Latest developer version of Freeciv
Sebastian Bauer writes: I just uploaded the latest developer version of Freeciv to my homepage.
Additionally, there are new versions of Pic2Icon (v1.1) and SimpleClock (v1.1).
Moving...
innovative-web.de is moving. In the next days, our web presence will move to a different server.
After the move, we will be able to offer a further improved web presence. During the move, there
can be downtimes of several days (worst case!). In this time, please send e-mail to
bs168@fen.baynet.de instead. Greetings and a happy new
year, Felix Schwarz.
Axel Krämer now at Met@box
I had the opportunity to talk with Axel Krämer on the phone a short time ago. He is now
at Met@box, responsible for production and logistics, and is very happy with his work. Just
like before, he has a keen eye on what is going on in the Amiga sector, and wishes all
Amigians a happy new year 2000.
Of course I also asked Axel about news on the
joeCARD, and he promised to tell us news
immediately :-).
Data loss
Andreas Magerl writes: We, too, have a millenium problem... or not, well, perhaps yes,
even if you cannot call it like that, probably yes...
In any case, all charts, reader mails, cheats and wish lists, which have been submitted
by the online forms on our page in the AKTIONS-area, have been lost. This affects the time
from 21.12.99 to 28.12.99, 21:00 PM (MET). If you haven't submitted yet, you should do so
now. Please resubmit your votes and submissions. Thanks.
GPS under your skin
According to plans of US manufacturer Applied Digital Solutions (ADS), online shoppers
will carry their customer card under their skin in the future. The Florida company has
now filed a patent for a maintenance free implant, which is (among others) able to
recieve and send GPS signals. The transciever can be implanted in the human body with
little effort, says the company in an ad, provided with power by muscle movements.
Subject on the Chaos Communication Congress: Tron (again)
This year, too, Tron's ghost is spooking the halls of the Haus am Kölnischen Park
in Berlin, where the Chaos Communication Congress closes today. The cause of death of the
star hacker is no longer in doubt after two autopsies. The suicide theory of police and
prosecutors is criticised by the CCC, Tron's parents and their attorney even more than
before, however. "It could not have happened without outer force", Chaos spokesman Andy
Müller-Maghun brings the murder theory to the point after detailed studies of the
autopsy report and prosecutor files. Police research has been focused only on the suicide
theory from the very beginning, Müller-Maghun criticises. Other hints have been
ignored on purpose.
ANN celebrates 3rd anniversary :-)
ANN (Amiga Network News) celebrated its third anniversary yesterday. Happy birthday, and
thanks to Christian Kemp, who is studying the newsgroups since 1996, and supplied us with
news from this area.
Amiga 2K announces the first exhibitors
On April 1st/2nd, 2000, the Amiga 2K show is again taking place in St. Louis. The first
exhibitors have announced themselves, and
Petro Tyschtschenko will have a speech at the show.
Amazing Amiga Computing Magazine closing
With Amating Amiga Computing Magazine, another Amiga print magazine is closing down. The magazine
was mainly distributed in North America, and now had to file for bancuptcy.
Amiga Arena News: redesign finished!
After many delays, the Amiga Arena is online again, and looks forward to a year 2000 with you!
The Amiga support continues! The Amiga Arena wishes all of you a happy new year! :-)
Visit the Arena at the title link. Special offer with GeoWorld online!
AMC-mailbox to be closed
Wegar writes: The AMC mailbox, and with it the support forum for the Amiga point program TheAnswer
will be closed. The mailbox goes offline December 31st, 1999, at noon.
If you are interested to add to the list, preferably with a short review, or want to write
a review for a listed book, send to metaljoe@snowcrash.u-net.com
with "RFB" or "KOSH Books" in the subject line.
Connectline v5.2.beta2
Joerg Deckert writes: This is an update
for version 5.1 of Connectline. All components are in there, but there was not enough time for
a completely new version, since there was a Y2K bug to fix and the new year is near. For a full
version an updated documentation and complete tests are missing.
New:Features:Requirements:
Complete source code available on request! Download: ConnectLine.lha
Fido-Filerequest: Magic "CL" at 2:248/4001 (analog and ISDN). The website is preliminary
so far, so only the archive is available there for download.
Translator`s note
I took the liberty of spending the christmas days with my girlfriend, her mother (and family),
my mother (and grandma and my sister) and a couple of good friends (chronological order),
not using my computer at all. This results in all those christmas greetings posted on the
main page being translated only now. I hope you can
forgive me. ;-)
Christmas / New Year greetings
Dear friends, aquaintances and users of my software!
Another year is almost gone, and I want to write what has happened this year from my
point of view.
For one, my studies are doing well (I am in my 5th half-year),
but it takes me more time than I expected. This sometimes causes significant delays in
my coding projects and / or in writing e-mails. I want to say sorry for this, but my
studies have to be top priority.
In the summer break I wanted to use every free
hour for coding - and that's what I did, resulting in good progress in my projects.
At first, the WizardClasses, an object-oriented C++ development system, recieved a
major update, allowing me to develop others more efficiently. I planned to release this
system to the public midtime next year, to make life easier for other programmers.
The first remarkable release this year was my new FrameMachine driver system "FMdriver",
which has been accepted very well by the users of this video board. It is now also possible
with FMdriver to watch TV on Workbench, with full PPC support for super fast color space
conversions.
Afterwards I was planning to finish ArtecScan 2.0 - the scanner driver
for Artec scanners. With my recently updated WizardClasses, I was able to finish it faster
than usual. But then, the worst thing for every coder happened: my system hard drive was
defective, and I lost my complete data (source codes, e-mails and other data). With the
help of Petra Struck (author of the German "AmigaNews"), which published my need for an
identical hard drive, and Hendrik Hanke, who did lend me his hard drive, I was able to
recover my lost data by exchanging the defective controller board. Thanks again!!
Well, this did cost me roughly two weeks work, and by summer brak was over. ArtecScan
was not finished again... :( Of course I tried to continue with the ArtecScan development,
but with this it took some more weeks.
I demonstrated the results of my work on a little computer exhibition, the "Computronika"
end of October in Germany. Afterwards, I released the alpha versions of ArtecScan to the
public on my homepage.
After I released ArtecScan, I wrote a FrameMachine driver
for the hardware independant video driver standard (VHI) by Felix Schwarz.
Two weeks
later, the most important Amiga event of the year took place, the HomeElectronicsWorld'99
in Cologne. Of course I was there, too, and met a lot of people. It was a nice event, and
it made clear that the Amiga will live on!
In the very least I will continue programming
for the Amiga, and use it, and I hope you do, too! If Haage & Partner, Amiga Inc. and
DCE do the right thing, we can have a great new computer by the end of next year!
At the end I wish you all a merry christmas (a little delayed), and a happy new year!!
Yours, Stefan Robl.
Alltime Amiga Games Top 50 updated
The Top 50 list of all Amiga games ever released has been updated. Currently, "The Settlers" are
ranked 1st, "Monkey Island 1" 2nd and "Civilisation" 3rd.
Wanted: Programmer of "Erben der Erde"
Andreas is urgently looking for the up-to-date address, phone or something else from
the programmer of the Amiga game "Erben der Erde".
311 techno music tracks for the Amiga
DJ Takka of THE RAVEBUSTERS writes: We have uploaded all our Amiga modules we could find to
our homepage. Since we were among the top trackers in those Amiga times, a visit could be worth
your while! CU, and merry christmas, and a happy new year!
camd driver for the Triple-Play MIDI interface
Martin Endress writes: Sometimes we are asked for a camd driver for the Triple-Play MIDI interface.
We are looking for such a driver, or a manual for this interface. The driver will then be released
on the CamX / Camouflage homepage. Contact: endres@work.de.
AmigaOS 3.5 Boing-Bag 1 available
On-time for the quiet days we were able to complete the first update of AmigaOS 3.5,
which contains bug fixes and expansions. And there is a christmas surprise... :-)
H&P News
The best wishes for 2000... We want to very much thank all Amigians which stayed faithful
with Amiga and us in 1999. We wish everyone a calm christmas, and a cheerfull new year 2000...
Between December 24th and January 3rd we are unavailable officially. We won't be idle really,
but we don't want to be distracted ;-)
PenPartner Tabletts available again We purchased
a small leftover of the well-liked Wacom PenPartner
graphics tablet, which is out of production.
Today we announce the availability of a new Amiga next generation PowerPC
OS project, called MorphOS, to the public.
