LETTER FROM THE EDITOR ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Things seem to be getting better! The more I look at international magazines, the more pictures of Escom Amigas I see. The Amiga 1200 (for those of you who don't know) is basically the same with the exception of the new logo plate where the Commodore Amiga 1200 once sat. It now proudly displays the new Amiga symbol. The Amiga 4000T case which has been published in many magazines has been scrapped. The A4000T now sits in white case, with black panel. Escom states that the reason is that they couldn't manufacture enough of the other cases in time for the A4000T's launch. Amiga 1200s have begun to appear in stores in the UK. Approximately 55,000 have been ordered, and about half of those will be fitted with hard drives. Escom claims that another 55,000 will be produced just after Christmas. So, while we North Americans have to wait for our Amigas to arrive, we can hold comfort in knowing that an Amiga market is once again being established.... even if it is in the UK. I'm sorry this issue is so late. I had a lot of other things to do this month and I kept missing my deadline, it might happen once in awhile, but I am sorry when it does. Also, a new Magic Workbench icon will be included in this issue. Trevor Morris has created a beautiful icon for Magic Workbench users. Lanny Affleck's icon will also be included though for users who are not running Magic Workbench. Finally, Colin Thompson will be converting the Final Writer version of ANT to ASCII text. It's a job I don't have time for anymore, and he has graciously offered to take it over for me. On with the issue! See you next month! -Glen Miller, Editor NEWS & REVIEWS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Turbo Calc 3.5 ---------------- This is the spreadsheet program that Escom will be releasing with every Amiga that it sells. It reminds me of a program released in 1992 by a company named Gold Disk. The program was called Procalc. It reminds me of it so much, it's scary. With Procalc, my machine would crash creating pie charts, the same thing happened with TurboCalc. It's not just that though, the layout (GUI) of the programs is too similar. You could compare the two side by side, and with a quick glance, think they are one and the same. How does it rate? Well, I hope Escom doesn't expect it to bowl users over, because it's not a Lotus 1-2-3 or MS Excel. As a home user spreadsheet, it's not bad. It offers a large variety of 2 and 3 dimensional graphs, which are very customizable. Unfortunately, it's a little unstable on my machine, and that is it's major fault, Escom should have made the author fix his bugs before releasing it with their hardware. Other nice features are it's ability to export graphs to IFF graphic files so your charts can be loaded into DTP programs and word processors (like Final Writer). If you need a run-of-the-mill spreadsheet, TurboCalc will fill your needs. It has it's problems, and I hope a free upgrade will be available soon. Tested on: Amiga 3000, 2MB Chip, 8MB Fast, KS 3.1 FinalCalc 1.0 --------------- Now THIS is a spreadsheet program! The folks at Softwood (the creators of Final Writer) have created yet another killer application to add to their already impressive line up. This program excels in areas that TurboCalc 3.5 does not. First, it's options are enormous! Every section of the program is fully customizable! A created chart can be rotated on ANY of the three axis to create a true 3D effect. It can also export charts to .IFF format (like TurboCalc 3.5), so it also allows easy importing into other applications. Like all other Softwood programs, it's dead easy to use. I didn't even open the manual and I had no trouble figuring out how to use the program. Softwood also took the time to produce both integer and FPU versions of the software, meaning, if you have an Amiga with a math co-processor, you can take advantage of the FPU version. It will be faster and will put less load on your main CPU. If you need a spreadsheet program, you can't go wrong with FinalCalc! Don't be scared of it being version 1.0, it is perfectly stable (unlike TurboCalc). It makes me wonder why Escom didn't license the Softwood products which seem more professional and reliable than the products being bundled with Amigas. Tested on: Amiga 3000, 2MB Chip, 8MB Fast, KS 3.1 Citadel --------- They (PC users) said a Doom clone couldn't be done on the Amiga. Recently, commercial Amiga Doom clones have appeared which have had better graphic engines, and would run on less powerful machines. The problem is that all of these games required the AGA chipset, and users like me (A3000 owners) were unable to run them. Enter Citadel. Citadel is a Doom clone that will run on ANY Amiga with 1MB of RAM (yes ANY Amiga! Even an A500!). It's screens are 32 colours, and range in size from postage stamp (I'm serious about the postage stamp size) to full screen. On my A3000 '030/25 I get full frame rate in the full screen mode, although, typically I run in half screen as I prefer the additional resolution. Ok, I know you are probably wondering "how does it run on an A500?". It's not my A3000 that's for sure. If you run in a window roughly 1/8 of the screen, you get a large enough screen, and enough resolution to play. A larger screen results in lost frames of animation and general slow down of the system. The addition of REAL fast RAM (not A500 trap door RAM) will help the speed of the graphics being drawn as the CPU won't get locked out by the custom chips. Please realize that the Amiga's custom chips were not designed to create graphics such as these, thus it is left to the main CPU to do all of the number crunching, so a more powerful CPU is recommended. It really is a great game, and although I only have a demo of it, I know I want the full version. When it is competed, it will contain 26 levels, 6 different weapons, 4MB of rendered animations in HAM mode and an intro and ending. Should be great stuff! Tested on: Amiga 3000, 2MB Chip, 8MB Fast, KS 3.1 Amiga 500, 5MB Chip, 5MB Fast, KS 2.1 Amiga 2000, 5MB Chip, 5MB Fast, KS 1.2 WCi to host World of Amiga! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you haven't heard of Wonder Computers, you aren't an Amiga user! Wonder Computers is the largest Amiga dealer in Canada with shops in numerous Canadian cities. They are also a wonderful group of people, who are mainly friendly, and always seem to be able to help out. Recently Wonder Computers has grown. They've added stores and purchased numerous Amiga programs from software creators who have gone under. They now have the exclusive rights to PC-Task 3.0 and DirWork in Canada. They are also currently working with the author of ShapeShifter to sell copies of the keyfile that is required to initialize the SCSI hard drive support in Shapeshifter. They will begin selling them when version 3.3 of Shapeshifter is released. The best news, however is in the form of an old tradition here in Toronto. In the Commodore days, we had a commercial show called World of Commodore, but when Commodore went under, so did the show. Amiga users from all over Canada (and many northern states in the USA) used to come to the show. Wonder Computers found the need for this show, and will be hosting their own! The following is a release from them: WCi to host World of Amiga in Toronto in 1995 Resurrecting an annual tradition, the World of Amiga show will be held again in 1995 at the Toronto International Centre on December 8, 9, and 10. The official show hours are: Friday 6:00pm - 10:00pm Saturday 10:00am - 6:00pm Sunday 10:00am - 6:00pm Wonder Computers, Inc., organizers of the 1995 WOA in Toronto, are currently soliciting distributors, retailers, and user groups to exhibit at the show. There will be two active seminar rooms for the duration of the show, and they are booking steadily - most notable seminar topics include the Internet and multiplatform emulation. So, clear those dates on your calendar! The biggest Amiga show in North America since 1993 is about to happen, and you can be a part of it. See the new Amigas from Amiga Technologies (Escom), and new software and hardware from the many developers who have stuck it out for the past year. If you would like to be kept current on developments in the show, send Internet EMail to woa@wonder.ca and you will be automatically added to our show mailing list. The World of Amiga show in Toronto is being organized by WCi Information Technology Division. WCi is Canada's largest Amiga-only corporation, encompassing the I. T. Division, the Lazarus Engineering Division, and the Wonder Computers Retail Division. For more information on the World of Amiga show, feel free to contact: WCi InfoTech Div. c/o Wonder Computers 371 Old Kingston Rd. Scarborough, ON M1C 1B7 +1 416 201 2333 Voice & Fax EMail: infotech@wonder.ca WWW: http://www.wonder.ca THE END... ^^^^^^^^^^ Yup! Another month is over. Again, I'm sorry for how late this issue is. My Amiga is going into Wonder Computers tomorrow for repairs, I'm having problems with my display enhancer, and I sincerely hope that next month's issue is not as late as this one. Next month's issue will be a slightly different name. I will be dropping the ANTXXX95.lha format (where XXX is the month) as many users are stating that it isn't good for sorting on hard drives by the issue. Next month's issue will be called ANT0004.LHA and will include both the Final Writer and ASCII versions. Rename the other issues (if you have them) to: ANTAUG95.LHA ---> ANT001.LHA ANTSPT95.LHA ---> ANT002.LHA ANTOCT95.LHA ---> ANT003.LHA I decided not to change the format this month, as I would be giving readers no warning. I thought it would save some confusion. I'll see you next month!! Glen