====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter) BACK FOR THE FUTURE || ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga International, GmbH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 970702 A U S T R A L I A N A M I G A G A T H E R I N G R E P O R T P E T R O T . S T A T E M E N T T O A A G N E W A M I G A L I C E N S E D " C L O N E " F U S I O N - I F Y O U N E E D M A C N E W F R O M C R O N U S N E W A M I G A S I T E A L P H A S I A M E S E S Y S T E M H O M E A C C O U N T S P R O G R A M C L U B M A D R I D ( N E A T N A M E ! ) A M I G A R E T A I L E S C O R T Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: First, we need to correct a typo made in the last issue. In our discussion of NewTek and Lightwave, we mentioned version 5.0 when we meant to type version 5.5. The following note is typical of what we received from the ever alert "Amiga Update" readers: "LightWave 5.0 has been out for the Amiga for months! No announcement has been made on LW 5.5 for Amiga or Mac. The 5.5 for Intel and Dec Alpha are the only ones announced for release soon. Most current rumor is July. (My guess is August)" Unfortunately, the guess is probably wrong. We have received confirmation from very reliable sources that NewTek has stopped development of Lightwave for Amiga. However, we also are aware that serious and hush-hush negotiations between Gateway and NewTek have been continuing. If the Amiga rebounds under Gateway's ownership, it's possible Amiga versions could be forthcoming again. We also noted that our inquiries to NewTek had gone unanswered. That seems to be due to a serious crash of the NewTek mail server, not any desire to avoid communication with AU. Much interesting news to send your way this time. We have two items concerning the just completed Amiga show in Australia. First is a show report from Paul Morabito, keeper of the "Amiga Update" mirror site "down under". It's followed by Amiga International's Petro Tyschtschenko's statement to those who participated in the show. We found a German press release a while back about a new Amiga licensed tower system. We have the English version in this issue. Microcode Solution's press release about their eagerly awaited Fusion Macintosh emulator graces this issue. Those who need access to Macintosh programs should find this very interesting. Fred Fish and Cronus have some new products to tempt you. Details are below. "No Amiga to waste" - an interesting concept in Amiga on-line sites is described below. In a similar vein, we have an announcement of the Club Madrid from Spain, which has to get recognition as having one of the niftier names for any Amiga organization. In other product news, we have information on the latest Siamese system, this one working with DEC Alpha chip based NT workstations; a new home accounts program that should be of interest to many Amigans; and a business program designed for those who want to run a retail business using Amigas. All very interesting news, which we sincerely hope you enjoy. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A U S T R A L I A N A M I G A G A T H E R I N G R E P O R T Australian Amiga Gathering '97 Show Report By Paul Morabito The Australian Amiga Gathering was held on the 28th and 29th of June, a Saturday and Sunday in Sydney Australia in the Kensignton Centre of the Sydney Showgrounds. I attended on the Saturday partly as an Amigan and along with Guy Nathan as the ICOA representatives. The Venue: Well anyone who knows the Sydney Showgrounds knows it's big, very big. The Royal Easter Show up until next year is held there (for non Sydneysiders it is best described as a huge fair with carnival rides, shows, exhibitions etc) and it is also alongside the Sydney Cricket Ground and The Sydney Football Stadium. My first observation was that there was no signs or anything indicating where exactly the show was. This is meant to be THE Australian Amiga event of the year and there isn't even a sign!!. Couple that with what could only be described as a sparsely populated Showgrounds and despair was beginning to set in. After a few moments of stumbling around we managed to find the Kensignton Centre guided by the puniest of signs and with the help of directions from a security guard. And then once reaching the Kensignton I was greeted by a huge AMIGA sign, loosely tied to the side of the wall. This would have looked *GREAT* hanging from the front but never mind, at least it was there. The Show: Upon arrival there was a line of about 5-8 people cueing to get in. Initial fears of an abysmal attendance were soon diminished when looking inside I already saw a healthy crowd. After collecting my ID badge and seeing to some ICOA duties I had a look around. following is a run down of the exhibitors: Amadeus Computers: These guys have long been one of the best Amiga dealers in Sydney combining enthusiasm with a wide range of products. There wasn't any real