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Tucson, Ar--izona
June 1~~1 Vol. 10, ~0.6 appreciation is due. Tuesday night meeting being done away with. At last . Dave Tuggle, our club PR person, who has done month's nomination meeting some of the dozen or so hIS best to keep the ads going into various Tucson periodicals. Commodore members that showed up expressed a desire to bring back the Tuesday night meeting. It was not I want to thank all of you personally for your mentioned if this was in addition to or:in place of the efforts, and then thank you as President from all the present Saturday meeting. It was also not mentioned as to members of the ecce for making it all possible for the past year. where all the "do'ers" were going to come from to make this happen or keep it going. My phone number, Steve As I mentioned early in my tenn as President, this Martin's, and Bob Holdcraft's are in every newsletter. was going to be a year of great change for the ecce. It [Ed: see inside back cover.] I have asked for input, sure has been that. I have lots of mixed feelings as I think suggestion-wise and effort-wise, from the Commodore about things that have occurred during my "watch," so to members more than once, and it hasn't been there. The speak. My great hopes of invigorating the Commodore CCCC was not formed as a source of passive section and starting up an MS-DOS section have not entertainment for some, but as a participative vehicle for succeeded, and that is disappointing. During the year I us all. There isn't much of "us all" in Commodore heard from about five members that they didn't like the anymore, and I am sad about that.
REMEMBER ••• WE ARE NON·AUTHORIZED FACTORY DISTRIBUTORS BECAUSE OUR PRICES ARE TOO LOW! NEW USED SALES/SEllVIQ FOIl eCOMMODORE e18M e NINIENDO Wholesale to the Public eLowest Rel)air rates eParts for Whole Systems WEEKEND SALES MfllL OR WEEKDAY SALES
TANQUE VERDE .~AP MEET :&:&S9 E. .R.OA.D~.A:r COMPUTER BLDG/ AISLE :s PHONE 60:a-884-7:&60 FAX 6O:a-884-7lt58
NOW is the time to buy an IBM clone TRADE YOUR OLD COM t 64 fOR A NEW C.P.U. Top machines, Top warranty, Top service, RUNNING OR NOT ••• EXCHANGE $35 Complete systems. All New - Warrantied ______...... ~~ Many Other systems - Please CALL OVER $1 MILLION IN SOFTWARE 286-16 w/40MB Hard drive S750 COMMODORE AS LOW AS $2.50 486-33 w / 124MB Hard drive S2331 VGA Monitors (NEW) S275 & up NONE OUER $20 NEW Commodore 1802 Monitors S180 ALL SYSTEMS REPAIRED ALL NEW .IBM .MAC .APPLE Any Repair check-out S15 Install our parts or upgrades - FREE! WE TAKE TRADE-IN·S LOTS. LOTS MORE 2S% OF UST PRICE ~ BUY EI SELL NE~ U USED BUY HIGH • SELL LOW CALL FOR LIST OR COME SEE AT EITHER LOCATIONS .. Catalina Commodore Computer Club, Inc. June 1992 A statement from Dennis McCormick, candidate for club President: The mix of computers our members use is moving from C- 64/128's to Amigas or MS-DOS. Our membership is now near 150 with the Amiga users about equal in size to the C- 64/128 users. Most of the nominees for the club's Board are from the Amiga users. Tom D'Angelo, the current President, will be on the next Board. Bob Holdcraft and by Tom D' Angelo, ecce Ollie Plimpton, the current Secretary and a Member-at Large, may also be elected to the Board as Members-at Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! The CCCC election large. The C-64/128 users will be represented on the next day of June 20, ~ ~92 is just around the comer and coming Board. This section remains an important part of the club fast. S.o~e pOSitIOns are unopposed, but there is a hot and will have the next Board's attention. The C-64/128 competttlo~ for the two Member-at-Large positions. I will presence is not disappearing from the Board. not be runmng for any office this time, but will serve in the Past President position on the Board. All of the nominees A club must serve its members or perish. Changes in the except two are from the Amiga section of the CCCe. The Amiga meetings are moving to meet needs expressed at the two members from the Commodore section are nominated last two sessions. This involves breaking the meeting into for the hotly contested Member-at-Large position, so if the several small groups to cover various topics such as novice Commodore section is going to have Board representation, training, Command Line Interface usage, the Commodore members really have to get out and vote telecommunications, AREXX command language, and on the 