=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Amy Today A text-file magazine for all Amiga lovers Volume #4, Issue #1, October 10th =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Editor : John Rydell Writers: David Motowylak & Lancelot Address all correspondence to: "Amy Today" C/O John Rydell GEnie address: J.Rydell1 640 Willowglen Rd. (#54790) Santa Barbara, CA 93105 Plink address: J*Rydell GEnie discussion in category #2, topic #29 Plink discussion in Section #2 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Contents: 1. A Message From the Editor John Rydell 2. Distributing "Amy Today" John Rydell 3. Amiga Happenings John Rydell 4. Rocket Ranger Review Lancelot 5. Awesome Arcade Pack #1 David Motowylak 6. AmiExpo Report John Rydell 7. Trading Galore!! John Rydell 8. Amy Gurus John Rydell 9. Newsletter Trading John Rydell 10. Advertising John Rydell 11. In the Future John Rydell =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= A Message From The Editor: Hello. And welcome to issue 4-1 (October 10th) of Amy Today. I'm about 4 days late with this issue because I wanted to wait until I had enough information of AmiExpo to give a good report. I have received some votes as to whether I should make Amy Today longer and the majority of people have said that if the content is good, it should be longer. BUT, it should not be longer just for the sake of including more information. I still have not made up my mind. I am looking for reader-support in the way of articles or short programs you would like to share with the Amiga community. If you would like to contribute please contact me at one of the locations printed in the magazine's cover/title section. All good PD/shareware software will also be mentioned or reviewed if it is sent to Amy Today. John Rydell (Editor) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Distributing "Amy Today": Amy Today is what I call a public domain file-based magazine. This means that I would like to be given credit to anything taken from the magazine and I request that the magazine remains "AS IS". Please do not modify it in any way if you are going to distribute it. About Distributing: Please upload Amy Today EVERYWHERE! This magazine simply will not flourish if it is not uploaded whenever possible. Every issue is kept under 15,000 bytes ARCed so that upload/download time should never be a problem. So, please, if you have the chance spread the magazine around the country! Give a copy to your friend! Keep Amy Today alive and going strong! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Amiga Happenings: (John Rydell) New Animation- I was recently given a copy of a new demo named "DOC" that was supposedly imported from Europe. This demo which contains fantastic graphics as well as some great music is now available for downloading from Plink. It is file #13947. It is pretty long but if you like animations you might want to download it. I plan to make this animation available on Amy Today Picture Trading Disk #3 or I'll send you a copy as part of the Trading Galore. This demo really shows off the Amiga! Arkanoid- I recently received my update from the old version of Arkanoid (with only 33 levels) to the new version. Discovery will make this trade for free to old registered users. The new levels continue the excellence of the first 33. Some of the new backgrounds are unbelievable! I have not yet played all 33 levels so I don't know if any special prizes await a good player. AmiExpo- The conference was held this last weekend and looks to have been a success. Look for our coverage later in this issue. Pict1- Joe Larson sent me the first of his new pictures, music, and animations disks. He plans to eventually have a whole series of these disks. The first disk looks very nice and includes... You can obtain a copy in the following ways: 1. Sending $5 to Joe 2. Sending a SASE plus disk to Joe 3. Sending a disk with good material on it Joe Larson 6121 St. Croix Ave. N. Golden Valley, Minn. 55422 Sky Fox II- EA recently released SkyFox II: The Cygnus Conflict. The game is now available and retails for $39.95. "Skyfox II boasts a new plot, better graphics and sound, faster action, and a more realistic sensation of flying than its predecessor." For those of you who liked the original Skyfox (and evidently, MANY people did), you'll probably enjoy the sequel. Lattice- On October 10, 1988 Lattice released information about a major upgrade of the Lattice C compiler for the Amiga. Version 5.0 of the compiler will be available in November and it will feature "an integrated editor and compiler, a new source-level debugger, global optimizer, significant enhancements to the compiler and Blink overlay linker, plus many new utilities." From the look of Lattice's report this upgrade will be fantastic. (Let's see what Aztec can do in return...) Suggested price is $300.00 but registered users can update for $75.00 and registered owners of Aztec can upgrade for $150.00 with turn in of their original software and manual. Workbench 1.3- As far as I can tell, WorkBench 1.3 is finally shipping. I'm not sure which companies actually have the software, but the disks are now being shipped. The price for the disks and small manual retails at $29.95 and the ROM chips for the A500 and A2000 will go for $45.00. Fred Fish- About eight more Fred Fish disks have been