Issue 98 ■ April ■ 1996 ■ £4.50 Overseas price £4.50 Hfl 20 The goriest beat- em-mpy 35§§f^ori the Amiga An exclusive Amiga Computing demo of the mm ultra violent beat-'em-up Capital Punishment EB'tiiil from the Canadian masochists Click Boom B M APRIL WB2, 1MB RAM REQUIRED 1996 • MCP vl.10 - the ultimate utility is back* • AmiToolBar - Windows 95-style toolbar* • UrouHack - MUI for all programs • BreathlessPatch - fix and improve Breathless • Palis - keep patches under control • Guru3 - find out what crashed your machine • Screen Wiz - advanced public screen control • Play16 - advanced 16-bit sample player • BetterEd - extends normal text gadgets • StringReq - pop-up file requesters for text gadgets • PerfMon - watch your Amiga work epmg things in focus with the ultimate in DTV XL 1.76MB SYQUEST EZ EZ 135MB £239 GVP RAM FROM £159 6 8 0 2 0 E C I £&§ _ i_^..:.S.. £99.95 MEGACHIP MEMORY SUPER XL DRIVE VIDEO BACKUP 3 The Super XL Drive allows you to store 3.5MB on a high density disk. 3.5 SUPER XL DRIVE £129.95 1.76 XL DRIVE The XL Drive allows you to store a 1.76MB on a high density disk. 1.76 XL DRIVE EXTERNAL ...£79.95 1.76 XL DRIVE INTERNAL £75 1.76 XL DRIVE A4000 £75 PC880B EXT.POWER DRIVE . .£49.95 PC881 A500 £30.95 PC882 A2000 £35.95 PC883 A600/1200 £35.95 1 GIGABYTE 3.5 SCSI £259 1 GIGABYTE 3.5 SCSI EXTERNAL £335 MICROPOLIS 2 GIGABYTE 3.5 SCSI £CALL 4 GIGABYTE 3.5 SCSI £CALL 9 GIGABYTE 3.5 SCSI £CALL HITACHI 340MB 2.5 IDE f CALL 510MB 2.5 IDE £CALL 810MB 2.5 IDE £CALL 1 GIGABYTE 2.5 IDE £CALL . OTHERS 120MB 2.5 IDE £95 INTERNAL DRIVES HARD DRIVES M -T E C H D External IDE hard disk for the A500 comes complete with an internal ROM switcher, and upgradable to 4MB RAM M-TEC AT500 BARE £99 PLEASE CALL FOR HD SIZES MEMORY REQUIRES 30-PIN SIMMS OVERDRIVE HD External PCMCIA 3.5" IDE hard disk OVERDRIVE BARE £99 OVERDRIVE 420MB £259 ZIP DRIVE 100MB SCSI £179.95 100MB DISKETTE £15.95 ZIP DRIVE REQUIRES SQUIRREL SCSI INTERFACE M E W P \l 0 0 u c r SYQUEST EZ135 The Syquest EZ135 drive is an ideal storage device. The EZ Drive stores 135MB on a single 3.5" cartridge and has a seek time of 13.5ms. Comes complete with one 135MB cartridge. (A SCSI interface is required) SYQUEST EZ135MB £239.95 135MB CARTRIDGE £CALL Backup to 520MB onto a 4hr VHS tape. Version 3 has new backup modes for Amiga's with a 68020 or higher CPU. VIDEO BACKUP SCART £65 VIDEO BACKUP PHONO £60 UPGRADE TO VERSION 3 £20 FLOPPY EXPANDER Save 1.5MB on a standard floppy drive and 3MB when used in conjunction with the XL Drive 1.76. FLOPPY EXPANDER £10 DISK EXPANDER Disk Expander can add upto to 50% to your hard drive capacity and works with all drives including SCSI, IDE, Floppies and even the RAM disk. Disk Expander works on any Amiga with any Kickstart. DISK EXPANDER £19.95 EXTERNAL CASES SCSI case suitable for CD-ROM/HD/DAT and Optical drives. 5.25"- SCSI or IDE CASE £79.95 3.5" SCSI or IDE CASE £79.95 SX-32 SX-32 is an internal add-on card for your CD32 and features: VGA port, RGB port, parallel port, serial port, external disk drive port (1.76MB), clock, controller for 2.5" hard disk, and a SIMM socket (up to 8MB). Turn your CD-32 into a A1200. SX-32 MODULE £199.95 CHIPS & SPARES 256 x 32 SIMM 72-PIN (1MB) £40 512 X 32 SIMM 72-PIN (2MB) . . . .£75 1 X 32 SIMM (4MB) £125.95 2 X SIMM (8MB) £235.95 4 X 32 SIMM (16MB) £499.95 1 X 8 SIMM 32-PIN (1MB) £30 4 X 8 SIMM 32-PIN (4MB) £139 1 X 4 STATIC COLUMN A3000 . . . .£25 1 X 4 DIP £25 256 X 4 DIP £5 1 X 1 DIP £5 CIA £12 GARY £19 PAULA £19 DENISE £19 SUPER DENISE £25 KEYBOARD IC £12 FAT AGNUS 1MB £19 FAT AGNUS 2 MB £29 PRINTER CABLE £6 RS232 CABLE £6 SCSI EXTERNAL £15 WORKBENCH 3.1 A500/2000 . . . .£85 WORKBENCH 3.1 A3000/4000 . . .£95 ROM SHARE DEVICE £19 2.04 ROM CHIP £25 FOR ANY SPARES REQUIRED PLEASE CALL GVP HC-8 SCSI 1 SCSI hard card RAM on-board. HC-8 SCSI CARD it 8MB of £99 GVP G-LOCK Award winning Amiga Genlock. G-LOCK AMIGA GENLOCK £259 IO-EXTENDER Zorro II card that provides an additional serial port, parallel port and connection for optional RS422 and RS232 port. Call for details ioEXTENDER £59 Official GVP RAM SIMMs. 4MB GVP RAM £159 16MB GVP RAM £549 A2000 68060 A 68060 accelerator board for the A2000 running at 50MHz and allowing upto 128MB of user installable memory and a SCSI-II hard disk controller. A2000 68040 (0MB RAM) £TBA A2000 68060 (0MB RAM) £TBA 4MB STANDARD ADD £125.95 4MB GVP ADD .£159 SPEC t;\L. 0! ; i ; :;R MODEMS ACEEX V32 BIS 14.4 not bt approved .£99 X-LINK TRUE V34 28.8 BT APPROVED £229.95 TRAPFAX MODEM SOFTWARE . . .£49 ALL MODEMS INCLUDE SOFTWARE AND CABLES H I - S O FT SQUIRREL SCSI INTERFACE . . .£59.95 AURA £79.93 MEGALOSOUND £29.95 9 squirrel scsi interface included where you see this logo SURF SQUIRREL Surf Squirrel offers an even higher SCSI performance, auto-booting, and ultra-fast serial port. Surf Squirrel is the ideal expansion peripheral for your Amiga 1200. Please call for more information. SURF SQUIRREL £POA SQUIRREL MPEG Squirrel MPEG allows you to play VideoCD and CDI CD-ROM's, Squirrel MPEG brings high quality digitally mastered images and 16-bit stereo sound to you and your Amiga. SQUIRREL MPEG £POA RAM EXPANSION"! POWER SCANNER A 2MB RAM board for the A500 which fits in the trap door slot. A500 2MB RAM £90 MEMORY CARDS 51 2K RAM WITH CLOCK £24.95 512K RAM WITHOUT CLOCK .£19.95 A600 1MB RAM £39.95 A500+ 1MB RAM £29.95 MEGACHIP RAM Increase your Amiga 500/2000 chip RAM to a total of 2MB. MegaChip does this by using its own 2MB RAM and also now includes a 2MB Fat Agnus. No soldering is required. MEGACHIP RAM £159.95 A500 68020EC A 68020 EC processor accelerator card for the A500 and A500+, with an option to fit a 68881 or 68882 co-processor (PLCC or PGA). This card can fit upto 4MB FAST RAM and is fully auto-configuring. NOT COMPATIBLE WITH CVP HARD DRIVE A500 68020 EC 0MB RAM . . .£99.95 A500 68020 EC 4MB RAM . .£239.95 PRINTERS/MONITORS MICROVITEC 1438 14" £289 EPSON STYLUS INC.PAPER £489 EPSON STYLUS PRO XL A3+ . .£1499 EPSON STYLUS/PRO XL INCLUDE STUDIO II SOFTWARE STUDIO II SOFTWARE £49.95 VGA ADAPTOR £15 VGA ADAPTOR GLIDEPOINT Intuitive cursor control at your finger tips ,'Tap' for an instant selection. Connects to the Serial port. (This is not a graphics tablet) ALPS GLIDEPOINT £59.95 POWER TABLET Pen and cursor controlled graphic tablet, including cables and software. POWER TABLET 12 X 12 ...£195.95 INCL. PEN, CURSOR AND POWER TAB S/W GURU-ROM V6 A SCSI driver for all Series II host adaptors and accelerator cards for all Amiga computers. This ROM has a very fast trans- fer rate of up to 3.5MB/S, maximising your CPU processing time. Guru supports all SCSI device types including hard drives, CD-ROM drives, scanners, Syquest drives etc.Guru ROM is compatible with Amiga OS 1.3 through to 3.1 and is SCSI -I/SCSI-2 compatible. Please call for further information. The award winning Power Scanner includes the following features: Scan in 24-bit at upto 200DPI (all Amigas not just AGA)*, Scan in 256 greyscales at up to 400DPI (all Amigas), Thru'port for printer connection, Fully supports AGA chipset, Display HAM8/24-bit images on a non- AGA Amiga (via image conversion), full editing facilities included. Works with 2.04 ROM or above, min 1MB (recommend 2MB). POWER SCAN 4 B/W £89.95 POWER SCAN 4 COLOUR . . .£169.95 OCR (BOUGHT WITH SCANNER) £20 OCR SOFTWARE £49.95 POWER SCAN 4 S/W ONLY £20 PC INTERFACE + COL S/W . . .£49.95 PC INTERFACE + B/W S/W . . .£39.95 SCAN D O U B L E R II ScanDoubler II is a full 24-bit AGA flicker fixer which automatically de-interlaces all AGA screen modes and scan doubles non- interlaced PAL/NTSC modes to allow VGA monitors to display them. Supports VGA, S-VGA and Multiscan monitors. Pixel sharp picture, even at 1440 horizontal resolution and has a standard 15-pin VGA type connector. Comes with composite video/S-VHS outputs. SCAN DOUBLER II £399 FLATBED SCANNERS 24-bit A4 flatbed scanners, complete with software, cables and manual.* EPSON GT-5000 .£489.95 24-BIT, INC. POWERSCAN SOFTWARE EPSON GT-8500 £579.95 24-BIT, INC. POWERSCAN SOFTWARE EPSON GT-9000 £729.95 24-BIT, INC. IMAGE FX REV. 1.5 SOFTWARE ADPRO SOFTWARE £149.95 IMAGE FX 2.0 S/W £149.95 TBC-ENHANCER Reduction of quality loss when copying, colour and contrast correction, suppression of colour drop-outs, elimination of basically any copy protection. The video signal is edited in professional 4:2:2 studio standard and is sychronized entirely new. £919.95 TBC-ENHANCER NEPTUNE GENLOCK Excellent picture quality, auto fade control, Alpha channel and optional software control. NEPTUNE-GENLOCK £599.95 SCANNER SOFTWARE — sir, us ,, GENLOCK FLATBED POWERSCANNER S/W . .£35 GRAPHIC/VIDEO PICASSO II 2MB RAM £249.95 INCLUDING TV PAINT JNR. PICASSO II 2MB RAM £399.95 INCLUDING TV PAINT 2 VIDEO DAC £25 18-BIT GRAPHICS ADAPTOR phone orders We accept most major credit cards and are happy to help you with any queries. postal orders Ordering by cheque/PO please make payable to Power Computing Ltd and specify which delivery is required. warranty All Power products come with a 12 month warranty unless otherwise specified. technical support Help is on hand with a full Technical Backup service which is provided for Power customers. mail-order prices All prices listed are for the month of publication only, call to confirm prices before ordering. export orders Most items are available at Tax Free Prices to non-EC residents. Call to confirm prices. BFPO orders welcome. mail-order terms All prices include VAT. Specifications and prices are subject to change without notice. All trademarks are acknowledged. All orders in writing or by telephone will be accepted only subject to our terms and conditions of trade, copies of which are available on request. FOR ANY INFORMATION PLEASE CALL Just like the Neptune-Genlock, the new Sirius II combines excellent quality with user friendliness. In addition, this genlock disposes of blue-box keying, bypass, RGB-colour correction, a stereo-audio control with microphone input as well as an integrated test pattern generator for adjustment. £919.95 GURU-ROM V6 £49.95 .POSTCODE SIRIUS II GENLOCK NAME . . . ADDRESS TELEPHONE NO. . SYSTEM OWNED DESCRIPTION . . . TOTAL AMOUNT (inc. delivery) £ CREDIT CARD NO EXPIRY DATE SIGNATURE DELIVERY 2-3 DAYS £2.50 □ NEXT DAY £5 □SAT £10 □ MINIMUM DELIVERY £2.50 ALLOW UP TO 7 DAYS FOR CHEQUES TO CLEAR tel : 01234 273000 fax: 01 234 352207 L~ u Itf POWER COMPUTING LTD 44A/B STANLEY ST. BEDFORD MK41 7RW POWER ^^nmmpipip^-- ^h^^^k- System news 84 dndy Maddock brings you all that is weird and wonderful on the Amiga games scene Player manager 2 extra 88 We haven't seen a football management game for absloutely ages and finally we get one. Will it be as good as its predecessor? Spews legacy 90 We present you with a three page bumper review featuring Team 1 7's latest offering Watchtdwer 93 Take control of a commando soldier and watch everything from up a tower. Check out the preview Hints and tips 94 OUr dedicated feedback page where you, the readers, can write to us and complain your socks off. Go on, we can take it Doom roundup 96 The Doom issue is no longer doom and gloom! It's more Fears and Breathless. Ho, ho, ho. Now, that's funny! EVIEWS Final data IE Internet pack. Careth Lofthouse looks on as Softwood's database saga continues with yet another facelift for the familiar LightWave 4.0 Paul Austin delivers an exclusive review of the most long-awaited update in Amiga history Nei Mohr pulls the planned AT Internet Pack together to deliver the sneakiest of sneak previews Ethernet special ES Could the age-old problem of Amiga networking finally have a simple and inexpensive solution SYQUEST DRIVE A removable storage solution with more space and faster transfer - a challenge to the Zip supremacy Counting house Frank Nord opens reviews claims to be a complete accounting solution for the financially challenged DIGITAL' QUILL Uncle Neil asks if there's a place for yet another text editor in the Amiga market Printer punchup E3 Wave rider's guideJH Two printers - Hewlett Packard's DeskJet 850C and the Epson Stylus Colour lis fight it out EATURES Ben Vost continues the 3D theme with a look at the latest i Lightwave tutorials on screen and in print AT ONE YEAR ON E3 LASER GUIDANCE We ask the key players their opinions on the efforts of Amiga Technologies over the last twelve months Database Paul Overaa kicks off a six part programming special on the building of databases from the bottom up Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 The shining silver platters are under the microscope again. The CD buyers guide goes from strength to strength Beginner's guide ED Steve White continues his insider guide to the finer points of mastering the idiosyncracies of the Amiga he coverdisks Capital punishment It's time to switch off your brain and engage your primeval, animalistic, blood lusting emotions. Yes, release your anger and join the dark side with our ultra-violent demo Utilities unlimited II It's back and it's bigger and better. MCP* the mother of all Workbench utilities. How did you live without it? Plus: Breathless Update, UrouHack, Play 18, Screen Wizard, The Guru, Palis, AmiToolBar*, BetterEd and StringReq * requires Magic User Interface Default PueScreen Rill TijMrtli FoniS«gr»_ Force Hewloafc-MerMS Frenulum* LeftyMouje Ubrarv Seoroh Lot* Pot* *Fr • Free Rsfmrfttn n KBftSs HFR ■ F'M ft«™<t3" >i MesaEy*; *f v ■ Fn< VMM-Ban n Bytes HFv • Fret \*W-Rom f fflstes rioTooot CNAea {few mutuary i Fomtw £K«*«r EGULARS Comment Ben Vost looks asks when the promised move to the PowerPC will make an appearance in the high street News Tina Hackett reports on the disappointing Christmas sales that present yet another hurdle in the Amiga's recovery Letters The Amiga Computing letters page in all its glory. Questions answered and myths put into perspective Acas Technical trickery, Q&As and all things confusing put in their place by our resident Amiga whiz kid Public sector Dave Cusick, the man with more floppies than an infer- tility clinic delivers the low-down on Amiga PD MICA GUIDE The mystery manof the AC team concludes his tour of menus, icons and tools Paul Overaa explains how to get the best from the example on the cover disk The tricks of making basic programs run under ARexx revealed by Paul Overaa Phil South starts a series on how to make your Web site look and work better Frank Nordexplains how to get quality results when printing with the Amiga Phil South explores Amos' potential as a multimedia authoring system Paul Overaa reviews a sound synthesis program from Blachford Technology Steve White explains how to bring creations to life and retain continuity Paul Austin puts the tricky spline patching into perspective Gary Whiteley provides a 'j guide to the confusing world of video formats r Video special _E2 Adam Phillips provides a definitive guide to the art of pro-quality video production. From scripting to story boarding, producing to directing, it's all here. Plus, a roundup of the best video cameras and recorders Subscriptions For details of Amiga Computing's subscription offers turn to page 80 AMIGA rofflPIJTIN The genius of Amiga has Iri, eyes smiling Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 Our unique and highly rated external Clock Cartridge will enable your Amiga to continually store the correct time and date in its own battery backed memory. Simply plugs onto the back of the Amiga and does not invalidate J the warranty. gjjj Compatible with ALL Amigas • — ONLY £19.99 (plus £1.00 postage and packing; ^{PAttZlOtt A1200 trapdoor fitting memory expansions feature a | battery backed clock and a socket for an accelerator FPU. ' "i :\6DD iJs A6UU-s }}AsiD Din yzz These hard drives simply push onto the side of the A500 or A500+ and will give your computer all the benefits that hard dri- ves offer. The drives are supplied formatted, partitioned and have Workbench installed for immediate use. I Full instructions and software supplied. 1 The hard drive also has the facility to add 2, 4, 6 or 8mb of RAM inside IL A500/+ 250mb HARD DRIVE £209.99 Additional RAM for the hard drive £89.99 per 2mb Discology is the ultimate in disk copying power for the Amiga. The package comprises the Discology Disk, manual and Discology cartridge for making copies of heavily protected programs with an external disk drive. Discology will also format disks, check disks i for errors etc. £19.99 EACH OR BUY BOTH for £24.99 Now includes CD ROM drivers and instructions. The Dataflyer is a 16 bit SCSI II controller card that converts the signals on the internal IDE interface to also run SCSI devices at the same time as the IDE hard drive. The Dataflyer SCSI+ will operate upto 5 SCSI devices such as CD-ROMS, hard drives, SyQuest removeable drives, tape a I back up drives etc. Unlike other SCSI interfaces, the Dataflyer SCSI+ is com- ^ patible with all known accelerators etc and it does not stop I you from utilising any of the important expansion ports on your A1200/A600. The Dataflyer SCSI+ easily installs into the A1200/A600 (simply pushes in, no need to remove the metal shield) I and provides a 25 way D connector through the blanking plate at the f/fffm back of the A1200. Full instructions and software supplied. Anti Virus Professional is the most powerful tool for detecting and removing viruses. Anti Virus pro will check and device hard drives, floppy disks and even CD ROM drives for viruses. Very straight forward to use, includes a full 50 page manual. PLEASE PHONE FOR A FULL INFORMATION SHEET 72 pin simms suitable for Apollo accelerators, A4000, A1200 memory expansions etc. lmb £39.99 2mb £77.99 4mb £114.99 8mb £219.99 33mhz 688S2 FPU (pice) £49.99 40mhz 68882 FPU (pice) £69.99 50mhz 68882 FPU (PGA) £79.99 All FPU's are supplied with crystal oscilators DATAFLYER SCSI* ONLY £69.99 SQUIRREL SCSI INTERFACE ALSO AVAILABLE £59.99 PCMCIA fitting SCSI interface a Din y. % Incredibly fast (upto 4x faster than a ZIP drive) SCSI drive will store a massive 135mb per cartridge. Comes complete with power supply, SCSI cable, instructions and cartridge. ONLY £234.99 or £274.99 with a Squirrel or Dataflyer 135mb EZ cartridge £15 .99 = ~z= 1 I DASA rU£Si A4000 SCSI controller expansion card that allows up to 7 SCSI devices to be connected to the A4000. Includes full user manual and installation software including CD-ROM drivers. Includes connecting cable for internal SCSI devices and rear mounting bracket with a 25way connector for external devices. This superb package is a must for any CD-ROM user. Includes CD32 & CDTV emulation, audio CD player software including librarian features, Direct reading of 16bit audio samples, full support for Kodak and Corel PhotoCD Discs. Includes the 'FISHMARKET' CD-ROM disk packed with public domain Fred Rsh disks and a huge 115 page information packed spiral bound manual. ASIM CDFS only £49.99 I Our highly rated, top quality feature packed modems are ideal for Amiga users. All modems include our £19.99 which includes a cable to connect the modem to the Amiga, NCOMM comms software, Amiga Guide to Comms and a list of Bulletin Boards from which you will be able to download vast amounts of free software as well as have access to E-MAIL facilities. • MNP 24 Error Correction MNP 5 Data Compression • Fax Class I and II compatible, Group 3 • Hayes Compatible i • Full 80 page manual " • 12 Months guarantee SPEEDCOM+B (14,400 V32bis) £79.99 SPEEDCOM+BF (28,800 V34) £159. HAliD Our high speed 2.5' IDE hard drives for the Amiga A1200 & A600 computers come complete with fitting cable, screws, partitioning software, full instructions and 12 months guarantee. All drives supplied by us , are formatted, partitioned and have Workbench (WB2 for the A600 and WB3 for the A1200) installed for immediate use. Fitting is incredibly simple; if you can plug the mouse into the mouse socket, you will be able to plug the hard drive into the hard drive socket. PLEASE PHONE FIRST! r-» I HUM UJilViS Double speed CD ROM DRIVE complete with power supply, SCSI cables, docking station and j full instructions. Also includes stereo head- phones and carrying case for use as personal I CD player. 85mb £89.99 120mb £104.99 170mb £119.99 250mb £139.99 340mb £174.99 540mb £284.99 3 v RENO CD WITH SQUIRREL £174.99 WITH DATAFLYER £174.99 I Superb high quality, low cost Chinon external SCSI CD ROM drive in a top quality case. CHINON CDS435 EXTERNAL £109.99 EXTERNAL WITH SQUIRREL £154.99 APDLLD A-1200 Amazing power for such a low price. This superb accelera- tor uses a 68020 running at 28hz and comes com- plete with a 68882 FPU to enable your A1200 to run at 5 MIPS (million instructions per sec- ond)! Uses standard 72 pin SIMMS and includes a battery backed clock. Simple trapdoor fitting. APOLLO 1220 ONLY £99.99 APOLLO 1220 +lmb £139.99 I APOLLO 1220 +4mb £214.99 Amazing value quad speed external SCSI CD ROM drive in a top quality enclosure. SANYO QUAD SPEED EXTERNAL WITH SQUIRREL OR DATAFLYER ONLY £239.99 Include the appropriate Workbench 3.1 ROMS, disks, manuals and fitting instructions. Bring your Amiga into us for fitting for ONLY £10.00 An incredibly powerful trapdoor fitting accelerator based around a 68030 complete with MMU, 2 SIMM sockets (72 PIN SIMMS), socket for a floating point unit and battery backed clock. Runs at just under 9.5 MIPS (million instructions per second!) APOLLO 1232/50 £199.99 4mb SIMM £114.99 8mb SIMM £219.99 68882 FPU £69.99 i r FOR MAIL ORDER No.l FOR AMIGA IN MANCHESTER Order NOW for immediate despatch 0500 340548 (credit/switch card sales only) tel: 0161 796 5279 for enquiries or fax: 0161 796 3208 Send cheques or postal orders (made payable to Siren Software) or credit card details to:- SOFTWARE, 178 BURY NEW RD, WHITEFIELD, MANCHESTER M45 6QF, ENGLAND Access, Visa, Switch, Delta. Connect etc accepted OPEN: nal call welcome WORKBENCH 3.1 M for A500/1500/2000 only £89.99 for A1200/3000/4000 only £99.99 \PDLLD AS2!) Internally fitting A600 Accelerator features 68020 and FPU both running at 28MHZ. 72 pin simm socket for up to 8 Mb of FASTRAM. Easy fit, makes your 600 faster than a 3000!! APOLLO A620 ONLY £134.99 + 2MB £199.99 + 4MB £264.99 DIRECTIONS: From the M62 Junction 17 head towards Bury. We are 50 yards on the right hand side after the third set of lights. The door to our premises is next to the florists opposite the Masons Pub. All prices include VAT. Postage and packing will be charged at £3.50 per order (U.K.). £7.50 Europe and £12.50 rest of the world. Osn't it great to have the Amiga back in the shops again? Admittedly, it would be nice if it _ were in more shops and being actively promoted, but hey, at least it's there, right? But what about the next generation of Amigas? These new PowerPC-based beast- ies, how will they fare in the big, competitive world of home computing? The old Commodore attitude of building down to spec to save cash can't continue with the new owners of the Amiga, and here's why. From about 1990 the computer industry has built up enough momentum to ensure that new products get introduced more and more frequently - look at the competition for small physical size removable media. We had a 128Mb Magneto Optical drive about four years ago which was sluggish enough when reading, but unbearably slow when writing to a disk. Now we have Zip and EZ drives, and later this year we will get Jaz and SyJet drives that hold around a gigabyte on a small 3.5" cartridge and transfer at rates that would acceptable in a hard drive. To top it all off, scientists now reckon that they can increase the storage capacity of hard drives some twentyfold due to a process that works around the magnetic resistance of the media. Your limit Now how about the poor old Amiga? Well, as much as it may seem at the moment, 4.2Gb is your limit when it comes to storage space - there's no more room in the RDB (Rigid Disk Block) that is stored on every hard drive and hard drive partition. The rea- son for this is that the RDB is only 32-bits long and as we all know from studying our binary, the largest number you can have in 32-bits is in the 4.2 billion range, hence the limit on size. Previously, this hasn't mattered for Amiga owners, but with desktop video and hard drive hungry applications, the amount of space we need is going to grow incrementally, and anyway, why should we be restricted in this fashion? After all, a few years back Amiga owners were laughing at the fact that our PC owning friends could only have 32Mb partitions, but who's laughing now? It's not just storage space that's becoming an embarrassment. The Amiga supports The R[ team EDITOR Paul Austin DEPUTY EDITOR BenVost ART EDITOR Tym Leckcy NEWS EDITOR TinaHackett COVERDISK EDITOR Neil Mohr PRODUCTION EDITOR Judith Chapman GAMES EDITOR TinaHackett STAFF WRITERS Andrew Haddock Dave Cusick ADVERTISING MANAGER Lisa Bracewell AD SALES Jane Normington AD SALES Sue Horsefield AD PRODUCTION Barbara Newall MARKETING MANAGER Claire Mawdsley PRODUCTION MANAGER Sandra Childs SYSTEMS MANAGER David Stewart Back for the future? practically none of the now established stan- dards like TWAIN - the standard for scanners which allows any TWAIN-compliant package to use any TWAIN-compliant scanner, that includes paint packages and even word processors, and systemwide support of TrueType or Postscript fonts, copy and paste, and many other things (I haven't even got onto OLE or OpenDoc yet...). This must be addressed. It doesn't matter if only a few people use these features, the point is that when businesses are buying machines they are going to want the most seamlessly inte- grated system for their current setup. A com- pany that wants to do so (insert something the Amiga still beats other machines at, er, video?) might still end up buying a PC or a Mac, not only because that's all they'll get Amiga Technologies assures us the Amiga is back for the future, but have they been looking that far ahead? Ben Vost wants to know told about, but also because they are practically guaranteed compatibility. On another front, have you heard the one about the world's largest database company, Oracle, asking for a $500 Internet box, one that would have the ability to be connected to a TV, have a modem and no local storage so that applications could be downloaded from the Net and used that way? Acorn have and are apparently doing the business with Oracle, but it would seem that Amiga Technologies haven't. Shame really, because they could offer Oracle an Internet box that did have local storage along with all the other criteria for not much more than the requisite half a grand. CIRCULATION DIRECTOR David Wren COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Denise Wright DISTRIBUTION COMAG (01 895)444053 SUBSCRIPTION 0151-157 2961 Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations 27,871 Jan-June 1 995 Published by IDG Media, Media House. Adlington Park, Macclesfield SKI04NP Tel: 0 1 625 878888 , Fax: 0I625 850652 EMail contacts: Editorial edit@acomp.demon.co.uk Advertising ads@acomp.demon.co.uk CHAIRMAN Richard Hease MANAGING DIRECTOR Ian Bloomfield We regret Amiga Computing cannot offer technical help on a personal basis either by telephone or in writing. All reader enquries should be submitted to the address in this panel for possible publication. Amiga Computing is on independent publication and Amiga Technologies GmbH ore not responsible for any of the articles in this issue or for any of the opinions expressed ©I 996 IDG Media . No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission. While every care is taken, the publishers cannot be held legally reponsible for any errors in articles, listings or advertisements All prices listed in the editorial content of this magazine are inclusive of VAT unless stated #IDG MEDI A For six years Amiga Computing has been the leading magazine for Amiga enthusiasts. As a key member of the IDG communications group, Amiga Computing promises to inform, educate and entertain its readers each month with the most dedicated coverage of the Amiga available. 12 issue subscription £44.99 (UK), £69.99 (EEC) £84.99 (World) Ongoing quarterly direct debit: £10.99 (UK only) Printed and bound by Duncan Webb Offset (Maidstone) Ltd Amiga Computing APRIL 19 96 Features a cartridge backup mode for heavily protected disk (Requires the , ^= of an external disk drive) Two Nibble modes for coping with protected IBM and Atari disks Sync Scan checks for unknown protection systems Recognition of long and short tracks Modem users can backup disks via a modem to another Amiga anywhere in the world Fully multi-tasking, copies with high density disk etc Full update service is available for registered users *r No.l FOR MAIL ORDER No.l FOR AMIGA IN MANCHESTER Order NOW for immediate despatch 0500 340548 credit/switch card sales only) I: 0161 796 5279 for enquiries or x: 0161 796 3208 Send cheques or postal orders (made payable to Siren Software) or credit card details to: cess. Visa. Switch, Delta. OPEN: Virus search on any device (Hard disk, floppy disk CD-ROM etc.) Quick tracing of link and file viruses etc. Block Test to search for viruses at the block level of a device Automated unpacking of compressed programs for virus checking Recognition of Bootblock Viruses with analysis Safeguards hard drives Rigid Disk Blocks Includes a comprehensive 50 page printed manual Full update service to registered users Includes many more features. ANTI VIRUS is available PRICE (plus £1.50 for pos: e for a r lizS, ormtion sheet All prices include VAT. Postage, and packing will be charged at £3.50 per order (U.K.), £7.50 Europe and £12.50 rest of the world. B y Tina Hackett HOW STOPPERS T: he World of Amiga UK Show is all set to happen on the 13 and 14 April and two long-standing Amiga supporters are already promising to launch ten new prod- ucts at the show. Both Digita International and HiSoft Systems have products planned for the event, with Digita premiering Wordsworth 5 and Wordsworth 5SE which is intended specifically for A1 200 owners with 2Mb memory and only one disk drive. They will also be showing Organiser 2, a personal diary, and their database, Datastore 2. HiSoft intend to show off their new prod- ucts too with the Squirrel Mpeg add-on which allows the playing of Video CD and CDi discs from SCSI CD-ROMs to broadcast monitors, TVs or video recorders. They will also be showing their Surf Squirrel which is a new version of the Squirrel SCSI interface. This has a high-speed serial transfer for high-speed modem use and auto-booting drivers to allow full auto-booting from SCSI hard disks. Amongst the plethora of products there will also be an update on Terminate TCP and CinemaFont, an add-on which allows the loading of any Type 1 font directly into Cinema4D. There will also be CinemaWorld, another Cinema4D add-on which creates 3D worlds and landscapes plus CinemaTree which creates trees (no surprise there). So there you have it - World of Amiga is the place to be and with any luck should get some much needed attention back onto the platform attracting old and new users alike. ft i m i C The new MF-8515 monitor from liyama OETRY CORNER O Eyotech's 1.083 GB hard drive installed in an A1200 lONITOR MADNESS Iiyama have announced the launch of their new 1 5" Vision Master monitor which at £299 provides excellent value. It supersedes their previous Vision Master 1 5 model and has many new features such as a 0.28mm dot pitch flat square tube and 30-65KHz horizontal and 50-lOOKHz vertical scanning frequencies. It also offers a 350mm diagonal viewable screen with non-glare and anti-static coating. It should hit the shops this April. f) With the drive comes Optonica's MMe multimedia authoring software Two of the most unlikely pastimes have been united in some bizarre anthology being put together by Poetry Now. They want budding Keats to send poems in to them (in no more than 30 lines) on the topic of tech- nology in the world today. Anything from opin- ions on the Internet to console bashing would be appreciated, so get out your quill and parchment and send your scribblings to Poetry Now, The World Of Technology, 1-2 Wainman Road, Woodston, Peterborough PE2 7BU before the 30 April 1996. There's no entry fee required but a stamped addressed envelope is appreciated. The copy- right remains with the author and if accepted for the anthology, royalties will be paid. ■ . m i Eye, eye Jj miga upgrade specialist Eyetech have " brought out a new package which will help the Amiga realise its multimedia ambi- tions. With every A1200 AV (Audio Visual specification) hard drive upgrade kit they will also supply a copy of Optonica's MMe, their multimedia authoring system. MMe will be installed on the drive and comes with a hard disk-based tutorial and on-line help facilities. They will also have over 40 PD and Shareware utilities ideal for multimedia on them. MMe has been chosen because it's the only UK system of this type which is designed to run on and pro- duce stand-alone applications that run on a standard 2Mb A1200 or CD32. Eyetech promise that even a non- technical user will be able to install I the drive (without having to cut or ' drill the case) and have it running within half an hour. The price for this ittle bundle is £229.95 which includes VAT. A full manual and back- up program/tutorial diskette pack is also available for a small charge. Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 JEW TO A THRILL The ViewSonic PT-770 If iewSonic, renowned monitor makers, " have a new 17" monitor in store which they will launch at the forthcoming CeBIT show in Hannover. Called the SonicTron PT-770, it has an aperture grille mask rather than the conventional shadow mask and has a maxi- mum resolution of 1600x1280 pixels. It will cost £819 + VAT. Also on the cards from ViewSonic is the 1 5" 1 5CA multimedia moni- tor with two hi-fi loudspeakers and integrated microphone. The picture is produced by a 0.27mm Invar shadow mask and a Super- Contrast screen with special anti- reflection/anti-glare coating. It should retail at £379 + VAT. And finally, they are also releasing a 20" model which will cost E1039+VAT. Offering a 50cm screen, it has non-interlaced resolutions up to 1600x 1280 and a high refresh rate of up to 76Hz at 1280x1024. It also allows the user to be able to adjust screen colours to match printed output fl Ml G A IS THE STAR T he Amiga 4000 was in the spot- * light recently at the MIDEM festival at Cannes. A music video starring a pop band called Cramp in the Leg (hmm) was made using the machine and won the producers a bronze medal for editing. The video was produced by Myth Machine and used VLabMotion and Lightwave 3.5. As well as including rotoscoping of chron- icle material, there was also a scene with modern musicians standing in Red Square in 1930. Stuck on Speris Binary Emotions are lending a helping hand for players of The Speris Legacy. A hints and tips book is now available and is priced at just £2.99. Call 01722 416074 for more details. <~> ViewSonic 15GA fl ViewSonic 20G I mos Pro extension <-3§9SBBIHHH^^^6&9Rslli HI! ilton Keynes company Blittersoft have a new Amos Pro Extension kit ready for UK distribution. Priced at £49.95, it should give a whole new lease of life to Amos Pro with over 600 new commands. Now you will be able to program fully Multi-Tasking software, Cadtools (gadgets and menus) Datatypes, DOS functions and StoneTracker support. To run it requires OS2.x or better and has 100 help procedures to allow even the novice to get started straight away. We'll be bringing you a full review soon. Watch this space. LJAMMING IT HOME Premier Mail Order are offering some bargain price SIMM chips so you too can get all the benefits from the latest Doom clones like Breathless. They believe that if more people had FastRAM on board then develop- ers would take more interest in the Amiga (good, guilt-inducing advertising techniques there), so they are offering the following at these prices which include VAT and delivery: 4 Meg 72 Pin 70ns -£119.99 8 Meg 72 Pin 70ns - £239.99 1 6 Meg 72 Pin 70ns - £445.99 PC 1208 RAM Board - BARE - £59.99 Contact Premier Mail Order on 0 1 266 27 1 1 72 for more info. SCALA Anyone wishing to contact Scala should note that they have a change of telephone number which is: 01920 484148. Ooops! The review we featured last month on the Blizzard 1260 accelerator had the wrong scores put on it. They should read as follows: Ease of Use: 95%, Implementation: 95%, Value for Money: 72% Overall: 92%. These scores are higher than the ones we printed and we apologise for any inconvenience caused. Shock, horror Check out the Softwood Web site (http://www.Softwood.com/) for all the latest information on their products such as Final Calc and Final Data. As well as a brief history of the company (they began in 1 986, you know) there is also the shock announcement that after two years in the making they have Final Writer - for Windows '95. Hmm. Oh well, who says PC owners get the best things first? Amiga Computing online Amiga Computing are pleased to announce that their Web site is up and running once again. Check out, for example, the current news, updates on what we're up to, plus games hints and tips. Follow www.idg.co.uk/amigacomp/ for all the latest and greatest. Computing survey Amiga Computing's reader survey has attracted a good amount of replies. It seems most of our readers so far have actually got machines with a much better spec than the default, with CD-ROM drives being the most popular hard- ware add-ons (so look out for a CD coverdisc) and the sections of the magazine that are proving most popular are ESP and ACAS. We will be running the survey until the end of March, so there's still plenty of time to get your entries in, but do send them in as we can only make a better magazine for everyone if you all tell us what you want. As a reminder, the entry that we draw out of a hat will win £200 worth of prizes tailored to your machine. So get writing and send us your entries. APRIL 1996 □ ET ORGANISED n ro-Soft have annou- ■ need the launch of their latest program designed to get even the most scatterbrained of us organised. As a slight diversion from their usual gambling- related programs, they are launching Pro-Organiser, a personal organiser program at a budget price. Running on all Amigas with 1 Mb, you can get a free usable demo by send- ing a blank disk and Stamped Addressed Envelope to Pro-Soft, PO Box CR53, Leeds LS7 1XJ. f iiim !!i lr.'?M.ml fl Saturday 1) *fii» _» World Of Amiga Shou * ti Sunday If ferilSS Amiga Show, Day 2 n Pro-Organiser will help you remember important diary dates ECURITY FEARS A recent case which was brought " before the House of Lords has raised controversial issues on computer security. The case involved a police offi- cer who asked a police computer opera- tor to get him information for his job as a debt collector, a role which is outside his duties as a police officer. He was found out and charged with 'using' personal data against the laws of the Data Protection Act. He appealed, arguing that reading information off a screen could not be considered 'use of data' and the House of Lords upheld this. However, if he had actually taken action on this information, it would have come under the Act. Elizabeth France, the Data Protection Registrar, remarked: "Reports of Thursday's ruling in the House of Lords case, R v Brown, may have given the impression that accessing information from a computer screen is not covered by the Data Protection Act." She contin- ued: "The Lords clearly ruled that processing data in this way is covered by the Act and where it is carried out improperly, I can take enforcement action against the data user against which appeals can be brought to the Data Protection Tribunal." However, an individual employee cannot now be prosecuted under the Data Protection Act for 'browsing' personal data, although it may be possible to prosecute under the Computer Misuses Act 1 990." Q OUNTING THE COSTS Speedy access OS Robotics have a new modem on the horizon which will offer a speed of 28,800bps. Priced at £199 (exc. VAT) it is the Internet ready version of the Sportster Vi fax modem. The 28,800bps version follows on from US Robotics 14,400 bps modem and for those who spend long peri- ods browsing the Web, it could make a more economical option. It includes a voice mail feature which could be taken advantage of if any- body writes the software for it! f omputer crime has been estimated to cost the ^* country around £1 billion a year. According to the Association of British Insurers, insured theft losses cost £200 million a year, but in fact this figure is estimated to be much higher due to non-insured losses, lost production, and lost business opportunities. Recent incidents such as a factory in Scotland having £2.3 million worth of computer chips stolen and an armed gang stealing £1 50,000 worth of computer equipment from a South London Factory have shown how bad the situation is. The Association want to help combat this, so are issuing an information sheet with advice on how to ensure your computer and electronic equipment is safe from thieves. Businesses and the public can get this sheet by sending an SAE to: Association of British Insurers, 51 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7HQ. And in the same vein, news just in reports that the Dixons Croup has joined the Computer Weekly campaign to combat computer theft. Dixons, together with the Metropolitan Police, have launched a campaign to deal with the problem and have already met with 19 of the major manufacturers of electronic goods to ask them to build anti-theft safeguards into their future products. Dale Heathcote, co-ordinator of the Dixons/Police projects commented: "We will work together with those involved in this campaign to share information and help to encourage the industry to ensure that the next generation of expensive consumer electronics equipment such as computers become less attractive to the criminal." News from the Net Net protest at Telecom Act This February saw President Clinton sign an act which has huge implications for Net censor- ship. This wide-reaching legislation should reform and benefit some of the laws regarding communication but on the other hand - and the cause for all the controversy - there is the Communications Decency Act which some believe could lead to widespread censorship. The CDA will make it an offence to post 'indecenf material on the Internet, with prison sentences or fines of up to $250,000 dished out for those who break the law. However, those opposing the CDA believe the term 'indecenf is extremely vague and fear that even things like works of art showing nudes could be banned. Don't dilly dally on she Web! America - the first case of divorce on the grounds of 'adultery" on the Internet is being put to the test John Coydan found explicitly sexual exchanges between his wife and another man which they'd been having over the Internet. Although the relationship had never been con- summated, Mr Goydan of New Jersey claims they were planning a rendezvous at a New Hampshire hotel. The case raises interesting legal implications as his lawyer believes it could change the way adultery is defined in law but Mr Goydan's accessing his wife's e-mail could be seen as a violation of her personal privacy. Banned book out IN PUBLIC A book which was published only to be banned soon after has found its way onto the Internet. The book in question, 'Le Grand Secret', caused uproar because it revealed allegations about the health of the late French president, Francois Mitterand. Written by Mitterand's personal physician, it claimed that Mitterand ordered the fact that he had prostate cancer to be kept quiet It also claimed that his medical records were falsified. The book found its way onto the Internet via a French Cybercafe owner who scanned in the pages into his computer and then released them onto the Web. ONIC PRESERVED FOREVER T* he British Film Institute has begun an initiative to ■ preserve video games to make sure they do not become lost forever. The Institute fears that games such as Sonic and PacMan could go missing as happened to some of the earliest films, so they have set space aside amongst the 275,000 films housed there. Assistant Director for the BFI commented: "The BFI is taking the bold initiative to preserve games - from the first primitive blips of the early '70s to the sophisticated virtual reality of today's games. This move will enable researchers and young people in 100 years time to find out a great deal about the lifestyle's and interests of young people in the 1990s." The BFI are appealing to anyone who has any particu- larly old games, especially those that can be played on the Lynx, Dragon 32, BBC Micro, Texas T1994A, Sharp M2700, Commodore Vic 20, Atari VCS, Coleco Vision, Jupiter Ace and Mattel Intelevision, to get in touch. If you do come across any gems contact Tony Hetherington, BFI, 21 Stephen Street, London Wl P 2LN. Also on the agenda at the BFI is an Interactive Encyclopaedia of Computer and Video Games and an exhibition which will show games and machines from the last two decades. Amiga Computing APRIL 199 6 EW GVP TO UNVEIL 060 ACCELERATORS TP he 'New' CVP, a collaborative effort between M-Tec and Power Computing, is on the verge of releasing its first new products. Of particular note is the Amiga 4000/060 acceler- ator, sporting a Motorola 68060 chip at 50MHz, 4 SIMM slots for up to 1 28 megs of RAM, and a SCSI-II controller. Pricing has yet to be announced. At present, CVP is considering building an A3000 design based on the A4000 card. The space constraints of the A3000 would dictate a reduction in SIMM slots to 2, for a maximum of 64 megs of memory. In addition, CVP is the distributor for the MacroSystem Falcon A1200 040/060 card in North America. They also plan to restart production of several of the 'old' GVP products, including the DSS-8+ and PhonePak in the near future. GVP can be reached at +610-522-9350 voice, +610-522-9354 fax, and 1 02 150.1 665@com- puserve.com via e-mail. ilent Paw soliciting investment partners C ilent Paw Productions, creators of the Personal Amiga Workstation (PAWS) laptop kit and the Gecko display enhancer, are looking for investors to help further their development and bring their products to mar- ket. Shares in the company as well as bonds were offered in an attempt to replace lost cap- ital, caused by the collapse of their earlier potential investor. The company can be reached at +703-330- 7290 voice, +703-330-5752 fax, or via e-mail at slntpaw@ix.netcom.com. onder Computers enters bankruptcy Barely a month after the successful World of Amiga Toronto show, the hosts, Wonder Computers, Incorporated of Canada entered court supervised bankruptcy proceedings. The news came as a tremendous shock to the North American Amiga market, to say noth- ing of WCi employees. While Wonder's six retail outlets continued to be profitable, the low returns on WCi's Information Technology and Lazarus Engineering divisions prompted a recall of a large WCi loan. Unable to meet these terms, WCi was forced to enter bankruptcy. The firm of Ernst and Young has been appointed to oversee WCi's operations and liquidation. WCi CEO Mark Habinski is attempting to organise a buyout of the WCi assets in order to form a new, debt-free corporation. While so far the trustees have expressed willingness to work with Habinski, time is limited. Any customers, manufacturers, dealers, or distributors with outstanding accounts should immediately contact Ernst and Young at Wonder Computers' Ottawa headquarters on +613- 226-0000 or by fax on +61 3-226-9990. miga Atlanta celebrates 10th anniversary It miga Atlanta, one of the oldest user " groups in the world, rang in its 10th Anniversary on 20 January with a large banquet for members and special guests from across the country. Booked as special guest speakers for the evening were Amiga Corporation legend and former 3DO executive RJ Mical, Amiga librarian extraordinaire Fred Fish, Commodore and Amiga hardware guru Dave Haynie, and myself. In addition, Dale Luck, formerly of Amiga Corporation and now Senior Software Architect for 3DO, attended the event, as did a sizeable entourage from NewTek led by company president Tim Jenison. Motorola RISC Marketing representatives were on-hand to plug and promote the PowerPC, the next generation of Amiga comput- ing. The event was presided over by CNN TalkBack Live host Susan Rook and Computer Chronicles host Stewart Cheifet (a proud owner of two Amigas himself). Quite a bit of reminis- cence and a few derogatory remarks about other computer platforms were the order of the evening, which stretched past midnight. The film crew of Amiga Atlanta tirelessly com- mitted the evening to videotape, and a profes- sionally edited presentation of the banquet will be available for sale from Amiga Atlanta soon. To learn of its release and keep up to date with other AAi events, check them out on the Web at http://www.mindspring.com/~amigaatl/. by Jason Compton roVector catches the wave URL: | http./VVw .eatr* .am/- stylus I m | j BrH>d 1|L.a*dh»»9t7|[ Find j naei Pro Welcome to the ProVector® Home Page PwYfcttnr is the premier structured- drawing progrwa ft>t the Anugfi Ae tfci« 6 Inc ss toH as updated imporet sport modules tai ARexs* toocrcs I 6 evolves, it feature news trem Stylos, Q tylus Inc., developers of the ProVector 3 structured drawing package for the Amiga, have released their Lightwave saver module. The module, a 'plug-in', allows ProVector projects to be saved as Lightwave object files, for further use and manipulation in NewTek's popular 3D rendering environment. The patch is available directly from Stylus for registered users and can also be found on Aminet FTP sites and from Stylus' new Web site, http://www.ezlink.com/~stylus/ProVector.html. For more information, contact Stylus at +970-484-7321 voice, or stylus@ezlink.com via e-mail. I ibrary services becomes Cronus f you start to see an unfamiliar name behind some familiar products in the coming months, don't worry. Fred Fish has renamed his Amiga Library Services company to Cronus. All subscriptions with ALS are still valid, and support for Amiga products will continue. /TV Contact point You can contact Jason Compton with your American news at: jcompton@xnet.com Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine (708) 741-0689 FAX AR on Aminet - docs/mags/ar???.lha AR Mailing list - Mail me WWW - http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR, www.cucug.org/ar/ar.html Amiga Computing APRIL 199 6 Telephone 0113 23 I 9444 24 HR MAIL ORDER SERVICE FAX: 01 13 231-9191 NEW! BBS Sale s & Technical line Tel: 01 13 231-142 2 E-Mailfirstcom@firstnet.co.uk /^gSSSlSUi** i:MltimS?^ianSS^^. www.firstnet.co.uk/firstcom > Night Opening Wednesday & Thursday till 7.30pm WT Open Sunday W 1 1 am to 4pm j< FIRST COMPUTER CENTRE HOWTO ORDER LOW COST DELIVERY Order by telephone quoting your Credit Card Number. If paying by cheque please make payable to: FIRST COMPUTER CENTRE" In all correspondence please quote a Phone Number, Post Code & Dept. Allow 5 working days cheque clearance SHOWROOM ADDRESS: DEPT. AC, UNIT 3, ARMLEY PARK COURT, STANNINGLEY RD, LEEDS, LS/2 2AE. -J *J SIR Lombard Tricity low rate finance now available, call. • 2-4 Week Days £3.50 •NextWeekDay £5.95 •Saturday delivery £ 1 0.00 Delivery subject to stock availability •All prices include VAT @ 1 7.5% • Large showroom with parking • Multi-million pound company •Overseas orders welcome •Educational purchase orders welcome OPEN 7 DAY'S A WEEK Prices are correct at the time of going to press. Please check our latest prices before ordering. All sales are subject to our standard terms & conditions{copy available upon request). E&OE. Hardware UK'S cheapest Amiga's A 1 200 Magic Pack Includes, Wordworth V4SE, Datastore, Organiser, Turbocalc 3.5, Personal Paint V6.4, Photogenics I.2SE, Pinball Mania & Whizz. £349.99 Amiga A 1 200 4 Magic Pack Inc. 1 70Mb HD &ScalaMM300 I Includes same software pack as Magic Pack, But also includes Scala MM300(Req. 4Mb). £469.99 ijSftga Al 200 " Surf Pack Inc. 260Mb HD & 1 4.4 Modem Includes, All the Magic Pack software, plus the latest Comms and Internet access software designed for the Amiga. All this for only £559.99 CD ROM Drives HP CD- \\HG\] M1438S Monitor Only!! ^75.99,^n3&r First Starter Pack • A 1 200 dust cover • 10 x DSDD disks + labels All for • Top quality joystick Only • Deluxe mouse mat • 3 xAI200 games £19.99 A4000T 68040-25 £2089.99 68060-50 £2359.99 Chaos Software Pack Only!! £ 1 9.99 J 1 Amiga Technologies 1 24 1 Q-Drive Quad Speed only!!£239.99j Quad speed externa] CD-Rom Drive, for Al 200, via PCMCIA. CD-Recorder 4x read/2x write Tomorrows /Q")Q 00 technology today t7A7.77 74 Min. Media 1 0 off £64.99 1 00 off £575.99 Master-ISO CD-R software Create your own CD ROM's and CD-Audio discs, on ,our Amiis-Call for details £349.99 Internal SCSI CD ROM drives A4000 compatible CD ROM drives Toshiba 540 1 Bx4Speed £169.99 Toshiba370IBx6.7S P eed £319.99 Toshiba drives are shorter than std. drives & so fit inside the A4000 case. SCSI Controllers Squirrel SCSI-II Interface *£45.00 •When bought with any HD/CD ROM drive, £54.99 if bought separate Surf Squirrel SCSI-II Interface *£79.95 GVP 4008+ / Oktagon SCSI-II controllers £99.99 SCSI-II RAM Interface cards for big box Amiga's. A4oO0(A2000 etc. Hard Drives Monitors Disk Drives Squirrel l/face 3.5" Hard Disk Drives with A 1 200/600 install kit (We recommend 3.5" drives be fitted by qualified computer engineers) inc. software, cables and instructions 630Mb..£l85.99 850Mb...£ 1 99.99 l.08Gig..£249.99 2.1 Gig..£379.99 2.5" Hard Drives for A600/ A I 200 with installation kit inc. software, screws, cables and instructions External Hard Drives for all SCSI aware Amiga's 500Mb £ 1 99.99 I .OGig £299.99 2.0Gig £639.99 4.0Gig £ 1 069.99 c. High quality SCSI-II Quar W Seagate Rjfrrsu cgxxier 80Mb £89.99 l30Mb..£l09.99 l70Mb..£l 14.99 250Mb.. £ I 39.99 340Mb..£l79.99 5l0Mb..£234.99 8IOMb..£349.99 I.OGig..£4l9.99 3.5" Hard Drive install kit £18.99 Includes set up software, cables and full instructions, no Hard Di ' \MIGAl M1438S Amiga Branded Same specification asthe Monitor Microvitec 1438, but alsol r'jn r q\ has Stereo speakers. I LZ/Jty Microvitec 1438 monitor without speakers £264.99 Extra adaptor may be req. £6.99 Zip Drive £199.95 [Zip tools available separately £ 1 6-99] Surf Squirrel I • Hi speed serial port l SCSI-II interfacej | •AutobootmgHD from *£79_95 SyquestEZ-135 £234.99 additional media £ I 5.99 A Amitek I084S £199.99 | 14" Colour CGA Stereo Monitor, Composite Video, Digital RGB, Analog Inputs. onitor dust cover £6.99j Supraff^MWModem S upram MMModem 288 • Up to 1 1 5,200bps (v42bis) • Class I & 2 Fax • Silent & Adaptive Answer* Unique LCD Display • V34 Standard • Flash ROM 9 NComm Software • 5 YearWarran ( £199.99} ^*—^ LI c Ll9 SupraExpress 288 Only (£174.99 • Up to 1 1 5,200bps (v42bis) • LED Display • V34 Standard • Cli • NComm Software • 5 Y Supra modems are not BABT approveu, n as well & often out perform BABT appro Modems have a 5 year limited [Mobotics PRIMA Sportster 'VI • Class I Fax • Personal Voice Mail • Fax on Demand • Call Discrimination Canon Canon BJ30 £184.99 Portable mono printer, 30 page ASF built in. Canon BJC70Colour £289.99 Portable colour printer, 30 page ASF. Canon BJ200ex £207.99 gh quality mono printer, virtual 720 dpi, ewl!CanonBJ2IO £229.99 Mono printer, 720x360dpi, colour upgradeable CanonBJC4IOOColour £289.99 Printers CITIZEN Amiga External drive £49.99 I Al 200/600 internal drive £39.99 «.500/500+lnternal drive £39.99j Squirrel • SCSI-II interface From only *£^5.00j h '£ r *™t, £54.99 if purchased separately RAM Expansion/Accelerators BABT Approved • 14,400 Data/ 1 4,400 Fax £111.99 • 33,600 Data/ 1 4,400 Fax £193.99 AI200 A I 200 A I 200 A I 200 AI200 A I 200 AI200 AI200 A 1 200 RAM Expansion 1 MB RAMSpeciol price!!£69. 2 MB RAM £99. 4 MB RAM £124. 8 MB RAM £199. IMB/33MhzCoPro £99. 2MB/33MhzCoPro £124. 4 MB/33MhzCo Pro £159. 8MB/33MhzCoPro £235. ( Accelerator Cards ) POWER y-J^ V1PERI# Viper 11-50 £199.99) Up to 1 28Mb RAM, FPU Socket & R/T clock Viper 11-28 £11 9.99 1 Up to 1 28Mb RAM, FPU socket & R/T Clock Courier V34+ If you thought VJlbis was fast try VJ4 OKI 00 BABT "°' ,,7 Ai»rti>(d 33,600 bps 1 Mb72 PinSIMM 2 Mb 72 Pin SIMM 4Mb72 PinSIMM 8Mb72 Pin SIMM 16Mb 72 pin SIMM IMb30pinSIMM 256x4 DRAM £29.9 £59.9 £69. S £145. . £315.9 £33.9 (each)£6.! (A500/600 RAM Expansion) | PRIMA A500 5 1 2k RAM no dock £ 1 9.99 PRIMA A500+ I Mb RAM £29.99 I PRIMA A600 I MbRAMnoclock£29.99 Consumables S» □ ABC Colour printer _ Simple (as easy as ABC) to use 24 pin printer. Comes as standard with 50 sheet Auto sheet feeder. Tractor feed optional at £34.99 Citizen Printiva 600c £399.99 600 dpi colour, I 200 dpi mono printer. Dedicated Amiga driver software, use's advanced Micro Dry print Technology. HEWLETT® PACKARD Star LC90»plnmonc ASF built in, push tractor optional. Star LCI 009 pin Colour I 80 cps draft, 45 cps NLQ, Amiga < Star LC240 24 pin mono 1 92 cps draft.with ASF built in. Star LC240C24 pin colour ASF built in, 4 LQ fonts. StarSJ I 44coiour olour thermal transfer printer, s, 3 p/p/m mono, 1 .4 p/p/m coloi HP340Portable £224.99 Colour upgradeable portable printer 99 HP600 £232.99 Colour upgradeable mono ink jet/ Col. Kit £4 1 .99. £107 £129.99 HP660Coloui ■ rivers. New colour InkJet from HP. £123.99 HP850Colour 600x600 dpi up to 6 p/p/m moi £145.99 HPSLLaserprinter 4 p/p/m 600 dpi £229.99 HP5PLaserprinter ow running * P'P' m M0 dpi EPSON Stylus Colour II £335.99 720 dpi, 4ppm Black, 2ppm Colour. Stylus Colour lis £249.99 720dpi, 2.5ppm Black, I ppm Colour. Stylus 820 £219.99 720 dpi, 2.5ppm Black. Colour Upgradeable. Stylus Pro £485.99 720x720 dpi. Photo- Real quality output. OKI Authorised OKI dealer OL600ex £379.99 LED laser printer. 6 p/p/m, 1Mb of Ram. OL6IOex £479.99 LED laier printer. 6 p/p/m. 2Mb of Ram. £319.99 £416.99 o, lip p ni colour £449.99 Miscellaneous Printer Switch Box 2 way Printer Switch Box 3 way Printer Stands (Universal) 1 .8 Metre printer cable 3 Metre printer cable S Metre printer cable 1 0 Metre printer cable Parallel port ext. cable £12.99 £17.99 £4.99 £4.99 £6.99 £8.99 £12.99 Ribbons Citizen Swift/ABC mono £3.99 Citizen Swiff ABC colour £ 1 2.99 Star LC90 mono ribbon £4.99 Star LC 1 0/ 1 00 mono £3.69 Star LC 1 0/ 1 00 colour £7.99 Star LC240c colour £ 1 3.99 Star LC 24 Oc mono £8.99 StarLC240 mono £5.99 Star LC24- 1 0/200/300 Colour £ 1 3.99 Re-Ink Spray for mono ribbons £ 1 1 .99 We stock a wide range of consumables for alt printers Lasers, Dot Matrix and Inkjets old and new. PREMIER-INK Cartridge Refills Save a fortune In running cost, with your Ink/ bubble jet. Compatible with the HP Deskjet series, Canon Bj 1 0/20/00/ 1 30/200/100/330, Star SJ4S, Citizen Projet and many others. Full range of colours available. Single refills (22ml) £6.99 Twin refills (44ml) £12.99 Three colour kit (66ml) £19.99 Full colour kit (88ml) £27.99 Bulk refills (125ml) £24.99 Printer repair specialists call for quote Ink Cartridges Canon BJIO/Star SJ48 Canon BJ200/230 Canon BJ30 (3 pack) Canon BJC 70 mono (3 pack) Canon BJC 70 colour (3 pack) Canon BJC 4000 colour (single) Canon BJC 4000 mono (single) Canon BJC 4000 mono high cap. Canon BJC 600e mono high cap. Canon BJC 600e colour Citizen Printiva Std. colours Citizen Printiva Metallic colours HP. Deskjet 660 double mono HP. Deskjet 660 colour Epson Stylus mono Epson Stylus colour Epson Stylus Col. II/S/820 Mono Epson Stylus Col. II/S/820 Colour Epson Stylus 820 colour upgrade Star SJ 1 44 mono/colour (single) Covers All printer dust covers Paper Fanfold (tractor feed) 500 sheets Fanfold (tractor feed) 1 000 sheets Fanfold (tractor feed) 2000 sheets Single sheet 500 sheets Single sheet 1 000 sheets Single sheet 2000 sheets Epson Stylus 720 dpi paper pack £19.99 £19.99 £13.99 £12.99 £16.99 £16.99 £7.99 £28.99 £10.49 £8.99 £6.49 £16.49 £25.99 £27.99 £15.99 £36.99 £17.99 £24.99 £94.99 £8.99 £4.99 £8.99 £17.99 £4.99 £8.99 £17.99 £12.49 Disks Bulk DSDD 10 x £3.49 1 00 x £29.99 30 x £9.99 200 x £54.99 50 x £15.99 500x£l 18.99 Branded DSDD I0x£4.99 1 00 x £35.99 30x£l2.99 200x£63.99 50 X £25.99 500 x £142.99 Bulk DSHD 10 x £3.99 1 00 x £33.99 30 x £11.99 200 x £59.99 50 x £17.99 500 x £134.99 Branded DSHD 10 x £5.99 1 00 x £47.99 30 x £15.99 200 x £84.99 50 X £25.99 500 x £190.99 Disk labels x500 £6.99 Disk labels x 1 000 £9.99 Video ft uantum VIDI A miga 24 (RT)+ Colour Real Time Amiga video capture system • Composite & SVHS inputs. • Time Lapse remote grabbing. • BMRTIFF & PCX File Support. • Load/Save 24 Brt tLBM&Anims £139.95 VIDI Amiga 24 (RT) Pro Professional Colour j Real Time Amiga video capture system • Composite & SVHS inputs. • 16.7 million colour grabbing. • BMRTIFF, PCX.ANIM, ILBM. i • Processing controls & effects £224.99 Compatible with VHS & SVHS. Save & load in multiple file formats Support for virtual memory R kkkstart 2.04 Addrtional teletext facilities & , SMb (ree memory Large preview window for only..... £129.95, Genlocks Genlock 290 • Full fading of mixed graphics • 2 ergonomkaily designed fadei • High quality output signal • Independant power supply £639.99 Genlock 292 > Full fading of mixed graphics ► Fade to black of output signal ► Demonstration software inc. > Independant power supply £264.99 A-Cut • Video edit • Works on Kickstart 2.0 and above • Scenes denned, sequenced/exchange • Independant power supply £164.99 Fusion Genlock • Comes with ScalaHTlOO • m Amiga Shopper June 9 • Composite only Genlock jfyr Only!! £95.99 Entry level Genlock Graphics | Graphics Software New!! Epson GT-5000 • A4 Flatbed scanner • 300 dpi optical scan resolution nc PC Editing & OCR software £437.99 : Amiga range of computers req. additional driver software and a Bidirectonal parallel cable. Art Department Pro Scanner Controller nc. • Bidirectonal Parallel cable • Amiga driver software • Total WYSIWYG control • Can be used without Art Dept Software With Scanner Without Scanner £89.99 £99.99 ■ If cable req. separately £39.99 -$6 >y lonly £59.99 The amazing new graphics tablet for the Amiga developed with First Computer. 94% rated in Amiga Shopper. Requires 2.04 WB or above Power Scan v4. £89.99 1 256 g/scale on AGA Amigas. 64 g/ scale non AGA Power Scan Col. £ 1 74.991 24 bit colour scanner. 