@database ACN_18.guide @master ACN_18.guide @$VER: ACN_18.guide 1.00 (06.02.2000) @author "Angel Alvarez" @(c) "SAUG 2000" @node main "AmiChannel News" @{FG Shine}________________________________________________________________________________@{FG Text} ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ # ##### # # # # # # # # # ## # # # # ###### # # # ## ## # # # # # # ## # ## # # # # # # ## # # # ###### # # # # # # # # ##### # ####### # # # # # # ###### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ## # ## # # # # # # # ##### # # # # # # # # ###### ###### # # ####### # # ##### @{FG Shine}@{BG Shadow} @{BG Back}@{FG Text} ## # # # # # # # @{FG Shine}@{BG Shadow} ISSUE 18 @{BG Back}@{FG Text} # # # # # # # # @{FG Shine}@{BG Shadow} @{BG Back}@{FG Text} # # # ##### # # # ##### @{" PRESS HERE " Link menu} @{FG Shine}@{BG Shadow} FEBRUARY 2000 @{BG Back}@{FG Text} # # # # # # # # @{FG Shine}@{BG Shadow} @{BG Back}@{FG Text} # ## # # # # # # # # ####### ## ## ##### @{FG Shine}________________________________________________________________________________@{FG Text} ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node menu "Main Menu of AmiChannel News" AmiChannel News - Issue 18 February 2000 The fast magazine in ENGLISH about all the news in the AMIGA world ______ ---| MENU |--------------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻ * @{" EDITORIAL : FATES WARNING " Link not01} The monthly thoughts by the editor. This time about the last eceutive update from Amiga. * @{" AMIGA EXECUTIVE UPDATE : FEBRUARY 2000 " Link not02} This is the second letter from Bill McEwen, new president of Amiga. In the next two weeks they will make another strategic partnership announcement with regards to the new Amiga and the operating system. * @{" [THE WORLD FOUNDRY] FEBRUARY 2000 UPDATE " Link not03} Check the TWF February 2000 Update for the latest news about their upcomming games Explorer 2260 and Maim & Mangle. * @{" TNT PROJECT + EVERYTHING NIGHTLONG + PPC " Link not04} I have just transcribed to text the information that clickBOOM released a month ago about the TNT project. Please read and consider to preorder the PPC module of Nightlong in case you want to see more PPC Amiga games. * @{" PHANTASMAGORIA IS COMING " Link not05} Be prepared to be scared out of your mind because the master of interactive horror - Roberta Williams - is coming to the Amiga in style. * @{" DIRECTORY OPUS 4.12 SOURCE CODE RELEASED UNDER GPL LICENCE " Link not06} Directory Opus 4 has been released as free software under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE. * @{" AMIGA MEETING IN READING, ENGLAND " Link not07} This article, written by Steve Crietzman, president of Open Amiga Group (formerly known as COSA), reports about the gathering of prominent members of the Amiga community with Bill McEwen and Fleecy Moss, AmigaInc, in Reading, England. * @{" IMAGINE V5.17 RELEASED " Link not08} A new update release of the Imagine Amiga Constant Upgrade Program (ACUP) is now available - V5.17. The update can be downloaded by ACUP subscribers from the usual ACUP download area. * @{" GLOWICON COLLECTION HAS BEEN RELEASED " Link not09} Are you tired of hiding your Workbench from you PC owning friends? Are you fed up with icons that don't fit each other? Then this CD is exactly the right stuff for you! * @{" AMIGA DRIVERS FOR NEW WACOM GRAPHICS TABLET GRAPHIRE " Link not10} Finally Amiga fans can use the new graphics tablet. The driver supports the pressure sensitive pen as well as the enclosed wireless mouse and the finger-wheel. * @{" LIVECHAT WITH TAO-GROUP AND FLEECY MOSS " Link not11} This is an edited version of the IRC chat which was held on January, 19th with Francis Charig (Tao) and Fleecy Moss (Amiga). * @{" AMINET CD 35 TO BE RELEASED ON FEBRUARY, 14TH " Link not12} Aminet CD 35 will be released on February, 14th 2000 for DM 25,- (12,78 Euros) and it will feature a limited special edition of the astronomy software Digital Almanac II. * @{" PAYBACK STATUS REPORT: PART VII " Link not13} It's been a while since the last status report, but that's given its developer more time to work on the game, which is starting to get dangerously addictive! * @{" DARKAGE SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES TWO NEW TITLES " Link not14} Darkage Software have announced two new titles which will be released very soon: Powerball, a simple puzzle game and Amiga Classix 2, the official sequel to one of the most succesfull Amiga compilation ever. * @{" KOSH TROUBLES " Link not15} Kosh is having server problems again. http://www.iconimaging.net/kosh/ is currently down, as are mailing lists. * @{" TAO PARTNERS MANUFACTURER OF INFOMAX SET-TOP BOX FOR JAVA " Link not16} Infomedia Network has announced that it has selected the Elate(RTM) Real Time Operating System and the intent multimedia content platform by Tao Group for use in INFOMAX, the company's next generation of advanced set-top boxes. * @{" ESPIAL AND TAO GROUP ANNOUNCE ALLIANCE FOR JAVA BASED SMART DEVICES" Link not17} Espial and Tao Group have announced that they will collaborate to offer a complete Java-based solution for the multimedia and interactive entertainment content delivery targeted at the wireless and consumer markets. * @{" TAO'S TUMBLER CRYPTOGRAPHIC TOOLKIT OPERATES 100 TIMES FASTER THAN RIVALS " Link not18} NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. has announced the availability of the Tumbler software toolkit implementing NTRU, the world's fastest secure public key cryptography system. The Tumbler toolkit was developed by Tao Group. * @{" FLEECY MOSS OUTLINES AMIGA'S PLAN ... " Link not19} Fleecy Moss, VP of development of Amiga, outlined Amiga's plan. The plan is divided into two categories - pathfinder - for adveturers, power users, gamers, DTPers, video ppl, etc., and DDH (Domestic Digital Habitat), whatever it means. A few words about continuation of "classic" Amigas was said too. * @{" PHOTOFOLIO V2.0 ANNOUNCEMENT " Link not20} Steeple Software has announced the first commercial release of PhotoFolio v2.0 in conjunction with Schatztruhe. It is an image cataloguing system for both the amateur and professional user and it is pllanned to be released in early to mid February. * @{" AMIGA AND TAO-GROUP ENTER INTO A STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP " Link not21} Amiga begins expressing plans for the new Amiga with a strategic alliance with Tao-Group. * @{" [THE WORLD FOUNDRY] JANUARY 2000 UPDATE " Link not22} Check the TWF January 2000 Update for the latest news about their upcomming games Explorer 2260 and Maim & Mangle. * @{" AMIGA ENTERS INTO A STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP WITH TAO GROUP FOR THE NEW AMIGA " Link not23} Amiga Incorporated has entered into a strategic relationship with the Tao Group as the new content platform foundation partner for the new Amiga. * @{" NEWSROG AMIGA NNTP CLIENT CEASES DEVELOPMENT " Link not24} ShadowWorks Software announced the end of the NewsRog project for the Amiga. NewsRog is an NNTP News client running on Amiga personal computers. @endnode @node not01 "Editorial" ___________ _______________ ---| EDITORIAL |--------------------------------------------| FATES WARNING |--- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Hello and welcome to the 18th issue of AmiChannel News. January is usually a very quiet month. There are not a lot of news, and this month has not been an exception to this rule. Probably the bigger change is the new layout of the e-magazine. I hope you think it is for better. Anyway, Amiga has announced its first partner in crime. As I wrote in the January issue before the announcement was done, this is Tao Group. Everything seems correct and going well, but it seems that we will see clouds in the sky. Some days ago, Amiga have released the executive update. It begins like most of executive update that we have already seen before. Our president remembers the goals achieved, he confirms the several meetings that he has attended in his recent trip to Europe and he promise new achievemts, and very soon indeed. Actually, we have an appointment in two weeks to know a new partner which seems to be one of the keys for the path Amiga want to follow. As usual, we do not know clearly what the future is going to be, but Bill has asked Fleecy to write a document describing some of the ideas which are behind the partnership with Tao Group. The title of this editorial is because this is the feeling I have after reading it. He says that "somebody is going to say something", and he wants us not to believe him/them, or at least we should wait Amiga to say something. Who knows, is he warning about a plan to divide the community, perhaps from one of the companies which attended the meetings not sharing their ideas? Bill want us not to believe rumours, but he can not avoid us to think about he has just said. Clearly there are people who have no solution... Anyway there are positive things in his message, apart from the usual entusiasm. Remember to visit the SAUG website, which is located in: http://teleline.terra.es/personal/angelsau/index.html And if you want to contribute to this effort, you can send your articles to: noticias@saug.org Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this issue. =============================================================================== Angel Alvarez Díaz - noticias@saug.org Editor of the e-magazine AmiChannel News Responsible of the News Departament of S.A.U.G and Mundo Amiga Member of C.U.A.E Nş 293 - FOREIGN DIRECTOR ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not12 "AMINET CD 35 TO BE RELEASED ON FEBRUARY, 14TH" AMINET CD 35 TO BE RELEASED ON FEBRUARY, 14TH -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aminet CD 35, dated February 2000, contains nearly 1 gigabyte of (uncompressed) software in thousands of archives. Since the release of Aminet 34 over 500 MB new software has appeared. The current edition includes a limited special edition of the astronomy software Digital Almanac II. +-----------------------------------------------+ | Contents of Aminet 35 | +------+--------+-------+-----------------------+ | Dir. | Size | Files | Contents | +------+--------+-------+-----------------------+ | biz | 7 MB | 34 | Business software | | comm | 54 MB | 106 | Communications | | demo | 77 MB | 41 | Graphics & sound demo | | dev | 27 MB | 81 | Development software | | disk | 10 MB | 24 | Disk & HD tools | | docs | 30 MB | 51 | Documents | | game | 90 MB | 61 | Games | | gfx | 28 MB | 86 | Graphics software | | hard | 7 MB | 13 | Hardware related | | misc | 18 MB | 32 | Miscellaneous | | mods | 298 MB | 113 | Music modules | | mus | 16 MB | 34 | Music software | | pix | 72 MB | 102 | Pictures | | text | 7 MB | 30 | Text software | | util | 37 MB | 193 | Utilities | +------+--------+-------+-----------------------+ | All: | 777 MB | 1006 | | +------+--------+-------+-----------------------+ Aminet CD 35 will be available from Schatztruhe on February, 14th 2000 for DM 25,- (12,78 Euros). ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not23 "AMIGA ENTERS INTO A STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP WITH TAO GROUP FOR THE NEW AMIGA" AMIGA ENTERS INTO A STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP WITH TAO GROUP FOR THE NEW AMIGA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact: Francis Charig, Tao-Group Bill McEwen, Amiga Incorporated 425.413.2620 Las Vegas, January 8, 2000 - Amiga Incorporated, a privately held company based in Maple Valley, WA, has entered into a strategic relationship with the Tao Group as the new content platform foundation partner for the new Amiga. