Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
NEWS Editor
amiga is dead! Well read on. Back in 92
when I was researching which computer
to buy, the amiga scene was well and
truly alive and kicking (sic), just about
community was restored. After the first
phone call I had a steady stream of
Amiga fanatics phoning me to find out
more about my venture, and to join the
SEAL Update.................. 4
everyone had an Amiga or owned one, amiga user group. Today we are still
New releases and Hello and welcome to the first issue of and newsagent shelves were brimming recruiting new members.
CLUBBED. With this magazine we hope with Amiga magazines. My mind was
Announcements.............. 5 to make sure that the Amiga knowledge made up, I bought my first Amiga and to My wife Sharon usually speaks to
Amiga OS 3.5 ................. 8 and experience within SEAL is brought this day I have never looked back. people phoning during the day, Sharon
together in a useful resource for all tells them all about the user group and
Piracy.............................. 10 Amiga users. Another major aim of the Now let me take you forward to 1998, with a “why don’t you join” dropped into
magazine is to keep readers up to date and well the Amiga scene is not quite the conversation they are usually
CU Amiga Closure .......... 12 on happenings in the Amiga community. what it was six years ago. Many of the members by the time they put down the
Particularly if you don’t have access to Amiga magazines have now dis- phone! Some people just phone for
Amiga Inc. Update .......... 12 the internet you can feel very remote appeared which include Amiga Shopper, some advice, saying that they have
closure and an interview with Neil when he emerges gives valuable advice
Gary Peake Interview ..... 14 from the wider community. We try to Bothwick the CUCD compiler on page AUI, Amiga Power and Amiga seen our flyers (which are displayed in to our members, and last but by no
report all the important happenings and 13. Computing to name but a few, and the various computer shops), or it might be means least Robert who is our vice
make you aware of the latest releases magazines that do remain are now but a the case that someone has heard of our chairman. Robert is a constant source of
and upgrades. On a more positive note we have loads mere shadow of their former selves. user group and has put them in touch inspiration and enthusiasm and without
?
Throughout the If you have any queries suggestions or want to contact us nothing more, we don’t make a profit from it. tertain, and promote the Amiga ethos. • Music for a platform that got kicked in the
mag you’ll find for any reason please use one of the following: If you wish to contact a contributor please send your head by Commodore (spit!) over 4
EMail: clubbed@williams.demon.co.uk message to one of the addresses above and we will pass
these Tip boxes, WWW: http://seal.amiga.tm/ it on. SEAL meets monthly on a Friday eve- Gateway have the miggy now, and are years ago, eh?
each one has a Post: Clubbed Amiga is a registered trademark and the Amiga logo, ning at our venue, we also have weekly developing a new Amiga, to be
450 High Road, AmigaDOS, Amiga Kickstart, Amiga Workbench,
handy hint or idea BENFLEET, Autoconfig, Bridgeboard, and Powered by Amiga are get-togethers at member’s houses, released late next year (’99). It’s gonna Find out more on what we’ve been get-
trademarks of AMIGA International, Inc. / Gateway, Inc.
to help you use your Essex,
SS7 4AQ, All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their where things usually get pretty rude & kick ass, and the pc world will finally be ting upto over the page…
Amiga more productively. ENGLAND. respective owners.
UPDATE
With the news pages we try to report the members’ houses almost every Friday!
most important events on the Amiga We have also had four meetings at our Final Office CD: Photogenics NG
Scene and give the views of our regular hall venue in Basildon. At each
members. For example after the closure hall meeting we have some topic or Sofwood Products Re-Released Paul Nolan has sent us a quick note
saying he is aiming to release
of CU AMIGA we reported the news the activity planned, here are the things
Photogneics NG in November. However
following day and Gary Storm we’ve been getting up to: An American company, Soft Partners
he has been very busy working on the
Interviewed Neil Bothwick (This is also have bought the rights to Softwood’s
OS5 Dev (previously known as the
in this issue of Clubbed, see page 13). • Lightwave Demo suite of Final applications: Final Writer,
Bridge System) so Pgs may be delayed.
• PageStream Demo Final Data and Final Calc. They have
Here are a few of the things we’ve been http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~pnolan/
• Video/Scala Demo announced a Final Office CD-ROM
doing at SEAL over the last few months: World Map Project • Bring and Buy Sale which will include all the above products
For some time now we’ve been working along with Softwood’s packs of holiday Power Amiga
Web Pages on a world map showing Amiga clipart and Final Writer for Windows 95.
Drama & Theatrical (specialising in obsolete • Text wrap around boxes Following the success of the 1998 World
• Set box to the background or fore- of Amiga show the organisers have
systems) ground of other boxes announced that the ‘99 show is already
Birthday Duplication from all • Multiple columns being planned. Dates and venue have
Tornado 3D 2
ScanQuix 4
RBM Computertechnik of Germany have test image then printing it out and re-
GoldED
Studio 5
NewsRog
Newsrog is a new program for reading
Eyelight have just released yet another
upgrade to their 3D renderer Tornado3D
announced version 4 of their ScanQuix scanning. This allows ScanQuix to scan Usenet discussion groups on the inter- which is its third major upgrade since its
Dietmar Eilert has announced the
scanner software. ScanQuix supports an image and product perfect printed net from ShadowWorks software. release late last year. So far all the
availablity of the latest version of his text
several types of scanner: output, the program supports 24bit ShadowWorks claim it is the most upgrades have been free to registered
editor GoldED. Version 5 is available in
printing via Turbo Print and Studio. The powerful news client on the Amiga. users. While on the surface version 2
a CD-ROM package called GoldED 5
• Epson Photocopy Pro feature can be used to NewsRog is a MUI program and is very options looks little different to previous versions
Studio, this includes the editor and a
• Hewlett Packard take perfect colour copies in conjunction well presented, it is designed with a while reading posts many new features have been added
wide selection of Plug-ins which tailor it
• Mustek Paragon with Turbo Print. high-end Amiga in mind but will run on including options to hide and bugs squashed.
to specific uses. For example the WWW
• Artec (world wide web) plug-in highlights most OS3 systems. It supports quotes or put them in a scrolling area so
• Umax Astra (comming soon) ScanQuix is sold in the UK by Eyetech. HTML tags and allows you to apply advanced filtering to help remove spam you can get to the new text quicker. You Speed Demon
common formating at the click of an (advertising posted to many groups) and can read through a group by pressing
ScanQuix is a stand alone scanning Visit RBM’s website at: posts from authors who are often annoy- just one key that pages through each One of the most important features (in-
icon. Recently GoldED has been in-
application that also lets you scan http://www.rbm.de/ ing or abusive. The software also allows post then automatically moves on to the troduced in version 1.75) is Tornado’s
cluded with Haage and Partner’s Storm
directly into popular Amiga programs. Eyetech: the filtering out of entire threads started next one when you reach the end. support for Phase 5’s PowerUP PPC
C compiler as it’s editor, the new version
For version 4 RBM have added several 07000 4 26442 (Weird number eh!). by a particular authors making it eaiser accelerators. This makes Tornado
integrates into Storm’s development en-
useful functions, one of the most inter- to avoid flame wars (angry arguments) Although it is already a powerful pro- (which was already a fast renderer)
vironment.
esting is Calibratix which allows you to which often spring up in some news gram NewRog has the facility to add many times faster than the 68k opposi-
calibrate the scanner by scanning in a groups. The filtering can also be used to new features via pluginsand includes tion. In version 2 the PPC support is
Key New Features in 5 highlight posts and threads contributed first-class online documentation in robust and speeds up rendering by
to by authors you particularly like. HTML format. A working demo limited to several times. For example a 233Mhz
• New user interface
2 news groups is available for you to try PPC 604e renders about 8 times faster
New Features
Companies Alive • SAS/C environment
• Sequence compiler (faster playback)
• Roget’s Thesaurus included
allows for both on-line and off-line
operation. There are several clever
http://www.frii.com/~srk/ShadowWorks/Pr
eview/NR.html There are hoards of new features in T3D
2, some of the more interesting ones
are:
• Central setup for all add-ons
As you can see on these news pages continued support to get them through
• Sequences can be saved as AREXX
and in other magazines there are many
fine products still available for the
Amiga, from newcomers like Amiga
the next 12 months. We hope that they
will be developing on OS5Dev during
this period but they still need to eat, pay
macros
CyberVision PPC
CyberStorm PPC owners will be pleased only about 25-30Mb/s. While this is
• Postscript font support for instant
logos.
• Soft Particles for very realistic smoke
Writer to updates on old favourites like the bills etc until OS5Prod machines be- effects.
