=============================================================================== =============================================================================== === i""""i === /""""/ == /"""""""""""""/ = /""""""""""""""""/ ========= /"""/ = === | | == / / == / ____ / = /_____ ______/ ========= / / == === | | = / / == / / = / / ======= / / =============== / / === === | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= /"""""""" / ==== === | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / ____ / ===== === | "" / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / / = / / ====== === | / == / """" / = /"""""" """""/ = / """" / ======= === |________/ == /_____________/ = /________________/ = /___________/ ======== =============================================================================== =============================================================================== ___ ___ ___ _ _ ___ ___ _ |_ _/ __/ __| | | | __| / _ \ | | |\__ \__ \ |_| | _| \_, /_| |___|___/___/\___/|___| /_/(_) EDITOR : Phil Bird se1pb@dmu.ac.uk SUBMISSIONS : se1pb@dmu.ac.uk SUBCRIPTIONS: se1pb@dmu.ac.uk APRIL ISSUE "The world would be de-VOId without VOId" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __ ___ _ _ _ __ _____ ___ ____ ___ \ \ / / |_ __ _| |_( )__ (_)_ _ \ \ / / _ \_ _| _ \__ \ \ \/\/ /| ' \/ _` | _|(_-< | | ' \ \ V / (_) | || |_) |/_/ \_/\_/ |_||_\__,_|\__|/__/ |_|_||_| \_/ \___/___|____/(_) (i.e. the contents!) ......................................................................EDITORIAL .................VOId Sites ..................FRUA making better worlds ..................PC GAMES REVIEWS slicks 'n' slides ..................Amiga City ..................MAiLbOx ..................PGP or not PGP? ..................ASCII art gallery -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ___ ____ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___ ___ _ | __| _ \_ _|_ _/ _ \| _ \_ _|/ _ \| | | _|| |_) | | | || (_) | /| || _ | |__ |___|____/___| |_| \___/|_|_\___|_| |_|____| A warm welcome to the latest edition of VOId. I know, I know it's more than a little over due, but flu, holidays and other things permitting it's got here at last! The easter break has renewed my vigour to make VOId THE Internet e-zine and as such I'm hoping to expand the number of articles (with a little help from you the readers. *grin*) and the subscriptions. So at least there's something to look forward to, huh? :) What of this ish then? Well it's not quite as mind bendingly huge as I would have hoped, but I'll put this down to other people's holidays as well! :) However I think you'll find a fairly joyful collection of articles for your eyes. I've even turned my hand to a spot of article writing myself this ish.. and don't look so happy. :) It's been a busy time recently in the world of Internet and that of the PC, or at least maybe that's because I've not been around for a while? Who knows and who cares! But VOId will be there to cover 'em all. Oh by the way, I have been thinking of sending out a questionnaire to fill your overcrowded mail boxes (where does all the junk mail come from?), to ask you people what you'd like to see in VOId and what sort of computers you use. Basically it'll boil down to me being able to root out articles to match what you people want to read...I mean it's no good publishing LOADS about the new giga-woppa-mega- console from japan if no-one has one! So mail me if you'd object to filling in a questionnaire and if there's not too much public disapproval then watch your mail box for a mind-bogglin' questionnaire! Well, that's about all I can think of to ramble on about for now. Hope you enjoy this issue and thanks to all that helped to make VOId whatever it is today! :-) Phil -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __ _____ ___ ____ _ _ \ \ / / _ \_ _| _ \ __(_) |_ ___ ___ \ V / (_) | || |_) | (_-< | _/ -_|_-< \_/ \___/___|____/ /__/_|\__\___/__/ Recently I've been thinking (don't laugh!) about more ways to get VOId to the potential readers...and came up with some not so new ideas: VOID Distribution BBS-- If you are the proud owner of one of those modem thingies then you can pick your super-special copies of VOId and back issues from INDEX III BBS which can be reached on (+44) 0602 855607 VOID FTP Distribution-- Everyone's heard of FTP on Internet so it stands to reason that we should have an FTP site for people to grab essential back issues of VOId.. so now I upload VOId to the following FTP site : red.css.itd.umich.edu (handy,huh?) in the following directory : /pub/Zines/VOId VOID by Snail Mail If your electronic bits and bobs throw a wobbly then you can always send me a disk by snail mail to :- Phil Bird 41 Windsor Walk, South Anston, Sheffield S31 7EL England Now there's no excuse for not getting VOId! :) I'm hoping to set up my own BBS system over summer, which should be called THE VOID BBS. More details as the time grows nearer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ___ ___ _ _ ___ | __| _ \ | | |/ _ \ | _|| / |_| | _ | |_| |_|_\\___/|_| |_| MAKING BETTER WORLDS! By Peter F. Delaney Phil asked me if I'd write an article about how to design a FRUA module, and how *not* do do it. For those who don't know, FRUA is SSI's Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures game design package. In my opinion, it's the best fantasy role-playing game maker available (outside of C++, of course!). Anyway, enough plugging. Most of what I'm going to say should be pretty intuitive and obvious to the most experienced designers out there. On the other hand, all these things bear repeating. I've seen so many badly designed adventures, the good ones feel like real gems! That said, here's ten things to help you design better FRUA games. o ONE. Dungeons should have something in them. I can't stress this point enough. When you create a dungeon map, you should try to fill it up with events. Higher event density maps are *much* more interesting than low density maps. Nobody wants to wander around in a senseless maze of empty rooms. People want action! Adventure! Something! In general, a good way to make sure your dungeons aren't boring is to make sure each room has a purpose behind it. If you are making a kobold lair, ensure that each room on the map has some reason for being there. Empty rooms are okay from time to time, but you should try to make at least half of the rooms on the map contain some kind of encounter, combat, text, or whatever. Even if the only event in a room is a text event that says something like, "This is a small room containing several torches. A faint breeze blows in from the west door," -- you've still got something better than a plain eventless room! o TWO. Random encounters should be rare. This is an error common to many, many adventures out there. A good incidence for random encounters seems