From:       Steffen Häuser SHaeuser@quark.de
To:         amiga-news.de  team@amiga-news.de
Subject:    H2 News
Date: Wed,  24 Nov 1999 14:02:10 +0100

Hi!

(Any replies please to MagicSN@Birdland.es.bawue.de)

I recently tested the latest Beta Version of Heretic II (i am Betatester)
concerning speed, and did a speedtest, where i compared the speed with the
speed on the PC of my
little brother of the PC Version of Heretic II. In both cases the SOFTWARE
RENDERER was used.

Hardware Data:

Amiga:

Cyberstorm PPC 604e 150 MHz (yes, only 150, i have a lowend 604e Board...)
Cybervision/PPC
OS: AmigaOS 3.0 (3.5 is ordered, but not yet arrived)+ WarpOS V4

PC:

Pentium II 300 MHz
Riva TNT (TNT 1) Based AGP-Bus Graphics Board
OS: Windows 95

Remember: All speed is done with SOFTWARE RENDERER, for both systems, for
fairness :)

The values (i tested at different places, but of course PC and Amiga version
were always tested at the same place):

Level                Amiga Speed (150 MHz)        PC Speed
(300 MHz)

dmandoria                 31 fps                 60 fps
oglemine1                 35 fps                 72 fps
oglemine1 different location with         24 fps
45 fps
lots of monsters visible
hive1 (lot of transparency FX)          9 fps                 27 fps
no typical situation for the game

And now some values in a higher resolution:

Startlevel in 400x300             24 fps                 41 fps
Startlevel in 640x480             10 fps                 19 fps

On an average i was usually (in 320x240) at:

                    25-30 fps                 around
50-70 fps

I estimate on a 233 MHz the average should be around 40-50 fps in typical
situations...

What do we learn of this ?

1. On an average the Amiga Version has the same speed like the PC version
   (at least if we had a PC with the same MHz-number, 31*2 = 62 fps
   for example, where the PC version had 60 fps, the Amiga Version 31 fps
   (first example)

2. Massive Transparency Effects are the death for every software-renderer,
   no matter if Amiga or PC. Luckily these effects are not displayed
   all the time. Situations like at the start of hive1 only happen in very
   few situations (hive1 is actually the slowest level in the whole game, it
   seems, at least at a certain position in the level)

3. The speed value of Heretic II is actually quite nice, even on a lowend
   PPC like mine, on a 233 MHz you will have values around 233/150 times
   as fast.

4. We can expect much more from 3D Hardware (Warp3D Support) (On PC there
   was a REALLY HUGE speedup for 3D Hardware, especially
   when Transparency was involved)

5. PCI/AGP did not give that much more speed than PowerUP-Bus/Zorro 3 (i did
   not do actual speedtests of Z3, but it is not
   that much slower than on Zorro 3. Also WB Window Mode is also not that
   much slower - though of course slower)

I was also told by Hyperion that they are currently making much progress for
the 68k version, and that it looks good that probably 060+software
renderer will be fast enough to get the game playable.

Steffen Haeuser

PalmSyncGC.lha       comm/misc    8K+Gui4Cli interface to PalmTransfer
guardamy.lha         comm/www   217K+V1.01 Watch web pages for changes (BUGFI
MST-Megademo.lha     demo/aga   1.8M+Assembly '99: Megademo by Mystic
ABM13.lha            dev/asm      5K+Converts binaries into binary asm source
LittelComp.lha       dev/lang    18K+LITTEL language v0.13b MAJOR update!!
MCC_TipOfDay.lha     dev/mui     49K+V15.4 - 'Tip of the day' class (MUI)
MCC_TipOfDay_S.lha   dev/mui     47K+V15.4 - 'Tip of the day' class (SRC)
iron_maiden.lha      docs/hyper 136K+Iron Maiden Guide V2.7
GamesLists.lha       docs/rview  30K+37 (!!!) lists of Amiga games
GladDuel.lha         game/actio 103K+The ultimate killing game
SetupIOBlixUpd.lha   hard/drivr  45K+IOBlixZ2 and IOBlix1200 setup program bu
CSPPC233Fix.lha      hard/misc   13K+Workaround for CSPPC/233 hardware bug
rNO-L014.lha         mods/misc  482K+Rno-label release no.14 by xhale (tripho
RedRose.jpg          pix/misc    89K+A Red Rose      
JMG_Icons.lha        pix/nicon   83K+Icons package (GlowIcon format)
JPEG-DT.lha          util/dtype 279K+New Datatype for JPEG Images (43.1)
JPEG-DT35.lha        util/dtype 207K+New Datatype for JPEG Images (46.0)
PCD-DT.lha           util/dtype 132K+Datatype for Photo-CD Images (43.12)
PCD-DT35.lha         util/dtype  61K+Datatype for Photo-CD Images (44.0)
RGFX-DT.lha          util/dtype 116K+Datatype for IFF-RGFX-Format (43.12)
RGFX-DT35.lha        util/dtype  43K+Datatype for IFF-RGFX-Format (44.0)
zee_inilib.lha       util/libs  163K+V31.02 Library for ASCII-Prefs maintenan
XPKPatch16.lha       util/pack   19K+Upacks XPK and PP files "on the fly".
quotes.lha           util/wb      9K+Quotes - displays weird messages

• Adventure: e.g. Black Dawn, MadHouse, Legend of Elves, Sheperd
• Arcade: e.g. Blitz Bombers, Sneech, Deconstruction, Blob Kombat
• Classic: e.g. Deluxe Galaga, Deluxe Pacman, Zaxxon, Popeye, Donky Kong
• Platform: e.g. Diamond Caves, FaYoh, Santa&Rudolph, Wizzys Quest
• Puzzle: e.g. UChess, Powerball, Tetriz, Dr.Mario, HiltTiles2SE
• Racing: e.g. Aerial Racers, Screech AGA, Monaco, DreamCars
• Shoot em ups: e.g. Alien Bash2, Zombie Apocalypse, MegaTyphoon, Scorched Tanks
• Workbench: u.a. ASobokan, WBomber, InvaderZ, 4inaRow

• Errors while formatting Amiga DD/HD disks - fixed
• Crashed with Buddha Flash - fixed
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AndSoOn.lha          mods/funk  331K+Groovy Funk by R.KAPP
CoolStuff.lha        mods/funk  353K+Jazz-Funk by R.KAPP
SoftClouds.lha       mods/funk  428K+Groove-Jazz by R.KAPP
Tech5.lha            mods/funk  154K+Interpretation of Take5
ForFUN.lha           mods/hardc  86K+Hardcore Tune made by MadMan
Werkstatt.lha        mods/hardc  68K+Hardcore Tune made by MadMan of FunDesig
blackice.lha         mods/med   268K+"Black Ice" - OSS module by Riley
Millenniummix.lha    mods/med   2.6M+Med by danny hermans from dance-experien
Lippen.lha           mods/misc  1.5M+The first natural techno!!!
lostrespect.lha      mods/misc  367K+DBM Tribal Trance by Mr.Lou / Dewfall Pr
rNO-L013.lha         mods/misc  928K+Rno-label release no.13 by zubspace (eas
re-breathless.mpg    mods/mpg   935K+The_factory: breathless (acid-trance)
re-difromabove.mpg   mods/mpg   941K+The_factory: down in from above (trance)
re-farewell.mpg      mods/mpg   929K+The_factory: farewell (electro-instr.)
re-fthemusic.mpg     mods/mpg   990K+The_factory: face the music (electro)
re-itheominous.mpg   mods/mpg   918K+The_factory: into the ominous (ambient)
re-mhsaturday.mpg    mods/mpg   953K+The_factory: met her on a saturday (amb.
re-runningman.mpg    mods/mpg   906K+The_factory: running man (trance)
Activity.lha         mods/techn 330K+Techno Tune made by MadMan of FunDesign
af-music_was.lha     mods/techn 377K+DBM10ch ->Acid Frog<- d-techhouse 148bpm
af-petroit.lha       mods/techn 263K+DBM 8ch ->Acid Frog<- detroit-min 146bpm
af-warrior.lha       mods/techn 1.1M+DBM 6ch ->Acid Frog<- acid 148bpm
GetTheAss.lha        mods/techn  37K+Techno Tune made by MadMan of FunDesign
ItsMagic.lha         mods/techn  74K+Techno Tune made by MadMan of FunDesign
Mental.lha           mods/techn 150K+Techno Tune made by MadMan of FunDesign
MS-DASY.lha          mods/techn 177K+Das System
ph-phma.lha          mods/techn 310K+Phoenix Machine, by Faces of Mars
ph-toea.lha          mods/techn  95K+Touching Earth, by Faces of Mars
Werner.lha           mods/techn 604K+Techno Tune made by MadMan of FunDesign
AmbientTrance.lha    mods/tranc 241K+Trance Tune made by MadMan of FunDesign
DerTraum.lha         mods/tranc 118K+Trance Tune made by MadMan of FunDesign
Figaro.lha           mods/voice 239K+Wiener Lied by R.KAPP
MelodyRecGUI.lha     mus/edit    70K+GUI for MelodyRecord by Medi & Ramboy
mpdecode.lha         mus/edit    16K+MP3 to AIFF decoder (multiple files)
mtrs_v2_demo.lha     mus/edit    88K+8-TRACK (and more) HardDiskRecorder MTRS
GMP-G.lha            mus/midi   121K+GUI for GMPlay V1.3(a)
Med2Xm-GUI.lha       mus/misc   116K+GUI for Fileformatconverter Med2Xm
samplecruncher.lha   mus/misc    21K+Samplescruncher - Sample distortion usin
TheMPegEncGui.lha    mus/misc    74K+GUI 4 Ncode,Lame,Pegase,BladeEnc,MusicIn
AmigaAMP.lha         mus/play   421K+MPEG audio player with GUI (68k/PPC)
Amoralplay1.4b.lha   mus/play   107K+-amorel- No fuss multiformat audio playe
PlayGUI.lha          mus/play   196K+Finally!Modplayer with AmigaAmpSkins!
Prayer2.lha          mus/play   347K+MPEG audio player with fancy GUI and mor
9erPool.lha          pix/3dani  1.2M+Animation (FLC) of a Poolshot by MadMan
TopFun.lha           pix/anim   914K+1200 FPS Anims on 030??  AGA/ECS by Olly
lch-wannabe.lha      pix/art     95K+"wannabe a fish" pixelled picture
Lnk-RisikoPls2.lha   pix/art     11K+Another Risiko plus pixelled logo
shakrspics.lha       pix/art     97K+Titelpics of the game "SHARKS!" 
sharkspics.lha       pix/art     97K+Titelpicture of the game SHARKS!
Napoli_Wb.lha        pix/back    70K+Napoli Soccer Team WB Background
AF-OS35-Icons1.lha   pix/icon    27K+6 Nice GlowIcons for OS3.5
DracoPointer.lha     pix/icon     0K+Nice looking mouse pointer
JaZip.lha            pix/icon     7K+OS 3.5 disk icons for iomega jaz and zip
MiYAMiIcons3.5.lha   pix/icon     7K+Miami and Yam icons for OS 3.5
3D_Pics_III.lha      pix/misc   500K+3D pictures for red/green-glasses
YAMmsg-w4p2.jpg      pix/misc    89K+A Red Rose      
Balls.mpg            pix/mpg    360K+Animation (MPG) of our logo by MadMan
glowcd_bugfix.lha    pix/nicon  556K+Bugfix for the Cologne'99 GlowIcons CD-R
JUE-Icons.lha        pix/nicon  284K+My first GlowIcon-Archiv (not complete!)
Achterbahn.jpg       pix/trace  193K+Picture of an Animation made with Cinema
balloon.lha          pix/trace  116K+This is the Amiga Future?!
BillardAnim          pix/trace  457K+Picture of an Animation made by MadMan o
castle.jpg           pix/trace  323K+Castlevania, castle created with Maxon
DominosAnim.jpg      pix/trace  425K+Picture of an Animation made by MadMan o
Iceland3.jpg         pix/views  171K+Almost devoured by lava
Iceland4.jpg         pix/views  152K+A glacier (Thorsmork, Iceland)
Iceland5.jpg         pix/views  130K+Thingvellir, Icelandic National Park
Iceland6.jpg         pix/views  128K+Thingvellir, Icelandic National Park
Iceland7.jpg         pix/views  102K+Gullfoss, Iceland
Iceland8.jpg         pix/views  224K+Part of the Esja mountain complex, Icela
XenoMorph_WB01.jpg   pix/wb     134K+XenoMorph' s WB 1280 x 1024 16 Bit
XenoMorph_WB02.jpg   pix/wb     264K+XenoMorph' s WB 1280 x 1024 16 Bit
envSOF20.lha         text/edit  139K+Eiffel/Sofa Add-On for GoldEd Studio 6
GedEiffel.lha        text/edit   36K+SmallEiffel mode for GoldEd 4
greeklish2gree.lha   text/misc   50K+Converts a greeklish (greek with latin c
Man2RTF.lha          text/misc   13K+Converts from MAN to RTF
WoWrGUI.lha          text/misc   54K+GUI for WordWrap_2.3
A-Printers1_1.lha    text/print  45K+List of printers working with Amigas
Cassette_HU.lha      text/print   3K+Hungarian (magyar) catalog for Cassette 
Printout.lha         text/print  56K+Print Zweckform Labels NO. 4738/4739
TapeCover_HU.lha     text/print   2K+Hungarian (magyar) catalog for TapeCover
Burngui_HU.lha       util/arc     3K+Hungarian (magyar) catalog for BurnGUI
LzxRepacker.lha      util/arc     9K+Repack LHA/ARJ/ZIP/RAR/... to LZX.
UnRAR250-060.lha     util/arc    31K+UnRAR 2.50 (68060 executable only)
UnRAR250.lha         util/arc   120K+UnRAR 2.50
CGXBlanker.lha       util/blank 181K+CyberGfx-ScreenBlanker with DPMS-support
MuFastChip.lha       util/boot   89K+Chip memory cache mode fine tuning tool
MuFastROM.lha        util/boot   90K+MuLib conformal ROM to RAM remapper
MuFastZero.lha       util/boot  103K+MuLib Zero Page remapper, FastExec/Prepa
MuLockLib.lha        util/boot   84K+Lock the mmu.library in memory on startu
MuOmniSCSIPatc.lha   util/boot   88K+Make the omniscsi.device MMULib aware
MuSetCacheMode.lha   util/boot   93K+MMU tree adjustment tool for experts
ASCIITable.lha       util/cdity  18K+Gives codes of all Amiga character set
ASCIITable2_00.lha   util/cdity  18K+Gives codes of all Amiga character set
GetSize_dt.lha       util/cdity  13K+German catalog for GetSize v1.0
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ST_ExtItal.lha       util/cdity   2K+Italian Catalog for ScreenTab_Ext   
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MirrorCopy.lha       util/cli    21K+Create/maintain exact copy of dir (V1.5)
OpenDrawer.lha       util/cli     4K+CLI-Command to open a Drawer
r.lha                util/cli    43K+V1.50 Just in time GUIs for every DOS co
VersCheck.lha        util/cli   646K+Check your libs,MUI,devs,dtypes,classes,
VersCheckGUI.lha     util/cli   167K+A simple GUI for VersCheck (incl. source
easyconvert.lha      util/conv   14K+Easy Convert - converts miles - km, etc.
AmyTree23b.lha       util/dir   281K+Graphics Tree Browser Free!
FM30B23_HU.lha       util/dir     6K+Hungarian locale for FileMaster 3.0 2.3
ilbmdt44.lha         util/dtype   8K+Improved ilbmdt (44.20)
sdiREKO-DT.lha       util/dtype   9K+40.7 datatype for .REKO/.RKP cardsets
DisLib.lha           util/libs   24K+A library based MC68K disassembler
f1gplib_usr.lha      util/libs   12K+F1gp.library 36.10 - support lib for F1G
MMULib.lha           util/libs  582K+Library to ctrl the MC68K MMUs
MMU_Update.lha       util/libs  179K+Update the MuLib 40.5x -> 40.60
WBStartEmu.lha       util/libs    5K+Os3.5 version of wbstart.library
cycledbase.lha       util/misc   19K+Cycle trip database inc. search function
Miggy1ENG001.lha     util/misc   10K+Better artificial intelligence - Olly
Passy.lha            util/misc   88K+Nice and simple Password Protection 
PW_RecentHU.lha      util/misc    3K+Hungarian catalog for Power Recent 4.00
VisualGuide.lha      util/misc   21K+Make filelist in AmigaGuide format.
ShowMem.lha          util/moni   13K+Shows memory fragmentation via gfx
XPKatana.lha         util/pack  104K+XPK (un)packer with complete GUI, ARexx 
cliped112a.lha       util/rexx    5K+Edit Arexx internal cliplist from GUI
RexxMathLib.lha      util/rexx   21K+Faster & shorter math support for ARexx.
ShellScr.lha         util/shell 120K+Devote a whole screen to your shell
68040Lib.lha         util/sys   118K+A MuLib aware 68040.library
PoolMem.lha          util/sys    71K+Memory defragmentizer/AllocP superset
RAWBInfo.lha         util/sys    18K+ReAction based icon information (1.5)
bitime.lha           util/time   13K+V1.76;Swatch Beat,auto DST,alarms,clock,
DRemind.lha          util/time   94K+Reminds you whenever you want.. v1.51!
DRemind_HU.lha       util/time    7K+Hungarian (magyar) catalog for DRemind 1
Safe.lha             util/virus  25K+Best new linkviruses detector v11.7
VirusZ.lha           util/virus 191K+VirusZ II 1.45 & VirusZ III 0.93a 
DefIcons44.lha       util/wb     12K+DefIcons clone for os3.5 (44.1)
OpenDrawers.lha      util/wb      3K+Opens drawers on wbstartup for you (1.0)
outlinefont12.lha    util/wb      5K+Draws outline/shadow on WB icon text
ProcessIcon.lha      util/wb     18K+V1.16 CLI tool to manipulate icon data
Scalos-ECM.lha       util/wb     15K+Scalos 'Execute Command' Replacement
TweakWB12.lha        util/wb     71K+Great WB 3.5 commodity, deficons, MWB ic
wbthemes.lha         util/wb    370K+Theme for Workbench, like Dopus

