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`"""" """""'""""' " """""" """""" """"""" `"""" Go """""
/\
/..\ _
/....\ _ // AMIGA, Amiga International.
/......\ \X/ Powered by Motorola.
/........\ Intel Inside! Idiot Outside.
¯¯l....l¯¯
|....| Taste the power. TODAY!
____ l....l __________________________ Amiga Multitasking since 1985. __
`----'
This is AmyNews 6.
News always start from the begining of this file.
Amiga development continues as never befor.
These are only a fraction of what developers are developing for the Amiga
platform.
THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTS WILL BE SHOWN IN THE KOELN EXHIBITION LATER
THIS YEAR. BE THERE AND TASTE THE POWER YOURSELF! AMIGA RULES!
RELEASE INFORMATION FOR THESE PRODUCTS IN LATER ISSUES OF AMYNEWS!
_______________________________________________________________________
CyberStorm 060/50 Accelerator Card
CyberVision64 64-bit Graphics Card
Final Data Database from Softwood Inc.
PCMCIA-Spectrum EGS-Spectrum for the A1200
PCMCIA-CARDCAM 24bit realtime digitizer
Emplant 5.0 Emulator
Emplant e486dx Emulator __
MaxonCINEMA 4D 2.0 Raytracing program / /\
MaxonTWIST 2.0 Relational database __ / / / A
MaxonC++ 3.0 AT&T-3.0 compatible /_/\/ / / G
MaxonBASIC 3.0 HiSoftBasic compatible \ \ \/ / I
MaxonPASCAL 3.0 TurboPascal-like \ \ / M
TurboCalc 3.0 Spreadsheet \_\/ A
WARP System Transputer System
_______________________________________________________________________
- Helmut Hoffmann announces the release of the long awaited EGSPhotoAlbum
Version 1.0, the comfortable picture management and presentation
software for EGS equipped Amigas. EGSPhotoAlbum among other features:
- Full automatic layout of the preview pages with fixed or variable
field size (max. field size can be selected)
- Page turning functions to turn the page like in a real PhotoAlbum.
- Viewing of pictures in full size by mouse click
- An unlimited number of full size picture windows (limited only by
memory) can be open at the same time.
- Intelligent caching algorithms to hold preview images in memory to
redurce waiting time when turning pages
- Asynchronous load function which preloads preview pictures during
work with EGSPhotoAlbum
- Automatic generation of preview files to reduce waiting time for
later use of EGSPhotoAlbum (only in full version)
- Saving of shown pictures in other file formats or direct transfer
to other programs (as ImageFX or PicoPainter)
- Easy single or multiselect feature for pictures
- Information display for selected picture (name, size, file format)
- Font sensitive EGS user interface which can be used even on largest
Screens and in full 24Bit color quality.
- OctaMED 5.03 with support for 16-Bit sound cards is released now. More
about this in a later issue of AmyNews
- Wolf Faust announced that a new version of his higly professional
,Studio, Printer Software is under a major upgrade which is to include
among other drivers, the HP 560C printer. More about the all new Studio
in a later issue of AmyNews.
- The US company Interworks announces the release of new software for the
ICard. ICard is a 16 bit ethernet card for the A1200's PCMCIA slot. It
provides 10BaseT and 10Base2 ethernet connectorsand SANA II driver for
compatibility with any SANA II compatible network protocol including
Interworks `ENLAN-DFS'. Contact Interworks at:
43191 Camino Casillas
Suite B2469
Temecula, CA 92592-3714
phone and fax: (909) 699-8120
- The 16Bit Microdeal Soundcard, titled AURA, is now on sale. More about
this in a later issue of AmyNews
- Yeah! ImageFX 2.0 release information is here. NOW!
Nova Design, Inc. announces the release of it's powerful image
manipulation software for the Amiga, ImageFX version 2.0.
ImageFX, PaintFX, AutoFX and CineMORPH are the complete Amiga image
manipulation system that combines image processing with amazing
special effects technology and professional painting tools that can
simulate artistic styles. Look what computer gurus say about ImageFx:
- MicroTimes magazine even named ImageFX as one of the Best Products of
the year!
- Mark Thompson, award winning Amiga animator: "ImageFX 2.0 is
absolutely the best image processing and manipulation package I've
ever seen on the Amiga."
- Shamms Mortier, writer for Amazing and Amiga Format: "The most
awesome image manipulation system for the Amiga, period!"
- Denny Atkin, Associate Editor OMNI magazine: "Absolutely the most
impressive image processing package I've seen on any computer!"
ImageFX version 2.0 Features among other:
- New System Features
- Image Thumbnails
Load and save images via interactive visual interface.
Preview effects on thumbnails before applying them.
- Multiple Buffers
Work on an unlimited number of image buffers and brushes.
- New Region Controls
Add, subtract, or invert regions. Create painting stencils and
masks.
- Text Generator
Create multiple lines of text with justifications and antialiasing.
Preview fonts before using them.
- Image Compositing
New compositing methods including Fast Matte, HSV Matte, Multiply,
Divide, Minimum and Maximum.
- AutoFX
New "cookbook" style batch processor with prewritten scripts to
perform hundreds of batch operations and animated effects!
- ImageFX Browser
Visual image cataloging system for maintaining libraries of pictures
and animations.
- Documentation
Completely rewritten manual with over 400 pages of tutorials and
reference. Expanded online help system.
-Hardware Support
- Graphics Boards
Supports all Amiga modes, Retina Z2/Z3, Picasso II, Piccolo,
Firecracker 24, IV-24, DCTV, HAM-E, Harlequin, and any EGS-comp.
hardware such as the Spectrum, Talon, and Rainbow III.
- Scanners
Expanded Epson 300/600/800 scanner controls and new support for the
VLAB YC framegrabber.
- Printers
Direct support for the Primera color printer in full color.
- New Painting Features
Improved soft edge modes and anti-aliasing.
Realtime painting tools that emulate traditional media such as
Airbrushes, Charcoals, Chalk, Oil and Fingerpaints, Felt Tip
Markers, Watercolors, and Crayons!
New Draw Modes like Smudge, Roughen, Disperse, Sharpen, and others.
Drawing Styles to allow rub through to other images, alpha channels,
mandala creation, realistic brush stroke fading, and much more.
- New Image Conversion Formats
- Amiga
Toaster Framestore
DPS PAR loader
Applied Magic Jstream
- Macintosh
PICT, including vector and JPEG variations!
Improved TIFF loader
- MSDOS
PIC format for all resolutions and color depths
GRASP/GL animation frame loading
DL animation frame loading
- Silicon Graphics
SGI RGB
Wavefront
Softimage
- Others
MPEG animation creation and frame extraction
X-Windows
Abekas A60 series
Sun Raster
C64 Koala
FITS/PDS/Vicar (NASA) image frames
- New Special Effects and Image Processing
Realistic lightning bolt generator Map images onto spheres
Pond ripples and waves Swirl images
Advanced lens flares generator Apply paper/canvas textures
Water/Glass distortion Image warps and lens effects
3D perspective rotation Expanded 2D rotation
PaintFX automatic painting generator Star and supernova generator
Crystallization effects Circular blurring effects
Standard or circular mosaic effects Straw-like distortions
Random tiling effects Median/Minimum/Max. filters
Sobel edge-detection Ramping edge-detection
Controllable NTSC/PAL Video filters Histogram Equalization tool
For further information contact:
Nova Design, Inc.,
1910 Byrd Avenue,
Suite 214, Richmond,
Virginia 23230, USA
Customer Support/Information (804) 282-6528
For upgrade orders (804) 282-1157
Fax (804) 282-3768
- Good news! The best directory Utility program (DOpus clone) for the
Amiga, DirWork version 2.1, is now out. Stay tune for a release info
in a later issue of AmyNews.
