AFCD52 - 645M estimated - May 2000
Not much of an update for this, our last ever CD. The HTML has been marginally tweaked again, but that's about it.

AFCD51 - 647M - April 2000
Tweaking, tweaking and more tweaking on this CD. In case you missed it last issue (and who could blame you with all the stuff going on on the CD), we now have the complete Workbench 3.0 in case you might need it at some point. I also updated the HTML this CD making it slightly more streamlined for people with only a small browser window.

Also on this CD: PPaint 7.1b

AFCD50 - 646M - March 2000
Complete visual change for this CD showing Amiga Format's dedication to the new OS, we've decided to change all the icons for OS3.5's colour icon format. Those without the new OS will get Magic Workbench-style icons, those with it will get nice colourful ones. Matt Sealey is the guy that put all the hard work into the new icons, so three cheers for him!

Also on this CD: Fusion + PCx

AFCD49 - 573M + audio track - February 2000
Not much changed this issue, except for the fact that we've found an icon set!

AFCD48 - 630M + audio track - January 2000
In order to spruce the CD up for the millennium* we've changed the HTML on the CD, adding in the Gallery section and changing the sidebars and top bars. We've also given AFCDFind built-in OS3.5 support so those of you without Opus or Scalos can get the results opening Workbench windows for you. We've also updated the Install script to take the changes made into account and improve the way it works.

Now. We're on the look out for a new icon set that we can use under OS3.5. We want it to share the same look as the default set of icons that come with OS3.5, but also have all the special drawers we include. There's �200 for the person who submits the best set, so get cracking.

AFCD47 - 640M estimated - Christmas 1999
Updated AFCDFind and AFBase make an appearance for this issue.

AFCD46 - 640.2M - December 1999
AFBase hits version 1 this CD and should have complete database entries for shops, games reviews and some serious reviews. (Your contributions to the database are welcome).

AFCD Changes becomes an HTML file.

We're planning on changes that will come for AFCD50 when the CD gets something of a re-design and gets even more streamlined...

AFCD45 - 610M + audio track - November 1999

Got rid of the S drawer, making the CD even more streamlined.

Added new database function giving all the games ever reviewed in AF, some of the serious products, Amiga Angels and Shops worldwide. AFCD_Install, AFCDView, AFCDFind and AFCDPrefs have also all been updated.

AFCD44 - 571M + 2 audio tracks - October 1999
After last minute hassles the audio from WoA gets on at the last minute as four MP2 files, the HTML gets usurped by Dan Dodge and Jim Collas with their complete interviews there wasn't the space in the issue for in AF127, and AFCDFind gets an update to allow Scalos users the same luxury of being able to open Workbench windows with your search results that previously only Opus users were able to do. There may be further changes, but pushed for time right now, so I may have forgotten them!

AFCD43 - 617M + audio track - September 1999
Not many changes this month, but a new addition in the shape of Oliver Roberts' (yes, he's done it again) AFCD_Install. This Installer program allows you to pick and choose what you wish to install from the CD every issue and copies it across to your machine's hard drive. Once set up it doesn't have to be set up again, although you're free to make changes any time you like. At the moment, AFCD_Install copies across AFCDFind indices, the Aminet Index, the latest version of AFCDView and Installer. If you'd like it to do more, please make a suggestion to the usual address... :)

Also updated the HTML code slightly so that the little "Goto:" graphic in the top frame of all the pages is now a button that reloads the page it refers to. This may not be useful for some of the pages, but it will allow you to easily escape any of the websites included on the CD.

AFCD42 - 644M - August 1999
AFCDView has been updated to prevent problems with AsimCDFS.

The -Seriously_Amiga- drawer has been renamed back to -Serious-, in conjunction with the magazine.

Some people were complaining that the backgrounds in the html windows were too garish and took too long to appear, so we've ditched them, although we have kept the ones in the top part of the window. I have however added new background images to the main parts of the pages. Let me know what you think.

(Ed's note - I know they still take too long to load. Let me know whether you like the idea at all)

AFCDFind and AFCDPrefs have been updated (AFCDFind was last CD) so that they now have on-line help. You can put your mouse over any gadget and hit the help key on your keyboard to get instant advice about what to do.

Problem with AFCDFind's help and DOpus resolved.

We've updated the HTML on the CD again to include the Amiga Angels database as part of the list. However, your browser may not be too keen on showing it in the window as ours is. Check your MIME prefs for your browser and ensure that you have a MIME type of text/plain with the extension txt set to use the internal viewer if you do need it.

Updated the AFCD_Changes file somewhat - correcting speeling mostakes, mostly.

