Welcome to ISSUE 4 of CHANNEL Z (The FIRST Disk Magazine for the A1200) CHANNEL Z is released on the 1st of the following months...... JANUARY MARCH MAY JULY SEPTEMBER NOVEMBER and is available for only £2.00 including postage and packing from... Mr.D Busby 3 EDELSTON ROAD BLACKPOOL LANCASHIRE FY1 3HN or from your local PD library (although prices may vary). Notice to PD libraries.... -------------------------- If you intend to put CHANNEL Z in your library,please let me know,so that I can add you to my mailing list to make sure that you receive ALL further Issues on the date of release. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, 1994 has started in a weird way for me, it is taking me hours to write this text as I have one hand in a bandage after being in hospital to have about a fifth of my hand removed because of a nasty accident I had at work over 2 years ago. I am now left with Three fingers and a thumb on my right hand, and a fifth of my palm missing, (when I wear a black glove, I look like Mickey Mouse ! ! ! ! ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- But hey, who cares, this is CHANNEL Z and we're all supposed to be happy and not be bothered in these small hickups in life! So lets get on with this months Issue! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once again I hope you have noticed that CHANNEL Z is on TWO disks! It will (I hope) always come on two disks from now on to cater for all the exellent AGA artwork and the fab tunes that I am being sent! If you have got anything that could be included, don't hesitate to send it in to us! I'll always promise to have a look at what I get sent and will try and include EVERYTHING that I am sent in one Issue or another! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before we begin, there are a few thanks and greets that must go out, Thanx go out to.... Mr.JEPSON - For the exellent digitized colour handpainted pictures! GROO - For the FONTS I needed when I needed them, and for the piccies ! ! PAUL H - For another piece of EXELLENT AGA Art (Keep up the good work), and also for the articles. PAUL - For the Review of VIDIAMIGA12 Paul is available for Childrens parties, Fates, and Private functions at a small charge to cover his Treatment charges. (Its a sad story, Ill tell you about it in another Issue ! ) SHANE - For keeping PAUL under control all the time,I know its a hard job but if you didnt do it, he would only be taken away to the Funny Farm ! COLIN - For never showing up when we want you too! Greetz go out to, all the above and Darren Kevin John Andy Shaun Pete Nick Tony Nigel Chris Iain --------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPETITION WINNERS TIME ! ! ! ! ! Is your picture at the top of this months menu? Well, if it is, CONGRATULATIONS ! ! ! ! ! ! The winner of the "Design a CHANNEL Z LOGO" competition is Johnathon Monks from York, who has won himself a copy of FORMULA ONE GRAND PRIX by MICROPROSE, and! The masterdisks of Issue 4 and! Twenty Five disks PACKED with the latest PD software ! I had a lot of letters from people wanting to know the answer to the quiz in Issue 1, well here it is. The money you get from an ILL FISH is Sick Squid (Six Quid!) The winner of this little MINI competition is Richard Little from Preston who wins this Issue of the Mag! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ LOOK OUT FOR A NEW COMPETITION IN THIS ISSUE! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well whats been happening on the AMIGA Scene since the new year then, Not much really, Frontier hit the No1 slot in the AMIGA charts (and quite rightly so), with Alien Breed 2 being the first A1200 No1 of the new year in the A1200 Charts. The Full Motion Video (FMV) card for the CD32 has been released, you can now go and buy your favorite FILMS on a couple of CDs and watch them on your CD32! The CD32 looks like being a tiny bit (!) more successful than the CDTV with lots of people buying them AND alot of great games coming out for it, just take a look at games like LIBERATION (Captive2), the game plays like a treat, its so atmospheric, its unbelievable! (It leaves CAPTIVE (1) for DEAD ! ! ) Some interesting news from the CES show in America,is that SEGA had released a PORTABLE MegaCD player (a kind of GAME GEAR with CDs!) The only problem was that they had forgot to include a screen for this amazing new console! (Its not very portable without one is it!) Shocking news on the AMIGA games scene, TWO of the most eagerly awaited games to come out this year (well I think they are anyway), namely RALLY and CYBERACE. Are now NOT going to be released on the AMIGA! Yet some magazines had already reviewed RALLY, and given it quite a good rating! