Clubbed - Issue 7 - Winter 2000 (2000)(South Essex Amiga Link)(GB)

25 Pages·2000·5.2 MB·English

£2.50
Scantastic!
•Scanning Explained •Scanner Review
•fxSCAN Review •Scan Quix Review
•Scanner Software Roundup
News:
SEAL-O-RAMA Report
OS 3.9 First look
Reviews:
fxSCAN 3.0
ScanQuix 5
ArtEffect 4
Bubble Heroes
PD Paradise
Support:
ProNet Setup
Start-up Problems
ArtEffect Tutorial
Shell Scripting
Issue 7, Winter 2000/01

NEWS NEWS
SEAL-O-RAMA
Contents Chairman
By Clubbed.info
Mick Sutton
Clubbed is published quarterly by South
News This issue of the magazine I and several SEAL Essex Amiga Link. For subscription details
would just like to tell you about members intend to Show Report see the back page.
SEAL-O-RAMA Report................5
our SEAL event “SEAL-O- return the compli- Editor: Robert Williams
News Items..................................7
RAMA” which took place on September ment on the 24th Design: Robert Williams
AmigaOS 3.9 Preview..................10 Contributors: Elliott Bird
the 10th. We (SEAL) had been so im- of February when
PCI Update..................................12 pressed with the Kickstart shows (well they are putting on by Gary Storm and Robert Williams Roy Burton
Gary Storm
AmigaOS 4 PPC?........................13 done again guys & girls of course!) that a similar style We didn’t know whether our first show Mick Sutton
Czech Amiga News Interview......14 we decided to hold one of our own (as I show (go for it). would be a success or not. As far as we Mike Woods
Features mentioned in the last issue), and I can So on reflection, we needn’t have were concerned if we could get around Proof Reading: Sharon Sutton
Scanning Explained.....................16 tperlel hyeonus tihvaet aabt ofiurst td woien gw iet,r eb uvte wrye a hpa-d wpaonrrieiesd/e axbhoibuitt ogrest ttion ga tttheen dc oamt a-ll, now all 1w5o0u lpde boep lae gcroemaitn sgt athrtr.o Iuf gwhe tdhied nd’ot ogre itt any PCroivnetirn Ag:rt: JReofbf eMrta rWtinilliams
Reviews alot encouragement from the likes of we needed to do was to get the punters more than a hundred it would probably be Contact Us
John from Forematt Home Computing our first and last show :)
fxSCAN 3.0..................................20 through the doors, in my opinion that is If you have any queries suggestions or
who has helped SEAL from the very
Mustek Paragon 600 Scanner.....22 beginnings with offering credit card the hardest bit. We put the announce- As it was we had nearly 100 Amigans rush want to contact us for any reason please
ment on all the news sites and several the gig in just half an hour after opening. use one of the following:
ScanQuix 5..................................23 paying facilities for subscribers of
companies agreed to send out flyers to At the end of the day the final attendance EMail: [email protected]
Scanner Software Roundup.........24 “Clubbed” magazine and distributing our was about 190, which is fantastic for our
all their customers and of course a big WWW: http://www.seal-amiga.co.uk/
ArtEffect 4....................................26 flyers for both the user-group and maga- first show. Of course this is in no small part The Mediator PCI board got its first
EZMouse PS/2 Adaptor...............32 zine. bonus was having a news article in in thanks to the brilliant support of Czech UK showing at SEAL-O-RAMA Post: Clubbed, 26 Wincoat Drive,
AmigActive (thanks guys). BENFLEET, Essex, SS7 5AH,
Bubble Heroes.............................34 Only a few days after announcing the Amiga News, Amiga.org, Amiga Active though I am assured it should reach us ENGLAND.
Key to Driving Theory..................35 show to the world we had several com- But on the day we were pleasantly magazine and everyone else who helped fairly soon). Telephone:[phone]
PD Paradise.................................34 surprised when around 180 people to get the show known (I must point out (19:00 - 22:00 GMT only please).
panies on board wanting to attend and
turned up, which I didn’t think was too here that Gary himself and Mick Sutton Blittersoft had a sexy looking Mediator PCI
.....................................................40 co-sponsor which was a big relief I can Only Amiga Made it Possible
bad for our first ever event. From per- were the guys behind the shows publicity running with a Virge graphics card, which
Support tell you! Thanks to Gary Storm with his sonal comments, articles on mailing lists and obviously they did a great job, Ed.). looked great on a motionless screen. Clubbed is designed and laid out using:
promotional tactics (I don’t know or Unfortunately there wasn’t any application Hardware:
ArtEffect 4 Tutorial........................29 wanna know how he did it), it was only a and news groups it would seem that Setting Up or game running at the time I was there to Amiga 3000
most who came along enjoyed them-
Top Tips........................................36 matter of weeks before we had ALL the selves. From feedback I have had from SEAL members and exhibitors arrived at see how it performed under working con- CyberStorm PPC/060
Pronet Step-by-step.....................38 tables booked and were looking to exhibitors most of them did well enough our venue in Basildon at 10am to set up ditions, but it’s very exciting. The excellent C64yMbebr VRiAsiMon, aPbPoCut 8Gb HDD space.
BSaoclvkin 2g BSatasirctusp - PSrcorbipletimngs.........................4431 rweedruec aeb tlhee t on uhmavbee r( douf eta tbol eosu re xhhailbl intoorts in sales to make it worth their while com- eSveettriyntgh iunpg wfoars t hpere 1tt2y npoaoinnl eospse,n einvge.n PAamyigbaa.c kP agyabmaec kw laoso kosn aan sde pplaaryast eb rAilGliaAn tly, Software:
ing along, and nearly all have stated that PageStream 4 by Softlogik
being the largest in the world), not only though there were lots of Amiga’s (and a and it’s not even finished yet. You
they would like to come along next year ImageFX 4 by Nova Design
Back Issues..................................46 that, Gary had managed to “persuade” if we decide to do it all again. Another couple of PCs - cough) being used for definitely have to buy this game if you liked Photogenics 4 by Paul Nolan
Next Issue....................................46 all the companies attending to offer us various things. About our only problem Grand Theft Auto in any way. Final Writer 5 by Softwood
success was the games arena which
Gallery..........................................48 prizes to give away! pulled the crowds and helped sales of was that the parking area was being in- Later in the show Bart, the programmer of There are also some essential utilities we
vaded by the cars of a junior soccer team’s “Fubar” showed up to demonstrate his couldn’t live without: Directory Opus 5,
Analogic did us proud by announcing games, particularly Heretic II which com-
parents (who had a match on which we Cannon-Fodder/Command & Conquer- SGrab, MCP, Turbo Print 7, MakeCD.
that every subscriber to “Clubbed” at the pletely sold out by the end of the day!
e didn’t know about), but after we bran- esque game, which looks very promising. Our thanks to the creators of this and all
Do The show would receive a free gift (a track- This game sold itself, by being played dished our baseball bats they disappeared the other great Amiga software out there.
i t ball) which was not to be sniffed at plus people got to see what all the fuss was for some reason. Strange. Eyetech had what I think was one of the Clubbed is entirely created on the Amiga,
r several hard drives. Thanks to them and about which no review or screenshot most interesting tables, thanks to the stock no other machines are used at any stage of
W all the companies (nearly all) who can do. This just proves how important Robert Williams (SEAL God and editor of they brought with them which included the design or layout process.
donated prizes. Also I would like to men- shows are in an Amiga market where Clubbed magazine) (BLUSH, Ed.) had XSurf Ethernet cards, BVisions and their
tion that Hyperion gave us a copy of there are no shops demonstrating printed loads of posters for the exhibitors, many A1200 products and the d’Amiga
Thing and also some for us to stick on the road- system that was running.
Heretic II to give away as a prize for the Amiga wares. Legalese
signs to show where we were. Mandyleigh
Heretic II competition and Amiga (Petro) In summary I would like to thank all the (my fiancé www.mandyleigh.co.uk), Dave Analogic didn’t bring anything to demo, but The views expressed in this magazine are those
gave us two A1200 Magic Packs and exhibitors for their support and the (not my fiancé) and myself went and il- had a few bargains, including 17” Compaq of the author of each piece, they do not
We’d like to make Clubbed more “in- loads of promotional goodies, even people who turned up not knowing what legally plastered the signs up with some V70 monitors for £120. I grabbed myself ncoencetrsibsuatroilrys roerfl eScEt AthLe. views of the editor, other
teractive” so we need your input! though they didn’t attend the show. gaffer tape. We even had a police car drive one of those baby’s. Yum.
to expect. Without doubt the heroes of Please Note: Clubbed is produced by SEAL
Got a question you’d like answered Crystal Interactive Software brought the day were the SEAL members who by us as we were doing it, but they didn’t Forematt Home Computing brought along members in their spare time, while we will always
or an opinion you’d like to share? along a special SEAL-O-RAMA version got this thing off the ground and kept the stop to beat us up, which was a shame. quite a bit of good software, old and new, strive to produce the magazine on time and
Write to us and we’ll include it in a of their brand new game Bubble Heroes, momentum going (where have I heard Exhibitors games and serious stuff. We were happy ianlcwlauydse paolls tshieb laed dvueert itsoe odt hceorn cteonmtsm tihtmis eisn tnso. tT he
letters page. which was nice! that?) in particular, Robert who done all to see they had brought along some of the price you pay for Clubbed covers our costs and
Once the doors were open to the general new releases such as Heretic II and you nothing more, we don’t make a profit from it.
Several user groups came along to the promotional artwork and posters,
Got a tip for other readers or even an public, a deluge of Amigans filed into the could order anything they didn’t have and If you wish to contact a contributor please send
article up your sleeve? Send it in and show what they are up to and these in- Gary for mugging companies into com- venue for the princely sum of £1 each, and still get the show price. John and his lovely your message to one of the addresses above and
cluded ANT (Amiga North Thames), ing, Jeff Tony & Glenn who ran the we will pass it on.
you could very well see your name in were handed a raffle ticket each for the wife kept on smiling all day, which makes
ASA (Amiga Support Association) and games arena faultlessly , Roy for selling Amiga is a registered trademark and the Amiga
print. multitude of prizes that were on offer. me wonder what drugs they were on, and logo, AmigaDOS, Amiga Kickstart, Amiga
Kickstart who you cannot keep away so many subscriptions of this wonderful
There was enough to see, even though where I could get some :) Workbench, Autoconfig, Bridgeboard, and
Got a suggestion or comment on the from any event! Some members of magazine and not least Sharon and Mick Tinker and the mythical beast of a Powered by Amiga are trademarks of AMIGA Inc.
magazine? Let us know and we’ll try HAUG (Huddersfield Amiga User Group) Mandyleigh for all their hard work in the BoXeR couldn’t make it, as well as iFusion Mark Hinton and Russell from Amiga All other trademarks mentioned are the property
and make Clubbed better for you. came all the way down from Yorkshire, kitchen a.k.a. the Turkish bath! PPC (which I was hanging out for, al- Active magazine weren’t looking so im- of their respective owners.