- CanDo 3.0 with a lot of new stuff is ready for release soon. The most
welcome addition is a new debugger for debugging CanDo multimedia
applications and 53 window/screen transition effects.
- Oregon Research announces the release of TERMITE, a modern Tele-
communications package for the Amiga. Among Termites features are:
- Supports communication speeds from 300 to 115,200 BPS
- Flexible Phone Book with unique configurations for each number
- Support for Multiple Line BBSs
- Configurable review buffer with cut and paste editing
- Multi-tasking chat window to prepare text before sending it.
- Configurable Text Macros
- Font and Screen sensitive displays
- Configurable button bar
- TERMITE supports XEM and XPR libraries
- Assign any program function/macro to the button bar. User can install
his own images to the button bar by assign your any IFF brush to the
button
- Fully AREXX programmable
- Automatic Call logging. Know where you were and how much you spent.
- AmigaGuide online help
TERMITE retails for $49.95. Contact Oregon Research at:
16200 S.W. Pacific Hwy., Suite 162
Tigard, OR 97224
Phone: (503) 620-4919
FAX: (503) 624-2940
- Oregon Research announces the release of the GameSmith Development
System for Professional Game development. Over three years in
development, the GameSmith Development system gives you the low level
power to create the masterpiece of your dreams. With GameSmith you can
easily create anything from arcade shoot 'em ups to graphic role
playing adventures, from fast scrollers to hair rasing strategy games.
The only limit is you imagination. Among other features Oregon Research
mentions:
- Complete animation system with double buffering
- Prioritized object display
- Custom Object/Object & Object /Background Collision Detection &
Response
- Automatic placement and Animation of Multi-Sequenced animated objects
- Chain Objects, animating one animates the whole chain!
- Automatic Virtual Space object handling
- Dynamic Animation Control
- Easy to use Joystick polling routines
- Very efficient ILBM picture loader
- Optional custom encryption to protect your artwork and sounds
- Fully AGA compatible
- Transparent double buffering
- Hardware level smooth scrolling on a per viewport basis
- Independently scroll playfields in dual playfield mode
- Parallax scrolling
- The interactive character animator CITAS for Building up animations
graphically
- Allow the creation of single object addressable by the system.
- Over 350 pages of documentation fully describing the system, utility
functions, and over 130 library functions complete with a detailed
tutorial and many examples.
For more information or a copy of detailed product literature contact
Oregon Research.
- PageStream version 3.0c patch file is now out :-) (SoftLogic)
- The TypeSmith 2.5a update should be available in about a week. The patch
fixes a few small problems including the Print Overview. (SoftLogic)
- Final Writer version 3.0, the powerful Amiga word processer is under
beta testing. Woody Williams, SoftWoods President says the new version
will be available on 30 November. Upgrade cost for owners of Final
Writer 2 will be the modest $5. For release information see the next
issue of AmyNews
- An add-in drawing enhancement to PageStream version 3 will be developed
and marketed. This should eliminates the need for Art Expression.
(SoftLogic)
- ImageStudio version 1.1.0 is now released. ImageStudio is the low cost
solution for image processing on the Amiga. It features among other:
- Virtual memory
- Upto 100 levels of undo / redo
- Loads/saves IFF-ILBM (palette based upto 256 colours, HAM6, HAM8,
extra halfbright), GIF, BMP, PCX, JPEG, Targa, EPS, datatypes.
- User definable convolution filters.
- Adjust colour balance (brightness, contrast and gamma).
- ASCII and AmigaGuide documentation.
- Requires no third party libraries or utilities.
- Uses Workbench2/3 style interface.
- Newtek has started shipping it's long awaited Flyer for the Amiga
Toaster Station. Currently only developers and dealers are getting
flyers but the mass shipping of the Flyer is getting close.
- WordWorth version 3.1 from Digita International is out now. Upgrade fee
from version 3.0 is £14.99.
- The US company Opportunity With Learning announces the release of it's
new powerful multimedia educational software "Physics Laboratory in
Mechanics". The program teaches kinematics, dynamics, statics, universal
gravitation, work & energy, impulse & momentum, and rotational
kinematics. An interactive laboratory notebook describes and allows the
student to simulate 21 different experiments. The notebook gives
instruction on how to perform the experiments by using everyday objects.
Results are entered into the computerized notebook. An equation
animation section teaches students the algebra used when rearranging
equations. Also included are history, math, and unit reference sections.
Contact Opportunity With Learning at 617-944-1745
- Intangible Assets Manufacturing announces the availability of its
"Connect Your Amiga!" T-shirt. It comes in 100% black cotton with color
star-chart design and the words "Connect Your Amiga!" List price is
$19.95. Contact Intangible Assets Manufacturing (fax) +1 610 853 3733
- Ingenieurbuero Helfrich is making it's brand new Piccolo-SD64plus
graphic board. It features, 64bit-Blitter, Pixelclock 135 MHz, Zorro
II/III autosensing.
- German company IngBure Helfrich announces the release of a it's MPEG
board, called Peggy (FMV card) for the Amiga 4000. SCALA is selling
a hardware MPEG card for the ZORRO Amigas too.
- DICE v3.0 in a new repacked version is now available to all Amiga
programmers. New DICE 3.0 is brought to you by famous Amiga Gurus Matt
Dillon (freeware author), Andy Finkel (Amiga OS), John Toebes (Software
Distillery) and Bryce Nesbitt (Amiga OS & Enforcer).
Now the DICE compiler is part of an integrated "system" of programming
tools designed to ease and speed creating programs for the Amiga. For
beginners DICE offers an intuitive visual approach to creating programs
-- and numerous examples. Programmers of all levels will appreciate how
DICE integrates seamlessly with their favorite text editor, offering
tools and information at the touch of a button.
DICE 3.0 includes:
- Complete 450 page manual, including a section on avoiding the most
common programming pitfalls.
- Full, fast, online help. Help in under a second.
- A complete visual compile environment (fully configurable to provide
a visual environment for any program).
- All the updates, fixes and enhancements you'd expect to the original.
- ANSI compatibility.
- Romable code generation tools.
- Source code management tools.
- An easy to use full source level debugger - with the most asked for
features to make debugging simple.
- A Compression system for use on floppy disk systems.
- Two powerful ARexx aware programmer's editors
- Full source code for the libraries and dozens of examples.
- Comes with AmigaOS 1.3, 2.0, and 3.0 libraries and include files.
- ANSI, Unix compatibility, and Amiga link libraries.
- A package of "bonus" tools to help find bugs in your code.
- Error messages in German, French, Sweedish, English or American.
The new DICE is fast, inexpensive, easy, fun and works on any Amiga.
DICE is only $150. SAS/C owners pay only $95. For students, DICE is $85.
For more information contact (FAX): 919-469-3853, email: info@oic.COM
- Torsten Klein announce the release of the scientific program ASpringies
version 1.0. ASpringies is a simulator which allows you to interactively
create and edit a system of masses and springs. The parameters of the
masses and springs (such as mass elasticity and spring K) as well as
those of the surrounding system (such as air viscosity and gravity) can
be changed. These systems can be loaded and saved into a file. Contact
the auther at: Gr.-Kurfuersten-Str. 1 33615 Bielefeld Germany
- To all of you fun of the finance software package Phasar. A new version
of this program is under development so be happy ;)
- The long awaited GTDriver version 1.0 is finally released. GTDriver is
a new and powerful driver for graphic tablets and serial mouses. More
info about this driver in the next AmyNews
- David Benn announces the release of the ACE BASIC version 2.3 for the
Amiga. ACE BASIC in conjunction with A68K and Blink produces standalone
executables.
