![[NEWS]](../styles/news.gif)
|
|
Also, following consultation with many of our active members, we have
decided to drop the membership listing and therefore end our user
group status. This way we can concentrate on AtariPhile and 42BBS.
We will not change our name, the FFF will act like a publishing house.
There are a growing number of very active Atari user groups around
the UK, that hold regular meetings and produce newsletters. We suggest
you contact Harry Sideras of the UK Association of Atari User Groups
for information on your nearest group. Send a DD disk and SAE to:
UKAAUG, 49 Haywood Rd, Tile Cross, Birmingham B33 OLJ. EMail: sidcelery@cix.compulink.co.uk
We will continue to publish AtariPhile and run 42BBS for some time
to come and offer our wholehearted encouragement to all Atari support
organisations.
Thanks to Frank Charlton and Netkonect, this copy
of AtariPhile, and previous issues can now be downloaded from our new
FTP site.
It seems direct connection is not possible, but this method works...
ftp ftp.netkonect.co.uk
Log in as ftp or anonymous and use your email address as
your password. Now change to the correct directory as per below:-
cd /pup/atari/atariphile/
followed by
dir
to display the directory.
The file you require will be APHILE01.LZH, APHILE02.LZH, APHILE03.LZH,
or APHILE03.LZH. So just type:
get aphile04.lzh
to download the appropriate file.
You may have noticed this method is the same as Steve from Floppyshop
has used in his press release... I pinched your text, Steve, hope you
don't mind :-)
You may recall that in AtariPhile #2 we said we
couldn't get E-Copy to work in the background under MagiC. At the
time, even following the advice from System Solutions it wouldn't work
on my Falcon. Well, we now know it can...
Place a copy of FLOCK_OK.PRG in your APPS folder [you may call it your
START folder] and do not use FFSEL.PRG [the Freedom 1 auto
program] in your Auto folder. To be honest, I'd much rather keep
Freedon than gain background copying, it works and the choice is
yours.
The Atari Reference Guide
Mike Goodman is in the process of launching
"The Atari Reference Guide to public domain and shareware". The
completed guide will run to about 80 to 100 A4 loose-leaf pages
pre-drilled with four holes ready to store in your own folder. Costing
just £2.95 +pp, it is expected to be complete by the end of this
year. Subscribers to Goodman International will receive update pages
about every six to eight weeks. I have seen the first 40 pages an it's
looking very good indeed. Plenty of graphics and each program is given
a very full description. In fact, most file descriptions are like mini
reviews. Each of the planned eight section will eventually have card
dividers and a complete alphabetical index. The title of this project
is not to be taken lightly. For anyone with an interest in
PD/Shareware, this truely is the "Atari Reference Guide". Commercial
products supported by Goodmans will be in a special "Yellow Pages"
section and if space permits there will be sections for other
companies to advertise too.
Each disk from Goodman's is still only £1.50 plus UK pp of £1.25
on all orders [total value] under £19 or £2,50 on all orders
over £19
To receive more information on the guide and subscription details
you can send a stamped addressed envelope to: Goodman's, 16 Conrad
Close, Meir Hay Estate, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, ST3 1SW. Phone
01782-335650 Fax 01782-31612.
Mike said, "There will be more shows"
When COMPO UK closed along with Atari World, little did we know,
that when Mike Goodman decided to stage two Atari shows, a new
magazine would be launched.
The fact that the shows were in planning spurred A|C|G into pushing
ahead with their plans to publish a magazine. Without the shows there
would have been no target launch date and thing may well have taken
a different path.
So, Atari Computing was launched by the publisher, Mike Kerslake,
and Editor, Joe Connor, at the Birmingham show last September.
Unfortunately neither of them could make it to the London show but
other members of the A|C|G team ably manned the stand. The
response was so good that they soon sold out of magazines on both
days. It was a good job they held some copies back for London or
there may have been riots. Plenty of subscription forms were
completed and buoyed with success they decided to run a re-print
of issue 1.
Star of the shows they may have been, but there were plenty of
excellent supporting acts. All the usual Atari retailers and
developers where there the big shock was the range of new and
updated products that were available to buy.
Mike Goodman launched Destruction Imminent, a new
game for the ST/STe. David Encill was demonstrating a very early
version of APEX Alpha. HiSoft shocked us all
by having Papyrus 4 for sale as an upgrade or
complete. Steve Delaney of Floppyshop had made the trip all the way
from Aberdeen to sell the long awaited Positive
Image. System Solutions had two major upgradable products. MagiC 5 could be bought or ordered as an upgrade.
HDDriver had shot up to v6. Texel and MagiC PC were being demonstrated
as was Infopedia, the DTP Graphics CDs and
the Ultimate Cubase CD. Karl Brandt was bubbling with enthusiasm
while demonstrating their new image processing package, Photoline [we
hope to have a review in AP#5 - Ed] on his bright new TOS based super
machine Hades. High end users should contact System Solutions
for details and to arrange a demonstration. I was gob-smacked at the
processing power of this computer. [Who knows, we may talk Karl into
giving AtariPhile a Hades to review - watch for AP#5 - Colin may have
a big grin on his face - Ed]. 16/32 were there with a massive range of
Atari compatible CD and a huge array of games [Dino Dudes should be
reviewed in AP#5 - Ed]. Although Steve Delaney had come a long
distance, all the way from the 'US of A' was Brad Koda of Best
Electronics with his usual array of Atari goodies. [I managed to buy a
long keyboard cable for my Mega ST keyboard at last - Ed]
After the London show, Colin chatted to Mike Goodman who was very
pleased with the turnout on both days. Tired as he was, he
confirmed that he will be doing it all again next April. Maybe
even a third show... in Glasgow. We at AtariPhile feel Mike
deserves three rousing cheers for staging these shows at a time
when most Atari users were thinking the Atari scene was dead. They
were wrong, Mike was right.