bargains to be had except for maybe SAS C 6.5 going for $99 which considering it's age and the fact it is clearance stock is a bit dubious. Never the less it is a very competent C system well worth the money when compared to other products. Everything was there including AWeb 3.0, rows of CDROM's, Termite TCP, the Digita and Cloanto range, Internet software, books, videos, Zip drives, games...pretty much everything!. They appeared to be doing a roaring trade, their stand always packed sometimes 2 and three deep. Amiga Genius: These guys made the trek down from Newcastle, a few hundred kilometres from Sydney. They have a unique product range being the only company selling Graffiti cards and one of the few to be selling the Siamese system. Graffiti cards sold out very quickly and were gone well before lunch. After seeing them run through Shapeshifter I can see why, no more CPU cycles being wasted converting chunky to planar!. I've also heard of a few games supporting it so for $150 it is well worth the money especially for Shapeshifter users. There were a couple of systems set up including a PC and Amiga connected via the Siamese and the previously mentioned A1200 running Shapeshifter with a Graffiti card. The usual range of games and CDROM's were on sale, some verging on ancient. I even saw a copy of Graphicraft on sale! These guys are also the only Australian company selling the AQCVid (software for the QuickCam digital camera) and the GG2 Bus+ a card allowing PC peripherals to be used on the Amiga. Computa Magic P/L: Computa Magic are also the mainstays of the Amiga market distributing many products including Golden Image, ProDAD and DKB. Mice by the truckload (or so it seemed) were on sale pretty cheap, including the Hypermouse and Green Mouse going for $10-$15 less than usual. As I've come to expect there were heaps of cut price games varying in age and price including the as yet unseen in Australia Capital Punishment going for a very reasonable $59.95. Computa Magic are joint winners of the "Oldest Product On Sale" (along with Amiga Genius) for selling AmigaLogo, now over a decade old. External flicker fixers for all Amigas were supposed to be available but apparently there are delays in actually getting the product to function properly. They had an A2000 connected to a VGA monitor running an Eric Schwartz MovieSetter anim through the flicker fixer and it was working well so it can't be too far from being released (from memory there is a problem with receiving composite video). Again their stand was always busy and the box with $5 CDROM's was popular. GSoft: These guys are mainly known in Australia for their A1200 tower systems. On display they had the Micronik Infinitiv tower which overall looked very good but probably a bit pricey coming in at $800. Also on sale was the Elsat FG24RT Framegrabber (known as the ProGrab in the UK) which also looks like a very good unit. The rest of their stand was occupied by the usual range of software. Apparently they were selling Miami but this too sold out very quickly. The only other exceptional thing from GSoft's stand was the guy behind the counter who was wearing a huge clown type hat coated in AWeb posters.They appeared to be doing a solid trade, though not exceptional. GPSoftware: Makes of the popular Directory Opus their stand was manned by Greg Perry and Jonathon Potter (the makers of Opus). They had their usual products on sale, Opus Magellan upgrades were selling pretty well as were Directory Opus 5 T-Shirts going for a reasonable $20 ($15 if you bought software), I managed to get both John and Greg's signature on my shirt. The highlight of this stand was the two men who manned it, both were very approachable and positive about the Amiga's future. It's great to see the dedication they have to Opus and the Amiga by both making the effort to attend the show. Resource Management Force: RMF are the developers of the QuickNet range of Ethernet cards for the Amiga including an A1200 PCMCIA version. They looked solid products and the men manning the stall were approachable. There isn't really much more I can say, I'm not too interested in networking so I didn't take all that much notice. For the most part their stand wasn't busy but this is understandable considering they are a niche hardware company. TechMedia: The Amiga DTV specialists. On show was a supercharged Draco and Macrosystem's latest the "Casablanca", a very good DVE system (more on this later). Also available were demo disks of ArtEffect and other DTV stuff inlcluding the VLab Motion for a very low price.Demonstrations were running on their systems all day and those manning the stand were as I have come accustomed too very friendly and approachable. Unitech Electronics: Again mainstays of the Amiga, Unitech Electronics has long been the premier Amiga service centre, they also dabble in a bit of R&D, distribution (The Competition Pro Joysticks) and software/hardware