New features in version 2.3 include: Wb 2.x/3.x 3D-look for gadgets and
requesters, an interprocess communication mechanism, IFF picture file
support, subprogram module/library creation facility, MsgBox can now be
used as a command as well as a function, EHB and HAM screen modes (AGA
modes in next release), a line continuation character (~), serial
status word can now be accessed via SERIAL function, address of SUBs/
external functions via VARPTR/@, reserved words can be listed via a
command-line compiler option, FONT and STYLE commands, LONGINT(n)
function, SCREEN FORWARD and SCREEN BACK, CLEAR ALLOC command,
borderless windows via WINDOW command, GADGET MOD command for modifying
existing proportional gadgets, SLEEP FOR <secs> command, BEVELBOX
command, .bas extension is now recognised as well as .b for ACE source
files.
Improvements have been made to event trapping, structures, ALLOC,
FileBox, executable size, peephole optimisation, external/shared
library function syntax, DIM syntax, GADGET syntax, ERR and ON ERROR
(window, screen and message error codes), turtle graphics screen aspect
ratios.
- A new version of TrapFax (version 1.2) with full support for the
release version of Class 2.0 is to be released soon.
- The US company Endicor Technologies, Inc. annonce the release of the
long awaited CompuScope 220 Driver (version 1.0) for the CompuScope 220
ISA Digital Oscilloscope board from Gage Scientific. Contact Endicor
Technologies, Inc. at (Fax) 1-210-650-4988
- ADVANCED VOICE MAIL AVM v1.42 is now out. AVM software supports
multiple voice mailboxs, customized messages, FAX send & receive,
scheduling of FAXs, scheduling of outgoing voice messages, remote
retreival of voice mail and FAXs, automatic forwarding of voice mail
and FAXs, automatic paging (via your telephone pager) when messages are
received, built in FAX software, and more. You can also use AVM with
GPFax and TrapFAX software. It works with ZyXEL, Dolphin, Linelink,
and other modems. Price ranges from 20$ - 50$
- Due to the popular demand; Legendary Technologies is selling LinkIt!
Consting 60$, LinkIt! allows you to connect your Amiga to a PC using
the Serial or Parallel ports of the systems. It has executable for
the Amiga, ms-dos and windows. Using LinkIt! you can transfer files
(format conversion is done on the fly using format conversion modules)
between connected systems. Extensive AREXX interface allows you to send
commands to the remote computer. LinkIt! automatically adjust filenames
and file patterns to match the appropriate machine. Amiga version
supports GVP's IOExtenderand the Multiface cards. LinkIt! package
includes a high speed parallel cable. For further information contact:
Legendary Design Technologies Inc.
25 Frontenac Avenue
Brantford,ON Canada
N3R 3B7
OR
Legendary Design Technologies Inc. US Dept.
PO Box 1147,
Lewiston, NY
14092-8147 USA
(519)753-6120 Voice/Fax
- Check & Balance from AmiSoft is a new software that let you balans
your books and print out your checks. Former Quicken user reports
that they prefer Check & Balance for it's ease of use and power.
- The German based company MacroSystem has finaly released it's long
awaited 24-bits paint program XiPaint version 3.0. It's the first
program of it's kind that supports AmigaOS intuition. XiPaint version
3.0 can open unlimited nr of picures (your Amigas memory limit this)
and has support for alpha-channel, paint tablets, penselpool and
unlimited Undo. XiPaint supports all major graphic boards and has a
nice AREXX port ;) For more information contact MacroSystem, FAX,
Germany-2302-80884
- The German company Irsee Software announces the release of it's printing
program TurboPrint Professional version 3.0. The new version has among
other imrpovments support for the Epsons Stylus Colour printer.
- The German company Village Tronic, crew behind the wonderful Picasso I
& II graphic board, announces the release of Ariadne, a new network
solution for the Amiga. Ariadne is a ethernet board that comes with 2
extra parallel ports. Using the parallel ports an Amiga can be
connected to different networks like Novell and TCP/IP. The board
supports 10-Base-T and 10-Base-2.
- "Black Tie Software" announces the release of several new packages for
the Amiga. Among others BTS mentions the following softwares:
- "ProWrite Tools" is a collection of highly sophisticated, heavily
optimized and fully commented ARexx programs that extend the
functionality of ProWrite version 3.3. These tools include a table
of contents generator, an index generator and utilities to mark and
review table of contents and index entries.
- "Structured Clipart" consists of over 240 highly detailed structured
images in Adobe Illustrator format. The images have the following
features:
- Created by Award winning Artist.
- Full color images.
- Optimized for color and grey-scale printing on laser and dot-matrix
printers.
- Most images are done a simulated 3D perspective.
This collection can be used direcly on the Amiga using the Art
Expression, ProVector, PageStream, FinalWriter without he need to
purchase an expensive postscript printer.
- "Michaels Math Quiz" a game that using high quality graphics,
animations and digitized sounds. sharpens the math skills of
children 6 years and older.
Contact "Black Tie Software" at:
USA (614)891-3721 M-F 6-10 PM EST, Sat & Sun 12-10 PM
- Did you read the news in a former issue of AmyNews about the all new
version of the XCAD-3000? If not, do a search for XCAD in this file
first. I had a new fax from Grafx Computing. In the fax, they mention
that a new version of the awared winner GFXCAD 3000 is in work. GFX-CAD
3000 consists of four CAD programs in one package, GFX-CAD 3000 comes
with the basic drawing engine, XCAD 3000, which consists of both 2-D
and 3-D drawing modules. XShell and ZShell, two custom icon-menu
interfaces for each module and a stand-alone 2-D version. Priced at
apr $1100 (imagine version 3.0 counted), this package outperforms the
combination of the AutoCad, 3-D Studio and AME for the ibm compatibles
pc, priced at apr $9000. So once again, most power for your money when
you use an Amiga or what was you waiting for ;)
- The German company Bit Sommer & Dickmann annonce the release of the
SpeedMaster for the Amiga 4000. SpeedMaster is a frequence generator
that increases the clock frequence of the Amiga 4000. More than 60%
perfromance increase is promissed when sporting the Amiga 4000/040 in
41 MHZ. Contact Bit Sommer & Dickmann at: FAX Germany, 2131-944319
- Cloanto from Italy announces the release of it's low cost painting
package, Personal Paint version 6.0. The new version supports among
other improvments, animation and virtuel memory managment and is
reported to be much faster.
- Heinz Wrobel reports that a new version of it's wonderful post.library
is in work. The new version becomes available as a DataType. Highlights
of the post.library in the upcoming version are:
- A "fix" for cvi and cvr which should help with some special Quark-
XPress files.
- heavy magic to make old FreeHand files work that violate documented
PS Level 2 behaviour (meatball.ps
- _transparent_ handling of DOS style EPS files with binary headers.
- and more ;)
- US base company MicroActive Inc annonce the continuing support for it's
Amiga products. MicroActive Inc mention it's stock market technical
analysis and database management package for the Amiga, MicroTrader.
Reports to be a sophisticated package, MicroTrader allows the user to
perform own technical analysis on stocks, options, commodities and
indices. It allows the user to keep his portfolio under constant
supervision and spot buy formations in other securities. Use can mind
his own portfolio and update. either automatically using the powerful
communication capability, or manualy using the advanced screen editor.
