Amiga ACS 1997 #4

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_ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" *---== STReport International Online Magazine ==---* """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" * AMIGA EDITION * "The Original Amiga Online Magazine" from STR Publishing """""""""""""" [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport March 19, 1993 No.1.01 ========================================================================== ----------------------------------------- * THE BOUNTY BBS * Home of STR Publications * RUNNING TURBOBOARD BBS * 904-786-4176 USR DS 16.8 24hrs - 7 days ----------------------------------------- * NOVA BBS * Amiga Report Headquarters * RUNNING STARNET BBS * FidoNet 1:362/508 615-472-9748 USR DS 16.8 24hrs - 7 days ----------------------------------------- ____________________________________________________________________________ > 03/19/93 STR-Amiga 1.01 "The Original * Independent * Online Magazine!" """"""""""""""""""""""" - The Editor's Desk - CPU Report - New Products - Rendered Reality - STR Confidential - Imagemaster Update - STR Online - BBS Ethics - Motorola 68060 - STR Staff Bio's - Dealer Directory - CD ROM Review - A1200 HD Problems? - CIS Lowers Prices - New Anim7 Format -* World of Commodore Seminars *- -* A1200/Atari Falcon Comparison *- -* A Plea from Babylon 5's Creator *- -* A New Strain of Virus?? *- ============================================================================ Amiga Report International Online Magazine From STR Publications [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport The Original * Independent * Online Magazine -* FEATURING WEEKLY *- "Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information" Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware ~ Software ~ Corporate ~ R & D ~ Imports ============================================================================ CIS ~ DELPHI ~ GENIE ~ FIDO ~ INTERNET ============================================================================ ============= * AMIGA EDITION * ============= COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME to the Readers of; AMIGA REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original Amiga Online Magazine" NEW USERS; SIGN UP TODAY! CALL: 1-800-848-8199 .. Ask for operator 198 You will receive your complimentary time and be online in no time at all! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""" Welcome to the first issue of Amiga Report! I'm glad you've decided to take a look and see what we're all about. I'm sure you will enjoy what we have to offer. You might be wondering why we've started Amiga Report. To answer that, I must tell you a little about myself. I've had my Amiga 1200 since early January of this year. Before that, I had owned Atari computers, from the 8-bit that I got in January of 1982, up to the Mega STE I owned until late December, 1992. Like many Atari owners, I was disgusted with Atari's poor management and inability to deliver new products. I decided it was time to change platforms. PC's were out of the question for obvious reasons, and Macs are too expensive. The only real choice was the Amiga. I had always admired the Amiga's ability to multitask, and with the new AGA machines coming out, the choice became clear. Anyway, one of the things that I missed from my Atari days was the plethora of information available in no fewer than FOUR online magazines -- ST-Report, Z*Net, Atari Explorer Online and GEnie Lamp (the latter being a monthly publication). The only "online magazine" for the Amiga is ViewPort, which is assembled by the GEnie Amiga RoundTable sysops. While a worthwhile effort, it was more a collection of reviews than anything else. The weekly online magazines in the Atari world always published the latest, most up-to-date you could find anywhere. Between them, there was almost no need to subscribe to "real" paper-based magazines. So, my system is an Amiga 1200, presently with only the included 2 meg of chip RAM (more coming soon, as finances allow), a Maxtor 80 meg hard drive, a SupraFAX V.32bis modem, HP DeskJet Plus and Panasonic KX-P1124 printers, a MiGraph Hand Scanner, and an NEC II multisync monitor. We presently have four people involved directly with the magazine. Micah Thompson is our Technical Editor, Mike Troxell is our Graphics Editor, and Tom Mulcahy, a contributing editor. There is a short bio on each of them later in the issue, so you can get to know them. Our goal is to provide accurate, up-to-date information about the Amiga and its users. We are an independent publication, free from regulation by any company or online service. Our information will be as accurate as possible, and will not be biased in any way. If we like something, we will gladly say so. If not, we will not hesitate to speak our mind. We have no hidden agendas. Some people may remember the last attempt at Amiga Report, which was referred to as AM-Report. We are not they, and they are not us. We are totally new, with no ties to the former magazine other than sharing the same publisher. With that said, I'll shut up so you can get on with the issue. Enjoy! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Amiga Report's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU! """""""""""""""""""" Editor """""" Robert Glover Technical Editor Graphics Editor Contributing Editor ---------------- --------------- ------------------- Micah Thompson Mike Troxell Tom Mulcahy CIS: 71726,2657 71514,2413 GEnie: BOOMER.T M.TROXELL1 FidoNet: 1:362/508.5 1:260/322 Delphi: 16BITTER PC DIVISION ATARI DIVISION MAC DIVISION ----------- -------------- ------------ Roger D. Stevens Ralph F. Mariano R. Albritton IMPORTANT NOTICE """""""""""""""" Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc... via E-Mail to: CompuServe.................... 71514,2314 Delphi........................ ROB_G FidoNet....................... 1:362/508.6 GEnie......................... ROB-G Internet.......................ROB_G@Delphi.COM """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > CPU STATUS REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS ================= Commodore announces two new enhancements for the Amiga 1200: A1200 Hard Drive Kit $39 P/N: 591201-01 - install disk and fonts disk - cable assembly - mounting screws - Amiga Hard Disk User's Guide - AmigaDOS manual - Amiga ARexx manual - upgrade instructions - approved hard drive list Available from authororized Commodore resellers; the A1200 hard drive kit requires Commodore Authorized Service installation. AS217 Documentation $23 - AmigaDOS manual - Amiga ARexx manual Available from CommodoreExpress (800) 448-9987. Commodore Business Machines 1200 Wilson Dr. West Chester, PA 19380 (215) 431-9100 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Blackbelt Announces Newest Imagemaster! ======================================= For Immediate Release March 16th, 1993 Glasgow Montana Black Belt Systems is in the process of releasing a major new upgrade to our Imagemaster product, designated v9.50. If you are one of the many people who have ordered Imagemaster under our "Power-Up" program, but have not yet received your copy of Imagemaster, this list should give you an idea of the benefits to you of your long wait; almost 90% of these features have been added since the Power-Up offer was made public, and you're going to get all of them at no extra charge. Thank you for your patience! For more information, call (800) 852-6442 Toll-free, or outside the USA and Canada, call (406) 367-5513. You can FAX us orders at (406) 367-2329. Our multi-line, 9600 (HST & v32) open user BBS is reachable at (406) 367-2227. ---------------------------------------------------------------- v9.50 New Features List - Some new features of Imagemaster v9.50 ---------------------------------------------------------------- - Now includes support for selected EPSON flatbed scanner models, standard with the upgrade or release. Includes ES300, ES600 and ES800. (We can provide prewired cables, also). This scanner support is based on the Metadigm "Metascan" product, an integrated version of which is now supplied with Imagemaster. (If you own the ASDG scanner driver, you can use that cable with our new driver - or, we have optional cables available for purchase). - Aspect sense; determines the exact aspect of your monitor/mode combo simply, easily and in a foolproof manner. Even takes into account any distortions introduced by monitor width/height settings. - Exact Aspect display mode; aspect ratio correct display capability. This, in combination with Aspect Sense, allows you to see and work on images exactly as they are intended to appear. - Supports AGA 800x600 for work and render output. - New image and ANIM file format support: o Reads IFF images from the Amiga ClipBoard device o Writes IFF images to the Amiga ClipBoard device o Reads ALL kinds of TIFF image files (in both IBM and Mac formats) o Writes 24-bit TIFF files o Reads Windows BMP image files o Writes Windows BMP image files o Reads AGA mode ANIM frames o Generates AGA mode ANIMS o Reads frames from Autodesk FLI/FLC Animation files (IBM PC format) o Writes AutoDesk FLI/FLC animation files o Reads MacPaint files o Reads NoteBook files o Reads Amiga .info files o Reads 12-bit General Electric MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) files o Reads PCX files o Reads WinImages:morph 24-bit filmstrip files - Many file formats that were previously only available via the F1 key route are now able to be automatically loaded thru the simple File I/O method, automatically. - Completely revamped CMY+(K) color sep capabilities for more accurate color prepress operations. - New, faster 256 preset color AGA display method for good looking preview mode that does not require new palette computation when changes are made to an image. - Completely new palette control area for AGA machines o Attractive new look display o 256 visible, modifiable colors, with individual render tags o Full 18-bit colorspace color cube onscreen at all times o Color Cube preset, prescan, FG set and BG set o "Painter's Palette" feathering and mixing area o 24-bit accurate color palette displays o On-screen range manipulation tools o Copy, Exg, Hue-Spread, RGB-Spread, Mirror-Spread, Insert Range o Hue-sort, Value Sort, Undo changes o 640x400 or 800x600 resolutions for palette, fully promotable o CMY, RGB, HSV, HSL and CMYK adjustment modes o Load and Save palettes WITH palette control information o Selected colors have live marques - quick & easy to spot o Ability to absolutely control palette for rendering images: ----------------------------------------------------------- o Any color or combination of colors: "NOT TO BE USED AT ALL" o Any color or combination of colors: "USE AS IS" o Any color or combination of colors: "AUTOPICK BEST COLOR" - Single key "insta-swap" of primary and secondary images. - Complete reworked buffer-generating Perspective operation. - Brand new compose-level Perspective option. - Support for Centaur's Opalvision display board. - New scientific functions: o Add a constant o Sub a constant o Div by constant o Mult by constant o Mult by secondary o Div by secondary o Logarithm base N of X For our scientific users! o N raised to X o Raise to power o Root o Arbitrary Profiles o Arbitrary Spectrums (1-D Fast Fourier Transforms) o Variance Conversions - New higher power "Sharpening" function. - Sends images directly to GVP's ImageFX software. - Includes high quality "Poster Printer" capability. - New ARexx commands: o userload ----- loads new images via the familiar user interface o simpload ----- loads new images to a non-specific buffer o forcewbfront - Brings WB to front no matter the autoactivate state o forcefront --- Brings IM to front no matter the autoactivate state o ehlp --------- Takes IM error numbers and reports error in english o perspect ----- generates perspective operations - Small panel re-organizations in many locations for ease of use. - Control panels smooth scroll & autorepair AmigaDOS screen positioning bugs. - Radial wave now utilizes image's aspect ratio - All I/O requesters now open on Imagemaster screens; this reduces screen flipping and prevents monitor re-syncing stress when running 800x600 in either Imagemaster or another application (including the WorkBench). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Other Imagemaster News as of v9.50 ---------------------------------- - Syndesis introduces Mac PICT-format reader & writer (3rd party). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Imagemaster is Copyright 1992-1993 Black Belt Systems ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" New Anim7 Animation Format! =========================== Compiled by Micah Thompson FLASH! There is joy in AmigaVille! AGA now blazes with glory! Well, by now you are wondering what I'm raving about. It's the arrival of a new animation format referred to as the Anim7 format. Since the arrival of the A4000, very fast animation rates were touted as a great advantage of AGA. Thirty and sixty frames per second (fps) were touted as easily attainable by AGA, in any resolution. Users grew eager though as the regular Anim5 format usually animated at a slower rate, and people cried "where are the 60 fps animations we've all heard about?" Well, get ready. I've converted some Anim5 animations to Anim7 and they run at 60fps on my A4000. This is the answer for the people crying for more animation speed. Here is the introduction from the docs of MakeAnim7, which is included in in the archive of Viewtek 1.04, the great display program by Thomas Krehbiel. VT 1.04 plays Anim7's at amazing speed! INTRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The ANIM7 format proposed by Wolfgang Hofer provides MUCH better ani- mation playback speed, which is especially needed for AGA-mode animations. The tradeoff is a larger animation file (ie.the compression isn't as good). *Note: The anims I've converted are not much bigger at all in Anim7 format. -Micah So, here is a little utility to convert your existing animations into ANIM7 animations in a fairly straightforward manner. MakeAnim7 can also read the ANIM8's that come from MorphPlus, so you can (and should, since ANIM7 is much better) convert them too. (This program requires 2.04, BTW.) """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Computer Products Update - CPU Report ------------------------ ---------- Weekly Happenings in the Computer World Issue #10 By: John Deegan Reprinted from STReport Atari Edition #9.10 VERBATIM OFFERS NEW "P-ROM" DISKS - A new 3.5-inch partial-ROM (P-ROM) disk has been introduced by Verbatim Corp., which calls this the first image image and data storage optical product "to combine both magneto-optic and read-only functionality." John Stevens, manager