In its current state it provides a modern memory protection microkernel
which runs a virtual amiga emulation. This microkernel will be the base
for a new OS layer.
Research for this project started in early 1998, while at the end of 1998
an early implementation was ready. In 1999, we started on the virtual
amiga emulation to make the current AmigaOS available without requiring 68K
hardware. The basic design goals behind MorphOS are
- memory protection
- resource tracking
- asynchronous message system
- low interrupt latency
- virtual memory (optional)
- distributed computing
- symmetrical multi processing (SMP)
- recursive memory management
- task/thread and clan/chief model
- clean design with an elegant API
- micro/pico kernel mixture
The developer release is planned for end of January. Minimum system
requirements are
- A4000 with CyberStorm PPC/604e and Symbios 770 SCSI
- CyberVisionPPC
- at least 32MB memory installed
- Kickstart 3.1 (Version 40.68) and Workbench 3.1 or up
Hardware requirements might change as soon as more hardware setups are
tested and implemented.
As the success of this project will also depend on your feedback/support,
we suggest that interested developers visit our project webpage for a
general MorphOS overview and information on how to join us to help.
Feel free to enter the project webpage at
http://www.morphos.de or
http://www.morphos.ch
ARABIC: Saiid yom al-milaad wa senat jadiida
ARMENIAN: Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
AZERI-AZERBAIJAN: Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun
BASQUE: Zorionstsu Eguberri. Zoriontsu Berri Urte
BULGARIAN: Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo. Tchestita Nova Godina
CHINESE-CANTONESE: Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun
CHINESE-MANDARIN: Kung Ho Hsin Hsi. Ching Chi Shen Tan
CZECH: Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
DANISH: Gl�delig jul og godt nyt�r
DUTCH: Zalig Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar
ESTONIAN: Roomsaid Joulu Phui ja Uut Aastat
FINNISH: Hyv�� Joulua. Onnellista Uutta Voutta
FRENCH: Joyeux Noel et heureuse Anne
GAELIC-IRISH: Nollaig mhaith Dhuit Agus Bliain Nua F� Mhaise
GAELIC-SCOT: Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ur
GERMAN: Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr
GREEK: Kala Khristougena kai Eftikhes to Neon Ethos
HAWAIIAN: Mele Kalikimake me ka Hauloi Makahiki hou
HEBREW: Mo'adim Lesimkha
HUNGARIAN: Boldog Karacsonyl es Ujevl Unnepeket
ICELANDIC: Gledlig jol og Nyar
INDONESIAN: Selamah Tahun Baru
IRISH: Nollaig shona diobh
IROQUOIS: Ojenyunyat Sungwiyadeson honungradon nagwutut
Ojenyunyat osrasay
ITALIAN: Buon Natale e felice Capo d'anno
JAPANESE: Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
KOREAN: Sung Tan Chuk Ha
LATVIAN: Priecigus Ziemas Svetkus un Laimigu Jauno Gadu
LITHUANIAN: linksmu sventu Kaledu ir Laimingu Nauju Metu
LUXEMBURGHISH: Sch�in Chr�schtdeeg an dudden
Rutsch an d'n�it Joer
MANX: Ollick Ghennal Erriu as Blein Feer Die
Seihil as Slaynt Da'n Slane Loght Thie
NORSE-DANISH: Gledlig jul og godt Nytt Aar
POLISH: Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia i szczesliwego
Nowego Roku
PORTUGUESE: Feliz Natal e prospero Ano Novo
RAPA-NUI (Easter Island): Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi
Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua
ROMANIAN: Sarbatori Fericite. La Multi Ani
RUSSIAN: Pozdrevly ayu sprazdnikom Rozhdestva Khristova
is Novim Godom
UKRANIAN: Veselykh Svyat i scaslivoho Novoho Roku
SAMOAN: La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
SLOVAK: Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
SERB-CROATIAN:Sretam Bozic. Vesela Nova Godina
SINGHALESE (Ceylon/Sri Lanka): Subha nath thalak Vewa
Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
SLOVENE: Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto
SPANISH: Feliz Navidad y prospero Ano Nuevo
SWEDISH: God Jul och ett Gott Nytt �r
TAGALOG (Filipino): Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon
TURKISH: Yeni yiliniz kutlu olsun
WELSH: Nadolic Llawen. Blwyddn Newdd Dda
SatTrack
Colin Knight is looking for a year2000-compliant update for the satelite tracking
program SatTrack (Aminet:misc/sci/SatTrack_v42.lha) or a comparable replacement.
There has to be a German author involved in the program, but there is no e-mail address
contained in the archive, and the contact information seems to be outdated.
If someone is also interested in this area, or can provide further information, should
please contact Colin Knight by e-mail
(disabled right now, but it shouldn't be bounced), or with a quick phone call at
+44-703-613855.
Official open-source AmigaOS development page
There is now a developer's list for people who want to work as a developer to help build the
future of AmigaOS! The list is for all those people who said "Yes, I will help you work on AmigaOS.
I want to be part of the team that writes AmigaOS in the future." The list is for YOU. Please send
a blank e-mail to:
I would like to see as MANY of you there as possible. If, when AmigaOS goes Open Source, you want your name
to to go up in lights as being on the first team of programmers, you can do that by joining the list above.
This list is meant to discuss the "how" issues of developing AmigaOS, so that we are ready to go once we've
got the source code.
See also Press Release.
Schatztruhe
The team of Schatztruhe GmbH wishes you a merry christmas, and a quiet and happy time.
Enjoy the quiet christmas day, and celebrate a great new year 2000.
NewInstaller v1.5 released
The NewInstaller v1.5 has been released on the Airsoft Softwair homepage. Numerous bugs have
been fixed in this version, and some things improved.
APC & TCP
Since Andreas is facing a prolonged visit to the hospital, the APC & TCP computer
club will be unavailable from mid January to early March. During this time, neither
e-mails, fax nor phone calls can be answered. The homepage will not be updated, either.
COOL bits
We wish all our customers (and all others too, of course) a merry christmas and a happy new year.
I have one request: Drink as much as you want during these days, but please don't drink and drive!!
THANKS.
Please note: Between December 24th and January 3rd, our shop is closed. We are
available again on Tuesday, January 4th. The special offers on our homepage will be updated.
A list of new releases etc. will be posted shortly. Please note our changed shop times starting
January 1st.
APC&&TCP
Starting immediately, the publisher and computer club APC&TCP can be contacted at the
new e-mail address Andreas@chiemgau.org. The old
address will be deactivated shortly.
clickBOOM offers Quake sources for download
clickBOOM has also released the Quake1 sources by ID Software. clickBOOM offers help for
programmers wanting to do a PPC implementation. The best PPC versions will be offered for
download at clickBOOM, with a note that owning the original game is required for the PPC
version.
Can someone clarify this: When ID Software officially releases the source code, and a
programmer develops a PPC version from it, why is one required to own the original CD from
clickBOOM? Or is there a difference between the sources from ID Software and clickBOOM?
It would be nice if you would share your knowledge with us in the
forum.
QUAKE 1 sourcecode released
At planetquake.com (title link), under the news from December 21st it reads: "This is
the complete source code for winquake, glquake, quakeworld, and glquakeworld."
This is where IWin is stealing...
We thought from the very beginning that IWin is a fake/hoax. Now, we read in the Amiga Club
Forum a posting from Ulf, with a URL (title link) which confirms this anew. You find the
plagiarism
on the IWin coorporation website (see DatapakTM).
Dear IWin crew, don't you think
it's about time to come out ;-). The title "biggest hoax/fake of Amiga history" has been
yours for quite some time already :-).
Simon The Sorcerer
The number of pre-orders for Simon The Sorcerer II Amiga is currently at 156. So we have almost
one third of the necessary pre-orders. The final game will run on AGA and gfx boards, and require
a 68030 and 8 MByte RAM. You can place your pre-order online:
order@epic-marketing.de
S-Files
Starting immediately, clickBOOM will tell what's new every month with their "S-Files".
In the current S-File there are christmas and new-year greetings. Then, a new game for
girls is announced: "Sarah goes shopping" - which turns out to be a joke from Sofia
(author of the newsletter. In my opinion it wouldn't be bad to target people who
don't like the shoot-em-up genre that much. (ps)
Then, the newsletter announced what can be expected from the next ten days:
Further details about the new game "Nightlong".
A new project named TNT will be announced.
