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1994-01-27
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Editorial
C PROGRAMMING SECTION - PROBLEMS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
NEWS
Programmers Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
A3000 released? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Money for Programmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Workbench 1.4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Don't Throw Away That A1000 Just Yet! . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Trojan VirusX 3.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
AREXX Programming Section for NewsDisk . . . . . . . . . . 11
Killer Demo Contest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
New Computer Languages?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
NEW PRODUCTS
Commodore Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
New Modula-2 System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Palette a Disk-mag for Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Enhanced Chip Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Project Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Photosynthesis Image Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Music & Computers Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
True Imaging Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Info Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Australian Commodore and Amiga Review . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Amygdala Fractal Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Fordray/Neriki Genlock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Hypercard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
BBS NEWS
Chritchurch BBS News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Wellington Bulletin Board List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
FORSALE
Amiga B2000 & Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Disk Storage boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.5" disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Black disks in library case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Okimate20 black thermal ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Amiga1000 shielded printer cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
WANTED
Camera & Digiview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
HINTS & TIPS
Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Kickstart 1.2 & 1.3 co-resident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
ZAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Microline 183 Printer Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 1
June, July & August Newsletter!
MEMBER FEEDBACK
Real Programmers, Languages, ARP, Priorities . . . . . . . 27
Sonix Scores, PD disks, Mouse Mats . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
MEMBERS QUERIES
Video Titling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Mandelbrots, Mouse Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
PAL/NTSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Games for Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
DPaint Updates, Hypercard, Amiga Emulators, ARP 1.3 . . . . 30
LIBRARY UPDATES
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
COMPREHENSION TEST
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Disolving Disks, & Soggy News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Programming SIG, PD Disk Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Places of PI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Amiga to AT connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
A New Amiga Users First Impressions . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
ARTICLE
What is an ANIM ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Laws of Programming
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Definition of a Programmer
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
REVIEWS
MVP-Forth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Sublogic Jet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Sculpt Animate 4D review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Turbo Silver SV review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Review of the Commodore Amiga A590 Hard Drive. . . . . . . 42
Review of Consumer Magazine Home Micro Review . . . . . . . 48
Aegis ANiMagic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
BIX Conferences and Topics
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
USER GROUP INFORMATION
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Group Meetings
SOUTH ISLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
NORTH ISLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 2
June, July & August Newsletter!
Editorial
Editorial
Once again I must apologize to all those who sent in submisions
for the newsletter and newsdisk, three months between newsletters
does seem to be an excessive delay!
Well I have been occupied with many things, Hard disks,
visiting Auckland UG open day, collecting and converting GIF
picture files, cataloging PD picture and sound files, setting up a
machine to do a slideshow of hires overscan PAL sized images, and
other things that don't come to mind immediately - matbe I'll
describe them next month!
John Bickers has been hard at work on the C section of the
newsdisk, and would like some feedback from programmers. Here is
the contents of the problems section that will come out on
NZAmigaUG #24 (NO, I haven't finished #23 yet!!!).
C PROGRAMMING SECTION - PROBLEMS. JJB TEMPLAR
1) Blink
2) printf and WB
3) Arp and process stacks.
4) Reading hardware registers.
5) Refreshing requester gadgets.
6) WB errors.
>> 1 Blink
Users of Lattice C V5 and thus Blink V5 may have come across
this problem:
The relative order of modules when linking has an effect on
the operations of the program.
Some examples, as experienced by me:
1) PRELINK modules.
i) The following linking order made a program that
crashed
FROM LIB:c.o+main.o+prelink.p
This ordering had no problems:
FROM LIB:c.o+prelink.p+main.o
Why the difference?
ii) I cannot get two prelinked modules to link
together into a working program. Whichever module
came second in the linking order crashes as soon
as its called.
2) Starting from WB.
i) A while back I suggested re-compiling umain from
the source provided, and replacing it in lc.lib.
In fact, the object code produced is exactly the
same as the original version if compiled with the
options -v and -cus.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 3
June, July & August Newsletter!
Given two libraries, lib1 and lib2, where lib1 is lc.lib,
and lib2 is the result of:
lc -v -cus umain.c
oml LIB:lc.lib
r umain.o
CTRL-\
and a simple program p, I find that:
a) p linked with lib1 runs OK from the CLI, but
always gurus on exit from the WB.
b) p linked with lib2 gurus on exit from both the CLI
and the WB, but more often from the CLI than WB.
3) Using cback, and ___fpinit/___fpterm.
i) I have mentioned previously that programs linked
with cback crash unless the lines referring to
___fpinit/___fpterm are commented out. I replaced
these functions as follows:
DEFINE ___fpinit=_tstub
DEFINE ___fpterm=_tstub
_tstub just returns, but the resulting
program still crashes.
So the fault may not lie with ___fpinit and ___fpterm, but
with something blink does when linking them in.
An explanation(?):
I believe it has something to do with alv's generated by
blink in the course of its duties. There seem to be two types of
alv. The first is the Automatic Link Vector used to get from point
A to point B if you cannot get from A directly to B with a 16-bit
PC relative branch.
These should be quite harmless, and are what Blink reports
when you link with cback. The second type is an identical form of
PC redirection, but for a different reason. For example, when I
defined the fp routines as _tstub, blink didn't point the code
where the fp functions are called directly to _tstub. Instead, it
added two alvs to the end of cback, which then jumped to _tstub.
This second sort of alv is what I believe is responsible for the
problems, since they are the only part of the program that appears
to be different when the ordering is different (see the alv column
in the map files).
And a partial solution(?):
I have found two things to be useful:
1) Re-ordering the object files in the linking process until
something works.
2) Cutting out as much of the lc.lib code as possible. For
example, use AmigaDOS (and the pragma files) instead of the
ANSI or UNIX C file IO functions. Using tinymain. Defining a
simple, custom printf function specific to each program.
Exiting with XCEXIT() instead of exit(), if you haven't used
ANSI/UNIX or the standard stdio. Incidentally, all these
operations result in smaller code, see the topics section
for more details.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 4
June, July & August Newsletter!
>> 2 printf and WB
I used to think that using printf from WB resulted in a crash,
but it seems that this is not true (almost all my programs, for
example, use printf to report errors, and too bad if the program
was started from the WB).
Using the normal startup (umain), of course, a console window
is created for you. But if this is deleted from umain (as it can
be in tmain), then no console window is opened. I recently
installed Arp1.3, and in the course of testing this and that, I
noticed that a program that did not open one of these consoles was
getting one anyway. This appears to be a borderless window, with
non-standard coloring (ie: uses 0,3 for BackPen and FrontPen), and
part of a directory name as the title. This only seems to occur
when programs are run from a FFS directory, which in my case is
from the buggy version of WB1.3. I have been wondering whether
this console is Arp's fault, or the FFS, or what?
>> 3 Arp and process stacks
As I said before, I recently installed Arp1.3. In AmigaLine7,
on one of the recent Newsdisks, Bryce Nesbitt outlines a nice way
to find out and/or change a process' stack space. The probe part
is OK, but since installing Arp I guru when I try to change the
stack. The guru occurs during the first printf following the stack
switch. The guru does not occur if the program is run in a
ARP-free envrionment.
Could it be that ARP pays attention to what processes do with
their stacks? If so, what business does ARP have mucking around
with other people's programs? Or is it some obscure bug in printf
or the stack switcher that isn't apparent until the stack change
is attempted under ARP? For example, replacing printf with
Write(Output(),,) does not cause a guru.
Running asktask shows that the stack switching process has
various Exception signal bits set. Not by my program! These are
set AFTER the "Task Held" requester appears. The tasks managing
these requesters also seem to disappear after a while from the
task list, then reappear if the requester is activated. This may
just be something wrong with the way asktask scans the task lists
(same way anonymous tasks are found by asktask).
>> 4 Reading hardware registers
Someone, whose name I never got, wanted to read a hardware
register to do with joystick port 1. There are two ways to read
the hardware directly.
First, you can use the custom variable. The code fragments are:
#include <exec/types.h>
#include <hardware/custom.h>
extern struct Custom far custom;
val = custom.joy1dat; /* Etc */
Or, if you know the exact address, and don't want to use custom:
#include <exec/types.h>
UWORD *regptr = (UWORD *)0x00df0000L;
/* Or whatever address */
val = *regptr; /* Etc */
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 5
June, July & August Newsletter!
The particular purpose was to read a potentiometer-type value
from one of the joystick ports, to which would be attached a
light-sensitive diode, also attached to a print head, in order to
do an extremely cost-effective image scan. This has been done
already using a C=64.
I ran into, by chance, a brief discussion of this sort of
thing in the Best of BIX section of the Jul 86 BYTE. There no less
a person than Charlie Heath (of ARP) recommends reading the
hardware directly, for just a digital joystick. Note that
according to page 347 of the RKM:L&D you CANNOT use the
gameport.device for paddle-type input, despite what Heath says.
One way to read pot values is by using the following registers:
POTGO, POT0DAT, POT1DAT
These are maintained by the system hardware, and are good for
one sample per screen refresh. Thus 50 or 60 times a second. Pages
223 to 224 of the Hardware Ref Manual provide a starting point for
documentation.
There are two problems with this:
1) I know very little about hardware, so I don't know if 50 or
60 times a second is fast enough. If it isn't, then you will
have to read the interface chips the same way you read the
C=64's CIA chip(s). The Amiga (8520) chips are very similar
(from the same family) to the C=64 CIA (6526) chips.
I dug up a C=64 manual, and apparently the SID chip had
a pair of 8-bit A/D converters that worked in much the same
way as the POT0DAT, POT1DAT registers. Did you use these on
the C=64?
2) The read/reset of the counters has to be synchronised with
the VBLANK period. So you can't just poll the registers
within a loop, because there is no guarantee the registers
will be valid when the loop happens to read them.
A solution to this is to set up a VBLANK interrupt to
read and reset the registers, which places the read values
into a global variable. Your program can then poll the
global variable inside a loop. Once you have the POT
registers sorted out, the interrupt server is a piece of
cake. You may want to get the interrupt to signal your task,
so you can Wait() instead of poll. That depends on how fast
your program goes, and probably isn't worth it.
The 50/60 times a second stuff depends on where a
machine is. I can't remember which one our machines are
supposed to go at.
After almost 4 hours of experimenting, I have managed
to read the PotX value from port 1 in a system-integrated
way (using potgo.resource). I used a pair of C=64 paddles as
my resistor device, and can only read the one attached to
the X line (pin 5). The Y line (pin 9) just hovers.
I don't know whether that's the fault of the paddle
design, or my code. If any hardware people could find out,
and get back to me...
See pot.notes and the code in the problemsdir for more details.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 6
June, July & August Newsletter!
>> 5 Refreshing requester gadgets
It seems that when refreshing a gadget list in a requester,
with:
RefreshGadgets(&Gadget,Window,&Requester);
the refresh begins from the first gadget in the Requester, rather
than from the Gadget specified when calling the function. That is,
from Requester.ReqGadget. This can cause a lot of undesirable
flicker during gadget refresh, particularly with image-bordered
string gadgets.
Also, the Intuition function OnGadget seems to refresh all the
gadgets in a requester, rather than just the one specified.
To get around these problems, suppose you had 16 gadgets in a
requester, but only wanted to refresh gadgets 10 to 5 in the list.
A suitable code fragment would be:
gadget5.NextGadget = NULL;
Requester.ReqGadget = &gadget10;
RefreshGadgets(Requester.ReqGadget,Window,&Requester);
Requester.ReqGadget = &gadget16;
gadget5.NextGadget = &gadget4;
This modifies the gadget list appropriately. To make the
OnGadget function more amenable to use with requester gadgets, a
wrap function may be suitable:
WrapOnGadget(gp,wp,rp)
struct Gadget *gp;
struct Window *wp;
struct Requester *rp;
{
struct Gadget *temp1,*temp2;
temp1 = gp->NextGadget;
temp2 = rp->ReqGadget;
gp->NextGadget = NULL;
rp->ReqGadget = gp;
OnGadget(gp,wp,rp);
gp->NextGadget = temp1;
rp->ReqGadget = temp2;
}
This assumes OnGadget is really just being used to redisplay
the gadget imagery. Another course of action is to redisplay the
imagery yourself, but without Intuition knowing? Tsk, tsk, tsk.
>> 6 WB Errors
Does anybody know how to leave an error message in the WB
title bar? {and specifically, get it to be saved in WBs 'LAST
ERROR' menu option. -ed}
Contact John Bickers at:
214 Rata Street,
Naenae,
LOWER HUTT,
New Zealand,
phone (04)672-085
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 7
June, July & August Newsletter!
NEWS
Programmers Conference
Liam Greenwood has offered to organise a NZ wide meeting of
Amiga owners who are into programming - a sort of mini NZ
developers conference! A chance for Amiga programmers to get
together, exchange ideas, and even learn a thing or two. Nothing
big, probably only for one day, possibly a Saturday and the
following Sunday morning. As he lives in Wanganui that'll be the
venue, probably late January, or early February 1990. Wanganui is
reasonably centrally situated as far as travel in the North Island
is concerned, and a few extra miles either way doesn't make much
difference if you're coming from the South Island! We aim to keep
costs to a minimum, but if people want lunch and perhaps dinner
laid on a charge to cover costs will have to be made. Hopefully
billeting will be arranged for those who want to stay overnight,
so the only major cost will be getting there and back (hitching a
ride only costs time!!). Obviously if a number of people are
coming from the same area they can share transport costs.
Perhaps if it's successful it could me made a regular event at
a different venue each year?
So could those interested please contact Liam on (064)55-610,
or write to him at 44 Durie Street, Wanganui. He would like to
know how many people are interested, and what sort of things they
would like to do at the meeting. Everyone attending will probably
be asked to register their interest in coming, and pay a
contribution towards costs.
A3000 released?
A small column in the Dominon 14-Aug-89, caught my attention ;
It seems 'the ultimate games machine', the A3000 is available in
the UK for 650 ...
Unfortunately this A3000 is not the Amiga 3000 awaited with bated
breath by Amiga lovers but the Acorn (as in BBC & Archimedes)
A3000 - and there appears to be one problem with this machine
described by Acorn as 'the ultimate games machine' - too few game
programs!
Money for Programmers
Another item from the Dominion was about Bob Kotick, president
of 'The Disc Company', who has $1,000,000 to spend in the Asia-
Pacific region on Amiga software developers, in exchange for
worldwide marketing rights. He will market the software
internationally and pay royalties. The areas he's looking for
software in are :
1) Video : Video titling, special effects, and video editing
2) Audio : Music composing and editing, Automated phone attendant
3) Business graphics
4) Entertainment
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 8
June, July & August Newsletter!
