READERS' QUESTIONS  Ed: As usual thanks to Nic Wilson, Andrew Wong, Steve Bolton and various other kind and knowledgeable souls for helping me out when my limited knowledge got stretched beyond its elastic limit. [If you see the initials SB on an answer, it is by Steve Bolton who has been helping me out at Megadisc.] By the way, please feel free to send in any answers to the questions here or anything that relates to them, and please don't think that our answers are the final word - if you think they're lacking in accuracy or clarity, or are just plain wrong, please let us know.  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>   Running animations with Speech Dear Ed: I have created an animation, using DPaintIII, of a Talking Head. I used IconX to execute a script file, containing the `Play' utility from DPaintIII to run the animation from an Icon. To take the animation one step further, I was wondering if there is any way, (maybe using the Sys:say/utilities command,) to have the animation and the say/utility run at the same time to add voice to the animation. I know that animations in the Public Domain have combined sound effects, but my experience in programming is very, very limited (practically "Zilch") and I was looking for an easy way out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Leo Feuerriegel 13 Karingal Avenue Bilambil Heights New South Wales. 2486 Ed: There is still no way of synchronising the two, in spite of the Amiga's multi-tasking. You need to use a program like Scala or the The Director, ie any program which allows you to call CLI commands from within it.  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>   All the AGA Video Modes  Being an Amiga 1200 owner, making sense of the various video modes available with the AGA chipset can be a rather confusing issue. The AGA documentation isn't all that clear, (an all too common experience with any computer manual eh?). I compiled a single page overview (I used Microsoft Excel, sorry) of all AGA modes, you may find it a handy reference. I find it quite useful, as my A1200 has become a 'portable', I find myself connecting to all sorts of different monitors. I have found that most newer Osborne fixed frequency monitors (31.5, 48.1, 48.9 KHz, 50-90 Hz for example), cannot sync onto Multiscan mode (even using the VGA option !). I have no problem with NEC, and other multisync monitors. It seems a bit strange to me why a 31.5 KHz monitor can't sync onto a 31.44 Khz signal (99.8 % of 31.5 Khz). Has anyone else had problems with VGA fixed frequency monitors ? I understand the Commodore 1930 monitor is a fixed frequency VGA monitor, does it work with AGA equipped machines ? It's a pity the mode promotion built into Workbench 3.0 can't 'force' a 31.5 Khz frequency at all times, like the A2000 flicker fixer cards, or ICD Denise chip daughter board. Just about all games, paint programs, and the initial setup screen, force the output to 15 Khz which is fine if you want to feed the signal to a video recorder or TV. It's a pity because VGA monitors are so much cheaper than multisync monitors, and A1200 machines aren't equipped with a video slot, and the display chips are all surface mounted onto the motherboard, Grrrrrrr !!!! Joshua Schutte Ed: What a coincidence! Check out the listing of Video Modes in the MD fact-card this issue (inside cover). We're hoping for a full run-down on Amiga monitors and video modes in the next issue (I hope). Thanks for sending it in Joshua, it sits well on the noticeboard. Re your specific problem - AGA is not fixed frequency even if you use a fixed frequency monitor. AGA is designed for promoting video modes. What you're doing should work, so perhaps you haven't got the Screenmode correct. Just dragging VGAOnly into the Monitors drawer won't necessarily do the trick, since VGAonly only attempts to make the display VGA. (For more on VGAOnly, check out the Hints_&_Tips this issue.) If you're using a NON-interlaced VGA monitor, you will have problems - it just won't work. The 1942 will work because it is a tri-sync and thus is designed for the AGA.  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>  FONT DESIGNER Is there a program, preferably in the public domain, that would let me edit a bitmapped font so that I can modify a few characters to something I like better? It is quite common to find fonts that look fine except for a couple of very odd characters - often 4's are culprits. I would want the program to be able to handle very large fonts, up to say point size 60. Leigh Murray Queanbeyan NSW Ed: I believe that FEd, the font editor on Workbench 1.3... ??  