Added a printer driver drawer to -Serious-/Hardware

AFCD41 - 641M - July 1999
AFCDView has been updated. Now it checks itself for the version on your hard drive, and if a newer one is on the CD you'll be asked if you want to update. Obviously this new feature is only coming in the version on the disc this month, so you won't notice any difference, but when Oliver updates it next you will be asked if you want the newest version. Also, AFCDView has been changed so that you can no longer enter AFCDView as the default tool for a filetype in AFCDPrefs.

We've also updated the HTML so there's no longer a Ben_Speaks! file, but now a Start_Here! file. It checks to see if yoou have AFCDView in the path, and asks you if you want to copy it to your C: directory if you don't. Thought for the Month has been changed into Rich Speaks because no one was submitting any of their own thoughts.

Last thing. Thanks to Matt "Neko" Sealey for providing us with the new disk icon, based on Matt Chaput's GlowIcons that we're using for the AFCD. We forgot to mention him before on AFCD39, so now we're offering up thanks to him...

Moved the GUI drawer to the Tools directory.

AFCD40 - 549M + 2 audio tracks - June 1999
Updated the Ben_Speaks! portion of the disc. Now the html is a lot more colourful and we're also including daily digests of the afb mailing list in easy-to-read form on the web pages.

Updates for AFCDFind and AFCDPrefs to show the difference between keyword and filename searches for AFCDFind, and to recognise PDF files.

Lastly, the CD has had a redesign,

AFCD39 - 649M - May 1999
AFCDPrefs updated so that it can now handle LhA, LZX, ZIP and DMS archives. You'll now be able to simply double click on any archive to extract to the path you've chosen. Unless you are just using the defaults, these won't work until you've updated your AFCDPrefs and you may get an error message. Put the following commands in place (copy and paste them from this file to get perfect results!):

LhA:

Tool: :c/lha (if you have lhA on your hard drive in C: you can just put "lha")
Args: x %f `C:RequestFile RAM: TITLE "Extract archive to" POSITIVE Extract DRAWERSONLY` <> CON://///WAIT/CLOSE/AUTO

LZX:

Tool: :c/lzx
Args: x %f `C:RequestFile RAM: TITLE "Extract archive to" POSITIVE Extract DRAWERSONLY` <> CON://///WAIT/CLOSE/AUTO

DMS:

Tool: :c/dms
Args: write %f to df0: <> CON://///WAIT/CLOSE/AUTO

ZIP:

Tool: :c/unzip
Args: %f -d `C:RequestFile RAM: TITLE "Extract archive to" POSITIVE Extract DRAWERSONLY` <> CON://///WAIT/AUTO/CLOSE

We've also put the floppy coverdisks on the CD as DMS archives so that people with PCs with CD-ROM drives can take the floppies off for people without CDs on their Amigas. Cleared out a lot of dead weight in the C, Libs and other hidden directories. It hasn't reduced the bytecount by much (ooh about a meg in total), but it does mean that the only files on the CD will always be the newest versions of third party libraries and commands. We won't be having any stuff from WB 3.1, so you won't simply be able to copy the libs from our CDs onto your hard drive and expect to get a working workbench.

We've also started giving PowerPC program drawers special icons so that you can tell if what you're looking for is a PowerPC program. At the moment, these icons are only NewIcons - we don't have a MagicWB one.

We've changed the MUI drawer in +System+ now to GUI, and it now contains archives of several different GUI systems, including MUI, Triton and BGUI. We've put them on here just as archives, you'll have to unpack them (by simply double clicking on them and choosing where to put them).

Lastly, we now have a new thing in our +System+/Info drawer. Called AFB_Digests, it contains the text files of our online mailing list. If you haven't signed up for it yet, you can go to http://www.egroups.com/list/afb/ and join in the fun. (This is now part of the HTML - Ben AFCD42)

AFCD38 - 559M + 2 audio tracks - April 1999
That's it. We've thrown off the shackles of CD�� dependance (not our idea, TIB don't want to make CD��-compatible discs) and thus got rid of a whole bunch of files from the CD, making its appearance in the lister of your favourite file manager much simpler. At the moment, we haven't made sure that the libs and c drawers that remain contain the very latest files we can find, but that's how it'll be organised in the future. If there's anything in particular you want on there, let us know (but no the ProPack program for SWOS since that's commercial/shareware).

AFCD37 - 534M + 2 audio tracks - March 1999
Updated AHI and MUI this issue, not much else though!
AFCD36 - 645M - February 1999
Changed the way that AFCD_Changes works so that new CDs are at the top of the file now, rather than at the bottom!

Took out the explicit path for all the default tools. If you're having trouble getting things to work, make sure you have AFCDView in your path - your C: directory would be a good place for it. Also, AFCDFind got updated this month so that if you only want to search a particular portion of the CD it's possible, and much faster than it used to be.

