The FIRST Magazine Produced Entirely With Personal Computers!

The FIRST Magazine Produced Entirely With Personal Computers! 

Id 71896 49150 o 

JULY 1990 

U.S.A. $3.95 

Canada $4.50 

DISPLAY UNTIL JUL 24 

Video Toaster Update 

ScanLab 100 

FractalPro 

Amiga COMAL 2.0 

Louis Markoya 

and... R.J. Mical

j&SSb 

m 

■ 

*^fl H B 

a 1 ' 

These items are also 

available for: ATARI®, 

SEGA® and NINTENDO® 

19 

Now get behind the wheel or in the 

cockpit. 2 auto-fires. 

! ■■ 

& (a Kât 

For Ultimate Arcade Excitement at Home, 

look for Video Game Accessories by 

Send for your FREE Catalog to: 101 Wilton Ave.. Dept.12 

Middlesex, N.J. 08846 • (201 )968-6868 

■ VISIT YOUR RETAILER OR CALL 

800-999-4470 

FOR VISA/MC ORDERS

*&*&:&A ^H 

Commodore - , Atari •. Sega (I, Nintendo I, arc registered Trademarks of Commodore 

Electronics. Atari Corp., Sega Entertainment, Nintendo of America respectively. Zoomer' \ 

Ultimate Superstick \ Point Pounding Peripherals \ are Trademarks ol Beeshu", Inc., Hoi 

Stuff . is a registered Trademark of Beeshu :, Inc., Beeshu is a Trademark of Beeshu, Inc..

Benn Dunnington 

Publisher. Ediior. Founder 

Mark R. Brown 

Managing Editor, Technical Editor 

Tom Malcom 

Senior Editor 

Judith Kilbury-Cobb 

Assistant Editor 

Don Romero 

Contributing Editor 

Jim Oldfield, Jr. 

Editor Emeritus 

Arby Fuller 

Apprentice Editor 

Megan Ward 

Art and Production Manager 

Carol Brown 

Advertising Director 

Advertising Sales (319) 338-3620 

FAX phone no. (319) 338-0897 

Subscriptions (319)338-0703 

READER MAIL: 

INFO Reader Mail 

123 North Linn Street, Suite 2A 

Iowa City, IA 52245 

COPYRIGHTc. 1990 BY 

INFO PUBLICATIONS. INC. 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

INFO (ISSN 08975868) is published monthly except bi-monthly in 

July-August by INFO Publications, Inc., 123 N. Linn Street. Suite 

2A~ Iowa City. IA 52245. US subscription rate is S26.00, one year; 

S47.50, two years; S65.00, three years. Canada/Mexico rates in US 

funds are $34.00. one year; $63.50, two years; S89.00. three years. 

Foreign surface rale is S50.00 (US funds), one year. Second-class 

postage paid at Iowa City. IA and al additional mailing office. POST 

MASTER: Send address Changes to INFO. 123 North Linn. Suite 2A. 

Iowa City. IA 52245. 

INFO is an independent journal not connected with Commodore 

Business Machines. Inc. National and worldwide distribution by 

Kable News Co., New York. NY. Entire contents copyright 1990 by 

INFO Publications. Inc.. Iowa City. IA. No part of this publication 

may be printed or otherwise reproduced without written permission 

from the publisher. INFO makes every effort to asure ithe accuracy of 

articles, stories, and reviews published in this magazine. INFO 

assumes no responsibility for damages due to errors or omissions. 

Products used to create this 

issue of INFO include: 

PROFESSIONAL PAGE 

video cameras 

0 Butchei 

INFO July 1990 

MIzGA i 

The &4 

REDMOND Cables 

OllRHERBflEK 

TURBO 

Diffi-View Gold 

DeluxePaintHI 

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Perfect 

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SONY 

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TransSpell Transcript snapshot 

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PRINT 

... -E.D 

IKflRfll 

.FONTS I

GENLOCK AND OVERLAY SYSTEM 

A Broadcast qualify RS-170A composite output 

A Two independent dissolve controls 

▲ Software controllable 

▲ Compatible with all Amiga" models 

A Dual video outputs 

A Key output 

A Selectable 3.58MHz Notch niter 

> SUPER6EN IS THE PROVEN 

/ INDUSTRY STANDARD GENLOCK 

AND OVERLAY SYSTEM FOR THE 

$7*93$ 

ION 

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Telephone 916/344-4825 FAX 916/635-0475 

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Amiga is a registered trademark of Comodore Business Machines. 

■■: 

INTRODUCING THE 

ALL THE QUALITY OF OUR ORIGINAL SUPERGEN 

NOW ON A CARD FOR THE AMIGA 2000 SERIES 

-; A Occupies the video sip* 

..A 1 video in, 1 video out 

A Broadcast qualify RS-17GA composite output 

A Switch selectable overjoy function 

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.A Optional remote dissofve console ($75) 

$599.95 

SuperGen 20001 

THE FIRST TRUE Y/C GjENtOCK * 0VERUY CARD 

2000 SERIES COMPUTERS 

A S-VHS, ED-BETA, Hi8 

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A built in sync generator A dissolves 

$1995 

E A T 1 O N S 

2865 Sunrise Boulevard Suite 103 Rancho Cordova CA 95742 

Telephone 916/344-4825 FAX 916/635-0475 

©1989 Digital Creations. 

Amiga is a registered trademark of Comodore Business Machines. 

TM

28 An Interview with R.J. Mical 

Mindy Skelton conducts an interview with outspoken Amiga pioneer R.J. Mical, who shares some 

insights into the early days of the Amiga, his experiences developing Atari's Lynx, and his view of the 

Amiga's future. 

31 The Amiga 3000 

INFO takes a first look at Commodore's latest technological masterpiece, the Amiga 3000. We also 

take a peek at version 2.0 of the Amiga's operating system, and the new AmigaVision authoring 

system. 

34 The Ray-Traced Self-Portrait 

Renowned Amiga artist Louis Markoya takes us step-by-step through the process of digitizing, 

16 

18 

21 

22 

8 

12 

14 

24 

38 

41 

42 

44 

manipulating, and ray-tracing a dramatic self-portrait. 

Serial Solution 

AmigaDOS Reference 

Guide 

Amiga COMAL V2.0 

TV*Text Professional 

INFOtorial 

Reader Mail 

New Products 

News & Views 

Public Domain 

BRYCE 

Adventure Road 

Games for Amiga 

23 

65 

69 

70 

52 

57 

58 

65 

79 

82 

CanDo 

CrossDOS 

FractalPro 

ScanLab 100 

Games for C64 

INFO Mania & 

Game Tips 

Show Reports 

Tech Corner 

INFO Update 

Ad Index 


In addition to providing news, 

reviews, humor and general info 

to the Commodore community, 

INFO is committed to serving as 

a showcase of what can be pro 

duced with inexpensive personal 

computers (the Amiga, in particu 

lar) and off-the-shelf products. 

Except for some ads, everything 

in INFO is digitally created, edit 

ed, and color separated as com 

plete assembled pages on Amigas, 

and ouput as film from a 

Postscript imaging device at 1270 

dots per inch.

THE ULTIMATE GOLF SIMULATOR S3BSB 

It's professional golf at its best with the 

game's most aggressive and successful 

player, Greg Norman... a state-of-the-art 

golf simulation with more realistic threedimensional 

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Rich in detail, Shark Attack is packed with 

features not included in lesser games, 

including: 

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Pre-game Practice, Matchplay, at*r 

Greensomes, Strokeplay, and Texas Scramble, all handicapped according to adjustable 

attributes, with single and team play options (up to four players). 

A professional caddy who can recommend the club to use for each shot. 

• On-screen ability to design your own swing, for agame which is more dependent on skill 

than luck. 

Greg Norman's swing digitized for your instruction in the best golfing form. 

Ability to open and close the club face and adjust the loft, totally on-screen, for 

greater control. 

• A 3-D perspective, which can be rotated through 360 degrees from any point. You can 

really walk each hole, and study the lie of each shot just like you would on a real golf 

course (one of the features that make this a simulation, not just a game). 

Changing wind and weather conditions, to add to the challenge. 

WIN A FABULOUS TRIP TO AUSTRALIA IN THE 

SHARK ATTACK SWEEPSTAKES! 

To enter, fill out and return your Shark Attack warranty card. Here's what you 

may win: 

• Two round trip airfaires to Australia • Hotel accomodations for nine nights 

• Tickets to the Australian Open Golf Championship • Opportunity to meet the 

"Great White Shark" himself • $1,000 in cash 

Send in your warranty card today! 

Entiici mull be poitmirdCif no blcr ihjn fdf 31. I WO. Offer wni where prohibited b, liw 

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Melbourne House is a member of the Virgin Mastertronic Group. 

Greg Norman's Shark Attack: the first true golf simulation, produced under the guidance of 

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Look for Shark Attack at your favorite software store. 

Amiga 

Atari ST 

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For these fine computers: 

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INFOtorials 

Mark R. Brown 

Managing Editor 

Benn Dunnington 

Publisher 

BACK TO THE FUTURE 

"The biggest news of the next 

year (and you'll be hearing about 

this more and more as things 

develop) is and will probably con 

tinue to be the eventual unveiling of 

Commodore's new 32-bit, Macin 

tosh-like, under-$1000 super 

machine. Affectionately called the 

Mac-Vic on the street, the new 

machine was "adopted" by Com 

modore in the process of acquiring 

Amiga [the company], the 

machine's biological parent. Jack 

Tramiel is said to be furious about 

Commodore's beating him and Atari 

to the deal, and this one move 

alone could redeem Commodore 

from an otherwise lackluster sea 

son since Tramiel's departure ear 

lier this year. The new machine 

sports a 68000 cpu with from 128K 

to 512K of on-board RAM 

(expandable to multi-megabytes 

externally); enhanced Applesoft- 

compatible BASIC; built-in IBM 

compatible 320K dbl.-sided disk; 

built-in modem; parallel & serial 

ports; 4-voice sound & music chip; 

640 x 200 x 4096 color graphics 

resolution; eight 16-color sprites; 

windows; framebuffer animation; 

smooth scrolling in all directions; 80 

columns clearly readable on a stan 

dard TV set; RF, composite, & RGB 

outputs; & built-in wordprocessing 

& spreadsheet. All this at (if you 

can believe it) under $1000. When? 

Commodore says "after Christmas". 

If you ask me, the "Mac-Vic" itself 

sounds like Christmas!" 

These were the first words any 

one ever wrote in the consumer 

press about the Commodore 

Amiga computer. They appeared in 

issue #4 of INFO-64 in the summer of 

1984. We were a bit optimistic on a 

few points (like the "built-in modem", 

"built-in spreadsheet", and "80 

columns clearly readable on a standard 

TV") and a bit too cautious on others 

(the Amiga 1000 actually debuted with 

256K. not 128K of RAM, and had an 

880K drive, not a wimpy 320K). Still, 

it was the first time the world at large 

had heard of the new Commodore 

Amiga. 

As time passed. INFO-64's Amiga 

coverage grew. We blended Amiga fea 

tures in with our C64 and C128 cover 

age. In issue #8 we not only reported 

on the official unveiling party for the 

Amiga, we also dropped the "64" from 

our name. From then on, we've been 

just plain "INFO." 

Well, we're changing things again. 

You haven't seen an issue of INFO 

for the past couple of months because 

we've been busy. We've been talking 

to banks and investors, making new 

plans, and lining up new writers and 

artists. It's been a long dry spell, but 

we're back with a vengeance! 

Starting with our next issue. INFO 

will be an all-Amiga magazine. 

We don't make this change lightly. 

We've covered Commodore computers 

for almost seven years now, and we 

have a warm fuzzy feeling for all of 

them (with the possible exception of 


the Plus/4). But INFO has always been 

a "news & reviews" magazine, and 

frankly there just isn't much C64/C128 

news any more: nor are there a whole 

lot of new products to review. Most of 

our readers are now Amiga owners, 

and most of our advertisers are selling 

Amiga products. We've held out for 

the proper time to make the switch, and 

we think the time is now. 

So we bid a tearful "Farewell" to the 

8-bit past, face forward and set our 

eyes on the Amiga future. Commodore 

has firmly fixed its destiny with the 

introduction of the Amiga 3000. And. 

though no one can predict the future, 

we think the omens augur well for the 

Amiga. The A3000"s raw power is sec 

ond to none, and the price/performance 

of the entire Amiga line is unmatched 

by the competition. Now it's time for 

IBM and Apple to play catch-up. And. 

though we know not everyone's going 

to run right out and buy an A3000, we 

feel that it will drive the Amiga market 

as nothing else has. (See our A3000 

feature on page 31 for details on this 

new Amiga powerhouse.) 

We're also making another change in 

INFO, the one that's been requested 

most by our readers: we're going 

monthly. We've added some equipment 

and a couple of new people and are 

gearing up to spend even more sleep 

less nights in our offices. (Actually. 

we'll be publishing 11 times a year. 

skipping one of the summer months. 

Why? Because we've finally realized 

the value of an annual vacation from 

this madhouse, that's why!)

1-800-323-9421 

$39.99 

* ■* 

} ^ ■ A 

« Can you make it in time? 

■w - ■ . 

FROM THE DESKn I EfiM OF 

Tradgedy has struck! The crew of fipollo 19 is in trouble. On a surveying mission to the moon, their space craft was 

caught in a meteor storm and disabled, fipollo 19 is now lost somewhere on the lunar surface. Your mission is to find 

any survivors before they run out of oxygen!!! *

COMING 

ATTRACTIONS 

So what will you get in an all-new, 

all-Amiga, monthly INFO magazine? 

Well, for starters our PD columnists 

Harv Laser, Don Romero, and Jeff 

Lowenthal will keep you up-to-date on 

the latest public domain programs on 

American People/Link. GEnie, and 

commercial PD disk collections. The 

world's foremost expert on adventure 

games, Shay Addams. will grace our 

pages with a new installment of "Adven 

10 

8-BIT BLUES 

What about the 8-bit readers 

we're leaving behind? Truthfully, 

most of you have told us that as 

we've changed, so have you. Our 

phone surveys tell us that almost all 

of our readers have moved from 8- 

bit Commodore computers to Ami- 

gas over the last few years. 

As for the rest, we could cop a 

piea of "we're not the only ones." 

After all, Computers Gazette was 

recently folded into Compute!. Com 

modore Magazine, Ahoy!, and 

Transactor all stopped publishing in 

the past year or so. Run is much, 

much thinner than it used to be, and 

despite IDG's assurances to the 

contrary, those who should know 

tell us that Run probably won't be 

around much longer, either. The sad 

truth is that there just isn't enough 

money in the 8-bit Commodore 

market to support a slick 

newsstand-distributed magazine 

any more. 

So what's a C64 or C128 owner 

to do? Well, we suggest C128 own 

ers check out Twin Cities 128, that 

INFOtorials 

. . . continued 

ture Road" in every issue. Greg Conley's 

comic tales of wide-eyed innocent 

Amiga user "Bryce" will also appear 11 

times a year. In a new monthly column, 

video expert Oran J. Sands III will 

report on the latest in Amiga video. 

Denny Atkins of Compute! fame will 

write a monthly column covering desk 

top publishing and multimedia. Every 

other month John Foust, "The Father of 

Amiga Journalism" and creator of Syn- 

desis's Interchange programs, will bring 

you up-to-date on 3D and animation. 

Bimonthly columns by music expert 

Peggy Herrington and graphics artist 

excellent C128-specific journal pub 

lished in Minnesota (6 issues/ 

$12.50, PO Box 11578, Minneapolis 

MN 55411). It has always been the 

best source of C128 information, 

and editor Loren Lovhaug is dedi 

cated to keeping TC128 up and run 

ning for a long, long time. (INFO 

subscribers should check the INFO 

Wrap-Up for a special TC128 offer.) 

Unfortunately, there is no similar 

publication for C64 owners. Maybe if 

you'd write to Loren and let him 

know there's an interest, he might 

consider launching a similar publica 

tion for the C64. 

In the meantime, we suggest you 

support your local users group, and 

ask your officers to trade newsletters 

with as many other groups as you 

can. If you own a modem, support 

your local C64 BBS. You might con 

sider signing up for QuantumLink, or 

the C64/C128 sections on Peo 

ple/Link or CompuServe. Com 

modore support began with the 

grass roots, and it looks like that's 

where it's going to end up again. 


Brad Schenck will keep you informed 

on developments in the areas of Amiga 

sound and graphics. And every other 

issue, noted computer columnist Arlan 

Levitan will share his humorous 

insights into Amiga computing. 

Also on deck are a plethora of stories 

about Amiga users and their unique 

Amiga applications. We'll have feature 

pieces on videographers, musicians, sci 

entists, and artists who use the Amiga 

every day in creative and innovative 

ways. And our Entertainment section 

will focus on the best new Amiga games 

and entertainment software. 

Our most exciting new development 

is a brand-new INFO technical section 

edited by Chris Zamara and Nick Sulli 

van, former editors of the Transactor 

magazine. This section will help to 

bring you up to speed on such topics as 

AmigaDOS, ARexx, BASIC, and how 

Amiga hardware and software really 

works. 

And, of course, we'll continue to pro 

vide you with all the latest Amiga prod 

uct news and information. Because 

news and new products continue to be 

the heart and soul of INFO. 

We are actively recruiting submis 

sions from the most-respected writers in 

the Amiga community, and they have 

shown great enthusiasm for our new 

format. We think you'll like it too. 

- Mark & Ifenii 

We're on the lookout for stories about 

interesting Amiga users and their 

unique Amiga applications. If you'd like 

to tell us about yours, please drop us a 

line at: INFO Applications, 123 N. Linn 

St., Ste. 2A, Iowa City, IA 52245. 

If you're interested in writing techni 

cal articles for the INFO technical sec 

tion (no C or Modula-2 programming, 

please!), contact: Chris & Nick, INFO 

Northwest, 1915 Casa Marcia Cres 

cent, Victoria BC Canada V8N 2X4.

THE ULTIMATE DRIVING EXPERIENCE 

OtatHtxitod t>v Electronic Arts." Copyright i aes SeQB Entarprteea, Led

INFO MAILBOXES 

Our U.S. Mail address is: 

INFO Mail 

123 North Linn St., Suite 2A 

Iowa City. IA 52245 

FAX us at: 319-338-0897 

Send Electronic Mail to: 

CompuServe 70215,1034 

PeopleLink INFO Mag 

GEnie INFO.MAG 

Please do not use our EMail 

addresses to inquire about subscription 

problems. Mail subsription inquiries to: 

INFO Subscription Dept. 

123 North Linn St., Suite 2A 

Iowa City. IA 52245 

or call 319-338-0703. 

Please don't call the INFO offices 

with technical questions or send selfaddressed 

stamped envelopes expect 

ing a personal reply. We just don't have 

the staff to handle it. 

Thanks. 

U.S. Mail From: Derek Godal, 

Terre Haute. IN 

I am extremely disappointed 

with some software publishers. 

Here is a machine [the Amiga] 

that can do some really amazing 

stuff. But with the programs 

being written for it today, it is 

just another computer. One of the 

biggest on my complaint list is 

IBM conversions. I am sick of 

seeing blocky EGA pictures 

pasted on my screen. Why can't 

these wilsons go in the other 

direction? From Amiga to MS- 

DOS? 

Why, indeed? Could it have anything 

to do with the dreaded bottom line? 

With bazilhns of IBMs and clones out 

there and only a million Amigas, many 

software publishers have found it 

cheaper and easier to develop and 

12 

release their games in MS/DOS format 

first. To be fair, some (like California 

Dreams) go that extra mile to take 

advantage of the Amiga's superior 

capabilities, but not enough of them do. 

- Mark & Benn 

U.S. Mail From: John J. Gallo. 

New Jersey 

I love INFO! I love your maga 

zine so much that I demand 

more! I want more pages or 

maybe it could come out every 

month. Please give me more! 

Well, just because you asked so 

poignantly, John... Poof! INFO is now 

monthly, solely in response to your 

heartfelt request! Check out the INFO- 

torial for more details. The Official 

INFO Guru has granted your first wish. 

You only have two more left: use them 

wisely (might we suggest world peace 

and quadrupling Commodore sales?). 

- Mark & Benn 

U.S. Mail From: George 

Knochel. Lakewood, CO 

May I suggest that Tom Mal- 

com has too much to do? He 

obviously doesn't have enough 

time to do in-depth reviews. Spe 

cifically, "The Middle Ground" 

article (Jan/Feb 90) says that 

ProWrite "suffers...from the 

unforgivable sin of recognizing 

only its own files." NOT TRUE. 

As the reference manual says - 

pages 50 & 65 - you press ALT 

while opening to see all files on 

disk. 

Finally! Someone who understands I 

have too much to do. The two references 

to the procedure are buried deep in the 

manual and aren't indexed in a straight 

forward way, so that the ordinary user 


(like me) probably won't find them with 

out a lot of effort. Even better than 

indexing would be a gadget on the file 

requester to show all files. Obscurity in 

productivity software is just as unfor 

givable as the omission of vital details. / 

Stand by the review. Now can I have a 

week off? - Tom 

U.S. Mail From: Ron Feldman. 

Plantation, FL 

I read INFO regularly, and find 

it to be an indispensable source 

of information about the Amiga 

and its uses. BUT...I still see ads 

for copy programs in every issue 

and I've even seen some dis 

cussed in your Tech Corner sec 

tion. Until users start admitting 

that software piracy is a crime, it 

will continue to be the main 

threat to the existence and sup 

port of the Amiga. Your willing 

ness to publish ads for these pro 

grams whose sole purpose is to 

facilitate software piracy is an 

indication of your willingness to 

let "someone else" stand up and 

act on principle. I wish you 

would reconsider your stance on 

copy programs. 

Of course INFO abhors software theft 

(commonly romanticized as 'piracy') 

and would never condone, support, or 

encourage it. and we have said so pub 

licly on many occasions. However, 

under federal copyright law legitimate 

users have the right to make a backup 

copy of any program they have paid for. 

copy protection or no. Any user who has 

ever had a favorite program disk crash 

knows how important backups are and 

how frustrating and expensive it is not 

to have one. The use of copy programs 

by the legitimate owners of software for 

archival purposes is ok. That's what the 

law says. - Mark & Benn 

continued on page 72 ...

Your boss wants you to produce an 

animated video presentation to help 

sell that new project to top manage 

ment. You know that a full-color, 

animated presentation, developed on 

the Amiga, using its powerful 

desktop video software, will make a 

convincing impact. 

File transfer programs MAC-2-D0S 

and DOS-2-DOS from Central Coast 

Software! Using these simple and 

easy-to-use Amiga programs, you 

can now quickly and easily transfer 

the Mac/IBM/Atari data and images 

you need to and from the Amiga. 

MAC-2-DOS connects a Mac 

floppy drive directly to the Amiga • 

Reads and writes 400K/800K Mac 

disks • Converts MacPaint images to/ 

from IFF • Imports Mac clip art for 

use on the Amiga • Converts ASCII 

text files both ways • Converts 

PostScript files both ways • Supports 

MacBinary format • Includes 

MAC-2-D0S — when it 

absolutely, positively has to get to 

or from a Mac disk, immediately. 

DOS-2-DOS — when it 

absolutely, positively has to get to 

or from an IBM PC (or Atari) disk, 

immediately. 

LEM 

The Amiga is the right machine for 

the job, but how can you easily 

import the images and data you need 

for your presentation from other 

divisions of the company, data and 

images which come from 

Macintoshes and IBM PCs? 

conversion utilities for PICT files and 

Mac fonts • Creates icons, as 

necessary • Formats 400K/800K Mac 

disks. 

DOS-2-DOS uses your Amiga's 

floppy drives to read/write IBM/Atari 

3.5-inch disks • Reads/writes 5.25- 

inch IBM disks (using an external 

5.25-inch Amiga drive) ■ Converts 

ASCII text files both ways • Supports 

international character sets • 

Formats IBM/Atari disks • Use with 

IBM program HIJAAK (from Inset 

Systems, not included} to capture/ 

convert IBM graphic images to/from 

IFF. 

And to preserve your entire 

presentation, all supporting data and 

graphic files, as well as the programs: 

QUARTERBACK — the fastest 

and most reliable Amiga hard-disk 

backup program! 

Central Coast Software 

424 Vista Avenue Golden, Colorado 80401 

zz (303) 526-1030 • (303) 526-0520 (fax) ■—■ 

Dealer Inquiries Welcome \—-~\ 

INFO July 1990 13

R 

NewRroducts & Xveviews 

CLAMP IT ON 

OUTSTANDING VERY GOOD SATISFACTORY POOR DREK 

One of the more unusual 

items we've seen this bi-month 

is a joystick clamp from Dug- 

gan DeZign. It consists of a 

steel base plate and three c-type 

clamps that will secure any joy 

stick measuring from 2 1/2" to 4 

5/8" wide and up to 2 1/8" high, 

which covers most standard joy 

sticks. It also comes with stick- 

on pads so you won't hurt either 

the joystick or the table you 

clamp it to. Stik-Gripper costs 

S18.95. 300 Quaker Lane. Suite 

7, Warwick, RI 02886. 401-826- 

2961. 

HINT BOOK 

The ever-respected Lou 

Sander has put together a col 

lection of his Gold Mine col 

umn of game tips from Com 

modore Magazine. The book 

contains over 1200 hints for 

more than 500 games, some for 

the C64. some for Amiga, some 

for those other machines that 

shall remain nameless, and 

some for all. The 352-page 

paperback, aptly titled Lou 

Sander's Gold Mine, comes 

from Tab Books and will set you 

back SI9.95. Blue Ridge Sum 

mit. PA 17294. 717-794-2191. 

ilT 

TWAME 

GEO RAM 

Berkeley Softworks is ship 

ping their own RAM expander 

to use with GEOS. It offers 

512K. enough to eliminate 

nearly ail of those pesky disk 

accesses that slow down GEOS. 

It's for both 64s and 128s, and 

doesn't require an external 

power supply. While the thing 

doesn't currently work with 

non-GEOS programs, we expect 

some enterprising hacker to 

come up with a work-around. 

Retail price for GEORAM is 

S124.95. 2150 Shattuck Ave., 

Berkeley, CA 94704. 415-644- 

0883. 

Q: 

DTP 

A new C128-specific desktop 

publishing package called the 

Illustrated Publisher is 

available from Computers Etc! 

It's sold in two separate mod 

ules, 128 Illustrator and 128 

Publisher (S39.95 each). Each 

operates on the 80-column 

screen and can take advantage 

of extended video RAM. The 

Illustrator program offers the 

usual graphic tools like lines, 

boxes, circles, brushes, and so 

forth. It is a complete drawing 

program in itself, but is obvi 

ously designed to create and 

edit art for the page layout half 

of the duo. The Publisher lets 

you both edit and import text. 

Several fonts are included and 

[here's even a font editor. 4521- 

A Bee Ridge Rd.. Sarasota, FL 

34233.813-377-1121. 

DON'T BUG ME 

Robert Rockefeller has 

released another in his Diamond 

series of programmer's tools. 

The native C128 mode Dia 

mond Symbolic Debugger has 

70 commands and supports 

Merlin 128 and Commodore's 

DevPack symbol tables. It has 

macros and a powerful condi 

tional breakpoint facility (up to 

16 breakpoints can be in place 

simultaneously). It will run on 

either screen, meaning that you 

can have a program running on 

one screen and the debugger on 

the other. And it's only 16K. 

Price is S29.95. RockySoft, PO 

Box 113. Langton. ON Canada 

N0E 1G0. 519-875-2580. 

TRANSLATOR 

Ante Up is a new BASIC 8 

graphics translator from Siarfol- 

lower Productions. It will con 

vert 40-column GEOS. Print 

Shop. Doodle. Computereyes, or 

Koala graphics into BASIC 8 

80-coiumn format It will also 

let you preview the results on 

the 40-column screen and 

change the 80-column cell 

sizes. It requires 64K video 

RAM. $20.00. 4224 Bakman. 

North Hollywood. CA 91602. 

818-762-2514. 

14 INFO Julv 1990 

IPAINT, UPAINT 

WE ALL PAINT 

Voyager Mindtools' IPaint 

Written in a combination of 

BASIC 8 and machine lan 

guage, this new paint program 

from Voyager Mindtools uses 

the same mouse/icon system as 

many Amiga paint packages. 

IPaint requires 64K video 

RAM. operates on an interlaced 

80-column screen, and allows 

images up to 640 x 400. It 

should be noted that this resolu 

tion is the same size as an 

Amiga hi-res screen, and it is all 

onscreen at once: no scrolling 

required. Because of the way 

the I28's interlaced graphic 

mode operates, the number of 

apparent colors and level of 

detail that are possible make for 

some extraordinary images. 

IPaint works with the 1750 

REU and will also directly read 

any BASIC 8 compatible 

images. The images we've seen 

are positively sock-knocking! 

Price is $39.95. PO Box 11578. 

Minneapolis. MN 55411. 

TUTORIAL TAPE 

If you're contemplating 

adding a hard drive to your 

Amiga system, you might want 

to check out an instructional 

videotape called Amiga Hard 

Drives: The Complete Guide, 

It covers everything from instal 

lation to SCSI controllers to 

partitioning and formatting. 

$49.95 from TeleGraphics 

International. 605 Dock St., 

Wilmington. NC 28401. 919- 

762-8028.

Title Page is a new video titling package for the Amiga computer. It will 

finally aljow you to create screens full of effects once only possible in your 

imagination! If the Nook' you want is not in our package, simply create it! Modify 

text, effects, patterns, brushes, even backgrounds. If that's not enough, add a 

touch of fantasy with rainbow letters, if what you use isn't what you need, come 

experience Title Page. 

The Title Page package was created under a demanding 

environment with demanding needs. It comes to you with all 

the features of a professional yideo titler. 

• Supports all of the Amiga's video modes (except HAM). 

• Handles any level of user selectable overscan. Even supports 

non-overscan overscan for harddrives with excessive DMA 

contention. 

• Creates copper display lists allowing thousands of extra 

colors per screen, (example: create rainbow letters with a blue 

gradient background!) 

,• Supports standard Amiga IFF format allowing you to 

import/export screens 

with other graphics 

programs. Even with the display lists! 

• Use any Amiga compatible font or colorfont. We supply you 

with 9 regular fonts in 3 sizes each PLUS four colorfonts in 2 sizes 

each. 

• Make backgrounds with brushes or with gradient displays. 

You arrange the wallpaper and tiles at the distance and 

depth you want. 

•Apply any effect to brushes, text, or images. If the 40+ effects 

included aren't enough, create your own with our GRAPHICAL 

effects editor, then modify them with the multiple built-in 

functions. 

• Maintain hundreds of prefs & effects and call them back at the press of a 

key. Our effects include outlines, extrudes, shadows, embosses, glows, 

crosses, neons, stars, glints, punches, and 35 more! 

• Execute ARexx commands from the keyboard or scripts, Title Page 

understand over 65 different commands, This allows you to add and modify 

the normal features available from the menus. 

• Once you've created your pages, show them off with our included player 

using any of the 45 different transitions. You can even call ARexx scripts from 

within your scripts therefore adding an unsurpassed capacity of commands 

to your slideshqws. 

• All this functions properly on any 512Kb Amiga. Don't worry though, we 

remembered everyone's needs are not the same, so we also include 

charged-up versions for users with 1 Mb of chip RAM. 

Owners" of other Amiga 

titlers are eligible for a 

$100.00 US dollar rebate 

off the suggested retail 

price of $199.95 US. 

To obtain the rebate, just 

send us page 7 from the 

original manual along with 

$99.95 US. Please contact: 

Eschalon Development 

2354 Cote Ste. Catherine 

Montreal, Quebec 

H3T1A9 CANADA 

Telephone orders: 

(514) 340-9244 

"Supported packages include: 

TV'TEXT (all), Pro Video {all), 

Broadcast Tirer, Video Tiller, 

Video Page, Deluxe Paint (all). 

Digi Paint (all). 

"Offer NOT available in QuGbec. 

Canada. 

Eschalon Development 2354 Cote Ste. Catherine. Montreal, Quebec. H3T1A9 CANADA, Tel: (514) 340-9244. Dealer and distributor inquiries welcome. 

Title Page & Eschalon Development logo are trademarks of Eschalon Development Inc. Other product names and brands are trademarks and/or registred trademarks of the respectives companies.

i\ew lew xr x roducts & 


Fractal Landscape from Scene Generator 

FRACTALLY 

YOURS 

Brett Cascboli, author of the 

PD fractal landscape generator 

Scenery, has upgraded his code, 

added new features. and 

released the result commercially 

us Scene Generator. The land 

scapes it produces arc incredi 

bly realistic, with variahle light 

sources, adjustable water levels, 

and even clouds and texturing. 

Retail price is 539.95 from Nat- 

ttral Graphics. PO Box 1963. 

Rocklin, CA 95677. 916-624- 

1436. 

MOMENTOUS 

We've seen a couple of new 

titles from Micro Momentum in 

the past hi-month. TeleTutor is 

a disk-based introduction to 

what telecommunications is all 

about. A quick look showed il to 

be comprehensive and very use 

ful. It covers everyihing from 

local BBSs to the big networks. 

Of particular note is the section 

on etiquette, which will help 

keep you from embarrassing 

yourself when you do go online. 

A terminal program is also 

included. The whole works will 

cost you a mere $29.95. Of even 

more interest around here is 

T.A.C.L.. which stands for 

"The Adventure Construction 

Language." After prying the 

thing out of Judi's hands long 

enough to get a quick look at it 

(and she's still standing behind 

my chair, ready to pounce on il 

again the instant I'm through 

with il). it appears that it is a 

very complete system for con 

structing your own illustrated 

text adventures. Using a lan 

guage with syntax similar to 

BASIC, your adventures can 

have up to 65534 rooms and 

65534 objects (if that isn't 

enough, your adventure is far 

loo complex). Conditional con 

structions like IF..THEN- 

ELSE and the tike are sup 

ported. You can include sound 

effects, and for illustrations, you 

can use IFF images, even HAM. 

Special vector graphics tech 

niques are employed so you can 

store up to 32 images in one 

file. S99.95. PO ^Box 372. 