4 CLUBBED - Issue 7 Winter 2000/1 5
NEWS NEWS
pressed on their stand when I was All three of these games are just fantastic, Amiga Show "oop North"!
wandering around... or maybe it’s ‘cos I so if you have any interest or equipment to
was there, and joking about Mark’s gay be able to play them... do it. Get them.
Amiga following :). Amiga Active had an Huddersfield Amiga User Group are
The Prizes
absolutely outstanding huge poster behind holding the first Amiga show in the North
them as you’d expect (even bigger than After many tickets were drawn only to find of England for many years on Saturday
our SEAL and Clubbed ones, grrr, Ed.), that the winner was no longer there (it was the 24th of February 2001. Christened
and a lot of their excellent magazines on probably YOU), other prizes to be handed the Alternative World of Amiga (alt.WoA
show. Unfortunately Andrew Korn didn’t out at 4pm were: for short) the show venue is The Old
make it. I was doing a bit of Amiga Active
Cornmill on the outskirts of Huddersfield
magazine promoting, and most of the • A 6-month subscription to Amiga Active.
The games arena was popular all day. only about one minute from Junction 25
people I spoke to were already sub- This had been won by one dude, who
of the M62.
scribers. One guy even said he didn’t want tions, and loads more single issues. A because he was already a subscriber,
to subscribe because he ordered it through large number of these sales were down to kindly donated the prize back to be re- OS 3.9 At the time of writing the following com-
his local small newsagent and wanted to Roy Burton who spent most of his time drawn. Excellent dude. panies were confirmed as exhibiting at
support them even though it cost him behind the SEAL table, thanks Roy. • OS3.5 from Ideas2Reality. the show:
extra. If you haven’t experienced the • Various great game and utility CDs from There will be plenty of things to see and
delights of the best commercial Amiga Usergroups ASA and ANT where there too Forematt Home computing. • Eyetech Group do at the show. In the games you can try
magazine in the world yet (OK, the only attracting new members and selling a • Another Amiga 1200 Magic Pack. Is Here! • Wirenet your hand at Heretic II (which is being
commercial Amiga magazine in the world), variety of second hand bargains. ANT’s • Port Plus Junior, STFax 4 and other • Classic Amiga organised by SEAL), Napalm and the
then get your ass to www.amigactive.com Michael Carillo who isn’t known for his shy- things from Eyetech. • Cartridge Club UK ever-popular Sensible Soccer. An
ness also did a great job of helping us out
and subscribe. You have no excuse not to, • Forematt Computing Internet Cafe will let everyone have a go
throughout the day. His loud voice came in Amiga and Haage and Partner surprised
as it’s brilliant and is delivered all over the useful with announcements (as we had Thanks again to all the exhibitors for most people in the Amiga community by • Ram Jam Consultants at surfing plus door prizes and
world. three separate halls), and during the prize- donating the prizes. Brill. delivering a new version of the • Weird Science demonstrations are also planned.
• Epic Direct
Crystal Interactive premiered and sold giving at 4pm. Special thanks must go to Analogic as AmigaOS at the World of Amiga show We wish HAUG all the best with the
• Trogladite Software
Bubble Heroes, which is a game very simi- their give-away helped to sell many held in Cologne, Germany in December. show and hope to see you there!
lar to ‘Bust A Move 2” on the Playstation Games! Clubbed subscriptions and to Forematt The new OS version has a range of new
(you can read a review on page 34 of this The games arena was the area we were Home Computing who have been a great features and lots of new bundled A number of usergroups will also be For more information and directions visit
issue). Anyone who’s played that knows most worried about but in then end every- support to SEAL right from the start. John utilities. Some of the major features in- attending including: The Amibench the show website at:
how addictive and fun it is, and Bubble thing went off very smoothly thanks to the of Forematt eagerly supported SEAL-O- clude: Team, Kickstart, Amiga North Thames, http://www.alt-woa.org/
Heroes is a fantastic Amiga rendition, and hard work of Jeff Martin, Glenn Pudney RAMA and was the first to book a table. the Glasgow Amiga User Group and of
well worth buying. Andrew also gave a and all the other members who helped out. He also sends out Clubbed flyers and • Multimedia programs
course SEAL.
popular demonstration of Gilbert We had three games Wipeout 2097 and provides our credit card subscription ser- • Internet suite with unrestricted
Goodmate, Crystal’s new point and click Heretic II representing bang up-to-date vice, thanks John! Genesis TCP/IP stack.
Storm C
adventure game, this was running on a Amiga gaming and the classic Sensi • New OS utilities including: AmiDOCK,
laptop PC and Andrew was keen to judge Soccer. Wipeout was running throughout All in all the day was fantastic. SEAL IomegaTools, Un-archiver and Find
the reaction to an Amiga version. the afternoon, with people trying to better members did a sterling job throughout the • New powerful Shell
day and the way everyone worked
Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the the best time on a certain track. The together was really fantastic. Cheers espe- • Extensive HTML documentation
Gasteiner stand, but it’s nice to have had winner got a copy of Wipeout 2097, kindly cially to the hard working ladies who
them at an Amiga show again. donated by Blittersoft. I used to be great at sweated it out in the kitchen - Sharon & For more details turn to our AmigaOS Haage and Partner have released a Other new
this game on the Playstation, but everyone
Ideas2Reality had brought along a working was beaten by some kid who’d played it Mandyleigh. The kitchen was seriously a 3.9 first look feature on page 10 or visit major new version of the their StormC C features include:
QNX system, which looked very interest- once or twice on a friends PSX. Brat :) sauna. Of other note from what I saw were the OS 3.9 website at: and C++ development suite. The major • Enhanced Editor
ing. Bernard and his accomplice were nice Roy, Jeff, Glenn, Robert, Mick, Dave and change in version 4 is a move to the (Shows
to chat to, and very interested in the Heretic II was played on two PPC’s op- David who was tied to the door for most of http://www.amiga.com/3.9 open source GCC compiler, this is Prototypes of
response (which was pretty positive). They posite each other, networked in a death- the day. Well done to those and all the OS 3.5 designed to aid portablility to the new Functions).
didn’t really bring much to sell, just a match. I got through to the quarter-finals people we didn’t see or have forgotten. Amiga DE. Currently StormC runs solely
• StormDOC to
couple of pc keyboards and mice really, but was trounced. I blame the lack of a After the show we contacted all the on classic Amigas but H&P say that this manage ToDo-
bQuNt Xth ReyT OcaSm aen dto I gthaiungke t hreeayc wtieorne t op lethaes ed. mII oouf sceo-umrsaet, mdoysnealtfe :d) Tbhy eH pyrpizeeri owna tsh Hemer-etic rtheetamile srese wmheod a vtteernyd headp apny dw aitlhm hooswt a tlhl eo f BoingBag 2a mGCovCe hwaisll bmeaekne mfuotudrifeie pdo troti nbge evaesryie cr.o m- lists, bug reports and so on.
selves. • Enhanced debugger (for GCC also).
Kickstart were doing a great business of show had gone. We were very pleased Soon after the release of 3.9 Amiga also patible with the Storm compiler from ear- • Debugging of Tasks and Shared
selling registrations to MooVid for PPC Finally there was a SEAL-O-RAMA! 2000 that everything went so smoothly, there made available an update to OS3.5, lier versions and outputs the same Libraries.
and non-PPC Amiga’s for the author. Sensible Soccer tournament, where I was really were no major problems although we called BoingBag 2 this includes a variety debug file format. The PowerPC version • Global full text search.
MooVid is a great .avi and .mov video knocked out after an own-goal in extra do have a few ideas to make a future show supports H&P’s WarpOS PPC system.
of minor bug fixes and it was nice to see • Comprehensive Online-Help.
player, and I’ve always wanted it for my time (a shot deflected from a defender) even better. To top it all off the final tur-
purchasers of the older version hadn’t Several networking features have been StormC 4 is available now and costs
PPC. It’s a real pity that the Frogger and a couple of other goals just to make nout significantly exceeded our expec-
author didn’t trust Kickstart enough to let sure. The final was between Paul Qureshi tations, not bad for out first show! been abandoned with the new release. added to version 4 such as support for 498DM (about £170) upgrades for users
tahse imt’s s melul chhis l epsrosg oraf ma paat inth ien sthheo wa rasse wtoe ll, abneda tG hliemn nh.e Irte w, aansnd’ th Pe’adu al’lss od aloy,s ta hs isG lloenngn Tyohua nwkhso t om aaldl eo fi ty wouo rwthh oco cmaminge ,t oa n:)d all of Nwoatse u: pthdea tienditi atol r2eale vaesrey osfo Bono inagftBera igt w2 as twhhei cCho anlclouwrrse nste Vveerrasilo dnesv Selyospteerms t(oC VwSor)k oFfo or lmdeorr ev edrestiaoinlss oarr eto 1 o9r8dDeMr o (n£-7li0n)e. visit
buy shareware through Kickstart than standing best time on Wipeout 2097 to that released due to the wrong version of on the same project and distributed the Haage and Partner website:
trying to get get foreign money posted off talented bratlet. Glenn is actually a SEAL some files being included if you got the make which allows the task of compiling
to God knows where. So c’mon all you member who had organised the Sensi Squeeze! earlier version you should grab 2a now. to be spread over several machines on http://www.haage-partner.com
shareware authors... let Kickstart do the comp, but in no way was it rigged (or I’d a network.
