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News: Alt.WoA and K4 show reports PCI Update Features: Reader’s Wives Reviews: Draw Studio 2 Photogenics 5 Earth 2140 Support: Samba Printing Tutorial Draw Studio Tutorial Issue 8, Spring 2001 NEWS NEWS

Nick Bigadike Clubbed.info Contents We have some sad news to report, long standing SEAL member Nick Bigadike passed away in May 2001. Clubbed is published quarterly by South Show Essex Amiga Link. For subscription details News Nick was one of SEAL’s founding members and has always been a regular at please contact us at the address below or SEAL Update...... 4 meetings, even before we had a venue and used to meet at member’s homes. visit our website. 4 Show Report ..... 4 Nick used his Amiga for professional video work and gave an excellent SCALA Editor: Robert Williams presentation to the club. One of SEAL’s most colourful characters, Nick was Design: Robert Williams Alt.WoA Show Report ...... 5 Contributors: Elliott Bird “ ” always ready to debate the latest news and offer his opinion based on industry Dahn South Roy Burton Amiga Update...... 9 experience. He was always looking forward to the next generation and it’s Gary Storm PCI Update ...... 12 k lets get the bad news out of the way first, there will be no sad he will not be here to see them released. Mick Sutton Choosing a free call ISP ..... 27 Proof Reading: Sharon Sutton OSEAL-O-RAMA in 2001, boo All at SEAL will miss Nick, and we offer our condolences to his friends and family, hiss I hear you say (well possibly), now particularly Tracey his partner. Printing: Jeff Martin Features for the good news SEAL, ANT, Kickstart Cover Art: Robert Williams Reader’s Wives...... 10 and ASA will be hosting a new show, working feature acts as a good introduc- Contact Us World of Amiga South East which will be Networking Explained...... 14 tion to the topic and helps you decide If you have any queries suggestions or sponsored by Amiga Active! This show Editorial which combination of the network hard- want to contact us for any reason please Reviews will be held at Hutton Poplars Hall, ware and software is right for you. Then use one of the following: e’re finally here with another Brentwood, Essex (10 minutes drive we have a big list of links to resources that EMail: [email protected] Draw Studio 2 ...... 20 issue of Clubbed, welcome to from the M25 Junction 28 or 10 minutes should help you with the detail of setting WWW: http://www.seal-amiga.co.uk/ Photogenics 5...... 24 the all the new subscribers who walk from Shenfield station) which is a W up your network (we couldn’t possibly Post: Clubbed, 26 Wincoat Drive, joined us at the Alt.WoA and Kickstart 4 Artec Scanner...... 26 larger not to mention plusher and more cover this in detail, the feature is already BENFLEET, Essex, SS7 5AH, shows (for those who couldn’t attend these expensive venue than any previous UK the longest we’ve ever had). Finally what- ENGLAND. Earth 2140 ...... 28 events we have reports starting on page 4) usergroup show. ever you think of Microsoft and Windows Telephone: +44 (0) 1268 569937 sorry you had to wait so long for this issue. Movie Players ...... 30 many people have a Windows PC in addi- (19:00 - 22:00 GMT only please). Talking of shows you’ll now know all about PD Paradise...... 32 So who’s gonna turn up at this party tion to their Amiga so we cover setting up the new World of Amiga South East show Only Amiga Made it Possible then? Amiga are expecting the shared printers with Samba, a topic that that SEAL is organising with ANT, ASA Clubbed is designed and laid out using: Support AmigaOne and OS 4 to be available to doesn’t seem to be well covered on the and Kickstart. With four big usergroups Top Tips...... 34 purchase at the show, and Fleecy Moss ‘net. Hardware: will be attending in person. As manufac- involved, two of whom have run shows Amiga 3000 before, we are bringing a lot of knowledge, CyberStorm PPC/060 Samba Printing Tutorial...... 36 turers of the AmigaOne, Eyetech will If you have subscribed to Clubbed for resources and energy to the show. The some time you’ll no doubt have got used to CyberVision PPC Draw Studio Tutorial...... 40 have a strong presence at the show (lets Outside the venue (top) combination of this with new Amiga soft- the fact that the magazine rarely comes 128Mb RAM, about 8Gb HDD space. hope they bring enough A1’s for every- The main hall (bottom) ware and hardware releases should make out on time (but it does always come even- Software: one who want’s one). As sponsors of the Mailing List...... 43 cluding presentations held in a separate World of Amiga South East something tually). We are sorry about this and we do Amiga OS 3.9 by Amiga show Amiga Active will be attending and suite. Topics are likely to include the really special, and there’s only one way to try our best to be on time. As I hope you PageStream 4 by Softlogik Next Issue...... 43 you can expect to see extensive AmigaOne, Amiga OS4, and various find out if we pull it off, come along on the appreciate with everyone volunteering ImageFX 4 by Nova Design Gallery ...... 44 coverage in their magazine. Also con- Photogenics 5 by Paul Nolan applications, keep an eye on the show big day. their services, work, family and other firmed are (in alphabetical order) SEAL matters (organising meetings and Final Writer 5 by Softwood website for details. Since the last issue some big things have Analogic, Blittersoft, Forematt Home shows for example) often interrupt our pro- There are also some essential utilities we been announced by Amiga and their Computing and Kicksoft. We are also The venue has a licenced bar that will duction. Anyway all that has to change for couldn’t live without: Directory Opus 5, partners, in particular Eyetech. It looks like SGrab, MCP, Turbo Print 7, MakeCD. currently in negotiations with just about be available throughout the show (hic) the next issue as we have to get issue 9 we may well be seeing new hardware in every other UK based Amiga company and we will also be providing snacks out in time for World Of Amiga South East. Our thanks to the creators of this and all the form of the AmigaOne 1200 accom- the other great out there. Do The We always appreciate contributions to the out there (and several overseas) and it’s and hot drinks for the hungry and thirsty! panied by a new OS version in the form of magazine but because of this tight dead- Clubbed is entirely created on the Amiga, looking positive at this early stage. 4.0 in October. Read all about the announ- This show will be the first in the UK to line they would be doubly appreciated for no other machines are used at any stage of cements in our Amiga Update on page 9. the design or layout process. Hyperion will be in attendance and are showcase new Amiga computers since issue 9. If you have ever thought of writing In the mean time it has to be said that sponsoring the games arena, where you the release of the A4000T in 1997, it’s something or sending in some of your work things have been pretty quiet in the Amiga will be able to compete against other what we have all been waiting for all for inclusion in Clubbed now is the time to Legalese Thing marketplace, new software releases have Write Amiga fanatics to win copies of the these years, visit the show website now do it! Remember we accept any type of The views expressed in this magazine are those been very thin on the ground. latest Hyperion games. There will be to find out how to get your ticket, go on article as long as it’s Amiga related, an of the author of each piece, they do not We’d like to make Clubbed more “in- necessarily reflect the views of the editor, other many other attractions at the show in- it’s only £3! One area of the market that is very opinion piece is just as valuable as a contributors or SEAL. teractive” so we need your input! definitely not quiet are the PCI bus boards! review or tutorial. Also if you don’t feel up www.worldofamiga.co.uk Please Note: Clubbed is produced by SEAL Got a question you’d like answered There are now three companies: DCE, to writing something major, don’t worry, members in their spare time, while we will always strive to produce the magazine on time and or an opinion you’d like to share? Elbox and Matay with boards available to why not try something short like a PD soft- buy and all three have further products on ware review? I would only ask that before include all the advertised contents this is not Write to us and we’ll include it in a always possible due to other commitments. The letters page. the drawing board. With so much PCI you embark on a major contribution please price you pay for Clubbed covers our costs and news to report we once again have a contact me (at any of the addresses in the nothing more, we don’t make a profit from it. Got a tip for other readers or even an dedicated PCI Update feature on page 12. .info panel) to ensure someone else isn’t If you wish to contact a contributor please send article up your sleeve? Send it in and already working on something similar. The your message to one of the addresses above and In this issue we have several articles on we will pass it on. you could very well see your name in deadline for contributions to issue 9 will be networking, an area of computing that can Amiga is a registered trademark and the Amiga mid September 2001. print. be very complex and frustrating. However logo, AmigaDOS, Amiga Kickstart, Amiga when you do get a network up and running Enjoy the mag, Workbench, Autoconfig, Bridgeboard, and Got a suggestion or comment on the Powered by Amiga are trademarks of AMIGA Inc. it can be incredibly useful especially if you magazine? Let us know and we’ll try Robert Williams, Editor All other trademarks mentioned are the property and make Clubbed better for you. The modern room have several people who want to use your of their respective owners. for presentations. computers. Hopefully you’ll find our net- 2 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 3 NEWS NEWS Kickstart 4 ow in its fourth year the SEAL Update Kickstart show has become a Nregular event in the UK Amiga Alt.WoA AGM Meetings calendar. This year’s show was held on Saturday the 26th of May in a new mazingly there hasn’t been an SEAL held its second Annual General As usual we have been holding our venue at Banstead, Surrey, just off the Amiga show in the north of Meeting on the 16th of March. The regular meetings every other Friday, M25. The new venue was much bigger AEngland for many years meeting started with an overview of meeting topics have included a Scala than previous years with a spacious (maybe there has never been one), SEAL’s activities in the past year which tutorial by Elliott Bird and an OS3.9 entrance lobby, a large hall for commer- Gloustershire Amiga Group, Amiga Huddersfield Amiga User Group decided was followed by Financial reports for demonstration by Robert Williams. cial exhibitors and smaller rooms for the Support Association and Amigroups UK to change this by holding a show in their SEAL and Clubbed magazine. The main When there is not an organised topic we games competition and usergroups. had tables along with a couple of in- native Huddersfield on the 25th of task of the AGM is to elect the club com- have a Workshop meeting where dividuals. Most groups were selling February. Kickstart had a table in the lobby where mittee, three committee posts were members bring along their Amigas to get second hand gear and handing out they were attracting new members, also The venue for the show was the night vacant as Gary Storm, Roy Burton and help with problems or to show off their advice and they all had machines demo- on this table was a very large (21”) mon- club below a large pub just off the M62, Jeff Martin had decided to step down system and software. This often leads to ing various software. Of particular inter- itor which was showing various pro- very easy to get to even for us soft (thanks to them for all their work). None informal demos, in the last few weeks est were two Mediator machines on the John of Forematt Home Computing grams during the day including Mac southerners. Although a night club of the committee posts had more than we have seen IFusion, Shogo, GAG stand where you could get help Emulation and Scala. In the main hall seems an odd venue (and this one had looks like he’s having a good time! one candidate so the following members Photogenics 5 and many more products and advice on installing and using this Eyetech had the biggest stand complete all the accoutrements such as black were elected unopposed: demonstrated in this way. exciting new product. Paul Qureshi on In addition to these attractions Fleecy with the Amiga One board mounted in walls, mirrors, lasers and even bubble the AmigroupsUK stand brought along Moss was there and seemed very im- Chairman - Mick Sutton one of their Z4 towers populated with tubes with floating fish!) it proved excel- Website the A1200 based in-car MP3 player he pressed with the show. Eyetech brought Secretary - Robert Williams PCI cards. Although the A1 was not run- lent with enough room for the exhibitors is building complete with dashboard along pictures of the Amiga One mother- Committee Member - Chris Emmins The policy of updating the website after ning it was interesting to see it in the while still feeling friendly and cosy. The LCD display which was very impressive. board and held a presentation at the end Committee Member - Elliott Bird every meeting has been well received flesh after looking at so many photos on games arena was located in the “chill of the show on the current status of the and we have followed it pretty strictly, in the ‘net. Going round the hall Weird On the SEAL table in the usergroup out” zone so there were plenty of The member who had agreed to stand new machine. During the show fact the site is often updated between Science had a huge number of CDs at area we were selling Clubbed magazine. cushions to sit on while you waited to as treasurer did not attend the meeting representatives of the user groups meetings too. Recently we have added knock-down prices, Amiga Active were Even though we didn’t have a new issue play Sensible soccer (organised by the and had not offered an apology or ex- gathered for the first meeting of a new Gallery section, the idea of this is selling mags and taking subscriptions, for this show sales went well, this was guys from Blackpool I think) or Heretic II planation. In his absence none of the AmiGroups UK, a new UK Amiga to show member’s Amiga related work Blittersoft had some hardware and soft- largely thanks to Haydn and Chris which we organised. other members present were willing to usergroup organisation which began as including images, websites and pro- ware including IFusion on sale, Emmins who manned the stand for most stand for the role so Mick Sutton agreed The main sponsor of the Event was a mailing list organised by Paul Qureshi grams. So far Roy Burton, Gary Storm Forematt Home Computing had their of the day while Mick Sutton and I were to continue as Chairman and Treasurer. Eyetech who had a large stand in the of ASA. The meeting mainly consisted of and Robert Williams are featured and range of utilities and games as well as busy in the games area. centre of the main hall, other retailers introductions and brainstorming for Throughout the meeting many useful we hope more members will submit work 100% Amiga magazine, Analogic had a On the big screen in the games area included Forematt Home Computing, ideas to help usergroups help each points and suggestions were raised in- they are proud of for inclusion soon. selection of hardware and last but not was the ever popular Sensible Soccer Kicksoft and Weird Science. User or- other. These discussions have continued cluding how to make meetings more least KickStart’s own KickSoft were sell- tournament organised by the Blackpool ganisations were strongly represented, I ever since on the mailing list. welcoming to new members and ideas Amiga Acrive ing their range of registered shareware. Amiga Group who had also brought remember Kickstart, SEAL, Amibench for local advertising. Since the AGM the From a SEAL point of view we had a Issue 22 (July 2001) of Amiga Active, In addition to the Amiga vendors there along several machines which were run- and Trogsoft and I’m sure there were a new committee has implemented some fantastic day of magazine sales, issue 7 has an excellent four page feature on were also two generic suppliers one with ning other games, I noticed Quake and I couple of others I’ve forgotten (sorry changes to the layout of the meeting was fresh out at the show and sold like Amiga usergroups. It describes the a huge range of paper, ink and other think Napalm amongst others. Mick guys). The attendance was rounded off room that we hope will make it more hot cakes and we also did a good trade many ways usergroups contribute to the printer supplies and the other with Sutton and I ran the Shogo tournament by and Internet cafe run by Wirenet and welcoming. We are also planning some with the few back issues we had in stock Amiga community and the reasons generic hardware including scanners on our machines which went really well a stand selling printer supplies. changes to meeting structure once the (we could have sold many more). people might want to join their local and printers. On a slightly negative note apart from a few crashes. Everyone quiet summer holiday period is over. Because we were meeting lots of people group or even start a new one. The I was disappointed to see that apart seemed to be impressed with the look for the first time we sold lots of subscrip- article includes quotes from SEAL’s from the Kicksoft stand (where Ray and speed of the game. The final winner Club Amigas tions as well as single issues. Thanks to chairman Mick Sutton, a paragraph or McCarthy was doing his usual excellent of Shogo was Paul Qureshi who won a SEAL members Elliott Bird, Paul SEAL has purchased an A4000 desktop two on this very magazine and SEAL’s demos and sales pitch) none of the hard drive from Analogic and a years Mountsey and Dave Kennedy for man- club machine for use by members at contact details. Also included are a other exhibitors had a single Amiga run- subscription to our Clubbed magazine. ning our busy stand during the show and meetings. This started life as a basic photo of our stand at the alt.WoA show ning to demo hardware or software. ‘030 machine with a Picasso II, over the and a screengrab of this website. As if Altogether we enjoyed the show and helping out with the games arena. The usergroups were housed in a small thought the venue was a great improve- last few months we have upgraded it this wasn’t enough later in the mag you’ll Overall everyone we’ve spoken feels but airy room with big windows along ment over previous years, sadly I think with a Commodore A3640 ‘040 ac- find a Shogo review written by SEAL this was a great show, the excellent one wall, in addition to SEAL that the attendance was lower than the celerator which was donated to the club member and publicity guy Gary Storm. venue gave the show a very friendly organisers hoped. This was probably by Elliott Bird and a Picasso IV, another Thanks to Amiga Active for the excellent feeling and having a bar so close by was mainly due to the excellent bank holiday donation. These are two of several equi- coverage! also a boon (except for those of us who weather and possibly to the current mar- pment donations which have been mode had to drive :) ). Perhaps because this ket position where new products like the to SEAL over the last few months, in the Want to know more? was the first show for so long in the area Amiga One have already been near future we will be making this equip- all the visitors seemed really keen and Members and non-members alike are announced and extensively previewed ment available to members of the club positive and by all accounts the retailers very welcome to visit the SEAL website on the ‘net but are not actually out yet. for a small donation to funds, some of did very nicely. Hearty congratulations to where you can find up to date meeting Anyway thanks to everyone involved at the larger items may be raffled. the HAUG guys who handled their first reports and news of all the latest hap- Kickstart for all the effort they put into show like old pros! penings, surf to: www.seal-amiga.co.uk. the show. Eyetech’s AmigaOne 1200 Prototype. Fleecy at the SEAL stand. 4 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 5 NEWS NEWS Boing is Back BPlan Prototypes Individual Amiga have released an update to Hyperion News Just before Christmas last year German AmigaOS 3.9, in the form of Boing Bag company BPlan announced their inten- and Petsoff 1. In addition to some minor updates As we have reported in previous issues tion to build a new PowerPC based and bug fixes BB1 includes a Reaction Hyperion have been busy porting a motherboard codenamed Pegasos. have Flipped! GUI for Genesis prefs and the long number of top games for high end BPlan state that they see two main mar- awaited ASyncWb utility. The latter adds Amiga gamers. Their first game, Heretic The Petsoff Partnership have joined kets for the machines based on the asynchronous copying and deleting to II, was very well received and now their forces with Individual Computers (of motherboard, LinuxPPC and Amiga Workbench, now you don’t have to wait second is out... Catweasel and Buddha fame) to pro- users. BPlan are working with the for these file operations to complete duce a new version of Petsoff’s Delfina MorphOS team to get their PowerPC before you do something else with Shogo DSP sound card. The new board known Amiga compatible OS working on the Workbench, most excellent! as the Delfina “Flipper Edition” has been Shogo is a manga themed first person Pegasos in fact some of the MorphOS partially redesigned to improve bus per- Download the update now from: perspective 3D shooter. Shogo’s action team also work for BPlan. We also know formance, it can now achieve over www.amiga.com/3.9 is tied together by a story line that allows that there have been some discussions PowerPC G3 or G4 processors, the releases so far, even a 68K version is on 5Mb/s transfer rate across the Zorro II you to fight both on foot and in giant between Amiga and BPlan although no highest currently available speed is the cards (no promises at this stage) bus. This enhanced performance allows mechanical robots. This gives a lot of results have yet been announced. The 733Mhz. although that would need a 3D graphics more voices to be played at once and variety in locations and game play, for initial specifications for the Pegasos are: iFusion example you might be outside in a city card. The game features advanced lower CPU usage per channel played or desert in your Mech or inside a build- physics and breathtaking 3D effects in- • Micro ATX Motherboard In April BPlan posted the first images of than previous Delfinas (and other sound ing on foot. The two modes also have cluding deadly asteroid fields and • 133Mhz Processor slot and 133Mhz a prototype Pegasos with LinuxPPC run- cards according to Petsoff’s announce- different weapons, yet more variety. massive capital ships. The missions SDRAM ning. Ralph Schmidt, the lead program- ment). The Delfina’s Digital Signal Released Shogo requires a PPC system but form a detailed campaign where your • AGP slot mer of MorphOS, has said that the work Processor is (as far as I’m aware) After a very long wait Microcode seems to run a little faster than Heretic II performance makes a difference to the • 3 PCI slots on the Pegasos verion of their OS is unique among Amiga sound cards and Solution’s Power Mac emulator, iFusion, overall. game’s progression. Both the enemies • USB and Firewire progressing but they won’t show it at means it can perform special effects and has been released. Sadly due to a prob- and your wing men are controlled by • 10/100 MB/s Ethernet Amiga events until it is completed to even play MP3’s with minimal load on lem with WarpUp iFusion only works on SiN to be AmigaOne Only sophisticated artificial intelligence which • 100Mb/s UDMA IDE controller their satisfaction. the Amiga’s CPU. The first new boards adapts to your abilities. Sounds like a • PS/2 mouse and keyboard, serial and should be available this summer and will Amigas with a CyberStormPPC card Hyperion have decided that SiN, a www.bplan-gmbh.de blast! parallel ports cost 189 Euros which is around £120. and not the more popular BlizzardPPC Police themed 3D shooter set in the fu- www..de • The board will support one or two cards for the A1200 at the moment. ture, that was to be released soon will for more information visit Hyperion’s The Petsoff and Individual Computers According to Blittersoft, Microcode’s dis- now be held back until the Amiga One is website at: websites can be found at the following tributor, there is nothing they can do released as it needs too much power to addresses: www.hyperion-software.com about the problem until Haage and play well on existing Amiga PPC Repulse is Spreading www.petsoff.com Partner can modify WarpUp, which is systems. Although it is based on the Their games can be purchased from After several delays Alien Design’s • All inputs (except S/P-DIF) can be www.jschoenfeld.com being worked on. same Quake II engine as Heretic II other your friendly Amiga dealer. Repulse sound card is now available mixed together. It’s possible to record aspects of the game make it more and pre-orders have been shipped. The not just from one input, but from all Petsoff’s Delfina lite, On those machines where it does work one cool looking Zorro card! iFusion seems to be a bit of a mixed bag demanding. According to Steffan Repulse is a high quality Zorro II card for simultaneously. (speaking as a user with an CyberStorm Hauser, one of Hyperion’s developers, any Amiga with Zorro slots (A2/3/4000 in my A3000) the core emulation seems “Sin has really heavy AI Code... this is and A500/A1200 with Zorro II bus Included software: the problem”. board). Some of its features include: to work well and is compatible with most • AHI driver Power Mac programs. However iFusion Descent: Freespace The • Sampling rates from 8 to 48 kHz in- • Toccata emulation does lack many useful features, there is Great War cluding 44.1 kHz and 96 kHz S/P-DIF • Stream player to play encoded data no , or networking • Support for 16 bit, 18 bit, 20 bit and 24 via S/P-DIF output Open YAM support so surfing the net and printing This “space combat simulator” is likely to bit (S/P-DIF) samples in mono or • Stream extractor to extract encoded YAM (Yet Another Mailer) is probably the are out. Also the current release of be Hyperion’s next release, it is set to stereo streams S/P-DIF input most popular Amiga EMail program, iFusion does not have accelerated have the lowest requirements of all their • Enhanced full duplex recording • Full version of SoundFX! largely due to its freeware status and graphics drivers so the screen redraw • 1x optical digital output (max 24 bit/ 96 • Driver for ProStation Audio of powerful set of features. YAM’s author can be slow, this makes the emulation kHz, S/P-DIF compatible) AudioLabs recently made it open source so it could seem slower than it really is. • 1x optical digital input (max 24 bit/ 96 • Many tools, shareware and demo ver- Kicksoft Gives You More be developed by any member of the Development is continuing, some initial kHz, S/P-DIF compatible) sions on CD. (and gets Clubbed!) Amiga community and soon a team problems have been fixed and one • 1x stereo line in (extern) Since our last issue Kicksoft have greatly debit cards. Facilities are also available for formed to continue development. The major feature, sound support, has been • 1x stereo line out (extern) The Repulse costs about 200 Euros extended their range of pre-registered people who would rather order over the first fruit of their work is now available in added so there is hope, upgrades are • 1x mono microphone in (extern) which is about £125 direct from Alien shareware and commercial Amiga soft- phone or pay by cheque. the form of YAM 2.3. The new version • 1x independent stereo headphones Design, currently I have been unable to available from the Blittersoft website. ware. They can now supply products such If you can’t find what you want listed on includes new features, bug fixes and Whether the WarpUp problem can be as Photogenics, Art Effect, Pagestream out (extern) find a UK distributor. For more details the Kicksoft website or in their advert in changes, many to make YAM use the sorted remains to be seen. and many more, some of which have been • 3 internal stereo inputs to connect CD- visit the Alien Design website: this issue, contact Kicksoft via EMail or latest MUI custom classes, there is also difficult to source in the UK, you can even ROMs etc. www.aliendesign-gbr.de iFusion is available from Blittersoft at give them a ring. They can often order a a MorphOS version available. The new buy your Clubbed subscription through £149.95 and also requires MacOS 8.6 or product for you and are always adding features in this first open source release Kicksoft! As we go to press Kicksoft have above (it won’t run OS X). The Blittersoft new products to their range. are fairly minor but much bigger things just unveiled their brand new website For more big news don’t forget our are promised for the future, keep your website at www.blittersoft.com has on- which has on-line ordering in US dollars, You can find the Kicksoft website at eye on the YAM website at: line ordering or you can phone them on sterling, French Francs, Deutsch Marks www.kicksoft.co.uk or phone them on news features starting on page 9! +44 (0) 870 7462118. and Euros on a wide range of credit and +44 (0) 1737 219280. www..ch 6 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 7 NEWS FEATURES

