris Perver Workbench 2.04 

It is strange that, with the Amiga being in a 

seemingly constant state of liquidation, the 

place you have to turn to for quality replace 

ment programs is the public domain. One 

program that reaily needs replacing is the 

More program - the standard text reader 

that every Read Me file should use. 

Unfortunately it has not changed once for 

what, the last ten years, and it is an utterly 

dire program. 

People with Workbench 3.0 are better off 

as the much more capable MultiView can be 

used, but even this for text viewing is not 

perfect. EvenMore is another in the long line 

of replacement More programs and even 

though this is an early version is very good. It 

is fast, small, you can save the position of the 

text window and you can select a public 

screen for it to run on as well. 

Simplicity itself, EvenMore is a fast 

straight forward text viewer 

These are really two separate archives but 

are both from the same people and 

MysticView requires the Render Library to 

work anyway. Render Library is a new 

Amiga library that is available for program 

mers to easily manipulate images that are 

up to 24 bit in depth. 

As an example the small program 

MysticView gives you a DataType based 

image viewer that will display a scaled and 

dithered picture in a scale-able window in 

the Workbench, and gives you an idea of 

the power behind the Render library. There 

is even support of Ham screen modes. 

SysSpeed v2.1 

Author: Alien Design Workbench 3.0 

Ifs true when people say benchmarks are meaningless, just com 

paring how many instructions a CPU can process in reality means 

nothing. What is important is how fast do actual real life process 

es perform, like image processing or file crunching. 

SysSpeed has taken the most widely used PD and commercial 

programs on the Amiga and produced a set of benchmarks for 

them based on pre-set images and text files that can be run by 

these programs using ARexx. The end result is a set of benchmarks 

that can measure both the processing, graphics, hard drive, mem 

ory and over all system performance. 

MyFormat 

Author: Daniel J Andrea Workbench 2.04 

Seeing as how I was bitching about the 

Amiga's system software, I might as well carry 

on. This is a replacement for the sadly lacking 

format command. Thanks to the comprehen 

sive interface, every type of file system is 

available for you. If you rename the program 

to just format, drop it in your System drawer 

you can replace the old version so if you pick 

format from the Workbench menu the this 

new version will automatically pop up. 

IS ■ 

,..,..1 

p 

Replacing system software is 

my favourite past time 

AVID 

Author Lasilo Torok Workbench 3.0 

An AVi file is a PC movie file, similar to 

Quicktime on the Mac or CDXL files on the 

Amiga. They are animation files that have a 

sound track, usually Amiga owners will 

never come across these files, but with 

wider Internet and CD-ROM access for 

Amiga owners, you are more and more 

likely to bump into one of these files at 

some point. 

RenderLib & 

MysticView 

Author: Captain Befat Workbench 3.0 

Providing the best dithered displays, all 

your pictures look great with MysticView 


MARCH 1997 

^ « era 

DGraph 

e. 

L/^jii; 

CO I" 

Author: Chris Underwood Workbench 3.0 

Ever had the urge to plot complex mathe 

matical equations in three dimensions? Of 

course you have, and finally here is the pro 

gram to let you do it, and save the results off 

as an IFF file. Everything is fairly straight for 

ward, you can select the quality from the 

steps slider and the angle to plot at, and if 

you select the dynamic switch you can pro 

duce animated equations. 

Speccylator 

Author: Richard Carlsson Workbench 2.04 

1 have seen a few Spectrum emulators 

in the past The first few were quite 

nasty, taking over the system and doing 

horrible things with the CPU that made 

things crash on certain machines. Then 

ZXAM came along and gave you a good 

Cadtools interface and multitasked so 

you could get on with other things. 

Speccylator takes things a little bit 

further and gives you everything you 

would want from a spectrum emulator. 

It is fast supports the normal spectrum 

snapshot files, runs on a promotable 

Intuition screen and has the normal 

Amiga pull down menus when in use. 

There are specific 68000 versions to try 

and get every last bit of speed out of 

your prehistoric processor. 

VlDEOb 

Drivers 

Author: Dan Kovacs Workbench 2.04 

You may know that the Amiga supports a 

screen mode called HAM or Hold And 

Modify. This is a unique screen mode that, 

with only a small number of bit planes, lets 

your Amiga display thousands of colours. 

Workbench has never directly supported 

HAM screens even though there's no reason 

why it should not. Normally the only two 

ways to get access to HAM screen modes is 

to either hack existing screen pre-sets or use 

MUiScreenMode. For people without MUI 

this is a suite of pre-sets for the screen mode 

preference program to let you access HAM6 

and HAM8 screens.

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BGV0I

he story of the 

Amiga is a strange 

one. Since Commodore 

went bust in 1994, impres 

sive corporations have arisen as appar 

ent saviours of this unique platform, only to 

disappear leaving a string of unfulfilled 

promises. If it was any other computer, the 

Amiga would have been forgotten by now. 

But this is not any computer, and its sup 

porters are not your average computer users. 

The birthplace of the Amiga it may be, but the American 

market has suffered since Commodore's demise. According 

to most of the companies in the survey, the US market has 

been struggling of late, though the Video Toaster market 

remains fairly buoyant. 

international community 

developerrf^ffalers and user groups 

ooks to the future of your computer 

RandhirJesrani from retail firm Compuquick painted pos 

sibly the bleakest picture, saying that customer interest had declined over the 

past five to six months. Software Hut has experienced a similar downturn in USbased 

trade, which they ascribe to the fact that people are becoming discour 

aged by waiting for a resolution to the ownership situation. 

By contrast, lAM's Dale Larson said business was buoyant during the holiday 

season, thanks partially to reduced pricing and small incentives like the histori 

cal 'Boing logo' offer. However, he added that 'Too many customers have had a 

wait-and-see attitude since Commodore went bankrupt". 

As to what needs to happen to revitalise the market, all the US companies 

were in agreement on one thing: A new owner is needed, and soon. "Thereafter 

we would like the OS to be expanded for Internet access, memory management, 

The Amiga has certainly been wounded by 

delays in its development, and many of the 

best companies have either gone bust or 

moved to more stable 

kets. But there is still a whole 

host of others developing and sup 

plying products to keep us happy, 

plus the real hope of new, powe: 

Amigas on the horizon from QuikPak. 

1997 should be the year the Amiga's des 

tiny is finally resolved. In this exclusive sur 

vey, you'll find out what an entire community 

of businesses and users think should happen 

next 

networking, and better printer/scanner access," said 

Compuquick's Jesrani. "We would then like the Amiga 

platform to offer more power in terms of processing 

speed and CD quality sound, though it should retain its 

custom chip-set" 

'The new owners should advertise and market the 

Amiga so that the confidence of Amiga owners is maintained and the mar 

ketplace becomes familiar with the Amiga brand name and the technology," he 

added. 

Dale Larson's masterplan was rather more wistful. "Ideally, Bill Gates would put 

me in his will and then die," he said. "I'd have hundred of millions of dollars to 

invest in creating a new generation OS to compete with WinTel as a better gen 

eral-purpose system with better apps. Short of that resource, I don't see how the 

Amiga platform will continue to develop in terms of new generations of hard 

ware/OS. It will still develop through third-party extensions and enhancements, 

though, and it remains excellent in some niches and as a low-cost home 

machine." 


MARCH 1997

Great Britain 

Good Old Blighty, always dependable for the best 

Amiga support...or is it? 

"The Amiga market still accounts for 30-40 per cent 

of our total revenue, and customer interest is still 

extremely strong - an estimated 50 per cent of all our 

calls are Amiga related," says First Computer Centre. 

Blittersoft, Digita and HiQ all agree that customer 

enthusiasm remained surprisingly high. 

Commitment to the Amiga was very strong among 

the UK survey respondents and the developers con 

tacted all had products in development, at least in the 

form of updates to existing software. HiQ's Steve Jones 

was particularly optimistic in this respect, promising an 

RTC version of the award-winning Siamese system 

with a few surprises thrown in for the near future. As 

for the Amiga itself, HiQ thinks it might just show the 

way for the new owners. 

"We want cross platform support (as in stage 3 of 

Germany 

This is the biggest Amiga market in the 

world,according the majority of the survey 

respondents. As for product developers, Phase 5 

has probably done more than anyone 

to keep the Amiga up-to-date of 

late, thanks to its superb range of 

accelerators and graphics cards. 

General Manager Wolf Dietrich 

toid Amiga Computing that the 

company is looking forward to 

releasing its PowerPC accelerators 

and Amiga. "We are working 

closely with major software ven 

dors to realise massive support for 

this architecture," he commented. 

Another company, Haage and Partner, are 

developing products like the image manipula 

tion package Art Effect and Storm C, the power 

ful development system. They say that the 

strongest customer support in Germany comes 

from students that find the individual strengths 

of the machine appealing. 

I TALY 

"In general, the interest in Amiga 

products has remained unchanged," 

commented Michael Battilana of 

Cloanto, Italy's top software develop 

er. "We are continuing to invest in the 

Amiga, and for 1997 you can expect 

both new versions of current prod 

ucts (eg The Personal Suite) as well as some surprises." 

Battilana said that survival for the committed Amiga developer 

with the right sort of product has not been too tough so far. In fad, in 

some ways, the lack of new models has meant customers have had 

more money to spend on software instead. 

"The Amiga is a low cost, low maintenance machine,' he said when 

asked how it should be improved. "But we now have an old 

Operating System, which is not very open to the new standards which 

are increasingly interconnecting the world." 

He continued: "I would push the Amiga into the very low price seg 

ment with a new model having fewer and more standard compo 

nents ■ as it is, if s too expensive to manufacture. Today, there are no 

computers in the price range which made the C-64 or Spectrum the 

most popular computers ever sold, but I think the demand is still 

there. 1 would also increase attention on specific emerging countries." 

the Siamese System), because customers just want to 

run software and not worry about platforms," says 

Jones, adding: "The Amiga should go Alpha and drop 

the Power PC, we are working on ways to do this 

smoothly while maintaining compatibility. I hope to 

not only be supporting the Amiga in two years time 

but be in a position of guiding its future!" 

Blrttersoft's Paul Lesurf emphasised that any new 

owner would have to encourage third party support to 

ensure a vibrant future for the Amiga. 

"More affordable third party peripherals are impor 

tant to any future success, making use of existing tech 

nology on other platforms," he told Amiga Computing. 

" The new owners should open up the Amiga technol 

ogy to third party developers." 

For a slightly different perspective, we also contact 

ed Technocom, a company offering specialised 

Internet access for Amiga owners. The company 


MARCH 1997 

believes there are only a few thousand UK users with 

Net access at present, but the community is growing 

with the potential to reach numbers in the tens of 

thousands. 

"The Amiga, with its multitasking abilities, is an ideal 

computer for Internet access even in its present form," 

comments Technocom's Tim Evans. "But the Amiga 

needs top-flight Internet software - browsers like 

IBrowse, Voyager and AWeb need to be developed at 

greater speeds, to take advantage of new develop 

ments like frames. Most importantly, it needs Java." 

SER GROUP PERSPECTIVE 

CUCUG's Amiga Web Directory has become the top Internet resource for any Amiga user with 

access, making it a truly huge and international community. We decided to get its perspective on 

the international Amiga scene, and CUCUC's Kevin Hisel provided the answers: 

Q. Is the number of Amiga-owning members 

for your user group in decline? 

A. No, in fact the Amiga membership is on a 

sharp upswing. However, our case is different 

from most other group's as many members 

have joined CUCUG to support our efforts with 

the Amiga Web Directory and are located all over 

the world, it appears, though, that many of the 

other local dubs we communicate with are los 

ing Amiga members. 

Most ex-users seem to have 'jumped ship' 

moving to more up-to-date and less expensive 

hardware offered by Wintel and Macintosh plat 

forms. Many of our own members who have 

exited say that they could easily be called back 

to the Amiga if the OS was ported to a more 

robust processor and costs were reduced. 

Q. In which countries is Amiga support still 

strong? 

A. It appears the Europeans still enjoy a very 

active base of Amiga support However, as time 

goes by, this question will become less mean 

ingful since the Internet is decidedly shortening 

the distance between users and vendors. 

Q. Do you think QuikPak would make a good 

new owner for the Amiga? 

A. We're not sure what the best choice of new 

owner would be, but we will say it needs to be 

someone besides Escom's trustees and it needs 

to happen very soon. 

Q. How would you like to see the Amiga plat 

form develop? 

A. Many of our members would like to see the 

Amiga OS ported to a more sophisticated 

processor environment. Power PC was our first 

choice, however questions have been raised as 

to the PowerPC's long-term commercial viability, 

so perhaps another RISC solution would be 

more appropriate. It would also be helpful if the 

new Amiga supported modern hardware stan 

dards like PCI. USB, IEEE-1394. 

Q. What should the new owners do to revitalise 

the Amiga? 

A. It's probably most important to build and 

ship something right away. QuikPak seems to 

be on this high road having recently announced 

the first new Amigas in years - much to the 

delight of Amiga fans. But ultimately the Amiga 

needs a major hardware upgrade and some 

fundamental, niche talent to set it apart from 

the millions of cookie-cutter Intel machines. The 

new owners need to find modem-day Amiga 

pioneers and build a truly different computer 

and counter-market it much like Apple did early 

in the Macintosh saga. 

Q. How optimistic are you about the Amiga's 

future ? 

A. We feel that fundamentally the Amiga 

remains one of the most capable computing 

platforms. While it has fallen behind in hard 

ware and OS capability - especially networking 

and the Internet - the machine and its software 

are still remarkable. Of course, this does not 

guarantee a bright future...The right company 

and the right people still need to work hard to 

make success happen for the Amiga. 

EST OF THE 

WORLD 

The general consensus has been that the 

strongest interest in the Amiga has been 

in Europe. Even companies like the 

Australian CP Software who are gener 

ating reasonable sales of Opus 5.5 say 

the main market lies in Europe. 

Companies such as Click Crafix and 

Systcom Limited told of the state of the 

market in the Far East, where there is a 

small amount of fanatical support As is 

the case with many of the Amiga com 

panies, their dedication was such that 

while the Amiga exists, they're commit 

ted to supporting it Each of these devel 

opers were working on new projects 

(such as Click Grafix's 'GeneRexxf soft 

ware) for the Amiga.

HOW OF SUPPORT 

One thing that has kept the Amiga platform so 

strong is the loyalty of the users and, I'm sure many 

would agree, the various shows that are held help 

keep the market aiive. It gives the companies the 

chance to meet the customers face to face - and 

find out what they really want. It also shows a 

unanimous front against the onslaught of the PC. 

Shows are held all over the world. From the 

huge Computer '96 at Cologne to the smaller scale 

Expos, Amiga users flock in droves to find out 

about the latest for their platform of choice. The 

Amiga still dominated at last year's Cologne show 

with only 30 per cent of exhibitors from the PC 

side. In 1996 we also saw a successful Video 

Toaster Expo held in Hollywood, with high profile 

exhibitors such as AntiCravity and Nova Design. 

The Amiga Central Ohio Network recently organ 

CENE AMIGA 

The demo scene has always been particularly 

strong on the Amiga. Even now, regular parties 

are held and although support for the demo 

scene has dwindled in some parts of the world, 

it is still popular in many of the Scandinavian 

countries and places like Germany. 

Manfred Linzner (Pink/Abyss) told Amiga 

Computing, "Most demos are coming today 

from France, Finland, Sweden. The UK as a 

demo country is DEAD! One of the most 

famous groups of all time (ANARCHY (UK divi 

sion) died some years ago and so also the UK 

demo scene." He believes the Amiga demo 

arena is the best demo-related scene, 'The best 

musicians are found on Amiga, the best draw 

ing artists and probably the most innovative 

coders are also showing their skills on Amiga at 

its best." 

Thies Edeiing from RAW Online the demo E- 

zine, (http://www.xs4all.nl/~blahh), told us 

about the scene in The Netherlands, 

"Compared to the real scene-countries like 

Sweden, Finland, Germany and smaller ones 

like Norway, the UK, France, it's quite small. In 

these countries there are several active groups 

who produce demos on a regular basis. In The 

Netherlands I can't think of a group - consisting 

of only Dutch members - who produces a 

demo for every big party." 

He tells us that demo parties worldwide are 

Some work by demoers, Abyss 

ised an Amiga show 

and, pleased at the ) 

response, are organis 

ing one for this year. 

Dave Pearce from AmiCon 

told us, "Last year's show was 

successful in a number of ways: 

Nova Design, Silent Paws and several 

other vendors simply sold out of product in a short 

space of time, which showed Amiga consumers are 

not afraid to buy." 

"Most people were amazed that there were so 

many Amiga users close by. Companies who par 

ticipated were great, too. Many of them went out 

of their way to do something special for the event 

and were very careful and patient with questions 

and inquires about their products and commitment 

Albert by Louie - vote for your favourite pic at Raw 

still very popular, 'There is The Gathering in 

Norway, each Easter. I think this is the third big 

party. From what I've heard though, the peo 

ple attending there mostly consist of PC- 

gamers (isn't it fun, playing network 

Quake for three days at some party? No, 

it isn't). Of course there is Assembly in 

Finland, every year at the beginning of 

August. And last, but definitely not least, 

the most popular one: The Party in 

Denmark, every year between Christmas and 

New Year. This one is the most popular in the 

Amiga scene." 

Jon Lennart Berg from the Norwegian based 

Amiga Foundation Network said, "Our demo 

scene is probably more alive now than ever - 

every coder wants to beat the PC at what the 

PC does best - namely tex 

ture-mapped 5-D. Last year 

we saw the highlights of 

Amiga demo-coders demol 

ishing any PC resistance with 

4-8Mb AGA demos - hopeful- 

iy some of this technology 

will make its way into the 

games we all hope for." 

In Australia, however, 

the demo scene is not as 

good. Warrick Burgess told 

us, "The scene itself is pretty 

bad currently, with only two 

active groups, Cydonia (mak 

ers of Defy, the disk line) and 

a new group called Broken 

formed by The Heavyweight 

The Amiga demo 

scene is still going 

strong in some 

countries 

Cologne's Computer '96 

showed that there was still 

huge support for the Amiga 

to the Amiga market." He con 

tinued, "I feel that events such 

as ours show people that there 

are Amiga users out there, keep 

ing up with today's standards and 

still doing fabulous things with their 

machines. I think all of us realise the 

Amiga situation is grim and there's been lit 

tle to be thankful for, but when a large number of 

Amiga users get together to talk, browse and inter 

act with each other, everyone leaves with a better 

outlook." 

This year looks set to have just as many Amiga 

shows. It has been cinfirmed that the World Of 

Amiga UK is going ahead, plus plans are being 

made for a show in Melbourne, Australia to name 

but a few. 

Raw Eztne keeps you informed of the demo scene 

an ex-member of Devious Dezigns 

Terminator (ex-member of Dusk). 

and 

Both are still producing things (Broken has 

taken over releasing the Devious Tools util 

ity pack series) but generally the scene is 



1 I chase PCs. I don't think it will ever com- 

Jjr / pletely disappear, but like the C64 scene 

just continue at a smaller size." He goes 

on, "Having said that, the commercial 

(retail) side is more interesting. While the 

Amiga isn't selling in chain stores here, the 

interest and support of smaller computer spe 

ciality stores hasn't dropped off. One store 

recently even advertised wanting to purchase 

A1200s!" 

In Australia there are only two active groups 


MARCH 1997

Canada 

Famous For: QuikPak, 

Capital Punishment (the game!) 

Aurora Works, Asimware Innovations Inc, Wonder 

Computers 

Sound Bytes: "QuikPak are certainly putting the 

country well on the Amiga map and if the pur 

chase goes ahead, Canada will be bigger 

than ever on the Amiga scene." 

America 

Famous For: 

Anti-Gravity, Intangible Assets Manufacturing, 

Software Hut AmiTrix, NewTek (Lightwave) 

Sound Bytes: "Overall 1 believe customer interest in Amiga 

products is down slightly as people become discouraged 

with waiting. We are still very busy because we sell to deal 

ers and end-users as well as around the world." Software 

Hut "Despite what others may tell you, the Amiga is a 

good profit centre with a loyal base of users. These 

users are what keep the Amiga alive and they are 

l happy and overjoyed to support dealers 

that carry Amiga products." Anti- 

Gravity 

URVEY RESULTS 

We contacted over forty Amiga companies 

from all around the world. Here's what they 

said: 

• Most dealers have seen a gradual decline 

in custom over the past year, but the market 

remains very viable. 

• The Amiga Video market remains very 

strong in many countries. 

• The majority of developers contacted still 

had Amiga products in development though 

most projects were upgrades rather than 

totally new products. 

• Over half the respondents said the Amiga 

desperately needs a faster processor ASAP. 

Most of these say if s got to be Power PC or 

DEC Alpha. 

• Almost half said it badly needs its OS 

updated; a few specified a need for better 

networking and Internet support 

• About a quarter said it needed improved 

graphic and/or audio capabilities. 

• The majority thought a new owner should 

focus on the cheap, entry-level computer 

market A few expressed concern that 

QuikPak were focusing too much on the 

Video Professional market 

• The majority also thought a strong 

advertising campaign in the general com 

puting press would be required to show 

potential customers that the Amiga is 

available. 

• Many said that the new owner needs to 

network better with third Party Developers 

than has ever happened in the Amiga mar 

ket before. 

• A minority of the respondents said a new 

owner should concentrate on the video 

niche market and/or develop cheap big box 

Amiga that are fully expandable. 


MARCH 1997 

Britain 

Famous For: Blrttersoft, HiQ (Siamese 

System), Afmathera, Digrta, (Wordsworth), Hi-Soft. 

Sound Bytes: "The number of Amiga computers in the UK 

means that there is still a significant market for Amiga related 

services. Also ISP's should try to support all types of computers for 

access, as the WWW is a cosmopolitan place!" Technocom 

"Although Commodore died, the userbase didn't and many com 

panies have continued to support the machine. People continue 

to buy new software and hardware and the few Amiga shows 

that continue are still packed. The Amiga has a loyal 

bunch of dedicated followers and so the machine 

can still be profitable to develop for." Epic 

Spain 

Famous For: AmigaTek Espana, 

Graffiti Board 

Sound Bytes: "Without Spain we 

wouldn't have the name Amiga 

which is of course, Spanish 

for Girlfriend:'

Belgium 

Famous For Amiga City, Generation 


Sound Bytes: "We have been open since 

October 1996. First of all, we are Amiga 

mthusiasts. We think that there is a mar 

ket for the Amiga. The Amiga is an 

answer for a lot of people who 

want more than a PC..." 

Generation Amiga 

Italy 

Famous For: Cloanto 

Sound Bytes: "In our sales statis 

tics, Italy is at fifth place, following 

Germany, Great Britain, France and 

Poland. In general, in all countries. 

Hie interest of loyal customers has 

remained unchanged, but I esti 

mate that in Western Europe 

there is 20-40 per cent fewer 

active users than one year 

ago." Cloanto 

Norway 

Famous For: Scala, Applause Data 

Sound Bytes: "The owner [of Amiga] must be capa 

ble of taking control of the Amiga in a serious and pro 

fessional manner. They must maintain a proper dialogue 

with the distributors and co-operate with them to get the 

Amiga back into the shops. This will not be an easy job, 

at least not here in Norway." Applause Data 

"The Amiga has some old roots in Norway and 

those roots will not be replaced by any new 

machine in the near future." Amiga 

Cyprus 

Famous For: Vavel Computers 

Foundation Network 

Sound Bytes: "We sell complete Amiga- 

based systems for TV stations - six out of 

eight depend on the Amiga for their graphics 

Cyprus Airways is using a number of Amigas 

for flight information. Also we provide TV 

^ graphics services for a number of compa 

nies and studios in Cyprus, Greece, 

Bahrain and Dubai." Vavel 

Computers 

RANCE 

Famous For Solectron, 

Requester Tools 

Sound Bytes: "France has its fair share of 

Amiga activity. For one thing - the Solectron 

factory in France was chosen by Escom 

to produce the Escom Amigas," 

Australia 

Famous For: Austex (Uropa2) GP Software (Directory 

Opus). 

Sound Bytes: "Most of our sales are in the UK and European ' 

markets. The Canadian/US markets are quite tough these days 

with it becoming increasingEy difficult to reach the end user. The 

Australian market is fairly small, but there are still some active 

user groups and some other developers producing products 

and services for the Amiga." GP Software 

"Many Amiga products are available in Australia, 

kbut not games, as there is a S35O censorship fee for 

any title that is imported." Amiga News Australia 

(phone 042 672685 for Australians or 61 ^£ 

42 672685 for overseas) 


MARCH 1997 

Germany 

Famous For: Haage and 

Partner (Art Effect Storm C) 

Phase 5 ( CyberVision, CyberStorm), Eagle Computer 

Products, ProDAD, CeBit, Cologne Show 

Sound Bytes: "Arguably the most Amiga 

supported country in the world - tons of com 

panies, users and shows all dedicated 

to the Amiga." 

Japan 

Famous For Systcom Limited 

Sound Bytes: "[Interest in Amiga products] 

is very weak. Amiga doesn't support the 

Japanese language and the Japanese branch 

office (or any official marketing company) 

didn't develop it The language barrier 

is serious here." Systcom 

Limited 

Malaysia 

Famous For: Click Grafix - GeneRexxT (ARexx 

Generator for Adpro) 

Sound Bytes: "Although the user base is very small 

nevertheless they are very much in love with the 

Amiga. Some have given up, and some swore it's 

the last computer they will use and will never 

migrate to any other platform. Sometimes my 

showroom becomes a heated battle 

between Amiga users only." Click 

>w Grafix

LJ\ 

INTO THE NET contains all the tools required to 

access and explore the internet with ease. The 

double CD set contains usable versions of 

MIAMI, Voyager. iBrouse. AmiTCP and more. In 

addition the CDs contain many utilities for creat 

ing your own WEB pages, down-lodmg mail, and 

much more. 

iN-TO-THE-NET 

■ntams around 5000 erol:c hand drawn Images in 

2 Japanese anime traditon. 

Fhis CD is of an Adult nature and should not be 

DJrchased by anyone likely to tie offended by 

drawings depicting nudity and / or sex acts. 

Includes images only suitable for persons over 

the ago ol 18 

NIME BABES_(18) 

SEEDY ROMS 

THE HOTTEST AROUND 

Aminet set one 

Aminet set two 

Aminet set three 

Aminet 14 October 

Aminet 15 November 

Aminet 16 

Amiga Repair Kit CD 

Adult Sensation is possibly the Amiga's largest selling adult 

It features over 4,000 high quality 256 colour images of 

the "adult" nature. Image viewers and coverters are includ 

ed for any Amiga. (OVER 18 ONLY) 

(CD01) £19.93 

Adult Sensation 2 not only contains 4,000 new colour 

mages bul also includes tons of adult related samples, adult 

music modules, tonnes of adulT stories, adult animations, 

black&white 70s photos, adult games and more. 

(OVER 18) (CD115) £19.99 

Sexy sensation, this CD contains around 2,000 specially 

chosen high quality BMP & GIF Images. Viewers & graphic 

converters are included for easy and quick access to any of 

the pictures on any Amiga. (OVER IB) 

^—^ {CD1B8) £19.99 

Adult Sensation 3D actually contains over 2,000 true 3 

Dimensional colour images, 3D viewing software and top 

quality 3D glasses are also supplied. Available now1 

(OVER 18) V^.^Mted90% 

(CD145J £18,99 

Adult Animations contains hundreds of naughty? anima- 

ons/film clips for Adults only. Viewing software included for 

the Amiga, Limited first stocks so order now, HURRY!'!! 

(STRICTLY OVER 18'sONLY) 

(CD146x} £29.99 

Adult MENsation is a collection of unigue Images of the 

Amiga System Booster 

World Info 

male body. This CD-ROM has been compiled to forfill the 

hundreds of requests for a CD dedicated to tne ladies. 

Very easy to use. Okay on arty Amiga. 

Turbo Calc v2.1Spreadshee 

Amiga Developers CD 

Print Studio Pro 

Magic Publisher (4cd) 

Meeting at Pearls 4 

Mods Anthology (4cdl 

LightROU Gold 

fCD1M) £19.99 

3D Objects. tL.'.'OSiOB} 

Octamed Sound Studio 

CD32 Network set 2 

Personal suite Reduced 

The Learning Curve 

DEM Rom 

Light ROM4 

Octamed 6 CD Reduced 

Xi Paint 4.0 

1078 Weird Textures 

3000 jpeg Textures 

Into The NET (2cd) 

Multimedia Backdrops 

Sounds Terrific 2 (2cd) 

superb highly rated Amiga CD-ROM World Atlas 

features flexible quick access to individual countries 

via continental maps, county list, capital or general 

ex. Concise, informative county histories. Each 

nlry is supported by a series of maps 

picting regional position, major cities, eic 

! ftfff with every £25 you spend! 

1 Spend £25 choose one free CD 

Spend £50 choose two free CD's etc. 

Mick Davis's Cartoon .; . 

Clipart Volume One is a UosL'lIi 

new Amiga CD-ROM con 

tain ng around 500 commissioned 

cartoon images, all of which can be 

used "royalty-free". Each image is 

stored as IFF, and all nave been 

scanned at the highest possible 

resolution to ensure the best qual 

ity when printed. Supplied with a 30+ page print 

ed index ol each image Every commissioned image on this 

CD is 100% original and does not/will not appear on any other 

CD-ROM 

MICK DAVIS' CARTOON CLIPART 

1.2gigabyte (1200mb) ready-to-ft 

Amiga hard drive Pre-formatted 

and installed with Workbench 3. 

Supplied with all cables and 

instructions. 

With FREE harddisk sw! 

1.2GIG HARD DISK 

'I worked on tnis tide tor almost two years, 

and it still impresses ma'. Vince Pike, Epic 

v - 

The new Magic Workbench CD contains the 

largest collection of Magic Workbench Icons, 

Backdrops and tools ever compiled. Includes 

well over 5.000 Magic WB Icons. Over 600 

specially selected Magic Workbench Dack- 

drops in 8, 16 and 256 colours, over 

SOmegabytes of Workbench tools, gadgets, 

patches and desktop enhancer tools/utilities. 

