MAIN LINE COMPUTER USERS - JULY 1997 - ISSUE #182 **** JULY 1997 *********************************** ISSUE #182 **** VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER MEETING STARTS - 09:30 - JUL 12 !! NOTE: Second Saturday meeting date !! ---------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS Announcements 2 ! SPECIAL PRIZE ! 2 MLCUG Steering volunteers? 2 New CMD product offering 3 Internet Book offer 2 Trading Post 3 64/128 meeting minutes 4 EZ Loader Menus 4 State of the AMIGA Market 5 AMIGA User Happenings 7 MAP/Masthead/Meeting schedule 9 Membership Form/Dues 10 ---------------------------------------------------------------- MAIN LINE 64/128 USERS - Room 110 At the June meeting, we quizzed attendees on topics that might be of interest for future meetings. To our surprise, the most mentioned topic was "databases"! We have not dealt with this subject in lo these many years - and much has changed on the 8-bit scene. So, we plan to tackle the subject in July or August depending on - whether or not we finally get access to a phone line in our new meeting room. If we do, we will want to check it out with the group and deal with any accumulated questions about on-line use since our last time. So, attendees should come prepared with BOTH their on-line access questions or needs AND prepared to begin discussing the use of databases. (continued on page 2) MAIN LINE AMIGA USERS - Room 210 Our June presentation was a relatively low keyed affair as far as the main presentation went. We spent a good deal of time discussing the general state of the Amiga market and its potential future scenarios. A good bit of focus was put on what hardware developments should occur. As promised we did quickly review the use of the ECHO command for troubleshooting scripts, particularly the Amiga's startup scripts. Also, as promised, we briefly discussed ISP's (Internet Service Providers) and the 3 TCP/IP stacks available on the Amiga. See the brief summary below of the Main Presentation. (continued on page 9) ---------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIAL REMINDER NOTICE! WHY ARE WE HERE? Remember - one of the best aspects of a user group is getting help (and/or giving it) on problems users have. BUT, we have to know about them; so bring your questions, difficulties, etc. to the meeting HELP time! DIRECTIONS FOR ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER MEETING ROOMS For the next many months, we have shifted our monthly meetings from Mendel Hall to the St. Augustine Center at Villanova University. The 8-bit meeting will be in seminar room 110 and the AMIGA meeting in seminar room 210. Please be sure to enter the campus from the ITHAN AVENUE main gate, then proceed to the 2-level parking building adjacent to the St. Augustine Center, on the Ithan Avenue side. However, you may have to enter the building via the front door, as shown in the sketch below. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 64/128/Amiga Meetings 1997 Steering Committee Meetings July 12* July 16** August 09* August 13 September 06 September 10 * = second Saturday ** = third Wednesday ------------------------------------------------------------------ NEWSLETTER DEADLINE is July 24th !!! ********************************************************** EDITOR: Emil J. Volcheck, Jr. 1046 General Allen Lane West Chester, PA 19382-8030 (Produced with C-128, RAMlink, HD-40/85, 1571, FD-4000, THE WRITE STUFF 128, XETEC Super Grafix, Panasonic KX-P1123, Swiftlink RS-232 and Motorola 288 modem) MLCUG BBS: 610-828-1359 (300 --> 28800 bps), 24 hr/day ######################################## ANNOUNCEMENTS & SPECIALS ######################################## ! JUNE ANNIVERSARY ! Our June anniversary meeting came off very nicely! Both the 8-bit and Amiga groups had regular sessions (with some memorials in the 8-bit one!). Former active member, Bob Barton (now a Macintosh guru) came to the 8-bit meeting and then joined us for lunch - a very nice touch. Following the meetings, some 21 folks gathered at the (very unexpectedly crowded) Villanova Diner for a nice lunch - courtesy of the club treasury. There was plenty of fine conversation and some mementos, most noteworthy being an original 8K PET (complete with built-in tape deck and chiclet keyboard) brought to us by member Don Scholl. He also brought a 4040 dual disk drive - a pretty powerhouse unit that Commodore unfortunately abandoned when they brought out the VIC and C-64!! In addition to Bob Barton; former treasurer, Rich Tave; Amiga leader, Lee