to be either every 30-50 steps with a 50% chance of occuring, or a 1-3% chance every step. You might make these numbers higher if the party is searching. There are two reasons why I discourage random encounters. One is that they tend to lead to the, "Oh no, not this fight *again*," syndrome. If you ever played Secret of the Silver Blades, you know exactly what I mean. I was so sick of fighting the same frost or cloud giant encounter over and over and over, I am amazed I finished that game. The second reason is that random encounters make it harder to play balance a module. You won't really know how many of these fights someone is going to get into. With low numbers of random encounters, you can at least take a good guess. If they are frequent, though, you'll get more variance between players. o THREE. Try to match fight difficulty against character power. The best way to do this is to run a sample party through the game. If your sample party can't beat the encounter in TEST MODULE mode, it is too hard. If you can walk through the entire map without your test party getting winded, it is way too easy. You want your players to sweat a bit! Don't make it too easy for them, but at the same time don't crush them *too* often. It's okay to throw in a few really challenging fights, especially if they are not necessary to win the game (remember the Mulmaster Beholder Corps from Azure Bonds?). Make sure that you use the TEST MODULE facility to check encounters as you create them, and also to run your sample party through the game so they get updated. If you solve the game one map at a time with your sample party, saving them after completing each mission and then designing the next one, you can usually keep the fights pretty well play balanced. o FOUR. Use text, and lots of it! I take as my goal running out of text on every map I use. Remember to make use of the ONLY IF FACING CORRECT DIRECTION and DO ONCE ONLY flags to keep your text from getting too repetitive. I find a module with lots of fights and no text difficult to follow. Text helps you keep a coherent storyline running through the whole game. o FIVE. Browbeating. After you finish a game, try to think where the party might not follow the intelligent path. Try to come up with ways to helpfully hint which way they are supposed to go if they miss it the first time. Often you will find yourself assuming the player will do one thing, and when they don't, they get hosed. Try to help them along. I mean, you want to tell them the story, right? So try to give them lots of hits on how to stay on the path. o SIX. Make cool NPC's. Don't use the ones that come with the game, everyone has seen them before. Change the names, and come up with personalities. Even for random people you meet on the street, you should try to have some fun. Don't have everyone be just a cardboard cutout. Don't be afraid to put in absurd stereotyped characters and people who are one-joke characters, either. I try to use the NPC SAYS event and text events to have NPC's interact with the party often. It's more cool that way. Just be careful with NPC SAYS and the DO ONLY ONCE flag; if the party walks on that square whe the NPC isn't there, the event will be treated as having "happened" even if it didn't. A great way to help realism with NPC's is to create relationships between NPC's. Even the Gold Box games do this; they have fathers and daughters, twins, etc. You should do the same thing. People don't exist in a vacuum, there is always a community there. o SEVEN. Leave the editor unlocked or give out the password. If you have bugs, this makes the game easy to fix. Every game has bugs, even mine. I included the password in an encoded form, so people could get at it with some effort. (Of course, most people know how to hack the GAME001.DAT file already anyway.) o EIGHT. Listen to music while designing. I know this is a weird bit of advice, but it really helps me. o NINE. If you can draw at all, get out the art programs and make some custom artwork. Icons are doable even for people without any real artistic skill. And modifying pictures you already have is also a great way to create new artwork. o TEN. Last bit of advice -- try to get someone to playtest the game while you watch over their shoulder. Edit things as they play by stopping them in the middle. This is the best way I've found to catch bugs. -- Blackclove -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ___ ___ ___ | _ \/ __| / __|__ _ _ __ ___ ___ | _/ (__ | (_ / _` | ' \/ -_|_-< |_| \___| \___\__,_|_|_|_\___/__/ REVIEWS S L I C K S ' N ' S L I D E S One of the great tragedies of PC gaming has always been the lack of good driving games. Sure, if you have $$$ you can go out and buy Formula 1 GP, but there has never been any good PD/shareware games around. But there is light on the horizon..... Going by the unlikely name of 'Slicks 'n' Slides' comes this excellent Finnish game. I played an earlier version, which was unfortunately totally in Finnish and quite unintelligable (to me). However, the new version has both Finnish and English options, and the translations are very good (unlike some translated programs I could mention). The basic premise of the game is simple - be the fastest to drive around the racetrack. The action is viewed from above, with the whole track on the screen at once. This makes for rather tiny and undetailed cars, but this is a purely cosmetic thing. The gameplay is the important thing, and that is where the game really shines. As the title would suggest, there is a lot of slipping and sliding in this game. The cars are driven rather like rally cars, turning into corners _very_ early and hoping the wheels have started to bite by the time you get there :). There is also sand and oil to watch out for, but I prefer to go through the oil, great fun to watch your little car go spinning out of control :). Sand slows your vehicle down to a crawl, as does grass, which surrounds many of the tracks. One of the very nice touches in the game is the skid marks your cars leave everywhere. Accelerate from the start line and your car leaves behind two little trails, as it does when skidding round the corners at high speed, or carreering out of control onto the grass. On a long race, the track surface starts to look like spaghetti, covered with skid marks. The game has lots of options for you to play with. You can turn off the skid marks, the car-to-car bumps, you can make the cars bounce backwards off obstacles (very hard) and many other things. Control is by either the keyboard or joystick. I preferred the keyboard. Another very nice option is the multi-player game. You can play with four people all at once, though the keyboard may get a little crowded :). Players can also choose one of three vehicles to drive. The documention didn't detail any differences between them, but there are slight differences between them. When you haven't got three friends there to play, you can put some computer players in their place. They drive quite well, though occasionally get a bit stuck on the more complicated circuits. The game keeps track of the best lap times for each track as well, with a top ten display. This brings out my only complaint of the game: the lap times are just a single number, like '2179'. Nicer would have been seconds and 100th's of seconds. 