Commodore Amiga Retro

Amiga Format

AMIGA FORMAT: Issue 41 Dec 1992
The Worlds Best Selling Amiga Magazine

( and we have three new arrivals )

Whilst producing this I am listening to
`Everybody`s Girlfriend`

.. Plus your essential XMAS Amiga gift guide

DON`T MISS THIS ! TWO NEW AMIGAS:
A1200 Revealed: A4000 Reviewed

COVER DISKS: Two this issue with a
word processing theme.

Aha, so you spotted those two square plastic
things stuck to the front cover, did you ?
Well if you don`t know what they are or what
to do with them, fear not - Andy Nuttall and
Pat McDonald are here to show you round.

Once again we`ve got two disks this month. Please
note that the Wordworth 2 demo is actually on
the Scribble program disk. Coverdisk 41a. The
other disk contains the demo of the game Nigel
Mansell, the virus killer utilities and the
Bullfrog`s programming tutorial code.

Anti Virus Software: BOOTX by Peter Steur
FIRST AN APOLOGY: This program will not
work from the Coverdisk on Kickstart 1.3
machines.

MAXIS MAGIC: SimEarth RoboSport A-Train
Inspired by James Lovelock`s Gaia hypothesis
Sim Earth looks at the world as one interrelated
living organism........

HMV G A M E S : Check out the latest
Road Rash, Desert Strike, Streetfighter, 2 Lemmings 2

COVERDISK TUTORIAL:

Digita Wordworth version 2 Simply The Best.

.. You may never have considered that you needed
a word processor - but now you`ve got one, hell
you may as well make the most of it. Andy Nuttall
takes you through the basics of Scribble !

... Scribble is one of the rare things in life; its
useful and it hasn`t cost you the earth.

SPECIAL RESERVE Games Club:
Amiga 600 Lemmings Pack - 299.99
Free Deluxe Paint 3, Lemmings, Built in TV modulator
1 Meg RAM expandable to 2 Mb, 1 year home warranty.
Amiga 600 Wild, Weird and Wicked Pack £319.99
Amiga 600HD Epic Pack £449.99
A500 GVP HD8+52 Megabyte £314.99

THE AMAZING NEW AMIGA 1200:
Just look at this line up......
Faster Motorola 68020 processor !
A 32-bit, not 16-bit, machine !
2Mb of RAM built in !
Double A, or `AGA`, chip set !
24 bit 16,777,216-colour palette !
256-colour, `VGA-style` games screens !
A numeric keypad !
All for only £399.99 !

THE BAD NEWS: Only 30,000 of them will
be shipped into the UK before Christmas.

The suprise release of the year, possible
even of the decade, this new Amiga breaks
completely new ground. It`s faster, more
powerful and has more colours than anything
you`ve ever seen at this price. Damien Noonan
reveals the details and discusses the astonishing
implications.

YOU CAN`T HELP being impressed. This is the machine
we`ve all been waiting for, though we couldn`t
have imagined Commodore would release it now.
This is one hell of an Amiga.

DISCUSSING THE AMIGA RANGE.."We have something in
the region of 1.3, 1.4 million Amigas in the
country " Kelly Summer reported.." We believe
the Amiga is still the state-of-the-art. Just
for the record, last month we sold 64,000 Amigas
in the UK - which wasn`t quite a record but it
was close"

Most of the new Amigas have been the A600` " Its
more cost effective and more importantly to us,
it`s more reliable than the A500 "

.. A potential scenario, then, sees the A600 as a
true console beating, C64-style low cost
computer, with a further price drop from £299.
For now, though we can be safe in the knowledge
that the basic A600 is still one hell of a
computer - and the aspirational A1200 is a
demon machine.

If your wondering what`s next , consider this :
Commodore have more machines on the way yet, we
reckon. Next year could well bring a new A2000-
style machine. And by the end of next year,
we`re going to see the first true CD-driven Amiga.