A statement about PPC and future Amiga developments.
A "crazy" offer: all clickBOOM games - if you do something for it (what will be told
next time).
Atéo News
There is a new update for ateoser.device, new driver versions (serial and ethernet only
with keyfile), new preferences versions (serial and parallel) and a new program telling
you which installation status your system has, and generates keyfiles; all available from
the download area.
Atéo still works on the second scandoubler prototype. Work is making progress.
Compaq licenses BeOS
"Operating system company Be has given a 'Stinger' license to Compaq. This special version of BeOS
is especially prepared for so-called Internet Appliances aside from the PC. If and when such a surf
device will be presented to the market by Compaq was not announced by the computer manufacturer."
AMIGA International, Inc. on BCS India '99
From December 8 - 10, this year's TV- and Cable exhibition in New Delhi was held at 'Pragati Maidan'
exhibition grounds. AMIGA, in cooperation with Rajan Electronics, demonstrated at their own booth
how powerful the A1200 can be used in the TV- and Cable industry. In three days we sold more than
a hundred machines, so the show was a full success.
First demo of SavagePPC version 1.0 released
Savage, the video driver for ShapeShifter (MAC emulator) is now available as PPC version.
The driver supports 4, 8 and 15 bit, and is coded in 100% assembler. The shareware fee is
USD 10 or 15 DM. Download: SavagePPC.lha
Amigakernel.org
A first draft of the Amigakernel homepage has gone online today. Praise, suggestions,
comments and ideas for improvement please mail to Steve.
New Image Engineer tutorial and more
Image manipulation software, Image Engineer's website now includes a 3-page
tutorial explaining usage of alpha channel (masks). It's actually very easy
when you know how. Image Engineer plugin, Visual Puzzle, has new
puzzlepieces. And don't forget offer of the month at website of Visual Engineering.
SecondSpin v1.85 released
SecondSpin is a new encoder that doesn't have to be started from Shell, but offers an easy-to-use
GUI. For encoding the MPEG files, the packet relies on the LAME encoder. The audio tracks can be
loaded directly from the Audio-CD, and converted to MPEG Audio files. AIFF and WAV files can be
converted, with the conversion MPEG -> AIFF being possible too, with support for layer 1, 2
and 3. New: Now also supports conversion of Protracker, XM, S3M and Fasttracker modules to AIFF
or MP3. Download.
JST Version 2.9c
In the new version of the Degrader and HD-Installer, the WHDload emulation has been fixed.
Download: jst.lha
TV-Logo v1.0
The Amiga Computer Club D.A.D. Kranj has released version 1.0 of TV-Logo.
(This is the program for displying and controlling the logotype of TV station in the TV picture.
Program is running on any plain Amiga. All you have to do is to get this program and a genlock.)
The END for HydraBBS?
The author of HydraBBS obviously lost his motivation. He took on a full-time job, and his A4000T
also doesn't work as intended. He now thinks about leaving Amiga, and possibly learn Linux and
Java, to participate in the FreeWorldBBS project.
Press release on Heretic 2
We have released first Amiga screenshots of Heretic2. You can get them under
www.titancomputer.de/ami/heretic/index.html (title link). Screenshots taken
from HereticII beta7 runing on A4000 060/PPC233 CVision.
Aminet GUI update
Alexander Kurtz writes: I applied some changes to the layout of the interactive area.
You can now easily switch between areas. For technical reasons I cannot offer the chat room
anymore! I am looking for a new system hopefully usable for Amiga browsers. If you sill want
to chat, I can warmly recommend #miggy.de. It is available on de.arcnet.vapor.com. Try it.
Moreover I want to announce that work on the reworked layout of the seperate directory pages
is almost finished. I think I can put the expanded layout online starting next year. Since
I am not at home from December 24th to somewhat around January 3rd, there won't be updates
during this time. And since this update is the last one for this year, I want to wish all
users a merry christmas, and a happy new year 2000. Thank you to all visiting my page regulary,
and I hope you come back in 2000 to my Aminet GUI!
Cybermagic 0.5.0
Starting with this version, the 3D module are available in WarpUp versions. A new 3D module
is included as well as an Installer script for AmigaOS3.5. Download:
Cybermagic.lha
Followup to the statement concerning development of HSMathLibs
Matthias Henze writes: In this statement
I wrote that many users complained about bad support. It occured to me that many forums and mailing lists
carried postings about the stormamiga.lib and the HSMathLibs. Obviously there are many questions on the
subject, the answers of other users are however seldom close to the truth. Guesses, rumors, speculations
and half-truths are spread, but almost nobody comes up with the idea to contact the author, me.
I cannot know every forum and mailinglist. If you have a question, a comment, criticism etc., has to
tell me, and not simply complain about bad support. Questions and comments on the subject please by e-mail
to Matthias_Henze@CyberdyneSystems.de.
the biggest Amiga game ever will be ready very soon, so it's time to show you more of it.
We have prepared the Nightlong movie trailer to whet your appettite while waiting for the game.
It's a cool teaser to show what the game looks like in motion. Mind you, it's in low res, and not
too long so it wouldn't take forever to download. You'll have to try to imagine it at 640x480
16-bit gfx and 16-bit sound. :)
Full specs for Nightlong will be available in a few days.
The nightmare starts in 2000
There will soon be a 10 MB trailer available from the website, and the February issue of
"The Pulse" will carry an exclusive preview.
Transscripts of the IRC conferences during the HEW '99
During the Home Electronic World in Cologne on Saturday, November 13th, 1999, again IRC
conferences were held with personalities from the Amiga szene. As last year on Computer '98,
well-known companies and people all around the Amiga joined these conferences organised
and moderated by members of the UGN (User Group Network).
Amiga Arena News
GeoWorld special at Amiga Arena!
Probably the best geographic software GeoWorld is available for a special price from Amiga Arena.
More details at the title link.
Amiga Arena wishes all users a merry christmas!
Fake Warning!
The latest Aminet upload of "VersionWB" (3.0) in util/sys is a fake. In the program itself,
(probably) only the version number has been changed, the file has the same size as the current
v2.12. The archive has been expanded by some "jokes".
Håkan Parting, author of VersionWB, writes:
If you have installed the fake version, please remove it again and replace the VersionWB
command with the original. If the fake contains a virus is not yet known. Download
the original: VersionWB2_12.lha.
Survey
At the CyberGraphX website there is a survey to judge interest in 3D glasses for Amigas with
CyberVisionPPC or BlizzardVisionPPC. Results will be posted in a week or so.
Novia INS version 0.74.02 beta released
A new version of the Open Source BBS System NOVIA is available from my homepage. The
project is under GNU General Public License, so the source code is included in the
archive. The program can be downloaded as lha archive at
novia.lha. There now is a (simple)
technical documentation for
the program. Moreover, I am looking for programmers, documentation writers, translators
and beta testers helping me to bring this project to "final" state.
Lambda - 3d space action game
In his Lambda status report Mikko says that most basic functions of the new 3D engine
have been defined and implemented in OpenGL. That "Descent: Freespace" will now be ported
was a slap in his face, since he begun Lambda development because there were no up-to-date
3D space action games for Amiga. After he recovered from the initial shock, he is wildly
determined to make Lambda better than its pendant.
Does anybody know the e-mail address of Mikko Kallinen? If so, please send a short
e-mail.
Foundation Update 1.27
Beta testing of the latest update took longer than planned. Version 1.27 should work with
all previous versions, older updates are not required. Download:
FoundationUpd27.lzx
Win at Amiga-Online
Starting today, you can win CDs from Amiga-Online. All you have to do is to collect enough
links and mail them until January 15th, 2000.
BUGFIX Installerscript VersCheck V2
Three days ago a bug sneaked into the VersCheckV2 Installer script. For those who didn't already
fix the bug on their own:
scene-handler
A new version of scene-handler has been put online yesterday. With scene-handler, you can
mount and directly access MovieShop 4.2/4.3/4.8 scenes and projects. Download:
scene-handler.lha.
Please participate in this small questionaire
about scene-handler. I am currently working on a version for MovieShop 5.2. This is also
subject of the questionaire.
HD-Crash
Andreas Schaumlöffel writes: Due to a very stupid HD crash I lost all e-mail
addresses I collected on my system. So all who know me, please send me a short mail with
the usual data, so I can add you to my AB again.
Additionally I lost the list of people having an e-mail abo of Amiga Phönix. You,
too, please send me a short e-mail so I can set up the list again.