23 tracks are included with the game, which is plenty to keep you going for a while. There are some rather nasty ones in there. The game is shareware, registration is 30 FIM/$15 US. For that you receive the newest version of the game, about 100 more tracks, and a track editor, so you can make your own tracks till the cows come home. Machine requirements are pretty basic. VGA is required, the faster your machine the smoother the cars move. They move _really_ smoothly on my paltry 386SX-25. A soundcard is optional, but recommended. Well, the graphics are average and the sound is basic. But still this is my favourite game at the mo'. It all comes down to the playability, and this game is just plain fun. Even better with a few friends over. So get it and give it a try. It's available at: wuarchive.wustl.edu in /pub/msdos_uploads/games The filename I'm not sure about. It should be called slick126.exe, but someone screwed up somewhere and it had to be reuploaded. The new filename was something along the lines of slicks_ok.exe or something. I'm sure you can find it anyway. If in doubt, ask archie. - Tardis (jhawkins@tardis.apana.org.au) P.S. I am considering holding a competition to see what the best lap times on each track were. Send me some mail and tell me what you think (don't send me any scores yet!). Next issue I'll tell you what's happening. -=-=-=-=- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ___ __ __ ___ ___ ___ _ _ / _ \| \/ |_ _/ __|/ _ \ __(_) |_ _ _ | _ | |\/| || | (_ | _ | / _| | _| || | |_| |_|_| |_|___\___|_| |_| \__|_|\__|\_, | |__/ Greetings everyone! There have been quite a few PC reviews in VOId so I thought it was about time I would do some for all you Amiga owners out there.(And in the UK, there must be a few of you). I'll start off with some of the more recent demos that have been released. Rayworld, Origin, Big Time Sensuality, Sequential and 9 Fingers. I'll tell you a bit about them so you can decide what you think, as well as what I think about them. Let's make a start... Name: Rayworld Produced by: Investigation Disks: 3 Requirments: AGA machine Tested on: My A1200, 2 meg chip ram, nothing fancy. Other info: A couple of months old. Pop the disk in the drive and after a few seconds a clock comes up on the screen, the hands clicking round for each click the disk drive makes. Nice idea there. After dumping all of disk one into memory, plonk in disk 2 and after a bit more loading the clock shrinks into the middle of the screen and we get a quick couple of logos on the screen telling us who's who before a man made of vector lines runs around for a bit. Not incredibly realistic limbs, but hey, who cares! The music starts, a techno-demo type tune :). Very nice. A grey scale picture appears of a path with some lamp posts, which promply turn into vectors, and we're given a trip down a path towards a door. Vectors are going at a reasonable speed and we stop at the door where it turns into a picture of said entrance. A little window in the middle of the screen appears with some stairs animated in it. Up we go, and after going up 2 flights the window doubles in size and reshows the anim. Then it turns into a full screen and shows the anim again all zoomed up. We then get some lovely fades between pictures (the type where you can see both pictures at once on the screen as they fade into each other, very nicely done). All nice quality grey scale pics, either drawn (which are mainly some sort of (semi) naked female fantasy type thing) or raytraced beasties. (Woman with wings -> raytraced kind of building -> good bonk -> nicely raytraced fireplace -> woman with sword and creature). Then up pops a Rubic's cube, with sides spinning like a Rubic's cube does. Looks good, nice and fast. My guess is animation though (or precalculated anyway, haven't had a look into it yet). Then the background starts to flash after a bit and the screen turns into a 2-colour text picture as the disk gets accessed. After a short while the screen starts to flash lots of these 2-colour pictures. If you don't do anything it stays like that forever. (Well, it did when I tried it). The answer, a few seconds after the disk light goes out start messing around with the mouse and it should go on to the next part..... This bit's nice, full screen colour raytraced animation. Not full resolution, but considering the size it must be, and speed, and length it plays for (a good few seconds, like a mini film), I don't blame it. If you've seen the 242 demo by VirtualDreams you know what I mean, it's that sort of thing, except it's a good deal higher resolution than that and more colourful. The anim itself is a picture of a robot walking down a path towards a door. Same sort of path as the vector bit earler. (If you haven't guessed by now the whole demo is like the story of a trip a robot thing has on walkabout. Well, that's what we think anyway). From this animation we have a cube come up. But not wanting to be an ordinary cube it has some of the pictures from the fading part earlier texture-mapped onto its sides. That's proper texture mapping (any angle, any size, etc.etc), not texture squashing or some other cheating method that Doom/Wolf3D-type stuff uses. Not quite full frame rate but it's doing a lot considering my processor. We go back the to the vector world part again then, which fades between different parts of itself. The fade's a bit like before where you can see both pictures at the same time, a clever bit being that as it does the fades it's moving round where it's fading to:). The last fade goes to a train which we follow into a tunnel. Whats inside? A ray traced animation (grey scale) of two planets between some mirrors spinning around. Nice animation. After this part a cube appears made up of masses of lines. (Blimey, yet another non-filled vector, eh?). Masses of lines just about describe it, actually, as it spins 'em around and changes the way they look quite nice. (If only Frontier's vector map looked this quick!) We're asked to plonk disk 3 in the drive then, and as it loads this to memory we get a tune change, while some credits get scrolled up the screen. What's loaded into memory? Well, just after the credits a raytraced hires interlaced ham-8 picture (looks that way anyway) comes up, and what seemes to be a massive guitar sample gets played to us. This is all very well