sales. Their stand was the only one at the show (from memory) actually selling A1200's and A4000T's (though I think Techmedia were selling A4000T's). Alongside that they had their usual range of hardware and bits and pieces including hard drives, cables of varying types and sizes and the KickBoard (A ROM switcher designed by them) amongst other things. Their expertise in Amiga service is second to none and their stand was always busy. As usual they were as parochial as ever about the Amiga. North West Amiga Users Group: There wasn't much of a presence from the user groups this time around but NWAUG were out in force. On their stand were a few second hand items on sale including the AMax cards and they were also handing out copies of their newsletter. The NWAUG representatives were also more than happy to answer any technical questions. Commodore Hornsby User Group: The only other user group on show were CHUG, one of the oldest Amiga user groups still in existence. Again they were happy to answer any technical questions or user queries. One of the staff also had there souped up Amiga on show along with another Amiga running Megaball. Also on sale were a few utilities disks full of essential public domain and shareware utilities and the usual information sheet. Greg Ball Electronics: Nothing fantastic on show here, a few Amiga bits and pieces including a few cables and hard drives. Unitech pretty much stole their thunder. There stand was usually very quiet. Power Computing: The only overseas exhibitor to travel here in person was Power Computing from the UK. On sale were all manner of things including graphics cards (CV3D and Picasso4) to accelerator cards from Phase5. There was a noticeable price reduction in most of their products.Also on sale at the Power Computing stand was the new game from Core Design, The Big Red Adventure which is as yet unavailable in Australia selling for $60. A fair few copies appear to have been sold. Other miscellaneous bit and pieces were also on sale including FPU's and SIMM's. It was great to see a overseas developer show interest in the Australian Amiga scene, the only real disappointment was the attitude of the staff, one in particular who appeared very disinterested and far from helpful. St Johns Park High School: Located in the diverse multicultural south western Sydney (close to my house actually) suburb of St Johns Park, SJP High School were sponsored by Unitech Electronics to appear. Nothing was for sale but the school had brought a few students along to illustrate their skills in DPaint and a few other packages. Also a video was running of a movie students had made with the help of the Amiga which was surprisingly good. A huge collage was also on display showing the school's achievements and how the Amiga integrates into the curriculum. Almost makes me want to switch schools :).The students though disappeared a bit after lunch, cant blame them I guess, who would want to appear on weekends for your school? :). I think this school was also representing The Amiga Education Network, an Australian based group promoting the use of Amigas in education worldwide. Australian Amiga Gazette: The actual organisers of the show played a very low key part in Amiga sales. On sale at their stand was two tutorial videos for the A1200 now aging for a bargain price of $14.95 each, considering they each run for 90 minutes it's value for money personified especially if you are new to the Amiga. A few machines were set up running nothing important. Also on the AAG stand was the Shareware Registration Booth, a place where various shareware programs could be instantly registered including STFax, Wildfire and Shapeshifter amongst others. AAG also generously lent the ICOA some stand space which for the most part we didn't make use of. Basically the main function of the stand was to run the show and promote the magazine. The ICOA: Guy Nathan and myself represented the ICOA at the show.Guy presented a speech and for the rest of the day we were floating around answering a few questions and giving out the few pamphlets we had. Overall it was worthwhile for the ICOA, many people who previously had little or no knowledge of the ICOA now are aware of it's existence and the feedback was amazingly positive.Hopefully next year the ICOA can have a more organised and larger presence. The Seminars: At varying times during the day seminars were held.Firstly there was an Amiga "Sale Of The Century" with winners receiving all manner of things including ArtEffect and DirectoryOpus and losers (to put it blunt :)) recieving various games like Total Carnage. Greg Perry demonstrated Directory Opus, the Amiga ethernet cards were demonstrated and the Casablanca was demonstrated by TechMedia. The most exciting was the Casablanca a fully digital editing system by Macrosystems based on the Amiga. Previews were in real time and some of the effects on show were nothing short of stunning. All