Download issue 8 - Total Amiga Magazine

NEWSNEWSBoing is BackAmiga have released an update toAmigaOS 3.9, in the form of Boing Bag1. In addition to some minor updatesand bug fixes BB1 includes a ReactionGUI for Genesis prefs and the longawaited ASyncWb utility. The latter addsasynchronous copying and deleting toWorkbench, now you don’t have to waitfor these file operations to completebefore you do something else withWorkbench, most excellent!Download the update now from:www.amiga.com/3.9iFusionReleasedAfter a very long wait MicrocodeSolution’s Power Mac emulator, iFusion,has been released. Sadly due to a problemwith WarpUp iFusion only works onAmigas with a CyberStormPPC cardand not the more popular BlizzardPPCcards for the A1200 at the moment.According to Blittersoft, Microcode’s distributor,there is nothing they can doabout the problem until Haage andPartner can modify WarpUp, which isbeing worked on.On those machines where it does workiFusion seems to be a bit of a mixed bag(speaking as a user with an CyberStormin my A3000) the core emulation seemsto work well and is compatible with mostPower Mac programs. However iFusiondoes lack many useful features, there isno serial port, parallel port or networkingsupport so surfing the net and printingare out. Also the current release ofiFusion does not have acceleratedgraphics drivers so the screen redrawcan be slow, this makes the emulationseem slower than it really is.Development is continuing, some initialproblems have been fixed and onemajor feature, sound support, has beenadded so there is hope, upgrades areavailable from the Blittersoft website.Whether the WarpUp problem can besorted remains to be seen.iFusion is available from Blittersoft at£149.95 and also requires MacOS 8.6 orabove (it won’t run OS X). The Blittersoftwebsite at www.blittersoft.com has onlineordering or you can phone them on+44 (0) 870 7462118.Hyperion NewsAs we have reported in previous issuesHyperion have been busy porting anumber of top games for high endAmiga gamers. Their first game, HereticII, was very well received and now theirsecond is out...ShogoShogo is a manga themed first personperspective 3D shooter. Shogo’s actionis tied together by a story line that allowsyou to fight both on foot and in giantmechanical robots. This gives a lot ofvariety in locations and game play, forexample you might be outside in a cityor desert in your Mech or inside a buildingon foot. The two modes also havedifferent weapons, yet more variety.Shogo requires a PPC system butseems to run a little faster than Heretic IIoverall.SiN to be AmigaOne OnlyHyperion have decided that SiN, aPolice themed 3D shooter set in the future,that was to be released soon willnow be held back until the Amiga One isreleased as it needs too much power toplay well on existing Amiga PPCsystems. Although it is based on thesame Quake II engine as Heretic II otheraspects of the game make it moredemanding. According to SteffanHauser, one of Hyperion’s developers,“Sin has really heavy AI Code... this isthe problem”.Descent: Freespace TheGreat WarThis “space combat simulator” is likely tobe Hyperion’s next release, it is set tohave the lowest requirements of all theirSince our last issue Kicksoft have greatlyextended their range of pre-registeredshareware and commercial Amiga software.They can now supply products suchas Photogenics, Art Effect, Pagestreamand many more, some of which have beendifficult to source in the UK, you can evenbuy your Clubbed subscription throughKicksoft! As we go to press Kicksoft havejust unveiled their brand new websitewhich has on-line ordering in US dollars,sterling, French Francs, Deutsch Marksand Euros on a wide range of credit andreleases so far, even a 68K version is onthe cards (no promises at this stage)although that would need a 3D graphicscard. The game features advancedphysics and breathtaking 3D effects includingdeadly asteroid fields andmassive capital ships. The missionsform a detailed campaign where yourperformance makes a difference to thegame’s progression. Both the enemiesand your wing men are controlled bysophisticated artificial intelligence whichadapts to your abilities. Sounds like ablast!for more information visit Hyperion’swebsite at:www.hyperion-software.comTheir games can be purchased fromyour friendly Amiga dealer.Kicksoft Gives You More(and gets Clubbed!)debit cards. Facilities are also available forpeople who would rather order over thephone or pay by cheque.If you can’t find what you want listed onthe Kicksoft website or in their advert inthis issue, contact Kicksoft