Received in an email from Cloanto:
Your precious help and support last year allowed us to work
on a new version of Amiga Forever. For this, we will never be
able to thank you enough.
When we finally released Amiga Forever 6.0 we thought that we
would not invest so much time, energy and resources in a new
version again. Instead we not only did this for the new 2005
version, but we exceeded our own expectations (and estimates).
To simplify things after almost 10 years of Amiga Forever
releases, we are also switching to a year-based version
numbering, so, if you were waiting for version "7.0", this is
it (only, it's called "2005").
The new Amiga Forever 2005 Premium Edition includes:
- One CD plus two DVD-9s in DVD box (no recordable media, all
glass-mastered)
- New video: Inside Commodore (tour of Commodore facilities,
with interviews, prepared for the 1988 Amiga DevCon)
- New video: History of the Amiga (as published by IDG/Amiga
World, a historical document)
- New video: Dave Haynie Interview (lots of interesting
details and stories)
- All previous videos, in original or enhanced quality and
format (no more WM9 or MPEG-4 files on CD)
- Gallery of more than 1000 photographs from Amiga events
- Studio-quality DVD features: menus, scene selection,
subtitles, etc.
- New Amiga Forever software (new launcher, new add-ons, new
installer, etc.)
- New WinUAE 1.0, "Amiga Files" and XML-based game and demo
descriptions
- New games (easier than ever to add more), completely new
demos section
- New features designed for and tested on latest Windows
Vista beta
Additionally, if you take advantage of this special offer:
- New brushed metal epoxy dome Boing decal
- Free upgrade to Amiga Forever 2006 software, when
available (or "2007", if we are late :-)
To order now:
www.amigaforever.com/go/af2005u-ebe/Having experienced this project first-hand during its
development (which began more than one year ago), it's
difficult for me to resist the temptation of telling you
everything about it.
With Amiga Forever 2005, which was developed in tight
cooperation with a number of Amiga emulation and preservation
developers, we are trying to set new standards in the way
Amiga games and demos are organized, installed and run. The
new Amiga Forever launcher, for example, scans for XML files
in the new "Amiga Files" directory, and automatically lists
all titles, which are ready to run with one click. When you
drop a new package, the list is automatically updated. We
hope that this will be only the beginning, as many game and
demo sites and publishers will better support us, and we in
turn work to support this new content. However this is going
to evolve, by ordering now you are also guaranteed free
updates to the next version. (Why are we offering this? Well,
mainly for two reasons: because all of this has been, and
will continue to be only possible with your help, and because
we know that in August you may have other things in mind, if
we didn't try to tempt you with our Amiga Forever specials.
:-)
Toni Wilen greatly helped to make sure WinUAE 1.0 works best
with Amiga Forever 2005, and we did the same with WinUAE.
This resulted in features like new ROMs, new XML-based
application descriptions, new organization for Amiga data now
stored under Amiga Files (for security reasons the Amiga
emulation and OS would not easily be able to write to Program
Files in Windows Vista, but this also helps you now, if you
would like to run the system as a non-administrator), and
much more.
Now that you can do so in front of your TV, you may find
yourself watching the videos (more than six hours, with
premium content) over and over again. If English is not your
first language, we are confident that the (optional)
subtitles, which took more than nine months and over 30
volunteers and professional staff to refine, will make this
vast content accessible in an unexpected dimension. This new
set of videos will allow you to connect people and facts in new
ways, as it better exposes the relationship between
Commodore, the Amiga, an increasingly mature PC market, and
the ups and downs of the video games industry. These videos
were mostly hard to find, often difficult to license, and
very expensive to process, but I believe that we now are able
to offer you the complete and ultimate set of Amiga footage.
Whether you are an Amiga enthusiast, a computer historian, an
IT professional, or all of these combined, I am confident
that these videos, and the way they are completed by
documents and software, will touch and interest you for years
to come.
On a final note, last year, as you may remember, we only had
enough decals (of the old type) for the first 50 orders, plus
a handful more. This time we produced a new series, and we
have 500 in stock. This mailing is now being sent to
significantly less than 500 Amiga friends, so we can
guarantee that if you reply by Monday you will receive one of
the new decals. Actually, we will add a second decal to the
first 50 orders.
Shipments will begin on Tuesday. In the meantime, we need to
bring the web site up to date (we've been too busy releasing
the CDs and DVDs). This current mail is only being sent to
our past Amiga Forever Special Upgrade customers. As you see,
as one of our loyal supporters, you are among the very first
to share this news. Should you have any friends who purchased
a copy of Amiga Forever 6.0 on or after June 27, 2005, you
can tell them that they will receive an email with free
upgrade information. You may also receive an additional
email, in case you had previously ordered with a different
address (if so, just reply to this email to let me know which
one you prefer).
For more information, and to order Amiga Forever 2005 Premium
Edition now:
http://www.amigaforever.com/go/af2005u-ebe/(Because the online procedure does not fully handle different
local sales tax rates, this early bird offer has not been sent,
and orders cannot be promptly processed, for customers
from Nevada. Orders from Italy cannot be processed until
"SIAE" registration has completed.)
A big Thank You from all of us who worked on Amiga Forever
2005,
Michael
P.S.: A few pages from the new Amiga Forever 2005 site are
already online...
Amiga Forever Video Archives
http://www.amigaforever.com/videos/Use of "Amiga Files" in Amiga Forever for Windows
http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/5-112.htmlUse of XADML Files in Amiga Forever
http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/5-114.htmlNew Version of Boing Decals
http://www.amigaforever.com/news-events/20050502decals/
