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Issue 9, Winter 2001£3.50Read our full reviewWe play the newPPC/Warp3D Version

NEWSNEWSContentsNewsSEAL Update...................... 3World of Amiga South East. 4FeaturesReader Opinion................... 10Payback PPC Preview........ 11DTP Explained.................... 12DTP Utilities........................ 17Mediator Multimedia CD ..... 24ReviewsMetaview............................. 20ArtEffect Plugins Collection 22Epson Stylus Photo 790 ..... 26Memory Card Reader ......... 27PhotoScope ........................ 28Shogo ................................. 29PD Paradise........................ 32Archive Utilities ................... 40SupportTop Tips .............................. 34DTP Tutorial ........................ 36Back to Basics Archiving ... 39IRC Tutorial ......................... 41Next Issue........................... 43Gallery ................................ 44Do TheWriteThingWe’d like to make Clubbed more “interactive”so we need your input!Got a question you’d like answeredor an opinion you’d like to share?Write to us and we’ll include it in aletters page.Got a tip for other readers or even anarticle up your sleeve? Send it in andyou could very well see your name inprint.Got a suggestion or comment on themagazine? Let us know and we’ll tryand make Clubbed better for you.EditorialWelcome to the ninth issue ofClubbed, if everything hasgone to plan you could wellbe reading this just before the World ofAmiga South East show which we’re allworking hard preparing for as I write.I’m sure regular readers won’t fail tospot that this issue is on time for achange! I would like to thank all the contributorsto this issue, and everyone wholent a hand in getting it finished. Specialthanks should go to Mick Sutton whospent a lot of his evenings helping mewith the layout, in addition to writingseveral articles.The next few months look like being atime of significant changes for Amigausers, several major products, fromAmiga and others are expected in thistime frame. There is the Amiga One andOS4, then there are the other solutionsbased on OS 4 from Elbox, Matay andanyone else who chooses to take up alicense. MorphOS, probably bestdescribed as an Amiga compatible PPCOS, with the BPlan Pegasos motherboardwill probably be shown to thepublic for the first time at a show inCologne, Germany in mid November.Finally we have the Amiga OS XL x86emulation package from H&P, whichgives Amiga users yet another option!From a Clubbed point of view we’d liketo hear your opinions on these developments,and which products, if any, youchoose to buy when they are released.We can then start thinking about the futuredirection of the magazine, althoughthat will also depend on the choicesmade by our contributors.Along with the big changes in the Amigaworld we have had quite an eventfulmonth here at Clubbed. Currently themagazine is printed for us by SEALmember Jeff Martin who works in theprinting department of a large insurancecompany. This means we get Clubbedprinted at cost price and in the excellentquality you saw in issues three to eight(and the second print run of issues oneand two). Unfortunately Jeff has informedus that the printing department isclosing at Christmas and more importantlyfor us the machine used to printthe Clubbed covers has broken downand probably won’t be fixed. Thereforewe’ve had to look for a new printer forthis and future issues.Before I go into the ramifications of this Iwould like to thank Jeff for all the hardwork he’s put into getting Clubbedprinted, including putting up with my lastminute phone calls of... “don’t print it yet,I’ve spotted a major typo!” (oh yes folks,Issue 7’s cover very nearly referred tothe little known prehistoric era the“Scantasic” instead of “Scantastic”!).Everyone at Clubbed and I’m sure allour readers wish Jeff the very best ofluck in finding a new job.From our initial enquires with local printersit seems that our printing costs aregoing to increase considerably, probablynearly doubling in fact. BecauseClubbed is non profit making there is noway we can absorb this increase.Therefore we have had to make adecision as to how to continue withoutmaking a loss on every issue sold. Aswe need to have the magazine printed intime for World of Amiga South East (exactlyfour weeks away as I type this) wehave decided that we must put up theprice of the magazine in time for theshow. The new price is £3.50 per issuewith UK subscriptions at £14.00, currentsubscriptions will not be effected, butrenewals from this issue will be at thenew price. We hope people will feel themagazine is worth it and we will do ourbest to make it good value for money.Well that’s about it from me, enjoy themagazine and see you at World ofAmiga South East!Robert WilliamsMeetingsIt has to be said that things have beenfairly quiet at SEAL meetings over thelast few months, we think there areseveral reasons for this. Firstly it hasbeen the summer when many peopleare on holiday or at least would ratherbe outside than sitting in front of a computer.Secondly it has been a quiet timein the Amiga market as a whole, there isa great feeling of “wait and see” withseveral big developments on thehorizon. Finally several of SEAL’smovers and shakers have been verybusy with the forth coming WoASE showwhich has also meant that this issue ofClubbed has greater urgency than usualtoo.All that said we have had some interestingmeetings, bizarrely most featuringCyberVision 64/3D graphics cards! Wehad a go at fitting an AMon automaticmonitor switch to Alf Whitfield’sCV64/3D. Next Elliott Bird asked forsome help setting up a CV64/3D in hisA4000, he had installed the card underPicasso 96 but it was very unstable.This turned out to be a hardware incompatibilitybetween early DCE manufacturedCV64/3Ds and Zorro II (see TopTips on page 38 for more details). ThenSteve Willis brought along a PowerTower, Z4 bus board and, you’veguessed it, a CyberVision 64/3D makinghim the latest SEAL member to experiencethe wonders of high resolution,high colour fast screens.But not everything revolved around thePhase 5 designed card, new memberPhilip Beasley had trouble with bootinghis A4000, when we opened it up at themeeting it not only had some interestinghardware (a time base corrector forvideo work and a GVP ‘040 accelerator)but it also showed just how much dustcan collect in a machine that hasn’tbeen opened for six years. We alsofound a leaky battery, as mentioned inthe Top Tips section of issue eight. SamByford is another member with an interestingAmiga, his A4000 is in a PowerTower with the new Elbox PCI busboard, he’s just waiting for the MediatorPCI logic to arrive so he can use thoseexciting and inexpensive expansions.UpdateFuture MeetingsOnce the show is over we aim torevitalise SEAL meetings, hopefully thiswill be aided by the release of new hardwareand software at around the sametime. So SEAL members, now is thetime to be thinking about topics youwould like to see covered at futuremeetings and if you could contribute inany way to make them more interesting.One idea we do have is a “bring and buysale” where members can bring alongany kit they want to sell and can alsobuy from other members, we had one ofthese in SEAL’s first year and it was asuccess. Also SEAL has receivedseveral donations of hardware and softwarein the last year and those itemswhich are not needed for the clubmachines will be available for sale atthis meeting, all contributions going toclub funds.SEAL on the ‘netSEAL has several, rather under used,resources available on the Internet, withmore and more members getting on lineI think it’s time to give them a bit of aplug. There are several mailing listswhich use the Yahoo Groups service,these allow anyone with EMail to easilyreceive information about the club. Sealannounceis for club related announcementsand is a very low traffic list, itwould be great if all members with EMailcould join this list as it makes sendingannouncements much easier. To join thelist, which is free, simply send a blankEMail to: seal-announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Seal-talk is an interactivelist for members to communicateoutside meetings, to join send ablank Email to:seal-talk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.Then you can post your Amiga problemsand comments to everyone belonging tothe group by sending one EMail to:seal-talk@yahoogroups.com.SEAL also has an IRC (Internet RelayChat) channel on Arcnet called #SEAL,here you can chat with other membersin real time, for more information on IRCsee Elliott Bird’s tutorial on page 41.There are full details of all SEAL’sInternet activities on the website at:www.seal-amiga.co.ukClubbed.infoClubbed is published quarterly by SouthEssex Amiga Link. For subscription detailsplease contact us at the address below orvisit our website.Editor: Robert WilliamsDesign:Contributors:Robert WilliamsElliott BirdMick SuttonKevin TwymanJamie WinterProof Reading: Sharon SuttonCover Art: Roy BurtonContact UsIf you have any queries suggestions orwant to contact us for any reason pleaseuse one of the following:EMail: clubbed@seal-amiga.co.ukWWW: http://www.seal-amiga.co.uk/Post: Clubbed, 26 Wincoat Drive,BENFLEET, Essex, SS7 5AH,ENGLAND.Telephone: +44 (0) 1268 569937(19:00 - 22:00 UK time only please)Only Amiga Made it PossibleClubbed is designed and laid out using:Hardware:Amiga 3000CyberStorm PPC/060CyberVision PPC128Mb RAM, about 8Gb HDD space.Software:Amiga OS 3.9 by AmigaPageStream 4 by SoftlogikImageFX 4 by Nova DesignPhotogenics 5 by Paul NolanFinal Writer 5 by SoftwoodGhostscript 6.50 from Aladdin EnterprisesThere are also some essential utilities wecouldn’t live without: Directory Opus 5,SGrab, MCP, Turbo Print 7, MakeCD.Our thanks to the creators of this and allthe other great Amiga software out there.Clubbed is entirely created on the Amiga,no other machines are used at any stage ofthe design or layout process.LegaleseThe views expressed in this magazine are thoseof the author of each piece, they do notnecessarily reflect the views of the editor, othercontributors or SEAL.Please Note: Clubbed is produced by SEALmembers in their spare time, while we will alwaysstrive to produce the magazine on time andinclude all the advertised contents this is notalways possible due to other commitments. Theprice you pay for Clubbed covers our costs andnothing more, we don’t make a profit from it.If you wish to contact a contributor please sendyour message to one of the addresses above andwe will pass it on.Amiga is a registered trademark and the Amigalogo, AmigaDOS, Amiga Kickstart, AmigaWorkbench, Autoconfig, Bridgeboard, andPowered by Amiga are trademarks of AMIGA Inc.All other trademarks mentioned are the propertyof their respective owners.2CLUBBED - Issue 9Winter 20013