Loads to report from More Amiga this issue, Robert DynAMIte Amiga Update Williams gets stuck in! Ever fancied blowing up your friends? look), designed by players, can be ince our last issue Amiga Inc. have • AmigaDE hosted directly in the AmigaOS take a look at the extensive Technical Well now here’s your chance with downloaded from the Dynamite website. Payback made some major announcements • Personal Java Update linked from Bill McEwan’s 12th of DynAMIte, a freeware bomberman / Anyway check it out for yourself at: Since releasing their criminal themed relating to both the Amiga DE • SHEEP scripting language April update at: www.amiga.com dynablaster-clone which is designed to S amisource.de/dynamite overhead “drive-em up”, Payback, Apex (Digital Environment) and the future of • Audio System made PPC native with be played (in fact it can only be played) Designs haven’t stopped enhancing the Amiga OS. From the point of view of exist- drivers for EMU10K1 PCI cards. Amiga One over a TCP/IP network which of course game, firstly several updates have been ing Amiga users the most interesting an- • USB2.0 support with drivers for mouse, As we mentioned above the AmigaOne includes the Internet. Dynamite is made available on their website to fix nouncement is probably that the AmigaOS keyboard and hub. from Eyetech is scheduled to be the first programmed by the Author of the excel- will continue to be developed to version 4 • Amiga.devices reimplemented as retar- bugs and add new features. Next lots of machine running AmigaOS 4.0. Since our lent Ami Trade Centre (the only FTP and beyond. I don’t think this means that getable, removing the requirement for new maps created by players are avail- last issue development of the A1200 ver- client with built-in Tetris) so it deserves a the 50,000 copies of OS3.9 were sold old Amiga hardware to be present able which extend the game a great sion has continued apace, prototype close look. which Fleecy Moss originally suggested deal. Probably the most interesting AmigaOS 4.5 boards have been shown at several Amiga was a requirement for OS 4, instead the shows in the US and the UK but so far no One of the features that is making the development is that a PowerPC version AmigaOS4.5 represents the final stage in strategy has been reworked so a radically machines have actually been seen run- game popular on the ‘net is that it can utilising WarpUp is in the works, not only the creation of a native PPC OS. Its tasks enhanced OS 4.x and 5 running on new ning. According to the latest update on the be customised, both new levels and will this play more smoothly but it in- include: hardware complement the Amiga DE. AmigaOne website OS4.0 shipped with the styles (which give the characters a new cludes better quality shading and realis- Amiga have now issued a clear plan for • All remaining 68k OS code to be con- Amiga one will support 1GB of main tic lighting which, by the screenshots OS 4 development, here is a summary of verted to PPC native. memory, UDMA IDE and SCSI controllers, available, takes the game to a new level the key features for each release: • All hardware features of the zico spec. Ethernet cards 2D drivers for VooDoo3 EMail Made of graphical quality. The PPC version made accessible to developers. PCI/AGP and Matrox G450 PCI/AGP & USB will be a free upgrade to existing owners AmigaOS 4.0 • New user environment. G550 AGP graphics cards. Warp3D/Mesa so you got no excuse, buy this excellent 3D drivers will also be shipped with the Version 4.0 is the first step to a PowerPC AmigaOS 5 Simple game now, you can even do so on-line first release of OS4.0. Sound card (with native AmigaOS that takes full advantage Simple Mail is a new open source EMail at Apex’s website: AmigaOS5 represents a revolution in the Paula emulation), USB (keyboard and of Zico (Amiga’s specification for future program with a MUI GUI, in many ways Central development of ‘other’ operating systems mouse) drivers will follow as downloadable www.apex-designs.net “Amiga” computers) compliant computers. similar to YAM (which wasn’t open Many Amiga users would love to be able and the evolution of the AmigaOS as it updates so we won’t have to wait until In this release key aspects of the OS will to add USB ports to their machine, im- seeks to provide the best way forwards for OS4.2 for those facilities. Eyetech now source when the Simple Mail project be ported to PPC and the remaining 68k agine access to the world of cheap USB users and developers. Its feature set in- expect the AmigaOne and OS4.0 to be started) however its programmers aim to code will run under emulation, no 68k hardware, from mice to scanners. As cludes: shipping to customers in the first week of implement features differently and add processor will be required. Even with ver- with many things this is not as simple as new ones. For example Simple Mail al- sion 4.0 new features will be added that • Brand new services model providing hooking up a USB controller to a Zorro ready has a threaded message view and have never been available in the • Virtual Memory hierarchical message folders not found slot or other likely port and plugging AmigaOS. • Memory Protection in YAM. The threaded message view is devices in. The USB ports themselves • Symmetric and Asymmetric modes • PPC native (OS kernel) allowing for a real boon as it makes reading mailing need a driver and on top of that each • AmigaOS4 sandbox the following execution of PPC, 68k and lists much more comfortable. device needs a driver too, some devices • and many more advanced features. like keyboards and mice are pretty mixed (PPC+68k) executables. Simple Mail already has the basic • A PPC 68k emulator. generic but complex ones like scanners You might ask how this fits in with Amiga’s features required to handle simple • Virtual Memory System for new ap- will need a driver for each model. plans for the DE? It seems that plans for EMailing and it is an on going project. plications and games. Michael Böhmer has put together a very OS 4 and beyond came about because New releases are made available • Graphics system with support for modern interesting web page that aims to collect extending the DE to a full desktop operat- regularly and each one has a slew of graphics cards, Voodoo3 and Matrox information about efforts to bring USB to G450 drivers included in this release. ing system was found to be incompatible additional features. Download the latest the Amiga. Surprisingly he even has pic- • Audio system with integrated AHI and with other key target platforms such as October this year. version from: tures (shown below) of a USB interface CAMD (for MIDI) support. PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and For full details visit the AmigaOne section which attaches to the A1200 clock port, • PPC native reimplementation of FFS with other portable devices. For example a simplemail.sourceforge.net of the Eyetech website at so even though it has no drivers yet higher performance and reliability. modern desktop OS needs features like www.eyetech.co.uk/. there is some progress being made, • New TCP/IP stack optimised for PPC, memory protection and virtual memory take a look at: multiplayer gaming and content serving. which are not part of Amiga DE and Sharp We understand that initially OS4.0 will sup- adding them would be over kill on a mobile www.e3b.de// port only the Eyetech AmigaOne and an phone. Therefore Amiga’s aim is to make a Amiga have announced their first “house A1200 will be required. Presumably other computer running AmigaOS 4 and above hold name” partner, consumer electronics hardware such as Elbox and Matay will be the home server which stores digital con- giant Sharp. Amiga will be providing supported as development continues. tent such as video and music for access AmigaDE based “content” (that is ap- by other devices running AmigaDE. This AmigaOS 4.2 computer can also be a “powerful com- puter in its own right”. From version 4.2 4.2 will continue the work started in 4.0 AmigaOS will have Amiga DE integrated with more of the OS code running natively so it can run all software and “content” on PPC, it will also allow all applications to developed for the DE, another benefit will run without an older Amiga attached. More be access to Tao’s Personal Java, giving of the features of Zico specification hard- compatibility that AmigaOS has lacked for Three shots from the upcoming ware will be supported. Release 4.2 will a long time. PPC Payback show the new subtle also see the integration of the Amiga lighting and shadow effects. Digital Environment into AmigaOS. For full details of the new Amiga strategy 8 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 9 FEATURES FEATURES plications, utilities and games to you and launch the Zaurus in the US and Europe in PowerPC add-on card for their PCI me) for Sharp’s new range of Zaurus the coming months. solutions, in Elbox’s case the Mediator and PDAs which have just been launched in Shark PPC and in Matay’s the Prometheus Japan. These hand held machines run the Amiga, Elbox and Matay and an as yet un-named PPC card. These Linux so we assume In addition to their new big name partner agreements should lead to OS4.x and AmigaDE will be running in its hosted Amiga have come to agreement with two beyond being available on the company’s mode. Sharp has already displayed Amiga companies, Elbox Computer and hardware giving an upgrade path to exist- machines running AmigaDE applications at the Matay Company both based in Poland. ing Amiga users. Both Matay and Elbox Amiga Widows several fairs in the far east and plans the Both companies plan to market a have stated that their PPC hardware will By Sharon Sutton We also need to be good listeners, this skill is usually needed at mealtimes. The The word Amiga and everything amiga amigan will tell you all about the latest related, enters into my everyday life- amiga news, software/hardware, all the style. I describe myself as an amiga latest amiga gossip, and not forgetting widow! The amiga lifestyle covers any- all the latest software updates, remem- thing amiga-related. An experienced ber ladies credit or debit! You will need amiga widow must be loyal to the amiga all your concentration skills, look inter- community and be prepared to tackle ested and try to be enthusiastic, ask anything amiga-related. Readers questions but not too many as you could Your responsibilities may include any- be sitting at the table for hours! thing from picking up numerous amiga You may be required to do a spot of Is Robert a budding Hugh magazines scattered all over the house, globe-trotting to various amiga shows, putting them in a neat pile (and not Heffner, you decide! this actually translates to a venue in forgetting date order!) where they can London etc.When accompanying your be easily accessible for quick reference. Amigan walk around the show with a The occasional international telephone Wives keen interest even though you have call to an amiga retailer may be asked of walked around the hall twenty times! As you, usually you will not need your bi- with all Amigans keep a tight rein on the lingual skills for this task, but the moto is The Awakening plastic as they can get very excited with “always be prepared”. By Sue Emmins became my favourites. Light hearted all those goodies laid out in front of fun, quite entertaining I thought, but Once a month you will receive an urgent them! Never in my wildest dreams would I music was still my passion. call from your loved one, usually on your have envisaged being enthralled by an Amigans will scale the internet for hours mobile, when you are in the super- Amiga. My first encounter with the It was around this time I purchased my on end looking for amiga parts that they market asking you to try and get the Amiga was back in the distant past. My first Amiga an A600. Well it wasn’t a need for their beloved amigas, once latest amiga magazine, this request youngest son Lee was amazed by the waste. I thought my Daughters could they have located what they need this needs to be dealt with in a calm manner A500s capabilities, stereo sound and also share in the enjoyment.narrow could mean a local trip or a trip to even though you are trying to guide the neat graphics. Although failing in his at- minded I now know it was, I regarded it Scotland! You could find yourself on trolley around the supermarket with the tempt to enlighten me, it didn’t stop him as a games machine. Sorry folks! your own for hours on end while your kids screaming and clinging onto you trying. approximately twelve months later an beloved makes his trip, to cheer yourself like limpets and whining for sweets! but A1200 had taken its place, enabling us up while waiting for your cherished one His whole life seemed to revolve around with experience you should know ex- to play even more games. At this point to return, make the most of this time and computers. spending most of his waking actly which day the latest amiga maga- the Amiga still didn’t do it for me. go shopping with his credit card. hours in his room with the latest games zine comes out, so you just answer with and applications. Even writing a game in With the girls now growing up I began to “OK love” hang up and make a dash to Part of being an amiga widow is to play Amos. He was truly hooked. So much so think the internet would be a worthwhile all the newsagents in your area! host to other amigans! Always be that I became worried when he and his investment as an aid to their educa- prepared to serve tea and coffee, and to As all amiga widows know, amiga friends would rarely venture into the out- tion.So I thought about a PC, but soon know the latest amiga gossip so you can fanatics may sometimes lose all sense side world, unless it was Amiga related. realised I could achieve this with my join in the conversation. These evenings of financial reality, with careful handling I was astonished when I heard that the Amiga. So why get a PC. tend to go on into the early hours, on this need not be a problem. We all know Amiga was to accompany one of his these occasions its a good idea to take Chris was only too pleased to tower up that amigans have to indulge them- pals on holiday. a trip to the video shop, or go to bed my Amiga. equipped with an A1200 1d4 selves in the latest software/hardware, early with a good book. Little did I realise all that was about to motherboard in a Superwuz tower,Apollo we need to take into account the money change. Chris came into my life,along 040/33,10gig Quantom fireball hard involved, are we talking about debit or Being an amiga widow is an excellent with not one, but two Amigas an A1200 drive, 24X cd rom drive, Power flyer, credit? Credit involves big big money vocation! There are many benefits which and an A1500. Was this a conspiracy I OS3.9, it was now ready for the net. My believe me I know! Are you prepared to include using your communication skills, asked myself. He and Lee would talk eyes were beginning to open, not bad I delay your holiday etc. However, some- travel, entertaining, being diplomatic, about the Amiga for hours. As time thought. The revelation was yet to dawn times we need to show compassion and and juggling the accounts. passed I became curious,what exactly upon me. I could download MP3s.All the agree to their purchase, believe me What are you waiting for ladies sign up was the fatal attraction they could not music one could imagine at my finger- ladies it can be worthwhile!! today and be an amiga widow! resist. tips. My beautiful machine, my Amiga. Gradually, very gradually I began to play By the way the Girls have their own the occasional game on Chris’s towered Amigas. Amiga.Volfied,Shanghai and Solitaire Converts X 3.

