NewInstaller v1.4 news
A big update for NewInstaller will be released soon. There are many new features
and improvements. Many visual modifikations have been made, and NewInstaller now
also supports themes, which should be interesting for many. NewInstaller v1.4 will
possibly be released next week.
PC-Welt: EU: Internet much too expensive
In the opinion of the EU commission, prices for Internet connections are much
too expensive in Europe. Compared to the USA, national connections cost four,
international connections sixteen times as much."
Full article (German) at the title link.
IT-Nachrichten: Cookies illegal?
"Cookies are a nuisance for many: Some regard them as "service", others think of them
as 'espionage'. In the USA talks arise: Should Cookies be banned?"
Full article (German) at the title link.
Comeback of Melody-Z2
Jörn Plewka writes:
Since some users have contacted us on the HEW, wanting a real cheap soundcard,
we contacted Gruner Bürotechnik with the following result:
A few remaining Melody-Z2 will be available before christmas. Since
nobody will distribute these cards, I think I should tell the price we agreed
upon on this occassion (74,50 Euro plus p&p).
Compared with Melody1200, the card is outdated and out of development.
As should be known, however, it is not bad, and still supported by the latest
Melody driver system.
The December issue AmigActive Nr. 3 is ready. At the menu point "issues" at the
title link you can find what's in the issue, Have a look for yourself, you will
want the issue :-). All issues can now be ordered individually, online and worldwide
by credit card.
Alive Mediasoft - new products and updates
Alive Mediasoft promises to finish the following games until christmas:
Goal 2000, Whales Voyage 2, Whales Voyage and Putty Squad.
Soundprobe: Good news, bad news
Bad news first: There won't be an update version 2.2. :(
Good news: There will be a version V3. :)
After the PC version of Soundprobe was finished, there were talks with HiSOFT about the
Amiga version. Result is that the author is allowed to work on the Amiga version of
Soundprobe in December and January. The new version will therefore be available in
February 2000, and like the PC version require a keyfile.
New CD "eXtra Life: The Best of Games"
Epic Marketing now released the CD "eXtra Life: The Best of Games". The CD contains
the 200 best PD and Shareware games released for Amiga. Special about "eXtra Life"
is that all games have been brought up-to-date so they run on 040 or 060 Amigas.
Some games can even be played with B- or CVision gfx cards. Games are sorted in
categories:
All games can be started directly from CD, and are also included as archive. The
CD can be ordered directly from Epic Marketing, or the usual retailers.
24bit sound in a few weeks
Finally, dynamics of up to 144 db reach the Amiga! Due to lack of interest, the
MEDIO card existed only
in the drawer so far. Now, since the HEW '99, there are enough pre-orders to bring the
card to production. The planned price range can drop significantly if more pre-orders
are collected. sales@katodev.de The hardware
support is already implemented transparently in the Melody driver system.
MEDIO is an expansion for Melody1200
offering digital, lossless line-in and line-out. To make clear how it works, the concept
of Melody1200 has to be made clear first, since such an high-end design is unknown
otherwise on the Amiga. Melody1200 consists of two cards called the analogous and digital
part. Between these cards, a digital bus system is implemented by a flat cable (AD/DA conversion
is done on the analogous part). To this bus system, e.g. Medio can be added with an optional
plug (optionally more than one). Melody1200xxx works with 8, 16 and 20 bit, digitally
with 8, 16 and 24 bit. For faster operation, we recommend using
Unity in Zorro systems.
A complete description of the hardware functios (routing without CPU, affecting Copybit,
A-LAN etc.) would be too big here. Please visit our website. Even those can only cover
parts. The colored PDF flyer etc. for retailers can, as always, be found at
Docs.
REBOL - new user guide
REBOL has released the beta version of the new
user guide. This is a preliminary version
intended to collect comments, suggestions and corrections. Feedback can be send to REBOL
Documentation Team at docs@rebol.com.
REBOL module for Apache
REBOL announced the pre-beta release of a REBOL module
for the Unix version of the Apache web-server.
REBOL is looking for people interested in testing the module and giving feedback
about reliability, stability and features of the module to the REBOL Apache Development Team.
The pre-beta will only be available for some Unix Apache versions ranging from
1.3.4 up to the latest 1.3.9. Additionally, httpd must be compiled as Dynamic Shared Object
(mod_so). If this is not the case, Apache can be compiled individually this way with little effort.
Those interested in testing the pre-beta can contact
apachedev@rebol.com. Please make sure to state the
Unix system used.
Individual Computers giving away a X-Surf network card on amiga-news.de
The price question is rather simple:
On which day will the card be available? Call your favourite retailer and ask for the
release date. Giving the week is sufficient, exact date won't improve your chances.
Send the date by e-mail to:
...and include the name of your favourite retailer. Don't choose a retailer at
random, but your favourite one. One who won your sympathy with his nice shop, or impressed
you with good service in the past.
