Floppyshop 2/Floppyshop - 2.zip/Floppyshop - 2.iso/diskmags/3565-4.665/dmg-3609/news.txt/newsnips.asc

Text File | 1989-04-05 | 13KB | 260 lines

                      ∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙∙°∙°∙°∙°∙
                      ∙                            ∙
                      ∙  NEWS, GOSSIP and RUMOURS  ∙
                      ∙                            ∙
                      ∙    from Felix Sylvestis    ∙
                      ∙                            ∙
                      ∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙∙°∙°∙°∙°∙




                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                    ~ What the rags *don't* tell you ~
                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Garth  Sumpter  has been replaced as editor of  ST  REVIEW.   There's
nothing  unusual  about this - it happens all the time in the rags  -  but
this   was barely a month after his Editorial that told us just  how  good
ST Review was,  and how it was all down to editorial  consistency,  unlike
the other magazines  who change their editors all the time....

     Rumour  has it that ST FORMAT's editor,  Andy  Hutchinson,  has  been
moved  to a console magazine because he was considered too pro-ST  in  his
opinions  and  replies  to  readers'  letters.    It  seems  that   Format
Publications  want  to play down ST Format and concentrate  on  the  Amiga
side.

     Or,  to  put it another way,  "thanks for supporting us in the  past,
lads  -  now  f_off and buy an Amiga!"  The days of  magazines  being  for
their  readers are now officially over - and isn't there something  better
to do with your £3.95?



                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                        ~ FREE PD BALLOON BURSTS ~
                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over  the  last couple of months we have seen the phenomenon  of  FREE  PD
LIBRARIES.  These libraries were run on the basis that PD software was and
should  be  free.  To obtain discs all that was neccessary was to  send  a
disc(s) and enough return postage.

Of the four libraries that started the scheme,  three have quit. These are
NETWORK, INCOME and ACE. Do not send any more discs to these libraries.

If  you  have  placed orders with any of these  libraries  and  are  still
waiting  for discs it may be a good idea to write with a SAE and  ask  for
your discs to be returned even if the order cannot be filled.

The remaining library,  OUTLAWS PDS,  is still going strong and the  owner
assures me that he will do so for a long time to come.



                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                       ~ Around the PD Libraries ~
                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>    NEW  AGE  PDL  are  no longer stocking  STUNN  under  their  original
conditions,  ie send a disc and SAE for a copy.  Reason for this is  that,
New  Age's owner,  Caroline Price,objects to providing review discs  to  a
disc mag which also has connections with a FREE PD LIBRARY (INCOME - RIP).

     What  was  that about "Public Domain software being free  and  freely
distributable"?


††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††
† We hereby place The Curse of STEN on New Age PD:  may their catalogues †
†     corrupt, and may they send out even more viruses than usual....    †
†                                                                        †
††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††


>    CALEDONIA  PDL,  on the other hand,  goes from strength to  strength.
Jake  Bain,  the proprietor,  recently introduced the 'Caledonia  Prestige
Discount Card'.   The card costs £15 and entitles the holder to:  "6  free
PD discs  per year, 20% discount on all PD orders, free catalogue updates,
and a monthly news and reviews sheet".  The card is valid for one year and
renewals  will  be £10 per year  thereafter.    Contact:   Caledonia  PDL,
250, Oldtown Road,  Hilton,  Inverness, IV2 4PT.  Tel:  [phone]


>    PUBLIC  DOMINATOR (jeez...) appear to be in  financial  difficulties.
We  would  not advise anyone to order from them unless  they  are  certain
that the library is still functioning.

     According  to  the  January  issue  of  'ST   Applications',   Public
Dominator  owe six months of royalties to the Budgie  programmers'  group,
and their licence to distribute Budgie discs has now been revoked.

    In what is presumably a last desperate fling to raise some  cash,  any
cash,  PDom have been started to sell off their assets.  To quote from two
recent MicroMart classifieds:

   "Atari ST Database of 18000 UK ST owners,  as used by long  standing
   Public Domain Library,  £150.  Perfect for mailshoting new business.
   Tel [phone]."

   "Atari ST public domain library available for hire.   1200+ discs in
   collection,  entire  library must be hired for two weeks at 30p  per
   disc for you to duplicate.  Tel [phone]."

     And  these  were free ads,  not trade ads.  Times must be  very  hard
indeed  if they couldn't afford the £20 to sell off their  assets....   Or
are  they planning a particularly devious Special Offer - "Unlimited  junk
mail for all our customers"?



   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   ~ Faster Than an ST, Rarer Than a Hen's Tooth: The Falcon Flops in ~
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     What the hell are Atari playing at?   The last we heard of the Falcon
was  that  "16,000  machines  would  be  available  before  Christmas   at
independent retailers".   This was not true.   Now we are to believe  that
the  machine will be available,  "in late February or early March of  this
year,  in  both  1 Meg and 4 Meg versions,  and in  a  specially  designed
case".

     Now,  I  don't know about you,  but I'm becoming  very  disillusioned
with  all  this incompetence and hype.   The Falcon is Atari's  very  last
chance to attract serious users and revitalise its range of machines,  and
they  have  *got* to get it right if they're to survive  into  the  '90's.
The  STE was a non-starter,  the TT was over-priced,  and as for the  Mega
STE.... a classic case of too little, too late.

     If Atari mismanange the Falcon,  then they can kiss their  commercial
ass  goodbye.   The games players and software houses have moved  over  to
the  Amiga,  and the last two years have seen virtually all of the  movers
and shakers in the ST world changing to the Macintosh or PC.   And who can
really blame them?   The ST is seen,  rightly or wrongly,  as a machine on
the way out.

