/// European Outlook
    ----------------
    By Jesper Juul 
    (norjj@stud.hum.aau.dk).


Welcome!  This  is  an  irregular  column  with the intent of summing
up what's happening in the  European Amiga  World. My personal emphasis 
is on  Germany and  Scandinavia, so people everywhere else are welcome
to add or disagree.  My intention here is also that Amiga users
everywhere should be more aware of what Amiga users  everywhere else 
are doing.  Some of the things  said  are  slightly  old news and
backgrounds which I feel are overlooked but still interesting. Add to 
that a few slightly personal opinions. Mail me with comments, flames, or
other news worth noting.

The CD32 is currently 3500 DKR  in Denmark  (US$ 520), though in 
Germany  it  is  being  advertised as cheap as DM579 (US$ 340). The
first German advertisments of MPEG modules can also be seen, though
they're probably a little early.

National  television  (OK,  Denmark  only has _two_ channels) "DR" did
anews story on the CD32  a few  months ago, talking about  motion 
pictures  on  computers.  MPEG  (Bon Jovi) was shown, and the CD32 was
quite  favorably compared  to a 45000 DKR (US$ 6700) IBM which did 3 fps
flickering lowres "video". Very nice.

Also on Danish National television,  a  long-time  star  of a very
popular  Friday night  program called "Eleva2eren" is an Amiga 3000 and
agame  called  "Hugo".  This  is  a not-too- complicated little 
platform game, where viewers get a chance to win prized by controlling
"Hugo" via their phone. Children apparently love  it, and  there's
"Hugo" icecream, candy, and toys for them. The game has also been  sold
to  several other European countries, including Italy and Turkey.

Talking to  my local  dealer, it  seems that MPEG won't reach Northern
Europe before the  beginning  of  January.  Too bad. Expected price  is
1995  DKR (US$  300). The same dealer also carries  no  less  than   11 
CD32   games:  James   Pond  2, D/Generation, Trolls, John Barnes'
European Football, Whale's voyage, Morph,  Zool,  Sensible  Soccer, 
Mean  Arenas, Nigel Mansell's Grand  Prix, and  Arabian Nights.  They
are waiting for a new shipment of Pinball Phantasies.

In Germay,  MacroSystem is  advertising the  new VLAB digital video
board  with PAL/NTSC/SECAM  in & out, built-in genlock. A picture of the
board features a little chip saying "C-Cube" on top.  As you  may
remember,  this is the same company that does the CD32 decompressor
chips. The  video board  sells for DM1998, add  to that  a 16-bit  sound
board called "Toccata", and you end up at DM2600 (US$ 1520).

Emplant is finally getting a bad review, in the German "Amiga Magasin"
scoring  only 7.4 out of 12, mostly being blamed for being to expensive
compared to a new Mac. Obviously a  lot of people may  disagree, but  I
think  it's nice  to see someone being a bit critical to Utilities
Unlimitied.

Xpert is advertising the new Merlin2 graphics board.  The new one
includes  a special  "screen-in-screen" feature where you can mix
screens of varying depth on the  workbench. Video out is also  included.
A  1MB board is DM 648 (US$ 380), 16MB for DM 1698 (US$ 995).  In the 
new (AMAX  vs. Emplant)  style of making fun  of competitors,  Retina,
Piccolo,  and Picasso II users get unbelievably bad swap offers. Trade
in your Picasso II board for the huge sum of DM 200 (US$ 115)! Hmmm.


                                 Addresses
                                 ---------

                         Xpert Computer Services 
                              Dofestrasse 14 
                           D-54597 Strickscheld 
                                  Germany
                   Phone: 02302 80391, Fax: 02302 80884.


                               MacroSystem 
                        Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse 85 
                              D-58454 Witten 
                                 Germany 
                    Phone:  06556 814, Fax: 06556 1273