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- An Article that you may find interesting has been included on this months Issue, It seems to be every month that you are hearing from somebody who has had bad trade with the MAIL ORDER COMPANIES, But this issue we have TWO stories of how good some companies can be. The first (by Paul Horton) is about SILICA SYSTEMS and the second (By me) is about MICROPROSE SOFTWARE. I think you will find the stories quite interesting. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lets have a look at what was happening on the AMIGA this time LAST YEAR! The A1200 was in the news, as a lot of the built in modulators that were being put into them were faulty, so you could'nt use your A1200 on a TV set. SILICA (that name rings a bell) were offering the A500+ at an "AMAZING" price of only £249.00 ! ! ! WITH a CARTOON CLASSICS Software pack! DELPHINE were starting the advertizing for their great new sequel to ANOTHER WORLD, called FLASHBACK, and we all know how good this game is don't we ! New software house "The HIDDEN" were putting the finishing touches to their new platformer called DONG, which had to have its name changed to DONK because WHSmiths and a few other companies just did'nt want a game with a dodgy title on their shelves ! (GROW UP!) Now lets have a look at the CHARTS for MARCH 93....... 1 Street Fighter 2 ** NEW ENTRY ** 2 Sensible Soccer 92/93 3 Wing Commander ** NEW ENTRY ** 4 Zool 5 Premier Manager 6 Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis 7 AV8B Harrier Assault 8 WWF European Rampage 9 Road Rash 10 Campaign Charts compiled by GALLUP Sad news this month in 1993 was that two more companies were hit by the recession, Futureworld and Dynamite Computers both went into liquidization. Good news this month in 1993 was that A1200 Hardrives became more accessable with Silica (again) offering drives in an AMIGA at an unbelievable (at the time) £539.99 for a 60mb drive and £599.99 for a 80mb drive. If you just wanted a new drive, they would set you back £219.99 for 60mb and £279.99 for 80mb! Compared to just £200.00 NOW for an 85mb Hardrive ! Hot news from the arcades, was the imminent release of ZOOL the ARCADE game! The only difference from the AMIGA version will be 100 levels and plenty of ARCADE type sound effects and music. Oh! and that you will have to put 20p in to have a go! Psygnosis were gearing up for their next big hit. Lemmings 2 was (as we know) the sequel to the most amazing Lemmings game that had you saving suicidal little men with green hair from dropping off cliffs! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, back to this year, AND this month! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- First of all, a plea for help..... Does anyone out there have an ORIGINAL BOXED COPY of OBITUS ? If so, does it work on the A1200 ? and if it does, do you want to flog it! If so, put pen to paper and let me know how much you want for it so that I can pass on your information to PAUL H, who would like to buy it off you! Also does anyone out their have Hiemdall (I know it doesnt like the A1200, but the guy that wants it has an A500+) If so, Drop me a line and ill put you in touch with Dave, who would like to buy it from you! Yet another one (I think Ill start a wanted column) Does Personal Nightmare work on the A1200, Do you have it, Do you want it, if you don't, drop me a line and tell me how much you want for it, and Ill put you in touch with well, erm, ME! 'cos I want it! ! ! ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have some exclusive pictures in this Issue..... The pictures that we have for you are actually not designed on an AMIGA, but are original HAND PAINTED Works by Mr.Jepson from Blackpool! The Pictures are called GERONIMO and THE GUARDIAN. We would like to thank Mr.Jepson for taking the time to Digitize the two pictures exclusively for Channel Z ! _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \ ******************** * * * COMPETITION TIME * * * ******************** ** WIN ** **** STAR TREK 25th ANNIVERSARY from INTERPLAY **** Do you have an A1200?, (Well you should have or you would'nt be reading this!) Do you have a HardDrive? Do you want to win the all new STAR TREK game from INTERPLAY? If you've answered YES to ALL three questions, READ ON.......... ------------------------------------------- This is a multi answer competition, to stand a chance of winning you must answer each question correctly. The Questions are as follows...... 1. Who played Dr.SPOCK in Star Trek 2. Where can you find the words "SPACE....THE FINAL FRONTIER" in this issue (and just to prove you've found it, which number comes before it) 3. How many disks does the Star Trek game come on. 4. What Planet do you have to travel to first in the game. 5. Who invented the Star Trek Television Programmes. 