20th. others. Video and graphics remain as the Amiga's strong . I would like to take this time to thank all the points, so demonstrations and presentations will dazzle Board members, volunteers, and any members who put there yet. A Disk-of-the-Month will still be sold. What forth effort toward keeping the club going: changes should the C-64/128 group make? Come to the Steve Martin, who wore two hats, one as Vice third Saturday meetings to help decide. President and another as Commodore editor. It was great to watch his e~hilara!ion, enjoyment, and growth as he There has been a call for our club to promote the Amiga became a profiCIent edItor and excellent Vice President. throughout the community. The advantage is that our Dennis McCormick, our Treasurer, without whose membership would grow as more users switch to the precise bookkeeping the club's assets would have been in Amiga. They then join our club to meet other users and to chaos. He also wore a second hat as Amiga librarian. learn the Amiga better. More Amigas would be sold and Bob Holdcraft, our Secretary, who has done so more Amiga software comes into the market. Our present much more for the CCCC than just be a secretary. Without membership must decide where such efforts at outreach his unstinting help as Secretary over so many years, and all should go at what cost. What are your thoughts about this of the other effort Bob has put forth, the CCCC could not and other ways our club can continue into the next year? have been what it has been to so many people. He has been one of the CCCC's treasures. Thanks, Leila Joiner, who wore somewhere between two and three hats. One as a Member-at-Large on the Board, Dennis McCormick 292-2275 and the others as a great overall newsletter editor, and finally for several years as the Amiga section editor. . . Ollie Plimpton, our other Member-at-Large, who, ~Ith hI~ ~na~suming demeanor, was "always there" with Classified Ads hIS partICIpatIOn, support, and willingness to help. Rob ~cConeghy, our Membership Chairman, who, by updatmg the CCCC's membership records from a FOR SALE: CITIZEN 120D Printer wi print stand Commodore base to an Amiga base, has given the CCCC & manual: $50. 14" b&w monitor wlcable, Board better and more complete information than it has will work on any Amiga or IBM-compatible; ev~r had about its membership, and kept the newsletters heavy-duty steel case: $80. S-100 gomg where they should for the past year with address labels. motherboard chassis w/CPU, 64k Tom Stubblefield, our Commodore librarian populated memory board, floppy drive whose reliability the. Commodore section couldn 't hav~ controller board, video display board, etc.: done without. Best Offer. Dennis McCormick, 292-2275. Dan Bellemare, our Mail Director, who, with the help of his wife~ Terry, and other family members, FOR SALE: NEW 22-gauge shielded cable, 16 assembled. and maIled all the newsletters for the past year. ft. & 8 ft. Twenty-five connectors. Make This was no small task and a great deal of thanks and offer. Reuben Rangel, 690-1948. (continued on Inaide front cover) [1] Catalina Commodore Computer Club, Inc. June 1992
THE COMPUTER Treasurer·s ~eport by Dennis Mc Cormick, CCCC 11TTOTLTATE .11 Y ) INCOME/EXPENSE STATEMENT The CCCC is hoping to reestablish an old tradition of April 1992 publishing the names, phone numbers, and areas of This Month Year to Date expertise of those members willing to make themselves INCOME: available to others in need of help. If you are able to share some of your knowledge or experience with General: Membership 0.00 790.00 computers (hardware, software, programming, etc.), Ads (Comp. Y's thru Mar.) .00 350.00 please call Leila Joiner at 327-0540 to be listed in this Other (refund, Leila) .00 25.60 column. I'd like to give special thanks to our first Amiga: Disk 91.00 398.00 volunteer: Raffle 0.00 0.00 Other (tax) 0.00 20.00 C64/128: AMIGA Disk/I'WS ($15/33) 0.00 123.00 Imagine: Evan Baran, 323-7325 or 888-2824 Raffle 0.00 0.00 Other 0.00 51.52 MS-DOS: C64/128 Disk 0.00 15.00 BASIC Programming: Steve Martin, 744-3071 Other 0.00 5.00 Disk Recovery: David Byrum, 795-2928 TOTAL INCOME 91.00 1778.12 Sequential & Relative Files: D avid Byrum, 795-2928 Spreadsheets: David Byrum, 795-2928 EXPENSES: Superbase: Steve Martin, 744-3071 System Configuration: Steve Martin, 744-3071 Newsletter: Printing 0.00 529.12 The Write Stuff: Steve Martin, 744-3071 Postage 0.00 144.81 Hardware/Hdwr. Hacking: Gary Sterling, 293-5219 Club Buy 0.00 0.00 Administrative (AZ Corp Comm fee) 0.00 59.00 Membership 0.00 0.00 Postage 0.00 12.61 COMMUNITY CORNER Copies 1.53 6.23 Other (Ballots) 1.55 4.26 Amiga: by Leila Joiner, CCCC Disks. blank 19.81 101.05 Downloads (Jan & Feb) 0.00 94.00 The Volunteer Center coordinates volunteer services in Equipment/SW 0.00 0.00 Tucson. Each month we will be publishing a list of C64/128: (somewhat) computer-related volunteer positions available. Disks. blank 0.00 0.00 Equipment/SW 0.00 0.00 If you have time and knowledge to spare, please look TWS 0.00 153.50 through this list and call or visit the Volunteer Center, 877 MS-DOS: S. Alvemon between 8 AM and 5 PM, Monday-Friday, Disks. blank 0.00 0.00 327 ·6207 to offer your help. Equipment/SW 0.00 0.00 PD Disks 0.00 0.00 SUMMER INTERN volunteers wanted in government 22.89 1104.58 offices: computer, education, wellness, video, TOTAL EXPENSES development, marketing. PROFIT OR (LOSS) 68.11 673.54 OAT A ENTRY volunteer (at agency office or on own D Base computer at home) wanted to enter information twice/month. IMPROVE WORDPERFECf skill: foster home program SOIL CONSERVATION agency seeks volunteers to seeks office volunteer (phones, typing, filing) any weekday organize photos, work with maps, put information onto afternoon. computer (training given). GAIN EXPERIENCE as volunteer in law enforcement: If you volunteer for any of the items you see listed in this phones, correspondence, type, learn computer system column, I'd like to hear about your experiences. Please (bilingual helpful). call Leila Joiner at 327-0540.
[2] NEWS AND NEW PRODUCTS section entitled BEGINNER'S CORNER "LOGO RESOURCE". I sent away for the free By: Bruce lforrisoll. (l(l(l(l booklet. offered from Terrapin Software Inc. and was overwhelmed at the amount of I'm excited! I've just discovered LOGO information I received. In addition to for the C-64, and am I ever relieved! I've Commodore LOGO, Terrapin offers LOGO for been struggling to teach myself BASIC for the Macintosh, PC LOGO, LOGO PLUS for l28K some time now, and I just can't seem to Apple II computers, and Terrapin LOGO for get the hang of it. But my faith in the 64K Apple II computers. In addition, teaching myself how to program has been add-on programs offered are LOGO restored with LOGO, by Terrapin, Inc. Not Innovations,the LOGO Data Toolkit, only is it extremely fast and easy to Kinderlogo, LOGO Works: Lessons in LOGO, learn the basic concepts, but it's also the LOGO Project Book: Exploring Words and fun! . Lists, and more! Although not all of these I was lucky to find a used package of are available for the C-64,it's exciting Commodore LOGO at A.B.O. for only $10! For to know that Terrapin is at least still my money, I got two language disks sUPI.>0rting the Commodore computers and (exactly the same), one utilities disk, that s something whenever can get too much and a 400 page tutorial book (I understand of! Terrapin offers special Site Licensing the original package did not contain the for schools, so teachers take special extra language disk). Within a couple of note, if your school does not offer LOGO hours I was programming my own graphics to its students at this time, this is and music. It is so easy to get started! something I think you should consider To enter LOGO, you load the language disk introducing to your school. And that goes into the .computer. Then enter graphics for parents, too! If you are interested in mode· by typing: DRAW
(sung to the tune of"We Are the World") We are the Club, We are Amigans, We are the ones who always multi-task So let's start giving! r~:;~~~~;l * communications software ~ By Steve Jess -SUNRIZE STUDIO 16- The Catalina Commodore Computer Club has gone through more change than Eastern The newest Amiga audio editing Europe (well, almost.) In 1987, when your software/hardware team editor first began attending, the "main event" was the nighttime C64/128 meeting in -WORK IN PROGRESS- Madonna Hall, which operated a little like a Pat Jenkins will show his three ring circus: presentations at the front of the room, sales at the back, and the library Amiga-based "Heavy-Metal" style actively selling disks over to the side. cartoon -- an 80-disk project! Meanwhile, one Saturday morning each