Among all submissions, Individual Computers will choose the winner at random.
The price is a X-Surf networking card for Amigas with Zorro slots. At first there's only
a Sana-II driver available, the NetBSD and Miami-MNI drivers will follow by end of the year.
Delivery of the automatic Samba installation is scheduled for January.
This special is continuing until end of November. On December 1st, the
winner will be determined by Individual Computers, and announced on this board on
December 2nd.
Catwasel: new multidisk.device
The new multidisk.device v3.46 for Catweasel released. Download:
mdisk346.lha. Changes from v3.42:
Included in the archive: A tool for reading and writing disk images. With it, you can create
#?.adf images for Amiga emulators, or #?.d64 images from C64 disks, without having to mount
CDM0:.
Aminet Uploads until November 23rd, 1999
With 77 kB it's a rather long list today, since I haven't been asking for new uploads
for some time. I will post new uploads on a more regular basis from now on. (ps)
Simon the Sorcerer 2 ported to Amiga
Epic Marketing was collecting signatures on the Cologne show to judge interest in a port
of Simon the Sorcerer. Since sufficient numbers of signatures have been collected, it was
announced yesterday that the port will be done. I am looking forward forward for this game, finally a new, really nice, comfortable
adventure for the Amiga. (ps)
Doubling speed with A3640 processor?
With a question on a mailinglist, Amiga.org reader
Daryl Holley brough attention to the
website available from the title link, which offers the "QuadDoubler". Originally,
this doubler was developed for the Macintosh Quadra series, but is said to work
with Motorola 100/50 MHz 68040 CPUs, too. Several users have confirmed this
to work with the Amiga.
Foundation Update 1.26 available
As reported before, Foundation is now available in two different versions. "Foundation"
and "Foundation Director's Cut", short FoundationDC, which is distributed by Epic
Marketing. FoundationDC is for all purposes a re-edited issue of Foundation, which you
only have to buy if you don't already own Foundation.
Since FoundationDC has a different file layout, it has been hard for the
Author Paul Burkey to create an update which is compatible to both versions. A first
beta version of the update 1.26 is now available from the website. By end of the week,
another update will be available. Download: Foundation26Beta.lzx.
GoldED X-Mas Special
Twice a year, visitors of the GoldED website can order GoldED Studio 6 for half the price.
This special starts Friday, November 26th, 1999 and lasts three days. To participate, you
have to order a ticket. The
number of tickets is limited, they are given out first-ordered, first-served.
Light Force News
Andreas Hippauf writes:
We have founded a programmer team named "strange worlds" (name resulting from our
intent to create whole virtual worlds on the Amiga). Our first project "Newtron"
became one step more professional by it. With the name, two new members joined the
team: Costel Mincea will be our graphician, responsibler for intro and animations.
Oliver Schuler should already be known to many for his Amiga port of glTron. He will
support us for exsample with 3D calculating functions for normal vectors (needed for
light effects and textures).
Please be informed that the project Newtron now has a new name: As finished
game it will be named "Light Force", and probably be released on CD.
Since the namechange, the old internet site is no longer available. Informations
about Light Force has been completely integrated into our LA-Workbench, and is available
under the title link. There is also a new demo version available! The demo now has 1 or 2
player mode optionally, various perspectives, collision control, improved controlling options
(especially mouse control!), sadly still rather stupid opponents, score is already counted
etc! Give it a try!
With regret we have to say that so far very little e-mail has been recieved
for Newtron! We hope that feedback will improve with the demo version. As long as less than
200 Amiga users are really interested in the game, it is not sure if we will really finish
the game. In these insecure times, user feedback is the most important part in such a
project! The more people tell us what they liked (or what they didn't like), what they
want in it, the more we are motivated to implement all these ideas and continue!
Support for Twister1200 (DCE)
J�rn Plewka writes in d.c.s.a.m.:
Due to some requests, I want to make clear: For more than a year now, no one from
the developer union Katodev has any rights in Twister1200 aside from the right to use
the circuitry in other designs. Other "Katodev" designs are currently in the state of
changing ownership. This has no negative results for the user, however.
&nbps;Some people are individually and officially offering support for the
Twister1200 cards by DCE, which is why the Twister Mk2 can be found on the
KatoDev website.
Since users (like ourselves) have generally bad experiences with support, the people
involved have decided to offer first-hand support from developers and engineers!
For the user, support@katodev.de
is an easy-to-remember contact for questions. Internally, the message is forwarded
automatically depending on subject and content. By the way, we have created other
collective adresses.
Since developers, for reasons of efficiency, should not constantly interrupt
their work, or be available at all, we want to ask again not to call us on the phone,
but use e-mail, WWW and fax instead. If a phonecall should be necessary, this is
usually only possible after 6:00 PM MET (which is in any case the better choice).