Harman, and our original Villanova University sponsor, Prof. Frank Wunderlich, came to the luncheon. We were pleased to see them back for this brief moment! Our chief photographer, Layton Fireng, was all over the place with shutter snapping. We'll have photos to display at the July meeting, as well as a special treat (see next item). Other mementos included an early PET Gazette, PET Paper, the (very thin!) manuals we had to deal with. We'd love to see more - if you have any, why not bring them to upcoming meetings and showing them off??? --------------- ! SPECIAL ! Because of the crowded conditions at the luncheon, we bypassed the FREE giveaway stuff (sorry about that)! So, we plan to make up for it at the next meeting or two. Come on out and take the opportunity being offered! Where did it come from? Not long before the June meeting, we had a visit from Mrs. Gail Fleischer, a former executive secretary at Commodore, West Chester. During the five years she worked there (for various members of Commodore management), she accumulated a bunch of software. The employee Christmas present from Commodore was generally SOFTWARE (no turkeys then!!!). She kindly donated her accumulation of 64, 128, Amiga and DOS software to the club - for which we thank her (especially since it happened at such an opportune point in time). We'll raffle items (free) from the collection in upcoming meetings. Hope you all can make them and take your chance on fame and fortune! *************************** MLCUG STEERING Normally on the second Wednesday of the month (see schedule on p.9), we hold a "steering committee" meeting, usually at Charles Curran's house beginning at 7:30 PM. It is usually attended by the folks listed in the masthead on p.9, BUT it is NOT necessarily limited to them. The topics covered include the status of the treasury, results of the recent meeting, plans for upcoming meetings, plans for upcoming special events and anything else needed. Any MLCUG member is welcome to attend and contribute. If you have something special to discuss with the steering group, this is a good opportunity to do so. We especially welcome input on the future of the club and the thrust of its activities. *************************** INTERNET BOOK! We now have enough members interested to qualify for the bulk order price of the internet book described below. This is the LAST CHANCE for any other members to get in on the order! Call Emil, leave a message on the BBS, or see him at the meeting: "The Internet for Commodore Users" covers hardware, terminal programs, Internet providers, shell account basics, email, editors, newsgroups, ftp, gopher, Archie, the World Wide Web and much, much more. It is published in Australia which makes it a bit pricey. However, there is a club discount that brings the price down to $24 (including postage) - assuming at least five copies are ordered. LUNCHEON INVITATION - following the regular meetings, several or our members regularly gather at the Villanova Diner to chew on lunch and other thoughts that may have come up at the meeting. No attempt is made to solve the world's problems, but it does offer yet another forum for folks to share interests and even solve some more problems. Why not join us? *************************** NEW PRODUCT! RAM EXPANSION UNIT To be available around the latter part of June, CMD has announced two new RAM devices: the CMD 1750 and the CMD 1750XL. The 1750, like it's Commodore namesake, is a 512K RAM Expansion Unit (REU); the 1750XL is a 2 MB REU. Both devices use the Commodore DMA controller chip, providing full compatibility with programs that presently support any Commodore REU. These products are packaged in a standard size cartridge (same size as used with other CMD cartridges like SwiftLink and Turbo232) which has a much smaller footprint than the Commodore REU line. A utility disk and manual will be supplied with both models, and the 2 MB version will include the updated GEOS CONFIGURE files for using 1 or 2 RAM 1581 RAM disks. Announced prices are $99.00 for the CMD 1750, and $139.00 for the CMD 1750XL. [Only about 400 will be built]. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $ TRADING POST $ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ FOR SALE: C-64, 1541 drive, MPS-801 & 1526 printers, Datasette, some software and manuals. If interested, make offer to Robert Langran, 610-519-4734. (1) FOR SALE: looking for a particular bit of software? "Crazy" Fender Tucker of LOADSTAR fame has a bunch of stuff he got by purchasing going out of business inventory. A copy of his list will be on hand at the meetings; so you can get a looksee - it may be there! (1) WANTED: the book "QUEST FOR CLUES 1" by Shay Adams, publ. by Origin Systems. If you have one to sell or know of one, call Dennis Krall at 215-340-0932. (2) FOR SALE: C-64, 2 monitors and printer No further info available. Asking $100. Call Dixie Westerland, 610-692-4840. (3) FOR SALE: MLCUG has a lot of hardware that is available for purchase by MLCUG members at very attractive prices! 2 computer - C-64 w/PS $25 2 disk drive 1541 - clone $20 15 disk drive 1541 - various $20 1 disk drive 1541 - 8/9 sw. $25 1 disk drive 1541-II $30 1 interface - Cardco $ 5 1 interface - MSD $ 5 6 joystick $ 2 1 modem - Panasonic 1200 bps $10 1 monitor - amber - Panasonic $10 1 monitor - screen filter $ 5 1 plotter - Commodore 1520 $10 2 printer - Commodore 1525 $10 2 printer - Commodore 803 $10 2 printer - color - Okimate 10 $10 2 printer - Okimate 120 $20 1 printer - Star Gemini II $25 2 computer - VIC-20 TBD 1 64K RAM/video for VIC-20 TBD 1 computer - Plus4 $25 Also, we have quite a bit of software, for bargain prices (typically $2). You can contact Charles Curran to check on any items of interest (610-446-5239). *************************** 64/128 MEETING *************************** Our June meeting was regular and special in that we had a normal schedule (announcements, program, help time) but special with mementos from our earliest Commodore computer users. We are not quite sure how many attendees actually owned and used an original PET, but there were at least three present: Charles Curran, Emil Volcheck and Don Scholl. Charlie ordered his first PET in May of 1977 and received it in September of 1977. That month, Emil ordered his PET and received it in January of 1978. Yes, Virginia, it did take that long to get one - both because of apparent high demand AND not very productive production! The announced topic for the meeting was menu programs with Peter Whinnery as our point man. In seeking for volunteers to tell about or show menu programs they liked and/or used, we had very low yield! Emil Volcheck "put up his hand", but no other members fessed up. Is that because they do not use any, or because of natural shyness??? In any case, Peter went ahead with his usual well done demo of: EZ LOADER The EZ Loader menu program is very versatile in that it runs in 64 or 128 mode (40 or 80 columns in the latter). It will allow one to use it in 128 mode, but convert to 64 mode if you select a 64 program to run. More importantly, it will work with any Commodore compatible disk drive - 1541, 1571, 1581, FD-2000, FD-4000, RAMlink and CMD hard drives. Because of this wide array of drive types, EZ takes one thru a series of easily answered questions as you set up a program to appear on the menu screen. You can have immediate access up to 360 menu entries, if you take advantage of the maximum capacity (this is obtained with 40 items per screen and up to 9 screens) - assuming you can take this bewildering array! Peter ran us thru a typical program setup - which takes answering a few questions if you are running on a CMD device where you have multiple partitions and multiple subdirectories, as the menu must learn from you exactly how to get to what you want! As a further asset, the program checks thru all your on-line drives and if it finds a real time clock, it reads it and puts up an on-screen clock that keeps time as you use EZ. The program (in version 2.8 that Peter showed) is available for downloading from the BBS. Hopefully attendees got their hands on it and tried it out following Peter's excellent show. REMINDER: EZ Loader is shareware; so if you decide to use it regularly, you should send the author the $10 shareware fee. Thanks for the fine demo, Peter! Emil gave a very brief show of his home-brew menu program that he runs on his RAMlink. It handles many of the chores that EZ does (tho not so elegantly), but is either 64 or 128 oriented. It uses two helper utilities that allow you to do a printer setup prior to running a program where such may be needed, or to swap device numbers on any pair or more of arbitrary disk drives. It also lets you independently set up the location of the data storage for the program you want to run, which EZ can't do (Peter uses EZ to run a little boot program to set up data location, then boot the main program). FOLLOWING the demos and a few questions, we adjourned for our FREE lunch at the Villanova Diner - hope you were there!!! ---------------------- THE