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Bill McEwen, Amiga President/CEO, said that the company selected Tao as the foundation partner for the new Amiga after reviewing numerous other potential partners. "After extensive research trawling the markets we found that Tao had the greatest similarities and strengths with our vision, and the capabilities to get the job done". McEwen said. "Amiga with Tao together will bring a new level of capabilities, portability and scalability never available before." "Tao has its roots in the Amiga so this is particularly satisfying for us" said Francis Charig, Chairman and CEO of Tao Group. "What makes this relationship so exciting to Tao is the relationship we can enjoy with Amiga and the Amiga Community. The world has changed radically in the last few years and there is a vacuum in terms of content and software environments that meets the needs of the mass market. The skill sets of the Amiga community combined with the power and flexibility of Tao's software infrastructure means that the New Amiga can create the most compelling content for the emerging digital services and content markets." ABOUT AMIGA Amiga Incorporated is dedicated to the development, design, and implementation of components, services, and models that support the digital experience of tomorrow. Amiga lead the world into the multi-media experience in the early 80's, and will lead it into the Digital content universe of the future. ABOUT TAO Tao Group is an intellectual property generator and software company specializing in technologies for home and mobile networks. Incorporated in 1992, the Company provides leading edge products for the emerging markets of intelligent consumer devices. The company's philosophy is based on providing powerful frameworks for use right across the range of networked appliances from smart phones to digital television into which Tao's clients can build in their own branding and incorporate their own added value. Tao's clients include blue chip technology corporations in the United States, Japan and Europe. Motorola and Sony are investors in Tao Group. Tao is headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom, with representation in Japan and the US, and its staff includes more than fifty world-class software engineers. Tao is a Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 Winner and has won a series of innovation awards for its operating system and Java-based engine. ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not02 "AMIGA EXECUTIVE UPDATE: FEBRUARY 2000" AMIGA EXECUTIVE UPDATE: FEBRUARY 2000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- February 3, 2000 Greetings to one and all: A great deal has occurred over the last couple of weeks, and it is only going to get more interesting as we move forward. It has been some time since I spoke with you, and I wanted to share some of the fun. In the last two weeks we have announced our new foundation partner, started technical training with our new development team, and had many meetings with future technology partners The responses have been overwhelmingly positive and, to quote an old song "they ain't seen nothing yet". On January 8, 2000 at CES in Las Vegas we announced our partnership with the Tao-Group as our foundation OS partner. This is not just a technical but a strategic relationship and brings with it great rewards. I have asked Fleecy to write a short document highlighting the Amiga/Tao relationship from a more technical perspective, to save you from having to put up with my telling everyone how incredibly great and fantastic it is. We want you to make your own minds up. In the next two weeks we will make another strategic partnership announcement with regards to the new path for Amiga. As with all our announcements, look at it against the whole picture and not in isolation. After a week long trip to Germany and the UK I have come back with a much better understanding of what we can and cannot do. As mentioned before we are not going to make promises or product announcements. We will announce to you, the community, only after the deal is signed or the product is sitting before us. This won't put a stop to rumours, but it will make them all the more obvious. Change brings uncertainty, and in an information vacuum, mischief makers like to take the spotlight. If it isn't officially sanctioned by Amiga, don't believe it. Our job as a company is to create exciting market opportunities for Amiga developers to take advantage of, and to give Amiga users a platform they can enjoy. This requires more than just an upgrade to the existing OS. This requires, indeed demands a complete strategy reaching into all areas of the present and the future. The time has come for all of us to move forwards, owner, developer, and user. Many of you have sent us business proposals, and product marketing ideas, and for this we thank you, and ask for your patience as we look over them. Some are providing us with valuable insight into the desires of the Amiga community as a whole, others are providing us with a good chuckle. This is the Amiga advantage that other platforms just do not share. Over the next few months there may be some companies that come out with their own plans, or state that we do not have the community at heart as we move forwards. The reality is, they do not know what we have planned. In order to stay focused and to keep up our incredible pace, we are not sharing our plans outside of our signed partnerships. We have to prioritise and act singlemindedly if we are to reach our first plateau in our given timescales. Once there we will be able to pause for breath. Some are not happy about this, but they do not know the full plan. Our mission is not just about restoring the Amiga, but about pushing it forwards as THE technology for tomorrow. This means that if you hear something annoying, or frustrating, or downright nasty, and the source is not Amiga Inc, then disregard it. Plain and simple. If you did not hear it from us, or read it here on this web site it is not true. We are not asking for your trust or your undying belief. We only ask that you take us on OUR words and deeds, not on the misinterpretations of others. We will soon be starting official meetings in Europe, the UK, and the US for developers and dealers. This will include introductory training seminars for the new OS, and introductions to the retail pricing and schedules. We will also begin the process of introducing the new web site, and putting the Amiga Advisory Council to work. I want to thank each and every one of you for your hospitality during our meetings and for your continued support as we move forwards. We have had the chance to meet with many end users, developers, dealers, and new partners, and look forwards to meeting even more of you as time goes on. There is a great deal of activity, with a lot of first footsteps on some truly amazing paths. New partners excited, old faces returning, familiar faces reminding us of our heritage. Indeed we are already having to move into bigger facilities, such is our rate of growth. I know it can be frustrating but after years wandering lost in a dark place, the sun is finally starting to crack a smile on the horizon. Together, we will march into tomorrow. Keeping the faith, Bill McEwen and the rest of the Amiga Team. ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not03 "[THE WORLD FOUNDRY] FEBRUARY 2000 UPDATE" [THE WORLD FOUNDRY] FEBRUARY 2000 UPDATE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ed Collins Hi, TWF News. 1. TWF Opinion Polls 2. Explorer 2260 Update. 3. Maim & Mangle Update. 4. Next News Update 1. TWF Opinion Polls The current poll is still running. With the recent buyout of the Amiga by Amino just before the new year, do you think this will reverse the amigas fortunes ? So take your pick between; Yes, No or Don't Know. Currently the votes are: - Yes - 98 - No - 16 - Don't Know - 21 2. Explorer 2260 Update. News this month: - Altered galaxy structures [down to planet level] to provide more details in navigation. - Additional work compiled for the CEG including work on the Ovaska, Dah'Screwe, Elarien, Mogensen and hyperspace documents done. Will appear in CEG in due course. - Encountered compiler problems. Investigating alternatives... Plans for next month: - Remove a colony of bugs from the texture file editor. - Complete the entity and object texture editor. - The plans for Chris to take over the world have been put on hold till he gets those game editors finished. Development must be getting to him. :) 3. Maim & Mangle Update. News this month: - Nathan our new programmer has been settling in with testing out the current game engine and editors, familiarizing with game design documents and setting up a development environment for developing both amiga and linux versions. - A new Terrain Editor version has been released, which implement new routines used on the new engine. - Work on the engine itself was delayed a little bit due the intensive work done on the StormC implementation of the upcomming minigl link library and porting GLQuake ;-) Plans for next month: - A new and improved engine (40% faster then the current one) - Porting of the engine to MiniGL may start. - A few updates for the editors - A new prototype GUI up and running for the game. - Work on the pathfinding and AI routines to be restarted. 4. Next News Update 1st March 2000 ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not22 "[THE WORLD FOUNDRY] JANUARY 2000 UPDATE" [THE WORLD FOUNDRY] JANUARY 2000 UPDATE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ed Collins Hi TWF News. 1. TWF Opinion Polls 2. Explorer 2260 Update. 3. Maim & Mangle Update. 4. Next News Update 1. TWF Opinion Polls The poll hasn't be changed for a good while now but we finally have a new one. The previous poll has been asking the question: "What is your favourite type of game ?". The final results are as follows: - Space Sims - 53 - RTS - 23 - Breakout - 0 - FPP3D - 49 - RPG - 57 - Driving - 30 - Flight - 14 - SpaceInvaders - 2 - Beatemup - 1 - Original - 23 - Adventure - 20 The new poll is not games related. With the recent buyout of the Amiga by Amino just before the new year, do you think this will reverse the amigas fortunes ? So take your pick between; Yes, No or Don't Know. 2. Explorer 2260 Update. Much the same as last month for E2260. - Work on the Linux server core routines is continuing. - More background documents for the CEG are being created. 3. Maim & Mangle Update. As a result of the recent job advertisement for a GUI programmer for M&M we have appointed Nathan Young to the position. Most of the programming work in December has been on the internal editors used by us for the development of the main game. Primarily this is the object editor which we use to texture and manipulate the units and other objects for the main game. This has the following added to it: - Warp3D support added. - Warp3D filtering added. - W3D zbuffer added. - W3D perspective correction added. - clip mapping and double face added. - Major speed increase. Work is being done on implementing some of the changes made to the editor to the main game engine. 