Washington Depot. CT 06794. 

203-567-8150. 

16 INFO July 1990 

eviews 

THE SERIAL SOLUTION 

Checkpoint Technologies 

PO Box 2035. Manassas, VA 22110, 703-330-5353 

$199.00 

It wasn't much of a challenge to plug Checkpoint Tech 

nologies' Serial Solution dual serial board into one of the 

empty slots on my A2000. Installing the software was rel 

atively painless, too, thanks to an automated installation 

program. Though you can add new SER: devices to your 

Mountlist to access the board, the disk also includes a 

couple of unique utilities that make using serial-port soft 

ware easy. "NewPort" makes a loader that patches your 

programs on the fly each time they arc run; "ZapPorl" 

makes a permanently-modified copy of your program that 

will address the proper port on the Serial Solution card. 

One of the Serial Solution ports uses a 25-pin "D" con 

nector which is 100% compatible with the connector on 

the Amiga's built-in serial port. The other port uses an 

IBM/AT style 9-pin "D" connector, and you'll need an 

appropriate cable (or adapter) for any serial equipment 

you want to run on it. 

The Serial Solution worked just fine with an Amiga 

modem at 1200 baud, but I didn't get a chance to test it 

with more demanding equipment. The literature says it 

will run at up to 250,000 baud, though it's my understand 

ing from talking to those in the know that the Amiga itself 

will probably flake out before you hit such high transfer 

rates. Music enthusiasts will be interested to know that 

there is a special hardware clock for running MIDI appli 

cations at a rock-steady 31250 baud. The Serial Solution 

looks to me to be a good, solid product. - Mark R. Brown

Just pDint...Click...Use. 

With CanDo You Can Do Just About Anything! 

You con make CanDo your own personal programmer. Just as you no longer have to be a professional artist to 

create "Art" well now, you don't have to be a programmer to create professional level applications! All you need 

is CanDo. Because creating a program with CanDo is as easy as drawing a picture with a paint package. 

Witti ConDo, programming is incredibly easy. Programs 

can be created by simply pointing and clicking. CanDo's 

graphic interface guides you easily, stepby-step, through 

the creation ol your own applications. 

CanDo has muscles 

And brains, too. 

You con use CnnDo to 

create all kinds of applicotions.Jrom 

presen 

tations to education to 

personal productivity, 

complete with buttons, 

menus, windows end 

much, much more. 

How You Can Win ^ 

a FREE TripTo the '' 

Amiga '90 show In 

Cologne,Wesl Germany. 

See Yaw Participating 

Dealer For Details. 

CanDo is a multimedia synchronizer. 

CanDo can choreograph digitized sound...music... 

graphic or video images in real-time, by interactior 

or time. 

CanDo is a product of InovatronJcs, Inc. 

8499 Greenville Avenue Suite 209B Dallas, Texos 75231 214-340-4991 

Dealers and Distributors should confer: Southern technologies, 80W47-7741 

KLUtf WKI IN i mtaat

IPatch: 9 MIDI Ch: 2T 3~ 4~ 5 

n\\i n •< iiju n[u n II i>|» 11 n u u n[,. iijn itjn i,]i> ii[h h|u i.]ii ii:ii ti 

RIFF-WARE 

NewPr 

lew x roducts & 


Hologramophone 's Hyperchord 

From the same people who 

recently released Pixound now 

comes Hyperchord. It's a sort 

of riff processor designed lo let 

you both perform and experi 

ment with music. The program 

will let you construct the basic 

riffs (using MIDI or the 

Amiga's internal voices) of your 

composition, with a series of up 

to 40 notes. These riffs, which 

can also be generated by the 

program or by mathematical 

formula, can then be put 

together, and then varied with 

such functions as smear, 

reverse, rotate, weave, and so 

on. There are also facilities for 

creating rhythms, sound cre 

ation, and other keen things, 

including several unusual 

modes of graphically represent 

ing and playing the music. For 

example, scales and arpeggios 

can be shown as musical pipes, 

frels on a string, or concentric 

circles, and the relationships 

between notes can be shown as 

spectral colors. It's some very 

interesting stuff. Hohgraphn- 

phone Research, 331 E. 14th 

Street. New York. NY 10003. 

212-529-8845. 

18 

DTV 

Amiga Desktop Video is the 

latest title from Compute! 

Books. Penned by Sieve 

Anzovin. the book serves as an 

introduction to the topic and 

gives examples of creating pre 

sentations wilh several popular 

commercial graphics programs. 

Cover price is $19.95. Chilton 

Book Company. Radnor. PA 

19089.215-964-4000. 

REFERENCE 

The second and third vol 

umes of the revised Amiga ref 

erence series from Addison- 

Wcsley are shipping. The Amiga 

Hardware Reference Manual 

is nearly 400 pages of the Offi 

cial Commodore Line on Amiga 

graphics, sound, and getting the 

machine to talk to peripherals. 

Cover price is S24.95. The 

Amiga ROM Kernel Refer 

ence Manual: Libraries and 

Devices conlains 992 pages of 

excruciating detail on every 

thing you could possibly want 

to know about Libs and Devs. 

Cover price for the paperbound 

book is S34.95. Route 128, 

Reading. PA 01867. 617-944- 

3700. " 


Reviews 

AmigaDOS REFERENCE 

GUIDE, Third Edition 

Compute! Books 

PO Box 5406, Greensboro, NC 27403 

$21.95 

v^ ompute! Books publishes the most comprehensive 

collection of reference books for Commodore's 8-bit 

computers, and lately they're publishing a fair selection 

of Amiga reference books as well. This is the third edi 

tion of their AmigaDOS Reference Guide, which intro 

duces readers to the ins and outs of the Amiga's disk 

operating system. 

In the first half of this book, authors Sheldon 

Leemon and Arlan Levitan tutor the reader in the 

details of AmigaDOS, including information on file 

structures, wildcards, pathnames, and everything else 

that makes AmigaDOS both so cryptic and so useful. 

Everything is explained with lots of examples, in an 

order that flows logically. The remaining half of the 

book is devoted to a reference section, which covers 

DOS commands individually and alphabetically. An 

index rounds things out. 

This book invites comparison to Rob Peck's Amiga- 

DOS Companion [see review in INFO #29 -Ed.] The 

tutorial section of Peck's book covers more territory 

and includes more "inside info," but Leemon's and 

Levitan's approach seems to me to be gentler for the 

real beginner. The reference section of the AmigaDOS 

Reference Guide is much bigger, but is more repetitive 

of information covered in the tutorial as a result. This is 

a good book, living up to the high standards previously 

set by both Compute! Books and these two authors. If 

you're a beginner and you've been looking for a step- 

by-step guide to get you into using AmigaDOS, it will 

do you well. - Mark R. Brown 

One more point: This book takes two chapters to 

explain all the complicated details of Commodore's ED 

and EDIT editors. I eagerly await an author who is 

brave enough to simply declare, "ED and EDIT are 

anachronistic remnants of a best-forgotten, bygone era 

of mainframe computing. Don't confuse your life by try 

ing to learn how to use them. Instead, go out and buy a 

decent text editor with pull-down menus." I suggest that 

you follow this advice anyway, and ignore the pages 

devoted to ED and EDIT in this and any AmigaDOS 

book you may buy.

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A sample of King Publishing's SuperClips 

CUTOUTS 

A new collection of struc 

tured clipart is shipping from 

King Publishing. The images in 

SuperClips are compatible with 

Professional Page, Professional 

Draw, PageStream, PixelScript, 

and other such packages. An 

optional epsf [Encapsulated 

PoslScript Format) version is 

also available. $29.95. 1200 

Treadwell. Suite 226, Auslin, 

TX 78704, 512-448-2414. 

SCROLLING MINDS 

WANT TO KNOW 

The latest in Mind ware's line 

of multimedia presentation 

products is iheir Credit Text 

Scroller. It will let you roll 

smooth-scrolling credits (or 

anything else, for that matter) 

over any display you want. The 

most obvious use would be with 

a genlock and a video signal, 

but there's no reason it couldn't 

be used to display any kind of 

message. It lets you change 

color, add drop shadows, use 

color fonts, an it will store the 

whole thing in ANIM format. 

You can even overlay the result 

ing ANIM over another ANIM! 

S39.95 from Mindware Interna 

tional, 110 Dunlop St. W., Box 

22158, Barrie, ON L4M 5R3. 

705-737-5998. 

HELPING OUT 

If you've been looking for 

something to help guide you 

through the intricacies of using 

Electronic Arts' Deluxe Pain! 

III. The Buddy System for 

Deluxe Paint III could be just 

the thing. It runs concurrently 

with the paint program, provid 

ing demos and spoken tips for 

the multitude of functions. A 

single keypress lets you switch 

between the tutorials and 

DPaintlll. $49.95. HelpKey, 

6671 W. Indianiown Rd.. Jupiter. 

FL 33458. 407-694-1756. 

AMIGAPHONO 

Blue Ribbon Bakery has 

released two add-on modules 

for their Bars & Pipes 

sequencer. The two products are 

actually independent enough 

that they would be useful for 

other music applications. The 

Internal Sounds Kit is made 


Reviews 

Seven Seas' Mandelbrot Variations 

up of three parts: Spare Keys 

{lets you enter notes with either 

keyboard or mouse). The 

AmigoPhone (allocates and 

adjusts internal sounds on the 

fly), and the ECT SampleWare 

collection of sounds (acquired 

by BRB from ECT for use in 

this product - my favorite of the 

sounds is Wet Btorch). The 

MusicBox is a collection of 

tools to use with Bars & Pipes. 

Among other things, it contains 

a MIDI meter, event fitter, glis- 

sando, trill, screen color editor, 

stereo doubler, and ARexx In 

port. Cost is S59.95 each. If 

you're interested in creating 

your own tools for Bars & 

Pipes, BRB is also offering 

Rules for Tools, over 100 pages 

of documentation and source 

code examples lo get you going. 

It retails for $59.95. l248~Clairmont 

Rd.. Suite 3D. Decatur. 

GA 30030. 404-377-2277. 

SPREADSHEET 

Hate setting up spreadsheets? 

Don't like fiddling with formu 

las? Then check out Templicity 

from The Sterling Connection. 

The package of 100 prefab (em- 

plates covers everything from 

tax forms (1040. A, B. C, D, E, 

F, SE, 2441, & 4562) to inven 

tory to real estate. The tem 

plates are available in versions 

for Analyze!, MaxiPlan, Super- 

plan, and VIP Professional. 

S34.95. Box 4850, Berkeley, 

CA 94704. 415-655-2355. 

FRACTAL FODDER 

There's been some cheering 

around the INFO offices lately, 

along with plenty of time wast 

ing. The cause of all this merri 

ment is the arrival of Mandel 

brot Variations, the latest add 

on disk for Doug's Math Aquar 

ium. It contains 19 pictures, 23 

formulas, and some miscella 

neous text files. The formulas 

offer several different methods 

of generating Mandelbrot 

screens, with such esoteric 

appellations as the Binary 

Expansion technique. Scaled 

CPM, Continuous Potential 

Method, and the like. The disk 

requires DMA and can be yours 

for $24.95. Seven Seas Soft 

ware, 35 Cape George Wye. 

Port Townsend, WA 98368. 

206-385-1956.

AMIGA COMAL v2.0 

COMAL Users Group, 5501 Groveiand Terrace, 

Madison, WI 53716, 608-222-4432 

i\ew rroducts & Keviews 

$99.95 

L am a long-time fan of COMAL, and I've eagerly 

awaited the appearance of this excellent programming lan 

guage on the Amiga. Now it's here and, as I anticipated, 

the Amiga has proven to be the perfect COMAL engine. 

COMAL (COMmon Algorithmic Language) has been 

around since the early Seventies. Devised in Europe as a 

language for teaching computer programming. COMAL 

combines the English-like syntax of BASIC with the struc 

tures of Pascal and C and the turtle graphics of Logo. All of 

which makes COMAL ideal for the home user who wants 

to write his own programs. 

There are now COMAL implementations for IBM. C64, 

C128, and Amiga. Teachers all over the world are teaching 

it in their classrooms, and have found that COMAL is not 

only easy for students to learn, but, unlike BASIC, it 

teaches them good programming practices. BASIC and 

Logo programs convert to COMAL with almost zero effort, 

and even Pascal and C programs can be translated without 

Herculean effort. It is the closest thing there is to a comput 

ing "common tongue." 

COMAL is an interpreted language like BASIC, not a 

compiled language like C. This means you can type in 

commands and have them executed immediately, in real- 

lime. Unlike BASIC, however, COMAL "pre-compiles" 

certain parts of a program, like jump addresses and 

variable tables, at runtime. This means that COMAL pro 

grams always run many times faster than equivalent 

BASIC programs, even though in many cases the programs 

will look almost exactly the same. BASIC programmers 

can easily make the adjustment to using COMAL in just a 

few hours. C, Pascal, and Modula-2 programmers who dis 

dain BASIC for its slothful execution and lack of structures 

will find COMAL to have everything they wished BASIC 

had. Powerful WHILE, IF.. ELI E.THEN.. ELSE, 

CASE..WHEN..OTHERWISE and REPEAT..UNTIL loops 

completely eliminate the dreaded BASIC GOTO. Proce 

dures and functions replace BASIC'S untidy subroutines. 

There's a full selection of data types, including the same 

three integer types as C. Amiga COMAL even includes 

records and pointers. 

The Amiga COMAL editing environment is nicely 

Amiga-tized, with pull-down menus and mouse positioning 

Cotinands 

U AmjfjCOHAL Coraiand Window: 

9118 clew 

B128 xnax::width; ynax:-height: farveantal: 

B138 IF xiiariMB THEN xiiax::64B 

B14B v i»atio:=(in_nax-injiin)/yMax 

8158 xpjtio::{reel.njx-reel,mn)/xnax 

8166 FOR punkt_y:=fl 10 ynax-I DO 

8178 i«i_c:=punkt y*y patio*in_nin 

. 8188 FOR punkt_x::fl 10 aiax-1 DO 

■ 8198 reel c:=punl'«21i IF anhl_step)=nax_step THEN 

B238 ELSE 

B24B c::3+antal step HOD farveantal 

B258 IF c8 MEN pencolor(c);plot(pur 

B268 pencolGr(3(anhl step) 

B278 ENBIF 

B28B EHDFOR punkt.x 

mi ENDFOR punkU 

B388 tid:=tiwr-tii 

of the cursor, as well as bi-directional scrolling. Using the 

COMAL editor is a lot like having a teacher standing over 

your shoulder. If you make a syntax error entering a line, a 

box pops up to tell you about it immediately, and the cursor 

is positioned so you can make a correction. Not only that, 

but as you enter a program ihe keywords are capitalized for 

you and the whole program structure is automatically 

indented properly! If you want to check your program for 

correctness before trying to run it, you can SCAN it and 

the editor will report back any errors in structure. 

The editing and execution windows share a common 

screen, making it possible to play with interactive turtle 

graphics, just as with Logo. 

Perhaps COMAL's most powerful feature is its extensi 

bility through the use of external "packages." For example, 

lurlle graphics are an external package, called from a 

COMAL program by including the .simple command line 

"USE TURTLE." In other versions of COMAL, packages 

had to be written in C or machine language, but the Amiga 

version lets you write packages in COMAL itself. 

Though Amiga COMAL is not intended to be a develop 

ment language, it is certainly fast enough for many applica 

tions. Benchmarks typically outperform BASIC by a factor 

of two to four. There is even a compiler (available sepa 

rately) which will convert COMAL programs into stand 

alone applications. 

I think Amiga COMAL is just about perfect. But if you 

need more information, check out Len Lindsay's support 

areas on QLink and PeopIeLink. A COMAL pamphlet is 

available if you send a self-addressed stamped (45e) legal- 

sized envelope to the above address, and a demo disk is 

available from public domain sources. 

- Mark R. Brown 

INFO July 1990 21 

■■m

l\lew lew rr x roducts & 


TV*TEXT PROFESSIONAL 

Zuma Group Inc., 6733 North Black Canyon 

Phoenix, AZ 85015, 000-000-0000 

$169.95 

\ video titling program takes fonts and graphics one step 

beyond the capabilities of most paint programs. Whether 

your needs are oriented to business presentations, personal 

slide shows or the fine arts, powerful titling software can 

make easy what is usually a chore. Zuma Group's 

TV*TEXT Professional fronts the latest wave in Amiga 

tillers. While the original TV*TEXT will still be produced 

and sold, T\'*TEXT Professional is simply so much better 

there's no contest. All features are enhanced, expanded, 

improved, faster, and more enjoyable. It is also costlier. 

Multitasking (memory permitting) and not copy pro 

tected, TV*TEXT Professional operates in any of the four 

"standard" Amiga modes of color and resolution: lo-res and 

interlace (up to 64 colors), medium and hi-res (up to 16 

colors) with two levels of overscan in any resolution. HAM 

is not an option here. The higher resolutions with overscan 

will be more memory-hungry, of course. 

T\f*TEXT Professional lets you combine any regular 

Amiga bitmapped fonts, including ColorText fonts. IFF 

screens, and brushes and apply what Zuma calls "render 

preferences" to these elements. The prefs determine the 

overall look and color palette of a screen and include slick 

attributes such as embossed, shadows (cast, drop, and 

transparent), outlines, extrusions, glows, color cycling, 

strobes, sheens and more. The forty built-in prefs have pre- 

calculated palettes and settings that are ready and waiting 

as soon as you run the program, but you can also create and 

save your own preferences and modify existing ones. Just 

pick your preference, choose a font, tap your text into the 

requester, click your mouse and TV*TEXT Professional 

plops it onto the screen. Position it where you need it, and 

another mouse click tacks it down in place or throws it 

away to let you try again. Create a grid and lock it for pre 

cise placement, or tell the program to left, right, or center 

justify your text. The stencil and lock background options 

behave as you would expect, letting you place elements 

behind others with ease. 

TX^TEXT Professional's package includes a bonus: three 

disks of Zuma Fonts, most in very large sizes, perfect for 

titling. Unlike its ancestor's restrictive "font library" 

scheme, Pro's font requester is all it should be, even graph 

ically representing each font's sizes. It had no trouble cop- 

Reviews 

ing with the hundreds of fonts I keep on my hard drive. 

In addition to its superior font handling. T\r*TEXT Pro 

fessional has a pack of drawing tools to create boxes, cir 

cles, ellipses, grids and borders. Load in existing IFF 

brushes and apply those same snazzy preferences to them. 

A screen printing facility is also provided and printouts can 

be aborted with a keystroke. The program can even be put 

to sleep, freeing up memory. 

7V*TEXT Professional can easily create beautifully 

dithered backgrounds and truly convincing travelling glints 

and sheens using color cycling. Your picture elements can 

be smoothly rotated, duplicated, re-sized, tiled, or wallpa 

pered onto the screen. And the anti-aliasing (smoothing of 

typically jagged diagonal lines and curves) capabilities of 

this program are stupendous. 

TV^TEXT Professional provides all the tools you'll need 

to create eye-catching static screens, but it's not an anima 

tion system. You'll need other software to combine these 

screens into your own presentations. Since TV*TEXT Pro 

fessional makes Amiga-standard files in IFF format this is 

no problem at all. 

I found few annoyances in the software. I'd raiher see a 

simple "clear screen" than the more obscure "flood color 0" 

menu choice. Running the software from a floppy disk 

takes a while since all the "Render Prefs" are loaded at run 

time. From a hard drive the wait is very short. Although its 

main competitor, Oxxi/Aegis' VideoTit/er has those nifty 

stretchable "PolyFonts," TV*TEXT Professional is much 

easier to use. 


But my complaints are trivial. TV*TEXT Professionals 

interface is a model of good design. Very logical and 

almost totally mouse-driven, it's easy to learn and it begs to 

be used. Highly recommended. - Harv Laser

CANDO 

INOVAtronics, 8499 Greenbelt Avenue, Suite 209B 

Dallas, TX 75231, 214-340-4991 

l\ew Iroducts & XVeviews 

$149.95 

I or the past couple of years, we have been bombarded 

with HyperThis and HyperThat. And all the while, Amiga 

owners have been suffering from HyperEnvy. While 

CanDo tastefully refrains from calling itself a HyperCard 

system, that's exactly what it is, though it's much more 

versatile and powerful than the Mac original. In other 

words, it's not just a hypercard clone, but a broader hyper 

media system designed from the ground up for the Amiga. 

(It is more technically called a software authoring system, 

a means for non-programmers to put together applications, 

utilities, presentations, games, and even whole systems 

without having to leam C or some other programming lan 

guage.) CanDo is mostly icon-based; you click on the 

function you want and a series of menus or options pop up 

to further define what you want to do. It's a system that's 

been tried before, though not with this degree of success. 

The main thing to keep in mind when learning to use 

CanDo is that despite its graphic interface, you really are 

learning a programming language, and you can't expect to 

learn it overnight. Getting a project going is a relatively 

simple process; the first manual tutorial let me get a 

slideshow, complete with buttons, going in only a few min 

utes. The second tutorial was a little more complex and 

informative, but that was the last of them and I felt like I'd 

been hung out to dry. The information was presented well, 

but there just wasn't enough of it. 

In addition to its graphic point and click front end, 

CanDo also operates on a second level, permitting modi 

fiable scripts to be attached to various functions and but 

tons. The package also includes utilities for making the 

applications developed with the system stand-alone, and 

the resulting files are reasonably sized. (The example 

appointment calendar is about 1 OK, though to run it inde 

pendently also requires installing a 123K library in your 

libs directory.) 

CanDo reminds me of those intricate Chinese puzzles 

made up of boxes inside of boxes inside of boxes and at 

least for now, that is its biggest problem with it. There are 

just too many layers of windows, menus, and requesters to 

navigate in order to get simple things done. I've been told 

that this is being worked on and there will at least be more 

Status IBordep Styles IllObjects 

keyboard shortcuts in future revisions. I also think it needs 

some kind of internal macro capability. The program takes 

too long to load (working from a hard drive or RAM: is a 

virtual necessity) and I really don't care what files it's 

looking for at the moment, though it insists on telling me. I 

suppose a modular approach is good, but CanDo loads 

overlays and files from so many places that if a single one 

is misplaced, it will cause you no end of headaches. Much 

of the problem could be solved, I think, if CanDo didn't 

use one of its own decks for its user interface, or if it would 

load all of itself into memory instead of having to load an 

overlay each time you want a particular function. It may 

conserve memory and other system resources, but it cer 

tainly increases the aggravation level of using it. A flashy 

interface is fine for some things, but having screens sliding 

up and down and interminable layers of windows popping 

up slows down progress more than I'm willing to put up 

with. The engine itself is wonderful, and I expect fantastic 

things will be developed with it, but as it is, CanDo comes 

across as more fragmented than modular. 

Is CanDo a good product? Unquestionably. Is it useful? 

Undoubtably. Is is all it should be? Definitely not. If you 

like tinkering with your machine, it's more fun than a bar 

rel full of microchips and has about any tool you need, 

from graphics editing to ARexx support. If you expect to 

create masterpieces of complex productivity software, it's 

going to take you a long time and a lot of button-pushing to 

do it. Despite the complaints I have with CanDo, it is a 

milestone in the development of Amiga software, bringing 

the concept of hypermedia to a machine better suited for it 

than any other. - Tom Malcom 

More New Products & Reviews on page 68... 

INFO July 1990 23

N ews & Views 

COMMODORE 

NEWS 

ommodore is actively 

soliciting the support of 

Amiga developers in its push to 

have a significant number of 

AmigaDOS 2.0 compatible 

applications on the dealers' 

shelves by the time the first 

Amiga 3000s heginning ship 

ping sometime in July. The 

Developers' Participation Pro 

gram was announced by Com 

modore in conjunction with the 

grand unveiling of the 3000 and 

2.0 release of the Amiga operat 

ing system in New York City on 

April 24th. As part of this cam 

paign Commodore will be mak 

ing available to developers of 

compatible, eligible products 

special stickers to certify that 

the product is "Release 2.0 

compatible." So come summer, 

if you see "AmigaDOS Release 

2.0 compatible" stickers on soft 

ware boxes you will know that 

Ihe program is certified as fully 

functional on the A3000, is 

compatible with the Extended 

Chip Set, functions on the 

68030 in full 32-bit addressing 

mode, and that the program 

conforms to Release 2.0 appear 

ance standards. 

■ In an effort to keep the 

Amiga on top of the "multime 

dia wave" sweeping through the 

personal computer industry, 

Commodore announced several 

bundled packages targeted at 

the corporate market, profes 

sional musicians, and profes 

sional videographers. Bundled 

systems are available exclu 

sively through participating 

authorized Commodore dealers 

and, according to a representa 

tive from Commodore's PR 

agency, deadlines have been 

extended through the end of 

June. The bundle aimed at cor 

porate users features an Amiga 

1989 SPA AWARDS 

" he Software Publishers Association has announced the win 

ners of their Excellence in Software Awards for the most 

outstanding and innovative software products of 1989. Programs 

available in Amiga and Commodore formats were well repre 

sented in the winners circle. Literally sweeping the awards was 

SimCity from Jeff Braun and Will Wright (Maxis Software). 

SimCity garnered top honors in four categories, more than any 

other program. Lifetime achievement awards were given to 

Steve Jobs, NeXT, and Alan Kay, Apple Fellow. Other Com 

modore/Amiga format award winners include: 

EDUCATION SOFTWARE AWARDS 

• Best Home Learning Program - Where in Time is 

Carmen Sandiego, Broderbund (coming soon for 

Amiga) 

• Best Curricular Program - SimCity, The City Simulator, 

Maxis Software (C64 & Amiga) 

CRITIC'S CHOICE AWARDS 

• Best Consumer Program - SimCity, The City 

Simulator, Maxis Software {C64 & Amiga) 

CONSUMER SOFTWARE AWARDS 

• Best Fantasy Role Playing/Adventure Program - 

Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon, Sierra 

On-Line (Amiga) 

• Best Sports Program - Hard Ball II, Accolade (coming 

soon for Amiga} 

• Best Simulation Program - SimCity, The City 

Simulator, Maxis Software (C64 & Amiga) 

• Best Strategy Program - Populous, Electronic Arts 

(Amiga) 

• Best Action/Arcade Program - WELLTRIS, Spectrum 

Holobyte (coming soon for Amiga) 

■ Best Entertainment Program - SimCity, The City 

Simulator, Maxis Software (C64 & Amiga) 

2000HD equipped with a pre- 

installed Bridgeboard, 1084 

monitor, and WordPerfect 4.1. 

Suggested retail price is $4946. 

The professional music pack 

age, which is bundled with an 

Amiga 2000HD and 1084 moni 

tor, includes a MIDI interface 

from ECE R&D (a $600 value), 

and two music programs from 

Dr. T's, including Keyboard- 

Controlled Sequencer 3.0 and 

Copyist Apprentice. Also 

included is a coupon for a free 

librarian software package. Sug 

gested retail price is $3713. 

Two bundled systems, a general 


purpose system and an 

advanced system, are being 

offered to the professional video 

market. The general purpose 

system is comprised of an 

A2000HD, an A2058 RAM 

card, 1084 monitor, TV*Text 

Professional (Zuma Group), 

and Deluxe Paint HI (Electronic 

Arts). The suggested retail price 

is $4200. An A250O/30 with 

4mb of 32-bit RAM, 1084 mon 

itor, Deluxe Paint HI, Pro Video 

Gold (Shereff Systems), and 

Sculpt-Animate 4D (Centaur 

Software) are bundled into the 

advanced system for a sug 

gested retail price of $6400. 

Commodore Electronics 

Ltd. directed its current strate 

gic world sales drive through 

seven major cities in Hungary 

with a traveling product road 

show last April. The show fea 

tured exhibitions and profes 

sional seminars designed to 

increase Commodore product 

awareness and market penetra 

tion in the Hungarian business, 

network, workstation, home, 

and education markets. Accord 

ing to a Commodore spokesper 

son, the Amiga 500 and 2000 

series were given a standing 

room only warm welcome at 

each of the locations. 

Former CATS head Gail 

Wellington has been promoted 

to Director of Special Projects, 

a new position reporting 

directly to president, Harry 

Copperman. In her new position 

Gail will be focusing on new 

hardware and software projects. 

Succeeding Gail as v.p. in 

charge of CATS (the newly 

reorganized Commodore Appli 

cation and Technical Support 

Group) is Jeff Scherb. His focus 

will be on expanding Amiga 

software applications for Unix, 

multimedia, graphics, and edu 

cation, as well as business and 

personal productivity. 

Commodore has established 

a Systems Marketing Group 

headed by Paul Calkin, a former 

Unisys exec, with the primary 

focus of marketing Commodore 

Unix-based products. Com 

modore's entry into the Unix 

market is part of Harry Copper- 

man's strategy to increase Com 

modore's presence in (he busi 

ness, government, and educa 

tion markets. Walter Simpson 

has been appointed director of 

product marketing, part of a 

new management team 

designed to boost sales in strate 

gically targeted markets.

COMPUTE! MAGS SOLD 

BC has sold the Compute! group of 

magazines to Bob Guccione's General 

Media International, Inc. for an undisclosed 

price. All four Compute! titles - Compute!, 

Compute's Gazette, Compute's PC, and 

Compute's Amiga Resource - will become 

part of Guccione's Omni magazine division. 

Guccione is best known as the founder and 

publisher of Penthouse magazine, but has 

been expanding his company recently, pur 

chasing titles like Four Wheeler and launch 

ing Longevity and VISIO. It was unknown at 

presstime whether Computers offices would 

remain in Greenboro, NC. or would be 

moved to New York City. But according to 

sources at the magazines' offices, employees 

had been advised to "go ahead and send out 

their resumes." Insiders also say that Guc 

cione was contemplating combining all four 

titles into a single large magazine, or alter 

nately compressing them into a special com 

puter section in OMNI itself, though these 

plans could not be confirmed at presstime. 

NEWSLETTERS 

Proving the adage that 'good things 

come in small packages,' we have 

recently seen several excellent commercial 

newsletters which offer a wealth of special 

ized information to Amiga and C64 users. 

Amiga Crossings is a monthly newsletter 

published by Deland Editorial Services 

devoted to Amiga Bridgeboard users. Amiga 

Crossings provides a clearinghouse for new 

and experienced Bridgeboard users to share 

information, hardware and software tips, 

advice on transferring data between PC and 

Amiga formats, and other pertinent Bridge- 

board topics. Subscription information is 

available by calling 212-369-8131. 

The Amiga Games Guide is a new bi 

monthly newsletter exclusively about Amiga 

games with heavy emphasis on hot new 

European imports, published by TGFM Pub 

lishing. Amiga Games Guide features up-tothe-minute 

game news, blisteringly honest 

reviews, intriguing rumors, extensive game 

tips, and walk-throughs for recent and clas 

sic releases. Subscription information is 


Digital Digest will be of interest to Amiga 

and C64 owners who are also into digital 

amateur radio communications. Digital 

Digest features news, reviews, and articles 

News & V:lews 

concerning the interfacing of computers and 

amateur radio, and includes a column 

devoted entirely to the Amiga. Information 

for C64 HAMs is also abundant. Digital 

Digest is published bi-monthly by Arvo & 

Associates. Subscription information is 


RECORD STORAGE 

team of IBM scientists and engineers 

- set a world record in the magnetic data 

storage density race by successfully storing 

a billion bits - a gigabit - of information on a 

single square inch of disk surface using 

experimental components with a record data 

density 15 to 30 times greater than that of 

current hard disk systems. In the real world 

a billion bits is equivalent to 100,000 

double-spaced typewritten pages or enough 

System shown 

includes a 

FastTape backup 

streamer 

plus a 

FastTrak hard drive. 

paper to make a stack 33 feet tall, about the 

height of a three story building. The team 

says that the public can expect significant 

improvements in the magnetic storage 

capacity of their computer systems to con 

tinue into the next century. 

BOOK BLUES 

I f you've been wondering what it's worth 

I to trade in that old VIC 20 gathering dust 

in the corner, you might want to pick up a 

copy of the Computer Blue Book. Available 

from Orion Research Corporation, the Blue 

Book series of trade-in guides offers accu 

rate pricing information for used computer 

equipment, audio/visual equipment, cam 

eras, and musical instruments. Orion 

Research Corp., 1315 Main Ave., Suite 230, 

Durango, CO 81301. 303-247-8855. 

for the Amiga® 500/1000/2000 

_ Call Xetec or your dealer for pricing and delivery. 

FastTape available 

in capacities of 

60 and 150 Meg. 

Standard FastTrak 

capacities include 

20/40/80/150 Meg. 

k=V2894 Arnold Rd- Salina> Ks- 67401 (?13> 827-0685 

Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore Business Machines, Inc. 

INFO July 1990 25

LOOK & FEEL 

Haven't yet gotten your fill 

of the "look & feel" 

debate? Greenwood Publishing 

Group has announced the publi 

cation of a book entitled Soft 

ware, Copyright, and Competi 

tion: The "Look and Feel" of the 

Law written by Anthony Clapes. 

Senior Corporate Counsel at 

IBM. The book addresses the 

problematic relationship 

between copyright law and 

computer software, answering 

the perplexing question "How 

should the courts view the pro- 

tectabilty of computer pro 

grams?" Software, Copyright 

and Competition is available by 

calling 800-225-5800. 

N,ews & V: 

... continued 

NEWA500 

SUPPORT 

lews 

onimodore has established 

B new customer support 

program for purchasers of the 

Amiga 500. The "Commodore 

Express" program establishes a 

new 24-hour toll-free "helpline" 

and a door-to-door customer 

service program that involves 

Federal Express. The program 

coincides with Commodore's 

recent introduction of the 

Amiga 500 into consumer out 

lets. The comprehensive pro 

gram includes a 24-hour toll- 

free "helpline" service offering 

new Amiga 500 owners the 

availability of ongoing assis- 

Public domain like you've never seen... 

IIREMIER 

COFTWARE 

Dealer Inquiries Welcome 

Over 100 disks available! 

Disks organized by topic. 

Buy only the software you want! 

Animations, games, tools, utilities, 

pictures, icons and much more... 