DISK-OF-THE-MONTH May 1992 month, a band of die-hard Amiga fans would meet in the Woods Branch Library conference Stock Analyst -- Use downloaded data room. to analyze your investments. A Boy, how things have changed. Now it's the 64/128 folks who qualify as a "die-hard nifty program that draws band," as many of their members "defect" to impressive charts of stock MS-DOS, Macintosh, or, we hope, Amiga performance. computers. Meanwhile, the Amiga group grows month by month, and with that growth comes a more diverse membership. Some Rocky,-- A game similar to people are interested in games. Others want "Boulderdash. " to know the latest in video. Still others are interested in the newest productivity tools - word processing, DTP, and now even fax/voice EXP Layers -- Like the "exploding mail. windows" look of the MacIntosh? This change means two things to us as Amiga Just add this commodity to your users. First, as president Tom D'Angelo told system, if you have W orkbanch us at the May meeting, "You are the club." That means more of the club's leaders will 2.0 have to come from the Amiga ranks. Elsewhere in this newsletter, you'll see a list of
[A-l] -continued on page 3 Catalina Commodore Computer Club, Inc. AMICA NEWS June 1992 Competition for the Toaster? CompuSeroe messages on The Video Machine
Fm: Kevin Darling 76703,4227 such as alpha channel transitions and To: all overlays. They can do pixelization wipes, but I didn't see anything like the Toaster's "The Video Machine can best be understood as remapping wipes, like wrapping video on a a high-end Video Toaster. It takes standard cube. It reduces images much more cleanly video inputs and allows for full frame-by than a Toaster, it drops individual pixels as frame editing. compared to the Toaster dropping every fourth pixel (1 think). They showed Windows-based "Unlike the Toaster, which runs only on the sequencing of transition effects and Commodore Amiga and requires the NTSC sequenced triggers for playing sounds. It has video found in the US, the Video Machine is two TBCs on-board. No other signs of an add-in board for PCs and Macintoshes that character-generating software, although some also handles European PAL or SECAM inputs, of the literature describes Type 1 support, but allowing the editor to mix-and-match them." it wasn't clear if that was done through something like ATM. It's all digital 4:2:2, and So says Newsbytes about the COMDEX debut can apparently work in both PAL and NTSC of Munich-based FAST Electronic's "Video Simultaneously, with S-video and composite Machine", an add on board video editing, inputs, and a four-channel stereo audio titling and special effects. The system is based mixer. They showed versions for the PC and on a new Philips video controller chip. Other Mac - but it ain't shipping, and until it does, it quotes: ain't real - right? :-) The Video Machine is able to cut and mix live Fm: Syndesis Corp/John Foust 76004,1763 video. It requires no extra hardware such as To: Kevin Darling 76703,4227 (X) TBCs or editing decks. The video output and both inputs accommodate FBAS and S-Video It sounds like the board is based on some signals. It can mix PAL and NTSC sources. apparently well-known chip set from Phillips. Any ideas on what it might be? It includes an library of over 100 digital video effects, such as slides, curtain effects, Fm: Kevin Darling 76703,4227 panning, scrolling, fades, splits, strobes, To: Syndesis Corp/John Foust 76004,1763 (X) continuously adjustable zoom and shrink, and negative and blue box effects. 1 can make a good guess. It's probably using the Philips digital1V chips. Video Machine runs on any Mac II with the Apple 13" color monitor and at least 4 MB Their use is fairly straight forward. Composite main memory. It also runs on IBM/AT and or Y /C signals are fed into one or two A/D compatibles with 16-bit slot or PS/2 systems converters. Their data goes to the core chip, with MCA/640KB memory under DOS 3.3+ or the Digital MultiStandard Decoder (DMSD) Windows 3.0+. (SAA9051 is 4: 1: 1 for consumer apps, SAA7151 is 4:2:2 for industrial Video, Availability is slated for this December at SAA7191 is also 4:2:2, but optimized for 640 $4000, So, has anyone here seen this system pixels/line for computer video). at either COMDEX or the last CEBIT? The DMSD does sync and other processing for Fm: Syndesis Corp/John Foust 76004,1763 PAL/NTSC/SECAM ... and outputs digital YUV To: Kevin Darling 76703,4227 (X) data which can be stored as-is, or converted to gamma-corrected RGB, and manipulated in Yes, 1 was at COMDEX and studied what they a RAM buffer. Output can be converted to had for demonstrating the Video Machine. It RGB or composite, overlaid with graphics or looks good - like a Toaster in many ways, text, etc. CD-l chips are kin to these.