ImageFX. In the Amiga community we come available and they can start sell- to hear that Phase 5’s CyberVisionPPC twice as fast as a Zorro III card it is • Hair Generator to make hair (ob-
often moan about lack of software and ing. AInc have already had a wonderful graphics cards have now been released. about half what most PCI cards acheive viously) and grass etc.
while there are some things we do miss response from many developers who The CyberVision PPC is an add-on on the PC. While this is somewhat dis- • Mesh Painting makes texturing parts
people tend to forget the wealth of great will be working hard to get our favourite graphics card for Phase 5’s CyberStorm sapointing it’s important to remember of an object eaiser.
stuff that is out there. products ported and updated. PPC and Mk III accelerators. It features that much of the graphics speed is • Golem Scripting Language allows you
a 3D Labs Permedia 2 graphics down to the speed of the to automate animations and effects via
However there is a problem, in this time Remember also that any apps you buy processor which has both 2 and 3D bus between the graphics scripts.
of uncertainty for the Amiga market will run on OS5Prod machines through capabilities. The Permedia 2 is the memory on the CVPPC
many Amigans seem to be taking a wait- emulation so you are not wasting your fastest chip ever used on an Amiga and the Permedia 2 chip You can findout more about T3D and
and-see approach to spending money money. graphics card by a large margin, which runs at full speed on request the 2.0 update (if you’re a regis-
GoldED 5 showing syntax highlighting that allied with a direct connection the card and with the latest
on their Amigas and this is hitting the tered user) from the Eyelight website,
in Storm C source code. to the accelerator and 8Mb of CyberGraphX drivers the
companies that have supported us We will be making an announcement at http://www.tornado3d.com. Tornado is
through thick and thin very hard. the MAE [This refers to the Mid-West fast SGRAM should give the CVPPC is still considerably distributed in the UK by Blittersoft:
The full version of GoldED Studio on card stonking performance. faster (several times in most
Amiga Expo, a show taking place in the (01908) 261466
CD-ROM is priced at DM89.90. The first deliveries of these cases) than any other Amiga
If we want the Amiga to be anything USA on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of October,
Upgrades for registered owners and cards arrived in the UK in graphics card and this is without
more than a enthusiasts platform like ED] that we hope will provide the classic
StormC users are DM49.90. The previ- late July. The recom- the 3D functions being used.
the 8bit machines have become we market with a boost. Stay tuned.” In some pro-
?
ous version of GoldED (4.7.3) has been mended price is around
need to support our companies, here is grams (includ-
made available free from the GoldED £180 and the cards are Phase 5 have announced that a library
a usenet post from Fleccy Moss of Michael Carrillo, a keen Amigan and
website and is also on the Amy available from several supporting the Permedia 3D functions ing Workbench)
Amiga Inc. explaining why he supports webmaster of the Amiga Yellow Pages
Resource volume 10 CD-ROM, it is in- dealers in the UK including will be available soon, which will hope- you can select
current Amiga companies: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/michael.carrillo,
tended as a demo of version 5. White Knight Technology. fully allow 3D accelerated applications several options at
has organised a survey so Amiga users
“I have spent over $600 on my machine can let companies know what they and games to become available. Look once from the menus,
The GoldED homepage is at: Initial reports from knowledgable users out for a full review in the next issue of
over the past few weeks (Scala, DOpus, would like to buy in the near future. click on each option with the left
http://members.tripod.com/golded/golded on the Internet indicate that the CVPPC Clubbed!
Napalm, Foundation and some HW Many SEALs filled one in at our meeting button, then release the right
.htm might not be as fast as we might have
bits). on the 18th of September, if you’d like a button over the last option you
Find out more about Amy Resoure at: hoped. The speed of the bus between Phase 5: http://www.phase5.de
form EMail Michael at want to choose.
http://www.amyresource.it the 68k CPU and the card is said to be White Knight: (01920) 822321
The developers and retailers need our michael.carrillo@bt.com or contact us
?
sound of the mainboard and motors of Mac for a couple of years and now
OS3.5 is to (try to) revitalise the Amiga ters to quickly select that file and directory. Many programs
drives etc.! The price is probably too low Softlogik has a Windows 95 version
Highlights concerning the OS3.5 market. Developers need users to buy, that don’t run on the Workbench screen have an AppIcon on
for such a product but this is a conven- nearing completion. Many companies
upgrade: retailers need stuff to sell and users the WB, drag files onto this to load them into the program.
tion of KatoDEV.” dropped the Amiga as soon as they con-
need to know that the investments they verted to another platform but Softlogik
http://kato.home.pages.de
• RTG Support make will still be good next year and the
have shown a strong commitment to the
• RTA Support year after.
• CDFS Support
• New Interface We hope that the support OS3.5 gives
NetConnect 2 In Amiga. Version 3.4 for both Amiga and
Mac is promised in the next few weeks
with useful new features such as a spell
• Plus bug fixes and updates to several
areas of the OS
for graphics, sound and co-processor
cards, as well as accelerators, Availability Shocker! checker (much needed here at Clubbed
HQ) and simpler page guide setting.
memory and IO cards, will Version 4 for Amiga will be shipping at
The long-awaited second version of the system a GUI configuration utility and an
Purposes of the OS3.5 upgrade is to help everyone in the com- the same time as the Windows version
Net Connect internet package has finally installation “Wizard” which walks you
support all the advanced hard- munity. I am jst sorry it’s so
shipped from Active Software. The through the setup for your internet ser- early next year.
ware/software that is on the Classic late.”
package which includes Vaporware’s vice provider. The aim of these features
Amiga market and to allow developers
internet clients (Voyager, Microdot, is to bring Genesis up to the ease of use SoftLogik are able to perform these
to code for a higher spec Amiga Classic. Finally some good news for
AmIRC etc.) and AmiTCP also includes of Miami while keeping it’s powerful feats because PageStream has been
This will open the door for more and Classic Amiga users. On behalf of
several utilities to help integrate the features. For example Genesis can run specifically designed as a multi-format
better software and hardware for the all SEAL members I’d like to thank
package. These include a Contact more than one network interface at a program with only the user-interface
Classic Amiga while giving developers Team Amiga, Amiga Inc. and all in-
areas different for each platform, as
Manager which stores hotlinks and time so you can connect to the internet
more transition time into the NG Amiga! volved for making this happen.
PageStream evolves so does the ver-
people’s address details for all the ap- while remaining connected to a local
plications and an archive extraction network. sion for every platform.
You can abort drag (moving an icon, window or other object) utility X-Arc which can automatically de-
? operations on the workbench (and in many other programs) archive downloaded files. Active Software: The current version of PageStream is
by clicking the right mouse button before you release the left (01325) 460116 3.3a, the upgrades to 3.2 and 3.3
button. The Melody1200 NetConnect 2 Includes a new version of http://www.active-net.co.uk carried a small fee, the 3.3a upgrade is
I/O Module AmiTCP called Genesis which gives the available from the SoftLogik website:
http://www.softlogik.com
Piracy
investigates the students is IMHO utterly inappropriate, chance to do “cool stuff”. Commodore knew of this, but did noth-
and a slap in the face of every serious ing about it, as it`s back was against a
continuing problem Amiga developer, and everyone who As to conventional anti-piracy measures: financial wall and it didn`t want to lose
was forced to leave the Amiga in the yes, I do think threats can help, as long more dealers.
of Piracy in the past because of piracy, sometimes in as they are not empty. I do inform ISPs
Amiga community. bankruptcy... (and if necessary, upstream network So, what can be done to help stop
providers) about illegal file archives in piracy?
robably everyone has engaged in format your hard-drive. Fun. Not. Trojan Horse, disguised as a “keyfile And no, I don’t think that DC can con- no uncertain terms, and sometimes take
CU AMIGA
Yes, CU’s been better quite a lot of the
the sad news of the Neil was obviously not in the best of
time. There was a time, years ago, when
moods, but true to his character, put that Which is ok in the PC market, ‘cos it’s
closure and talks to Neil aside to talk to me on the phone. Format was better, but I remember think-
so strong, but not Amiga.
ing two and a half years ago, I was
Bothwick the compiler Can anything be done to save CU? buying more issues of CU than I was of Exactly, but you’ve got that market
of the CUCDs. CU I don’t think so. The Accountants look at Format. Being on the net and not need- where there’s always new stuff coming
ing alot of magazines to keep me in- up anyway. The Amiga market is dif-
Gurus
the books, make the decision, and that’s
AMIGA is dead, long live it, end of story. formed, I was being quite selective ferent that it needed some sort of an-
about what I bought. It was starting to nouncement like they were planning to
the AMIGA. How long have you known, was it a
turn round to CU from then, and do at World of Amiga. What it didn’t
snap decision?
they’ve been going from strength to need was the announcement they
Well, first I knew about it was a strength. The 3 issues they’ve actually did at World of Amiga.
A
s you will know by now the a high, as befits their quality publication. never hear of who worked hard at phone call yesterday morning,
October issue of CU Amiga, We respect their decision. This is a sad making the mag what it was... We ap- produced since World of
and the others at CU, in the
currently in the shops, is the event. preciate all their efforts. Amiga, have all been su- You mean the mixed messages.
office (in London), only
last ever to be published. Sales seem to knew a day or two perb. Yeah, the partial messages as well. We’ll
have been falling slightly since WoA, Years ago, Amiga Format used to rule Jason Compton will continue to do the before. Speaking to have to wait and see, but without CU
and the magazine has become un- the quality roost, but over the last few online magazine, “Amiga Report”, Neil them last week, everything Really, most people Amiga.
profitable, so the accountants at EMAP years, CU Amiga has been the favourite. Bothwick, comms and cd-compiler ex- was really positive. It’s a real would have expected AF
shock. There was no hint that to fold before CU, given
decided to close the magazine, for the We at SEAL especially liked their traordinaire, is still the heart of “Wirenet” How does this affect you, personally?
anything was wrong. It was just a Future Publishing aren’t shy of
shareholders. covers, for their imagination. (who I’m with), the only Amiga specific
financial decision by the suits. It shutting down mags, and AF have Very much, I started on the “read.me”
internet service provider. If you’re think- lower sales figures than CU.
wasn’t anything to do with the quality files on the CU cd’s, and gradually was
The CU Staff didn’t want to continue to Good luck to the CU staff in whatever ing of changing provider, or want to get
of the magazine, just someone looking I was quite worried earlier this year, asked to do more and more. When Matt
survive for a couple more issues by cut- they do next. Tony Horgan, Andrew on the net... then Neil is immensely at the spreadsheet. The thing about CU
that AF would fold, and that that (Bettinson) left, I took over the whole
ting the magazine editorial in half, and Korn, Richard Drummond, Neil honest and helpful. Go Wirenet. Go is that they didn’t want to fade away.
would leave CU in a bad posi- mastering of the cd. Writing the
printing on “toilet paper”, such as the Bothwick, John Kennedy (even though Amiga. They also said that they wanted some
tion. The sort of position pages of the magazine to go
fate that befell Amiga Shopper, Amiga you got it wrong sometimes), and Jason warning, and they’ve fortunately got that,
that Format are in now... with it, then writing the inter-
User International, Amiga Computing, Compton... thank-you for your writing. Thank-you CU Amiga, past & present there is another issue to come out...