APhönix.
Amiga RC5 Team Effort News
Andreas Mayer-Gürr writes: 1.) CSC: A new PC client, twice as fast as the old one, is
available. 2.) RC5: An older 68k (beta) RC5 client is available, which does not support some
details of the latest client (like status bar and statistics with Myzar), but is about 30%
faster. I tried it and it works very well, my 68060 does about 148 kkeys/sec instead of the
117 kkeys it did before. If you only use the client for calculating, I did not encounter
problems. So: 2a.) get blocks with the latest client 2b.) calculate blocks with the
beta client 2c.) submit blocks with the latest client, and continue with 2a.)...
X-Surf network cards delivered
Jens Schönfeld writes: This morning, the X-Surf ethernet cards have been delivered
to all distributors at the same time, a full week delayed. The delay of the delivery was
however not due to technical problems, but due to my car accident: I was busy handling
police, insurance and the company that towed away my car (by the way, anyone interested
in a Volvo 850 crash car?). Since the cards will reach customers before christmas, however,
I think I can be pardoned, can I?
Cloanto Releases Amiga Forever Holiday Bundle: New ROMs & MP3s
For all Amiga emulation enthusiasts who ever wondered what Workbench 1.0 looked like, or what
the late Jay Miner, "Father of the Amiga", has to say in his own voice about the Amiga and other
interesting issues, Cloanto just released the Amiga Forever Plus Pack, which contains new Amiga
ROM, Workbench and MP3 audio files! The Plus Pack joins the Amiga Forever family of emulation
and support products, which are officially licensed by Gateway's Amiga companies.
Only for the next few days, the Online Edition of Amiga Forever 3.0 (stand-alone) and the Amiga
Forever Plus Pack are available in a special holiday bundle for a special price.
The Amiga Forever Holiday Bundle includes the Amiga Forever Online Edition package, with its
preinstalled Amiga emulation environment (1.3 and 3.1 Amiga ROM and OS) and the Amiga Explorer
networking software, plus the following new items, which are part of the Plus Pack:
For download convenience, the items are archived in two files which can be downloaded separately,
also with the help of an optional download wizard. It is always possible to resume an interrupted
download, or to download the same file again at no additional cost. The Plus Pack is cross-platform,
while Amiga Forever Online Edition is for Windows systems only.
The Amiga Forever Holiday Bundle is available now from the Amiga Forever Home Page at
http://cloanto.com/amiga/forever/ (title link)
The Cloanto Team wishes all Amiga fans great holidays and a very happy New Year!
Paul Nolan Ltd extends Photogenics 5th anniversary sale
until December 25th. Paul Nolan would like to thank those who have purchased Photogenics
for their support, and wishes everyone a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
For those who missed the sale details, they are as follows. Paul Nolan is offering the
full version of Photogenics 4.x at a 25% discount. This brings the price down from $99.99 -
to $75, or just $65 if upgrading from a previous version of Photogenics. The special is
only available direct from Paul Nolan Ltd, either online at http://www.PaulNolan.com, or
the StarByte order hotline on 1 800 243 1515, extension 400. Callers outside of North
America should prefix this with their international dialling code for the US (for example
dial 00 1 800 243 1515 from the UK).
Translator wanted!
Since the "restart" of the English pages of Amiga-News, the daily translations are a one-man-job
again because Marek didn't respond so far.
I am looking for users willing (long-term) to do German - English translations regulary of all
news items appearing on a given day of the week (or two), and send them to me by e-mail.
You don't need to know HTML well. If you can type <A HREF=""> and <OBJECT><UL><LI>,
know the pop-up menu of your favourite browser and can handle a text editor, you qualify. :-)
Oh, and you should be able to read (and understand) German. ;-)
Those interested in supporting Amiga-News this way should contact me by e-mail.
18 Dec 1999
amiga-news.de currently reworked
We are switching the website completely to SSI (Server Side Includes). Therefore some links
to subpages might not yet work perfectly. In this case, the "Home Button" does however always
bring you back to the main page. We hope to finish the change tonight (December 17th).
Tomorrow we will be back with the news.
LAME beta version 3.58 released
New LAME beta version 3.58! Lots of quality and bugfixes, various new options (filtercut-offs
etc) ..new from earlier versions is the linking with mpglib and libsndfile which enables LAME
to read mpeg audio files, 16/8SVX and many more... ;)
Download: LAMEbeta.lzx - 440 Kb
Epic Marketing News
Did you enjoy the charming adventures of little Simon as much as we did? Did you always
hope for the successor to be ported to Amiga? Have you been mad because this great game
was only available for PC? Now there is the opportunity to change this...
Epic Marketing got the license to port Simon The Sorcerer II to Amiga. On the one hand,
we are of course very proud to get the opportunity to port this great adventure to the
Amiga. But with the latest ongoings at Amiga (Inc) we have to ask ourselves how many
Amiga users at all are interested in a first class game? The license, the porting and
the production of SImon The Sorcerer II won't be cheap. So we decided to do a pre-order
campaign. We need 500 pre-orders to do Simon The Sorcerer II for Amiga. When we reach
the 500 limit, the game should be available in 8 weeks.
We will update the pre-order
data on our homepage weekly. Simon The Sorcerer will run on all AGA or gfx board systems
with 030 CPU and sufficient memory (about 8 MB fast). The game will only be released on
CD.
Please place your pre-orders here: Online:
order@epic-marketing.de Tel: (+49) (0)8081
400492 Fax: (+49) (0)7071 400493 Snail Mail: Epic Marketing, Hirschauer Str. 9,
72070 Tübingen
Amiga games wish list
Andreas Magerl writes: On our homepage, area "Aktion", you'll find a form for entering
your top 5 wish list for games on Amiga. The submissions are evaluated regulary, and published
in each issue of Amiga Future and our homepage.
Of course it only makes sense if
enough users participate. The idea is to show coders and companies over a long timespan which
games are wanted by Amiga users.
AmigaOS 3.5 - self-made fix for broken AGA buttons
Michaela Prüß writes: For all those who still have the problem with
AWeb 3 SE (OS 3.5), or probably all other AWeb versions, too, that there are some
colored dots instead of the buttons at the top: There is a way to fix it (already
reported to amiga.de):
Load images/def_buttons in a graphics program (I did it with PPaint). Expand the
palette from 8 to 16 colors, and copy the 8 colors to the 8 new ones. Then adjust
the first 8; it doesn't matter to what, but it must not be any of the original 8
colors. With PPaint, all you have to do is commiting a color adjustment, and the
buttons look like before (almost, I had to swith RED and GREEN manually). Then cut
it out (preferrably more precise than I did), and save it as imags/def_buttons
(back up the original, you never know...). With the 16-color version it worked on
first try, and I can finally see the buttons. If someone gets it done precisely,
please send me a copy - I never got the hang to paint programs...
Oh, yes,
the 16 colors. Don't tell me you surf with 8 colors and it wouldn't work that way.
If you surf the web with 8 colors, you should be used to looks like that...
Dennis Gronewald followed up:
There is an easy way to get rid of the gfx bugs in AWeb. Simply enter the image
drawer of AWeb. Here you find the file "def_Buttons". Simply put braces around the
"Transparent" tool type. Worked for me.
New CD32 game
Andreas Etzrodt writes: Good news: We recieved permission by Petro Tyschtschenko himself
to offer CD32 games. Without license fees. Citing Petro: "Dear Andreas, we don't want to make
money by that. As long as it is not commercial, it's free." Since we already distribute it as
Shareware, luckily we don't face any additional costs.
By the way, many have misunderstood
our first announcement. Of course we don't want to release a commercial game, with pressed CDs
including cover. We want to create a runnable CD32 CD with our own CD-R. Of course it will include
a cover, but only a self-printed one.
So interested CD32 owners can contact us, and probably place their pre-order. The CD will not
cost more than 15 Euro, probably much less (we did not yet calculate what is possible).
Oh, and for those who missed the first announcement: We talk about the Shareware game "SHARKS!",
which is available as demo version from Aminet. Most likely it will be adapted to AGA, so the
hardware performance of the CD32 is used. More details from: Andreas Etzrodt
Hauptstr. 15 49835 Wietmarschen or by e-mail
Source code for DESCENT 2 released!