BoingBag 2a can be downloaded from
biz for you. have won) :). Glenn had the grand prize of
the Support section of Amiga’s OS3.5 For more big news see our news
an Amiga 1200 Magic Pack from Amiga
Sorry that there was not room for an
SEAL ourselves were there promoting this and a 3.2 gig 2.5” HD from Analogic to go website:
Editorial or SEAL-Update this issue...
very magazine and issue 6 was released into it. features starting on page 10!
they will return! http://www.amiga.com/3.5
at the show. We sold another 20 subscrip-
6 CLUBBED - Issue 7 Winter 2000/1 7
NEWS NEWS
Simon Released! Even More 100% Amiga
Perfect
Epic Interactive have been busy over If that tickles your fancy Simon 2 costs
the last couple of months, as well as about £30 from your favourite Amiga no, it’s not a dodgy game show on Channel 5 :)
Earth 2140 they have also released the dealer, more details and screenshots
Haladjian Georges has released ver- Our friends at FORE-MATT Home 2, a review of OS3.9 and sneak peaks at
long awaited sequel to Simon the can be found at Epic Interactive:
sion 2.4 of his fantastic freeware paint Computing along with “another PAYBACK and EARTH 2140 including a
Sorcerer which is called (surprise, http://www.epic-interactive.com/
program, Perfect Paint. It supports edit- prominent Amiga company” have demo. The feature this month will be the
surprise) Simon the Sorcerer 2.
ing graphics from 1 to 24bit and now announced that they are working on a AmigaONE presentation from Eyetech.
Simon 2 is a point and click adventure in has a very wide range of effects, and new monthly CD based Amiga maga-
100% Amiga is priced at just £5 for
the style of the classic Monkey Island useful features like anti-aliasing on all zine called 100% Amiga. They plan to
single issues, £30 for 6 month subscrip-
series. It features beautiful hand drawn drawing operations. include news, software reviews, pre-
tion or a 1 Year subscription for just £48.
hand drawn back grounds and all the views, tips, cheats and many other
The major addition to version 2.4 is the Overseas postage is an additional £1.50
dialogue is spoken (in English, German features.
Raylab factory, this is a simple GUI, in- per issue.
and Italian subtitles are also provided).
tegrated into Perfect Paint, for the The first issue , January 2001, should
The game has over 80 locations, about For more information contact Forematt
freeware Raylab 3D renderer. A range of be available by the time you read this
100 characters who you can talk to, all on their new phone number +44 (0)
pre-defined shapes can be selected or and will include the
these are portrayed with an amazing 8700 11 22 34 or visit their website:
you can use a 3D font, then you select a
total of 50,000 frames of animation! new real time strategy game Exodus,
Can You Save texture and lighting. Finally you can http://www.forematt.free-online.co.uk/
the brilliant sequel Simon the Sorcerer
The game was ported to the Amiga by rotate the object to get the effect you
Paul Burkey of Foundation fame, you wish. The completed image can then be EZCam Makes
the Planet?
can find some updates to the release painted onto your Perfect Paint picture.
version on his website at: This new feature looks like it would be
Earth 2140 is a real time strategy game,
a genre that first appeared on the Amiga http://www.shoecake.com/simon2.html ideal for creating quick web graphics Digital Cameras EZ!
and adding a bit of spice to flat images
with Dune-II and went on to be hugely
successful on the PC with games like Eyetech Amiga One and compositions.
Command and Conquer. E2140 was Other new features in 2.4 include im- Eyetech have announced a new product The other benefit is that the PCMCIA
originally written for the PC by Topware proved design of some requesters, that should make a far wider range of slot is much faster than a serial port so
Interactive and has been ported to the At the World of Amiga show held in run under emulation on the PowerPC. colour level adjustment, a new rotated digital cameras available to Amiga users pictures can be copied from a memory
Amiga by Pagan Games, it is published Cologne, Germany in December The AmigaOne boards will fit in exiting ellipse tool and several bug fixes. and also overcome the problem of slow card almost instantly (we have seen
by Epic Interactive GMbH. Eyetech announced that they will be A1200 towers which can take a ZIV download speeds across the serial figures of 5MB per second quoted)! The
Download Perfect Paint 2.4 from:
producing an official PPC based board (Eyetech Z4, Power Tower etc.) port... sounds good! The product is the Eyetech software presents the memory
This is the first Amiga RTS game to use http://gothic.fr.free.fr/amiga/index.html
AmigaOne system, designed to work and we assume the A4000 version will EZCam which connects the A1200’s card as a Volume icon on the
16bit graphics and therefore a graphics
with A1200s and A4000s giving also require a tower. A fitting kit will be PCMCIA slot and adds some additional Workbench so you can copy images
card is essential, 640x480 and 800x600
AmigaDE and classic Amiga compatibil- available to allow fitting in a standard logic enabling it to ready any size onto another drive, or even load them
resolutions are supported. The game
ity. Eyetech say that the AmigaOne ATX PC tower for those who don’t need PCMCIA memory card. Adaptors from directly into a graphics program.
also requires an 040 or above processor
boards are stand-alone computers Amiga chipset compatibility. all types of digital camera memory card
with at least 24Mb of RAM, 32Mb and We expect to have a review of the
capable of running AmigaDE alone how- (Smart Media, Compact Flash and Sony
an 060 and or PPC is recommended. On their new AmigaOne website (see EZCam next issue.
ever because they have access to a Memory Stick) to PCMCIA are widely
The PPC support is via WarpOS. below) Eyetech have announced a chal-
classic Amiga motherboard they should available so with one of these and an The EZCam costs £49.95 but remember
lenging schedule for the release of the
Earth 2140 promises to be a huge be able to provide a high level of classic EZCam any camera should work (it you will also need a PCMCIA adapter
AmigaOne boards which will see the
game, there are 50 levels to play and software compatible. would probably still be wise to check suitable for your digital camera. For
end product available in March this year.
over 100 units to command along with a with Eyetech before buying a camera). more information visit the Eyetech
Both models will have 6 PCI slots, an For further details visit:
large selection of buildings. There is The EZCam connects to the PCMCIA website at:
AGP slot, PowerPC G3 or G4 CPU and
also a long rendered intro movie and cut local memory. There will be no pass- http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/ Got a Micronik slot via an extension cable, the card slot http://www.eyetech.co.uk/
scenes to help the story of the game can be fitted into a 3.5” drive bay at the
through for an Amiga accelerator so we
flow and a CD audio track completes the front of a tower.
assume all Classic Amiga programs will Bus Board?
experience. DrawStudio from KickSoft
Earth 2140 costs about £30 and is avail- Amiga SDK for Windows If so you want to take a look at Mike
Woods’ support page it covers the
able from most dealers. We are pleased to be able to report that own right for single page layouts like
various bus boards made by Micronik
Amiga have released their Software (128 MB recommended), 100 MB of the excellent structured drawing pro- posters, CD covers and many other
We can already tell you that the game and what Zorro cards and fast slot ac-
Developer Kit (SDK) for the Amiga hard drive space and a 200mhz gram, DrawStudio which we use for jobs.
CD comes very nicely packaged in a celerators (for the Z3 models) they are
DVD-Style case with instruction booklet Digital Environment (AmigaDE) for PCs Processor or faster. compatible. If you have some experien- some of the graphics in Clubbed, is now Because Kickstart now handle the sales
bfourt oyuoru r’lel vhieawve! to wait for the next issue rvuenrsniionng aWlrienaddoyw asv iani laadbdleit.i oTnh eto S thDeK L inux Mweobres idtee:tails are available on the Amiga cceasn osfu btipmsi to tnh egmet ttion gM cikaer dfos rw inocrkluinsgio nyo oun auvsaeirl agbroleu pa.gain thanks to the Kickstart osef tsuepv ear anle swo cftowmarpea npyro ddeudcitcsa ttheedy t oh asvoeft -
needs a PC with an Ethernet card, http://www.amiga.com/ the page. Although DrawStudio is no longer in ware distribution, KickSoft. KickSoft cur-
For more information and to download a Windows 95B, 98, NT Workstation 4.0 development it a very powerful package, rently supplies GoldEd 6, DrawStudio,
demo visit Pagan Games at: (with SP3), 2000 or ME, 64 MB of RAM Surf along to: certainly the best of its kind on the Metaview and MooVid.
http://www.pagan-games.com/ www.microniksupport.freeservers.com Amiga. It is ideal for creating images
Colour screen shots from Earth 2140 and They have a new website at:
and Epic Interactive at: and logos to be used in word processing
http://www.kicksoft.co.uk/
http://www.epic-interactive.com/ Simon 2 on the back cover... documents and also very good in its
complete with secure on-line ordering.
8 CLUBBED - Issue 7 Winter 2000/1 9
NEWS NEWS
AmigaOS 3.9 OS3.9 was released so sadly it does not support all the latest AVI As in 3.5 two other pieces
and MOV formats such as Intel Indeo. of Internet software are
quickly can it be any Some of these formats are supported in included, AWeb which has
the MooVID but could not be included in been updated to the latest
good? Robert Williams
Actions due to licensing issues. Amplifier version (3.4) and
First Look
can be used to play various audio files AmigaMail which has had
investigates.
although it is clearly designed with MP3 a few bug fixes.