via EMail orgive them a ring. They can often order aproduct for you and are always addingnew products to their range.You can find the Kicksoft website atwww.kicksoft.co.uk or phone them on+44 (0) 1737 219280.BPlan Pegasos PrototypesJust before Christmas last year Germancompany BPlan announced their intentionto build a new PowerPC basedmotherboard codenamed Pegasos.BPlan state that they see two main marketsfor the machines based on themotherboard, LinuxPPC and Amigausers. BPlan are working with theMorphOS team to get their PowerPCAmiga compatible OS working on thePegasos in fact some of the MorphOSteam also work for BPlan. We also knowthat there have been some discussionsbetween Amiga and BPlan although noresults have yet been announced. Theinitial specifications for the Pegasos are:• Micro ATX Motherboard• 133Mhz Processor slot and 133MhzSDRAM• AGP slot• 3 PCI slots• USB and Firewire• 10/100 MB/s Ethernet• 100Mb/s UDMA IDE controller• PS/2 mouse and keyboard, serial andparallel ports• The board will support one or twoAfter several delays Alien Design’sRepulse sound card is now availableand pre-orders have been shipped. TheRepulse is a high quality Zorro II card forany Amiga with Zorro slots (A2/3/4000and A500/A1200 with Zorro II busboard). Some of its features include:• Sampling rates from 8 to 48 kHz including44.1 kHz and 96 kHz S/P-DIF• Support for 16 bit, 18 bit, 20 bit and 24bit (S/P-DIF) samples in mono orstereo• Enhanced full duplex recording• 1x optical digital output (max 24 bit/ 96kHz, S/P-DIF compatible)• 1x optical digital input (max 24 bit/ 96kHz, S/P-DIF compatible)• 1x stereo line in (extern)• 1x stereo line out (extern)• 1x mono microphone in (extern)• 1x independent stereo headphonesout (extern)• 3 internal stereo inputs to connect CD-ROMs etc.PowerPC G3 or G4 processors, thehighest currently available speed is733Mhz.In April BPlan posted the first images ofa prototype Pegasos with LinuxPPC running.Ralph Schmidt, the lead programmerof MorphOS, has said that the workon the Pegasos verion of their OS isprogressing but they won’t show it atAmiga events until it is completed totheir satisfaction.www.bplan-gmbh.dewww.morphos.deRepulse is Spreading• All inputs (except S/P-DIF) can bemixed together. It’s possible to recordnot just from one input, but from allsimultaneously.Included software:• AHI driver• Toccata emulation• Stream player to play encoded datavia S/P-DIF output• Stream extractor to extract encodedstreams S/P-DIF input• Full version of SoundFX!• Driver for ProStation Audio ofAudioLabs• Many tools, shareware and demo versionson CD.The Repulse costs about 200 Euroswhich is about £125 direct from AlienDesign, currently I have been unable tofind a UK distributor. For more detailsvisit the Alien Design website:www.aliendesign-gbr.deFor more big news don’t forget ournews features starting on page 9!Individualand Petsoffhave Flipped!The Petsoff Partnership have joinedforces with Individual Computers (ofCatweasel and Buddha fame) to producea new version of Petsoff’s DelfinaDSP sound card. The new board knownas the Delfina “Flipper Edition” has beenpartially redesigned to improve bus performance,it can now achieve over5Mb/s transfer rate across the Zorro IIbus. This enhanced performance allowsmore voices to be played at once andlower CPU usage per channel playedthan previous Delfinas (and other soundcards according to Petsoff’s announcement).The Delfina’s Digital SignalProcessor is (as far as I’m aware)unique among Amiga sound cards andmeans it can perform special effects andeven play MP3’s with minimal load onthe Amiga’s CPU. The first new boardsshould be available this summer and willcost 189 Euros which is around £120.The Petsoff and Individual Computerswebsites can be found at the followingaddresses:www.petsoff.comwww.jschoenfeld.comPetsoff’s Delfina lite,one cool looking Zorro card!Open YAMYAM (Yet Another Mailer) is probably themost popular Amiga EMail program,largely due to its freeware status andpowerful set of features. YAM’s authorrecently made it open source so it couldbe developed by any member of theAmiga community and soon a teamformed to continue development. Thefirst fruit of their work is now available inthe form of YAM 2.3. The new versionincludes new features, bug fixes andchanges, many to make YAM use thelatest MUI custom classes, there is alsoa MorphOS version available. The newfeatures in this first open source releaseare fairly minor but much bigger thingsare promised for the future, keep youreye on the YAM website at:www.yam.ch6CLUBBED - Issue 8Summer 20017