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DUP_MAR.GUIDE Version March 1995 Dark Unicorn Productions 1994 By Shane Monroe and DUP Generated with Heddley v1.1 Heddley v1.1 (C) Edd Dumbill 1994 - Page 1 - 1. Dark Unicorn Dispatch Newsletter The Dark Unicorn Dispatch - March Edition "An Entertaining and Informative Look Into The Amiga and CD32" ____ _ _ _ _ | _ \ __ _ _ __| | __ | | | |_ __ (_) ___ ___ _ __ _ __ | | | |/ _` | '__| |/ / | | | | '_ \| |/ __/ _ \| '__| '_ \ | |_| | (_| | | | < | |_| | | | | | (_| (_) | | | | | | |____/ \__,_|_| |_|\_\ \___/|_| |_|_|\___\___/|_| |_| |_| ____ _ _ _ | _ \ _ __ ___ __| |_ _ ___| |_(_) ___ _ __ ___ | |_) | '__/ _ \ / _` | | | |/ __| __| |/ _ \| '_ \/ __| | __/| | | (_) | (_| | |_| | (__| |_| | (_) | | | \__ \ |_| |_| \___/ \__,_|\__,_|\___|\__|_|\___/|_| |_|___/ Let's Rock and Roll! View The Logo Dark Unicorn Production's Headquarters - TOMBSTONE BBS (803) 863-0313 24 Hrs - 28.8K Baud - Latest Amiga Shareware - Commodore News - Cheats DUP Products Are ALWAYS A Free Download - Great Credit Ratios 2. Table Of Contents * TABLE OF CONTENTS * The Editor's Page - Editorial and Welcome to the Newsletter The Latest News - The Most Up To Date News About C= Coming Attractions - The Latest From Dark Unicorn Productions Shareware Update - The Best in Amiga Shareware and PD Software Reviews - Lords of the Realms, and New Team 17! Hardware Reviews - The Network CD for CD32 & Amigas CD32 Corner - CD32 Entertainment & Information AMOS Programming - Coding in AMOS: Part 2 - Setting Up Where Are We? - DUP Members and Information 3. The Editorial Page THE EDITORIAL PAGE NOTE: This editorial may sound like a bitch session and in a way it is. I need to vent it, and I am sure a lot of you will feel better after you HEAR someone say what you might have been thinking all along... *** This month I want to talk about an interesting trait. It is the basis of trust; the cornerstone to good business. Everyone desires it, yet so few are willing to give it. It can destroy countries; assasinate men. It can ruin an economy or pull a third world from out under. It cannot be given singlely but only in pairs. The user's abundance of this trait has kept the Amiga alive this long and will likely keep her alive into the next decade. But some people aren't displaying this trait. The antonym of the trait of which I speak is what they are practicing. They hide behind financial or political excuses; some don't hide at all. What is this trait I refer to? Loyalty. - Page 2 - 3. The Editorial Page There certainly seems to be a huge lack of it as of late. How many companies have turned traitor on the Amiga and her followers? How many of those companies OWE THEIR EXISTANCE to the Amiga? Finally, how many CARE? I have seen treachery folks. Look at the companies of which I speak; NewTek, Psygnosis, Electronic Arts, and more. Electronic Arts - They were there at the beginning, sure. DPAINT was a breakthough and is still considered the most popular paint program of all time. MARBLE MADNESS, ADVENTURE CONSTRUCTION SET, SWORD OF SODAN, and the list goes on. They took their 68000 experience and applied it to the Sega Genesis and became one of the hottest companies in the console world. Their interest dragged over to the PC where they began writing excellent programs like SEAWOLF. What about their origins? What about the 'little engine that could'? Cut the roots of a tree and it dies. Too bad it isn't so with developers. Oh sure, we get games with the EA label, but they are not EA games. BULLFROG and others are the "Amiga Side" of EA and even THEY seemed to forget how much money they made on POPULOUS for the Amiga. Psygnosis - Are you about tired of these guys or what??? What happended? (Other than SONY buying them...) Remember the days when you bought Psygnosis titles ON SIGHT. Didn't even need to see the preview. If it bore the logo, it was a quality kick butt game. Sure their copy protection sucked and didn't load on 25% of the A500's but hey; we can forgive sometimes (hard to forgive $49). Then all the sudden every crappy game that came out shined with the logo. What in the hell was RED ZONE? PRIME MOVER? The other dozen crap titles they put out? Then you see the games like HEXED come out for the PC and Lemmings 3 out for the PC first. Guess what, losers? You owe your entire company to the Amiga. AMIGA gave you Lemmings. AMIGA gave you Shadow of the Beast 1-3. Now, you discard us like used toilet paper? Psygnosis DEVELOPED NovaStorm on/for the Amiga CD32. Is it available for CD32? AGA Amiga? Nope. But it has been out for the PC for months. "The project is on hold; it may not be released," a Psygnosis rep told me. I don't get it. The game is DONE, ready for duplication, why not capitalize on the 75,000+ CD32 owners out there? Oh sure, we just got a new game from Psygnosis. You guys see THIS crap? X-IT. Oh yeah. What happened to Operation G2? Or should I say, when is the PC version due out??? :( New Tek - I used to have more respect for them than any mortal man had for anything. I used to show their products, demo their tapes at user groups, and sing praises of the Toaster (which I enthusiastically bought). Remember, guys? Remember the DIGIVIEW? DIGIPAINT? The NewTek Demo Reels? When they were still wiping their 'cherry' noses with Amiga user's money? When their products were cutting edge and they changed the face of desktop video forever? AMIGA's put Lotus Turbo's in their driveway. Anyone know what they told PC and MAC when the Toaster came out and Big Blue came to them and begged and PLEADED for a Toaster for the PC? "Your machine isn't powerful enough to handle it; the architecture is too closely linked to the custom chip set of the Amiga." You know what they are saying now??? "Buy a PC. It is better than an Amiga and we are going to change our video system to the PC platform. Sorry Amiga." (!) So, suffice to say, I have sold my Toaster, erased my copies of the Demo Reels, and sent a nasty-gram to their corporate office in Topeka. The funniest thing about it, is that the company seemed to go to hell after Kiki Stockhammer left... I know what you 'close to converting to PC' Amiga guys out there are about to say. "They are just going where the money is; they have to make a living too, you know," Alright, fine. Make a living. Rob the PC owners; they are already used to it. Take them for EVERY DIME (DOLLARS in their case). But please; PLEASE don't bite the hand that fed you in the beginning. You never forget your best friends; don't forget about us now that you are 'big stars' in the 'movie screen' of life. We put you in that multi-million dollar business and $150K cars. How about remembering to give something back? We are grateful for DPaintV that is coming (although everyone is using Brilliance now anyway; day late and a dollar short); now - Page 3 - 3. The Editorial Page how about SEAWOLF? I am SURE you could find some clever Shareware programmers that would go commercial if you paid them - (shameless self-promotion) Look at Digital Illusions/21st Century and see how it is done. Psygnosis; take X-IT and 'x-it' it back wherever it came from. Give us HEXED. Give