25.Feb.2003
Martin Heine (ANF)
|
Genesi is looking for games
Genesi needs immediately new and old games with small memory need that can be used in
a Set-Top-Box or a handheld device. It will be used the W@LK KEY. The W@LK Key can
be loaded with several games, traded between gamers, and used as a give-away for
publicity.
If you are interested and have access to old source codes or want to develop such
games or port them to MorphOS you should get in contact with bbrv@genesi.lu.
(ps) (Translation: gf)
[News message: 25. Feb. 2003, 21:35] [Comments: 0]
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|
25.Feb.2003
GameIcons.info
|
GameIcons: New Archive with more than 90 Games Icons
A new archive with more than 90 icons for games was released on January, 25th on
GameIcons.info.
Chris Vella has created this package.
Download: GameIcons-2001.lha
(nba) (Translation: gf)
[News message: 25. Feb. 2003, 16:48] [Comments: 0]
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|
24.Feb.2003
Ricco Clemens (E-Mail)
|
"Capture the Flag" for Descent: Freespace
The MultiplayerPack03 for Descent: Freespace was published today.
It contains five multiplayer missions. Four of them are "Capture the flag" maps
offering further interesting possibilities for the multiplayer game.
(ps) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 24. Feb. 2003, 21:55] [Comments: 0]
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|
24.Feb.2003
Ein Liker (ANF)
|
Turrican 2002 download for PC
The freeware game "Turrican 2002" is now available for PC and can now be
downloaded. You can find further information at the title link.
If there was a cult game for the Amiga, then it was "Turrican". A
game, which set at that time new yardsticks and influenced lastingly a whole
category. The third and last part of the "Turrican" series for Amiga was released in 1993.
(ps) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 24. Feb. 2003, 19:13] [Comments: 0]
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|
24.Feb.2003
Amiga Interactive Guide
|
Amiga Interactive Guide update
The 'Amiga Interactive Guide' was updated within several parts
and/or extended by new systems. You find a detailed list of the
changes in the column "What's new?".
(ps) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 24. Feb. 2003, 18:56] [Comments: 0]
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|
24.Feb.2003
Stefan Blixth (E-Mail)
|
New and revised Freeware by OnyxSoft
The Swedish developer team OnyxSoft published two new freeware tools
ActivateWindow V1.0 and GummiSurf V1.0.
ActivateWindow is a Commodity similar Tool, which makes it possible to
activate and move a window in the front or background by usig a hotkey.
GummiSurf is an addon for the download manager Charon. It
permits the production of download lists in a simple and comfortable
way.
Further the tools Cathedral (Audio tool for hall effects, V1.32)
and DRemind (Remebering tool, V1.64) were updated.
(nba) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 24. Feb. 2003, 16:30] [Comments: 0]
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|
24.Feb.2003
Bruno Ethvignot in fr.comp.sys.amiga
|
Game: Technoballz AGA now also available as adf file for emulators
Bruno Ethvignot made an ADF file of the Amiga game Technoballz AGA available for download. Thus the game can be played on UAE and other Amiga
emulators.
Download: TecnoballZ_AA.adf
(ps) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 24. Feb. 2003, 14:59] [Comments: 0]
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24.Feb.2003
A.D.A.
|
New in A.D.A. archives: 'Wild/Anadune and near Kolor' and 'Phenomeno
'Amiga Demoscene Archives' now contains the following new demos:
Wild/Anadune and Nah Kolor. Yes! Probably Lazur's best slideshow and
amongst the best slideshows ever! Wonderful presentation, nice music
and stunning pictures. Released in 1996. Highly recommended!
Phenomenon/DCS. This could have been a killer demo but it is somewhat
spoiled by the slow and long 3D scene in the first part. Still, a
beautiful demo from one of the most talented teams in the Amiga
demoscene. As usual, stunning graphics by Adam (and optic), very
cool music (Illusion and Substance) and great effects and code by
Shape. Released at The Party 1998. Again, highly recommended! (ps) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 24. Feb. 2003, 13:50] [Comments: 0]
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24.Feb.2003
Bill Panagouleas (ANF)
|
DiscreetFX Releases Spontaneous Combustion Sample Pack
DiscreetFX Releases Spontaneous Combustion Sample Pack For Amiga,
Amiga Video Toaster/Flyer & Video Toaster [2]
A Low Cost Sample Version of a New Real-Time Fire, Smoke & Explosion
Effects Library
Chicago, Illinois -- February 22, 2003 -- DiscreetFX LLC Inc.,
Real-time Broadcast Quality Visual Effects developer for the Amiga
Video Toaster Flyer and Video Toaster [2] releases a low cost version
of Spontaneous Combustion to give customers a chance to try this all
new Fire, Smoke and Explosion add-on for the Amiga Video Toaster
Flyer and Video Toaster [2]. Here at DiscreetFX we realize that in
these tough economic times every dollar of our clients money is valuable
and they want to spend it wisely only on software products they absolutely
need to enhance their video and production business. We feel strongly that
Spontaneous Combustion will make your productions more explosive and make
them sizzle so we are offering a sample pack to allow clients to see if
this new product is right for their business. At a cost of only
$9.95 including shipping and handling this is a tremendous value and
allows everyone to get a taste of what Spontaneous Combustion can
offer. For your money you get the following features.
Amiga/Video Toaster Flyer version:
- 1. Four Real-time Broadcast Quality Fire Effects from Spontaneous
Combustion.
- 2. Four animated Video Toaster Flyer clip files that can be used for
advanced Compositing.
- 3. Complete 24 bit IFF image sequences of Real-time effects included
in the sample pack.
- 4. Four Audio sequences in Flyer Audio & Amiga Audio that correspond
to the included effects.
- 5. $10 off the price of the full release version of Spontaneous
Combustion.
Even if you don't have a Video Toaster you can still use this version with an
AGA or Graphics card based Amiga.
Video Toaster [2] version
- 1. Four Video Toaster [2] Real-time Broadcast Quality Fire Effects
from Spontaneous Combustion.
- 2. Four Uncompressed Video Toaster [2] RTV files that can be used for
advanced Compositing.
- 3. Complete still image sequences of the four Real-time effects
included in the sample pack.
- 4. Four Audio sequences that correspond to the included effects.
- 5. $10 off the price of the full release version of Spontaneous
Combustion.
Further information and pricing you will find under the title link. (ps)
[News message: 24. Feb. 2003, 11:32] [Comments: 0]
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|
24.Feb.2003
Leser (ANF)
|
wxWindows - portable Open-Source GUI-Toolkit
At the title link you can find information about the portable open
source GUI Toolkit wxWindows. The source code of this graphic user
interface (GUI) is available in the programming language C++, which
permits object-oriented programming. Perhaps someone would like to
port it.
