Acorn User 10/AU_CD10.iso/Archived/Websites/ANS/ans.arc/archive/i10_text

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 |-------------------------- Acorn News Service --------------------------|
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 |                      http://www.acornusers.org/ANS/                    |
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 |          The Acorn News Service is an independent service.             |
 |  It is in no way connected with, or supported by the Acorn Group Plc.  |
 |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 | ISSUE 10                                                  24 June 1998 |
 |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 |         Editor: E.Abrahams    ------  [e-mail]             |
 |         Webmaster: R.Hesketh  ------  [e-mail]           |
 |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 |    To send in your news items use the ANS website, or e-mail them      |
 |                 using the layout explained below.                      |
 |            Send comments directly to [e-mail]                |
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 |   > > > > Random site pick this issue: http://acorn.fsn.net/ < < < <   |
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 |            ANS.....The fastest growing Acorn mailing list              |
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 Contents
 --------
 1) Editorial
 2) General News
 3) Commercial News
 4) PD/Shareware News
 5) Club News
 6) How to Send in News




Editorial
---------

We got there!  Double figures!

Anyway, the prize draw has not yet been organised, mainly due to no response
from Acorn companies, as well as a csaa posting which went wrong ...well,
never got there due to me.....!

Welcome to Issue 10.  Please, please do send in news items.  Just spend a
moment next time you come across something interesting, and send it to:

  [e-mail]

The URL section of the website is coming along ...so I am told, and sometime
it will be up and running for YOU to add URLs to.  Thanks!

Enjoy this issue, and keep on telling people about ANS, as well as sending in
news items!

Eytan Abrahams,
Editor




General News
------------

1) Acorn Emulation Page update 22/6/98


The Acorn Emulation Page has again been updated with news of:

  * MAME 0.33 beta 6.1 released, now 604 arcade games supported!
  * MESS news and a front end
  * xNES v0.30 released, speed up, and Super Mario Brothers 3!
  * Neditor, a NES ROM image cleaner released - fix those ROMs
  * Retrocade drawing close
  * Loads more technical information on various systems
  * Celebrate 50 years of computing, emulation style
  * Atari Lynx and 800 anyone?
  * Loadsa ROM links
  * SNES9x testing
  * ARM code 6502 core released
  * Interview with David McEwen
  * Emulation articles from past editions of Acorn User
  * Reviews of Rock and Roll Racing, and Worms
  * Emulation archive update

...and lots more:

  http://www.cybervillage.co.uk/acorn/emulation/



2) Management Changes @ Acorn

Acorn Group have announced that, with immediate effect, Mr Stan Boland
formerly SVP of the company, takes over as Chief Executive Officer.  After
three successful years, Mr David Lee has resigned as a Director of the
company. His contribution to Acorn's success is appreciated, and his
colleagues wish him well in his future endeavours.

Stan Boland will lead the company through its next phase of development.
Acorn will continue to leverage its position within the broadband digital
interactive set top box market, and further cultivate its position in
system software, audio and video codecs - along with component and chip
design - in the rapidly expanding area of DiTV.

Chris Cox, VP of the Workstation Division continues to have full
responsibility for the workstation group and reports direct to Stan
Boland.

Commenting on the announcement, Chris Cox said: "The management changes
announced today mean that Workstations continue to occupy centre stage at
Acorn.  We are currently in the process of bringing to market the Phoebe 2100
which is set to be the flagship product of the recently created Workstations
Division."

The division will continue to enhance its position in the areas of thin
client computing and expert high-end workstations for the education and
developer community.

Stan Boland has appointed a new management team to help steer the company,
and welcomes Andy Mee and John Redford to join Richard Conway as members
of the operating board of Acorn Computers Limited.  Further announcements
regarding the management team will be made as the company achieves in its
chosen markets, over the coming months.