4. Next News Update 1st February 2000 ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not04 "TNT PROJECT + EVERYTHING NIGHTLONG + PPC" TNT PROJECT + EVERYTHING NIGHTLONG + PPC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few years ago, before Myst, Quake, Napalm, T-zer0, Nightlong and Z, we believed that big games could exist on Amiga... We were right. Now, we claim that Amiga can compete with other platforms. And we intend to do that with TNT (The New Tomorrow) Amiga project. In the ywar 2000, clickBOOM will begin a two-fold TNT project: 1. To bring you more games, both original and conversions 2. To support the latest hardware We believe that at this point in time there is no reason why Amiga should not have all the great games other platforms have. If Apple was able to regenerate Mac as a gaming platform, we can do the same with Amiga ! We feel great about what we have achieved thus far on Amiga. But we also feel we can do more -- more great games. In the beginning we converted two of the biggest games in the world, Myst and Quake. Then, we released two great Amiga original games (Napalm and T-zer0). In 2000 and beyond we want to increase the number of hits significantly, both conversions and originals. We intend to revolutionize Amiga game development one more time. Due to our experience, we could fairly easily obtain licenses for more conversions. However, our current capacity is not able to handle more development. To make more games, we'll need more top programmers: - To develop original, or convert games from other platforms. - 3D programmers with extensive knowledge of Amiga and PC. If you live and breathe to code in C or ASM, contact us at http://clickboom.com/contact.shtml The second part of TNT is our plan to support new hardware. Firstly, we would like to create games that do not rely on AGA anymore. GFX cards offer a lot of advantages over AGA, and supporting both is tedious, sometimes even impossible. Therefore, we are making an appeal to all Amiga owners to switch to gfx cards. Secondly, we have been favorable towards PPC since its inception, however for reasons already stated in the past, we have not been able to support it through our games. But now, we are ready to take our first steps in developing PPC games. At this time there are two clickBOOM games which will support PPC: firstly, there will be a legal Quake PPC, and secondly, there will ve Nightlong PPC. - NIGHTLONG HARDWARE SPECS The greatly anticipated Nightlong is almost ready, and the expected release date is February 15,2000. Nightlong is planned to be for GFX cards only. And AGA version is under consideration, but we can't promise yet whether or not this can be done. Moreover, Nightlong is the first clickBOOM game to support PPC. The kernel of choice for it is WarpUp by Haage & partner. For full hardware details please visit Spects section of the Nightlong site. Futhermore, since Nightlong is almost finished, preordering is now open. - NIGHTLONG PPC Our first steps in PPC support will be experimental, and Nightlong will be our first commercial test. We believe in PPC and therefore a PPC module will appear at the same time as 68K version does, regardless of how many PPC preorders we get. However, to justify future PPC development we hope to get 400 preorders for PPC modules. If we don't get 400 preorders it will probably mean that it will not be viable to develop PPC versions of Z and other ganes in the near future. You will be able to find Nightlong PPC preorder counter at The Portal (Note: at this moment, there are only 92 preorder for PPC module :(). To prevent piracy, the PPC module in Nightlong will be electronically imprinted with the personal data of each individual customer. - NIGHTLONG PREORDERING Preordering price for Nightlong is $75 CDN (regular will ve $80 CDN). PPC module is separate and costs $15 CDN (regular will ve $20 CDN). If you preorder PPC there is one other added bonus: You can chose to pay only $25 CDN now, and the remaining $65 plus shipping when the games is ready. To preorder Nightlong now, use The Portal at http://clickboom.com/portal/ or if you don't have access to the Portal, order at http://pxlcomputers.com/shopping.html. TNT and Nightlong PPC are both very exciting and crucial in determining clickBOOM's future direction. We hope that with your help and support both will be very successful initiatives. Best regards, clickBOOM. ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not18 "TAO'S TUMBLER CRYPTOGRAPHIC TOOLKIT OPERATES 100 TIMES FASTER THAN RIVALS" TAO'S TUMBLER CRYPTOGRAPHIC TOOLKIT OPERATES 100 TIMES FASTER THAN RIVALS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boston, MA, January 20th, 2000 NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. has announced the availability of the Tumbler(TM) software toolkit implementing NTRU, the world's fastest secure public key cryptography system. The Tumbler(TM) toolkit was developed by Tao Group. Tumbler(TM) delivers encryption, decryption, authentication and digital signature features at speeds over 100 times faster than alternative systems, including those from RSA (Nasdaq:RSAS) and Certicom (Toronto:CIC), at equivalent security levels. "The need for public key security is moving from traditional Information Technology (IT) applications to mass market consumer electronics devices, such as wireless telephones, portable music players and digital televisions." said Scott Crenshaw, NTRU Vice President of Business Development. "These applications have vastly different requirements than IT applications. Solutions for consumer devices must be fast, inexpensive to implement in hardware, and consume minimal power. All of the existing technologies, including Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems (ECC), are just too large and slow. NTRU delivers the ideal solution for the emerging consumer electronics market." Key benefits of Tumbler(TM) over the competition include: - Fast performance, even on low speed processors - Small memory footprint - Low cost to implement in hardware (fewer gates required) - Increased server performance (supports more users with fewer servers) - Reduced battery consumption Francis Charig, Chairman & Chief Executive of Tao Group said "Tumbler incorporates unique technologies from both NTRU and Tao. Our development team has worked with NTRU to develop successfully a toolkit which can resolve many of the security issues faced by digital appliances on mobile, home and professional networks." The technology in the Tumbler(TM) toolkit is ideally suited for applications where high performance, high security and low power consumption are required, such as wireless data communications, Internet music and video distribution, micro payments, e-commerce and embedded devices. Developed by a team of world renowned mathematicians and cryptographers, NTRU provides the fastest and most efficient public key cryptography solution - at all security levels. Unlike other technologies, NTRU resists parallel processing attacks. Likewise, its disposable key technology allows frequent public key changes. Those properties dramatically reduce the risk of power analysis, timing attacks, and the danger of security breaches due to misplaced, lost, or intercepted keys. Perhaps most important of all, NTRU offers high levels of security without the performance sacrifices inherent in systems such as RSA and ECC. The NTRU technology has been extensively studied by both the academic and commercial cryptographic community. Complete technical details, including a tutorial, are available on NTRU's web site at http://www.ntru.com/tech.learning.htm. NTRU's unprecedented performance advantages open up new options for security. Its super fast key generation allows the encryption of every transaction with a different public key. Disposable key use enables completely new paradigms in encryption - for example, encrypting every second of a music clip with a different key. That means, on a three-minute clip, the time and cost of breaking the encryption increase by a factor of 180. Disposable keys also allow every wireless data transaction to be encrypted with a different independent key. Unlike other systems that claim to generate multiple encryption keys to protect media, NTRU disposable keys are completely independent of one another, dramatically enhancing security. Disposable keys will become increasingly necessary as insecure channels carry valuable data. At the heart of NTRU is a collection of mathematical algorithms based on manipulating lists of very small integers. This allows NTRU to achieve high speeds with the use of minimal computing power. NTRU is the first practical and secure public key cryptosystem not based on factorization or discrete logarithm problems, which require the use of extremely large integers or complex structures. The computations performed in NTRU involve simpler processes that can be performed very quickly even on inexpensive 8-bit processors at security levels equivalent to other public key cryptosystems. Notes to Editors About Tao Tao Group is an intellectual property generator and software company specializing in technologies for home and mobile networks. Incorporated in 1992, the Company provides leading edge products for the emerging markets of intelligent consumer devices. The company's philosophy is based on providing powerful frameworks for use right across the range of networked appliances from smart phones to digital television into which Tao's clients can build in their own branding and incorporate their own added value. Tao's clients include blue chip technology corporations in the United States, Japan and Europe. Motorola and Sony are investors in Tao Group. Tao is headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom, with representation in Japan and the US, and its staff includes more than fifty world-class software engineers. Tao is a Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 Winner and has won a series of innovation awards for its operating system and Java(TM) based engine. About NTRU Cryptosystems NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. makes the world's fastest secure public key cryptography solutions operating over 100 times faster than competitive systems at equivalent security levels. NTRU is the fastest secure public key cryptography solution for wireless data communications, digital music and video distribution, e-commerce and embedded applications. Strategic investors include Sony Corporation. For more information, see http://www.ntru.com or call NTRU at 888.346.NTRU or 617.948.9138. NTRU, F@stWTLS, the NTRU logo and the F@stWTLS logo are trademarks of NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. Portions of NTRU's system are the subject of pending patent applications in the US and internationally. Tumbler(TM) is a trademark of the Tao Group, Ltd. Contact: Scott Crenshaw NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. Tel: (617) 948-9138 Fax: (708) 575-3426 Email: screnshaw@ntru.com Web: http://www.ntru.com/ Graham Nice Tao Tel: +44 (0)118 901 2999 Fax: +44 (0)118 901 2963 Email: Nice@tao-group.com Web: http://www.tao-group.com/ ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not17 "ESPIAL AND TAO GROUP ANNOUNCE ALLIANCE FOR JAVA BASED SMART DEVICES" ESPIAL AND TAO GROUP ANNOUNCE ALLIANCE FOR JAVA BASED SMART DEVICES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leaders in embedded Java(TM) technology announce collaboration for interactive multimedia for wireless, digital TV, and network gaming Internet appliances. Ottawa, Canada, January 11th, 2000 Espial, the leading provider of embedded Java(TM) technology for Internet appliances, and Tao Group, a provider of leading-edge Java virtual machine technologies in the fields of compact, fast, and portable operating environments, today announced that they will collaborate to offer a complete Java-based solution for the multimedia and interactive entertainment content delivery targeted at the wireless and consumer markets. This collaboration will offer the world's