Total_Amiga_-_22.pdf

£4.00, 8.00Euro

Issue 22, Winter 2005

What’s Inside Our

Winter

Wonderland?

Amiga Forever 2005 Premium

DVPlayer: OS 4 movie player

AmiDisk: OS 4 native ﬁle manager

World of Wi-Fi

Plus:

• OS 4 and MorphOS updates.

• Big Bash 3 and Amigathering 6 reports.

• Interviews.

• Rexx Programmer’s Reference review.

• Battle for Wesnoth review.

• Optimising graphics memory tutorial.

Broken Sword

Contents

News

IBrowse Draws Closer

News

Editorial

Bytes...

W elcome to Total Amiga

Adios

Details of the long-awaited

upgrade to IBrowse, one of the

Amiga’s premier web browsers,

have now been released and

beta versions of the new release

have been demonstrated at

shows around the world. Version

2.4 is mainly a bug-ﬁx release

while the team concentrates on

version 3.0 which will support

newer web standards like CSS

(Cascading Style Sheets) and

the DOM (Document Object

Model). Despite its minor

upgrade status, the new version

still promises many useful

enhancements, an extensive list

of which are available on the

IBrowse web site.

Probably the biggest item in the

list is the new plug-in API which

will enable developers to make

software that integrates into web

pages. The ﬁrst example of this

will be the Flash animation plug-

in which will be supplied with

IBrowse 2.4. This plug-in will

enable IBrowse users to view

many sites that use Flash

animated content. The IBrowse

team point out that their plug-in

is based on an open source

Flash player that does not

support features of the more

recent versions of Flash,

however it should be a big

improvement over no Flash

support at all!

A small improvement that is

bound to win IBrowse 2.4 a lot of

fans is the ability to open web

pages in a background tab. This

feature enables you to open a

link in a new tab but have the tab

you are currently viewing remain

active, the new page then loads

in the background so it is ready

when you have completed

reading the ﬁrst page. Trust me,

it’s really handy! Another minor

enhancement is the addition of

context-sensitive pointers, at last

the IBrowse pointer will give you

a clue if you are hovering over a

text or image link.

Under OS 4, IBrowse gains

preliminary character set

support, this means that pages

which use other character sets

such as those in Greek and

Russian will now display

correctly. The support is called

preliminary because it only

covers the web page itself and

not aspects of the user interface

such as form elements (buttons,

text ﬁelds etc.) or page titles.

The spooﬁng engine, which

allows IBrowse to pretend to be

another browser to fool brain

dead web sites has been

rewritten to be much more

ﬂexible which should improve

compatibility. Javascript handling

has been improved and for OS 4

users there is a PPC native

version of the javascript.library

which should substantially

improve performance on

Javascript heavy sites.

Many other aspects of the

browser have seen smaller

enhancements and bug ﬁxes.

These include the HTML engine

and table parser, cookie support,

the internal GIF decoder and

memory management.

IBrowse 2.4 will be a free

upgrade for version 2.x users, a

paid upgrade for owners of older

versions is expected. For further

details, including a very

extensive list of the hundreds of

changes since 2.3, visit the

IBrowse web site:

http://www.ibrowse-dev.net

Issue 22

Winter 2005

Prepares for Launch

In the lead up to the release of

Amiga OS 4.0, Hyperion are

launching an ofﬁcial website for

the operating system. We

understand that the web site will

probably be on-line by the time

you read this and that an

announcement will be made to

the Amiga press when the site is

launched. The new site also

showcases the new-look OS 4

logo which we reproduce above.

According to Hyperion, the

website will grow over time to act

as a central resource for both

current and future users and

licensees of Amiga OS 4. At the

time of launch the website will

contain three separate

issue 22 and what a jam-

packed issue we have for you

this time (so much so that I’m

squeezed into this tiny column)!

Much of the buzz on the Amiga

forums recently and at the Big

Bash 3 show in Peterborough

(see our report in this issue) has

been about the Amy’05 PPC

motherboard from a new

company, Troika. We have been

lucky enough to get an exclusive

mini-interview with the people

behind Amy’05 and some

pictures as they gear up for

production. So, if you haven’t

already done so take a look now!

Once you’ve taken that in, don’t

forget that there’s much more in

this issue! In particular there’s

two more great interviews, the

latest Amiga Forever release for

retro fans and more on Wi-Fi.

If you’re a US or Canadian

reader, then you may notice that

this issue has been posted from

Canada. Greg Condon of the

PANORAMA Amiga users group

in Vancouver is now printing a

second run of Total Amiga in

Canada. This has enabled us to

cut our subscription rates to

North America by 25%! Thanks

to Greg for his on-going effort to

help readers in this region.

We need your help to keep each

issue as packed with varied and

interesting content as this one...

if you would like to contribute

please contact me for details.

Enjoy the mag!