(again a format that is very common on the
Haage and Partner surprised most not supplied with an Amiga icon becomes notice a small tool bar (known as a dock) WbMenus
Internet) in mind. The mpega.library which
Amiga users by announcing OS3.9 increasingly important, so I feel this is a at the bottom of the screen holding icons
is now included with the OS is used to
in September and shipping it in useful addition to the OS. for some of the new utilities. A single click The OS3.5 Workbench
decode MP3 files, this is available for both
December, as they promised! As I write on one of these icons launches the pro- allowed users to add items
UnArc provides a simple way of dealing 68k and PPC. Amplifier has an play list
this feature I’ve only had the new OS for gram and you can open a particular file in to its Tools menu, in 3.9
with lha, lzx, DMS, zip, Gzip and tar ar- and on-screen equaliser and you can use
two weeks so I’ve just taken a look at the a program by dropping the file onto the this facility has been ex-
chives, you simply select the archive and WinAMP skins to change the look of these
main additions in 3.9, there are some more program’s icon (you could view a picture in tended to allow the crea-
the directory where you want it extracted windows. The other new multimedia utility
minor changes and may be some things multiview by dropping the picture’s icon tion of as many new
and click extract. By default it is set-up to is PlayCD and this also supports skins so
I’ve missed, but I’ve tried to include all the onto Multiview in the bar). Adding pro- menus as you like so, for
work with the DefIcons utility so when you you can customise its look. Apart from this
important ones. grams to the dock is very easy, you just example, you could add an
double click an archive without an icon PlayCD is a utility to play an audio CD in This screen shot shows some of the new utilities in action:
drop their icon onto the background, you Applications menu to hold
New Utilities UnArc pops up allowing you to select a your CD-ROM drive, while it offers the AmiDock in the top right, UnArc working from an lha DefIcon in
can also add drawers to the AmiDock bar your favourite programs.
destination and extract. While seasoned standard features like programming and the Downloads drawer and Bench Trash in the bottom left corner.
in the same way, clicking on their icon Menus and menu items
Several new utilities are now shipped with Amiga users have archive handling down random play there is no option to manually
causes a Workbench window for that are added by sending commands to the
OS3.9, some of them are updates of exist- to a fine art this will be of great assistance name your CDs and tracks or download locked until the file operation is complete
drawer to open. Workbench AREXX port, this means you
ing free and shareware programs and to many less experienced users, especially them from CDDB (an Internet database of (of course any other programs already run-
currently have to write a script to setup
others are completely new developments. those who have discovered the delights of At the end of the bar is a handle area CD titles and track listings). ning will continue to multitask). Adding
your menus and then run it after
the Internet (and Aminet in particular). which can be used to move it to other multi-threading to all aspects of
Find allows you to search one or more More Preferences Workbench has loaded (for example in the
areas of the screen, it also contains a Workbench would be a major job so in 3.9
devices for a file with the name you Stephan Rupprecht’s RaWbInfo has now WbStartup drawer). A package to allow
button which pops up a menu of options Olaf Barthel has been working on allowing
specify or which contains the words you been included in the OS, this provides a Some of the standard Preferences pro- conversion of ToolsDemon (a hack to add
for the bar. Selecting Edit here opens a some operations to be replaced with alter-
enter (this could be used to search for new Workbench icon information window, it grams have been enhanced over 3.5. The menus to older Workbench versions)
Reaction based configuration window natives that can run while Workbench does
wordprocessor document containing a cer- uses Reaction to give a resizable interface. Workbench preferences program now setups to a suitable script has been written
where allows you to change some settings other things. Stephan Rupprecht is work-
tain phrase for example). The list of There is also some new functionality in- allows you to set several options which by John Nelson and is on his web page at
including the order of the icons on the bar. ing on a package called ASyncWb which
matching files is displayed in a separate cluding the display of file version informa- could previously only be modified via an http://web.ukonline.co.uk/amigadude/.
You can also add “pages” to the current will replace the Workbench operations, we
window, double clicking on a file tries to tion. In the menus you will find icon external program. The most important of Several people including John have men-
bar or additional bars. Each page can hold expect it to include Delete and Copy and
launch it as if you double clicked it on manipulation options allowing you to con- these is the icon memory setting, this tioned that they are working on a GUI so
a different set of icons, you can select the perhaps other slower functions. Hopefully
Workbench, you can also open the vert icons to the new format, one par- allows systems with graphics cards or run- new menus and items can be added com-
page from the pop-up menu. Additional ASyncWb will be included with the first
Workbench window containing the file or ticularly useful option is to convert a Magic ning FBlit to store the icons in fast RAM fortably so hopefully something better will
bars can be placed independently on the BoingBag update for 3.9 (not to be con-
copy its path to the clipboard. Workbench icon keeping the correct which stops high chip RAM uses on be available soon.
screen and can have a different back- fused with Boing Bags 1, 2 and 2a already
colours. drawers with lots of icons. Note that there
DefIcons is a utility which improves the ground pattern. AmiDock is a really neat AsyncWb released for 3.5).
is a section in the OS 3.9 FAQ on running
functionality of Workbench’s Show All Files Another Stephan Rupprecht creation in- little utility and does a good job of giving a
FBlit with 3.9. The WbPattern prefs now Conclusion
view, instead of just showing a project icon cluded in the OS is the ASL preferences lot of flexibility without being over com- The OS 3.9 Workbench itself is largely un-
allows you to select how to fit a back-
for data files or a tool icon for programs editor, this enables you to set the defaults plicated. One feature I miss is the ability to changed over 3.5 apart from much faster
ground image to your Workbench screen, Although less seems to have been done to
DefIcons looks at the content of each file for the Amiga’s standard file, screen and launch shell and AREXX programs (as it is icon loading which is actually due to op-
you can now centre it, scale it to fit or tile the core OS and Workbench in OS3.9 the
and displays an icon according to its type. font requesters. You can now select how you would have to setup an icon for them timisation of the icon.library. One major
as normal. new utilities are genuinely useful and I
Each file type icon can have its own the list of files will be sorted and where the on Workbench), this would make it easier feature which we hoped might be included
think most users would now find a basic
default tool and other settings so, for ex- requesters will appear on the screen, an to create an AmiDock bar to run Genesis in 3.9 was multi-threading but unfor-
install of 3.9 an acceptable system with out
ample double clicking on a JPEG picture option allows you to override the settings Workbench controlling scripts. tunately this wasn’t ready in time. Multi-
installing any third part add-ons. If you al-
could load it into a viewer while a word built into many programs. Probably the most disappointing aspect of threading means that Workbench can per-
ready have 3.5 your impressions of 3.9 will
processor document could load it into the OS 3.5 was the time limit on the version of form more than one operation at a time, for
Other utilities added include BenchTrash probably depend on what you have added
appropriate application. A DefIcons utility Miami included, to rectify this problem example if you start copying a large
which gives you a configurable trash can to your system. Users who already have
was included with the NewIcons package Haage and Partner have decided to in- number of files in you cannot do anything
on the Workbench. It has quite a range of registered Internet software and lots of
so this idea isn’t new but the OS3.9 ver- clude the Genesis TCP/IP stack (also used else in Workbench until the copy has com-
options, for example you can set it to auto- other utilities, in particular Opus Magellan,
sion as two important improvements firstly in Netconnect 3) with 3.9. This is a full un- pleted. As for many users Workbench is
matically delete trashed files after so many won’t find that much new, others will find
it is system legal using new features of restricted version and included the their main means of launching programs
days. WbClock which uses Workbench’s the upgrade of much greater value. For
Workbench and secondly it has a preferen- Genesis Wizard which helps you setup an this can mean your Amiga is effectively
new icon features to provide a highly con- anyone with 3.1 or earlier I would say
ces editor so you can define the new types Internet connection step by step. Genesis
figurable clock on the Workbench. More Information OS3.9 is pretty much an essential buy, it
of file (the NewIcons version used a fixed has always used MUI for its interface so to
updates many aspects of the OS and
file that was difficult to edit). As more and AmiDock In AmiDock’s configuration you can define fit in with the rest of the OS software http://www.amiga.com/3.9/ makes it much more pleasant to use.
more Amiga users get on the Internet han- multiple tool bars and catagories. Haage and Partner have started to convert The official AmigaOS 3.9 site from Amiga have stated that sales of OS3.9 will
dling a variety of files many of which are Quickly accessing programs and utilities it to Reaction. For the initial 3.9 release
Amiga, any updates and BoingBags be used to judge the demand for future
has never been a strong point of they have completed the control window
Workbench, the only way to avoid trawling Multimedia (which is used to go on and off-line) and released will be found here. AmigaOS versions and buying it also
rewards the many programmers who have
through directories is to leave files out but the Wizard but not the main Prefs program http://www.gregdonner.org/
Three “multimedia” player programs are contributed to the project and given a great
that quickly leads to a very cluttered itself. If you need to alter any settings after Greg Donner has an in-depth review of
now included in the OS. Action plays deal to the Amiga community over the
screen. Many third party utilities are avail- running the Wizard to create your con- OS 3.9 on his website which covers all
QuickTime and AVI video clips which are years. So all in all there are many reasons
able which let you launch programs from figuration or set it up from scratch you will the upgrade’s features. He also com-
commonly found for download on the to buy OS3.9, the final one is the price,
menus or button bars, AmiDock is another need to install MUI and the group- piles the official OS3.9 FAQ which is
Internet. Based on MooVID It can be used less than 30 pounds.
utility of this type, included with OS3.9. pager.mcc class, neither of which are in- essential reading, especially the in-
in its own window or on a separate screen,
After installing the new OS version you will cluded on the OS 3.9 CD. stallation section.
DefIcons prefs is used to define types of file.
10 CLUBBED - Issue 7 Winter 2000/1 11
FEATURES FEATURES
PCI promises cheap high- showed a beta version of their Warp3D quite slow and buggy, a new version 1.1
PCI Update Voodoo3 driver running Heretic at the WoA was released a few weeks later that was
spec add-ons, no wonder show using a pre-release GRex so it may usable and much faster and as I write ver-
well be ready soon. Hopefully there will be sion 1.2 is supposed to be imminent.
the market is buzzing!
This prototype a version for the Mediator as well. However just as we thought the
GRex has
By Robert Williams CyberGraphX debacle had died down the
graphics and Trouble
Picasso 96 authors issued a press release
network cards
While there are good reasons solutions allow Zorro and PCI cards to be Other Options installed. When the Mediator was first released it claiming that Elbox had developed their
that Amiga hardware is ex- used side by side. The A4000 solution driver without permission, which according
was announced that Vision Factory would
pensive, it is still frustrating to comes in two parts, a bus board (with 5 Since the last issue of Clubbed two further applications will also be needed to take to the P96 license agreement should be
provide CyberGraphX Virge drivers and
see similar or better PC hardware selling PCI, 7 Zorro and 1 video slot) and a PCI bus boards have been announced, the advantage of cards like the Voodoo3 sort for commercial developments. As we
that they were working on a Voodoo3
for a fraction of the price of the Amiga Mediator core logic card which activates Predator from Eyetech and the GRex from whose forte is 3D. Fortunately drivers for go to press this issue had not been
driver. Soon after this VFD announced that
equivalent. A clear example of this was the PCI slots. Elbox displayed the bus DCE. Both of these differ from the the Voodoo 3 are currently being devel- resolved but the Picasso 96 authors had
they had entered into a contract to develop
when I bought an Ariadne II Ethernet card board, which is designed to fit their E/Box Mediator in that they connect directly to oped by Hyperion (who have announced just posted that they will develop Voodoo
Voodoo drivers for DCE’s GRex board and
for my A3000 last year, it cost £80, a few 4000 tower, at the recent World of Amiga the local bus slot (usually used by a that the V3 is the only card they will be drivers themselves, it is not clear if they
that the Mediator drivers were on hold.
