AmigaShopper29-Sep93.pdf

ISSUE 29 • SEPTEMBER 1993 • £1.95

YOUR DEFINITIVE A M IG A GUIDE

Protect yourself from the crooks

CENSORED - ADULTS ONLY

CREATE A PAINT PACKAGE

AMOS programming: page 68

CHOOSE A PRINTER

Three of the latest reviewed: page 82

SOLVE YOUR PRINT PROBLEMS

Desktop publishing tips: page 57

DOUBLE YOUR DENSITY

Power's high density drive: page 61

IFF format tutorial, Maple V review,

AmMfcask review, music, AmigaDOS,

Amiga Exposed, C programming,

video applications, public domain,

user groups, reader ads and more

ulure

I PUBLISHING

Your guarantee

of value

All of your hardware and software problems

solved by our panel of experts in eight fact-

packed pages. Send us your queries!

INDI DIRECT MAI

Proudly Presents

THE

JAKKI BRAMBLES COLUM

Hi,

It seems that every month I’m able to report some

exciting news from Commodore. This month is n<

exception but probably the most exciting to date..

A1200 PRICE CRASH!!! That's right

Commodore have announced that the RRP of the

A1200 is now £299.99. At this price there cannot

be a better computer anywhere based on a Power

to the Pound ratio. Armed with this news, Indi

have got some pretty exciting A1200 offers, just

take a look in the following Indi pages!!

Do you like the new Indi Logo?

I’m told that a certain person in the Indi Marketinj

Team has made it clear that when it comes to the

Amiga 4000/030 he is the main man.

So equipped with an Opalvision 24 - bit graphic

card he was set loose.

The image was converted to an IBM compatible

file using Art Department Professional, ported

over to a 1.4 gigabyte graphics PC Workstation

then using the A4000 workbench file transferred

and finally slotted into the Indi Advert.

I’m sure that you will agree that the end product if

superb and a real demonstration of the Amigas

Graphic Capabilities. Still on the subject of the

Amiga the winner of this months 'Hints and Tips'

competition is Peter Shelley of Stafford. Peter

shows how you can save memory when using you

Amiga.

Edit the startup sequence which can be found in

the workbench partition in the 'S' directory. Delei

the last line of the sequence: "END CLI". This wii

enable you to quit workbench (once loaded) and

drop into shell (Amiga DOS) saving over 100 K

that would normally be taken up by the multi task

ing windows environment. All commands are still

resident including DIR, DELETE etc... Of course

I can only recommend this for those users who

wish to work outside the Amigas graphical envi

ronment and who are conversant with the Amigas

command line interface.

Thankyou Peter, your prize is on its way, many

thanks to all those who have written to me, keep

those letters coming.

Buying a printer to go alongside your Amiga is a

big decision and one that every serious Amiga

owner has to face.

Everyone knows that Indi fully researched the

printer market before choosing Panasonic printers

and believe that Panasonic Quiet Printers are the

best on the market, but they would say that

wouldn't they!

Now I'm told that Romtec the computer Industry

analysts have announced that the Panasonic KX-

2123 has become the UK's top selling colour

matrix printer. Well done Panasonic (and Indi)

Indi have just sent me details of their new Multi

Media Club, it's a very interesting idea offering a

home entertainment products under one roof not

just computer games. It's well worth a look.

Kind Regards,

DMA ENSURES HIGHEST

PRACTICE

As with most industries, the UK's

personal computer industry has its

share of cowboys operating in the mail

order sector and at the receiving end a

line up of despairing consumers who

have suffered at their hands.

A personal computer is a sophisticated

and expensive item and provided the

purchaser is dealing with a reputable

and accredited supplier, buying a com

puter by mail order can be a perfectly

safe and cost effective exercise. The

Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

was set up in April 92 to set and main

tain high standards for the sake of the

industry and society at large, and to

ensure that we can continue to regulate

our own activities on the basis of

proper professional responsibility.

Membership of the DMA is not con

ferred lightly - it is a privilege which

entails responsibilities, to the consumer

as well as to the industry. The founda

tion for this must be good practice.

DMA members are required to abide by

the highest standards as laid down in

the DMA's code, enforced on members

by The Authority of the DMA a sepa

rate body with an independent

Chairman, and which is an assurance of

vigorous self - regulation and profes

sional responsibility.

