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Contents "WhatIFF? For the some serious computing WhatIFF? - Issue 1.02 January 2022 T ================================================= |T | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|[L | __________________________________________________[| |I __==___________ ___________ . ,. _ . __ T| ||[_j L_I_I_I_I_j L_I_I_I_I_j /|/V||(g/| == l| lI _______________________________ _____ _________I] |[__I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_] [__I__] [_I_I_I_]| |[___I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_L I ___ [_I_I_I_]| |[__I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_L_I __I_]_ [_I_I_T || |[___I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I____] [_I_I_] [___I_I_j| | [__I__I_________________I__L_] | | | -Row l__________________________________________________j ENTER MAGAZINETopWelcome to WhatIFF?
CONTENTS *WhatIFF? - Issue 1.02 - January 2022* --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -EDITORS DESK- MEET THE WRITERS Who are we and why did we start another Amiga magazine? -----NEWS----- Not quite latest news but should be faster than the print magazines! ----REVIEWS--- Reviews of hardware and software, old and new covered. ----GUIDES---- Guides and support to all things Amiga related, probably the best part of the magazine! -AMIGA PEOPLE- Hear from the people making the hardware and software. ----LINKS----- Links to the important and not so important websites, BBSs can also be found here. --AMIGA RANT-- This is your place to talk about anything Amiga related. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEXT ISSUE *All content copyright of the respective authors 2022*TopFrom The Editor's Desk
CONTENTS -= From The Editor's Desk =- by: Timo Paul Happy new year and a warm welcome to issue 2 of What IFF?, we made it through issue one and what an incredible learning experience it has been! I must thank Steve Lord for all his help: setting up an e-mail server for the magazine and his article contributions. While we are not a large print magazine such as Amiga Addict or Amiga Future there were some tough times with the first issue. Firstly was re-learning AmigaGuide again, it had been a while since I had used it and there were a few teething issues but thanks to users on EAB these got sorted quickly. It became quite enjoyable editing and writing in AmigaGuide once I had re-learnt the commands and figured out the formatting. The second issue was trying to get interviews from people, most people are busy with family, work and general life to have the spare time to do an interview. So I thank every single one of the people who have agreed to do the interviews for this and up coming issues. It is interesting to hear about their experiences and opinions on the Amiga scene. This issue has some great reviews and guides from two new contributors, we welcome onboard John Scolieri for his articles on the new firmware update for the TF1260 and Timberwolf and Kevin Saunders with his article about Brilliance. In addition there are reviews of the GuruNet, ACA1221lc and DSS8. Regarding the Guides section we will continue the Lightwave 3D 3.5 101 and OctaMED 101, however in additon there will be a new Brilliance guide. Unfortunately Steve Lord will be absent for a few issues due to moving but he will back in time for the April/May issue, good luck Steve with everything! I feel I must comment about the GuruNet card review though, as you will find out setting up the card was quite a task for me. It was while doing the review that I realised I was on the right track with the magazine. Getting the card installed and running was a real headache and I had to search through numerous websites, forums and YouTube videos until I could get the card running. Even the offical review and setup guide did not help. With this review I am able to write down the difficulties and the solution all in one place. Hopefully this will be of benefit to others who are thinking of buying this very neat card or already have and have not managed to get it working yet. Finally, make yourself a hot cup of tea or coffee, snuggle up to your Amiga and enjoy the second issue of WhatIFF?TopAll the latest news about our favourite computer!
CONTENTS AMINET UPLOADS FOR JANUARY 2022 Happy New Year, hopefully 2022 will bring some better news regarding the pandemic. In the meantime the Amiga scene has been a bit quiet during the winter holiday season. Hopefully in February things will pick up some more. In the meantime we have picked some of the more relevant and interesting Amiga news bits. The 8-Bit Guy De-Yellowing of an A1000 - 2nd January 2022 I really the videos by The 8-Bit Guy and it was nice to see him cover the Amiga again. A nice video on getting rid of that unfortunate yellow. Windows Amiga GUI Skin - 5th January 2022 It is now possible to make Windows look like Workbench, something which if I had a Windows PC I would jump at the opportunity. It does not emulate the classic Amiga GUI but just makes it look like your favourite desktop environment. Search for myWorkspace for more details and download. Amiga Future Issue 154 - 7th January 2022 The long standing Amiga Future has its first 2022 issue out and reviews the Terrible Fire 1230 and RGB to HDMI (Which we are covering funnily enough in issue 3!) RTG Driver: P96 v3.2.2 Released - 11th January 2022 The P92 driver being updated by Jens Schonfeld has another release in the hope of fixing more broken software. ZZ9000 Presale - 22nd January 2022 The pre-sales have opened for the ZZ9000 graphics card, if you order now you can expect (if everything goes to plan) delivery around June 2022. Hyperion Blog Hacked - 27th January 2022 Since 2010 Hyperion has had a developer blog informing users of current events relating to Amiga OS4. In November of 2021 spam or unrelated posts started to appear on the website such as links to Windows and other Windows related topics.TopAminet Uploads - January 2022
News 2022-01-31 googoo1_2022.lha Chip-music pack by Zenon MCE-OS4.lha Multi-game Character Editor MCE.lha Multi-game Character Editor MED.RainyDays.lha MED.RainyDays ASE2019_1.90.lha Text editor CompareDirsItaCat.lha Italian catalog for CompareDirs v1.11 CompareDirs_OS4.lha Compare two dirs for diff. files, w/ GUI AFortune.lha AFortune write random sentences in shell 2022-01-30 gcc3210.lha Compiler for DSP3210 chips FlashMandelNG_OS4.lha Mandelbrot & Julia fractals AOS4 perciman_68k.lha Manage contact and other information perciman_AROS.lha Manage contact and other information perciman_MOS.lha Manage contact and other information perciman_OS4.lha Manage contact and other information 2022-01-29 aqb-0.8.2.lha A BASIC Compiler+IDE for Amiga Computers dis8080.i386-aros.lha Disassembler for Intel 8080 processor dis8080_OS4.lha Disassembler for Intel 8080 processor PM.lha Lightweight+accurate CPU usage monitor 2022-01-28 asm3210.lha Cross assembler for DSP3210 chips progress.lha Simple progress bar display for CLI SpeedPDF_1.0.lha Fast PDF viewer ScriptSpeed.lha Test script execution speed 2022-01-27 ReportPlusMOS.lha Multipurpose utility TestProgram.zip Versatile Amiga Test Program 2022-01-26 Italian catalog for Facts v5.10 ReportPlus-OS4.lha Multipurpose utility ReportPlus.lha Multipurpose utility dintwm.lha Dynamic Intuition Window Manager 2022-01-25 AmiArcadiaMOS.lha Signetics-based machines emulator P96ScreenCx.lha P96 Multi-Monitor Mouse Movement 2022-01-24 facts.lha NTP clock time synchroniser AutoDST/GUI HWP_Iconic.lha Load and save various icon formats AmiArcadia-OS4.lha Signetics-based machines emulator AmiArcadia.lha Signetics-based machines emulator ScriptSpeed.lha Test script execution speed on your system StartWin.lha A bugged workbench launch bar 2022-01-23 Compute.lha Command line calculator AIBB_Emu68.lha AIBB 6.5 module f. A500 w/ Emu68/PiStorm TaiwanMOS.lha Taiwan country for MorphOS and OS4 2022-01-22 mame030_0.26a.lha Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (030) mame040_0.26a.lha Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (040) Next.lha Viewer for text/guides/html/datatypes avalanche.lha Simple ReAction GUI for xadmaster 2022-01-21 Profyler.lha Software performance profiler for OS4 regina-doc.pdf Alternative REXX interpreter doc DFT_DWT_FFT.zip DFT, DWT and FFT for an A1200(HD). bsaog.lha Blake Stone Aliens of Gold bsps.lha Blake Stone Planet Strike 2022-01-20 pi400_keymap_esp.lha Raspberry Pi400 spanish keymap TilesSlide.lha Align 3-4 tiles of the same colour on WB SamplesCreatorDemos.lha Some samples created by SamplesCreator 2022-01-19 asm3210.lha Cross assembler for DSP3210 chips 2022-01-16 apccomm.lha transfers files between Amiga & PC jfduke3d.lha JFDuke3D Amiga Port 2022-01-14 Deark.lha Extracting data from various file formats 2022-01-14 AmiArcadia-OS4.lha Signetics-based machines emulator AmiArcadia.lha Signetics-based machines emulator avalanche.lha Simple ReAction GUI for xadmaster Deark.lha Extracting data from various file formats TestProgram.zip Versatile Amiga Test Program 2022-01-10 HippoPlayerIR.zip Wirelessly controlled HippoPlayer TilesSlide.lha Align 3-4 tiles of the same colour on WB TECO-64.lha TECO (Text Editor and Corrector) Albatros.lha Lock your AMIGA by a keyword StartWin.lha A bugged workbench launch bar 2022-01-09 bsaog.lha Blake Stone Aliens of Gold bsps.lha Blake Stone Planet Strike FlashMandelNG_OS4.lha Mandelbrot & Julia fractals AOS4 Anno.lha Reminder and calendar utility 2022-01-08 dis8080.lha Disassembler for Intel 8080 processor WormWars-AROS.zip Advanced snake/Tron game Oshogatsu_Breaks_2021.lha Oshogatsu Breaks 2021 ScreenTime.lha Screen clock, configurable with locale 2022-01-06 AmiGemini.lha Gemini protocol browser WormWarsMOS.lha Advanced snake/Tron game GF4RSID9.zip Gradient Fonts for RSI Demo Maker Disk 9 GF4RSIDA.zip Gradient Fonts for RSI Demo Maker Disk A ReportPlusMOS.lha Multipurpose utility zencheckerboard.lha Display checkerboard for video tuning WBDirShell.lha Open shell to current WB drawer 2022-01-03 void-dreams36.zip Demopack - January 2022 WormWars-OS4.lha Advanced snake/Tron game WormWars.lha Advanced snake/Tron game AmigaAMP3-68k.lha MPEG audio player with GUI MMULib.lha Library to ctrl the MC68K MMUs MuMin.lha Minimal MuLib archive for redistribution ReportPlus-OS4.lha Multipurpose utility ReportPlus.lha Multipurpose utility 2022-01-02 SteMarRegBlitzSources.lha 21 Stefano Maria Regattin Blitz sources MCE-MOS.lha Multi-game Character Editor 2022-01-01 newscripts_adf.lha new scripts for adf.device ASE2019_1.80.lha Text editor UnZIP552.lha UnZip v5.52 final 68K version ZIP232.lha Zip v2.32 archiver final 68K version ACA500P_28MHz.lha AIBB 6.5 Module for ACA500Plus 68000@28MHz WH_RANDOM_AMIGA.zip Random Number Gen, AMIGA-Shell Script.TopWelcome to the reviews section!
