========================================================================== Newsflash 15 - Editorial/News from Wet'n'Windswept England ========================================================================== Welcome ------- Hello again, thanks to everyone for the response lately and I hope you find this crunchy issue of Newsflash as tasty as the previous ones.. check out disk two for an outta-dis-world fantastic program courtesy of those nice guys in Strommen, Lars and Anders Hamre and also Rune Johnsrud - thanks a lot guys. Well, well well well! Here I am sat squinting at the same old dirty 1084 monitor pondering at what to scribble again and not in the mood for writing, oh well. After all these editorials it get's a bit difficult thinking of stuff to come up with but I suppose if I nip down and grab myself a coffee I'll think of something... ... Radiators. That's what I thought of.. sod-all to do with amigas so I guess I better have another think... ah yes.. East or West, Amiga is best! ---------------------------- It was nice to hear from a musician the other day, especially considering where he was based, Gdansk, Warsaw, Poland - which just goes to show that the Amiga is sneaking over the borders of every country, perhaps we'll see a "Gorbochev Peace-Prize Mega Demo" from Russia shortly. Hopefully this will carry on and soon we will conquer the world.. Amiga users unite the world over.. well, it's a thought. All sorts have been hapenning back here at home and I'll be able to give a little bit away in the near future.. ooerr - what can it be? Putting on the Show ------------------- It will be the time for shows again very soon, here in the Uk there is the Computer Shopper Show at Wembley conference centre, expect 25,000 hungry customers charging around looking for bargains - don't expect to see any Newsflash contingent at this place! In Germany there will be the Ami-Expo and I'm unfortunatly unable to attend for the usual reasons, as they say, "Money Talks" - but all mine says is "goodbye". In November there will also be the Commodore Christmas show at Novotel - I'll be down on the Sunday where myself and a few others are planning a "meet", members of my bbs and friends will be located in a bar somewhere - if you'ld like to join in, let me know... Issue 16 - Delayed... sorry... ------------------------------ Onto the issue of Newsflash number 16. We have decided to release this issue in the first week of January, releasing this issue in November. The reason for this is the Christmas break and I hope this will not disapoint too many people. What we can promise is, of course, a blockbusting issue to start the year 1991... coo.. where did 1990 go? There are good reasons for us delaying a few weeks and I'd like to think that over the last six months we've done very well to meet all the deadlines AND improve the magazine every issue. Powerpacker Professional starts crunching this month! ----------------------------------------------------- Powerpacker is also released this month and I must thank everyone who has waited patiently for delivery of this product, I've had to wait as long as all of you but hopefully you'll be of the opinion that the wait was well worth it. Thanks again, for us to release software and not lose money we have to be very cautious, it's important that firstly the programmer recieves adequate reward for his great work - Francois Nico has done more for the Amiga with his Powerpacker and utilities than many others and it would nice if people would recognise this fact by buying his latest version, which is available at an attractive price. The people who will upload the latest version onto BB's and spread it far and wide really aren't worth dealing with and are usually the first to start moaning if someone uses their programs.. please treat ANYONE who uses a pirate copy of Powerpacker 3.0 Professional with distain, I really have no time for such people, I just do not know what more we can do for people, the price is low, the quality is high, there can be NO excuses. End of serious bit. Note: PP3.1b is NOT the official version and is a hacked one found on many bulletin boards - and in fact crashes often. Christmas (Like Mary Whitehouse) comes but once a year... --------------------------------------------------------- Phew, with all that off my chest I can relax a little, it's soon christmas and that means one thing... masses and masses of Software to flood the market and also a new version of Kick Off 2 which is rumoured to have 32 colours and enhanced sound and graphics.. woo indeed! Anco have gone on record as saying it might run a little bit slower, but all that means is might be even more playable... Anco have run into a spot of bother for advertising Kick Off 2 with features that were not present and have been accused of "rushing" the product in time for the World Cup, also they bumped up the price by a fiver. Well I for one wasn't too disapointed as it's EASILY the most playable soccer game, indeed most playable game on the Amiga, I did feel Anco were cashing in on the World Cup but with it being once every 4 years and software like this only appearing every so often, who can blame them? I'm looking forward to the enhanced Amiga version for 1meg and I've heard there will be a trade in offer or similar. New craze worse than any green reptile thing that scoffs pizza... ----------------------------------------------------------------- CDTV is continuing to dominate the headlines over here although I think by the time it arrives on the scene in February, most people will be sick to death of hearing about it... I know I am, but then again there hasn't been a football game announced... Mr Wilks unleashes new Amos (tired Amos basic joke) --------------------------------------------------- Users of Amos will be pleased to know that a further issue of the editor has been produced, cleaning a few more errors up and that enhanced convertors and tools are now available, take a look at the Amos program this issue and remember you saw it first on Newsflash. I'm also editing and compiling the AMOS PD series for Mandarin at the moment, if you'ld like full details and lists, or have anything to donate please contact: Sandra Sharkey, Amos PD, 25 Park Road, Wigan, WN6 7AA, Tel 0942 495261 Non-event of the month: ----------------------- The "great" Leeds and Bradford Comms meet in a pub in Leeds, if this one was great I would like to see the poor one, even the Eces show was organised in comparison... 