10 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 11 FEATURES FEATURES

Wow, there are now 7 www.vgr.com/cybergfx. has released Medication, a utility which brings the settings for graphics cards The second DCE announcement is of different PCI boards plugged into the Mediator and their PPC accelerator aimed at PCI bus Picasso96 settings into one place using boards. This is called the DCE from 3 manufacturers! a MUI interface. As drivers for other Microserver G3/G4. It is a PCI card with PCI Update types of card are released Richard plans By Robert Williams a PowerPC G3 or G4 processor running to add their controls to Medication at between 450 and 733Mhz along with ne area of the Amiga places the PCI slots at ninety degrees to thing about Matay that the Prometheus making it a universal Mediator utility. marketplace has been really the Zorro slots meaning that desktop was the last card to be announced but up to 1Gb of 133Mhz SDRAM, 100Mb/s active since our last issue, machines will almost certainly need the first to have a Voodoo3 Warp3D Ethernet and optional Firewire ports. Mediator Pricing O The idea behind this card is that it can that is PCI expansion boards. Last time modifications to their case to fit the driver. www.amiga-mediator.co.uk is an Power Computing, Elbox’s distributor in Elbox had released the Mediator 1200 board populated with PCI cards. Tower be used as an Amiga accelerator in a Prometheus is available from Blittersoft excellent Mediator resource on the web. the UK currently has the following prices with a model for A4000 tower conver- Amigas should fare better but some PCI bus board or as the central process- and Eyetech in the UK at £199.95. ing unit of a stand-alone PowerPC com- for Mediator hardware: sions on the cards and DCE said the Zorro slots may still be blocked. In a added their own Picasso 96 S3 Virge puter if it is plugged into a dumb PCI GRex 1200 was imminent. Now another recent interview with driver so Mediator users have access to Mediator 1200 £139.95 GRex backplane. According to their April press company has entered the fray and both www.amigafuture.de Filip Dab-Mirowski these cheaper PCI cards too. As far as Mediator 4000 £149.95 release DCE expect to have the Elbox and DCE have announced new of Matay stated that they may consider a DCE shipped the GRex 1200 in March, we are aware there has been no change Mediator ZIII £149.95 Microserver ready before the end of this boards to suit other Amiga models. All model that replaces the A4000’s Zorro it connects to the Blizzard PPC’s expan- in the licencing position, Elbox develops Mediator ZIV £169.95 year. this activity shows that Amiga users daughter board but this sion connector and can only be used its own drivers which use Picasso 96 have been looking for a way to use inex- would depend on with a towered A1200. The driver The GRex 1200 is available in the UK without the permission of the P96 team. Warp3D Drivers pensive generic expansion cards with package includes CyberGraphX version from Power Computing at £149.95. As we reported last issue Elbox have For some time Hyperion (the people be- their machines for a long time. Also all 3 drivers for the 3Dfx Voodoo 2000, released the Mediator PCI 4000 bus hind ports of the fine 3D games Heretic the PCI boards promise a plug-in 3000, 4000 and 5000 series graphics Mediator board for towered A4000Ds which has 5 II and Shogo) have been developing 3D PPC module giving an upgrade cards and a SANA II driver for Ethernet PCI slots and the facility to add a Elbox, who were the first company to get drivers for the Voodoo 3 2/3000 graphics path that will hopefully be cards based on the popular RealTek Mediator PCI logic module which will a PCI board into the hands of Amiga cards (note that while 2D drivers are cheaper and less restricting 8029 chipset. Enhanced graphics card activate the PCI slots however the users in the form of the Mediator 1200, available for other Voodoo models than the current exPhase 5 drivers are available with the commer- Mediator logic had still not been have not been standing still over the last Hyperion have stated that only the PPC accelerators. cial CyberGraphX 4, if you already own released as we go to press. 2/3000 will be supported by 3D drivers version 4 the new drivers can be down- few months. They have released several updates to the Mediator’s driver Elbox have announced two new for the foreseeable future) which are Prometheus loaded from www.vgr.com/g-rex. Since supported by all three PCI bus board the sales of the that release DCE have announced two package, in particular their 3Dfx Voodoo Mediator models meaning there will be Matay are a recently formed manufacturers. These 3D drivers are for Zorro version. Matay also major new PCI related products, the first graphics card driver has been gradually one for all the most popular “serious” Amiga dealer who were the Warp3D system developed by Sam promise that a PowerPC solution will is the GRex A4000. This is a busboard enhanced and now support most models Amiga models. The Mediator PCI ZIII is hardly known outside their Jordan of Haage and Partner with be available for Prometheus and have for A4000 desktop users with a in the range from the Banshee up to the a Zorro III card with four PCI slots, it is native Poland until they Hyperion. Hyperion use Warp3D in their an agreement with Amiga so hopefully CyberStormPPC or MkIII accelerator, 5000 series. In addition to the network suitable for the A3000(T), A4000(T), and announced their first hardware product, games so once drivers are available OS4.x will be available. like the A1200 version it connects to the card driver already supplied Elbox have A1200s with Zorro III busboards (and the Prometheus. Prometheus is a Zorro they should instantly work on the expansion slot on these accelerators. the required fast slot accelerator to ac- III card so it will plug into any Amiga with Looking at the pictures on the Matay Voodoo. In a recent press release The GRex 4000 replaces the A4000’s New Mediators tivate them). Like the Prometheus fitting Zorro III slots, these include the website and reading comments on the Hyperion announced that the Voodoo 3 daughterboard, it has four PCI slots, of the Mediator ZIII will depend on your A4000(T), A3000(T) and A1200s with a Internet it seems that the Prometheus is drivers will only be available to hardware three (in-line) Zorro slots and one video configuration and may block some Zorro Zorro III busboard and fast slot ac- a high quality product, it is supplied with manufacturers who obtain a license to slot. As far as I am aware the GRex slots. The second model is the Mediator celerator (required to activate ZIII mounting brackets to hold the PCI cards use them with their PCI product. The 4000 has not shipped yet, I assume that ZIV which attaches to one of the ZIV mode). The design of the Prometheus firmly, extension cables so connections reasoning behind this decision was two when it does it will include the same slots on the popular A1200 ZIV bus can reach the back of the case and a fold, firstly Hyperion’s drivers will be in- driver bundle as the A1200 version. Mediator board, this combination will give A1200 Contacts CD of drivers all packaged in a colour cluded in Amiga OS 4 for which a However DCE do state that TV card, PCI ZIV owners Zorro slots for their existing printed box (something of a rarity these license fee will have to be paid, it would Hardware Developers sound card, USB and more network card cards along with four PCI slots. Photos days). Despite being rather an unknown be unfair to effectively sell the drivers to drivers are coming soon, they have of these new Mediators and the logic DCE quantity Matay have found favour with people with OS 4 while continuing to shown a screen grab of their TV card card for the Mediator PCI 4000 have www.dcecom.de many Amigans by shipping the give them away to others. Secondly driver development on been released on the Elbox website and Elbox Prometheus barely a month after it was Hyperion say the development of the Mediator the press release says they were www.elbox.com announced, complete with a comple- scheduled for June so hopefully they will Voodoo drivers is significantly more PCI ZIII complex than those for the Permedia 2 Matay ment of officially licensed drivers includ- be available by the time you read this. ing Picasso 96 and Warp3D drivers for based B/CVisionPPC cards. Drivers for www.matay.pl the Voodoo 3 and an NE2000 network There are now quite a number of other more advanced 3D cards will be Dealers card driver which is compatible with Mediator owners out on the Internet, even more time consuming, therefore many common (and therefore cheap) Sam Thomas has started a mailing list they are “far beyond the scope of a Blittersoft 10MB/s Ethernet cards. They also in- called Amiga-Mediator on Yahoo Groups freeware project”. www.blittersoft.com clude a freely distributable, royalty free Mediator (www.yahoogroups.com) where users +44 (0) 870 7462118 can get help and discuss Mediator So far Matay and DCE have signed up software development kit (which can PCI 4000 with Hyperion and as I have mentioned Eyetech related (some of the time anyway) also be downloaded from their website) Warp3D drivers for the Voodoo 3 are www.eyetech.co.uk issues. Sam has also started a Mediator so anyone can write drivers for PCI supplied with Matay’s Prometheus +44 (0) 1642 713185 cards attached to the Prometheus. support website which looks fantastic and has great content, it is at board. As I write this Elbox have not Power Computing Drivers for a sound card and TV card The GRex 4000 looks neat but you www.amiga-mediator.co.uk, essential if come to an agreement but hopefully www.powerc.com are in development and should be they will get on board as 3D drivers need a CyberStorm PPC you have a Mediator. Richard Brooklyn +44 (0) 1234 851500 released soon. Perhaps it says some- must be a big selling point for those or MkIII accelerator. 12 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 13 FEATURES FEATURES

bination required to link to your Amiga to second) using Unshielded Twisted Pair 100BaseT and 1000BaseT each other platform. (UTP) cables and must use a star net- (GigaBit) work topology if there are more than two If you have two machines which support 100BaseT and 1000BaseT (also network devices. UTP cables have eight parallel networking and are located referred to as Gigabit Ethernet) are wires arranged as four pairs twisted close together then it is considerably faster Ethernet implementations which together which helps reduce inter- faster than serial. transfer date at 100MB/s and 1000MB/s Networking ference, removing the need for any respectively using UTP cables. To my shielding. RJ45 connectors (similar to Getting computers to communicate can be tough but Ethernet knowledge no Ethernet cards supporting telephone connectors) are used to con- these standards have ever been the results are worth it. Robert Williams gets stuck in. Ethernet is the most common dedicated nect the UTP cable to each device. Two released for the Amiga. While 10BaseT networking standard, you will find it in devices can be connected directly using Explained is still by far the most common standard most companies, businesses, homes a UTP cross over cable (the send and any people now have several Note that a null cable is not the 100BaseT is becoming more popular Parallel and schools connecting anything from receive lines are crossed) but if more computers, some have a same as the cable used to connect a while 1000BaseT is still very rare out- While the parallel port wasn’t really two to thousands of computers. There than two devices need to be connected collection of Amigas and modem or other serial equipment. side server installations. Many Ethernet M designed with networking in mind (many are various types of Ethernet identified then a hub must be used, devices are others a mixed bag of different plat- Amigas have a 25 pin “D” serial port devices capable of 100MB/s operation early personal computers had a parallel by their speed (in Megabits per second) connected to the hub using patch cables forms. If you have more than one where as most recent PCs (and some also support 10MB/s and are commonly port that could only send data) there are and the type of cable used to connect which are connected straight through machine it is useful to be able to move other machines) have a 9 pin “D” port labelled 10/100, however if you connect several systems available which allow the devices (usually computers but you (not crossed). 10BaseT hubs start at information between them, for small both these ports have the same connec- a 10MB device to a 100MB network the you to link two Amigas or an Amiga and can also connect some printers, around £20 for a unit with 4 UTP ports, amounts of data or occasional use tions so all you need is a null modem whole network has to slow down to the a PC using this port. All systems using cable/ADSL and various net- much larger ones are available and hubs swapping floppies, ZIP disks or CD-RWs cable with the appropriate connectors, speed of the slower device. the parallel port use a custom parallel work devices directly to an Ethernet net- can be cascaded (by linking one to is probably fine. If you want to move in- you can also buy adaptors from a 25 to work) on the network. Each device is formation around on a regular basis a a 9 pin port and vice versa. Two types of cable such as a ParNET cable (this was another) up to 4 deep. 10BaseT Switches originally designed for use with ParNET connected to the network, if the com- Ethernet networks are by far the most network makes life much easier and null modem cable are available, three puter or device does not have an One way to avoid slowing down a some types of network also offer the wire and seven wire, the advantage of a but is now also used by other parallel popular and you will find that suitable 100MB network when you add a 10MB networking software such as ProNET) or Ethernet port built in then a Network possibility of sharing other resources seven wire cable is that you can use hardware is very readily and cheaply device is to use a 10/100MB switch in- a laplink cable (also called a “null prin- Interface Card (NIC) has to be added. such as an internet connection or prin- hardware flow control (also called available, most current computers (be stead of a hub. A switch is similar to a ter” cable). Never connect the parallel ters between machines as well as RTS/CTS flow control). With a three wire There are two common layouts (also they PCs, Macs, Unix boxes etc.) come hub in that network devices connect to it simply files. cable (send, receive and ground) codes ports of two computers using a straight called topologies) for an Ethernet net- with at least a 10BaseT NIC built in, and in a star topology but instead of broad- through cable as this can cause (called Xon/Xoff) within the data stream work, a star or a chain. In a star topol- if not PCI NICs are available very casting each packet of data to every Most networks consist of three discreet damage, always ensure you are using a are used by each machine to tell the ogy each device is connected to a cen- cheaply (from about £10). device on the network a switch ex- parts (I’m simplifying here but the three cable wired for parallel networking. other when it has data to send and when tral hub, when one device sends a amines the packet and only sends it to elements I describe are the ones a user 10Base2 it is ready to receive data. A seven wire A parallel connection is usually con- message the hub then broadcasts the the device it is intended for. This allows has to think about) , the hardware which A 10Base2 network also runs at 10MB/s cable has Ready to Send and Clear to siderably faster than a serial connection message to all the connected devices, each device on the network to run at its physically links the computers together, but uses 58 ohm coaxial cable (similar in Send lines allowing the flow of data to at about 40-60kb/s meaning our 1Mb file for this reason hubs are sometimes maximum speed as it is effectively talk- the networking software which allows construction to a TV aerial lead) which be controlled through hard ware which would transfer in around 20 seconds. called repeaters or concentrators. With ing directly to one other device at a time. them to communicate and application connects to each device using a BNC improves performance and reliability. Cable length is limited to about 5m, the chain topology each device is con- This is really only a side effect of a software which actually uses the net- connector (this is a coaxial connector The maximum length for a good quality again you may be able to get away with nected to another forming a daisy chain, switch as its main purpose is to reduce work connection. On many simpler net- with a locking ring to prevent accidental seven wire null modem cable is about a longer cable but you risk data corrup- as all the devices are connected to the network congestion and to allow all works the networking software is also disconnection). A 10Base2 network 15 meters, longer lengths may work but tion. As the parallel port is implemented same cable a message sent by one devices to run full duplex (they can send the application software, it establishes must use the chain topology with each you are more likely to encounter errors differently on different computers and device is seen by all the others without and receive at the same time) which communication and includes various machine connected to another. To do as the length increases. operating systems parallel networking is the need for a hub. A chain topology is also improves performance. services such as file transfer. More com- this each device has a “T” adaptor con- not as universal as serial, there tends to usually cheaper to set up because it plex networks use networking software There are two main limitations to a serial does not require a hub and generally nected to its BNC connector and a cable You’re NICed such as a TCP/IP stack to enable com- connection, firstly it is a point to point be a specific software and cable com- needs less cable however it has the dis- to another machine on the chain is con- Ethernet Network Interface cards have munication then separate application connection, unless you have machines advantage that disconnecting one nected to each “arm” of the “T”. On the been made for almost every model of software like a web browser or FTP with multiple free serial ports you can Network Topologies device from the network breaks the device at the each end of the chain a Amiga (yes, even the A500!), if you have client uses this connection to send and only link two machines at a time. The 50ohm terminator must be connected to Point to Point: chain and stops some devices access- a machine with Zorro slots quite a wide receive data across the network. In this second limitation is that serial transfers the empty leg of the “T” adaptor, these Two devices ing the rest of the network until the chain variety of Zorro II Ethernet cards have feature I will look at each of these are slow, the maximum speed of the directly connected. is restored. On a star network each terminators are required even if there been available and one or two can still elements in turn. Amiga’s internal serial port is 115200B/s device is independent of all the others are only two machines on the network. be found new (see table on the next (bits per second) which equates to about and can be disconnected at will. In large For the reasons set out in the section page). As usual the Zorro cards tend to Hardware 14kb/s (kilo bytes per second) before Chain: networks a star based topology has above 10Base2 networks are becoming be fairly expensive this means that any network overhead is taken into ac- Each device is connected to the even more advantages because it is less popular and 10BaseT (and faster second hand prices have also remained Serial count, this is much slower than even a next making a easier to troubleshoot and expand but systems based on the same type of ca- quite high. If you’re looking to buy Probably the lowest cost and simplest drive, transferring a 1Mb file ingle chain. this is beyond the scope of this feature. bling) now dominate the market. second hand be aware that many older way to connect two computers is via would take about 1.5 minutes over this However many older Ethernet cards Zorro cards do not have a UTP con- their serial ports, the vast majority of connection. So let’s take a look at the various types only have a BNC connector for nector so you’ll need to make sure they computers have a serial port complying of Ethernet network available to the A serial connection is a cheap way to 10Base2, if you would like to connect can be integrated into your network. to the RS232 standard and therefore Amiga user, in this section I will only connect two computers of almost any this type of card to a 10BaseT network can be connected in this way. To make Star: mention the most common types used in A1200 and A600 users can get a type however it is only really suitable for Each device is many hubs are available with UTP ports this connection you need a null modem home and small business networking. PCMCIA Ethernet card, a freeware small amounts of data or occasionally HUB connected to a and a BNC connector which can be serial cable which is a standard cable driver called cnet.device exists which transferring large amounts when you’re central hub. 10BaseT used to hook up one or more devices available at most computer shops and supports a variety of cards which comply prepared to wait. with 10Base2 connections chained suppliers such as Maplin Electronics. A 10BaseT Ethernet network runs at with the NE2000 standard, this means 10MB/s (just over 1 Megabyte per together. 14 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 15 FEATURES FEATURES

Common Amiga Ethernet Cards SANA 2 Miami also supports its own Parnet you can choose which devices PC 2 Am TCP/IP) is the data transfer protocol Common Amiga Ethernet Cards MNI (Miami Network Interface) drivers from the server are available on the used on many networks including the which are faster than SANA 2 but sup- client and they are mounted directly, PC2Am is a network solution used to Internet, it is an open standard available link an Amiga and a PC running MSDOS Manufacturer Model UTP BNC AUI Type New? port a smaller range of hardware. each one appears as a separate icon on on a wide variety of operating systems the client Workbench. Other advantages 6 or later. The documentation says it and platforms. TCP/IP provides a means Ameristar A4066 Y Y Y Zorro II N Networking Software over Parnet are that client machines (but works under Windows 95 (with long file of moving data between devices on a ASDG EB920 (Lan Rover) N Y N Zorro II N not servers) can be rebooted without name support) so therefore I would network, it does not provide any network Ateo Ateonet 1/1+ Y N N Ateobus ? Parnet/Sernet causing network problems, network assume it will be OK under 98 and ME services to the user. Each machine con- but probably won’t work on NT or 2000 Parnet is a simple Amiga only network- drives can be disconnected and chang- nected to a TCP/IP network runs a Ateo Ateonet 3/3+ Y Y Y Ateobus ? which don’t support DOS programs ing package that connects Amigas by ing discs in removable devices is sup- TCP/IP stack which handles the network Commodore A2065 N Y Y Zorro II N anymore. The two computers can be their parallel ports using a custom cable. ported. Additional utilities which run over connection and provides services to any connected by a null modem serial cable, Hydra Systems Hydra O O O Zorro II N Sernet offers similar features but con- the Pronet network are available includ- programs running on the computer a laplink cable or a custom parallel cable Configurations available with different network ports fitted. nects the Amigas using an RS232 null ing chat and which require network access. Many described in the documentation, the modem serial cable. Parnet is con- operating systems include a TCP/IP Individual Computers X-Surf Y Y N Zorro II Y remote control like Parnet. Pronet is now custom cable provides the best perfor- figured using a simple text file on each stack, on the Amiga the TCP/IP stack is Plus 2 clock ports, expansion port and 2 IDE (non- freeware and the source code is in- mance at about 40Kb per second With Amiga, then a server is started on one a separate program such as Genesis or cluded it its archive. PC2Am the PC’s drives appear under autoboot). machine Miami although Genesis is now included the PC: device on the Amiga, then you National Amiga APNET (NIMIQ) Y Y N PCMCIA ? with the OS. All the TCP/IP stacks on and a client on the other, on the client Envoy can read and write to the PC drives from Power Computing PowerLAN Y Y N PCMCIA Y the Amiga support SANA 2 network machine’s a device called This networking package was designed any program as if they were directly con- devices so they can be used on a RBM IOBlix Ethernet Module Y Y N IOBlix ZII ? NET: appears, this contains a directory by Commodore as a means of linking nected to the Amiga. However the variety of networks, it you want to con- Connects to rbm’s IOBlix Zorro II I/O card. for each drive on server (for example the Amigas, the current version, 3.0, was Amiga’s drives cannot be accessed from nect to another type of computer then its server’s startup-sequence would be updated by Heinz Worbel and released the PC. An interesting feature is that Village Tronic Ariadne Y Y N Zorro II N TCP/IP stack must support the type of found in NET:Workbench/s/startup- by Schatztruhe in 1998. Envoy is a com- several other PC devices in addition to Plus 2 parallel ports. connection you want to make. If you’re sequence on the client). From then on mercial product selling for about £30 drives can be accessed from the Amiga using Ethernet then this will be sup- Village Tronic Ariadne II Y Y N Zorro II Y the drives can be accessed from the with a two machine license. Envoy can these include prt: which is the PC prin- ported on most systems, serial is also Connection: Y = Fitted as standard., O = Factory option., N = Not available. Workbench, shell and other programs as be used to connect two or more Amigas ter. Data copied to this device will be well supported but parallel connections New?, is the card still available new: Y = Yes., N = No., ? = Unsure. if they were on the client machine. If over any network hardware with a SANA sent to a printer connected to the PC, are more difficult, and as far as I know required servers and clients can be run 2 driver. Envoy is a complete package note that other than for plain text you will only possible with Linux. you can buy a cheap generic PCMCIA connect to older “thick Ethernet” net- on both Amigas so each can access the providing both the network link and still need a suitable driver for the PC Once your Amiga is on a TCP/IP net- NIC and use it with your Amiga. Several works, which you are very unlikely to others drivers. Several other utilities are variety of services which use the link printer on the Amiga side. work there are many different programs Amiga dealers sell a bundle of a com- find anymore, especially not at home! available which run over Parnet such as such as file and printer sharing. It can TCP/IP that will utilise the connection, here are patible PCMCIA card and networking However the AUI port can be used to a simple chat program and the ability to also be set up to run along side TCP/IP some of the ones that may be useful on software. One thing to be aware of is connect a transceiver which converts it “remote control” one Amiga from the so you can have Envoy and Internet Transfer Control Protocol / Internet a small network: that due to a bug in the A1200’s to another Ethernet type, transceivers other’s mouse and keyboard. The access at the same time on the same Protocol (Commonly referred to as PCMCIA implementation the NIC may from AUI to both 10Base2 and 10BaseT original Parnet distribution has to be network. hand installed and configured however need to be unplugged and re-inserted are available at less than £30 and can The big advantage of Envoy over other there are now a number of packages after each cold reboot to reset the card, be a good way of using an older Zorro network packages is that it is self con- such as ParBench on which in- TCP/IP Network Strcture this is a problem if your 1200 is in a card with a more modern network. tained with clear GUI tools for configura- clude an installer which copy the files tower! A motherboard modification to tion and maintenance of all aspects of and configure the network. Parnet is Network correct the problem is detailed in the Drivers the network. Font sensitive GadTools FTP WWW Samba ICQ NNTP Freeware and the source code is avail- cnet.device documentation, both Any networking hardware from a simple based programs are used to set the ini- Services able. Eyetech and Power Computing sell a parallel cable to a Zorro Ethernet card tial configuration of each machine and small board which plugs over the Gayle needs driver software to enable pro- Pronet then to choose which directories, drives Remote chip and has the same effect but TCP/IP TCP/IP TCP/IP TCP/IP grams to access it. Sometimes this and printers should be available to TCP/IP Computers

Pronet is similar in concept to Parnet but Stack Stack Stack Stack Other Network requires no soldering. driver is built in to the network program others on the network. The Users Stacks rather more modern in design, firstly it The recently released Mediator, GRex so it is limited to particular hardware, for preferences editor allows you to set up example Parnet can only run over a supports separate device drivers (al- individual users and place them in and Prometheus PCI bus boards provide though it doesn’t support SANA 2), Network drivers supporting generic PCI NICs parnet cable, but more commonly separ- groups with specific privileges, when ate drivers are used so the network pro- drivers for parallel (both built-in and you set up a network drive or printer you based on the popular RealTek 8029 and Multiface 3 card) and serial ports are other compatible chipsets. These can gram can access any hardware which can choose who will have access to it. has a suitable driver. AmigaOS has a supplied and you can connect using commonly be found at a small fraction of Envoy is a step above the likes of TCP/IP standard for network drivers called several device drivers at a time so you the price of a Zorro NIC, you just need Pronet as it offers far more control over SANA 2 (Standard Amiga Networking could have one Amiga connected to Stack to be sure to get a card based on this the network, printing support and a level Architecture version 2), most network your serial port and another to your chipset. VGR.com (see the links boxout) of security. If you have an Amiga Only cards are supplied with a SANA 2 driver parallel port. Parallel connections use a have a list of specific brands which have network Envoy is an excellent and easy and other types of networking hardware parnet cable and serial uses a null been tested with the Mediator’s driver. modem cable. A text configuration file is to use tool, it is ideal for a home or small

including PCMCIA Ethernet cards, paral- Amiga Your office network. However if you have a AUI lel and serial cables and dial-up net- used to define the interfaces available Local mixed network, even one with several working are supported by third party on each Applications On many older Ethernet cards you will Amigas, you may prefer to spend time SANA 2 drivers (many of which are News find a 15pin “D” connector with a spring machine then a server program is setting up Samba which can achieve FTP Client Browser Samba ICQ available on Aminet). Some networking Reader clip, this is called an AUI connector (it started. On the client Amiga a different most of Envoy’s functionality and also software has its own standard for net- Each computer on a TCP/IP network runs a stack, applications stands for Attachment Unit Interface in shell command is issued to mount each works on many platforms. case you’re wondering) and was used to work drivers. For example in addition to drive required from the server. Unlike and network services access the network through the TCP/IP stack. 16 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 17 FEATURES FEATURES

