|---------------------------- Acorn News Service ----------------------------|
| |
| http://www.digicron.com/ans/ |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| The Acorn News Service is an independent service. |
| It is no way connected with, or supported by the Acorn Group Plc. |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| ISSUE 1 18TH FEB 1998 |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Editor:Eytan Abrahams - Proof Reader:John Ward - Webmaster:Richard Hesketh |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| To send in your news items please use the ANS website |
| Send comments directly to me at eytan@thefree.net |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Contents
--------
1) Editorial
3) General News
2) Commercial News
3) PD/Shareware News
4) Club News
Editorial
---------
Welcome to the first issue of ANS. Thank you to all those who have helped
with ANS. Special thanks to Richard Hesketh for the wonderful web site.
Due to ANS still being in its first stages, not that many people have
taken the opportunity to send in articles. I therefore have had to find them
myself. I am sure in future issues news will come flooding in, and ANS will
provide Acorn News that is second to none!
I am getting about 20 subscriptions a day, so be assured, future issues will
be larger!
Due to the large number of people subscribed, I am trying to find someone who
has access to a server that can do the E-Mailing of the latest version of ANS
for me, and can automatically subscribe and unsubscribe people. I have been
offered the services of the "acorn-l" list, that is run by a server somewhere
in Turkey. That will mean ANS members getting about 5 messages a month that
are posted to acorn-l. I don't think people will appreciate this, therefore
I will keep on doing the work manually.
Look at the special price for the new PsiRisc software just released by IMS.
You can save 20.00 UKP!
Thank You
Eytan Abrahams,
Editor
General News
------------
1) Arcsite
Arcsite is an Acorn-dedicated web site. It offers a host of services
which include:
* ArcArchie. A search engine with searches the ftp server of Hensa,
University of Kaiserslautern, and the University of Stuttgart for Acorn
programs.
* FREE homepages for Acorn users, to offer your own programs,
information etc..
* A forum where everyone can talk to other Acorn users, or announce news.
Check it out now at:
http://www.arcsite.de/
2) Acorn Banner Exchange
The Acorn Banner Exchange has been launched! The Acorn Banner Exchange is like
Link Exchange, but for Acorn Sites only so if you're a webmaster of an acorn
related site:
* Personal Acorn page
* Business Acorn page
* Any page that supports Acorn
* Also any page that has been make on an acorn, and shows it.
Join today and get free advertising!
Acorn Banner Exchange is better than other banner exchanges because it's
only for Acorn sites, this means better targeting than any other banner
exchanges can give Acorn users.
Acorn Banner Exchange works by you showing a banner of 400x40 on your
page(s). Banners displayed will be no bigger than 15k. When you have
displayed two banners on your page your own banner is shown once on someone
else's site. You host your banner(s) on your site so you can alter it any
time you like, but it will still be checked for the 15k limit.
You can read more information about the Acorn Banner Exchange and
join free, from:
http://the.hypermart.net/acorn/
3) The Acorn Gamer website
The Acorn Gamer website is now on-line. Check it out now for all the best for
the Acorn games enthusiast.
http://www.markgf.demon.co.uk/acorngamer/
4) ARM Club open day
The ARM Club is holding an open day at Merton Court School in Sidcup, Kent on
Sunday 1st March.
Full directions including drawfile maps of the area can be found on their web
site at http://www.armclub.org.uk/shows/sidcup/.
Along with all the usual services provided by The ARM Club, the following
companies and organisations have confirmed that they will be exhibiting:
Acorn Computers Ltd
Argonet
Association of Acorn User Groups
APDL
Atomwide
Cambridgeshire Software House
Cherisha Software
Cumana/Canon Computing
Creative Curriculum Software
CTA
Eesox
Proaction
Quadworks
Sherston Software
Spacetech
Squirrel Solutions
The Datastore
Yellowstone
Commercial News
---------------
1) KidsBase Testers Wanted.
David Sharp is looking for people to be testers and give criticism on an easy
to use database that he is developing. The program is called KidsBase and will
be released commercially once complete. Testers will of course have access to
versions of the software for analysis and comments. If you are interested,
simply fill in the form at:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/4119/kidsbase.htm
David will then be in contact soon, concerning the program. If you have
filled in the form previously, then there is no need to fill it in again.