Workbench 1.4
Although it probably won't be available until next year, there
are a lot of rumours about what will be available in Kickstart/
Workbench 1.4. He are a few notes apparently originating from an
Amiga developers conference. How much is rumour and how much
fact, I can't be sure - but it all looks good!
1.4 Features :
AREXX - Will become an integral part of the system.
ASL.library - similar to but better organized ARP.library.
Much of ARP becomes part of the other system libraries and
ASL includes much of what is left such as the system
standard file, font, and list requesters.
Commodities Exchange - a standardized way of handling hot keys
in the system so that 'pop-cli' or 'funkeys' do not
collide with 'WonderFmarbles' or something else wanting to
use the same hot key. This will provide improved
coordination and control of various input handlers, and
the ability to cut and paste to and from the Cli window.
Simple refresh character mapped console windows with text level
cut and paste. There will be optional scrolling of Cli
windows.
DOS library in C, and commands will be rewritten in C instead
of BCPL, and will be able to access the features of the
new libraries.
ECS support - bigger blits, more CHIP, etc etc
ENV: is to be a handler instead of an assign.
Exec - execbase and stack in FAST ram, virtual memory HOOKS
<only>, new power up strategy <may break some odd
things...>
FFS in ROM - so floppies can be FFS or OldFS.
Intuition: - massive changes - Intuition.base is GONE.
autoscrolling, overscan, public screens, custom gadgets,
new string gadgets, new state machine, etc etc etc
KEYMAP - usa 1 now in ROM.
Layers - better dedicing, backfill for windows.
Preferences; - massive changes, a handler rather than a fixed
file - builds capabilities list dynamically. Font types
and sizes for icons will now be selectable via
Preferences, as will font colour and draw mode.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 9
June, July & August Newsletter!
New timer device calls.
Trackdisk worked over.
WorkBench will be a library. Add and remove menu items. The
Workbench will be "asynchronous", in a sense making
Workbench more multi-tasking. Faster drawers, better
icons and font support, etc. Last Error will have a
description of the error as well as the number.
New options :
"New Drawer" - rather than duplicating an Empty drawer.
"Select All" - select all icons in a drawer for moving etc
"Quit" - to remove Workbench itself.
"View By" - icons can be viewed and sorted according to
name, date or size, and the window will
re-open in the mode it was left previously.
"Show All" - shows all files without icons, by making
default icons, and this option will be
reversible.
"ResetWB" - will allow you to close the Workbench and
then re-open it with new selections of
font, colour etc.
The mouse will be a more powerful rodent, allowing you to
lasso a bunch of icons to work on; and to select a
drawer icon by double-clicking in its window.
The right mouse button will be able to cancel dragging and
selection operations that are in progress.
The Workbench itself will be just another window, allowing
you to operate on it in the same way as other
windows, and select different backdrops from
Preferences, etc. Numerous window gadgets will be
cleaned up and improved.
There will be a "startup drawer", the contents of which
will be run when Workbench is started up, usually in
the startup-sequence.
Each drawer will have a special setup which will result in
much speedier icon operation. Likewise, if you click
a project icon, the CLI "path" will be searched for
the appropriate tool/program to run it.
In the GRAPHICS area, there will be support for the various
enhanced chips with new resolution modes and monitor scan rates.
Sometime AFTER 1.4 there will be scaleable outline fonts. 1.4
will support enhanced bitmap fonts with limited scaleability.
{Well, I was going to highlight the items that I really liked, but
decided I liked them all! From my point of view a number of
things like using multitasking, use of search paths, sorting of
icons by date etc, and showing all files, are all features that
were sadly missing, and their lack severly impaired the usefulness
of the Workbench. All the other features should add up to making
the Workbench environment that much more productive to use.
Please can someone send me a prerelease copy of WB1.4!!!! -ed.}
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 10
June, July & August Newsletter!
Don't Throw Away That A1000 Just Yet! (from Megadisc #11)
Reports have come in that a gentleman in Canada has succeeded
in creating a "daughterboard" for A1000s which not only enables
the Enhanced Chip Set to be used in your A1000, but also holds all
chip ram internally and enables you to get a 2000-like video slot!
Likewise Andrew Wilson in Adelaide is working on such a hardware
modification, so before too long your A1000 may escape imminent
obsolescence, and you'll be able to hang on to that hardware you
invested in for it.
Trojan VirusX 3.3
Steve Tibbett confirms that the copy of VirusX 3.3 is indeed a
Trojan version - he will not be bringing out a version called 3.3.
The Trojan version can apparently also be identified by the
(deliberate?) mispelling of Steves name - Spelt as Tibett in the
trojan version. I haven't seen this version, and are unaware of
what devilishness it actually inflicts. So be wary of any such
programs that aren't provided with source code, as the authentic
versions are. (For the uninitiated; Trojan as in Trojan Horse -
something dangerous that is mascarading as something innocent.)
There is also yet another version of VirusX 3.3 floating around
NZ, but it is simply version 3.2 with the version number changed
and the name of one of the identifable viruses changed (corrected)
{Strings "V3.2" changed to "V3.3" and "Old Northstar" changed to
"Black Star ". -ed.}. It is no improvement over version 3.2, so
I advise not using any version called 3.3.
AREXX Programming Section for NewsDisk
by Brian Chapman (Nelson)
As ARexx is now going to be part of 1.4, I would like to
suggest a section on the NewsDisk be devoted to this language,
using the same format as John Bickers suggested for the C
programming section.
I would be happy to have those interested send their material
to me, from there I can put them into their appropriate headings
(Comments, Problems, Questions, Answers etc). Thus leaving the
final editing for Tony. At this point I must stress that I'm new
to the language and far from being an expert on ARexx, so if there
is anyone out there who is in a better position than me, then
please come forward.
I would like to be contacted by people who are using ARexx.
B Chapman
3/17 Parkers Rd
Tahunanui
NELSON (054 86876)
{I haven't actually used the language, and looking at the article
in the latest Amiga Transactor, It looks like yet another
computer language. But of course it isn't just a computer
programming language, it's a computer-program controlling
language. We'll be happy to include a section in the newsletter
or Newsdisk. -ed.}
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 11
June, July & August Newsletter!
Announcing the results of the 1988
Bay area Amiga Developers GroupE
Killer Demo Contest
On October 20, 1988, the Bay area Amiga Developers GroupE (BADGE)
held a contest to select the best Amiga demo of the year. The
contest is sponsored to promote greater interest in the Amiga and
thus generate additional sales. The primary purpose of the
contest is to create demo disks for dealers to use to show off the
Amiga.
First of all, a very large THANK YOU goes out to all of our
sponsors who were generous enough to donate prizes for this year's
contest.
Commodore-Amiga -- Amiga 2000
Go Amigo -- 30 meg Hard Card
Computer Attic -- 2 meg Ram Board
MicroBotics -- 8Up! 8 meg Ram Board
(unpopulated)
Manx Software -- Aztec C compiler (and temporary
housing one of the judges)
A-Squared -- Real Time Video Digitizer
Oxxi -- Software (Maxi-Plan, Atalk III)
Boing Inc. -- Boing Jacket, Boing Mouse
Info Magazine -- Ten three-year Subscriptions
Winner's Circle,
Berkeley -- Time and Equipment (thanks!)
Tracy McSheery -- Game software
Radical Eye
Software -- $500.00 cash (for operating
expenses)
In 1988 there were two catagories of demos: Tool-Based (meaning
that the demo may require another, possibly commercial program to
run), and Custom-Programmed (a standalone program).
The prize catagories were: Best Overall, Best Use of Graphics,
Best Use of Sound, and Funniest, as well as second and third
place.
In 1988 the Best Overall prize (an Amiga 2000, donated by Paul
Higginbottom of Commodore-West Chester) goes to Brad Schenck for
his Director Animation called Charon.
Other winning catatories include:
Best Custom Demo -- Tank by Vince Lee;
Funniest -- "Not Boing Again" by Dr. Gandalf;
Best Sound -- "Charon" again, by Brad Schenck;
and Best Graphics -- Tychoid by John M. Olsen.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 12
June, July & August Newsletter!
Two disks with the top three demos are available from BADGE for
$5.00 by sending your request to:
Badge Killer Demo Contest
c/o Randy Spencer
P.O. Box 4542
Berkeley CA 94704
All of this year's entries will be sent to Fred Fish for
distribution in his Freely Redistributable Library.
The following is the list of all entries and how they fared:
Tool-Based Demos:
Charon Brad Schenck
Not Boing Again Dr. Gandalf
Tychoid John M. Olsen
AmigaWave! Allen Hastings
CUCUG Ed Serbe
"Education of a young Coyote" Gene Brawn
Asteroid Field Michael Powell
Sail Marvin Landis
Stereoflowers P. McIntyre (Christchurch)
Splash Robert de Bie
Alice MedioTech
Bowl Vern Staats
NuHand Bryan Carey Gallivan
Tiger B. faux
Dogs World Charles Voner
Heartbeat MedioTech
History Of Computers Bert Berryhill
Cardiac Surgery MedioTech
Custom-Programmed Demos:
Tank Vince Lee
Triple Tom Rokicki
Multitasking Rob Peck
Hawk P. McIntyre (Christchurch)
Brownian John M. Olsen
StereoDemo David M. McKinstry
MemFlick Jim Webster
Picture Garden Steve Tiffany
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 13
June, July & August Newsletter!
The Folks Behind BADGE
We are BADGE, the "Bay area Amiga Developers GroupE". The group
consists of developers (both commercial software organization
employees and independents) and others who just want to be there
when the latest hot product (sometimes work-in-process) is shown.
We enjoy working on the Amiga and want to promote it wherever
possible.
Some time ago, we realized that with a limited budget for
advertising and dealer training, Commodore International might
need some gentle help to show off the capabilities of the Amiga.
With so very much software becoming available in the Public Domain
for the Amiga, someone at a BADGE meeting said: "Hey, why don't
we create an award or a hall of fame for the best of the Public
Domain Amiga software".
This idea soon became the seed for the "BADGE Killer Demo
Contest", a contest that might use some of the spare time of
various developers to create whiz-bang demos that we could
distribute, at our cost, to dealers.
This would help sell machines and garner a bit of fame (if nothing
else) for the demo's creator. Suddenly we were awash in offers
for prizes to give for contest winners and suddenly we had a real
contest that demanded real rules and real judging. The idea had
taken on a life of its own.
The first contest (called the ZEROth demo contest, because we
didn't know if it would ever happen again) was a success and the
disks were distributed far and wide. We again promoted the
contest idea for the following year, and established a set of
rules to follow. The rules took up a few pages and unfortunately
tended to discourage some entrants who might otherwise have
produced the "demo of the decade".
At our most recent meeting, BADGE has decided to get back to that
original idea -- to promote the Amiga -- and the demos should
support that most basic concept.
Thus, we present the "CONCEPTS For Future BADGE Killer Demo
Contests":
The Winning Demos:
o are easy to install and run
o are 'safe' to run
o are freely redistributable
o promote the Amiga
and THAT's IT! Exactly what BADGE would like to be able to
distribute.
To expand on the items just a LITTLE bit:
Easy to install - the dealer or customer ought to be able to
figure out what is needed to install it on a hard disk and
the program should know how to run no matter where it is
installed. Or explicit instructions on how to run it can
be provided.
Safe - the program contains no virus, and does not crash the
machine on entry or exit.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 14
June, July & August Newsletter!
Freely redistributable - we want to give them out at cost to
whoever wants to see them. The winners get famous.
Promote the Amiga - it certainly would be nice to see things
that are not as easily done on other machines, shows folks
why they bought (or should buy) an Amiga. Something
uniquely Amiga would be a big plus.
So you now know our GOALS. So what are the RULES?
Well, we've become pretty open ended there. The only rules (and
maybe for something fabulous we might be willing to bend just a
little) are basically the opposites of the GOALS above.
A demo program can be disqualified for any of the following:
o if it crashes the machine (bendable rule);
o if it has or installs a virus (hard and fast rule);
o if it does not exit cleanly (does not follow Amiga program
"rules", bendable to some extent);
o if it is not freely redistributable (ok to copyright, but
if you prevent us from distributing it, it won't be
accepted as a contest entry);
o if it requires that the disk be write-enabled (bendable -
BUT... one entry last year wrote to its disk, then
stopped running after it had been run 5 times; this is not
a suitable item for a person to have to demo his
machine... word of mouth sells a lot of systems! )
We have developed a set of 'recommendations' which we felt would
best serve our target audience for the demos. Note that these are
not "rules" per se, however the presence (or absence) of some of
these could be considered in part of the judging:
RECOMMENDATIONS (NOT rules):
o uniquely Amiga - a big plus
o originality - will influence audience reaction
o runs in 512k system - largest installed base
o runs in a one-disk system (another large installed base)
(if needs Workbench disk present for libs etc, maybe demo
can be set up to run with certain things in RAM:?)
o easy to install on a hard disk (maybe even provide a
script) (We'd "prefer" all-you-need in a drawer that we
could simply use Workbench to drag onto the hard disk)
o fits on one disk (nice, but low priority)
o obvious means of exit (or startup screen that tells how to
exit)
o asynchronous exit (can get out at any time)
o idiot proof - cannot 'cause' it to crash; trap all
non-exit events -- low priority item, but nice if
included
o supports multi-tasking -- nice if you can do it
o no blatant commercialism IN the demo -- though a text file
specifying the product that created it, or glorifying the
creators of the demo is perfectly acceptable.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 15
June, July & August Newsletter!
JUDGING: will be based on the following tenets in general:
o which demo will sell the most Amigas?
o audience reaction will play an important part; technical
judges might act as human applause meters, so to speak
o use "technical merit" (we are, after all, developers) as a
tie-breaker.
o no explicit categories, but one special award for
'funniest'.
Yes, there will probably be "professionals" entering demos in the
contest, but every demo has an equal chance of winning. We're
looking forward to seeing everyone's ideas.
Announcing The SECOND BADGE Killer Demo Contest
The SECOND (annual?) BADGE Killer Demo Contest will be held at the
September, 1989 meeting of BADGE (most likely to take place on the
third Thursday of the month.)
Entrants are encouraged to follow the above rules and guidelines
in submitting your demos. Demos should be accompanied by either a
README file on the disk to tell us the minimum configuration in
which the demo will run and exactly how to start (and stop) the
demo. Demos will be accepted up to and including September 1,
1989, with that date relatively firm (because the contest is being
announced so far in advance). This will allow sufficient time for
the judges to arrange the necessary equipment and to set up a
reasonable environment for the display of the demos.