of this on a souped up 060 Amiga. The only disappointment is Macrosystems appear to be slowly moving away from Amiga hardware, it was near impossible to tell the Casablanca is underneath an Amiga (though the topaz font used throughout the system shows). The Amiga International Press Release An official press release from Amiga International was dictated to an interested audience by a member of The Amiga Education Network. Petro T regretted he could not make it and basically reaffirmed many of what has already been said. Though it was reassuring for us Australians and Amigans in general as he said they were "actively looking for Australian partners" and pleaded with the Amiga community "not to give up on us yet". Overall the speech was very promising, it is nice to know the people running Amiga International genuinely do love the Amiga. Attendance: I have been informed by Australian Gazette Editor Michael Burak that total attandance over the two days was 923. Considering the current state of the Amiga in Australia this can only be seen as very promising. Overall I think Australian Amiga Gazette (the organisers) would be happy with the attendance Next year I'm expecting bigger and better things. Noted Omissions: Phase5 who claimed they would have a representative didn't show and as such the Australian Amiga community never got to see the PowerUP cards in action. Maybe they appeared on the Sunday. Also Megatron the current distributors of the Amiga in Australia failed to show which again was a major disapointment especially when everyone should be rallying together. The lack of enthusiasm for the show by Megatron was well known within the Australian scene before the show as they appear to concentrate on their industrial customers mainly. Thanks: Thanks must go to Australian Amiga Gazette for taking the time to organise the event and support the ICOA so wholeheartedly especially Michael Gruber (Communications Officer) and Michael Burak (Editor) who went above and beyond what was expected to assist. Disclaimer/Copyright: To the best of my knowledge everything written in this report is correct. It is quite possible I have made some errors in which case I sincerely apologise to all those affected. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P E T R O T . S T A T E M E N T T O A A G AMIGA International, Inc.: Statement by P.Tyschtschenko, June 28th, 1997 Amiga International, Inc. Greeting of Petro Tyschtschenko to dealers and distributors in Australia and New Zealand at the Australian Amiga Gathering 97, June 28, 1997 Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to the Australian Amiga Gathering 97. Unfortunately, I was not able to make a trip to Australia at the present time. That does not mean that Australia is too far away from Europe... because, please keep in mind, that no place in the world is too far away for me to see and to talk with our AMIGA enthusiastics and evangelists, with our distributors and with our dealers, which kept AMIGA alive. You have my word, the next convention that will take place in Australia, you will see me. But please give me some notice... I have to plan and organize this trip and I would like to combine it with a visit to India and Malaysia. I am very happy to have here such a great and active person like Basil Flinter who is representing AMIGA International, Inc. during this gathering here in Australia. I am sure you will support him and he also can answer you a lot of questions. Many thanks to Basil for his activities. Many thanks to you, my friends, for your support and understanding. Many thanks for your standing and your patience. I am really happy to hear that our AMIGA community is so exciting and looking with big interest into the future. I understand that some of you take a back seat for a while... But please do not rest too long... as you may know, there are a lot of things to mobilize to have a bright future and great success. With Gateway 2000, please be sure, we will have a great future. But we have to be active as well. As I already mentioned in my London speech, the base of my strategy are three elements: 1. Supporting the existing AMIGA community 2. Leveraging the existing AMIGA technology through broad licensing 3. Assisting in developing new products based on open standards to the home computer and video/graphics market We need potential partners here in Australia and we are looking for such partners. As you are already aware, Gateway 2000 is a great home for our AMIGA, and with Gateway's spirit and financial resource we will have a bright future, indeed. AMIGA International is exploring all possible products for the marketplace, including both hardware and software. We will open up the marketplace to cloning through licensing. In Europe I have just finalized a licence contract with Micronik. This company is buying A1200 motherboards from AMIGA International and are putting those in towercases, with seperate