first Java based solution for delivery of multimedia and interactive content to Internet appliances, which promises to revolutionize the wireless, digital TV and network gaming industries. The Espial and Tao collaboration brings together Tao's intent(TM) Java Technology Edition (JTE) virtual machine with Espial's market leading full-featured Espial Escape(TM) web browser and Espial(TM) Espresso application framework. The combined solution brings together an optimized, high performance embedded JVM with the most advanced Java based Internet and graphics technologies for embedded Internet appliances. Espial's other products include Espial DeviceTop(TM), the only service-ready Internet appliance platform for Java-based Internet appliances; Espial Ebox(TM), a highly customizable Java based email client; Espial Assistant, a full-featured Java based personal information manager (PIM); and Espial Architect; a RAD tool for embedded Java applications that gives developers the most comprehensive development environment available today for developing multimedia content, games and software applications for Internet appliances. According to a recent report from International Data Corporation (IDC), the market for Internet appliances is positioned to explode over the next several years. The future is much brighter than most have anticipated and will grow to become an annual 55 million unit market and $15 billion market by the year 2001, the report says. "This partnership with Espial brings together two complementary technologies," comments Francis Charig, Chairman and Chief Executive, Tao Group. "By putting them together we are not only providing a completely integrated software solution for the interactive entertainment industry but also working together in bringing fast, compact Java performance solutions to market. Developers for the world of Java based interactive entertainment, network gaming, digital TV, wireless and multimedia information appliances are now free to focus on the benefits of their accelerated time-to-market." "In the Internet appliance and wireless markets, application and content services will drive the adoption of smart devices." said Mal Raddalgoda, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing, Espial Group. "Through our partnership with Tao Group, we will be enabling a new generation of service-driven, smart devices that will deliver a compelling multimedia and interactive user experience. This will take Java technology to a whole new level in the consumer electronics market" Pricing and Availability The combined Tao and Espial solution is available today for smart devices running embedded operating systems such as Linux(R), WindowsCE(R), OS-9, QNX(R)4. Future operating systems include VxWorks, pSOS, QNX/Neutrino, TRON and EPOC32. Pricing information is available from Espial and Tao for their respective products. Notes to Editors About Espial Espial (http://www.espial.com/) develops enabling technologies for consumer devices and information appliances. A tightly coupled user interface and software development process ensures the delivery of superb and easy-to-use solutions. This singular vision has propelled Espial since its incorporation in 1997. Espial's products include Espial Architect, a RAD tool for embedded Java applications together with Espial Espresso, the industry's only embedded Java lightweight GUI toolkit; Espial Escape, a leading full-featured Java based web browser and Espial DeviceTop, a service-ready Internet Appliance software platform. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Espial has operations throughout the US, Canada and Europe. About Tao Tao Group is an intellectual property generator and software company specializing in technologies for home and mobile networks. Incorporated in 1992, the Company provides leading edge products for the emerging markets of intelligent consumer devices. The company's philosophy is based on providing powerful frameworks for use right across the range of networked appliances from smart phones to digital television into which Tao's clients can build their own branding and incorporate their own added value. Tao's clients include blue chip technology corporations in the United States, Japan and Europe. Motorola and Sony are investors in Tao Group. Tao is headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom, with representation in Japan and the US, and its staff includes more than fifty world-class software engineers. Tao is a Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 Winner and has won a series of innovation awards for its operating system and Java(TM) based engine. Espial, Escape, Ebox and DeviceTop are trademarks of Espial Group Inc. intent is a trademark of Tao Group Limited. Java and all other Java-based trademarks are registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other trademarks are registered trademarks of their respective holders. ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not16 "TAO PARTNERS MANUFACTURER OF INFOMAX SET-TOP BOX FOR JAVA(TM)" TAO PARTNERS MANUFACTURER OF INFOMAX SET-TOP BOX FOR JAVA(TM) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reading, England, January 10th 2000 Infomedia Network, manufacturer of advanced consumer hardware computing and entertainment devices announced today that it has selected the Elate(RTM) Real Time Operating System and the intent(TM) multimedia content platform by Tao Group for use in INFOMAX, the company's next generation of advanced set-top boxes. Due to the high performance and small footprint of Elate(RTM) and intent(TM) these technologies are well suited for use throughout Infomedia's entire product line of advanced set-top boxes, portable computers and point-of-sale devices. "Infomedia is represents a new generation of hardware manufacturer," said Patrice Haftman, Executive Vice-President of Infomedia Network, Inc. "Our approach is to address solutions and to design hardware in accordance with the needs of maximizing the value of the software. Consumers do not buy hardware for it's own sake; they buy it for what it can do for them. Tao's Elate(RTM) combined with intent(TM) gives us the greatest potential to enable even the most demanding Java(TM) and multi-media applications in the embedded market." intent(TM) was launched at CES on 6th January 2000. Its portable multimedia content platform includes its Java(TM) technology edition (Tao is a Sun Java(TM) technology licensee) and its 2D graphics libraries, world-class audio and 3D technologies are also shortly to be made available as intent(TM) becomes one of the standard content platforms for consumer products. Infomedia Network will be introducing the INFOMAX line of advanced set-top boxes and portable computers in 2000. All will be enabled for Java(TM) applications and secure electronic commerce via Elate(RTM) and intent(TM). "Infomedia's clear focus and commitment has been to provide high performance systems designed for the Consumer. This explains our support at Tao for INFOMAX and why we are excited about the partnership between the two companies", commented Francis Charig, Chairman of Tao. "Infomedia's approach has been to integrate world class components while working consistently within industry standards. By taking Tao's technologies, Infomedia has armed itself with products to make its appliances easier to use, lower cost and faster to market than its competition." "Since we are focused on delivering applications, the operating system is of key importance to us," said Haftman. "Tao has consistently demonstrated that Elate and its Java(TM) Virtual Machine are the fastest, most compact and robust, and Tao has been there to support us during our product development phase. We look forward to our continuing relationship with Tao as new ideas are turned into new products." Notes to Editors About Tao Tao Group is an intellectual property generator and software company specializing in technologies for home and mobile networks. Incorporated in 1992, the Company provides leading edge products for the emerging markets of intelligent consumer devices. The company's philosophy is based on providing powerful frameworks for use right across the range of networked appliances from smart phones to digital television into which Tao's clients can build in their own branding and incorporate their own added value. Tao's clients include blue chip technology corporations in the United States, Japan and Europe. Motorola and Sony are investors in Tao Group. Tao is headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom, with representation in Japan and the US, and its staff includes more than fifty world-class software engineers. Tao is a Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 Winner and has won a series of innovation awards for its operating system and Java(TM) based engine. For more information about Tao please visit Tao's website at http://www.tao-group.com/ For further information, please contact: Chris Gent Companycare Communications Tel: +44 (0)118 939 5900 Fax: +44 (0)118 939 5910 mail: chrisg@companycare.com ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not20 "PHOTOFOLIO V2.0 ANNOUNCEMENT" PHOTOFOLIO V2.0 ANNOUNCEMENT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Oliver Esberger Hi All, Steeple Software is proud to announce the first commercial release of PhotoFolio v2.0 in conjunction with Schatztruhe. PhotoFolio v2.0 is a major step forward from it's predecessor version 1.2 with may new features including: - ARexx A fully documented ARex port for those of you who like to automate tasks using ARexx scripts. These scripts are made available through pull down menus and toolbay buttons and can be pre-configured in the settings window. - Drag 'n' Drop proofs Dragging and dropping of proofs is now supported (by popular demand!). You can drag and drop: - Between browse windows. - Onto a path in the main window's listtree. - Onto a Show window. - Onto the information window. - Workbench Icon Support Workbench icons can be dropped: - Onto a browse window - Onto the listtree in the main window. - Toolbays Both the main and browse windows now have toolbays (optionally, of course!) making navigating around PhotoFolio v2.0 faster and easier. Those of you who don't like using context menus.... this is for you! - CLI support You can launch PhotoFolio v2.0 from a shell, passing in paths. Each path passed in will automatically be added to the main window's listtree and then opened into a browse window. - Listtree Tree mode The listtree in the main window can now be operated in the current "flat mode" or as a proper directory tree structure in "tree mode". - Native IFF-ILBM loading Imageio.library has been re-written to support IFF-ILBM. This means there is a dramatic increase in speed when loading IFF-ILBM files. - Amiga DOS pattern matching Selecting proofs has never been easier. Using the in-built Amiga DOS pattern matching system, proofs can now be selected using wildcards etc. - Saving of images as JPegs Images can now be converted to jpegs directly within PhotoFolio v2.0. - Settings The setting window has been totally re-designed and re-written making sure your prefs file is completely compatabile with future versions of PhotoFolio. - Unsaved proof indication For those of you who run without any text description below the proofs, knowing which proofs are saved and which aren't is a problem. Now, a red box is (optionally) drawn in the bottom right hand corner of un-saved proofs. - Constant size proofs Proofs can now be displayed at a constant size, making the distribution of proofs in the browse window even. There has also been several minor