A new version of Calamus SL is due to be released in the near future by
DMC in Germany. JCA having dropped the product, the Atari flagship DTP
program is currently without a UK distributor. Watch this space however
as negotiations are currently underway with a prospective new
distributor. Having handed over development of Calamus to the Canadian
software house MGI as long ago as 1994, DMC appeared to have ceased work
on Calamus SL. However at the start of 1996 DMC began a thorough and
well thought out overhaul of Calamus SL with the aim of producing an
update at the end of the Summer. The upgrade promises to be the most
significant upgrade to Calamus in a number of years with new features
and not just cosmetic changes.
Unlike previous upgrades there will now be only one version of SL which
will be equally at home running under TOS, Magic or Power Macs. Support
for long file names as found in Windows 95 is promised as is an up to
date re-design of the user interface to bring SL into line with the Win
95 version. This will include a moveable menu bar giving direct access
to currently loaded modules, dialogues in windows and pop up menus.
Numerous small changes are promised which will give even greater
flexibility. We shall of course bring you further details and a review
as soon as possible.
Not that we needed it, but just to prove that Atari Corp have gone,
Frank Charlton came accress this on the internet...
"SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Glenayre Western Multiplex,
the leading manufacturer of T1/E1 spread spectrum wireless
interconnect radios, will officially join the Silicon Valley business
community on Monday, Nov. 4, 1996, in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to be
attended by Sunnyvale civic leaders and all Glenayre Western Multiplex
employees.
Sunnyvale Mayor Robin Parker and members of the Sunnyvale Chamber of
Commerce -- including President Cole Bridges -- will welcome Glenayre
Western Multiplex to their new home, located on Borregas Avenue near
highways 237 and 101, in the building formerly occupied by the Atari
Corporation."
Christmas Special - December ONLY
Floppyshop are pleased to announce PhotoScan, a low cost photographic
digitising service for those of you who do not have CD-ROM drives and are
therefore unable to make use of Kodak's PhotoCD technology. PhotoScan was
originally intended solely as a service to Positive Image users who did not
have scanning facilities. However, we recognised that Atari owners have a need
for this type of service in other areas including Desktop Publishing, and of
course everyone wants to make up slideshows featuring their favourite holiday
snaps.
All you have to do is send us your snaps (along with the appropriate fee) and
we'll put copies of them onto floppy disks in both 256 colour and True Colour
formats. Be warned, a full size 6"x4" print saved as a 256 colour image
requires 528K of free RAM to reload and a True Colour JPEG of the same image
will require 1.55 Mb of RAM when decompressed. For this reason, you will need
at least 1 Mb of RAM in order to use the 256 colour image and at least 2 Mb
for the True Colour one. In most cases, the 256 colour images are almost
indistinguishable from their True Colour counterparts, use them and save
memory. All scans are created using professional scanning equipment and
calibrated using Kodak's proprietary high precision colour match software.
ST owners should not be put off by the mention of 256 colour images. GIF
images can be viewed on an ordinary ST/STe in full colour using either Speed
Of Light or PhotoChrome, two Shareware packages available from Floppyshop. In
addition, the images can be easily converted (including resizing and colour
reduction if necessary) to any other format you require using such packages as
GEM-View, Look 'N' See, Bitmap View and a host of other Shareware file
conversion tools, all of which are available from Floppyshop.
Ordering Information
2. If your photographs are particularly valuable we suggest that you send
them to us by registered post. If you want your goods returned by registered
post, this will be charged at cost (see below) and is in addition to the
stated P&P.
3. This is a digitising service not a photo retouching one! The disk images
you receive back will be a close match to the print you sent us (blemishes and
all!).
4. All material sent to us for scanning must be your own work or you must
enclose written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce his/her
work. We will not scan material taken from books, magazines or indeed any
material protected by copyright law. If you use our service you agree to
indemnify Floppyshop against any claims arising from breach of copyright as a
result of us duplicating any material on your behalf.
5. We cannot digitise images from negatives or transparencies, only prints.
6. Your photographs may be colour or black and white. In the case of black
and white prints, the disk images will be saved as greyscales. If your
photograph is in colour but you prefer a greyscale scan (eg; for use in a DTP
package) you can request this as an alternative to colour.
7. 256 colour images will be supplied in GIF format unless you specifically
request otherwise. The alternatives on offer are TIF or PNG. There is no
choice for True Colour images, these can only be output as JPEG due to their
sheer size.
8. Please ensure that you send your photographs to us in appropriate
packaging designed to protect them in transit (hard backed A5 size envelopes
are recommended for this purpose). We can take no responsibility for goods
lost or damaged in the post on their way to us. It is your responsibility to
ensure that your photographs reach us in good condition.