The CD also includes Magic Workbench 

aswell as many other items never before 

released on any Amiga CD ROM. If you want to update/enhance 

you existing Workbench 2 or 3 then this is the perfect Workbench add 

on CD ROM. This CD is only suitable for any Kickstart2/3 

based Amiga's such as the A500-t-. A600, A1200, and A4000. 

Quad(4x| speed CD-ROM or 

complete with interface for th 

A1200 Supplied with installa 

software Includes a FREE 

copy of the Epic Collection 

Please quote. Q-Drive 

MAGIC WORKBENCH ENHANCER V2 

Now only £149.00 

* £4,oap&p- AMIGA CD-ROM 

We took everyones valid comments with concern to the first release of the 

Encyclopedia and changed, modified updated the whole product to the 

extent that it now includes over 20,000 subjects. The new 1997 version of 

the Epic Interactive encyclopedia is available now. it features a superb new 

updated multimedia interface, hundreds of film clips, images, sound samples 

and subject information text. The 1997 version now supports a multitude of 

new features inluding: Colour images. Full-screen filmclips. National anthems, 

and a unique Inter-ACT" feature which allows you to interact with certain 

subjects like: chess, piano, etc. A superb reference title for the whole family. 

"It has ;o be sa'd lhat [fie graph cs sel new prece 

dents in Amiga multimedia presentation" 

Graeme Sand'lofJ. Amiga Fofna! 

"Why is t you are Uie only company producing 

decent Amiga CD-ROMs" G. Hamillon 

'if you're on me lookout lor some interactive refer 

ence material [hen Ihis tits trie bill' Ton/ Morgan. CU 

AVAILABLE FOR ALL AGA AMIGA'S (with 4mb+ ram & Hard drive) 

PRODUCED IN 

MADE IN THE 

AGA INTERFACE 

UPGRADABLE 

MO Of SAMPLES 

SEARCH MODES 

tPtCEHCTCUKOA GROLIER HUTCWNSWS 

■/ 

lArmqi 1200 ty 4000. 

GIF SENSATIONS |2CDj 

Contains around 10,000 

colour images suitable for 

DTP ICD128) £19.99 

NOTHING BUT GIFS 

Features thousands of 

IMAGE CD-ROMS 

AGA Experience 2 OOfjItAAM 

contains 100% -aHHs5! 

orgiial AGAmate- 

■aTsiduding pictures. 

AGA demos. AGA games, 

and AGA tools. Most informa 

tion runs direct from the CD 

'Normally C19.W 

EXPERIENCE 2 icD2ic* £s.m) 

very high quality images 

Contains hundreds cf 

games. PCD263 

DEMO MANIA Vol t 

Con!ams hundreds of 

great demos. FCD264 

(CD197) £19.99 

AMIGA 

BACK FOK THE FLTL'RE 

NEW 

FOR 

1997 AGA version features include: 

"True 256 colour Multi-media Interface 

unlike anything seen on the Amiga'" 

'Produced in the UK 

unlike most encyclopedias 

'Around 16,000 subjects covered 

from Aalborg to Zygote 

•Hotlist editor 

So you can create lists of subjects 

'Hundreds of samples 

Music tracks and and over 200 samples 

"Thousands of pictures 

Over 3,000 colour/mono pictures included 

'Dozens of film-clips/animations 

Over 200 subject related film-dips 

"View many film-clips "full-screen" 

New Zoom option 

'Now includes Music tracks 

National anthems and different music styles 

"Import new subjects 

from the Internet or from floppy disk 

'Export data to printer or tile 

and use it in your own projects 

'Kids Explorapedia 

Eight kid's interactive play-about sections 

'Enhanced speech facility 

Improved speech synthesis 

'Subject creator 

Create your own subject data 

"Network compatible 

Can be run through CD32 or CDTV 

THE EPIC INTERACTIVE ENCYCLOPEDIA '97 

LIGHT-ROM 4 £29.99 

The latest issue contains 

thousands and brand new 

objects for Lightwave1" 

LIGHT-ROM GOLD E19 99 

Contains the oest 

Lightwave'" 3D objects 

from LightROU issues 1. 

2 and lighlROM 3 

■ Kara 

Collection" 

I is a profes- 

I sional and 

i unique set 

of fonts, back 

drops and tools for spe 

cial effects in pictures, 

animations, tilling and 

presentaions £34 99 

LIGHT-ROM CD-ROMS KARA FONTS CD 

Aminet 16 contains over 

600mb of the very latest 

Amiga software, including 

games, demos, animations, 

music tools, comms, patches, 

etc. Available for £12 99 

| o- £10.99 when you 

* lake out a subsenption, 

IDTPTOOLKiT 

Forts. Ciipart and 

many tools. FCD2fi5 

3 TOOLS FOR FOOLS 

^ Hundreds of jrea! utiii- 

. tie* and tuols" FCDJ67 

(CD23Q)£12.M 

ANIMATION NATION 

Hundreds of stmnirj) 

animabons. FCG258 

COMPUTA MUZAK 

Hundred* of-niusic 

modules.- FCD266 

'Upgrade your 

existing version 

to the 1997 

version. 

'Simply 'Glurn your 

current CD-ROM 

version along with a 

cheque of just 

E!1 99 plus P&P 

maps(DEMs). 

is CD- 

ROM con 

tains over 

1000 digi 

For use in VistoPro, 

tal elevation 

Scaimry. Animator or 

Woria Construction Set. 

DEM-ROM (E-u.98) 

This CD was rated 95% in AF. it 

features all the tools and informa 

tion, specifications etc, needed to 

produce and develop Amiga 

software. Includes the latest ver 

sions of the installer, CD press 

ing software, CDXL toolkit, etc. 

ELOPERS CD v1.1 (CD228) eu.99 

ill 

i uplu to CDs

ACK1NGTHE 

G 

Emulators Unlimited contains Software emula 

tion tools for the Amiga. Spread over numerous | 

! platforms are emulators for: Apple. BBC, 

, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC20. Amstrad 

I CPC. Apple Mac. Gameboy. Atari ST, MSX, 

[Apple200, Atari 800. Atari1040ste, Sinclair 

i QL, Unix and more. Also features hundreds 

i of games,tools etc for most of the 

emulators. 

I The FLASH-ROM is a "companion" Emulators CD that 

[ contains many new cartridge based machine emulators 

I like. Kelecovision, Nintendo. Gameboy etc. Order code: 

(CD260) £19.99*. Older both Emulators & 

I FtashROM forjusl £29.99- (CD283). 

;.,,„ EMULATORS UNLll5llTEE3! + 

Print Studio PRO allows you to create and print a wide vari 

ety of business cards and labels. Also features: PiclurCAT. 

Prinler24 - A 24bit graphics print manager, 200mb of mono 

8 colour clipart, and hundreds of quality fonts. Print Studio 

PRO provides a versatile colour correction system. 

suiting in perfect colour output on most printers. KS3 or high- 

required. 

PRINT STUDIO PRO 

White XL T.sf,ir1 mlh 

official AMIGA logo 

TS001) Only £10.9SZ'- 

Insight dinosaurs has been pro- k 

duced in assocation with The I 

Natural History Museum in 

London, and features ihe work of 

world renowned dinosaur illustra 

tors, it features hundreds of 

photo's, illustrations, video clips, narration 

id sound effects. It is the ultimate A-Z of 

nosaurs. CD includes both ECS & AGA versions. 

ver 

sions of Personal 

Palm. Personal SBase. 

Personal Write. P Fonts 

and over 500mb of use- 

able Art, Tents S Fonts. 

Paint, Image 

Processing.Animation, 

24rjit Printing. Word 

Processing. Database 

and much more. 

Rated 90% 

P.SUITE 

INSIGHT DINOSAURS 

JUSTIN. Women of the Web._|M*4-(CD402) Just£19.99 

Call now for a FREE full colour 16 page CD-ROM catalogue! 

World of Clipart is a double CD- 

ROM containing around 40,000 

mono and colour clipart images 

contained in over 100 catagories 

in IFF. GIF, PCX, CDR. EPS, 

TIF. & BMP. Tools for converting 

images to another formats are 

included. Subjects include : 

Animals, Anatomy. Babies. Men. 

Women. Trees, Reptiles, Insects. Xmas, 

eligious, Planes, Vehicles, Ships, Toys, Zodiac signs, 

ye catchers. Humour, Cats, Dogs, Computers. 

schnology. Sealife, Space, Symbols. Dinosaurs, Plants, 

ature. Ads, Tools, Astrology. Hands, Birds, Business, 

ffice. Workers, Cartoon, Lion King, Education, Food, 

ardening. Holidays. Houses & Buildings, Helicopters, 

hildren, Banners. Medieval, Military, Monsters, Music, 

ports. Transport, and more. 

a***!** WORLD OF CUPART 

CD contains information that 

NOBODY wants you to know 

about, and includes tons of 

megabytes of text documents 

and photographs relating to UFO 

sightings and abductions etc, 

.-I COUNTERS (CP179) £14.99 

L/K FREE FONE 

■? 

a! I 

■GfGAMES CD v2 

t 

j --; — 

L 

SCI-FI Sensation is an exciting 

new CD-ROM containing over 

1 3GIGof SCI-FI images anima 

tions. 3D objects, Sound FX, 

Documents, Themetunes. 

Scripts S SCI-FI games. 

Subjects included are: 

Baby!on5, Startrek (The origi 

nal TNG, Deep Space 9 and 

Voyager). Batman. Dr Who, 

Thunderbirds. Robocop. Sea 

Quest DSV. Bladerunner, Aliens. 

Terror hawks, 2001. Blake7, 

Balllestar Galactica, Iron. Total 

Recal, 2010. Space 1999 etc. 

"Buy SCI-FI Sensation from us and 

you will always receive the latest 

available version. 

CU Amiga. 91% AUI: 93% 

Choke for great value and service 

The UK's most poj;ii!jr mail order cumpany. 

2Seperate order lines 

UK Orders: 0500 13143u Overseas +44 1793 SM 188 

3 Ways to receive your order 

Standard 1-2 days, Next Day or Same Day DeBvery 

/« Easy ways to order 

*-*- Phono. Fax, E-mnil Post. 

J"* Ways to pay 

**3 Ci t-dii card. Cheque. Postal-ariier, Cash or C.O.D 

Choices of free CD-ROMs 

Musk Camei. Demo's, TooiS 

etro gaming at it's best. Around 

000 all-time classic spectrum 

lame files on one CD-ROM. 

Emulators included for any Amiga.. 

Games include Manic Miner, 

Skool daze, Monty mole. Startrek, 

Thrust, Jet Set Willy, The Hobbit, 

Strip Poker. Danger Mouse, Trie 

Sentinel. Micro Olympics, Under 

Wurlde, Uridium, Alic Atac, River 

raid. Barbarian, Hunchback and 

around 3000 other classic spectrum 

ame files including multi-load 

games. Speccy '96 also contains 

hundreds of documents containing 

instructions for most games aswell as 

hundreds of speccy game cheats. 

Okay on any CD-ROM drive connected to an Amiga. 

New Vers.on'. now also includes: Workbench games 

lottery predictors. Hundreds of bad jokes and more. 

Rated: AF GOLD 95% - CU 91% ■ AUIWA - AC ovsr 90% 

s NEW CD rom contains 

)und 15,000 all-time classic 

Commodore 64 games and sw 

emulator to run them on your 

Amiga.... 

n stock now! 

« fax:0179S\5UW7 

Send to; EPIC 43 AKers Hay, Swindon, Hilts, UK. 5H2 2NF 

Open Monday-Saturday &30an> - 6:00pnvsfr Overseas Orders:+441793 514188 

If you live in Austra6a or N»v£ealand you canjxirchase any of our CD-ROMs from our Sydney 

ased office. Send your orders to: EPfC. 36 Forest Road, Heathcole, NSW. 2233 

et (02)9 5209606 Fax:(02)95206077 TorpocesinAustrafanSSSsinp)ylis!tti 

THE SPECCY CD ' 

Arcade Classics is an original col 

lection of ALL your old arcade 

favourites. Including Amiga ver 

sions of PACMAN, SPACE 

INVADERS, ASTERIODS. MIS 

SILE COMMAND. PENGO, 

FROGGER, LOAD RUNNER. 

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PageStream imported this complicated document 

from V/ordworth 5 ■ only partially successfully 

ohink of desk top publishing on the 

Amiga, and most of you will admit 

that, for a long time now, there has 

been only one choice for the seri 

ous designer. Soft-Logik has been proving for 

years that what the Macintosh can do with 

Quark XPress, the Amiga can accomplish with 

the venerable PageStream package. 

Not surprising then, that Amiga designers 

have been getting impatient waiting for a new 

release of the PageStream software. In fad, 

PageStream appeared as version 3 - to great 

acclaim, of course - way back in December 

1994. Some would be forgiven for imagining 

that Soft-Logik had abandoned the Amiga to 

develop for less uncertain markets. 

Fortunately this is not the case. PageStream 

3.2 has finally arrived to reassure Amiga users 

that their favourite DTP package is keeping up 

with the times. The fact that this is only being 

marketed as an update rather than a full new 

version shouldn't disappoint anyone too much 

either. So many refinements and new features 

have been implemented since version 3.0 that 

Soft-Logik can justifiably claim to have made 

widespread improvements to the program. 

Before anyone with a sudden desire to 

make a start in DTP places their order, remem 

ber this is a powerful package aimed at the pro 

fessional user and consequently requires a rea 

sonably powerful Amiga to run satisfactorily. 

Version 3.2 now needs 4Mbs of RAM, but rec 

ommends 8Mbs. Furthermore, if you plan to 

PageStream 3.2 is unrivalled on the Amiga 

when it comes to sophisticated page design 

venian, aje no»rude«ra aion 

a: taboftsriilufalojiBexei nrrmodo 

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cm ipum adcr *tan*i. cQri*ecBij« aditwano tn, 

d diarr norurrrrry ftbrt tui&rrcd triaouni L'Ubct&£[ 

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LJt H46I c'urri ad minim remain. ^j« nostud -/^-'i tfckm 

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iir««iTolMtf tflnrsjunl. id ilium dolae eu 

fcijg..itiulla fiiiiims al wot'c, elaccumun eliuski odio 

aji tJandt tra;Mnlbjclalumiiril 

i- t-u(«!nj.j Sr.il-.- 

J 

run a 

am has received a major update with 

the release of version 3.2. Gareth Lofthouse 

puts the Amiga's leading DTP program to the test 

work on a day-to-day basis with PageStream, a 

RTC board would be highly recommended to 

allow you to move text and picture boxes 

around at speed. PageStream 3.2 includes 

direct support for CyberGraphx graphic cards, 

allowing users to work in up to 24 bit mode on 

ORKING WITH OTHER 

PLATFORMS 

Softlogik has made a big deal of how PageStream can work with source material from the 

PC or Macintosh platforms. This is understandable, since the Macintosh has established itself 

as the industry standard for Desk Top Publishing. 

However, there have been problems previously with importing text from other platforms. 

Now Soft-Logik have added a new RTF (Rich Text Format) import filter to replace the Word 

and WordPerfect 5 filters which never worked as well as they should have. Fortunately, all 

major word processors, including Word and WordPerfect, can save in RTF format. 

Graphically, PageStream still will import and export the commonly used PC and MAC for 

mats. It also uses PostScript, Compugraphic Intellifont and PageStream fonts, and includes 

42 fonts as part of the package. 


MARCH 1997 

a CyberGraphx compatible system. 

A good DTP package should put a huge 

array of flexible tools and options in the hands 

of the user, yet it has to be suitable for use by 

non-technical, creative people. In this respect, 

PageStream competes admirably with the best 

packages on other platforms, yet alone the 

Amiga. 

Other platforms 

The interface is composed of a title bar, depth 

gadget, toolbox and edit palette and, of course, 

the working window itself. Text and pictures 

can be imported into PageStream, from other 

programs (and even other platforms), then 

drag'n'dropped into position on screen. Text 

chunks and pictures are contained within 

frames with grabable handles that can be used 

to resize them. This means viewing docu 

ments, laying them out and formatting them is 

as simple and flexible as you could hope for 

considering the huge array of options that lie

elow PageStream's tidy surface. 

Pretty much everything you needed to create 

documents ranging from flyers to whole novels 

was included in the previous release of 

PageStream. BME, for example, allowed users 

to retouch pictures with the included cropping, 

rotational and autotracing tools. Similarly, 

PageLiner acts as a text editor allowing users to 

import and aiter text much more quickly than 

can be achieved in PageStream itself. 

This package really does allow users to gen 

erate professional-quality layouts with all the 

tools a designer should expect to have at their 

disposal There is, for example, a range of pow 

erful drawing tools included that allow you to 

create boxes, lines, spots and flashes, as well as 

freehand paths. Text can then be made to auto 

matically flow round irregular pictures and 

objects. Automatic drop caps and bulleted 

paragraphs can be inserted from simple 

requesters, and there's a selection of gradient, 

radial and shape fills at your disposal. 

One of the biggest improvements over the 

initial release of version 3.0, however, is that the 

program is now infinitely more stable. When 

the program appeared two years ago it used to 

lock up on quite a regular basis, but this prob 

lem was sorted out with a patch a long time 

ago. In this release, there have been dozens of 

small refinements to make the program run 

more smoothly than ever before. 

So how about the new fea 

tures? First off, the interface ■- 

while remaining essentially famil 

iar, it has received a few valuable 

alterations. The Toolbox, for exam 

ple, has been given a new crop 

tool, neatly separating it from the 

Reshape tool under which it pre 

viously could be accessed. The 

Magnifier tool has also been 

improved - you can now just drag over an 

area to zoom in on the desire portion of 

the screen - while a new 

'Eyedropper1 tool allows users to 

copy and paste text and object attributes, allow 

ing for faster formatting. 

The Toolbar, beneath the working window, 

has also received new tools, including buttons 

for Play Script and Preferences. The Toolbar is 

also now configurable in the Preferences 

requester, giving you the option to decide 

which menu commands and scripts should be 

placed within it If that wasn't enough, there's a 

'Show/Hide' command for the Toolbar in the 

Window menu, and its position can be remem- 

The interface has 

been enhanced, 

though the pro 

gram remains 

familiar 

This package really does 

allow users to generate 

professional-quality lay 

outs with all the tools a 

designer should expect 

to have at their disposal. 

Wrld of AMIGA 

bered by PageStream. Finally, there are also 

increase and decrease indent buttons 

Graphical flexibility has been enhanced with 

new masking features, for example, it's now pos 

sible to mask drawings, EPS pictures and illustra 

tions with whatever shapes you can think up and 

draw. Users simply have to select a graphic and 

a shape or path and then choose the Mask 

Graphic option. Another big difference in this 

department is that these and other effects can be 

added to pictures in PageStream without editing 

the picture in BME - instead, you simply click on 

the FX button in the Edit palette. Furthermore, 

PageStream now has built-in virtual memory, just 

like BME itself, which it uses to load 

and print graphics. 

The program has for some time 

supported bitmap graphic formats 

including BMP, GIF, IFF, MacPaint, 

PCX and TIFF, as well as outline for 

mats including EPS, Art Expression, 

Freehand, Illustrator and ProDraw. 

JPEG loading support still doesn't 

feature in this prgram itself, but a 

separately sold filter is thankfully 

available. This filter can now load and 

save progressive JPEG images. The export 

requester has a Progressive checkbox to turn 

this feature on, though it's switched off by default 

because many programs do not currently sup 

port Progressive JPEG images. 

QOGIKAL PROGRESSION 

A whole host of minor refinements and bug fixes aside, 

that pretty much brings us up to date with the improve 

ments made to PageStream since version 3 appeared 

on the tail end of '94. So what do we think of the Soft- 

Logik's progress ? 

Certainly there are no revolutionary surprises in this 

latest version. While there are dozens of new 'features', 

they all basically optimise the interface and develop 

tools already in existence. There's nothing radically 

new, but then this is more of an update than a com 

pletely new version. 

It's been a long wait just to get this far, but it would 


MARCH 1997 

When laying out anything like a magazine, 

even idiots of the design world, like myself, know 

that you lay illustrations or titles across double 

page spreads to give them increased visual 

impact. With the importance of this in mind, Soft- 

Logik have made double-sided pages into auto 

matic page spreads; whereas before you had to 

manually make facing pages into spreads, now 

you can just start designing. In line with this 

be nevertheless unfair to accuse Soft-Logik of sitting on 

its thumbs. Though essentially the same program as it 

was two years ago, PageStream has at last evolved into 

the powerful, intuitive program it promised to be back 

then. It's much more stable, and the interface has ben- 

efitted from constantly being re-evaluated and refined 

to make it work better for the end-user. 

Of course, those who stand to make the most of the 

latest version PageStream are the ones who've invest 

ed in a RTG board. If you're serious enough about DTP 

to invest in a Cybergraphx card and PageStream 3.2, 

you're in for a real treat. 

PageStream 3.2 still comes with BME 2.0, 

allowing users to retouch pictures. 

However, it's now possible to work directly 

with graphics within PageStream itself 

improvement, the New Document requester 

includes a facing page checkbox that allows 

users to set which pages will be viewed as fac 

ing pages. Incidentally, while on the subject of 

spreads, it is possible to drag a page to the bot 

tom of another to start a vertical page spread, 

yet another example of PageStream's com 

bined creative flexibility and ease of use. 

Easier editing 

The process of editing a document has been 

improved due to the addition of an Apply but 

ton in the Edit palette. Changes made via this 

palette are no longer effected at once; instead, 

a batch of alterations can be made to the co 

ordinates, pictures and text frames, and all can 

be effected at the same time with the apply 

button - a method which actually speeds up 

multiple alterations. 

One drawback that is becoming more com 

mon with Amiga productivity programs is the 

iack of a proper printed manual in the 3.2 box. 

Extensive on-line, context-sensitive help is avail 

able, but while this is by far the best way of 

looking for small chunks of information, it does 

not compare with a proper manual when it 

comes to getting an overview of a program. 

The lack of a tutorial will be sorely missed by 

anyone who want starting off either with DTP or 

with Softlogik's product, although the 16 page 

overview makes some concessions in this 

direction. I did, however, like the idea of the 

Navigator tip box which appears every time you 

load the product, a feature that help users 

assimilate new features bit by bit. Incidentally, 

while on the subject of the Navigator, this has 

been improved with the introduction of a pref 

erences button. 

line 

Product details 

Product PageStream 3.2 

Supplier Soft Logik 

Price S199 

Tel 

Ease of use 

Scores 

1-800-829-8608 US 

86

Why so glum chum? Amiga about to 

sprout wings and a harp? See if 

ACAS can't help 

PUTER NEWBIE 

I'm writing to you from Malta. 1 am hoping you will be able to give me some infor 

mation about how a computer works - I only need a few hints. I do not know very 

much about computers but this year! am going to take some lessons. 

I would like a few points so by the time I take the lessons i will know something, 

1 rather than nothing, about computers. I have heard people talk about windows, what 

are they and how would you use them? Does this involve the mouse? I hope to hear from 

you soon, thanks for your collaboration! 

Elaine, B'Bugia Malta 

The trouble with trying to describe computers to beginners is that by their very 

nature computers are complicated and will remain so for a very long time to 

come, in some ways, even with all the big advances, they are more compli 

cated today than ever before. 

Even to give a brief description of the basics of computers would really take 

up more space than we have here. It does sound like you know a little already as you 

know what a mouse is, and that really you are getting confused when it comes to the soft 

ware that you run with a computer. 

When people refer to windows there are two possibilities, one would be the general 

term for windows. With modern operating systems programs run on a computer appear in 

'windows', these are rectangular areas on the screen that you can move around and change 

the sire of using the mouse. In these window programs are displayed allowing you to use 

them, on the Amiga this window system is called Workbench. 

The other reason people may be talking about windows is that they are referring to a 

software product made by Microsoft - the latest version is called Windows95. One descrip 

tion is that Windows is a program to run programs, it is the thing that actually draws all the 

windows that appear. The one thing you should know is that Windows95 does not run on 

an Amiga, to use it you need a PC. It is more than likely that when you start your course 

you will be using W1ndows95, so do not be too shocked. 

As with everything in life, the best way of learning is to try using your Amiga, you will 

comes across problems learn how to over come them and so grow through the processes, 

all very Xen. 

me off. 

IGHTENING THE WAY 

! have owned a basic A1200 with just a 4Mb RAM upgrade and 80Mb 

hard drive for the last few years and have been wanting to upgrade it 

for a good while now, with thoughts about having a serious go at ray- 

tracing. So far I have played around creating models and scenes with 

various packages but the amount of time renders take has always put 

! have now got access to some extra cash and I'm looking forward to being able 

to upgrade my machine, but need some advice on what you suggest I should go 

for to get best out of my cash, and hopefully not have to splash out too much 

more in the future. 

Ted Krilley, Atherton 

Raytracing is a real power computer application and the general 

/ advice to give to people is go for the highest specification 

i j— equipment you can afford. In your case you will have to 

f\ upgrade your processor, memory and hard drive. 

Having said that you should also consider the current 

market situation. Due to the grotesque requirements of Windows 95 

and Windows NT, the price of Simms and IDE hard drives have really crashed. 

With regards to memory I would strongly advise you to go for 16Mb, and due 

to the fact most A1200 accelerators only allow you to use one Simm, if you 

plan to get really serious you may want to go for a 32Mb Simm to keep your 

machine future proof. 

On the hard drive side of things, again, do not go for anything smaller than 

1Gb. Firstly if you start creating large animations even this size of drive will 

quickly fill up and secondly, again, 1.2Gb-r sized drives are now the defacto 

PC standard and anything under this can be snatched up very cheaply. 

Now for the crunch decision - what accelerator board to go for. The gener 

al advice is go for the fastest you can afford. If you take it that you should go 

for a 16Mb Simm and a 1Gb hard drive you should know how much money 

you have left To be honest you would be wasting your time with anything less 

Qc CONNECTION 

I need to know if it's possible to hook a PC compatible CD- 

ROM drive up to an A1200 - it's a Sony model CDU31A- 

GW. As an added complication it's an internal drive. I know 

there are kits to convert internal drives to external for 

Amigas, but don't know if it would be compatible. My IDE 

connection is already taken up by my hard drive but I under 

stand there is an interface that plugs into the PCMCIA port. 

m.kirby2@genie.com 

If it is a normal IDE drive with a 39 pin connector then 

V~*>/ there's no reason why you can't use it with your 

1— Amiga. Obviously it being an external drive compli 

cates things but it is still possible. 

There are two routes you could use the first 

is to use Golden Images PCMCIA connector and external fitting 

kit. This gives you a PC slot interface into which you can plug an 

IDE CD-ROM drive. Their external drive kit is a slot together metal 

box that powers the drive via a connector that goes to the exter 

nal floppy connector. 

The other option is the one from EyeTech. From them you 

would get the either the two or four device connector that allows 

you to extend the internal IDE port and an external box with a 

proper separate power supply. Both come with the very good 

IDEFix software which makes setting up your CD software a 

straight forward process. 

The .ill powerful Lightwave at work, needs as much 

mamory and processor power as you can afford 

than a 50Mhz 030 board. 

As an example of rendering times the standard Lightwave texture rendered 

at full Pal resolution with antialiasing and adaptive sampling takes 4 minutes 

on an 060, almost 18 minutes on an 25Mhz 040 and will a little over half an 

hour on the 030 board. 

One word of warning is that if you are considering a 40Mhz 040 board, 

such as the Apollo, you will have to get a new power supply as the standard 

Amiga one cannot handle powering both the accelerator and 3.5" hard drive. 

A final point to bear in mind is that Phase5's PowerUp board may actually 

appear some time soon, and hopefully will give you a power boost far supe 

rior to anything current accelerators can. At least two raytracing packages are 

going to support it, most importantly Cinema4D. So you may consider hang 

ing on for that if you can bear the wait 


MARCH 1997

TUCK SCSI 

Hello, I hope you can give me some hints 

i where to look for a solution to my prob 

lem. I've got a B2000 with GVP Scsi- 

030/33 4mb fast ram and OS 3.1. To this 

: I've connected, internally, 2 hard drives and 

a 88 MB Syqest, the disk configuration are: 

Scsi ID 0 8H1 Prograis 101 Hb and UN? Mori 101 Kb 

Scsi ID 1 DHQ Sys 260 Hb and OKI Gaits 260 Kb 

Scsi ID I Syquest - Teminated 

Now to the problem, sometimes the machine after 

booting up, or after a while, will give me a message 

like: 

gvpscsi.device unit 000 

unexpected status S4e/i36 

After clicking OK another window saying: 

gvpscsi.device: board 000 

invalid reselection 

source 10 = S88 

After this it says that my work volume, that is SCSI 

id 0 has a read/write error on some block. I've only 

CAN PLANS 

I am planning to buy a flatbed scan- 

1 ner - an HP ScanJet - but am 

unsure about the necessary soft 

ware. What software do you recom 

mend, and can my trusty old A20OO 

handle the scans I make? Would you advise 

me to upgrade my A2OOO to Kickstart 3.0/3.1? 

If so, what do I need besides the ROM? I am 

using a CVP SCSI series II HD8 SCSI controller 

with only 2Mb. I would like to add more mem 

ory and have heard about different types of 

4Mb SIMM modules. Which one can I use? 

T. Broekmans, Netherlands 

Well as long as you are using 

Workbench 2.04 I would sug- 

gest ImageFX v2.6. This has 

support for many scanners 

including the ScanJet, and with 

its built in virtual memory, even with a small 

amount of memory you will be able to han 

dle the largest of scans. To get the best out 

of ImageFX you will need 8 Mb of RAM. 

Thanks to ImageFX's versatile preview 

buffer even with an ECS machine you will be 

able to get a decent idea of what the final 

image will be like, though the screen update 

will be slow. I understand that there is some 

new scanner software that has been 

_L*J_LJ SlJ 

HP ScanJet 

?! ■ "Peri. 

i\ Pra**-* 

StfT 

(IMAGEFX.1) 

Not only does 

:rrav,j 

I 

1 

| 

ImageFX support the 

HP ScanJet it wilt 

also make use of the 

fast SCSI interface 

f 

01 

E f 

21- 

encountered this problem with my work and pro 

gram partitions, both located on SCSil IDO. So 

maybe the hard drive on SCSI IDO is breaking 

down? 

