AFCD29 - 645.2MB - August 1998

So far, there aren't a lot of changes to be made to this CD, mainly because we're waiting to find out what you think of AFCD28. We're looking at adding better DOpus functionality, because it seems that many of you are running it as a WBR, and we can do a lot more (interactively) with it than we can with Workbench. Updated the survey to keep it up to date. Updated AFCDView so that it works properly with the new layout from AFCD28, and included the demo of Golem that we missed out on last month. Check it out, you'll be amazed, honest!

AFCD28 - 644.4MB - July 1998

Removed the Prefs drawer from +System+ and moved AFCDPrefs into +System+ itself. Got rid of the Superview library files from libs since we had already got rid of the SVPrefs program and it was out-of-date anyway. Exclusive demo of Golem's ace new XFL animation format which gives you full-screen, full-speed animation with synchronised sound. Added AFCD history to the CD. Got rid of separate Reader Warrant file and updated the Survey and Readme template. We also made a big change in the -Seriously_Amiga- drawer by moving the shareware drawers into their parent directory. This means that we have an extra directory deep to play with which comes in handy mainly for the Programming drawer.

AFCD27 - 642MB - June 1998

Little things really. Added little animated AF logos to the web pages, lost the icon for the Indices drawer in +System+, added new viewers to the Tools drawer, and so on.

Commercial software: F1GP

AFCD26 - 642MB - May 1998

A refinement of AFCD25. The Websites drawer got "-"s to put it up with the content drawers in a lister, the viewers drawer got renamed to Tools and had a lot added to it. Every month now, the AFCD will provide a useful collection of tools, utilities and commodities for you to make use of. A subscriptions page was added to Ben_Speaks! and the layout of it was changed to include frames (not that I think frames are great, they just make navigation easier in this instance). The Demos drawer was renamed to MegaDemos to save any confusion with any other kind of demo. We've also reduced the amount of system files on the CD to ensure that more of our CD is new stuff than the competition. As it stands on this CD, less than 8% of the disc's contents are actually repeated material, whereas CU's disc had more than 12%.

Commercial software: PPaint 7.

AFCD25 - 643.1MB - April 1998

All change! For the first time really since AFCD6, the CD was laid out afresh. Instead of having nine drawers at the root and two files, we, all of a sudden, dropped to only six drawers and one file - Ben_Speaks!. Speaking of which, Ben_Speaks! changed this month from being a boring old Amigaguide file into HTML, bringing together all the disparate elements of the CD: namely Submissions advice, websites, Ben Speaks and subs, although subs isn't here yet. The restructuring was done to leave CoverDisks, ReaderStuff, Seriously_Amiga, ScreenPlay and In_the_Mag in the root and to add a new drawer called System which contained pretty much what Look_here_1st! had contained, but better. PD_Select was renamed to demos and put into the In_the_Mag drawer. Because we ensured that you wouldn't have to run some horrid startup script to make sure that everything ran from the CD okay, AFCD_Setup was moved to the System drawer as well. We also had a few problems with this CD because some Sanyo 2x SCSI CD-ROM drives wouldn't read it because it stretched the ISO9660 standard too far for them.

Commercial software: UFO: Enemy Unknown.

AFCD24 - 639.2MB - March 1998

This CD was the first one done in the new year for us, so it was also the first CD we did that had loads of Doom info on it. It was also another CD where we had huge numbers of contributions from you (more than 180Mb). Other than that, there weren't many changes from the previous CD.

AFCD23 - 645.6MB - February 1998

Judging by responses we've had via email and in the post to AFCDPrefs, it seemed that many of you weren't sure what to do with it, so I took the time to explain it in Ben_Speaks! that CD (AFCDFind and Prefs now have online help - Ben AFCD42). It's all a bit out of date now, but still relevant. The CD kept on keeping on that month, but we did have a novelty in the shape of our first ever MP3 file which was Petro Tyschtschenko's speech from Cologne. It was terrible quality, but then it was never designed to go onto the CD in the first place, it was only many requests from readers that forced our hand.

AFCD22 - 649.4MB - January 1998

Not much has changed since the previous CD, although we do have another exclusive game demo in the shape of Foundation on this CD. Other than that and just about 100MB of reader contributions, the CD contains the usual up-to-date mix of shareware and the like.

AFCD21 - 648.5MB - Christmas 1997

This CD saw the start of yet another new feature to help you, the reader. We started the very popular Reader_Requests drawer on AFCD21 and it has been very successful so far. There was also a new AFCDSurvey to fill in and send to us (we must have had 5,000 of these surveys so far. I read every one of them and try to reply where possible). We also had an exclusive demo of the long-awaited Genetic Species on AFCD21.

AFCD20 - 651.3MB - December 1997

This CD sees the debut of AFCDPrefs, the tool that has made the AFCDs more personalised than ever. The marvellous Oliver Roberts wrote this for us too and like AFCDFind, it has improved and improved over the months we've been using it, thanks to our increased familiarity with it and your helpful suggestions through the AFCDSurvey. We had exclusive demos of Final Odyssey and Uropa 2 on this CD along with a full version of NetBSD.

AFCD19 - 433.4MB + 4 audio tracks - November 1997

Just a bit of a jiggle for the drawers on the CD this month - guaranteed to confuse everyone, but we didn't get too many complaints. It seems that a lot of you liked the audio tracks we had on the CD too.

AFCD18 - 416.5MB - October 1997

Look_here_1st! gets plus signs now to make sure it appears at the top of your listers in DOpus, but other than that there aren't many changes. We had 25 different websites on the CD and more than 120MB of your contributions though.