(ps) (Translation: sk)
[News message: 24. Feb. 2003, 11:20] [Comments: 0]
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|
23.Feb.2003
|
Aminet uploads until 23.02.2003
Since our last message there were the following new uploads to the Aminet:
MiamidxCT.lha comm/net 8K+Catalonian catalog for Miami Deluxe
MiamidxSP.lha comm/net 9K+Spanish catalog for Miami Deluxe
MiamiSPA.lha comm/net 6K+Spanish catalog for Miami 3.2
anubis-3.6.1.lha comm/tcp 1.4M+Outgoing mail processor
curl-7.10.2.lha comm/tcp 872K+Transfer files with URL syntax
JabberwockyBIN.lha comm/tcp 124K+Jabber client
SFL-BOD_final.lha demo/intro 53K+BrainOverDrive - 51k intro - final versi
SFL-Mecanica.lha demo/intro 55K+Mecanica - 64k intro
pvt-cafe2002.lha demo/slide 2.8M+Demoparty Computer Art Festival 2002 Sli
efortune-files.lha dev/e 53K+Fortune files for E-Fortune
efortune.lha dev/e 7K+E-Fortune, displays random quotes
random.lha dev/e 2K+Random Number Generator, Amiga E Module
zlib-bin.lha dev/gg 35K+AmigaOS GeekGadgets port of zlib-1.1.4
Flexy.lha dev/misc 122K+FLEXY 1.4 A very user-friendly GUI for
SFSCheck.lha disk/misc 57K+Utility to check a SmartFileSystem devic
Sepulchre_Wood.lha docs/hyper 327K+Fighting Fantasy-style game (Amigaguide)
AIOV68.lha docs/mags 349K+Amiga Information Online, Issue 68 (Febr
DC2Lvl-Bobby.lha game/data 389K+81 levels for Diamond Caves II
whirlwind.lha game/demo 267K+Whirlwind demo,racing game inspired in W
zdragonball.lha game/demo 251K+Beat'em up with Dragonball characters
Anim2gif.lha gfx/conv 150K+Converts and scales an amiga animation t
autotrace-0.30.lha gfx/conv 891K+Converts bitmap to vector graphics.
swftools-0.4.2.lha gfx/misc 2.8M+Collection of tools for the manipulation
ambot.lha hard/drivr 24K+Cybot (Real Robots) programmer BETA PREV
BetaScan_GER.lha hard/drivr 2K+German catalog for BetaScan_v3 (free!)
imdbDiff030214.lha misc/imdb 2.5M+Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase
hum_m014.lha mods/moods 142K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m025.lha mods/moods 143K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m033.lha mods/moods 478K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m046.lha mods/moods 173K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m051.lha mods/moods 181K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m126.lha mods/moods 247K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m202.lha mods/moods 1.1M+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m203.lha mods/moods 2.5M+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m204.lha mods/moods 330K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m205.lha mods/moods 149K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m206.lha mods/moods 260K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m207.lha mods/moods 2.0M+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m208.lha mods/moods 357K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m209.lha mods/moods 5.9M+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m210.lha mods/moods 1.7M+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m211.lha mods/moods 287K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m212.lha mods/moods 358K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m213.lha mods/moods 361K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m214.lha mods/moods 108K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m215.lha mods/moods 337K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m216.lha mods/moods 495K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m217.lha mods/moods 760K+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m218.lha mods/moods 2.9M+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
hum_m219.lha mods/moods 2.5M+Moods - Music For Your Instincts
flac-1.0.4BETA.lha mus/misc 2.1M+FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec
ringtonetools.lha mus/misc 61K+Mobile tones converter
Speex-1.0beta1.lha mus/misc 467K+Free voice codec
TheMPegEncGUI.lha mus/misc 305K+GUI 4 Lame,OggEnc,BladeEnc,Pegase,Ncode,
SMtorneo.lha pix/anim 904K+A fighting tournament and a flight of a
GameIcons6.lha pix/gicon 918K+Glow/Color Icons for Amiga games.
trodas_icons2.lha pix/gicon 444K+Glow icons made by trodas
hypermail2.1.5.lha text/misc 268K+Takes mail msgs and generates HTML docum
Epson_ColorSrc.lha text/print 23K+24 bit Epson Stylus Driver Source for WB
AnArchiver.lha util/arc 391K+New archiver GUI for LhA, LZX & Zip.
UnRAR-3.10.lha util/arc 269K+Official UnRAR 3.10 Amiga release
MemTrailer.lha util/boot 4K+Allocates 16/32 bytes for mem-protection
ciphersaber.lha util/cli 19K+CipherSaber, RC-4 encryption program
hd.lha util/cli 7K+HD, hexdumper
LottoNY.lha util/misc 24K+ReAction NY Lottery Number Generator
AmiGOD2.lha util/moni 75K+AmigaOS benchmark BETA 16.02.2003
ereboot.lha util/wb 11K+E Reboot, adds Reboot-item to Tools menu
Scalos-OPM.lha util/wb 123K+Scalos 'Open Drawer' under MUI
(ps)
[News message: 23. Feb. 2003, 18:44] [Comments: 0]
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|
23.Feb.2003
Olaf Köbnik (E-Mail)
|
Amiga Arena: Beambender release
In 1997 the first and at the same time last Amiga game by developer team
"Blue Lemon Studio" had been released by their erstwhile publisher "Verkosoft". With permission from the developers, who now call themselves
bluelemon, Amiga Arena
exclusively facilitates the free release of Beambender.
Beambender mixes action, thinking and skill elements. The goal of the game is to
hit all exits (target points of a laser beam) in their respective colour with
the help of various components (mirrors and colour changers). Extensive
instructions in German are included.
Beambender offers a.o.:
- more then 40 animations
- 80 nerve wrecking levels
- all in all 40 mins of music
- more than 20 special FX
- Single and Team mode
Beambender is immediately playable from hard disk or diskette. Amiga
Arena operator Olaf Köbnik extends special thanks to Bernhard Aichinger for the
support and permission. Special thanks also go to Alexander Mutscher who has
provided the game.
(nba) (Translation: cb)
[News message: 23. Feb. 2003, 16:52] [Comments: 0]
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|
23.Feb.2003
Olaf Köbnik (E-Mail)
|
Info pages re. Amiga Arena Games Edition 2002 CD-ROM
If you want to know more about the Amiga Arena Games Edition 2002 CD-ROM, you
can now find some information on the new Web site.
Furthermore, some of the shareware games which had first been released for
free download by Amiga Arena are now online again. These contain shareware
classics such as Uropa2, Scorched Tanks, Breed96, Risiko or Action Cat.
(nba) (Translation: cb)
[News message: 23. Feb. 2003, 16:52] [Comments: 0]
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|
23.Feb.2003
Aminet
|
Magazine: Amiga Information Online (AIO) #68
Issue #68 of the Amiga online magazine 'Amiga Information Online (AIO)' has
been published.
This issue contains (a.o.) the following articles:
- Review IBrowse 2.3
- Review GetAllHTML
- Review DirSSCompare
- Review AmiGod
- Hollywood 1.5 status report
- Project Petunia Pages
- Dr. Strange, Web Wanderer
- A Closeup Of The Amiga Serial Port
- Hints & Tips
The complete table of contents can be gathered from the Readme accompanying
the archive. AIO uses a custom viewer and can be used from AmigaOS 3.0 onward.