In addition to these changes, both Peter Bondar and Graham Dodgson have
left the company, in order to pursue other interests.  Everyone at Acorn
values their contribution, and wishes them both all the best in their
future ventures.

  http://www.acorn.com/



3) Acorn Gaming Forum

Announcing the first Acorn Gaming Forum (supported by Acorn Arcade)

With things now looking up in the Acorn Gaming market, Acorn Arcade have
organised an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) session where you, the games-playing
public, can chat with those who write the games you play.  The session kicks
off at 8pm BST this Sunday, 21st June, on channel #agforum.  A number of
well known programmers and other major players in the market will also be
present for the occasion.

For up-to-date news on who'll be there, check out:

  http://www.acornarcade.com/urls/gamingforum.html

Who will be there?
==================

As well as the Acorn Arcade team and yourselves, the following star-studded
line up is expected:

  * Martin Piper   - he of Quake and BHP on the Acorn platform,
                     TBA programmer

  * Jan Klose      - Artex programmer responsible for such titles as
                     Exodus, Ankh and the forthcoming TEK

  * Florian        - also of Artex fame

  * Richard Barlow - Director of Powernet International and also
                     responsible for bringing games to PowerNet's
                     Acorn NC users

  * Stuart Tyrrell - Designer and manufacturer of some of the best
                     Acorn joystick and joypad interfaces

There are a few others who are probably going to be present but their
attendance cannot be guaranteed.  Further, the attendance of those listed
above cannot be guaranteed either - we're (Acorn Arcade) not paying them you know!

How do I get there?
===================

Just join channel #agforum on IRCnet using your usual IRC software or
download IRCclient, a shareware IRC client for RISC OS from:

  http://www.acornarcade.com/downloads/ircclient.zip (277KB)

If you're new to IRC then take a look at the Argo ZFC's 'An Introduction
to IRC' page at:

  http://www.argonet.co.uk/zfc/irc.html




Commercial News
---------------

1) Word 8 import in Tech/EasiWriter

Icon Technology will be showing, for the first time in public, versions
of EasiWriter and TechWriter that can import documents created by MS Word
8 (Office 97).  This is in addition to the existing import and export of
Word versions 6 & 7.

Also being seen for the first time is improved HTML i/o including Drag
and Drop linking of documents.

  http://www.iconsupport.demon.co.uk/



2) Visual Liturgy for !HolyBible

Users of the Explan HolyBible software suite will be aware that Rev. Colin
Randall announced in March the availability of an add-on module called Visual
Liturgy released by the Church of England.

Explan regret that the Acorn Version of Visual Liturgy has been temporarily
placed "on-hold" by Church House Publishing, who are the sole suppliers.

It was available at ukp10 (instead of ukp65 for the PC version) for a period
of a few days, but was withdrawn pending an undisclosed legal problem.
Would-be purchasers are asked to place their orders directly with Church
House, and not with ExpLAN.

ExpLAN hope to make a further announcement on the status of this module at
the Acorn SouthEast Show, Sat 27th June, at Stevenage, during the first
Theatre Session programme "Christian Resources".

  Church House Publishing
  31 Great Smith Street
  London
  SW1P 3BN

  Tel: [phone]

  [e-mail]



3) Phantasm now sold by BEEBUG

The ArtWorks add-on, Phantasm, developed and until now sold only by Astute
Graphics, has now been transferred in Single User form to BEEBUG, allowing
Astute Graphics to concentrate on Project Avante (the ArtWorks replacement).
This means that all those who tried to purchase Phantasm by plastic may now
do so through BEEBUG.

It is intended that Phantasm will continue to be sold at the current price
of 17.50 ukp (inc. VAT), but please contact BEEBUG for the latest
information.

Astute Graphics will continue to provide service to all users of the package
who purchased it directly from Astute Graphics.

Having sold in its hundreds to date, the package has proved extremely
successful, with no visible slump in demand.  Although no additions to the
package are foreseen (it's hard to see what /can/ be added...) the latest
version, v1.03, is extremely stable and free of any known bugs.  Users have
responded very favourably to this unique program and have expressed their
pleasure by mail and at the shows that Astute Graphics has attended.

For more information please contact Astute Graphics or BEEBUG:

  http://www.astutegrfx.demon.co.uk/

  http://www.beebug.co.uk/


4) Acorn Syndicate Released

R-Comp Interactive (RCI) released Acorn Syndicate on Wednesday 17 June.