After this I am not able to access any disks, open 

any drawers and so on. But all processes already 

started seem to run. I have to turn the power off 

and on to be able to start, if I just reboot, it just 

won't startup. So if someone out there in cyber 

space has a clue to what is wrong please send me 

an e-mail, tomas.andesson@hygiene.sca.se 

ignored. 

Usually SCSI problems are caused by 

either incorrect SCSI IDs or some 

older SCSI devices not being termi 

nated correctly. It results in either 

your machine locking as soon as that 

device is accessed or it just being 

In your case however, it seems that you have 

everything set up correctly and that the problem 

you have is software based, that being the GVP 

Scsi device driver. This is stored on a ROM fitted 

to the GVP board. I do know that the German 

company Schatitruhe +49(0)201 788778, do sell 

more up to date replacement ROMs, called Guru- 

released in Germany, but as I have never 

seen it I cannot say if this is a good choice. 

Upgrading your operating system does 

give you a number of advantages. Firstly you 

will be able to guarantee you can run all the 

latest software (though you only having a 

68000 processor could be a problem) and 

you get the all the advantages of the new 

operating system. If you already have 2.04 

then you can get away with not upgrading 

but if you are still using 1.3 then virtually all 

recent software will not run and you really 

should upgrade. 

Along with the ROM you need the six sys 

tem disks that hold all the new programs, 

libraries and device drivers used by the new 

operating system. In the six you will also get 

an install disk that will help you partition 

and install the software onto your hard 

drive. 

Brightness (-127 to 127)= 

Usually all CVP products need to use the 

specific CVP Simms that look like normal 72 

pin Simms but are not and so cost a good 

deal more. You will have to get them from 

either Power Computing +44 (0)1234 

273000 here in the UK or mTec +49 (0)2041 

4656 in Germany - the two companies who 

bought GVP when they went bankrupt 

-12710 127): |0 | 

Scan Filer; _tj Auto-Filer 

larrpWarmup: _£J Off 

Caned 


MARCH 1997 

etfe 

*ox 

*Jer 

-r 

+ [-i 

...III 

lead 

Fref) J -.-•' 1 

a Deagn Inc, All Rights Reserved 

ROM, the latest version being six and gives you a 

big boost in CPU performance. As you are on the 

Internet check their home page for more infor 

mation http://www.schatitruhe.de/ 

Jargon 

SCSI - Small Computer Systems Interface, a mote com 

plex interface than IDE allowing all manner of periph 

erals to be connected to it and as many as seven 

devices 

PCMCIA - That thin slot on the side of an A12OO and 

A600, know to be known as a PC slot as everyone got 

really ticked of having to say PCMCIA slot all the time. 

Allows memory, hard drives and almost any other type 

of device to connected the computer 

IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics, the hard drive inter 

face found on A600, A1200 and A4OOO. The cheapest 

way to get a hard drive connected to a computer 

Kickstart - The software used to actually start the 

Amiga, this has to be either loaded from disk or also 

refers to the part of the Amiga's operating system held 

on ROM 

Raytracing - A technique used in computer graphics to 

create realistic images by calculating the paths taken 

by rays of light entering the observer's eye at different 

angles. The paths are traced backwards from the view 

point, through a point in the image plane, that point 

being a pixel, until they hit some object in the scene or 

go off to infinity 

Do you have a problem? Do you sometimes find your 

self poised over your Amiga with axe in hand, spout 

ing profanity at the stubborn refusal of your software 

or hardware to behave in the correct manner? 

Well, calm down and swap the axe for pen and 

paper, jot down your problems, along with a descrip 

tion of your Amiga setup, and send it off to Amiga 

Computing Advice Service, IDG Media, Media House, 

Adiington Park, Macdesfield SK10 4NP. Alternatively 

you can e-mail us at ACAS@acomp.demon.co.uk

LIAGE INTERNATIONAL 

36 Dye Street Garnerville, NY 10923 

914 786-1711 Voice - 914-786-1708 Fax 

Email: liage@qed.net 

Homepage: http://www.qed.net/liageinc/ 

THIS SOUNDS TERRIFIC! 

Weird Science Sounds Terrific Double 

CD Set #1 

Weird Science Sounds Terrific Double 

CD Set p2 

The second in a series dedicated to Music & 

Sounds. Contains thousands of files for both 

Amiga and PC. 

BOTH FOR $18.95 

GAMERS'DELIGHT 2 

This. CD contains 1,070 games, from all different 

categories. Action, lump & Run, Card Games, 

Puzzles, Strategy Games. 

This CD will hold you captivated for hours. 

Over 70 games are Commercial Versions - 

no public domain. 

LIAGE PRICE $19.95 

SCI-FI SENSATION DOUBLE CD 

Featuring over 1000mb of exciting Science Fiction 

images, music, animations, 3D objects, Sound FX, 

documents, theme tunes, sci-fi the games. 

Categories include: Babylon 5, Star Trek (the origi 

nal). The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and 

Tons More. $25.95 

AMINET SET 1 

Consists of over 4 Gigabytes in 12,500 archives. 

AMINET SET 2 

Offers everything added after Aminet #2. Plus 

300 Electronic Books. 4 Gigabytes 12,500 

archives. 

AMINET SET 3 

The Worlds largest Amiga Software Collection. 

Includes: Free Imagine 4.0, XiPATNT, 

OCTAMED 5 & more games. 

$29.95 EACH SET, ANY 2 FOR 

$54.95, ALL 3 for $73.95 

THE LEARNING CURVE CD 

A Fantastic & Magical journey through exciting subjects con 

taining over 32,000 files that wOl delighi both young & old. 

Siib|fL*is include: Aircraft. Art, Computers, Desk Uiils, 

Electronics, Engineering Geography, I lealth, History, 

Hobbies, Educational. Fairy Tales, Math, Spelling, Languages, 

Literature, Drama, Music, Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, 

Science, Astronomy, Biology, Books, Chemistry, Ecology, 

Geology & Much More. All ihc programs can be run directly 

from ihe CD. This CD is worth its weight in gold and pro 

vides productive entertainment for all ages. 


HORROR SENSATIONS CD 

images, Games, Animations, Stories, Samples 

and more. This new CD is an innovative new 

multi-format CD ROM containing anything 

and everything to do with HORROR. 

Thousands ol colour pictures from hundreds of 

Honor films, as well as true life. Hundreds of 

awesome animations, screams, stabs, japs and 

other gory sound effects, horror stories, hun 

dreds of atmospheric haunting music tracks, 

horror games and more! 


3D CD OBJECTS 

3D CD IMAGES 

$11.99 Each 

1-800 25 AMIGA 

Outside N.Y. 

AEGIS ANIMATOR 

Includes Aegis Images Paint System, put your 

ideas in motion. This program allows you to 

create different shapes and animate them. 

Over 4,000 colors. S3.95 

ANIME BABES 

Over 500(1 Erotic Hand Drawn Images in The Japanese 

ANIME Tradition. This CD is Generic Gil- format allowing 

display on any System with a CD ROM. 

LIAGE SPECIAL PRICE $16.95 

BREATHLESS 

A1200/4000 

Experience 360 degree first person firepower in 

BREATHLESS. 3D Raytraced graphics. 96% 

Amiga Format rating. This game has taken the 

Amiga where no Amiga has gone before. Hold 

your breath, here we go. With FREE COPY OF 

CARL LEWIS CHALLENGE 

A LIAGE SPECIAL AT $31.99 

WORLD GOLF 

Challenge 5 ot the worlds most famous courses. ] -4 play 

ers. Complete 18 hole courses. Super smooth 360 degree 

scrolling. 5 skill levels, 61 computer opponents. Practice 

mode, IK, 36 or 72 hole tournaments. Skins game-play for 

money. Player database for up to 40 players. Autu caddy 

option. Hard drive installable. 

SPECIAL LIAGE PRICE $12.95 

ARCADE CLASSICS PLUS CD 

Arcade Classics Plus contains hundreds of varia 

tions of all your favourite games. Includes: 

Pacman, Asteroids, Invaders, Galaxians, Donkey 

Kong, PengOj Tetris, Defender, Frogger, Missile 

Command, Battlczone, Tempest, Combat, Tron, 

Space War, Thrust, Q-Bert, Lode Runner, 

Hunchback, Moon Patrol, Trail Blazer, Breakout 

and Loads More. SPECIAL AT $20.95 

AMINET 15 or 16 $17.95 

THE EPIC INTERACTIVE 

ENCYCLOPEDIA CD 

This New CD is an Exciting new Multi-Media 

CDROM. It features a superb 256 color interface, 

hundreds of film clips, sound samples and subject 

information. Features include: True Multi-Media 

Interface unlike anything ever seen. The very latest 

information from around the world. Thousands of 

subjects covered from Aachen to Zurich. Hotlist edi 

tor so you can create lists ofparticular subjects. Fully 

spoken Media Show, hundreds of images, import 

new subjects from the Internet or form floppy disk. 

Export data to printer or file and use it in your own 

projects. Search and deep search facility. Create and 

add your own subject matter. 

LIAGE SPECIAL $45.95 

WOMEN OF THE WEB 

This new CD is an exciting multi-media experience 

bringing all the latest technology into your home. 

The CD is compiled in HTML format. Using pic 

tures, text, files, animations and sound samples. Over 

450 MB of the world's most beautiful women. 

SPECIAL $31.95 

NEW1! 

IN-TO-THENETCD 

PLUS FREE OUT OF THE NET CD 

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO GET 

ON LINE SPECIAL $18.95 

MEETING PEARLS IV 

Brand new in the latest Meeting Pearls Series. 

This edition offers the highest quality at the low 

est possible price. Tilled with high quality well 

tested software. Several different search tools 

make finding and executing of software packages 

straight from the CD a Snap 

LIAGE SPECIAL PRICE $12.00 

GFX SENSATIONS 

Welcome to the best collection of graphic tools ever on 

CD. 2-i Bit images, animations such as lumpgate, The 

Apache 3D Helicopter and the Space Animation by 

Samuel Roes. A huge collection of Imagine users - that will 

take you years to go through. Categories include: Anatomy, 

Animals, AKrxx. Aviation, Bathroom, Botany, Building, 

Clocks, Computers, Earth, Fonts, Hood, Furniture, 

Kitchens, land, Logos. Music, Globe. Motions, Objects, 

Phones, Ships, Space, Sports, Text, Textures, Rock, Stone, 

Water & Much More! 


MULTIMEDIA TOOLKIT 

Over 10,000 files. 500 Original 24 Bit Images (with con 

versions to HamS &Uam) !30S Color Clipart & 2139 

Mono 93 Scaleahle Clips. 195 Standard Fonts & 120 

Colored 107 Adobe, 79 CG. & R0 PS Fonts, 750 Music 

Modules & 2300 Samples and Much More. Amiga & PC 

Compatible. 

SPECIAL PRICE $8.99 

MULTIMEDIA TOOLKIT 2 

DOUBLE CD 

A Double CD Rom set geared to the Music & Video 

Professional. Contains over 1.2 Gigs of the very best 

Graphics & Sound. Provides absolutely outstanding 

qualitV- Includes the full version of Octamed 4.04 along 

with 250 megs of support samples and Mods from the 

Med User Group. Over 50 Megs of MidiCraft Midi, 

Music X, Over 500 24 Bit Graphic [mages. Contains over 

2,000 objects. 


ARTWORX CD 

Comprises Thousands of Images Computer Generated. 

Both Images & Clip Art in Color. The Images have been 

categorised making it easy to iind just the right image 

for yovir use. Super CD. 

SPECIAL PRICE $10.95 

Comprises of thousands of Color Images & Clip Art 

CHILDRENS' CORNER 

All Floppy Titles 

Bully's Sporling Darts 

Dtnos Detective Agency 

High Steel 

Huckleberry Hound 

1 Maydays l'aint 

Postman Pat 3 

Operation Hormuy 

Snapperazzi 

Sooiy's Fun with Numbers 

Sooty & Sweep 

Thomas The Tank Engine $6.99 

Thomas's Fun with Words $6.99 

NOTE 

Atld $5.50 Minimum for shipping (UPS Service) 

Within the USA. International orders must use Credit 

Card, or International Money Order. 

All prices subject to change, subject to stock on hand. 

NY residents subject to state tax. 

VISA/MO DISC/AM. EXPRESS

\ 

Weird Science Ltd. I Rowlatidstw Close, Leicester, Leicestershire. LE4 2SE 

Tel. +44 (11)116 234 06X2 Fax. +44 ((1)116 2.1.5 0045 

email. sales&'nTirdscicncc.co.ttk or tvchC" wcirdscieiuc.iii.iik 

Aminet Set .1. dated July 1996, consists of 4 

gigabytes of software m VMOO archives. 

In. lading th, lull i miant of ImaRine 4.0, 

KiPaint IJ. Oclamed SJt. With 95 megs 

Itili:,,'. 79 mete. Datuments, 4m megs 

Text Software. 12 m.K' DUVHD Tanh, 7 

meg' Hardware re'.atid. 756 megi 

Picture* X Animations, 208 megs 

Graphics sofrmin, 394 megs Graphics 

A Sound Dtmns, 56J megs Gainer. 

685 megs Music module*, 28 mens 

' - Music toflvan, IM megs 

Commanit atioas and mure. 

■r 

The Amiga System Boosuer 

CD 

enables imrs la really make th 

of their computers with a s it perl 

collection of tools In push the 

capabilities of the Amiga to 

limits. Nearly all the Junta 

utilities can be started hx sim 

direct from the compact disc. ' 

de-archiving required. The tl, 

contents include a vat 

collection of screen blanker* 

mouse tools & commodities, 

backup, file management, 

cache programs to optimise 

system performance, data 

recovery, CD-ROM utilities, j 

virus Killers and u whol k 

Set I nr 2. consist of 4 gigabytes nf The Amiga Developers CD from 

tin 12000archiva. The software is 

compact discs. With ( limits, 

Amiga Ami Technologies technologies comes cmnplete 

complete 

Hj,i, ,(te a[/ ,/M, developers tools l and d 

■ 

lated. Victims & Animations. 

docs, provided tn the official 

developers. Included tire the 

iphici toftware. Graph 

">d complete CD32 developers tools 

■mm. Gamti, \ln\ii modules, Musi < with Build (l> and ISO CD, Envoy 

ifimir,. Communications, Amigi *ff« 2.0 package. Enforcer, 

tvelopment software, flminfi Workbench 2.0. j.'I, 3.1 tools am! 

oflware and more. All of the archive documents with the updated 

an- eastl) accttnbtt nirli n simpl native developers kit, SANA II 

tnda mtuBs&tem with search. 

package and the installer 

package. \lso included is a 

vast amount of info. A "•'.?'. 

A Gadgets contains virtually all of 

the loots you need to gel started 

proerumniinii on the Amiga, 

including advanced C. C++, 

Fortran and iDA compilers. 

assembler, linker. EMACS editor, 

"make", source code control 

systems (res & cvs), text and pie 

utilities, (iSI debugger, text 

formatters Igrnff & JeX). and 

much more. Everything, comes 

H-itli complete source code and 

all binaries have been 

compiled from the supplied 

sources. All tools on the 

Geek Gadget1' CD can be 

run directly frnm the CD- 

ROM, without the need to 

install iiny filt! tin to your 

Hard Drive. 

lit 

The Arnica Kepait Kit CD comes 

complete with me all witfi all the 

tools required to backup and rescue 

your precious data on hard drives. 

,V r ! "■ ' ' u'itl rescue and 

restore most damaged, corrupt and 

even deleted files from poppies, 

hard disks etc. Dunne the 

process il wiU attempt to fix all 

problems imisi d bv software 

failures nr physical damage. 

■ ' ! Z ■ is tt superb 

program that will allow you tit 

restore vour vulualilc data 

even if the Rigid Disk Block 

hav liven destroyed or over 

written. ' ".z . . can 

recover file* from nonmrf 

or corrupted disks. 

iminel, the worlds largest Amiga archive, provides compact discs of tl 

sites latest software uploads. Each volume contains about IJ gigs 

' superb menu system for nit'tirchiving the files and 

facility to help you find exactly the file required. Th 

: will even list the compact disc that the file is mi. The 

lei CD's contain a theme. The Aminet 16 theme is music 

Aminet IS is available now and so is Aminet 16. 

Aminet CD's 12 to 14an alsn \tilt available. 

STJ^jJjJ. 

International Distributor: 

Getting an Amiga connected In the internet is one of 

the most difficult tasks due It- the complex 

installation routines of AmiTCr1 and the luck of any 

real guidance. Sot only will this situation change 

but you will now he able to get connected to the 

Internet and the WWW without a hard drive or the 

complicated selling up oflhe software. Our extensive 

networking skills have really been put to the test 

providing a simple connection from a compact disc 

providing a pleasant introduction and connection In 

the internet. Most of the difficult setting up is done 

automatically jor you with the connection program 

provided. All that is required i\ the answers to a few 

simple questions. In addition the ( I) contains all lite 

tools required for both the beginner and expert, full 

inslntctions on getting connected and many very 

helpful documents on the Internet and IVIVIV. The 

tools include AmiTCP. Mail. FTP, WWW and many 

more. In addition there is a section mi WWW page 

creation with clip art and creation tools. Easy Hard 

Drive installation possible hut not rci/uired. 

zJ-iZJ./J The Learning Citric CD pK-am-i :■■ &n!asnc'and-m^cal ^Himcv ihrcu-h I'lcHittf: 

~^. -nl'iicn hii'ii-fif Idj; -I .■ r-tlimc^jii anAmigaCO.'f»n! 

tcretl U)li;nmv.' snd nlii \. nhthc vmt 

ucalional and tnfnim:Mn>n:il programs 

nmdirecil) (mm the i-i'iii|i.ni tli-o wiih 

offcbeodi i(M+ i l-'iK^d..|salia-. luvc 

p 

i 

.1 unique CD providing 

juetlaituncnf foralt 

Dam 

KEE, 

j 

3 

>■- 

I 

1 

m 

Ai 

Cor pulrr 

a vUtth 

»*' 

Jr., 

\n 

roph\ 

II Ion 

llobbiet 

■tudio has arrhed. With fabulous The m.n,< ami h /;/.. .„„ r- ,dm.m«i , 

F 

\lalliimalKi .lirruitiimt1 

peilms Bbtou 

'u'le'Zure (lie'ZZry i 

" B«**W ■ 

Uvsophi 

nan editor 

"., 

iwiili 

'. """/"'■■■■ 

pnnttngl, fW Jyi-B /"filurr., ice briint. 

I.ICHT-KVM 4 at— in./«dc. d 

, , i.V.-K.-rr wcui filn by Man Clam. 

Tire award winning Multimedia 

Experience provided for users to 

create their nun stunning 

multimedia presentations tvitli 

images, tc.vt, video and sound. 

With the new /««' price all 

users can start multimedia. 

-_ r 

.'/""■ Hrln 'eilimt 

hn«C'"S. -I' '!« I' 

tecjawhg) i-ihi ii.n:,. Tim lilt, iitempilHt 

liThll /...i. imnc pittHtn, tea fit 

and sobhJ samplti., ll«ft 

■& of m/.i. •■„ ortriSf) ofAt 

;d chcl. inttlfttt mat 

The Cord Came. ( l> i-"

MINET 15 

Since the last Laser Guidance, two Aminet CDs 

have plopped onto the Amiga Computing 

doormat: Aminet 15, the November Aminet 

release, and Aminet 16 the Christmas release. 

Each release has a certain theme, and the 

focus of Aminet 15 is music and animation. 

One helluva lot of music and animation in fact 

In its uncompressed form there is over 1Gb of 

software on the CD, including 124 Mb of glori 

ously over the top trippy animations with 

accompanying dance music. There are 143 

MPEG animations and a number of excellent 

five minute animated films which look exactly 

like those 4-matbns shorts they show on 

Channel 4. The pick of the crop is the lovably 

stupid 'Alien Space Vampire' animation. 

As usual the Aminet CD contains a number 

of games, and along with the usual shoot'em- 

up clones, space invaders copies and primitive 

PD platformers, Aminet 15 contains a demo of 

a game called Genetic Species. It really does 

have to be seen to be believed -1 would stick 

my neck out and say that it is almost worth 

buying the CD for th.s game alone. 

Genetic Species is a very sophisticated 

Doom done that looks utterly professional but 

was in fact created by a small group of Danish 

coders calling themselves Ambrosia. I can safe 

ly say that Genetic Species, even in its early 

form, is the best Doom/Quake clone I have 

seen on the Amiga. 

The inclusion of a Genetic Species demo on 

the CD couid be something of a coup because 

Ambrosia have agreed to collaborate with the 

Amiga games giant Vulcan to develop the 

game. If all goes according to plan, Genetic 

Species couid be one of the most successful 

games in the Amiga's recent history. Aminet 

offers you the chance to own an eariy demo 

months before the finished product comes out. 

There are a ton of pictures on the CD, rang 

ing from interesting little presentations, films 

and pictures (such as the ace bird changing 

into a plane morph) to the obligatory dull ren 

derings of the starship Enterprise drawn no 

doubt by people who spend every hour of the 

day watching Deep Space Nine reruns and 

swotting up on their Klingon warrior curses in 

ill lit bedrooms. 


MARCH 1997 

I Hugh Poynton sifts through 

the latest Amiga CD releases 

1 found the CD fascinating and, although 

perhaps a little less useful than the average 

Aminet CD in terms of business software and 

the like, it is certainly a great deal more fun. For 

anyone with an interest in animation or com 

puter generated music, this CD is a must, as it 

includes music modules and software and 

some pretty good quality dance tracks. 

If you're after business software, buy Aminet 

14, but if you want a genuinely interesting and 

fun CD that'll keep you browsing for hours, go 

for Aminet 15. 

Genetic Species - worth 

buying Aminet 15 for 

Product 

Product: 

Supplier: 

Price: 

Phone: 

line 

DETAILS 

Aminet 15 

Epic CD Roms 

£12.99 

0181 873 0310

MINET 16 

This is Aminet's Christmas release - you can tell 

because those loveable Aminet fellas have 

stuck a big bell and some holly on the front. 

Somebody must be slipping something into the 

Aminet office water supply because, like the 

previous Aminet CD, this one also focuses on 

arty stuff as opposed to dusty old database 

packages. 

As with all the CDs there is the usual collec 

tion of useful, interesting and fun software. The 

onus here is on music modules - there are a 

total of 367 Mb of music mods on Aminet 16. A 

word of warning however, many of the mod 

ules on Aminet 16 have been taken from the 

Modules Anthology Vo! I CD, so this CD won't 

Is this your car? If so, you are vary sad 

It has always been said that one of the key 

strengths of the Amiga is that it is essentially a 

hobbyists machine, and that programming soft 

ware can be relatively inexpensive and simple in 

comparison to PCs or the like. Geek Gadgets from 

Cronus Software intends to capitalise on this fact 

With a name like Geek Gadgets you just know 

this CD is going to be intimidating and techie. 

Despite this, Geek Gadgets is an impressive and 

useful piece of software; it contains the Amiga 

Developers Environment or (ADE). ADE is a pro 

ject undertaken by Cronus to adapt a number of 

the most important and useful development tools 

and utilities for the Amiga. 

If you want to start programming on the Amiga 

then this is definitely the CD for you. Ail the nec 

essary tools are here; C, C++, assembler, linker, 

ADA Compilers and GNU debugger are present as 

well as dozens more. There are also beta test ver 

sions of upcoming ports such as the X Window 

System. 

To simplify things Cronus have complied the 

CD so that there is no need to install any of the 

files to your hard drive - they can be accessed 

directly from the CD. 

Product 

Product: 

Supplier: 

Price: 

Phone: 

Bottom 

me 

DETAILS 

Geek Gadgets - ADE 

Weird Science 

£19.95 

0116 234 0682 

extend your catalogue much. 

Games-wise Aminet 16 

is quite unremarkable. 

Because of the incredible 

Genetic Species demo 

on the Aminet 35 CD, 

this doesn't have a 

chance of living up to its 

predecessor as far as 

games are concerned. 

However, mixed in with 

the retro Space Invaders 

clone and primitive platform- 

ers is a demo of a Wipeout clone 

called Slipstream. Although there are 

no other ships flying about the beautifully 

rendered course with you, the demo is still a 

good laugh. The graphics are very impressive, 

although admittedly rather jerky. 

Other than music modules there are lots of 

pictures (279 Mb) and the usual amount of 

other stuff, totalling about 900Mb of files. The 

pictures range from the interesting and impres 

sive to the unbelievably duli. One stands out in 

particular - some guy has taken about 10 pho 

tographs of his remarkably unremarkable 

dodgy Japanese motor (the sort that they pro 

duced by the million in the 70s and 80s, rusty 

little tin cans with the aerodynamics of a breeze 

Aminet 16 in 

one did. 

block and cheesy names like Colt or 

Sunrise). These photographs 

^ show his pride and joy (oo er) 

from every conceivable angle. 

Strange. 

There is also the usual selec 

tion of demos, graphics soft 

ware and communications 

stuff. This is basically your aver 

age useful, good quality Aminet 

CD. It's stuffed with a load of use 

ful software that will no doubt come 

in handy at some time. However, it 

doesn't blow your socks off like the last 

packed with 

quality artwork Bottom 

like this 

Product 

Product: 

Supplier: 

Price: 

Phone: 

line 

DETAILS 

Aminet 16 

Epic CD Roms 

£12.99 

0181 873 0310 

EETING PEARLS IV Bottom 

Amiga Technologies certainly knew why it chose the Meeting-Pearls 

III as a freebie to be included with their Q-Drive. Everyone who knows 

the Meeting-Pearls series will confirm it offers highest quality at the 

lowest possible price - and this hasn't changed with volume IV. This 

time also, only high-quality and well-tested software pearls have 

found their way onto this crammed CD. A clever system has been 

devised to protect the lovers of Amiga games from many undesired 

crashes. Several different search tools (based on MUI and 

AmigaGuide) make finding and executing of software packages 

straight from the CD a snap. With the Meeting-Pearls CDs, no archives 

need to be unpacked - all programs can conveniently be started from the Workbench. For the first time, protection 

bits, which used to get discarded during CD-ROM production, are preserved. 

As was the case with earlier volumes, access tools have been improved noticeably. There is probably no other Amiga 

CD that can be configured according to personal preference in so many aspects - but fortunately doesn't require the 

user to do so. 

Product 

Product: 

Supplier: 

Price: 

Phone: 

MIGA DEKTOP VIDEO 2 

Almathera is back, with a follow up to the acclaimed Amiga 

Desktop Video. The Amiga Desktop Video sold out shortly 

after its release in 1995 and there is no reason to suspect 

that the follow up won't repeat the success of the original. 

Whereas the original Amiga Desktop Video focused 

more on 3-D images, the second CD concentrates on 2-D 

presentation and titling, with more 

commercial uses. 

Included on CD2 is about every 

thing you will need to produce your 

own video presentation with back 

ground sound and music It offers 

over 200 antialiased colourfonts, 

up to 250 point and above, with 

PostScript versions. 

The complete Scala 1.13 is also 

present on the CD, complete with 

an upgrade path to the more mod- 


Product: 

Supplier: 

Price: 

Phone: 

Amiga Desktop Video 2 

Almathera 

C14.95 

0181 687 0040 

1 Amiga Computings 

MARCH 1997 

DETAILS 

Meeting Pearls IV 

Epic CD Roms 

£9.99 

0181 873 0310 

ern version, Scala MM400. Version 1.13 is ready-to-run 

from CD and can utilise all fonts, animation and 16-colour 

textures supplied on ADTV2. 

Amiga Desktop Video CD2 also includes licensed musi 

cal tracks from various Amiga demo scene musicians and 

the required applications to play them. Other features on 

Bottom 

line 

the CD include clip-animation 

streams ideal for use on presenta 

tions and current releases of video 

utilities and graphics processing 

tools including NetPBM and 

MainActor. At £14.95, this is an 

excellent value package to start you 

off if you're new to Amiga video 

work - every aspect of Video pre 

sentation seems to be covered. 

Even if you are an expert, DTV2 still 

contains some useful material.

WHILE-U-WAIT!1 

-• Call us for latest 

COMPUTERS & MONITORS^;;«V 

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on Repairs, Spares, Floppy Drives, Hard Drives, 

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1240/25 

99-95 

159.95 

1240/40 £299.95 

1960/50^X489.95 

SIMMS 

4Mb £29.95 

8Mb £49.95 

16Mb £89.95 

Good conditions on SIMM prices 

if bought with an Accelerator 

A500, A500+ & 

A600 

£39.95 £49.95 

2.5" HARD DRIVES 

FORA600/A1200 

60Mb £55.00 120Mb £75.00 250Mb....£105.00 540Mb....£149.95 

80Mb £65.00 170Mb £90.00 420Mb....£129.95 1GIG £199.95 

All hard drives are pre-formatted, partitioned with Workbench 

loaded, and include 2.5" IDE cable + software 

2.5" IDE Cable and Software (if bought separately) £9.95 

3.5" HARD DRIVES 

540Mb £115.00 

850Mb £130.00 

1.08GIG £150.00 

2.1GIG £235.00 

SIMPLY THE BEST AFTER SALES SERVICE 

INTERNAL FLOPPY DRIVES 

A600 

A1200 

£45.00 £75.00 £95.00 

QUAD SPEED 

CD ROM DRIVES 

INCLUDING 

SQUIRREL INTERFACE 

£189.95 

UNBEATABLE 

PRICES 

33MHz FPU 

+ Crystal 

E39.95 

*1 

LOLA 

GENLOCKS 

L1500... £169.95 

L2000S. £349.95 

A1200 without Hard Drive £299.95 

A1200 with 80Mb Hard Drive...£349.95 

A1200 with 170Mb Hard Drive.£379.95 

ANALOG Analogic Computers (UK) Ltd 

ANALOGIC Unit 6, Ashway Centre, Elm Crescent 

P LOGIC Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey KT2 6HH 

CHIPS * SPARES 

1 Meg Fatter Agnus £19.00 

5 Meg Fatter Agnus £24.00 

8365 Denise £9.00 

8373 Super Denise £18.00 

5719 Gary £7.50 

8520 CIA A500/A500+ £15.00 

8364 Paula A500/A500+ £12,00 

Kickstart ROM VI .3 £15.00 

Kickstart ROM V2.D4 £25.00 

Kickstart ROM V3.Q5 £29.00 

A500'A500+ Keyboard £50.00 

£570 Ke,ooard Chip £20.00 

68000 P-ocessor £8.00 

Power Suppty for A50O'A60a'A1200.X35.00 

berate ASO00W50O "owe supply ...£80 00 

* ACCESSORIES 

8520 CIA A600/A1200 £14.50 

8374 Alice A1B0Q £30.00 

8364 Paula A600/A1200 £16.50 

Video DAC A1200 £19.00 

A600/A1200 Keyboard £60.00 

LisaAISOO D5.00 

6ayleA600/A1200 £25.00 

B=jdgiEA1500 £30.00 

Mouse (290dpi) £15.00 

SCARTLead £15.00 

Mouse Mat £4.00 

10 boxed branded disks .£6.00 

Printer Cable £6.00 

Surf Squirrel £95.00 

Squirrel SCSI Interface £55.00 

" Al1 cfi'cs srE svs.lsb'e £t-c'oc'1 * P.f^ss c5! for ary chio or spare no; I sted here 



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Mad as a March hare, ESP 

takes a look at the many letters 

sent in by you, the readers. 