AFCDPrefs also receives its first update in an age, but it's well worth the wait since the new version allows for a lot more filetypes and also allows you to make use of Directory Opus' filetyping if you are running a current version of that program. All hail Oliver Roberts!

AFCD35 - 643.2M - January 1999
Two additions this CD: The first is the fact that we now have an ARexx drawer in the -Seriously_Amiga-/Programming directory, the second is that we now also have an additional drawer in ReaderStuff. Prompted by requests from users we're going to have A "readers' Workbench" drawer which will contain images of Amiga users' Workbenches along with readmes explaining just what they use to make their Workbench look the way it does.

Also, advanced warning for next issue: We'll be taking off the +AFCD_Setup+ file since it has become less and less valuable as time has gone on. We provide SnoopDOS on our CD every month, so if you find that there are libraries or fonts that you are lacking you can always copy them across to your hard drive. We'll also be changing the default tool AFCDView from ":c/afcdview" to simply "afcdview". This may mean that you'll need to copy AFCDView into your C: directory to be able to read files, but since it's only a tiny program this shouldn't be a problem.

AFCD34 - 644.3M - Christmas 1998
Only two changes this month. The first is that websites get no leeway from us if they want to stay on the CD. The only option if you have a website that you want to appear on every AFCD is to send it in to us every four weeks, whether it has changed or not. The second thing to change is the fact that apparently some people have a problem with drawers called Workbench being on our CD, so we've changed the name to just WB throughout. We've also edited the preferences for the browsers on our CD so that will hopefully stop the "Disk is write protected" problem when using a browser from off the CD. We haven't tried this solution before, so it may not work, but it's worth a try, right? (It didn't - Ben AFCD42).

AFCD33 - 642.7M - December 1998
Another plus. We're considering getting rid of most of the files on the CD related to booting. CD�� owners have until AFCD35 to complain, otherwise we'll go ahead and stop the CD booting and ditch more of the system files. We've also ditched a bunch of stuff from the +System+ drawer this month bringing the total for the +System+ drawer down below 50 meg and the total number of System files on the CD down to about 7%. If we can get rid of the booting part of the CD, we can probably get rid of another 1% giving us just 6% repeated stuff every CD.

AFCD32 - 647M - November 1998
Robert C. Miller has done a whole bunch of icons for our CD this month to please all the newicon fans out there. We'll be using them from now on and putting the MWB:NI question a rest.

Again, this is a packed CD this time, especially given that we received a CD from one reader! We've had to redo the AVI file he sent us as an mpeg, but you won't be able to see it in on this CD since there wasn't the time to do it (or the space on the disc!) for this one.

We've also included some new utilities in the C: drawer for DOpus users. Dread, Dshow and DPlay can be used in your AFCDPrefs to use DOpus' settings for text file reading, picture showing or sound playing, to make our CD even more integrated with DOpusbench.

AFCD31 - 555M + audio track - October 1998
Added a new newicon to the CD this month. Robert C. Miller is the artist involved and we think he's done a great job on it. The starburst around it really gives it a sense of wonder that we hope you find on our CDs (corny, I know).

Archived some of the early AFCD indices (AFCD1-10) so that they take up less room on CD. You can't get these CDs any more anyway. We'll be doing the same every ten CDs from now on.

Updated the ARexx script that AFCDFind uses. You should have no problems in DOpus now getting it to bring up the windows or files you need.

Updated subs advice.

AFCD30 - 646M - September 1998
Cleared up a glitch in the AFCD_Setup script that meant that font prefs couldn't be found on AFCD28 and AFCD29. Added a new drawer to +System+/Tools/Workbench called Archivers which contains 68k and PPC versions of all the common archiving tools. Also added some diagnostic tools to the Expert drawer, and AHI and RTGMaster to the Sound and Graphics drawers respectively.

Hopefully we should have some major changes in AFCDFind this CD, including the long-requested ability to search for a file, click on a link and have the file or drawer open up automatically. Unfortunately, it will only be people using a current version of DOpus that will have access to this function because Workbench isn't powerful enough!

Added a Roadmap page to the html so that beginners can find their way around our CD easily. Changed ScreenPlay/Commercial so it has dashes, more consistent with SeriouslyAmiga/Commercial. Changed the layout of the websites drawer to make it more neat.

Deleted more obsolete libraries and the like to bring down further the amount of repeated System files you have to deal with. Even so, I doubt that total System usage will go down at all (it's more likely to go up) since we've added some new tools and obviously the index for this CD. Even so, you'll find more new stuff on our CD every month than anywhere else!

Design for the CD itself and its packaging changes this month. Our Art Editor Colin has worked hard on a new look for the disc.

Click to see changes to older CDs...