DMA members also agree, as a condi

tion of membership, to abide by The

British Code of Advertising Practice

and The British Code of Sales

Promotion Practice: to apply the

Mailing Preference Service file when

appropriate: and to subscribe to the

Advertising Standards Board of

Finance (ASBOF) and to the Mailing

Standards Levy as applicable.

The DMA symbol can only be used by

members. Printed on stationary, adver

tising and other promotional material it

demonstrates that these companies con

form to the Association's high standards

and are subject to the DMA's Code of

Practice, thus enhancing the companies

credibility with customers, suppliers

and of greatest importance, the

consumer.

Since the symbol was introduced last

June, it has become synonymous with

quality , professionalism and and

responsibility. While it cannot be

shown in any way which will become a

sign of best industry practice and of

strict adherence to DMA codes of con

duct. The symbol represents authority

for members and reassurance for con

sumers. It has been a high valued mark

of confidence signifying to the con

sumer the truly professional edge of the

industry.

INDI LAUNCH NEW

MULTI MEDIA CLUB

A4000 / 030

EXCLUSIVE INDI PACK

'he new Amiga 4000 / 030 is

ack in stock and even better

alue with the new Indi Added

alue Pack.

*.miga 4000 / 030 80 Mb HD

2Mb of 32 - bit RAM, 1Mb chip

nd 1 Mb fast)

F REE I NDI G RAPHICS P ACK

'DC - light, Graphic Utilities,

Lay Tracing and Rendering pack-

ge pre loaded on to your Hard

>rive.

REE WORDWORTH The ulti

late word / document processor,

formal RRP_ £129.99 inc VAT.

I N D I P R I C E I £979.99

rniiga 4000 / 030 120 MB HD.(2

IB OF 32 - Bit RAM 1 Mb chip

nd 1 Mb fast)

T REE I NDI G RAPHICS P ACK

D C - light, Graphic Utilities,

Lay Tracing and Rendering pack-

ge pre loaded on to your Hard

>rive.

REE WORDWORTH The ulti

late word / document processor,

formal RRP_ £129.99 inc VAT.

I N D I P R I C E ! £1059.99

STOP PRESS

Vmiga 32 -bit CD arrives August

:all (0543) 419 999 for details.

Last month saw the launch of the Indi

Multi Media Club and what a

response there has been.Early indica

tions show that without a doubt it is

destined to be the largest of it's kind.

Apart from all the obvious club bene

fits the Indi operation offers a true

'One Stop Shop' for all members.On

offer each month with an ever increas

ing product range, members can obtain

software to cover every application,

including Morphing Rendering Ray

Tracing and Video. There's a vast

range of accessories and peripherals

again encompassing members every

need and a PD Library second to none.

The Club also offers a very compre

hensive range of videos including the

Cult Manga Titles, Music Features

and Special Interest. There really is

something to suit everyones taste.

For those members with CD ROM

players (including CDTV, PC and

SEGA) there's plenty on offer. Not

only does" the 'Club' cover CD ROM

titles, there are also some great audio

titles available.

With so much happening on the Multi

Media scene it's hardly surprising that

Indi are there to provide a competitive

single source of product supply.

Membership costs only £10 and each

member receives a quality gift on join

ing , even though there is absolutely

no commitment to purchase at any

time. If you would like to be a part of

this exciting club then call Indi on

0543 419 999 .

Apologies from Indi that we ran out of signed

Jakki Brambles photographs. Jakki has now signe

more copies and they are on their way.

Alison Sian

(Director of Public Relations,DMA)

CONTENTS

ISSUE 2 9 • SEPTEMBER 1 9 9 3

Hews 5

A report on the launch of Commodore’s darling, the

Amiga CD32, plus all the latest product news

AMOS 6 8

The first part of our tutorial teaching you how to

write a fully featured paint package in AMOS

Musk 72

Tim Tucker gives handy advice on structuring your

OctaMED scores, and reviews the latest version,

OctaMED 5, which you can buy at a special price

User Groups

Window Shopper 90

Reviewed: Fractal Pro , Amiga videos, Artworks' clip

art, an A1200 real-time clock and A Guide to DTP

US News 12

The Amiga Cowboy tells it like it is Stateside, and

looks at an Amiga-based virtual reality system

M iX 1230 review 93

Will Microbotics' 68030 accelerator for the A1200

satisfy your craving for speed?