You can’t blame the ac- net pages as well. I
Amiga Pro, and Amiga Power. The CU Thanks also to Russell Cox, a true hero staff (like Matt Bettinson & chums who
What if you went Bi-monthly, or in- countants for closing CU, gradually did more and
team decided they would rather end on behind the scenes, and the others we are at PC Gamer now), for everything. creased the cover price, or produced
with the Amiga market more for the magazine,
a CD mag? and it’s a substantial
being what it is. They’re
Going Bi-monthly, you still have nearly responsible to the share- amount of my income. I’ve
obviously better to finish the next- done other jobs which were
the same production costs, the same holders, who want their
By generation Amiga OS and various plans, less work and more money, but I
staff to pay. Unless you sack half the money to work for them. You
Gary Storm and and leave emulation to a third party. staff, and rent half the office out, and could start pointing the finger at love doing work for CU. There are still
Robert Williams Hopefully there are some 3rd parties halve the magazine, it wouldn’t work. A
others, who are not necessarily in this opportunities. There was an idea
interested, there should be. CD would incur nearly the same costs in
country. recently which I would have been keen
A-Inc are still aiming for a November production, but how and who would ad- on, if I had the time to devote to it. That
hile many may think that
PPC software I couldn’t justify the ex- ‘060s at the time my dealer couldn’t say devices. The trouble was I currently only quickly. As usual the problem turned out
pense. In June Eyelight released a PPC when a card of this spec might be avail- developer documentation. the motherboard and card, this holds the have narrow devices which meant to be very simple, a floppy drive power
version of Tornado 3D and with com- able, I had to get the upgrade board with card firmly in place on the processor buying not only expensive SCSI III ca- cable was touching the PPC’s fan. After
panies like Nova Design promising PPC a socket for my existing ‘060. Going this As I had an upgrade card I had to slot. bling but also an adapter for each device tidying the cables the machine started
support the software situation is begin- route saved me about 200UKP, not remove my existing CPU and install it on and an adapter for my scanner. without hassle. As I said earlier the
ning to look better. The clincher though much less than I could get for my exist- the PPC. There was no mention of SCSI Unfortunately Phase 5 have not fitted a SCSI works as long as the device at
was the imminent release of the ing accelerator second hand so I wasn’t upgrading the CPU in the otherwise ex- standard 50 way header for narrow each end of the chain has termination
cellent manual and no tool was supplied My A4000 has been a SCSI only devices as many PC Ultra SCSI cards switched on. All my memory was recog-
CyberVision PPC, a graphics card for too disappointed.
to remove the existing ‘060. Bearing in machine ever since I got the CyberSCSI do, which means you have to use the nised too.
the CyberStorm PPC which has far
mind that a replacement ‘060 costs over module for my MkII. With the ultra-wide expensive cabling even if you only have
greater performance than any other The card took two agonising weeks to
£200, if you can get one, I would have SCSI controller on the CyberStorm PPC narrow devices. Looking at the board
Amiga graphics card (my CyberVision be delivered from Germany, but it
liked a bit more reassurance in doing I knew I would need the right cables and there is just not space for such a con-
PPC Performance
64 included). Along with the SCSI III arrived on time, when White Knight said
the upgrade. As there was no tool, I had adaptors straight away so I could use nector but it would have made upgrad- After setting up my CD DOSDrivers for
controller on the accelerator this pur- it would. I took a day off work to receive
to carefully lever around the three ac- my system. Ultra Wide SCSI is designed ing from an older controller much the new SCSI device (cybppc.device)
chase would upgrade almost every the board and fitted it with the help of
cessable sides of the chip and slowly for very high performance devices but is cheaper. In the manual there are war- we were ready to try some PowerPC
aspect of my Amiga. Mick Sutton. The board is the same size
ease it out of the PGA socket. I’ve done backwards compatible with older SCSI nings that the SCSI bus must be software on the CDROM. I started with
as the CyberStorm MkII but much more
I decided that if I was going to spend a heavily populated with components. A this before with an old (486) PC CPU properly terminated with expensive the Benoit fractal generator, this was a
lot of money I might as well go for the fan and heatsink covers the PPC and managed to bend the pins, but for- SCSI III active terminators. As I only good test as it can be switched between
best, so I chose the 233Mhz PPC card. processor but if you unclip it the actual tunately after about half an hour of care- have narrow devices I decided to try PPC and 68k modes on the fly.
ful work the CPU dropped out un- using the narrow passive terminators Generating fractals was between 10 and
damaged. only before shelling out. Fortunately this 15 times faster on the PPC, WOW, a
works well, if I ever get any wide devices good start. Benoit is also a great little
Fitting the processor onto the new card I will need to buy the proper terminators. program with some beautiful pre-sets
was much easier, simply a case of lining ready to load up. I then tried Tornado
it up on the socket and pushing it home, With the card, miles of SCSI cable, 3D, my main PPC program, and even at
it was a very tight fit and it took a lot of adapters and stuff packed into the version 1.75 where PPC support isn’t
pressing to seat the chip firmly. I hope I original A4000 case (My Ateo tower kit fully optimised I get an 8 times speed
never have to remove the ‘060 from the hadn’t arrived at this point) we were increase on average, brilliant.
PPC card as it is surrounded by com- ready for the first test. Switching the
ponents and would be very difficult to machine on I almost immediately
lever. noticed a burning smell, as you can im-
General Performance
agine it was switched off again pretty In the more recent revisions of the
The next job was to install the RAM, the
CyberStorm PPC has 64bit memory
access and therefore requires matched If your Amiga has a real time clock but stops keeping time
16
PPC Card fitted in an A4000 desktop.
pairs of 32bit SIMMs. I had one pair of
16Mb EDO SIMMs already and I bought
another set in preparation for the PPC.
As long as you fit the SIMMs before you
CLUBBED - Issue 1
A tower case like my Ateo is
advisable if your A4k is
already loaded with drives.
Autumn 1998
? open up the machines as soon as possible and remove the
dead battery as they can quickly leak corrosive alkalies on to
the motherboard.
17
REVIEWS REVIEWS
CyberStorm PPC flash ROM including faster than the old one in both graphics
the version shipped on my board have a and processor performance. I’ve made
Internal
ZIP Drive
boot menu allowing you to set-up the the decision that I want to stick with
card without using jumpers. Holding Amiga, this upgrade gives me the ul-
down escape while the system boots timate Amiga.
brings up the menu, from it you can set-
up each SCSI device which allows you In two or so years (I’m certain it’ll take
to configure SCSI even if a problem this long to actually be in the shops)
means the system won’t boot. There are Amiga Inc. aim to bring out a new
also options to turn on 60ns mode for Amiga. It may well be a totally amazing
Manufacturer: IOmega
the RAM, enable map ROM and patches jump in technology leaving everything
for Mac emulators etc. This means you else behind. However from what I’ve
Spencer Jarvis finds out if an Internal SCSI ZIP Distributor: Various
Cost: £109
can take all the utilities that perform seen so far many of the things I love drive is a good way to give his towered A1200 more Tested With: A1200, Apollo 040,
these functions out of your startup- about Amiga: simplicity, programability
sequence. One option I particularly like and flexibility are not at the top of Amiga
storage. Power Tower, Squirrel
SCSI.