4NEWSWorld of Amiga South EastPreparations for the World ofAmiga South East have beengoing very well, we now have alist of exhibitors and a floor plan as youcan see here. In addition to the mainhall, the venue boasts a bar which willbe staffed throughout the show and asmaller hall that will be used as a caféand presentation area.This is the current list of exhibitors, asusual with these things there willprobably be some minor changes by theday of the show but this is what to expect:1-2 Kicksoft3 Pagan Games4 HAUG and Blackpooluser groups5 To Be Announced6 Amiga7 Cloanto8-14 Eyetech15-16 Formatt Home Computing17 100% Amiga18 SEAL19 ANT20 Kickstart21 ASA22 Elbox23-24 Mediator Support25-27 Virtual Programingand Amiga Active28-30 Weird Science31-33 Stellar Dreams34 Hyperion Games Area35 Gloucestershire Amiga GroupWe also have an assurance from Haageand Partner that they will be there todemonstrate the Amiga OS XL packagebut we don’t know exactly what formtheir attendance will take yet.Apart from the bar other highlights of theshow will be several presentations includingone from Fleecy Moss of Amigaand several games tournaments. Keepan eye on the show website for furtherdetails and a time table of presentations.The show is taking place on Saturdaythe 3rd of November 2001 at:Poplars Hall,Poplar Drive,Hutton,Brentwood,Essex, CM13 1YU.It will run from 12:00 until 17:00. If youhaven’t bought your tickets already theywill be available on the door at just£3.50 each. Full details including directionsfrom the M25 and on publictransport are on the show website:http://www.worldofamiga.comCLUBBED - Issue 9AmigaOS onIn the Amiwest update sheet includedwith issue 8 of Clubbed we weresurprised to find that two, ostensiblysimilar Amiga Emulators were beingdeveloped in tandem. One wasAmithlon, developed by Harald Frankand Bernd Meyer, which was demonstratedby Bill McEwen at Amiwest andthe other, previewed in Amiga Activeissue 23 turned out to be AmigaXL fromHaage and Partner.SimilaritiesBoth emulators run on a host OS, Linuxfor Amithlon and QNX for AmigaXL, buthide the fact from the user. They areboth derived from UAE althoughAmithlon’s developers sayalmost every aspect hasbeen rewritten, we don’tknow yet how much ofUAE remains in AmigaXLalthough H&P do say ituses a “modified and highlyaccelerated 68k emulator”.Another common factor betweenthe two is their claimed speed, on afast x86 PC speeds of up to 20 times‘060 have been quoted, which is quiteamazing! Finally both will read your existingAmiga hard disks allowing easytransfer of programs and data. With bothemulators offering such similar facilitiesand Amiga and H&P being partners invarious developments it seemed clearthey would have to come to some sort ofagreement. The end result is that Haageand Partner will publish both emulatorsin a package called AmigaOS XL whichincludes all the necessary licences,neither will be available separately.DifferencesUntil the package is released or at leastdemonstrated it is hard to know how theemulators will compare in performanceand the “feel” of their emulation. Fromthe specifications and other informationreleased so far it seems that the maindifference between them is how muchuse they make of the services offered bythe host OS.Amithlon seems to make very little useof its Linux base, it uses Linux drivers toaccess basic motherboard resources(mouse, keyboard, IDE and SCSI controllersetc.) and to initialise graphicscards. From that point on you must haveWinter 2001x86Amiga drivers to support your hardware,for example if you want to print on amodern inkjet you would still needTurboPrint. From what has been saidUsing Amithlon will be very much likeusing a very fast 68k Amiga, it will stillhave the limitations of an Amiga such aslimited driver support, but on the otherhand it you like your Amiga driver softwarefor scanning, printing, CD writingetc. you should be able to continueusing it, just much faster.AmigaXL is said to make much moreuse of the underlying QNX operatingsystem, for example it uses QNX printerdrivers and network access is via theQNX TCP/IP stack. From whathas been said it doesn’tseem possible to accessthe various interfaces ofthe PC as Amiga devicesfrom AmigaXL, the FAQstates that several applicationsrequiring devicelevel access to interfaces (forexample CD burning and scanning)will not work under the emulation.On the plus side being more relianton the host OS means that AmigaXLcan offer features like USB support andeven access to QNX programs likeOpera and Voyager web browsers (completewith SSL, Macromedia Flash,MPEG, RealAudio, JavaScript and Javasupport)within the emulation.From the FAQ it seems that AmigaXLwill also have some what better supportfor programs using the Amiga chipsetthan Amithlon which is purely for programsthat run on a graphics card.However with a fast PC there is noreason why one couldn’t run UAE withineither of them to support older software.The AmigaOS XL package with bothemulators, licensed OS 3.9, 3.1 ROMimage, QNX and Picasso 96 will cost299DM which is about £100. For loadsmore information visit Haage andPartner’s AmigaOS XL web site at:http://amigaosxl.haage-partner.de/Note: The detailed information is underthe “Products” link at the top of thepage.The UK distributor for the Package isVirtual Programming:http://www.vpltd.com+44 (0) 1202 411117NEWSNew LookAminetThe main Aminet website has beengiven a make over, the site is still simpleand quick to load (if anything I think theone graphic is smaller than before) butnow all the common functions are easilyavailable on the main page. Straightaway you can see the list of the lastweek’s uploads and the search functionis in the side bar along with direct linksto the top level directories.At the moment the new look only seemsto be available on the US site at:http://us.aminet.net/pub/aminet/MediatorFastEthernetElbox has announced new drivers forEthernet cards based on the RealtekRTL8139 chipset, which supports10MBit/s and 100MB/s operation, thiswill be the first 100MB card available forthe Amiga. The new drivers are availablefor Elbox’s Mediator range of PCIbus boards and will also require the userto own the recently released MediatorMultimedia CD (see our preview onpage 24 for further details). TheRTL8139 is used on many PCI Ethernetcards and tends to be very economicallypriced, you should be able to find acompatible card for well under £20.Mediator boards and the MMCD are distributedin the UK by Power Computing,for further details visit:http://www.powerc.comor telephone them on (01234) 851500.Elbox have a website at:http://www.elbox.com5

NEWSNEWSMorphOSDV EditingTitan Computer have released somespecifications and screen shots of theirnew non-linear digital video editingpackage Motion Studio. Titan are thepublishers with the product being developedby Motion Studios, the people behindthe Elastic Dreams and FantasticDreams image manipulation packages.Like those two titles Motion Studiofeatures a very flash non-standard userinterface which you can see in thisscreen shot.Motion Studio is designed for MorphOSand supports the bplan Pegasosmotherboard, using its Firewire connectionto load Digital Video (for examplefrom a digital camcorder). 40 videoeffects are included and most of themare performed in real-time on a systemwhich meets the minimumspecifications. There is also full soundsupport with over 20 sound effects includingecho, fades and decrackle.Plugins are supported so additionaleffects can be easily added. Finishedprojects can be saved in commonQuicktime and AVI formats and weassume back to a DV recorder.BlittersoftLong standing UK Amiga hardware andsoftware dealer Blittersoft has beenbought by Virtual Programming, a relativelynew company developing,amongst other things, software for Tao’sElate platform that forms the basis forthe AmigaDE. One of VP’s directors isMark Hinton, the publisher of AmigaActive and he is joined by Paul Lesurf ofBlittersoft.Virtual Programming say that they intendto support both the classic Amigaand new Amiga markets and will continueto support Blittersoft’s existing customers.You can find Blittersoft’s rangeof classic Amiga products on the VPwebsite and development is set to continue.Further details can be found on the newVirtual Programming website at:http://www.vpltd.comTo run Motion Studio you willneed a computer with aPowerPC G3 running at400Mhz, firewire ports andMorphOS 1.0. Titan ore obviouslyaiming this product atcomputers based on thebplan Pegasos motherboardwhich is expected to beshown to the public runningMorphOS later this year. Inthe mean time, to whet yourappetite take a look at thetitan website:http://www.titancomputer.com/motionstudioAMP PlaysDVD!A new version of AmiDog’s Movie Playerhas been released with a major new feature,it can now play DVD movies, thefirst utility