released. Next issue I'll give a complete rundown on what is contained on these disks. Amiga Happenings is a column dedicated to giving you information on what is happening in the Amiga community. Some of the information could possibly be wrong due to the fact that I am trying to get early information. I do not in any way guarantee that the information will be accurate although I will try my hardest to protect the innocent. >>If you have some new information you would like to share please submit it to Amy Today. ############################################################### # Amy Today Trading Galore! Trade public domain or shareware # # software with Amy Today. Look for more information later # # in this issue. --The trade is going strong...participate # # today! # ############################################################### Rocket Ranger Review: (Lancelot) Well folks, it looks like the people at CinemaWare have outdone themselves yet once more. Rocket Ranger, which puts the player in the role of a Nazi-bashing hero in the early 1940's, is undoubtedly CinemaWare's best title to date. Rocket Ranger places you in the star role of a mild-mannered bomb-sight inventor to ... you guessed it, Rocket Ranger! It's 1940, and the world is rapidly being consumed by the black stain of Nazi fascism. Brave scientists from a century into the future (the year 2040) have sent you several important items (via time machine); a radium-powered rocket backpack, a radium pistol, a supply of fuel, a booklet, a secret decoder wheel, and a computerized wristwatch. The rocket pack, when fastened securely to your back and fed the proper amount of fuel, allows you to zoom through the sky like a P-51 Mustang. The radium pistol allows you to fire powerful bursts of energy at your opponents (Hitler's "Godless Goose Steppers"), the secret decoder wheel computes the correct amount of fuel to be fed into your rocket pack, and the wristwatch tells you your current position and notifies you of any special events. The story the booklet relates is a dark one; 100 years ago, in 1940, the Nazi's won WWII and plunged the world into a century of Fascist terror and brutality. A team of brave scientists has sent you these supplies in the hope that you will be able to alter the course of history and free the Earth from its forebody future. If you accept the challenge, you'll soon be treated to a spectacle of both scintillating graphics and ear-tingling sound. The entire plot revolves around the use of Lunarium. Lunarium gas has a strange effect upon men; it lowers their IQ's by about 30 points, turning most men into drooling idiots. Strangely, Lunarium has no effect upon women. That's okay with the Nazi's; they have other, more dastardly plans for the women. Anyway, the Nazi's have made Lunarium bombs and are flying their dreaded Zeppelin fleet around the world, bombing the Allied countries into submission. The Zeppelins fly much too high for fighter planes to intercept them, so the world is at the Nazi's mercy. You, Rocket Ranger, are based in Ft. Dix New Jersey. Only here can you access the following game options: War Room, Rocket Lab, Fuel Depot, and Takeoff. In the War Room, you'll see a map of the world which shows you what month and year it is, where the Nazi Zeppelin fleet currently is located, which countries are under Nazi control, your current location, and the location of the five secret agents that are under your command. These agents help you find rocket parts, enemy targets, and enemy bases. Once an agent has infiltrated a country, he will shortly begin giving you any information he has discovered. If you use your agents well, you'll be able to find the two secret Nazi lunarium bases (which you raid for Lunarium), and the location of the five rocket parts. These rocket parts, when assembled into a rocket ship, will allow you to go to the heart of the Nazi's power: their base on the moon! The rocket lab allows you to see how much of your rocket ship is assembled and whether you have enough Lunarium to go to the moon -- you need 500 units of lunarium and a completed rocket ship to make it to the moon. The fuel depot is where you transfer lunarium from storage to either your rocket pack or your rocket ship. Whenever you leave Ft. Dix, you must go through the takeoff sequence. Choosing takeoff from the Ft. Dix menu will bring up the "destination" screen. This is where the "Secret decoder wheel" comes in. You have to enter the correct amount of lunarium from the wheel to travel to the location you wish to fly to. If you enter incorrectly, at best you could end up in the country and end up wasting two months time looking for something that isn't there; at worst you could run out of fuel and fall to death. Someone said that "War is Hell". In this game, that quote holds true; to win the game, you can't just jet around the globe stealing rocket parts and raiding Nazi fuel depots. The Nazis aren't out of play pattycake, either. So keep your Radium pistol handy and your mind clear. You'll find yourself flying through the air in savage dogfights with German fighter planes, chasing Zeppelins across the Atlantic, engaging in fisticuffs with a burly Nazi guard, blasting a secret South-American lunarium base with your pistol, or launching a night-time raid against a base in Africa, dodging flak and searchlights. Who knows what