Application Software titions, CDs, ZIP disks etc.) mounted on IPNAT Security one Amiga from another over any Web Links FTP TCP/IP network. On the server machine, IP Network Address Translation (some- If you are running any sort of server that which will make its volumes available, times called IP masquerading) is a gives access to your files and your net- Many of these links refer to Aminet, there are many Aminet sites around the The File Transfer Protocol is used to you need to install the netfs-server com- facility provided by some TCP/IP stacks. work is also connected to the Internet world, the home site is www.aminet.net/~aminet, for UK readers our local mirror is transfer files from one machine on a mand and make two changes in the The machine connected to the Internet you should give some thought to at uk.aminet.net/~aminet. To find the files referenced here just click on the “Tree of TCP/IP network to another, it can also TCP/IP stack’s configuration. On the has IPNAT turned on and the other security, if you do not it may be possible Aminet Directories” link and navigate to the appropriate directory or use the be used to perform simple file client machines that will access the machines on the network are set up to for someone out on the Internet to con- search facility. operations such as deleting and creating volumes the netfs-mount command and direct all requests for data from the inter- nect to your machine and access your Downloads directories across the network. FTP is a netfs-handler need to be installed and net to the connected machine, it be- files. As well as accessing private in- client server system, a server must be one configuration change is required on comes their gateway to the Internet. formation they may be able to damage Pronet: Aminet, comm/net/ProNET34. run on the machine from which you want the TCP/IP stack. Network volumes can IPNAT does its bit by making it look to your data and even remotely control Parnet: Aminet, comm/net/ParBENCH31.lha or similar, there are several dis- to access files and a client on the receiv- then be mounted on the client using the the outside world as if all the requests your computer for nefarious purposes. tributions. ing machine. Many people will already netfs-mount command or you can make come from the connected machine, The best solution is to have the Internet Sernet: Aminet, comm/net/sernet24.lha be familiar with FTP clients as they are a MountList or DOSDrivers for the when replies are received IPNAT works connection on one network and the local Pages on the GRex and Mediator PCI bus boards: www.vgr.com/cybergfx often used on the Internet, the Amiga remote volumes enabling them the be out which machine on the network machines on a different network, only has many excellent ones such as mounted like any other device. NetFS requested the information and sends it one machine needs to be connected to TCP/IP AmFTP, AmiTradeCenter, OpusFTP and has only very limited security features, across the local network to the correct both networks, the one acting as the Miami and Miami Deluxe: www.nordicglobal.com FTPMount. FTPMount and OpusFTP you can make a volume read only or not machine. The advantages of using gateway for Internet sharing. If your Genesis: www.haage-partner.com/products/genesis_e.htm are of particular interest as they allow available for mounting across the net- IPNAT are that it is transparent to ap- Internet connection is via a modem you you to access FTP servers as if they work but you cannot set access for par- plications on the client machines and no will end up with two networks, one con- SOCKS were hard drives, this can be particularly ticular users or require a password. special facilities are required in their sisting of the Internet machine and the SOCKS home page: www.socks.nec.com useful if you are using FTP on a local Because of these limitations NetFS is TCP/IP stacks. The only Amiga TCP/IP rest of the Internet and the local A free Windows SOCKS client: network. A variety of FTP servers are best suited to home networks where all stack to support IPNAT is Miami Deluxe Ethernet (or other type of network). The www.hummingbird.com/products/nc/socks/index.html available on Aminet and you can also the users are reasonably trust worthy, from Nordic Global so if your Amiga is problem comes when you have a cable Server for AmiTCP/IP and Genesis: Aminet, comm/tcp/Socks5.lha get them for most other platforms. they also mean that it would be unwise connected to the Internet and you want modem or other network device con- to share its connection using NAT you’ll necting you to the Internet, if you plug Samba to connect a network running NetFS Samba directly to the Internet without a firewall need to register this product. Windows this into a hub you are effectively con- Illustrated installation and tutorial: www.amigasamba.org Samba is an open source network although because the protocol is Amiga 98SE and above on the PC include necting your whole network to the Latest Amiga port of Samba (at time of writing): Aminet, package that makes any machine run- only it provides, to quote the docs, some IPNAT which call Internet Connection Internet which could allow undesirable comm/tcp/samba_2.0.7.lha ning it appear like a Windows PC on the measure of “security through obscurity”! Sharing, IPNAT is also a feature of Linux access to your network. A much better network, at first this may seem like a and I believe all other Unix like systems. solution is to fit one machine with two NetFS bad idea but it does have many advan- NFS If your Amiga is using one of these Ethernet cards, connect one to the net- machines as its Internet gateway then work and the other to the cable modem Aminet Download: comm/net/netfs053.lha tages. With Samba you can access Not to be confused with the Amiga only any of the Popular TCP/IP stacks will (or similar), this will then work in the A later version can be found in: Aminet, comm/tcp/AmiTCP-demo-40.lha drives and printers shared by Windows NetFS described above the Network do, Genesis, standard Miami and of same way as the modem set-up. Further An even later version is mentioned on www.cli.di.unipi.it/~chiarito/netfs.html but I users on your network and by anyone Filing System was developed by Sun course Miami Deluxe. protection is offered by a firewall, these couldn’t find a download. else with a machine running Samba. As Micro Systems and is commonly used programs can be configured to prevent Samba is available for many different on Unix based machines to share files NFS, ch_nfsc and utilities Can be found in: SOCKS unauthorised accesses to all the machines and operating systems it can over a network. NFS is a client server Aminet, comm/tcp/AmiTCP-demo-40.lha machines connected to the local net- be a common denominator making a system with file servers making direc- SOCKS (which isn’t an acronym for any- work. Miami Deluxe’s built-in firewall is FTP, Amiftpd, shareware (40USD) FTP server with GUI: http://www.cnetbbs.net mixed network very compatible. Several tories and their sub-directories available thing as far as I can tell) works in a simi- the only one I know of for the Amiga, if a ports of Samba have been made for the to client machines across a TCP/IP net- lar way to IPNAT in that a SOCKS server General Networking Information PC is your connection to the Internet Amiga, the most recent by Olaf Barthel work. On the Amiga only a NFS client is runs on the machine connected to the then there are lots of firewall products to For straightforward explanations of how some of the technologies I’ve mentioned is excellent. Samba’s main problem is available (ch_nfsc from the AmiTCP Internet, sends out requests and passes choose from. here works try the excellent www.howstuffworks.com. For example: that it is complex to set up, you have to package) so it is of limited use unless the information received back to the make some changes to your TCP/IP requesting client. However unlike NAT Ethernet: www.howstuffworks.com/ethernet.htm you have another machine running a Conclusion Serial: www.howstuffworks.com/serial-port.htm stack and configure the drives and prin- different OS providing an NFS server on applications running on the client ters to be shared via a text file or a form your network. On the plus side NFS machines, for example web browsers or If you have got this far through the fea- Ethernet FAQ: http://www.NetworkUptime.com/faqs/ethernet displayed in a web browser. Then the clients are available for most operating FTP clients, have to support SOCKS ture you will no doubt realise that net- This page by an anonymous Rob (he doesn’t mention his full name) has lots of other machines you want to access also systems so if you want to set up a cen- and be individually configured to use the working is a large and complex subject. useful networking information in the Siamese and Amiga sections: need to be configured. There are now tral file sever NFS would be a good way SOCKS server. Some platforms have a I’ve only scratched the surface here to www.dynamix.plus.com some excellent websites with extensive SOCKS client available which runs in give you an idea of what you can do and to access it. News Groups tutorials but even so be prepared to the background and allows most pro- which type of network might be best for spend some time getting it all up and Sharing an Internet grams to run seamlessly over SOCKS your situation. There’s not space in this You can read these groups in a stand-alone news reader such as Thor, NewsRog running. However once you have it once it has been installed and con- magazine to go into the detail of setting or Microdot. If you prefer the website http://groups.google.com allows you to read working Samba is very effective and it’s Connection figured. A SOCKS client is built into the up a network, if you want to have a go I news groups with a web browser. a nice feeling being able to manage your popular Amiga TCP/IP stacks and a would recommend taking a look at some If one of the machines on your network Amiga specific networking news group: comp.sys.amiga.networking PC’s files with directory Opus or print quick Google search found at least one of the websites I’ve listed in the box out is connected to the Internet it is possible General ethernet networking news group: comp.dcom.lans.ethernet from a PC program onto your Amiga’s free client for Windows. If you want to and reading the documentation that to make that connection available to the (be prepared for lots of people interested in networking 1000s of users in their printer (and vice versa). other machines so that several people use your Amiga as a SOCKS server (it comes with the networking software will be the machine connected to the company as well as home users): NetFS can access the Internet simultaneously. you’ve chosen. A bit of time invested will There are several ways of achieving Internet) then you will need either pay off in the long run and you may NetFS is a simple system which allows this, two of the most common are: Genesis (plus the server which is avail- even enjoy it! you to access volumes (hard disk par- able on Aminet) or Miami Deluxe.

18 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 19 REVIEWS REVIEWS

document can have multiple pages and occur it changes into an icon represent- Warp Factor 10 Something Fishy each page can have a different size, ing the type of snap (corner, line or Stretch and squash objects into Reviews are very subjective, what one either chosen from a list of common curve), very neat and easy. In addition to almost any shape using the envelope reviewer may love, another hates. Such paper sizes or any custom size you the different render modes mentioned is life. So we decided to have a general enter. To draw on the page you simply above DrawStudio can be set to display feature the warp command: score, which the reader can take into click on the tool of your choice and then purely in wire frame to speed up display account along with the text. draw it onto the page with the mouse. All on slower machines, intelligently when the basic drawing tools are provided in- you scroll the display the program So we invented the fish... it’s easy to Draw cluding line, polygon, rectangle and switches to wireframe mode so it can work out which we feel is a better oval, the last two can be constrained to scroll smoothly then redraws in full only product... the more bones that show, the square and circle respectively by holding when the scroll bar is released. Another smellier the fish :). We only award our As Kickstart re-release DrawStudio it’s a good Shift while you draw. There are also display mode shows you what top Caviar rating to products that are some more complex tools available such PostScript output would look like as it is Just drag the handles to define practically perfect. opportunity for Robert Williams to have a look at as the beizer curve which allows you to unable to display all DrawStuido’s the envelope. this structured drawing program. draw curved shapes with any number of effects, in particular transparency. The points, the resulting path can be open or icing on the ease of use cake is that rawStudio is a structured draw- by the Authors of DrawStudio and are closed. Once you have some objects on almost every requester in DrawStudio ing program, this means that well worth having. To help get you your page you can edit them by select- includes a neat preview so you can see Caviar DrawStudio is used to make im- started with DrawStudio Kicksoft have ing the pointer tool, clicking on an object just what changes your settings will D selects it, then you can move or re-size make before you accept them. ages composed of mathematically put a collection of clip art on the CD too. The best so far! We can hardly pick defined shapes. It is a quite different to it and apply other settings and effects anything out of it, not even boogers. which I’ll talk about later. Layers bitmap based paint and image process- Interface Then double click the background Rarer than Nessie. ing programs that work on images com- Even though DrawStudio uses MUI for A great deal of thought has obviously Each page in a document can have posed of pixels. For example if you draw its interface the authors have managed been put into making DrawStudio as several layers, much like the layer to apply! a square in a paint program it is formed to disable some of MUI’s features so comfortable to use as possible. The systems in recent bitmap graphics pro- of a certain number of pixels on each or bitmap. The colour style fills the you can’t do all the customising you main drawing aids are the excellent grams. Objects are placed on a par- side, if you wanted to change the square object or line with a solid colour, you would normally expect, the most obvious snapping controls, as in most programs ticular layer then the layer can be hidden you would have to undo or erase it and select the colour you wish to use from a limitation is that DrawStudio must be run you can snap to the user definable grid or greyed, this can make working on a draw it again. In DrawStudio a square is pre-defined list, each colour in the list on its own screen. The display settings but DrawStudio also offers a snap to complex drawing much easier as the described as four lines of a certain has a small preview so you know what within DrawStudio are used to select the object mode so the point you’re drawing objects on other layers don’t get in your This product is definitely worth buying length in a certain position, changing the you’re choosing. If the colour you want screen mode used and also how the lines up perfectly with the corner, line or way. If you like you can still snap to but, like most things, still has room for size of the square at any time is a isn’t available by default you can add a page is rendered. Four rendering modes curve of another object. When the poin- objects not on the current layer. To give improvement. simple matter of selecting it and moving new colour to the list and choose its are available, mono, grey scale, 8bit ter is close enough for an object snap to an example you could have a plan of its sizing handles with the mouse. shade using a colour wheel or com- colour and 24bit colour, DrawStudio your house on one layer and all the Structured packages have advantages ponent sliders. You can set the transpar- generates the page display in the mode furniture on another layer. If the furniture and disadvantages compared to their ency of a colour so that an object filled selected and then renders it to display layer was the current one you would be bitmap cousins, on the plus side struc- with it will reveal objects beneath, tinted on the selected screenmode. For ex- prevented from accidentally moving part tured images can be scaled to any size with the selected colour. Gradient fills ample it will render a 24bit page to dis- of the house but you could still snap a without becoming pixelised and are easy are a smooth transition between two or play as well as possible on a 256 colour kitchen unit neatly to a wall. to edit as each element can be more of the colours in your list, a selec- screen. The render mode selected in- Average, neither too good nor too bad manipulated at any time. However struc- tion of sample gradients are supplied or fluences the detail which can be dis- Fills and Colours — it works but there are areas which tured drawing is not suited to producing you can create your own. There are played and also the memory used. DrawStudio offers a range of styles that need major improvement or are way photographic images and tends to be several different gradient types including Obviously mono uses the least memory can be applied to the line and/or the fill behind competing products. less spontaneous. radial, linear and circular, you can set but shows colours and grey shades in of an object, these are selected in the the gradient direction and for the radial Installation roughly dithered black and white. Object Attributes requester. The avail- and circular types the centre point which Greyscale shows the page in full detail, able styles are colour, gradient, pattern makes creating “shiny ball” effects easy. Installing DrawStudio from the CD-ROM including transparency but with no You can include transparent colours in SMELLY is simply a case of copying the drawer colour. 8bit uses 256 colours to give a Pick predefined gradients from the list (left) or mix your gradient, this feature can be used containing the appropriate version, FPU dithered colour display but does not your own using the Gradient editor. The extensive to create great fade effects simply by Crap, but hopefully getting better in or non-FPU, onto your hard disk. show transparency. Finally 24bit shows use of thumbnails for the colours and gradients overlaying the objects you want to fade future versions (if there are any). Included on the CD are registered ver- the page in its full glory complete with makes these requesters a pleasure to use. with an object filled with a transparent sions of ImageStudio (a simple, very transparency, this luxury also uses the gradient. Usefully, custom colour lists memory efficient, image processor) and most memory for the display. This is one and gradients can be saved for use in Texture studio (which renders Imagine of DrawStudio’s strong points, you can other documents. Pattern fills are based procedural textures) these were written tailor it to work well on slower systems on a 8 by 8 pixel grid which is then tiled by sacrificing quality for speed. to fill the shape, you can select from pre- Product Information defined patterns or create your own. The Developer: Andy Dean and Drawing final fill type is bitmap, this allows you to Graham Dean Each DrawStudio document (you can fill Lines or objects with a bitmap image Disgusting, multicolour yawn inducing Distributor: Kicksoft have several open at once) has its own such as a photo. The bitmap can be set abomination that insults the Amiga. Tel: +44 (0) 1737 215432 window, the main area of the window is to fit the shape or to tile inside, with the WWW: www.kicksoft.co.uk the page display with a set of tool tiling option you can set the size of the Price: $50 (about £35) buttons down the left hand side. Each tiles to get the effect you want.

20 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 21 If you don’t see what you want, just ask! REVIEWS Our range is always growing! Bitmaps Kicksoft Players In addition to using a bitmap as an Moovid PPC object fill you can also insert bitmap Graphics PPC version with both WARPUP and POWERUP versions. objects into your document, this is Comes on CD achieved by first loading the image into Drawstudio DrawStudio and then placing it on the This excellent Graphics package avaliable one again!! £18.00 Comes on CDand includes Texture Studio & Image Studio. page. This process is slightly more long Moovid winded than other packages but it has £35.00 Play AVI, Mov and QT files on your Amiga© Comes on CD the advantage that DrawStudio only Photogenics 5 and includes demo files. loads an image once, regardless of how This excellent Graphics package by Paul Nolan. On CD. £12.00 many times that image is used in the £70.00 Frogger PPC document. All the common bitmap PPC MPEG player. Comes on CDwith example MPEGs. formats are supported for loading includ- Image Engineer ing IFF, JPEG and TIFF. You can also Great Image manipulation program. Add effects to images £18.00 choose to save any combination of The main DrawStudio window. such as Jigsaw, Wave and Frame! Comes on CD. Frogger objects or even a whole page as a feeling adventurous you can make a £25.00 68k MPEG player. Comes on CD with example MPEGs. bitmap image for use in other programs custom warp by dragging four handles Candy Factory Pro £12.00 or on a web page. If you’re saving in a Cons around the shape to create your own Create 3D Text from any standard font and use them on web Riva 24bit format such as IFF24 or JPEG you envelope. Text on a curve wraps any I can find very few negative things to say pages etc. Comes on CD. The fastest 68k MPEG player on the Amiga! Comes on CD can switch on the Antialiasing feature text you select along a curve or around about DrawStudio, if I had to find one with example MPEGs. which smooths out the jaggies in curved a circle. There a plenty of options allow- area it would be that the interface can £35.00 and diagonal lines when they are saved ing you to set the offset from the curve feel a bit clumsy, in particular the way Art Effect 4 £18.00 as a low resolution bitmap. and how the text is sized to fit the avail- you have to open requesters to perform Billed as “Photoshop® on the Amiga”. Excellent graphic SoftCinema able space, as usual a preview helps many functions. Most graphics and DTP package. Comes on CD. PPC AVI, QT and Mov player. On CD with example Movies. Fonts you make the right choices. programs now use palettes so these £75.00 £18.00 Postscript fonts are supported and there functions can remain available while you is a built-in font manager which allows Output work on different objects, making their you to access fonts installed anywhere In addition to saving bitmaps which are interfaces feel more fluid. DTP Internet on your system, so DrawStudio can compatible with almost any package share a common set of fonts with other DrawStudio can save its output in Conclusion PageStream Inet Dial applications. As PostScript fonts are various structured formats. As you DrawStudio is an extremely useful tool The Premier DTP program on the Amiga©, enough said!! Home server on your Amiga©. Comes on CD, includes scalable they produce perfect smooth would expect the native DrawStudio both for creating images for use in other £169.00 Apache and Geek Gadgets. output at any size, DrawStudio also format supports all the program’s applications and for short, graphically £40.00 allows you to convert a text object into features including multiple pages and oriented documents. I’ve found it par- PageStream Upgrade its component shapes so you can transparencies however as far as I am ticularly good for projects where I want The Premier DTP program on the Amiga©. Upgrade from AWeb manually edit the letters, idea for logos. aware no other programs are able to to mix bitmap and structured elements, version 3, you will need to provide your serial number. Excellent web browser Full Version. Comes on Floppy. Like any other object text can have its load or save this format. The other sup- it’s here that those transparent effects £65.00 £35.00 own line and fill styles and you can also ported formats are IFFD2RD and EPS. really come into their own! You soon AWeb Upgrade apply any of DrawStudio’s special IFFD2RD is the standard Amiga struc- learn the quirks of its interface and begin Excellent web Browser. Upgrade from OS 3.5 or OS 3.9. effects. While the text support is ideal for tured drawing format and is supported to enjoy the wealth of powerful features. Misc Comes on Floppy. projects with a small amount of text you by most other drawing and DTP pro- It’s sad that a program of this calibre is £29.99 wouldn’t want to add large blocks of text grams, however it does not support all no longer being developed however top GoldEd to a DrawStudio document as there is DawStudio’s features. EPS is in the marks to Kickstart for publishing it again The best Editor, Program Editor, HTML Generator on the no line wrap support (you must press same boat on features support but it is at an excellent price. Amiga. Comes on CD. Return at the end of each line) and each compatible with many recent programs £30.00 Utilities block of text must all be in the same on the Amiga and other platforms, as TaskiSMS format (you can’t make a single word in EPS is a type of PostScript you can use Results Professional File System 3 Send Text Messages to mobile phones from your Amiga! a paragraph bold or underlined for ex- the PostScript display mode to check The fastest and safest file system avaliable, upto 300 times Pros Comes on CD. ample). Another limitation is that you exactly what will be saved. As only faster than FFS. No longer get Validation errors! Powerful, wide range of features. cannot import text from a file, every DrawStudio’s own format supports all £12.00 £35.00 Excellent value for money. word must be typed into a text box. the programs you will probably need to Spitfire 2 Metaview save as a bitmap at an appropriate reso- Cons If you have a 3com Palm© or compatible then you need this The best Clipart viewer on the Amiga©. Comes on CDwith Special Effects lution to get the full effect into another Interface slightly old fashioned. program! Comes on CD. 30,000 clip art images. A selection of special effect features can package. Although this isn’t a major No further development. £25.00 problem it is a pity that a powerful, £18.00 help jazz up your documents (although Directory Opus 5 Diavolo most of them are best used sparingly!). widely supported, structured graphics The best Workbench replacement program avaliable. Fully The best backup program on the Amiga©. Comes on Floppy The most flexible is the warp effect format hasn’t appeared on the Amiga. multitasking, Filetype reconition and much more... disk. which can form the objects you select TurboPrint, PostScript and preferences £55.00 into a certain envelope. A variety of pre- printer drivers are supported for printing £50.00 set warps are available in the Warp from DrawStudio, of the three only Add £1.00 UK postage per item. Make cheques payable to Kicksoft Ltd. requester, some examples are perspec- TurboPrint will really do DrawStudio Kicksoft Ltd., tive, arc and parallelogram. If you’re justice by printing in full 24bit colour. 30 Whitegate Way, Buy Online at Tadworth, 22 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Surrey, KT20 5NS http://www.kicksoft.co.uk (01737) 215432 REVIEWS REVIEWS