Robert Williams

editor@totalamiga.org

Garry

introductions to the OS, each

targeted at different groups of

users, and a number of

interesting articles intended to

remind people of the great

legacy of the operating system

and the features that make it

such a great user experience.

Over time, further articles will be

added to give more insight into

the new version of the OS, and

Hyperion will be offering

downloads and a developer’s

section from the web site closer

to the Amiga OS 4.0 launch.

The new site will be available

from the following URL:

os4.hyperion-entertainment.biz

News

Editorial..............................2

Troika Amy’05....................8

Amiga OS 4 Update........ 10

MorphOS Update............ 12

Features

Big Bash 3 Show Report. 14

Amigathering 6 Report.... 16

Jamie Krueger Interview. 18

IBrowse Team Interview.. 24

Micro AmigaOne Audio

Update............................ 28

Reviews

DVPlayer......................... 30

Amiga Forever 2005

Premium Edition.............. 32

AmiDisk........................... 36

XNet-RSS....................... 38

On the Edge Preview...... 39

Broken Sword................. 40

Battle for Wesnoth.......... 42

Rexx Programmer’s

Reference....................... 44

DaveyD, the web master of

AmigaWorld.net, recently

posted to the site that Garry

Hare has contacted him and

stated “Several months ago I

terminated my association

with Amiga, Inc. I am no

longer afﬁliated with Amiga in

any capacity.”.

You may remember that

Garry’s company KMOS

purchased the rights to Amiga

OS and then purchased

Amiga Inc. itself, and then

dropped the KMOS name in

favour of Amiga Inc.! Amiga

themselves have not made a

statement regarding this

move and we have no

information on what it might

mean for the company’s

fortunes. We do know that

this change has had no

noticeable effect on the

development of Amiga OS 4

which continues apace (see

our OS 4 Update feature for

further details).

You can read the e-mail from

Garry and some reactions at

the following AmigaWorld.net

thread:

http://amigaworld.net/

modules/newbb/

viewtopic.php?

topic_id=15634&forum=16

Support

Optimising OS 4 Graphics

Memory Usage................ 46

World of Wi-Fi................. 48

Colour screenshots etc... 52

A preview of the new Amiga OS 4 web site showing how it

introduces the OS and reminds visitors of key features.

A screenshot of IBrowse 2.4 beta running on OS 4 with the new

context-sensitive pointer image highlighted.

About Total Amiga

Legalese

Total Amiga is published quarterly

by South Essex Amiga Link.

Editor: Robert Williams

Design: Robert Williams

Contributors: Tony Aksnes

Andy Baldie

Sam Byford

Sean Courtney

Nigel Derbyshire

Magnus Johnson

George Sokianos

Mick Sutton

Tommi Toivanen

Proofreading: Sam Byford

Greg Condon

Sean Courtney

Mick Sutton

If you have any queries,

suggestions or want to contact us

for any reason please use one of

the following:

EMail: editor@totalamiga.org

WWW: http://www.totalamiga.org/

Post: Total Amiga,

26 Wincoat Drive,

BENFLEET, Essex,

SS7 5AH, UK.

Telephone: +44 (0) 1268 569937

(19:00 - 22:00 UK time please)

Only Amiga Software

Made it Possible

Total Amiga is designed and laid

out using:

Hardware:

Home built x86 PC:

Athlon XP 2500+, 512MB RAM,

nVidia gForce 2 MX400

AmigaOne-XE:

800MHz G4, 512MB RAM,

3DFX Voodoo 3 3000

Software:

Amithlon by Bernie Meyer et. al.

Amiga OS 3.9 by Amiga

Amiga OS 4 by Hyperion

PageStream 4.1 by Softlogik

ImageFX 4.5 by Nova Design

Perfect Paint 2.93

by Georges Halvadjian

Photogenics 5 by Paul Nolan

Final Writer 5 by Softwood

Ghostscript from artofcode LLC,

Amiga OS port by Whoosh777.

There are also some essential

utilities we couldn’t live without:

Directory Opus 5, SGrab, MCP,

Turbo Print 7, MakeCD.

Our thanks to the creators of this

and all the other great Amiga

software out there.

Total Amiga is entirely created

using Amiga software, no other

platforms are used at any stage of

the design or layout process.

Fonts

The body text of Total Amiga is

set in Triumvirate Normal as

supplied with PageStream, the

heading typeface is Forgotten

Futurist by Ray Larabie. Take a

look at Ray’s huge range of

freeware fonts at

http://www.larabiefonts.com and

his commercial foundry at

http://www.typodermic.com.

The views expressed in this magazine

are those of the author of each piece,

they do not necessarily reﬂect the

views of the editor, other contributors

or SEAL.

