Issue 9, Winter 2001 £3.50

Read our full review

We play the new PPC/Warp3D Version NEWS NEWS Contents Clubbed.info Update Clubbed is published quarterly by South News Essex Link. For subscription details please contact us at the address below or SEAL Update...... 3 Editorial Meetings Future Meetings visit our website. elcome to the ninth issue of Editor: Robert Williams World of Amiga South East. 4 Clubbed, if everything has It has to be said that things have been Once the show is over we aim to Design: Robert Williams fairly quiet at SEAL meetings over the Features Wgone to plan you could well revitalise SEAL meetings, hopefully this Contributors: Elliott Bird be reading this just before the World of last few months, we think there are will be aided by the release of new hard- Mick Sutton Reader Opinion...... 10 Amiga South East show which we’re all several reasons for this. Firstly it has ware and software at around the same Kevin Twyman Payback PPC Preview...... 11 working hard preparing for as I write. been the summer when many people time. So SEAL members, now is the Jamie Winter are on holiday or at least would rather time to be thinking about topics you Proof Reading: Sharon Sutton DTP Explained...... 12 I’m sure regular readers won’t fail to be outside than sitting in front of a com- would like to see covered at future Cover Art: Roy Burton spot that this issue is on time for a DTP Utilities...... 17 puter. Secondly it has been a quiet time meetings and if you could contribute in change! I would like to thank all the con- Contact Us in the Amiga market as a whole, there is any way to make them more interesting. Mediator Multimedia CD ..... 24 tributors to this issue, and everyone who If you have any queries suggestions or a great feeling of “wait and see” with lent a hand in getting it finished. Special One idea we do have is a “bring and buy want to contact us for any reason please Reviews several big developments on the use one of the following: thanks should go to Mick Sutton who sale” where members can bring along horizon. Finally several of SEAL’s Metaview...... 20 spent a lot of his evenings helping me any kit they want to sell and can also EMail: [email protected] movers and shakers have been very with the layout, in addition to writing buy from other members, we had one of WWW: http://www.seal-amiga.co.uk/ ArtEffect Plugins Collection 22 busy with the forth coming WoASE show several articles. these in SEAL’s first year and it was a Post: Clubbed, 26 Wincoat Drive, Epson Stylus Photo 790 ..... 26 which has also meant that this issue of success. Also SEAL has received BENFLEET, Essex, SS7 5AH, Memory Card Reader ...... 27 The next few months look like being a Clubbed has greater urgency than usual ENGLAND. several donations of hardware and soft- time of significant changes for Amiga we’ve had to look for a new printer for too. Telephone: +44 (0) 1268 569937 PhotoScope ...... 28 ware in the last year and those items users, several major products, from this and future issues. (19:00 - 22:00 UK time only please) All that said we have had some interest- which are not needed for the club Shogo ...... 29 Amiga and others are expected in this Before I go into the ramifications of this I ing meetings, bizarrely most featuring machines will be available for sale at Only Amiga Made it Possible PD Paradise...... 32 time frame. There is the Amiga One and would like to thank Jeff for all the hard CyberVision 64/3D graphics cards! We this meeting, all contributions going to Clubbed is designed and laid out using: OS4, then there are the other solutions Archive Utilities ...... 40 work he’s put into getting Clubbed had a go at fitting an AMon automatic club funds. Hardware: based on OS 4 from Elbox, Matay and printed, including putting up with my last monitor switch to Alf Whitfield’s Support anyone else who chooses to take up a CyberStorm PPC/060 minute phone calls of... “don’t print it yet, CV64/3D. Next Elliott Bird asked for SEAL on the ‘net license. MorphOS, probably best CyberVision PPC Top Tips...... 34 I’ve spotted a major typo!” (oh yes folks, some help setting up a CV64/3D in his described as an Amiga compatible PPC SEAL has several, rather under used, 128Mb RAM, about 8Gb HDD space. Issue 7’s cover very nearly referred to A4000, he had installed the card under DTP Tutorial...... 36 OS, with the BPlan Pegasos mother- resources available on the Internet, with Software: the little known prehistoric era the Picasso 96 but it was very unstable. Back to Basics Archiving ... 39 board will probably be shown to the more and more members getting on line Amiga OS 3.9 by Amiga “Scantasic” instead of “Scantastic”!). This turned out to be a hardware incom- public for the first time at a show in I think it’s time to give them a bit of a PageStream 4 by Softlogik IRC Tutorial...... 41 Everyone at Clubbed and I’m sure all patibility between early DCE manufac- Cologne, Germany in mid November. plug. There are several mailing lists ImageFX 4 by Nova Design our readers wish Jeff the very best of tured CV64/3Ds and Zorro II (see Top Photogenics 5 by Paul Nolan Finally we have the Amiga OS XL x86 which use the Yahoo Groups service, Next Issue...... 43 luck in finding a new job. Tips on page 38 for more details). Then Final Writer 5 by Softwood emulation package from H&P, which these allow anyone with EMail to easily Steve Willis brought along a Power Ghostscript 6.50 from Aladdin Enterprises Gallery ...... 44 gives Amiga users yet another option! From our initial enquires with local prin- receive information about the club. Seal- Tower, Z4 bus board and, you’ve There are also some essential utilities we ters it seems that our printing costs are announce is for club related announ- From a Clubbed point of view we’d like guessed it, a CyberVision 64/3D making couldn’t live without: 5, going to increase considerably, probably cements and is a very low traffic list, it SGrab, MCP, Turbo Print 7, MakeCD. to hear your opinions on these develop- him the latest SEAL member to ex- nearly doubling in fact. Because would be great if all members with EMail Our thanks to the creators of this and all ments, and which products, if any, you perience the wonders of high resolution, Clubbed is non profit making there is no could join this list as it makes sending the other great out there. Do The choose to buy when they are released. high colour fast screens. way we can absorb this increase. announcements much easier. To join the Clubbed is entirely created on the Amiga, We can then start thinking about the fu- Therefore we have had to make a But not everything revolved around the list, which is free, simply send a blank no other machines are used at any stage of ture direction of the magazine, although decision as to how to continue without Phase 5 designed card, new member EMail to: seal-announce-subscribe the design or layout process. that will also depend on the choices making a loss on every issue sold. As Philip Beasley had trouble with booting @yahoogroups.com Seal-talk is an in- made by our contributors. Thing we need to have the magazine printed in his A4000, when we opened it up at the teractive list for members to communi- Legalese Write Along with the big changes in the Amiga time for World of Amiga South East (ex- meeting it not only had some interesting cate outside meetings, to join send a The views expressed in this magazine are those world we have had quite an eventful actly four weeks away as I type this) we hardware (a time base corrector for blank Email to: of the author of each piece, they do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor, other We’d like to make Clubbed more “in- month here at Clubbed. Currently the have decided that we must put up the video work and a GVP ‘040 accelerator) [email protected]. teractive” so we need your input! contributors or SEAL. magazine is printed for us by SEAL price of the magazine in time for the but it also showed just how much dust Then you can post your Amiga problems Please Note: Clubbed is produced by SEAL Got a question you’d like answered member Jeff Martin who works in the show. The new price is £3.50 per issue can collect in a machine that hasn’t and comments to everyone belonging to members in their spare time, while we will always printing department of a large insurance with UK subscriptions at £14.00, current been opened for six years. We also the group by sending one EMail to: strive to produce the magazine on time and or an opinion you’d like to share? include all the advertised contents this is not Write to us and we’ll include it in a company. This means we get Clubbed subscriptions will not be effected, but found a leaky battery, as mentioned in [email protected]. always possible due to other commitments. The printed at cost price and in the excellent renewals from this issue will be at the the Top Tips section of issue eight. Sam price you pay for Clubbed covers our costs and letters page. SEAL also has an IRC (Internet Relay quality you saw in issues three to eight new price. We hope people will feel the Byford is another member with an inter- nothing more, we don’t make a profit from it. Chat) channel on Arcnet called #SEAL, Got a tip for other readers or even an (and the second print run of issues one magazine is worth it and we will do our esting Amiga, his A4000 is in a Power If you wish to contact a contributor please send article up your sleeve? Send it in and here you can chat with other members your message to one of the addresses above and and two). Unfortunately Jeff has in- best to make it good value for money. Tower with the new Elbox PCI bus we will pass it on. you could very well see your name in in real time, for more information on IRC formed us that the printing department is board, he’s just waiting for the Mediator Amiga is a registered trademark and the Amiga Well that’s about it from me, enjoy the see Elliott Bird’s tutorial on page 41. print. closing at Christmas and more impor- PCI logic to arrive so he can use those logo, AmigaDOS, Amiga , Amiga magazine and see you at World of There are full details of all SEAL’s Workbench, Autoconfig, Bridgeboard, and tantly for us the machine used to print exciting and inexpensive expansions. Got a suggestion or comment on the Amiga South East! Internet activities on the website at: Powered by Amiga are trademarks of AMIGA Inc. magazine? Let us know and we’ll try the Clubbed covers has broken down All other trademarks mentioned are the property and make Clubbed better for you. and probably won’t be fixed. Therefore Robert Williams www.seal-amiga.co.uk of their respective owners.

2 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 3 NEWS NEWS World of Amiga South East AmigaOS onx86 New Look In the Amiwest update sheet included Amiga drivers to support your hardware, with issue 8 of Clubbed we were for example if you want to print on a The main Aminet website has been surprised to find that two, ostensibly modern inkjet you would still need given a make over, the site is still simple similar Amiga Emulators were being TurboPrint. From what has been said and quick to load (if anything I think the developed in tandem. One was Using Amithlon will be very much like one graphic is smaller than before) but Amithlon, developed by Harald Frank using a very fast 68k Amiga, it will still now all the common functions are easily and Bernd Meyer, which was demon- have the limitations of an Amiga such as available on the main page. Straight strated by Bill McEwen at Amiwest and limited driver support, but on the other away you can see the list of the last the other, previewed in Amiga Active hand it you like your Amiga driver soft- week’s uploads and the search function issue 23 turned out to be AmigaXL from ware for scanning, printing, CD writing is in the side bar along with direct links Haage and Partner. etc. you should be able to continue to the top level directories. using it, just much faster. Similarities At the moment the new look only seems AmigaXL is said to make much more to be available on the US site at: Both emulators run on a host OS, Linux use of the underlying QNX operating http://us.aminet.net/pub/aminet/ for Amithlon and QNX for AmigaXL, but system, for example it uses QNX printer hide the fact from the user. They are drivers and network access is via the both derived from UAE although QNX TCP/IP stack. From what Amithlon’s developers say has been said it doesn’t almost every aspect has seem possible to access been rewritten, we don’t the various interfaces of know yet how much of the PC as Amiga devices UAE remains in AmigaXL from AmigaXL, the FAQ although H&P do say it states that several ap- uses a “modified and highly plications requiring device accelerated 68k emulator”. level access to interfaces (for Another common factor between example CD burning and scan- the two is their claimed speed, on a ning) will not work under the emula- fast x86 PC speeds of up to 20 times tion. On the plus side being more reliant ‘060 have been quoted, which is quite on the host OS means that AmigaXL amazing! Finally both will read your ex- can offer features like USB support and Mediator isting Amiga hard disks allowing easy even access to QNX programs like transfer of programs and data. With both Opera and web browsers (com- emulators offering such similar facilities plete with SSL, Macromedia Flash, Fast and Amiga and H&P being partners in MPEG, RealAudio, JavaScript and Java- various developments it seemed clear support) within the emulation. they would have to come to some sort of From the FAQ it seems that AmigaXL Ethernet agreement. The end result is that Haage Elbox has announced new drivers for will also have some what better support and Partner will publish both emulators Ethernet cards based on the Realtek reparations for the World of 7 Cloanto Apart from the bar other highlights of the for programs using the Amiga chipset in a package called AmigaOS XL which RTL8139 chipset, which supports Amiga South East have been 8-14 Eyetech show will be several presentations in- than Amithlon which is purely for pro- includes all the necessary licences, 10MBit/s and 100MB/s operation, this going very well, we now have a 15-16 Formatt Home Computing cluding one from Fleecy Moss of Amiga grams that run on a graphics card. P neither will be available separately. will be the first 100MB card available for list of exhibitors and a floor plan as you 17 100% Amiga and several games tournaments. Keep However with a fast PC there is no the Amiga. The new drivers are avail- can see here. In addition to the main 18 SEAL an eye on the show website for further reason why one couldn’t run UAE within Differences able for Elbox’s Mediator range of PCI hall, the venue boasts a bar which will 19 ANT details and a time table of presentations. either of them to support older software. be staffed throughout the show and a 20 Kickstart bus boards and will also require the user The show is taking place on Saturday Until the package is released or at least smaller hall that will be used as a café 21 ASA The AmigaOS XL package with both to own the recently released Mediator the 3rd of November 2001 at: demonstrated it is hard to know how the and presentation area. 22 Elbox emulators will compare in performance emulators, licensed OS 3.9, 3.1 ROM Multimedia CD (see our preview on Poplars Hall, 23-24 Mediator Support and the “feel” of their emulation. From image, QNX and Picasso 96 will cost page 24 for further details). The This is the current list of exhibitors, as Poplar Drive, 25-27 Virtual Programing 299DM which is about £100. For loads RTL8139 is used on many PCI Ethernet usual with these things there will Hutton, the specifications and other information and Amiga Active more information visit Haage and cards and tends to be very economically probably be some minor changes by the Brentwood, released so far it seems that the main 28-30 Weird Science Partner’s AmigaOS XL web site at: priced, you should be able to find a day of the show but this is what to ex- Essex, CM13 1YU. difference between them is how much 31-33 Stellar Dreams http://amigaosxl.haage-partner.de/ compatible card for well under £20. pect: use they make of the services offered by 34 Hyperion Games Area It will run from 12:00 until 17:00. If you the host OS. Note: The detailed information is under Mediator boards and the MMCD are dis- 1-2 Kicksoft 35 Gloucestershire Amiga Group haven’t bought your tickets already they the “Products” link at the top of the tributed in the UK by Power Computing, 3 Pagan Games will be available on the door at just Amithlon seems to make very little use We also have an assurance from Haage page. for further details visit: 4 HAUG and Blackpool £3.50 each. Full details including direc- of its Linux base, it uses Linux drivers to and Partner that they will be there to http://www.powerc.com user groups tions from the M25 and on public access basic motherboard resources The UK distributor for the Package is demonstrate the Amiga OS XL package or telephone them on (01234) 851500. 5 To Be Announced transport are on the show website: (mouse, keyboard, IDE and SCSI con- Virtual Programming: but we don’t know exactly what form 6 Amiga trollers etc.) and to initialise graphics http://www.vpltd.com Elbox have a website at: their attendance will take yet. http://www.worldofamiga.com cards. From that point on you must have +44 (0) 1202 41111 7 http://www.elbox.com 4 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 5 NEWS NEWS MorphOS GREX Bites Back Earth Ten In the last few weeks DCE have announced a host of new drivers for PCI cards installed on their GREX family of Years On PCI expansion boards. At the time of E.P.I.C. Interactive have announced that writing none of these new drivers have they will be publishing a port of Earth DV Editing been released. Here is a run down of 2150: Escape from the Blue Planet, the The GREX follow up to Earth 2140 reviewed last Titan Computer have released some To run Motion Studio you will the drivers being developed and some 4000D Replaces the issue, they plan to release a Mac ver- specifications and screen shots of their need a computer with a other GREX related news. A4000’s daughter board. sion and then one for MorphOS running new non-linear digital video editing PowerPC G3 running at on bplan Pegasos hardware. Like Earth package Motion Studio. Titan are the 400Mhz, firewire ports and USB STB and 3Dfx . 2140, 2150 is a real time strategy game publishers with the product being devel- MorphOS 1.0. Titan ore ob- Drivers for Universal Serial Bus PCI To run Visionary you will need but unlike it’s predecessor it features a oped by Motion Studios, the people be- viously aiming this product at cards will enable many common, low CyberGraphX running on a PCI card in true 3D environment. The game was hind the Elastic Dreams and Fantastic computers based on the cost peripherals to be connected, initially your GREX. No release date has been very popular in the PC world, in fact Dreams image manipulation packages. bplan Pegasos motherboard Human Interface Devices (HIDs) such set but it is expected to be available there has already been a sequel, The Like those two titles Motion Studio which is expected to be as keyboards and mice will be sup- some time in October, probably coincid- Moon Project and yet another E2150: features a very flash non-standard user shown to the public running ported and according to an interview ing with the new GREX board for the Lost Souls is about to be released. interface which you can see in this MorphOS later this year. In with the developer “many other devices A4000 desktop. E.P.I.C. state that ports of these games screen shot. the mean time, to whet your will soon follow of course”. There are will follow at a later date. appetite take a look at the Motion Studio is designed for MorphOS two standards used by USB controllers Other GREX News titan website: (such as those found on PCI cards), For further details visit the E.P.I.C. and supports the bplan Pegasos According to DCE the second model in OHCI and UHCI currently the driver sup- Interactive website is at: motherboard, using its Firewire connec- http://www.titan- the GREX family of PCI bus boards has ports UHCI and has been tested with a http://www.epic-interactive.com tion to load Digital Video (for example computer.com/ now entered production. The GREX card based on the VIA 83C572 con- from a digital camcorder). 40 video motionstudio 4000D is a replacement for the A4000 The official Earth 2150 site is: troller, OHCI support is planner for the effects are included and most of them desktop’s Zorro daughter board and http://www.earth2150.com final release. are performed in real-time on a system provides four PCI slots, four Zorro slots which meets the minimum TV Cards and one video slot. Unlike the other Hyperion Spread specifications. There is also full sound options that will fit a 4000 (Matay’s support with over 20 sound effects in- AMP Plays Visionary is a new Prometheus and Elbox’s Mediator Z3 the Curse cluding echo, fades and decrackle. driver system for and Mediator 4000) the GREX will fit In the last issue of Clubbed we reported Plugins are supported so additional TV cards based on properly in the standard A4000 desktop that Hyperion had released Voodoo 3 effects can be easily added. Finished the popular case. A CyberStorm MkIII or PPC is Warp3D drivers for Matay’s Prometheus projects can be saved in common Booktree 878, 879 required because the GREX plugs PCI board enabling Warp3D ap- Quicktime and AVI formats and we and 848 chipsets directly into the local bus slot of these plications, in particular games such as assume back to a DV recorder. with Microtune or DVD! accelerators. Shogo and Heretic II to take advantage Philips tuner chips A new version of AmiDog’s Movie Player In addition to the Visionary TV card of the Voodoo 3’s hardware 3D ac- are supported. has been released with a major new fea- drivers DCE have also announced that celeration. Since then drivers for DCE’s This encompas- ture, it can now play DVD movies, the drivers for three other PCI cards will GRex board have been released and Blittersoft ses many cards first utility on the Amiga to do so! AMP soon be available for GREX users. The Hyperion have signed a deal with Elbox Long standing UK Amiga hardware and from different version 2 (not to be confused with first is for 100MBit Ethernet cards based to produce Mediator compatible drivers. software dealer Blittersoft has been manufacturers, Amiga AMP the MPEG audio player) is a on the popular and inexpensive Realtek As we go to press Elbox have bought by Virtual Programming, a rela- the Vision Factory PPC only movie player using WarpUP, in RTL8139C chipset. Two sound cards will announced that the Mediator drivers are tively new company developing, site already lists addition to DVD it also supports video also be supported with AHI drivers, the now available and that they also support amongst other things, software for Tao’s thirteen different CDs and MPEG video files. DVD Terratec128i and 512i, Terratec is a the Voodoo 4 4500 and Voodoo 5 5500. Elate platform that forms the basis for cards which have playback requires a fast PPC card and a German company and from what I can However Ben Yoris or Hyperion has the AmigaDE. One of VP’s directors is been tested and found DVD-ROM drive attached to a fast inter- £10 in cash to the author, buy on-line see both these cards are affordable at stated “We did do Voodoo 3 drivers for Mark Hinton, the publisher of Amiga to be compatible. The developers also face, the author recommends a SCSI and get the keyfile EMailed to you around £25 and £50 respectively. In the them but no Voodoo 4/5. It’s a remote Active and he is joined by Paul Lesurf of say that Visionary is designed to be drive on a DMA controller. For owners of through regnet for 18USD or buy it on Visionary screen shot you can also see possibility that these Voodoo 3 drivers Blittersoft. easily expanded to support more chip- slower PPC cards there is a low resolu- CD from Kicksoft for £18. the sound mixer utility for these cards. work on a Voodo 4/5 but...we have no sets and tuners where developer Virtual Programming say that they in- tion which decodes the video at half the way of testing or knowing this.” We will The program can be used for 30 days documentation is available. tend to support both the classic Amiga width and height approximately doubling http://www.vgr.com, the official Vision wait with interest to see exactly what is before registering, so you can download Factory site is an excellent source of and new Amiga markets and will con- playback speed. Visionary features a “skinnable” user going on! the latest version from: news on the GREX, Visionary and tinue to support Blittersoft’s existing cus- interface which allows the user to design Although AMP is a command line pro- http://www.amidog.com matters graphics card related. Hyperion are at: tomers. You can find Blittersoft’s range their own GUI, from the screen shots gram it is supplied with an attractive MUI and see what you think. http://www.hyperion-entertainment.com of classic Amiga products on the VP provided it seems to be very flexible, GUI allowing you to easily change its http://www.dcecom.de also has some website and development is set to con- You can order from Kicksoft at: with the option to reposition the On their site you can register and then options and basic controls are provided interesting product information. tinue. http://www.kicksoft.co.uk elements of the GUI, as well as chang- download the latest version of Warp3D in the playback window to seek to a ing the graphics. It supports Visual from the download area. Further details can be found on the new position in the movie and to pause and Details of the other registration options Virtual Programming website at: restart. There are several options to get are in the AMP documentation. Reality skins which are supplied with TV http://www.vpltd.com a registered copy of AMP, you can send tuner cards from companies including 6 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 7 NEWS FEATURES