The Amiga Exposed 24

In this month's expose of the Amiga, we examine

the role registers play and discuss interrupts

Get in contact with your fellow Amigans. This

month we’ve got a special report from Poland

Public Domain World 95

Plenty more fish to fry as we look at the latest

ten no-cost and low-cost disks from Fred, as well

as some themed collections from PD-Soft

Video 32

Reviewed: Pixel 3D Professional, the 3D image

manipulation package, G2 Systems’ GeneSys

genlock and MacroSystem’s VLab YC digitiser

Maple V review 78

If your work or study involves maths, then this

could be the program for you. It does everything

from algebra to calculus, and it draws graphs!

Reader Ads

104

The place to pick up those used-kit bargains

Back Issues 108

Turn here if you’re missing the full set of issues

IFF Tutorial 80

Learn about the internal structure of IFF files and

ensure your own programs are compatible

AMIG

NSWERS

Product Locator 109

Your guide to the best in software, complete with

price, supplier information, and review references

Eight pages packed with answers to your queries. If

you’re having problems turn here - chances are

someone has already found the solution

Printers reviewed 82

A 9-pin, an inkjet and a portable bubble jet: Citizen

Swift 90C, Epson Stylus 800 and Canon BJ-lOsx

Code Clink 46

Toby Simpson tracks down those bugs - this time

in one of his own programs!

Safe Shopping 112

Save hassle by reading this before buying anything

Letters 85

Find out what everyone is saying about the Amiga

scene; have your say and maybe you’ll win £25

Next Month 113

A tantalising glimpse of the future for the eager

Ami»back review 56

Got valuable data on your hard drive? Then you

need to make a back-up. Can you trust Ami-Back ?

Competition

Three copies of Art Department Professional to be

won, worth £180 each. Just answer the questions

AmigaDOS

In his dealings with devices Mark Smiddy covers

the topics of volumes and assignments

Desktop Publishing 57

Solve all of your irritating printing problems with

Jeff Walker’s definitive guide to paper positioning

and page set-up menus for the major packages

Power HD reviewed 61

Power Computing's high density floppy offers twice

the capacity of ordinary drives. Is it worth it?

It’s not sci

2 § a

S m

SYST 6 W

Listings 62

For AMOS fans we’ve got a neat set of utilities to

do things like bounce the screen and zoom in on it;

assembler fans get a clock display program

C Programming 64

Complete the next stage of your usable address

book program and learn C in the process. This

month - adding a database edit routine.

AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUF^TrSWTEMBER

mtWHIIt MUM

Access 38/40 QUEENS CHAMBERS, QUEENS ST., PENZANCE, CORNWALL TR18 4HB j w J

.. J ORDER HOTLINE (0736) 331039 TECHNICAL SUPPORT & FAX (0736) 331499 — = "

PLEASE PHONE FOR THE LATEST PRICES ON HARD DRIVE UPGRADES, AS IN THE

EFFORT TO BRING YOU THE VERY BEST VALUE, OUR PRICES CHANGE DAILY

AMIGA A4000 SERIES

AMIGA A1200 SERIES

STAND ALONE

£349

A1200

A4000/040

120Mb HD

A1200

40Mb HD

£448

A4000/040

£1919

A1200

58Mb HD

£528

170Mb HD

£1939

A1200

127Mb HD

£544

250Mb HD

£1979

A1200

170Mb HD

£588

330Mb HD

£2069

A1200

250Mb HD

£638

A4000/030

85Mb HD

All Amiga A1200s are supplied with HD PREP software and

SOFTWARE DEMON'S own Return-To Base guarantee. All

hard drives are guaranteed for 3 years under a Return-To-

Base warranty

A1200+80Mb Hard Drive as supplied by Commodore with a

1 year on site warranty

A4000/030

£899

170Mb HD

£979

256Mb HD

£1039

£ 5 8 9

330Mb HD

£1128

A1200 UPGRADES

2Mb PCMCIA RAM CARD

£109

A4000 UPGRADES

4Mb PCMCIA RAM CARD

£169

CD ROM DRIVE IN C LU S IVE O F SCSI C A R D £399

MATHS CO-PRO EASY PLUG IN

25Mhz PLC 68882 £79

40Mhz PLC 68882 £139

1Mb PCMCIA STATIC RAM CARD

£109

2Mb PCMCIA STATIC RAM CARD

£169

ACCELERATORS

All our accelerators and maths co processors are produced for

the Amiga A1200 by GVP, a watch word in quality and reliabili

ty. All the boards are user fittable via the trapdoor of the Amiga.