Sascha Koebner writes: At the title link, capable Amiga coders can download the source
code for 'Descent 2' (by Interplay), and of course port it (!). 'Descent 2' is the successor
of the successful 360 degree 3D shooter. The comparatively smart KI, and the heavily improved
3D engine compared to 'Descent 1' should be enough motivations for coders to try their skills
at it. It seems to be the source code for the PC version 1.2.
New ak-Datatypes
You can now download akJFIF v44.60 (16.12.99), akPNG v44.60 (16.12.99) and akTIFF v44.60
(16.12.99) from the download page
seperated by system.
clickBOOM auction
FREE AUCTIONS FOR EVERYONE Starting today, and for the next 60 days, holding an Auction at
clickBOOM's Amiga Auctions is absolutely FREE for everyone!
There are no limits to what you want to sell, how many Auctions you want to hold or how long
you want them running. Use all three types of Auctions, use photographs, layouts, all FREE !
GAME AUCTIONS But, that's FAR from everything. We want you to come every day and check the latest
Auctions. Every day, for the next 15 days, we will auction one copy of each of our games! The highest
bidder takes it, so you can walk away with a brand new clickBOOM game of your choice for as low as a
few dollars !!!
COMPARING CLICKBOOM AMIGA AUCTIONS TO EBAY
Sure, eBay is the name in online auctioning, however, when it comes to selling Amiga goods, clickBOOM's
Amiga Auctions are simply a better choice:
16th Chaos Communication Congress HOWTO/FAQ 1.2
At the title link, you will find a detailed FAQ about the Chaos Communication Congress,
which will take place on December 27th - 29th in the Haus Am Köllnischen Park (HAKP)
in Berlin.
Haage & Partner News
NoPiracy News Thanks to the help of Amiga.org, a new
NoPiracy forum
is online. It is open for all discussions on the piracy subject. For several weeks now there is a poll on the
subject for the Amiga, as well as some new logos and banner on the
NoPiracy site. Have a look at it, and place the logos on as
many websites as possible.
New STFax support Wolfgang Hosemann will do the e-mail support for
STFax starting immediately.
Oops...
Yesterday I fumbled with EditPad (of AmigaOS 3.5), so the news update didn�t actualy made it to the web,
which I found out only today. Have a look at the archive to make sure you did not
miss anything important to you. Sorry.
Oh, and 3.5 users, beware: If you open (with EditPad) a file "A", then insert a file "B", and then choose "Save", the
result is saved as file "B", not "A" as you would expect. At least in my book. ;-)
Internet Intern: Short Break, Please!
"According to a message by the Reuters news agency, the special commissionaire for the Y2K problem
of the US government has asked the hacker scene for a short break." www.y2k.gov
"'We have really enough to do on that weekend (...) If you want to point to security holes, why
not the next weekend?'"
Haage & Partner News
PageStream 4.0 Since the HEW 4 weeks ago, the new
PageStream 4.0 is available for Amiga.
The first patch will be released soon.
STFax Pro 4.0 demo version
For quite some time, a demo version is available for the new STFax Pro 4.0. Download:
STFax4Demo.lha.
STFax support wanted Haage & Partner is looking for someone who knows the product well
or is willing to learn about it, for offering e-mail support.
I am interested.
VersCheck V2 FINAL RELEASE
Michaela Prüß writes: Starting immediately, VersCheck v2.19 (FINAL RELEASE)
is available for download from my homepage. An Aminet upload has been submitted, it should
be available there tomorrow. FINAL RELEASE, since I need the next version of VersCheck
for my Install script project, so I finished everything important that was left open or
undone, and created a last update release. The next version will therefore be v3 (assuming
there are no necessary bugfixes to do). What has changed?
To all who still have my Webjump homepage in their bookmarks: Due to the bad bandwidth and
continuous server downtimes, I moved the pages to http://24.132.37.25/~Gateway/, a different,
very fast "free web service" (for all still looking for such, have a look at http://24.132.37.25/index.html).
The old address does however link to the current page. Since I wanted it to be easier, there
are direct adresses to the pages (please only use these, web layout will change shortly).
Metalweb 4 pre 2
Pre2 of Metalweb, a WYSIWYG HTML editor for Amiga, has just been released at vapor.com.
A must-have for determined homepage maintainers who don't know HTML that much, or people
like me who don't have so much time to code these things. Download:
Vapor: MetalWEB4_pre2.lha or
Aminet: MetalWEB4_pre2.lha
Bad availability of KatoDev
We, too, have been affected by the moving of one of the biggest providers (Xlink). The server
responsible for our web pages (http), their maintenance (ftp) and e-mails (pop3) are either
unavailable or offer only very low bandwidth. We ask for your patience, since we cannot switch
providers fast enough.
AMPlifier Version 2 has been released. Download: amplifier2.lha
mp3 input...
You are always looking for mp3 input, e.g. for AmigaAMP. Who still remembers the rock
legend "Birth Control" and their hit "Gammaray"??? A great remake of this song has been
released for free download by the original artists at
www.birth-control.de/CD-gammaray90.htm (title link).
For rock fans a must-have, for techno fans a gateway to new dimensions... :-).
Hyperion ports Freespace to Amiga
Hyperion is happy to announce that they have recieved the license to port the game
"Descent: FREESPACE The Great War" by Interplay to Amiga.
The game is a space combat simulator. The game will be ported by Hand-Jörg Frieden and
Christian Sauer, and distributed by Titan Computers.
The game is planned to be finished in second quarter 2000. Further
details and screenshot.
AminetGUI
Alexander Kurtz writes: Following a wish by Ingo Bowe, greetings to you, I expanded the
upload list by a new function. This function allows changing the list sorting, which can now
be done by date or directory. Also new is the server choice. By clicking on the country flag
you can switch to the uploads of the according mirror server. This function is also available
for the search function. For the other directories this is in the works.
In the update
of December 10th, I made an embarrasing mistake, which has already been fixed. However, I
realized that some 4.x versions of Netscape Navigator do have problems with my target tags.
I try to fix the problem as soon as possible.
On this point, I want to mention my forum
and my guestbook. Both can be found in the top bar at "Interactive". Tell me what you think
of my page, or whatever you have to say about Amiga. I am looking forward to your posts.
Amiga Phoenix homepage
We from Amiga Phoenix are still looking for people wanting to participate. We are a new
online Mag, which, without your help, will possibly not "survive". If you want more info,
come visit our homepage, or write me an e-mail to: Andreas@aphoenix.de.
He writes: Nearly all of my Amiga source code has been released on my web page including
source for the lovely TreeList MUI custom class. If you are planning to update TreeList, I
have a few suggestions: Finally, I'm selling my A4000T on EBay (soon) which has all the source and more...
P.S. If 100 people will send me $100,000 each, I'll continue developing for Amiga. ;-)
Third beta version AHI-PPC
In this version, Martin Blom has rewritten the PPC handling and added a 16bit DSP echo.
Moreover, HIFI mixing subroutines have been implemented in m68k Assembler. Download:
ahipre3.lha.
Problems with ImageFX 4.0
There is a problem with the latest versions of ImageFX 4.0 and 4.1 under AmigaOS 3.5. Cycle
gadgets are not displayed! Obviously ImageFX cannot handle the chooser.gadget version of
3.5. Haage & Partner and Nova Design have already been notified by me.
I have created a little patch in the meantime, patching ImageFX to make use of the chooser.gadget
from the Aminet ClassAct demo, so the program is at least usable.
The patch should appear in Aminet soon: gfx/ifx/IFX-patcher.lha. The patch and more
information about it is available from my homepage (title link) under ARexx-Scripts.
And one hint for ImageFX 4.0 CD: The installation cannot be started from CD, since the
Installer icon and the script have different names. So copy everything to hard drive (about
8 MB), and then start installation.
Amiga Arena News
Amiga Arena CD-ROM survey to all PD/Shareware programmers!
Since over a year now, the Amiga Arena homepage makes limited special prices and freely
downloadable full versions available for Amiga users!
Due to ever changing specials and a collection of continuously updated links to Amiga
programs / products, Amiga Arena offers a big choice of informations from the active
Amiga world to the user.
The Amiga Arena CD-ROM is scheduled for release in spring 2000!
The CD-ROM will contain the Amiga Arena homepage with it's links, demo versions,
shareware and PD software! It will give an overview about the still active developments
to the (German) user.
I want this CD-ROM to be different from the usual shareware
CD-ROMs, offering a comprehensive, informative and up-to-date overview about Amiga
programs / products. To achieve this, I need your help! Please request further information
from olaf.koebnik@online-club.de. Thank
you for your attention!