Please Note: Total Amiga is produced

by the editor and contributors in their

spare time. While we always strive to

produce the magazine on time and

include all the advertised contents this

is not always possible due to other

commitments. The price you pay for

Total Amiga covers our costs and

nothing more, we don’t make a proﬁt

from it.

If you wish to contact a contributor

send your message to one of the

addresses in this section.

Amiga is a registered trademark and

the Amiga logo, the “Boing Ball”

device, AmigaDOS, Amiga Kickstart,

Amiga Workbench, Autoconﬁg,

Bridgeboard, and Powered by Amiga

are trademarks of AMIGA Inc.

“Amigan” is copyright by Bob Scharp

and used with his permission.

All other trademarks mentioned are the

property of their respective owners.

The design, layout and all uncredited

articles in this issue of Total Amiga are

2005. The credited articles remain

If you wish to use an article from Total

Amiga, for example in your own

magazine or on a web site, please

contact the editor.

Advertisers

AmigaKit.com....... 9, 23, 35

ForeMatt Home Computing

........................................ 27

GGS-Data....................... 41

TOTAL AMIGA

Winter 2005

News

AmiNetRadio Turns 4

Open Your MindSpace...

Bytes...

Boxes in

MOS TCP/IP

AmiZeux have made a new

release of AmiNetRadio, their

music player which in previous

versions has emphasised

Shoutcast MP3 streaming

support. While the excellent

Shoutcast support with its

powerful search facility is still

there, the team have worked

hard to enhance other aspects of

the program. The play-list editor

in particular has been improved

with the ability to resynchronise

play-lists with the ﬁles available

on your hard disk. Play-lists are

now automatically created

containing the hundred most

recently played songs and all the

songs played in the last 7 days.

ANR has an extensive plug-in

system which allows for many

areas of the program to be

extended. For example, audio

format plug-ins are now included

for a really wide range of sound

ﬁles including AHX, CDDA,

Soundmon, FutureComposer,

WAV and AIFF.

A new user interface plug-in is

included which places all ANR’s

functions in one tabbed window

for those that prefer this

approach over the multi-

windowed standard GUI.

Other improvements include two

new scopes, more ARexx

commands, and many bug ﬁxes.

AmiNetRadio is primarily

developed and tested under

MorphOS, but it is a 68K

program so it should work under

all versions of Amiga OS. The

initial 4.0 release caused some

crashes on 3.x and didn’t work

on OS 4 but this was quickly

corrected with 4.1. Most

functions now work on non-

MorphOS systems except for the

ANRNG skin, and some of the

player and scope plug-ins; there

is a compatibility guide on the

program’s website. ANR is a free

download from:

http://amigazeux.net/anr/

MindSpace is a work in progress

OS 4 native drawing package

designed with creating diagrams

in mind. The author lists potential

uses as ﬂow charts, UML

diagrams, mind maps and brain

storms. Uniﬁed Modelling

Language (UML) is a standard

used by software developers to

model their software, the models

created can be expressed as a

diagram. Future versions of

MindSpace will be able to

produce code templates for C++

classes and C structures from a

UML diagram.

The current release is 0.2 and

can already be used to create

simple diagrams. Tools are

available to draw basic shapes,

lines and text. Objects can have

ﬁll and border colours, and the

line weight of the borders can be

deﬁned. Some of the shapes

available are clearly designed

with speciﬁc types of diagram in

mind and the author plans to add

“primitives” (templates) for many

types of diagram. Unlike a

classic drawing program (like

DrawStudio) in later releases

you will be able to use

connecting lines to structure your

diagram, and these connections

will remain intact as objects are

moved in the diagram.

MindSpace 0.2 is freely

distributable and can be

downloaded from the

developer’s web site below. His

long term plan is to produce a

usable free demo version with

limited export facilities and a full

release at a low price (around

10Euro is currently envisaged).

http://www.ast-workshops.co.uk/

mindspace

Synergy

Develops

MorphOS has long lacked a

native TCP/IP stack with

users having to use Miami or

Genesis under emulation to

get their computers on the

‘net. This situation at last

seems to be changing with

“Sonic” working hard to create

a new native stack called

ezTCP based on existing

open source software. A

MorphZone.org bounty has

been setup to reward this

effort and the features

required to complete it include

DHCP support and a MUI

user interface. Beta versions

are currently being regularly

released on MorphZone and

each one seems to make

considerable progress and

work with more network

applications.

For further details and to

download the latest beta visit:

http://www.morphzone.org/

modules/bounty/

bounty_view.php?

mychoice=ezTCP

Many people now have more

than one computer and

having more than one

keyboard and mouse around

soon becomes a frustrating

experience. If you have

networked computers which

each have their own monitor

then Synergy is a handy open

source program that enables

you to share a keyboard and

mouse across the network so

there’s no need to buy a

switch. To use Synergy, the

computer with the keyboard

and mouse connected runs

the server program and a

client program, synergyc,

runs on all the other

computers that share the

input devices. You conﬁgure

the server so it knows how

your monitors are physically

arranged and then when the

pointer reaches the edge of

the screen control “jumps” to

the computer controlling the

monitor on that side.