Send $3.00 for catalog on disk 

to: Premier Software 

P.O. Box 3782 

Redwood City, CA 94064 

or call: (415)593-1207 

Mention INFO magazine in your first order and receive a 10% discount. 

tance in setting up and operat 

ing their Amiga 500s, and free 

pick-up and return computer 

delivery for in-warramy repairs 

via Federal Express. Com 

modore Express' free pick-up 

and return service applies to in- 

warranty repairs only and 

requires proof-of-purchase. This 

program will be made available 

to all Amiga 500 owners in the 

U.S. who purchased their com 

puter after January 1, 1990. Fur 

ther details regarding this pro 

gram arc available by contact 

ing Commodore's Customer 

Satisfaction Department at 1200 

Wilson Drive, West Chester, PA 

19380. 

MOTOROLA 

UNVEILS 68040 

Motorola unveiled its newest 

32-bit microprocessor, the 

68040, earlier this year. The 

040. a fully compatible member 

COMPUTER SHOWS 

SHOW 

CES 

COMDEX 

AMIGA DEVCON 

AMIEXPO 

WORLD OF 

COM/AMIGA 

WORLD OF 

COM/AMIGA 

AMIEXPO 

COMDEX 

WORLD OF 

COM/AMIGA 


CITY 

CHICAGO, IL 

ATLANTA, GA 

ATLANTA, GA 

CHICAGO, IL 

of the 68000 family, delivers 20 

million instructions per second 

at 25 MHz, making it the fastest 

available mainstream micropro 

cessor by more than 25 percent 

over such competitors as the 

Intel 80486. The 040 will 

deliver high performance in 

mathematical calculations cru 

cial for applications such as 

graphics and financial analysis. 

The 040 uses an integer unit, 

floating-point unit, two memory 

management units and data and 

instruction caches on a single 

chip to perform a number of 

operations at once. The combi 

nation of the 040's performance 

with its $4 billion 32-bit soft 

ware base will establish the new 

chip as the leader in desktop 

computers, graphics worksta 

tions, and multi-user computers. 

Endorsements from more than 

35 leading manufacturers prom- 

sing to support the processor 

include none other than Com 

modore Business Machines. 

DATES 

JUN 2-5 

JUN 3-6 

JUN 27-30 

JUN29-JUL1 

VALLEY FORGE,PA SEPT 14-16 

ROSEMONT, IL 

ANAHEIM, CA 

LAS VEGAS, NV 

OCT 5-7 

OCT 5-7 

NOV 12-16 

TORONTO, CANADA NOV 30-DEC 2 

For Registration Information: WOCA/WOA: Hunter 

Group, Toronto ONT, 416-595-5906 AMIEXPO: AMI- 

Expo, New York NY 800-32-AMIGA COMDEX: Inter 

face Group, Needham MA, 617-449-0600 CES: CES, 

Washington DC, 202-457-8700 DEVCON: Commodore, 

West Chester PA, 215-431-9100

Rumor Mill 

News &V:lews 

DISCLAIMER: The following are among the most entertaining rumors 

we've heard the past couple of months. They are presented for your enter 

tainment and amusement only. Please do not make any important decisions 

based on these rumors, as some will prove to be inaccurate or just plain 

false. 

A West German company named Gigatron is reported to be about ready 

to release a laptop Amiga into the European market. Preliminary reports indi 

cate the unit will be available in two versions, one with an LCD screen at 

$2400 and a gas plasma version at $3300. Both will be standard 68000based 

machines with various amounts of RAM; 20-100 MB hard drives will 

also be available. Rumors say the units will even include two internal expan 

sion slots. 

We hear from dealers that Commodore is planning two new versions of 

the Amiga 500, one a cost-reduced design for mass merchants like K-Mart, 

and one for dealers to carry. The cost-reduced model may sell for under 

$500. Expect to see a full meg of chip RAM in one or both units. In the 

meantime, we hear that the current A500 is in short supply. 

Hitachi and Motorola are locked in a lawsuit at presstime over legal rights 

to Motorola's 68030 chip, which is used in the Amiga 3000. Litigation goes 

on, but Motorola is still being allowed to sell chips, so A3000 production 

should not be effected. 

Speaking of the A3000, the new video slot is tighter than the slot on the 

A2000, which means some video board manufacturers will have to redesign 

their boards to fit. We understand NewTek's Video Toaster is among the 

boards that may have to undergo a redesign. 

We also hear that there are signals and connectors sitting latent in the 

A3000, just waiting for a 68040 accelerator board to be plugged in to release 

their additional power. Commodore is listed in Motorola's ads as one of the 

companies developing 68040 products. 

Commodore is working on a secret CD-ROM machine code-named 

"Baby." Our sources say it's based on a diskless, keyboard-less custom 

A500 chassis, with a planned upgrade path to full Amiga-computer compati 

bility. The target market is said to be both the advanced home gamer and 

CD-ROM education/information users. Price? Anybody's guess, but we keep 

hearing "under $500." 

Though a "late beta" version of v2.0 (formerly v1.4) of the Amiga's oper 

ating system will be shipping with the release of the A3000, it won't be final 

ized and shipping to upgraders until September. At that time it will be moved 

from EPROMs to ROMs in the A3000, as well. 

Just To Remind You: Still undelivered by Commodore are UNIX and the 

University of Lowell hi-res graphics board. 

more News & Views on page 78 

Cr Commodore® 

AMIGA 

New Fatter AGNUS $94.95 

1.3KickslartROM $29.95 

Amiga Mouse $49.95 

Keyboard for A1000 $149.95 

(A2000 Kybd w/ adapter) 

A2000 Power Supply $159.95 

8520 CIA $19.95 

A500 Keyboard $120.00 

A2000 Keyboard $125.00 

A30O0 Cull for info 

Amiga 500 CPU Repair $65.00 

Service manual for A500 $45.00 



We reserve the right to refuse service 

on excessively damaged units. 

C64 Repair $45.00 

1541/1571 Repair $45.00 

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INFO July 1990 27

orld 

traveler, artist, 

visionary, and arcade 

game designer; R. J. 

Mical brought his 

vision of computer 

science itself as an 

artform to the original 

Amiga team. As part of 

that great 

synchronicity, he 

helped the Amiga 

become what it is, even 

as now he helps shape 

new game and machine 

designs. RJ shared 

some views with us on 

the past and future of 

the Amiga and gave us 

some background on 

Atari's new handheld 

wonder, the Lynx. 

INFO: I understand you started out 

designing videogames for Williams? 

MICAL: Right out of college I got a 

not particularly meaningful get-out-of- 

college job. I had considered that I 

would be a failure if I didn't see Europe 

before I was 25, and not willing to be a 

failure, I took a year off and toured 

Europe, Russia, and the Far East. 

When I came back I wanted to do 

something meaningful with my life and 

my art. I've always considered com 

puter science the creation of a work of 

computer art, much as I consider my 

writing, music, or drawing an expres 

sion of myself. The video game industry 

was the obvious place to go. Even 

though a lot of the creation of an arcade 

game is just grunt work programming, 

the final result can be artistic and visu 

ally exciting, so I jumped right in. 

Although I was eminently unsuitable, I 

begged my way into a job Williams 

Electronics in Chicago in 1982-83, right 

at the tail of the arcade game explosion. 

After I had been there about a year, I 

got the call to go to Amiga. 

INFO: How did that happen? 

MICAL: I had a reputation. When I 

first joined, no one knew what I would 

end up doing there. I was a hired talent. 

They figured that eventually someone 

like me would contribute, and indeed I 


did. 

An Interview With 

R. J. 

Mical 

by Mindy Skelton 

The views expressed in this interview are the unexpurgated 

opinions of the interviewee, and do not necessarily reflect 

those of INFO Publications. 

INFO: When you first went to Amiga, 

did you have a specific title? 

MICAL: We were all called simply 

"Computer Engineers" because we 

didn't want to give away to the world 

what was going on at Amiga. Originally 

I worked on the graphics library code 

with Dale Luck. I did some animation 

drivers and a horrible piece of code 

that's still in there called the Gel Sys 

tem. I shudder whenever I think of it, 

but a lot of people who are not sophisti 

cated programmers have been able to 

use it to get nice imagery, so it's got its 

purpose. 

I also got involved in a lot of other 

things. At one time after Commodore 

came in I was even the Director of Soft 

ware Engineering. That proved to be 

foolish as there were only ten people in 

the universe who understood the Amiga 

operating system down to its heart, and 

to have one of those people managing 

and hand-holding rather than coding 

was a very inefficient use of my time 

and skills. 1 decided to go back to cod 

ing and started writing Intuition. 

One of the reasons the Amiga is as 

powerful as it is, is that the original 

engineers were not told what to do; they 

were allowed to just create, and their 

progress was monitored just to make 

sure they didn't go off the deep end. It 

was the individual creativity of the peo 

ple that caused the machine to be as 

powerful as it is.

INFO: Did the philosophy and freedom 

change after Commodore took over? 

MICAL: We were afraid Commodore 

would come marching in and change 

everything, but to our delight all they 

did was install one representative in the 

Amiga building, and let the rest of us go 

on as we were. Unlike other potential 

buyers, Commodore said they wanted to 

buy the spirit and the team, and they 

proved that after the purchase. I stayed 

with Amiga until 1986 and never felt 

any way but positive about the acquisi 

tion. I never felt any change in the phi 

losophy. In fact, after I left Amiga, I 

became a contractor for Commodore 

and found people who were willing to 

use my talents to deal with major and 

minor problems. 

My only complaints would be about 

things like their marketing decisions 

and their decision to go with the Ger 

man Amiga 2000 design rather than 

what we were presenting for an Amiga 

2000-like box. Things like that. 

INFO: You used to give a talk at shows 

on "How We Built the Amiga." Why 

don't you do il any more? 

MICAL: I was asked to speak to a 

users group in Chicago, as kind of a 

"local boy makes good." When I got up 

in front of the group I had no idea of 

what I wanted to say. I was just going to 

tell some stories and have fun. I did 

both, and they seemed to enjoy it. Over 

time, I refined it into a more story-like 

form. I never got tired of telling that 

story, but most everyone I wanted to 

hear it had, so I just stopped. 

INFO: If you had to pick your favorite 

part of the story, what would it be? 

MICAL: I guess my favorite thing 

about the Amiga experience is the sense 

of camaraderie we had. The feeling that 

we were doing more than just trying to 

make a buck. We were trying to change 

the world. We were trying to make a 

new and exciting technology and at the 

same time make this technology acces 

sible to the little guy. We always used 

my brother Ron as an example: "Would 

Ron like it?" or "Could Ron understand 

it?," Ron being an intelligent and tech 

nically literate person who was, at the 

same time, not knowledgeable about 

personal computers. 

Another thing that was truly wonder 

ful and which was unique in our experi 

ences was that the hardware and soft 

ware guys worked closely together. It 

was part of the spirit of all of us work 

ing together to make it the best. The 

hardware guys designed with the needs 

of the software guys in mind, and the 

software was designed in ways that took 

advantage of the capabilities of the 

hardware, and ways that were in line 

with the philosophy of the hardware. So 

that we ended up with a unified vision 

that was almost beyond description. 

It was such a spirit. We all liked each 

other so much. I never expect to feel 

that way again with that many people, 

although working with Dave Needle 

gives me some of that same feeling. 

INFO: Has the Amiga lived up to the 

expectations you had for it in the good 

old days? 

MICAL: Yes, for the most part. There 

are some things I wish had been done 

differently, but you have to remember 

that the Amiga today is very different 

from the idea we started with. At first it 

was to be a game machine. But when 

the bottom dropped out of the games 

market, we changed it to more of a busi 

ness machine. Then when Commodore 

came in, we further altered it away from 

being a game machine and more toward 

the direction of a professional piece of 

system hardware. 

INFO: Some time ago you were shown 

in an Electronic Arts ad promoting a 

game you were designing for them. 

Whatever happened to that game? 

MICAL: It never came out. It was a 

great little game, but the opportunity to 

work with Dave Needle on a design 

project came up right then, and I put the 

game on the back burner. I'll get back to 

it someday. 

INFO: That design project was the 

Lynx? 

MICAL: If that's what you want to call 

it. Our internal design name was the 

"Handy," and no matter what other peo 

ple call it, it will always be the "Handy" 

to us. We were really happy with it. We 

think it's something really great. Dave 

,,.", A . 

and I worked on it for two years; six 

months by ourselves and with up to 

twenty other people over another year 

and a half. 

INFO: Is it true that you need an Amiga 

to develop software for it? 

MICAL: Yes. We really used the 

Amiga for what it was designed for. We 

created an excellent development envi 

ronment for the Handy. It's all Amiga 

2000 based and the programs are honest 

multitasking Amiga programs so you 

can use them with other tools. 

The Handy is really a work of art. It's 

just a shame that so few people will get 

to take advantage of it. We were going 

to bring out other products based on 

some of the programs we had devel 

oped. Now we doubt we' 11 get the 

chance to, because Atari has the rights 

and it doesn't sound like they're going 

to let people have access to any of it. 

They have already turned me down in 

response to a request to demonstrate 

some of the executable code — not even 

the source code, but just some running 

development environment programs - 

at the Amiga Developer's Conference. 

It's their right because they own the 

technology, but it's just too bad. 

INFO: How did Atari come to purchase 

the Handy from Epyx? 

MICAL: Epyx just ran out of money. I 

don't think it was because of the Handy 

development, but because of a number 

of other things. Eventually, Epyx didn't 

have the wherewithal to bring Handy to 

market, so they had to find someone 

who they could make a deal with. It's a 

long and gruesome story of how they 

INFO July 1990 29

want the 

lddb a major 

went about the search, and the mistakes 

they made in that search, but in the end 

they agreed to sell it to Atari. We were 

afraid it might turn out bad, but Dave 

[Needle] and I, foolish optimists that we 

are, stuck around hoping something 

good would happen, even though we 

really didn't believe it. We didn't turn 

out to be wrong. I'm not involved with 

it at all now, and hopefully it will stay 

that way. 

INFO: Then you'd say that this was not 

as "nice" a takeover as Commodore tak 

ing over Amiga? 

MICAL: Not at all. Not at all. It's a 

shame. We pitched it to Commodore 

and they passed on it. 

INFO: I can't imagine myself being 

able to pass on something as wonderful 

as the Handy. How could other compa 

nies? 

MICAL: I don't really know. My guess 

is that some of them were still gun-shy 

after the last disaster in computer gam 

ing, and the price of RAM was astro 

nomical at the time. Who knew where 

all of that was going? It could have 

ended up as a disaster. 

INFO: What's next for you? 

MICAL: Dave Needle and 1 have 

incorporated. We took 'Rj' from my 

name , 'av' from his name and 'e' for 

electronics and put together a company 

called Rjave Inc., as in 'ravink lunatics'. 

It's pronounced 'Rave'. The T is silent. 

We say that on our business cards, and 

on our stationery and on our invoices 

and when we get a secretary she'll get 

tired of saying it. We're going to do 

something together and probably join 

forces with Dave Marsh [former presi 

dent of Amiga, and also integrally 

involved in the production of the Handy 

at Epyx]. We have a pretty good track 

record together. 

INFO: Do you plan to continue contact 

with Commodore in regard to the 

Amiga? 

MICAL: To contribute to making the 

Amiga great, we throw in our lot. Dave 

and I pitched some ideas to them about 

future plans for the Amiga. They were 

interested, but things haven't progressed 

beyond the pitch phase, although they 

haven't languished and died either. I 

hope things go forward because I use 

the Amiga all the time. There are a few 

things it needs, however, so I would not 

need to use any other computers and 

Amiga could be my only one. They're 

getting closer, but I want the 1.4 release 

to be a major enhancement and have all 

the things I think a machine should 

have. 

INFO: What sorts of things are those? 

MICAL: One glaring need is high reso 

lution display capability, which you can 

only get now if you buy a flickerFixer 

and a multisync capable monitor. That 

is a $1000 fix for something that ought 

to be built in. This is not to take busi 

ness away from the flickerFixer people, 

because I think they've done a wonder 

ful job. I'm glad they did it and I hope 

they become fantastically wealthy. 

Another absolute necessity is that the 

Amiga has to be a laser machine so any 

one can buy a laser printer, hook it up, 

plug it in and go, the way you can with 

professional machines. 

INFO: Do you think that would help 

Amiga make a splash in the business 

world? 

MICAL: I'm not sure if the Amiga is 

really a business machine. I don't think 

I would like to see Commodore put a lot 

of energy into fighting a lot of other 

companies when they should instead 

letting the machine have the strength it 

has as a video and graphics machine. I 

do think they ought to add all the fea 

tures I need to make the machine useful 

to me. 


INFO: Since you see the strength of the 

Amiga in the video market, do you 

think there is enough of a market to 

keep the Amiga viable? 

MICAL: Oh, yes. I just hope that the 

correct software developers get behind 

it and support it with the correct soft 

ware to make it the correct machine. In 

addition to video software, I want to see 

full-scale implementations of real soft 

ware. I want to see good wordproces- 

sors and spreadsheets. I want good laser 

printer support. I want what is needed to 

take it out of the junior leagues and 

make it a major player. 

INFO: Do you see this kind of software 

being developed? 

MICAL: No. Not in the immediate 

future. 

INFO: Aren't you afraid that if it 

doesn't happen soon the Amiga will be 

left behind? 

MICAL: Yes. I'm lots afraid. On the 

other hand, I'll always have one. I just 

want Commodore to keep pushing and 

never rest. As technology evolves, I 

want the Amiga to keep evolving and 

adding new features to keep up with the 

needs of the users. 

INFO: Does the new leadership at 

Commodore seem to be heading more 

in the right direction? 

MICAL: Without a doubt. I believe 

Harry Copperman is going to make 

some major changes. He's a great guy, 

and the people he's brought in are good. 

The advertising has picked up and I'm 

optimistic, as always. 

INFO: In that light of optimism, do you 

have any final words of advice, words 

of wisdom, or words of warning? 

MICAL: My advice would be to keep 

the faith. The Amiga has survived this 

long regardless of the forces that have 

conspired to bring it down, in part 

because of the faith of the people who 

use it. The Amiga today is a strong 

machine with a wide body of software 

and hardware available for it. It's paid 

off for the people who have stuck with 

it. I'm glad for that, and I think the 

future will only be better.

The Commodore AMIGA 3000 

A 

First 

Look 

by Mark R. Brown 

NEW AMIGA 3000 FEATURES 

s> CPU: 68030/68881 @ 16MHz or 

68030/68882 @ 25MHz 

* 2 Megs RAM: 1 meg chip RAM (2 

megs max) & 1 meg fast RAM 

(16 megs maximum on 

motherboard, one gigabyte 

total maximum) 

& Built-in Video Display Enhancer 

de-interlacer with VGA 

monitor connector 

* 32-bit DMA SCSI with 19 ms 40 or 

100 meg Quantum HD & 

external SCSI connector 

■^ Slots: 1 Zorro III, 1 Zorro Ill/Video, 

2 Zorro 11 I/PC-AT, compatible 

with Zorro II 

Low profile, small footprint case 

US List Prices: 

16MHz/40Meg $3299 

25MHz/40Meg $3999 

25MHz/100Meg $4699 

Perhaps the most fortuitous day in 

Amiga history was the day when 

an unnamed Apple marketing droid 

came up with the word 

"multimedia." It's a perfect 

marketing word: alliterative, with a 

high-tech sound. Unfortunately for 

Apple, the Macintosh is completely 

and perfectly ill-suited for the 

"multimedia" market they created. 

But now that Apple has done the 

groundwork, guess whose 

computer is positioned to move in 

and exploit the market? (Hint: It 

starts with a capital "A" and ends 

with a little "miga.") This fact has 

not been lost on Commodore, and 

they're making sure the media 

^000 

knows it in a big way. 

"Multimedia" is the new 

watchword at Commodore, and it 

provided the perfect framework 

within which to present the killer 

newA3000. 

On April 24, Commodore got a 

few hundred people together at the 

Palladium Theatre in New York to 

experience an event they called 

"Multimedia Live!" What it really 

was was the official public rollout 

of the much-awaited Amiga 3000 

computer. Lights flashed, fog 

machines churned, giant speakers 

boomed, and huge video screens 

sizzled in a dazzling display of 

what the Amiga can do. 

■

Amiga 3000, 1950 multisync monitor, 

and Commodore stereo speakers. 

A3000 guts. That's chip RAM in the 

right front corner. Note the 4 horizontal slots. 

A3000 motherboard. Fast RAM is at lower right. 

The 68030 is surface mounted at center right. 


HARDWARE BASICS 

The Amiga 3000 is a major leap forward in Amiga technol 

ogy. It's over nine times faster than an A1000. A500. or 

A2000. And that doesn't even count all the advantages it gets 

from 32-bit addressing, twice the chip RAM, and built-in 

SCSI and de-interlaced video. 

The A3000 comes in two basic models, a 16 MHz 

68030/68881 model, and a 25 MHz 68030/68882 model. The 

only faster personal computer on the market is the very latest 

Mac, the Ilfx, which costs three times as much as an A3000. 

The 3000 boasts a bunch of new features, but the first thing 

you notice about this machine is how great it looks. The case 

is diminutive and the footprint is small. One Commodore engi 

neer calls it ''the cutest Amiga since the 1000." 

Thanks to five new custom chips, and new and improved 

versions of Agnus and Denise, the A3000 packs more power 

into its tiny case than a full-blown Amiga 2000. Even in the 

basic 3000 you get a built-in 32-bit DMA SCSI hard disk con 

troller with a 19 ms Quantum hard drive (40 or 100 megs, 

yotir choice). There's also an integral de-interlacer built into a 

new chip called Amber: it connects to a new VGA-compatible 

nicker-free monitor connector. (Commodore has even intro 

duced a new color multisync monitor to plug into the connec 

tor, the A1950 @ $799). So a new A3000 saves you the cost of 

nflickerFixer and a hard drive right up front. 

The A3000 comes with two megs of RAM: one meg of chip 

RAM and one of fast RAM. But there are sockets for an addi 

tional meg of chip RAM on the board, and up to 16 megs of 

fast RAM. When you get set to expand, you just unplug the 

meg of fast RAM on the right front corner of the motherboard 

and move it over to the empty chip RAM sockets on the left 

side, then plug in static column ZIP RAM in the mother 

board's RAM expansion area. So you save the price of a RAM 

expansion board, too. (Of course, the A3000 can address up to 

a gigabyte of memory, and you'll have to add boards if 18 

megs isn't enough for you!) 

When you do decide to expand beyond the motherboard, 

you'll find fewer slots. No big deal, given what's built in. You 

get four Zorro HI slots, which are compatible with current 

Zorro II boards. Commodore has done some technological 

sleight-of-hand with a new chip called Buster, which makes 

true 32-bit addressing compatible with the Zorro II 16-bit 

buss. The four slots are horizontal on the left side of the 

machine, and are situated on a vertical daughterboard that 

plugs into a single slot on the motherboard. The top Zorro slot 

is in line with the video slot, which makes for some interesting 

new video card possibilities (like a new single hi-res video 

board, perhaps?). The two middle slots are in line with PC/AT- 

compatible Bridgeboard slots. (The case design is such that 

there is no longer a bay for a 5 1/4" IBM drive, so you'll have 

to figure out how to rig your own.) The bottom slot is strictly 

Zorro, with no additional fancy adapters. So where's the CPU 

slot? There's a new 200-pin cpu slot across the from of the 

A3000. just under the drive bays. There is a totally new form 

factor for cpu expansion cards, which is not unusual when you 

consider that the A3000*s native 68030 makes it more power 

ful than any of the accelerator cards that have come before. 

The new cpu slot is the perfect place for things like transput 

ers, a 68040 upgrade, or data/instruction cache RAM boards to 

make the 68030 run even faster1.

Mechanically, you'll notice a few new things, too. Drive 

dfO: is on the left, with a blank bay on the right. The hard drive 

mounts inside in the back, next to the power supply. The key 

board, mouse, and joystick now plug into the right side of the 

case. On the back are two new connectors: the VGA monitor 

connector and the external SCSI drive connector. There's also 

a new switch for turning de-interlacing to the VGA port on 

and off. 

SOFTWARE 

Then there's the new 2.0 (formerly "1.4") operating system. 

Just to list everything that's new and improved would almost 

take a book. In fact, it does take a book: the incredible new 

Amiga 3000 manual. Though it hasn't even been mentioned in 

the other reports of the 3000's debut, we think the new manu 

als are a work of art. There's a fold-out poster-size "Quick 

Connect" guide that's colorful, well-organized, and completely 

clear. The Amiga 3000 manual is well-written and is full of all 

the basic information. The system documentation is tabbed 

and indexed and fills a 2 1/2" thick ring binder. Everything 

you want to know about the A3000 is in there, from Amiga- 

DOS commands to ARexx to how to point and click a mouse. 

Our hats are off to the team that put this documentation pack 

age together. Anyone who thinks things aren't really changing 

at Commodore has only to look at these docs to put his mind 

at ease. 

As for 2.0 itself, the version included with the A3000 so far 

is beta (read: buggy) but promises a great deal. Among the 

highlights: Amiga key equivalents for most WorkBench menu 

selections; listing of files by name as well as by icon; optional 

automatic creation of icons for icon-less programs and draw 

ers; background and window patterns; cleaner "3D" look with 

improved icon and window designs; improved AmigaDOS 

commands with more options; ARexx support; new program 

ming support libraries for standardized file requesters and gad 

gets; commodities exchange for programmable "hotkeys" and 

such; expanded and improved preferences programs: direct 

support for hires and Superhires WorkBench screens; and a 

new, even faster file system. Trust me - you'll love 2.0. 

There are two sets of ROM sockets on the A3000's mother 

board. The set currently occupied contains a ROM bootstrap 

program. Via a mouse selector, it boots either 2.0 or 1.3 Kick- 

WorkBench 2.0 on a new superhires 

1280X400 screen. 

Start into fast RAM from the hard drive. It then boots the 

proper WorkBench from hard drive, and you're in business. 

This system will remain in the A3000 until v2.0 is finalized, at 

which point KickStart 2.0 will be moved into permanent ROMs 

in the other set of sockets. Commodore says to expect to see this 

transition about September. At that time. v2.0 will also be made 

available as an upgrade to current Amiga owners, 

AMIGAVISION 

Now we've gone full circle, and are back to the topic of 

multimedia. Because one of the most intriguing things shown 

at the "Multimedia Live!" presentation was AmigaVision. 

Commodore's new multimedia presentation authoring system. 

AmigaVision is basically a programming language involving 

symbols rather than words. You click on icons that represent 

actions, which bring up boxes full of various options. The 

icons combine in a chart to show program flow in an editing 

box. Creating and editing an AmigaVision presentation is 

somewhat reminiscent of using Deluxe Video. 

continued on page 74... 

Prominently featured 

at the A3000's rollout 

was NewTek's 

Video Toaster, 

pictured here 

without its case 

for the first time 

anywhere. 

Photo by Mort Kevelson 

INFO July 1990 33

The Ray Traced Self Portrait 

The tools available 

for the Amiga 

graphics enthusiast 

are second to none. 

Let's follow along 

as renowned Amiga 

artist Louis Markoya 

uses some of these 

sophisticated tools 

to create a complex 

graphic image - 

a raytraced 

self-portrait. 

In this article, I will attempt to 

explain the methods and tech 

niques used to create the Ray- 

traced Self Portrait pictured here. The 

same basic techniques and tools could 

be used on virtually any shape or pic 

ture, but a self portrait is tricky enough 

to effectively demonstrate the methods 

needed to create complex objects. Since 

I don't doubt that you're better looking 

than I am, your masterpiece will surely 

look even better than mine. 

Object editing has typically been one 

of the more difficult arts to grasp in 3D 

rendering. The manufacturers of ray- 

tracing and object editing software have 

taken many different approaches to try 

to simplify the task. The concept of 

three dimensions comes more easily to 

some than others, and the tools 

available in each package can be more 

or less intuitive for each individual. To 

ease this burden, there are several pre 

formed object packages available from 

various vendors. These collections fea 

by Louis Markoya 

ture objects ranging from cars and space 

stations to leaves and insects, all of 

which can be modified to suit your own 

needs. One type, the extruded object, 

can be used for a number of applica 

tions. Most obvious is the corporate 

logo, so often seen in one variation or 

another in fly-by animations in televi 

sion commercials. Extensions to these 

shapes can take any form, from letters 

to animals. This article will show you 

the steps and tools used to make such an 

object and then render it in Turbo Silver. 

The object to be traced in this case was 

my own self-portrait, showing that a 

complex subject can be successfully 

rendered by anyone with the tools the 

Amiga provides and a bit of work. With 

some imagination, amazing things are 

possible. 

TOOLS 

Several software packages were 

employed to accomplish the task at 


hand. I chose DigiView 3.0, Deluxe- 

Paint III, DigiWorks 3D, and Turbo Sil- 

vcr-SV. Obvious substitutions can be 

made, but these are the programs I used 

for this particular project, and most of 

them will be familiar to any Amiga 

graphics user. You may have to adapt 

the techniques that follow to your own 

graphics and rendering packages, but 

the ideas are the same. DigiWorks, the 

newcomer to the list, is an object cre 

ation and editing tool which can trans 

form any IFF file into a 3D object. 

There are practical limitations and tips 

for getting the best results, and these 

will be discussed after I tell you how to 

get the raw image into the computer. 

DIGITIZING 

I had decided that I wanted to try to 

raytrace a self-portrait, so to get my face 

digitized and into the computer. I set up 

my video camera and DigiView. The 

most accurate digitization is attained in

high resolution mode, and since DigiWorks operates best with a 

high contrast picture, I set up DigiView in hi-res, color off, no 

interlace (B+W mode). I also set the camera's focal distance to 

create a picture which would just about fill the screen from top 

to bottom. After quickly scanning myself in, I adjusted the sharp 

ness and contrast to create a crisply defined greyscale photo. It 

was okay for the dark areas and highlights to be exaggerated. 

because the picture was eventually to be reduced to 2 colors. 

Smooth transitions are of no use for an exercise like this, so I 

tried to make the greys band in distinct lines. This helped form 

the edges of what was to become my 3D face. Finally, I saved 

the picture as an IFF file from DigiView and Step I was com 

plete. 

ADJUSTMENTS 

Next, I loaded the picture into Deluxe Paint. I changed the 

palette option to 8 colors, thus reducing the transitions and 

choices for the outline of the object. The image now consisted of 

black, white, and six intermediate greyscales. These then had to 

be reduced to just black & white. The obvious place to start was 

with the outside outline of the face. Selecting white and freeform 

fill, I eliminated the background of the picture by tracing along 

the edges of the screen and the head. Looking at the shapes of 

the highlights and shadows. I chose which would be light and 

which dark. (Different effects can be obtained by using this step 

creatively, and features can be added or changed as you wish. 

Don't be afraid to experiment; just be sure to save your work fre 

quently.) It was a relatively easy job to trace the shadows and 

highlights and still maintain enough detail for the face to be rec 

ognizable. Once I was satisfied with the results. I changed the 

screen format of Deluxe Pain! to 1 bitplane (2 colors) and saved 

my work, completing Step 2. 

CONVERSION 

In the past, creating a three dimensional object from an IFF 

drawing was difficult at best. You could print the picture, transfer 

it by hand to graph paper and then record each point into the 

modeling program. Or better, if you had a genlock and a video 

camera you could print the picture, genlock it onto the screen, 

trace the edges with the modeling program, and then fill in the 

face polygons. Now you can use DigiWorks 3D. DigiWorks is a 

3D modeling program with fast edge-tracing capabilities, editing 

features, custom parameters, and the ability to save in either 

Sculpt 3D/4D or in Turbo Silver format. The program comes 

with several tutorials and a good manual, and is easy enough to 

use to be up and running within 15-20 minutes. 

I loaded the image I had just created into DigiWorks and the 

program automatically traced its edges. It did so quite accurately 

and faster than I expected. This eliminated the tedious task of 

outlining the entire object point by point. The default settings 

within DigiWorks seemed to give me good results, but the pro 

gram allows such things as Threshold (the user selectable edge- 

Step 1: Digitize with Digi-View. 

Step 2: Manipulate with Deluxe Paint. 

Step 3: Convert with DigiWorks. 

INFO July 1990 35

Edit and clean up the object. 

Extrude to create a 3D shape. 

Step 4: Raytrace with Turbo Silver. 

detection parameter for more or less complicated objects) and 

Closure (the space allowed between 2 vertices before they are 

joined and made into an single vertex) to be adjusted if neces 

sary. 

The outlines of my picture were traced with points and con 

necting lines which formed the polygons of the face of the final 

object. (The lines and points are fully editable and can be moved 

or deleted. It is also possible to add new points or draw entirely 

new polygons with the DigiWorks editor.) Once I had deleted 

any obviously unwanted points, connected edges that were dis 

connected, and moved the points around to suit me, I then filled 

the outline with polygons using the Fill command. This redrew 

the object and Filled in all the closed polygons. Some of the areas 

didn't fill as expected, because some of the polygons were not 

closed. This was indicated by the outline colors; blue showed the 

polygon was closed and would be filled with triangles, but 

unclosed polygons were drawn in green, making them easy to 

find. To close any open polygons, I simply used the Move com 

mand to pick up each point in order around the border. If both of 

the lines connected to the point moved with it, then it was all 

right. If only one line stretched with the point, it needed to be 

connected. I used the Close command to join the point to the 

next and then used the Fill command again to check for any 

remaining open polygons. 

I've found in my experiments that DigiWorks works admirably 

in most cases. Open polygons and stray points are often added 

when the drawing has very fine (one pixel wide) details, as 

found in the line along my nose and right check in the Step2 pic 

ture. But once noted, this can be avoided, or at least minimized. 

The program can trace multicolored pictures, and in different 

resolutions, but these types of pictures will generally need more 

editing than black and white ones. 

The next step was to give my object depth, making it a true 3D 

object. This I did using the Extrude command. Upon selecting 

Extrude, DigiWorks presents the user with a parameter requester 

for the object. It is here that colors are selected for both the sides 

and face of the object. I chose blue faces and yellow sides for my 

portrait object. It is also at this point that Sculpt users can assign 

the object attributes: dull, shiny, mirror, glass or luminous. 