is to disable the on board IDE interface Inc’s agenda. For example looking at the
if you have no drives attached to it. user interface shots released it seems A few weeks ago I had a bit of spare laughing which is rarely the case when mail order for around the same price,
Because the Amiga no longer searches they are following the PC trend for non- cash and decided that I would like to buying PC periphials for the Amiga, and you can get either PC or MAC disks and
for IDE drives it doesn’t have boot up is standard “fun” interfaces which I feel is spend it on my Amiga, The only problem as an added bonus they were ten quid format them because they are exactly
much quicker (knocks off about detrimental to ease of use. Also they was what to buy, A bigger Hard Drive? cheaper than PC World, I picked it up for the same apart from the packaging. It’s
20seconds I think). Unfortunately be- seem to be concentrating on the con- More RAM?, A faster processor or a £109.00 which compares fairly well with also worth bearing in mind that there are
cause the boot menu was not added sumer level, will this mean they don’t storage device? well as I was just some mail order companies and I didn’t “non official” disks around made by Fuji
until recently it is not detailed in the include the breath of preferences and recovering from a major HD crash I have to pay the postage and wait a etc but Iomega doesn’t recommend
manual, however there is a text file ex- things like AREXX that Amiga en- opted for the storage device, and from week for it to arrive either. them and says you void your warranty
plaining the options. thusiasts thrive on? what I have seen the Zip drive from by using them!, also official Iomega
Iomega seemed like a good choice. All I needed now was a SCSI cable, in- disks have a full lifetime warranty and
Another useful feature that has been I really don’t know what Amiga Inc’s in- side my tower I have got my Squirrel the others don’t, the ones Manhattan
added in the most recent flash ROM is tentions are, no one does, and from their After asking around I knew I needed to SCSI interface fitted and needed a cable sell are the official disks I recommend
the facility to boot from a CD-ROM. This silence since WoA it looks like we’ll have get a SCSI version and as I have got the to go from that to my Zip drive. I had no you get your disks from them, the only
means you could backup your system to wait until the new machine is Amiga in the power tower I wanted to trouble getting one but it was a little ex- problem is they tend to only keep 2 or 3
using a CD writer and then boot from launched before we find out. Until then I get an internal model to keep everything pensive at about £20, but this was a top in stock so if you want to get more than
the CD to repair a harddisk or use a dif- know I enjoy using my Amiga, I know it nice and tidy. I did a bit of ringing around of the range one and the guy said they that, they may have to order them for
ferent system configuration. A side is the platform that lets me be most and PC World told me they had one for normally have one for about £10 but you but they have got a shop which
effect of this feature is that you have to creative and productive. That is worth £119, this isn’t the cheapest I have seen after hunting down the drive I wasn’t keeps a larger stock if you can’t wait.
slightly re-configure your CD dosdrivers investing in. the drives at but its nice to nip down going to wait another few days for the
otherwise the system will use the limited there and get it as opposed to waiting sake of a tenner. I would say the Iomega Zip drive was
Phase 5 CD filesystem built into the for one to arrive, so cash in hand I surprisingly easy to fit and don’t think
flash ROM for booting. travelled to sunny lakeside, When I got home I immediately anyone with even a little knowledge
proceeded to remove the cover from the would have any problems fitting it, it
In use the card feels fast, obviously the I used to work in PC World a couple of tower and the five and a quarter inch works brilliantly and I cannot fault the
PPC side is a quantum leap ahead of years ago and found it very strange blanking plate, although the drive is the drive in any way and I would recom-
even a 68060 but there is also a notice- going back there until I saw an old mate. same size as a floppy disk drive it has mend it completely to anyone looking for
able improvement in other areas. The After a chat about the good old days I got a built in moulded surround that a reliable storage device. I would have
SCSI seems faster and I will now be asked him where the internal SCSI Zip cannot be removed and therefore needs no hesitation in giving it 9 out of 10. If it
able to use a super-fast ultra-wide drives were and as you can imagine I a large drive bay. was slightly cheaper, around the £80
harddisk when I need to replace my cur- Results was annoyed but not surprised to hear mark it would have been a perfect 10.
rent one. The ‘060 is faster too, I guess that the guy I spoke to had made a I had the drive fitted in about 20 minutes
due to better memory access. According Pros mistake and they only sold external and apart from a slight confliction with So if you haven’t got a spare weekend
to SysSpeed the improvement seems to Blisteringly fast PPC SCSI Zips and they couldn’t help me. my CD ROM drive which was entirely to backup your HD onto hundreds of
be about 10%. Fastest RAM and SCSI Now came the most blatant case of the my fault and due to me not reading the floppys get a Zip you won’t regret it!
Flash ROM and boot menu. pot calling the kettle black I have ever instructions properly as usual everything
experienced, He suggested that I tried worked perfectly.
Why PPC Cons Mondo, but then went on to inform me
I love my PPC card, not only is the PPC
amazing but it is also the fastest 68k
Limited PPC software available
Expensive
that “...they’re not the cheapest place to
buy things...” and PC World are? In
I downloaded a package called Z100
Tools from Aminet which mounts the
Results
accelerator you can buy for you Amiga. shock I left still clutching the money. drive and provides a few essential
While PPC cards are expensive (par- utilities, but there is also commercial
ticularly the A3/4000's CyberStorms) I The short walk to Mondo only took a software available as well at about 20
look on it this way: a CyberStorm PPC couple of minutes and I was pleased to quid but I really don’t think you’ll need it.
and the CyberVision PPC graphics card see that they had a large range of Zip if you do decide to go for a Zip, bear in
(out now, expect a review in the next drives including Internal and external mind that 100MB (96MB formatted)
issue of Clubbed) cost roughly the same IDE, Internal ATAPI and Internal and disks are not cheap, around 15 quid in
as buying a new computer. But they also External SCSIs. The guy I spoke to was PC World etc but Manhattan Computers
give you a new computer, many times very helpful and actually knew what an who have a cabin in Basildon market do
Amiga was and could say it without them for £10 and you can also get the
Tower
ready cabled in (via the Ateo keyboard (the tower now has two audio outputs plies.
Mick Sutton gives us his opinion on long standing interface) so that reboots can be per- one from the Amiga and one from the
formed single handed if that’s your CD-ROM). In my opinion the tower was easy to
favourite. thing! build, and at the end of the day the
The power supply to the A1200 is via a single sheet of paper was quite
The various power supplies (plenty of cable which exits the at the bottom of adequate. I can fully recommend this
O
nce a decision has been Next up is to install the keyboard inter-
made to tower your A1200, face, which is fitted into the tower (pop them) are plugged into the peripherals the tower and immediately turns back on product and add that it is one of the best
there are two options that are riveted) and has a 5 pin DIN type socket itself and plugs into the normal items I have bought, and in my opinion
open to you. The first being ‘a do it your- for the keyboard to plug into, four wires Amiga power in socket (you can makes my Amiga the best looking on the
self job’ (if you’re feeling brave!) is to come away from the keyboard interface just see this in the picture, left). block. Time to go and buy those
buy a PC Midi tower and convert it. This that go to a square device which sits peripherals you have not had room for
may or may not be easy, depending on over the keyboard chip on the mother- The monitor is powered via a eh?
what unforeseen problems arise, such board, the instructions tell you how to pass-thru port on the power
as if there is room to install the A1200 correctly align with the chip and press supply like any other modern day
motherboard without fouling on the home hard until a click is heard! Wow computer. So, time to power up for Results
power supply, and the little problem of was that a worrying moment or what? the first time, the Amiga booted up
getting access to the Amiga ports via the no problems! But for the first time Pros
back of the tower. Once this has been done the rest is a in its life it could breathe, stretch Pre-wired Audio
relatively easy task of installing the it’s legs so to speak. One thing Expansion Dream
Secondly, you could go for the ready various peripherals into the casing, such remains to be done, install the Excellent keyboard interface
made solution such as the Power Tower as hard drive and floppy drive (extra Ateo Concepts keyboard software
which re-maps the Windows keys Cons
(£129), Micronic (£149) , Eyetech (£149) long cables are supplied to reach the Nothing I can think of.
or as in this case the ICS solution. This motherboard) which a blanking plate is (yuk) to Amiga keys (yeh!) and
also the scroll lock key to the help
Caviar
route to Amiga heaven may work out a supplied if you only have your original
little more expensive but in my opinion open faced floppy (if you don’t have a key and that’s it.
well worth it. blanking plate it resembles a Baboons
arse to look at). Next install your CD- Now you have a towered Amiga
So what do you for your money? ROM (you have got one haven’t you?) In with plenty of room for expansion
this case a SCSI unit, which at the time I due to the three 5 1/4” bays, two 3
• Midi Tower with 250W power supply was using a Surf Squirrel interface so I 1/2” bays and two 3 1/2” floppy
• Ateo-Concepts keyboard interface also needed a PCMCIA right angle
(Ready fitted into tower)
• PC Win95 (Yuk!) keyboard
adaptor (available from Blittersoft or
Power Computing) which plugs into the What’ s on the Board
Intrinsic
• CD-ROM Audio output sockets pre- motherboard and just leaves enough
wired into tower room to plug in the Squirrel and fits into e have a fishy ratings general
• The PC keyboard plus various cables reviewers write a comment, or one awards, even if they have a fair bit of
such as 2.5" to 3.5" IDE HD (about reviewer gives a very specific score So we invented the fish...it’s easy to room for improvement. Thus we are only
30cm long) and long (40cm) floppy drive (normally in %), or both. work out which we feel is a better awarding the full fish (caviar), to
TEST
cable. product... the more bones that show, the products that are practically perfect.
We feel that a better way is to have a smellier the fish :)
On first inspection I was quite impressed
with the build quality, but a little dis-
mayed at the assembly instructions, a
single sheet of A4 paper with a few
diagrams and instructions!
Image
get a much better idea of how an effect to see and black over areas to easily
will look before it is applied. crop an image. You can blur an alpha
Unfortunately some effects still do not channel to fade the edges into the layers
preview properly (PaintFX is a prime behind. Other effects that work well on
example), this seems to be unavoidable the alpha channel are distorts and
due to how these effects work, but an texturing. One effect I particularly like is
inaccurate preview is not much good to filling a white area of the alpha channel
anyone so perhaps they should just be with a greyscale gradient fill which
Robert Williams looks at removed. causes the image to fade into the back-
3.2
the latest version of the ground and lower layers.
