AGA Slideshow Maker

AGA Slideshow Maker or AGASSM for short was a slideshow creation utility that I wrote over a couple of years and ended up selling it as Licenceware through Phil at 5D Licenceware.

When AGASSM made it into the 5D Licenceware stable, Amiga Shopper reviewed it in issue 62 and then bundled a demo of it it on issue 63 coverdisk two.

My intent is that I release a fully unrestricted version of AGASSM and possibly the source code too for those that are interested. In the meantime, you can download a licence key that will activate the version available on Aminet and give you full functionality. Simply drop AGASSM.reg into your S: folder or the folder that contains the AGA Slideshow Maker application to activate.

Click on any of the images for a larger view.

Amiga Shopper Issue 63 Coverdisk

In the LicencewareZone section on the back cover of Amiga Shopper 63 it reads "Last month we were so impressed with the accessibility of the AGA slideshow maker, AGASSM, that we arranged a demo version for you to try out. As well as being able to show IFF's and animations, you can also play modules. Amazingly, after you've seen how easy it is to use, you can get the full version for only £3."

Amiga Shopper Issue 62 Review

AGASSM 7.22

"A slideshow creator. Wow. OK, another one of my biased views bites the dust. This is a great little program. It reminds me of the excellent Nucleus, in that it combines power with a really easy to use interface. Essentially, it comes with a creator and a player. You create the project and then distribute it with the player. As standard, the player can deal with IFF pictures and animations and a couple of module types. Doesn't sound too advanced? Well, it also has ARexx support so that should you want to use something that it can't deal with, all you have to do is use a program that does support the format and use ARexx to communicate between the two programs.

If that sounds daunting, then don't worry, because you can still produce some excellent pieces without ARexx. Within the interface is the ability to choose the files and select how they will be shown, whether faded in or shown using a set of special effects (a little like M.M.Experience). The program automatically recognises the file type, so it knows whether to play a module or show a picture. In fact, if you were starting out, you need know little more than how to select a file with a requester. It even supports powerpacked files to save disk space. At the moment, the system requires WB2.1 or above, but the author is trying to fix the system to work on lower machines.

5D Licenceware are showing that some quality software can be released for a price that anybody can afford."

Verdict: 95% Star Buy

Reviewer: David Taylor Amiga Shopper Issue 62

CU Amiga Issue 92 Review

In the October 1997 edition of CU Amiga, the licenceware demo version of AGASSM was reviewed and received a 4 out of 5 star rating.

"You might think AGASSM stands for AGA SlideShow Maker. You would of course be right. Except for the fact that AGASSM works fine on ECS systems as well.

Really, if there wasn't enough trouble without people like AGASSM author Paul Vernon striding in and randomly distributing features entirely contrary to the acronym.

AGASSM is driven from a nice GUI front end. It sequences a slide show from a series of objects, which may be graphics, animations, sounds, mods or even ARexx scripts. A collection of wipes is provided, and each one is selected by clicking on the appropriate Icon. Even producing quite complicated slide shows with AGASSM is actually a lot easier than you'd think.

The program even does a good job of filetype recognition, offering only the appropriate choices to you when you select an object. The potential of the ARexx port is intriguing. The obvious possibilities this offers is to extend its current level of functionality. You could, for example include an ARexx script which sent a Midi XG mod to a Project XG if you wanted really top level sound output on a Project XG equipped Amiga.

The one thing which I found disappointing about this program is that there's no support of alternative filetypes. Samples, pics, anims, are all IFF only. True, it is advantageous for a slide show to have the data in a form which is quick to display, but it would be nice if this package supported few industry standard formats such as jpg and png graphics, AVI and QT animations and WAV samples.

The demo gives you a good idea of what is in store, but if you are after a decent slide show maker, then it's better to save yourself the bother, and just go straight for the full version instead. It works out more expensive, at only a couple of pounds extra." 

In my defence of the name of AGASSM, it was originally AGA only and by the time CU Amiga reviewed it over a year after its original release, it had been made to be ECS and < WB2 compatible as was stated in the Amiga Shopper review.