If you wish to ask any questions about the rules and
recommendations, please send those questions to the address below.
We will try to respond in a reasonable time frame. A quick answer
is certainly possible, but an "official" response would be based
on a vote of the BADGE membership. Since we meet only once each
month, an official response might not be what you'd want, but
perhaps a "well-maybe" would suffice until the next meeting
happens.
Submit your "prize-winning" entries to:
BADGE Contest
c/o DATAPATH
P. O. Box 31008
Los Gatos, CA 95031
All entries will be acknowledged on receipt. If you want your
entry material to be returned following the contest, please
include a self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage to carry
the material safely back to you.
We can not guarantee anything of course, but please realize that
this contest draws a lot of interest from users around the world
who eagerly await the killer demos each year -- you could become
famous.
We're looking forward to your entry.
BADGE.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 16
June, July & August Newsletter!
{Well, if you read all that lot you'd have noticed two things,
first there weren't all that many entries, second - a familiar
name : Peter McIntyre! (Christchurch), Apparently the rules put
off a number of entrants, but as we'd never seen the rules that
didn't stop the group sending an entry! Peter's very good Hawk
picture came in fourth in one section (despite the fact that
viewing it on NTSC machines they'd have seen it with a truncated
beak!), unfortunately Peter says that picture was a bit of a fluke
- he hasn't been able to repeat the results with other pictures.
His other entry 'Stereo Flowers' came in 9th in another section.
I can't help but wonder if the audience all donned Red/Blue
glasses to judge these! Admittedly its getting rather late to
send in an entry to this years contest, but the chances look good
that any good demo will get a mention and all great demos will get
a placing. So come on, someone out there must have something to
blow their socks off, well even something to warm up their little
toes would be a start! (Either send entries direct, or to us, and
we'll foward a disk of entries on behalf of the club. -ed}
New Computer Languages?
SIMPLE: Simple is an acronym for Sheer Idiot's Multipurpose
Programming Linguistic Environment. This language, developed at
Hanover College for Technical Misfits, was designed to make it
impossible to write code with errors in it. The statements are,
therefore, confined to BEGIN, END, and STOP. No matter how you
arrange the statements, you can't get a syntax error. Programs
written in SIMPLE do nothing useful. Thus they achieve the results
of programs written in other languages without the tedious,
frustrating process of testing and debugging.
VALGOL: From its modest beginnings in Southern California's San
Fernando Valley, VALGOL is enjoying a dramatic surge in popularity
across the industry. VALGOL commands include REALLY, LIKE, WELL,
and Y*KNOW. Variables are assigned with the =LIKE and =TOTALLY
operators. Other operators include the Californian Booleans,
FERSURE and NOWAY. Repetitions of code are handled by FOR - SURE
loops. Here is a sample program:
LIKE Y*KNOW (I MEAN) START
IF PIZZA = LIKE BITCHEN AND
B = LIKE TUBULAR AND
C = LIKE GRODY**MAX
THEN
FOR I =LIKE 1 TO OH MAYBE 100
DO WAH - (DITTY**2)
BARF(I) =TOTALLY GROSS(OUT)
SURE
LIKE BAG THIS PROBLEM
REALLY
LIKE TOTALLY(Y*KNOW)
Valgol is characterised by its unfriendly error messages.
e.g. a syntax error returns the message, "Gag me with a spoon!"
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 17
June, July & August Newsletter!
NEW PRODUCTS
Commodore Products
A2630 - 25MHz 030, 2meg <std> 32 bit fast ram, upto 4
meg on board, with dauguter board with up to
lots of additional 32 bit ram.
A2090B - Slot filler that will cause A2090<a> to
autoboot.
A2091 - A590 quality controller for the A2000 -
integrated DMA/SCSI controller, 2meg ram,
hardcardable, etc.
A590 - in release - small quantities as yet. <Above
items range from someday to "rsn".>
A2500UX - now an 030 machine with 2091, 100megs 19ms HD,
AT&T sys V3.2.
A2232 - Multiport <8!> serial card with ADOS and UNIX
drivers.
A2024 - shipping in Europe. Vendor problems fouled up
release in US so far.
A560/2060 ARCNET cards for the A500 and A2000 - supports
NOVELL network once it passes validation suite.
A2350 - Genlock and framegrabber.
A2360 - Video card - 1024x768x8bits of 16million colors.
New Modula-2 System
(Extracted from HINTS&NEWS from Amiga Tech #4)
from M2S Inc.
PO BOX 550279, Dallas, Texas 75355. USA
PH: (214) 3405256 FAX: (214) 3419104
Briefly this compiler package contains :
M2E - Text Editor, can interact with compiler,
supports ARexx.
M2C - Modula-2 Compiler, Fast single pass, access
68881 FPU via IEEE libraries, compiles direct
in-line calls to Amiga system, ARexx command
mode.
M2L - Modula-2 Linker.
M2Debug - Modula-2 Debugger.
ARP Library
ARexx Library
John Matthews (Wellington) took advantage of their intial trade in
offer from TDI Modula II, and is very pleased with the package,
and promises us a review {Now he's committed! -ed.}.
Palette a Disk-mag for Graphics
3 disks per issue (more or less monthly), and a lot of information
and techniques. Put out by Denis Nicholson in Melbourne,
Australia.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 18
June, July & August Newsletter!
The following was extracted from MegaDisc #11
Enhanced Chip Set
Recently shipped A500s contain the new Super Agnes, capable of
addressing 1 meg of Chip memory, meaning greater speed and the
ability to do more graphics-intensive work
The serial numbers on the bottom of the A500 used to start
with "HB4...", the new ones don't. There's also supposed to be a
blue and red dot on the side of the new machines.
Project Master - "Professional Project Management"
Claims to have a graphic flow of activities to help you manage
projects of all kinds - includes "best and worse case schedules,
'what if' scenarios for deadlines, resources and budgets; critical
paths and actual vs planned; expense graphs, Gantt and PERT
charts, resource loads". From Brown-Wagh.
Photosynthesis Image Processing
Beyond BUTCHER and PIXMATE, this program makes a lot of use of
the Amiga Blitter for greater speeds, though it is academically
oriented - there is a broader repertoire of artificial
intelligence image analysis techniques. You might need a textbook
to run this one. Info from: Escape Sequence, PO box 1101, Troy,
New York 12180. Cost is US$149.95
Music & Computers Magazine
A magazine from California, specialises in the music-computer
connection, and does so rather well. The May/June '89 issue
contains, for example: Overview of synthesisers, samplers & MIDI
controllers; the fundamentals of MIDI; Overview of computers
dealing with music, with good mentions for Amiga; Audio/Visual
peripherals; Assembling a MIDI system; and more. Lots of
computer-related ads.
True Imaging Magazine
This mag is from Texas, USA and deals in "advanced graphics
applications", ie desktop video/graphics in general. The April 89
issue had : Questions on Image Processing; a VTR shopping guide;
"Amiga Magic" all about using the Amiga for the full gamut of DTV;
High-quality colour separations; and more.
Info Magazine
May/June 89
Contains a good overview of all the Amiga Paint programs, and
gives the highest rating to DPaint III. Also contains a good
article on "Removable Mass Storage" - covers all the SCSI
interfaced systems, including "Big Floppies", Bernoulli Boxes,
Removable cartridges, Removable drives, Optical storage and new
technology on the way. When will they go 100% Amiga?
March/April 89
A good overview of animation on the Amiga, 2D, 3D, dumping to
video, using paint programs, etc.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 19
June, July & August Newsletter!
Australian Commodore and Amiga Review
Although ably edited by Andrew Farrell, the only Oz
Commodore-specific mag will soon have Phil Campbell editing the
Entertainment section. Phil is probably about the best choice for
the job, since he has entertained himself with Commodore computers
for a long time, and his by-line is often seen round the place,
including the Computer section of Sydney's Sydney Morning Herald.
I'm sure he'll devote himself (and his joysticks!) to the task
with energy and flair.
Amygdala Fractal Magazine
Devoted to fractals, Mandelbrots, Julia Sets and other
dragons, this is an 8-page newsletter covering theory and practice
of fractals, along with references, etc. US$25 for 10 issues, or
US$45 with a set of 24 colour slides from: Box 219, San Cristobal
NM 87564 Tel: 505 758 7461. If you're interested in fractals,
look through our Public Domain catalogue for a number of excellent
graphic fractal generators. Gunther Frick tells us he'll be doing
an overview of PD fractal programs in the near future. Some
references on the Fish disks: Mandelvroom, probably the best :
Fish 214 and 215 with assembler source, SC Scenery Generator :
Fish 87, Terrain 3D : derived from above Fish 94, Qman (with
assembler code) : Fish 130, Fractal Generator : Fish 142, Scenery
Generator : Fish 155
Fordray/Neriki Genlock
The Neriki genlocks are actually produced by a company called
Fordray in Orange, NSW, Australia, who has now taken over mrketing
them. They have now brought out their Desktop model at around
A$1000, aimed directly at desktop video on the Amiga. The
appearance of the unit is very neat, and it is said to produce
broadcast-quality results.
Hypercard
Ted Nelson was the guy who first came up with the HyperText
concept, a way of linking text, images, programs, etc in an
easy-to-handle way. Apple took the concept for their HyperCard
setup without a nod in Nelson's direction. One of his books,
"Computer Lib - Dream Machines" goes into the whole idea. On the
Amiga, there's a hypertext-like program called Thinker [Poor
Person Software, 3721 Starr King Circle, Palo Alto, CA 94306,
US$79], and the people who brought MAGELLAN (Artificial
Intelligence program) to us are said to be working on a HYPERCARD
clone for the Amiga, not to mention all sorts of other A.I.-
related software. Even more interesting is a so-called "Hyper-
Card" clone called Ultracard which will soon be available from
Intuitive Technologies. Available about September. {There is
also a public domain Hypercard like program for the Amiga. -ed.}
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 20
June, July & August Newsletter!
BBS NEWS
Chritchurch BBS News by John Davis
The HitchHikers Guide BBS in Christchurch has been replaced
by a new and greatly enhanced Guide II BBS. It will be offering
nationwide access via PacNet, which means that you will be able to
access it at low cost from anywhere in NZ without running up toll
bills. It will initially support upto three simultaneous users,
with additional capacity being added as demand increases. It is
not really a BBS in a traditional sense, in fact sysop Steve Davis
prefers to call it an information provider. It will be offering
e-mail, together with access to Bytes Bix and MicroBytes Daily.
Plus it will be offering private conferencing facilities for third
parties.
The AmigaINFO BBS now on (03)-371-531 24 hours, 2400, 1200 and
300 baud.
The Plains BBS has now joined with Tony's BBS, with the new
version of Tony's carrying the combined traffic. Tony's
(03-831-155 ) is christchurch's main FIDOnet node. It runs 24
hours a day and supports speed upto 19200 ( using a telebit
trailblazer ).
Wellington Bulletin Board List as at 18th August '89
* This is revision no. 9 18/8/89.
* Additions/deletions: Send E-mail to The Snark on Sideways Board.
BLACKBOARD: 24 hrs 300,1275,R,1200,2400 781827
Sysop: Charlie Lear (The Bear). Education profession only.
Kiwiboard s/w.
ASCII, standard ANSI. No cost.
THE BOARD: Node 1: 24 hrs 300,1200,2400 646035
Node 2: 24 hrs 300,1200,2400 648358
Sysop: Mark Richardson (The Chairman). Online games. Wildcat s/w.
ASCII, IBM coloured ANSI. Requires donation for full access.
THE CAVE: Node 1: 24 hrs 300,1275,1200,2400 643429
Node 2: 24 hrs 300,1275,1200,2400 643000
Sysops: Charlie Lear (The Bear)/Bubbles. Home of KiwiBoard s/w.
ASCII, standard ANSI. $30 for full access. Node 2: members only.
DIGITAL VAULTS III: 24 hrs 1200,2400 736679
Sysop: Unknown. Spitfire s/w.
ASCII, PC ANSI. No cost.
FEELING BAUD: 24 hrs 300,1200,2400 264276
Sysop: Greg Cooney. Searchlight support BBS. Searchlight s/w.
ASCII, IBM mono/coloured ANSI. No cost.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 21
June, July & August Newsletter!
FRED'S DINER: 7p-6a MonFri 12pSat-6aMon 300,1200 683831
Sysop: Gary Dickinson. Long pause before answer. Searchlight s/w.
ASCII, IBM mono/coloured ANSI. No cost.
FREEBOARD: 24 hours 300,1200,2400 849715
Sysop: Peter Tse. Send a few [RETURN]'s after connect. SJ s/w.
ASCII, standard ANSI. No cost.
GHOST IN THE MACHINE: 3p-12a. 1200,2400 635679
Sysop: (Zar). Searchlight s/w.
ASCII, IBM mono/coloured ANSI. No cost.
HARBOUR BOARD: Node 1: 24 hrs 300,1275,R,1200,2400 872610
Node 2: 24 hrs 1200 878402
Sysop: (Atari). Wgtn Atari U.G. BBS.ST-Forem s/w.
ASCII, Atari ST emulation. No known costs.
LOVE OVER GOLD: 24 hrs 300,1275,1200,2400 277900
Sysop: Jeremy Scrivener. Opus s/w.
ASCII, ANSI. Cost $15 (Upper Hutt Computer Club membership).
THE MAGIC TOWER: 24 hrs 300,1275,R,1200,2400 767326
Sysops: Paul Gillingwater (The Mage)/Astrea. Towernet s/w.
ASCII plus a little added ANSI. No cost.
MOTHERBOARD: 6p-7a MonThu 6pFri-7aMon 300,1275,R,1200,2400 898859
Sysop: Kevin Bracey. WWIV-Mac s/w.
ASCII. No cost.
OVERBOARD: 24 hrs 300,1275,R 647879
Sysop: Tony Jones (Master). Home of Stephen Jones s/w.
ASCII, standard ANSI. No cost
ROMBOARD: 11p-5p SunThu, 11p-8a FriSat 1200,2400 838739
Sysop: Brent Wood. CD-ROM online. Wildcat shareware s/w.
ASCII, IBM ANSI. Free except for d/loading.
SEABOARD: 24 hrs 300,1275,1200,2400 781008
Sysop: Peter Longman. Amstrad BBS. KiwiBoard s/w.
ASCII, standard ANSI. No cost: demonstration, all messages in
*public* view.