us NovaStorm (I could move those like water). Get DMA DESIGN *NOT* to drop the Amiga. Folks, I haven't seen anything on the PC to beat my aged A2000 or CD32 yet. The productivity software is just as good (albeit in smaller quantities), the games are better (quality vs. quantity folks). Don't EVEN start with that DOOM crap or I'll reach out and slap ya through the monitor <grin>. Texture mapping is fun for about 10 mintues (hey, this IS an editorial; not reflecting the opinions of DUP <Seumas>). RAPTOR PC from APOGEE? Great game - Sure. I LOVED it the FIRST time I played it back in 1985 when it was called BATTLE SQUADRON on the AMIGA 500. (Doncha love how the screen stops for a half a second on RAPTOR when you grab a smart bomb? Even on a 486DX2/66?) Duh.... For those of you devoted Amiga lovers out there; hang on. We are still getting product and the liquidation procedings can't last forever (it seems like it has been forever already). Get a CD32 and play some of the COOLEST games ever. Get a CYBERSTORM card and SMOKE the Pentiums out there. Get an emulator if you can't live without Word Perfect. Times are bleak, but we are through the eye of the hurricane and going for the tail. For you "convertee's" or those who are considering it; consider again. I went to the largest PC dealer in my area and walked in the door and asked him to quote me on a system that would do 30 fps full screen with NO slowdown or jerkies. When I looked at the print out, I almost crapped. $3708.94. POOF! That was a loaded up P90, but no sound card or any special extras. Then I got told later that even THAT wouldn't have done the job. Don't forget all the little expenses that we take for granted. Don't forget about the LAMIGA-M/N that won't be there any more. Get REALLY intimate with the "THIS WILL END YOUR WINDOWS SESSION" requester. Try this at home, as you will have a good idea that your decked out PC will be like: TURNING YOUR AMIGA INTO A PC (In 10 Easy Steps) 1. Install a 68040/40 in the Amiga and then run DEGRADER's TIMEWASTE function so you can simulate the bottleneck of the PC's CPU. 2. Remove all but 512K of memory. (That's all you will ever need, right?) 3. RELOKICK to V1.2 of AmigaDOS but run MagicWB or MUI on the screen to make it look pretty. Run every WB hack you can find. 4. Make a partition on your hard drive that is about 20 megs (that makes it comparable to a 240 MB on the PC). 5. Make sure you take about $1500 out of your pocket and throw it in the trash. (Or the difference between your Amiga and comparable PC, whichever is less.) 6. Oh, and allocate about $400 every 8-12 months to make sure your machine can run the next season's program. 7. Plug your sound output to a $10 pair of Walkman speakers to simulate a PC Sound Card. 8. Go to your nearest Amiga dealer and buy some software from him, but mark it up about 35% and throw the mark up money in the trash with the initial $1500. 9. Spend about 10-12 manhours fiddling with your CDROM controller/sound card to imitate the setup procedure for installing a CDROM in a PC. 10. Print a file, download some freeware, copy some floppies, and optimize your hard drive together and REJOICE that you really AREN'T using a PC! - Shane R. Monroe Dark Unicorn Productions - Page 4 - 3. The Editorial Page 4. Coming Attractions COMING ATTRACTIONS Dark Unicorn Productions Update Previous issues of the DARK UNICORN DISPATCH we mentioned that Better Concepts, Inc. is now handling the distribution of DUP's software. Those of you who have ordered and waited forever for your order, our apologies and thanks for being patient while we make the transition from individual shareware to group. Many of you I contacted personally to let you know of the dilemma. (Basically, the mail lost our initial package of stuff and we waited almost two weeks and ended up sending another shipment.) BY the time you read this, everything should be smooth running. Once again, thank you for your support. Releases now available - PSYCHO SQUARES DELUXE, PSD: BAREST ESSENTIALS ADULT DATA DISK, TOMCAT, ITS THE PITS, and the FUTURE SHOCK 2 CD from DUP member SIDEWINDER. FLYING TIGERS, the killer helicopter arcade simulation, is nearling completion. Amazing the things we are arguing over (eh, Seumas? Ha Ha) but things are now smoothed out and the game is coming soon. It will be available through Better Concepts, Inc. also. FLEET COMMANDER is not abandoned; just delayed. I got an offer to do some good CD projects for LOTS of money, so I had to take it to support my CD32 habit. Look for my first CD32 game this summer. Since Kit Felice is now finished with ITS THE PITS! we are looking to send him in a new direction. With myself as the designer and Kit as the programmer, we might just be bringing you one of the most addictive and gory game ever to hit the Amiga. Can't tell you much right now, but it may have something to do with pigs... TOMCAT fans rejoice. John Graham is hard at work with his next FMV project for you. I hesitate to comment, but it will take place in space and should be even more in depth and fun than Tomcat. Stay tuned for more next month. The Industry News Not much has been happening in the Amiga industry, really. There is some new hardware coming out (a true 64-bit video card for one) and a handful of developers really supporting the Amiga. Some developers have left (hopefully not for good) to other platforms, but the best coders are still with us. New offerings from Team 17 are abundant as well as some other top notch companies (did I hear something about a new game coming from Bloodhouse?). No new word yet from OCEAN on TFX or INFERNO. How about hooking us up guys? Bullfrog has been silent about MAGIC CARPET and CREATION. We did get a CD32 version of THEME PARK (totally sucked) from them, but that was about it. There is power in the people, folks. Write to these companies and others and tell them you want support; that even that Commodore is dead, the Amiga still lives. Get your user group members to each write a letter to them. Even a form letter with a real signature is good. Let them know you have a machine with more than a meg and hopefully they will stop stripping things out of them (like modem play). We have the power to support. Let's start doing that with both words and our money. 