1 6.7 million colours D Paint V Award winning Paint & Animation package. £59.95 Art Department Pro. Image processing software £129.99 Scala MM2I I £139.99 • MM300 £224.99 • MM400 £274.99 Photogenics vi.2|4> 24 bit graphics manipulation Special offer only!! £47.99 New!! Cinema4D £169.99 Amiga Ray-Tracing software Req. 3Mb of RAM, and Kickstart 2 or higher. Music Technosound Turbo 2 Pro 8/12 bit Stereo Sampler plus many more advanced features A bargain at only £27.99 Mega-Lo-Sound 8 bit direct- to-disk sampler Great value at only £25.99 ProMIDI Interface • MIDI in, MIDI thru & 2 x MIDI out •Compatible with all MIDI software only!! £19.99 • 2 x 3metre MIDI cables £9.99 AURA 100% £74.99 Octamed compatible 1 21 1 6 bit stereo direct-to-disk PCMCIA sampler Octamed 6 Official CD £24.95 Latest version of the best music making program for the Amiga. Over 600Mb of Midi files, Samples. lies £ E Wordprocessing Home Office f Miscellaneous FiiudWhter Final Writer 4 Word Processor/Publisher Latest version of this award winning software only!! £72.99 Final Writer Lite Word Processor Requi res Kickstart 2.04 or above, 2Mb of Ram and I Floppy Drive, Hard Drive installable if desired. £39.95 "JET Mini Office Integrated Package • Word p ro cessi • Spreed sheet •Database • Graphics • Dhc Utilities . £38.99 Wordworth Ver. 5 hif her _ . £74.99 •Any Amiga 2.04 •3Mb of Memory • 2xFloppy drives or HD Final Data • Requires Workbench 1.3 or above, 1Mb of memory & I floppy drive. £39.95 Twist 2 VISTAI'RO Relational Database • Requires Workbench 2.1 or above & 2Mb of memory £74.99 Spreadsheets F Vista Pro 3 Landscape Artistry software Accurately recreate and explore real world landscapes in vivid detail aiso £77 95 Makepath £8.99 ~ Terraform £8.99 Vista Pro 3 Lite £24.95 Final Cole nal Calc £94.99 • Requires Workbench 2.0 or above, 2Mb of memory min., H.Disk with 5Mb of free space Utilities Peripherals Cables Home Finance Money Matters 4 £49.99 Opus 5 £49.99 DiskMagic n% £34.95 CU Amiga; Distant Suns 5 Desktop Planetarium Req. Kickstart 2.04 or above 2Mb of RAM and a Hard drive £27.95 Studio 2 £49.95 Print software for optimised performance, includes Epson Stylus and Canon print drivers. GP Fax £49.95 Use your Amiga modem as a fax machine GBRoute Plus £44.95] Amiga Route Planner. Winner of the"Best Amiga Utility Software "award. Works on all Amiga's with at least I Mb of Memory. Delivery £ I per title or £3.50 for 4+ Mega Mouse* 400 dpi£ 1 2.99 Mega Mouse 400 dpi £ 1 1 .49 Amiga Mouse 560dpi £ 1 2.49 Mousemat 4mm £3.99 AlfaData Trackball £34.99 Zip Stick joystick £9.99 Gravis Amiga joystick £ 1 9.99 ZyFi-2 Speakers £26.99 ZyFi Pro Speakers £57.99 Roboshift mouse/joystick switch £9.99 Amiga Contol Pad £9.99 Amiga Modulator £34.99 Amiga PSU £34.99 Kickstart 2.04/2.05 £24.99 CIA 8520A I/O chip £18.99 FPU25mhzPLCC £34.99 FPU33mhzPLCC £39.99 Turbot ech R/ T clock '-ridge £ Hg£H all Amiga's Special Offer Amiga Sernet Cable £24.95 Amiga Parnet Cable £ 1 4.95 Modem Cable 9-25/25-25 £9.95 Null Modem Cable £9.95 Amiga- VGA Monitor £12.95 Amiga-TV Cable £2.45 Amiga-CM8833 Monitor £9.95 Amiga-Scart Cable £9.95 Printer Cable ( 1 .8 metre) £4.95 Disk Drive/Monitor Ext. £14.95 PC Analogue J.stick Adapt. £7.95 Mouse/Joystick Extension £4.95 Mouse/Joystick Autoswitch £9.95 MIDI Cables (3 metre x2) £9.95 Centronics-Centronics £9.95 SCSI D25-50 way Cent. £ I 1 .95 SCSI D25-50 way Micro-D £15.95 SCSI Adaptors from.. £ 1 5.95 SCSI Terminators from... £ 1 9.95 Internal SCSI Cables from... £9.95 2.5" IDE Hard Drive Cable £5.95 Hga-3.5" Hard Drive £18.95 ial Amiga CD ROM's 1 7 Bit The 5th Dimension £17.49 l7BitCollecrtion(Double) £24.99 1 7 Bit Continuation £14.49 1 7 Bit Phase 5 £14.49 1 7 Bit/LSD compendium I or2 £ 1 6.99 1 7 Bit/LSD compendium 3 £16.99 Aminet8or9or 10 £12.49 Aminetcollection(Aminetl-4) £24.49 Aminet collection 2 (Aminet 5-8 ) £24.49 New.'.' Amos Users CD PD Ver 2. £ 1 6.99 Animations (Double) £17.49 NewKArtworx £8.99 New" Assassins 2 (Double) £17.49 BCINetl/2 £8.99 New!! C64 Sensations £16.49 CAM (Double) £22.49 CDPDI,2,3or4 £8.99 Demo CD 2 £8.99 New.'.'Eric Schwartz CD £24.99 New.'.'Encounters UFO Phenomenon £ 1 4.99 Fractal Universe £ 1 7.49 New.'.'Global Amiga Experience £24.95 Goldfish 1/2 . £24.99 Grafix Sensations New/.'Groliers Encyclopedia 2 Illusions in 3D New.'.'Light ROM 3 Light Works Magic Illusions New/.'Meeting Pearls 3 MultiMediaToolKit2(2xCD's) New.'.'Network 2 CD New.'.'NFA AGA Experience New.'.'Octamed 6 CD New Price.'.' Prima CD Vol. I New.'.'Sci-fi Sensations Space And Astronomy New.'.' Speccy Sensations II The Beauty of Chaos Ten on Ten pack ( I OxCD's) New/.'UPD Gold CD (4 x CD's) New.'.>WorldOfPinups2 WPD Hottest 5 Weird Science Fonts/Clipart Weird Science Animation New!! World Info 95 New.'/XiPaintV3.2 New.'.' Zoom II £17.49 £19.95 £8.99 £40.99 £29.99 £1 1.49 £8.99 £19.95 £12.49 £17.99 £24.95 £9.99 £17.99 £16.99 £17.49 £13.49 £37.99 £24.99 £14.99 £17.99 £8.99 £16.99 £34.99 £39.95 £18.99 FREE!! Prima Shareware CD-ROM worth £ 1 0 with every order of Special ^^^^^^CD ^ROM software over £30 Blitz Basic Citizen ABC 1 Turbotech Blitz Basic2.l Popular BASIC programming language for all Amiga's WW Special offer £29.99 24 pin colour printer [Usual price! I £145.99 J Limited special offer price only!! £135.99 Turbotech Real/Time I Clock cartridge Usually £17.99 Special offer price Q FIRST NET First Net Yorkshire s Premier Internet provider One time connection fee of £29.38 and then just £14.69 a month thereafter, 15:1 User Ratio, Excellent Bandwidth, Web space available. Call for further details COVERDISK PROGRAMS The first coverdisk with the Capital Punishment demo on is self-booting and can be run direct off the disk, or hard drive users can install the game on their hard drive by dragging the disk icon to wherever they want the Capital Punishment game drawer. To extract programs from the second cover disk, you need to boot your machine with the second disk. To extract any single program you should double-click its icon and follow the on-screen instructions. If you want to quickly extract the program to RAM, select the NOVICE level on the Installer welcome screen, press proceed and then press it again on the next screen. After a short pause and if no error messages appear, the program can be found in your RAM disk. You also have the option of using a floppy disk. If you pick this make sure you have a blank formatted disk at the ready - you can format disks from the Workbench menu - and if you only have one disk drive be prepared for a long wait and plenty of disk swapping. Hard drive users Hard drive users can boot their machines as normal. Once the Workbench has loaded, if you do not have, or are not sure that you have the Amiga Installer program or Lha, you should double-click on the SetUp-HD icon and this will copy the relative programs across to your hard drive. It will check beforehand if you already have these programs before copying the cover disk versions over. If you wish to extract a file archive to a specific place on your hard drive, when you double-click on a file you should select EXPERT and then press proceed. You will then be able to select the destination. You also have the option of using the Multi Extract Installer script which allows you to extract either all or just some of the cover disk programs to a destination of your choice. ^^^^^ i / \^ j CO VP' On this month's exclusive Amiga Computing cover disk we give you the chance to kick hell out of a friend. Hurrah Capital Punishment Author: Pxl Computing A 1200 DISK 1 I You are a warrior about to embark on a most dangerous journey. Your goal is to | dethrone the evil master of an immense castle. You begin your I mission in the rancid, putrid catacombs of this castle. However, the master is aware of your presence and has placed guards on every floor. You must work your way up to the top of the castle and defeat all who stand in your way in order to battle the master. Helping you along will be the spirit of your deceased mentor but, even with his aid, this will, without question, be a physically-draining experience. By journey's end you will be injured, bruised, and tired, but if you think of the price of failure, this is a small price to pay, for should you lose a battle, you will suffer a fate worse than death. You see, the master looks favourably upon assassins. Thus, he has the power to make you immortal and you will be forced to serve him for eternity in this most unpleasant environment. Even worse, you will be confined to a single room, becoming one of his guards. Almost as bad as being forced to watch the Cirlie show. Co NTRO L S The Capital Punishment demo is a two-player game - player one plays with a joystick in port 2 or the cursor and alt keys, while player two uses a joystick in the mouse port. On the initial menu screen, use left and right to flick through the various warriors that will be available in the full game - for the demo you can only pick the bare-chested, muscle-bound guy. In play, Capital Punishment takes a slightly different Joystick controls PUNKSHMHEWf beta <J^no vj.i UHRRIOR B UORRIOR D You can get a sneak preview of some of the characters in the final game JUMP BACK FLIP WALK DEFENSE W m JUMP FORWARDS WALK POWER TOSS DUCK STREET SLAM HOOK HEADBUTT HIGH BLAST SPINNING DRAGON Tk_# CROSSBOW KICK KNEEKICK LOW KICK CAPITALCUT Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 Shareware Many of the programs on the second cover disk are what are commonly known as Shareware. Such well written programs take many hours to write and a lot of hard work and dedication on the part of the programmer. When a program is called shareware it means the programmer has generously allowed you to try out their program, a lot of the time with no restrictions, and if you then decide you like it you are obliged to send the author the shareware fee. Normally this is no more than ten pounds and in return the author will usually keep you supplied with the latest version of that program, along with their undying grattitude of course. So please don't forget to send your fee. slant than other fighting games. Instead of losing a set amount of energy from a starting total each time you get hit, in Capital Punishment the energy bar takes the form of a tug of war. Each time you hit your oppo- nent they lose some energy and you gain a little, meaning if you can put together some combos you can quickly regain an advantage. The other unusual game element is the addition of two stamina bars. The pink bar represents the head, while the blue bar indi- cates body stamina. Player One's stamina is Errrgh, your feet smelt awful on the left, while Player Two's is on the right. In addition to robbing an opponent of vital main energy, a hit will also take away their stamina, head or body, depending on where the hit landed. If all their stamina is taken away, the player falls into a dangerous state of fatigue, and at this point the other oppo- nent can get as many hits in unopposed. When fatigued, a player can rejuvenate himself by quickly tapping the fire button, and the only way to get stamina back is to stand still. To use the following program you need to have the Magic User Interface v2.3 installed on your system. With- out it you will not be able to run any Mill program. Mill is available from any good PD house. MCP vl .10 Author: Alien Design Magic User Interface v2.3 Workbench 2.04 Well it's back, the Master Control Program has an update and is now packing more hacks, patches and groovy little features than ever before. If you do not know it, MCP is one in a long line of Workbench improvement programs - there have been plenty of these over the years, with many falling by the road side and never getting any more development. MCP and the similar program MultiCX are both trying to change this old trend. By offering constant new updates or regular beta versions, they assure that new features and patches to Workbench are constantly added. This latest release comes with a full installer program so you should have no problem getting the program set up and run- ning, and you should use it as there are a r | MCP Preferences Hotkeys Center Screens Change Workbenchtitte CopyMemQuick Default PubScreen Dos-Witdstar Drive noClick Font Search Force Hires Pointer Force riewLook-Menus Format Protection FraroelHaek LeftyMouse Library Search lock Patch MapUmlauts Mouse-Speeder new ToolTypes newEdit Ho Capstock floGuru rioTopaz OneReq (new asUibrary) PatchOpenVvB PatchRGB32 Pointer Blanker PointerPatch Power Saver Processor Change Workbenchtitte on an on an an on £dit Title l*fc Ospc%) fast mem »ff (%pf%) %ru = t-ree umpHam in Megabytes ■ %FF = Free FastRam in MegaBytes %fr = Free RetinaRam in Bytes %Fr = Free RetinaRam in KBytes %FR = Free RetinaRam in MegaBytes %fv = Free VMM-Ram in Bytes *Fv = Free VMM-Ram in KBytes %FV ■= Free VMM-Ram in MegaBytes %Bt » Percent of total FreeMem OFF on an + on ♦ on an an n/R + OFF + OFF + OFF + on _§aye_ _Use Cancel It dices, it slices, it will even feed the cat. MCP will do everything you need and probably a few things more That'll sting for a while number of extra small libraries that need to be copied into your Libs drawer. Another small command you get with MCP called 'Patchcontrol' has to be installed separately by copying it into your C directory and insert- ing the command CPatchcontrol near the top of your startup-sequence. The MUI preference program means you can easily configure MCP. It comes with a demo configuration to help you get going, and with over 50 different types of functions there is plenty for you to play with. For all you hard nosed MCX users there are a few really helpful extras provided in MCP that MCX does not have, for example an XPK auto-decrunch patch, a complete screen mode promotion patch, tool alias patch and assign preferences - there is more than enough for everyone. Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 PlayI 6 Author: Thomas Wenzel Workbench 2.04 It may seem as if every other modern computer has 16-bit sound and is using 16-bit sample formats, but this should not stop Amiga users being able to play them, should it? Well, this latest version of Playl 6 allows you to do exactly that. 1 6-bit samples recor- ded at 56khz, no problem. Playl 6 will allow your lowly Amiga sound output to handle it, playing the sample back at 14-bit quality, due to a special technique, and it's all at the correct speed. Sound channels are requested in a friendly manner from the operating system, and sam- ples can be played directly back from your hard drive, so any super huge samples you have on CD will not be a problem. There are also a good number of automatically recog- nised file formats, all from different computer formats - such as Wave, Voc, Sun Audio, Maud and Aiff - and they are all supported in their 16-bit mono or stereo compressed formats. Breathless Patch Author: Fields of Vi sion The original Breathless game was pretty amazing, and on an A1200 with extra mem- ory it was very playable. For all owners of the original game you are about to get a little bonus in this update to the original game engine. Installing the new version should be no problem - hard drive owners can use the installer script to copy the new version into the original Breathless directory, while floppy owners should copy the program file onto a copy of the original first game disk. Improvements over the original include: • now works from a non-PAL Workbench screen • added Mouse control and Configuration save option • smooth look up and down facility • frame rate increase by up to 20% • configurable player inertia and mouse sensitivity • autosaves last level code FIRST WORLD - SECOND RRXNfl RETRIES LEFT 3 The student surpasses the master grasshopper This latest version of Breathless is faster, smoother and more configurable String Req Author: Enrico Altavilla Workbench 2.04 Every now and again you get a small program that does something so useful that you wonder why no one thought of it before. Well, String Req is one of those programs. It allows you to pop up a file requester when using any string gadget and insert the file or directory name that you choose. To install String Req you should drag it into your WBStartup drawer, and that is it. You can now double-click in any string gadget and a file requester will appear, and by editing the tool types you can, alternatively, use a hot key to pop up the requester. The Guru 3 Author: Emiel Lensink Workbench 2.04 Anyone out there who has not owned a Work- bench 1 .3 machine may not quite understand the title of this pro- gram, but they will be more than likely well aware of a certain red flashing rectangle. This is the dreaded software failure which means almost nothing to the normal user because when it pops up you are faced with an unintelligible list of numbers. The Guru is a program that will help decipher the meaning of these strange hexadecimal numbers. The reason it is called The Guru is that the original programmers of the Amiga's operating system, who were a little eccentric, had a board they used to sit on. However, they had to sit on it as still as possible, otherwise it crashed their machine. Therefore, a guru meditating on the board could cause a crash, so a crash became known as a guru meditation, or so the story goes. I hope you understood this. Unfortunately, this was all changed in version 2 of the oper- ating system to plain old software failure - obviously to make it look more professional when your machine crashes. When you run the Guru you get a straight- forward interface. There are two string gad- gets into which you can enter numbers - the left one accepts software failure numbers, while the right one takes DOS error numbers. Hitting return will then display the meaning of the number. There is also a number that will automati- cally get the number of the last software fail- ure and explain what caused the crash. Therefore, after all this, at least you know why the machine crashed. Author: Allan Odgaard Workbench 3.0 It always seems to be the case that every part of the Amiga's operating system was written to be functional - not that this is a bad thing but it usually means that these functions are not particularly great to use. One of these parts is the string gadgets which only provide the barest of editing functions. Well, BetterEdit adds many great new features on top of the usual ones. To run BetterEdit just double-click its icon, or to permanently install it drag the icon into your WBStartup drawer. One of the additions of this utility is Blockmode which allows you to copy a section of your entered text. By hitting the Amiga b keys at the start of the area you can mark out the text you want and then copy it to the clipboard. An undo buffer is provided so all the changes you have performed can be undone by hitting Amiga q. Similar to KingCON, there is a file name completion function which works by typing the start of a filename, hitting Amiga tab, and BetterEdit will do its best to work out what file you are typing and complete it. Screen Wizard Author: Raymond Penners Workbench 2.04 I have probably said it before, but one of the handiest abilities of the Amiga's operating sys- tem, due to the copper, is its ability to have lots of separate screens open at the same time. This makes it so much easier to use programs and copy files around because the Workbench can be separate from any programs you may want to run. For example, Macs can be a night- mare to use because you need to keep hiding programs, and as the window redraw- ing is dreadfully slow this is very laborious. A problem with Amiga screens is that you have very limited control over them. Public screens were introduced with Workbench 2 and allow many programs to share a single screen, but it gave no way of configuring how the screen should look or act. The only one you could con- figure was the Workbench screen. Sure, some programs allow you to open their own screens but control via these programs is normally still limited. Screen Wizard is an all-singing, all-dancing solution to this predicament. Once installed via its installer script you can add new screens from the preference program. Here you can choose the screen mode, the screen font, what palette it should use, a background pat- tern, and a number of other options such as shanghai which will make all new programs open their windows on that screen. BJticotw Mm 53 InW-covad □ Stan**! SB ScreenWiz will automatically create the screens you specify when a program tries to appear on it Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 OOOOOOl - VISIT INTERNET LIVE! 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PO Box 9, Dunoon, Argyll PA23 8QQ Simply complete and return this coupon: Please supply: (USE BLOCK CAPS) Adult tickets QTY @ £7 per ticket = sub-total £ Child tickets QTY @ £5 per ticket = sub-total £ Family tickets QTY _ @ £20 per ticket - sub-total £ Total £ (2 Adults + 2 Children under 16) I enclose a cheque/postal order made payable to INTERNET LIVE to the value of £ Please charge my ACCESS/VISA/BARCLAYCARD Card No Expiry date Full Name of Cardholder Date Mr/Mrs/Ms Initials Surname Business Name (if any) Address Postcode Tel: 0 1 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST ANTI ORAVITV ^ ^' nCe Ant ' Gravity Has Been The Leader In Bringing To The professional Market The Best UCTS Bleeding Edge 3D Animation and Desktop Video Products Available! For A Complete Listing Of The Products You Want Or To Order On-Line; Visit Us On The Web @ http://www.antigravity.com I H800^74GRAVITY 456 Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90402 USA I TEL (310) 393-6650 FAX (310) 576-6383 Amiga Computers % For People Who Want More Than just A Pc! AMIGA a 4000 t ] Rendersaurus Mpha Systems Use The Best Technology! AMIGA A4000T - The Machine Power That Makes Video Production A Total Experience A4000T SYSTEMS A4000T $2795 25MHz-040/6MB/1GB/ & AG Super Software Bundle A4000T $2895 25MHz-040/6MB/1GB/2x CD-Rom & AG Super Software Bundle A4000T $4195 25MHZ-040/6MB/1GB/ 4x Read-2x WriteCD-Rom w/Mastering Sostware & AG Software Bundle AC SUPER SOFTWARE BUNDLE fROM AMIGA TECHNOLOGIES: Photogenics 1.2aSE, Personal Paint 6.4, Organizer 1.1, Wordworth 4 SE, Wordworth Print Manager, Turbo Calc 3.5 Datastore 1.1, Whizz, Pinball Mania. PLUS FROM ANTI GRAVITY: Pre-lnstalled on your system Internet Software, Magic Workbench, Magic Menue. Super Low Price275MHz A|pha Systems!) 4 \L{\C * UHbt&Km^ BS275A ^VV// 275MHz Alpha AXP 2I064A CPU / 2MB of Cache, IGB HD, 2X CD-ROM Drive, 2MB Display Card, Windows-NT, Keyboard, & Mouse. l^M^W^BS266A % K<)<)5 266MHz Alpha AXP 21 164A CPU /2MB of Cache v f U*bfi&NVt^ BS300A 17>^<?5 300MHz Alpha AXP 21 164A CPU / 2MB of Cache f f and 10CB HD, 2X CD-ROM Drive, 2MB Display Card, Windows-NT, Keyboard, & Mouse. LightWave Wor kS tat ions %• CALL (RECORDABLE CD-ROM DRIVES Pinnacle External 2X Recordable $1245 2 Node Rederfarm Package (ML Pentitrator Dont keep Intel I Outside Your Amiga-, Put a Pentium Into Your Amiga with the Pentltrator System Card FromAntl Gravity Labs Expandor Bus Card* The ultimate in slot expansion for your Amiga. It gives you 7-Zerro, 2-Video, r ,L™ 4-PCI, 3-ISA slots to your Amiga 4000. Together with the AGL Tower Case it )>FC , provides a home for the Pentitrator System Card; Or a great expansion device for an over-loaded Amiga 4000. 1 SNAP MAPS: PI Fields & Foliage Building Materials & Fabrics Whereas other texture libuaries help you enhance objects you created - Snap Maps help you create objects!} The Pentitrator System Card allows you to add a full Pentium computer to your Amiga 4000* with speeds up to 150MHz. AEL Tower Case, Fields & Foliage $129.95 Building Materials & Fabrics $129.95 Super Bundle: F&FplusBM&F $240.00 Specifcations: BUS: 132MB/sec PCI-Bus CPU: Pentium 75-150MHz ROM: PC104 EPROM RAM: Upto 128MB Cache: 256K-1MB Int. PORTS: IDE & Floppy Ext. PORTS: COM1, COM2, PS/2 Mouse, High Speed RS-232, Enhanced Parallel Slot: Fits in the PCI and ISA bus slot** AEL-TowerCase $1895 '(Soon for A3000.4000T) ''(Requires Expandor Bus Card and ACM Tower Case) Pentltrator-XX $ 995 Pentitrator-75 $7245 Pentltrator-90 $1395 Pentitrator- wo $1495 Pentltrator-120 $1595 Pentitrator 133 $1795 Pentitrator-iso $ n/a Pentitrator-75Sx mm: Expandor Bus Lard. Pentitrator* IMFJM , , IDE Floppy HhM The Perfect exspansion case for your Amiga 4000 or Video Toaster Flyer System. And A Must for the Pentitrator System Card to add all those PC peripherals. AGM Tower Case Without Power Supply $395 With Expandor Bus $640 With Power Supply $495 With expandor Bus $740 f ock A Powerful Motion Plug-In for LightWave 3D Lock & Key $145 Lock & Key is a powerful Motion Plug-In for Lightwave sD v4.0 that allows you to: - Eliminate "foot slide" during walk animations - Simulate parenting on a frame-by-frame basis - Lock an object to a bone! Available for Amiga, Intel, and Alpha platforms! Lock Sr. Key is a powerful Motion Plug In for LightWave 3D 4 with Lock & Key you can simulate parenting of any item to any other item on-the-fly. Use it to keep you characters feet on the ground without sinking or slindinq, have your characters pick things up without using duplicate objects, use it on bone hierarchies to eliminate gimbal lock. ^Locfc fir Key is a full Light Wave3D 4.0 Plug-In and runs from inside layout. j NEW! Version 2.1 Pixel 3D Professional $195 is the most powerful object/logo utility available. Use PixPro2 to convert bitmap pictures of logos and shapes to 30 with unrivaled speed and quality. Smooth, extrude and bevel your converted bitmaps with precise control. } • wmsiwm RMMl • . 3-DModefcng Simply & Automaticaly 5u UPGRADES SCall Use PixPro2.1 to load, save and display seventeen different 3D file formats, including 3D Studio, Imagine, complete DXF AutoCAD and LightWave scenes and objects. Pixel 3D has become a standard in the Video Toaster and 3D animation workplace. "f Load and save 17 different 3D file formats including: LightWave scenes, LightWave objects,1magine Objects (withnierarchy support) complete DXF AutoCAD suport, 3D Studio (ASCII and Binary), WaveFront & more! WaveLink Ver-1 $95 Connects any two Amigas for file sharing and distributive render- ing using LightWave or Light Rave. You can even batch render! Anim Workshop Ver-2 $95 AWorks provides tools to create, play, process, edit and add sound to your animations. Add Sound V.2 supports all ACA modes, Anim5, 7, fit 8 formats. Replica Technology] ImagefX vert The Complete Image Processing Solution! Incredible display Abilities: Amiga/ ACA modes, ECS Spectrum, Retina, Picasso, Piccolo, Firecracker24, DCTV, ... Powerful Scanning: Epson, Sharp JX-100, IV -24, VLab, & Frameqrabber... Full Color Paintma: Drawing Tools (( Curve, Polygon,. $245 yatty fVw Stock Footogr - C'M'H^'t'^ TORS' i, Magnification & - ce, Disperse, Sharpen), Paint tools (Airbrush, Charcoals, Watercolors, Crayons), Drawing Styles (Rub Through & Alpha Channels), Cut Out Brushes, Magnifies Zoom... Complete image Processing: Color Balancing, Correction, And Separation; Relief Maps & Motion Blurs; Solarize £ Chrome; Blur, Sharpen & Un sharp Masks; Filters... Fantastic Special Effects; Create Lightning Bolts, Ray trace Image Onto Spheres, Ripples Et Waves, Swirl Images (Even Into Other Images), Lens Flares, Paper & Canvas Textures, Turn Images Into Paintings, Water/Class Distortions, Morphing, Warps, Stars 6i Supernovas, Crystallize, Rotate In 2 Or 3 Dimensions... Complete Image Conversion: Amiga, Mac (MacPaint, PICT, TIFF), DOS(Gif , PCX, PtC, ]Peg, Targa.A SCI (SCI RCB, Softimage, Wavef rant), Animations( ANIM, ANIM7, ANIM8, MPEG, FU_), Others (XII, Abekas, PAR, Sun...).. FX Maps: Boiling, Burst, Calm, Disturb, Jiggle, Liquid, Pour, Rough, Spots, Swift, Tide, Water A, Water B, Waves A, & Waves B. Volume one by Leo Martin and volume two by Mark Thompson are State-Of-The-Art Fx. The impressive front end of Visual FX gets you into production now, no previous Lightwave experience needed. The transition volumes are )erfect for use with the NewTek Video Flyer or the DPS 'ersonaf Animation Recorder, just select what images or video sequences you want to use and Visual FX will do the rest. The Logo volumes are just as easy. Simply select what object you wish to replace our default and you are off on your way to creating professional quality animations that you never thought possible. Visual FX requesters actually open up on theliqhtWave screen and walk you through each step. Visual Fx is perfect for batch processing. Each volume comes with 20 effects, each of which has a full 30 frame preview animation attached to it so you will know exactly what the effect will look iike. Visual FX works with both the Video Toaster and stand alone LightWave. -Lab Motion ■ and VTR controller Decision Maker takes the drudgery out of moving setectecf chunks of video tothe harddisk. You control your video deck directly from your Amiga! And when you find useable footage simply add it to the EDL. When you need to switch tapes, just name the new tape and continue. When you are done, click DIGITIZE and the di sired footage will move to the harddisk. Then when the Edit is done you can take the EDL to an ON-LINE SUITE or REDICITIZE at a higher resolution! ♦ Import, Create, Export EDL's (CMX & GrassValley) ♦ Online Editing ♦ Control over your deck from your computer ♦ Keeps track of multiple source tapes ♦ Digitize and Redigitize ♦ User-Configurable Screen Backgrounds Ease of Operation Time Lapse Record ♦ Requires NewTek Flyer or VLab Motion ♦ Compatible with V-LAN, AmiLink, St BCD single- frames, & the EV0-96S0 and Sanyo CVRS-950, Single Frame VCRs. Terms and Conditions: ' "LOW PRICE GUARANTEED" is subject to Anti Gravity Products (AGP) discission, is on a case by case basis, and verification/availability. Call for shipping rates, warranties, and other policies that apply. Quantities are limited and prices are subject to change without notice. AGP accepts COD orders payable by cashiers check only. Payment must accompany all purchase orders. We are able to offer quantity discounts to dealers and system builders. Orders may be paid by Visa/Mastercard. All sales are final. No refunds, please. Defective exchanges are for same product only and must have a Return Material Authorization number (RMAj, be in original packaging, and condition. No guarantees are implied as to product performance with your system or as to manufacturers claims and specifi- cations. A 20% restocking fee applies to all exchanges of unlike products or any orders that are cancelled after shipping. All orders cancelled must obtain a cancellation number. All exchanges are at our option. AGP is able to ship via, 1 ) Federal Express: Priority, Standard Overnight, and Second Day Economy; 2) UPS overnight, Second Day, and Ground. Most orders are shipped within 48 hours for your convenience. Shipping damage must be reported directly to the carrier within 10 days. Federal Express logos used with permission. This advertisement, its contents, and its style are the Copyright of Anti Gravity Products and cannot be duplicated without express written permission. All trademarks are the property of there respective companies. • Software Bundle is free while supplies last Ad Effective Dates: 3-1 '96 to 4-30'96. No prices listed in this advertisement include VAT or any other duties or taxes. PRODUCTS U800474GRAVITY 456 Lincoln Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90402 TEL (310) 393-6650 FAX (310) 576-6383 Sate*-* ' Ohe 20 and 21 April 1995 marked the final buyout of Commodore. The victors were Escom and for $10 million they bought all Commodore's intellectual proper- ties, technologies, trademarks and patents. This April marks exactly a year since all this took place, so Amiga Computing is taking a look back at the year Escom dragged the machine from what seemed to be inevitable oblivion. We talk to the key players from both Amiga Technologies and the Amiga community and take a look at the high and low points of the year. Looking back over the last 12 months, everyone's going to have their own opinions of how much or how little Escom have achieved. One thing's for sure, for a machine that was off the shelves for over a year, they had a tough job ahead of them to re- establish the machine in a market place where everyone was looking forward to a new generation of consoles and 'serious' users were contemplating owning, or already owned, a PC. However, there was still strong opinion in the industry that there was room for an entry level computer that could not only run the latest games but could be used for serious applications - something that wasn't just a games machine but a cheap, reliable computer that was a quarter of the price of a PC. It was for this reason, perhaps, that it came as such a shock to learn the intended price of the new Amiga packs. It was in our October issue that we found out that the relaunched A1200 would cost £399 - £50 more than when it left the market place. The increased cost of DRAM and rushed manufacturing was blamed for ramping up production costs. A month later, though, some of our initial fears were quashed as the software that would be in the £399 bundle was announced. Quality titles such as Wordworth 4 SE and Personal Paint v6.4 were included, along with Scala MM300 with the hard drive Amiga bundle - however, Amiga Technologies' choice of games did raise an eyebrow. Comeback If the Amiga was to stand a real chance of comeback, its new owners were also faced with the problem of getting the Amiga back into production in time to take advantage of the Christmas sales. This they achieved and the first Amiga rolled off the production lines on 13 September at the Solectron factory in France. For Gilles Bourdin, PR for Amiga Technologies, this was one of the high points of the year: 'There were several high points for the Amiga in 1995. Everybody remem- bers the day when the first Amiga 1200 came out of the production line in Bordeaux. That was a very exciting day for all of us." They got the machines back on the the life It's been a year since Escom bought the Amiga. Tina Hackett takes a look back at the machine's progress ^ The Anglo Corporation saves struggling SDL shelves in time but, unfortunately, it was at a price. It was soon discovered that there was a compatibility problem and that some existing software would not run on the new machines. Barry Thurston, Managing Director of Scala UK, pointed to this as one of the low points of the year: "What I think was unfortu- nate was that the product came out with fun- damental problems, with the disk drive being different and therefore not being compatible with most of the software." Compatibility He continued: "It would appear at the moment that Amiga Technologies CMbH don't understand how important it is for the product to be compatible with all the current software that's out there. It's great having a lovely piece of technology but if you don't have good applications to run on it, it's not worth much." However, he stresses that time was of the essence if Amiga Technologies wanted to meet the pre-Christmas deadline. "They should have got the product right but again they were strapped for time and that's one they missed unfortunately. They could have been a little bit more stringent in their QA [Quality Assurance] but they'd run out of time, they had to get the machine back into the shops before Christmas." Despite setbacks, the year saw many posi- tive events and significant achievements. One that springs to mind is Amiga Technologies' agreement with Microvitec, and in a deal worth £20 million, Microvitec were to pro- duce the official monitor for the Amiga. They celebrated the first official M1438S monitor coming off the lines at their factory in Bradford back in Autumn. A deal was also reached during the year with VISCORP who D EVELOPMENT CONTINUES... For the Amiga to succeed there has to be new software in development to keep users interested. One of the key Amiga packages is Scala, and Amiga enthusiasts were concerned to see this title ported to the PC. However, Thurston was quick to allay fears that they would stop developing for the machine, "From our point of view there are applications in some of the markets we're in where an Amiga is still the best option. It's still the most cost effective and as long as those market oppor- tunities are there and as long as the platform is available, we will continue to offer that." He went on to comment: "If the market grows again and Escom manage to pull the phoenix out of the fire then we will be working with them with the next platform - the new RISC-based machines - to develop a new generation of Scala product based on the new technology we've developed for PC. We'll have to see how the future of the Amiga lies first before we'll commit, but rf that success is there then you will see an object-oriented Scala family of products come out for the new Amiga based on the backbone technology for our PC products." He stressed their loyalty: "We've been very successful on the Amiga platform and Scala is not a company about to forget that." Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 VM/GAi m • « * . I * * • f.y '.' '• / r i i i i i « .'"' ' ('/• | I J I I I L ' M Sales of the Magic PAck were disappointing over Christmas ■■I asualties of Commodore As Escom attempted to get the struggling machine back onto its feet, the take-over came just too iate to save some long-standing Amiga compa- nies which were badly affected by the lack of Amigas on the shelves. The first victim was ZCL, who on 30 May 1 995 called in the receivers. ZCL were one of the biggest Amiga distributors and despite launching the Calibre PC range in an attempt to make up for the loss of the Amiga, it was not enough to compensate for the losses caused by the absence of the machine. SDL, Amiga distributors and owners of the retail chain Silica, did not escape Commodore's crisis unhurt either and, having been hit by severe difficulties, saw them having to apply for an Administration Order in October. The company who were chosen to distribute the new Al 200s and 4000Ts were one of the luckier ones, however, as only four weeks after this news, the company was saved by a take-over by Anglo Corporation. On the games side of things, Rasputin, the publishers behind Base Jumpers and Charlie J Cool, also disappeared with their staff being taken on by Soundscape Multimedia. The future of Kompart, another company which was prevalent in the Amiga games scene, remains uncertain. Reports are coming through that Kompart, publisher of Football Glory and Tactical Manager, have hit problems and have fallen into voluntary liqui- dation. The company handled numerous firms such as Arcane, and Max Design. ■ C The Cologne Show proved succesful wished to use Amiga technology in their set top boxes. This could have far reaching impli- cations for the future of the Amiga and, in effect, could mean millions of households seeing Amiga-based technology in their living rooms to do things like accessing the Internet, home shopping and playing games. Shows too like the Video Toaster Expo, held in Los Angeles in November. Speculation had been rife over what processor was going to be used for the next generation of Amiga, with PA-RISC being rumoured. However, the show put an end to the gossip with the PowerPC finally being announced Confirmation The Cologne show was the next major event on the Amiga calendar and it was here that the plan for an Internet package was revealed. The final details were confirmed with the package containing an A1200 with 2Mb RAM, a 260Mb hard drive, a 14.400 baud modem, and all the software needed to access the Internet. If it does hit the shops at the estimated £600 price tag then it could '7he Amiga has a chance to catch a whole new generation of enthusiasts and a whole new generation of developers." Barry Thurston, Scala UK prove a very viable option for those looking for a cheap way to surf the Net - a bit of advertising wouldn't go amiss though.... But as we've seen over the year, little has been done in the way of advertising the machine, and many have expressed disap- pointment at the lack of any marketing from Escom - especially in the run up to the important Christmas period. It seemed they were content to let the enthusiasts and Amiga press fly the flag on their own. 4 However, as Thurston commented, their bud- get had been limited: "There wasn't enough done to market the machine but they spent an awful lot of money acquiring the assets and there was a lot of fudging going on about what assets went where, what were real, and what weren't." He continued: "I know they have experi- enced problems where manufacturers who got stung by Commodore are not co-operating with AT to do products. They've really got some major problems and what they've had to spend to get round them has limited their budget. They needed to see whether or not there was a market there that was sustainable before they threw lots of money at it." He also believes that everyone has been over criti- cal of Amiga Technologies: "They never made any bold claims. Amiga Technologies thought 'Okay, well we've got the product, it's cost us an awful lot of money and we've got an awful lot of work to do.' I think the per- ception in the Amiga market was that the knight has come up on his white charger and will wave a magic wand and everything is going to be wonderful. But I know, having worked at Commodore, the scale of the task they've got. It's not an easy task to get it back into the shops. "However, Amiga Computing APRIL 19 9 6 'The forecasts have not been reached the way we expected and this forced us to reorganise our operations in the UK." Gilles Bourdin, 1 Amiga Technologies 1 f BRIGHT FUTURE even though the machines were back in the shops, the sales over the Christmas period were not as high as were hoped. Lack of mar- keting, compatibility problems, and SDL's troubles were put forward as possible reasons. Bourdin admits that the company had some problems over the year: "The bad expe- rience we made last year was related to our former distributor in the UK, who went into financial difficulties. The forecasts have not been reached the way we expected and this forced us to reorganise our operations in the UK." We asked him whether they'd achieved everything for the Amiga that was hoped for over the year. He pointed out: "Not every- thing. But we are still satisfied by the results regarding difficulties we encountered during that year. We sold about 40,000 machines worldwide, which is a good result for only three months of sales activities. And considering the actual situation in the computer industry, I would even say that this is an excellent result." He admits, when asked if he wished he'd done anything differently: "Our dis- tributors, dealers and outlets includ- ing myself were too enthusiastic. Our j forthcoming fore- cast will be more conservative." Ci Amiga Technologies signed a deal with Microvitec to produce the official monitor John Smith hopes to bring new powerful Amigas to the market A year has passed and as we look back it seems pertinent to see what the future has in store. Escom have already proved that an Amiga is not just for Christmas, with promises of new technology and major plans on the horizon. Amiga Computing, not content to crystal-ball gaze, asked the major players to reveal their plans. Bourdin told us: "We hope to be able to show the new Amiga model at the CEBIT fair in Hannover this March. Our contracted engi- neering office is progressing as planned so far. The power PC port has started in close co- operation with Motorola, our strategic partner who supports us tremendously. We have for- mer Commodore engineers working for us on that project." They are also attempting to redress criti- cism of the lack of advertising so far and Bourdin confirmed that there would be more moves in that direction this year: "We have a new marketing plan for 1 996, with interna- tional coverage. We will go into non-Amiga media to attract new customers and, hopefu- lly, our mother-company Escom will support us in this direction." John Smith, General Manager of Amiga Technologies UK, gave us his hopes for the future: "I hope we can continue with the research and development that will enable us to bring new and exciting more powerful Amigas to the market. Amiga Technologies in Germany continue to assure us that they are forging closer links with Motorola in this quest and, like most Amiga fans, I say the sooner the better. In the meantime we will continue to enhance our current range with exciting new packs like the 'Surfer.' I also hope to see a more powerful Amiga 1 200 emerge in the not so distant future." We asked Barry Thurston about what he hoped to see from Amiga Technologies in the future: "We're primarily interested in the big machines for professional applications. We just want a product that is reliable so that we can sell professional solutions based on the Amiga. A lot of people, when asked [what they would like from Amiga], go on about having a machine with lots of DSP chips and multiple processors and all the rest of it and yes, that would be nice but we're dealing with reality. We just want a good solid machine with good marketing from Escom to get the Amiga into the position it used to enjoy." He also believes that recruiting new devel- opment teams is the way forward: "We need a lot of work from them [Amiga Technologies] in encouraging new developers to write good applications, programs and games. I stress new because a lot of people who cut their teeth and made money on the Amiga have got to a size whereby they now look at the global market and are only interested in big platform coverage like PCs, Saturns, and PlayStations. I think those guys have got rather big on the back of it and are now look- ing forward. What the platform needs to sur- vive is a lot of new and upcoming program- mers. I hope there are some and that the kids haven't been too busy playing games!" He concluded: "Some are being a little cynical at the moment and are knocking Amiga Technologies and what they are trying to do, but it's only out of frustration I think. Given the product is through and it's con- stantly on the shelves, I think some might come back. Some of the big boys who got really fat won't - it's just not a viable platform for them. The Amiga has a chance to catch a whole new generation of enthusiasts and a whole new generation of developers." ■ Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 U < fifu a. ^ Op Uj u Uj H'Q co E ■£ co -C i= i- Q-JS CD CD ^~ "D > < Q) £ ffl O-o CD > m C co cog>co CD >- Z> - ££? - £ CD CO c O o — t O ;: to =: _ £ 2 r LL CO 08 Q_ "5 — E ,? co — < ^ eon »_-= co WNO. TO- « ■ — r 15 m J C TO o> E . O CO ; "->- o a, l^ 8 |S§aOTOi C — - - o c c 3 *- co Q. <g CD , , TO - Z cm|q - feci™ co " TO? I © = (fl TO TO CCO £■*- n 5 s O TO U T3 ° i- TO lSc»° I g-g -TNOcoTJcnajEjffig cmgtJ-a cguTi! ~ 2 oq c ■ uj * o E"£ M oodf c o O „. Q._ •& = a) 0- CO CD <l- O)(0 E TO >(/>!-> u. tS I 2 5 a. i- w >• Q re 3 0) >.C3 CO *= ■= £ si tn re o 0 w S> U c UJ o °- '-5 co E 1 c >< c/5 « >- CD CO •'tf- © CVJ ^ + o co > o CD -Q TO a. 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'/i (I) C9 -h i > . co co 2 UJ ^ LO a • !<£ {/) I- g V* _ — o o o ° r , o o £3 OS * £ L I re re > SEEf ^ < < CD ac 5 1=1 § o CD J2 T3 2 "5, != CD SQ?o I— TO CO ,„ o a) cd O o c LU o □ cd a. 3 T -3 < cm S op •p ■ o -I 5 5 ^ - 1 gOcC3 c O cnT £= c _i co to "D LU v. s 3 — c y ^ o a. E ^ co .- co'S^-S g °< * O = g.3 <D> O ^ CD CJ)iS „ co a. ffl H -a "o gj CO 3 c . 3C°! _ *s — "2 o 5 go ^; w m b r o "co v ~ -S ^0 ~ « CO w P CO ~5 T-5 E w 2 to O CD CO _3 jj_ C ffl ,9 2 * ^ LU co J5 -D - c ■- — »ac|c JD CD CO CO CD r, clP P JZ = H CO > t co \ cd _ Sr O _ > c ±; CD — .t; >„£» O .CO . -> CD co O .^=8 S -D CD ~ 3 I — CO O CL> D"_l O CO Ohe Amiga is not a serious business machine. Despite its undoubted strengths in so many fields, it never did look right in the office environment, and nobody has made great efforts to change that fact. The Amiga first and foremost is about being creative and having fun in the process. But though Commodore's baby, for one reason or another, never made it into the accounts department, companies that have priced their business products affordably for the home market have successfully been reaping the rewards over the years. Amiga users have demanded top class features from word processors, spreadsheet analysers and databases, but they could rarely afford to pay the prices businesses regularly fork out for their PC software equivalents. And so we turn to Final Data Release 3. No-one's expecting the most advanced data- base software in the world for just under £40, but expectations for a product that combines quality and value will nevertheless be high. The questions is, have Softwood done enough to keep Final Data up-to-date ? For any newcomers to Softwood's database, the basic design and interface is in keeping with the clean cut approach found in the com- pany's other high-profile products, Final Writer and Final Calc. There are menus, sizeable windows, and keyboard shortcuts to give users maximum convenience. It lacks the pretty but unneces- sary icons that characterise Digita's rival offer- ing, but since such embellishments generally slow programs down, that's as much of a benefit as a handicap. As becomes a program from the Softwood stable, you can expect a high-quality manual providing an easy-to-follow guide to the pro- gram's various features. Final Data is all about the boring but necessary task of organising and recording data in a way that's easily accessed at a later date; thankfully, Softwood have made it a relatively painless and swift process. Users can develop databases with an unlim- ited number of columns and rows, all of which can be resized and repositioned at a later date if required. As you'd expect with such software, data is edited and formatted differently depending on whether it's a date, a time, an amount, a calculation, or text. A neat way of attaching more in-depth information to an entry is achieved by Final Data's use of multiple memos. If, for example, you had a list of names and addresses, you might want to add a note on a particular individual's birthday. Having attached a memo with this information, the individual's row would indicate that there is extra information that can be accessed with the click of a button. Generally, however, notes are kept tidily filed out of site. Of course, building a record of names, addresses or whatever is only half the purpose of a database. The ability to conveniently sort and search through that information is equally important, and fortunately Final Data has always been quicker than the opposition at doing both. Incidentally, sorting will allow you to organise a database so the data is easier to access, but it also allows users to sort Dealing with data | Softwood's popular database has received yet another face lift, but do the new features add up to make it an I attractive overall package? I Gareth Lofthouse puts it to the test information for reports or a set of labels. The option to print these reports and labels, or to 'print to disk' is also unusually quick. The searcher gives users a complex query requester that means they can be quite specific about the criteria under which the software should search a database. Then there's the Find and Replace function, a commonly used option within the searcher tool that allows users to locate specified information and then replace it automatically with another value. This allows you to keep your database up-to- date much more conveniently than if you were maintaining a set of records on paper. Softwood don't wish us to forget that this is part of an overall suite of business programs for the Amiga, and hence Data can be integrated with Final Copy or Final Writer via the numerous ARexx macros that come supplied. Final Data Database Manager for ihc Amiga It's slightly strange, however, that there still doesn't seem to be similar support for use with Final Calc With Final Data it's possible to have multiple databases opened simultaneously, making moving between relevant records a simple a process as one could expect. The program also includes a few other small but handy extras such as International Date, Time and Currency options. Users can, of course, add, modify, and delete columns at any time, or give them left, right, or centre alignment. Another strong point about the program is the ability to select multiple columns for processing, saving and printing to speed organisation up. The first version of Final Data only allowed users to do this with adjacent columns, but since Release 2 this shortcoming has been rectified. EW FANGLED FEATURES An at-a-glance summary of the latest updates to the Amiga's cheap and cheery database: • User-defined sort, search and column views • Hide columns from view on screen or print out • Save default for Find and Replace requester • Conversion of data from one type to another - e.g. from a text to a memo column. • Extensive user-defined preferences • Automatically adjust window size to column widths • Automatically adjust column widths to show all data • Automatically adjust column widths to fit window size • Standard Amiga ASL file requester option • Displays graphics and animations • Plays sounds • Slide show facility Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 Database Publlsfiei Spreadsheet Word PuDltshei EPS Clip Alt EPS Cup- An EPS Clip- Art EPS C ip-Art EPS Clip- Art- EPS Clip- Art ■ : ■ work:SoftWooaPic5/FinalDara3 WorkSoltWoodPics/FinalWriterfl WarltSotnVoodPics/FinalCalc .WotlcSolrWoodPics/finalCopyli — Data 3 is the new improved database ■ rom Softwood Erfra features include ™ Hiddei Enhancea v Save default values ■ Convertion of data from one type to another ■ Datatype support indowfo c is to show all data 5 to fit window ASL file requester option Program preferences ;Q Fonts "** Q Fonts "* £39. £99 95 £39.55 £29 95 WortcSoftWoodPics/FiriQlDa] gjl Final J>^L 0 4 slideshow facility has been included, though this will be a gimmick for most people ' ' Your databases need no longer be dowdy now that Final Data can display animations and play sound PRUCED UP Release 3 of Final Data, of course, comes with a number of new features. A typical example is the new option that allows users to define sort, search and column views. This really boils down to a method for breaking data- bases down into subcategories. For example, you could divide your music database into dif- ferent 'views' named rock, classical, and jazz so that Final Data will create a sub-list from the overall database. That's no big deal, maybe, but it adds another possible level of helpful organisation to the program. One complaint about previous incarnations of Final Data was that in comparison to Digita's Datastore it was bland and grey in appearance. Hobbyists who want to embellish their CD catalogue with pictures of pop stars and sound samples will be pleased to find that Release 3 supports graphics and sound files. It will also run animations, though the value of this feature in a database is rather questionable. To make that data really sing and dance, however, Softwood have also been good enough to include a slideshow facility. Hence you can have graphics updating one after the other, either within their own screen or within the screen in which Final Data is running. The time between pictures depends on the user-defined delay. Not only does the Final Data interface look like a spreadsheet, but it also operates on the same basic principles. Thus, users enter figures and text into cells, and they can have running calculation columns and screen totals. Release 3 continues to borrow essential features from the accountancy packages by offering a hide columns option which means that selected information in a database will not be displayed to others when it is shown on screen or printed. The option of converting a column's data from one type to another also makes it easier to modify a database once it's created. Changing the data type will often change the way it is formatted for display, as well as the way if s edited for data entry. Other than this, the update only really tweaks the familiar program to make it more user-friendly. The program will automatically adjust window size to column width, or column widths to show all data, or column widths to fit a window size. You can save the default for the Find and Replace requester, and Data's overall functionality is increased by the addition of a greater number of user- defined preferences than were previously available. One final point charts the steadily rising demands of Amiga software as time moves on. Final Data will still run on any Amiga run- ning WB1.3 or higher, but Softwood are now recommending it for use with 1 Mb+ Amigas running on WB 3. Final Data - Release a [ Softwood Products <24) Product n 12 Final Data 3 Final Writer 4 Final Calc Final Writer Lite Sampler Clips Birds Clips ~" Anjmal 1 Clips Fish Clips Animal 2 Clips Query j Notes I Picture DataPase Word Publisher Spreadsheet Word Publisher EPS Clip- Art EPS C lip- A rt EPSjCllp-Art__ EPS Clip-Art EPS Clip- Art Work:SottWoodPics/FinalData3 Work:SoftWoodPics/FinalWriter4 WorfcSoftWoodPics/FinalCalc Work:SottWoodPics/FinalCopyll Price | — - — — Columns Product Type Motes Picture Price £39.95 £74 95 £99 95 £39.95 £29 95 £34 95 £3495 £34.95 £34 95 I "5 J Ernptyp [ ContainsQ j BeginsQ | J RangeC.) | Help... |Contains(Type."EPS")l - Expression <Select rows when 22 23 SoftFaces 1 SoftFaces 3 SoftFaces 4 Lr j Cup- mi I — - — - rNimbu sQ Fonts NimbusQ Fonts NimbusQ Fonts Cancel | J5 T*55 £29.95 £29 95 £29 95 ERDICT Final Data has always been a competitive little database, one that is fast, efficient, and simple to use. Lightning quick sorting and searching facilities and flexible editing functions mean that developing and printing databases is as simple a procedure as it ideally should be. The latest update is slightly disappoint- ing because the new features are gener- ally no more than cosmetic. However, those who previously found the program off-puttingly bland in appearance will welcome the chance to jazz their data- bases up with graphics and sound. The interface has also received some simple but important improvements in its gene- ral ease of use, and one or two true new features. Of course, we have to be grateful that Softwood are continuing to develop this product line at all. The fact that every Amiga Magic Pack now sold includes Digita Datastore means that newcomers to the market are unlikely to be buying another database in a hurry, regardless of the fact that Softwood's latest release is better. Maybe there are hordes of old Amiga users out there who have been meaning to get a database for ages and just haven't got round to it yet. Sadly, how- ever, one suspects that this handy prod- uct's market will be rather limited, and that this really could be the Final Data of them all. Regardless of that, it's pretty much the same old perfectly dependable program we've come to expect. Bottom ^^^Wlt^^^M St * Requirements RED essential BLACK recommended RAM 1 Mb Workbench Workbench (Z A complex search requester allows you to locate information easily Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 Product D ETA 1 L S Product Final Data Release 3 Supplier SoftWood Europe Tel 01773 521606 Price £39.95 smm Ease of use 90»/o Implementation 78% Value For Money 72% Overall 80% ii WORLD aIlAS CD-ROM Flexible interface allows for quick access to individual countries via continental maps, country lists, capital lists or the general index. Ethiopia is situated in north-east Africa. Emperor Haile Selassie ruled from 1930 until 1974 when the military seized power. In 1 984 the Workers' Party was formed and a civilian government established in 1987. Civil war and famine then ravaged the country. The famine, in fact, was the inspiration for the Band Aid I I - I * I oats© EKE Concise, informath country histories. Each country is supported by a series of maps depicting regional position, major cities, rivers and lakes, and mountains. All maps in H> J A r >* 1-8 High Resolution. \ Y POPUlfllWH S5,878,BB8 URBAN 12% capital ADDIS BDBBA, 1,912.588 ETHNIC GROUPS OROMO IGRLUU 48%, RHH8RA BHD TffiREBU 3254. STDRHO 9%, SRRNKELL A 6%, SOMALI 6% RELIGION MUSLIM 18.50%, ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX 35-46%, RNIMIST12* UTERRCV 62% LAN6UA6ES AMHBRIC, TIGRTNVB, OROMiNGR, 6UARBGIRGB, SOMALI, RRRBIC GDP SZ2,788.868,8B8 CURRENCY BIRR STATUS PR00BI0HRL MlUTRflV 608ERHMEMT ORGANISATIONS 0BU.UN isic national facts are represented graphically and comparative to the UK" Background cultural and economic information is mm- ■ CD 32 A 1200/4000 — — — — — ' ■ r f r^iS^KKk^F ' m JfsEMS " ~s*t available at a glance. Tel: (0i8i) 570 3756 WISEDOmb A i i_ (BLOCK CAPITALS please) NAME ADDRESS y Post Code Please send me a copy of the World Atlas priced at £29.99 (incl. P&P). I enclose a cheque for £29.99 made payable to WISE DOME LTD. > £1 surcharge for overseas orders. Please allow 1 4 aays for delivery. Wisedome Ltd, Flat 20 Breezer's Court, 20 The Highway, London El 9BE. L Operation database I Paul O vera a starts a programming project aimed at producing a really easy-to-use database program Over the next six issues these pages are going to be devoted to the writing of a database program, _ EasyBaseAC. There are already plenty of commercial and PD/shareware database programs around for the Amiga, so why write another? One reason is that even with the PD/shareware offerings around, no one gives away the source code nor explains how the programs work. One objective of this project is to look at how a database program can be written and provide both the finished utility and the source code to examine! But that's not the only reason for the series. The aim is to produce a utility that is both useful and easy to use. On-line help is high on the list, so too is a scheme for easy record creation, and I think you'll like the approach I've chosen here. Another requirement is the ability to merge related database files because one of the things I intend to use this utility for is to provide details of Amiga library functions. Readers of my regular ARexx and Assembler programming columns should find this quite useful because they'll be able to take the descriptions provided on disk each month and read them into a single library function database whose contents can be retrieved at the touch of a button. UESIGN WORK As far as the design/coding issues are con- cerned, I'm letting you in near the start, having only started work on the project last week. Now, I know this is risky but, with the coding approaches I use, any alterations/enhance- ments, bug fixes (heaven forbid) and so on that need to be made will be straightforward. What I didn't want to do was make everyone wait until the end of the series before deliver- ing any kind of usable program, so you will, in fact, find a preliminary version of EasyBaseAC on this month's cover disk. There are plenty of things that still need to be added, of course but the current version is usable. I'm developing EasyBaseAC on an A4000/040, but the final executable version, a mere 40k in size, is going to run on all Amigas that have Workbench 2 or greater. The thing to do now is explain how this ver- sion of EasyBaseAC is used. To run the program just open the EasyBaseAC drawer and double- click on the EasyBaseAC icon. No special installa- tion procedures are necessary to run the program from hard disk - just drag/copy the complete EasyBaseAC drawer over to your chosen partition. Loading A Database Select load' from the Project menu and use the asl requester that appears to choose a database file. Apart from the help database (called help.eb), I've provided small name/address (address.eb) and Amiga function library (func- tion.eb) example databases. HE INITIAL DISPLAY The EasyBase help engine is just a cut-down version of the main program and the help file a conventional EasyBaseAC database. When the program first loads it runs the help engine as a separate process and you'll see a display similar to figure 1 containing a list of help topics. Just mouse-select the sub- ject you wish to view and a window will open to display the help information (see figure 2). At the moment, the on-line help available is at its 'bare minimum' level but the help file will grow over the coming months. This 'click and view 1 method used with the help file, incidentally, is the basic approach used for viewing the records of all databases. O The EasyBaseHelp windows HE MAIN WINDOW By closing or moving the help windows you will see the main EasyBaseAC scroller-based list window. This window is always present when EasyBaseAC is running and closing it (either from the window's close gadget or the 'Quit To Workbench' menu option) shuts down the program. In addition to this, the main EasyBaseAC program has a Display- Only window and a separate 'Record Creation and Editing' window (used for building record definitions and for editing the records of existing databases). fl The main EasyBaseAC display-only window containing a trial database Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 EW RECORD DEFINITIONS Just select 'New' from the program's Project Menu and a Record Creator and Editor