of Verbatim's optical storage products marketing, said, "The ROM portion of the media may be embossed permanently with data, such as a software application, and the rewritable portion of the disk is left available for user files." The disks provide a total combined ROM and rewritable capacity of 128MB. MICROSOFT SAYS FAKE DOS, WINDOWS SOFTWARE SEIZED BY GOVERNMENT - Recent government raids in California uncovered large amounts of counterfeit MS-DOS 5 and Windows 3.1 operating systems, officials with publisher Microsoft Corp. said today. Microsoft said raids in San Jose and Concord yielded counterfeit items produced under the trade names OEM's Spring Circle and BTI. Microsoft did not place a dollar value on the seized items in the raids which the company said were staged by local and federal authorities on Jan. 20, Jan. 21 and Feb. 3 in San Jose and on Feb. 18 in Concord. SURVEY HAS HOME COMPUTER ON RISE - A new consumer survey finds home computerists last year spent more time at their PCs and worked with a broader spectrum of applications than they did a year earlier. Also, more than 42% of the 2,500 PC owners surveyed for Packard Bell by California Research Tabulations Inc. said their primary use for the com- puter is personal (such as letter writing) or pleasure (game playing). Another 37% said their PCs are used primarily for business, while 21% said their PC is used by household members for school work. In a statement from Chatsworth, Calif., Fred Kern, vice president of product marketing at Packard Bell, said, "We're seeing more diversity in how computers are being utilized in the home. Users are spending more time at their PCs and are increasing their use of many popular types of app- lications." Other findings: -:- Almost half the respondents said they spent more than 10 hours per week at the computer, compared with 30% in 1991. Nearly one in 10 said they use their computers more than 30 hours per week. -:- More than 80% classified themselves as having at least some computer knowledge and half said they are relatively knowledgeable or "power users." -:- Word processing increased as the application used "most of the time" by 14 points to 57.2%. Desktop publishing products usage rose 6.7% to 11.2%, while spreadsheets saw a moderate increase as the primary application to 21.1% from 18%. -:- Personal/business finance software and entertainment software were designated as applications people use most of the time by 28.5% and 27.4%, respectively. -:- Database software, at 16.2%, and telecommunications software at 15.7%, showed up for the first time in the survey. -:- Citing the single factor that most influenced their purchase de- cision, about a third of the respondents chose "features" as most important, another third mentioned "price," while one-tenth cited "reliability." -:- When asked to named several factors that greatly influenced their purchase decision, four out of five answered "features" and "price," seven out of 10 placed weight on "reliability" and three out of five on "warranty." Meanwhile, "recommendation of friend" held less weight than the other factors with one out of five taking this into consideration. Finally, many respondents either added accessories to their systems or will do so in the next 12 months. Heading the list were additional RAM, a laser printer, a math coprocessor, a CD-ROM drive, a larger hard disk drive and a modem. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > ONLINE WEEKLY STReport Online People... Are Talking! ============================= From GEnie: Amiga 1200 Hard Disk Problems Category 15, Topic 21 Message 29 Fri Jan 08, 1993 DENNYA [[[[Denny]]]] at 09:51 EST IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ANYONE INSTALLING THEIR OWN HARD DRIVE IN AN A1200 OR A4000! ESPECIALLY QUANTUM DRIVES! I posted this as a response to Jose before I discovered he'd fixed his problem. However, there is a bug in the IDE large-transfer implemenation in some hard disk drives, Quantum in particular. With these drives you have to change the MaxTransfer value or files >130K in size get mangled. Load HDToolBox, go to the Parititioning screen, click Advanced Options, click Change File System, and change the MaxTransfer value to 0x1ffff. (This is covered in detail in a certain Tips and Secrets book. :-) I know for sure you need to do this with Quantum drives. Editor's Note: This is also the case with all Maxtor 2.5" IDE drives. ______________________________ Ever wonder why the Amiga has never gotten an upgrade to the game Falcon? Amiga RT Category 6, Topic 3 Message 241 Wed Mar 10, 1993 HOLOBYTE [The Cat] at 12:20 EST Please note, in the following I am putting aside my corprate OFFICIAL capacity and trying to give a realistic view. I mean no offense and do not wish my words, in this case, to be the words of Spectrum HoloByte. But I have been with Spectrum HoloByte for almost 3 years, and I have watched things evolve. Also, I am leaving out anything about any other company's willingness or unwillingness to do anything. When we say the 'power' if the 386, we are really talking the SPEED of the 386. Why, even Falcon 3.0 for the IBM requires that you are running AT LEAST 33Mhz to get really, really realistic game play. Sure, it will PLAY on a 12Mhz 286, but it looks and handles like a sick pig. Yes, we could do a Falcon 3.0 for the Amiga, or even the Atari. It would only run PROPERLY on the 4000's and maybe the 1200's and the other more powerful machines. Which is a SMALL number of Amigas compared to the 500s that are out there. So only a SMALL portion of the Amiga market would be able to run it at all to start with. Also, it would take AT LEAST TWO YEARS to develop and program, as it would have to ALL be done FROM SCRATCH. Just like it was done on the IBM. You want the REAL UNOFFICIAL reason for Falcon 3.0 not being done on the Amiga? MONEY. When we marketed Flight of the Intruder for the Amiga.... ONLY about a maximum of 8,000 copies were ever ordered by retailers and consumers. Period. 8,000 copies. That barely BARELY allowed a break even on materials, advertising and all the things that cost money AFTER a product is complete. It did NOT break even on the man hours that went into it. (Don't feel bad though, the Atari version only sold around 1,500... not enough to even come close to breaking even anywhere.) The break even point for any piece of entertainment software is usuall around 25,000 to 35,000 copies. That's the break even. It takes a product earning a company PROFIT to get them to make more and more and more. (BTW, at one time, the 8,000 mark that FOTI Amiga hit would have been just fine, but inflation and all that changed things.) Now, compare it to Falcon 3.0 for the IBM. It has sold over 200,000 copies. 80,000 of that in the first 3 months! You do the math. Which would you say was making you enough money to justify doing more and more? BTW, the most copies of Falcon Amiga to ever sell since its release in 1988 is about 48,000. And that took over 4 years. And that was considered Good prior to 1991 or so. But the US market, weither any of us like it or not (I love my Amiga! I want more quality software for it, believe me!), is a IBM/compatibles and MAC _Dominated_ market. I WANT Falcon 3.0 for my Amiga (I am one of those wierd people that is addicted to home computers.... I have a Atari 520ST, a DEC Rainbow 100, a CBM Pet 2001, a TRS-80 Model 1, a Amiga 500, and several IBM/compatibles... and WANT a Mac LC III and a Amiga 4000), I believe that it would, if SH would do it, kick the <censored> out of it on the IBM, big time. But if you look at the numbers... Of course, if any of you out there have a few million US Dollars to donate with the proviso that it would have to be used to make a Amiga version of Falcon 3.0, it might be worth trying to convince Spectrum HoloByte of the 'error' of their ways. Reality being what it is, I'm not holding my breath. (Oh, and btw, I am not rich, I have picked up most of those older computers at flea markets, garage sales and the like, I did NOT get them when they were new, except for the TRS- 80 Model 1 and the Amiga 500.) Just my 2 cents, er, dollars (inflation, don't you know) worth Denny: SH is quite aware of the Euro Versions of FOTI and the sales levels of it. The Agreement with Rowan and the now defunct MirrorSoft as that they got the money from the European Sales and SH got the money from US sales. Word I hear, Euro Sales of FOTI still never topped the 30,000 copies mark. And SH never sees a dime of that. STUPID: You can't be more correct. At present we do NOT have the in- house resources to do a Falcon 3.0 for the Amiga. We would have to, once again, go to Rowen or Digital Integration (present people with the option to upgrade Falcon Amiga, I think, but don't quote me). Remember, every letter that a company gets from people represents a lot more than 1 voice. It is figured, in general, that 1 letter equals from 3-10 voices. So if 10000 of you out there right, that would sound like 30000-100000 people! That would make a impact. Believe me! Karl Maurer The Cat Spectrum HoloByte Customer Support ---------- Category 6, Topic 3 Message 244 Thu Mar 11, 1993 E.LOFTUS1 [Glenn...] at 22:08 EST Holobyte-- > Yes, we could do a Falcon 3.0 for the Amiga . . . It would only run > PROPERLY on the 4000's and maybe the 1200's and the other more > powerful machines. Which is a SMALL number of Amigas compared to > the 500s that are out there. Argh! I'm really getting tired of this argument. Does anyone have a ballpark estimate for the number of 14+ MHz accelerators sold for the 500 and 2000? I got my '030 over a year ago, and most of the other A2000 owners I know also have accelerators. > MONEY. When we marketed Flight of the Intruder for the Amiga.... > ONLY about a maximum of 8,000 copies were ever ordered by retailers > and consumers. Period. 8,000 copies. There's one on the bookshelf behind me. I had no idea it was a collectable. Notably, FOTI is no longer installed on my hard-drive, though FDPro is. > Now, compare it to Falcon 3.0 for the IBM. It has sold over > 200,000 copies. Falcon 3.0 is a much better program than is FOTI. Note that when it was released, the majority of installed DOS machines couldn't run it properly. (I'd say you need a 386DX-33 or better for it to run acceptably.) --Glenn... ---------- Amiga RT Category 6, Topic 3 Message 246 Fri Mar 12, 1993 DENNYA [[[[Denny]]]] at 13:18 EST Holobyte, No fair comparing Falcon 3.0 PC sales with FOTI Amiga sales. What were FOTI sales on the PC? ______________________________ Emplant Legality Concerns! Here's an interesting discussion going on in the Atari ST RT, Category 18, Topic 22: Atari vs. Other Systems. Off-topic messages have been deleted. Some messages have been slightly edited for brevity. I apologize for the length of this thread. They aren't usually this long! ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 51 Fri Feb 19, 1993 J.DREW2 at 23:10 EST Hello... I am the Vice-President of Utilities Unlimited, Inc. and we make the evil EMPLANT hardware that you have been talking about. :-) EMPLANT is a multi-platform emulation system capable of emulating virtually any computer that we write support modules for *and you have the ROMs for*. This is really no different than what Dave Small is doing with Spectre, or the GEMulator. We do require that you have the ROMs or a ROM image of the computer that you are going to be emulating. 'ROM images' can be obtained from the computer *that you own*. You can buy the TOS upgrade ROMs (I did), and use these ROMs in the board. We have been round-n-round with many law firms over the legalities of this and we are in no way violating anyone's copyrights. At this point, Atari ST/Falcon is a long ways down the road. We are still working on the MAC family, then the IBM. The sole reason for using ROM images is that due to the nature of the Amiga's multitasking operating system, we can have more than one emulation running on the same computer at the same time. We support DIPS & SIMM ROMs with our board, but only enough sockets for a single set of ROMs. Therefore, we backup the ROM image onto disk and load them this way. EMPLANT is not designed to be a tool for pirates to distribute ROM images, and at $399, it is too expensive for your average scumbag software thief. There is no way in hell any of the emulations will work without the EMPLANT hardware. This guarantees protection for all of us. 90% of our sales to date have been to people who own MACs for their business, and want to work at home with their Amiga emulating their MAC. If you have questions or comments, please email me or drop by our support section on GEnie (m555;1 - set 14; 31). Sincerely, Jim Drew, Vice-President Utilities Unlimited, Inc. jdrew@cryo.rain.com jdrew.2 ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 55 Sat Feb 20, 1993 T.MCCOMB [=Tom=] at 11:48 EST Ummm, maybe I'm like real dense, but I don't see where your 'system' affords anyone (Computer Manufacturers) any protection other than yourself. You state that nothing will 'run' without YOUR board. OK, that protects YOU. You state it will run ROM images off disk. What guarantees that those ROM image files are legal? Legal meaning that they were created by the current owner, from a set of ROMs that he BOUGHT. I don't think it is even legal to remove the ROMS from a second computer, copy them to disk and run both the disk image and the real ROMs (on the original computer) at the same time. I don't see how you can prevent people from using pirated (stolen) copies of OS ROM images if your board will execute them from a disk file. That file could have come from anywhere. I think Atari will be ringing you up. -Tom McComb {11:45 pm} Friday, February 19, 1993 ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 57 Sat Feb 20, 1993 D.ENGEL [Thunderbird] at 13:05 EST I think we are putting the cart before the horse here. I see a lot of arguments to the effect of: "Hey, you can't allow disk ROM images to be loaded into your Emplant board, because that would mean that some dishonest people would make illegal copies of ROM's, and trade/sell/give them away!" Why is this any different than saying "Hey, you can't sell computers with disk drives that _write_ to disks, because some dishonest people would try to copy floppy disk software illegally, to trade/sell/etc."?!?!?!? There will _ALWAYS_ be people who will copy software programs, be them on ROM's, Carts, or disks. It is a well supported theory that the majority of IBM clones are sold to consumers based on the fact that there is such a _W_I_D_E_ selection of "free" software out there. I really don't see any reason to attack this product, because it is no more or less of a piracy encouraging device than any other piece of computer hardware you can buy. Besides that, it is a product made for a _non klone_ machine. Anyone who supports _non klones_ deserves all of OUR support. ______________________ \hunderbird 'cause COMPUTERS don't pirate... PEOPLE do! ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 58 Sat Feb 20, 1993 J.NESS [Jim] at 13:57 EST Tom McComb - Note two points that J.DREW2 made. 1) His lawyers say he is okay. (from this I conclude he is not concerned about a call from Apple, and that's MUCH more significant than a call from Atari) 2) His company is not building an Atari emulator any time soon. (from this I conclude that it would be difficult for Atari to build a case against him) Now, do you still believe Atari will be in contact with him? Realistically, his company would not be the one using stolen software, in any case. If a user chose to steal a disk image of a rom OS, the user would be the one at fault. -JN ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 59 Sat Feb 20, 1993 T.MCCOMB [=Tom=] at 16:16 EST Yeah, Jim, I do. For the same reason the GCR/Magic SAC/GEMulator were required to operate with ROMs and not disk based ROM images. Fired up the ol'MEGA today, eh? ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 60 Sat Feb 20, 1993 J.NESS [Jim] at 18:14 EST Tom - It's not like the products you mentioned were changed due to a lost lawsuit. In at least one case, Atari promised to leave the developer alone if there were roms onboard. The developer chose to take the easy route. This particular developer may choose the easy route, too. If Atari complains, he may just forgo the dozen or so possible sales. He did say that Apple and IBM emulation were coming before Atari emulation. Or, he may just depend upon what his attorneys said, and go ahead as he wishes, with a disk-loaded rom image. Let's watch, shall we? If Apple doesn't sue, Atari hasn't got a chance. Apple are the lawsuit masters of our time. No, I didn't fire up the Mega yet today. Tomorrow for sure. I've got some bug fixes to work on. -JN ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 61 Sat Feb 20, 1993 J.DREW2 at 19:11 EST Well, AMAX has had a patch to allow the ROMs to be disk based for years. There has been a 5 year precedence set, and Apple has not responded to *any* of the MAC/Apple II emulators out there. The Amiga has had THREE Atari emulators...ALL of which used TOS as a disk based file. The first came out nearly 4 years ago. The latest version uses a piece of hardware (the others were software only), and not to hold the ROMs. The hardware allows for up to 16 Atari ST's running at the same time on the Amiga...all using the same ROM code. Now, *that* is technically illegal. According to additions to the software copyright laws made in 1991, you are not allowed to use the same software on more than one computer at the same time without express written permission of the software publisher. This means that if you use your Atari ST ROMs out of your ST for the ROM image, and you were running an emulation using this ROM image, you *would* be breaking the law by turning on your Atari ST (the computer that the ROM image came from) and using it while the emulation was running. If you purchased a set of ROMs for the emulation, used them only to obtain the image, and put them away for safe keeping, you would not be breaking the law. However, if at any time you were to sell the original ROMs, "all archival copies must be transferred to the to purchaser or destroyed". We do provide sources to Apple ROMs, and we have made these sources a small fortune. Apple ROMs are not cheap. Atari ROMs are like Amiga and IBM BIOS ROMs, reasonably priced. What we are doing is not illegal. We sell the gun, and rely on people not to rob a bank with it. ;-) Jim Drew ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 62 Sat Feb 20, 1993 DENNYA [Denny Atkin] at 21:16 EST I think it would be really interesting if ATARI sued the Emplant folks when APPLE doesn't find the board worth worrying about... But then again, I know previous Atari emulators for the Amiga were quashed by Atari's legal folks. I'm all for protecting intellectual property, but just imagine if the amount of money spent on lawyers went to product development or overseeing Falcon manufacturing instead... Gotta wonder. IMHO, it would behoove Atari to have lots of Amigas emulating the ST/Falcon series. Could double the U.S. installed base of machines that could use ST software, which would be good for keeping the software market alive. ..Mr. Devil's Advocate ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 63 Sat Feb 20, 1993 T.MCCOMB [=Tom=] at 22:38 EST Denny- I agree, as long as they are using LEGAL ROMs. The same people that would use pirated ROM images wouldn't think twice about using pirated programs too. That'd do NOTHING to help keep the software market alive. -Tom McComb {10:13 pm} Saturday, February 20, 1993 ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 64 Sun Feb 21, 1993 STEVE-J [FunkPopARoll] at 01:54 EST S.DANUSER - So long as you own a legitimate set of ROM's, it's debatable whether 'dumping' the ROM data to disk is illegal or not. There's a big difference between a licensing agreement and the law. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 65 Sun Feb 21, 1993 S.DANUSER [Soul Manager] at 03:07 EST I think Atari would be more concerned about emulators than Apple because of the relative market shares. A few hundred (or even thousand) emulators are a drop in the bucket to Apple, and do not impose on their turf at all. But to Atari, those hundreds of emulators make up a much larger percentage of potential Atari owners. Theoretically, each emulator in use is a sale lost by Atari (yes, I know it doesn't work that way in reality, but the principle is valid). As for the argument that emulators increase Atari's market share, I'm sure Atari would much rather sell a computer than ROMs for an emulator. Certainly they'd much rather sell a computer than see their OS code be pirated in a disk file. Soul Manager ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 66 Sun Feb 21, 1993 J.DREW2 at 06:07 EST Somebody mention "licensed" software. It is interesting to note that Apple and Atari do not license their ROMs. They are sold. Commodore and IBM are the same as well. Until recently (System 7.x releas) Apple's OS was available here on GEnie for no fee and there were no restrictions for it's distribution. Now, their OS is "licensed", but still not their ROMs. ROMs are software. Software is sold or it is licensed. All ROMs from Apple, Atari, & Commodore are sold and not licensed. However, even if these ROMs were licensed our product and what it does is not illegal. We are not out to "steal" any business from Atari or any company. We are providing a service to the computer inthusiast by limiting the number of complete systems that they have to purchase. People do not have the deskspace for computers that they may not really use very often. I have written copy programs for _all_ computers (including the Atari ST) for the last 16 years. I have dealt with litterally hundreds of lawyers concerning copyright laws. I know the laws, and we are not breaking them. I do not understand why people are scared by ROM 'images'. Spectre GCR, The GEMulator, Cameleon, AmiTari, and other emulators dump the ROMs _on their hardware_ into memory, modify the code, and presto..emulation. A disk loaded file is dumped into memory, modified, and presto...there really is no difference. I _would_ have required ROMs to be installed at all times with our emulators, except that our system is much more complex than most people realize. We can run multiple computer emulations at the same time with a single EMPLANT board. You can not install 3 different ROMs into the same socket, no matter how hard you try. :-) ...and our hardware has the ability to add RAM to the sockets that the ROMs are placed in. We have the ability to add another processor (386/486, 6502, Z80, etc.) to our board to insure emulation speed and compatibility. Yes, our product is very complex is design. As far as honesty goes, I can honestly tell you that we have had customers pay as high as $650 for MAC IIx ROMs. MAC ROMs (despite the horror stories) are readily available. Apple has restricted authorized service centers from selling the ROMs, however, there are non-authorized service centers that sell them. Also, Apple is forced in some countrys to sell _all_ service parts to the general public (laws of the particular country) and customers have been getting ROMs this way. I am not sure what Atari's position reguarding TOS will be. It is really too bad that people here feel threatened by a system that could help Atari, Apple, and Commodore. IBM emulation is of course, the easiest to "get away with" as companies sell their BIOS ROMs for $19.95 these days. The bottom line is this...we are not breaking any laws, and do not intend to. Our Atari emulation will be an Atari 1040ST, and it might be available to our customers for Christmas time...and we are not developing it. We have released developer packages to companies so that they can create their own emulation modules for use with the EMPLANT hardware. To date, 6 companies are working on emulations for every from the ST to the Sega Genesis game machine. Maybe it is time for this horrific division of computer owners to come together and realize that maybe everyone does make a good computer. I am sick of hearing in the Amiga area here on GEnie how much better the A1200 is than the Falcon... why? I think people should be doing better things than playing "keep up with the Smiths". Our product allows people to use a little of each thing that they like about all of the computers that they use, or would like to use...perhaps a peaceful solution in this day and age. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 67 Sun Feb 21, 1993 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 08:27 EST I really don't see much of a difference between the Emplant and the Spectre. The only difference is that it is able to read the ROM image from disk. As long as they do not distribute the ROM image, they are OK. I don't think most people have a problem with the Emplant. The only concern was about the ROM image on disk. They are quite a few people that have upgraded to another TOS version thus, there are quite a few older ROM sets out there. Heck, it may even help Atari sales. When they see how nice the ST is to use.... :-) ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 68 Sun Feb 21, 1993 MIKE-ALLEN [NM~SysOp] at 14:39 EST I really don't see all the hoohaa about the roms. If the ROMs used by the Emplant board have been honestly procured what is the problem? (I've got a set of 1.2 roms left over from an update - of course would you really want to emulate 1.2?) 1.4 and 2.06 roms are readily available from legitimate sources. Let's face it, any halfway competent programmer could copy the Atati roms to disk easily. It could probably be done with several of the easily available PD/Shareware/Commercial products. A thief is a thief is a thief whether it's pirating software, not paying for shareware or copying roms. As long as the Emplant folks stress the use of legitimate roms, let's encourage them. We in the Atari world and those in the Amiga world have much in common, not the least of which is recognizing the limitations (not to mention costs) imposed on the 'main streamers' by Intel and MicroSoft. Amigoids <g> and Atarians are siblings under the skin. We are mavericks in the home computing world, we like 68Ks and we tend to be more knowledgeable about our machines than the average peeceer is about his/hers. We both would not tolerate the massive over-pricing of software seen in the DOS world. I believe that we both are much less tolerant of piracy than the DOSers. We both tend to have a missionary viewpoint about our respective machines. Maybe instead of trying to convert each other we should both look at the true 'heathens.' Welcome the Amigans to our BB. They can learn from us and there is much we can learn from them. Cross-fertilization of ideas can only benefit us both. So, to you Amigans out there, welcome to our home. "This is Liberty Hall. You can spit on the mat and call the cat a bastard." Mike Allen HelpDesk~Sysop ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 69 Sun Feb 21, 1993 T.MCCOMB [=Tom=] at 15:58 EST Mike- The problem is that the board DOESN'T required honestly procured ROMs. THAT'S the point. It will run fine with ill gotten disk based ROM image files. -Tom McComb {3:04 pm} Sunday, February 21, 1993 ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 70 Sun Feb 21, 1993 J.DREW2 at 16:47 EST The EMPLANT hardware will dump EPROM images burned by hackers. The EMPLANT hardware will dump ROMs out of your own computer. The EMPLANT hardware is not breaking the law in either case. The majority of hand guns in the U.S. are legally owned. The majority of illegally used hand guns are from less than 1% of all hand guns. So, I suppose people would have it (at least some here) that we do away with hand guns because some moron decides to shoot his boss? Why don't we ban the rest of the constitution as well? Better yet, those of you who do not like the way the laws are move back to England where we all came from (and left) in the first place... I agree that the Amiga and Atari users share common roots...we all evolved from 8 bit machines (both 6502 even), and most of us have common goals with our machines. I can only see EMPLANT as an aide to the fight against the "big two" (read as Apple/IBM) to show that a little ingenuity and belief in a small computer can provide great satisfaction and knowledge (sounds like the Sunday afternoon soaps.) ;-) ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 71 Sun Feb 21, 1993 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 19:55 EST Mike, I am surprised. A GEnie Sysop using such language. Tsk! Tsk! I do agree with what you said though. With the Falcon and MultiTos due out, there is a lot about multi-tasking and Flicker we don't know about. Tom, Well, the computer that so many of us use will also run that game that was just pirated from someones friend. Does this mean that my favorite computer should not be sold? The computer company provides us with the computer. What we do with it is up to us. The same goes for the Emplant board. The computer we use DOESN'T require HONESTLY purchased software to run either. I have heard of a program that will let you load in the MAC OS and emulate the Mac. Does this mean Atari should stop selling computers? Based on the logic I have read here, no computers should be manufactured because there is a lot of illegal activity that goes on with computers. Sheesh!!! ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 72 Sun Feb 21, 1993 D.ENGEL [Thunderbird] at 22:43 EST Tom McComb: Your ST/TT/falcon030/Amiga/Mac/C=64/Klone/Whatever DOESN'T REQUIRE honestly procured game DISKS. I fail to see why this is ANY bit different. A binary data file is a binary data file no matter WHAT media it comes on. If you feel that because a disk is easier to copy than a ROM, then it must encourage piracy... then I submit to you that a disk is easier to copy than a hardcopy, so why don't all computer games come on paper? ______________________ \hunderbird ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 73 Mon Feb 22, 1993 STEVE-J [FunkPopARoll] at 02:15 EST T.MCCOMB - Yes, but the Spectre software was easily hacked to run a disk-based image file of the 128k Mac ROM's, so I still don't see a good argument AGAINST the Emplant board. Keep in mind too that Atari went after Nintendo for something that was primarily Atari's own fault. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 74 Mon Feb 22, 1993 D.MCNAMEE [Dan @ Atari] at 17:28 EST Jim, Thank you for dropping by and posting. So, are you saying that the ROMs are physically installed on a board in the computer (like GEMulator and Specter etc.)? If so, then I don't see a problem at all. Dan ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 75 Mon Feb 22, 1993 J.DREW2 at 20:01 EST Dan @ Atari, The ROMs are installed on the EMPLANT hardware and then dumped to a disk file. This disk file (your archival backup of your own ROM code) is then loaded from disk and used by the emulation. Optionally, we provide software that dumps the ROM from your own computer to a disk file. This file would then be ported to the Amiga for use with the emulation. In either case, if the ROMs come from a functioning computer, you (under the law) could not run both the original computer and the emulation at the same time as this would be in violation of copyright laws added in 1991 (see laws reguarding multiple site software installations). ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 78 Tue Feb 23, 1993 D.MCNAMEE [Dan @ Atari] at 20:40 EST Jim, Thanks for the info. If the ROMs are not physically required, though, to make the emulation run, we may indeed have a problem then. (ie it loads off disk when you run the emulation rather than off ROM) Dan ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 79 Wed Feb 24, 1993 D.MCNAMEE [Dan @ Atari] at 16:49 EST Jim, What is the difference between a book and a rom? (yes, this is an important question). Dan ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 80 Wed Feb 24, 1993 SLP at 19:54 EST I don't think anybody can really say what is a copyright violation or not (talking about a single user, non commercial purpose). I'm not all that familiar with copyright law, but I would imagine that a company who tries to stop you from using roms in your machine, whether or not they are copied to disk, would be laughed out of court. Are there any known cases where an individual has been found guilty of copyright infringement by a court of law for doing something like this, or even blatantly pirating every program they could get their hands on? I doubt it. Most everything I've heard of is either a settlement or commercial piracy. Scott ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 81 Wed Feb 24, 1993 J.DREW2 at 22:09 EST Dan, A 'Book' is reading material bound by copyright laws pertaining to literature. A 'ROM' is (according to the law) software bound by copyright laws pertaining to electronic media. What is your point? ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 82 Thu Feb 25, 1993 STEVE-J [FunkPopARoll] at 04:11 EST J.DREW2 - Here's ONE devout Atari user who's NOT going to jump on your behind over this. After all, you are COMPLETELY in the right in this matter (as far as myself and THE LAW are concerned). If Atari and others want to whine incessantly about it, that's THEIR waste of time! <grin> ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 83 Thu Feb 25, 1993 D.MCNAMEE [Dan @ Atari] at 17:17 EST Jim, A book is information stored in a hard format, which any person, by law is not allowed to "make a backup copy of". A ROM is information stored in a hard format, which any person, by law is not allowed to "make a backup copy of". There is court precidence for this. There is also court precidence on it being illegal to make "backup" or "archival" copies of any rom to disk. This was done many years ago by Atari Inc in a case against a company that made a device that would copy 8-bit cartridges to disk. Dan (not a lawyer) Steve-J, Wrong, the law IS on our side on this one. (see above) Dan (not a lawyer) ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 85 Thu Feb 25, 1993 J.DREW2 at 22:28 EST Dan, Well, perhaps you guys at Atari should get new attorneys. The law is very clear about what ROMs are. ROMs are computer software. So, under the law, you do have a right to make archival backups. It is interesting to note that I learned something last week here on GEnie while looking around in the LAW section of GEnie... evidently PALs, GALs, PEELs, and *any* other custom logic also falls under the same classification as software, since programs are burned onto these devices. Furthermore, the law permits reverse engineering by *any* means necessary, and oddly enough guess who started this subject... Atari. Atari vs. Nintendo...do you remember this? Atari was in a legal battle over the 10NES program that is found in every Nintendo game cartridge. 10NES is a program burned onto a custom PAL. Nintendo was trying to stop Atari from producing Nintendo compatible game cartridges. Evidently Atari "layered" (a process of disecting custom logic layer by layer to obtain the program code) and obtained illegally obtained source code (according to the courts) for the 10NES program from the US copyright office. When the smoke cleared, Atari came out on top with a precedence being set. It is perfectly legal to reverse engineer any device 'to learn how the device works in order to better it'. ROMs are indeed software and fall into this classification. Times have changed and so have the laws. Now that the people of the world are becoming more technically aware, laws reguarding copyrights of electronic and magnetic media have been made more clear. I don't want to argue and fight over this...that is a bit much. By the time we finally have Atari ST emulation our annual sales will be equal or greater than Atari's and I would really hate to see either one of our companies waste more money on attorneys than we already are now. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 86 Thu Feb 25, 1993 D.ENGEL [Thunderbird] at 22:49 EST Oh great... here it comes again. Another Earth shattering, precidence setting, monumental legal triumph... Reminds me of the time atari sued Nintendo because atari delayed the 7800 until it was too late for them to get a market share, and tried to make it look like Nintendo was at fault because they were a monopoly or something. I wonder how many lynx ads didn't make it to national TV because the funds went to pay off Nintendo's legal fees, as ruled by the judge. Just think, if they won that one it would have set a precidence so they could sue Microsoft, IBM, and all the clone makers... shucks! __________________ /hunderbird 'cause I can't get lynx games locally anymore... I wonder why... ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 88 Fri Feb 26, 1993 D.MCNAMEE [Dan @ Atari] at 17:42 EST Jim, Part of waht is considered being an archival backup of something is that the archive needs to be at least as secure from damage as the origonal medium. Give me some ROMs and a copy of those ROMs on a floppy, and I'll hand them to my friends dog. I'll lay odds that the ROM is much more secure from damage. Dan (not a lawyer) BTW it was Atari Games (Tengen), not Atari Computer in the Atari-Nintendo case. Completely different company. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 90 Fri Feb 26, 1993 D.ENGEL [Thunderbird] at 22:40 EST BTW: That was Atari Inc. a Division of Warner Communications that made the 800 cartridges which were the subject of the ROM backup lawsuits mentioned above. THAT Atari was in a position where they could waste money on frivolous lawsuits and beurocratic chest-pounding. Look where it got _them_... Besides, the recently failed lawsuit I was referring to was filed by atari corp., not Atari Games. Atari Games was involved in a separate lawsuit because they cracked the 10NES lockout on NES carts, and it pissed Nintendo off. The lawsuit from atari corp. was a different matter alltogether, revolving around Nintendo having too big a market share and paying large sums for _exclusive_ rights to certain games, preventing atari from being able to get a foothold with their extremely late 7800 ProSystem. It was a big waste of money. Wasting money better not be high on the priority list right now... ____________________ \hunderbird 'cause I backup all my ROMs with duplicates made from LEGO's... ...if those aren't the most secure medium, NOTHING is! ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 92 Sun Feb 28, 1993 J.DREW2 at 06:42 EST In 1983 our company produced a cartridge backup system that dumped game cartridges on to disk where they could be played. We got lots of harrassing calls from Atari, HES, and was sued by Epyx. Two years later, we won the suit. ROMs are considered software. Under the law, you as the owner of a computer program are entitled to make a backup copy for your own personal use. The law does indeed ALLOW the use of the BACKUP. Most people USE their BACKUPS and put their precious originals away for safe keeping. Since we have spent thousands of dollars on the various MAC ROMs, there is no way that I am going to use those things in our emulation, and as the owner of these ROMs, I have the legal right to do this. I am just not allowed to use these ROMs *and* the BACKUPs at the same time on different machines. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 93 Wed Mar 03, 1993 S.DANUSER [Soul Manager] at 02:58 EST I was thinking... Couldn't Atari (or whoever) attach some sort of licensing agreement on their ROMs if they didn't want them to be used in emulators? For instance, when they sell TOS 2.06 ROMs, they could put a seal on the outside with a disclaimer that warned that the chips were only to be used for upgrading an Atari computer. If the buyer opens the package, they are legally obligated to use the software only in an Atari machine. Thus, anyone who advertised an Atari emulator would be encouraging users to break their licensing agreements, and could probably be sued quite easily. Or is that wacky? Soul Manager ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 94 Wed Mar 03, 1993 J.DREW2 at 11:58 EST Soul Manager, You are correct. Simply stating that the ROMs are licensed (and not sold) would protect the owner of the ROMs from duplication. Since you would not be the owner of the ROMs, you would not be entitled to the right of making archival copies. However, we can still advertise an emulator that would require these licensed ROMs and that would be legal. Under the current laws (and I don't see them ever changing) you can sell products that would require (or could require) you to break the law using them. A good example would be a lot of martial art equipment. You can legally buy the stuff, but you can not legally own it. Also, things like lock picking devices, eves droppping equipment, etc. can all be purchased but you can not use these devices without permission of the person(s)/thing(s) that they are going to be used on. Remember, the hand gun was created for the sole purpose of killing another human being...not animal hunting or anything else. You can buy hand guns, however, it is highly frowned upon using them for their intended purpose. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 95 Wed Mar 03, 1993 D.MCNAMEE [Dan @ Atari] at 20:38 EST Soul Manager, If the emulator uses legally purchased ROMs to do the emulation, then there is not problem. It's when you use an image file loaded off disk that could have come from anywhere that we have problems with it. A perfect example of this is Gemulator. Origonally, it was also going to use a soft loaded TOS image file. We worked with Derek, and he designed it so that it loads TOS off the ROMs directly whenever you run the program. Heck, we've even sold ROMs to Derek so that he could resell them to his customers that may have a hard time finding them otherwise. Also, he is fully capable of running multiple STs on an IBM using only 1 set of ROMs, so I don't know what the problem with the Amiga is that makes it work as 1 set of ROMs = 1 emulation running. Dan ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 96 Fri Mar 05, 1993 STEVE-J [FunkPopARoll] at 02:25 EST S.DANUSER - Licensing agreements such as those on SOLD merchandise are not legally binding. The only legally binding stipulations in any licensing agreement are mainly that the software cannot be pirated nor used on more than one machine at a time. Other than that, licensing agreements are full of BS. J.DREW2 - I certainly wouldn't mind if Atari gave away free copies of ROM's!!! <grin> ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 97 Fri Mar 05, 1993 J.DREW2 at 03:42 EST Dan, There is no "problem" with the Amiga. The copyright laws are *very* clear. In an addition to the previous copyright laws reguarding computer software, in 1991 congress voted in a few new twisted. You are NOT allowed to use more than one copy of a program at the same time. This means that if multiple emulations were running, all using the SAME ROM image, that would technically be breaking the law. You (Atari) are evidently allowing 'Derek' to violate your copyrights. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 98 Fri Mar 05, 1993 DENNYA [Denny Atkin] at 10:29 EST You're not allowed to use more than one copy of a program at one time? Boy, I break the law on my Amiga all the time, then, darned multitasking! Are you sure that wasn't referring to situations like a mainframe with dumb terminals? I certainly can't see Microsoft upset because you're running three copies of Excel under Windows. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 99 Fri Mar 05, 1993 D.MCNAMEE [Dan @ Atari] at 11:27 EST So then it is OK to sun multiple copies of TOS off a floppy whether that floppy copy is legal or not then? You claim that you want to put tos on disk for your emulation to make it easier to run multiple STs on an Amiga. I would that that that would be breaking the same laws just as badly. If you are going to require them to use multiple disk copies of TOS, one for each emulation, how are you going to ensure that they own a set of ROMs for each one of those floppy copies? Destroy the ROM after it has been copied to disk? Dan ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 100 Fri Mar 05, 1993 J.DREW2 at 18:53 EST Denny, That is the copyright laws...only one copy can be run on the same or other machines at the same time unless specifically authorized by the copyright holder. So, yes, if SoftLogic did not want you running two copies of PageStream on the same machine from a single original disk, that would be their right under the law. Dan, We do not allow multiple emulations of the SAME computer. One emulation of each different computer is allowed. One MAC, one IBM, one Atari, etc. Our problem exists strictly from only having 5 ROM sockets and and ROM SIMM socket on our hardware. Since MAC ROMs are generally four DIP packages, IBM BIOS is several DIPS packages, Atari ROMs are several DIPS packages....they all will NOT fit on the board at the same time. We will never have two or more of the same computer being emulated at the same time with EMPLANT. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 101 Fri Mar 05, 1993 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 19:03 EST It is not up to the company to make sure everyone runs a legal copy of TOS. That is like saying it is up to Atari to make sure that no pirated games are to be ran on Atari computers. Drew's company just makes the product, what the customers do is their business and if they do stuff illegally, then they are taking the chance of getting caught. You cannot hold them liable for what the user does. If that was the case, then all computer manufacturers would have been sued by all the software companies around. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 105 Wed Mar 10, 1993 D.MCNAMEE [Dan @ Atari] at 15:11 EST The way your hardware is designed is no excuse. If there was any possibility what so ever that you may run into copyright problems because of the way you designed it, then you should have redesigned it. I'm now dropping out of this conversation. I have no more to say on the subject, except that I'm printing off a capture of the topic and giving it to our legal department for further investigation. Dan ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 107 Thu Mar 11, 1993 J.DREW2 at 02:05 EST Dan, You are probably not reading this because you have dropped off the face of the earth (or at least this conversation)... There was no "design flaw" with our hardware. It was the only choice possible to allow multiple computer emulation to run simultaneously. We can not babysit everyone who purchases this product to ensure that it is used in a legal matter, much the same as a gun store owner doesn't babysit the people he/she sells guns to... and you can quote me when you talk to your legal department. Sincerely, Jim Drew, Vice-President Utilities Unlimited, Inc. ------------ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 108 Fri Mar 12, 1993 STEVE-J [FunkPopARoll] at 01:50 EST Oooo! Atari's going off to cry to mama! <grin> ------------ Amiga RT Category 14, Topic 31 Message 598 Wed Mar 17, 1993 J.COLLINS5 [MinuteMan] at 00:29 EST The following message is a repost from the AMAX topic. R.HARBISON [Bob Harbison] at 21:28 EST There's a small company called NuTek, (Yes NU Tek, _not_ NewTek!) that has introduced a mac emulator board. The board sells for $899 each, and is IBM compatible. The company is somewhat worried due to the fact that Apple has recently lowered prices, possibly undercutting it's board: NUTEK FINNALLY HAS A PRODUCT OUT! I've been folowing this Nutek Saga for a while. They were trying to produce a set of clean room ROM's for emulating the Mac. This has the potential to do to the Mac what Pheonix did to the DOS BIOS market. If we can just get Jim can be convinced to support these third party ROMs to populate his Emplants it could mean a 100% legal, unquestionable way to sell Emplants as Mac emulators Ready to RUN! No mor hunting for ROMs. I suspect from the price of the Nutek board that it's just an IBM Emplant with a 680x0 on board. All those who would like to see Jim look into this post a reply. B) ______________________________ Here's a short, humorous discussion of high-density floppy drives in the A4000: Amiga RT Category 17, Topic 33 Message 82 Tue Mar 09, 1993 STUPID at 21:36 EST Matt: So all we need to do to get two HD floppies in an A4000 is to take off the dust covers and get new faceplates? I'm going to have to explore this a little, I think. ---------- Amiga RT Category 17, Topic 33 Message 83 Wed Mar 10, 1993 BOOMER.T [-<<Micah>>-] at 01:50 EST The HDF drives in the 4000 *are* thicker than a normal HDF drive. About 1.5 times as thick in fact. I have them both in my hands. In fact, you can't fit two C= HDF's in the 4000 as they are too thick. ---------- Amiga RT Category 17, Topic 33 Message 85 Wed Mar 10, 1993 J.EVERS1 [FISHBONE] at 20:19 EST Micah, how do you type while holding 2 disk drives? On second thought........ I don't want to know. >:) FISHBONE >-}}}D ---------- Amiga RT Category 17, Topic 33 Message 86 Thu Mar 11, 1993 BOOMER.T [-<<Micah>>-] at 02:40 EST >Micah, > >how do you type while holding 2 disk drives? Damn good question! ;-) ---------- """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" COMPUSERVE LOWERS CONNECT-TIME RATES Hourly connect-time rates are now lower for Standard Pricing Plan members when using extended services. The new charges are $6/hour for 300 bps, $8/hour for 1200/2400 bps and $16/hour for 9600 bps access. The monthly membership fee, which includes unlimited connect-time in more than 30 basic services, has increased $1 to $8.95 (this pricing change is not applicable in all countries). FundWatch Online by Money magazine, a powerful mutual fund screening and reporting service, is now part of basic services, which also includes CompuServe Mail, The Electronic Mall, news, weather and sports, member support services, reference and travel services. Rates for Alternative Pricing Plan members will remain at $6.30/hour for 300 bps, $12.80/hour for 1200 and 2400 bps, and $22.80/hour for 9600 bps. Also, the Membership Support Fee under the Alternative Pricing Plan increases 50 cents to $2.50. Members currently under the Standard Pricing Plan will automatically be billed at the new rates starting 28-Feb. For more information on the new rates or to join the Standard Pricing Plan, GO CHOICES. COMPUSERVE CUTS EUROPEAN SURCHARGES Members can now access via European CompuServe nodes and pay no communication surcharges during non-prime time (19:00-8:00 local time). The resulting $2.20/hour savings is in addition to the reductions in connect-time charges available for all members on the Standard Pricing Plan. For European access numbers, GO PHONES. FORUM MESSAGE CAPACITY INCREASED CompuServe has enhanced its forum software to allow an increase in the size of messages. The maximum message size was formerly 96 lines or 2,000 characters. With this change, the size increases to a maximum of 10,000 characters. Also, the message board capacity has been increased. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" World of Commodore/Amiga April 2-4, 1993 New York Passenger Ship Terminal, Pier 88 Between 48th & 52nd on the Hudson River New York, NY Seminar Schedule Friday, April 2, 1993 10:15 AmigaVision Professional 11:00 Keynote by Lew Eggebrecht, VP Engineering, Commodore International 11:45 ASDG Making Broadcast Special Effects on the Amiga 12:30 Centaur Demonstrates OpalVision 1:15 Scala: Prepare Powerhouse Multimedia Presentations 2:00 Digital Audio 2:45 Gold Disk Present Desktop Publishing 3:30 Lee Stranahan Presents Video Toaster Saturday, April 3, 1993 10:15 AmigaVision Professional 11:00 Keynote by Jim Dionne, President, Commodore Business Machines 11:45 ASDG Making Broadcast Special Effects on the Amiga 12:30 Centaur Demonstrates OpalVision 1:15 Scala: Prepare Powerhouse Multimedia Presentations 2:00 Image Effects by Great Valley Products 2:45 Gold Disk Present Desktop Publishing 3:30 Lee Stranahan Presents Video Toaster Sunday, April 4, 1993 12:15 Centaur Demonstrates OpalVision 1:00 Video Director by Gold Disk 1:45 Keynote by Geoff Stilley, VP Sales, Commodore Business Machines 2:30 Fine Artist Sandra Filippucci Teaches Graphic Applications 3:00 Lee Stranahan Presents Video Toaster Seminars subject to change without notice. Admission: $15/day or $30/three-day pass Group discount tickets are available until March 15 for $8 each day. Minimum order required for group rate - 25 tickets. For information call Karen Jewell (416) 285-5950. Admission price includes free seminars. Commodore Business Machines, Inc. 1200 Wilson Dr. West Chester, PA 19380 (215) 431-9100 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" >STR Staff Bio: Micah Thompson, Technical Editor ================================================ Hi, I'm Micah Thompson, Technical Editor of Amiga Report Online Magazine. My computer career started with the illustrious Radio Shack TRS-80 16K. Floppies were the rage, as were blocky black and white graphics. Our final project in CS class was to create a program with "something that moved..." heheheh. An "Animation" as we call them today. On a TRS-80??? Well, I made a fantasy city, with a flying saucer flying overhead, shooting and destroying several buildings. Not too easy with PSET(x,y) commands in BASIC! The first computer I owned was the venerable Commodore 64. I was amazed that something with 64K of RAM was only $595! I was a kid in school, with no job so I couldn't afford the disk drive, so I made do with the DataCassette recorder. :-) In the meantime I held a part time job programming an original IBM PC with two 360k floppies, and a whopping 384K. I was in heaven with floppy drives! I programmed mostly in Compiled BASIC and Assembly (done from DEBUG!). While I was learning some more advanced languages like Pascal, Fortran, and COBOL, I couldn't talk my boss into buying any compilers, so BASIC it was. After transfering to a larger university it became obvious that I needed a "Real" computer for myself. This was 1985, and the rage was the original Mac. I was fascinated with it, having only used the PC and C64. A mouse was some thing very new to me, and I liked it. Well, this is where fate stepped in. I was an avid reader of Compute! magazine in those days. (Anyone remember typing in machine language programs on the C64?) One day I got an issue with this amazing computer on the cover. It was the Amiga 1000. It became painfully obvious that this was by far the most powerful computer around. 4,096 colors when the PC had 16, Stereo 8-bit sound, a GUI, and most amazing, true multitasking. The first time I saw a digitized HAM picture at the store, I *had* to have it. I borrowed the money, and bought a spanking new A1000 with 512k, and an ex- ternal 1010 drive. I used this computer until 1991, and really put it through the paces. It never let me down, although I about pulled my hair out wanting more RAM! I missed the A2000 power-up deals, as I didn't have the money, plus I didn't figure it was enough different to warrant it. When the A3000 came out, I wanted one BAD. The 68030 was a processor I'd only dreamed of owning. Thanks to the Power-Up, having a real job by then and a liberal Credit Union, I bought one and the rage began again! I set out to really soup it up. I got DCTV, more RAM, a new monitor, a faster modem, a scanner, laser printer, and a DMI Resolver graphics card. I LOVED that machine, but for ONE thing -- it's graphics. Sixteen colors in hires was pathetic compared to what was current. My DMI Resolver looked incredible, but didn't run native software. I wanted a machine with great graphics built in. To the rescue comes AGA! When all the talk of AGA came to the nets, I got *very* excited. So much so that I put a deposit in so I could get the first one that came out. Finally! All the benefits of the Amiga, with superior graphics too! I could finally stash my VGA PC in the corner, and look at my Amiga's screen again! When my Amiga 4000 arrived, it was everything I'd hoped. (Except for the IDE interface, but that's another story.) AGA programs were slow coming (at least in my eager mind), but several programs I had already supported AGA, so I was set. I could see my scans in all their glory, not to mention the blazing speed of the 68040! That brings me to my current setup. An A4000 with 18 megs RAM and the stock 120 meg IDE drive, as well as a Commodore 1950 multiscan monitor. To it I added a 168 meg Quantum IDE drive, a 2091 SCSI controller (where is that A4091???), a 120meg Quantum LPS120S, and an NEC CDR-80 internal CD-ROM drive. Its sidekicks include an Epson ES300C 24bit full-page scanner, the NEC SilentWriter Model 95 Postscript-2 Laser Printer, A SupraFAX V.32bis modem, and a Magnavox mini-stereo system for all those MODs! What do I use it for? Having fun, of course! From all those years of enjoy- ing the Amiga, I have come to know it pretty well. It seems almost like a brother to me! Maybe I can spread some of that knowledge around, and pass along all the knowledge I aquire along the way. I know it will be a great journey! **************************************************************************** IMPORTANT NOTICE! ================= Amiga Report International Online Magazine is available every week in the Amiga Forum on DELPHI. Amiga Report readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of computer enthusiasts there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN -- DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and.... At Password: type STREPORT and press RETURN. DELPHI's Basic Plan offers access for only $6.00 per hour, for any baud rate. The $5.95 monthly fee includes your first hour online. For more information, call: DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-544-4005 DELPHI is a service of General Videotex Corporation of Cambridge, MA. Try DELPHI for $1 an hour! For a limited time, you can become a trial member of DELPHI, and receive 5 hours of evening and weekend access during this month for only $5. If you're not satisfied, simply cancel your account before the end of the calendar month with no further obligation. If you keep your account active, you will automatically be enrolled in DELPHI's 10/4 Basic Plan, where you can use up to 4 weekend and evening hours a month for a minimum $10 monthly charge, with additional hours available at $3.96. But hurry, this special trial offer will expire soon! To take advantage of this limited offer, use your modem to dial 1-800-365-4636. Press <RET> once or twice. When you get the Password: prompt, type IP26 and press <RET> again. Then, just answer the questions and within a day or two, you'll officially be a member of DELPHI! DELPHI- It's getting better all the time! **************************************************************************** > Rendered Reality "I render, therefore I am." ================ By Mike Troxell I'm Mike Troxell, your 'host' for Rendered