Download: AIOV68.lha (369 KB) - Readme (nba) (Translation: cb)
[News message: 23. Feb. 2003, 15:30] [Comments: 0]
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23.Feb.2003
WHDLoad
|
Installer: WHDLoad - New packets (until 23.02.2003)
With WHDLoad it is possible to install games to the hard disk which were
intended for floppy use originally. The following packages were added or
updated:
- 23.02.03 new: Sumea (Virtual Dreams) done by Psygore
- 23.02.03 new: Dragon's Lair (Readysoft) done by CFOU!
- 23.02.03 fixed: Blade Warrior (Jason Kingsley/Imageworks) access fault fixed
- 23.02.03 improved: Night Shift (Lucasfilm Games) install script changed
- 23.02.03 new: Psyborg (Loriciel) done by Psygore
- 23.02.03 new: Harley Davidson (Mindscape) done by CFOU!
- 22.02.03 new: Battle For The Ashes (Audiogenic) done by Codetapper
- 21.02.03 updated: WARP (Thalion) disk drive accesses removed
(ps)
[News message: 23. Feb. 2003, 14:25] [Comments: 0]
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23.Feb.2003
Daniel Hartlehnert (ANF)
|
3D graphic artists for Projekt Crashsite wanted
An Amiga graphics artist is wanted who is willing and has the time to create
rendered graphics for the role playing game "Projekt Crashsite" currently in
development.
The vacancy of the 3D graphics artist has to be filled. Also, the already existing data have to be adopted as far as possible.
If you are interested or have questions regarding technical details, please
send an email to dahart@gmx.de.
(nba) (Translation: cb)
[News message: 23. Feb. 2003, 12:35] [Comments: 0]
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|
23.Feb.2003
W3C
|
W3C presents plans for SVG Print
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has drawn up and published a first working
paper about Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), according to which in the WWW's
future the format is to lay emphasis on meeting the needs for printing. The
working paper describes possible applications, features, basic design
principles and demands for the print specific version of "SVG Print".
(nba) (Translation: cb)
[News message: 23. Feb. 2003, 12:32] [Comments: 0]
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22.Feb.2003
Chris Beckefeld (email)
|
Haage & Partner in print magazine c't
In the current issue of c't (German print magazine) 5/2003, coming next Monday,
is Haage & Partner mentioned in the applications notes (page 41).
It's about the localisation of the products of the graphics software developer XARA, in the beginning the font renderer Xara3D v5 for the German speaking people. But this shows obviously their turning to non Amiga products - facts follow their words... (ps) (Translation: wk)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2003, 21:59] [Comments: 1 - 24. Feb. 2003, 13:30]
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|
22.Feb.2003
GFX-BASE
|
Lorraine Design: new GlowIcon set 'Nelta'
Bojan Milovic of Lorrain Design has today released a new icons set in the GlowIcon style. It contains about 300 MacOS and Windows icons that he'd converted to AmigaOS and enhanced with the glow effect.
Download: Nelta-glow.lha (602 KB)
(ps) (Translation: wk)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2003, 21:32] [Comments: 0]
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|
22.Feb.2003
Martin Heine (ANF)
|
Genesi statement about the Pegasos II changes
This is a letter we sent out today to the "inside" group...(sorry no images!)...
22 February 2003
Dear Friends of Genesi,
We wanted to provide some basic communication this weekend to all of you, because
frankly our focus this past week has been the Management meetings here in Paris.
We hope that this letter will assist you in understanding more clearly the
direction of the Company. Please feel free to respond directly to us at
bbrv@genesi.lu with your questions. If you understand and share our vision,
you can adjust your effort to become more relevant to our corporate framework
if you desire.
As we have said before, Genesi stands on the verge of enormous opportunity.
We can provide a completely integrated solution, including hardware, operating
system, and a number of (bundled and unbundled) applications. We can innovate
in ways that involve the complete integrated package, rather than being limited
to new developments within each level by third parties (HP and Microsoft are not
as self-reliant in this way). Genesi and our associates need to leverage this
advantage fully. We are smaller, faster and will be necessarily more adventurous
in our efforts. Do not hesitate to share your most creativity ideas with these
mailing lists. Together, we believe we can create a substantial and long
awaited change to the IT marketplace.
In the first BIG opportunity to our Company, we are required to develop using a
PPC and MorphOS, a terrestrial Digital Television receiver with interactive/computing
and smart card read and write functions (to be referred to as the DTV STB). This
product will not require the use of the Articia and we will be producing significant
quantities in the development phase and a special version of MorphOS (without hurting
the complete version). If we deliver the DTV STB in a satisfactory manner we will
be eligible to receive orders for over one million units. It is a once-in-a-lifetime
professional opportunity for all of us. We need to make the most of it.
Of course, none of this would be possible without the years of dedication required
to bring the Pegasos and MorphOS to where it is today. We are all proud to be
associated with the bplan guys. The difficulties over the last year have nothing
to do with them. It is the Articia from Mai Logic that has caused us months of
delays. It does not perform to the advertised specifications. Thankfully, Gerald
and Thomas tested and mounted the Aritica on the April2. That is right -- the April2.
The first patch that Gerald and Thomas developed works as we know, but there were
still bugs. The new Articia (and Teron) is still very likely to have trouble as
more problems were detected after the Aachen Show and well after the joint work
Gerald did with for the new Articia in October and November with Mai. The April2
brings the Articia fully to the performance levels it claims to achieve. We have
purchased the remaining worldwide supply of the old Articias and will make 400 more
Pegasos main boards with the G3 CPU. Our G3 Pegasos performs better than the G4
Teron with the Articia. This will be common knowledge soon (let the others understand
this on their own our word will stand as testimony to our knowledge and skill). Once
produced, we will stop (we may license production of this version of the Pegasos to
Plexuscom or others). These machines will easily satisfy the Amiga market and give
us the machines we need to seed our developer base while Gerald and Thomas switch out
the old Articia to a much more attractive alternative (details later). This could be
ready by the summer. The RAM speed of the Pegasos will be as high as any offered in the
market and this WILL attract considerable interest. The DTV STB revenue can carry us
until this point (remember this IS a business we hope you Developers begin to remember
this!).
To repeat a few words from an earlier communication?
If our strategic vision is compelling and our execution excellent, we will increasingly
attract skilled developers. What Ralph, Frank and the core MorphOS Development Team have
accomplished to date is exceptional, but now we need to establish a professional
development and management system for MorphOS, formally retain the services of all
key MorphOS developers, and recruit new talent to the project. We have struck on the
Phoenix association to develop a vehicle to do this. All registered Phoenix members
must use a special Phoenix logon and password to have access to the reduced Pegasos
pricing that will be available through www.pegasos-usa.com.
We need to be somewhat selective in insuring that these next boards go to people that
will advance in communion with our effort and our internal developers and Phoenix members
will have priority. We will also develop the User Group program next week and a system
for handling Pegasos sales so our Distributors also benefit.
Our targeted resource/sales markets from the near to medium term are:
1. Amiga/MorphOS
2. DTV STB
3. LinuxPPC and OtherPPC
We will continue to promote to the Amiga/MorphOS market, as we have. Our underlying focus
should be: broadening and stabilizing MorphOS, attracting applications and drivers
(ports/original programs), and establishing a Pegasos toolkit. At the same time,
www.pegasos-usa.com is working
and our online sales support and information site at
www.genesi-support.com
will continue to improve. If we are lucky we will awaken and attract the slumbering
ex-Commodore consumer market, but that will take some time and we are not quite ready
for mass-market attention. The sites will be there and ready. Until we are ready with
the Pegasos II we will not promote the sites as much as we could. Plus, we will
standardize the Pegasos distribution network over the next few months taking a
semi-franchise approach. When we are ready, everything will be in place.