For new users ImageFX is quite in-
Amiga’s premier Image timidating, as any complex program is to
Effects
a certain extent, but IFX has quite a
The Layer Manager allows you to
Processor, is it still King learning curve. The learning process hide, move and edit layers. At it’s heart ImageFX is an effects pro-
of the Hill? was helped in previous versions by the ground image. I could then load the gram, and this is the area where it is
excellent user manual which took you image of the person (or scan it using best equipped. The range of effects is
through every aspect, with great IFX’s scanner support). Using the region truly astounding and everyone of them is
Developer: Nova Design The main user interface remains similar to a menu orientated interface (similar to tutorials and plenty of illustrations show- tools I would select the person from the totally configurable. Most effects have a
(http://www.novadesign.com) to previous versions, there is a large tool programs like Photogenics and Art ing you how the various effects and original background and pick them up as complex controlling requester, several of
Distributor: Compute! (0181) bar which is further split into several Effect). Personally I feel they have taken parameters work. As version 3 is such a a brush. Moving to the background these have multiple pages of options.
3031800 pages for the different functions of the the right road, IFX 3 is a huge improve- major upgrade much of the original man- image by selecting it’s window I would What this means is that with ImageFX
Cost: £149 (With Aladdin program, Scanner, Palette, Toolbox, ment over the 2.x versions without ual is very incomplete. Unfortunately add a layer to the image using the layer you have a huge amount of control over
4D) Render and Printer. The Toolbox section requiring you to completely re-learn the the 3.0 upgrade comes only with a palette pop-up menu. Now when I stamp how an effect will look. At first all the
Version: 3.2 has icons for various painting tools and program. For those people who like the Quick Start guide to supplement the ver- the brush down on the background options seem very daunting, however
Tested With: A4000 Rev. D, buttons for different types of effect. Each old interface or who use video hardware sion 2.0 manual. The guide gives only a image, it is applied to the new layer. At most effects have some presets you can
CyberStorm PPC 060, effect button pops up a list of effects of that cannot display windowed screens very brief overview of the new features this point I might decide that the back- load up and experiment with. You soon
CyberVision PPC, that type. In version 3 you can configure (older 24bit boards and the Video with none of the indepth explanations of ground is too dark, as the image is now learn to appreciate the flexibility the pro-
64Mb RAM. these lists to stay open after a selection, Toaster etc.) Nova provide an ImageFX the old manual. New features like layers layered I can simply select the back- gram offers. Here are some of the best
which makes applying several effects Classic mode which works like all previ- are sadly under-explained, in fact it ground layer and use the Balance effect effects out of the hoards included with
much quicker. You can snapshot a ous versions. wasn’t until I went to WoA and saw to alter its brightness, because the ImageFX 3.2:
I
mageFX is one of those programs window configuration so your favourite ImageFX demoed by Corrina Cohn that I person is on another layer they are Not
that although very well known, rela- windows are opened everytime you start The user interface is now font sensitive discovered some of the layer effected. By the same ticket if I want to PaintFX
tively few people this side of the ImageFX. so you can set the font you want to use, functionality available. apply an effect to the person, say I want
Atlantic seem to have used. I bought which is invaluable on hi-res graphics to motion blur the person so they look This effect is one of the most con-
ImageFX 2.1 from a cover disk upgrade Some people may accuse Nova Design card screens. Another much requested like they’re running across the back- figurable in ImageFX, It works by paint-
offer several years ago, and gradually of not going far enough with their inter- feature that has been implemented are
Layers gound, I select their layer and apply the ing a brush down many times on the
upgraded to 2.6. Through this time the face changes, and want them to change improved effect previews. You can now image controlled by various factors. You
Layers are definitely the biggest new effect.
basics of the program remained the set the number of times the brush will be
function in ImageFX 3, they allow you to
same, new and more powerful effects painted and you can then set how the
build up an image of several parts and Just this aspect of layers is really cool,
were added, but the interface remained size, colour, transparency and rotation of
then alter each part seperately. All but IFX has several other tricks up its
quite limited. With version 3 ImageFX
layered images start with a background, sleeve, layers can be combined in many the brush will be determined. You could,
takes a huge step with a new interface
this can be any image loaded into IFX or ways, one layer can, for example, for example, choose that the colour of
as well as yet more effects and features.
a fresh image buffer. You can then add a brighten, darken or colourise the layers the brush comes from another image.
layer over the background. The layer is below it. Each layer has its own alpha This would mean the colour from the
New Interface like a piece of glass over the image, you channel which controls which parts of it second image would be painted onto the
can paint on a layer and although it are transparent. An alpha channel is just first using the brush of your choice. As
The original ImageFX interface used the
covers the background it remains separ- a greyscale image the same size as the you can imagine with a bit of work this
Amiga’s native graphics modes to put
ate. So if I drew on a layer I could then layer. The Black areas of the alpha effect can be used to simulate different
the toolbox on one screen overlaying a
move my drawing about using the move channel correspond to transparent areas painting styles. It is also excellent for
HAM preview of the 24bit image being
layer function without effecting the back- of the layer and the white areas to making random backgrounds.
worked on. Even when CyberGraphX
ground. ImageFX lets you have as many opaque areas. The shades of grey in
support was introduced you could still
layers as your memory allows so you between make the layer more and more FXForge (New in 3.0)
only view one image at a time, but on a
can build up complex compositions and tansparent the darker they get. ImageFX
windowed screen. In version 3 you can
still be able to alter each element separ- allows you to edit and process the alpha The new FX Forge hook allows you to
open as many images as you like and
ately. You can move layers up and down channel in the same way you would any use formulas developed for Photoshop’s
each has its own window. Controls on Filter Factory. There are a wide variety
in the stack (although you can’t move
the window border allow you to easily
the background), add and delete them at
zoom the image and snap the window to
any time. If you own a graphics card a 256 colour screen is often faster
?
its size. Another button allows you to
than one with less colours, because the graphics chips used
open several views of one image, this
Lets take an example, say I want to are optimised for PC 256 colour SVGA displays.
allows you to edit a portion of the image
compose a person onto a new back-
magnified in one window while seeing A typical ImageFX screen, showing tool box, colour palette, and multiple views. ground. First I would load in the back-
the overall effect in another. The Balance effect requester shows the new zoom and panable previews.
22 CLUBBED - Issue 1 Autumn 1998 23
REVIEWS REVIEWS
of formulas available on the ‘net to pro- expect in a traditional paint program like regions as mentioned above you can cut
duce loads of different effects. ImageFX DPaint. You can draw different shapes
Regions using the different drawing tools (rec-
comes with a variety of formulas to get and lines using different line thicknesses If you want to apply an effect to a par- tangle, oval, polygon, freehand etc.) and
you started. FXForge is very useful and and it has the standard range of solid ticular part of an image you can use the using the magic scissors which attempt
some of the effects are good fun, how- and gradient fills. Two things of note are powerful region tools, these allow you to to cut an object away from it’s back-
ever they do take much longer to apply the excellent airbrush tool which is quite select parts of an image in several ways. ground. Once you have the brush you
than standard effects as they have to be realistic and easy to use and the flood fill For a start you can use a box, circle or can stamp it down onto the current
interpreted. which has configurable sensitivity allow- polygon to enclose a region. More image or by simply selecting another
ing you to control how closely colours powerfully you can draw around the image window you can compose it onto
must match before it floods over them. region in freehand mode and finally you that image (or layer if the image is
Fire, Clouds (New) and All the painting tools can operate in can flood select. The flood tool selects layered). When you have picked up a
Lightning Generators many modes, apart from normal painting the area of similar colour around where brush the region gadget has a brush op-
in the selected colour you can blur you click, you can use the fill tolerance tion, if this is selected you can apply
As well as applying special effects to
smear, lighten and darken an image for to set how close the colour match must effects to the brush before it is pasted
your own images IFX has the ability to
example. If you use Photogenics you will be. Once the region is selected you can down. You can also scale and rotate the
generate images of its own. You can
probably find IFX’s painting tools limited, add and remove parts from it by holding brush. Cutting a brush from one image
generate realistic fire, clouds and lightn-
in particular the left mouse button to down a key while you select using any and then stamping it down onto a layer
ing tailored to your exact requirements.
apply/right mouse button to remove fea- of the region modes. When you’ve of another image makes for very easy
The clouds generator is new in version
ture is missing which makes IFX seem a selected the area you want most effects compositing.
3, it generates random fractal clouds, it
bit clumsy. Version 3's Layers go a long will be applied only to that area. You can
can generate several layers of cloud for
way to improve matters however, as you also choose to pick the region up as a
a realistic random effect. You can also
can now experiment without fear of brush which allows for very complex
Automation
change the colour of the clouds to
damaging other parts of the image. areas to be picked up and composited One of the areas of ImageFX that often
create effects such as plasma and lava
ImageFX can also be set to have any into other images (using layers if you gets ignored is its facilities for automa- An image for the SEAL User Group Worldmap project showing some of the
too.
number of UNDOs (this applys to all IFX like) easily. tion. The program has an extensive textures and mask layers used to create it.
operations) which also makes painting AREXX port that is well described in the Layers allow the background, water and land to be alerter independently at any time.