5. Shareware Update ____ | __ |\ | |___|AMES FROM THE | \|ET - Page 5 - 5. Shareware Update by Seumas McNally - CyberGames, by Cyberpunk Developments (Sweden), Shareware $15 US (cg1.dms and cg2.dms, 748k, on Tombstone and your favorite BBS) _____ | |his game is Deathsword for the 90s, except it's Cyberpunks liberating heads from blood-spurting bodies instead of barbarians. The Demo of the game is on two DMS disks (yuck), but they are small and are standard OFS disks. You can install it to Hard Drive, but even though the docs state it runs fine with AGA, accelerator, MMU, FastRom, etc', I had to turn off AGA to get it to run on my 030 1200. It also is a bit weird when it comes to PAL/NTSC, when run in "PAL" on my 1200 with degrader the screen was in PAL but it was only NTSC height. On our 500 with a boot disk it ran in full-size PAL a-ok. Hard Drive install also needs a few assigns, and that's a pain. __ |__| |laying the demo is a fair bit of fun, two player mode is a bit limited in that there's an un-displayed time-limit that resets the game after a little while, but you can still kill each other a few times. One-Player lets you kill about 6 different Cyborgs before it quits, who use a lot of different weapons. You can buy different weapons at the shop in the one player mode also, the ones in the demo are a Sword, a Mace, and an Axe, plus Cyber Arm Upgrades and a bunch of throwing weapons. Oh yes, you can throw things, and when you run out you get to spit at your enemy. Heh heh. Throwing weapons are cool, Stars, Lasers, Knives, Fire and Acid, the latter two leaving piles of gunk on the ground that hurts players walking over it until it goes away. There are also random traps and spikes that fall from the ceiling of the arena now and then. The fighting moves are fairly varried, ducking and standing stabs, head and stomach stabs, chops, kicks, and the ever popular HEAD REMOVAL ROUND ABOUT SUPER SLICE! The moves can be a bit tough to do some times though, there are spots when you'll just stand still because it seems you're pushing the stick too fast to register the move. __ | | |__|ver all, with the two-player and head removals, this game is probly worth it. It's not quite as bloated as some Eurogames (see following review ;), and it's fun. One other downside though is that in the One Player game, which in the full version supposedly has 32 battles, if you lose your head once it's back to the start. If you don't mind that TOO much though, or have someone to two- player with, this is good. BLOOD! GORE! DEATH! Heh heh. :) - Pioneers, by Unknown, Freeware/Demo (FutureTrade_x.lha, three files, 1.2 megs, on Aminet and Tombstone BBS) |__| | |ere we have a Mule type game. I've never actually played Mule, but I'm told it's similar. This is supposedly a Demo of an upcoming commercial game, but from what I've played there isn't anything crippled or chopped down for it, though of course I haven't seen (or even heard of) the full game. It's your usual Euro game, does NOT run from Hard Drive (if anyone knows how, PLEASE tell me!), has a lot of flashy graphics and sounds all loaded from disk, and needs PAL, but unlike most it actually uses standard Amiga Dos disks. ___ | __ |__|ameplay is realtime-strategy, with breaks for news and status reports. You first select the number of Players, your Name, and Race (alien types), then the speed of the game and the type of terrain to play on. At the start of the game you all pilot little flying-saucer type ships in a demolishion derby of sorts for premium landing spots on the one-screen sized planet map. Once you land you set up a base, and then go on to the rest of the game. Play is broken up into Rounds, with realtime elements for most actions. At the start of every round all players simultaniously grab for terrain, you - Page 6 - 5. Shareware Update can each get one new plot of land per turn, plus the odd Land For Sale event to buy extra. Then it's on to buying and placing Robots on your land, and gambling for credits and such at the local planet pub. Once every player has placed their robots, they will all produce a certian slightly randomized amount of material (except if a player runs our of Protenoid, then they are taken to hospital and their robots don't produce that turn). Now comes the main auction, and for each product that is on the planet there is one auction round. You decide if you are a buyer or a seller, and then all players move their price pointers up and down the price graph until a buyer and a seller's price meets, then the seller sells to the buyer. As well there is a time limit for the auction, and you can also buy from or sell to the Shop if no players want to trade to or from you. After that there's a Status Screen for who has the most Cash, and it's back to the start for another round. ___ |__| The |__|ad: Floppy play ONLY. That really stinks. Luckily there isn't much disk access during each game. I'd really expect a strategy game like this to play on HD and quit back to Workbench, but no such luck. Another thing is that there are always 4 players, if there aren't enough Humans the rest will be Computer. That wouldn't be so bad, but you can't set their skill level, and so far the computer players ALWAYS beat me silly (I've played about 5 games now, each game takes a few hours). There are also NO docs in this "demo", so you have to figure it all out for yourself. It's not too hard to work out the basics, but some info on the different robots would really help. There's also no way to know the advantages and disadvantages of the different alien races, and that's a major pain. And here's a tip: In the auctions, once everybody's done what they want and that oh-so-long timer has a fair way to tick down, just hold the stick up or down (the same direction as what you are, buyer or seller) and when the price pointer is all the way up or down hit the button with the stick held. That will end the auction quickly. ___ | __ The |__|ood: Trading is kinda fun. It does seem like there are a lot of different strategies to use, and the random events add to the fun (but can also make you extremely annoyed). The auctions for goods and produce are done well, there's a fair bit of strategy involved, and the realtime moving graphs are cool. The music is also quite good, there are three pieces to choose from and it playes the whole time you're gameing without getting annoying. \ / \/\/hen all is said and done, it looks to be a good planetary trading game with a few flaws, and a good multi player mode. Personally I think a game like this, a strategy game filled with megs of flashy graphics and sounds, would be best done as a system-legal Hard Drive installable game. But, you take what you get, and even through it's Euro-what-is- a-hard-drive exterior it's worth a look if you don't mind a 1.2 meg download. It's probably also possible to actually beat the computer players with some documentation to figure out all the strategies for different terrains and robots, but a Difficulty Setting would still be nice. 6. Software Reviews Software Reviews - By Shane R. Monroe LORDS OF THE REALMS, ALL-TERRAIN RACING, KINGPIN, and ALIEN BREED 3D Good spread of reviews this month. There are some great offerings for you regardless of what kind of gamer you are. If you are a strategy game player, you MUST read about Impressions' LORDS OF THE REALMS then go buy it. It is as detailed as you hungry strategists could hope for. Complicated too. Arcade fiends will find solace in ALL TERRAIN RACING from TEAM17, the next best thing to ROADKILL. Try your hand in a killer bowling game with KINGPIN. Finally, let your PC friends have both barrels when you show them ALIEN BREED 3D; Amiga's answer to DOOM! No ECS games this month. It is - Page 7 - 6. Software Reviews just getting harder and harder to find good ECS games. Stop fighting AGA; it is here to stay. I understand; I fought it too. It is okay. Really! LORDS OF THE REALM - Impressions U.K. Once again, when the world of Amiga looks its bleakest, we get another hot new game that