(These do not work for the current release of Turbo Silver, but 

will be enabled at a later date.) The object can then be saved in 

either Sculpt or Turbo Silver format. Saving the object completes 

Step 3. 


Just one editorial comment before we move on: With Digi 

Works 3D, Access Technologies has provided raytracing enthusi 

asts with a powerful tool. The addition of a zoom or magnify 

mode would be very helpful and make it absolutely invaluable. 

Whether you want to trace complex objects, logos, or plain text, 

this is a program to seriously consider. 

TRACING 

My next step was to load the object into Turbo SHver-SV. SV 

has a plethora of new features, including several new textures, a

hi-res editor, stereo (a la Haitex or Sega glasses) support, and 

more. The program's already impressive list of features contin 

ues to grow and add even more artistic capabilities. I used a 

320x400 screen setting for the rendering and set up an initial test 

trace of the object with a single light source and the camera 

looking at the portrait from the side. The object looked too plain, 

so 1 decided to try out some of Silver's new textures. First I tried 

Checks, the familiar raytracing standard (Step 4). This was too 

confusing and the object lost some of its definition, so I tried 

Marble (Right) next. I had earlier drawn a 2D picture of multi 

colored soap film in HAM mode, and I tried wrapping this onto 

some semi-transparent spheres to see if I could get the effect of 

soap bubbles. It worked. Finally, I used the Angular texture to 

get the rainbow effect seen below. 

Happy with this effect, I set up the scene to make a better pic 

ture. With the face in the center of the scene, I wanted to create a 

frame for it with other objects. Thinking columns would be nice, 

I created one from a complex polygon that spiraled 720 degrees. 

A marble IFF file was mapped onto it, and the column was ren 

dered with a Glossy texture to give it highlights and slight reflec 

tions. I then copied it and placed the columns to frame the Face 

object as seen in the Final Wireframe view. In addition, I made a 

wave-shaped ground and placed it under the object. Lighting the 

scene caused some difficulty. If the light source was placed high, 

the face of the portrait object was illuminated well, but it caused 

too much shadow and lost the nice color blends found going into 

the object. Lowering the light source illuminated the inside, but 

washed out the edge of the object in places, lessening its defini 

tion. The problem was overcome by again placing the front light 

high, but using a backlight to illuminate the insides. The result, I 

think, is very good. 

THAT'S IT 

These are the techniques I used to create my 3D self-portrait. I 

hope they have given you some insight into how to go about test- 

tracing it and, hopefully, some idea of the power of the methods 

and tools available to you for creating your own images. The 

Amiga still amazes people with its ability to render beautiful 

graphics. With the right tools, a little imagination, and some 

work, your art can be amazing, too. 

Company Index 

• DigiView 3.0, $199.95, NewTek, 115 W. Crane, Topeka, KS 66603. 

913-354-1146 

• DeluxePaint III, $149.00, Electronic Arts, 1820 Gateway Dr., San 

Mateo, CA 94404. 415-571 -7171 

• DigiWorks 3D, $129.95, Access Technologies, PO Box 202197, Austin, 

TX 78720. 512-343-9564 

• Turbo Silver 3.0a', $199.95, Impulse, 6860 Shingle Creek Pkwy., #110, 

Minneapolis, MN 55430. 612-566-0221. 

* NOTE: the SV version of Turbo Silver is available only as an upgrade 

to registered owners of Turbo Silver 3.0a 

Trying the Marble texture. 

The bitmapped soap-film effect. 

Final wireframe view. 

INFO July 1990 37

ublic D,omain 

The programs listed here are available 

on QuantumLink and American People- 

Link, and on other networks, local BBSs, 

and on public domain disk collections. 

You don't have to belong to these online 

services to obtain these programs. But if 

you're interested, you can get information 

about signing up for these network 

services by calling: 

Pfess any key 

for a new song 

QUANTUMLINK: 

703-883-0788 

AMERICAN PEOPLELINK: 

312-648-0660 

ROTATIONS! 

&AHE LUKE 

APPALSAhhV 

oocoooocooooooo 

Fl - NEN SAME 

F3 - PAUSE SAhE 

F5 - SO TO MENU 

oooooocooocccoo 

SCORE: 8 

LINES. 0 

QUANTUMLINK GEMS 

MUSIC CONNECTION 

The real excitement on QLink is the new Music Connection. 

Download the appropriate files and play music while you are 

chatting or playing games in the People Connection. With a 

few keystrokes, you can request a variety of different songs to 

play through your computer as you take part in the action. A 

new version of EMail, which includes an easy edit feature, is 

also a part of the Music Connection. 

TWO GEOS GEMS 

GEOSIDPLAYER (shown) is a monophonic SID song 

player which runs through the GEOS operating system. 

QWIKTOP2.2 is an alternate desktop which features 7 pages 

of files and the border at one glance. Move files easily from 

one page to another or to the border. To start an application, 

just double click on the filename. An updated version is 

already out. Contact the author for details. 

ROTATION.SDA 

Rotation (shown) is a Tetris clone. The program generates 

random pieces to a puzzle. Your job is to position the pieces as 

they fall so that they create continuous horizontal lines. Select 

ing a higher level causes the pieces to fall faster and reduce the 

time you have to make your moves. While Rotation is a one- 

player game, any number can play by just recording the score 

at the end of each round. 

MESSAGEMAKER.SDA 

Message Maker is a simple but exceptional way to produce 

screen messages for store fronts or large group displays. The 

program has an authoring section where you enter your text, 

change colors, add screen clears and pauses, and save message 

files to disk. Once your message has been created and saved, 

just sit back and watch as it is continuously printed out on the 

screen. 

DOWNLOAD INFORMATION 

MUSIC CONNECTION [Just for Fun/ Music Connection 

Center/ Download Music Connection; from Qlink; by Quan 

tum] 

GEOSIDPLAYER [CSS/ GEOS ARENA/ Software 

Library/ User Applications/ Part 2; From: ROGER LU] 

QWIKTOP2.2 [same as previous program: From: 

ILLINI70] 


ROTATION [CSS/ Software Libraries/ Browse C-64 Soft 

ware/ Game World/ Arcade/ Other; from: Lewd I ] 

MESSAGE MAKER [CSS/ Software Libraries/ Browse C- 

64 Software/ Graphics/ Graphics Toolbox/ Slideshows/ Dis 

play Programs; from: Sysop PHj 

- Saul E. Cohen [QTUTOR SEC|

8-BIT PEOPLELINK 

STEREO SID EDITOR [#10849] 

TublicTJomain 

Robert Stoerrle's excellent 6-voice stereo SID editor was 

mentioned in the last issue. It allows you to view and edit all 

six voices at once; create mono or stereo SIDs: create title 

blocks, word files, MSW, SLR, and SAL archives; and input 

or playback through MIDI. NOTE: In order to use this soft 

ware, you must own a copy of Compute'.'s Music System for 

the Commodore 128/64: The Enhanced Sidplayer. Ordering 

information is available in the program documentation. 

NEW SONGS 

More than 80 new SID files appeared during the last two 

months. Special mention goes to SYL for making the Com 

modore 64 whistle in her SID /SUNBURST [#107401. a ver 

sion of James Scott's Sunburst Rag; Lykar for 2/T SONATA 

[# 10644J, a Baroque trumpet duet; Whole Note for 

NUTROCKER [#10729], a souped-up version of 

Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite"; Carl Benton's /VALSE 

TRISTE [#10775], including another magnificent portrait by 

Doc JM of Jean Sibelius; Bob Umfer's WAGNER'S 

LIEBESTOD [#10761]. also with Doc JM's portrait of 

Richard Wagner; GlenD5"s SMALL HOTEL [#10843]. a big- 

band sound of a Rogers and Hart's hit; Jabba Hutt's LA 

COMPLAISANTE. a SID version of C.P.E. Bach's classical 

work; and Slip Note's ASTRAQUARIUM, also with one of 

DocJM's graphics. Many more of the newer SIDs are very 

worthy of your time; we just don't have the space to mention 

them here. Enter section 6 and type /SCA SIN MM/DD/YY to 

see what other musical gems await you. 

NEW GRAPHICS 

Graphics section 7 has added many files that you might not 

want your young children to see. However, all of DocJM's 

.PIC files mentioned above have been converted into com 

pressed Koala's for your enjoyment. They are GGVIVALDI 

[#10874], GGSIBELIUS [#10873, shown|. GGWAGNER 

[#10864], and GGASTRA [#10877, shown]. Other pictures 

worth downloading are GGCOMPLAISANTE [#10876], 

GGMOON [#10753] andJJOLD MAN [#10751]. 

WISARDSVAULT [#10704] 

Ray Laboot wrote this clever C64 game (shown), which has 

you trapped in a vault. Collect enough gold before the wizard 

can gain the power to entomb you. He's crafty; he'll slow you 

down by adding walls where you won't expect them. 

-BobUmfer[CBM*BOB] 

INFO July 1990 39

ANi-W 

Add pictures to list Select Files 

88-88-19 14:84:83 

88-88-19 14:64:85 

88-81-38 16:23:35 

88-19-27 14:46:89 

89-87-85 22188:52 

:8B-84-22 16:52:82 

■8-83-39 11:28:5? 

8B-B3-B3 88:25:33 

89-86-81 12:44:85 

88-18-27 14:46:18 

PATTERNS 

Workbench Screen 

8242 32888.hi 

6978 a5B8.M 

3182 amsalogo 

5174 AmsiLoResErusli 

18182 arnsapic 

28492 ATFlogo 

17714 co Dereference 

2318 dither 

16954 Earth 

25298 fkev,picl287 

dh8:dPaint/niscPix/E3rtn 

ublic 

IH1 2 Jan 98 |ujjor 

continued 

Features if 

f 

The Pop-up nenues will not shou up when you press the nenubutton! 

ir any or the follouing conditions is true 1^1 

1) No window is actiue.f 

Previous window 

1) The active uindou has no k Next uindou 

3) The active uindou has the f 

4) The nousepointer is in the 

(standard pull-doun nenues ui 

5) You are pressing anv oualif 

(shift, alt, control, ] 

Spell-check word 

Spell-check to end 

1) Multiple select is m 

Y is not sui 

3) The ranuiten fi subjt! 

(nakes selection easier)* 

Toggle insert hode 

gle paragraph lu 

Convert to upper case 

iHark for index 

iKi 11 index tiark 

) nousebutton>1 

wusepointer.1 


AMIGA PEOPLELINK 

MICKEY-GLASS.ZOO [#19744] 

Rick Parks is an astoundingly talented Amiga artist - take a 

look at Mickey-Glass on this page. That's not a ray-traced 

glass of water, kids, that's drawn with Deluxe Paint\ Other 

masterpieces by Parks include a great portrait of Albert Ein 

stein [#19419] and an amazingly detailed head shot of a 

mature lion [#20062], Even if you never download pictures, 

you should get these Rick Parks masterpieces. 

VIRUSX4.0.LZH [#20397] 

Here it is - the official release of VirusX 4.0 by Steve Tibbett 

(aided by the always unassuming Dan James). This new ver 

sion handles a huge number of bootblock viruses, plus four 

"Link" viruses - those nasties that live in files rather than on 

the bootblock. This LHARChive includes VirusX, its source 

code, plus DJJames' program KV. Documentation is by Jim 

Meyer, former Ed. in Chief of AMnews magazine. This is one 

of the most important pieces of Amiga public domain soft 

ware. Everyone should have it running all the time. 

CRYOUTILS.ZOO [#20049] 

This file includes four handy animation utilities from the 

boys at Cryogenic Software. Each program has its own docu 

mentation file, and each works from CLI or WorkBench, your 

choice. ANIMBitild VI.0 (shown) is an animation creation tool 

that allows you to combine selected IFF pictures into a stan 

dard OpCode 5 animation. ANIMlnfo VI.0 extracts informa 

tion from a given animation. CombineANIM VJ.O joins two 

animations into one larger one. And SplitANIM VI.0 splits an 

animation into two smaller ones. 

POPUPMENU.ZOO [#20060] 

If you've played with a NeXT computer and like those "tear 

off menus that appear wherever the mouse pointer happened 

to be onscreen, try PopUpMcmi. As long as your current 

screen meets the criteria specified in this program's documen 

tation, you'll get your normal Amiga menus (including sub 

menus) right at your mouse pointer location, instead of having 

to "mouse up" to the menu bar to open them. Tricky and slick! 

FMSDISK.LZH [#20116] 

This is a "File-based Trackdisk Simulator." A what? What 

this puppy does is create a floppy-like partition on your hard 

disk without actually having to create a special partition for it. 

FMSDisk allows up to 32 Units, OFS or FFS selectable via 

Mountlist. If you make a lot of floppy distribution disks, 

you'll love this. You can create a "simulated partition" that 

uses exactly the same parameters as your favorite floppy 

device and then DiskCopy from it to floppies. 

- Harv Laser [CBM*HARV]

You haven't 

paid your dues 

since 1983, Joe. 

You owe $585.58. 

COMMODORE 

Ne'll have a cleno of 

'FantaGraphics' version 

4.7a as soon a.s Fred. Re-seat 

BRYCE GOES TO A 

ART: Grefforv Conley 

CONTINUITY: Mark R. Brown 

Check the 

connections* 

chips? 

j^\y Your 

^*] is bio v/n f 

Re v ers e 

the cables* 

IT—r, ■ 

Gregory Conley can be contacted by writing: Gregory Conley, 17320 Lavcrnc Avenue. Cleveland, Ohio 44135 

I love Us er Gr o up Me e t i nffs• 

INFO July 1990 41

ADVENTUR 

photo by Tom Ives 

by Shay Addams 

Someone at SSI recently pointed 

out to me that their Advanced 

Dungeons & Dragons series - 

you know, the ones I've consistently 

trounced in this column, QuestBusters, 

and even in my sleep at times — rank 

among the all-time best-selling com 

puter games. To which I could only 

respond that a lot of people paid to see 

Police Academy 6, but that didn't make 

it another Gone With the Wind. Finally, 

however, SSI has made a major 

improvement in the game system intro 

duced in Pool of Radiance and barely 

upgraded for Curse of the Azure Bonds: 

while tactical combat remains the 

essence of the gaming experience in 

Champions of Krynn. battles no longer 

last for hours. In this, the third title in 

SSI's Dragonlance series. I never wit 

nessed a battle that lasted more than 

five minutes, mainly because my party 

never faced more than a dozen monsters 

in an encounter. 

The first Dragonlance games, Heroes 

of the Lance and Dragons of Flame, 

were action adventures that focused on 

arcade-style challenges. Champions of 

Krynn, relying on the Pool of Radiance 

system, is a role-playing game with 

heavy emphasis on tactical combat. It 

continues the tale of the evil goddess 

Takhisis, whose creations — the Draco- 

nians. hideous Lizard Men created with 

dragon eggs — are now running amok 

across the land of Krynn. Your main 

\£ 

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H1FTF00T 

RC HP 

~4 75 

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HOUR HERRTU BRNO OF HDUGNTURERS HRUG 

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goal is to track down the eggs and wipe 

out the Dracs. but a series of mini- 

quests must first be accomplished, and 

in linear order. Most involve locating a 

magic weapon or other artifact, such as 

a magically enhanced sword called the 

Dragonlance. 

Besides simplified combat. Krynn 

introduces a new character race called 

Kender. who possess a special combat 

capability: when a Kender taunts the 

enemy, the monster's ability to hit your 

party members is reduced, and your 

chances of hitting the monster are 

improved. As usual, there's one little 

catch: all the enemy's magic spells are 

aimed at your Kender. 

Other innovations surface in the 

magic system. Your spellcasters' abili 

ties are affected by the phase of ihree 

moons seen atop the screen. When the 

white moon is full, for instance, a good 

Magic-user can memorize more spells 

than at other times: as the moon wanes, 

however, his spells lose potency. Other 

moons affect Neutral and Evil Magic- 

users similarly. And Clerics now get to 

pick a god with whom to ally, a deity 

who then bestows his Clerics with a 

unique advantage, such as increasing 

his chances of turning the Undead. 

As in previous AD&D titles, Krynn 

doles out clues and plot developments 


The C64 

version 

of SSI's 

Champions 

of Krynn. 

by having you look up numbered para 

graphs in a pair of manuals (a technique 

introduced in Wasteland). The story 

emerges in onscreen dialogue also, and 

I have to admit almost enjoying an 

AD&D computer game for the first 

time. Now if only they'd toss in a few 

genuine puzzles to solve, SSI might 

someday turn out a game that plays as 

well as it sells. This one's their best so 

far. and is available for the C64, with an 

Amiga version underway. 

AMIGA 

ULTIMA V 

The Amiga version of Ultima V: War 

riors of Destiny was set to have been 

released about this time, following an 

unseemly year-long delay. Unfortu 

nately, a deal that had MicroProse dis 

tributing ORIGIN products in Europe 

went bad, and since MicroProse had 

contracted to handle the conversion, the 

nearly completed Ultima V — with a 

mere ten bugs that needed fixing - 

almost never saw the light at the end of 

the dungeon. 

Anyway, as C64 adventurers are 

aware, this is the Ultima in which 

you're summoned back to Britannia to 

rescue Lord British, who vanished

while exploring the Underworld formed 

when you removed the Codex from its 

hiding place in Ultima IV. The evil 

Shadowlords must be defeated, not to 

mention the insidious Blackthorn, who 

seized the throne in Lord British's 

absence. In addition to a dramatic 

increase in the quality of the graphics. 

Ultima V introduced timelines for every 

non-player character in this fantasy 

world. Each person has his or her own 

daily schedule, rising from bed in the 

morning, walking to the pub to tend bar, 

heading off to lunch at noon, and so on. 

While it didn't rock the world of role- 

playing as dramatically as Ultima IV 

did, V is a must-play for all Amiga 

questaholics (and you've got to admit 

that IV was a hard act to follow, even 

for Lord British). 

NEW STUFF 

If you'd rather don cloak and dagger 

than sword and shield, Accolade's first 

role-playing game. The Third Courier. 

is worth investigating. This Amiga mys 

tery puts you in the trenchcoat of a 

secret agent out to find a missing 

courier and some top secret defense 

plans. It features pull-down menus list 

ing verbs, and a smooth mouse-driven 

interface that simplifies moving around 

Berlin in hopes of solving the mystery 

before the seven-day time limit expires. 

Unfortunately for Accolade, the Berlin 

Wall came down about the time this 

game was released, so the scenes featur 

ing Checkpoint Charlie and related 

sights are a bit dated, but I don't guess 

we can blame the designers for not fore 

seeing the reunification of Berlin! And 

it's a solid piece of work that spy fans 

will find as fascinating as recent events 

in that city. 

Finally, for all you perverts in the 

audience, Leisure Suit Larry II: Looking 

for Love (In Several Wrong Places), 

oozed under the door a few weeks ago 

and immediately jammed itself into my 

Amiga's slot. This time Al Lowe's 

demented creation, Larry Laffer. travels 

[in -•■■■till in front o-f you is a policeman 

Knesebeckstr, 

s&w Model id!!!!!! 

far and wide in search of Miss Right, 

going from LA, where he tries his 

"skills" as a Dating Connection contes 

tant, to a steamy trip on the S.S. Hot 

Tub and winds up on a nude beach on 

the island of Dr. Nonookee, a mad sci 

entist out to take over the world. 

The sub-plot involving the mad scien 

tist sets this one apart from the first 

Larry, which was a lot more titillating 

than this one. Look for the third install 

ment soon; in Passionate Patti in Pur 

suit of the Pulsating Pectorals, you'll 

switch roles halfway through the game 

and complete the quest as a woman. 

(For a less sophisticated yet more 

revealing "adult adventure," try Free 

Spirit's Bride of the Robot, the sequel to 

Sex Vixens in Space, and their last adult- 

oriented title. 

FANTASY NEWS 

Amiga world makers tired of the 

same old trees, oceans, and swamps in 

Populous can now access five new 

landscapes, found on a data disk called 

The Promised Lands. Selling for a real 

istic $14.95, it's a good way to extend 

the life of the original program. The 

launch of Electronic Arts' C64 Star 

Flight, set for a pre-Christmas release, 

was scrubbed, but it should be out by 

Action , Inventory ..F' 

LEUEL EXPERIENCE 

D 

The Third 

Courier 

from 

Accolade for 

the Amiga. 

now. Read the back of those Mas- 

tertronics' boxes carefully: their graphic 

adventure Time to Die is really a re- 

release of Borrowed Time, a detective 

story originally released by Activision 

(and one of Interplay's earliest titles). 

Speaking of Interplay, their next C64 

title will be the first role-playing game 

adapted from the Lord of the Rings tril 

ogy, the novels that inspired Crowther 

and Woods to invent adventure games 

long before anyone ever heard of Dun 

geons and Dragons. A couple of shoddy 

graphic adventures and a mediocre 

war/graphic adventure have been based 

on Tolkien's work, but the Tolkien 

estate finally made the right choice with 

Interplay, which plans a series of related 

RPGs that could easily overshadow 

SSI's highly overrated AD&D series 

(whoops, there I go again!). 

Shay Addams, "the world's foremost 

expert on adventure gaming," is the 

publisher of the excellent gaming 

newsletter Questbusters ($18/yr., $24 

Canada, $32 Int'l., PO Box 5845, Tuc 

son, AZ 85703). He also owns more 

computers than you can shake a stick 

at, so he may occasionally mention a 

game he has played on the Macintosh 

(ack!) or even on an MS/DOS com 

puter (pffft!). 

INFO July 1990 43

GAMES FOR YOUR rllYll L//"A 

Ah! The sweet sound of thermonuclear 

devices detonating around the globe, 

the scent of millions of corpses rotting 

in the glow. In ordinary hands, a game like this 

would be so offensive I wouldn't even review 

it, but because New World has done it as a 

comedy of the blackest sort, and it points out 

so well the folly of atomic warfare, it is instead 

a laugh-out-loud joy to play. 

Nuclear War is based on the card game of 

the same name, and is even more wickedly 

funny. The characters are those politicos we've 

come to know and loathe over the past couple 

of decades: Tricky Dick, Ronnie Ray gun. The 

Ayatollah Kookamamie, and others of their ilk. 

The objeci of ihe game is to survive while four 

of these nutcases hurl propaganda and flaming 

nuclear death at your country. Of course you 

get to do the same to them. And just wait until 

the first time you see a cattletech bomb cata 

pulting through the radioactive air, mooing all 

the way. It will have you rolling on the floor. 

This game is sublime silliness combined 

with fine payability. If you're a fan of ther 

monuclear annihilation (or even if you aren't) 

don't miss it. - Tom Malcom 

LASER SQUAD 

NUCLEAR WAR 

Microillusions 

17408 Chatsworth Street 

Granada Hills, CA 91344 

818-360-3715 


New World Computing 

14922 Calvert Street 

Van Nuys,CA 91411 

818-785-0519 

Benn really likes this game, but I find it 

tedious. It certainly has an appeal, par 

ticularly for people who enjoy 

boardgames. You are given control over a team 

of android troopers with the objective of either 

assaulting or defending a military installation, 

depending on which side you take. (It can be 

played against the computer or another hu 

man.) There are five scenarios included with 

the game, and more promised. 

Getting started involves equipping your 

team with armor and weapons, and placing 

them on the playfield, which uses an overhead 

perspective view and is nicely done. The 

amount of movement for each man in your 

squad depends the number of Action Points he 

has, and you can't move any one man very far. 

Any action eats up points, even turning around. 

And that doesn't even get into arming weapons 

and firing them, which eats up yet more points. 

or the endless menus to cycle through. 

Personally, I don't much care for games that 

move along at the speed of evolution, but if 

you like intricately detailed tactical games, 

you'll get plenty of kicks with this one. 

- Tom Malcom

G f~ 

iU S FOR YOUR AMIGA 

Looking For Love in Several Wrong 

Places is both the subtitle and the plot 

synopsis of this entertaining 3D adven 

ture. LSLll is the second Sierra game to chron 

icle a chapter in the (nearly non-existent) 

lovelife of Larry Laffer. one of the world's 

biggest jerks. Once again, Larry's creator Al 

Lowe inflicts incredible indignities upon Our 

Hero as he searches for Miss Perfect. Howev 

er, along the way Larry does encounter a few 

bits of good luck this time, such as winning a 

million dollars in the lottery! 

This adventure is much more complex than 

the first Larry excursion, which means it's 

much more playable, too. Of course, there's 

lots of overt sexism in LSLII, but it's the juve 

nile sexist humor that makes it so much fun to 

play. This game will make you laugh out loud. 

The music is great, and the gameplay 

unique. The whole works is even hard drive in 

stallable, and it multitasks! Unfortunately, 

LSLII does not use Sierra's new higher-res 

Amiga graphics, introduced in Space Quest 111. 

The Leisure Suit Larry series won't get them 

until LSLII1, now under development. Manual 

protected. - Mark R. Brown 

IT CAME FROM 

THE DESERT 

LEISURE SUIT LARRY II 

Cinemaware 

4165 Thousand Oaks Blvd, 

Westlake Village, CA 91361 

805-495-6515 

Sierra 

PO Box 485 

CoarsegoldCA 93614 

209-683-6858 

The movie-lovers at Cinemaware are 

firmly on track with this marvelous 

tribute to Fifties science fiction 

movies. Everything about it, from the eerie ti 

tle music to the last confrontation with the gi 

ant ants (mutated, of course, by an asteroid 

crashing to earth) is a perfect evocation of 

films like Them and The Monolith Monsters. 

The game is set in a small desert community 

where, inevitably, there are some mighty odd 

goings-on. You seem to be the only one who 

has an inkling of what is happening and you 

must convince the townsfolk that they're in 

danger. To do this, you must gather evidence 

by visiting various locations around the area. 

Like other Cinemaware movie games, this 

one is a combination of graphic adventuring 

and arcade gaming. But ICFTD integrates the 

two types of gaming better than any of Cine 

maware "s earlier titles. The sound effects and 

the music are the best, and most perfectly ap 

propriate, I've ever experienced in a game. A 

sequel scenario will be released by the time 

this hits print, and I can't wait. It Came from 

the Desert is one of Cinemaware's finest 

efforts. - Tom Mulcom 

INFO July 1990 45

First in the new Draconian series of role- 

playing games from Data East, 

Drakkhen lives up to, even exceeds, ev 

erything we've been hearing about it for the 

past several months. 

The plot is original and entertaining: After a 

vainglorious paladin slew the last living drag 

on, the last Drakkhen (the source of all magic 

in the universe), your world was plunged into 

chaos and despair. Magic no longer existed. 

Even the mightiest Arch-Wizard in the Empire 

was powerless to stop the disintegration. To 

restore magic to the realm you must reclaim 

the mystical jewels from the dragon princes. 

Piece of elf-cake, you say? Guess again. 

Gorgeous scrolling 3D scenery (reminiscent 

of a ground-level flight simulator) and an inno 

vative interface make Drakkhen unique. Ani 

mated graphics, realistic sound effects, an in 

triguing plot, fluid movement, monsters and 

magic - Drakkhen has them all. (I'm a 

pushover for glowing sunsets and luminous 

starlit nights, and Drakkhen has them, too!) 

The real-time three-dimensional adventure en 

vironment will knock your panty hose askew. 

RISK 

- Judith Kilbury-Cobb 

DRAKKHEN 

Virgin / Mastertronic 

18001 Cowen Street 

Irvine, CA 92714 

714-631-1001 


Data East 

470 Needles Drive 

San Jose, CA 95112 

408-286-7074 

My high hopes for this electronic age 

version of my favorite boardgame 

weren't exactly dashed, but they 

weren't completely fulfilled, either. The play is 

better than I had anticipated, but the graphics 

are disappointingly unenhanced ports of the 

PC version, and sound effects are nearly 

nonexistent. I was hoping for at least a little 

fanfare when I conquered the world. [NOTE: 

The Amiga-key menu options are incorrect: 

use the key by itself, without holding down the 

Amiga key.] 

Using a slickly done smooth-scrolling play- 

field, the game has all sorts of options un 

available in the boardgame, like computer op 

ponents of variable intelligence, swift battle 

resolution with several degrees of automation. 

and even a cheat mode that I refuse to use on 

general principle. (Ok, so I used it once or 

twice just to make sure it works...) 

I'll keep playing this version (a herd of wild 

rogue wildebeests couldn't stop me), but with 

out the enjoyment a more enhanced game 

would have given me. This is a good IBM ver 

sion of Risk, but the Amiga isn't an IBM! 

- Tom Malcoin

NORTH & SOUTH 

Infogrames / Data East 

470 Needles Drive 


408-286-7074 

Xt still seems very strange to me that a French company 

has written a game about the Civil War and managed to 

make it so completely American. Essentially a strategy 

game with optional detailed, animated battles, the player 

can take either side and play against a computer or human 

Reb or Yank. Historical accuracy takes second place to 

payability, but the game captures the mythic feel of The 

War very well. The period music is wonderful, and there 

are touches of whimsy that will keep you coming back to 

play it again. Very fine. - TM 

RINGS OF MEDUSA 

Star Games 

708 West Buffalo Avenue, Suite 200 

Tampa, FL 33603 

813-222-0006 

M\.ings of Medusa is an adventure/wargame that relies on 

trading and strategy rather than pillaging and hacking. The 

story makes you the scion of the kingdom's ruler; it has 

fallen to you to halt the evil goddess Medusa in her bid to 

control the world. The graphics are rich and beautifully il 

lustrate the kingdom of Morenor. Digitized music accom 

panies the action. The interface uses small icons, but their 

purposes are unclear without first studying the manual. If 

you like adventures with strong wargame overtones, you'll 

enjoy Rings of Medusa. - JKC 

FUTURE WARS it & it it 

Interplay 

1575 Corporate Drive 

Costa Mesa, CA 92626 

714-549-2411 

V uture Wars: Adventures in Time is the first release from 

Interplay using their new "Cinematique" game system. This 

time travel graphic adventure has you merrily skipping 

through the centuries in a serendipitously discovered time 

machine, thwarting evil space aliens in their plot to destroy 

mankind. The new system eliminates type-in commands by 

using friendly pop-up windows to control character move 

ment, conversation, and inventory. Graphics are super and 

the musical score is excellent. Future Wars is yet another in 

a long line of terrific adventures from Interplay. - JKC 

INFO July 1990 47

GAMES TOR YG

HAWAIIAN ODYSSEY 

SubLogic 

501 Kenyon Road 

Champaign, IL61820 

217-359-8482 

OubLogic has released a lot of scenery disks, but Hawaiian 

Odyssey is unique. Of course, it includes the standard 

scenery for the Hawaiian islands, including all the airports, 

downtown Honolulu, and Pearl Harbor. But in the caldera of 

a volcano is a "space warp" that projects you into a weird 

fantasyland occupied by objects like a giant grand piano and 

a huge kitchen! It also includes a built-in adventure that has 

you following arrows around Hawaii to locate a missing 

gem. Imaginative stuff, and a fun break from standard 

flying. Requires Flight Simulator II or Jet. - MRB 

KIKUGI 

Image Tech 

6820 Distribution Avenue 

Beltsville, MD 20705 

301-595-0950 

i only plays one game, but plays it very well. The 

ancient peg-jump game has been around about as long as 

humanity, and this computer version offers welcome relief 

from having to hunt down that last peg after you drop a 

handheld board on the floor. Play is by click-and-drag, with 

adequate sound and a nice bit of music. There are several 

very pretty boards provided (my favorite is Arcade) along 

wiLh diagonal-jump variations of some of them. If you're 

looking for something to waste plenty of mindless playtime 

with, Kikugi is a great choice. - TM 

DUNGEON QUEST 

Image Tech 

6820 Distribution Avenue 

Beltsville, MD 20705 

301-595-0950 

Oilled as a state-of-the-art "multisensory" illustrated text 

adventure, Dungeon Quest does have good audio and 

visual appeal. And after playing for a while it even begins 

to smell bad. Yep, multisensory. The script, by AX 

Magazine editor Jay Gross, is well-written, if predictable, 

and is accompanied by vivid graphics and stereo sound 

effects. Unfortunately, Dungeon Quest falls flat on its 

parser. Awkward and stiff, the parser doesn't incorporate 

many basic adventuring terms or logical phrasing. Nor 

does it leave much latitude for exploring possibilities 

raised by the illustrations. All art and no bite. - JKC 

nn.ni 

u U ■ U C 

27 

everything's been dying off. The crops, the aninals, 

and w.i us,' He indicates the castle's general 

direction with a sioa, disparaging sweep of Ms am. 

'It's hin doinff it, for sure, Had a crazy look to Mh. 

(Press any key) 

--" "•» A. J L 

INFO July 1990 49

GAlYIJilS FOR YOUR 

1E5 1DD 

ISS 

EHTERFODP 

W Royal Treasury 

5) Royal Justice 

6) Raising of the Royal flrmy 

CHPTRIN 

m 

r M 

Science Dffici ; 

hruiehtdr 

J ÊNGINEER 

CDMMUHICnTIDHb 

DOCTOR 

HTHHDIHE BV TO 

COMMENCING 5V5TEM TRHUEL 

STELLHR PHRHMETERS 

BPECTRRL CLR55: B 

ECD5PHERE: 3~5 


JOAN OF ARC 

SIEGE & THE SWORD 

Broderbund 

17 Paul Drive 

San Rafael, CA 94903 

415-492-3200 

1 his historically detailed action/drama is highly remi 

niscent of Cinemaware's Defender of the Crown. As 

France's Charles VII, you enlist the aid of young Joan of 

Arc to regain your crown. Along the way your troops en 

gage in battle, employ diplomacy, and build castles. The 

graphics are top-notch and the documentation superb. As 

with DOC, the action sequences are limited in scope. Here, 

strategy's the thing. Fans of historical warfare who shun 

traditional wargaming will be intrigued, and history teach 

ers should not miss it! Documentation protected. - MRB 

STARFLIGHT 

Electronic Arts 

1820 Gateway Drive 

San Mateo, CA 94404 

415-571-7171 

Start with the search-the-galaxy theme of historic Star 

Trek games, add some of the trading and exploration 

elements of M.U.L.E., spice up the works with a snazzy 

storyline and some twists of its own, and you've got 

StarFlight. Though the blocky graphics badly betray this 

game's 8-bit origins, StarFlight is a highly playable game 

with lots of play detail. You'll encounter four alien races, 

find lots of stars and planets to explore, engage in 

interstellar trading, try your hand at spaceship building, 

train crewmembers. and blast aliens. A highly enjoyable 

game. Code wheel protected. - MRB 

TABLE TENNIS 

SIMULATION 

Star Games 

708 West Buffalo Avenue, Suite 200 

Tampa, FL 33603 

813-222-0006 

D,'rat! I play pingpong just as badly on the computer as I 

do in real life. At least there's no crowd around to laugh at. 

me. Table Tennis Simulation is just that, and it lets you play 

against the computer or another human, singles or doubles. 