Free web design for Amiga users
Sven Kahlbrock writes: Free :-) You have a private homepage somehow concerning Amiga?
I will create a design for you for free, according to your wishes. You'll only have to
write your pages and bring them online. If you'd encounter troubles or just have questions,
I will happily help you - all for free. Only a link telling that the design was made by
me, that would be nice, but is not required. For more informations or questions please
write me an e-mail.
ICQ user list
Markus Schmidt writes: I am planning to post an ICQ user list, including online status
and system used, to my homepage.
Therefore my call to all ICQ users: If you are
interested in being listed there, please write me a mail with "Your Name, Nick, ICQ-UIN,
City, System (Amiga, PC, Mac, ...)" and a short note if you want the status to be shown or
not. Regarding the online status, please remember this can be disabled in your ICQ
program. So it's up to you if and when the status is shown.
New Amiga CD32 game
Andreas Etzrodt writes: Hello CD32 owners! Aren't you upset that there aren't even "simple"
new games for your system? There you are owning an "Amiga compatible" console and cannot access
all games... Solution: home made!
We (Christian Steiner and myself) succeeded in burning
the Shareware game "Sharks!" (coded by Christian, demo on Aminet) to CD and make it run on an
Amiga CD32.
This is owed to Michael Ulbrich, who gave me many hints. Due to his help,
it worked on first try. Many thanks to Michael!
Why I am writing this? I would like to know if there is interest in expanding this game as CD32
version. I mean if noone would want the game, it isn't worth the time to "pep it up". And there
are license issues to clarify. You need a "Trademark File", which had to be licensed from Amiga
(at least in Commodore times). I will write to Amiga Int. if this is still necessary, and how
much it would cost.
So write me if you are interested in a CD32 version of Sharks!.
Besides, Sharks! does not have to be our last game for CD32. We can of course release other
(self written) games in CD versions. But as I said before, clarify the license issues and
judge interest in this. (You can already contact me anyhow.) E-mail: the_shark@gmx.de.
BoXeR poll
The BoXeR is comming. To be able to make better plans for the first production run,
AntiGravity is commiting a survey which models are preferred. Those participating in
the poll get a 50 USD discount on all BoXeR systems. BoXeR specifications
AmigaOS Developer Network and support for ImageFX
AmigaOS Developer Network has been created as a service to supply a group of developers
with the latest informations about AmigaOS. To our regret, the number of members is limited.
You can apply here.
E-mail support for ImageFX is now
the responsibility of Gunnar Gertzen, long-standing ImageFX user. He is already working
on a German localization and manual, too. More details on this to follow shortly.
New NewInstaller v1.4 themes
Three new themes for NewInstaller have just been published on the Airsoft Software homepage:
Amiga Theme, Outa Space Theme and Windows98 Theme. Amiga Theme is a theme in Amiga look, with
Boing ball etc.. Outa Space theme is meant for all space freaks since it contains some "spacy"
graphics and sounds. And the Windows98 theme gives installations with NewInstaller look like
Windows installations. All themes are available for download from the Airsoft Software homepage.
New Image Engineer PlugIn
Visual Border grows and splits as 2 separate plug-ins.
Visual Alpha is that new plug-in. It allows you to create grey alpha masks, which you, after
once calculated, can keep and composite with other images later. For people, who are not
familiar with alpha masks; Think about a stamp or actually it's edges. This plug-in can
create you a stamp shaped image and mask with smooth edges. You can then composite it to
a bigger image. Ofcourse there are other more complex effects, than simple edge effects.
This could be great tool for one, who is creating graphics for video.
Visual Card-plug-in also will soon benefit from Visual Alpha.
OFFER OF THE MONTH
Register Visual Border for Image Engineer and get Visual Alpha for free. This could be very
good christmas present for somebody. However last day to order is 9. January 2000. So, if you
next morning after change of millennium, find couple of wrinkled bucks from you pocket...
Remember that all minor and major updates of registered plug-ins will always be
free for you. Already registered users of Visual Border will get version of Visual Alpha with
few effects for free. Just for being good customers.
Visual Engineering is a powerful collection of plug-ins, scripts and graphical
material for shareware image manipulation program, Image Engineer.
Plug-ins bring new features to Image Engineer, what even by itself can do lots of
image manipulation tricks. All the plug-ins are controlled by user friendly GUI. With couple
of mouse clicks, you can do heavy image manipulation. Logos? Click. Frames around image? Click.
Most of the plug-ins are free. Some of them aren't. I'm sure the few graphical
examples at new website of Visual Engineering should convince you. You can however try
demoversions of non-free plug-ins. Online shopping is possible by a credit card.
"Elite" source code released
The authors of the classic space trading and combat simulation "Elite" have released
the source code for the game on it's 15th anniversary. Full press release at the title link.
AntiGravity.com BoXeR Survey and Discount Offer
AntiGravity.com announces it's BoXeR survey. Planning for the first
production runs of the new Amiga is underway and Anti Gravity Products needs
to know which models will be needed the most as the production begins.
Anti Gravity Products offers each household involved in the survey $50 off
one BoXeR system purchased between now and 90 days after shipping commences.
For those that have not already done so, check out the BoXeR Specs for the
latest specifications. These specs are the latest we have in writing and
come directly from the designer himself.
Remember, you can still build your own BoXeR with a few clicks of the mouse
at our Build-A-BoXeR page featuring instant update techonolgy.
Paul Nolan Ltd celebrates 5th anniversary of Photogenics
Photogenics 1.0 was launched five years ago today at the World of Amiga show in
London. To celebrate, Paul Nolan is offering the full version of Photogenics 4.x at
a 25% discount. This brings the price down from $99.99 to $75, or just $65 if
upgrading from a previous version of Photogenics. The special offer will run from
the 10th through to the 17th of December, and is only available direct from Paul
Nolan Ltd, either online at http://www.PaulNolan.com, or the StarByte order hotline
on 1 800 243 1515, extension 400. Callers outside of North America should prefix
this with their international dialling code for the US (for example dial 00 1 800 243
1515 from the UK).
WBInfo 3.0 - not enough interested so far
Some weeks ago, we issued a request for people interested in a v3 version of WBInfo
to contact us and answer the following questions:
So far, we recieved only 9 mails. That's a little frustrating. If you are interested,
please contact us. If a minimum of 20 announces
interest in a Shareware version, we start development.
16th Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, December 27th-29th 1999
Hello friends of chaos, you always try your best, but that's how things are going:
You had to wait until the last second for the website and the FAQ. That's over now.
With the next mail, the complete FAQ will be going down the Chaos Update. Click the
title link for info.
But now for the Congress: just as last year, the Congress is taking place in Berlin,
house Am Köllnschen Park. Those who attended last year will easily find their way,
since we are planning only minimal changes.
The rooms are changed only slightly, the important parts (lecture rooms and hack center)
will be as usual. The press rule has been simplified, and one achievement from the camp
or another can be found on the congress. Have a look at the
projects.
Perhaps there is something in there for you. If you are planning to join the congress
with an interesting project of your own, contact orga.
Otherwise we wish you and ourselves a relaxed congress, and most important much fun
at the systems. The chaos at the end of the so-called millenium
New christmas Rainboot configuration
Two new special christmas configurations have just been released on the Airsoft
Softwair website. For one ChristmasBoot with a lighted xmas tree and nice christmas
music, and CocaCola Christmas Boot with original music from the ad. A must-have
for those wanting to bring christmas feelings to their Amigas!
Realtime MPEG1 encoding with Paloma
Norman Thiel writes: Paloma users watch out: The programmer of the super-fast
PaloAVI and Moovid has marked another milestone. It is now possible to create MPEG1
videos with Paloma. More at the title link.
Amiga Int. NOT retailer of OS 3.5
The Amiga Plus issue 1/2000 wrote about Amiga Int. selling OS 3.5 for 50,87 Euro.
This is not correct. Amiga Int. is selling OS 3.5 only to distributors and retailers.
Delfina Plus in production again
Since a hardware problem has been solved, production of the DelfinaPlus
cards has been restarted. The soundcard should be available again before christmas.
SecondSpin: New MPEG audio solution
SecondSpin is a new encoder which does not need being started from the shell, but
offers a simple to use GUI. To encode MPEG files, the package relies on the LAME
encoder. The audio tracks can be loaded and converted to MPEG audio files directly
from the audio CD. AIFF and WAV files can be converted, with MPEG -> AIFF
conversion being possible, and support for layer 1, 2 and 3. The necessary track
informations can be requested from www.cddb.com.