There is a risk, however, that the wrong developer will be on the phone.
Operation: Counterstrike
After the game was renamed "Siberian Sun" some time ago, Blue Black Solution now took the final
descission to name the game "Operation: Counterstrike" as originally planned.
Another descission was to make the game gfx board only, there will be no AGA version. FastRAM
under 16MB will also not be supported. Aside from the Windows95 and Apple MAC version there
will be only a 060 version for Amiga 68k. PPC version is planned.
COOLbits News
Martin Strobl writes: G3 PowerPC board After we were shown the AmiJoe G3 PowerPC
boards for A1200 by Metabox in a small circle, I called Metabox on the phone to learn the
following: The AmiJoe boards for A1200 are finished, and production starts in December.
Scheduled release date is end of January. The other boards for A2000 / A3000 / A4000 are
to follow about 1-2 months later. There are currently talks with Haage &
Partner about their 68k emulation and the PPC software used. I hope these talks are successful,
since another PPC driver system (aside from WarpUp / PowerUp) will be of little help.
New Installer (beta)
At the title link, the new InstallerNG is available for free download. InstallerNG is
compatible with AmigaOS Installer (OS 3.5, too), but offers important new features like
an improved GUI (MUI optional), better error tolerance, better script testing (which
however reveals errors not detected by the "old" Installer), some new and expanded
functions and many, many more. At the moment still beta, InstallerNG can even now be
used as a full replacement of the original Installer.
More Transmeta secrets unveiled
Heise writes:
"Not only on their webpage, but also in the processor name Crusoe, California processor
company Transmeta is staying true to their image of playing hidden secrets: Crusoe is
a very nice anagram of "source".
Transmeta has also hidden some further patents, which can so far not be found
as American patents on the USPTO server, but have been granted and released as international
PCT patent."
Full article (German) at the title link.
Support Area for "Best of Airsoft Softwair" created
At the Airsoft Softwair homepage, a support area for the CD "The Best of Airsoft
Softwair" has been created. Here, numerous info about the CD-ROM are available,
and updates for owners of the CD-ROM.
Amiga Arena News
There haven't been news from Amiga Arena for a long time, and I want to say sorry for
this. Nevertheless I will give it my all and start making my site active again, and make
it usefull for Amiga users! The first step has been taken already with a new layout. I'd
appreciate feedback. On this occassion, a thank you to all Amiga users who stayed faithful
to the Amiga Arena!
TaskForce homepage offline!
Sadly, development of TaskForce has been put on hold! The programmer, Jens G.,
will probably release a last update, which will however not be available from Amiga Arena!
I will nevertheless attempt to support other interesting Amiga Freeware games!
fxPAINT Enhancement Kit #1 available
With the Enhancement Kit #1, fxPAINT is expanded by several features, and generally
improved. Like speed improvements in the whole program, internal Picasso96 support
and support for different metrics as well as some bugfixes. The update can be downloaded
for free from the Innovative homepage.
First Fast-Z2 card for Z4-board
Jens Schönfeld writes: The first card to support the Fast-Z2 mode of the
new Z4-board, "Buddha Flash Maxxelerate", is available. The adjustable timing has
been removed, so only up-to-date hard disks are supported. The performance is about
80% better than that of a "normal" Buddha Flash. An A1200 with Apollo 68040-25 reaches
almost 3,1 MB per second, which should be roughly the speed achieved by a 060 or PPC
board. I expect a 68030-40 to reach almost 5 MB per second, detailed benchmarks to be
available this week.
If you want your Buddha to be updated, you'll have to send it in. The price
for the update is 18,- Euro plus shipping.
The Pulse Issue 9
Alive Mediasoft is shipping the English magazine The Pulse
for free on a regular basis, which at the same time is a catalog for ordering
the products advertised therein. While there are usually 2000
copies shipped, this christmas it will be 5000, with 700 not covered by the
database of ALive Mediasoft. If you are therefore interested in a copy, you
can order it worldwide, free, by e-mail or the link above, from Alive Mediasoft.
If you have already ordered the magazine, please do not order again.
Copies are shipped right now, and especially oversea shipments (USA, Australia)
can take a while.
Contents: The Pulse Issue 9 REVIEWS...
CLASSIC REVEIWS...
BUYERS GUIDE...
AmiDog's Movie Player v1.30
On November 20th, version 1.30 of the Movie Player
has been released. Changes from the previous version:
The QT parser has some bugs in the playback code, and this version is for now
missing a GUI. If you want one, you can get one from version 1.25/1.26.
Download: AMP130.lha.
MSD95 V1.5
MSD95 is an Amiga filesystem allowing to read IBM-PC partitions and floppy disk (the
latter by using the mfm.device). Supported are FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32 with or without
long filenames. Download: msd95v15.lha.