breathes new life back into the platform. Impressions U.K. has completely outdone themselves and their competition with this new incredible strategy game. So good, in fact, that rival TEAM 17 dropped production on THEIR new strategy game KING OF THIEVES (a game of similar play) because they knew they didn't have a chance of getting the market share THIS time. First, let me tell you why this impressed me so much. I hate strategy games like this. I liked Sim City, but not Civilization or most games similar to them. Defender of the Crown 2 was okay, but it wasn't deep. Lords of the Realm (LOTR) is quite involved, actually, almost to the point of scaring you away at first. I mean, c'mon; CROP ROTATION? YUK! The game did, however, grab me instantly and drag me in, making me want to play it great lengths of time. At first glance, you may mistake it for a Defender of the Crown clone. The game is played on a map of England with each county clearly divided. The map is a very clean graphic relief map and actually play is done on a scrolling enlarged version of the map (kinda like Sim City with good graphics). The play is near real time but play is done in turns all the same. Up to six human or computer opponents to can play. The likeness to Defender of the Crown ends there. You must take charge of your county and manage all the resources of it. The first concern is keeping the people happy; i.e. FED. To keep them from going hungry, you must learn all about farming. Your primary concerns; the fields, sheep, cows, and grain. Each commodity requires a certain number of men to maintain/enrich it. If you don't have enough men for each, you will lose fields, sheep, and importantly cows. You are told how many men you need, but often times you have too few men to get things going. Each item is important in its own way. Sheep give wool which can later be sold to traders for crowns (money). Grain is an expendable food source that won't last very long, so you either make a LOT of it or rely on the cows to provide dairy products to feed your people. Should you have too many people and not enough grain or dairy products, your people will eat the livestock next. The best method is to get enough cows to feed everyone with dairy. That way, when you take over other counties that are underprivileged you have a ready source of food you can ship them without taxing the people in your 'home' county. Once you have the men in fields distributed right (this changes every turn, so you will have the opportunity to learn the dynamics of distribution. In addition to the farmer stuff, you have to also allocate men for mining, foresting, etc. to gain THOSE valuable resources to make weapons and castles. If you constantly take off and put on people in the mines, forest, etc. their efficiency level will go down since each group must be trained over time. A small handful of 100% trained people will generate more resources than a lot of people trained at 18%. Oh, you will eventually have to take men out and put them in your military too. The final consideration in the farming community is that of crop rotations. Cows and sheep eat down fields and new grain crop must be sown and grown after each harvest. You must rotate commodities through all your lands. This is not an optional part of the game. You will fail if you do not learn how to properly rotate crops. Once you got the farming steady and comfortable, expect the worst. Plague, rats, bad weather, and much much more will constantly mess with your delicate balance. Farming is a never ending battle. Mastering farming gets a lot easier after awhile. Your people's - Page 8 - 6. Software Reviews happiness factor will fluctuate but you can keep them happy by increasing their rations or buying them ale, or just random events like a royal wedding will perk them up. The more happiness, the more immigrations will happen and that is what you want. The traders will come by every so often and buy/sell cows, sheep, grain, natural resources, weapons, and more. This is how you make money; selling wool and natural resources you don't need. Naturally when you need them the most, none will appear, or they don't carry what you need. The biggest mistake is to run out of food, thinking that you can go right ahead and buy some soon. How about castles? Sure, you can build castles with TONS of resources and men. The game comes with lots of pre-made castles as well as a 'castle construction set' (complete with a castle building manual) to make your own. Castles are not overly important; not when you can just take someone else's with some force. For militia, well, now it becomes another type of game. To gain troops, you must either hire mercenaries (when they apply for work) or conscript men from the population. You can have unarmed armies, but that is pretty stupid. You really should have a good cache of weapons before you conscript your men. Armies are cool, though, because they don't eat from your own stores, but the stores of the county they are in or the forest. You move them so many places per turn and combat can either be interactive or non-interactive. Combat takes place with an overhead view in real time. Set who you want to attack and how and let them go to town. The real time battles can be fascinating to watch. Easy to control, yet still gives you low level power of the troops. Like the people, if the troops aren't happy, they can revolt against you. A real bummer. I don't recommend that. The other 5 players are also trying to take over the other counties (yours included eventually). Some will be taken without a fight; others will resist you. You may send letters to the other lords, and even make alliances (they never hold up). The game is AGA only and actually looks very clean. It is identical to the IBM PC version without modem play (of course). The music is annoying (but you CAN turn it off) and the sound effects are great. The game is mouse controlled and the interface is quick and easy; you'll be comfortable with it in no time. Animation is minimal but in spots breathtaking. It is fully hard drive installable and breaks clean back to AmigaDOS; a nice little additive in today's world. This is one highly recommended game; even if you hate strategy simulations. If you spend your cash on nothing else this month, get this game and write to Impressions and tell them you want modem play added. Don't bother to call the U.S. office; they know absolutely NOTHING about the Amiga version. But, let the U.K. guys know you want it. If enough people knock on the door, someone is bound to answer it. ALIEN BREED 3D/KINGPIN/ALL TERRAIN RACING (Previews) Team 17 is going to be the hottest Amiga game company in the world this year. Aside from bringing us some of the best games ever on the Amiga/CD32 (Super Stardust, Tower Assault, Arcade Pool, Super Frog, Project X, and numerous others) they are bringing us the hottest new games for the coming year. As you read this, these game demos are now available up on TOMBSTONE BBS (other good BBSs too) for your OWN review. However, I will fill you in on any other little goodies I know about. ALIEN BREED 3D (Easter) - This is the game that