-=========================================================================- _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Amiga Update -News and Rumors /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ ||(A Very Occasional Newsletter) / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || BACK FOR THE FUTURE || -=========================================================================- AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga Technolgies, GmbH --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 960625 I T ' S A D E A L ! ( E X C E P T F O R P A P E R W O R K ) V I S C O R P P L A N S D E S C R I B E D G U I B A S E D P P P A V A I L A B L E N E W C H O I C E F O R P R O G R A M M E R S B R O W S E R S T A T S N O T E D About this issue: We begin with a story we've been waiting to run for some time. Escom and VIScorp have at last announced the official signing of the deal for Amiga Technolgies. Reports we've read indicate the paperwork and legal matters may drag on until the end of July, but the essential matters are now resolved. As if to underscore the transfer, VIScorp issued a public memo providing some information on its future plans and discussing some copyright concerns. A very interesting bit of news revealed in the memo is the creation of an Architectural Design Group. We noticed recently that a new name and position have been added to the VIScorp staff. Jason Compton, familiar to may Amiga users as the Editor of "Amiga Report", an electronic Amiga magazine in AmigaGuide format, is now listed as "Communications Manager - Amiga Inquiries". We wish Jason the best of luck in his new position and trust this will provide a valuable service to the Amiga community. We have some new shareware announcements we think will be of interest. If you've been struggling to get your Amiga "on the net", you may wish to examine an Austrian product called AmiPPP. Completely mouse driven setup is promissed for what has otherwise been a baffling type of software for many to install. If you're interested in writing the next blockbuster Amiga game program, to win yourself fame and fortune in the reviving Amiga market ... well, maybe it could make some extra beer money, if you drink beer ... consider DOOPSIE, a new Object Oriented Programming language, described below. We suggest you try AmiNet for copies of the shareware, or use the WWW addresses listed in the articles. Finally, an item that may be pure silliness but we found it interesting. (Wonder what that says about us?) There's a site on the WWW that exists for the purpose of tracking what various Amigans are using to do their web browsing. We've included the statistics this site showed at the time we logged in, about a week before this issue. We hope you enjoy this issue - and have a happy and safe Fourth of July. Brad --------------------------------------------------------------------------- D E A L I N K E D B E T W E E N E S C O M A N D V I S C O R P ESCOM AG sells Amiga Technologies GmbH to Viscorp Bochum/Heppenheim/Chicago, June 21, 1996. ESCOM AG and Visual Information Service Corp. (VIScorp), have now signed the final agreement about the acquisition of Amiga Technologies GmbH by VIScorp, subject to approval by their boards. According to the agreement, the entire staff and property of ESCOM subsidiary Amiga Technologies GmbH will pass into the possession of VIScorp. This includes all existing components and finished goods in inventory of Amiga and the intellectual properties of the former Commodore group, except Commodore trademarks. The purchase price is approximately US $40 million in stock and cash. VIScorp's products, the Universal Internet Television Interface (UITI), the Electronic Device (ED), the UITI-TV and the ED-TV (smart television systems), are powered by Amiga custom chip-sets and the Amiga operating system and offer a means by which TV viewers can bridge the separate worlds of the television, computing and tele- communications. Amiga Technologies GmbH will continue to coordinate the production and distribution of Amiga computers at its headquaters in Bensheim, Germany. Additional information on VIScorp and its technologies are available through its Web site at http://www.vistv.com. For further information: ESCOM AG, Dr. Bernd Wirsing, Tel.: +49-6252-709-193 Amiga Technologies GmbH, Petro Tyschtschenko, Tel.: +49-6251-802-110 VIScorp, Florine Radulovic, Tel.: +1-312655-0903 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- V I S C O R P M E M O O U T L I N E S P L A N S VIScorp - Memo 29-June-96 June 19, 1996 - Chicago, IL USA VISCORP VALUES THE AMIGA System Improvements In the months ahead, VIScorp will be making substantial improvements to the Amiga system architecture, including both the hardware design and the operating system software. These advanced new systems will be developed not only for our upcoming Set Top Boxes, but also for future Amiga Desk Top Computers. VIScorp is investing considerable resources into engineering these improvements. One of the primary objectives of VIScorp's business plan is to develop, manufacture, market, and sell Amiga Desk Top Computer Systems. Architecture Group Many of the above improvements require an in-depth knowledge of specialty markets and technologies. Because of this, VIScorp made the decision in May 1996 to form an Architectural Design Group consisting of a small number of highly qualified Amiga experts. While this group is still in its early formation stage, we intend it to oversee and resolve the numerous suggestions and enhancements that must be addressed for the long term success of the Amiga. Technology Licenses As stated above, VIScorp will research and develop valuable enhancements to the architecture and technology of the Amiga, resulting in a wide range of next generation, price competitive computer products. There are, however, situations in which it makes sense for VIScorp to license Amiga related technology to qualified companies whose