CONTENTS -= Welcome to the Reviews page =- In issue 2 we have reviews of hardware, software and welcome John Scolieri to the team. In addition we have Retrospective Reviews which brings back reviews from other sources. For this issue reviews are courtesy of www.amigafan.com. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GuruNet Review We take a look at the LAN card adapter that connects to your parallel port. ACA 1221lc Review The cheap alternative to some of the more expensive cards. TF1260 Alpha Firmware Review An early Xmas present from TerribleFire for the TF1260, John Scolieri takes a look at the new firmware and decides if it is a go or no go. DSS8 Retrospective Review We look back at the legendary DSS8 and see if it is still a worthy purchase in 2022. ClassicWB Retrospective Review Review of the ClassicWB packs dating back to April 2011 from amigafan.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------TopGuruNet Review
Reviews *GuruNet Review - January 2022* Product Name Reviewed by Timo Paul GuruNet Hardware/Software Requirements - Any Amiga with a free parallel port. - TCP/IP stack like RoadShow,MiamiDX, AmiTCP - Plipbox device drivers Machine Used For Testing Commodore Amiga 1200 Classic WB + 3.2 Kickstart Indivision AGA MK3, TF1260 Internet Through Your Printer Port The GuruNet card was purchased from Amiga On The Lake for $59.99 plus the shipping cost. Ordering was a painless process and the card was sent quickly by registered airmail. Upon arrival the card was well packed in a small cardboard box. The card itself is very small with the board being a red colour (The GuruModem was yellow). On the card there are a LAN, micro USB ports and an ICSP connector. Otherwise the board is relatively bare with no casing and just the GuruNet name printed in white on the board. When plugging in the GuruNet it was a little tight with other devices, so you might have to remove any other devices that are connected to your serial port. Setup As is common nowadays, there is no printed manual however it can be downloaded from: [http://www.electronicsisfun.com/download]. Once downloaded it is easy to print out for reference, the manual comes in at 16 pages, less than the GuruModem's 35 pages. The manual quickly goes over setting up the card and makes it seem simple. The first thing that you must do is download the Plipbox driver from: [http://lallafa.de/blog/amiga-projects/plipbox] it contains several files of which three you need. The files can be found in the 'amiga' drawer and then 'bin' for the three needed files. The three files that you will need are: - plipbox.device (labeled as plipbox.device_RELEASE_000) - dev_test (labeled as dev_test_RELEASE_000) - udp_test (labeled as udp_test_RELEASE_000) When opening the drawer you will find several versions of the files for 68000, 68020, and 68040 Amigas. For example when installing the plipbox.device you have to choose the correct version for your CPU, so if you have and 020 Amiga then copy the plipbox.device_RELEASE_020, then rename it to "plipbox.device". Plipbox.device needs to be copied to the DEVS:Network drawer. For the dev_test and udp_test, the same should be done, choose the correct file for your CPU and delete the "_RELEASE_000, _RELEASE_020, _RELEASE_040". Both dev_test and udp_test need to be copied to the C: drawer. Now that the driver installation is finished you need to install a TCP/IP stack, I chose Roadshow since it has a reputation for being fast and is available in a free demo version. Roadshow can be downloaded from: www.roadshow.apc-tcp.de Once you have Roadshow downloaded and transfered to your Amiga it is time to install it. For the guide on installing GuruNet with Roadshow click on GuruNet Install. GuruNet In Use After all that we are finally able to use the Amiga, for my testing purposes I used IBrowse demo version and was pleasantly surprised with the speed of the GuruNet. When loading up simple websites such as Aminet it sped along nicely, for more complex sites with more graphics understandably it started to slow down quite a bit. When I downloaded a 5MB MP3 I got speeds up to 22.36kB/s which is pretty decent for the card especially considering the connection is via the parallel port and not the PCMCIA slot. The card is a very nice alternative to the WIFI cards and it frees up your PCMCIA slot. Putting card on the parallel port makes a lot of sense, especially in 2022. There are not a lot of devices that we plug into the parallel port anymore. If you still print from your Amiga or use a sampler then you might want to think about whether this card is sutaible for your Amiga setup. While you don't get the speed of a wireless PCMCIA card, it is still easier to setup once you know what you are doing. The extra cabling can be a bit messy, so it helps to have your router close to your Amiga hopefully reducing the cable clutter. The card can be used with any TCP client, I use Roadshow which runs in the background and which gets rid of a lot of the hassle when connecting to the Internet. The combination of the GuruNet and Roadshow has made using the Internet a more modern experience. Final Thoughts The GuruNet has been a roller coaster of ups and downs, intial installation had me pulling out my hair at times and wanting to give up on reviewing the card. After numerous questions on Amiga forums and searching the Internet I was unable to get the card to communicate with my router. However I came across a video on YouTube, search for: "Commodore Amiga Plipbox (Get Your Amiga on the Internet)", this video finally had the information that I needed to get the card running and speaking to my router, the NOBURST seemed to be the culprit at the end, something that even the official documentation does not mention. Now that I have the card running and am able to access Internet whenever I want I'm really enjoying the card. While it is a bit difficult or maybe not difficult but time consuming to setup it is easier than getting a WIFI card to connect to the Internet. Even to this day I still have not got my Netgear MA401 to speak to my router. The GuruNet allows any Amiga to enjoy Internet access at a pretty decent speed, at a price that does not break the bank and is relatively easy to install. I highly recommend this card but please patient and if you run into trouble re-read this review and the installation guide (Printing it out might be helpful). Pros and Cons + Any Amiga can get Internet access + Relatively simple to setup + Very reasonable price - Needs networking knowledge - No WiFi Scores Ease of use: 75% Documentation: 85% Value for money: 98% Overall: 86% - WhatIFF? SilverTopACA1221lc Review
Reviews *ACA 1221lc Review January - 2022* Product Name Reviewed by Timo Paul ACA 1221lc Hardware Requirements Amiga 1200 *Strong power supply Machine Used For Testing Commodore Amiga 1200 Classic WB + 3.2 Kickstart Indivision AGA MK3 ACA's Younger Brother The ACA series of accelerators from Individual Computers have existed for a while now. In the early 2000's there was a drought of new hardware and in particular accelerator/expansion cards for the A1200 series of computers. Luckily for us though Individual Computers started to release a series of accelerator cards with the name ACA for the A1200, A600 and later the A500. The original cards were not without their issues and we will have an earlier review of a card in the next issue, however they were the only new hardware that was available. Now in 2022 we have a plethora of choices, TF1230/60, Tsunami 1230, Vampire and the ACA series. The ACA1221lc is a unique card that sits between a standard Amiga memory expansion and a full blown accelerator card. The ACA1221lc comes from a long series of 020 accelerator cards but this version has some very nice features one of which is the ability to go up to 40mhz, which I have not encountered in a 020 card before. Though there is a caveat to this and we will cover it further in the review. I ordered the card directly from the Individual Computer website along with an Indivision AGA MK3, payment was done by bank transfer. Normally I would avoid this form of payment but I have ordered from Individual in the past and not had any problems. The order was processed very quickly and sent out