improvements and additions, and many bug fixes from version 1.2 making it more stable and flexible. These new options coupled with the the existing features of PhotoFolio make it a formidable image cataloguing system for both the amateur and professional user alike. With continuing support, PhotoFolio promises to be one of the most powerful image cataloguing systems available on the Amiga platform. PhotoFolio v2.0 is planned to be released in early to mid February. Price has yet to be decided, however users who have paid the shareware fee will receive a discount on the retail price. Steve Quartly and Paul Huxham Steeple Software ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not05 "PHANTASMAGORIA IS COMING" PHANTASMAGORIA IS COMING -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Indulge Your Taste For Horror! Alive's BIGGEST ever game is coming.... Be prepared to be scared out of your mind because the master of interactive horror - Roberta Williams - is coming to the Amiga in style. So be prepared for a terrifying tale of a womans fight against the forces of evil... An unparalleled mixture of Hollywood techniques, combining digital sound effects, computer rendered worlds and interactivity. The whole game unfolds in chapters, like a novel, to reveal a frighteningly realistic nightmare, from which you may never awaken. As the Alive team are hard at work on the new Phantasmagoria web site, I thought it best if we gave you some questions and answers. - What are the Requirements for Phantasm? No definate answer as yet, but I can confirm it will be no less than '040. If you have a look at pic6 you'll see that you can reduce the screen size when the game goes into full motion video, then when you go back into the actual game it will automatically default back to full-screen. We will support PPC and all graphics cards. - Is this an Interactive Video game? No. The entire game is a mixture of 3d and hand-drawn graphics, with a healthy dose of video footage incorporated into the graphics. For example, you may be in a 3d rendered room, with computer animations, and a video footage sequence of the actors laid over the graphics. At the beginning and end of each of the seven chapters, you watch a breathtaking sequence giving you the next stage in the story. Again, these are not just film sequences, they are high quality graphics incorporated with realtime full motion video. The actual game plays in a point and click fashion similar to the likes of Simon the Sorceror. You have an inventory box on view, and you move your pointer over certain objects in the room, some of which you can examine, collect or use. - Are the sreen shots from the actual game? Yes, all of the screen shots previewed in this email are taken from the game, except Pic6, which is from a cut sequence. - How many CDs is Phant on and when will it be out? This is a tricky one. We are considering releasing Phantasmagoria in chapters over 7 months. The game itself is on 7 cd's. We may well just release the whole thing at once, but if the demand is anywhere near the response we've had so far, then we may well not be able to cope with the duplication - we'll just have to wait and see. The good news is, we are not too far from completion now - 95% complete. - Is this game as big as Alive are making out? NO. In fact it's even bigger - we're just being modest! To give you an idea of the scale of the game, consider this... Several months in a hollywood studio were spent in filming the actors. The soundtracks was composed and procuded with a full orchaestra, and a complete operatic choir were enlisted for the ghostly singing. The script for the actors was over 500 pages long, and the writers spent 6 months doing historical research to ensure that everything about the game was from the correct period and fitted in with the ancient Carnovasch mansion. Many artifacts seen in the game were actually on lone from various museums in America, to ensure that Phantasmagoria is perfect in every way possible - even historically. More details of the making of this game will be out soon, but you will already be building a picture for yourselves of the enourmosity of this game. This truely is the biggest budget game the Amiga has ever seen. - Does this game really deserve the 18 rating or is this just hype? Right lets get one thing staight. We're not messing around when we stress that this is an adult game - and neither were Australia when they banned it outright, or America when they cut many scenes from it to bring it down to their 18 certificate. This is the computer game version of The Exorcist. If your stomachs strong enough then you'll be glad to hear that the Amiga version is the complete directors cut of the game with all scenes left in tact. The box features a huge warning, which we strongly suggest you take seriously. What to look out for.... February will see the next issue of The Pulse hitting your doorsteps (issue 11). This exciting issue features an exclusive interview with the best selling author and creator or Phantasmagoria - Roberta Williams. There will also be a colour glossy flyers out soon giving Pulse subscribers the opportunity to pre-order. On the CDcatalogue 1.6 there is a world exclusive trailer of the game. Alive are currently working on a demo. Price is yet to be confirmed, but you will be kept posted. ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not24 "NEWSROG AMIGA NNTP CLIENT CEASES DEVELOPMENT" NEWSROG AMIGA NNTP CLIENT CEASES DEVELOPMENT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Steve_K" 04-Jan-2000 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ShadowWorks Software regrets to announce the end of the NewsRog project for the Amiga. NewsRog is an NNTP News client running on Amiga personal computers. Unfortunately, due to a combination of factors which include the lack of a market for Amiga software, obsolescent hardware, and a recent increase in piracy and fraudulent credit card orders, it is no longer financially possible to continue developing NewsRog. The last version stands at 1.8b, and the update is available to all registered users via the web page below: - http://www.frii.com/~srk/ShadowWorks/Preview/NR.html ShadowWorks Software is proud to have pioneered a large number of news client features that have yet to be duplicated in any other software that we are aware of. We regret that it was not possible to continue development of the software, since there was a great deal more planned for the future. ShadowWorks Software wishes to thank all of our loyal customers who have supported our attempt to bring the Amiga a world class NNTP news client. ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not19 "FLEECY MOSS OUTLINES AMIGA'S PLAN ..." FLEECY MOSS OUTLINES AMIGA'S PLAN ... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "fleecy moss" In my trawling around the community hangouts, I have come across several misconceptions, rumours, and a lot of confusion. Whilst I can't hope to answer everything, here are some things I want to set straight. 1. Amiga will build a digital content universe. Digital content means anything composed of 0 and1 - applications, video, audio, games, emails, whatever. We will focus on 2 markets, the pathfinder market, for digital adventurers, power users, gamers, content creators, DTPers, artists, video ppl and those who refuse to define a computer as a digital appliance. Our second market will cocentrate on the Domestic Digital Habitat (DDH). 2. If you are a personal computer person, there will be a personal computer second wave Amiga. 3. We will support classic development in so much as we want to help users and developers transition to a new machine. That will be the total extent of our support for the classic machine. If this involves further AmigaOS releases, then so be it. 4. We are targetting x86 and PPC for the first consumer release of Pathfinder products (if you are a personal computer person, this means you). 5. We will do everything in our power (that doesnt bankrupt us or interfere with our primary goals) to ensure classic Amiga software runs on the new machine in some form or another.. The new Amiga product family (formerly called AQUA) will run natively and hosted. This is to create a large market fast for Amiga developers to profit from. For the first pathfinder release it will run hosted to see this market grow fast. We see one of our core duties as serving the developers. 6. We are talking to the Phoenix Consortium about common interests. 7. We have been contacted by QNX but currently have no plans to work with them. 8. We will develop Amiga products for another market, the Domestic Digital Habitat (DDH) market. This markets will be kept separate but products will work together if the installer so desires it. 9. There will be a new website and it will be public shortly. It has been tested on all browsers, Amiga and non Amiga, and given the compatibility problems between the implementations of open standards, our best effort has been made. The site will grow quickly and more information will be added. We want it to become a village where all Amigans can come to voice their opinions, chat, and travel off to different parts of the Amiga universe. 10. A developer support manager has been selected and they are working on implementing the developer support program. This will be in place before the developer boxes are released. 11. The developer boxes are specced out, we have contacted several whitebox manufacturers and we are building the distribution. 12. Amiga will not provide dates until we have a product. We will share timelines, but will not attach dates to them. Enough damage has already been done. 13. We have had acceptances from 75% of our development team and their names and roles will be announced once we get back from training (before the end of the month). This mail can be redistributed without modification within the community. As further questions and issues come up, we will attempt to answer them. ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not07 "AMIGA MEETING IN READING, ENGLAND" AMIGA MEETING IN READING, ENGLAND -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Held on January 20, 2000 A Report by Open Amiga - January 23, 2000 By Open Amiga President, Steve Crietzman - Background In a phonecall with Bill McEwen, President & CEO of Amiga, COSA was informed that a gathering of prominent members of the Amiga community was taking place in Reading, England. We were invited to attend, and told that we should contact Andrew Korn, Editor of AmigaActive, for more information. We happily obliged, and on the 20th January 2000, I was present in a room with room - a Tandori restaurant to be exact - with approximately 25 other Amigans - everyone from Bill McEwen and Fleecy of Amino, Tao Chairman Francis Charig, Mick Tinker of BoXeR fame, Andrew Korn and David Stroud from AmigaActive, Ben Vost (Amiga Format), Olaf Barthel (OS 3.5), and many others whose names escape me right now. The story, of course, doesn't begin there. It begins at a pub called the Hope Tap. I arrived early, 5:15pm to be precise, while the meeting was schedule to begin at 6pm. I was in town at the time, and decided I'd get a few early drinks while I await the rest of the gang to appear. Six o' clock comes and I'm starting to get worried. Until I realise they had quietly been gathering in a place where I couldn't easily see them from my position up front at the bar. So I go over, and sit down next to Ben Vost. Well, Bill and Fleecy still hadn't turned up by this point, so I was beginning to get a little concerned. We all assumed they were going to be a little late, so we were patient. We waited. And waited. And waited. 