SIDEWAYS BOARD: 24 hrs 300,1200 661231
Sysop: Pat Cain (Snarky). Partly funded by BBC User Group. EBBS
s/w.
ASCII, Viewdata/Videotex. No cost except BBC section: Membership
of BBC UG.
THE SKOOL BBS 3.30p-8a Mon-Thu;All WkEnd 300,1200,2400 829184
Sysops: Jason Chan (Dr. J). Run at Wgtn College. Kiwiboard s/w.
ASCII, standard ANSI. No cost.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 22
June, July & August Newsletter!
SPRINGBOARD: 24 hrs 1200,2400,9600 767742
Sysop: Paul Gillingwater (The Mage). Closed:Greeny/Peace Theme.
PC-Bd s/w.
ASCII, IBM ANSI. No costs at present. Access:Apply to Sysop on
Magic Tower.
TANIWHA'S LAIR: 10p-5pSunThu;10p-8aFriSat 300,1200 861797
Sysops: Kevin Smith (Tarapunga), TMT. KiwiBoard s/w.
ASCII, standard ANSI. No cost.
TINKERBELL: 24 hrs 300,1275,1200,2400 4991466
Sysop: Jim Towler. Tinkerbell s/w.
ASCII. No cost.
TRANS-GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS: Node 1: 896156
Node 2: 896157
Node 3: 896159
All nodes are 24 hrs, and do speeds: 300,1275,1200,2400
ASCII, standard ANSI, IBM ANSI, and others. Free trial: charging
soon.
TRANSMISSION TOWER: 24 hrs 300,1200,2400 829440
Sysop: Warren Johnston/Jane Atkinson. Wildcat s/w.
ASCII, IBM coloured ANSI. No cost.
TWILIGHT PHONE: 24 hrs 300,1200,2400 644159
Sysop: Hank Van Helmond. Searchlight shareware s/w.
ASCII, IBM mono/coloured ANSI. Donation for full access.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION: 9pm-8am Mon-Fri 300,1200,2400 4990946
Sysop: David Harrison (Mr Chainsaw). Searchlight shareware s/w.
ASCII, IBM mono/coloured ANSI. No cost.
THE VORTEX: 24hrs 300 853219
Sysop: (Proteus)/(Xaveira). Macridis Board II s/w.
ASCII. If a voice answers, ask for the bulletin board.
WELLINGTON MICROCOMPUTING SOCIETY:24hr 300,1275,R,1200,2400 836592
Sysop: Peter Cowley. Opus s/w.
ASCII, ANSI. Requires membership of WMCS for full access ($30)
WELLINGTON POLYTECH: 24hrs 1200,2400 842342
Sysop: Mark Wilson. OPUS s/w.
ASCII, ANSI. No cost. Info on Polytech courses.
WAUG SHORTS: 24hrs 300,1275,1200,2400 278817
Sysop: Allan Honey/David Wilson. Apple ][+ Dumboard s/w.
ASCII. Requires membership of Wgtn. Apple UG.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 23
June, July & August Newsletter!
FORSALE
Amiga B2000 & Software
Hardware :
Amiga Model B2000
twin 3.5" drives
1 Megabyte memory
West German manufactured
mouse and keyboard ..............$2700
1081 Colour monitor ....................$ 500
2 MB memory expansion card .............$ 700
2090A Hard disk controller .............$ 550
40 meg ST506-interface Hard Disk .......$ 700
MPS 1000 printer .......................$ 400
Discovery 2400C modem ..................$ 450
Stereo Sound Digitiser .................$ 90
========
$6090
or $5700 for package
The hardware, I would prefer to sell as a single package - but
I would consider selling individual items if someone out there
makes me a reasonable offer. I only added the hard disk a month
or two back - it makes working with the Amiga a lot friendlier and
productive (especially after installing the 1.3 ROMs)!
Software
Leather Goddesses of Phobos (Adventure Game) $ 40
ChessMaster 2000 (chess game) $ 40
Dragon's Lair (6 disk game) $100
PageSetter (Desktop Publish) $150
AudioMaster (Sound Sampler) $ 40
ProWrite 2.0 (Word proc.) $ 90
Textcraft Plus (Word proc.) $ 40
Sonix (Music) $ 90
Deluxe Video 1.2 (Desktop video) $ 90
Metacomco Pascal 2.0 (Pascal Compiler) $ 80
TDI Modula-2 (Developers) (M2 Compiler) $ 90
100 disks (mostly filled with PD software) $150
Notably, I also have M2Sprint Modula-2 development system about
to arrive from the States. I will be selling this for around $600
(but as it is yet to arrive, I still don't know the total costs
involved in obtaining this package). I had expected to have it
long ago - but the @#!$% sent it surface mail (when I rang up to
order it, I was told the $US35 shipping was for Airmail!). For
$US45 there is an upgrade to version 1.1.
Contact Andrew Mercer,
85 Long Melford Rd,
Palmerston North.
Phone (063) 82-592 after 6pm.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 24
June, July & August Newsletter!
FOR SALE
Available from the club:
Disk Storage boxes: 80 disk capacity, disk storage boxes.
Price - $20 plus postage ($3 to $5 depending on location).
3.5" disks : $25/10, $240/100.
Black disks in library case: $33/10 - because of the price
difference we're not selling many of these so we won't bother
getting any more in - get them why they last!
Okimate20 black thermal ribbon : $15
Amiga1000 shielded printer cable : $15 (not for A500 or A2000)
Software
True BASIC with manuals ............. $50
Flight Simulator II & handbook ...... $40
Jet & handbook ...................... $30
Deep Space & handbook ............... $20
Contact : Nigel Freeman
160 Cleveland Tce.,
NELSON,
New Zealand.
Modem
1 x "NICE" modem, 300, 1200/75 baud, RS232 interface, suitable for
A500 etc.
$200, negotiable
Contact : Steve Cook, ph. (04)357-108.
WANTED
Camera & Digiview
Black & white camera and Digi View digitiser wanted
Contact : Nigel Freeman
160 Cleveland Tce.,
NELSON,
New Zealand.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 25
June, July & August Newsletter!
HINTS & TIPS
Fonts (From John Davis)
A (seemingly) little known fact is that it is not necessary to
have all the font dirs in the FONTS: directory. All that is
required there are the .font headers, the directories with the
actual font bodies may be anywhere on disk.
This is very handy for two reasons.
First, if you're running off floppies you can have the FONTS: dir
on the main disk, with the headers pointing to several other
disks, when you refer to a font, you will be prompted to insert
the right disk to fetch the actual font.
Secondly, if you are lucky enough to own a hard-disk, you can have
all the .font files in one dir, which can be scanned really
quickly without all the sub directories. This becomes more
important as you get more fonts (one hard disk system I was using
had in excess of 100 fonts !!! It took ages to fetch the font
list).
There are two ways you can achieve this, you can either use the
program off the fish disks which will do it all for you, or you
can just use NewZap to patch the .font files directly. With NewZap
all you do is read in each .font file. In it you will see a
pathname for each size of font. This is the pathname to get that
size ... normally it will be fred/xx ( where fred is the fontname
and xx is the size ). What you do is change this to be the whole
pathname to the font eg dh0:fontbodies/fred/xx. Remember that the
string is NULL terminated though!!
Kickstart 1.2 & 1.3 co-resident
Section 1 - Message Base 14-Jan-89 09:15 PM
Subj: #3468 - 1.3 Upgrade (R)
Geoff it is possible to have 1.2 and 1.3 switchable. Just
solder a socket on top of 1.2 kickstart ROM but bend pin 12
outwards. Plug in 1.3 and also bend pin 12 outward. Now use a
switch to apply 5v (from pin 21) to pin 12 on 1.2 or 1.3. The ROM
which has the 5v applied won't work. I have seen it working. I
have fitted 1.3 kickstart ROM to my 2000 and so far have not had
any problems with programs that won't work but have indeed been
advised that some programs may give problems. {since that was
published it was found to be in error - see Sept-Oct newsletter)
ZAP
When searching for strings, NewZap doesn't find strings that
cross a sector boundary (ie start in one sector and end in the
next). eg try and find the string NEXT in the AmigaDOS 1.3 LIST
command. The latest version I've tried is 3.18.
Microline 183 Printer Driver from Peter Ingham (Auckland)
The Feb. magazine had a request for a driver for an OKI
Microline 183, I got a disk of drivers from Newmarket Computer
Centre, which includes a driver for the OKI 192, which I'm
reasonably sure is compatible with the 183. {Our printer driver
disk, in the PD library, contains an Okidata_m192 driver. -ed}
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 26
June, July & August Newsletter!
MEMBER FEEDBACK
Real Programmers, Languages, ARP, Priorities
from Steve Davis (Christchurch)
It was quite amusing to read John Bickers "real programmers
don't" comments, they certainly provoked a few chuckles. In
response to his comments, I'd like to point out a growing trend
amongst real programmers to not only listen to "powerful DIGITAL
music" (does that meanmusic composed on VAXes? :-), but to
actually make music. With the advent of cheap synthesisers (well,
maybee relatively cheap would be a better term) and MIDI, a lot of
programmers have been naturally progressing into playing with
synthesis (and I'll personally vouch it is a lot of fun).
Certainly synthesised music seems to be a common favourite with
programmers, not only music such as DEVO's but also more 'pure'
synthesised music, such as that produced by lsao /tomita or
Tangerine Dream. {I've noticed a lot of 'trainee' programmers at
work going about with little Martian like attachments - miniture
headphones that seem to be permanently attached! -ed.}
As for his assertion that 'real programmers don't use Modula-
2' ... surely he jests (well, actually I'm certain he jests, but
I'm not going to let a chance to climb up on my high horse go by!
:-). I use Modula-2 as part of my work (on large, real world
projects). It is presently at the same level of acceptance
commercially that C was about 5 years ago. Over the next few
years, I predict it will become more widely accepted, at the
moment only a few foward thinking organisations and the academic
world use it. The biggest problem with C is it's lack of inbuilt
version control and less than perfect system for separate
compilation of units. I appreciate the elegagance if C's terse
syntax, but when it comes to maintaing code, I'd much rather it
was in Modula-2, as someone else's C code can be near impossible
to understand {You can write unreadable code in any language - I
even remember someone writing a Pascal program with all sorts of
lurid identifiers which made it pretty difficult to follow the
program flow (eg identifiers like Joe, Jane, Sex ... and code like
WITH Jane DO BEGIN ... I'll leave the rest for your dirty minds).
The philosophy of susinct, compact source code "you should be able
to fit a whole procedure/function on screen" tends to produce the
unreadable code - of course once your're intimately familiar with
any language eg English! yu tend ta take lotsa short cuts! So C
gurus tend to write programs for other C gurus to read - not the
uninitiated! Modula-2 might gain more acceptance from C
programmers (only just might mind you!) if there was a standard
front end preprocessor (so they could define '{' as 'BEGIN' and
'}' as 'END', and define macros like "%1+=%2" == "%1:=INC(%1,%2)"
and a hundred and one other things [yes I KNOW that Modula-2 uses
{} for sets!], also being able to intialise variables at
declaration time would be nice. -ed.}
I also read with interest your thoughts on things you'd like
to see implemented in AmigaDOS. The news is all good on that
front ... The ARP folks have written their own enhanced shell,
which does have REAL pipes ala UNIX (using the PIP: handler that
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 27
June, July & August Newsletter!
is part of Conman 1.3). Apart from that they have gone and taken
all the good ideas of AmigaDOS 1.3 and extended upon them. It's
still not perfect (your idea for name expansion would defintely be
a nice addition), but it is a step in the right direction.
I noticed your comment about info on task priorities, and will
be working on something along those lines (together with an
extended taskpri .. that can recognise the program names of
commands loaded in background CLIs) for the next issue {of
AmigaTECH}. By the way (acronyms are for wimps and IBM), feel
free to include anything off AmigaTECH on your disks or in your
magazine, the whole idea of public domain is to benifit the
greatest number of people, and therefore we encourage the widest
distribution of our contributors work possible. {Regarding
acronyms - ARP is an acronym too you know! - the same overseas
BBSs and networks that use things like your :-) and :-( {sideways
smiley/sad faces} are the ones that use those terrible acronyms
like BTW for 'by the way' - in fact I think Americans in general
love abbreviating everything. Reading a CD ROM magazine showed me
how annoying unexplained abbreviations can be. It's like jargon,
a real pain to the uninitiated, an economical and precise
communication for those who survive the intiation rites! -ed.}
Sonix Scores, PD disks, Mouse Mats
from Denise McQuarrie
With regard to the request for a source of Sonix scores (Darin
Bailey in the May newsletter), I have enclosed these lists from
Seventeen Bit Software in England. They have a large number of PD
music disks listed, Sonix and otherwise, and they are very good to
deal with. they also sell commercial software at discount prices
which makes many (not all) of the programs cheaper to buy than
here, and as they and many other software places in Britain have a
charge of 2.00 (N.Z. $6.00 approx) perrr item postage, it seems
easier than buying from the U.S.A. When I ordered commercial
software from Seventeen Bit it took 12 days from when I sent the
order until the package arrived. I only have one PD disk from
them so far, it has BIG FONTS, I will send you a copy for the
library when I get the blank disks! Their magazine disk is quite
good, have you seen it? It is good to see the price of commercial
software coming down in N.Z. {Seventeen Bit Software "That bit
better than the rest"! P.O. Box 97, Wakefield WF1 1XX, England.
Ph. (England)924 366982 Mon-Sat 9-5:30, accept some credit cards.}
A hint for anyone who thinks the proper mouse mats are too
expensive, vinyl placemats available from kitchenware shops for
about $2.00 make excellent mouse mats, most of them have patterns
but if you're a bit conservative there are plain ones available!
If you keep a cloth on hand and give it a quick wipe over while
your disk is booting, you shouldn't have too much trouble with
your mouse clogging up, and it runs very smoothly.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 28
June, July & August Newsletter!
MEMBERS QUERIES
Video Titling
from Lawre Copp (Wellington)
I have purchased a Video Camera for home movies. I have also
connected the Amiga to the Video Recorder, the idea being to
create titles and effects to edit with home movies to enhance
them. Problem, have not found suitable programs on disk for this
purpose. Can you help me or put me onto someone who is doing
this? (ph. 04-368486).
Mandelbrots, Mouse Buttons
from R. Andrew (Palmerston North)
What is 'Mandelbrot', and how is it pronounced?