Coordinator wanted for AmigaOS Geek Gadgets
Since Fred Fish is lacking the time and motivation for some time now to look after the
AmigaOS version of Geek Gadgets, a new coordinator is wanted for the Amiga version.
If you are interested in taking this job, you should have good organisational
and communicative talents, being an active member of the Amiga community, and have enough
time to look after all aspects of AmigaOS GG.
Additionally, someone is wanted who can generate a new snapshot on regular basis.
For this, an Amiga 68060 would be nice, since a 68040 takes several days for compiling all
sources, so creating a snapshot can take several weeks. Even while there is no need for
manual editing most of the time.
MPEG+Sound module project for CV64/3D
The Cybervision64/3D offers a S3-Scenic-Highway (LPB) bus. This allows for adding useful
expansions like a MPEG decoder or such. While the hardware is readily available, the
needed Amiga software is missing. Those interested in writing such software, can get
further informations about the project from the title link, or write an e-mail to
rob@vgr.com.
Cinemaware Webring
Dimitris a Gourlis has created a webring about the games by Cinemaware (It came from
the Desert, Defender of the Crown). You can join this webring at the title link.
HEW '99 report by Caghan Demirci
The article is very detailed, and contains one piece of information or
another that escaped some people so far. Like, Epic's "Simon the Sorcerer 2"
might be released early next year as Amiga version if at least 500 preorders
are recieved.
Eyelight - Millennium Amiga Poll
From November 19th to December 19th, Eyelight
is conducting the Millennium Amiga Poll.
Reason for this poll is to find out how many Amiga users there are, and what they
want. To encourage participation, Eyelight offers prices for more than 5000 USD.
Every day, a PowerPack Volume I + bonus cupon, a Tornado3D t-shirt + bonus
cupon and a bonus cupon are given away. Every week, a Tornado3D SE package + bonus
cupon can be won.
The detailed form can be downloaded from the title link.
Atéo Concepts News
The serial driver of the AtéoSer/AtéoIO card now works correctly. Error
handling took so much time since it was both a soft- and hardware issue. As a fix for
the software there will be an update at the
Atéo Concepts website next week.
The hardware issue makes a small modification of the Atéo bus necessary, which
can be done by yourself - there will be a manual on the website, or you can send in
the board after calling in (phone +33 (0)2.40.85.30.85).
Atéo has a limited number of A4000 keyboards in stock, which can
i.e. be connected directly to the Atéo tower. Price is 36.90 Euro.
Atéo bus works correctly with OS 3.5. If problems should occur,
the usual patches are to blame. Otherwise try an additional "COLD" argument when calling
the 'StartAteoBus' command.
Release of the scandoubler has been delayed due to the AtéoSer issues
and the prototype being delivered early September instead of end of July, but should
be available by the end of the year.
Atéo Concepts warns that Picasso96 V2.0 does not work with the Pixel64 due to
a bug in the files. When the bug is fixed, a P96 update will be available in the
download area. On the other hand, CyberGfx does also support the Pixel64
now.
Development of an audio board with DSP, MIDI, MPEG compression etc. is planned.
Suggestions and ideas can be send to Atéo Concepts.
PowerOS mailinglist
Due to the many e-mails every day with questions about PowerOS, a PowerOS mailinglist has
been opened. More informations available from posinfo.listbot.com.
FusionPPC - remark and request
The article below is taken from the Fusion mailinglist.
Since so far only a quarter of the placed preorders have been backed up with payments
(which results in Microcode Solutions having to write the whole code themselves ->
delays in Amiga and PC version), Jim Drew sees four options for the Amiga version: Jim Drew is ready to hear other suggestions. Due
to the large investments done so far, he is reluctant to drop the project.
CR/LF issue - fixed
As you might have found out already, the last two uploads were buggy.
Lines were cut of from news items. This was due to the way The Evil
Empire handles CR/LF in their editor; obviously incompatible with
the ARexx script turning the text files into HTML... :-/
ANNEX not splitted!
In the net there is a rumor that ANNEX has split. I do not know who tells such
rumors, or what for, but it is 100% sure that ANNEX has NOT split, and does not
plan to do so for a long time.
There have been only three of us in Cologne, but you can read that
on our homepage. On the contrary, we are planning to present a vinyl release to
the market, and to announce this on this occassion, too!
If you want to get an impression how things are going on at ANNEX,
you should have a look at our homepage. ANNEX is continuing, and will not split
as long as there is an Amiga user left on the world!!! Even if that user has to
be myself!! :-) See ya at the next big show.
PTOW now freeware
The periodic table of elements (short: ptoe) is a list that shows all the known
elements in a certain order. This program shows such a list and the information
about the elements contained in it.
Which OS is the best?