On the hardware side we start where we are: the Pegasos. We have discussed the
features: upgradeable, scalable, modifiable (smaller eclipsis, subsets/modular
Psylent/STB), and open, as in Open Firmware (facilitates scheme for peripheral
association/development IAW the IE1275 standard). We will develop a solid plan
and feature set for each Pegasos envisioned and the corresponding software bundles.
The management review that took place this week was very successful. We have
defined and agreed to our objectives and are now preparing a solid plan for the
future.
NOTE: for 200 Euros and trade-in ALL Pegasos I Users (includes Betatesters) WILL
be able to upgrade to the Pegasos II (just to put an end to that FUD!).
About Linux and the other targets? OS4 too -- ;-)
Linux people usually want something great for nothing, but in the PPC market if
we can get a design win over the Teron the next price point is a Mac. As more
professionals and desktop consumers switch to Linux, the future of commercial
software on Linux is very bright and so is our hardware. Functionality will
become precedent over cost in this market. We need a bootable bundled distro
and Mac-on-Linux. Linux will be a major force in the future. Today, it is still
difficult to install software, drivers, set up firewalls, etc., but because of
the generous licensing environment and the massive corporate support Linux is
gaining (IBM, HP, etc.) as well as government mandates and funding in many
countries, it is set to become the "next big thing". We need to be
part of that trend.
Any PPC OS that is reasonable to port with external resources is interesting to
us. We need a Go/NoGo decision matrix. Again, we are looking for resources and
developer talent. For example, while Linux gets the glory, BSDs are running
some of the biggest sites. We have seen the first screenshots of OpenBSD running
on the Pegasos. Further, there is an increasing amount of interesting open source
projects we could find a way to adapt to our use.
Finally, we are interested in restoring the Demo Scene to the Pegasos. The
traditional and overt message in a demo was technical skill. The visual effects
pushed the supposed limits of the platform's capability and graphics were
skillfully executed. Good demos are the marriage of advanced technical, creative
and artistic abilities. For the future, we need a new generation of Sceners to be
pulling the most from the platform and the OS. This can generate plenty of
positive attention. Besides the nVidia butterfly lady has the wrong color wings!
This is why we decided to sponsor Equinoxe.
All these other things all ultimately bring us back to our key advantage: a
completely integrated solution, including hardware, operating system, and
applications. Management is working hard to turn this vision into a reality.
While the sale of the Pegasos and MorphOS alone could never sustain the Company
we are building, it may one day in the future. We use the Pegasos today to
begin our move to the future, while insuring the development and growth of the
MorphOS. Things could get pretty exciting if we can get that far. Let us not
forget that 30 million STBs sold last year and they were called video game
consoles.
Please feel free to provide any feedback to us.
Sincerely,
Raquel and Bill
P.S. If you are still confused go here --
www.lagardere.com --
and select Lagardère Media présente "Focus sur la Télé" on the left.
This should help explain everything (even if it is in French!) (ps)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2003, 19:06] [Comments: 0]
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22.Feb.2003
AMIGAplus
|
Debian project on Desktop Linux Summit
The Debian project has been invited to an exhibition and conference about free software and GNU/Linux that will take place soon.
The Debian project looks after a booth this weekend in San Diego in the exhibition area of the Desktop Linux Summit.
Next to that is Bdale Garbee participating in a discussionan about the future of GNU/Linux on the desktop.
The company invites all interested people near there to visit the conference, to meet Debian developers and users, to exchange GnuPG fingerprints, discuss different topics about Debian and free software and to participate in other ways.
(nba) (Translation: wk)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2003, 13:20] [Comments: 0]
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22.Feb.2003
FOREMATT (ANF)
|
100% AMIGA #33 with new design
The February issue (#33) of the British CD-ROM magazine 100%
AMIGA has been released today and comes along with a fresh new design.
The completely revamped main page contains now all new areas including user groups, mails, free small adverts and much more. Features this month cover reviews of Crossfire II and PureBasic. A look at the cover on the website tells more about the new issue.
The website of the magazine has also been redesigned and enhanced with new offers. The Amiga Retro Classics area includes more games that are now priced in Euros and Dollars charges and that can be ordered via PayPal. They now also offer DVD videos and programs in the Region-2-format (Europe).
(nba) (Translation: wk)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2003, 13:13] [Comments: 0]
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22.Feb.2003
heise online
|
heise: first details on Napster 2
Still this year shall Napster be restarted as commercial download service. Later on will owner Roxio upgrade peer-to-peer functions, too. Read the full (German) article at heise online following the title link.
(nba) (Translation: wk)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2003, 13:05] [Comments: 0]
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22.Feb.2003
OSNews
|
SciTech asks for comments regarding the SNAP-Graphics future
This week announced the AmigaOS 4 developer Hyperion Entertainment to use the SNAP technology by SciTech Software Inc. as graphics cards driver system for AmigaOS 4 (we reported).
Today asks SciTech on OSNews for commments regarding future versions of SNAP-Graphics.
SciTech SNAP Graphics supports now 180 different graphics chipsets. Feedback by users show that this number would be too high. The company wants to know from the users how many and especially which graphics cards should be supported in the next release. Furthermore they ask for the operating systems that shall be supported in the future.
(nba) (Translation: wk)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2003, 13:05] [Comments: 0]
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22.Feb.2003
YAM Website
|
Mail program: new YAM developers version dated February, 22nd 2003
Since today there's a new developers version 2.4-dev [020] BETA
of the mailing software YAM that is now Open Source. This is a pure developers version that may still contain bugs and for which the develpers give no support and warranty. Emails regarding the developers versions won't be answered, either. Usage at own risk!
The change done can be found in this list.
Further information can be found on the
Yamos SourceForge site.
Download: YAM24Dev.lzx
(ps) (Translation: wk)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2003, 12:54] [Comments: 0]
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22.Feb.2003
AmithlonTV Website
|
TV cards driver: AmithlonTV beta 285 (update)
Guido Mersmann has released the beta version 285 of the TV cards driver software
AmithlonTV with several smaller updates and improvements.
New in version 285:
- BUGFIX: Fixed the sliders within the audio video setup to work correctly on Pegasos.
- BUGFIX: Fixed full screen support on CyberGraphics.
New in version 283:
- FEATURE: Added configuration data for MD/LT9415 and TVValue.
- FEATURE: Full Pegasos support (tested).
- FEATURE: Added several new tuner drivers.
Download: AmithlonTVBeta.lha
Update 23-02-2003:
Message updated to version 285.
(ps) (Translation: wk)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2003, 12:48] [Comments: 0]
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22.Feb.2003
heise online
|
heise: 580 millions users worldwide online
Market research has shown that 63 percent of the German households are connected to the Internet. Read the full (German) article at heise online following the title link.