There's a practice mode as well as full tournament play 

options. The feel is realistic, even allowing you to put 

english on your shots and choose how you like to hold your 

paddle. The documentation is a little too thin, but the game 

plays quite well, even if I don't. - TM

BATTLE SQUADRON 

Innerprise 

128 Cockeysville Road 

Hunt Valley, MD 21030 

301-785-2266 

-kikik-k-i- 

J-Jesigned by the same people who gave us Hybris. Battle 

Squadron offers much the same type of screaming arcade 

action. The graphics are among the best ever in an arcade 

game, with four levels (you start out on an alien world's 

surface and then enter three more subterranean levels) of 

minutely detailed and animated backgrounds filled with no 

end of hostile entities. It even has a cooperative two-player 

mode. There's nothing new in Buttle Squadron, but its 

expert execution and addictive playability will keep it near 

the top of my stack for quite a while to come. - TM 

DRAGONS OF FLAME 

SSI / EA 



415-571-7171 

Dragons of Flame is the latest installment in the 

Dragonlance saga. In their ongoing effort to vanquish 

Takhisis, the Companions of the Lance must sneak into a 

draconian fortress to recover a magical sword. Like Heroes 

of the Lance, Dragons is an action-oriented adventure. The 

updated game system uses a Times of Lore-like overhead 

view for exploring the terrain but switches to a 2D side 

view when in combat mode. Count on spending lots of 

time in the 2D perspective. Graphics and sound are up to 

SSI's consistently high standards. Dragons promises lots of 

joystick-jerking adventure. - JKC 

THE CYCLES 

Accolade 

550 South Winchester Blvd, 


408-985-1700 

M/ither I'm getting better at Accolade's racing games or 

the steering on The Cycles is a little less touchy than in 

some of their previous titles. At any rate, this motorcycle 

racing game has a good feel to it and enough detail (I 

especially like the rearview window) and player 

conveniences to keep you coming back for another lap. 

There are three bikes to choose from and 15 tracks in 

various locations around the world. You can either practice 

solo or engage in some fierce competition as you race 

around the circuit. Solid racing fare. - TM 

::"•■■■:. 

FINISH 

'^Mik^' '"ft 

:SI : ei 

,82m34.7s 

B2n34.7s 

■,-^.^ 

INFO July 1990 51

After immensely enjoying the Bard's 

Tale series and Battle Chess. I've 

come to expect a lot from Interplay. 

And I wasn't disappointed with their most re 

cent release. Dragon Wars. Set on a humid, 

water-covered world called Oceana, Dragon 

Wars has you. as part of a party of four, en 

deavoring to survive in a slum called Purgato 

ry. Your ultimate goals are to escape Purgatory 

and exterminate Namtar. the Beast from the Pit. 

thus restoring magic and goodness to Dilmun. 

Dragon Wars features detailed, animated 

graphics and an engaging plot incorporated in 

to an intuitive gameplay system. The C64 ver 

sion uses a keyboard interface for movement, 

combat, and spellcasting. Background infor 

mation is provided via numbered paragraphs 

listed in the manual, a technique introduced in 

Wasteland. Dragon Wars also features auto- 

mapping, a welcome relief for graph-paper 

weary adventurers. My only complaint is with 

the animation; it flickers and you can't turn it 

off for fastei play, You can turn off the combat 

graphics totally, however. Characters can be 

imported from the Bard's Tale series. 

File Pieces 

COUNTS- Sea 

EMPIRE 

- Judith Kilbury-Cobb 

GAMES FOR YOUR C64 

u5hels runs auay ! 

DRAGON WARS 

[Growth! Other 

Grow Land Mass Cities:39 

tow bed nass 

Blotch Land 

Blotch Sea 

Sprinkle Cities 

Build A World 

40 HI H4 H* HB £□ 

Interstel / EA 


San Mateo,CA 94404 

415-571-7171 


Interplay Productions 

1575 Corporate Drive 

Costa Mesa, CA 92626 

714-549-2411 

Historically. Empire is one of the more 

important milestones in gaming de 

velopment as well as one of the most 

popular wargames ever devised. It was origi 

nally written in FORTAN by Walter Bright 

while he was a student ai CalTech in 1979 and 

there are versions of Empire that will run on 

virtually any computer you can name. 

Empire is sort of like Risk on growth hor 

mones. It is highly detailed, letting the player 

control everything from the production and 

creation of cities to bombarding those of your 

enemies. 1 especially like the fact that the play 

map is only revealed as you explore. You can 

use the provided maps or design your own. 

The complexity of the game requires consid 

erable study of the indexed (!) 64-page manu 

al, which is one of the best I've seen. 

Despite the high rating (most of which is 

due to the game's significance and absorbing 

payability), I do wish the graphics were clear 

er. I've had a little trouble distinguishing be 

tween some of the symbols now and then. 

Empire is showing some age. but it's still a 

must-have for wargamers everywhere. 

- Tom Malcom

Though it doesn't come close to the lev 

el of graphic or gameplay finesse 

found in Dungeon Master, Deat/i- 

bringer is still an exciting one-character role- 

player. You are a nameless barbarian warrior 

who has answered the king of Mezron's call 

for champions. Your task: to gather the five 

power gems which are the key to the salvation 

of his embattled kingdom. 

Mezron is a vast and colorful fantasy world. 

populated by lots of" good guys who will aid 

you with helpful clues and bad guys who just 

want your gold. Distinguishing between the 

two is part of the challenge. This game strikes 

a nice balance between interaction and combat, 

something not often seen in this 'if it moves, 

kill it' genre. Graphics are appropriately 

moody, lone-setting, and detailed. Sound effec 

ts are basic tonal clanks and whooshes. 

Deathbringer uses a point-and-elick inter 

face which loses something in the translation 

to the 64. It's difficult to move the pointer 

from one side of the screen to the other and 

position it accurately (with keyboard or joy 

stick) before the creature you're battling skew 

ers you. - Judith Kilbury-Cobb 


DEATHBRINGER 

m. [in. (ffliu 

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BEYOND DARK CASTLE 

Activision 

3885 Bohannon Drive 

Menlo Park, CA 94025 

415-329-0800 

Spotlight / Cinemaware 

4165 Thousand Oaks Blvd. 

Westlake Village, CA 91361 

805-495-6515 

Prince Duncan has returned to finish off 

his arch-enemy, the Black Knight, and 

a host of other nasties in Beyond Dark 

Castle, Beyond Dark Castle successfully com 

bines arcade action with adventure-style 

scenery and a slapstick sense of humor. (I gig 

gle every time Prince Duncan picks himself up 

and shakes his head after a nasty fall.) This se 

quel also succeeds in being more playable than 

the original. You can barely tell that it was 

originally developed on the Mac, which is 

pretty high praise when so many ported games 

suffer so badly from conversion-itis. Unfortu 

nately, the C64 version lacks the practice and 

demo modes that the Amiga version sports. 

Graphics are crisp with devilishly evil- 

looking animated monsters. With a little joy 

stick/keyboard practice Prince Duncan runs, 

jumps, and climbs smoothly through the four 

teen mazes/rooms of the Dark Castle, which is 

filled to its turret tops with all sorts of imagi 

native traps to negotiate and monsters to avoid. 

To knock off the Black Knight (your ultimate 

goal) you must gel through all the mazes in 

one piece. If you liked Dark Castle you'll love 

Beyond Dark Castle. - Judith Kilbury-Cobb 

INFO July 1990 53

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BLUE ANGELS 

Accolade 

550 South Winchester Blvd. 


408-985-1700 

1 low I know why so many Blue Angels pilots are killed; 

precision flying has to be the most difficult job on (or 

above) earth, and this simulation gives a very scary idea of 

what it's like to fly wingtip to wingtip at the speed of 

sound. There are plenty of practice options and you can 

plan on using them a lot. I wish the out-the-window display 

were a little more detailed, but I suppose that at these 

speeds, it's enough to know which way the ground is. If 

you like unusual Hying experiences, try Blue Angels. 

DOUBLE DRAGON II 

Virgin / Mastertronic 

18001 CowenSreet 


714-631-1001 

-TM 

X awn. Another ninja game. Kick and gouge, pummel and 

pound. Yech. I suppose that as long as there are sub-teen 

kids around, and publishers who want to make a buck from 

them, we'll see violence and mayhem. This coin-op trans 

lation is no better than a dozen others of similar theme, and 

it's also no more original or fun to play. I'm also more than 

usually offended by the gratuitous bloodthirstiness of the 

manual's introduction; stuff like this has no place in games 

aimed at kids, and that's the main reason for the two-star 

rating. - TM 

THUD RIDGE 

Three Sixty 

2105 S. Bascom Avenue, Suite 290 

Campbell, CA 95008 

408-879-9144 

v^ne thing that spoils a game for me is having to sit 

through lengthy reloading sequences. THUD Ridge is one 

of the worst offenders. Getting killed off is easy enough 

that you should be abie to go right back into the game 

without having to reload the title screen and start com 

pletely over. The scenario has you as a hotshot pilot in 

Vietnam, flying virtually suicidal missions into North Viet 

nam. The graphics are sub-par, though the sound isn't bad. 

But if I want to do some flying. I'll find something else 

that doesn't make me wait so much. - TM

CHAMPIONS OF KRYNN PREVIEW 

SSI / EA 


San MatecCA 94404 

415-571-7171 

V^hampions ofKiynn will be the next release for the C64 

in the Dragonlance series of AD&D epic role-playing 

games from SSI. In this chapter Takhisis, Queen of 

Darkness, has unleashed her hordes of evil draconians 

against the unprepared good citizenry. You must assemble 

a party of intrepid adventures to defeat her. Similar in style 

to Curse of the Azure Bonds, Champions will still be combat 

rather than puzzle oriented. A new character race and the 

ability of clerics to choose their deity are some of the nifty 

new features promised in Champions ofKrynn. - JKC 

JOHN MADDEN FOOTBALL 

Electronic Arts 



415-571-7171 

John Madden knows football, and he's done a fine job of 

injecting his football knowledge into this game. The 

playbooks are excellent, and the docs are infused with 

helpful and entertaining Maddenisms. Menus let you 

control everything from substitutions to injuries to weather. 

Unfortunately, though this is a highly accurate football 

simulation, it is not much fun. The graphics are blocky, 

jerky, and inadequate, and every action requires a disk 

access. While Madden Football may appeal to football fans 

interested in accurate detail, there's not enough action here 

for die-hard gameplayers. Code wheel protected. - MRB 

MEAN STREETS 

Access Software 

545 West 550 South, Suite #130 

Bountiful, UT 84010 

801-298-9077 

WL ean Streets is an ambitious, four-sided interactive 

movie that's more than worth any time you care to spend 

on it. Combining elements of flight simulation, arcade 

gunfighting, and graphic adventuring, it casts you in the 

role of a private investigator in the year 2033 with an 

assignment involving the requisite murdered professor and 

his beautiful daughter. While the plot may be ho-hum, the 

implementation is excellent. The only thing I don't like is 

that you have to reboot if you're nabbed by the cops or get 

killed off. Mean Streets is very involving and exceptionally 

well done. - TM 

FOR YO-UH (A 

INFO July 1990 55


ARTURA 

Arcadia / Mastertronic 

18001 Cowan 


714-833-8710 

/\nother variation on the hackneyed Arthurian theme. 

Artura is a ho-hum side-scrolling action adventure that 

offers little of either. The point is to rescue Nimue, 

Merdyn's apprentice, from Artura's evil sister, Morgause. 

(Yawn!) The background graphics and sound aren't too 

bad. but the animation and movement of Artura and his 

adversaries is jerky and stilted. Also included is a big 

fold-out map of Morgause's stronghold to aid you in your 

quest. I had more fun trying to fold up the map than 

playing this game. - JKC 

TOM & JERRY iklklk 

Magic Bytes / Innerprise 

128 Cockeysville Road 


301-785-2266 

v_/ nly marginally more playable than the Amiga version, 

the C64 Tom & Jerry still suffers from the same problems. 

Movement is like trying to swim through Jello; it can be 

done but it's more hard work than fun. This 

unimaginatively conceived arcade game has you as Jerry, 

bouncing and running from platform to platform picking 

up pieces of cheese while trying to avoid Tom. The 

graphics and sound are well done and faithful to the style 

of the cartoons, but they can't make up for the frustration 

of trying to get around. - TM 

RICK DANGEROUS 

Medalist / Microprose 

180 Lakefront Drive 


301-771-1151 

W hile this is just the kind of arcade adventure I like, 

Rick bears a dangerously close resemblance to Indy. Other 

than that small lack of originality, the game plays very well 

and has the potential for eating up a lot of hours. It's of the 

"tunnels, ladders, and drop-offs" school of arcading, 

populated with a variety of hostile primitives and creatures. 

1 like the fact that the screens are mostly puzzle-oriented 

instead of requiring combat. The graphics are on the cute 

side, and the music is considerably better than average. 

Very playable. - TM

GAME TIPS 

Here are some secret "side doors" and "back doors' 

AMIGA 

to your favorite C64 and Amiga games, 

discovered by INFO readers! 

Starfllght: While in the space 

station, go to the trade depot 

and buy "(space)1000" units of 

Endurium (fuel). Then sell it all 

back. You will have 20000 more 

mu's. If you sell back only 990, 

you will gain 2714400 mu's. 

- Michael Vaerten 

Hybris: This is a correction to 

the tip in the Jan/Feb '89 issue. 

When you first start the game, 

wait until you reach the high 

scores screen. Then type the 

word commander and hit the joy 

stick button. When you start the 

game, pressing "F10" will put 

you in invincible mode. Then, by 

pressing "F7", you activate keys 

F1 through F6; each one will 

give ou a level of expansion, 

from totally unexpanded to the fi 

nal "super ship". You also get 

unlimited smart bombs and en 

ergy capsules. 

- Kenneth Russell 

Archipelagos: Enter 8421 after 

completing the third level. After 

that, you can go to any level you 

want. - Terry Boyle 

Elite: When the title screen with 

the rotating ships appears, press 

"A". This will stop the ship from 

moving. To move or rotate the 

ship, press any of the arrow 

keys, and to get more rotations, 

hold down the "A" key while 

COMING SOON 

Here are the latest and greatest Amiga and C64 games 

announced by your favorite game companies. Titles 

marked with an asterisk (*) have been received in our 

offices by presstime. 

AMIGA 

Accolade: The Cycles', The 

Muscle Cars', The Third 

Courier', Day of the Viper, Bar 

Games, Hard Ball II 

Actionware: Sideshow", 

Creature 

Bethesda: Vortex* (Visionary 

Design), Damocles (Novagen) 

Britannica: Eye of Horus" 

Broderbund: Joan of Arc', If It 

Moves Shoot It! 

Cinemaware: It Came from the 

Desert', Wings, TV Sports 

Baseball, TV Sports Basketbair 

Data East: Drakkhen', Chamber 

of the Sci-Mutant Princess" 

EA: F/16 Fighter Pilot', Pro 

Tennis Tour" (UbiSoft), Unreal 

(UbiSoft), Iron Lord (UbiSoft), 

Populous: The Promised Lands', 

Starflight', 688 Attack Sub*, 

D.R.A.G.O.N. Force' (Interstel), 

Loom (Lucasfilrn), Maniac 

Mansion (Lucasfilm), Pipe 

Dream (Lucasfilm), Their Finest 

Hour: The Battle of Britain 

(Lucasfilm) 

Euroline: Hotel Detective/Space 

Knight' 

Free Spirit: Bride of the Robot' 

Image Tech: Kikugi', Dungeon 

Quest' 

Innerprise: NightDawn', Persian 

Gulf Inferno', Lost Dutchman 

Mine", U.S.S. John Young 

Koel: Nobunaga's Ambition, 

Genghis Khan, Bandit Kings of 

Ancient China 

Mediagenic Activision Tongue 

of the Fatman, Die Hard, 

Circuit's Edge (Infocom) 

Microlllusions: Laser Squad' 

Mlcrosearch: Professional 

Football Simulation' 

Miles Computing/EA: 

Aquanaut', Moving Pictures, The 

Fool's Errand 

Mindscape: Afterburner' (Sega), 

COMING SOON 

pressing an arrow key. Press "O" 

or "I" to move the ship toward or 

away from you. Press "D" when 

you're finished. Pressing "W 

while flying will tell you your 

score and the authors of the pro 

gram. - Terry Russell 

C64 

Neuromancer: To get Comlink 

3.0, access the Panther Mod 

erns (CHAOS) and use the 

password MAINLINE; to get 

Comlink 4.0, access Software 

Enforcement (SOFTEN) with 

PERMAFROST; 5.0 in EAST- 

SEABOD with LONGISLAND; 

and 6.0 in YAKUZA with the 

password YAK. When asked to 

enter the corresponding codes 

for the ROM constructs, 

6905984 is for TOSHIRO, and 

5521426 is for ROMBO. If you 

want the Police (KEISATSU) to 

arrest Larry, use the password 

Star Trek V 

New World Computing: 

Nuclear War', Might & Magic II: 

Gates to Another World 

Omnitrend: Breach 2' 

Psygnosls: Never Mind' 

(Psyclapse) 

Sierra: Leisure Suit Larry II', 

Code Name: Ice Man, 

Conquests of Camelot, 

Sorcerian, The Colonel's 

Bequest 

Spectrum Holobyte: Welltris, 

Stunt Driver, Vette 

Star Games: Clown-O-Mania", 

Table Tennis Simulation', Rings 

of Medusa' 

SSI: AD&D Dragons of Flame', 

AD&D Dungeon Master's Asst. 

II' 

Taito: New Zealand Story, 

Chase HO., Ninja Warriors, 

Operation Thunderbolt, Puzznic, 

Where Time Stood Still 

Virgin/Mastertronic: Magic 

Johnson's Basketball', Artura', 

Rick Davis' World Trophy 

Soccer' {Melbourne House), 

Clue (Leisure Genius), Risk' 

(Leisure Genius), Double 

Dragon II', NY Warriors', Greg 

Norman's Shark Attack, Spot, 

Spirit of Excalibur 

SUPERTAO and modify the 

criminal's ID with Larry's 

062788138. The accounts for 

the Bank of Zurich and Bank of 

Gemein are 712345450134 and 

646328356481. - Ricky Yu 

Kings of the Beach: At the reg 

istration tent, instead of entering 

the usual passwords, try these: 

CHEAT ON (when playing Match 

or Tournament, you can press 

the "C" key and add one point to 

your score; CHEAT OFF turns it 

off), LOGIC ON (makes Sinjin & 

Randy play automatically against 

any opponent and win; LOGIC 

OFF turns it off), EAT ME (oper 

ates just as in Alice in Wonder 

land, the sprites are enlarged 

more than twice their usual size; 

DRINK ME turns it off). 

- Ricky & Lucky Yu 

Share your "secret tricks" 

with INFO readers! Send to: 

INFO Mania, PO Box 2300, 

Iowa City IA 52244. 

C64 

Access: Mean Streets' 

Accolade: Blue Angels' 

Cinemaware: Death Bringer', 

TV Sports Football 

EA: John Madden Football', 

Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic' 

Interplay: Dragon Wars' 

Intracorp: Miami Vice, 

Superman' 

Mediagenic/Activision: Face 

Off(Gamestar), Power Drift 

(Sega) 

Microplay: Rick Dangerous' 

Mindscape: Xevious 

(re-release), Zaxxon (re-release) 

New World: King's Bounty 

Psygnosis: Bailistix' 

SportTime: OmniPlay Horse 

Racing* 

SSI: AD&D Champions of Krynn' 

Taito: New Zealand Story, 

Chase H.Q., Ninja Warriors, 

Operation Thunderbolt, Puzznic 

Virgin/Mastertronic: Double 

Dragon II', Artura', Magic 

Johnson's Basketball', Butcher 

Hill, Time to Die, Xenon, 

Obliterator, Orel Hershiser's 

Strike Zone, Shark Attack, Clue 

INFO July 1990 57

Ohow Xveports 

Tasteless In Vegas 

by Tom Malcom 

There is an unwritten rule that 

requires anyone entering Las 

Vegas to leave behind any sem 

blance of good taste upon crossing the 

city limit. Excess is the only law. and if 

it is possible to carry something to an 

extreme, then it must be done. The 

effect is saturating, overwhelming, and 

fun. Where better to display electronic 

flash and glitz than in the city that 

adores it most? 

If it hadn't been for late planes and 

the long line waiting to check into the 

Imperial Palace, Benn and I would have 

been on the Strip two hours sooner. 

Emerging from the hotel, we were con 

fronted with the Mirage, the latest in 

Vegas1 one-ups-manship sweepstakes. 

This new palace of Mammon cost in 

excess of S650 million and is the most 

lavishly ostentatious thing I've ever 

seen. Outside, it rises in gold-mirrored 

splendor above the Strip, shoved close 

up against the now-dwarfed Caesar's 

Palace. There is a forest of palm trees 

framing a small lagoon formed by the 

water coming from small man-made 

mountain. Every fifteen minutes, steam 

begins billowing from jets artfully hid 

den among the palms and rocks, and 

then flames spring from the very water, 

leaping to heights of twenty feet or 

more. It's more than impressive. Inside, 

there is a large, glassed-in habitat, ele 

gantly housing a pair of white tigers 

from Siegfried and Roy's collection. 

And just to top everything off, there's a 

domed tropical rain forest in the middle 

of the casino. The whole place is 

designed to wow the tourists and it does. 

On With The Show 

Winter CES seemed even less well- 

populated than the show last summer in 

Chicago. The electronic feeding frenzy 

of previous years has settled down to 

casual snacking. Among the publishers 

there's a growing confidence in the 

Amiga market, fueled mostly by slow, 

steady growth and the strength of Euro 

pean sales. Those companies that aren't 

selling their wares in Europe yet are 

looking hard at the idea. There is, how 

ever, a contrapuntal downturn in C64 

development and sales. The general 

consensus seems to be that there won't 

be many new titles after Christmas 

1990. 

Arriving at the Convention Center 

after the usual interminable taxi-hunt 

(why doesn't Las Vegas install a mono 

rail system or other such people- 

mover?) and late for my first appoint 

ment, I ran into Jim Steinert and David 

Boyles of Microlllusions. Contrary to 

the rumors we'd heard before the show. 

Microlllusions is still in business and 

shipping a flood of new products. There 

are four new titles in their video series 

and Jonny Quest will be out for the 

Amiga by the time you read this. It 

seems that Microlllusions moved their 


^1 I 1 

The new 

Mirage 

hotel in 

Las Vegas. 

offices and through the magic of the 

phone weasels, their telecommunica 

tions were down for three days, raising 

all sorts of unfounded reports of their 

demise. 

Origin had an RV parked outside 

West Hall (it seems that the Nintendoids 

bought up so much space that several 

companies were forced into the portable 

rooms outside the hall) where they were 

showing the soon-to-ship Amiga ver 

sion of Ultima V. Also outside was 

Mindscape, where Lisa Petrison told me 

that their Harley racing game for the 

Amiga, The Road to Sturgis, is nearly 

complete. In a surprising development, 

Mindscape has been bought by Software 

Toolworks and it appears that the com 

pany will be moved from Chicago to 

California. 

On The Inside 

Inside the hall, Nintendo over 

whelmed everything else, occupying 

about half the available space. It's a rea 

sonable guess that it's the biggest show 

booth in existence. Benn and I met with 

Bill Swartz of Koci, who told us that 

Genghis Khan, the next in their series 

of exquisitely detailed and very 

playable historical wargames, is nearly

eady. It is more Amiga-li/.ed than 

Romance of the Three Kingdoms. 

with better graphics and mouse support. 

Data East is starting a new series of 

fantasy roleplaying games, the first of 

which will be Drakkhen for Amiga and 

C64. It supports four characters who 

can be controlled individually or as a 

group, and features time-lines for the 

characters. 

Sierra had a suite at the Aladdin 

where they were showing their next two 

graphic adventures for the Amiga. 

Codename: Iceman is a James Bond- 

ian spy thriller featuring some excep 

tionally Fine underwater sequences. 

Conquests of Camelot casts the player 

in the role of King Arthur, who goes 

questing for the grail. And yes. Leisure 

Suit Larry III is in the works. 

Accolade had a couple of very inter 

esting new titles running in their booth. 

Charlotte Taylor-Skeel showed us 

Strike Aces, which is derived from a 

real-life 1984 NATO/Warsaw Pact jet 

fighter competition held in the Dakotas. 

You fly head-to-head in any of 13 air 

craft, including a Russian MiG-27. The 

simulator uses fast-moving 3D polygon 

graphics, an optional outside view, and 

even lets you buzz Mount Rushmore. It 

will be available on both Amiga and 

C64. Among other Amiga titles coining 

from Accolade are Hardball II and 

Gunboat: River Combat Simulation. 

set during the Vietnam War. For both 

C64 and Amiga, expect Blue Angels 

and European Challenge, an add-on 

disk for The Duel. 

On the show floor. Electronic Arts 

had a relatively large booth sel up (the 

gargantuan Nintendo edifice made 

everything else look tiny in comparison) 

where their affiliated labels were show 

ing new products. Cinemaware has two 

new games of special note. TV Sports 

Basketball for the Amiga is very close 

to shipping and features full five-on- 

Five action (the C64 version of TV 

>how Reports 

Sports Football is also about done). 

Wings, also for Amiga, is a new inter 

active movie set during World War I 

that has you flying missions against the 

Hun. It looks very flyable. Although it's 

been shipping since December, I hadn't 

yet seen New Worlds Nuclear War, 

which is loosely based on the popular 

card game. It is a lunatic game that has 

you waging war against the likes of 

Ronnie Raygun and Colonel Khadaffy. 

Chris Quemard of new French affiliate 

UbiSoft showed me new Amiga titles 

Pro Tennis Tour and Iron Lord, a 

medieval quest adventure with arcade 

interludes. Tony Garcia, formerly of 

Epy.x and now with Lucasfilm, told me 

that Loom and Their Finest Hour: The 

Battle of Britain are almost complete 

for the Amiga. Since he's an Amiga afi 

cionado himself. I'm delighted that 

Tony has joined Lucasfilm; his input 

will certainly improve the quality of 

their heretofore mediocre Amiga prod 

ucts. Miles Computing is working on an 

Amiga edition of The Fool's Errand, a 

very pretty puzzle game with an astro 

logical adventuring theme. The big 

news, though, is that Sega has an Amiga 

version of Altered Beast, the arcade 

adventure that ships with the 16-bit 

Genesis machine. It looks to be identi- 

Throngs of 

dweebs block 

our view of 

the 

Commodore 

booth. 

cal to the cartridge game. Linda Blan- 

chard of SSI was showing Champions 

of Krynn on the C64, their latest 

AD&D title set in the Dragonlance 

world. An Amiga version is planned. 

More Games 

Of the new Amiga titles Taito was 

showing. New Zealand Story is the 

best of the lot. It's a cute arcade (what 

else from Taito?) game with artwork 

vaguely reminiscent of Bubble Bobble. 

They also have several more arcade 

titles on the way, like Chase H.Q. and 

Ninja Warriors. They are also investi 

gating the status of Arkanoid II: 

Revenge of Doh, which has been in 

limbo since Discovery Software quit the 

Amiga market. We'll let you know as 

soon as we find out. 

Benn and I spent far too much time 

with Virgin I Mastertronics' Annette 

Childs. They're working on Spot for the 

Amiga, a strategy board-type game that 

uses the animated 7-Up Spot character. 

It's a variation on Othello that promises 

to be a highly addictive time-killer. The 

animated Spots are funny and very clev 

erly done. In fact. Spot was the standout 

game from the whole show. 

INFO July 1990 59

Dragon's 

Lair: Escape 

From Singe's 

Castle, 

coming from 

Bethesda. 

Again thanks to space-gobbling Nin 

tendo, Mediagenic was forced into a 

rather small booth at the Riviera. Activi- 

sion has three new titles coming for the 

C64 (with Amiga versions to follow), 

Ghostbusters II. Grave Yardage (a 

deliciously sick football parody that 

gives a whole new meaning to the term 

'diehard football fan"), and Power 

Drift. Infocom was showing a new 

graphic (!) adventure called Circuit's 

Edge, set in a cyberpunk future. It was 

showing, as were most games at CES. 

on the IBM, but C64 and Amiga ver 

sions are planned. Interplay is nearing 

completion of The Lord of the Rings, 

the third computer game version I've 

seen, and it looks like its going to be 

more faithful to Tolkien's classic story 

and considerably better than its prede 

cessors. It's coming first on the C64. 

While still at the Riviera, I stopped by 

fntracorp's booth where Angie Niehoff 

showed me a couple of their new C64 

titles. One is a graphic adventure that 

has you as a burglar trying to get past 

the security systems of several build 

ings. They have also acquired the 

license for a game version of Bill & 

Ted's Excellent Adventure. Like, 

gnarly, dude. {Even writing that makes 

my adenoids ache.) 

Ohow RXXeports 

... continued 

Benn and I spoke briefly with Chris 

Mate of Bethesda Software, who gave 

us a two-disk demo of Dragon's Lair: 

Escape From Singe's Castle for the 

Amiga. It's supposed to be much more 

playable than the original. They will 

also be releasing Amiga versions of 

Novagen's Damocles, which is the 

arcade adventure sequel to Mercenary. 

And More Games 

The ever-harried Jonathan Ellis 

handed off a new Psygnosis demo disk 

and a videotape as he ran past. The tape 

contained brief scenes from what could 

very well become the best arcade game 

ever done. A.W.E.S.O.M.E. certainly 

is. The tumbling asteroids from the intro 

to Blood Money have been made part 

of this game, and from there it gets even 

better. No release date has been set yet. 

The demo disk has segments of Stryx, 

which has something of the flavor of 

Obliterator. but with very small ani 

mated characters. Though they are tiny, 

the animations are of excellent quality 

and have considerable personality. 

Psygnosis has an ever-lengthening list 

of upcoming titles; there just isn't 

another company publishing better 

games and their consistent excellence 


does the whole Amiga community 

good. 

Sunday evening found Benn and I at 

the posh Alexis Park, where we saw 

Titus, Spectrum Hoiobyte, and Live Stu 

dios. Titus has a couple of new Amiga 

games that are quite a departure from 

their trademark racing games. Knight 

Force is an intriguing graphic time- 

travel arcade adventure with beautifully 

drawn scenarios from seven different 

periods. Dark Sentry is a futuristic pro 

grammable tank game with a raytraced 

look to it. Spectrum Hoiobyte is doing 

some amazing things with their flight 

algorithms. They are putting the finish 

ing touches on a new CompuServe sys 

tem that will permit multiple users of 

their software, including Jet, to fly 

simultaneously. This sounds like the 

closest thing to cyberspace yet. They 

were also showing Stunt Driver for the 

Amiga, which achieves in software the 

look and speed of coin-op games like 

S.T.U.N. Runner which use the new TI 

graphics chip. It's hot stuff and, unfortu 

nately, still a year away from an Amiga 

version. The sequel to Tetris, Welltris, 

was running on an IBM. with an Amiga 

version planned. It's an interesting vari 

ation that has the familiar shapes sliding 

down the sides of a shaft. We didn't see 

Vette, but were told it the Amiga ver 

sion is scheduled for midsummer 

release. Live Studios is manned by 

some old Cinemaware friends, Dick 

Mentzinger and Curt Toumanian, who 

was art director for Defender of the 

Crown. They're working on a five- 

game collection of arcade-type games 

for the Amiga called the Future Clas 

sics Collection. 

1 went shopping today, and I still 

can't decide between the red sequined 

jumpsuit and the white satin Elvis outfit 

with all the rhinestones. Maybe I ought 

to wait a couple of weeks until Vegas 

wears off.

Amiga Headed for 

Musical Nirvana 

by Jamie Krutz 

The good news from last Jan 

uary's National Association of 

Music Merchants trade show is 

that Commodore now has people who 

know what professional musicians need, 

who are looking at MIDI on the Amiga 

as an important element of a multi 

media, multitasking system, and who 

are ready to provide direction and sup 

port to the Amiga MIDI developer com 

munity. Finally! 

Darius Taghavy is the new Com 

modore Applications and Technical 

Support (CATS) MIDI and audio spe 

cialist. He said they are working on the 

Commodore Amiga MIDI Driver 

(CAMD), a MIDI library which will 

allow easier MIDI software develop 

ment and let multiple MIDI programs 

work together on the Amiga. Com 

modore is also evaluating similar sys 

tems from third party developers. 

"Multitasking is one thing, but shar 

ing a realtime data stream of 31,250 bits 

per second is another story," he said. 

Planned is a Master Clock Server that 

will give all programs the same timing 

source: the internal clock, MIDI time 

code, or SMPTE time code. Support for 

different SMPTE interfaces will be han 

dled through Preferences, much like 

support for different printers is now. 

SMPTE time code, which is important 

for everything from professional televi 

'how Reports 

sion production to home MIDI studio 

use, will keep the Amiga exactly in step 

with audio and video tape recorders. 

Commodore is also designing a Pref 

erences system for supporting multiple 

serial port cards, allowing merging of 

MIDI input and 16 more MIDI output 

channels for each additional serial port 

you add. "This is very important 

because 16 MIDI channels are just nol 

enough for professional usage," said 

Taghavy. 

CAMD will let you run the output of 

one MIDI program into the input of 

another, and send the output of MIDI 

programs to whatever combination of 

serial ports you want. Eventually. 