[A-2) Catalina Commodore Computer Club, Inc. AMICA NEWS June 1992
We Are the Club - continued Jrom page 1 Remember how Atari video game cartridges candidates for various club offices. Note that got better over the years? most of them are Arniga SIG members. But the key word is if. The competing CD-I Second, with so many different interests at system is due out soon, with upper-level units the monthly Amiga meetings, we have to do reportedly capable of delivering full-screen, things differently or the meetings will full-motion video with quality similar to VHS disintegrate. It's been decided that the Videotape. Meanwhile, Sega Genesis and meeting will begin at 10:00 as a single group, Nintendo are marketing CD-based game with short program demos, Amiga-related machines at prices far lower than CDTV's. news announcements, and so on. By 11 :00 It's up to Commodore to decide whether CDTV a.m., the meeting will break up into small will become another hit, like the 64, or groups, with different events happening in another bomb, like the Plus 4. different corners of the room. Sound familiar? That's how the 64/128 meetings were Say Wbat? organized during their heyday. The Amiga has always been able to talk to The May Meeting you, but now you can talk back -- and it won't cost you an arm and a leg. Dave Hamrick The highlight of our May meeting was a and Howard Wooten demonstrated two demonstration of CDTV, Commodore's different voice recognition programs. Both Amiga/CD player/CD-ROM machine, now reliably recognized their master's voice, and selling in the $800-$900 range. Ken Weaver executed commands according to their pre of Computer V's showed a variety of titles for programmed instructions. Howard's was a CDTV, including a "book" of scary poems for public domain program. that used the popular kids, the Grolier Electronic encyclopedia, and "Perfect Sound" digitizer, while Dave's was a something called Advanced Military Systems. commercial program (sorry, I didn't get the name of either product.) Unfortunately, CDTV proves the adage about "garbage in, garbage out." The hardware is Warp Factor Five, willing, but the software, so far, is pretty Mister Sulut weak. The poetry disk was the best of the bunch, in my opinion. It was set up like a Eric Case from the University of Arizona real book, with pages you could turn by using VideoCampus showed a 17 -second videotape CDTV's infrared controller to point the cursor produced using a Video Toaster and Lightwave at a page-turn symbol and clicking a button. software, for the UA Lunar and Planetary A voice would read each poem, and a Laboratory. The animation simulates a flight "hypertext" function allowed the user to hear a through the solar system. from an orbit close defInition of any word in a poem. to the Sun, past Mercury, Venus, Earth. Mars, and so on, until you finally pass Neptune (or At the other end of the scale was Advanced is it Uranus?) and head for open space. Eric Milital1:" Systems, a disk tha,t showed a lot of says the individual frames took from 10 ~nfulfi~led I;>otential. It s basically an seconds to 10 minutes to render. depending mteractIve slIde show of ships, planes, and on the complexity of the image. That's using tanks. Even by slide-show standards, its a 68040 machine, folks, so your time will production values were low. But the vary. developers (producers?) missed lots of chances to use CDTV's built-in abilities as an Amiga. Bug reported In Anit-VIrus Program For example, instead of a still photo of a plane taking off from an aircraft carrier, they could Dennis McCormick reports that a virus have had an animation. In another place, a detection program that appeared on a recent wide angle view of a carrier could have had club Disk-of-the-Month may cause problems defined "hot boxes" where a user could have when used under AmigaDos 1.3. Dennis says clicked for more information about the various the Virus_Checker 5.36 program, written by types of planes on deck, or the carrier itself. John Veldthuis, can cause the computer to write files which generate read/write errors If CDTV survives long enough, the software when they are read later. Apparently the will improve, as it has for every other program works as advertised under computer platform or consumer product. ArnigaDOS 2.04.