Amiga game owners have been waiting on for a long time; a real competitor to the IBM PC game DOOM. Sure, there have been lots of flashy demos and 'walk arounds' cloning the texture mapped graphics engine that has been hailed as a breakthrough in 'virtual reality' gaming. (Obviously none of these fools have a CLUE what real VR is, but hey; they don't know what a real computer or OS is either, - Page 9 - 6. Software Reviews so you can understand their confusion.) But this is promised to be the first REAL GAME that uses the engine. A Shareware game called FEARS has been released and it is decent, but not really comparable to DOOM. AB3D brings you the full texture mapped world complete with numerous monsters, doors, elevators, see through walls, floors and ceilings, stairs, opening doors, 'bounce-while-you-walk', throw switches, outdoor areas, texture mapped REFLECTING water, and much much more. Add all this to the fact that it runs VERY WELL at 14mhz and I think you have a real winner. The game is, of course, AGA only and a CD32 version is planned (that would RULE). The non-playable 'rolling' demo is out but won't yet run on the 4000 (it will though, I am told). This Easter Team 17 will make a LOT of gamers happy! KINGPIN BOWLING (SOON!) - Yet another crisp game of bowling. I know, I know. STRIKES AND SPARES was enough for most people (and it was pretty good) but KINGPIN promises to take it the medium a step farther. The game is a straight game of bowling; no little creatures run across the alley and smack your ball or anything. But, the controls are a bit different. The initial camera shot is 'behind the shoulder' as you set your placement on the floor. Then you set your strength with a little animated bowler on the right hand side of the screen. When you press your button, an arrow will appear down the alley a bit. If you threw with a LOT of power, the arrow will bounce back and forth fast, or it will be slower based on the power. Once you throw it, the ball rolls about halfway down then the camera angle changes to about half way down the alley looking at the pins dramatically enlarged. The ball hits and the pin action is fantastic. You get robbed all the time, just like in REAL bowling. The demo doesn't let you pick players or anything, just a straight forward demo game. Lots of features are promised including a nice soundtrack, better/more sound effects, some good cut animation (can't wait to see the CD intro), and more. Graphics are better than Strikes and Spares and have the definite Team 17 polish to them. Once again, this game should be a winner, especially on the CD32 platform. It is due out anytime. ALL TERRAIN RACING (SOON!) - Take last year's hottest game ROADKILL and throw in a little of Psygnosis' NITRO, and add the graphic designer of BODY BLOWS and you get ATR. This is yet another overhead view racing game with some choice features indeed. Unlike ROADKILL, your object it to beat the other cars fair and square, not destroy them. The speed is fast and furious though, and there are plenty of goodies to pick up along the way; cash, nitro boosts, etc. With the cash you can buy car enhancements like NITRO such as acceleration, top speed, etc. The graphics of the cars are unbelievably smooth. Each car has to have about 60-100 frames of animation each, I swear. They respond well and do all the things cars SHOULD do when meeting the conditions that these cars do. When going over a log bridge, the car vibrates like it should. Little things like that litter the game. There are several terrains to choose from (only one in the demo) as well as many cars to choose from (again, only one in the preview). You start off with a LITTLE bit of cash to start with and they let you spend it before your race. For those of you without the games I mentioned earlier, the view is top down and the actual track is about 3x3 screens large and scroll with you as you race. Like NITRO, when two players are playing, if a player gets a whole screen ahead of the other human, the other human's car will be 'yanked up' to join the first one, with penalty to be sure. Quite the quality game. I can't wait for the real thing. Hopefully a CD32 version will come - Page 10 - 6. Software Reviews soon! SPECIAL ARTICLE! ____ ___ ___ _ _ _ | | | | | | |\ /| ___ /_\ | | | | | | | \/ | | / \miga |___| |___| |___| | | |___lones By Seumas McNally _____ | |onight we look at a new DOOM-ish engine with two pending new games using it, and a peek at a full DOOM-ish game on it's way. ___ |___ |irst there is TextDemo 5.7, this has been around in various forms for quite some time now, and has been regularly updated. I really like this engine, it has variable screen sizes (NTSC sizes on the way), it now has Floors and soon Ceilings, it has DOOM-like bouncing while you run, Mouse and Joystick control, and it takes full advantage (and needs for best performance) a fast Amiga with AGA. It also stores it's textures as 24- Bit IFFs, and converts them to ECS or AGA for play, and this leaves the door open for 24-Bit Graphics Card support in the future for just BRILLIANT on-screen graphics. This highly contrasts Alien Breed 3D, which has a smallish display that won't go full screen, is AGA only, runs the very same speed on an unexpanded stock 1200 as on a fast 1200, and won't even RUN on a 4000 or 030 1200 (at least in the Demo version). |\ | | \|ow I'm not totally against Alien Breed 3D, I'll probly buy it if the finished product works on a 1200 030 or a 4000, as it does look fairly atmospheric and I want all the decent Ami DOOM clones I can get. :) However, I'm looking forward much more to the two games in development with the TextDemo Engine, as they will scream in full-screen on my super powered 50mhz 030 1200. If you don't have TD5.7, the two games in the works (that will take a while to come out, I am told) are a DOOM like game with Magic and Monsters (probly a lot like Heretic on the IBM, it uses the DOOM engine for a spellcasting battle, I'm about to go try that out in a few minutes), and another game where you drive a Tank through the 3D world that will have a split-screen two player mode (Yay!). ___ |___ |___ven with these new and promising 3D developments, I still have a soft spot for POOM 0.2. I haven't seen it upgraded in a few months, but it really blew me away when I dug into it. Floors and Ceilings, plus a decent frame rate with a near full-screen display. If they can get variable floor and wall heights worked into POOM, it'll be great, but even if not I'd love to see a game with it's engine as well. Wandering through it has given me the most feeling of fear and danger in a no- monsters demo on the Amiga yet. _____ | |hings are looking up for Texture Mapping on the Amiga, and I can't wait to KILL KILL KILL on my Ami instead of just on our I Be Mud. ;) 7. Hardware Reviews HARDWARE REVIEWS Due to the lack of the hardware unit to review, the article reviewing the CD32's NETWORK CD will be published in the next issue of this news- letter. I apologize for the inconvenience and for those of you who were really waiting on it, please contact me personally at one of my many addresses listed in this newsletter and