fast via DHL. It was refeshing to have an order processed so quickly, many other vendors take their time like ahem ... Amiga K**. The parcel took about a week to arrive and when delivered I had to pay import fees which was 2,500 YEN or about $25/?15. It was expected and I was prepared at the door with the money. Packaging was vey nicely done with the unique Individual Computers boxing, I really enjoy the printing on the boxes and often use them for storage or as a gift box. I had ordered the blue version of the ACA1221lc and was surprised at how small the card was. The card is relatively packed with the 020 CPU, six other IC chips and 3 connectors, one of which is the clockport. There is a jumper that used to be used for setting the MapRom feature but that is now taken care of by the ACATool. Installation Due to the small footprint of the card it was a relatively easy install into the A1200's expansion port. Next it was time to install the ACATool which can be found at: wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACAtool - this is an essential piece of software for running the card. From the ACAtool you can set the speed of the card, map the rom into memory or even use another rom stored on the Amiga's hard disk. The CPU speed can be switched in four stages between 14mhz and 40mhz, however you will need active cooling and a very good powersupply to run beyond 26.67mhz. Here a word of warning is advised, I tried the card at 40mhz and it operated for a few seconds and then crashed but at the time my hard disk was in use and as a result I ended up losing all the data on my hard disk. Luckily I had some backups but if you are not sure that your power supply can handle the card at 40mhz it is best to keep it at 26.67mhz. Jens talks about the type of power supply that allows you to run the card at 40mhz and also sells one but they are almost 100 euros. The card has 16MB of onboard memory of which 11.2MB can be used as fast ram, after booting into my ClassicWB Full install I have around 9.5MB of fast ram available. Usage The ACA gives a nice boost to the Amiga, windows open faster and icons appear quicker and boot time is greatly reduced. Obviously it does not have the grunt needed to play 3D games but for general use and WHDLoad games it is the perfect device. I encountered no instability issues and the PCMCIA slot was fully available for use. I ended up running the card at 26mhz and it made for a very pleasant Amiga experience. Having the option to map rom into fast ram made a little difference when using Workbench. It is useful to have this feature since you can try out the newer kickstarts available or downgrade to an older kickstart. There was one small issue that I had regarding rebooting the Amiga, when I did a soft reboot the Amiga would come back to the kickstart screen. I asked Jens about this and he suggested cutting one of the wires from on the interanal IDE cable, it is the first wire, which is usually pink. After following his advice my Amiga soft rebooted back into Workbench again. It is really nice to have this level of support from the builder and I highly recommend making an account on the Individual Computers forum if you run into any problems with one of his products. He responds very quickly and is generally spot on with his advice. Is It Worth It? This card is a very nicely made product, it sits at a price that does not make you think too hard about purchasing. It has some very useful features that the more advanced cards have, I would say that if anyone is looking for an accelerator card that does not break the bank but will give you a decent speed boost this card is the one to go for. If you want to do 3D rendering or 3D games then this card is not for you but for everything else it is hard to find another card that can beat it on price and features. While I have a TF1260 I am keeping this card because in case of compatability issues with the TF I can fall back on this card knowing it will not cause any new problems. Final Thoughts All Amiga 1200s need extra ram and if possible a CPU upgrade, this should be your first stop if you don't want to spend too much money but need the extra memory and little speed boost. The ACAtool makes configuring the card very easy and a fast process. Pros and Cons + Easy to install + Very well built + Now can be controlled by software + No current compatibility issues - Need a particular power supply to reach 40mhz - Could be a little cheaper Scores Ease of use: 95% Documentation: 88% Value for money: 90% Overall: 91% - WhatIFF? GoldTopTF1260 Alpha Firmware Review
Reviews *TF1260 Alpha Review and Install* Product Name Reviewed by John Scolieri Terrrible Fire 1260 Alpha Firmware Available From TF1260 Builders or www.exxoshost.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=22869 Special Hardware and Software Requirements Amiga 1200, TF1260, JTAG Connector, a PC & USB to MPSSE 3.3v serial cable Machine Used For Testing Commodore Amiga 1200 Review TF1260-A NEW 68060 Amiga Accelerator board in 2021...time for a firmware update! What great times we are in for new and awesome Amiga hardware being released for our favourite computer and OS! I was lucky enough to buy my new TF1260 from www.amibay.com from one of the authorized sellers for Terrible Fire products as up to recently only certain testers had one as it's been in beta for a while. I've recently been enjoying it inside my Amiga 1200 Tower and I'm very impressed with it as it's at par with my Blizzard Cyberstorm MKII in my Amiga 4000 performance wise and actually it surpasses it when I overclock my Rev1 060 from 50 to 62.5 Mhz! Cool part is you don't have to move jumpers, play with resistors on voltage boards etc. overclock the TF1260...all you have to do is open the shell and type "cpuspeed speed=xx" where xx is the speed you want to overclock too. It's rumoured from other TF1260 owners that some Rev6 060's can hit 100 Mhz with heatsinks and fans...personally I'm the type of guy that would rather overclock 'slightly' as I prefer my systems to be more stable than fast but quirky.? Since my full 060 is a Rev1 I'm quite happy with how stable my TF1260 is running 060 specific DEMO's all day long and the 060 itself isn't hot enough to fry an egg on like some old 040's I used to have back in the day lol. I've installed a heat sink on it to be safe. After watching a great YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sleia9n8fIg) from ACILL last night which seemed fairly straight forward I finally got around to updating the firmware on my TF1260 to the latest 'stable' release and ran a few tests comparing before/after results so let's get started! NOTE: If you don't feel comfortable with basic soldering you should contact the authorized Terrible Fire seller you bought the board from to carry out the firmware update for you. First thing you need to do is to install a JTAG connector on your TF1260 which is located on the top right hand side of the board immediatley beneath the IDE connector. I personally had some copper pins handy and soldered them into the 6 thorugh hole connectors using solder paste and a quick 20 seconds with heat gun at 400 deg.celcius and 35% air flow...or you can simply use a soldering iron as through hole soldering isn't that difficult compared to surface mounted. Once you have the JTAG connector pins soldered on the board you're ready to start flashing! You'll need a C232HM-DDHSL-0 USB to MPSE cable 3.3V-0.5m as seen in Acill's YouTube video noted above. Follow the links below the video description to download the files you need (Required Files: https://bit.ly/3x8qPal) and how to connect the cable to your TF1260 before plugging into the USB port of your computer. Open up a command window on your pc and type'flash.bat' to start the firmware update and within 20 or so seconds the process is completed. It's VERY IMPORTANT to connect the C232HM-DDHSL-0 USB to MPSE cable to the JTAG connector on the TF1260 in the correct orientation which is as follows topmost pin (TMS)-brown wire TDI pin-yellow wire TD0 pin-green wire TCK pin-orange wire GND pin-black wire 3V3 pin-red wire Now to carry out some testing after the firmware update to compare before and after results: All tests carried out running AmigaOS 3.2.1 with both SysSpeed v2.6 and SysInfo v4.4 Quick summary: The TF1260 lost a little bit (1.08MIPS) of overall MIPS/MFLOPS but got a nice speed increase (1.17 MB/s) on the onbaord IDE speed and a very significant 2 to3 times read/write speed increase with the onboard fast ram! You can see all test results with pics at http://mancave-ramblings.blogspot.com cheers!TopAmiga OS 3.2.1 Update Review