business objectives are consistent with VIScorp's long range plan. Such agreements may include binary, ROM, and documentation licenses for the distribution of Amiga OS upgrades, hardware and software system licenses for specialty markets, and possibly source code co-development licenses to help expand the Amiga and its feature set into the next decade. Property Rights Infringement It has come to our attention that several companies plan to build their own "compatible" or "extended" versions of the Amiga without obtaining the proper licensing from VIScorp. These companies will be placing themselves at legal risk, because their systems will undoubtedly infringe on Amiga intellectual property rights, including copyrights, patents, and trade secrets. In addition, we have recently become aware that versions of the Amiga System ROMs are being reproduced and distributed without proper licensing. This is a violation of international copyright law, and VIScorp will prosecute offenders to the full extent of the law. Realize that VIScorp is purchasing Amiga Technologies at great expense for ownership of precisely the above property rights and considers them a fundamental asset of the company. As such, VIScorp intends to aggressively defend its position as the owner of the Amiga and its related technologies. Companies that choose to violate the law are well advised to consider the easier and less costly path of obtaining a license. If you have important comments regarding the above statement, please send us email, using a subject line of "We Value Amiga", to carl@vistv.com Your mail will be read carefully, but please realize that we cannot directly respond to all mail. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- S H A R E W A R E E A S Y P P P A N N O U N C E D AmiPPP - Internet Made Easy! AmiPPP Internet Dial-Up in 10 secs! Not only is the GUI nice - it`s EASY! Click & Surf! When I first tried to set up AmiTCP and ppp.device I noticed that it is a real pain. I was used to MacTCP and MacPPP, which is really easy to use; I simply entered my provider`s phonenumber and my ID & password, clicked on "Open" and the connection was established.But on the Amiga I had to edit some config files, set up a dialer, perform some magic and after all that it was still a pain to use.I decided to write an own device that should be as easy to use as MacPPP - a click-and-go solution.AmiPPP is the result. It is very easy to configure (completly GUI driven, no "external" text files) and once set up it will call your provider, log in, establish the PPP connection and, if you wish, start AmiTCP. Just click a button!!!! It consists of the device (amippp.device) the control and configuration tool (AmiPPP) and the guide you are reading right now. It has a built in dialer, features PAP, CHAP (MD5 and MS), supports AmiTCP 4.3, uses OwnDevUnit.library if present and allows of course ISDN dialing. It`s *very easy* to use due to the fact that it is completly GUI driven. If you know MacPPP and like it you will also like this one! It requires at least OS 2.04. A 68020 processor or better is recomended but not required. If you want to get in touch with the author of this software... My address: Thomas Bickel Effingergasse 10/12 A-1160 Wien Austria EMail: tbickel@xpoint.at Fido: 2:310/72.34 AmiPPP - Internet Made Easy - © 1996 by Thomas Bickel http://pcwww.uibk.ac.at/s06user/csaa1298/amippp/amippp.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------- P R O G R A M M E R S , P L E A S E N O T E DOOPSI is an Authoring System for the Amiga computers which allows the creation of adventures such as Day Of The Tentacle or Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade in an easy and fast way. DOOPSI Game System is more than just a simply program to help adventure development: it is a real suite of editors completely mouse driven, which allow creation of a very complex adventure with small creator's efforts.DOOPSI means: Dynamic Object Oriented Programming System Interface: a System Interface to simplify OOP, the Object Oriented Programming. editor: DOOPSI Coder To code every object in the adventure with DOOPSI Language. A simply and powerful language. Anim Workshop A completely integrated environment to create Animated Objects. Path Editor An easy and fast way to create paths where player can move in his adventure. Dialog Editor A really fast way to create complex and various dialogs. Spot Editor A very little editor to create hot zones to use them in various situations. DOOPSI-GS is Shareware! Send comments to fsoft@intercom.it http:www.intercom.it/~fsoft/doopsi.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I G A B R O S E R S T A T S Amiga User Statistics This site is designed to track and record which browsers are being used by Amiga users. Since many Amiga users also have access to PC's, a large number of them are using Netscape. These graphs are updated in real time! You were just counted! BROWSER TYPES (PERCENTAGE) AWeb 15 AmigaVoyager 9 IBM WebExplorer 1 IBrowse 14 Lynx 6 Microsoft Explorer 2 Mosaic 2 Netscape 48 GUI TYPES (PERCENTAGE) MacOS 5 Windows 3.11 9 Windows 95 13 Windows NT 1 Workbench 41 X11 8 OPERATING SYSTEM TYPES (PERCENTAGE) AIX 1 Amiga 41 BSD 1 HP-UNIX 1 IRIX 1 LINUX 1 Macintosh 5 OS/2 1 OSF1 1 SunOS 4 Windows 36 WORKBENCH VERSIONS (PERCENTAGE) Workbench 3.0 58 Workbench 3.1 41 Above information does not include Workbench 2.x information. Please send all comments to dtiberio@pb.net http://www.melizo.com/area52 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1996 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. -=========================================================================- _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || Brad Webb/AmigaUpdate /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || webb@malamute.med.ge.com /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || Portal -- XJumpdisk -=========================================================================-