keyboards and a lot of possibilities to upgrade our A1200 with a 68060 processor, MPEG I, Zorro 2/3 and other add ons. I think it is a great challenge because, as you may guess, it is impossible to have in a short time frame new products available. At this time we are identifying candidates to manage the R&D department and will explore the most efficient method of performing R&D. We already talked with competent people and we will announce names and performance to the public as soon as possible. We are interested in working with companies such as Phase 5 to develop one unified AMIGA standard. Please be aware that AMIGA International, Inc. will be treated as a seperate subsidiary of Gateway 2000. It is not the policy of Gateway 2000 to mix AMIGA activities with Gateway 2000 activities. That does of course not mean that Gateway 2000 is not supporting AMIGA International. There are a lot of synergy effects and AMIGA International has all support that is needed to go in the right direction. I collected only good experiences so far. I believe there is still a strong following AMIGA system based on publication and user groups that have kept the market alive through bankruptcy. There should be a strong future for the AMIGA through licensing and new product development. AMGIA's intention is to support the development community through concepts such as the "Open AMIGA Initiative" and will explore other concepts to bring developers on the platform. We will explore the development of an OS upgrade and will adress the features and functions that are necessary. Gateway 2000 will provide ressources to reinvigorate the AMIGA marketplace and keep AMIGA a profitable subsidiary, you can be absolutely sure. THE BASIC OF SUCCESS IS TO WORK TOGETHER WITH PARTNERS. The AMIGA market can not afford a split! WE MUST GO TOGETHER IN ONE DIRECTION. To reactivate the Australian market, I have worked out a very aggressive price structure and you can take the possibility to talk with Basil about this. Please support AMIGA International, Inc. as you have done this in the past. Do not give up this wonderful computer technology. AMIGA is back for the future and you will be a part of the future... Thank you very much for your attention. Petro Tyschtschenko AMIGA International, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W A M I G A L I C E N S E D " C L O N E " Latest News AMIGA International, Inc. Robert-Bosch-Str. 11b D-63225 Langen Press release June 1997 Now under licence of AMIGA: The new MicroniK infinitiv Towersystem The waiting has come to an end: With the new infinitiv towersystem, the international AMIGA- comunity can now find a professional high- powered-multimedia-solution on AMIGA-basis for private use. It is produced by the German company MicroniK. For this development MicroniKhas just received an official AMIGA- Licence. With it, MicroniKis the first licensed AMIGA International, Inc. manufactor of AMIGA-Computers in Europe with world-wide sales. The infinitiv towersystem does not only impress by its case-design.It offers space for all Amiga-typical extensions. In doing so the well devised case-design allows a quick and easy exchange of the main board. The modular design of the infinitiv towersystem offers numerous extension possibilities: Internally via hard disc extension case, to the top through the specially designd top-case. Both make the infinitiv towersystems a high- performance multimedia-system in the world of Amiga. "Snap-and-Click": Simple fitting The mounting of additional drive bays is very simple and happens through an easy "Snap-and-Click"-mechanism. With the help of the top-cases the tower can be extended with CD-ROM- and hard disk-drives. This enables a multiple increase in the infinitiv tower power spectrum. The new infinitiv towersystem represents a further milestone in the successful AMIGA history. It convinces not only its Mac-OS- and PC/DOS- compatibility, but above all through its modular construction. This high-end-version profits from the whole performance of the Amiga- operating system and makes the working with an infinitiv tower a real multimedia experience. Due to the existing A3/4000-compatible CPU-Slot the use of any processor can be realized in the future. The infinitiv towersystem - an overall view: Plug and play The inner life of the infinitiv towersystem also impresses by its variable and modular construction. The towersystem can be supplied with two high- performance Bus-Boards. In addition to the AMIGA 1200 motherboard, the Bus-Board Zorro II/III "Z-3i" offers in the high-performance version infinitiv A1500: 5* Zorro II/III Slots 1* PC-ISA Slot 2* PC-PCI Slots 1* Video Slot (optional) 1* SCSI-2 Controller 1* CPU Slot A3000/4000 32 Bit passed through CPU connection As a cost effective alernative for the high effecient A1500-system there are two other variations. The infinitiv A1400 with Bus-Board "Z-2i" offers: 5* Zorro II Slot 2* PC-ISA Slots 