Football.lha         biz/dbase  370K+*NEW* Version 2.5.1 - Setup your own lea
QuickFile_3.23.lha   biz/dbase  307K+Powerful, fast and easy database.
StarBase_xxx.lha     biz/dbase  180K+Star Trek Episodes Database 3.1b/1.3b
TCom156bDEMO.lha     biz/demo    63K+An Amiga order program, (COMMESSE ITALIA
Dkg-Prices.lha       biz/dkg      1K+Pricelist for Amiga products at DarkAge 
WinOnWB.lha          biz/dopus    3K+Open WB windows from Dopus
MajorBank_Key.lha    biz/misc     1K+Free Keyfile for MajorBank 
PFS3_5153.lha        biz/patch  187K+Upgrade patches for PFS3 V5.1 to PFS3 V5
DC-X107i.lha         comm/bbs   866K+System-X 1.07 (eSSeXX) Bulletin Board Sy
DC-X107u.lha         comm/bbs   165K+System-X 1.07 (eSSeXX) Bulletin Board Sy
hardchecker.lha      comm/bbs    20K+V1.8.2beta update - Uploadchecker for PM
AminetFileReq.lha    comm/mail   52K+Download/Request Aminet recent files (MU
AHP22-deutsch.lha    comm/misc    1K+AHP v2.2 (HP48) - German catalog file
AHP22_deutsch.lha    comm/misc    1K+AHP v2.2 (HP48) - German catalog file
AmiComESP.lha        comm/misc   25K+Spanish Manual for Amicom (Packet Radio 
amigancp.lha         comm/misc  279K+Link Amiga to Psion S3/S5 palmtops
GMPBillITA.lha       comm/misc    2K+*NEW* Telecom Italia rates for PhoneBill
Kpc3TNC_Utils.lha    comm/misc    8K+Exit from HOST & KISS mode form KPC3 Tnc
MCallSign.lha        comm/misc   92K+HAM CallSign description searcher (v1.10
SMSSuite.lha         comm/misc   99K+GSM SMS Messaging Suite
VB_Updater.lha       comm/misc   52K+Software for Lemon's DVB Volksbox. V0.9
xemviewdata.lha      comm/misc   12K+External Viewdata emulation library
amtelnet.lha         comm/tcp   299K+GUI telnet client
netinfo.lha          comm/tcp   219K+GUI Traceroute/Network Info Viewer
GMsuite.lha          comm/thor   33K+Some really usefull scripts for Thor, v5
guardamy.lha         comm/www   213K+V1.0 Watch web pages (files) for changes
ImageMap.lha         comm/www    91K+Easy HTML ImageMap creation v1.1 FREE
Lynx283dev15.lha     comm/www   935K+Powerful WWW Navigator
Upd8.lha             comm/www    16K+Reports updated webpages. v.1.2
FLP-Datablade.lha    demo/aga   3.6M+"datablade" by madwizards & floppy at xe
hla-salvation.lha    demo/aga   168K+Salvation (PPC dentro) by Horizontal Lam
ind-kind.lha         demo/aga   250K+Contribution dentro for Spoletium2
iq2k-str8.lha        demo/aga   123K+The latest demo from iq2000
MWI-Mute12.lha       demo/aga   6.1M+"Mute12" by Madwizards - 1st at Satellit
SCX.IfN.101.lha      demo/aga   851K+Infestation 0101/SCOOPEX - SPOLETIUM'99 
wpz-frozen23.lha     demo/aga   737K+Frozen#23 - Satellite Party Edition
MWI-SDV22.lha        demo/mag   1.3M+SAVE DA VINYL #22 - packmag by Madwizard
SceneArchives.lha    demo/mag   1.2M+SASU v1.06: Ultimate Demo CDs. - 9 CD's 
MWI-Photocell.lha    demo/slide 3.7M+"Photocell 1x1" slideshow by Anadune & M
7-Pin.lha            dev/amos    18K+10 Pin Bowling Spinoff
measureconwos.lha    dev/c       10K+Example for measuring WOS context-switch
PMM.lha              dev/c      1.3M+Project-Make-Manager (PMM) for vbcc
MuForce.lha          dev/debug  247K+The V40 Enforcer, detects illegal RAM ac
MuGuardianAnge.lha   dev/debug  319K+MungWall superset, detect accesses to no
2b_CreativE.lha      dev/e       78K+AmigaE compiler
powerd.lha           dev/e      238K+New programming language based on E
LittelComp.lha       dev/lang    13K+Compiler and docs 4 LITTEL language v1.1
advlite20b115.lha    dev/misc    74K+Powerfull AutodocViewer v2.0 beta v1.15!
ClipChars.lha        dev/misc     8K+Programmer's character insertion tool Cl
f1gplib_dev.lha      dev/misc    38K+F1gp.library 36.10 - support lib for F1G
MuLink.lha           dev/misc    94K+Memory protect selected hunks of binarie
MuScan.lha           dev/misc    91K+Print the MMU tree layout.
HunkFunc.lha         dev/moni    15K+V1.10 display executable file structure
MCC-Install.lha      dev/mui     92K+Universal MUI custom class installer scr
MCC_TipOfDay.lha     dev/mui     45K+V15.2 - "Tip of the day" class (MUI)
EuchreSRC.lha        dev/src    191K+Euchre! source code for the card game
SortCopy.lha         disk/bakup  19K+Tiny directory/link/backup/copy program
CDCAminet_1-33.lha   disk/cdrom 1.8M+CDCat Index Of AmiNet 01-33
ReadRDB.lha          disk/misc   39K+Backup and restore RDBs. V0.7
a3-announce.lha      docs/anno   13K+Astrosyn`2000 c-party announce file v1,0
Atari-Glossary.lha   docs/etext  41K+Glossary of Atari computers(ITALIAN)
AmigaInfo.lha        docs/hyper 189K+ITALIAN ONLY Amiga Mags Novembre 1999
aMiGaPoWeR.lha       docs/hyper  68K+AMiGa=PoWeR French Amiga Magazine
BUFF_Gde.lha         docs/hyper 118K+Buffy Vampire Slayer Episode AGuide (63)
SolarHTML.lha        docs/hyper 156K+V2.12 of my Solar HTML Cosmic Database
XFLS_Gde.lha         docs/hyper 231K+The X-Files Episode AGuide (139)
AminetNoCD.txt       docs/lists  18K+Files omitted from Aminet CDs
amiuserlist.lha      docs/lists  45K+AmigaUserList V7.41 of Germany, Switzerl
Amiga4ever10.lha     docs/mags  1.5M+Freeware mag (GERMAN)
Amiga4ever7.lha      docs/mags  782K+Freewaremag (GERMAN)
Amiga4ever9.lha      docs/mags  862K+Freewaremag (GERMAN)
Amiga4everX2.lha     docs/mags  771K+Freewaremag (GERMAN)
astorm10.lha         docs/mags  472K+Croatian AMIGA Magazine
astorm10_pics.lha    docs/mags  391K+Pictures for Amiga STORM 10
3DWorldArc1099.lha   docs/misc   99K+Archive of the 3D World ML for 10/99
F1Champ.lha          docs/misc   54K+Statistics of Formula One '50-'99
Sorry.lha            game/board  30K+PD Clone of the board game "Sorry!"
Buzzy-data.lha       game/data  174K+Arcade Game writed in AmosPro
SSamples.lha         game/data  310K+Sample set for ScorchedTanks
batbasesdemo1.lha    game/demo  834K+A Quake1 Team Fortress demo
DDE_CnHSdemo.lha     game/demo  2.1M+DDE's - Code name Hell Squad - DEMO
Calippo.lha          game/jump  435K+CalippoFresser by Langnese !
Sony.lha             game/jump  493K+The Sony Game !
playpac.lha          game/misc  403K+Pacman with random maze
WormWars.lha         game/misc  626K+WormWars 5.1: Advanced snake game
VGP-AF1upgrII.lha    game/patch 641K+1999 car objects and setups for VirtualG
WHDABurner88.lha     game/patch  28K+HD Installer for After Burner '88
WHDABurner89.lha     game/patch  26K+HD Installer for After Burner '89 V1.2
WHDWizNLiz.lha       game/patch  22K+HD Installer for WizNLiz
Marryampic.lha       game/think 107K+A CardSet game to find sound-pairs
Puzzo_Mania.lha      game/think 5.8M+Puzzles
vbfrtg_demo.lha      game/think 3.4M+Virtual Ball Fighters RTG Demo Version
VChess4.1_Fr.lha     game/think  17K+VChess french catalog (Stefan Salewski)
F5-MS_Monzoom.lha    gfx/3dobj   82K+F5 fighter object for Monzoom
CleanRun.lha         gfx/board    8K+Cleans up bvppc screen when AGA screen o
cybershow93b.lha     gfx/board  137K+SlideShow&Viewer(incl.PCD)for CybGfx&AGA
Picasso96.lha        gfx/board  582K+Picasso96 system for Amiga graphics boar
MetaView.lha         gfx/conv   485K+The best vector(AMF,CGM,CLP,DR2D,DSDR,DX
set2anim.lha         gfx/conv    39K+MovieSetter -> ANIM+audio converter
PicScale.lha         gfx/edit    66K+Scale Pics in a window
NewFraktal.lha       gfx/fract   16K+V1.0 of a fraktal-generator
photoalbum64.lha     gfx/misc   228K+Picture management (incl.PCD) for AGA&Cy
SvIV-1.lha           gfx/misc   312K+SViewIV V9.03 (19.11.99) - Part 1/8
SvIV-2.lha           gfx/misc   214K+SViewIV V9.03 (19.11.99) - Part 2/8
SvIV-3a.lha          gfx/misc   136K+SViewIV V9.03 (19.11.99) - Part 3a/8
SvIV-3b.lha          gfx/misc   219K+SViewIV V9.03 (19.11.99) - Part 3b/8
SvIV-4.lha           gfx/misc    41K+SViewIV V9.03 (19.11.99) - Part 4/8
SvIV-5.lha           gfx/misc    60K+SViewIV V9.03 (19.11.99) - Part 5/8
SvIV-6.lha           gfx/misc    62K+SViewIV V9.03 (19.11.99) - Part 6/8 (opt
SvIV-7.lha           gfx/misc   116K+SViewIV V9.03 (19.11.99) - Part 7/8 (opt
SvIV-8.lha           gfx/misc   223K+SViewIV V9.03 (19.11.99) - Part 8/8 (opt
akMPEG2.lha          gfx/show   183K+MPEG player for CyberGfx/AGA V3.03 (68k/
AMP.lha              gfx/show   225K+MPEG1/2, FLI/FLC, AVI, QT player for War
Frogger.lha          gfx/show   341K+Ultimate MPEG video player (68k & PPC v1
sJFIF172.lha         gfx/show    13K+JFIF viewer for AGA AmigOS
SoftCinema.lha       gfx/show   280K+Ultimate Movie Player (PPC) V0.7
yav170.lha           gfx/show   396K+NEW PowerPC support. Shows bitmap pictur
IOBlixUsr37_11.lha   hard/drivr 282K+V37.11, IOBlixZ2 and IOBlix1200 software
Spitfire.lha         hard/drivr 417K+A Palm Desktop for the Amiga!
mccontrol.lha        hard/hack  206K+V1.33 PSX MemoryCard Reader
TestCard.lha         hard/hack  168K+Testcard generator for PAL/NTSC systems.
Mac_nullmod.lha      hard/misc    8K+Null-modem cable for Amiga and Macintosh
GeoWorld-Upd10.lha   misc/edu    69K+GeoWorld-Update10 (11/17/99) - new flags
anescgfx.lha         misc/emu    84K+A/NES CGFX v1.15 - Nintendo emulator
cp4_update.lha       misc/emu   201K+C= Plus4 Emulator - V0.68 -> V0.72
DarcNES.lha          misc/emu   223K+NES, SMS/GG, PCE emulator v991120a (9911
GBE.lha              misc/emu    76K+GameBoy/GameBoy Color emulator for WarpU
mameppc36b8.lha      misc/emu   4.2M+Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator 0.36.8 
imdbDiff991105.lha   misc/imdb  1.7M+Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase
ELFCv1.lha           misc/misc   82K+English League Football Compiler v1.02b
lotolib.lha          misc/misc   21K+Lotolib for LOTO v2.3+ (1976 au 20-nov.-
Miggy1ENG001.lha     misc/misc   10K+Better artificial intelligence - Olly
DAlmanac_Exe.lha     misc/sci   1.0M+Next Generation Planetarium (1.7.2)