Painting Tools easier. Brushes on-line documentation. You can record
your actions into scripts and play them to preview and pick just the area of the better at painting and composing images
Painting is probably ImageFX’s weakest
You can cut brushes in ImageFX using back at any time. This feature allows scanner bed you want to scan at full which was previously one of its weaker
area, although it has all the tools you’d
several methods, as well as using you to create your own scripts more resoloution. Also included with ImageFX points. Unfortunately the version 3
easily as you can record the action you is the CineMorph morphing package that upgrade has caused some stability
want to perform then add the controling can be used to create complex distor- problems which are being solved (albeit
ImageFX AREXX code, lots of example scripts are tions and for morphing between images. rather slowly). Although an expensive
supplied. There are two batch process- The program can create single images package by Amiga standards you do get
Here are a small selection of effects from ing engines included, AutoFX and IMP or animations. Cine Morph has not been an awful lot for your money, particularly
ImageFX’s huge range, for colour images
Paint FX (ImageFX Multi-Processor) which allow upgraded for a long time, and is a totally if you’re going to use the scanner
see back cover: you to apply effects to a series of separate program, not integrated into module. New users will need to per-
frames. Most of ImageFXs effects are ImageFX. However it has a nice style severe to learn the program but once
The original designed for animation so, for example guide compliant interface and does its you have it rewards you with unrivaled
image. you could make animated floating job well. flexibility in the effects it produces.
clouds or ripples. The AutoFX batch
processor comes with many pre-set
Issues
Hair Molecule
effects, and you can combine as many
as you like of these and save the output When ImageFX 3 was released in April
Results
in a variety of formats including it was quite buggy, the cause of this
animations. If you want to write your seems to be ImageFX’s modular nature. Pros
own effects you can do so using AREXX Version 3 adds so many major new Powerful layers
Bubbles, Shingle and use them in conjunction with the features (e.g. layers) that some of the Range and configurability of effects
covers the
image in
Image Generators ones provided. Personally although I existing modules just can’t cope with Automation
don’t use the animation side of things them. Four upgrades (3.0a, 3.0b 3.1 and Scanner Support
bubbles much, I was able to use AutoFX to com- 3.2) have been released so far and the
which mag-
Fire bine rendered frames into an IFF anim vast majority of the bugs have now been Cons
nify it. using the provided effects very quickly. squashed. Unfortunately there are a Steep learning curve
couple of operations that will crash Poor upgrade documentation
ImageFX still, you learn to avoid them, Bugs
Scanning and Morphing but still it is annoying to find these in an
Pinch pulls
Aside from its major role as an image expensive program that has been out for
in the image,
processor ImageFX also has a couple of six months now.
you can set
“added value” features. The first is scan-
the centre
ner support for Hewlett Packard (SCSI
and strength
only) and Epson (SCSI and Parallel) flat
Conclusion
of the pull. Clouds
bed scanners and a couple of digitisers. ImageFX is a great program with a very
ImageFX has all the basic scanning wide range of effects, with the im-
Lightning features you need, including the facility plementation of layers it becomes much
W
henever you mention example, if you
the surface design. You can get a pre- crystal texture for instance you can wasting hours waiting for something to
Lightwave the normal reac- wanted to build a
view of the current surface by pressing simply pop down to the local library look render just to find that you haven’t saved
tion is “cool lens flares!” but model of a table
the S key. Lightwave will then render a up the refractive index and enter it in the it!
there is so much more to it then that, you could create
little sphere which is mapped with the panel to get a truly realistic surface!
reverse kinematics, bones, keyframe the table top in
current texture. This is handy for seeing Moving along you have got the “Images The worst thing about Newteks
animation etc. When I first started out in one layer and the
the texture as it would actually be Panel” where you can add or remove Lightwave is the amount of cash you
3D over 6 years ago with a coverdisk legs in another
rendered and not just on a flat lightless any images you wish to use for image need to get going, you need a fairly fast
version of Imagine 2.0 I was amazed at layer and tem-
plane. Lightwave also has various pre- maps etc within the scene. Amiga to make any use of it, although
what I could do on a basic A1200 I could porarily merge the
set textures such as fractal bumps, un- you can get away with an ‘030 50Mhz
only have dreamt about the versatility two layers using
derwater and wood. You can also load in Next along is the “Lights Panel”, the faster the better. Newtek recom-
and wealth of features that Lightwave the shift key and
images in standard IFF format or other Lightwave has numerous options for mends 12 megabytes of RAM but some-
would offer me. clicking on the
formats such as JPEG, GIF or PNG via lights. You can choose from different times I find myself struggling with 34
appropriate layer
a plug-in which is included. types such as Point, this is the type you megs so I would recommend investing
As a convert from another package tabs. Then if you
would use if you wanted to simulate a in some serious hardware before you
Lightwave can seem very confusing at like the look of it
lightbulb, candle etc. There is Distant, bite the bullet and purchase Lightwave.
first but as the weeks go by you think you can cut the
this is used to get an even blanket of There is nothing worse than spending
you are begining to grasp it, or rather legs from the
light over the whole scene without any hundreds of pounds on a package just
you think you do then you notice a second layer and
hotspots. This is handy for outdoor to find out it chugs along in slow motion!
button you hadn’t seen before and a paste them into
Modeler showing an object under construction scenes where you want to emulate the
whole new menu opens up before you the first layer. The
There is a lot more to Lightwave, in fact
and you realise that you are just layer system also makes the alignment Load your plane into Layout and select
too much to mention here. It would be
scratching the surface of this huge pro- of objects eaiser as well. There are the edit object button from the panel on
nice for people to be able to try a demo
gram. That’s the beauty of LW there are some lovely tools in modeler including a the left of the screen. You then goto the
before they spend all that money but
just so many features and functions that full range of Boolean tools which allow last frame in the sequence by either
unfortunately there isn’t one available so
every time you load it up you see some- you to add, subtract and drill objects. So dragging the slider along to frame 30 or
all I can say is try and see it in action at
thing new or find a different way of doing if you wanted to create a doorway in a typing the number of the fame into the
Surface options a show or have a go on a friend’s ver-
something. wall you would simply create an ex- box, in this case 30.
sion, I’m sure you’ll be amazed
truded plane the size and depth of the
One of the best features is the ability to
Lightwave is split into two main sections, wall, and another the size and depth of Then drag the plane down and to the
load an IFF ANIM as a texture and map This is a fantastic package and worth
the Layout editor and the Modeler. the door. Intersect the two in seperate right and hit return to fix the changes. In
it onto a surface so you could easily and every penny, If you have a fast enough
Layout is where you place your layers and select subtract and the the same frame move the object nearer
quickly create impressive effects. The machine and even a slight interest in 3D
cameras, add lights and compose your Modeler will remove a piece in the wall to the front of the screen then hit return
surface panel also supports IFFs with Lots of lighting options graphics I would recommend you take a
scenes. Modeler is where you design the size and shape of the door for you, again to fix this change as well. At this
colour cycling, this is carried over from serious look at Lightwave 3D!
and build your objects. simple eh? point we have moved the plane from the
the old DPaint days. sun. Finally there is Spot, this emulates
top left to the bottom right and moved it
a spot light and can be placed as a real
Modeler has a very nice layer system for Layout also has some lovely tools as closer to the camera. Now for the barrel
Lightwaves menus are in the form of spot light would be, to pick out certain
building objects so you can visualise well such as keyframe animation. roll, still in the last frame select the
“Panels” rather than the standard pull objects, there are also numerous options
your models before you commit yourself Keyframe animation allows you to simply object and click on rotate, hit N on the
to joining all the pieces together. For create complicated animation routines. If keyboard to open a numeric requester,
down menus used by Cinema 4D and for lens flairs as well. The next panel is Results
Imagine. After a little getting used to, the known as the “Camera Panel” but is
you had a nice model of of a plane and
Caviar
panels make things a whole lot easier more of a rendering options panel, this is
wanted it to fly from the top left of the
although there are a small number of where you change the resolution of the
screen to the bottom right whilst getting
drop down menus within the panels to final image as well as altering the an-
closer to the camera and performing a
let you select a texture from a list of tialiasing values and cool features such
barrel roll it couldn’t be simpler, well
those currently available etc. as depth of field rendering etc.
actually it could but it is easy, here’s
how: As a default Lightwave gives you a
30 frame animation but you can simply You can move the pointer by pressing the cursors while hold-
?
adjust this by clicking into the dialog box ing an Amiga key. R-Amiga + R-ALT is the right button and
and typing a new value, but for the L-Amiga + L-Alt the left. This is handy if your mouse breaks
purpose of this tutorial we will be keep it or if you need to move the pointer with pixel accuracy.
at the standard value of 30.