Synergy is available for

Windows, Mac OS X and

Linux, and now Douglas

McLaughlin has ported the

client program to OS 4. The

Amiga port implements the

basic Synergy features

(keyboard and mouse

sharing) and also supports

clipboard sharing so you can

copy information to the

clipboard on one computer

and paste it on another! A

couple of features are

currently not implemented:

screen blanker

synchronisation and support

for Mac OS X as a server (the

keyboard mapping is

incorrect) but for most users

these will be unimportant.

Synergy is a free download

from OS4Depot.net, Douglas

asks that you send him an

e-mail if you use the program.

http://www.os4depot.net,

amisynergyc.lha in

network/misc

Aminet News

Since the release of the new

interface at Aminet.net, the

maintainers of the Amiga’s

long-standing premier

software archive have

continued to add new

features to the site and to

resurrect old functionality that

was lost during the upgrade.

Since we last mentioned

Aminet in issue 20, notable

additions to the web interface

have included:

• A variety of upload statistics

so you can track site and

category upload activity.

• Customiseable RSS feeds

so you view uploads that

interest you in an RSS news

reader.

• Site-wide architecture

ﬁltering so you can exclude

software incompatible with

your hardware or OS.

• Sort order of ﬁle listings can

be changed by clicking the

column headers.

Turning Gold into... CubiC?

Dietmar Eilert has released a

new version of his popular

GoldEd Studio product and in

the process has given it a new

name, CubiC IDE (Integrated

Developer Environment), to

better describe its capabilities.

The key part of the environment

is still GoldEd, a powerful text

editor that is now at version 8.

GoldEd is very ﬂexible in its

conﬁguration and is supplied

with specialised editing modes

for C/C++, HTML, ARexx,

Installer and other languages. To

create a full development

environment CubiC integrates

with SAS/C, vbcc, gcc and Storm

C with the following features:

• Source level debugger support

for StormC users: breakpoints

are displayed next to the code.

• Conﬁgurable references

system for includes, source

codes and other material to

help ﬁnd information quickly.

• QuickInfo function to display

information related to the word

under the cursor (e.g.

prototypes of OS functions).

• Highlight of matching brackets.

• QuickFunc navigation lists all

functions, labels etc. deﬁned in

your source codes.

• Grep support for searches

using regular expressions.

• Free compilers included with

easy installers.

• SDKs included for OS 3.x,

MorphOS, PowerUP and

WarpOS.

includes the free compilers that

would otherwise require a very

large download. You can pay

either by bank transfer (if you are

located within the Eurozone this

should be very cheap or free) or

by PayPal. Find out more and

download a demo version at

Dietmar’s website:

http://www.dietmar-eilert.net/

When available, you can buy the

package on-line at his web shop:

http://www.dietmar-eilert.net/

shop/webshop.htm

Rockin’ to the Beat!

CubiC IDE is a 68K Amiga

program and is supported by the

author under AmigaOS 3.x and

MorphOS. Dietmar has stated

that he does his best to support

Amiga OS 4 although he does

not have a system to test on.

The full CubiC IDE package

costs 69.90 Euro and upgrades

are available for GoldEd Studio

AIX owners at 19.90 Euro. The

package is supplied on CD which

View at

The collection of OS 4 native

audio software is growing with

the latest addition being

RockBEAT, a software drum

machine with a ReAction user

interface from James Carroll who

you might recognise as the

author of the WookieChat IRC

client. RockBEAT is a software

drum machine which enables

you to create your own

drumming tracks and save them

out as WAV format audio ﬁles.

The program can create multiple

tracks each one being 4 x 4/4

measures with 16th notes. You

can save either individual tracks

or all the tracks as a complete

song. The program uses 16bit

44100Hz PCM WAV samples for

the drum sounds. A selection are

supplied and you can add more

simply by copying them into the

correct directory.

RockBEAT is shareware and

costs $15 to register. A demo

version with a 10 minute time

limit is available for download

from:

http://wookiechat.amiga

revolution.com/rockbeat

Factor 5

WarpView is a new picture

viewer for Amiga OS 4, while

fairly simple in functionality its

unique “selling” point is that it

uses Warp3D for its image

display. The advantage of this

method of display is that the

graphics card’s processor is

used to scale the image

which is both very fast and

looks smooth. Once loaded,

the image can be zoomed,

rotated and panned. If you

select an image within a

directory the cursor keys can

be used to display the other

images.

