MagicWB - Review of v1.0

v1.0

An independent, official review of the first version

MagicWB Snapshot

"I've seen a lot ... but there's nothing that comes close to MagicWB in quality"

(by Thomas Baetzler)

I will admit I had to be forced to try out the MagicWB package. I had been using the normal 4 color HighRes Workbench for ages, and I saw no need to change things around, especially not to some colorful interlaced mode. But then my Picasso II arrived, and peer pressure got the better of me. Now I'm perfectly happy with the new look of my Workbench, and I'm not thinking of switching back any more. (..)

Modifications [to your system by MagicWB] include the switch to an interlaced display [i.e. proportional, 640x480 etc.] with eight colors. Also, all of the standard system icons will be replaced with their MagicWB counterparts. The supplied utility "Update Drawers" brings the new "Magic" look to directory structures on other partitions of your system. Once you're done, you will see the new professional look of your Workbench.

System Window MagicWB also comes with a large collection of nice-looking backdrops that can be installed on your Workbench. They sure do look nice, but if your Workbench version is lower than 3.0, you need NickPrefs to install them. (..) You pay for all that glitz with some trade-offs: the MagicWB icons are quite a bit larger in size than the old ones, so they take up much more space on your hard disk. (..)

Switching from 4 colors non-interlaced to 8 colors interlaced also carries some performance penalties on older systems, since the increased DMA bandwidth required to display such a mode effectively slows down blitter operation [this does not affect Amigas with AGA or a graphic board]. (..) Running MagicWB on my Picasso II graphics board in 800x600 pixel resolution is a pleasure to behold! (..)

Requirements

If you don't have the AGA chipset, I strongly recommend a flicker fixer or some kind of graphics board that lets you use the Workbench in a flicker free HighRes-Interlaced or better display mode. While MagicWB can be installed on any kind of system, it doesn't look too good on displays with non-proportional pixels. For example, a 640x200 display would make the MagicWB icons look much too tall. (..) The MagicWB icons are created using the enhanced AmigaDOS 2.x coloring scheme, so you'll need at least Workbench 2.0. (..)

Conclusion

MagicWB gives your Amiga Workbench that professional look that you've come to envy on systems like NeXT. You really should give it a try. I'd rate it 4.5 stars out of 5.

This was an extract of the first long internet review about MagicWB. It has been slightly adjusted to achieve a better HTML layout. This review is about version 1.0, the first and now outdated version.

Updated: 03-Jan-98