At the title link, you can vote what you like about which Operating System
and what you dislike. The Amiga - OS dropped from position three to position
six during the last months. Whoever agrees with me that the Amiga - OS is
better should announce it there as soon as possible. And then lets see ... PS: Thanks to Detlef's call, AmigaOS is back where it belongs :-) (ps)
individual Computers sais thank-you
Silversurfer number 400 has just left the house, which proves: the Amiga market is alive!
Independant magazines in Germany and Great Britain have tested the product to be bug-free
and absolutely outstanding. The fact that there's another card on the market which is an
exact copy of the Silversurfer from the outside is a compliment for me: there's nothing
to improve!
Of course, the EOF mode of Miami was supported from the beginning, but since
I consider this self-explanatory this feature was not advertised big-time. The next version
of Miami will auto-detect the Silversurfer, and use the EOF mode without the user having
to activate it manually.
There has been much positive feedback on the HEW '99. Only the length of the
supplied cable (25cm) was reason for criticism. Since this was known before, starting
November '99 the Silversurfer is shipped with an adapter cable which reaches the backside
of really every tower. Starting mid December '99, there will also be a slot back allowing
to attach the serial port alongside the A1200 mouse port - but there will be seperate
news available then.
IWin... a neverending story
In a record time of under six weeks, Iwin has changed it's complete product line, has been sold
to Focke, but former employees have bought back the company. Well done, other companies take
months, if not years for this. To set this in the right light, Iwin-Corp. of course did not
forget to register well-sounding domains like iwin-amiga.de or iwin-mcc.de. At least that's
what's described on the web pages. As we already expected from IWin, big words raise hopes
that they would soon deliver THE ultimate Amiga system, soon...
Once more, dear IWin Corporation: After the last
press conference, which could
safely be described as disaster, here's our request: Show us your miracle systems, let us
participate in your unbelievable developments; as said so many times before, a well done
website in combination with good PR does not convince us. We want to see the system, be able
to check it technically, and only then we will stop calling it a fake.
SoftCinema v0.7
On November 15th, version 0.7 of the animation player SoftCinema
has been released. The shareware program supports several codecs of AVI and QuickTime (QT/MOV).
This includes IntelIndeo (3.1, 3.2, 4, 5), SMC and RLE.
It rund on an Amiga with PPC (ppc.library), AGA or CGX, AHI and 8 MB free RAM.
The unregistered version is limited to 20 seconds playback. Download:
SoftCinema.lha
SecOS status report
SecOS by Trogladite Software is a software package
including diverse functionalities like login, user administration, logfile viewer etc. for
networking Amigas.
Invalidation Detection detects upon login if the harddrive is validated. If this
is not the case, the login is delayed until the harddrive has validated itself. This keeps
users from loging into the account of the predecessor. Additionally, user-defined scripts
can be executed upon login and logoff.
Users can now be organised in groups, and their access rights be set accordingly.
Among others, an editor for administrating group and user information is planned.
An information programm showing how many users are logged in etc. Work is being done on a
logfile viewer controlling three seperate logfiles (server, remote, security), offering
search and filter functionality as well as starting macros automatically when specific
entries appear in the logfiles.
3DRave Dev V1.0
On November 15th, version 1.0 of the developer archive of the 3DRave library for CyberGraphX V4.1+
has been released. It contains the cgx3drave.library, programming examples, includes and a game
demo. This version is only functional with BVisionPPC or CVisionPPC drivers. Support for
CyberVision64/3D and PicassoIV + VooDoo1 is planned. Download:
cgx3drave_10.lha.
H&P News
STFax 4, NetConnect 3, Tornado3D 3, PageStream 4, ImageFX 4 and PowerStation are now
available. The delivery of pre-orders will be done within the week. Haage & Partner
begs your pardon for small delays.
Issues with Tornado3D and NetConnect
Sadly there are issues with the latest versions of Tornado3D v3 and NetConnect 3. Have
a look at the support of Tornado3D
and NetConnect.
amiga-news.de, English, available again.
With today's 40+ news items, I announce amiga-news.de, English, being available
again. Thank you to all who did send me mail asking when this would happen!
My A1200 still does not agree in stable operation, but AmigaOS 3.5 is serving
me well on an UAE-equipped laptop. Being able to do translation in lunch breaks,
while on travel or otherwise away from home might shorten translation times in
the future.
New update for GeoWorld - geography for the Amiga
Today a new update for GeoWorld has been released. The update contains all
missing flags and a new start picture. More information and download under
the title link.
HomeLand - new real-time strategy game
Jeppe Nielsen writes:
A new demo called HomeLand, is online. It�s a new real-time strategy game, with some
original features. You can create you own customizible units (with some limitations
of course). These units are created from tecnologies that you research. There are
currently only 14 different technologies, but it�s due to expand. Any suggestions
and ideas are welcome, so please email me if you think of something cool to be added.
