Amiga Collections: MegaDisc/MegaDisc 24 (1991-10)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 1 of 2)[WB].zip/MegaDisc 24 (1991-10)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 1 of 2)[WB].adf/ARTICLES/MegaBites/MegaBites

Text File | 1991-10-14 | 25KB | 705 lines

                               MEGABITES




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  COMMODORE NEWS


    It seems that the World of Commodore show was remarkably successful in
  pulling people in - a total of 29,642 paying customers passed through
  the gates as opposed to 19,000 at the previous WOC/A show in New York,
  surprising for a one-product/one-computer show. This is compared to the
  45,000 visitors which, for example, the PC Show in Melbourne attracted -
  considered pretty good by the organisers, and covering the entire
  computer field. So congratulations are in order for the Hunter Group
  and others involved in the Show.



  COMMODORE TO OPEN NEW PLANT

  Commodore plans to invest at least $9.1 million in a new assembly plant
  located in the Phillipine Islands.  The plant is to be set up in an
  export processing zone just outside of Manila and will produce expansion
  cards as well as assemble hardware. Should be ready by June 1992.




  COMMODORE MULTIMEDIA

  The following is Commodore's formal definition of multimedia as posted
  to FidoNet by Fred Layberger, Eastern Regional Trainer, CBM:

    "A method of designing and integrating computer technologies on a
  single platform that enables the end user to input, create, manipulate
  and output text, graphics, audio, and video, utilizing a single user
  interface."

  Now we know what it is, let's do it before the other computers take
  over...



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  GOSSIP

    SUPERBASE LACKS PRECISION

    Precision Software, with offices in the U.K., the U.S. and Germany
  has recently been purchased by Software Publishing Corp. of Mountain
  View, California.  Superbase holds over 80 percent of the relational
  database market for Windows, which was too good for SPC to pass up. SPC
  is still trying to figure out what to do with the Amiga line of
  Precision's products, but the Precision people are reassuring that
  SB4/Amiga will come out stronger because of the merger.


ATARI SALES DOWN

    Atari Corp. posted a net income of $30.4 million for their second
  quarter which ended June 30. Second quarter figures included a $40.9
  million gain from the sale of Atari's Taiwan manufacturing plant.  Net
  income for the same quarter last year was $1.5 million. This doesn't
  look good.




THE AMIGA AT WORK

    Tom Ellard in the SMH's Amiga column writes of the increasing use of
  Amigas in small animation companies, specifically TaylorMade Films in
  Melbourne (Tel: [phone]). John Taylor makes traditional animations
  but has gone Amiga for a safety video commissioned for the Victorian
  Fire Brigade, due to the influence of the Swinburne Film and Television
  School, where he graduated. There, David Atkinson has devised a program
  for the Amiga called "Shoot" which greatly simplifies the task of
  traditional cel animation. this program is being licensed to commercial
  production houses here and overseas.



VIDEO TOASTER

    Amazing how much time and effort was spent on this device and yet it
  still won't work on anything but an A2000 (not even an A3000T,ie Tower
  version) or on PAL machines. Seems to be a very shoot-foot approach to
  selling product. There is no time given for the availability of the
  Toaster on the A3000 line.  The Toaster seems to be responsible for
  creating a whole new market for TimeBase Correctors (TBCs), for which
  the manufacturers are eternally grateful.



A3000S AND GENLOCKS

    Following on from that above: it seems that the problems of A3000s and
  Genlocks are related to the physical size of the internal video slot,
  but also to the fact that Commodore took its time to define a genlock
  standard, i.e. after they had been designed in some cases. Many have
  since been modified, and Magni's 4004 internal genlock now has a factory
  modification which you can upgrade to for US$200.


BYTE LIKES A3000UX

    A few quotes from a review of the Amiga Unix machine, from Byte
  Magazine:
  "...The Amiga 3000UX greatly outperforms the equivalent NeXT and Mac
  with A/UX...it is much more suited to handling the graphics requirements
  of a graphical user interface like Open Look..."




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    HOME-GROWN PRODUCTS & SERVICES OF NOTE

    [Ed: I'd like to expand this into a separate OZ_PRODUCTS section, so
  if you produce something for the Amiga, or know of someone who does,
  please let us know so we can spread the word.]



    MEGAMICRO TECHNOLOGY

    Norm Jackson, long respected as a fine engineer/product designer for
  the Amiga market (he designed the MicroMegs and Tiny Tiger for MAST,
  among other things), has released a product which he will market
  directly, called the SCRAM 500, a SCSI RAM controller for the A500.
  According to his press release, its specifications include:
  * tiny footprint
  * 0 to 8 meg of fast Ram, 1meg or 4meg chips supported
  * Ram configurable as 2, 4 or 8 Meg
  * Full, fast SCSI hardware and software, Syquest & Tape and CD-ROM
  compatible
  * Accelerator upgrade path.