======================================================================
   _    __      _     <>_   __      _    ||
  /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\   ||  A M I G A   U P D A T E
 /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\  ||     -News and Rumors-
/    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_||   (An Occasional e-mail
  I'LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I TAKE DELIVERY   ||       Newsmagazine)
======================================================================
        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
991120

        P A X T R O N   B O U G H T   B Y   C E N T S I B L E

               G A T E W A Y   A N D   A O L   D E A L

               O S   3 . 5   A V A I L A B L E   N O W

            A M I G A   V O L U N T E E R   P R O J E C T

                    A M I G A   2 K   N E W S

         R E P O R T   -   I W I N   R E S U R F A C E S

                    L A T E S T   O N   I W I N

         O P E N   S O U R C E   G R O U P   A C T I V E

         O P E N   L E T T E R   T O   T H E   P R E S .

                      P R O J E C T   I M P

  U P D A T E   O N   " A M I N O   -   T H E   C O M P A N Y "

  A M I G A   P R O D U C T   P L A C E M E N T   S E R V I C E

                 N E W S   F R O M   G A U H P I L

          O P U S   M A G E L L A N   A T   C O L O G N E

 N O V A   D E S I G N   D I S T R I B U T O R   F O R   O Z ,   N Z

                D I G I T A L   A L M A N A C   I I

       A W E B   3 . 2   T O   3 . 3   U P D A T E   P A T C H

                E L B O X   P R O D U C T   N E W S

                        B O X E R   N E W S

                        Q N X   U P D A T E

                    I M A G E F X   R E B A T E

                   H & P   A N D   I M A G E F X

          H & P   R E L E A S E   D E V E L O P E R   C D

            N E W   P I C A S S O   9 6   V E R S I O N

     A   N E W   A M I G A   S T O R E   I S   L A U N C H E D

                       U N I T Y   B O A R D

           W I P T E O U T   2 0 9 7   O N   M A R K E T

               M I K R O   M O R T A L   T E N N I S

Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:

 The big Home Electronics World show has come and gone (November 12 -
14, in Cologne, Germany), and there were interesting items for Amiga
users. Amiga International had their large booth set up, and seemed to
generate a fair amount of interest. We weren't there, but are told
Petro Tyschtschenko was (almost) as upbeat as ever. However,
reflecting reality, there were fewer vendors than last year. The mood
was reportedly less positive, but that seemed to be based mainly on
there being no clear direction to the future, not fears of an imminent
death of the Amiga market.
 The folks at Haage & Partner demonstrated a 400 Mhz G3 Power PC
board, based on the IBM CHRP spec. It also featured PCI and AGP slots.
There are rumors a native PPC based AmigaOS port is being considered
for this board. If so, that's the most realistic possibility for a
future Amiga system we've seen yet. We understand the board was
presented as a development system though, not as a future Amiga.
However, and perhaps very significantly, Petro T. is quoted in an
article about HEW on the amiga.org website as stating "My first
priority now is to convert the OS to the PowerPC." Indications are
that Haage & Partner are willing to do the conversion. Is Amiga
willing to license it, providing the formal approval to call it Amiga?
We don't know, but feel this would be important to keep developers
focused, instead of trying to cover many different future
possibilities and spreading themselves too thinly.
 If CHRP can be abandoned in order to bring down the price of a PPC
board, then the future looks even better for a PPC system. There are
indications that this could become possible, with IBM leading the way
to a less expensive PPC standard. As we hear more about possible Amiga
PPC futures, we'll let you know.
 The Met@Box (AmiJoeG3) G3 Board for the A1200 was also demonstrated
at the Cologne Show. This is a PowerPC based accelerator, which does
not sport a 68K co-processor.
 Also of interest was the Unity Net Ethernet card. We've a story on
that product below.
 Finally, once again there was no BoXeR Computer to be seen, or so
we've been told.

 Over at Deja.com, a poll is being held on the most popular operating
system. Looks like the voting may be in several stages on different
features. Regardless, when we checked in Amiga OS was actually leading
the voting! It was way ahead of MonopolySoft's Windoze, and even ahead
of Linux. Most interesting and yes, it left me with a very smug
feeling.
 And, despite the current situation in the Amiga market, there's a lot
for you to read in this issue. We hope you enjoy it.
 Brad Webb,
 Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor:


19 Oct 1999

Brad ,

 Just wanted to say thanks for all the hard work you do to publish
this newsletter to all of us die hard Amiga Fans, I am truly sorry to
hear what Gateway has done to this fine machine. I just wonder what
the cutoff point for that company was, all that money, time and effort
just to throw it away when they were close to releasing the next OS ,
and all the other interesting B.S info they leaked to the press.

 But as Any Modern Day Technical Guru , I own Amigas , Mac's and PC's
, I use all the Operating Systems, Linux 6x , BeOS ,Amiga OS ,
winblows 95/98/nt/2k whatever, I try not to bash each OS for what it
Cant do, just appreciate all that they can do... But I will never Ever
Buy anything gateway again for what they have done...

Iceman.
~~~~~~
Iceman,
 A lot of us have tried to figure out what Gateway was trying to
accomplish and how things ended up as they did. I personally believe
it was a combination of loss of nerve in the face of Microsoft, and
internal Gateway corporate politics. Sad to say but many far reaching
decisions have been made with even less reasoning. The bottom line is
simply - will the company stay profitable?
 As you, I will not buy anything Gateway made at this point. Thanks
for the kind words!
 Regards,
 Brad
======

5 Nov 1999

Hi Brad
    I have appreciated this resource of amiga news, please keep up the
excellent work. But, I have a question about one of the statements you made
a couple of months ago. It was in response to another readers letter and
concerned other attempts to revive the amiga other than the official Amiga
company. You stated that you didn't think that it was appropriate for this
news-letter to cover the other attempts to revive the Amiga such as the
A.R.P. or the work at QNX. Why not? Doesn't this put all your eggs into one
basket? And also is this the only feasible way that the best solution to
reviving the Amiga will be attained?

Thanks - Jim
~~~~~~
Jim,
 First, my apologies for shortening your letter, but space
considerations made that necessary.
 You ask a very good question. What I had to do to your letter points
to the answer - we just don't have the space to cover all the
permutations out there. We also don't have the staff or the time. I
wish we did. What we will do is cover the Amiga itself, whatever that
might be going forward, until such time as it seems appropriate to
drop the Amiga entirely in favor of something else - if that ever
happens. (If we do get to that point, we'll share the decision with
you, the readers.)
 We will also cover whatever looks to us to be the leading efforts in
the "alternative Amigas" field. And finally, we will also cover to
some extent significant events in all Amiga related areas, where these
events seem to have some real promise for the Amiga community. This is
a pretty complicated mission statement, but we've actually been doing
this for some time and it seems to be working. I have no doubt we
could miss something significant along the way but we'll try to avoid
that. If we do, I'm pretty sure some readers will call our attention
to the event, and we'll then try to get the word to the rest.
 Regards,
 Brad
======

19 Oct 1999

 While in St Louis last March conversing with Petro, it was stated by
him that, "the shipment of containers from Quikpak of the remaining
parts had been received and inspected. It contained less than 2 dozen
usable 4000 motherboards." Now this was casual conversation between 4
of us, but I have no reason to doubt it's truthfullness. Petro did
make it possible for me to launch the CDTV 3.1 upgrade project, and
that was all verbal between him and me in March of 98.

Ben Deemer "thedoctor" not MD.
~~~~~~
Ben,
 Thanks for answering Mike's question from a previous issue.
 It's very disappointing there weren't more resources available for
making A4000s - I suspect Amiga could still sell quite a few.
 Regards,
 Brad
======

19 Oct 1999

    There used to be a document on the Amiga Inc. web page
concerning Y2K issues with the Amiga.  I haven't been there in quite a
while, so I don't know if it's still there.  If it's not still there,
I'm sure there are plenty who know all the gritty details.  But...
    As far as I can remember, Workbench will have no trouble, but
AmigaDOS itself doesn't handle four digit dates.  You might get
invalid date stamps on files.  Hopefully the guys at H&P have
addressed this in OS 3.5 or working on it for 3.6(?).
 As for the RTC {Real Time Clock, we presume. Brad}, that's another
issue. As I recall, the document stated that the RTC found in the
A2000 is not Y2K compliant. The only possible fix is a software patch
to the OS.

Carlos
~~~~~~
Carlos,
 The Y2k page is still available at amiga.com, and has a link right
off the first page after the home page. Anyone with Y2K questions
should refer to that document for information. We didn't notice
anything in particular about the A2000, but the different versions of
the operating system, the clocks, etc., have different considerations.
 Thanks for your help in answering a reader's question.
 Regards,
 Brad
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        P A X T R O N   B O U G H T   B Y   C E N T S I B L E

28 Oct 1999

{Posted to the net by Bill Griffin. Thanks, Bill}

 Centsible Software has just recently bought out Paxtron. Right now,
they are in the midst of moving all the inventory from New Jersey to
Berrien Springs, Michigan. It should take about 2-3 weeks to get it
all sorted, catalogued counted, etc. After that, things should be back
in full swing from the new location.

 In the meantime, if you have any queries or parts needs, you can
Email Scott (the owner of Centsible Software) at support@centsible.com
{Note: since obtaining this information, we have been informed
"Paxtron" has dropped all Amiga support. We have not yet confirmed
this. Brad}
----------------------------------------------------------------------

               G A T E W A Y   A N D   A O L   D E A L

 On October 20, CNET News ran a story by Jim Davis and Michael
Kanellos detailing an agreement reached by Gateway and America On
Line.
 The deal will bring an $800 investment in Gateway from AOL. AOL
becomes the Internet service for Gateway customers, and the backbone
of Gateway.net.
 The following quote from the story should be of interest to Amigans:

 " Many observers have speculated that hardware companies will have to
hook up with service providers to make money on appliances. Under the
new alliance, Gateway will begin to market devices for the "AOL
Anywhere" strategy.