days later I bought an Ethernet card for show in Cologne, Germany. However the BVision or CVision PPC graphics card) of supporting for the foreseeable future) who have reached agreement with Elbox or
While it has never been made totally clear
the family PC so I could network it to the core logic card was not ready for the show, the ex-Phase 5 Blizzard and CyberStorm are also busy porting several 3D intensive have decided to do this “off their own bat”.
that CyberGraphX Mediator Voodoo
Amiga, this cost just £12 and it turned out it should be out in January 2001. PPC accelerators. This method of connec- games to the Amiga (the excellent Heretic drivers will never be developed the an- So it is an exciting time in the Amiga hard-
tAor ibaed nbea sIIe! dT hoen othbev isoaums es oclhuitpiosne tt oa sth tihse Drivers tfiuolnl 3 h2absit tahded ardevsasinntga gwei tohfo au tf athsete nr ebeuds faonr d IfIo rw tahse tVhoeoird foirost3 r iesl epaasretic).u Wlaarlryp e3aDg seurlpyp ort nboeuinngc eam coemntp caanuys etod bEel beoaxs ialy p proubt loefmf t.h Neyo t whoawre t hwionrglds ,w aitll tphaisn p oouint ta int dis w hhaircdh toop gtiuoensss
pesPCMtrxCoaaopmn nbaisdylpne aoPAsmrniCdmo ei nIsfin gos (ttPar oo I een Znfrxtio ineptprhdrahrce oneao srA nawinmola eniygc c tat)ao,. r tduhsse e od nse t tafhanecd taor d Now Awmei gctaaa knteh cneroa innnsneg cexcertca e otsna ftP tenPmiCnpeCgo Ivt Ishced tcaar r aPirthv drCneodserpIs stee,co daf w ottsrhhhrd a teisaolte w bweilel tirEdathe enydeqcdeo ui Mtdewiereseceild dhdlm i i.nana eJotsnaouttnn ersto’ oastt u h db“cna meosctfnt eeooatdmric enP kto uhP wrteayhCe t ew w wta hiGitcnehecRdn yetote h lhwtexeoa r ”w vaP phethrrooe eircwds hisaes th voear,rs atHgsBhpwaVeeemari seemietitdoeisac nd)oj o IfiabIsr t ne( hbnadceoona tCtdPtu lt Vesehp eirernsme ieioptse cnruhdko mai PcaisnaeP 2 bsbtC hslecy oecch ro oais ptmprph dooeeeswner .c edfHtluhre o yteabufp r ure ettr h ti3oahDnte aotsRMhonwTee,nnG d roC ie Vausylotenybooacserdets remGiodnmo argta3h.i l api aAnd htcgdr Xtic rvhlio iveeasrerytnd r atni wnhfnoogeodur u tinntaolhcdi tefep iera moePwls leeid tcwsnarai tesvo steeensh kro et tshw9hy e6ea adi frsti de r afpgMporrrrereiaocmd pbebiahaadenibt csotclshtyre a foa (otPorl rr ir Cfeet hGytaIh eodcRe uayferu rnatxdtheur sweetr e achcl.oraeh eoTrne dkhs a iiaottnp ot ige rs sey s taaoaot ivus odaaorp dhinAtladiiaog1b bnha2lle. 0yp) 0 ei sra-
a very similar specification.
cards have used a be supported
PCI bridge to connect a with luck DCE showed pre-production versions of AmigaOS 4 PPC?
Opinion by
chip designed with PCI in drivers will be the GRex for the A1200 up and running at
Elbox’s Mediator is
mind (such as a graphics proces- written for a small WoA and hope to ship boards early in Robert Williams
the only PCI bus
sor or an Ethernet controller) to selection of popular 2001. After the A1200 board is out a 5
available to buy now.
the Amiga’s Zorro bus. However well regarded cards. Zorro/5 PCI version for (we assume Since the last issue of Clubbed is unlikely to for two main reasons. has less major features than 3.5 and in the
now Elbox of Poland have pro- As it stands Elbox towered) A4000 desktops and a 3 PCI slot AmigaOS 3.9 has been announced intervening year the market place has
duced the first expansion to offer provide a SANA 2 version for the original A4000T should and released, much to the surprise Fristly the Amiga has a very limited base of almost certainly contracted I feel it is un-
PCI slots which allow any standard PCI driver which works follow. DCE have announced that the of most Amigans! In an update posted to active users which sadly in the current likely that 3.9 will achieve the same
card to be connected, this device is called with several network boards will ship with CyberGraphX drivers the Amiga website on the 22nd of climate must be shrinking all the time, it number of sales as 3.5, let alone over
the Mediator bus board. The first Mediator cards and a Picasso 96 for several Voodoo graphics cards and November Bill McEwen stated that “If OS was sad to see the number of high-spec double.
model requires an A1200 in a tower, it con- driver for the Voodoo3 range SANA 2 drivers for popular network cards. 3.9 sells well, and we see a continuing Amiga systems for sale on Amibench over
nects to the belly slot and provides a pass of graphics cards with the Further drivers for sound, SCSI and TV- need to produce for the existing Classic Christmas. While the release of AmigaOS Amiga should decide soon!
tdldihmeerssoitiiuagggtnniho et ndhfo, e trA o Ma 1ane2d d0adi0acr ectaosecrslc e deoroalneetlroysa r .1ts oB6urMfesfe cbaar r ouferfs o oeRmn Aol yafM it s Ddreivveerl ofopMrm etehdneiatir ta oClrsy.o bV esisurGipoprnal yFp haaXcnt oSsry3ys Vteimrg.e tinugn efer wca mrdosn athresW. thaenr ppla n3nDed in the follow- Assiembeiilmgityas optofl a abt fe4o .ro0mn”., tSthhoee ntmh teoh ve“ecr elaa sgissa iaicn ”s aAtrnomdni ggina pOoSs- 3minn.igfi9gic htaahtnn ekdt eA ntehmupemi g spbaore omirts eoips fee hncxaeti srwodtif n utfgous teuiumrsrseea b rgrseein ivfneriogs ami oann tyl-es s aivg-- Wscaahyni lIde to hi tii nsm kti ogth hmet asmkeeoe smat ifamin rpaaolt hrdteearcn iots dtihodin nt hgoi nnA gm tiog a
via the accelerator slot. This is because PPC active development, which must be a good tracted. whether OS4 will go ahead and roughly
So far I have only mentioned 2D graphics thing whatever your view of 3.9. what it will include and make it soon. Even
the A1200’s processor address bus is only
24bit due to the 68EC020 used. When the Elbox have one final string in their card drivers which seem to be coming Naturally with the possibility of OS4 has The other factor that will effect 3.9 sales is if they decide not to go for 4 I feel it would
address space of the various other system Mediator bow, the Shark PPC card. This is along nicely for both Mediator and GRex. come all manner of speculation on what a whether it has enough improvements and be better for what remains of the market to
components such as the ROMs and a PCI card which holds a PowerPC 750 3D drivers to accelerate 3D games and major update like this might contain. This new features to attract the majority of know quickly. From a developer’s point of
custom chips is taken into account this processor running at 400 or 550Mhz along More Information seems to have centred on whether this remaining users. Most of the new features view it would allow them to put their devel-
only leaves 8Mb for the Mediator. Now with up to 1GB of SDRAM local memory. release would mark the transition of the are provided by the integration of existing opment efforts into a project with a future
nearly 2GB can be address across the PCI According to the Elbox press release an- http://www.vgr.com/cybergfx AmigaOS to a new processor, with the freeware and shareware programs, there and users would be able to plan upgrades
bus so to get around the problem the nouncing the Shark it will allow both the The CyberGraphX home page which PowerPC being the most likely candidate are fewer additions to the OS itself then and software purchases. If OS 4 doesn’t
Mediator contains logic which automati- 68k Amiga processor and the PPC to work also reports all graphics card related because PPC accelerators are already there were in OS3.5. In my opinion many happen or it explicitly won’t be aiming for a
cally switches between 8Mb chunks so the simultaneously and also access any in- news. They also have a special page available. A recent poll on amigart.com users who decided to buy OS3.5 are likely PPC (or other processor) native OS then
full range can be accessed. Elbox claim stalled PCI cards. At the WoA show Fleecy dedicated to the Mediator. had attracted over 1300 votes for a PPC to be on the Internet, will have registered other projects, in particular MorphOS, will
tpcW(hparaaolsetrbea ptl,esh3 aemeDl itnr shd osoartyiunevsged tther hs marwout enwfIa nahirlil mna tnhgv oeii snot ynsone efotfthee twemro a aMssyn eet yoiemd ibaape tlyo tirhn eg Mwmbweiioetlelhsn nb stE e tmolo bafa oSvAdxahem iatl oaicrg bklbea lePra is nrPfa ogiCifrd t W htsthheyaesa rn pttSe eUthmhwpae s rAy(.ko m Iwrtto iePhg rpaaoers w oe innevno irvdtUtaie rpylok e)ns t- hmAMt eetbpddu:ii/saa/wyttoo wmrr wau.iseliengrgrso .luispts p.coopmul/agtreodu pb/ya miga- At2Awh0mmae0s ii09gg t,taah hC e Oroe o“Sfvlm oDe agaaetngl ceteiched, e m nGt hutbeiammertrm be 5ae a0otrn 0f”t y h0wt,he 0rFa iWtsltie nawoeglerco.ls yduT loMohdffe o pOnAsr oSmso v3noieg. f9 a snDOwoiiiSnrtmheg3 ce .Oa9t os SWorh3yfaof .eOr1rekr psowbu rela isetnrt.ealc eF hrp.lo ireFrroe rotd phtruhl iauscec stntseey mp3rase.ne9 sdno ti tsifml l lu iaskas teygeic bork eoi ndrgu n- apacsoosrnospmdbuy euam b sbteaielmy rrm rsesi.eu u frNcop thorph wotemhr rteAeo f rmsroeoabi mgilvmea isob ph uotoaostrhs tlbya sd ennee ceatve ecte hhdaloeisnep d5vteo e0r d0sb 0e0
that a Warp3D driver is likely to cause PPC support within AmigaOS and back- http://www.elbox.com/ AmigaOS 4 to be a viable product both in buy as it includes everything from 3.5 and however I hope this doesn’t mean that a
problems). wards compatibility with existing Amiga Elbox’s home page carries all their terms or paying for its development and the additional features at a lower price. decision on version 4 will be delayed in-
PPC applications, games and utilities. The press releases but sadly no product providing a user base for developers. However it is hard to imagine that the definitely. In my view they should make a
Two other models of the Mediator have 400 and 550 Mhz Shark boards are priced information. number of users who decide to go directly clear and final statement of their future
been announced, one of which works at 390 Euros (about £240) and 520 Euros 50,000? from 3.0/1 to 3.9 will exceed the number classic intentions before the middle of
along side a ZIV bus board in an A1200 (£320) respectively, Elbox hope to have http://www.dcecom.de/ who do not bother to upgrade from 3.5. 2001. The last thing we need is yet
tower and the other for A4000 desktops them available early in 2001. DCE’s home page for information on So the question now is will OS3.9 sell in Rumour has it that sales of 3.5 have been another year of uncertainty.
fitted in a tower case. Both of these the GRex. those sort of numbers? Personally I think it
around 20000 copies, given that OS3.9
12 CLUBBED - Issue 7 Winter 2000/1 13
FEATURES FEATURES
Paul "ExiE" Strejcek Moreover, I’m still waiting for a new and followed by Mr. Collas. My belief in the but before the release of the first CD the
much improved Amiga browser that Amiga got restored only weeks later, Amiga-News.de got published on Aminet
would be better in performing Java with the first unofficial news from Bill CDs, so...
of Czech Amiga News scripts, CSS, would run as fast as McEwen concerning the purchase of
There’s also a problem with copyrights.
iBrowse and contain less bugs than the Amiga Inc...