Reality, Amiga Report's graphics and animation column. In later issues I want to cover new graphics and animation software and hardware (commercial and PD), but since this is the first issue of Amiga Report, I thought it might be a good idea to talk about exactly what type of setup is needed to begin working in graphics and animation. For those of you who already have your systems set up, hang on until next issue and we'll get to the good stuff. First, exactly what do you need if you want to get started in graphics? (Besides an Amiga, of course) With all the peripherals that are out now, any Amiga can be used for basic graphics work. If you are doing still graphics (single pictures), anything from an A500 with extra memory to an A4000 will work. However, if you are really serious and plan to share your work with others, I recommend using either a 1200 or 4000 because of the AGA graphics. Or if you don't have a 1200/4000, I suggest using DCTV or a 24-bit color board with whatever model Amiga you are using. As far as software, you will need a good paint program. DPaint IV will probably be first program you will want to buy. If you are using DCTV, you will already have DCTVPaint, though you still probably want to get DPaint to go along with it. If you are planning on working with 2D animations, you can use the same basic setup that you used for still graphics. Just make sure that you have a hard drive, because you're going to be working with some large files. You will also want some extra memory, at least 4 meg. An accelerator is nice if you plan to work on complex animations. For 3-D work, you definitly want an accelerator, unless you are using a 3000 or 4000. I used to do all my animation work on a 2000 with a GVP 40Mhz 68030 accelerrator and a 40Mhz 68882. Even with that, it still seemed too slow at times. You will want a large hard drive, at least 120 meg, and AS MUCH MEMORY AS YOU CAN AFFORD! Really, if you are planning on doing serious 3D animation work, you will want at least 8-10 meg of RAM. You can do good animation work with less than that (I don't want to scare anyone off) but I also want to be realistic about what you need for serious work. Software? Thats a matter of personal choice. If you want to get a fight started, try putting a group of animation people in a room, and ask them what animation software they think you should use. Actually, its not quite that bad but you will get some good (heated) discussions going. If you are trying to decide on an animation program, probably the best thing to do is start reading the graphics and animations messages on CompuServe, GEnie or on local Amiga BBS's. I know a lot of people who use either Lightwave or Imagine. Lightwave3D is probably the most respected 3-D program available for the Amiga. Unfortunatly, you can only get it by buying the Video Toaster. Oh well, we can't have everything (uh, can we?). Besides 3D software, you might want to look at Art Department Professional (ADPro), a presentation program such as ScalaMM and possibly Pixel 3D Pro. If you are interested in doing morphs, you have a choice between several good morphing packages, which I plan to review in a later issue. Besides commercial software, there are a few Public Domain/Shareware programs that every graphic artist should have (well, unless you happen to have ADPro). I've listed a few of these, and places where they can be found. Or you can always check your local Amiga BBS: ViewTek A Picture/Animation Viewer. Shows GIF's, JFIF/JPEG, Anim Op-5, SHAM, CTBL and PCHG images and supports ECS/AGA display modes! This means that you will be able to display 256 color GIF's directly on your Amiga. (Hey, you gotta have something to look at while you're downloading those Ham8 pictures!). Author: Thomas Krehbiel Current Version: 1.04 File Sources: GEnie: Amiga RT, File #18719 Rend24 Rend24 has several other features but where it really excels is as a batch file processor. Rend24 can wait for a rendering pro- gram such as LightWave3D, Imagine or VistaPro to write IFF24 files to disk. Rend24 then grabs each image and converts it to an Amiga format and builds them into an anim file. It also works with DCTV if you want it to. Author: Thomas Krehbiel Current Version: 1.05a File Sources: GEnie: Amiga RT, File #18420 CompuServe: AmigaArts Forum, "RND15A.LHA" View View is another graphics/animation player. View's strong point is (in my opinion) the way it handles animation files. I use View3.4 to show off all my animations. Current Version: 3.4 Author: Michael Hartman GEnie: Amiga RT, File #17624 There are probably a lot of other PD or Shareware graphics programs that you may want to download, such as Grinder, Vertex, P-Animate and others that I'll try to get into next time. But these should get you started if you are just getting into graphics. If any companies (or individuals for that matter) have any new graphics software/hardware information that they would like to have passed on to our readers, or if anyone finds a new graphics/animation program that they think other Amiga user s would like to know about, please send me a message, so I can pass the information along. I can be reached at any of the Email addresses listed at the beginning of each issue. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > STR Staff Bio: Tom Mulcahy, Contributing Editor ================================================ I'm currently a student at Onondaga Community College, a small school in Syracuse, NY. I'm 22 and have been interested in the Amiga for roughly six years. I still remember my first ever 'Amiga' experience: Several years ago, I was a Nintendo jockey -- not a computer owner. I wanted a computer, but had no knowledge whatsoever on what was out there. I knew practically nothing of the Amiga, except for the very first Amiga commercial. I vaguely remember it. I remember smoke, mystique, and an A1000. Needless to say I wanted one! I ripped through any magazines I could find about the Amiga. I remember being tempted by the Atari 520ST, since it had similar graphics. Christmas came rolling by, and a friend of mine invited me over to check something out. His mother had received an Amiga 500, 1084S monitor, and an external drive! This was one of the first A500's out. He popped in a program he said I HAD to see. It was the game "Barabarian," from Psygnosis. I was literally blown away! Nothing at that time was even comparable. Need- less to say, after two years of jogging to his house his home to pester his mother into letting us use her machine, I got my own Amiga 500. This was to last me a few years. As with many Amiga users, my interests progressed as I gained experience with the machine. Sure, I'm still interested in games, but the graphics, animation and morphing is just too good to pass up. To use the more sophisticated packages, I had upgrade my system. I eventually added a hard drive, more memory, etc. Today I use an Amiga 1200 with a 40 meg hard drive, and an MBX1200 with a 25 MHz 68882 and 4 meg of Fast RAM. Life goes on, and the upgrade process continues... """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > BABYLON 5? STR FOCUS! A plea for help... """"""""""""""""""""" BABYLON 5 AYE or NAY? ====================== Reprinted from STReport Atari Edition #9.08 The following is uploaded with the request that, if you support what appears below, it be further uploaded to other BBSs...local, regional, national...relay nets and networks. It's generally recognized that there would not have been a third season of the original Trek series had it not been for the action of science fiction fans across the country who, seeing in that program something they liked, wrote to the network to keep the show on the air. Their voices were heard, and the show stayed on the air for one more season. That's the part everyone knows. What's not generally considered outside the Television Industry are all of the ramifications of that action. At two seasons, a little over 50 episodes, there were not nearly enough episodes to go into general syndication. At two seasons, the show would have been bought as a package by fewer stations, would have popped up far less often on television sets subsequent to the original series' cancellation. It's altogether possible that it might not have shown up at all, and been consigned to the NBC vaults on the grounds of insufficient episodes for syndication marketing. (It happens; how many episodes of Captain Nice have you seen lately?) With that third season, there were finally enough episodes on hand to go into general syndication. And it was in syndication that Star Trek gradually built up the viewership and the popularity that led to conventions, that resulted in a generation of viewers to whom the term "klingon" was not some obscure reference but a part of American popular culture. Without that third season, the Star Trek phenomenon would never have had a chance to grow. There would have been no new novels, no animated series, no role playing games, no Star Trek I, II, III, IV, V or VI. There would have been no Next Generation or any other subsequent series. All of that...ALL of that...happened because concerned viewers took a moment to voice their opinions to those who were in a position to listen, and to act upon those opinions. Now... what does this have to do with Babylon 5? Some of you have seen it. Many more of you are about to see it. Throughout the year-plus that I've been talking about this show at conventions and on the computer nets, I've emphasized a number of agendas: our desire to Get It Right; to avoid shilling and lying to fans, as is so often done by producers eager to cash in on *SCI-FI*; and our intention to do intelligent stories with interesting characters. And there's one other item: I've said, time and again, not to believe any of the hype, but rather to trust to your own considered instincts. And it is that subject which is the point of this essay. You now have the opportunity to judge our efforts for yourself. Babylon 5, as it stands in its present form, as a pilot, is the first time that the crew, the cast, the director and others have come together. Four weeks of shooting, two days of rehearsal, and a budget roughly *ONE-FOURTH* that of DS9's pilot. As has been stated from the very beginning, it has all the flaws you would expect of a new project, in which people have to act together for the first time, sets may or may not be all perfect, and the bugs are still being worked out. That's what a pilot is for, to try things, see what works, adjust, and move on. The fundamental question behind Babylon 5 comes down to this: do you like what you see? Does it make you want to see more? Have we kept our promise as far as what was actually *delivered* in the pilot? Because there *is* more to come. There has always been a plan for a series to follow. If anything, that was the point of the entire exercise...to tell a story. To create a novel for TV that would span five years, for which the pilot is the opening chapter. Having now seen, or about to see the foundation for that story, and before being asked to lend support to that series, you have a right to some sense of what that series would entail, and what you're being asked to support. One should never sign a blank check on the bank of one's conscience. So here's a preview. You will find out what happened to Sinclair, for starters, during the Earth/Minbari war. For nearly 10 years, Sinclair has worked to convince himself that nothing happened to him on the Line other than what seems to be the case: that he blacked out for 24 hours. He's just managed to convince himself of this. Now, suddenly, someone comes into his life and with seven words -- you'll know them when you hear them -- completely unravels the self-deception. He knows then that something DID happen to him, that someone DID mess with his mind...and he is going to find out who, and why. The ramifications of that discovery will have a major influence on the series, on his relationships, and the future of not only his character but many others. You will see what a Vorlon is...and what it represents. And what it may have to do with our own saga, and a hidden relationship to some of our other characters (watch the reception scene carefully). We'll discover that there are MANY players in this game. You'll find out what happened to Babylon 4, and it will call into question what is real, what is not, and the ending of that episode is one that you have not seen before on television. We'll find that most every major character is running to, or away from something in their hearts, or their pasts, or their careers. Garibaldi's checkered past will catch up with him in a way that will affect his role and make him a very different character for as much as a full season, and have lasting effects thereafter. Lyta will take part in a voyage of discovery that will very much change her character. She will be caught up in a web of intrigue and forced to betray the very people she has come to care for. We will see wheels within wheels, discover the secret groups behind the Earth and Minbari governments who suspect, with good reason, that one of the B5 crew may be a traitor, who sold out Earth during the Earth/Minbari war. Some of the established empires in the pilot will fall. Some will rise unexpectedly. Hopes and fortunes will be alternately made or destroyed. At least one major race not yet known even to EXIST will make its presence known, but only gradually. Some characters will fall from grace. Others will make bargains whose full price they do not understand...but will eventually come to realize, and regret. At the end of the first season, one character will undergo a MAJOR change, which will start the show spinning on a very different axis. The first season will have some fairly conventional stories, but others will start the show gradually moving toward where I want it to go. One has to set these things up gradually. Events in the story -- which is very much the story of Jeffrey Sinclair -- will speed up in each subsequent season. Someone he considers a friend will betray him. Another will prove to be the exact opposite of what Sinclair believes to be true. Some will live. Some will die. He will be put through a crucible of terrible force, that will change him, and alter his destiny in a profound and terrible way...if he goes one way, or the other, will determine not only his own fate, but that of millions of others. He will grow, and become stronger, better, wiser...or be destroyed by what fate is bringing his way. In sum, it is a story of hope against terrible adversity and overwhelming odds. Each of our characters will be tempted in a different way to ally with a dark force determined to once and for all destroy the peace. Some will fall prey to the temptation, others will not, and pay the price for