 'There's clearly a possibility that Amiga will play a part in this
marketplace,'" according to Jeff Weitzen, chief operating officer of
Gateway.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

           O S   3 . 5   A V A I L A B L E   N O W

18. October 1999:

     AmigaOS 3.5 is available !!!

 The delivery of AmigaOS 3.5 started punctual. The first packages were
sold at an Amiga show in The Netherlands last weekend. Delivery of all
orders might last about 1-2 weeks. The areas for registrations and
support will be opened in a few days.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

            A M I G A   V O L U N T E E R   P R O J E C T

16 Nov., '99

The long version

 Today is there pretty much Amiga software and there is new software
coming but it takes long time and it might result in lots of bugs. We
started to discus whatever there was a way that we could do something
about that problem and after some long hours we found the answer in
TAVP. Now we are in a early stage and we need your support because
that is what this project feeds on. Right now we are contacting all
kinds of Amiga developers about if and what area they need help. We
need people that are prepared to work for no pay but only for the good
will and you dont have to be an expert in whatever you do. We want
everything, coders, musicians and so on because there is always
someone that needs that. We are also contacting different PC
developers about ports to the Amiga that we can sell so the project
might get some money(no of the founders will get any money)that might
be used to different things.

 We as mentioned before that this project depends your support and we
hope that as many of you skilled persons out there will join us.

 The short version

 What is TAVP(The Amiga Volunteer Project)?

 The TAVP is an non profit project that will support the development
of new software to Amiga. What you have think of before you join is
that you will not be paid because as mentioned before is this an NON
PROFIT organisation.

 Why do we do it?

 We are all long time Amiga users and decided that now was the time
for us to active support the Amiga. At the moment there is pretty much
software but the development takes long time but if this project works
it will maybe speed up the development a bit.

 How will we do it?

 to make this project come true we need you. We need skilled amigians
in any directions and you dont have too be the best coder in the world
you only have to be pretty good. If you are interested go to the join
section and fill out the form and we will contact you or send a mail
to denebis@algonet.se.

 What will we do?

 As mentioned before we will support the Amiga market by helping
different developers with skilled people but that is not the only
thing that we will do. We will also try to convert PC software to the
Amiga.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                    A M I G A   2 K   N E W S

6 Nov 1999

Hello Amiga fans,

 Just to let you know two items about Amiga 2K, the latest Gateway
Computer Show hosted in St. Louis by Amigan-St. Louis. {Note to
non-Americans: NOT Gateway the company. Gateway in this case comes
originally from St. Louis as "the gateway to the American West" and
later the Gateway Computer Club of St. Louis. Brad}

 1. The show dates are Saturday April 1 & Sunday April 2, 2000.
 (If you didn't hear, we changed them due to a conflict with NAB.
 That's the National Association of Broadcasters show, also in
 April.)

 2. Petro Tyschtschenko has agreed to attend our show. Petro said
 he wouldn't miss a show that we put on.

 Please visit our web site at: http://www.amiga-stl.com for more
information as it becomes available.

 If you wish to exhibit, please fill out the exhibitor form. We are
accepting exhibitors now. If you cannot do this, or you have a
question, then please email me at bscharp@icon-stl.net.

Best Regards,
Bob Scharp

Owner
Amigan-St. Louis
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      R E P O R T   -   I W I N   R E S U R F A C E S

5 Nov. '99

 Robert Jant, chief of a group of former Iwin employees, has announced
today that he together with other former Iwin employees and with the
help of a large German bank has bought back the rights for the
Internet domains www.iwin-corp.com and www.iwin-corp.ge, furthermore
the rights for the name Iwin Corporation and for the projects of the
C-Series and Server computers.
 "It was a logical decision" said Robert Jant. "Focke Systems didn't
want to continue development of the C-Series and Servers and didn't
want to sell them either.
 "This is the reason why we have decided to try to buy back the rights
on them. We were working very hard for a long time on these projects
and didn't want to see them frozen. We know that it will be a very
hard way to finish the projects and bring them into the stores.
 We won't bring these computers into the stores as it was initially
planned, but we are sure they will be successful."
 Iwin Corporation will open again on the 15 of November 1999 and will
also ship the first computers on this date to dealers. On the 15 of
November, Iwin Corporation will also again be reachable by phone, fax
and email.
 {Since this press release was issued, Iwin sites are indeed back in
operation. The computers now include something called the G-MCC, I-MCC
 and iPhantom computers all of which reference Amiga compatibility. It
is unclear what the Amiga compatibility actually is - it appears to be
some sort of software emulation, perhaps UAE. Brad}
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                    L A T E S T   O N   I W I N

6 Nov. 1999

 Iwin Corporation has been split into three independent firms.

 1. The Software business was sold to ``Focke Systems'' and will now
    be fully integrated into this firm.

 2. The Consulting business was also sold to ``Focke Systems'' and
     will be ``Focke Consulting'' in the future.

 3. The Hardware business was first also sold to ``Focke Systems'' but
    then bought back by some former Iwin employees. This firm will now be
    called ``Iwin Corporation''. This website will be the future site of
    this firm. The new firm will start business on the 15th of November
    1999 and will sell various graphic workstations based on x86 and PPC
    technology as well as server computers.

 For all people asking about the announced ``Amiga compatible''
 computers, please use these contact possibilities in the meanwhile:

 Either by FAX in the US: (208)-279-6497. Your question will be
 answerred within two work days. Please understand that currently we
 cannot answer any questions by email or phone. On the 15th of November
 this site will have changed to the new Iwin site and will contain a
 toll-free (US and Germany only!) number for your questions regarding
 the Amiga compatible workstations and all other hardware products.

 If you need help or sales support for former Iwin software products,
 please refer to Focke Systems.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

          O P E N   S O U R C E   G R O U P   A C T I V E

19th October 1999

About Us

 The Campaign to Open Source AmigaOS is a coalition of individuals,
organisations and user groups from the Amiga, Open Source and Linux
communities. The Campaign to Open Source AmigaOS was formed on the 4th
October to bring together these usually unrelated groups for a common
cause: to present our case to Amiga, Inc. for open sourcing the Amiga
operating system.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

           O P E N   L E T T E R   T O   T H E   P R E S .

Open Letter to Amiga, Inc. President Thomas Schmidt

October 18, 1999

Dear Mr. Schmidt:

 First of all, we want to congratulate you on your new position as
president of Amiga. We are sure that you have many exciting plans for
the future of Amiga, Inc. and that we can expect many new innovations
from your company in the months and years ahead. This is indeed an
exciting time for the computer industry, a time of great upheaval and
change, and holds much promise for the success and growth of ambitious
upstart companies like Amiga, Inc.

 We have been following the recent events at Amiga, Inc. with great
interest. We feel, like many, that the recent resignation of Jim
Collas was unfortunate. Many people in the community trusted Collas to
successfully lead the company into the future. Wherever he is now, and
whatever he is doing, we in the community wish him well.

 But this is not a time to be looking back on events of the past. It
is a time to be focusing on what lies directly ahead in the future of
the computing industry. We feel our organisation is unique in the
Amiga community. We have tried to understand both the needs of the
Amiga community, balanced against the needs of Amiga, Inc.

 We do not believe, like some in the community, that the wishes of the
Amiga community and the needs of Amiga, Inc. are mutually exclusive.

 Likewise, we do not believe that success of Amiga, Inc. as a company
is mutually exclusive with satisfying the needs and expectations of
the Amiga community.

 Our group was formed with a simple goal: to find a
mutually-satisfactory solution to current tensions that exist between
many in the community and Amiga, Inc. - a solution that would be
satisfactory, indeed beneficial, to both groups.

 We believe, after several weeks of discussion and exchanging of
ideas, that we have found such a solution. We believe that this
solution is to open-source the Amiga operating system.

 We present our reasons for believing this in our report, "AmigaOS:
The Case for Open Source," a copy of which should have been sent to
you alongside this letter, by Amiga Vice President Mr. Petro
Tyschtschenko.

 Our report is the result of several weeks of work and consultation
with many individuals in the Amiga, Open Source and Linux communities,
including famous open-source advocate Eric Raymond, who acted as a
consultant for Netscape on their open-source strategy.

 We believe our report presents a powerful case that open-sourcing the
Amiga operating system would bring many advantages, and future
business opportunities, to Amiga, Inc. and would at the same time
satisfy the needs of the Amiga community for continuity and continuous
improvement of the Amiga operating system.

 We therefore respectfully submit our report, "AmigaOS: The Case for
Open Source," for your review and consideration.

 We, of course, do not expect the report to fully and complete answer
each and every question you may have on the subject of open-source, or
why we believe it is the ideal solution to the current volatile Amiga
situation - but we do, however, believe it is a good start, and we
hope that you will be made curious enough by the contents of the
report, to establish a dialogue with us on the matter, and to consider
working with us in an attempt to find a mutually satisfactory solution
to the current Amiga situation. Your nomination to president of a
young, ambitious, innovative upstart company like Amiga, Inc. could
not have come at a better time. The next several months and years will
be an exciting time to be a player in the ever-changing fast-paced
computing industry.

 Whatever direction Amiga takes, we wish you and Amiga, Inc. every
success in the future.

 We look forward to your response.

 Respectfully,

Steve Crietzman (president@savetheamiga.org.uk)
President, Campaign to Open Source AmigaOS
http://www.savetheamiga.org.uk/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                       P R O J E C T   I M P

23 Oct. 1999

 "News from Project IMP - the Independent Multimedia Platform

 We have now our own webserver: www.project-imp.org, or for german
visitors www.project-imp.de. The website had been completely
redesigned and you will find there lots of new information about the
project. Most important news are our support for the Campaign To Open
Source The AmigaOS (www.savetheamiga.org.uk) and AROS (www.aros.org).

 About Project IMP: Project IMP had been founded just after Jim Collas
left Amiga and the AmigaMCC had been canceled. It is our intention to
keep the Amiga platform alive and give it a future. This goal can only
be reached by making the operating system and the hardware open
source. Without getting the rights at Amiga to do so, we have to write
our own, free OS which will be as much as possible compatible to the
existing AmigaOS as a basing for further developments.

 We will support any group or project that is working in that
direction in order to organize and bundle all developments. If you
have further quistions, just mail to me: postmaster@project-imp.org

Sincerely,
Volker Mohr
Initiator of Project IMP
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    U P D A T E   O N   " A M I N O   -   T H E   C O M P A N Y "

21 Oct 1999

{Post to the Team Amiga site from Fleecy Moss. Brad}

 We are legal now -Bill {McEwen} gave me the wa.gov website which I
have now lost where you can find out all about us is splendid
Interneticolour.

 Everything is ready to go from a partner, technology, and employee
perspective. We are tying up the financial side.

 Unfortunately ppl don't just give you millions because you have a
good idea.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    A M I G A   P R O D U C T   P L A C E M E N T   S E R V I C E


Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany 19. October 1999 :

 OPEN OFFER FROM GTI GRENVILLE TRADING INTERNATIONAL GMBH, SPECIALISED
INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTOR OF AMIGA PRODUCTS

 GTI Grenville Trading International GmbH, the German-based
international distributor of Amiga products today made an open offer
to those manufacturers of Amiga products looking for increased sales
worldwide.

 OFFER TO MANUFACTURERS OF AMIGA PRODUCTS LOOKING FOR INCREASED
INTERNATIONAL SALES

 GTI Grenville Trading International GmbH distributes Amiga products
(main emphasis - software) to Amiga re-sellers on an international
basis. Our customers are based throughout Europe, and in North America
and Australasia. With 12 years of experience in the Amiga market, and
having built up a ongoing network of clients on a wholesale-only basis
(we do not sell to end-users) over the last five years, GTI Grenville
Trading International GmbH is in a unique position to ensure
availability of Amiga products to Amiga businesses in many countries.
Currently well over 250 Amiga products are listed and distributed by
GTI Grenville Trading International GmbH.

 As the market decline of the Amiga has continued, dealers have found
it increasingly difficult to source and stock Amiga products.
Manufacturers have found it well nigh impossible to supply the
thinly-spread network of Amiga dealers with product.

 GTI Grenville Trading International GmbH now makes the following
offer to manufacturers of Amiga products worldwide.

 We will stock your Amiga products on a turnkey basis ! This basically
means that we are prepared to list and sell Amiga products on your
behalf to our network of Amiga dealers on an international basis.
Under this scheme, we are willing to price products according to
manufacturers preferences, and remit proceeds of sales minus an agreed
commission fee back to manufacturers on a regular basis.

 We offer producers the possibility of reaching a large number of
Amiga dealers with the minimum of paperwork and fuss. We are happy to
list Amiga products and sell on your behalf without ANY minimum
quantity - thus enabling even specialised products to obtain an
international listing and succeed by their own quality. This scheme is
particularly suited to North American manufacturers looking for
increased sales of their products to the European Amiga trade and
thereby to European Amiga users.