{Bernoili Mandelbrot is the name of a mathematician who has done a
lot of work on a relatively new area of mathematics - fractal
numbers. One particular set of numbers with interesting
properties was discovered by him and named after him. Interesting
displays can be produced by using a computer to generate this set
of numbers, and then display a map of their distribution. The
points in the Mandelbrot set are usually coloured black, and the
surrounding points given colours dependant upon the 'speed' at
which they are receding from the set. One of the interesting
properties of fractal numbers is that you can examine them in
infinitely increasing detail and find at every increase of
magnification, yet more detail that is a small version of the
whole. Like a mountain range that is made up of mountains, made
up of peaks, made up of outcrops, made up of rocks, made up of
sand ... each element looks like a small version of the whole - in
fact fractals can be used to model real landscapes - hence you get
'fractal landscape generators'.
Mandelbrot is a French name and therefore probably should be
pronounced with a silent 'T" on the end - But it is usually
Anglosised and pronounced with a 'T' as you would expect in the
English language (I don't know how he pronounces his own name). -
ed.}
Is there anywhere I can obtain one of these little switches
that go under the mouse buttons? My left mouse button is rather
stuffed. {There are a number of switches used in various versions
of the Amiga mouse, the most unreliable ones are the cheap metal
dome switches. They are used in cheap calculators and joysticks,
so you might be able to extract one from a dead one of those.
They are usually held in place by a strong transparent plastic
(like selotape), but must be positioned accurately to work
properly - If they aren't dead centre over their contacts on the
circuit board, or they aren't being depressed right in the middle,
they won't work properly. If your mouse button isn't working, try
pressing it right in the middle of the button, rather than just
the edge. -ed.}
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 29
June, July & August Newsletter!
PAL/NTSC
from Russell Robinson (Wellington)
About the PAL/NTSC versiom problem - A friend with an Amiga
obtained a copy of a game from the US which seems to have the same
problem as your SuperBase program - It recognises it's on a PAL
machine, and puts out a message saying 'NTSC version only', then
stops. Oddly, it did work once so he knows it can. Could you
tell me how you tricked Superbase into running?
Games for Children
from John (Wellington)
Does anybody know of childrens games for the Amiga.
Educational and non-violent (ie killing and shooting to a minimum)
preferred. The age group I am looking for is 5 years and under.
This may sound young, but I have a 3 year old niece that can open
the disk icon, startup photon-paint with the mouse, pick colours,
and draw with coordination (I'll tell you, 'this saves paper!').
DPaint Updates, Hypercard, Amiga Emulators, ARP 1.3
from Isaac Freeman
A couple of years ago my family and I visited the States. A
brand new Amiga 500 was waiting for us when we got back, so we
bought several pieces of software. Amoung them was DeluxePaint
II. After we returned home I opened up the box, filled in the
registration card, but decided it was not really worth going to
the bother of sending it away (I figured that because it didn't
have a box for country, they weren't interested in anyone from
overseas) and I filed it away for future reference. Needless to
say, it is now totally lost. I have just heard the Deluxe Paint
III has been released, with EHB support and new animation
features. Apparently you can get an update for a few tens of U.S.
dollars by sending them the cover of your previous manual. So my
question is this: will they accept a cover from an unregistered
person from a small Island they have never heard of? Also, will
they sent me the whole box, with a manual and lots of colourful
advertisements or just a disk, and can I run the program with only
512k anyway? Is there a PAL version yet, and (assuming there
isn't one yet) will they send me one when it arrives for no extra
charge? {Usually the idea of sending in part of the manual is to
prove you own a copy, to accomodate those who haven't registered.
An update to a new version will normally be a copy of the complete
product. I think it works with PAL ok. -ed.}
I have been reading a bit about Hypercard for the Macintosh
lately, and I came to the conclusion that there was no reason why
it could not be done on an Amiga. In fact, it should be even more
powerful on an Amiga, because on the Mac it was designed for, the
lowest-common-denominator hardware, a 512k "Fat Mac", which is far
inferior to an Amiga 1000. The program is just crying out to be
transported to a machine with multitasking and colour graphics.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
Now, if someone smart were to embark on writing a similar
program, which was compatible enough with the original Hypercard
that stacks could be swapped between the two programs, and then
released it into shareware, or the public domain it could increase
sales of the Amiga no end. {See new products section. -ed.}
I've heard a rumour that the people at IBM are preparing an
Amiga Emulator for their PS/2 line (While the busy people at
Commodore are supposed to be preparing a PS/2 Emulator for the
Amiga!). It'll only support 256 colours on screen at once, and
won't have true multitasking, but it's interesting to know that
someone in IBM is finally paying attention. {I very much doubt
that IBM would bother emulating an Amiga, it is probable that
someone will make a PS/2 compatible bridgecard for the Amiga. -ed}
Is there a version of ARP that takes in the updated features
of Workbench 1.3 yet? I have had to go back to the old Resident
command (and also the old Protect command to put a "p" flag on the
appropriate files), because the ARP version doesn't accept
"Resident Shell-seg" in the startup-sequence. Is there any great
advantage in having this resident anyway? {The new version of ARP
- version 1.3, adopts the new AmigaDOS 1.3 features, and has a
shell of its own, called ASH. -ed.}
LIBRARY UPDATES
We now have AmigaLibDisks (from Fred Fish) up to #236. Our
catalog disk has been updated, the latest one is dated August '89.
Numerous other odd disks have been added to the library.
COMPREHENSION TEST
As noted in our member information section, we don't object to
donations!, but I am rather surprised at the number of people who
interpret the line, on the subscription form, that reads :
"Newsdisk subscription $2.80 each, $28/10"
as meaning a years newsdisk subscription costs twenty eight
dollars and ten cents. It may be that people assume there are 12
newsdisks per year, and that that is some sort of discount value
for 12 disks. But we aren't into making a profit, and so can't
usually give discounts, $2.80 per disk represents the cost of a
blank disk plus 40c postage. Anyway thanks for all those 10c
donations!
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 31
June, July & August Newsletter!
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Disolving Disks, & Soggy News
from Jock Nisbet (Whangarei)
When I first got my Amiga I thought that 10 disks of 880k
would see me right for a few months. I was wrong, and fully agree
with Mr. Butterfield who said "if you get an offer of 50 disks at
a reasonable price, take them - you will need them" - how true. I
recently got 100 disks and now find myself needing more. Apart
from a few friends who simply grabbed some saying that I would not
need them all, I simply cannot understand where the hell they
went.
A Warning - for any members stupid enough to do it.
I put my copy of Amiga World on top of the toilet prior to
giving it a little read in seclusion. I went to do something else
first and returned to find the magazine IN the toilet. I pulled
it out and, having dried wet papers in the microwave before,
placed the damp mag in the microwave, and gave it a couple of
minutes. I opened the microwave door and on pulling it out, found
that the heat from the drying moisture had melted the binding glue
and all the pages fell to the floor. So be warned. {I was very
tempted to send that bit of wisdom to the "Hors D'Oeuvres" section
of Amiga World! -ed.}
Programming SIG, PD Disk Requests
from Jeff Thomson (Masterton)
I like the idea of devoting part of the newsdisk/magazine to a
programming SIG, I hope to see a lot of assembler stuff on it,
when I get around to writing some decent code, I'll send it in.
I read in the magazine that you have handed the PD library over
to Rex Moir, to get hold of the PD disks, do I still write to you
or do I go directly to Rex? {Send requests for disks to me as
usual, I'll foward them to Rex as appropriate. -ed.}
Places of PI
from Steven Christall (Nelson)
One of my friends is still trying to calculate Pi to 600,000
decimal places with the little program from NZAmigaUG#8 (by
Stephen Jones), and frequently comes over to my house to do more
real things on an Amiga. Every night he just stares at the screen
for an hour praying. I personally think the program has crashed
and the Amiga has again done itself proud maintaining screen
updates and mouse control along with very persuasive clunking of
the disk drive. If it does work, however doubtful, what are you
to do with it then? Print it out? Not a pretty thought.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 32
June, July & August Newsletter!
Amiga to AT connections
from Isaac Freeman.
A friend of mine (who owns an AT clone) and I are interested
in transfering files between our computers - not for any
particular reason, just to prove it can be done. As I understand
it we need a cable to connect the Amiga 500's serial port to the
IBM's, and then if we both run telecommunications programs the
computers will think the cable is a modem and transfer files down
it. Will this work?
As to your idea of simulating the entire universe in real time
- I have a theory that the ultimate computer/role-playing game
would be something like that, except that you would be in total
control of it. For example, if you wanted to fly the latest
horribly beweaponed military aircraft, you could just walkup to
the hangar "turn off" the guards (or better still, just change the
part of their minds that remembers what their job is), fly it away
and reactivate them again. The program could be called "God", and
when it comes out for the Amiga 37000 it will totally destroy
human society, because it will allow everyone to have their own
universe, and nobody would ever talk to any other "real" person
again. Then again, perhaps this has already happened, and we are
all just computer simulations of our real selves, which are
somewhere else, controlling some other universe!
Since I got this computer, about 18 months ago now, I have had
seven disks suddenly develop hard errors. I am just now beginning
to suspect that there is something wrong with my disk drive.
Would a head cleaner help, and how much do they cost? {Firstly
I'd ask what sort of disks you're using, if they're good quality
disks, I'd check their surface for damage. If they look ok, and
can be reformatted then they're not hard errors. If they're good
quality disks and the surface is ok, then it might be the drive,
so cleaning may help. If the disk surface is scratched or
blemished, then better disk care is called for. We did have some
disk drive cleaners, but have sold them all. Despite some
advertising on disk cleaners, modern burnished disks don't clog up
the read/write heads so cleaning is seldom needed. Use only 'wet'
drive cleaners - those that use a solvent like isopropyl alcohol,
not dry abrasive ones. -ed.}
John Bickers says that the A3000 exists (at least in West
Germany). Are it's details the same as those published in an
earlier newsletter? If so, (and unless Commodore does something
incredibly stupid) it will blow both the Mac II and the NeXT out
of the water. As I see it, the key to the high-end market is the
American Colleges - why should they buy those other machines when
they can get a more powerful, IBM, Mac and Unix compatible
computer, which will run the same software that students can buy
for their Amiga 500/1000/2000/2500s and, above all, they can buy
it for a lower price? The only problem I can think of is that the
Macs have more sophisticated software available, about 70% of
which won't run on the Mac II yet anyway. Hopefully someday soon
we will have a version of HyperCard for the Amiga.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 33
June, July & August Newsletter!
Is there very much difference between the Gamma release of 1.3
and the official release? {The Gamma version was never a
'release', all those pre-release versions are for testing purposes
only, and almost certainly have bugs in them. The Gamma versions
of 1.3 have a number of major bugs, some serious ones specifically
affecting hard disks. So everyone, PLEASE throw away those buggy
versions, and get the real thing!, either from Commodore or your
local Amiga dealer, or us. -ed.}
Magazine disks, Disk Drive Writeprotect
From Peter Ingham
Megadisk certainly crams a lot in with the compaction they
use, and their text display program is very good. {Is that meant
to be a subtle slight on our text display program!? - Well John
Bickers has just been updating our text display program, now
'intuitionised', and much better. -ed.} In stark contrast the
Auckland Groups disk must have been through an 'expander' prior to
saving and needs a compacter to redisplay it. I found their disk
to be thin on content (both quality and volume wise) it has a
flashy look to it but not a lot of meat under all the glitter.
{Their display program is inovative, but I must admit all the
illustrations do seem to use up a lot of space on their disks. -
ed.}
On the issue of writing to write-protected disks, I admire
your stance in demanding proof to back up the rumours. I feel
that, as you suggest, the rumours are based on failure of copy
protect mechanisms etc, if (as you assert) the Amiga has specific
hardware in the drive to enforce protection then it's more than a
little difficult for mere software to start poking around (unless
the hardware is bypassed or broken) another possible source of
some of the rumours is likely to be other equipment (eg: the
venerable AppleII) which implemented write-protection by simply
reading the write-protect state in software and electing not to
write to the disk. It was quite possible (and I wrote a
disk-copier that did it) to ignore the write-protect state if
desired (my copier did 2 additional prompts <requiring both a
positive & negative response> to ensure you really wanted to write
- but it saved yanking the disk out & peeling off the tab).
{Personally I think the write protect function on floppy and hard
disks should be implimented by a switch on the disk drive - It is
no problem to flip a toggle switch as you insert a disk, and far
easier to change that toggle switch than pull the disk out and
mess with write protect tabs - On my old computer I had a drive
with a home-made three postion switch - WriteProtectAlways,
FollowReadWriteTab, and WriteRegardless, it had a flashing LED to
indicate the latter state! -ed.}
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 34
June, July & August Newsletter!
A New Amiga Users First Impressions
by P. Ingham
I've been playing with computers in a professional capacity
for the last 15 years, although I don't think of myself as an
'old timer' the million dollar plus monsters that I started with
are interesting to compare with today's micros :
Main Memory capacity: 60KB (one of the largest in the country
at the time!!) 15KB memory upgrades were $US50K and were about
three cubic feet.
Maximum possible memory: 190KB
Clock Speed : 1MHz (later upgraded to a turbo 2MHz version)
Disk Capacity : 40MB (30 millisecond)
As we all know, things in this business keep on getting
faster, smaller and, particularly, cheaper (although when you've
just shelled out a few thou' of hard earned readies it doesn't
seem so).
For the the last seven years my professional involvement has
been with 'micros' (although when compared with the above
specifications maybe they should be thought of as extremely small
mainframes). My personal involvement with micros commenced in
1979 with one of the early Apple II's which I lavished several
thousand dollars (not to mention hours) on, only to have it stolen
at the beginning of this year. Depreciation being what it is (and
Insurance Companies being what they are) I ended up with hardly
enough to buy a C64 let alone a REAL machine.
In my professional capacity I work with a networked,
Multi-user, Multiprocessor, Multitasking micro which was designed
from the ground up to work in that type of environment (that means
that all the software fits this environment and is neat, tidy and
nice to use). My current machine is a 20Mhz '386 with 20MB of
memory and 180MB of fast hard disk (retail around $US35k). What I
would like is a similar system, that's good at games, for not
much money!!
After some negotiation with the family and a wait of 6 months
(I wonder how many of you have heard/experienced this story
before), I have enough to buy a "REALLY USEFUL" machine (well at
least useful).
The only problem is - what do I get?? Well, what are the options?
The major determining factors in selecting a system are cost,
and what you want it to do. My budget had an upper limit of $3.5K
(but otherwise as little as possible).