WarpView requires an

AmigaOne with a Radeon

graphics card (the author is

working on Voodoo support)

and is reported to work on OS

4 pre-release update 3.

http://os4depot.net/

warpview.lha in

graphics/viewer

A example of old functionality

that has returned is ADT

support on the Aminet.net

FTP server. ADT stands for

Aminet Download Tool and is

an extension to the FTP

protocol that enables an

application on a remote

machine to perform Aminet

searches and display lists of

recently uploaded ﬁles. This

feature will be welcomed by

users of FTP clients like

AmiTradeCenter and AmFTP

which support ADT.

The new Aminet user

interface can be found at the

URL below, if you want to

support the development of

Aminet, a PayPal donation

button is available.

http://www.aminet.net/

TOTAL AMIGA

Winter 2005

News

Bytes...

Let the Development Begin!

Trawl for Music with TuneNet

Scalos

New Wookie

Hyperion have released version

51.15 of the Amiga OS 4

Software Development Kit (SDK)

to OS 4 developer pre-release

users. The kit includes the tools

and documentation developers

need to create native programs

for OS 4. Key features include:

• GNU C/C++ compiler, incl. the

GDB source-level debugger.

• Includes and Autodocs for Pre-

Release Update 3.

• VBCC ANSI-C compiler.

• Developer documentation and

example source code.

• Many pre-conﬁgured third-party

libraries as contributions.

• Code proﬁling support for both

clib2 and newlib.

• Based on GCC 3.4.4 tool set.

complete package weighs in at

about 100MB, this is also

available in several “chunks” for

users on slower Internet

connections and there is also a

slimmed down version for those

who don’t require the

contributions.

To download, login with your OS

4 pre-release details at:

www.hyperion-entertainment.biz

Playing back media tends to be

processor intensive, so having

native players for your processor

is a real advantage. This is

doubly true for audio players

because they are often left to run

in the background while you do

other things with your computer.

OS 4 users will be pleased to

ﬁnd TuneNet, a native MP3

player with Shoutcast streaming

support by Paul Heams which is

in constant development.

TuneNet integrates with IBrowse

and AWeb so you can easily

listen to Shoutcast streaming

audio. You can also listen to

MP3 ﬁles from your hard drive

which can be organised via play

lists. Some of the program’s

other features include an Internet

stream search facility, sound

level meters, and a station and

current tune display.

Recent alpha releases have

added new features. A plug-in

system enables the program to

support more sound formats;

basic Protracker and AIFF plug-

ins are already available.

Another addition that we’re sure

many users will like is the ability

to save a stream to your hard

disk for later listening. Even

more exciting enhancements are

planned for the future including

Shoutcast broadcasting (which

we don’t believe is currently

possible on the Amiga) and

improvements to the interface.

TuneNet is freeware and can be

downloaded from:

http://www.tunenet.co.uk

Update

In addition to his work on

RockBEAT, James Carroll has

been continuing to develop

his IRC client, WookieChat.

Since our review of version

1.52 in issue 20, lots of new

features have been added

bringing the program up to

version 1.9. Notable

improvements include: A URL

grabber window which

records all URLs displayed

and allows them to be visited

in a browser. Sounds can be

played to alert you to a new

tab opening or a particular

word being mentioned, you

can choose to only play these

sounds when the WookieChat

window is inactive. Chat

history allows you to recall,

edit and re-send previous

messages. Probably the most

useful new feature is that

DCC-send support is now

implemented so you can send

ﬁles directly to other users.

Download the latest version

of WookieChat from:

http://wookiechat.amiga

revolution.com/wookiechat

The Scalos team have

released the latest version of

their Workbench replacement

system which now includes a

native PPC MorphOS version

(where it replaces the default

Ambient desktop). Scalos has

many advantages over

Workbench including full

internal multi-tasking, more

powerful name view, support

for PNG icons (with full alpha-

channels), conﬁgurable

menus and context sensitive

pop-up menus.

In addition to MorphOS

support, recent releases have

added (amongst many other

changes):

• Thumbnail views of items

within a drawer.

• The icon under the pointer

can be highlighted

(optional).

• Default icons for ﬁle types

have adjustable

transparency.

• Tool tips provide information

about ﬁles and drawers,

plug-ins support for

information about speciﬁc

ﬁle types (for example

image dimensions).

The SDK is available as a free

download from the Hyperion web

site for pre-release users. The

Candy Factory 2: News at Last

The original release of Candy

Factory Pro, a graphics package

ideal for quick buttons, titles and

logos, was always a ﬁrm

favourite here at Total Amiga. So

we were pleased to hear that

development had resumed back

in 2003. For a long time nothing

more was heard, but in July

ZeoNeo revealed that work had

continued since the original

announcement and they

demonstrated it at Amiga shows

at the end of that month.

The premise of Candy Factory

remains the same in the new

version, you take a mask (that is

a greyscale image) and then

apply effects such as textures,

bevels, glows, drop-shadows,

bump-mapping and lighting to it

to produce an attractive effect.