(nba) (Translation: wk)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2003, 12:48] [Comments: 0]
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22.Feb.2003
AMIGAplus
|
Artwork from Visualice at GFXZONE
There are quite a few sceners that have been around for a long time,
but few have been as active as Visualice used to be. This guy has worked
on a staggering amount of demoscene productions.
Unfortunately for us Visualice recently left Haujobb to concentrate
on other forms of art. We have updated his personal gallery on the gfxzone
with plenty of high-quality graphics.
The updated gallery consists of 5 parts with 100 images in total,
most of which are now finally available in their full PNG quality for
the first time ever (thanks Timo!!). Older images are in the first parts
of the gallery, more recent images can be found nearer to the end.
To show that Visualice is also graphically active in a non-digital way,
the fourth part of the gallery shows sketches. Some of the sketches that
Visualice provided for us to show in his gallery are also available for
purchase online, check it out if you are interested!
Enter the updated Visualice gallery and start enjoying.
(nba)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2003, 12:39] [Comments: 0]
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21.Feb.2003
Martin Heine (ANF)
|
300 Pegasos-I freely available from Monday on - Pegasos-II from September on
As Genesi reported on MorphOS-News.de
the last Pegasos mainboards of the first generation are available from Monday on.
300 pieces of the 400 are freely available and the rest will be delivered to developers
and the staff.
Genesi emphasizes that there will be no further production of the Pegasos-I-boards.
In August/September the Pegasos-II will follow which has double data rates, three 1-GB/s
Ethernet channels and Dual-G4 processors.
There will be no possibility of upgrading the Pegasos-I to G4 but a special possibility
for the Pegasos-I customer.
This Genesi wants to especially emphasizes before you buy a Pegasos-I.
All beta tester who have not been changed yet have the most important priority.
(nba) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 21. Feb. 2003, 23:21] [Comments: 0]
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21.Feb.2003
Computer City (ANF)
|
Computer City February News
FotoFoto
Work on FotoFoto is progressing, new pictures of the main
screen and prefs section can now be found at the FotoFoto website:
www.compcity.nl/fotofoto.
Inga!
Most of the work on the Inga! conversion is done. New screenshots of
the Inga-based demo-game Ermentrud running on AmigaDE 1.3 can be found
at the personal site of our programmer, Arend-Paul Spijkerman
(ap@compcity.nl):
http://www.apsdev.com.
Added to our internal 'to do list' is a MorphOS/PowerPC version.
Webshop
Work has started on our new webshop, which will be available in Dutch,
English and German. For the German market we have arranged a bank account
for payments and a German postal address in the event of RMA's.
For more information, please contact Computer City at +31-10-4517722
or email info@compcity.nl.
(ps)
[News message: 21. Feb. 2003, 14:50] [Comments: 0]
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21.Feb.2003
Thomas Steiding (E-Mail)
|
e.p.i.c.: Knights & Merchants for MorphOS starts shipping
Today e.p.i.c. interactive started shipping the Empire Builder Knights &
Merchants, which is now the first commercially available game for MorphOS.
Knights&Merchants retails at EUR 49,95 and requires a Pegasos with 600 Mhz, 64
MByte RAM and MorphOS 1.0 or better. More information on this Real Time
Strategy game can be found in the projects section of our homepage (title
link).
Knights and Merchants can be described as a strategic economy simulation. In
the main, the economics play a major role in this real-time action game. The
player can manufacture different products, making use of numerous buildings
and producer goods of the Middle Ages period. He can use his serfs to
construct and maintain buildings and roads. The economical structuring is
very specific. You manufacture finished products using various raw materials
which go through your production processes. All these manufacturing systems
are highly detailed and visually understandable, enabling fast and
dependable control of your economy. One result of all your productive labors
is the manufacture of weapons and armor. But the logistics, too, are really
worth a mention. You decide where and how merchandise will be transported on
the network of streets which you yourself have planned and constructed.
Your
serfs transport all wares between buildings, so your town planning plays a
major role in production time per building, and, resulting from that, just
how efficient your economy as a whole is going to be. Transported goods are
displayed graphically. Each figure in the game has his/her own mission area
and carries out individual tasks independently. They don't depend on your
commands or actions. You, the player, only give indirect commands for the
construction of buildings, streets, corn fields, etc. However, you do have
complete control of the military units.
Dealers please contact GTI/Schatztruhe. (ps)
[News message: 21. Feb. 2003, 10:45] [Comments: 0]
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21.Feb.2003
Arkadiusz [Yak] Wahlig
|
Windows-arrangement: DepthMenu version 2.43
The Polish programmer Arkadiusz [Yak] Wahlig has published version 2.43 of his program
'DepthMenu'. With this program you can manage, minimize or maximize open windows on
your Workbench.
New in this version: A bug has been cleared which occured if Shapeshifter was simultaneously
used with the screen menu function and another one has cleared in the about window.
From this version on DepthMenu will be no longer compiled with SAS/C but with GCC.
Download: DepthMenu.lha (53 kb)
Besides this the long expected new version 1.5 of the AmIRC.module has been published
where bugs have been cleared and the translation has been improved.
A new version of the Workbench.module and DOpus5.module with new functions has been announced.
(nba) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 21. Feb. 2003, 01:51] [Comments: 0]
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21.Feb.2003
AmithlonTV
|
TV-card-driver: AmithlonTV beta 280 (Update)
Guido Mersmann has published beta version 280 of the TV card driver software called
AmithlonTV which has some minor updates and improvements.
Version 280
- BUGFIX:
The driver_hauppauge.lib is now detecting radio and the real card name if known.
- BUGFIX:
Again a small "video_bt8x8.lib" update! This should fix the last Pegasos problems.
Version 277
- FEATURE:
TVCardDump now allows to dump specific data items.
- FEATURE:
The video_bt8x8.lib driver now supports the pci interface structure.
This should fix (in theorie) the known problems with G-Rex/Pegasos
and other systems.
- CHANGED:
Modified the TVCardSetup window to be more intuitiv.
- BUGFIX:
Reworked some PCI routines.
- FEATURE:
Implemented CyberGraphics support. (currently TVWatch only)
- BUGFIX:
Fixed some card drivers.
- BUGFIX:
Fixed full screen support in combination with the pixel cut feature.
Download: AmithlonTVBeta.lha
(nba)
(ps) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 21. Feb. 2003, 01:51] [Comments: 0]
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21.Feb.2003
Kaliko
|
Kaliko online again
The website of the Swedish software development company Kaliko is now online again.
If you have sent an email to an @kaliko.net address during the last three weeks
you are asked to send it again. Kaliko continues placing confidence in AMIGA, Inc.
Most of the users in the world use a version of Windows and therefore it is right to
integrate these users to the Amiga world.
(nba) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 21. Feb. 2003, 01:36] [Comments: 0]
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21.Feb.2003
Lars Fuhrken-Batista (E-Mail)
|
Release of Wings for Game Boy Advance
Cinemaware announces the release of Wings GBA, which should be
hitting retail in the next few days! Wings GBA is a completely
new adaptation of the action-based flight-simulator Wings on Amiga,
with a new storyline, new missions and even the ability to fly on
the German side! There's nothing like it on GBA. (nba)
[News message: 21. Feb. 2003, 01:28] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
heise Newsticker (ANF)
|
heise: EBay Warns Buyers Who Warn Other Bidders of Deception
It's known there are recurring instances of deception with eBay auctions. A bidder from Niedersachsen
wanted to warn fellow bidders about an alleged con artist and so he used the contact function on the
eBay website. EBay reacted to this negatively and warned the warner against "spamming."
