=========================================================================== _ __ _ _<> __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Amiga Update -News and Rumors /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ ||(A Very Ocassional Newsletter) / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || =========================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga Technolgies, GmbH --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 951003 N E W P R O D U C T S ( G A M E S ) A N N O U N C E D Picked off the net the other day and presented for those who like to have some fun now and again. Keep in mind that to the "Brits", who put this list together, football often means soccer. Brad Forthcoming Amiga Releases late '95 / early '96 ABC - Acid Alien Breed 3D - Ocean Andre Agassi Tennis - Acid Arcane Pinball Game - Arcane: 1996 Arnie - Kellion: 1996 Baldies - Gametek: Oct Big Red Adventure - Core: DEAD Blitz Bomber - Leading Edge: ???? Bubble & Squeak 2 - Audiogenic Championship Manager 2 - Domark: Oct Chaos Engine 2 - Renegade: Christmas Chess Through The Ages - Kompart: A long way off Citadel - Black Legend Coala - Empire: Oct Double Agents - Flair Dungeon Master 2 - Interplay: ??? Empire Soccer A1200 - Empire: Christmas Exile AGA - Audiogenic Fair Play - Greenwood Fears CD32 - Manyk Final Over - Team 17: Sept First Encounters - Gametek: ???? Football Glory Indoor Edition - Kompart: Christmas/January Gloom II - Black Magic Imran Khan Cricket - Audiogenic: Sept Leading Lap - Kellion: Sept Legends - Krisalis: Sept Limbo of The Lost - Rasputin: ??? Lost Eden CD32 - Virgin: ???? Megarace (in der Schwebe) - Mindscape NBA Jam Tournament Edition - Acclaim Odessey - Audiogenic: Sept Paws of fury CD32 - Gametek Phoenix (Reunion 2) - Grandslam: 1996 PID - Terramarque: ??? Pinball Mania - 21st Century: 1996 Player Manager 2 - Anco Pole Position - Ascon/Daze: Oct Pole Position: Formel 1 Teamchef - Ascon Primal Rage - Warner Interactive Rage - Alternative: Christmas Raiden (still unclear) - U.S.Gold Rugby Boss - Alternative: Christmas Santa Wars - Alternative: Christmas Seventh Sword of Mendor - Grandslam: Oct Simon The Sorcerer 2 - Sentisoft: Oct Speris Legacy - Team 17: Sept/Oct Star Crusader - Gametek: Sept Sub Station - Unique: ???? Super Loopz - Audiogenics Switchworld - Kompart: Sept TBE - The Hidden: ???? Team - Impact: Nov Thomas The Tank Engine Pinball - Alternative: Sept Timekeepers - Vulcan Software Tiny Troops - Mindscape: Sept Total Football - Domark Total Football - Domark: Oct Tracksuit Manager 2 - Alternative: ???? Traitor - Alternative: Christmas Wheelspin - Kompart: Oct World Cup Golf - U.S.Gold Worms - Team 17: God knows!!! Z - Warner Interactive Zeewolf 2 - Binary Asyluj: Oct (Source: Amiga Joker (ECTS London) / Amiga Power) ------------------- S O M E T H O U G H T S F R O M T H E E D I T O R One of the things I do with my spare time is write an Amiga column for the Watertown Area Computer Users' Group newsletter. Readers of this electronic newsletter usually get any news first, but this month I had a few thoughts in that other newsletter which I thought I'd pass along (since that list of games isn't all that long). Here they are: It's time for some positive thinking in the Amiga community. To that end, I'd like to start this column with a quotation, pulled from the Net just a few days ago. The quotation is from Petro Ty- schtschenko, Senior Vice President Escom and General Manager of production on September 21, while speaking at the SMAU computer fair in Milano, Italy. "We are a young structure but there is already a date that will be written in the Amiga history : On Monday, the 11th of Septem- ber, the first Amiga built by Amiga Technologies came out of the production line. Delivery of the first machines will follow next week. To celebrate this event, we will hold a press conference on the 10th of October in Bordeaux at our Solectron plant." Yes, folks, they're building them again. By the time you read this, they should be shipping them again as well. These first units will be A1200s bound for Europe, but it's a beginning. Mr. Tyschtschenko had a few other interesting things to say to Amigans, so let's hear from him again. "we plan to enhance current models. We are thinking of faster processors and chip integration for the beginning. We are going to integrate the 68060 chip for the A4000T this year. For the en- try-level model, we are looking