shown before and after thumbnail of the image and estimates of how long it would take to download at various modem speeds.... wicked! GIF is still not supported in the Amiga version, Photogenics probably due to licensing issues. New Effects So what new image processing and Mick Sutton and Rpbert Williams look at the latest version of an old favourite. painting features are there in version 5 then? Well for starters there’s the new transparency and vignette tab in the hotogenics for anyone who isn’t ing it opens the save as window...... tools window, these features allow you aware is a 24 bit paint and image hmmmmm, lets hope this is oversight on to set the overall transparency of the Pprocessing package with a Pauls part (can 5we have our printing op- paint layer in different ways. The trans- unique way of working, it allows you to tion back please Paul). Some things parency section has sliders which vary paint on and off all manner of effects have been added to the GUI, one of the the transparency based on aspects of and has a vast array of real world paint- most useful being the inspection tab, the image such as the three primary ing tools making it ideal for experimenta- this shows a close up view of the image colours (RGB), shadows, midtones and tion and producing really artistic looking under the pointer, ideal for detailed highlights, you can still paint on and off results! work. If you are zoomed in on the with the mouse. This feature allows you image the inspection tab changes to to easily apply an effect to a particular Lara Sutton demonstrates the vignette effect! The minimum requirements are: The tips are really useful and once show the un-zoomed image so you can part of the image for example you could you’ve read them just switch them off! 68030 CPU see the overall effect of the changes you use it to lighten or darken shadow areas. addition to it’s old function of moving the moving between text gadgets with the 8Mb RAM make. Vignettes work in a similar way but limit layer. The symmetry tool now has the Tab key as currently you have to use the Amiga OS 3.0 is that this upgrade is free to Amiga ver- the effect to a border around the image option to set the number of levels you mouse to select each one. All these CD ROM drive sion 4 owners! which can be rectangle, circle or oval, Loading and Saving wish to use, so now you can draw some gripes are minor and none of them im- you can set the size of the border and File format support has been improved very complex kaleidoscopes! pair the use of the package. but you really need: So what’s new since our how it blends into the image, this is good there are now loaders for Photoshop, 50mhz 68060 CPU for quickly “framing” photos (see ex- A few new paint modes have been intro- In summary Photogenics 5 is an excel- review of version 4? PCD and a variety of common Unix a 16 or 24bit display ample screenshot xx). duced in version 5, but there have been lent program and has come along in formats. The PCD loader is particularly 16Mb or more RAM When you load Photogenics for the first many added since the original version 4, leaps and bounds since the initial ver- useful because it allows you to select The text feature has been vastly im- time the preferences window opens some of our favourites are bizarre sion 4 release, the fact that version 5 is Since Photogenics 4 was released in the image resolution and orientation proved in functionality and more impor- allowing you to select your desired pixelise which is a bit like looking a fairly small step from 4.5 is reflected in 1999 it has gone through many minor before loading, most of these formats tantly ease of use, you can now have screenmode, undo levels and GUI through a glass brick wall, honeycomb the free upgrade. If you are at all inter- upgrades each adding more features with the exception of PCD are also avail- multiple text boxes on the image at related options. Once you have saved which breaks the image up into ested in graphics Photogenics is a must and improving stability. Version 5, that able as savers. During the development once, each with a different font and set- your settings Photogenics loads and dis- hexagons, remove red eye (does what it have application it has an excellent mix- we are looking at here was released in of version 4 a new file format unique to tings if you should wish and all the plays a “Tip of the day” window, these says on the tin), bumpmap produces a ture of realistic painting tools and power- March this year and is the first version Photogenics was added, this supports boxes remain editable until you fix the tips are both useful and quite detailed full colour emboss effect, star blur and ful effects all of which seem to run con- that is available for multiple platforms all Photogenics features so you can layer. Another fine feature is the anti- however, if you really don’t like them plus blur. There are also a whole host of siderably faster than the competition, go (Amiga, Linux and Windows). Although save an image complete with layers and aliasing options which smooth out the they can be disabled. Since the original rub-through options, which are handy as on treat yourself! there are some major new features in effects. This is very useful indeed as it jagged edges on text, and there are version 4 release there have been lots this is how you composite images in version 5 it is a fairly small upgrade from allows you to work on a complex image three levels to choose from, low, of minor improvements in the GUI such Photogenics. the last upgrade of version 4 (4.5), the over several sessions, and for those of medium and high. The text boxes them- as much clearer tabs in the tools window Results jump in version number reflects the us that don’t get that perfect result first selves have been improved with eight (labelled options) which are selected Perfect? move to multi platform. The good news time there’s no need to stay up till 3 AM larger sizing handles which makes them automatically when you move your poin- till we get it right! much easier to manipulate, this There are a few improvements that we Pros ter over them (this can be disabled) welcome improvement has also been feel could be made, probably the major Excellent range of features and Whilst on the subject of savers, a new which can make operations much faster applied to the crop tool, the single pixel one is cleared layers management, cur- unique ways of using them. save for Internet window has been but takes some getting used to. The handles in version 4 were very frustrat- rently Photogenics has a pop out menu Upgrades have really improved it. added, this shows you the effect on both toolbar icons now “roll over” (get a 3D ing indeed! of layers which makes it difficult to tell Version 5 is a free upgrade. quality and file size of different JPEG look) as your pointer moves over them where the current layer is in relation to and PNG quality settings. You are A totally new feature is batch file conver- and almost all gadgets have tool tips the others. It would be nice to see a sep- Cons sion, selected from the project menu a (pop up help bubbles) which appear if arate layers window with drag and drop Layers management not intuitive. Product Information window with a simple source file list, you hold your pointer over the for a few sorting, name labels and icons to show GUI can be sluggish. destination, and file format selection seconds. Developer: Paul Nolan hidden or visible layers (Art Effect 4 has Available: from Kicksoft and other allows you to convert all the selected The NGIO tab in the tools window which a window like this and we found it much dealers. files to any of Photogenics save formats. showed the savers and print modules in clearer). On some effects and Tel: +44 (0) 1737 219280 version 4.x has been removed, save Two of the tool bar functions have been operations the progress bar does not WWW: www.paulnolan.com formats can now be selected from a enhanced, the move tool and the sym- seem to keep in time with what’s www.kicksoft.co.uk window that opens when you select metry tool. You can now choose to move actually happening, sometimes leaving Price: $99 downloadable from save as or the save icon on the toolbar. the secondary image (the image that is you wondering wether something is Paul’s website. Printing seems to have disappeared! used for rub through), the alpha channel happening or if it’s hung! Another thing £70 on CD from The new batch conversion window is There is an icon on the toolbar but click- or both together with the move tool, in we would like to see in future versions is Kicksoft. simple and effective. 24 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 25 REVIEWS REVIEWS Choosing a free call Phone bill out of control? Gary Artec AM12S Storm might have the answer! ISP fter seeing and using the they supported. And so I didn’t have use the scanner is to switch the carriage fter receiving a huge phone (£12.99, 12 months minimum); scanners at my college for much luck in the outside, so instead I lock into unlock position, as I remember bill from BT, which said that www.supanet.co.uk (£12.99; 12 months Avarious assignments and had a look at what the Amiga retailers from a recent scanner demo at SEAL. Aour madasafish account (free minimum); www.surfanytime.net projects, I thought I wouldn’t mind had to offer, obviously the choice was But I’ve found that it doesn’t work The AM12S has a minimalist design, ISP... you only pay for the time on-line) (£12.99, 6 months minimum); having one at home for my trusty miggy. restricted, but I knew the scanners anyway, snd it needs extra care when even lacking an on/off switch! had cost us over £40, it was time to sort www.worldonline.co.uk (£14.99, 3 So I had a look around at various com- would be better supported. I saw being transported around. out some unmetered Internet access. months minimum). puter outlets, but found my choice was Analogic doing Umax scanners, bundled With schemes like this you pay a set fee Unfortunately I wasn’t too sure what I So my only option was to either get a I discounted AOL because I don`t like somewhat restricted because most with PhotoScope for £139.95, or per month, and enjoy internet access was doing, as the scanner came with no CyberSCSI add on to my accelerator, or the idea of a nanny ISP, where your surf- scanners now are USB. At the same £159.95 with a Squirrel interface. My whenever you want it... no more huge manual, but came with PC software get an Oktagon card, which was the op- ing can be dictated by them. The good time I had a look at the software avail- mind was made up. After three weeks internet bills. The only catch is that (Adobe Photo Deluxe), and obviously tion I took. side to AOL is you don`t get cut off, and able on the Amiga, and what scanners of waiting, the scanner finally arrived, you`ll be cut off after 2 hours or sooner came with Photoscope, which did thank- it`s a big company. £14.99 pm, only to find that it was an Artec, not a And so when the Oktagon card arrived with most of them (but can re-connect fully have a manual. www.aol.co.uk [AOL also needs their Umax scanner. I found it to be virtually and was fitted into my A4000, I had to straightaway), which is fair enough so PC/Mac only software, Ed]. Product Information the same spec scanner as the Umax Another problem I ran into was trying to change a couple of jumpers, set the people don`t hog the access. one I hoped for, so I wasn’t that get the scanner to be recognised on my right device in the PhotoScope preferen- I also discounted BT Internet. Hey, I Developer: Artec So, armed with a copy of Web User bothered. Amiga (via my GVP SCSI card). I tried ces, and I was away! wanna get away from these guys. Distributor: Analogic (issue 8), the internet, updating the drivers for the SCSI card £14.99 pm, www.btinternet.com . Tel: +44 (0) 20 85469575 www.net4nowt.com, and a burning Plug it in! which made no difference whatsoever. Scan it in! WWW: www.artecusa.com desire to stop paying for BT booze-ups I An invaluable resource is actually Robert tried the scanner on his A3000, www.analogic.co.uk The first thing I noticed when I went to In operation, the scanner is pretty quiet, went in search of the unmetered ISP to www.net4nowt.com, which has a huge which has built in SCSI, to make sure it Price: £139.95 incl. Driver switch the scanner on, was that there but it’s slightly slower than the other suit me and my Amiga. list of ISP`s in different categories and was the GVP card at fault and not the £159.95 with was no on/off switch, and the second scanners I have used. One thing you do user reviews and feedback for all of scanner, and found that to be the case. Firstly, after ringing a few places up, I Squirrel Interface. thing which is most important before you have to remember is to allow the scan- them. Looking through the feedback is found that some of the information in the ner about two minutes to warm up, or one of the best indicators, although of wait for the green light to come on, Web User article wasn`t very well Pay by credit card and Send 3x first class course no ISP is perfect and they all get a free CD-ROM. stamps for catalogue researched (i.e. it was wrong). Here`s which is a bit annoying if you just want have their share of good and bad feed- (call for details) FORE-MATT Home Computing packed with details on the ISP`s which an Amigan can`t use, as State Amiga model our vast range of titles to get on with your scanning. back. You be the judge. when ordering. (08700) 112234 • Dept. C, PO Box 835, Wootton Bassett, Swindon, SN4 8RX and PD from only 70p. they rely on pc software to enable their The scanner is capable of 36 bit true connections from your computer to In the end I decided on colour, it has an optical resolution of 600 work: www.keme.co.uk, £14.99 a month (1 x 1200 dpi, and has a maximum resolu- month minimum contract), some good It’s Good To Give Unlimited. tion of 19200 x 19200 dpi! The scan- reviews and they also sponsor NTL World. ning area is 8.26 x 11.7 inches (A4 size). www.net4nowt.com (which is brave). The Free Internet Unmetered. Heretic 2 £40Shogo £35 Napalm £28 Myst £25 MooVid Pro 2 £20 CyberGraphX £25 The light source is a long lasting cold When I called up the sales line no-one Tiny Online. cathode fluorescent lamp. sniggered when I mentioned Amiga... V21 Any Time. Overall I am quite pleased with the they just checked to make sure I scanner bundle, and has so far served That leaves us with the (apparently) wouldn`t have any problems. They me quite well. I’ve found it to come in Amiga-friendly ISP`s: entered my details on the phone instead Simon Sorcerer 2 £30 Hell Squad £30 Amiga Classix 3 £20 Earth 2140 £30NcodeR £25 PFS 3 £35 of the website as normal (as you can`t handy for quite a number of things, in- If you`re in a Telewest cabled area, CDROM GAMES CDROM GAMES CDROM GAMES UTILITIES UTILITIES UTILITIES cluding my college work, and even for handle the encryption on an Amiga un- Adventurers Lair...... £20 Genetic Species...... £10 Spherical Worlds ...... £10 17 Bit Level 6...... £10 CybergraphX...... £25 In To The Net (2CD) ...... £3 then they`re not too bad at £10 a month Amiga Classix...... £15 Giana Sisters Trilogy...... £10 Sports Mad ...... £20 100%AMIGA CD Magazine...... £5 Cross Dos 7 Gold ...... £40 Learning Curvemy...... parents! £20I can’t imagine being with- less you have Miami SSL to pay the Amiga Classix 2 ...... £20 Goal! 2000 ...... £10 Star Fighter...... £15 100%AMIGA Annual UK Sub..... £48 Darkage Developer...... £10 Lightrom 8 or 9 ea...... £30 as long as you use a certain amount of Aminet Games...... £15 Gremlin Classix...... £20 Street Racer CD...... £10 A-Z of Amiga Games...... £20 Diavolo 2000 ...... £50 LSD 1 or 2 ea.out...... it now. I must £15 say, the bundle is fee). They also give you 50mb website Aqua ...... £15 Imperator CD ...... £15 Superfrog...... £10 Amiga Desktop Video2...... £10 Digibooster Pro ...... £20 Make CD DAO...... £50 telephone calls through them as well. Arcade Classix + ...... £10 Islona Collection ...... £20 Super Methane Bros...... £10 Amiga Developer 2.1...... £20 Digital Almanac 2...... £25 Midi Files ...... good value, considering £10 this is quite a space, 999 e-mail addresses, and the Arcade Classix Mk 2 ...... £15 Labyrinth Of Time ...... £10 Tales From Heaven ...... £20 Amiga Repair Kit ...... £35 Digital Makeup ...... £15 Multimedia Backdrop...... £15 Help line is at local call rate. Blade...... £10 Lure of the Temptress...... £15 Testament CD...... £10 Amiga Tools 8 ...... £15 Dopus 5 Magellon 2...... £50 Net News Offlinehigh v1 ...... spec scanner, £5 but if it’s speed you quite useful online e-mail access so you Bubba n Stix CD32...... £10 Mad About Mahjong ...... £10 Theme Park CD ...... £10 Amiga Web Offline...... £5 EASys! Enhancer...... £20 Network CD ...... £10 www.blueyonder.co.uk . Bubble Heroes...... £15 Megaball Deluxe...... £15 The Games Room...... £15 Aminet Set 4 - 11 ea...... £30 Emulators Unlimited ...... £10 Network CD 2need,...... then I’d £15 look at some of the latest can check your e-mail from any com- CDS Collection...... £15 Moonbases ...... £10 The Prophet...... £15 Aminet Set Subscribe...... £20 Euro CD v2 ...... £10 Octamed Soundstudio...... £10 Cedric ...... £15 Naughty Ones CD32 ...... £10 Trivial Pursuit ...... 15 Aminet Singles...... £13 Extreme CD ...... £10 OS 3.9...... HP or Epson £30models. If you have money to burn, Demon puter anywhere. You can even add other Chess 2k...... £15 Nightlong/Quake...... £45 Turbo Racer 3D ...... £10 Aminet Subscription ...... £10 Extreme Visual FX2...... £10 Photo CD Manager ...... £15 Civilization AGA/ECS...... £10 Pacman Attack...... £10 T-Zero ...... £25 Amos PDCD2 ...... £20 Faces of Mars 2001...... £15 Photofolio v2...... £25 offer excellent service, but is very pricey mail servers to your account, for in- D-1000 doom data ...... £10 Payback ...... £35 Ultimate Gloom...... £10 Animations CD...... £15 fxPaint v1.5 ...... £60 Photogenics 5...... £70 Eat The Whistle...... £10 Phoenix Fighters...... £10 Ult. Super Skidmarks ...... £10 Animatic ...... £5 fxScan v3.0 ...... £25 Red Hat Linux...... £20 at £40 per month (as £20 goes to BT). stance I can still get my mail from European Superleague...... £10 Pinball Illusions CD32 ...... £10 Uropa 2 ...... £10 Art Studio Pro ...... £35 Gateway v1 (netBSD)...... £10 Screen Savers 2...... £10 Exodus...... 35 Pure Doom...... £10 Virtual Ball Fighters...... £15 Asim CDFS v3.x ...... £30 Giga Graphics...... £10 Sounds TerrificBy 2...... Elliott Bird £10 www.demon.co.uk . madasafish through keme. The only Fears CD32 ...... £10 Red Mars...... £15 Virtual Karting 2...... £10 Aweb II v3.3 ...... £40 Giga PD v3 (3Cdset) ...... £5 System Booster ...... £10 down-side to keme are that it`s not Fields of Glory ...... £15 Retro Gold...... £10 Vital Light...... £10 Aweb II v3.3 OS3.5upg ...... £30 GlowIcons ...... 15 Texture Heaven 1&2...... £10 A number of ISP`s had minimum con- Final Odyssey...... £10 Seaside ...... £20 Wasted Dreams...... £20 Beauty of Chaos...... £5 Graphic Sensations ...... £10 Turbo Calc 5 ...... £60 always easy to access during the busy Fightin Spirit ...... £15 Shadow of 3rd Moon ...... £20 Whales Voyage 2 ...... £15 Best of Airsoft ...... £10 Guinness Records v2 ...... £10 Turbo Print 7.x ...... £40 tract times of more than a month, which Flyin High ...... £15 Simon the Sorcerer...... £10 Wipeout 2097 PPC...... £30 Best of Mecomp v1...... £5 HD Patchez...... £10 VHI Studio 5.2 ...... £30 times (which even happened when I was Foundation Gold...... £25 Sixth Sense Invest’ns ...... £15 Word Games...... £10 Blitz Basic 2.1 (ult.) ...... £10 Hidden Truth...... £10 Workbench 3.0 Set...... £10 is a bit risky for the user if you can Foundation Und.Land ...... £15 Skeleton Krew CD32 ...... £10 Zombie Massacre{18} ...... £15 Candy Factory Pro ...... £35 Ibrowse 2.x...... £35 Workbench Addon CD...... £10 with Telewest). hardly ever get connected or they go bust soon after you join, therefore I put And there we go, I now enjoy 24/7 inter- these ISPs on the back-burner for the net access, for £15 a month. You could moment: www.0800dial.com (£12.99, 3 be too. 100% Amiga - Experience the new magazine on CDROM. months minimum); www.4thenet.co.uk

www.forematt.free-online.co.uk [email protected] Results 26 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 27 REVIEWS REVIEWS Earth