AFCD17 - 574.5MB - September 1997

This CD sees the introduction of the superb AFCDFind written especially for us by that wiz Oliver Roberts. It made finding what you were looking for on our CD so much better than having to trawl through the listed indices that it was a shock, but even so it's improved immeasurably since then. Nice one Oliver!

AFCD16 - 654.3MB - August 1997

Our fullest CD yet! This CD accompanied our 100th issue so we included all 100 top shareware titles which, no doubt, helped to fill the disc to the brim. The only obvious change this month is the fact the the AFCD_Setup file gains some plus signs in front of and behind its name and gets moved to the root of the CD to encourage you to use it more. We also tried out a Reader Ads section on the CD, but it didn't work out and was, instead, transplanted into the magazine.

AFCD15 - 644.2MB - July 1997

The AFCD setup script becomes one file this month instead of two, but other than that there's not much change. However, as you can see, this CD is very full indeed.

AFCD14 - 550.5MB - June 1997

Again, not much changed for AFCD14 if I remember rightly. We had a lot of games though this issue including exclusive items from Vulcan previewing their up-and-coming games (some of which still haven't reached us!).

AFCD13 - 460.6MB - May 1997

An all-time low for content. We were decidedly hampered by Aminet not working properly and a lack of time generally. A first mention of Quake in Ben_Speaks!

Commercial software: Scala 1.13.

AFCD12 - 617.1MB - April 1997

And now we start to consolidate with the CD. We've made a lot of changes over the previous eleven discs and now the CD is pretty good, EMC can get on with compiling instead of worrying about how to improve it. Of course, changes will come, but not yet.

Commercial software: PPaint 6.4, Cinema 4D 2.

AFCD11 - 589.6MB - March 1997

A change in CD compiling took place this CD with the excellent EMComputergraphic taking the helm. As a first step, they got every single datatype that could be found at the time and put them on the CD. This CD also marks the first appearance of the minus signs at the start and end of the important directory names. The reason for this is to make them easier to find in a directory utility like DOpus. We also had the complete (but unannotated) source for Alien Breed 3D2.

Commercial Software: Turbocalc 2.1.

AFCD10 - 646.1MB - February 1997

A really packed CD this month and the first appearance of NewIcons for the CD and for Ben_Speaks!, for what it's worth. We now have nine drawers in the root of the CD to make it look neater (the extra drawer is one for Prefs). The main work I did on the CD was to create a massive set of AmigaGuide docs for all the transcsripts of the Lightwave Mailing list, along with huge numbers of objects, scenes and the like for the premier 3D package for the Amiga. We also started lining up the drawers in a now-familiar style and included a Reader Warrant in the Look_here_1st! drawer.

Commercial software: FontMachine.

AFCD9 - 576MB - January 1997

We had interviews in Quicktime format on this CD, that weren't playable using the Quicktime players available to us at the time. They may well be now, so if you want to hear what Wolf Dietrich and Jason Compton had to say all that time ago, give them a try now.

Commercial software: Octamed 6.

AFCD8 - 517MB - Christmas 1996

First appearance of our new AFCD icon, created for us by a reader. A new icon for Ben_Speaks! - me with much shorter hair (it's probably about time for another new one as I write this at the start of the production schedule for AFCD28). Ben_Speaks has my thought for the month for the first time, but will remain in AmigaGuide format for some time to come. Serious turns into Seriously_Amiga. Still not many websites and the Andy Davidson interview didn't get on the disc either. Also, we didn't want your MODs any more because of copyright infringements.

Commercial software: Cinema 4D.

AFCD7 - 622.9MB - December 1996

Have_a_look_here_first! has happily been renamed to Look_Here_1st! on this CD. It also features the first proper HTML with submissions advice and other people's websites. We released The AGA Experience Volume 1 on this magazine as well.

Commercial software: DataChrome.

AFCD6 - 600.4MB - November 1996

First appearance of Look_here_1st! drawer (unwieldly-ly called Have_a_look_here_first! on this CD!).This drawer contained the startup scripts and the colour patchers making the total number of icons in the root: drawers 8, files 1. It's also the first appearance on the AF_on_the_Web drawer, although the only website included was the old AF pages. This CD marks the first appearance of the venerable AFCDSurvey.

AFCD5 - 551.1MB - October 1996

Loads of problems! Lots of people reported that they couldn't read this disc although we had had no trouble with it. Nick_Speaks! from the previous CD was replaced with Ben_Speaks! and has stayed the same ever since (although the icon has been improved!). First appearance of the In_the_Mag drawer and the Subs Disk extractor. Large numbers of PhotoCD images of Bath on this disc.

AFCD4 - 526.6MB - September 1996

First CD compiled by Ben. This CD was the start of the current layout, although there were nine drawers and five file icons at the root. We had AlienBreed - Tower Assault movie on the CD.

AFCD3 - 475.2MB + 4 audio tracks - August 1996

First audio tracks (excerpts from speeches given at the Toulouse press conference) on an AFCD! No sign of the front end from AFCD1 & 2.

Commercial Software: TypeSmith v2.5.

AFCD2 - 644.5MB - July 1996

Still using the CanDo-generated front end, but it's getting difficult to keep it up-to-date already.

Commercial Software: CanDo v2.5, Octamed 5, Wordworth 5.

AFCD1 - 614.4MB - June 1996

It's all new! What changes could there possibly be?

Commercial Software: Real 3D v2.5, Real 3D v1.5, Blitz Basic v2.1AF, Personal Fonts Maker 2.