text:
Menu principal
Liste des magazines disponibles sur AMIGALAND.COM
Amiga Computing Issue 021 Vol 02 09 1990 Feb
But do they make sure that it works properly on ail Amigas? No. lt therefore seems an obvious thing for alI coders to stick to the rules. especially new coders. OWADAYS the problem lies not J. li in whether to obey the rules or not. but what the rules exactly are. If you take Commodore s words on the subject you might think that everything you do has to be done by using Übraries and devices, not touching anything low level like: he custom chips. Of course. Commodore does not mean this. What the boffins there point out is that as the Amiga is a multitasking machine, if you don't access it via the operating system the Amiga will not be able to cope with handling ail the différent tasks trying to take over the screen. trying to read the keyboard at the same time. trying to use any other aspect of the Amiga's input or output. ln this respect using the operating system is the only way to program the Amiga. But that is only if multitasking is necessary for your program. If you try to make a game muiti-task functions for people who do not need to muiti-task ForhidO and Permit (). Forbid turns off multi-tasking, so any other tasks running are suspended. giving your program 100 per cent of Revenge the rom
Click image to download PDF
Hme. (very decision instantly influences the life ol your town In o special mode, you con even couse tornadoes, floods, hies ond other disasters ol your wtnrn Save Son Francisco hom the great earthquake ol
1906. Or save Tokyo iff pollution ond horn his famous B-movre
SrmCityisan oB-obsorbmg unique gome whch contans 8 pre-delrned scenarios e g San Fronasco. Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro With it's erceptronol depth ol ploy, it's sti simple to ploy with cons ond grophcs, without tert commands Design ond build the city ol your dreams Sim City gives you the keys. The rest is up to you.
INFOWORU Vokrme II Issue X 'PKpte ploying Sim City ore romplentyptegged crlo the natd they aeole. Dsoppemmg tar hours' NIWYOtSnimS -Ihemodetiswrymilvslirmed.ielunrtentondahle Andmsl os mportanl. E's km, too' NFOGRAMES OVERSEAS MEDIA DISTRIBUTORS LTD mzm OM HOUSE.
* 4 MONITOR STAND |m SUPER MOUSE PAD HOLDS 14- MONITOR £14.50 All
monitor stands revolve 360° and tilt up to 25° £4.90 N
COMPATIBLE PRINTER RIBBONS Amstrad 8256 LQ3500 £3,90 NEC P2200
£4.50 Amsttad DMP 2000 3160 £2.75 Panasonic KXP 1081 £4.50
Amstrad DMP 4000 £4.50 Panasonic KXP 1124 £7.90 Canon PW 1080
£4.25 Shmwa CP 80 £4.50 Citizen 1200 £4.25 Star NL10 £3.90
Epson LQ 800 £3.90 Star LC10 £3.90 Epson LX 80 86 £2.90 Star
LC10 Colour £7.90 Epson MXFX.RX80. Star LC24-10 £4.50 FX,1X800
£2.90 BUY 10 GET 1 FREE MANY OTHERS AVAILABLE - PLEASE CALL n
HOW TO ORDER - T CREDIT CARD Telephone us on (05331 877733 (24
hrsl to place an order CHEQUE Please make your cheques payable
to: Overseas Media Distributors Ltd.
All orders received by noon are despatched same day.
If you require goods urgently they can be despatched for next day delivery for £7.50 itiiujfify Editor DetkMcokia Zdtoi lOfi '1 ~ * .iuAiislZdstor |eff Walker SuSwnks XicValch Production Editor Pdrr Closer Art Editors Murk Solan Do« Stele Set-, idiot Dm Lem Adiarnmrat Slat a )ohn Snowden E Adiertamg Solo Wady Colburn 8 UMTUL KttZMM t'm .did. o&cuu icnw Two* Cat T-a.
«2Cm* hmldUmta bUWCO Dffvp progi worr 5 4 is Integrating a wordproccssor with a offers a great package which a helped by Amiga fonts. HAM gToiphiO 4nd Intuition p 7 LATEST NEWS Will Commodore build a 1Mb A500?
VirusXa.0 better than ever. 650 meg optical doe launch.
HOTTEST ACTIOS OccaUis K-29 Kctalialor in the spotlight. No! 4 review of 4n untinivfK'ri game! cbulu II.
Sunlight and Rotor preview*.
15 AMIGA ARCADE AMIGA SCENE un Hoite. .Uteaoo reii.
.UtetUo. Ilalcslida SR10 ON?.
ENTERTAINMENT WINTERS TR1P-A-TR0S Number one in a field of one. There it nothing like Uaraosoffs light synthesiser. A great way to relax, and a new language to learn.