    Sounds very good! This could be the way to make your A500 zoom at low
  cost - $349 with no Ram, $499 with 2 meg fitted. For more info, send
  SAE to:
  MegaMicro Technology, P O Box 511, Bondi Junction, 2022.
  Fax: [phone]



    PHOENIX MICROTECHNOLOGY

  I quote from their fax:

    An A-Max II hard disk driver for the Phoenix Board is now available,
  allowing A-Max to use a partition on the Phoenix Board's hard disk as a
  bootable Macintosh disk.  The driver will be sold separately and also
  bundled with A-Max II.

    The Phoenix Board SCSI driver now supports Commodore's SCSI-Direct
  protocol, which allows software to talk to any SCSI device (such as a
  tape drive, scanner etc) in a manner compatible with most SCSI
  controllers on the market.  All current controllers from Commodore, GVP,
  MicroBotics, IVS etc. support the SCSI-Direct protocol.  More
  information and programming assistance are available from Michael
  Warmer. Revision F upgrade now available to the SCSI controller - over
  50% faster, and some bugs fixed. You can get a kit consisting of EPROM
  and disk for $25.

    Michael and Jon Potter are collaborating to produce a hard disk backup
  utility which will support SCSI streaming tape drives and floppy disk
  backup a la Quarterback.  This utility will work with the Phoenix Board
  as well as most other SCSI controllers on the market. A demo version
  will be made available as soon as possible.  We'd like to hear from
  anyone with access to a SCSI tape drive interested in beta-testing the
  utility.  Your name will go up in pixels!  The Canon MO drive (see
  below) may also be supported.

    We are considering development of support software for Canon's
  erasable Magneto-Optical SCSI drive, as used in the Next workstation.



    2 KICKSTARTS ON A BOARD

  Unitech Electronics P/L  - KickBoard: 2 Kickstarts on a board
              Tel: [phone]
              8 B Tummul Place, St Andrews




    SSG SOFTWARE

Panzer Battles:
  A game coming out in October 1991.

Halls of Montezuma:
  A Battle History of the United States Marine Corps...see a review in
  Megadisc soon.

WarLords:
  "A huge, 8-player strategy game of empires, castles, armies, heroes
  monsters and dragons."

    SSG is a local games manufacturer with a good reputation
  internationally - they are also looking for local programmers with
  talent and ideas. See reviews of two of these games next issue. As they
  say: "Strategic Studies Group is actively encouraging submissions from
  programmers. If you are interested, give Gregor Whiley a call on (02)
  567-8318, or write to him at P.O. Box 261, Drummoyne, 2047."



    PIRANHA GRAPHICS

    Simon Hart sent us in a letter (3/10/91) with a very good-looking
  logo, and the following text:
  "Programmers: Need graphics, sound samples or music for any type of
  program or game? Call Piranha Graphics - we pride ourselves on
  producing maximum quality work for low prices. Call Simon Hart on (03)
  789 6544 for information or to ask about our demo disk."

   Address: 5 Ballymore Crt, Frankston, VIC 33199.



    AMIGA DTP BUREAU IN CANBERRA

    Frank Keighley has sent us some information about the service he
   provides in Canberra, along with an article on some of the finer points
   of WordPerfect. What follows is cut from his file.

    Desktop Utilities is an Amiga-based postscript output and file
   transfer bureau.  Files can be sent on disk, or uploaded in Postscript
   ASCII or certain document formats from any system to be printed at 300
   dots per inch.  We can read disks in Amiga, IBM (360 & 720K), Mac
   (800K) and Atari ST formats, and transfer files between formats on 3.5"
   or 5.25" disks.  Our Bulletin Board and message line are available most
   hours, seven days a week.
   Tel: [phone]

   BULLETIN BOARD:  062 396659

   There is also a scanning service using Sharp scanners.






    THE EASY WAY

  David Jacobs tells us:

  You can send me your images for outputting on my Digital Film
  Recorder, which is basically Digiview in reverse.  The Film
  Recorder separates an image into its Red, Green and Blue components and
  displays each component onto a high resolution black and white monitor.
  The exposure is taken by a camera through corresponding Red, Green and
  Blue filters.  This produces results that are free of the phosphor dot
  texture of normal colour monitors as well as giving better colour
  reproduction.  I am also able to remove the dark raster lines that are
  visible in non-interlaced images.