STATE OF THE AMIGA MARKET ---------------------- NEWS ITEM 1 -- Phase 5 Digital Products Expands The Powerup Product Line Oberursel, Germany, May 12 1997: phase 5 digital products today announced the expansion of the PowerUp product family for Amiga computers. Beside the two products that had been announced earlier, the Cyberstorm PPC and the Blizzard 603e Power Board, there will be an additional model for the A1200, the Blizzard 603e+ Power Board, which combines the PowerPC RISC processor with an 68040 or 68060 CPU, as well as a model for the Amiga 1500/2000, the Blizzard 2604 Power Board. Additionally, it has been decided that all PowerUp boards will come with SCSI on board instead of being an option, which adds additional value to these products. With this expanded product line, phase 5 digital products offers a complete line of PowerUp accelerators for the Amiga 1200, 1500/2000, 3000 and 4000 models, and provides a smooth upgrade path for owners of 68030-, 68040- or 68060-based accelerators. Additionally, phase 5 will release a fast graphics card as an add-on to those PowerUp models that go into the desktop and tower models, namely the Cyberstorm PPC and the Blizzard 2604 Power Board. The 1997 PowerUp accelerator product line includes the following models: Cyberstorm PPC The Cyberstorm PPC accelerator is the high-end PowerUp accelerator for Amiga 3000/4000(T) systems and systems with a compatible processor slot. It features a high-performance PowerPC604e RISC processor in different clock speeds and a socket for either a 68040 or a 68060 processor, a memory expansion option for up to 128 megabytes of ultra- fast 64-bit memory, a Wide-Ultra-SCSI controller on board and an expansion slot for high-performance expansions such as the CyberVisionPPC (see below). This board is ideally suited for all A3000/A4000 users who already own an accelerator with either a 68040 or 68060 processor; for Cyberstorm users it will be the PowerUp upgrade offer. Blizzard 603e Power Board The Blizzard 603e Power Board is the inexpensive PowerUp accelerator for Amiga 1200 systems. It features a high-performance PowerPC603e RISC processor @ 175 MHz clock speed and a socket for a 68030 companion processor @ 50 MHz, a memory expansion option for up to 64 MByte of high-speed memory, and a Fast-SCSI-II controller on board. This board is ideally suited for all A1200 users who already own an accelerator with a socketed 68030 processor; for Blizzard 1230-II, Blizzard 1230- III and Blizzard 1230-IV users it will be the PowerUp upgrade offer. Blizzard 603e+ Power Board The Blizzard 603e+ Power Board is the high-end PowerUp accelerator for Amiga 1200 systems. It features a high-performance PowerPC603e RISC processor @ 200 MHz clock speed and a socket for a 68040 or 68060 companion processor, a memory expansion option for up to 64 MByte of high-speed memory, and a Fast-SCSI-II controller on board. This board will be ideally suited for all A1200 users who already own an accelerator with a 68040 or 68060 processor; for Blizzard 1240T/ERC and Blizzard 1260 users it will be the PowerUp upgrade offer. Blizzard 2604e Power Board The Blizzard 2604e Power Board is the high-end PowerUp accelerator for Amiga 2000 (in the UK Amiga 1500) systems. It features a high- performance PowerPC604e RISC processor and a socket for either a 68040 or a 68060 companion processor, a memory expansion option for up to 128 MByte of ultra-fast 64-bit memory, a Wide-Ultra-SCSI controller on board and an expansion slot for high-performance expansions such as the CyberVisionPPC (see below). This board is ideally suited for all A1500/A2000 users who already own an accelerator with either a 68040 or 68060 processor; for Blizzard 2040/2060 users it will be the PowerUp upgrade offer. CyberVisionPPC - A high-end graphic card for use with the Cyberstorm PPC and the Blizzard 2604 Power Board The CyberVisionPPC is a high-performance graphic card which can be installed on the expansion slot of the PowerPC604e-based PowerUp Accelerators, the Cyberstorm PPC and the Blizzard 2604 Power Board. It is scheduled for delivery in August, and will become available simultaneously with the Blizzard 2604 Power Board. Especially for the Blizzard 2604 the use of the CyberVisionPPC is highly recommended as the slow access to the ECS chip memory or Zorro-II-based graphics boards in the A1500/A2000 may limit the system performance in applications with lots of graphic output; but also the performance of the Cyberstorm PPC will benefit significantly from the data transfer