Commodore Amiga Retro

Amiga Format

AMIGA FORMAT: Issue 104 Dec 1997
THE WORLD`S BIGGEST SELLING AMIGA MAGAZINE:

SMILE PLEASE:

Get in the picture with digital cameras
for the Amiga.

COVERDISK AFCD20:

Vulcan exclusive demos - You can`t get these anywhere
else! Final Odyssey and Uropa 2 are only HERE
for you to play.

Hidden Truth demo - Check out this superb 40Mb demo

NetBSD - Everything you need all in one place

Latest Shareware - NewIcons v4, latest AHI,
latest MCX, latest Virus Z.

WEIRD SCIENCE: Advert - New Aminet box set prices.

Blizzard 1230-50 £99.99
50MHz co-pro £39.99
Blizzard 1260-50 £329
Cyberstorm PPC 200 MHz with 68060-50 £849
Picasso IV GFX Card £279.99

SIREN: Advert -

Apollo 1230 LITE £99
Apollo 1230 PRO £129
Apollo 1260/50 £339

MONTH IN VIEW: with Nick Veitch

Everyone has gone bonkers over digital cameras.
Magazines are full of them... we have written the
software for you. Kodak kindly lent us two cameras,
and we set about making a software interface
for them, which is available on our CD.

DEVELOPERS GO NUTS OVER KERNAL:

The partnership between software developers
Haage and Partner and hardware giant Phase 5
seems to be at an end. The two companies had been
co-operating on the PowerUp project, seen by many
as the Amiga`s salvation and even the possible
basis of future generations of Amigas itself.

The break up follows a series of statements posted
on the respective company’s websites which seem
to have escalated into a major argument over software
development for the PowerPC accelerator.

GATEWAY RUMOURS ABOUND:
There has been a flurry of unofficial announcements from
within Gateway concerning new developments on our
platform. The organisation aren`t being very forthcoming
though, saying they have been misquoted and misrepresented
in the press, both online and in hard copy.

... Darreck Lisle, Events Co-ordinator for Amiga Inc.,
also commented on the fact that although ex-Commodore
engineers like Ed Hepler, Dave Haynie and Carl Sassenrath
had declined posts at the new Amiga company, they were
all quite keen to help in whatever way they could with
external development.

GET INTO GRAPHICS:

Digital Media World - Although the Amiga`s presence
is not guaranteed, this show should be a must for
anyone interested in animation.

CLOANTO TO LAUNCH AMIGA EMULATOR:

In a surprise move Amiga International, Inc. have granted
a license to Cloanto Italia SRL to create an official
software-only Amiga emulator for other platforms. This
new emulator will come with a full version of the
Amiga OS, AmigaPC networking tools and various other
bits of software and will be called Amiga Forever.

NEW C++ COMPILER:

HiSoft are just putting the finishing touches to
their new C/C++ compiler. It`s fully AT&T 3.0
compliant compiler that is a completely integrated
development environment (IDE) built up from several
components.

VULCAN SHRINK TO EXPAND:

Vulcan Software have announced that they will no longer
be selling their titles direct. The company, who have
published numerous Amiga games over recent years,
intend to rely on the services of Weird Science in the
UK and GTi in Europe to distribute their titles.

CRACK AMIGA RC5 TEAM MOVES UP:

Thomas Tavoly`s effort to get the Amiga really well-known
in cryptography circles is progressing well. You may
remember that last month we detailed the effort to crack
the 56-bit encryption scheme that the US government
believes is sufficient for secure commercial Internet
traffic. Well, the Amiga team, directed by Thomas has
jumped from its position at number 149 in the list of
teams competing in last month`s news to tenth place.

NEW GAMES COMPANY SETS UP:

Ed Collins, whose online games petition many people
signed, as set up a games company with Chris Page
and George Hornmoen. Ed has been busy in recent months
working with Chris on a game called Explorer 2260, based
in an extensive universe that has been described by the
pair in huge detail in a document called the "Collins
Encyclopedia Galactica " ( CEG ).

DIGITAL CAMERAS:

Great News ! Thanks to Amiga Format and John
Kennedy you can now use a digital camera with
your Amiga.

DICE UP YOUR LIFE:

The popular Shareware C-compiler, DICE is
now Freeware, John Kennedy gets you started.

DICE is a complete programme development system
for the Amiga, cultivated, over many years. by
Matt Dillon. Since its creation the package has
evolved from a shareware product to a commercial
release, and now is freely distributed. Its an
extremely powerful system, easily capable of
producing professional commercial quality software.

Assign DCC: work:dice
Assign DTMP: dcc:dtmp
Assign DINCLUDE: dcc:include
Assign DLIB: dcc:dlib
PATH ADD DCC:aBin

GORDON HARWOOD: Advert ... always the Fastest
Amiga Boards and Now PowerPC Technology for
Amigas too!

NINTENDO EMULATORS:

Simon Goodwin is your guide to the burgeoning range
of emulators that run Nintendo Entertainment System
cartridges on your Amiga.

A/NES Amiga Nintendo Emulator.

SCREENPLAY: Start this month in the Previews
section and you can't help but have your spirits
lifted. Sadly space ran out before we could squeeze
all the pics in... Andy Smith

PREVIEWS:

Pinball Brain Damage, Nemesis, Skimmers, Cygnus 8
Master Axe.

Cannon Fodder II - sixth favourite Amiga game of all time.