- Digita International annonces the continuing development on the
WordWorth 3.1 for the Amiga. Tons of new features are promissed.
A very welcome improvment is the promissed 40x speed increase!!!
Look for a feature-list in a later AmyNews.
- A new version 2.2 of the PhotoCD from the German based company
Corporate Media is released now. The new version sports better
prefs possibility to load pictures and a nicer GUI.
- The standard mathematic program Maple V version 3.0 for the Amiga is
under development. Maple V is expected to be completed this year.
A Student Edition of Maple V, release 3, will be distributed by
Brooks/Cole. The general release time is around December 94.
- US company SaxMan System announces the rework and release of a new set
of business and accounting packages for the Amiga. Among tons of other
features in it's business applications, SaxMan mentions; cash
processing and credit sales, general ledger, invoices and statements
printing, payroll, inventory control, accounts receivable, accounts
payable, payroll and job cost analysis.
Professional quality is promissed for all packages. All packages are
based on the OXIIs SBase Professional (former SuperBase Professional
4 from Precision SoftWare).
- Just to make it clear and to kill the bullshits around, RCS managment
in Montreal are in business and are developing their promissed 68060
board for desktop Amigas. Go figure ...
- German based company MAXON Computer Gmbh announces the release of
several new packages for the Amiga, among others, MAXON mentions,
MAXONBasic, a new complete development package for the Amiga.
MAXONBasic consists of an editor, compiler and debugger. Being
compatible with HiSoftBasic and the good old AmigaBasic, the package
allows the user to do professional programing using features as
includes, functions and subroutines.
Another package from MAXON; MAXONTools, a DirectoryOpus clone, is
a highly configurable directory utility program that allows the
user to use docks to perform the most used operations.
- Awared winner professional CAD package for the Amiga, XCAD - 3000,
will soon come in a new version (this info directly from one of the
XCAD programmers). XCAD - 3000 in it's current version is up to 15
(yes 15) times faster than AutoCad on IBM PC platform. XCAD - 3000
was the winner of CADEX US 1993. XCAD 3000 3D is, among other places,
used by "Rolls Royce", US GSM and "Lucas Aeroscope".
Feature list for the current version:
- True 3D database
- Dynamic Views - rotate design in any axis - X, Y or Z
- Instant prespective with user definable eye & vantage points
- Real time rendering
- Automatic hidden line removal
- Unique command within command processing
- User definable tablet & screen menus
- User definable construction planes
- Supported surfaces: planar, tabulated cylinders, surfaces of
revolution
- Printers: Preferences supported printers. HPGK pen plotters
- more 16 milions of colors
- Read formats: XCAD professional, XCAD designer, AutoCad DXF, Aegis
Draw/Draw 2000 and more
- Write formats: AutoCad DXF, Imagine object format, DPaint and more
- The second patch to the leading DesktopPublishing software for the
Amiga, PageStream 3.0, is out now. The patch v3.0b features 49
additions and bug fixes (many are very complex additions). A new patch
version 3.0c is due to release soon.
- PCTask (Chris Hames) v3.0 is under development. The new version is
reported to be faster and supports all graphic boards available. It
emulates an Intel 386 and can run windows 3 at a reasonable speed, on
a 68040 system. For those of you that have never heard about PCTask;
PCTask is a low cost multitasking ibm pc compatible software only
emulator for the Amiga.
- Some early information about Photogenics, the all new image
manipulation and paint software for the Amiga from the Almathera Inc.
Photogenics combines the features of a powerful image manipulation
package with the ease-of-use and creative freedom of a traditional
paint program.
You can load a variety of different images (JPEG, GIF, IFF, etc.)
and save them in different formats, but Photogenics is much more than
just a simple conversion system. Artists will love the multiple built
in natural brushes (chalk, pencil, pastel, etc...), or you may perfer
to retouch pictures with the airbrush. Through the variety of
operations and the powerful visual alpha channels, image manipulation
has never been so enjoyable.
You can edit multiple images - each in its own resizable window. The
realtime HAM-8 display gives you full-colour painting without needing a
24-bit graphics board.
Designed for graphics artists and serious painters, Photogenics gives a
professional working environment offering many features not even found
on PC or Mac packages. The open-architecture design gives programmers
the freedom of writing their own loaders, savers or effects.
- The US company 'Mr Hardware' annonce the release of several new
specialized database applications for SuperBase Professionl (from
OXII). 'Mr Hardware' has even updated version to it's powerful
'Video Scort' and 'Freelance Scort' for SBase Pro.
- US company TriMedia Inc. sells a driver for Calcomp paint tablets.
A patches for major paint programs are available too. contact them at:
TriMedia Inc.
60 East Hintz Road
Wheeling, IL 60090
- EGS, Enhanced Graphics System, is now available for all Amiga non-EGS
graphic boards. GVP German distributor, DTM, Fax #: 06127-66276. EGS
currently supports these Amiga graphic cards:
Merlin, EGS-110, Retina, Domino, Rainbow, Picasso, Visiona, IV-24.
- The new version 2.0 of the powerfull MultiMedia authering program,
HELM is under development. Jerrell Nickerson of the Eagle Tree Software
mentions the following improvments so far for the version 2.0:
- Updated text scrolls, text crawls, and path-based object animation.
- A new property browser
- Better text handling
- A micro language for creating your own visual effects
- Page scheduling
- Remote communications
- The ability to stream sounds and animations off the hard drive
- And more ;-)
- A new RDB installable Apple MAC reader filesystem, CrossMac, is
released now. More about this product later.
- Jerrell Nickerson Eagle Tree Software annonced that he has completed
a version of the powerful authoring program Helm for CD32. It knows
about CD audio, FMV, CDXL, nonvolatile memory, and the game controller.
Also, it has a focus system for bumping around the objects on the
screen with the controller.
- This is very important to CLI users and therefor I will included it in
the AmyNews. Andreas M. Kirchwitz has upgraded Urban D. Mueller C-Shell
to version 5.39. C-Shell is a powerful replacement for the AmigaDOS
CLI. Summary of the new feature for this version:
- New builtin variable "_timeout" (in microseconds) sets maximum
response time for terminal to answer WINDOW STATUS REQUEST (for
window bounds). Defaults to 1 (for local usage), must be set to
higher value for remote connections. Only used, if window pointer
is not available.
- Removed command line length limitation (140 chars) for ARexx scripts
that ends with ".rexx" but are started without the trailing ".rexx".
- Removed command line length limitation (518 chars) for ARexx scripts
and external shells (#! in first line), this was a limitation in
AmigaOS' System() function. DOS scripts still have this limitation,
because you cannot RunCommand() "execute".
- Not only "*" and "?" but also "[" and "]" recognized as AmigaDOS
pattern. (that means, to use "[" and "]" you must quote (") or
escape (\) them!)
- ... and much more workarounds for serious bugs in DateToStr() and
Locale.
- Fixed bug: making an assign to an executable and calling the
executable by its assign crashed machine.
- Fixed bug: builtin command "cp" sometimes used already freed memory
for generating error messages (resulted in some strange error
messages).
- New flag for for command abbreviation ($_abbrev):
8, search DOS path-list if command wasn't found in Cshell's
internal program hash list (see "rehash" command)
- CTRL-D now shows matching files if current word is not a directory.
(if directory then shows contents of directory -- as usual)
In its current implementation this may have unexpected side effects
if current word is already a pattern.