You start with a few soldiers...... and before long...... the action really hots up! 2140Hostilities Begin use by double clicking on one of four tains game information and controls. At unchartered, but once your troops go on minerals and a Bantha vehicle to program icons. the top of the strip you will find a the march the areas light up showing the transport them, finally the money starts Earth2140 is a war strategy type game thumbnail map showing the entire bat- full detail of the area, this represents rolling in. The other essential building is in the mould of the likes of Napalm and It’s War tlefield, coloured dots show your units, your troops visual range and once they a power station, without one none of the Command & Conquer, where you have enemy units, buildings and where move away the area is shown slightly other buildings will function. You can On running the game it goes straight control over your forces destiny via battles are taking place. Below the darkened which means although you build all manner of buildings to enhance into the intro animation which is quite mouse control (wish that worked at thumbnail the game controls are shown have chartered the area you can no your war effort, including a robot factory long but gives you a “feel” for the game. home), you can think long and hard on a series of tabs so they don’t take up longer see it! This is best demonstrated to build troops, heavy tech to build Once the intro is finished you are about strategy and form the perfect a lot of room and get in the way. These when you have moved into an area, vehicles, research centre for better Select your side, presented with the menu screen which “it’s an East West kinda thing”. scenario for your forces to take over the tabs contain all the information such as moved on, then on your return when you units, there are also air and water bases is navigated around by moving the world, or if you are more like me go in how much cash you have, the state of enter the area you may find the enemy to add variety. mouse and the screen scrolls (in my guns blazing and get snookered from a your forces, a summary of your objec- suddenly appearing out of nowhere and case very fast and smoothly) to where rearward counter attack (ouch). But tives, and game controls such as load attacking you (sneaky but cool). Enemy Defeated you move the mouse to....neat! Here is that’s what its all about in this game, no and save. One tab allows you to change where you choose what side to do battle This is where things get really interest- Earth2140 strikes a good balance matter what your skill level you will no the behaviour of your units for example for (either UCS or Ed...it’s an East West ing, the battles that take place are just between Strategy and playability, even doubt enjoy it. Strategy games are not you can set them to guard a position, kinda thing) with each side having it’s so good to watch with both sides firing at newcomers to the genre will be able to normally my cup of tea but after playing attack or escort another unit. Another own array of weapons, or you can look each other, rockets are launched that pick it up easily (unlike Napalm which I the demo I knew that Earth2140 was a feature is the ability to assign a group of at the database where you can view the have amazing smoke trails behind them, found very difficult to master), then the quality game, and boy was I right! After units to one of three virtual Generals various buildings, soldiers or vehicles, the explosions are particularly nice and learning curve is progressive so you loading it up for the first time I couldn’t (yes sir!) who will then automatically there are also options for Net and Serial leave scorched buildings and land be- don’t get frustrated. The graphics and resist playing it, and in fact when I control these units, you can set each but when I clicked on them I got a hind. There are a whole host of units to effects are not only awesome but run Which country shall we flatten today?finally stopped playing (to go to bed) I General to be either defensive of offen- message stating these will be available choose from with four basic types, very smoothly indeed, even if you are was totally shocked to realise it was 2 sive (they will defend the area or go out with the mission pack Cd’s (can’t wait for robots, armoured vehicles, bikes and not a Strategy fan this is one title not to AM! This game is just so easy to pick up and attack enemy units respectively). them). Ok so once you have selected be missed. and get into, even for strategy game walkers. Each type of unit has it’s own your side you are next presented with a amateurs like me as you can set the skill The Carnage Begins characteristic speed and strength, they screen to choose your difficulty level (I level to suit the type of player you are (I can also have different weapons such chose easy....yeah I know I’m a wimp), I must say the graphics of this game are set skill level to easy...... wimp). as missiles or grenades. Later in the where upon you are shown yet another superb, the main battlefield screen (to game more advanced weapons become Results Peace Talks Break Down screen where you choose the area the right of the control GUI) is rather well available such as aeroplanes, ships, where this war is gonna take off, having drawn with raised plateau’s, trees, lazer cannons and plasma weapons. To Pros The game comes on 1 CD packaged in said that I could only choose one for grassland and desert sand areas, and accompany the carnage is a bizarre Smooth game play and scrolling. a DVD case (which I think is the smar- whatever side I fought for but there when tracked vehicles cross these areas selection of CD music which ranges Variety of units and missions. test packaging solution) along with a 20 looks like many areas, mainland Europe, the leave track marks in their wake. Lets from light metal (almost suitable) Difficulty curve “just right”. page manual which although not very England, Netherlands, Africa and good go into battle, you can select a single through blues saxophone to a real sur- The built-in database has detailsdetailed of the has plenty enough information old USA can be selected if you have the unit by clicking on it with the mouse real happy tweety tune (has to be heard Cons many different units and buildings.to get you going and to be quite fair relevant mission packs! pointer and sending it into battle or a to be believed), maybe it is designed to That music! once you get into the game you will not reconnaissance mission by then clicking make you feel guilty about all the killing On selection of the battlefield location a Backgrounds get a bit repetitive. probably need it as the controls are anywhere you desire on the map (I going on (almost anti war)... strange! short anim loads followed by an objec- Product Information pretty well thought out and easy to mas- don’t recommend single units, bound to tives screen that informs you what to do Wars are expensive and Earth2140 Developer: Topware Interactive ter. Installation is via the standard in- get outnumbered), or you can drag your which can range from searching for and doesn’t let you forget it, to build new Amiga Port: Pagan Games staller where you make a few choices mouse over multiple units (soldiers and killing all the enemy units, to more com- units you must mine minerals which are Distributor: Epic Interactive such as where to install to. Earth 2140 vehicles) which will select them all and plex missions such as capturing enemy then refined and increase your funds. To Available: From most Amiga supports 640x480 and 800x600 16bit send them of to battle (much better buildings or defending particular buil- extract these minerals you need to build games dealers. screenmodes, a graphics card is safety in numbers), of course not forget- dings or units. Then at last the main a mine which must be located where the WWW: required. 68k (the documentation states ting to leave a few behind to look after game screen opens with the battlefield minerals are available on the map, there www.pagan-games.com ‘060 only) and PPC via WarpUp ver- home base in case of surprise attacks. taking up most of the available area but are usually only a couple of places on www.epic-interactive.com sions are supplied, you select the One thing you will notice is that most of down the left hand side there is a strip each level. So now you have your mine Price: around £30 screenmode and processor you want to the map area is black which means it is (about one fifth of the screen) that con- you need a refinery to process the 28 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 29 REVIEWS REVIEWS

tensive so the faster your machine the one.....neat! Unfortunately you cannot better. On a 240 Mhz PPC machine we re-size the window but you could always found a VideoCD played back with little play back full screen (which is faster or no skipping (frames missed) so on a anyway). Movie Player PPC machine Frogger should be able to On a PPC 240 Mhz system all the play back all MPEG movies at full Mick Sutton and Robert Williams get movies we tried (which went up to 320 x speed. 256, 15 FPS) played back at full speed into the saddle and rope three top In our experience Frogger has more without any dropped frames. On the movie players. Roundup features than any other MPEG player 060/50 Mhz the frame rate dropped and is very fast and stable, what more slightly with the same movies but they ideo clips are very common on Product Information playback, there are two reasons behind would you want! (Except perhaps a were still watchable and in sync with the the internet, from film trailers to this, firstly DVDs are encrypted to better GUI) sound. interviews with Amiga Registered versions of all the players prevent copying and any player would MooVID has the most complex interface V are available on CD complete with In summary Moovid is a very capable celebrities, whatever the content a few need a licensed decoder and secondly MooVID player with particularly good support for seconds of un-compressed video would sample movies from Kicksoft: no currently available Amiga system is of the three. requester pops up where you can select Moovid is a AVI and Quicktime player 68K and AGA only systems, the neat take a long time to download. Many dif- Distributor: Kicksoft powerful enough to decode DVD resolu- MPEG movie(s) to play. Once the first that supports a variety of codecs (see GUI controls make it easy to use. ferent video formats have been devel- Tel: +44 (0) 1737 215432 tion video in realtime. In the future a movie has loaded a slider at the bottom boxout) and is available for both 68K oped with the aim of getting an accepta- WWW: www.kicksoft.co.uk DVD hardware decoder may be devel- of the window allows you to move and PPC (WarpUp), there is also a SoftCinema ble quality of video in the smallest possi- Or you can register directly with the oped for classic Amigas and hopefully quickly to any point and there are Picasso IV specific version which uses ble file size. This has lead to many dif- developers: the new G3 and G4 hardware will have Softcinema is also an AVI and Quicktime buttons to pause the playback and to the PIV’s overlay feature. Graphics ferent formats, developed by different Frogger the grunt to do the job in software. player and unsurprisingly is similar to select another file. You can resize the cards and AGA are supported with a companies and organisations, some of Moovid in many ways, it supports AGA Developer: window to scale the movie to any size selection of dithering options to get the these formats are open (specification is Other Formats and graphics cards and there are a Sebastian Jedruszkiewicz you wish and there is a useful aspect best out of an AGA display, ECS is even freely available) and others are proprie- selection of dithering methods. Likewise WWW: frogger.rules.pl There are also other formats kicking lock feature which stops you dragging it supported but only in 16 greyscales. tary (the specification is only available the configuration is by tooltypes or shell Price: 30DM (about £10) around such as Real Video (file exten- out of shape. If you have selected more Moovid can be started via it’s workbench with a licence, usually expensive). As options and the program can be run MooVID sion RM) and VIVO (extension VIV) than one MPEG file you can use the left icon or from a shell, the settings can be you can imagine this makes developing from the Workbench or shell. One major Developer: László Török which unfortunately to this day cannot and right arrow keys to skip between defined in the icon tooltypes or as shell a player that can play most formats you difference is that Softcinema is PPC WWW: www.dfmk.hu/~torokl be played on an Amiga. We should men- them. Various other options are avail- options, they are all documented in the are likely to find on the internet very dif- only using PowerUp (it will also work Price: 68k - 20DM (£7) tion that even on the PC Real Video can able from the menus, these include the supplied Amigaguide manual. If you ficult, but that hasn’t stopped many in- under WarpUp with PowerUp emula- PPC - 40DM (£15) only be played using Realplayer which is playback speed (from 5 to 35 frames per don’t specify a file to load Moovid opens trepid Amiga coders trying! covered in adverts and automatically tion). SoftCinema second in 5 FPS increments), window a file requester when you run it, the So what formats are there then? connects to internet sites to update itself size (50%, 100% and 200% of the video really cool thing is that you can select When Softcinema is loaded it initially Developer: Jacek Cybularczyk (every bloody time you try and use it!) ... size), Audio on/off and full screen on/off. several movies to play in turn....nice! opens a file requester from which to WWW: AVI (also known as video for horrible! select your movie, only one file may be www.amiga.pl/softcinema VideoCD’s are a special CD format that selected at a time. The playback window Windows) Price: 30DM (about £10) Now lets have a look at some of the holds an MPEG encoded movie, a fea- Once a file is selected the GUI opens, (or screen) then opens with position Amiga video players available. ture film normally uses two Cd’s and is As you can guess this is a format devel- this can be in a separate window or on slider, play/pause button and load button about VHS quality (352 x 288 resolu- oped (as far as we know) by Microsoft to it’s own screen (this is defined by the on the bottom border (very much like Frogger tion). To play back VideoCD’s you need allow playback of video clips on Quicktime (also known as windowplay option), below the movie Frogger’s GUI), like the other players to set the device and unit number of Windows. AVI is not just one format it Frogger is an MPEG player which sup- image there is a panel of controls includ- you have to click the play button for the MOV, its file extension) your CD-ROM drive in Frogger’s tool- can contain audio and video com- ports MPEG 1 & 2 with audio, although it ing play/pause, volume, brightness and movie to commence. You can re-size the types or shell options then a track list is pressed in different formats referred to This format was developed by Apple does have MPEG 2 support, as we’ve loop. There is also a position slider so window any time using the size gadget, shown so you can choose your movie (if as codecs, the player must support the and like AVI a Quicktime file can contain said, don’t expect it to play back your you can jump to a specific point in the or alternatively using the +/- keys which there’s more than one on the CD) than codec used to play back the file. video and sound compressed with many DVDs. It does however support all the movie, the skip frame button lets Moovid keeps it in proportion....cool! Although you can select your screenmode (make Common codecs include Intel Indeo different codecs. Popular codecs include MPEG files you’re likely to find on the drop frames to keep the video in sync you cannot select multiple files you can sure you pick one that is at least the size (proprietary but some coders have Cinepak (again) and Sorenson (proprie- Internet and also VideoCDs and movies with the audio (normally not needed on load a new movie at any time without re- of the movie and 15 bit or above). You figured it out!) and Radius Cinepak tary). from PlayStation (1) Discs. When first faster machines), the frame rate is dis- loading the program. can also play back movies from (spec available). started Frogger opens a small window played and can be changed using in- MPEG (Motion Picture Playstation 1 discs (STR and FMV ex- Softcinema supports come codecs not with a stylish frog logo, then a file crease and decrease buttons and finally tensions), to do this you have to transfer playable with any other Amiga program, Experts Group, there are two buttons to skip between the file from the CD to your hard disk it achieves this by using codecs written file extension MPG) movies if you have selected more than using the menu’s within Frogger, then it for Xanim on Linux PPC. These codecs MPEG is the movie equivalent of JPEG can be played back like any MPEG have to be downloaded separately, de and is an open format available on many file...... which is nice! crunched using Gzip and then installed platforms, most video clips are in MPEG in the Softcinema directory. Many settings are only available as icon 1 format, MPEG 2 is designed for higher tooltypes or command line (shell) In our tests Softcinema played back all bandwidth for higher resolution and options but these are all detailed in the the AVI and Quicktime movies we threw better quality, MPEG 2 is used on DVD’s AmigaGuide manual. Frogger can dis- at it with no noticeable skipping as we (Digital Versatile Disc....yeah we know!). play on graphics card and AGA screens, expected from a PPC only player. Some This is probably the most commonly it supports 68k and PPC (WarpUP, extra GUI controls would be nice but the found format and fortunately it is not PowerUP and MorphOS) and needs extra codecs supported give it more flex- codec based so you should be able to MPEGs can be compiled on the Amiga 8Mb of RAM so it should run on almost ibility. A no frills player that does exactly play back any MPEG you find. Currently using free utilities so they are often Frogger and SoftCinema share any Amiga. MPEG decoding is CPU in- what it says on the tin! no Amiga players support DVD SoftCinema, simple but effective. used by Amiga artists. very similar interfaces. 30 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 31 REVIEWS REVIEWS APDF

By: Emmanuel Lesueur License: GPL (Open Source) Available From: Aminet PD Paradise http://www.aminet.net/~aminet SEAL Members Elliott Bird, Roy Burton and Robert Williams each review one Directory gfx/show of their PD favourites. he Portable Document Format is URL in the browser you choose in a document file format designed Apdf’s settings. For the ultimate con- Tby Adobe, and based on their venience a special version is supplied PostScript page description language as a plug-in so you can view Workbench on Win that is used to drive high-end printers PDF documents linked from a web page and publishing equipment. PDF has be- directly within Voyager, other browsers Licence: Freeware It also gives Popup menus (Like come a popular Internet format because, can be set-up to run the Apdf separately Available From: MagicMenu) and a program that can unlike a webpage, it allows the publisher when you click on a PDF file. http://www.commodore-ale.com/wow/ change the look of gadgets. The emula- to present a document as it was Viewing PDF documents is a memory tion is very fast, the program is still designed complete with fonts, graphics “Yes, I must confess my sins”, I have a and processor intensive business, Apdf under development and is far from per- and page layouts. The document dis- In PDF documents like this one you can PC, a P200 running win95 (”Repent” but has various versions for different 68k fect. played is as close as possible to the click on linked phrases to jump to I have two Amigas), so this program processors and supports PowerPC original, given the limitations of the com- another page, document or URL. caught my eye. I believe this program has a lot of poten- using PowerUP (and WarpUp using puter and software used to display the tial, and when fully developed will give Frank Wille’s ppc.library emulation) to WorkbenchOnWin (WOW) is a Windows PDF. PDF files can also be printed, and use. Then a couple of years ago an insight to the advantages of the make the best of your system. It also 95/98 program that emulates the work- give a very high quality output. PDF is Emmanuel Lesueur brought out Apdf, Amiga. I immediately felt comfortable supports a caching system so it does bench environment; it is freeware and most commonly used to provide elec- although this utility is based on the xpdf with a workbench type interface and not need to load the entire document at gives the wonderful workbench look to tronic versions of printed documents so rendering engine Emmanuel has given it even if you consider it just a bit fun It really does look like an Amiga, even once to minimise memory usage. To the sad old desktop of Windows. This you will commonly find user manuals for a MUI interface so Apdf feels like a real (which is all it is at present) do try it out, the prefs programs have a Workbench print from Apdf you need a Postscript program cannot run Amiga code in all types of products, specifications, Amiga program. on the old PC. printer or software interpreter such as anyway, but gives the feel of the Amiga plans and forms in PDF. PDF files can feel! PDF documents expect a set of GhostScript which is included with workbench 3.1 to a PC desktop. Review By Roy Burton usually be identified by a .pdf extension, PostScript fonts to be available on the TurboPrint 7, if this is available printing also look out for the “Get Adobe system, any special fonts are embedded is very high quality with smooth scalable Acrobat” banner on websites, Acrobat is in the document itself. One of the ar- fonts and diagrams. Adobe’s PDF reader which is available chives in the Apdf distribution on Aminet for several platforms (not Amiga need- Over the years I’ve found Apdf to be HTTP Resume contains these base fonts and the less to say) so this is a sure sign that very widely compatible with PDF files preferences file supplied is set-up to use PDF files are near by. found on the Internet and this latest ver- Licence: Freeware goes in the first box, the second box is downloaded in the current session, and them. In the most recent versions of sion seems better than ever coping with Available From: Aminet, where the file name goes, but if you al- the other shows how much has been There are several open source utilities Apdf display quality has been increased the couple of documents which did not http://www.aminet.net/~aminet ready have the file name in the URL downloaded in total. available on Unix like systems which considerably through the addition of op- Directory comm/www address, then you will be able to double display properly in an earlier version. I The most important thing to remember is can display PDF files and over time tional antialiasing on fonts, lines and click on the next box and the file name have tried documents from large cor- Ever found it annoying when you’re in to make sure you have the “Auto several of these have been ported to the fills. AA smooths out “jaggies” in the will automatically come up, or if you porations such as Sony, government the middle of a download from a website Resume” menu item ticked. There are Amiga, most of these ports retained their screen display by smoothing sharp have already have an un-complete forms and many others with good or server, and you get disconnected by loads of options in the menus to cater Unix heritage and are less than easy to edges with intermediate toned pixels this download, then you can click on the “F” results. There are a few PDF features your ISP? Or when it’s a large file you for different downloads, as well as to suit is particularly noticeable on large fonts, button, where a file requester will which Apdf does not support such as fill- want to download and you don’t want to your needs, such as the ability to do diagonals and curves. appear, and you will be able to select in forms and password protected be online the whole time to download it? various checks of a download and even your unfinished download, and press All the basic functions you need to com- documents but I haven’t found these Then HTTPResume is the answer. to add sounds. start. It’s that simple! fortably view a PDF document are avail- commonly used. By default Apdf cannot All you do is enter the URL of the HTTPResume is definitely a must for able, you can scroll through or jump to a read encrypted PDF documents but this You will also notice a bar above the start website or server you want to download anyone who does regular and large particular page, go back and forward can be overcome by downloading a sep- and abort buttons, which is where the from, with the file (e.g. downloads, what’s more it’s totally free! through the page history and zoom in arate decryption module, which is distri- progress bars go. It’s two progress bars http://www.website.com/file.lha), which and out. A search facility searches the buted in this way due to French laws on in one, one shows how much you have Review By Elliott Bird document for a word or phrase you exporting cryptography software. enter and you can select text on the A very polished utility which is essential page and copy it to the clipboard. Want More? for any on-line Amigan. Although Apdf does not have page HTTPResume’s author has made an thumbnail or index lists (which are avail- Review by Robert Williams enhanced version of the program able in Acrobat) it does support links in which is called Charon. The program PDF files. There are three types of link: has more features and a MUI inter- local links (jump to a different page of face and is now shareware, check out Antialiasing means fonts and diagrams the same document), document links the demo at: render very smoothly even at screen (jump to a page in a different PDF docu- http://tesla.rcub.bg.ac.yu/~antony/ ment) and Internet links which open the resolutions. 32 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 33 SUPPORT SUPPORT