Taghavy hopes to see animation pro 

grams synchronizing with MIDI 

sequencers, and synchronizing every 

thing with a video tape recorder, all at 

the same time on the same machine. 

"There's also going to be a recom 

mended standard set of ARexx com 

mands that MIDI programs are sup 

posed to support. You could essentially 

write a macro for one sequencer that 

would also work with another 

sequencer." said Taghavy. He stressed 

that ARexx is good for interactions 

between programs that don't have to be 

in real time, and CAMD will handle the 

real time interactions. He said CAMD. 

or a third party equivalent, will be out 

this year. 

Commodore's booth featured demon 

strations of Micro!Hustons' Music X, 

OxxVs Aegis Audiomaster II. Dr. T's 

Tiger Cub and KCS. Blue Ribbon Bak 

ery's Bars and Pipes, Electronic Art's 

old and moldy Deluxe Music Con 

struction Set (can we get an update one 

of these years, puhleaze!), and EA's 

new Deluxe Video III. Music X fea 

tured a new controller mapper module. 

In the Passport booth, among demos 

of Mac, ST and IBM software. Passport 

showed a shipping, but buggy. Amiga 

version of their Master Tracks Pro 

sequencing software. They've indicated 

thai they might consider porting more 

of their MIDI software to the Amiga if 

the sequencer sells well. When they get 

a more solid implementation of Master 

Tracks Pro on the Amiga it will be a 

significant entry into the Amiga MIDI 

market. 

Dr. T's showed their extensive list of 

MIDI products for the Amiga, including 

KCS, Level II (KCS with some algo 

rithmic composing tools), AutoMix and 

Multi Program Environment (comes 

with KCS and Level II). Copyist DTP. 

Copyist Apprentice, and various 

Caged Artist patch editor/librarians. 

Dr. T's is now distributing Laurie 

Spcigel's Music Mouse (ported from 

the Mac by David Silver), a colorful 

compositional program with mouse 

driven performance features. Coming 

from Dr. T's will be the Phantom, a 

combination MIDI/SMPTE interface; 

X-oR, a generic patch editor/librarian; 

Tiger, a graphic editor; and Tiger Cub, 

which will include 12 track sequencing, 

graphic editing and a separate program 

to print, but not edit, traditional nota 

tion, all for a list price of just under a 

hundred bucks. Unlike their new Mac 

sequencer, Dr. T's Atari and Amiga 

products are copy protected. Other 

sequencers on the Amiga are not copy 

protected (and if you are stealing soft 

ware in the face of that trust, check your 

karma, dude). 

One developer who did not want to be 

identified said the window for the 

Amiga in the music market has passed. 

He said musicians are turning to other 

computers. Many developers on other 

machines said the MIDI software mar 

ket was soft last year. On the other 

hand. Al Hospers, President of Dr. T's. 

said that their total sales were up fast 

year, and their Amiga music software is 

outselling their other software by a 3 to 

1 margin. 

INFO July 1990 61

y Oran Sands III 

The National Association of 

Broadcasters Annual Exhibition 

is the world's single largest 

gathering of television and radio profes 

sionals and manufacturers. It's rumored 

that the only way to get a booth at the 

NAB show is to be the beneficiary of 

someone's will. Despite that hurdle, 

several Amiga developers and even 

Commodore itself managed to exhibit 

their wares at the show. 

The most impressive Amiga product 

at the show was NewTek's Video 

Toaster, which made its first public 

debut. After having been almost written 

off by some as the definition of "vapor 

ware," the Video Toaster was being put 

through its paces by the Newtek staff in 

their own booth, while another unit was 

being demoed in the Commodore booth. 

Two live camera images of the demon 

strator were split, stretched, mixed and 

flipped to the great delight of the crowd. 

The power of the combined DVE 

unit/video mixer was certainly daunting. 

NewTek puts 

the Video 

Toaster 

through its 

paces. 

►how RJTVeports 

... continued 

especially considering that it is expected 

to cost only $1595.00. 

NewTek won't start manufacturing 

the Toaster until it completes its FCC 

certification procedure, expected to take 

about 60 days. It'd be safe to say to 

expect it about early fall (so sue me for 

being cautious!). It was enough of a hit 

with the corporate/educational/indus 

trial video attendees that it was chosen 

as one of the "hits of the show" by 

Video Systems magazine, one of the 

leading non-broadcast professional tele 

vision publications. 


Commodore's 

booth at 

NAB. 

The Commodore booth was a manda 

tory stop for Amiga users. Numerous 

demos were shown in an area cramped 

both by the number of exhibitors show 

ing and the number of people watching. 

Among those products chosen by Com 

modore to exhibit were ProWrite 3.0, 

MediaPhile, Video Toaster, Deluxe 

Paint HI, RGB Creation's editing sys 

tem, Caligari, and TV*Text Profes 

sional. Commodore also had several 

professional genlocks on display. 

Attracting a lot of interest in the 

booth was RGB Creation's Amiga- 

based edit controller. It is capable of 

controlling as many as 35 VCRs of any 

format and can generate edit decision 

lists for use in other editing facilities. 

Rumor has it that an even more power 

ful version is in the works. Among their 

distinguished list of users is no less than 

NASA itself, which is using it with D-2 

digital video tape decks. 

There were quite a number of genlock 

manufacturers showing their wares. 

Omnicron had their entire line of gen 

locks on display, all rack-mountable. 

The most powerful unit is able to handle 

signals from virtually any video signal 

source: composite, 3.58Y/C, 688Y/C, 

RGB, etc. 

Digital Creations was showing not 

only their genlocks, but also the new

NTSC digitizing system called DCTV 

(first shown at the D.C. AmiExpo). 

DCTV can digitize a still picture with 

the full range of colors in the NTSC 

spectrum and display it in several 

modes. They plan to support it with a 

paint program which will make il a 

viable addition to the standard Amiga 

resolutions and palettes. They were 

showing it off with an animation built 

with Deluxe Paint HI using full-color 

frames from the digitizer. 

Shereff Systems was exhibiting a new 

version of their Amiga-based character 

generation software. Pro Video Post. It 

has all the features of Pro Video Gold, 

along with numerous new capabilities. 

The most striking new feature is the 

ability to spin, flip and tumble, in DVE 

fashion, the high-res pages of graphics 

created by the program. Such moves are 

perfonned in real-time after a short (30 

sec - 2 min) generation period. They 

have also added software control of 

both the SuperGen and Magni genlocks. 

The polished look of the graphics was 

well accepted and the price of the pack 

age was unbelievably low by normal 

character generator standards. 

The Neriki genlock line was shown 

by TelMak, the US distributors of the 

Australian-made product. They had 

constant demos running, showing off 

the DeskTop Neriki and their newest 

version of the Neriki Master, which 

now features the ability to adjust the 

subcarrier phase for system timing. 

All of the Amiga products were well 

received by the attending crowd, whose 

most often overheard comment was "It 

only costs HOW much?" The Amiga's 

cost/feature ratio can only continue to 

entrench it into the corporate/industrial 

video market. As for the broadcasters. 

it's beginning to make some sense to 

pick up an Amiga just in case the 

expensive stuff breaks (which it does all 

the time). 

►how Reports 

BREADCRUMBS & PIXELDUST 

The 

Toaster 

Arrives 

■i- 

-► 

It!t! 

cc 

L±J. 

i 

Video junkies will be jumping up and 

down in glee when they see NewTek's 

Video Toaster. It's an Amiga-controlled 

DVE (Digital Video Effects) generator 

the like of which has never been seen 

outside a TV network. The NewTekkie 

wizards have been showing the 

Toaster for the past couple of years at 

various computer trade shows, but, like 

a certain brand of wine, they have 

stubbornly refused to release it before 

its time. Or at least until it was stan 

dard-setting state of the art. It looks 

like the time is here at last. 

The feature list of the Toaster reads 

like a what's what of broadcast effects 

(and it must be emphasized that the 

Toaster produces a broadcast-quality 

signal: NTSC RS-170Awitha 16.8 mil 

lion coior palette). The DVE engine will 

produce any sort of wipe, fade, or tran 

sition you can imagine. There's a 35ns 

character generator that comes stan 

dard with 25 fonts, built in shadows, 

outlines, and the like, with 100 pages 

of online storage to keep it all in. Provi 

sion is made for color processing, let 

ting you produce color negatives, 

monochrome, posterization, solariza- 

tion, and photographic filter effects - ail 

in over 16 million colors. 

There are not one, but two 24-bit 

Erfi 

HI 

• 

s|||== 

II 

■ ■ + 

A I B 

frame buffers which can load individual 

frames in under three seconds. 

NewTek will be releasing an optional 

paint program to use on these 24-bit 

images. An integral frame grabber can 

capture up to eight pictures from live 

video, each in 1 /60th of a second. 

These grabbed frames can be stored 

on disk, and later retrieved into the 

Digital Still Store. All the digital effects 

and transitions can, of course, be per 

formed between the buffers. 

The heart of the Toaster is the Pro 

duction Switcher, which coordinates 

the dissolves, wipes, key, and color 

effects between all seven (7!) video 

channels. These consist of four syn 

chronous live video sources, the two 

frame buffers, and a background matte 

generator. This switcher can be com 

bined with the DVE to make possible 

video manipulation the equal (and in 

many cases better) of anything you 

see on broadcast TV, and the user 

interface is all mouse-driven point-and- 

click to make it simple to use. 

All of this magic is made possible by 

four custom VLSI chips designed by 

NewTek and housed on a board that 

plugs into the Amiga's video slot. The 

next generation of video is here, and 

the Amiga has it! - Tom Malcom 

INFO July 1990 63 

I

y Mark R. Brown 

It was eighty degrees in Washing 

ton, DC, the weekend of March 

16-18, warm enough to force the 

cherry blossoms to bloom early. It was 

the first time I had seen them. They are 

beautiful. 

Less impressive, but perhaps of more 

interest to INFO readers, was the first 

AmiEXPO to be held in our nation's 

capital. 

AmiEXPO DC was not a "monster" 

show. The crowds weren't thick (total 

attendance: 10,836). there weren't a 

record number of exhibitors, and there 

weren't a great many exciting new 

product introductions. The bubbly 

enthusiasm we've seen at Amiga shows 

in the past seems to have settled down 

into a calmer, more mature "let's get 

down to business" attitude. Exhibitors 

spoke of unexciting recent sales figures. 

Some even said they would have to see 

a real turn-around in sales or they'd be 

in trouble. Others indicated they could 

get by. though they'd certainly like to 

see more activity. A few said the bulk of 

their sales nowadays is in Europe, 

where the majority of Amigas are sold. 

The overall impression wasn't negative, 

but pensive. "Wait and see" seemed to 

be ihc prevailing attitude. 

Meanwhile. Amiga boosters like Ami- 

gaWorld editor Doug Barney and Com 

modore's own Gail Wellington pro 

claimed the glories of the Amiga to 

crowds of eager show attendees. In the 

meeting rooms, Amiga celebrities like 

graphics guru Jim Sachs and video vicar 

Oran Sands entertained and enlightened 

Amiga users with "master classes" in 

Amiga applications. 

The day before the show. Amiga- 

World hosted a gathering of interested 

parties who formed an Amiga Develop 

Ohow RJXeports 

... continued 

ers' Association. This organization will 

lobby Commodore and police the press 

for fair and equal treatment of the 

Amiga. Mike Halvorson of Impulse 

Software, was elected Chairman. 

There were interesting new products 

at AmiEXPO DC, but most of it was 

being shown without much fanfare in 

the nooks and crannies. Definitely not 

in this category was DCTV (not named 

after the site of the show), being dis 

played in the Digital Creations booth 

right inside the main entrance. This 

unique box plugs into both the RGB and 

parallel ports, and does a 10-second 

slow-scan capture of a video frame in 

full 24-bit color. Auxiliary DCT\' paint 

and animation programs will follow. 

Some of the more interesting products 

shown on the floor: GVP's speedy new 

Impact A4000+ accelerator board for 

the A2000: the VoRecOne speech 

recognition system by Impulse; Expert 

Services' A1000 Rejuvenator and 

Delaware Valley Software's DVS- 

Wonder for adding the Enhanced Chip 

Set to venerable Amigas; ComputerAWs 

Autoscript. which converts PostScript 

files to Amiga 3D rendering formats; 

and a S5000 erasable optical drive from 

Active Circuits. CSA's Mega Midget 

Racer was also turning some heads 

with its speedy 68030 performance. 


"CryoCafe" 

rendered with 

PP&S'snew 

3-D 

Professional. 

DigiFeX showed the CM! products 

they'd picked up, like the Processor 

Accelerator, they were also talking 

about their multiple port serial card 

which will support AppleTalk. 

As always, some of the best stuff 

wasn't in the booths. A couple of the 

NewTek folks chased me down and 

made me watch Penn & Teller's "Worst 

Rock Video Ever," created with the elu 

sive Video Toaster. The video was 

impressive, as was the tiny 8mm Sony 

Video Watchman they used to play it. 

Elsewhere. Progressive Peripherals & 

Software showed their new feature- 

laden 3D rendering and animation pro 

gram, 3-D Professional. Upstairs in a 

suite. Amiga PR guy Erich Stein told us 

about ASDG's Art Department, an 

$89.95 image processing system capa 

ble of handling all Amiga formats, from 

lo-res to HAM to SHAM to dynamic hi 

res to 24-bit scanner images. ASDG's, 

LAN Rover is a new network board 

that works with Syndesis' TSSNet. 

Erich also arranged a demo of Gold 

Disk's ShowMaker. an innovative pre 

sentation system that allows you to 

build multimedia shows in real-time 

from sources as diverse as laser disks, 

and MIDI keyboards. 

Next AmiEXPO show stop: Chicago, 

June 29 - July 1. See you there!

CROSSDOS 

Consultron 

11280 Parkview 

Plymouth. MI 48170 

313-459-7271 

$30.00 

Ready for a new and innovative 

approach to reading and writing 

MS/DOS diskettes on the 

Amiga? Then check out CrossDOS. It's 

much different than file transfer pro 

grams like DOS-2-DOS. CrossDOS is 

an actual tile system that allows Amiga 

drives to read and write MS/DOS disks 

just as if they were born reading them. 

CrossDOS handles the disk format 

translations in a manner that is transpar 

ent to both the user and the Amiga. 

CrossDOS consists of AmigaDOS file 

system and device driver software. 

There is no hardware component at all. 

Its "MSDOSFileSystem" allows the 

Amiga to access foreign MS/DOS for 

mats by providing a common software 

interface between the application and 

file system. The new file system under 

stands the foreign disk format and 

passes a set of commands through the 

new DOS interface. By translating DOS 

commands, the MS/DOS file system 

reads and writes to the MS/DOS device. 

If the device is a floppy drive, the file 

system is asked to open the new system 

"infm.device" that translates raw disk 

data into Amiga-compatible data blocks 

and vice versa. The "mfm.device" 

works similarly to the "track- 

disk.device" driver that is used by Ami 

gaDOS for Amiga format floppies, and 

supplies answers to system requests for 

drive control and blocks of data to be 

transferred. 

What does all this jargon really 

mean? Well, it means that CrossDOS 

allows the Amiga to read and write most 

MS/DOS and Atari ST formatted 

diskettes. Its only limitation is thai it 

cannot access high density 1.2M or 

By David W. Martin 

I.44M diskettes, due to hardware con 

straints. The 720K 3.5" format, and 

360K and 720K 5.25" disk formats are 

supported. Of course, the 5.25" formats 

require an Amiga 5.25" drive, an almost 

impossible to come by commodity in 

the U.S. these days. Fortunately, newer 

MS/DOS machines are now using 3.5" 

diskettes. 

Once CrossDOS is installed, you can 

access MS/DOS disks from any Amiga 

CLI, utility, application, or file 

requester, just as though you were 

accessing a normal Amiga disk. Incredi 

bly, the same drives can access 

MS/DOS and AmigaDOS disks inter 

changeably. You simply call your 

MS/DOS device drive "A:", for exam 

ple, and your Amiga device drive 

"dfO:". swapping MS/DOS and Amiga- 

DOS disks as required. 

Most AmigaDOS functions are sup 

ported, such as reading and writing to a 

file, relabeling a disk name, creating 

directories, renaming files or directo 

ries, and setting file or directory dates 

and protection bits. Other features 

include the ability to control ASCII file 

filtering, automatic disk change sensing, 

auto format detection, minimal memory 

requirements, and a "KILL" utility for 

turning CrossDOS off. There are also 

utilities to check a disk for read errors. 

Some of 

the utilities 

on the 

CrossDOS 

disk. 

format an MS/DOS disk, copy an 

MS/DOS disk, and patch the system for 

Kickstart 1.2 and 1.3 users with only 

one floppy drive. 

Installing CrossDOS was very easy, 

either from the CLI or the Workbench. 

However. I suggest that you use the CLI 

method of installation, since some bugs 

in the Workbench auto-installation 

scripts cause them to crash when you 

select the cancel gadget. Basically, you 

are only required to copy a few files to 

your boot disk and then modify your 

startup-sequence to mount the new 

floppy devices. You will also need the 

new MS/DOS device mountlist in the 

devs: directory on your boot disk. 

Using CrossDOS is easy. It lets 

Amiga spreadsheets access MS/DOS 

Loins 1-2-3 files directly from IBM 

disks, and writers can use it to easily 

transfer text back and forth between 

IBM and Amiga wordprocessors with 

out having to copy files. 

CrossDOS is truly excellent. Ifs a 

wonder that no one thought of this won 

derful idea ages ago. Simple solutions 

are usually best, and CrossDOS simply 

makes MS/DOS access easier on the 

Amiga. I recommend this one to anyone 

with the need to access MS/DOS flop- 

pics, or anyone owninc a Bridneboard. 

INFO July 1990 65

#1 INFO 64, Fall 1983 

Premiere issue! Review and product guide. 

Games. Flexfile 2.1. Sorcerer's Apprentice. 

#2 INFO 64. Winter 1983/84 

Guide toC64 products. Koala pad, Flexidraw. 

UltraBASIC-64, Home Accountant vs. C.P.A. 

#3 INFO 64. Spring 1984 

Product Round-up: 1000 product listings for 

C64. Superbase 64. Commodore LOGO. C64 

Forth. Model Diet. Computer Mechanic. 

#6 INFO 64 Spring 1985 

Color Gallery! C64 hard drives. Intro lo Assem 

bly Language. COMAL 2.01. The Print Shop. 

Whither C/PM. 

1 INFO Dec/Jan 1985/86 

Expanded C64/128, Amiga color gallery. Guide 

to C128 software. Network Wars. 1571 Disk 

Drive Survival Guide. 

#10 INFO May/June 1986 

Monitor Roundup! C64 word processors, Multi- 

plan for C64/C128, Amiga BASIC, Tips & hints. 

#11 INFOAug/Sept 1986 

Product Roundup issue: over 1500 hardware and 

software listings for C64, CI2S and Amiga. 

#12 INFONov/Dec 1986 

Graphics report: C64/128 and Amiga painting. 

CAD. drafting, video animation, tools and utili 

ties. Idea-processors, 8 bit business software. 

#13 INFOJan/Feb 1987 

Games issue: C64/C128 and Amiga games. 8-Bit 

business and application software (part I), 

Telecommunication networking, Amiga Music. 

COMMODORE 

COMfelJWG 

#14 INFO Spring/Summer 1987 

Product Roundup issue: over 2000 hardware and 

software listings for C64. C128 and Amiga.First 

look at the A500 & A2000 systems. 

#15 INFO July/Aug 1987 

1st Annual C.H.U.M.P. Magazine! Commodore 

& Amiga Survival Guide. Anne Westfall inter 

view. TDI Modula 2. Supra Hard Drive. 

#16 INFO Sept/Oct 1987 

Graphics Renaissance! GEOS Update. C128 

BASIC compilers, Microtroll. Fontmaster, 

Amiga 500, Sidecar, Genlock. Multi-tasking. 

INFO Nov/Dec 1987 

ANNUAL GAMES ISSUE! GEOS Update, 

16/32 bit comparison. C128 ROM upgrades, 

B.E.S.T. Accounting, Word Writer 3, DIGA! 

-8 INFOJan/Feb 1988 

Desktop Publishing & wordprocessors (pans I), 

Virus diagnosed. Geos Update. C64 Powerful 

Cartridges. C128 Superpak II. 

#19 INFO Mar/Apr 1988 

Desktop Publishing & wordprocessors (parts 2), 

Leo Schwab interview. GEOS Update, ICT hard 

drive, Digital SuperPak2. Thoughtform. 

#20 INFO May/Jun 1988 

Desktop Video: Tillers, genlocks, converters. 

#23(J TNFO Nov/Dec 1988 

ANNUAL GAMES ISSUE! OVER 100 GAMES 

IN COLOR!! INFO Mania Game Tips, New 

Products, News & Views, 

#24 INFOJan/Feb 1989 

Amiga 3D Graphics Round Up. Reichart Von 

Wolfsheild interview, GeoStuff, SuperBase Pro, 

Spectrascan. Sky Travel. 

#25 INFO Mar/Apr 1989 

Amiga Animation Round Up. Rodney Chang 

interview, CS28 T.H.I.S., GeoCalc 128, Dr Term 

Pro, AC/BASIC. Microfiche Filer Plus. 

#26 INFO May/June 1989 

Paint Program Round Up. Loren Lovhaug inter 

view, Removable Mass Storage, 1581 Toolkit, 

MicroLawyer, WillMaker. Pen Pal. Graphics 

Tablets, Lightpen. PageStream. 

#27 INFO Jul/Aug 1989 

3rd Annual C.H.U.M.P. Magazine! Dale Luck 

interview, Sound & Music. Fractals, Maverick, 

GeoProgrammer. Masterpiece. Professional Data 

Retrieve, Silentwriter LC890. Transcript. 

#28 INFO Sept/Oct 1989 

Video Boot Camp! High-End Amiga Expansion. 

Gail Wellington interview, 3D options. Home 

C64 slide show programs, GeoStuff. AmigaDos 

Town, Viking I, A-Max, Anti-Virus, V.I.P. 

1.2 Bugs, Joel Hagen tutorial. 

#29 INFONov/Dec 1989 

INFO Jul/Aug 1988 

ANNUAL GAMES ISSUE! Chris Crawford 

Second Annual C.H.U.M.P. Magazine! Jay Miner 

interview, SFX Sound Expander. The Write Stuff 

interview. Easing The Upgrade Path, GeoStuff. 

128, The Amiga Companion. Toshiba Express- 

Virus prevention. Over 40 8 & 16 bit reviews. 

Writer 301, RawCopy, Mac-2-Dos. 

\2 INFOSep/Oct 1988 #30 INFOJan/Feb 1990 

Digitizing, Mac VS. Amiga, GeoStuff, Over 50 

Amiga DeskTop Publishing Tools, LOGO. A590 

reviews for C64, C128. and Amiga computers, 

Hard Drive, Dual Serial Board. Abacus Books, 

INFOmania Game Tips! BRYCE debut! 

Twin Cities 128 book. 

INFO BACK ISSUES $5.50 EACH 

$6.50 each outside USA. INFO Back Issues on MICROFICHE! $5.50 each $6.50 outside USA 

USE THE TEAR OUT ORDER CARD or 

Charge By Phone with your VISA or MASTERCARD (319) 338-0703 

66 INFO July 1990

i 

FREEDOM 

Subscribers save up to 50% off the 

regular newsstand price of INFO. As a 

subscriber, you also receive a $5.00 

discount on the incredible INFO-PADtm. 

Subscribers receive their INFO's up to 2 

weeks earlier than the general public. 

Don't be the last one on your block to 

have the latest INFO! 

Subscription copies are mailed in a clear 

poly bag. In the poly bag is the INFO 

Wrap-Up: extra pages of late-breaking 

news, tips, & goodies (subscribers only). 

Every couple of issues, you will find 

something else in your poly bag: a handy 

reference card for a popular software title. 

(Works with or without the INFO-PADtm) 

Subscribers help keep INFO free. Free 

from the thin paper, black & white screen 

shots, volunteer reviews, and advertiser 

pressure which plague some mags. 

To subscribe or renew, use the reply card, or phone INFO (Visa & MasterCard only) at (319) 338-0 

INTO July 1990 67

Progressive's new CAD package, UltraDesign 

OF GOOD 

CHARACTER 

The latest in Shereff Systems' 

Pro Video series of videooriented 

software is Pro Video 

Post. Specifically designed for 

post-product ion work, the fea 

ture list includes such items as 

voice prompts, a collection of 

realtime Digital Video Effects 

(DVE), audio cues, screen 

manipulation techniques, and 

keyboard control of Digital Cre 

ations' SuperGen and Magni's 

4000 series of genlocks. It 

requires an A2000 with the 

enhanced chip set and at least 

two additional megs of RAM, 

with a 68020 or 68030 recom 

mended. Price is $399.95. 

15075 SW Koll Parkway. Suite 

G. Beaverion. OR 97006. 503- 

626-2022. 

GRADE WARE 

Teachers with Amigas 

(sounds like a B-movie title, 

huh?) who have been looking 

for electronic grading programs 

will want to check out EZ- 

l\Iew Products & Xveviews 

(Jrade. It appears to be a very 

flexible system for keeping 

track of not only grades, but 

attendance and other data. Il 

will even keep track of stu 

dents' phone numbers and auto 

matically dial it (now that's a 

scary thought - having your 

teacher's computer call to find 

out if you're ditching school!). 

The program handles classes of 

any size, though it deals with 

them in data files of 60 stu 

dents, and each record can have 

up to 90 grades per grading 

period. Errors can be easily cor 

rected at any time, and there are 

all sorts of printout options. 

There are also many built in cal 

culation facilities. S59.95 from 

Integral Software, 2721 

Embassy Row. Indianapolis. IN 

46224.317-297-7369. 

TRANSLATOR 

STATION 

Accuracy is one of the 

biggest problems in designing 

3D images to use with raytrac- 

ing packages. Computerall Ser 

vices has come up with a solu 

tion that, while it is rather spe 


cialized, will give you the preci 

sion of PostScript in your ren 

derings. AutoScripl will take 

any standard PostScript file (the 

obvious sources include Adobe 

Illustrator. Aldus Freehand. 

Gold Disk's Professional Draw, 

Taliesin's PmVectnr, and the 

like) and translate it into objects 

Sculpt 4D or Turbo Silver can 

understand and render. You can 

also write the PostScript files to 

disk as DigiWorks 3D- 

compaiible data. The $129.95 

package is specifically designed 

to work with accelerators. 3 N. 

Walnut Ave.. New Hampton. 1A 

50659.SI 5-394-3778. 

ULTRA-WARE 

The latest salvo in the CAD 

wars comes from Progressive 

Peripherals with the release of 

their long-awaited UltraDesign. 

(It's also the only CAD package 

we've ever seen that has a sense 

of humor; check out the startup 

message.) Il does all the things 

you would expect a CAD pro 

gram to do, like supporting up to 

65535 layers, precision object 

snap, and providing all the nec 

essary drawing tools. There are 

40 hatching patterns included (or 

you can define your own), and 

they can be rotated and scaled. 

too. To make your life a little 

easier, pen styles can be named. 

as can layers. UltraDesign sup 

ports ARcxx. running programs 

from a dialog box. and ARcxx 

commands can even be added to 

the user-definable pull-down 

menus. It can both read and 

write AutoCAD DXF files, and 

can read Aegis Draw, ImroCAD, 

HPGL plots, and DXY files. 

Drawings can also be output as 

IFF files, and there's support for 

PostScript and Encapsulated 

PostScript output. S399.95. 464 

Kalamath St.. Denver. CO 

80204.303-825-4144. 

AMIGA 

HARDWARE 

SCANNER 

A new entry in the scanner 

arena is the Hand Scanner 

from Migraph, It has a 4-inch 

wide scanning area with resolu 

tions of 100. 200. 300. and 400 

DPI. Actual image size depends 

on available memory, but just 

for reference, a I MB Amiga can 

handle a 4" x 8" area at 300 

DPI. The scanner even has a lit 

tle light on it that tells you 

whether you're moving the 

thing too fast or too slow. The 

package comes with Touch-Up. 

a paint package that supports 

IFF. IMG. PCX. TIFF, and 

MacPaint file formats. The 

scanner only works in black & 

white. Price is $399 and 

includes the scanner, power 

supply, interface, and the paint 

program. 200 S. 333rd, Suite 

220, Federal Way. WA 98003. 

206-838-4677. 

NOtSEMAKER 

Apparently the people who 

designed the Bridgeboard 

thought it should, like children, 

be seen but not heard. The peo 

ple at Computers. Etc! have 

come up with a way to make it 

talk. The Bridgeboard Speaker 

Kit is easy to install, requires 

no soldering, and connects via a 

jumper. Cost is S24.95. The 

same company is also market 

ing two heavy duty power sup 

plies for the A500. The HD150 

($129.95) is a 165 watt switch 

ing power supply with the 

appropriate connectors, while 

the HDI50DL ($179.95) adds 

three external A/C outlets, a 

cooling fan. and separate fuse 

protection to the more basic 

model. 4521-A Bee Ridge Rd., 

Sarasota, FL 34233. 813-377- 

1121.

FRACTALPRO 

MegageM 

l\ew xroducts & Jtveviews 

$89.95 

($49.95 for HAMandel alone) 

1903 Adria, Santa Maria, CA 93454, 805-349-1104 

V hen I saw the first version of HAMandel, I was 

impressed with the consummate beauty of the images it 

generated, but frustrated by the crudity of its user interface. 

Daniel Wolf of MegageM (who. incidentally, is a mathe 

matician and assembly language programmer) has done a 

complete rewrite of HAMandel and its counterpart 

AutoMag and released the pair as FractalPro. 

The strongest point of the FractalPro package is that it 

not only lets you explore the Mandelbrot Set in 4096 col 

ors, but also automatically produces a series of zooms that 

can be assembled into a fractal animation. It is difficult to 

describe what seeing a Mandelbrot animation is like, div 

ing headlong into pure beauty, a universe that has no coun 

terpart in human experience. In addition to zooming in on 

the fractal landscape, AutoMag can also pan across it. (I 

hope some inventive game designer will take advantage of 

this capability.) 

The biggest problem with FractalPro, or any other such 

program, is speed. HAMandel is slow, not through any lack 

of skill on the programmer's part, but because of the 

immense number of calculations required. The program has 

been optimized as much as possible, but if you're serious 

about fractals, you'll find that some sort of processor accel 

erator and math co-processor are essential, particularly as 

you reach high levels of magnification. FractalPro is, in 

fact, tailored specifically for accelerated machines. The 

number of colors on the screen is directly tied to the num 

ber of iterations: 64, 128, 512, 1024, 2048, and 4096. The 

more iterations, the longer the screen takes to generate, but 

the more detail is revealed. The program is relatively quick 

at low counts, and that's the only efficient way to get 

around when you're looking for likely spots to explore 

more deeply. I've found that a count of 128 is perfectly 

adequate for the first 100X magnifications or so, though if 

you're unfamiliar with the fractal territory it would proba 

bly be a good idea to do some exploration with one of the 

non-HAM Mandelbrot programs before devoting excessive 

amounts of time to HAMandel. You'll save yourself a lot of 

time if" you already know which areas are promising and 

which aren't. 

Both HAMandel and AutoMag are stand-alone; they're 

basically the same program with the same interface, but 

with different goals and some different menu selections. I 

do have a couple of complaints about them. Setting the 

area to zoom in on pops up a window that is dragged to the 

spot and then closed. It's a very imprecise method and 1 

can't imagine why the usual crosshairs weren't used 

instead. The window for 16X magnification is so small it's 

very difficult to position accurately. There is, conveniently, 

a Zoom-Out function in case you get lost or zoom in the 

wrong spot. I'm not too fond of the dual file requesters. 

either; there's one on the main screen and another on the 

workbench screen. In fact, I've had serious guru problems 

saving screens. The first file saves just fine, but saving the 

second has invariably crashed my machine (exiting the 

program, restarting it, and then reloading your last screen 

after each save seems to solve the problem, and also lets 

you continue where you left off). There also seems to be a 

problem in the routine to remove the menu bar; it some 

times reappears for no apparent reason. 

As the name implies, FractalPro is a tool for serious 

Mandelbrot explorers (it also handles the Julia Set and the 

closely related Cube Sets as well). Once you see fractal 

images in HAM mode, you'll undoubtably find it difficult 

to go back to any other resolution. Obviously, the best way 

to use FractalPro is to set it to work when you're not using 

your Amiga for anything else, like when you're sleeping or 

finished writing for INFO (which in general are mutually 

exclusive). Despite its problems and general awkwardness, 

which I hope will be fixed in the next version, FractalPro 

is still the only game in town if you're interested in the 

highest quality fractal images and animations based on 

them. 

- Tom Malcom 

INFO July 1990 69

ScanLab 100 

- ■ ■■ ■ ■ ■ : . ■ ;■ 

ASDG, Incorporated, 925 Stewart Street, 

Madison, WI 53713,608-273-6585 

Sharp Electronics, Sharp Plaza. 

Mahwah NJ 07430, 1-800-BESHARP 

lew ewTr x roducts & 


$999.95 

1 his is the color scanner so many of us have been waiting 

for: 200 dots per inch at 18 bits-per-pixel and an affordable 

price. Historically, scanner price versus quality has left the 

Amiga community with few options. Five grand and up for 

full-color quality, or single-color dot patterns at prices 

under a hundred. No wonder most of us used video digitiz 

ers. 

ScanLab 100 is one more in a series of team efforts by 

ASDG and Sharp, this time with the Sharp JX-100 portable 

color scanner. Unlike earlier products using Sharp's JX- 

450 or JX-300 scanners, this one does not require an inter 

nal board. The software, too, has changed, becoming a 

highly polished interface that is able to balance ease of use 

with a multitude of options. 

The installation process is as black and white as the man 

ual. Plug in the black power supply, match up the black 

cables, assemble the white cables per your computer's 

serial configuration, and connect. The software has an 

installation program that, with a double click, copies the 

essential data over to your system and pops up a requester 

for the desired location. On top of that, the manual care- 

n Controls 

Bit Color 

Variable Re< 

Source 

?aj4tikit's I'.-tiiii'jbX'jii 

Por Reset Accep 

Inase S i ze 

N; 648 H: 480 

Connands 

Scan 

ScanLab 100's Fine editing screen. 