2) New R-Comp web site
R-Comp have now totally updated their web site, showing off all the great
features of HTMLEdit. Make sure you have a frames and tables browser to view
this site properly.
The site also has a leisure section which holds specs and information on the
Doom Trilogy for RiscOS, links to the Artex site (RCI is the UK distributor
for current Artex products), and ordering facilities for Doom and Exodus.
There is also a section dedicated to WebsterXL, and updates to their
catalogue of Web Authoring tools, including all of their more recent
extensions, plugins and management tools.
Check it all out now at:
http://www.rcomp.co.uk/
3) Support for HCCS Products
Andy Armstrong of WonderWorks has kindly said that he is committed to provide
the support he can for HCCS products. People interested who have been left in
the lurch can subscribe to his mailing list by sending an E-Mail to:
hccs-survivor@tag.co.uk
with subject
subscribe
He will also be creating a support section on his website:
http://www.wonderworks.co.uk/hccs/
4) RiscCAD Mail list
A mailing list has now been set up for discussion of topics related to the
use of RiscCAD Professional.
All hints, tips, general queries and advice welcome.
To subscribe send an email to:
risccad-l@argonet.co.uk
with the subject
SIGNON risccad-L
5) PsiRisc
Something I have been waiting for, which I am sure many other people have
been as well, is a simple and efficient way to link up your Psion 3c/Siena/5
to your Acorn (unless you have a PC Card)!
The answer has come with PsiRisc from Innovative Media Solutions Ltd.
It links up the following Psion machines to the Acorn:
3 (Pocketbook)
3a (Pocketbook II)
3c (Pocketbook III)
Siena
Series 5 (4Mb & 8Mb)
PsiRisc also works with the GeoFox-One (4 & 16Mb).
Transfer files at up to 115,200 baud. Backup & restore facilities. File
format conversions for the Series 3 (S5 converters coming soon).
Further details can be found on their website, at:
http://www.ims-cdc.demon.co.uk/
It's an exciting development, and I hope it develops further.
Just as ANS was about to be sent out, I was informed that IMS is offering
PsiRisc at only 44.99 UKP for the first 100 customers! After that it will be
69.99 UKP.
For those of you who do not have a series 5, and therefore the
computer lead was not supplied, you can buy it from IMS for 24.95 UKP, but
they do not have many, and are having trouble getting them. Psion do sell
them direct for about the same price. (Psion: 0990 143 050)
6) Illusion Software
Illusion Web Design is a new company providing web sites for all users,
with special support for Acorn users. We can use any of the standard
Acorn formats - Draw, Sprite, ArtWorks, Impression and many more - to
create your site.
Our web sites are designed to work with as many browsers as possible,
providing the widest possible viewing public. We can work in HTML up to
version 4.0, but all sites will degrade gracefully to leave good results
on any browser.
And the price? We prefer to give private quotes, so drop us an email
outlining your requirements and we'll get back to you as soon as
possible.
SPECIAL OFFER: Anyone who can send reasonable proof of using an Acorn
RiscOS computer will receive a 20% discount on their web site cost. Offer
ends on March 7th.
Check out Illusion now at:
http://www.illusion.co.uk/web/
7) New game from Artex Software
Artex Software's 'ANKH' is a graphical adventure similar to 'Simon the
Sorcerer'. The game is an ancient Egyptian adventure with fine graphics
(high resolution with a 32000 colour mode, true PC games style design),
music played from CD, lots of sound effects, and a very nice story. A demo
will be available in a few weeks. Release date is March 98.
The game features more than 30 scenes, over 35 animated Egyptians you can
talk or deal with, over 60 items you can use/combine/wear/give etc, some
nice dark humour and a very interesting story.
Ankh is playable on any RISC OS 3 computer with VGA monitor, 4MB RAM and CD
ROM drive. RiscPC/A7000 is recommended to enjoy the 32000 colour mode.
For more detailed information, please visit the Artex website at:
http://members.aol.com/artexsoft/
8) New version of ANT Internet Suite
ANT Ltd have announced the long-awaited new release of the ANT Internet Suite.
"Version 1.28 is faster and better" was the message from Product Manager Dean
Murphy. This finally appeared on the ANT web site (http://www.ant.co.uk/) on
2nd February as a free upgrade to registered users.