2 PC owners and a small dog do not constitue a large-scale comms meet, ah well I suppose I did win five pounds on the fruit machine. Late-replys and Apologies: -------------------------- Apologies to people waiting a while for responses and stuff to letters but I've been snowed under and rather busy of lately but you should have had something by now.. thanks for being patient. Analysis of American Amiga Users Part II: ----------------------------------------- After the pityful letters from America it was nice to get in touch with one guy who really appreciates what we're trying to do and rates Newsflash very highly, as a "breath of fresh air" over there, where he says, too many people are taking things far too seriously. My thanks to Rick Hunter of Sarasota, Florida for the many phone-calls and for the comments. Apparantly Newsflash is wowing a lot of people over there and it's especially the music from Bjorn, Allister and Seb that's doing it, so remember guys, if you can, use a play-routine that plays fine on both PAL and NTSC if you don't want 20% faster music... a switch in your programs to change from PAL to NTSC would be appreciated by the enthusiastic American Amiga fans I'm told. Royalties... nearly... ---------------------- Newsflash UK will hopefully, in the next few months be able to offer some royalties/payments for contributors.. this all depends on how things go, at the moment we cannot afford to but it has always been our intention to reward talent and the many kind people who contribute to the magazine. At the moment, Newsflash represents a fine medium for people to show the world their talent - many examples are the fine art, music and programming which has lead to us and other companies forging links. We have lot's planned for the future and this includes all our contributors. Anyone is welcome to contribute, in any way, text, art, music or programming - just join in and get a name for yourself and then we can include in further work if it becomes available. End of the road --------------- Now it's time to end the editorial for the people who don't appreciate my rather strange sense of humour and time for you to hit escape or close the window. For others, light relief can be sought by reading the banter.. don't blame me, I don't own the show, I just present it. The banter carries on after the "bye" bit... So it's au-revoir, auf weidersehen, something in Norwegian and goodbye for the moment, we'll see you again in the new year, I know it sounds a long time off but it's only about 5/6 weeks.. (I'm writing this in early October so it sounds AGES away!! but such are deadlines) Have a good christmas, don't gorge yourself on food and drink, I shan't (ha! some chance..) look out for digitised fun next issue and more of the similar and a great issue to kick off a new year.. which will hopefully be as productive as the last one was for Newsflash and it's readers. Bye, Martyn, Ossett, Yorkshire, England. ------------------------------------------------- Bull, Banter and Browbeatin' - My chance to yak Everything not about the Amiga can be found here! ------------------------------------------------- Warning: This text is purely the personal thoughts of the UK editor, does not represent the views of Newsflash or it's readers. It is not about the Amiga but just general chat, it represents a tiny proportion of the whole Newsflash disk and is included for those people who do like to read such rubbish... if you have a complaint then use your favourite word-processor to write it out and then exercise the cli command DELETE on it. Well, first of all I'd like for any religious people to skip this bit, I believe in freedom of speech, each to their own etc, but I'm editor so I'm having my say, it's my right to, I'm not getting into arguments but what I hate is people trying to force their views and beliefs upon me. The other day I was busy working away when there was a knock upon the door, hmm, not too strange - "that'll be the front door, and I was right" as Kevin Turvey might say. What greeted me was an ageing gent and his missus stood in the background... "Have you ever read the bible?" he asked.... ARRRGGHHH!!!!! This guy just would NOT take "No thanks" for an answer, I was very curteous and honest, I do NOT read the bible, have NO intention of reading the bible, do not WANT to read the bible - the only literature I have read about the whole affair is "Was God an astronaut?" - this didn't amuse him however... In the end I managed to convince him I was more likely to take the form of a pig and take to the skies rather than subscribe to his religious publication. I mean, I do not go around knocking on doors saying stuff like "Excuse me, I live local and I wondered if you had ever read Newsflash? - It's very enlightening, about the messiah Dino Dini and the arc angel Francois Nico and deciples of the Heavenly Editorial" or "Have you found the faith in a bottle of Newky brown ale? - Can I interest you in a crate or two ?" you should not force your opinions on anyone, don't do it - if someone tell's you to sod-off.. respect their wishes. It was party time the other week, a friend of mine had his 21st birthday in a pub a few miles away and as far as I can remember it was a good night although I was found wandering about in a garden at 2.30am. I can vaguely remember doing the can-can at one time and blowing up some jumbo-grease balloons at one point - this goes to prove that if you attend a 21'st party, make sure you take a piece of paper with your name and address on it so you can be safely returned home the next morning. Another interesting topic is the fact that you assume an image of someone through computer contact, ie pen-pals and especially comms stuff as each person usually has a handle/knickname and their own style. It can be quite a suprise when you meet someone who has a thoroughly exhuberent personality on a bbs then you meet them and they are so quiet, conservative and reserved.. rather like little old me, who wouldn't say boo to a goose. (honest.. snigger) Many a time I've met people or heard people say "...but you don't look like him..." "...I thought you were taller...." or "...I expected someone with only one nose..." etc. The best ever was "ooh, you're much more handsome than I had expected.." well, I've stayed well clear of that "guy" as you'ld expect... probably some innocent comment but better safe than sorry... gulp... BT recently ripped me off with another outrageous phone bill, I just don't know how they do it.. well I didn't until I wrote a call-cost calculator the other day... very revealing, don't EVER call Afghanistan, an hour would set you back around £170! Fortunatly the need to call Afghanistan hasn't arisen as yet. Ok, time to fly... say goodbye. Martyn. ==========================================================================