rates of up to 100 MB/s (from the processor into the video memory) in demanding applications such as fast 3D visualization and similar tasks. Not only the ultra-fast access of the processor into the video memory, but also the internal speed and functionality of the CyberVisionPPC will provide a breathtaking performance. The CyberVisionPPC is equipped with the powerful PERMEDIA graphics controller, which provides an outstanding 3D performance of up to 42 million textured 3D pixels per second, with hardware-accelerated rendering functions such as z- buffering, gouraud-shading, fogging, blending and anti-aliasing. As the design of the PERMEDIA hardware suits perfectly for OpenGL implementations, it's 3D performance can support the CyberGL functionality of CyberGraphX V3 Native which comes along with the PowerUp boards. In combination with the high floating-point performance of the PowerPC604e processor a breathtaking performance in professional 3D applications can be achieved by this implementation. Additionally, the PERMEDIA processor supports functions like color space conversion, chroma keying and XY-scaling which will be used by the software MPEG decoding routines of CyberGraphX V3 Native. The CyberVisionPPC used 64-bit wide SGRAM with a data transfer rate of up to 660 MB/s; this in combination with the fast RAM-DAC allows display resolutions of up to 1280x1024 pixel in true color mode and with a high refresh rate of at least 70 Hz. The boards comes along with 4 MB of display memory as standard. The recommended price for the CyberVisionPPC will be at US $299.00; customers of a PowerUp upgrade can buy this board for a special rate of US $239.00. from Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group / cucug@cucug.org NEWS ITEM 2 -- clickBOOM Supports Power Up from Phase 5 Toronto, May 5, 1997: PXL computers and clickBOOM are proud to announce a cooperation with Phase 5 Digital Products on making games for Power Amiga. "We strongly believe that the future for the Amiga computer lies in PowerPC processor. Furthermore, we believe Phase 5 is and will continue to be the Amiga hardware leader. Therefore, we have selected Power Amiga as our future platform of choice", says Alexander Petrovic, PXL and clickBOOM producer. Appropriately enough, the first ever Power Amiga game will be Myst from clickBOOM. It is a perfect opportunity for Myst and PowerUp accelerators to appear at the same time. Following Myst, other forth coming clickBOOM "killer games" will be fully optimized for the PowerPC chip, as well. Phase 5 Digital Products highly appreciates the development of Myst for the PowerUp accelerators and the plans of clickBOOM to add PowerUp support to more titles in the future. "We are happy to see how engaged clickBOOM has realized all their ambitious projects in the past, and we are excited that their new projects will be targeted for the PowerUp accelerators" says Wolf Dietrich of phase 5. "Beside all the demanding creativity software that we expect to come for the PowerUp boards, it's good to see powerful games with the real thrill coming also soon. What would such a powerhorse Amiga be without some breathtaking amusement? Still fast, but less fun... It's really impressive and good to see that clickBOOM is in the front line of visionary development for a new performance dimension." Support for Power Amigas will have several distinct advantages: 1. It will give users a valid reason to upgrade as soon as PowerPC boards become available. 2. New clickBOOM games written for Power Amiga will be breathtaking and a serious competition to the games on other platforms. This in return, will make the rest of the industry look very positively on the Amiga market. 3. Impressive CPU power will allow clickBOOM a technical freedom to convert any big game from other platforms to the Power Amiga. The exact timeline of clickBOOM Power Amiga releases is still to be decided. Currently, clickBOOM's strategy can be outlined in two steps: 1. Starting with Myst, a couple of forth coming projects will support both 680x0 and PowerPC chip. 2. ClickBOOM will use this transitional period to work on a first Power Amiga-only "killer" game. After its release, all the following games will be Power Amiga-only. For more information about our future strategy visit clickBOOM web site at www.clickboom.com We hope you like our plan and share our vision. Naturally, for the Power Amiga to ultimately succeed we need your support and input. As always, please feel free to contact us at info@clickboom.com Best regards, PXL