on the Amiga to do so! AMPversion 2 (not to be confused withAmiga AMP the MPEG audio player) is aPPC only movie player using WarpUP, inaddition to DVD it also supports videoCDs and MPEG video files. DVDplayback requires a fast PPC card and aDVD-ROM drive attached to a fast interface,the author recommends a SCSIdrive on a DMA controller. For owners ofslower PPC cards there is a low resolutionwhich decodes the video at half thewidth and height approximately doublingplayback speed.Although AMP is a command line programit is supplied with an attractive MUIGUI allowing you to easily change itsoptions and basic controls are providedin the playback window to seek to aposition in the movie and to pause andrestart. There are several options to geta registered copy of AMP, you can send£10 in cash to the author, buy on-lineand get the keyfile EMailed to youthrough regnet for 18USD or buy it onCD from Kicksoft for £18.The program can be used for 30 daysbefore registering, so you can downloadthe latest version from:http://www.amidog.comand see what you think.You can order from Kicksoft at:http://www.kicksoft.co.ukDetails of the other registration optionsare in the AMP documentation.GREX Bites BackIn the last few weeks DCE haveannounced a host of new drivers for PCIcards installed on their GREX family ofPCI expansion boards. At the time ofwriting none of these new drivers havebeen released. Here is a run down ofthe drivers being developed and someother GREX related news.USBDrivers for Universal Serial Bus PCIcards will enable many common, lowcost peripherals to be connected, initiallyHuman Interface Devices (HIDs) suchas keyboards and mice will be supportedand according to an interviewwith the developer “many other deviceswill soon follow of course”. There aretwo standards used by USB controllers(such as those found on PCI cards),OHCI and UHCI currently the driver supportsUHCI and has been tested with acard based on the VIA 83C572 controller,OHCI support is planner for thefinal release.TV CardsVisionary is a newdriver system forTV cards based onthe popularBooktree 878, 879and 848 chipsetswith Microtune orPhilips tuner chipsare supported.This encompassesmany cardsfrom differentmanufacturers,the Vision Factorysite already liststhirteen differentcards which havebeen tested and foundto be compatible. The developers alsosay that Visionary is designed to beeasily expanded to support more chipsetsand tuners where developerdocumentation is available.Visionary features a “skinnable” userinterface which allows the user to designtheir own GUI, from the screen shotsprovided it seems to be very flexible,with the option to reposition theelements of the GUI, as well as changingthe graphics. It supports VisualReality skins which are supplied with TVtuner cards from companies includingThe GREX4000D Replaces theA4000’s daughter board.STB and 3Dfx .To run Visionary you will needCyberGraphX running on a PCI card inyour GREX. No release date has beenset but it is expected to be availablesome time in October, probably coincidingwith the new GREX board for theA4000 desktop.Other GREX NewsAccording to DCE the second model inthe GREX family of PCI bus boards hasnow entered production. The GREX4000D is a replacement for the A4000desktop’s Zorro daughter board andprovides four PCI slots, four Zorro slotsand one video slot. Unlike the otheroptions that will fit a 4000 (Matay’sPrometheus and Elbox’s Mediator Z3and Mediator 4000) the GREX will fitproperly in the standard A4000 desktopcase. A CyberStorm MkIII or PPC isrequired because the GREX plugsdirectly into the local bus slot of theseaccelerators.In addition to the Visionary TV carddrivers DCE have also announced thatdrivers for three other PCI cards willsoon be available for GREX users. Thefirst is for 100MBit Ethernet cards basedon the popular and inexpensive RealtekRTL8139C chipset. Two sound cards willalso be supported with AHI drivers, theTerratec128i and 512i, Terratec is aGerman company and from what I cansee both these cards are affordable ataround £25 and £50 respectively. In theVisionary screen shot you can also seethe sound mixer utility for these cards.http://www.vgr.com, the official VisionFactory site is an excellent source ofnews on the GREX, Visionary andmatters graphics card related.http://www.dcecom.de also has someinteresting product information.Earth TenYears OnE.P.I.C. Interactive have announced thatthey will be publishing a port of Earth2150: Escape from the Blue Planet, thefollow up to Earth 2140 reviewed lastissue, they plan to release a Mac versionand then one for MorphOS runningon bplan Pegasos hardware. Like Earth2140, 2150 is a real time strategy gamebut unlike it’s predecessor it features atrue 3D environment. The game wasvery popular in the PC world, in factthere has already been a sequel, TheMoon Project and yet another E2150:Lost Souls is about to be released.E.P.I.C. state that ports of these gameswill follow at a later date.For further details visit the E.P.I.C.Interactive website is at:http://www.epic-interactive.comThe official Earth 2150 site is:http://www.earth2150.comHyperion Spreadthe CurseIn the last issue of Clubbed we reportedthat Hyperion had released Voodoo 3Warp3D drivers for Matay’s PrometheusPCI board enabling Warp3D applications,in particular games such asShogo and Heretic II to take advantageof the Voodoo 3’s hardware 3D acceleration.Since then drivers for DCE’sGRex board have been released andHyperion have signed a deal with Elboxto produce Mediator compatible drivers.As we go to press Elbox haveannounced that the Mediator drivers arenow available and that they also supportthe Voodoo 4 4500 and Voodoo 5 5500.However Ben Yoris or Hyperion hasstated “We did do Voodoo 3 drivers forthem but no Voodoo 4/5. It’s a remotepossibility that these Voodoo 3 driverswork on a Voodo 4/5 but...we have noway of testing or knowing this.” We willwait with interest to see exactly what isgoing on!Hyperion are at:http://www.hyperion-entertainment.comOn their site you can register and thendownload the latest version of Warp3Dfrom the download area.6CLUBBED - Issue 9Winter 20017

FEATURESthough it must exist in the palette) andintensity of your shadows, their offsetfrom the object and the quality of thefinal effect.In addition to the scripts I’ve mentionedthere are also many others which justmakes life with PageStream even easier,if you’re a PageStreamer you’d be madnot to check Michael’s page out!FW CalendarBy Ron Goertz -home.earthlink.net/~goertz/Ron/Another fantastic AREXX script, and thisone is so flexible, not only does it supportboth Final Writer (version 4+) andPageStream (3 and 4) but it also workswith two GUI systems Triton andClassAct... all in the one script, amazing!The purpose of FWCalendar is... you’veguessed it... to generate calendars andit does this with great aplomb. Firstlyyou have the choice of two styles, eithera number of months (up to a year) onone page or one month per page. Thescript is supplied with preferences filescontaining the public holidays for manycountries so special days will be appropriatelymarked when you generateyour calendars. Then there is a separateutility to add events to your country’scalendar, for example birthdays, anniversariesor holidays. Events canstretch for more than one day and youcan select for them to be marked on thecalendar with a colour, or even a smallimage which can be in any format supportedby the package being used.FWCalendar is an exceptionally fullfeaturedscript that performs a very usefulfunction, another one that’s wellworth a look!FWCalendar allows you to addcustom events to your calendar.ProPage GeniesBy Don Cox -Aminet, text/dtp/DonsGenies.lhaShareware $15 (about £12)I have to admit that I’ve never doneOne of the effects you can acheiveusing the Step and Repeat genie.more than dabble with ProPage myself(I’ve been a PageStream guy from theversion 2 days ), but I remember readingat the time about the excellent ProPageGenies written by Don Cox, who’s nameis now often seen adorning the reviewpages of Amiga Active. A Genie isGoldDisk’s name for an AREXX scriptand in this archive Don has includednearly seventy genies which range fromthe handy to the downright amazing.Some of the most impressive are:Border Repeats which can be used tomake perfect borders for boxes out ofany graphics you select, there areseveral options to get just the effect youwant.Border Simple Shapes draws simpler aborder around the selected box frompresets built in to the macro.Step and Repeat Deluxe which againuses selected graphics or objects, copyingand moving them in various ways,while this sounds mundane the optionsallow you to create anything from tablesto spiral effects with this tool.As I mentioned in the main DTP featureone of the genies, booklet, enablesProPage to carry out automatic paginationfor printing folded publications, forexample an A5 booklet on A4 paper (itrequires a Postscript printer or softwareinterpreter).The genies are supplied in both Englishand French, the French documentationincludes many example images explainingthe effect of different settings whichapply to both languages so, as Donrecommends, make sure you take a lookat both sets of documentation.Please note I have no idea whether Donis still accepting registrations for thispackage if you decide to register makesure you contact him first to get a currentaddress etc.Doc DatatypesSingh Munde -go.to/docdatatypesShareware, £20If you’re having trouble getting a textformat into your DTP application thenDocDatatypes is probably a good bet, itis a collection of text datatypes whichsupport documents from a huge rangeof wordprocessors both old and new.While they don’t support complexformatting, images and the like thesedatatypes are ideal for DTP applicationswhere you don’t tend to want thosedetails anyway. Altogether there areeleven datatypes supporting over 20different applications (and that’s notcounting the application versions supported),some of the keys ones are: MSWord (DOS, Windows, OS/2 and Mac),Lotus AmiPro, WordPerfect, Rich TextFile, Pocket Word, Psion Word, Palm DBTEXT Doc and Mac Text.Support for text datatypes has neverbeen as wide spread in applications as itis for graphics datatypes. For thisreason you will probably not be able toload text directly into your DTP applicationusing the DocDatatypes. Insteaduse Multiview (or another datatypesaware text viewer) to load the document,then save it as plain text, compatiblewith all applications.DTP LinksSoftwareSoftLogik (PageStream)http://www.grasshopperllc.comKicksoft (DrawStudio and more)http://www.kicksoft.co.ukTruetype Font Libraryhttp://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/ragriffi/ttflib.htmAminethttp://www.aminet.net/~aminetSecond hand software:http://www.amibench.orgor the comp.sys.amiga.marketplacenewsgroup.Info.Some interesting history of type settingand font related information:http://www.graphion.com/KicksoftGraphicsDrawstudioThis excellent Graphics package avaliable one again!! Comes on CD andincludes Texture Studio & Image Studio.