     The good news is that 83 firms are currently working on software  for
the  Falcon.   109  titles are in development (most of these  are  serious
applications)  and  many  of them will be available when  the  machine  is
finally launched.

     Hisoft are already selling 'TruePaint',  which will run in all Falcon
resolutions,  including the 768 x 480 True Colour mode.  It uses an "easy-
to-use   multi-window  environment  with  menus,   toolbox  and   keyboard
shortcuts",  and  "a  large range of  effects  including  shear,  wrinkle,
somooth,  rainbow,  etc".  Animation and FSM/Speedo GDOS are supported, as
well as a wide range of file formats, including IFF, TIFF and JPEG.

     The news from the States is that Kodak have signed an agreement  with
Atari  to make their Photo CD system  available on  the  Falcon.   Whether
this  will  be as a Photo CD development kit,  or a straight port  of  the
software (and hardware?),  is anyone's guess,  but what is certain is this
will  make  the  Falcon the cheapest set-up for  serious  Photo  CD  work.
Several  firms  have  also  stopped work  on  applications  for  the  NeXt
machine,  and have switched their resources to writing for the Falcon.  It
all sounds too good to be true.



        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        ~  WHAT DO ATARI (UK) REALLY THINK OF THE AMIGA A1200?  ~
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        An un-named source at Atari UK sent us the following....

   "Here  are  some reasons why the Falcon wipes its  bo**om  with  the
   A1200:

   COLOURS  -  This is a very confusing area,  but let me give  you  an
   example.   The Falcon offers true colour video with 65536 colours up
   to 768 x 480 resolution.   Each pixel contains its own RGB value, so
   put in the RGB value for red and you get red.  Enter any other value
   for the next pixel and you get ANY other colour.

   The A1200 offers a video mode with 1280 x 400 resolution,  but works
   with  64 basic colours,  taking the pixel to the left  and  changing
   either  the red,  green or blue value,  meaning that in  theory  you
   could have up to 262,000 colours (NOT 16 million).   In practice  it
   means  that  it usually takes three pixels to change  from  any  one
   colour  to  another (one red change,  one  green  change,  one  blue
   change),  meaning  that the 1280 horizontal resolution quickly  gets
   divided by three.

   This means that only pictures on the Falcon can achieve photographic
   quality.   So  it  is not really fair to quote the A1200  as  having
   better resolution or more colours, as application is the key.

   COMPATIBILITY  - We have stated that the Falcon is  a  evolutionary,
   not an evolutionary machine.   It is not the new ST!   Therefore  we
   are not quoting downward compatibility with ST product.   However it
   still uses a 68000 family central processor,  which means that  many
   many  programmes  conforming  to our  developer  support  guidelines
   (available to ALL registered developers) will be upwardly compatible
   with  the new machine.   This means that 90% of mono programmes  and
   over  50%  of  games  will  run.

   In  our tests,  Commodore's "60% compatibility" equates to  30%  and
   they are the guys selling an upgraded machine.   We have 109 Falcon-
   specific titles in development in Europe alone!

   SPEED/CPU  - The Falcon runs a 68030 and the A1200  a  68020,  which
   gives  the  Falcon about 40% more raw CPU  power  overall.  Motorola
   claim  that  the 030 is 35% faster than the 020,  and the  ST  clock
   speed is already 13% up on the Amiga.

   MEMORY - The A1200 can take up to 10 Meg total,  of which only 2 can
   be  used  as  'chip' memory (shared between  the  main  CPU,  video,
   sound,  etc).   4  Megs sits on a slower 16-bit bus  (PCMCIA  slot).
   The  Falcon can have 14 Meg,  ALL of which is accessable for  video,
   DMA sound, etc.  Additionally, it ALL sits on a 32-bit wide bus.

   DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSOR - This is a huge leap forward.   The DSP is
   a  separate  and  independent  processor running  at  32  Mhz  which
   controls Digital Signals.   This is a specially optimised chip which
   processes  digitised  sound  or video data,  meaning  that  with  no
   additional  hardware  you can record direct to disc  and  turn  your
   computer into a video or music editing suite.   Or,  the DSP can  be
   used as a powerful independent maths processor,  adding phenomenally
   to  the speed of your machine.   The Falcon 030 has DSP,  the  A1200
   does not.

   SOUND - The Amiga (after buying a separate sampler) offers 8-bit  or
   12-bit  sampling,  but the Falcon gives 16bit  digital  sound.   The
   Amiga  gives 4 channels of 8-bit digital playback,  but  the  Falcon
   offers 8 channels of 16-bit digital sound,  with a sampling rate  of
   up to 50 Khz for better than CD quality sound!"

     Hmm,  now I'm just the Office Cat,  but the impression I get is  that
Atari *are* worried about the A1200....   Make what you will of the above,
but  it  sounds  very  much like the 'my  computer  is  better  than  your
computer' smokescreen that you used to read in the  rags.   Software,  not
specification,  sells machines.  If specification was everything, then I'd
be typing this on an Archimedes....   Mrrrrow for now!


                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                            ~ AND FINALLY... ~
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CALEDONIA  are now supplying Inkmun refills and cartridges for the HP  and
CANON  inkjet printers.  Jake also tells me he has the new video  grabbing
hardware from Microdeal.

GOODMANS  INTERNATIONAL are continuing to support their excellent  'loose-
leaf'  catalogue  with  two updates being issued in  the  last  couple  of
months.

FLOPPYSHOP  have  released their first PD game.  It's called  'Around  the
World'  and shoud have been reviewed for this issue of  STEN,  but,  well,
em... It'll get done next month.


For any information on the above call the PD library concerned.  Telephone
numbers are in the recommended 'PD Libraries' section.


                              ~~~~~eof~~~~~