window will appear that contains a sizing gadget in the bottom left corner. Alter the height of the window until you've got the number of fields you want, then alter the width until the string gadgets on display look suitable for the infor- mation you want to store. At this stage you should type the field names you require into the string gadgets (see figure 3). Field names at present can contain up to 15 characters and the only restriction on the for- mat of the first field is that it must nor start with a space. At the moment, the first field is used as a fixed record sort key and you should bear this in mind when creating records. If, for instance, you were creating a name and address database that you wanted to be sorted by surname, you might build a record description like this: Surname: First names: Address: entitled fields to provide extra lines for the address> Tel No: Alternatively, you could decide to store both first names and surnames together: Name: Address: <unti tied fields to provide extra lines for the address> Tel No: but in this case, if you wanted the database file sorted by surname, when entering data into the records you would need to enter the surnames first in this fashion: Name: Overaa Paul When databases are loaded it is always the content of this first field that gets placed in the main display's scrolling list. So, in the first case you'd see a list of surnames whilst in the sec- ond it would be a list of Surnames followed by first names. As soon as you are happy with the field names, click on the 'Store' gadget. At this point your new database is ready for use and you'll be provided with an Editing window for entering data. Record information can be entered straight away! On-line At the moment, on-line help is restricted to the EasyBaseHelp dis- play that appears when the pro- gram first loads. If you have closed the scrolling list help win- dow you can re-start the help engine by double-clicking on the EasyBaseHelp icon. Eventually, the idea is to provide context sen- sitive help by driving the help engine using messages sent from the main EasyBaseAC program! Qcting/ deleting/ editing Once a database file has been loaded (or crea- ted), the Editor window can be used to enter the details you wish to store. You can copy any existing record into the editor simply by moving to the main scrolling list display window and clicking on the record entry you wish to work on. Providing you create records whose first (key) fields are different to any existing records, the record information will be stored as a new record. If you create a record whose first field is identical to an existing record then the new information will overwrite the exiting database entry. You update record entries then by selecting the record, altering any of the data except the first (key) field, and then re-storing the record. MPBOARDS You can copy the details of the currently selected record to the clipboard. If, for instance, you have built up a names and addresses database and were writing a letter with your favourite word-processor, you could select a name, copy the name and address to the clipboard, and then paste those details into the letter. To delete a record just select it from the main display list and choose 'Delete Record' from the 'Records' Menu. If, incidentally, you want to expand the width or field count of the record you can do this from the editing window. Simply use the sizing gadget to adjust the win- dow size to suit and then save the database. You will nor loose information if you cut the window width so that field information becomes hidden, but if you cut the number of fields being used then only those fields that are on display will be written to disk. The new window size definitions will be used next time the database is loaded (at present, I've not provided any field re-labelling facilities so any extra fields you create will be unlabelled). S AV I N G A Database If you are just saving a previously loaded file, EasyBaseAC will save the file as soon as you select 'Save' from the Project menu. If it is a newly created file that has not been named, this option will dis- play an asl requester to allow you to choose a name for the file. I suggest using filenames with a '.eb' extension for consistency, but EasyBaseAC doesn't actually care how you name the files. If you wish to save an existing file in memory under a different name, use the 'Save As' Project menu option. BHC CVB .18) [Tax No : THOSE BUG REPORTS To assume, only one week into the coding of EasyBaseAC, that we already have a bug-free utility would be naive in the extreme (particularly since I'm only able to test it on a single Workbench 3- based A4000/040 machine). I've had it running under Enforcer etc., and everything seems fine, but if you find that the program doesn't run on your Amiga, or crashes with a Guru message, then write to me care of Amiga Computing. The sooner I know about any snags, the sooner I'll be able to fix them! Ci Creating a database record description with EasyBaseAC is very straightforward HE TECHIES One of the most important initial design considerations with a utility like this is not so much to get the file structure completely right first time, but to allow some flexibility. What happens, of course, is that as the develop- ment proceeds you often decide you want to store additional data items. With EasyBaseAC I am adopting a format that includes both a global file header and individual record headers. In other words, this sort of arrangement: datafi I e = { < f i le header> { record headerxrecord data> } } EasyBaseAC is being written using Dice C and, as a C structure, the file header looks like this: struct DatabaseHeader { ULONG dh_I0; UWORD dhJatabaseHeaderDataSize; UBYTE dh_FieldCount; UBTTE dh.FieldSize; UBYTE dh.KeyField; UBYTE dh_Pad; UUORD dh Flags; }; The four byte identification field is just a protection against users trying to load non- database files into the program, and the way I do this is to use this macro: Udefine Ha kel D< a , b, c , d) ( (LONG) (a)«24L | (LONG) (b)«16L | (c)«8 | (d) ) to create a four byte header id 'DHOO' using this statement: Idefine FILEJD BakelDt 1 D' , 1 V , 1 0' , 1 0 1 ) The header size field is an important inclu- sion because it will allow the preliminary version of the program to continue working, even if the size of the header is increased later on. The program reads the header size and is able to skip over any additional entries that might be found in files produced by later versions of EasyBaseAC. The individual record headers, incidentally, adopt a similar format, only they are currently given a 'RHOO' id value. The field count and field size entries of the database file header have a special use when files are read into the program. When a user creates a new record defini- tion by altering the dimensions of the record creation windows, the program looks at the sort of Workbench screen and font in use and works out how many string gadgets can be used, and roughly how much text they can contain without the entered text scrolling out of view as you type. These field count and field size values get stored in the database header and, when such a file is read back in, the dimensions are used to re-open a window the same size as when the record format was created. To find out exactly how this window open- ing is done however you are going to have to wait until next month! Amiga Computing APRIL 19 96 SCANNER NEW!!! Artec Colour Scanner £399.00 COMPLETE WITH CARD CABLE AND SOFTWARE TO ENABLE YOU TO ALSO CONNECT TO A PC OR MACINTOSH COMPUTER. FOR AMIGA 1200 TO 4000 COMPUTERS WITH SCSI CONTROLLER (AVAILABLE NOW FOR A 1200 USERS). OKTAGON 4008 SCSI CARD True SCSI II controller for your Amiga 1500 to 4000, upgradeable to 8MB using Zipp Ram allows you to connect H-Disk, Syquest CD Roms etc. £99.00 MULTIFACE III ADDS 2 SERIAL & 1 PARALLEL PORT TO ANY AMIGA 1500 TO 4000 £79.00 THE FASTEST AND MOST VERSATILE DOUBLE SPEED CD ROM PLAYER FOR AMIGA RENO CAN ALSO BE USED AS A PORTABLE AUDIO CD PLAYER Features: • SCSI 2 DOUBLE SPEED, 180MS PORTABLE CD ROM. • COMPATIBLE WITH PC AND APPLE MACINTOSH • INCLUDES STEREO HEADPHONES, CARRY CASE, AC ADAPTER • KODAK PHOTO CD READY • INCLUDES SOFTWARE FOR MAC OR PC £109.00 ACCESSORIES AMIGA A500/600/1200 PSU £34.95 A500 INT. FLOPPY DRIVE £30.95 A600/1200 INT. FLOPPY DRIVE £45.00 2.5" HDISK CABLE 2.5" TO 3.5" HDISK CABLE KIT PARALLEL PRINTER CABLE AMIGA VGA ADAPTOR AMIGA TRACKBALL AUTO JOYSTICK SWITCH MOUSE MATS _ 12 6 HARP DRIVBS $ RAM FOR AMIGA Nobody Undersells US!!!!! AMIGA A600/A500/A500+ RAM CARDS A600 1 MB Ram £20.00 A600 1 MB Ram & Clock £33.00 A500+ 1 MB Ram £20.00 A500 1/2MB Ram £15.00 A1200 RAM CARDS PCMCIA compatible (With Clock & FPU socket) 0MB £39.95 2MB £99.00 4MB £139.00 8MB £229.00 ZIP RAMS 2MB £99.00 MEMORY 30 64 72 Pin Pin Pin 1MB £25 £N/A £35 2MB £89 £N/A £69 4MB £99 £199 £99 8MB £199 £N/A £239 16MB £389 £N/A £389 32MB £N/A £N/A £699 EXTERNAL SCSI HDISK with 45W PSU For all Amiga computers 340MB £199.00 540MB £299.00 850MB £269.00 1GIG £299.00 2/4/9GIG £POA SQUIRREL £54.00 SPECIAL OFFER 2.5" DRIVES For Amiga A600/1200 complete with software, cables & instructions 60MB £50.00 120MB £79.00 340MB £165.00 510MB £199.00 850MB £399.00 1GIG £POA 3.5" HARD DRIVES FOR ANY AMIGA OR ACCELERATOR CARD EXTERNAL CD ROM(SCSI) FOR AMIGA A600 & A1200 WITH FREE!!! SQUIRREL INTERFACE DOUBLE SPEED QUAD SPEED SIX SPEED PORTABLE CD £159.00 £239.00 £POA £POA FPU Increases the performance of your machine when adding these FPU's, suit- able for all Accelerator & Ram cards for A1200 and Amiga 4000 Computers. IDE SCSI 270MB £99 340MB £119 £119 420MB £119 £129 540MB £139 £169 810MB £189 £229 1-GIG £199 £229 100MB ZIP DRIVE £199.00 ALFA-POWER HARD DISKFOR AMIGA A500/500+ 120MB £179.00 420MB £199.00 810MB £269.00 1-GIG £299.00 SYQUEST DRIVES Int. Ext. 88MB £219 £269 28Mhz (PLCC) £24.00 33Mhz (PLCC) 40Mhz (PLCC)CLK 50Mhz (PGA) £89.00 105MB £229 £279 200MB £339 £389 270MB £349 £399 BOTH THE ZIPP & SYQUEST DRIVES NEED SCSI CONTROLLER ON ALL AMIGA COMPUTERS WE WANT YOUR BUSINESS!!! WE WILL MATCH OR BEAT ANY GENUINE QUOTED PRICE. AMIGA MAGIC PACK AMIGA AMIGA AMIGA AMIGA AMIGA AMIGA A1200 (BASIC UNIT) A1200 (WITH 170MB A1200 (WITH 260MB A1200 (WITH 340MB A1200 (WITH 540MB A1200 (WITH 850MB HARD DISK) HARD DISK) HARD DISK) HARD DISK) HARD DISK) £359.00 £469.00 £489.00 £539.00 £559.00 £699.00 £10.00 £15.00 £6.00 £15.00 £35.00 £15.00 £2.00 Fore Tel Gasteiner EXTERNAL FLOPPY £39.95 ANTI-CLICK *ANTI-VIRUS*THRU PORT FOR ALL AMIGAS MONITORS Microvitek 1438 Microvitek 1440 Samsung 15" Samsung 17" Samsung 20" £259.00 £399.00 £319.00 £599.00 £POA AMIGA A4000T 040 £2150 AMIGA A4000T 060 £2450 ACCELERATORS Viper 68030/28Mhz 0MB £119.00 Viper 68030/40Mhz 0MB £189.00 Viper 68030/50Mhz 0MB £199.00 NEW!!! APPOLLO 68020/28Mhz 0MB £99.00 APPOLLO 68030/50Mhz 0MB WITH FREE FPU £199.00 AMIGA A600 ACCELERATOR 68020 28MHZ UPGRADEABLE TO 8MB RAM ONLY £209.00 IN STOCK EZ135 SYQUEST AVAILABLE NOW!!! £209.00 DELIVERY CHARGES ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT, SMALL CONSUMABLES AND SOFTWARE ITEMS UNDER THE VALUE OF £59 PLEASE ADD £3.50 P&P.OTHER ITEMS EXCEPT LASERS, NEXT DAY COURIER SERVICE £10 PER BOX. OFFSHORE AND HIGHLANDS, PLEASE CALL FOR A QUOTATION, IN ADDITION WE OFFER THE FOLLOWING EXPRESS SERVICES: SATURDAY DELIVERY NORMAL RATE PLUS £15 PER BOX, MORNING, NEXT DAY NORMAL RATE PLUS £10 PER BOX, E&OE PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE. ALL TRADEMARKS ACKNOWLEDGED. dmonton, London, N1 8 Street, Upper E 0 18 1-345-6000 Fax: 0 181-345-6868 E-Mail: gastein@dircon.co.uk 2 X A • D ^1 Of you can cast your mind back to issue 86 of Amiga Computing you may recall a preview of Lightwave _4 which promised that a full review of the finished package was already in the post. At last, and a mere twelve months on, postie has finally come good, and I've got the chance to deliver the long awaited goods. Given the importance of NewTek's latest release and the scale of change throughout from 3.5 to 4.0, I'll be breaking the review over two issues, kicking off with a tour of the latest additions and improvement in Layout. At first glance there appears little change from the previous incarnation, but look closely and you'll soon discover an impres- sive collection of new and improved features lurking behind the familiar grey interface fes- tooned with buttons, sliders and envelopes. To kick things off we'll start with a stroll along the control panels, the first and obvi- ous choice being the Scene section which, ironically, only offers a couple of subtle changes but important revisions. The first of these is the introduction of adjustable frames per second because an adjustable FPS makes designing for a whole range of appli- cations rather than just video much easier - CD-ROM being a prime example, with play- back rates generally hovering around the 1 5 FPS rather than the traditional 25 FPS of PAL video. However, perhaps the most important underlying change is Lightwave's approach to textural animation in relation to time. In the past the program calculated all its anima- tion in metres per second but that's all changed with the introduction of FPS as the default measuring system. Now, textures ani- mate over FPS, therefore a scene designed at 15 FPS will automatically have textural animation to suit the playback rate. In short, there is much more control and far less guess work within scenes running at non- standard frame rates. The next new addition is the arrival of hide and show menus for all objects, bones and lights. Although not earth shattering, both can be very handy when things start to get seriously complex or cluttered. fl afl Wk AVL SB gm vvavc next generation At long last Paul Austin delivers an exclusive review of the ultimate in Amiga 3D Surface panel Here again, there are some fairly major changes across the board, with much improved reflection mapping options being one of the highlights, including Backdrop only, Spherical map, ray traced & backdrop, and finally ray trac- ing & Spherical. As you've probably guessed, the two latter examples offer a new and much more flexible method of adding realism - if perhaps at the expense of rendering time - to the reflections options within a scene. Another excellent addition is an Alpha shad- ow option which provides an easy method of adding shadow to backdrops or mask objects that have been projection mapped within a scene - 'dancing on the desk effects' - with added believability. There are yet more An example of Lightwave's prowess as an animation system, with superb modelling and texturing combined with a fully actuated skeletal structure that can not only walk but also run around its virtual world Qbjects panel After minimal change in the Scene panel, Object control delivers a more dramatic make- over. It's here that the first plug-in, entitled Disp map, appears with its counterpart Object replacement - alias Obj rep - both offering access for third-party developers to produce add-on displacement programs, automated object manipulation and deformation systems and, of course, particle animation software. Next-up comes Unseen-by-rays. This, again, is another major innovation, allowing selected objects to be rendered as non-traced ele- ments, even though they're part of a ray traced scene. An obvious advantage of this is the time saved by reducing the amount of ray tracing calculations in a frame. However, the other essential use is to stop mask objects in a front projection mapped scene from being affected by shadow and object reflections, both of which would destroy the illusion Unseen-by-fog is another newcomer and does exactly as the title suggests, thereby enabling certain objects, backdrops and projection-mapped elements to play an uninhibited part in scenes employing the fog effect. Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 I AMERA PANEL To be honest, camera control hasn't really seen too many changes, if you exclude the arrival of a motion blur dithering option. In fact, the only big-ish change is numerical input for aspect ratios. For the average videographer altering aspect ratio isn't exactly an everyday event, but for anyone looking to work in film or print, it can often be an essential. plug-ins, this time in the textures department. Unfortunately, the promised Steve Worley collection of Essence procedural textures - originally from Imagine - isn't part of the Lightwave v4 software compendium. A late arrival in the Surfaces section is the long-awaited, and processor hungry Clow Effect. Courtesy of glow you can add a user- definable aura or incandescence around any surface - no need anymore to slap lens flares everywhere if you need to fake some radiosity. Better still, Glow offers a means of easily gener- ating some very tricky effects, such as realistic lasers, neon lighting and so on, the only down- side being the outlandish rendering times that its application incurs. Needless to say, a plug-in also lurks in this section in the form of a shader plug-in which, like its counterparts, awaits the attention of O A classic demonstration of IK in action the arm turns, bends and twists to complete its imaginary and monotonous duty third-party developers to produce assorted image processing add-ons for surfaces. Perhaps the most dramatic change between the finished surface panel and its beta prede- cessor is the arrival of the surface previews. Although part and parcel of the PC version, it was unsure whether this feature would make it into the Amiga version. Thankfully it has. If you open the surface panel and hit the S key, Lightwave will automatically render the selected surface to the selected display device, along with a caption containing the name of the surface in question. Better still, holding down shift and the S key prompts a panel where you can define the diameter of the texture on the spheres surface as well as specifying whether you want a checkerboard on the sphere to help define texture transparency. I MAGES PANEL The image section is unique because it's the only section not to boast any major changes. Not surpris- ingly, support for Flyer Clips has been added to the sequential image section but that's about it. Unfortunately, there's still no direct support for the PAR, VLM or any other third-party DV system. In fact, apart from a minor change which has been added to accommodate file naming conventions, the panel is pretty much the same as in version 3.5. NewTek would no doubt argue that there's no need to mess with perfection.... >. Amiga Computing APRIL 19 9 6 Qecord panel The most notable changes in this section are the option for user-definable file naming conventions and the long-awaited ability to save in a variety of file formats. The former is an obvious attempt to make Lightwave files more compatible with the filename require- ments of other packages, in particular pre-Windows 95 PCs, where- as the latter is a much more attractive addition for Amiga fans. Courtesy of Elastic Reality - formerly ASDC - it gives Lightwave the ability to save out in no less than 19 assorted file formats including IFF 24, pict, Jpeg, Tiff, YUV, Targa, and lots more besides. Add to that 1 6 assorted alpha save formats and you have a save selection that caters for just about every eventuality. NewTek have even included a fader alpha button to accommodate external video faders, linear keyers, and external compositing programs which may require a specific type of alpha image to control switchers that use an alpha image as a fade control. Lights panel The changes to the Lights panel fall into the interesting, rather than essential bracket, a prime example being the Global Flare Intensity. Basically, this provides a means of ramping all the lens flares in a scene up or down automati- cally. This feature was a specific request of the boys and girls in the SeaQuest DSV production team in order to simplify the process of control- ling lens flares during power ups, power outs and explosion sequences. Individual flare control is another area thafs seen something of a facelift, with one of the biggest changes being the ability to add a user- defined Anamorphic distortion. This is ideal for the sci-fi classics, as seen in Star Trek TNC, as warp jumps and other spatial anomalies. Combine that with user-definable streak settings which include the ability to set streak, intensity, density and sharpness, and you arrive at a much more comprehensive set of tools for controlling flare effects. The final and fairly subtle tweak is the addition of envelope control over intensity fall-off. Not exactly earth shattering, but very handy when the need arises. O A very serious example of design, animation and the ubiquitous lens flares as a space craft hurtles through a virtual city, lights flashing and presumably sirens blaring Jargon box RTC - retargetable graphics card Inverse kinematics - automated relational movement between objects and bones Plug-ins - input options for third-party enhancements PAR - Personal Animation Recorder DV - Digital video ASDC - the makers of ADPro and MorphPlus VLM-VLab Motion Coal - the target object or bone in a kinematic chain creamerNet For the big boys in the rendering business, there are a few minor changes to Lightwave's shared rendering solution. New arrivals include an option to switch between ScreamerNet original and ScreamerNet 2 which unlike its predecessor, supports distributed rendering over a suitable network - up to 1 000 CPUs rendering simultaneously. Arguably the biggest disappointment of ScreamerNet in version 3.5 was the lack of batch rendering. Fortunately, NewTek have seen the error of their ways and built the ability to have a maximum of 16 scenes queued and ready to go prior to a ScreamerNet session. Effects panel In most cases, Lightwave's control panels have undergone a minor reshuffle rather than a complete overhaul, mainly in order to accommodate the odd new feature. However the Effects/composition panel is a major exception. Effects and, more importantly, composition are massively undervalued aspects of Lightwave. Hopefully, the overhaul will help to redress the balance by providing a much clearer indication of exactly whafs on offer and, more importantly, what's actually going on during a composition. Apart from the physical change, the panel also holds some new features including foreground dissolve with envelope, plus a new high/low colour feature for colour keying operations. For some bizarre reason, composition is also the home for the control system for the glow effect and the now ubiquitous plug-in which, in this case, allows access for third-party image fil- ters. Unfortunately, like Essence, the rumoured ImageFX image processing plug-in is nowhere to be seen - watch this space, you never know with NewTek... Options panel Perhaps the biggest disappointment in the Layout redesign is the lack of improved support for third-party RTC boards. Needless to say, the Picasso II is still catered for with 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 screenmodes, but unfortunately thafs it. The manual once again falls back on plug-ins as a possible solution to the problem, by speculating that developers could use them as a means of adding their boards to display available options. However, this doesn't really offer an answer as to why the one board that is directly sup- ported doesn't actually work correctly in 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768. Although the interface is marginally faster when running a 800x600 display, it's still very clumsy in comparison to the standard display. And worst still, wireframe and bounding box pre- views flatly refused to play back. In short, if you want to see your anima- tion before you commit to render- ing, the standard display is still the only option. Unfortunately, there's an even more annoy- ing problem when it comes to display sizes. Although Layout has its limitations in higher resolutions, Modeller is simply superb - espe- cially in 800 x 600. However, if you run Modeller from Lightwave the two must share the same resolution to work correctly - which can obviously cause problems, if like me, you use the import and export functions frequently during a modelling session, yet still want to preview animations from within layout. The obvious solution is to run the two programs separately in different resolutions and simply save and load alterations from disk. A solution perhaps, but hardly a pretty one... To finish on a good high note, there is some very welcome news when it comes to the Picasso II. Thankfully, NewTek have returned to the original 3.0 render display for the Picasso which actually lets you keep track of the ren- dering process without constantly diving on the Amiga N & M keys. Aside from the still unresolved RTG problem, the only practical change to the panel is the arrival of a Show field chart option. This Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 |ARD COPY - MANUALS In the past, Lightwave's documentation has tended to deliver the essentials rather than in-depth examples for the functions on offer. To a much lesser extent that tradition still continues. However, to be fair, there is a marked improvement across the board, with much more detail and a writing style that leans far more towards actual application. In order to make navigation of this massive package a little simpler, NewTek have wisely split the manual into two separate volumes, one acting as a user guide while the other delivers a refer- ence to all the available functions. The former is particularly useful for the beginner courtesy of a large collection of tutorials for both Layout and Modeller. Put together, the two add up to almost 800 pages of well written essential information. My only real complaint is that the indexing of the two volumes could be a little clearer - as finding very specific bits of information can be a little more arduous than it need be. Other than that a "good job" as they say in the States. basically overlays a cross-hair on the layout display which is meant to aid object placement, whilst at the bottom of the panel you can import new plug-ins to the Lightwave database, and define the current working directory for load and save operations. Inverse Kinematics At first glance, life on the main layout screen seems almost identical to 3.5. In fact, the only obvious difference is the change from XY, XZ and ZY view buttons to a far more comprehensible Front, Top and Side selection. However, look a little closer and you'll notice what has to be the most important new arrival in the entire package, namely the mysterious IK Opts. Believe it or not, this insignificant little gadget is the key to Inverse Kinematics. After a little experimentation, it's obvious the arrival of features like bones, child bone and auto Key adjust in 3.5 was no accident. When these features, especially the bone options, are blended with the new IK Opts you arrive at something spectacular. In most 3D programs kinematics can be a painful experience, but in Lightwave if s both a dream to use and very simple to set up, the robot arm being a classic illustration of the technique. However, you can use bones in exactly the same way - and with even more impressive effect. Firstly, you add the basic elements - which in most cases will be just two null objects. Then you add the component objects in the kinematic chain, all of which should be parented one to the other starting with one of the null objects - thafs where the child bone function can come into its own if you're using bones to form a kinematic chain. Finally, you simply instruct the last object in the chain to treat the remaining null object as its goal. The only real difference between bones and objects is that with objects you have to pay close attention to the pivot point of the individuals in order to make the joints function correctly - and more importantly realistically. From then on it's playtime! You simply grab the second null object and move it around - at which point all the objects or bones will bend at their joints in an attempt to track the goal. When you've arrived at a pose you like, a simple 'key all items' command makes it perma- nent. If you wish you can still move and edit the components in the kinematic chain without affecting their counterparts, or the basic kinematic relationship. All things considered, this is a perfect and painless solution which has been made all the better since the beta with the addition of option- al limits on the movement, or angle of rotation for the various elements in the chain. For example, a forearm can now be constrained so that it revolves at the elbow but won't do the impossible, no matter how much kinematic force is applied. Needless to say, bones are the major bene- factors, with believable flexing and bending of organic forms - all without a single seam or hinge in sight. Effortless kinematic movement in a matter of minutes... EEP PLUG-IN AWAY Given the profusion of plug-in options throughout the program, ifs pretty obvious that they are seen as playing a big part in the future development of Lightwave. However, after browsing NewTek's FTP site it is also pretty obvious that most developers are pointing their programming power towards other Lightwave friendly platforms. During our initial preview the likes of WaveMaker, Dynamic Motion Module, Power Macros and Impact were all on the way for Lightwave 4.0. This indeed may be the case, but there's still no sign of any of them for the Amiga version. Admittedly, this could be down to NewTek's ever-changing release date for the Amiga version. However,' Brad Pebbler's, initial claim that a number of projects "were well under construction," over a year ago, seems a little, well lef s say, hopeful... On the other side of the coin, NewTek have indeed come good with their deal with ASDC regarding loaders and savers as a standard element, and will cater for all the major image formats, across all platforms - thereby taking a lot of the pain out of post production. O A famous example of just how good Lightwave images can be. Again, superb modelling combined with excellent animation as the hero of Desert Storm makes tracks in the sand and blasts away at the baddies ATCH THIS SPACE Although not immediately obvious, kinematics also provides a solution for another missing link in the Lightwave chain. In previous revisions it was impossible to target one object to another, but thanks to IK Opts we finally have a solution. Because objects/bones don't need to be physically linked to each other, or the goal they're tracking, making one object 'watch and follow' another is really easy. All you need is a parent, the tracking object, and a target or goal object. You then parent the tracker and tell it to use the target object as its goal. Better still, you can target the goal object with as many trackers as you want, so you could have every head in a crowd follow the ball, or every gun on a ship track the incoming attacker. This may not sound particularly revolutionary, it's a feature that many pro animators have been longing for. In fact, for many this will been just as important as full kinematics. What's in THE BOX Although there have been rumours that the Lightwave 4 CD would be fit to burst with assorted freebies, it actu- ally contains roughly 87Mb of assorted scenes, images, objects, fonts and surfaces. This may not seem too impressive considering the storage capacity of a CD, but the material that has been included is well worth having, featuring a collection for excellent example scenes, pro quality objects and example scenes which, if explored, go a long way towards explain- ing many of the mysteries of Lightwave. Particularly nice touches include a useful selection of type I fonts and an equally handy array of surfaces. Bottom ft It €# Requirements RED essential BLACK recommended Workbench RAM Wc Hard Drive Picasso II RAM Product DETAILS Product Lightwave Supplier Premier Vision Tel 0171-721 7050 Price £695 plus vat HI mm Ease of use 85% Implementation 90% Value For Money 82% Overall 89% Amiga Computing APRIL 199 6 RAM UPGRADES APOLLO A1200 A500/500+/600 & ACCELERATORS ACCELERATOR upgrades (inc clock) |A500uptolMb £24.991 IA500+ upto 2Mb £28.991 |A600upto2Mb £39.99| |A1200 2MbRAM £109.991 lAI 200 4Mb RAM £142.991 IaI 200 8Mb RAM £242.991 |33Mhz PLCC FPU £42.00| AMIGA CABLES lAmiqatoTVScart £10.99 I £10 99 I £10 99 I £11.99 1 £5 991 £13 991 £5991 £4.00 1 I Amiga to Sony TV I Amiqo to Amlgo [Pornet/Null modem} I Modulator overhang lecd 23M/23F I joystick Splitters I Automatic Mouse/Joystick coble I Joystick Extension lead 1 0ft I Printer Lead DUST COVERS I Amiga 1 20O/5OO/5OOP/60O £4 00 1 I Commodore/Philips monitors £4 00 | I Star/Citizen/Panosonic Printers £4.00 ACCESSORIES I Amiga Disk Drive (Free Direc Opus 4. ] 2] £42.99 I Amitek 1 76HD Disk Drive £86.99 I Amiga Mouse (top quality) £1 1 .50 I Internal Drives A500/A500+/A600/A1 200.£34/£44 I TV Modulator (2yrs warranty) £34 | Deluxe Mouse Mot £1.99 £899 1 3.5" Disk head Cleaner £1.99 I Python 1M Joystick £875 ADD £2 FOR DELIVERY AMIGA CD32 I Apollo 1 220 28Mhz 68020/6882 £98.99 I I Magnum 030/40/0 FPU 2Mb £199.99 I I Magnum 030/40/0 FPU 4Mb £219.99 I I Magnum 030/40/0 FPU 8Mb £309.99 | LkiiMflu EXTERNAL OVERDRIVE HARD DISK I Provides games ond data portability to A600/A1 200.1 I External casing£68.0O 560Mb £234.991 INTERNAL 2.5" + CABLE ♦ SOFTWARE 80Mb 2.5" £49.99 250Mb £127.991 1 120Mb 2.5" ..£88.00 340Mb £174.001 1 170Mb 2.5" £124.99 510Mb £249.00| I Overdrive Double Speed CD £174.991 I Overdrive Quad Speed CD £234.991 1 Amiga CD32 + 7 games + kit to connect to A 1200 £205.00 1 AMIGA 4000 TOWER I A4000T 040 25MHz £2099 £2231 1 I A4000T 060 SOMHi £2399 £35251 I SPECIFICATIONS: A4000 Tower, 6Mb Memory, 1 7Mb Floppy Drive, 1 2 Gig SCSI Drive, Scalo 300 pre-inslolle J GENLOCKS FUSION VIDEO GENLOCK i a high specification video genlock thai is ideal tor L I both the first time user (for adding titles graphics & I I effects to home movies| and the semi professional user I I (wedding videos, corporate presentations...]. FREE I I Scala HJ1 00 (enables you to add special effects and I | overlay text on to your video) iiL-|.«n:uiinUItn.Miv I HP Deskjet Black Dual Capacity Cartridge £22.991 I HP Deskjet Black Refill £7.99| I HP Deskjet 500C/560C Colour Cartridges .. £25.991 I HP Deskjet 500C/560C Colour Refill £1 6.991 I Cation BJ 10/200 Black ink Cartridges £16.991 I Canon BJ 10/200 Black ink Refill £7.991 I Citizen Projet 1IC Colour £34.00 1 I Citizen Projet IIC Mono £20.50 1 Add £2.00 Post and Packing PRINTER RIBBONS BLACK I Amstrad DMP2000/3000 Amstrad DMP4000 Amstrad PCW 8256/85 12/LQ35O0 I Amstrad 9512 Citizen 120D/LSP10/Swi(t24/9 ... Epson LQ100 Epson LX80/86/90 Epson LQ400/5OO/80O/850 I Epson FX/MX/RX80/UC80O I NEC Pinwnter =2200 Seikosho SP 1 200/ 1 600/2000 Ponoson,cKXP1123/1124/1180 I Panasonic 2 1 35 Ponosonic KXP 2123/2180 Stor LC1O/20/10O Stor LC200 | Star LC241 0/2420O COLOUR I Citizen Swift 24 Ponosonic 2135/2123/2180 Star LCI 0/20/ 100 Stor LC20O Stor LC24 10/24200 Add £2.00 PRINTERS I PANASONIC 2135 24 PIN COLOUR £164.99 I All printers free lead & delivery DOT MATRIX I PANASONIC 2135 24 pin Colour inc. sheet feeder £164.991 | Citizen ABC 24 pin colour £144.991 Add £ 1 5 for Black Ribbon {Dot Matrix only) dust cover, printer | stand, 500 A4 paper when purchased with printer INKJET - DESKTOP & PORTABLE Hewlett Packard 600 mono inkjet odd £25 for colour ...£230.00 1 Hewlett Packard 660 colour inkjet £325.00 1 Hewlett Packard 850 colour inkjet £414.991 Canon BJ30 mono inc. sheet feed £184.991 Canon BJC70 colour £289.991 Canon BJC210 mono. Ask for colour option £226.99 1 Canon BJC4100 colour inkjet £289.99 1 Canon BJC610E colour £412.991 Citizen Projet IIC colour inkjet £249.99 1 Citizen Printiva 600 colour New £389.99 1 Epson Stylus Colour IIS £275.99 1 MONITORS ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT & DELIVERY (unless otherwise slated). Delivery within 3 days (UK MAINLAND ONLY). ADD £1 0.00 FOR NEXT DAY DELIVERY CALL OR SEND CHEQUES/POSTAL ORDERS TO: GREY-TRONICS LTD, UNIT 1015 WHITGIFT CENTRE, CROYDON, SURREY CRO 1UU SALES HELPLINE: 0181 686 9973 Mail order prices only FAX: 0181-686 9974 All offers subject lo availability. E&OE. Prices/Pack details may cliange without notice Please allow 6 working days for cheques to clear. Sunday 11 - t unti 5pm The Amiga is not exactly up to its eyes with networking products. Neil Mohr puts an American solution to the test JN I etworking is one of the most I J important aspects of business com- puting. The ability to quickly share, process and analyse information is of para- mount importance, and the ability to do so is taken for granted in the PC and Mac world, so what about the Amiga? Well a very good networking standard was introduced by Commodore called SANA-II, and a couple of ethernet cards were produced by Commodore themselves, but perhaps due to the Amiga not being accepted as a business machine, or Commodore not pushing net- working as standard on any Amiga, or possibly manufacturers just producing products for the entry level Amiga machines, there are only a few SANA-II products around. Well a low-cost, fully SANA-II compatible networking solution has appeared in the form of Amiga Link. This sort of low-cost network is just the thing the Amiga could have benefited from years ago if it was fitted and supported as standard. For instance, the Mac has really ben- efited from Apple's foresight of including the Apple Talk network in every Mac model, as not only does this give it the advantage of having networking out of the box, but you get the added bonus of the system software support- ing networking, so the programs you run on the Mac all support and take advantage of networking as a matter of course. The other advantage is as people use the net- work and take advantage of all its facilities, they are going to demand more from the sys- tem software. So the Mac has gained useful functions like multiple printer sharing and print spooling over the network, as well as having full user and group options allowing you to restrict access to machines over networks. When I first got hold of the Amiga Link package I really had no idea what sort of hor- rors installing it would hold, so when I had our etwork Statistics of hos t 'Neils Ut i I izat ion \ | 1Q 1 Packets sent [88 Packets received [98 Acknowledges sent [88 Rc know I edges received Reset | [37 T imeouts Repet it ions ms Transfer t ime Name server JShagged480 Quit O Find out exactly how hard the network is working orifiguratiMBI^H Hosts 0 RAM Ram Disk: HD 1346 95282 Ext 1 : Workbench Workbench: J mounted Local Loca I Save | device name 1 4080-Wo r kbench " volume name |4808-Wor kbench Ok n You can link to any other machine's drives as it they were on your own machine three Amigas networked together and sharing devices in under 15 minutes I was pleasantly surprised. It is also very reassuring that the Amiga OS is that simple to extend, which is the way it should be. Installation is very simple. Initially you need to set up your network of Amigas. Amiga Link works from a small interface that plugs, unusu- ally, into the disk drive port - if you have exter- nal disk drives this does not matter as you just plug the interface into the external drive's through port, though you will only be able to have, at most, two external drives. Each interface is connected together using standard coaxial cable, with the ends of the networks having an end cap. Up to 20 Amigas can be on a single Amiga Link network, and the total length of this can be up to 100 metres. As each stretch of coaxial cable you get with Amiga Link is five metres this works out quiet nicely, and as most Amiga compa- nies use their machines in close proximity, this is more than long enough. If needed, AmiTrix do supply the coaxial cable in other lengths and apparently the total number of connected computers and length of the networks can be exceeded, but the reliability of the network could suffer depending on the amount of local electrical interference. Once all the interfaces are in place and con- nected together with the coaxial cable, you can install the software, for which there are two options. As standard, you now get the original Amiga Link software as well as the far more Amiga Computing APRIL 19 9 6 Shared Directories fan Disk: fl 1 low Vo ( urte snapshott ing: | Rltow left-out icons: | Full file sec ur i t y -vf j Mo security _J Nane [ eilsMB j Users and Groups fldnin Paul Ne i t Ben Hdd J ^ Envoy lets you choose exactly who can access your machine's private parts Groups Select. . . System Administrators can safely develop a good superiority complex in safe surroundings with Envoy Rdn in ~1 Rdninistrator |fldMin Minions Group Menbers Bndy MHMHf •WmBt Gaz Jude Tina _± |M in ions / Create Delete Add... i Remove E NVOY Also available for use with Amiga Link is the Commodore written Envoy net- working software which has a number of major advantages over the conven- tional Amiga Link software. Instead of working on the device level, Envoy allows you to export any directory and give it a specific export name. So our FTP download directory, which is hidden in a good few other directories, can be exported onto the network as downloads. Possibly more important is that once Envoy is installed using a standard Installer script, proper groups and users can be set up, allowing you to specify, if necessary, who can and cannot gain access to directories. This is also backed up with full password protection ensuring there can be no unautho- rised access. One currently under-used part of Envoy is its services which make Envoy fully extendible, giving the network new capabilities. Therefore, at any point in the future you can add a new service such as a conference or talk service, allowing you to communicate with others on the network, or anything else that may appear. Envoy also works with AmiTCP, and allows mail and FTPing to be per- formed between machines. Using AmiTCP does open up the possibility of accessing PC machines over the network because you could either FTP them or, using the right software, actually mount their drives as a normal Amiga device. >■ advanced Envoy software. The original software has a number of advantages over Envoy, being simpler to set up as well as running under Workbench 1 .3 and from a floppy. Setting up the Amiga Link software is very straightforward, with an icon to copy the net- work device driver and an Amiga installer script to set up the network file system. When installing the file system you are given the choice of having the current machine being able to export devices, allowing other machines access to hard drive partitions or any other stor- age device on that machine over the network. Normally, you would want this as you still have to specify these drives as being accessible over the network from that machine, but if security is a consideration you can choose not to. LEXIBLE The network is very flexible when it comes to adding or removing computers at a later date. The hardware seems very robust as you can disconnect and reconnect machines at any time, and the software also handles this very well. Adding extra machines is just a case of fitting the interface to the machine then con- necting it up with the coaxial cable. The machine can be added to the end or in the middle of the existing network, and once the software has been installed you will be able to access other machines straight away. If you will be regularly removing a computer from the network, AmiTrix can provide extra T connections that you place in the network where the machine should go - this allows machines to be added with no disruption to network traffic at any time. To allow other people access to your hard drive partitions or other devices on your machine, including CD and floppy drives, you need to mark these as exported devices using the export program. The Amiga Link file soft- ware only works on the device level and has no additional security measures. Therefore, any device you marked as exported will be avail- able to everyone on the network, but I would imagine that in most cases, like in the Amiga Computing office, this is not a problem. You can make these devices automatically available each time you reboot your machine by clicking on save. This creates a new file in the WBStartup drawer that automatically places the device on the network. Similarly, if you want to get access to a device on someone else's machine you need to import that device using the import program. This has two list views from which you choose the machine you want to access and then the device you want to mount. Clicking on mount will immediately make your machine mount that device, and you will see the device icon appear on the Workbench. If this happens to be a hard drive partition that has icons left 'left out' on the other machine's Workbench you will also get these appearing, which can cause a bit of a clutter. Another helpful feature here is one that allows you to change the name of the volume you are about to mount. The main reason for this is that when you first mount an imported device it has the name of the machine prefixed in front of the device name. Therefore, if you have an AmigaDOS or installer script that refers to the original device name, they would stop working unless you remove the machine's name extension. In use, it is hard to find fault with the Amiga Link software. You could complain about lack of security or the inability to have password protection for users and groups, but there is a simple solution to this in the form of the Envoy software that comes with Amiga Link. Hardware wise, Amiga Link is simple to set up and appears quiet robust in use, and as it is a peer to peer-type network, speed should not suffer with additional machines connected. Amiga Link is very good, but for the money you are paying I would have preferred the transfer speed to be higher as these hover around the 30k/sec mark, which is usable but not exactly staggering. As a low cost network, Amiga Link is your only choice and is some- thing that should have been available a long time ago. Now when is someone going to write some SANA-II games so we can have a good blast in the office? Amiga Computing S PEED TESTS Amiga Link is very good but for the : money I would have ; preferred the transfer speed to be higher Operation Envoy AmigaLink File Create 12 files/sec 1 3 files/sec File Open 12 files/sec 1 3 files/sec File Delete 21 files/sec 25 files/sec Dir Scan 197 files/sec 21 files/sec Seek/Read 1 1 seeks/sec 14 seeks/sec Create File 27k/sec 36k/sec Read from File 25k/sec 37k/sec Write to File 30k/sec 34k/sec RED essential I BLACK recommended <32> Kickstart OB (Jl) Hard Drive Product details Product Amiga Link Supplier AmiTrix 5312-47 Street, Beaumont, AB, Canada T4X 1H9 Pr»! US$3275 - 2 units Si 35 - 1 unit Tel +001 (403) 929 8459 E-mail sales@amitrix.com Scores Ease of use 90% Implementation Value For Money Overall 85% APRIL 1996 Macro Form Exclusive £215 Plug-ins and go £99 Sparks... Exclusive £140 Impact ..£295 Surface Pro £85 FX Kit for Lightwave £34.99 \A^9V€ Filter**. *♦***♦**♦*♦♦***. +**+**♦♦♦*, *********** **.**+****+*£'! 79 Logo Wizard .£299.99 In.Focus Layout Tips and Tricks £59.99 Fiber Factory Exclusive £99 Hollywood FX 40 Motion Master I Exclusive ......£99 ■ ■ ■ ■ Motion Master II Exclusive £99 ^W^vdT1^lcc^ 1 85 Intcrchsnjj^ Plus V3 *******************.********************,,**. ♦♦♦♦♦♦£#495 Humanoid.... ..............£1 70 Forge £POA City Builder ....£95 Lightwave 4 ...£495 Power AAdcros ***********«*******«*^«*«**«*«***«««***«***»****«*«»*««»***««*£90 Batch Factory £59 Pro Textures £POA Moving textures £285 Autos Vehicles £75 Space essentials £75 Interior Design Collection.... £220 Scene Machine ................................£250 LightROM 3 - 3CD collection £39 Please note that some advertisers prices do not include VAT or ship- ping from the USA. All our prices are fully inclusive of all charges including delivery 10 your aoor next aay it required, we also support all products we sell - if you have to send your product back to the US how long are you going to wait? Digital Data labs are dedicated to the art of 3D animation and modelling for the pro- fessional and amateur alike* If you have an item that you want digitising then we can produce the data for you at a very reasonable rate witfe^y quality assurance, if you would; like your own head preserved forever in your favourite 3D package, come along and we will zap you with the laser and send you home with your head on a disk. We carry in stock at all times* as many products as we can find to do with 3Dand Lightwave as you can see by our list. We are also in the last stages of development of our new desktop 3D digitiser due for release soon at a price tai- lored for the home user with- out compromising on quality and accuracy. Ring us for the best prices for hardware and ask about our expert Lightwave tutorials. "If it sounds like I raved, then Fve communicated successfully exactly how groovy this product Ami-FileSafe "It makes as much difference as adding some fast SCSI Zorro III controller from hell". Satire availa^ n °td ec versi« v ^ A3000 030 gon SCSI 2 /s one *SAFE* ^° - £69.75 inc^ ^ Amiga multi-tasking capability to the max". AFS : the Amiga Power Tool! ^*multi-use^ eyour 9^ conve^ x ° ser e ^ v © -POQ ^ ne Hard drive X,Zy. I J No MuFS \ P & P £3 / Private user licence "Tried with Mail Manager again. My *GOD* it was amazing! Tossing sped up from around 500 messages/min up to 1200 or Otherwise as Pro- Version :. ut AFS ! -no thanks" NEWA1200 v s& A4000s sure you get AFS with your new Amiga - ithout AFS you are likely to have an an unvalidated rd drive if you reset or your system crashes whilst 2 to disk. ask your distributor for details of our special fer- iber buy your new Amiga with AFS from ble dealer. © m .^tc Certitiea Amig \op** ^ n — Distributors : FLDistribution ermany: Stefan Ossowskis Schatztruhe S. 1 1 y weden: Orebro Videoreklam taly:Db-Line A FourthLevcl outh frica:MLSystems j Development i SA: AIM Distributor & Dealer Enquiries +44 (0) 117 955 8225 ! - Distributor & Dealer inquiries +44 (u) 11/ vro SZZS \W\^i UK Orders to FLDistribution 31 Ashley Hill Montpelier Bristol BS6 5JA VISA bored with the Amiga When Escom first 'saved' the Amiga after the Commodore fiasco, I held high hopes that they would build the machine into something which would put today's competition to shame. However, in the light of the recent inactiv- ity by this company to produce anything worthwhile, I'm not sure if my first impres- sions were correct. Yes, Escom have put the Al 200 back on sale, but they seem to already be showing signs of getting bored with their new machine. Where are all the new games coming out for it? There are some, indeed, but nowhere near as many as there are for rival machines such as the 'super' consoles and PCs. Christmas is a time when a company should be pushing their products for all they are worth. Not so with Escom. While rival computers are receiving extensive limelight with newspaper and television advertising campaigns, Escom have simply left their Amiga on the starting blocks as if it will be able to go out and sell itself! If the attitude of the people at Escom does not change in the foreseeable future, I am highly tempted to trade in my A1200 for another machine - perhaps a PC - before the Amiga truly does die, something which - if left to Escom - may unfortunately not be in the too distant future. As an Amiga magazine you are in a prime position to rally your readers to lobby the staff at Escom in the hope that they can pull theif socks up and keep the Amiga in produc- tion and, most importantly, in popular 'demand. Please see what you can do. C Burley, Sheffield Amiga Technologies reported that they had a disappointing Christmas, but it comes as no surprise to you or I, nor many other people. There does need to be some promotion of the machine. If you read the Undercover Amiga article in January's issue you will know how difficult it is to buy an Amiga these days, and with Acorn getting at least part of a huge Internet deal with industry giants Oracle instead of Amiga Technologies, it makes you wonder if AT are doing anything to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, while we print articles praising the amazing qualities of the Amiga, we are writing for a converted audi- ence. No PC owner is just going to pick up Amiga Computing just to see if there is an alternative to what he already has, the same as most Amiga owners would rather spend their money on magazines which talk about the machines they own. I believe this year will be make or break for Amiga Technologies. They have had prob- lems with the new CE mark standards imposed by the EC and they have achieved quite a lot considering they haven't actua- lly been going for a very long time, but as you say, they need to pull their socks up before they lose all support. Keep your letters coming in to Ezra Surf and you culd be a fifty pound prize winner Keep those letters coming! If you can t be bothered to find a bit of paper and a stamp, why not e-mail us? Simply point your mailer to: ESP@acomp.demon.co.uk There's a £50 pound prize for the best letter printed as an incentive ola Amigo! Nowadays, almost everyone writing to you is telling you how the Amiga should be in the future and that's LETTEB J what I'm going to do too. 1 am studying electrical engineering ( * Prize letter and frequently have to present information with lots of graphs and mathematical expressions, for which I use a PC equipped with Windows. I use Word to write the text, Word's formula editor for the mathematical expressions, Excel for the graphs, and sometimes a CAD program to make plans. When I have all the basic work done I edit the layout of the document in Word and then print it. The last step is very hard as Windows is not very efficient - it needs lots of memory and things do become very slow, but at least I can do my work and the results are very impressive. I can't do any of this with my Amiga because although there are some very good word processors, spreadsheets and CAD programs (does anyone know of any formulae editors?), there isn't a standard way of passing data (objects) between different programs like OLE in Windows. The Amiga has the clipboard, but if a program wants to use the data there it must understand that data. Things have become better with datatypes, but this is not an ideal solu- tion because datatypes are only bitmaps which means the print out from them is very bad. To top it off, how many programs give you a datatype for their data format anyway? I think this is one of the principal directions in which the OS must grow. I can live without virtual memory, network capabilities, or internet access - all these things can be done by third party developers. But a standard way to interchange objects between applications must be integrated into the OS by Amiga Technologies. Now some words about your mag. I think Amiga Computing is the best magazine for the Amiga. Your reports are clever and about interesting matters, and the aesthetic is very pleasant. The only thing I don't agree with are the demos of commercial programs on the coverdisks. I would prefer you to invest your money in shareware and amateur programs which are the best the Amiga has. Salvador Fandino Garcia, San Sebastien, Spain You know, you're quite right. The Amiga does need some form of object interchange, and a lot of the other things people go on about could be integrated by third parties, but as you say, it would have to be done properly. It would also almost certainly mean that the Amiga's OS would have to run from a hard drive, but that would be no bad thing anyway. As for your comments about developers giving datatypes for their file formats, I think that would be a great idea and could mean that Multiview (or a similar program) could become a univer- sal file viewer for programs like DOpus. It would also increase programs' abilities to import foreign file formats. Finally, we actually ran a formula editor on one of our coverdisks last year (July 95's in fact). It needed MUI which was on the same coverdisk and was called FalconMath. There are other equation editors available now on Aminet, try the misc/math directory. Amiga Computing A PRI L 19 9 6 C/Mac emulator? When I was reading the Workbench 96 article in the January issue of Amiga Computing, I could not help to think that WB96 would be like Windows95 or a System 7 clone. I do agree on some features that need improvements (printing, networking) and the addition of an ARexx recorder and small things that are cur- rently addressed by PD software, but for the most part, if WB96 is implemented as described, it would be just like other operating systems. Where is the innovation? Why should we follow what others have done? If Mister Ben Vost has a lack of imagination, he should ask Amiga users for input. We would be more than happy to do so. I am part of two Amiga user groups in Ottawa, Canada. We could send Mister Vost a FAX, e-mail, or even snail mail features that would really blow other operating systems in the water! And not just the Mac or Windows, but Unix, NextStep, OS2... I wonder if Ben Vost has ever really used an Amiga. Denis Desjardins via e-mail May I speak on a matter of personal alarm over a few things I've seen in your magazine in the last few months? They all deal with where the Amiga is now and where it is going (and then again, what little has appeared in Amiga Computing recently that hasn't focused in some way on that issue?) I feel as though some bad decisions, and some unfair judgements, have surfaced con- cerning our favourite machine in recent times, some of them through your magazine. First of all, I would like to address the issue of the Amiga's operating system. The compari- son made recently in Amiga Computing between the various OSs was very interesting and "one of those things we always wanted to see." But I feel this article made the same mis- take many people have been making lately, that is the separation of OS from GUI. This was supposed to be a comparison of Workbench 3.1 to System 7.5.1 to Windows 95. Isn't there something wrong here? Workbench is little more than a graphical representation of the fil- ing system. AmigaDOS, or Amiga OS (whatever they're calling it these days) is where the real power is. Exec and Intuition form the core of an extremely powerful operating system whose power, in some ways, has only begun to be realised. Workbench certainly does it no justice. Granted, the review did include some informa- tion about the OS itself but it focused primarily on the Workbench and software included with it. This is in comparison to the Macintosh where you used System 7.5.1, the whole OS, rather than just (what do they call it? the Finder?), the true analog of Workbench. And Windows 95 seems to be just some big convoluted insepa- rable mass. Technicalities? I think not. If you're going to compare operating systems, compare the whole operating system. I think that despite the weaknesses of Workbench, when viewed in this light, the Amiga's OS is far ahead, in terms of speed, power, efficiency, and ease of use, of the competition. Another issue that concerns me is the debate over custom chipset versus graphics card for the next Amiga. Many people are using this as a complaint over the Amiga's lack of compatibility with other platforms. Come on, people, that's the point! If you want an IBM compatible, get an IBM compatible. Macintosh users don't complain about the lack of compati- bility between their platform and the IBM PC. They view that as a strength, not a weakness. We Amiga owners should too. If we don't stop viewing ourselves as a little upstart computer sub-class, rather than a separate platform in its own right, nobody will! To elaborate further on the issue of the cus- tom chipset, I don't see why on earth we hould Canon be canonised? I recently purchased a new Canon BJC70 colour printer. It's a lit- tle beauty - little being the operative word! Anyway, as you're undoubtedly aware, this type of printer is nearly always only shipped with printer drivers for DOS and Windows on the PC. This, of course, may be standard procedure with any new prin- ter these days and it shows a willingness to help the end user get better results. Unfortunately, this is of no benefit to us lucky Amiga users! I am a registered user of the excellent Studio 2 printing enhance- ment program though, and while I would have undoubtedly been able to find a suitable driver, there was not a dedicated driver for the BJC70, unlike other Canon printers. When 1 returned the warranty card to Canon (UK) Ltd. I included a letter expressing my concerns. Bearing in mind that this letter was only sent on a Monday morning, I was very pleasantly surprised to receive two separate envelopes with the Canon stamp on them in the early Thursday morning post. One envelope contained the two year extended warranty I'd requested (a steal at only £25!), the other, from a separate Canon department contained a disk full of Canon drivers. As 1 found out in a .readme file, it was actually a cutdown version of 'Canon Studio', although a fairly recent one as it contained BJC70 specific drivers. And even though this one works perfectly, not satisfied with what they had already done for me, they'd also included a letter with a reference number and phone number on it explaining they were currently working on a new BJC70 printer driver for the Amiga and that I would receive it free of charge as soon as it was available. All this goes to prove that they had read my letter thoroughly and not only taken note of the points I raised, but acted on them what must have been almost immediately, when you consider that I received their reply only three days after I had posted my letter! Now that/ s what I call great service and eager- ness to enhance customer satisfaction and relations. I have absolutely no reason to doubt that every customer is, or would be, treated any differently. I'd be very grateful if you would see fit to include an undoubtedly cutdown version of this letter by way of thanks and appreciation for their efforts, and to make fellow readers of Amiga Computing aware of not only what should be expected of any major company, but the level of service they will definitely receive from Canon (UK) Ltd. David S Duncan, Chester It's good to know that there are still companies out there that take their obligation to their customers seriously. Nice one Canon. should ditch this in favour of some graphics card. Very few graphics cards can keep up with even the OCS or ECS for animation speed, much less AGA. My 486 PC can get about 3 fps from a precalculated Lo-res animation! My 68030 Amiga, on the other hand, constantly passes 30 fps in Lo-res, even in HAM mode, and it doesn't animate much faster then it did when it was a 68000 machine. Very few graph- ics cards can do this, and if they can, they're likely to be very expensive. Besides, the digital processing power of the blitter and copper are still amazing. Plus, the still-high-quality sound system and all sorts of I/O originate in the chipset. The chipset is one of the Amiga's greatest strengths. The only real weaknesses of the cur- rent chipset are lack of 24-bit modes, low reso- lutions, and the slowness of the planar display. It would only be a natural progression for the AAA chipset to bring 24-bit graphics, a 64- or 128-bit video bus, higher resolutions, and the addition of chunky pixel modes, not to mention improved sound capabilities (it's about time!) to the Amiga. This, combined with the Amiga OS and the PowerPC, could help launch a new surge of Amiga use in the video and multimedia industry. Michael Webb via e-mail I am the owner of an A3000 and have been since its introduction. I did not purchase it because of its similarity to any other computer. At the time I bought it, IBM compatibility was available through the 286 powered Bridgeboard and Mac compatibility through the original AMAX system. I did not buy either of these as I saw no point in having them: 1 bought my A3000 because, for its price, it was the best graphics system available, and some might even argue that it was the best graphics system at the time, period. Neither the Macintosh, nor the PC compatible could come close in the animation abilities of the Amiga without very extensive and expensive upgrades. To this day, I have not added an accelerator and still I have friends coming to me to do ani- mations on my system using Imagine 3.1, even though they have PowerMac 8100A/V systems and Strata Studio Pro software. They claim that animations done on my A3000 using DCTV look better than theirs - partly because the Amiga doesn't drop frames when it is overtaxed as the PowerMac is known to do. Much of the success of the Amiga in the US, and of my animations, can be attributed to the ECS graphics chips in the machine. They make this cheap computer system almost as power- ful a graphics workstation as an SGI Indy, but without the high software costs. This is what I bought the computer for and what I believe made it a limited success in the United States. Yes, other computers can display more colours than my system, but in order to animate better, most need MPeg decompression hardware added to them. Even 100MHz Pentium and PPC604-based systems have annoying pauses to their animations without these upgrades, or must animate in lower resolutions and smaller screen sizes than my Amiga can. Perhaps in living only a short drive from Amiga Computing APRIL 19 96 Apple's corporate headquarters I have a some- what unique view of the differences between the Amiga and the Macintosh, but the article written by Mr Vost would seem to imply that the Amiga and its users would be best served by making the Amiga very much more like the Mac. Most of his references to changes in the Amiga operating system referred directly to System 7, and his suggested changes to the hardware would seem to imply that a CHRP (Common Hardware Reference Platform) design is the one Amiga Technologies should adopt, specifically a PowerPC-based system, using a PCI bus, and with no custom chips. When the first PowerMacs came out, almost all of the operating system that came with them was emulated 680x0 code. They actually ran slower than the 68040-based Macs when running the same task. In light of this I can hardly believe that emulating the ACA chips in software will allow a PPC604- based Amiga to run as fast as an Amiga 4000 when animating, or doing anything else for that matter. If anything, the custom chipset needs upgrading, or even complete redesign, but abandoning the idea of blazingly fast graphics on the system bus in favour of mak- ing the Amiga like other computers will only hurt Amiga Technologies here in the US, and will contribute to the extinction of the Amiga, not advance its cause. Changes made to the hardware and operating system of the Amiga should be seen as improvements to the entire system and not just an attempt to build another Macintosh or PC. I am not stating that I disagree with all of Mr Vost's observations. I agree that the PowerPC is a good chip for Amiga Technologies to adopt, and that the Amiga hardware and operating system need to be more than simply dusted off. But, quite frankly, if Amiga Technologies brings out a CHRP-based Amiga why should anyone buy it instead of a CHRP-based Macintosh when the price would likely be very close, especially considering that the Mac already has a much wider software base? In short, the Amiga is much more than a Macintosh imitator with an offbeat operating system and a small software base. It is a sepa- rate computer system with its own strengths and these should not be compromised in the search for similarity. Edward K. Smallwood Ben Vost replies... As pleased as I am to have received so much feedback from one of my pieces, I feel all those letters that are printed here have missed the point (with the exception of Mr Lyon's e-mail covering 0/S2. The rea- son I didn't cover it was because a) I am not very familiar with 0/S2 and b)l only wanted to cover one OS per platform, and since all the flavours of Windows outsell 0/S2 by a fair amount, I decided against it). I was not advocating that the Amiga should be turned into a Mac or Windows clone, merely that other systems have features that the Amiga ought to have, not because they are Windows or System 7, but because they are □ ND FINALLY I'm writing to you to take to task Ben Vosfs article on operating systems. The article set out to com- pare the top 'three' operating systems. Problem is, you ignored the 32-b'rt OS that has somewhere in the range of 1 0,000,000 installed users - OS/2. I've used an Amiga since 1 987, a PC since 1 988, had the misfortune to need Windows and discovered OS/2 (2.1) back in 1992 - now I use Warp (v3.0). The object-oriented desktop of OS/2 has similarities to the object-oriented Amiga Workbench, you really should have compared it as well. Here's your sidebar list with OS/2 added in : Add-in System Extensions 24-bit support Multiple Screen Support Networking CD-ROM Support Comms & Internet Security Pre-emptive 32 bit Multitasking Runs from floppy Foreign Language Support Plug & Play CLI&GUI Systemwide Programming Language Representational Interface Universal Menus System pref changes during op. Three Button Mouse Support Undelete Function Hard Drive Self Repair Hard Drive Optimisation virtual Memory Support Quickstart Applications Menu Disk Compression Style Guide Help For The Disabled Online Help Dynamic RAM Disk Yes, via the Startup Folder Yes, direct support Yes Yes Yes Yes, IBM's excellent Bonus Pack contains them Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes - OS/2 Desktop, OS/2 CLI, DOS CLI, Windows 3.x GUI Yes-REXX Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes - user selectable on a drive-by-drive basis. Yes Yes- Yes- Yes- Yes- Yes Yes Yes - more comprehensive than Win95 hypertext links, etc No - especially so under HPFS - both dynamic & user selectable - user configurable LaunchPad - third party context sensitive, There's more, but that basically covers your own areas. As I need to swap between the PC & Amiga environments many times each day, I find OS/2 & Amiga more easily workable than OS/2 & Windows (3.x or 95). Indeed OS/2 has many similarities to the Amigas' OS, but, one must say, has done much better and far more professionally. Anyway, that's my two cents worth, next time you guys do a comparison, at least try to remember that the worlds' leading 32-b'rt Operating System is OS/2, remember Win95 is not a true 32-bit OS, indeed much of Win95's code is 1 6-bit A last quickie. Thanks for a fine magazine, yours is one of only two foreign mags I pick up (the other being Byte), I just wish rfd get here earlier rather than two months behind England... Lance Lyon, via e-mail all aids to a better working environment You'll notice that I didn't ask for the ani- mations that Windows 95 plays when you are copying files or checking your memory status, and I didn't ask for the filetyping that can really make Mac use a pain - 1 just want the Amiga to have the best operating system (and front-end if you want to be picky Mr Webb) possible. And to my mind, the best OS around is an amalgam of the features of Workbench, Windows and the Mac OS (and 0/S2, NextStep and so on). Why shouldn't Amiga Technologies learn from the mistakes of other OS providers and make a next generation interface all Amiga users can be proud of. And it's no use saying 'Ooh we have to keep the cus- tom chipset' when it is woefully slow com- pared to even the cheapest graphics card now available when run under the same conditions. The whole point of the Amiga going CHRP would be to take advantage of all those graphics, sound, ethernet and other cards available for other platforms at cheap prices and get them to run on our Amigas. And why would anyone buy a CHRP Amiga? Because by that stage the Amiga would need to have proper multimedia sup- port, video and audio inputs and outputs, an Amiga Technologies graphics card with built in genlock, etc. It doesn't matter what it is that makes the Amiga unique in the future, but it does matter if no-one can do anything with the machine because its operating system and hardware isn't modern enough. By the way, I have owned Amigas since 1987 when the A500 first became available in the UK. I have had an A3000T now for over three years and have expanded it to the point where there is no further room in the case, so yes, I think I can say that I have used an Amiga. As part of the jobs I have held, I have also become at least a journey- man when it comes to PC use and have even spent a time building them, and I use Macs every day as our office is full of them. Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 BLITTERSOFT TOWER PRODUCTS Our new range of Amiga Tower Systems will further enhance the specification of your Amiga. Options include Shuttle expansion boards, uprated PSU's and complete PC solutions. Towers (Dimensions 660x190x430 mm with over ten different styles) £179.95 PSU's available : 230W £ 59.95 250W £ 74.95 300W £ 89.95 Shuttle 1200 : Upgrades the A1200 to provide 7 x Zorro III (5 DMA), 6 x PC ISA, 2 x Video, 1 x CPU Expansion Slot and a Real Time Clock. £309.95 Shuttle 1 200PCI : As per Shuttle 1 200 except 3 x PC ISA, 3 x PC PCI £349.95 Shuttle 3000 and 4000 : Upgrades A3000 or A4000 to provide 8 x Zorro III (5 DMA), 6 x PC ISA and 2 x Video. £159.95 Shuttle 3000PCI or 4000PCI : Upgrades A3000 or A4000 to provide 7 x Zorro III (5 DMA), 3 x PC ISA ISA, 3 x PC PCI and 2 x Video £189.95 486DX2/4 Board : 128Kb Cache, 2 x Serial, 1 x Parallel, Floppy and HDD Controller, Keyboard socket, External Power Connector, PC104 Expansion Port,128Mb RAM max. Accepts 486DX2/4 Processor at 33 to 100MHz (Not included) 486DX2/4 Eprom Board : As 486DX2/4 Board plus auto boot Eprom. Pentium Board : 256Kb Cache (Expandable to 1Mb), 2 x Serial, 1 x Parallel, Floppy and HDD Controller, Keyboard socket, External Power Connector, PC104 Expansion Port, 128Mb RAM max. Accepts Pentium Processor 75,90, 100, 120,133 and 133MHz (Not included) DX2/66 £ 34.95 DX4/100 £79.95 Pentium P75 Pentium P90 £219.95 Pentium P100 £229.95 Pentium P1 20 Pentium P133 £449.95 £349.95 £379.95 £529.95 £149.95 £319.95 AMIGA OS * Version 3.] > • Now available for ANY Amiga! The full Amiga Technologies licensed OS 3.1 pack will bring your Amiga up to the very latest operating system. OS3.1 is more efficient, offers more features (such as CD-Rom file access and control, extra windows handling routines, more control over screen preferences /overscan/sizing etc.) and is necessary for many applications. OS3.1 A500/600/1 500/2000 £89.95 OS3.1 A1200 £99.95 OS3.1 A3000 £99.95 OS3.1 A4000 £99.95 ARIADNE AND LIANA Dont get overwhelmed with the complexity of setting up a network! Use our Ariadne Ethernet card that i compatible with all Zorro based Amiga's. Not only is Ariadne easy to set up (using Envoy software) but it offer: two additional parallel ports as well. Supports 10Base-2 (Thin Ethernet coax cable) and 10Base-T (Twisted pair) ARIADNE £199.95 If you require a simple low cost connection between any two Amiga's, Liana is exactly what you need! Simply plug the cable between the parallel ports and install the software. You can now share your Amiga's hard drives. LIANA £ 59.95 AmITCP offers the ability to network your Amiga via Ariadne to a foreign computer (with it's own TCP software). AMITCP £ 69.95 EMPLANT BOARDS AND OPTIONS IMAGE VISION EMPLANT BOARD MAC and PC Emulations PICASSO II BOARD The leading Amiga graphics board The EMPLANT system allows hardware emulation of the Macinstosh and PC computer. Please call for latest specification and advice. EMPLANT BASIC (AppleTalk/Serial) (SCSI Interface) (AppleTalk & SCSI) EMPLANT OPTION A EMPLANT OPTION B EMPLANT DELUXE e586DX/SX PC MODULE (Includes BIOS) EMPLANT MAC PRO (New advanced Mac emulation) £199.95 £239.95 £239.95 £269.95 £ 99.95 £ 34.95 PICASSO BOARDS AND OPTIONS PICASSO II is the leading graphics card for any Zorro based Amiga. The Workbench emulation offers 256 colours, even on non-AGA machines (Requires OS3.1) at resolutions up to 1600x1280. Choose colour depths including HiColour (16 bit) and True Colour (24 bit). No Chip RAM r limitations and an in-built Amiga video pass-through makes Picasso II the best value graphics card around! Picasso II 2Mb £249.95 CyberGraphX Software £ 34.95 PABLO is the Video Encoder option for Picasso II, expanding it with two additional video ports, one standard Composite Sync Signal, and one S-VHS (Y-C) compatible port. All PAL compatible video devices can be plugged into Pablo, such as a colour TV or a video recorder. Pablo Video Encoder £119.95 ImageVlsion is an exciting new multimedia authoring system which gives you the power to create powerful interactive presentations with ease. It has a unique interface to allow full control over events with an amazing overview of your work. With ImageVision, you can put backgrounds, pictures, animations, sounds and even MPEG into an interactive presentation with ease. Script Editor This is the main editor where you build your presentation by placing and linking the icons together in your script. Double-clicking on an icon opens up a configuration window, where you, assign pictures, sounds, animations etc. Several icons and scripts can be opened at the same time, and you can copy icons between scripts. Click Editor In this editor you make your buttons interactive to reach other parts of the presentation. No programming skill is required to make a full blown multimedia presentation, where you have full control of the interactive scripts. Graphics Editor This is the editor where you can add pictures, texts and symbols to your presentation. Load pictures and brushes and place them on the background and they will be automatically remapped to make full use of the palette. Each picture object can be freely moved, resized and cropped to fit your personal needs. Many advanced text features can also be used. ImageVision comes complete with a CD-ROM containing hundreds of backgrounds, ready made symbols/bullets, MPEG-clips, music and sounds. Context sensitive Online Help is available at all times and free runtime player. Plug-in architecture allows additional features to be added. Requires AGA Amiga, 2Mb Chip, 1 Mb Fast RAM, 5Mb Hard drive space and OS3.0+ IMAGEVISION NEW! - BLITTERSOFT LABEL CD-ROMs [ gviso It EASE Mr.' "VI r un a * l - ' L, 1 .. m IS mi rr ASIMWARE PRODUCTS AsimCDFS 3.0 is a third generation CD-ROM control software package that seamlessly integrates CD-ROM technology into the Amig operating system. The AsimCDFS 3.0 package consists of AsimTunes, AsimCDFS, CDTV and CD32 emulation modules, FishMark( and a Preferences Editor. A superb collection of Amiga 3D objects! Amiga 3D is a condensed version of "LightROM 3" packed full with all the Lightwave, Imagine, Real3D and Sculpt 3D objects from the 3CD-ROM set on a single CD-ROM for the cost conscious Amiga 3D artist. Amiga 3D contains over 8,000 3D objects/650 Mb in four different Amiga 3D file formats : Lightwave 3D, Imagine, Real 3D and Sculpt 3D. The thumbnail renderings of the Lightwave objects have been removed in order to fit all the Amiga 3D objects onto this CD-ROM. £ Q t QS A superb collection of broadcast-ready backdrops! Desktop Video Backdrops is a collection of hundreds of Backdrops suitable for the Desktop Video Professional. Each backdrop is broadcast-ready and in broadcast resolution. This CD-ROM is compatible with every computer platform. The Backdrops are represented by thumbnail renderings in the INDEXES directory for easy previewing. This collection varies from geometric shapes to floral patterns, perfect for any application, for cable access programs, home video productions, training videos and national broadcasts. £ 9.95 A huge collection of high quality textures! 2,500 Texture Treasures contains approximately 2,500 textures for the computer artist in many different categories for print, 2D/3D graphics and animation. Categories Brick, Bumpmaps, Cards, Canvas, Carpet, Cloth, Crimple, Fire, Formica, Granite, Greenery, Images, Laminate, Materials, Metal, Misc., Organic, Panels, Patterns, Rock, Roughs, Skin, Stone, Stucco, Tiles, Wood, etc. All of the textures are represented by thumbnail renderings for easy previewing in the INDEXES directory. £ 9.95 Oh Yes! More WORMS!!! This CD will keep you playing and playing Over 1000 brand new levels for this extremely addictive game. An additional bonus to this CD is the inclusion of the patch update to offer enhanced features to the original game. This CD is volume one in the series. £9.95 A unique collection of Digital Elevation Maps for Scenery programs. DEM-ROM consists of over 1 ,000 Digital Elevation Maps from the USGS. These files can be loaded into Vista Pro, Scenery Animator and World Construction Set to create breathtaking scenic stills or exciting animated flights through landscapes.These flights could be saved and loaded into a 3D program as a background image sequence while taking a 3D object such as an aeroplane or a spaceship and rendering it in the foreground to create realistic flights of fancy.These DEM's can also be loaded into any 3D conversion programs such as Interchange, PixelPro, Polyform etc. to create 3D landscapes in Lightwave, Imagine, 3D Studio, TrueSpace etc. Complete with thumbnail renderings of the topographical map of all the DEM's. £ 9.95 Hi Provides access to ISO 9660, Hlghslerra and Macintosh HFS CD-ROM formats. Includes FishMarket, a CD-ROM containing the public domain Fred Fish collection. Includes AsimTunes 3.0, an audio librarian/controller providing advanced librarian and playback features. Support for direct digitising from standard audio CD's and playing audio via the Amiga hardware. Includes CDTV and CD32 emulation modules. Integrated support tor Kodak and Corel PhotoCD CD-ROM's. Colour WorkBench Icons are created for easy identification. Support for resolutions from 192 x 128 up to 3072 x 2048. Preferences Editor for all AsimCDFS settings. Full Arexx command set available for all programs. Localised interfaces for English, French and German languages. Full ATAPI CD-ROM support with A1 200/A4000 Master ISO allows the user to control a CD-ROM recorder in order to create custom CD-ROM and CD-Audio CD-ROM's. An advance ISO 9660 build utility which the user to create universally compatible CD-ROM volumes. Amiga specific support also allows lor filenames, special characters, CDTV and CD32 auto-booting. CD-Audio CD-ROM's can be created with Master ISO, sourcing digit audio data from 16-bit CDDA, MAUD or AIFF audio Files and formatted to the red book standard for universal compatibility wit standard CD players. Alt aspects of the Master ISO are controlled through a powerful graphical interface. 4 # 4> €i 9 W W0R M S! 6 Drakes Mews, Crownhill Industry, Milton Keynes. MK8 OER. UK. 01908 261466 01908 261477 01908 261488 01908 261499 Sales Technical Fax BBS .IE eiitteTsoft Order by Access/Visa/Delta/S witch or Postal Otder/Cheque No added surcharges ■ All prices fully inclusive of VAT. Postage and Packing £7 00 (Next Day) C5 00 (Two Day) and £15.00 (Saturday) Prices and specifications may change without notice It is advisable to telephone to confirm pricing/specification/ availability before ordering ESOE All trademarks acknowledged Ail orders subject to our terms and conditions of trading, available on request. Hours of business 9 15am -5 00 pm Monday-Friday TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOME e-mail : bsoft@mag-net.co.uk Compuserve ; 100523,2224 WWW Site : httptf: www. mag-net .ca.uk/Bsoft - All the latest details and pictures online!) Creates ISO 9660 compatible volumes. Handles ISO 9660 level 1 and level 2 filenames. File can be taken for multiple sources and combined into a single volume. Generates volume image to a DOS file or direct to a SCSI hard drive. Uses AIFF, MAUD and CDDA 16-bit audio files. Requirements : Workbench 3.0 or higher, Compatible SCSI controller (Warp, Z3 Fastlane. 4091...), 1 3GB of HD space. 1 6MB of RAM Supported Writers : Yamaha CDR-100, CDR-102, Pinnacle RCD-202, RCD-1000, Phillips CDD-521. CDD-522, CDD-2000, SonyCDU-920, HP 4020. Pio £299.95 AMOS PRO OS DEV KIT Example : Open an AMOS screen on an Intuition screen with FULL MULTITASKING, under AGA with the following simple command _AMOSOPENSCR[u,320,256,5.DBLPAL]:SCR=Param AMOS Pro OS DevKit AMOS Pro OS DevKit 1 Software with full multitasking!! is the ultimate AMOS 2. Intuition (Screens, Windows, Gadgets, Menus, Drawings) Pro extension! It 3. Gadtools (Gadgets and Menus) brings you over 600 4. Exec (Memory management. Interrupts, MsgPort, Signals, Nodes new commands! You 5. Graphics (AGA Support, RTG Support), Drawings, Sprites..) can now program your 6. Localisation software with very 7. Workbench (AppWindows, AppMenus, Applcons) advanced features. 8. Datatypes 9. StoneTracker support 10. ASL (Requesters) 11. Tag list support 12. DOS functions 13. Tooltypes 14. Supports AMOS Pro compiler, examples, demos, AmigaGuide he E 29.95 1 5. Requires OS2.0 or better. WORLD CONSTRUCTION SET j World Construction Set is a 3-D terrain modelling and animation program that offers unlimited flexibility and control. WCS provides a wealth of solutions, whether you are creating for video, print media, commercial or ' scientific applications, or just for fun. There are too many features to list, but this program is regarded by many as the best scenery generator on any platform. WCS requires OS 2.04 or greater recommended). Both 68030 and 040 optimised versions are supplied. WORLD CONSTRUCTION SET 4 Mb RAM (8 M £119.95 □ ISK DOLDRUMS As a subscriber to various Amiga mag- | azines I have found their help invalu- / able. When I bought my A1200 it came with German instructions, and as there is no one around here that can help, I have been battling alone. The problem I am having is that when I try to run certain disks or programs, error requesters keep appearing. I hope to be able to solve these problems with your help before I die as I'm 71 -years old, and it is good gym- nastics for my brain to battle with computers: 1) Cannot find V37 reqtools.library. How do I clear up this problem, and where do I find v37 of the reqtools.library. Should this be dragged into Libs, or what other place? 2) I need explode. library, or I need explode.library v4+. I have found where the explode.library is located but where do I drag the file to so I can get rid of this problem? 3) Unable to open your tool. Here I have a number of problems with CAmigaGuide, C:More, C:lnstaller and Sysx/mmpp. Where can I find mmpp, and where do I drag it to? The same goes for the others. I have tried dragging AmigaGuide into Tools and a requester appears saying it already exsits there. Should I drag it into Tools or C? Edith Bosson, France The problems you are expe- \Kf riencing are things I am — < , Jr— sure every Amiga owner /-Jf \ has had the misfortune of suffering and are due to a number of reasons. To start off, one of the Amiga's strong points is its ability to have new features easily added at a later date through the use of what are known as run time libraries. These allow programs to access new features that were not origina- lly available in the operating system. This all started years ago when the ARP library was first written which gave programmers access to a decent file requester, for the time. This was then quickly overtaken by the req and then finally the reqtools library. This is all very well and good, but if you do not have these extra libraries you are stumped as you are normally unable to run a program without them. To answer your first two problems, the reqtools and explode are two commonly used libraries - reqtools particularly so. Normally, you find coverdisks do not carry these extra libraries, but disks from PD houses that have been specifically put together for one program will have the libraries on the disk. The problem here is that unless you actually boot your machine from the floppy disk, it will not be able to find these libraries. As you have already guessed, you need to copy the library file from the floppy into your hard drive's Libs drawer. If you open the floppy's drawer and choose show all files from the Workbench menu, you should normally find a Libs drawer icon in which the libraries are stored. All you need to do now is drag the required library across to your Workbench partition's Libs drawer. Unfortunately, things are not always as simple as this. If you do already have the library then no problem, go ahead and copy the new library into your libs drawer. If, however, you already have a copy of the library then you should not automatically copy this over as it could be a more recent and, therefore, more up-to-date version than the one you are to replace it with. As there is no simple way for beginners to check the version of libraries, I would say that unless you are having problems run- ning programs that are specifically stating that a library is too old, do not replace it. The simplest way of telling if one library is newer than another is to check the library size. A more recent version will almost always be bigger than an older version because new features will have been added, so making the file bigger. Your other problem involves the way people are expecting hard drives and disks to be set up. Again, many floppy disks have things set up so they work fine if you boot your machine from the floppy, but as soon as you try to do anything from the hard drive you get all sorts of errors appearing. When people create a text or AmigaGuide file they give a specific path where the program used for viewing the file should be found. Even if you have a copy of this program, as you do in the case of the AmigaGuide, you will get an error message unless there is a copy of that program in the specified path. In your case, you would Helping you to sleep easier at night, ACAS will soothe all your troubles away need to copy AmigaGuide to the C directory, or change the tooltype to simply read AmigaGuide. In the long run, neither of these solutions is very practical because you would either have lots of copies of AmigaGuide all over the place, or you would have to change every Icon's tooltype. However, there are two more attractive alternatives. Firstly, you could use a program such as ToolManger to place an Icon on your Workbench for Multiview. This would allow you to drop any AmigaGuide or text file into the icon and view it The other alternative is to use a ToolAlias program such as MCP. This allows you to get Workbench to ignore certain programs and use others in its place, so when you double-click on any text file's icon that tried to run MMPP, you could, instead, get the file to load into Multiview. If people creating icons would stick to the standard Amiga viewers, or just Multiview, then people that do not like these can just use ToolAlias or a ToolManager icon to use their preferred programs. uper KickStart I use an Amiga 3000 bought back in 1991 that «■» I came preloaded with Workbench 1.3. When J Workbench 2.04 became available I immediately updated my 3000 and in doing so created a problem that has been frustrating me for some time now. Although my Amiga operates well with Workbench 2.04, try as I may I have been unable to get rid of the System 1.3 partition. This is wasting precious hard drive space, slows down response time, and sits there intractable with its icon glar- ing at me every time I open my Workbench. How can I get rid of it? Joseph Cohn, Fairfield USA An A3000 handles the KickStart differen- tly from any other Amiga model. Whereas s -4 \ all the other models have the KickStart stored on a ROM in the computer as stan- dard, the A3000 stores it on a specific hard drive partition called System x.x, where x is the version of the KickStart - this does have the advantage of keeping all the files completely separate. If you really want to get rid of the 1.3 partition there are only two options available to you. Firstly, you could just format it which would leave you with a blank 6Mb partition - not the best solution but the most straight forward. The problem you have is that you will never be able to repartition your drive because you have to leave your System 2.04 partition alone, and if this is damaged you will not be able to boot your machine at all, not even being able to get an AmigaDOS window. The only other option is to buy the 3.1 KickStart ROMs and fit these to your A3000. You could then re-partition and format your hard drive, and replace the files on it, but even this is not a perfect process because if you have important files on your System 2.04 partition, you would need to back these up before hand. Amiga Computing APRIL 19 9 6 ACK MAD I have been attempting to install SysiHack, but to no avail. I can get the program to alter the sizes of the sliders but cannot get the 3DLOOK option to work at all. I have added the Run >NIL: SysiHack 18 14 16 13 3DLOOK line just after the CSetPatch command in the StartUp-Sequence, so what am I doing wrong? All the screen shots in your February issue of ImageVision have 3D gadgets, so it must be working for you. Mark Mountford, Staffordshire think you have missed something here. ImageVision's buttons always look that way, and Sysihack just affects the look of the Window gadgets and sliders. If you want to effect the look of system buttons, the new Urouhack does give your programs a more Mill look, and works quite well, replacing SysiHack and MagicFrames. Qc CONVERT am a programmer on the, dare I say it, PC, but have had an Amiga for a few years now. I have only really used it for games but now I have decided to start using it for more serious purposes. I have just bought a 270Mb HD and am now trying to get to grips with using Workbench rather than Windows, which I admit is easier for a lot of purposes. However, there are a few areas that I am not familiar with, and they are not mentioned in the manuals and books I have. I understand that every icon has a .info file which has in it the data for the icon's picture and position. I would like to know how the data is stored and how I could edit this data. I have tried to use the Workbench tool IconEdit but this seems limited to icons of 80 by 40 pixels or less, yet I know icons can be huge. Perhaps there is a way I can save DPaint brushes and convert them to icons? I am also interested in how the system- configuration works. I know this contains data for the colours and resolutions of Workbench, speed of the mouse move- ment, keyboard sensitivity and the mouse sprite. Is there a program that allows you to edit this? Could I replace it with a program written in Blitz or any other language, or would I have to use 68020 assembly language? Finally, is it possible to use the standard SVGA non-interlaced monitor 1 have on the PC with my Al 200, or do I have to shell out an extortionate amount of money to get a multisync monitor so I can read clearly the smaller fonts on Workbench? Eric Palmer, Grimsby I * I am glad to hear you find / \ the Amiga's Workbench \ J easy to use. Version 3 did "3 ^ bring quite a lot of useful improvements over the earlier versions, even though you still need a few programs such as Magicmenus to make it really easy to use. I cannot tell you how the icon data is stored, but I doubt it would be complicat- ed. The best advice I could give you is to get hold of the program Iconian. This is an extremely powerful icon editor, with more functions than you will probably need. Along with the ability to have icons of any size, it has direct support for the Amiga clipboard so you can cut and paste brushes from DPaint straight into Iconian. It also has Datatype support so any picture file that you have the Datatype for can be loaded directly into Iconian. The picture is then automatically scaled and dithered to your settings. The system-configuration file is a throw-back to the old Workbench 1.3. Stored in the devs drawer, it holds basic information about the screen colours and position, pointer sprite and keyboard speed, and is now really redundant. Workbench 3 still reads this file but all its preferences are overridden by the new iPrefs program that gets its settings from the files stored in ENV:Sys. These are set by the Amiga's preference programs. Apart from using the old 1.3 preference program to change the system-configura- tion, you would have to get hold of a pro- gram called PPrefs that can be found on an old Freds' Fish disk. It should be possible to use an SVGA monitor on your A1200, but the problem is with setting your machine up. What you need to do is copy the MultiScan monitor driver into your DEVS:Monitors drawer, which will either be in your storage drawer, or you can get it off the Storage Workbench disk. Once done, double-click on the moni- tor icon and load up the ScreenMode preference program. You will now be able to select the new multiScan modes that the SVGA monitor can use. The prob- lem here is as soon as you select save, the screen on a normal TV will go hay- wire and you will need to switch off the TV and computer and then hook up the SVGA monitor and restart the computer. If all has gone well you should have a nice rock steady Workbench display. This happens because SVGA monitors cannot take the normal TV signal that normal Amiga screen modes work at. Do you have a problem? Do you sometimes find yourself poised over your Amiga with axe in hand, spouting profanity at the stubborn refusal of your software or hardware to behave properly? Well, calm down and swap the axe for pen and paper, jot down your problems, along with a description of your Amiga setup, and send it off to Amiga Computing Advice Service, IDC Media, Media House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield SKIO 4NP. Alternatively, e-mail us at ACAS@acomp.demon.co.uk Jargon SCSI - Small Computer Systems Interface, an ANSI standard interface that allows you to have up to seven peripherals connected at any one time IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics Zorro - the name of the expansion slots in the Amiga. The A J 000 had the original Zorro I, while the A2000 had the 16-bit version, with the A4000 sporting the extended 32-bit Zorro 3 version. KickStart - the name of the Amiga's Operating System. Specifically it is normally used to refer to the version of the operating system you have. Version 39 is Workbench 3. Partition - when a hard drive is being set up you can split it into a number of separate sections which are treated as completely separate drives. DataTypes - Datatypes were introduced with Workbench 3 and are modules for loading different file types. In theory, any program can use datatypes for loading files, thus creating a system-wide translation tool. hat s your Interface? I have an A1500 and a friend of mine recently gave me a hard drive. , What I want to know is how can I get the drive to work, is it an IDE or J SCSI drive, and what interface do I need? The drive is made by Rodime, I can find no mention of its capacity, and it has a 50-pin male connec- I tor at the rear. Also, is anyone selling accelerators for the Al 500 these days? There must be some bargains out there for 030/040's, but no-one advertises them any more? David Daly, County Cork, Ireland If the drive has a 50-pin interface then this means it must be a SCSI drive because IDE drives have either 40 or 46 pins, depending on whether they are 3.5 or 2.5 inch mechanisms, r Hr \ Therefore, to get this to work you will need a Zorro 2 SCSI interface, such as the Oktagon 4008. What you must remember is that the Al 500 is just a rebadged A2000, so the same peripherals will work with both machines. Phase 5 and GVP pro- duce 060 accelerators for the Al 500/2000, and another option would be the Apollo 030 board. You should also remember that most of the Al 500/2000 accelerator cards come with SCSI interfaces, so you could kill two birds with one stone. Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 Thi World's FASTEST AMICAS are on this page! 64-BIl ENGINE A3000/4000 24-BIT COLOUR ACCELERATED GRAPHICS CARD. - For all Zorn>3 Amigas, this 64-Bit high speed graphics engine/blitter offers up to 1600 x 1200 pixels in 8-Bit colour or 1024 x 768 pixels in True 24-Bit Colour, with 1Mb of display memory (4Mb user upgradeable). Cybervision 64.. Cybervision 64. 2Mb-4299 95 4Mb-S399- 95 LIMITED OFFER free photogenics LITE SOFTWARE WITH CYBERVISION 64s FREE PbotoGenics LITE... Powerful software for image manipulation - the ULTIMATE 24-bit graphics package for AjOOO or A4000! Includes 2 7 effects for processing photos/images such as Emboss, Solarize, Texturize, Add Hoist etc. as well as Paint Tools inc. Chalk Pastels. Crayon, Felt Tips & more - Brilliant! (Packaging is shown for illustration purposes only and is not included) NEW SECOND GENERATION OF THE FIRST EVER 68060 AMIGA ACCELERATOR When you fit Cyberstorm II to your A3000, A3000T, A4000 or A4000T you can, for example, render a graphic with Imagine 2.0 software in just 2.45 minutes... Compare that with a massive 10.34 mins on a standard A4000 '040/25! With no jumpers Cyberstorm II is fully plug and play and A4000 users can choose between SCSI-2 and SCSI Fast and Wide options (A3000 users already have SCSI built into their Amiga hardware), • Up to 128Mb of standard SIMMs can be installed and you can even transfer the 72Pin SIMMs from your Amiga A4000 straight onto your new Cyberstorm. • Options include a SCSI-2 module, or a SCSI Fast and Wide module (Available in April/May '%) Cyberstorm LT. 68060/50... 50MHz 68060. 0Mb (Expandable to 128Mb) £699 -95 SCSI-2 Module £9<r» 5 SCSI Fast & Wide Module (April/May 96) £149 -95 SIMM RAM Expansions I Please call for a range of SIMM prices) /20(H) with 2060 '060 .S: (Mb AtOOO with Cvherstonu, '060 & 4Mb 28MHz 68EC020 A1200 TURBO 4Mb, 32-Bit RAM Expandable to 8Mb Blizzard 1220/4 4Mb Turbo Memory Board Offers by far the best price/performance ratio of any A1200 32-Bit RAM expansion on ihe market incor- porating everything a good memory board should - such as a Real Time Clock. RAM expand- ability, optional FPU etc. With its Motorola Processor running the 32-Bit FAST RAM at an amazing 28MHz, the 1220/4 has broken all the barriers! Check the facts for yourself and tit the BEST Amiga A1200 68EC020 Turbo Memory- board available. • Can be disabled in situ for full games compatibility • Integrated 28MHz 58EC020 Clock Speed Doubler for up to 300% overall performance increase • Factory Installed & Tested 4Mb 32-Bit FAST RAM • Expandable to 8Mb with Blizzard Add-4 Board • Integrated Battery Backed Real Time Clock • Easy Trapdoor Installation - no modifications required and does not invalidate the Amiga Warranty '/tow note, ANY 68020 board will disabl e lip PCMCIA sbl if filed uitb orer 4Mb) 1220/4 Turbo 28MHz 68EC020 4Mb 32-Bit Fast RAM (Expandable to 8Mb) £199" Add-4 Board - extra 4Mb for 1220/4 4Mb 32-Bit Fast RAM add-on £169* Motorola Maths Co-processor 68882 PLCC type FPU, 33MHz £59* THE AWARD WINNING A1200 RAM EXPANSION! 50MHz 68030 A1200 TURBO ACCELERATOR - 0Mb Expandable to 128Mb The Blizzard 1230 MklV Turbo Accelerator Memory Board is the highest performing 68030 accelerator available for the A 1 200! With its 50MHz 68030 and MMU, the new 1230-IV offers EVEN BETTER PERFORMANCE at a LOWER PRICE! With a Syslnfo rating of 9.91 (using a 60 Nanosecond SIMM) you can see the 1230-IV is very fast., a performance gain of up to 500% is achieved! Options via its Fast Expansion Bus include Modules such as a SCSI-2 Controller. An industry standard SIMM socket provides for up to 1 28Mb of auto-configuring 32-Bit FAST RAM (or up to 256Mb with the SCSI-2 option using its extra SIMM socket). • May be disabled with Simple Keystroke on Boot Up for Full Games Compatibility, even with Badly Programed or Older Software! • Battery Backed Self Recharge Real Time Clock • High Performance Expansion with Full 32-Bit wide DMA • PGA FPU Socket allowing Optional 50MHz, 68882 FPU • Easy Trapdoor Installation - no modifications required and invalidate the Amiga Warranty 1230-IV Turbo 50MHz 68030 & MMU 0Mb 32-Bit Fast RAM (Expandable to 128Mb) £179* 4Mb SIMM RAM Expansion (Fast 60 Nanosecond) 32-Bit, 72 pin (Call for Larger SIMM prices) £109* Motorola Maths Co-processor 58882 PGA type FPU, 50MHz £99" SCSI-IV KIT SCSI-2 Module for 1230-IV and 1260 (With additional 128Mb SIMM socket) £89" THE WORLD'S FASTEST Al 200 030 ACCELERATOR! Figures shown are in MIPS and taken from comparative performance tests using ' . Syslnfo standards (1230-IV, 1260, 2060 W^h. and Cyberstorm ratings use 60 Nanosecond SIMMs). 50MHz 68060 A1200 TURBO ACCELERATOR & MMU 0Mb, Expandable to 64Mb The Blizzard 1260 Turbo Accelerator Board offers Amiga A1200 owners FULL 68060 POWER with a board tf plugs into the trapdoor slot! Now your A1200 will operate at twi even three times the speed of an "040 based upgrade and up to times the speed of a standard A^OOO! If you want THE FASTEST available, fit a Blizzard 1260 Turbo to your Amiga now! • May be disabled with Simple Keystroke on Boot Up for Full Games Compatibility... Even with Badlv Programed or Older Software! • High Performance Expansion - Full 32-Bit wide DMA • Battery Backed Self Recharge Real Time Clock Does not invalidate the Amiga Warrant)' 4 1260 Turbo 50MHz 68060 &. MMU 0Mb 32-Bii Fast RAM (Exp, to 64Mb) £59P SCSI-IV Kit SCSI-2 Module for 1260 and 1230-IV' (With additional 128Mb SIMM socket) £89" 4Mb SIMM RAM Expansion (60n/s) 32-Bit. 72 pin (Call for larger SIMM prices) £109* 50MHz 68060 A1500 or A2000 TURBO ACCELERATOR & MMU 0Mb • Expandable to 1 28Mb _ The Blizzard 2060 Turbo Accelerator Memory Board offers A1500 and A2000 owners the same specification that the Blizzard 1260 Turbo achieves but also includes built in SCSI-2! So, if you want the fastest A15O0/2000 around with FULL 68060 POWER... til a Blizzard 2060 to your .Amiga now! 1260 & 2060 TURBO BOARDS HAVE A FASTER MEMORY DESIGN THAN ANY OTHER EXPANSION! 2060 Turbo 50MHz 68060 & MMU with Built In SCSI-2 0Mb 32-Bii Fasl RAM [Expandable to 128Mb) £699* CORDON HARWOOD COMPUTERS Gordon Harwood Computers limited Dept. A C0/86 New Street, Alfreton, Derbyshire. DE55 7BP 01 773 836781 or FAX: 01 773 8J1040 EMail:gharwood@eworld,com Please note: Memory, SIMM and FPU prices may change without warning due to exchange rate fluctuations. Please confirm price prior to ordering. CALL TO CONFIRM AVAILABILITY BEFORE MAKING ALONG JOURNEY TO VISIT US. OUR OPENING TIMES ARE... Monday to Saturday, 9am until 5pm All Blizzard and Cyberstorm products use brand new MOTOROLA hKOXO series processors (not second hand as in some of our competitors' Ixiards). They always run WITHIN the electrical liming specification laid down by Motorola to prevent any possible overheating, reliability prob- lems. When vou pav for a new 50MHz CPU for example, that's exactly what vou get • not a 40, 33 or even a 25MHz CPU -clocked" to SOMHz! Look out for the MOTOROLA MOTIVATED logo - your guarantee of our commitment to quality and reliability - BEWARE of "clocked" CPUs! OUR RANGE HAS WON MORE AWARDS THAN ANY OTHER... I What the Magazines think... Blizzard products have consistently achieved the highest magazine accolades and awards! Amiga Shopper said".Jhe Blizzard 1260 is destined to become the ultimate object ofde forAHOO owners."- 91% STAR BUY Award Amiga Computing "...Ifpu want the fastest Amiga in the World, get this board." 92% BLUE CHIP Rating Amiga Format "...Ride on the fastest A 1200 in the World..."- 95% GOLD Rating How to Order from GH... BY PHONE: Simply call our order line. We accept VISA Mastercard, Access, Switch, Connect, Delta AMEX and Lombard Creditcharge (most 'store cards' are Lombard eg. Dixons, Currys etc) - WITH NO TRANSACTION SURCHARGES! BY POST or FAX: Include your name, address and daytime/evening phone/fax number plus order details. If charging a credit/debit card include... number and valid from/expiry date (and issue number with Switch cards}. Make Cheques (please allow 7 days clearance), Drafts or Postal Orders payable to Gordon Harwood Computers Limited. GH PRICES: Please remember to confirm prices in case you are looking at an 'old' magazine. Prices can change (up or down) before the magazine's cover month has passed. Please confirm before sending orders by post. Prices inc. VAT at 17.5%. DELIVERY: We offer prompt shipment with fully insured express delivery options throughout the UK, Europe and Worldwide at a very modest cost. If ordering by post please call to confirm delivery charges. EXPORT: Most items are available Worldwide, and at TAX FREE PRICES to non EC residents and most overseas UK Armed Forces Personnel (with CO's document). Please call us for confirmation of prices and carriage charges etc. GH WARRANTY: Manufacturers' standard warranties apply or, ask about GH's comprehensive extended options which are always recommended for professional users to minimise costly down time. Ask GH for full details. Affordable gubbins ahoy! Dave Cusick sails the good ship Amiga into the warm waters of the shareware sea... Ohis month's Public Sector definitely reflects the impressive diversity of PD and shareware. We've got demos, diskmags, game creation pack- ages, Dungeon Master aids, adventure games, and Amos extensions. As the old saying goes, the best things in life are free, although sometimes there's a registration fee involved... MOS Intuition Extension v1.3a Programmed by: Andy Church Available from: Fl Licenceware Disk No: Fl -1 20 Amos users are a very patient bunch, bear- ing with their favourite programming lan- guage even though it's always lagged a long way behind the cutting edge of Amiga technology. Fortunately, various Amos devotees have, in recent months, dragged it forcibly into the '90s, first with the AGA Extension (reviewed a couple of issues back) and now with the Intuition Extension. One of the greatest problems with pro- gramming in Amos is that the language is totally system unfriendly. The irritating Amiga-A multitasking com- bination (instead of the usual Amiga-M) and the program's habit of opening a spare blank screen are bad enough, but they are not half as annoying as the hideous Amos requesters and the need to create nasty Amos screens rather than using proper Workbench ones. Fortunately, thanks to the AMOS Intuition Extension, there is an alternative to learning C programming. The Intuition. lib file, which needs to be placed in the AMOS_system drawer, comes in two flavours, catering both for Classic and Pro programmers. The extensive range of commands added by this library are all neatly described in the comprehensive AmigaCuide documenta- tion, which helpfully cross-references entries and provides some command tem- plates. It would have been' helpful if a few example files had been included, but this isn't a major omission and I suppose disk space was limited. This is another essential purchase for keen Amos programmers everywhere because it adds a whole new lease of life to the language. Sun [ Test Intent Block; Menu ,—7-7" tejreh Herui Kim ethep jEttit Other Insert ma/Moid Line Insert Kusie extension V 1.62 Fisjwre Gdwaetsp y l,Z R*V»!tK> V 1.41 Ctmptler extenjion V 1 35 Swii! extension V 1.2 Intuition Extension »1,3 - cowrijM $ ISM-1W5 tadm On A6A Extension $ '95 H. Critter, vlTt Build 312 Sedteited to C The extensive AmigaGuide documentation means using the Intuition Extension shouldn't be too tough C With plenty of extensions installed, the prospect of programming in Amos becomes almost pleasant... mosZine #10 UCLCOIE (Read This) OBODY Produced by: Andy Gibson Available from: Fl Licenceware Disk No: F1-121 (3 disks) More Amos stuff from Fl Licenceware, who appear to have become the lone champions of the legendary language. The first of these three disks contains the actual diskmag, unsurprisingly written with Andy Gibson's own excellent Disk Mag Creator, meaning the presentation throughout is extremely impressive and the interface is friendly and easy to negotiate. As usual there are plenty of articles, ranging from readers' letters to gene- ral Amos-related news stories, person- al opinions, and discussion of programming matters. The other two disks are filled with archived bits of source code, demon- strating techniques and enabling keen Amos'ers to exchange ideas and methods. These are all well commen- ted and many are discussed in articles on the first disk. The whole package is definitely worth a look if Amos is your mug of steaming herbal stuff. • jcXXx lo"ol ■ — o0U-<„>-O0o »> I $ S II [ II Editor Andv liibsofi lie;: Value Yet Boain! Another Sniper 3 Disk Issue. Filled Hith fill Your Usual Rajs 6oodies, BsRIuays.... Inoszine Is The liHest find Best ftnos Biskzine Around ! IHE MM IMHD BIBLE .... US IT IS NM BECDtlMu KNOW K ! mm nr» mr** izm' ,xtm ««■ ithh M JUNES 65 nnENaim si MNfffllirTH SY2» SEE DO YOU OWE IKE 0M6IIM flHOS Mid DISK BS I NEED 11 f flfl MANY PROtllfWS 1 WW LYING (SOUND BNS FOR STEPHEN HUE'S BOOK. Sorrv Pal, 1 don't have Rnos 'lassie as I only use Pro. I don't fcnou uhetfii-r the Rnos data D'Sk is PD either. If so, can any fMHlM reader help out BB.P If it's not PD, don't pirate it /> C Can you see what it is yet? It's Getting Better all the time >r subscriber on 4.1. Send of the full SS coluftns, put the TUIl ittti , ma , *.tts , una , irrs* t mm . ijjri Amiga Computing APRIL 19 96 LIKE YOU I want to hear from you if you have any program, whatever its purpose, which you consider worthy of review. Whether it will be freely distributable public domain, shareware or licenceware, if you feel it's of sufficient quality to merit coverage then stick it in a jiffy bag oi padded envelope and send it in with all haste. Although Public Sector receives too many submis- sions to cover them all, I promise I'll at least look at your work - even if it's yet another Lottery program or Klondike card- set. It does make my job a lot easier though if disks are clearly labelled. Please also include a cover letter detailing the disk contents and price, and giving some basic instructions. The magic address is: Dave Cusick'^"MJW| ^* « n PD submission? _ Amiga Computing Media House Adlington Park Macclesfield SK10 4NP AT MAN Demo Produced by: Batman Group Available from: Mon PD ■ Batman: it starts out dark and moody... I've never really been a big demo fan, largely because I just don't see the point in talented programmers wasting their time making fancy texture-mapped cubes rotate and bouncing balls zoom around the screen when they could be employing their talents in producing something altogether more, well, useful. The Batman demo starts out well, but alas falls into the usual trap eventually. The opening sequence is eerily atmos- pheric, with dark visuals and some suitably sinister music. The Caped Crusader stands high above Gotham City as the lightning flashes and the thunder rolls, and then suddenly an ill-defined polygon spacecraft shoots past like some sort of Frontier reject, and things are somewhat spoilt. After that it goes rapidly downhill, and before you know it, you're watching rotating texture- mapped cubes and animated running Cheetahs. Ifs not as though all Batman references are then abandoned, however; it's just that from there onwards, all you get are a large Batman Returns poster scrolling up and down, and a wireframe model of Batman's mask thing spinning slowly around. It really is a bit disappointing that what starts out looking like an impressive animation dete- riorates into a rather run-of-the-mill techni- cal workout. It could have been so much better. The frightening aspect is that Batman is probably still the most imaginative demo I've seen in a while. D ...it finishes up crap and choosy Qa r a s I t e Programmed by: Shaun Waters Available from: Fl Licenceware Disk No: F1-1 19 It's Dungeon Master! No, wait; ifs got a two- player split-screen mode. It's Bloodwych! Alright, so originality wasn't high on Mr Waters' priority list when he sat down in front of his trusty machine to commence produc- tion of his latest effort. But graphics and style obviously were, and so was payability. Parasite scores highly for its slick presenta- tion, which puts many commercial offerings to shame. If Parasite was a car, it'd be some- thing like a Capri; not new, but certainly attractive. If it was a television program it would be Baywatch; nice to look at, and with- out any sort of pretence of a plot. You see, in a sentence, Parasite is a tasty first-person 3D maze walkaround thingy, with knobs on. It's an AGA-only game, and the moody graphics and the fun-packed, often confusing two-player option are what set Parasite apart from the numerous Black Dawn clones cur- rently knocking around the Public Domain. There are only really a couple of complaints I can level at Parasite. Firstly, it appears that two mice are necessary for the two-player mode (just like Lemmings... blimey, there's a blast from the past). Secondly, if you don't happen to have a handy chum with an extra rodent, the walky-fighty action can feel a little dated at times. Still, once you've cracked the control mechanism (which is not especially complicated) you really can get engrossed in a game of this kind. Not bad at all. ^ Not exactly a new idea, but Parasite's playable enough all the same orse Code Trainer Programmed by: John J Cassar Available from: John J Cassar The latest version of this rather specialised program is impressively slick, with a wide range of features. There's a 'freehand' mode in which the user can simply press keys and find out the appropriate morse code signals. Helpfully, the program also lists other letters with simi- lar signals so that groups of associated letters can be learnt. The complete alphabet is, of course, covered, along with continental let- ters, numerals, punctuation, procedure sig- nals, informal amateur CW abbreviations, international Q-codes and RST codes (although I confess to not knowing what half of those actually are). Morse Code Trainer also supports the Farnsworth method, in which letters and numbers are transmitted at a relatively low speed allowing distinctive rhythms to emerge. There are plenty of drills to practice, and the multiple speed settings allow you to start out at a comfortable pace and work up to full pelt. The presentation is excellent, with a colourful and uncluttered screen layout and a sensible overall design. Whilst it will obviou- sly be fairly limited in appeal, Morse Code Trainer is an accomplished effort which serves its intended purpose extremely well. The program should run on any Amiga and is available directly from the author for £2. By the way, it's shareware, so radio buffs making regular use of Morse Code Trainer ought to send Mr Cassar a crisp fiver. Horse Code Trainer You pressed the letter II or y, For quick learning this letter is grouped with the letters A and U These letters ail start w ith tttmm O It's not as high-tech and trendy as e-mail, but morse code is still useful. Honest Horse (ode Trainer mmaam — i Sending: fl m m m ass are ji qrb an< qm asi asu am m m mm asK m ots : ai MP m aM. usn m ! ai a iisN w aix am ail fisz qso asy m \ qrk ass aso asp asz aw am QfiT ase asu am ■ ; it |r ; Mi mm t mm Uhat is ny turn? Your turn nunber : \ Press <Return> key to send codes, |i <"> Dot dot dash, dot dot dash Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 raphic Adventure Creator (GRAC) v2.0 Programmed by: Edmund Clay Available from: F1 Licenceware Disk No: FC-001 (2 disks & printed manual) If you've always wanted to create your very own Monkey Island-style pointy- clicky graphic adventure but could never be bothered cracking some nasty programming language, then GRAC is the ultimate solution. A far cry from graphic adventure creators of yesteryear, which basically produced text adventures sprinkled liberally with some static images, GRAC is capable of creating some really impressive games. An example game, Lethal Formula, is proof of just what can be achieved with this excellent system. GRAC allows you to tie together images and animations created in other packages such as Deluxe Paint to create a believable game environment. Music and sound effects can, of course, be added too. Some of GRAC's fanc- ier features include character scaling for realistic perspective effects, a script editor which is vastly improved from GRAC 1 to include 31 new commands, the facility to include up to 32 background objects in every room, and the option of switching between characters at any point in a GRAC game. The whole package costs £6.99, including an excellent 40-page manual which talks you through the entire game creation process. From helpful advice on designing background graphics to a detailed look at the GRAC scripting language, everything you'll need to know to create top quality adventure games is included in this well-written booklet. There is also a step-by-step tutorial, which demonstrates the basic operation of the GRAC editor. This is most definitely the best non-commercial games creation package in existence. I can't recommend this program enough to eager game design- ers, and I confidently predict that over the next few months Public Sector will be flooded with scores of cracking GRAC-created adventure games. C The Amos-written GRAC front-end U Lethal Formula: not a million miles from the legendary Monkey Island games L <?> . ENStiSiiii fltes Ml: mp Pro vO.620 Programmed by: Zach Forsyth Available from: Aminet (as game/role/lmpPr620.lha) As anyone who's ever participated in a fantasy role-playing game such as Dungeons & Dragons will know, a Dungeon Master's job is not an easy one. His task is not only to conjure up a believable fantasy environment in the minds of the adventurers, but also to handle all the rules and behind-the- scenes details. ImpPro makes the task much simpler by placing a variety of useful aids at the DM's fingertips. An intuition-based modular program, ImpPro can keep track of game time, generate mon- sters using information from its large monster database, create suitably impressive names for characters and cities, and even generate lists of shops for towns and supply details of price and availability for the wares they sell. It can also display a scrolling dungeon map which the author hopes will soon be linked to an events module, making it much easier to run dungeon romps. Once monsters have been slain, treasure hoards can be swiftly generated and experience points dished out to the players responsible. Other impressive and incredibly helpful features include the facility to simulate the rolling of dice, either individually or in large quantities, and to keep track of monster and character hit points, as well as allowing swift access to important gaming tables such as those listing saving throws and hit rolls. Many of the modules inter- act with one another so, for example, details of defeated beasties are automatically recorded in the Game Log. Whilst ImpPro is not yet finished, it is already an essential program for any DM. Although specifically tailored for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, the world's most pop- ular RPG system, it can easily be adapted for use with other fantasy systems. In the future, extra modules are planned, most notably including ones to handle horses and combat, and basic details on constructing your own modules are thrown in too. Totally excellent w The fantasy city of Mackelsfeeld: in the words of Ben Kenobi, "You will not find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy" Something HOT IN A COLD Fridd Guyno takes on a motley collection of beasties armed only with his trusty staff, eager to lay his mits on the small, gem encrusted crystal brazier with pictures. ADSkD: so much better than it looked in E.T. Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 CD-ROM W 1 VJVfcV POWER CD-ROM The Power CD-ROM for the Amiga 600/1200 plugs directly into the PCMCIA port and provides a direct SCSI-1 and SCSI-II interface, allowing up to six additional devices to be connected. What's more the Power CD-ROM features a 'Hot-plug' which allows you to connect and disconnect the CD-ROM and any other additional devices even when the Amiga is switched on. The CD-ROM drive comes with a SCSI interface, PSU, manual, audio lead, mains lead and software which includes Audio CD, CD32 Emulator, MPEG Film Decoder and Photo CD. AMIGA 600/1200 x2 SPEED CD-ROM INC.SQUIRREL . .£179 X4 SPEED CD-ROM INC.SQUIRREL .£249 AMIGA 4000 DUAL SPEED CD-ROM EXT £139 QUAD SPEED CD-ROM EXT. ...£199 AMIGA 4000 SCSI-INTERFACE . .£129 SCSI CABLE £10 REAR OF CD-ROM SCSI SCSI ID AUDIO CONNECTORS SWITCH IN/OUT CD-ROM'S AMINET SET 1 (4 CD'S) £25 AMINETSET 2 £25 AMINET 6 £12 AMINET 7 £12 AMINET 8 £12 AMINET 9 £12 MEETING PEARLS 2 £10 MEETING PEARLS 3 £10 AMIGA TOOLS 3 £25 XIPAINT V3.2 £35 CD-WRITE £39 CD-BOOT 1.0 £29 FOR ANY CD-ROMS NOT LISTED PLEASE CALL 01234-273000 •DUAL SPEED CD-ROM CASING DIFFERS FROM ONE SHOWN SCSI INTERFACE REQUIRED FOR A4000 FALCON 1.5 Times more powerful than the Amiga 4000/040 RAM Access 3.5 times quicker than the Amiga 4000/040 Easily upgradable to the 68060 Processor £119.95 68040/060 FALCON 68040RC 25MHZ ..£399.95 FALCON 68060RC 50MHZ . .£649.95 4MB SIMM £89.95 8MB SIMM £189.95 16MB SIMM £399.95 FALCON NO CPU £389.95 SCSI ADAPTOR £29.95 All Falcon's come complete with a cooling fan VIPER 28MHZ The Viper 28 can have up to 128MB RAM installed, full Kickstart remapping, optional SCSI-II adaptor, on-board battery backed clock, 68882 co- processor optional, instruction and data burst modes. VIPER 28 MKII BARE £119.95 VIPER 28 MKII 2MB £179.95 VIPER 28 MKII 4MB £199.95 VIPER 28 MKII 8MB £299.95 VIPER 28 MKII 16MB £489.95 VIPER MKII SCSI ADAPTOR ..£69.95 VIPER 50MHZ The Viper 50 can have up to 128MB RAM installed, and the same features as the Viper 28. VIPER 50 BARE £199.95 VIPER 50 2MB £269.95 VIPER 50 4MB £289.95 VIPER 50 8MB £389.95 VIPER 50 16MB £599.95 CO-PROCESSOR FPU's complete with crystal. Please state for Blizzard compatibility. 20MHZ FPU PLCC £20.95 33MHZ FPU PLCC £39.95 40MHZ FPU PLCC £60.95 50MHZ FPU PGA £89.95 VIPER MK1 SCSI-ADAPTOR . .£79.95 4MB SIMM £89.95 8MB SIMM £189.95 P C 1 2 0 8 I A1200 8MB RAM card which uses 1 x 32 SIMMs and is PCMCIA friendly. PC1208 BARE £55.95 PC1208 1MB £85.95 PC1208 2MB .