Tone Byte

Hitchhikings in the world of the Amiga, Just a nybble this month.

BIT ONE: The Amiga is dead, long live the Amiga!

Well, what was I supposed to think? In the span of one week both of my useful Amigas were staring blankly at me. My Amiga 2500 crashing on startup after I upgraded the 2091 SCSI hard drive controller ROMs to revision 7.0 and my Amiga 1200's hard drive continually spinning down and restarting with a thud left me helpless wondering why. Then I read it. Official word. boot: Pure PC Power magazine published by Imagine Publishing Inc. in its December 1996 issue declares the Amiga "dead and buried" in Chris Dunphy's review of the BeBox Dual603-133. That's it then. My Amigas must have gotten their hands on the issue, read their own obituary and committed suicide. Don't feel so bad, he also declares Macintosh "in terminal condition" and IBM's OS/2 "on life support." To give Mr. Dunphy, the magazine's Tech Editor, his due, he does also mention the Amiga in his section of the issue's "Lust List". He stated in a short spot on the Sound Blaster AWE32 PnP audio card that he was raised on the Amiga which made him get used to machines with "great audio capabilities." To try to forestall any hate mail to Mr. Dunphy from our readers, my Amiga 1200 is up and running with a new hard drive and my Amiga 2500 is recuperating well. I do not actually believe that his article killed my Amigas. I do know one thing: the rumors of my Amigas' demise were premature.

BIT TWO: Enter the Mayland Naming Contest

Those who read last month's issue of The Amiga Monitor may recall our review of the calendar/reminder program Mayland.

Well, as it turns out, Allan Odgaard, the author of Mayland, discovered a company in Denmark by the name of "Mayland," and so has decided to rename his program. Why are we telling you? Because you can enter your idea for a new name!

If you wish to submit a possible replacement name for Mayland, then see Allan Odgaard's Mayland page at http://www2.dk-online.dk/user s/Allan_Odgaard/Mayland.HTM.

The winner will receive a free keyfile for Mayland, effectively registering his or her copy.

BIT THREE: The Independent Amiga Rejuvenation Survey

IARS: at first, another unobtrusive acronym. But what this really is is a survey for all Amiga users who care about the future of the platform.

All members of the Amiga community are welcome to participate in this survey. The issues covered include hardware, casing, OS, software, marketing, education, programming, etc., and probably any reasonable category on which you would like to comment. All submissions will eventually be compiled into a single document, and distributed. See the official home site (URL given below) for details.

Rather than describing the whole survey, I'll tell you where you can find out more about it: everything you would need to know about IARS is available on the web at URL http://w3.adb.gu.se/~s96gunte/IARS/IARS.html.

Unfortunately, the deadline was December 10, 1996, which has already passed. However, Gunnar Liljas, who created and is running IARS, says submissions after that date are "...just as welcome." It depends on which stage of the project in which you want to participate. See the IARS page for more information.

BIT FOUR: Vulcan Software Releasing Amiga Games

Vulcan is adding titles to their Amiga Mini Series line of games at an astonishing rate. Below is a probably incomplete schedule of their upcoming release dates.

Bograts: The Puzzling Misadventure

Scheduled for release: Available now.

Tiny Troops: Where War is Fantastic

Scheduled for release: December 1, 1996.

Burnout: Where Only the Best Can Burn

Scheduled for release: December 1, 1996.

Hell Pigs

Scheduled for release: January 1997

With these releases and more, no one can question whether Vulcan will support the Amiga.