you could always attach an appropriate battery to the PCB with wires. Again if you The “safer” don’t trust yourself to fit the new battery get a pro to do it for you, anyone used to lithium coin working on PCBs, for instance a TV repair Setting cell fitted to technician, should be able to do the job if IBrowse’s Font Top Tips an A4000 you provide the parts. Preferences rev. D for Postscript motherboard. WARNING: You undertake the work Robert Williams has two tips that are rather more described above at your own risk, if you printing. detailed than usual this issue. are at all unsure please have a profes- sional carry out the job. Neither the author Batteries used very regularly seem to fair better than remove all the residue from the board, you nor Clubbed magazine can be held those which have been stored or are used may need to wash it away with a little responsible for damage to your Amiga or Any Amiga with a real time clock (one that more importantly to yourself. rarely). So if you have one of these water or even a mildly acidic solution (to on your use for the print it may or may not keeps the correct time and date even machines be sure to check soon or you neutralise the alkaline). It is probably wise be a big problem. Personally I am usually when the computer is switched off), must Printing from IBrowse 2 Now start IBrowse and open the may find you machine suddenly fails. to protect your skin and clothes from the interested in the text of pages I print so it have a battery which powers the clock cir- Preferences window by choosing corrosive residue while doing this! When Printing support has always been one of doesn’t worry me much. cuit while the Amiga is turned off thus Lithium the board is clean be sure it is absolutely the weak points of Amiga web browsers, “Settings...” from the “Preferences” menu, retaining the time. The A500plus, A600, These batteries are not rechargeable, they dry before re-installing it in the Amiga and the best most can manage is either a plain in the list on the left hand side double click Too Big? A1500/2000, A3000 and A4000 machines on “HTML” then click on “Fonts”. In the are usually in the form of a single coin cell testing. text print of the page or a graphical dump Depending on the page you print you may all have the battery and clock circuit built in fonts list on the right of the requester click and have the great advantage over NiCds which keeps all the graphics but is blocky. find that IBrowse has cut off the right edge on the motherboard. Other Amigas such Replacing Batteries on one of the headings, for example that they very rarely leak so even if your Most browsers on other platforms render of the content. This only occurs with sites as the A500 and A1200 often have a real “Normal font”. Click on the Postscript print- lithium battery is dead you don’t need to Once your dead battery has been removed the text on the web page with scalable which use fixed width tables or that have a time clock added, it is usually one of the ing tab and use the “Font files:” requester rush to replace it. As standard Lithium you will probably want to replace it. If your fonts and retain the graphics and page minimum width of over about 700 pixels. features of a memory upgrade or ac- button to select the fonts directory you cells were only used on the revision D board originally had a NiCd you might layouts making the print better looking not The cropping occurs because IBrowse has celerator. made earlier. Then change the “Postscript A4000s (and possibly A4000Ts but I don’t want to think about replacing it with a to mention more comfortable to read! no facility to scale the print to fit on the know for sure) but they can also be found Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) alternative, font for this style:” cycle gadget to the font After a few years the type of battery fitted With IBrowse 2.1 Amiga users now have page. Fortunately there is a work-around powering the real time clocks on many these do the same job but leak much less you would like to use for this type of text. to many Amigas can leak and damage the the opportunity to get this kind of print for this problem using TurboPrint’s third party RAM cards and accelerators. readily than NiCds, contain less toxic Go through each font style in the list until circuit board it is attached to so it is vital to quality however it is only available when PostScript scaling facilities to fit the in- chemicals and have better performance. If they are all configured, as a hint the know if your battery is the dangerous type printing PostScript and takes a bit of set- formation on the page. First we need to tell Removing Leaking NiCds you live in the UK a suitable replacement Normal font would usually be Times or and if it is to check it regularly for signs of ting up. If you don’t have a true PostScript IBrowse to print onto a bigger page size If you find the NiCd battery on your battery is available from Maplin Electronics Helvetica and the Fixed width font Courier. leakage. This may sound like scare printer (and most people don’t, PS printers (which we will then scale down), in this motherboard or accelerator is leaking it is who have shops, catalogue, and on-line When you have finished click OK then mongering but as our Amigas get older tend to be fairly high-end lasers) then don’t case I’ll use A3. IBrowse uses the important to remove it and any residue as ordering facilities. Only one type of battery save your settings using the leaking batteries are becoming very com- worry, we’ll cover printing Postscript to a Workbench PostScript preferences and soon as possible, hopefully you will catch it was used on all Amigas with a NiCd on the “Preferences/Save settings” menu item. mon. So let’s first look at the two types of normal printer a bit later on. thoughtfully provides a button to open it in battery commonly used on Amigas and before any damage occurs. If you are ex- motherboard and the direct replacement is If you’re lucky enough to have a Postscript the Print window. In PostScript Printer expansion cards: perienced with a soldering iron removing Maplin part number is BN22Y (3.6V Configuring Postscript Printing. printer you can now print the currently dis- Preferences change Paper Format to the battery shouldn’t be too difficult a job. 70mAh PCB Mount NiMH battery). For Postscript printing you need to have played web page by choosing “Print” from “Custom” and enter Paper Width “11.69” Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) If you aren’t up to de-soldering and can’t For revision D A4000 machines which three Postscript font families installed on the “Document” menu. In the Print options and Paper Height 16.5, click the Use get the job done professionally, it is possi- This type of battery is rechargeable, it is have the Lithium coin cell finding a your Amiga, these can be downloaded requester set the Print mode to button. Now we’ll tell TurboPrint to scale ble to snip through the legs of most bat- charged while the Amiga is switched on replacement is more difficult, the cells are from the Adobe (inventors of Postscript) “Postscript”, the Destination to “Printer” the bigger page back down to fit on A4, teries with cutters or you could just rock and provides power when the computer is widely available but I can’t find any with FTP site. Go to the following URL with and click “Print”. open the TurboPrefs program and select the battery back and fourth until the legs switched off. As this type of battery ages it the PCB mounting legs required. your web browser or FTP client: the PS tab. In the PS Position section fatigue and break. Whatever you do be Using GhostScript and can begin to leak, this can be seen as a Fortunately this motherboard also has an enter “70” in the ZoomX and ZoomY very careful not to damage other com- ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/type/ white powdery residue which forms on the external battery connector (at the front left Turbo Print 7 boxes, this is the percentage to scale the ponents near by or the motherboard itself. win/all/afmfiles/base17 (all one line) ends of the battery and works its way marked EXT BAT) where you can attach a If you don’t have a Postscript printer you print to, click Use. Now print as before and When the battery is out of the way then down the legs to the PCB (Printed Circuit 3.6V lithium battery pack. These are avail- In this directory you will find several sub- can use a software interpreter such as the you should find your print will now fit on Board). The material which leaks out is able from Maplin, part number QE51F directories, go into .1, .2 and .4 and down- open source GhostScript to turn the PS the paper. alkaline and is corrosive, if left over time it (3.6V Lithium Pack) but are quite ex- load all the files in each. Copy these files code produced by IBrowse into something Printing Fails will slowly eat away at the PCB and par- pensive at £12.99 plus VAT. into a directory on your hard disk, it can be that can be printed by normal printers. If ticularly the copper tracks eventually lead- anywhere you like, and rename the files as you have TurboPrint 7 this is very easy to Occasionally IBrowse will fail to print a Many different batteries are used on other ing to open circuits. This damage can follows: do because this release of TurboPrint in- page and a PostScript error will appear, Amiga products such as accelerators and cause malfunctions or complete failure and cludes GhostScript and will print any this is usually due to large graphics on the RAM cards. Generally lithium types are com_____.afmas courier.afm is difficult to repair particularly if it has PostScript file which is sent to the PS: page which seem to cause IBrowse to pro- silver coin cells and have the word cob_____.afm as courier-bold.afm been left to spread down through the device. So to print the current web page duce bad Postscript. To get these pages to “LITHIUM” etched into their casing while coo_____.afm as courier-oblique.afm layers of the PCB. just set the Destination to “Custom” and print you can turn off images (select NiCd’s often have a plastic casing. When cobo____.afm as enter “PS:” in the text box then clicking “Preferences/Image loading/Delayed”), All Amigas with a battery on the mother- looking for a replacement battery be care- courier-boldoblique.afm print should print the page via Ghostscript reload the page and then print again ob- board except the very last A4000s ful to choose one rated at the same volt- hv______.afm as helevita.afm and TurboPrint without any further inter- viously with no images this time, again (motherboard revision D) have a NiCd bat- age and ensure it is of the same type. Do hvb_____.afm as helevicta-bold.afm vention. As the page prints you may notice whether this will be a big deal is entirely tery. The battery is a barrel shaped device not replace a rechargeable battery like a hvo_____.afm as helevicta-oblique.afm a couple of problems: down to the type of page you’re printing. about 1.5cm long, usually red or blue in NiCd with one not designed for recharging hvbo____.afm as colour, soldered directly to the mother- like a lithium cell (the lithium cell could ex- helevicta-boldoblique.afm Mono? For text prints I find IBrowse’s Postscript board. As all Amigas with an on board bat- plode) and vice versa (a NiCd or NiMH printing the best of all the Amiga browsers, tir_____.afm as times-roman.afm IBrowse Postscript printing only works in tery (except the rare A4000T) are now battery will not last long if it isn’t charged)! generally it does a good job with layout tib_____.afm as times-bold.afm greyscale so you won’t see nice colour seven or more years old it is likely that the The actual shape of the battery is not im- and graphics too. If a new version of tii_____.afm as times-italic.afm images, as far as I am aware there is no battery will be leaking if it has not been If your battery looks like this, portant, if you can’t find an exact match tibi____.afm as times-bolditalic.afm IBrowse ever sees the light of day hope- replaced fairly recently (machines that are way around this limitation and depending fully some of the (really fairly minor) remove it ASAP. 34 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 35 TUTORIAL Sharing a TUTORIAL printer in Windows. across the network for us. To do remote printer across the network, this we are going to use two this directory must be dedicated to utilities, CMD (which is included spool files and contain no other with the AmigaOS) to capture the files (otherwise sps will try to send print data and SPS which is an them to the printer!). You must Samba Printing AREXX script written by Robert specify the full path to the directory Wilson especially designed to and end it in either a “:” or “/”. By Robert Williams automate printing with Samba. username = ‘’ was going to write a tutorial on redirected across the network and Before we can set any of this up we password = ‘’ setting up Samba to accompany collected into a file which is stored in need to install an appropriate driver If the remote printer is username the networking feature in this a spool directory on the machine with for the remote printer on the Amiga, I and password protected then issue of Clubbed. However while the printer connected. When the data this can be a standard Workbench specify them here enclosed in researching the article I found that has arrived it is sent to the printer driver installed in the Devs:Printers single quotes “’”, if no username Multiple printer http://www.amigasamba.org/ has a and thus printed out. This process drawer or a TurboPrint driver. and password are required use two configurations SPS needs to use the smbclient for more detailed tutorial than I could means that you can’t suddenly start Which ever it is use the Printer or single quotes with no space in Turbo Print. command and expects to find it in hope to fit in these pages. The printing from your Amiga to an un- TurboPrint preferences program to between. the amitcp:samba/bin/ directory, if AmigaSamba site doesn’t yet cover supported printer just because it’s ensure that the correct driver is your Samba installation isn’t located printing across the network with connected to another machine whose selected and it is printing to the printer = ‘\\RIMMER\CANON240’ directly inside your amitcp: assign Samba so I have decided to con- OS does have a driver, the printer Amiga’s built-in parallel port. In Specify the server and the printer in this won’t work. There are two ways centrate on that particular aspect in only receives the raw data sent by TurboPrint you can create a separ- the form of \\SERVER\PRINTER, around this, firstly you can make an this article. the source computer. Likewise you ate configuration for the remote note that on Windows systems the AmiTCP: assign that points to the will still need a print enhancement printer making it easy to swap back With Samba you can allow other on it with the right mouse button and names must be upper case. directory above the Samba directory package such as TurboPrint or Studio to a local printer at any time. It is users on the network to print to the choose “sharing...” from the pop-up or you can change line 86 of to get good results from a modern important to select the internal setcmd = 1 printer attached to your Amiga and menu. This should open the printer’s sps.rexx to point to the location of inkjet printer. The same also holds if parallel port because SPS con- you can also print from your Amiga Properties window on the “Sharing” If you wish SPS to set the CMD the samba directory on your system. you’re printing from a different plat- figures the CMD utility captures all applications to printers attached to tab, to share the printer click on the tooltypes set this to 1, if not set it to As I have a samba: assign I form to your Amiga, you’ll need a data sent to that port, if you choose other computers on the network. In “Shared As” radio button then edit 0, this is useful if you run CMD in changed the line to start with suitable driver installed for the printer to print to another port it will not this article I will explain how both the share name (which should be all your WbStartup, however you must “‘samba:bin/smbclient”. on that platform. capture the data. If you need to use aspects are configured. In addition to upper case and have no spaces). If ensure SPS runs before CMD, for your internal parallel port you can When you’ve finished editing the my Amiga the other machine on my As I mentioned in this example I have you wish you can enter a comment example by placing it in your user- still do so and just run SPS when it sps.rexx file save it and close down network is a PC running Windows a PC running Windows 98SE and my and a password needed to access startup. is needed (it would also be possible the editor. Now we’re ready to run 98SE. The same settings on the Amiga 3000 running OS 3.9, both this printer. Make a note of the to configure SPS to use a different runcmd = 1 SPS, initially let’s try it from a shell, Amiga will apply whatever OS is run- machines are configured on the net- share name you have assigned to port but this article is long enough just type “rx sps.rexx” and press ning on the other machines on your work and Samba is running with file the printer and the name of this If you would rather SPS started already!). Return, if you didn’t put the sps.rexx network. If you want to print to or sharing working in both directions. computer on the network, for ex- CMD automatically when it is run in a directory on your path you’ll from a machine running a different The PC has a Canon BJC240C ample my PC is called RIMMER and set this to 1, otherwise set 0. SPS need to specify the complete path. OS then you will need to check the attached to its parallel port and the the printer is CANON240. Having CMD run by SPS SPS doesn’t detach itself so you Samba documentation for that OS, in Amiga has an HP Deskjet 1120C on With that explanation out of the way (runcmd=1) is probably the Click Ok when you’re happy with the should be left with a blank line in the general it should be similar to setting a Hypercom IIIZ parallel port. Both it’s time to install SPS, so download simplest option for most users and settings, back in the Printers window the sps.lha archive from Aminet, it’s shell, if there are any problems you up the Amiga but there will be OS machines have the printers installed allows you to start network printing a hand should appear underneath will get an error message in a specific differences. and correctly configured, you will in the comm/net directory. as and when you need it. the icon for the printer indicating that requester or on the command line, if notice that Amiga and Windows De-crunch the SPS archive and NOTE: This tutorial sets up a Samba it is shared. cmdpath = ‘sys:tools/cmd’ this happens double check the edits drivers are available for both printers, printer with no security, similarly the copy the sps.rexx file it contains you made to the script above. I’m using Turbo Print 7 on the Amiga. Back to the Amiga now, when we Change this to point to the CMD amigasamba.org tutorial includes no into your S: directory or any other Assuming there are no errors we print something on the Amiga we command, the above location is the security. On a home network having directory on the path. Check that can try printing something, make Printing from the need to capture the print data and standard on a new Workbench in- usernames and passwords for every- you have the following libraries in sure the remote computer with the then instruct Samba to send it stallation. Change this to “cmdpath thing is a bit over the top although your libs: directory: rex- printer is switched on and the printer Amiga to the PC = ‘sys:wbstartup/cmd’” if CMD is in you can always password protect xtricks.library, reqtools.library, rex- is ready (although the print should your WbStartup drawer. particular shares or printers if you Sharing the printer xreqtools.library and rexxsup- spool successfully even if the printer port.library (they can all be found wish. If your network is connected to Before you can access the printer on Tip: By default sps comes setup to is off-line) now try printing from any on Aminet if you don’t have them). the Internet it is important that you the Windows machine from another look for CMD in the sys:utilities/ application that uses the standard Now we need to set the options for setup a firewall on the machine that computer on the network you need to drawer, this is not the standard Workbench printer drivers or the sps.rexx script, this is done by is a gateway to the Internet or this make it available on the network, this location for the command, unless TurboPrint. If you look in the spool editing variables at the start of the insecure system could be exposed to is called “sharing” in Windows ter- you have moved CMD change the directory you set up there should be script. Load the script into an editor the outside world. minology. Assuming you have the sps script to look in the tools a files named sps.n (where n is a of your choice, for example EditPad printer installed and working under drawer as shown above. number) which grows in size as the or even Ed and change the lines as job is printed (you may need to re- Overview of Samba windows follow these steps: pubscreen = ‘Workbench’ follows: read/update the directory display to Printing Open the Printers window by choos- spooldir = ‘Scratch:Temp/Spools/’ If you would prefer any SPS see this). A few seconds after the Printing across the network with ing Settings/Printers from the Start requesters to open on another application has finished printing the Samba is actually quite simple, all menu. This is the directory on the Amiga public screen enter its name remote printer should start work- where the print data files will be the data that would normally be sent In the Printers window find the icon between single quotes here. ing... and that’s about all there is to held until they are sent to the directly to the printer (via a port) is for the printer you wish to share, click it! 36 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 37 TUTORIAL TUTORIAL

Well I lied a little in my last comment, Printing from the PC click on the “Advanced View” With that done our printer share is sages because they expect the prin- but the only thing left to do is to button. now ready for testing, the next thing ter to be directly connected, you can decide how you’re going to run SPS. to the Amiga we need to do is to let Windows safely ignore these errors. Now fill in the web form as follows: If you have a printer directly con- know it exists, over to the PC. To check the installation has been nected to your Amiga you may only Creating a Printer Share comment A description of the successful open the Printers window want to run SPS occasionally, in that printer, I used “HP Deskjet 1120C” Connecting to a shared on the Amiga (by choosing case you could either run it from a Before we can configure Samba on path This is the path to your spool printer from Windows Start/Settings/Printers), right click shell or create a script with an icon the Amiga to share a printer we need directory, it must be the same as Open the “Network Neighbourhood” on the new printer icon and choose using IconX. If you need help doing to prepare two script files, one which the one you specified in the LPR icon on the Windows desktop then “Properties...” from the pop-up this take a look at the tutorial on will copy the spool file received from file, the default is find the icon for representing the menu. In the Properties window page 41 of Clubbed issue 7 but use the remote computer to the printer “/Samba/Spools/%s”. Note that this computer with the printer attached choose the “Details” tab, you should just use the command “run rx port of our choice and another that path must be in Unix notation, the (in my case the Amiga3000 icon) see the name of the computer and sps.rexx” as only line in the script. If will return print queue information if it first name after the leading “/” is the and double click it. A new window printer share in the “Print to the you’d like SPS to run every time you is requested. Two AmigaDOS scripts AmigaDOS device name, in this should open containing icons for following port:” text box (I see put your TCP/IP stack goes on-line written by Gian Maria Calzolari which case “Samba:”. any shares you have created plus, \\Amiga3000\HPDJ1120). If this is you could add it to the On-line Event do these jobs are available on hopefully, an icon for your shared correct choose the General tab, in your TCP/IP stack. If you installed guest account Set this to the Aminet in the archive printer. make sure the remote printer is on- Samba following the name of the guest account you comm/net/LPx.lha. If you download line, then click the “Print Test Page” amigasamba.org tutorial then you will created during installation, if you Right click on the printer icon and this and de-crunch it you will find the button. In a few seconds the page already have a script running from followed the amigasamba.org tutor- choose “Install...” from the pop-up scripts, one called LPR and the other should start to print on the remote the On-line event, you can add a line ial this should be “pcguest”. menu. Window’s “Add Printer” LPQ. Copy these into your Samba: printer. to run SPS to the end of this script: wizard will now appear to guide you directory (if you don’t have a Samba: Settings for guest OK Unless you want only l:port-handler and example though the process of installing the run >NIL: rx sps.rexx assign pointing to your Samba direc- the new named users to be able to print to Limitations DOSDrivers for Hypercom and printer. On the first page select tory now would be a good time to add share in your printer set this to Yes. Remember that before you try to print IOBlix I/O cards. When the whether you would like to be able While this set up works very well one to your user-startup) and then SWAT. anything you must choose the correct DOSDriver is set up edit line 35 of print command to print from old MSDOS ap- there are a couple of limitations you edit the LPR script as follows to printer driver, unfortunately I don’t the LPR file so the spool file is “/Samba/LPR %s %p” plications (I believe this will map should be aware of. The first is that match your system (the LPQ script know of any way to automate this copied to the correct port. For ex- the network printer to a “hardware” you can only print one document at does not need editing): lpq command process, so you’ll need to do it ample the DOSDriver for the parallel port such as LPT1) and click a time to the Amiga printer, if you try “/Samba/LPQ %p” manually. LPR port on my Hypercom ZIII is called “Next”. On the next page you need to print another before the first has HCPAR00: so my line 35 reads: The above two commands assume to select a driver, either choose one finished you will get an error If your Amiga has its TCP/IP stack Change line 35 and 36 to point to the you have installed the LPR and of the drivers provided with message on the PC and the printer running and connected to the net- Copy >>T:LPR.log directory where you wish to keep LPQ scripts in the Samba: drawer Windows from the list or click “Have will be put into “Work Off-line” mode. work at all times then you may want Samba:Spools/{PName}/{SFile} your Spool files, if you wish to use as I described above, if you’re in- Disk...” if you have an install disk or If this happens just wait for the first to have SPS running all the time. To HCPAR00: the default from the scripts leave terested %s is replaced by the have downloaded a driver from the print to finish and then right click on do this you can run SPS in your user- these lines unedited and create a When you’re done save the LPR name of the spool file and %p is manufacturer. If you choose “Have the printer in the startup, as it is an AREXX program drawer called Spools inside your file. replaced by the name of the printer. Disk” use the “Browse...” button in Start/Settings/Printers window and you must ensure that RexxMast is Samba: directory. Be aware that the “Install from Disk” dialogue box un-check the “Work Off-line” option run first. In this case you can save Adding the new printer to Samba printer driver Blank this text Spool file can be very large, espe- to locate the install file which will be in the pop-up menu. One other your printer settings for the remote box or enter the name of the cially if you intend to do high resolu- As you will have seen if you called “something.inf”, for my HP problem you may encounter is that printer permanently. Windows printer driver (you won’t tion photo printing across the net- followed the amigasamba.org tutor- Deskjet 1120C it was called spool files will get left behind in your know this until you have installed work, so make sure there’s plenty of ial there are two ways to configure “DJ1120C.inf”. Spools directory on the Amiga if Limitations the printer driver under windows, space on the partition holding the Samba, you can either edit the either machine crashes during a when you have it is on the “Details” NOTE: If your printer driver is on Printing from the Amiga to the PC spool files. If your printer is attached Samba:lib/smb.cfg file manually or print, you can just delete these files tab of the printer’s properties CD-ROM Windows may automati- works very well and unlike the other to any port other than the built-in use SWAT (Samba Web but be aware that they may occur window), do not leave this set to cally try to run the installation again way round you can print several parallel port you will need a Administration Tool) where you can and can be very large. NULL which is the default as I when you insert the CD, be sure to documents one after the other with- DOSDriver so that port can be set up Samba using your favourite found this will stopped printing cancel this installation and continue out causing a problem, the PC will accessed as a DOS device, some I/O web browser. Here we’ll use SWAT Conclusion just queue them up to print. The only cards such as the Multiface come working from my Windows machine with the one we started above. as it is more friendly than editing a I hope this tutorial will prove useful, problem I had was when printing with such a DOSDriver, if yours does (most frustrating!). text file so fire up your favourite web Now the you may be prompted to as I said at the beginning Samba’s from Final Writer, I got a page with a not then you can use porthandler.lha browserCreate and a go to the following URL All the other fields can be left at choose the appropriate driver, do printing system isn’t really at all few garbage characters printed by the prolific Stephan Rupprecht new print “http://localhost:901”. After a few their default values so you can now so and click Next. On the next page complex but there are so many set- between each good page. As this (Aminet, util/sys) which has a new share seconds a web page should appear click the “Commit Changes” button enter a name for the printer (this tings that getting everything set just doesn’t happen with any other appli- using with a Samba logo at the top, this is at the top of the page to save the will be the name used in Windows right does take a bit of doing. But cation I am tempted to think it is SWAT. SWAT. Click on the Printers icon at settings. print dialogue boxes, not the share despite, or maybe because of, this some problem with Final Writer and the top and the printers page should name) and indicate whether you We now need to make a directory complexity I got real buzz when my the Turbo Print driver for the Canon open. We’re going to add a new want this to be the default Windows inside the Spools directory we first network print worked (then BJC 240 I used, maybe I didn’t have printer so type the share name you printer. Finally click Finish. specified to hold the spool files for again perhaps that’s just me) it correctly configured. I haven’t had want to give the printer (I used this printer, this needs to be named You may now be asked some more anyway good luck and may the the chance to try the printer con- HPDJ1120) into the text box at the exactly the same as the share questions which are specific to the SWAT be with you! nected directly so it may not be bottom of the page and click “Create name, for example I created a drivers you are installing, run Samba related at all. Printer”. The options for the new directory called HPDJ1120 in my through this installation until it is printer appear, we need to access Samba:Spools directory. successfully completed. Some in- some of the Advanced settings so stallations may give error mes- 38 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 39 TUTORIAL TUTORIAL