£119.95 PC1208 4MB £145.95 PC1208 8MB £249.95 POWER. I HILIPS MATCHLINE VR757 Price: £429.99 Tel: 0181-689 4444 The cheapest deck in our round-up, the Philips Matchline is a very good-looking machine with unusual top-of-deck controls and a stylish remote handset. For a relatively cheap machine, the Matchline has an extremely good picture and its four head mechanism gives good re-recording fidelity. As is becoming the norm, the Matchline features PDC in addition to the now familiar Video Plus+, so it will be good for off-air recording sessions as well as editing. Editing features on the Philips include an assemble edit feature for up to eight edits, and Philips have taken the precaution of adding a synchro edit socket on the back of the machine which can cope with a wide variety of connector types. The machine automatically performs a pre-roll to ensure that your in/out points are matched to your requirements. Finally, the deck also caters for 16:9 recording and will automatically switch a compatible wide screen television over to wide screen mode when playing them back. Connections: 2 x SCART, stereo audio in, stereo audio out, synchro edit socket, front video and stereo audio connections Features: Synchro edit, assemble edit (both with pre-roll), Video Plus+, PDC, Index searching, 1 6:9 recording, NICAM stereo Format: VHS Frank Nord takes a look at some of the most popular video recorders and cameras to see which is most suitable for your editing needs All hands to the peck First up is our selection of video recorders, starting with the cheapest and working our way up... itsubishi HS-M1000 Price: £699.99 Tel: 01 707 2761 00 Mitsubishi's gold-sprayed recorder is getting on a bit now, being the oldest recorder in the bunch we are reviewing, but that doesn't stop it from being the best edit deck in our round- up. Although its looks may be ostentatious eighties in style, its performance leaves little to be desired. The only S-VHS deck in our selection this month, the Ml 000 has a full complement of useful functions. For a start, the Ml 000 has the ability to play back NTSC recorded tapes, although it can only do so with the linear stereo track on the tape, not the Hi-fi one, and it can also play back and record the specially formulated 1 6:9 broadcasts from television. The MIOOO's Jog/Shuttle dial is used to choose options from the on-screen display when recording or setting video functions and gives a very fast visual search. Index marks can be created and deleted manually, which is very handy for finding those special moments on your tapes, and the Ml 000 has the ability to play an indexed section over and over again indefinitely should you wish it to. Perhaps more useful for the budding editor is the Mitsubishi's date and time insert func- tion which will add eg text to your recording to make it easier to catalogue or timestamp. A good deck for a very reasonable price. Connections: 2 x SCART, Y/C, stereo audio out, edit socket, front video (CVBS and Y/C) and stereo audio connections (All gold plated connectors) Features: Assemble edit, index searching, fast visual search, 16:9 record and playback, NTSC playback, child lock, datestamp func- tion, on-screen controls, NICAM stereo sound Format: S-VHS mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmam Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 VC HR J725 Price: £469.99 Tel: 01 81 -450 3282 JVC's new stereo video is another stylish looking deck. The controls on the front panel and remote are all well laid out and the picture and sound quality is up to JVC's usual standard. There are two outstanding features on this recorder for editing. One is the extremely fast visual search with 14 x normal speed. The other is JVC's random assemble edit feature which allows the user to set up eight edit points from a tape and reorder them as desired. The video performs a pre-roll to ensure that the edit points are as accurate as they can be without any sort of timecoding, and results are generally good with this system. The video comes with the ubiquitous Video Plus (with the oft neglected 'add time' feature. This will become obsolete when PDC comes to all channels, but until then it remains a feature only found on a few VideoPlus+ compatible decks and the original VideoPlus+ handset) and the becoming-ubiquitous PDC for off-air recording, and has the usual complement of facilities. In short, a good buy in the sub £500 bracket. Connections: 2 x SCART, stereo audio out, edit socket, front video and stereo audio connec- tions Features: Random assemble edit, Video Plus+, PDC, index searching, fast visual search, NICAM stereo sound Format: VHS i oldstar Double Recorder DV1 71 ECK Price: £799.99 Tel: 01753 500400 The only twin format recorder in the round up, the Goldstar is a death star of a deck. Big, black and bulky, it has a Hi8 slot on the left of the machine and a standard VHS slot on the right. The LED display has been widened accordingly to provide information for both tapes and the machine is obviously designed for recording from one format to the other. However, the quality of the deck, while satisfactory, is not outstanding, and the choice of VHS rather than S-VHS does seem a little odd in combination with a Hi8 tape as the best quality won't be achievable in the transfer from one to the other. The recorder also has pretensions towards standard home use with VideoPlus+ and PDC recording and a child lock. The recorder also has manual index insertion and deletion functions, but the lack of any A/V connections must limit this deck's attractiveness to the home editor. Connections: 2 x SCART Features: Synchro edit (from one deck to the other), manual index insert and remove and index searching, child lock, VideoPlus+ and PDC, NICAM stereo sound Format: VHS/W8 Camera action Starting with the cheapest again, we present four cameras that might suit your budget, needs and format. All the cameras we reviewed came with a standard set of accessories which included a battery, battery charger, shoulder strap and tape. The JVC camcorders also came with an adaptor to play back VHS-C or S-VHS-C tapes on standard VHS or S-VHS video recorders. You can buy one of these separately, but expect to pay about £20 for a motor wind version like those included with these cameras. Don't be tempted to buy one of the cheap ones that retail for £10 or less as these are hand-wound and quite often damage your tapes because of over tensioning. 0AMSUNG VP-U12 Price: £459.99 Tel: 0181-391 8258 Our first camera up for testing is Samsung's very cheap U 1 2 model. The U 1 2 actually manages to look slightly more expensive than its price tag should warrant. The only giveaway is the tacky looking viewfinder arm which is plas- ticky and feels insecure. The viewfinder itself is mono, unsurprisingly, but the picture from it is sharp and clear. The camera is in the mid-range for weight coming in at an acceptable 0.8kg, and the mono microphone is set well back on the body to avoid lens noise from the autofocusing motor. For such a cheap camera you may well be surprised to learn that it has a variety of tricks up its lenscap such as a portrait mode, sports mode, and high speed mode, although the manual doesn't actually mention how fast the shutter speed is on these last two. It also has a fader and posterisation trick functions to add to the fun, and a titling function. Unfortunately for me, the camera we received came with a manual in either Norwegian or Swedish, nei- ther of which languages I am particu- larly fluent in, so I had a little trouble, but providing you get a manu- al in a language you are familiar with, this camera is well worth auditioning if you are on a restricted budget. Connections: Video and audio out, external Mic. DC RF Features: 12x Zoom, remote control, titling, program modes. Special effects: Fader, Posterisation, interval recording (for time lapse) Format: Video8 Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 VC GR HF900 Price: £749.99 Tel: 0181-450 3282 Our first camcorder from JVC in this round up is a neat square VHS-C Camcorder which weighs in at just under 0.8 of a kilo. This little box is feature rich with a list that can start with stereo audio facilities (along with an external mic connection), a powerful floodlight for those poorly lit parties, a colour viewfinder, that, unlike some, is quite true to the actual colours recorded to tape (apart from a slight yellow tinge), and an image stabilising feature. The HF900 doesn't PDC - Programme Delivery Control. PDC is currently used by BBC2 and Channel 4 . It sends a signal out at the start and end of programmes so that video recorders can start and stop recording a programme at the appropriate time. This should mean that even if a football match goes into overtime, you won't miss anything. Nicam - Near Instant- aneous Compounded Audio Multiplex. A stereo broad- cast system developed by the BBC and adopted by the UK and several other countries for stereo transmission. Pre-Roll - a method to help get edit points right. Because videos take some time to start playing back or recording, a pre-roll is nec- essary to ensure that you start recording at the time set and not after. Index searching - an index mark is a tag on your video tape that normally indicates when you have started recording. Some video recorders, as you can see stop there though. It also has a wide range of trick from the reviews, can features to suit every occasion, as they say. manually insert index There's a 'widescreen' mode that chops the top marks - lndex marks can be and bottom off your footage to give it that cine- arched for using an index , . . , °, . search facility on your mascope feel, and a sepia mode that turns every- femo(e cmtml thing a dull brown to make it look like you are actually using a very old super 8mm camera with very old stock instead of a state-of-the-art piece of far eastern technology. If you are shooting at dusk or dawn you can turn on the twilight function which changes the white colour balance to try to ensure that your colours are a bit more true to life. There's also the usual gamut of portrait modes, sports and high-speed modes with vastly increased shutter rates for capturing the action as it happens. I \i ^ ^* D — C V Overall, the HF900 is V V U R J I a great little camera, particularly since its price drop of £50. Connections: Video and stereo audio out, edit, external Mic. DC RF Features: 1 2x Zoom, remote control, titling, program modes, focus fixing, image stabiliser, limited selection of preset titles (wedding, Christmas, birthday, etc.) Special effects: Wide- screen, Sepia, Twilight, Fader, interval recording (for time lapse) Format: S-VHS-C Jargon harp VLH420H Vl EWCAM Price: £1,200 Tel: 0800 262958 Sharp made a complete departure from the normal handgrip-at-the-side, look-down-a- small-tube-style of camcorder with this new design. In case you've never seen one before, the photos show the way it works. The viewfinder is the large LCD panel on the back of the camera body and the camera's lens is on a swivel mounted arm on the side of the camera and almost looks like an afterthought. One of the major benefits to this manner of operation is that you can hold the Viewcam up above your head if you're standing in a crowd without los- ing the ability to see what you are recording. Sim- ilarly, if you want a puppy's eye view of things, you can hold the camera down low (tie it to a broom handle if you're really brave) and run along with it like that. The Viewcam also makes taking foot- I age of yourself much easier as the screen can swivel all the way around to face the front of the camera. As you do so, the on-screen controls all flip so that you can still read them - a nice touch. As for performance, the Viewcam is okay, but not outstanding in the quality stakes. The stereo sound on the camera I received for review was particularly clear and the picture was certainly reasonable. The camera does weigh more than your average camcorder at 1.2kg, but its design means that this rarely becomes a problem unless you need a hand free. I have to say I am slightly worried about the durability of the connection between the body of the camera and the lens arm as my review model seems slightly wobbly. Connections: Video (composite and Y/C) and stereo audio out, DC RF (all on a plug-in module), headphones, external Mic. Features: 20x zoom, remote control, manual focus and exposure, program modes, snapshot, image stabiliser, macro lens Special effects: Fader, Widescreen Format: Hi8 Price: £799.99 Tel: 0181-450 3282 The last camera got a great review and I stand by it, until that is, you have a look at this one. The SX1 (not to be confused in any way, shape or form with the CD32 add-on, by the way), is the S-VHS-C big brother (it weighs slightly more too, at 1 kg) to the HF900 and used to cost £1000. With the price reduction to only 800 quid, you'd be a fool to pass up this opportunity for better quality. You might, of course, need to upgrade your video recorder to a more suitable spec as well, but that's the price of progress. The SX1 has the same raft of features as the HF900 - the widescreen, sepia, twilight and sports/highspeed modes (highspeed on the SX1 actually goes up to 4000 frames per sec- ond), and adds the ability to fade in or out and fade in or out from colour to mono, or vice versa. Both JVC cameras are equipped with an edit socket and offer an assemble edit function to synchronise your video recorder to the camera, and the SX1 can create index marks from the remote. I'll finish as I started. This camera represents extremely good value for money and should be snapped up by anyone with an eye to better than average quality. Connections: Video (composite and Y/C) and stereo audio out, edit, DC RF, external Mic. Features: I Ox variable speed zoom, remote control, program modes, manual focus and exposure, image stabiliser Special effects: Colour fader/Fader, Widescreen, Sepia, Twilight, interval recording (for time lapse) Format: S-VHS-C wammmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 There's a novel in all of us.' I Phillips believes there's a film or two tucked away inside us as well... Ohe world is crammed with people itching to unleash their vision onto the cinema screen or even just the local town hall in front of a mass of friends and relatives. While wild enthusiasm may start you off „, thinking about that glittering career, movie-making usually has a very defined process that needs to be learnt. The very nature of putting a production together from start to finish can be a complex and lengthy process. Here for your perusal is a bite-sized guide that'll hopefully start you on the road to becoming a doer instead of a dreamer. HE CREW For a small scale amateur produc- tion, you'll ideally need the following: Writer - without a decent one, you might as well return that camcorder to Dixons now. Producer/Director - who organ- ises the fundamentals, brings what money there is to a production, and then changes hats and calls the shots. Production Assistant - the vital organiser who helps the director stay on track. Lighting Camera operator - who'll turn that vision into a real- ity. A thorough under- standing of how to get the best out of lighting in any shape or form will add immeasurably to a production (after all, in somewhat pretentious terms, you are 'painting with light' so to speak. Quite). Sound Recordist - ideally, a detachable microphone and manual sound con- trols included on your camcorder are vital. For maximum effect, these will require the aural expertise of the sound recordist to get the maximum benefit. Editor - the person that splices all those shots together into a seamless masterpiece. C Expects directors to look a ft or her during her performance ACT I ACT II ACT III exposition: development: resolution: intro main char "throt rocks" at but the hero and "the problem" main char, more comes through or obstacle; that's complication, "the (usually), "the the char need and what's plot thickens" happy ending" in the ray? HOOPOIMT PLOT POUT PLOT POIHT (pp 25-30): (pp 55-60): something happens in the again, something happens story to shift focus, to to shift focus, increase tighten tension and make danger to main char getting the problem/obstacle tougher what s/he rants; reversals than it seemed before of fortune can happen FIffl PLOT POIB (pp85-90): the hero may fail; danger abounds, obstacles everywhere Amiga Computing APRIL 19 9 6 JjRE- PRODUCTI ON Actors beg for them. Directors dream of them. And the public (usually) loves them - good scripts are gold dust. The foundation of any film or video, the art of screenwriting has been dissected by many professional word maestros. Judging from the production line that is Hollywood, it's painfully clear that even some of the top dogs haven't got their heads round the basics. Any script starts off usually with a story. The favoured route is to start at the begin- ning, work through the middle, and wind up at the end. It's the classic movie struc- ture split into three acts. There are always successful oppo sites to this (take a look at Pulp Fiction's leaping time frame), but you can't break the rules unless you've learnt them. If you have a relatively clear idea about the story you want to tell, the best place to start is to tell the story in simple words in the shape of a treatment. Flick on the Amiga, boot up Wordsworth, and type away. Don't include any dialogue - classic movie teachings dictate that the story should be told in images and actions, not through the spoken word. Once you've bashed out the story, leave it for a couple of days and then read through it. If you find yourself flinching at certain moments, change them for something more appropriate. With any story, never be precious - think of all the options for your characters and how they'll face the conflicts thrown up throughout the film's journey. Rewrite, chop and change until you're happy you have what appears to be the best options at that time. Once this is done, you should hopefully have a treatment that is already very scene oriented. To further aid the actual structure of the story, not necessarily the content itself, write out each scene on a piece of paper with a simple header. Arrange each card on a wall and take a long hard look - ask yourself if one of the scenes might be better if moved forward in the film and vice versa. This visual refer- ence guide can really help to blow away any cobwebs of over- analysis when viewing bulky text onscreen. When done, it's time to plough into the actual screenwrit- ing itself. This process should be far less taxing if you've done all your homework beforehand. Keep dialogue to a minimum and use it as an opportunity to set up further intrigue for the viewer - simple exposition of the plot is dull and uninvolving. For further info, and if you have a Net account, visit the Screenwriter's Resource (http://www.tele- port.com/~cdeemer/Screenwriters.html) which offers valu- able insights into the craft and, more importantly, has many pros who are constantly talking to one another over the Web about the ins and outs of writing for the screen. Once the script has gone through various drafts where it has been honed, sharpened and structured, it's time to sit back and ask yourself how much all this is going to cost you. If you've written an epic Genghis Khan screen- play that runs at four hours, you may as well throw it in the bin now or try your luck flogging it to someone (that's a whole book in itself). Meanwhile, if you've managed to construct a simple but intriguing piece, you could easily shoot it on your Hi-8 camcorder. The thing to always remember is that while on initial thought you might possibly perceive RODUCTION The shoot itself is where all that preplanning comes ■ into fruition. Schedules should flow like clockwork. 1 Actors will get their lines in the first take and the sto- 1 ryboard makes the transition from paper to the big ' screen gracefully. The reality is somewhat different. Things can go wrong. The weather will change. A passing jumbo will drown out the sound, and certain shots will eat into your schedule more than you'd like. Throughout all this, you must be prepared to make compromises and have a PA sharp enough to rearrange times in a matter of minutes to help put you back on track. Above all, always appear to be in control - if you've done your planning properly, you'll invariably find that your mind is focused enough to come up with informed decisions on the spot. Call it a form of programming your subconscious [see Freud]. To keep morale high on set, try and keep the shoot running as fluidly as possible so that complacency doesn't set in (very apparent at times on amateur shoots when people realise that filming isn't as glamorous as they thought it was). Always check everything you've shot there and then. This doesn't mean you have to look all the way through the entire two minute take, but simply at the end of the section to make sure the tape isn't a dud. At the end of each shooting day, look through the rushes (takes) to make sure you don't need to reshoot anything. If you do, if s better to find out there and then than later in the heat of editing. One final note is to remember continuity - use a Polaroid camera to take snaps of what the actors are wearing, how a location looks and so on if the shooting of a particular scene is spread out over a few days. APRIL 1996 that there are only a few minor expenses to incur, there are always a myriad of costs to consider. First off the bat, you'll need actors, a skeleton crew (only three to four mem- bers), video stock, lighting, locations and more. Sit down with the script and go through it What props are needed? What locations? Any extras? Put basic headings for each part of the process - Crew, cast, equipment, editing, stationary and so on. Then fill in all the ele- ments under each heading - you'll find that sheet of paper can suddenly become very full. While you may well be able to get much of the listed for free in the shape of enthusiastic film fans and friends giving a helping hand, it'll help you work out every ele- ment that is vital to the production. Use Final Calc, the Amiga's premier spreadsheet, to lay out your needs and their prices to create a budget sheet Armed with an overall cost that you feel can be achieved, it's time to start organising the shoot Unless you're a hyper confident director, story- boards are a vital element of any production. Terry Gilliam (ex-Monty Python and director of Fisher King and Twelve Monkeys) has only just started not to use them. By using drawings to map out each shot, a dear vision can be built up for you to work from. The finished result should by no means be absolute - the very nature of film making is that you might get a better idea on the day or be forced into another while on location. Never be afraid to change your mind and deviate from the storyboard, unless you're adding effects in post produc- tion using your Amiga and Lightwave <") How that screenplay should be laid out (these need to be exactly planned). With each frame of the storyboard, fill in a short description below of exactly what is happening and any dialogue that is to be spoken. Don't worry if you're not an accomplished drawer - basic stick men, buildings and so forth will do the job adequately. Just make sure they're clear enough for the camera operator to understand though. If you have absolutely no faith in your drawings whatso- ever, then writing out what each shot will entail can be enough. Once you've achieved this, it's time to write up a shot list. With your production assis- tant, sit down and go through the storyboards, giving each shot a number. Then con- struct a list of shots, a brief description, and work out roughly how long each is going to take to shoot After this, schedule each scene into your shooting days. Certain scenes may be shot togeth- er due to the same location, but never expect to shoot shots in exact order. Moving about and con- stantly resetting can take too much time. While you're juggling all this info, also list all the costumes, locations and props that'll be required for the production. Ask a friend to help out with the organising - if you can't, you're going to need the patience of a saint Location hunting should be carried out with the camera operator and can be done before or after the storyboards - expect changes though on the day. That imagined shot might just prove to be too impractical or time consuming to carry out Once the storyboards, shot list, and time schedules have been drawn up, it's time to search out the actors [see panel]. On securing their talents, setting the date of the big shoot is the final step before the plunge. WINNEBAGO. ..NOW!! WW Alfred Hitchcock referred to them as "cattle." James Cameron has dismissed them as "puppets." The general public think they can be "luwies." Good actors, however, in the amateur scene can be difficult to hunt down. There are places to begin that search for the right face for the part - try hooking up with the local amateur dramatics society and go along to see a performance. There may well be another Emma Thompson strutting her stuff in a Noel Coward play desperate to get some film/video experience. Have a chat with the director to see if they can recommend anyone. Universities, colleges and drama schools are also ripe hunting ground for blossoming talent - put up advertisements in the student bars and other public places to see if anyone takes a bite. Again, they usually will. To them, as with you, they want experience and aren't too bothered about payment as long as they are working with someone who has a professional attitude and they don't have to cough up £30 for their travel expenses. The pros have screentests and casting couches (regrettably alive and kicking even in humble little Britain). The new- bie has enthusiasm and sincerity as their principle tools. With any interested parties, interview them and make sure they are both confident and flexible enough to offer ideas for the performance and also receive direction. Rehearsals are vital for any production - it can alter the storyboards and shot list as you and the performers work on the script to bring it to life. How you treat actors varies between individuals. While there's straightforward direction giving, some per- formers need to be handled with kid gloves or an iron hammer respectively. For example, Sigourney Weaver is quite happy to admit that she likes the director to look after her and 'nurture her performance' while others will start eating the set if you decide to interfere too often. For identifying what type of approach you'll need, that interview is especial- ly important. Directing actors has had several hundred books written about it over the years. For first timers, the rule is basic - keep it simple. Don't stand waxing lyrical about 'character arcs' and other chin stroking exercises. It can help the very inexperienced to envisage what they need but, more often than not, it'll end up in confusion - by about half way through the shoot, the performers will know more about the character than the director ever will if each has done their job properly. Give to-the-point directions. A single word or explanatory phrase. The more you explain a scene or a line, though, the less impact you'll have and less chance the actor will have to 'make it their own'. It's important that the penny drops on its own accord instead of you trying to shove it down everyone's throat. Directing actors is all about experi- ence and you will make mistakes. Amiga Computing APRIL 199 6 Butt* 1 ** OST PRODUCTION Most of us can't afford the sometimes extortionate prices that edit- ing facilities cost. For more info on what the Amiga can do for you, check out this issue and in the February issue for details on the rather fabulous Draco system that would have most pro editors whimpering to their bosses for money. The first stage before jumping into the rushes is to log every shot This can be done during the actual shoot itself, but it can be carried out at leisure afterwards by going through the tapes and marking down what time each take starts at on a particular tape. Also, decide there and then which takes you will most likely use - this all saves time with the actual editing process. The editing process itself usually has the three stages - the rough cut (slapping everything together with no real attention to exact timings to see how well the whole production hangs togeth- er), the second cut (making accurate cuts and taking out unneces- sary shots) and the final cut (where the video is honed to near-as- damn-it perfection). Never be afraid to write off shots if they aren't necessary - if they're not needed, they'll dissolve the impact of the film when showed to an ever-critical audience. Never underestimate the power of editing, it sets the pace of the entire film and breathes life into your separate shots and makes it a whole, attention-grabbing experience. Once you're done snip- ping, all you need to do now is show it to as many people as possi- ble [see panel]. HERE TO NOW? The one truly valuable thing to always bear in mind when considering a professional career is simple - talent is a prerequisite. The real deal is that you must make contacts. There are certainly plenty of talented people without jobs in the industry and plenty of average directors and writers peddling their wares on our TV and cinema screens. How come they made it? Because they know someone in the business either as a friend or relative, or they have the social skills to network themselves into a job. It's an incredibly important talent and vital for success in the film industry where socialising and getting your face seen means everything. If you have a friend or relative in the business, don't just sit there with your lower jaw stuck out in indignant pride thinking "I will do this myself. I'm not jolly well going to leech off someone else." Get out there and wring every last drop of career-building juice out of a contact. If it's family, all the better - nepotism is good. Another vital element to 'making it' is to get your work seen. Short of being put out on general release or broad- cast on television, it's vital that your production must make a splash somewhere. Film festivals are the first and most obvious port of call. From county film shows to international festivals, the amateur does have plenty of places to put their work on show. You'll usually find that the smaller affairs are simply for enthusiasts who want to enjoy the experience of movie-making but are non-plussed about getting anywhere. Again, set your targets feasibly high. Find out which festivals have high profile - while the Oscars are obviously a no go in most cases, the likes of the Cork film festival and the Chicago film festival do attract a fair-sized audience. Check out the British Film Institute's film and television handbook for more details. Depending on how much money you have for video dupes and how good you think your work is, send out tapes to targeted production companies and individuals. Again, just pick up a copy of BFI's handbook to see the amount of different production companies and what they may be interested in. One note of caution though - don't always expect to have your tape sent back to you - these people are usually horrifically busy. Bear in mind, having a contact who can recommend your work to someone in authority can give them that push to put the tape in the video machine. Quentin Tarantino handed the Reservoir Dogs script over to a ten- nis coach who happened to play with Harvey Kietel's wife. She read it, thought it was excellent, and recommended it to her husband. He read it, committed to it, and the money started pouring in. It's all about exploiting contacts and targeting your audience/funders. Film seminars, workshops, and local arts meetings are also useful meeting places where equally struggling but determined fresh talent are looking to meet, mingle and work with people of a similar attitude. Finally, never forget that 'making if requires gut deter- mination and ever abundant motivation - you'll never get anywhere unless you're prepared to work like a horse. The film and TV industry is not a nine to five job with a company car. Z5f Amiga Computing ISSUE 8 ProGrab Supports all recent Amigas and is also fully AGA Chipset compatible. You can render images in any Workbench screen mode resolution including HAM8 mode |Amiga RAM permitting). ProGrab™... Saves and Loads images in IFF/ILBM, IFF/ILBM24. JPEG. BMP PCX, and TARGAfile formats. ProGrab saves animations as Anim5 files and animations with sound (requires PCMCIA interface and separate sound sampler) as Anim5 + 8SVX files. A range of image processing effects, palette computing routines (AGA only) and dithering methods are also new to ProGrab Version 2,5.x Photogenics fully supports ProGrab with a custom Loader' to enable grabs directly from within the program - saving YOU time! ProGrab™... Software has built in mono and colour animation facilities. The number of frames is dependant upon your Amigas RAM. ProGrab™.. Release 2.5.x software now includes... ■ SUPPORT FOR VIRTUAL MEMORY Allows the highest resolutions - Even with low memory Amigas (All Hard Drive Systems without the need for an MMU : requiring just 1Mb. Hard Drive Space). - ADDITIONAL TELETEXT FACILITIES With either Terrestrial or Satellite TV signals. ■ LARGER PREVIEW WINDOW Double Resolution and 4 times the area available with previous ProGrab software. ■ INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT Now works with composite PAL, SECAM and NTSC Straight from the box! [♦Standard ProGrab hardware is PAL/SECAM/NTSC compatible, interlace mode options are available with PAL & SECAM only. NTSC Only models are available to special order which then support the interlace mode fully. Please ask us for full details.) RAB. . . Rapid Frame ing on your Amiga The revolutionary S-VHS ProGrab™ 24RT Plus with Teletext is not only the best way to get crisp colour video images into your Amiga, from either live broadcasts or taped recordings, it also costs less than any of its rivals. This real time PAL/ SECAM/NTSC* 24-Bit colour frame grabber/digitiser has slashed the price of image grabbing on the Amiga and, at the same time, has received rave reviews for its ease of use and excellent quality results. ProGrab™ has earned honours from just about every Amiga magazine and Video magazines too! And... with ProGrab™ you needn't be an expert in Amiga Video Technology, a simple 3 stage operation ensures the right results - Real Time, after time. STAGE I... Select any video source with S-VHS or composite output. This could be your camcorder, TV with SCART output, satellite receiver, domestic VCR/player or standard TV signal passing through your VCR/player... the choice is yours. STAGE 2... With ProGrabs software, select an image you wish to capture using the on screen preview window and Grab (because the hardware grabs frames in real time, there's no need for a freeze frame facility on the source device!). Once grabbed, simply download and view the full image on your Amiga screen. ProGrab also includes a Teletext viewing and capturing facility from either TV or satellite sources. STAGE 3... Use the 'grabbed' image with your favourite word processor, DTP or graphics package. ProGrab really does make it that simple! 4 or. Use the signal from your satellite receiver... or. Grab TV or video pictures from your VCR's video output including S-VHS. For just £129.95 ■ ■ ■ Camcorder User commented ... "If you're looking 1 for a high resolution 24 bit digitiser then, at this price, C3.tTICOrClPf ProGrab 24RT represents great value for money." V^**VS^*_V*V* ProGrab is supplied with everything you'll need ■ ProGrab'" 24RT Plus Digitiser ■ Latest ProGrab Version 2.5.x Software ■ Mains Power Supply Unit ■ Parallel Port Connecting Cable ■ User Manual ■ Input sockets for Composite and SVHS. PCMCIA Interface for Al 200 and A600 - Only £34.95 ProGrabs optional PCMCIA Interface includes the latest version software and extends performance for serious/professional users - offering the following benefits... ■ Faster Downloading Times |up to FIVE times quicker) ■ Improved animation speeds of up to 1 Ifps (mono) and 3.5fps |colour] ■ Sound sampling and animation capabilities (separate sound sampler required) ■ Saving of animations direct to your Amiga's hard drive • Freeing of your Amiga Parallel Port for use by a printer or other parallel peripheral device ProGrab™ supports any Amiga with Kickstart 2.04 or later & a minimum of 1 .5Mb. free RAM. 0 + A video source cable will be required to match your own equipment set up - Ask for details. f ProGrab' 1 '' - Voted as The Best Video Hardware product for the Amiga. This is especially pleasing because the award comes from the Amiga Shopper magazine's readers ... Our Satisfied Customers! ProGrab - Amiga Shopper 95% STAR Buy and remarks like. . . "Sharp, crisp and faithful to the original colours, we were mightily impressed" and... "Highly Recommended. Whether you are a Videographer or a Graphic Artist, look to the ProGrab 24RT Plus. Its a winner" Star Buy ProGrab'" - Amiga Format 93% Gold Rating and comments like "ProGrab 24RT Plus is quite simply the digitiser to get", 'Incredible value for money - no other digitiser offers so much for so little" and 'Offers far more features than any other digitiser near the same price" CU Amiga said ProGrab™ is... "Just the job for beginners and semi-professionals on a tight budget" and, "very hard to beat. For the money, nothing can touch it" SI Get your hands on NEW ProGrab Plus - Post or FAX your requirements (Quantity Trade Prices Available! ° n the order form provided OR, if you'd simply like further information please contact.. "-a Cite Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms: Initial(s): Surname: Address: GORDON HARW00DO! COMPUTERS&W33 Gordon Harwood Computers Limited. New Street, Alfreton, Derbyshire DE55 7BP. FAX: 01 773 831040 or... TELEPHONE 01 773 836781 Count)' (Country): Daytime Phone: ProGrab Plus"' @ £129.95 £ PCMCIA Interface I £34.95 £ V 2.5.x S/W (User Upgrade) 6 £4.95 £ Optional FAST Courier Delivery $ £6.95 £ TOTAl I Card No □□□□□□ K*,Mc □□□□ Postcode: Evening Phone: tttf Overseas Customers... Please call fur prices, shipping etc. Card holder's signature: □□ □□□□ □□nconon Valid From: I I I I Issue Number: I I PItK^^ AlT(~\ Valid From: I II I Issue Number: I I 1 ,1 , AfQ (Switch Only) I || | (Switch Only) | j DepartaeocALAJ I enclose a Cheque/Bank Draft/Postal Order for £ made payable to GORDON HARWOOD COMPUTERS LIMITED [jjc TAMED 6 The 6th official version of the major music maker on the Amiga has landed. Over the last few months there have been demos of it pop- ping up now and again around various Internet sites, but now the final version is here we can happily make spring time a musical one. My favourite version of Octamed was 5. The previous versions weren't my cup of tea, mainly because they had a very PD look and feel and were extremely unfriendly, and I could barely live with them. However, having said that, I was still able to produce some half decent tunes. Therefore, when version 5 came out I was particularly pleased, mainly because of its user-friendliness. In fact, the whole of my hard drive was packed with samples and I man- aged to spawn the occasional dance remix, even to rival some of the pap that was already out there. Unfortunately, none of my tunes saw the light of day - mainly because there wasn't much I could do with them - and when winter time comes I like to hide away and listen to a bit of indie, which just cannot be created on an Amiga. Sorry. So Octamed 6 arrives and I instantly injec- ted some life into my own tunes. These can be imported from other versions of Octamed which, incidentally, was difficult to do with version 5. Obviously, the main difference that most users are pleased about are the extra chan- nels. Basically, instead of always being able to play four samples at once you can now play eight, which in turn means you can have far more variety and more sounds to choose from to make your tunes. Previously, if I made a dance tune, for example, I usually needed a drumbeat, bass- drum and a melody, which left only one chan- nel to use for either cymbal crashes, hand claps or even vocals, so the choice wasn't exactly what I'd deem wide. So without explaining all the new features in great detail, which would take around seven days, I'll give you an idea of the new additions, and what you'll get for your money. MIDI - which stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface - was first introduced around version 2 and can be linked to an external device such as a synthesiser which can be connected through a MIDI interface which connects to the Amiga's serial port. Basically, all the options and selection boxes are now cleverly positioned in windows for you to move and resize to your own prefer- ence. The prime example of this is the Tempo O Er, I'm not entirely sure why I picked this off the Artworx CD, I can't think of any reasons, All the ususal and more in our monthly review of the latest Amiga CDs. Andy fVA<3€ficfl cyclic, reveals all window which, usually found at home at the top of the screen, now has its own windows. The prime reason for this is so the options you use a lot will have priority because the amount of options would litter the screen ridiculously. Also, each section of the actual program is split up into around four main windows which can be closed down, espe- cially if you need some free memory to edit samples or other memory-consuming processes. If you use Med frequently then this is an essential purchase and one that should never be missed, but for people like me who don't take their Amiga music too seriously, version 5 is more than enough. However, if you have neither, I can't recommend Octamed version 6 enough. Hi m lilt III ■■■ Bottom www fv» Product details Product: Octamed 6 Supplier: Weird Science Price: £29.95 Phone: 0116 234 0682 Scores Ease of use 85% Implementation 90% Value For Money 89% Overall 90% mm Wm wm ^■■P^ Qhase 3 Two months ago we reviewed E.M. Computergraphic's second image, font and clipart package and it received 90 per cent. The third CD in the series has now arrived and I can tell you that this one doesn't alter E.M.C's superbly consistent record. The latest volume contains hundreds of images of excellent quality along with many more directories containing fonts and clipart. This time, the clipart caught my eye. I tested the quality of the disc by thinking of different topics which I would need relevant images for to accompany this text, and I came up with ancient pot- tery, sewing and pants of the world. Unbelievably, I found clipart suitable for all these pseudo-documents, and I'm still in shock after finding several pictures of pants. There truly is a use for all the Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 OTHING BUT GIFS AGA The Amiga is well known for its Graphic Interchange Format or GIF as it is more widely known. Basically, if you haven't worked it out already this CD is devoted completely to GIF images which are always one of the best quality formats on any home computer. Not only will you get hundreds of megabytes of images but you will also receive various viewers such as the standard FastView or others such as image converters and datatypes. There are plenty of converting utili- ties on the CD so you will never have any image viewing problems. The image directory is divided into suitable categories, each one containing its own thumbnails file. You can't really get better quality pictures than the ones contained on this CD-ROM and the choice of pictures are also pretty varied. The main CD is split into three directories - digitised, rendered and d These wooden toy things were used to reflect your mood. It didn't work for me, because I kept sticking them in naughty positions pictures contained on the CD. As usual, all the pictures have been categorised correctly and each directory has its own thumbnails file. The pictures are of the highest quality which is nothing short of what we expect from E.M. Computergraphic, and the cate- gories, as mentioned before, are of a varied selection. Without doubt you will find something to use, so whether you're after images or clipart for desktop publishing, or you're after a fancy desktop picture, you'll be spoilt for choice. The images are just the tip of the iceberg. There are more volumes of postscript and imagine fonts, and to top it off it's all pre sented in a very professional way. This is cer- tainly a CD you wouldn't be forgiven for missing. A true essential. (") Two months ago we featured a nice cute dog to demonstrate Phase 2. So for Phase 3, here's a nice cute cat with a cute dog! hand-drawn pictures - and in each directory there are a number of categories. The whole CD is polished off by an excel- lent AmigaGuide which displays the contents of the CD superbly. Just click on the file name to show the picture, along with a short description of what you're going to be looking at. However, some of them don't actually have a description which does get slightly annoying, although the thumbnails file more than makes up for this. Overall, Nothing but GIFS is a very high quality CD, and shouldn't be missed by any art fan. Bottom Product details Product: Nothing but GIFS AGA Supplier: 1 7 Bit Software Price: £19.99 Phone: Ease of use 01924 366982 94% Implementation 90% Value For Money 92% Overall 91% Bottom line Product DETAILS Product: Phase 3 Supplier: E.M. Computergraphic Price: £24.99 Phone: 01255 431389 K RES Ease of use 92% Implementation 92% Value For Money 88% Overall 91% Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 □ RTWORX Our collection of image CDs has grown immensely over the past few months and the best so far has been Phase 2 by E.M. Computergraphic. Other than that, all the others have come way down the line. However, most of these CDs are under a tenner so they usually just about warrant their price tag. The images contained on Artworx are of a fairly standard quality and most of the pictures are contained on other cheap CDs elsewhere. So what can you expect for your £9.99? The images are split up into various cate- gories ranging from the usual Dogs to Cars, so there are no annoying pictures referred to as something like '10034/10' which is probably just a Chaffinch pecking at a nut. All the images have come courtesy of various Amiga artists and every single one is in colour which is a bonus - especially when you own a colour printer, although for something as wide- spread as desktop publishing the choices are not so vast. Although £9.99 is a nice cheap price for a packed CD, the images aren't particularly out- standing and you'll be pushed hard to find anything good enough to use yourself. f* & <#, n<* •'**' r- r -m am O Not only does Artworx contain a variety of images, there's also a bundle of stereograms Bottom line Product details Product: Artworx Supplier: Weird Science Price: £9.99 Phone: Ease of use 0116 234 0682 90% Implementation 86% Value For Money 80% Overall 81% Owo printers, two inkjet printers, to be precise, from the two biggest manufacturers landed on my desk the other day. The Epson Stylus Colorlls and the Hewlett Packard DeskJet 850C are from the new range of inkjet printers that can manage an incredibly high resolution. The high quality resolutions like the ones that these printers offer mean that printers are getting to the point where they can provide a cheaper alternative to reprints of photographs, especially if you have the right quality paper available. Both of the printers on test today share cer- tain features. They can print at very high reso- lutions (720dpi for the Stylus and 600dpi for the DeskJet), they both really require the use of high quality coated paper to get the very best results from them, and they are both just about cheap enough to make even the most thrifty DTP'er look twice. Both printers also use the cartridge system that is fast becoming standard, where the black ink is held in a separate cartridge. Output This is particularly important if you are using the printer for all your output and not just pictures because it will mean you use more black than any other colour. The Hewlett Packard offers the user the facility for both car- tridges to be used at once, meaning you get true CMYK performance while printing pic- tures, and it can take a larger sized cartridge for black, a definite bonus if you print a lot of text in addition to all your pictures. But first appearances can make a difference, so how do they look? Well, top points have to go the DeskJet for this, although even it doesn't seem to be up to the same standard I have come to expect from Hewlett Packard. The printer's case is somewhat plasticky and because there is such a large amount of room inside the case, the glowing LEDs that show the printer's status, etc. shine onto the back of the printer's insides which doesn't look too good. However, overall construction is superior to the Stylus which continues Epson's odd tradi- tion of seemingly leaving the design of their printers to the last minute. The Epson printer itself is much smaller than the DeskJet, but has a fold out sheet of plastic underneath to act as the Stylus' paper tray. To be honest, I think I would rather have a moulded tray like that on the DeskJet that: a) doesn't look as flimsy and b) works more effectively But even Hewlett Packard have been cutting costs. The familiar smoked grey plastic paper tray cover has gone, making the printer slightly more noisy than the DJ500C I still occasionally use. In fact, noise was a problem with both printers (not much of a problem, obviously, when compared to dot matrix printers, but a problem none the less). Now, I should really point out that I wasn't actually using the print- ers in the best possible location for deadening noise, but I was running out of room in my office, so they both ended up having to stand somewhere where noise could come from the ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ punch up Hewlett Packard and Epson are probably the two biggest names in desktop printers. Frank Nord sees how their latest output matches up Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 A plus point in the DeskJet's favour is the quality of the ink they use. Even in areas of dense coverage, the HP's ink doesn't seem to bleed too much I I NAL WORDS Well, if I had to pick one of these two, it would have to be the DeskJet. The Stylus is much cheaper, has a higher theoretical res- olution, and is faster under certain condi- tions, but the DeskJet gave the feel of a quality piece of hardware, is backed by Hewlett Packard's globally reknowned name, and gave results that were still impressive. Until Epson solve the problems I encountered with banding and the general tacky design of the Stylus, I'm not going to buy one for myself. Bottom es. Studio again I know we mention Studio every time we do a printer review or round-up, which must make it the single most publicised piece of software for the Amiga other than Workbench, but it does bear reiterating. If you want to get the best possible results from your printer, get a copy of Studio. Thaf s all. Just factor the extra fifty quid into your budget for a printer and make sure you get it. bottom of the printer as well as the top, sides and front. Despite this, both the printers, particularly on the head clean or startup cycles, were noisier than I had expected. But hey, you don't really care about the noise do you? What you care about is output, output, output. Both printers performed pretty well with a variety of types of output, from a high resolution render (1000x1500 pixels), to a standard DPaint screen, from a general DTP layout from PageStream 3 (which supports both printers with its new XPD files), to output from a text editor using printer fonts. In my opinion, the DeskJet outperformed the Epson in terms of output quality, notwithstand- ing the Stylus' higher resolution, but the Epson was faster than the DeskJet, particularly in the PageStream 3 tests because SoftLogik have taken advantage of the fact that the Stylus can skip blank lines. Actually, the Epson showed signs of band- ing when running on normal paper, but this improved with the high quality paper Epson gave us for the review, but then Epson themselves say that you shouldn't try 720dpi printing on plain paper. Unfortunately, the lack of a fourth colour for printing with the Stylus meant that black was created by mixing the other three colours, resulting in poor quality at low point sizes. This manner of printing will also increase costs if you intend mixing colour with black on your pages, unless, of course, you are willing to try and overprint your pictures afterwards. Another plus point in the DeskJet's favour is the quality of the ink they use. Even in areas of dense coverage, the HP's ink doesn't seem to bleed too much and paper wrinkles are kept to a minimum. So ifs still neck and neck as we go into the final decision. Which will win? line Requirements 1 REDessenr/o/ BLACK recommended ] Studio II Product i > E T A 1 L S Product Hewlett Packard DeskJet 850C Supplier Hewlett Packard Tel 01344 461274 Price £450 s CORES Ease of use 75% Implementation 75% Value For Money 75% Overall 75% Product details Product Epson Stylus Colour lis Supplier Epson Tel 01734 303681 Price £240 Si :S Ease of use 75% Implementation 75% Value For Money 75% Overall 75% Amiga Computing APRIL 199 6 Oetting online to the Internet has never been an easy business for the Amiga user. Sure, the Amiga „, has all the necessary software to get on and use the Internet, but the trouble is that the main source of software is on the Internet itself, and even if you had all the soft- ware you have to be a fairly well experienced Amiga hand, and have a smattering of Internet knowledge. The major stumbling block when trying to set up the software is how you configure it. The Internet uses the TCP/IP protocol to trans- fer information between all the machines connected to it. Currently, the most widely available version for the Amiga is AmiTCP - originally shareware the latest version is commercial. Even though it is a very good TCP/IP stack, every piece of Internet software you want to use with it has to be separately configured, which for even experienced users is easier said than done. The only real solution is to provide a single complete package, giving the user a configured TCP/IP stack along with all the necessary Internet tools, all set up and ready to run. Originally, only a few Internet providers gave this sort of support for Amiga owners, and then the software was only really just ade- quate. However, the planned Amiga Technologies Surfer pack looks like it could kill both of these problems in one fell swoop. Amiga Technologies are quite lucky with the most important part of the pack, the TCP/IP stack. Before the demise of Commodore, one of the last useful things they managed to Amiga Technologies' forth conning Surfer Pdck is almost upon us, and Neil Mohr has gathered all the packages together to take a sneak preview produce was AS225 - their very own imple- mentation of a TCP/IP stack - which by all accounts is very good, better than AmiTCP. However, up until now it has only been available to registered developers. The Surfer pack will see the first official pub- lic release, which in the long run will probably mean little to owners of the Surfer pack, but it will be the last remnants of the old Commodore to be seen by Amiga users. We do not yet know what implementation of AS225 will be used, but it may be one written by a third party - possibly iNet225 by Interworks, an American Amiga company specialising in networking. From the initial versions of the Surfer pack we have looked at, the software is going to be very good, but there are a few surprises. Firstly, ORTH THE WAIT Just from this quick look at the programs that will be provi- ded in the Surfer Pack, it looks like it should be an excellent buy. AmIRC and AmFTP are both extremely well written programs and provide every function you could want in both types of program, all backed up with an interface a fool could use. MindWalker is made by the same people, so hopefully the same can be expected of that, even though I would not expect it to match NetScape. Voodoo also looks the part and is again very easy to use, which is what is really needed in such a package. Currently, the only possible problem with the pack is that Amiga Computing there seems to be little newsgroup support. Normally, Web browsers do allow you to access these groups, and do work very well with text only entries. We will have to wait for the final pack to see what newsgroup functions MindWalker will have. When the Surfer pack finally hits the street we will be able to comment on how well everything has been integra- ted. Ifs no good having great programs if they are hard to run, but by all accounts the pack looks and runs great and I cannot see any reason why the final version shouldn't too. APRIL 1996 NVISIBLE MAIL The Surfer mail package is called Voodoo which is a full Mime-compatible mailer. E-mail only deals with plain text, which is fine for text messages, but if you need to send anything else such as pictures, sounds or programs you have to specially encode it for e-mail transmission. The recipient of the mail then has to cut out the picture part of the mail and decode it - not the most elegant system in the world. Mime is an attempt to make this encoding/decoding process invisible to the user. When sending mail you can simply include pictures and the such by dragging and dropping them into the mail window, or via a file requester. Each of these files are then treated as separate parts of the mail that you can view by clicking on the icon which appears in the speed icon bar. When the person on the receiving end gets their mail they will see exactly the same thing. Voodoo seems very simple to use. With all the mails listed in the top section of the window, and with support for multiple mail boxes and a straight forward e-mail address book, Voodoo certainly looks the part and provides everything you need. oJuti Fotcter IN6QX (another) (message 3 of 3) Osma Ahvenlampi -> tealig" 3comp.demon.co.uk -> test2@acompxlemon.co.uk konifyj Open ■A 04.12.95 07.02.36 07,02 .96 1S03 1220 2036 Welcome to Voodoo! its a test another 5<k j From Subject ©diteacomp. demon. co.uk (Editor another Wed, 7 Feb 96 16:32:39 GMT al Tea«> (Editorial Team) £ Now you can include graphics in your mails as easily as slipping them in a envelope .ij l.ijumiwiP' -memm ^H|Pp it is very interesting to note that not one of the supplied programs uses the standard Amiga interface library GadTools. The IRC, FTP and Web browsers use the Magic User Interface, while the mail package uses a more recent GUI package called ClassAction. Three of the programs are produced by the same programming group. Called Vaporware, they are responsible for the IRC and FTP clients along with the as yet unseen Web browser. All three programs require MUI 3, so provide all the advantages and disadvantages that come with MUI programs. Internet Relay Chat is an open forum where people from anywhere in the world can join discussion groups and talk about every subject imaginable, and probably a few you cannot. AmIRC is going to be the way you get onto IRC from the Surfer pack. The version we have been testing is only a beta but after using it for a while, I can safely say AmIRC is going to be one of the best IRC clients on any computer, never mind the Amiga. When you first start AmIRC you are confronted with a list of servers that you can connect from - you would normally use your Internet provider. Once you have selected your server, AmIRC can be made to auto-join a channel so you can jump straight into your favourite channel. The main AmIRC window allows you to access just about every feature of the IRC. As you would expect, the major part of the interface is taken up with the talk window, but an extremely handy window, lists all the other users on the current group, along with a number of function buttons. The buttons are configurable, allowing you to add your own commands, but the standard _.| AMFTP.i ■ connected mth 'AmiNet NetNet/USA" (ftp.nctnet.net) All files of last 7 days L«»fc [RAm: FHenamft BYTEmark-2.1 lha stringreq.lha AmiscapeJha Proteus 1„7 .lha DITOmasterJha A2630Fix.lha ArtPR00.S4.Ha BJ.Iha AmonopolyV. ., Constitution jha MakeDT-1 .2 Jha AM0SLIst-019t BrthDaysolha IATownScl3.lha tooTextractiha scdb_l 3d .lha wlnkillerluJha Embed258V1.l.lha NewPalettei2.lha MCPl lOJha WSStartupPlus-Iha Jha .Izh 238056 5708 8832 1 20851 86020 3354 130566 108347 1 97843 18983 12261 242146 17301 28372 2274S 135701 2031 136691 5954 404778 53250 Directory util/moni util/cdity pix/iBu miac/misc misc/edu hard/hack gfx/conv game/misc game/board docs /hyper dev/misc dev/amos comm/dig comm/bbs comm/bbs biz/dbase util/misc util/crypt util/cfi util/cdity util/boot Description BYTE Magazine portable benchmarks, SA Enhances string gadgets input methods. Preview Picture of Amiscape Proteus Pools Predictor. V1 .?. Vocabulary Tooi (Dirk Holtvtck) A collection of A2360 fixes, VI .0 A powerful gfx- converter ,V0.94 Beavis and Butthead replacement sound The classic board game. VI .4 The U.S. Constitution in Amiga Guide for a i0Q [283 file) [ 10], 74613K [ 1690KJ amftp AMIGA 8 iTJU Uu#ft login ok, tceeu retried* 250 CWD command suitojjfui. 200 PORT command su-:«s sf >j!. 200 Type jet to fl. 150 Opening ASCII mode cM* conne; Received 24643 bytes in 0&01 :13,3> nrr Date Jocjc.ac.uk) Jargon D O iX Receiving file (BINARY) RAm:EMC_Phase4_CD.Iha bir/demo/EMC_Pha3e4_CD.Iha 00:00:25 00:02:16 :1449 :|7cps TSV" — 1 — vtx — Trae A^::-i: : - :.:i^': ^^:: I ::V amftp AMIGA* Oo~w*o~*^ «c -bcz/de^/EMC n.ni l_nHii~ i ■ TlfttfJIC Pfw 200 POTT commtnd HKCWfftri, 200 Type <et to I 360 Rwtvtlnfl *t 2560. Send STORE or RETRffVE to in.tl.te *r»n»fer. 130 Opening eiriflCT mode d»tt connection for tin/ demo /EMC Ph**e4 0 J I just can't restrain myself. It's all so lovely, I don't know how I lived without AmFTP Internet - refers to the world- wide network of computers that pass information between each other. Each computer forms a tiny part of the whole thing. TCP/IP - when data is passed between computers connected to the Internet the data has to be packaged in a specific way. This protocol is called TCP/IP, the major one on the Amiga is AmiTCP. IRC - Internet Relay Chat is one of the Internet services that you can access via an IRC client. On IRC you can chat about any subject on various chat 'channels', even though the sex channel seems to be inhabited by people talking about how big their Pentium is. FTP - File Transfer Protocol another Internet service that allows you to access files on other machines that are act- ing as an FTP server. This is the best way of accessing Aminet and getting all the latest Amiga PD. C Mindwalker will hopefully be every bit as good as AmFTP and AmIRC setup has most of the more useful IRC func- tions, such as DCC transfer and talk which allow files and messages to be sent direct to another IRCer. AmFTP is the Vaporware FTP client. As with AmIRC, this is an excellent, well thought out program. When you first run it you get a large list of FTP sites into which you can enter more, along with the normal log-in routine and directory that you use. A really helpful option here is to connect as an ADT server, which I think is an Aminet-only phenomena, but it allows you to connect to an Aminet site and get a list of the most recent uploads, sorted by date or subject. This makes it so easy to get all the latest programs, and as AmFTP remembers when you last connected, you only see the programs from days you have not connected. For normal FTP, use AmFTP which is an absolute dream. One of the major problems with other FTP programs is that their response time to user input is terrible. You press an abort button and are lucky if you get a response a minute later. As AmFTP has completely asyn- chronous transfers, the main program can respond instantly to any user requests. Unfortunately, the only piece of software from Vaporware that we have not been able to cast a critical eye over is the Web browser. Originally known as Voyager, it has managed to find a name change for the Surfer Pack to MindWalker. MindWalker is again a MUI program and from what we have seen it handles forms - an absolute necessity for a Web browser - and has eight network connections that allow multiple Web page graphics to be loaded at the same time, so greatly reducing the time it takes to load a single page. This is a big problem with AMosaic as it greatly increases the amount of time you are left hanging around for pages to load. With multiple connections, text and graphics are loaded simultaneously. Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 The UK's leading Lightwave and Alpha experts Imagine what you could do with ••• Exclusive Alpha Lightwave Distributor ...Newtek LightWave 3D v.4 (the new manuals are excellent) The definitive 3D rendering and animation software package. As used in Babylon 5, Grim, Sea Quest DSV, Star Trek TNG, Star Trek Voyager, Golden Eye. Desktop Images Videos Ron Thornton's new tapes and Modeler I , Modeler 2, Camera and lighting techniques, Displacement mapping, morphing and bones, Surfaces and textures. We also handle direct from manufacturers the Draco and all Macro System products. Raptor 3 We are the official distributor of Deskstation products in the UK. Anim Workshop £25 Pixel 3D2 was £199 now £60. We also supply for the UK, Ssnapmaps, Building Objects, Humanoid, Sparks, WaveMaker, Impact & many more. DPS Personal Animation Recorder Broadcast Quality Video System. Perception/Speedrazor Broadcast non-linear video editing system. Warthogs/Raptor 3 275MHz (Alpha 2l064Achip) 266MHz, 300MHz & 333MHz (Alpha 21 164 chip) Best Prices Best Service guaranteed Direct from Manufacturer The New Xyberston 060 PUTTING MULTIMEDIA TO WORK Loads of new add-ons' for Lightwave - Phone for latest details We sell the tools to fire your imagination. Sales and credit card hotline 0171 721 7050 ®ow I wished I had waited! How many times have you said that or heard it being said when it comes to electronic equipment. The TV and video you bought two years ago now look shabby compared to the latest state of the art, the computer you bought six months ago now seems woefully underpowered, and the magneto-optical you bought just before Christmas now appears to be less of a bargain than it first seemed. And why? Because elec- tronics companies are never standing still. They create, innovate and disseminate at a rate unseen anywhere else in industry. And thus there will always be the early adopters who end up seeming like has-beens rather than people at the cutting edge of consumer electronics because they bought Betamax or its latest equivalent. So enter the SyQuest EZ Drive, the latest in a long line of technological innovations that will doubtlessly be superseded in a matter of months. But let's take it on its own merits, as we should. The EZ Drive takes a leaf out of the Zip drive's book with its stylish, designer looks that are as far from the origina SyQuest's looks as to be almost unrecognisable. It's only when you see the familiar SyQuest but- ton/lever approach to inserting and ejecting a cartridge that it becomes apparent that the drive may be new, but it has its roots firmly based in early '80's technology. Pedigree However, you needn't be worried by this SyQuest's pedigree - it is far in advance of the early 40Mb drives with their noise, slow speeds and unreliability. The EZ drive is not only compact, but it is also very quiet, fast to spin up, read and write, and very reliable in the time I've had it for review. I can honestly say that I'll be sorry to see it go. If you want to know just how fast it is, the EZ drive gives me speeds of about two and a half meg a second according to the notoriou- sly inaccurate Syslnfo, only half a meg short of what I get from my hard drive. I tried it in a more 'real world' setting, copying animations from a hard drive to the EZ drive and from RAM to it, and you couldn't really tell it apart from a hard drive. The EZ drive is obviously going to be com- pared with Iomega's Zip, so let's do it. The Zip drive still looks nicer than the SyQuest in my opinion, with a real BladeRunner feel to it, but the SyQuest feels more solid. The EZ Drive is also more expensive, at about £240 compared to £1 90 for the Zip, but the cartridges cost the same price and you get an extra 30-odd Mb of space on them. I don't know if there is a similar deal where you get discount for buying multiple cartridges as with the Zip, but even if there isn't, the SyQuest cartridges still look good value for money. Part of the reason that the SyQuest drive is larger than the Zip is owing to the fact that it has proper external SCSI connections in the form of two 50-way, Centronics-type connec- tors familiar to external hard drive owners (you get a 25 to 50 way cable and active terminator with the SyQuest drive), and the EZ drive can also be set to any SCSI ID, unlike the Zip which is restricted to only SCSI units five or six. All in all, the EZ drive is a very nice piece of kit which only has a couple of bad points. The first is the cumbersome eject mechanism which has been SyQuest's trademark since their first drives, and the other is the power supply for the drive. It's one of those plu- cable-transformer-cable-plug jobs, but while the cable from the wall socket plug is of ade- quate length, the cable coming from the transformer is more than a little short, mean- ing you end up with the lump of the trans- former sitting on your desk next to the drive. Overall though, the EZ drive is well deserving of a Blue Chip award, so we've given it one. "If you want to know just how fast it is, the EZ drive gives me speeds of about two and a half mega second" SyQuest's competitor to the Zip drive gets a critical eye from Frank Nord www Iw HATEVER NEXT? The race to provide swift reliable removable media is hotting up even more this year with the announcement of Iomega's Jaz drive, SyQuest's SyJet, and Pinnacle's Magneto/Optical drive. Iomega's Jaz drive will have a I Gig capacity and access the data on its disks at about 3Mb/second, the SyJet is supposed to hold 1.3Gb and will transfer data at 4Mb/second, but SyQuest say it will also have a burst mode for motion video and other time critical func- tions that will boost that speed even more. Pinnacle's Magneto/optical drive might not be as fast as the other two but it will hold 4.6Gb on a single disk and read and write data at an impressive 2.4Mb/second (impressive for Magneto/optical that is). All these drives should cost less than the cur- rent cost for the drive size they use, i.e. the Jaz drive will cost less than a 1Gb hard disk, the SyQuest will cost less than a 1.3Gb drive, and the Pinnacle will cost less than a 4.6Gb drive (and will also act as a CD-ROM drive...) Internal version SyQuest's EZ Drive is also I available in an internal IDE version which retails at about the same price as the Zip drive (around £189), but we haven't had the chance to test this one on our A4000. Requirements ; RED essential \ BLACK recommended «MMK SCSI controller Product DETAILS Product SyQuest EZ Drive Supplier White Knight Technology Price £239 for SCSI, £189 for internal IDE Tel 01920 822321 ■KB3 RES Ease of use 90% Implementation 90% Value For Money 90% Overall 90% Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 Of there was ever an accounts package that had its roots on an Amiga, you would definitely be able to point to The Counting House as a prime example. How many accounts packages on other platforms even know the term metaphor - let alone use it? The metaphor that The Counting House is based around is that of a house (surprisingly enough) with rooms holding various details dealing with traders, inventory, management and so on. The program has up to nine levels of security which are all managed through the Management room and three levels of famil- iarity which allow you to choose exactly how much handholding you need. The Counting House comes with an on-line manual and printed tutorials in addition to the extensive password protection list which, curiously, is about 100 pages of plant descriptions. Fortunately, the way the password protection works is far friendlier than most games. Along with the usual page, line and word numbers, you get a letter count for the word in question making it easier to narrow down whether you need to account for blank lines, headings and so on in your line count. Efficient The Counting House is not your average accounts package and it does things a little differently to how you might expect. It has grown out of a need for a business accounts package for Applied Research Kernel over a period of about ten years and is actually used in-house as well as being made avail- able to other users. If you are familiar with standard stock management/purchase&sales ledger-type systems like Accpac or other sim- ilar products, you'll find it difficult at first to find your feet. But as the bewilderment wears off, you will see that The Counting House's way of doing things can be a lot more efficient. The whole system hangs off a SuperBase 4 professional runtime module and consists of a variety of databases that are all interre- lated. The user never sees this because they are hidden behind a set of forms that have been created either to suit a standard Hi-res screen (640x256) or Hi-resLace screen (640x512). The forms are all very well laid out, presenting the information you would expect to see where you would expect to see it, and are all in a muted and very business- like mid-blue. Every time you start The Counting House it sets up temporary directories in RAM: to help speed processing up, but everything is con- stantly backed up onto the hard drive so a crash needn't mean that you lose everything. The fact that The Counting House is actu- ally a SuperBase database means that users of SuperBase will be instantly at home with the way it works, but people coming from other accounts package backgrounds will not appreciate the fact that you can't overtype fields or leave data entry mid-way through a form. However, they will like the easy access to features and the clear requesters that SuperBase affords the user. So let's work our way through the installa- tion of a fully-blown cash and credit account- ing system. To start with you are asked vari- Counting out some money i A complete business accounting system based on an Amiga? Frank Nord investigates C outittm Hnuit O The first thing you see once you've entered the password ous details like your company's name and address and trading name, if any. You will also be asked your position in the company, whether or not your company is VAT regis- tered, and other pertinent details. Your next task will be to enter some inventory, but if you're a bit confused as to how to go about doing this, there are guided tours to entering information in all the sec- tions of The Counting House in the Quick Tour Hall in The Counting House. Assuming you've already read this (you can print the information out too), you should find it rela- tively easy to enter some stock items. Your inventory can consist of Vattable items, items with barcodes, items with serial numbers, and many other identifying features. Using SuperBase's multimedia features, you can even have pictures of your stock or, perhaps you might be running a record shop, you might want to have samples for each CD you stock (of course, you might need to talk to the Performing Rights Society about having samples of people's records on your machine). The inventory database also allows for additional information if size is actually important or for related items and so on. You can set up your buying price and your selling price to distributors, retail and end users, all with settings for volume discounts, special offers, or end-of line discounting if you wish. Special offers can have end-of-sale dates attached to them to make sure your staff aren't underselling products, and to top it all off you can view the inventory database at three different levels of complexity, depend- ing on your needs. Okay, so we've entered some items that we want to stock and/or sell on. If we now fl It's a good job the management room has on-line help he Dictionary This is a searchable database of information that can be entered on such diverse topics as postage information, company rules and regs, addressing, basically anything you can think of. But you have to enter it all in. The problem with this is that SuperBase's text field entry doesn't sup- port pasting text from the clipboard or loading text in, so you'll have to fill out each description from scratch without the benefit of any editing features like moving the cursor a word at a time or selecting a block of text. Once you have entered all your descriptions you can also add flags and filters to further categorise each bit of information and add external files for further explanation (for instance, if you were to enter an emergency plan for fires, you could have a map of your building showing the available exits). Amiga Computing APRIL 19 9 6 set up two traders we can arrange it so that we buy from one of them and sell our stock on to the other. The version of The Counting House I am reviewing deals with both cash and credit accounting so that we can sell direct to end-users on a cash basis while deferring our payments to our suppliers until the end of the month. Entering company data is just as easy as entering inventory data, and just like in the inventory section (and indeed every other section) of The Counting House, you can click your left mouse button on any of the labels in a form and get a helpful requester up explaining what the field is used for. For companies you can specify whether you are buying from them or selling to them, and whether this is on a cash or credit basis. You can also subdivide your trader entries into categories like advertising, public rela- tions and so on, to provide greater flexibility. Once you have set up your trade accounts, you can start the process of commerce very easily by just going to the 'process' menu in the traders database. This will bring up a new HE LIBRARY The Counting House is a pretty unique program in the fact that it allows you (and your business) to collate information that might not be consid- ered necessary to an accounting package, but which, nevertheless, is very useful. The library is there to catalogue media like CD-ROMs, records, HE AGENDA form that represents a purchase order. You can then choose from your inventory the items you wish to order and The Counting House will present you with a default price you are accustomed to paying for these goods (which you would have previously entered in the Inventory database). All these items then get put onto your purchase order which can then be printed out and faxed or posted to your supplier. When you are entering a purchase or sales order you can even state the method by which you contacted your supplier, or how your customer contacted you, whether by phone, fax, mail or in person. For some entries like these you are also offered an 'any method' option if you are not interested in tracking things like this. Another aspect that offers the 'any method' option is payment where you can choose from direct debit, standing order, cash, cheque or credit card options, along with that handy 'any method.' Okay, so that's the traders and inventory sections looked at, but what of the library, the dictionary, the agenda and the management rooms? Well let's start with the library books, videotapes or any other form of reference material. I haven't worked out how to link the library's database with my inventory so that I can simply cross-reference the two, but I have little doubt that even if it can't be done right now, it will only be a matter of time. The agenda room acts as an organiser for the whole company which acts in conjunction with the personnel file in the management room to allow for cross-scheduling of appointments and inter-personnel messaging. ANAGEMENT This is the mother of all rooms in The Counting House. It has so many options it is hard to know where to start. The management room itself is subject to personnel restrictions with only people with a security rating of five or higher (the highest is nine) being allowed access. Once inside a higher security rating is required for certain operations. As previously noted, it is here that you enter personnel details and set security levels and passwords for your employees. But that merely scratches the surface. As you'll see from the screengrab, there are more buttons here than I would ever be able to cover in a two page review, but they tend to deal with configuration of the various databas- es, setting flags and filters and doing final accounts, profit and loss statements and other such important financial data. ntina Ho use J i i I I i i ri jot 9 pints tor f at people IBB8! -.-X=-C i 5.»4»i ^jdlEgcl.t Offer ?| ^ 1 8.888 1 4 7B5^1^96 ' • 888B88 O Your inventory doesn't have to look as complex as this - there are three levels of complexity Do YOU ACCEPT CASH? There is a cash only version of The Counting House suitable for shops and other non-credit based companies. Priced at only £59.95 you might actually want to spend the extra €40 and get the full version.. '*•»» (SPflCEl rot the newt page or ICtrU [CI to rtittth. Pp : ,.,.,..r,„„, Color-ado -LiJ _i -JUJ Ho* 1 m 1 "»t ' Co-..! I C«8M 1ALC fttCEIPT »«: i ran** Munbar ! itHHSBBm, ,., MI,"., ,„ , 0T " L MI T a .:« Counting House will ask for additional details O A cash sale invoice is produced Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 ONCLUSIONS The Counting House is a very serious piece of software that really can't have justice done on it in a brief two page review, but in the time I have had to run through its features it has been solid, and even when I crashed the machine on purpose the amount of data that I lost was minimal. The approach that The Counting House has will almost certainly confuse people used to the more traditional approach favoured by packages like Sage and AccPac, but The Counting House's power lies in this as much as anything else. I would hope that the author continues to expand on the on-line help as the lack of a full book-based manual is somewhat disconcerting at times, particularly since the user cannot access help files while entering data. Overall though, The Counting House is an impressive entry in the shrinking library of serious applications that the Amiga can boast. Bottom line Requirements RED essential BLACK recommended 3 Mb RAM 122 Kickstart 68030 Hard Drive Product details! Product The Counting House Cash & Credit version Supplier Applied Research Kernel Tel 01983 551496 Price £99.95 E-mail richard@ark.co.uk mi mmm Ease of use 75% Implementation 80% Value For Money 95% Overall 84% VISIT OUR NEW WEB SITE http://www.flevel.co.uk for latest prices & bargains NEW THIS MONTH Books - Connect your Amiga A Guide to the internet, Lans & BBS & online Services by Dale L.Larsen - This is by an ex C= member of the Amiga Networking Group. Well written comprehensive, this is a must 254 pages £11.95. The Multi-Data Machine gives you a 4X CdRom plus a 650M removable in one half height drive. The Fourth Level software includes the advanced tools for removable media which have until now, only been available on the Mo-Miga (FLD~s top of the range 1 .3Gb M.O. system). Ami-FileSafe - the new filing system which has taken the Amiga market place by storm - is also included along with with Full CDRom support. Prices: Internal SCSI2 £510.00+VAT = £599.25 Options: External add £ 45.00+VAT=£ 52.87 OktagonCard add £ 95. OO+VAT = £111.62 Warning if you use a hard drive using FFS then if your machine crashes or you reset whilst writing to disk then your drive will most likely be invalid. Get protected now with AFS. All our HARD DRIVES are shipped with AFS New LOW Prices Phone for details - SCSI, IDE all types available. Envoy £45.00 incl VAT Amiga Envoy is the standard Amiga peer-to-peer networking software developed by Commodore s Amiga Networking Group. "Cool" - Dave Haynie, Ex C= Senior Hardware Engineer We are Sole European Distributors Commodore Death Bed Video £ 14.00 Inc Vat By the master -- Dave Haynie Brilliant personal video shot by Dave Haynie. Over two hours of recollections, stories & action by the C= people. This is a video you must not miss. The Christmas present for every Amiga fan DISKS ALV 3.5 AFS with free upgrades | to V4AFS includes FFS bug fixes & file recovery for AFS £40.00 inc VAT This enhanced version is a result of the combined work of FLD & Dave Haynie Shipping NOW!! AFS User £29.75 Pro £79.75 See the performance Now with Undelete!! j P&PEEC £ 3.50 Other £ 6.50 Dice V3 £98.75 P&PEEC £ 5.50 Other £10.00 Play safe. Dealers can supply AFS as standard. AFS protects your hard drive from invalidation. Choose a dealer who can supply your new A 1200 & A4000 with AFS as standard. Get safety and vastly improved performance. REMEMBER THE MOTTO - NO AFS!! - NO DEAL!! And NOW ZIP rives shipped with AFS SC SI2 Cards &" Fourth Level Removable Media Networking Tools included AFS A3000 030 Oktagon SCSI 2 Commercial C Compiler for Amiga which has been continuously supported & developed to become the most reliable and user friendly package. Sole Distributors Europe Africa, Asia (Except France & Germany) Fully Internet Supported from our server! nts Certified Amiga Developers o u? KM \ A Fourth Level j Development Distributors : FLDistribution ermany: Stefan Ossowskis Schatztruhe weden: Orebro Videoreklam taly: Db-Line outh frica:MLSystems SA: AIM %5 (6 6> Access Distributor & Dealer Enquiries +44 (0) 117 955 8225 | UK Orders to FLDistribution 31 Ashley Hill Montpelier Bristol BS6 5JA VISA S-r-^ V-4 i I ILE ME DOWN One of the great pluses of Amiga Workbench 3 is the ability to add back- ground images to both the desktop and win- dows. You do this via the WBPattem program located in the Prefs drawer. You can choose from the eight preset patterns, design your own, or even load in a picture. The great thing about WBPattern is that it tiles small images to fill up the desktop or window. This proves an excellent way of display- ing patterns without wasting precious RAM. As long as your pattern can be matched up on all edges you'll have no problems. WBPattem Prefi 5 o I Expansion n Workbench tiles small images to fit the desktop and windows so that you can create stunning backdrops with very little RAM If you want to become an Amiga expert and leave behind beginner's blues, here's a helping hand to set you on your way I OP SECRET If there are certain files on your Workbench that are vitally important you can actually protect them from deletion and even stop prying eyes from reading your personal information. The command that lets you lock away your secrets is called Protect and allows you to set certain protection flags associa- ted with the file you are working on. Let's imagine you had a file called Bootup in the Utilities drawer which you wanted to protect from deletion. In order to do this you would load up the Shell and type in: protect Uorkbencn3.0:lfti liti es/Bootup -d To unprotect the file you would type: protect UoricbencK3.0:Uti Li ti es/Bootup +d If you want to stop people from reading your text files or any other file in fact, sim- ply use the following (substituting Text/Finances with the appropriate path and filename): protect tlorkbench3.0: Text/Finances And to unprotect it: protect Vorkbench3.0:Text/Mnances + It's as simple as that. II ustomising Shell Q2 IT pW35 "J l»YS:8yst.WCtl el | |QH=C0Hi8/58//13 8,'0h . Although the Shell requires you to work in DOS (Disk | Operating System), it is far more powerful and quicker than performing functions from the Workbench hat a luvlv Shell I I proicu 6 : : : T ~ menus. And, just like Workbench, it can be customised to a certain extent. The biggest gripe with Shell is it small size and important information often bleeds off the bottom of the window. Sure, you can re-size it, but wouldn't it be nice if you could set the size permanently? Well, you can and it's simply a case of clicking the Shell window once and selecting Information... from the Icons menu. In the Tool Types gadget you will see something like: WINDOW=C0N :0/50//130/AmigaSheLl/CL0SE It is this line that allows you to alter the size of the Shell as well as a few other useful attribu- tes. The complete syntax of the WINDOW command is: IUND0«=CO«:x/y/.idth/height/ title/option Don't worry too much about the option part (see the Jargon Box), it is the x, y, width and height settings that are of interest to you. By clicking the line in the Tool Types you can edit these values to suit your own requirements - you could even change the title for that personal touch. sifil IPpnJtm WINDOW = CON:e/5a^138/'Oh • STACK *4896 FRDM=S:Shet 1 -Start up O Customising the Shell is extremely easy and almost all its attributes can be altered in some way ; 'iUefi: start rt up-sequent e SetPatch QUIET Version >NIL: pddBuffers >NIL: DPS: 1 >£iLT 'e#vhrc: ~ If you own a hard drive, the prospect of backing it up can be fairly harrowing. However, there are several short-cuts which will considerably reduce the time and disk space taken to back up. As you progress with your Amiga you'll find that the C directory rapidly starts to fjll up with your own programs, and you'll soon become confused as to what the original C files are and which are the ones you've added. In the end, you'll most probably end up backing up the entire C directory which will mean more disks. One way around this is to create another drawer called C2 in the same directory as C in which you can copy all the programs you have added. You then need to add a new Assign in the Startup- Sequence using Ed. Open the Shell and enter: Assign >NIL: Rssign >NIL: assign >N|L: Kssign >NIL: Rssign >NIL: Assign >HIL: SYS:C2 HDD env; rhm : env t: rrm: t CLIPS : RBMICl ipboards PRINtERS: DEVS: Printers ■ n Save time and disk space when backing up by separating Workbench- specific files from ones you have added ed s:startup-sequence Now, under the line which reads Resident >NIL: CExecute PURE add the following: Assign >NIL: C: STS : C2 ADD You can then save the new Startup- Sequence file by pressing Esc, X and then Return. This new line informs the Amiga OS to look in C2 as well as C for any files it would expect to find in this directory. And in the future, all you need to do is back up the C2 directory. Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 □ OOKS WITH BUTTONS One of the most welcome additions to Workbench 3 was Multiview. Multiview uses a hypertext language that provides the user with an inter- face capable of displaying text, viewing pictures, and listening to sound samples. In fact, Multiview is limited only by the file datatypes present in your Datatypes drawer in Devs. The great thing about this program is that you can simply click on a button within text displayed in Multiview and skip to another section of text. Many commercial programs now use Multiview for their on-disk docu- mentation. Provided you have the correct datatype, you can direct text, pictures and sound samples to Multiview by clicking once on their icon, selecting Information... from the Icons menu and typing in the Default Tool gadget: S1S:Utilities/Mtivie« A file will only display buttons if it has been written in the Multiview lan- guage, but even for reading plain text it is certainly far better than most other text readers which can't even display pictures or play sounds. I Workbench Screen Wetcone to the OctaMED help systen. The following topics are available: Browse ^ | Bio Introduction Those upgrading f row v4... The user interface Installat ion <-- Read first if you are new to OctaMED Menus Windows Main screen Player connands Keyboard shortcuts * Click any boxed text to see nore infornation on that subject. * Use the up and down arrow keys to reveal nore of a topic. + For nore detailed infornation on using this help file, press the "Help' " eV ' O Multiview allows you to read text, view pictures and listen to sound samples U AM NOT A NUMBER When using the Shell for certain tasks you will invariably come up against the Amiga's error messages. Unfortunately, most are pretty vague so here is a list of the most commonly encountered error messages, there meanings and recovery suggestions: 116 Required argument missing - you have failed to type in the command cor- rectly. Check the command instructions and try again. 118 Too many arguments - you have entered too many arguments to the com- mand. Check the command instructions and try again. 121 File is not executable - you have either misspelled the command or the file may not be a loadable type such as a text file. Check the file type and try again. 202 Object is in use - the specified file or directory is already being used by another application. If a program is reading a file no other program can write to it, and vice versa. Stop the application that is using the file or directory and try again. 203 Object already exists - the name that you specified already belongs to another file or directory. Use another name or delete the existing file or directory. 205 Object not found - AmigaDOS can- not find the file or device you have speci- fied. Check the filename and retry the command. 225 Not a valid DOS disk - the disk in the drive is not an AmigaDOS disk, it has not been formatted or it is corrupt. Check the disk for compatibility and if the disk worked before use a recovery program to salvage its files. Jargon ■ WINDOW=CON:x/y/width/heigh t/title/option x - the number of pixels from the left edge of the screen to the left border of the window y - the number of pixels from the top of the screen to the top of the window width - the width of the window in pixels height - the height of the window in pixels tide - the text that appears in the window title bar CLOSE (option) - the window has all the standard gadgets, including a close gadget AUTO (option) - the window auto- matically appears when the pro- gram needs input or produces input. The window can only be closed with the ENDCli command BACKDROP (option) - the window appears on the desktop behind all the Workbench windows. The only gadget in the window border is the zoom gadget NOBORDER (option) - the window opens without any left or bottom window border NODRAC (option) - the window cannot be dragged NOSIZE (option) - the window only has a depth gadget SCREEN (option) - the window will appear on a public screen. You must specify the name of the screen after the SCREENfoption SIMPLE (option) - if you enlarge the window, the text will expand to fill the newly available space, allowing you to see text that has been scrolled out of the window SMART (option) - if you enlarge the window, the text does not expand to fill the newly available space WAIT (option) - the window can only be closed by selecting the close gadget Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 ______ Unable to open your tool 'c: readme' try Cancel O Make sure icons are pointing to the correct Default Tool file otherwise you'll get this error requester ISSING TOOLS When copying programs to your hard drive or floppy disk you may, at times, be required to alter certain information so that the program will function correctly. This is mostly the case with text file documents, commonly known as readme files and you may already be familiar with the alert requester stating: Unable to open your tool ' c : mmpp ' If you click once on the icon of the text file and select Information... from the Icons menu on Workbench you be able to see the actual program being called in the Default Tool gad- get - in the example above it would be cmmpp. You can then change this Default Tool setting to the location of your text reader on your hard drive or floppy disk. This would most likely be: Workbench3 .0:Uti Li ties/MuLtiview Multiview is the Workbench 3 supplied text reader. You may have a preferred text reader of your own, in which case just type its location and name instead. B ERMANENT ICONS As you become proficient with Workbench and AmigaDOS (Disk Operating System), you will find that much of your time is spent copying and deleting files from the C and S directories. These directories are not immediately visible, so you may want to attach a drawer icon to them so that you can simply drag files to their location rather than using the Shell. The best way to do this is to load up IconEdit and use the default drawer icon. Make sure the icon type is set to drawer and then simply save the icon as C.info or S.info in the directory these drawers are loca- ted in. They will now always be visible. You could also perform this procedure for the Libs and Fonts directories. a j Workbench 5, BOOK free, 34M - ^1 _ _ ers HddDataTvpes dssign Rua i I BindDr i vers Boot St art up Break ChangeTaskPr i ConCt ip Copy CPU Date De lete D i r- D c skChange d i skexpander Ed Edit ' Copying files to the C directory can be made easier by attaching a drawer icon to the actual directory 444 — p— r| r~ 5888 — p-r 3228 p-r 728 p~r 1428 -r 21672 r 432 - — p-r 468 — p-r 3516 --p~t 5496 p-r 3652 p-r 1892 p-r 1972 --p-r 3448 p-r 312 - — p-r 36656 -~P~r 25844 p-i 14 792 - — p -i Onew text editor is hardly going to set the world alight. Most people have a text editor lurking on their hard drive and at some point are going to have to use it. For many, this will mean battling with the original Commodore Ed, which is barely usable. Anyone that has owned an Amiga for a while would normally have got hold of a better one, either from the public domain - ColdEd springs to mind - or from one of the commercial editors such as CygnusEd or Turbo Text, both of which are competent at their jobs and will take some beating. Digital Quill comes on one disk along with a very thorough manual covering every part of the program, including its extensive ARexx port. The initial installation is straightforward thanks to the use of the Amiga Installer, and allows you to have Digital Quill set up for use with either Dice C, SAS C or Benchmark Modula-2. This sets the program up with preset hot keys, menus, and speed buttons for compiling programs direct from the Digital Quill interface. Debates The first thing you are going to notice when you run Digital Quill is that it has a button bar running across the top of its window. Whether this is of any real use or not is debatable, but either way it is there for you if you want it. A very powerful feature is the macro recorder which allows any combination of key presses and functions to be recorded and played back at any time, or saved off as an ARexx script for future use as an external Digital Quill macro. These macros allow you to automate repetitive tasks such as reformatting a table or document, and, as they are ARexx scripts, allow other complex functions to be performed. One problem not just with Digital Quill but with just about all Amiga text-related programs, is that there is no way to search and replace for- matting commands such as tabs, returns and new paragraph marks. The only program I am aware of that allows you to do this is Wordworth. Digital Quill's search and replace facility offers all the usual limited controls along with the ability to use the full set of Amiga wild- cards. So a search on Text*? will spot every word beginning with text. Comparing Digital Quill against other editors means it has to com- pete with the speed of CygnusEd and the sys- tem compliance and configurability of Turbo Text, but overall it does a good job on both counts. Firstly, it is completely style guide com- pliant so can be run on any screen, including RTC boards such as the Picasso II, and it has font sensitive windows and menus so it looks the part too. Speed wise it loads and saves as fast as CygnusEd, and matches it for scrolling speed around even very large documents. Finally, its full ARexx port cannot be faulted. Where Digital Quill does fall down is when you start editing large documents. Whereas CygnusEd and Turbo Text will not even show any sign of strain, Digital Quill seems to slow a little. In CygnusEd, if you hold the return key down new lines will be added as fast as usual, but Digital Quill's response is slow. It does have a very comprehensive undo function allowing many levels of undo, similar to CygnusEd, but again does not work as fast, with a slight delay each time an undo is done. As an avid CygnusEd user the editing speed is the real problem. Even though this 'slight' delay in editing does not make Digital Quill unusable, it does detract from an otherwise excellent program. Another Amiga text editor j jostles for a place in the already crowded market. Neil Mohr reviews i±as2i_j a | Dapcey Settings . . HO e J HOHsss 1 r~Bi MiSM 1 jxEH font 3 m 1 Sackgrnuncf ( M m : - ■ 1 1 The fully style guide-compliant interface looks the part HOP AT MACRO Bottom Requirements Keystroke Edacr03 r.TvtUp -| Though Digital Quill does not provide the flexibility that Turbo Text does in being able to define every aspect of the program's menus, it does have a much simpler and user-friendly way of adding macros to the program. From the Assign Macro menu option you get a straightforward looking window from which you can choose to assign a command to either a hot key, menu option, or via a new speed button. A com- mand can be a previously saved macro, an AmigaDOS command, or one of Digital Quill's built-in commands. If you select a Quill com- mand you get a requester with a list of all the available commands, otherwise you get a file requester from which you can choose a pre- viously saved macro or AmigaDOS command. Adding a new hot key or menu function is just a case of selecting the new command you require and specifying the key combination or menu entry that you want. The final method of adding a new speed button is very much in the Final Writer Wordworth vein. Press New Macro, select one of the available icon images and the new command you want executing, and you have a new speed button. RED essential I \ Macro 1 K lojajpj Speed Button H| J r_ Command for Macro images IU1 Starts a new group REC OK Help Cancel | BLACK recommended 1 Mb RAM Workbench Product details Product Digital Quill Supplier Phantom Development Price £39.95 E-mail caldi@usa.nai.net O Apply your own commands to hot keys, user menus and the speed button bar Amiga Computing Ease of use 95% Implementation 75% Value For Money 80% Overall 75% APRIL Amstrad ™~ ** i »'■ - vicio ■ UNIX WV I Emulators Unlimited contains Software I emulation tools for the Amiga & PC. I Spread over the two platforms are emula- I tors for: Apple, BBC, Commodore 64, I Commodore VIC20, Amstrad CPC, Apple I Mac, Gameboy, Atari ST, MSX, Apple200, I Atari 800, Atari1040ste, Sinclair QL, Unix I and more. Also features hundreds of | games, tools etc for most of the emulators. EMULATORS UNLIMITED (Cdht) £19.99 Sound FX Sensation is an original new CD that contains hundreds of megabytes of high quality samples. A superb CD for game makers, demo makers, or even film makers. Hundreds of Sound FX subjects include Animals, Wild life, Nature, Explosions, Creatures, Scary stuff, Science fiction samples, House hold nois- es, car crashes, and hundreds more. Suitable for use on any Amiga configuration. Available April 1996 SOUND FX SENSATION (CD165) pre-order price £14.99 MULT SEHSm'JM ADULT SENSATION Adult Sensation is possibly the Amiga's largest sell- ing adult title. It features over 4,000 high quality 256 colour images of the "adult" nature. Image viewers and coverters are included for every configuration of Amiga. {OVER 18 ONLY) (CD01) £19.99 ADULT SENSATION 2 The new batch Adult Sensation 2 not only contains 4,000 new colour images but also includes tons of adult related samples, adult music modules, tons of adult stories, adult animations, black&white 70's photos, adult games and more. (OVER 18) (CD115) £19.99 SEXY SENSATIONS Available now, this CD contains around 2,000 espe- cially chosen high quality GIF Images. Viewers & graphic converters are included for easy and quick access to any of the pictures on any Amiga. {OVER 18 ONLY) (CD169) £19.99 ADULT SENSATION 3D EXCLUSIVE! I This CD actually contains over 2,000 true 3 I Dimensional colour images. 3D viewing software I and top quality 3D glasses are also supplied. I Includes superb new Multimedia interface. Available Now! (CD145) £19.99 SPECIAL EDITION PACK (Order code: CD1 80) ADULT SENSATION 1&2FOR JUST £29.99 +P&P SCI-FI Sensation is an exciting new CD-ROM containing over 1.3GIG of SCI-FI images, ani- mations, 3D objects, Sound FX, Documents, Themetunes, Scripts & SCI-FI games. Subjects included are: Babylon5, Startrek (The origi- nal, TNG, Deep Space 9 and Voyager), Batman, Dr Who, Thunderbirds, Robocop, Sea Quest DSV, Bladerunner, Aliens, Terror hawks, 2001. Blake7, Battlestar Galactica, Tron, Total Recal, 2010, Space 1999 etc. 'Buy SCI-FI Sensation from us and you are guaranteed to all- ways receive the latest version. CU Amiga: 91% AUI: 93% Arcade Classics is an origi- nal collection of ALL your old arcade favourites, Including Amiga versions of PACMAN, SPACE INVADERS, ASTERIODS, MISSILE COMMAND, PENGO, FROGGER, LOAD RUNNER, GALAXIANS, DONKEY KONG, NUMEROUS TETRIS GAMES, BAT- TLEZONE, TEMPEST, COMBAT, TRON, SPACE WARZ, THRUST, Q-BERT, HUNCHBACK, MOON PATROL, TRAIL BLAZER, BREAKOUT, CENTREPEDE, CYCLES, BEZERK, SNAKE, SCRAMBLE, PING PONG, BREAK- OUT, NUMEROUS C64 CONVERSIONS, A COLLEC- TION OF JEFF MINTER GAMES AND HUNDREDS MORE. Over 600mb of unforgettable retro-gaming. Keyboard recommended. Rated 87% AC FCD54. FCD74.- FCD12. FCD47. FCD163, FCDfSl 9 i ILLUSION', ESSE NT! > HOTTEST, PRO FOI LUCKY TERRA Si 13D I UTILITES & CLIPART VOLUME TWO UNO LIBRARY FREEPHONE: m World of Clipart is a double CD- ROM containing around 40,000 mono and colour clipart images contained in over 100 catagories ^ » .^f i n iff, GIF, PCX, CDR, EPS, TIF, ^*v2Ka & BMP. Tools for converting images to another format are included for both the PC & Amiga. Subjects include : Animals, Anatomy, Babies, Men, Women, Trees, Reptiles, Insects, Xmas, Religious, Planes, Vehicles, Ships, Toys, Zodiac signs, Eye catchers, Humour, Cats, Dogs, Computers, Technology, Sealife, Space, Symbols, Royalty, Dinosaurs, Plants, Nature, Ads, Tools, Astrology, Hands, Birds, Business, Office, Workers, Cartoon, Lion King, Education, Food, Gardening, Holidays, Houses & Buildings, Helicopters, Children, Banners, Medieval, Military, Monsters, Music, Sports (football, golf, Aerobics, Olympics, etc), Transport, Trains, War and more. Rated 94% WORLD OF CLIPART Plus double cd (CD 77) £17.99 If your into Horror then this original CD ROM will please you no end. It contains Thousands of gru- some images, tons of gory anima- tions. Bloody games. Spine tingling horror type sounds, Horror stories, Eariee music modules. Pictures & animations from hundreds of horror films and heaps of real-life blood' n" guts. (Adults only) Contains our most popular floppy based software titles on one giant CD-ROM. Now you can purchase the entire Epic collec- tion in one go. This compilation contains hundreds of megabytes of Amiga soft- ware, subjects include: Professional mono clipart, colour clipart, numerous 3D objects for Imagine & Lightwave, Colour, Bitmap, Compugraphic fonts & Adobe fonts, Graphics convert- ers, Music tutorials, Beginners guide, 3D stere- ogram generators, Hundreds of Sound FX and samples, Virus Killers, Hard disk installer & tools, Various Hardware projects, Hundreds of games including Mind teasers, Puzzle, card, arcade and board games and more. 'Supplied with Index book THE EPIC COLLECTION v2newh! M ?4 ; 1 m Retro gaming at it's best. Around 3000 all- time classic spectrum game files on one CD-ROM. Emulators included for any Amiga.. Games include Manic Miner, Skool daze, Monty mole, Startrek, Thrust, h Jet Set Willy, The Hobbit, Strip Poker, IH^^^^^^H Danger Mouse, The Sentinel, Micro Olympics, Under Wurlde, Uridium, Atic ij| H Atac, River raid, Barbarian, Hunchback M I and around 3000 other classic spectrum game files including multi-load games. Speccy '96 also contains hundreds of documents con- taining instructions for most games aswell as hundreds of speccy game cheats. Okay on any CD ROM drive connected to an Amiga. §Pfj"£IA^ PJ^ Vol'1 'Actual Amiga Screen shots John Paternak's "Movie Maker" series takes you step by step through the professional techniques of Special FX, Horror and Action film making. Explained in every detail are all the camera angles, editing techniques, prop building, make up etc, all using easily available domestic equipment and materials. This Multi-media AGA Amiga title Contains over 60minutes of video footage . MOVIE MAKER SERIES NEW (CD184) £29.99 PI Rated: AF GOLD 95% - CUAMIGA 91% THE SPECCY CD 1996 Fnji ' l ' i'i 'i 'i 'i 'J AUI Over 90% - AC over 90% (CD119) £17.99 The largest collection of Magic Workbench Icons, Backdrops and tools ever compiled. Includes well over 5,000 Icons, Over 600 selected Magic WB backdrops, and megabytes of WB desktop enhancer tools/utilities. Suitable for any Kickstar12/3 based Amiga. MAGIC WORKBENCH ENHANCER (CP152) £9.< The Grolier electronic Multimedia encyclopedia contains thousands of pages of information on every subject, with Thousands of great colour photographs and illustrations and hundreds of sound clips from the BBC this CD-ROM is an essential purchase for all CD-ROM users. Rated 97% AC- 94% AF GROLIER ENCYCLOPEDIA (CD46x The CD contains information that NOBODY wants you to know about, and includes tons of megabytes of text documents and photographs relating to UFO sightings and abduc- tions etc since 1 941 aswell as hun- dreds for "classified" documents. ENCOUNTERS This NEW CD rom contains Thousands of all-time classic Commodore 64 games and emulator to run them.... Available shortly, Order now as stocks are bound to go quickly. (CP179) £14.99 I C64 GAMES CD (CD182) £29.99 "0 I Lucky Dip volume 2 contains stacks of games, demos, cli- part, fonts, music, tools, graphics utilities, Animations, Sound FX, Samples, and loads more, (now with Amiga front end) A bargain! This CD contains almost 100 variations of the worlds most addictive and loved game. Nearly all the games are ready to run directly from CD, and archived versions are also included. LUCKY DIP Volume 2 (CD163) £5.99 NOTHING BUT TETRIS (CD148)E9.99 UK FREE PHONE Order line: 0500 131 4861 Oversease Order / Enquiry //ne.OI ~iTQ3 514188 Fax 0179351*187 UK & EUROPE Open Monday-Saturday , EPIC - 138-139 Victoria Rd, Swindon, Wilts. UK P&P in UK = £1 per title, Overseas P&P = £2 per title, E&OE If you live in Australia or New-Zealand you can now purchase any of the ^ above CD ROM titles from our Sydney based premises. Send your orders or enquiries to: EPIC. 36 Forest Road, Heathcote, NSW. 2233. Australia. * M^. 9B9SH77 Please make cheques payable to EPIC MARKETING Fora Price 1st pteaae aendaSAE. Rrprtcaah «l««ia«ll ttl atliJydoubls1tlslJKffiCptt.il Haul m - ! rC= -C — PRIORITY ORDER FORM NAME ADDRESS MACHINE _ PAYMENT METHOD_ CREDIT CARD DETAILS EXP DATE _ CD-AC1qxd PLEASE SUPPLY ITEMS QTY TOTAL GOODS VALUE POST & PACKING AMOUNT ENCLOSED £££ Oight now, it seems like the only growing industry on the Amiga is producing add-ons for the reign- _ing champion of 3D animation packages - Lightwave. In recent months more utilities have come to light and we pre- sent two here for your delectation. It's a mixed media review this time since we have a book and a video tutorial guide called LightSpeed. Lightening the wave □ T THE SPEED OF LIGHT Let's start with LightSpeed, a two-hour monthly video magazine dedicated to improving Lightwave users' skills. The video consists of a variety of sections with reviews of LightWave-related products and advertis- ing interspersing the tutorials. The tape I was sent was from last October and to give you some idea of what was on it, we had a tutorial explaining how to buiid and animate a lighthouse scene and a corridor scene, an advert for Impact! visually demonstrating the benefits of using it, something you could never do in a print ad, a tutorial on building LEGO, another on building spaceships out of fonts, a review of World Construction Set, an animation gallery and several other bits and bobs. The video seems to be constructed by a variety of people recording their own sections and sending them to the editors where they are all joined together to make one video. This means the quality of record- ing is variable (especially since the whole thing has to be standards converted to PAL afterwards), but it is encouraging to see that all the systems used by the tutors were still Amigas. The quality of the tutors was variable too, with the lighthouse guy being particularly unsuited to teaching. The scene he created was nice enough, but there was no explana- tion of what he was doing. The tutor merely repeated back the numbers he was entering, making for a very sterile experience. How- ever, the rest of the tape was pretty good and the adverts for the add-ons certainly had more impact than their print equiva- lents. The reviews section pulls the tape out of the 'its-an-expensive-LightWave tutorial-tape' category and into the magazine field, and it would be nice to see more reviews in each issue. The other section that lifted the quality of the tape was the ani mation showcase where estab- lished and apprentice artists work was shown, with Alan Chan (author of the Lightwave book covered later in this review) showing off his techniques. The tape can also be purchased with a high density PC formatted disk contain- ing the scenes and objects used in the tutorials on the tape. I would need to see more tapes before I could give an honest overall opinion of the subscription but the quality of the tape I saw would be enough for intermediate Lightwave users to snap up their copy of LightSpeed. 3D packages always need add-ons to make them easier to use. Ben Vost examines a couple Qtartling FX The FX kit for Lightwave is our next item up for review. It's a wire bound, 310 page volume with an advert for LightSpeed on the inside back cover and it deals with a good variety of topics in Lightwave. It starts gently enough with introductions to both Layout and Modeler, but soon gets stuck into some more meaty subjects like tunnel chases, page turns and flag waving. The tutorials then proceed onto creating fractal-type landscapes replete with nice clouds and water. Alan Chan makes no secret of the fact that there are certain things that are difficult to achieve in Lightwave and says that things like tumbling waterfalls and rapids are probably not subjects suitable for a beginner's book. He goes onto devote a whole chapter to that most overused of Lightwave's talents - the space scene - and starts it with a caveat to not simply try to duplicate the effects used by Amblimation or Foundation Imaging, but to create something new. While imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, it certainly won't get you any work if you want to make a living from CGI. He covers building a spacecraft from the initial sketch to the final model using all the tools in a Lightwave owner's arsenal including the dreaded metaform. Alan Chan then goes on to discuss surfacing techniques for your models and the best way to light a scene. The book doesn't just deal with what might appear basic principles to experienced Lightwave owners, but also goes on to tricky effects like volumetric lighting (you know, when you see a laser in a video and people chop holes in its beam, that kind of thing) and compositing digital images with live action. The book finishes up with a look at bones and the inverse kinematics featured in Lightwave 4.0 Amiga Computing APRIL We stock over 6500 QUALITY PD & SHAREWARE How to order To order any disk just write the disk title and the disk code, EG U01 Against. Some titles have a number in (). This means the title come on (x) number of disks, to order PACK just write down the pack TITLE name. ALL DISKS ARE COMPATIBLE WITH ALL AMIGAS UNLESS STATED AG A Disk means for A1200/A4000 only Price 99p per disk Please add 70p to total for postaae & packaqe Pack price as stated. All Orders Same Day Despatches For the very latest disk catalogue please add 70p MAKE CHEQUE/POSTAL ORDER PAYABLE TO: SOFTWARE 2000 SEND TO (ADDRESSES TOP RIGHT) PER DISK * CHOOSE 1 FREE DISK WtTH ORDER OF 10 OR MORE DISKS OVERSEAS POST i PACKAGE RATE (Europe add 25p per disk for P&P) (Worldwide add 50p per disk P&P) SOFTWARE 2000 SOFTWARE 2000 Dept (AC09) Dept (AC09) 8 FALCON 9 WILLS STREET WILNECOTE LOZELLS TAMWORTH BIRMINGHAM B77 5DN B19 1PP TEL/FAX: 01827 287377 TEL: 0374 678068 r SOFTWARE2QOO • MOUSE MAT worth £2.99 1 I FREE MOUSE MAT worth £2.99 with every order £12 or over. To ciaim your j: i free mouse mat just cut & return this token with your order enclose a extra I ;j 38p stamp to cover the mouse mat postage & package, offer only available a I with this token (limited 1 Mouse Mat per order exclude any other offer) | Ywm may cfcMM 1 mn MmU. Iff Mnmi Mat Mot R*qulr««lj *****ABfllCA ESSENTIAL***** DISK CLEANING KIT £2.99* Complete with disk & cleaning fluid Quality Mouse MAT £2.99* lO blank disks & IO labels £4.99* 50 disk protector sleeves 99p *Special offer £1 off if you order 5 or more pd disks MUSIC M001 BEASTY BOYS - We Want Some Pussy songs M002 MICHAEL JACKSON - Song BAD MOOS DO THE BARTMAN M005 100 C64 TUNES (not A1200) M006 BAT-DANCE REMIXED M017 GUNS & ROSES - YOU'RE CRAZY M01S MONEY FOR NOTHING ■ DIRE STRAITS HIT SONG M027 BLUES HOUSE (2 disks) M029 SAFE SEX DEMO - Very funny M031 BETTY BOO (2) needs 2 drives (brilliant) M058 SGT PEPPER (2D) M072 MADONNA - Hanky Panky Song M084 C64 GAMES MUSIC M115 MAHONEY & KAKTUS 2 - 40 tunes compilation M125 ADAMS FAMILY M150 TIFFANNY - 1 Think We're Alone Now M171 MADONNA - (Like a Virgin) M173 JANET JACKSON ■ RHYTHM NATION M177 PET SHOP BOYS M184 SAM FOX (Please Me) M1S6 MADONNA (Rescue Me) M188 JOE LE TAXI M189 MICHAEL JACKSON (Smoot Criminal) M194 JESUS ON E's (2 disks) M205 RAVE - More Rave M262 A TO Z OF C64 GAMES MUSIC (4) Brilliant M314 DICK TRACY (Madonna) (2) M335 STAR TREK & STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION (2) U427 PRINTER-STUDIO excellent print results U599 PRINTER TOOL - includes typewriter, spooler etc U792 PRINT LABELS print disk labels/banners U793 STAR PRINTER STUDIO - (or all star printers U794 SEIKOS STUDIO - For all Seiko printers more specific printer driver for the above printer U733 PANASONIC STUDIO - 9 & 24 pin printer driver & util U?34 CANON PRINTER STUDIO not A500M.3) U73S PRINTER STAR 24/200 FONT DESIGNER - shareware Ui-92 CITIZEN PRINTER MANAGER for all Citizen printer owners containing many useful printer util & drivers UB84 CANNON PRINTER STUDIO -f or all models for use with Cannon printers U7S7 160* PRINTER DRIVER largest collection fLERS/TOOLS U181 VIDEO NOTE database for your video collection, U43I VIDEO APPLICATION (2 disks) many video tiller prog U250 VIDEO TOOL (3) loads of video utils. Recommended U9fi4 TELESUBT1TLE ■ new video titter U965 VIDEO MAXE V4.33 The latest in video U352 DESKTOP VIDEO 1 & 2 (best video titler tool) cata- loguing system. Dozens of functions U671 TELE TITLE 2 - Great new VIDEOS titler U513 ViDEO TITLER (2 disks) more VIDEO TITLER-BEST U920 TELE SCROLL 2 (not WB 1 .3) Easy to use Video titler loads of features U921 WEDDING VIDEO ANIM (2 disks) Requires D.Paint 3/4. Very high quality U922 CAPTION MACHINE excellent Video titler /!0EO MANAGER (Not A500 1 .3) Video cataloguing system U925 Video Tittler - very good video titler r ■ <=> . U029 CAN DO programing language U04G DARKSTAR no2 (vol 2-5)!oad of um U05B DISK MAG CREATOR created disk magazine U1 17 NORTH C compiler (2) brit prog raminglangu age U122 SID 1.6 copy/delete/move file made very easy U131 TETRA COPY play tetriz while copy disk great U135 MOST USE UTILITIES (2) very useful util coll U145 XCOPY PROFFESIONAL very powerful disk copier U170 BIORHYTHMS V4.01 display your own biorhythms U1B4 MASTER SEKA V1.6 completes Assembler language U186 UNLTIMATED DISK CREATOR all tool on are here U187 M COMPUTER AID DESIGN - Was commercial product U188 SHOWIZ slide show maker 24+ wipe effect U191 SID II copy/delete/move/run file using a mouse U22Q AMOS-PAINT VGgood paint package lots of feature. U222 GRAPHIC UTILITY(3)lot of graphic converter tool. U226 50+ MOST USE UTIL load of very useful util. U229 SLIDE-SHOW CONSTRUCTION KIT easy to make U240 ARCHIVER TOOLS pack more file on to your disks U242 IMPLODER 4.0 disk pack more programe on disk U243 The A-T COPIER (not Wb3) 13 disk copier.wow U254 FRACTAL UTIL load of fractal programe. bril U282 LAND BUILDER create realistic landscape. U284 COPY & CRACK TOOLS back up your software U300 MESSY SID IE read/write PC/ MAC ect files. U301 AUTO DISK LOGGER catalogue your disk U321 GRAPHIC Util 1(3) load of bnl graphic util U324 GRAPHIC util 2(3) even more Graphic tool U333 SCENERY MAKER more lanscape generator U334 EMULATOR COLLECTION II (lot of emulator) U335 FREE COPY back up commercial games U337 MODEL 3D Brillant 3d object designer U338 MULT1 VISION (2) disk/files utilities U340 HACKER-TOOLS many ripper tool U350 POOL TOOL-predict horse with best chance U351 RACE RATER Similar to above, but both U358 STAR CAT 2-create catalogue disk esay U359 SEEKER find lost file on flopy & Harddrive U360 R.P.G (2) adventure creator U363 DISK REPAIR KIT-salvage & repair damage disk U372 WORD SORT process ASCII file U377 NCOMM 111 more modem software + packer util U380 UNICOPY fantastic disk copier U399 FRACSCAPE VI .2 new fraclal similar to VISTA U400 SOUND TRACKER V2.6 music maker U420 SPEED BENCH (not WP1.3) create auto boot wb U425 NIB 2 very popular copier U436 The RIPPER COLLECTIONfnot WB3) lot ripper U442 SYSINFO test & print inlc on your AMIGA sys U444 FONT FARM font creator/odltor/deslgn new font U4S7 WHOM 2 (3DISK) Detail/database on51 films U470 FINAL F ON TIER 1 (2 disk) Star-trek magazine U473 FINAL FONTIER 3 (4cdisk) Star-trek magazine U480 HARD DISK CLlCK-HardDrive menue system U490 B-tec Util- Amazing pack with 207 utilities U491 PROTRACKER V3-Best music writer programe U492 WORK-STATION(2disk WB1 3 oniy)WB-replacement U495 HARD DISK UTIL bril collection of Harddisk util. U496 EASY PRINT (A500only) lot of print, util U498 WORK-MATE-15 brillant disk util compilation U501 THE MUSIC CONSTURCTION KIT(state amiga own) U504 HOT-STUFF-more util disk compilation U505 VIRUS-KILLER & DISK RESALVAGE/REPAIRE KIT U507 DCOPY V3 PROFESSIONAL -Excelent Disk copier U509 ULT BOOTBLOCK 40+bootblock generator/maker U510 ULTIMATE BOOT-BLOCK Collection II +more U512 ZIRCON UT1L-30 MOST USE UTIL 2 brillant US15 WIT COMPLETE UTIL 20 most use util U521 SPECTRA PAINT III Very good paint packages U550 SCENERY CONSTURCTION KIT fractal .recommend U551 ASSASIN BOOT BLOCK over 50 bootblock protector U555 CROSSWORD CREATOR (not WB3) crossword maker U561 PERM CHECK a full POOL PREDICTION program U568 ICON CONSTURCTION KIT icon making program U569 ICON ready made (4 disk U590 A600 NUMBERIC PAD EMULATOR (A600 only) U591 DEGRADER (not WB 1.3) A500 emulator U592 KILL AGA-make older programe run on A1200 U600 C64 EMULATOR II utiL & document U601 DISKSALV II + ABACKUP (not wb1.3) U603 THE CHEAT COMPENDIUM (or over 450 games U620 HOW TO CODE IN C (2disk) + many examples U622 ACTION REPLAY V1 .5(A500/600)-cartridge on disk U623 ACTION REPLAY V4 (A1200 ONLY) same as above U645 PC EMULATOR V.2.3l(WB3 only) SVGA PC emulator U650 COPY & CRACK TOOL 2 more powerful copy program U680 NEW SUPER VIRUS KILLER(not WB3)kill 316+ virus U689 FORCASTER V2-horse racing p red it ion program U690 ASSASIN COPIER (lots)inciude Xcopy3/dcopy ect U694 SUPER DUPER 3. (NOT WB1.3) Vfast disk copier U696 AM1TOOL PROFFESIONAL disk database tool U801 MULTI-PRINT V4 lot of printing util U805 DISK PRINT print custom disk lables U807 FONT & PRINT Load of utilities to wiew & print fontjiollectiqn^ RECOMMED with LITTLE WOOD. VERMON, ZET? EF I Ect U830 POOL WIZARD -(footballj prediction U832 DIVENDEND WINNER - Prediction - for U839 AUDIO MAGIC 4-Proctracker V3,Exoctic ripper U843 AUDIO MAGIC 8- Octatned player ect U846 C64 emulator V3 (2DISK) C64 emulatorlatest U848 SPECTRUM EMULATOR V2- Spectrum emulator latest U850 EAGLE PLAYER (2disk) the best music player. U851 DELI-TRACKER (2disk play all music format. U7Q0 ANIMATION CONSTRUCTION KIT V1.2 + good U702 V MORPH V2.create smooth morph animation U703 POOL TOOLS 2(Latest)prediction horse racing. U705 TRONI-CAD-best create circuit board+examples U707 GAME TAMER(3&4)-(2)For even more games cheat. U708 LAST WILL & TESTAMENT-write your will U710 PERFECT-PAINT 32 Very easy to use paint package U714 ENGINEER KIT various test kit for Amiga U718 MAGNUM 1 .9 REGARD the best disk magazines creator U721 FONT FARM V3 + load of font + font viewer U723 EXOTIC RIPPER rate as the best sound/graphic riper U724 PARNET SET UP(2) require for the connection U725 PARNET CABLE MAKER INSTRUCTION project save £££ U726 AREX MANUAL(notWb1.3) complete manual. U729 ASSASIN BOOT UTIL 50 boot block creater util U730 SOFT AGA (A500plus or A600} & min 1.5 meg U731 A - Z GAMES CHEAT for over 500 games U732 MINI MORPHS create TERMINATOR 2 effect U736 AWARD MAKER ll+hundred of ready made U737 ASSASIN CRUNCH 8, COPY TOOL (WB 1.3 only) U738 S.KICK PROFESSIONAL v3.2 Various K-start U739 TURBO IMPLODER V3.1 powerful disk cruncher U740 CROSS DOS 5.1_plus read/write PCoAMIGA disk U741 HD-DISK TOOL BOX +many more Disk util recommend U742 HOW TO CREATE AUTOBOOT DISK.complete + Util U743 Util .Disk .Maker v3. MAKE AUTO BOOT DISK U744 FRACTAL MANIA+BIOMORPH Brillant collection U745 AF WORK BENCH (3)(WB 1.3 ONLY) replacement U746 3D GARDEN DESIGNER & wiew from any angle bril U747 ASTROMY V2 predict star planet prediction. U749 DISK REPAIR 3(floppy & HDlinclude soft-proctect U750 MUSIC CATALOG UE . (not A500(t.3t very easy to use U751 SYTEM CHECKER TOOL must for any Amiga owner U753 HARD DRIVE UTIL+lot more Hard DRIVE UTIL U754 PARBENCH installer (complete) U755 PRO CAD electronic. latest circuit board designer U758 WB MENU LAUNCHER-menu system, easy to use U760 ICON PLUS (3DISK) Hundreds of stunning ICONS U761 RELOCKIT 1.4 latest WB1.3 emulator U762 FAKE FAST MEMORY make more older software run U777 TELE TEXT RECIEVER project, highly recommend U781 DOSTRACE V2. display infomation why some programe refuse to run. also moniter Amiga activity. RECOMMEND U783 POOL WINNER GOLD must for all gamber U789 HARD-DISK MEMORY V2 use HD as memory (re MMU) U790 WINDOW BENCH V2 (WB 2/3) 2disk new workbench replacement, include lot of useful utilities U791 COMPUTER DIAGNOSTIC TEST V9 amiga Fault finding U883 OPTI-Utils 1i.._. U885 INTUTIQN BENCH MARK V6.5 (No! Wb1.3) sysinfo U88G COMPLETE WB UTIL (2DISK) very useful Util col U887 DISK REPAIR KIT 4-tnctude disk repair, undelete, softproctect, diskmate, sysinfo.ect U95D STEREO-SCOPIC V2.a (not A5001.3) This is the RAMDOM DOT STEREOGRAM generater. U951 FORTH PROGRAMMING (NOT WB 1.3) U957 SCALA BACKGROUND (2disk) High quality image U960 PROGRAME LOADER-New HardDisk menu U961 MAGAZINE E 3(2disk) science fiction magazine U963 AMOS & AMOS PRO COMMAND EXTENSION U967 PRO-GAMBLE-Super Horse prediction programme. U978 DELUXE PAINT 4 BUDDY SYSTEM-(2) Get The most out deluxe Paint Instan on line for evry fuction U981 VIRUS CHECKER V6,54 -=AUTO UPDATE MONTHLY^. U982 DIRECTORY OPUS V4 add Extra Command/BUTTON U983 MAGIC WB & MAGIC MENU ..Both Latest version U986 VIRUS- WORKSHOP V5.1-the best Virus killer U987 GRAPHIC-CONVERTER (2D) Convert picture ect U988 TURBOCAT Auto catalogue your disk library U989 AUTOBOOT DISK MAKEH V4 -very useful U993 IMAGINE STUDIO V2.(2D) The best PD image (picture) processor available rival even the commercial costing hundres of pound, (not kl.3) U9G9 POWER-CACHES Speed up disk loading.Accesses U970 HARDDRIVE SECURITY II Large collection of HD scerity programe eg Lockout2, Password & many more U971 HARD-DISK 8.TLOPPY DISK DOUBLER (Epu)notWB1.3 U973 CHEAT FOR 800 + GAMES, LEVEL CODE V3.3.