9. If you need larger photographs scanned or particularly high resolution
scans for professional reproduction work, we can handle up to A4 size at up to
1200 dpi but the files will be massive and you will have to send us a
formatted EZ-135 cartridge to put them on! We will need to discuss your exact
requirements in these cases and will give you a quote before commencing work.
If you require this service please email Steve Delaney
(sdelaney@steil.wintermute.co.uk) or call 01224 586208 Tues, Wed or Thurs
between 9am and 4pm.
10. We have a demo disk available which illustrates the sort of quality
(dependent on the quality of your photograph of course!) you should expect
from our service. Just order the PhotoScan demo disk. It costs 1 and is
available in DS and HD formats. Please state which disk format is required.
Pricing
Disclaimer
Placing Your Order
Stop-press - more news late in...
Since I put out my original press release
regarding PhotoScan I am pleased to
announce that we now have the capability to digitise from slides and negatives
as well as prints. Slides gives the best results as far as quality is concerned
although you'd be surprised just how good ordinary prints come out.
So you want to see the quality of the images before you part with your cash and
it's too much hassle sending in for the demo disk. No problem, the demo disks
are also available by ftp from Wintermute. Here's how to get them:-
ftp ftp.wintermute.co.uk
Log in as ftp or anonymous and use your email address as your password. Now
change to the correct directory as per below:-
cd /home/s/steil/outgoing/
followed by dir to display the directory.
The file you require will be foto_st.zip or foto_030.zip as appropriate.
Just type:
get foto_st.zip
or
get foto_030.zip
to download the appropriate file.
** You can also download them directly from our Web site by selecting the
option to download the Positive Image demo from the title page. This opens
up the directory which contains all Floppyshop downloadable software. The
url address is:
http://www.netkonect.net/flopshop/
Regards, Steve
Here is an email we received... [Is "Phenix" French for
Phoenix? - Ed]
Hello,
A little word from a french Falcon030 owner... :-)
The reason why I write you is that I currently get in touch
several foreign Atari distributors and users to give them information
about a brand new project close related to the Atari market. This
project, called 'Cent40' was started by a well-known company
(well-known... in France ! ;-) ) called Centek, and its aim is the
design of a new computer, based on a new Operating System : here are
the technical specs...
PHENIX
Nice, isn't it ? This machine is like a Falcon, but without all the
bottlenecks which were slowing down everything in it. Even the faster
chip of the Falcon (DSP) is literally a snail, compared with the
Phenix's one...
Shortly : the faster CPU won't have t worry about feeding the
faster 56001 compatible DSP, which will use its brand new DMA
capabilities to transfer data and code from/toward the faster RAM...
The DMA channels of the 56302 are making it really usable for
'serious applications', like raytracing, as the 56001 RAM was too
slow to contain this kind of application's large routines. The 683xx
controller can also be used as a super 32 bits DMA Blitter...
Now, the Operating System : Dolmen !
Some details :
Moreover, the developers are very open minded to suggestions about
what shall be Dolmen so, if you have ideas you'd like to communicate,
they'll be happy to take note of it, and to implement it, if they
find it interesting. I often speak with them, and they really seem to
be competent...
This is for the future...
Now about the present, Centek has already designed some products for
Atari computers :
Knowing them, I know they really want to break with the Atari
misbehaviour : they really want to support developers in their
projects, sending them every documentation about the machine, and so
on... Centek likes developers, and they want them to like Centek !
As Centek is looking for motivated people, to distribute their
products in foreign countries, to make current software compatible
with the Phenix, and of course to design new software using all the
technical capacities of the machine, we'd like you to give us
feedback about what you think of the Phenix Project. If you're
interested in distributing the machine in your country, tell us ! If
you're a developer with a solid project you'd like to run on the
Phenix, tell us ! If you have interesting addresses for the project,
tell us ! If you have questions, ask us !!
Don't be surprised if you don't receive an answer immediatly, as I
don't check my mail every week...
If using email : perhaps there will be a Centek / Phenix mailing
list, in a near future. If you're interested in being
automatically informed when (if) creating the list, please tell
us, as this will sure be the easiest and fastest way to get
information about the project...
Now, I've got to leave you, hoping you'll be interested in the
Phenix Project... :)
System Solutions are very pleased to announce the availability, or
near availability of a whole swathe of new or updated products for
your Atari! A broad range of hardware and software is covered,
whether it's super-fast TOS compatible computers, operating system
upgrades or application software. Whatever your own personal computer
interests there's sure to be a lot in here to pique your curiosity.
But first, System Solutions would like to thank everyone who came
along to the recent Atari shows in the UK and made it such a blinding
success for everyone involved. It was great to meet such a lot of you
in the flesh and chat about all things Atari. There was an
unmistakable air of optimism in the air, too - which was as refreshing
as it was welcome.
So thanks to all who came - we hope to see you next year!
Hades 040/060
The Hades is the first TOS compatible computer to possess 4 PCI slots,
PCI being a exceptionally fast bus which enables input and output of
data to and from devices, like graphics cards and SCSI ports. This
means super-fast access to all of your peripherals.
How ever, whilst building the fastest TOS computer ever, the designers
have kept TOS/GEM compatibility very much in mind. The Hades features
a VME bus, for example, and MIDI, modem, LAN, printer ports, etc. -
everything you'd expect on a standard Atari (with the exception of a
cartridge slot). The memory is another case in point. Although you can
install up to 1 Gigabyte (yes, really!) every single byte is seen by
the operating system (a modified TOS 3.06) as ST RAM - albeit, running
at TT RAM speed!