- Class definition for AmigaE in class.sh
- Now internal timer (eg, %e in the titlebar) not set to zero when a
null command is encountered. (same for return code, %x in titlebar)
- The idea of always using the variable "_dirformat" for "dir" wasn't
a good idea. So, "_dirformat" is only used if option -z is given
(when "_dirformat" is unset then use first argument as format
string).
- New control-code for line-editing: "^V" (ctrl-v) quotes next char.
- New builtin variable "_kick" holds version number of Operating
System.
- Builtin command "assign" now prints volume name if assign points to
an unmounted volume (eg, a removed floppy disk) and doesn't pop up
a requester "Please replace volume ..."
- It was a stupid idea to force redirecting of all Cshell-related
system requesters to CSH's screen, because requester windows
inherit the window title of their "initiator". They appear now
again on your default public screen.
- Fixed serious bug (crashed machine) with redirection and launching
programs into background. (files closed twice)
Known bug: it's still not possible to run pipes into background...
- When running programs into background (run, rback, &), internal
commands and aliases are recognized and executed with "csh -c".
Aliases WON'T be resolved on this level so they must be declared
in .cshrc to run them into background.
- Execution of Rexx-Scripts (without trailing ".rexx") and any other
program with "#! my_prog" or ";! my_prog" in first line of script
now possible also from DOS search path and not only $_path.
- New builtin variable "_mappath" (see manual), enables pathname-
mapping for commands if script starts with "#!" or ";!" in first
line. Converts Unix pathes like "/usr/..." to "usr:...".
- New option "-w" for Cshell, don't use window pointer (useful for
KingCON).
- New option "-V" for Cshell, send only VT100 compatible control
sequences.
- Internal variable "o_vt100" now used (if option -t or -V is set),
don't send control sequences that are not VT100 compatible (eg,
special Amiga control sequences).
- Various changes/enhancements to existing commands.
- Miscellaneous bug fixes.
- Merian Software & Design annonce the release "DATABASE PROFESSIONAL"
version 2.0. "DATABASE PROFESSIONAL" is a full featured powerful
database program ala SuperBase Pro. More about "DATABASE PROFESSIONAL"
is next issue of AmyNews.
- The German company ProDad annonce the development of the new video
editing program CAVIN. It supports all kinds of hardware (Control-L,
LANC, PANASONIC-EDIT, RS232 and RS 422 protocolls) and timecode (VITC,
TCTC, RAPID). You can also use infrared signals for older hardware.
CAVIN hast timelines for A & B VCR's, graphics / animation, hardware
(i.e. framegrabber, M-JPEG boards, cd-player), audio (Amiga, audio
boards or external). So you can use it as a complette A/B editing
system.
You can of course configure CAVIN to work in conjunction with other
Pro Dad products, such as clariSSA, Monument Titler and Adorage.
ProDad has also upgraded older products. Adorage 2.5 now supports a
transparent colour 0, image conversion and loading of different image
types (i.e. TIFF, PCX) and has some new 3D effects.
There are two new modules for clariSSA, the Loaderpackage allows you to
import new image formats (i.e. GIF, JPEG, PCX), while the "motion
sound" add on allows you to add samples to your SSA animations.
- A reminder due to missunderstanding about PageStream version 3.0 files
formats; SoftLogic *WILL* release PageStream v3.0 developer materials
for creating import/export/printer modules etc.
- Helmut Hoffmann announces the release of EGS-TV Professional v3.1.
EGS-TV Professional is a Desktop Video, harddisk sequence editing and
framegrabber software now available even for EGS systems.
EGS-TV offers high/true-color sequence editing and animation generation
for random access sequences on your harddisk. It can apply amazing
trick technics as the Blue Screen Keying to your pictures and
sequences/animations. Did you ever want to edit an 80MByte animation
and delete a frame out of the middle? No problem with EGS-TV.
All this is done through a font sensitive EGS user interface which
runs on your biggest screens in 24Bit color quality...
EGS-TV can import and export pictures very fast to and from many other
EGS programs. It can even run on the same screen as thoose programs.
It offers many file formats (IFF, JPeg, YUV, PPM, QRT, Targa, DEEP etc)
and uses it's own fast sequence format for random access sequences.
- Kermit Woodall of the Nova Design, Inc. annonce that a new version of
CineMORPH is due to immediate release with ImageFX 2.0.
- Kermit Woodall of Nova Design, Inc. annons the development of ImageFX
version 2.0. Tons of new features are promissed, among them Fractal
Painter and direct support for Picasso II display card.
- Gordon Wilkes of the WindShadow Software annonce the release of the
"learning about music" software for children, "Making Music with Bertie
Bunny".
- Intellegent Designs, Inc. (IDI) has now taken over Moonlighters
products (AmiBack, TapeWORM etc) and annonce the continuing development
of the AmiBack 3.0 and TapeWorm 2.0
Contact them at:
Intellegent Designs, Inc.
2925 East Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL 32803
- HOT NEWS: Amazing structured drawing package ProVector version 3.0 for
the Amiga is out by the enf of the month. ;-)
A press release should be showing up in the next AmyNews ;-)
- A new set of clipart collection for FinalWriter 2.1 are available now
from SoftWood.
- GoldEd, one of the most powerful and configurable ASCII text editor,
version 1.0 is finaly out.
- For those who asked me, here is the list of new improvments in bum7 for
BlitzBasic II
- Improvment and bugfixed and addition to this areas:
Stability, Debugging, Interupts and BlitzKeys, Serial Stuff,
GadTools, ScreensLib, ValLib, Display Library, Palette Library,
Banks and Decoding.
- And all new commands:
GTStatus(GTList#,Id) ;bbgtlib
GTArrowSize size ;bbgtlib
DecodeILBM BitMap#,MemoryLocation ;ilbmifflib
DecodeSound Sound#,MemoryLocation ;audiolib
DecodePalette Palette#,MemoryLocation[,Palette Offset] ;palettelib
DecodeMedModule MedModule#,MemoryLocation ;medlib
DecodeShapes Shape#[,Shape#],MemoryLocation ;shapeslib
InitShape Shape#,Width,Height,Depth ;shapeslib
SetPeriod Sound#,Period ;audiolib ;audiolib
Bank(Bank#)
LoadBank Bank#,FileName$[,MemType]
AllocMem (size,type) ;banklib
FreeMem location,size ;banklib
BlockScroll X1,Y1,Width,Height,X2,Y2[,BitMap#] ;scrolllib
ClipBlitMode BPLCON0 ;2dlib
CyclePalette Palette# ;palettelib
FadePalette SrcPalette#,DestPalette#,Brightness.q ;palettelib
InitPalette Palette#,NumColors ;palettelib
PaletteRange Palette#,StartCol,EndCol,r0,g0,b0,r1,g1,b1 ;palettelib
DuplicatePalette SrcPalette#,DestPalette# ;palettelib
SavePalette Palette#,FileName$ ;iffmakelib
CustomColors CopList#,CCOffset,YPos,Palette,startcol,numcols ;displaylib
CustomString CopList#,CCOffset,YPos,Copper$ ;displaylib
DisplayDblScan CopList#,Mode[,copoffset] ;displaylib
DisplayRainbow CopList#,Register,Palette[,copoffset] ;displaylib
DisplayRGB CopList#,Register,line,r,g,b[,copoffset] ;displaylib
DisplayUser CopList#,Line,String[,Offset] ;displaylib
DisplayScroll CopList#,&xpos.q(n),&xpos.q(n)[,Offset] ;displaylib
ReadSerialMem Unit#,Address,Length ;seriallib
WriteSerialMem Unit#,Address,Length ;seriallib
PopInput & PopOutput ;inputoutputlib
GameB(por#) ;gameiolib
NumPars ;cliargslib
Par$(parameter#) ;cliargslib
FromCLI ;cliargslib
ParPath$ (parameter,type) ;cliargslib
- And to all people asking for Acid Softwares Internet adress. The
adress is acid@iconz.co.nz
- The US company Blue-Knight Productions annonce the availability of a
new CD Rom disk containing NEVER RELEASED music composed by 10 of the
best Amiga composer. More about this disk later.