HlSOfTS EXTEND Beat the Basic blues with a library of u cful commands which add more power to your mlcrpcrtcr or compiler without breaking the bank a*iwpuua»fa a0ara eloeaaaae * ktMjdaupmmn nomi ' •--*- J- • ¦-¦ ¦ - ¦•-- .*¦¦¦ lua - UO I. bia ate. Hum Iga. ;uUiik Lai faa IMS *ML T« Mil ate (oapaai MlUM alafas far puOfa- KO Uaaeul w~i U I| u It elapse- (Mat pWeat) totfas»te tapes fal- jeo i ;rfc ~ai w aw. Tag. Rn* u at fa U9 far pntete 1 jluiNrUafaarifaWU y-' *y is*) cei a eua far ya ISSN OOOl-SM afUJtea 58=oi 68 ¦"I I I RE ENGE OF THE VF ROM TEMPERS You can hit the hardware direct and
be polite about it. Jolyon Ralph tells talcs of copper lists and level 3 interrupts, but tidies up after.
MACHINE CODE MUSICA EX MACH1XA Or music out of the machine. There has been one area where the ST has outgunned the Amiga. Now those days are gone thanks to Music-X.
74 4 AMIGA CxtMPl Tl (i Irhruun I'SJU ¦CONTENTS* GAME KILI.EK ft I I MAX THE U J HACKS More action for The Fighters, hints for All Points Bulletin, Fernandez Will Die with help, and Cave Runner infinite lives, as Max fights back.
Fl lX argasm takes J JL ON DEVPAC V2.0 Devpac. So long the top tool for programmers now has a new rival to worrj' about. Need it? The battle lines are dearly drawn
• Quartz. It'll knock your clocks off
• Hole in one. Enough to fill the Albert Hall
• US Gold get it right on Outrun second lap
• You can pull a bird with the Eye of Horus
• Take on aliens in Xenophohe. And win
• Clown 'o Mania for those who juggle halls
• Michael Jackson in Moonwalker fantasy
• Pictionary draws a blank scorecard qv, XJ U POSTBOX He's the
dude who's sometimes rude.
He's the cool who knows the rule.
He's the host who opens the post.
He's the getter of your letter.
• Plus, Lancaster. Star Command, Dragonscape,
• Roller Coaster Rumbler, Rally Cross Challenge,
• Dragon Spirit, Magic Marble. Slayer. Kelly X.
• Speedboat Assassins.
Mindbender, Switchblade.
• Shufflepuck Cafe, Toobin, Manic Mansion, Kcef the Thief, and
February I'I'ltl AMIGA COMPUTING 5 CUMANA HAS THE DISK DRIVE TO SUIT YOUR AMIGA, AS WELL AS YOUR POCKET The Cumana Pedigree Includes CAX354 CAX1000S 3' ?", SLIM 25mm DRIVE UNIT FORMATTED CAPACITY 880K AMIGA DOS COMPATIBLE DAISY CHAIN CONNECTOR DATA ENABLE DISABLE SWITCH LOW POWER CONSUMPTION QUIET HIGH SPEED ACCESS ACTIVE INDICATOR DATA LEAD 5V*", SLIM 42mm DRIVE UNIT FORMATTED CAPACITY 360 880K AMIGA DOS & MS-DOS COMPATIBLE DAISY CHAIN CONNECTOR DATA ENABLE DISABLE SWITCH LOW POWER CONSUMPTION QUIET, HIGH SPEED ACCESS ACTIVE INDICATOR DATA LEAD 40 80 TRACK SWITCH Designed and manufactured in
the UK to the highest standards, all Cumana disk drives include 12 months warranty and are available from area distributors and a national dealer network.
Look out for the distinctive packaging in your high street, today!
E best name in memory CUMANA LIMITED,THE PINES TRADING ESTATE, BROAD STREET, GUILDFORD, SURREY GU3 3BH TEL: GUILDFORD (0483) 503121 All trademarks are recognised and acknowledged AMIGA SCENE One meg A500 on the cards?
COMMODORE often makes running changes to the design of the Amiga.
This gives them flexibility in the choice of suppliers and gives room for making savings on cost or improvements.
The latest version of the A500 circuit board indicates we may soon see the A500 with a megabyte of ram as standard. By using the same type of high capacity ram chips used in the A590 new A500s have fewer chips and sockets on the board to add more to bring the capacity up to 1 meg.
The upgrade will have to be fitted by an approved dealer to maintain the warranty but it should be a cheaper way to upgrade than fitting an A501 type expansion in the trapdoor.
As standard, the machine will work with an A501 and this is probably still the best expansion method, since the new Amigas do not have a battery backed up clock. It is not possible to use both kinds of upgrade.
The new board Amigas feature the Enhanced Chip Set version of the Agnus chip. Its sister - Denise - is still in prototype form. The ECS Agnus, known variously as Fang2, Fatter Agnus, Obese Agnus and American Tourist, offers a US style 400 line display which fills the screen and one meg of chip ram.