hile compiling the news for this issue we noticed several Wsoftware packages that had TurboPrint Perfect Paint 2.7 MUIBase been given a minor update, although Georges Halvadjian has been at it MUIBase is a powerful shareware rela- these updates might not normally make again, gradually improving the freeware tional database with, you’ve guessed it, the Clubbed news page we thought Perfect Paint making it a really com- a MUI interface. It supports multiple these programs were so good or inter- 7.20 prehensive package, particularly for tables with an unlimited number of esting that they were worth mentioning. detailed work like game and web records which can be dynamically A new version of Isreesoft’s essential graphics. Here are some of the useful loaded from RAM. A wide selection of print enhancement system is now avail- features which have been added since field types are allowed including ProStation able, 7.20, like the earlier 7.10 release is we last looked at Perfect Paint way back datatypes fields for displaying images a pure driver upgrade, keeping in version 2.4: and other file types. Other features in- Turboprint up to date with the new prin- clude a query editor and powerful • A new bridge tool that enables you to ters that are constantly released. As search, sort and filter functions. Audio exchange pictures, brushes, palettes Italian developer Audio Labs has made there are no functional upgrades you Epson Stylus Photo 750, 790, 870, supplied and users are asked to con- and animations with any program with The latest version, 1.6, adds an AREXX several announcements regarding their don’t need to upgrade unless you have 890, 1200, 1270, 1290 with full photo ink tribute other languages. an AREXX port, settings files are interface (which compliments the built in professional audio software ProStation one of the newly supported printers. support provided for most common graphics • Improved gradients which can now programming language), enhancements Audio. If you’re not familiar with HP DeskJet 810, 812, 815, 830, 832, Some of the new printers supported: applications and also Final Writer and have translucent elements and up to to printing and relationship display and ProStation it is an application for editing, 840, 882, 930, 950, 970, 98x, 99x Canon BJC 1000, 2000, 4400 PageStream. 10 different colours. improved HTML documentation. mixing and mastering digital audio. It For a list of all the printers TurboPrint Canon BJC 3000, 6000, 6100, 6200, provides a virtual mixing desk and time supports visit the IrseeSoft homepage: • Load and save transfer anims for • A thumbnail bar which shows you the MUIBase is well worth a look, the 7100, 8200 with full support for photo line user interface which supports auto- http://www.irseesoft.com Voyager, AWeb and IBrowse. currently open images (buffers). evaluation version is slightly limited and matic and manual control. ProStation cartridge times out after four weeks, registration • Many improved animation features Download the latest version of Perfect supports some sound cards directly Canon S 400, 450, 600, 800, 4500 with The full version of TurboPrint costs costs $30 which is around £20. For including transitions between two Paint, absolutely free, from: such as the Sunrise AD516 and all full support for photo cartridge £38.95 from Eyetech, they don’t yet list more information visit: frames, dissolves and motion blur. cards with an AHI driver, it is compatible Epson Stylus Color 460, 660, 670, the 7.20 upgrade but according to http://gothic.fr.free.fr/amiga/ http://www.muibase.de with many audio file formats, ideal for 760, 860,880, 900, 980 Irseesoft lit it is 69DM, about £20. • Perfect Paint is now localised, a 98% working in a multi platform environment. complete French translation is Audio Labs’ first announcement was of a new upgrade to ProStationAudio 4.20 The Voyage which provides enhanced plug-ins sup- The Future of the Amiga? port. Next was that they have tested PSA with a Mediator and Sound Blaster Mick Sutton and Robert Williams try and make sense of recent developments, 128 sound card in a professional studio Continues it’s thought provoking stuff! environment and found the combination I thought it was about time we gave major additions in recent betas: hen Amiga announced the AmigaOS. If the world becomes split probably most importantly it will be the passed their tests. Later a similar an- Vaporware’s Voyager web browser • Big overhaul of the download manage- Amithlon Amiga OS emulator between “classic” 68k Amiga users, OS4 platform for future AmigaOS develop- nouncement was also made about the another mention in these news pages as ment. for x86 Pc’s at AmiWest PPC users and x86 emulator users, ment, the x86 emulators will be stuck DCE GREX and Terratec PCI sound at the moment it is by far the most W 2001 it caused a huge uproar amongst plain 68k code will be the only thing that with OS3.9 (although on OS4 port would cards, again they are said to work well frequently updated Amiga browser, new • Javascript improvements, many to fix Amiga users, since then much more in- runs on all the platforms, which could almost certainly be technically possible). and Audio Labs are working with DCE to beta versions for the 3.3 are being problems with specific sites. formation has become available and stifle the development of OS4 specific ensure the best compatibility. Audio released approximately monthly and the It is increasingly hard to see where any • Single window mode, multiple pages another emulator has been announced, programs. Labs also noted that these bus boards beta is now becoming very usable. future AmigaOS development will come can be shown in one window, using Amiga XL from Haage & Partner. Both support the installation of two PCI Voyager is also the only browser to sup- So what about PPC programs that we from, either for OS4 or OS3.x, there are tabs at the top. these emulators claim to run modern graphics cards, ProStation supports this port Flash and PDF plug-ins that display know won’t be compatible with the x86 now very few developers of any size, 68k Amiga software at speeds far in ex- configuration with two monitors to in- these files inside the browser window. Beta versions can be downloaded from emulators? Many PPC programs are can you imagine a major new applica- cess of current 060 based using crease the screen real estate available. The major feature in version 3.3 is a the V3 portal at: also available in a 68k version that tion or original game being released in run of the mill PC hardware. As these new layout engine which is being http://v3.vapor.com should run much faster than on a current the current Amiga market? In a market ProStationAudio is available in several two emulators are potential competitors designed for better HTML, Javascript ‘060 system, they could well perform at with little new development the dif- configurations starting at 125USD and both require a licensed AmigaOS and Style Sheet com- a similar speed to the PPC versions on ference between OS4 on the AmigaOne (about £90), a demo version can be 3.9 Amiga and Haage & Partner decided patibility and to be current hardware! While there are major and OS3.9 on x86 is much less, you are downloaded from: to release them both together as a much faster too. The PPC only programs these tend to be running your existing programs under package called AmigaOS XL. http://www.audiolabs.it latest beta versions ported games which, to be brutally emulation in both cases. But x86 also which the Voyager The idea of running your favourite honest, can probably be found in the offers you the option to run other OSs team note still contain Amiga programs at break neck speed on bargain bin of your local PC store, they complete with their library of programs. a debugging code readily available and therefore cheap may be good but they’re not going to be Maybe we’ve got this all wrong, and as and lack op- hardware is pretty exciting stuff for many a selling point of a new platform. Amiga say current PC users will try timisations are al- Amiga users. However,if the emulators The AmigaOne (and other similar AmigaOS XL and, to miss quote Victor ready much faster on are successful they could well jeopar- systems such as Elbox’s Shark) will cer- Kyam “like it so much they buy the complex pages than dise sales of the AmigaOne and other tainly have many good points for ex- AmigaOne”! Maybe there will be some previous versions. OS4 based systems, especially amongst ample it should have much better com- major developments for OS4 that make Amigans who would find it useful to run Apart from general patibility with older software, especially it really worth while, we’ll just have to do other OS’s and have access to their bug fixes and speed titles which use the custom chipset and what Amiga users do best... wait and software on the same machine as the ups here are the will also run existing PPC software. But hope! 8 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 9 FEATURES FEATURES What Price the Future? Payback Update 4 Reader Jamie Winter wonders how new Amiga compatible machines will Robert Wiliams and Mick Sutton find that the latest version of Payback is compete against low priced PCs. “bigger than your average update”! ost Amiga owners will recog- So, all I need to do is buy an AOne whether you want the A1200 or A4000 nise the concept of having to board (preferably from an Amiga show), version. ince it’s release in February this go undercover to enhance sling it in a tower and start adding all year, Payback development has M Merlancia have also just announced their machines. At one time or another those whizzy peripherals. Great! continued and three updates pricing for their high end, stainless steel S we have all visited our local PC World or have been released fixing some bugs, Oh, hang on, maybe not so great. AOnes, which start at $2,000 (around stack ‘em high, flog ‘em cheap dealer to improving many aspects of the game There’s still a big question mark over £1,400 assuming you get a straight ex- buy a hard drive, a digital camera, a and adding new features. As we go to whether I will be able to buy a stan- change rate). Looks like dreams of a scanner, a printer or whatever. On the print update four has just been released dalone AOne board, and the signs are £300 super computer are up the first occasion we’ve probably been quite and is the biggest yet with major not looking good for the foreseeable fu- Swannee, then. bold about telling the staff that we are changes and enhancements to the ture. If Eyetech want to make money on Amiga owners, but after the assistant My local PC dealer is advertising an game engine. We’ve been tried a late their investment costs, they’ll has ummed and ahhed for a bit and then AMD Duron 800MHz PC for £350. beta version of this new update to give presumably want to sell packages, not confidently announced that: “It’s a hard Sticking Windows on it adds £80, giving you a feel for the enhanced game. standalone goods. Why? Because they drive; it won’t work on an Amiga,” we £430 for an operational(!) system. If you can make better profit on selling me the For those of you who have been kept in probably don’t bother again. want to go the whole hog you can add peripherals than they can on the board the cellar for the last few months, M$ Office Small Business edition for a Instead, many of us will do our research itself. I don’t criticise them for this - they Payback is a overhead view driving further £170, giving a fully functioning through Amiga Active, Clubbed or via need to earn a living after all - but they game where you play a criminal driver and productive(!) system for £600. And the Internet and then we will sneak sur- cannot then criticise me if I choose to and must steal cars, evade the cops, this assumes you’re starting from reptitiously into our local PC warehouse, delay my purchase of an AOne in the mow down pedestrians and generally scratch. I suspect that Eyetech will not find the item required, pay as quickly hope of a better deal in the future, or have good fun! It’s impossible to avoid be able to compete with this level of and as quietly as possible and leave, indeed if I choose not to buy one at all. comparisons with the classic Playstation pricing. Reading between the lines I’m hopefully with little or no fuss. title Grand Theft Auto except here you Secondly, it seems that OS4.0 will probably going to have to spend drive on the left... well mostly, you won’t effect. The Warp3D support on my by several Payback users who have But why do so many of us go through require the attachment of a classic between £750 and £1,000 for a decent get far obeying the highway code! this strange and slightly embarrassing Amiga to the AOne to work. As a desk- AOne system. Alternatively, I could buy Permedia 2 also adds a little speed to created their own cities to compliment ritual? Well, price is clearly one of the top A4000 owner this isn’t very helpful, my nice PC and wait for OS5.0. The big new features are support for the game, especially in the rotating 3D the three supplied with the game. driving factors. I’d love to support Amiga suggesting I would need to buy some PowerPC cards running WarpUp and mode (James Daniels informs us that Update four allows the use of new tex- By the time you read this you should be dealers when buying generic monster tower thing to fit the A4000 (or accelerated 3D support via Warp3D. there should be a larger speed increase tures in user cities which should allow able to check my assumptions against peripherals, but frankly they’re too ex- an A1200) into so that the AOne and The extra power from the PPC has been in the final version when the debugging completely new scenarios to be created. some real pricing from Eyetech at put to good use, the whole game runs a code is removed), but the main improve- pensive and they’re usually too far away, classic boards are next to each other. Having played with this latest beta for a WoASE or beyond. I would not claim to lot faster and is much smoother espe- ment is in the graphical quality, the dis- which generates unwelcome postage Even then this is only for a temporary few days it rocks! The game looks great, be an Amiga Zealot, but I am a big cially in higher resolutions on a PPC play looks much smoother and more costs and raises the possibility of period, as the AOne board will stan- is more fun to play and still has a wicked Amiga fan and I sincerely hope that system. The effects, in particular the detailed. damage in transit, with all the return and dalone once OS4.2 comes out. sense of humour! Update 4 is free for Eyetech and others will prove me wrong, lighting has been greatly improved since replace problems that generates. No, Other improvements to the look of the existing Payback owners so rush over to Then, of course, there is the issue of or will provide a system that is so - dare the original, lights on Belisha beacons give me the undercover-but-save-money game include gouraud shading, which is the Apex Designs website now! If you cost. The PPC is a fine chip but it’s not I say it - revolutionary, that price doesn’t (at zebra crossings) and other vehicles approach for bog standard peripherals responsible for the light effects, im- don’t own the game you can purchase it cheap when compared with its CISC matter any more. As it stands I am un- illuminate the surroundings naturally and any day. proved vehicle textures and scaling of from an Amiga dealer or on-line from the cousins on billions of PCs near you. convinced, but I remain willing to be per- buildings cast atmospheric shadows. And yet, as I write this during the not so Eyetech have hinted that the AOne will suaded. the fonts and images for higher resolu- Apex site. sunny month of August, I am told that be of similar cost to a high end PPC ac- In the original game the action is viewed tion screens. There is also a further advantage for http://www.apex-designs.net everything is about to change. I may celerator for the classic line. It’s not from above on a fixed axis, as you drive everyone if I am indeed wrong, as you One of Payback’s features is a map have to buy my Amiga One board from clear whether this means the whole the city scrolls keeping you roughly in all get to say “I told you so” in as smug a editor which has been put to good use Eyetech, but in theory I will be able to system (unlikely) or just the board itself the centre of the screen. A major im- tone as you like, and I will happily suffer shop around for pretty much all the add- (more probable). Looking at the latest provement in the update is the new that mild embarrassment for a future in ons as they will be PCI, USB, Firewire or Power Computing ad in Amiga Active a rotating 3D view which is available if you computing heaven. whatever and will therefore be easily high end PPC accelerator costs have a PPC accelerator and/or a 3D sourced and very good value for money. between £460 and £560 depending on accelerated graphics card. In rotating 3D mode the camera is still above but you Gary Storm’s Map to the World Clubbed Back Issues in always face the top the screen so the Visit the Wide Web. PDF Format city seems to rotate as you drive. We found this view much easier to get to New to the we? Want to add some We bring you all the out of print Clubbed Clubbed Website grips with as you always know which variety to your surfing? back issues, as they were originally We’ve got some exciting developments way your character or vehicle is facing. Gary rounds up interesting sites on printed, in cross platform PDF format. coming to the Clubbed website that As you pick up speed the camera zooms every topic under the sun! The three cities shown in these screen shots offer different weather conditions, should be on-line by the time this issue out giving you a wider view and pulls summer, rainy night time and winter. The winter shot in particular shows off hits your doormat! Surf along to http://www.seal-amiga.co.uk for this and much more! back slightly which enhances the 3D 10 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 11 the new rotating 3D view. FEATURES FEATURES

and bitmap fonts. While they work well on computer displays bitmap fonts don’t look so good when printed out because Desktop Publishing any modern printer is capable of printing plain coloured text at much higher resolutions than a monitor. This is where The Amiga is an excellent platform for Amateur scalable fonts come in, each character publishers, Robert Williams covers the basics. of a scalable font is described as a series of lines, curves and fills, this esktop publishing (or DTP for powerful it is now possible to do many Explained means it can be scaled to any size and Anatomy of a DTP short) is the creation of complex things inside the DTP application, for resolution without pixels appearing, Dpage layouts including text in example PageStream has a powerful set Document much better suited for printing. various styles and graphics. Today it is of drawing tools and it would be quite A typical DTP document will consist of As you might guess all DTP programs one of the major uses of computer possible to write articles straight onto content from a variety of sources, here (except for a few of the really early systems, but in the mid 1980s DTP was the page too. While DTP programs have are some of the key types: ones) use scalable fonts, however an amazing new application for personal developed, wordprocessors have also before you start hoarding fonts right left computers! it enabled anyone with a moved on, gaining many features that Text and centre there is another stumbling relatively inexpensive home computer to were once the sole preserve of DTP ap- block, scalable fonts come in a variety of Text forms to bulk of most documents, Many documents, create documents which had previously plications, let’s take a look at some of formats and you need to get ones which and luckily for us the ASCII standard required huge investments in equip- the differences that still exist. are compatible with your DTP applica- including this means that to a large extent text is brocure for WoA ‘99 ment. In those days the big improve- tion. Here are the most common types: ment that DTP programs brought over The Difference Between widely compatible between programs include a mixture of word processors of the time, was the and between platforms. As a major part Adobe Type 1 text, bitmap and Wordprocessing and of the DTP application’s role is to format integration of text and graphics in a Adobe developed this scalable font structured graphics. text, it is easiest to import text from a single package and a graphical display DTP format for use with their industry stan- plain ASCII file with no styles or other which showed the users what the dard Postscript page description lan- In the last ten or so years the difference formatting (other than basic paragraphs) printed result would look like, often guage which is used by all high-end between a wordprocessing and DTP and then do all the work in the DTP called WYSIWYG for What You See Is print devices, therefore it is the most Amiga programs support Compugraphic face, size, colour and other details in a application has blurred, mostly as a application. If text for inclusion in your What You Get. common format in professional DTP fonts, these include PageStream, named . For example you might have huge range of features have been publication is supplied in another format circles. Type 1 fonts are supported by Wordworth, ProPage, Graphics a style tag called “Sub Heading” that Before we go into more detail on exactly added to wordprocessors, in particular some DTP applications support loading many Amiga packages including Publisher and quite a few others. defined 12pt Times Bold text. Text can what DTP is, and how you can go about support for graphics, scalable fonts, text other formats, for example from Notable exceptions are FinalWriter and then be selected and a defined style tag PageStream, Final Writer, DrawStudio creating documents on your Amiga we boxes which allow text to be freely wordprocessors, directly, otherwise DrawStudio. applied, automatically the text then gets and ProPage. For overall compatibility I should separate the activity of “Desktop placed on the page and WYSIWYG dis- there are plenty of utilities which can be have found type 1 fonts to be the best those settings defined in the tag, ensur- Publishing” i.e. creating complex plays. However wordprocessors are still used to convert these formats to plain Size choice. ing all text assigned that tag is consis- documents on a desktop computer, from largely based on pages containing one text before importing. Once your text is The size of text printed on the page is tent. But that’s not all, if you then go and a DTP application such as PageStream. or more columns of text, this makes it sitting on the page the average DTP TrueType measured from the bottom of the lowest change the settings for a previously The activity of DTP commonly uses a easy to launch a wordprocessor and program offers you a myriad of format- This format was developed by Microsoft descender (for example the hook on a defined style tag, say we went from 12 variety of applications to create the con- start typing a document without needing ting options, let’s explore some of the and Apple and because of this now lower case “y” or “g” to the highest as- to 14pt in our example, all the text with tent of the document, be it text, graphics to consider page layout. In contrast most text related terminology: probably the most commonly fond on cender (e.g. the top of a lower case “f” that tag applied would change, enabling or drawings which are then brought DTP programs start with a clean page the Internet and other sources of fonts. or “h”), it is usually measured in points you to change the style of a document in together in the DTP program itself to and let you place text columns where Fonts TrueType is not as widely supported by (pt), one point is 1/72nd of an inch so a few clicks. Many packages have style produce the final pages. For example I ever you wish. They support linking Font refers to the style of lettering used Amiga programs but it is gaining ground. the overall height of a 12pt font would be tags for both single bits of text and am not typing this article straight into columns into complex layouts and much for text, in fact the font is the overall PageStream 3 had an optional TrueType 0.1667” or 4.233mm. whole paragraphs, allowing you to con- PageStream, I could, but it is a large more powerful formatting controls. style, for example Helvetica or Times is font engine that is now included as stan- trol paragraph specific settings like line complex application with a relatively Finally a DTP application will normally a font, each font can have a number of dard with version 4, Wordworth (from Leading spacing and indents. Some publishers slow screen display, I find it much enable you to produce higher quality type faces, for example Times Bold or version 3 I believe) also has TTF sup- This is the technical term for line spac- have extended to the concept of style quicker to use FinalWriter and in fact I output and support the standards neces- Helvetica Narrow. Literally thousands of port. A freeware TrueType font library, ing, it is pronounced “ledding” which tags to other parts of their program, for could be using a simple text editor just sary for professional printing. In essence fonts are available, many can be found ttflib, is available which means all pro- refers to the days when the space example in PageStream you can have as well. The same also applies to bitmap a DTP program provides more flexibility on the Internet or in CD-ROM collec- grams which use the Amiga’s standard between the lines of metal type was object style tags which define settings graphics and some drawings, they are and freedom than a wordprocessor but tions, you can also purchase profes- fonts system can use TrueType fonts. packed with lead. Leading is also like the line thickness and fill colour of created separately and imported into the also demands that you put some effort sionally designed typefaces. There are a Sadly most DTP programs tend to use measured in points and is the distance drawn objects. PageStream for the final layout. into designing your document. wide variety of font formats available, between lines of text. It is common for their own font systems so this doesn’t Graphics As computers have become more you need to make sure you obtain ones effect as many programs as you might the leading to be 20% of the type size so that are compatible with your chosen hope, in fact TurboPrint’s Graphics 10pt type would have 2pt leading. The other key component of a DTP software. First there are two basic types Publisher is the only one that springs to Styles document is graphics, the images and of font, bitmapped and scalable. Each mind. drawings used. There are two distinct character in a bitmap font is defined as a DTP applications usually offer some way types of graphic files used in DTP pattern of pixels, they are commonly AGFA Compugraphic of formatting text in a consistent way, documents, bitmap and structured. used in computer displays because they The Compugraphic format was chosen one of the keys to creating a profes- These vary not necessarily in what they are fast to process and can be tailored by Amiga and is supported by the OS sional looking document. This is can be used to represent (each of which to look good on a relatively low resolu- from version 2.04 onwards, of the three normally achieved using style tags, is best suited to different types of tion monitor, the standard fonts that listed here it is the least common on these work by holding all the information image), but in how they store the image come with your Amiga such as Topaz other platforms. A large number of about the style, for example the type data. The parts of a type face and how it is measured. 12 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 13 FEATURES FEATURES