perhaps the first one or two times you see it, but you'll probably find yourself not bothering loading disk three after that. Overall: A pretty good demo, about my favorite one released at the demo competition it came from. Good music, graphics are not bad either. Well- produced, each part jumps to the next bit in a inobtrusive way, some original ideas hiding away. All in all, a good use of three disks, and a good addition to any demo collection :) Name: Origin Produced by: Complex Disks: 2 Requirments: AGA machine Tested on: My A1200, 2 meg chip ram, nothing fancy. (also friend's machine, same with 4megs fast ram) Other info: Didnt really like to work on my machine unless I turned off my external drive first. Could be it wanted lots of memory. Worked fine with external switched off. (And fine with friends ram expansion) This won the demo competition at the Party 93 (I think that's the one anyway). Should it have? Why not take a look! Ok... We get an average picture of a woman's face in a space helmet up as it dumps disk one to memory, and things getting underway after disk two is up and going. We start off with some credits for the demo, which appear in between some quick intro sections. First of these is a pan by a ray traced space ship. Stars in the background twist round with the pan leaving some very nice looking fading tails behind them. Second is a picture of a planet which said ray traced ship flys into. Third shows a v. nice fast animation of a camera zooming into the planet's surface. Fourth bit shows another smooth animation, this time traveling along the surface of the planet. V. nice opening to the demo. A logo forms on the screen from some vector fragments, which then spins round, finally swinging up a copperlist. Something that looks like ed209 off robocop comes into view, nice smooth vectors, where we are then zoomed, into a view from its cockpit. This starts us off moving through a vector city, not all that complex but nice and fast, with a nice litle touch where the buldings bend slightly like a fishbowl view at the edges of the screen :). Mr. ed209 type-thing then disappears into a tunnel in the ground. Now you should all know what a dot tunnel looks like? No? Picutre yourself zooming down through a tunnel with all the walls made out of dots flowing past you. They use vectors instead of dots here, moving very fast and smoothly, giving a very nice effect of moving though a tunnel. Coming out from this a simple background is scaled from the middle of the screen til it fills it, and what looks like a gourad-shaded cube spins across the screen, very nicely done, very smooth, great shading effect on it (256 colours?). The middle of the cube gets cut off by the background as it spins. Very nice. Then the whole screen is cut into 6 cubes which spin round, texture mapping the background on their sides, bringing another one to the front. Slows down this bit :( but looks like propper texture mapping. To make up for this slight slow down (no doubt on a faster processor it will go a lot faster :) ) a nice rubber/jelly ball looking thing boings into view with a colour picture spinning/mapped onto it. No slow down here! V. nice again, and after this pops off we get a full screen rotating picture effect using the same picture that appeared on the ball. Who needs SNES mode7!!! (The mode that helps produce all those spinning screens, for those who don't know). The final part of the demo is a Doom/Wolf3D-type part :). On my machine this isn't incredibly fast, but it doesn't cheat like some demos do by mirroringthe walls half-way down the screen to double the size of everything vertically. Still, it looks good, and would most likely go a lot faster on more powerful Amigas. Some of the walls are animated, and the floor and ceiling are made of checkered vectors. Not bad for one of the first Doom/Wolf3D-type things I've seen on my amiga (this demo is a few months old now). I can say things have got faster recently with this kind of thing; I've got a demo floating around that does a Doom/Wolf3D-type thing at what looks to be almost full frame rate on my 1200! The demo finishes with a picture, nothing special here, not a particually brill picture, some bloke holding a discus in front of a planet. Music wise, it's another techno-demo type tune, not one of the best around, certainly not one of the worst. Definitely another demo for the collection. Some more origional ideas coming out in it, again well-produced and put together, starting to utilise some of the speed and features of the 1200 :). Name: Big Time Sensuality Produced by: Axis Disks: 2 Requirments: AGA machine Tested on: My A1200, 2 meg chip ram. Other info: Makes you happy to have AGA :) Whew. This one's pretty new,, only released a couple of weeks ago. I'll start with the music with this one, and, as the name sugests, it's a version of Big Time Sensuality by Bjork. And a jolly good one it is too! Mr. Musician Responsible can give himself a large pat on the back, except for one strange thing; when she's singing the lyrics, for some reason the word 'time' in 'big time sensuality' never seems to get sung! Still damn fine reconstruction of her song, though. This isn't just a couple of disks with a big sample on (nope, it isnt a big sample, it is a propper module). While disk one loads a picture comes up. Boy, what a quality picture though! Looks like hi-res, interlaced ham-8 picture. It's a picture of the sky with clouds in it, with a raytraced logo in the middle, and a shiny sunlight-type camera effect. One of the best piccies I've ever seen quality wise on my amiga. (Photorealistic, mate!). Well, we liked it anyway :). The picture goes and you'll be asked for disk 2. Plonk this into the drive and up starts the main music. Some credits zoom onto the screen (nice smooth gfx scaling routine if you look at it, with a subtle fade between credits). Then up pops another picture, demo title, on the screen. Another hi-res interlaced ham-8, I think. (That's what it looks like anyway). From this, a TV channel effect appears, where it flicks between channels before coming across one with something on it, a nice colour picture zooming bit of a mountain. 