The Czech Amiga News have links to
others. :-)
In just over two years Czech Amiga News has become one of the premier What would you consider the best many other pages, which can’t be simply
By the way, we planned opening some and worst news you`ve posted on added to our archives.
Amiga news sites, Gary Storm catches up with the man behind its success. other parts of the Czech Amiga News; Czech?
And moreover, there’s nothing more
unfortunately, everything failed when it
The Czech Amiga News now comprise boring than stale news! :-)
Every Amigan online must surely The jigsaw logo for Czech... why? came to financial matters...
about 4500 news pieces, and it’s pretty
know of Czech Amiga News, Hard to say. I just did some drawing. But Would there be any chance of chang- difficult to choose the most extreme What do you see as the future of
Czech Amiga News?
which has graced the Internet you can take it as a symbol if you want: ing the name from Czech to some- ones...
with the best selection of Amiga news making news is like putting jigsaw thing more international? Bigger, better? I’d be delighted if the
You`ve been trying to get banner
for the last couple of years. Funnily pieces together. Amiga was again in such a condition
It’s now clear to me that naming the revenue going for Czech Amiga News
enough, the people involved are based that I could run a news server as a pro-
Who was responsible for the PC-site page “Czech Amiga News” was a great for a long time, mostly without
in the Republic of Czechoslovakia, and fessional. I’d like to cooperate with inter-
joke you played on the community a ‘marketing’ mistake. I put a lot of effort success, with the recent exception of
I`m talking to ExiE, the main protagonist. couple of months ago? into persuading Amigans that the page `Crystal Interactive Software` (pub- esting people, and also widen the range
of services provided by the server. But
was written in English and was well lishers of the truly excellent “Bubble
Before we start: there’s been no It was my idea. I was really bored then, it’s still too early to guess which way
worth visiting. The original idea was to Heroes”. . buy it), why is this so?
Czechoslovakia for a couple of years. the page’s 2nd anniversary was coming things will go.
create a central World Amiga News,
The republic was divided into two in- in three days, so I made this little joke. I’ve never wanted Amiga-unrelated com-
consisting of local pages like Czech What is your opinion of the current
depenent states (the Czech Republic the ANN just didn’t work during the Petr didn’t work with me for some time, Amiga News, German Amiga News, mercials on the page. That’s why it’s Amiga Inc, and will you buy the
and Slovakia) soon after the fall of the summer. I had something to do at that and I phoned him only five hours after I Polish Amiga News etc. We would be difficult to find someone... AmigaOne if it materialises?
communist regime. And, to have a full time, so instead of going for my holidays had changed the page. Many people responsible for the central news service, The Amiga market is still in a very bad
picture, you can find us on the map of I had to stay at home... It wasn’t a long took it very seriously, which I didn’t ex- the local translators would add news condition, and dealers simply can’t I probably will, but it depends on many
Europe - in the very middle of it! :-) The way from the first idea to the complete pect. The truth is that in the page there relevant to their country. Unfortunately, afford investing into banner commer- aspects like the availability of software,
capital is Prague, a city commonly realization. Also, I got an exclusive in- was a number of hints helping to find out things went their own way. cials. In Germany, where the Amiga has price, and of course whether the new
called ‘the heart of Europe’. formation from Raven Software that the that it’s all just a bad joke. the strongest position in my opinion, Amiga meets my expectations of an
But don’t worry, I’m not a champion in Hexen and Heretic source codes were Part of the community and people with However, I can tell you that the change there are several quality German news Amiga for the next millenium. My current
geography either! :-))) going to be released, and I just had to whom I’d made friends during my work of the name is about to happen. Most pages, and the dealers tend to orientate Amiga allows me to do most of what I
First off, what`s your Amiga back- say it to everybody. :-))) on the Czech Amiga News sent really pnreoxbt aybelayr ,i ta wnidll tthaeke a pdldarcees ss oism geotiimnge sto towards them. nsteilel din t om dy ov,i eawnd t hthee b celsats cshico iAcme,i gtaakOinSg is
ground. When and why did you get What were the main obstacles to nice e-mails - and I, in return, told them change, too. I won’t tell you more as it I would have thought that an Amiga into account its simplicity and
into the Amiga scene, and what overcome in creating the site? about the joke and where they could find wouldn’t be a surprise... Inc sponsored banner on Czech functionality. The Amiga Inc. announce-
Amiga do you have now? There were none. The first page was hcaont ’nt ebweslie juvest tlhikaet tahnisy loittthlee er xdpaeyr. imI setinllt If you got some good idea, there is still Amiga News would be a great market- ment doesn’t make it particularly clear
It was 10 or 11 years ago. My first Miggy created in two or three days, ehm, nights was kept secret for whole three days! :-) enough time to tell me! ing move for them (supporting a pop- which classic OS features will be imple-
was an A500 with an additional half meg :-) (it was too hot to sleep anyway). Then ular site, letting us know they are still mented in the new OS.
of Fast RAM. I really enjoyed playing I showed it to Petr -pekr- Krenzelok, who But there were also negative responses, Do you have any tracking logs of who around etc). Have you had any talks I also find QNX a very interesting
games like the Shadow Of The Beast got so enthusiastic about it that he be- some of such a nature that I wish I have visits the site? If so, any interesting with Amiga? system (except for the horrible Linux-like
series, Lemmings and of course came a co-author of the news. It was never read them... one, then, loses his visitors (Microsoft for instance)? Yes. I guess it’s time to give it away. In filesystem).
LucasFilm / LucasArts adventures. The very exciting to watch the number of illusions, you know. No, unfortunately not. For me, a quality April 2000 Bill McEwen promised to
Secret of Monkey Island is still my no.1 readers growing every day. Just like Many people believe that the design contents is the first priority. donate the Czech Amiga News for the Who do you admire and respect in
adventure game. :-) watching the rates at the Stock for the PC joke site was actually whole year with a certain sum of money. the Amiga community?
But you can’t play games forever. Exchange. :-) better than the Czech Amiga News Bmyo cthke P wCa py,a dguersi nggo tt hmeu tchhre me odraey vsi sthiteo rs Unfortunately we have never made it to The Amiga community as a whole isn’t
Coding can be fun, too. Together with REBOL (www.rebol.com) was a great site. Would you consider using that than the Czech Amiga News get in two real cooperation. Our page probably isn’t what it used to be. Still, there’s a lot of
my brother I created a number of help, too. It’s been the core of the news design for the future of Czech News? weeks! All this with no commercials and that interesting for Amiga Inc. because friends and many other people I respect
games; I think highly especially of a con- up until nowadays. My brother and - NOPE. It’s too M$ oriented :-) I think with a single news update... of not having so many visitors or for a very much and who motivate me to con-
version of Oil’s Well, the C64 classic. pekr- have been REBOL betatesters they liked it because the design was similar reason. I say “probably” because tinue working on the Czech Amiga
This one roxx! In 1993 I bought an since the early days, which made our new and fresh-looking. As you see the news before most, I Amiga Inc. didn’t even bother to reply to News. I don’t want to forget anybody, so
A1200, and a couple of years later I work much easier. suppose you`ve had some incredibly our later questions. no names... perhaps I’ll add that GoldED
waPmnPeednC o ta, n f soeCor.V . a.i6 f : u4-a)s3neDydo b nAoe4a w0rd0a.0s I wwsititlillhiln mtgh iesto s6 s8the0en6 d0 Bdgsoareabminmleygm ) E Chanzarg evmlceishi sEh,t n-yasgokpleuiess aoh.k fC tisenopngue l(lpduliennnr`gdst eoayrnnos duttao gn e-t AttiaBohnl esrdmoo swa,ba ksaimtee’ds e. p im Enain aygt hc Veeahosxt y.bps.a.reo ogFr witeeohrsnra, ecatA re tW lhi osteehn gybag o t la otoiitnmod’sdk e i nre eI x tahhaloi csapt rleyt d eowOxvrf ceictiriotn iCungrzg stee hac.en hI td`s’ss idt bHeee.ipscrtoeomsryse i anasglm ymoosoutm `av eernu bltese ethna t DySreouogur aey`rv.od eIui’nv pkgere otgehodpetu Csaconezm edac erthc o7 h A0dim vaMetigeB oa? fo Nfe emvwearsiyl, tahnindg ShAshetnuoldpdu eyilodres saa f,nlo lId r ts haPhalPaln tlaklh i aenPd tet dihtm raaoev n.eT ya: -bsm)etseec.n hI einthnvikanolku fawobre l e
Tell us about yourself ExiE. proof-read for you before you post that the Opera would come up, but we a really good piece of news is im- another 50 MB of pictures, documents, promoting the Amiga during the difficult
I am 25 years old, I live in Brno, the any news? all know what the result was. mreecdoilaletcetl ym feo llaonwde Pd ebtyr aat r2e aAlMly ,b parde poanrein. gI just everything. :-) Perhaps one day I’ll yheaardrs b wlohwesn. the Amiga suffered so many
second biggest city in the Czech News are of some value only when they Are you interested in getting a site an exclusive page with the design try to sell it all at an auction. :-)))
Republic. I work as a freelance 3D- are topical. In recent months I’ve had a makeover? sketches of Gateway’s new Amiga. An If so, have you thought about releas- And now a question for you, ok? Anyone
graphic artist and a web designer. I pressing shortage of collaborators who hour later it was announced that the ing archived Czech Amiga News cd`s selling an A1000 in a good condition? :-)
enjoy riding a mountain bike, and I would help me with writing the daily I am well aware that some im- core of the OS wouldn’t be QNX but (with the linked pages involved)? Thanks a lot ExiE, especially for all
dream about sleeping more than six news, let alone proof-reading. We also provements would be appropriate here Linux. Several times I was in such a bad the selfless hard work you`ve put in
hours a day. :-) failed to find translators into other and there. Unfortunately, updating the mood that I really wanted to leave it all... I was thinking about it, and something of over the years, and you`re support of
languages (German, Polish, French). news regularly consumes my energy, this kind was even planned, in coopera- all things Amiga, especially Clubbed
How did the idea for Czech Amiga News and there’s virtually none left for design Another bad news I remember was Bill tion with the German AmigaOS maga-
come about, and when was it born? Moreover, thanks to the high prices of changes. Nor one of the biggest collec- McEwen leaving Gateway, soon zine. Everything was already prepared, magazine. Cheers mate :)
the Internet connection in the Czech
It was in the summer of 1998. CUCUG’s tions of Amiga links gets updated as
Republic, I get to the net no sooner than
AWD was no more that good then, and regularly as it deserves. Visit Czech Amiga News at http://www.realdreams.cz/amiga/
after 9 PM, and I finish after midnight...