Bitmap Graphics then be reproduced at any size and res- grams offer more powerful page spreads have some way of creating column Pagination size, where shapes, lines and bitmaps Bitmap graphics are composed of a olution without the any pixelisation. which can consist of a number of pages. grids, it may be automatic or you may are located and their format. A Even a simple eight page booklet pixel grid (just like bitmap fonts) with While structured drawings are will suited Master Pages have to define your own with page Postscript printer contains a processor to diagrams and logos they don’t work guides. made of two sheets of folded paper and memory which runs software each pixel being a defined colour. They Pages in a document can be based on a well for continuous tone images like has to be paginated properly: (stored in the printer’s ROM) called a can range from mono or 1bit images master page, usually it is possible to Page Guides photographs which tend not to contain Postscript interpreter which processes (each pixel is represented by 1bit of have several master pages, for example well defined shapes. Like the page grid, guides help you align the page into a bitmap at the correct res- data, that is either on or off, usually one for each section in the publication. and position objects on the page, guides 8271 olution for the printer to print. As all this black or white although any other two Most DTP programs include a selection The master page contains elements that can usually be defined at any horizontal work happens in the printer printing to colours can be used.) up to 24bit image of structured drawing tools, enabling you appear on every page, a common use or vertical position on the page and Postscript is usually much quicker than which represent each pixel using 8bits of to draw simple graphics such as boxes, would be for headers and footers. objects will snap to them at any point to other types of printer. The down side red, green and blue data, 24bit images lines and arrows straight onto the page Variable elements can also be placed on 6453 along their length. Programs often auto- is that Postscript printers tend to be sig- are full colour and can be used for pho- however there are also dedicated draw- master pages so they can also be used matically create guides showing where nificantly more expensive than their rela- tographs. Like bitmap fonts, the quality ing programs, like DrawStudio which for information that must appear on Pages 1 and 8 will be the front cover you have defined the margins of the tively dumb counterparts. On the Amiga of a bitmap image on screen and on the generally have more tools and effects. every page, like the page number. with 2 and 7 printed on their reverse. page so text boxes and other objects there is another use for printing printed page will depend on its resolu- Master pages can be edited at any time can be easily aligned to the edge. As I Postscript, most Amiga programs print tion which is defined by the number of Clip Art during the document creation so, like mentioned above it may be necessary to that is with page 2 and 3 (for example) using the AmigaOS printer drivers which pixels it contains and the size it is dis- A huge selection of pre-made graphics text styles, they enable the look of the use guides to define your column grid. next to each other in a page spread. up to OS 3.5 only supported 12bit colour played or printed. For example a monitor for use in DTP documents are available publication to be adjusted quickly with- However if you think about the actual data, the classic 4096 colours. Even has a resolution of between 70 and 100 from a number of sources including on out editing every page. Alignment pages that are to be printed 2 and 3 will with a print enhancer like TurboPrint if pixels per inch, taking the high end of the Internet and in CD-ROM collections. Another useful feature to have in a DTP that scale an image 3 inches wide on These graphics are called clip art and Grids not actually be next to each other. Take an application, as many do, only passes program is an alignment tool, this allows a look at this copy of Clubbed (or any 12bits of colour information to the driver screen would therefore need to be 300 can be in bitmap or structured format. A Two types of grid are commonly found in you to align objects to each other and pixels wide to display at full quality, a clip art image can be easily dropped into DTP applications, the first is the evenly other stapled magazine) and turn to the colour quality will be limited. Since the page, for example you could place page two (the inside cover) you will see version 7 TurboPrint has come with lower resolution image could be used a document to brighten up a page, most spaced grid which covers the whole an object exactly in the middle of the it is printed on the back of page one and Ghostscript, a software Postscript inter- but you would be able to see the pixels is supplied in standard formats and is page, objects such as text columns and page or move several objects so their which make it up, it would begin to look compatible with Amiga programs, for drawn shapes can be set to snap to the to the right of it on the same sheet is the preter, this enables any application that left edges all aligned. Other object blocky. Common printers have 1200dpi example bitmap clip art is often in the grid ensuring they are neatly aligned inside back cover, page forty three. can print colour Postscript to output to manipulation tools often included in DTP Page three on the other hand is on the any TurboPrint supported printer in per- (dots per inch) or more resolution, in real widely supported GIF or JPEG formats. and evenly spaced. The grid can usually programs allow you to move multiple life dots this small tend to run into each Structured formats are a little more dif- be set to the desired interval, for ex- front of page four and to its left is page fect colour. copies of an objects to quickly make forty two. So as you can see before we limiting the true resolution which in any ficult with WMF and EPS being the most ample 5mm squares and changed at grids and tables. Printing Bureau case is only achieved with the printer’s common formats, these are directly sup- will. print this type of document the pages have to be re-arranged, this is called primary colours. Any other colour ported by some programs and can be Document Structure If you want to have your work profes- The other type of grid defines the pagination. Some applications, including sionally printed there are several ways requires a combination of coloured dots converted with Metaview (see review on Complex or long documents such as general layout for the columns of text on PageStream 4, have automatic pagina- of getting your document to the printing reducing the effective resolution further. page 20) to more Amiga friendly formats books, technical reports, and even mag- the page, this does not have to be even tion built in, one of the excellent Don’s bureau. Some expect you to supply your Even so good quality printers can with varying degrees of success. azines often have a structure consisting and can be set as the designer wants. Genies gave ProPage this feature. work as an application file from an achieve about 300dpi in colour and of sections and/or chapters. Some ap- Of course there doesn’t not have to be a Otherwise it is usually possible to industry standard program like Quark 600dpi in mono, this means that images Page Layout plications include support for these column grid at all, you can just place text manually paginate a document by Express and are unlikely to be able to for print need to be at significantly higher features allowing, for example, page The main task of a DTP application is to boxes as you wish. However deciding moving the pages around by hand al- handle the files of Amiga programs. resolution than those for screen display. numbering to change in different chap- enable you to layout pages consisting of on a grid and largely sticking to it does though this needs to be carefully However there are lots of other options: Structured Graphics the elements I have already mentioned. once again add to the consistency of the ters. These mechanisms are also some- planned to avoid getting terribly con- Most packages provide a variety of tools times related to style tags and master Camera Ready Artwork - You supply If bitmap fonts are similar to bitmap publication as a whole or to a particular fused. to make this easier, and provide consis- pages so each chapter can have its own printed copies of the pages you want graphics structured graphics are the twin section. For example in a magazine a tency between pages, particularly in grid that works well for a review may be look (or just a different header and Local Printing printed, this was the method used for of scalable fonts. Instead of an image footer). Other features useful features early issues of Clubbed and magazines longer documents and publications. hopeless for the news sections. The most simple method of printing is to made of pixels at a fixed resolution a for long documents are automatic like JAM (Just Amiga Monthly), for this print to a printer directly attached to your structured drawing is described as a Page Spreads In Clubbed you will notice that we generation of tables of contents, tables method you need a printer that can out- Amiga through the standard AmigaOS series of lines, shapes and fills it can usually use an evenly spaced three of images (figures) and indexing. These put in your chosen format, to create the A page spread, as you can probably printer drivers. Almost all applications column grid with a 5mm gap between features usually require the words or artwork for Clubbed issues 1 and 2 I Page Layout guess is a group of pages which can be support this and assuming you have a the columns (called the gutter). We hose images to be added to the table to be used an A3 format HP Deskjet 1120C. viewed together, the most common type driver for your printer it is straight for- A typical double page spread layout this layout because we found four or marked in some way. Printing from camera ready artwork will is a double page spread (DPS) which ward. However, for a number of reasons more columns made each one too usually give noticeably poorer results with a three column grid. you see in any normal folded publica- you may want to consider other options. narrow. However a grid with few Output than methods which are printed directly The lines show some guides: tion, there can easily be other types to For example you may want a large columns does make the layout fairly in- from the digital data. though, for example in a double folded flexible, to fit neatly an image has to be The final purpose of any DTP program is quantity of a document printed that booklet or menu would have three-page one or two columns wide which doesn’t to produce some sort of document, for would be impractical on a home printer Postscript - The document is output as spreads and a book or magazine or give you many size options. For sections many years this meant printed output or maybe you want a format that your a PostScript file using the Postscript book with fold-out sections could have such as the tutorials which tend to have and while that is still a big part of it we printer does not support. Lets take a Printer Definition (PPD) file for the print more. Most DTP programs support lots of graphics we switch to an irregular must now also consider electronic look at some other options: bureau’s output device which ensures double page spreads, allowing you to grid with one wider column, this gives documents too. you use a supported paper size and the layout your pages as they will be seen in Postscript postscript is tailored for their machine. more flexibility and also allows us to put Pagination the finished publication. Page spreads captions in the wider gutter. So think Postscript is a page description lan- This method gives the bureau least con- also allow you objects to cover both about whether your publication needs a When you layout a document which is guage developed by Adobe, a Postscript trol over what is printed and they are Margin Guides pages, for example a picture or headline grid and if it does which layout each sec- going to be folded and bound you will file describes the page in terms of where basically trusting you and your software which spans the middle fold. Some pro- tion will use. DTP programs generally want to work on it how it will be read, each character is located, its font and to get everything right, however it is Column guides 14 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 15 FEATURES FEATURES compatible with all software that can graphics via datatypes and structured own drivers and Postscript. Many other ported it’s own ProDraw Clip produce PostScript files. drawings in EPS format. Output is via features round off the package including which enabled many drawings to be AmigaOS printer drivers or PostScript a bundled text editor and image proces- saved in one file. The last version was 3 EPS - An Encapsulated Postscript file is and in my opinion generally works rather sor, finally if you find something it can’t which sadly, like other Gold Disk soft- not device specific and is intended to DTP Utilities better than Wordworth, particularly for do there is a powerful AREXX port for ware doesn’t work well on graphics hold one image, in this case it would be colour documents. automation. cards. the image of a complete page. EPS Robert Williams unearths some of the most useful gives the printing bureau more control Wordworth - Digita Professional Page - Gold Disk ProVector - Stylus Inc. as they can size the pages to fit the companions to your DTP application. The later versions of Wordworth in- ProPage was the king of the Amiga DTP Version 2 was given away on a cover paper, control the order in which they scene for much of the early 90s and it is disk in the early ‘90s and was a useful are printed and choose the printing pro- cluded many DTP like features such as powerful text boxes that can contain for- an extremely powerful package with program supporting the IFF-DR2D PgS Universal Filter cess they use. EPS files have to be im- most of the features you would need. format. A version 3 was released with an ported into another program before they matted text in multiple columns, al- By Wolf Faust - uni.coloraid.de though I don’t think these columns can The final release before Gold Disk attractive OS 2/3 style interface however can be printed so this method is more The universal filter adds to PageStream be linked. Another DTP like feature is stopped Amiga support was version 4 it was very expensive at the time and time consuming than plain PS. Since 3 and 4’s already extensive support for style sheets which are the Wordworth which included AGA support. Many quickly dropped afterwards. issue 3 Clubbed has been printed from bitmap graphics formats. Originally this equivalent of style tags mentioned ear- publications have been produced using EPS files. filter was only available to users of lier. Page handling is also very powerful, ProPage including subscription maga- Hardware Wolf’s commercial Studio print enhance- Portable Document Format - PDF is allowing you to have facing pages and zines like JAM and Em and the French It’s hard to put together a list of ment package, but now he has made it another format based on Postscript, it double page spreads with objects span- newsstand magazine Amiga Info (and “requirements” for DTP on the Amiga freeware. Until the release of allows a whole document to be stored in ning two pages, this is completed with a probably many more). Sadly ProPage because there are such a range of PageStream 4, the most important in- one file. PDF is commonly used to pub- handy multiple page view. Images are does not work well on graphics cards so things you could be doing, if you are clusion was the JPEG loader which lish documents on-line so PDF output supported via datatypes for bitmap it has slipped behind quickly on modern The RxMUI interface of working on mono documents consisting otherwise had to be purchased as a may well be the final result you are after. graphics structured drawings in the systems. If you don’t have a graphics of mostly text then a basic machine, say rather expensive optional extra from Picture Catalog 4. PageStream has a PDF saver and the CGM format. Wordworth’s weak point card it is well worth seeking out a an ‘030 with 8Mb of RAM will be Softlogik (I have no problem paying for and txtRotator which is a more flexible open source GhostScript utility can be has always been its printing, it supports second hand copy. adequate. On the other hand if you’re most extras but a JPEG loader is pretty version of the text-on-a-curve effects in used to turn PostScript documents into AmigaOS drivers but does not take Page Setter - Gold Disk working with very high resolution standard now!). With version 4 Softlogik the TextFX add-on. PDFs. As PDF has become very popular advantage of enhancements like graphics weighing in at tens of The PageSetter series was GoldDisk’s bundled many of the extras including the on other platforms many print bureaus TurboPrint for 24bit quality. The megabytes each or very long documents Picture Catalog introduction to DTP for home users, JPEG loader. However, the universal will print directly from PDF files. Postscript output seems to be limited to then even the fastest current Amigas will remember this was in the day when filter still supports a wider range of file This script generates overview sheets greyscale for bitmap image which limits begin to feel the strain. Another aspect ProPage and PageStream cost hun- types and also is very compatible with for images in one or more directories Software the use of Turbo Print’s GhostScript sup- to bear in mind is that DTP tends to in- dreds of pounds. PageSetter 3 is the variations on file format (for example that you specify. Michael has three ver- port. volve using several applications at once. Although there isn’t the choice of pub- last version and really the only one you different levels of compression). sions which use different GUI engines, In addition to a DTP program, you may lishing software on the Amiga that exists should consider when buying second Altogether ten types are supported and the first has a simple GUI using DTP well have a text editor or word processor on other platforms, there is something hand, it supports AGA machines and it will fall back to datatypes for formats PageStream’s built in tools, the other and various graphics programs running, available to support most levels from the PageStream 2 - Softlogik reviews of the day rated it highly. As with not supported. Some of the more com- two both use MUI, one via MUIRexx and this tends to put an even bigger drain on beginner to the serious amateur publish- PageStream 2 is still a useful DTP pro- ProPage sadly PageSetter isn’t so mon supported formats are: BMP, GIF, the last and most highly developed resources. er. Much of this software is no longer gram and to Softlogik’s credit still works happy on machines with a graphics IFF ILBM (including HAM, HAM8, EHB, using RxMUI. This last version seems to available new so you may need to scour well on current Amigas. It is fine for card. As an example for a long time I have CMYK), JPEG, PNG and TIFF. have every option you could think of, it is the second hand listings on Amibench to black and white work although if I possible to define the size and number produced Clubbed on my A3000 with Although not directly DTP related, I will find a copy. This section isn’t intended to remember correctly it is lacking for Drawing of thumbnails per page, their spacing, 64Mb of RAM, this worked quite com- also mention Wolf’s excellent ICS scan- be a review of each application, but I colour work. In its favour is an attractive the text shown with each one and many DrawStudio - fortably with no problems, however I ner colour calibration software here, this hope to give you an idea of their AmigaOS 2 look interface which is more options. Andy and Graham Dean recently upgraded to 128Mb and this allows you to calibrate your scanner and capabilities. easier to get to grips with than ProPage. now means I can run another major The most modern structured drawing then automatically corrects images as Font Catalog application (for example ImageFX) along you scan improving colour accuracy. It is Word Publishers PageStream 3/4 - Softlogik program available on the Amiga, with As you might guess this creates a very side PageStream with a complete issue directly supported by most popular scan- As word processing applications have PageStream is the only Amiga DTP pro- lots of cool features like transparent fills useful overview of the fonts you have loaded. ning software and can also be used as a been developed many DTP features gram currently in development, however and useful features like object snap. installed for use with PageStream. Font post processor. ICS is also freeware, have been added, on the Amiga both despite very shaky beginnings in the mid DrawStudio is also very useful for com- Catalog is similar to Picture Catalog in Conclusion available from http://ics.coloraid.de. Final Writer and Wordworth followed this ‘90s it has matured into an excellent bining structured and bitmap graphics. that it lets you set the layout and spac- development path and became known product. It has far more features than For full details see our review in issue 8. Desktop publishing to a reasonably high ing of the sample print, you can define level is easily possible on the Amiga, Picture Catalog, Font as Word Publishers, wordprocessors any other Amiga programs and runs Art Expression - Softlogik the text that will be used for the font pre- with many DTP features. very well on modern systems with full and while PageStream is relatively ex- Catalog and other view and how it will be labelled. If, like graphics card support. PageStream has Softlogk’s companion drawing program pensive you can get started with older me, you have a huge font collection then Final Writer - Softwood excellent support for all sorts of text, for PageStream 2 with the same attrac- software or one of the Wordpublishers AREXX scripts you will appreciate the option to choose tive OS 2/3 interface, PageStream 3 in- on a small budget. Getting good output Final Writer is a very powerful word document, graphics and drawing By Michael Merkel - which fonts you wish to print. is one of the Amiga’s weaker points but processor and it has always had some formats, there are also third party corporated most of Art Expression’s home.t-online.de/home/Merkel.Michael/ DTP features which are also useful to loaders that expand this even further. It features so the product was dropped Turbo Print 7 with Ghostscript has im- Fuzzy Shadows when the new PageStream version was proved that area no end, especially as Michael has written a whole host of in- Wordprocessing including both text and is very flexible in the types of documents Creates a nice soft shadow under the released. DTP programs almost always have good teresting AREXX script for PageStream paragraph style tags and master pages. it can create, you can vary the page size selected object which can add a profes- Postscript support. Getting into DTP can 3 and 4, many are enhancements of the However it wasn’t until the last “Final within a document and their is full sup- sional touch to documents, as long as Professional Draw - Gold Disk turn your Amiga into a really useful tool! scripts supplied with PageStream or of Writer 97” release that multi-line text port for longer documents with sections you don’t over use it! As with all The drawing companion to Professional internal functions. For example he has boxes were adding which enable Final and chapters. The range of output Michael’s scripts this is very con- Page, for many years the best drawing new transform function which can scale Writer to be used as a mini-DTP pro- options is also very wide, supporting figurable, you can choose the colour (al- gram. Graphics support includes AmigaOS printer drivers, PageStream’s program on the Amiga. ProDraw sup- by factors to give more complex effects 16 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 17 FEATURES If you don’t see what you want, just ask! though it must exist in the palette) and Singh Munde - intensity of your shadows, their offset go.to/docdatatypes Our range is always growing! from the object and the quality of the Shareware, £20 final effect. Kicksoft If you’re having trouble getting a text Players In addition to the scripts I’ve mentioned format into your DTP application then there are also many others which just DocDatatypes is probably a good bet, it Graphics Moovid PPC makes life with PageStream even easier, PPC version with both WARPUP and POWERUP versions. Comes on CD is a collection of text datatypes which Drawstudio if you’re a PageStreamer you’d be mad £18.00 support documents from a huge range This excellent Graphics package avaliable one again!! Comes on CD and not to check Michael’s page out! Moovid of wordprocessors both old and new. includes Texture Studio & Image Studio. £35.00 Play AVI, Mov and QT files on your Amiga© Comes on CD and includes demo FW Calendar While they don’t support complex files. formatting, images and the like these Photogenics 5 £12.00 One of the effects you can acheive This excellent Graphics package by Paul Nolan. On CD. By Ron Goertz - datatypes are ideal for DTP applications Frogger PPC using the Step and Repeat genie. £70.00 home.earthlink.net/~goertz/Ron/ PPC MPEG player. Comes on CDwith example MPEGs. where you don’t tend to want those Image Engineer more than dabble with ProPage myself details anyway. Altogether there are £18.00 Another fantastic AREXX script, and this Great Image manipulation program. Add effects to images such as Jigsaw, Frogger (I’ve been a PageStream guy from the eleven datatypes supporting over 20 Wave and Frame! Comes on CD. one is so flexible, not only does it sup- 68k MPEG player. Comes on CD with example MPEGs. version 2 days ), but I remember reading different applications (and that’s not £25.00 port both Final Writer (version 4+) and £12.00 Candy Factory Pro at the time about the excellent ProPage counting the application versions sup- Riva PageStream (3 and 4) but it also works Create 3D Text from any standard font and use them on web pages etc. Genies written by Don Cox, who’s name ported), some of the keys ones are: MS The fastest 68k MPEG player on the Amiga! Comes on CD with example with two GUI systems Triton and Comes on CD. is now often seen adorning the review Word (DOS, Windows, OS/2 and Mac), MPEGs. ClassAct... all in the one script, amazing! £35.00 pages of Amiga Active. A Genie is Lotus AmiPro, WordPerfect, Rich Text £18.00 The purpose of FWCalendar is... you’ve Art Effect 4 SoftCinema GoldDisk’s name for an AREXX script File, Pocket Word, Psion Word, Palm DB Billed as “Photoshop® on the Amiga”. Excellent graphic package. Comes on guessed it... to generate calendars and PPC AVI, QT and Mov player. On CD with example Movies. and in this archive Don has included TEXT Doc and Mac Text. CD. it does this with great aplomb. Firstly nearly seventy genies which range from £75.00 £18.00 you have the choice of two styles, either Support for text datatypes has never AMP 2 NEW the handy to the downright amazing. FxPaint NEW PPC Mpeg, CD-i and DVD player. The only way to play DVDs on the AMIGA. a number of months (up to a year) on been as wide spread in applications as it With over 70 effects this is a superb addition to any software collection. £18.00 one page or one month per page. The Some of the most impressive are: is for graphics datatypes. For this £60.00 £18.00 script is supplied with preferences files reason you will probably not be able to Border Repeats which can be used to containing the public holidays for many load text directly into your DTP applica- make perfect borders for boxes out of countries so special days will be ap- tion using the DocDatatypes. Instead any graphics you select, there are propriately marked when you generate use Multiview (or another datatypes DTP Internet several options to get just the effect you PageStream 4 your calendars. Then there is a separate aware text viewer) to load the document, Inet Dial want. The Premier DTP program on the Amiga©, enough said!! utility to add events to your country’s then save it as plain text, compatible Home server on your Amiga©. Comes on CD, includes Apache and Geek £160.00 Gadgets. calendar, for example birthdays, an- Border Simple Shapes draws simpler a with all applications. PageStream Upgrade £40.00 niversaries or holidays. Events can border around the selected box from The Premier DTP program on the Amiga©. Upgrade from version 3, you will AWeb need to provide your serial number. stretch for more than one day and you presets built in to the macro. Excellent web browser Full Version. Comes on Floppy. £65.00 can select for them to be marked on the £35.00 Step and Repeat Deluxe which again calendar with a colour, or even a small AWeb Upgrade uses selected graphics or objects, copy- image which can be in any format sup- Excellent web Browser. Upgrade from OS 3.5 or OS 3.9. Comes on Floppy. ing and moving them in various ways, DTP Links ported by the package being used. Misc £29.99 while this sounds mundane the options GoldEd FWCalendar is an exceptionally full- allow you to create anything from tables Software The best Editor, Program Editor, HTML Generator on the Amiga. Comes on CD. featured script that performs a very use- to spiral effects with this tool. SoftLogik (PageStream) £30.00 ful function, another one that’s well As I mentioned in the main DTP feature http://www.grasshopperllc.com TaskiSMS worth a look! Send Text Messages to mobile phones from your Amiga! Comes on CD. one of the genies, booklet, enables Kicksoft (DrawStudio and more) £12.00 Utilities ProPage to carry out automatic pagina- http://www.kicksoft.co.uk Spitfire 2 tion for printing folded publications, for Professional File System 3 If you have a 3com Palm© or compatible then you need this program! Comes The fastest and safest file system avaliable, upto 300 times faster than FFS. No example an A5 booklet on A4 paper (it Truetype Font Library on CD. longer get Validation errors! requires a Postscript printer or software http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/ £25.00 £35.00 interpreter). ragriffi/ttflib.htm Directory Opus 5 Metaview The best Workbench replacement program avaliable. Fully multitasking, Filetype The best Clipart viewer on the Amiga©. Comes on CD with 30,000 clip art im- The genies are supplied in both English Aminet recognition and much more... ages. and French, the French documentation http://www.aminet.net/~aminet £55.00 £18.00 includes many example images explain- FxScan NEW Second hand software: Diavolo ing the effect of different settings which The only Scanner software that offers OCR on the Amiga today!! The best backup program on the Amiga©. Comes on . http://www.amibench.org apply to both languages so, as Don £30.00 £50.00 FWCalendar allows you to add or the comp.sys.amiga.marketplace recommends, make sure you take a look OS 3.9 NEW PhotoFolio V2 NEW custom events to your calendar. newsgroup. at both sets of documentation. Latest for the Amiga. Comes on CD. The professional way to view, catolouge and manipulate your images. £30.00 £30.00 ProPage Genies Please note I have no idea whether Don Info. By Don Cox - is still accepting registrations for this Some interesting history of type set- Add £1.00 UK postage per item. Make cheques payable to Kicksoft Ltd. Kicksoft Ltd., Aminet, text/dtp/DonsGenies. package if you decide to register make ting and font related information: 30 Whitegate Way, Tadworth, sure you contact him first to get a cur- http://www.graphion.com/ Shareware $15 (about £12) rent address etc. Buy Online at Surrey, KT20 5NS Tel/Fax (01737) 29280 I have to admit that I’ve never done Doc Datatypes www.kicksoft.co.uk 18 CLUBBED - Issue 9 REVIEWS REVIEWS