My reason for purchase?? Well, many people tell themselves
(and others) that they bought a micro for rational reasons such as
Home finance, Education (of your children) etc etc. Then
there's the real reason which, if you're being honest with
yourself, runs something like "to play games", or "because I want
one". Not very rational, but at least honest.
Having decided that I really wanted a games machine to have
fun with, the choice was half made - get the best games machine
going!!
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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My evaluation:
A IBM compatible "PC" - some very nice applications, but
based on a very primitive and poorly designed operating
environment, and a (comparatively) primitive hardware base. This
is being addressed (slowly) but any PC owner will be painfully
aware of the incompatibilities that arise between differing
3rd-party products. Any problem will eventually be solved with
the number of developers working on it but basically this
environment is a mess because it is trying to do things it was
never designed to do. In typical fashion IBM's solution is to
throw lots of money at the problem (in excess of 500 programmers
were working on OS/2 at one stage) and expect the users to
discard a significant proportion of their existing investment if
they want the new advantages.
An Apple II GS - compatible with my software library, but not
with the hardware left by the thief!! This system is a little
like the PC - getting to be a bit of a mess as every new feature
is grafted on. Besides, I felt like a change and all my Apple
software is getting very dated and wouldn't get the best of of a
'GS. Therefore I'd be up for a significant software repurchase
which eliminates one of the advantages.
An Apple Mac - Not really a good games machine, Expensive
software and hardware.
A C64 - cheap, lots of software, system not too much of a
mess. But I couldn't see myself being satisfied with the latest
rehash of a 8 year old design based on an 8-bit CPU.
I eliminated all the 'minor league' players as being
inadequately supported by the manufacturer (they simply don't have
the market strength to provide the support and chance of
protecting the investment in the long-term), and having too few
users to generate the software revenues that cause great software
to be developed.
That left two choices in my book: Atari ST's and the Amiga.
I must admit it was a close choice, from a purely hardware
perspective, the machines are roughly equivalent. The major
difference (from my perspective) was the local support available,
and the quality (and size) of the local user community. One thing
I did like about the Amiga was the Multitasking operating system
(having worked with one on micros for the last 7 years, I know the
value of having it even if you don't initially need it).
I bought an Amiga 500 with the A501 memory exp/Clock, an
external disk drive and 1084 monitor.
As I write this, I've had the machine for just over a month.
So I'm no expert on it. But I've had enough time for the initial
blindness to faults to disappear, and also for some of the
bewilderment to subside.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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What are my opinions now of the Amiga?
1. Amiga software is expensive (for a home computer) and of
very variable quality.
2. The documentation from Commodore for more advanced users
(ie: Manufacturers Technical manuals) appears to be
non-existent, hence the series by Abacus et al.
The manuals as supplied do not cover all the facilities of
the CLI (for example).
3. The environment seems to be confused as to whether it is
text based (CLI) or WIMP based (workbench).
4. The user group community appears to be very strong (given
the support I've seen from the supplier, I'm not surprised).
I was impressed at the volume of PD software available, soon
I hope to know what the quality of it is like!!
5. The Hardware & software built into the Amiga are impressive
- if only a few more commercial developers would take full
advantage of it!!
6. Someone somewhere is making generous margins without
providing the support that those margins are supposed to pay
for. I'm happy to pay for quality product, but "Product"
goes beyond that which is inside the cellophane wrapper.
Since purchasing the Amiga, I have spent over $800 on manuals
(3) and games (5), the service I've had from the 3 dealers I've
been to has consisted primarily of someone to take the money.
Would I buy an Amiga tomorrow knowing what I know now ...
probably.
Would I recommend an Amiga to my best friend ... at the moment
probably, but with reservations.
I'd like to add a Hard disk in the near future, but at the
moment my hands are staying firmly in my pockets until I can be
sure I'm not throwing money away.
I'm hoping that more contact with user groups, and exposure
to some of the (supposedly) high-quality, cheap P.D. (incl.
Shareware) software will mellow these criticisms. Maybe I've
just had a bad run, I certainly hope so.
I'm still looking for dealer who I don't mind spending money
with - the last one I tried had a book marked at $90 that "was
supposed to be" $95, that I later discovered I could have got
through a user group for $72. Needless to say, that dealer has a
door I will probably never enter again. {That comment will
probably make the dealers tear their hair out - the user group you
bought it from was probably making no profit - the dealers 20%
margin above that is actually rather modest compared with the 50%
to 100% markup seen on some items. -ed.}
AMIGA 500 SCORE CARD
Hardware Capabilities:9
Standard Software:7
Documentation:3
Supplementary Documentation:0
Dealer Support:?
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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ARTICLE
What is an ANIM ?
by Brian Chapman (Nelson)
ANIM, developed by Aegis and SPARTA,Inc., is a file format for
the storing of animated sequences on the Amiga. It allows storage
and fast playback of sequences of frames using a minimum of space.
The technique works as follows:
The first image in an animation is saved as a standard IFF
picture. The next frame saves only changes from the last frame to
this one. That cuts down the size of a file tremendously, with a
multi-megabyte animation being compressed to under 880K, for
example. The more changes that happen from one screen to the next
in your animation, the larger the resulting ANIM will be. Of
course, the resolution used also affects the size of the ANIM. The
higher the resolution, the larger the ANIM.
The ANIM format is used by a number of Amiga developers and is
endorsed by Commodore-Amiga,Inc. 3D animation packages such as
Aegis VideoScape 3D, Hash:Animation Series and others also allow
you to save ANIM format 3-D animations. Programs such as
Electronic Arts Deluxe Paint III allow you to create ANIM format
animations using simple painting tools. These ANIMS may be used
with ANiMagic and player programs like Lights Camera Action.
Laws of Programming
There is always one item on the screen menu that is mislabelled
and should read "ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE".
At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer,
you will find at least two human errors, including the error of
blaming it on the computer.
Make it possible for programmers to write programs in English
and you will discover that programmers cannot write in English.
Efforts to improve a program's "user friendliness" invariably
lead to work in improving the users' "computer literacy".
Hofstadter's Law: Any project will take longer to complete than
expected, even if Hofstadter's Law is taken into account.
Definition of a Programmer
A programmer is one who passes himself as an exacting expert on
the basis of being able to turn out, after innumerable debugs, an
infinite series of incomprehensive answers calculated with
micrometric precisions from vague assumptions based on debatable
figures taken from inconclusive documents of problematical
accuracy by persons of dubious reliability and questionable
mentality for the purpose of annoying and confounding a hopelessly
defenseless department that was unfortunate enough to have asked
for the information in the first place.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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REVIEWS
MVP-Forth
by Peter Moore
I recently purchased MVP-Forth from Mountain View Press and
was disappointed at what I received. My advice to budding Forth
programmers (are there any?) is to consider Multi-Forth or JForth
which are pretty cheap ($US89 & $US100 in a 6 month old article
I've just read) and have good reviews. There isn't actually
anything wrong with MVP-Forth - in fact I am rather looking
forward to working with it, it's just that for your money ($US195)
you get the usual unoptimised, unexpanded PD version (!) (from
Fish #something-or-other) and a whole set of books - some of which
are excellent, some of which are totally useless ( e.g assembly
listings for 8080 M.P.U in an Amiga set!). O.K, so I now have
enough information to work with the editor and create source code
files and I can probably figure out how to work with libraries and
do assembly definitions to some extent. However it'll be by great
detective work with the bare minimum of information. I didn't
receive anything remotely resembling a "Programmers Kit".
Forth is the language you either love or hate (I love it but
most people hate it - probably because they don't understand it or
are too lazy to write the extensions you need to do much with it
(can't blame them, really)). But it's a really elegant language
and deserves a closer look.
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience with
MVP-Forth, particularly in interfacing to libraries.
All of this trying out languages, by the way, is my attempt at
finding something I can program anything in without wasting lots
of time trapped on those steep and treacherous learning curves. I
hate C to my very intestines; I love Forth but it's a
misunderstood cripple. I'll probably go with Modula 2 when I can
afford it.
Sublogic Jet
by Peter Moore
I have also had a look at Jet by Sublogic ( I am a great fan
of FS-II and regularly practise ILS approaches at dusk in
cross-winds and turbulence with a 400 ft cloud base and 50%
unreliability set ) but Jet has me totally cracking-up. O.K, so
the F16 climbs like a Piper Tomahawk with carb. icing - perhaps it
has something to do with beginners mode and maybe that's why the
MIGs come at you at 5 Knots too! Anyway I used the disk for
something else and do all my combat practise with Interceptor
which is brill'.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
Sculpt Animate 4D review
by Brent Bary
This is BytebyBytes latest offering it is an execelent program.
It offers new speed improvements and new tools as follows:
(1) 68020/30 and 68881/82 support standard
(2) Better file requsters you can see whats where on disks
easier
(3) New helix tool for screw threads etc
(4) Protractor
(5) Grids for accurate verticie placement
(6) User definable coordinate entry
(7) User definable keystroke macros
(8) Keyboard entry of 3D font libraries
(9) Cut and paste hierarchies
(10 New scanline rendering modes (good for testing a scene
before doing a full trace)
(11) Improved anti-aliasing (those jagged looking edges (blocky
graphics))
(12) Animation scripting language
(13) Keyboard controlable animation speed (only in wire frame
for pal, machines you'll have to set this manually for
painting snapshot and photo, modes)
(14) New metal texture (a cross between mirror and shiny)
(15) Support for single frame controllers (this allows you over
16 million colours when recording to video tape broardcast
quality). I can't afford this expensive gear yet!
One thing I'll say is this program is very well documented
with ample examples, and if I can use it, any one with patience
and time can. You can't expect to get anywhere if you rush in
like a bull at a gate! Follow all the examples.
The program is expensive : $US250 to registered owners of
sculpt animate 3D, $US400 otherwise, $1200 from RuralCom.
If you like graphics and animation I highly recommend it, it's
easier to use than other programs of its type, read the Turbo
SilverSV review.
By the way I forgot to mention I have an A2620; card 68020,
68881, 2meg 32bit memory, but I know how long it takes to do a
trace on 68000 with SA3D - 16 hours for one photo mode image
352*564 (thats overscan pal). IF you're going to get this program
get lots of memory. That's the same for a lot of programs like
this.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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Turbo Silver SV review
by Brent Bary
This is Impulses latest offering. The SV stands for stereo
vision, Yes you can use it with LCD 3D glasses I haven't upgraded
as yet so I'll tell you about the info I've received :
(1) 16 colour wire frame stills and animations
(2) Point-less editor
(3) Faster scroll without redraw delay (faster trace by 20%,
and this program was fast to start with)
(4) Anim Opt 5 file support (used by 'The Director' etc)
(5) Sound scripting (sound with your anim.s)
(6) New movie commands (fadein-out)
(7) Better heuristics in solid model mode (almost impossible
to tell between solid model and full trace)
(8) As I said stereo pictures and anim.s)
(9) Snap to grid command in the editor
(10) Automatic draw with add points (you don't have to put the
edges on anymore)
(11) Dynamic moveable world in full trace no limitation to the
size of your world
(12) Hires editor, smaller points means finer control over
object creation
(13) New textures; grid, rainbow, wood, and marble
(14) BUG fixes
Now I as yet haven't spent much time with this program but
I'll tell you it's complicated and very hard to learn, but has
features not found in SA4D, like brush wrapping (eg pictures
wrapped around any object), user definable textures, and
attributes like transperency; you're not stuck to the ones
provided.
As a comparison, some scenes that it takes SA4D an hour to
trace, can be done in 30 mins in turbo silver (thats with my
68020,68881 board with 2megs 32bit RAM, I haven't bothered to test
it on a 68000 I'm too impatient!!). I still think SA4Ds' traces
are slightly better. But to be fair, I haven't spent anywhere
near as much time with this program because it scares me off due
to there being no step by step tutorials in the manual. There is
one quickstart tutorial at the beginning and a few in the rest of
the manual. With the manual for reference, time, patience, and
experimentation are all that are required.
Impulse now have a tutorial video but I presume it's in NTSC
standard video format {American TV video standard}. I've asked
them if they can have PAL versions done for us poor critters, I
hope they can?? {costs a lot to convert NTSC videos to PAL, but
they may do it as there are as many Amigas outside the USA as
within. -ed.}.
I hope to spend more time with the program to see if I can
learn to use it better, or at least as much time as I've spent
with SA4D. I'm sure it's a good program. Version 3.0 cost $US129
and the SV upgrade with the glasses will cost $US99.95, pretty
good I reckon (registered users price).
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
Review of the Commodore Amiga A590 Hard Drive.
An Application User's View:
By Andrew Mercer
The Commodore A590 Hard Drive is a small unit, with a height
and cross-section similar in size to the Commodore 1010 external
3.5-inch disk drive - but about twice its length. It easily plugs
into the expansion bus on the side of the Amiga 500, and is
designed to fit unobtrusively into the surrounding environment -
even it's case has been designed to closely match that of the
Amiga 500. Installing the A590 is a piece of cake; simply remove
the plastic cover covering the Expansion bus on the side of the
Amiga 500, and carefully slide the A590 into position so that it
is plugged into the bus. The A590 has it's own power supply, so
you must also connect the power pack and find an extra mains
socket. After that, all you need do is adjust the four DIP
switches on the back of the hard drive to suit your set up - i.e.
if you have an Amiga with Kickstart 1.3 ROM chips you can
configure the drive as Auto-Booting, otherwise use the Non
Auto-Boot setting. The A590 is activated simply by switching on
the Amiga, and (on a 1.3 machine) will automatically boot up
Workbench.
Fortunately, the Hard Drive with which I was supplied already
had Workbench 1.3 installed, so there was no need for me to
worrying about configuring the software on the disk (see elsewhere
in the review). Also supplied on the hard disk was a demo
entitled "COUNTRY". This was run automatically from the
startup-sequence during boot up - after a digitized voice said
something about the remarkable performance of the drive ("Faster
than a Speeding Bullet" being the term used), it then proceeded to
play some digitized country music songs in the background.
Suffice to say, the novelty soon wore off - there is only so much
"sweetie-pie" tunes about purdy lil country gals, horsies, and
walking in what cows do, that a guy can take!!! While this demo
showed some of the "nifty" things you can do with an Amiga and a
hard drive, I instead opted to regain a bit of extra room from the
hard disk.
Faster than a Speeding Bullet?