2* PC-PCI Slots 1* Video Slot (optional) passed through CPU connection The basic model is the infinitiv A1300; an infinitiv tower without Bus-Board. The tendered Bus-Boards allow subsequent improvements as required. For futher information please call: Phone: +49 (0)2171-72 45 0 Fax : +49 (0)2171-72 45 90 Internet: www.micronik.de ---------------------------------------------------------------------- F U S I O N - I F Y O U N E E D M A C July 1st, 1997 - Official Press Release - Microcode Solutions Microcode Solutions is pleased to announce that 'FUSION', the premiere Macintosh emulation for the Amiga computer, is now available. FUSION offers performance and compatibility unsurpassed by any existing Macintosh emulator, for any platform. FUSION has so many features that it would take too much bandwidth to list them all, so below is a very brief decription of a few of FUSION's outstanding features. For more detailed information, visit our web site at http://www.ctaz.com/~msdei Brief feature summary: FUSION works with any Amiga with a 68020 or higher processor including: CD-32 w/SX1 or SX/2, A1200, A1400, A2000, A3000/T, & A4000/T. Optimized code is used if a 68060 is present. If your Amiga has an MMU, FUSION will support Apple's virtual memory, giving you all the memory you will need for those huge applications! Apple's QuickDraw routines were replaced with special high speed routines that take advantage of Amiga video board hardware. The end result is video performance exceeding ALL 68K MACs, and nearly all PowerMAC machines! Standard Amiga video displays are as much as twice as fast as EMPLANT's MACPRO emulation! FUSION is more than just a Macintosh emulation, it is a gateway to information and resources that can be available to the Amiga. FUSION's unique InnerCommunications Port (ICP) lets Amiga applications use Macintosh resources. Imagine your favorite image processing program for your Amiga using Adobe Photoshop plug-ins! How about playing QuickTime movies, using Apple's QuickTime from the Amiga side! Although this support is not automatic, it is easily accomplished and complete programming information will be provided to anyone who would like it. Does the Macintosh have a nice feature you wish your Amiga had? Well... it can! The ICP has the built-in ability to mount ANY Macintosh volume as an AmigaDOS compatible volume. This means that you can use your favorite directory/file manipulation program (such as Directory Opus) to copy, rename, delete, add comments, etc. to your Macintosh volumes, just as you would with your Amiga volumes! Volumes can be mounted and dismounted on the fly, and can be ANY Macintosh volume including hard drives, hardfiles, floppies, AppleTalk volumes, Ethernet volumes, DiskCopy images, etc. FUSION goes PowerPC! Shortly after the release of Phase-5's PowerPC accelerators, Microcode Solutions will release a PowerMac emulation upgrade! Macintosh, QuickDraw, QuickTime, & AppleTalk are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Adobe Photoshop is a trademark of Adobe, Inc. FUSION is a trademark of Microcode Solutions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W F R O M C R O N U S July 1, 1997   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRONUS and Fred Fish are pleased to announce the release of Geek Gadgets Vol. 2.  This CD-ROM contains the Amiga Developers' Environment (ADE), a project organized by Cronus to produce and support Amiga ports of dozens of the most popular development tools and utilities from the Free Software Foundation, BSD and other sources.  The CD contains all the tools you need to get started programming on the Amiga, including advanced C, C++, Fortran and ADA compilers, assembler, linker, EMACs editor, "make", source code control systems, text and file utilities, GNU debugger, text formatters and more.  Of special interest, Geek Gadgets also includes a developer version of p.OS from ProDAD Software. SRP $24.95   CRONUS and Fred Fish are pleased to announce that they are the exclusive US Importer for the exciting CD-ROM "Amy Resources-US Edition, Vol.1".  This is the most comprehensive collection of software for the Amiga range of personal computers.  Top quality shareware, selected collections of graphics demos, mods and a complete suite of registered packages are installed and ready to run. It features full registered versions of Amiga E3.21, ProgED2.4, ImageStudio2.3, plus many more! SRP $24.95 Products available through: Cronus 2176 McCulloch Blvd., Ste 8A Lake Havasu City, AZ  86403 Voice (520) 680-6300     FAX   (520) 680-6477 http://www.ninemoons.com    info@ninemoons.