DrawStudio’s more advanced features such as translucent fills and bitmap im- ages (bitmaps are supported in some of the other formats). I also found that Metaview does not support the PostScript fonts used by DrawStudio so Metaview it is better to convert text to curves Robert Williams finds a companion for DrawStudio. before saving from DrawStudio. One nice feature is that when Metaview ver since its inception the Amiga in other format providing an effective comes across a font it doesn’t under- has been blessed with a large conversion utility. stand it offers you the option of choosing Enumber of bitmap graphics ap- a replacement from the system fonts. plications including great paint packages Installation While testing Metaview on my ‘060 and image processors. Structured draw- Metaview is supplied by Kicksoft on CD- based A3000 I had a number of ing programs like DrawStudio, reviewed ROM with a huge collection of clip-art in crashes, although I couldn’t pin them in our last issue, have always been the WMF format which can be converted down to any particular operation they much less common on the Amiga, I’m to suit the program you want to use. The seemed to occur after Metaview had sure you could count the number clip-art is helpfully organised into trouble loading an image. released in the last 10 years on the of the loaded files was generally good drawers each containing clips on a par- fingers one hand! This also means that but I did notice a couple of problems. ticular subject, from Actors to Winter. Export support for structured formats in Amiga Firstly some formats, particularly WMF The program itself is installed to your programs has been lacking, each struc- (a very common format supported by Once the drawing is loaded you can hard drive using a standard installer and The Metaview interface showing a tured drawing program tends to have its most Windows programs) seemed to choose to export it in any of the sup- is accompanied by detailed AmigaGuide own file format and programs that import end up with a line around each shape ported formats, there are also several documentation and a selection of ex- You can seeconverted the stray WMF. lines which seem drawings such as wordprocessors and even if they were not intended to be out- print options. Standard printing via ample AREXX scripts. If you want to to join some areas of the same colour. desktop publishers tend only to support lined, this could be corrected easily in a Workbench drivers, Postscript printing load EPS and Adobe Illustrator you will a small number of formats. Just getting drawing program like DrawStudio by set- and Plotting which sends the file in also need the GhostScript and PS2Edit a drawing from one program on your ting the line weight to “None” but it is HPGL format. Each printing option has a utilities installed, these are readily avail- Amiga to another can cause a problem. annoying to have to do it every time. A settings requester where you can select drawing to another program using a example AREXX scripts are supplied able from Aminet but it is a pity they are On other platforms a wide range of more serious problem is that some con- the paper size and the area covered by user-definable AREXX script, example mostly concentrating on loading into not included on the CD. drawing formats are used, some of versions (again WMF was particularly the drawing. Your settings are shown on scripts for sending to DrawStudio and other programs via Metaview. these such as EPS and CGM are sup- After installation you start Metaview by prone to this) seem to produce extra a preview of the print area. PageStream are supplied. Indexes can ported by many programs where as clicking on its icon, the main window lines linking shapes of the same colour, be saved to disk so they don’t have to Conclusion Picture Index be created every time, this also allows other programs such as CDX are propri- opens and a drawing with “Welcome to sometimes these are unnoticeable or Metaview is a very useful program which you to browse through an index without etary to a particular program, Corel Metaview” is displayed. Along the top of easy to edit out but often they require In addition to viewing and converting sadly has some fairly serious loading the disk containing the drawings. Draw in this case. A quick search on the the window is a tool bar with buttons for significant editing of the drawing to drawings to other formats Metaview has shortcomings as I have described. Internet reveals literally thousands of common operations such as load, save remove. a useful Index feature, this displays However it is the only utility of its kind websites specialising in clip-art in struc- and print. thumbnails of drawings in any supported Batch Conversion Importing my own drawings created in that I am aware of on the Amiga and the tured formats, which would be great to format in a separate window. As many When you load a drawing it is displayed DrawStudio worked much better than While MetaView does not include a price is reasonable. If you are prepared use in Amiga programs. clip art collections give their files arbi- in the main window replacing the the WMFs, everything came through Batch Conversion option to covert to put in some work manually tidying up trary names this is exceptionally useful. As it isn’t likely that Amiga programs are welcome graphic. Metaview does not with no additional outlines, although several files from one format to another the converted drawings from some Once the thumbnails have been going to suddenly start supporting more include any editing options but you can Metaview does not support some of in its interface, instructions are provided formats then you can get good results. generated double clicking on one loads structured formats what we need is a zoom in to view the drawing in more in the manual showing how to build a the drawing in the main Metaview Results utility to convert between formats, luckily detail, using an elastic box to select the simple shell script to carry out this task. window. Right clicking on the thumbnail this is the main function of Metaview. area you wish to view. Strangely I could ProDraw Metaview also has an AREXX port so produces a menu of options including Metaview is based around a new draw- not find a way to scroll to other parts of you could create a more sophisticated Pros We have had a question from a Save, Print and Send which sends the ing format called the Amiga Meta File or the drawing once zoomed in, you have batch conversion script, a number of Wide file format support. reader regarding converting ProDraw AMF for short, unfortunately AMF has to zoom out and then select a new area. Useful index feature. (a drawing program from Gold Disk) not taken off as a format and as far as I AREXX support. clips with Metaview. As far as I can know Metaview is the only program to Formats File Formats see Metaview does not support the support it. However Metaview includes Cons As you can see in the box out Metaview ProDraw format, however Softlogik facilities to import many different draw- Import and Export Import Only Many converted files need manual supports a large number of drawing used to have a ProDraw to IFF DR2D ing formats, converting them to AMF as tidying. formats, to test out its support I down- converted freely available on their AMF Amiga Meta File. CMX Corel Draw it does so and it can then save them out Unstable for me. loaded a selection of clip-art in as many website. This could be used to get CGM Computer Graphics Metafile. DSDR DrawStudio different formats as I could find from the ProDraw clips into Metaview or any DR2D IFF structured drawing format. DXF CAD drawing format, used by Product Information Internet. Of my selection I found other program supporting DR2D files. GEM Structured format of the GEM AutoCAD and others. Developer: Henk Jonas Metaview loaded about 80%, which I As I write this I cannot find the con- windowing system. WPG WordPerfect Graphics. Distributor: Kicksoft think is very good considering the verter, called ClipConv, on the new HPGL HP Graphics Language, com- Export Only Te l: +44 (0) 1737 215432 variety of file types and sources. The Softlogik website monly used by plotters. WWW: files which loaded included several (http://www.grasshopperllc.com/) so WMF Windows Meta File ILBM Amiga bitmap. http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~jonash/ Corel Draw (CDX) files where the anyone interested in it would need to XFIG Unix drawing tool. JMF Java Meta Format. http://www.kicksoft.co.uk Metaview documentation says the EMail them and see if it is still avail- EPS/AI Encapsulated Post BMP Windows bitmap. Price: £15 loader is still in development. The quality able. Script/Adobe Illustrator TIFF Bitmap. 20 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 21 REVIEWS REVIEWS

of a time when it would be useful. These two blurring filters are specifically Robert Williams is spoilt designed for removing artifacts from im- Wabble ages without losing detail. They attempt to for choice by this Distorts the image into fragments looking blurs only flat areas of colour and not extensive collection of like drops of water pooling together on a sharp edges. They are especially useful window, a very attractive effect with plenty for removing dither and moire patterns addons for H&P’s image of control over the look of the end result. from scanned printed images. processor. Wave Softener PlugIn Collection Produces the classic rippled effect, as if a A filter which convincingly simulates the stone had been dropped into the centre of soft focus effect often found in “sentimen- n our review of ArtEffect 4 back in And now, without further ado lets take a to the edge of the image to putting it in an your image. You can set the number and tal” films and photographs. issue 7 one of our few niggles was look at the new filters in this collection... shaped (for example oval or pentagram) strength of the waves and a number of with the speed and control offered by frame. While the range of borders is ex- other options control exactly how they are Unsharp Mask I Shine its effects (called Filters in the program). tensive only using one colour does limit rendered. Strangely there is no way of This filter sharpens images but retains a Perhaps Haage and Partner have been Adds a shine of the current foreground what can be achieved. Another difficulty is defining the centre point of the ripple. very “natural” look, it is ideal for improving listening to us (well you never know!) be- colour around the edges of an object on a finding the boarder you want as all the slightly “soft” photos. The filter includes a cause their latest product is a new collec- layer with a transparent background. You variations on each type are similarly Auto Level good range of controls again helping you tion of Plugins for ArtEffect. These consist can set the size of the “shine”, how quickly named, a preview requester with Adjusts the colour levels in an image to to get exactly the effect you’re after. mostly of new filters but there is also a it fades and how transparent it is. thumbnails would have been useful here. make it use the full spectrum, for example Postscript print module and a loader/saver if you had a scan where the blacks were in Blurs ArtEffect I have been impressed with the Glow/Dark Glow Light Change that allows you to use the Superview fact dark grey this filter would force them The collection includes several other blur performance of all the plugins in this library. Glow makes bright parts of your image Enhances the blue channel of the image to pure black, enhancing the contrast in effects so you’re really spoilt for choice! collection. My test machine is an A3000 glow, affecting the areas around them. The and dims the red, simulating night time the rest of the image too. AutoLevel has with a 50Mhz 060 and on an 800x600 test Installation colour of the glow comes from the colour (the human eye sees blues better than several modes, Auto Contrast which con- Other Filters image most of filters completed in less Before we dive in the Plugins must be in- of the part of the image glowing but you do reds in low light conditions), strangely siders the picture as a whole and alters the The other filters in the collection are: than half a minute, many in significantly stalled from the CD, a simple process have the option of limiting the glow to par- there are no controls over the strength of levels with out changing colours, Auto less time. Threshold+, changes the image to mono using the standard installer. One of the ticular colour channels, for example only this effect, personally I feel it is a bit harsh Level which considers each colour channel with selectable threshold and smoothing. new filters provides a selection of borders, red or green and blue. Other options let for many situations. separately and could change colours and Conclusion you control the strength of the glow and Color to Gray, Changes a colour image to as these take up several hundred FG/BG Level which allows you to pick This is a substantial collection of plugins the threshold at which an area is con- Object Warp greyscale with adjustable levels. megabytes of disk space you can choose which colour in the image should be and I’m pleased to say that rather than sidered bright enough to “glow”. This Allows you to warp the image by adjusting Prisma, Overlays warped versions of the to leave them on the CD. Once installed moved to white and which to black. having loads of frivolous effects that you works best with a light subject on a plain the position of the four corner points. This colour channels on the image, no options. the Plugins appear in the appropriate would probably only use once or twice it dark background, for example bright plugin is really limited by the ArtEffect in- Gaussian Blur Shift, Shifts the colours of an image ArtEffect menus, for example the filters are concentrates on really useful tools. The orange text on a black background begins terface, rather than having control points to towards blue/red, no options. in the right sections on the Filters menu An improvement over the standard cost seems reasonable for the number of to look like fire after a strong application of move on the image you must enter co- Warp, Pulls the image towards a user and a new option, “PostScript...” is added “Gaussian” blur supplied with ArtEffect that filters and modules although it might seem glow. ordinates or use sliders to move each defined point, set by sliders. to the Project menu for the Postscript print- is faster and has more options. There are a little steep if you bought ArtEffect at the point, it can be difficult to relate the sliders radius and finetune sliders so you can get Rankorder, Various smoothing operations: ing module. DarkGlow is similar to “Glow” except it recent special offer price. If you use to the effect you want to achieve. Minimum, Maximum and Median. exactly the blur you require. The blur can ArtEffect for Photo editing then the level Documentation is supplied in HTML works on dark areas of the image rather also be applied to the alpha channel of the balancing and sharpening plugins will be format, each plugin has a page describing than light. Oil Painting Helpers image with a click on the mode cycle gad- very handy and if you scan a lot of print its operation and a sample image which This is slightly different from ArtEffect’s “Fun” Effects get. Auto Crop the smart blurs are fantastic and as far as I you can click to see the effect. I’m really default OilPaint effect, the main improve- These three filters that change the image’s Automatically crops images with the sub- know not available for any other Amiga impressed with this documentation, it puts ment is that it offers a much greater Smart Blur / Smart Median colours to achieve “interesting” effects: ject on a plain coloured background, a package. Altogether I recommend this the facilities offered by an on-line guide to degree on control with 22 levels rather Psycho, Neon and Alien. tolerance setting allows it to cope with collection wholeheartedly to all ArtEffect good use. than the original’s 3. The result achieved is slight variations in the background colour. users. Solar also rather different than the original, with Filters less blurry and more defined “brush Results This filter has a really interesting effect, it Eraser Most of the plugins are new filters which strokes”. isn’t just the normal solarise found in other A quick way of erasing the current image apply some sort of effect to the image. Pros programs, it also applies some sort of blur This is the slowest plug-in in my ex- or layer to the background colour, fore- Wide range of filters and utilities. Just like the standard filters these are that makes the image look really liquid, it perience, processing my image with a ground colour, black or white. Good performance. applied using the current stencil if one is in reminds me or neon lights reflected in Factor of 6 took about three minutes. Really useful effects you won’t find use so you can select just a section of the water... great! Settings allow you to vary SuperView image for them to work on. When you anywhere else. the amount of “blur” and the look of the Page Curl Allows ArtEffect to load and save via choose a filter a small window opens, most colour effect. This is the classic filter that makes the SuperView’s range of loaders and savers Cons of these have a preview thumbnail at the edge of an image look as if it is peeling up for many different formats. No PPC support. top and the controls for the filter below Highpass off the background. This implementation is enabling you to preview settings before PostScript Print Some interfaces limited by ArtEffect’s Mutes areas with little contrast and pretty nice with selectable transparency architecture. committing yourself. The thumbnail can be brightens areas of high contrast, several (for the curled over area) and shadow. You Allows ArtEffect to print an Image direct to zoomed and panned so you can view the controls enable you to achieve a variety of can select the size of the curl by setting a a PostScript printer or to an EPS file which area of the image you are interested in. different effects. stencil over just the area you want to effect can then be imported into packages like Product Information using the rectangular masking tool before PageStream. This module has so many Border Effects applying the filter. options I won’t try to explain them all here, Developer: Haage and Partner This filter adds a border around the image, suffice to say it is very flexible! Distributor: Haage and Partner a large selection of border styles are Polar WWW: supplied on the Plugins Collection CD- Warps rather as if it were wrapped around Speed www.haage-partner.com ROM. The border uses the foreground a cone. This is one of those effects that is The filter settings windows for “Wave” Unlike some of the filters supplied with Price: 89DM (about £30) colour and vary from giving a slight texture quite clever but I for one can’t really think and “Softener” (top right). 22 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 23 REVIEWS REVIEWS