- Jolyon Ralph at Almathera reports that they have just finished
evaluating a new filesystem for Amiga 4000 with CD-rom drives (SCSI-2
drives, eg Toshiba 4101, or the Tandem IDE CD-ROM drive) which offers
CD32 emulation. The emulation is pretty good, it can run Video Creator
and most CD32 games, supporting cd.device audio.
- Ok, this is hot. Just got a fax from Tecsoft France. TVPaint version
3.0 in under development.More info in one of the later AmyNews issue.
- Mathias Kretschmer of the German company ProDev Vertrieb annonce the
release of the ProCrypt Version 1.0. ProCrypt is designed to encrypt
the data on selected partitions on the fly.
- Powerful GUI-builder program for the Amiga, VisualArts, is now
available in a new version 2.0. VisualArts allows you to actually DRAW
a user interface to your program. A summary of the main features;
- Menu and List manager
- Object Master
- Insert custom codes into any GadTools or GadTool Menu items
- Drawing tools such as rectangle, circle and lines
- Supports AppWindow and MultiProcessing windows
- Add AREXX to any program
- Custom images, custom images for button, PopupMenu
- Get any IFF color map and use it in your program
- Color palette and over 40 custom patterns for fills
- Context Sensitive
- User perference
- Automatic history and time interval saving
- User configurable source output
and many more features.
- ACID software plane a release of version 3.0 of it's powerful Basic
package for XMas.
- The first patch to PageStream 3.0 is out now. The patch v3.0a feature:
- Frameless text objects implemented! Just click on the page with the
Text tool and type!
- Eliminated extra text redraws when applying attributes!
- Current attribute defaults are now implemented. (You can now place
the insertion point (cursor), change the font or other attributes,
and then type, without reverting back to Triumvirate.)
- You can now repeatedly use the arrow gadgets in the Edit palette to
change the type size and other text attributes.
- Changed default alignment from justified to left.
- Amiga keyboard shortcuts now work.
- You now get a normal height cursor when you click in a frame.
- Right indent tab are now done.
- Stopped text from being displayed outside of its frame.
- New custom Epson driver included!
- HP color variants now supported.
- PaintJet problems fixed.
- Some Canon variants are now supported. Choose the Epson driver from
the Printing Preferences' Type popup, and choose the Canon model from
the Model popup. (These Canon printers are similar to Epson printers.)
- The basic 13 resident PostScript printer fonts are now supported for
PostScript printing, but the style variations are not. (ie: Pala
(Palatino) will print correctly, but Pala Italic will not; it will
print as Palatino normal. This will be corrected in 3.0b. Times
Italic, Times Bold, Times Bold Italic, and Triumvirate Bold
(Helvetica) will print correctly though, because they are in a
different font format.)
- Printing Compugraphic fonts to PostScript now saves the generated PFB
versions of the fonts on disk. This solves the timeout problem. See
the NOTES section for important details.
- Top offset problem fixed. (You may need to adjust your offsets.)
- Improvd Floyd-Steinberg dithering.
- TO color percentage fixed for PostScript.
- Collate now defaults to off.
- Do Not Print flag (Edit palette, Object/Edit) now implemented.
- Parenthesis problem (PostScript) fixed.
- Multiple copy problem (non-PostScript) fixed.
- Toolbox Prefs: Pie and Arc are no longer reversed.
- Toolbox Prefs: Opaque/Transparent is no longer ignored.
- Font Prefreferencess: Cache settings are now loaded.
- Autoscroll now works when resizing objects.
- Intellifonts should now rotate/slant/twist correctly.
- And more
PageStream v3.0b will add features necessary for tutorial lessons and
more. Stay tune!
- Long awaited AWESOME program for the Amiga MovieGuide v3.0 is now out.
Taking more than 5 mega byte of space on your HardDrive, MovieGuide is
a multimedia aplication that contains information about 18000 movies
and serious. News for version 3.0 are:
- Topics added
- Biographies added (some pictures here too)
- Oscars added
- Ratings added
- Cleaner layout, setup-screen added
- Mini-lexicon added
- "Scan all" function added to browser
- Faster title-search
- More titles, more plot descriptions
- A few pictures from movies added
- A new intro added
- Bugs in browser and plots fixed
MovieGuide is a highly recommend program and doesn't cost more than $0.
Amiga softwares Rule!
- A new version of landscape generating software, SceneryAnimator, is
in it's beta testing period :-)
More about this wonderfrul new release in a later issue of AmyNews
- Terra Nova Development announces the availability of Magic Lantern
v2.0, the critically acclaimed 24 bit animation package for the Amiga.
Magic Lantern version 2.0 allows users to create, edit and display
delta compressed animations in up to 24 bit color on all the popular
true color display cards for the Amiga, as well as all the native
Amiga modes (including AGA). It will also play sound effects in either
mono or stereo though the Amiga sound chip during animation play back.
New features include virtual memory support; now animations can be as
large as your hard disk, and Magic Lantern will still be able to edit
and display them. Double Time compression technology can double
animation speed and reduce animation sizes by half.
Another new compression technology has been added that can speed up
some animations (especially those in 16 and 24 bit) by up to 25%, and
reduce animation sizes by up to 20%. Rebuilding animations has been
optimized, and for large animations can be 75% faster.
Direct support for the Retina Z3 has been added, resulting in
animations that are up to 50% faster and 40% smaller for that card.
Magic Lantern 2.0 still contains all the features of previous
versions, including sound synchronization, enforcement of frame
rates, full ARexx support, animation disassembly, palette changes and
more.
- Sound/Noise tracker compatible module player for the Amiga, the D.A.S.
ModulePlayer's long awaited version 3.4 will be out soon. The new
version has, among other improvments, support for 6 more module formats
including TFMX Pro, TFMX 7V and C64 SID modules.
- Powerful spreadsheet for the Amiga, TurboCalc, will jump directly from
version 2.1 to 3.0. Lots of improvments are promissed. The goal is to
make it equal or better than microsoft excel. TurboCalc supports SYLK
format and in it's current version it's much like Excel. If you are
familiar with Excel then you are familiar with TurboCalc too.
More about this superb product in a later issue of AmyNews ;-)
- This is for those of you who use the powerful Blitz Basic II (ASIC SW);
Blitz User Magazine issues 6-10 (£15) are now available from:
Guildhall Leisure Services
Blitz Subscriptions
Unit 15 Guildhall Industrial Estate
Kirksandall
Doncaster
DN3 1QR
England
- Pure Logic Software president Jason Freund annonce that they are and
will be loyal to the Amiga users. Pure Logic Software is developing
a major upgrade to the "On The Ball" (a personal information manager
for ther Amiga). The upgrade is to be released Nov/Dec 1994.
- Questar Productions announces the availability of World Construction
Set version v1.0. The World Construction Set is a so called terrain
renderer or scenery generator/animator with promissing features.
World Construction Set (WCS) is the next generation of computer
terrain modeling software. WCS' powerful renderer sets new standards
in photo-realism, producing images that are often mistaken for actual
photographs. WCS' ecosystem modeling approach combines familiar 3D
imaging techniques with Nature's own processes to deliver scenes of
sublime beauty and lifelike detail to your Amiga.