(2) U974 HD GAMES INSTALLER 2 install tops games to HD. EG.ZOOL2, Rise Of the roboLMorta! Combat2 & more U975 DMS V2.04 Pro. Crunch entire disk. (not1.3) U976 MAGIC SLECTOR V1 .4-Change Magic WB back drop U977 MAGICWB ICON ARCHIVE (3) 1000 s of MGwb icons U998 X-PASSWORD-proctect your hard/floppy drive U979 ICON ACHRIVEJ3) 1000' s of normal lcon(any Amiga) U994 TEXTURE STUDIO. Render Various Texture for use with Imagine 3 ect req FPU. (not 1.3) U995 PRO-GAMBLES V2 must for all gamblers. U996 BOOKIE BEATER- gambling programe to win bookie U997 HD GAME INSTALLER 3. install more game to HD U998 EXOCTIC RIPPER V3.b Latest ripper U999 HD MEMORY (new collection) require MMU U1000 MAGIC OPUS VOL 2 & 3 (20) more Dopus buttom U1001 CAR DATA ANALYST -check your car performance U1002 TURBO CAT- WB 2&3 only) catalogue creator U1003 LOTTO RY WINNER V2-new version U1005 BASIC-ELECTRONIC-Teach all about eletronic U1006 LOTTO LUNACY V2 Update latest lottery predictor U1007 ALL NEW HARD-DISK S FLOPPY DISK TOOL 2 (2) U1008 HARD-WARE PROJECT 2 (2) Build dozen of B reject even how to fit Amigas in a tower case 1009 DATA ALERT 3-explain why your computer crash U1010 WB2.04 INSTALLER -in stall A500+/A600 to HD PUZZLE GAMES II Massive collection of the best puzzle games ever released including some of the classics like Nubic Cube, Picture Puzzles etc, much too many to list. Very popular. 5 disk pack only £4.99 ARCADE GAMES II COLLECTION OF THE VERY BEST SHOOT EM UP MUST FOR ANY GAMES PLAYER 5 disk pack only £4.99 BOARD GAMES II The very best board games ever released. This pack contains the very latest, CHESS. CHECKER, SCRABBLE, M0N0PLY & DOMINOES recommended. 5 disk pack only £4.99 Printer Pack 5 disk pack with all the latest printing programs specially designed for printing out high quality documents, text & pictures etc and it is even able to print out A5 Booklets (very handy). Easy to use. A must tor any Amiga owner with printer. Printer Pack (5 disks) only £4.99 ■X/l G222 MEGA 21 GAMES amazing 21 games G235 DRAGON-CAVE brillant 3D puzzle games G240 OUADRIX very addict excellent G242 TAKE EM OUT like to Operation wolf G253 DESTINE MOON BASE Arcade conversion G272 TANK BATTLE 2 player tank battle game G278 ARCADIA the best ARK NO ID clone G300 Q-BOID cross TETRIX and INVADERS. G303 DIMENSION X 2 player LIGHT CYCLE GAME G310 NEBULAR Excellent 3D shoot em up G316 GALACTIC Excellent 8 levels arcade G317 HYPER-BALL Speed ball +level editor G320 GHOST-SHIP Very good 3D adventure G325 BATTLEMENT hunch back of notcha G326 MEGA GAME COLLECTIONS III 3 top games G329 MADONNA NUDE PUZZLES for 18+ only G331 GRAVITY massive space exploring game G333 CYBER-NET1C Brillant 8 way blaster G334 DONKEY KONG -(A1200 order code AGA296) G335 CRAZY SUE II- best platform to date G342 SUPER SKODA CHALLENGE (& track editors) G344 STAR-TREK similar to RA1D2 but harder G355 DOODY very cute & extremely addict G356 WONDER LAND amazing graphic recommed G362 DELUXE PACMAN + best pacman ever release G367 CARD GAMES collection G368 WIZARD-DOM AINS-dugeon type gam G370 KALATRIZ fnotA120(" '- -' G373 AIR ACE II Very play G384 OTHELLO best PD v<_ G386 MOUSE IMPOSSIBLE very addictive puzzle G390 TETREN most polish Tetriz ever release G392 STRIKEBALL brillant base bail clone G399 TRAILBLAZER brillant {not A1200) G400 FIGHTING WARRIOR like street fighter G404 DOMINOES only one of it kind on PD G406 TOTAL WARS -strategy like chess in space G411 BATTLE CAR 2- 3D car racing G431 NESTER CARD GAME- hours of fun for a quit. G435 ROULETE amercan roulete excellent G438 TRAILBLAZER 2 C64 conversion G441 E-TYPE 2- very good asteroid great graphic G443 OLEMPIAD DISK (2D) Olympic sport events G445 DESCENDER GAME tank, search Si desender G446 OBLIDOX excellent Arcade/Puzzle game G448 PARACHUTE JOUST quite playable G455 CASTLE OF DOOM VG graphic adventure. G460 WIBBLE WORLD GIDDY Large platform game G467 CASH FRUIT- good fruit machines G478 AMOS CRICKET cricket games G488 EXTREAM VILONCE 2 player battle out G489 ENGIMA MACHINE very challenging puzzle G490 MEGA BALL 2 very playable break out clone G491 BOUNCE & BLAST brillant platform 10710 G492 ZOMBIES & DEFENDER 2 fantastic games G494 MERCANERY SIMULATION 3D wars games G499 LIFE -simulation very interesting G500 TRANSPLANT dozen of level fast arcade. G501 KLAWZ THE KAT-great platform games G511 HIGHWAY HELL like SPY HUNTER on the C64 G531 OPERATION FIRESTORMS-brillant G534 CASTLE KUMQUAT similar to Alien breed G535 BLACK DAWN brillant graphic adventure G538 MORIA 5.4 The latest Dungeon & dragon G539 BRIDGE Good version of bridges G540 ORK ATTACK bloody adventure G544 SUPERTOM CAT New vertical shoot em up. G545 KUNGFU CHARLIES mix with platform brilf G546 RAID 4 latest vertical scroll shoot em up G546 QUIZMASTER very good quiz proqrame G552 ELEVATION games base on lift 77 G560 IMPERIAL WALKER -Base on STAR WAR games G567 STARBASE 13 (2D) Bril like MONKEY ISLAND G657 AMOS LOADS A MONEY best FRUIT-MACHINES G659 MR MEN OLYMPIC (2D) many event to complete G660 4 LCD DREAM 4 small hand held games G6S4 NEIGHFi; D] base on the TV series GG65 TIME RUNNER (WB2/3) Brillant graphic G667 GOLF (2DISK) One of the first & decent GOLF G668 AMOS CRICKET 2 New Amos cricket simulator G669 MUGSY REVENGE gangster graphic adventure G872 SCHNEBITZ Commercial quality puzzle games G875 DELEXE GALA v2.3(new) add new feature & bouns gamme + 2 player RECOMMEND, get it now G876 THE KRILLIAtJ INCENDENT like ELlTE2/Epic G878 QUANTUM-Maze coiect & escape type games G879 RAG TO RICHES - like MONOPLY 3 (NE Tlant EW 101 GAMES PK 3 New 101 pack 3 contains over 100 games, runs on all Amigas, only £11.99 offer buy any 2 packs together & receive a free £4 token for use with next order. This offer cannot be used with any other offer current S subject to condition apply. G680 SPACE-INVASION 2 - Fantastic Gala.._ G681 AUTOMOBILES - PD version of SKID MARK bril G6S2 BANDIT MANIA - Brillant fruit machine demo G685 PROJECT BUZZ BAR -Brillant asteroid 9 GUN FIGHT (not A500(1.3 G690 THE REAL POPEYE 64 (a500 1 .3 only) G692 SYSTEM DEFEND-Brillant Defender cfor 8 AMIGA-BOY-Game boy emulaor + tetriz G732 DETHELL IN SPACE. Recommed. G735 OVERLANDER Brillant arcade MOON ALERT G737 SERIOUS BACKGAMMON The best in PD BG G771 STAR WOID (2 Disk) brillant Thrust G772 UN-SENSIBLE SOCCER very similar to Sensible scoccer games. RECOMMEND 101 GAMES 2 PRICE ONLY £10.99 This is the very latest all new 101 games compilation pack 2 containing some of the very best in PD games like Zeus. Wonderland, Dragontlles etc. Much too many to list. COMPATIBLE WITH ALL AMIGAS G884 WIPE OUT-mindless blasting gamse G885 GODZILLA Another shootem up G886 SUPER MEGA FRUIT- All new Fruit Machine G888 DRIVING MANIAC 3D (fill vector like Indi500 car racing- very fast. RECOMMEND G889 PLANET FALL - Luner Lander clone G891 BUCK TOOTH ADVENTURE Very good multi level shoot/collect em up RECOMMEND G892 PENGO 2- Maze type games. Recommend G893 SUPER OBLITERATION Blast asteroid very similar to PANG 2 lot of weapon RECOMMEND G894 SUPER INVASION II -New SPACING INVADER G897 THE SHEPERD Brillant POPULUS clone. REC G898 ALIEN GENOCIDE (2) Shoot aliens set in space. G899 PUCKMAN. One of the better PacMan arround. G900 SUPER-BATTLE ZONE. 3D (not WB1.3) G901 M'A'S'H a [ANTWAR 2) play very similar to LEMMING & WORM, with load of Weapon (Brillant) G904 LAST SOLDIER (2 lorm games G905 CBBERTECH (2) excllent ALIEN BREED Clone G906 HANGMAN any one for a game? G907 ACE SPACE nice Platform games G908 COLOURMANIA slide/Klatnz type puzzle games G910 HARRY-HADDOCK- Brillant platformer games G912 MANGLE FENDER -Brillant, Smash up other car/tank er* *~ ■ 101 GAMES PRICE ONLY E9.99 Brilliant collection ol over 100 of the very best of PD games induces INVADER 2, Tetris, Monopoly etc. Much too many to list. Very easy to use menu system, Most games come with full playing instructions. MUST FOR ANY GAMER PLAYER, G773 FRUIT MANIA -Brillant Fruitmachin_ G774 TRICKLE TREAT -like DOOM on the PC G775 FOOT-BALL MANAGER-new version G782 SOLO ASSAULT 3D like Wing Commander G783 SEED OF DARKNESS-Brillant graphic adven G784 NANO FLY Superb explore game RECOMMEND G785 THE GREAT GOLD RAID- very addicted G787 ANT WAR V1.9 (LATEST) not 1.3 G788 ZENO-MORPH -Great grahic G789 TASK FORCE very good MIND SHADOW clone G790 GREEN FIVE Amazing 3D graphic like G791 PROFFESIONAL BINGO CALLER G792 MARTIAL SPRIT like Street fighter II G798 6 EXCELLENT CARD GAMES collection G809 BLITZ 2 fast action shooting games G810 EXIT 13 Brillant puzzle G811 TEMPORAL MISPLACEMENT-graphic adventure G812 ADAY AT THE RACE-V.Goodhorse racing games G820 BOULDER ORIGINAL with 80 level G821 BOULDERDASH cave/level Construction kit G822 BOULDER COLLECTION 2/3 160 level (2disk) G839 BOULDER PACK with 640 level on 8 disk G860 ALIEN NET WORK-new Spacing invader G862 BATTLE FORCE excellent text adventure. G8G3 GNU CHESS the best chess with 10 level G868 SWORD OF YIGG Graphic adventure G867 POWER-TETRIZ for 1 or 2 player G868 SUPER SMASHING TETRIZ G870 CHESS II & CHECKER One of the best around must for all CHESS or CHECKER player G871 GRAVITY FORCE 2 1 or 2 player thrust clone G915 COW WARS. Very addicted 2 player games G916 ISLAND -Play like Monoply. G919 COP THE LOT Pro Latest Lottery preditor G920 LOTTERY PROFFESIONAL This version use G921 MONOPLY. (board games) The best version G922 JET WILLY 3 - excellent platform games G923 FLAMMING ENGINE-Superb car racing G924 POWER MACHINES. Grahicaly brillant shoot G925 SUCIDE-MACHINE Operation wolf style G926 ZAXXON 3D Superb C64 3D blaster games G927 BOING V3. Great platformer. recommend G928 PUNTER-Animate horse racing games G929 ARCADE JIGSAW (2d) include LION KING G930 WHEEL CHAIR GLADlTOR-Very fun to play G931 NIMBLE-Brillant New arcade puzzle. G933 BLACK DAWN 3- THE NEW BEGINNING (2) Superb 3D adventure. RECOMMEND G934 R3 ROCKET (NEW)very good rockets games G935 BATTLE SHIP- the finest PD version G936 LAST LAP - Fast car racing GAME HINTS & CHEATS II Play your favourite game for age? but can't get to the end of level or game? Having problem with some games? 5 disk pack with 1000s of games cheat/help/level code action replay poke etc., should help you finish many games - suitable for all Amigas only £4.95. Update & release on 28 July '95 E001 KID PAINTS, superb paint special for kids E0O2 COLOUR IT brillant computer colouring book EG03 TREASURE SEARCH find the hidden treasure. E0O4 LEARN & PLAY Knot A1200)many maths & games E005 LEARN 8. PLAY II more education programe? E0O6 SPANISH TRANSLATOR Spanisho English E008 MR MEN (WB1.3only) brillant story adventure E009 ASTROMY tutorial on solar/star ect system E010 SIMON a SPACE MATHS maths & simon games E011 EDUCATION PACK 1 pack with dozens of educatioi able for any Amiga, 5 disk pack only C4.95 E019 DINOSAURS teach you all about Oinasaour E020 WORLD DATABASE require (2 +meg) E021 STORY LAND II interact puzzle games rec E022 LANGUAGE TUTOR teach you 4 language E023 TALKING COLOURING BOOK talking Dpaini b E024 EASY SPELL II improve your kid spelling E025 SCRABBLE require 2-4player. brillant E026 WORDS can help you solve the crossword E027 OSWALD Very colourful large cartoon game E030 EVOLUTION breed your own hybrid E031 IQ TEST + IQ GAMES pack 1 excelle— E033 TYPING TUDOR v E10O LITTLE TRAVELER imfomation on world wide E101 WORLD GEOGRAPHY world with map & text E103 DISCOVERY OF THE ATOM, tutorial on the Atom (2D) E104 DESK TOP GUIDE TO MUSIC(3D) guide & tutorial El 07 TRUMPTY FIREWORK ALPHABET Very entertening way to teach your child the ALPHABET ■ E1 08 HOW TO DELOVOPE PHOTO 1 (2) Excellent E109 MR MEN OLYMPIC (2D) many event to complete E110 CULT TV DATABASE (2D) Info on early TV series E112 HOW TO DEVELOPE PHOTO 2 (2) delevope your own. E115 ELETRONIC WORLDS(3D) Complete KJames BIBLES E116 HOW THE EARTH BEGAN-theory how the BIG BANG explode and create all the star & galaxy E118 WORKBENCH 2 tutorial on Work Bench 2 "11? P.INO WAR Quiz on dinosaurs E120 JUNIOR MATHS Great learning aid for teach kid on the math subjects. RECOMMEND E121 PICTURE PUZZLE brillant JIGSAW type game ' id words E122 WORD FACTORY Brillant, teach kid » KID DISKS 1,2.3,4,5 Excellent collection ot education programs. Ideal for teaching kids various subjects while retaining the fun E036 BASIC TUDOR learn about Amiga b c Prog EDUCATION & 21 GAMES PACK Collection of the very best of education programs and a 21 games pack, a very popular combination for kids (run on all Amiga) 5 disks pack only £4.95 E038 AMIGA TUTORIAL 7 part tutorial E039 COMPUTER CARE how to care about AMIGA E040 GUIDE TO LOWER BACK PAIN tutorial the back pain, (recommend) E043 MATH MASTER teach/test you more on maths E044 STEAM ENGINE V2 graphic & tutorial EQ45 PETROL ENGINE tutorial & animate graphic E045 GAS TURBINE ENGINE tutorla & anim graphic E047 STIRLING ENGINE tutorial & anim graphic ED50 DREAM FOR ANGEL explain the meaning of dream E051 INVISIBLE WORLD brillant recommend E052 FISH TANK turn your amiga into a FISHTANK E054 DEMOLITION MISSION simple game for kid E055 WORD POWER solve crossword puzzle ect good. E055 WORM HOLE simple game ideal for children. E057 APPLE CATCHER catch falling apple brilliant E058 CROSS MAZE & CRYPTOKING 2 excellent kid games E059 VERB QUIZ find the word & it related. Bril E061 KING JAMES BIBLE (4d) complete bibles excel E066 TARROT clairvoyant in a instance E068 G ALLOW fancy a games of hang man? E070 MATH DRILLS teach all basic math skill Vgood E071 ERROR INFO give info why your amiga crash E075 WORLD-WAR 2 graphics tutorial on WORLD-WAR releate program eg simulate Starprobe/ molecube/ ect E076 SCIENCE an excellent collection of science ideal for all who interesting or studies in science recommend, this pack come on 4 disks E0S0 KIDPRIX great children paint programme. E081 ASTROMY PACK- This is a mazing collection of programe relate to astromy. can help to locate certain or star position ect, must for anyone who studies astromy or hobby, great (4DISK) E073 PICTURE & LETTER learn to reads- first step E074 AMIGA BEGINER GUIDE tutorial on Amigas E085 NODDY PLAYTIME demo >Very good E080 KID PIX more excellent paint programes ED81 D.T.P FOR KID easy to use, excellent E092 SING A RYHMES sing a song E094 HIGH WAY CODE TUTOR question on highway cod E096 READ & LEARN (2D) THREE LITTLE PIGGY Story E097 BACK TO SKOOL vol 1 collection of the best E098 BACK TO SKOOL vol 2 in education programe E099 BACK TO SKOOL vol 3 S games. RECOMMED E125 JURASSIC PARK lots of info on dinosaurs E126 CHILDREN SONG 2 contain 5 excellent song E127 MING SHU (A500 only) Bril Chinese Astrologgy. E128 ASTRO 22 PRO.V3-The latest astrology program that accurately calculates the position of the planet, eclipe, zodiac position etc. Recommend E130 FRENCH VERD TESTER should help you with trench. E131 CULT TV DATA BASE II [2 DISK) info on early TV E132 WOR LD H I S TO R Y_B O O K nfomatio ery interesting u now to play ch E150 INTERNET-FULL guide to internet & superhighway E161 CLI & SHELL TUTOR (help) Ideal for beginner E162 OELUXE PAINT GRAPHIC TUTOR V 3 & 4 RECOMMEND E163 JAPANESE - teach you the japanese language E164 PAINT IT (not A5O01.3) latest COLOURING BOOK E165 KEY BOARD TRAINER An excellent tuping tutor. Et66 WORD POWER- speilcheck/crossword solver/teach E168 CROSSWORD CREATOR-design crossword E169 CHESS II 4 TUTOR brillant Chess II games E170 HISTORY OF AVIATION Vol 1 Execllent disk E171 CHILD FAVOURITE-Education prog E172 ANIMAL LAND-Learn about animar E175 FRANTIC GUIDE TO COMPUTER(2D) brillant & funny E177 CYBER PUNK 2 for cyberPunk freak only E178 STAR-TREK & STARTREK NEXT GERENATION GUIDE THE COMPLETE GUIDE COME WITH HUNDRED OF SCREEN SHOTS TAKEN FROM THE STAR-TREK SERIES. SUPERB. E181 SIGINTURE CREATOR customise your own siginture. E182 VIRUS WORKSHOP V4 comprehensive guide E184 IMAGINES VIDEO 2disk E185 WORKBENCH 2/3 GUIDE On line help/Complete E210 LEARN & PLAY 3 Latest Education & Games E240 BARNEY THE BEAR GOES CAMPING (2d) Brillant teach your child about animal E241 COMMS GUIDE V1.1 beginner modem user E242 GUIDE TO WEATHER (3d) superb complete guide to the weather, recommend E245 MATH ATTACK- Maths relate games for kids E242 ANIMAL-LAND-ldeal for young kid. Excel E243 PICTURE-MATHS-Malhs program for kids E246 BEGINER GUIDE TO WB 3 (A1200 only) E247 GLOBE FACT(2) fact about planet earth E248 KID ONLY. 6 excelent game to play w ^ r lSr\ffl/7 EDUCATION & IfxJLBUU 21 GAMES PACK WE ALSO STOCK THE ENTIRE COLLECTION OF LSD LEGAL TOOLS 1-150 SCOPE 1-220 FRED-FISH 1-1000 ASSASSIN GAMES 1-200 ETC various pack I COMMODORE C64 V3 1 ZX SPECTRUM 48K Any pack comes on 5 disks only £4.95 per pack I COLOUR FONTS Pack (1 or Pack 2) MONO FONTS Pack (1 or Pack 2) [ High quality fonts for use with Dpaint or Personal Paints VARIOUS CLIPART Pack (1,2 3 or 5) COLOUR WORLD MAP (Pack 1,2 or 3) High quality world map COMPUTA-GRAPHIC FONT (Pack 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5) j High quality font for WORDSWORTH or any DTP IMAGINE VARIOUS OBJECTS (Pack 1, 2 or 3) REAL 3D VARIOUS OBJECTS (Pack 1, 2 or 3) LIGHTWAVE VARIOUS OBJECTS (Pack 1, 2 or 3) TRUE FONT FOR ABOVE (Pack 1,2 or 3) (Please state for which pack above) | We also stock many more packs. Please Phone The very latest version. Now you can play real Commodore C64 games on your Amiga. All packs below are complete & ready to play directly on your Amiga. Printed instructions provided. C64 & 45 original games ..£4.99 C64 & 100 original games ..£8.99 C64 & 200 original games £16.99 P.S. C64 V3 & 100 GAMES PACK GOT 88% REVIEW IN AMIGA SHOPPER ISSUE 54 AG A A1 200 & THIS LISTING ARE FOR AGAO01 EXTENSION DEMO Stunning demo, fast landscape anim and a rotating city, regard the best AGA demo AGA002 FRACTAL GENERATOR fractal in 256 colour. AGA003 WORKBENCH HACK many hack/toy/blanker etc AGA006 NEW SUPER KILLER know kmow & kill over 316 type of virus must for al! A1200 owner AGA0O7 MINDWARP very first demo for the A1200 AGA008 KLONDIKE DELUXE AGA (3D) the best A1200 card games with glamours lady as cards face 18 ♦ only AGA011 SLEEPLESS NIGHT 3 AGA012 PLANET GROOVE Truly A1200 Demos AGA013 MOTOR INVADER 2 (2D) Brillant INVADER gane AGA015 POINT OF SCALE Great A120O only demos AGA016 CH ROMAS- Fairly good demo. AGA017 WORLD OF MANGA (4DISK) magnificent Japanese comic slide show include Japanes Chick etc recommend AGA021 MAGIC WORKBENCH Improve the look of your WB & add some function to your WB really BRILLANT AGAD22 WB 3 UTILITIES load of Wb 3 only utilities AGA023 U-CHESS the best chess program games so far but require 4 megbytes. Brillant graphic AGA024 WORKBENCH 3 SCREEN Great back drop AGA41 ADULT SLIDE Vol 1-9 (2 disk each) 'see below AGA62 BODY SHOP VOL 1 -7 (2 disk each) 'see below AG ABO FITCHICK vol 1 -3(2disk each) 'see below to order any disk above just state disk code & volume no? (remember 2 disk per volume) DEGRAOER AGA090 A1200 FIX DISK COLLETOON 1 AGA091 A1200 FIX DISK 2 COLLETCION 2 AGA094 RELOCKIT VI .4a latest, run A5O0 SOFTWARE AGA3D6 Al 200 FIX DISK VOL 3 (new July 95) All disk above are design to make any old A500-A600 Amiga programs/games etc to run on your A1200/A40OO MUST FOR ALL AGA AMIGA OWNER. RECOMMEND AGA097 A120O UTIL - AGA TESTER, SYSINFO etc AGA098 ACTION REPLAY V4 Complete ACTION REPLAY. AG AO 9 9 MADFIGHTER 2 brillant street fighter clone AGA10O AGA BLITZ SCREEN BLANKER AGA101 FAST GIFF 2 display GIFF pic In Workbench. AGA102 AGA DIAGNOSTIC ■ NEW system tester AGA103 BLACK BOARD AGA decent Image processor AGA105 QUICK GRAB AGA -grab AGA screen PICTURE AGA110 WORLD BEYONDS 1 (3) stunning 256 COLOUR fantasy art. leave atari userbreathless AGA114 SMELL LIKE CHANEL N05 brillant demo ray trace picture ever release on the A 1200 AGA121 MAGIC FACTORY 1 STAR TREK (5 disk) AGA133 AGA UTIL v1&2 (2) AGA util compilation AGA135 AGA UTIL V3 &4 (2) more of above AGA137 MULTIBOOT- 4 various version A500 EMU AGA138 OFFICIAL WORKBENCH 3 HARDDRIVE INSTALLER AGA139 WB3 HARDDISK PREF & INSTALLER installing AGA140 CROSS DOS PLUS v5.1 read/write PC files AGA142 SUPER LEAGUE 3 -latest manager games AGA144 SPEAK S SPELL - educational software for kid AGA145 BIG TOPS (18 + only)HMMmm AGA146 KELOG LAND -brillant platform games AGA150 ACTION REPLAY V5 - NEW UP DATE TO V4 AGA160 GIGER TRIZ very playable 256 colour tetriz AGA162 FATAL-BLOW new STREET-FIGHTER 2 clone AGA164 CINDY CRAWFORD Vol1 (2 disk) latest release AGA166 INFESTATION (3 disk) The ultlmated AGA demo AGA170 CINDY CRAWFORD Vol II (2disk) amazing AGA172 VIDEO TRACKER AGA-uitimate demo maker AGA174 MAGIC WB EXTRA vol 1 & 2 (2disk) AGA180 GIF BEAUTIES Vol (11-18) 8 more girls disk AGA189 FRIDAY AT 8 another brillant AGA demos AGA190 ASSASIN MULTIVISION AGA pic viewing util AGA192 ALIEN FRENZE 2 player blasting + power up AGA194 BIG TIME SENSUAL (2disk) SPACE BALL 2 AGA200 MASQUERADE 2disk brillant puzzle games. AGA202 RAM JAM 94 it cat be done (2disk) AGA203 EXPLIXIT 2 DEMO new effete welldone. AGA204 COMPLEX ORIGIN 2disk require 2 diskdrive AGA206 TREASURE OF TUTANKHAMUN- eductaion tool AGA230 LOVE 2 disk-simply brillant DEMOS AGA231 AGA UTIL 7 & 8 (2 disk) .More USEFUL util « SEE PAGE 1 FOR MOR A4000 ONLY JSE WITH AGA AMIGA AGA234 KNOTTY-Stunning AGA sliding pictre puzzles AGA240 LOTTERY WINNER hope fully will improve your chance of winning a jack pot.. GOOD-LUCK AGA241-258 AGA GAME-GALORE AGA 01-16 lot of games AGA251 PACKMAN AGA -the best pacman yet AGA252 ROCKET PD - Super thrust clone brillant graphic for 1 or 2 player AGA253 REAL DEMO stunning special effete AGA254 DIRT AGA Brillant 256 colour effete. AGA2S5 DEUGHT EXPLORE excllent demo AGA256 KEFEREN AGA Demo lot of effete AGA257 M1NOMIST RAVE great rave music. AGA258 OXYGENE Fantastic demo AGA259 INTEL-OUT another very good demo AGA260 SOMEJUSTIC94 Demo of the month brillant whirl effete. RECOMMEND AGA262 TO THE DEATH very good STREET- FIGHTER clone with very good graphic. AGA263 GEORGE GALAXO (2disk) brillant multilevel shoot/platform game. RECOMMEDN AGA265 MISSILE OVER ZEN ON (2dlsk) Brillant 3D missile commander with fantastic graphic AGA266 TEAM-HOI DINO PLATFORM excellent dino platform Note:this disk was a commercial games AGA274 MUSIC 2 SURVIVE 2disk 8 excellent music master piece, well worth getting AGA271 RAVE MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE II (2disk) AGA278 CHANNEL Z ISSUE 1 (AGA) (2disk) AGA base disk magazines. RECOMMEND AGA disk magazine topic. demo /music AGA285 WORKBENCH BACKDROP VOL 3 AGA295 DE-LUXE MONOPOLY- Board game.V addicted AGA296 DONKEY KONG Arcade classic conversion AGA297 BOMB PAC Extreamly good to play AGA298 ROCKET 2 set deep underground brillant graphic, even better with 2 player AGA299 SCRABBLE-Now fully run on all Amiga AGA300 MAGIC WB V2. Demo of version 2 AGA302 TUTANKHAM 11(2) Education-Egyptian MUMMY AGA303 P AM LA. ANDERSON. (2) 18+ only BayWateh Babe AGA304 BODYSHOP V8 (3) more bikini beauties AGA305 T1MEZONE (2) V.Good graphic adventures. AGA307 DENT A WOLF dooms demo AGA308 NAXIS -Really show what AGA graphic co do AGA310 FEARS (2d)- dooms clone demo AGA312 JINX (2d) Fantastic arcade puzzle AGA313 RAM JAM THE TASTE DEMO. very wicket demo. AGA315 ILEX MYSTIC. New AGA demos AGA320 KLONDIKE 3 (4disk) Hd require & 2meg +we aslo have a list of 25 cards for above. AGA321 HOT-BABE 1 (2) MUST BE OVER AGA322 HOT-BABE 2 (2) 18 AGA323 HOT-BABE 3 (2) BEFORE AGA324 HOT-BABE 4 (2) ORDER ANY AGA325 HOT-BABE 5 (2) OF THE HOT-BABE PACK Hundred of quality Magic wb icon & back drop AGA388 DESK-TOP MAGIC- 32 animated screen blanker AGA389 WAR OF THE WORLDS -full 3D games AGA39D FEAR 2. Brillant 3D graphic games like AGA391 PSSST Amiga version of Spectrum games AGA392 CHILD MURDER(4)Horror graphic adventure AGA390 FEAR II -Brillant 3D game play just like DOOM on the PC Garrenteed you impress. AGA393 PC EMULATOR V3- Latest PC emulator AGA40O HYPER RACE (2) Super racing games AGA410 CINDY CLAWFORD (3) new AGA411 ELLE MACPHERSON (3) AGA412 CLAUDIA SCHIFFER (3) AGA41 3 BIG GIRLS II (3) AGA414 GIRLS GIRLS (2) AGA415 NIKY TAYLOR (2) AGA417 KYLIE MINOUGE (3) AGA418 FEMALE BODY BUILDER (3) AGA419 EXCELLENT CARD GAMES 3 latest AGA420 POKER & BLACK JACK DELUXE (3)4MEG AGA421 COLOUR WB make your WB more colourful AGA422 RIDGE RACER Demo on the Amiga, AGA423 DRUG STORE DEMOS (2disk) AGA424 DREAM WALKER (2) Demos AGA425 MYSTIC DEMOS(2) 95 excellent demos AGA426 ORIGIN 2 (2 DISK), Amazing E SOFTWARE FOR YOUR AMIGA LOTT ERY WINNER BUSINESS SOFTWARE HATIIHAL LITTEBY EXCELLENT COLLECTION OF VARIOUS LOTTERY WINNER PREDICTION PROGRAMS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED pack only £4.99 UFO THE CLOSE ENCLUNTER 100s & 100s of real life document of UFO sight- ings kidnapping & Animal mutilation & many more. Very interesting read. 6 Disk set only £5.99 MULTIMEDIA 100s of documented cases on UFO sightings, abduction, cattle mutilation & many more. Many with photos to back up the claim, some are so secret only released recently by law. 9 disk pack only £8.99 PACK II FOR ALL CARD GAME FANS It you like Poker. Black Jack, Spade. Pontoon. Solitaire, Bridge, Klondike etc then this pack is a must Only £4.99 TEXT PLUS 2.2e easy (□ used ■ BANKING Home account program LABEL DESIGNER design your own isdois ■ i : ■ .: PUBLISH WC The OestPD DTP available i CAHD MAKER (not 412001 brilliant 600 BUSINESS LETTER very handy. Get it now ■ ■: : VJSICALC Great TEXT-ENGINE V3.4 ■ I LITTLE OFFICE - data bases; worflprocessor/spreadshee HOME BUSINESS JOURNAL ■ Easy to use database BOM APPETIT DATABASE many receipt. HOME ACCOUNT-Aeeount jjiogram f account prog. Eicellent program '2 8 new account program ADDRESS PRINT V2.1 Si ore 4 TEXT -PLUS V 4.0 pre TEXT ENGINES Vi.l rio'fi ADDRESS PFUNTINO prim addresses on labels PAY ADVICE V3 account program ■ ■. THE MONEY PROGRAM - Accounts LOANS ACCOUNT OHFORM One ot U>e Best Invoice makers ACCOUNT MASTER v2.2 [latest) programs up to 1C LITTLE OFFICE 2 ' Release includes Business Letters Word Processor Calendar Name & Address Database All this tor only £1.99 HARD DRIVE & DISK DRIVE Space Doubler r^ VIE this dojbte sn d your HD or Disk Dme sfcrage capadty. Recwmendei U971 EPU V1.6 ONLY 99p SUITABLE FOR WB2/3 Now you can play 100"s of Spectrum 48K Games on your Amiga. Any Pack j below is complete & ready to run on your Amiga. Full printed instructions provided. SPECTRUM » Si GAMES Ptt BUY !4.» SHTTRUM +1M GAMES PK2 ONLY £71 SPECTRUM *20I GAMES PK3 ONLY £11.99 SPECIAL OFFER Take all 3 packs above 8 50 New Spectrum Games (total 400) For Oniy £19.99 More Spectrum games available C64 & 45 games pack Spectrum V2 & 50 games Vic 20 & 30 games All 3 packs for only £9.99 SEE LEFT FOR DESCRIPTION I See left for details. This pack comes on very large number of disks £39.99 ffl MOW ONLY £29.99 I C64 v3 PK4J I Special offer C64 v3 and 45, 100, 200 games pack with extra ! I , i J games making 400 C64 games & utilities disks. Comes on large number J of disks + games list and loading leaflet. Only £24.99. ^See C64 or Spectrum advert box for more details SOFTWARE 2000 DOUBLE CD CONTAINS own 1S€S mmM This is the 8ig one! Nearly 2000 original disks from the SOFTWARE 2000 library included on a Double CD set. For title list just take a look at this Doubles advert for examle of titles & packs which can be found on this CD. No lucky dip or unknown software. Full description on every disks/titles. Very easy to use menu system on both CDs. This unique menu system lets you explore the contents of both CDs without disc swapping. ..Excellent. See below. EXAMPLE Of DISKS CAN BE FOUND ON THE DOUBLE CD SET 294 - VARIOUS UTILITIES DISKS 252 - ANIMATION DISK 181 - AGA DISKS 92 - TOP SAMPLE AND FX DISKS 118 - EDUCATION DISK 133- DEMOS 225 - MUSIC DISKS 18* - DEMOS (Adults only) 402 + VARIOUS GAMES DISKS - with an estimate of around 1000 + Amiga games SO LATEST DISKS OF MAGIC WB 7 BACKDROP. Version lor all Amigas also includes 100s of IMAGINE OBJ. 800s AMIGA FONTS, 100s QUALITY B&W & COLOUR CUP ART, & MUCH TOO MANY TO LIST... ALSO INCLUDED ON CD, ABE NEW Spectrum Games (Play direct from CD) Fy^ Over 600Mb per CD Menu compatible with alt Amigas [y^j No duplicate of data |7| Very easy to use Menu ^k^T (KA&l£LiAT^)tt IM€b»40 DSO) RRP £3=*-?«5 NEW PRICE ONLY £29.99 +70pforP&P Available Now Below new games pack released due to popular demand. With any of these games packs, you know exactly what sort of games you're buying. Like our previous packs, each pack comes on 5 disks and using the latest disk packer we can put upto 5 games on to one disk. So you get upto 25 top games for only £4.99. All games 8 instructions will run automatically when you click on the icon. All games pack contain different games. Compatible with ALL Amigas. Board Games Pack 3 Arcade Games Pack 3 5 disks] £4.99 Puzzle Games Pack 3 Card Games Pack 3 5 disks) £4.99 5 disks] £4.99 5 disks £4.99 Hon CD tvner This pack is ideal for any Amiga owner who doesn't own a CD rom drive and wants a large amount of the very latest software at minimal cost. These packs will be 100% update with all new or different software on the 1st off every month. All software are packed using LHA which has a ratio of approx 3-1 (up to 30 disks worth of software from the 10 disk pack). Highly recommended as you will get 3 times more software per disk. Various latest games (W disks) only £9,90 Various latest utilities (10 disks) only £9.90 18 DEMOS MUST BE 18 AND OVER XSO CINDY CRAWFORD (2) X74 MADONNA (SEX) (3) XOI SHOWER GIRL X03 BODY TALK (2) X09 MARIE WHITTAKER X24 SABRINA SPECIAL X25 DIE FILKINGER X26 MADONNA EARLY DAYS X28 KATHY LLOYD X30 MEGA-MAID X31 CALENDAR GIRL X32 MAYFAIR X33 UTOPIA (4 DISKS) X45 GIRLS OF SPORT X49 PAGE 3 GIRLS X70 GON GON GIRL X71 TINA SMALL X91 CINDY CALENDAR '95 X96 HOT BABE 1 X97 HOT BABE 2 X98 HOT BABE 3 X99 HOT BABE 4 XI OO HOT BABE 5 XIOI BIG GIRL II X102 FEMALE BODY BUILDER X103 GIRLS GIRLS X10S ELLE MACPHERSON X106 CLAUDIA SCHIFFER HARDWARE PROJECT III Build dozens of projects including an accelerator lor an A500 for less than £15. Install! 3.5" HD in your A600 & A1200. Put your A5Q&'A6O0YA120O in a lowercase for less than £30. Use 1.44 PC disk drive on your Amiga. NEW TITLES G938 ULTIMATE TOUR TENNIS - (2 disks) Excellent tennis game G939 DARK ANGEL - (NOT W81.3) Superb arcade adventure G940 RAISE THE TITANIC - Good 3D Adventure game G941 PHANTOM - Excellent shooting games (Defender 96) G942 MAC DONA-LA ND - Brilliant game similar to Zool (not A1 200) G943 JOUST III - Brilliant C64 game with updated Amiga graphics G944 DELUXE G A LAG A V2.6 - The very latest Galaga. Highly recommended G955 LAZER RACE - Good Tron type, extremely addictive to play G9S6 TRAIN-DRIVER SIMULATION - The most realistic train aim. G957 MASTER BLASTER - Kill various monsters with bombs G958 KNOCK-OUT Mini derby destruction, very addictive G959 DUNGEON HERO - 3D Graphic adventure similar to Doom G96D MORTAL KUMOUAT 3 - Weird but fun beat-em-up G961 CODE NAME NANO - Superb Thrust Clone (Nano Fly 2) G963 POKER MANIA - tf you like poker then this is for you G965 LEATHAL FORMULA - Adventure similar to Monkey Island E253 BEGINNER TYPING TUTOR E254 WORD PUZZLE PRO - Create CrossWord puzzle to solve puzzle E256 KID DISK 7 - Another very fine education program E257 A-Z COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD E2S8 UK COUNTIES Similar to above but this is based entirely on ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND E2S9 BASIC ELECTRONICS V1.5 (2 Disk) - For electronic fans E261 MASSIVE GUIDE TO THE INTERNET V2.3 AGA429 POWERDROID - 96 New Asteroids with brilliant graphics AGA430 ULTIMATUM ■ The ultimate 3D Tank Battle U1010 WB2 INSTALLER - Install A500/A600 workbench to HD U1011 TURBO-CAT PRO V1.2 (not WB1.3) ■ Create catalogues U1012 TEXT-ENGINE V5 (not WB1 .3) - The very latest wordprocessor with spell checker. This is the full version, highly recommended U1013 DIARY 2000 - Use this just like a real diary U1014 TOTAL ECUPS - Disk magazine 1 U1015 NEW CHEAT DISK V2.1 (2 disks) - Includes some games. Fix U1016 ULTRA ACCOUNT - Another very good accounts program U1017 PRO LOTTERY 96 - The very latest & best lottery program U1018 PRO GREYHOUND • Like Pro Gamble but for dogs U1019 AUTO STEREO GRAM V4 - Latest Magic eye generator U1021 ELECTRONIC ADDRESS BOOK U1022 PRO FOOTBALL 1.1 (2) Football predictor like Pro Gamble U1023 REMDATE - Reminder for important dates U1024 SHAPE SHIFTER V3.3 - The very latest Mac emulator U1025 MESSY SID 3 - The latest PC<> Amiga disk converter U1026 HD GAME INSTALLER 4 - Install loads more games to HD U1027 SOFT MEMORY - Double your computer memory. This version does not require HD or MMU. Give this a try. recommended U1028 MAGIC USER INTERFACE V3.1 - Update to version 2.3 U1029 ORIC 48K EMULATOR (not 1.3) At last H works U1030 MSX II Emulator V2.1 • (WB3.0) MSX computer on U1031 900 AMIGA GAMES HINTS & CHEATS V4 (2 Disks) U1032 VIRUS CHECKER V8.2 (not WB1.3) - Latest MAGIC WB& EXTRA DISr This is the cheapest way to obtain Magic WB extr Each pack below will fin 12 disks when unpacked. (Very easy to unpack via click a few buttons). MAGIC WB EXTRA PACK (01-12)1... MAGIC W8 EXTRA PACK (1 3-24) 2 ... MAGIC WB EXTRA PACK (25-36) 3 m AGA21 Magic WB2.1 The latest Magic WB for A1200 I U99S Magic WB 1.3 this is (or the A500 1 .3A500plus Magic Backdrop Various Backdrop I (4) .....£3.99 i ..£6.99 taious Backdrop II (2)..,.£1.98 I " Ikdrop £0.99 1 New Amiga Logo BD £0.991 Magic Scenery BD (2) £1.981 Glamour Face -.£1.9" PLEASE ORDER A DISK CATALOGUE ADD 70P OR 3 X FIRST CLASS STAMPS WITH ORDER r IX J\Jr I 1 bryant avenue south end-on-sea essex, s$1 2yd Tel 01702 466933 Fax 01072 617123 □SI! - Disk Prices « 5 Disks For £10 + £1 P&P 10 Disks For £17 + £143 P&P 15 Disks For £21 + £1.43 P&P 20 Disks For £25 + £2.45 P&P CDROM BASED I CD010 GOLD FISH 1 £19.99 | I CD028B FONTS & CLIPART £9.99 I CD033 THE AMOS LIBRARY £16.99 | I CD034 ASSASSINS GAMES £4.99 [CD039 17 BIT THE CONTIN £9.99 I CD040 EUROSCENE £4.99 I CD042 W. SCIENCE CLIPART £7.99 |CD043 W. SCIENCE FONTS £7.99 I CD044 SOUND TERRIFFIC £19.99 | I CD051 PRO IFF & PCX £9.99 I CD057 LIGHT ROM 1 £39.99 I I CD0S8 GOLD FISH 2 £19.99 I CD059 AMOC 2&3 £19.99 | I CD060 HOTTEST 4 £7.99 I CD061 VARIOUS 1-1500 £7.99 I CD062 LSD TOOLS £7.99 I CD065 17 BIT LIBRARY DISK 4 £7.99 I CD066 TOWN OF TUNES £19.99 | I CD067 ILLUSIONS 3D £5.99 I CD070 POWER GAMES £9.99 I CD071 ULTRA MEDIA 1+2 £14.99 I I CD072 ADULT SENSATIONS £17.99 I CD077 DESKTOP VIDEO £14.99 I CD078 EMERALD MINDS £14.99 I CD097 FRESH FONTS £14.99 I CD098 W/S ANIMS £17.99 I CD099 LSD TOOLS 2 £19.99 I CD103 FRESH FONTS 2 £19.99 | |CD108 BEAUTY OF CHOAS £4.99 I CD113 GIGA GRAPHICS 1,2,3,4 £29.99 I I CD114 THE LIGHT ROM 2 £39.99 I I CD115 FRED FISH TEXTURES £39.99 I ICD141 THE LIGHT WORKS £19.99 | I CD142 MEETING PEARLS 2 £8.99 I CD143 TETRA SOUNDS £7.99 I CD147 CD WRITE £44.99 I I CD148 PHOTOGENICS £39.99 I I CD149 VIDEO CREATOR £34.99 | I CD156 MAGIC ILLUSIONS £7.99 I CD165 GATEWAY £8.99 I CD168 UPD SET 1 £24.99 I CD176 CRAFTWORKS £8.99 I CD183 GURU ROM £49.99 I I CD186 GROLIER ENCYCLOP £24.99 I CD190 IMAGINE 3.0 ENHANC £39.99 I CD191 LIGHTWAVE ENHANC £39.99 | I CD192 SUPER CARS -PICS £4.99 I CD202 FROZEN FISH 95 £19.99 I I CD203 WORLD INFO 95 £39.99 I CD205 ARCADE CLASSICS £14.99 I CD206 ADULT SENSATIONS 2 £18.99 I CD212 17 BIT PHASE 5 £18.99 I CD213 LSD COMPENDIUM 3 £16.99 I CD219 FRESH FISH 10 £19.99 I CD225 AMIGA TOOLS 3 £24.99 I CD226 XI PAINT £39.99 I CD227 GOLDFISH 3 £19.99 I CD228 GAMERS DELIGHT 2 £24.99 I CO230 SEXY SENSATIONS £19.99 I CD234 ZOOM 2 £18.99 | I CD236 W/S COLOUR ART £7.99 I CD237 OCTAMED 6 £29.99 I I CD247 PERSIONAL SUITE £39.99 DISK PROGRAMS I DK001 MEGALOSOUND £29.99 I DK002 SIEGFRIED ANTI VIRUS £49.99 I DK003 DIAVOLO BACKUP £49.99 | DK004 IDE-FIX £44.99 PROGRAMMING + TEK * + V0298 NORTHC V1.3 (AB) "he laiesi update im the public domain t" enyiromnont | for ihe Amiga lhal I am aware of. * + V0523 DICE C COMPILER (AB) I Contains Maltheu. Dillon-, full featured, poyserful C com- I I pita and environment system. * + V0786 PASCAL I CiintaiTi s even-thing needed to proeram in Pascal. I Includes A6Sk dSfKJO assembler. Hlink. Linking soft- re and PCQ. a modest Pascal .uh set compiler .a * V1041 DIGITAL BREAD BOARD a full Gil digital logic circuit simulator. Digital I | Breadboard currently .supports 2 and input etc - V1056 DEVELOPER I Contain, ihe nllicial (. ommodiue e l..[ifi s kits lor the I I Amiga Guide and Cum mud ore Install utilities. " + V1060 CIRCUIT BOARD DESIGN I Several terrific routines for the electronic enihusiasi. I | Includes PCBtool. a circuit board design tool. t. Thus the compiler, driver, assembler. Iink- r. header files inline code generation of library calls. " + V1213 PROGRAM LANGUAGES I ACE vl.l)2. is a PD Amiga BASIC compiler which, in I ci'iipillcuon uuh AfvSK ,v: Blink produces -land alone | execu table's, run lime shared libaries are required. *V1227 GAD TOOLS V2.2C I A standard Amiga shared runtime librarv which makes it I a lot quicker : easier in huild standard requesters into pro- I grams. Designed « iili CRM's guidelines in mind. *.+ V1384 HOW TO CODE IN C (AB) I Coves HelHi^i.'me. Iniu l .im! Giaphii . Kndhihl old.. ■ "*ips & TricK Anropa AsmbraiiC. Ik's Intuition. WB tan. DMake. GadToolsBo* and Power Source. "+ V1430 N.D.U.K V37 (ABCD) I Port urns hi ihe t ommodoie Natty e Del eloper I. pdale Kit I that can he licensed I'm dis| i ihution. Include' ihe id liles. I lihrane-. startups. C include tiles, and tools - + V1905 MATHS FORMULA EDIT V2.1 I MalhSenpt is a tormula editor, which i- used to mleerale I mathematical lormula.s mlo wind processors or DTP pro- I grams. It has an estensive amount ol mathematical and I physical symbols and main control codes lor creatine | fractions. roots, exponents. "+ V1909 REQCHANGE V3.6 I Patches Intuition. ASI . AKP A Rid.) to -use the Req I Tools requesters instead. It also adds a couple ot estra I features, like an Assign Wedee. ihe possibility to send I ARcl* commands when a patched requester appears. I St several opltons lo configure how the patches | behave. . " + V1919 MOTOROLA CROSS I ASSEMBLER'S V2.0 | Assembler's ASO.1. 4.5.9.1 1 UTILS & POPULAR " + V1362 CHECKERS TOOLBOX I Incredible Arnica diagnosis program. Runs self tesl on I I all chips, all the ports and even "i lie disk drive 1 All vour I hardware is tested and displayed in graphical mlornuo ■ Every Amiga owner sliouhl have - L copy! Find out tl is wrong with vour Amiga before going to Ihe I I repairers 10 gel it fixed'. It may save you a hob or two! * + V1405 VIRTUAL UTILITIES Contains 5 mils containing everything needed for any Amiga user to make virtual memory from their harddrive The Amiga is fooled into thinking it has massive amounts of RAM when realK it only has a small amount mapped lo a tile on the harddnvc A + V1719 TELETEXT V2.3 View Teletext (also know as Tcleteksi, Videotex!, Ccefax. Skytext. SupertcM etc. I on vour Amiga. It it suitable for any PAL Amiga tread <4{ System require- ments link systems req ) for more info, because it uses the parallel port to interface " iili the hardware. An elec- tronic switcn is provided lo easily switch between Ihe I TelcTeM decoder and a printer. * A V1335 LIBARIES & DATATYPES This is a disk packed full of Amiga Workbench 3.0 I Libraries and Datatypes. There s 47 Libraries from A all libraries covered are right up to date and waiting I installed. The disk also have installation notes to aid the | beginners, also files in the L and Devs/DosDrivers draw- ers that can be copied or assigned. "+ V1641 SUPER KILLERS V10.0 The latest collection of virus killers like AntiCicloVir v2.:a. Virus Checket vf. 4?. Virus/ [1 vl.07. and "™ v2.67. Req the use ot LHA w hich is in the c directory. "* V1017 POST V1.86ENH (ABC) PostScript interpreter which implements the full Adobe language. Supports Adobe type I and type 1 fonts, screen output, fife output, and printer output. * + V1593 EPU DISK STAKKER V1.7 Double your hard drive capaciiv by insulting EPU. After installing EPl to any Device iHardDisk. Floppy. Rad etci every file which will be written to the device will be compressed & when am compressed file is read bv any application it will be decompressed. "* V1039 HD INSTALLER (AB) Bought an A1200 machine and are having trouble with your hard dnvc whv not install it correctly. * * V1136 DISKSALVE 2 Repair your hard drive with this, recommended. * 4- V1326 C: COMMANDS & LIBS The C; and LIBS disk contains over 100 commands lie lirectory. Over 2 ne disk up i to spice the disk up in appearance and in usage V0490 MESSY SID II e loaded will read MS Dos disks. Convert I I loaded into an\ -laii.taid Vvord procesvir Ihe program I I will also conve'n ihe leu hack to vour IBM disks. 1 * 4- V1611 SN0OPDOS V3.0 I Log'? all the dos/lihrary calls and more when you nroeram. This is handy for both ihe programmer and ihe I beginner Have sou ever installed a program lo you" I harddrive and then dt-coicrci! that it will nol run wilhou I a certain library but vou don't know which? "4- V1928 VIRUS WORKSHOP V4.8 This is the one and only Virus Workshop bv Marku- I Schmall. Now in the Version 4.8 . Tesl it! 1 * 4- V0424 ANTI FUCKER A program to stop the Flickering when you u Amiga in Hi res move. * + V1669 TUDE V1.0 AlZlKIs lor esamplc which need kickstart a GLT ver-ion included a- ucll as a CLL I version so most people will have no irouble using it. A highly useful tool for all Amiga owners. Good. A 4- V1523 RELOKICK V1.41 ANOTHERl I ) version of ReloKick. Galahad of Dual I Crew did ReloKick 1.4. so I decided to improve on that! * 4- V1356 NOERRORS V1.3 lis main function is to hide physical disk errors from floppy disks and hard disks, so these disks can then he used w ithout DOS showing read/wrile errors. "4- V0662DCOPYV3.1 Best PD copier on the Amiga. No new' Features over 2 but has been updated with new code information. * A V1164 (AGA) ASA FIX DISK An entire disk full of utilities for (hose A 1 200 and A4O0O j owners out there who can not for the life of them get I some of there favourite games or demos (o w ork. ** V1360 WB2.0 TUTORIAL There is a lot more options open lo vou than just playing games. In the chapters Files l:\plained & Menus, attempt lo explain the workings of WB2,as the manuals supplied with your Amiga. I * - V1242 RE ORG V3.ll fasi^disk optimizer lhal can be used for f! oprp disks and hard disks Supporis new kickstart 2.(14 tea including hard and soft links and High Density drive * + V0685 APRO ASTROLOGY V3.5 Astro_22 as released is a starter program which accurate- ly calculates the position ot the planels, cusps and zodiac positions lo w ithin 30 seconds of arc. 1 intend lo increase Ihe usefulness of Ihe program to eventually cover all aspects of ihe subject which will appeal to professional as well as novice astrologers not wishing to pay 200+ for a decent package. Updaied version : * 4- V0489 AM I BASE PRO II This is the latest data Kim- program which is an update * 4- V0827 REPAIR IT V2.01 An essential set ot tools tor recovery . Disk speed reports I ,; - -peed "I .i stkeled iltue I li.l.Saiv u ill try L ■ ■ ! as much data a: dri .sible from a if a lesser operaiing system. I " A V1661 NATIONAL LOTTERY This is a national lottery prediction program called I Lottery Winner. It eon-isis ot a database system which I can record the National Lottery results from week to I week until it ha- sutfieiem data in make certain types of I prediction, m iusi a random guess. Good. 1 " 4- V1679 COP THE LOT I Lottery predict ion 'database which can store the previous I lottery results and also select random numbers clc. A 4-' V1771 COURSE FORM Like to put a bit ul money on the horses' 1 This utility allows you to enter the figures lor the horses in a particu- lar race, plus the course detail- and then it will try to pre- dict the w inner of ihe race. Good, " + V1778 LOTTERY CHECKER is a great tool for checking ]otier\ numbers. Good lor I office syndicates, find A' Date is a database which * stores and matches people up lor blind dales. Sneaker is used to view and chance binary files, technical users art always finding these programs useful. A * V1836 MRBACKUP V2.1.4 is a hard disk backup pioerain lor the Commodore -\u:iga family of computers. It provides a wide range of I services lo support Amiga file manager ■ I backup/restore of files lo/from hard disk. "4- V1837 DISK DOUBLING V1.9B Tins paekage allows vou to create virtual partitions p n I our HD. Files stored" in such partitions gel auiornaiic.il- F | compressed and decompressed whenever you access icm. in a transparent way. "* V1838VMMV3.0 ... virtual memory manager for Amigas with a I 6Klt4(i.bX<I.V> or 68t>2lH4iHK_s. f processor. V1932 X-FILES GUIDE 1'be X-Files Guide disk is lull ol very n-clull inlonnalion I if vou are interested in the it-files. It contains over 674k I worth of test, ranging from episodes 1 and 2 lo the x-files I tianscripi. It al-o has a survey vou can Till in and send f | off lo Ihe auther of Ihe disk. V1949 MORE HD INSTALLERS I This disk contains ihe latest installers I'm the lollowing I games: ABASE, Arnie 2, ATR, Bump n' Burn. I S'aUi;hiv one-. Ki-c ill the Rohol-. Sensible V\ orld o[ I Soccer." Shadow [-•ei-.tei-. L;..i; kmc. Mk.ll PAF1X, I Paias,-; Si.,r-. Roek'n'RoN. Skmurk. 2. Skeleton Krcw. I I Super Stardusl. SoftB.V Trolls and I ridium 2 + V1963 VIRUS WORKSHOP V5.1 lis version of Virus Workshop is as genu! as any ol the I I other, or even belter You can check every .mclo tile in I there own or all toeether If it Finds a vims it v. ill w 1 1 v i m I I what ii is and eiacllv what to do lo gal nd of it This is I probably the best version of Virus Workshop so far and I well worth huving. 4- V1965 BALLS Balls i ii"lher lottery predictor program It is ' — ihe £5 fee if vou wanl ii predict random numherToi I ally quile good apart from Ihe £5 fee i I Ihe registered version It can predict ra I numbers from pre-entered numbers of uplo 72 weeks car- I lier. A well presented lottery predictor, it votii into all I ihe loiters hvpc get this. I * - V1969 AQUARIUM SIMULATOR 3d Aquarium Simulator i uses MU12.0I. check il oul. I "4- V1982 SCOUT V2.1 ■ Scout is a tool that allows you lo monitor your computer I j system. It displays many dilferent things like tasks, polls, j rupls. pan-ion hoards, resident comuiaiid.s, 4-V1983 DOPUS UTILS 2 t popular Annea Disk ulilily Directory Opus. FV1996 PRO-GAMBLE V2.1 • is a great piece of software for those of vou who I 1 to gamble. You simply enter which daily news/race paper you are reading then it ask- a number of questions I relci.uu lo that paper Oik,- all ihe race in lorn latum has I L een put in vou can go ahead and check Ihe estimated :sults etc.. Very good indeed I ^4-V1997 LOTTERY PREDICTOR I Anolhei lottery prediction system. This latest addition ■ L " a few added advantages over the other available. For art ihis one uses inluitton fully so il multttasks and il I S only a small ivmdovi >»ri vour workbench. Also il I I look- very nice' rhe added touch of the lottery symbol I I makes all Ihe difference "I he best lotierv predictor yet. I *+ V1998 AMIGADOS GUIDE V1.5 I A very handy program for those who want lo learn t ' niga DOS or those who simply want an easy ; for commands eic The program c I easy to use point and click system with a indey. V1999 COP THE LOT PRO I Yet another lottery program. This one will only generate I I random numbers. Iherc is no option lo actually make any I ] sort of calculated prediction. There is also a \umbers I n database and a M\ gue-se- database to help vou I I keep a record of the numbers vou have been choosing. '4- V2000 BACK DOOR V6.0 | This is the lalesl version of this now quite well known I t cheat database. There are cheats and tips for hun- f s of different games including a lol of recent titles I There are even long entries for games such as Dune IL which is j tactical game, detaining good methods of play * 4- V2001 NATIONAL LOTTERY I This program is more than just a random number genera- L I lor. It uses uses a special History formula with Chaos I I Theory lo produce a more accurate * 4- V2002 MULTI-PRED I This is a program that w ill attempt io correctly predict I I the results of many different games and bclliug'-vslcrns. J I These ivould include Ihe national lottery, pools and n — I Quite a complex program lo setup. Good. ■ 4- V2004 LOCKUP V4.0 i the newisl version of the old utility Lockup which basi- I I calk .illoyvs vou to Lockup youi hard drive vviih a pass- I word to enter and get it going again. | " 4- V2005 SHAPE SHIFTER 3.2 I is a multitasking shareware Macintosh-2 emultur for the I I Amiga. It allows you to run mac software withour addi- I tional hardware. New updated verion. I "4- V2014 MESSY SID 3.0 I litis is the latest verion of which will read and write PC I Floppy disks 720k or 1.44 if vour drive can take it. I " 4- V2015 MOVIE MAKER 2.0 (AB) I have you ever "anted to create vour ou n moy te and see I it flourish in ihe Oscats, then nows your chance. I " 4- V2024 VIRUS CHECKER v2.18 I Kill that new urus with the latest version of the mosl I lamious virus killer m the business. Top rated bv all. I " + V2026 ROUTE PLANNER I Highway trip planner. Requires MU1 22 MAGIC W/B & WORKBENCH I A * V1839 MAGIC WORKBENCH 1.2 I A survrb utility ' completely wipes over all those horrible I I 11 also adds pallems and changes vour workbench fonts I The end result is a much more attractive vyorkhench. I Easy and safe to install. Looks great! * 4- V1834 MAGIC W/B PALETTE I version of MACK." y\ ■!( paleite. total' Preit\ Magic I I WorkBench icons for Sound & Mix Apps. 1 " * V1808 ROMAN MWB ICONS 7 I New. high quality, standard size. MAGIC W/B2.0 style I Icons/Image drawers and other MWB sluff. (ABj A * V1796 MAI INTERFACE V2.3 <2> I An object orienlcd sy slcm lo create and maintain araphi- J cal user interfaces. From a programmers poinl of view. I using MLT saves a loi of time and makes life easier, V1786 MAGIC MENU V1.29 I kepiace- all Intuition menus, supporting both pull down I I and pop up menus. Menus can be displayed in either the I I Standard look, or (he modern AmigaOS 2.0 stvle 3D I I Look, and controlled exclusively using the keyboard. V1747 MAGIC BACKGROUNDS I This package is a natch to MAGIC" W/B, the S bilplat I XEN Icons have beer. con\ erted to bilplanes ice which will take less CHIP RAM in vour system. "4- V1746 MAGIC W/B BASED ICON I I h-.---.- are the \f.\ approved down sealed and dot ediled I | MW H Icons lor use on non mier;aeed "orkbenche- "nil | 1x2 pixel aspccl. Bv Eric van Vcllhooven. _ A V1731 FUNNY B/G & ICONS ■ 72 Backgrounds for MAGIC W7B Very funny. Yo I should at least have had a look at it! A 4- V1729 CREATIVE ICONS V1.0 l sample bunch of Drive icons. Dock icons (usable with I .g. Tool manager or as Tool iconsi, default icons tot I use with the whal is. library package and more. These arc I reflecting the style of' ihe Magic Workbench I " 4- V1479 NEXT GENERATION WORK- I BENCH (AB) I Power- un the Workbench photons and ready's your sys- ■ 'Ti for the Star Trek experiences, ie sound-, pictures I ■. Put together h\ Gai v Burdekin, " V1221 (AGA) BUNKERS itz Blanei I ')l Well, vet another screen blanker. But | I ihis one has Ihe follow ing features: AGA compatible. 1 A 4- V1588 MWB EXTRAS 1 (AB) Many, manv icon, lor ihe use ol MWB 2.0. These ici enhance your workbench by using a special colour | scheme and by adding new lonls to your V ! A n V1021 W/B 3.0 SCREENS Lnhanee vlhii workbench disk- hiickerotmd- will) theses I | nice full colour pictures, * 4- V0942 SCREEN BLANKERS , A Disk packed with screen blanker, which includes | Twilight Zone which is quile excellent and Ihe nea I thing lo the popular Mac screen saver After dark. "4- V1512 256 COLOUR ICONS This disk i- full .it loyeiy colourful icons lor use in WB3 I onlv as thev are 2:»(> colour images There are draws. I tools and projecl ivpes. N« for children. A * V1043 SUPER DARK V2.1A A screen hlimker with some special features It is similar I to the After Dark screen blanker in the PC and Mae I worlds Features include a lol of different -ereen effects, f a screen locker, and more. 2 ~* V1134 TOOL MANAGER V2.1(2) This part contain- I. HA archoe- ol the hiuarv file- and I graphics. Pan 2can he found on disk number '^7?. Tool I Manager is a full [calmed program ha either WorkBench I or CM tool management. Includes the ability lo add I to Ihe^.x OToolsO menu. ad. &8fC0 CPU or better " 4- V1893 MAGIC W/B STYLE ICONS release ..I MAGIC W/B style icons L ki Tool mauueci arli- tiihrushes and ullage drawer- lo enhance WB. ! * * V1894 MISC PATTERNS/MWB "1 he -:/e of the paitern- i. -Zil'^liO in S colour. Standard Myy B.: 0 palelle. Ihe Pattern, iueludes; Landscape.. Slimes. Chessboard, and Yoda. * * V1896 EXTRA INFO V1.0 is a replacement lor the Workbench Information Tunc- I tion. and adds a great deal ot functionality on top * + V1902 MAKE ICONS ( re. ite .iris kind ■■• icon- u-e detaull icons use patterns i I ALL argument change Delaull Tool ol protect icon. I change icon, image new icons immediately on ihe WB I " + V1908 TYPEFACE is an editor for Amiga bitmap fonts. DOS2.0+ & I hi: u t library i included i are req Source tin C) included. I * + V1917 R0 V1.03 is a new intuition controlled, fully user configurable I ■ If I manager lor US 2.(14 and newer " lit )"s mighty features I will assisl 4 help your daily work with vour Amiga. I * + V1929 NEWICONS IN STYLE This is a set ol icons lor the Sew [con. Package, which I contains mainly icons for the standard workbench plus I ; some esiias I'he icon, are drawn in a new stvle. which I ! vou really will love tl hopei. Also ihe brushes for all I icons are included, so you ^aii easily create nevi icons in I the same style, or do whatever else vou want. I * + V1964 COLOUR WORKBENCH Allows vou to basically elhinee vour workbench screen I , to purple or whalevei Colour you fancy It also change* I ' the loot from the u-nal yyorkbenell imc In one that i- real- I ly small. Thete arc icons which allow you to change tiic I one's yon already use to sonic they have. They have also I included some backdrops for you lo use. I *+ V1968 STAR TREK BACKGROUNDS Heres some new background- lor workbench all based I ; around the Slar trek T:N:G scries. I I EMULATORS 14- V0817 A500 PLUS EMULATOR Haie amigu -iBi and want vvoikbcnch 2 ft then iusi install I thi. [li-k onto vour lloppv 1 .3 y ersion or workbench or I your HD loi complete WB2 compalibility, I * * V1900 FRODO V1.7 Frodo is a multitasking freeware CM emulator for the I Amiga. US2 I and a fi«()2(l lor hctlei i are required, as I I well as copes of Ihe original CM ROMs I V1178 KICKSTART 3 EMU Kick. tan I .V I! emulator and decibel patch program I will gi\c you the option to have kickstart I ? or .I.Mas I used in S'LW Amigas i in your Amiga. This is much I | enhanced over the version thai was given awav free. I 4- V1336 THE BBC EMULATOR miain. commands lo allow enisling files lo be trans- I | (erred from a BHC with DFS by means of a serial cable. I 4- V1659 MSDOS/AMIGAD0S V2.3 lis is a very interesting utility w hich should be useful to I anyone who u.es both PCs and Amigas The tool allows I \o'u to create a directory on which vou L -.ui sinre MS IK IS I commands and then they can be used ihrouEh ihe shell as I if they mere AmigaDos "commamls. Great. I * * V1868 PC TASK V3.1 is the First and only software emulator for the I Amiga ranee ol uiiiiputcrs Transfer files between vour I Amiga and MSD(JS Compatible w nh MS Windows i* OFFICE & PRINT 4- V0575 HOME BUSINESS PACK (6) QED. Text ediior. Text Plus 2.2E. Word Processor. AZSpell. Spell Checker & Dictionary. BBasc. A Database program DATA EASY. Another database. BizCalc, Loan calc. LCD. Calc. SPREAD, Spreadsheet. I Budget. Personal Finance UMTS. Various conversions. CLERK, Small business account-. SL'PERDL'PER. I FLASHERCOPY. Copier's. TYPIST, Typing Tutor. BOOTX. Virus Killer SYSINFO. Systr^ « DOSMANAGER, Direciorv program. FONTLlST. FONT MANAGER. Utilities, PRINTS Tools. 16 disks i T STUDIO, Prinung * + V1114 PRINT LABELS UTLS s like DOC DUMP v2.l. _ INLAY MAKER vl.4, MC MASTER vl.l. BANNER vl 0. LABEL PRINT 4- V1279 PRINT A CARD Vi am to print a busings- card or any other type of card I Ihis is the software for you. I h V1222 PANASONIC STUDIO ! I . i!' U driver i- -i goftWSTC loi cl ■■nt nil ling printers I wilh the Commodore Amiga personal computer. + V1236 INVOICE PRINTER invoice printing thai we help aid any small business. * + V0928 LITTLE OFFICE lis the all rounder do everything, all knowing, all s ing?? Well lets just say its very good, * 4 V1179 FILE-O-FAX was designed to enable computer operators to he able to I work at their leisure without worrying about tin getting I those imp.illaill meetings. w ha: dies llasl to do l >ti ally par- F ticular day or locating b'usme— vl leagues lele no's. * + V1467 AWARD CONSTRUCT A very handy tool for creating your verv own awards certificates. There are manv sivles. fonis and graphic. ._ choose from, could also be used to make small posters, signs or leaflets Easy to use and verv effective. I * 4- V1069 PRINTER DRIVERS HP Deskjet 5?0 colour driver. Deskjet 500. Deskjet 500c, i Ricoh HPI200 400dpi, Canon LBP. Canon BJ300. I BJ130. BJlOe, Canon _4S, Canon PJ 11180a. HP Painljel * + V1278 MAIL-0-DEX An excellent way io keep names, addresses. Phone nut bers, commenis eic and then prim out labels loads of I 1 them in 1,2.3 and 4 columns. "4- V1044 FANCY PRINTING BANNER vl.4, GRAPH PAPER vl.2. DISK PRINT " + V1357 CITIZEN MANAGER The Citizen Prim Manager has been designed in conjunc- tion with Irseesoft. " * V1051 EASY CALC PLUS is a spreadsheet designed to be both easy to use and fast [ If ihe program looks nice, thai wouldn't to be bad either. I I'nhke other sollvvarc where the author writes the pro- L gram first, ihcn bolls on a help system. 1 have designed I ihe help into the program from the' beginning. A 4- V1184 AMIGA DIARY Amiga Diarv is a mouse dn\en diarv capable of storing I :tli personal events and the peitcei solution to all ihose I forgotten birthday s, missed appointments etc. * 4- V0366 600 BUSINESS LETTERS Over 600 Standard business leiters on this disk. Can be I used as [hey are or insen pans inio vour own letters " 4- V0782 FORMS UNLIMITED Designed to help you design and print different forms. L There are a w ide number of options and controls w hich I first amiga PD Desk Top Publishing program, ludes various extra features over the old Word I processor, fe-i Fdiior. ( Irapiu.- edih'i and loads more. J * 4- V1680 AWARD MAKER 2 I This is a very good lool for Ihe creation and printing of I Awards and certificates There are hundreds of types lo I -boose t'roni then you cm choose a torn a border and also I some of the lext etc. Very good results. * + V1751 PRINTER DRIVERS l \\ \ ( ) Nblll) yj-.n t'PSON IX H?0 vl..') A LX R00. I MP4DRIVFR vJJ.S. HP4LSETTER v2.01 * 4- V1858 DB V2.5 Sir,, ill la-t database program that I wrote afler having I tcsied numerous other PD database pioeram- and alwav- I found something lacking or irritating me. They nnein I have do/eils ,i[ feature- not lound in db. hut lhcv lacked I font sensitivity and a standard Gl I look & 3.0 A + V1862 INVOICE DATABASE V2 [ Intra is a rathei -iinple. Inn thereloie ea-y to u-e dataha-e program that was especially designed to deal wilh I invoice information. F very body . as we like it * 4- V1865 LEGAL FORM GENERATR tieneraies eustom do il vour-ell icgal lorms Database includes form, u-elul lor FVF.RYllS'E. plus specialised I forms lor real estate, small businesses landlords employers, eic Can save vou THOUSANDS. "4- V1989 TELEPHONE BOOK V3. 2 This is simply a program lhal allows you to type in all I I your mates phone numbers, names and address and store I ihem in al smart linle database ll can come m vers use- lull if vou have a hard dnve " + V1990 GAS TRICK 2 This is the tollow up lo ihe first one bui a bit belter. Il is exactly ihe same as the first one but the default values can be reconfigured al any lime, the keyboard now has lull function and Ihe mouse clicking pan is improved. I * 4- V1992 BANK MANAGER Vl.4.2 The latest version of Bank Manager has all ihe same fea- I lures as the oiher versions. If you haye already goi any I ol ihe oiher copies this is iusi an update. Il allows you to I lype in all your accounls & hank details vou need. ~+ V1995 BEGINNERS TYPING TUTOR This is by far ihe best lypmg tuior for years I have seen I on the ■\niiga. Il i.. worth every simrle penny It consists I ol two games, one is called the letter game and the other one i. called ihe word game. On the word game vou I have io ij pe a word m before the timer runs out. A uiust I for all i\ per- I * 4- V2003 REM DATE V2.0 Rem Dale is a calender, reminder and lileolai all in one. I I found it quite good lo use and would defincllv buy the registered version which is availble from Ihe author " 4- V2019 TEXT ENGINE v3.0 Allows you io make your every own tellers and docu- I ments then prim or store ihen on disc. 3D & GRAPHICS *ill lake high res textures A ~ V1554 IMAGINE BUDDY (AB) Here's some features of Ihe new interface: Draggable ind Sizeable test and indc.v windows Button t ladeet- | toi the Search and Move lunciion. Improved SeaKhiric le*l is now positioned at matching hypertext links | and all matches are highlighted for visibility. V1229 MAIN ACTOR V1.53 This is an all round animation ulihtv that will creale. playback, time and edit animations of any length or for- mal I including graphics cardsl. Very good, f AB) V1811 IMAGESTUDIO V2.0 (AB) is written for the casual graphics user w ho wishes to con- I vert or manipulate various graphic- formats on a modest Amiga syslem. There are several commercial offerings available, however Ihe casual user is paying a lol ofl money lor many laeihties and opiion- thev "would proba- bly never use. + V1889 3D OBJECTS FOR LIGHTWAVE WITH BITMAPS -s" module. Airbrush. Arthrush. Candle. Candleflame. CDical 1 . cluinring. Ia-er|iiinter. ia.sei punter hay. Papei nay lor la-er printer monitor I W). padlock, pltonepole. skydomc. streellighl. street I ighibeam. "* V1891 IMAGEDESK V1.6 * 4- V1907 P0VRAY RAYTRACER I Wmkbeiich: wuh colour sharing. P simple HAM/HAM 8 I support autin.lctecl.s Cybeigl's Screen and rcnileis in | direct Colour ( l.V16/24Bil| if possible. "4- V1916 XFIG Vl.2 'his is an Amiga port or an X 1 1 structured ilravime tool I thai lets Ihe user mleracticly creale and manipulale on I ferent formats: Encapsul (HP/GLl. Pic. PiCTcX. LafeX. hoy. epic, cepic. eepice- mu, tcxivl, tpic, X 1 1 Bitmap. X I ! Pixmap ano gif. " + V1922 REAL 3D V2.X OBJECTS I Objects are pretty large in si/e. espessiallv (he -1 cylinder engine, you nitghi run oul ol memory pretty- fast. Mv Vl . , KiiMFf- ii i - l-'pr ... n „v c q ,npi V .J "^ith JSMfj I RAM. and I can now ravtrace all of my objects. * 4- V1925 SPACEDOCK STATION I * I. .'Mb, so you II need a healthy chunk ot memory. • I No Slicing was used in modelling, lo keep ihii — -■ 1 it is nol for beginners it is probahlv the best available. I * 4- V0979 NC0MM V3.0 Is a comms program based on Comm vl .34 with lots of | verv nice enhance ments. Has new lunclions ovt " * V1722 AMIGA TO PSION S3/A is a implementalion ol the Psion link protocol which is' I i e built into the P-ion S.V'S3a ROM. It's main purpose I ! i - to pros kit vice versa nfs hke tile access. A + V1852 FINALFAX 95 ! This is one ol those arew macro, which are very handy I (or aulomalinc tin mole tedious ^ohs on \oiir Amiga. I This one allows vou to select options for "GPFax from I w nbin Fm. ,1 \s . iter. I ha: mean, that there is no need lo " swiich from Final Writer 10 Workbench. | E DUCATI 0 N * + V1079 KEYBOARD TRAINER I This program onlv concentrates on basic keyboard -kills, and is in effect, sidl a Heta \ eisimi. 1 think 'vou will find I ; ii a vast improvemenl on mosl so called tui — 1 ~ + V0793 AMIGA BEGINNER You asked for ill A luiorial for the beginner on using I voui amiga' C'oers the CI I and Workbench, its great I lor learning about the Amiga Also contains beautiful 16 colour icons for WB v2.04. " 4- V1845 DP A I NT 4 BUDDY (AB) Will leach you how io use Dpaim 4. It works by running I along side the well known paint package providing hands on demonsi rations of ihe various features. It is a very good way of learning a program so you wanl lo learn J DPaint then Ihis System is one of the best ways. "4- V1881 AMIGATRAINER very powerful & flexible program lo learn foreign Ian* V1897 GEOGRAPHICAL ATLAS AmiGlobe is a geographical alias thai allows you lo navi- gate in the world map I riM v. m where, gel country data. etc. Requires 2Mb of RAM iAfl> MUSIC ~ + V1269 THE OCTAMED TUTOR Welcome lo the Ociamed Tutor, a simple guide through the basics of this excellent music program. ~ 4- V1207 OCTASTUFF Welcome to OclaStull a .:;sk h.i.ed around work wilh OclaMED 3 and 4. I " 4- V1882 ART OF NOISE TRACKER | NEW tracker. NO ProTracker Clone!, 8 channels, fm hesis. drum sequencer, wave lable synthesis, b V1904 MUSIC MANI V2. 