READER GAMES:

Computer Capers - Tiago Silver - Amos Pro
Death Angel - Robert Glavas
Jungle Escape - David Boaz - Amos
German Dice - R Buckley - Amos Pro
Spin Brix - Z Ward - Amos
Cyborg Crisis - Robert Benjamin - Mysterious
Robots of the Arena - Daniel Kent - Blitz
Trains - Barry Driver - Blitz Basic 2

EPIC MARKETING: Advert - 2 pages of CD`s

PD SELECT:

Charley Cat by Anthony Whitaker
Faculty X by Brazzle Atkins
Stereop-JR by Ernest Buckle

PD SELECTION OF THE MONTH: Schoolboy Sixes V3.1
by Robbie J Mappin. Schoolboy football game.

PUBLIC DOMAIN TOP 10:

Nemesis
Reality Converter
Train Driver 3
Edword 5.6
Dark Citidal
Gordon and the Floaters
Space Man Sam
Word of Magic AGA
Starboy
Out of Space AGA.

SERIOUSLY AMIGA:

FUSION:

Simon Goodwin puts Fusion head to head with
Shapeshifte, and awaits the release of energy.

A Handy lexicon of Amiga and MacSpeak:

Mac - Amiga
Control Panels - Preferences
Desktop - Workbench
Dialog Box - Requestor
Extension - Commodoties
Folders - Drawers
Initialise - Format
Preferences - EnvArcive
Qicktime - CDXL

STORMC v3.0 PROFESSIONAL:

Riders on the storm, whistles John Kennedy.
Will this new C compiler light his fire.

What is C++

C++ builds on C, adding many more features.
In fact, a C++ compiler can compile C programs,
the languages are that close. C++ was originally
called "C with Classes", and that is an indication
of the differences.

FIRST COMPUTER CENTRE: advert - Authorised repair centre

DYNAMODE:

56 MODEM & SOFTWARE PACK: A new modem and software
from OnlinePD, Darren Irvine wonders whether it might
be time to put the breaks on.

EYETECH: Advert - The all new Eyetech EZ-Tower

WORKBENCH:

Just lie back on that comfy couch and relax. Expert
AF counsellor Graeme Sandiford is here to resolve
problems with your hard drives and printers.

EZ Tower questions....

Are you talking about trying to fit the Amiga
and a PC or Apple in the same case ? No don't do it !

One of the best reasons for "towering" your Amiga
is a graphics card.

FILE FORMATS:

The Amiga very sensibly introduced the concept of IFF
or Interchangeable File Format. IFF files can contain
images, text, music and other data files. Every time
a new form of data needs to be stored , IFF can be
expanded to support it.

There is full documentation on the IFF standard in the
Rom Kernal Manual: Devices, and on the Developer CD-ROM.

CD-RW OK?... You neglect to say what SCSI interface
you have. If you do not have one, I would recommend
getting one as part of an accelerator upgrade. The
accelerator will speed the production of ISO images.
You will also need more memory - at least 8Mb if you
don`t want to run into problems with large CD`s or
big buffers.

AMIGA.NET

Dave Cusick gets 40 or 50 emails a day. His secret
weapon ? - mailing lists.

Microdot is ideal for viewing messages from any mailing
lists you subscribe to, thanks to its threaded organisation
system.

There are plenty of Amiga-related mailing lists around
on the internet, a quick search of the Amiga Web
Directory will confirm.

CREATIVE:

DRAWSTUDIO:

It`s the best structured drawing package that the
Amiga has ever seen so we`ve invited Larry Hickmott
to show you how to use it.

MAGIC USER INTERFACE:

Dr. Karl Bellve reveals how easy it is to create
simple MUI programs.

NETBSD:

Chris Livermore and 101 applications for you
to use with NetBSD.

BEGINNERS GUIDE:

Robert Polding tells you how to get printed
proof of your computing prowess..

DOPUS 5.5:

It`s the last chapter in our look at Dopus,
so it`s time for Ben Vost to tell you the
bits he forgot.

MAILBAG:

I`m writing to tell everyone how good Electronics
Boutique is. When I first went there a couple of
years ago the shelves were literally overflowing
with Amiga software and they still are today !
Amazing really , because every other shop I`ve
been into has stopped selling Amiga games.

THIS MONTHS COVER CD:

Vulcan Demos
ARQ - Spotlight on a handy tool
NewIcons v4
TCPDL - Net connector.

AMIGA FORMAT DISKS:

David Taylor introduces the two full games on this
month`s superb games disk. Save the planet with
Assimilation and test your memory with Bubble.

AMIFIG 2.8:

David Taylor introduces this month`s serious disk
packed with programs and utilities, including ones
to speed up your Amiga.

POWER COMPUTING: 4 Page Advert -

Amiga A1200 Bundle One - £269
Amiga A1200 Bundle Two - £459
Amiga A1200 Bundle Three - £689
Viper MKV 1230 8MB £179.95
PHASE 5 CYBERSTORM POWERPC BOARDS £489-£879
Apollo 68060 £319

GASTEINER: Advert
Mainboards, Fax Modems,
Monitors, Memory, Cases, Soundcards,
Graphic Cards, Hard Drives, Processors
CD ROM Drives, Keyboard and Mice...

....................... and that was 1997

I finish on couple of adverts, cus you could
be mistaken into thinking that the Amiga
was in full production. A very impressive
publication this one given the absence of
any real news. Enter the tower.

AMIGA FORMAT Issue 104 for December 1997
was brought to you by -

Editor - Nick Veitch
Deputy Editor - Ben Vost
Production Editor - Andrea Ball
Games Editor - Andy Smith
Art Editor - Colin Nightingale
Art Assistant - Cathy McKinnon
Editorial Assistant - Vicki West
CD Compilers - EMComputergraphic
Additional Photography - Rob Smith

Contributors: John Kennedy, Simon Goodwin
Dave Taylor, Dave Cusick, Robert Polding
Paul Overaa, Darren Irvine.

Produced and Published by Future Publishing.