While most parts of the suite have been upgraded, Marcel (the email and
news client) has received the most improvement, with the memory requirements
for general e-mail and news operations being roughly halved and dramatically
faster newsgroup opening times.
The user community's response to the new release, as reported on the c.s.a.*
newsgroups, has been very favourable, with the Marcel speed-up being the most
welcome -- even though a few users hadn't realised that they need to run an
expiry after ugrading so that the new, faster index can be created for all
of Marcel's boxes' contents.
The Fresco web browser has been reported by several users as being more
stable in their experience with it so far.
PD/Shareware News
-----------------
1) Bunny Race
The Bunny Race WWW site is now being hosted at the new Acorn Arcade
pages - point your browser to http://www.argonet.co.uk/acornarcade/
and go the features index then Bunny Race!
For those of you who haven't heard of Bunny Race, it's a sideways
scrolling platformer in which you star Elvis the Bunny, whose lovely car
has been painted pink and his cabbages stolen by the evil Alfonso...
What a quality plotline.
The game features:
* Four layer parallax scrolling
* Twenty levels split into four zones
* Quality graphics IMHO
* Works on low-end machines too :-)
* Sound effects and music
* Carrots and turnips galore!
* It's completely FREE!
Plus lots, lots more - so download it today!
2) RailPro
RailPro version 1.4 has now been released and features include:
* Twenty seconds before a maintenance crew starts its work - the player will
be warned by the display of two 'goods-depot-tracks'. After twenty seconds
they will be replaced by 'maintenance-tracks'.
That should give enough time to have a train passed that is nearby at full
speed and to switch the signal to the lowest speed.
* The time to collect an excursion-party with empty trains has been extended
from 7 to 9 minutes.
* Removed an unwanted cheat, which on some maps could lead to sudden wealth
for the player (just by stopping a train).
The official RailPro site is hosted on Acorn Arcade:
http://www.argonet.co.uk/acornarcade/
Go to the bottom of the main page and click on 'RailPro' in the quick
links section!
3) The ARM'd & Dangerous website
The freeware programming group ARM'd & Dangerous have updated
their website.
http://www.argonet.co.uk/armdanddangerous/
They have released a new freeware game, called Kryten98. You can also find on
their website previews of three games to be released.
A&D are looking for new graphics artists to bring the presentation of
games like Blood Lust up to standard. If you think you could help please
contact:
robert.t@argonet.co.uk
4) raFS
The latest version of raFS, v1.11, is now available for downloading from:
http://home.augsburg.baynet.de/richard.atterer/
raFS allows you to have filenames of more than 10 characters in length, disc
names of up to 63 characters, and no limit for the maximum number of files
that can be stored in a directory.
Important: This version fixes several major bugs, one of which is
potentially data-threatening. I strongly encourage all users of raFS to
upgrade to v1.11 immediately!
5) !Connector
Version 1.02 of !Connector, the ANSI terminal package, has been released.
Get it from the connector website:
http://www.student.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/~topdog/
6) Transient
A new release, Transient, is now available at the Illusion Software site.
Transient is a utility which provides a temporary directory on your hard
disk, creating a dated sub directory every day to help you organise files.
You can use it like a RAM disk - drag files to it, save files to it - but
the files will remain on the hard disk until you delete them, or run an
automatic expire.
Transient is Giftware - a similar concept to ShareWare, but no fee is
specified; any gift will do.
Download it now from:
http://www.illusion.co.uk/software/
7) Messenger
Version 1.33 of Messenger, the freeware E-Mail program, has been released.
Download it now from the Messenger website:
http://www.locutus.demon.co.uk/messenger/
8) LongFsCheck 0.01
LongFsCheck is a program to remove those lost !!!!!!!!Z! that exist without any
jpt(c)_'s files that are created by Jason Tribbeck's Longfs appliction. These
prevent some directories from being deleted and take up some hard drive space.
Download from:
http://www.statto.home.ml.org/
Club News
---------
1) French Acorn User Group - Web Page
The French Acorn User group is now on-line. You can access their pages from:
http://www.mygale.org/04/fraug/
*** End of ANS - Issue 1 ***
*** Updated: Fri 20th February 1998 ***