click on the outline of the rectangle, Let’s give our tape case a back- this will bring up the “Object specs” ground and while we’re at it explore requester (you could also click once the image handling in DrawStudio Step by Step... on the rectangle to select it and then (sounds like fun... maybe... oh go on, Draw Studio choose “Object/Specs...” from the you know you want to...). First we menus). In the specs requester enter need to add the bitmap to the Robert Williams takes us through a simple the exact sizes you need in the Width DrawStudio project using the project combining bitmap graphics and (16) and Height (102) boxes and click “Bitmaps” requester, open this now OK, you should notice the rectangle using the “View/Bitmaps...” menu structured elements. get slightly larger. Now repeat the item. Click “New” to add a new process until you have four rec- bitmap (image) and select the image f you’ve read my DrawStudio If you want to follow this tutorial exactlyTutorial tangles with the sizes listed above, you want to use in the file requester review earlier in this issue you’ll as I have written it you will need to the result is shown in image 1. If you that appears, I am using an image I Iknow I’m a fan of the program, in make sure your DrawStudio measure- get in a muddle you can undo your made myself for this project in particular the way it can be used to ment units are set the same as mine, in actions using the “Edit/Undo” menu ImageFX by compositing scans from combine bitmap graphics and the struc- millimetres. Open the Preferences item or delete an object altogether by several book covers. The image you tured objects which are its speciality. window by choosing the selecting it with the Pointer tool and have chosen will now appear in the DrawStudio also has lots of cool “Settings/Prefs...” menu item. The pressing Del on the keyboard. “Project Bitmaps” list and DrawStudio 1. Draw the boxes to define the panels. features like translucent colours which Prefs window has several pages listed displays a nice little preview (shown TIP: If pressing Del to delete doesn’t have never been seen in an Amiga down the left hand side, we only need the spine where the title is normally in image 3). We can now place this work check you don’t have “Caps structured drawing program before (or to look at the “Misc” page, so click on printed and the front cover, usually image into our project as many times Lock” on, for some reason Del only sadly since). that. Now on the Misc page change the there are also one or more panels as we like and DrawStudio will still works with it off (a bug I believe but a “Measuring Units” cycle gadget to folded inside the front cover. For this only need to load it and store it on pretty benign one!). What’s it all About? “Millimetres”. Click OK to close the tape case I want to have one panel disk once which is quite cool, espe- folded inside so that’s four in total. I’m an avid radio listener (as you ask window, if you want to save this setting Next we need to move the panels cially if your project contains large Now I’m going to measure the inlay of (or even if you don’t) I listen to BBC for future sessions select the together so they’re arranged to form bitmap images. I’m going to use the an existing tape to make sure I get the Radio 4 mostly for the great comedy “Settings/Save settings” menu item. the inlay, because not all the edges same image repeated on all the size of my replacement just right. align with the grid we will use panels of my inlay. Depending on the (much of which later moves to TV) and The final setting you may want to check Firstly the cover is 102mm high so DrawStudio’s object snapping to do size, shape and type of image you’re drama) and I often record programmes is for the Display, open the Display according to my measurements the this. Make sure object snapping is using you may choose to spread it to listen to later. This has left me with a Settings requester by choosing panels four are: activated by checking there is a once over all the panels or duplicate large and rather motley collection of “Settings/Display...” from the menus. check mark (a tick to you and me) it as I have done. cassettes, most with indecipherable Here you choose the screenmode that Flap: 16mm x 102mm next to the “Layout/Snap to object” notes scribbled on them. So I decided DrawStudio runs on and the number of Spine: 12mm x 102mm To place the image on the page click menu item. Select the pointer tool to design a standard cassette inlay for colours used to render the page buffer Cover: 65mm x 102mm the “Place” button in the “Bitmap” and click on the outline of the spine each type of programme so my collec- (which is independent to the screen- Inside: 60mm x 102mm requester. The “Bitmap” requester 2. Align the boxes using object snap. rectangle (the 11mm wide one) to tion would look a bit better. I knew I mode). If you have a reasonable disappears and your pointer turns These measurements need to be select it, 8 little squares called hand- wouldn’t be able to get on the computer amount of memory (say 16Mb or more) into a frame icon, move this to the top reasonably accurate as a millimetre or les should appear around the edge. to type out a new insert each time I you should be able to choose a 24bit left hand corner of one of the rec- two out and the inlay either won’t fit in Click and drag on the outline but recorded something so I decided on a page buffer, this will allow all tangles, when the pointer turns into the case or it will be sloppy and fall away from the handles to pick up the design with a large area for writing in DrawStudio’s effects to be shown on the corner snap icon click the left out all the time! object, move it until the left hand the programme name. Anyway enough screen. If you don’t have a graphics mouse button. To re-size the bitmap edge nearly touches the right hand of the background here’s how I went card choose a screenmode with the Preparation Over to fit the rectangle choose the pointer edge of the flap rectangle, as you get about designing one of the inlays in largest number of colours you can with- tool and ensure the image is If you haven’t done so already fire up close notice the pointer changes, this DrawStudio, you could apply the same out unacceptable slow-down, I would selected, now drag its bottom right DrawStudio, it should start with a indicates that if you release the techniques to CD covers or in fact any try 256 first as it will give the best handle until it snaps onto the bottom blank page ready to go. The first step button the edges of the objects will DrawStudio project. results if you can live with the re-draw right corner of the rectangle. Once at creating our design is to draw the “snap” together and be neatly speed. If you’re lucky enough to own a the image is sized to your satisfaction outline of the inlay on to the aligned. We want to align the top graphics card then definitely choose a we want to move it behind the rec- DrawStudio page. Make sure the grid corners, when they get close the 16 or 24bit screenmode, then tangle so we can still see the panel Oval Circles? snap is switched on (the “Layout/Snap snap pointer shows an angle icon, DrawStudio’s display will be full quality outline, to do this just choose to Grid” menu item is checked) and this indicates a corner snap, when If your display looks distorted (circles and undithered. “Arrange/Send to back” from the set the grid to 5mm (using the you get this release the mouse button look like ellipses and squares are rec- “Object” menu. Repeat these steps tangular) you probably need to adjust TIP: If you find DrawStudio locks up or “Layout/Grid...” requester). Click on and the two panels should snap until all the panels are filled with the 3. Load the bitmap image. the display gets corrupted your prob- the rectangle tool in the tool bar, click neatly alongside each other. Now the Monitor DPI on the Display page image (or if you prefer size one lem may be one of the MUI settings, and hold the left mouse button where align the cover rectangle to the spine of DrawStudio’s preferences image to cover all the panels) I “Refresh” on the “Windows” page of you want the top left hand corner of and the flap to the cover. Check the (Settings/Prefs...). To calculate the covered both the flap and spine with MUI preference program must be set to the rectangle to start and drag down result looks something like image 2. correct X and Y DPI measure your one copy of my image so it didn’t be- “Smart”. To check and change this set- to the bottom right, watch the dx monitor’s visible display from side to TIP: Now would be a good time to come too distorted (image 4). ting choose “MUI settings...” from (dimension X) and dy values shown in side and top to bottom in inches. The save using the “Project/Save” menu DrawStudio’s Settings menu, the MUI the Window’s title bar and release That’s the boring basics out of the X DPI is the horizontal resolution item, you might even like to save this settings for DrawStudio will then them when they are as close as possi- way, now we can start adding some divided by the horizontal size and the outline as a template for other cas- appear on the Workbench screen. ble to the required size for the Flap flash bits to make our tape case look Y DPI is the same but for the vertical sette inlays, if so use “Project/Save panel, (which will be 15x100 because the bees knees. First I want to split measurements. For example my 17” as...” and give the file a new name. If Let’s Get Going Already! of the grid we set) then release the left the case into three sections, one at monitor’s visible display is 12.75 by you like to give your files an exten- mouse button and the rectangle is the top for the type of programmes, a 9.5 inches and I run DrawStudio at Take the printed inlay out of an audio sion which identifies their type the drawn on the page. Now to get the big section in the middle for the titles 1024 by 768 resolution. There for my cassette case and unfold it, you will standard for DrawStudio is “.dsdr “ exact size we want, click on the poin- and another small section at the X DPI is 1024 / 12.75 = 80 and my Y find it consists of at least three and (DrawStudio DRawing). DPI is 768 / 9.5 = 81. probably more panels. There’s a flap, ter tool in the tool bar, then double bottom which will balance the design. 40 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 4. Place and size41 the image in the panels TUTORIAL TUTORIAL

Start by drawing a line across all the draw a box starting from the start point of times until the line and shadow are give it a sort of bullet point? Click on panels, click the line tool in the tool bar of the line to the right hand edge of the Step by Step...“above” the lightening rectangle. the oval tool and draw a 10mm Step by Step... then click and hold the left button with inlay, make the box 5mm deep. Now Notice how the shadow still works diameter circle (covering two grid the pointer over the left most line of the select the pointer tool and make sure properly over the lightened area. squares in each direction) roughly flap about 20mm (four gird squares) the box is selected then choose over the “D” of “Drama”. Now open Lets put another bar and shadow at down from the top. Keep the mouse “Object/Attributes...”. For a transparent the “Object/Attributes...” requester, the bottom of the lightened portion, button down and drag out the line to gradient we need to mix up a transpar- turn off the Pen and select a gradient rather than create them again we can the right hand line of the inside panel, ent colour, on the “Fill colour” (right fill. To try and make this circle look just copy and paste this time. Make to keep the line horizontal you can hold hand) side of the “Object attributes” like a ball we can use one of the sure you’re in pointer mode (click the the “Shift” key as you drag, when the requester select the “Solid” radio button supplied gradients but edited to use pointer tool if you’re not) and click pointer changes to the line snap icon then click “Edit...” this opens the our colours. “Edit...” the gradient, once on the yellow line, two handles release the button. “Colour list” window. Here click “New” 5. The gradient settings for the gold line... select “Orange Sphere”, click “New” should appear showing it’s selected, and then “Edit...” just as we did to and then “Edit”. Because a gradient That line is still pretty dull, so we need hold down the “Shift” key and click create a new gradient earlier. Call this was selected when you clicked “New” to alter its appearance, choose the anywhere in the shadow box, now colour “100% Transparent” and drag DrawStudio has made a copy of it for pointer tool and then pick “Attributes...” both objects are selected. Release the “Opacity” slider (Opacity is the op- you to edit, so rename the gradient from the “Object” menu. The “Object “Shift” then choose “Copy” from the posite of transparency) down to 0% (I “Yellow Sphere” and replace the attributes” requester appears, we will “Edit” menu followed by “Paste”. The know this seems a bit confusing but I orange colours in the gradient list concentrate on the “Pen colour” set- pointer now turns into the frame icon think most people are more familiar with their yellow equivalent (remove a tings on the left hand side. First how- as it did when we placed the image with transparency and even the colours colour from the gradient list by select- ever our line needs to be nice and earlier. Move the pointer to the that come with DrawStudio are referred ing it then clicking “Delete”). OK back thick, click on the “Line style” tab then bottom left hand corner of the lighten- to as “Translucent” so there you go), to your page and you should have a choose the 6pt line in the left hand list ing box, when the pointer turns into a OK the “Edit colour” and “Colour list” nice shiny yellow ball where your (third from the bottom). Now back to corner snap icon, click the left mouse windows. Now we really want a circle once was! Shuffle this down so the “Colours” tab (isn’t it nice to see button to paste in the bar and shadow gradient so click the “Gradient” radio it is below the word Drama. Take a that word spelt “properly” in an applica- (image 10). button then “Edit...” to bring up the look at image 11, the ball highlights tion) we want to add a gradient to our “Gradient list” window, as we did before Time for the finishing touches, some the title nicely don’t you think. line so click the “Gradient” radio button 6. ...and their result. add a new gradient and name it text to tell us what type of program- and then on “Edit...”, both in the “Pen TIP: You may want to realign the “Shadow Fade”, add the “100% mes are on this cassette, in my case colour” section. The gradient we want word Drama so the “D” is bang in the Transparent” colour we created earlier this is going to be Drama. Click on 10. The gold bar copied and positioned. isn’t one of the sample ones that come middle of the circle, a good way of and “Black” to the “Gradient colours”, the Text tool in the toolbar then click with DrawStudio so click “New”, an doing this is to select the word with make sure they are in that order somewhere in the top portion of the UnNamed gradient is added to the list, the pointer tool and then use the (shown in image 7). OK the edit and list cover panel to place the text cursor, now click “Edit...” so we can change it cursor keys to nudge it into position, requesters until you’re back to the type the word “Drama”. Take a look at to our preferences. First edit the each press moves the selected object “Object attributes” requester, here we the font, if it’s not to your taste use “Gradient name” box to read “Gold just a small amount. Holding shift need to set the Pen Colour to “None” the requester from the “Text/Font...” Bar”, next we tell DrawStudio which while pressing the cursors moves in so we don’t get an ugly line around the 7. The gradient settings for the shadow... menu item to change it, I chose colours we want to use in the gradient bigger steps. Finally gradient. Click OK and the gradient Archibald which is one of the fonts by adding them to the “Gradient should appear. Choose supplied with DrawStudio. The font And there we have it an attractive As with any tutorial there are tonnes (I Colours” list. Scroll down the “Colours “Object/Arrange/Shuffle down” to move also looks a little small so before you cassette case inlay ready to print, cut am a post-decimalisation child after list” until you find “Deep Orange- the gradient underneath the bar... now OK the requester up the size to 30pt. out and fold. I hope this tutorial has all) of features I haven’t been able to Yellow” now either drag it across to the the shaded effect on the bar (image 8) Now change to the pointer tool and shown some of DrawStudio’s power cover here so if you liked this please gradient list or click the “Add” button. looks much more convincing! move the text into a good position by in combining bitmap and structured let me know and we’ll consider a more Add “Pure Yellow” and another “Deep dragging it. graphics and also that you will feel advanced DrawStudio tutorial for a Orange-Yellow” to the list in the same For the middle portion of the cover I inspired to experiment with its many future Clubbed. way. If you need to you can rearrange want to lighten the background image It still seems like the title could do features. the “Gradient colours” list by dragging to give a nice area to write on. Draw a with a bit more punch, how about we and dropping the colours within the list, rectangle starting at the left hand side 11. Finished! a dotted line shows you where a colour of the yellow line across to the right will be dropped. To get the shading hand side of the inlay about 10mm (two Keep Up-to-Date How To Join Next Issue effect we want change the “Speed” grid squares) up from the very bottom. with the Subscribing to the list is free, just send a What’s coming your way in issue 9? cycle gadget to accelerating, you can In the “Object attributes” requester blank EMail to: see this offsets the gradient and will select a Solid fill and create a new 8. ...and their result. clubbed-announce Features make our bar look as if light is shining colour as we did to create “100% clubbed-announce-subscribe DTP - Publishing on your Amiga. on it from above, the finished settings Transparent” earlier. This time call the Mailing List @yahoogroups.com (all one line) are shown in image 5. That’s your first new colour “Translucent White”, set the Reviews Or go to the list page on the Yahoo custom gradient created, just OK the RGB sliders to R 255, G 255, B 255 Clubbed now has its own Internet mail- • Mediator requesters until you are left with just and the opacity to 50%. When you get ing list to keep connected readers (or Groups website, if you subscribe on the website you will need to register (if you • GoldEd the main DrawStudio window and back to the “Object attributes” reques- anyone with an EMail address) better • Metaview haven’t already for another list): admire your handy work, it should look ter leave the “Fill colour” set to Solid informed about the magazine. The mail- • Shogo like image 6. this time but before you close the ing list, called clubbed-announce, is http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/ • Payback requester set the “Pen colour” to None While our bar looks pretty good it is hosted by the YahooGroups service. clubbed-announce (all one line) Support to remove the line from the rectangle. still rather flat, as our imaginary light Now you should see area of the image We post a minimum of one update to the We hope the list will keep you better in- • Pagestream 4 Tutorial source is coming from above the bar under the rectangle lightened con- list per month plus any important an- formed about Clubbed and encourage would naturally cast a shadow below siderably (image 9). Part of the new nouncements, but your mail box will not Issue 8 Due: October 2001 it... let’s go to work! This time we’ll you to join. rectangle is obscuring our nice line and be flooded because this list can only be draw a box and fill with a transparent NOTE: This is a provisional contents list shadow, deal with that by selecting posted to by the editor. gradient. Choose the rectangle tool and 9. The lightened area. and is subject to change without notice. “Object/Arrange/Shuffle down” a couple 42 CLUBBED - Issue 8 Summer 2001 43 Descent: Gallery Freespace Gary Storm

Gary’s been hard at work with Candy Factory Pro to produce these images which he used for websites and CD covers. All three images use the effect layering technique Gary described in his tutorial published in Clubbed issue 3.

Roy Burton

Accel Vectogirl

Take a look at our news item on page 6 for more information on this space combat simulator from Hyperion. Vectoman Badge SEAL’s resident 3D artist rendered the four 3D images above in Cinema 4D.

DrawStudio Tutorial The completed inlay from our tutorial on page 22. The finished page was printed from DrawStudio, the inlay was cut out (we find using a craft knife easier than Visit the SEAL website at: scissors) and scored along the fold lines. www.seal-amiga.co.uk