AMOS DEMO V3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1990 Mandarin/Jawx ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Written by Francois Lionet ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ with annoying suggestions from the development team (who consist of): PETER HICKMAN AARON FOTHERGILL ADAM FOTHERGILL STEPHEN HILL RICHARD VANNER CHRIS PAYNE AND LOTS OF OTHERS Ok, that's the main credits over with, now read the important bits:- ABOUT THE DEMO ============== You can run this demo on most Amiga systems, but if you only have 500k the music will only play for a short time and you miss out on the background for the hotdog demo (although you get a nice rainbow). The demo is semi-interactive so if you follow the on-screen instructions you will be able to play with some of the BIG (and I mean BIG!) BOB`s that appear. If you press + during the demo you will stop the program running. This will give you the opportunity to see how the editor works. You can jump to the editor by pressing - this is also how you can jump to direct mode. Direct Mode allows you to play with any of the commands you can see in the demo listing, LOAD IFF, BOB, SPRITE, MUSIC and load`s of others - please feel free to experiment and have fun. ABOUT THE AUTHORS ================= The AMOS system has been created by Francois Lionet, the genius behind the top-selling Atari ST package STOS. There is also an interview with Francois in the text file "interview.asc" on this disc. Our thanks go to Martyn of NEWSFLASH disc magazine for allowing us to use this text on our demo. The demo was masterminded by Richard Vanner and Chris Payne and was implimented by me (Peter Hickman). The really great music was composed and written by Allister Brimble using the Game Music Creator (GMC). If anybody out there would like some music composed for some commercial software contact Richard Vanner at Mandarin Software and he will put you in touch with Allister. I am a journalist and enjoy writing educational software, so if anybody wants to start an AMOS column or needs some educational software converting get in touch with me (through Mandarin) or you can find my address in New Atari User magazine (at the end of my STOS column!). ABOUT AMOS ========== AMOS is nearly complete, with only the very basic routines waiting to be implimented. The menu system used by AMOS is mind blowing, it is very similar to the Apple Macintosh only better. Up to eight sub-menus can be nested under any single menu option giving access to VERY large numbers of menus. Some other fab commands are those that alter the contents of the COPPER chip - this allows anybody to create those wavy multicoloured demo's that seems to be popular on the Amiga. The disk commands are all built into AMOS so you don't have to open any external libraries (as in some other langauges), the same goes for file selectors and window functions, they are all very fast and very easy to use. Screen copying is achieved by directly accessing the Blitter so it is fast enough to draw a block on a screen in real time with the mouse (ie much faster than deluxe paint III). AMOS allows ANY type of IFF screen to be loaded (as long as you have enough memory), it does this with a super fast routine so there is only a small delay during loading. BOB's and SPRITE's can be created with the sprite editor or they can be cut out of any screen, their size is limited only by the amount of free memory, of course once cut out the BOB's/SPRITE's can then be saved using a single command. MORE ABOUT AMOS =============== AMOS will be released in May at a retail price of forty nine pounds and ninty five pence (I cannot get this stupid word processor to do a pound sign!!). It will include the basic interpretor, a really thick manual detailing every command in incredible detail (which is being written by best selling technical author Stephen Hill), a set of example programs written by Francois Lionet, myself, Aaron and Adam Fothergill and Stephen Hill, A load of really useful accessories that can be resident a long with any of your own programs, and an advanced sprite editor. AMOS may also include lots of little demos showing you how to get the most out of it. This big demo will be chopped up and annotated to a very high degree so that each section will be very easy to understand and lots of new bits will be added so that anyone will be able to amaze people with the things that only AMOS makes possible. AMOS UPDATE =========== This is the third release of the official AMOS demo, the first two (one released at the 16 bit Computer Fair, and the other released a week after that!) were written using incomplete versions of the language. As you may gather from many of the news reports circulating in the computer press AMOS is now complete, all that remains to be done is the final bug testing (won`t that be fun!!!). This version differs from the others in that full use is made of the Copper editing facilities and the new sound manipulation commands, it also works on an A1000. As if that wasn`t enough this version of AMOS allows you to edit and change the program (or even write your own!!), although you will not be able to save it. Also on this disc is a screenshot of one of the games that will come with AMOS, it can be found under the folder called- "LOOK_INSIDE_ME". I am reliably informed that previous incompatability with the A1000 was due to a minor mistake in the "OFFICIAL" Amiga documentation. The thanks of the development team go to Commodore France, whose co-operation insured the sanity of project manager Richard Vanner did not falter beyond the level of gibbering wreck...... Oh well, as this is my demo I`d just like to say hello to Carl, Colin (I need the graphics by next week Col!!), Darren M, Darren N, Abdul, Dolina, Claire (what happened to your hair?), Alan, Janine (my favourite bug tester), and hi to everybody at Page 6 Publishing. Many thanks for taking the time to read this message. Peter Hickman ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have any enquiries write to: MANDARIN SOFTWARE EUROPA HOUSE ADLINGTON PARK ADLINGTON MACCLESFIELD SK10 4NP or phone: (0625) 859333 or fax: (0625) 879961 P.S. If there are any spelling mistakes or bugs in this demo I will apologise now, I am afraid that even though AMOS is really fantastic it cannot stop my brain from breaking down after a hard night of programming. P.P.S. Francois is going to hate me for saying this but AMOS really is brill, in my ten years of computing it has to be the best (and most user friendly) language I have ever used. Please pass this demo onto your friends so they can see the power that AMOS gives to the ordinary Amiga user. Because 99.9% of AMOS is now finished lots of PD software will start to appear that will make use of this disc so please keep it safe (don`t erase it!!!!). P.P.P.S. Hi, Richard Vanner here! I'm adding this last piece before the disc goes off for duplication. I just want to say that we all feel Peter has hit the target with this demo. He has aquired a full knowledge of AMOS now and will come in handy when I need to know how something works! Look out for AMOS 3D, we have seen an early version and I must say it really is something amazing!!! Release for 3D - August '90 (fingers crossed)