 Additionally we are able to offer support to those manufacturers
offering their products directly to end-users through the internet.
Our logistics facility offers a centralised European warehousing for
your products, and delivery to end-users on your behalf throughout
Europe. We are also able to supply invoicing, cash-collection,
marketing, and translation services as and when required. This scheme
is particularly suited to North American manufacturers looking for
increased sales of their products through E-Commerce to end-users
throughout Europe.

 We would like to invite producers of Amiga products looking for
increased product sales to take advantage of one or both of the above
schemes and contact us with a view to expanding their market presence
on an international basis.

 CONTACT INFORMATION : Richard Small, Managing Director, E-Mail :
amiga@grentrade.com

GTI Grenville Trading International GmbH
Carl-Zeiss-Str. 9
D-79761 Waldshut-Tiengen

Tel : +49 7741 83040
Fax : +49 69 25577025
UK Tel/Fax : +44 207 6813472
US Tel/Fax : +1 212 504 2719
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                  N E W S   F R O M   G A U H P I L

30 Oct 99

Göttingen, Germany

Dietmar Knoll

Hi Amiga-Fans!

 Here are some news about recent changes on the GAUHPIL, the
"Geographical Amiga Users Home Page Internet List", which holds
currently more than 850 homepages of Amiga users!

 The GAUHPIL has moved again. Now it is free of any commercial banners
- at the 7th URL!!!

 The redirector-URL is still valid. You should never have problems to
find the GAUHPIL at:

 http://GAUHPIL.home.pages.de/

 During the last months, I did some checking and changing. I found the
first ever Amiga user in Antarctica! And now I added the 35th country:
Philippines! Some names are new on the list, some others disappeared.
You find some of the latter on the Lost Links List.

 There is also one totally new page: the New Links List, which shows
recently added/changed names on the GAUHPIL.

 If you didn't visit the GAUHPIL in the recent time, you might be
interested in the References List and the Related Sites page.

 Please note, that my e-mail address has also slightly changed. Please
update your addressbooks now, to the following address:

 dknoll@myokay.net

 Thanks a lot for all your suggestions, comments and hints in all
those years!

 Special thanks to those of you that linked the GAUHPIL on your site.
You are listed on the "Hall of Fame" (see: References & Banners page)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         O P U S   M A G E L L A N   A T   C O L O G N E

8 Nov. 1999

Opus Magellan 5.82 with OS 3.5 Support to be Shown at Cologne

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

 GPSoftware is proud to demonstrate its continuing support for the
Amiga with the release of a new version of Directory Opus Magellan
which supports the new palette mapped icon system of OS 3.5.

 The product will be demonstrated on the Schatztruhe stand at the
Cologne show, November 12-14th November 1999 by Dr Greg Perry.

 Opus Magellan is available world-wide from good Amiga dealers and
GPSoftware distributors. Or you may support the developers by
purchasing direct.

 Free Update Patch available.

 OS 3.5 causes some superficial problems with earlier versions of Opus
because of the new palette mapped icon system which is not
transparently compatibility with earlier programs. With the help of
Olaf Barthel, we have now added support for the new V44 icon library
in OS 3.5.

 A free update patch from Opus 5.81 is available from our web site at

http://www.gpsoft.com.au
----------------------------------------------------------------------

 N O V A   D E S I G N   D I S T R I B U T O R   F O R   O Z ,   N Z

8 Nov. 1999

 Effective immediately, Amiga Innovations has begun handling sales and
distribution of Nova Design, Inc. products in Australia & New Zealand
and areas of Asia Pacific within their distribution network.

 Nova Design are the creators and publishers of ImageFX, the Amiga's
top selling and top rated image editing and special effects package,
and Aladdin 4D, the Amiga's coolest and best entry-level 3D modeling,
rendering and animation package.

 If you've been thinking about buying ImageFX 4.0 with the new
animation features, now is the perfect time to do so! Nova Design,
Inc., in cooperation with Amiga Innovations and all participating
dealers, is offering an Instant $40 Rebate when you buy ImageFX v4.0.
However, this special offer is for a limited time only!

 Amiga Innovations can be found at:

Amiga Innovations
P.O. Box 114
Osborne Park,
Western Australia
Ph./ Fax +61 (08) 9349 0889
Mobile: 0408 929 827

Contact: Dwayne Osborne
Email: dwark@vianet.net.au
Internet: http://surf.to/amigainnovations

Nova Design can be found at:

Nova Design, Inc.
1910 Byrd Avenue, Suite 204
Richmond, VA 23230

Ph.(804) 282-1157
Fax.(804) 282-3768
----------------------------------------------------------------------

               D I G I T A L   A L M A N A C   I I

Digital Almanac II is available!
Suggested Retail Price DM 69.00
US$1.00 = DM 1.82 given current exchange rates.

******
Ordering information:

 The most convenient method of placing an order is to use our
electronic order form located at http://www.schatztruhe.de/order.html.
You can also send an E-Mail to stefano@schatztruhe.de including your
address and the products you wish to order.

******
Digital Almanac II

 Digital Almanac is an astronomy program which offers lots of
possibilities. The program is permanantly improved, so that new
versions are at your disposal.

Digital Almanac offers:

 o Star database with ca. 500,000 stars up to 16m.
 o Cross-index for SAO, PPM, HD, YBS und GC catalogs.
 o About 40000 deep-sky objects (Messier, NGC, IC, UGC, Abell, Zwicky
and other misc objects).
 o More than 55000 minor planets and asteroids as well as the comets
Halley, Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp.
 o Highly accurate calculation of Moon and planets with JPL's
integration tables (DE404). Accuracy partly «0.1'' over a period of
some thousand years !!

 o Jovian, Saturnian and Uranian moons.
 o Textures for all planets and moons.
 o Milky way structure.
 o View the sky from any solar system object.
 o Save animations in IFF-ANIM, QuickTime or MPEG format.
 o Loading and saving of configuration files.
 o Highly optimized algorithms for maximum speed, mostly written in
   assembler. Recognizes CPU for maximum speed.
 o Lots of configuration possibilities.
 o Online and menu help with HELP-key and MUI's bubblehelp.
 o Full Drag&Drop support.
 o Creation and export of ephemeris tables.
 o Picture galery creation.
 o User editable database of orbital elements.
 o Implemetation of the Hubble GSC starc catalog.
 o Control program with ARexx scripts.

Supported software:

 o CyberGraphX for true/hicolor screens.
 o Xpk system to store images in IFF-RGFX format.
 o Turboprint V3 or higher.

Minimum system configuration:

 o OS 3.0 + AGA
 o MC68020/68881 (FPU required!)
 o 4 MB free FastRAM
 o Harddrive
 o MUI 3.8 (included)

Recommended system configuration:

 o OS 3.1
 o MC68040 or MC68060
 o 16 MB FastRAM
 o Graphic card with CyberGraphX 3.x/4.x

******

Stefan Ossowski
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      A W E B   3 . 2   T O   3 . 3   U P D A T E   P A T C H

17 Oct., '99
3.2 to 3.3 Update Patch

Some of the new features:

   o Menus are fully configurable.
   o Navigation buttons are fully configurable, and can be hidden.
   o Displayed pages can be saved as IFF.
   o Improved JavaScript handling.
   o Option to suppress advertising pop-up windows.
   o Handles more JPEG formats.
   o Passive FTP option for better operation through firewalls.
   o Better cookie compatability.
   o Additional ARexx commands.
   o ... and more.

 This is an incremental upgrade from AWeb-II 3.2 to 3.3, you should
only use this patch over an existing AWeb-II 3.2 install. You will
also need the original AWeb-II 3.x disks during the installation.

 Here's all the other 3.3 updates in one place:

Name Version Size (bytes) Description:
======================================

 AutoSearch 3.0 10380 Enhances the AWeb 3.x autosearch function.

 AWebNews 1.98 57697 AWeb News client.

 CacheControl 1.4 37180 (3.3 only) A new GUI with advanced controls
for AWeb's caching.

 DropZone 1.2 35437 (3.3 only) Drag and Drop on WorkBench even if AWeb
is on its own private screen.

 HTTX 2.0 88965 HTML to TEXT converter

 Netsearch 11085 Query multiple search engines.

 Modes 1.2 34310 (3.3 only) Change various AWeb modes from a brand new
GUI window.

 ToolBar 1.3 39408 (3.3 only) Add a floating Tool Bar to control all
your AWeb windows.

 Translate 1.4 37308 Language translation plugin.

 GIF plugin 1.8 16123

 JFIF plugin 1.8 39674

 PNG plugin 1.8 41284

http://www.amitrix.com/aweb.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------

               E L B O X   P R O D U C T   N E W S

9 Nov., '99

ELBOX FastATA4000 Controller is finally available! Features:

 * High-speed FastATA-3/EIDE Controller for Amiga 3000/4000.

 * Fully autoconfig ZORRO III card.

 * The first Amiga 3000/4000 EIDE controller supporting fast PIO-3 and
   PIO-4 modes (for up to 16.6MB/s).

 * Data transfer is several times faster than in any ZORRO II or Fast
   ZORRO II EIDE controllers.

 * Compatible with PIO-0 to PIO-4, UDMA-33, UDMA-66 devices.

 * Two 3.5" IDE ports allow to connect 4 EIDE devices (HDD, CD-ROM,
   CD-R, CD-RW, ZIP, LS-120, DVD) working at full speed.

 * Autobooting from ZIP and LS-120 drives enabled.

 * Supports HDDs > 4GB (SPLIT to 4 GB, NSD, TD64, DirectSCSI).

 * The set includes very advanced FastATA4000 software for controlling
   EIDE devices and the fastest CD file system: AllegroCDFS.

 * More than one ELBOX FastATA 4000 controller can be installed
   simultaneously.

FastATA'99 & AllegroCDFS

 ELBOX Computer are very pleased to provide you with the latest
version of software for ELBOX FastATA(PowerFlyer/Winner) High Speed
EIDE ontroller for A1200. FastATA'99 v4.7 is 100% OS3.5 compatible.

 In FastATA'99 you will find the automatic update for the newest
version of the fastest Amiga CD file system - AllegroCDFS. AllegroCDFS
is over twice as fast as other Amiga CD filesystems. Automatic updates
will work only if you own a registered AllegroCDFS.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                        B O X E R   N E W S

October 12th, 1999

AntiGravity.com Announces 4 new BoXeR Models

 Anti Gravity Products announces 4 new BoXeR models. The Base model
will be similar to those sold in Europe with a wide variety of upgrade
options available. The Neila Phase-498 will be available only to those
who preordered them. Visit our new Build-A-BoXeR page under the BoXeR
button at AntiGravity.com for more details.

 Everyone who preordered an Alien BoXeR system will be given the
option to receive a BoXeR configured closely as possible to the
original Neila Phase-498, or switch to one of the current models. More
information will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

 Access and Blittersoft indicate the the BoXeR is on schedule to ship
at the end of November. Prototypes will be in the hands of the Beta
Testers by the end of October, with the Home Electronics Show in
Cologne, the third week in Novmber, as the likely launch date. Stay
tuned...
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                        Q N X   U P D A T E

 November 1, 1999

 Here's an update on what has been happening since we made the
announcement to release the QNX development system to Amigans:

 How is the Phase 5/QNX alliance proceeding?

 We are currently waiting for boards from Phase 5. Due to the delay we
don't expect to have a Phase 5 solution this year. We will continue to
provide status updates as we know more.

 How will the beta program be handled?

 Historically, we have always had small beta programs because it
allows us to spend more time with each beta developer to better
address their issues and suggestions. We plan to do the same with this
upcoming beta. We will expand the group quickly as we progress.

 The first beta release for the initial smaller group is planned for
early November. This beta will be a full-featured self-hosted
development environment. Over the ensuing months, we will be updating
the betas with more tools, drivers, and applications.

 What will the beta development package include?

 Our first beta is targeted at x86-based computers.

 The beta will contain:

 o QNX Neutrino operating system, including tools and drivers.
 o Photon microGUI windowing system, including a suite of
applications, drivers, and development tools
 o x86-hosted development environment for x86 targets (compiler will
be GCC with GBD for debugging)
 o Online documentation
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                    I M A G E F X   R E B A T E


 If you've been thinking about buying ImageFX 4.0 with the new
animation features, now is the perfect time to do so! Nova Design,
Inc., in cooperation with your favorite Amiga dealers, is offering an
Instant $40 Rebate when you buy ImageFX from any participating dealer.
However, this special offer is for a limited time only!

 ImageFX 4.0

 This new release of ImageFX adds built-in features for editing
animations that are easy to use and powerful. They can be used for
editing Amiga ANIMs, video animations, or web animations. Keyboard
controls, visual controls, and VCR-style controls let you access your
animations easily. ImageFX animation features are built on the amazing
ImageFX layering system which can also allow you to build up complex
images from layers of composited imagery that can be individually
altered anytime you need. Of course ImageFX has all the other features
that have made it the Amiga's Top Rated image editing and special
effects package. Paint tools, image file format conversion, batch
processing, and amazing special effects that are in use by
professionals worldwide.

 Upgrading Old ImageFXs

 If you own a version of ImageFX prior to version 2.0 your upgrade
price is only $149.95. ImageFX 2.x owners can upgrade for only $99.95.
ImageFX 3.x owners can upgrade to ImageFX 4 for only $79.95. Shipping
adds $10 in the continental US, $15 everywhere else in the world.

 Remember though, the rebate does not apply to the upgrades - only to
new purchases! You can order via 1-800-IMAGE-69 in the US and Canada
or call (804) 282-1157 elsewhere. Orders can also be faxed to (804)
282-3768 or mailed to our address.