Any of the maths co-pros or memory modules can also be fit

ted in the field

GVP FANG BOARD

BARE BOARD OMb/NO FPU £179

BOARD C/W 4Mb/33MHz FPU £369

SCSI CABLE KIT

PC EMULATORS

386SX PC EMULATOR

£199

486SX PC EMULATOR

£299

SVGA GRAPHICS CARD

£49

ALL PC EMULATORS COME SUPPLIED

WITH MANUALS AND MS DOS 5

£44

MONITORS

1084ST £189

1960 £329

1940 MONITOR 0.39mm DP £279

1942 MONITOR 0.28mm DP £379

KNOCK A TENNER OFF TOTAL PRICE IF BUYING

ANY MONITOR WITH AN AMIGA.

GVP JAWS BOARD

BASIC BOARD OMb/NO FPU £269

BOARD C/W 4Mb/40MHz FPU £459

GVP ACCESSORIES

33MHz 68882 PLCC £69

40MHz 68882 PLCC £119

32bit 1 Mb MEMORY MODULE £59

32bit 4Mb MEMORY MODULE £153

PAYABLE TO SOFTWARE DEMON Ltd.

SCANNERS

GREYSCALE HANDHELD SCANNER £99

EPSON GT-6500 FLATBED COLOUR £899

EPSON GT-8000 FLATBED COLOUR £1149

PLEASE MAKE ALL CHEQUES & P.O.s

P R I C E S S U B J E C T T O C H A N G E W I T H O U T N O T I C E ,

E & O E A L L T R A D E M A R K S A C K N O W L E D G E D

N E W S

COMMENT

N e w m a c h i n e m e a n s m a k e

o r b r e a k f o r C o m m o d o r e

T he Amiga CD32 has arrived.

Can Commodore's high-spec £300

console-beater lure fans a w a y

from Sega? We take a close look.

accompanying video footage.

But the machine’s initial impact

will be in the games market - and it

should make quite a splash, with

publishers such as Ocean,

Mindscape, Gremlin Graphics, Flair

Software, Grandslam, International

Computer Entertainment, Thalion,

21st Century Entertainment and

Millennium all pledging their support.

Two games are to be bundled with

the machine, but which titles they

are will not be decided until just

before the machine is shipped.

Commodore promise that 15 titles

will be available in time for the

CD32’s launch and 75 by Christmas.

The average price for CD games

is expected to be £29.99, part of

It was spectacularly

launched amid flashing

lights and clouds of dry ice

at the National Science Museum,

London, and is due to ship in the

first week of September for the

incredible price of £299.99.

The sheer scale of the launch

demonstrates the importance of the

new machine to Commodore. The

media circus was fronted by Chris

Evans from The Big Breakfast; the

machine is backed by companies

such as Universal Pictures and

McDonald’s, and Radio l's Bruno

Brookes reckons it will be the most

important thing to hit the music

industry this decade. We haven’t

seen anything like this since the

launch of the Amiga itself.

CD32’s technical specification is

certainly impressive; it makes

everything else currently available,

including Sega’s MegaCD, look

primitive. As first reported in

Amiga Shopper 26, it’s a CD-

based console with an A1200

at its heart. It uses the same

processor, a 68EC020

clocked at 14MHz, and the

same AGA graphics display

chips as the A1200. This

means it can display up to

256,000 different colours on

screen at once, from a palette

of 16 million. In practice,

though, most games are likely

to use 256-colour displays.

There’s a generous 2Mb of

RAM on-board, and the highly-

advanced Workbench 3.1 in ROM.

The CD is a top-loading device,

dispensing with the much-criticised

caddy system employed by CDTV. It

is a dual-speed drive, offering data

transfer rates of 150K per second

and 300K per second. CDs can hold

up to 600Mb of data - that’s nearly

700 floppy-disks-worth.

A port on the machine will accept

a user-installable Full Motion Video

module. This module, promised for

the end of September at a price of

£199, will enable film footage to be

taken from a CD and displayed

directly on a television connected to

CD32. One “MPeg" module will give

up to 74 minutes of video, and the

quality is claimed to be better than

that from VHS videotape. David

Pleasance, Commodore UK’s general

manager, sales and marketing,

expects this to be one of the key

areas for the machine. As well as

showing feature films, Amiga CD32

will be ideal for playing video albums

- compact discs with music and

CD32s in the UK, with 400,000 to

500,000 in total throughout Europe.