    If you would like a sample slide, send $1.00 and a SASE (Self
  Addressed Stamped Envelope) or for $3.50 and a SASE, I will output one
  of your images as a sample.  All Amiga display modes are supported
  including HAM, Overscan and Dynamic-Hires.  In the near future, I hope
  to offer full 24-bit (16.7 million colours) output.

    Creations
    120 McGilvray Avenue
    Noranda, WA  6062

    If you have any queries on the article or the output service, call
  David Jacobs on [phone] between 8.00am and 5.00pm (Perth Time),
  Monday to Friday only.



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  INTERESTING PRODUCTS

  INTERESTING SOFTWARE

 Rexx Plus Compiler

    For US$150, you get a Compiler which the distributors claim gives
  greater speed, more built-in functions, better error messages and
  greater efficiency, in that the compiler generates re-entrant code.
  However, "Rexx" not "ARexx" is mentioned, and I've never heard of this
  company before, and there were two spelling mistakes in a short ad...
  so beware. More info from: Dineen Edwards Group, 19785 West Twelve Mile
  Rd, Suite 305, Southfield, Michigan 48076-2553. Tel: [phone].


 RxTools

    While on the subject of ARexx, this US$55 program lets you easily
  design and build user interfaces into ARexx programs, linking the ARexx
  text interface to Amiga's Intuition interface - RxTools lets you handle
  Intuition manageably, giving you windows, gadgets, requestors, and more
  with minor pain. For more info: TTR Development, Inc., 6701 Seybold Rd,
  Suite 220, Madison, WI 53719. Tel: [phone].


 New lease of life for UltraCard

    UltraCard (by Mike Lehmann, who has spent most of his time recently
  programming for CDTV) has been picked up by Impulse, and is being
  re-written, debugged, etc. Name should be Foundation when next you see
  it. What about us buyers of the original kludgy product?


 Fractal Engine

    With mainly games in mind, Psygnosis has shown this inventive new
  approach to programming - either the computer can recreate a gractal
  gaming world animation with some interactivity or a portion of the
  screen can be reserved for real-time fractal animation in full
  interactive mode. The hope is to merge both computer animation and
  real-time fractal technology into a quick interactive product. The
  technique could have quite widespread application in education as well
  as gaming. (See below for more on fractals.)



 Schematic/PCB Design packages

    Centaur Software has shipped four new packages which are really two
  versions of a pair of complementary packages called Pro-Net Personal
  (US$179.95) and Pro-Board Personal (US$179.95). The first of these is
  the artwork generation half and is called an "intelligent, single line
  auto-router with high density capability", and has many features.

    The Professional versions of this pair cost US$499.95 each and the
  basic difference is the post-processing capabilities, which are
  extensive.

    For more info:
Centaur Software
P O Box 4400, Redondo Beach, CA 90278. Tel: [phone].




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  HARDWARE

DATA THRU THE ELECTRICITY SYSTEM

    Verran Electronics has devised a way of passing info from one Amiga to
  another via the electricity supply rather than via serial connections.
  You just plug in at the mains and can then communicate with any other
  unit plugged in anywhere else in the building (I believe baby alarms and
  some intercoms do this too). Each connected unit can be given a
  different address to make sure of correct arrival. The plugs cost 175
  pounds each however, so you have to really need it.




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  INTERESTING HARD AND SOFT WARE

    ASDG has released some new add-ons for their Art Department
  Professional image processing software, viz.:

    1. Professional Conversion Pack - For US$90, provides conversions for
  Targa, TIFF, and Rendition format 24-bit files, often used in high-end
  graphics workstations.

    2. Polaroid CI-3000 Digital Palette for US$4495 (!) which is a
  digital film recorder which guarantees accuracy to 24 bits, with an
  image resolution of 2048 x 1638 pixels. Provides camera backs for 35mm
  and Pack film; autofilm and 4x5 camera backs are also available.

    3. The Polaroid CI-3000 Driver gives complete control over the beast
  from within ADPRO, meaning that anything you can load into ADPro can be
  dumped to film in the CI-3000.  So if you've got money, and need good
  images, this is the way.





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  INTERESTING PUBLICATIONS

    Don Sforcina, head of Color Computer Systems P/L in Perth WA, sent in
  a brand new magazine called AVID - The Amiga Video Journal, which is the
  first Amiga-specific video mag, perhaps just the first? 60 pages of
  fairly densely packed info on inferior paper, this is a low-budget job,
  the only colour being on the cover. Some of the pieces: "In Depth:
  Deluxe Paint IV", "Still More Toaster Tricks!", "Toaster System Basics",
  "Low Cost Amiga Digitizers", and so on. As you can see, it helps if you
  use a Video Toaster, and you wouldn't because there's no PAL version,
  and none coming for a good while. However, there are useful pieces for
  the videographer/videophile, such as "3D Text Techniques" and "Amax II
  Plus".