Click on the title link for the complete article.
(ps) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 23:57] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
(ANF)
|
New open source archive format: 7-Zip
7z Format - 7z is the new archive format, providing high compression
ratio. The main features of 7z format:
- Open architecture.
- High compression ratio.
- Strong AES-256 encryption.
- Ability of using any compression, conversion or encryption method.
- Supporting files with sizes up to 16000000000 GB.
- Unicode file names.
- Solid compressing.
- Archive headers compressing.
7z has open architecture, so it can support any new compression methods.
For more information please visit the title link.
(ps)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 19:34] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
Michael Mann (ANF)
|
Napster's Inheritance: Rights Lawsuit Against Bertelsmann
Two composers and two music publishers accused the Bertelsmann business group
of knowingly assisting in the illegal copyright violations of Internet users, in that
Bertelsmann kept Napster going through financial infusion. Read the complete article
under the title link. (nba) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 17:47] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
Michael Böhmer (ANF)
|
USB: ROMulus Module for HIGHWAY
After our poll about the new ROMulus module (FlashROM expansion for the HIGHWAY Zorro II USB controller)
the necessary prework and test on the prototype have finally been completed.
Next, the ROMulus module goes into production.
Expansive information about this particular expansion, among many long-awaited expansions, may be found under the
title link, respectively the English language information may be found
on the E3B pages.
E3B thanks all those who participated in our active poll, and hopes through this module to be able to offer another useful innovation for the
Amiga classic market. (ps) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 13:43] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
|
Poll about AmigaOS 4.0 Started
There are as many opinions as there are people. Others don't ask, but amiga-news.de wants your opinion!
In response to the query from ´eliotmc´ in our
AN Discussion Forum we started a poll about Amiga OS 4.0. We are interested in finding out which hardware you would like to buy OS4 for. For possible answers (multiple answers are unfortunately not available with this script) you have the following selection possibilities:
- Classic Amiga with PPC
- Classic Amiga with Shark
- AmigaOne
- Pegasos (assuming OS4 runs on Pegasos)
- I will not buy OS4
You can read the current results here.
(ps) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 13:38] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
Darius Brewka im AN-Forum
|
AmiStart Start Menu: Is There Still Interest in Further Development?
Darius Brewka released version 0.63 of AmiStart in September 2002, as we (reported).
AmiStart is a start menu similar to that found in Microsoft Windows, with a quick launchbar, drag&drop support and a reconfigurable
graphic overlay which allows transparency, rounded corners, background textures, a shape layer (with reconfigurable and programmable
skins controllable by external applications via ARexx). One example is the shape layer of Songplayer.
Because the author has some time, he is interested in knowing if there is interest in further development of AmiStart and, if so, how strong
this interest is. Would anyone like to make some suggestions or report some bugs? Give Darius some feedback, write him to say what could
be improved. (ps) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 12:43] [Comments: 1 - 23. Feb. 2003, 17:01]
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20.Feb.2003
Golem IT-News
|
Golem: Execution of Many Programs Burns Out the iPAQ 5450
In a document from the Hewlett-Packard (HP) support databank the manufacturer of the iPAQ 5450 warns against running too many
programs at the same time. When many programs run in parallel, the speed of the gadget can be massively degraded. Also, Amiga
Anywhere runs on the iPAQ 5450. Read the complete report at Golem IT-News (click on the title link). (nba) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 12:05] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
Grasshopper LLC
|
DTP: PageStream V4.1.5.6 for AmigaOS and Windows
On the 3rd of February 2003, Grasshopper LLC released version 4.1.5.6 of the DTP Program "PageStream" for Amiga and Windows
computers. This update is available to registered users at the Grasshopper LLC Website (title link), and includes new help data. (nba) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 11:12] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
Christoph Gutjahr (ANF)
|
Interview with Ben Hermans in German and English
In light of a few currently circulating rumors about the status of AmigaOS 4, and the announcement of the partnership with
SciTech, we contacted Ben Hermans (AmigaOS 4 project leader and managing partner of Hyperion Entertainment) and conducted a
short interview with him.
The English language version may be read here and the
German language version may be read here.
We thank Ben Hermans for taking the time to answer our questions. (nba) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 10:59] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
Lars Ghandy Sobiraj (ANF)
|
Scene: First Edition of Saxonia Disk-Mag Appears
Yesterday the demo scene group Void released the first edition of their completely new disk-mag "Saxonia #1."
Because neither the group nor the mag has a homepage, the online portal Diskmag.de is offering the download (click on title link). Saxonia functions on all classic Amigas, according to the chief editor; it can even run on an A500 with expanded RAM. (nba) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 10:57] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
C64 News (ANF)
|
Music: SIDBoost your Amiga!
There is a new SID player for Amiga made by Glover/Samar called
SidBooster.
Forget about older players like PlaySid or Sid4Amiga.
This is the best SID emulation on Amiga and it can be compared
only with original C64! Recommended is at least 68040/40 and
full installed MUI (most plugins). Works perfectly on my
A4000/060/56Mhz, all BoingBags installed and Kick 3.9 (3.1
with ROM Patch from OS 3.9). "imagepool.library" was needed
for my miggy (can be found on AmiNet).
(ps)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 02:17] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
|
Aminet Uploads until 20th February 2003
Since our last message there were the following new uploads to the Aminet:
JabberwockySRC.lha comm/tcp 182K+Jabber client
MiamiSDK211.lha comm/tcp 134K+Miami SDK 2.11
libpng-bin.lha dev/gg 124K+AmigaOS GeekGadgets port of libpng-1.2.5
BetaScan_GER.lha hard/drivr 2K+German catalog for BetaScan (free!)
UFStory.lha pix/anim 269K+UltimateForce Story
trodas_icons2.lha pix/gicon 244K+Glow icons made by trodas
(ps)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 01:41] [Comments: 0]
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20.Feb.2003
Atroxis.de
|
Music: Markus Holler's MP3 Download Site
Markus Holler, known to many Amiga users for his musical pieces for Tales of Tamar, Operation: Counterstrike and The Holy Trinity, is now working on his own music download site. Currently there are already a few previously unheard songs to be found there, which in part come from the latest VD* Convention Video! Have fun!
*Virtual Dimension [ ;) -DM]
(ps) (Translation: dm)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2003, 00:08] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
Terry Fry (E-Mail)
|
Techconnect: SciTech Software to Add Graphic Power to AmigaOS 4 and Beyond
The press release by Hyperion regarding the partnership with SciTech
(as reported) is recognized as well outside the Amiga world. You may read the English article by Techconnect following the title link.
(ps) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 23:48] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
AMIGAplus
|
REBOL: Picture viewer ReViewer v1.3
On the 12th of February 2003 version 1.3 of ReViewer, a picture viewer for the open platform
REBOL, has been releasded. The software with its graphical interface is to call stable even with this early version and by the platform independence of REBOL useable with the Amiga too.
