Zeist, July 1990 Editorial time again, I am just back from my visit to the UK where Martyn and I visited the 16-Bit show. The show was nice but nothing special. But as always we had a few nice chats with several people on the stand and that is the main reason for us to visit shows. After the show Martyn and I did some sight-seeing (or should I say "Beer-seeing") in London and we had a great evening together, eating in a German restaurant (to have a DECENT meal) in London(!), more Newcastle beer and finally a visit to the West-End. We had some nice chats with Americans in one of the main pubs and I tried to beat them with a game of videosoccer but just like the World Championship Soccer, Holland lost (snif snif). Martyn tried to get a room in my hotel but the price was only US$100 for one night (it was a very simple tourist hotel!) so we decided to go to Kings Cross for something cheaper for Martyn (haha that is live Jim), I only (?) paid US$50 for a room but I booked it in Holland so if you don't want to be ripped off by some tourist-pirates > book the hotel in your own country and save some money for other things (like beer or women). We also celebrating our first year making Newsflash, if you compare issue 1 with issue 12 you see many improvements and we still try to make it better. If you have ideas or material just let us know. I myself had a difficult year getting our lowcost products on the market. I noticed two things: 1> Big distributors have no interest for Low Cost software because of the smaller profits. 2> In some countries you have to buy press, luckily there are a few objective magazines left, magazines like Amiga Format, Amiga Computing, A- News France , Kickstart, Amiga Joker, Amiga Dos, Commodore Info have reviewed our disks in a fair way. As you know we don't have the money for mass-advertising and we pay more than 50% of the profits to our artists so we prefer to use our money and time for making good products. Special thanks to the French public for their fantastic feedback during the last months. From the UK the feedback concerning the UGA PD disks was surprisingly low. So, hello France here are the points from the Dutch jury; France 10 points. I like to give our American readers a warm welcome because NF is finally available in the States. Let us know what your opinion about all this European material is and what you don't like. Our magazine is quite different from other magazines, we like to make a more personal magazine and to connect freaks from all around this globe who all have the same interest > AMIGA power. Also the results of mass-piracy are showing up, again 2 main UK softwaredevelopers bankrupt and another one almost. We had quite a financial damage with Musical Enlightenment which gave us no other choice then releasing future titles only after a minium amount of orders to stay in business. Powerpacker Pro is the first quality program sold on this base. We like to continue with our "fair software for a fair price" policy so we hope the public understand our decision. I like to thank all people who helped us last year with all disks we released. New contributors for Newsflash or the UGA serie are always welcome. I just received a new update of the QL-emulator directly from Rainer Kowallik. Check out your local UGA dealer because you can expect 10 new UGA PD disks around this time. UGA will be at the AMI-expo in Eindhoven (Holland) with an own display and at the AMI-expo in Cologne (FRG). Come by and have a chat with us. Perhaps Martyn will also be at the show in Eind- hoven to help us with promoting Newsflash and other disks. Hope to meet you there, Ron Fonteine As mentioned by Martyn, our schedule: -------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsflash Issue 13 Release > First week of Sept. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Deadline UK > First week of August Deadline Holland > Second week of August -------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsflash Issue 14 Release > First week of Oct. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Deadline UK > First week of Sept. Deadline Holland > Second week of Sept. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsflash Issue 15 Release > First week of Nov. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Deadline UK > First week of Oct. Deadline Holland > Second week of Oct. If you are late you can also try to upload it on the UGA Board in Holland, see upload information for details.