256 colours I think. After this toddles of were treated to a lovely AGA plasma. Just watch those colours blend into each other! Yummy :) Full screen overscan as well. Don't you just love AGA! (that's to AGA owners, of course). Then we get 2 zooming pictures of a nice fantasy drawing (by some famous artist I cant remember the name of, Boris V something? It tells you at the end, anyway). Looks good, nothing incredible though. We're then shown a rather crappy screen melt (after a quick bbs advert). Erm, don't know why they bothered with this bit, definitely not as good as the rest of the demo. It's more picture time then, first a group logo with picture of an eye, and then a strawberry splashing into some water. Nice looking, especially when it faaaaades into a quality drawing of another face. (Fading like in Rayworld, where you can see both pictures at the same time :)) Two nice hi-res interlaced pictures these, 16 colours each. We then see another picture of a face! Small digitised 256 colours. But it then gives us a full-screen 256 colour rotating picture of this, one of the nicest rotating zooming picture routines I've seen, and puts a little strech in it as well towards the end for good measure. This brings us to the end of this demo, where we get another tune (a trumpety type ditty, not bad), and the end credits + info is scrolled up the screen over a blank background. DEFINITELY a demo for the collection. Even if it doesn't have some of the most incredible coding ever seen, it's definitely one of the best-looking ones around! I'd buy that for a dollar! (Incidently, the text at the end mentions it's an intro for their up-and-coming bigger demo. Can't wait!) Name: Sequential Produced by: Andromeda Disks: 1 Requirments: A500 upwards. (would guess 1meg ram needed but wouldn't know) Tested on: My A1200, 2 meg chip ram. Other info: Won the Gathering 94 demo competition. Couldn't say what the other demos there were like to compare it though, couldn't see many round the ftp sites. Blimey, 1.06am, getting late, time to tell you about this one next... Couldn't really say what sort of music this one contains as it keeps changing. Sounds pretty good though. The first part brings up a screen with bubbles floating up it. (nice big ones). Then some rather nice looking jelly text bounces down into the screen and wobbles for a bit at the same time. Wobble wobble wobble. Very nice. Then a picture appears. Not particulaly brilliant, but it's there. After this one of the more original uses of vectors I've seen recently is shown to us, in the form of a roller coaster ride. It all looks quite simple, 4 colours, but it's smooth, fast, and effective. Nice the way the sound of the wind changes depending how fast your going (wosh round the loops :P). Another picture then pops in the middle of the screen of the back of a naked female. Nothing special. We get a few credits next, with a twisty vector to one side, and an animated checkered mapped donut below. Looks groovey. A vector magnet's up next! Spins around for a bit, then a few black objects get attracted to its poles, before being flung off. Doesn't really look anything special though. Another vector cube follows. What's this one do? Opens up to reveal another cube which is then mirrored off the open sides of the cube around it. Looks ok, but still, nothing I haven't seen before. (Or done before :)) Some sort of vector line tree comes up next with berry looking objects at the end of its branches. It gets bent by the wind which when strong enough bends the tree right over and blow the berries off. Apparently, anyway. Not spectacularly incredible. Something that I would describe as a vector fish type thing that doesn't look like a fish shape then spins across the screen. Looks quite nice. We then get a row of rotating cubes in the middle of the screen, a scroll appears on their faces and is passed from one end to the other. Groovey scroller, looks good. "What next?", I hear you ask on the edge of your seats.... some 3D morphing vector lines. A bit like the type in hardwired I supose, nothing extra special, though. After another picture we get an 18 frame raytraced animation of an engine. Smooth and nicely done. A plasma ball comes up next, you know the sort, you see them in the shops, you put your hands on them and the electricty-looking things jump towards it. Nice idea, but could have looked a bit better. Then the screen splinters into some vectors that fall off the bottom, and we get another average picture, a tune change, and then a simple vertical scroller up the screen. Overall? Not a bad demo, better than alot out there, remembering of course it's not AGA. So all you a500, a600, etc. owners can get it. (go on, get a 1200, that's where the demo scene seems to be moving!). Worth a place in the old collection. Name: 9 Fingers Produced by: Spaceballs Disks: 2 Requirments: A500 upwards. Tested on: My A1200, 2 meg chip ram, friends 1meg A500 Other info: Yup, more dancy stuff! Just a quicky this, I thought i'd bung it in to give non-AGA owners another thing to read about. It's the sequel to State of the Art. If you haven't seen that, stop hibernating. Basically it's just like State of the Art, as in you have sequences of dancing figures on the screen, all dancing about to a pretty good ravey technoy tune. The main difference between this and SOTA is the quality of the animations. They're much much better than in state of the art, the amount of detail you can make out on the characters in it is quite high. Another demo to impress your friends with. One thing about the speed of it though, on my A1200 it wacks along at a fair old rate, nice 'n' fast, but a friend who tried it on his a500 said that the frame rate drops a bit. But who's counting! Get it, before it gets you. Definitely worth the disk space. That's it for demo reviews for this issue on the Amiga. If you'd like some more reviews then expect a few more in later issues. Want them reviewed differently? Just say, as I just took a guess at the way I did it up there. More technical information, more on how it's done, more on how we think it's done, less detail on what happens, you tell me! Oh, for those of you who dont know what Doom/Wolfenstein 3D look like when I mentioned texture mapping up there, get round to a 486 (preferably dx2 66MHZ)/Doom terminal owning friend's house and have a look. Very nice! Why do these games cheat and not do proper texture mapping though I hear you ask? For those not in the know and who are interested, after consulting some friends who have written Doom/Wolf3D-type games plus some text from the author of Doom, they use processes such as texture squashing/ray casting. Using this method they can speed things up and simulate a type of texture mapping, but it brings limitations on what they can do, and the way things can be shown. If anyone is interested I'll do an article for VOId on how it's done :) Amazing fact for no apparent reason: The gfx used in Doom/Wolf3D are calculated in something called chunky format. PC screens operate in chunky mode (so i'm told), Amiga screens operate using bit planes. Chunky mode is where each pixel is stored as eg. 8bits = 256 colours = one byte of memory, rather than split across individual bit planes on the Amiga, where say 8 bits = 256 colours are stored on 8 individual bitplanes, not in one continuous byte. (c) Bad explanations at 2am inc. Ltd. (tm). So when doing Doom/Wolf3D-type things on the Amiga you also have to convert the chunky pixels