awaits you on the moon: I've played the game for about three weeks now, and I still haven't managed to get up there! Rocket Ranger is the only other game I've played (aside from EA's Interceptor) that makes you feel like you're actually there, doing all of these fantastic things in person. The graphics are beyond compare, (just wait until you see beautiful Jane Barnstorff, a damsel in distress you have to rescue. The artists must have seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit and modeled Jane after Jessica Rabbit!) the sound is excellent with actual digitized character's lips! Rocket Ranger is both an excellent arcade game and a challenging game of strategy. After playing the game as long as I have (about a month), I still haven't been able to get to the Nazi base on the moon. In summary, to quote two of cinema's best-known film critics, "We give it two thumbs up." You just can't miss with Rocket Ranger. HIGHLY recommended. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The Awesome Arcade Action Pack Volume One: Arcadia Distributed by Electronic Arts Suggested retail price $49.99 (David Motowylak) Being the arcade fanatic that I am, I just had to pick up Arcadia's latest release, entitled THE AWESOME ARCADE ACTION PACK VOLUME ONE. After a long and tiresome workout, here's what I found. The package contains three disks, each holding a separate action-packed game. Documentation comes in the form of a small black booklet, and while it contains some useful information, it is certainly not needed to enjoy the games. These are "arcade games" -- they are meant to be easy to play and understand. As the packaging reads, the games are "easy to pick up, impossible to put down." The first disk is SIDEWINDER, a vertical scrolling shoot'em up, similar to Xevious, Mission XXX, and a million others. The goal is to shoot your way through five levels of an alien spacecraft, destroying fuel tanks, buildings, and enemy fighters. Along the way you'll pick up various "power packs" that make your spaceship temporarily more powerful (rapid fire and power shots are some). The graphics are very sharp and colorful, especially from level three onward. Play can get pretty hectic as the game progresses ... I still haven't made it past level five yet. I'm dying to see what happens! SIDEWINDER is definitely the best of the bunch, offering the best game play and graphics. XENON, the next disk, is *another* vertical scrolling shoot'em up. Here you have the option of switching between a ground based hovercraft and a fighter plane. Again, you pick up "power packs" to strengthen your craft, such as invulnerability, lasers, and speed. The object still is to destroy the enemy defenses and make your way through the various levels. At the end of each sector you must face a large "sentinel" that has only one vulnerability. After finding its weak spot you move on to the next level. I'm still puzzled why Arcadia chose to include two vertical scrolling games in their game pack. The games feel quite different, but the general objective is the same. I think for the sake of variety there would be a wider selection. Finally, BLASTABALL, the third of the set, is described as a "Hitech" ice hockey from the far future. The setting is on a metal play arena, much like a hockey rink without the ice. You control one of ten craft, each with different abilities, trying to score more goals than your opponent. Goals are made by either shooting "homing missiles" at a steel puck that cause it to move, or by pushing the puck with your craft. Guiding the puck into the opponents goal area scores points. Play continues for three minutes, or until one player scores nine points. A nice feature is that either one or two people can play ... I found playing "head to head" the most fun. Overall, play is somewhat slow and the graphics are not quite up to par (for example, the fans are represented by large round circles). C'mon guys, this is an AMIGA! BLASTABALL is fun, but could use a lot of touching up. Even at its suggested retail of $49.99, The Awesome Arcade Pack is a great buy. The games will definitely keep you busy for awhile, and while each game may not be perfectly polished, you'll still get great arcade action that will satisfy anyone. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= AmiExpo Report: (John Rydell) Yes, AmiExpo has finally come and gone. Although I was personally unable to attend I have picked up a lot of second hand information which I would like to share. I hope the news is enjoyed but remember that I wasn't actually at the show so I cannot confirm any of the rumors. ASDG: They were displaying their new line of twin-x based products. The SHARP JX-450 scanner supposedly looked fantastic. ASDG & Bill Seymour of CMI: The two have multiple serial port boards that are almost ready to go. GVP: Had a large line of SCSI based boards on display. CMI: They were displaying a nice, polished MIDI interface. Price of $79.95. C Compilers: Both Aztec and Lattice were fighting together once again as Lattice talked about 5.0 and Aztec talked about v 4.0 which will be available December 1. WorkBench1.3: A couple of "real" 1.3 disks were given out to developers who were in the right place at the right time. Publishing Partner: PP has been renamed "PageStream" but no release date has been set. New Horizon: PostScript is