The free download is possible at the website linked by the title.
(nba) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 23:35] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
Christoph Gutjahr (ANF)
|
Interview with Ben Hermans
In the light of some rumours currently circulating (regarding the
status of AmigaOS 4) and the recent announcement of the partnership
with SciTech, we contacted Ben Hermans (Managing partner of
Hyperion Entertainment,
AmigaOS 4 project manager) and did a short interview.
Amiga-News: There's a rumor that OS4 is further delayed because Amiga Inc. are unable to contribute money to the project. Does your business plan rely on financial contributions from Amiga Inc.?
Ben Hermans: No, it doesn't. It has to be recognized however that software development costs money and that more money means more development resources and hence a shorter development cycle.
Amiga-News: You have to pay three senior developers, and the only known source of income for Hyperion during the last 15 months was the work on the Teron/AmigaOne BIOS (and Quake 2 of course, but that probably made just enough money to buy Steffen a Pizza). What/who pays the wages of your developers?
Ben Hermans: Contract work as you pointed out. Our work for Mai is ongoing and has been quite extensive.
There always will be new chipsets to support, new CPU's to support, Linux related work to be done etc.
We just delivered a substantially upgraded firmware for the AmigaOne/Teron hardware. More news on this will follow.
During the OS4 development cycle we also ported two Mac games (Nobody Lives Forever and Gorky 17), which brought in revenue.
Amiga-News: Still, the idea that you'll have to acquire additional funds if OS4 gets delayed some more makes sense. Your only option to acquire more funds would be to assign senior developers to other projects. In other words, if you don't match your current dead-line, OS4 will get even further delayed because the Friedens and/or Steffen Häuser would have to work on some Mac-Ports or contract work not related to OS4. right?
Ben Hermans: Absolutely. In fact, I dare say that if we had been in a position to concentrate solely on OS 4 during the past 15 months, OS 4 might already have been finished.
Amiga-News: Could you explain the legal status of AmigaOS4 to us? You said you "own" it,and Amiga Inc. are entitled to buy it back at a (quote) "very reasonable price". Is Amiga Inc.'s right to buy the OS back transferable, i.e. could they sell it to a third party? What happens if Amiga go bankrupt, would you still be able to sell the OS as *Amiga*OS? Would the party that acquires Amiga Inc.'s assets also acquire the right to buy AmigaOS4?
Ben Hermans: Our contract with Amiga does indeed contain an IP buy-back clause, which means that Amiga can acquire the work done by us on OS 4.
Once Amiga has acquired the rights to OS 4, theoretically a third party might buy it from them but certainly not with a view to burry it and halt development. If no new version of OS 4 is released within 6 months after release of OS 4, our right to develop the OS further and indefinitely relives.
If Amiga goes bankrupt, our license is commuted to an exclusive license to develop AmigaOS further, for any platform, not just PPC. This legally excludes a potential new owner from exploiting the source-code himself.
There is therefore nothing to be gained from buying Amiga's assets in the event of bankruptcy unless the new owner is willing to work with the OS 4 development team in good faith.
Amiga-News: Could you try to describe the current status of OS4 without using phrases like "everything's right on track" and "99% finished"? Is the integration of the 68k emulator finished? Are there external beta testers running ExecSG on their system?
Ben Hermans: We are now down to 8 outstanding items of the feature-list we released some time ago.
Only one of these issues is a show-stopper in the sense that it could introduce further delays (the emulation integration), the remaining issues are minor, several of which will be taken care of still this month.
By way of example: InstallerNG, one of those 8 items I mentioned. It is not finished yet. This won't hold up release of OS 4 as we can always switch back to the old Commodore installer. Another example: one Reaction class still needs to be taken care of. We are confident this will happen still this month. There are more of these minor issues, 8 in all like I said.
We are still working on the emulation integration. Unfortunately the external developer working on it had several pressing personal and professional issues to take care of which resulted in some delay. This is one of those instances where a bigger budget would certainly have helped. We nonetheless hope to wrap this up very soon as the work is now in such a state that full-time Hyperion developers can step in and take over.
Exec SG unsurprisingly sports all the functionality listed in the feature-list as already implemented. Several developers have access to it and are running it on their Cyberstorm PPC and AmigaOne hardware in order to develop device drivers. Meanwhile a team of 77 beta-testers and translators have been testing and localizing OS 4 components since many months now.
Amiga-News: The Alt-WOA scheduled for the 26th of April has been cancelled recently, because of the fact that "OS4 may not be ready by then". Were you involved in that decision? What does "not ready" mean in this context: "not ready for sale" or "not ready for demonstration"?
Ben Hermans: The organizers demanded ironclad guarantees that OS 4-A1 combo would be on sale at that time.
As a matter of principle, I informed them that the only way we could guarantee that now, would be for OS 4 to be ready NOW. It is not and I therefore declined to give them this guarantee as a matter of principle.
Huge corporations like Microsoft (Windows 95 released in 96 and Windows XP ring a bell?) and Intel (Merced/Itanium anyone?) with budgets larger than the gross product of most third world countries have missed their deadlines as a matter of course. It is simply unrealistic to expect a 100% guarantee. Life doesn't work that way. Not for Microsoft, not for Intel or Sun and certainly not for a small company like Hyperion. Do I expect that OS 4 will be ready by that time? I most certainly do, based on the information available to me at this point. But it would be intellectually dishonest to claim that I can guarantee that 100%, I have been in the business too long now.
Amiga-News: What kind of development tools can we expect for OS 4?
Ben Hermans: Development for OS 4 will initially need to take place with a barebones GCC. We already have Linux based cross-compilers as well as an OS 3.x based cross-compiler.
Moreover, Olaf Barthel has been working hard on a completely AmigaOS native GCC implementation which does not require ixemul and instead uses his own C runtime library.
We also hope to convince the VBCC maintainers to produce an AmigaOS 4.x version.
Amiga-News: Your partnership with SciTech was a positive surprise to most users. But supporting 180 different graphics chipsets definitely sounds like overkill if you would be only targeting desktop users. Is this partnership a first step to make AmigaOS more interesting for "embedded" appliances, like kiosk systems or Infochannel services?
Ben Hermans: The partnership with SciTech has several very important advantages.
First of all, we are assured that we will always have access to 2D drivers for the latest graphics cards. SciTech's expertise in this area is unrivalled and the manpower they can bring to bear is unmatched. SciTech has built up close relations with many graphics card manufacturers over the years. They can get hold of the required chipset documentation much easier than anyone else. This partnership essentially frees us from the job of ever having to write 2D drivers again and instead allows us to redirect resources elsewhere.
Secondly, Hyperion and SciTech will work together on 3D drivers. SciTech recognizes our expertise in this area and combined with their know-how, chipset documentation and development resources we can be similarly cut down on development time for 3D drivers.