In pure speed terms, the 060 model is equivalent to a 200MHz Pentium!
A truly professional system for the most demanding of customers,
please talk to our sales staff about made-to-measure systems and
availability.
MagiC 5
Although MagiC is a full replacement for TOS/GEM it is a simple
software upgrade, which comes with it's own easy-to-use installation
program. And because it replaces your old operating system entirely it
removes a welter of annoying bugs whilst speeding up all areas of your
system. The graphics display, comms port, printer port and disk access
all run faster under MagiC!
If you're upgrading from v2 you are in for a shock! MagiC 5 is
completely revamped, with Falcon support, a 3D look to your desktop
and programs, full support for extended colour modes, lots of extra
speed, enhanced compatibility for your programs and lots, lots more.
Owners of version 4 will find all the speed and compatibility that
they are already used to. In addition, version 5 offers long filename
support, multithreading, an improved desktop and file selector,
support for up to 128 concurrent programs and windows and
compatibility with DOS hard disk partitions.
This really is one of those programs that should be on the "must have"
list of all Atari computer owners.
MagiC PC
It offers speedy multitasking, superb compatibility, long-filename
support and all the other benefits our customers have come to expect
from MagiC over the years.
If you have HD Driver is also enables you to use your SCSI drives to
the full, allowing access to DOS compatible partitions and partitions
on the ASCI port of above 1GB!
So if you've bought a PC, or circumstances have dictated that you need
to change platforms, there's no reason why you can't still use your
carefully - and expensively - assembled Atari software collection. The
package includes the powerful Ease desktop.
NVDI 4 for MagiC PC
This special edition, written specifically for MagiC PC, uses
Intel-native code to speed up screen redraws by a remarkable amount
(see GemBench statistics, below).
But pure graphics speed isn't the be-all and end-all of NVDI. It
offers a range of system enhancements, which make working with
application software much easier. Indeed, many applications now
require NVDI to be installed for much of their functionality or to
extend the functionality.
NVDI PC will:-
HD Driver 6
If you're an owner of a previous version of HD Driver then you'll be
glad to know that a range of inexpensive upgrade options are available
- not that, at £29.95, HD Driver is particularly costly in the first
place! If you are upgrading you'll marvel at just how much has been
added since your current copy.
With the advent of version 6 we find a much re-worked interface,
easier to use and more intelligently grouped functions. There is now a
highly configurable disk formatting mode - including support for media
with different physical sector sizes, like magno-optical drives. The
partitioning has also seen a revamp, enabling you to create DOS/Atari
compatible partitions, delete individual partitions, repair
partitions, etc. In addition there's a new Auto Configuration option,
which automatically tells the driver which devices are connected to
your computer.
If you're upgrading from an earlier version of HD Driver there are
even more new features to look for. The list is huge, far too big to
list completely here, but here are just a few:-
This version of Papyrus is also the first to offer full colour
support, in any resolution and colour mode. This includes colour
output - just in time to serve the needs of the new army of
affordable, high quality, colour printer owners. To complement this
new Technicolor dawn Hisoft have added their own EFMS system to
Papyrus, enabling your to load in a wide range of graphics formats.
They include IMG, GIF, TIFF, JPEG and Targa.
A number of annoying limitations have been removed - for example,
there is now no (workable) limit to the number of vector fonts Papyrus
can use. It is also much better, and faster, at handling long
documents and the search speed has been greatly improved.
In addition, all copies of Papyrus 4, including upgrades, come with a
CD packed with 500 TrueType fonts. Far from being low standard public
domain - or worse, incomplete shareware! - these fonts come directly
from the BitStream type foundry and are of the highest quality.
This is only a taster of what's available in the new version of
Papyrus. Whether you want a new word-processor or are upgrading, you
will not be disappointed.
This awesome CD-ROM is packed with useful files for any musician, but
its specially tailored to be the ultimate companion for Cubase - on
any platform. All the loops, samples and MIDI files are of
professional quality, covering a vast range of musical styles and
tastes.
The loop and samples are available in the standard AIFF format, ideal
for Cubase Audio and the MIDI files are all GM compatible. In addition
there are mixer maps, device drivers and a whole host of other useful
files.
And it doesnt end there. The CD-ROM also contains utility software for
the Atari, Macintosh and IBM PC. Everything from patch editors to
sample librarians to audio calculators is included to make the Cubase
musicians life easier.
The Ultimate Cubase CD-ROM is available now for £69.95 inc. VAT.
Bird of Prey CD-ROM
As well as being Falcon enthusiasts, Matt and Scott use the Falcon to
the full in their work - they front a band called Any Questions? and
are owners of the Floating Fish Studios, which mainly deal with
Industrial bands. In short, they are almost uniquely qualified to make
up a CD-ROM disk of this nature.
Well leave the rest of this to the well-written sleeve notes:
"This CD ROM contains what we at Floating Fish Studios consider to be
the very best public domain and shareware software available for the
Atari (and C-LAB) Falcon030 today. You have at your fingertips, "the
ultimate Falcon collection!" These files have been collected from
around the world and are now assembled, for you, on this one CD ROM."
"The Floating Fish Studios 'Bird of Prey' CD ROM is the ultimate
Falcon collection."