Reviews *Review Sordan A1200 LED replacement board* Product Name Amiga 1200 3xLED Replacement Available From www.sordan.ie eBay Special Hardware and Software Requirements An A1200 Machine Used For Testing Commodore Amiga 1200 KS/Workbench 3.2 Indivision MK3, TF1260 To coin a phrase, "Whooops!" Recently when I was upgrading my A1200 to Kickstart 3.2 I had a minor accident. When opening the case and pulling out the keyboard I managed to break the wire on the LED board. Due to the numerous times I have opened my Amiga the connection had worn down and it was only a matter of time. Luckily I had my soldering iron and after a few attempts was able to reconnect the cable giving me my precious lights back. However it made me think that this will happen probably again thus I should think of another solution. A quick search on eBay came up with the LED A1200 from Sordan costing a very reasonable $14.49 plus $13.52 shipping to Japan. Review The board arrived roughly 2 weeks after shipping, which is pretty decent considering the current situation with international postage. Upon opening the small white envelope I found a printed picture folded with what looked like a childs scribbling in coloured pencil, inside was the LED board along with a Sordan ball pen and business card. The board itself is black with the 3 LEDs, what is immediately apparent is the type of LED used. In the orginal Amigas the LED was one light, with the Sordan board each light is made up of 3 individual LEDs. In addition the colours have changed to a strong orange for the hard disk, yellow for the disk drive and green for the power light. What attracted me to the board most was the connectors, on the Sordan board the cable can be disconnected from both ends, reducing the chance for cutting the cable like I did. The wires themselves are quite a bit thinner and feel more vunerable than the orginal wiring but with the ability to connect and disconnect at both ends it is not an issue. Installation of the board was not difficult, the only trouble I encountered was with bent LEDs, considering the fragile nature of the board I would have hoped for better packaging. After I bent the LEDs back into place the board slipped in nicely, connecting the cables was a lot less stressful. After closing the case, I turned on the Amiga and was greeted with a very organge power light, in addition you can see the lines between the individual LEDs. The LEDs seem a little more senstive to hard disk access and I noticed more light flickers than with the orginal LED board. Final Thoughts Overall I am impressed with the board, it has made it a easier to open my Amiga but I am not sure if I like the new LEDs. It it is probably just a personal preference but I liked the all in one LED, there is something about seeing the three lines that sits uncomfortably with me. If I have to put my finger on it, it is warmth, the new lights are colder since they are less diffuse compared to the original Amiga LEDs. Pros and Cons + Cheap + Has two connectors + Well built - Cables are a little thin - Colour is colder than the orginal LEDs Scores Ease Of Use: 90% Documentation: 0% Value For money: 90% Overall: 90% - WhatIFF? GoldTopRetrospective Review GVP DSS8
Reviews *Retrospective Review GVP DSS8* Product Name Reviewed by Timo Paul GVP Digital Sound Studio 8/DSS8 Available From www.ebay.com Amiga trading sites such as Amibay.com Special Hardware and Software Requirements An Amiga with a hard disk and ram expansion or an Amiga emulator. Machine Used For Testing Commodore Amiga 1200 KS/Workbench 3.2 Indivision MK3, TF1260 Do I Need A Sampler in 2022? This is a question that I have been asking myself over the last few months. Much of my audio work on the Amiga has involved converting samples from my MacBook Pro and then transferring them to the Amiga. Then one day while I was digging around my box of Amiga stuff, I came across an old friend, the DSS8, in all its black box glory minus the silver label. It has been a such a long time that I had forgot about this little box and it got me thinking if it might be worth while to give it a try again. In 2022 there has not seemed much point in using a sampler since it is easier to create the sample on a PC or Mac and then transfer it over. However I wanted to see if there is any benefit to still using a DSS8 over conversion from another computer. There are three versions of the DSS8, the first generation of the sampler came out in 1991 in a black case with 2 red knobs for adjusting the audio levels. The second iteration had a similar black box but minus the red knobs and LEDs with the levels being controlled within the software. The final update was released in 1993 as the DSS8+ which came in a pleasing clear plastic case and an extra 3.5mm input. Otherwise the internals seemed to not have changed. It has been difficult to find an exact pricing for the sampler but it seems that it was selling for $69. In 2022 you can find the card going for double or triple the orginal asking price so if you looking for one it will pay to have a look at several websites. DSS8 In Use The DSS8 has gained somewhat of a cult reputation as being the best sampler you can buy for the Amiga and as a result has driven up prices. In this review I will be comparing it to the Perfect Sound and Audio Master to see it is truly worth the asking price. The box is relatively large and takes up a lot of space on either side of the parallel port, if plugged in with the GuruModem for example the sides are touching and it creates a very tight fit. On the back there are two phono ports for capturing audio. Since most computers have a 3.5mm port you will need to use a 3.5mm cable to twin phono cable. After the simple installation I loaded up the DSS3 software. It had been a while since I had used this software so it took a few minutes to get used to the interface. The software does not detect your sampler by default as such you will need to choose your sampler from the 'Preferences >> Hardware' menu, make sure to save settings after you have done this. The next step is to choose the sampler mode from the top right handside, it is the third button from the top of the screen. From here you will be presented with the sampling screen and various options to change: Source (volume L & R), Destination, Sampling Rate, Max Length, Low-pass Filter, Visual Monitor, Audio Monitor and Record. Recording a sample is very simple affair, click on Record and you will be presented with a black screen and waveform of the audio input. This is a very useful feature since you can check the level and audio quality before committing to recording. When you are happy press both mouse buttons and the screen will turn black and you will hear your recording through the Amiga. Once you have recorded what you need then press the left mouse button to finish, you will then be asked to give the new sample a name. When I first tried sampling with the DSS8 I used a single channel, L or R, however I noticed that the sample quality was not that impressive. It did not sound that different from my Perfect Sound sampler, it had the usual amount of noise and interference. It was not until I tried the Mixer mode that the sampling quality improved considerably. Since my DSS8 did not come with a manual I have been trying to find out what the difference is between the mixer mode and Stereo. At the moment I have not been able to source a manual for the DSS3 software but it seems like there is some filtering going on reducing the amount of noise and interference. When I compared the samples in Mixer mode to Mono (L/R) and Stereo the difference was substantial. There was minimum to no noise and a far cleaner sound than I had achieved with the Perfect Sound. It is clear that the DSS8 is capturing a cleaner audio signal compared to the other Amiga samplers. However I do not believe it is worth the asking price many sellers are posting the sampler for on eBay. The sample quality is better than an Audio Master or Perfect Sound but if you have a good sound source then you can get samples that are very close to DSS8 quality. Issues The DSS3 software is very nicely designed with a clean and easy to understand interface. I did not encounter any major issues during use except for the sampling mode. When I changed the source to Stereo it locked up the system requiring me to do a reboot. I did not have this issue when sampling in Mono L and R or Mixer, it could be an issue with my accelerator card which is an Tf1260. For this review I did not have time to change the accelerator card to another one. However I would recommend caution when using the Stereo sampling mode. Editing samples was quite straight forward however I wish there was a more explicit way to highlight samples and edit them. It always irritated me a little when audio sampling software does not use the Del key on the Amiga keyboard for deleting a highlighted section of the sample. Instead we have to use the menu and Cut option, logically it should be Erase but this just creates a blank space. I am sure there is a proper reason for this but it seems a bit illogical to me. Final Thoughts The DSS8 and DSS8+ has gained a reputation as one of the best samplers you can get on the Amiga. After having used it for a few days I have to admit that it does create some very good samples. However like all samplers you need a good audio source and cables. If you can find the DSS8 for ?50/$70 then that is still a good deal but anything above that and it becomes too expensive. You can get cleaner samples by conversion but there is a certain level of presence that is missing from the converted samples that you retain when sampling with a DSS8 or any other sampler. Finally it is much easier when sampling directly into the Amiga, you can find the sound or part of the sound that you want and just play that into the Amiga. When converting there are several more steps and you can't be sure how it will sound until you play it back on your Amiga. Pros and Cons + Improved sampling quality over Audio Master and Perfect Sound + Software easy to use + Many different settings available to improve audio quality - Can be hard to find at a reasonable price Scores Ease Of Use: 90% Documentation: 95% Value For money: 85% Overall: 90% - WhatIFF? GoldTopClassicWB Review - Dec 2012