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W A M I G A S I T E Sun, 22 Jun 1997 N O A M I G A T O W A S T E ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ A new Amiga site has been created to provide a place where developers and users can come together as one to share ideas and comments. DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE'S PURPOSE Problems * A lot of commercial software houses have left the Amiga-scene and less 'state of the art' programs are released. * Inspired and skilled programmers have become rare 'cause a lot moved over to other systems. * Public Domain authors tend to have a strange habit of 're'-programming the same software tools over and over again. Conclusion Make sure that every programming effort provides a final product that is useful, original, easy to use and up to date. Solution An online database that collects ideas, comments and wishes of the users. The contents can be freely consulted as long as every programmer reports what idea he's working on and how the development progresses. WHERE IS THE SITE Url http://thunderstorms.org/NATW/ Email natw@thunderstorms.org EXPANSION POSSIBILITIES Anyone who wants to create a Amiga development specific site, can contact me. I've got a fully function virtual server at their disposal (thunderstorms.org). For further information, please contact me at (gbevin@thunderstorms.org). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A L P H A S I A M E S E S Y S T E M HiQ's Siamese System goes Alpha HiQ is pleased to announce that the Siamese System now supports Alpha based WindowsNT workstations. In conjunction with Digital's FX!32 translation system, version 2 of the software now shipping runs transparently and at high speed. The Siamese System integrates a Windows95/NT PC with any Amiga with an 020 and AmigaOS 3.x. In use the two systems appear as one, greater than the sum of its parts. The supplied software and hardware allows you to use one monitor, mouse, keyboard and printer for both machines, as well as mounting all the drives of the Windows machine on the Amiga. The amazing Siamese RTG allows you to retarget compatible Amiga screens at high speed to your Windows desktop, in resolutions up to 2048x2048, and has to be seen to be believed running on a Wintel machine, let alone an Alpha. With high end Alpha 21164A CPUs reaching 600mhz, and the 21164PC CPUs coming in at Pentium prices, Alphas are the perfect machines to Siamese with your Amiga. The awesome rendering speed of the Alpha in conjunction with the still unbeaten video capabilities of the Amiga/Toaster/Flyer will unleash your creativity and greatly increase your productivity. For more information on the Siamese System: http://www.siamese.co.uk/ For information on the Alpha: http://www.alpha.digital.com/ http://www.digital.com/semiconductor/amt/fx32/ All trademarks acknowledged. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- H O M E A C C O U N T S P R O G R A M 30 Jun 1997 TITLE UltraAccounts 4.0 AUTHOR Richard Smedley PO Box 59 Sutton-In-Ashfield Nottinghamshire NG17 3HP England rsmedley@cix.compulink.co.uk DESCRIPTION UltraAccounts is a home accounts program which has been designed to make things as simple and easy to use as possible - so that even people who don't know anything at all about keeping accounts (or using computers) should be able to use UltraAccounts without any problems at all. Features include: - Multitasking windows. Open and use several different windows at exactly the same time. - Supplied in English, Frangais & Nederlands. - Multiple accounts & transaction tags. - Full payslip support, including multiple wage configurations. - Debit & credit standing orders, and timed transfers. The transactions entered by these timed events can be edited or erased *without* duplicate entries being created. - Budgeting facilities. - Common transactions & transfers. Predefine the details of any often-used transactions or transfers, saving you from having to keep retyping those details each time you enter that particular transaction/transfer. - Reminders. Make sure you don't miss important events, such as birthdays/anniversaries or bills that need paying. - Pie, bar and line graphs, with optional future projections. - Encrypted files, optionally password protected. - Fully configurable export formats. NEW FEATURES - Multitasking windows. Open & use several different windows at the same time. - Font sensitive, fully resizable user interface. - Supplied with English, French & Dutch versions. - Proper payslip support. You're no longer forced to use a separate prog for entering payslips into the program! SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - Requires: AmigaOS 2.0, 2 meg ram. - Recommended: AmigaOS 3.0, hard drive, additional memory, and an accelerator. AVAILABILITY Available via FTP from Aminet sites. ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/biz/misc/ultra4.lha (228586 bytes) PRICE Standard registration fee is 10 Pounds Sterling (or equivalent), with poverty registrations accepted at reduced amounts. DISTRIBUTABILITY Shareware, unregistered copies are freely distributable. UltraAccounts is Copyright (C) Richard Smedley 1997 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C L U B M A D R I D ( N E A T N A M E ! ) 16 Jun 1997 Subject: A new Amiga association is born, an association to ease commnication A new Amiga association is born, an association to ease commnication among us, but it has also more objectives. Our WEB page: http://soporte.databasedm.es/amiga/ It's completely non-lucrative. Here you have the conditions. Amiga Club Madrid Our association is just that, an association. It does not pretend to be a club restricted to an especific group of people. We are open to all kind of constructive contributions so, if you think you can bring something of your own to the spanish amigan scene, here's your chance! This association has been formed to: 1.- Inform the Amiga user, through our WEB pages, and a periodical publication. 2.- Allow participation in the creation of a fanzine. We are now deciding its structure, that is, its sections, and so on. Bring your ideas! 3.- Serve as a bridge between all user clubs and associations. We do not pretend them to join us, but make all of us unite, to gather information: News, product buyings/sales, source code in ongoing developments and, generally, any other event related to the Amiga in Spain. 4.- Organize, all over Spain, Amiga parties and all sorts of reunions that put a bunch of amigans around what they like and know best. 5.- Do our best in supporting companies who create Amiga products. Besides this, we are giving the following internet services: - Users: We'll publish names and home page URLs of users and groups of Amiga users. - Amiga Club: The aforementioned note. - Magazines: Online mags. - Forum: Discussion forum. - AmiNet: What else can be said... - Links: Commented Amiga links. Take care yours is not missing. - Search engines: Internet Amiga searching tools - History: The story of the BEST COMPUTER IN THE WORLD. - Marketplace: To buy, sell, swap and find. - News: Amiga news, and links to the best spanish news pages. If you want to join the association, you already know, get signed. If you have Amiga friends who are not able to join trough internet, don't worry, as the fanzine will be also printed; may they send a letter to: Asociacion Club AMIGA Madrid Att David Mochales Gordo C/Juan Bravo 63 1șE 28006 Madrid (SPAIN) Or call 34-1-402-14-21, and ask for David Current avalaible e-mail adresses: dmochales@databasedm.es amiga@databasedm.es jcmarcos@lander.es workbench@cyberjunkie.com Send questions and suggestions to: dmochales@databasedm.es -- David Mochales - Soporte de desarrollo Borland C.U.A.E. Nș019 - A.M.C. Nș0 - mailto:dmochales@databasedm.es ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A R E T A I L E S C O R T For Immediate Release Contact: Joe Rothman Mr. Hardware Computers 59 Storey Ave. Central Islip, NY 11722-2332 USA 516-234-8110 Voice or Fax Email: hardware@li.net Central Islip, NY - Tuesday, June 17th 1997 Mr. Hardware Computers announced today that they have released the long awaited demo version of their Premier Amiga Point of Sale System. We are pleased to release a demo of our most exciting version of Retail Escort ever. We have worked long and hard to bring the Amiga Professional Business Management Software. Our Vision of what Business Management Software should do is simple. The management tools you use should be as intuitive and easy to use as possible. Software should make your life as the owner/manager easy. You make the decisions, but the software should do the work. Knowing where your business stands should be just a report or two away. With these thoughts in mind we present you with v4.1 of Retail Escort. The Retail Escort v4.1 demo is available for download on Aminet under the name RE41DEMO.lha. Search for Retail to locate it. Retail Escort helps you run your business with: Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Tons of Business Reports, Checking Accounts, Credit Cards, Customer Notes, Easy Invoicing, Inventory Control, Order Tracking, Price Quotes, Purchase Orders, Mailing Lists, Label Printing, plus a whole lot more. Mr. Hardware Computers is 100% Amiga and 100% committed to the further development of SBase4, SBase4Pro, The Escort Series, and other fine Amiga software. We invite you to help prove the Amiga is better at running business software, and therefore better for running a business, than any other computer. Mr. Hardware Computers - 516-234-8110 - Email to hardware@li.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at: http://www.sharbor.com/amiga/news/ (in html format) http://www.amigacom.com (in ASCII text) Australian Mirror Site: http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/index.html All back issues available (in ASCII text) at: http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1997 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. ====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Brad Webb/AmigaUpdate /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || ======================================================================