"This disc is filled with software that no Falcon user should be
without. Over 649MB of pure excitement waiting to be unleashed! Over
21,000 files!"
The Bird of Prey CD-ROM is available now for the stunning price of
£24.95 inc. VAT.
Art Nouveau CD-ROM
The Art Nouveau CD-ROM includes a wide range of graphics covering the
following themes: initials, borders, ornaments, vignettes, flowers,
etc. In addition it contains 8 high quality fonts in Calamus,
Postscript and TrueType format. The graphics themselves cover and
equally broad range of formats: Calamus Vector Graphic, Encapsulated
Postscript, Windows Metafile Format and Corel Draw.
There are over 400 images on the disk, which comes with a handy
catalogue, making finding the right image easy. All-in-all this is a
totally unique disk, which should be in every designers collection.
The price is a reasonable £39.95 inc. VAT
Xware DTP Graphics 1, 2, 3
For that matter, what makes any clipart disk special? We suggest that
its a range of key features including: subject matter, quality of the
clipart, format of the clipart and - theres no escaping it - the
price. We feel that these disks are almost unique in that they score
highly on each of those points.
The subject matter depends on the specific disk. Each is slanted in a
slightly different direction whilst retaining a central core of the
staple diet of borders, ornaments, food, drink and incidental clips
that are the designers meat and mead. Disk 1, for example, also
includes Heraldic clipart, number 2 has cars and coupons and number 3
music and nature - all amongst a wide range of other material.
The quality of the artwork offered here is amazingly high. The clips
are available in either/or bitmap and vector format (as appropriate
for the artwork) and obvious care has been taken over the quality of
the graphics. Equal care has been taken to cater for designers on all
platforms. Bitmap formats used are TIF, IMG and PCX, whilst vector
formats are EPS, CVG, GEM and CDR. Youd need to be a very strange
designer indeed to not have immediate access to at least some of those
in your graphics/DTP package!
Each CD-ROM disk includes a 100+ page catalogue, which lists each and
every image for easy searching. This is included in the price of
£29.95 inc. VAT for each disk, or a bundle price of £79.95
inc. VAT for all three.
Falcon 030 can write 4x speed CD-ROMS!
System Solutions are one of those rare companies with a foot in both
the traditional computer camp and the MIDI and digital music camp.
They are in the perfect position to help you decide upon your CD
Recording needs - and then to support you with their esteemed
after-sales service - whatever your requirements.
System Solutions only use industry standard CD-recording devices in
their cased, ready-to-run packages. The CDR24e package (2x speed
write, 4x read), is £649 plus VAT. The CDR44e (4x speed write and
read), is £959 plus VAT. Both packages are ready for immediate
use, and include software, manual and all the required leads.
The included software is CD Recorder Pro, separately available for
£251 plus VAT. This is an excellent program which covers all
possible CD recording requirements. It can write multi-session
CD-ROMs in ISO9660 or High Sierra formats and can write mixed-mode or
standalone Audio CD. The latter format is entirely red Book compatible
- your gold masters can be used in high volume audio CD reproduction!
Texel Spreadsheet - for any Atari!
Texel is in the classic modern GEM style (think Papyrus, Twist,
Kandinsky, etc.), taking advantage of any vector font, GDOS printing
or multi-tasking systems you may have installed. However, its just as
happy working on any bog- standard Atari ST with 1MB of memory or
more.
You can reference cells in any number of different ways, apply a huge
variety of functions and recalculate on the fly with Texel. Cells can
have different colours, fonts and styles applied to them. You can have
multiple spreadsheets open at the same time. And you can zoom in and
out of them.
Everything is just so easy to use thanks to the highly polished
interface. Take the function manager, a beauty this, where you can
create any function - however complicated - simply and quickly with
the mouse. You can even refer to cells by clicking on them on the
spreadsheet - without losing focus on the function manager dialog box!
The price is £69.95 inc. VAT.
This press release comprises information from both Black Scorpion
Software and Titan Designs, detailing many new advancements for the
Nemesis system accelerator and Afterburner040. In addition Dan Wilga
of Gribnif Software has just announced a significant price reduction
for Arabesque Pro, and Titan Designs are also reducing the price of
the Geneva/NeoDesk 4 bundle.
All prices include VAT @ 17.5%.
BLACK SCORPION SOFTWARE
Nemesis - Video enhancement as standard!
This is only possible due to the massive 50% increase on the Falcon
bus to 24MHz. Running Nemesis at 20/40MHz does produce lower figures,
although 576x432 @ 60Hz refresh is still possible.
Falcon with Nemesis at 24/48MHz - all are non-interlaced resolutions,
16-bit (65,536 colours per screen) on a standard 14" VGA
non-multisync!
With a half-decent multi-sync it can be expected that even higher
resolutions can be seen!
In addition you would also benefit from 48MHz (or 40MHz depending on
the Nemesis settings) acceleration to FPU and DSP chips.
Primarily these tests were performed to check the outer resolution
limits when using APEX Alpha (APEX 3). The software which has been
developed (see the news on 'Videlity' below) to achieve these
resolutions is expected to become commercially available in due
course, and will have the capability to alter screen resolutions for
any number of bit-planes (mono to true-colour inclusive).
Nemesis - Reliable, consistent 24MHz system speed!
Having a regular 24MHz bus is increasingly important if the user
wishes to use the higher resolutions (720x528 true-colour) that only
Nemesis can give!