The mask can either be

produced in the program (for

example you could create text for

a logo) or created externally and

imported. The combination of

Candy Factory’s effects makes it

easy to achieve all kinds of

results, it is particularly effective

at mimicking natural surfaces like

metal or plastic but the choice is

really up to you. All Candy

Factory’s controls update in real-

time so you can tweak your

settings until you’re happy with

the result, there’s no waiting for

effects to “render”.

Version 2 is a substantial

upgrade and many parts of the

program have been rewritten to

take full advantage of Amiga OS

4. This means the program is

PPC native and has a ReAction

GUI using new features

introduced in OS 4. All over the

program, improvements have

been made that address some of

the shortcomings of the earlier

release. Multiple project windows

can now be opened at the same

time and the working canvas can

have an unlimited size viewed

using scroll bars. This is a big

improvement over the last

release where the canvas was

limited to the size of the screen;

which was a major limitation for

print projects where higher than

screen resolution is required.

Multiple layers will allow several

effects to be included in one

image without having to ﬁrst “ﬁx”

the initial effect to the

background. You can go back

and edit any layer at any time

and also change the layer order

(via drag ‘n’ drop) greatly adding

to the program’s ﬂexibility.

Candy Factory 2 makes use of

the new ReAction “toolbox” class

windows for its editing palettes,

these are special windows for

this task that do not become

selected when you click them –

meaning when you choose a tool

the window stays selected. The

tool windows in Candy Factory 2

are even more powerful, settings

for things like “bump-map”,

“bevel” and “material” can be

kept in individual windows or

combined in a single tabbed

window to reduce screen clutter!

No further details of Candy

Factory 2 have been announced

so far, and the program isn’t yet

mentioned on the ZeoNeo web

site. You can read the ofﬁcial

press release and see some

more screenshots in this thread

on AmigaWorld.net:

http://amigaworld.net/modules/

news/article.php?storyid=2449

TuneNet showing Internet

radio stations.

KHTML Koming Soon?

As great as Amiga web browsers

are, especially in the user

interface department, their

development teams have a hard

job keeping up with the

standards used on the web and

also with the many ways web

developers use and misuse

them. One common plea heard

from Amiga users is “why

doesn’t someone just port an

open source browser?”. While

projects like AmiZilla show that

this is no mean feat, a lone

coder going by the nick’ of

Marcik has started work on a

web rendering library for

MorphOS based on the KHTML

engine. In the short time he has

been working on the project,

Marcik has already reported

some impressive progress.

KHTML is the rendering engine

developed for the KDE project’s

Konqueror browser which is also

used by Apple as the basis for

Webcore which is behind its

Safari browser. Marcik has

based his port on GTK+Webcore

a version of Webcore further

modiﬁed by Nokia (phew!).

Screenshots on the developer’s

site (two of which are shown

below) show development

versions of the library running in

a very simple browser and

successfully displaying pages

with good layout and images.

There is even a screen-movie

available where you can see it in

action. All in all it shows more

progress than any of the other

porting projects that we have

seen. In his FAQ section, Marcik

says he aims to have a beta

version out by the end of the

year and an initial release in

February 2006.

While Marcik is aiming his

development at MorphOS, the

end result will be open source

(under the LGPL and BSD

licences) and he says it should

not be a hard task for someone

to port it to Amiga OS 3.x or OS

4. If you would like to support

this development, there is a

bounty open on MorphZone.org

(standing just shy of $700 or

about £400 as I write) which will

go to the developer once the port

is complete and meets a set of

documented objectives.

For more details, screenshots

and a link to the bounty visit:

http://khtml.ppa.pl/index_en.php

3CAG

If you live within a reasonable

distance of Peterborough in

the UK, then you’ll be pleased

to hear that a new Amiga user

group is being started by Paul

Hovell (known as The_Editor

on AmigaWorld.net and the

brains behind the Big Bash

series of Amiga shows). The

3 Counties Amiga Group

(3CAG) are aiming to hold

their ﬁrst meeting in mid-

November and plan to charge

members only for the

meetings they attend. The

group are keen to recruit

members so if you are in the

area why not get in touch with

them, further details should

be available on their web site

by the time you read this:

http://www.3cag.net

Scalos is freeware and can

be downloaded from the link

below, note that the latest

releases are currently in Beta.

http://scalos.noname.fr

Marcik’s KHML-based test

browser showing ask.com and

MorphZone.org. The layout looks

pretty good!

Candy Factory 2 showing multiple project windows, the layer manager and combined toolboxes.

TOTAL AMIGA

Winter 2005

Features

SUBWAY USB

CATWEASEL MK IV

Troika Amy’05

R ecently a company new to the

The Subway brings USB to the Amiga A1200

and now the A600 (when used with the

clockport adapter).

Access Amiga format ﬂoppy disks with the

Catweasel MK4 interface.