6. (In less than 20 words) Why should YOU win this competition! The rules are as follows...... All entries must be recieved by JUNE 1st 1994. Bribing of the Editor is strictly ALLOWED ! ! ! ! My desision is final. 'cos I said so! No correspondence will be entered into. (They say this at the end of all these compo thingies! so I thought I'd add it!) And thats it! Good luck, and remember to get those entries into me before JUNE 1st! _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / / \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ Right, for all you hungry AGA utility hunters, if you look in the C directory on this disk, you will find utilities like PPshow 3(AGA) and View Tek. Each of these programs lets you view different types of pictures, PPshow3 will view ALL crunched IFF pictures (even 256 colour ones!), View Tek will view any picture format (as long as it ISNT crunched). If your not sure how to find these programs, just follow these simple instructions.... Put Workbench in the drive and enter the System drawer and open the SHELL, Now take the Workbench out of the drive and insert Disk One of CHANNEL Z. Type CD DF0:C and press RETURN, then type LIST, and there you will see the Utilities mentioned above. (Viewtek is called VT and PPshow3 is called PPShow) HAVE FUN! -------------------------- A quick note about one of the Utilities in this Issue, The Kick 1.3 that I have included has some features that are not found on the original version of the utility. These are as follows, When using the Random Access version of kick 1.3, when the computer looks for fast memory, it will find it ANYWHERE that it is needed, but if the computer looks for 2 meg of CHIP memory, it will still find it! Also (in all versions) if you press the Left mouse button while the hand holding the disk is on the screen, you are now able to disable the Cache ! You want more? OK! if you press the right mouse button at the same time, you can change the screen mode from PAL to Stretched screen NTSC ! ! ! ! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before I close for this Issue, we'll have a look at the Software charts for the last 2 months....(Jan 1st to Feb 26th) 1. Skidmarks 2. Cannon Fodder 3. Frontier 4. Mortal Kombat 5. Premier Manager 2 6. Jurassic Park 7. Alien Breed 2 8. F-117A 9. Zool 2 10.F-1 Challenge Chart kindly supplied by HMV. and of course, the A1200 charts for February.... 1. Star Trek 25th Anniversary (HardDrive only) 2. Jurassic Park AGA 3. Ryder Cup Golf AGA 4. Brutal Sports Football AGA 5. Body Blows Galactic AGA 6. Alien Breed 2 AGA 7. Civilization AGA 8. Trolls AGA 9. Diggers AGA 10.James Pond 2 AGA Chart compiled by GALLUP. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well next month there are going to be changes to the mag! Its up to YOU what they are though! You will by now have noticed that this Issues disks are BOTH auto booting, One has a Picture menu (Disk One) and the other has a Mouse Driven Menu (Disk Two). Which one do YOU like, write in and let me know, the format with the most votes wins, and the mag will be using YOUR chosen menu format! In next months Issue, more of the same! including - A1200 Diagnostics, Some more great AGA readers ART and maybe, just maybe, some hot new programs and demos! ! ! ! ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I finish putting the mag together, News has reached me that one of the most liked AMIGA image processors, Art Department Proffesional has just been Revamped. The new version, (2.5) has both the Graphical Interface AND a new Requester type interface (so I've been told anyway!) If you want to purchase this great package, why not give Meridian a call on 081 543 3500 or if you want to upgrade from version 2, call Emarald Creative Technology on 081 715 8866. Plus, Expect to see Age classification stickers (as in videos etc) on your games from the end of March. Software houses and the Britsh Board of Film Classification are joining forces to make sure all games will carry stickers showing the following age groups....... 0 - 10 11 - 14 15 - 17 18+ So now you know! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- See you next time....... Darren. A quick note, This Issue was slightly late in going out (it went out to the PD Libraries on the 3rd March!) this was due to a few bugs on the disks that had to be ironed out first, plus the fact that the Manchester United Match was on TV on the 2nd! We won 4-1 (5-1 on aggregate). Good luck in the Coca-Cola Cup Final Lads ! Ill be there at Wembley!