£35.00Photogenics 5This excellent Graphics package by Paul Nolan. On CD.£70.00Image EngineerGreat Image manipulation program. Add effects to images such as Jigsaw,Wave and Frame! Comes on CD.£25.00Candy Factory ProCreate 3D Text from any standard font and use them on web pages etc.Comes on CD.£35.00Art Effect 4Billed as “Photoshop® on the Amiga”. Excellent graphic package. Comes onCD.£75.00FxPaintNEWWith over 70 effects this is a superb addition to any software collection.£60.00DTPPageStream 4The Premier DTP program on the Amiga©, enough said!!£160.00PageStream UpgradeThe Premier DTP program on the Amiga©. Upgrade from version 3, you willneed to provide your serial number.£65.00MiscGoldEdThe best Editor, Program Editor, HTML Generator on the Amiga. Comes on CD.£30.00TaskiSMSSend Text Messages to mobile phones from your Amiga! Comes on CD.£12.00Spitfire 2If you have a 3com Palm© or compatible then you need this program! Comeson CD.£25.00Directory Opus 5The best Workbench replacement program avaliable. Fully multitasking, Filetyperecognition and much more...£55.00FxScan NEWThe only Scanner software that offers OCR on the Amiga today!!£30.00OS 3.9 NEWLatest operating system for the Amiga. Comes on CD.£30.00If you don’t see what you want, just ask!Our range is always growing!PlayersMoovid PPCPPC version with both WARPUP and POWERUP versions. Comes on CD£18.00MoovidPlay AVI, Mov and QT files on your Amiga© Comes on CD and includes demofiles.£12.00Frogger PPCPPC MPEG player. Comes on CDwith example MPEGs.£18.00Frogger68k MPEG player. Comes on CD with example MPEGs.£12.00RivaThe fastest 68k MPEG player on the Amiga! Comes on CD with exampleMPEGs.£18.00SoftCinemaPPC AVI, QT and Mov player. On CD with example Movies.£18.00AMP 2 NEWPPC Mpeg, CD-i and DVD player. The only way to play DVDs on the AMIGA.£18.00InternetInet DialHome server on your Amiga©. Comes on CD, includes Apache and GeekGadgets.£40.00AWebExcellent web browser Full Version. Comes on Floppy.£35.00AWeb UpgradeExcellent web Browser. Upgrade from OS 3.5 or OS 3.9. Comes on Floppy.£29.99UtilitiesProfessional File System 3The fastest and safest file system avaliable, upto 300 times faster than FFS. Nolonger get Validation errors!£35.00MetaviewThe best Clipart viewer on the Amiga©. Comes on CD with 30,000 clip art images.£18.00DiavoloThe best backup program on the Amiga©. Comes on Floppy disk.£50.00PhotoFolio V2 NEWThe professional way to view, catolouge and manipulate your images.£30.00Add £1.00 UK postage per item. Make cheques payable to Kicksoft Ltd.Buy Online atwww.kicksoft.co.ukKicksoft Ltd.,30 Whitegate Way,Tadworth,Surrey, KT20 5NSTel/Fax (01737) 2928018CLUBBED - Issue 9

20REVIEWSMetaviewRobert Williams finds a companion for DrawStudio.Ever since its inception the Amigahas been blessed with a largenumber of bitmap graphics applicationsincluding great paint packagesand image processors. Structured drawingprograms like DrawStudio, reviewedin our last issue, have always beenmuch less common on the Amiga, I’msure you could count the numberreleased in the last 10 years on thefingers one hand! This also means thatsupport for structured formats in Amigaprograms has been lacking, each structureddrawing program tends to have itsown file format and programs that importdrawings such as wordprocessors anddesktop publishers tend only to supporta small number of formats. Just gettinga drawing from one program on yourAmiga to another can cause a problem.On other platforms a wide range ofdrawing formats are used, some ofthese such as EPS and CGM are supportedby many programs where asother programs such as CDX are proprietaryto a particular program, CorelDraw in this case. A quick search on theInternet reveals literally thousands ofwebsites specialising in clip-art in structuredformats, which would be great touse in Amiga programs.As it isn’t likely that Amiga programs aregoing to suddenly start supporting morestructured formats what we need is autility to convert between formats, luckilythis is the main function of Metaview.Metaview is based around a new drawingformat called the Amiga Meta File orAMF for short, unfortunately AMF hasnot taken off as a format and as far as Iknow Metaview is the only program tosupport it. However Metaview includesfacilities to import many different drawingformats, converting them to AMF asit does so and it can then save them outProduct InformationDeveloper: Henk JonasDistributor: KicksoftTel: +44 (0) 1737 215432WWW:http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~jonash/http://www.kicksoft.co.ukPrice: £15in other format providing an effectiveconversion utility.InstallationMetaview is supplied by Kicksoft on CD-ROM with a huge collection of clip-art inthe WMF format which can be convertedto suit the program you want to use. Theclip-art is helpfully organised intodrawers each containing clips on a particularsubject, from Actors to Winter.The program itself is installed to yourhard drive using a standard installer andis accompanied by detailed AmigaGuidedocumentation and a selection of exampleAREXX scripts. If you want toload EPS and Adobe Illustrator you willalso need the GhostScript and PS2Editutilities installed, these are readily availablefrom Aminet but it is a pity they arenot included on the CD.After installation you start Metaview byclicking on its icon, the main windowopens and a drawing with “Welcome toMetaview” is displayed. Along the top ofthe window is a tool bar with buttons forcommon operations such as load, saveand print.When you load a drawing it is displayedin the main window replacing thewelcome graphic. Metaview does notinclude any editing options but you canzoom in to view the drawing in moredetail, using an elastic box to select thearea you wish to view. Strangely I couldnot find a way to scroll to other parts ofthe drawing once zoomed in, you haveto zoom out and then select a new area.FormatsAs you can see in the box out Metaviewsupports a large number of drawingformats, to test out its support I downloadeda selection of clip-art in as manydifferent formats as I could find from theInternet. Of my selection I foundMetaview loaded about 80%, which Ithink is very good considering thevariety of file types and sources. Thefiles which loaded included severalCorel Draw (CDX) files where theMetaview documentation says theloader is still in development. The qualityof the loaded files was generally goodbut I did notice a couple of problems.Firstly some formats, particularly WMF(a very common format supported bymost Windows programs) seemed toend up with a line around each shapeeven if they were not intended to be outlined,this could be corrected easily in adrawing program like DrawStudio by settingthe line weight to “None” but it isannoying to have to do it every time. Amore serious problem is that some conversions(again WMF was particularlyprone to this) seem to produce extralines linking shapes of the same colour,sometimes these are unnoticeable oreasy to edit out but often they requiresignificant editing of the drawing toremove.Importing my own drawings created inDrawStudio worked much better thanthe WMFs, everything came throughwith no additional outlines, althoughMetaview does not support some ofProDrawWe have had a question from areader regarding converting ProDraw(a drawing program from Gold Disk)clips with Metaview. As far as I cansee Metaview does not support theProDraw format, however Softlogikused to have a ProDraw to IFF DR2Dconverted freely available on theirwebsite. This could be used to getProDraw clips into Metaview or anyother program supporting DR2D files.As I write this I cannot find the converter,called ClipConv, on the newSoftlogik website(http://www.grasshopperllc.com/) soanyone interested in it would need toEMail them and see if it is still available.CLUBBED - Issue 9DrawStudio’s more advanced featuressuch as translucent fills and bitmap images(bitmaps are supported in some ofthe other formats). I also found thatMetaview does not support thePostScript fonts used by DrawStudio soit is better to convert text to curvesbefore saving from DrawStudio. Onenice feature is that when Metaviewcomes across a font it doesn’t understandit offers you the option of choosinga replacement from the system fonts.While testing Metaview on my ‘060based A3000 I had a number ofcrashes, although I couldn’t pin themdown to any particular operation theyseemed to occur after Metaview hadtrouble loading an image.Winter 2001ExportOnce the drawing is loaded you canchoose to export it in any of the supportedformats, there are also severalprint