Screenshots and download are available from my homepage.
Lambda site update
The Lambda site has been updated again. Intensive work is being done on the
OpenGL implementation and other interfaces (3D, graphics and steering) are
under development.
AmigaLand show report with pictures
The German show report from the Home Electronics World '99 describes the experience
from the perspective of the AMIGALAND team. Interesting because giving an impression
of the thoughts of an Amiga retailer, Mrs. Vokinger. (German only, however.)
Picasso96 version 2.0 released
After months of development, the Picasso96 team has decided to release the *final*
version 2.0. Many changes and optimizations have been done since the last release
in February 1999, and now the new Picasso96 version has really earned the tilte *final*.
It should be installed on every system with gfx board. One of the new features, among
others, is support for the Draco Altais gfx board. More details at the title link.
Download: Picasso96.lzx
- 493 kB and the PGP signature
Picasso96.lzx.sig.
Upd8 Update Version 1.1
With this program, you can check websites you keep visiting for changes. The program
informs you which pages have changed. For me, Upd8 is a program I couldn't live without :-). (ps)
Karsten Obarski Tribute Project
With Karsten Obarski, a man is standing behind track-based sound programs like
Soundtracker, Fasttracker, Impulsetracker, Screamtracker etc., who wrote the first
program of this kind, Soundtracker, and in the golden era of Amiga provided the
soundtrack for many games. But hardly anybody knows his name.
The Karsten
Obarski Tribute Project has three goals:
To achieve this, FMP is looking for support. You can place one of three tribute
banners on your homepage, and send information and comments about Karsten Obarski.
A music contest is planned.
Payback Status Report #4
In part due to the soundtrack, in part to make the game as good as possible, the scheduled
release date of Payback has been moved from December '99 to end of February 2000. Because
of this, there will be more extras etc. in the game.
No matter what, development is making constant progress. The code for sound
mixing is now available in assembler, and has no impact on the game's framerate. A special
feature of the sound engine is that it can mix up to 100 sounds together to fit the 12
available channels by playing the loudest ones. This makes it possible to add sounds to
virtually every object (fire, phones, walking people etc.).
The special scripting language has been expanded by commands allowing non-linear
paths of action. Now, all the levels have to be created.
Four additional screenshots
are available.
TWOM2: Ghelae and the Death-Sword
F1 Software announced a new fantasy adventure, TWOM2.
Goal is to save the world (uh, really? ;-) (mb)) by leading Ghelae through the fantastic
world Kawamoon with its orcs, werewolves, dragons and goblins.
The game offers over 30 interactive characters, detailed graphics, numerous
puzzles and more. Scheduled release date is December 5th, 1999.
MMU.library v40.51 released
Version 40.51 of the MMU-library as well as several library-related tools have been released
on Aminet. The library enables ROM-mapping, memory-protecting parts of an application and more.
The Amiga Volunteer Project
The Amiga Volunteer Project (TAVP) is a non-profit organisation targeted at supporting
software development for the Amiga, so high-quality programs are released faster and
the software situation for the Amiga is improved.
To achieve this, the organisation is currently contacting Amiga developers
to ask them if they need help, and in which areas.
TAVP itself is looking for people interested in working for the organisation
for free. Wanted are programmers, musicians and more.
Additionally, TAVP is contacting several PC developers for porting their
programs to Amiga, and possibly earn some money for the organisation by selling them.
This money would be used for the organisation. The founders are not interested in making
money themselves with the organisation.
Whoever is interested in participating in TAVP, can send an e-mail to
official_tavp@hotmail.com. The e-mail
should state name, country and computer equipment as well as a description of how one
intends to help the project.
Eternity News - Tales of Tamar
It's cold outside... but the latest news offer the ultimate possibility to change
your system into a secondary heater, so get it running!
The German Tales of Tamar Demo 1 is ready, and will soon be released
on the AmigaFuture cover CD. Soon after the AmigaFuture release, the demo will be
given to the other magazines, too, not without being fully localized. A little bit
later the demo will be released to the general public, too.
The demo is not fully playable, it offers a first feeling of the world
Tamar. IRC-chat, FTP-download and online games are already functional, however, and
updates are planned, like a build-in Mastermind clone in ToT outfit...
The upcoming second Tales of Tamar demo will be able to play as stand-alone
version in connection with the server, but the round-based game will be time-limited...
As can easily be seen from these words, development has not stopped despite
the long absence of an update to the version number on the homepage http://www.tamar.net;
it is making big progress.
Heretic II
Heretic II was presented on the show. One system had problems making Heretic run.
Steffen Haeuser writes about it:
On Saturday it turned out the problem was a bug of my chunkyppc.library (yes, it's
my fault :) I will fix the bug tonight). chunkyppc.library ran correctly when CGX
was installed. When Picasso96 was installed, too. But not if both are running parallel
(on two different gfx boards). And that was the problem with the second system, so
there is no specific problem by Heretic 2.