14 CLUBBED - Issue 7 Winter 2000/1 15
FEATURES FEATURES
Ne’er the TWAIN Shall Sadly there is no hardware USB support rently no USB hardware available for the
on the Amiga yet, let alone any driver Amiga, although many USB cards are
Meet
software. available in PCI formats which could be
Scanning Explained
plugged into the Mediator and other PCI
Almost every scanner available for Parallel
solutions when and if they materialise.
Windows or MacOS is described as
The Amiga’s parallel port while being However just plugging in a USB card will
TWAIN compliant. So it would seem
fully bidirectional (it can receive as well not solve the problem... as ever drivers
Robert Williams looks at scanning from choosing a logical that if someone could implement
as send data) is subtly different to a will be required. With USB this will need
TWAIN on the Amiga then we would
compatible scanner to getting the best from it. Hands standard PC parallel port. This means two stages, drivers will have to be writ-
have access to a huge range of scan-
Larpao Ssuetdto bny! ners. Sadly this is not the case because that although parallel printers will work ten to access the USB card, these may
Most people have probably, at information will apply whatever the type ware interpola- TWAIN is not a hardware standard but a most other parallel devices intended for well have to be specific to the particular
the PC will not. For the most part this is PCI expansion and/or PCI USB card.
one time or another, wanted of scanner you use. tion. This process software one. Scanner manufacturers
true of parallel scanners, most will not Then scanner drivers will be required for
to get an image into their takes a scan at the maximum true reso- make their driver software compliant
How They Work: Flatbed work on the Amiga although there are a USB scanner models, which may of
Amiga for editing, inclusion in a docu- lution of the scanner and increases the with the TWAIN standard which means
couple of notable exceptions. Epson course require access to technical in-
ment or just to print a copy. Most Scanners resolution, calculating the likely shade of you can scan from within any application
have made a variety of parallel models formation not readily available from the
families have large collections of photos the pixels added. Interpolation cannot that supports TWAIN. However a unique
all of which will work with the Amiga scanner manufacturers. The same will
which might need touching up or could A flatbed scanner is essentially quite a add detail that was not there in the driver still has to be written for each
parallel port providing you use a spe- also apply for all other USB hardware,
form the basis for many projects. When simple device, the document being original scan and can be performed in scanner model. In fact TWAIN does not
cially wired cable, the downside of this is just having USB support on the Amiga
I’m working with graphics, whether it is scanned is laid face down on a sheet of any image processing software with a even provide a scanning user interface,
that the only drivers available are com- will not make the range of USB
to produce a final image or to enhance a glass called the bed. Below the bed is scale function (to varying degrees of this is also supplied by the driver so
mercial: ImageFX, ScanQuix and a peripherals available to the Amiga.
document my main problem always the scanning head which slides along on quality). So when you’re reading scan- porting TWAIN to the Amiga would have
stand-alone module from ASDG which
seems to be finding suitable source im- rails driven by a stepper motor. Within ner adverts look for the true resolution. no real benefits even if the source code Types of Scanner
also worked with their Art Department
ages to work with. With a scanner you the head is a light source which shines Even then don’t assume that a scanner to the drivers were available.
Pro image processor. An appropriate
can make almost any printed image on the document and a selection of with a higher resolution specification will Two basic types of flatbed scanners are,
Requirements cable was included with the ADPro
available as file on your Amiga which mirrors and lenses which focus a single necessarily be better than one with or I should say have been, available:
module and instructions for building a
you can then manipulate using your line of the document onto a sensor. The lower resolution, many factors come into Single Pass and Three Pass. Single
The exact requirements of an Amiga cable are included with ImageFX. The
favourite graphics applications. In this sensor and its associated electronics play, very important is the quality of the pass scanners can scan a colour image
system for scanning will vary depending only other Parallel scanner support that I
feature I will attempt to explain the then converts this line into digital data optical system used, if a blurry image is in one pass of the scanning head, they
on what type of work you want to do. am aware of is within ScanQuix which
basics of scanning, what software and and stores it. The stepper motor then focused onto the sensor you will get a do this by using a set of three coloured
Beware that it is very easy to scan ex- supports the Mustek 600 and 1200CP
hardware you will need and finally give moves the head to the next line which is blurry scan no matter what the sensor’s (Red Green and Blue) lights or a white
tremely large files, for example an A4 so long as they are connected to a sup-
some ideas of what you can do with stored, and so on until a complete image resolution. light and a colour sensor. In my ex-
page scanned at 300DPI is nearly 25MB ported add-on parallel port card which
your scanned images. of the document is built up. perience the three colour type is pretty
Compatible Scanners of uncompressed 24bit data and that’s provides a PC style port. ScanQuix sup-
unusual, my Epson GT5000 is the only
A few years ago the only type of scan- The Numbers Game without the additional memory required ports rbm’s own IOBlix parallel port
scanner I’ve seen using this method.
ner available at an affordable price was Choosing a scanner for your Amiga can to run the scanning software, OS etc. which is available as both a Zorro and
The only disadvantage I’ve found with it
a hand scanner, theses were small The main specification that most manu- be a difficult task unless you decide to However if you stick to the resolution an A1200 clock port card and recently
is that you get strange colour effects
hand-held units which had to be facturers quote is the resolution of their buy a hardware and software bundle guidelines I mention later on in this VMC (http://www.vmc.de/) have made
when scanning 3D objects, it makes no
dragged across the document to be scanner. The resolution refers to the from an Amiga dealer. The main prob- article you should be able to do a drivers available so their Hypercom
difference with anything that sits flat on
scanned. A flat bed scanner which looks maximum number of individual pixels the lem is that most scanner manufacturers reasonable amount on an Amiga with boards with parallel ports can be used
the bed. Three Pass scanners scan the
like a small photocopier and can scan scanner can resolve in one inch, a pair change their models very frequently and 16Mb of fast RAM, though this is too.
image three times, with a white light,
an entire document was far too ex- of figures is normally given as the hori- often each new model is incompatible probably the sensible minimum. A
each pass uses a coloured filter (R, G
pensive for most home users. In the last zontal and vertical resolution can differ. with those that went before it. This graphics card is also very useful, when SCSI (Small Computer
and B) to get a final colour image. Three
few years flatbeds have become more For example you will find many scanners means that the scanner driver authors dealing with scans, you really need to Systems Interface)
Pass scanners tend to be slower and
and more popular and due to the laws of have an asymmetrical resolution such as are always aiming at a moving target. If be able to see the image in true colour
SCSI scanners are by far the best sup- require that the original does not move
supply and demand their price has 300x600, usually the vertical resolution you decide to buy a scanner it is best to to make adjustments prior to the final
ported type on the Amiga, as you will between passes! You are unlikely to find
dropped rapidly, so much so that they (along the bed) is the higher of the two start by making a list of the makes and scan and then to edit the image after-
see in our Scanner Software Roundup a three colour or three pass scanner
have completely replaced the hand because this simply requires gearing models the various drivers support then wards. Finally high resolution images
the vast majority of drivers only support available new but it is useful to know the
scanner. The other type of scanner you down the stepper motor which adds little seeing which of these models is avail- are going to take longer to process so a
SCSI models. To use a SCSI scanner possibility if you are looking for a second
may see mentioned is a film scanner, or nothing to the cost of the scanner. On able. Be careful that the exact model fast processor is also useful. If your
you will need a SCSI controller for your hand model.
these tend to appeal more to the keen the other hand increasing the horizontal you want to buy is listed, as often only a Amiga is suitable then you need to con-
Amiga with an external connection.
photographer as they cannot be used to resolution requires a higher resolution slight difference is model name can nect your scanner... The Scanning Process
Some older controllers do not work well
scan anything other than slides and sensor which can add significantly to the mean a radically different scanner. For
photographic negatives, for example you cost. For most applications a symmetri- example when Mick Sutton was looking Hook Up or at all with scanners, I would be wary Whatever scanner and software you
couldn’t scan a page from a magazine cal resolution is required so increasing for his new scanner he found a Mustek of anything produced before about 1993 choose the process of scanning will be
Scanners can be connected to the host
with a film scanner. the resolution in one direction is a some- ScanExpress 12000SP Pro, the although you may be able to get very similar. So rather than repeat our-
computer by a number of interfaces.
what dubious improvement. A common BetaScan Mustek driver lists the updated drivers that will work. On more selves too much within the scanner soft-
Note: The only film scanner support I low-end scanner can resolve 300 dots 12000SP as supported so we assumed Until recently the most popular were the modern controllers there should be few ware reviews we thought we’d mention
know of on the Amiga is within the com- per inch in both direction and would be that the Pro just meant some extra soft- parallel port and SCSI, however in the hassles so long as you obey the basic the basics here:
mercial package, ScanQuix. According last year or so USB (Universal Serial SCSI rules of no conflicting units and
marketed as 300x300 DPI. This is often ware or a minor change... how wrong we
to the manual it can drive CanoScan Bus) has increasingly become the stan- proper termination at each end of the Place the original to be
referred to as the true or optical resolu- were! On contacting the Mustek driver’s
Film Scanners from Canon. tion of the scanner. author we discovered that the 12000SP dard, particularly for low cost scanners, bus. scanned on the bed.
as it offers better performance and
In this feature I will concentrate on You may also see much higher and the 12000SP Pro are in fact totally easier connection than the parallel port USB (Universal Serial Bus) This sounds very straight forward... and
flatbed scanners as they are by far the different and he could not guarantee
resolutions quoted, 9600x9600 is quite and is supported on both PCs and Macs it is! However there are a couple of
most common type, however most of the compatibility. As I’m sure you are aware there is cur-
common, these are achieved by soft- without additional hardware unlike SCSI. things to watch out for. Firstly if you want
16 CLUBBED - Issue 7 Winter 2000/1 17
FEATURES FEATURES
to scan from books or thick magazines it without affecting the pure white or black might to reproduce it at the same size, will depend on the screen resolution and Colour Correction
is useful to have a scanner with a flex- areas) of the image, some packages when printed at 10x8 the resolution will monitor size of the surfer.