Software Installation and some games. The Sound Blaster drivers add a whole raft of audio modes Each of the drivers on the CD has a to the AHI preferences including 8 and Mediator Multimedia CD separate installer, the sound card and 16bit, mono and stereo options. On Robert Williams helps Chris Voodoo drivers are very straight forward, Chris’ system we experienced some just run them and the drivers and in- crackle during playback but many others Emmins with the latest additions to stalled or updated respectively. The TV on the mailing list and SEAL member his Mediator. card installation asks you several ques- Tony Johnson aren’t having any Preview tions including your model of TV card problems so we’re hopeful this isn’t a f you’ve read our PCI update feature while you continue to use the machine provide a hardware key to reduce piracy (we needed to pick Hauupage New for general problem with the card or drivers. in the last couple of Clubbed issues, as normal. Most TV cards use DMA of the drivers on the CD. A small tool is ours), region of the world (West Europe) Also supplied is a Mixer program with a or paid any attention to Amiga sites (direct memory access) between to the provided to lever out the existing chips and TV system (PAL-BDGHI). It is I It works! TV in a Workbench window. nice MUI interface, this allows you to set on the net or other Amiga magazines, graphics card allowing them to display a and the new ones push quite easily into obvious from the range of specific TV the playback and recording levels for all you will have heard about the Mediator, picture with minimal system load. Other place, the whole procedure is shown cards supported (there must be over 20) Initially we had some problems getting the outputs and inputs on the Sound Elbox’s PCI busboard family. More features sometimes offered by TV cards with step-by-step photographs inside the and the number of TV systems catered the TV window to open, but the sound Blaster card to get the ideal mix. It is specifically the A1200 version that was include FM radio and recording TV pic- CD cover. The two new cards, a for that Elbox have worked hard to make came through OK. Fortunately we had particularly useful when you have inputs the first Amiga PCI busboard to reach tures into an animation. Creative Sound Blaster 128 and a their drivers widely compatible. read a message on the Amiga-Mediator at different volumes, for example the the market when it was released last Hauupage WinTV Primo FM could then mailing list from another user with this SEAL committee member Chris Emmins built-in Amiga audio and CD audio, as year. Since the original release Elbox be fitted. In a PowerTower or other simi- TV Card Usage problem. He had found the TV window has a Mediator installed in his A1200 you can stop one swamping the other. have been enhancing the original drivers lar A1200 tower conversion this would would open after quitting AmiDock or if tower and when the MultiMedia CD was Currently the interface for the TV card is The mixer also offers a master volume which shipped with the card, these were simply be a case of removing a back he reduced his icon rendering quality on announced he purchased a suitable very basic, it consists of a script file set control for the overall output level, bal- for S3 Virge graphics cards and for plate for each card, slotting them in and the Workbench preferences program sound card and TV card. When Chris to run from an icon on Workbench for ance controls and the facility to mute some 10MB/s Ethernet cards. doing up a couple of screws. As Chris from Best to Good. We quit Amidock first received his CD I went to see him and each of the channel numbers, 1 to 69, particular inputs or outputs. Importantly they have also added sup- has a home made tower he had to make and then the TV window came up so help get the new goodies installed. As in your region. Double clicking on a port for the 3Dfx Voodoo range of up a couple of small brackets and pop- then we changed the icon colours and the CD arrived so close to the deadline channel icon opens a Workbench Third Party Software graphics cards which offer better perfor- rivet them in position to hold the cards. window showing the chosen channel, TV rebooted, all was OK. It seems like the for this issue of Clubbed we decided to If I had to make one negative comment mance than any previous Amiga card Once the cards were installed some stations only broadcast on certain chan- icons in AmiDock were using too many treat this as a preview rather than a full about this package it would be the lack and should also excel in 3D acceleration cables then needed to be connected. nels so we went through the icons in colours so the TV card window couldn’t review because we didn’t have time to of a graphical interface for the software, once Warp3D drivers are available. turn and found the stations for our area. allocate those it needed. properly test the cards and software. The TV card has a line out jack which is fortunately the Mediator has several Once found we renamed the scripts to From a fairly quick look the TV card’s With these basic driver requirements connected, using a supplied lead, to the very active users on the Amiga-Mediator reflect their station names and dragged output seems very impressive with a dealt with many Mediator owners and Before you Start line in of the sound card. Inside the mailing list potential owners were waiting im- tower the sound card has three internal them onto AmiDock for easy access. good clear picture comparable to a tele- Now, before we go any further it’s impor- (http://graups.yahoo.com/group/Amiga- patiently for the drivers for other PCI audio inputs, we hooked one (marked Each script calls the command TV which vision connected to the same aerial. The tant to note that both the sound card and Mediator) who are working on GUI’s for cards to be released, particularly eagerly CD) up to the CD-ROM using a standard is installed in the C: directory with the window can be resized without any loss TV card drivers require you to have a various aspects of the system. Richard awaited were drivers for sound cards cable supplied with the drive. It will also PLL keyword defining the frequency of of performance although inevitably the Voodoo graphics card installed in you Brooklyn has written Medication, a MUI and TV cards which had been promised be possible to connect the Amiga audio the channel. The TV command has picture starts to look blocky on a high- Mediator because they must use some utility which aims to hold controls for all since the Mediator’s release. With the up to one of these internal inputs but a other options to change settings like the res monitor. Having the TV card running of its memory for DMA. the cards connected to a Mediator. At brightness and contrast of the picture seems to have no noticeable effect on released of the MultiMedia CD package special lead which goes from the the time of writing Richard has released and it is also used to tune the radio. This the performance of the rest of the Elbox have catered for both these Hardware Installation phonos on the back of the Amiga to the screenshots of a new version with sup- is achieved using the FM switch and set- system, including graphics re-draw, ex- requirements, the CD contains drivers four pin connection on the card will have port the TV card and sound card. The first step was to replace two ting a frequency using the PLL keyword. tremely impressive! for Sound Blaster 128 sound cards, a to be made up. The TV card needs a ChannelEd by Philippe van Calsteren programmable logic chips (commonly For both TV and radio channels the range of TV cards along with enhanced standard aerial connection and will also allows you to control the TV card and called MACH chips in the Mediator world frequency of the channel in Mhz must be graphics card drivers. Before we get into handle analogue cable TV if you happen Sound Card Usage define new TV and FM channels from a as that is the type Elbox uses) with the multiplied by 16, so for example our the nitty gritty of the MultiMedia CD to have it. As Chris’ TV card included an An AHI driver is supplied supporting comfortable gadtools GUI. Finally Pawel updated versions supplied with the local radio station, Essex FM on package, what can these new cards FM tuner we also had to connect a recording and playback through AHI Filipczak has released TaskiMixer which MultiMedia CD. These new chips solve 96.3Mhz would use the command C:TV actually do for us? supplied FM aerial. compatible software, this includes most is similar to the Mixer supplied with the a bug in earlier Mediator boards which FM PLL=1541 (we found you have to audio programs, player utilities such as Sound Blaster drivers but offers all the prevented them operating properly with round the frequency up to a whole Sound Cards Song Player, Amiga Amp and Amplifier controls in one window instead of on an 8Mb memory window and also number (96.3 * 16 is actually 1540.8)). separate “pages” of the GUI. An add-on sound card typically offers The drivers do not currently support several advantages over the Amiga’s generating an animation from TV or built-in sound system, firstly it provides a video input, saving frames to disk, Conclusion 16bit, at least CD quality stereo sound teletext or other advanced features. Altogether we were very impressed with output. Sound cards also allow you to the MultiMediaCD, the hardware in- record in the same 16bit quality and Product Information stallation was easy and the cards sup- finally offer the facility to mix different ported are inexpensive and easy to Developer: Elbox sound sources, for example CD audio obtain. The software was also easy to Distributor: Power Computing from a CD-ROM, built-in Amiga audio install and seems reliable (except for the WWW: and sound card output. slight sound problem which I’m sure www.elbox.com we’ll solve). Hopefully Elbox will add a www.powerc.com TV Cards GUI and some of the more advanced Te l: (01234) 851500 These cards contain a TV tuner and features to the TV card drivers but this is Price: Mediator 1200 £149.95 allows you to display a television picture an excellent start, especially when com- From top to bottom the Win TV card, Sound Blaster and Voodoo 3 MMCD £24.95 ChannelEd makes setting up new in a window on your computer screen bined with a third party GUI. TV stations much easier. 24 installed in Chris’ tower. CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 25 REVIEWS REVIEWS

of any dithering. These quality printouts are a result from a combination of the high resolutions the printer is capable of Epson Stylus Photo (2880 x 720) and the fact it uses five Spyrus colours instead of the three found in 790 most colour inkjet printers. I must say Mick and Sharon Sutton are “Printing for Two”! that due to the very high resolution and the fact that I printed the image at about RD300S New Printer Needed A5 image size it took about 45 minutes The USB port (left) or so to complete. As the iMac was all hen the time came to upgrade has twin slots on the front, each with a Recently my wife purchased an Apple and the parallel set up and ready to go I decided to print my trusty Kodak DC210, I separate eject button, and will take type I iMac which we needed to get a printer port (right) can be the same image at the same size and Wfaced a bit of a dilemma, one and II Cards. There are twin condensed 50 for, having thought about it I wanted to connected to two resolution and it took about 20 minutes. that faces a lot of Amiga owners when it pin SCSI2 connectors, power connector, connect it to my nice Epson Stylus comes to choosing a digital camera. Unit ID selector and terminator switch on computers simul- This I believe is due to several factors, Photo 700 (reviewed in issue 3 of the back. Four LEDs on the front panel the first being possibly that the proces- I had been using the 1 Megapixel DC210 Clubbed by myself), which I had con- taneously. show Power, Status, and “In use” (one for sor on the iMac is much faster (600 Mhz with the Amiga, by means of the freeware nected to my Amiga. After trying both each slot). G3), and that the USB interface is much “DC210 Wizard” and the Amigas serial Belkin USB to Parallel and USB to Serial Once out of the box it was just a matter feeder, power it on via the button on the faster than a parallel one especially a port. Now I was looking to buy a 3.4 Power is 9v AC, and as the original PSU adapters (the 700 has parallel and apple of removing my old printer and replacing far right, and watch as it does its party bog standard one on an Amiga! The Megapixel camera, and very few came was 110 volt, I didn’t bother to have it serial interfaces) with no luck in getting it with the new one. The style (no pun piece of going through the head clean- image printed from the iMac was also with serial ports, USB was really the only posted to me, the PSU from an old Supra them to work, I decided to bite the bullet intended) of the 790 is a little different to ing and alignment routines (about 2 or 3 slightly more vibrant in colour, but as I viable option to transfer the large graphics modem fitted the job perfectly (most and get myself a printer that had both my 700 I had connected at the time, it is minutes) which is I may say quite noisy files to computer. modems have 9v AC PSUs) mentioned earlier the driver in Turboprint USB and Parallel interfaces so I could a little curvier in design and has a blue (nearly woke the kiddies) but is only is a Beta and may need some tweaking As we all know, USB is not yet available Installation was simplicity itself, I plugged it connect both computers without hassle. mechanism cover (no doubt following done when you use it for the first time or to get the best results. Having said that I for the Amiga Classic, and so, having con- into the back of my Epson Scanner as the the iMac look trend), but is quite similar if you have not used it for a long time. was more than happy with the results I sidered several possible cameras, I settled last unit, set the termination to “on” and the A Choice is Made with only three buttons on the front and The operation of the printer itself is very got in printing photo quality images for the Canon PowerShot G1, and Unit ID to 1. So as to mount the cameras an in-built sheet feeder which takes up easy (almost identical to my old 700) As I was impressed by the output quality from the Amiga and also text printing is resigned myself to having to use my CompactFlash card into the reader, I to 100 sheets of A4 paper at the rear. with three buttons,one for power on, a of Epson printers it was my natural of very high quality and fast too. Pentium3 Notebook computer to download bought a Jessops adaptor locally for choice as a successor to The footprint of the printer is just a little second button (hold for 3 seconds) to do the pictures from the camera. £7.99, and plugged that into one of the larger than that of the 700 and is 45cm x a head cleaning operation should you Card Readers two slots, and that com- my trusty 700. Looking Conclusion As my A4000 is networked to the 25cm with the paper tray (at the front) need one and a third button to operate pleted the hardware installation. at the Epson range I Notebook, it was still relatively easy to When I reviewed my Epson Stylus noticed the Stylus folded up. At the rear of the printer is the the sheet feeder manually if needed. transfer the pictures to the Amiga, but the I had already downloaded MountDOS from Photo 700 in issue 3 of Clubbed I Photo 790 which had power inlet socket, centronics parallel, network isn’t always set up, as the laptop Aminet, and set the device to my To see what this printer performed like thought I had seen something special, both Parallel and USB and USB interface. is usually packed away in its case ready to Oktagons device name, with the unit set at first of course I had to install the but time marches on and technology interfaces and had an ad- be used away from home, and setting it all 1. I also used the Fat95 option to allow Again like my supplied printer drivers for the iMac (it’s improves, now with this model I can say vertised maximum up just to download a few pictures is a long filenames. older 700 Photo a pity this isn’t the case for the Amiga) the same again. So in conclusion the resolution of 2880 the 790 has two and try it out to make sure it worked ok pain. Epson Stylus 790 Photo is just brilliant So, all was ready for the big moment - x 720 and cost less cartridges, one (which it did). Now it was time to check it for people who want to print very high I happened to be discussing the matter of double click on MountDOS, and Bingo! I (just) than £100, for pure black worked ok on the Amiga , first I selected quality photo images, want to output digital cameras and the problems associ- had a “POWERSHOT” icon appear on my too good to be ated with downloading pictures to an Workbench! Using DOPus 4.1 (I know, I’m and the other the correct driver in Turboprint prefs, set high quality text at quite high speeds true I thought! Amiga with Neil Bothwick at the Kickstart a Neanderthal;) I opened the pics into one one being a five a few options such as paper type, output and have a budget of £100. What more Time to check 2001 Show, and he told me that he uses a window, and downloaded them to disk, the colour type (but resolution and dithering pattern and that do you want from a printer? what drivers not the same ones as was it, ready to go. I ran Graphic SCSI Card Reader, with PCMCIA whole sixteen megabyte card taking just were included in used in my 700). The Publisher (included with Turboprint) and CompactFlash adaptor. “Tell me more” I over a minute. I have now made a menu my version (7.06) of cartridges are easily installed loaded an image from one of my own said... option on Toolsdaemon to mount the CompactFlash card, which has stream- Turboprint, damn it into their respective carriers by simply Photo Cd`s and for this particular print- Neil went on to explain that all that is lined the operation even more. wasn’t listed there. I went lifting the top clamp and slotting them in ing job set the resolution to the highest needed is to connect the CD ROM sized online and checked on the Irseesoft and closing. The cartridges themselves available (2880 x 720) and chose the reader into a SCSI2 bus, and mount it I can’t tell you how pleased I am that I can website (http://www.irseesoft.de) to see are quite well priced due to the fact that Photo Glossy paper option within the using MountDOS. MountDOS is a very now download pictures so easily to my if any updates included the driver for this the print heads are in the printer thus preferences. small and clever piece of software that A4000, and also have the option, by pur- printer and to my joy there was a beta reducing manufacturing costs of them. Results allows the mounting of devices on the chasing SmartMedia or MemoryStick driver (7.18) as an upgrade to version Is it a Photo or is it a Amiga OS. All that is necessary is to adaptors, to be able to use almost any 7.10. As I only had version 7.06 the first Installation of the printer just like any Pros change the MountDOS icons tooltypes to digital camera on the market with my thing was to purchase the latest version other and is just a matter of finding a Print? Excellent Photo quality suit your controller device name and Amiga! space for it (in my case replacing the old number, then double click on the icon to to enable me to upgrade with the latest Once the printer started printing I Easy to use Kevin Twyman one), having a power socket close by mount the device - simple! drivers. noticed that it was much quieter in Very good value for money and within reach of the centronics paral- Once I had got myself the latest version normal operation than it was when it It sounded ideal, but where could I get lel cable from your Amiga, and in my hold of one? “As it happens, I have a few (7.18) of Turboprint I went straight out was doing it’s head cleaning business, case of course within reach of the USB for sale” says Neil. The deal was done and got myself a spanking new Stylus which was a bit of a relief! lead from my missus iMac. there and then, and as soon as I got back Photo 790 and couldn’t wait to get it The resultant printout was absolutely financial arrangements were completed, connected to my Amiga (and my wife’s Caviar OK, Lets Get Going incredible such was the quality, it was and a SPYRUS RD300S Card Reader iMac of course). sharp, band free and almost totally indis- Now it’s time to get this new toy of mine arrived in the post a few days later. The tinguishable from an original photograph working, put some paper in the sheet unit itself is slightly smaller than an ex-

The Printer with no sign (to my naked eye anyway) ternal CD-ROM, and very much lighter. It Results 26 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 27 REVIEWS REVIEWS