I will attempt to give you a personal reply. Again, my apologies. - Page 11 - 7. Hardware Reviews 8. CD32 Corner CD32 Corner - By Shane R. Monroe This month has been slow for new games for the CD32. Lots of new things are promised soon, however, so this month we are going to do a quick recap of all the games I have seen for the CD32, give a quick rating, PAL or NTSC, and a short description. Next month; some of the latest titles will be reviewed. Stay tuned. TITLE PAL/NTSC RATING PLAYERS DESCRIPTION OF TITLE (SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS, AND MISCELLANEOUS) ------------------------------------------------------------------ ARCADE POOL PAL 9 32 FINEST POOL GAME EVER. SLICK/REALISTIC BALL PLAY. BUBBA 'N STIX PAL 9 1 ARCADE PUZZLER - TOUGH GAME BUT GORGEOUS. VERY PLAYABLE. CD SPORTS FOOTBALL NTSC 9 2S DECENT FOOTBALL GAME WITH HUNDREDS OF MEGS OF VIDEO CLIPS. CHAOS ENGINE NTSC 9 2S GAUNTLET FOR THE 90'S. ARCADE ADVENTURE. VERY CLEAN. DEFENDER OF THE CROWN 2 NTSC 8 1 ORIGINAL GAME WITH SOME NEW TWISTS. LOADS OF SPEECH. DIGGERS NTSC 7 1 SORT OF A LEMMINGS CLONE. NICE INTRO. PRETTY GOOD. ELECTRONIC COOKBOOK NTSC 7 N/A DATABASE OF RECIPIES WITH PICTURES AND SPEECH. XIPHAS FRONTIER: ELITE 2 NTSC 7 1 POLYGON SPACE SIM. ABSOLUTELY HUGE. WASTED CD SPACE. FUN SCHOOL 3 NTSC 8 1 CHILDREN'S ACTIVITYS. ONE REQUIRES A KEYBOARD. GLOBAL EFFECT NTSC 7 1 ANOTHER SIM WORLD TYPE THING. NOT TOO BAD. 256 COLORS. GROLIER ENCYCLOPEDIA 2 NTSC 9 N/A THE WHOLE SET ON CD WITH PICTURES AND SOUND. COOL. GUARDIAN NTSC 10 1 3D DEFENDER FOR THE 90'S. MEGAFAST POLYGON ENGINE. ROCKS! GUNSHIP 2000 NTSC 9 1 DECENT HELI SIM WITH FAB INTRO. VERY PLAYABLE. GET IT. HEIMDALL 2 PAL* 7 1 ARCADE PUZZLER. SMOOTHER GRAPHICS WOULD'VE MADE IT BETTER. IMPOSSIBLE MISSION 2025 NTSC 9 1 LIKE THE ORIGINAL? YOU'LL LOVE THIS ARCADE PUZZLER. JAMES POND III NTSC 9 1 VERY COOL PLATFORM GAME. LOTS OF POWERUPS AND HIDDEN STUFF. LEGACY OF SORASIL PAL* 9 1 ISOMETRIC VIEW TURN-BASED RPG. COOL GRAPHICS AND EFFECTS. LIBERATION: CAPTIVE 2 NTSC 9 1 - Page 12 - 8. CD32 Corner FIRST PERSON DUNGEON MASTER STYLE ADVENTURE. RECOMMENDED. LITIL DIVIL NTSC 10 1 WHY ARE YOU READING THIS INSTEAD OF PLAYING THIS GAME??!! LOTUS TURBO TRILOGY NTSC** 8 2S ALL THREE LOTUS GAMES IN ONE. EXCELLENT OUTRUN STYLE. MICROCOSM NTSC 9 1 THE GRAPHICS WILL BLOW YOU AWAY. SPACE HARRIER TYPE PLAY. MUD PUDDLE NTSC 7 N/A STORYBOOK ON CD. NEAT FEATURES, BUT CRAPPY STORY. KIDS. PINBALL FANTASIES NTSC 9 8 UNTIL PINBALL ILLUSIONS IS CD32, THIS IS TOTALLY ROCKS. RISE OF THE ROBOTS NTSC 6 2S A FULLY RENDERED FIGHTING GAME WITH TERRIBLE GAME PLAY. ROADKILL PAL 10+ 1 SHOULD'VE BEEN PACKED WITH CD32. NITRO MEETS DEATHRACE 2000. SEXUAL FANTASIES NTSC 8 ADULT COLLECTION OF MASSIVE ADULT MATERIAL INCLUDING S-HIRES AGA. SIMON THE SORCERER PAL* 9 1 MONKEY ISLAND TYPE ENGINE - EVERYONE SPEAKS. LOTS OF LAUGHS. SLEEPWALKER NTSC 8 1 SOME OF THE BEST CD MUSIC ON THE CD32. HARD GAME, THOUGH. SUPER FROG PAL* 9 1 ABOUT IDENTICAL TO FLOPPY. GREAT PLATFORM ARCADE GAME. SUPER STARDUST PAL 10 1 IF YOU GOT PAL DISPLAY, YOU MUST OWN THIS GAME. RULES. TOWER ASSAULT PAL 10+ 2S 10 MINUTE MOVIE INTRO. BEST TWO PLAYER GAME YET. U.F.O. ENEMY UNKNOWN NTSC 9 1 STRATEGY GAME - TOTALLY EXCELLENT. RECOMMENDED. ULTIMATE BODY BLOWS PAL/NTSC 10 2S BEST BEAT'EM GAME ON THE CD32. 22 FIGHTERS. KICK BUTT! VIDEO CREATOR PAL* 10 N/A MAKE YOUR OWN TAPEABLE MEGA DEMOS. TONS OF RESOURCES ON CD. VITAL LIGHT PAL* 9 2S TETRIS ON ACID. WAY COOL. FAST. TWO PLAYER COMPETITIONS. WRATH OF THE DEMON NTSC 9 1 MUCH FASTER LOADING THAT THE ORIGINAL. ODD CONTROLS. ------------------------------------------------------------------ LEGEND: * - WILL RUN ON NTSC MACHINES BUT SOME DISPLAY MIGHT BE LOST OR TIMING PROBLEMS MIGHT CAUSE FLICKERING, ETC. ** - LOTUS TURBO TRILOGY'S MENU OPTION SCREEN DOESN'T SHOW UP ON NTSC SCREENS, ALTHOUGH YOU CAN STILL SELECT THE GAME 'BLINDLY'. THE GAMES THEMSELVES RUN IN NTSC, THOUGH. 9. AMOS Programming Programming in AMOS - PART 2 - Page 13 - 9. AMOS Programming Last month we looked at how to handle variable and a few of the basics of programming. This month, we are going to look at some more basics and begin to apply it to an actual program. Aside from variables, the next most used area is that of LOOPs. Almost every program uses loops; some more than others. There are many types of loops and we are going to look at them all, since different loops work better for different things. Let's do some demonstrations. Let's write a program that will count to 10. PRINT "1":PRINT "2":PRINT "3":PRINT "4":PRINT "5":PRINT "6" PRINT "7":PRINT "8":PRINT "9":PRINT "10" The above routine does the job of counting to ten. Try this: T=1 DO PRINT T:T=T+1:IF T = 11 THEN END LOOP This is called a DO...LOOP or "DO LOOP" routine. It is continuous unless you terminate the program with an END or leave the loop with an EXIT command. This is handy for routines like main menus where you are constantly waiting for a user input. Like this: PRINT "PRESS LEFT MOUSE BUTTON TO CONTINUE OR RIGHT TO QUIT" DO IF MOUSE CLICK=1 THEN EXIT IF MOUSE CLICK=2 THEN END LOOP The DO...LOOP is not the best choice for the routine we want to do; however, there are still some other loop methods we can use... REPEAT T=T+1 PRINT T UNTIL T=10 This is the REPEAT ... UNTIL or "REPEAT UNTIL" loop. Very similar to DO ... LOOP except that it has the 'value check' at the end. This, too, is very handy for user inputs, but not really what we want to accomplish here. Here is another looping example: START: T=T+1 PRINT T IF T=10 THEN END GOTO START This is called the GOTO LOOP. Probably the lamest way to do business in this sense. However, the GOTO LOOP is an INVALUABLE tool and can be utilized. Finally, let's look at the routine *I* would use for the problem. FOR T = 1 TO 10 PRINT T NEXT T This is the classic FOR...NEXT LOOP. You will find yourself using this routine the most of all. It is the most versatile. You can do it forwards, backwards, in steps, read the variable directly and much more. Here are some advanced uses of the FOR...NEXT loop. FOR T = 1 TO 12 STEP 2:PRINT T:NEXT FOR T = 63 TO 0 STEP -1:VOLUME T:NEXT - Page 14 - 9. AMOS Programming Notice in the above examples we don't use NEXT T, just NEXT. If you are using only ONE loop, you can do that. If you are using what is called NESTED loops (loops within loops), you will HAVE to specify the variable in the FOR part of the statement. Therefore: FOR T = 1 TO 10 <-------------+ FOR Y = 10 TO 20 <-+ | PRINT T*Y | Loop #2 | Loop #1 NEXT Y <-+ | NEXT T <-------------+ Type the above code in and see the results. Feel free to play with the values and see what happens. You learn by playing. Heck, I taught myself programming by fixing the bugs that were in magazine type in programs back in the 80's. This loop is a good way of doing things (like pasting things on the screen in increments, etc) without having to spell everything out. Let's talk about one more basic function before we hit some heavy AMOS specific commands and get started on some code. The function is BRANCHING. This is a descision making and action function. As will almost any programming function, it can be done