R-Comp have taken advantage of the delay to improve game performance
significantly, so the games runs fine on any 8Mb RiscOS 3.1 or later machine
capable of 640x480. (The 8Mb requirement is unavoidable)

Multi-lingual support has also been added, with available languages as
follows:

        English and German:  Full speech and Mission Briefings
  French, Italian, Spanish:  Mission Briefings only

Other language translations are possible (eg. Dutch) as the mission details
can easily be translated.

Unfortunately, due to differences between the Amiga and PC versions of
Syndicate (the Amiga version was significantly cut down) RCI have been
unable to sync the Amiga Tracker tunes into the game, so you're stuck with
MIDI.

Abuse is taking longer than expected, largely due to royalty issues with
Crack Dot Com (the game's creators).  Syndicate was produced by Bullfrog, a
wholely owned subsiduary of EA, whereas Crack Dot Com are a separate
organisation who use EA as a publisher.

However, R-Comp haven't been idle on this one either.  After many weeks work,
R-Comp have finally succeeded in extracting and re-mastering the MIDI tracks
(about 45 mins of 10-16 channel audio) from the encoded PC originals.  Given
the amount of work just to extract the MIDI data, Tracker conversion would be
a massive task and, as such, it's MIDI again folks. That said, the Abuse
music certainly heightens the moody atmosphere in this already stunning game.

French and German versions are also up and running, so European Acorn users
can play in native languages.

Price is still 25ukp (inc. VAT), although it may rise later if the Syndicate
unit price is anything to go by.

RCI is always looking for new coders, especially those with an interest in
flight sims (ATM).  So, if that's you, and you fancy porting your favourite
flight sim, get in touch!  Other coders are also needed, especially those
with knowledge of x86 and C++.  ARM code experience is also useful.

R-Comp also have a position open for a network coder with TCP/IP and
(preferably) some knowledge of IPX networking.  Serial port work is also
available.  Contact:

  Robert Moffat
  R-Comp Interactive
  22 High Legh
  Knutsford
  Cheshire                      Tel: [phone]
  WA16 6PS                      Fax: [phone]

  http://www.rcomp.co.uk/



5) New low Yellowstone prices

Continued reductions in component prices have enabled Yellowstone to offer
some great savings, e.g.:

     RapIDE32 was 139.83 ukp --> now 119.95 ukp
     DeskTV   was 259.00 ukp --> now 209.00 ukp

Also many reductions on memory, hard drives etc.

Check out their web site at:

  http://www.yellowstone.co.uk/



6) New on Aleph1 Web site

There are three new items on the Aleph1 site that you may like to know about,
all for PC card users.

  * SerialFix - resets the serial port correctly when you quit PCPro
  * GuardDD   - stops accidental deletion of DOSDisc files (partitions)
  * StretchDD - helps enlarge partitions - used together with PRESIZER.

Aleph One do not recommend the use of !StretchDD or PRESIZER but realise that
this is sometimes users' only option:

  http://www.aleph1.co.uk/



7) DeskLock password protection

iSV Products has released a new version of Desklock, the password protection
utility.  Desklock was released at the Wakefield show and has proved very
popular.  A couple of users asked for some extra features and these have been
added.

  * Prevent obey files from being run when double clicked on
  * Blocking of the AddTinyDir star command

They have also taken the opportunity to add a few new features of their own
which tighten DeskLock even further.

This new version (1.12) can be obtained free of charge by returning the old
master disk along with a suitable stamped addressed envelope.  A demo version
can be obtained from:

  http://members.aol.com/isvproduct/



8) Squirrel Solutions

Regrettably Squirrel Solutions will not be able to attend the Acorn
South-East show on the 27th June, due to personal circumstances. Although
this is obviously a great shame, you can still see their entire range of
products on the web site:

  http://www.squirrel-net.demon.co.uk/

Squirrel Solutiuons will hopefully have some kind of presence at the Acorn
World show in November, to make up for missing this event.