Thirdly, your point about embedded systems is very valid. You don't need well over 170 chipsets to be supported for a desktop OS although choice is always a good thing. In the embedded space however choice may well be crucial when it comes to deciding which embedded OS to choose. There are a number of chipset producers competing in this space which won't win any prices for performance but certainly for cost-effectiveness and low power-consumption. When you are dealing with embedded devices, you are dealing with high volume productions. It's not hard to understand that saving say 10 USD per unit on the graphics chipset translates into massive savings when you are dealing with a production run of several thousand devices. Likewise, some devices may well demand low power-consumption for various reasons (cramped housing, hot environment or simply energy conservation). For such devices too a wide choice of chipsets may well tilt the balance in favor of a specific embedded OS. Let me give
one final example: kiosk and information systems. We know of well upwards of a thousand Amiga based systems still in use for this type of technology all over the world. These people are looking for a way to upgrade their aging systems but they are not satisfied with the TV Out quality produced by most current graphics cards except Matrox. By adopting SNAP, we are giving them that option.
Amiga-News: Some people were concerned about the way SciTech's SNAP technology gets integrated into AmigaOS. Will programmers have to deal with a completely new API, or even two independent APIs?
Ben Hermans: No, the idea is that SNAP operates solely as a display driver, a monitor driver for Picasso 96.
Amiga-News: Will SNAP display drivers be any slower than "native" AmigaOS drivers? SciTech seem to be using an OS independent binary format.
Ben Hermans: As some benchmarks on SciTech's site show, SNAP is fully accelerated and quite frequently outperforms the "official" drivers. We have no concerns whatsoever in this area.
Amiga-News: Given your tight resources, SNAP will certainly not be included with OS4.0, will it? When can we expect SciTech's technology to be available for AmigaOS4? What kind of display drivers will be included with AmigaOS4.0?
Ben Hermans: SNAP relies on the SciTech x86 Bios emulator. This is embedded in the AmigaOne firmware but not present in the Cyberstorm PPC for instance. We are still examining whether it makes sense to have the x86 Bios emulator present also for the BlizzardPPC or Cyberstorm PPC. This may well not be the case as it is very CPU intensive. Moreover, due to the very limited bandwidth on the Amiga classic, operating state of the art graphics cards (to the extent that they even exist in PCI form) can be considered overkill. Having said that, Forefront Technologies is still working on "native" P96 drivers for the Radeon range and they are making good progress.
We don't see any overriding reason why SNAP cannot be included with the AmigaOne version of AmigaOS 4.0. SciTech will migrate the codebase to Linux PPC (thus ridding us of any potential endian conflicts) and we will take it from there. This should be a fairly trivial job for a company which specializes in porting software from one architecture to another and from one CPU family to another.
Amiga-News: Is there anything you want to say in closing?
Ben Hermans: Yes, I want to thank everyone for their patience. I realize that it has been a long wait and that the wait is still not entirely over yet. On the other hand, I want to emphasize again the massive amount of work that was accomplished over these past 15 months. For the first time since the demise of Commodore, the entire AmigaOS source-code has been consolidated in one central CVS repository. A maintainer has been assigned for nearly every OS module. The old Commodore "bug and improvement suggestion" database is available to the OS developers. We have replacements for all still relevant Kickstart 3.1 modules and have implemented nearly all of the functionality outlined in the features document. No-one but Commodore has ever undertaken development on the AmigaOS on this scale. The result will be well worth the wait.
Amiga-News: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Mr. Hermans.
(ps)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 23:25] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
GFX-BASE
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Lorraine Design: New Glow Icon set
Bojan Milovic by Lorrain Design has released a new icon set on February the 15th 2003. Included are 130 Windows pictograms which he converted to AmigaOS 3,5+ and extended with the glow effect. The original pictograms were made by Jim Tackett.
(ps) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 23:19] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
Amiga.SourceForge
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DCR8520 Amiga ports: Updates from 02-18-2003
Diego 'DCR8520' Casorran has on his website at SourceForge some of his ports made available for download. On the 18th February 2003 there were the following programs updated or added:
(ps) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 20:29] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
Andreas Magerl (E-Mail)
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Amiga Future: Preview to issue #41
From today on there is the preview and an extract of the March/April issue of the
Amiga Future online. Beside a detailed Pegasos/MorphOS test
(part 2) there are tests of Hollywood, IBrowse 2.3
and the Amiga Arena Games-CD, an interview with Bill Buck and more within the magazine.
At the CD there is the not limited version of
Virtual Karting 2 included. The magazine will be published on March the 5th 2003.
(ps) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 17:50] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
Michael Asse (ANF)
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Payback for GBA - status report #4
James Daniels has published another status report about the
GBA-version of Payback. Interesting aspect: The background-music
seems to be managed using music modules. (nba) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 15:28] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
WHDLoad
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Installer: WHDLoad - New packages (until 02-18-2003)
With WHDLoad it is possible to install games to the hard disk which were intended for floppy use originally. The following packages were added or updated:
- 02-18-03 new: Explora 2 / Chrono Quest 2 (Infomedia/Psygnosis)
- 02-18-03 fixed: Bagitman (Bignonia)
- 02-18-03 optimized: Ultimate Body Blows (Team 17)
- 02-18-03 optimized: Pinball Illusions (Digital Illusions/21st Century)
- 02-17-03 new: Graham Gooch Cricket: Test Match S.E. (Audiogenic)
(nba) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 12:58] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
Christiane Schorn (E-Mail)
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WACOM at the CeBIT
The WACOM Europe GmbH will attend at the CeBIT this year as a partner
at the stand of the adf (Arbeitskreis für digitale Fotografie e.V.)
at hall 1 stand 4D3. Fitting to the fair attendance of the
adf the leading manufacturer of graphic tablets shows solutions for digital picture processing for professional and hobby photographers.
The graphic tablet system Intuos2 will be shown as well as the
Interactive Pen Display Cintiq 18SX for professional users of
digital photography, graphics, audio/video. All input devices of WACOM work cableless and without batteries.
According to the WACOM principle the digital pens and airbrush react naturally by the pressure of hand. So the user can create variable lines, soft blendings and differently strong filter effects for masking.
With its innovative product lines WACOM offers all digital photographers simple and natural to use tools for the digital picture processing.
(nba) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 12:46] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
xdial (ANF)
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xdial: Ironical contribution to a forum becomes a reality satire
Who states within an online forum the opposite of his intention in an ironical manner must be prepared that the statement will be interpreted in a wordly meaning and to declare himself/herself at the court for that. Read the full article at the title link.
(nba) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 12:40] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
Golem IT-News
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Golem: Study - MP3s do not affect the selling of CDs reasonable
Nearly weekly there are new studies made about the effects of MP3 exchange sites to the selling of CDs and the result is - often probably depending of the initiator - mostly a different one. The marked research institute TNS Emnid claims to have found out that most Internet surfers still buy CDs not reasonably changed by the free alternatives from the net.
Read the full article (German) at Golem IT-News by the title link.
(nba) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 12:37] [Comments: 0]
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19.Feb.2003
Telepolis
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Good Old Adventures: Online revival of Larry and Guybrush
Who of the older gamers does not get a smile on the lips a dreamy, nostalgic disturbed view when thinking of the adventure heroes Larry and Guybrush. Now the past can get a game revival because the Dutch company Q42 revitalizes the old Sierra and LucasArts adventures. Read a brief (German) article about the "Good Old Adventures" at Telepolis.
(nba) (Translation: ub)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2003, 01:21] [Comments: 0]
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