at an external CD ROM addition and more RAM onboard the bare units. "We are also planning to use the CD 32 concept for developments of set-top-box systems. The set-top-boxes will open new markets for Amiga products. Set-top-Boxes could be produced in variants for cable-TV, satellite-TV and for telephone line communication and also be used for home-shopping and home-banking. I'm con- vinced that this market is tremendous and will push the Amiga technology into millions of households. Software publishers should be interested in writing software for such a widely spread platform." I must admit I'm not all that certain what the set-top box mar- ket is all about right now, but I like the tone of what I'm hear- ing. Not all the activities in the Amiga market are confined to Eu- rope. Softwood, the six person company that does for the Amiga's applications software what it takes Microsoft to do less well for the PC, has a few neat items up its sleeve. They have just shipped Release Four of "Final Writer" and announced their pro- fessional spreadsheet product, "Final Calc". I'm using Release Four of "Final Writer" at this moment and plan to demonstrate it at an upcoming meeting. By coincidence I've also been using Microsoft's "Word 6" at work a great deal lately. While all pro- grams have their strengths and weaknesses, I'm more comfortable using "FinalWriter", which frankly surprised me. Incidentally, there is a lot in common between the two word processors. It's not advertised much, but the spelling checker and the grammar checker in both programs are bought from other companies, not written in house. In fact, they're exactly the same in both pro- grams. If you feed the same text to "FinalWriter" and "Word 6", you will have exactly the same results from these two features, because both use exactly the same software engines. One area where "FinalWriter" is more to my liking is in its use of the new "click tab technology", even though that was first pioneered in PC programs. It's used in "FinalWriter" to access pages and sections, something I can't use it for in "Word 6". For the game players in the audience, recent net postings indi- cate quite a few new programs planned for the upcoming months. {See article above.} Most are still from the British houses, not surprising at this point. If you've been having trouble keeping up with Amiga news since the demise of "AmigaWorld" there's something you can do about that also. IDG, who published "AmigaWorld", didn't leave us en- tirely in the lurch. They have launched an American version of their popular British magazine "Amiga Computing". Available by subscription only as nearly as I can tell, here's the information on how to subscribe direct from their WWW home page: "To apply for a subscription to Amiga Computing simply write to the following address quoting which subscription you require, your name, address and payment in US funds. Please quote ref: 9732 when ordering your subscription. AMC Subs Dept, 460 Hillside Avenue, Hillside, New Jersey, 07205 USA Standard 6 issues - $14 USA Standard 12 issues - $28 USA Gold 6 issues - $27 USA Gold 12 issues - $54" Gold subscriptions have two coverdisks. Regular have only one. All the magazines have product prices quoted in money that makes sense on this side of the pond. Want AGA in a big box Amiga but don't have the cash to pick up a new A4000T right now? (Besides it being impossible to get one for some time to come, that is.) Well, another new software package recently released may end your dilemma. This is an upgrade for the Retina graphics board that for the first time can do excel- lent AGA. It's not perfect, but after installing it I can now run AMosaic in 256 color mode on my Workbench screen, making browsing the World Wide Web as nice on my A3000 as on an A1200 or A4000. The emulation is even good enough to allow me to play "MegaBall AGA" in its AGA mode for the first time! If you have an older Amiga and have been envious of the AGA users, this board and software are a real chance to catch up. Hey! It's a lot of fun to write an upbeat column again! Brad =========================================================================== _ __ _ _<> __ _ || Brad Webb - available at: /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || webb@malamute.med.ge.com /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || Portal -- XJumpdisk ===========================================================================