RADE NOW 

I have been an Amiga user for nearly 4 years and have been on a low income 

for most of that time. When I read in magazines about other people saying it's 

too expensive to upgrade their Amigas, 1 have to laugh. In the past two years 

I have bought for my Al 200 ( nearly 4 years old and not a mishap ) a Blizzard 

Al230MklV(179 including a free game), 8mb ram under 100, Power CD-ROM 

179, 850mb Seagate hd 110 and a 33600 modem 119 and Internet connection. 

As you can see I now have a much more powerful Amiga for about half the price of a PC. I 

have had more fun out of upgrading it myself than if I'd gone to a PC box shifter, got it home 

and then found out I had to pay a lot more for graphics cards etc to do the same things the 

Amiga can do for half the price. So, it can be done. Nobody ever said computing was a cheep 

hobby - but it can be if you shop around. 

Ian McDonald macca@enterprise.net 

P.S Get Netted Or Get Left Behind;-) 

Good for you. Let's hope others will decide to follow suit If people have 

high-spec Amigas it may encourage more development - especially on the 

games front as it gives the developers more to work with. Take for instance 

A the Doom clones that required more powerful machines - I'm sure they 

impressed those other than Amiga users. And I'm sure upgrading isn't nearly as 

expensive as many people think. 

TOP YOUR MOANING 

I've never written to ESP 

before as my ponderings 

have always been 

answered by some other 

like-minded soul before I 

could put pen to paper. This 

time though I've had enough. Why do people 

write in moaning all the time? This is the one 

thing that will put half-hearted users off! 

If I was flicking through a PC magazine 

and the readers pages were constantly harp 

ing that 'the end was nigh', 1 wouldn't touch 

a PC with a barge pole. Potential users are 

(easily) influenced by information from all 

sources so if the people who use the 

machine are flaming it what hope is there? 

The market is shrinking but it's not half as 

bad as some of these turncoats would have 

you believe. I co-run an Amiga User Group 

and PD library in the North West and in our 

first year of operation we have attracted a 

new member virtually every week. 

Visitors to the club are predominately from 

within a 5 mile radius and if this is extrapo 

lated, it's safe to assume there are still thou 

sands of active Amiga followers up and down 

the country. Most are what you would call 

typical Amiga users - innovative and enthusi 

astic - but it is becoming increasingly obvi 

ous that a lot are new to computers in gen 

era! and they have bought Amigas second 

hand. 

In short, the Amiga audience has changed 

but not gone away completely. I mean, let's 

face it, nobody throws away their old Amigas 

- there are still hundreds of thousands of 

them out there. We just have to wait until 

they filter through to the people who want to 

use them. 

Consider the recent events to be stream 

lining - we are simply getting rid of the 'band- 

wagonners' - the people who used their 

l/2mb A500's when it was trendy to do so. 

We will be left with a core of hi-specced ded 

icated fans that are happy with what they've 

got and as a result the user base will not 

shrink further. 

Simon Brown Email - 

simon@ssamiga. warp. co. uk 

For details of the user group, please write 

to: 

S8S Amiga User Croup, 79 Woodnook Road 

Appley Bridge,, Wigan, Lanes. WN6 9JR 

I can understand people 

wanting to whinge about 

the current situation - we 

just want to see the Amiga 

bought and in the hands of 

someone who wants to do 

something positive with the platform. 

However, it's a very good point you are 

making about the new users who have 

bought an Amiga second hand. 

1 think a lot of people new to computing 

are picking up A1200's for around £100 

and wanting to get as much information as 

possible on their new machine. It doesn't 

help when they find out that many users 

are constantly moaning about the Amiga 

market and current situation. The more 

new users we can attract at the moment, 

the better. 

t 

Write in! 

If you have something you need 

get off your chest then put 

pen to paper and write to 

ESP, Amiga Computing, 

Media House, Adlington 

Park, Macclesfield, SK10 

4NP. You can also Email 

us at ESP@acomp. 

demon.co.uk We have various software bundles to give away for the 

best letters (please indicate whether you'd prefer serious software or 

games). We do try to reply to al! Emails and letters, but at busy peri 

ods this is sometimes not possible so please bear with us 


MARCH 1997 

CTION 

REPLAY 

When I first read in your 

magazine that Amiga 

Action would be incorpo 

rated into Amiga 

Computing, I was quite 

worried. I can't say that I am 

an avid fan (although I do enjoy the occa 

sional new release) and I was concerned 

that the whole magazine would be over-run 

with infantile games coverage - sorry, but I've 

seen past issues of Amiga Action, and I don't 

want to see my £4.50 a month wasted on 

Horse posters. 

However, I was pleasantly surprised when 

I saw the new games section because: 

1: It is roughly the same size as System 

2: The pages are bright and colourful and 

breaks up the magazine nicely 

3: You have managed to bring in more fea 

tures which will help keep the market alive 

(I've noticed that many mags just fill in space 

with reviews of inferior games). 

I just have a few grumbles though (you 

knew they were coming, didn't you?). I 

would like to see some kind of Action chart 

included which rounds up the best releases 

of the last few months - I don't buy many 

games but it wouid be nice to be able to see 

at a glance which I should go for when I do 

make a purchase. Also, I think it wouid help 

in a review to compare a game to a classic 

game in the same genre ■ whether it is bet 

ter or not and so on. Just a suggestion... 

George Preston, Derby 

Thanks for your comments. 

I've passed them on to our 

resident games guru who'll 

see what he can do - keep 

an eye on future issues.

OOPS 

Delighted as I was to find our 

company, Almathera, listed 

as one of the members of 

the "Amiga Elite Support 

Squad" in the article on 

Heroes and Villains in your 

January 97 issue, I'd like to take issue with a 

couple of points. 

Firstly, you said "Photogenics was an 

image manipulation package". That is indeed 

the case, but why the past tense? 

Photogenics is an image manipulation pack 

age, which we will continue to support for as 

long as we possibly can. I'm sure this was a 

simple slip of grammar, but I'd like to reas 

sure your readers that we haven't 

stopped supplying or supporting 

Photogenics. 

Secondly, you said Photogenics 

was programmed by Paul Nolan. 

While it is true that Paul Nolan wrote the 

original program on which Photogenics was 

initially based, it would be unfair not to men 

tion those who spent 18 months of their 

lives (including myself!) making Photogenics 

the package you know and love today. 

So, for the record, Photogenics was 

designed and programmed by Kriss Daniels, 

Jason C. Doig, Paul Nolan, Jolyon Ralph and 

Keith Smith, with help from many others 

inside and outside of Almathera. Writing and 

supporting Photogenics was, and is, truly a 

team-effort and I thank you for this opportu 

nity to put the record straight. 

J 

Jolyon Ralph - Almathera 

Sorry for any confusion on 

this matter, I'm sure your 

letter has set the record 

straight 

Photogenics, still strongly 

supported by Almathera 

L SUPPORTING 

In December 1996, while I was awaiting the next load of Amiga magazines 

at my local magazine shop, I noticed the demise of Amiga Shopper and 

Amiga Gamer CD32. A sudden cold shiver caught my body. When I took a 

look at the size of your magazine (still excellent, by the way), I realised that 

this could be the start of the end! So this loyal Dutch reader wants to tell you 

something. 

It's not that I am negative, but I am living in a country with the highest software piracy 

rate and the lowest means of buying Amiga stuff. After the announcement of Commodore, 

many of my local shops suddenly stopped supplying Amiga hardware and software and 

{most of all) service. It started to make me worry about the future of one of the finest 

machines ever. 

Lots of friends turned towards the PC - "Because the games and hardware should be bet 

ter and cheaper". Though i do not agree (and I will NEVER sell my trusty A2000 and CD32), 

it is happening more and more. This also made me worry. 

So why is this take over taking so long? Why are the liquidators such a pain - don't they 

see that they are slowly destroying a fine piece of tpchnology? And again, these ques 

tions worry me. 

I think the best way is to keep going and hoping that the VIScorp deal will be 

done soon, so new developments can start right away. And to all those Amiga freaks 

out there who feel the same but want to step to the PC platform, I would like to ask 

them: Why should you? 

All necessary and serious software is available on the Amiga as well. So that may not be 

the reason. Better games, faster programs? Only when you buy a state of the art Pentium 

200 MHz with lots of memory, hard disk space, expensive and fast graphics cards, SVGA 

multi-sync monitors and all for a 'bargain price' of £1,200? Don't make me laugh! 

So my advice: Think twice and ask yourself if you really need it. Do the things you want 

with the things you have and support you favourite machine as long as possible. 

Tom "a bit worried" Broekmans (NL) 

Start of the end - I certainly hope not! It is inevitable however, that as 

_J people desert to the PC, there are going to be fewer people to read the 

magazines which is why some have had to close. It's unfortunate that 

Amiga Computing has, along with many other Amiga mags, had to drop in 

size. However, we will continue to support the many loyal Amiga users out 

there with best quality magazine we can - as well as considering other projects such as 

bringing Amiga Computing on-line (as well as producing the print magazine). 

Yes, it is frustrating that no deal has yet been finalised for the purchase of the Amiga 

- I don't think the liquidators are slowing things down on purpose and I'm sure they 

want to see the deal finalised. However, we may have to wait a while longer as the deal 

is no longer as clear cut as it once appeared (see news story last issue). There are other 

contenders who are hoping to buy the Amiga - which at least shows how much the 

machine is still wanted! 

I think other readers should take note of what you say though - why go and buy a PC 

when you can do everything you need to with your Amiga? Hang in there for just a while 

longer and wait and see what happens - we could be richly rewarded. 

ALLING ALL READERS 

Would you be interested in getting the full version of 

Amiga Computing Magazine delivered straight to your 

computer screen? We are considering bringing out a 

subscription service that delivers the current, full mag 

azine straight onto the Intetnet. No more waiting for 

the postman or having to walk down to the shops. 

What's more, as well as getting the same content as 

you would in the print magazine, you will also be able 

to download everything that is on the coverdisks. And 

you don't even have to spend a fortune online to get 

all this - we will make it possible to download the 

magazine all at once, enabling you to read it at your 

leisure. Plus, we are considering other features includ 

ing extensive review archives, Amiga-specific chat 

rooms and technical advice by Email columns. 

So at the moment all we need to know is "Would 

you be Interested?". It won't happen if you're not 

You're not committing to anything - all we need to get 

is a feel for the number of people who'd like such a 

service. Expected cost for such a subscription could be 


MARCH 1997 

between S3 and S5 per month depending on the num 

ber of extra features added. It will be available world 

wide. 

Just by telling us your opinion on this, you will be 

entered into a free draw where you could win lots of 

dies. 

Win! 

Software! (Browse and Digita Organiser 

Books ! Internet International Directory 

Games ! Pinbali Illusions, Pinball Mania, 

Pinball Fantasies 

Simply Email tinah@idg.co.uk, type in your opinion, 

how much you would pay for such a service and any 

ideas you'd like us to incorporate. Or write to AMC 

Online, IDG Media, Media House, Adlington Park, 

Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 4NP.

RAM CARDS 

18-22 Sterling Way, North Circular Road, Edmonton, London N18 2YZ 

WE CARRY RAM CARDS 

FOR ALL AMIGA COMPUT 

ERS AT VERY LOW PRICES 

AMIGA A500 

1/2MB £15.99 

A500+ 

1MB £19.99 

AMIGA A600 

1MB £19.99 

1MB WITH CLOCK £34.99 

AMIGA A1200 RAM CARDS COME 

WITH CLOCK & FPU SOCKET 

OMB £29.99 

1MB £39.99 

2MB £49.99 

4MB £54.99 

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MEMORY SIMMS 

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At Gasteiner we have simms & memory 

for all ram cards S accelerators made 

for Amiga computers A500, A6OC 

A3D00, A1500, A2000 A4000 

30PINSIMMS1MB £10 

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SCANNERS 

GT 5000 EPSON 

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EX VAT 

£350.00 £411.25 

£700.00 E822.50 

GT 9000 EPSON £600.00 £705.00 

ARTEC 600DPI 

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with amiga software 

£269.00 BEST BUY 

HARD DRIVES _ 

WE SELL HARD DRIVE FOR 

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EX VAT 

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BUYS 

INC VAT 

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3.2GIG £249 

IDE 2.5" 

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170MB £69 

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810MB £159 

1GIG £199 

1.3GIG £259 

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FAX & MODEM 

NEW 33.6 WITH CABLES FOR 

ALL AMIGA to9.00 

CD ROM & WRITERS 

CD ROM 

EX VAT INC VAT 

4 SPEED 

£100.00 £117.50 

2SPEED 

£79.00 £92.82 

8 SPEED 

CD WRITERS 

£200.00 £235-00 

PINNACLE £549.00 £645.08 

RICOH 2 SPEED £329.00 £386.57 

YAMAHA 4 SPEED £629.00 £699.00 

0181 345 6000 

Facsimile 0181 345 6868 

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SHOP SOILED PHILIPS 8833 

SAMSUNG 15' 

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IDE CONTROLLER FOR A500, 

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E&OE. PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT 

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ALL TRADEMARKS ACKNOWLEDGED. 

TRADERS TERMS & CONDITIONS AVAILABLE UPON 

REQUEST.

Of there is one area computers 

have managed to revolutionise 

more than any other it has to be 

the music industry. The advent of 

digital recordings technology changed forever 

how recording were made and has gone on 

to produce whole new areas of music styles, 

without which the world would have missed 

out on Keith from the Prodigy. 

Thankfully, armed with your Amiga and 

even a measly amount of hardware and soft 

ware, you too can jump in head first into the 

music world without having to re-mortgage 

your house, wife and children. A basic set up 

to get you started composing music on your 

Amiga would be: A sampler and some sort of 

stereo amplifier - that really is it. The amplifi 

er does not need to be anything fancy to 

begin with, either a hi-fi or radio cassette 

player that ha5 the correct inputs and outputs 

to make full use of your hardware. 

The type of sampler you choose depends 

on your budget and how keen you are. 

Luckily, there are good low, medium and high 

end choices for all Amiga owners, no matter 

what your budget or machine. 

If you just fancy having a quick dabble for 

fun, then whatever machine you have you 

will be better off going for one of the parallel 

port type of samplers that are on the market. 

The main three currently available are the 

Technosound Turbo, MegafoSound and GVP 

DSS8. All three plug into the parallel port of 

your machine and allow you capture stereo 8 

bit samples. 

Decent software 

All these samplers come with decent soft 

ware that allow you capture samples from 

5Khz all the way up to 56Khz. They also pro 

vide for direct to disk capture giving hard 

drive owners the option of playing with even 

longer samples. At around £30 all pro 

duce excellent quality samples, come 

with decent software and are 

cheap enough for you to buy just 

to try them out. 

Moving up the price scale 

a wee bit there is the 

Aura 16 from HiSoft. This 0, 

PCMCIA device, even s. 

though called the £ 

Aural6, allows you to I 

The Aura software in action showing 

you a spectrum analyser monitoring 

the current sampler input 

MARCH W* 

V 

ALITY IS THE KEY 

When it comes to actually sampling, you will initially want to get the best quality you can 

and then reduce the sample down to a level usable on your system. At the initial sampling 

stage, depending on your machine, you will have to set the sampling rate to what your 

machine can handle. The best minimum set up is an A1200 with 4Mb of FastRAM - with 

this you will be able to get quite long samples at high frequencies( 41 Khz plus) and if you 

have a hard drive, all the mentioned samplers come with direct to disk sampling providing 

even more flexibility. People with lesser systems will still be able to get good quality sam 

ple around the 32Khz level, you will just have to be a little more conservative on sample 

length. 

capture and play stereo 8 bit or stereo 12 bit 

samples. Normally the best quality samples 

the Amiga can play are 8 bit, but the Aura 

adds another 12 bit stereo channel that is 

mixed with the standard Amiga sound out 

put. The actual Aura software that comes with 

the sampler works in full 16 bit quality, but 

you will still only be able to replay them in 12 

bit. 

The Aura software is very nice, giving you 

all the cutting, pasting and other editing tools 

you would want. Along with these are a stag 

gering amount of filters many of which you 

may have to just ignore, but thanks to the 

buitt in FFT display you can get a good under 

standing of what each filter does. There is 

even a MIDI sequencer built in so Aura can 

play back samples under external control. 

One final point is that OctaMED Sound Studio 

supports the Aura by giving you additional 12 

bit audio output via the Aura.

K EEP ON TRACK 

you may have noticed I have talked a lot about 

how you can get the best samples possible, but 

not mentioned too much about what you can do, 

apart from fiddling with them in the sample edi 

tor. Well many moons ago when programmers 

wanted to add music to games they concocted a 

strange symbolic music system and wrote a pro 

gram called Sound Tracker. This gave them a 

simple way of adding music tracks to games and 

demos, as tracker modules are written in a way 

that was simple for the computer to understand. 

Unfortunately for the poor old musician, they 

had the task of learning this system and writing 

music with it 

I may have made trackers sound a little worse 

At the top of the range for big box Amigas 

the best choice around is SunRize's board 

and a good second choice would be 

MacroSystem's Toccata board. Both offer the 

than they actually are. What they do is allow you 

to play samples at set times and at specific 

notes. By giving you a number of channels, to let 

you play multiple notes at once, you can produce 

fairly complex compositions. R is even possible 

to add effects to samples played using extra 

codes. 

These codes are the crux of the whole prob 

lem with trackers. Before you can realty get into 

producing good songs you have to become 

familiar with all these codes, and for a beginner 

they can be a real turn off. Luckily all the mod 

ern trackers do a good job of simplifying things 

as much as possible and good documentation 

should help newbies along. 

best sound quality around and can sample 

and replay better than CD quality I6 bit 

sound. The SunRize board has the best soft 

ware support with the Toccata really being 

takes a look at some of the 

software and hardware that could help 

you break into the music biz 

Possibly the most advanced tracker* on lh# fee* 

of the world, OctaMED Sound Studio support* 

loads at module types, can play up to 64 chan 

nels at 14 bit quality and is dirt cheap too 

developed to back up the V/Lsb motion cap 

ture board, but it still offers exceptionally 

good sound quality and if you go for the Pro 

version, additional support is added for Midi 

devices. 

So you have the sampler and are ready to 

try getting some sounds into your computer. 

The first thing you need are good quality 

leads to hook all your bits and pieces togeth 

er. Your main enemy when trying to get sam 

ples is background noise or interference so 

we want to get off to a good start by having 

decent leads and general connections. Next 

you want to choose what the input is going to 

be, either from a microphone, tape or CD. If 

using a microphone, some sort of amplifica 

tion is going to be necessary. 

Setting levels 

Once everything is hooked up you will need 

to set the levels to try and get the best sam 

ple possible. Most sampling software has a 

monitor mode that gives you a real-time 

display of what the sampler is cur 

rently receiving. You need to 

adjust the volume level as high 

as possible without distort 

ing or saturating the sam 

pler's inputs. On the 

monitor display you 

will see the current 

wave form as being 

received by the 

sampler, you need 

to set the volume 

as high as possible 

without the wave 

on the old side now, but TochnoSound Turbo 2 

vides all the editing tools you will need

Aura's FFT display may seem just a meaningless jumble of lines, 

but it shows graphically what effect filters have on samples 

Module - Once a piece of music hos 

been written in o tracker program it is 

saved out as a complete module. 

Both the sound samples and music 

score ate contained in a single lile 

colled a module. Ihere are various 

different forms ol modules, the most 

common being Protracker and 

OctaMED modules, also common on 

the PC are Scream Tracker modules. 

Channel - Allows a single sample to 

be played from your Amiga, which 

has four channels so can normally 

only play four sounds at the same 

time, but with some clever mitmg 

routines can appear to have a lot 

more 

Hem - Used to describe how many 

times something happens a second. 

When used in reference with samples 

it tells you how many times a second 

Jargon 

BOX 

the sampler takes a snapshot of a 

sound. So at lO.QOOHz or lOKhz a 

sample is comprised of 10,000 sepa 

rate samples 

8 bit ■ Describes the quality of a sam 

ple, an 8 bit sample has 256 sepa 

rate levels and produces decent quali 

ty sounds 

I6bit-A 16 bit sample has 65,000 

separate levels and produces perfect 

quality samples 

12 bit-Used by the Aura 12 bit qual 

ity gives samples 4096 different lev 

els 

MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital 

Interlace. A standard way ol allowing 

many different types of musical 

instruments and computer software to 

talk to each other 

touching or flattening out at the extremes of 

the monitor display. 

Now you have everything hooked up, the 

input levels are not too high and you have 

the sampler set at a rate right for your 

machine. All you need now is something to 

sample, usually a good quality belch will do 

for starters. When making samples remem 

ber to add a little extra time before and after 

doing the samples, this space can be cut out 

later and makes sure you get the whole 

thing first time. 

Tocntta's 

Samplitude 

software allows 

you sample and 

work with CD 

quality samples 


MARCH 1997 

MPLE IT AGAIN SAM 

The current Aura and Technosound Turbo sampling software might be line for getting sam 

ples onto your computer and although they do come with the bask editing tools and have 

a fair few filters, neither have been updated for a long while and there's a good chance 

you will want more power from your sample program. 

One that is right up to date is SoundFX. It gives you a font sensitive, multi-windowed, on 

line help, style guide compliant interface. As I well know, looks aren't everything, but 

SoundFX does not disappoint in the features department Along with a shed load of filters, 

operators, ARexx scripts and some advanced editing controls SoundFX can replay samples 

in both 8 and 14 bit quality and takes advantage of the AHI system allowing replay on nor 

mal Amiga hardware, Delfina, Wavetool and Toccata board. 

AHI is a fairly new development of more use to big box user, even though it does sup 

port the Aura for sampling on A600 and A1200 machines. It is an attempt to bring retar- 

getable audio to the Amiga and does for sound cards what CyberCraphX did for graphics 

cards. It has been used by Shapeshilter to add sound to the Mac emulation, so big box 

Amiga owners can have CD quality sound from all their Mac programs. Even for the stan 

dard Amiga audio it provides enhanced 14 bit replay for programs that support ft 

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With a good range of supported sample types and large number of quality operators, 

SoundFX has all the power you need and for 15 quid it's another bargain program 

Once you have some samples you will 

want to prepare them for use. For stand 

alone samples, apart from running them 

through filters or reducing their play rate, 

what you get from the sampler is pretty 

much it, but there are a few other things that 

become important for music samples. 

Loop the loop 

Looped samples are quite common and 

usually comprise of either a backbeat or 

some orchestral accompaniment, usually 

violin. To get a decent loop, the start and 

end points of the loop both have to be at 

the same level, otherwise you get a nasty 

clicking sound as the sample loops. A good 

way of to get a perfect loop is to place start 

and end markers and get the sampler to 

constantly play the sample, then slowly 

adjust these points until you get a seamless 

sounding loop, crop the sample and save it 

off. 

Finally, remember when sampling real 

instruments that a single sample is usually 

not going to be enough. Guitars are a partic 

ular problem for computers and will usually 

require a good number of separate samples 

to be able to reproduce a range of different 

chords and styles. The same goes for other 

most instruments, to be able to reproduce 

the entire dynamic range of a piano a few 

samples taken a few octaves apart will be 

Save 

|l=~|t 

necessary - again do the same for chords. 

You should now know all the basics to get 

writing music on your Amiga. If you find you 

have been bitten by the music bug the next 

stage is to start getting kitted out with some 

Midi equipment but that is another story. 

NTACT 

POINT 

Technosound Turbo 

First Computer Centre 

Phone: 0113 231 9444 

Price: £29.99 

Aura 8/16 

HiSoft 

Phone: 0500 223 660 

Price: £34.95/£99.95 

Toccata 

White Knight 

Phone: 01902 822 321 

OctaMED SoundStudio 

First Computer Centre 

Phone: 0113 231 9444 

Price: £22.99

cott Hallam's love affair with dance 

music began back in 1988 when Acid 

House was sweeping the nation. 

Manchester was the epicentre of the 

Summer of love and a new club was opened on 

Manchester's Whitworth Street called the Hacienda. 

Like many other people at the time, Scott was 

completely enamoured with this new musical form: 

"The music had energy, it was aggressive with a 

sound of it's own - new, fresh and full of power". 

After a few years clubbing and buying almost every 

House track he could get his hands on, Scott grad 

ually got to know people who were compiling their 

own tracks. 

After visiting a House musician, Scott was 

inspired to start creating his own tracks. 

Collaborating with Mark, Scott got to know the 

equipment needed and the processes of creating a 

decent tune. In addition to learning how to use mix 

ers, drum machines and keyboards, Scott was intro 

duced to the Amiga. 

Starting off 

Bitten by the bug, Scott started to build his own 

recording studio in earnest. Starting off with an 

Amiga 500 and turntable, he used the Amiga for the 

turntable and for internal samples. After acquiring a 

Roland D10 Keyboard, Boss SE50 Effects Drum 

Machine, and other gizmos, Scott came to realise 

the true strength of the Amiga. Although very adept 

at sampling, the Amiga was also extremely useful at 

managing external sound sources. In the fledgling 

studio the Amiga was at the heart of the system, 

connecting and controlling everything. 

Remarkably, seven years on, Scott is still using an 

Amiga despite having bought a 486 PC a year ago. 

Although some of the music software available for 

the PC looks good, the PC didn't cut it when it ,. 

came to handling the large amount of data m 

required 

\ 

Whilst the Amiga could control and sequence every 

thing almost flawlessly, the PC had the irritatingly 

habit of crashing almost every time it was used. The 

Amiga, in Scott's words, "Has only crashed about 

twice in its existence" Because of the architecture of 

the system and the fact almost every component is 

Hugh Poynton talks 

to musician Scott 

hiallam about the 

place of the Amiga 

in the modern 

recording studio 

made by the same company, there are no incompat 

ibility problems between sound cards, graphics cards, 

memory boards and the like. 

Scott continues: "What 1 like about the Amiga is 

that it is all in one, you don't have to worry about get 

ting compatible components, its all done for you. You 

just get a hard drive for it and you're away. Its also 

quite versatile, I would have loved to have got into 

the video editing side of it There are a lot of Genlocks 

available for Amiga. Pretty good machine as long as 

you've got the memory for it.." 

A remarkable number of people still use Amigas to 

create dance music. Not as many professional studios 

use Amigas because in a full recording studio there are 

probably specialised machines - such as the industry 

standard Atari or the new Atari Falcon that are too 

expensive to be owned privately. 

Future magazine publish CDs full of home produced 

tracks that are often listened to by industry A&R people. 

If deals are signed and contracts drawn up, chances are 

they will stick with the Amiga because they know how 

to use it and are comfortable with the machine and its 

abilities. 


A British trio calling themselves Conemelt are on the 

prestigious Andy Wetherall label. They use three linked 

Amigas because they are inexpensive and on one 

machine you could process 16 MIDI channels, with 

three networked you could run 48 channels making for 

a pretty rich blend of sounds. 

I asked Scott to show me the process undertaken to 

produce a new track. Amid the organised chaos of his 

recording studio sat a little A500 surrounded by 

machines that wouldn't have looked out of place on 

the dashboard of the space shuttle. Like any other 

musician, Scotfs primary requirement is inspiration, 

you need some place to start. 

"Get the idea in mind, be it a melody or a 

drum loop or a sample - put the first thing 

down. Find the sample you want to use - 

before or 

after

writing the track - trim the start and the end 

point so if II loop OK. This is basically just a mat 

ter of assigning the sample a key and then plac 

ing it in the track. You could play the whole 

track with samples but it takes away the origi 

nality, better to disguise samples". 

He continues: "For example, with a break 

beat, instead of just having it loop over and 

over again you have your own version of that 

breakbeat. You might have the end at the start, 

the start at the end or just chop it up a bit. 

That's how a lot of the jungle tracks are made - 

rolling snares, things like that" 

With the sheer amount of high tech electri- 

cals, producing dance tracks can't come cheap. 

I asked Scott just how much money was 

required to equip a basic studio: 

'You would really need an Amiga 500 with 2 

Meg memory and 80 Meg hard drive. This 

wouldn't be particularly costly. As for software, 

you'd need something like Music X v2 for 

sequencing external sounds. Lots of companies 

make classic sounding modules, such as 

Roland 303 drum machine sounds, but these 

modules don't have quite the same effect as 

using the original machines themselves." 

"Alternatively there is the Korg sound mod 

ule (£600) - although this will have loads of 

sounds and samples, you won't be able to take 

samples on it. You will need a sampler as well 

and a keyboard route through the Amiga. The 

keyboard to trigger everything through the 

Amiga, which tells it what to play, and then into 

the sound module for string, piano, bass line 

and so on." 

"Then the sampler will be used for drum 

loops and vocal snatches. I'd recommend the 

Ovation Bass Station for analogue stuff, it has a 

simulated 303 sound, a very deep baseline and 

is one of the best products of 94/95. You don't 

really need a big set up, but if you get into it you 

just collect more and more equipment." 