options. Standard printing viaWorkbench drivers, Postscript printingand Plotting which sends the file inHPGL format. Each printing option has asettings requester where you can selectthe paper size and the area covered bythe drawing. Your settings are shown ona preview of the print area.Picture IndexIn addition to viewing and convertingdrawings to other formats Metaview hasa useful Index feature, this displaysthumbnails of drawings in any supportedformat in a separate window. As manyclip art collections give their files arbitrarynames this is exceptionally useful.Once the thumbnails have beengenerated double clicking on one loadsthe drawing in the main Metaviewwindow. Right clicking on the thumbnailproduces a menu of options includingSave, Print and Send which sends theFile FormatsAMFCGMDR2DGEMHPGLImport and ExportAmiga Meta File.Computer Graphics Metafile.IFF structured drawing format.Structured format of the GEMwindowing system.HP Graphics Language, commonlyused by plotters.Windows Meta FileUnix drawing tool.WMFXFIGEPS/AI Encapsulated PostScript/Adobe Illustratordrawing to another program using auser-definable AREXX script, examplescripts for sending to DrawStudio andPageStream are supplied. Indexes canbe saved to disk so they don’t have tobe created every time, this also allowsyou to browse through an index withoutloading the disk containing the drawings.Batch ConversionWhile MetaView does not include aBatch Conversion option to covertseveral files from one format to anotherin its interface, instructions are providedin the manual showing how to build asimple shell script to carry out this task.Metaview also has an AREXX port soyou could create a more sophisticatedbatch conversion script, a number ofCMXDSDRDXFWPGILBMJMFBMPTIFFImport OnlyCorel DrawDrawStudioCAD drawing format, used byAutoCAD and others.WordPerfect Graphics.Export OnlyAmiga bitmap.Java Meta Format.Windows bitmap.Bitmap.REVIEWSThe Metaview interface showing aconverted WMF.You can see the stray lines which seemto join some areas of the same colour.example AREXX scripts are suppliedmostly concentrating on loading intoother programs via Metaview.ConclusionMetaview is a very useful program whichsadly has some fairly seriousshortcomings as I have described.However it is the only utility of its kindthat I am aware of on the Amiga and theprice is reasonable. If you are preparedto put in some work manually tidying upthe converted drawings from someformats then you can get good results.ResultsProsWide file format support.Useful index feature.AREXX support.ConsMany converted files need manualtidying.Unstable for me.21

REVIEWSREVIEWSPlugIn CollectionIn our review of ArtEffect 4 back inissue 7 one of our few niggles waswith the speed and control offered byits effects (called Filters in the program).Perhaps Haage and Partner have beenlistening to us (well you never know!) becausetheir latest product is a new collectionof Plugins for ArtEffect. These consistmostly of new filters but there is also aPostscript print module and a loader/saverthat allows you to use the Superviewlibrary.22InstallationBefore we dive in the Plugins must be installedfrom the CD, a simple processusing the standard installer. One of thenew filters provides a selection of borders,as these take up several hundredmegabytes of disk space you can chooseto leave them on the CD. Once installedthe Plugins appear in the appropriateArtEffect menus, for example the filters arein the right sections on the Filters menuand a new option, “PostScript...” is addedto the Project menu for the Postscript printingmodule.Documentation is supplied in HTMLformat, each plugin has a page describingits operation and a sample image whichyou can click to see the effect. I’m reallyimpressed with this documentation, it putsthe facilities offered by an on-line guide togood use.FiltersMost of the plugins are new filters whichapply some sort of effect to the image.Just like the standard filters these areapplied using the current stencil if one is inuse so you can select just a section of theimage for them to work on. When youchoose a filter a small window opens, mostof these have a preview thumbnail at thetop and the controls for the filter belowenabling you to preview settings beforecommitting yourself. The thumbnail can bezoomed and panned so you can view thearea of the image you are interested in.Product InformationDeveloper: Haage and PartnerDistributor: Haage and PartnerWWW:www.haage-partner.comPrice: 89DM (about £30)And now, without further ado lets take alook at the new filters in this collection...ShineAdds a shine of the current foregroundcolour around the edges of an object on alayer with a transparent background. Youcan set the size of the “shine”, how quicklyit fades and how transparent it is.Glow/Dark GlowGlow makes bright parts of your imageglow, affecting the areas around them. Thecolour of the glow comes from the colourof the part of the image glowing but you dohave the option of limiting the glow to particularcolour channels, for example onlyred or green and blue. Other options letyou control the strength of the glow andthe threshold at which an area is consideredbright enough to “glow”. Thisworks best with a light subject on a plaindark background, for example brightorange text on a black background beginsto look like fire after a strong application ofglow.DarkGlow is similar to “Glow” except itworks on dark areas of the image ratherthan light.“Fun” EffectsThese three filters that change the image’scolours to achieve “interesting” effects:Psycho, Neon and Alien.SolarThis filter has a really interesting effect, itisn’t just the normal solarise found in otherprograms, it also applies some sort of blurthat makes the image look really liquid, itreminds me or neon lights reflected inwater... great! Settings allow you to varythe amount of “blur” and the look of thecolour effect.HighpassMutes areas with little contrast andbrightens areas of high contrast, severalcontrols enable you to achieve a variety ofdifferent effects.Border EffectsThis filter adds a border around the image,a large selection of border styles aresupplied on the Plugins Collection CD-ROM. The border uses the foregroundcolour and vary from giving a slight textureRobert Williams is spoiltfor choice by thisextensive collection ofaddons for H&P’s imageprocessor.to the edge of the image to putting it in anshaped (for example oval or pentagram)frame. While the range of borders is extensiveonly using one colour does limitwhat can be achieved. Another difficulty isfinding the boarder you want as all thevariations on each type are similarlynamed, a preview requester withthumbnails would have been useful here.Light ChangeEnhances the blue channel of the imageand dims the red, simulating night time(the human eye sees blues better thanreds in low light conditions), strangelythere are no controls over the strength ofthis effect, personally I feel it is a bit harshfor many situations.Object WarpAllows you to warp the image by adjustingthe position of the four corner points. Thisplugin is really limited by the ArtEffect interface,rather than having control points tomove on the image you must enter coordinatesor use sliders to move eachpoint, it can be difficult to relate the slidersto the effect you want to achieve.Oil PaintingThis is slightly different from ArtEffect’sdefault OilPaint effect, the main improvementis that it offers a much greaterdegree on control with 22 levels ratherthan the original’s 3. The result achieved isalso rather different than the original, withless blurry and more defined “brushstrokes”.This is the slowest plug-in in my experience,processing my image with aFactor of 6 took about three minutes.Page CurlThis is the classic filter that makes theedge of an image look as if it is peeling upoff the background. This implementation ispretty nice with selectable transparency(for the curled over area) and shadow. Youcan select the size of the curl by setting astencil over just the area you want to effectusing the rectangular masking tool beforeapplying the filter.PolarWarps rather as if it were wrapped arounda cone. This is one of those effects that isquite clever but I for one can’t really thinkCLUBBED - Issue 9of a time when it would be useful.Winter 2001WabbleDistorts the image into fragments lookinglike drops of water pooling together on awindow, a very attractive effect with plentyof control over the look of the end result.WaveProduces the classic rippled effect, as if astone had been dropped into the centre ofyour image. You can set the number andstrength of the waves and a number ofother options control exactly how they arerendered. Strangely there is no way ofdefining the centre point of the ripple.Auto LevelAdjusts the colour levels in an image tomake it use the full spectrum, for exampleif you had a scan where the blacks were infact dark grey this filter would force themto pure black, enhancing the contrast inthe rest of the image too. AutoLevel hasseveral modes, Auto Contrast which considersthe picture as a whole and alters thelevels with out changing colours, AutoLevel which considers each colour channelseparately and could change colours andFG/BG Level which allows you to pickwhich colour in the image should bemoved to white and which to black.Gaussian BlurAn improvement over the standard“Gaussian” blur supplied with ArtEffect thatis faster and has more options. There areradius and finetune sliders so you can getexactly the blur you require. The blur canalso be applied to the alpha channel of theimage with a click on the mode cycle gadget.Smart Blur / Smart MedianThe filter settings windows for “Wave”and “Softener” (top right).These two blurring filters are specificallydesigned for removing artifacts from imageswithout losing detail. They attempt toblurs only flat