The basic Layout screen. Setting up
26 CLUBBED - Issue 1 Autumn 1998 27
REVIEWS REVIEWS
Sensible
E C
? including most of the classics. In many cases the installer will
also patch the game to run on newer Amigas. Many in-
stallers can be found on Aminet in the game/patch directory.
great things at Kilmarnock and Celtic able, for all the versions. I recommend
(Scotland). I thought I was doing quite the SWOS `96/`97 update edition in-
I I
well with the players I had, but was staller. Then you can download or grab
W
V S
sacked after a season and a half. Bah the other SWOS updates to bring the
E S
Gary Storm gets back into one of the Amiga’s best A brilliant inclusion in the game, believe data update, to give you English another
L
This realism injection really makes the even make it to the finals.....but maybe
game even more of a challenge, as you Mr.Venables had something to do with
have to consider many more things than that, and he`s English :). If even that
R
ecently, Kickstart (the Surrey Kick-Off wasn`t as well implemented as Luckily the goalkeeper is controlled by normal. What if your star player get`s isn`t up to date enough for you, there`s
Amiga User Group), hosted an Sensi in some areas, and was losing the the computer, so you still have someone injured, possibly out for the rest of the a SWOS team editor you can install,
Amiga fair, which Robert, Mick, war. It totally lost the plot, when Dino to blame if it all goes horribly wrong in a season (a-la Newcastle)? If you don`t which let`s you play around with ab-
David and myself raided. The highlight Dini left Anco, and the subsequent Kick- match :) win the next few games, to stay in that solutely everything, including the player
of the day for me, apart from all the bar- Off programmers made a real hash of division, you`ll be signing on at the dole stats and value. Andy Cole really can
gains, was a Sensible Soccer competi- the series. No-one could dispute Sensi After the match, if you`ve been obser- queue. Yet you haven`t got a decent be brilliant, after all :)
tion. It had been a long time since I`d Soccers football crown, especially when vant and made note of the players Sponsored by Amiga?
replacement, and no money to search
played Sensi, at least a year or two, but a huge management side to the game you`re impressed/distressed by, you can manager should. Money is earned from for one. Eeeeeek! This game requires As with most games, human Vs. human
I didn`t do too badly :) Playing in the was added, including nearly all the enter the world of tactics, and transfers. ticket sales at home games, cup games planning, people. Your substitute selec- is the best, and although the computer is
competition rekindled the Sensi fire. leagues and players of the world. Thus All the players in SWOS have attributes anywhere, and the selling of players for tion is just as important as your team a very (sometimes too much so) worthy
was born Sensible World of Soccer. relating to speed, control, finishing, tack- a profit. Just don`t be too much like selection, in this game, unlike the myriad opponent, it`s against your friends that
Sensible Software have been respons- ling, etc, which influence the way your Southampton and sell your best players of powerful, pretty console games of the most fun is too be had. At the
ible for a few Amiga classics, such as There are plenty of cup competitions to team plays, and therefore which players :) today, who never get injured players. Kickstart competition, I was kicked out in
Cannon Fodder 1 & 2, Sensible Golf, choose from, but the real meat of the you buy and sell. As a general rule, the SWOS still has more depth than any the second semi-final, after a well fought
and of course, Sensible Soccer. Sensi game is the Career. Pick the team you higher the price of a player, the better he Hopefully, if you`ve done a good man- other football game in existence. Fact. match which was very close until extra
wasn`t the first football game on the want to be the player/manager for, from is… but not always. I tend to like a fast agement job, and played a good game That may change if Sensible Software time, where it ended up 4-2, to the even-
Amiga to adopt the overhead view, or, all the teams in nearly all the leagues in team, so I look for players with an “S” in of football, you`ll get promoted to a do as good a job on the Playstation ver- tual winner of the competition, James.
as Mick puts it... “ants with a football”. the world. For example I`ve just started their stats, although Andreas Thom is higher league in that country at the end sion they`re doing.
Microprose Soccer, and then Kick-Off, my first season at St.George, a New quite fast, and he has FHV has his main of the season. I`m aiming for the Do yourselves a favour.... buy SWOS,
were the inspiration for the guys at South Wales division team in Australia. attributes (Finishing, Heading, Velocity), Australian first division with St.George. There aren’t many things that SWOS install it on your miggy HD, and have a
Sensible to improve upon the genre. Players worth average at about 45k. You so it`s always good to keep an open You may get job offers from other clubs needs in the playability stakes to make it great time trying to make your way up
Kick-Off was admirable in it`s first two can take the team on training if you mind when buying players. Put the (probably Tottenham :). If you stay with even better. The only things I can think from the player/manager of a piddly little
incarnations, with Dino Dini at the helm, want, to see their calibre, but as I`m too players you don`t want on the transfer your current club, the chairman will allo- of is the anomaly that a player can be team, into the player/manager of a world
and the kind of arguments that rage impatient, I just get them out on the list (maximum of 5 at a time), and wait cate more money for the coming doing really well, and scoring plenty of cup winning national team. Good Luck !
today between players of titles of simi- pitch, and test them against the opposi- for any offers to roll in. You can haggle a season, so you can strengthen the goals, yet his value can go down some-
lar natures, like Fifa 98 vs Actua Soccer tion. bit if you get offers, but you could also squad. If you didn`t do too well, you may times. Not often, but it`s strange none-
2 on the Playstation, or Command & lose the sales opportunity. You live & get sacked. theless. The other one is that the com-
Conquer and Dominion on the PC,
raged then betwen the champions of
Controlling the game is simplicity itself…
it`s all done by one fire button on your
learn. puter players don`t ever seem to get Results
Whatever your career moves, hopefully seriously injured, which puts you at a
Kick-Off and Sensible Soccer on the joystick. The longer you keep the button To build a good team, you`ll have to in- you`ll do well for quite a few seasons, disadvantage, as your players do get Pros
A500, in the early 90`s. down for when you kick, the harder the vest a fair amount of time in the search and you may even get offered to man- injured enough to be forced off the team Fantastic gameplay
kick is. Press it while you`re defending, for good players on the transfer market, age a national team. I was manager of for a few matches at least. Hopefully HD Installable
and the player you control (indicated by or trawl through the teams of the world Australia for a while once, after doing someone can fix these two slight over- Absorbing career
his number appearing above his head) to make direct offers on players not on sights in the programs code
will do a sliding tackle. Decide the direc- the market. One of the great things sometime. Cons
tion the ball will take if the tackle is suc- about Sensi is that you can develop your Graphics, obviously
cessful, by pointing the joystick in that own world-class players, through trial Ahh, I hear you cry, wasn`t Computer cheats :)
direction. One of the most rewarding players, who become reserve players if SWOS on two disks ? Who
things to master, is the aftertouch, you like them, and then go on to be wants to have that old disk-
whereby the ball you`ve just kicked, or worth more and more money if they per- swapping knee-slapping
passed, will bend in the direction (left or form well. So you`re not forced to wrist-injuring hassle again
right) you hold your joystick. Simple, always buy class players, even though it ? Don`t worry, neither do I,
effective, fantastic. It will still take some is the quickest way to success, if you and we don`t have to !
time to get used to the system, as with have the finances. Thanks to some intrepid
all games, but it soon becomes second programmers, there are a
Ants? or me nearly scoring a nature, and the feeling of scoring a goal Yes, you have to keep an eye on that few SWOS installers avail-
goal yesterday? from a difficult position, is amazing. side of things as well, as any good
PD Paradise
by David Larsson and adding a couple of lines to your
To save typing, KCON can complete file user-startup file it’s no problem.
Freeware (Aminet util/shell) names for you, if you type the first few Configuration is carried out by altering
letters of the name and press tab KCON the CON: tooltype in the icon calling the
The standard shell that comes with all will look for matches in the current direc- shell which is slightly awkward, you’ll
Amigas is a very powerful tool, you can tory. If only one file matches it will put probably need to refer to the detailed
do things with one command that would the name straight in, if there are several AmigaGuide file when you want to
There are literally hundreds of great PD and Shareware programs available for take many mouse clicks to achieve on options a list window pops up allowing change something. That said the default
the Amiga but with huge collections on Aminet and CD-ROMs how do you find Workbench if you could do them at all. you to choose the file you require. You set-up would be fine for most people.
However the shell is not particularly can choose from the list using either the
the good ones? To give you a start Roy Burton and Robert Williams reveal friendly to use and even when you know keyboard or mouse. KCON can also I’ve been using KCON for years and
what you’re doing it has some annoying
some of the hidden gems they’ve found... more next issue. limitations and tends to require a lot of
complete command names in the same haven’t had any stability problems with
way, just type the first few letters and it, some commands that use special
typing. press Ctrl+Tab and it searches the path shell formatting don’t show the correct
using the Settings menu e.g. size of The indexing is slow especially JPEG’s
COLLECTOR v3.3 thumbnail, number of colours. It is im- a progress bar shows this and a KingCON is a replacement shell which,
for commands starting with those letters.
If you want to insert a complete file
output when you scroll back, this in-
cludes LHA but it doesn’t do any harm.
by Frederic Calendini.WB3.0 portant to get these right at an early message is displayed if a picture cannot while looking very much like the stan- name and path pressing Tab with the
stage. The indexes that are produced be indexed. e.g. Cannot convert a dard shell, has many functions to help cursor in a blank space on the command I cannot recommend KingCON highly
(Creationware, send some of your work) must be of the same type. e.g. all grey greyscale picture to colour index. Once you use the commands more quickly line will bring up a file requester so you enough, if you use the shell already it’ll
scale or all 256 colour. I have set mine completed the index can be saved any- and easily. The KCON shell window can look through your drives for the file. make you much more productive and if
I recently found a very good image to 256 colours and a thumb-nail of 96*96 where e.g. in a index draw or with the itself has two features not found with the You can also drag icons from you’re new to it starting out will be much
cataloguing programme called Next setup the picture viewer by pictures.You can view the whole picture standard shell, the first is a scroll bar Workbench onto the shell window to in- easier.