 Offer Details

 To qualify for the Instant $40 Rebate offer you must buy ImageFX from
a participating reseller, in the U.S. or Canada, between September
20th and December 31st at their regular pricing. The rebate will be
applied immediately at the time of purchase - you will not have to
send anything in and you will not receive anything in the mail, and
you'll get a $40 rebate instantly.

 You can buy ImageFX with this instant rebate at Software Hut, Safe
Harbor and many other Amiga resellers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                 H & P   A N D   I M A G E F X

Nova Design, Inc. teams up with Haage&Partner

 November 5th: Nova Design, Inc. and Haage&Partner announced today
that they have teamed up for the distribution of ImageFX in Germany.
Nova Design, Inc. and Haage&Partner are the two largest Amiga
developers worldwide and collectively make and distribute most of the
Amigas top imaging applications software.

 This partnership will enable ImageFX to reach new markets and new
users in Europe. ImageFX has been the Amiga's leading image editing
and special effects application for over six years since it's
introduction and is the flagship product of Nova Design, Inc.

 ImageFX will be immediately available for purchase from Haage&Partner
at their booth at the Home Electronics Show in Cologne, Germany this
November. Haage&Partner will also be selling upgrades from previous
versions of ImageFX and will also be carrying PowerStation - the
PowerPC module package for ImageFX.

 Other exciting announcements regarding ImageFX and the German market
will be made at the Cologne show and the news will be released
afterwards on the Internet as well.

 Haage&Partner is the leading manufacturer of Development Systems and
Applications for the Amiga family is also the developer and/or
distributor of several cutting edge applications including: StormC,
WarpUP, AmigaWriter, and many others. Our mission is to provide the
Amiga market with the most effective tools and applications possible.

 Nova Design, Inc. is the developer and producer of the Amiga's
leading graphics applications: ImageFX, PowerStation, and Aladdin 4D.
Our longtime presence in the Amiga developer community have put us in
the forefront of many Amiga developments, and our involvement and
background in the Amiga community itself keep us traveling worldwide
supporting Amiga events and promoting our products.

Nova Design, Inc.
1910 Byrd Avenue, Suite 204
Richmond, VA 23230 USA
Customer Support: (804) 282-6528
Business: (804) 282-5868
Fax: (804) 282-3768
www.novadesign.com Haage&Partner Computer GmbH
Schlossborner Weg 7
61479 Glashuetten, Germany
Phone: +49 (6174) 966 100
Fax: +49 (6174) 966 101
www.haage-partner.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

          H & P   R E L E A S E   D E V E L O P E R   C D

4 Nov., '99

AMIGA Developer CD 2.1

 This CD contains all the material you need to start developing
software for Amiga computers. This includes:


 The new 3.5 Native Developer Kit:

 o Updated and revised `C' and assembly language header files and
   linker libraries
 o Updated and revised system documentation and tutorial texts
 o Example code covering the AmigaOS 3.0, 3.1 and 3.5 features
 o The NewIFF v39 package
 o The AmigaGuide adn DataType documentation and example code
 o WarpUP (PowerPC) developer documentation and examples


 Additional developer material:

 o BOOPSI gadget and image classes

 ReActor BOOPSI toolkit and example code

 o The AmigaOS 2.04 example code, as part of the original 2.04 Native
   Developer Kit
 o The RKM 2.04 code examples
 o Tables listing which operating system modules were added, removed
   or updated in subsequent AmigaOS releases
 o The complete set of registered IFF forms
 o IFF example and stress test files
 o All IFF packages released by Commodore-Amiga, Inc., covering 1986
 through 1992
 o The camd v37.1 MIDI developer kit
 o The SANA-II standard package and developer kit
 o The Installer v43.3 package
 o The CDTV developer disks



 International support material:

 o Sample text using the full ISO-8859-1 character set
 o Translation guidelines



 Reference material:

 o The collection of Amiga Mail Volume 1 articles, covering Spring
   1987 through January/February 1989
 o The complete Amiga Mail Volume 2 articles in AmigaGuide format,
   covering January/February 1990 through March/April 1993; also included
   are the printable issues in PostScript and PageStream format
 o The Includes & Autodocs in AmigaGuide format.
 o Revised Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manuals in AmigaGuide format

 HTML versions of all AmigaGuide format manuals



 Historical developer material:

 o DevCon Disks (1988-1993)
 o The CD32 developer package
 o 1.3, 2.0, 3.1 Native Developer Kits

 Packages contributed by 3rd parties:

 The StormC 68K C/C++ developer package

 o The WBPath and ActionFSSM packages, courtesy of Ralph Babel
 o The Personal Paint, CopyIcon, MailBX and DirDiff packages, courtesy
   of Cloanto
 o The INet 225 developer kit, version 2, courtesy of Interworks, Inc.
 o The Picasso96 developer kit, courtesy of Alexander Kneer and Tobias
   Abt
 o The Miami SDK, version 2.1, courtesy of Nordic Global, Inc.
 o The CyberGraphX V4 developer kit, courtesy of Frank Mariak
 o The MMUlib package, courtesy of Thomas Richter; this package
   includes the MuForce tool which is derived from the Enforcer package
   developed by Mike Sinz
 o The Kiskometer and MakeCD packages,courtesy of Angela Schmidt
   and Patrick Ohly
 o The Enforcer v37.64, courtesy of Mike Sinz
 o The Envoy v3.0 developer kit, courtesy of Heinz Wrobel
 o The Wipeout, Blowup and Sashimi debugging tools and the
   "CheckGuide" AmigaGuide file syntax checker written by Olaf Barthel


 The AMIGA Developer CD 2.1 will be officially available beginning
November 15th. It will first be sold at HOME electronics world in
Cologne.

Price: 49 DM (~27 US$)

Haage&Partner Computer GmbH
Schlossborner Weg 7
61479 Glashuetten, Germany
Phone: +49 (6174) 966 100
Fax: +49 (6174) 966 101
www.haage-partner.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             N E W   P I C A S S O   9 6   V E R S I O N

 Version 2.0, November 16th 1999:

* version bump due to large improvements.

* first Draco Altais support.

 o *NEW FEATURE*: added functionality to patch the most common native
 Amiga chipset screen modes to use a Picasso96 board to ease use
 and installation of Picasso96 on systems that don't have a native
 Amiga chipset (like the Macrosystem Draco) or that have no monitor
 attached to the native chip set signal connector or that don't
 have a flicker fixer and no 15 kHz capable monitor. To enable
 this feature add the tool type "FakeNativeModes=Yes" to the
 monitor driver of one of your cards (defaults to "Yes" with the
 Draco Altais and "No" for all other cards) and remove all native
 Amiga monitor drivers (!). Now, when the system uses one of the
 native Amiga screen modes (currently only LowRes, HighRes and
 SuperHighRes and their interlaced counter parts), a 640x480 31kHz
 60Hz screen mode on the graphics card will be used. Note: this
 mode is not configurable and it is not intended to be, because
 you should use real Picasso96 screen mode IDs whenever you can.
 Its only intention is to get the workbench on a VGA compatible
 screen when the current screenmode.prefs contains an invalid mode
 id. May also be useful for some (stupid) programs that default to
 a custom screen with a native Amiga screen mode after
 installation.


 o *NEW FEATURE*: software sprite routines will use on-board blitter
 when available. Therefore boards which have a blitter reserve
 about 12 KB of their memory for sprite and back buffers. This
 might affect the size of the largest screen that can be opened in
 some systems (mostly with 1MB cards).

 o *NEW FEATURE*: alerts (Alert(), DisplayAlert(),
 TimedDisplayAlert()) now are rendered into the front most screen
 if it is a Picasso96 one. After termination of the alert, the
 display is restored.

 o *NEW FEATURE*: board drivers can now prevent the loading and
 attaching of settings files. Useful for the UAEgfx driver that
 creates its own modes and cannot use standard settings
 definitions at all.

 o *NEW FEATURE*: new environment variable "DisableAmigaBlitter"
 which even forces blits on standard planar Amiga bitmaps to be
 performed by the CPU. Set to 'yes' to enable this feature. If you
 don't use native Amiga screens, this could improve some operations
 on fast processors. On the other hand, Amiga screens will be
 slower. Defaults to 'No'.

 o *NEW FEATURE*: new environment variable "PlanesToFast" which when
 set to 'Yes' will allocate planar bitplanes to fast memory except
 when the caller requested a visible or standard bitmap. Defaults
 to 'No'.


 o *NEW FEATURE* user can now allocate private bitmaps that do not
 need to be locked. Especially useful for programs that need
 temporary fast memory bitmaps for rendering.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

     A   N E W   A M I G A   S T O R E   I S   L A U N C H E D

16 Nov 1999

 A new Amiga store is open in Phoenix, Arizona. We have Amiga
computers, software, peripherals, and more! New A4000Ts! O/S 3.5, etc.
Visit www.merlancia.com/store.html for details. Also check out
www.merlancia.com for more info.

-Ryan E. A. Czerwinski
Merlancia@aol.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                        U N I T Y   B O A R D

16 Nov., '99
                            Unity Overview

Abstract:

 Unity alias Zorro1200 is an Autoconfig(TM) board for Amiga. It makes
it possible to use Melody1200 and other expansions initially done for
A1200's clock port for ZorroII/III Computers.

 A special property is variable bus speed. It's possible to run
expansions nearly as slow as in A1200 but it's even possible to go up
to twice that speed known from old Zorro boards like Melody-Z2 or
Prelude.

 Why it's a must have:

 Unity together with:

 o Unity-Net 10 results in an efficient, small low-priced 10Base-2 or
10Base-T solution for Amiga different to other solutions Full
Duplex-Mode (20Mbps) is supported.

 o Unity-Net 100 probably is the first and only 10/100BaseTx solution
for Amiga. It's unique!

 o Melody1200 gives the final move for Melody 1200. being the market
leader regarding audio precission + bandwidth inside every Amiga. Load
is much lower compared to the traditional clock-port connection at
A1200. This even means there is room for a Multichannel variant
Melody1200. Do you want ous to do such solution? Tell ous!

 o Twister1200 primary results in higher throughput. The mayor topic
is having a real Serial High-End Interface at Zorro-Amiga by not
wasting a Zorro slot (since there is the possibility of having an
on-board interface that option should be taken first loosing no
connector). If there is anybody out there who likes to have three very
fast serial interfaces this is possible now.

 o combinations of these and future boards gives maximum flexibility
by using only one Zorro slot

 Features:

 o Zorro2 Autoconfig(TM)
 o Up to 3.5 MB/s bus bandwidth to CPU causing low system load, only
 o two connectors for Melody1200, Twister1200 and other boards
 o 16bits connector intended for Networkoption Unity-Net 10 or 100.

Board is prepared (production time) for mounting further devices:

 o Twister1200-style HighSpeed Serial Interface Onboard
 o xxxx Interface Onboard (secret up to the show;-)

 Requirements:

 o Amiga mit Zorro Slot
 o oder Amiga 1200 mit Bus-Erweiterung

 Status:

 o very early prototype was presented at Computer'98, Cologne
 o final design presented at Home Electronics World in Cologne 1999

http://www.katodev.de/english/unity.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------

           W I P T E O U T   2 0 9 7   O N   M A R K E T

9 Nov 1999

WipeOut 2097 (PPC) is available!
Suggested Retail Price DM 99.90
US$1.00 = DM 1.88 given current exchange rates.

*****
Ordering information:

 The most convenient method of placing an order is to use our
electronic order form located at http://www.schatztruhe.de/order.html.
You can also send an E-Mail to stefano@schatztruhe.de including your
address and the products you wish to order. {Available from other
Amiga dealers also. Brad}

*****
WipeOut 2097

The famous 3D anti-gravity racing game!

 You'll need lightning fast reflexes in this high speed race-n-chase
thriller. Your goal is to stay in first place and defend your glider
against the other pilots. Extreme hairpin turns, gut-wrenching drops
and jumps are boosting the gameplay, while you blast your opponents
with incredible weapons.

/Specifications/

 o Highly detailed 3D graphics
 o 8 tracks with up to 15 ships racing
 o 3 race modes (timetrial/arcade/challenge)
 o 4 racing classes
 o 5 ship models with different characteristics
 o 8 weapons/extras
 o 9 CD audio tracks +- 16 bit sound fx
 o MPEG animations
 o Configurable control via Keyboard/Mouse/Joypad

/Amiga specific features/

 o Runs in a resizable workbench window
 o Supports triple buffering for maximum speed
 o Increased view distance during a race
 o Fogging effect
 o Mip mapping/trilinear filtering (with suitable hardware)
 o Gamma correction
 o Optional frame rate limitation
 o Brings optimum PPC and 3D gaming to the Amiga for the first time!

/System Requirements/

 o PowerPC 603e or better
 o 3D graphics card such as CyberVision64/3D, CyberVisionPPC or
BVisionPPC
 o 1Mb hard drive space (minimum)
 o 24Mb Fast RAM (minimum)
 o CD-ROM drive
 o OS 3.0 or better
 o CybergraphX/Picasso 96 software
 o WarpUP V4 software (included)
 o Warp3D V2 software (included)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

              M I K R O   M O R T A L   T E N N I S

28 Oct., '99
You wanted it here it is.

 Mikro Mortal Tennis aims to become the craziest game ever in the
videogame history!! As you can guess from the title, it is basically
founded on tennis game, but its goal is to eliminate your opponents,
not simply to defeat them!!!