"You will need a mixer as well, a 16 channel 

one. FX - you want reverb and echo. You can 

get FX machines for about £300. You would 

also probably require a DAT - its what everyone 

uses. Maybe even a multi track recording sys 

tem. This will mean that instead of recording a 

tune onto the DAT as one track which you can't 

over dub, using a multi track, it can be run in 

time with the Amiga. This allows you to add 

more sounds, beef up bass lines and so on. The 

basic set up including an Amiga, keyboard, FX, 

DAT, mixer, sound module and sampler and 

drum machine would cost between £3000 and 

£4000." 

Producing professional quality dance tracks 

(JTHER AMIGA MUSICIANS 

Conehead are Ashley Marlowe, Nat Mellors, Grant 

Newman - a British trio that debuted over a year 

ago with the album "You F"kers F*¥ck" on their 

own New Ground label. For their second album 

"Confuse and Destroy" they are signed to Andy 

Wetherall's Audio Emissions Output label. 

Their own particular brand of 'radical techno' 

Eric Gieseke (aka Sidewinder) is one of the best 

known Amiga-using musicians. Eric has been writing 

music on the Amiga for about seven years and even 

designs the inlay cards for his CDs using an Amiga 

3000. The Texan musician draws influences from his 

travels around the worid (having lived on about every 

continent bar Antarctica). Essential discography tracks 

his development in the computer music scene since 

the late 80s. Starting in 1990, Sidewinder started cre- 

Perhaps the most 

souped up A500 

you will ever see 

And lhats just 

one wall! 


MARCH 1997 

has been likened to a 'robo-Rottweiter that is 

intimidating, charming, aggressive and playful at 

the same time' or as 'sublime, warped, jazz-tinged 

and flipped-out techno that could cut you in half 

with a feather1. The Tunbridge lads use three 

linked Amigas to produce their own unique 

sound. 

could hardly be considered cheap but if the 

equipment is picked up and accrued over a few 

years, the costs don't appear so intimidating. 

For Scott, at least, it looks as though his passion 

for producing dance tracks has paid off. Early in 

1996 Scott decided the time had come to 

release some of his work. 

Deciding on an EP, he choose five of his best 

tracks (not an easy task as by this point he had 

more than 40 DATs of his work). After remixing 

and touching up the best tracks, Scott took his 

EP compilation to Pure Music Manufacturing 

in Manchester and had 500 copies 

produced. 

The records have received a 

fair bit of airplay on the 

radio, mainiy Kiss 102, 

with DJs such as John 

Berry and 808 State 

playing tracks on 

their shows. Chris 

Evans has played 

tracks on the 

Breakfast Show 

and major 

record compa 

nies are show 

ing a keen inter 

ating music in MOD format and became one of the 

best computer musicians in America and beyond. 

There are four tapes released by Sidewinder since 

1992. Technology Bytes Volume 1 & 2, Best of 

Hardcore! and Insatia Fantasy. Future Shock 2 fea 

tures songs from Technology bytes including the 

remixed Livetman and Sidewinder's extremely ener 

gised anthem Spanish Armada is featured on his 

upcoming Analyzer CD. 

est. Scott plans to release more tracks in spring 

'97. There's every chance that, if in 1999, club 

bers are going mental to a Scott Hallam tune it 

was probably pieced together 

on an Amiga.

Of you use a photocopier to make a 

copy you go to the machine, place 

the document to be copied inside, 

press a button and wait for the 

device to do its job. It's likely you do all this 

without really knowing what goes on inside - 

you just know what input is required (the doc 

ument to be copied) and what must be done to 

start the copying process. You also know that 

some results will come back i.e. a copy of the 

input document. 

This information hiding 'black box' concept is 

an effective way of protecting a user from 

unnecessary complexity. For the C programmer, 

there is an equally effective facility - the C func 

tion. This provides similar capabilities and 

because of this, functions are the essential 

building blocks of all C programs. 

Many functions, like printfO we used last 

month, have been found to be so useful they 

are provided with all C compilers. The Amiga 

also has its own function libraries and we'll see 

later how these are used for handling Intuition, 

graphics and so on. Often however, you'll need 

to create your own functions. 

Function Definitions 

Listing 1 provides a general description of a C 

function whilst listing 2 shows a simple exam 

ple which calculates the area of a rectangle by 

multiplying its width and length values togeth 

er. This latter definition uses C's * operator to 

indicate multiplication and give us our first 

encounter with some variables. 

Variables represent areas of memory that 

you can use for storing information and, just as 

with languages like Basic, it helps to use names 

that mean something. Needless to say 1 have 

defined a variable called result - because in this 

instance that's exactly what it is being used to 

store. 

The expression 'int', incidentally, is just C's 

way of describing a variable that can store an 

integer (a whole number) value. The width and 

length parameters used in the function defini 

tion are also variables (again defined as inte 

gers) but, because they represent the function 

arguments, take on whatever values are sup 

plied when the function is used. Inside the func 

tion however, these items are used just like any 

other variables. 

The return() statement indicates the value to 

be returned to the caller and any valid C expres 

sion may be used inside the parenthesis. 

Functions do not have to provide a return value 

and a returnO statement without an expres 

sion, or in fact no returnf) statement at all, both 

result in no actual value being returned. It's also 

perfectly legal to ignore a return value, although 

narch^t est^l 

iarch_t est . c 

rtarchtest.o 

More help for 

aspiring C coders 

as Paul Overaa 

puts function use 

under the spotlight 

un ctj on 

return-type funttion-nase ( parameter list ) 

variable declarations 

appropriate C statements 

Listing 1: In general C functions 

have this sort of layout 

in the case of our example function, it would 

make little sense to carry out the calculation if 

you weren't going to use the results! 

So, the listing 2 function definition tells us 

Area() is a function that expects two integers 

representing the width and length of a rectangle 

- and returns an integer representing the area of 

that rectangle. Using the function is easy - if, for 

example we have a variable called 

rectangie_area that we want to set to the area 

of a 6 unit by 8 unit rectangle we just write: 

rectangle_area = Area(6,8); 

C evaluates the right hand side of the expres 

sion by making a call to the AreaO function 

(using the parameters supplied). Then it assigns 

the function's return value to the variable on the 

left hand side of the expression. The result - rec- 

tangle_area gets set to 48! 

To be honest, the operation of multiplying 

two numbers together, which is all Area{) does, 

would not normally be written as a function - 

you'd just work out the result using the state 

ment widthiength. It must be said however, 

that if you were going to define a function for 

pj Output Hindoo : .;_""'. 

leârea of a rectaiig I e 5 inches liv 8 inches TIT 

48 square inches! 

This month's example can be compiled in 

exactly the same way as last month's code 


MARCH 1997 

int Areafint width, int length) 

I 

int result; 

result=tndth'length; 

returnf result); 

Listing 2: An example function definition 

doing this you could do it more concisely by 

using the function's arguments directly: 

int Area(in: iiidth, int length) 

{ 

retsjrnlwidth'Length); 

int Areafint vidtii, int 

tength)treturnfnidth*length);} 

Notice that C, unlike other languages, isn't par 

ticularly fussy about the physical layout of the 

source code. 

Some Example Code 

On the coverdisk you will find a short program 

that makes use of this AreaO function along 

with a few extra notes about the variable and 

function naming conventions I use. One thing 

you will notice in this month's source is an ANSI 

C function declaration statement called a proto 

type 

int Areafint width, int length); 

This looks pretty much like the first line of the 

function description itself, with a semicolon 

tagged on the end. It's job is to provide an ini 

tial definition of the variable types being used 

which then allows the compiler to check all 

subsequent function use is correct (pre-ANSI 

compilers were not able to do this). 

Needless to say there is plenty more to be 

said about functions but it's best to deal with 

individual issues as they crop up within exam 

ple code. So, although next month it's C vari 

able types and operators that come under the 

limelight, you will in fact be also be learning a 

little more about function use as well. /^*f

Ovid Web surfers eager to investigate 

the programs reviewed in these 

pages, but not so keen on sifting 

through Aminet to find them, might 

want to visit the Public Sector Web site at 

http://www.dcus.demon.co.uk/ sector/sec- . 

tor.html (or follow the "Software" link from the 

Amiga Computing homepage). From here you 

can download the archives from Aminet at the 

click of a button, as well as search through vari 

ous indices to find and download software 

reviewed in previous issues. 

If you don't have the luxury of an Internet 

connection, do not be alarmed if you spot an 

item in these pages that is listed as available 

from Aminet The chances are your favourite PD 

Library will stock the program anyway, but if 

they don't you might want to contact one of sev 

eral libraries who will download stuff from the 

archive for a reasonable charge - for instance, 

Your Choice PD offer such a service. 

Ptfbfre Sector 

£jVT.T^1,** '.'. l»— «~— **^— 

ffiftia EvwyttmBx 

Make the Public Sector Web page 

your first port of call on the Internet 

Into The Deep 

Classic Amiga Software 

11 Deansgate, Radcliffe 

Manchester M26 9YJ 

(Tel: 0161 723 163S) 

ne, Fo 

iverpool L37 3 

(Tel: 01704 834335) 

(BBS: 01704 834583) 

Your Choice PD , 

39 Lamb ton Road, Cho ' 

Manchester M21 03 

(Tel: 0161 881 8994) 

ubble Pictures 

Produced by: Hubble Space Telescope 

comet team 

Available from: OnLine PD 

Disk No: 0X351 


MARCH 1997 

Utility of 

u~ ma urn 

Dave Cusick 

gives it some gas 

in the PeeDee 

porsche... 

usicline Editor vl .1 4 

Programmed by: Musidine 

Available from: Aminet 

(as mus/edit/mlinel J5.lha) 

The Musicline Editor has apparently been 

four years in the making and when you load 

it up you won't fail to be impressed by the 

sheer wealth of options available. In fact, 

because the programmers have deliberately 

set out to make the editor totally different 

from the numerous Protracker clones already 

in existence, using the Musicline Editor can at 

first appear somewhat daunting. 

The features list is frighteningly long. Music 

can be created using four or eight channels, 

using notes covering five octaves; sound sam 

ples can be up to 127k in length (significant 

ly bigger than with ProTracker, which if mem 

ory serves me correctly only allows 64k sam 

ples); each tune can include up to 255 instru 

ments with which a huge variety of effects 

Forget about ProTracker clones - just 

get hold of the Musicline Editor as 

soon as possible 

In July 1992, the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet 

began to break up as it passed too close to 

Jupiter. Fragments of the comet began to col 

lide with the planet and two years later frag 

ments were still impacting on the surface. 

Scientists estimated at the time that the com 

bined energy of the impacts would be rough 

ly comparable to a million hydrogen bombs. 

Fortunately for fans of spacey images, by 

July 1994 the Hubble Space Telescope (of the 

famously dented mirrors, if I'm not mistaken) 

was on hand to take some snaps. And very 

exciting they are too. 

Actually, whilst some of the pictures prob 

ably will not mean a great deal to anyone 

other than astronomers (despite the interest 

ing comments from the comet team which 

The Music lino Editor is absolutely 

bristling with powerful features 

may be used and ProTracker modules can be 

loaded and modified. In short, Musicline 

Editor can do more than pretty much every 

other non-MIDI music composition program 

in existence - which explains why the authors 

have made it Shareware, with a £16 registra 

tion fee. 

The effects that can be applied to instru 

ments can all be adjusted to suit - for 

instance, if you chose to use an envelope you 

could alter the attack, delay, sustain and 

release characteristics and if you chose to 

apply tremelo you could opt for one of four 

wave types before playing around with the 

speed, depth, attack and delay. In other 

words, once you get to know your way 

around the interface, it's possible to hone 

your compositions so they sound exactly as 

you would like. 

The example modules supplied with 

Musicline demonstrate just some of the 

power of this excellent editor. No serious 

Amiga musician should be without it. 

accompany many of them), they are never 

theless quite fascinating in a strange, cosmic 

sense. Indeed, after reading some of the truly 

stupendous figures involved (for instance, 

Jupiter was approximately 477 million miles 

from Earth when some of the images were 

taken) and working my way through the 19 

Jpegs included on the disk, I suddenly began 

to feel extremely small and insignificant.

Qemple of Everlasting Light 

You may remember that last month Public Sector featured a sort of "Perfect PD Past and Pathetic PD Present" thing. Well, focusing on pathetic stuff struck me as 

just a tad too negative, so I thought instead I would expand on the Perfect PD Past idea to include a selection of themed gems from the last few years. This month, 

The Simpsons... 

Homer 1.6 

Programmed by: David Swasbrook 


(as util/wb/Homerl5.lha and 

util/misc/Homeri 6u.lha) 

Itch & Scratchy #2, #3 and #4 

Programmed by: Chrome Australia 

Available from: OnLine PD 

When I first reviewed Homer last year, I was a 

relative newcomer to the world of The 

Simpsons. Back then, Sky viewers were treat 

ed to an hour a week of what I described at 

the time as "An often hysterical, constantly 

sparkling satire on modern life American 

style." Nowadays, lucky satellite subscribers 

get daily doses of The Simpsons and (after a 

long wait) now there are even 22 minutes of 

Springfieldian fun on terrestrial TV every 

weekend. 

Unfortunately the BBC have seen fit to slip 

The Simpsons into a particularly inappropri 

ate slot between "classic" Tom And Jerry car 

toons and the painfully populist Noel's House 

Party. This ensures that practically everyone to 

whom the program would appeal, if only they 

They may have been so violent that Marge Simpson 

didn't want her kids to watch them... 

agic Theatre 

caught a glimpse, is in actual fact 

eating their Saturday evening 

meal when the program goes 

out. Some bright spark at the 

Beeb has also decided that rather 

than showing the episodes in any 

sort of order, it would be better to 

transmit the very cheesiest and 

possibly least funny episodes 

ever made before even thinking 

about running some of the all- 

time classics. Still, I suppose we 

can't have everything... 

Despite the Beeb's best efforts 

to suggest they were right all 

along and that The Simpsons is completely 

unsuited to terrestrial TV,! know of at least a 

dozen recent converts and it's with them in 

mind that I thought Homer was worthy of 

another mention in these hallowed pages. 

Let's make no bones about this: Homer is a 

totally useless program. However, that does 

not stop it from being a must-have. The sim 

ple fact is that 22 minutes of Homer Simpson 

per week is not enough to sustain ardent 

D'oh-votees of the Great God Blubber himself 

and the prospect of having everyone's 

favourite fat American numbskull sitting on 

It's the Itchy & 

Scratchy show 

the Workbench and sharing 

pearls of wisdom (in 

between belches) is just too 

attractive to pass up. 

The Workbench version of 

Homer relies on sampled 

sounds, plenty of which are 

actually included in the vi.5 

archive. If - woe betide ■ you 

should tire of the supplied 

speech snippets, adding new 

samples is a straightforward 

process. You could of course 

sample Homer yourself with 

the aid of a VCR, a Scart 

cable and a sound sampler, but Internet users 

might like to visit http://www.snpp.com/ 

which, along with more Simpsons-related 

information than you are ever likely to wade 

through, contains hundreds of links to 

Simpsons sample archives. 

Of course, Homer isn't the only star of The 

Simpsons. The cat and mouse duo Itchy and 

Scratchy have supplied their fair share of 

memorable moments in the past, with their 

horrificaily violent adventures figuring promi 

nently in some great Simpsons episodes. 

When I first reviewed Itchy & Scratchy ani 

mation disks #2 and #3 a couple of years 

ago, I had no idea they were Matt Croening 

creations. Twenty-two issues later, the anima 

tions are just as colourful and comical. 

Admittedly they only last around 30 seconds 

each, but are all extremely entertaining and 

certainly liable to be loaded up more than 

once. 

...but the Itchy & Scratchy cartoons are 

amongst the greatest ever created 

Human beings are, on the whole, critical beasts. Although for the most part only the very best in Freeware and Shareware makes it into these pages, doubtless there 

has been the odd occasion when you have flicked through Public Sector muttering to yourself "I could do better than these poor PeeDee efforts", or something. So 

here's your chance to prove it. 

Here's the Bobby Moore: Cram your best efforts onto a 3.5", slap it in a padded envelope with a covering letter and wang it with all haste in our general direction, 

pausing only to mark the envelope with "Reader Submission" in addition to the usual Public Sector address. Some days later when said envelope tumbles gently through 

my letterbox, I'll tear it open, shove it in my drive and don my evaluating cap, with the creme de la submissions earning reviews in these pages as well as highly desir 

able prizes for their creators. 

Dear reader, is this not music to your ears (or, erm, candy to your eyes)? Don't dawdle for another moment - get those submissions in the post before Tina changes 

her mind about the prizes... 


MARCH 1997

mart Dogs 

Games Blaster 

Programmed by: Stuart Beatty 

Available from: Online PD 

PlayStation Cheats 

Programmed by: an anonymous 

Web author 

Available from: Classic Amiga Software 

Games Blaster is a disk full of game cheats, 

which are unsurprisingly presented in 

Amigaguide format, making the guide dear 

and simple to navigate. Scores of games are 

covered, from the Addams Family to Zool 2, 

with passwords, type-in cheats and suchlike 

all included. 

PlayStation Cheats, on the other hand, is 

simply a text file which has been slapped 

onto a disk- Again, plenty of games are cov 

ered so if you have decided to invest in one 

of these extremely popular consoles for gam 

ing purposes, but you're struggling with the 

latest expensive smash hit, you'd do well to 

consult this disk. 

As an added bonus, the PlayStation Cheats 

disk includes an excellent little Space 

Invaders clone which, in a fit of originality, the 

author saw fit to call Space Invasion. It does- 

'Wj 1 B tads* 1 k*» t flrta 1 

Lav*l Codes: 

PuMt.s - U1219 

in- ,l.ii-l - tl«VKU 

M^Jm^tiIj^ - UO2HL 

Filter - ULI14 

IK DOW«—at - i i« : 1 

2nd cw^-UB - -I'iin 

3rd pflwer-yp - QLSKS 

1 

'■ 

1 m| ing li □ : 

not underestimate the 

power of, erm, Space Invasion 

ft- a conxi 4n4 an e C«, door. 

light Control 

Programmed by: Paul van der Valk 


(as game/misc/flightcontrol.lha) 

This is a curious game in an embryonic but 

fully functional version ! .0. As with Fireflies 

last month, in its current incarnation the 

program is interesting and strangely 

absorbing though lacking in long term 

appeal. With development it could become 

an accomplished offbeat attention-keeper. 

Flight Control is based on an old 

Microprose game of the same name. The 

objective is basically to guide aircraft to 

their destinations safely, but in practice this 

is not as easy as it sounds because with 

several planes airborne at any one time, 

there can be a lot to think about at once. 

It's not a good idea to keep an aeroplane 

waiting on the ground for too long before 

allowing it to take off. Once airborne, dif 

ferent types of plane move at different 


MARCH 1997 

n't compare too well with Wipeout, but it is a 

playable version of a golden oldie which will 

remind you of the days when men were men 

and arcade games never cost more than ten 

pence. The kids of today don't know they're 

born, I'm telling you... 

; 

With Games Blaster 

you'll be able to 

complete that 

classic even if 

you're completely 

speeds towards their destinations. At any 

time a flight can be selected and new 

orders issued regarding the direction and 

height the plane should take. If two aero 

planes travelling at a similar height enter 

the same map area, they will come into 

conflict. 

Some of the improvements the author is 

ANKKK 

|v0.77 

Programmed by: K-P Koljonen 


(as game/2 play/tan kkk.lha) 

Tankkk is an extremely playable shoot- 

em'up which allows 2-4 players to take 

control of tanks and trundle around a 

maze shooting each other. The objective is 

straightforward: Destroy your opponents. 

The tank battle can take place in one of 

six mazes and in preference to ordinary 

bullets you can opt to fight with bullets 

that keep bouncing off walls until they hit 

something. Once a certain number of bul 

lets have struck a tank or it collides with a 

wall once too often, it will begin spinning 

around in circles and eventually explode. 

When only one tank remains, a statistics 

screen appears telling each player just how 

accurate their shots were. 

The graphics are clear (though function 

al rather than spectacular) and the sound 

effects are suitably noisy, but without a 

doubt Tankkk's biggest asset is its sheer 

payability. As with other PD multiplayer 

gems such as Dogfight and Bratwurst, 

you'll find yourself having "just one more 

game" worryingly often as you try to exact 

revenge for an unlucky loss. 

Knack; compress files with ease, and 

perform some other everyday operations 

whilst you're about if 

Flightcontrol: 

Do that Air Traffic 

Controller fhang 

planning include adding sound effects and 

fancier graphics, building in a career mode 

so the game has some sort of eventual 

objective and incorporating disasters. As it 

stands, Flight Control is curiously com 

pelling but ultimately unfulfiiling. When the 

proposed additions are implemented it 

should definitely be one to look out for.

Hey dude Qtoms 

I want to hear from you if you have 

any program, whatever its purpose, 

which you consider worthy of review. 

Whether it will be freely distributable 

Public Domain, Shareware or 

Licenceware, if you feel it is of suffi 

cient quality to merit coverage, stick 

it in a padded envelope and send it 

in with all haste. 

Although Public Sector cannot possi 

bly hope to cover all submissions, I 

promise 111 at least look at your work 

- even if it is yet another Lottery pro 

gram or Klondike cardset. (t does 

make my job a lot easier though if 

disks are dearly labelled. 

Please also include a covering letter 

detailing the disk contents and price 

and giving some basic instructions. 

The magic address is: 

PD submissions 


Media House 

Adlington Park 

Macclesfield 

SK10 4NP 

Programmed by: Michele Berionne 


(as game/think/Atoms31.lha) 

Based on an old Atari ST game, Atoms offers 

brain-bending fun for up to four players. If 

you don't have any friends (either in the 

room or in the world), the computer can play 

for up to three people or you can simply 

choose to play with less than four partici 

pants. 

Each player takes it in turns to place an 

atom in a square on the gameboard. Players 

can only place atoms in empty squares or in 

squares containing their own coloured atoms, 

if too many atoms are placed in a square, the 

atoms become unstable and explode. 

The number of atoms which will cause an 

explosion varies depending on the position of 

a square on the board - corner squares can 

hold only two atoms, edge squares hold 

three and other squares hold four. When the 

atoms in a square explode, neighbouring 

squares are showered in atoms of the same 

colour. 

trix Generator 

Programmed by: Mathieu Dhondt 


(as game/role/SRunMatrix3_3.lha) 

In the past I have hypothesised in these 

pages that Rawk music appreciation is, for 

many people, a fundamental part of the 

adolescence experience (although I'd like 

The Matrix Generator doesn't look too impressive but will 

be a great help to Shadowrun GMs 

It all sounds horribly confusing, but in prac 

tice makes for an engaging game combining 

luck and skill. With passable graphics and 

nice sound effects too, the only thing Atoms 

can really be criticised for is the dreadful 

music which will have you reaching for the 

volume control within moments of first load- 

to re-emphasise that I, like most of the AC 

staff with the unfortunate but notable 

exception of our beloved editor, managed 

to avoid succumbing to it). There is a sec 

ond, perhaps equally common, phenome 

non which is particularly prevalent in males. 

Allow me to elucidate. 

Many hours of my early teenhood were 

spent hunched around a dinner table rolling 

dice, calculating experi 

ence points and consult 

ing colourful maps of fic 

titious worlds. Yes, I was 

a roleplayer. Perhaps it 

was to escape from the 

obligatory teenage angst 

or perhaps it was just 

because Manchester 

United were hovering 

dangerously close to rel 

egation - who can tell? 

Suffice to say that for 

some time I wasn't at a 

loss for something to do 

in the evenings and 

weekends. 

My obsession began 

with the seminal fantasy 

RPG that was Dungeons 

& Dragons and 1 confess 

that over a couple of 

years 1 accumulated an 

obscene amount of rule 

• 

«' 


MARCH 1997 

# m 

• • #• 

♦ 4 t" * 

, 1 

• 

♦ " 

4j i i 

•> 

• * a* 

wmm 

Atoms: Mind-boggling (tin, or something 

ing the program. 

Atoms is Shareware and the registration 

fee is 15,000 Italian Lira. In these days of con 

stantly changing currency exchange rates 

(and Italian governments, the cynical might 

say), I'm not exactly sure how this translates, 

although I believe it is probably about £6 

(don't you just love the Lira?) For your trouble 

you will not only receive peace of mind and 

the knowledge that you're helping sustain the 

Amiga in these troubled times, but you'll also 

get a disk full of games by Michele. 

books, adventure packs and copies of TSR's 

ever-so-slightly biased Dragon magazine. 

I later left the confines of the fantasy 

environment to guide teams of intrepid 

spacefarers around the universe in 

MegaTraveller. At the same time, one of my 

roleplaying friends made the leap from 

Runequest to Shadowrun. Shadowrun is 

based around a Gibson-esque cyberpunk 

theme, but as an added twist, fantasy crea 

tures such as elves feature too. 

However, the main thrust of games I par 

ticipated in was always the technological 

aspect of cyberpunk life and as such my 

character became an accomplished hacker 

and broke into several large corporate com 

puter networks. These networks were called 

matrices and invariably the gamesmaster 

would not let me hack into one unless he 

happened to have prepared it in advance, 

because otherwise the game would grind to 

a halt for ten minutes whilst he rolled some 

dice and consulted his tables to generate a 

matrix. 

Shadowrun GMs will therefore consider 

the Matrix Generator something of a god 

send - in a matter of seconds it can gener 

ate an entire computer system, which can 

then be printed out for reference. Whilst it 

clearly caters only for an extremely small 

number of people, this is the sort of simple 

but useful program that the Public Domain 

was made to house. 

« 

• 

•

Ot seems to have taken an eterni 

ty to get hold of a copy, but 

finally I have managed to get 

my grubby mitts on this latest 

Amiga art package. At a time when the 

Amiga's future is no more clear than it has 

been at any time in the last couple of years, 

it is quite a shock to find a company show 

ing as much faith in the Amiga as Haage 

and Partner. Following the release of its 

C/C++ compiler just a iew months ago, it 

now has what is supposedly Photoshop 

the Amiga, a bold claim for any package 

make on any platform. 

It has to be said though that any riffl 

Amiga art package is going to have to be 

something special to make its mar 

Looking at the current range of programs 

out there, Amiga users have a great deal to 

choose from already. 

For bitmap work there is DPaint, 

Brilliance and the latest version PPaint. For 

image processing you have lmageFX and 

AdPro not forgetting public domain entries 

ImageStudio and ImageEngineer. And then 

for 24 bit work you could again choose 

Brilliance, XiPaint, Photogenics or, for the 

rich, TV Paint. So for ArtEffect to succeed it 

may very well have to be as good as 

Photoshop. 

TWO DISKS 

The whole ArtEffect package only takes up 

two disks so installation using the Amiga 

installer takes no time at all. When you first 

run it you must choose what screen mode 

to use. ArtEffect can use any Amiga screen 

mode from 16 to 256 colours and if you 

have a CyberGraphX card you will be able 

to make full use of it and take advantage of 

the 15 and 24 bit screen modes. One point 

to note is that ArtEffect needs a screen at 

least 400 pixels high, other wise the GUI 

will not fit. 

EW FORVl.5 

Support for Ham8 mode 

(A1200, A4000) 

This is a bit of a mixed blessing depending on how you look 

at it With the Ham8 mode you generally get a much better 

colour representation of the picture, indeed it is much better 

than Photogenics' own HamB mode. On the down side, 

screen update is dog slow and Haage & Partner themselves 

only recommend it for when you are image processing 

Plug-In MotionBlur 

A free new plug in allows you to add motion blur to your pic 

tures, hence the name MotionBlur plug in, H's all clever stuff 

Plug-In Tile 

This module fills the complete picture with the current brush 

Plug-In Makefile 

This module creates a tile that can be used with the module 

tile to create an 'endless' texture. This actually has a useful 

application for Web pages as you will be able to make seam 

less backdrop images in no time at all 

Plug-In ScanQuix 

This module calls the external scanner software ScanQuix if 

it is installed on your computer 


MARCH 1997 

Could an j art package 

even come close to challenging 

Photoshop? \ r sees if 

the rumours are true 

ArtEffect has one of those all singing 

multi-window front ends and thanks to 

BGU!, everything is font sensitive and 

aspect correct. A nice touch is that when 

you shut it down all the current windows, 

Using the magic wand and the main 

settings you can easily mark out areas 

in pictures and so protect them from 

the image processing effects 

1 

- ■ 

■; 

s ■ 

-■ ■ 

iferitiagvBiilnania mat wavy.- i-n.1 .. -,-i-y?--i-?,- v . 

positions and status are recorded for the 

next time you run it. One puzzling thing 

though is why the tool box is so big - are 

Germans not very dextrous? It could easily 

be half the size and still be big enough, but 

workbench Screen 

ODDQD 

f. I!' II- li li I 

□!■ ii ii ii :i 

As with most programs today, 

to get the best out of 

ArtEffect, you need a relative 

ly high specification Amiga - 

preferably an 040 Amiga with 

a CyberCraphX card 

that's me being picky. 

^fother than the tool box, normally you 

Will have a brush window, which again I 

mink it a little on the large side, a universal 

ption window that works very well. For 

ach drawing tool you select this changes 

So you can leave it open and have access 

to all the options at any time. For colour 

selection you have quite a choice - RGB, 

HSB and CMYK slider along with a HSB 

colour range and a configurable colour 

Colour change 

The sliders are very well implemented, as 

you adjust them the actual slider container 

changes colour, showing which position 

corresponds to which colour, taking out 

some of the guess work. The one thing not 

available is the normal circular Amiga 

colour selector, which I do find quite easy 

to use and would like to see added. 

Different paint packages expect you to 

work in different ways, the older or more 

traditional style Amiga paint package gen 

erally only allowed you paint on direct 

colour or play around with gradients work 

ing on the pixel level. With the arrival of 

Photogenics you had an awful lot more 

power as it allowed you to both paint 

directly onto an image with its effects and 

also mask out areas with its alpha channel. 

With Photoshop, as with ArtEffect, 

You will be able to run ArtEffect 

on any public screen that has 

more than 16 free pens 

RUSH WITH DEPTH 

Fancy effects and composition tools are all well and 

good and have their place in any self-respecting art 

package, but if they are not backed up with decent 

drawing and brush tools, the program will always 

seem to be lacking something. For example, ImageFX's 

painting is far from perfect and Photogenics does not 

allow you to grab brushes from other images. 