their resistance. The homeworld of one of our major characters will be decimated. War will become inevitable. And when it comes, Babylon 5 will be forever changed. That, in broad brush strokes, is a little of what I plan to do with the series. It is, as stated, a novel for television, with a definite beginning, middle and end. The point being this: If you genuinely approve of what you see in Babylon 5, if what we promised is what we delivered, if having seen the prologue to the five year story that is Babylon 5 you now wish to see the rest of the story...if, in short, we haven't lied to you, and you like what you see...then I ask that you voice your opinions. Space Rangers has been canceled; the fate of other SF shows is in question because studios and networks just aren't sure that there's a market for another SF series. How can YOU help? By doing the following: 1) Write or fax the program director of your local TV station, the one that aired Babylon 5, telling them that you want to see the series which follows Babylon 5, and why. 2) Send another letter, or a a copy of that letter to Dick Robertson, Sr. Vice President, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, 91522. If, on the other hand, you think we blew it...then let the show go the way of the trilobite. I've railed more than once against the idea that "Bad SF is better than no SF," and won't back off of that now that it's my own child on the railroad ties, waiting to see if a Mountie will untie it before the incoming train does its grisly business. It's your choice, and your voice. And if you don't think one voice matters, think of the long history of a certain other show that would have long ago been consigned to the vaults of television history had it not been for involved and interested viewers. We made the show, and did the very best that we could. Now it's in your hands... J. Michael Straczynski, Creator of Babylon 5 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > CPU STATUS REPORT SPECIAL REPORT; COMPARING THE NEW HARDWARE ================= A COMPARISON: AMIGA 1200 VS. FALCON030 ======================================= Information compiled by Ken Baum 1992/93 Here is a technical comparison between Atari's new Falcon 030, Commodore's new Amiga 1200 and Apple's new Performa 400. All of these machines are aimed at the home computer user in price and power. They each feature their own Multitasking Graphic User Interface (GUI) operating system, which is not compatible with MS-DOS. Each of these computers has their own software library. They are all based on Motorola brand CPU's. You won't find "Intel inside" any of these machines, unless it's in the form of an emulator board! Editor's Note: I E-mailed Mr. Baum about his first release of this com- parison from several weeks ago, due to some errors. Most have been cleared up, but some remain. I will note these as we go along. Atari Falcon CBM Amiga 1200 Apple Performa 400 ------------ -------------- ------------------ CPU 68030 68EC020 68030 speed(Mhz) 16 14.32 16 MIPS 3.84 2.5 3.84 data path(bit) 32 (16 used) 32 32 *The MIPS rating of the A1200 is incorrect. Our own Tom Mulcahy says his benchmarks report his A1200 at 2.96 MIPS (with 4 meg of Fast RAM). Though it should be noted that MIPS is meaningless when used to compare different platforms. address space(bit) 24 24 24 instruction cache 256 bytes 256 bytes 256 bytes data cache 256 bytes no 256 bytes FPU optional optional optional socket on board yes no no type 68881/68882 68881/68882 68881/68882 DSP yes no no type 56001 N/A N/A speed(Mhz) 32 N/A N/A MIPS 16 N/A N/A MEMORY & EXPANSION ram(base model) 4MB(16bit) 2MB(32bit CHIP) 4MB(32bit) max ram 14 MB 10 MB(>w/3rd party) 10MB type proprietary proprietary/PCMCIA SIMM rom 512K 512K to 2MB 512K *Mr. Baum fails to note the A1200's Trapdoor 32-bit expansion slot. DISK DRIVES floppy 3.5" 1.44HD 3.5" 880K 3.5" 1.44HD format Atari\MS-DOS(SAME) Amiga w\MS-DOS Mac w\MS-DOS hard internal internal internal type 2.5" IDE 2.5" IDE 3.5" SCSI size 65MB 40MB 80MB I/O PORTS mouse/joystick 2reg 2analog 2 reg 1 mouse serial RS-232C RS-232 2 MAC parallel BI-directional Centronics no video-out analog RGB\VGA analog\RGB\VGA analog RGB\VGA composite\RF composite\RF audio-in stereo 1/8"mini no mono RCA -out stereo 1/8"mini stereo RCA mono RCA external floppy no yes yes internal IDE yes yes no external SCSI yes SCSI II no yes midi in, out/thru no no DSP yes(1 MHZ trans) no no network Localtalk LAN no Appletalk LAN *Mr. Baum says that the A1200's parallel port is not bi-directional. I noted this when I E-Mailed him, but it was never changed. I guess those of us with scanners and Parnet setups haven't really been using them, huh? *He also fails to note that the Amiga can have up to THREE additional external floppy drives. EXPANSION internal bus exp cpu expansion slot Processor 128K cartridge PCMCIA 2(16bit) Direct Slot DSP port SOUND resolution 16bit\50Khz 8bit\50Khz 8bit\22Khz channels 8 4 1 input yes\stereo no yes\mono output stereo stereo mono internal speaker yes no yes *I also told him that the Amiga's sound can be 28 kHz in stereo and 56 kHz in mono. Note that the Falcon's 16-bit sound is due to the DSP. VIDEO resolution -minimum 320x200 320x200 640x480 -maximum 640x480 1280x400\640x960(i) 640x480 palette(colors) 262,144 16.8 million 16.8 million maximum displayed 65,536(640x400) 256,000(all res) 256 overscan yes yes no *Due to space considerations, I can forgive him for not listing more of the 1200's graphics modes, but he could have at least listed the 800x600 mode. MISC clock yes no yes keyboard type attached full attached full detached full *Internal clock in the A1200 is OPTIONAL. Okay, C= was crazy for doing that, but I _had_ to mention it. OPERATING SYSTEM type multitasking gui multitasking gui multitasking gui location rom\disk rom\disk rom\disk *He lists the Mac as being multitasking. That's funny. MultiFinder is NOT a multitasking system. Programs CAN multitask with it, but they must be specifically written to do so, and if another not-so-inclined program is run at the same time, it can lock out the rest of the programs until it's finished. PRICE retail $1299.00 $1099.00 $1450.00 street N/A $850.00 $1150.00 *I'd just like to point out that for approx. $1200, you can get an A1200 with a 25 MHz 68882, 4 meg of Fast RAM (total of 6 meg), an internal clock and an 80 meg hard drive. That's still less than the Falcon's retail price, or, for approx. $1500, you can have an A1200 with a 40 MHz 68030, a 40 MHz 68882, FIVE meg of Fast RAM (total of 7 meg) and an 80 meg hard drive. Sure, it's not fair to compare street price with retail, but to establish a street price, the machine HAS TO BE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE. Falcons, anyone? SOFTWARE(included) Atari Falcon 030: MultiTOS 4.0-operating system SpeedoGDOS-scalable font extension w/14 Bitstream fonts. Falcon D2D-audio direct to disk recording & editing Atari Works-integrated word processor, database, spreadsheet. Audio Fun Machine-DSP digital audio FX System Audio Manager-record & assign sounds to system event. Various Accessory programs: calculator,calendar,Talking Clock games, etc. CBM Amiga 1200 AmigaDOS 3.0-operating system CrossDOS-allows reading & writing MS-DOS format disks *Deluxe Paint IV AGA-full featured 2D paint & animation *Final Copy-full featured word processor Various Utility Programs:Calculator,screenblanker etc. (*indicates a limited time offer) Apple Performa 400 System 7.1-operating system Symantec Greatworks-integrated word processor,database, spreadsheet,charting,paint & telecomm program At Ease-program launcher Teleware M.Y.O.B.-checkbook & cardfile program T/Maker Clip Art-business graphics Various Accessory programs:calculator,alarm clock,games etc. FINAL NOTES: The Atari & Commodore machines are housed in a single case. They DO NOT have detached keyboards. The Atari Falcon is in the same case as it's predecessor the 1040STE, and the Amiga 1200 is in a restyled case similar to the Amiga 500. Also, each of these computers is available without a hard drive for less money. However, models with hard drives were used for comparison purposes. These configuraions are those as supplied by the manufacturer. Individual dealers may offer other configuration options. The Apple Performa 400 has a separate keyboard, it is in the same case as the MAC LCII(In fact, that's exactly what it is!). The Atari & Commodore machines can operate at many different screen resolutions and would require a multisync monitor for optimum flexibility. Also, the Commodore Amiga 1200's maximum resolutions are interlaced(i). It's maximum non-interlaced resolution is 640x480. Both the Atari Falcon & Commodore Amiga 1200 will also overscan, giving them more resolution in that mode and making them suitable for Desk Top Video (DTV). The Apple Performa would require an analog VGA type monitor. The Atari Falcon is the only computer here with a DSP (digital signal processor) chip. revision 1.1 Information compiled by Ken Baum 1992/93 E-mail on GEnie or Delphi:<KEBAUM> Sources: Amiga World, Amiga Format, AtariUser, ST Format, MACWorld GEnie & Delphi. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > STR Staff Bio: Mike Troxell, Graphics Editor ============================================= Hi, I'm Mike Troxell, Amiga Report's graphics editor. Since this is the first issue of the 'new and improved' Amiga Report, Rob asked each of us to write a short bio and tell you a little about ourselves. I live in Chattanooga, TN where I attend college at Chattanooga State Technical Community College. I'm taking a double major in Industrial Technology and Applied Technology, along with computer networking classes. After I graduate this April, I'd like to work as a computer network tech- nician (maybe go on to become a CNE) but I'm also looking into the eddy current technology field. If I'm not at school or work you will probably find me in front of my A1200 working on an animation, or maybe finishing work on a morph sequence. My first computer (I believe I bought it around 1980) was a C=64. When the Amiga 500 came out I took one look at the graphics and knew I had to have this machine. After playing around with several PD raytracing pro- grams, I finally broke down and bought a copy of Imagine, a Mega-Midget Racer accelerator (anyone remember them?) and 4 meg of extra RAM. If you you have ever done much graphics or animation work, you know what I mean when I say that graphics is an addiction. No matter what system you are using, your computer is never fast enough, you never have enough memory and your hard drive is too small. As soon as these three basic laws of graphics work began to sink in, I sold my A500 and bought an A2000 with a GVP 40MHZ 68030 accelerator, 10 meg of RAM and a larger hard drive. I'd been using the A2000 for two years and (except for running out of memory every time I try to render a scene with Carmen Rizzolo's 3-D USS Enterprise object - it takes around 12 meg) I was really happy with my A2000 system. Even better, my bank account was beginning to recover from buying the A2000/GVP/RAM/HD, when all of a sudden C= comes out with AGA graphics. The next thing I knew I had sold my A2000 and bought an A1200. I've been using the A1200 for about a month and I really like it. I'll like it even better once I get a GVP A1230 and more memory! There are a lot of people who are better at graphics than I am. I'm sure many of you who are reading this have animations which are better than anything I've done. I'm not here writing the graphics column for Amiga Report because I'm the best animator Rob could find. I'm here because I love doing graphics and animation, because I think the Amiga is the best graphics platform around and because I'm sick of Amiga users having to hunt for any Amiga information, while other platforms have dozens of online and hardcopy magazines. Maybe we can help change that with Amiga Report. Give us a few issues and then let us know how we're doing. **************************************************************************** :HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT: _________________________________ Set your communications software to Half Duplex (or Local Echo) Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN. GEnie costs only $4.95 a month for unlimited evening and weekend access to more than 100 services including electronic mail, online encyclopedia, shopping, news, entertainment, single-player games, and bulletin boards on leisure and professional subjects. With many other services, including the biggest collection of files to download and the best online games, for only $6 per hour. MONEY BACK GUARANTEE! Any time during your first month of membership if you are not completely satisfied, just ask for your $4.95 back. GEnie Information copyright (C) 1991 by General Electric Information Services/GEnie, reprinted by permission **************************************************************************** > AB20 Amiga CDROM Review "Inexpensive Shareware Source!" ======================= By Tom Mulcahy There aren't many shareware CD-ROMs available for the Amiga. Besides the Fred Fish online CD-ROMs, the AB20 is the only other shareware CD-ROM that I am aware of. Those of you familiar with the Internet may recognize the name. Ab20.Larc.Nasa.Gov was one of the larger Amiga sites on the internet. There are roughly three hundred megabytes of programs in about 3,000 files. More than enough to keep you busy for quite a while. There is quite an array of programs to explore, ranging from GNU utilites to MOD music files, to the ever popular Euro Demos. Also on this CD-ROM are all of the Usenet archives from Comp.Sources.Amiga and Comp.Binaries.Amiga newsgroups. All of the files are archived into TAR format as well. Since the CDROM is in ISO-9660 format it can be read on a variety of platforms. At $24.95 you really can't go wrong. 