 To this purpose, players might make use of loads of Mortal-Kombat and
Street-Fighter-like special moves, in addition to many others,
directly taken from lots of famous videogames or films. Besides, there
are bombs, Fire'n'forget rockets, heat-seeking missiles at their
complete disposal... The game boasts an amusing animated intro which
will explain the reason of such a strange tournamnet - by the way,
your order is to climb a high mountain, just like the second episode
of the Mortal Kombat saga; moreover, it features several victory and
defeat pictures and an even more crazy final sequence than the intro!!

 Players can choose their characters from a range of twelve different
guys, each distinguished with typical characteristics, which can be
edited in the proper menu. Beyond every human conceiving, the game is
spangled with lots of mad things, like referee-slaughtering, animals
which will appear in the field, VIPs which will perform during the
match, and a mysterious tapir named Fart (main character of the game,
as you can be able to guess from the introduction) which will perform
in a number of funny anims.. At the beginning of the match the players
will enter the field and choose the field in which play with an
incredible money trowing!! Of course, the sporting side of the game is
not to be under-stimated.. You'll always have to win your match!! From
this point of view, the game is classicaly structured: pitch type,
number of sets to win, type of game (single, double or training),as
well as the type of tournament to join; you'll be able to select, in
addition to the above-mentioned MK-style tournament, an UNFRIENDLY
tournament in which up to eight human players are allowed to take
part, or a full season, where player will have to win as much as
possible to travel all over the world, and in order to buy weapons and
points which will help him in his short career. It's possible to save
and subsequently restore your season from disc as well as every change
made in the players editing menu, where you're able to change the
name, the characteristics and the shirt colour of all the
characters...

 Well, that's all, there's nothing left but wishing you to enjoy Mikro
Mortal Tennis! Mikro Mortal Tennis supports all Amiga models with at
least 1 Meg of Ram.

 Mikro Mortal Tennis authors are:
 Coding: Davide Mancusi - Marco Pacifico
 Graphics: Marco Pacifico - Sergio Rocco
 Additional graphics: Enrico Zerbo
 Musics & sfx: Alex Ascione
 Storyboard: Valerio Massari - Stefano Gualeni

The game is expeceted to retail around the 15 ukp mark.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
 All back issues available at:
    http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1999 by Brad Webb.    Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
                 _    __      _     <>_   __      _
   A M I G A    /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\      A M I G A
  U P D A T E  /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\    U P D A T E
              /    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_
                    amigaupdate@globaldialog.com
======================================================================

From:     "Colin-Stewart Bridge Deady" csbdeady@mythicz.u-net.com
Date:     21 Nov 99 20:15:46 +0000
Subject:  [KOSH] Summary 28
To:       kosh-general@iconimaging.net
Reply-To: kosh-general@iconimaging.net

Hi all

Enclosed is Summary no. 28 - at last. Apologies for the long wait.

I feel I may not have done justice to a couple of the concepts present
- if so please post a reply with suggested ammendments and I'll
incorporate them.

-Bridge

-----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.mythicz.u-net.com | DT-MUD:sunsite.auc.dk:4242
Amigan | Vegan | KOSHan - "across the crocodile pond with
nitroglycerine on a pogo stick" http://www.iconimaging.net/kosh/
===========================================================


2: ksum28.txt
-----------------------------------------------------------
KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Summary

Inclusive of Dates: 25th September 1999 to 20th November 1999

Number: 028

Mailing List: kosh-general@iconimaging.net

I'm happy to receive comments on this summary (and corrections if I have made
mistakes). Email me (Bridge) at kosh-scribe@mythicz.u-net.com

In the mailing list these last few weeks, the following items were discussed.


a)

Subject: Formalising past KOSH discussions

Summary of debate: It was discussed at length that there is a need to look over
                   past debates on items relevant to KOSH and to present these
                   in a more formal manner. One of the main reasons for this is
                   in order to prevent information relevant to KOSH from being
                   lost in historical records. Instead we would like to take
                   these ideas and cement them into positive feedback for the
                   KOSH project as a whole as an aid to providing further
                   direction for KOSH.

                   In order to accomplish this, it was suggested that voluntary
                   Working Groups be organised, each of which would present a
                   document on a selected topic - based mainly (but not
                   exclusively) on the summaries and other documents from the
                   various mailing lists.

                   Alternatively a more fluid approach could be used in which
                   each person who was interested in contributing to a document
                   on a particular subject would hold the document for a week
                   or two at a time, add their own ideas and correct the
                   previous holder's mistakes (changes being discussed and
                   agreed to by both parties), then pass it on to the next
                   person. When passed around a turn without getting any more
                   changes, the document would be trimmed, signed and posted on
                   the ML where a few additional changes could take place
                   before it is put on the website.

                   It was suggested that working groups can on occasion be
                   inefficient due to large numbers of people being involved.
                   Therefore perhaps 3-6 people should be the limit per topic.

                   A small group of KOSHans is looking into this.


b)

Subject: KOSH Introductory Website

Summary of debate: Marcus Petersson has written some material for an
                   introductory website to KoshOS (thanks Marcus) - if anyone
                   has any information which would be useful for this worthy
                   project please contact Marcus via the ML.


c)

Subject: Connection troubles resolved

Summary of debate: Between the last summary and this one there have been a
                   couple of instances when access to
                   kosh-general@iconimaging.net vanished. Thanks to Jason
                   Radford for putting the bits back in place. Certainly for
                   the last few weeks there have been no connection problems
                   (to my knowledge).


d)

Subject: GPL

Summary of debate: The idea of the Gnu Public Licence was discussed in
                   depth. It was suggested that KOSH should be put into GPL,
                   and this received a mixed response. It was stated that
                   distributing GPL items along with private items is OK as
                   long as clear notices are maintained in the appropriate
                   places.

                   It was further stated that any software programs
                   including or derived from GPL source must be covered by the
                   GPL itself. That doesn't mean that whole suites would become
                   GPL, but would mean that the relevant subsystem would.

                   It was felt by some that GPL could be contrary to the aims
                   of KOSH and therefore should be avoided.

                   However there is also the LGPL or Library Gnu Public Licence
                   which applies to libraries. This licence exist to guarantee
                   that the user still has the ability to modify the library
                   under LGPL but not the product using the library (although
                   the product can be GPL).

                   You can charge for distributing LGPL and GPL software
                   as long as this is limited to things like covering media and
                   postage costs for example.

                   See http://www.gnu.org for more information on Gnu.

                   This debate (as with many) is set to continue.


e)

Subject: KOSH Contacts database

Summary of debate: Suggested was a contacts database for KOSH that would
                   include all "known" KOSHans, others who have a slight
                   interest, developers, newspapers, magazines, etc.

                   This would be useful in two ways. Firstly (and obviously)
                   that it would enable easy dissemination of information
                   relevant to KOSH. Secondly it would be a tool to demonstrate
                   that KOSH is definitely alive and well.

                   Part of this information is available at
                   http://www.iconimaging.net/kosh/kommunity/developers.html


f)

Subject: K and C

Summary of debate: For those that may be wondering, "Kommunity" on the KOSH
                   website is now "Community" due to Babelfish translation
                   problems. KOSH is still KOSH and not COSH as a COSH involves
                   to clubbing people.


g)

Subject: "KOSH UK" meet.

Summary of debate: John Chandler and Greg Webb and I (Bridge Deady) seem to
                   have become "KOSH UK" in that we are all ahem in the UK,
                   are thinking of KOSH at World of Amiga 2000 in the UK and
                   we also recently took part in a KOSH Q&A session via IRC
                   hosted at the Cologne Fair in Germany.

                   If anyone else is in the UK (or abroad and is willing to
                   fly over) and is interested in a "get together" sometime
                   please let us know as this is something we are thinking of.


h)

Subject: User Interface Website

Summary of debate: See http://www.iarchitect.com/mshame.htm which covers
                   examples of good and bad user interface design.


i)

Subject: KOSH Virtual Credits and taxation

Summary of debate: A query was raised concerning tax laws in countries such as
                   the UK and the KOSH Virtual Credits scheme. In the UK
                   (amongst other countries presumably) virtual credits would
                   be liable for tax but that tax would have to paid in UK
                   pounds sterling.

                   It was discussed that if sales are made to EC countries
                   above a certain threshold (apr £70,000 p.a. for the UK) then
                   the seller must register for VAT in that country.

                   This is something to bare in mind but won't become an issue
                   for a while yet.


j)

Subject: KOSH web site updated

Summary of debate: The KOSH website at http://kosh.convergence.org and
                   http://www.iconimaging,net/kosh amongst others has been
                   updated a number of times since the last summary. Feel free
                   to have a quick browse.


k)

Subject: EROS goes GPL

Summary of debate: EROS have gone GPL. See:
                   http://www.eros-os.org/ and for a discussion on this,
                   http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/10/28/0151212&mode=nes


l)

Subject: Licencing parts of KOSH

Summary of debate: It was suggested that we could make a simple policy over
                   licensing of our software. Whenever any module is withdrawn
                   from our distribution it could be put on a countdown for a
                   fixed period. We have the duration of that period to reverse
                   the decision and put it back in under our own terms, but
                   once that period has expired, the source and binary are
                   released under a simple freeware licence.

                   A similar idea was previously discussed in that software
                   developed for KOSH could be given a particular licence that
                   stated the software would lapse into the public domain if
                   certain criteria had not been fulfilled.

                   At the very least the sources released would be of
                   educational use and would hopefully spark off further
                   development. This idea of software licencing received a
                   favourable response from those that commented on it.

                   It was further suggested that some sort of "auction" of old
                   code could take place to generate funds for KOSH (and the
                   author of the code) before it was placed into a free-ish
                   -ware state. This could however allow large corporations to
                   take over KOSH and therefore a limit on the size of bids
                   would be needed. Even so this could cause problems.

                   If an "auction" was implemented then to prevent corporations
                   from buying code and then leaving it dormant a clause in the
                   auction could be that if a new version of the code updated
                   from the original is not forthcoming after a specified time
                   then the code reverts to being the property of KOSH.

                   Overall the idea of code becoming freeware under a licence
                   as discussed initially received a more favourable response
                   than that of an "auction" based system. None of this is
                   supposed to remove the rights programmers have over their
                   own code.

                   It was then suggested that a version of the Mozilla Public
                   Licence may be appropriate. This allows retention of
                   copyright but opens up the potential for others to develop
                   the code.


m)

Subject: KAROS (KOSH hosted on AROS)

Summary of debate: A discussion on hosting KOSH on AROS was held. At least
                   two ideas were forthcoming:

                   1) AROS can either run standalone or on another OS such as
                   KOSH (once KOSH itself is running of course),

                   2) AROS could be used as  a basic services provider for
                   KOSH allowing us to implement other things without having to
                   spend a large amount of time getting a filesystem, device
                   drivers, etc written first.

                   This is not to detract from the thoughts on hosting KOSH on
                   Linux, AmigaOS, MacOS, Win32, etc. but merely adds another
                   possibility.

                   AROS is available from: ftp://www.aros.org/pub/aros/


n)

Subject: Distribution format

Summary of debate: It was suggested that KOSH could be distributed on DVD
                   rather than CD which would then enable a program on the DVD
                   to create a hosted-KOSH CD for any given OS. This would
                   enable one DVD to contain versions of KOSH for a large
                   number of systems.

                   However it is hoped that KOSH will be compact enough not to
                   require a DVD for distribution! It was also mentioned that
                   DVD is still not commmonplace everywhere.


o)

Subject: Linux, GPL and KOSH

Summary of debate: It was queried as to whether an OS running hosted through
                   Linux automatically GPL'd? While the LGPL only covers the
                   module concerned, the GPL infects everything it touches.


p)

Subject: KOSH featured at the Cologne Fair.

Summary of debate: KOSH were kindly invited by Hendrik Hoener of Amiga UGN
                   Germany to take a slot in an IRC conference that they are
                   hosting during the Cologne fair. We were represented by Greg
                   Webb, John Chandler and myself (Bridge Deady). We were
                   slotted in directly after Petro Tyschtschenko of Amiga which
                   provided us with a prominent mid-afternoon position.

                   The log of the session, while being a little bit difficult
                   to follow in places (due to three people answering different
                   questions at the same time) can be found at
                   http://ugn.amiga.org/events/hew99.shtml - (Scribe's note: if
                   it becomes unavailable, email me and I'll send you a copy).

                   The main issue that came to light was that a lot of people
                   simply did not know what KOSH is. We fielded a lot of
                   questions to this effect. We gave plenty of references to
                   the website and this ML as well as providing both short and
                   lengthy descriptions.

                   Various other items of great relevance were discussed - and
                   it was mentioned to those online at the time that KOSH will
                   consider these. There will be a threaded summary of the
                   proceedings available from myself in the near future which
                   we can all digest.


q)

Subject: Formalising documentation of past discussions

Summary of debate: Greg Webb, John Chandler and Marcus Petersson have been
                   discussing a proposal for a system to make it easier for
                   more than one person to work on a document. If you would
                   like to be involved in this please contact one of the above
                   via the ML.


r)

Subject: KOSH IRC

Summary of debate: A KOSH IRC session in the nearish future was proposed. This
                   is under consideration.


s)

Subject: KOSH at World of Amiga 2000

Summary of debate: This has been suggested on numerous occasions and hopefully
                   we will have more news on this idea soon.


t)

Subject: Protecting systems with an "undo" feature

Summary of debate: It was suggested that
                   http://www.powerquest.com/en/secondchance/index.html and
                   http://www.go-back.co.uk/start.htm should interest people as
                   they do this. GoBack may be a better model to work from as
                   it uses it's own partition structure to store the data,
                   while SecondChance just uses ordinary files which need
                   clearing out and cannot be so easily overwritten if the user
                   needs the space.