Nemesis - Totally 'crackle-free' 50KHz playback!
Nemesis - Major APEX MEDIA enhancement
APEX Media has been updated yet again. Now it is possible to have a
full 640x480 TRUE-COLOUR screen display when used with Nemesis at
24/48MHz!
Although a slow-down in performance would normally be expected at this
resolution, we have found that the speed is comparable (if not better)
than with APEX Media at 640x480, 256-colour! Again, the Nemesis 24MHz
system speed is responsible for counter-acting the expected decrease
in performance one would expect with high-res. true-colour.
Although the increase in screen size means a large chunk of memory is
now consumed, the full 640x480, true-colour resolution is still
perfectly possible on a "Nemesised" 4MB Falcon, although (obviously!)
animations become restricted.
VIDELITY - Superb resolution enhancement software
We also expect Videlity to become a "must have" option, particularly
for Nemesis owners but also for users having a standard Falcon.
Videlity provides extremely reliable resolution switching and fixes
many bugs that are apparent in TOS, including some anomalies that seem
to exist in NVDI.
Rather than be constrained by fixed resolution settings which are
apparent in other screen expanders, Videlity allows fast operation and
complete flexibility in all operations.
Price has yet to be decided when sold separately but, as with all BSS
products, operation will be fast, smooth, glitch-free and with the
usual superb BSS hallmark for design and integration of the interface.
APEX ALPHA (APEX 3)
APEX Alpha was seen publicly for the first time at the Birmingham and
London shows on 28/29 September and is making great progress. Windows
can be moved & resized in real-time, with Expose' digitiser support
the file selector fully implemented.
Unlike Photoline, APEX Alpha (and Audio) operate in a fully customised
non-GEM environment for optimum speed and reliability, without being
constrained by the limitations imposed by GEM. Although this limits
operation to the Atari Falcon only, the extensive use of DSP machine
coding provides incomparable performance which cannot be duplicated on
any other TOS based computer.
The ability to create and edit 8-bit Alpha channel masks (256 levels
of transparency), Chroma-key range masking, multiple filtering,
anti-aliased block operations - all in real-time - puts APEX Alpha way
ahead of the competition, particularly when the price will only be
&163;99.00. This represents a huge saving of £70 over Photoline.
In addition APEX Alpha fully supports the higher true-colour
resolutions that are available from the Nemesis system accelerator
without any noticable slow-down in operation. The Videlity resolution
enhancement software (detailed above), will be packaged as part of the
APEX Alpha suite to provide control for the enhanced resolution
capability.
To realise the full capability of APEX Alpha, the purchase of Nemesis
expands the performance and versatility way beyond the standard
specification of a standard Atari Falcon.
It is expected that full support will also be included for pressure
sensitive touch tablets, colour scanners and printers.
Although it is difficult to be specific on a likely completion date,
progress is accelerating now that the program shell is complete and we
expect the finished article to be shipping towards the end of the
year.
APEX AUDIO (APEX 4)
In addition, it is possible that MIDI & SCSI sample dumps will be
included.
Price has yet to be finalised, but APEX Audio is expected to ship
towards the end of the year. As with APEX Alpha, Audio is at a similar
stage of completion - the shell of the program is complete and some of
the operations are already implemented - so a similar rate of progress
can be expected.
TITAN DESIGNS
AFTERBURNER040 - Enhanced video resolutions
As can be expected, Afterburner040 also benefits from having the
Nemesis system accelerator installed. Not only does this increase the
overall performance of the system, but enhanced video resolutions are
also possible.
Falcon with Afterburner040 and Nemesis - all are non-interlaced
resolutions, 16-bit (65,536 colours per screen) on a standard 14" VGA.
As with the enhanced Nemesis video resolutions, the Video bus is the
crucial figure with regard to video performance and increased
resolutions, not the CPU bus.
Although the Afterburner CPU is being half-clocked in the highest
resolutions, the actual performance is still much higher than a
standard Falcon, and is completely switchable between the various
specifications.
The patches created by Black Scorpion Software to replace the existing
ones for the Afterburner040 have also been considerably enhanced, and
are being continually improved.
NEW PRINTER TECHNOLOGY - 600x600dpi!
When creating plain black print-outs, this remarkable printer will
produce a laser sharp 1200x600dpi resolution.
Even more remarkable is the fact that true spot metallic colours are
possible when using special cartridges. The price for the printer is
expected to be £469.00, with CMYK cartridges costing around £7.95 each
and the metallic cartridges £9.95 each (Gold, Silver, Cyan and
Magenta).
It is expected that a printer driver will be created for use with APEX
Alpha.
More news will be provided as and when we receive it.
GRIBNIF SOFTWARE - NEW PRICES!
NEW PRICE FOR THE GENEVA/NEODESK 4 BUNDLE!
ARABESQUE PRO v2.15 - now only £39.95
Further details on any of the above products can be obtained from
Titan Designs/Black Scorpion and are detailed extensively on our Web
site;
The Falcon FacTT File has
been run for three years by Kev Beardsworth and Colin Fisher-McAllum
as a hobby. The membership listing, 42BBS and our new magazine, AtariPhile,
is proving to be a too heavy task for us to bare. Therefore, we are
pleased to announce that Domhnall Dods, a long standing contributor
and FFF member, has joined us a co-organiser.