Subscription rate: US$36 for 12 monthly issues from:
Avid Pblications, 415-112 N. Mary Avenue #207,
Sunnyvale, CA 94086.
Tel: [phone].

    Don Sforcina provides both a video service and imported video-related
  hardware for Amiga users, and can be contacted at: 18 Appleby St,
  Balcatta WA 6021.  Tel: [phone].





  "ENCHANTED REALMS" ADVENTURE GAME JOURNAL

    This turned up in the post, a paper plus disk mag, the paper part
  nicely produced on parchment-style stock, with medieval scrollwork and
  other such effects. Claiming to have started in July 1990, this is No.
  7, the 1st anniversary issue, and it contains what you'd expect
  (reviews, interviews, hints, contests, etc.) by guys who call themselves
  names like "Merlin" and "Lord of the Realms" (not Frodo, for example!).
  The disk contains a demo of an Accolade game and other bits and pieces.
  Six-issue sub with disk: US$79.95 air mail.
  From: Digital Expressions
  P O Box 33656, Cleveland, OH 44133  USA.
  TEL: [phone]




  SOUTH AFRICAN AMIGA MAG

    Peter Mazurek, a subscriber, sent in a magazine called "AmigaSA" which
  he picked up on a trip round the Horn, mainly because it's the first mag
  he's come across which is bi-lingual, having mainly English articles but
  breaking into Afrikaans without warning from time to time, very odd.
  Looks like we're well served for magazines here in comparison.




  FRACTAL CONNECTIONS


     From a gentleman called Cade Roux, a 2nd yr Maths student at
  Cambridge, comes an occasional disk-mag devoted to fractals, mandelbrots
  and the like, sent to me for review by Bob Eason in NZ. If you like
  fractals (and I do) it's terrific. You can get more info, and subscribe
  (July 1991 -  4.00/$6.40 for three-disk set) via the following
  addresses:

  Via the UK: Gonville & Caius College Cambridge  CB2 1TA
              Fractal Software Services
              Ami-FX - Amiga Fractal Exchange
  Via the US:
  P O Box 3, COMSCEUR
  FPO NY 09553-2000

    He also included a few other fractal sources on his mag, as follows:

    Amygdala                    Box 219
Editor: Rollo Silver        San Cristobal, NM  87564
  American Newsletter of fractals - produces accompanying slide sets

Fractal Report              Reeves Telecommunications Laboratories Ltd.
Editor: John de Rivaz       West Towan House, Porthtowan
                            Truro, Cornwall, TR4 8AX
  Programming Examples / some BASIC - easily converted to other languages

Algorithm                   P.O. Box 29237
Editor: A K Dewdney         Westmount Postal Outlet
                            785 Wonderland Road South
                            London, Ontario, Canada  N6K 1M6
  Recreational Programming Magazine

Art Matrix                  PO 880
                            Ithaca, NY  14851-0880
  Prints, Slides, Postcards, Videos, Clothing - A vast collection of
  fractal-based artwork as well as some (non-Amiga) software

Amber Lotus                 1241 21st Street
                            Oakland, CA 94607
  Fractal Greeting Cards            Fractal Cosmos Calendar

Frachaos Fractal Arts       Higher Trengrove
                            Constantine, Falmouth
                            Cornwall  TR11 5QR
                            Tel. [phone]
                            Fax. [phone]
  The largest single collection of fractal related stuff for all computers
  ... write for a catalog.

Strange Attracations        204 Kensington Park Road
                            London W11
                            Tel. [phone]
                            Fax. [phone]
  Fractal related art including postcards, greeting cards, T-shirts etc.

Crystal Rose Software       109 South Los Robles
                            Pasadena, CA  91101-2417
  Analytic Art

MegageM                     1903 Adria
                            Santa Maria, CA  93454
  FractalPro Version 4 now available, Catalog disk $2.50 refundable



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   PRESS RELEASES



    BLUE RIBBON SOUNDWORKS

    Three new products announced:

  1. JAM! - Seems to be an imminent MIDI sequencer/music program for the
  rest of us, ie easy to use. Allows more than 4 sampled sounds at a time,
  mixes samples on the fly, includes a TurboSound editor, ie means you can
  edit IFF samples to use with Jam! Can be run together with Bars&Pipes
  Pro. Coming end of October, about US$129.