computers and clickBOOM from Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group / cucug@cucug.org *************************** AMIGA USER HAPPENINGS By John Deker, AMIGA SIG Leader [continued from p.1] Following the meeting, several of us Amigans attended the FREE club luncheon. See Emil's write-up elsewhere in this issue. At this time, there's no definitive planned presentation for our next meeting. Hiding in the wings are potential presentations on MIDI, HTML, and possibly a surprise hardware presentation. On the last, I hold no promises. THE MAIN PRESENTATION - WHAT TCP/IP STACK & ISP ARE YOU USING? Though our presentation was limited by the lack of telephone connectivity, we none the less had a brief discussion around our choice of ISP, TCP/IP stack, and Web browser. And the winners, or first choice, among most users were -- Miami. Miami seemed to be more used than either AmiTCP or Termite TCP. There was a general consensus that both Miami and Termite were relatively easy to configure compared to AmiTCP. In their fully functional incarnation one finds that Miami is shareware while both Termite TCP and AmiTCP are commercial products. Compuserve. Compuserve was the definitive local winner in the ISP category when it came to connecting the Amiga to the INet. This situation has most likely evolved because information about connecting to Compuserve has been the most easily available. However, everyone seemed to agree that Compuserve was not as cost effective as they might wish. When it came to Web browsers, both IBrowse and AWeb were equally browsers of choice. In third spot was Voyager. IBrowse and AWeb are both commercial products while Voyager is currently shareware. Each browser seems to have features that the others lack or are weakly implemented. So, when using a browser on the Amiga, the user should determine which browser best suits his or her needs. For example, IBrowse's print feature is limited to printing just ASCII text, not graphics; Voyager's navigation history list is poorly implemented; and AWeb's hotlist editor is weak and it doesn't currently handle frames. On the other hand, each browser has strengths over its peers. MIXING SQUIRRELSCSI & ASIMCDFS ON A1200's & A600's The other day I was working with Ted Dean to resolve a problem he was experiencing while using SquirrelSCSI and AsimCDFS together on his A1200. It's a problem I found to be interesting and a bit challenging. Its best resolution is such that we may spend a bit of time discussing it at our next meeting. So, why was Ted using both applications when the SquirrelSCSI already supports CDROM drives? The quick answer is that the SquirrelSCSI does not have some of the amenities of AsimCDFS when it comes to PhotoCDs, music CDDA's, or dual formatted or partitioned CDs. What's the problem with installing both pieces of software? Well, if you use the default installation, both pieces of software install CD0: as their default CDROM drives. This causes a conflict between the pieces of software when working with an auto-booting CD such as a CD32 or CDTV if AsimCDFS is installed last, or the nice amenities of AsimCDFS do not work if the SquirrelSCSI software is installed last. What's the solution? It seems that the best solution, short of getting another SCSI interface for the A1200 or A600, is to install the SquirrelSCSI software with CD32 and CDTV autobooting support. Then, install AsimCDFS using the Installer's INTERMEDIATE option. When installing AsimCDFS, opt to install CD1: (not CD0:). Also, do not install Asim's CD32 or CDTV support features, and DO NOT turn on Asim's autoboot functions. What's the downside of this solution? Since both CD0: and CD1: will be pointing at the same physical device, you will sometimes get 2 of the same volume names and icons on screen. When this happens, the CD0: icon and volume name will probably not update when the CD is removed from the drive. If you rarely use autobooting CD's in autoboot mode, you can avoid the 2 icons on screen by moving the CD0: icon from the DEVs:DOSDrivers drawer to the SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers drawer. FUTURE MEETINGS If you have either software or hardware for your Amiga that has taken your fancy, please bring it to our attention. I'm sure your specific interests will be of interest to others. Let me know if this is the case at the next meeting, or leave me email on our BBS. Remember, a user group is only as rewarding as the sum of the efforts of its individual members. "A penny saved is nothing in the real world".