Download from the title link.
CNet: Gateway founder Waitt expected to drop CEO role
CNet:
Gateway founder Waitt will step down as CEO
"The founder of the PC distributor Gateway, Ted Waitt, has stepped back from his
position as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and withdrawn to member of the board.
He explained, however, that he will continue to influence the company strategy.
Successor, starting January 1st, will be Jeff Weitzen, who is also holding the
position of President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). Before joining Gateway
in January 1998, Weitzen was working 18 years for AT&T, last being responsible
for 24 million dollars turnover as Executive Vice President. Weitzens goal is to
make money with software and services all around comuters in addition to selling
PCs; e.g. by seling systems bundled with internet access.
Futurezone: search engine AllTheWeb faster and more prudish
AllTheWeb is a new, super-fast search engine.
"Fast Search & Transfer, provider of internet search products and services, has
released a new version of FAST Search, which is also powering the AllTheWeb search
engine. The new FAST Search is designed to give especially relevant results to the
user based on newly developed algorithms. Based on a database of over 400 million
visited documents, the search is conducted in a new catalog of 210 million websites."
Britney Spears theme for NewInstaller
Andreas Falkenhahn wrote:
The first theme for NewInstaller v1.4 has just been released on the Airsoft Softwair
homepage. It is a Britney Spears theme (due to the big success of the Britney Spears
Rainboot theme...). I suggest everyone who wants to have a look at the new features
of NewInstaller v1.4 to download and install the theme. It's worth it!
GNN: Met@box enters digital satelite TV market
"The Met@box AG has took over the Amstrad Distribution GmbH completely, which has offered
a broad spectrum in the satelite reciever area in the German language countries for years.
Moreover, Amstrad offers a comprehensive product line of TV supplements under the label
Technowelt."
Digital Almanac II Update Version 1,7,7
The ultimate update for the reknown astronomy program "Digital Almanac II" has been
released. This update removes all previous bugs in the programm, which appeared after
version 1.7.2. This update is for users of the Aminet version as well as for the
CD-ROM version. Aside from the bugfixes, the update offers many cosmetic improvements
and some new usefull features for programm control.
Sun announces Java 2 for Linux
"Sun has just announced they will offer an own Linux version of the Java 2 Platform,
Standard Edition (J2SE). So far, official statements said that Sun supports the Blackdown
Porting Team in its efforts in a port to the free operating system. The driving force
behind this change of mind is probably the company Inprise, which plans to add the J2SE
to their JBuilder announced for the beginning of the next year, and added manpower to
the port. Starting immediately, a preview version (Release Candidate 1) can be
downloaded from Suns developer site (free registration required)."
3dfx Open Sources Glide API And Releases Hardware Specifications
"3dfx Takes Leadership Position in 3D graphics for Linux
SAN JOSE, Calif.- Dec. 6, 1999 - 3dfx Interactive� Inc. (NASDAQ: TDFX) today announced
that the company is Open Sourcing its Glide� application programming interface (API)
and releasing hardware specifications for all its currently shipping 3D hardware
accelerators. By Open Sourcing Glide and releasing the specifications, 3dfx is enabling
software developers and the Open Source community to better develop, support, and maintain
drivers for 3dfx products across a variety of delivery platforms. Moving forward, 3dfx
will focus its internal efforts on developing the industry's best Direct3D and OpenGL
hardware platforms." Full article at the title link.
New maintainers for 3DWorld and PPCWorld at H&P
H&P is happy that new maintainers could be found for the important web areas PPCWorld and
3DWorld could be found. Stefan Funke will look after the PPCWorld and Robert Konrad after the
3DWorld starting immediately. H&P would wellcome you supplying the two with data to bring
the software lists up to date.
PPCWorld and
3DWorld.
Winners of the H&P action
were Carole Jadoulle from Belgium and Michael Malyshew from Russia. The action continues,
visitor number 535,353 and 555,555 are the next to win.
Press info: New address IOM
Since Monday, IOM Film- und Videoproduktion Hof has a new address. You can contact us at the
Pensum group, a marketing and communications agency in Hof. Please note the following in your
papers:
IOM Film- und Videoproduktion Ossecker Strasse 174 D-95030 Hof/Saale
Phone: 09281-7676-990 Fax: 09281-7676-950 Mobile: 0171-3296371
Great Nations Demo 1.5.0 released
At the title link, Great Nations 1.5.0 can be downloaded as Amiga- and PC-version.
The PPC version is worked upon. New screenshots of the game are also available.
NewInstaller v1.4 released
The long awaited update for NewInstaller has finally been released. In version 1.4
there are many new features, and some bugs have been removed. NewInstaller v1.4 now
supports over 15 different languages. The first themes will also be released soon.
Download: NewInstaller1_4.lha
VersionWB 2.12 released
BUGFIX: The change in v2.11 with the TEXT argument broke a few scripts, e.g.
VersionCopy.dopus distributed with VersionWB. Those scripts should now work again.
NEW: VersionComp.dopus5 script for Dopus 5.5+ was added to the distribution. It
was made by Wolfgang Breisch. BUGFIX: Fixed problem with XPK-packed files that
could not be unpacked, due to missing resources.
Download: VersionWB2_12.lha
xvs.library v33.19 released
Here is some great news the xvs.library has just been updated. But the programmer
has changed, Here is a little cut from the doc: The entire XVS software package
is written and copyright � 1997-99 by Georg Hörmann. Additional changes and
updates during December 1999 and onwards are copyright � 1999 Alex van Niel. Alex
van Niel has the permission from Georg Hörmann to update the XVS package and
make any adjustments Alex van Niel thinks are necessary. Georg Hörmann can NOT
be held responsible for any changes Alex van Niel made.
Well, good news. Now lets get back to the library, here are some info:
Name.. : Xvs.Library v33.19 Archive name.. : xvslibrary.lha Archive size.. : 50.404 bytes
Release date.. : 4 December 1999 Programmer.. : Alex van Niel
ScanQuix 5 with WarpUp
As being informed by rbm, the latest version of the scanner
driver offers PPC support with WarpUp. The ScanQuix package is distributed on CD-ROM. The
hardware present is detected during installation, and the corresponding drivers are installed.
New 10MBit Ethernet card for A600 / A1200
Felix Schwarz writes: The ANet 1200 is a 10MBit Ethernet card for the Amiga, which
can be used in the PCMCIA-port without opening the case. The necessary SANA-II driver
for the Amiga and a workshop for establishing a connection between Amiga and PC are
included. The ANet 1200 is available immediately.
New Deli14BitGenie version 4.20 online
Chris Hodges writes: Here just a short notice that yesterday I finished a new version of
the well-known Deli14BitGenie for DeliTracker, and uploaded it to my homepage. The main
improvements in the update are the finally font sensitive GUI (surely many will be happy
about this), seperate Base & Trebble filters for the DSP, and many bugfixes.
Have fun and a merry christmas, and if everything goes well, we will see again
next year :)
Phase5: G4 boards in first quarter 2000, with AGP-slot
Sebastian Hübner writes: Today I got mail from Phase5: The G4 boards will be
coming in first quarter 2000, and with an AGP slot on-board. The CyberVisionNG will
therefore be based on NVidia, 3Dfx or ATI chips. Due to the standard slot, it will be
possible to offer LinuxPPC as an alternative to QNX Neutrino OS.
The delay is due to the unavailability of the Motorola MPC107 controller
chip and delivery schedules for G4/400 MHz not being met (see also news of October
26th, 1999). Sadly there are no news on this subject on the Phase5 website. (ps)
AmigaRealm.com
On our daily web surfing session, this nice Amiga portal site has caught our eye.
Easy-to-navigate, Amiga users can find links about every subject around Amiga.
Aside from the very well sorted links, extraordinary websites are presented
seperately. The site, aside from many own information pages, also offers help and
support. An all-around well made website :-) (ps)
Goal2000
As reported before, the soccer game has been already released. At the title link, there
are now also screenshots and a downloadable demo available. Download Demo:
goal-demo.dms - 234 Kb.
Candy Factory Central website updated
Version 1.03 is finished, but due to holiday at MotionStudios cannot be offered for download
yet. The Casablanca version of Candy Factory as also making good progress. More informations
about the development can be found at the titlelink, "News" section.