Amiga CD32 may look

remarkably like a Sega MegaCD, but

there’s no question that it is way

ahead in both price (it costs £100

less) and technical specification. It

even supports a GUI (Graphical User

Interface), so you can control a whole

system from your games paddle.

What’s more, it is not limited to its

two built-in ports - each can support

up to eight paddles, and Commodore

are talking excitedly about the

potential for "community games”.

Another feather in CD32’s cap is

its ability to be turned into a full-

fledged computer, an

A1200-plus-CD-R0M, by means of a

"docking station” which is

promised in time for

Christmas at a price in the

£200 to £250 region.

More serious competition,

perhaps, comes from 3D0,

another CD-based system

which, technically speaking,

knocks the spots off

everything else, including

CD32. 3D0 is due for an

American launch in October,

at a price of $700 (that’s

around £450). Commodore

insist that, at that kind of

price, 3DO is appealing to a

different audience. The truth is,

though, that it’s bound to attract

away the wealthier enthusiast who

buys the latest in technology as soon

as it becomes available - the sort of

person who bought the first Amiga

and probably a CD-i or CDTV. This

shouldn’t prevent the CD32 having

good sales, though, if Commodore

can get their marketing right.

So, if Amiga CD32 is successful,

what does it mean for the non-game-

playing Amiga community? Well,

Commodore have stated that they

are to concentrate on 32-bit

technology as a minimum standard,

looking at 64-bit in the months and

years ahead. They have also publicly

announced their commitment to

bringing CD technology to their

current machines. They told Amiga

Shopper that a CD drive, with Full

Motion Video, for the A1200 may be

here before Christmas.

For now, though, it's a safe bet

that any future plans depend largely

on CD32’s immediate success. Q 3

The editor, Cliff Ramshaw, asks

about the consequences...

S o does the CD32 mean

that Commodore are

forsaking serious users?

“We certainly intend to keep

the A1200 in its current form for

some time to come,” said

Commodore UK general manager

David Pleasance. The next top-

end product won’t be launched

for another 12 months, but it’s

scheduled to be a combination of

Amiga and RISC technology. It

will use the as-yet-unavailable

AAA chip set (said to offer a ten

fold improvement over AGA), and

will be fully compatible with the

soon-to-be-launched Microsoft

Windows-NT and Pentium, the

processor from Intel that is to

take over where the 486 left off.

Commodore claim their machine

will operate five times faster than

a 586-based PC for a similar

price. So it's not all consoles

from now on, thank God.

The Amiga CD32 has the power to succeed and take

the world by storm, as the original Amiga once did.

which goes to Commodore as a

royalty payment. Commodore gave

two justifications for this; the

machine’s format gives publishers

the benefit that all but commercial

piracy is futile, and Commodore need

the money. The scheme is not

unprecedented: both Sega and ■

Nintendo demand royalty payments,

believed to be much higher than this,

on software sold for their systems.

With Commodore in a very

delicate financial state (see last

issue’s news pages for details),

Amiga CD32 is very important to the

company's future. How the machine

is marketed may be critical. As David

Pleasance said, “Over the years

Commodore has employed some

tremendous sales prevention

officers.” The machine will be

advertised, but Commodore admit

they are in no position to compete in

an advertising battle with the likes of

Sega. Still, with a tightly-focussed,

pan-European campaign they hope to

sell between 200,000 and 250,000

COMMODORE

PRICE SHUFFLES

Commodore have revised the prices

for most of their Amiga range.

The price of the top-of-the range

A4000 040 (with 120Mb hard disk)

has been reduced by £367.32; it is

now available for just £2,099

including VAT.

The price of an A1200 has been

dropped by £100 to £299, making it

an extremely cost-effective computer.

One the down side, the A4000

030 has undergone an effective price

increase. Although the prices of the

two configurations remain the same

(£1,099 for a 120Mb hard disk

system and £999 for a 80Mb

system), their specifications have

been reduced. Both are now being

sold with 2Mb of Chip RAM rather

than the proposed 2Mb of Chip RAM

and 2Mb of Fast RAM.

Commodore ® 0628 770088.

AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 29 • SEPTEMBER 1993 £

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