[A-3] Catalina Commodore Computer Club, Inc. AMICA NEWS June 1992 Commodore Continues Profit Amiga sales get the credit
NEW YORK (APRIL 29) PR NEWSWIRE - offset by a 10 percent increase in unit sales of Commodore International Limited (NYSE: CBU) the Amiga line along with continued growth in today reported earnings of $4.1 million, or the Professional PC line. $0.12 per share on sales of $194.6 million for the third fiscal quarter ended March 31, 1992. Gross profit for the quarter declined, primarily reflecting the impact of lower revenues, partially This compares with net income of $1.4 million, offset by the favorable impact of hedging or $0.04 per share after extraordinary charge on activities. Operating expenses were reduced by sales of $246.3 million in the year-ago quarter. 25 percent vs. the prior year. These factors resulted in net income for the quarter of $4. 1 For the nine months ended March 31, 1992, million. Commodore reported net income of $49.5 million, or $1.47 per share on sales of $770.3 Irving Gould, chairman and chief executive million. This compares with net income of $44.9 officer stated: "Revenues and profitability for the million, or $1.37 per share after extraordinary quarter were adversely impacted by the weak charge on sales of $830.7 million in the prior global economic environment. However, we are year. encouraged by the continued growth in the Amiga and Professional PC lines. Furthermore, The decline in sales for the quarter was Commodore's range of products has been primarily due to the discontinuation of the enhanced with the recent introduction of the unprofitable low-end MS-DOS range, and a Amiga 600 and 600HD, a new line of consumer reduction in C64 sales, due to economic products which have been well received in the softness in certain markets. This was partially marketplace. "
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[A-4] Catalina Commodore Computer Club, Inc. AMICA NEWS June 1992
Free At Last ! Free At Last!
By Steve Jess months. But I kept CIS and Genie, because of their superior file collections. Still, despite my Your editor has two reasons for shouting these efforts to keep track of my on-line time and cut words from the nearest mountaintop. First, he back on modem use, my VISA bill came yester has finished four months as a full-time student, day, and showed that I had allowed another $70 and can now return to being a productive mem to be sucked down my phone line. With ber of society, with a full-time job and full-time CompuServe, that happens at the rate of $12.75 pay. But that's not what this column is about. an hour. That'sJaster than I earn it,Jor Pete's sake. Today (May 9) I claimed my freedom, broke the bonds that had been holding me down, and got Genie charges less than half as much as the monkey off my back. CompuServe, but it's less convenient, as well. It's slower and has fewer files, and access to the Today I cancelled my membership in Compu message base is less intuitive (for me.) I'll miss Serve. the "Hot News and Rumors" messages on CIS - and so will you, unless someone in the club It was easy and wrenching at the same time. It volunteers to check them and contribute useful was easy because vir- items to the newsletter. tually everything on CompuServe is easy. On the other hand, Just go to MEMBER AS Genie has its ad SISTANCE, select "Can As Nancy Reagan vantages. The weekly cel Your Membership," Amiga news digest con and answer a few simple might put it, tains juicy bits of infor questions, such as why mation, available for re you're leaving. But it Just say printing in newsletters was wrenching because as long as Genie gets I've been a member of >logoff proper credit. General CIS for nearly as long as ly. files are uploaded to I've owned a