Reviews *Retrospective Review Classic WB* Product Name Reviewed by Timo Paul Classic Workbench Available From classicwb.abime.net Special Hardware and Software Requirements An Amiga with a hard disk and ram expansion or an Amiga emulator. Machine Used For Testing Commodore Amiga 1200 KS/Workbench 3.2 Indivision MK3, TF1260 An Easier Way To Setup a New Amiga Back in the day most of us Amiga users were in our teens and had the luxury of spending our youth tinkering and tweaking with our Amiga systems, but for a lot of users they left the Amiga to move onto the PC or Mac. When they came back to the Amiga they were overwhelmed by the complexities of setting up the system. The Amiga is a very advanced system for its age but it still can be a troublesome machine to get up and running and for those who have forgotten how to use the Amiga or are getting into it for the first time Classic Workbench (WB) is the ideal package for them. First off this is a free download however you need to have the original Workbench 3.0/3.1 discs to install Classic WB. The packs can be downloaded from the main Classic WB in zip format these then need to be unpacked and you are presented with a HDF which needs to be used in WinUAE or E-UAE (For Mac). * Please be aware that you will need the Kickstart Roms and ADFs of Workbench on your computer first before you can run Classic WB. There are a variety of packs to choose from: LITE 4/8/16 colour screenmode - Normal Icons Target system - A1200 and PAL / NTSC / Non-Interlaced 640x256 display P96 16-32bit colour screenmodes - NewIcons UAE emulator required FULL 16 colour screenmode - Normal Icons Target system - A1200 with 4MB memory expansion and PAL / NTSC / Non-Interlaced 640x256 display UAE Pre-installed WinUAE emulation environment ideal for beginners ClassicWB P96 and ADVSP sharing PC directories ADV 16 colour screenmode - Normal Icons Target system - A1200 with 4MB memory expansion and Multisync / Interlaced 640x512 display OS3x 64 colour screenmode - GlowIcons Target system - A1200 with accelerator, 3.1 ROM, memory expansion and Multisync / Interlaced 640x512 display ADVSP 16 colour screenmode - NewIcons Target system - A1200 with accelerator, memory expansion and Multisync / Interlaced 640x512 display 68K 4/8 colour screenmode - Normal Icons Target system - A600 / A500+ with memory expansion and PAL / NTSC / Non-Interlaced 640x256 display I won`t go into how to install these packs as it is quite easy for any Amiga user to do and there are detailed instructions on the website however I will say that these are brilliant packs which really make setting up your Amiga as hassle free as possible and add some nice modern features that others will not be aware of. Features such as being able to scroll windows in real time by using a patch called FBlit, floating menus and actions that can be applied directly to the icons in the more advanced packs Scalos is used which creates a more stable Workbench introducing features such as progress bars when copying files and transparent icons when being moved. Personally I am big fan of the FULL version of Classic WB, I like the Magic WB Icons as they are fast and easy to read, many others prefer the ADVSP which uses the New Icons, these are great as they are made without the familiar 3D border around them but they can slow down your system and in my case there have been issues with the pallette causing the icons to look odd at times. However this is just a minor niggle which is more of a personal preference, the end line is that these are free and even if they had to be paid for they would be worth it. It is easy to install and gives your Amiga a new lease of life! Updated Comments The above review was over ten years ago, and still to this day I am using the ClassicWB installs. At the time there was nothing that came close to the simplicity and usability of ClassicWB. Over the years there have been other attempts to create similar installer packs but I have found myself coming back to the ClassicWB packs time and again. This is down to the sheer varity of systems it supports, be you have a 1.3 A500 or a souped up A4000, there is a pack to take advantage of your system. It is incredibly easy to install on an emulated system and then transfer it to real Amiga. The ClassicWB packs are the best and easiest way to set up an Amiga with all the essential software already installed and various utilities and commodities to make the Workbench experience more modern and user friendly. Personally I use the ClassicWB FULL pack since it has the smaller icons for those using a HiRes Workench instead of a HiRes Laced. Final Thoughts The best way to setup your Amiga if you are coming back to the system after a long hiatus. No other install package offers the level of ease and flexibility as the ClassicWB packs. Pros and Cons + Free! + Easy to install + Many types of installs to choose from depending on your system. - Not fully compatible with Kickstart 1.3.4 onwards without additional installs. Scores Ease Of Use: 100% Documentation: 100% Value For money: 100% Overall: 100% - WhatIFF? GoldTopWelcome to the guides section!
CONTENTS -= Welcome to the Guides page!=- As we go into issue two we welcome another contributor providing us with more useful guides and help. In this issue we delve into basic modelling techniques for Lightwave 3D, creating textures with Brilliance, setting up Timberwolf with OS4.1 and more! If you have something that you would like to contribute to the magazine contact us at: submissions@whatiff.info --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lightwave 3.5 - 101 Basic Modelling For our first Lightwave 101 guide we will cover basic Lightwave 3D modelling techniques using primitives. This is part 1 of several guides that will help youget more out of Lightwave. Brilliance - 101 Texturing We go into making a marble texture with Brilliance for use in Lightwave, games or any other graphics you want a marble texture. Latest Timberwolf Setup on OS4.1 John Scolieri gets you setup with the Timberwolf on the latest OS4.1 update. OctaMED 101 - Sample Sliding A short guide on how to get your samples to slide up and down very useful for basslines. This will give you the similar effect heard in tracks like those done by Acen. GuruNet Install Guide Find out how to get GuruNet running with Roadshow in this short guide. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------TopLightwave 101 - 3D Basic Modelling Techniques
Guides *Lightwave 101 - Part 1* Written by: Timo Paul Basic Modelling Techniques In this series of we will go over basic techniques for modelling and rendering in Lightwave 3D. Along with my own experience I will use information from various books to provide give a more comprehensive and useful guide series. There will be points that will go beyond my own experience and will be from other sources, at those times I will reference where I found the information. In this first part of the guide information some parts were gleaned from several books and online sources. Our First Model ... Boing! For our first steps we need to create a model, and to do this we need to start with the Modeler program. Throughout the modeling process I usually move back and forth between the Modeler and Layout program. This way I can easily do test renders of the object from different angles to see if there might be any issues. The reason for this is that once you are heavily into the project it becomes harder to fix errors in your object. The first object we will work on is an easy one but one that will give you a good idea of what you can do with a simple shape; the good old Amiga Boing Ball. To start wih you need to be the 'Modeler', then click on the 'Objects' button at the top left of the screen. You will see the 'Ball' button and your first instict is to click and drag it out on the grid, but don't do this! Instead click once on the 'Ball' button then click on the 'Numeric' button. Numeric will give you much finer control over the shape and number of sides and segements, or its X,Y,Z parameters (Radii). Ball Type should be 'Global', if not click on 'Global', usually 'Global' is the default type though. Now we can enter the number of sides and segments, in our case we will go with 16 sides and 18 segments. Leave the 'Center' paramters as is (0,0,0), this is the centre of the Lightave grid for both the Modeler and Layout. The X,Y,Z Radii can be any number you like but they do need to the be same otherwise we not have a perfect sphere shape. I chose 1,000 for each but it can be higher or lower. After you have input the numbers then click on 'OK', a 2D outline of your ball will appear on the grid, now you need to click on 'Make' on the left handside menu. Lo and behold a ball will appear, click once on one of the other buttons to free up the cursor. You should see your ball in all dimensions, and a 3D preview in the top right pane. If not you will need to do the following. Find the 'Display' button at the top middle of the screen, click this and then proceed to the 'Options' button on the left hand side of the screen. A requester will pop up again and look for the 'Preview' title, underneath this you will see three options, for the moment choose 'Static', click on 'OK' and you will see a 3D preview of your ball. Half A Boing Is A Better Boing! Next we will cut our ball in half, and there is a good reason for this seemingly bad idea. We will be changing the facet (polygon) colour but if we have the whole ball it becomes very difficult to tell which facet has been selected, so to aid in selecting facets we will cut the ball in half. First we need to