CDTV DOWN IN PRICE TO £399:
Commodore finally come round to bringing the CDTV
into a seriously competative position. But where
will it be next year when we are bound to see an
Amiga with built-in CD-ROM.

A4000 PRICE SHOCK:
The A4000, released in the UK at £2099, was out
in Germany a few weeks ago for £1480.

A600 PC EMULATOR:
Rumours abound that Commodore in America are
working on an official PC emulator for the
A600 and it may emulate a speedy 386 PC.

SCSI FOR A4000:
One thing that has been putting people off
about the A4000 is that Commodore have switched
to IDE hard drive connectors. SCSI 2 is still
pretty much the standard in high-end machines
so that`s bad news; but Calculus are now
developing a SCSI adaptor for the A4000.

PCMCIA CARDS ARRIVE FOR THE A600:
Opinion is still deeply divided over whether
the PCMCIA `credit card` slot is a good or a
bad idea. But one thing`s for sure - you can
now do something with it, as a flood of RAM
cards appears.

FINAL COPY II VERSION AT LAST:
Gordon Harwood Computers have managed to secure
a deal with American firm Softwood for their new
word processor Final Copy II .. £99.95

AMAZING NEW GRAPHICS TECHNIQUE HITS THE AMIGA:
There`s a brand new Amiga pursuit in town: It`s
called morphing and is widely touted as the
technique that has transformed modern cinematic
special effects.

GAMES: THIS MONTHS TOP 30:
1: Zool
2: Lotus 3: The Ultimate Challenge
3: Sensible Soccer
4: Shadow of the Beast 3
5: Civilisation
6: Graham Taylor` Soccer Challenge
7: The Secret of Monkey Island 2
8: Lure of the Temptress
9: Putty
10: Jimmy White`s Whirlwind Snooker.

POWER GOES ON LINE:
Power Computing have just set up a new
in-house bulletin board system called
the Power House. On it, they propose to
offer thousands of PD and Shareware programs
for the Amiga thanks to a 68040-based A2000
with a 1.4 Gigabyte hard drive.

THE NEIL JACKSON INTERVIEW: Gerard Bucas, president
of GVP. If the Amiga is not a `big machine` in the
United States, then how come Great Valley Products
make so much money and such advanced Amiga
peripherals. Neil Jackson tracks down GVP`s founder
and president Gerard Bucas at his Pennsylvania HQ
and gets some answers.." I had been at Commodore
and I saw some really big potential opportunities.
There were no serious companies in the (Amiga)
after-market and I guess the most important thing
I decided was ` Let me try and do my own thing `"

GUNSHIP 2000: Bringing the Battle to Your Amiga

THE VIRTUAL AMIGA: Is there an area of computing
that doesn`t involve the Amiga in some way ?
Andy Nuttall thinks not, and sets out to a `real`
Nottingham to report on the Amiga-produced
Virtual Reality.

John Hare of `Sensible Soccer` said.."If somebody
could get themselves a decent sex life out of their
home computer, domestic VR would be incredible
popular.. "

FIRST COMPUTERS: Two page add
Amiga A4000: £2099
Amiga A3000: £1599
Amiga A500+: £294
Amiga A600: £269
Amiga A600HD: £426-£559
Amiga A1500: £539
CDTV: £369
Commodore 1960: £436

THE WOLF IN SHEEPS CLOTHING: The A4000

The first thing that strikes you about the
machine is how pale it is - much whiter than
previous serious Amigas. Together with the
heavily indented logo, the machine looks
like a block of ice. When you actually set
to play on one, it`s noticable contrast between
how sweet and innocent the machine looks,
and how powerful it is in relation to all other
computers in this price range and many others
above too,

THE HARDWARE:
Super Gary ( Hard Drive & General I/O )
Kickstart ROMs
Super Ramsey ( ROM Controller )
Lisa ( AA Chipset Denise )
Super Amber ( Flicker Fixer )
Alice ( AA chipset Agnus )
Paula ( Same as ever )
32-bit SIMM RAM
Floppy Disk Drive
IDE Hard Drive
Processor Board
Zorro III Expansion Slots
Mouse and Joystick Ports
Main Circuit Boards

THE BEST CPU IN THE WORLD:
The actual 68040 is hidden beneath a massive
heat sink. This is the really stunning bit
of the A4000. The processor has its own
seperate board - so if you want an even faster
machine in years to come, you will be able to
change just the board for performance that`s
outrageously good by today`s standards.