Elliott Bird finds the ideal software for his PhotoScope Artec scannner. Shogo: he Amiga certainly has quite a is where you can change the lot of scanner software available, scanning mode; “Colour”, Tboth commercially and share- “Black and White” for greys- Mick Sutton goes MAD for Hyperion’sMAD new anime themed shooter! ware, from the likes of ScanQuix, cale images, or “Text” for ImageFX, BetaScan, Scantrax, and of scanning text or line ome of you may remember back BVision graphics card, 128 Mb of RAM, don’t have a 3D card or hardware if you course PhotoScope. Support is sadly drawings. Below that are the in issue six of Clubbed maga- 32 speed CD-ROM and the installation do) and then the display resolution. If limited these days, you can just go out correction sliders, which Szine, I did a review of Heretic II, on my machine took up 425 Mb of hard you don’t choose a render mode and and buy any scanner you fancy, and adjust the contrast, brightness, colour, and I must say that I was mightily im- disk space. Also to get the most from resolution from these options then assume it’s going to be supported by and gamma value. If you want to go pressed with that game. Now several the game I found a three button mouse Shogo is... well er... no go! As I have a Amiga scanner software. This is mainly back to the defaults, you can do so by months later we have another release handy, and there are other enhan- BVision I chose the hardware renderer down to the fact that the majority of clicking the Reset button. Next to that is from the same producers of that game cements via the likes of AHI (so sound (mgl.ren) and 640 x 480 resolution. The scanners these days are USB, not the Analyse Image button, which auto- (Hyperion-Entertainment) in the form of cards are supported). many other options are not essential but Parallel or SCSI sadly. matically adjusts the brightness, con- Shogo or Shogo:MAD (Mobile Armour do allow you to tailor Shogo to your trast, gamma, etc. to suit the image Division) as it is officially titled. After Half an Hour Later! system by reducing sound and video PhotoScope only supports Umax and which seems an eternity of any decent quality to increase speed and vice better. The results are rarely satisfac- The game is packaged pretty much the Artec scanners (sorry Mustek, Epson games whatsoever, we have had in versa. tory, but you can still adjust the image same way as Heretic II was, it came in a and HP users!). But I’ve found pretty quick succession Quake GL (a bit with the correction sliders. Any ad- box with the CD inside and comes with a PhotoScope to be one of the very few old now), Wipeout 2097, Heretic II, Earth justments made to the image are done 20 page manual that is written in OK Lets Launch Shogo supported scanner software for my Artec 2140 and now Shogo. Maybe they have in real time, which does seem to be load up your favourite image program, German and English, although it’s not scanner, lucky that it was bundled with not been released in as quick a succes- and Kick Arse! rather slow, even on a graphics card such as Photogenics or ImageFX. If you extensive it does give you enough in- my scanner really! sion as I seem to remember it, but that’s Once you launch Shogo from the GUI an screen. It can sometimes take a few decide to do some more scanning, click formation to be getting on with. I have just me showing my age! FMV plays which consists of short clips PhotoScope comes on floppy disk and moments to catch up. on the scan button again, and you will for the sake of convenience put my from within the game and gives you an has a separate manual, which is well see your previously preview scanned So what sort of game is Shogo then? It game and it’s manual in a DVD case The other window is the actual preview. instant feel for what’s to come, you can detailed and not too complex for begin- image. And you can just use the same is a first person perspective shooter which is much neater and easier to The buttons include the page button, abort this at any time if you are just itch- ners. It is set out in steps complete with method as before. which to me looks like a subtle combina- access. with this you can start any preview ing to get going. The game menus now screen shots and I find it very good to tion of Mechanical Warrior 2 (Playstation scans. The preview window will update PhotoScope can’t be customised very Installation is a bit of a long winded appear where you can set further in follow. game) and Quake with a Japanese in real time while the image is being much, and you will find that your settings affair taking about half an hour or so and game options, for example key mapping, anime twist (Manga etc). I say subtle but PhotoScope is reasonably easy to in- scanned. It can be stopped at any time. are all split up into different parts of the uses the new highly graphical installer sound volumes and gore level! Now we in reality this game is really slick and far stall, as it comes with the usual custom If you have a preview image, you can menu. PhotoScope can be run on its found on OS 3.9, whilst you are install- are ready to rumble or quiver depending more involved then either of those two installer. Once installed, it’s a case of easily zoom in and zoom out. On the own screen or on your ing the game sound music is played to on what difficulty level you set. games. There are several points around calling up the PhotoScope preferences, outside of the image is a red frame with screen. You can change to have the pre- you which is a bit different than what we the game which you are armoured to the When the game starts in earnest you finding your scanner, setting the right 8 squares, anything within this frame is view in colour or greyscale, as well as are used to, having said that it was quite high teeth, with your high tech robot suit are thrown into the thick of things, with unit number, and of course finding the the area that will be scanned when you change some of the scaling methods, simple and worked first time out of the (MCA) which you drive more than wear your aim to get back to base safely. This adequate device driver that your scan- perform a full scan. You can resize this and even the measurement unit (inches box for me. ner is hooked up to, which doesn’t take frame with the 8 squares, to fit around or centimetres). due to it’s immense size, and points gives you a feel for the game and a too long at all. Once you’ve done that, the area you want scanned. where you are a “soft target” human chance to master the controls. At this The requirements to run PhotoScope Lets Go your ready to go! being with a pistol and your wits to point you are in your MCA (mobile com- This saves screen space when the are at least 6 meg, Workbench 3.0, and protect you. On running Shogo you are first greeted bat armour) and the resistance is feeble When you fire up PhotoScope, a small image is viewed afterwards, as well as a hard disk (duh!). A Picasso 96 or with a GUI that has many options (just a few tanks) which are dwarfed by window appears with a “scan” button. cutting down on file size. CyberGraphX display is recommended. What Will it Run On? accessible via tabs along the top. your MCA. No doubt this part of the This may take a while to notice if you Although you could choose to “Launch game is intended as a training area in all When you come to performing a full Overall, PhotoScope has pretty much Before we get carried away with the are running on a high res, graphics card Shogo” using the default settings if you but name. Your base gives you the op- scan, both of the two windows will dis- what I expected from it. There are a few review lets have a look at what sort of screen mode. :) But it is located in the are impatient, it is wise to look through portunity to try out some other aspects appear and a file requester will appear, small hiccups, nothing much to worry Amiga you are gonna need to play this top left hand corner of your screen. the various options. The most important of the game play, such as opening where you can choose where to put your about, thought there is some room for baby. The following specs are really a When you press this scan button, you option that you will need to set is in the doors, activating switches and using scanned image, and name it. Once this improvement, if it is still being devel- minimum and the more grunt your get two windows open up. The one on “Display” tab, here you must first choose lifts. It is here where you are summoned is done you will be asked whether you oped, which I think is unlikely due to the machine has the better, so lets see a the left is where you can adjust your the rendering mode (software, if you to the Admiral (Akkaraju) and given your would like the image saved as an IFF or fact that there hasn’t been a new version PPC accelerator, 3D graphics card image. Towards the top you can adjust initial orders. Before visiting the Admiral a JPEG. When you have made your out for about 3 years. I still think it’s (using Warp 3D), 64 Mb of RAM, CD- the image resolution and manually you are instructed to go to the informa- choice, a progress bar will appear, worth it for the price and the minimal ROM and around 400 Mb of hard disk change the size of the image. Below that tion centre to collect all the data you showing the progress of the current requirements to run it. space. The machine that I have (and need for your mission, if you fail to do scan. The scan can of course be therefore this review is based on) is as Product Information this the Admiral reprimands you which is aborted at any time. Once follows, 603e+ 240 Mhz PPC with 060, a pretty good demonstration of how Distributor: Eyetech PhotoScope has finished scanning, you Shogo is structured, your actions in- WWW: are back with the small window with the Product Information www.eyetech.co.uk fluence the outcome throughout the scan button in it. To view the image you Developer: game. Before you set out on your mis- Te l: +44 (0) 1642 713185 have just scanned, you will need to open WWW: Price: £34.95 sion the final task at base is to select up and external viewer to view it with, or www.hyperion-entertainment.com The Shogo Launcher has full control your MCA from the four models avail- Results Price: £35 approx. over the game. 28 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 29 REVIEWS REVIEWS able. These vary in their capabilities of graphics themselves. For example in stacks support so you could use a you want to join an Internet game you limitations of the Permidia 2 based speed versus armour, you pick the one Heretic II you could turn a corner and simple null modem cable, Ethernet need the IP address of the server. To graphics cards (BVision), so I can’t wait that’s suits (you sir!) your playing style, find a temple or other impressive build- cards or even the Internet. find the addresses of currently active to see it on an Amiga One. But you do fast and furious or slow and stealthy. ing, Shogo’s post apocalyptic cities just Internet servers visit the Servers page get an acceptable frame rate out of it to Once the TCP/IP connection is es- don’t have the same jaw dropping im- on http://www.shogo-mad.com/. I tested be able to enjoy the game, particularly if Throughout the game you receive help- tablished you can enter Multi-player pact. Having said that the graphics still local networking using a null modem you fiddle with the settings to obtain ful hints and messages from your com- mode from either the launcher or the evoke a good atmosphere and suit the connection running at 57600bps with more speed. This game is really enjoy- rades, these are both audible and dis- game menus, Shogo then starts its style of the game. There are also some good results although there did seem to able and quite addictive, playing to the played on your screen. These messages Multi-player Wizard which guides you impressive effects especially the smoke be some slow-down when the action early hours of the morning is quite often are an integral part of the game as they though the setup step by step. First you trails from some of the weapons, which was particularly frantic. I was only able the case! give you new objectives as you progress choose whether to host a new game or blend smoothly into the background to briefly try Internet play however it through each level. To compliment Your commrades often contact you join an existing one, then you choose a making them look very realistic indeed. seemed to be rather slow, again espe- these, short cut scenes flesh out the plot name for your player, which MCA you Results as shown in this grab. With all the graphical options set to max- cially when there was lots going on. As and between each level there is a sum- wish to use and its colour scheme. If tially armed with a pair of pistols (aka imum quality Shogo runs at an accepta- usual with Internet speed issues It’s mary of the next mission (there is plenty you’re hosting a game the next few Pros Lara Croft) and can collect shotguns, ble frame rate on my Amiga, noticeably hard to say whether Shogo needs a par- of time to read it as level loading takes screens let you set parameters such as Excellent gameplay assault rifles and machine guns, but at a bit faster than Heretic II. In common ticularly fast connection or if I just had a quite a long time). the number of Frags (kills) or minutes Varied missions the end of the day nothing to compare with all 3D games it slows down when slow connection to the server. after which the level will change, how Engrossing story with what you can carry with the MCA. lots of activity is on screen, but you can Hard or Soft Sir! many players will be allowed to connect This means that your style of play now obtain higher rates by reducing some of That was Fun Cons and so on, finally you choose which As I have mentioned earlier there are has to change to a more stealthy ap- the quality options. Very high hardware requirements levels you want to play on. There are All in all I think this is another top quality two basic types of mission in Shogo, proach, creeping up on your enemy and The sound quality of the game is also about 20 levels to choose from, some game release from our gaming heroes one with you in your MCA, the other on using objects for cover is the order of very good, particularly the transmissions you will recognise from the single player Hyperion, this sort of game, like Heretic foot with hand held weapons. These two the day. It only takes a couple of hits to you get from your comrades giving you game and others are specially designed II pushes our current hardware to the types of mission styles are required to put you in a critical condition and make help and guidance. The usual sound for death matches. As in the game some limit. Those of you who have Voodoo 3 complete the game, and fit into the story you start looking for those precious first effects from the various weapons are of the levels you fight in an MCA and graphics cards will get an even better as it progresses. aid packs. there too of course, but we expect that others are on foot. performance out of the game, as I The MCA’s are absolutely huge with In both these types of mission you are don’t we? A point of note that when the believe the weakest link in the Amiga If you’re connecting to an existing server heavy body armour and can carry much often fighting alongside allies, which can interactive short cut scenes are playing, gaming hardware isn’t the CPU but the the Wizard lists any games available, if more powerful weapons than when on be “wingmen” who assist you or could I noticed there were no timing glitches foot. When in your MCA you get a sense be other troops in need of your support. that Heretic II seemed to be bugged of it’s size when the enemy come run- In general these allies seem pretty dumb with. In Heretic II there were several Pay by credit card and Send 3x first class get a free CD-ROM. stamps for catalogue ning out at you on foot, soldiers look like but they add another dimension to the short cut scenes where the sound and (call for details) FORE-MATT Home Computing packed with details on State Amiga model our vast range of titles ants and tanks look like toys, the enemy game. If nothing else they help draw movement were totally out of synch, that when ordering. (08700) 112234 • Dept. C, PO Box 835, Wootton Bassett, Swindon, SN4 8RX and PD from only 70p. MCA’s however are not so easy to crush fire-power away from you which is a does not seem to be the case in this under foot as they are the same size as good plan in my book! game however. There is also quite a bit you and armed to the teeth likewise! of music (Japanese pop style tracks) Despite their size the MCA’s are quite Visit interesting Places that plays between levels and whilst in nimble and don’t feel cumbersome, the menus, however you can turn these which is pretty handy as battle con- and Destroy Them! of if they irritate you, having said that Heretic 2 £40Shogo £35 Napalm £28 Myst £25 MooVid Pro 2 £20 CyberGraphX £25 ditions can get quite frantic with enemies One of the outstanding aspects of they are suited to the game unlike the coming at you from all angles. As this Shogo is the varied locations that are soundtracks found on Earth 2140! game has a true 3D environment (like included, there are indoor and outdoor Quake and Heretic II) enemy fire often levels with terrains such as deserts, Meet interesting People comes from above and below. With all cities and snow covered mountain Simon Sorcerer 2 £30 Hell Squad £30 Amiga Classix 3 £20 Earth 2140 £30NcodeR £25 PFS 3 £35 these enemies after your blood, there’s regions. The indoor levels see you and Kill Them! CDROM GAMES CDROM GAMES CDROM GAMES UTILITIES UTILITIES UTILITIES only one thing for it, give em hell with everywhere from factories to space Like Heretic II and Quake before it, this Adventurers Lair ...... £20 Genetic Species ...... £10 Spherical Worlds...... £10 17 Bit Level 6 ...... £10 Cross Dos 7 Gold...... £40 Learning Curve ...... £20 Amiga Classix...... £15 Goal! 2000...... £10 Sports Mad...... £20 100%AMIGA CD Magazine ...... £5 Darkage Developer ...... £10 Lightrom 8 or 9 ea...... £30 whole arsenal of arse kicking weapons ships, which will have the usual lifts, game also supports networking. In multi- Amiga Classix 2...... £20 Gremlin Classix ...... £15 Star Fighter ...... £15 100%AMIGA Annual UK Sub .....£48 Diavolo 2000 ...... £50 LSD 1 or 2 ea...... £15 Aminet Games ...... £15 Imperator CD...... £15 Street Racer CD ...... £10 A-Z of Amiga Games ...... £20 Digibooster Pro ...... £20 Make CD DAO ...... £50 (once you have collected them of doors and corridors. One level I really player mode up to 128 (!) players can Aqua...... £15 Islona Collection...... £20 Superfrog ...... £10 Amiga Desktop Video2 ...... £10 Digital Almanac 2 ...... £25 Midi Files...... £10 Arcade Classix + ...... £10 Labyrinth Of Time ...... £10 Super Methane Bros...... £10 Amiga Developer 2.1 ...... £20 Digital Makeup...... £15 Multimedia Backdrop ...... £15 course). There are several types of enjoyed had many vertical shafts with fight it out deathmatch style. Shogo only Arcade Classix Mk 2...... £15 Land of Genesis ...... £20 Tales From Heaven...... £20 Amiga Repair Kit...... £35 Dopus 5 Magellon 2 ...... £50 Net News Offline v1...... £5 Blade ...... £10 Mad About Mahjong...... £10 Testament CD ...... £10 Amiga Tools 8...... £15 EASys! Enhancer ...... £20 Network CD...... £10 weapons ranging from a sniper rifle fans blowing air up them creating cur- supports TCP/IP networking so you’ll Bubba n Stix CD32...... £10 Megaball Deluxe ...... £15 Theme Park CD ...... £10 Amiga Web Offline ...... £5 Emulators Unlimited...... £10 Network CD 2...... £15 Bubble Heroes...... £15 Moonbases...... £10 The Games Room ...... £15 Aminet Set 4 - 11 ea ...... £30 Euro CD v2...... £10 Octamed Soundstudio ...... £10 (complete with telescopic sights), laser rents you could ride. Solving this level need a stack like Miami or Genesis run- CDS Collection ...... £15 Naughty Ones CD32...... £10 The Prophet ...... £15 Aminet Set Subscribe ...... £20 Extreme CD...... £10 OS 3.9 ...... £30 Cedric...... £15 Nightlong/Quake ...... £45 Trivial Pursuit ...... 15 Aminet Singles ...... £13 Extreme Visual FX2 ...... £10 Photo CD Manager...... £15 cannon, juggernaut (rocket launcher) involved finding switches to reverse the ning on each machine, the physical con- Chess 2k ...... £15 Pacman Attack ...... £10 Turbo Racer 3D...... £10 Aminet Subscription...... £10 Faces of Mars 2001 ...... £15 Photofolio v2 ...... £25 Civilization AGA/ECS ...... £10 Payback...... £35 T-Zero...... £25 Amos PDCD2...... £20 fxPaint v1.5...... £60 Photogenics 5 ...... £70 and spider which creates a whirlwind of airflow and destroying red hot heat nection can be anything your TCP/IP D-1000 doom data...... £10 Phoenix Fighters ...... £10 Ultimate Gloom...... £10 Animatic...... £5 fxScan v3.0...... £25 Red Hat Linux ...... £20 Eat The Whistle ...... £10 Pictris...... £15 Ult. Super Skidmarks...... £10 Art Studio Pro...... £35 Gateway v1 (netBSD) ...... £10 Screen Savers 2 ...... £10 destruction around the victim it hits. All sources enabling you to navigate your European Superleague ...... £10 Pinball Illusions CD32...... £10 Uropa 2 ...... £10 Asim CDFS v3.x...... £30 Giga Graphics ...... £10 Sounds Terrific 2 ...... £10 Exodus ...... 35 Pure Doom ...... £10 Virtual Ball Fighters ...... £15 Aweb II v3.3 ...... £40 Giga PD v3 (3Cdset)...... £5 Studio Professional 2.2 ...... £20 of these weapons are eye candy to way through the shafts. This level is typi- Fears CD32...... £10 Red Mars...... £15 Virtual Karting 2 ...... £10 Aweb II v3.3 OS3.5upg...... £30 GlowIcons...... 15 System Booster ...... £10 Fields of Glory ...... £15 Retro Gold ...... £10 Vital Light ...... £10 Beauty of Chaos ...... £5 Graphic Sensations...... £10 Texture Heaven 1&2 ...... £10 watch being fired, so much so that cal of the problem solving in Shogo, it Final Odyssey...... £10 Seaside...... £20 Wasted Dreams ...... £20 Best of Airsoft...... £10 Guinness Records v2...... £10 Turbo Calc 5...... £60 Fightin Spirit...... £15 Shadow of 3rd Moon...... £20 Whales Voyage 2...... £15 Best of Mecomp v1 ...... £5 HD Patchez ...... £10 Turbo Print 7.x...... £40 sometimes I forget to watch out for involves a bit of thought but doesn’t Flyin High...... £15 Simon the Sorcerer ...... £10 Wipeout 2097 PPC ...... £30 Blitz Basic 2.1 (ult.)...... £10 Hidden Truth ...... £10 VHI Studio 5.2...... £30 Foundation Gold ...... £25 Sixth Sense Invest’ns ...... £15 Word Games ...... £10 Candy Factory Pro...... £35 Ibrowse 2.x ...... £35 Workbench 3.0 Set ...... £10 enemy incoming fire-power! detract from the action. Foundation Und.Land...... £15 Skeleton Krew CD32...... £10 Zombie Massacre{18} ...... £15 CybergraphX ...... £25 In To The Net (2CD) ...... £3 Workbench Addon CD ...... £10 On foot the world seems to be a much Although Shogo has many varied and more dangerous place to live, the only interesting locations, overall I didn’t find protection you have is light body armour the graphics as impressive as in Heretic and first aid packages that are sparsely II, maybe this is more down to the set- “The Amiga Online Superstore” - Visit our new 128 bit secure online shop at www.forematt.co.uk scattered around the levels. You are ini- ting of the game than the quality of the Amiga Retro Classics Site: www.forematt.free-online.co.uk EMail: [email protected] 30 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 31 REVIEWS REVIEWS SecondSpin

By: Lauri Ahonen database and automatically fills in the License: Giftware track names for you (freedb.org is an Available From: Internet service that holds the track in- http://personal.inet.fi/ formation for tens of thousands of bailu/zuulikuuli/secondspin.html CDs)... which is nice! If you don’t have an Internet connection you can input the Paradise econdSpin is an all in one CD CD and track names manually using the PDMick Sutton and Robert Williams take a look at two excellent free utilites. Audio ripper and MPEG audio track information editor window. In this encoder, giving you all the S window there is a button to save the in- functions you need to encode MPEG formation as a CDID file, compatible audio files in one program. with most CD player software. In the Simple Mail Now if you want to turn a track from an main track list you can pick the tracks audio CD into an MPEG audio file you want to process so you don’t have By: Hynek Schlawack and window. Within the window (MPEG Audio layer 3 or MP3 is the most to encode a whole CD. It is also possible Sebastian Bauer are settings for accounts common type) then first you have to to add other types of audio files you License: GPL (Open Source) (support for multiple ac- read the audio data from the CD. While want to encode instead of CD tracks, Available From: counts), receiving mail, writ- this could be done by sampling an entire these could be AIFFs which you have If you’re not on the Internet you http://simplemail.sourceforge.net ing mail, reading, signatures, CD into the Amiga through a sound previously ripped from CDs (or other can manually enter the track details phrases, reading plain and As reported in the last issue of card, the easiest way is to extract the sources), WAVs, a variety of module reading HTML. Although the in this window. “Clubbed”, SimpleMail is a new open data directly across the IDE or SCSI bus formats, PlaySID formatted SID tunes or configuration options are source E-Mail program. Currently I am to which the CD-ROM drive is attached. MIDI songs (requires Timidity++ which Even with a PPC (both PowerUP and adequate they don’t match a regular user of Yam ,but I find it annoy- Not all CD-ROMs support audio extrac- must be downloaded separately). WarpUP are supported) based system Yam’s flexibility, but it is early ing that it doesn’t directly support HTML tion across the bus although if you have SecondSpin can be used to convert ex- MPEG encoding is a slow process, my days yet. E-Mails, so I thought it was a ood idea a reasonably modern drive you should isting MPEG audio files into different system (CyberStorm PPC, 233Mhz) to give SimpleMail a bit of a go. After Usage be OK. The second problem is that MPEGA formats and back to AIFF manages about 1:1 encoding speed so downloading and installing it on my some drives support audio extraction in samples too! each track on the CD takes about as system (just drag the directory to Within the main GUI is a list slightly different ways, to get over this long to encode into a MP3 file as it does With the tracks or files you want to work wherever you want it) time to have a of mails from the selected problem SecondSpin allows you to to play. SecondSpin is designed with The main Simple Mail window. on chosen you can set whether they will little look. folder, when you double click specify the type of drive you have, for this fact in mind, once you have selected The address book is at the bottom left. be converted to samples, and then on the mail, a window opens The message list is showing the threaded view. my Plextor Ultraplex I found I needed to the batch of tracks on a CD you wish to encoded in one pass or the samples will with the header at the top, choose the “Sony compatible” option. encode you can just leave it to get on GUI just be stored on disk. The second op- any plain text in the main section and a with the process (in fact I am encoding a At the time of writing this article the ver- folders based on information within the When you run SecondSpin or insert a tion has the advantage that you could rip row of icons for each part of the CD as I write this). sion is 0.11, and the GUI looks very header, for example you could sort all CD while it is open a list of the tracks on the tracks from several CDs (usually message at the bottom. If the mail has similar to that of Yam (see screenshot) the mails from a list into it’s own folder. the CD appears in the window. If you are quite a quick operation although it Even though SecondSpin uses several an HTML part you can single click on it’s and both use MUI. The most obvious Threading groups together related mails connected to the Internet SecondSpin depends on your CD-ROM drive) and external programs to carry out the icon to display it directly in the read mail difference is that SimpleMaiI has its in sequence so you can see all the then looks up the CD on the freebd.org then encode them (a slower operation) rip/encode process, for example CDDA window complete with formatting and address book displayed on the main replies to a message in a tree layout. I all in one go, to extract the audio and other tools the graphics (if set within the preferences), GUI, which has it’s uses (more on this found this makes long conversations on perhaps over night. process the sample types, one of its no more messy HTML code cluttering later). I have tried three versions of mailing lists much easier to follow. strengths is that it is so easy to setup the mail text. The reading HTML option The MP3 encoding SimpleMail in as many weeks such is and use. Everything required is supplied is a really good feature of SimpleMail, as Writing mails is very straight forward and process uses the the development pace, and I must say in two archives, one with the main pro- far as I know it is the only Amiga mailer can be done in several ways, you can open source LAME each version is looking better and gram and the other containing the LAME to do this, others such as Yam have to for example select the new mail option encoder or option- seems very much faster. Setting up encoder. After decrunching you simply launch an external browser via . from the buttons on the top of the gui ally NCODER which SimpleMail is very easy with the user run the installer, which asks all the setup Other attachments are handled in the and then drag the recipients name from is a commercial just having to put all his or her internet questions, and you’re ready to go. same way, for example if the mail has a the address book into the “To” field, or product from Titan logging in details via the configuration JPEG image attached, then it too will you can simply double click on the Computer. You can Overall SecondSpin is an excellent and have an icon associated with it, and recipients name and the new mail set the bit rate, type very well thought out package, it when clicked on will load the image into window will appear. Most of the usual (mono, stereo or encodes MP3s with the minimum of fuss the mail window. Right clicking on an functions are there such as Copy, Cut, joint stereo), MPEG and the author has obviously thought attachment icon produces a menu allow- Paste and Attachments. Layer (1, 2 or 3) and about how the program will be used “in ing you to save the attachment to disk. various levels of real life”, he really deserves that gift! As stated earlier SimpleMail is in it’s in- The only major function missing as far variable bit rate. The fancy and is being very actively devel- By Robert Williams as I can see is a print option, hopefully manual does a good oped, that said it already has all the this will soon be included! job of explaining functions for every day E-Mailing and these choices, how Two functions are included that are par- indeed some really good features that they effect the final ticularly useful for people on mailing are new in an Amiga mailer. It may al- quality of the lists, filtering and threading. Filtering ready suit your needs, go on give it a try! The main SecondSpin window. Here you can see the tracks of the CD, their names encoded file and the Viewing an HTML attachment enables you to sort mail into separate By Mick Sutton have been automatically retreived from freedb.org. encoding speed. in the message read window. 32 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 33 SUPPORT SUPPORT