9) eMate Connectivity Suite Released

The eMate Connectivity software is now available.  Aimed at the Apple eMate
300, it allows documents stored on the eMate to be transferred to the Acorn
desktop.  Document formats are converted into a usable format, being plain
text, RTF or CSV.

Full details from:

  http://www.avie.co.uk/connectivity/



10) RCI sign deal with Interplay for RiscOS Descent

R-Comp Interactive (RCI) have announced that they have signed a deal with
Interplay to allow the production and release of their best selling Descent
game for RISC OS.

The agreement allows for an exclusive distribution/executable deal between
RCI and Interplay for Acorn Descent, and also covers the use of the Descent
and Interplay names, logos and trademarks in relation to the Acorn platform.
This should make magazine coverage and discussion of Acorn Descent products
far more practical than before, with full access to artwork and promotional
materials.

At this stage, R-Comp are unwilling to publish release dates and time scales,
for fear of slippage and unforseen problems, but suffice to say that they are
currently running a full version of the game with most bells and whistles in
place.  They expect the final product to be based around the Descent I/II
definitive edition pack recently released by Interplay.  Please note that
this DOES NOT imply that they are porting Descent 2 at this stage as, unlike
Doom 1 & 2, Descent 2 uses quite different sources to Descent 1.  However,
since Descent 2 includes full CD audio, R-Comp will be making use of this
for gamers without the MIDI used in the original Descent game.

The current version of Descent has been designed to run only on StrongARM
machines, implementing high resolution graphics modes.

For those unfamiliar with the game, Descent utilises a true 3D, polygonal,
texture-mapping 3D engine, in much the same way as Quake.  However, since you
pilot a spacecraft in the game, full 360 degree movement is possible in all
dimensions.  This aspect of the engine is used to a considerable extent, with
tunnels sprouting from both the floors and ceilings of caverns.  Gameplay
lies somewhere between that of a flight sim and a Doom/Quake-style arcade
game, although the bias is towards the latter.

  http://www.rcomp.co.uk/



11) Datawave Website moved

Datawave have relocated their website to:

  http://datawave.fsn.net/

They also have an Acorn Music & MIDI SpaceCenter Website online:

  http://acorn.fsn.net/




PD/Shareware News
-----------------

1) Port of CircleMUD version circle30bpl12

circle30bpl13a
==============

All the information necessary to port CircleMUD version circle30bpl3a to
RiscOS can be found at:

  http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/wibble/

Follow the links to Gareth Duncan's homepage.



2) FREE Acorn port of Descent

A few of months ago, Rik Griffin ([e-mail]) started work on
a port of Descent.  It was generally coming along nicely until summer came
along.  If you're interested in helping out, and reckon you can put some time
into a free project, contact us at the e-mail address below.

The current list of 'features' standing between it and a playable release
include:

  * the textures are a little wonky and plotted strangely at some angles

  * nasty memory leak (?) causes it to crash after maybe a minute

  * higher resolutions cause display not to be restored after menus have
    been displayed

  * a couple of menus cause address exceptions when used too much

At present, only the minimum of ARM optimisations have been made.  Though the
game appears to run fine at 320x200 on a StrongARM, we'd like to have it
playable on ARM 6 and 7 too (and fully expect that it's possible).

If you'd like to offer your help, please contact:

  [e-mail]

...or see the website at:

  http://www.soup-kitchen.demon.co.uk/



3) QuikBoot 1.20

QuikBoot 1.20 is now available.  It is an upgrade from the version previously
distributed on an Acorn User coverdisc.

QuikBoot is an application which will run all the !Boot files in a certain
directory.  The special thing about this program though is that it allows
for a *fully recursive* feature, where all !Boot files in further directories
are run as well.

An extra feature in v1.20 is the ability to specify how many levels you wish
QuikBoot to recurse to.