New 68060.library and FlashUpdate by Phase5
On the Phase5 FTP site, there are
new libs for MC68060 and a new FlashUpdate for PPC boards available.
68060.library version 46.7: Lib ID String corrected, Init for LC/EC060 disabled,
some switches for the utility.library path reenabled.
FlashUpdate: ppc.library version 46.28, new 68060/ppc.library for Blizzard (see
above) and new CDRive file system.
Wipeout 2097 troubles
There is a serious problem when installing the Warp3D archive which is located on the Wipeout2097 CD.
Some libraries don't have a larger version number than the Warp3D libraries of the Warp3D V2 archive,
so that the Warp3D installer doesn't copy the appropriate files. This results into a PPC exception
requester opening after the setup requester is confirmed, and after the screen resp. window becomes
black. This probably only happens, if a Warp3D V2 installation was already present and if the new
archive from the CD was installed afterwards.
To solve this problem, the following should be done:
1. Delete the file 'LIBS:Warp3DPPC.library' (or uninstall Warp3D as a whole)
2. Reinstall the Warp3D archive from the WO2097 CD or copy the file 'Warp3DPPC.library' to LIBS: by hand.
Twister1200 available again since HEW! High End, Low Cost...
Due to a misunderstanding, some cards have been sold on the show not including
documentation. Be careful during installation, the new card is now installed
head-down towards the keyboard of the A1200! Twister1200 Rev. 2 has been
modified mechanically by DCE. As reasons
cost saving and compatibility to other products is named. Support is still
provided by Katodev, by e-mail, WWW,
Fax and, if need be, phone after 6:00 PM.
We, Katodev, have been asked by users attending the show why another serial
card is reintroduced to the market. After testing, also at the HEW, and experiences
made by users, still no other competitor is able to ensure a flawless transmission
with only mediocre transmission speeds (keyword: auto flow control). Reasons are
limitations in hard- or software. High transmission speeds are therefore in jeopardise.
Additionally, contrary to promises, a competitor's product creates a rather high
CPU-load in comparison. Compatibility to Melody1200 is also contrary to promises
not possible for any competing product without soldering. If Miami's load-decreasing
EOF mode is supported by others is unknown. All statements without guarantee,
misunderstandings might have occured.
Transmeta: CrusoeTM
January 19th, 2000, is scheduled to see the introduction of the new CrusoeTM
processor. The source code contains a "secret" message.
APC & TCP - new products
Since the HEW, four new products for Amiga are available from APC & TCP. The
CD-ROM "The Best of Airsoft Softwair" contains a collection of the FULL versions
of the group that did CD32 Installer, NewInstaller, Rainboot and more.
The Scene Archives 9 is a sequel of the successful scene demo CD-ROM "The Best of
Scene Archives".
A strategy game for Amiga is finally available again: SeaSide. Currently, only the
German version is available. An English version will be released in some weeks. The
game requires AGA, 4 MB RAM and a CD-ROM drive.
With the Info/Beginner CD-ROM, the club offers a CD which is especially
targeted at Amiga newbies and club members. Readily installed tools everyone should
have are included on the CD-ROM as well as all demo versions of APC&TCP, all issues
of NoCover, the complete homepage (which is in itself 300 MByte in size), and various
material by different club members. The CD-ROM is only available directly from APC&TCP,
and is of course continuously expanded and updated.
CyberGraphX v4.2 update
This update, among other small issues, removes the incompabilities with AmigaOS 3.5.
This update requires the original CGX V4 CD. The archive only contains the patches for
cgxsystem.library. Download: cgxsysUpdate42.lha.
Update of Aminet GUI
The Aminet GUI now offers a chat. Right now this is sadly unavailable for the current
Amiga browsers! I hope the new versions of the NG browsers fix this shortcomming!
Additionally, there is a guestbook, where everyone is free to leave news, ideas or
criticism for me. For all who like discussing with other users, I added a forum. Here
you can discuss about the Amiga, and you are free for asking for and giving advice
about Amiga problems. Everyone who has a problem can ask, and everyone in the know
can answer. So get to your keyboards... A small change has been applied to the mirror
list. A small flag stands in front of each server, stating the host's country...
Finally, the GUI can now be downloaded as LHA or LZX archive, to make Aminet access
yet faster. The files can be found under Service/Downloads, and are about 880 kByte
in size.
CGXBlanker update
Version 1.20 of CGXBlanker is now configurable with a preferencer, offers some new
features compared to the last version, and a very nice new blanker ("Flower") has been
added. More details at the title link.
PS: In the old archive, I forgot the 020 version of the blanker, only a 040 version was
included... archive 1.21 now contains a 020+ and a 040+ version, and I have added an
Installer script for easy installation.