6pm came and went. So did 7pm. So did 8pm. By now, I was getting very worried. I had come down mainly to discuss a few open source issues with Fleecy and Bill relating to patents, trademarks and various source code issues that had been raised and which AROS members had passed onto COSA to ask at the meeting. I had even booked a night at a reasonably expensive hotel, and was beginning to feel it had been a waste of money. So, at 8:30pm, myself, Ben Vost, and about half a dozen of us decided we weren't going to wait any longer. So the AF group headed off to the Tandori we had arranged to meet at. The AmigaActive Crew stayed behind. So, around 9pm we arrived at the Tandori restaurant. No tables had been reserved by Mr. McEwen. Or Mr. Moss. We started to worry. Then the guy we were talking to suddenly said, "We have a booking for Amiga?" A huge sigh of relief all around. "They are over there at the back. They've been waiting for you since 6:30pm." - The Evening Begins - At Last So, after the mess had been cleared up, and the confusion cleared, we all began to sat down. Of course, I did point out that really someone ought to go back and tell the AmigaActive gang. Of course, people just grinned and we decided to be seated. They'd figure it out eventually ;) And we were right. At 9:30pm, they all arrived. Now the meeting could begin. It may be over 3hrs late, but who's counting. Shit happens. And so we all began to sit down. Not long after we were all together, Bill McEwen introduced everyone and started to pass around Non Disclosure Agreements. This meant that anything we would hear from Bill or Fleecy on "The Presentation" would have to remain a secret. The subject, of course, was the future of Amiga. That much I'm sure you could have all guessed. What you couldn't have guessed followed in Bill and Fleecy's almost two-to-three-hour presentation speech that followed. As well as being treated to a wonderfully energetic and information-packed session, we were treated to lots of Indian food, curries and beers etc, all paid for on Amiga's tab. Whoever said there's no such thing as a free lunch? I had lunch, and it was free. At least, it was free for me. That's all that mattered - I had lunch, and it was free to me. ;) The AmigaActive crew was giving away free issues of their magazine, including sneak previews of their next issue. Most everyone else, including Bill McEwen, Francis Charig etc. were giving away business cards. I felt left out. If I would have known that this was the "in thing" to do, I would have created a few COSA business cards for everyone. Oh well. I'll know next time. Everything was wonderfully informal, fun and rousing. Enthusiasm was definately present in that room, although of course a few people privately expressed concern in private after the presentation, about the lack of any connection with the Classic Amiga. Everyone was pleased to hear, however, that H&P would be developing AmigaOS 3.x and 4.x for PPC, having been given permission to do so by Bill and Fleecy's Amiga. - COSA and Open Source I was obviously there as a representative for COSA, and so I would be remiss if I didn't cover the open-source issues that were mentioned at the party. Fleecy Moss publicly confirmed Amino's support for an open source future for AmigaOS and gave backing to COSA and AROS to "do what [we] could with it." He did add, however, that there were legal and patent issues involved that were far more complicated than anyone could have anticipated. COSA was already braced for the news that patents would have to be addressed, but we suspected it would be a relatively straightforward matter, of getting the OK from Gateway to use them, write up an Open Source License granting permission for them to be used in AmigaOS, end of story. But it is not quite that simple. The patents have been registered under a variety of names, of companies and individuals, and many obstacles still exist that need to be worked through. So it could take time. Amiga are committed to it happening however, they genuinely support and back the idea, and want to "give the AmigaOS back to the community that made it what it is." And so they have set their lawyers on the task, as of three weeks ago. Their task is to make open-source legally "okay", then make it happen. We also discussed with Mick Tinker our plans to produce and sell Kickstart ROMs burned with Kickstart ROMs created by COSA/AROS, and the shortage of AMD27C200/MX27C2100 and AMD27C400/MX27C4100 EPROMs, the type used on the Amiga motherboard for the Kickstart ROMs. He responded by informing us that the BoXeR uses Flash ROMs, bypassing this problem, to which we are relieved to hear. Upgrading older Classic Amigas, however, may pose more of a problem - but not a problem that cannot be deconstructed. We briefly discussed with Olaf Barthel the subject of OS 3.5 and open source. He confirmed he is not opposed to open source, but does feel that such an endeavour needs to be carefully and diligently handled, a fact on which both COSA/AROS and Olaf Barthel are in total agreement. A fact which refutes claims in the press that we are "at odds", or that we have opposing views on the subject. We do have differences of opinion, to be sure, but we are not trying to destroy each other as in a matter/antimatter reaction - just discuss some concerns. It was a pleasure to meet Mr. Barthel, and I repeat here what I told him there: OS 3.5 is a wonderful piece of work, and we owe him. Thanks, Olaf, for helping to create a great product! - Summary and Conclusion I found the meeting fun, enjoyable, exciting and uplifting. It was nice to be able to meet up with fellow Amigans and to get to put faces to names. Ben Vost tried to lure me into a debate on Open Source, but I passed on the opportunity and worked to end the debate as quickly as possible. I wasn't there to debate or argue, and wasn't about to be lured into that old trap. If Ben wants to hear COSA's arguments in favour of open source, and to write a piece for AF, he's going to have to try a different way :) AmigaActive, to their credit, did not take such a confrontational attitude, instead offering us the chance to write an article for the next issue of AmigaActive, an offer I have greatfully accepted :) Look for a 350-700 word article in a future issue of AA. To conclude, all I can say is that I am excited by Amino's plans for the future, and excited by their continuing support for Open Source. If they keep their promise to Open Source the OS if possible, and it is possible, that will allow COSA/AROS's collective dreams to become a reality. (To that end, COSA is preparing a formal Strategy Brief which we hope to have ready soon.) The hard work now begins, and COSA must make some structural and organisational changes in order to be ready for the day that AmigaOS goes Open Source. We need to become a nonprofit corporation and appoint our first board of directors. We need to become a registered nonprofit foundation and create our articles of incorporation, a formal mission statement, open a corporate bank account, and such like. I am personally looking forward to the challenge, which I will embrace. The future with Amino looks bright for both the Classic OS and systems (through COSA/AROS), and the next generation OS and systems (through Amiga/Amino). Let's get going. Whether your heart lies with the Classic and COSA/AROS, or with the next-generation systems of Amiga/Amino, we finally are "Back for the Future" ! Steve Crietzman President, Open Amiga Group (formerly known as COSA) ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not11 "LIVECHAT WITH TAO-GROUP AND FLEECY MOSS" LIVECHAT WITH TAO-GROUP AND FLEECY MOSS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [breed-away] I Would like to welcome Francis Charig and Fleecy Moss to the room Senex 1) One thing "Amiga Aurora" (my suggestion for the new OS's name) MUST have: Screens - so how about Screens, Datatypes, FFS-support? 2) Why not calling the product family just "Amiga", i.e. "Amiga Aurora", "Amiga XYZ", etc.? Charig We will be working with Amiga, taking a close look at the existing features and making sure that the new system will have the same or greater functionality. Netsplit^ When can we expect to be reaching for our checkbooks, to buy something new from u guys? & when might it be?. Charig Bill's in the room and Fleecy can't talk! :) Announcements on this will come when the product is ready to ship. No more hype! Urizen Will you support hardware-accelerated OpenGL? Charig intent(TM) supports hardware accelerated 2D and 3D graphics. As for the 3D APIs that sit on top, we encourage all 3D APIs to be ported across. Have you heard of Renderware? :) tOmAsH-BB What is the real cooperation level of TAO and Motorola? I mean, does Motorola want to use your (Amiga?) software, and vice versa? Charig It is publicly known that Motorola is releasing connected appliances utilising Tao's software (e.g. Timeport P1088 smart phone, see announcement 8.1.00) dreamstar Will Elate be used as the next generation OS of future Amigas? Charig Specifics on this will announced shortly. :) Firebird^ Hello Mr. Charig, my feeling about Gateway 2000's (Old Amiga Inc.) plans for using Linux as the OS of the new machines is that it would be a mistake. It wouldn't be an Amiga, just a Linux box with the Amiga name slapped on it. I hope this isn't going to be planned. ;) Charig That was a statement! Elektro Fleecy: please describe the new amiga Computer(!) thnx :) Charig "It's lovely and cuddly" says Fleecy sNAK3^RP Will there be a Os4.0 chipset? Charig If you mean, "a new chipset for a new Amiga" then the answer is that the new Amiga has been designed to be hardware independent, hence Tao. Charig This is why we are partnering together. Charig Also I want to add a couple of other points. sNAK3^RP Will we still have Os? as such... Charig The main objective today is to correspond about intent(TM) rather than have extrapolations about the precise configurations of the new Amiga. TheB What is the Amiga "history" that TAO has? It doesn't seem very comforting that you have to take a look at the Amiga to figure out what it's about. (As for Firebird's statement.. that's true of any new "Amiga".) And as for this 'hardware independent' Amiga.. is that like java? :) Charig Have you looked at our website to see what technology we offer? amiga-news_d 1st question: TAO: It was reported you helped funding the Amiga buyout. How much of it was "your idea", means, are you tech supplier, partner, or even more? 2nd question: Will VP Code and/or Amiga documentation be freely available for the "just curious"? fleecy We talked to Tao when looking for partners and got so horny about each other that Tao dropped us some VC names and made introductions and recommendations about Amiga. Guest45753 Tao is our foundation supplier. Amiga will be providing all the support. Anyone who signs up to develop will have access to full APIs. Swarfega Apple's new OS X has a lot of it's GUI done with vectors, which allows easy scaling, rotating, etc. of pretty much anything on the screen. Will that sort of thing be possible with new Amigas (or is the OS extensible enough to allow people to write their own interfaces)? charig We are not intending to have matrix style transformations embedded in the lowest layers of the graphics subsystem as this inherently slows down all other graphics functions. charig Such vector type operations are available higher up. charig ...where they should be. charig Remember... elegance through simplicity and performance. dark4ces Would there be any performance benefit