To get the best results when scanning
ible lid design. Most scanners have a also allow you to adjust the individual only be 75dpi as one inch in the original
The Final Scan you will usually need to make slight ad-
removable lid for really big items but red, green and blue colour channels. photo (150 pixels across) is now
justments to the colour balance and
some also have hinges which can be While it’s useful to be able to tweak set- occupying 2 inches. To work out the res- When you are ready to scan most pack-
brightness of the finished image. This is
raised to accommodate thick books tings like this a much easier option is olution to use you can use this simple ages will simply scan the selected area
because no scanner produces a totally
while still closing and excluding most of automatic colour correction, many pack- calculation, I’ll use the above enlarge- and save the resulting image into a file
perfect and over time, particularly as the
the light. When you’re choosing a scan- ages now support Wolf Faust’s ICS ment as an example: on disk. Scanning directly to disk like
tube ages, the colour balance in your
ner also check the strength of the colour correction system (discussed this has the advantage that you do not
Decide on the final resolution required, scans will change. All the scanning soft-
hinges, it’s very easy to break flimsy below) which can also be applied to an need to have enough memory to hold
in this example 150dpi. ware available has some colour ad-
plastic hinges by simply knocking the image file so it can be used with drivers the complete scan, only a small portion
justments but some packages have a
large lid (I speak from experience, al- which don’t directly support it. Divide the final size by the original size: that is currently being saved. The disad- Some scanning packages include image
much wider range than others. However
though mine did last about five years!). 10 / 5 = 2 vantage is that you must then load the processing effects.
Scan Resolution adjusting each scan soon gets tedious
If you are scanning from a magazine or image into another application to make
Multiply the final resolution by the so it might be nice to have an automatic
book with thin pages you may find that To decide on the resolution you want to any adjustments or print it out. Some and then printed, without the bother of
answer: 150 * 2 = 300 method... along comes Wolf Faust’s
some of the text from the back of the scan at you need to know what you are packages scan into memory which then saving the scan then having to manually
ICS. ICS is an automatic colour calibra-
page being scanned or even the next going to with the resulting image. For So you need to scan at 300dpi to get allows them to offer other options, for print it. Some of the packages offer addi-
tion system, which can be used with any
page shows through. To minimise this example there wouldn’t be much point 150dpi once the image is enlarged. example direct printing and image pro- tional photocopy options such as multi-
scanner driver and is directly supported
try putting a piece of black paper scanning an A4 magazine cover at 300 cessing operations, the downside is that ple copies and enlargements and
By the same token if you are scanning by several of the available packages. To
between the page you’re scanning and or 600dpi, making a multiple megabyte you must have the memory to hold the usually both colour and mono copies are
an original which is to be printed smaller use ICS you need a scanner target, this
the one behind. file, if you were going to put it on a web entire scan. When you come to save the supported.
you can use a lower resolution. For ex- is an accurately printed sheet with
page. On the other hand if you don’t image you should be careful to choose a
Perform a Preview Scan ample if we wanted to scan an A4 OCR patches of a range of colours and grey
scan at a high enough resolution and suitable file format. The two most com-
(about 8.25 by 11.7 inches) page and scales. Some scanners are supplied
The first step in scanning is to perform a then print on a high quality printer the mon are JPEG and IFF24. Unless you Regardless of the document you scan
print it as a small thumb nail, say 1.5 by with a suitable target or you can buy
preview scan, this scans the complete result can look blocky. So here are some are not going to perform any further the result is always an image, for ex-
2.1 inches: them separately. As targets are usually
bed of the scanner quickly at a relatively rough guidelines, you will probably need operations on the scan I would advise ample if you scan a page from a maga-
fairly expensive Wolf Faust has had
low resolution. You can then select the to experiment to get the best out of your Final resolution: 150dpi against saving as a JPEG. JPEG com- zine you end up with a “picture” of that
some manufactured and supplies them
area of the bed you wish to scan, setup. presses the image to minimise file size page. Now you may want to be able to
1.5 / 8.25 = 0.18 at 25DM (less than £10) including
usually by dragging a selection box over but in this process some details are lost, edit the text from that page or include it
Photos postage inside Europe, ICS itself is
the appropriate area of the preview 150 * 0.18 = 27 this is called lossy compression. When in a document of your own (copyright
freeware. ICS works by comparing the
image. Selecting only an are of the bed If you are scanning a photo or other So we would only need to scan at 27dpi saving a JPEG you can usually set a permitting of course). This is where scanned image of the target with the
like this allow you to scan a small colour image to be printed, most likely to get a 150dpi final output. quality percentage, at higher values Optical Character Recognition (OCR) known shades on that target, it then
original like a photo without wasting on a colour inkjet printer, you do not (commonly 70% or more) you will hardly comes in. OCR software processes a
builds up a profile of the scanner and
time, memory and disk space scanning need to scan at the full print resolution. Mono Text, Line art etc. notice any difference from the original scanned image of text and tries to
uses this to correct other images
blank space. Your printer can only print its primary (Note that even at 100% quality the recognise the text and layout from the
Printers can print in black or one of their scanned. It also takes into account your
colours (usually Cyan, Magenta, Yellow image is still compressed and some patterns of pixels that make up the text
other primary colours (usually cyan, monitor’s display so you should end up
and Black) at its specified maximum res- detail lost). However if you load and in the scan. This is a complex and dif-
magenta and yellow) at full resolution so with an accurate image displayed.
olution and even then due to the nature save a JPEG image again, for example ficult process as the group of pixels
if you’re scanning a mono image, for Currently ICS does not include printer
of paper and ink there tends to be some after a processing operation, more representing the same scanned charac-
example line art like a cartoon or plain colour calibration however in our ex-
spreading and mingling of dots. To pro- details are lost so the quality degrades ter can be quite different depending on
text, then you need to scan at close to perience TurboPrint does a good job
duce a full range of colours the printer each time. In contrast IFF24 is not a the font, size and scan resolution used.
the print resolution. In most cases once you have a good quality scan on
prints a pattern of primary coloured dots lossy format, so file size is much bigger Complex algorithms are used by the
300dpi should be adequate but even screen. In the future Wolf hopes to im-
changing the mix of primary colours to but you can load and save files as many OCR software to recognise the shapes
then it may look slightly blocky on a high plement printer colour calibration giving
produce the final colour required. This times as you like without losing any of letters rather than patterns of pixels.
resolution printer. In these cases inter- maximum accuracy from scan to final
process, called dithering, reduces the quality. Most OCR packages also have a learn
polation can be your friend, scanning output.
effective resolution of the output. With a facility which will show display any por-
mono work at a high resolution even if it Useful Options
scanner each pixel can be any colour, tion of the scan that the software cannot Conclusion
is interpolated will smooth out the steps
for this reason the image you scan only recognise and allow the user to enter the
between pixels and improve the final Photocopy A scanner will be very useful to anyone
needs to be at the effective resolution of characters it represents. In future the
print. Again if you are going to print at who uses their Amiga for graphics and
the printer to avoid showing pixels when It can be very useful to use your scan- software uses this information to im-
larger than actual size you will need to can also be used for other tasks like
it is printed. As a general rule you can ner, in combination with a printer as a prove its accuracy.
scan at a higher resolution. photocopying and OCR. Scanning is
scan at about a quarter of print resolu- home photocopier. Any scanner soft-
The Amiga has never been very well essentially a pretty simple process but
tion with and still get good results, this Scanning for web pages ware can be used for this task but
blessed with OCR software for many scan resolutions and colour correction
The preview allows you to scan just the means the scan will be much smaller several of the drivers available have a
When you’re designing a web page you years the only package about was are areas that are worth experimenting
area you want at full resolution. and therefore quicker to work with and special photocopy function. This means
tend to know the pixel dimensions of the MigraphOCR but this was very old, hard with to ensure you get the best results
easier to store. you simply put the document in the
Adjust the Colour Balance image you want to end up with, this to come by, designed with hand scan- but don’t waste space and time. Later in
scanner and it is automatically scanned
If you want to enlarge a scanned image makes it considerably easier to set the ners in mind and to top it off doesn’t run this issue you will find reviews of the
Some software allows you to make ad-
when it is printed then this must be scan resolution, for a start most scan- well on “modern” Amigas. However we various scanner drivers available and of
justments to the scan’s colour balance
taken into account when deciding on the ning packages show you the final pixel now have fxSCAN, a scanner package Mick Sutton’s new Mustek scanner.
before you make the final scan by look-
scan resolution. For example say you size of the scan. If you want the final with an OCR function, you can read a
ing at the preview. Usually they allow
want to print a 10 by 8 inch enlargement image to appear “life size” on screen full review starting on page 20 of this
you to adjust the brightness, contrast
of a 5 by 4 inch photograph. If you scan somewhere between 75 and 100 DPI is issue.
and gamma (gamma adjustment allows fxSCAN’s photocopy option is par-
the original photo at 150dpi, as you a good choice but the actual display size
you to brighten or darken the mid-tones ticularly glitzy.
18 CLUBBED - Issue 7 Winter 2000/1 19