areas of colour and notsharp edges. They are especially usefulfor removing dither and moire patternsfrom scanned printed images.SoftenerA filter which convincingly simulates thesoft focus effect often found in “sentimental”films and photographs.Unsharp MaskThis filter sharpens images but retains avery “natural” look, it is ideal for improvingslightly “soft” photos. The filter includes agood range of controls again helping youto get exactly the effect you’re after.BlursThe collection includes several other blureffects so you’re really spoilt for choice!Other FiltersThe other filters in the collection are:Threshold+, changes the image to monowith selectable threshold and smoothing.Color to Gray, Changes a colour image togreyscale with adjustable levels.Prisma, Overlays warped versions of thecolour channels on the image, no options.Shift, Shifts the colours of an imagetowards blue/red, no options.Warp, Pulls the image towards a userdefined point, set by sliders.Rankorder, Various smoothing operations:Minimum, Maximum and Median.HelpersAuto CropAutomatically crops images with the subjecton a plain coloured background, atolerance setting allows it to cope withslight variations in the background colour.EraserA quick way of erasing the current imageor layer to the background colour, foregroundcolour, black or white.SuperViewAllows ArtEffect to load and save viaSuperView’s range of loaders and saversfor many different formats.PostScript PrintAllows ArtEffect to print an Image direct toa PostScript printer or to an EPS file whichcan then be imported into packages likePageStream. This module has so manyoptions I won’t try to explain them all here,suffice to say it is very flexible!SpeedUnlike some of the filters supplied withArtEffect I have been impressed with theperformance of all the plugins in thiscollection. My test machine is an A3000with a 50Mhz 060 and on an 800x600 testimage most of filters completed in lessthan half a minute, many in significantlyless time.ConclusionThis is a substantial collection of pluginsand I’m pleased to say that rather thanhaving loads of frivolous effects that youwould probably only use once or twice itconcentrates on really useful tools. Thecost seems reasonable for the number offilters and modules although it might seema little steep if you bought ArtEffect at therecent special offer price. If you useArtEffect for Photo editing then the levelbalancing and sharpening plugins will bevery handy and if you scan a lot of printthe smart blurs are fantastic and as far as Iknow not available for any other Amigapackage. Altogether I recommend thiscollection wholeheartedly to all ArtEffectusers.ResultsProsWide range of filters and utilities.Good performance.Really useful effects you won’t findanywhere else.ConsNo PPC support.Some interfaces limited by ArtEffect’sarchitecture.23

REVIEWSREVIEWSMediator Multimedia CDRobert Williams helps ChrisEmmins with the latest additions tohis Mediator.If you’ve read our PCI update featurein the last couple of Clubbed issues,or paid any attention to Amiga siteson the net or other Amiga magazines,you will have heard about the Mediator,Elbox’s PCI busboard family. Morespecifically the A1200 version that wasthe first Amiga PCI busboard to reachthe market when it was released lastyear. Since the original release Elboxhave been enhancing the original driverswhich shipped with the card, these werefor S3 Virge graphics cards and forsome 10MB/s Ethernet cards.Importantly they have also added supportfor the 3Dfx Voodoo range ofgraphics cards which offer better performancethan any previous Amiga cardand should also excel in 3D accelerationonce Warp3D drivers are available.With these basic driver requirementsdealt with many Mediator owners andpotential owners were waiting impatientlyfor the drivers for other PCIcards to be released, particularly eagerlyawaited were drivers for sound cardsand TV cards which had been promisedsince the Mediator’s release. With thereleased of the MultiMedia CD packageElbox have catered for both theserequirements, the CD contains driversfor Sound Blaster 128 sound cards, arange of TV cards along with enhancedgraphics card drivers. Before we get intothe nitty gritty of the MultiMedia CDpackage, what can these new cardsactually do for us?Sound CardsAn add-on sound card typically offersseveral advantages over the Amiga’sbuilt-in sound system, firstly it provides a16bit, at least CD quality stereo soundoutput. Sound cards also allow you torecord in the same 16bit quality andfinally offer the facility to mix differentsound sources, for example CD audiofrom a CD-ROM, built-in Amiga audioand sound card output.TV CardsThese cards contain a TV tuner andallows you to display a television picturein a window on your computer screen24Previewprovide a hardware key to reduce piracyof the drivers on the CD. A small tool isprovided to lever out the existing chipsand the new ones push quite easily intoplace, the whole procedure is shownwith step-by-step photographs inside theCD cover. The two new cards, aCreative Sound Blaster 128 and aHauupage WinTV Primo FM could thenbe fitted. In a PowerTower or other similarA1200 tower conversion this wouldsimply be a case of removing a backplate for each card, slotting them in anddoing up a couple of screws. As Chrishas a home made tower he had to makeup a couple of small brackets and poprivetthem in position to hold the cards.Once the cards were installed somecables then needed to be connected.The TV card has a line out jack which isconnected, using a supplied lead, to theline in of the sound card. Inside thetower the sound card has three internalaudio inputs, we hooked one (markedCD) up to the CD-ROM using a standardcable supplied with the drive. It will alsobe possible to connect the Amiga audioup to one of these internal inputs but aspecial lead which goes from thephonos on the back of the Amiga to thefour pin connection on the card will haveto be made up. The TV card needs astandard aerial connection and will alsohandle analogue cable TV if you happento have it. As Chris’ TV card included anFM tuner we also had to connect asupplied FM aerial.while you continue to use the machineas normal. Most TV cards use DMA(direct memory access) between to thegraphics card allowing them to display apicture with minimal system load. Otherfeatures sometimes offered by TV cardsinclude FM radio and recording TV picturesinto an animation.SEAL committee member Chris Emminshas a Mediator installed in his A1200tower and when the MultiMedia CD wasannounced he purchased a suitablesound card and TV card. When Chrisreceived his CD I went to see him andhelp get the new goodies installed. Asthe CD arrived so close to the deadlinefor this issue of Clubbed we decided totreat this as a preview rather than a fullreview because we didn’t have time toproperly test the cards and software.Before you StartNow, before we go any further it’s importantto note that both the sound card andTV card drivers require you to have aVoodoo graphics card installed in youMediator because they must use someof its memory for DMA.Hardware InstallationThe first step was to replace twoprogrammable logic chips (commonlycalled MACH chips in the Mediator worldas that is the type Elbox uses) with theupdated versions supplied with theMultiMedia CD. These new chips solvea bug in earlier Mediator boards whichprevented them operating properly withan 8Mb memory window and alsoFrom top to bottom the Win TV card, Sound Blaster and Voodoo 3installed in Chris’ tower.CLUBBED - Issue 9Software InstallationEach of the drivers on the CD has aseparate installer, the sound card andVoodoo drivers are very straight forward,just run them and the drivers and installedor updated respectively. The TVcard installation asks you several questionsincluding your model of TV card(we needed to pick Hauupage New forours), region of the world (West Europe)and TV system (PAL-BDGHI). It isobvious from the range of specific TVcards supported (there must be over 20)and the number of TV systems cateredfor that Elbox have worked hard to maketheir drivers widely compatible.TV Card UsageCurrently the interface for the TV card isvery basic, it consists of a script file setto run from an icon on Workbench foreach of the channel numbers, 1 to 69,in your region. Double clicking on achannel icon opens a Workbenchwindow showing the chosen channel, TVstations only broadcast on certain channelsso we went through the icons inturn and found the stations for our area.Once found we renamed the scripts toreflect their station names and draggedthem onto AmiDock for easy access.Each script calls the command TV whichis installed in the C: directory with thePLL keyword defining the frequency ofthe channel. The TV command hasother options to change settings like thebrightness and contrast of the pictureand it is also used to tune the radio. Thisis achieved using the FM switch and settinga frequency using the PLL keyword.For both TV and radio channels thefrequency of the channel in Mhz must bemultiplied by 16, so for example ourlocal radio station, Essex FM on96.3Mhz would use the command C:TVFM PLL=1541 (we found you have toround the frequency up to a wholenumber (96.3 * 16 is actually 1540.8)).The drivers do not currently supportgenerating an animation from TV orvideo input, saving frames to disk,teletext or other advanced features.Product InformationDeveloper: ElboxDistributor: Power ComputingWWW:www.elbox.comwww.powerc.comTel: (01234) 851500Price: Mediator 1200 £149.95MMCD £24.95Winter 2001It works! TV in a Workbench window.Initially we had some problems gettingthe TV window to open, but the soundcame through OK. Fortunately we hadread a message on the Amiga-Mediatormailing list from another user with thisproblem. He had found the TV windowwould open after