QuikBoot is available from the Alpha Programming Website at:

  http://www.alphapro.demon.co.uk/

If you don't have access to the WWW, you can get a copy by e-mailing:

  [e-mail]

...and asking nicely! :-)



4) !TempDir V1.22

An updated version of TempDir has been released:

  http://acorn.cybervillage.co.uk/qs/

TempDir (Temp Directory) places an icon on the Icon bar onto which you can
drag and drop files in order to save them to disc quickly and simply.

Some people use the RAM disc to save temporary files, but this is a bit of
a pain to use because it has a limited size, eats RAM, and if you forget to
save it's contents they are lost if the computer crashes, or someone switches
off the computer in a hurry.

TempDir, on the other hand, provides all the convenience of a RAM disc, but
with none of its drawbacks.  It also creates a new dated directory each day,
to ensure that every day you have a clean start.

TempDir is a real time-saver for classroom work as students no longer have
to hunt down an open Filer window to save their work in.

TempDir is easy to use, Year 2000 compliant, runs on any Acorn computer
running RISC OS 3.1 or above, and is fully StrongARM compatible.



5) DigitalCD 2.32 & TimPlayer 0.80

The latest versions of DigitalCD and TimPlayer have been released:

  http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Horizon/4471/

New in TimPlayer:

  * support for 16-bit hardware
  * support for IT virtual channels


New in DigitalCD:

  * a few options for TimPlayer
  * a new startup option to start playing the default list from the last
    played position



6) Fraug announce new software

Fraug is the French Acorn User Group.

You can now find rm_chess, a Chess application from Renaud Maldi

Fraug's WebSite contains more than 2.8 MB of RISC OS compliant software:

  http://www.mygale.org/~fraug/



7) GUI

The GUI version of Vim is now ready for alpha testing:

  http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~tal197/

Vim is a powerful text editor based on the famous VI, and ports are available
for most platforms.

Features:

  * Virtual memory for editing large files
  * Powerful search and replace
  * Runs in the desktop or from the command line
    (or over a telnet link - could someone test this?)
  * Fast experts' user interface
  * Macro language
  * Syntax highlighting

Vim requires RISC OS 3.1 to run.  The nested wimp is needed if you want
scroll bars in the GUI version.

Release 3 is known to work.  Release 4 *should* work.



8) Mame Play v1.10, Mess Play v1.00 & Lower v1.00

!MamePlay v1.10 is now available, and has been enhanced for the latest
MAME engine (0.33.6)

For those that have not seen this front end before, it is a simple little
application which provides an icon on the iconbar for dragging MAME ROM
sets (directories or image files) to.  Various options can be set in the
application for specifying common command line switches.  Game ROMs in Zip
archives can now be given filetypes, then started by simply double-clicking
on them.

Anyway, have a look - the download is only 35kb, available from:

  http://www.kaosuk.demon.co.uk/Acorn/Fileserver/mam110.zip

Following on from the MAME front end is a similar front end for MESS
(Multi-Emulator Super System).  Simply drag game ROM directories to the
iconbar or double-click on them (as long as they have been correctly
filetyped) and the game will be run using the options specified.
(Compatible with MESS 0.01)

The download is only 36kb, available from:

  http://www.kaosuk.demon.co.uk/Acorn/Fileserver/mes100.zip

One little problem with both the MAME and MESS engines is that they require
game ROMs to be named in all lower-case characters.  There is a little (18kb)
utility which will convert file names of any application, directory or file
to all lower-case characters, available from:

  http://www.kaosuk.demon.co.uk/Acorn/Fileserver/low100.zip

The main Kaos UK (Acorn) website is at:

  http://www.kaosuk.demon.co.uk/Acorn/


Club News
---------

Well - none once agin!  Although we seem to have many of the club organisers
subscribed to ANS!  Please send in some news items!  ;-)




How to Send in News
-------------------

To send in your news items, simply include the following information
and send it to:

  [e-mail]

...or use the form on the website.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

First name:
Surname:
E-mail address:


Subject of item (Person, company, and/or product):


Subject's contact details (E-mail and/or WWW addresses):


Source of information (Include relevant e-mail and/or WWW addresses):


Text of news item:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------



*** End of ANS - Issue 10 ***

*** Updated: Sat 27th June 1998 ***