Being one who has become accustomed to exceptionally long
startups, the speed of the boot-up from the hard-disk was
phenomenal. Not even time enough to have a quick browse through
the introductory page of the manual. I didn't really time how
long it took, except to say that booting from the hard disk is
much much much faster than booting from floppies. So you can put
all sorts of nice little features into your startup-sequence, and
not have to worry about the extra time that it is going to take
up. Fast Fonts, resident commands, background Virus Checkers - NO
problem! Loading programs from the drive was no problem either,
in fact, it makes the Amiga a far better, more responsive machine
to use. No sooner than having clicked on their Icons, programs
such as DELUXE PAINT and AUDIOMASTER are ready for use.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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Even TEXTCRAFT PLUS (which has the longest disk access times of
any program that I have ever used) seems nice to use! And you
simply would not believe just how quick it is to load a complex
SONIX score!
Increased Versatility:
The other big benefit of a hard disk, besides the great speed
increase, is the sheer volume of information that can be put on
the disk. This means that the same disk has my Workbench, Word
Processors and Text Editors, Graphics, Music, Communications, and
Compiler programs all ready for use. Not only this, but the same
disk is used for all the data files associated with these
programs, as well as utilities, and anything else that I use on a
(semi-) regular basis. I need never do any disk swaps ever again!
Because everything is on the same disk, it becomes far easier
to move from one program to another, and make some real use of the
Amiga's multitasking abilities. Being able to switch from Word
Processor to Spreadsheet, then back again - and finally into a
Communications package to redial that BBS number that you're
having so much difficulty getting through to, makes you wonder how
you ever survived before without these features!
The Warning:
Well okay, so-far I've portrayed the addition of a hard drive
to your Amiga as the best thing since sliced bread - but ... there
are a few other things that you should know ... Transfering
software onto the hard drive is not so easy as you might think.
With some programs, you are able to simply drag the program icon
into the appropriate drawer representing an area on the hard
drive. Some other programs are supplied complete with special
routines for installing the software onto the hard drive. But
then ... you get programs that require a lot mucking about with
before you can eventually get them to work. The problem here, is
NOT the hard disk, but the way that some software developers have
set up their programs. The programs that suffer from these
problems invariably require special data files that do not appear
on the Workbench screen. Therefore, to copy these programs, you
need copy all the associated data files. With other programs
(especially compilers) you must create batch files making all the
necessary assignments so that you can run the software. As you
may already have guessed - all this requires a fairly extensive
knowledge of the CLI. To make things easier, utilities such as
the Shell and special programs such as CLImate or DirectoryMaster
would be stongly recommended. I found that SONIX had a nice way
of getting around this problem. In addition to the Sonix Icon,
there are three Drawer Icons. SCORES contains all the included
Sonix scores, INSTRUMENTS contains all the instruments required by
these scores, and MISCELLANEOUS contains all the special data
files required to run Sonix. Therefore, to successfully transfer
Sonix onto a hard disk, you need simply drag across the Sonix
program icon, and the three drawers associated with it. Well
done, Aegis!
Memory Expansion Feature:
On browsing through the manual, I discovered that the A590
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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packed an extra surprise. It has the option of memory expansion!
That is, the circuit board inside the A590 has several empty
sockets. These have been left so as to give the user the option
of adding up to an additional 2 Megabytes of ram, using 256K-bit
DRAM chips. Therefore, this saves the purchaser of an A590 having
to buy an Insider board or similar expansion board if they want to
expand their Amiga 500 beyond 1 Megabyte. Therefore, this makes
the A590 even better value for money. My congratulations to the
clever person at Commodore who came up with this idea!
Fortunately, the price of DRAM chips now seems to be falling - so
adding memory to your Amiga 500 may soon be cheaper than ever
before. I do, however, find this feature slightly annoying -
because I am the proud owner of an Amiga 2000. I decided on the
2000 because I believed that in the long run, it would be far
cheaper and easier to expand. Having subsequently expanded it to
a total memory size of 3 Megabytes, and more recently, adding my
own hard disk - I now find that I can just as easily expand an
Amiga 500 to the same configuration - AND the total cost is
considerably cheaper than that for the 2000! Still, at least I
can sit back comfortably in my chair, feet up on the desk, and
continue to work via the detachable keyboard resting on my lap.
Ever try doing that with an Amiga 500?
General Comments:
Built into the A590 is a small fan designed to prevent the
internals of the A590 from overheating, and so keep the hard drive
circuitry within a suitable operating temperature range. The A500
owners, on whose machines the A590 was being run, mentioned that
the low humming noise eminating from the fan took some geting use
to. Being a hardened user of an Amiga 2000, my reply was
generally "Noise ?! What Humming Noise ??"
From looking at the construction, the hard drive seems to be
rather solid. It survived the courier trip to my address, and the
subsequent return trip to Commodore Business Machines (NZ) with no
problems at all. Not to mention the fact that it was being moved
round quite a bit; to a local Amiga User Group meeting, and to the
homes of those it did the evaluations. Not that we would
recommend dropping one of these things to find out just how tough
it really is, but more to say that provided it is treated fairly
carefully, you can be assured of many years of faithful service
from your A590 hard drive.
Very careful attention to detail seems to have been payed to
the design of the A590. Not only does it match the Amiga 500's
case, but it fits very well in beside the Amiga, and the power and
hard drive indicator lights are very clear and easy to see. One
comment that I received in this respect is that the addition of
the hard drive unit takes up some of that precious desk space.
This mainly affects those using specially designed computer desks.
You could conceivably connect the hard drive to your Amiga via a
special cable (the way that some similar third party products
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connect up). In fact, this is the way you would have to go about
things if using an Amiga 1000. Theoretically, you could move the
hard drive somewhere so that it didn't take up your desk space.
But then you would have to go to the trouble of shielding the
cable from outside interferences caused by any devices generating
or using RF frequency signals. As such, the slight loss in
available desk space is only a small price to pay for the vast
increases in speed and storage space obtained through the addition
of the hard drive. Given a few weeks of use, you will probably
claim that the small sacrifice in desk space was the best move you
ever made. Fortunately, the A590 is much smaller than its more
bulkier competition.
Conclusion:
As you can probably tell from the tone of this review, I was
very impressed by the A590 Hard Drive. I suspect that the
internal drive mechanism was not SCSI (obviously not when the
wholesale cost of just the internal SCSI mechanisms alone can cost
over $1000 for 20-Megs), but, nonetheless, the overall performance
was pretty quick - it performs about the same as the ST-506 drive
now installed in my Amiga 2000. It left many experienced Amiga
floppy drive users near speechless. And with the FastFileSystem
in Workbench 1.3, it means Amiga users no longer need sit and
twiddle their thumbs when opening windows with a large number of
icons in them. Using application programs also becomes much more
enjoyable because you no longer need wait for the Amiga to
retrieve/save large amounts of data to/from disk. As such, the
designers of the drive have wisely opted for a performance/price
trade off - i.e. provide nearly all the same performance, for
only a fraction of the cost! For all the real high performance
freaks (with correspondingly high bank balances) you can
daisy-chain a high performance SCSI drive through the A590 via the
SCSI port provided on the back.
Another good thing to note is that the unit I was supplied with
was equipped with an Epson-manufactured drive mechanism. Suffice
to say that Commodore has opted to use high quality, reputable
drive mechanisms with this product - and not some of the currently
available cheaper Asian-produced mechanisms with more than a
slight tendancy to die three-days after the warranty runs out. I
also think that the provision for memory expansion within the hard
drive unit itself is also an excellent feature. In order to
obtain the most from the A590 hard drive, you really need to have
an Amiga with at least 1 Megabyte of memory, because the driver
seems to take up a whopping 120K of main memory. Allowing A590
users to easily expand their Amigas far beyond 1 Megabyte makes
Amiga owners much more receptive to this "slight" loss in
available work space. And if you still don't think that the
addition of a hard drive is going seriously increase the
versatility of your Amiga, then I suggest you have a chat to any
existing hard drive owner, and see what they think. If ever given
the opportunity to work on an Amiga equipped with a hard drive, I
suggest you go for it - and experience the difference.
I have not been given an official price by Commodore yet
(rumours suggest either $1495 or $1750)- but I imagine that at
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around the $1500 mark, the A590 would have to be one of the best
buys you could currently get for you Amiga. Admittedly, you would
most probably survive and achieve what you want to do without
installing a hard drive, but once you've made the switch, you'll
wonder just how you ever got along without one! Especially if make
extensive use of your Amiga for running application or business
software! I'll leave you with the words uttered to me by users
when they realised that their time with the drive was up, and it
had to be shipped back. "Oh No! Just a little bit more time!
Pleeease ... !)
A Hacker's View:
by David Dustin
I was given the hard drive by Andrew on the night of the
Manawatu Amiga User Group Meeting. We had already set up an Amiga
500 (V1.3) to demonstrate the hard drive to the other members of
the group. The hard drive connected perfectly with only a slight
problem trying to find a spare power point as we had already used
up most of them in the room. After our plug problems, we powered
the hard drive up. No problems. The drive booted with only a
slight delay while it checked DF0: for a disk. Then it proceeded
to load Workbench. The overall loading time was greatly reduced
from the normal disk access. After copying files around from
floppy to Hard Drive and HD to floppy, I was impressed. Another
thing that impressed me was the amount of data that could fit onto
the one device. I have used Hard Drives before, but this was one
of the best that I have used.
After the meeting I took the hard drive home. I ran into the
same problem that we had at the meeting; not enough power points.
That took only a few minutes to fix. The next major problem came
when I tried to plug it into my machine. It fitted perfectly,
but, when you turned the power on, it would not bring up the
Workbench Hand. I tried many times to fix this. By removing the
drive and other devices. I tried just about every combination of
things plugged in or out. Still it would not work. Then came the
crunch! I looked in the manual. And there it was. The DIP
switches. I quickly rectified the problem and was away.
After I powered up the machine, I found that the hard drive
was already 59% full. That was no good. I had to fix the
problem. I formatted the drive and copied Workbench 1.3 onto it.
That was better, only 7% full. The next stage came in testing the
compatibility of the drive with other software. First step came
in installing ARP1.3 onto the hard drive. Something that normally
took about 5 minutes only took about 2. This was a great
improvement. By now I was getting annoyed with the speed of
loading of the program disk, so I copied it onto a blank disk and
rewrote the startup-sequence. I found that I could use the
command BINDDRIVERS to activate the machine (I have a 1.2 machine
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
in case you didn't know). Then I just reassigned all of the
devices to the hard drive eg. LIBS - DEVS. This cut the loading
time down to 30 seconds from around 4 minutes. Once the boot disk
was finished, I set about working with the hard drive.
The drive was working perfectly, until, about 3 days after
first setting up the hard drive on my machine, the boot disk that
I had made up, came up with a message saying that there was a
read/write error. This wasn't there the last time I loaded it. I
grabbed a copy of NO-VIRUS by Nic Wilson and loaded it. Agggghhh!
The Lamer Exterminator Virus. I quickly checked my disks. None
had it apart from two disks. My boot disk and the disk that came
with the hard drive. I quickly checked the disks for more errors.
There were about 10 errors in total. I killed both of the viruses
and carried on as normal.
One of the things that I found annoying was that when I went
to partition the drive, it killed all of the data that I had
already placed in the main area. Getting over this, I divided the
drive into two parts, one of 15 megabytes and the other of 5
megabytes. Then I copied a lot of demos into the second (5 meg)
partition. It didn't take long for that area to be filled.
Back in the main area I tried out the compatibility of the
drive with hard drive programs. I got several of my programs that
had the ability to be put onto hard drive. The first one I tried
out was DRAGON'S LAIR. The manual said that you just press 'c'
while the game is playing. This ran into a bit of a problem. In
order to activate the hard drive on a 1.2 machine, you either have
to mount the device or binddrive the machine. Dragon's Lair
(being non-dos) does not give you the chance to. And when you
reset the machine to load Dragon's Lair, it deactivates the hard
drive access. So this stopped me from copying the game onto hard
drive. But the other programs that I tried worked well. These
were things like : Battlechess - Gunship - Airborne Ranger and a
couple of others that I can't remember because they did not work
100%. I was also able to transfer a few other programs like
BattleTech and Trivial Pursuit onto the drive. This meant that I
was able to load in the game at a much faster rate than normal.
Overall, I was very impressed with the drive, and I feel it
would be better if it had a smaller power supply a perhaps a
quieter fan. Another thing that I found annoying was the fact
that the hard drive (once activated) took up around 120K of CHIP
ram. I would be much better if it could use the FAST ram if
present, because a lot of the programming I do uses a lot of the
chip ram.
I know that 1.2 machines are unable to autoboot off a hard
drive, so therefore, the idea of purchasing one is put off
slightly. Though the hard drive does have a much faster access
time, one of the features I like is the amount of data that can be
stored on it. I would definitely seriously consider purchasing
the drive and would definitely recommend it to Amiga 500 owners,
as it is probably the best hard drive that you can get for under
$1500 at the moment.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
Page 47
June, July & August Newsletter!
Review of Consumer Magazine Home Micro Review
by AJW
Firstly, before I get sued - this is not for 'advertising, or
promotional purposes', and I'm not quoting any parts of their
review.
The July 1989 Consumer magazine contained a roundup of home
computers, it followed the usual Consumer test format in
presenting a pretty shallow comparision of machines. A lot of
what they said was sensible, and overall it was a reasonable
introduction to what to look for in a home computer. But some of
their comparasion points were fairly irrelevant - like what
software was packaged with the machine; which tends to depend upon
where you bought it and when. This is a problem with all their
assessments - the 'snapshot' of what's available is too small a
sample, they usually buy one of each item from probably one area -
in statistical terms very dangerous.
An example of problems using small samples; one of the items
of software they choose works on one machine and not another - so
one is deemed highly IBM compatible and the other not so
compatible - statistically a very poor comparision. If they'd
chosen another package perhaps the comparision results would be
reversed - we have no way of knowing. That actually brings up a
point - they don't actually present the results of their
comparisons, only their interpretation & summary.
Some things are plain misleading, like listing the processor
clock speed as 'processing speed', that's a bit like comparing the
speed of cars by the diameter of their driving wheels (it might be
related, but is meaningless when comparing machines with different
processors and associated support chips).
I'm not actually complaining about the results, the three
machines they chose as 'best buy' included one by the manufacturer
of your favourite computer, but strangely left out another by the
same manufacturer which was as good as the only IBM compatible to
make it there! (now I didn't let anything out of the bag did I?).