World Construction Set is like nothing you have seen befor!
- ADPTools Professional v1.0 is now out. It's a powerful FronEnd for the
ADPro Professional (ASDG).
- Oxxi Inc reports that development of Oxxis superb multimedia package
VideoStage Pro continues. Oxxi estimates a release date Fall (1994)
for VideoStage Pro Plus, VSP+. VideoStage Pro in it's current version
is a powerful multimedia authoring program desined to compete with
the industry standard multimedia package SCALA InfoChannel.
VideoStage's impressive text animation capabilities also make it an
amazing video titling tool when used with a genlock. There is built-
in control for ECS chipset genlocks, GVP's G-Lock, and Digital
Creations' SuperGen.
- Silicon Prairie leading caching program for the Amiga, HyperCache
Professional version 2.0 is now out.
HyperCache Professional can speed up data access by as much as 3000%
on devices such as: SCSI & IDE hard drives, CD-ROM drives and floppy
drives.
- Electronics Art reports that the paint program DeluxePaint version 5.0
is under development. Among the new features Electronic Arts mentions:
- ARexx - Full command set, recordable and saveable macros.
- 24 Bit Backing Store - 24 Bit data creation, editing, loading,
saving.
- Multiple Palette Animation - Every frame can have a separate palette.
- Variable Rate Animation - Every frame can have a custom frame rate/
pause.
- Texturing, Media libraries - Used in conjunction to create
naturalistic art.
- Camera Moves - Create scrolling backgrounds, and camera zoom
animations.
- Gradient Translucency - Create gradient translucency fades.
- AnimBoard(tm) - Print animation storyboard in multiple layouts.
- Soft Edge Airbrush - New editable Airbrush has a natural look and
feel.
- Creation and editing of larger than screen animations.
- Move Requester Enhancements - Key Frame Animation, Animated Fades.
Electronic Arts estimates a release date Fall (1994) for DPaint 5.0
- A new version of the communication program NComm version 3.05 is now
released. The new version correct all known bugs and ads several new
feature.
- UK based company Marpet Developments annons the release of, CD32
S-Port ($35 US). This hardware/software package Connects the CD32 to
a 25 pin serial port via the keyboard port.
- "Paint Engine" is the new generation Paint/Processing package for the
Amiga. It is the fastest image processor for the Amiga and comes with
tons of feature. "Paint Engine" is in it's beta testing period. Beta
testers claims that on Amiga 4000, "Paint Engine" does almost real-
time image manipulation!!! Read more about it's outstanding features
in a later issue of AmyNews. Cybernetica will distribute
"Paint Engine".
- Just a quick note; Barfly version 1.09 is the first Assembler/Debugger
that currently supports the 68060.
- Dice C devlopment package for the Amiga is available now in a new
version 3.0. For upgrade information contact:
Obvious Implementations Corporation
P.O. Box 4487
Cary, NC 27519-4487
USA
- HarmonySoft (Israel) announces the availability of the student's
version of Rashumon v3.0 for only $60. The student's version doesn't
include the printed user manual.
Rashumon is a multi-lingual word-processor for the Amiga. It supports
multiple fonts (including Agfa Intellifonts), 256 colors for graphic
objects and 8 colors for text and tables. it has full Postscript and
IFF support. One of the majour features in release 3.0 is Rashumons
ability to output Scala Lingua script. Any document can be converted
into Scala Lingua script format. The conversion includes: text (in any
language), color, attributes, layout, line spacing, tab stops, IFF
brushes. Structured drawings (made by Rashumon's Table Generator)
aren't supported in Scala's current version but will be supported in
next version.
HarmonySoft sells fonts for many different languages.
- MainActor v1.55 is out now. It's mainly a bug fixed version.
- XEMrip.library for all XEM-compatible communication programs is due
to immediate release. XEMrip.library gives your XEM-compatible terminal
software like Term, XCOMM, Terminus etc to communicate with RIP based
BBS system.
- The long-awaited book "Connect Your Amiga!" by Dale L. Larson,
published by IAM, Intangible Assets Manufacturing, ISBN 1-885876-02-5
is finished. Special discounts are available for early orders.
"Connect Your Amiga!" is 256 pages packed with information for
networking and for going online. From background information for the
novice to networking hints and tips for advanced users, this book has
something for every Amiga owner.
- Long-awaited raytracing program, LightWave 3D version 4.0 is now under
development. LightWave 3D v4.0 will be priced at $995.95. Owners of
the current standalone version, LightWave 3.5 for the Amiga, will be
able to upgrade to version 4.0 for $149.95.
LightWave has been used on TV shows like seaQuest DSV, Babylon 5, Star
Trek : The Next Generation, Robocop, Viper, Unsolved Mysteries, and
Weird Science to produce the final special effects shown on air.
Babylon 5 won an Emmy last year for its LightWave produced graphics,
and the Video Toaster also won an Emmy, due in part to its LightWave
3D system.
LightWave 4.0 includes a number of new features, including inverse
kinematics for character animation. There will also be a new plug in
filter system that will allow users to add features like real world
physics or advanced animation features. LightWave Modeler will also
feature multiple undo and redo, and Metaform, which allows simple
creation of organic and aerodynamic objects.
- The long awaited Image processing program for people on low budget,
ImageStudio v1.0 is now out.
- The new Wacom ArtZ (graphic tablet) is now out. Wacom sells drivers
for the Amiga. A new minor update to TVPaint will support all features
of the new Wacom ArtZ.
- Oxxi reports that the long awaited text editor TurboText TT is now
finaly out in version 2.0! upgrade fee for current owners is 20$
- Just for your information: Lightwave and Amiga has being used to render
the USS Pasteur in the final episode of STING. ;)
- CrosMAC by the Consultron, the maker of CrosDOS, is released now.
CrossMAC will enable you to access a 1.44MB drive and any other Mac
formatted drive. AmigaDOS 2.0 or better is required. For price and
more information contact: Consultron, 11280 Parkview, Plymouth, MI
48170, USA , Phone 313 459 7271
- Creative Focus at 1-(607)-648-4082 does Canon BJC-600 drivers for the
Amiga.
- The new version of EGS-TV, the video editing software for EGS and VLab
framegrabbers is out now :)
EGS-TV is a superior product for all Amiga EGS system and works as a
front-end for the V-Lab digitizer. Using EGS-TV powerful AREXX port
you can i.ex. grab sequences with precise control and it sports a
'Blue-box' facility for integrating backgrounds behind your foreground
subjects. For more information contact Helmut Hoffmann at:
hhoff@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
- Term v4.1 is now out. It's maily a bug fixed version of version 4.0
- Creative Focus Box 580 Chenango Bridge, NY USA, annonce the release of
a bug fixed version of their Super_DJC3 driver. The upgrade fee is 0$
- Manuel Lemos of Upper Design (Portugal, yes they develop high quality
Amiga softwares even in Portugal) head programmer of one of the most
powerful recovery softwares for the Amiga, "Upper Disk Tools" version
1.01 is working on objetcs that will improve your DTP/Word Peocesser
software. Among long awaited objects, he mentions a very powerful
"Equation Editors" and "Bibliography database". The estimated release
date in Dec 1994.
"Upper Disk Tools" is a very powerful Amiga program for recovering bad
harddrives etc. It is the first Amiga program that uses the WorkBench
(TM) mecanism for it's GUI. If you know how to use Workbench and icons
you already know how to use "Upper Disk Tools".