Well ArtEffect certainly does not disappoint with its 

brush support. To start you have three 

different drawing modes - pen, brush 

and airbrush. All giving you a slightly dif 

ferent control over how colour is spread 

onto pictures. 

The real power of ArtEffect's brushes 

lies in its brush manager and the univer 

sal settings window. The brush manager 

is the part you will use the most and is 

where all your brushes ate stored. 

If you are familiar with Brilliance, you 

will know this had a brush store where 

all the loaded brushes were graphically 

stored. ArtEffect is a little different, not 

only can brushes cut from images be 

stored here, but you can create your 

own brush styles. Using the brush cre 

ator it is possible to alter the size, shape, 

density, dithering and brush spacing. As 

a result you can create a brush for what 

ever type of situation you wish. 

effects are applied to the entire image, 

unlike Photogenics in which you can 'paint 

on' these effects. Obviously there are times 

where this is not what you want, you may 

only be interested in a specific area or por 

tion of an image. 

To help you here ArtEffect has a stencil 

A new MakeTile plug in copies Photoshop's seamless welder 

Things do not just stop here though, when it comes 

to actually drawing with brushes, you have a whole 

myriad of additional control over how the brush affects 

your picture. Most basically you can adjust the hard 

ness of the current brush but extras like darken, light 

en, process hue/saturation/luminance, blur, smooth 

and sharpen all add up to give you a lot of control over 

your drawing. 

Create j Add | Rern | Pic~> | ->Pic | 

and allows you to create continuous Web backdrops with ease 

Using the brush creator you can knock 

up almost any type of brush you like 


MARCH 1997 

tool, If you have ever used DPaint or 

Brilliance you would have more than likely 

come across their stencil functions. With 

these programs you can select certain 

colours in a picture and protect them from 

being drawn over. The main point being 

L

that in a picture, relative areas usually 

consist of similar colours, so you can pro 

tect these areas by selecting the relevant 

colours. 

This same sort of thinking is also used 

with ArtEffect, but the execution is very 

different. With Dpaint you got a list of 

colours in the picture and which ones are 

in the stencil. With a 24 bit image this is 

obviously not practical, so instead the 

area masked out by your selection is 

shown graphically on screen with 

ArtEffect shading out the selected areas. 

Tolerances 

Area is determined on the colour you 

choose and you also have control over the 

tolerance levels, or how closely matching 

other colours have to be before they will 

also be selected for the stencil. You can 

select and de-select multiple areas using 

the alt and control keys. 

Once you have the area selected, fur 

ther control is provided via invert, add 

border, grow and shrink functions. Finally 

there is a feather option that fades in any 

effect that is applied and covers over the 

edge of the selected area. Anyone that 

The new motion blur filter in action, all the while 

a second filter is still working in the background 

Ul AND YOU-ME 

It seems to be common place now for Amiga pro 

grams to shun the standard interface in favour of the 

increasing number of replacement systems out there. 

Since version two of the Amiga's operating system 

arrived a new interface library has been available 

called CadTools. 

This was meant to supply the programmer with 

access to all the different gadget types they would 

ever need in one small library, which it did. 

Unfortunately, to implement even a simple set of but 

tons required you to go through the arduous process 

of creating a CadTool data structure for each one, and 

then there was the matter of then having to collect 

the gadgets messages afterwards. 

Because of the unfriendliness of CadTools many 

programmers took it upon themselves to produce 

replacement interface libraries - entirely new ones 

or ones that built upon the existing CadTools 


MARCH 1997 

Qhose effects 

Just as every other art package out 

there, ArtEffect has a bulging pouch of 

image effects ready for you to unleash 

on your unsuspecting pictures. Just as 

with Photoshop and Photogenics, 

ArtEffect uses a plugin system to allow 

filters to be updated or added to at a 

later date. 

ArtEffect uses quite a good window 

system in which a preview thumbnail o! 

the finished effect is shown and any 

options are available. Even though a 

progress bar shows how long the pre 

view will take to display, it would be 

even better if the preview was a pro 

gressive display. One interesting point 

about the effect windows is that they 

run asynchronously to the main pro 

gram. So you can open an effect, leave 

it open and go back to editing the main 

picture, and the preview will continue to 

be updated. 

All the effects are pretty much what 

you would expect. I was half hoping 

for a decent gausian blur filter but 

has used Photoshop will now realise that 

the stencil is another name for Photoshop's 

magic wand, and the tool in ArtEffect used 

to select the stencil area is called 

exactly that, but you get the added bonus 

of being able to draw on the stencil as 

well. 

As with most programs today, to get the 

best out of ArtEffect, you need a relatively 

high specification Amiga - preferably an 

040 Amiga with a CyberGraphX card. With a 

plane old ACA or ECS machine drawing on 

screen with some of the fancy pens can be 

a laborious task, even though most of the 

effects and other drawing tools do work fast 

enough. 

For a first release, ArtEffect shows enor 

mous promise. I think it has a way to go 

before it can live up to the claim that it is 

equal to Photoshop. It has some good 

library. The best known, or some would say infa 

mous, is Magic User Interface, this provides a 

wealth of special gadgets and features for the pro 

grammer while being simple to implement To be 

honest the word overkill could describe MUI, every 

single part of it is adjustable and at the end of the 

day most people use the same type of fonts and 

gadgets. 

I would say the runner up in the GUI war is BGUI, 

another long running replacement system that 

takes a much more cut-down approach than MUI. It 

only requiring a single 100k library but still gives 

the programmer a simple way to create rescable, 

font sensitive windows and interfaces. With pro 

grams such as ArtEffect, DrawStudio, World 

Construction Set and Digital Universe all opting for 

these replacement interface systems, I can only see 

the trend continuing in the future. 

r bolanz e 

JlJI50% 

Shape 

Brightness 

Low 

1 

1 

1 

Execute 

Everything you would expect is 

provided by ArtEffect's filters, I 

just want a progressive display 

Jie 

_|32 

Jo 

m 

unfortunately it is still limited to only two 

blur levels and was almost as slow as 

Photogenics'. 

advantages over Photogenics - excellent 

brush manipulation tools and functions are 

something that Photogenics sorely misses - 

and the ability to create new brushes with 

in ArtEffect is excellent. Personally I cannot 

wait for version two which we should be 

seeing something of by the start of 

February. 

Bottom 

" line 

Requirements 

RED essential BLACK recommended 

RTG card 


Product ArtEffect vl .5 

Supplier Blittersoft 

Price 

Tel 

E-mail 

£79.95 

01908 261466 

bsoft@wildnet.co.uk 

WWW http://blittersoft.wildnet.co.uk 

Scores 

Ease of use 92% 

Implementation 85% 

Value For Money 90% 

Overall 89%

Want to get connected? 

,.AMITCPv4.5 DIALUP 

(NEW!! FULL TCP STACK] 

VOYAGER vl. 10 

*[EXCLUSIVE!! NEW WWW CLIENT I 

.M1CRODOT-II 

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Am IRC 

(INDUSTRY STANDARD IRC CLIENT I 

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{TELNET CLIENT - AMFTP AUTHOR!] 

. AmTalk 

[INTERNET CHAT CLIENT] 

.in Finger 

[FINGER CLIENT] 

AmTerm 

"iNEW COMMS/BBS CLIENT] 

FIBt EASIER 

cnWc? THAN ABC! 

Wanting to gel onto the Internet? Already connected, 

but frustrated with your software? NetConnect is all 

you need to get connected to the Internet and contains 

a suite of seven commercially licensed Internet appli 

cations. You won't find an interface as easy-lo-use as 

NetConnecl's! We have spoken at length to s

Oery few people like having to 

enter a reason for chat, as in 

MaxsChat mentioned last month. 

Try setting up a different kind of 

Sysop pager, one without code, using the 

ANSI in this month's Max.lzx archive. 

You will still use MaxsChat to drop straight 

into chat after a caller has paged (if you want 

to) as it's a decent front end with the split 

screen chat method. The actual paging 

process will be different and completely rede- 

finable graphics-wise, unlike some coded 

opposition. 

Before this, login and press C from the 

main menu to see how the built-in pager 

works at the moment. Put Pagerl.ans and 

Pager2.ans in your Text directory. 

In Max's Configure/Text, line 37: 

M*l!"P!*[[S4iPaging U...' 

should be changed to: 

You'll probably want to re-edit screens over 

time so save out each screen separately. 

Saving multiple screens as one block or file 

means they can't be loaded back in without 

causing problems. Remember when saving to 

keep an eye on the Page Range in the save 

requester as you have to adjust it, e.g. "From 

001 To 003" to "From 00! To 001". 

Due to the Sysop pager system there are 

two finished ANSI files required. One will 

have page one saved under PagerLans, the 

second will have pages two and three saved 

as Pager2.ans. The trick to clean screens lies 

under the Edit menu with ANSI Parameters. 

The Screen Preparation gadget should be set 

to Clear. Cycle through the Inter-Page 

Preparation to Home. Number of Rows at 

Auto. End of Line Character can be anything 

you like, as long as ANSI Code Cursor 

Advance is toggled On. 

You have a backup of the ANSI so with 

those settings move to page 1 and save it in 

Text as an ANSI under the name Pagerl.ans, 

adjusting the Page Range so not to save the 

rest of the pages at the same time. Move to 

page 2. Alter the AN5I Parameters so Screen 

Preparation reads Home. Home just sends 

the cursor to the top left of the screen before 

drawing the graphics instead of clearing it 

first like Clear does. 

Go to save, you should see the Page Range 

already set "From 002 To 003". Save page 2 

and 3 in this way as one file under Pager2.ans 

in Text.NotHerel.ans, NotHere2.ans and 

NotHere3.ans are the screens building up 

NotHere.ans, for if a user pages twice, to be 

edited as above. 

A main menu might incorporate the talking 

clock (%e). Page 2 would have %e typed and 

positioned so as to fit in a gap on page 1 

where everything else in the main menu is 

drawn. These two would be saved as one 

with Screen Prep at Clear, Inter-Page Prep at 

Home and ANSI Code turned On. 

Cursor repositioning 

By having HyperANSI's Number of Rows set 

to AUTO in the ANSI Parameters the cursor 

always appears straight after the last charac 

ter towards the bottom right of a given AN5I 

screen. Fine for some purposes but what if 

you want the cursor to appear elsewhere? 

Like in a box you've drawn, common 

throughout the menus, for that aesthetic 

touch. 

The Workbench Ed won't do it, nor will 

Final Writer. You need a text editor such as 

Transwrite or CED - you've probably got 

something that can handle it. Load the ANSI 

HvperRHSI wi.87, Copyright @ 1993 Hike D. Nelson 

The nessage boy 

ir he is around 

press Jhe Return 

drop In and he u 

1: M fl X's BBS Version 1.54 Copyright O 

ou stand before the iron portcullis that 

idio the castle proper. The guards ask for 

ui> full nane: Maverick 

Nane: 

Lt on: 

Recess: 

The largest nods quielly to hinself, seeinjj your nane upon his 

list. He eyes you with passive concern. Pondering what lands you 

Must have travelled fron he besins to speak, "Stranster. . . what is 

thy clearance word?" w JB 

Calls: 

A taster of the ANSI you can find from the coverdisk 

into CED, say your Mainfvlenu.text. It might be 

an idea to copy it to Ram while playing about 

like this and temporarily change the Text 

Filename field in Menu 0 from Max's 

Configure/Menus, to read 

"RanrMainMenu.text". 

Continuing straight from the last character 

at the bottom of the ANSI text file, but don't 

press return afterwards, we need this in: 

CED:[1G;5H 

Instead of typing you need the 

reversed character you see by pressing the 

escape key. Along the corridor and down the 

stairs. We move along 10 characters and 

down 5, and that's where the cursor lands 

when viewed in Max's. It will take a few tries 

before you get it spot on. 

Row 253 in Configure/Text: 

"Hit turn or wait 30 seconds to enter 

the BBS..."ITU- 

is a prompt requiring change with the help 

of our < command. Design yourself an 

ANSI called PressEsc.ans (then place it in 

Text) with the logo or name of your BBS 

covering the entire screen, with a bit of info 

at the bottom detailing opening times, con 

nect speeds, Sysop name and the like, plus 

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MARCH 1997

SPORTS, ADVENTURE -WHAT MORE COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT? 

HOW ABOUT A CLASSIC CAME, ABSOLUTELY *FREE? 

SUPER TENNIS CHAMPS 

has been described as 

the 'Sensible Soccer' of 

the tennis world. It 

scores highest when it 

comes to the most 

important factor of all - 

gameplay. Tennis games 

are usually difficult to 

pick up, but the intuitive 

controls makes this a 

doddle. Play singles or 

doubles with friends or 

just against the comput 

er. Before you know it, 

you'll be playing at 

Wimbledon! For all 1Mb 

Amigas. 

EXILE was a classic when first released and the AGA 

version exploded the myth that you can't have great 

gameplay and superb graphics in the same game. 

Acclaimed Game of the Year by one magazine, it is 

one of the few truly ground-breaking titles of all time. 

The world of Exile feels 

so real as you are 

weighed down by gravity, 

blown around by gusts of 

wind and pummelled by 

squawking birds. In fact 

there are so many fasci 

nating puzzles in this true 

arcade adventure that 

you'll probably still be 

enjoying it in the next 

millennium! Versions for 

A500/600, A1200 and 

CD32. 

Audiogenic Software is the oldest games publishers in the UK, 

with a history dating back to 1979 - long before the Amiga was 

invented. Now there's a chance for Amiga Computing readers to 

obtain a copy of Audiogenic's first Amiga game, Impact (pub 

lished way back in 1987), totally free when you buy two or more 

games from this page. 

'SPECIAL DEAL FOR AMIGA COMPUTING READERS! 

Buy any of the four great Audiogenic titles on this page for £9.99 

plus £1.25 postage and packing per order. Buy two or more games 

and Audiogenic will send you the Impact disk completely free! 

ODYSSEY continues the arcade 

adventure tradition but with a feel more 

reminiscent of Prince of Persia and 

Flashback. You, the 

hero, explore seven 

mystical islands 

gaining magical 

powers that enable 

you to morph 

between different 

creatures, each with 

key features essential 

to the completion of 

your quest! For all 

1Mb Amigas. 

SLJF>EFt LEAGUE 

MANAGER 

soo/soo 

SUPER LEAGUE 

MANAGER is a football 

management sim with a 

difference - it's more true 

to life! Instead of providing 

sheaves of statistics that 

just aren't available in the 

real world, you must use 

skill and judgement to 

turn a team of no-hopers 

into a League-winning 

side. Versions for 

A500/600 (not 1200 com 

patible) A1200 and CD32. 

Send your cheque (made out to Audiogenic Software Ltd) to: 

Amiga Computing Offer 

Audiogenic Software Ltd 

Winchester House 

Canning Road 

Harrow HAS 75J 

Alternatively phone 0181 424 2244 between 10.30am - 6pm 

Monday to Friday to place your order by credit card. 

Please state Amiga model when ordering.

A 

the skies with 

uildhall's budget 

flight sims

Hugh Poynton investigates the latest news 

stories in the Amiga gaming scene 

Good news for the Amiga this month. Guildhall and 

Vulcan appear to be largely responsible for keeping 

the Amiga format well supplied with quality games, 

both old and new. Guildhall is releasing a selection 

Gun Fury 

One of the Guildhall '97 releases is Binary 

Emotion's new thinking man's shoot -em up - 

Gun Fury. Despite the slightly disturbing sound 

ing working title. Binary Emotion's latest release 

looks like it will be a challenging puzzler/shoot * 

em up. 

The aim of the game is to repel waves of alien 

invaders with your - as the camp bloke in Allo 

Allo used to say - 'liddle tank'. The aliens are var 

ious colours and as you shoot one, your tank 

turns that colour - you can then only shoot 

another alien of the same colour. A fairly simple 

premise, but often the simplest games are the 

best Gun Fury should be ready in a few weeks, 

so we'll bring you a preview as soon as we can. 

nevus news 

of veteran titles that many PC owners will be secret 

ly wishing they could get their hands on and Vulcan 

is continuing to expand its impressive range of new 

games. 

Genetic Species 

If you have Aminet 15 or have been downloading files from 

the Aminet, you might have come across a remarkable game 

called Genetic Species. Although it looks like a very profes 

sional product, Genetic Species was in fact developed by a 

young Danish coder, Per Bloksgaard. Part of an informal 

scene group called Ambrosia, Per has been developing the 

game for the last two years on his Amiga 4000. 

The latest news is that Genetic Species and Ambrosia have 

been signed to Vulcan software, virtually assuring the success 

of this potentially huge Amiga game. Developer Per intends 

to make the final version of the game networkable, so maybe 

the Amiga will have its own Marathon within the year. 

The storyline isn't hugely different from any other Doom 

clone, in this case you are a soldier with orders to destroy 

genetically altered aliens that have overrun a moon base. As 

in Doom, various weapons lie around the playing area wait 

ing for you to pick them up and waste some Extra Terrestrials. 

Vulcan believes that Genetic Species should be nearing 

completion within the next three months so keep your eyes 

Sixth Sense 

I—I . - _ _ _ _ —, _ _ - _fc __ _ Jus'ono more ting sir ■ Columao 

| Q A | IONS -.Ivl'- d.-lvctiv,.' puzzler, in Clue :. 

Sixth Sense Investigations 

Epic Marketing is to publish a new game from called Sixth Sense Investigations. The game, being developed 

by Swiss developers CineTech, is a comedy graphic adventure about a buddy buddy detective team who 

solve the problems and mysteries of their rich clients. The twist is that in their investigations they are aided 

by the spirit of a sarcastic old bloke. 

Written in a style reminiscent of Sam and Max, Sixth Sense Investigations makes use of the VEGA graph 

ics adventure system which allows it to run at 50 frames a second and enables the player to zoom in on 

the various characters. The A1200 based game should be ready for release by April. 

peeled. Graphically impressive alien bashing action from Vulcan 

AMIGA ACTION NEWS

Guildhall is to release four titles in the New Year, as well as increase its back 

catalogue with classic games from Microprose and Electronic Arts. In addition 

to the Microprose releases mentioned in last months Amiga Computing, 

Guildhall will be re-releasing 3D Golf, Covert Action, F15 II, Grand Prix, Rail 

Road Tycoon, and Silent Service. Electronic Arts games include PGA Golf, FIFA 

Soccer, Theme Park, Desert Strike, Wing Commander and the (in my opinion) 

absolutely classic Road Rash. 

Guildhall will be also be responsible for the distribution of Manyk's Euro 

League Manager and Basket island, and Binary Emotion's Minskies Furball's 

and Gun Fury. 

GROUjfijH 

-.!. ■■■ .^!? 

ppmMi 

KOUIID FAOUHES 

pTOOBIJGHrS jf ■ 

SCOP EDO AEgi* 

CAP 1 ,' Pk 

KAFETY RAT-lflO * 

TICKET ' ;3feg£! 

iPRoyi EMEK ■. 

f 

1 

1 

Ah ' yA 

Manyk's new 

footy sim - Euro 

Mb exit 11 League Manager 

news 

The Strangers 

Slovakran software development team, Ablaze Entertainment has completed its 

first project, The Strangers. Although the project is finished, Ablaze are at present 

looking for a distributor. 

I have only played a demo version of the game but it looks like it could be 

fun. The story is pretty simple - you are in a factory with a bunch of homicidal 

nutters, all intent on beating you up. Your mission is to beat the stuffing out of 

them first. 

Unlike traditional beat-em ups such as Street Fighter, The Strangers offers you 

the opportunity to knee somebody in the groin (at which your unfortunate 

adversary will double up with a rather concerned expression on his face). The 

dress sense of the protagonists is another endearing feature of this game - the 

bloke you control looks like Jean Claude Van Damme after experimenting with 

mind expanding drugs. Puke green trousers and a luminescent blue T-shirt - no 

wonder there are people out to beat him up. 

From what I've seen, The Strangers looks like a fun beat-em up that could do 

well if it finds a distributor, so watch this space. For further information mail 

Ablaze at: kraviar'Svadium.sk 

Ooof. hoofing in the nuts is definitely 

not Queen's rules, you bounder 

Road Rash, one of Guildhall's classic re-releases 

NEWS AMIGA ACTION

ACTION PREVIEW 

SPACE SIM 

planet Denab - looks 

rather like Rainow to me 

I was tired and hungry, I'd just 

been released from jail for the 

fourth time and only had enough 

money to buy a snack in a dodgy 

pub. The letters page in the Big 

Issue? An exert from Trainspotting? 

No, actually that was the state my 

character was in after playing Cygnus 8. 

It's a strange game. Although the basic 

idea behind if has been done many times 

before (trade goods, both dodgy and 

straight across the galaxy and 

attempt to get rich) the idea has 

never been approached like this. 

Graphically the game has a very 

cartoony feel to it; there are none of 

the polygon models and texture 

mapped planets of, say, Elite 

Frontier. Instead the space travel sections 

play like Astro Blaster and the planet based 

trading parts include destinations such as 

The Pub and |ail and give you the option of 

breaking and entering various, premises. 

Although quite cute looking, Cygnus 8 is 

like a psychotic hamster - deceptively 

vicious. You may think there's nothing to the 

game, that it's purely about trading the same 

boring old commodities. Well you'd be 

wrong. If you don't drop into the pub every 

day and feed your face and get some sleep 

(which costs a lot of money), your health 

will decline inexorably. You need to be 

earning quite a lot to do this comfortably, so 

AMIGA ACTION 

Return of the 

space tea-leaf 

Fight your way through 

the thronging crowds in 

Denab's best pub 

if you're not exactly excelling at 

interplanetary Irading, you'll probably fake 

the slippery path to theft and drug abuse that 

I did. 

If was all so easy to begin with - wander 

round the deserted planet and break into 

factories and stores. This pays off when 

you're lucky, but the money required to buy 

your way out of jail is so extorlionate you'd 

probably prefer to spend a week in the 

slammer. However, if you haven't got 

enough money to buy food or shelter, your 

health will decline to such an extent that 

Spaceport officials won't allow you fly your 

Hugh Poynton 

tries his hand 

at Applause's 

latest 

intergalactic 

Your intergalactic runabout - 

more Xr2i than XL5. 

tinker 

simulator 

spaceship. To be totally honest, at this stage, 

the graphics aren't really very good and the 

preview version we received didn't have 

any sound. Despite this, Cygnus stands out 

on account of its originality and the funny 

little touches which set it apart from other 

trading games. I mean, getting tired? You 

never flaked out from exhaustion if you 

hadn't found digs for the night in Elite. If 

you want a detailed space trading 

simulation game pick up Frontier, but if you 

just want a Del Trotter in hyperspace, space 

cockney muck about, you could do worse 

than investigate Cygnus 8.

"I'm a control freak", 

Hugh Poynton is 

often heard muttering. 

Who better then to test Logic 3's 

new range of peripherals? 

SpeedMouse 

The AM SpeedMouse is a budget 

mouse and looks like one. This may 

sound like a criticism, bul I'd prefer 

to ihink of it more as an observation. 

The plastic is bright shiny white and 

unfortunately renders the thing quite ugly 

and tacky looking. Also the two function 

buttons, although they do their job, look and 

feel almost flimsy. 

Having said this, the SpeedMouse does 

its job without problems. I used the AM 

Mouse both for workbenching on ihe Amiga 

and game control on Vulcan's JetPilot, in 

both cases i! proved to be quite smooth and 

fast. 

So there you go. If you want inexpensive 

but decent computer peripherals you could 

do worse than look at Logic 3's range. 

I love it when a handful of peripherals 

come through the post and land on my 

desk. There's a good reason for this. In 

order to test each peripheral enough to 

do it justice you really should play test it 

considerably - not just on one game, oh no, 

but three or even four. Its not just a method 

of skiving, it is a sacrifice I make to ensure 

my journalistic integrity. 

Needless to say when Logic 3 sent us 

three of its latest budget Amiga peripherals I 

took it upon myself to ensure they got well 

and truly tested. 

First up is Logic 3's new control pad for 

the Amiga. The AMActionPad is a pretty 

functional but aesthetically pleasing gaming 

peripheral for all Atnigas. The layout of the 

pad is pretty much identical to the Sony 

For a budget joystick, 

the AM Attack 

joystick looks 

quite cool. It has that 

flared and mean look about it, 

and although il doesn't have a 

myriad of buttons and switches, stil 

looks a little as if somebody has wrenched 

it ou! of a nearby jet plane. Finished off in 

malt black and blue, the AM Attack is well 

produced for a budget peripheral. 

ACTION FEATURE 

Like the control pad, the AM Attack did its job 

well whilst playing games. The control was quick 

and responsive and presented no problems, it also felt 

quite strong and sturdy. If 1 have a criticism of the AM 

Attack, it concerns the design of the base. Trivial 

though it may sound, for some reason the suckers 

don't always attach themselves to the desk and 

the joystick base itself is too large to hold in 

one hand comfortably, unlike other 

Amiga joysticks. However, 

despite this, it's a 

good choice 

PlayStation control pad with an eight ^ 

directional digital output pad on the left and 

a pair of function buttons on the right. Across 

the top is a pair of PlayStation style shoulder 

buttons. 

The pad is no-nonsense, functional, 

economically well designed 

and fits snugiy into the 

hand. Build quality is 

good, although 

inescapably plasticky, 

it nevertheless feels 

sturdy and strong. 

Control wise the pad 

behaves exactly as it 

should, and is pretty 

easy to learn to use. A 

good buy. 

GADGETS 

AMIGA ACTION

ave you ever seen the simulator 

rounds on The Krypton Factor? The bit 

where Kenneth the systems analyst 

from Ohelmsford has lo sit in a Boeing 

simulator and attempt to land ii at Hong Kong 

International. He sweats, gnashes his teeth and 

grimaces until he's crashed into the Hilton 

Hotel just to Ihe left, shrugs and hopes for 

better luck on the manual dexterity round. The 

whole process looks fiendishly complicated 

but somehow you wouldn't mind a go 

yourself. 

Jet Pilot gives the opportunity to do just this. 

It would be safe lo say that what Vulcan is 

offering here is pretty much die most realistic 

flight simulator written for the Amiga. Needless 

to say this means it requires patience, skill, 

intelligence and about five hands. 

Almost every aspect of flying a modern jet 

has been reproduced here including flight 

parameters that come within 10 per cent of 

real aircraft, changing weather conditions and 

27 air bases from the Eastern Mediterranean to 

Scotland, letpilot is absolutely packed full of 

options - there are three planes you can fly: 

The Lightning, Starfighter or Mig 21, on a huge 

variety of missions from formation flying to 

combat intercept missions. 

To be honest, letpilot is something you will 

either love or hate, it really depends on what 

you look for in a computer game. It isn't 

something you can just play for 15 minutes 

while waiting for Neighbours to start. Because 

At the risk of sounding 

inane, this plane is the 

coolest cos it looks so smart 

This is the 

chopped and 

lowered version 

of the complexity of the simulation you really 

need to get to know the game and practice 

flying the jets and using features such as the 

radio communications and ground tracking. 

Because of the inherent realism, 

the planes despite being quite easy 

to handle, aren't as forgiving as 

in other less realistic sims - 

take off too steeply and the 

tail will drag on the ground 

and destroy the plane. Land 

too fast and the tyres will 

burst, letpilot is a very 

impressive product and flight 

sim buffs will be happy as pigs 

in mud, however I do get the 

feeling the game will appear too 

complicated and perhaps intimidating for 

those who aren't as well aquatintcd with sims. 

This said, letpilot is a step forward tor the 

Amiga. Spec wise the game is pretiy hungry 

but it shows the strength of the computer - 

there isn't, lo my knowledge, a game that 

comes near it on the PC in terms of realism 

and detail. The graphics are excellent, the 

planes are realistic right down lo the smallest 

detail with even individual markings visible. 

AMIGA ACTION FEATURE 

Ha! Beat him from the 

lights, c'mon you big girl, 

catch up! 

The geography is completely detailed and 

realistic - take off from a North Wales air base 

and you'll be able to see Anglesey in one 

direction and the Wirral in the other. 

jetPilot will run on pretiy much any 

Amiga but, like many of Vulcan's 

new products, favours higher 

spec machines. On a 1 MB or 

2MB system some features 

will have to be disabled. 

However, on a souped up 

A1200orA4000the 

simulation will run like a 

dream. If you have a fairly 

* high spec Amiga and are a flight 

sim buff this game is tailor made 

for you. 

Some mention also has to be made 

of the price - at £16.99 JetPilot is very 

competitively priced lor such a high quality 

game, you will certainly get your moneys 

worth out of this one. The simplest missions, 

such as just taking off and circling are 

complicated enough to master, so with 20 

qualification missions and loads of combat 

missions there is more than enough to keep 

you occupied for donkeys years.

flmiga Com- 

£ puling 

Postcode: 

Payment by cheque/postal order/credit card for £199 

H/D Installable 

Trach Editor [with enample tracks] 

Spectacular explosions 

■i player joystick adaptor support 

Dem weapons 

5 new tile and object sets: 

H12QD oniy 

Lurue Land 

Gotham City 

Please send me a copy of Ktreme Racing Data Disks 

Allow v\ days for deliuery 

Please enter your credit number here 

Please send completed order form with payment to: Guildhall Leisure Seruices Ltd, Unit 15, 

Guildhall Industrial Estate, Kirk Sandall, floncaster, S.Vorhs. 0fl3 l|fl.

ACTION REVIEW 

SHOOT-'EM-UP 

I've 've heat. heacdHWcIs of weird names en 

in m^H^Biig blue blob.s down-lull 

skiing, pkml rs, dinosaurs ^nd mushroom 

go-kdrting round ink race tracks, spiky 

multicoloured hi* gehogs running about 

rs. Houcvei, Tomnn Gun, Mutation'-; ■• 

ease, is hasi( ally nuttier than a Snickeis. b.ir. 

Thai >. not a criiK \>m, Tomm\ dun is biilliant. 

1 lie ( < HKepl is weird and original, (lie graphics 

e\< client and the whole game is a breath of 

tiesh air. it arrived in oi;i office on one of those 

dull wintry Wednesda\ m riming when you 

wished vojMWErve had just another half hour 

in bed and there's siill quite a way to go until ihe 

nd.! hnoUil Lip the machine and within 

mute I was playing with a bigsrnirky 

anile* on my face. 