‘COLLECTOR’ on AFCD27 in the Pictures/Define Actions menu item, in by double clicking on the thumbnail pro- which allows you to scroll back through sert their path and file name into the
Seriously_Amiga/Shareware/Graphics/ the box put #?= PPSHOW “%S” this will viding you have set up the viewer cor- the output of commands, you won’t miss command line at the cursor position. Get it NOW!, Robert
directory. It is best to drag the whole allow PPSHOW to display the pictures. rectly. By double clicking on the title of interesting information as it whizzes by
Collector33 drawer on to your hard drive Note that you’ll need the PPshow pro- the picture you can display information now. Second, in the window title bar
as this programme expects to see the gram in your C: directory. about it and its location you can also KCON adds an iconify gadget so you
‘LIBS’ drawer in the parent directory. (As update index if more pictures are added can squash the window down to an icon
if the drawer was on the boot drive). Start by selecting the Thumbnails/Add to the drawer. when it’s not in use or while you’re wait-
menu item, a requester enables you to
On running the software you are select the picture(s) to be indexed, A good package and its all but free.
presented with a screen of black boxes, choosing the path and either select a R.A.B. The Edit CD window allows
first you should set-up the program picture or select All from the requester. Plugged you to enter the artist, disc
by Roberto Ferorelli name and the names of all the
tracks, and then the next time you insert Plugged also has a small Controls
A proportional high-resolution 640 by This is an impressive Programme that Shareware $15 (Aminet disk/cdrom)
MagicTV2 512 with 16 colours or Super high- really works, saves buying a flash moni-
the disc Plugged will recognise it.
Plugged then allows you to define a
window with the usual Stop, Eject, Play
etc. buttons and another window where
by Neil Crawford resolution 1280 by 512 if you’re MAD. tor. There are loads of programs on Aminet programme for this CD, this means you you can alter the current playlist without
that allow you to use your CD-ROM as can programme just your favourite changing the saved disk programme.
(CHOCOLATEware), AGA only It is also able to boost the HighGFX lace May be found on CUCD No19 in an audio CD player. Many of these pro- tracks on each CD. Any of Plugged’s windows can be open,
modes on multiscan Monitors such as Readers contributions. grams try to mimic a real CD player with you can even hide them all and pop-up
This program is an absolute must for a 800 X 600 mode. an attractive graphical interface, but You can configure Plugged to play the the interface via a hot key. All the
A1200 using a single scan monitor like I had a problem with a 16 colour anima- they also tend to duplicate the problems programme when you insert the CD. windows are independent so for ex-
the Commodore 1084 ,the Philips 8833 Please note if you use this software on a tion crashing the system when using of a hi-fi CD player (lots of small Plugged allows you to have different set- ample when you are programming a CD
monitor or a television. This software is TV make sure you can still read text MagicTV2 it was being played by buttons, difficult to program). Plugged tings depending on the CD you insert, you can use the Controls?? window to
a interlace flickerfixer for workbench without eye strain by using a suitable ViewTech (VT) via a ‘Project’ icon it was takes a rather different approach, it is a you can tell Plugged what you want it to listen to each track and decide if you
only and is limited to 16 screen colours. font. solved by using PPshow instead. commodity, and runs in the background, do if you insert an unknown CD, a want it in the programme.
So you are able to run a flicker free R.A.B. without disturbing you. The main window known CD, and a known and program-
Workbench at :- has basic details about the disc inserted med CD. For example on my system if I Plugged is shareware, with a very un-
and buttons to open four other windows. insert an unknown CD Plugged starts obtrusive reminder requester that
Other features include :- used to scroll windows but the playing it from appears on start-up occasionally.
PowerWB v0.8 documentation tells of bugs in this fea- beginning and pops Unfortunately the author is no longer
by Georg Steger. 1.Auto-closing parent window when you ture so it may be best to turn this part off up its Edit CD?? developing for the Amiga, but this pro-
open a new drawer. (stops screen be- in the preferences, don’t let this put you window allowing me gram is so good and bug free it isn’t a
(Shareware 5DM or 5000 Lire) WB2.0+ coming cluttered with windows) off this very useful utility. Also remember to enter the CD real problem.
Uses MUI for prefs Programme and can it takes a little time to change a window details. If I insert a
be found on CUCD 21 in Utilities. 2.Can close all windows with one key from a Name listing to Icons but very known programmed If you want to listen to your favourite CD
(User definable). fast vice versa. CD Plugged starts tracks with the minimum of fuss Plugged
This multi-featured programme adds two playing the program is ideal.
gadgets to the window’s title bar the first 3.Can close windows one at a time in A great programme if you like using the without bothering
toggles between “Show All Files”/ “Show order by key (User definable). good old Workbench. me with any other Robert
Only Icons” and the second toggles R.A.B. windows.
between view as “Icon”/ “Name”. Please note the cursor keys can also be
Plugged’s Main Window
?
On the internet members can get a copy of any program Mick Smithson
want to use a program that doesn’t have Within SEAL there are many years of
the best source of or upgrade at a SEAL meeting, please (01268) 514481
this facility you could always create the Amiga experience, including the fitting
the latest informa- phone Robert Williams in advance and m.smithson@virgin.net
text and then screengrab it using and configuration of countless pieces of
tion and links to all let him know what you want before the
Photogenics’ Amiga Screen loader. hardware and the installation and use of
the important Amiga meeting. Contact us if you’d be willing to
Make sure the text is black on a white numerous software packages. So if you
web sites is the Amiga Web use your skills to help other Amiga
background. This effect works best on a need a helping hand there’s almost
Directory, find them at: NOTE: this service applies to freely dis- users and we’ll add you to this list.
fairly bold font. Make sure your text has 4, In the Images window drag the bound to be someone with experience
http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html tributable software only, NO PIRACY!
some white border around it, if not add thumbnail of the text image into the willing to help. In particular we’ve be-
some with Photogenics Add Space func- Alpha area to make it the current alpha come expert at installing harddrives and
tion. channel. Select the texture image by CD-ROMs and other common upgrades.
clicking in the its window and choose
Next Issue
If you use DrawSTUDIO I
found it best to switch on
it’s Antialaising in the
Paint from the mode list, fill the paint
layer. The texture image should now be
masked in the shape of the emboldened
Scanning and Printing
Several SEAL members have scanners
Getting Clubbed Here are some of the goodies we have
lined up for you in the next issue:
create bitmap requester as text in black. If you want a different and many have colour printers, if at
this gives a smoother effect. background colour all you need to do is
change the colour in the palette window
and click Use to see the effect. When
anytime you need some pictures
scanned or documents printed someone
is always available to help.
Regularly Colone Show Report
Computer 98 in Cologne, Germany is
the worlds biggest Amiga show. we will
you’re happy Fix. Get Subbed to Clubbed! SEAL members get Clubbed as part of their membership
bring you all the news and announ-
fee, anyone else can subscribe at the rates below, these prices include postage.
CD-R Harddrive Backup cements from the show.
If you want to make a transparent Please note these prices purely cover our costs which is why they don’t reduce when
GIF from this image it’s best to 3 SEAL members have Clubbed you subscribe (sorry!). Payment is by cheque (UK only) or cash (Pounds Sterling)
Graphics Cards Explained
set the background colour as (groan!) together to buy a CD writer and only at the moment.
A graphics card makes a huge dif-
close as possible to the web they offer a harddisk backup service to ference to your Amiga, we explain how
page background you’ll be using to other members at a £5 fee plus the cost Please fill out the following form and post it with your payment to:
they integrate with the AmigaOS and
avoid an ugly border. of the media (about £1). Simply contact Clubbed, 450 High Road, BENFLEET, Essex, SS7 5AQ, ENGLAND.
show you the various options available
Mick, Robert or Gary to arrange a for your machine.
5, Select the text image and then backup session. Name: I would like to subscribe to
2, In Photogenics load the text you just choose Undo from the Edit menu, the Clubbed for 4 issues at the Plus...
created and the image you want to use text should then be back in its blurred Address: following rate (please tick):
as a texture. The texture image needs to state. Move the text image into the
Discounts • CyberVision PPC Review
Town: UK Europe USA • Blizzard PPC Review
be at least as big as the text, if it’s not Secondary buffer then select the texture At time of writing we are negotiating £8.00 £10.00 £12.00 • PPC Software Roundup
scale it to fit. If the image is a tileable image. Choose the Rub Emboss mode group discounts with several well known County/State: • 3D Tutorial, which didn’t make it into
texture you can use Photogenic’s from the list, set the Rub Emboss Light Amiga dealers. Postal Code: this issue.
Rest of Surface
Resize Tiled function to expand it to the Source to your prefered direction and Oceania World Mail • Your questions answered (if you send
correct size. then choose Fill Paint Layer from the Note that with all these services you will Country: us any).
£13.00 £13.00 £9.20
tool bar, Fix. have to pay for any costs incurred (for • Plus many more news items, reviews,
3, Select the text image and apply the example paper for printing, disks etc.). Telephone No.: hints and tips.
Defocus mode with a strength of 3 to the There you have it Embossed Textured I enclose (please tick)
EMail Address:
whole image, click on the fill paint layer text. Continued Over... Cheque Cash Issue 2 is due to be published just
button on the tool bar (the white Signature: before Christmas.
ImageFX
PaintFX: Molecule
PaintFX:
Picasso
Original Image
PaintFX:
Polar Mosaic Shingle