In summary, despite their dubious presentation, they came to
reasonable results, but I can't help wonder whether they should
either just give their tips for selecting a computer, or do it
properly and offer up something approaching scientific
investigation.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
Aegis ANiMagic
by B Chapman ( Nelson)
ANiMagic ? Well think of it as your Video Editing console for
your Amiga. It allows you to perform basic editing functions on
ANIM or IFF files. It lets you perform simple edits such as
adding or deleting frames, altering the colour palette or timing
of individual or groups of frames, cutting and pasting sections
of one ANIM to another and much, much more.
ANiMagic also has a powerful " Raster Mapping " feature, which
allows complex picture manipulation. This is done through the
creation of an endless variety of DVEs (Digital Video Effects).
These DVEs allow you to make an animation or picture do anything
from a simple fly-in to complex page turns and shutters that any
TV producer would be proud of. There are a minimum of 9025
variations on each DVE effect supplied with ANiMagic.
ANiMagic also gives you the ability to edit and work with your
ANIM after it's generated and not have to regenerate an ANIM to
make a change, like with VideoScape 3D. With ANiMagic you may be
able to salvage an ANIM you made, if something went wrong with it.
For instance, if you don't like the way the thing ended, you might
be able to re-render just the last part of it and then splice the
pieces together with ANiMagic. You could add a title screen in
front of the first frame of an ANIM and then put a timing on that
to pause and hold it for a couple of seconds on screen, then play
the ANIM, then put a closing title on the last page, etc etc.
You might also like to use it with VideoScape 3D or Sculpt
3D-4D in another way. Lets say you've rendered some object and
you don't need to change the orientation of the object, you want
it to just move across the screen. Or maybe change size. You
could use ANiMagic to render that object over and over again
across the background, have it get smaller, have a fully rendered
spaceship which starts as a dot and comes out and flys over your
left shoulder or something. The ANIM can be generated by
ANiMAgic. You often don't need to render an object over and over
again for 100 frames. Render it once and then just move the
"BitMap" around.
ANiMagic supports both "NTSC" and "PAL" as well as all
resolutions.
LoRes 32(colours) 64(colours)HalfBrite 4096(colours)HAM
VidRes 32(colours) 64(colours)HalfBrite 4096(colours)HAM
MediumRes 16(colours)
HighRes 16(colours)
Medium OverScan
Severe OverScan
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
Plus it also allows you to set a custom screen size. This may be
up to 1008 * 1008 in size and include up to 32 colours (64 with
HalfBrite). If you are going to be using this resolution Me
Thinks! you better have lots and lots and lots of Memory !!! (plus
the new Fat Agnus chip which gives you 1 meg of chip ram and is
now shipping in the new 500s here in NZ. It would be of great
help when working with any Graphics Programs like ANiMagic).
Also on the Data Disk you get a version that supports an 68020
chip and 68881 maths co-processor.
The manual is well written with some very good tutorials,
although the manual does not get into the more complex ANIMs, this
part is left to you and your creative ability and experimentation.
ANiMagic in my opinion is one of the best Video editing
programs around. It is fast (without having a 68020), it is mouse
driven so there is no language to learn, and it supports the
Graphic standards endorsed by Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
To sum up ANiMagic is only as restrictive as your Imagination!
AniMagic is available from:
Ruralcom Electronics Ltd
P.O Box 2080
140 Tahunanui Drive
NELSON.
(054-86092)
{10% discount for NZAmigaUG(wgtn) members}
BIX Conferences and Topics
Amiga Conference Amiga.User Conference Amiga.Dev Conference
amiga68000 776 adventures 230 amigamail 3
arexx 435 arexx 851 architecture 147
comm.probs 400 arp 1020 book.comments 254
copy.protect 346 basic 286 bugs 1733
digest 13 bridge 169 digest 30
flames 3031 c.language 600 docs 20
hardware 1481 chez.amiga 326 errata 28
lounge 2910 digest 79 iff 1465
main 3210 fishdisks 48 janus 175
news 10 flames 272 languages 359
other 543 long.messages 103 lounge 733
product.dcsn 152 main 11 main 6748
programs 125 memos 26 market.info 3422
reviews 3 other.language 119 news 8
rjmonrom 215 prod.dscn 71 programs 56
softw.devlpmt 122 sources 68 standards 142
tech.talk 125 utilities 162 suggestions 3845
tutorial 529
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
USER GROUP INFORMATION (New members please read)
Subscriptions
1) Printed newsletter is $18 for 12 months,
2) Newsdisk subscription is $28 for 12 months (10 issues).
3) Levy of $10 for room hire on Wellington members if they attend
local meetings.
3.5" Disks : Nashua disks are $2.50 each, blank or containing PD
software. Include 20c extra per disk for postage and packing if
you're buying less than 10 disks. Disk labels and postage are
included if you buy more than 10 disks. Bulk price : $240 per box
of 100.
3.5" Disks plus plastic 'library cases' : The same Nashua disks,
including black plastic 'library' cases (each 'library' case holds
10 disks) are available for $33.00 per 10.
Newsdisks
Newsdisks are an extension of the newsletter, and include things
like pictures and programs that aren't accommodated as well on a
printed medium. If you only read the newsletter and don't see the
Newsdisks you are only seeing part of the whole. That's why our
newsletter may not seem to include as much as many other computer
groups "magazines". If you're doing anything interesting with
your computer, exploring a new program, or fighting to get to
grips with your machine, then tell us about it. Don't ask us
whether we want an article on something, just write it! We prefer
all submissions on disk, in any format, we will return all disks,
but to facilitate this please mark any submissions clearly with
your name. In case members are not sure about Newsdisks, then here
is the story : We send Newsdisks to those members who have prepaid
for a box of disks to be sent out one by one as newsdisks are
produced, or to members who send in their own disks for us to copy
onto (please add stamp or 40c for postage, and label disk with
your name, and what you want returned on it). As with newsletters
you are free to copy any part or all of its contents, and give
away copies to anyone you like. (Selling them for more than a
blank disk will be considered a criminal act!). You can also ask
for Fish disks to be sent out as they arrive. We don't get other
PD disks regularly, so don't generally offer to send them out
automatically.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
Public Domain Library
We maintain a library of about 500 public domain disks, copies of
which are available free, you supply the disks and postage or
purchase blank disks from us. Start by getting a copy of the
Public Domain Catalogue disk that lists the contents of the
library.
===============================================
Group Meetings and members looking for Amiga owners in their area
If people wish to be added or removed from this list then let me
know. If any details are wrong (especially phone numbers) then let
me know. The following list is in geographic order (well sort of)
so members can find others near to their area. These entries
imply no association at all between this group and those listed.
They're just others in your area interested in Amigas, who may or
may not be members of this group.
SOUTH ISLAND
Invercargill, Contact Paul Heye, Phone (021)64-540.
Southland Contact :
Contact : John Wrigley,
Southland Commodore Users Group,
c/o 24 Marama Ave. North,
R.D. 9,
INVERCARGILL.
Dunedin Group :
The Dunedin Amiga Users Group meet at King's High School, Bayview
Road, St Kilda, Dunedin on the first Wednesday of the month.
Contact : Asheley Johnston,
Phone (024) 55-785.
Tuatapere, Contact Malcolm Garrett, Phone (0225) 6156
Te Anau, Contact Graeme McKenzie, Phone (0229) 7728
Amaru, Contact Roger Blackburn, Phone (0297) 47-540
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
Christchurch Amiga Users Group :
Chch AUG meets 2nd Wednesday of each month at Shirley Boys High
School, next meeting 14th June, 7.30pm. As this is a new venue,
contact the secretary for exact details.
Contact : Brian Curwood (Secretary),
9 Rowe Place,
Shirley,
Christchurch.
Phone (03) 857-584
or
Contact : Greg Evans
Phone (03) 668-646 Work
(03)229-412 Home
Christchurch SIGs : Amiga programming SIG affiliated to CHCH AUG.
Meet every Wednesday at the Christchurch Technical Institute, Rm
A109, 7.00pm.
Contact : Peter McIntyre,
PO Box 22-361,
CHRISTCHURCH.
Phone (03) 892-345.
Timaru, Contact
Ron Bisset
Phone (056) 88-480
or
Contact : Owen Dunne,
8 High Street,
Timaru.
Phone (056) 83-440.
WestLand Amiga Users Group : The Westland Amiga Users group has
members from Haast to Greymouth, and meets on the first Tuesday of
the month at 34 High Street, Greymouth.
Contact : Keith Ross,
27 Nelson Street,
Greymouth.
Nelson Group : Nelson Amiga Users Group meets on the first
Wednesday, and the third Thursday of the month, at 7:30pm, in the
premises of Ruralcom Electronics Ltd. premises at 140 Tahunanui
Drive, Nelson. The different nights are to try and please all the
people all the time......
Contact : Gary Walker,
Phone (054) 85-494 (after 5pm).
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
NORTH ISLAND
Wellington Group : The next local Wellington group meeting is on
Monday 28th Aug (usual last Monday of the month) at 7:30pm in the
Upstairs lecture theatre, Royal Society Building, Turnbull Street,
Thorndon, Wellington. If you want to pirate software, DON'T!.
Contact : Tony Wills,
156-C Queens Drive,
Lyall Bay,
Wellington 3.
Phone (04) 877-258.
| ^ | v |
| | |
| | \ /
| |\ \ / motorway south
| | \ \ / off ramp
| | \ \ / v /
| | \ \/ /
| \__/ /
| ^ ____ |
| / \ |
| M | | v |
| o | | |
| l |______| |___________
| e ______ M HALLWELL
| s | | u ___________
| w | | r | _____
| o | | p | |cars_|
| r | | h |_____|^|*|Royal
| t | | y Society
| h | | TURNBULL
| | | v ____________
| ^ | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| ^ | | v |
| | | |
From Bunny
Street
Paraparaumu, Contact Kevin Dwen, Phone (058)70-542.
Greytown, Contact Campbell Young, Phone (0553)49-546.
Masterton, Contact Gerry Kluck, Phone (059)82-947.
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
Manawatu Group :
Manawatu Amiga U.G. meet at 7pm, the last Tuesday each month, in
the Bradfield Lecture room, Palmerston North Public Library
Contact : Andrew Mercer
86 Long Melford Road,
Palmerston North.
Phone (063) 82-592.
Bulls, Contact Bill Anderson, Phone (0652)49-066.
Wanganui Group :
General micro computer group, about 50% Amigas, meets on the
second Tuesday of each month in the Old Library Building, Queens
Park, at 7:30pm. New members and visitors always welcome.
A specifically Amiga group now meets at a venue to be arranged, on
the 1st Thursday of every month.
Contact : Liam Greenwood, Phone (064) 55-610.
or Carl Rasmusen, Phone (064)56-583.
Hawkes Bay Group :
The 'Bay Amiga Computer Club' meets on the first Wednesday of the
month (except January) at 7:30pm, Wesley Lounge Conference Lounge,
Hastings Street (opposite Municipal Theatre), Hastings.
Mail to : P.O. Box 4060,
Marewa,
Napier.
Napier, Contact Trevor Cook (President), Phone (070) 435-074
Havelock North, Contact Ross Deeley (Chief Archivist), Phone (070)
775-959
Waipukurau, Contact Nigel Jones, Phone (0728) 87-006
Pahiatua, Contact Roger Woods, Phone (0650) 23-835.
Taranaki Group : Meets at 7:30pm on the fourth Monday of the month
at the Foundation for the Blind club Rooms, 131 Vivian Street, New
Plymouth.
Contact : Mrs Noeline Wagner,
8 Cutfield Street,
Inglewood.
Phone (067) 68-874.
South Taranaki : Next meeting Monday 12th July, 7:30 at the Eltham
Primary School Library, Contact John Veldthuis, Phone (062-4)
8409.
Turangi, Contact Robert Montgomery, Phone (0746) 7574
Taupo Contact :
Contact : Lewis Klyen,
50 Invergarry Road,
Taupo.
Phone (074) 89-313
Rawene, Contact Robin Hoare, Phone (088) 7577
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
Tuakau, Contact Gary Sizemore, Phone (085) 68-054
Kawakawa, Contact Dennis Williams, Phone (0885) 37-954
Te Kuiti, Contact Brian Houston, Phone (081) 3374
or Contact Ewert Tearle, Phone (08133) 751
Rotorua, Contact (Mr) Menno Grondsma, Phone (073) 85-858
Kawerau, Contact Chris Rutter, Phone (076) 38-380
Tokoroa, Contact Rev. Arthur Bruce, Phone (0814) 67-565
Bay of Plenty, Contact Foster Sherburd, Phone (075) 420-199
Cambridge, Contact Andrew Cooke, Phone (071) 277-359
Hamilton Group :
Meet 1st and 2nd Thursday of each month (except for January), in
the Marist Hall Behind St. Marks, Grey Street, East Hamilton.
Contact : Russell Christie,
PO Box 176,
Ngaruawahia.
Phone (07124) 8595
Tauranga Group :
Tauranga Amiga Users Group meets regularly, venue to be arranged.
Contact : Richard Abba
c/o 136 Levers Road
TAURANGA
Phone (075) 66-860
Waiheke Island, Contact Don Millner, Phone (09) 726-651
or Contact Terry Maguire, Phone (09) 728-590
Orewa, Contact Darrell Crane, Phone (0942) 41-550
Whangarei, Contact Jock Nisbet, Phone (089) 481-436
Northland, Contact Robin Hoare, Phone (0887)57-761
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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June, July & August Newsletter!
AUCKLAND SUBCONTINENT
Auckland Group :
The Auckland ,"Amiga New Zealand", group meetings are on the first
Wednesday of each month, from 7:30pm to 10pm at the St Georges
Presbyterian Church Hall, Corner of The Terrace and Anzac Road,
Takapuna, Auckland.
Contact : Brett Wakefield
P.O. Box 89-026
Torbay,
Auckland 10.
Phone (09) 403-9657
Church Hall
_
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__________\ u \ | A | |_|-. e |
p \________| u |_______| r |_
u b r
_________ k u Anzac St. a
\ e ______ r _______ c _
| _ \ | n | | e |
| B | \ \ | | | |
| a | \____\
| r |
| r |
| y |
Motorway North | s |
State Highway 1 | | (Not to scale)
^ | P |
| | o |
| | | | i |
| | | n |
| | | t |
/ / | |
/ / | R |
_________________| d |______________________________
/ ---> _
/ ____________ (_) Esmonde Road
/ / <---
/ / _____________________________________________
/ / /
/ / /
/ /
/ /
/ /
/ /
/ /
| | |
|
V Motorway To Auckland Harbour Bridge
<The first New Zealand Amiga Users Group (Wgtn)>
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