to writing code in VP assembler rather than higher-level languages? charig There will be the same benefit that writing an assembler over high level languages offers in any other environment. charig You trade off slightly higher development effort in order to gain tighter, faster code. charig Remember that writing in VP gives you the advantages of assembler but no portability drawback. AmigaDragon (1) Will the new system (HDW or SW) have equivalent (or higher) filesystem support such as CrossDOS/CrossMAC including Windows longfilenames? (2) Fleecy, will we see, sometime in the not too distant future, AmigaOS (classic) Open source? fleecy Me and 4 of the dev team have been VP for 2 days now and it's nothing like traditional assembler, more like C with the crap bits taken out. You'll find out soon. Guest78547 Answer to AmigaDragon - Q1 - You can mimic multiple file systems + they also have their own high performance native file system. Guest78547 Amigadragon (2) - our lawyers are looking into it but it is a much more complicated web than anybody could guess. TheRiley if someone wanted to build an "Amiga"-desktop based on, say, the POP-standard, and use your new OS , would you support it (and if, how)? could the new OS run on phase5 Amirage for example? (ok, that's 2 questions, but they overlap so much that they are basically one :)) charig 1. Yes. 2. Bill was talking to Gerald Carda yesterday. :) HaXoR^ Mr Charig / Fleecy, is it just a coincidence this conference happening immediately before the transmeta cpu lauch(5pmGMT)? charig Yes. We are hardware independent. Cpt_Hbl^ How long has Amino/Amiga and Tao been co-operating ? We know all about Fleecy/Bill/Petro but how does Toa feel about Amiga community? charig We have a large amount of respect for the Amiga community which is why we have been working cooperatively with Bill and Fleecy for some months, determined to make this really happen. BJS The times of home computers of the 80's are over, i mean, what does a CHRP board with an strange OS with Amiga in common, other than the name, it's just marketing. and the things done from 1994 till now are only done for the existing userbase and they shrunk, how will you encourage others to buy amiga? charig By providing the best platform. Thy Do you plan to do advertising ? Considering that it should be worldwide, can you afford that ? To have the best machine is not enough if nobody knows that. charig Yes. We will be doing advertising (Tao and Amiga) with our partners. Senex How many developers are working currently on "Amiga Aurora" (i.e. the new OS ), and how many of them are from Amiga, how many from Tao? charig Amiga has a dozen engineers growing, Tao has 60 + plenty of blue chip partners. RUiNa Please take this all as one general question about marketing. With consoles and settop boxes allowing more ability and connectivity, and with super low pc prices, do you feel we'll compete with these pricewise or are you moving towards some other newer market? We all know marketing was the original amiga downfall. Is the marketing planned and being taken care of by pro's? charig Yes. We like to call them "hookers". FryG_away Will there be any new updates for WB3.5 ? fleecy We have a transitional plan for the Classic that we will announce with our partners. Nico_Barbat_ Francis, Bill told on the press-conf. that you are an long-time Amiga-fan - in which effect could this be useful for the developer group? WHO is actually working on the new OS? charig I'll take those in reverse order. charig We already have the foundation layer. I'm not going to discuss o/s specifics today. The entire Tao engineering staff is working on software which will be utilised by the Amiga community. charig Remember that it is not just that we are fans, we also have major Amiga engineering history at Tao. sNAK3^RP What year will we see the Adverts or price lists? charig This year. |MB| Hello. I am a convinced amigaist, but in what this new repurchase is it different from the precedents? How long will last your new development? charig What? Szczepan-Bla Does new Amiga (or what is named) will have full support for "Classic" Amiga apps running just like normal one ? I mean that I can use any current program to edit/view/etc. any file from disk (not like it is in UAE). charig Announcement soon. ioni Will there be PCI, AGP, USB, etc. ports in the 'new Amiga' ? And support for them ? charig We will support all significant hardware standards. Reticuli Guest45753 stated earlier (whoever that was and is now :-) ): "anyone who signs up to develop will have access to full APIs"... The API's WON'T be public domain? Is this wise? The Amiga excelled because of the back bedroom developers who just decided to have a quick dabble one night and has survived years in the wilderness because anyone could program it without having to become a formal developer. Or did I misinterpret that answer? charig You are assuming that the development kit is going to be expensive ... it won't be. CraiK Q: I have got several commodore amiga computers including amiga 500, 1200, and CD-32, along with commodore 64. All i want to know is, what do you expect the future of the AMIGA world will be like (in general)? bright or dark? I just want you to make me feel comfortable about the AMIGA's future. I come from the middle east, btw just to let you know that we also DO care about the MIGGY ;) and thank you very much for your time, sirs. charig Of course it is going to be bright. Tao's heavily in demand with so many global consumer electronics companies. charig We regard the Amiga as a fundamental part, not just of our strategy but the whole future of digital content. charig One more question. situation Okay, I've not asked a question yet, so here goes... How confident are you at taking on the industry giants, Microsoft, Intel, et al ... and winning? charig Tao is already becoming very successful and we know that the co-operation will accelerate our success, Amiga's and the community. charig Thank you and Goodnight from Reading England :) ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not21 "AMIGA AND TAO-GROUP ENTER INTO A STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP" AMIGA AND TAO-GROUP ENTER INTO A STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Las Vegas, NV January 8, 2000 - Amiga begins expressing plans for the new Amiga with a strategic alliance with Tao-Group. "Things started going wrong the moment the PC rode into town and the home computer revolution of the 1980s ground to a halt. We are here to right that wrong." said Bill McEwen, Amiga's El Presidente. 'We kind of feel guilty about not having been around to show the world the evils of the PC, but inept management sent the Amiga off to a bad place. Luckily, its users and developers have kept it alive, and now we are back." "Existing products are very rude.' He continued. "Shoving PCI slots, interrupts, file systems, registries, megahertz, and megabytes right into your face. My grandmother just wants to play a game, or send an email, or draw a picture. She doesn't want to have to mortgage the house and get a masters degree." "Digital Technology has become stalled because of the predominance of Windows." quiped in Fleecy Moss. "Putting a thousand monkeys on typewriters may eventually produce the works of Shakespeare but it's not something you're going to want to wait around for, and you don't want to be responsible for cleaning up the mess in the meantime." "Our approach is outrageous. WE look at what actual people want, and then give them the most simple, elegant solution. Even calling it computing is falling into the PC trap. It is participation in the digital content universe, whether it be developing an application, playing a game, making your own video, watching TV or buying S&M gear online. Computing companies are trying to paint digital convergence as computers and TVs coming together, so they can stick "TV" in front of PC and continue to sell the same old garbage. Digital Convergence is something much bigger though. It is about content, information, services, and activity transforming into a digital format and coming together in a single place that has no boundaries. If someone tells you you need a PC to get into this new content universe, smile nicely and hit them with a big stick." "Elegance, simplicity, invisible and universal technology." sings Bill McEwen, trying to get a word in edgeways. "That is why we are just giddy to be working with the Tao Group. Others rant on about how their products are next generation, warp capable, but the truth is that most of them are based upon old concepts and architectures - that's why you need the latest monster machine just to type letters. Chris Hinsley (CTO/Tao Group) was one of those smartass child prodigies you wanted to beat up at school. By age 20, he had already been a commercial games developer for 5 years, and wrote some great Amiga games. Being a smartass though, he saw the future, realised nothing out there was ready for it, and dedicated the last ten years of his life to making sure the human race was ready when the future arrived." "The Amiga was special because it refused to settle for second best. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right, and the proof of that is in the global following that it still has today. With the nightmare of the past five years behind us, the Amiga is ready to push out ahead again, and save the future from a muddled, poorly fitting, frustrating PC enema. With the foundation that the Tao Group gives us, we are ready to re-introduce the world to a novel computer concept - fun." "We aren't stupid enough to think it's going to be easy," interrupts Fleecy Moss, shoving McEwen to the ground and gagging him. "A lot of people have been brainwashed by the advertisements and the slick salespeople. However, the digital information revolution is all around us, waiting to happen. Everyone can feel it, everyone wants to be a part of it. Amiga is going to stick a pretty big bomb under that PC logjam and blow it clean back to Redmond. Elegance, simplicity, invisible and universal technology. Time to start smiling again." "We are happier than a crocodile at a waterpark to be working with Amiga." said Francis Charig, CEO and international stud. "We are very proud of what we have created in our garden shed. We could have sold out long ago, but the market was crowded with companies doing that so we decided to actual create a product and make it a good one. Now we are finding that OEMs are seeing our product and getting even more excited about it than we are ourselves; it almost makes the whipping and torture we have had to inflict on our employees worthwhile. An Amiga solution powered by Tao technology is a match made in heaven for everyone." ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not15 "KOSH TROUBLES" KOSH TROUBLES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi! KOSH troubles We're having server problems again. http://www.iconimaging.net/kosh/ is currently down, as are mailing lists. We're working to try and rectify this situation, but there's nothing we can do about it right now. http://kosh.convergence.org/ is still live. Mailing lists will be up again somewhere ASAP - it would be helpful if subscribers could get in touch in case we can't get hold of a list. If anyone wants to know anything can they mail me (greg@kosh.convergence.org) and I'll try and answer any questions. Thanks, Greg ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not08 "IMAGINE V5.17 RELEASED" IMAGINE V5.17 RELEASED -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Martin McKenzie" A new update release of the Imagine Amiga Constant Upgrade Program (ACUP) is now available - V5.17. The update can be downloaded by ACUP subscribers from the usual ACUP download area. A brief list of changes are detailed below; Please refer to the documentation included with the ACUP archive for a more detailed list of changes. Version 5.17: - 24Bit datatypes system now supported for brush-mapping. - OS3.5 support (icon, datatypes). - Zoom function: New GUI and functionality. - MPEG generator updated. - Bevel function: New GUI and functionality. - Reworked editor menus. - Frame-goto function: New GUI and functionality. - ...and Miscellaneous other changes/enhancements which are detailed in the included AmigaGuide documentation. If you wish to join the constant upgrade program, full ordering details can be found at the support site (address detailed below). Version5 to Version6 upgrade = $100 Any other Imagine version to V6 = $200 Payment can be accepted by either Credit-card, Cash, Cheque, or Postal order. Further information and screenshots can be obtained from the Imagine for Amiga website at: http://www.cadtech.demon.co.uk/ ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not10 "AMIGA DRIVERS FOR NEW WACOM GRAPHICS TABLET GRAPHIRE" AMIGA DRIVERS FOR NEW WACOM GRAPHICS TABLET "GRAPHIRE" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We all know there's no such thing as an input device that lends itself equally well to every application. Which is why you need Graphire. Its winning mouse and pen combination means you always have the right tool at hand. Graphire is the all-round solution, from Web-browsing to retouching, from illustration to Office. Switch on to the benefits of the unique Graphire set - for precise pointing and clicking, for intuitive drawing, for sketching and writing. Finally Amiga fans can use the new graphics tablet. The driver supports the pressure sensitive pen as well as the enclosed wireless mouse and the finger-wheel. The "Graphire" can be used with any Amiga computer with external keyboard (PS/2 connectors). Unfortunately all Amiga models besides A4000 Desktop were delivered with normal DIN connectors you might need an additional adapter set. More details on Wacom Graphire at http://www.haage-partner.com/wacom/wacom-index-e.htm Prices - Graphire: 249 DM - PS/2 Adapter Set: 12 DM - Graphire Driver: 89 DM Haage&Partner Computer GmbH Schlossborner Weg 7 61479 Glashuetten, Germany Phone: +49 (6174) 966 100 Fax: +49 (6174) 966 101 http://www.haage-partner.com ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not09 "GLOWICON COLLECTION HAS BEEN RELEASED" GLOWICON COLLECTION HAS BEEN RELEASED -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GlowIcon Collection is available! Suggested Retail Price DM 29.90 [Euro 15.29] US$1.00 = DM 1.95 given current exchange rates. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ordering information: The most convenient method of placing an order is to use our electronic order form located at http://www.schatztruhe.de/order.html. You can also send an E-Mail to stefano@schatztruhe.de including your address and the products you wish to order. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GlowIcon Collection - Are you tired of hiding your Workbench from you PC owning friends? - Are you fed up with icons that don't fit each other? Then we've got exactly the right stuff for you! Especially Amiga OS3.5 users but also users of the NewIcon system, receive an extensive and professional icon collection (altogether more than 3500 icons) with this CD-ROM which you can use to create a uniform look on your Workbench. It contains GlowIcons for a wide range of programs (applications, games, ...), drawers, DefIcons, ... In addition there are many DockIcons and some toolbars for certain programs. And everything glows! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefan Ossowski -- Stefan Ossowskis Schatztruhe Gesellschaft für Software mbH Veronikastr. 33 - 45131 Essen - Germany Phone: ++49-201-788778 Fax ++49-201-798447 stefano@schatztruhe.de http://www.schatztruhe.de/ Visit our Web site and join our mailing-list. ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not06 "DIRECTORY OPUS 4.12 SOURCE CODE RELEASED UNDER GPL LICENCE" DIRECTORY OPUS 4.12 SOURCE CODE RELEASED UNDER GPL LICENCE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Directory Opus 4 is hereby released as free software under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE. Please READ this license and make sure you understand the terms and conditions of this license. The release of Directory Opus 4 under the GPL in NO WAY affects the existing commercial status of Directory Opus 5 or subsequent products. Nor does it affect the GPSoftware trademarks of DirectoryOpus, DOpus, Opus and related terms. These names will always remain the exclusive property of GPSoftware and may not be used without specific and explicit permission, except for distribution of the original and derived versions of Directory Opus 4 as described in the GPL. All users of Directory Opus 4, including those licensed under the GPL, are entitled to upgrade to the latest version of Directory Opus 5 at a discounted price. Please see http://www.gpsoft.com.au/ for more information. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Directory Opus 4 (the last commercial release was 4.12) was compiled under SAS/C 5. I have modified the source code before release to enable it to be compiled under SAS/C 6. Compilation with other compilers is certainly possible, but it is left to the individual to make any changes necessary. The source code is large uncommented, messy, spaghettified, and generally in bad shape. I sincerely recommend you consider upgrading to Directory Opus 5, the source code of which is _much_ better :) However, for those of you who still seem stuck on version 4, I hope this GPL release will prove useful. Please read the GPL and you can find the link to the archive at the bottom of this page. Have fun. Jonathan Potter GP Software January 27, 2000 Download the DirectoryOpus 4.12 source code at http://www.gpsoft.com.au/pub/dopus/dopus412b-gpl.lha (630Kb) More information about the GPL conditions at http://www.gpsoft.com.au/Dopus412GPLa.html ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not14 "DARKAGE SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES TWO NEW TITLES" DARKAGE SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES TWO NEW TITLES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkage Software have announced two new titles which will be released very soon. The first one is Powerball, a simple puzzle game where the player must clean each screen from all the coloured bricks. Doing this is possible by using a ball that bounces up and down in the screen and that can be controlled by the player who can move it left or right. The ball cleans all the same-coloured bricks; to change its colour it has to touch a brick with two crossed arrows indicating a ball. Other bricks that the ball can meet are those which are painted with a skull (to avoid, because they cause the loss of a life), those which can be moved (but not cleaned) represented by a four-head arrow and those which allow the ball to be teleported between two points. Obviously, difficult grows up going on through the levels which compose the game and examining each screen before starting action could be useful. But you have to take care of the time limit in each level; running out of time will cause the loss of a life. During game, you can collect several bonuses which can increase points or lives, make you jump to the next level etc. They appear for a few seconds as a brick on the screen. The game features: - 80 levels in 8 worlds - Runs also on an A500! - Level editor to add your own levels - Only one floppy disk, but it's also hard disk installable! - A password system to save your position - Loads of fun included in the package! :) The game will run on any Amiga with 1Mb Ram, and it will available on floppy disk. The game is scheduled to be released in March 2000. You can download a demo from http://www.idealia.net/darkage/PowerballDemo.lha The second title is Amiga Classix 2, the official sequel to one of the most succesfull Amiga compilation ever! Produced exclusively for Epic Marketing ltd. It will feature full commercial games by: - Darren Ithell (Dithell In Space) - Dark Unicorn Productions (Scorched Tanks) - Diamond Production (Diamond Caves, Diamond Caves 2, Maniac Ball, Master Blaster) - Digital Concepts (Island of lost hope, Lords of War, Torch2081) - Eclipse Software (Lethal Xcess, Monster Business) - Frank Otto (Lost on Parrot Island) - Hitek Softworks (Barravento) - MegArts (Bomb Mania) - Mental Image (Bandit Mania, Technology 2, Winning Post) - Scorpius Software (Antz, Blade, Hilt, Hilt 2, Hideous) - StarByte (Tiebreak, Hannibal, Space Max, Aunt Artic Adventure, Charon V) - Team Hoi (Hoi Aga Remix) - and the very famous game Ports of Call! It will be suitable for both Amiga and PC (you can play all games directly from the cd, no installation required!). It will run on an Amiga AGA, it will be CD-Rom only and it will be released in February 2000. On the other hand, Tales from Heaven have now reached the shops, and Darkage Software has a big surprise! They have modified the price, reducing it of more than 10%! Now it costs 79.000 italian lire (40,80Eur). Of course all the people who preordered from Darkage, they will pay the new price! The game has 12 levels in 3 worlds, and the production is made with a silver cd (no gold copies). More info at http://www.idealia.net/darkage/. ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode @node not13 "PAYBACK STATUS REPORT: PART VII" PAYBACK STATUS REPORT: PART VII -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 January 2000 - The News It's been a while since the last status report, but that's given me more time to work on the game, which is starting to get dangerously addictive! This has frequently slowed down development; several times I've ended up playing the game for an hour or more rather than actually adding new features! Even so, the following improvements have been added to the game since last month: - Cars now beep at you if you get in their way. Not only that, but some drivers are more aggressive than others, which effects all aspects of their driving. - Police cars now have sirens, complete with flashing lights! (With lens flares, of course!) - I've started to design more of the map - there's a lot more to explore than there was before. - More scripting features have been added - garages work properly and you get messages sent to you when you do certain things. - I fixed a rather major bug that allowed cars to drive up walls. D'oh! - Collisions with 'scenery objects' (trees, lampposts, crates, things like that) now work brilliantly. - The player no longer restarts in the same place every time, which adds a bit more variety to the gameplay. - Full multi-language support has been added. - I added a progress bar to the loading screen. - The audio system can now cope with up to 500 sounds at once, which is rather more than the previous limit of 100. You might think that this would slow the game down, but improvements in efficiency mean that it's actually slightly faster than the old system! Anyway, that's it for this time. Look forward to seeing you next update! James Daniels Apex Designs For more information about Payback, visit http://www.apex-designs.net/payback.html. ______________ ---| @{" Main Menu " Link menu} |------------------------------------------------------------- ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ @endnode