- Apex Software's Forge texture generation program for the Amiga is now
avaiable to all multimedia creators. Forge is an awesome addition to
any LightWave animator's digital toolchest.
Forge is a texture rendering and animation program. Simply plug in
the textures, change the settings and render previews until you're
ready to render a final image. That final image is loaded into
LightWave as an Image Map for use like any other. Simple enough,
right? But Forge goes far beyond this basic need.
- Pester CeV Design (US) is working on their low cost trapdoor to Zorro
bus expansion system. Using it, you'd have the equivalent of an Amiga
4000 platform to build on for less than a grand invested.
- Jim Drew of Utilities Unlimited International, inventer of the Amiga
Emplant technology is announcing "The Edge" (Electronic Display
Graphics Emulator), the next generation graphic board for any Zerro
III Amigas. "The Edge" features:
64 bit wide Cirrus Alpine graphics processor interfaced to a Zorro III
slot. It supports the Industry standard ARGB. "The Edge" is backwards
compatible with any Cirrus 54xx series processor, meaning that you can
use the EGS Spectrum or Picasso II software with it but "The Edge"
will of course have it's own (fast) WB emulation/mode promotion
software. It uses 72 pin SIMMs (up to 8 megs via two SIMMs), and will
retail for ~$299 w/0k RAM. With video speed equal to the PowerMAC's
PDS video board, it is fast. 640x480x32 bit animations in realtime
by just moving the data to the board. Up to 80 megapixels per second,
and the blitter can move entire offscreen bit maps into the viewing
area without any glitches in the display. It's also very fasstttt.
- DIAVOLO backup software for the Amiga version 1.7 is now out. It's by
far the most user freindly and system freindly backup software for the
Amiga. Media Disk is the new distributer of the DIAVOLO in the USA.
- Interworks ethernet-based, Peer-to-peer Networking solution, Enlan-DFS
now new version 2.0 is now out
- Several new PIMs for Image Master R/t are now availble from Karl
Bellve at University of Maryland at Baltimore, Dept. Of Physiology
They are mainly used for scientific image analysis. Email him at
kbellve@umabnet.ab.umd.edu to obtaine the PIMs. They are free.
- Version 4.2 of the Shuttle Tracking Program, SatTrack is out now. It
allows you to track the position of the shuttle to see the laser
flashes that it will be projecting on the earth during the mission.
- I had a fresh FAX from the Blue Ribbons president concerning their
continuing support of the Amiga products. Most important points in the
fax are: "We are loyal to the Amiga platform. All our multiplatform
softwares like our "Bars & Pipes professional" are constructed for the
Amiga first. Then we port our softwares to other platforms. The
multitasking nature of the Amiga, makes this computer number 1 source
for the music and midi. We did a lot of improvments to the Track
Window Menu, Edit Window, Song Construction Window, Metronome,
printing, Tool and Accessories sections in the version 2.5 of the
"Bars & Pipes professional" but the development continues and we are
designing the next majour update to the "Bars&Pipes". The new version
will amoung other things support the MacroSystems Toccato"
- Ameristar ethernet cards are available again, through CEI US.
- MacroSystem Develpment Inc is working on it's 68060 version of the
"Warp Engine".
- A student edition of Maple V for the Amiga is under development.
Source, Bob Evans, the Director of Electronic Publishing at
Brooks/Cole.
- Awared winner professional CAD package for the Amiga, XCAD - 3000,
will soon come in a new version (this info directly from one of the
XCAD programmers). XCAD - 3000 in it's current version is up to 15
(yes 15) times faster than AutoCad on IBM PC platform. XCAD - 3000
was the winner of CADEX US 1993.
- Long awaited Aminet CD 4 is now ready for shipping
- A new bug fixed version of the Desktop Magic (Media Disk) is under
development.
- LHA v3.0 (the release version is probably named v3.1) is under beta
testing. It features amoung other things, a very user configurable GUI
and up to 35% better compression ratio.
- Long awaited TurboText TT version 2.0 is under development. This info
directly from TT's auther. TT v2.0 will be a majour update with lot of
of new feature.
- Digital Soundtrack (Visual Inspiration) let you add samples sound,
Midi songs and ST mode to your videos. Features include a preview
mode, jog and shuttle controlls, and PIP picture-in-picture support
for majour video boards. Digital Soundtrack supports various single-
frame controllers like AmiLink and PAR (Personal Animation Recorder).
- Genie Tools, vol 1 (Shead Data Processing) collection for Aladdin 4-D
offers a variety of tools including the TriSub and DoBeSphere
functions which let you create triangle-based spheres and the
LissaCurve control.
- Migraph MS2400 Color Scanner (SCSI connection) + state of the art
OCR software are now out. The package will turn the Amiga into a 2400
DPI, 24 bit color scanning workhorse. Info Migraph
- TurboCalc v2.1 is out now.
- Awared winner Amiga dissassembler RESOURCE v6.0 is out now.
- A new improved version of ADPRO 24bit printer driver for the Primera
color printers can be obtained directly from your Primera dealer or
any dealer supporting ASDG products.
- Blitz Basic II version 1.9 and Bum 7 are out now.
- A wave of new softwares for the awared winner Amiga 3D software
LightWave is here. Amoung others are "Newton's Law" - Cybernetica,
PowerMacros - Cine Graphics and version 2.1 of Sparks - MetroGrafx.
- Long awaited upgrade to ProDraw (GoldDisk) is now here. Version 3.03
fixes all known and unknown bugs under later OS version
- PageStream 3.0 is shipping now ;) Japp! Best DTP program ever
- SOFT-LOGIK gives now 3 kind of user support for it's products,
more about them later in another message.
- SOFT-LOGIK is working on a rewrite of ArtExpression
- ProVector 3.0, from Stylus, Inc. in Colorado, in under beta testing.
Among tons of new feature, it will export Adobe Illustrator (all
versions). Stylus has worked close with SOFT-LOGIK to make the all
new ProVector a good completation for PageStream 3.0
- Pegger 2.0, Image Compression software, is now out ;) Much Faster
- MaxDOS v2.0 from Media 4 Production is now out. It allows you to read
warite Mac data using your Amiga.
- SAS C release 6.55 is due to be released very soon.
- Brilliance 2.1 is under development
- SoftWood is working on a new powerful Database program for the
Amgia. They call it "Final Data".
- Utilities Unlimited is working on it's 68060 50 MHZ board.
They are working on a multiCPU board for Zorro Amigas. The board
can hold multiple numbers of CPU (up to 4 * 68060, now beat that!)
RAM access is done in a 64 bit interleaved. This may change to 128.
Burst is permanently on.
- Advanced Systems (Maker of Fastlane SCSI II board) are working on
their new 68060 board that can hold multiple numbers of 68060. The
board in modular and is ready for an ultrafast SCSI II fast&wide
controller, and ethernet board. It can hold up to 128 MB memory.
- Real 3D v3.0 is under development.
- TYPESMITH v2.5 is out now. Powerful font designer from SOFT-LOGIK.
Among imptovments: It will convert MacBinary or PC TrueType fonts to
any other format (PostScript Type 1 and Type 3, Intellifont, IFF RFF,
DMF). Also, it can export any font as a high quality TrueType font
with instructions (hints). Another nice new feature is the automatic
point reduction algorithm which allows you to clean up badly designed
fonts. The new overview printing feature prints complete character set
tables to any printer.
There are more news but this was all for this time.
Have fun with your wonderful Amiga and see you in the next issue.
_
_ // AMIGA, Amiga International.
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