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>   Books and mysteries Dear Editor, I'd just like to ask a couple of quick questions while I'm writing in with a contribution. First, how much do you charge for the latest edition of the "Amiga Hardware Reference Manual" published by Addison-Wesley? Secondly, do you know anything about a book called "The Commercial Games Programmer's Guide" published by Software Developments? It's for all computer formats and it was reviewed in Amiga Format Issue 36. Can I buy it from Megadisc? I would rather buy it through Megadisc if I can because I don't get to Dymocks or anywhere like that very often. Also, while I'm writing, what are these "mystery ventures" that Megadisc are working on? I can't invest any capital but I'd like to help if I can, so if you can give me some info I'll see what I can do. I need to be making money by the end of the year or my parents will force me to go to Uni so I can get a REAL JOB (Save a child from a horrible fate:^). I'm hoping (very much) that my game will do that but if I can do something else as well, so much the better. James Margitich Sandy Creek SA Ed: About the books, James - I suggest you ask Rob at Ami-Tech (Tel: (02) 5441874) who can get them for you.  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>  Upgrading Advantage ?? Dear Ed: I purchased "Advantage" a couple of years ago and as your reviewer said, it has some problems. Can it be traded up to "Professional Calc"? Peter Youll Nth Epping, NSW. Ed: Yes, it can - get in touch with Frank at Desktop Utilities Tel: 06 2386659.  Upgrading to WB3 Dear Ed: I am currently running a 1.3 Amiga that used to be a 1.2 machine. Hanging off the side of this is a SCRAM 500 and 105meg hard disk, both of which are fairly recent purchases. My question is this: Is there a way to upgrade to WB3 without having to discard the SCRAM and hard disk? Gavin Dalrymple Warragul, VIC. Ed: You can't upgrade to WB3 in any case, Gavin - first, it's only of use to AGA machine users (A1200/4000), and second, the new ROM is not available for installation into your A500. However, WB2 is available - you can get the upgrade kit, including the new Kickstart 2 Rom (which replaces your WB1.3 Rom), the new disks, and the new manuals. There will be no problem with your current system.  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>   SCSI instead of IDE Dear Ed: Is it possible for me to get my Amiga 4000 with a SCSI drive fitted instead of the IDE or will I have to wait until the end of the year like some publications have stated? I'm more than willing to pay to have the IDE removed from a brand new 4000 and replaced with a SCSI if it can be done. This leads to the second question. If the IDE is replaced what is the largest SCSI I can gave in its place (the bigger the better) and at what price? Adriaan Piels Nowra, NSW. Ed: Your best bet, Adriaan, is to get the new A4091 SCSI-2 interface fitted to the A4000 that you buy (it should only cost about $360 and should be available soon after the WoC show), and organise with the dealer you get it from (us if you like!) to remove the IDE drive and replace it with a faster SCSI-2 drive. Some examples of size and price: 2.8 Gigabyte (2,800 megabytes!) for about $6400.. but we can get smaller ones. SCSI-2 on the new interface is said to be very fast.  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>   Music disks / AGA boards Dear Ed: Thank you for the PD disks. I am glad you liked the music disk I sent enough to include it in the library. On that score, I thought you might like a few others in the series and would be happy to send others if you like. It has taken me considerable time to extract the music from many NDOS demos and then listen to them to try and categorize them but I figured there would be people out there who might like this way of presenting them. Finally, do you have any information on an AGA chipset upgrade for the 2000/3000 that has been mentioned in several ads from companies like Amitech and Sigmacom; ie: whether it is true (since these ads appeared in the April (fools?) issure of ACAR) and how much it might cost. They also advertised 040 boards for the 2000 for only $1100 which I found a little hard to believe. But then again, if it is true, I would happily buy these boards since I want to keep my faithful 2000 system. Joe Hanna-Rivero Keilor Downs, VIC. Ed: Thanks for the music disk and please send more, Joe. The AGA board is still vapourware at this stage, but I hear that it will be released for the A500/2000 first, before the A3000 (if such a board is ever released). '040 boards for the A2000 - I think not yet! but the GVP G-Force '040 with 4 MB will cost you around $2400 at the moment.  