12 * 4- V1913 SOUND CONVERTER A new sound effect. sample converter-sample generator I -ottware w nh more than >D effect., eotiygrls many for- I nuns . If f SS'VX.HT !PS\ .RAW Klbb WAV.VOC. I S'. \ \l--l Ali-< .> • you can work with mans I samples (every sample has u s own sizeable, windowl. F "* V1981SONDBOXV1.97 This t ,„,| eonverts RAW. ll-F. VOC. WAVE, AIFF, MAI 1) ami Maestro samples into each oiher format. I Additionally, some effects are available to e g. optimi/c [ the sample or amplify tl lo maximum volume. ~+ V1991 END OF TIME & SPACE Hit.- ili.-k contains Inui music modules I'he first iwo are quite good but the second iwo are nol lhat good. If vou are into this son ol thing this is worth gelling, but olher- I wise it's nol thai good. " 4- V1993 PH KARAOKE Thi- d;-k ir you already hadn'l guessed is a karaoke dt-k I lhal allows you to play sour favourite songs wilh the I words coming mi ihe screen a- well. This is quile a good I I and adiclive utility. TIPS, CHEATS & RELATED " 4- V1416 EYE OF THE BEHOLDERS flu. di.k contains a selection ol utilities and software lor I Eve of Ihe Beholder II. like end of level saved game file, f Hve of Beholder : special yues|s explanation. H 'bl ("hatavlei L'dilot. Lve or ihe Heh..i,lei Solution, fill- pie- lure- of all 1 2 levels in Eve of the Beholder. I " 4- V1363 RPG. ASSISTANT AD&D play time dungeon master's assistant The ver- sion you see here is a pre release of ihe program in I AinigaltASIC. Right m.w It wUI take characters m a test tile ar.,: I. .ad them in to be displayed at w ill. It also rolls I din- ami ha- a handy dalliK encounter -crecn thai yy il! I keep track ot monsters & their eurrenl HPs ~ * V1687 (AGA) FIXES VOL 1 This program di.k will help AGA machine users get -imie added compatibility oul ot their older software. | Don't torget many supposedly i ncumpatihle program- will work on ihe AGA machine- hy suitable udill.lnicin ..a ihe boot options . Hold Jow it both mouse buttons), I + V1773 ACTION REPLAY CHEAT I Ihis disk has on il a test file which contain- loads of I I codes for those people who have action rcplav devices I I There arc cheats lor hundreds ot games. Good. " h V1848 DIY REKO This disk has on it an Aresn macro which, when used in i mciion wuh I inugc f X . will make icko crdsct- for K' . \Ci-\ alinosi automatically Also included is a I detailed Annua Guide doeument esplammg evervthing. I ^4- V1468 GAMES HD INSTALL This disk provides vou with Ihe software needed lol I install certain eames .into vour A 12(10. The games lhal I disk can install are BoilyBlows. Goal. Lemmings 2. I Superfrog, and Walker Could he verv useful I ' + V1662 HD GAMES INSTALLER 2 Contain- a variety ol hard di.k installer's toi a few well I known commercial games. These games are as lollow.. I AlicnBrced 2 AGA, Jungle Strike, Assassin -Special I liihiioin. Hods Blow-. Coal, l-har 2 /...'I 2 At I A. Kef: I an.: 1 iinihie. IlisJy Hlows 2 AliA. Siarl"ni-i Supei f-i"e I Walker. Rise of ihe Robot-. Hubble and .Squeak. | ElfMania. Aladdin AGA and Motal Kombal 2. Greal. I ' 4- V1885 NEW HD INSTALL Hard Drive Install seripts lor .» game-. Ilenealh a sieel ] sky flashback King's tjue.l \ 1 New updated yersion I (small hugs fined from last versioni. I -f V1988 DUNGEON MAPPER V0.3 This is the tirst ver-ion ol something called Dungeon I Mapper li will work on Workbench 2+. It allows vou lo I design vour own maps lor games like Dungeons and I Dragon, which can be very u.et'ull. It also has Tetris on I it if you boot it from Workbench. + V1994 CHEATS COMPILATION This disk is a demo w hich give, you a taster ot what vou I have it you huv the iceestered version. The de'mo I I gives you a choice of about I 5 games to chose from. T I VIDEO "4- V1196 DESKTOP VIDEO I Dm Mains .Stioller. Is a video inline program inlendeil I I for use in adding scrolling captions to videos. Flood I I I I i. -. an IFI pu lilii- : : :-:il ,l:-pla\ . il w ith a 1 Jl lood | effectO so thai it floods the screen. V1418 THE COMPLETE VIDEO TEST I SYSTEM (AB) I is a collection ol' 20 test patterns (display able with any ] I ll T l ammation \ tew en lhal can he used io esaluale mom- I tors. TV .els. VCR., and othei NT S( ' yideo eqinpineiu. I CVTS is easy to use. wnh the doci.iiiienlaiu m presented ;_ „i, nr n(ln leL .),nj C a| bnguage. The lests are unique. I V1156 VIDEO TITLER I Generate- prolession.il looking I V lilies and eicdiis lor I I your own video s. Outstanding abilities are very smooth I I scrolling, colour -lide- t AG A support land usage oil ^ colour lonls I, i mi ted demo version only. GAMES 4431 BEST AGA TETRIS lie.t peiitammo tetns eraphics. musics. 100'» assembler I • + 4434 BLACKDAWN v2.1 -level Dungeon Master style Alien Breed: ehargc. I | around the ma/e levels, shoot lots of alien-, find ihe lilt I " move on. bui do ii in 1st person perspective vie*. j 4- 4442 SCORCHED TANKS V1.85 he awesome anillciv tank game. This one contains loads of goodies like 70 weapons and 13 shield types as ] I A " 4449 PSSST :This is a | oon , ver-ion of the old Spectrum Classi. I'SSS I \i. !lr - leaiure. unonie ■ 256 Coloms. Real Time I frame rate. - No C code I'll ( I Halt ~ : game sequence - Three Leveh " ' ! TURBO NUTTER k No Spam. "4- 4451 UST LAP is a car game lor one or iwo players. It is enccllenl in two plaver mode. There are about 10+ different tracks I lor vou t„ race around. Some of them arc quite easv at I the slart hut as you go .mi thev get a lot harder. On the I track- ihiw have these square- wTnch if you drive over '' shools you on even faster thev you are already going "4- 4452 SPELL TRIS Tetris style game but the main difference is you use lei- I ten instead of jusl shapes " 4-4454 BATTLE TRUCKS is a one or two plaver game in which vou choose your I ow n iruek and then buy il. You can 'add nitros. n" motors or even huv a brand new truck with your w nings from vour races. 4457 SCREECH VI. 5 This demo ame offers you the oppurtunily thing smaller lhan your c.u met ' Improved graphic! | OH the way I whoopee Req n2o"s wilh 1MB chip Improved graphics ate pupeti. rvcq o2(l's with 1 \IB chip ram and .5 MB 'last ran': or (i.-fi - with i MB chip ram or 700kb I chip ram and lot) kb last RAM. \"+ 4459 SUPER EARTH DEFENSE VI. 5 is a classical shooting game. * 4- 4462 XASTEROIDS This is a 'pon' of sasieroids, an XI I application, Ni XI! server (DaggeX or others) is needed lo run Ihe pro- L tram! This program is using libXI I bv Tene Pcilersen ! I You don'l need this cither since it is a link. Iihrarv thai is | compiled into the binary. " + 4463 B0ULDERDASH 64 A compleie OS-friendlv (multitasking) with CM graphic, and" sound.. (iSD2iU. AGA only I J tDblNTSC requiredl. KS V39. asl.library. I I poyyerpaeker library .Smooth scrolling I 2"Si 1 1 original I 4464 BREAKIN' BRIKS V1.0 I Great version ot the \ e rs cool Breakout type game. For I I AGA Amigas onlv. Works w ith 2Mb CHIP memory 1 • I Improved performance with FAST mem. Great GFX. _ "4- 4465 CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER EDI- |T0R V2.4 68020 4- I Thi- i- ihe tirst public release of Championship Manager I I Edilor (CmEdi. Ii was wntien because we had played the I I game lo death and were looking for a way ol putting I 1 some interest back into game. I A * 4466 DP AC MAN AGA I 15 levels and 5 bonus levels. The registered vi I 50 levels and 15 bonus levels and extra gfn and oiher I I improvements Features: Can use external Protracker | I modules and XPK for packed modules. * 4- 4467 J0USTER 3 I If you haven't heard ol the good old favorite, Jousi. ihen | I you're a pretty young in fairly old dude. :i Anyway, this I game bring- 3ousl to the Amiga and al-o has' improve- I I ments such as powerups, etc. You can even have a ptery- t I dactvl :is y sleed For 1 or 2 plavers. Check i I out, " 4- 4468 PATCH LEMMINGS 2 TO RUN FROM HD I Palch to allow Lemmings2 to run from hard drive. * + 4469 CRITICAL HIT I is highly detailed fantasy combat game, which re-cre- I ale. lableiop war gaming mi Ihe Amiga irei|iures 1 Mil I RAM i. A strategis war game will: gsccllent graphic ; I D landscapes and :. yyi.ie variety of r'amasv comhui tie- I ures and scenery - Campaign and map designer. ~4- 4470 PANIC SOCIETY Vl.l I Hillerv & her friends have taken tolal control of the L I world, as one ot some ID million people left, scheduled I [ lor tran-lering to the country ol your origin. Bui, so — I one has tampered with your environmental control c I ing you lo awaken irom a mind controlled state, " 4- 4471 BRATWURST I A Rokelz-like game tor two lo four players. I zoom keeps all players in view in ihe least possible ai I vector graphics * 4- 4472 CULTURE TANK I A single screen tank combat game with up lo b tanks. I which may he human or computer controlled. Team or I alhagainsi-all modes. } types of weapon including mis- I sties and flamethrowers. " 4- 4473 TURBO UGHT CYCLES I 3 player Tron' game, with editor. Bv Vaughan Roberts * 4- 4477 WIZZYS QUEST I is the besi PD platform/puzzle game I have EVER I played, so despile its bugginess isee below ) I thought T'd I upload tl lo Aminet \\ i//y - Quest has 5(1 levels, gelling I progressively harder. N 4- 4478 BIACCOARCHIVE! V1.0 I Nihhlci arcade clone bv Mauri/io Facca. '4- 4479 BOB THE AMAZING LEMON I Amazinu Pac Man clone w hu h features a level editor. I changeable music and many differenl wall and floor I types including appearing wall.-, ice and water. - + 4484 REBELLION a very good shoot em up. You are a little spaceship I which iravells around space trying lo pick up liltle aliens — d destroying all the missies that are coming al you. + 4485 LEGEND POUNDS ISLAND I Here we have an adventure game. Half graphical, half 1 texi based this game is played aiinost entirely using the I mouse. There are no sprues, jusi backdrops with objects * + 4486 MASH An evcellent game. Vou ehoi.se to control either a Spud I la potato on legs! i or a Tank You then need to tackle a I vi hole load ol obstav le. ill older to gi'i the enemv on Ihe I oiher side Great graphics, great sound an allroun'd classy I game. Superb, ~ 4- 4488 PSYCHEUAL I An Alien Breed clone. You are a bloke w ith a machine I gun who has to run about each level shooling other peo- ple and alien. Ihe level graphics arc good and show a I I lol nf detail plus the gameplay is not loo easy either. NEW TITLES * 4- V2038 BARFLY vl.27 | Assembler Development System * 4- V2039 PHXASS V4.23 6&u Maen "4- V2040SW CHEAT V4.5 Over 950+ game hints/cheats. " 4- V2041 F1GP Ed v3.03 Formula One Grand Pri.x ■■' V\'C Kditor & FIGP-Ed n I cnglish translation files & Track daia lor GPDisplay " + V2042 RAY STORM vl.ll Fasl raylracer with many fealures " + V2043 CARD HOUSE vl.la Make card houses/castles wilh Imagine " * V2044 EGST v5.4 EGS animation. Iiameerabher&handvscanner. V2045 ICONIAN V2.96 OS.VIMC i edm ■ upport. 4- V2046SPLAnERPTvl,67 wesome paint program has a PAL mod + V2047SVIEWV5.10 | SuperView V5 1(1 + Librae 12.2 • 4- V2048 CALC I Arbitrary precision calculator/language 4552 HEROED v2.1 | Amiga version of ihe classic C-64 HER , ' 4- 4553 MANG FEND ACE Pcie Storonskifs full version: combai 4554 BL00DFEL (AB) | Caplive & HiredGuns stvle 3d adventure 4556 ZHANOUUN HELMI | Finnish leitadventure wilh some graphi + 4557 POWEROIDS vl.2 I Multtlasking Aslcroids. raytraced gfs. 1 CODE REFERENCES A + Works on all machines A * Req Workbench 2.0 or above AA Req Workbench 3.0 or above I ABC i Product has ABC disk (le. thrcel Pay By Credit Cards?, Checjua-, Postal Order y turcr Cheque* & Switch * AU/Prlcefr include-VAT * AU, phones Orders sent 3y 1st Class Post the* Same-Vay. A CATALOG Pif Kf Jl ORPERIN<; iNf ° — — — Free with Every Order The disks co bei ih, ii Ihe i Special Offers ESS EN TAIL UTILITES 1 £4.99 ILLUSIONS IN 3d £4.99 SUPER CARDS £3.99 EURO SCENE 1 £3.99 BCI NET 1 £4.99 world of sound £4.99 terra sound library £4.99 fresh fish 7 - utils £4.99 Prof Fonts & Clipart £4.99 Network cd 1 £4.99 1 BRYANT AVENUE SOUTH EN D-ON-SEA ESSEX, SS1 2YD Tel 01702 466933 Fax 01072 617123 3D Objects Volume 1 I CODE: CD232 PRICE: £9.99 +.75p P&P STATUS: !New Release) Janurary 1996 All the objects you need assembled together on one convenient CD I The 3d objects CDROM Is | [he ideal collection of 3d phical objects for both . most popular 3d eraphi- I i a! platforms. This disk has I over 6O0Mb of pure objects | In both Imagine and I Lighlware formats. * Imagine users get | 3d objects In the fol- lowing catagries:- I ANATOMY 14.3Mb | ANIMALS 11Mb | AUTHORS 10Mb 1 AVIATION 1 1.5Mb BATHROOM BOTANY BUILDING CLOCKS COMPUTERS D&D DR WHO EFFECTS FOOD FLYING FRUIT FURNTIRE GENERAL HOUSE HLOD HUMAN INSTRUMENT KITCHEN LAMPS LAND LOGOS M1SC MORPH MUSIC NOVELTY ORGANIC PHONES ROBOTS St. 'ENES & SCI-FI SHIPS SPACE 3Mb 1Mb .2Mb 4Mb .4Mb 9Mb 7Mb 2.7Mb 1Mb 2Mb 1.7Mb 1.2Mb 16Mb 5Mb 1.5Mb 3Mb 3Mb 2Mb 2Mb 3.4Mb 4Mb 42Mb Largest selection of Objects for Imagine and Lightwave users. 1. 9Mb 10Mb 2Mb 1Mb 3Mb 34Mb 25Mb 1.3Mb .4Mb 2.5Mb Enhance your objects collec- tion with just one disc * Light ware users get 3d objects in the fol- lowing cata gries:- COMPUTER EFFECTS ENV1ROMN FONTS HOLIDAYS HOUSEHLD MISC MUSIC ORGANIC ROBOTS SHIPS SPACE SPORTS STARTREK TECHNLGY TOOLS TOYS TRANS PRT WEAPONS 2.7Mb 1.8Mb 1.0Mb 7.6Mb 3.1Mb 7.5Mb 8.5Mb 3.6Mb 20Mb 5.2Mb 11Mb 580Mb 2 6Mb 8.2Mb 9.2Mb 7.6Mb 3.7Mb 15Mb 3.3Mb " Professional - Also Included arc collection of objects from some of the best graphical 3 dlmenlslor al graphic artist's around. ANATOMY ANIMALS AVIATION BUILDING 7.7Mb 10Mb 12Mb 17Mb ' Al /EIT • PRICE 1 )R/<YC THSEC ROr Amiga Utilities 2 CODE: CD201 PRICE: £19.99+.75p STATUS: Feb 96 Doabtr fKv- Set An entire Library of utilities In nil eatagie* for Ibe Amtqm. iur complcie classic Ami^i Various disk ci lection. This is the 2nd volume to be release on CDROM. (Previously on 1 .500 floppy disks only n DMS format only). You'll be sorted with Amiga imiltiea 2? II get software from all aspects of the Amiga. Technical srcLion. Amvork In Black & White and Colour, all 2,000 of our Now Famous Various floppy disk library. Utilities on Ibe disc * Ami Virus * Workbench 2.0 * Clocks * Calendars * Copy and Delete * Dlr View * File Finders ■ File Changer's * Comparisons •Disk copies " Kevboarding * Mouse Utils * Enhancements * Editors * Security * Workbench 3 0 * Astrology * Magazines * Communications * Business * Emulator's • Printing • Arch i vers • Cataloguing Utilities • Desktop calculators - Telephone ulils • Directory • Disk ulils • File Viewers • Help • File Copies • I lard Drive ulils • Educational • Emulator's - 4Dos Utils • (' A ll Systems • Video Utils • Mat>lc Workbench • (lame Cheats • Stereogams • Desktop Publishing • Gambling ' ( it'll!'. iklLiV • Video • and a hole lot more!. ; New Double disc version ° New *ie mi system An excellent menu system which can view and unpack all the lha files from the CDROM to your hard drive. * New 'Search' functions To search for all the Workbench titles Just click on the search button and text workbench and all the disks will be displayed. ° New Workbench enviroment Excellent ready-to-run Amiga Workbench has been provided on the disc for easy use. - Over 550 New Disks 550 new disks since Utilities 1-1500 was released i " Qestyled, Remastered New help and Information files, resivled art- work! Updated infonnaiii.il. Catalogue or New CDROM's and contains ihe latest software right upto late December 1995. ' Greatest Si latest Utilities from October '91 to December '95: Utilities, and loads more (see Our Menu system will help install any of the utilities in am tit-vice drive on your system. Will uniha/view any file. Supports All Amiga niinpuif rs 1 .2 to 4.0 Minimum Req Amiga A500. CDROM Drive and 1Mb of memory. Recommended 2Mh Al 200 lor all utilities to work. The AGA Experience CODE: CD210 PRICE: £18.99 The Best Selection of AG*. Software anywhere - The \b\ Experience NFA - Famous for their Word' dlskmag. and Bodvshop slldcshows amongst other proud to present their first Amiga CD-ROM disc - This is the first CD dedicated to AGA owners, and features the very best AGA-only software released over the past 3 years, EXCLUSIVE NFA - These quality titles were created bv leading Amiga group NFA specifical- ly for this CD. These titles include AGA Slldeshows. Klondike cardsets and others. The CD features every AGA NFA release to date, including the brilliant Word' dlskmag. 'Out of Space' Allen multimedia disk mags. READY-TO-R[/JV - Most of the contents run straight from the CD. There Is no need to spend ages extracting disks. Well over 300meg of ready -to- run hoi utilities, disk mags, text Hies, demos, games and much more. Only those titles which NEED to be compressed have been, these include Demos and slldeshows which have to be stored in DMS format. Extracting iliese is as simple as dou- ble-clicking an icon in Workbench. MACJC WORKBENCH - Colour scheme and icons. We have spent months making this CD Ihe very smartest looking CD available today. Almost every program has a suitable MagicWB Icon. We have even created custom Ray-Traced icons for the CD. any Amiga owner Is guaran- teed to be impressed!. LATEST AGA - Mega -demos. If you like being impressed by your Amiga, you'll fl ~ J " selection of demos There I ur Aiinii.i. you'll find a great lany which are i have even heard of (het C64 Sensations CODE: CD 181 PRICE: £17.99 +.75p STATUS: In Stock Demember the good Days Contains ad the Software that we have c olee ted dor ioq oar great limes on the 164. Datinq from 19*4 op to the present day. Surprising as it may seem lo a loi or people there is still a lively C64 scene today. Although very different from a few years ago there are still a lot of people still heavtlv into the 64. And the rest of you. like us. have a lot That is one of the reasons why we complied this CD. So anytime we w old days you can just pull releases before. Amiga - Contains Amiga tools to be used for copying & converting the D64 Images back to your 1541 or Into your Amiga. Also included Is Ihe FULL version of A64 Emulator Package. Demos - This directory contains our entire C64 Demos collection. They date back from around 1986 until April of 1995. There are lit- erally thousands of demos and magazines. Oh the Tun I had looking over mv old demos and reading charts in 5 year old magazines. The collection is as complete as It could be for someone mall trading for years. Sid Tunes - Hundreds of Sid Player lunes. All the lunes are in Amiga Plavsid format BUT have all been renamed with PC SidPlayer file extensions so they are runable on a PC as well. They are also runable through PlavSld. The lalesi versions of winch is .ilso ,,n ihe dis, ..re provided In the relevant Tools di Hottest 6 CODE: CD200 PRICE: £14.99 lore lhan 400Mb of brand The latest Public Domain and shareware software from March 1995 lo December 1995. What* New on Hottest n and click operation v. Uncompaciion of the cdrom (or you IDMS o LHA supported I. 300 New Utility disks Fonts Graphics Utilities Virus * Clip Art * DPaint * Workbench * Killers Modules ' Educational ' Business 1 Hard Drive 1 Comms 1 Video 1'rogn ing 1 Printing ' Business ' Prediction • Hard Drive 1 MED ' Octamed ' Amos * Cheats 1 Workbench ■ Objects 1 Modem ■ Virus Killers '3D • Art Related 300 New Library disks * Games 1 Slide Shows * Mega Demo" Music Disks * Demos " Collections * Rave Demo ■ Sampled 100 New (red Fish Disks The follow on to ihe most popular floppy disk library from (red Fish disks mm m 1 inn 1 Sound 1 CDROM Design Work 1 Demo Makers ' Degragers ' Programming 1 Cad So ft ware 1 Pictures 1 Disk Maga/.lnes 1 Animations 1 Sounds etc. The Colour Library CODE: CD 182 PRICE: £9.99 The superior images are divided up into various c gories to aid selection. be "importable" into most of the popular DTP Packages, an packages, viewers & word processors directly from ihe CD. We have Included several useful utilities to images on this disc, prior li Pho touision which is a full featured image manipulation and viewing tool. Envision Publisher - is a top quality DTP What Categories do yoo get: * Animals * Bikes • Buildings * Boats * Cars " Birds * Cartoons * Cats • Fish * Flags * Dogs • Dinosaur's " Flowers * Maps * Computers * Houses * Men ■ Helicopters * Fantasy * Sea ■ Medical " inserts * Mlsc " Militarv * Modart * Space * Star Trek * Painting * Places * Planes * Ravlrace • Scenic • Scl-FI * Smartart * Ships * Things • Trains Also cool aio s o u system for easy <i -jlCll Aminet Set 1 CODE: CD112 PRICE: £24.99 Whal do you gel: Its a Quati {Mm- V with the lion of Amiga software. Dlr Size Files I41Mb 800 Development, utll 103Mb 1.800 Utilities. 134Mb 900 Graphics, plx 337Mb 1,100 Pictures & anims. 87Mb 500 Text Software. 39Mb 400 Documents. 336Mb 900 Demos. 160Mt> 1.000 Games. 86Mb 1.100 Communications. 6Mb lOO Hardware related, biz 63Mb 300 Business Software disk 12Mb 200 Disk HD tools 109Mb 500 Miscellaneous, mods 35SMh 2.700 Music Modules. 29Mb 200 Music Software. Aminet Set 2 CODE: CD220 PRICE: £2' Tast access to the weallh of the Aminet! Whal do you gel: Its a Quad Di** .Net wttb the ovist comprehensive comlu- loed Amiga software collec- tion to date. Dlr Size 120Mb 270Mb 40Mb 75Mb 630Mb 170Mb 1 50Mb iDOMb L^HMh 1 10Mb 10Mb 5Mb 150Mb 30Mb Piles 1.000 870 Utilities. Text Software. Business Software Pictures & anims. Graphics. Miscellaneous. Games. Development. Disk HD tools, Hardware related, Communications. Music Software. Aminet Series CODE: (mixed) PRICE &12A The a*, round best cdroro col lections Aminet Aminet 4 - CD064 - Mar '95 Aminet 6 ■ CD175 - Jun '95 Aminet 7 - CD1S4 - Aug '.'5 Aminet 8 - CD208 - Oct '95 Aminet 9 CD238 - Dec '95 Aminet J 0 CD246 - Feb '95 Contains more thihan 1 giga- byte I uncompressed I or soil- ware in thousands of a rel lives. Since the release oi Aminet 7 CD more ihat 500Mb of new software has appeared The current edi- tion has a special focus on modules More than 1.00 were included. Many mod- ules are or a very high-qualiu and feature 8 voices. The excellent user-interface has also experienced further CD Boot v2.0 CODE: CD117 PRICE: £24.99 CDftool is a phaDtastlc new prodocl that enable yoo lo use almost any CD32 games on an A1200 or 44000. Willi the CDBoot CDROM vou i configuration file for each CD. c information on the Juvpad emulation, also save the highscore of each CD32 game. The Usage and Installation of CDBoot is very easy, also for beginners, due to the excellent English manual. Since the compatibility is very high, vou can use more that 90 v*. ni Cn :i> games c'urrenllv available. CDBoot is an excellent software ' solution for all Amiga Freaks, who would like lo enter the world of CD32 game!. Fl-Licenceware CODE: CD233 PRICE: £29.99 Sick of Ibe ran of the mill old releases contafog collections from pre 1995 The FI -Licencetuare CD con- tains the complete collection ofFl titles from I to 100. Over 100 titles or more than 200 disks!. This CD is worth well over £500. If the disks were bought separately. There's something for everyone on the' CD - games, utilities, tools, ijnifessinu.il clipart. music, beginners guides, educational programs and ■ ERIC I voted second best PD game everl * Pouierbase ulaiabse program) • GRAC [superb Mimkc\ Island' style adv gam creator with 1000 s of copies sold on floppy) • Introduction to Workbench (Best Seller!) * Absolute Beginners Guide to AMOS ' Junior Artist ikids paint package) " Tots Time lone of many kids programs). Commerical Software What about the clipart for vour DTP docu- ments? AMOS piui>r.iiiiruers have a field day with this CD - AMOSzine. guide to AMOS and AMOS supplements. Something for everyone. Wilh a very easy to use AmlgaGuidec interface with 80% of the programs running straight from the CD. Assassins Games 2 CODE: CD211 PRICE: £18.99 For Ihe Ultimate bames Experience play with the Assassins! The Assassins Games 2 CD comprises of hundreds of the latest Public Domain and Shareware names | ( > r I tie CD32. CDTV. and Amiga inge or computers. All the games are accessed via the easv menu system. The Amiga guide document provided " — s you easy access to Ihe games inslruc- s and Us possible to plav Ihem direct from the Guide. The Guide also provides compaiibillty note for certain games with your particular machine. Also Included arc over 70 workbench games ready to play from the workbench. Parnet and Sernel are also provided to allow ;ss to the full contents ol this compack disc m Amiga wilh CD32/CDTV. Sexy Sensations CODE: CD230 PRICE: £19.99 The pictures have been seiei led as there is no text, no BBS Door text. No Large borders taking up disc space. The 2.000+ images will dazzle vou. We've included only the very best pic- tures. This CD comes complete with an excel- lent menu system which makes II easv to view the images quickly. The Superior collection of photos taken bv professional photographers Thev have been colour corrected to assure Contains AduJl material and is not for the faint hearted. New material only. If this male- rial offends vou in any wav please do no pur- chase the disc. Proofof age (IB* only) needed when buying this CD. No proof, no CD We do i lot condone or supply hard core material. ZOOM Release 2 CODE: CD234 PRICE: £18. £ Ibe latest PD and Ibe latest I CDWW from Active software Comes rekasc 2! If youwant the latest or great est PD Software then look here! The CD contains well over 1.100 disks, over 640Mb s of data or 1.3GIG s of Public domain. ■ Greatest & latest PD from October '94 to December '95: Utilities. Games, demos. Slide shows. Educational. Disk magazines. & more!. NEW' - A selection of Active software Pro Packs NEW! - All professional sound samples MEW? - Over 22Mb of read-to- view /use magic Workbench Icons etc. NEW! - 100 Klondike Card Games Deluxe sets Global Amiga Experience PRICE: £24.99 CODE: CD 199 Contain den inversions of commercially distributed soft- ware for the Amiga The Global Amiga Experience CDROM. The full Imagine program is a big plus. AS57 "92% Star buy." What do vou gei:- * Some of the examples of demo versions - Callgarl 24. Xll'aim :t. 1 t'l'aiut f> 3. Image FX 2,0. Photogentcs 1 .2. Bars & Pipes 2.5 efc. 8 Full versions Scala 1.13. Imagine 2.0, VistaPro 1,0. Distant " ns 4.0. The Edge 17211) X-Copv. Clarissa . Sleuerfuchs Pro '93. Its Great value for money" Amiga Shopper Meeting Pearls 3 CODE: CD224 Germany's most popular Amiga CDQOM has grown by a new addHkm! 3Mb 9Mb 35Mb 21Mb 5Mb 29Mb 13Mb 8Mb 10Mb 39Mb 7Mb 27Mi- 12MI> 21Mb 13 Mi, fiOMi) 96Mb l r )Mb 30Mb CD-ROM Utilities Graphic Programs Communications & Networking Del nixing Tools Development Tools Floppy disk. Hard Disk. & SCSI Educational Programs Packers. Crunchers and Archivers Internet Movie Database, Updated Midi Tools and Programs Music Modules Music Programs and Software Pictures AmiTCP and more for Networking Documentlon. CD Databases, etc PasTeX vl.4 - Not released before.' Utilities HTML- Pages. Hottest 1, 2, 3 & 6 Set PRICE: £29.99 1 CODE: CD240 More than 2.400Mb of Software from PDSofl main library. The Public Domain and this disc dales from Jan 1988 to Dec 1995 Thais our first 3 cdrom disks (not released before] and our latest release for less than a commerical game would cost. All the disks have been packed with DMS to retain the original disk format . and it comes complete with an Pro Clipart Volume 2 CODE: CD053 PRICE: £17.99 Come with a 2SO Page Booh is crammed full of cllparl fit related soil ware Evcrv one from Juniors to adults" will ply love fltcltlng through 2S0 page bonk selcci ihj; the pictures desired as you — Instead of loading a viewer Directories such as Animals, bovs. cultural Images, floral and natural images, girls, holi- day Images, liiei'iirv figures, mythological ,_ iages. scenery tiansporiaiioii. andwork lages. The disr roniains drawings ol bears. its. dinosaurs, dogs, Insecls. horses. Cultural Images from Egypt. Japan. Native Amer-icans. Polynesia, Persia are also Includ- d on the disc. Floral & natural Images lclude blossoms, planets, sky. the sun, trees, and weather. Network 2 Package Code: CD235 Price: £39.99+£2.45 feet connected - CD3Z to Eric Schwartz CD The Sound Library * The Wetu>orlc 2 CD and Cable combination allows the connection of the Cd32 or CDTV (CDTV only to be purchabed with Network CD Vol 1 please Askl to any Amiga. This connec- tion enables a communications channel between the two machines, thus allowing the transfer of files from one machine lo the other. Put simply you can gain access to the CDROM drive on the CD32 and use any of the normal CDROM utiles within this ad. " File Transfer If you have a directory Utilities such as Directory- Opus, Sid or DirWork the access lo any CTiHOM's files is simple. IDirWorklSha 'oslage & Packing by Recored Delivery £2.45 CODE: CD229 Erie Schwartz need* no mlro duclion lo any Amiga Animal km fan! As vou may have already gleaned from the lille. this Is lt CI) ROM of pretty much tht complete collection of pic- edlile-. by Krir W. Schwartz* PRICE: £24.99 CODE: CD101 1.000Mb or the beat ty Sound I iles. tta a Dnt+tr 0rw VI with tl PRICE: £19.99 s currectlv o There are directories for ■ 3D object files, icon Dies. & more that hopeful- ly will interest you. Also Included Is a special Artists" section with material bv other artists whom I've has come in contact with over the years. These artists vou may have heard of, while others are new'to this medium, but I'm sure you will enjoy all their work. ry Serives CD Schwartz and Fred" Flah Content Warning What you do get:- MIDI - files various formats. Over 6.500 Music Modules. Over 1.000 Music VOC Files. Over 1,000 Music WAV Files. Over 1,000 Music Samples Ready to Run - 100's of Music reltaed soll- /are packages. Editors. Mixing. Converters. Sequencers, Drivers, Players. Trackers, etc. Latest Whoop-it for windows. Drum Blaster. Tetra sequencer. Blaster Master. Windows nd utilities. Trak Blaster, Accu Music sys- . i. Multl Media Jukebox. Cinema. MOD4 Win. Music Sculptor, Surfs UP, PC Sci-Fi Sensations CODE: CD207 PRICE: £1 is an exciting new f*t Mm- ' Containing H OW m of Science fief related Mflware. The Scl-Fi Contains Imagi Music. Animations. 3D pbjccls (Imagine & Lightwave), Sound FX, Documents, Tunes. Infoi Calorie* include: • Babylon 5, • Thunder Birds. • Star Trek * Next Generation • Deep Space 9 * Voyager 'Batman. * Dr WTio " Robocop * Bladcrunner • Aliens. 2001 * Battlestar Galactica • Tron * Total Recall etc AH ready to ran dVeel from the CD Images. Games. Clipart. SCI-FI Fonts. Information. WallPaper, Stories. Music. Turbocalc v2.1 CODE: CD218 PRICE: £9. is the unique software solu- tion that define* a new atan- dard. Experience Is nearly unlimit- ed capabilities In all relevant camr-iiones. Turbo Calc v2.1 CDROM. Design - Extensive formatting optlo ported font formats allowed, no colour n ttons. various cell frames etc. Functions - More that 100 functions covering arithmetical and financial needs Diagrams ■ All eommun chart ivpes support- ed, footer and header, legend and axis labell- ing, output as IFF-Hlc or graphic printout. Printout - Out In built-in printer font (draft mode) or as freek scalable i;i auhic (requires OS2.0or hlgherl. Technical Characteristics Sheet size limited by available memory only, no restrictions in slieet or windows quantity. Import of foreign formats supported (eg MS' :. deb lanuki Pay By Credit Card&, Cheque*, PoitaV Order x Euro- Cheque* 4r Switch-* All/Price* indude-VAt * All phone Order* bent 3y lbtCkMPottthe-Same'Vay. ilOnncn Hucn /AH *% order over £25 and get anyone or the following Vl\l/tl\ V/VCI\ LUW ]') S TITLES FREE OF CHARGE % - EURO scene - BCI NET 1 1 <. /IT AMV i nc TUC /IIT BDI/C /n 1 Aunud [Die «£ ILLUSIONS IN 3D ■ PROFESSIONAL PCX 1 " TERRA SOUNDS K *« <*" ANY 4 Ol RICE CP LAVOVEJ FREE Va» the beauth of chaos - World of sound - essionai urns Order over £25 and get anyone of the following s titles free of charge % - euro scene - bci net 1 illusions in 3d - professional pcx 1 - terra sounds THE BEAUTH OF CHAOS " WORLD OF SOUND - ESSIONAL UtlLS [hoose i|our Fantastic When you subscribe to Amiga Computing K240 i Save over €29.99 Gremlin's outer space strategy game gives you control over a whole galaxy of mining planets where you can create and destroy worlds at the touch of a button. FREE! n UFO Only £3 Microprose's huge strategy game, UFO, puts you in the hot seat as the world comes under attack by an alien invasion. • Add £3 to the price of subscription. Amiga Next Steps & A1 200 Insider Guide books ( Save over £29 A special two-book pack- age including the essential Next Steps guide for all users who have mastered the basics, plus the defini- tive guide to Workbench and AmigaDOS on the A1200, packed with expert tutorials. Heimdall II Save over £34.99 Two extra issues PLUS a smart Amiga Computing magazine binder! Save £15.93 FREE! The follow-up to the classic Viking adventure from Core Design takes you again into Nordic landscape in this arcade adventure and can be yours, abso- lutely free, when you subscribe. Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 FREE girt now! Subscribing to Amiga Computing is the only way to ensure FREE delivery straight to your door PROTECTION against future price increases GUARANTEED delivery every month INVALUABLE Amiga Guide each month FREE gift or special offer Beginners I Start Here | Invaluable programs for first time users SUBSCRIPTION HOTLINE for card orders Tel: 01 51 -357 1 275 Fax: 01 51 -357 281 3 Email: database@dbdirect.demon.co.uk The Easy Way To Pay Subscribing is made even easier by continuous quarterly direct debit. Not only can you forget about your subscription ever lapsing and the thought of missing an issue, but you can spread your payments to avoid paying out a lump sum investigation^ We start the new ;W \ year with an w . >n-depth look at Wr the future of the jtff jeultimate machine • Personal Suite • AtimCDFS • Digital Universe • A600 accelerator • Magic User Interface • Lightwave CDs. • Digits Organiser 2 Amiga [omputing priaritq subscription Form • I would like the following yearly subscription: New Renewal □ 9686 □ 9687 UK £44.99 □ 9688 □ 9689 EU £69.99 □ 9690 □ 9691 World £84.99 □ Canada/USA * $98 1 1 would like a UK quarterly direct debit ongoing □ Quarterly Direct Debit Instruction AUTHORITY TO YOUR BANK/BUILDING SOCIETY TO PAY DIRECT DEBITS Name of bank/building society Your instructions to the bank/building society: I instruct you to pay Direct Debits from my account at the request of IDG Media. The amounts are variable and may be debited on various dates. 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I I I • Tick which free gift/special offer you want (not available to world subscribers) 9576 □ Two free issues and a magazine binder 9596 □ K240 9598 □ Amiga Next Steps & Amiga 1200 Insider Guide Books 9600 □ Heimdallll 9597 □ UFO (Add £3 to the cost of your subscription) If you are paying by direct debit please pay additional amounts by cheque or credit card. • Canada & USA subscribers send to: Europress (North America), Unit 14, Bysham Drive, Woodstock, Ontario, NT4 1P1, Canada. Tel: 51 9-539-0200, Fax: 519-539-9725 Q Tick this box iiyou do not wish to receive promotional material from other companies • Deliver my magazine to: Name (Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms) Address Postcode . . Daytime phone no , Send this form to: Database Direct, FREEPOST, South Wirral L65 3EB. (No stamp needed if posted in UK.) Your subscription will commence from trie earliest possible issue Amiga Computing APRIL 199 6 ROM.^D-ROM...CD-ROM^^ Workbench Add-On Volume 1 The Workbench Add-On CD-ROM is the ideal companion to your workbench. On this CD you will not only find the best programs, (hot are available for the Amiga, but you will also get them ready-to-run From the CD. In addition to this there is an installer script that installs the desired programs to your horddisk. The CD covers oil areas of interest, all, the programmer, the user, the creative ond the gomer will find what they are looking for. On this CD-ROM there are mony shareware programs, some of them a' o special price, if you get registered. There is e.g. Shapeshifter for 40.- DM (instead of 50.- DM), in addition to this there is a 50 MB Mac partition, so that you can stort playing around with Moc applications right away. Then there is PowerPloyer for 20,- DM (instead of 30.- DM), there are, of course, loads of modules with it, so that you can try if right away. AmiWin, the new Xll-server for the Amiga is available for $40, instead of $50. You can sa ve more than 100.- DM with this CD. Therefore you only have to send in the appropriate page in the booklet to the author of the program. £24.95 CD-Write Whol!?! You still can't write to your CDs? CD-ROMs have long been on essential part of Amiga computing. Many users already own a CD-ROM drive, and the number of software packages ovailable on CD is increasing steadily. Until now, though, it was not possible to write to CDs. We have solved this problem with our new revolutio- nary product: Ralph Babel and Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe are proud to present what can be considered a marvel of technology: CD-Write enables you to virtually write to CDs with an ordinary CD- ROM drive, From now on, you will be able to write, delete, and mo- dify data on your CDs. This product will take you into a new era, and you will be able to utilize CD-ROM technology to its fullest. £44.95 FreshFish 10 The FreshFish CD-ROM-series, produced directly by Fred Fish, provi des Amiga users with hundreds of megobytes of the latest freely re distributable software. Published approximately every two months each volume is a two CD set containing new submissions since thf latest volume, os well os an ever growing selection of tools, libraries documentation and other useful material that is updated release. £17.95 GDBoot 1.0 CDBoot is a fantastic new product that enables you to use almost any CD32 gomes on an A 1200 or A4000 (with AT- or SCSI-CD- ROM drive ond any filesystem). You can create a configuration file for each CD, containing information on the Joypad emulation. You can also save the highscore of each CD32 game. The usage and installation of CDBoot is very easy, also for beginners, due to the excellent English manual. Since the compatibility is very high, you can use 98% of CD32 gomes currently available. CDBoot is an excellent software solution for all Amiga-Freaks, who would like to enter the world of CD32 games! £34.95 Aminet Set 1 Amine) is the world 's largest collection of freely distributable Amiga software. Up to 10.000 users access the vast archives ervery day and countless programmers publish directly via Aminet. Until recently access to Aminet was restricted to international network users. With Aminet Set J, consisting of 4 CDs, the complete archive is published the first time. This CD- ROM-col lection; which is dated Januory 1995, offers on almosl inexhaustible reservoir of lop-value Shareware. A wide variety of programs is included: Applications, Games, Demos, Pictures, Mods, Animations, Developer-Material, ... . It contains approximately 4 gigabytes of software in 12.500 orchives ond you will enjoy the comfortable user-interface. £29.95 Aminet Set 2 AMINET SET 2, dated November 1995, consists of approximately 4 gigabytes of software in 12.000 archives. Whether you like applica- tions, games, communications or programming, the SET gives you all you need. Easy lo use index files and search facilities make accessing it a pleasure. £34.95 V J Gamers' Delight II This CD contains 1 070 games for the Commodore Amiga from differ- ing categories. Action, Jump & Run, Card Games, Puzzles, Strategy Gomes - a whole ronge of computer entertainment awaits! Gomers ' Delight will hold you captivated for hours and guarantees long-last- ing pleasure, 70 games are commercial versions - no public domain & no demosl This CD can be run on any Amiga with CD-ROM drive,! MB free memory and Joy stick/Joy pad. £26.95 Meeting Pearls Vol. Ill The Meeting Pearls Volume 111 contains 650 MB of the finest FD soft- ware via a special user interface, which has been created to allow you fo find the program of your choice with ease. The contents: 10 MB Packer, Cruncher, Archive Programs ■ 3 MB CD-ROM Utilities - 21 MB Communication and Network Programs ■ 5 MB Debugging Tools • 29 MB Development Tools ■ 13 MB Floppy, Hard Disk ans SCSI Programs 8 MB Educational Programs - 9 MB Games ■ 35 MB Graphics Programs 39 MB Internet Movie Database, Updated Version ■ 7 MB Midi Tools and Programs 27 MB Mods ■ 12 MB Music Programs ■ 21 MB Pictures - 13 MB AmiTCP and more for Networking • 60 MB Documentation, CD-ROM Datobases, etc. ■ 96 MB PasTeX 1.4 - not previous available on any CD-ROM ■ 15 MB Utilities ■ 30 MB HTML-Pages ■ Collections of dotatypes, benchmark programs, icons, progroms for amateur radio and electrical/elec- tronic engineering are also included. £9.95 Aminet 9 Still available! £14.95 • ••••••••••••••••A* AMIMK£ 10 Aminet 10 Aminet CD 10, doted February 1996, consists of approximately 1,1 gigabytes of software in 3600 archives. Since the reieose of Aminet CD 9 more than 500 MB new software has appeared. The current edition has a special focus on fonts, more than 1000 fonts from the internet were included. User friendly access software makes the Aminet CD 10 a pleasure to use. £14.95 XiPaint V3.2 XiPaint is a leading edge, 24-bit paint program. It's suited to the demands of novice and expert alike, and within a short time, you too will be able to produce colourful and creative art in 16.8 million colours. This version of XiPaint provides a professional paint program at on unbeatable price/performance ratio. Overview of Features: ■ Diverse paint functions including colour, controst and saturation adjustment ■ Mask, outline, recolour ond fill functions ■ Airbrush with adjustable spray functions ■ Light-table function for manipulating montages and animations ■ Text functions with anti-aliasing using Compugraphic fonts Support lor a variety of graphic formats ■ Unlimited Undo ■ Diverse manipulation of alpho channel ■ Supports many graphic cards ■ Layers to combine different projects ARexx port ■ Drag & Drop colours - External filter module - Extensive documentation ■ 60 textures, 50 landscopes, 30 other pictures and many fonts included. £49.95 • •••••••••••••••••A The Light Works Raytracing - A fascinating area of the computer graphics. Pictures from the computer, perfectly rendered, fascinate people all over the ■vorld. The Amiga was the first computer to be used for raytracing, and today it is still a leader, with many high quality programs. A real artist of raytracing is Tobias J. Richter from Cologne/Germany, whose detailed objects stun the people. Especially his space ships of famous science fiction films ore used to demonstrate the capabilities of a raytracing program. The objects are highly detailed and extremly realistic due to the application of complex surface textures of the models. Until now il was difficult to acquire these objects in order to create ones own scenes or animations, £29.95 EEEEjews NetNews Offline Vol. 1 NetNews Offline Vol. 1 is the first disk of a new bimonlhly published series of Amiga CD-ROMs which contains all Amiga-related news- groups from the internet. Every volume feolures about 50.000 articles which contain hot rumours, important information about all aspects of the Amiga, press-releases, discussions and flame wars, ... . A newsreader is included. NetNews Offline is the cheap alternative of getting in touch with Usenet. £14.95 All products are available in your local Amiga-shop or through national mail-order-companies International Distributor: f*< mi GTI Grenville Trading International GmbH Zimmersmuhlenweg 73 61440 Oberursel • Germany Tel +49-6171-85937 Fax +49-6171-8302 EMail: Compuserve 100336,1245 Contents ECTS attract* major aahlMtara and ilattof • from evary aMtor of thm Iwdwihy. ftow all o>«* tha world, Fraa* avary part a* Earo«M, w»a USA The latest news from the Amiga gaming world, plus a chance to win a prize worth £100 Reviewed s. I me< ginal a We preview OTM's Commando-like shoot-'em- up. If it's half as good, it will be nothing short of superb At last, the whole Doom issue has finally come to an end as we look back on the epic tale And more All the latest chips and teats in our new section - "Greasy Food and Milk Supplies" Er, I mean tips and cheats. SYSTEM Vulcan Software's new releases new* By Andy Maddock ortsmouth's finest who have refused to leave the Amiga scene are back with a batch of new releases which should be making their way on to your screens later this year. Firstly, they are releasing an expansion disk for the excellent Timekeepers which should be out soon and will have a price tag of just £5.99, It will contain 60 more levels which will be made slightly harder. The second release will please almost every gam- esplayer as Vulcan have planned to bring out the latest Valhalla edition enti- tled Fortress of Eve. The lit- tle prince has now grown up and he's after a wife. It will have four levels, a 1000 word vocabulary, a text option for the hard of hearing, and a brand new pseudo-isometric view instead of overhead. And all this for only £14.99. Watch this space. The last two releases are pretty sketchy at the moment, although you may be familiar with the first. It was entitled "Penguins' by a geezer called Scott Hayne, and he was going to publish the The third Valhalla adventure will be released later in the year. It's certainly something to look forward to game himself until he found a better offer. Yep, Scott Hayne has sold the idea to Vulcan who will be re-designing the graphics and selling it under the new title of Bograts. The other release is called Mat's World and will be similar to Valhalla - it's a multilevel platform speech adventure and that's about all we know. We'll keep you posted. I'm a rock 'n roll star How would you like to help us in a large opera- tion. Well, it's a big job and it involves us wearing protective clothing and heading for the tatty, poor unfortunate, dying games cupboard. If you can help us by emptying it slightly you can keep some of the contents! But we can't just give them away willy nilly. Oh no. That would be too easy, and there's loads of excellent stuff in there too! What we want you to do is show your creative side in the best possible way. If you've heard of 'Everybody's Girlfriend' by David Pleasance then you'll know what I mean. You've got it. We want you to write a song about the Amiga. And you are completely free to do anything, You can just write some lyrics, make a tune using Octamed, or record it on to tape. We'll promise to look at every single one of them. And remember - we're not expecting that much, but if you can impress us enough we may even send you a special prize worth around £100. And don't forget, there will be loads of runners up prizes. So come on! How much does the Amiga mean to you? ^Jame: Address: Age: Song Title: Send entries to: Hey look, I'm Noel Gallagher Competition, System, Amiga Computing, IDG Media, Media House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK10 4NP. April 1811 Guildhall's release schedule We have just received the latest news from Guildhall Leisure that they are to further their excellent track record with more quality software than ever before. Firstly there is Fears and Gloom 2 for the CD32. If you've been dying to play them on the 32-bit machine then your waiting is up as you will be pleased to know they should be avail- able now. Over the next month or so, we should be seeing a brand new game by the name of Blitz Tennis, and the release of Wembley International Soccer which I am looking forward to as I never got to play it the first time around when it was published by Audiogenic. Late in the year we shall also be seeing games entitled Microlyte Warriors and the much awaited Brian Lara '96. It looks like it's going to be a good year for Guildhall with a mountain of excellent releases. Stay tuned for more information. Caught in the Net If you're looking for Amiga games on the Internet, here are some links to get you started. Whether it's Public Domain or commercial demos you'll find something on these sites. Virtual Software Library http://vsl.cnet.com/ This contains an excellent software searcher - it's fast, efficient and very large. Just select 'Amiga' from the menu and you'll be away. Aminet ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk This is probably the best place anyone could want to go to to search all aspects of the Amiga world. It's also updated daily so you will be able to access all the latest software. Amiga Web Directory http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html You will occasionally find news of up and c Amiga games releases as well as some e> links to other similar related sites. Official System top 1 0 This is our up to date, official top 10 most played games in the office. As you can see the standard of software over the last few months has been absolutely outstanding and we hope it will continue. Game Publisher Score 1 . Worms Team 17 91% 2. Sensible World of Soccer 95/96 Time Warner 92% 3. Pinball Prelude Effigy Software 90% 4. Super Tennis Champs Audiogenic 80% 5. Xtreme Racing Guildhall 90% 6. Breathless Power Computing 92% 7. Alien Breed 3D Team 17 91% 8. Coala Empire Int. 91% 9. Gloom Deluxe Guildhall N/A 10 Flight of the Amazon Queen Time Warner Interactive 93% AMIGA WEB DIRECTORY TV most coanrahusm guide to Amiga resources on tl The Amiga Web Difectoiyiz sponsored "by: cu-online Thc Cham P ai 9 |i - Urbana X"™!^"t,T;"r Commodore Users Group Hey Linta ! • Ami g a Technolo gies • Amiga Neys • Info Resources File Collections • Software Sn pport • Haidyare Sn pport • Mag azines Commer ci al Site3 • Demo Scene • Telnet BBSi • User Gron p3 Other Ami g a Lints • Monster Link List • About the A WD Search Thi3 Site • Send yonr Comments • Sngg e3t a Linfc This is an Amiga owner's second home. If you are an enthusiast you'll probably spend more time here than anywhere The Games Domain http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.ul/gamesdomain •ming You will find mountains of software littered all over 3llent this place for various formats as well as loads of Amiga goodies The European Computer Trade Show is once again making its annual return. The dates are 14-16 of April and whether there'll plenty of Amiga games on show will be another matter. It won't surprise me if the show is dominated by the Playstation, Saturn and PC, but we'll give you a full run down in a future issue any- way on all the present Amiga software titles. SYSTEM Sensible World of Soccer 95/96 Score: 92% "If you're a real fan of Sensible Soccer then this an absolutely essential purchase" Breathless Score: 92% "Breathless features some excellent graphics and sound effects, and it plays like a dream" System Selections x Raci Score: 90% ROAO CIRCUIT 1 LOAOIOG - PLEASE UIAIT. PRESS FIRE TO START 'slue euTTon to » 5C/PLAV eUTTIIIt !(> QUI "The best thing about Xtreme Racing has to be the 3D texture map Zeewolf 2 Score: 90% "The missions are reasonably challenging and if you're into war and guns and that, then Zeewolf is an excellent purchase" Hillsea Lid April 1996 "Superbly designed and a real bargain to boot ■ you'd be crazy not to buy this" Score: 90% "Soccer Stars "96 is probably one of the best football compilations and at £34.99 it is excellent value for money" "Along with all these presentational features there are many additional ones which make the game more interesting" Score: 91% I Lift * iV HO IS AN 1X-WUHH "Hours of entertainment from one game - who'd have thought that a garden invertebrate could be so much fun" AiSA REPAIRS FIXED PRICE ONLY £42,99 incl. (A50 „ /+ , A60 o, d * Price includes PARTS, LABOUR, DELIVERY & VAT ' , * 90 day warranty on all repairs y ' * 24 hour turn-around on most repairs a Est. 14 Years i * All upgrades purchased from us fitted free with repair * Includes FULL DIAGNOSTICS, SERVICE AND SOAK test * If drive or keyboard need replacing add £10 AMIGA A1200 Repairs only £52.99 - Fully Inclusive SPECIAL OFFERS Pack Includes: ^Mk, ★ A1 200 Computer ★ Wordsworth AGA ★ Dennis the Menace ★ Oscar ^ffe * Digita Print Mrg * Deluxe Paint IV ★ 1 Yr RTB warranty ★ Workbench 3.0 ^ A500 Internal Drive £29.95 A600/1200 Internal Drive £35.95 I CHIPS CHIPS 8372A 1 Meg Agnus £24.90 8375 2 Meg Agnus £24.90 LISA (A1200) £92.70 8374 Alice (A1200) £92.70 8362 Denise (A500) £8.60 8373 Super Denise £1040 5719 Gary £7.60 8520 CIA (A500/+) £12.00 8520 CIA (A600/1200) £12.00 8364 Paula (A500/+) £1234 8364 Paula (PLCC) £16.70 1 I CHIPS 68000 cpu easo Video DAC (A1200) £19.60 Kickstarl 1.2 £4.20 Kickstart 1 .3 £16.00 Kickstarl 2.04 £22.40 Kickstart 2.05 £19.90 Kickstart 3.1 (A500) £66.00 Rom Sharer £16.00 NEW Modulators £29.60 Xchange Modulators £16.00 CD-32 ROM Drive £36.00 A500 Motherboard 6A £69.00 M Jpsrei lit /srfofy HEW sni genuine Cmmoim partj. fly/ come t/ilb ttmm wimnty (Except chiasj. A500 Keyboard £96.00 A600 Keyboard £29.00 A1200 Keyboard £34.00 A500/600/1200 PSU £2630 CD-32 PSU £25.00 A2000/A3000 PSU £66.00 VGA Adaptor £6.60 2.5" HARD DRIVES P.O.A. WE CAN SUPPLY ANY AMIGA A500/600/1200 SPARE PART AND KEEP A FULL STOCK Add £1 .50 P&P on chips, £3.00 P&P on drives & PSUs. We reserve the right to refuse repairs. 'ATTENTION ALL DEALERS*"""*** ompetitive dealer repair service on all home computers! . SEND FOR FREE INFORMATION PACK TODAY. I DART Computer Services (AC), I London flood, Leicester LE2 OPF Lowest Priced Top Quality Ribbons, Inkjets, Toners & Disks Printer Ribbons BLACK Amslrad DMP 200073000 lgff 180 2+ 2.65 5+ 2.45 10+ 2.25 BLACK Panasonic KXP1123/1 124/1140 1 off 146 2+ 3.31 5± 3.11 $ AmstradDMP4000 3.66 3.51 3.31 3.11 Panasonic KXP1080/1 180/90/1592 2.89 2.74 2.54 2.34 Amstrad PCW8256/8512/LQ35O0 Brother M1009/1024/1109/1209 2.85 2.70 2.50 2.30 Panasonic KXP2123/2180 4.95 4.80 4.60 4.40 3.90 3.75 3.55 3.35 Seikosha SL90/92/95 5.70 5.55 5.35 5.15 Citizen 120D/LSP10/Swift 2479 2.85 2.70 2.50 2.30 Star LC10/20/100 2.29 2.14 1.94 1.84 Commodore MPS 1220/1230 4.50 4.35 4.15 3.95 Star LC200 3.00 2.85 2.65 2.45 Epson LQ100 4.10 3.95 3.75 3.55 Star LC24-10/200 2.86 2.71 2.51 2.31 Epson LQ4OO/5OO78O0/850 3.45 3.30 3.10 2.90 Taxan Kaca KP810/815/910/915 3.14 2.99 2.79 2.59 Epson FXA1X7RX80/FX/LX800 2.90 2.75 2.55 2.35 Citizen Swift 24 loft 11.95 2+ 5+ lfc Epson EX/\1X7RX100/FX/MX1(K)0 .1.36 3.21 3.01 2.81 11.80 11.60 113 Epon LX80/86/90 Mannesmann Tally 80/81 2.12 1.97 1.77 1.67 Panasonic KXP2123/2180 10.63 10.48 10.28 1.88 3.90 3.75 3.55 3.35 StarLC10/20/100 6.00 5.85 5.65 525 NEC Pinwriter P2200 3.03 2.88 2.(8 2.48 Star LC200 9.78 9.63 9.43 9.03 8.88 OKIML182/183/192/1M/195 3.17 3.02 2.82 2.62 Star LC24-10/200 9.63 9.48 9.28 Ring for Ribbons Not Listed. Ring us and WE WILL BEAT all other Ribbon prices Ml Disks & Disk Boxes DS/DD DS/HD 10 Disks £5 £6 25 Disks £10 Ell 50 Disks £16 £18 100 Disks £29 £33 250 Disks £65 £76 500 Disks £125 £148 100 Cap. Lockable Disk Box £5.99 with orders of £10+ Preformatted (MS-DOS) disks available at 2p extra/disk. All Disks Certified 100% Error Free and INCLUDE FREE Labels. Inkjets. Ink Refills & Toners Canon BJ-10/20 Cartridge 17.54 each Commodore MPS1270 Cartridge 12.13 each HP Deskjet Cartridge (Double Cap.) 22.00 each HP Deskjet Tri-Colour Cartridge 26.00 each HP Thinkjet/Quletjet Cartridge 12.13 each HP Deskjet Tri-Colour Catridge Refill 16.00 rach Inkjet Refills (Twin Packs) for Canon BJ-10/20, BJ300, HP Deskjet. Available in Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, Blue. Brown, Light Green, Dark Green, and Gold. 1 Pack £11.00, 2+ Packs £10.60 ea, 5+ Packs £9.95 ea HP Laserjet II/III Toner Cartridge HP Laserjet IIP/HIP Toner Cartridge 40.00 each 45.00 each Miscellaneous Items Ring For Inkjets & Toners Not Listed. Roll. 1000 35?' Disk Labels i'A" Disk Cleaning Kit Parallel Printer Cable (1.8m) Mouse Mat 8.99 2.99 3.99 2.99 CPU & Monitor Dust Cover Monitor Dust Cover 80 Column Printer Dust Cover Amiga 500 Dust Cover Amiga 600 Dust Cover Amiga 1200 Dust Cover 6.49 4.99 3.99 3.99 3.99 3.99 All Prices INCLUDE VAT (@ \TA%) & UK Delivery - mm ' 01543 250377 Ring us or send cheques to: 01543 250377 Owl Associates Ltd, Dept 428, Owl House, 5 The Brambles, Lichfield, Staffs WS14 9SE Official Gove rn me m & Educational orders welcome HAMMER SIM CITY 2000 ALIEN BREED 3D 12.49A1200 21.99A1200 AMIGA GAMES (512K) = WILL WORK ON 512K MACHINES (HDR) = HARD DRIVE REQUIRED • = NEW ITEM NAME PRICE SAVE ALIEN BREED 2 8.49 ...£18 B17 FLYING FORTRESS 12.99 ...E4 BEAU JOLLY COMP CANNON FODDER, SETTLERS, CHAOS ENGINE, T2 18.99 ...£16 BIG 100 (SHAREWARE) 9.99 CANNON FODDER 2 14.99 ... CENTERFOLD SQUARES 4.99 CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER 2 21.49 . COLONIZATION 23.49 ... COVER GIRL STRIP POKER .,.11.49 . DAILY DOUBLE HORSE RACING 4.99 DUNE 2 - BATTLE FOR ARRAKIS13.99 . ELITE (512K) 4.49 ... FIELDS OF GLORY 13.99 . FIFA INTL SOCCER 14.99 ... FLIGHT OF AMAZON QUEEN 23.49 , FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX (512K)9.49 . GREMLIN COMPILATION VOL 2 ZOOL 2, PREMIER MANAGER 2, SPACE CRUSADE, LOTUS 3 ...12.99 ... GUNSHIP 2000 14.99 . INDIANA JONES FATE OF ATLANTIS ADVENTURE 13.99 . INNOCENT 9.99 ... KINGPIN 7.99 . KNIGHTS OF THE SKY 12.49 . LORDS OF THE REALM 22.49 ... MICROPROSE GOLF 7.49 ... MORTAL KOMBAT 9.49 ... ON THE BALL -LEAGUE ED ...11.99 ... POWERMONGER + WW1 DATA DISK (512K) 11.49 . RESERVED COLLECTION VOL 1 ROME AD92. MYTH, EPIC (HDR) 5.99 SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND 2 13.49 . SENSIBLE WORLD SOCCER 96 22.99 . WORMS 19.99 GUNSHIP r m y- ■ £19 ** SENSI SOCCER 96 22.99 SIMON THE SORCERER 14.99 . SPACE LEGENDS WING COMMANDER, MEGATRAVELLER, ELITE 11.99 . SPEEDBALL 1 & 2 (512K) 7.49 SUPER LEAGUE MANAGER ...10.99. SUPER SKID MARKS 2 14.99 . SYNDICATE 13.49 THEME PARK 23.99 . TORNADO 13.49 TRIVIAL PURSUIT* 3.99 ULTIMATE SOCCER MANAGER19.99 . WING COMMANDER 1 9.99 . CHAMP MGR 2 WORDSWORTH V1. 2 21.49 14.99 0 AMIGA UTILITIES super skids 2 core comp vol.2 14.99 15.99cd32 GUNSHIP 2000 12.49CD32 . . .39.99 . DELUXE PAINT 3 6.99 . FINAL WRITER (RELEASE 4) (4 MB & HDR) 65.99 ...£64 HOME ACCOUNTS ... MINI OFFICE ...9.99 ...£40 . 37.99 ...£22 £25 WORLD CUP YEAR 94 GOAL. CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER 94 + DATA DISK. STRIKER, SENSIBLE SOCCER 12.49 ...£17 WORMS 19.99 ..e6 A1200 GAMES ALIEN BREED -T ASSAULT ...8.49 ...£11 ALIEN BREED 3D 21.99 ...£8 CIVILISATION AGA (UNBOXED) -7.99 ..,£22 COLONIZATION 22.99 ...E12 CORE COMPILATION VOL 1 BANSHEE. SKELETON KREW, HEIMDALL 2 17.99 ..£20 ..£35 FEARS 13.99 GLOOM DELUXE • 20.99 JUNGLE STRIKE 12.49 KINGPIN 7.99 PINBALL ILLUSIONS 19.49 POLE POSITION 19.49 SIM CITY 2000 (HDR & 5MB) ...12.49 SPERIS LEGACY* 18.99 STAR CRUSADER 19.99 SUPER LEAGUE MANAGER ...10.99 THEME PARK 22.99 UFO - ENEMY UNKNOWN 22.99 ULTIMATE SOCCER MANAGER19.99 MULTIMEDIA EXPERIENCE (4MB 8. HDR}* 38.9 WORDWORTH V1.2 SE 14.9 CD32 GAMES A.T.R.* 14.99 ...£15 ALFRED CHICKEN • 10.99 ..,£19 ALIEN BREED 3D 22.49 ...E7 ARABIAN NIGHTS • 12,99 .,.£17 BANSHEE 9.99 ...£20 CASTLES 2» 16.99 ...£13 CHUCK ROCK 2 • 9.99 ...£20 CORE COMPILATION VOL 2 BANSHEE, SKELETON KREW, HEIMDALL 2. UNIVERSE 15.99 ...£19 GLOOM ( DOOM' CLONE) 14.99 ...E15 GUARDIAN 10.99 ...£19 GUNSHIP 2000 12.49 ...£17 PGA EUROPEAN TOUR GOLF * 16.99 ...£13 PINBALL ILLUSIONS 19.49 ...£10 ROAD KILL 10.99 ...£4 SABRE TEAM • 16.99 ...E13 SHADOW FIGHTER 10.99 ...£2 SIMON THE SORCERER 14.99 ...£25 SOCCER KID • 9.99 ...£20 SPEEDBALL 2 12.99 ...£2 SUPER SKID MARKS • 9.99 ...E20 SYNDICATE 24.99 ...£10 TRIVIAL PURSUIT 9.49 ...£20 WORMS 21.49 ...£8 ZOOL 3,49 ...£26 ZOOL2* 9,99 ..£20 AMIGA A1200 2/0 MAGIC PACK 399.99 PLUS TEN FREE GAMES AMIGA A 1200 2/170 SC ALA 4^ PACK 499.99 WITH 170 MB HARD DRIVE | PLUS TEN FREE GAMES COMMODORE AMIGA POWER SUPPLY 26. J AMIGA CD32 CRITICAL ZONE PACK .139.99 WITH SEVEN GAMES INCLUDING" CANNON FODDER & ULTIMATE BODY BLOWS EXTERNAL DISK DRIVE FOR AMIGA OR SX-1 47.99 OVERDRIVE 1.25 GB (1272 MB) HARD DRIVE ...289.99 DYNAMICS COMPETITION PRO JOYPAD FOR CD32 16.99 WITH AUTOFIRE AND TURBOFIRE ALFA MEGAMOUSE 400 FOR AMIGA ...12.99 2 MICROSWITCHED, 400 DPI AND LONG CORD E FREE WHEN YOU BUY ANY ITEM AT THE SAME TIME AS JOINING OR RENEWING FOR ONE YEAR OR MORE A QUICKJOY FOOTPEDAL FOR AN AMIGA OR SUPERMODEL KELLY MOUSE MAT TOP QUALITY LAMINATED MAT GUYVER PART I MANGA VIDEO ANIMATED ACTION MOVIE RATED 15 OR MAGAZINE BINDER HOLDS 12 MAGAZINES % -8* — BLACK CARRY BAG HOLDS HAND-HELD CONSOLES ETC. ABSOLUTELY FREE Oiher offers avaifabie - please call. Overseas members add £2 carriage. 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Overseas orders must be paid by credit card Hardware items (battery or mains) are only supplied to the UK mainland Overseas surcharge £2.00 per software item or 25% on other items (BLOCK CAPITALS please) | Name & Address = Enter membership number (if applicable) or NEW MEMBERSHIP FEE (ANNUAL UK 7.001 Please use this box to add any optional fast delivery charge 1st Class Post 50p per p osted item or £3 hardware ALL PRICES INCLUDE UK POSTAGE * VAT IT Cheque/P.O./Access/Creditcharge/Switch/Visa | *- CREDIT CARD EXPIRY DATE . SWITCH JISSUE NO. ) Mail Order address. Cheques payable to: SPECIAL RESERVE P.O. BOX 847, HARLOW, ESSEX, CM2I 9PH Inevitably some games listed may not yet be available. Please phone to check availability. Prices may change without prior notification. Sent to press 16.02.96 E .& O.E. SAVE ■ Saving oft fuil retail price. Inter- Mediates Ltd, The Mailings. Sawbridgeworth. Herts Amiga Computing APRIL 1996 SYSTEM ^^^^ ""^i^^ PUBLISHER Anco In- house £24.99 4 No A 1200 DISKS HD INSTALL SUPPORTS The new highlights screen is split into quarters and each one displays graphics relating to certain incidents a Man Vol, 1 IssueS Carlisle surrender to A Haddock Birmingham City won a close pun cup tie yesterday against a battling Carlisle side full of commitment. P.Ualentine netted the opening goal after 7 minutes as Carlisle took the initiative, . R.Hamill struck for Birmingham City when his thumping volley from outside the box levelled matters in the 16th minute . fl.fladdock rounded off the scoring with his 4th 9oal of the season after 84 minutes with a strike that just managed to cross the line to leave Carlisle to wonder were it all The newspaper will give you an in-depth report on the match you have just played layer Manager 2 was released last year sometime and to be honest it was nothing short of excellent. It received 94% in our September issue. Now .comes the pseudo data disk - well completely new version actually. I mentioned in my previous review that the player's names were truly awful, especially as they kept real life teams and then invented com- pletely fictional names. I don't know whether Anco acted upon my criticisms, but in the Extra version all the names are updated, Obviously there's no Juninho at Middlesbrough, because for a start they still haven't managed to assign the clubs into their proper divisions, but a rumour did occur that if all the real life teams were included it would take too long for a season. Most of the differences that have been added to the Extra version are quite in depth. To begin with there is a knockout and challenge mode where you can take on other human opponents in a league just to see who does best. The challenge option is to see how many points you The boot room is no longer empty as it always used to be. It is now full of three players sitting there doing nothing extra Reviewed by Andy