Hello again, Another issue of Newsflash brings us in our third year of releasing this diskmagazine and more and more readers follow our work. We decided to stop with a monthly release because the timepressure was getting to high (editors will regognize this problem). From issue 17 Newflash will be released every 6 weeks. You have to know that Martyn and I both run a lot of activities like an own softwarelabel and lots more. I myself spent the last nights working till 2.30 AM to finish this issue before the deadline. Because I am doing the final job (menus, last textfiles, update of files and moving, testing and changing files) it is always a race against time. When I am finishing the magazine I try to forget all other things around me so I can con- centrate on this, but at these moments it seems that everyone wants to call me or to visit me (ARRRGGHHH). I am glad that we have regular contributors so there is always plenty of new material like music, art, demos and utilities. We still are interested in articles of people who want to become questwriters. Currently UGA is releasing the first Powerfonts/Powermusic disks and we have several new products coming the next months like Powermenu, Amiga Flowchart (make your own flowchart), Geography in motion (a great educational game), Huge Pro, Powerinvoice (PC), Diskmaster (PC) and lots more. Many people ask me who are behind UGA Software. The answer is quite simple: I myself grounded the company and I am taking care of most of the activities (ideas, PD disks, marketing/sales, mail, orders, Newsflash editing and lots more) but I have a lot of people who work freelance for me (programmers, artists and musicians) and a lot of good friends (Harry, Peter+Ingrid, Piet, Ad, Frank, Gerard) who help me sorting out material, with work on shows and ofcourse promotion. And ofcourse not to forget our reliable distributors who can give local support. After 2 years UGA we have built up a solid base to continue releasing Newsflash and other products. I learnt that is almost impossible (with the mass piracy) to develop budget software. Because UGA is quite flexible and we keep our costs as low as possible we can survive. A company with e.g. 10 people would have gone bankrupt like many already did in the past like Tynesoft, Grandslam. The discount you have to give to regular distri- butor are mostly 60-70% (!!), you will understand that with products that costs around US$15-25 this is impossible. In a country like Holland you can sell of a good program perhaps 200-300 copies. With a average profit of US$5.00 you will understand the problem of piracy and budget prices. Also a strange thing we noticed with Musical Enlightenment is that many people thought it was to cheap to be good. Even when the reviews in magazines like Amiga Format, Commodore Info, Anews were great. Luckily for us the market in the UK, USA and Germany is healthy enough to continue releasing more US$25 titles. By the way, please check out the great games Martyn is releasing in his budget label (17 team). I have seen some amazing previews. We still want >>>> FEEDBACK !!!! Send us a nice postcard with your opinion about Newsflash and if you have ideas to improve it let us know. On every issue we will choice one postcard who will get an original of Powerpacker Pro in the original box with colourcover. And there are some extra prices to give away in issue 20 !!: - 1 original monsterpack (Infestation, Nitro and Shadow of the beast) Thanks to Psygnosis - 1 Powerpacker Pro - 1 Musical Enlightenment V2.01 - 1 Powermusic - 1 Powerfonts - 5 original UGA lifetime bags Send your reaction to : UGA, Newsflash feedback, Po box 881, 3700 AW Zeist The Netherlands Don't miss this chance, we will publish your reaction on future issues. Have a nice time with this issue. Ron Fonteine UGA Software