U1Z 

Reviews 

Sharp's JX-100 portable color scanner 

fully guides you through the details of understanding the 

hardware and software. 

The software (and its killer editing tools) is essentially 

copy protected via the dongle approach. You can make 

back-ups till the cows come home, but the program refuses 

to boot if the scanner is not present. Granted, this is a large 

and expensive dongle, but since it doesn't take up the joy- 

slick port and is difficult to misplace, it has earned a 

favored status in my office. 

The scanning process is split into two areas: the Preview 

Screen and the Fine Screen. As the name implies, Preview 

is for setting up. A quick scan shows your image in a win 

dow, where a box can be sized to crop the scanning area. 

The Fine screen is for the image processing options. 

Among the nearly endless list of selections are graphic 

and screen resolutions in every combination possible, with 

"oops" requesters to tell you why it can't do the impossi 

ble. Resolutions are preset at 50T 100, and 200 dots per 

inch. The file size is shown and turns red if the area is too 

large to be scanned. The color control includes Gamma, a 

slider that affects the grey scale or mid-range tones without 

washing out the image. You can also choose portrait or 

landscape orientation, and reduce X and/or Y dimensions. 

Scanning is not instantaneous, and the slow going is 

even more evident because you are confined to the soft 

ware during this process, though it does multi-task at other 

stages. It seems compatible with other programs, however, 

like most graphic applications, it is RAM intensive. Users 

would be well advised to limit any other memory-eating 

activities to give ScanLab 100 the elbow room it craves. 

- Mesan Ward

Editing screen from MichTron's MasterSound 

MODEM ALA MODE 

Progressive Peripherals is 

shipping their Baud Bandit 

modem (not to be confused wiih 

their telecommunications soft 

ware of the same name, but spe 

cifically designed to work with 

it). It supports up to 2400 baud, 

has keen LED lights, and 

memory to store phone numbers 

and configurations (with no DIP 

switch throwing required). It 

comes with an external AC 

power adapter. SI29.95. 464 

Kakimath St., Denver, CO 

80204. 303-825-4144. 

SOUNDING OFF 

MichTron is shipping a new 

low-cost stereo sound digitizing 

package called Master Sound. 

For a mere S69.95, you get a lit 

tle hardware module that plugs 

into your Amiga's printer port 

(you'll need a gender-changer 

to plug it into an A1000) and 

software to use with it. The dig 

itizer accepts any audio source 

you can plug in via a mini-plug. 

The Master Sound Editor con 

sists of two main parts, an edi 

tor and a sequencer. The editor 

l\ew Xroducts & Keviews 

portion is what actually lets you 

digitize the sound and then 

manipulate it. In addition to 

playing it back, filtering, loop 

ing, reversing, editing, and fad 

ing in and out. it also has the 

ability to raise the volume of the 

sample 10% at a lime. A handy 

touch. The sequencer part of the 

program lets you play back your 

samples in all sorts of creative 

ways. 576 S. Telegraph. Pon- 

tiac, MI 48053. 313-334-8729. 

REJUVENATION 

Time inevitably marches on, 

and those of us who own the 

now-classic (which is a very 

polite way of saying 'old and 

outdated") Amiga 1000 have a 

way to keep up with the new 

models. The Rejuvenator 

Expansion Board will let you 

use the new 1Mb Agnus chip, 

use a Kickstarl ROM 

(switchable between ROM and 

disk for added flexibility), and 

have 1Mb of fast RAM inter 

nally. There's even a clock and 

a video slot for the FlickerFixer. 

Installation sounds reasonably 

easy if you're comfortable with 

removing and installing boards 

and chips. It doesn't require 

making any permanent modifi 

cations to the motherboard and 

only needs three clip leads. 

Addressing is taken care of by 

junipers, and it claims to work 

with most internal RAM expan 

sion boards. Cost is S499.95 for 

a fully populated board which 

does NOT include the 1.3 

ROM. Denise, or Paula chips. A 

S349 partial kit is also being 

offered that is the same as the 

fully populated one, with the 

exception of the DRAM and 

Agnus chips (sockets are pro 

vided for these). Expert Ser 

vices. 5812 Centennial Circle. 

Florence. KY 41042. 606-371- 

9690. 

NO HELMET 

REQUIRED 

CSA is shipping their latest 

accelerator for your Amiga. The 

Mega Midget Racer features 

an MC68030 CPU with a clock 

speed ranging from 20 to 33 

mhz. An oscillator regulates the 

speed, eliminating the need for 

jumpers. Your original 68000 

also fits into the board and is 

software selectable. The board 

also has sockets for 512K of 

static RAM; the Amiga ROM 

kernel can be copied into this 

high speed 32-bit SRAM, from 

which it is executed via special 

hardware without tying up the 

030's MMU. An optional 68881 

or 68882 floating-point math 

coprocessor running at up to 40 

MHz is also supported. Base 

cost (with 20 MHz 68030. but 

no RAM or coprocessor) is 

S795. 7564 Trade St., San 

Diego. CA 92121. 619-566- 

3911. 

TOWER OF POWER 

One of the things about the 

Amiga is that it's hard to 

impress the average dweeb with 

how powerful ihe machine is 

when it's in such a relatively 

small package. That small pack 

age also permits only limited 

expansion for peripherals like 

extra floppies and tape backup 

units. Well, now comes the 

Bnmac Tower, a floor-standing 

unit that you can drop your 

A2000's chassis into and make 

it look like the mongo machine 

it is. The box provides space for 

five 3.5" floppy drives, four 

5.25" drives, and an auxiliary 

power supply. Il doesn't require 

any permanent modifications to 

your 2000, leaving the ports on 

the back of the machine accessi 

ble, and reroutes the mouse and 

joystick connectors. Cost is 

S329. Bomac, 612 Webster St., 

Bay City. MI 48708. 517-893- 

3848. 

JUST THE FAX, 

MA'AM 

Everyone who's been waiting 

for an internal fax board need 

wait no longer. MichTron has 

just finished their Fast FAX, 

which will pul a Group III fax 

machine into your Amiga. It 

uses a 68000 processor with 

32K RAM (plus 64K ROM) 

and nonvolatile configuration 

storage. The software features a 

1000-entry phone book, auto 

matic and multiple scheduling 

(so faxes can be sent at any time 

to multiple locations), and an 

IFF-to-Epson graphics con 

verter. There are even special 

dot commands for such things 

as letterhead, cover pages, and 

signatures. Incoming documents 

can be viewed onscreen, which 

cuts down some on the amount 

of paper you use (save a tree!). 

Cost is $699.95. 576 S. Tele 

graph, Pontiac, MI 48053. 313- 

334-5700. 

INFO July 1990 71

. continued from page 12 

B1X Mail From: peie.mancini 

I have debated for weeks over 

what kind of computer to buy. 

Finally a friend said to me. "Lis 

ten, if you get an IBM clone 

you'll just be contributing to a 

cycle of self-repeating junk. That 

uninspired design took wing 

because IBM had a lot of money 

and Ihe name to get it Hying. 

Now people buy it because 

everyone else has one. [Some 

where in the background the 

National Anthem started to play 

and the crowd started to hum...] 

You can help stop this: Buy an 

Amiga and set yourself free!" 

OK. OK... I give up. I promise to 

never even think of buying a PC 

or Mac. 

/ always get mist}' when they get to 

the "rockets red glare" part. Seriously, 

freedom of choice i.s only an option 

when viable alternatives exist. Every 

person who buys an Amiga takes an 

important step towards assuring the 

Amiga's continued survival. Kick back 

and enjoy your new Amiga, dude, and 

tell others to "do the right thing" too. 

- Mark & Benn 

Foreign Mail From: Jorge Asch 

Revilla. Costa Rica 

1 have discovered a funny 

thing after watching the Demo 

Reel 3 from Newtek. 1 listened to 

the digitized lady in the demo 

saying something backwards. I 

just felt the urge to load 

AudioMaster and analyze that 

strange sound. Just what was she 

saying all those times in Rewind? 

I'll let you find out! 

We are not Bimbos! We are not Bim 

bos! We are not Bimbos! 

- Mark & Benn 

CServe Mail From: Calvin 

Dunn 

I would greatly appreciate your 

opinion on what is the best prod 

uct to buy. either Perfect Vision 

or DigiVicvv. I have an A500, I 

meg of memory, an Epson 24 pin 

B&W printer, a camcorder with 

four heads but no special effects 

and a VCR. I don't have a black 

& white camera. I want to get 

images of family pictures, IFF 

clip art, etc.. mainly lo use in 

desktop publishing. Which will 

work best for producing images 

to use in programs such as 

Pasestream or ProWrile? 

I'd recommend DigiVtew 4.0. It has a 

camcorder setting that will give you 

very good images, though a B&W cam 

era will give you the highest quality 

results. If you want to digitize in color 

from pre-recorded videotapes, you'll 

also need MicroSearch's RGB Color 

Splitter and a VCR with a noise-free 

still frame mode. If you're interested 

only in producing images from color 

photographs. I might suggest a scanner 

instead. If you can afford $1000. 

Sharp's color .1X100 scanner is the ulti 

mate for desktop publishing. Check out 

the review of the JXIOO elsewhere in 

this issue, and Happy Scanning to You! 

- Mark & Benn 

U.S. Mail From: James J. 

Kendall III. Martinez. GA 

I love your magazine and would 

not make a purchase without con 

sulting your reviews. Your articles 

and humor leave the other maga 

zines behind INFO keeps the fun 

in the Amiga. Keep the great work! 

Amiga World, eat my dust! 

Thanks for contributing this issue's 

obligatory "INFO is Great!" letter. 

James. - Mark & Benn 


STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, 

MANAGEMENT AND 

CIRCULATION 

1. Title of the Publication: INFO. 1A. 

Publication no. 002-496. 2. Date of filing: 

Nov. 6, 1989. 3. Frequency of issue: bi 

monthly. 3A. No. of issues published 

annually: 6. 3B. Annual subscription 

price: $16.50. 4. Complete mailing 

address of known office of publication: 

123 N. Linn Street, Suite 2A, Iowa City, 

Johnson County, IA 52245. 5. Complete 

mailing address of the headquarters or 

general business offices of the publish 

ers: 123 N. Linn Street. Suite 2A. Iowa 

City, Johnson County, IA 52245. 6. Full 

names and complete mailing addresses 

of publisher, editor, and managing edi 

tor: Publisher. Benn Dunnington, 123 N. 

Linn Street. Suite 2A. Iowa City, IA 

52245: Editor, Benn Dunnington, 123 N. 

Linn Street, Suite 2A, Iowa City, IA 

52245: Managing Editor, Benn Dunning 

ton. 123 N. Linn Street, Suite 2A. Iowa 

City, IA 52245. 7. Owner: Benn Dunning 

ton. 123 N. Linn Street. Suite 2A, Iowa 

City, IA 52245. 8. Known bondholders, 

mortgagees, and other security holders 

owning or holding 1 percent or more of 

total amount of bonds, mortgages or 

other securities: None. 9. for completion 

by nonprofit organizations authorized to 

mail at special rates: Not applicable. 10. 

Extent and nature of circulation: (X) 

Average no. of copies each issue during 

preceding 12 months: (Y) Actual no. of 

copies of single issue published nearest 

to the filing date: A. Total no. of copies: 

(X) 103,633 (Y) 98,000. B. Paid circula 

tion: 1. Sales through dealers and carri 

ers, street vendors and counter sales: 

(X) 38,119 (Y} 37,737. 2. Mail subscrip 

tion: (X) 8,539 (Y) 6,836. C. Total paid 

circulation: (X) 46,659 (Y) 44,573. D. 

Free distribution by mail, carrier or other 

means, samples, complimentary, and 

other free copies: (X) 500 (Y) 500. E. 

Total distribution: (X) 47,159 (Y) 45,073. 

F. Copies not distributed: 1. Office use, 

left over, unaccounted, spoiled after 

printing: (X) 3,063 (Y> 5,264. 2. Return 

from news agents: (X)53,412 (Y)47,663. 

G. Total: (X) 103,633 (Y) 98.000.

$5.95 

1-9 Disks 

$4.95 

10 or more 

Public Domain Library 

We are the Offical Public Domain Library of Antic Amiga Plus, we have been the Offical PD library 

of Amiga World, and we are now available through INFO. Find out why these magazines choose us! 

Each of our disks is chalked full of nothing but the best programs. The first two letters on each disk 

indicate the orientation of the disk; DD# intermediate to advanced - often contains source, WB# general 

interest - most programs can be run from the workbench, and FD# games and entertainment. Order our 

disk based catalog and receive a coupon for a FREE volume on your next purchase. 

WB12: Disk Utilities ■ This great disk is 

loaded with wonderful utilities for everything 

including making disk labels, disk cataloging, 

disk optimizing, disk and file recovery archive 

and organizing, and ail sorts off file 

minipulation. Aiso includes SID a real must 

have! 

New Disks 

FD21: Arcade Games ■ TWi d's* contains Trek - stance* shoct 

em up. Blood Monay Damo - normally we don't include demos in 

this case we made an eiceplion This is The first level ol this great 

arcade game, very playable demo. If you can beat this demo, buy 

the commercial version! Boomrang - two player shoo! em up, 

Cryslall - arcade adventure game, and push. 

FD22: Arcade Games ■ This disk has MoonBase - The best 

lunar lander game we have seen in a long lims, very challenging 

Also Bo'ngGame - a rnaze type, donkey hong type game 

FD23: Text Adventure Games - This disk is loaded with 

Wires great games. AOveniure 'Ih 5 5 an 9'Bal f enhanced versior 

ol ihe tvsi A i game ever written on a computer i THE irue classic 

even the genera was named afier ims game. JackLand - In the 

words ol the arlhur 'This is a lent adventure, set in the 

COMPLETELY FICTIONAL Atrashi Computer Company, owned Oy 

Ihe COMPLETELY FICTIONAL Jack Trammels! and run by 

assorted members ot his COMPLETELY FICTIONAL family (P.S.. 

Did I mention that his story is COMPLETELY FICTIONAL')". Also 

World and a adventure g rap hi ng; mapping program 

FD0024:Strategy Games and Others - includes Dicey, a 

yalhiee type clone. MM a master mind lype clone. Flipper an 

Othello lype clone China an grea! implemenlaiion Of Shangi. 

Z ■;..■'•'.' i" a challenging game based on electronics, and F - . - a 

computer based model tram sel constructs sel tor the enthusiast. 

FD25:Tactical Games ■ Empire (133w)EmpirB is a rich 

simulation ol international politics, economics and war. which is 

played over a period ol a few of months by 2 or more people The 

Empire world is made of a toroidal grid of sectors consisting of 

wilderness, mountains and water Players govern countries. 

which start out as a pair of adjacent sectors and soon spread into 

large areas requinng much management and protection. Various 

sector types can be created to build ships, bridges, guns, shells 

airplanes, and research labs that make medical a-c 

lechnological oreakttiroughs Players can run then countries from 

Ihe normal Amiga keyboard. o< via a modem a! 300 to 2400 baud. 

FD0026:Arcade Games Marble.slide, truly this is a 

commercial quality game. Similar to a Lucas game namec 

Plumming. eicellenl playablilly and emertaiimenl. Mutants , a sma I 

version ol ttie arcade game ol the same na-ne, also Super Breakout 

a pona'arknoids type game. 

FD27: Arcade Games ■ This disk is loaded with some great 

games. Includes, Raceorama a great racing car game with ten 

different courses. MimBiast a helicopter gunship type done. Shaih 

in the same class as froger, and SHreakojt the original breakout 

with more. 

WB17: General Utilities - Includes several interesting 

programs, DiskX - Great disk sector editor. Snap ■ Cut and paste 

lent between ditfe-enl windows, . also on this disk - calenda' 

generator, diet program, workbench scrollirg teil. scale convenor 

WB18: Word/Text Processors - This disk contains the best 

editors that we could tind Includes. WordWTght|u6.2l a full featured 

word processor witt- mail merge and outlining capacity, Dme(v1.35l 

a great prorjramers editor with strong macro features, anc 

Te>ED(v2.B) an enhanced Emacs type edfior. 

WB19: Artificial Intelligence This disk will be ot interest to 

old hands and new in Al both programing and concopts. contains 

Eliza - an Al personal pyschologist. a true classic, Critters1 ■ a bug 

gone smart Al e»penment. and lots of articles on the subject This 

disk submitled directly id us by Arthur T Murray. 

WB20: General Interest - On this disk is, DiskSaiv Vi.42 a 

disk recovery program for all Amiga file system. FnOisk VI.C 

another file recovery program with features DiskSaiv doesn't have. 

3D Look a program mat gives a 3D appearance to /our WorKBencn, 

Clean V1.0' a program to de-fragment memory, Tracer Originally 

prepared and released as a commercial product by Rapide, allow; 

one to take a picture m I6giay level format from a Digitizer system, 

then hand outline or Trace any part ol that image. 

WB21: Music - On this disk are several modern songs and a 

great Sonu music payer, also a utility to renove the sound filter. 

WB22: Fonts #3 - Several more great fonts. These, like the 

other (ont disks worK great with Dpaint and WYSIWYG wore 

processors 

WB23: Graphics and Plotting - Plot (20B) a three 

dimensional mathematical lunction plotter. Can plot any user 

defined (unction, all aspects controllable, an greatly enhanced 

update to Plot on WB1, BezSurl2 is a program for producing beiier 

surfaces ol revolution It produces awesome pictures ot objects 

one could lurn on a lathe. Can also map irl image files onto any 

surface that it can draw. Now compatible with most 3D packages 

Update to Surf an WB1, and VScreen makes a virtual screen 

anywhere For you DTP people this is a absolute must have. >l 

allows full page edftng wrthoul redraws1 

WB24:Anlmation and Paint - On this disk. OA a complete 

commercial quality cell orientated animation package Movie an 

"ANIM" player lor standard animation OuickFln an IFF slide show 

and cell animation program. Also on this disk are two PO paint 

programs of good quality. 

WB25:EduCational ■ On this disk are two programs that can 

generate maps ol differing types. World Data Base uses the CIAs 

data base ta generate detailed maps of any enter user global 

coordinate Th s powerful program will zoom in or oui lo give you a 

satellite based map or a Birds eye vew DrawMap another map 

generator with dilierent features. Also Paradox a great 

demons!ration of Albert Einstein General Theory of Relativity. 

DD54: Compression ■ This disk is loaded witn ALL ot the best 

tile compression programs and aids for the Amiga Many of the 

programs can be used by trie new user. Includes Arc{2.3). 

Lharcji.O). Lhwarp(l 03). Pkax(i.O). Po*erPacker(2.3a) a must 

have Dy all. Zip(t.O). Warp(2 04). and Zoo(2 0). Also IFFcrunch an 

eiceleni compression for IFF files. 

DD55: ARP - On this disk you will Imd the complete ArpRel3 0 

release including the full user docs, the full Developers guide, and 

Conman (1.4) ARP is Ihe official AmigaDOS Resource Project 

(ARP) release 1.3. ARP makes many improvements la AmigaDOS 

and makes your system easier to use from me CLI. 

DDS6: UN"X #1 - Several Un'i type programs including Bison 

(2 0). Byacc(1.0),Ga«vKandM4. 

Other Great Disks - 

FD5; Tactical Games ■ BaitleFoice(3.0), A game that simulates 

combat between two or more giant, robot-like machines Simple 

words can't begin lo give you the feel ol piloting a 30 ■ 40 loot tail, 

fire breathing, earth shaking colossus that obeys your every whrm 

BuNRun ■ a Civil war battle game. Metro - you play the rote of a city 

planner. Build wisely and your system will be a success, but poor 

planning will lead to disaster and financial rum Vary good Amiga 

version ol Kingdom. Golden Empire. Etc. Very very habit lorm ng. 

FD6: GAMES! ■ This disk is chaked full of games including. 

Checkers, Clue. Gold - A new slide the pieces puzzle, Jeopard - An 

enhanced version of Risk, RushHour - Surprisingly addicting, and 

SpaceWar - Best described as a cross between Combal-Tanks and 

asteroids. 

FD7: PACMAN ■ This disk contains several pacman type 

games including. PacManB?, MaiMan and Zonii 

FD8; Games! ■ Ttvs disfc is full of games, game hints and a few 

game editors (cheat programs) including: Antepenult ■ The best PD 

na type pong. GameEdilors- Crystal Hammer. BardsTalB, TV 

Sports Football, and Faer yTale. GameHints-These are: Zak 

McKracken, Shadow Gate. FaeryTale. Space Quest II, Dragon s 

Loir, anfl others. 

FD9: Moria - a very well done port ot an UNIX based character 

adventure game. This has great graphic controls, multiple soells. 

similar to Larn and Hack. Takes up the whole disk. Play time 

several days' 

FD10: HackLite A dungeon adventure game Considered a 

must have classic This is the second release of this game on the 

Amiga QriQinaliy a UNIX game. Great Amiga graphic interface Fills 

Ihe whole disk. Play time several weeks' 

FD12A.FD12B: Star Trek, The Game This is by far the 

best Star Trek game euui written for any computer It features 

mouse control, good graphics, digitized sound ellects and great 

gameplay Counts as 2 disks. Req. 1Mb and two drives (or hd) 

FD13: Board Games - contains mulnplayer Monoaoly. 

Dorrvnoes. Paranoids, and others. 

FDM: Dungeon Master Hints and Arcade Games - dm 

maps, spells, item location, and hnts arxJ more, also on this disk, 

Hbali - an arknoid.break out type game, Trix ■ a On type clone. 

FD15: RayTracing 42 You know those pictures you see with 

the highly reflective surlaces, thats raytracing Learn aboul 

raylracing the insipensive way with, DKBTrace and DBW_uRAY 

(micro raytracer). Source code included 

FD1G: Strategy Games ■ Includes Diplomacy and Empros, 

both great concuer and rule multiplayer games similar in concept to 

Simoty and Populas. Also includes blackboj. hearts, and others. 

FD17: Educational Games - This disk includes several 

games for the younger memec-ers ncludmg geography, math, 

science, and word games, also includes Wheel of Fortune. 

FD1B: Arcade Games ■ Includes Bally a qn type clone, Bllard 

a pool game. Paccers, a pacman game wiih screen editor, also El], 

a lunar lander type clone, and others. 

FD19: Arcade Games Raiders a space raiders done lhat can 

be 3d compatible. Frenzy a shark feeding nightmare, VollyBall a 

good implementation, and Jar impossible to describe but lun game. 

FD20: Tactical Games ■ MechForce(3.65): A game mat 

Payment Enclosed 

Please charge my 

Visa 

Master charge 

Account #_ 

Signature. 

Name 

Address _ 

City. 

simulates combat between two or more giant, robot-like machines 

Simple words can't begin to give you the leel ol piloting a 30 - 40 foot 

Sal', fire breathing, earth shaking colossus lhat obeys yojr every whim 

This game is the lull featured update to BatlleForce(3 0) on FD5. 

WB4:TeIecommumnicatlon - This disk contains several excellent 

pd communication programs designed to gel you on line quickly and 

easily, Access (1.42) ■ A very nice ANSI term program based on Comm 

vt .34, but with the addition of transfer protocols. Comm (1.34) - Last 

version of one of the best public domain communications programs ever 

made on re Amiga, Handshake 2 12a Handshake is a Full featured 

VT52/100 102'2zO terminal emulator, and JRComm (0.94a) another 

great com program 

WB5 - Fonts #1- Several lonts(35) lor the Amiga, also included are 

live PageStream fonts.and Showf ont ■ a tont display program. 

WB6; Fonts #2 ■ ShowFont(4 0) This program allows you to quickly 

and painlessly view all 256 characters m a typical lonl. AmigaDos fonts 

(some up to 56pls) 

WB7: Clip Art ■ Th.s disk is loaded witn black and white clip an. An 

includes, trees, watches, tools, women, computers, etc. 

WB8: File Management - Great disk umMaster - From your 

workbench move, copy, delese. read. show. edit. arc. run any command. 

and much much more" Atree - smilar to UtilMaster but hierarchal tree 

displayed. Also Machll - a must have mouse and keyboard enhancer. 

and Go ■ an ancient Chinese game. 

WB9: Icons ■ Truly a mulhtude of various types and kinds Also 

includes IconMiesler. Icon Lab, and others great utilities lo help generate 

icons 

WB10:ViruS Killers ■ The latest and besl VnusX(4.0). Kv(2.11. and 

ZeroViruS(1.31. 

WB11: Business ■ Cierkl*.Q). finally a full fealured business 

accounting PD program lor the small to medium company. Includes 

receivables, payables. end of morth and much much more. This version 

comes wrth the full user docs1 

WB13: Printer Drivers and Generator - over 70 drivers, and if 

these don't do I. PrtDrvGen an easy to use program to make your own 

WB14: Video and Anim Utilities on this disk are several utilities 

to manipulate anims including culling, pasteing. and combining and 

more Fo' 'he video enthusiast we have included multiple slates, video 

tilling and other useful utilities. Also on this disk is a full featured video 

cataloging program 

WB15: Business ■ This disk contains a spreadsheet, a database, a 

proiecltime management program and financial analysis (stocks). 

WB16: Business - This disk contains an inventory manager, a loan 

analysis program, a great calendar/scnedular. a roiidex program, and 

pennywise a good "Cash Book" accounting for home or office. 

DD45: AREXX PROGRAMS - This disk contains several useful 

arex programs and examples. PopCLI4 - The latest ol a must have 

utility ArpLserDocsS 1 ■ Finally, the documentation for the 3 1 release of 

Atp wheh replaces most 1 3 AmigaDOS commands (seedd44) 

DD47: Pascal ■ Tli.s disk contains everything needed to program m 

pascal Incudes, A58k f! 2) 68000 assembler. Blink linking software and 

PCQ (1.0) a modesl Pascal sub-set compiler. 

DD49: C Compiler-contains ic(i.Oi) fully KSR iced. 0) front end. 

AS8k(l 2) assembler. Blink linker. 

DD50: AReXK #2 ■ a must have set Ot tutorials on ARe*x and several 

useful eiana'es and utiiit es 'or ARe"» development 

DDS1: Circut Analysis ■ Aspice (2.3) A full featured program lor 

eleclnc circuil analysis 

0052: Scientific This disk contains several great programs and C 

source routines for Ihe scientist and science student Includes Elements 

- an mcredvbly well done periodic table program with sOLrce, Scientific 

plotting - oêr 600k ol Lattice C source routines that can be included in 

your own programs, and FFT - ftt C source. 

Please sencTme thelollowing: 

Enter disk id (Ex. DD17, FD5, WB3 

ST 

Anti-Virus 

Now Only $19.95 

■&#•&■& , INFO Sep89 

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A First Look ... continuedfrom page 33 

But Amiga Vision is more than just a 

video and music program. It is also 

HypeiCard-like in its ability lo create 

real programs and applications. You can 

create interactive buttons of any shape to 

control program flow. You can control 

low-cost laser disc players. You can even 

run other programs via ARexx. AmigaV- 

ision is a key element in Commodore's 

strategy to get the Amiga into the educa 

tion and business presentation markets. 

And it makes HyperCard look sick. 

Best of all, AmigaVision is not just 

for the A3000. Though it likes the 

3000's speed and power, it can run quite 

comfortably in any one-meg Amiga, 

and will soon be bundled free with 

every Amiga capable of running it (this 

may even include A500s sold with a full 

meg of RAM. though Commodore had 

not finalized their plans at presstime). 

Current Amiga owners will be able to 

pick up a copy for $149.95, and you'll 

want to. AmigaVision applications are 

not stand-alone: you have to own a 

legitimate copy of AmigaVision in order 

to play them. 

We take 

a byte 

out of 

AmssVision Authoring Systen 

-:;« '.V..-: :i!«ti 

JUST FOR 

the price! 

Software & Hardware Sales & Service 

VISA/MC, 

AMEX, & 

Discover Accepted 

Also Used Hardware For Sale! 

GVP DRIVES 

500 - 20 Meg 

500- 40 Meg Quantum 

2000 - 20 Meg Hardcard 

2000 Hardcard 40 Meg Quantum 

25 MHz Accelerator 

SyQuest 44 Meg drive!: 

HUNDREDS OF SOFTWARE TITLES! 

LOTS OF PERIPHERALS! 

AM1GAS FOR SALE IN-STORE ONLY 

Authorized Amiga Graphics Dealer 

Authorized GVP Dealer 

51 Norwich New London Turnpike 

Quaker Hill, CT 06375 

Amiga is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. 

Authorized Commodore Amiga Repair Center 

BALANCE... 

There is so much about the A3000 

that's new and improved that it seems 

somewhat picky to even mention "things 

we'd like to see," but a few things we 

were hoping for did get left out. 

On the hardware side, poor Paula was 

the only chip left unimproved in the 

new machine. We'd love to see her 

expanded to handle 16-bit or even 24- 

bit CD-quality sound. The Rumor Mill 

says such improvements may be in the 

works. We were also hoping for 8- 

bitplane video, so the Amiga would be 

compatible with 256-color VGA and 

UL3 

ftowCopy is the finest, most intensive parameter backup utility in the Amiga market. towCopy surpasses 

ALL competitor in power, flexibility, eQse of use and expand ability. Easy to use? Just hit the start gadget 

to utilize RawCopy's more thon 280 parameters. Power' Use (krwCopy 5 advanced tools to analyze 

ond enter rtie code of o protected ptogrom Visit your dealer ond ask for a dernonsrronon and com 

panion ro our compenrots's products firyj out for yourself wtiy ftawCopy V1 3isttie#1 backup uriliry 

far the Amiga 

$59.95 

US Dollari 

• Remove! Manual pauwordi. Wheel pauword) ond Dongtol 

• Contain! a Parameter Copier, Standard Copier and two Hibblen! 

• Upgrade* offered every 3 month* Cot kail 30 new parameter!)! 

• Error thctker. RAH Duffer. Extended Cylinder and much more! 

• Copies software that no other utility can! 

RowCopy V1.3. . .There is no substitute for power! 

FarTtacks is a revolutionary backup utilny rhot combines nibble 

routines and parameters in the SAME copy process. Designed 

to copy European non-standard programs, this program will 

copy many programs rhar ore uncopyoble by parameter cop 

iers, nibblers or even horaVare FoiTrockSis almost completely 

mouse dnven ond allows even a beginner to manipulate the 

screen controls to copy software that is protected. 

Micro 

INCLUDES: 

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The moir powerful NI bbler oval iabl* 

A juperfait multiple aVtve DOS copier 

A wipeouf tool to rector* uted dfiJu 

Graphic diiplay of 164 tradu 

RawCopy owners: Call for limited time special offer!! 

Syslonis 

ivsionis 

I II S

Mac II color graphics. 24-bit graphics 

can and should be on expansion cards, 

but it seems to us that 8 bits is rapidly 

becoming the built-in graphics stan 

dard. Six bitplanes just aren't enough, 

even with HAM. And mechanically, 

the A3000 case is much nicer, with 

easier drive mounting and all, but 

we'd sure like to see a no-tools, flip- 

top case. Even removing five screws 

is five too many. 

On the software side, it's starting to 

look like scalable fonts may not make 

it even into the final release of 2.0. 

We eagerly await their appearance in a 

later upgrade. Likewise for the new, 

improved speech handler we heard at 

the Amiga Developers' Conference 

last year. When it's released, Amiga 

speech will sound almost human. 

IMPACT 

The Amiga 3000 is an important 

development. At S3300 - $4000. it's 

obviously not for everyone. But it sets 

an important new price/performance 

THE NEW AMIGA CHI PS 

Buster Expansion buss controller and buss arbiter 

Fat Gary Local buss controller 

Ramsey DRAM controller and SCSI address generator 

Super DMAC SCSI DMA data path chip 

Amber Scan doubler/converter de-interlacer 

Super Agnus Now addresses up to 2 megs of chip RAM 

Super Denise New Superhires 1280 pixel wide screens, new 

Paula Unchanged 

productivity mode & new genlock modes 

Note for A2000/A500 upgraders: You will NOT be able to plug the 

new 2-meg Super Agnus into your machines for 2 megs of chip RAM. 

The pinout is different, and there are not enough address lines to 

permit 2 megs. 

standard for personal computing in gen 

eral and for multimedia in specific. 

Now the other guys will have to play 

catch-up. And whether or not you trade 

up to an Amiga 3000, it will help to 

drive the Amiga market and gain the 

Amiga the respect it deserves. 

The A3000 is a giant step forward for 

Commodore. It's a sleek, sexy, powerful 

machine that can compete head-to-head 

with the Macintosh and IBM PS/2. If 

they can market it as well as they've 

designed it, the A3000 may well mark 

the turning point for Commodore. N» 

You've seen the rest... now try the BESTS 

AMERICAN 

PEOPLE 

"THE KING OF THE HILL " 

For the Amiga, Plink is by far the largest and most active ^3fcrf 

network... offering something for everyone. Its public domain 

library' is one of the best around with thousands offiles ready 

for downloading. Of the four networks discussed...Plink has 

the lowest signup fee and some of the lowest hourly rates. 

Plink offers a lot for your money. 

- Lou Wallace, Amiga World, May 1989 

People/Link's AmigaZone NOTICE BASES are a hotbed of information. Need Help? Simply post your question, and chances are your 

problem will be solved by the next time you log in. Talk directly to industry leaders. Software authors, hardware engineers and technical 

and support reps hang out in the AmigaZone! People from dozens of Amiga products companies like Gold Disk, Lattice, WordPerfect. ASDG. 

MSS, NewTek, PP&S, Microillusions, and New Horizons. Writers and editors from Amiga World, INFO, Amiga Resource, Compute!, 

Computer Shopper. Ama2ing Computing. Jumpdisk. and others use the AmigaZone as a prime source of information. You can, too. 