In many ways the A4000 is an answer to the critics
who said Commodore were not doing enough research
and development ; that although they dominate
some markets , in a couple of years the Amiga will
be forgotten.

Everything is new, or has a changed element. The
keyboard is exactly the same as the A3000/CDTV,
except it`s a paler shade of beige and the
connector is PS/2 like that of the CDTV, rather
than the traditional 5-pin DIN plug. The mouse
is of a very-rounded design and the floppy drive
is of the HD ( high-density ) variety, which means
you can squeeze up to 1.76Mb of data on to a single
disk.

SO IS IT worth running out and buying an A4000 ?
If you are in the need of a really fast machine
to munch its way through maths intensive tasks,
then yes, it is the business. If you want to use
a lot of current software, it may be better to
wait for double-A-compatible software and soldier
on with aa A3000 or older Amigas with an accelerator.
The A4000 is a hard-hitting machine with a long
lifespan - buy one now and you could keep expanding
it until the turn of the century.

WORKBENCH 3: Is Workbench 3 the best version yet ?
Pat McDonald spills the beans.

Some months ago Commodore were expected to release
Workbench 2.1. This was going to feature the
CrossDOS PC file transfer utility from Consultron,
as well as some cute extra features. The arrival
of Workbench 3 seems to indicate that 2.1 was too
small an increase for what is a big overhaul in
some of the Workbench mechanics.

Personally I really, really like WB3. It`s more
attractive than the rather mechanical WB2. You
can customise much more and it uses new graphics
modes to the full... WB3 is not perfect, but it
is the closest to perfection that Commodore have
ever managed to get Workbench.

POWER COMPUTING: Advert
Epson GT-6000 scanner £799
GVP A530 Turbo HD 240Mb £1054
GVP Series 2 HD 8Mb £549
Kickstart 2.04 ROM and software £79.95

COOL WORLD: Cartoon land gone bad - Ocean
Holli would if she could... and she will.

WISHFULL THINKING: Your Christmas Shopping Guide
.. here`s your complete guide to the very best
in Amiga gifts:

... No 6 A530 Hard Drive GVP/Silica £799

ADDAX -ADDHARD: from ASHCOM
Ultimate RAM expansions with hard drive options
for the Amiga A500/A500PLUS 8Mb £265 105Mb £395

GAME REVIEW:

Ceasar - Impressions 91%
Shadow of the Beast 3 - Psygnosis 58%
Populous II: The Challenge Game Electronic Arts 80%
Shuttle - Virgin 70%
Rampart - Domark 75%
Shadoworlds - Krisalis 85%
Road Rash - Electronic Arts 84%
No Second Prize - Thalion 80%
Campaign - Empire 79%
Pinball Fantasies - 21st Century 90%

YOUR TURN! PART 3 - Bullfrog`s coding methods revolve
around making life as easy as possible, so giving
more time to pose in rather ridiculous positions
for press photographers. Or not, as the case may be.
HOW TO PROGRAM YOUR OWN GAMES ASSEMBLER:
The Amiga Collection:
No 7 Devpac 2 from HiSoft: Complete Programming Package.

.... dbra d4,.loop_y

NEW COMMANDS: DBRA d0,label.

Next month: enemies and music.

GAME BUSTERS: Christmas is coming and lots of
you will be getting new games. Until then, though,
put new life into your older games with the help
of Andy Nuttall.

