/// European Outlook
----------------
By Jesper Juul
(norjj@stud.hum.aau.dk).
Welcome! This is an irregular column with the intent of summing
up what's happening in the European Amiga World. My personal emphasis
is on Germany and Scandinavia, so people everywhere else are welcome
to add or disagree. My intention here is also that Amiga users
everywhere should be more aware of what Amiga users everywhere else
are doing. Some of the things said are slightly old news and
backgrounds which I feel are overlooked but still interesting. Add to
that a few slightly personal opinions. Mail me with comments, flames, or
other news worth noting.
The CD32 is currently 3500 DKR in Denmark (US$ 520), though in
Germany it is being advertised as cheap as DM579 (US$ 340). The
first German advertisments of MPEG modules can also be seen, though
they're probably a little early.
National television (OK, Denmark only has _two_ channels) "DR" did
anews story on the CD32 a few months ago, talking about motion
pictures on computers. MPEG (Bon Jovi) was shown, and the CD32 was
quite favorably compared to a 45000 DKR (US$ 6700) IBM which did 3 fps
flickering lowres "video". Very nice.
Also on Danish National television, a long-time star of a very
popular Friday night program called "Eleva2eren" is an Amiga 3000 and
agame called "Hugo". This is a not-too- complicated little
platform game, where viewers get a chance to win prized by controlling
"Hugo" via their phone. Children apparently love it, and there's
"Hugo" icecream, candy, and toys for them. The game has also been sold
to several other European countries, including Italy and Turkey.
Talking to my local dealer, it seems that MPEG won't reach Northern
Europe before the beginning of January. Too bad. Expected price is
1995 DKR (US$ 300). The same dealer also carries no less than 11
CD32 games: James Pond 2, D/Generation, Trolls, John Barnes'
European Football, Whale's voyage, Morph, Zool, Sensible Soccer,
Mean Arenas, Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix, and Arabian Nights. They
are waiting for a new shipment of Pinball Phantasies.
In Germay, MacroSystem is advertising the new VLAB digital video
board with PAL/NTSC/SECAM in & out, built-in genlock. A picture of the
board features a little chip saying "C-Cube" on top. As you may
remember, this is the same company that does the CD32 decompressor
chips. The video board sells for DM1998, add to that a 16-bit sound
board called "Toccata", and you end up at DM2600 (US$ 1520).
Emplant is finally getting a bad review, in the German "Amiga Magasin"
scoring only 7.4 out of 12, mostly being blamed for being to expensive
compared to a new Mac. Obviously a lot of people may disagree, but I
think it's nice to see someone being a bit critical to Utilities
Unlimitied.
Xpert is advertising the new Merlin2 graphics board. The new one
includes a special "screen-in-screen" feature where you can mix
screens of varying depth on the workbench. Video out is also included.
A 1MB board is DM 648 (US$ 380), 16MB for DM 1698 (US$ 995). In the
new (AMAX vs. Emplant) style of making fun of competitors, Retina,
Piccolo, and Picasso II users get unbelievably bad swap offers. Trade
in your Picasso II board for the huge sum of DM 200 (US$ 115)! Hmmm.
Addresses
---------
Xpert Computer Services
Dofestrasse 14
D-54597 Strickscheld
Germany
Phone: 02302 80391, Fax: 02302 80884.
MacroSystem
Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse 85
D-58454 Witten
Germany
Phone: 06556 814, Fax: 06556 1273
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