1-800-786-9907 1-510-947-5996 1-510-947-1644 FAX Walnut Creek CDROM 1547 Palos Verdes, Suite 260 Walnut Creek, CA 94596-2228 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > VIRUS?? STR Feature New Virii?? """"""""""""""""""" NEW VIRUS STRAINS IDENTIFIED! ============================= Reprinted from STReport Atari Edition #9.08 From the Jerry Pournelle RT on Genie ------------------------------------ By Dave Moeller Compiled by Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. Several new computer viruses have been identified: POLITICALLY CORRECT VIRUS: -------------------------- Never calls itself a "virus," but instead refers to itself as an "electronic microorganism." Infected computers immediately stop processing and display "computationally challenged" as an error message. GOVERNMENT ECONOMIST VIRUS: --------------------------- Nothing works, but all your diagnostic software says everything is fine. CONGRESSIONAL VIRUS: ------------------- Especially insidious, this virus comes in two versions, each version replacing the other at random intervals. Under Version 1, the computer locks up, screen splits erratically with a message appearing in each half blaming the other side for the problem. Version 2 runs every program on the hard drive simultaneously, but doesn't allow the user to accomplish anything. FEDERAL BUREAUCRAT VIRUS: ------------------------- Divides your hard drive into hundreds of little units, each of which does practically nothing but all of which claim to be the most important part of the computer and therefore requires additional resources. When detected, attempts to invoke Version 2 of the Congressional virus. FEDERAL BUDGET VIRUS: --------------------- Attempts to allocate non-existent resources to hard drive partitions created by the Bureaucrat virus. Upon failing, passes control to the IRS virus which locks up the entire computer and seizes its assets. AIRLINE VIRUS: -------------- You're in Dallas, but your data is in Singapore. KERVORKIAN VIRUS: ----------------- Helps your computer shut down whenever it wants to. PAUL REVERE VIRUS: ------------------ This revolutionary virus warns you of impending attack -- once if by LAN, twice if by C. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > BBS ETHICS STR InfoFile A good rule of thumb for all.... """"""""""""""""""""""" Ethics For BBS Users (Source Unknown) The following are a few points of general BBS etiquette. If you wish to maintain your welcome on whatever system you happen to call, it would be to your advantage to observe these few rules. 1. Don't habitually hang up on a system. Every SysOp is aware that accidental disconnections happen once in a while but we do tend to get annoyed with people who hang up every single time they call because they are either too lazy to terminate properly or they labor under the mistaken assumption that the 10 seconds they save online is going to significantly alter their phone bill. "Call Waiting" is not an acceptable excuse for long. If you have it and intend to use the line to call BBS systems, you should either have it disconnected or find some other way to circumvent it. In some areas a *70 before dialing, will disable call waiting for that call! 2. Don't do dumb things like leave yourself a message that says "Just testing to see if this thing works". Where do you think all those other messages came from if it didn't work? Also, don't leave whiney messages that say "Please leave me a message". If ever there was a person to ignore, it's the one who begs someone to leave him a message. If you want to get messages, start by reading the ones that are already online and getting involved in the conversations that exist. 3. Don't use the local equivalent of a chat command unless you really have some clear cut notion of what you want to say and why. Almost any SysOp is more than happy to answer questions or offer help concerning his system. Unfortunately, because about 85% of the people who call want to chat and about 99% of those people have absolutely nothing to say besides "How old are you?" or something equally irrelevant, fewer SysOps even bother answering their pagers every day. 4. When you are offered a place to leave comments when exiting a system, don't try to use this area to ask the SysOp questions. It is very rude to the other callers to expect the SysOp to carry on a half visible conversation with someone. If you have a question or statement to make and expect the SysOp to respond to it, it should always be made in the section where all the other messages are kept. This allows the SysOp to help many people with the same problem with the least amount of effort on his part. 5. Before you log on with your favorite pseudonym, make sure that handles are allowed. Most SysOps don't want people using handles on the system. There is not enough room for them, they get silly games of one-upmanship started, it is much nicer to deal with a person on a personal basis, and last but not least, everyone should be willing to take full responsibility for his actions or comments instead of slinging mud from behind a phoney name. 6. Take the time to log on properly. There is no such place as RIV, HB,ANA or any of a thousand other abbreviations people use instead of their proper city. You may think that everyone knows what RIV is supposed to mean, but every BBS has people calling from all around the country and I assure you that someone from Podunk Iowa has no idea what you're talking about. 7. Don't go out of your way to make rude observations like "Gee, this system is slow". Every BBS is a trade off of features. You can generally assume that if someone is running a particular brand of software, that he is either happy with it or he'll decide to find another system he likes better. It does nobody any good when you make comments about something that you perceive to be a flaw when it's running the way the SysOp wants. Constructive criticism is somewhat more welcome. If you have an alter- native method that seems to make good sense then run it up the flagpole. 8. When leaving messages, stop and ask yourself whether it is necessary to make it private. Unless there might be some particular reason that everyone shouldn't know what you're saying, don't make it private. We don't call them PUBLIC bulletin boards for nothing, folks. It's very irritating to other callers when there are blank spots in the messages that they can't read and it stifles interaction between callers. 9. If your favorite BBS has a time limit, observe it. If it doesn't, set a limit for yourself and abide by it instead. Don't tie up a system until it finally kicks you off and then call back with another name. This same rule applies to downloading or playing games. Only one person at a time can be logged on to a BBS and it isn't fair to everyone else if you overstay your welcome. Remember, a BBS is best when it can be left wide open. If you try and cheat the rules you just hurt everybody by forcing the SysOp to adopt more stringent policies. I can't count the number of BBS's that are now locked tighter than a drum because of people who cheat and abuse. 10. Don't call a BBS just to look at the list of other BBS numbers. Most especially don't call a system as a new user and run right to the other numbers list. There is probably very little that's more annoying to any SysOp than to have his board completely passed over by you on your way to another board. 11. HAVE THE COMMON COURTESY TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT PASSES IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE. When a BBS displays your name and asks "Is this you?", don't say yes when you can see perfectly well that it is mispelled. Also, don't start asking questions about simple operation of a system until you have thoroughly read all of the instructions that are available to you. I assure you that it isn't any fun to answer a question for the thousandth time when the answer is prominently displayed in a system bulletin or instructions. Use some common sense when you ask your questions. The person who said "There's no such thing as a stupid question" obviously never operated a BBS. 12. If by some chance you should encounter an error while you are online (Heaven forbid!), ALWAYS take the time to leave the SysOp a message describing the circumstance. Don't just say "There was an error". That is not helpful in the least. Chances are that he knows there was an error. What he needs to know is what you were doing when the error occurred so that he can have some chance of finding and correcting it. If the error happened after you input something, tell him what it was. Remember that a BBS can't improve unless you're willing to help. 13. Don't be personally abusive. It doesn't matter whether you like a SysOp or think he's a jerk. The fact remains that he has a large investment in making his computer available, usually out of the goodness of his heart. If you don't like a SysOp or his system, just remember that you can change the channel any time you want. Calling a SysOp names or making uninformed comments about his lifestyle only shows you for the child you really are. 14. Keep firmly in mind that you are a guest on any BBS you happen to call. Don't think of logging on as one of your basic human rights. Every person that has ever put a computer system online for the use of other people has spent a lot of time and money to do so. While he doesn't expect non stop pats on the back, it seems reasonable that he should at least be able to expect fair treatment from his callers. This includes following any of the rules for system use he has laid out without grumping about it. Every SysOp has his own idea of how he wants his system to be run. It is really none of your business why he wants to run it the way he does. Your business is to either abide by what he says, or call some other BBS where you feel that you can obey the rules. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > NVN WANTS YOU! STR InfoFile Another Network Supports Amiga! """"""""""""""""""""""""""" National Videotext Network (NVN) has recently added an Amiga Forum to it's growing lists of available services. The Amiga Forum is ready and waiting for you! The future of NVN will be one which continues to remain sensitive and responsive to market needs. Additional services and advances in electronic information will continue to be added, to provide unique and interesting services on an on-going basis. NVN service offerings can be broken into three categories: Basic, Premium, and Premium Plus. **************************************** **************************************** ** 9600 BAUD acious! ** ** For users with 9600 baud modems ** ** SAME PRICE AS 2400 BAUD! ** ** TRUE on line savings! ** **************************************** **************************************** Basic Services -------------- Most of the Basic services are available 24 hours a day with no connect time charges beyond the basic membership fee. However, a select group have functions for which transaction fees are charged. Basic services are accessible through a flat rate charge of $5.95 per month. Premium Services ---------------- For Premium services, Members pay connect charges for the amount of time spent in a particular service. Premium services are accessible Monday through Friday for a connect time charge of $9.00/hour from 8 am to 6 pm, and $6.00/hour from 6 pm to 8 am; and on Saturday and Sunday for a connect time charge of $6.00 all day (6 pm Friday til 8 am Monday), central time zone. 9600 Baud access is available at no additional cost! Think of the advantages of downloading at 9600 baud for 9.00 hr Prime Time or 6.00 hr non-prime time! Order an extended NVN Membership of 6 or 12 months, pay for it in advance and receive a bonus in connect time at no additional charge. Choose from two subscription plans: 6-Month Membership Pay just $30 for a 6-month Membership and receive a usage credit that entitles you to $15 of connect-time in the Premium services of your choice. Your total savings using this plan would be over $20!* 12 Month Membership Pay $50 for a full year's Membership and get even more free time on-line. We'll give you a $25 usage credit to use in your favorite Premium services or try out new ones. You could save as much as $45.* For more information about either of these plans, give us a call at 1-800-336- 9096. *Both extended Membership options, including free usage credits are nonrefund-able/nontransferable. Members are responsible for all Premium charges over the $15 or $25 usage credit. You can join NVN one of two ways. By voice phone 1-800-336-9096 (Client Services) or via modem phone 1-800-336-9092. You will be issued an Account # (usually within 24 hours) National Videotex Network and the Atari ST Forum will be waiting for you. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > STReport CONFIDENTIAL "Rumors Tidbits Predictions Observations Tips" """"""""""""""""""""" - New York City, NY MOTOROLA HAS 68060 ALL SET TO GO! ----------------- Reportedly, the 68060 is quite capable of overpowering the PowerPC. While much attention has been focused on the prowess of the upcoming PowerPC RISC processor, Motorola has been quietly working on a powerful successor to the 68040, the 68060, that will outperform the first PowerPC to be released, the PowerPC 601. Motorola's 68060 will perform in the range of 100 million instructions per second (MIPS), compared with the 29 MIPS of a 68040 with a 33MHz clock rate. Because the 68060 will be faster than the PowerPC 601, the 601 will be relegated to a mid-range Mac, while the 68060 will get a glamour job in a line of high-end Macs in early 1994, according to industry sources. The 68060 employs super-scalar execution, that is, the ability to perform two instructions per clock cycle. Motorola plans volume shipments of a 50MHz 68060 in early 1994, with a 66MHz chip to follow. Motorola skipped development of a 68050 in favor of the more radical 68060 design. - New York City, NY BABBAGES DROP ATARI LYNX LINE! ----------------- From our roving reporter who spied this message; "According to the manager of the Babbages where I buy most of my Lynx games from... It looks like the chain will be dropping Lynx games too! That means now the 3 major Lynx sellers, Toys R' Us, Software Etc, and Babbages have dropped Lynx from their stores. Gee, its getting hard to find titles for the doggone thing! Another one bites the dust.... THANKS ATARI! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > STR Dealer Directory ==================== Armadillo Brothers 753 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, Utah 801-484-2791 GEnie: B.GRAY (Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email!) """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Amiga Report's "EDITORIAL CARTOON" """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > A "Quotable Quote" "Byron says, 'hey!'" """"""""""""""""" """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Amiga Report International Online Magazine ~ STR Publications -* [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport *- """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STR Online! "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" March 19, 1993 Amiga Edition Copyright (c) 1993 All Rights Reserved No.1.01 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of STR Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. STReport and/or por- tions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written permission. Amiga Report, at the time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and contributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained there from. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""