in numerous different ways. The most common one we have already seen; the IF...THEN statement. PRINT "PRESS LEFT BUTTON TO CONTINUE OR RIGHT TO END" DO IF MOUSE CLICK=1 THEN EXIT IF MOUSE CLICK=2 THEN END LOOP IF ... THEN tests a condition. If the condition is met, it carries out the next command. If not, the statement is ignored. You don't have to do 'true' tests; it works for a variety of formats and variable types. Like these commands: IF T<7 THEN PRINT "T IS LESS THAN 7" IF T<>10 THEN PRINT "T IS NOT EQUAL TO 10" IF T=>1 THEN PRINT "T IS GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO ONE" IF PASSWORD$="DARK UNICORN" THEN PRINT "PASSWORD ACCEPTED" IF T*10=100 THEN PRINT "YOU GET AN EXTRA LIFE" As you can see, this is the most versatile command ever. There is more you can do with it, too. You can combine 'condition checks' as well as branch off if the expression is NOT correct; using the ELSE command. Hence: IF T=1 AND MOUSE CLICK THEN GOTO SUBROUTINE IF T=0 THEN PRINT "YOU ARE DEAD":ELSE PRINT "YOU LIVE AGAIN" Learn this command and you will find that you can apply it in dozens of ways. The other BRANCHING command I want to address is the ON ... GOTO/GOSUB conditional. This is cool for menu options. Let's say your main menu has 5 different options for the user to pick. Here is what the tail end of the routine might look like... DO INPUT "WHAT IS YOUR SELECTION? (1-5)";ITEM IF ITEM = 1 THEN GOTO ROUTINE1 IF ITEM = 2 THEN GOTO ROUTINE2 IF ITEM = 3 THEN GOTO ROUTINE3 IF ITEM = 4 THEN GOTO ROUTINE4 IF ITEM = 5 THEN GOTO ROUTINE5 IF ITEM <1 OR ITEM >5 THEN PRINT "INVALID SELECTION" - Page 15 - 9. AMOS Programming LOOP Now, let's look at the easy way ... DO INPUT "WHAT IS YOUR SELECTION? (1-5)";ITEM ON ITEM GOTO ROUTINE1, ROUTINE2, ROUTINE3, ROUTINE4, ROUTINE5 IF ITEM <1 OR ITEM >5 THEN PRINT "INVALID SELECTION" LOOP In this example, you could also substitute GOSUB for GOTO if desired. The biggest problem with this is that if the user inputs a number for ITEM that is more than five (or less than 1 for that matter) the ON ... GOTO command will crash. You MUST do the 'idiot check' BEFORE the routine if you want protection. Like so: DO START: INPUT "WHAT IS YOUR SELECTION? (1-5)";ITEM IF ITEM <1 OR ITEM >5 THEN PRINT "INVALID ITEM":GOTO START ON ITEM GOTO ROUTINE1, ROUTINE2, ROUTINE3, ROUTINE4, ROUTINE5 LOOP Now there is no way for the ITEM variable to be <1 or >5. Neat, eh? Okay, we are done with BRANCHING and LOOPING, so let's start looking at getting a program started. STEP 1 - SETTING UP THE SCREEN When AMOS first starts up, it opens a low resolution 'default' screen to assure you have someplace to send your text, etc. if you forget to set up your OWN screen. This is really crappy, so we want to start things off by opening up our own screen. As usual, there are a few ways to do this function. You may manually open a screen to write to, or create a screen in a paint program, import it, and use IT as your screen. There are advantages to both, so let's look at them. SCREEN OPEN number, x size, y size, colors, res +interlace number=Physical screen number 0-15. Use 0 if you only plan to use one screen. x size=Horizontal size in pixels (320, 640, etc) y size=Vertical size in pixels (200, 400, etc) colors=number of colors (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 4096). Remember, there are limitations on what resolutions can use certain numbers of colors. Consult your Amiga manual for more information on that. Your Workbench, for example, is probably 640x200 with 4 colors. res=HIRES or LOWRES display interlace=+LACED for interlaced or blank for non-interlaced. Here are some examples of the command: SCREEN OPEN 0,320,400,4096,LOWRES+LACED SCREEN OPEN 1,640,200,16,HIRES SCREEN OPEN 2,100,100,32,LOWRES Notice that you are not locked into a 'standard' screen resolution. You can custom make them. Importing a screen is SO much easier and I use it all the time. With AMOS, you can make a screen in your favorite paint program (DPaint and Briliance come to mind) and bring it into AMOS. Here is how. Go to your paint program and make a screen that is 320x200 with 32 colors. Or, grab a lowres IFF from your collection. Then, go to AMOS and go to DIRECT MODE (pressing ESC or clicking the <D on the top left corner of the editor. At - Page 16 - 9. AMOS Programming the prompt, enter this command: LOAD IFF '<PATH>:<FILENAME>',0 This command will load your IFF into screen area 0. (There is a picture already made for you included with this archive called SAMPLE.IFF. Please use this one for the purposes of this tutorial.) This will eliminate anything that was on the screen before. You should now see your picture behind the Direct Mode window. Now type in this command. PACK 0 TO 6 This command will take your picture and pack it into a memory bank. Since 1-5 banks are reserved, you must start with 6. After a few moments, you will get your prompt back. Now, let's test the theory. Still in Direct Mode, type DEFAULT. That will bring the default screen back up; erasing your picture. Now type in this: UNPACK 6 TO 0 POOF! Your screen will reappear. The best part is that when you save your code next, this Bank 6 will save with it. It is always there unless you ERASE it. A very powerful system. Make your main menu with Dpaint, bring it in, and whenever you want to display it, just unpack it. The beauty of it is, is that the screen parameters will AUTOMATICALLY adjust to your picture's size, palette, etc. Fantastic. Just insert the UNPACK command at the location you wish the screen to appear. Now that we have a screen with five buttons to click on, we need to explore the world of detection. In the beginning, we are going to learn about MOUSE ZONEs, the easiest way to make 'hot spots' on the screen to detect. MOUSE ZONEs are easy and they are your first step to writing a great program! MOUSE ZONEs are invisible boxes on the screen that you can detect whether or not the mouse pointer is in them. The obvious limitation to this is that they HAVE to be boxes; not odd shapes. However, it is incredibly easy to get into as you will see. Before you can set up your zones, you need to allocate a little memory for the zones. This is done with the RESERVE ZONE command. RESERVE ZONE 5 This will reserve memory for 5 hot spots to detect. Now you must define the areas to detect using the SET ZONE command: SET ZONE number,top left x, top left y TO bottom right x, bottom y number=Zone number Top Left> +------------+ X,Y | | | | | | | | | | Bottom Right +------------+ < X, Y For example, if you wanted to make a MOUSE ZONE at the top left corner of the screen that was 100x100, here is what the command might look like. SET ZONE 1,0,0 to 100,100 Remember, if you have to create multiple zones in a pattern, consider using a LOOP that you learned about. The following routine will make a row a 32x10 pixel MOUSE ZONEs along the top of the screen, numbering them 1 - Page 17 - 9. AMOS Programming through 10: FOR T = 1 TO 10 SET ZONE T,T,0 TO T*32,10 NEXT T As you may have guessed, having even a small number of MOUSE ZONEs to define can be quite a chore, since you have to know their X and Y locations. However, after