AtariPhile/FFF
Goodman News - Show Report
Calamus SL news - from Germany
Atari Corp home re-settled
Floppyshop news
1. Maximum size of photograph is 6"x4" (but see 9 below).
Due to the setup time involved we regret that we cannot handle orders for less
than three scans. The charge per scan (up to 6"x4") is £2.50. There is a fixed
P&P charge (£1.25 UK, £2.25 Europe, £3.00 rest of world) per order regardless
of order size. If you wish your goods to be returned by registered post,
please add the registration fee (currently £2.70 in the UK, overseas customers
contact us first if not paying by credit card) onto the above. Please note
that the P&P charge is in addition to that for any software ordered at the
same time as photographic orders are despatched separately. Usual turnaround
on PhotoScan orders is 7-10 days.
Although every care will be taken with your photographs, we can accept no
liability for loss or damage to your property however caused. Our liability is
strictly limited to the cost of your order. Receipt of your photographs by us
for digitising implies your acceptance of this disclaimer.
All orders should be sent to Floppyshop, PO Box 273, Aberdeen, AB15 8GJ,
Scotland, U.K. and cheques/PO's should be made payable to Floppyshop. Credit
card payment welcome. If you require further information, contact Steve Delaney
(sdelaney@steil.wintermute.co.uk).
Atari Corp home re-settled
Falcon 030 Phenix Notes
16 bits bus 32 bits bus 2 times wider.
16 Mhz bus 33 Mhz bus 2 times faster.
16 Mhz 030 66 Mhz 040 At least 4 times faster
32 Mhz 56001 66 Mhz 56302 At least 4 times faster
2 cycle > 1 inst. 1 cycle > 1 inst.
Non-DMA DSP DMA DSP The CPU is not forced anymore to
feed up the DSP through the Host
port, as it can access the RAM
alone, to load its data and
code...
Video access DMA video access The RAM is more available for
made on the made by the gfx useful tasks...
ST-RAM board.
No 3D-dedicated Matrox Mystique Mapping, gouraud shading,
hardware Matrox Millennium z-buffering3D in 640 x 480 x 65K
colours at 30 fps rate...
Currently under development, it is a new multitasking OS, which
will be stored on the computer's hard-disk. The great advantage of
this : it can (and will !) be updated easily and on a regular basis.
You won't have to load hundreds of patches at the boot to fix bugs of
the in-ROM OS... The reason why Centek's developers wanted to develop
another OS from scratch is that they wanted it to be perfectly
designed for the machine, not simply adapted, like the modified TOS
on the Hades, or MagiC!, which is really unstable...
As you can see, Centek is a very active company !
Centek LOSSOUARN Yann
28, rue des Sorbiers Kernanvez
60290 LAIGNEVILLE 29270 PLOUNEVEZEL
FRANCE FRANCE
Tel / Fax : 03 44 71 55 04 Tel : 02 98 93 11 71
If you want to use email to answer, just use the following :
yann.lossouarn@uhb.fr
System Solutions
The Hades 040/060 is the fastest TOS based computer on the face of the
earth. Available in both 68040 and 68060 flavours, the Hades features
a vast array of ports and interfaces that can take an overwhelming
selection of input and output devices. Speed, adaptability and
compatibility are the Hades three great virtues.
Technical Specs.
Internal:
4x PCI Bus
2x ISA Bus
1x VME Bus
1x EIDE (enhanced IDE) with a maximum 10MB/s for two devices.
1x SCSI with a maximum 4MB/s for 1-7 devices (TT compatible)
External:
Modem 1 (25pol. Dsub connection) with a maximum 19,200 baud.
Modem 2 (9pol Dsub connection) with a maximum 250,000 baud.
Local talk (8pol. MiniDin) with a maximum 250,000 baud.
Printer (25 pol. Dsub - Falcon/TT compatible)
Midi In/Out
PC Keyboard connection (standard)
Mouse and Joystick (Atari compatible)
Prices:
Hades 040 64Mhz/4MB/1000IDE/PCI ET4000 - £1995 inc. VAT
Hades 060 50Mhz/4MB/1000IDE/PCI ET4000 - £2395 inc. VAT
If you haven't heard of MagiC yet you must have been living in a
monastery for the past few years! MagiC is a powerful, optimised
multitasking operating system that completely replaces TOS and GEM. It
includes it's own multitasking friendly desktop, MagiCDesk, although
you are still able to use old favourites like Ease.
To complement Magic 5 and MagiCMac, we are now proud to present MagiC
PC - the World's best operating system now available on IBM PCs
running Windows 95. MagiC is a TOS/GEM compatible multitasking
operating system, which under Windows emulates 68000 code on the
Intel, or compatible, processor. In short - it enables you to run
Atari software on your PC.
What better to complement MagiC PC than NVDI? The ultimate system
enhancement is available *now* for MagiC PC.
GemBench Results
These GemBench results compare MagiC PC + NVDI 4 for MagiC PC in an
extended 1152*896*256 colour resolution with a standard Atari Falcon
running in 640*480*monochrome mode. As you can see, the display is
some five times faster, whilst the *emulated* CPU is running at almost
2.5 times the speed of the Falcon's *real* 68030.