• Gb/100Mb/10Mb Ethernet port

using RTL8110 controller.

• 5 High Speed USB 2.0 ports: 3

rear and 2 front connectors.

• Two ATA 133 (IDE) channels (4

devices) using Sil0680 controller.

• 6-channel 5.1 surround sound

with audio headers. Support for

Line In, microphone (Analogue)

and SPDIF (digital).

• Two 33 Mhz, 32bit PCI slots

This PCI card connects to a ﬂoppy drive and

allows reading/writing to Amiga ﬂoppy disks

USB gives your Amiga access to many

standard peripherals such as mice, printers,

scanners and keyboards.

Amiga scene, Troika NG

announced that they are working

on a new PowerPC-based

motherboard to run Amiga OS 4.

Troika planned to show a prototype

of the board at Big Bash 3 in

September but unfortunately due

to component supply problems did

not have it ready in time. However

during the show speciﬁcations

were released along with the

board’s ofﬁcial name, Amy’05.

The Amy’05 is a ﬂex ATX sized

motherboard measuring 170 by

191mm, making it slighly larger

than the mini ITX µA1-C but only

by 20mm on one side. A PPC

750Fx (G3) processor is soldered

directly to the board and is cooled

by a heat-sink and fan. Amy’05

uses a Tundra Semiconductor

Tsi107 northbridge, this is the

component that interfaces the PCI

bus, RAM and other systems to

the processor. System memory is

provided through 2 DIMM slots for

PC100/133 SDRAM up to 1GB in

total, inexpensive unbuffered

modules can be used. The

following functions are built into

the Amy’05:

Ideal for WinUAE/Amiga Forever.

Subway attaches to the clockport internally.

Fully registered USB Stack is included.

Shipped with drivers for Windows - many

other platform drivers are in development from

third party suppliers.

£69.99

£62.99

REDUCED!

ORDER CODE INTCAT004

ORDER CODE USBCTR001

You will notice that no “legacy”

ports such as PS/2 mouse, PS/2

keyboard, parallel or serial are

included. This reduces the

complexity of the board and

shouldn’t cause many problems as

USB devices are so widely

available. Users with USB storage

devices will be pleased to see the

inclusion of USB 2.0 high speed

which offers massively enhanced

transfer rates.

80GB IDE HARD DISK

X-SURF 3CC NETWORK CARD

The Amy’05 (part of a familiy of products called Prometheus) block

diagram showing the logical layout of its components.

Get your big box Amiga connected with this

Zorro network card.

Upgrade your AmigaOne with this great

80GB hard disk.

Troika seem to have been listening

to calls for an affordable way to

become an OS 4 user, and are

aiming to price the Amy’05 at less

than £400. To minimise production

costs the CPU is not upgradable

and no on-board graphics chip is

included. Users will need to

purchase an inexpensive PCI

graphics card to use with the

board. No doubt most Amiga

dealers will stock suitable cards

that are supported by OS 4.

The drive can be partitioned and formatted

on request ready for AmigaOS installation.

Now your Amiga can share ﬁles with other

networked computers (PCs & Macs)

Drive is 3.5” IDE, 7200RPM with 8MB Cache.

It can also share a broadband network

connection.

We now offer various additional services

such as Linux installation - please see

www.amigakit.com for costs.

Features RJ-45 and BNC connection. Ideal

for A1200 with Zorro, A2000, A3000 & A4000

£44.99

£73.99

ORDER CODE HDDIDE003

ORDER CODE NETZOR001

2.5” HARD DISK (4GB)

KICKFLASH OS4 (ZORRO)

KICKSTART 3.1 ROMS (A1200)

Q&A

Photos showing Amy’05 components ready for production, from left to right: A Tsi107 north bridge and design

manual, Tsi107s ready for use, various ancillary components inlcuding DIMM sockets.

Kickﬂash is a Zorro card that can be

used with any big box Amiga.

Upgrade your Amiga to the latest

Kickstart ROM chips in order to use

AmigaOS 3.1, 3.5 and 3.9

This 2.5” hard disk is ideal for the

A600 or A1200.

The basic version comes with 1Mb

Flash memory (upgradable to 1GB)

It is supplied fully formatted and

partitioned. All 2.5” drives that we

supply are preloaded with OSInstall

program that makes installation easier

We asked Troika some

questions that didn’t seem to be

answered in their press release

or in the FAQ section on their

site (http://www.troikang.com).

We were sorry not to meet you

and see the Amy’05 at Big

Bash 3, what went wrong?

All our plans were to introduce

Amy’05 at the BB3 show. We all

worked very hard to be there,

but in the end it didn’t work out.

We had more posters, ﬂiers and

the Amy’05 Rev.B would have

been shown in a beautiful case

that Simion Archer made for the

show.

We ran into a major problem at

the last minute. We used some

of the same sound components

in the Rev.B design as the µA1.