doing it 'by hand' for so long, I developed a program that will make creating MOUSE ZONEs incredibly easy. ZONE FINDER.AMOS is included with this newsletter. Just load it into AMOS and it will prompt you for the rest. Here is what it does. It will ask you how many zones on the picture you wish to define. Then it will prompt you via the file requester for the picture you wish to define zones on. When the picture comes up, move the pointer to the first zone's TOP LEFT CORNER and click once. The pointer will change. Now click the zone's BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER. Repeat this for each zone. When you are all done, the program will prompt you for a filename to save the zone information to. Save it with a .ASC extention. Now, reload your program. What ZONE FINDER did was calculate all the numbers FOR YOU, so you don't have to. It saved an ASCII file with DATA statements that contain the numbers. It is just a matter then of getting the numbers into the SET ZONE command. By now you should have a simple program with a UNPACK 6 TO 0, where Bank 6 has a picture with 5 options on it you wish to detect. If you do not, there is a simple menu picture included with this archive you can use with 5 menu options. Now let's retrieve that zone information ZONE FINDER provided us with. Insure the cursor in the editor window is at the location you wish to insert the data. Select MERGE ASCII from the pull down menu. Select your saved zone file with the .ASC extension. POOF! You will now have a list of DATA statements that look something like this: DATA 100,100,200,200 DATA 100,100,200,200 DATA 100,100,200,200 (The numbers will be different) DATA 100,100,200,200 DATA 100,100,200,200 Now, let's convert that data into hard working MOUSE ZONEs. We will use our trust FOR NEXT loop and a new command called READ. Those of you familiar with any BASIC knows that READ will grab a value from your bank of DATA statements in the order they are. Let's look at the example before we lose someone. FOR T = 1 to 5 READ X1,Y1,X2,Y2 SET ZONE T,X1,Y1 TO X2,Y2 NEXT That's it! You now have five detectable zones! The READ statment grabs four values at a time; X1,Y1,X2, and Y2. These are the TOP LEFT X and Y coordinates and the BOTTOM RIGHT X and Y coordinates. We simply READ them into variables and attach the variables to the SET ZONE command, using the ever incrementing T variable for the zone nunmber. Pretty easy, huh? The last part of the tutorial will teach you how to actually detect these zones and then do something when you do. The last command is MOUSE ZONE. That holds the current zone that the mouse pointer in on. X=MOUSE ZONE Very simple. Now the variable X holds the current MOUSE ZONE that the pointer is under. Let's add the command to our program using our nifty DO...LOOP. DO - Page 18 - 9. AMOS Programming MZ=MOUSE ZONE:LOCATE 0,0 IF MZ>0 THEN PRINT MZ:ELSE PRINT NZ IF MOUSE CLICK AND MZ>0 THEN EXIT LOOP This example will locate the text cursor to the top left corner of the screen and prints the number of the zone the mouse pointer is currently in (the value of MZ). If there is no value for MZ, then it will print the value of NZ (since we never declared it, it is automatically set to 0). If you click either button in one of the zones, the program will EXIT and thus END. So, you now have your FIRST working program in AMOS. Looks pretty good, huh? Oh, but we are just scratching the surface. We have SOOOOO much more we can do; and we will in future editions of Dark Unicorn Dispatch. Our next goal will be to get the program we just wrote to actually DO something for real. Can you guess what that might be??? <grin> Keep reading and thanks for all your nice comments about the column! 10. Where Are We? Dark Unicorn Productions - How To Reach Us * U.S. MAIL Member's Name c/o Dark Unicorn Productions 110 S. Cranford Rd. #6F Goose Creek, SC 29445 * INTERNET Shane Monroe - s.monroe1@genie.geis.com Seumas McNally - sjmcnally1@bix.com John Graham - virtuality@bix.com Michael Welch - m.welch1@genie.geis.com Troy Toulou - t.toulou@genie.geis.com * GEnie Shane Monroe - S.Monroe1 Seumas McNally - J.McNally1 Kit Felice - K.Felice Michael Welch - M.Welch1 * BIX John Graham - virtuality Seumas McNally - sjmcnally * Tombstone BBS - (803) 863-0313 Shane Monroe - WYATT EARP John Graham - VIRTUALITY Seumas McNally - LONGBOW Troy Toulou - SPYDER Kit Felice - CAPTAIN PSYCHO Dale McBane - MORGAN EARP Mike Hall - DOC HOLIDAY Michael Welch - SCORCH 11. THE LATEST C= NEWS THE LATEST NEWS ON THE COMMODORE LIQUIDATION This is a new column for The Dark Unicorn Dispatch, but I believe it is necessary to provide the Amiga community the most factual information available during this time of need. I will attempt to give you the most reliable news possible in the most positive way I can (no ROOMERS columns in MY magazine) without the editorial comment. I will always divulge my sources whenever possible. - Page 19 - 11. THE LATEST C= NEWS ... The longest running Amiga magazine, AMIGA WORLD has been cancelled by IDG Publications, the magzine's publisher. This late breaking news was given to me on March 1st. No reason was given to me, but it was said that some of the staff was laid off and that April will be the last issue. It was also said that it was very much possible that if the liquidation is completed, that a similar periodical would be likely to surface. Subscribers will have to hang on and see what IDG offers for those (like myself) who just renewed or started a subscription. Remaining U.S. based magazines are Amazing Computing and the not-so-regular Amiga Game Zone. ... The Sam Report from Miami gives us some heartening news. Sam lives almost next door to the favored bidder for the Amiga technology, Creative Equipment International (CEI) and received this news just a week ago... o The two recent entrants to the great liquidation proceeedings one German and one Seattle based company are no longer in the race. The German company seemed to be interested in obtaining the "COMMODORE" name (why on earth would you want it? -Ed) and the Seattle-based company was interested in the musical appli- cation of the Amiga and decided to get what they needed from CEI should they take over the Amiga line. o According to CEI, Commodore UK is no longer in the bidding o According to CEI, the Mehndi/Gould application for freezing the proceedings was denied by New York courts o CEI says they have manufacturing plants standing by to begin mass production of A1200 and A4000T o CEI claims a resolution of the liquidation by the end of March and are confident that they (being the only ones left) will be accepted ... In response to the overwhelming lack of Amiga support (and the death of Amiga World magazine, Dark Unicorn Productions and Better Concepts Inc. are looking to start a *NEW* Amiga information publication. It will be a diskette based multimedia magazine complete with great new PD and Shareware along with exclusive articles, interviews, and the things that Amiga users WANT to read. Look for more information about this new pub- lication in the April issue of Amiga World and/or future Amazing Computing issues.