now shipping. CygnusED Professional: Marketed by ASDG, this program is now shipping. The editor is very powerful and is using AREXX. NAG: Richard Lee Stockton's shareware program has gone commercial. Dragon's Lair: I guess the final product was not ready for sale but a demo was running off of six (yeah, six) disks. The game should ship pretty soon. ((By the way, I just got a demo disk of Dragon's Lair from Wild Wares and the graphics look FANTASTIC! It would have been hard to believe 5 years ago that I'd ever have a computer that could do a good job of reproducing a game like Dragon's Lair.) NewTek: NewTek was showing off their new demo. I have to presume that it is fantastic. Commodore: Besides being pushed against a wall, they had little to say except that 1.3 would be shipping with in a week or two. They might have also been displaying their new SCSI controller and monitor but I'm not sure on this information. Other Products: SuperBase 4.0 was at the show and supposedly looked very nice. Sculpt 4-d was being shown and a beta version of Photon Paint II was on display. MicroFiche Filer Plus: The new version supports HAM mode and uses ARExx. It should be nice. Magazines: AmigaWorld, AmNews, Amazing Computing, Ami Exchange Magazine, Compute, Ahoy, and British Amiga User International were all present and showing off their magazines. Friday afternoon the crowd was not very big at the show but I presume it picked up over the weekend. In general I think the show was a success. Hopefully I will news from a first-hand source next issue. This indirectly from UseNet, Harv Laser, and a couple of local users. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Trading Galore: First we had a picture trade. Users were urged to send in a disk full of pictures and, in return, were given a disk full of the best pictures that had been collected so far. The picture trade was, and will hopefully continue to be, a GREAT success! Because of this, I have decided to open up a new trade which allows everyone to participate--not just those of us with pictures. Send me a disk full of anything you want. (Music, Art, Animations, Sound files, and Public Domain/Shareware software...anything!) Include a SASE (please remember the stamps!), and I will send your disk back to you filled with whatever you want. Just tell me whether you want music, art, software (you can even specify a specific pd/shareware program but I can't guarantee that I have it), and I'll send it back. On request, I'll even send disk copies of all issues of Amy Today. Send your disk and a SASE to: Amy Today's Trading Galore 640 Willowglen Rd. Santa Barbara, CA 93105 <> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Amy Gurus: (John Rydell) It looks as if I have made it so that every Amy Today icon will not work properly. I feel bad that it took me so long to catch this error. The problem is that the icon files are named ".Icon" with a capital "I". WorkBench 1.2 will not accept this. Therefore, to fix the problem just rename the files as ".icon" with a small "i". Sorry for the inconvenience. This causes another problem, though, because 1.2 will not change a file name if you only change the case of one of the letters. You must rename the file to "xxx" and then back to "AmyToday.icon". (Sorry for the confusion) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Newsletter Trading: (From Issue 1-1) I am looking for Amiga user groups who would like to trade newsletters with me. Every month I will send you three issues of Amy Today and, in return, I would like a copy of your newsletter. I know a lot of this trading takes place and would love to get involved. The more articles and information that I have about the Amiga, the better I can make Amy Today. If you are interested please drop me a line on GEnie, Plink, or by mail. I would really appreciate a sample newsletter and will mail you Amy Today in return. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Advertising: Amy Today is open to advertising at VERY affordable prices. Large and small companies both have a great opportunity for quality advertising while supporting a public domain Amiga magazine. If you are interested please write to: Amy Today ATTN Advertising 640 Willowglen Rd. Santa Barbara, CA 93105 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= In the Future: A review of Bard's Tale II A review of Professional Page 1.1 A review of Modula-2 A review of a CLtd 33 meg hard drive A review of a Supra 2400 baud modem Yes, another review of F/A-18 Interceptor An interview with a shareware programmer (Guess who?) Maybe even more interviews, also And hopefully numerous articles from you--the readers. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "Amy Today" is copyright 1988 by John Rydell. Portions of the magazine may be reprinted but the content of this magazine may NOT be changed without the expressed consent of John Rydell. Yet everyone is encouraged to distribute it AS IS. Please give credit to "Amy Today" as well as to the individual author when reprinting material. "Amy Today" as well as any of its authors are not responsible for any damages that occur because of errors or omissions. Articles reprinted from other newsletters, as noted, are not property of Amy Today but are under the control of their original authors. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=