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>   MMU disabled Dear Ed: I have a small query that you may be able to help me with. When using the AHBB test program on my Amiga 3000, it tells me that the MMU is disabled, but compares my machine's speed with an Amiga 3000 with MMU enabled. I have looked all through the manuals and cannot find any mention of enabling the MMU. Is this possible, and how do I do it, or am I missing something? I would really like to know, as there seems to be quite a difference in speed between the MMU enabled and disabled, according to the AHBB program. M. Slater Wodonga, VIC. Ed: What is a MMU? - it's a tool within the CPU which allows it to make memory look like it's somewhere else. On the '040 it does a few extra things with caches. If the OS decides the memory doesn't need to be mapped anywhere, then the MMU will be disabled. But there will be no degradation to the machine's performance. The MMUs on early A3000s were used because the Kickstart was a file and was loaded in at a different place to where it was supposed to be. An 68EC030 such as in the A4000/030 is quite logical, since there is no remapping of Kickstart needed. The MMU is used all the time under WB3 with '040s, because of various problems with conflicts of memory. CPU Fastrom as a command in the CLI will put your ROM into 32-bit memory (on your A3000) but will use half a meg of memory to do it - but it will speed up your A3000 system.  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>   Prices Dear Ed: Some queries: 1/ Directory Opus Pro (v4.xx) Price to upgrade from 3.42; and is it available from you? 2/ CD-ROM drives you list an internal A2000 anything for A500 rev 3 modified to 1 meg and WB 2? Price? 3/ Just exchanged a 120meg Maxtor HD for a so called 213 meg. Comes up as 202megs prior to format. Have managed to get 206meg by fiddling sectors, which seems correct if using 1024 bytes =1k (1024 x 1000 202 = 206.848 meg). A few MD ? back I think someone wrote an explanation for why megs were missing on larger HD. Could you clarify this as the 120meg HD my brother gives him 120 meg and so did my 1200? Seems a rip-off or are the Yanks using some wierd multiplication like 1024 x 1024 x 202 = 213???? Hans Andreassen Auckland, NZ. Ed: Dopus Pro 4 is available as an upgrade from 3.42. We don't do it, but Frank at Desktop Utilities (06 2396658) will fix it for you at about $80. Yes the external CD-Rom we sell will fix you if you have a SCSI interface (such as a Scram 500 or GVP). Price is $945 and it's a fine unit.  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>   Virus-checker Crash Dear Ed: Received the animation disks as my reward for contributing to MD, Excellent stuff! Thanks. Thought I would let you know that the latest version of Virus Checker (V6.25) on MD33 crashes on my system, like we are talking TOTAL LOCKUP... After running a guru buster to determine the error code ( Alert V1.10 ) this is what it reports. ALERT # 0x80000003 ALERT TYPE: AT DEADEND (Dead End Error) ALERT CODE: UNKNOWN SPECIFIC ALERT: CPU ERROR ADDRESS ERROR: Word access on odd boundary My system is a standard 40mb A600, running WB 2.05 and using minimal sus (startup-sequence) eg: Loadwb, My assignments,EndCli >nil: - Note: I do not create a Ram or have any env present, however I have tried it using the standard WB 2.05 sus, same result. Maybe you can let the programmer know about this. The previous version works fine, although I cannot check drive DH0: for Saddam damage as the requestor will not accept DH0: only floppy drives? can you explain, Tim? Ed: You'll find that the version of Virus-Checker on this disk, V 6.26, has fixed that odd bug and now works fine on A600s. This is a mystery according to John Veldthuis the author. Saddam doesn't infect hard disks so there is no point. Licenceware Also while looking through the catalogue, Noticed you have some of the U.K Total Concepts PD, I am particularly interested in the Geology, Dinosaurs and Solar System. The first two you can supply, can you get the Solar system and how much for the three topics please? The adverts for these packages sound good (see encl.) I think they would be good education (ie) school project stuff, I will do a review if I get them. Ed: All the licenceware disks are $14, $15 if 2-disk sets, $16 if 3-disk sets. And yes, all of the above are available from us. On the subject of the catalogue, I am having trouble when fast scrolling the text using fullview, I get nauseous! As the color highlights scroll at a different rate to the rest of the text I get a stepping effect which is real hard on the eyes... Anyone else notice this? What effect this may have on epileptics, I don't know ... Any doctors out there care to comment? Hmmmn A question Tim. Concerning subscriptions and their distribution. With the enormous amount of contributions coming in and the issue and distribution of subscriptions, I'm wondering if you have any hassles etc. I mean you must have some helpers etc and sometimes communications can get mixed up, could the following scenario ever happen? I am not a subscriber (as yet) but if a subscriber successfully submits a contribution he/she receives the MD that contribution appears on, correct? O.K does this mean, the subscription is extended by 1 extra issue... or is the subscriber inadvertently sent two copies of a issue. IE: Your subcriptions department sends one, while you send one for their contribution ( You *do* have a link to your subscribers database of *who* has contributed and what month their article appears in and therefore what issue they are going to be sent to avoid doubling up?). Have you thought of adding a CREDIT field to your database for tracking contributions? So