GEM Bench v4.00 1 « Ofir Gal 05 Sep 94
============================================
STE TOS 2.00
AES v3.99
GEMDOS v0.25
MiNT not present
Blitter Disabled
NVDI 4.11 present
Video Mode: 1152*896*256
FPU not present
Run and Malloc from STRAM
Ref: F030, 640*480*2
P133/1152*868*256
============================================
GEM Dialog Box: 0.360 972%
VDI Text: 1.135 299%
VDI Text Effects: 1.700 440%
VDI Small Text: 0.955 392%
VDI Graphics: 1.460 597%
GEM Window: 1.265 110%
Integer Division: 1.015 304%
Float Math: 3.555 150%
RAM Access: 0.995 221%
ROM Access: 0.805 260%
Blitting: 0.060 1866%
VDI Scroll: 0.645 409%
Justified Text: 3.165 103%
VDI Enquire: 0.295 528%
New Dialogs: 1.080 400%
============================================
Graphics: 556%
CPU: 233%
Average: 470%
HD Driver, now at version 6, has become the de facto standard for hard
disk driving on the Atari over the past few years. Why? Because of the
speed, configurability and compatibility of the software, all of which
are superb and far above those offered by other packages.
Papyrus 4
After what seems an age, Papyrus 4, the superb word-processing
package, is now with us - and we think you'll agree it's been worth
the wait. Almost re-written from scratch, this release builds on the
fluid, most useable of interfaces to give a better look and even more
functionality. The re-write has enabled the author to optimise the
code further, providing greater speed and compatibility. You know that
every keeps on mentioning "well written GEM programs" with regard to
new operating systems? Well Papyrus is that program!
The Ultimate Cubase CD-ROM
What has 605 MBs of information, spread across 400 drum loops, 1200
samples, 400 MIDI files and much, much more? Simple. The Ultimate
Cubase CD-ROM.
The ardour of Falcon enthusiasts never ceases to amaze us. The Bird of
Prey CD-ROM was put together by two such people, Matt Norcross and
Scott McConnell and is a superb collection of programs and files for
the Atari Falcon. Made to complement, rather than compete with, other
Falcon CD- ROMs (Transmission, etc.) it focuses almost entirely on
applications and only has a few fillers, like MOD files and graphics.
This disk is a real treat for designers - dealing as it does with the
extraordinary period in art and design covering the early half of the
20th century known as Art Nouveau. Its release in the UK coincides
neatly with the renewed interest in Charles Rennie Mackintosh, seminal
artist and designer - his most noted work being the design of the
Glasgow School of Art.
CD-ROM disks of clipart for desktop publishing and other graphical
work are hardly new. There are literally hundreds of clipart disks
available covering a wide range of subject matter. So what makes our
new collection of disks from Xware special?
Whether it's files, programs or audio information, there's no better
way to store your valuable data than on CD-ROM disks. Until recently
the cost of CD Recorders was prohibitively expensive to all but a few
bureaux but over the past few months the prices have tumbled and now
any computer owner can consider owning one of these awesome devices.
Can you remember when a new spreadsheet was last released for the
Atari? Well, we dont have a definite date but suffice to say that TOS
was somewhere around version 1.4! Until now, that is. For System
Solutions have a brand spanking new application, called Texel, which
looks like itll be a "must buy" for any Atari owner with spreadsheet
requirements.
Titan Design/BSS/Gribnif
Following tests performed on Nemesis, we have been able to achieve
some incredible true-colour video resolutions with Nemesis running at
24/48MHz.
CPU Video Refresh
Bus CPU Bus (Hz)
640x480 24 24 24 60
720x528 24 24 24 50
576x432 20 20 20 60
While even standard Falcons can be unreliable with DMA transfer,
further tests with Nemesis have revealed that a 24MHz bus can be
achieved, reliably and consistently, without any problems of this
nature.
Another advantage of having reliable DMA has been totally clean 50KHz
sound playback. To the best of our knowledge, no other accelerator can
claim to have a 24MHz system speed, reliable DMA or clean 50KHz
playback.
Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water...
Videlity was originally developed to support
APEX Alpha for creating high resolution displays, and will therefore
be supplied with this program to form part of the complete
software/hardware suite - APEX Alpha, Videlity and Nemesis.
APEX 3 is now officially called APEX ALPHA. As
has been mentioned before, the '3' denotes the development number of
this particular APEX product.
Following is the first (provisional) specification for APEX Audio;
CPU Video Refresh
Bus CPU Pipe Bus (Hz)
720x528 12.5 25 50 25 50
640x480 12.5 25 50 25 60
576x432 20 40 80 20 50
We are currently assessing a new colour printer which has only just
been announced and uses new technology called Micro Dry. The
performance of this printer permits colours resolutions of 600x600dpi
and, due to the printing process being perfectly dry, allows superb
photo-realistic reproduction on standard paper, transparencies,
Iron-on transfers, etc.
Now Titan Designs can bring the complete Geneva/NeoDesk 4 bundle
for a mere £79.95! The complete multitasking environment for
Atari ST/TT and Falcon computers, coupled with the latest version of
the most popular replacement Desktop system has never represented
better value.
A complete Bitmap and Vector based illustration program to create,
import, edit and save graphics in the two standard computer formats;
Bitmap and Vector. This superb program has now been reduced to an
incredible £39.95! Arabesque is still one of the best mono
vector/bitmap editing programs for use with any Atari computer and is
supplied with a 180 page manual.
|
|