  2. Direct-to-Disk support - ie, they are supporting Sunrize Industries'
  sampling cards with their new Tools & Accessories, letting you access
  Studio 16 sampling software from within Bars&Pipes Pro. Each Sunrize
  sampling card will be released with the appropriate software.

  3. Tootorial Kit - contains several tutorial lessons for Bars&Pipes Pro,
  and costs US$69.95.

  4. Pro Studio Kit - requires B&P Pro, and is aimed at professional
  musicians. Contains: articulation modifier, DeFlam, DeGlitch, event
  smoother, Feels Good, etc... (someone want to explain all about this to
  us?!). RRP is US$69.95.

  5. Creativity Kit - (talk about spin-offs!) - Contains a bunch of extra
  tools such as Accent Randomiser, Auto Modulate, Riff-chord, etc, at the
  same price as above.

    More info: 1293 Briardale NE, Atlanta, georgia 30306 USA.
    TEL: [phone].




    PROGRESSIVE PERIPHERALS AND SOFTWARE

    A few new products/upgrades here:

  1. Diskmaster II - the old favourite is back, better than ever, and I'm
  told it's very powerful and easily configurable, at a price of US$69.95
  plus P&P, I guess.

  2. Video Blender - Doesn't require TimeBase Correction, configurable to
  PAL or NTSC, this piece of hardware could be what you need for desktop
  video. Features include: 16 million colours; keying; key in; black
  burst; loop through; stereo audio mixing; luma keying; sequenceable;
  genlocking and more. Price US$ 1295.

  3. IntroCAD PLUS - the easy to use CAD package now has an accelerator
  version to speed up use on an accelerated Amiga, along with numerous
  other improved features.

  4. Ultra Design - called a professional CAD system, the release
  indicates that this is a very powerful package. No price given.

  Info: 464 Kalamath St, Denver Colorado 80204  USA
  TEL: [phone].



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  TELE-COMMUNICATIONS


PEGASUS FLYING HIGH

    Pegasus, the international communications network, is continuing its
  good work in developing forums for the dissemination of global
  information. Anyone even vaguely interested in any green- or eco- or
  peace-related topics, along with all the standard information networks
  would do himself a favour by enquiring about becoming a member. All you
  need is a computer (got it, right?), a modem (they have special deals)
  and a bit of cash. They're in Byron Bay, and you can get to them and the
  world through your phone line. More info from:
  P O Box 424, Byron Bay 2481.
  Tel: [phone]



COMPUSERVE

    Fujitsu brings Compuserve to Australia since July this year, to
  "provide substantial cost savings and local suppport for Autralian and
  NZ subscribers", as they say. If you're willing to pay serious money per
  minute you can get on to all kinds of useful databases and networks and
  services. E.g., new ones include World Report (350 stories each day);
  Sports Report; & Community Report (European, that is). You can also,
  for example, get all the quality British newspapers online, and they
  just started a special forum on the Soviet crisis. More info from:
  Stuart Broad, Tel: [phone].




HAYES MAKES HAY LEGALLY

    Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc., which "owns" the Hayes Commands
  Patents, sued Everex Systems, Inc. over its use of them without
  permission and won the case and $2.5 million damages on the 21st August.
  Juicy for Hayes - now others are being careful to pay royalties.






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  MISCELLANEOUS

  WESTCOMP COMPUTERS MOVES

    Down the street! Lou Lucano, who runs "the largest shop and is the
  biggest Amiga dealer in the Central West of NSW" wants to let you know
  that they're now to be found at:
  96 Bentinck St,
  Bathurst  NSW  2795.




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    MOUSE BALLS


    Someone sent this in to us:

    From the Sout China Morning Post I reprint the following article on
  computer mouse maintenance, with absolutely no comment whatsoever:

    If a mouse fails to operate or should it perform erratically, it may
  need a ball replacement.  Because of the delicate nature of this
  procedure, replacement of mouse balls should only be attempted by
  properly trained personnel.  Before proceeding, determine the type of
  mouse balls by examining the underside of the mouse.

    Domestic balls will be harder and larger than foreign balls.

    Foreign balls can be replaced using the popoff method.

    Domestic balls are replace using the twistoff method.

    Mouse balls are not usually static sensitive.

    However, excessive handling can result in sudden discharge.  It is
  recommended that each replacer have a pair of spare balls for
  maintaining optimum customer satisfaction, and that any customer missing
  his balls should suspect local personnel of removing these necessary
  items.



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