The parts were on order and

listed as available for some 6

weeks, we then received an

email telling us those parts were

no longer available. This trashed

all our plans for BB3 and the

sound system!

Given those problems, what

are your plans?

Our next step has been to take

out the sound system and get

the Rev.B board out, so that the

testing and porting can be

ﬁnished. We had other

improvements that would be

brought into the Rev.B1, some of

those have now made it into the

Rev. B board that should be out

by the time you read this.

Next steps follow as the Rev.B

board is tested and used, any

changes are made into the

Rev.B1 board. This board is then

tested and we might have a Rev

B2 board to test or Amy’05 will

become the Rev.C (commercial)

board for series production and

resale.

What inspired you to design

the Amy’05?

Many of the early ideas for

Amy’05 took shape at the time

the Mac Mini ﬁrst came out. We

researched most of the talk from

AmigaWorld.net, along with

ideas and problems AmigaOne

users were having.

We wanted to make a complete

break from many of the legacy

parts used and wanted to move

OS 4 to some new levels

starting with USB 2.0. Amy’05

moves on to USB ports for the

mouse and keyboard.

What is the estimated release

date of the Amy’05?

Our goal is still for Amy’05 to

enter production this year. You

have to plan parts orders some

6-8 weeks in advance for

production runs, most of that

work is done for the ﬁrst run.

Do you have plans to be able

to meet both the initial “pent-

up” demand for an OS 4

compatible board and

ongoing demand, avoiding

long waits between

production runs?

In our business plan, we have

two production runs scheduled

for 2005.

Do you plan to sell Amy’05

boards directly or will they be

sold via dealers?

We will use both sales methods,

different for each country. We

have a long list of Amiga dealers

that would love to have Amy’05

in their hands right now!

Will Amy’05 be licenced to run

OS 4?

We designed Amy’05 from the

start to run OS 4. Just less than

a year ago we contacted all the

parties involved in the OS 4

process and went to work on our

project. We operate very

differently than many

companies, and feel that ﬂuffed

up news releases that end up

empty, are not worth our time or

your readers. Therefore don’t

expect us to have a major news

release on OS 4. It would be

unprofessional to comment on

our business dealings and we

would rather demo a working

product.

What other operating systems

will Amy’05 be able to run?

Various versions of Linux as

many of the components in our

design are used daily in the

embedded, and server markets.

Many different ROMs now in stock for

the full Classic Amiga range - check

www.amigakit.com for details

A Kickstart image can be copied into

the Flash memory for a quicker boot.

Many other hard disks in stock.

£18.99

£24.99

£36.99

ORDER CODE ZORKFL001

ORDER CODE AMIROM001

ORDER CODE HDDIDE004

LOGITECH ULTRA-X

BLIZZARD SCSI-IV KIT

512MB RAM (µAmigaOne)

The SCSI expansion kit for the

Blizzard 1230-IV / 1240 and 1260

accelerators. Fits onto the expansion

connector on these boards.

The Ultra-X keyboard is a stylish

silver design with laptop style keys.

Give your Micro AmigaOne 512MB of

memory with this upgrade.

For users who want a quality keyboard

that is aesthetically pleasing to look at.

Tested on the Micro AmigaOne before

delivery and comes with speciﬁc

ﬁtting instructions.

Also features an additional SIMM

socket which will take up to 128MB

extra memory.

USB/PS2 ﬁtting- ideal for AmigaOne

or A1200/A4000 with Lyra adapter.

£59.99

£24.99

£99.99

ORDER CODE SCSACC001

ORDER CODE LOGKEY002

ORDER CODE MEMAMI030

A600 CLOCKPORT ADAPTER

LYRA KEYBOARD INTERFACE (A1200)

LYRA KEYBOARD ADAPTER (A4000)

Lyra keyboard interface connects

over a chip on the A1200 motheboard

and permits an external Amiga or PC

keyboard to be attached.

Now your A3000/A4000 can use

standard PS/2 keyboards with this

adapter cable.

Use clockport expansions on your

Amiga A600 such as the Silver Surfer

and Subway USB.

We stock a range of keyboards.

This ﬁts over a chip on the A600

motherboard and provides a working

clockport -just like the A1200!

Ideal for tower projects, the keyboard

connector is mounted on a backplane

£23.99

£19.99

£12.99

ORDER CODE ADAKEY002

ORDER CODE IDEINT001

ORDER CODE ADAKEY012

amigakit .com

PHONE (UK)

0870 199 9569

Many more products available at www.amigakit.com

Shipping worldwide. P&P charges are subject to destination.

All products subject to price changes and availability. E&OE.

All orders subject to our conditions of sales and returns.

PHONE (US)

360 207 0349

TOTAL AMIGA

FAX

+44 (0)870 706 4427

online amiga store

E-MAIL

sales@amigakit.co.uk

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