The aim of the game is simple: The 

bad guys (who range from 

egeiablesto lobsters 

depending on the level) 

have taken over five 

zones and capture 

Tommy's buddies, 

job as Tommy the £ 

team Tomato (or sicypfrk Big 

Cheese) is to blast 

through, shooting 

the bad guys and 

blowing the 

padlocks of the little 

cages in which your 

mates arc 

imprisoned. The 

game reminds 

THE LOW-DOWN 

PUBLISHER Mutation Software 

DEVELOPER Inhouse 

CONTACT 01705 672616 

PRICE £14.99 

DISKS 1 

SUPPORTS AllAmigas 

GRAPHICS 

SOUND 

PLAYABILITY 

80% 

80% 

86% 

REVIEWED BY HUGH 

OVERALL SCORE 

Don't ask... 

me in concept 

basically beit. 

gallery. 

With the basis 

ing shooting 

re very good. The screens 

croll past! 

the killer tomato side steps hts 

way throu^Hie level. By directing the crossM 

o.\n with VQur joystick, the offending evil 

rocery ilemsoan be blown apart, and the zone 

led. 

AMIGA ACTION REVI 

iimmy Guq'sjust saturated with really 

lupid but fiujjhy little.1 touches. For instance the 

ilii\e-by sups-market geikins- mean gangsta- 

style gerkins who fly past you in a trolley with 

guns blazing, or the paratrooper carrots who 

shoot away while drifting down from the 

supermarket rafters. And this is just in one level 

Another priceless addition is the fact that when 

you do shoot the lock off one of your buddies 

,es they jump out, throw you a power up 

\ 

This is the best level. It's like a cross between 

Muppet's Treasure Island and The A Team. 

idshoLii ■ Ihank You' in a voice that 

Tike an inebriated smurf on helit 

owever, despite being a genuinely 

enjoyable, fun game, Tommy Gun 

does have a few detracting 

^^ bu 

points, although they are 

admittedly minor 

criticisms. It might be 

fact that I haven't 

played it long enough 

but it is pretty difficult - 

even on the easy levels there 

are so many baddies that 

surviving to even half way is 

mean ieAl. 

Having said Shis the game is veil 

addictive. You find yourself thinking,! 

one more ganrond I'M crack it - this bal 

between bein^nnoyinglv frustrating and 

challenging^ the secret^pnaking an addictive 

game. _ 

it doesn't match up to 

RacingaHP&rms the presentation is of 

od standa«phe concept is original and 

sing aiidWero is easily enough 

,ddi( tKenes^ and payability to keep you 

blasiinspwa\ tor a fair while. 

When grocery products start 

JJjJ' 

shooting up the local supermarket, 

who ya gunna call?..-Hugh Poyni 

BFITlb 

Attack of the root vegetables

ACTION FEATURE 

INVESTIGATION 

HUGH POYNTON investigates the work of 

new Canadian Amiga developer, Aurora 

Aurora 

Perversely, as the future looks more and 

more gloomy lor the Amiga, small 

software and games publishers have 

sprung up. As larger developers and 

publishers have almost raced each other to 

abandon the format, smaller, more dedicated 

niche software companies emerge to fill the 

vacuum. Tor those who have exploited the 

situation, the rewards have been great. 

Developers such as Binary 

Emotions and 

publisher/developers such as 

Vulcan have laid claim to a still 

lucrative market. 

Aurora is one of these 

brave new Amiga dedicated 

developers. This Canadian based 

games company has declared it 

is dedicated to supporting the 

Amiga and at present has three 

games under development. Although Aurora 

intend to produce games that can be run on 

a bog standard AT 200, it is also interested in 

developing for higher spec machines and 

even the eagerly awaited next generation 

Amigas such as the Phase 5 A/Box Amiga 

Compatible. 

Aurora currently has three 

games in development for 

release in 1997. The first is a two player 

action game called Zone 99. Due for release 

in March 1 997, Zone 99 promises to be a 

blend of action, strategy and puzzle that 

requires brains as well as fast reactions. 

The aim of the game is to pilot your 

hover tank around 99 levels attempting to 

find your way to the final zone. This is done 

by collecting clues as to the zone's 

whereabouts on every level. To do this you 

will have to solve various puzzles and, 

depending on the level, battle against, or 

work with, the other player. 

Each level will be different from the last 

with underwater, space and jungle zones. As 

zones are completed and clues found, 

modifications will be made available for the 

hover tanks. Although at the moment 

planned as a serial linked game, Aurora has 

plans to add TCP/IP so the game can be 

played over the Internet. 

Aurora is also working on an 

RPC/puzzler mix - Betrayed - we are told it 

will comprise of seven chapters each 

containing four levels. Despite the 

project being in its early 

stages, there are a 

few things that 

we do know 

about the 

game. It is set 

in a research 

station on a distant 

moon from which a 

scientist, betrayed by his 

superiors, must escape. It will be a scrolling 

game on an impressive scale with the largest 

level 1 9 screens across and 1 9 down. 

Because of the size and complexity of the 

game Betrayed will only be available on 

CD-Rom. 

Betrayed isn't scheduled for release until 

November 1997 and Aurora has a number 

of other projects in development including a 

galactic conquest war game and a texture 

mapped spaceship simulator. On top of this 

it is already starting work on the second part 

of the Betrayed adventure. 

Keep your eyes on Aurora, its projects 

look impressive and in defiance of the 

Amiga's doom sayers, it has a list of projects 

planned for well into 1998. 

FEATURE AMIGA ACTIOIU

We stock over 6500 QUALITY PD & SHAREWARE 

Mow to order 

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ti I itie 

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DEGRADER 

AQAOM il!O0 fIX DISK COLLEICION 1 

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AG409J BELOCKir VI.4« talHI. lun A5M SOFTWARE 

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LIMITED EDITION *'£X%°" 

Release date TO March 97 

Save £5 by ordering before 5 Match 97 

Price £24.99 

Prc-relcnse price £19.99 

note:cheque/Po will net be cashed until CD despatched 

2 x CDs pack 

Nearly 2000 disk from 

1000 spectrum games 

many more ect 

To order any pnck below jusl write the pack name 

' & If more than one pack ovollable please state eg- 

11 CGfont pock3 to order CG lont pack no:3 ect 

Olip-Art 

*«*«. 

0 

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j Mono clip art pack 1.2,3,4.or S 

colour clip-art pack 1,2,3.4or S 

(plcar.c stnte pack require 1-S) 

Fonts l 

1 WorkBench fonl pack 1 .,(5 disk full ot fonts) . 

WorkBench font pack 2..(5 disk full of fonts) ! 

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SEE "" I 

|| Imagines object cacl

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!' Callgarl object or i.-.jp 3D fonts [state) [5 di*K Boch] | 

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Light Wave true 3D fonts [6 disks) 

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11 All pack in these box corns on 5 disks & cast £4.93.. 

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U1031 WO AMIGA GAMES HINTS 4 CHEATS Vi [2 CHsks] 

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t quite seem to 

hang of this thi 

Dogfight 

As far as I'm concerned thin k ihf hpct n( 

Guildhall's budgel releases and as flight sims 

go, is notable for being interesting. The 

trouble I have always found with flight sirns 

is that they have the tendency lo be more 

boring than Thora HIrd. I mean who decided 

to make an Airbus sim where (whoopee) you 

could land

arior 

Ever fancied ruling the entire galaxy by 

playing off interplanetary nobles against 

one another in a never ending flurry of 

internecine squabbling and pitched battles? 

On the off-chance that you might, 

Guildhall are re-releasing Starlord, a spat 

adventure shoot 'em-up strategy game. 

Your mission is to spread your influence 

B17 Flying Fortress 

Another flight sim, but this one's a bit 

different. Unlike any other sim I can think of 

off hand, Bl 7 offers you the opportunity to 

control not just the plane, but the other 10 

crew positions, such as gunners and 

bombardiers. 

Although much more playable than other 

'authentic' demos. Flying Fortress is still 

undeniably a very realistic and detailed 

game. All the switches and levers are in the 

right place in the cockpit and the flight model 

The secret ba 

Huffs dynastii 

is extremely realistic taking into accounts 

factors such as damage, wind speeds and 

bomb load. One particularly novel little 

touch is the ability to customise the nose art 

on your plane, although unfortunately you 

cant paint the whole plane. 1 wanted mine in 

bright yellow with zebra skin trim but, no 

joy. 

Although Bl 7 is possibly too much a sim 

lor many, the game will still appeal to a good 

deal of people who want a challenging flight 

simulation with 

h out men a huge plane is about to run 

ver as we pose for this lovely photo 

e a look at 

the next batch of 

Guildhall/Microprose 

releases. 

the future. The aim of the game is to 

our power and authority by fair 

ar foui until you are the most 

j| dynasty in the galaxy. About three 

s of the game is played as a 

tionat strategy game, with the 

ing quarter being a space combat 

ere you direct your forces and fly 

vn ship in combat. 

> depth of the game, and the sheer 

r of choices involved make the game 

resting and challenging exercise in 

f. Directing the space battles can 

i good fun. 

However there is one criticism 1 would 

,iake of this game - the space battle scenes 

just do not stand up to their PC equivalent. 

If you can live with this flaw however, 

rtirlord is a pretty decent, fun and 

.tertaining game. 

THE LOW-DOWN 

PUBLISHER Guildhall Leisure 

DEVELOPER Microprose 

HD INSTALLABLE Yes 

PRICE £14.99 

SUPPORTS Any 1 Mb Amiga 

GRAPHICS 

souniD 

PLAYABILITY 

DIFFICULTY TRICKY 

AMIGA ACTIO

What processes do you have to undertake 

to develop a game? Do you start off with a 

definite idea of what you want to create, 

or does it just grow and develop as the 

project progresses? If possible could you 

explain to us the step by step process 

involved in developing a game? 

What I am aiming for. In order to change 

the bare idea into code I normally follow the 

steps below. This is not exactly the way I have 

gone about designing Explorer 2260 because 

of the type of game it is. Some other pro 

grammers almost certainly will not agree with 

the way I work, but the development process 

is a personal thing, built up from experience - 

what suits me may not suit anyone else! This 

is not a quick-start guide to programming; 

writing good programs requires years of expe 

rience and practice, as well as an in-depth 

knowledge of the Amiga and the language 

you are using. 

I. OK, you have a rough idea of what you're 

after. Firstly you must sit down and work out 

an outline, on paper, of what you want, filling 

in details as you go along. Expect this 

list to change! Explorer 2260 has 

changed beyond recognition 

from the early designs. 

II. Looking at this huge list 

of things you want to do, 

the first thing that will 

come into you head is 

"How the hell do I do 

this and where do I 

start?" I have found that 

there isn't any easy way to 

decide where to start. I 

tend to code the most com 

plex parts first as they are usu 

ally the pieces which other areas of 

the game rely on. 

III. To decide what to do, firstly take the list 

and develop what I call a data flow/ depen 

dency diagram. Look through your list for the 

sections which will be most used and most 

important. Put these down on paper and con 

nect them up with arrows showing the flow 

of data and interactions between them. Now 

add in the smaller, less important, sections 

and link them in. This way you can get some 

idea of which parts of the code will be 

depended upon by the rest of the program. 

These are the pieces you should code first. Be 

warned though, the process of drawing these 

diagrams and deciding upon which pieces are 

important take a lot of practice, choosing the 

wrong sections can make the program very 

difficult to write. 

IV. Now you start designing and writing sec 

tions of code. Don't try and get them to work 

together yet and don't try for optimal solu 

tions. As you get your teeth into the program 

- 

Ever fancied writing your own 

games? Hugh Poynton talks to young 

hopeful Chris Page in part two of his 

exploration of the pleasures and 

pitfalls of developing a game 

you will start to find easier ways to do 

things and better ways to go about certain 

tasks. You may also find pieces you have 

forgotten or didn't realise you needed, earli 

er in the design process. If you do find any, 

stop and re-evaluate your designs - you 

may have made a mistake in the design or 

you may have found a way around many of 

your problems. Do not be too concerned 

with graphics and sound at this stage, it 

does cut down design time if you get them 

sorted out here, but it may cause problems 

if you have to redesign parts of the pro 

gram in the next stage. 

V. Start bringing the pieces of 

code together and begin 

simple optimisations (a 

discussion of optimisa 

tion techniques is 

beyond the scope of 

this answer). Redesign 

and remake any pieces 

of code which cause 

problems - interfering 

with data structures etc. 

VI. You need to ensure 

everything works together 

correctly, then you can begin 

polishing and debugging. This 

takes a long time because it is often 

necessary to remake sections of code or, in 

extreme cases, start all over again! 

VII. Get someone else to test it! Never trust . 

a test you do yourself. I have been satisfied 

my code is bug free only to find my broth 

ers can pick holes in it! A good programmer 

is not necessarily a good debugger, espe 

cially when it comes to his own code. 

Expect to go back to stage V or even IV 

many times. 

VIII. Once confident your program is work 

ing you can remove bits and pieces, add 

time limits etc., for public release demos. 

Take notice of any feedback you get (I've 

already had a lot and I haven't even 

released anything). If people express dissat 

isfaction with parts then change them, if 

people want you to add things, try to. 

IX. Now the nasty part begins. You have a 

choice: Release the game as PD/ 

Licenseware or start hounding software 

AMIGA ACTION FEATURE 

houses to try and get your game released com 

mercially. 

NOTE: Expect your designs to change at any 

time during the development process and do 

not expect to get a welt polished game 

designed, written and released in a few weeks 

or even a few months. 

How long has the game been in develop 

ment? When do you think it might be fin 

ished and do you see the copyright issue 

being a major problem? 

Explorer 2260 has been in develop 

ment, on and off and in many forms, for 

nearly six months. It is just coming out of 

the design phase into unoptimised code 

(stage IV) and I really can't say when it 

will be released. I am a student and 

university work takes precedence, 

but I am putting every spare 

minute into the game. I think 1 

may have worked around 

many of the areas which 

could have caused copy 

right problems but 

would still like to contact 

someone in Warner Bros 

to make sure. 

How do you plan to publicise the game 

when finished? Via the Aminet? By post 

ing downloadable demo's on the 

Internet? 

I intend placing demos on Aminet 

and on any other sites which may 

help (I already have had some 

offers). 1 may also contact a soft 

ware house - I have already 

thought of two which may be 

willing to help, with a view 

to commercial release, 

although this is remote, 

maybe. - 

Chris Page has recently been approached by 

a major Amiga software company and is in 

negotiations to have Explorer 2260 published 

and distributed. Good luck Chris. 

■

FEATURE AMIGA ACTION 175

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f your advert is 10 

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Address 

Postcode 

DER FORM 

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wanted. Call Mark 01380 818023. 

♦ Wanted: Theatre Of Death and Battle Isle 

93. Will swap or buy. 014*4 233692. 

♦ A1200, CD-Drive, 6Mb, 82Mb HD, Microvitec 

and more. £385. 01908 691439. 

♦ For Sale: 14" monitor, fully functional printer, 

Amstrad computer with QWERTY keyboard 

and tape deck, no software, full ins. manual, 

never used: £150 ono. Contact 57 Holdenhurst 

Ai/e, Boscombe East, Dorset BH7 6RB. 

_ Telephone 

♦ Wanted: Ghouls N Ghost Leo Storm and 

IK+. Good prices paid. Telephone 01928 

717073. 

♦ Amiga A1200. Boxed with manuals, mouse 

etc£160.01767 640088. 

♦ Amiga 500,1Mb. Good condition. Colour 

Commodore monitor, two joysticks, dust cover, 

mouse, plenty of games. Quick sale needed. All 

for £150 ono. Call Matt on 01206 213040. 

♦ SWOS, Sensi Soccer, Premier Manager 3, 

Goal, Striker, Champ Manager 94 update, Euro 

Champs, Putty, Jurassic Park, Taylor's Soccer 

Challenge and four other soccer games. All 

boxed with manuals. B0. Nick Clarke, 

Bumdale, Sands Road, Hunmanby Gap, Filey, 

N.Yorks, YO14 9QW. 

Cheques should be made payable to "Amiga Computing" 

lease include my advertisement in the next available issue of Amiga Computing, I confirm that the advert is not selling illegal copies of software or 

ardware that do not belong to me. I permit you to publish my address/telephone number only if I have included these details within my advertisenent 

copy. I am over 18 years of age (applicants under 18 must get a parent or guardian to sign below) 

lease write clearly - we can't be held responsible for errors in your advertisement especially if your writing resembles a spider crawling across the 

age! American readers - remember you can also take advantage of our Classifieds Section - we have over 11,000 other US readers that will see 

our advert. 

Send to: AMC Classifieds, Media House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP 

J JJJ / jJllDDV.. PWed 

coverdisk 

now get 

the full 

thing 

Tiny Troops has oodles of playability and originality" - Amiga Computing 

w 

m 

m 

Please send a copy of Tiny Troopsforthe Amiga to-. 

\\\ Mi- Miss \], 

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Past Code 

♦ Al 200 perfect condition, boxed. Two boxed 

joysticks, mouse and pad, 8 boxed games, 17 

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sell for £250. Phone Owain 01497 847489 for 

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♦ Amiga Shopper nr.?, nr.7. nr 67 wanted. 

Broekmans, Vliexstr.6,6369HH, Simperveld 

If all these screen shots look as if they're 

from the same three levels, there's a good 

reason -1 wasn't very good at the game 

You can't beat a good puzzle game - 

(he graphics don't have to be thai 

good and the sound effects are of 

little importance. It however it 

blows away cobwebs from an under used 

brain, it can be a brilliant way to pass half an 

hour. The best puzzlers are the simplest - 

Tetris had you slotting coloured blocks 

together and Pong required you to bounce a 

ball around the screen, destroying blocks. 

Applause's latest project is a fine puzzler in a 

similar vein. 

Blockhead, Applause's most recent 

addition to the Amiga games market, is a 

departure from the last few releases. After 

adventure strategy games such as DNA and 

Cygnus, Applause has opted for a pure 

puzzler and in doing so produced its best, 

and most professional, game to date. 

The aim of the game is simple. You 

control a cule looking little character called 

Bertie who, in the small amount of lime 

allowed, must venture around a room 

slotting blocks into holes. In true 'buy il or 

the puppy geis it fashion' Bertie's mate 

petrified Pete faces destruction if the level 

isn't completed. 

As a sort of time limil for each level, a 

sack is slowly dropped onto Pelrified Pete. 

As the sack drops, it changes from gold to 

Many bananas 

Simple though it may look, this 

screen is actually pretty tricky 

ACTION PREVIEW 

PUZZLER 

Hugh Poynton teases zee 

liddle grey cells with the 

new puzzler from Applause 

silver, to bronze. If the level is completed 

when the sack is golden, maximum points 

will be scored. Once every hole is tilled, 

your liltle character may exit and Pete 

escapes destruction. 

Although this may sound 

easy, the reality is that 

unless you are very 

gifted and have a 

natural affinity for 

lateral thinking 

and strategic 

planning, you 

will find even 

the early stages 

of ihe game 

pretty difficult. 

The real 

strength of the 

game is that it 

requires a certain 

degree of mental 

agility. If, for example, ^H 

you have four blocks to 

drop into holes, the layoui of 

the room will more or less dictate 

how, and in what order, the blocks 

need to be moved. You will have 

to think ahead and work out in 

Use your dynamite to 

blow up walls on this 

level 

And this one is 

even harder 

AMIGA ACTION 

whether the action you take will help or 

hinder future moves. 

The game includes a couple of novel and 

very welcome features. The tutorial section 

for example is a feature I wish 

more games incorporated. 

The step by step tutorial 

section for Blockhead 

enables you to get 

acquainted with 

the controls, 

features and 

powerups 

included in the 

game. 

This looks 

like being a 

very promising 

release. The 

concept of the 

game is simple 

yet engaging, 

the gameplay 

challenging and 

well presented. With 

Blockhead, Applause has 

come up with a challenger to the 

Binary Emotions slick and 

polished puzzlers.

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ami 

amigq 

LJi 

amig C, i 

Wow, Neil Mohr 

something cons 

It's time to get a little techie with Neil Mohr 

create dots with Amos 

Turning dreams into reality Larry Hickmott 

explains how to get your message accross 

Dave Cusldc explains how you could 

have Netscape running our your Amiga 

Master of Midi, Paul Overaa tells you how 

to remove nasty sequencer problems 

get ARcxx to handle those tedious backups 

Paul Overaa assembler assassin 

gets date stamps working for you

This month fry 

doing a drop 

shadow or two - 

Neil Mohr shows 

you how 

If you have been following what is 

admittedly, o fairly basic tutorial, you 

should at least now be familiar with 

iHH all Phoiogenics' mos: regulcrly used 

parts: Drawing tools, alpha channel and com 

posite function. This month we ore going fo pull 

all these elements together and actually do 

something useful - add a drop shadow. 

This is a fairly simple technique, but drop 

shadows are used absolutely everywhere. In 

magazines - there are more than likely a few in 

this very magazine. On Web sites - drop shad 

ows are almost compulsory, the Amiga 

Computing site is no exception and they also 

turn up on television. The reason being they 

help emphasise an element by making it literally 

jump off the poge or screen, adding a sense of 

depth. 

For this example we will be using the space 

man tutorial image, which luckily already has 

an olpho clip outline ready for us to use, which 

Is handy. This alpha image will act as the basis 

for the shadow and will also allow us to pre 

pare the spaceman image as well as tidying up 

the final product. 

After you have loaded the spaceman image 

and its alpha clip, the first thing to do is touch 

up the alpha image so it is ready for use. The 

main changes are whiting out the rest of the 

planet and adding the detail for the spaceman's 

foot. The best way is to use the rectangle tool to 

white out most of the earth, then switch to either 

Cliff and 

his drop 

shadows 

the polygon or freehond tool and clean up the 

left over bits. 

For the fine detail on the foot, paint on ihe 

original image covering the spaceman's feel and 

then select the alpha as the actual alpha chan 

nel, you can slowly add or remove the black 

area until you have a good match to the origi 

nal. To tidy up the final shadow use the blur 

draw tool to anti-alias the new foot section you 

have added. 

Once all that is out of the way you can get on 

with creating the parts of the final image. The 

first step is to gel the spaceman seporaled from 

the rest of the picture. As we have the alpha 

channel ready to go, just fill the spaceman 

image with black and fix these changes, leaving 

o spaceman suspended in blackness. 

Before making the shadow for the spaceman, 

create a clone of the existing alpha channel 

which will be used later. To create a proper 

shadow effect perform a gaussion blur on the 

entire olpha image - it's best to use the gaussion 

blur option from the image menu. Set it to about 

six and sit back and twiddle your thumbs or bet 

ter still go make a cup of tea - for some reason 

Photogenics' gaussian blur is about as fast as a 

snail on Mogadon. 

Now we have our shadow image and main 

spaceman image ready to be composed 

together. Select the spaceman picture as the sec 

ondary image and make the shadow image that 

is currently the alpha, the primary image. 

PlFF, PAFF, PUFF INSTANT SHADOW 

First atop is to got hold ol all the images you need to 

put the drop shadow together. Next, (ouch up the 

alpha image by cutting out the rest of the earth 


MARCH 1997 

Remember you con use the one, two and three 

keys as shortcuts. Select ihe shadow image and 

press the right Amiga and k keys to start the 

composition. 

Make sure the transparent black lick box is set 

and you should see your spaceman appear over 

your shadow. To increase the effect you need to 

offset the spaceman image slightly. Entering 

minus five into both the x and y offset text boxes 

should position the spaceman correctly. 

Before you press the OK button take a care 

ful look at the fop left parts of the spaceman, a 

bit jaggy is it not? We are not going to stand 

for any botch jobs, no sir're definitely not, Click 

on cancel and we shall turn our attention to ihe 

copy of the original alpha channel we mode. 

Select it as the alpha channel, go back to the 

shadow image and go to the composile 

requester making sure both the transparent 

black and compose alpha tick boxes are 

selected. 

All that should be visible now is an odd out 

line of the spaceman over the shadow (this is 

because the alpha is negative of what we 

need). From the alpha menu use the invert 

alpha option to invert the alpha channel and 

Bob's your uncle - a much cleaner looking ver 

sion of whot we had before. As the compose 

alpha option is ticked it is moved and scaled 

right along with the secondary image, so allow 

ing o gentle blending into the background 

colour to be applied. 

Once you havo what will be shadow image, make a copy 

of it, as the spare alpha. You can then cut out the spaceman 

image and run a gaussian blur over the shadow

You're cheating you are 

As you moy hove noticed, I used the spaceman's alpha clip image as the basis for the drop shadow. You moy well be thinking that normally this is not the cose and you would 

nave to create the outline for your drop shadow yourself - you're right. Thankfully, using Photogenics hondy array of tools, this is not quite os hard a job as it moy first appear. 

As you may nave noticed, we are laying the original image on top of the shadow we hove created - actually this is very similar to how it is done in Photoshop. Depending 

on whal original image you are using you can go about creating the drop shadow in a number of ways. 

The most straight forward is if you ore odding shadow to text. You may get a little confused by the way Photogenics handles text as it seems little construed, but using the text 

loader (found in the loaders window) using the prefs button you can alter the type of font and size you wish to use, then select load and type the text you wish to appear. 

Unfortunately Photogenics does not seem fo give you any control over Ihe colour the text appears in, but worry nol, we will manage just fine. Once you hove the text loaded, 

clone ihe image and make one of the clones negative - this one will obviously be your shadow. Select the other as the secondary image and composite the images and voila, 

instant text with shadow. If you want to colour the original text, use ihe tin! paint mode to alter the original white text while you are still composing the two images. 

If however, you are working with just part of a photograph, a littie more work is required. Take the zebra tutorial image as the basis for creating a shadow for an image. 

Select the free hand cut tool, by selecting the cut option twice, and cut around the port of the zebra's head you want to cast a shadow for. You may also want to expand ihe 

window size to get o more accurate cul. 

Once you have marked out the zebra's head, it will appear in a separate window with just ihe head you want to odd a drop shadow to. You can now discard the original 

image. Creole a clone of the zebra head and use the add space image menu to add 10 pixels around each side of the heod. Using the fill too! add white !o ell this and fix 

these changes. 

Fill this white area with black and (here is the clever bit] select invert paint layer from the paint layer menu and you will have an instant zebra's head shadow. To create the 

drop shadow ail you need do is blur the shadow, select the original zebra image as the secondary one and composite away. 

Making use of Photogenics free hand cut loot and then the 

mvi -■•■ paint layer, you can have both the main image, 

shadow and alpha clip in tour simple stages 

k.- the spaceman image the secondary one mid using 

(he composite function, lay the spaceman over the 

shadow - set the xjy off-sets to around minus five 

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Once you know how, adding shadows to text in 

Photogenics is dead simple 

With the- fir-.t attempt tin- spaceman find -i jagged «

Neil Mohr explains 

how to use 

wildcards with 

the Amiga's Shell 

Continuing my little delve into the 

Amiga Shell, I think it's about time 

we had a talk about wildcards. Even 

■^■M in their simplest form wildcards give 

a way of dealing with a large a number of files, 

in either manipulating selections of files or 

using wildcards to ignore other selections. 

A simple example would be to type into a 

Shell: dir #?, in return you will get a straight 

forward directory listing. Nothing stunning in 

that, but you have just unwittingly used a wild 

card, and probably one of the most commonly 

used ones. What you have actually told the 

Shell to do is give you a directory listing of 

everything in the current directory. It just so 

happens that typing dir will do the same thing, 

but that's beside the point. 

Wildcards allow you to tell the Shell to 

match all the filenames in a directory against a 

file pattern you have given it. This file pattern is 

made up partly of wildcards and partly of a 

normal filename. The simplest example 

expanding on the first one would be dir l#?. 

Here you have told the Shell to list every file 

that starts with I. 

The wildcard #? literally means anything 

and where the Shell encounters it, it will match 

anything to it. So if I were to ask you to find all 

the words beginning with C and ending in G 

you couid ask the computer the same with the 

You have more than likely come across the situation where 

you have typed a command or program name into the 

Shel! and it has returned with unknown command, but you 

know fulf well that it is on your hard drive. This happens 

because the Amiga's operating system maintains a list of 

directories which it will search for commands when using 

either the Workbench or Shell. 

The standard search path is set up in the startup 

sequence and you can check what this is by typing PATH 

into a Shell and it will display a list of ail the directories 

that will be searched. If you want to add further directories 

you can either add them to the list in the startup sequence 

of you could add another path line in the user-startup, and 

at the end of list of extra directories put the command 

ADD. This tells the path command that you want to add 

these extra directories to the current list and to replace it. 

When using the she!! you can add extra directories at 

any time and the current Shell will use the new path list 

You should be aware only that Shell will use it and the 

Workbench search path will also stay unaffected. If you 

want to update the Workbench path list you need to type 

LoadWB NEWPATH and the Workbench will inherit the 

new path. 


MARCH 1997 

en inf. 

tiiii'i info 

Dist into 

Lies info 

HUI. info 

£(or*9».Info 

Tooli Info 

wO*i»rlup.Inf 

7 Workb«>ch 1 

following C#?C. 

Real wild 

child 

If I also wanted words that had an i in the 

middle you could do this with C#?I#?G. To put 

this in more computer oriented context; if you 

want to specify just the icon files in a directory 

then you would use #?.info to do so, or for 

Jpegs you could use #?.jpg. 

Things start to get a little more complex 

when other wildcards are introduced. Two that 

are of most use are the NOT and OR wildcards 

represented by the - and | symbols. This helps 

you lump together wildcard definitions. So if 

you wanted to perform some operation on all 

the GIF and Jpeg files this would do the trick: 

(#?.gif|#?.jpg). The brackets tell the Shell what 

the pattern is and the bar tells it that files 

matching either wildcard will do. So any file 

ending with .GIF or JPG will be used. 

The little squiggle symbol, called a tilde, rep 

resents a Boolean not, or tells the Shell to 

ignore files that match following file pattern. 