change into Polygon mode and this can be done by clicking on the 'Polygon' button at the bottom on the screen. Next look at the Face pane or the bottom left pane. Click and hold the left mouse button and drag to select the bottom half of the ball. You will see the facets change to yellow, in addition you will see the Normals as a extended line. A Normal is a line drawn at right angles to the surface of the Polygon, they give a visual guide to the direction a polygon is facing. Please note that if you missed a few facets and want to continue press and hold the Shift key and left mouse button. Okay, so now you have selected the bottom hlaf of your ball, it is time to cut it in half and this is done by click on the 'Cut' button located at the middle bottom of the screen. You should see half of the ball disappear, if there are a few facets still showing just left mouse click on the facet and click on 'Cut' again. Colouring Your Facets For this part it is recommended to expand and zoom into the Top view, i.e. the pane in the top right of the screen titled Top. To zoom in click on the 'Display' button and then on the 'In' button on the left hand side of the screen. Zoom in as much as you want. First we want to select the facets that we wish to be red, it is often recommended in other guides to start from the pole and work down to the equator. The reason for this is it can get very confusing trying to figure out what you have highlighted. Let's get started shall we? First check that you are in Polygon mode, it should be highlighted in yellow at the bottom of your screen. Next using the left mouse button click on one of the facets at the top middle of the ball. Remember we are only highlighting those that we want to be red and this will be a red and white checker board so we do not want to highlight every single facet. When you have highlighted one, press and hold the Shift key, then proceed to select the rest of your facets with the left mouse button, and remember only the alternative triangles are selected. Now we need to look at the second ring and select the alternative polygons, try to imagine what a checkboard looks like to help you figure out what needs to be selected and not selected. If you find that more polygons have been selected just click with the left mouse button on the area that you wish to deselect. Continue highlighting the alternative facets until you finish the final outer ring. Now that you have them all selected, click on the 'Polygon' button at the top of your screen and then on the 'Surfaces' button under Transform. A requestor will pop up allowing you to name the selected facet parts, let's go with the name Red since it will be easier later on. In newer versions of Lightwave you can set the colour from the Modeler but in 3.5 you can only name the surface, the colour will be applied later in the Layout programme. So we have set the selected facets as red, now we need to set the other polygons as white. The best way to do this is to hide the selected facets, and this can be done via the 'Display' button at the top of the screen and then clicking on 'Hide sel' under Visibility. Once you have clicked on that you will only see the unselected Polygons. The next part is easy, since you have hidden the red facets, press and hold the right mouse button and lasso the rest of the polygons. Then repeat the surface colour process but naming the surface white and there you have it. You have now set the colours of the polygon surfaces to red and white, at this point you can load the half ball into the Layout and assign a surface colour and do a test render but that is jumping ahead. Next time we will learn how to make one half ball into a whole ball and create a smoother surface. See you next issue! To see what your ball should look like rendered so far, have a look in the Images drawer and open LightwaveGuide1 file.TopBrilliance 101 - Creating a marble texture
Guides *Brilliance 101 - Creating A Texture* Written by: Timo Paul Another World Deluxe Paint is known the defactor paint software on the Amiga and with good reason. It is an intuitive and powerful software that grew more useful with each release. However in 1993 Digital Creations of DCTV fame released a new contendor for the Amiga bitmap graphics editor throne, Brilliance. I was a big fan of DPaint, spending many hours a week sitting in front of my Amiga creating digital art. However when I saw the ads for Brilliance in Amiga World I knew things were going to change so I quickly sent a cheque to Digital Creations and a few weeks later recieved version one of Brilliance. It came in a large box with the gorgeous artwork by Jim Saches on front, several disks, a dongle and a wirebound manual. To this day I still lament myself for losing the box with all the disks and manual. Suffice to say, my adventure in the world of Amiga bitmap graphics jumped another level when I started using Brilliance. The GUI simplicity and raw power of the software made DPaint seem like a distant memory. This takes nothing away from DPaint and what it achieved but once you have used Brilliance it is very hard to go back to DPaint or any other bitmap graphic editor. Simple things such as having the stackable tool boxes and have them all disapear by pressing the space bar or the multiple levels of undo by pressing the U key added up to making one amazing graphics programme. You probably gather that I really like Brilliance, so enough nattering from me and onto our first task. In the first guide of this series we will take it easy and create a simple marble texture that can be used for creating a marble checkerboard effect with the perspective tool or used as a texture in Lightwave. Please note that I am using Brilliance 2.0, if you are using vesion 1 then I recommend upgrading to 2 for the extra features that this guide will advantage of. Back To Basics So you have loaded up Brilliance and are looking at a black screen with the basic tool bar. Double click on the rectangle button, this will cause the box to fill in with blue, meaning that when you draw a box it will be filled. Choose a colour from pallete, the best colour to select is Brown or 119 85 34, press and hold the Ctrl key and then draw out a box, it can be any size but don't make it too big as we will want to copy and paste it several times. After you have drawn your box choose a lighter brown colour, I chose the colour 187 119 85, and then change your tool to the Draw tool, if you click once it will only be a series of dots so double click to turn it into a solid line. You will see the label change to Connected Draw, finally right mouse click on Pen Tip to bring up its tool box and choose a thicker tip. I chose the 4th size from the left. Now comes the fun part, draw some random wiggly lines across the brown box you just made. Don't colour it in completely leave about 50% of the orginal colour showing through. Now choose another darker brown colour, for example 102 68 17 and repeat adding squiggley lines. Repeat again with another colour, this time a lighter brown, 204 153 119. It should look like some random lines that a child would usually draw. From here we need to change our tool, right mouse click on the Draw Mode icon, located at the far right of the tool bar next to the magnify tool. A new tool box will pop up and look for the gadget titled Smear, click on this and then press the space bar to hide the tool box. Pressing and holding the left mouse button start smear the lines, at times use clicks to create more randomness. Eventually it should look like a smeared mess. When you are happy it is smeared enough press the space bar again to show the tool box and look for the Smooth gadget located above Smear, click on it and hide the tool box with the space bar. Click the left mouse button and start to smooth all the pixels you just smeared. You should notice right away the pixels blending together to create a smoother texture, again don't worry if your sides are not straight or clean. When you have smoothed enough press the space bar to bring your tool box back and find the Cut Brush button, it looks like some scissors. Left mouse click and then again holding the left mouse button draw a square outline cutting off any rough edges. You will have a copy of the picture you have been drawing with straight clean edges. Next we need to paste them opposite each other so they are diagonal, like below: ### ### ### ### You can now see our marble checkerboard taking shape, next we need to create a lighter texture. For this we will follow the same steps as before but choosing different colours, for my white marble I went with the following colours: 221 221 221, 170 170 170, 119 119 119 and 204 204 204. Once you have made your white marble box, copy it with the Cut Brush tool and stamp it opposite the brown square you made before. Now you have a nice marble checkerboard that you can use with the perspective tool. To see an example of the steps and final image open the Images drawer for an example image showing the steps. In the next part of this Brilliance 101 we will go through how to create a perspective checkerboard with your recently created texture. Remember to save the image for use next time. See you in issue 3!TopSetting up the latest version of Timberwolf