into bitplane equivalents, which is a big bottleneck in speed. That's one reason why PC's do this kind of thing so quickly. Still, you can have great dificulty doing all those lovely plane effects on the PC that you can on the amiga so quickly! (And fast Amigas can handel Doom/Wolf3D stuff perfectly fast). The cd32 has a chunky -> planar converter chip in it. How fast this would make things I don't know, they didnt put on in the A1200. Silly Commodore. That's all for now.. I need sleep!!!!!! Babbage =] p.s. Where can you get these from? You should be able to get them from any decent PD company. I personally ftped them myself, they were in diskmashed format so you'll need disk masher to unarchive them. (Most ftpable amiga sources come in either disk mashed or Lha format). The site I got these from was src.doc.ic.ac.uk in the directory /pub/aminet/demos (if I remember correctly) ftp.luth.se or any other aminet ftp site will also probably have most of them. ============================================================================ A new day, a new load of reviews. This time some utilities for the amiga. There all avaliable on PD, so you should be able to get hold of them reasonably easily. I got them from src.doc.ic.ac.uk, in various directories which I can't remember offhand, you'll have to look around. All of them multitask nicely and ive tried to tell you about the most recent versions around. All tested under wb3 on my 2meg A1200 with 120 HD. First up... Name: SuperDuper Version: 3.1 Type: Disk copier/formatter xcopy type utility. Requirments: An Amiga (as far as I know, I havent had a chance to check any of these on 1.3 machines, should all be ok on WB2 upwards) Yup, as you've guessed this is another disk copying program. What sets it apart from the rest of the bunch out there, and stops you loading xcopy everytime you want to backup a disk? Its main advantage is that it fully multitasks in a nice window on the workbench screen, (you can put it on its own non-workbench window as well if you like) so while it's away doing its stuff you can carry on doing something else at the same time (like i'm doing here, along with delitracker, and cygnus ed, and a few other things. Don't you just love true multitasking!) Let's have a look at what it can do then... Firstly, disk formatting. You can format as many disks as you want at the same time, verify them, set FFS or not, all normal disk format type things youd expect from any formatter. (Won't format PCx: drives though.) There's only DOS-type copy when copying disks. I don't know about you, but that's the only mode I ever use anyway. If you need a nibble copy then use xcopy or something for that. There's the standard copy from source to destination drive toggles, plus you can also buffer disks to either ram, the hard drive or a virtual drive to speed up copying out to lots of disks. Very nice feature. Other features include a check disk option, Iconify (where it iconifies the program to an icon on the workbench screen. I wish more programs would do this!), and an arexx port. There's also an extra screen you can bring up which shows a grid-type picture of each disk, showing you how far it's gotten in a copy/format/etc., any read/write error places, how long it's taken, the names of all the disks copied, etc.. (The same sort of thing as the disk grids in xcopy). A bar shows you how far a copy/format has gone in the normal window at the same time, in case you don't want this extra window up. Oh, it also locks the disk drives while active so everytime you insert a nondos disk you don't get any annoying workbench can't read disk windows popping up :) All in all a very well programmed, very neat, well-featured disk copying program. I wouldn't leave home without it. The best disk copier I've seen around for a while. next up... Name: Delitracker Version: 1.37 Type: Multiple music module player. Requirments: WB 2.1 upwards I belive. Get version 1.31 or before if you want to use it on 1.3 machines. Whey! You ever want a music player that multitasks in your workbench screen, then THIS is the program you want! A very well-featured player that can play just about every format under the sun, plus a few more that probably are yet to be invented. (Well over 50 formats anyway, and as all the players are seperate modules from the program, everytime a new one comes along, all you have to do is load it into delitracker and off you go :) It plays standard mod.files (protracker and all that) of course,others including TFMX (inc Pro, 7voice, normal), Wittaker, you name it, it's there. It offers normal player options like play, stop, pause, fast forward, eject, skip to next song (if module format suports it eg. TFMX), speed control, volume control, balance control, multiple module selection, random module selection, song fading, auto loading of next module, sound filter toggle, definitely the player for you. The version I ftp'ed also came with source, including source for all the player routines, and instructions on how to write your own playroutines for it. One thing we noticed with this version of delitracker - if you try and quit using the window close gadget, delitracker will disapear from the window, but any music will still keep playing. Clever, eh! Just pop it back up again with commodities exchanger or whatever to get the window back up. (Quit using menubar quit option :) Damn fine program and worthy of its place on my Toolsmanager menu. (not got toolsmanager? Get that as well!) Name: PlaySid Version: 2.2 Type: C64 music player Requirments: WB2 upwards, get versino 2.0 I think it is for 1.3 friendly. Whey, did you ever have a C64? Remember all those great tunes? Last Ninja? Dominator? Sanxion? Hawkeye? Sam fox stri.. ops! Erm, well anyway, if you do, then this might be the program for you. What you get is basically 3 disks FULL of c64 tunes plus a simple Delitracker type workbench player to play them with. (Apparently it actually simulates a 6502 processor to simulate the playroutines to play the songs properly). Sounds great, most of the tunes sound a lot better than they do on my C64 actually. Not just for C64 fans. Name: Amiga RealTime Monitor Version: 1.7 (I didn't ftp; a friend gave it to me, it's shareware though) Type: System spie :] Requirments: Something running workbench :) Ever used Xoper? This is something similar. Basically it can show you everything you could want to know about what's happening in the system, the processes, their status, where they are and what the're doing, vectors, interrupts, devices, libraries, resources, fonts, windows, locks, memory, residents, all that sort of thing. Unlike Xopers command line interface this program uses buttons you click on. Much easier to see what you're doing. Also they all work! Ever wanted to kill a process?