the second section of the pop-up menu. Click Save in the window. Icon Edit (Utility supplied with AmigaOS in the Tools drawer): Choose “Open...” from the “Project” ACDB’s GUI couldn’t be more simple! menu and select the icon in the file requester. Select the type required from CDDB Check the icon you choose is a Project the “Type” menu, choose “Save” and then “Quit” from the “Project” menu Many audio CD player programs offer type. RaWbInfo, shown here, can be (note this is from the OS3.9 version, the option of entering the title of each Top Tips used to change the type if required. older versions may vary slightly). disc and the names of all the tracks, once the details are saved the program Robert Williams dishes out another selection IDEFix, OS3.5 and 3.9) start an audio Selecting a Player can automatically find the track list when CD player when you double click the you insert the CD again. If you have a Now you’ve got a nice icon the next job tantalising tips. icon so you can listen to the audio CD. large CD collection this soon gets pretty is to make it call up the player of your time consuming, not to mention boring! choice. You need to have an audio CD Changing the Icon In 1997 an Internet database called saves three revisions. If you are working player program set up and configured so DrawStudio The first thing you may want to do is to CDDB became available, this holds in- on a large document these backups can it runs properly when you double click its change the icon used by the CD file formation on thousands of CDs. Until Postscript Printing take up a large amount of disk space icon. Doing this is beyond the scope of system to show an audio CD. For both recently CDDB used an open protocol As DrawStudio supports printing through and also increase saving times. On the this tip but take a look at our CD feature file systems the icon is stored in the for access and many CD player pro- Turbo Print for full quality, most people “General” page of the PageStream in Clubbed issue 4 for detailed informa- Env: directory which is copied from grams used this to connect to CDDB probably don’t use its Postscript output. Preferences window you can set the tion. Sys:Prefs/Env-Archive/ on boot up. The and retrieve the details of a CD, saving However, as far as I can tell one limita- number of revisions to be kept and the icon for AmiCDFS is in the Sys sub- AmiCDFS some typing. Then the owners of CDDB tion of DrawStudio is that it can only directory where they will be stored, you directory and is called changed the method of access and print on A4 paper, I have an A3 printer may want to turn the feature off al- This file system calls the default tool of def_CDDAdisk.info. CacheCDFS uses provided development support only for and even if I set the page size to A3 in together if saving times are important. hand DCE manufactured CV64/3Ds for the def_CDDAdisk.info icon when you CDDA.info directly in the Env-Archive specific platforns, Windows, Mac and DrawStudio when I print, I still only get Also be sure to check your backups their A4000s and neither would work, open the CDDA icon on Workbench. So directory. To change the icon for either Unix. In addition the owners of the an A4 size portion. So sometimes I print directory regularly and delete unwanted with both CyberGraphX and Picasso 96 to set the player you want to use go to system simply find an icon you prefer database now insist users register for using PostScript through GhostScript or files. either locking up during boot or being the Sys:Prefs/Env-Archive/Sys drawer (there are plenty on the OS3.5/9 CDs the service and that every application into an EPS file which I then place on a very unstable. As soon as a Phase 5 and find the def_CDDAdisk icon, select and yet more in collections on Aminet) , must be validated before it accesses the page and print from PageStream. For CyberVision 64/3D CV64/3D was inserted the machines ran the icon and open the Icons/Information copy it to the appropriate directory for service. Of course this leaves smaller quite a while I’ve been puzzled that most reliably again. The only reference I have window. In the default tool text gadget Zorro III Support your file system and rename it. You will platforms, including the Amiga, out in of the time this works fine but oc- seen to this problem was in an Eyetech type the full path to your player. For ex- also need to check that it is a project the cold. casionally GhostScript throws a wobbly Two SEAL members have fallen foul of a advert some months ago where they ample I use a CD player called type icon, if you use Directory Opus 5 or and won’t print a particular file. After problem with some DCE manufactured said something like “CyberVision 64/3D, “Plugged” which I keep in a directory on Fortunately there is a solution, a free CD RaWbInfo you can do this from the comparing the files that won’t print with CyberVision 64/3D cards which does not now Zorro III compatible”. So I assume my Work partition so my default tool is: information database has been devel- Icons/Information requester, otherwise those that will I think I have found the seem to have been very well publicised later batches of boards have this prob- Work:Utilities/CD/Plugged/Plugged. oped and is available at so I thought I would mention it here. lem fixed. Be warned if you have a Zorro use an Icon Editor. solution... dotted lines. Any DrawStudio CacheCDFS http://www.freedb.org this is compatible file that contains a dotted line will not First off a bit of history, the CyberVision III machine and are looking for a Changing the Icon Type with the original CDDB protocol and print through GhostScript. I don’t know 64/3D is a Zorro II/III graphics card ori- CV64/3D graphics card find out who By default CacheCDFS will play the CD most applications can be set to use it ginally manufactured by Phase 5. made it, if it is a DCE card make sure it RaWbInfo (freeware Information starting from track one when you double whether this is a bug in DrawStudio’s requester replacement, included with simply by changing the server they con- Shortly before Phase 5 closed it was comes from a later batch which is Zorro click the CDDA icon. If you want to nect to for CD information. You should PostScript output or in GhostScript but OS3.9): anyway now I know how to get around passed to DCE who started producing a III compatible! change this you can use the nice set your software to use the server: new version of the card which also sup- Click once on the icon, select preferences program which can usually it... avoid dotted lines! NOTE: According to the CV64/3D FAQ “Information...” from the “Icons” menu. In freedb.freedb.org, more information can ported the fast Zorro II feature of the be found in the Sys:Prefs drawer. In on www.vgr.com/cybergfx the board the window appears go to the “Type” be found on the freedb website. then new Apollo Z4 A1200 busboard. CacheCDFS Preferences go up to the PageStream Backups doesn’t have a jumper to force Zorro II Unfortunately it seems that in the early menu and select the type required. Click “Audio” menu, first check that the “Audio CDDB support is not widespread in operation in a ZIII machine so that is not PageStream keeps a backup whenever batches this change broke the Zorro III Save in the window. On” and “External Audio Player” player Amiga audio CD player utilities but there a possible work around. you save a document so you can easily compatibility of the card. The two SEAL Directory Opus 5 (commercial file items are enabled (ticked). Then select is a solution, acdb.lha which can be revert to an older revision, by default it members mentioned purchased second Setting the CDDA Icon manager and Workbench replacement): the “Player Path...” item, this brings up a found in the disk/cdrom directory on Click once on the icon, select file requester where you can chose the Aminet. This utility can read the ID of and Default CD Player “Information...” from the “Icons” menu. program file of your audio CD player. one or more CDs and then connects to a Once that’s all set simply “Save” those CDDB server to retrieve the track in- The CD file system is the software which Right click anywhere in the window appears, select the type required from settings. formation. To make it work with freedb allows your Amiga to read data CDs in a you just need to edit the tooltype HOST CD-ROM drive, when you insert an NOTES: With both file systems you may to read HOST=freedb.freedb.org, audio CD most file systems show a find you need to reboot before the remember to set the DEVICE and UNIT special icon on the Workbench usually changed settings take effect, especially tooltypes to point to your CD-ROM too. named CDDA (Compact Disc Digital CacheCDFSif you’ve Preferences had an audio has lots CD ofin the drive options but the ones we’re interested in ACDB then creates CD information files Audio). As an audio CD does not con- before making the changes. For these which are compatible with many Amiga tain files what happens when you open aresettings on the to Audio work menu.you must have a CD CD player utilities. this icon? The two most common CD file audio player configured and working for systems, AmiCDFS (uncrippled share- your drive, both file systems simply run ware) and CacheCDFS (supplied with the external program you choose. You control PageStream’s backups from this page of the Preferences window. 34 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 35 TUTORIAL TUTORIAL

Just wraps around it. Make sure the image is specify still selected then choose “Text Wrap...” Desktop Publishing the from the “Object” menu or just press the items “W” key. In the Wrap requester choose you option 5 then click OK, the text flows Robert Williams uses a simple layout to show need forbelow the image. a style. some of PageStream’s powerful features. The wide gutter between the first and second text frames gives us an ideal n this tutorial we’ll be creating a the Preferences window. Because this is place for a caption, choose the text simple page layout in PageStream 4 the first page of the document, theTutorial front frame tool to draw a new text frame (although you should find version 3 cover, it does not have a facing page. I about 20mm high in the gutter. Click the pretty much identical for this). The idea Click on the right pointing arrow at the by selecting it all (RAmiga+A) and in the text tool and then in the new frame and isn’t to show you how to make a beauti- bottom of the document window next to Prepare to Style edit palette click on the Character (C) type “The main SecondSpin window lets ful layout (as you can see from the the page number button (currently It’s time to format the text, to do this we button. Use the font gadget to choose you queue up tracks for conversion.”. To screen grab!), but to demonstrate some showing 1/-) to move to page 2. will use PageStream’s Text styles which Triumvirate Bold. format this text we’re going to use of PageStream’s features that are useful Because page 2 faces page 3 the would allow us to apply exactly the To make space for the heading at the another style but this time it will be in a longer publication, I’m particularly Facing Pages option we set earlier same formatting to other articles in the top of the page, we need to size the text based on our “Small Body Text” style. concentrating on text styles and page means that both are shown in a double publication and change them easily. frames to move their tops down, we can Open the “Define/Text Styles...” window guides. page spread. Before we can format the text we need easily do this for all the frames at once. from the “Edit” menu and create a new to create the style, to do this choose the Choose the pointer tool then click on the Paragraph style. Call this style “Small Setting the Get Organised with a Grid menu item “Edit/Define/Text Styles...”. first frame, hold down either shift key Caption” and choose “Small Body Text” Text styles can apply either to entire Measurement System Before we start on any layout we need and then click the other two frames in as the “Base” style. This means all the to decide on a grid, to make life a bit paragraphs or to one or more characters I have my copy of PageStream set to turn, you should see a set of 8 handles settings from that style will be used by more interesting I’ve decided on an un- we want a Paragraph style so we can use millimetres as the unit of measure appear around each selected frame. the new style except those we choose even three column grid with one 5mm change the line spacing and other para- and therefore this is what I will use in Now release the shift key and drag the to override. All I want to do with this gutter (the space between columns) and graph formatting if necessary. Check the this Tutorial. If you want to set yours the top middle handle of any selected frame style is make it italic and centred. So one 30mm gutter. As an A4 page is Type gadget is set to “Paragraph” and same choose “Preferences...” from the downward about 25mm, you should see click the “Italic” checkbox until it shows 210mm wide this will give us three you will see a list of predefined para- “File” menu and click on the “Measure” the outline of all the frames move, a tick and set the alignment gadget to columns 50mm wide, to help layout the graph styles, but we’re creating a new tab. Change the horizontal unit to release the mouse button when you’re “Center”. Click “OK” then “Done” to get page we can set some page guides. style, so click on the “New...” button. In “Millimetres” and set the vertical and happy with the position. back to the document and then apply Choose “Set Page Guides...” from the the Paragraph Style window enter a relative units to “Same as Horizontal”, I the new style to the caption. Layout menu, in the requester that column defined by the page guides. By name for the style, I’m calling mine Drag the heading to the top left hand would leave the Text measurement set appears you click on the grey number default snap to guides is switched on so “Small Body Text”. All we need to set corner of the margin guides. While it is to “Points” as that is the standard in all Quite Stylish part of the rulers to set a horizontal or it should be easy to get the frame in ex- here for the moment is the Font, Size still selected drag the handle in the other packages. If you don’t want to Now it’s time to see the power of styles, vertical page guide. Once one is set you actly the right place. Draw two more and Alignment. I choose Times Normal, bottom right hand corner of the text to change your measurement settings, you what if we decided we wanted can change its exact position by editing frames on the page following the layout 9pt and Left respectively. Leave every- the right margin guide on the page. can still enter my millimetre Triumvirate to be the base font for our the Position text gadget. Guides are set marked by the guides. thing else as the default, all the items While you drag hold down a Shift key measurements, just make sure you body text and captions? Well this is now individually for each side of the spread that are blank (like the width) or have an keeping the text in proportion. follow them with “mm”, for example easy, just go to the Define Styles (so you can have a different layout on Text “X” in their check box are not controlled 22mm and then PageStream will auto- window, pick “Small Body Text” in the list each side) and are held against a mas- Next we’ll insert some text into our by the style and can still be set Let’s get Graphical matically convert them into your chosen and click “Edit...”. Change the Font to terpage so they can vary in different newly created frames, click on the text manually. They say a picture paints a thousand unit of measure, clever! Triumvirate Normal then click OK, im- parts of the document. We’ll start with tool (the “A” button on the tool bar) and words (just don’t tell Clubbed’s con- Click “OK” and then “Done” in the mediately you should see all the text the left hand page, make sure Side is then click in the left hand frame you tributors, Ed.) and an image certainly Create a New Page “Define Styles” window, to apply the with that style applied being re- set to “Left” and define vertical (along have just defined, a cursor should makes a page more interesting. To place newly defined style to the text choose formatted, this will include text in the Click on the “New” button in the the top of the requester) guides at appear in the frame. Choose “Insert an image select “Place Graphic...” from the text tool, click anywhere in the text “Small Caption” style because it is Navigator window or choose “New...” 65mm, 95mm, 145mm and 150mm. Text” from the “File” menu and in the file the “File” menu and choose an image in and press Right-Amiga+A (or choose based on the style which changed... from the “File” menu. Switch to the right “Side” and define requester pick a text file, I’m going to the file requester, I’ve got a screen grab Select All from the Edit menu) then click very handy, particularly in a long docu- vertical guides at 60mm, 65mm, 115mm use my SecondSpin review from this of the SecondSpin window. Drag the In the “New Document” requester set on the paragraph button in the edit ment! the page size to “A4 Letter”, make sure and 145mm. issue of Clubbed but you could pick any palette (marked with a ¶ symbol). Click image so its top left hand corner is at text file. In the Insert Text options the top left of the middle frame. Then TIP: I find I sometimes have to force a Double-sided and Facing Pages are When you click OK you should see the the style gadget with the left button, window click “Insert” to accept the drag the bottom right handle of the page redraw (by zooming in or out or selected then set the margin guides as guides appear on the page marking the point to the “Small Body Text” style and default options (if you’re importing from image to size it to the width of the two pressing F10) to see all the styles follows: Inside 10mm, Outside 15mm, grid we are going to use. To actually release the button, the text will then be a wordprocessor document uncheck the right hand frames, notice that when you change, you may also need to do some Top 20mm and Bottom 20mm. Because place the text we need to add some text formatted using the new style. “Retain Formatting” option). After a few drag from a corner an image automati- re-formatting because any change is we are going to use an uneven grid we frames, click on the text frame button in moments the text appears in the frame, The page looks pretty boring so let’s cally retains its proportions without hold- style is likely to make the overall text a can’t use PageStream’s automatic the tool bar, check it is set to draw a but it doesn’t flow into the other frames add a heading, for this we’ll use one of ing Shift. different length and paragraph breaks column guides which place the columns single column. Now click on the left Setting evenly across the page, so we’ll set we’ve created, to do this we need to link PageStream’s Text Blocks, these allow will fall in different places. hand page at the top left hand corner of the Now we have some text hidden under “Columns” to 1 giving no extra guides. the frames. Choose “Link Text Frames” text to be easily scaled and positioned the margin guides and drag down to the page the image so we’ll set the image so text I hope this tutorial was useful in provid- from the Layout menu, notice that your but don’t have a fixed right margin, ideal bottom right hand corner of the first guides. ing a practical example of how page TIP: If you want to set these settings as pointer changes to an empty box, click for headings. Make sure the text tool is guides and styles can be used, if you the default for each new document click in the first frame, the pointer changes to selected then click anywhere on the Making would like further instalment of this on the “Remember” button in the “New a full box indicating you have started a page away from one of the existing text the text tutorial covering master pages, chap- Document” requester. link. Now click on the second and third frames, a cursor should appear where wrap ters, pagination and other aspects of frames in turn, you should see the text you clicked. Now type the heading around Click OK, and the first page of your new PageStream please let me know. document will be displayed in document flow into them as you click. When you’re “SecondSpin Review”. As headings tend an image window, PageStream indicates the finished click on the pointer tool in the to be formatted more creatively than margins you set with guides, you can tool bar to come out of linking mode. body text I don’t usually bother using or other change their colour on the View tab of style tags on them, format this heading object. 36 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 37 SUPPORT SUPPORT