Guides *How to get Timberwolf working again with the latest AmigaOS4.1FE* Written by: John Scolieri If you're an AmigaOS4.1 user and a Firefox internet browser fan I'm sure you're aware that there used to be a very capable Firefox port called Timberwolf that used to work fine until AmigaOS4.1 Update 6 but sadly it stopped working after AmigaOS4.1FE (Final Edition) was released. There was quite an uproar within the OS4.1 community at that time as the developers (Frieden brothers working with Hyperion at the time) stopped working on further development and released the code to Github (https://github.com/xet7/timberwolf). Luckily a newer port of OWB was in development around that time so OS4.1 users had a capable modern browser to use but FireFox fans like myself have been hoping that someone would eventually get Timberwolf back working again. After many years and many OS and third party updates I'm happy to say that thanks to kas1e over at amigans.net Timberwolf can once again be used with the very latest OS4.1 FE updates! No there was no gracious developer(s) this time to come to the rescue but after all the wait it was an upload error to o4depot.net which was missing some additional files/directories which were present in the previous release which is on aminet.net. Kas1e managed to figure this conundrum out recently and the fix can't be simpler! Two simple steps is all you need: 1- download timberwolf.lha (v 4.0.1.0182) from aminet.net and extract to any hard drive partition you wish. 2- download timberwolf.lha (v 4.0.1.0252) from os4depot.net and overwrite the install from aminet. That's it! I'm happy to report that if you have Firefox addons, bookmarks etc. from the last time you used Timberwolf before the FE update you can skip the step 2 download and just extract the aminet download directly to your existing Timberwolf folder and all your old settings will be intact. I have left a messages over at os4depot.net and aminet.net to see if the Timberwolf download file can be updated or at least to mention this information in the respective readme files. CheersTopHow to add a slide effect to your samples in OctaMED
Guides *OctaMED 101 - Sample sliding commands* Written by: Timo Paul Slip And Slide A Pro Growing up during the mid 80s and 90s I was exposed to the wonderful world of rave and hardcore music. The hectic breakbeats, thumping kick drums, euphoric pads and the bass. Oh man, the bass was the thing that took me by surprise, it totally took over your body. What I liked in particular were the sliding bass lines, it added some depth and character to a simple plucked bass. Luckily OctaMED has a very useful feature for sliding samples and it is one of its easiest but most powerful commands. It's All In The Numbers Before setting up your sample for sliding, it is recommended to use a sample that has a clean loop, if you do not loop your sample the slide effect will be too short lived. This is the reason I use it for bass lines or pads. The basic command is 200 for down slide and 100 for an up slide. If you leave the last two digits alone i.e. 200 or 100, there will be not effect applied to the sample. To get the command applied to the sample you will need to add additional commands to the end of the 200 or 100 command. Let's start with a simple down slide, find your sample and type it in, the line should look something like this: C-2 10000 since you have not applied any commands yet. To add the slide command type in 201 after the first 0, it should look like this: C-2 10201. Let's extend this to the line 16, first put the cursor under your sample and then press the Return key, a verticle line will appear along with the samlple number, repeat this untl you reach line 16. Once you have done this, it is time to add the slide command, this will be done by repeat the 201 numbers, so in effect you should have something along these lines: 000 C-2 10201 001 | 10201 002 | 10201 003 | 10201 004 | 10201 Continue until 016 ... If you play the block you will hear your sample slowly slide down, if you want your sample to slide up then change the 201 to 101 making the block look like this: 000 C-2 10101 001 | 10101 002 | 10101 003 | 10101 004 | 10101 Continue until 016 ... If want to speed up the slide, change the last two digits, i.e. 000 C-2 10101 001 | 10102 002 | 10103 003 | 10103 You can leave the numbers the same to keep a constant slide or have an accelerating slide by increasing the numbers like the above example. There you have it, now you can slide your samples, it makes for some very unique sounds, if you speed it up enough it can sound like a record being stopped suddenly. Experimentation is key though since not all samples will work so nicely with this command. If use any of the tips in this guide please send in your work to: submissions@whatiff.info and we will include them with the Guide file. That's it for this time, good luck and keep tracking!TopSetting Up Roadshow and Gurunet
Guides *Setting Up Roadshow To Work With GuruNet* Written by: Timo Paul Installing Plipbox and Roadshow First Steps If you are jumping straight to this guide please read the review of the GuruNet first otherwise you might be a little lost. Ok so now you have installed the necessary Plipbox files and the Roadshow installer is running. The installer is very straight forward and there are no actions required for you to take during the install. Once it is installed things start to get a bit more complicated. The first thing you need to do is go into the "Storage" drawer on your Workbench/System partition and look for the drawer named "NetInterfaces", when you open the drawer you will find several templates to use, for the GuruNet we will use the "CNet" this file needs to be copied over to "Devs/NetInterfaces", I recommend first copying the file and then renaming it "plipbox" before copying it to the "Devs/NetInterfaces" drawer. Configuring Roadshow Once you have the "plipbox" file in the correct drawer it is time to edit it, you can use any editor but if you have only a standard Workbench, then you will need to type the following: "ed DH0:Devs/NetInterfaces/plipbox" please note that DH0: can be changed to name of your bootdrive, so if your bootdrive is System, then replace DH0: with System: Now you should have the configuration window open, the first thing you need to do is change the "device=cnet.device" to "device=plipbox.device". Next you need to scroll down to "#address" and "#netmask", it is not recommended to use DHCP with plipbox, a static IP address seems to work much better. So at "#address" remove the # and type if the IP address of your Amiga, so in my case, the router is 192.168.11.1, so I chose 192.168.11.45, next the # should be removed from netmask, which should read "netmask=255.255.255.0", if not please update it to the above numbers. "configure=dhcp" should have the # infront so it should look like "#configure=dhcp". That is all to change so far in the plipbox file. To save the files press the Esc key and type X to save and close the file. The second file you will need to edit is the "routes" file, this can be found in Devs/Internet/. Open the file in an editor and add under the line #default localhost, "default 192.168.11.1", the 192.168.11.1 is your router IP address so this will be a different number from the one that I wrote. That is all that needs to changed here, you can save and close the file. Next we need to change the DNS servers, go to Devs/Internet and find the file "name_resolution", edit this file with an editor again. Under the lines #nameserver 192.168.0.1 #nameserver 192.168.0.2 #nameserver 192.168.0.3 add the lines "nameserver" without the # and the DNS server. These can be found out by Googling for your ISP DNS servers. My ISP is AsahiNet, I just Googled "AsahiNet DNS servers" and I was directed to their page with the correct DNS servers. My example looks like this: #nameserver 192.168.0.1 #nameserver 192.168.0.2 #nameserver 192.168.0.3 nameserver 202.224.32.1 nameserver 202.224.32.2 The last thing you need to edit in this file is at the bottom where it says "prefer static" and "prefer dynamic" since we are using a static IP address you need to put a # infront of "prefer dynamic" and remove it from "prefer static". That is all for the routes file, save and close the file. Finally we need to create a new directory in the drawer Prefs/Env-Archive. Open your Shell again and type the following: DH0:Prefs/Env-Archive> makedir sana2 This will create a new directory called sana2 in the Env-Archive drawer. We then need to create a new file by typing in the following: echo NOBURST > plipbox.config Now if you type in ed plipbox.config you will see a window open with the text NOBURST. This is important since there is an issue with the Plipbox 0.6 release, until I found out about this I was unable to get the card to connect to the Internet. So after all that typing and configuring it is a good time to reboot your Amiga, make sure your cables are all plugged in because next we need to test your connection. Testing Your Connection At this point you should have rebooted your Amiga and are looking at the Workbench screen. Open a new Shell/CLI and type in "ping 192.168.11.1", inplace of the "192.168.11.1" type in your own routers IP address. If everything has been correctly installed you should get a message like the following: 64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=10.288 ms Congratulations your Amiga is now connected to the Internet and speaking to your router. If you got a different message such as: unknown error code ret=-1 then something has gone wrong, possibly with your DNS servers or you did not create the NOBURST file. Go back back and double check the steps aboveTopWelcome to voices of the people behind Amiga hardware and software.