if I am a regular contributor, and want a piece of Licenseware for example, could I *not* take PD disks as a reward but save credits towards the purchase of some "pay for it" software? As you said a lot of people are taking back issues of MD, 6 pd = 1 MD. Is that for a 1 disk or 2 disk issue please, Tim? Ed: Usually we don't stuff up too much, due to keeping it simple, on the database and in what we offer. Extra fields in databases mean extra work, and organising different types of exchange for contributions just gets tricky and hard to compute! Food for thought! And what about all the helpers? Some names such as Nic Wilson and Jon Potter are always present, as they are programmers. But the enormous contributions of Leigh Murray must win some award, everywhere I look she has some part in MD. Icons galore, Cataloging etc. Who is this masked woman? Where does she find the time!!! *Is she single*.... A Biopic per issue on your helpers please, Tim. Ed: Indeed, Leigh is a tireless worker for Megadisc and much appreciated in what she does - not just the icons but also excellent beginners' articles, and a lot of work in making the Megadisc compilation disks. Recently had a conversation with a Computer Consultant (IBM) who told me he had a A1000 and how much would he get for it if he sells it! Appears for commercial reasons he is programming in Windows (Arrrgh! fingers down throat) and Visual Basic (shudder) and doesn't consider the Amiga to be any more than a games machine... Hasn't heard of the A1200 or A4000 but remembers the A1000 used bobs, blits or ?balls? or something like that, sad isn't it, when dollars take precedent over developing for the *Best* platform around. Oh well that's the MessyDos crowd for you, all crisp, businesslike, let's do it now and pay thru the nose for the privilege. Catch ya later, Tim Shannon Nash  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>   F-Basic problem Dear Ed: I would really like a programme that would take Amiga Basic files and convert them. I am having trouble with Amiga Basic and WB 1.3 especially with databases and running my printer, it opens libraries and then can't find them to close them. The programmes work fine on WB1.2 but the printer (Canon PJ - 1080A) will not. Do you know of anyone in Australia who has used F-Basic and will it stand up to WB 3.0 or anyone who may supply F-Basic. I did think of learning C programming and converting my programmes but was told it is very time consuming. Can you offer any suggestion? David McBurney Curramulka, Ed: Mike Simpson suggests GFA-Basic for the sort of programming you're thinking of - he's used it to write his A-Gene Genealogical program. AMOS for games. I haven't seen F-Basic anywhere in Australia. And you could try BlitzBasic as a good general programming language.  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>   Megadisc on paper? Dear Ed:  I have a suggestion for the future of MegaDisc.  Ever since the Amiga first came out, England and the United States have put out Paper Magazines, with beautiful glossy pictures of all the Hardware etc., available for our beloved Ami, and some of them even attaching one or two DISKS included with the Magazine. For some time I've wished we in Australia could have a similar Magazine. I've always enjoyed ACAR, but it lacks the colourful advertisements - so there may be an opening somewhere for MegaDisc to put out a Paper Magazine as well as the MegaDisc (with maybe some Demos or Shareware Programs). Questions: 1/ Do you know any of the Software Companies who have agents in Australia which do their upgrades? 2/ Do you have a FAX/Modem, Tim, or a separate FAX Machine? Why I ask is that if I want to send you an article, or suggestion like this one, if you have a FAX/Modem then you do not need to type the bits you need, other wise I could send it by Modem. All I would need to do is FAX you first, is that correct? With mail so very slow to us in the country it would be much quicker for me to send you letters electronically. Nancy Havelka Dubbo NSW Ed: I'll give thought to your suggestions, Nancy, but it's a lot of work and one wonders how much money there is out there for new magazines. Check the new one coming from New Zealand in the reviews drawer this issue. Those companies who do have agents for software upgrades here are mentioned in the Bugs_&_Upgrades each issue. Check out a few back issues for all the info you need. Fax - have I ever! Call me on (02) 959 3525 any time.  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>   TRAIN PROBLEMS By Stephen Corry Here is a LOGIC TEST for all Mega Disk readers. Can anyone solve this problem? Two trains depart from the same station, at the same time, heading to the same destination. They both travel at the same speed, they both follow the same route, and there were no delays. Yet, one train arrives five minutes earlier at the destination, than the other. Why? Ed: Check the answer to this one next issue...  <> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <%> 34 <>