This is useful in ASL file requesters that allow 

patterns entered to filter the file listing. To get it 

to ignore all the icon files you can enter 

-•(#?.info) and all the icon files will be 

removed from the file list. This can be useful 

when using a specific program - if you save all 

your files off with the same file extension such 

as .ww for Wordworth by using #?.ww in the 

file pattern gadget only Wordworth files will 

be shown. 

You should be aware that the hash and 

question mark wildcards are actually two sepa 

rate wildcards that when used together just 

happen to match any characters. The question 

mark will match any single character in a 

name. So A?C will match any occurrence of A 

and C with any other character in-between 

them. 

The hash mark is slightly more complex as it 

will match zero or more occurrences of a pat 

tern. So A#BC will match A and along with any 

number of B's in-between them. So AC, ABC 

and ABBBC are ail valid matches. As you have 

already seen brackets or parenthesise can be 

used to enclose wildcard definitions and allow 

you to show AmigaDOS exactly which set of 

characters it should use, this becomes handy 

when you need to show AmigaDOS that you 

want to specify a group of characters to match 

and not just a single one. So using A#(BC) you 

can tell AmigaDOS that you want to match 

every A that is followed by any number of BC's. 

A final wildcard and one you probably will 

not have to use very much in the null character 

which Is represented with a percent sign and is 

just a way of giving the computer a chance to 

ignore a match. So A(B|°/a)C will match both 

ABC and just AC as you have given the null 

option. 

CI0K1) 9*« full, 99B9K 

731 rull. 31011 

100* full, 0K 

CK»ln> 42* full, 72M 

The latest ASL requester gives you everything ReqTools does including the handy pattern 

requester, wildcards crop up quite a lot when dealing with files

Phil South looks at 

plotting and 

drawing functions 

in AMOS 

The fun part about being your friendly 

local AMOS columnist is that I have 

absolutely no idea of your level of 

understanding on AMOS. This is both 

a blessing and a curse. Do you want machine 

code widgets or do you want basic code gener 

ation? Do you want graphics or procedures? My 

answer is to put a wide range of things into the 

column and let them find their own level. From 

the mail I receive via post and the Internet, this 

approach seems to be working, as almost 

everyone gets what they want eventually, and 

as long as it's entertaining you don't seem to 

mind what goes on. 

AMOS is one of those things which is all 

things to all men. Some view it as a means of 

putting ideas into action, others see it as per 

sonal development, a way to stretch them 

selves. Either approach is worthwhile and I'm 

sure you'll enjoy the bits and bobs I've got lined 

up for the next few months. In the meantime, 

thanks for all your mail - let's get going with 

this months AMOS curiosity. 

Top of the Plots 

Something a lot of beginners ask me about is 

how to make marks on the screen such as 

lines, dots, squares etc. The reason I get asked 

this has something to do with the old Amiga 

Basic, as this was the only kind of graphics you 

could produce. I like to call it Etch a Sketch 

graphics, as it is based on lines and dots and 

boxes, just like the old two knob drawing toy. 

Ifs easy. The first instruction you should look 

at is PLOT. This is the easiest command of all 

and simply places a dot, in the currently select 

ed ink colour, on the screen, like so: 

Ink 9 : Plot 30,56 

This places a dot of colour 9, 30 pixels along 

the screen and 56 pixels down. There is a easy 

way to specify the colour, if you want it differ 

ent from the Ink colour: 

Plot 30,56,9 

This is a useful command tf you want to create 

a starfield in your game, like in the old classic 

Galaxians (which may or may not be a bit 

before your time...} like SO: 

Do 

Cls : Curs Off 

Loop 

Plot ,Rnd(255), Rnd(IS) 

Going dotty. 


MARCH 1997 

Plots 

Thicken 

This fills the screen with multicoloured dots. If 

you don't want those of colour 3 to flash, add 

the command: 

Flash Off 

Okay, that's dots, what about lines? We do this 

in pretty much the same way: 

Drau 30,56 To 150,200 

This draws a line from the first point mentioned 

to the last. Simple enough. You can change the 

look of the line by adjusting the line style: 

Cls : Ink 2 

Set Line SFOFO 

Box 50,100 To 150,UO 

Set Line 11100110011001100 

Box 60,110 To 160,160 

The line style is set using the SET LINE com 

mand and this allows you to set the variation of 

the pixels in the line. This is a nice and very 

underused feature, so write something that uses 

it, eh? 

The final bunch of features are the box and 

circle commands. To make a box, like the one 

we just saw in the SET LINE program, we have 

to set the top left and bottom right corners of 

the box. So: 

Box 10,10 To 3D,30 

makes a box 20 by 20 starting at 10,10 and 

ending at 30,30. The circle command is similar 

again, but this time you set the centre of the cir 

cle and the radius (the distance from the mid 

dle to the outside of the circle, for those of you 

who fell asleep in maths). So you can do this: 

Circle 100,100,50 

Allied to this is the POLYLINE command, which 

draws multiple lines. This is like drawing a line 

with the DRAW command, only you keep going, 

Polyline 10,10 To 2D,30 To 60,3D To 58,10 To 

200,100 

and so on. You can build up quite complicated 

pictures like this, but it would take a bit of 

graph paper and a lot of sweat to make a 

human face. 

There was a program once, 1 can't even 

remember if I printed it, but it took a drawing 

you made with the mouse and turned it into 

the code you would need to draw it from poly 

lines! tf anyone can find this program I'd be 

grateful if they would e-mail it to me. 

That's enough for now, I'll move on into 

more complicated graphics next time, until then 

Happy Amos! 

Write 

STUFF 

If you have any other AMOS pro 

grams or queries about AMOS, 

please write to the usual address, 

which is: Phil South, Amos Column, 

Amiga Computing, Media House, 

Adtington Park, Macclesfield, SK1O 

4NP. Or you can send e-mail to me 

on phil@webscape.co.uk, or via my 

home page on http://www.webscape. 

co.uk/phil/. 

Please send routines on an Amiga 

disk with notes on how the program 

works on paper, not as text files on 

the disk. Make the routines short 

enough to appear in print, i.e. no 

more than about 30-40 lines of code. 

If possible make them use no exter 

nal graphics, if they can't be used 

without them, be sure to provide 

them on the disk in native IFF for 

mat, the same goes for sound files.

Larry Hickmott 

discusses the 

merits of turning 

your ideas into 

reality 

E 

very month in Amiga Computing, we 

show you just how versatile this great 

machine we use is. One of the most 

popular past-times is desktop publish 

ing and in this issue I will cover using graphics in 

desktop publishing. The reason for this discus 

sion is simple - most of you will use graphics on 

a page to get across a message, either on its 

own or in conjunction with text 

The important point to remember about using 

graphics to convey a message is that in creating 

the image (the message carrier), your aim must 

be to use the best tools to allow you to turn your 

idea into reality. Forget any preconceived notions 

about what is the best graphics format and what 

is the best application. 

Co into the graphics creation part of the exer 

cise and think hard about what tool will let you 

turn an idea for an image into something on the 

screen. If a graphics format is going to prevent 

you creating certain imagery, look at other graph 

ic formats that will let you create the picture you 

require. Don't accept second best. 

This thought process is paramount in image 

creation. When creating an image (or page), you 

need to work backwards. You should know or 

have a vague idea of what you want the final 

image to look like. This vision may be something 

you have created in your head or an image (or 

part thereof) you have seen already. Try dissect 

ing the image and look at how you think differ 

ent bits can be created. Make a note of what too! 

is required and create a schedule for the creation 

of the different bits. 

While working on a recent project, I took an 

idea from someone else's advert and applied it 

to an image of my own. This required certain 

images from a bitmap application such as Art 

Effect and then the creation of the final image in 

DrawStudio. 

One of the effects was to have a relief looking 

background with the shadow of other objects 

raised above it. The shadow had to be tfanspar- 

When creating an image, think hard about 

which application you should use to create 

it with and which format should be used for 

saving the finished work to disk 

Tools on the Amiga for 5 

creating eye catching 

caicning r 

DTP 

graphics are becoming s I ' 

more advanced and the only \\- 

graphics format that can Q 

handle such imagery is I 

bitmap. Making changes to 

bitmap pictures however, 

can be a chore 

ent I could have done that in DPaint, which sup 

ports transparency, but I wanted to have the luxu 

ry of being able to edit the image at any stage, 

make changes and so on which I did in 

DrawStudio. 

I chose to do this for a particular reason. As I 

said, the shadows belonging to objects had to be 

transparent to let the background show through 

and to give the image depth. Without the trans 

parent shadow the image appears false because 

we know in reality that shadows hold details of 

what lies under them. 

"K^T V3T11 " £~ 1111 "Oil ,1" 

y 

: i 

ft I 

This type of image is now old hat and if you want your pages 

to have an air of imagination about them, you'll need to use 

more advanced programs that let you be more creative 


MARCH 1997 

Lets now apply this logic to graphics formats. I 

could be pig headed and work by the rule that 

structured graphic formats give the best printed 

result, print more quickly or whatever. But that 

would be silly because for one, bitmaps can print 

just as well and secondly, with current structured 

formats like ProClips and Illustrator 88, it would 

stop me having my transparent shadows and 

prevent me having bitmap filled objects and 

structured elements in the one file. 

Consequently, the image would lose ail its 

impact because I failed to make sure that the 

message the image is to convey is carried 

through, while also making sure the graphic for 

mat chosen is suitable. 

Experience from 18 years in the business has 

taught me I don't need to rely on structured for 

mats for smooth output. The only graphics for 

mats that will let you express your imagination 

fully are bitmapped ones, because invariably 

structured ones have a drawback or three. 

Normally, I'd like to back that statement up with 

facts, but that will have to wait because I don't 

have the space. 

Just remember, there are no best formats or 

tools, just tools and formats appropriate to your 

ideas and ideas are what makes you special. 

Super smooth operator 

There is an old wives tale that says struc 

tured graphics print better than bitmapped 

ones. Not 50. Bitmapped pictures will print 

as smooth as a structured one as long as you 

remember this: 

If your image is two colour, black and 

white for example, create the image at the 

same resolution it is being output at (so it 

prints pixel for printer dot) and scale it down 

in the publishing application to the required 

size. Lets convert that into practical informa 

tion: If your image is to be one inch wide on 

paper and your printer is 300 dpi, create the 

image four inches wide and scale it down to 

one inch in your publishing program. 

If the image is full colour and is to be one 

inch on paper, create it about an inch and 

half on screen and make sure you use anti 

aliasing so text and so on print smoothly. 

There are of course exceptions and what I 

would recommend you experiment and get a 

feeling for what works and what doesn't In 

this game, there is no substitute for 

experience.

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Siamese System V1.5 

The Siamese System was designed to enable Ihe computer user to have multiple 

platforms (Amiga WB3+. Windows 95 MacOS) appear as it they are a single machine, so as to make the 

user more productive. It does Ihis by taking Ihe Iwo machines and a possible MacOS emulator on the 

Amiga and using one keyboard / mouse / monitor Once this is setup you operate one keyboard and mouse 

on all ol your software, look at one suitable monitor that can handle all ttie screen modes you wish lo use 

and Ihen as far as you are concerned you just run software, you need not worry if that software is Win95. 

MacOS or Amiga software because it justs runs in front o! you. Obviously this is backed up by Ihe fact that 

Ihe Siamese System has ail of Ihe drives from ihe different operaling systems mounted within the Amiga 

Operating System so lhal you can share lilos instantly between applications. 

Wttti Ihe standard pack, file transfer is via serial, bul il you have a suitable SCSI card on the 

Amiga and PC and a shared SCSI drive for buffering, you can send the files via a very high speed SCSI 

network developed for and included in the standard Siamese System soflware. Rates of severa; Mb/sec, 

have been recorded with a high speed SCSI network selup between the machines. Please note thai if you 

have the SCSI nelwork installed you s!ill need the Serial connection for ihe Siamese control software link. 

You can cut an 

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Arow poi for calling Siamese 

One more feature to b 

low cost upgrade is RTG. This syslem 

on the PC graphics card enabling from 256 

higher resolutions and a flicker free display fo 

Siamese System V1.5 voted Hardware Product 

of 1996 by Amiga User International 

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Dave Cusick 

searches for 

an impressive 

Web browser 

Although bolh IBrowse and AWeb have 

come along massively in recent months, 

the Amiga is still trailing in ihe world of 

■I^^H Web browsers. Many Web sites, par 

ticularly larger American ones, are simply nol view 

able on our beloved machine - and if they are, 

don't look anything like they would on a PC or 

Macintosh. The Web has been completely trans 

formed by the extended HTML command sets used 

by Netscape's Navigalor (or Communicator, as 

v4.0 seems set lo be called) and lately, Microsoft's 

Internet Explorer. 

Faced with this situation, Ihe Anvga enthusiast 

has several alternatives. At one lime, simply forget 

ting about fancy Web sites would not have been a 

great loss. As recently as a year ago, mosf commer 

cial sites were simply colourful adverts wifh no 

meaningful content. However this situation has 

changed dramatically, with the Web finally begin 

ning lo fulfill its enormous potenlial and missing oul 

is no longer a remotely oltroclive option. 

The second option, lo either sell up or pawn all 

your belongings so you con afford lo buy a PC, is 

ihe most drastic and probably least oitraclive 

(although nevertheless a large number of Amiga 

users unfortunately seem to have followed ihis 

path). The ihird option is one that on increasing 

number of Web surfers are opiing for - emulation. 

Because Apple Macintosh machines are based 

on the same 680x0 technology as Amigas, they 

are the natural choice for emulation. The Mac also 

boasts some of the best productivity software in 

existence, such os Microsoft Word, Adobe 

Pholoshop and Quark Express (all of which are 

used in the crealion of this magazine] as well as a 

...and you'll soon be running Mac 

software on your beloved Amiga 

The Official Shapeshifter Page 

http://www.uni-m3inz.de/-bauec002/SSMain.html 

Information about ShapeShifter 

http://www.execpc.com/-innuendo/amiga/emulatofs/ss. 

html 


MARCH 1997 

you cm find out 

about ShapeShifter 

at one ot the excel 

lent Web sites dedi 

cated to it... 

Surfing with 

Hi* enemy 

powerful version of Netscape Navigator. 

Once upon a lime, Macintosh emulation 

involved expensive hardware solutions such as the 

original Emplant board. These days, although a 

powerful Amiga is a must before you even star! 

considering emulation seriously, there's no need 

for an additional investment in an expensive hard 

ware emulator. Most people simply use 

ShapeShifter. 

The program can be downloaded from various 

FTP sites and Web pages, but before it can be run 

there is a fairly major hurdle to overcome - you 

will need to obtain an image of o Macintosh ROM. 

The ROM image cannot be distributed because it is 

the copyright of Apple Computers, so technically it 

is illegal lo make an image of a ROM unless you 

yourself own the ROM in question. 

Once you have obtained a ROM image, the 

nexl step is to gel hold of ihe Macintosh syslem 7 

software. Unfortunately this comes on Mac high 

density floppies, but you'll find informalion about 

how to get around this on the second Web site list 

ed below. Then, provided you have Workbench 

2.1, plenty of memory (10mb to run Netscape) 

and at least an 020 inside your Amiga, 

ShapeShifter can be fired up. The Macintosh emu 

lation happ.ly mullilasks, so you can run Netscape 

on a Macintosh screen whilst running AmFTP or 

other native Amiga programs ot the same lime. 

On faster Amiga systems, ShapeShifter man 

ages to emulate a Mac ot a pretty respectable 

Web Pages 

Unofficial ShapeShifter Page 

http://www2.misnet.com/~chaasman/ssweb/ 

Mac Emulation on the Amiga 

http://www.inet.com/-colin/text/amigatosh.html 

The Unofficial ShapeShifter Support Page 

■ "I 

- The i^nrua Murinlmih 

i' you ar 

nut tin 

n* la'- a i ml la welcome you to ma 

"Oml mclal Shapt&nHltr lupport nigt i" try taVitp •viryinmg 

I ID dill sra I Keep s loot 

'or niwjnd mirulinlngi Hop»Hjily ill irt ntw ma_ cool _ool program ais n«r» for tn* 

tiling MMany off mt 11i in an sloreo airaciiy on my tirvir •itwatmg now downloaat from 

slacBb «uch at Ammet if you flna anyining hara ;i.j;- n'-tut* ot mi*nrig, lei me hjiowl Send 

Special thanks lo Simon McGin 

r snd dip st^-'l qjICe * »;i ■_.! E.I '.■■!'■ 'in. I rus: cf fi 

UK Thwifci Sitrronl 

Otnot mtersiiing uni.t 

speed. It can actually emulate Macintosh screens 

in 256 colours on AGA machines and 16 colours 

on ECS machines, but you'll be better off wilh a 

graphics card. Not only will rhts enable you to run 

software in up lo 16.7 million colours, but because 

the Mac uses chunky pixel graphics (whereas the 

Amiga uses bitplane graphics), using a graphics 

cord will make a world of difference when emulal- 

ing in colour. 

Again, there are patches around to try to 

improve speed when emulating in colour on AGA 

machines - check out the sites below for details 

and keep an eye on the misc/emu/ directory of 

Aminet. Of course, even if you decide to take the 

plunge and buy an accelerator or graphics card 

for emulation purposes, you'll siill be spending a 

lot less than you would if you were to splash oul 

on a new computer. 

With ShapeShifler up and running you'll finally 

be able to experience Netscape Navigator. It's not 

perfect, but is light years ahead of any of ihe 

native Amiga browsers currently available in terms 

of features. You'll finally be able to view frames 

sites (although frames ore, in my humble opinion, 

a pain anyway], enjoy secure on-line ordering and 

view extended HTML3.2 layouts including fancy 

tables and exacl texl control. Owners of super-East 

Amigas might even want to experiment with 

Realaudio software. Having your own Moc might 

not change your life, but will certainly change the 

way you view the Web forever. 

Contact 

If you wish to contact me, my e-mail 

address is dave@dcus.demon.co.uk. 

Questions, suggestions and feedback 

are all more than welcome. I also have 

a homepage, which can be found at 

http://www.dcus.demon.co.uk/.

Some advice from 

Paul Overaa on 

eliminating 

sequencer 

timing problems 

Most musicians ai some time or other 

will need to transfer sequences to 

their Amiga from an external Midi 

■■■■■ unit. This could be a drum 

machine, a standalone sequencer that uses 

'mini' disks rather lhan the 3 1/2" variety or 

some other unit where it's not possible to use 

the standard approach of saving the sequence 

as a Midi file and loading it direclly into the 

Amiga. In all such cases it then becomes neces 

sary to link the external unit to your Amiga (via 

a Midi coble] and physically transfer the song 

sequences by ploying them on the source 

machine whilst recording the output. 

The one thing you shouldn't do is try and 

adjust the playing and recording speeds manu 

ally. No matter how careful you are in adjusting 

the tempo settings you are unlikely to get it right 

and a 120 bar source sequence might end up 

becoming anything between 119 and 121 bars 

in length. Whilst this will not affect the playback 

of the new sequence it will make sequence edit 

ing a nightmare because the original bar divi 

sions present in the sequence are destroyed. 

Fortunately the solution is easy. Set up the 

external device so it generates Midi clocks and 

then arrange for the sequencer doing the 

recording to use those clock messages rather 

lhan following its own internal timing clock. 

Almost all Amiga sequencers hove menu 

options for using an external clock in this way. 

Some, such as Dr T's KCS, even provide con- 

Irols which allow you to choose whether an 

explicit Midi Start message is needed to make 

the sequencer begin recording or whether it 

should start as soon as the first clock is 

received. 

These features are not always needed but 

can be handy when you're dealing with an 

external Midi device that generares timing 

clocks continuously (some old drum machines 

had an annoying habit of doing this even when 

a drum pattern was not playing]. 

So to record from any external unit you firstly 

set it up so it will generate timing clocks whilst 

ploying and then load up your sequencer pro 

gram and select the external clock option. Set 

MIDI 

MIDI H.r-9. 

Ho MIDI St.rt 

(«if Pip Stnd 

VELOCITY PEDAL 

CMnn.l 

-1 

RECORDING 

ontrol ntrol IIfre 

P.u,. 

cttf alF Velocity 

u 

Ou.ntiie 

RrcJilnn* l 

Count-in .lit 

TfHMt, Ch« bii R»tlo 

Vr'l IftL.l „ 

Ofpounci _Sfl 

1 ■:• Move Snni.ru .1 

ME1RDHOHE 

Pl»» n*tr«Ba«n 

sno»/M»tra 

Dr T's KCS sequencer can either wait tor real Midi 'start' 

messages or starting recording on the first received Midi clock 


MARCH 1997 

Recording rhythm patterns from this Yamaha RYB drum machine is 

a prime candidate for using your sequencer's external clock option 

the sequencer to record, hit the start button on 

the external unit - you'll find the sequencer will 

record the sequence exactly as it wos written 

without any bar length timing glitches in sight. 

In case you're wondering how all this techni 

cal magic works here's a brief run-down on 

what happens beneath the surface; Midi clocks 

are single byte Midi messages that have the 

value decimal 248 (that's F8 hex). When you 

set a sequencer to its external clock option the 

internal timing mechanism is disabled and atten 

tion is focused purely on the incoming Midi 

data. 

The external device will be transmitting clock 

bytes at the rate of 24 per quarter nole and 

these will be received along with all the other 

Midi data. Whenever the sequencer reads one 

of these clocks it adjusts its bar position counter 

by l/24th of a quarter note. By the time 24 

have been collected the sequencer will know 

that one bar of data has been received. 

When you record data in this way the 

absolute tempo of the external device doesn't 

really matter. To double the playing speed you 

double the number of Midi clo:ks sent. Halve it 

and you halve the number of Midi clocks. Either 

way the sequencer will be aole to recognise 

each bar of music as it arrives and if, for exam 

ple, you play exactly 120 bars of a sequence ■ 

you will end up recording exactly 120 bars 

regardless of tempo. 

These type of external clock based Midi links 

Linking Two Amigas 

also come in useful on other occasions. You 

might come across a collection of songs record 

ed with an old sequencer which didn't provide 

options for exporting sequences as Midi files. 

To move those songs across to a more mode'n 

sequencer you just need to borrow another 

Amiga and link the two machines together 

using a Midi connecting lead (and two Midi 

interfaces]. 

Once you've linked the source and destina 

tion machines together and loaded the respec 

tive sequencer programs, do pretty much the 

same thing as before: Set the sequencer that is 

going to play the song sequences to its internal 

clock option, making sure that it is also set to 

generate liming clock messages at the same 

time. Then set the sequencer being used for 

recording to its external clock option and start it 

recording. 

Nothing will actually happen until the source 

sequencer is started. This is because the 

recording sequencer will be waiting for ihose 

all important Midi clocks and these will not 

appear until the sequencer being used lo play 

the song is actually started. When you do hit 

the source sequencer's start button however, 

everything should foil into place. The destina 

tion (recording end) sequencer will then record 

and store a copy of the original song material 

bar for bar.

Looking for on easy 

way to organise 

backup operations?: 

Paul Overaa shows 

you how 

On many platforms, including the PC, 

REXX (the language upon which 

ARexx is based) is used primarily as a 

^^^ macro language for system house 

keeping operations. Moving and renaming sets of 

files, batch editing of text files, performing stan 

dardised backup operations and so on. 

This system-oriented use is perfectly under 

standable on these other platforms since the 

operating system is, to a large extent, the only 

other 'process' that can be communicated with. 

ARexx of course, has no such restrictions and in 

this sense Amiga users are extremely fortunate. 

ARexx's ability to communicate easily with 

other programs does tend to result however, in 

the potentially useful batch processing links with 

AmigaDOS, often taking a back seat Now this is 

clearly a shame because for these types of appli 

cations, ARexx is far more powerful than 

AmigaDOS's own scripting language and you 

need look no further than the rather neglected 

area of data backup to realise the possibilities. 

Whilst data safety is obviously the primary con 

cern, the objective of any type of backup arrange 

ments ought really to be to get some sort of sys 

tem going which makes routine data backup as 

easy as possible. It is, after all, a well known fact 

that procedures which are awkward tend not to 

get followed. 

Fortunately for most users, backing up a com 

plete high-capacity hard disk on a regular basis is 

almost never necessary. For example, programs 

themselves, once backup copies of the master 

disks have been made, do not need further regu 

lar backing up. The unwritten rule with data files 

of course is that you back up files only as fre 

quently as they change. 

The key to success is organisation. Make sure 

you have appropriate directory structures and/or 

hard disk partitioning (ie the creation of a number 

of different logical drives). One big help is to make 

sure you keep data files separate from the applica 

tions programs which create and use them. 

Within this highest level division of programs 

versus data, the next most useful hierarchy criteria 

is the required file backup frequency. If, for exam 

ple, an order file is backed up once a day, it is 

worth keeping that data in a directory (or hard 

disk partition) that contains only those files that 

need to be backed up with this frequency. 

An ARexx Example 

Once you have a workable backup plan available 

ARexx can, in most cases, completely eliminate 

the need for using dedicated backup utilities. Let's 

say, for instance, you're interested in automating 

the backup of a directory called 'daily' that exists 

on a partition called Work. In short you want to 

copy, to floppy disk, any files present in that direc 

tory whose contents have changed since the 

With a little organisation, plus some help from ARexx, 

almost all backup operations can become a piece of cake! 

/* backup.ren */ 

TEHP='fiaa:T/te»pl 

BACKUPJ£ST='dfO:daily' 

A«CHlVEjn='ar 

drawer was last backed up. 

The trick here is to adopt the same method as 

used by most archiving utilities. Whenever a file is 

backed up the archive bit of the source file gets 

set If, when the next backup is performed, that 

bit is still set the file hasn't changed and does not 

need recopying to your backup disk. 

As far as doing this type of thing via ARexx is 

concerned the important first step is identifying 

the names of the files present in the chosen 

source directory. ARexx's address command can 

be used in conjunction with AmigaDOS's LIST 

command to generate just such a list. 

One approach is to set up a couple of constant 

definitions to point to the source directory and to 

a temporary file for storing the list command out 

put. The files, nodates and nohead switches inci- 

address cowaitd 'list' BACKUPJOURCE 'to' TEMP 'file; nodates nohead' 

if Opentfh,TEHP,'r'> then 

do 

do uhile "EOF(fli) 

Une=Readlri(fb) 

if Length(Line)>0 then 

do 

parss var line file date flags 

if PosURCHIVE BIT,flags)=O then 

end 

do 

fi Le=BACKUP_SOURCE j|fi Le 

say 'Batting up...' file 

address coanand 'copy >NIL:' file 'to' BACKJPJEST 

address cossand ■protect >HIL:' file '+a add1 

end 

end 

call Closc(fh) 

address comnd 'delete >HIL:' TENP 

say 'Operations conplete!' 

enc 

dentally can be used on the LIST command line to 

ensure that only the file names, size and protec 

tion flags values are sent to the output file. ARexx 

code such as... 

BAC«:UP_SIJUSCE=1«ort:daiLy/1 

TENP='Hai:t/teip' 

address conarancE 'list' BACKUPJOURCE 'to' TEUP 

'files 

Itodatss "ahead1 

therefore ends up generating a temporary file con 

sisting of text lines whose general format is... , 

By reading these lines and splitting them into 

individual name, size and protection flag values 

using the ARexx PARSE instruction it's then easy 

enough to check each flag set to see whether the 

archive bit is clear or not Any file whose archive 

bit is not set represents a file that has been altered 

since the last backup, so all we need to do is copy 

all such files to the destination backup directory - 

resetting the archive bits of each source file as we 

do so. 

Now your individual requirements for backup 

are doubtless going to be different from mine but 

the example shown in listing 1 should give a rea 

sonable starting point for creating your own back 

up scripts. In this case it's the general ideas that 

are the important thing - so the thing to do is to 

set up some dummy source/destination directo 

ries on your own system (modifying the script's 

directory references to suit) and then experiment. 

Once you see how these archive bit arrangements 

work you should then be easily able to incorpo 

rate similar ideas into your own backup arrange 

ments! 

Listing 1: A typical archive bit based ARexx backing up script. Notice how the >NIL: statement 

is used to discard output from the copy, protect and delete commands'. 


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starts work on 

a date 

stamping utility 

Over the next two months I'm going to 

turn the skeleton code provided on the 

February coverdisk (or on our Web site) 

^^^B into a utility that will run in Workbench 

that can extract date stamps (in ASCII form) from 

all files in a given directory. There are plenty of uses 

for such a program but the one I have in mind is 

one which will allow easy date stamping of Web 

pages. 

If, for example, you check out my corner of 

Amiga Computing's Web site you will see all pages 

have a last updated date stamp in them. These 

dates are in fact generated automatically by a utility 

currently written in C, but I thought a directly coded 

680x0 version might be useful for the purposes of 

this column because, once you've seen the ideas 

involved, you'll realise that the same framework 

can be used to create many other utilities. 

The starting point for the discussions is the 

DirHandler() routine whose main job at the 

moment (if we disregard the temporary print/clear 

name operations) is to copy the selected directory 

name from the asl requester. Copying is usually 

done so a selected filename can be added to a 

directory to produce a complete path for the file. 

For our current application however, being only 

interested in drawer names, we can eliminate the 

copying and use the asl requester's own directory 

buffer. This approach involves some minor changes 

in that the text pointers of the intuiText structures 

cannot now be defined using the original static 

dimame reference. 

Instead we install the pointers at run time (after 

the internal asi buffers have been allocated). The 

new method, which you'll find in my AllocFileReqO 

routine, is to load aO with the asl requester base 

and load ai with each IntuiText base in turn to 

copy the pointers using indirect addressing instruc 

tions like this: 

■0«.l frJrauer(aO),it_lTeJt(a1) 

These and a few other minor alterations - such as 

adding an image to the display using the Intuition 

Drawlmage() function and changing the window 

and menu text - will be easy enough to recognise 

by comparing this month's source with that from 

the previous issue. The real work however, involves 

extending the DirHandlerO routine so it can search 

the named directory and locate any files present. 

Dos Operations 

Once a directory name is available the directory 

must be locked using the Dos library LockO func 

tion. An FIB (File Info Block) must also be allocated 

using AlIocDosObject() and it's initial directory val 

ues set by calling Examine(). An ExNextO loop can 

then be used to examine all the files in the select 

ed directory. 

The easiest way to explain the relationship 


MARCH 1997 

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