computer. Genie a little later than I signed up in early they're put on Compu 1983. using my VIC-20, VICMODEM, and VIC Serve, but the delay is worth the savings. I just TERM software. I kept the same membership got version 1.7 of the POST PostScript inter number and password all that time (yes, I know preter from Genie, and it only cost me $3.00, as that's not too smart.) opposed to around $6.00 from CompuServe. Why did I leave? When CompuServe asked that To its credit, CompuServe realized that its cost question, I selected reason number 4, "Too ex was a disadvantage. It recently began offering pensive." But the real reason is that I had a $7.95 per month basic membership, which al come to be an on-line addict. The lure of lows access to many bulletin boards, the Elec thousands of files and messages to browse tronic Mall, and news services. But, just like through and download was simply too great. In Genie's $4.95 Basic Service, you pay the regular recent years, my interest in desktop publishing hourly rate for computer-user forums. where I led me to sign on constantly to check for new spent most of my time. and better clip art and fonts. I spent a good part of several weekends watching the "Blocks In the end, it was something I decided I had to Transferred" readout on my screen. do, if I ever hoped to be able to afford an ac celerator card, de-interlacer board, and VGA Once a month I would get a shock when I monitor. Some other computer-related expense looked at my CompuServe, Genie, and BIX char had to go. ges on my VISA bill, which sometimes sur passed $100. I cancelled my BIX flat rate From now on, I'm no longer 75565,320. Just subscription several months ago, figuring I call me Steve. wasn't getting $39 worth of benefit every three
[A-5] Catalina Commodore Computer Club, Inc. AMICA NEWS June 1992
BridgeBoard Technology Moves into the Late 80's By Steve Jess
Ever notice that Commodore always seems to be one generation behind in bringing out BridgeBoards (MS-DOS Compatible cards) for the Amiga? When MS-DOS users could buy 16-bit AT computers. Amiga users wanting compatibility were limited to the 8-bit XT BridgeBoard. As 32-bit 386 machines were gaining momentum. Commodore produced (tah-DAHI) an AT-compatible BridgeBoard. Now that 486s are the rage. Commodore is out with a 386SX BridgeBoard. Now, don't run down to your dealer and try to buy one. Run down to your dealer and buy an AT Bridgeboard. because until the backlog of AT boards is reduced, Commodore apparently won't officially introduce the 386SX unit in America. For the time being. it's only on sale in Europe. (Incidentally. for those who don·t know. the 386SX is an Intel 32-bit processor, just like the regular 386 chip. However. the 'SX is connected to the rest of the world through a 16-bit bus. so it can use AT-style 16-bit hardware. instead of more expensive 32-bit expansion devices. That keeps costs down. but it also results in a 20 percent speed penalty. A 20 MhZ 386SX runs roughly as fast as a 16 MhZ 386, in other words. The SX is ideally suited to the Amiga 2000 and 3000 Bridge slots, which are AT-style 16-bit slots.) An English CompuServe user listed the following features for the new A2386 Bridgeboard: "Processor: 80386SX Clock Speed: 16 or 20 MHZ Co-Processor: Optional 80387SX Memory: Expandable to 8mb on board. (256kb x 4 or 1M x 4 page mode ZIP's) Floppy Disks: Supports up to 2 floppy disk drives from the following: 1 PC only external drive (3.5 or 5.25) 1 or 2 PC only internal drives of the same type 3.5 720kb/1.44mb PC 3.5880kbAmiga 3.5 880kb I 1.76 dual speed Amiga 5.25 high density PC 5.25 low density PC 1 shared 3.5 Amiga drive (DFO: or DF1:) Card Type: Uses the Amiga 100 pin PC I AT busses. Occupies one of the two combination Bridgeboard slots.