quitting AmiDock or ifhe reduced his icon rendering quality onthe Workbench preferences programfrom Best to Good. We quit Amidock firstand then the TV window came up sothen we changed the icon colours andrebooted, all was OK. It seems like theicons in AmiDock were using too manycolours so the TV card window couldn’tallocate those it needed.From a fairly quick look the TV card’soutput seems very impressive with agood clear picture comparable to a televisionconnected to the same aerial. Thewindow can be resized without any lossof performance although inevitably thepicture starts to look blocky on a highresmonitor. Having the TV card runningseems to have no noticeable effect onthe performance of the rest of thesystem, including graphics re-draw, extremelyimpressive!Sound Card UsageAn AHI driver is supplied supportingrecording and playback through AHIcompatible software, this includes mostaudio programs, player utilities such asSong Player, Amiga Amp and AmplifierChannelEd makes setting up newTV stations much easier.and some games. The Sound Blasterdrivers add a whole raft of audio modesto the AHI preferences including 8 and16bit, mono and stereo options. OnChris’ system we experienced somecrackle during playback but many otherson the mailing list and SEAL memberTony Johnson aren’t having anyproblems so we’re hopeful this isn’t ageneral problem with the card or drivers.Also supplied is a Mixer program with anice MUI interface, this allows you to setthe playback and recording levels for allthe outputs and inputs on the SoundBlaster card to get the ideal mix. It isparticularly useful when you have inputsat different volumes, for example thebuilt-in Amiga audio and CD audio, asyou can stop one swamping the other.The mixer also offers a master volumecontrol for the overall output level, balancecontrols and the facility to muteparticular inputs or outputs.Third Party SoftwareIf I had to make one negative commentabout this package it would be the lackof a graphical interface for the software,fortunately the Mediator has severalvery active users on the Amiga-Mediatormailing list(http://graups.yahoo.com/group/Amiga-Mediator) who are working on GUI’s forvarious aspects of the system. RichardBrooklyn has written Medication, a MUIutility which aims to hold controls for allthe cards connected to a Mediator. Atthe time of writing Richard has releasedscreenshots of a new version with supportthe TV card and sound card.ChannelEd by Philippe van Calsterenallows you to control the TV card anddefine new TV and FM channels from acomfortable gadtools GUI. Finally PawelFilipczak has released TaskiMixer whichis similar to the Mixer supplied with theSound Blaster drivers but offers all thecontrols in one window instead of onseparate “pages” of the GUI.ConclusionAltogether we were very impressed withthe MultiMediaCD, the hardware installationwas easy and the cards supportedare inexpensive and easy toobtain. The software was also easy toinstall and seems reliable (except for theslight sound problem which I’m surewe’ll solve). Hopefully Elbox will add aGUI and some of the more advancedfeatures to the TV card drivers but this isan excellent start, especially when combinedwith a third party GUI.25

REVIEWSREVIEWSNew Printer NeededRecently my wife purchased an AppleiMac which we needed to get a printerfor, having thought about it I wanted toconnect it to my nice Epson StylusPhoto 700 (reviewed in issue 3 ofClubbed by myself), which I had connectedto my Amiga. After trying bothBelkin USB to Parallel and USB to Serialadapters (the 700 has parallel and appleserial interfaces) with no luck in gettingthem to work, I decided to bite the bulletand get myself a printer that had bothUSB and Parallel interfaces so I couldconnect both computers without hassle.A Choice is MadeAs I was impressed by the output qualityof Epson printers it was my naturalchoice as a successor tomy trusty 700. Lookingat the Epson range Inoticed the StylusPhoto 790 which hadboth Parallel and USBinterfaces and had an advertisedmaximumresolution of 2880x 720 and cost less(just) than £100,too good to betrue I thought!Time to checkwhat driverswere included inmy version (7.06) ofTurboprint, damn itwasn’t listed there. I wentonline and checked on the Irseesoftwebsite (http://www.irseesoft.de) to seeif any updates included the driver for thisprinter and to my joy there was a betadriver (7.18) as an upgrade to version7.10. As I only had version 7.06 the firstthing was to purchase the latest versionto enable me to upgrade with the latestdrivers.Once I had got myself the latest version(7.18) of Turboprint I went straight outand got myself a spanking new StylusPhoto 790 and couldn’t wait to get itconnected to my Amiga (and my wife’siMac of course).The Printer790Mick and Sharon Sutton are “Printing for Two”!Epson Stylus PhotoOnce out of the box it was just a matterof removing my old printer and replacingit with the new one. The style (no punintended) of the 790 is a little different tomy 700 I had connected at the time, it isa little curvier in design and has a bluemechanism cover (no doubt followingthe iMac look trend), but is quite similarwith only three buttons on the front andan in-built sheet feeder which takes upto 100 sheets of A4 paper at the rear.The footprint of the printer is just a littlelarger than that of the 700 and is 45cm x25cm with the paper tray (at the front)folded up. At the rear of the printer is thepower inlet socket, centronics parallel,and USB interface.Again like myolder 700 Photothe 790 has twocartridges, onefor pure blackand the otherone being a fivecolour type (butnot the same ones asused in my 700). Thecartridges are easily installedinto their respective carriers by simplylifting the top clamp and slotting them inand closing. The cartridges themselvesare quite well priced due to the fact thatthe print heads are in the printer thusreducing manufacturing costs of them.Installation of the printer just like anyother and is just a matter of finding aspace for it (in my case replacing the oldone), having a power socket close byand within reach of the centronics parallelcable from your Amiga, and in mycase of course within reach of the USBlead from my missus iMac.OK, Lets Get GoingNow it’s time to get this new toy of mineworking, put some paper in the sheetThe USB port (left)and the parallelport (right) can beconnected to twocomputers simultaneously.feeder, power it on via the button on thefar right, and watch as it does its partypiece of going through the head cleaningand alignment routines (about 2 or 3minutes) which is I may say quite noisy(nearly woke the kiddies) but is onlydone when you use it for the first time orif you have not used it for a long time.The operation of the printer itself is veryeasy (almost identical to my old 700)with three buttons,one for power on, asecond button (hold for 3 seconds) to doa head cleaning operation should youneed one and a third button to operatethe sheet feeder manually if needed.To see what this printer performed likefirst of course I had to install thesupplied printer drivers for the iMac (it’sa pity this isn’t the case for the Amiga)and try it out to make sure it worked ok(which it did). Now it was time to check itworked ok on the Amiga , first I selectedthe correct driver in Turboprint prefs, seta few options such as paper type, outputresolution and dithering pattern and thatwas it, ready to go. I ran GraphicPublisher (included with Turboprint) andloaded an image from one of my ownPhoto Cd`s and for this particular printingjob set the resolution to the highestavailable (2880 x 720) and chose thePhoto Glossy paper option within thepreferences.Is it a Photo or is it aPrint?Once the printer started printing Inoticed that it was much quieter innormal operation than it was when itwas doing it’s head cleaning business,which was a bit of a relief!The resultant printout was absolutelyincredible such was the quality, it wassharp, band free and almost totally indistinguishablefrom an original photographwith no sign (to my naked eye anyway)of any dithering. These quality printoutsare a result from a combination of thehigh resolutions the printer is capable of(2880 x 720) and the fact it uses fivecolours instead of the three found inmost colour inkjet printers. I must saythat due to the very high resolution andthe fact that I printed the image at aboutA5 image size it took about 45 minutesor so to complete. As the iMac was allset up and ready to go I decided to printthe same image at the same size andresolution and it took about 20 minutes.This I believe is due to several factors,the first being possibly that the processoron the iMac is much faster (600 MhzG3), and that the USB interface is muchfaster than a parallel one especially abog standard one on an Amiga! Theimage printed from the iMac was alsoslightly more vibrant in colour, but as Imentioned earlier the driver in Turboprintis a Beta and may need some tweakingto get the best results. Having said that Iwas more than happy with the results Igot in printing photo quality imagesfrom the Amiga and also text printing isof very high quality and fast too.ConclusionWhen I reviewed my Epson StylusPhoto 700 in issue 3 of Clubbed Ithought I had seen something special,but time marches on and technologyimproves, now with this model I can saythe same again. So in conclusion theEpson Stylus 790 Photo is just brilliantfor people who want to print very highquality photo images, want to outputhigh quality text at quite high speedsand have a budget of £100. What moredo you want from a printer?ResultsProsExcellent Photo qualityEasy to useVery good value for moneyCaviarSpyrusRD300SWhen the time came to upgrademy trusty Kodak DC210, Ifaced a bit of a dilemma, onethat faces a lot of Amiga owners when itcomes to choosing a digital camera.I