WBInfo 3.0?!
Ulrich Hambuch writes: To all WBInfo users, and users of the MUI Scalos
Information Module. Before we undergo writing a new version of WBInfo, which
is really meant to be a major update, we want to know:
WBInfo is the best Info replacement for AmigaOS so far, and if you want development
to continue, contact pixar@gmx.net or
eric@tro.net.
Immortal CD can be preordered
The Amiga game music collection contains the full soundtrack of "Shadow of the Beast",
and music from many other great Amiga games. The CD will be released on December 9th,
1999. Preorders are accepted.
The Winner is...
As promised, the winner of the network card X-Surf is announced by individual computers
today. The goal was to find out the release week of the X-Surf by calling your favourite
retailer. Since there were many correct submissions, chance decided.
2IDs-iNETstore
At the title link a new site is available for Amiga users. It is constantly expanded.
At the 2IDs-iNET store, you can order our first two CDs "WATERWAVE" and "AURICULAR
CONFESSION". The CDs are of course 100% Amiga produced, with SYMPHONIE PRO and
DIGIBOOSTER PROF.
Modify Logitech mouse for Amiga mouseport
Andreas Frank writes:
I have written a short tutorial how to modify the great Logitech Pilot mouse to fit directly
into the Amiga mouseport, without additional hardware or drivers.
You can download the tutorial from the title link (not very nice so far, but it's
a beginning).
AmigaNation server breakdown
Michael Jaccoud writes:
Today, December 1st, at about 4:00 PM, our server suffered from technical breakdown (Y2K bug?).
All major protocols are affected (FTP, Mail, HTTP), so the site is unavailable for now. We
hope that AmigaNation will be online again by noon, December 2nd.
Mails being send to us on December 1st are lost, so please try again...
H&P awaits visitor 500.000
To celebrate this, there is a price to win. H&P will give away a software package
from their portfolio. Visitor number 535,353 and 555,555 will get this price. Have a
look at their homepage.
CheckHTML 1.6
CheckHTML 1.6, the freeware HTML checker for the Amiga, has been expanded by
Hofmann Software Engineering International, so it can now also process Server
Side Includes. More information at the title link, which also offers the archive
for Aminet download.
Ottawa Citizen: Tech pioneer is Business Person of the Year
Adam Chowaniec, formerly Commodore Vice President of Technology, has been voted
Business Person of the Year. He commented his job at Commodore: "We had a brilliant
piece of technology, but we did a lousy job in marketing."
The Last Patriot website reworked
Some very well rendered graphics can be seen there now. In the future the game is
intended to use the Warp3D system. Sadly the group has no PowerPC card right now,
so work on the game is put on hold for now.
Work is continuing on the game Pimpin' Ain't Easy. Parts of the new
engine are already finished. It works with system friendly routines.
Soundprobe for Amiga
The authors of Soundprobe are disappointed about the response recieved so far concerning
the Amiga version. So far, only a handful users has expressed their interest, and made
suggestions. If you are interested in Soundprobe, you should send an
e-mail to the authors.
WarpUP mailinglist
To better support the needs of WarpUP users and developers, H&P has created a WarpUP
mailinglist. It is open to everyone, and maintained by Sam Jordan.
Mailinglist.
PPC World pages reworked
Stefan Funke writes:
Because I want to create the PPC Worlds pages (after talks with Markus Nerding, Haage&Partner),
I urgently need informations from other Amiga users if there are other sites about PowerPC in the
net. The best pages will be linked from the PPC World pages. All responses please by e-mail to
St-Fu@t-online.de.
PNG and Amiga
The book "PNG - The Definite Guide", by Greg Roelofs, O'Reilly, ISBN 1-56592-542-4,
mentions the Amiga positively for a change:
Especially considering PNG, it is very easy to support new file formats
in Amiga browsers by using Datatypes... to briefly cite the book (p.36):
"On the Amiga, it is ubiquitous, thanks to a technological marvel, known
as datatypes, (a kind of super-DLL that, among other things, provides generic image
support); but under operating systems like BeOS or Atari TOS, it is virtually nonexistent."
Of course this leads to Amiga WWW browsers and a collection of Amiga tools
and applications get very good comments (some from myself, too ;) The book is also very
open towards other alternative platforms (Acorn, BeOS, Macintosh, NextStep, OS/2).
Bottom line: worth reading.
Many requests for Melody-Z2
We thank the users for the big interest in Melody-Z2, and the companies Rüdiger
Gruner Bürotechnik and DCE for the quick, uncomplicated revival:
There was only a minimum number of Melody-Z2 sitting on the shelves half
assembled. These cards were gone some hours after the announcement. This was unsatisfactory
for Katodev. The cooperation of Katodev, Gruner and DCE now makes it possible to initiate
a small production run. Special thanks goes to DCE. Save the expansion port, the card is
identical to the one offered until one year ago.
If your order was declined, ignore it for the time being. sales@katodev.de
should contact you explaining the additional availability. After this, however, Melody-Z2
is done for sure. The MPEG1-DSP used (layer 1+2) is no longer available. Melody1200Plus
(only this option, because of the same DSP being used) is also running out of production.
We want to warn, however, not to see Melody-Z2 as a replacement for the
Melody1200-series. Melody-Z2 was intended as Paula replacement (plus MP2 hardware interesting
back then). Melody1200 is much better from both a functional and quality point of view.
We recommend preferring the Unity+Melody1200xxx solution, in the very least compare them.
Colored technical readouts (PDF) can be found in the Docs area on our homepage.
More information can be ordered from sales@katodev.de.
Olliweb News
Update Linux-m68k: Installation manual for Debian 2.1 and the Schatztruhe 5.1 CD
with files for direct CD installation without disks! Updates at Download: lxdoom
for LinuxPPC5.
Storm MP3 player for Amiga
The StormMP3 Player is an MP3 player for Amiga computers. It uses an advanced DSP
and PIC microprocessor to decode MP3 audio files without loading the Amiga with
the heavy mathematical calculations needed to listen to any of the many MP3 files available.
Wipeout 2097 Troubleshooting
In this document, Sam Jordan summarizes possible problems with the installation, and
gives the solutions. At AmigaExtreme you can read a
review of the game.
AmigaAMP News
The VisFS PlugIn version 1.3 can now also display waves. Download:
VisFS13.lha.
Besides, a hardware page
has been created, where you can find information about audio hardware, and a description
of the hopefully-to-come-soon parallel port MPEG player.
The FAQ-page has been updated,
and there's the new AmigaBall skin on the skins page.
DirectDos homepage has moved
The DirectDos homepage has moved to Nightshift. If you have asked one of the
following questions before, have a look at the downloadable demo:
We have just the thing for you!
DirectDos opens an unlimited number of windows on your Workbench which can
be used as standard Workbench windows, but having numerous advantages:
Aside from these features, there are many hidden ones like opaque resize,
opaque move (AGA and CGX), themes, user icons, user buttons, program appicons,
drag&drop, compatible to Workbench windows and Workbench functions, 30
predefined types, about 1200 in the XL version, 30 user types, information
scrolling and some more.
SGMLS 1.1.92 parser on Aminet
A new version of the SGML parser SGMLS by James Clark, known from its Unix freeware
origins, is available for Amiga on Aminet: dev/lang/SGMLS.lha. The porting has been
done by Dipl.-Inform. Kai Hofmann, as usual. The current release has a reworked
Installer script and a new support webpage at the title link.
New modules for Image Engineer
From under the piles of Image Engineer's source code material, originally based on works
of Simon Edwards, we found some new modules. Here's one, a
Text-module.
TUP version 1.4 available
Today, The Ultimate Protector 9x v1.4 has been released. It is a virus protection
program, which is running in the background and senses / notes all files being
changed. In this version some bugs have been fixed, and new catalogs for Italian
and Spanish users been added. Version 1.4 of TUP can be downloaded from the Airsoft
Softwair homepage. Download: TUP1_4.lha.
Eternity News
Now available from Eternity: Developer CD v2.1, a great collection of programs, tools and documents for OS3.5
has been released with the Developer CD v2.1. Besides the RKMs in HTML format it also
contains a full version of StormC v3.0! Digital Almanac II v1.7, who knows his way in space? This program knows 55,000
small planets, 40,000 galaxies, 1,000,000 stars and is able to excite the user with
animations in IFF-Anim, Quicktime and MPEG format.
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