AmigaNCP 2.1
AmigaNCP is an implementation of the Psion link protokoll, which is used in Psion S3/S3a/S3C,
Psion 55 Palmtop ROMs and others. Download: amigancp_21.lzx
PowerOS news
Claus Herrmann writes in the news:
The HEW (Home Electronics World) is over now. I want to send a quick thanks to the
users who visited me and asked me all those questions! At the same time, I want to
make an announcement: PowerOS will also be implemented for the AmiJoe by Met@Box!
I cann tell you I am proud (and so far only) owner of an AmiJoe 1200 G3. A big thanks
to Met@Box for this! Details (specs and photos) soon on my homepage on a seperate page.
Thomas Graf informed us that the Home
Electronics World Area at AmigaNation has photos of the show and MPEG's of the Annex
live performance. Show report and
Annex performance.
Amiga Hard Hacks
Amiga Hard Hacks now has an own domain, www.hardhacks.de. On this page,
you find pinouts, hardhacks, and and and... everything about Amiga hardware.
Questions to: webmaster@hardhacks.de.
GlowIcons CD-ROM
Oliver Tacke writes:
Dear Amiga community, in Cologne we (Heinz Andreolla and myself) have given away
CD-ROMs with numerous GlowIcons. Sadly we now have to say it is very bugged. I did
a bad mistake, so most of the icons are too small - only a little bit, but enough to
make a real clean-up with drawers containing lots of icons impossible.
Another problem is that during the stress during the last days before
the show, several binaries were copied to the CD-ROM. I consider it unfair to blame
Heinz as software pirate for this, like some people did. It was a mistake, really,
and if I hadn't delivered the icons only a few days before the show started, Heinz
would have had enough time to avoid this mistake.
Short: we beg your pardon. Consider the distributed CD-ROM as a demo
version. I will now sit down at my system to correct everything as fast as possible.
Moreover, I will do some improvements and expansions, like correctly adjusting the
drawer colors to OS3.5. Considering the number of icons, I beg your pardon for not
being able to do this in one week. I will hurry, anyways.
A first fixed archive with roughly 250 icons is finished and will be
available shortly. The final version will probably be included in the Aminet CD-ROM
Nr. 35, and, if wanted, on Aminet or the reader's CD of the amigaOS.
Autodoc Viewer Lite v1.13 - 2.0 beta
The autodoc viewer by Ronny Tennebekk runs with OS3.0+ and a 68020 CPU. The
programm is in development since 1994. The new, reworked version 2.0 is currently
in beta state and implements numerous wishes by users of the program.
Gameboy Emulator "GBE" for WarpUp
On the emulator page by AmiDog, the new
Gameboy/Gameboy Color emulator GBE
can be found.
The emulator runs on all PPC Amigas with WarpUP. It supports all Z80 opcodes,
the CD32 pad and more. To correctly support all colors of the Gameboy Color,
the programm offers 15bit support.
NetInfo-II v2.4 released
Vapor has released version 2.4 of the internet information tool "NetInfo-II". This
version includes an ARexx port, printing functionality and an external TLD/WHOIS-table.
Download: NetInfo-II
United Amigans
United Amigans stands for
the idea to make contact with Amiga Inc./Gateway as a group.
On the mission page, Amiga Inc./Gateway is blamed for the current situation,
but on the other hand it is critizised that there was no clear, definite and common
statement of all Amiga users towards Amiga. So, John
Groothof writes that we are ultimately responsible where Amiga will be heading.
United Amigans wants to be a plattform for individuals who want to speak
as one community.
UGN IRC logs
The link above leads to the logs of the IRC conferences organised by the UGN during
the Cologne show. Attendants were:
Aaron Digulla, AROS Steve Crietzman, COSA Mick Tinker (BoXeR), Paul Lesurf, Blittersoft
Michael Garlich, Titan Computers Petro Tyschtschenko, Amiga KOSH
Phoenix Plattform Consortium Haage & Partner
New GlowIcons
At the Cologne show, Heinz Andreolla gave us a CD with absolutely new, so far unreleased
GlowIcons, which he created together with Oliver Tacke. He gave us permission to offer
a collection of them for download. Many thanks for this :-).
Download: glow_new.lha - 1.1 MB
MakeCD 3.2c and Flashrom 1.2 released
Small bugfixes (like long filenames and file lists), detection of the Ricoh MP7040
fixed. Flashrom is a firmware flasher for Plextor and Yamaha drives.
"Bombsquare" finished
"Bombsquare", our Minefield clone with one- and two-player modi (and of course
many more features) is ready and available for download on our homepage.
Preliminary Show Report
A first report by Petra Struck from the Cologne show, written on Friday evening. I suffered from a raging headache on Friday evening and the better part of Saturday,
please excuse the delays (again) :-( (mb)
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