• Heretic 2 (exclusive first review)
• Hell Squad (exclusive first review)
• Whales Voyage 2 (exclusive first review)
• Mikro Mortal Tennis (exclusive first review)
• Bertie's Animal Kingdom (exclusive first review)

• Rise of the Robots
• Chaos Engine

• Amiga OS 3.5
• Power Tower

1. As previously announced, FusionPPC for Amiga was not released on November 20th as scheduled.
2. FusionPPC development for Amiga is continuing as normal.
3. Jim Drew explained that the project is in advanced state of completion, and everything is done to have a release version ready by christmas.
4. Like stated in the prepayment contract, all customers are free to cancel the contract with Microcode Solutions in writing. The money is transferred back within 30 days after recieving the cancelling note. This was stated clearly on the webpage, top of the online ordering form.

• reworked shell user interface
• completely rewritten AmigaOS code
• MPEG: VLayer support
• MPEG: some optimizations in the decoder
• MPEG: faster YUV->RGB converting
• MPEG: greyscale window on Workbench with 15/16/24 bit
• MPEG: 2-width HAM about 40% faster
• MPEG: greyscale playback about 20% faster
• QT: index creation many hundred times faster
• QT/AVI: CVID decoder bugged in v1.26
• QT/AVI: YUY2 decoder playing movies upside down
• bugfix: a char array being copied to unallocated memory

• paying back the prepaiments, aborting the project!! (NO!!)
• continuing the project, finishing by christmas. BUT: Only for those who pre-ordered and pre-payed (hardware dongle) (not so great either)
• bumping the price to 299 USD (probably by christmas, too) (oops, expensive...)
• hoping that those who stated interest in FusionPPC will finally place their prepayment so the project can be finished quickly by external reinforcements.

1. Completely abandon the project and refund the money to those individuals who did pre-pay.
2. Continue the project with our normal staff and have the emulation available by Christmas, only to those who pre-paid (no sales to those who did not pre-pay... and use a hardware based dongle to eliminate piracy).
3. Continue the project with our normal staff, and raise the price of the emulation now to $299.95.
4. Please with the public to pay if you pledged to pre-pay and hope that the money comes in so that we can send out some of the work to expidite the process.

From:       "Steve Crietzman" president@savetheamiga.org.uk
Subject:    Open Letter to the Amiga Community
Date:       Wed, 17 Nov 1999 13:01:03 -0000

An Open Letter to the Amiga Community:

 COSA Progress Update

 November 17, 1999

 Dear Fellow Amigans:

 COSA feels it is time that we followed up on our open letters to Tom
Schmidt with a letter to the people that really matter: you, the
members of the Amiga community.

 We have so much news to report, and so much progress has been
made in recent weeks, that we felt it was time that we the community
on to date on our progress.

I want to start by thanking everyone who has written us with good
comments and suggestions over the past several weeks.  I also
want to assure you all that we have read each and every e-mail
message sent to us very carefully, and considered the issues you
have raised in great detail.

It is clear to us that there is still a great deal of confusion amongst the
community as to what COSA is doing, and what we are trying to achieve.
The responsibility for this lies with me, for not properly communicating
our plans to the Amiga community.  I would like to make amends for that
now, by taking a leaf out of Jim Collas's book, and providing you with
regular updates on our progress from this point forwards.

I would like to start by tackling the main issues of confusion: explaining
who COSA is, where we came from, and why we're here.

COSA, the Campaign to Open Source AmigaOS, had it's beginnings
soon after the Amiga executive updates of September 14th and
17th.  We were formed to bring together the Amiga community, and
to discuss ways forward for the Amiga.

On October 4th, after several weeks of discussion and exchanging of
ideas, we came to the conclusion that what makes the Amiga special
and unique, is the operating system.  The technology may be falling
behind, but our operating system still has something special and unique
to offer the world, and that's what has really kept us with the platform
through the last several years.

With this in mind, our discussions then focused on ways to preserve and
expand the Amiga operating system.  We discussed many
possibilities.  But we realised we also needed to think long-term.  Not
just about the immediate future of the operating system, but it's long-
term survival and growth, in a highly competitive, ever-changing
computing industry.

We concluded that to survive in this market, Amiga OS needs to be
overhauled and upgraded.  It needs to be brought up-to-date to take
advantage of new hardware and concepts in software engineering that
have emerged over the past six years.

Amiga OS also needs to be made available to the masses.  As much
as we wish it wasn't true, the traditional Amiga market is shrinking.  The
classic Amiga range is no longer competitive or attractive to the masses,
and therefore people will not be rushing to their local computer stores to
buy new Amigas.

For it's long-term survival and growth, Amiga OS also needs to be made
available to a wide variety of CPUs, or what Jim Collas referred to as
"operating environments."

Devoid of Gateway's official support for an aggressive expansion of the
Amiga OS in this way, we need to search for another large group of
people with the necessary commitment and ability to "make it happen."

We need to look no further than the high degree of talent that already
exists in the Amiga developer community.  We have AROS.  We have the
Aminet freeware developers.  We have commercial developers.  And
we have over 100 registered developers who have already pledged
to work on an open-source Amiga OS if it becomes available.

Collectively, the worldwide Amiga development community has the
manpower and experience necessary to bring the Amiga operating
system into the 21st century, and keep the Amiga vision alive.

The Amiga community needs to unite like never before.  We can no
longer rely on anyone but ourselves, because there is no-one else
left.

No Commodore.  No Escom.  No Gateway.

Just the Amiga community of users, developers and dealers - no
parent company to guide us.

With no parents, it becomes time we became responsible for
ourselves - that we collectively pull our resources together, and
convince Gateway to let the community have a go where others
have failed.

COSA has been in contact with many key players in the Amiga
community to discuss the way forward.  These include Amiga
International, Amino, Haage and Partner, AROS, Project IMP,
PowerOS, and even Tom Schmidt at Amiga Inc.  We are
partners in this process.

Collectively, we are working together to create a roadmap for the
future development of the Amiga operating system.

It is important people realise that we are not creating a new
Amiga OS.  We are not replacing it, either.  Our proposal is for the
community to collectively drive future upgrades of the current Amiga
operating system.  To take what we already have, and build upon
it.

By "community," we do not exclude anyone.  Anyone with an Amiga
or who understands the Amiga is included.  Haage and Partner,
the current developers of OS 3.5, are most certainly not excluded
from taking part in this process.

Our vision includes Haage and Partner at the forefront of Amiga
OS development, supported by a worldwide team of open-source
developers.  We are hopeful of reaching an agreement/compromise
with H&P over a role for their company and developers in the future
development of an open-source AmigaOS.

Together, we hope to present a united plan to Amiga Inc to bring the
Amiga operating system closer to the community.  It is way past time
that the community takes charge of it's own destiny, and we believe
open-sourcing the OS is the easiest and most common-sense, long-
term way to do this.

In the coming weeks, a Frequently Asked Questions section will
be created on COSA's website to address the most common
questions, concerns, ideas, and thoughts presented to us.  We
will also be publishing a green paper that details a possible
migration from the current closed-source system to an inclusive
open-source system, whereby everyone - Haage and Partner,
AROS, PowerOS, Aminet developers, everyone - is able to
contribute and work on the Amiga OS project - building on
what we already have, and improving it.

The weeks and months ahead hold much promise.  All we ask
from you, the community, is to give us time, and a little breathing
room.

We do not yet have all the answers, but as time passes, more and
more questions are being asked, more answers to these questions
found, and the mist that obscures the path ahead is clearing.

We realise the community has been let down many times in the past,
and we do not expect to earn your trust or faith overnight. All we ask
is that you give us a chance, and that you give us time.  We hope,
however, that over the long-term, COSA will be able to earn your
trust and restore your faith in the Amiga platform and it's future.

Because at the end of the day, it is the Amiga community that we
serve.  COSA is here to help bring the community together, into
discussion and dialogue, and help us collectively find a way out of
the fog that currently obscures the future of everyone's favourite OS.

>From recent events, it would seem that AROS, Project IMP,
PowerOS, Haage and Partner, Amiga International and COSA
are all in total agreement that discussion and co-operation, and
not competition, is the way forward for our community.

COSA has succeeded in bringing these groups to talk to each
other.  Now COSA hopes to play a role in finding an open-source
solution that will satisfy these groups and bring a bright future to
the Amiga operating system, and we intend to do just that.

If we stand together as a community, we can collectively ensure
the success of our favourite operating system, AmigaOS.  If we are
divided, we will all collectively fail.

We ask that the community gives the process that COSA has fostered
a chance to develop and grow, and allow these groups to co-operate with
each other and find a common settlement that will be of benefit to
Amigans everywhere.

Your own contributions to this process would be much appreciated.
Visit our website for details on how you can help this process succeed.

COSA is here to help Amigans everywhere by giving Amiga OS a bright
future.

Best regards,

Steve Crietzman
President, Campaign to Open Source AmigaOS
On behalf of our members and partners
http://www.savetheamiga.org.uk/

• make the name and person Karsten Obarski known for what he did and which music he created
• collect as many greetings for him as possible
• make contact with him and deliver the greetings

• Canon BJC 1000, 2000, 4400, 6100, 7100
• Epson Stylus Photo 750, 1200
• Epson Stylus Color 460, 660, 760, 860, 900

• Visual Border 25 $
• Visual Logo 25 $
• Visual Puzzle 9 $

• Visual Border & Visual Logo = 45 $ (250 FIM, 43 EUR)
  +Visual Puzzle for FREE

• Visual Border
  Takes an image and applies different kind of border effects to it. Useful for a website designer and as a video background graphic maker.
  In numbers there's currently roughly more than 50 different types of effects, but as you can easily apply different kind of border -effects to the same image, there's actually thousands of different kind of effects.
  Image Engineer itself offers possibility to use alphachannel masks, but Visual Border uses them more effectively.
• Visual Logo
  Takes black and white text and outputs different kind of logos.
  Currently there's tens of different kind of effects with easy to use adjustments.
  Philosophy of Visual Logo is that all the effects can easily be composited together, so there's actually lots of different kind of effects.
• Visual Puzzle
  Takes an image and creates a random puzzle.
  There's corner pieces, edge pieces and the rest.
  It's possible to create own puzzlepieces.

• Friday
• Saturday
• Sunday
• Special: AmiJoe A1200 G3 board

Directory    Size            Files         Contents

biz           25 MB           66           Business software
comm          37 MB          120           Communications
demo         117 MB           70           Graphics & sound demo
dev           25 MB           93           Development software
disk           1 MB           18           Disk & HD tools
docs          95 MB          122           Documents
game          90 MB          114           Games
gfx           27 MB           98           Graphics software
hard          12 MB           18           Hardware related
misc          57 MB           46           Miscellaneous
mods         300 MB          203           Music modules
mus           27 MB           40           Music software
pix           73 MB           81           Pictures
text           3 MB           24           Text software
util          41 MB          176           Utilities

• bugfix in 68060 version; some games showed gfx bugs (Ashguine; MonMonMonster; SuperRambo)
• fast gfx output for screens 5 & 7 (CybergraphX)
• definite speed increases when using on workbench

• improved, faster console (editing and input capabilities)
• security aspects expanded
• personal settings offer more flexibility
• new functionality and improvements in all previously implemented functions

• DM2.lha
• DM2docs.lzx
• DM2beta.lzx

• SvIV-1.lha
• SvIV-2.lha
• SvIV-3a.lha
• SvIV-4.lha
• SvIV-5.lha

• gfx/misc/SvIV-1.lha (310K) - main program
• gfx/misc/SvIV-2.lha (213K) - documentation
• gfx/misc/SvIV-3a.lha (136K) - SVObjects (JPEG, PNG, PCX, BMP, ILBM)
• gfx/misc/SvIV-3b.lha (219K) - OPTIONAL, more SVObjects
• gfx/misc/SvIV-4.lha (41K) - SVDrivers
• gfx/misc/SvIV-5.lha (60K) - SVOperators
• gfx/misc/SvIV-6.lha (62K) - OPTIONAL, SVOperators from SQ
• gfx/misc/SvIV-7.lha (116K) - modules optimized for 68020+
• gfx/misc/SvIV-8.lha (217K) - localization (not English, German)
• gfx/misc/SvIV-PPC.lha (943K) - PPC modules (registered users only)

• device now 68000 compatible
• A600 adapter supported
• crashes with Z4 board fixed
• Installer script optimized
• successful installation can now be checked by the power LED "morse code" even without a 15kHz monitor

• Bugs have been removed. There have been problems with collision control. It now works faster and more reliable, but needs some more work.
• The sound mixing code has been implemented. It is a very flexible system. A total of 12 sounds can be mixed with their exact 3D position, and be reproduced in stereo via the inverse square law. Moreover, a realistic doppler effect simulation is available. All this runs on the Amiga soundchip "Paula", and will be optimised by Assembler code.
• Talks have been made with several bands about the soundtrack. Perhaps more in the next update.

• VRML
• PDF (Acrobat)
• Quicktime VR
• RealAudio
• VFlashPPC

• Networking mode now functional
• new c2p RTG-Master graphics mode "Lucy"
• numerous bugfixes