WIZKID, Eye of the Beholder 2, Civilisation

GAMES TIPS: Feature Helping Hands with Andy Nuttall.

LET`S GET SERIOUS : Welcome once more to the part
of the magazine in which we review the latest in
creative software, utilities and hardware. Reviews
editor Neil Jackson is your host, and this month
we`ve got some of the most exciting releases we`ve
seen in a very long while.....

OpalVision: Opal Tech & Centaur Developments £800
Wordworth 2: Digita £129
Vidi-Amiga 12: Rombo Productions £99

HD CDTV: Not content with selling a 2Mb CDTV, ZCL
have released a black box with an internal hard
drive. Pat McDonald checks out the latest in
warehouse-clearance tactics.

WHAT ABOUT THE A570: Some of the problems of Amiga
CD are finally coming home to roost. If you want
an Amiga with a CD unit, the you have to forgo some
of the expansion potential of the machine ...
ZCL might sell a SCSI interface plus hard drive
for the A570.

DON`T PANIC: Computer viruses can be a real danger
to your software, no doubt. But once you understand
all about how they work, it`s terribly simple to
stay safe.... The Loch Ness Monster, The Yeti and more..

.. When a virus hits the headlines in a big way, that`s
when these sick people get a real thrill.

PD Update: Pat McDonald brings you slap, bang and er
wallop up to date.

ACC 27: Amiganuts Anyone for Assembler ?
White Knight: Software Expressions
Wizard Wars: Nebula Software
Clumpy Icons: 17 Bit.. Hmm a disk stuffed with icons
Act of War: 17 Bit
The Money Program: Angua
C Manual Software Expressions.

TOP 5 PD:
1: PC Task
2: Anti Virus
3: AMOS Cricket
4: Imploder version
5: DeluxePaint Tutor

UNITED PUBLIC DOMAIN DISTRIBUTORS: Advert
The Best Selection of PD in the UK !
Two pages crammed with hundreds of PD titles.

WORKBENCH: Want some detailed answers to your
Amiga questions ? Pat McDonald is the person
to ask...

Q: The newer Amigas have an improved Agnus chip
which is the reason this incompatibility problem.
Will new software and hardware take advantage of
this ?
A: Quite often games do demand a fairly up to date
( ECS - Enhanced Chip Set ) Agnus. Newer games
sometimes don`t work on older Amigas - and this
is a trend that will continue and grow.

IN DEPTH EXPLANATION: No 9 Libs and Devs

.. A programmer will often make use of a library
in order to avoid some code writing.

Devs.... are typically used to control various pieces
of hardware. Again they are there to save programmers
writing extra code.

Q: Do accelerators ( 68010, 68020, 68030 or 68040 )
cause compatibility problems ? Do they work with all
hard and software.

A: Yes, no and no. Many programmers work on unaccelerated
machines and there are no easily available manuals
on prgramming more exotic processors. This results
in incompatibility. However, things are not as bad
as they were - the A3000 and A4000 offer an incentive
for programmers and hardware designers to make their
work more compatible.

AMIGA FORMAT ON COVERDISKS: ... Its the best possible
form of advertising .. we give them the chance to
reach 200,000 people for free !

OK That was the Amiga Format for Dec 1992
You will agree quite an important series
of Commodore developments there...

Amiga Format Issue 41 for Dec 1992
was brought to you by:

Editor: Damien Noonan
Deputy Editor: Karl Foster
Reviews Editor: Neil Jackson
Features Editor: Tim Smith
Technical Editor: Pat McDonald
Productions Editor: Gary Lord
Staff Writer: Andrew Nuttall
Art Director: Marcus Dyson
Design: Sue White

Amiga Format produced and published
by Future Publishing 1992

Music by Tangent Music Design
`Everybody`s Girlfriend ` Featuring Mr D Pleasance
who played the Flamenco Guitar.....

But you couldn`t hear that sorry.