(and it actually does it. Can I get Xoper to do it for me? I can not!). Click on the process name you want to look at and some extra options appear at the bottom. Press kill and it's gone! you could examine it further, signal it, or do all sorts of other things. A very nice and easy to use system monitor program. Doesn't do things like show the cpu usage of all the processes, but you can put XOper up for that. (Not got that? Another system spie type program that let's you see whats going on). All in all a very nice program. Name: Csh Version: 5.35 Type: Unix Csh for wb shells. Requirments: A cli/shell :) If you use unix like me, there's only so many aliases and extra programs you can do to make your shells seem more like a unix shell (if you ever happen to want to simulate a unix shell that is). Whats Csh do? Start it off in a shell window and it will install a mass of new commands and features for your use, simulating a unix csh. Some of the features it gives include (this is from pressing its help key).... abortline action addbuffers addpart alias ascii assign basename cat cd chmod class close copy cp date dec delete dir diskchange echo else endif error exec fault filenote flist fltlower fltupper foreach forever forline fornum getenv goto head help history howmany htype if inc info input join keymap label local linecnt ln ls makelink man md mem menu mkdir mv open path pri protect ps pwd qsort quit rback rename readfile rehash relabel resident return rm rpn rxrec rxsend run search set setenv sleep split source stack strhead strings strleft strlen strmid strright strtail tackon tail tee touch truncate type unalias uniq unset usage version waitforport whereis window writefile You are also able to use unix piping to its full.. eg. man cp | more Unix process creation is also suported eg. myprogram & And you can run your csh scripts in it as well. Another nice feature it suports is a nice trick where you can set up a directory tree of your hard disk, where you can then jump to anywhere just by entering the directory name you want, instead of the full path :) I haven't gone very deeply into its depths yet so I can't tell you about the wealth of other things it can do; have fun messing around. A nice addition to your working environment, and if you're after some sort of shell program ala unix okind, you won't go to far wrong with this. (chs + KingCon make a nice duo!) Name: Yak Version: 1.2c Type: general purpose commodity type thing. Requirments: Wb2 upwards I think Ever had loads of commodities for screen blanking, click to front, #?->* replacment etc.etc? Yak combines all these sort of things into one program, with a few other features that can prove to be very useful. Things you can set it to do include autoactivation of window under mouse pointer, activate window under mouse pointer when key pressed, click window to back, click window to front (these work from anywhere in window, not just click to back icon in top right hand corner), screen to back, screen to front, enable * instead of #? for wildcards in shells, mouse blanking, and a simple screen blanker. You can also install keyboard clicks and set off your own command with a hot key. Other hotkeys are installed as well that enable you to close, zip, shrink, enlarge windows, cycle windows and screens and such, all with the press of a key. If you use this sort of thing, this is one of the better commodities I've seen to let you do them, all in one program. It can come in very useful at times, especially if you use a lot of windows on the screen at once, like I do! Another program worthy of the disk space. Right, that's it for now.. Hope you enjoy these utils if you get them, half of them have exchanger front ends as well in case you're interested. I'm off to see the daisy chainsaws for a pound (love love love love all ya money :)) and other great songs, babe singer as well, apparently). Till next time... Babbage =] (several hours later, bah, they cancelled their gig.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __ __ ___ _ _ _ ___ | \/ |/ _ \(_) | | |__ / _ \__ __ | |\/| | _ | | |__| '_ \ (_) \ \/ / |_| |_|_| |_|_|____|_.__/\___//_/\_\ MAIL BOX Hi there, babbage here in a reply to the letter sent in by Tony on my Nimbus article. Thanks for the letter, if people don't want this kind of stuff in VOId, then that's fine with me. after all it's a magasine for all you out there and your comments count! So I won't be doing any more of those kind of articles :) (BTW the information was of some practical legal use to several people I've known over the years, especially when they've locked themselvess out of their own networks. You wouldn't belive how crap some network managers are.) As for illegality, what with freedom and speach and all that, I don't know if you've ever ftp'ed to a public ftp site which has a cud (computer underground digest) directory in it? 100's of megabytes on that kind of thing! Thanks again for the letter. Do more people have views on this kind of thing, or anything in fact? Well send them into VOId now :) Til later... Babbage :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ___ ___ ___ _ ___ ___ ___ ___ | _ \/ __| _ \ ___ _ _ _ _ ___| |_ | _ \/ __| _ \__ \ | _/ (_ | _/ / _ \ '_| | ' \/ _ \ _| | _/ (_ | _/ /_/ |_| \___|_| \___/_| |_||_\___/\__| |_| \___|_| (_) PGP or not PGP? I would have expected that most of you would have heard of PGP. If not well I guess you have now eh? :-) PGP is the latest offering in the encryption ball park (encryption, as in coding of text rather than Egyptian mummies! :)). There are alot of encryption packages out there in the Unix, Mac and PC (oh and amiga as well..) worlds, but none have had as much impact as PGP. Firstly PGP is public domain which means any Tom, Dick or Harry can use it for free without fear of FAST popping by for tea. There is one little problem with PGP and that is that the US government is trying to stop the use of it. Now that dosn't sound like a very nice attitude, does it? But let me explain why I sort of agree with what they're trying to do. PGP is good. And I mean really good. If you want to get a message to someone without someone else reading it PGP is almost garnteed. The problem? Well, it's TOO good. The US government can't crack it and neither can a lot of people.. which means communication can go unchecked. Think about it.. hard core porn pictures encrypted and shipped across contries to be sold on the streets, drug smuggling could be arranged over e-mail without worries, there are all sorts of possibilities. What do yout think about this? Is PGP such as good idea or do we really want mail anarchy? All your views are more than appreciated. P.Bird -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _ _ _ / _ \/ __|/ __|_ _|_ _| __ _ _ _| |_ __ _ __ _| | |___ _ _ _ _ | _ \__ \ (__ | | | | / _` | '_| _| / _` / _` | | / -_) '_| || | |_| |_|___/\___|___|___| \__,_|_| \__| \__, \__,_|_|_\___|_| \_, | |___/ |__/ Welcome to another ASCII art gallery, this time put together by myself, P. Bird, from a variety of sources.. hope you enjoy them all and don't foget to mail me any nice ASCII piccies you come across yourself. Enjoy. /^\ / (/^\) / \ ( \ \ / ( \ /^\ / ) \ | _|_ \ | |/^\| | / _|_ | | _|_ \ / _|_ | | | | | | _|_ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ****| |******| | | | | |****| |**** | | | |****| | *| | | | | | | |***** * | | H A P P Y | | * * * | * B I R T H D A Y ! * | | ***** ***** | |@ ********** ********** @| | @ @ ************* @ @ | | @@@ @ @ @ @ @@@ | | @@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@ | * @@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@ * * @@@@@ * ***** ***** ********** ********** ************* iIYVVVVXVVVVVVVVVYVYVYYVYYYYIIIIYYYIYVVVYYYYYYYYYVVYVVVVXVVVVVYI+. tYVXXXXXXVXXXXVVVYVVVVVVVVVVVVYVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVXXXXXVXXXXXXXVVYi. iYXRXRRRXXXXXXXXXXXVVXVXVVVVVVVVXXXVXVVXXXXXXXXXXXXXXRRRRRRRRRXVi. tVRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRXRXXXXXXXXXXXXXXRRXXXXRRRRXXXXXXXRRRRRRRRRRRRXV+. tVRRBBBRMBRRRRRRRRRXXRRRRRXt=+;;;;;==iVXRRRRXXXXRRRRRRRRMMBRRRRXi, tVRRBMBBMMBBBBBMBBRBBBRBX++=++;;;;;;:;;;IRRRRXXRRRBBBBBBMMBBBRRXi, iVRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBRBBMMV==iIVYIi=;;;;:::;;XRRRRRRBBMMMMMMMMBBRRXi. iVRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY;IBWWWWMMXYi=;:::::;RBBBMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBXi, +VRMMRBMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY+;VMMMMMMMRXIi=;:::::=VVXXXRRRMMMMMMMMBBMXi; =tYYVVVXRRRXXRBMMMMMV+;=RBBMMMXVXXVYt;::::::ttYYVYVVRMMMMMMBXXVI+= ;=tIYYVYYYYYYVVVMMMBt=;;+i=IBi+t==;;i;::::::+iitIIttYRMMMMMRXVVI=; ;=IIIIYYYIIIIttIYItIt;;=VVYXBIVRXVVXI;::::::;+iitttttVMMBRRRVVVI+, ;+++tttIttttiiii+i++==;;RMMMBXXMMMXI+;::::::;+ittttitYVXVYYIYVIi;; ;===iiittiiIitiii++;;;;:IVRVi=iBXVIi;::::::::;==+++++iiittii+++=;; ;;==+iiiiiiiiii+++=;;;;;;VYVIiiiVVt+;::::::::;++++++++++iti++++=;; ;;=++iiii+i+++++iii==;;;::tXYIIYIi+=;:::::,::;+++++++++++++++++=;; ;;;+==+ii+++++iiiiit=;;:::::=====;;;::::::::::+++i+++++++++i+++;;; ;;;==+=+iiiiitttIIII+;;;:,::,;;;;:;=;;;::,::::=++++++++==++++++;;; :;====+tittiiittttti+;;::::,:=Ytiiiiti=;:::::,:;;==ii+ittItii+==;; ;;+iiittIti+ii;;===;;:;::::;+IVXVVVVVVt;;;;;::::;;===;+IIiiti=;;;; ;=++++iIti+ii+=;;;=;:::;;+VXBMMBBBBBBXY=;=;;:::::;=iYVIIttii++;;;; ;;++iiiItttIi+++=;;:::;=iBMMMMMMMMMMMXI==;;,::;;:;;=+itIttIIti+;;; ;=+++++i+tYIIiii;:,::;itXMMMMMMMMMMMBXti==;:;++=;:::::;=+iittti+;; ;;+ii+ii+iitiIi;::::;iXBMMMMMWWWWWMMBXti+ii=;::::,,,,:::=;==+tI+;; ;;iiiitItttti;:::;::=+itYXXMWWWWWWMBYt+;;::,,,,,,,,,,,,,:==;==;;;; :;=iIIIttIt+:;:::;;;==;+=+iiittttti+;;:,:,,,,::,,,,,,,,:::;=;==::; ;::=+ittiii=;:::::;;;:;:;=++==;;==;:,,,,,,:;::::,,,,,,,,::;==;;::; :::;+iiiii=;::::,:;:::::;;:;;::;:::,,,,,,,:::;=;;;:,,,,,:::;;::::; :;;iIIIIII=;:::,:::::::,::::,:::,,,,,,,,,,,:;;=;:,,,,,,::::;=;:::; :;==++ii+;;;:::::::::::,,,,,,::,,,,,,,,,,,::::,,,,,,,,,,:,:::::::; ::;;=+=;;;:::;;::,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:::::; ::;=;;;:;:::;;;;::,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,::,,::::; :;;:;::::::,::,,:,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:::; :::::::::::;;;:,,,,,,,,,,,,,...,...,,,.,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,,,:; ::::::::;=;;;;;::,,,,,,,,,,,.......,...,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,; :::::,,:;=;;;;;;;iVXXXVt+:,,....,,,,....,.,,,,,,,.,.....,,,,,,,,:; :,,::,,:::;;;;;;=IVVVXXXXVXVt:,,,,,..,..,,,,.,,,,,..,.,,,,,,,,,,,; ::,::,,,:,:::::,::;=iIYVXVVVVIYIi;,,.,.,,,::,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,. :,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,::;+itIIIIIIi:;;i++=;;;;;;;;;::,,,...,,..,,,,,,,. :,,,,,,,,,,,,,,=iitVYi++iitt==it;;:;;;;::;;::::,,,......,,,,,,,::. ::,,,,,,,,,,,,,++iiIVIi=;;=;+i;:;+:::,,,,,,,,,,,,,.....,,,,,,,,::, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,;=+it=:::,,,,,,,,,,.,......,,.,..........,,,,,,,,:: :,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:=:,,,,,,,,,,,,,,......................,.,,.,.,,: :,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:,,,,,,,,,,..,........................,..,...,,: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.....................................,.......,, ,,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,...............................................,, itittiiiii+=++=;;=iiiiiiittiiiiii+iii===;++iiitiiiiiii+=====+ii=+i ____________ _____/ \_ __________/ _/ _____ \__ ______ ____/ / / \___\_ _/ \____ _/ _/ \_ _/ \____ / _/ ___ \ / _______ \_ | / ___/_____- | / _/ \__ \_ | _/__/ \_ \__ | / _/ \______ \ /_/ \ \ | |_/ _____\__________/ \ | / __/ __/ _/ \_ / | ___/ / _/ \_ | | __/ / | / ________ \ \| | | / \XXXXXXXXxx_| | |\ | | | \___ | | | \ |______ | \_ | \ ___||XXXXX/ ---_ | \ | | | xxXXX// /___-/// | | \ \ /\ |/ / |///OX\\\ | | | || _/ | __---_ | | \\XX/// \___ \| \ // _/ | \\\xxxxx \ | |\_\--- \ \_ \ |/ _/ | | //OXX\\\ \ \ \_ \ _/ _/ /\ | \\XXX///\ |\ \ | /__/ / \ \_----- | \ | / |/ / | \ / | \_/ | /| _| | | __/ / | | \ - / _/_/ | _/ _/ _____ |/ | _ _/ /\\ \ ________/ / | /_ |/ / / \_ \_ __/_________/ / / \______ \ | | \_ \- \_ \__________/ _/ \ \__ | \___ _/\_ | \__|\_ \___ _/| \ / \__\_______________/ \___ __/ |\ \/ \___ | \_______/ | \___ | / \_| | \ \_____/ _______|____/ \___\__ _ | ./ | Ameoba vaulting a high fence ! Ameoba with a bakers hat , Ameoba with a broken leg *. Ameoba with a flashlight @. Ameoba with a French Horn (.) Ameoba wearing antlers .- Ameoba with a rifle ? Ameoba with an umbrella .} Ameoba with a bow and arrow _._ Ameoba with flat feet . o=o Ameoba skateboarding .. Ameobas having a conversation ::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::: Ameobas in a parade : : Ameoba balancing act % Ameobas on a see-saw .? Confused ameoba .! Shocked ameoba o Bodybuilding ameoba O Bodybuilding ameoba on steroids . Ameoba disguised as a full stop . Ameoba hiding behind a full stop . Hope you enjoyed 'em -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ___ _ _ __ __ _ | _ \__ _ _ _| |_(_)_ _ \ \ / /__ _ _ __| |___ | _/ _` | '_| _| | ' \ \ \/\/ / _ \ '_/ _` (_-< |_| \__,_|_| \__|_|_||_| \_/\_/\___/_| \__,_/__/ Well it's been quite a while coming but VOId 9 has finally got out of my door as it were. Ish 10 will be something bigger and more informative then ever before. I mean ish 10. It's almost anniversary status! :) So watch out for your copy soon and any contributions would be more than willingly thrown in. :) Ideas are always more than welcome and so are submissions. Hope you enjoyed this issue and please feel free to mail me any comments or what have you. :) Cheers and thanks for reading, Phil Greetz go out to the following: RZR 1911, Hi T, Mum, Bryan Rogers and Blackbeard.