had been using the 1 Megapixel DC210with the Amiga, by means of the freeware“DC210 Wizard” and the Amigas serialport. Now I was looking to buy a 3.4Megapixel camera, and very few camewith serial ports, USB was really the onlyviable option to transfer the large graphicsfiles to computer.As we all know, USB is not yet availablefor the Amiga Classic, and so, having consideredseveral possible cameras, I settledfor the Canon PowerShot G1, andresigned myself to having to use myPentium3 Notebook computer to downloadthe pictures from the camera.As my A4000 is networked to theNotebook, it was still relatively easy totransfer the pictures to the Amiga, but thenetwork isn’t always set up, as the laptopis usually packed away in its case ready tobe used away from home, and setting it allup just to download a few pictures is apain.I happened to be discussing the matter ofdigital cameras and the problems associatedwith downloading pictures to anAmiga with Neil Bothwick at the Kickstart2001 Show, and he told me that he uses aSCSI Card Reader, with PCMCIACompactFlash adaptor. “Tell me more” Isaid...Neil went on to explain that all that isneeded is to connect the CD ROM sizedreader into a SCSI2 bus, and mount itusing MountDOS. MountDOS is a verysmall and clever piece of software thatallows the mounting of devices on theAmiga OS. All that is necessary is tochange the MountDOS icons tooltypes tosuit your controller device name andnumber, then double click on the icon tomount the device - simple!It sounded ideal, but where could I gethold of one? “As it happens, I have a fewfor sale” says Neil. The deal was donethere and then, and as soon as I got backfinancial arrangements were completed,and a SPYRUS RD300S Card Readerarrived in the post a few days later. Theunit itself is slightly smaller than an externalCD-ROM, and very much lighter. Ithas twin slots on the front, each with aseparate eject button, and will take type Iand II Cards. There are twin condensed 50pin SCSI2 connectors, power connector,Unit ID selector and terminator switch onthe back. Four LEDs on the front panelshow Power, Status, and “In use” (one foreach slot).Power is 9v AC, and as the original PSUwas 110 volt, I didn’t bother to have itposted to me, the PSU from an old Supramodem fitted the job perfectly (mostmodems have 9v AC PSUs)Installation was simplicity itself, I plugged itinto the back of my Epson Scanner as thelast unit, set the termination to “on” and theUnit ID to 1. So as to mount the camerasCompactFlash card into the reader, Ibought a Jessops adaptor locally for£7.99, and plugged that into one of theCard Readers two slots, and that completedthe hardware installation.I had already downloaded MountDOS fromAminet, and set the device to myOktagons device name, with the unit set at1. I also used the Fat95 option to allowlong filenames.So, all was ready for the big moment -double click on MountDOS, and Bingo! Ihad a “POWERSHOT” icon appear on myWorkbench! Using DOPus 4.1 (I know, I’ma Neanderthal;) I opened the pics into onewindow, and downloaded them to disk, thewhole sixteen megabyte card taking justover a minute. I have now made a menuoption on Toolsdaemon to mount theCompactFlash card, which has streamlinedthe operation even more.I can’t tell you how pleased I am that I cannow download pictures so easily to myA4000, and also have the option, by purchasingSmartMedia or MemoryStickadaptors, to be able to use almost anydigital camera on the market with myAmiga!Kevin TwymanResults26CLUBBED - Issue 9Winter 200127

REVIEWSREVIEWSPhotoScopeThe Amiga certainly has quite alot of scanner software available,both commercially and shareware,from the likes of ScanQuix,ImageFX, BetaScan, Scantrax, and ofcourse PhotoScope. Support is sadlylimited these days, you can just go outand buy any scanner you fancy, andassume it’s going to be supported byAmiga scanner software. This is mainlydown to the fact that the majority ofscanners these days are USB, notParallel or SCSI sadly.PhotoScope only supports Umax andArtec scanners (sorry Mustek, Epsonand HP users!). But I’ve foundPhotoScope to be one of the very fewsupported scanner software for my Artecscanner, lucky that it was bundled withmy scanner really!PhotoScope comes on floppy disk andhas a separate manual, which is welldetailed and not too complex for beginners.It is set out in steps complete withscreen shots and I find it very good tofollow.PhotoScope is reasonably easy to install,as it comes with the usual custominstaller. Once installed, it’s a case ofcalling up the PhotoScope preferences,finding your scanner, setting the rightunit number, and of course finding theadequate device driver that your scanneris hooked up to, which doesn’t taketoo long at all. Once you’ve done that,your ready to go!When you fire up PhotoScope, a smallwindow appears with a “scan” button.This may take a while to notice if youare running on a high res, graphics cardscreen mode. :) But it is located in thetop left hand corner of your screen.When you press this scan button, youget two windows open up. The one onthe left is where you can adjust yourimage. Towards the top you can adjustthe image resolution and manuallychange the size of the image. Below that28Product InformationDistributor: EyetechWWW:www.eyetech.co.ukTel: +44 (0) 1642 713185Price: £34.95is where you can change thescanning mode; “Colour”,“Black and White” for greyscaleimages, or “Text” forscanning text or linedrawings. Below that are thecorrection sliders, whichadjust the contrast, brightness, colour,and gamma value. If you want to goback to the defaults, you can do so byclicking the Reset button. Next to that isthe Analyse Image button, which automaticallyadjusts the brightness, contrast,gamma, etc. to suit the imagebetter. The results are rarely satisfactory,but you can still adjust the imagewith the correction sliders. Any adjustmentsmade to the image are donein real time, which does seem to berather slow, even on a graphics cardscreen. It can sometimes take a fewmoments to catch up.The other window is the actual preview.The buttons include the page button,with this you can start any previewscans. The preview window will updatein real time while the image is beingscanned. It can be stopped at any time.If you have a preview image, you caneasily zoom in and zoom out. On theoutside of the image is a red frame with8 squares, anything within this frame isthe area that will be scanned when youperform a full scan. You can resize thisframe with the 8 squares, to fit aroundthe area you want scanned.This saves screen space when theimage is viewed afterwards, as well ascutting down on file size.When you come to performing a fullscan, both of the two windows will disappearand a file requester will appear,where you can choose where to put yourscanned image, and name it. Once thisis done you will be asked whether youwould like the image saved as an IFF ora JPEG. When you have made yourchoice, a progress bar will appear,showing the progress of the currentscan. The scan can of course beaborted at any time. OncePhotoScope has finished scanning, youare back with the small window with thescan button in it. To view the image youhave just scanned, you will need to openup and external viewer to view it with, orElliott Bird finds theideal software for hisArtec scannner.load up your favourite image program,such as Photogenics or ImageFX. If youdecide to do some more scanning, clickon the scan button again, and you willsee your previously preview scannedimage. And you can just use the samemethod as before.PhotoScope can’t be customised verymuch, and you will find that your settingsare all split up into different parts of themenu. PhotoScope can be run on itsown screen or on your workbenchscreen. You can change to have the previewin colour or greyscale, as well aschange some of the scaling methods,and even the measurement unit (inchesor centimetres).The requirements to run PhotoScopeare at least 6 meg, Workbench 3.0, anda hard disk (duh!). A Picasso 96 orCyberGraphX display is recommended.Overall, PhotoScope has pretty muchwhat I expected from it. There are a fewsmall hiccups, nothing much to worryabout, thought there is some room forimprovement, if it is still being developed,which I think is unlikely due to thefact that there hasn’t been a new versionout for about 3 years. I still think it’sworth it for the price and the minimalrequirements to run it.ResultsCLUBBED - Issue 9Shogo:MADMick Sutton goes MAD for Hyperion’s new anime themed shooter!Some of you may remember backin issue six of Clubbed magazine,I did a review of Heretic II,and I must say that I was mightily impressedwith that game. Now severalmonths later we have another releasefrom the same producers of that game(Hyperion-Entertainment) in the form ofShogo or Shogo:MAD (Mobile ArmourDivision) as it is officially titled. Afterwhich seems an eternity of any decentgames whatsoever, we have had inpretty quick succession Quake GL (a bitold now), Wipeout 2097, Heretic II, Earth2140 and now Shogo. Maybe they havenot been released in as quick a successionas I seem to remember it, but that’sjust me showing my age!So what sort of game is Shogo then? Itis a first person perspective shooterwhich to me looks like a subtle combinationof Mechanical Warrior 2 (Playstationgame) and Quake with a Japaneseanime twist (Manga etc). I say subtle butin reality this game is really slick and farmore involved then either of those twogames. There are several points aroundthe game which you are armoured to thehigh teeth, with your high tech robot suit(MCA) which you drive more than weardue to it’s immense size, and pointswhere you are a “soft target” humanbeing with a pistol and your wits toprotect you.What Will it Run On?Before we get carried away with thereview lets have a look at what sort ofAmiga