decompress the ZIP on the target plat- file you are compressing is replaced with LHA Tutorial form, as they are executable they have the compressed version. the standard program extension “.exe”. Although LHA isn’t the most modern ar- NOTE: The file names given for these Back to Basics: Archiving If you come across one of these ar- chiver around it is by far the most com- archivers are just one or two examples chives which contains information you mon format on the Amiga, also new ver- of the programs available to deal with a want you can still extract them on the sions have released in the last year that Archives of various types are found everywhere, especially on the Internet. particular archive format, check Aminet Amiga just feed them to UnZip as if they support more efficient compression for the other options. Robert Williams explores the most common types and how to deal with them. were an ordinary .zip, you will see the methods. If you download an Amiga pro- message like “skipping corrupt or ex- TIPS: Many of the archivers above are gram from the Internet if will almost cer- n archive is a collection of have to extract them from the archive, File Managers/File System - Many file traneous data” and then the files should ports from Unix like systems, unlike tainly be available in an LHA archive. So files, which can be of any type, you can extract single files or all the files managers, notably the perennial be safely dearchived, the data skipped Amiga commands which use the “?” op- here is a tutorial on the most common Astored in a single file, the from the archive which is often called Directory Opus, include facilities to han- was just the extractor program. tion to display their command template operations LHA can perform, as you can archive. Most archives can also keep dearchiving. With compressed formats dle archives as if they were another (the options they accept) the standard see the lha command is used to both .tar the files they contain organised in direc- extracting files from an archive is some- directory, “opening” an archive simply on Unix is “-h”. Therefore if you type the add and extract files from an archive. tories too. Archives are often used to times referred to as decompressing or produces a list of files it contains which (util/pack/UntarV1_11.lha) command name followed by -h, for ex- When you issue an lha command you distribute software because the program decrunching. Most archive extraction can then be manipulated like any other Tar is an archiver very commonly used ample “UnZip -h” you will often get a tell it which lha command you wish to itself, documentation, sample files and utilities offer you the option of retaining directory list. For users without a file on Unix and similar systems such as nice listing of the options allowed. perform (only one command can be per- everything else required can be distri- the directory structure in the archive or manager there are archive file systems Linux, unlike the archivers listed above Another common feature of these com- formed at a time) and which options you buted in one archive. This is by no just extracting the files. which work with Workbench however Tar does not include any file compres- mands is that many don’t allow you to wish to use. Commands are specified by means the only use for archives how- these tend to be somewhat more cum- Creating an archive is usually just a sion, to overcome this limitation it is specify a destination directory for the single letter codes, for example “l” to list ever, at any time you need to group a lot bersome as Workbench isn’t as cus- case of specifying the files you wish to often used in combination with a file extracted files, they extract into the cur- the contents of an archive. Options are of files an archive can be useful. Many tomiseable as most file managers. include and the name of the archive you compressor such as the two listed rent directory. So before you set one of specified by single letter codes types of archive also incorporate some wish to create. Often the same utility can below. them off it is a good idea to change to preceded by a “-”, for example “-r” for level of so the in- Common Archive be used to create an archive and later the destination directory. recursive, you can combine options by cluded files are not only neatly grouped .gz extract files although many formats also Formats listing them after the “-”, so “-ar” would together but also reduced in size. (util/pack/gzip124x2.lha, have a stand alone extractor for use Other Formats mean preserve file attributes and recur- Compressed archives are very popular util/arc/untgz.lha) when disk space is at a premium. .lha sive. Here are some examples of typical on the Internet because a smaller file is (Aminet, util/arc/LhA.run) is the GNU (GNU’s Not Unix) free Disk Images operations: quicker to download over a relatively Different types of archive have different http://lha.warped.com/ software version of the ZIP command, Although not strictly an archive (it is slow Internet connection. features, often the main difference is the the archives it creates however are not rarely possible to extract individual files) Listing the Contents of an speed and level of compression LHA is by far the most popular archiver Over the years many different archive compatible with Zip. GZip is often used disk images are another popular way of LHA Archive provided however some also have addi- on the Amiga and lha archives can be file formats have been developed, most to compress tar archives on Unix distributing software on the Internet. As tional features, for example password found on most Amiga websites and CDs. Before you extract files from an archive are available on a range of platforms but systems, these are given the extension the name implies a is the you might want to see what it contains, protection. .lzx each tends to have a defacto standard .tar.gz. In fact this combination is so contents of a floppy disk dumped into a to do this use the “l” command, e.g.: archive format that most software dis- (Aminet, util/arc/lzx121r1.lha) common that there are a couple of file, as with archives some formats offer Archiving Tools lha l archive.lha tributions use. On the Amiga this is the LZX was designed as a replacement for Amiga programs which deal with both at compression. On the Amiga the most LHA format, whose popularity is largely Most archiving utilities use a shell based LHA with improved compression, once, such as the one listed above. popular disk image formats are DMS Press Return and a list of all the files in (Disk Masher) a compressed format and due to its use on the Aminet software interface, this is very useful for making for smaller archives. It is quite .bz2 the archive is shown in the shell window. archive, all software for Aminet must be developers who can use them in in- ADF () which is the un- popular although it never gained really (util/arc/bzip2.lha) For a more detailed list which shows the submitted in an LHA archive. LHA is a stallation scripts, but for users who are widespread acceptance. Many compressed format used by the UAE directory structure of the archive (which compressed format, although some not used to shell programs this can developers still use LZX to distribute Bzip 2 is one of the most efficient com- emulator. Both have extractors available is needed when you want to extract in- more recent formats notable LZX and make them rather intimidating. At the their programs although as it is not pressors available however it is purely a which will write the image back to a real dividual files in subdirectories) use the BZip2 get better levels of compression. end of this article we have a tutorial on accepted on Aminet an LHA version is single file compressor and is usually floppy disk, if you don’t want to bother “v” (Verbose list) command instead of “l”. the basic operations of the LHA archiver usually available too. LZX used to be used with an archiver such as tar on with real floppy disks utilities are avail- How an Archive Works where you will hopefully find it isn’t too shareware but the programmer moved Unix systems. The current Amiga ports able to extract direct to a hard drive or Decrunching an Archive seem to be a bit rough around the you can setup a virtual floppy using a much to worry about. However there are on to other things and kindly released Extracting all the files from an archive To access the files in an archive you edges, make sure you set at least 32kb utility such as FMSDisk from Aminet also a host of archiving utilities with the keyfile as freeware. As LZX is no onto your hard disk or into the Ram Disk stack (issue the command stack 32768 (disk/misc/fmsdisk.lha). graphical interfaces which should be longer developed it seems unlikely it will is probably the most common archive before any BZip2 command) and be easier for new users to handle. These gain popularity. operation you will perform. For this we tools generally fall into two types: aware that it compresses in place so the .zip need to use the lha command with one command “x” for eXtract with full path Stand Alone - separate utilities which (util/arc/UnZip.lha and Zip.lha) handle creating and extracting archives, and specify the name of the archive and these generally allow you to load the ZIP is the most popular format on DOS the destination where we want the ex- archive, view a list of files and extract and Windows based PCs where it is tracted files to end up. The syntax for the ones you wish to use. Some are supported by a huge range of GUI tools this command is: such as WinZip. Many Amiga Zip tools more sophisticated allowing you to view lha x archive.lha volume:path/ files without extracting them (technically are available including command line the file is extracted but this is hidden versions such as those listed above, If you do not want the files to retain the from the user). AmigaOS 3.9 is supplied UnZip is for extraction and Zip is for the path (directory structure) stored in the with a dearchiving utility called Unarc, if creation of Zip archives. Many DOS and archive use the “e” (Extract) command you are using DefIcons (also supplied Windows software packages are along with the option -x0 instead of “x”. supplied as a self extracting ZIP archive, with 3.9) Unarc is launched if you double One thing which often catches out new If you can’t handle the shell GUI’s like click on an archive that does not have these are a standard ZIP archive which also includes the software required to users (I can remember if frustrating the OS 3.9’s Unarc come to the rescue. an icon from Workbench. The “?” argument makes most shell commands list their options. 38 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 39 SUPPORT SUPPORT hell out of me for ages) is that the des- Creating a New Archive tination volume or path must end in the trailing colon or slash, in our example Creating a new archive and adding files Archive to an existing one both use LHA’s “a” An Introduction to volume:path would not work even if a drawer called path existed. Let’s have a (add) command, you simply specify that, real world example, suppose I had a the name of the archive and the names Utilties downloaded archive called acdb.lha in of the files you wish to add, for example: Elliott Bird looks at some useful my Downloads drawer on my Scratch: lha a ram:test.lha s:startup- GUIs that make archives a bit partition and I wanted to extract it to the more friendly. Internet sequence s:user-startup Ram Disk, here is the command line I Unarc would use: You can use wild cards to specify files, for example “s:#?” to add all the files in Unarc comes with AmigaOS 3.9, and is lha x Scratch:Downloads the s: directory. If you want to add files extremely easy to use. Simply double click /acdb.lha “Ram Disk:” in subdirectories of the directory you the archive you want to extract, and it will Relay Elliott Bird gets you up When you press Return LHA lists out all choose add the -r (recursive) option. For launch itself! Or you can manually launch the files in the archive as it extracts example: it from your AmiDock bar, or wherever you and chatting with people have it located. All you have to do, is tell it them, if any of the files already exist in lha a -r ram:Utilities.lha where your archive is (the source), and tell all over the world. the destination directory LHA prompts Sys:Utilities/ it where you want the archive extracted Chat you with some options, “overwrite? (the destination), and it’s done. It couldn’t TIP: Be careful, the options, unlike the alking over the internet has be- you put a nickname of your choice. (Y/N/A/S/Q)”, these stand for: be simpler! Unarc supports many archive Getting Started commands, are case sensitive. come increasingly popular over formats, including lzx, lha and zip. The next field is where you can put in Y = Yes overwrite the current file and the years, not only because it’s In AmIRC continue, ask me again if another file When using the recursive option if you T your real name. It’s not really essential, easier to use than ever, but also be- want to include the top level directory, in BurnGUI - Aminet, util/arc Each time you first load up AmIRC, you but it can be handy so that other users exists. cause in most cases it’s cheaper than our example “Utilities”, in the archive BurnGUI, is more complex than Unarc, can find out who you really are without N = No, don’t overwrite the current file talking to someone over the phone, will see the server list window come up. specify it without a trailing slash, if you and supports slightly different archive actually asking you. You never know, but continue extracting the other files. especially if you have a free call un- It contains a list of servers, as well as also want the icon for the directory add it formats, yet still reasonably easy to use. It there might be someone in the channel A = All. Overwrite any files from now on metered internet service provider. channels to connect to. More importantly with the ones in the archive and don’t to the command line: supports dms, lzx, lha, uuxt, zip and unzip, towards the top of your window, you will who already knows you! however they require the original ex- What’s more, you can even talk to prompt me. 1> lha a -r ram:Utilities.lha Sys:Utilities people over the other side of the world! see where your nickname, real name, Then there’s the user name box, which S = Skip all the files that already exist ecutables. The GUI is set out into 4 dif- and user name can be entered. If Sys:Utilities.info ferent tabs, About, configuration, disk With so many methods of talking over may be shaded out, depending on but extract the rest. AmIRC has been launched for the first compression and file compression. I can’t the net now, one of the most popular whether you use Miami or Genesis. The Q = Quit the extraction. Adding Files to an Archive time, these boxes will be empty, so you help thinking of DOpus 4/DiskSalv when I has to be Internet Relay Chat, com- IdentD box may also be shaded out. will need to fill these in. Just press the appropriate key, there’s To add files to an archive follow exactly look at the file compression section! monly referred to as IRC. IdentD is software built in to AmIRC, that the same procedure, but specify an ex- What’s more, you’ll be pleased to know allows an IRC server to authenticate the no need to hit Return. Finally LHA gives The main reason why it’s so popular is You will notice there are three boxes for isting archive instead of the new name. that BurnGUI is free to register (e- nicknames, you need to put in at least identity of a client. This is disabled if an a completion message, if everything due to the fact it contains more features mailware / cardware). external IdentD is running. went to plan it should be something like: than any other chat clients available, like one, although it is sometimes handy to Removing Files from an fill in the second and possibly the third 40 files extracted, all files Archiver - Aminet, util/arc ICQ. But where does your Amiga come The tick box below skips the message of Archive into the equation? Well actually it has one as well, in case your nickname may the day (MOTD) on the server if it is OK. Operation successful. Another simple to use archiving utility, this You can remove files from an LHA the best IRC clients available, AmIRC be already in use by another user on the ticked. The message of the day can be If any files fail to extract the most likely time a shareware one. Although sadly it server. The nickname is the most impor- archive without rebuilding the whole doesn’t look like it’s supported anymore, (developed by Vapor, the makers of pretty much anything. cause is an incomplete archive, espe- thing using the “d” (Delete) command, Voyager and Microdot), and BlackIRC tant part to fill in, as the nickname you cially if it has been downloaded from the with the latest version being from 1996. choose is what you will be known as Below the list are more fields, which will for example to delete the file Archiver, like BurnGUI, has a GUI split into (from the makers of FxPaint and Internet. Try downloading it again and when you connect to IRC. You can already be filled in if you have a server acdb/test.rexx from the acdb.lha archive several tabs, for different archive formats. FxScan), both of which are full of useful make sure the file on disk when the always change your nick once you are selected. The server name field shows you would use the command line: Archiver supports lha, lzx, gzip, dms, and features and easy to use. These are the download is complete is the full overall connected by typing “/nick newnick- the server host of the server you can more. There are a number of check boxes two little gems we will be concentrating 1> lha d name”, where “newnickname” is where connect to. Then there’s the Port size shown by the download software. for each section, including the obvious on. :) Scratch:Downloads/acdb.lha options for compressing or extracting. Tick Extracting specific files acdb/test.rexx the options you require, then it’s a case of How does it work? First use the verbose list command, “v”, As with extracting files you can use wild selecting the source and the target (des- Basically, IRC is a network of com- to identify the file in the archive you want cards or multiple file names too. tination). to extract. Then use the “x” command as puters, otherwise known as servers, before but specify the file(s) you wish to Conclusion DMS-Face - Aminet, util/arc which are connected to each other either over the internet or via a Local extract after the archive name. For ex- DMS-Face is a sole DMS extracting and I hope this has given you a good over- ample if I wanted to extract the files compressing utility. It is the oldest of the Area Network (LAN). This can be con- acdb.guide and test.rexx which are both view of archiving and enough knowledge bunch, and again is easy to use. The GUI nected to with IRC software, and allow inside the acdb directory in the archive to use LHA effectively, another popular isn’t brilliant, as it is based on Magic you to chat to other people who are also acdb.lha I would use the command line: Amiga archiver, LZX has a very similar Workbench (hence why it is enclosed with connected to this network of computers. command set to LHA so you should be a “click for colours” executable). It’s fine if This network is split into channels, with lha x able to apply most of the tutorial to LZX you are one of the few users who still use different topics of conversation and Scratch:Downloads/acdb.lha too, certainly extracting files works in the Magic Workbench. DMS-Face can be groups. acdb/acdb.guide acdb/test.rexx same way. Now if you can’t stomach all switched between 3 different modes, view, But when it comes down to the actual “Ram Disk:” this shell work, or just find a GUI pro- write, and read. What’s more helpful is that conversations, they contain a lot of gram easier, look in the right column for it has a status box at the bottom, telling The AMIRC server selection window, this is where you enter your user information abbreviations and expressions, which Elliott Bird’s Archiver GUI roundup. you what it’s up to! :) are covered on the opposite page. and setup the servers you want to connect to. BlackIRC has a very similar arrangement on its Servers tab. 40 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 41 SUPPORT SUPPORT

password protect a channel by entering IRC this is different, channel operators Channels in the keyword required to enter then have a “@” beside their nick, and users Abbreviations channel if active. And “B” shows a list of with voice have a “+” beside their nick- Here are some channels I recom- users banned (if any) from the channel. name. AFAIK As Far As I Know mend to get you started. AFK Away From Keyboard Down the right hand side of the window Below the user list are the user com- A/S/L Age/Sex/Location? #pba is the users list, which shows who is cur- mand buttons. The most commonly used AT M At The Moment rently in the channel. Some users may buttons include the “Query” button. BBIAB Be Back In A Bit Mainly a general chat channel, as have what looks like an LED light beside When you click once on a nick and click BBL Be Back Later well as Amiga related discussions their nickname, green means that they on the query button, another BRB Be Right Back (hence PBA = Powered By Amiga) are a channel operator and can ob- window/page appears where you can BRT Be Right There viously control the channel. Users with talk to that selected user in private. You BTW By The Way #AmiHelp voice have a yellow light beside their can make it even more private by click- CBA Can’t Be Arsed Above: An AMIRC channel window. Below: the equivalent tab in BlackIRC. nick, which doesn’t really mean any- ing on the “DCC Chat” button in the Got any problems with your Amiga? FAQ Frequently Asked thing, except if the channel is moderated query window/page, or highlight a nick number, which is usually 6667. The When you first load up BlackIRC, like You go here! Question at any time they can continue communi- and click the “Chat” button in the main password is optional, but very few chan- AmIRC, you will be faced with a server FLBKAC Fault Lies Between cating in the channel. However on Black IRC window (if you don’t have a query nels require a password. The comment list, and is pretty much the same as the #diehard Keyboard And Chair window/page open already) and you can is the name of the server. And finally is AmIRC one, except you are given a dif- FYI For Your Information For hardcore Amiga users! now have a direct client to client con- the autojoin field, which is where you ferent list of servers. Again, you can GTG Got To Go Web Links versation (hence DCC), while experienc- can enter in the channels you want to easily add servers and channels of your ICBW I Could Be Wrong #SEAL ing less server lag. Lag is a term often join when you decide to connect to the own to the list. Don’t forget to fill in the IIRC If I Remember used in the IRC world, it means that the IRC server. If you are feeling adven- details of your real name and chosen SEAL’s very own IRC channel! For Information Correctly connection between you and the server turous already, you can easily enter in nickname if it is your first time. members and anyone interested in http://www.irchelp.org IKWYM I Know What You Mean is delayed. AmIRC will tell you when you more than one channel to join by enter- SEAL. IRC channel on another network, IMHO In My Humble Opinion Unlike AmIRC, BlackIRC has everything are experiencing server lag with a flash- ing the channel names with the # in front thought it contains some very useful IMO In My Opinion in one window, but split into sections ing red bar below the user list, and will of each one, with commas following Server IRC information. LMAO Laugh My Arse Off with tabs. Once you have connected, also tell you in the main dialogue box. LOL Laughs Out Loud each channel name, but no spaces. Or if All of the above mentioned IRC chan- you need to click on the “Chat-window” http://www.support.arcnet.vapor.com LTNS Long Time No See you are already connected and on a nels are on the ARCNet IRC net work And of course finally, below the dialogue tab, which is where everything happens. The ARCNet support site, which also NOYB None Of Your Business channel, you can just type “/join #chan- (short for Amiga Relay Chat box is a long box (identical to the topic And you are away with BlackIRC! contains some very useful IRC in- NP No Problem nelname”, where #channelname is the Network). A suitable server to con- one) where you can enter your text and formation RE REgards name of the channel you want to join. What now? nect to is “uk1.arcnet.vapor.com” with communicate with other users in the http://www.arcnet.vapor.com channel. You do this simply by entering RL Real Life If your IRC server is not listed, you can the port number being “6667”. Ok, now we are connected and have Official ARCNet site your text and pressing enter/return. ROTFLMAO Rolls On The Floor easily add a group for the server and the joined a channel, you can pretty much At the top of your window (both AmIRC Laughing My Arse Off server details within the added group. And that’s the basics of IRC! Take a look sit back after all that setting up! :) But and BlackIRC) you will see a long box, IRC Clients ROTFLOL Rolls On The Floor at the box-outs on these pages for some Now you are ready to connect with when you first join, you may well be usually with text in it. This is where the Laughing Out Loud useful commands, abbreviations and AmIRC, just highlight the server you greeted by other users, it’s always polite topic goes for the channel, and the con- BlackIRC RTFM Read The Flippin’ URL’s, so that you can make the most of want to join, and click connect! to say hi back to them. versation in the channel doesn’t neces- Freeware from Manual your IRC sessions. sarily have to be related to the topic. http://www.innovative-web.de TBH To Be Honest But you are probably looking at all those In BlackIRC Then next to the topic you will see WB Welcome Back buttons and other things on your window AmIRC WH Welcome Home Believe it or not, considering BlackIRC is several small buttons; T, N, S, I, P, M. by now, and wondering what the hell Shareware/included with NetConnect WTG Way To Go freeware, it is slightly more complex There are additional buttons on AmIRC; they do? bundle. WUWY What’s Up With You? than AmIRC. Although we will only cover L, K, B. These control modes for the http://www.vapor.com/amirc the most used and important aspects. channel and can only be changed by channel operators. “T” is for Topic protection, if this is enabled only channel operators can modify or change the Keep Up-to-Date How To Join Next Issue topic. “N” stops people massaging from with the Subscribing to the list is free, just send a What’s coming your way in issue 10? outside a channel, although you can still blank EMail to: message users privately in the channel. clubbed-announce News clubbed-announce-subscribe The “S” button makes the channel We’ll keep you up to date with the hap- Mailing List @yahoogroups.com (all one line) secret until it is joined by users. “I” sets penings on the Amiga scene and try to make sense of the expected announ- the channel to invite mode only, so that Clubbed now has its own Internet mail- Or go to the list page on the Yahoo cements and releases. only users within the channel can invite ing list to keep connected readers (or Groups website, if you subscribe on the users in to join. “P” sets the channel anyone with an EMail address) better website you will need to register (if you Reviews mode to private, this means that the haven’t already for another list): informed about the magazine. The mail- • Payback PPC/Warp3D channel is invisible in the global channel ing list, called clubbed-announce, is http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/ • AmiDog’s Movie Player list. And “M” sets the channel mode to hosted by the YahooGroups service. clubbed-announce (all one line) • Perfect Paint 2.7 moderated, so that only channel Support operators and users with “voice” can We post a minimum of one update to the We hope the list will keep you better in- communicate into the channel. In list per month plus any important an- formed about Clubbed and encourage • DTP tutorial part 2. AmIRC, “L” controls the number of users nouncements, but your mail box will not you to join. Issue 10 Due: January 2002 that can enter the channel, if active. “K” be flooded because this list can only be NOTE: This is a provisional contents list is where channel operators can posted to by the editor. and is subject to change without notice.

42 CLUBBED - Issue 9 Winter 2001 43 Shogo: MAD ArtEffect

The weapon PlugIn Samples effects are spec- tacular....

Neon ...and there are lots of different types available.

Shine

When you are “on foot” the game has a different feel and set of weapons.

Solar

Cut scenes like this one add atmosphere and fill in the story. The “!” shows the person who is talking. Softener

It’s almost worth dying to see effects like these!

Visit the SEAL website at: www.seal-amiga.co.uk