Video display: IBM-PCIAT MDA mono 80 x 25 IBM-PC I AT CGA colour 80 x 25 IBM-PCI AT CGA colour graphics 640x200 x 2 and 320 x 200 x 4 "Comes complete with MS-DOS 5.0. 3 user manuals. 3 different ribbon cables for different floppy setups, 4 diskettes, new style install program which will automatically setup a C: drive virtual on your Amiga hard disk, new WB2.0 style PCPrefs program. PC setup and more. Includes ability to share DFO: or DF1: as Amiga or PC drives using a program called flipper which runs in background and detects DOS type of floppy and acts accordingly. "I have just got the 20mhz board with 8mb of ram and am up and running with minimal fuss. Will be installing windows 3.1 any moment." Editor's note: You'll notice even the new 386SX Bridgeboard lacks the capability to generate VGA video on the Amiga screen. You have to accept fuzzy old CGA. or buy a separate VGA card. My guess is Commodore can't figure out a way to squeeze all the data needed for VGA through the relatively small 128k of "dual-port" memory that the Bridge shares with the Amiga. Solution: if you've gotta have VGA, buy a cheap VGA card (they're as low as $39) and a switch for your monitor.
[A-6) Catalina Commodore Computer Club, Inc. June 1992
ecce, Inc. Board ofv Directors Newsletter Staff
Tom D'Angelo, President 296-5076 Leila Joiner, Editor, 327-0540 Steve Martin, Vice President f}~2- 57tJ ' 744-3071 Steve Jess, Amiga Editor, 293-2693 Robert Holdcraft, Secretary ~'1 31 747-3163 Steve Matlin, C64/128 Editor, 744-3071 Dennis McCormick, Treasurer Ihf'. ff 292-2275 Leila Joiner, Member-at-Large .iff'£) .)/1'1/ 327-0540 Please submit copy to the Ollie Plimpton, Member-at-Large 888-0425 Appropriate Section Editor or to: Leila Joiner ecce, Inc. Volunteers 3710 East Edison Tucson AZ 85716 (602) 327-0540 Mail Director - Dan Bellemare 746-7729 Membership - Rob McConeghy 298-7965 Work Number: 624-6650 C64/128 Disk-of-the-Month - Ted Seitz 398-2389 C64/128 Librarian - Tom Stubblefield 294-0279 for Meeting Info Amiga DOM - Joel Halbert 577-3150 Amiga Librarian - Dennis McCormick 292-2275 MSIDOS Advisor - Jeff Bishop 888-1456 See Back Publicity - Dave Tuggle 744-3634 Cover ().-ieinal £a.-tvvns £vne.-atulativns!! by Dan &. Te.-.-y lJellema.-e I>at Jenkins cn ycur new baby eirl ••• (We can't believe you delivered our Call Pat at 578-2972 with your cartoon ideas!! newsletter, too!)
.-._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.-._._._._._ ._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.-.-._._._.-., ( i i CCCe, Inc. June 1992 Election Ballot i Mail-In Ballots Must Be in the Club P.O. Box by 5 PM Friday. June 19th President: Secretary: D Dennis McCormick o John Tillema D Rob McConeghy 0 ______D ______
I i Vice President: Treasurer: D Pat Jenkins o Howard Wooten D ______0 ______
Members-at-Large (Vote for Two) D Ollie Plimpton D Bob Holdcraft D Steve Jess 0 Fred Rentzel D Randy Anderson 0 ______0 ______
._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._ ._._.-._.-._._._._ ._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.-.-.-._._._" , 8~r ~Z\O r,ilp"Otrl f- ~ac&ro[f[fJIOWQ)~ AMIGA *C64/11S*MS/()()S plus Saturday Ifelp /Jay Saturday, June 20, 1992 St. Peter & Paul Madonna Hall Southeast Corner of Campbell & Adams lOAM - 2PM *ExecuUve l3()iI ....d .4leeUne* All .4lembe ....s Welc()me Tuesday, June 8, 1992 Devon Gables Home 6150 East Grant Road 7:30PM =0:>-'t- u o o;lZ 0 >-1= ~ 'UJ::o~ ...... rn :.2 .6 en ° Q) 'CJ ::l ~ ~~a~~ ° '