CONTENTS In this issue we will be talking to Carl Svensson of datagubbe.se, his personal website where he posts about his graphics work, AREXX project and general musings. A very interesting website with some nice information on how he creates his graphics and demos. Carl thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for WhatIFF? and happy new year! Happy New Year! First off how did you start your journey into computers and computer graphics? I don't remember the first time I saw a computer, but I do remember the first time I saw an Amiga. A classmate had gotten one in the late 1980:s and while the games had a certain allure, it was Deluxe Paint that really fascinated me. When I saw it, I immediately knew I had to somehow get an Amiga myself. It took a couple of years, but in early 1992 I finally had enough money to buy an Amiga 500+ and a copy of DPaint IV. It's been downhill from there. You create graphics both on the C64 and Amiga, which machine is your favourite to work on? The Amiga, no doubt. In fact, when creating C64 graphics, I never work directly on the C64 - I do all the work in Pixcen on my PC. Apart from the odd PETSCII screen, I doubt there's much C64 graphics created on real hardware these days. For your Amiga graphics you use DeluxePaint, have you ever used any other Amiga paint packages such as Brilliance or Photogenics, if so what were your impressions of them? Apart from DPaint, I sometimes use Personal Paint - mostly for format conversions and downsampling. I've actually never use Brilliance. I've been meaning to try it out but never gotten around to it. Photogenics isn't really suited for when you need low level control of pixels. I suppose it's decent for image processing but I never really got the hang of the workflow, and always preferred TVPaint for 24-bit painting and ImageFX for "post processing". I did a bit of fooling around in those in the early 2000:s when I had a CyberVision64 3D. If other Amiga users want to start out making pixel art on the Amiga what would be your advice to them? Just go for it! When creating Amiga graphics is there anything you find that easier to do on the Amiga than on modern software like Photoshop? For me, a lot of the fun is low level pixel pushing and DPaint is one of the best tools for that on any platform. I spend 99% of the time in magnification mode, doing dithering and AA by hand. You can do that in Photoshop but it's extremely tedious: it's a different tool for a different kind of graphics. When starting a new design, do you sketch it first on paper or go straight to the computer? It varies. The last couple of years I've mostly started my images directly on the computer. In addition to your graphic design work you are known for your Arexx tutorials, for those who have never used Arexx can you explain why it is useful on the Amiga? It's a fun and capable scripting language, competent both on its own and as a glue for linking applications together. The best part is of course that it comes with the OS, so everyone's got a copy! What Arexx scripts do you use the most on the Amiga? I actually rarely use the same script more than once, because I mostly use ARexx for solving programming puzzles (such as Advent of Code), prototyping small ideas or generating repetitive AMOS code. I suppose a script I keep returning to is the ARexx REPL I've hacked together myself. Finally, what Amiga setup do you have and what would be your dream Amiga? I own several Amigas and various expansions and peripherals, but my daily driver is an Amiga 1200 with 4 megs of fastmem, a 4 GB disk on module hard drive, a CF->PCMCIA adapter and a trusty old Commodore 1084S. My dream Amiga doesn't exist, but it would probably be something like an A1200 with native HDMI output. Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! Thank you for asking them, it's been a blast!TopWelcome to the links section!
CONTENTS Here we will show links to other pages on the internet where you can get software and other information. www.eab.abime.net One of the best Amiga centred forums on the internet. www.exxoshost.co.uk The resource if you need help or information about the new Terrible Fire cards. www.amibay.com A great place for buying and selling Amiga hardware, they also have some very nice people to give advice about the Amiga. www.amiga.org Probably the longest running Amiga forum on the world wide web, it is more centred on the American Amiga users. Websites you should not visit. www.amiga.net.pl This was quite a popular website for people since they had a number of books and software available, but over the last few years more and more people have lost their money with items not being sent. It is sad that that this is still happening in the Amiga scene.TopWelcome to Amiga Rant
CONTENTS Welcome to the Amiga Rant section of WhatIFF?, here we publish your writings on anything Amiga. It can be about your favourite software or least favourite piece of hardware. In issue 2 we have Kevin Saunders a.k.a Invent writing about Brilliance. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello Amigans, The first thing that attracted me to Brilliance software initially was the gorgeous box art with one of Jim Sachs artworks "AmigaLagoon". The icon based GUI (graphic user interface) instantly caught my attention. Brilliance also seemed to be more responsive than other software. I first started out with an Amiga 500, added a SCSI 20MB hard drive and extra ram. Then upgraded to an A1200, eventually added an 030 with FPU accelerator and extra ram. The A1200 had a built-in hard drive. This was my favourite set-up, more so than the A4000 with Cybervision64 card. I used Brilliance to create artwork for a few games but none of them ever reached a finished state we did manage to get to demo stage. Still have some of those assets for cloned games like Boulderdash, Speedball, Arkanoid. Many years ago I did sell a lot of assets to another (non Amiga) developer. The graphics were for an abandoned shoot em up game for AGA Amigas, with 256 colours (initially was 32 but I later added 256 colours). Most of the graphics was created in Brilliance but enemies was a combination of hand drawn and Lightwave3D. I'd set-up the palettes in Brilliance and optimise the colours in Lightwave so when I imported sprites colour matching was more accurate and realistic, this practise started when we could only use 16 or 32 colours. I must of worked with 6 or 7 wannabe game developers back in the mid 80's but sadly nothing panned out. It was nonetheless a great experience. Once commodore went bankrupt I keenly followed and wished for those AAA Amigas. It was not to be, that with not one game finished really put me off game development. Frustrated, I left the scene and focused on my career in Graphic Design. I did use my A4000 for some commercial work, designing interface elements to a kiosk demonstration for Toyota. The hardware used was a CD32. While working for Interactive Design Group I was given the luxury to use my A4000, mainly 3D renders and a PC that had photoshop. Fast forward to the last few years ago, I jumped back into reading the Amiga forum chats and slowly started designing some game ideas. Initially was, yes you guessed it a "Shoot em up" called "Fatal Danger" and "Underthreat" both designed for modern PC'S (eg 486 machine with 256 colours). Recent times I have been using Brilliance for game development (ReshootR, Turbo Sprint, Rygar, TurboTomato, Paperswing and Boss Machine), I am keen to try learn/master the software and while learning I plan to share these tutorials. On my YouTube channel I do show many examples of how I used Brilliance for various art competitions as well how I created the Kraftwerk animations. Next tutorial will be using the perspective tool. I always wished Brilliance had more training either books or videos and I guess I'm aiming to help fill that gap over time with my other Amiga projects. These days I tend to use FS-UAE emulation to get the most speed out of Brilliance, while I don't have my A1200 any more I do prefer using real hardware but it is a lot more convenient being able to screen capture the work I do on the Mac and share that with everyone.Most of my work in the software is 640x512 and either 256 colours or Ham8 animations. I'm finding the absolute limit with the software in certain aspects. It's either running out of chip memory or some bugs in the software start to appear. For example you can't morph animate 2 x 640x512 images, the software runs out of memory. This while inconvenient gives opportunities to rethink of an idea and solve it another way, that is use smaller images (320x256) works for example. Part of the attraction is the limitations I have attempted on contacting the authors of Brilliance but sadly haven't any success. I'd love to see and help development of a version III, and have lots of ideas how to improve the software, Maybe one day. Finally, besides being an extremely exciting software to use, Brilliance is only available on the Amiga, this exclusivity makes it that much more special. Well I hope this article gives some insight into why I do love Brilliance, I plan to use it for a very long time, more for experimental animations than game development. Thankyou for your time - AmigaForever Kevin Saunders | Invent Patreon | https://www.patreon.com/KevinSaunders Youtube | https://www.youtube.com/KevinSaunders Twitter | https://twitter.com/invent71 Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/invent71/ Ko-fi | https://ko-fi.com/kevinsaundersTopWhat's coming up in the next issue?
CONTENTS *Coming up in issue 1.03 of WhatIFF? In issue 2 we grew with 2 more writers and they have contributed some fantastic articles. Issue 3 will have reviews of PiMiga 2.0, Indivision AGA MK3, SCART to HDMI adapter and more. There will be a continuation of the guides for Lightwave 3D, Brilliance and OctaMED. See you in issue 3 which should hopefully be in by the end of March or early April.TopMeet the writing staff of WhatIFF?
CONTENTS WhatIFF? is an independent magazine created by Amiga enthusiasts from around the world looking for a more serious magazine. The main writers at the moment are a small group but we hope to grow in the coming issues. Timo Paul Steve Lord Kevin Saunders John Scolieri We are always interested in new articles, guides or stories, so you have something you wish to submit please send it to: submissions@whatiff.infoToptimopaul
Writers Name: Timo Paul Aliases: amifan (EAB) Contact info: timopaul@whatiff.info Websites: www.whatiff.info www.binarybeats.meTopstevelord
Writers Name: Steve Lord Aliases: stevelord (EAB) Contact info: stevelord@whatiff.info Websites: www.thedorkweb.substack.com