If it's files you're after, you'll think you've gone to heaven. The AmigaZone LIBRARIES set the standard - the newest programs, 

artwork, demos, animations, and utilities of all descriptions await your downloading pleasure. Our fast Windowed Xmodem transfer 

protocol is now part of all the best and most popular terminal software, and it is FAST!. All AmigaZone files are sysop-tested for your 

peace of mind. Care to share your own creations? Uploading is FREE during non-prime connect time. Unlike a BBS there's no 

required "ratio" of uploads to downloads. Feel free to grab all the hottest freely-distributable software you've read about. 

People/Link is PEOPLE oriented. The AmigaZone's LIVE CONFERENCES are where you can meet your friends or 

make new ones, live, online. Every evening is devoted to a special topic like Music & MIDI, Programming, Graphics & Video, 

Games. And every Sunday night it's "AmigaMANIA" - dozens of fellow Amigans online with you from all over the world. Chat 

with those famous folks you've always wanted to meet! Bill Hawes helps ARexx users in a special class each month. It's a cozy 

atmosphere with lots of friendly people who can help you get the most out of your Amiga experience. 

Sign up NOW or for more info, call People/Link two ways: BY VOICE : 800-524-0100, or 312-648-0660, 

9arn to 5pm, Mon-Fri, Central Time. BY MODEM: 800-826-8855, 24 hours a day at 300/1200/2400 baud. 

PEOPLE/LINK is a service mark (sm) ol American Home Network,

A First Look 

... continued 

Credit Where Credit Is Due Department 

Commodore's hardware engineers 

always do a heckuva job. but they usu 

ally go unheralded in the press. We 

thought this time it would be nice to 

give the A3000 design team the recog 

nition they deserve for a job well done. 

Hedley Davis was the A3000 project 

manager. He designed the preliminary 

CONTROL THE UNIVERSE! 

"I'm totally awed by what you have done!...it's beautiful, 

especially when the lights are off...congratulations..." 

Arthur C. Clarke 

author oi 2001; A Sthtce Odvssev 

Distant Suns, the award-winning planetarium program, is endless 

entertainment and education for all. $69.95 retail. Ask for it! 

Virtual'%taiitxj Laboratories, Inc. 

2341 Ganador Court 

San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 USA 

DRAM controller RAMSEY, worked 

with the PC board designers, and did a 

lot of the A3000 detail work. Dave 

Hajnie designed much of the basic 

architecture, developed the new Zorro 

111 buss specification, designed the 

BUSTER chip, and created the co 

processor slot. Greg Berlin also worked 

The A3000 

software and 

hardware 

engineers take a 

bow at the A3000 

rollout party. 

on the basic architecture, and he 

designed the Fat GARY and production 

RAMSEY chips. Scolt Hood designed 

the Display Enhancer chip AMBER and 

worked on the later DMAC revision. 

And Jeff Boyer designed the Super 

DMAC chip. Great work, auys! 

SEMITECH INC. 800-356-3759 

MEMORY CHIPS FOR ALL AMIGA EXPANSION BOARDS 

MICROPROCESSORS MATH COPROCESSORS 

68020 16 MHZ-70.00 

20 MHZ- 115.00 

25 MHZ-125.00 

33 MHZ- 135.00 

68030 16 MHZ-90.00 

25 MHZ- 180.00 

68010 8 MHZ - 30.00 

68881 12 MHZ-50.00 

16 MHZ-75.00 

20 MHZ-105.00 

68882 16 MHZ- 105.00 

25 MHZ- 180.00 

68010 10 MHZ-40.00 

MEMORY CHIPS FOR RAM EXPANSION 

1 MEGxi - 100 NS 11.00 256x4- 100NSZIPS — 13.00 

1 MEGxl -80 NS 11.00 For the 2620 board 

1 MEG 256x4 - 80 -— 12.00 Fatter / Super AGNUS-109.00 

VISA 


MC 

PHONE; (609) 346-9814 

FAX: (609) 784-1993 

SAME DAY SHIPPING 

Your Amiga 

LAKEVIEW COMMONS 

RT561 SUITE 303 

GIBBSBORO, NJ 08026 

Memory Chip Specialists

SOFTUJHRt 

AMIGA 

commodore 

\mmh\i 

TOLL FREE LINE 

FOR USA & CANADA 

800-356-1179 

Monday - Friday GAM 5PM PacihcTimc 

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INTERNATIONAL ORDERS 

206 ■69 S-1393 

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NOW ACCEPTING FAX ORDERS 

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TECHNICAL SUPPORT LINE 

206-695-9648 

- Friday 9AM 5PM Pacific T 

MAVERICK V5 

We're Willing To Put Our 

Cards On The Table... 

For the last two years, we've worked hard to develop and retine Maverick. 

Whal you see on tfie left is a lesiameni to how well we've done 

l( y°u ve naa y°uf Commodore lor more than a lew weeks, you've probably 

i heard of Maverick. II has become the standard against which an other utility 

programs are judged. You probably know someone who uses Maverick. Maybe they bought a copy Maybe they borrowed' a copy 

from a friend Whatever The time has come to speak Irankly and honestly 

The Commodore market is in transition. Newer machines have eclipsed the 8-Dil Commodore computer New buyers are going 

elsewhere. And many companies are shilling loyalties, dropping Commodore product:, to pursue greener pastures. Not us We've 

always been there pushing the envelope, making your Commodore do things it shouldn't be able to do We've always supported 

you. Mow we're asking you to support us 

Maverick V5 is our final version of Maverick We've perfected the program to the very edge ol our capabilities. We've made it as 

good as our skills allow. And while well still offer future parameter disks to keep up with new programs and protection schemes, 

there will never be a Maverick V6 Wecan look you right in Ihe eye and say This is our best shot - it wont get any better than this " 

Thousands ol honest people have spenl Ihe money to buy into the best utility system ever made, backed up by the best technical 

support in the industry We're hoping that you'll join the crowd. 

Products Irom other companies are described in vague generalities, because they can't elaborate on lealures they don't have But 

take a look at our detailed listing below and you'll understand }USt why Maverick has become the industry criterion Protect your 

software investment Don't settle for anything less than the product that inspired the comments on the cards on the left Buy Maverick 

V5 today - and deal yoursel! a very good hand. 

• NEW: All modules now have directory hies & allow last au- 

tobootmg with 1541 71 11 They also support slow boot mode 

lor hard dnves S other compatible devices The Maverick di 

rectory is organized lor easy life copying ol modules by end 

user REU and 64K Video RAM is aulo-sensed and utilized 

in whenever applicable 

• The Maverick is PAL compatible lor overseas users 

• Fast Oata Copiers. Single and dual 1541 7! support Single 

and dual 1581 support 

• NEW: Single Drive 1571 Double Sided Copier 

• GCR Nybble Copiers Single and dual 1541 71 Support These 

are the most powerful software based nybblers on the market 

• RAMBOard Nybbler Working in conjunction with one or two 

1541. 1541 II. or 1571 RAMBOards Ih.9 copier allows automa 

tic coping ol many ol Ihe loughest proieciion schemes on (he 

matkei 

• Sector Map Editor W Daia Scanner Allows high speed error 

scans and data searches Supports 1541 and 1571 formals 

• Maverick GCR Edilor lor the eipenenced hacker 

• GEOS Parameier Menu Up lo date parameters 10 completely 

deprotect your enlire GEOS library 

• GEOS Sector Ednoi Accessible Irom desktop Includes 

mouse suppon 

• GEOS File Copier Desktop accessible Copies multiple files 

- last 

• NEW GEO-BOO" Now supports 1571 and 1541 drives as 

well as Ihe 1581 diskdrive Alter using this lealure. your entire 

GEOS library becomes liie-copyabu? 

• Quick Fue Copier Supports 1541 71 81 lormais-any direction 

Includes more lealures lhan any otne' Commodore die coper 

ever created 

MAVERICK V5 

• Parameter Menu Maverick now boasls almost 500 parameters 

thai either copy or completely strip Ihe copy protection from 

the world s newest and finest programs. 

• Directory Editor The ultimate tool to organize your library 

Supports 1541 71 81 disk formats 

• 6502 M L Monilor Scrolling display Includes Dnvemon 

• NEW Directory Recovery Recover blown 1541 disks Now 

works with 1571 and 1631 as well 

• Tracks Sector Editor Suppons1541 1571. and 1581 lormats 

• Relalive File Copier Supports any Commodore compatible 

disk drive 

• REU & 64K VDC Quick Test E>clusive Maverick lealures 

• RAMBoard Track Editor Nol lor the inexperienced The mosl 

powerful whole track editor on the market - PERIOD Allows 

macros to copy every track, even il each track requires special 

settings This is the nexl best Ihmg to writing your own custom 

copiers When you use this ulility you'll realize why our cus 

tomers are irashing unprofessional, poorly coded whole track 

ed'lors written by mcompetenl programmers 

• File Track & Sector Tracer Identity view and edit any sector 

m any program die - last Supports 1541 71 81 disk formats 

• High Speed Seguenliai and program File Viewer Now you 

can view or pnnl your sequential and program tiles without 

having to load the application thai created them 

• NEW: Disk Compare Program Supportsdual 1541 71 81. This 

utility is Ihe fastest mosl lull featured Compare Utility ever 

created 

• Filensive documentation included - over 50 pages ol easy to 

follow instructions1 

PLEASE NOTE: Many features now leqwre ihe use ol RAMBOard. Ihe disk dme expansion device available seperawiy Irom 

Software Support international 

THE NEW MAVERICK V5 

ONLY $39.95 

Now Includes Parameter Modules 1-8 

If You Prefer, You May Mail Your Order To: 

Software Support International 

2700 NE Andresen Road, Suite A-10, Vancouver, WA 98661 

METH0DSOFP*TMEHTS-V*>Kci!pcw«y«ty COOor pestn* cue* Ajl Paa» M3!35anad»;cn1o nwS 

Attention Registered Maverick Owners: 

You may upgrade to Ihe new V5 Master Disk 

only $9.95! 

Parameier Module #8 is also available 

only $9.95 

(Includes Parameter Modules 5-8) 

We Accept 

VISA, M/C, 

& Discover

COMMODORE IN 

THE MEDIA 

Here arc some more sightings of 

Commodore computers on film, 

on television, and in print, as 

reported by INFO readers. 

f\ Commodore 64 and a 1541 

drive was recently spied on an 

episode of National Geographic 

Explorer, The researcher used 

the Commodore equipment dur 

ing his 16-year search off the 

coasi of Africa for live speci 

mens of the Coelacanth fish. 

-Julie Rhodes 

A, Amiga 2000 is featured 

and even identified bv name in 

Blue Ribbon Bakery to gi 

you 32 or more simultaneous | 

MIDI channels! 

1\ ews & V iews 

... continued from page 27 

the dialogue in a scene in the 

movie Screwball Hotel. Three 

students at a military academy 

use it to try to hack into the 

school's computer system to 

change their academic grades. 

- Michael Holloway 

I he 1989 Camcorder Maga 

zine Christmas Buyer's Guide 

features an article which boasts 

of the Amiga's video capabili 

ties and covers many Amiga 

video and graphics programs. 

It's truly an article worth read 

ing. - Joyce Whaley 

T 

Compatability Performance 

Tlit Serial Solution 

provides two indus 

try-si andard serial 

ports. The 9-pin port 

is IBM-AT compa 

tible. The 25-pin port 

is RS-232C compa 

tible. And it supplies 

the 12 volts needed to 

drive Amiga-specific 

peripherals, such as 

MIDI interfaces. 

Both ports support 

all standard 

handshaking lines 

plus CD and RI. 

The Serial Solution 

delivers error-free 

performance for both 

the standard baud 

rates (1200, 2400, 

etc.) and the MIDI 

baud rate. The 

highest supported 

baud rale is 125K 

baud — useful for 

networking two 

A mi gas together. 

Each port has a fourbyte 

buffer to ensure 

no data loss at all 

transmission speeds. 

he artwork for the Tola! 

Dcvo album was produced on 

an Amiga by Robert Mothers- 

baugh of Devo. - Bill Pation 

P.O. Box 2035 • Manassas. Virginia 22110 • 703-330-5353 

Value 

The Serial Solution 

is your best buy in 

serial expansion at 

only $199! 

The right 

price, the best 

performance, the 

iuu'I cnmpatability. 

Use it with: 

Bars&Pipes • Deluxe 

Music-A-Talk 111 

• Baud Bandit* 

OnLine! • Diga 

- manv others • 


BATTER UP 

* yndicated computer columnist Dan Gutman has written a 

? new book about America's other favorite pastime (the main 

one being computing, of course), baseball. Titled If Ain't 

Cheatin' If You Don't Get Caught (Scuffing, Corking, Spitting, 

Gunking, Razzing and Other Fundamentals of Our National 

Pastime), the book explores the lore of baseball cheating and its 

importance in defining and developing the game. Ancedotal 

Interviews with dozens of players, managers and officials outline 

the most memorable and hilarious moments in baseball cheating. 

Published by Penguin Books. 

t\ new video release titled 

The Rachel Papers starring lone 

Skyc and James Spader also 

prominently features an Amiga 

500. 1084 monitor, and 1010 

disk drive. The Amy gets lots of 

screen time including an ani 

mated sequence from Inter 

play's Battle Chess game. 

- Michael Shannon 

Jn an episode of Alfred 

Hitchcock Presents aired on the 

USA Network, both an Amiga 

2000 and an Amiga 1000 were 

used. One to solve the murder, 

the other to help the murderer 

give clues to the police. 

- ChrisiophcrCockrell 

E he Weather Channel fea 

tured s special program on 

earthquakes in December which 

showed geologists using an 

Amiga 2000 in their research. 

- Mike Canadav 

S cveral VIC 20 computers are 

seen in the low budget horror 

flick Who Waits Below. They 

are used as keyboards (with 

oscilloscopes as monitors) for 

transmitters linking the under 

ground crew with the surface. 

- Rick Bresler 

n the ABC World News 

coverage of a story on 

Czechoslovakia, shots from a 

demonstration were shown. In 

the background on one of the 

shots a shop front or sign could 

could be seen with the Amiga 

"check mark" logo and the word 

"AMIGA." - James Bellanca 

n the rock music video by the 

band Timbuk 3 for the song 

called "Rev. Jack's Roaming 

Cadillac Church," an Amiga 

1000 is shown. The system is 

decorated to serve as an idol. 

- Mark Bonesteel 

1 he February edition of Com 

puter Graphics World has an 

article about researchers at the 

US Geological Survey using a 

VAX and an Amiga 2000. The 

Amiga, equipped with 9 megs 

of RAM, is used to display 2D 

and 3D animations of earth 

quake activity. 

- Megan Robotka 

A,.n Amiga 500 was used by 

ihe Canadian TV show Switch 

Back to digitize a person, and 

they gave away another A500 as 

pan of a contest. 

- Barrett Strew 

L.aveme's computer terminal 

on the hit NBC series "Empty 

Nest" is a Commodore VIC-20. 

- Scott Maxwell 

Next issue, INFO goes all- 

Amiga, and this section will 

become "Amiga in the Media." 

If you spot an Amiga in the 

movies, on TV, or in print, 

report it to: Amiga Sightings, 

123 N. Linn St., Ste. 2A, Iowa 

City, IA 52245.

OOPS 

• We typoed the phone number for Fix- 

elations not once, but twice (cut & 

paste is wonderful; don't you just 

love the way it will let you multiply 

errors so easily?) in the "Beyond 

Desktop Publishing" feature in #30. 

The real number is 508-393-7866. 

• YAT (Yet Another Typo) crept into 

the phone number for Strategy Soft 

ware in issue 29. Its really 907-694- 

2120. 

CHANGES 

• A new company called DigiFex has 

picked up virtually all of defunct 

CMI's product line, including their 

video stuff, processor accelerators, 

and multi-port serial board (including 

the soon-to-be-completed network 

based on it). 610 Main St., Oregon 

City, OR 97045. 503-656-8818 voice 

503-656-9803 FAX. 

VERSIONS 

• We've had two updates to Blue Rib 

bon Bakery's Bars & Pipes since the 

last issue, the latest being VI.Od. 

Upgrades are sent for free to regis 

tered owners, so send in those regis 

tration cards, folks! Contact BRB for 

additional upgrade information. 1248 

Clairmont Rd., Decatur, GA 30030. 

404-377-1514. 

• Elkon Enterprises is shipping ver 

sion 1.3 of their IconLab. 4654 

Mistletoe, Wichita Falls, TX 76310. 

• Bill Hawes (of ARexx fame) has 

upgraded his WShel! and numbered it 

at version 1.2. Registered owners can 

upgrade for $10. William S. Hawes. 

PO Box 308, Maynard, MA 01754. 

617-568-8695. 

• Owners of ASDG's CygiuisEd Pro 

fessional can upgrade to version 2.0 

for $25. It has been considerably 

reworked, and now sports even faster 

search & replace and support for pro 

IP®, 

gramming languages, Modula-2 in 

particular. 925 Stewart St.. Madison. 

WI 53713. 608-273-6585. 

Gold Disk's Professional Page is 

currently at version 1.31. It now 

offers support for AGFA Compu- 

graphic scalable Intellifonts and high 

resolution printer output from non- 

PostScript printers. The price, believe 

it or not, has been reduced from S395 

to S295, and registered owners can 

obtain 1.31 for $40. PO Box 789, 

Streetsville, Mississauga, ON Canada 

L5M2C2. 416-828-0913. 

Mindscape has re-released three of 

their best Amiga graphic adventures, 

Deja Vut Uninvited, and Shadow-gate 

in a single package at a bargain price 

of S49.95. A collection of C64 games, 

consisting of Gauntlet, Paperboy, and 

Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom, 

is also available for S39.95. 3444 

Dundee Rd., Northbrook. IL 60062. 

708-480-7667. 

Lattice is sending free upgrades of 

their C compiler. Version 5.04, to all 

registered owners. 2500 S. Highland 

Ave., Lombard. IL 708-444-4309. 

Central Coast Software has com 

pleted work on version 4.0 of their 

indispensible Quarterback hard drive 

backup system. It's a major overhaul 

and can be yours for S10 plus your 

original Quarterback disk. 424 Vista 

Ave.. Golden, CO 80401. 303-526- 

1030. 

New Horizons has just finished 

upgrading their graphic wordproces- 

sor. ProWrite!, to version 3.0. 

Upgrade policy wasn't available at 

presstime, but look for more INFO in 

an upcoming issue. PO Box 43167, 

Austin. TX 78745. 512-328-6650. 

The Puzzle Factory has released ver 

sion 4.0 ot- ReSourcc,- their feature- 

laden Amiga disassembler. It's 

available for S20 plus your original 

disk. PO Box 986, Veneta. OR 97487. 

503-935-3709. 

Interchange is up to version 1.5 and 

now includes modules for Sculpt 3 & 

4D, VideoScape 2.0, and PAGErender 

3D. Syndesis is offering the upgrade 

to registered owners for S20. N 9353 

Benson Rd., Brooklyn, WI 53521. 

608-455-1422. 

• Supra is offering hardware and soft 

ware for their Amiga hard drives. 

This gets complicated, so pay atten 

tion: a new autobooting ROM to plug 

into the DMA interface is S14.95, or 

you can exchange the thing for a new 

WordSync interface for $75. Both of 

these options are available for the 

A500 and A2000. Updated versions 

of their utility disks. SupraBoot and 

SupraTools are available for $14.95, 

though they are shipped free with the 

hardware upgrades. Contact Supra for 

more details. 1133 Commercial Way. 

Albany. OR 97321. 503-967-9075. 

• Brett Casebolt has done a bit of bug 

fixing in his marvelous Scene Gener 

ator. The fractal landscape program is 

now at version 2.05, with upgrade 

details unavailable at presstime. Nat 

ural Graphics. PO Box 1963, Rock- 

lin.CA 95677. 

MOVES 

• Manx, of Aztec C compiler fame, has 

new phone numbers: 201-542-2750 

voice, 201-542-8386 FAX. 

- Psvgnosis has moved their offices to 

South Harrington Building. Sefton 

Street, Liverpool. UK L3 4BQ. 

• Peterson Enterprises, publisher of 

the C-Light raytracing package, has 

moved to 7 Grove St., Haydenville, 

MA 01039. 413-268-9232. 

• New World Computing has relo 

cated at 20301 Ventura Blvd.. Suite 

200. Woodland Hills. CA 91364. The 

phone numbers are 818-999-0606 

voice business, 818-999-0607 techni 

cal voice, 818-593-3455 FAX. (We 

have to wonder whether they moved 

their possessions with the bovine 

launching system from their hysteri 

cally funny Nuclear War game.) 

INFO July 1990 79

BEST OF PUBLIC DOMAIN! 

Harv Laser's 

TOP 20 PD PICKS* 

Latest Versions 

'as seen in Amigaworld 

4 Disk Set 

just $20.00 

plus $2.00 S&H 

Free Premier Catalog included 

with every order 

PREMIER SOFTWARE 

P.O. Box 3782 

Redwood City, CA 94064 

Or Call: 415-593-1207 

Dealer Inquiries Welcome 

IT'S 11:30 PM, AND THE 

FATE OF THE GALAXY 

RESTS IN YOUR HANDS. 

YOU NEED AN EDGE... 

You need RapidFire, the automatic firing weapon for 

your favorite video game. Just plug RapidFiretm in 

between your computer and any joystick, mouse, 

trackball, or other controller. Then get ready to 

dominate with up to 10 shots per second of fire power! 

RapidFire works with the Commodore Amiga011, 64, 

128, and Atari"11 computers and video games. Just 

$19.95 plus shipping and handling. 

DIGIVIEW'"1 OWNERS ! 

Don't let a cardboard and cellophane filter wheel be the 

weak link in your digitizing system. We offer a 

professional quality rigid optical filter wheel for 

superior results. Only $19.95 plus shipping and 

handling. 

See your dealer or order from Ampex Systems at 

(800)962-4489. Dealers contact DDM Technologies. PO 

Box 921722, Norcross, GA 30092. Phone (404)879- 

5607. 

AVAILABLE NOW! 

• DeluxeHelp 

For DeluxePainrs HI 

©flu y©nn miceedl a m 

flnamadl 

DeluxeHelp* our online, interactive 

instructor series is growing and will 

soon be available for: 

• TurboSilver 3.0 

• DigiPaint3.0 

• DigiView 4.0 

ei Ml ifidnurk E A 

J.CUnd DiliV.t* -1 0 

i NwTrt 

t ttuicmut Impd* 

AVAILABLE 

NOW! 

Advanced Techniques 

For DeluxePaint5 III 

Powerful, lime-saving 

Prices range from: 

$3.9.95 to $69.95 

(Shipping and tax not inclu 

(Fla. residents add 6% sales tax) IF V ' DEALER 

SITE LICENCES AVAILABLE » INQUIRIES 

FOR TRAINING INSTITUTES WELCOME 

TO ORDERlCALL TOLL FREE 1-800-535-7876 

and use your: ["Tgf*! I

THE INCREDIBLE 

NOT JUST ANOTHER MOUSEPAD: 

The INFO-PAD is actually 2 products in one: a high-tech 

tracking surface, and a Desktop Reference Center. Unlike 

the ordinary foam and fabric mousepads you may have 

seen, the INFO-PAD provides these quality features: 

(Non-subscribers, add $5.00) 

(Outside N. America, add $3.50) 

Space age plastic surface for 

whisper-smooth tracking and 

prolonged mouse life. 

Unique Dala-Window displays 

reference templates beneath 

transparent tracking surface. 

Comes with AmigaDOS 

starter template. 

VISA Credit Card holders order by phone: (319) 338'0703 

or use the handy return mail card for check or money order. 

Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery. NOT AVAILABLE IN STORES! 

INFO subscribers periodically 

receive free additional templates 

(mailed right along with your 

copy of INFO Magazine). 

Also great for displaying notes, 

calendars, computer art. photos, 

recording high game scores, 

mapping dungeons: you name it! 

Most people think a subscription to INFO 

gets you a great magazine. It does and you 

Get it FASTER - Up to two weeks before it appears on the newsstands 

Get it for less MONEY - Up to 50% off the newsstand costs 

Get EXTRAS - Each issue includes the INFO WrapUp, with more news, views, 

reviews, and game tips. AND periodically, a reference card to use 

with or without an INFO-Pad. 

To subscribe or renew, use the reply card, 

or phone INFO at (319) 338-0703 

VISA and MasterCard accepted 

INFO July 1990 81

27 

2 

3 

13 

78 

C3 

80 

73 

5 

IS 

66 

Ampex Systems 

Beeshu, Inc. 

Beeshu, Inc. 

Central Coast 

Checkpoint Tech. 

CSA 

DDM Tech. 

DevWare 

Digital Creations 

Eschalon Dev. 

INFO Back Issues 

81 

67 

82 

17 

80 

74 

C4 

9 

74 

75 

26 

INFO Mousepads 

INFO Subscriptions 

INFO Unclassifieds 

Inovatronics 

Jumpdisk 

Micro Systems Intl. 

NewTek, Inc. 

Odyssey Software 

One Byte 

Peoplelink 

Premier Software 

INFO UNCLASSIFIEDS 

INFO UNCLASSIFIEDS 

$3.00 per word 

Send with check or money 

order to: INFO Unclassifieds 

123 N. Linn St., Suite 2A 


Ads received with payment by 

Jun. 12, 1990 will appear in 

issue #32 (on sale Jul. 21, 1990). 

AMIGA DIGEST VIDEO SERIES VHS TU 

TORIALS. Tape One, "Mastering Work 

bench and CLI", step-by-step guide with 

FREE software disk and command sum 

mary. Tape two, "Desktop Publishing 

with Pageslrcam", complete instruction 

on use and layout with FREE fonts and 

clipart disk plus command summary. 

S30 each, both for S50. GRASSROOTS 

VIDEO PRODUCTIONS, P.O. Box 10889, 

Burke VA 22015. (703) 569-2652. Mas 

tercard, VISA, Check, COD. 

REPRESENTING ALL SUNTRON 

products including C64, C128, and 

A50O power supplies. CALL Max 

Donaldson, 303-698-1117. 

ETHERNET communications board for 

A2OOO. New, retail S 1000.00, asking 

S500.00. Call 319-268-0961. 

GIANT COMPUTER HINT BOOKI Over 

100 games covered!!! S22, James Kato, 

10374 Rainbow Circle. Fountain Valley, 

CA 92708. 

FISH DISKS $1.95 EACH. No minimum. 

Free shipping to USA street address 

(Canada/First Class add 25 cents each). 

VISA/MC accepted. Also AmigaCOMAL 

S99.95. FISH TO GO / COMAL Users 

Group, U.S.A., Ltd., 5501 Groveland Ter 

race, Madison, WI 53716. 

AMIGA - PLAY-BY-MAIL Fantasy 

Wargaming. Played on disk for 

S4.25/turn. Uses full Amiga graphics ca 

pability ■ each disk packed with informa 

tion.. Send S5.00 for set-up and rules 

(first turn free). Steam-Soft, P.O. Box 

413, Plattesville, WI 53818. (608) 348- 

4536. 

AMIGA/COMMODORE DISCOUNT 

CHIPS. 6526-S12.95, 6567-S15.95, P/A- 

S12.95, 8520-S17.95, PAULA/DENISE- 

S39.95, Fatter/Super AGNUS with chip 

puller - $99.95, 1.3 ROM-S27.95, 

A501/512K upgrade - S89.95. Com 

modore Diagnosrjtian #6, which finds 

faulty chips on all Commodore units is 

S6.95 postpaid. NEW PRODUCT - Heavyduty, 

repairable C64 power supply with 

schematics, S23.95 plus UPS. Send For 

Catalog. THE GRAPEVINE GROUP, Inc., 

35 Charlotte Drive, Wesley Hills, New 

York 10977. 800-292-7445 or 914-354- 

4448. 

If you're INTERESTED IN WRITING 

technical articles for the INFO tech sec 

tion, contact: Chris & Nick, INFO North 

west, 1915 CasaMarcla Crescent, Victo 

ria BC Canada V8N2X4. 


80 

80 

11 

76 

19 

77 

27 

7 

76 

25 

Premier Software 

RGB Video 

Sega/IDG 

Semitech, Inc. 

Software Support 

Software Support 

Twin Cities 128 

Virgin/Melbourne 

House 

Virtual Reality Labs 

Xetec 

HOW TO MAKE THOUSANDS S$$$ with 

your own Home Computer Business. Will 

teach. Send SI.00 for information - 

COMPUTER, P.O. Box 1442-F1, Orange 

Park. FL 32067. 

TEC 1-1 NO-WORLD. Guaranteed Lowest 

Prices on Amiga Hardware and Software. 

Call for catalog. 811 Osborne Street, St. 

Mary's, GA 31558. (912) 882-2233. 

COSMIC VISIONARY ARTWORK by 

Stephen Beam. Two disks, S25.00. 

Stephen Beam, 16540 E. Whittier Blvd. 

#41, WhittierCA 90603. 

QUALITY 3.5" and 5.25" diskettes at 

wholesale pricesl We carry most major 

brands and premium diskettes at sub 

stantial savings. 3.5" DS/DD Sony S.75 

each, premium S.55 each. 5.25" DS/DD 

Sony $.65 each, premium S.31 each. 

Sorry, no credit cards, all orders shipped 

COD. Disc Haus, 230 E. Main Street, 

Meriden CT 06450. Order, call 203-237- 

0133. To receive a FREE CATALOG, call 

800-779-1717. ext. 123. 

Due to INFO'S continuing concern 

about piracy, and the difficulty of 

screening public domain collections 

for copyright violations, INFO has 

never printed ads for software 

"rentals", and will no longer be print 

ing ads for public domain collections.

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UNITED STATES

Performance Gain 

vs. Stock Amiga 

(using NSIEVE 

Benchmark) 

Starts At Only $795 

68030 accelerator 20, 25, 33MHZ same board. 

Co-processor socket clocked for 20-50MHZ 68881/882 math chip. 

68000 is resocketed on board for complete compatibility, 

Allows 256K or 512K O.S. to be run in fast 32-bit static ram. 

Optional Dram expansion allows 1-8MB of additional 32-bit ram. 

Only 68030 accelerator that fits the A500/A1000/A2000. 

CSA Engineering provides same board unlimited upgrade-ability. 

Wait state selectable faster ram gives faster throughput. 

Unique surface mount design saves space and enhances reliability. 

Lowest price 68030 accelerator for anv Amiga. 

12 

10 

8 

6 

4 

2 

A1OOO call! 

Why Spend More And Get Less Performance? 

*M EGA/33 

*MEGA/25 

*M EGA/20 

*CBM/25 *GVP/25 

*HURRICANE 500 (NOTE: CBM 2630 and GVP 3001 

*MIDGET RACER not available for A500/A1000) 

9 12 15 18 21 

List Price (in hundreds of dollars) 

A500, A1000, A2000 and Amiga are trademarks of Commodore Amiga Inc 

MC-68000, 68030, 68881, and 68882 are trademarks of Motorola Inc. 

24 27 30 

csn COMPUTER SYSTEM ASSOCIATES 

7S64 TRADE STREET 

SAN OIEGO. CALIFORNIA 92121 (619) 566-3911

D I G I • V I E W GOLD 

Digi-View 4.0 and Digi-Paint 3 Become One 

with the ultimate link between digitizer and paint program. With 

Digi-View 4.0's Dlgi-Port feature they can both share the same 

screen so that touching-up your digitized.images is easier than ever. 

Transfer 768x592, 4096 colour super bitmaps from Digi-View 4.0 

to Digi-Paint 3 with a simple menu command, make changes 

such as combining images or adding titles, and redisplay them as ; 

Dynamic HiRes or other resolution images. 

Only Digi-View Gold: / 

• Digitizes in all Amiga resolution modes from 320x256 up to 

768x592 (full HiRes overscan) 

• Uses 2 to 4096 colours (including halfbrite) 

• Has exclusive Dynamic modes for 4096 colours in HiRes 

• Digitizes in 21 bits per pixel (2.1 million colours) for the highest } 

quality images possible 

• Has advanced dithering routines that give an apparent 100,000 colours 

on screen simultaneously 

• Comes with an icon driven slideshow program for presentations 

using both IFF and Dynamic images 

• Has complete software control of colour saturation, brightness, 

sharpness, hue, resolution, and palette 

• Digitizes in"fulfoverscan with no borders for use with video genlocks 

• Offers an unprecedented lifetime warranty 

It you want the best graphics possible for your Amiga, then get the best 

selling video digitizer of all time: Digi-View Gold. 

Only $199.95 

Digi-View Gold is available now ^L ■ fl^^g 

atyoui local Amiga dealer. Or call l|kl^BBf|E=: mm 

1-800-843-8934. Digi-View W^L\ W I Pi 

Owners call for "Instant" up- ^ .■»■=._. ■ ■ 

grade to 4.0 software today, incorporated 

■Requires standard gender changer for use with Amiga 1000. Dynamic HiRes 

requires 2 megs of RAM. Digi-View Gold is a trademark of NewTck, Inc. 

;t?" *"'T ■'■• I* 

ith the all new Digi-View 4.0 soft 

ware you can do the one thing most 

people thought was impossible- 

digitize and display all 4096 colours 

in high resolution! We call this revolutionary new 

graphics mode Dynamic HiRes. Amiga Format magazine 

calls it "breathtaking, easily the best images ever seen 

on an Amiga screen!1 But that's just the start of what 

makes Digi-View 4.0 a breakthrough. Other new features 

include: Dynamic HAM (fringe free HAM), Noise 

Reduction (for the sharpest images ever), ARexx sup 

port, super bitmap digitizing, 24 bit colour support 

and dozens of other new features making Digi-View Gold 

the hottest Amiga graphics product ever. 

And it's still just as easy to use. Simply focus your 

video camera on any object or picture, and in seconds 

Digi-View Gold turns it into Amiga graphics that 

glow with vibrant colour and stunning clarity. Whether 

you are creating graphics for desktop publishing, 

presentations, video, or just for fun, Digi-View Gold gives 

you dazzling images with amazing simplicity. 

.^ These images were photographed directly from an Amiga 

1080 monitor and show the new 4096.colour 

Dynamic HiRes mode available only 

with NewTek's Digi-View 4.0

The FIRST Magazine Produced Entirely With Personal Computers!

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