Obviously you need the extra 512k to use this feature, so a standard A500 is set to give only half a meg of chip memory. Your dealer can change this by cutting a track and fitting the chips.
The ECS Agnus and sockets on the board both point to Commodore selling a lmeg machine.
The only thing preventing this from happening is the price of the chips.
Steve Franklin. MD of Commodore UK.
Said that this will happen when Commodore can produce the machine and still sell it for £399.
Eight shows in a month!
THE globe-trotting Amiga lover could have spent the whole of November going to shows. Commodore's star popped up at AmiExpo '89 in Cologne, Comdex in Las Vegas, The Computer Shopper Show at Alexandra Palace, the Commodore Christmas Show at the Hammersmith Novotel, Computer Graphics '89 again at Ally Pally, the Scottish Computer Show.
The Italian Enigma Show and the Dec User Show.
Most exciting of these was the Cologne (Koln to the Germans) show, organised by the American companies responsible for the successful US shows.
With more Amigas than any other country the German event was bound to be a success, but no one could have guessed quite how successful.
More than 11,000 people arrived on the first day, taking everyone there a bit by surprise and totally filling the hall, which was suddenly looking a bit small. At certain points during the day the guards had to stop people from entering as a safety precaution. Next day the attendance figure was up to 20,000 The only people not complaining about the cramped conditions were the box-shifters - one German dealer managed to sell over thirty 68030 boards in the first day.
Deutschemarks were flowing as the faithful bought anything on offer.
VirusX 4.0 arrives STEVE Tibbett swore Amiga Computing to scorecv over the new release of the best of the vifusbustors. But now it is public knowledge we can break the news that the update to VirusX3.2 is called version 4.0. not as some people have reported 3.4. The program can cope with several new viruses including four of the newer non-bootblock type. These are IRQ.
Rlamer. BGS-9 and Xeno. All the Viruses can be detected on disc and in ram. This is a major update and all Amiga owners should contact a PD library and get a copy.
Commodore didn't have much new to offer, as speculation of an early glimpse at the A3000 proved unfounded.
The show had an overall professional bias, with business slightly outnumbering the games stands. Most exhibitors were German, Scandanavian or from the States. Disappointingly there was hardly any British representation.
Hopefully next time round the organisers will have a larger venue and more UK companies will realise that Germany is in the same continent.
Those commentators who expected to see the Amiga 3000 launched at Comdex were as disappointed as they were 111 informed. The
5. 4 version of Unix which will be sold with the A3000 has not
been Finished yet. It will then have to be ported to the Amiga
and tested.
Commodore did launch a range of new products. The A2630 card has four meg of ram. A 68030 and a 68882 maths co-processor. Since the 68030 has the memory management circuitry necessary for Unix on the chip there is no need for a 68551 and Commodore's press release was wrong in claiming the card has one.
The current A2620 is sold in the US bundled with an Amiga in the guise of an A2500. Since this is just a marketing stratagem it is unlikely we'll see the new board in the A2500 30 which was launched at the show.
We will see the card, although when and at what price is yet to be determined. If other cards are a guide we'll see £1 =S 1. And at $ 2,195 that is on a bit more than Atari's nearest rival, the TT.
Direct Digital Distribution (0708 754704) used the Computer Shopper show to debut its optical disc drive and interface for the Amiga
500. This uses a combination of lasers and magnets to read,
write and magnetically erase optical discs.
Each disc holds 650 megabytes and they are ?
The word is PROTEXT... Britain's favourite home-grown word processor has now been joined by Prodata, the Arnor database "Protext - the real joy comes only from using it.
I can say without any fear of contradiction it is the best word processor available at the price, in my view, at any price in fact." AUI3 89 "Protext really is the best text processor on the Amiga" ST AMIGA FORMAT 2 89 "Wins hands down as the all round package" sr USER 8 88 7 couldn't be more impressed"... "So a big thanks to Amor for writing a brilliant piece of software" COMPUTER SHOPPER PROTEXT is now Britain's fastest selling Word Processor on Atari ST and Amiga computers, and is used by many of the leading computer publications and journalists, as well as thousands of businesses.
Protext's powerful features indude:-
• fast spell checker with 70000 word English dictionary.
• background printing. You can print and type at the same time.
• box manipuation. Columns can be moved around on the screen.
• macro recording. Any key sequence can be assigned to a single
• use of foreign languages • headers, footers and footnotes
• flexible configuration program • comprehensive set of printer
• Wysiwyg ( vhat you see is what you get') display shows bold.
Underlining and italics on the screen.
• two file editing. You can edit two documents at the same time.
• find and replace. Powerful search facility.
• mail merging. The most comprehensive mail merging facilities
available in any program.
• 300 page manual with full index.
• Swedish version also available. French and German coming soon.
Protext was awarded the 'Best Buy" accolade in PC Buyers Guide, and was given a bottom line verdict of 5 stars in What Personal Computer?
"Protext is probably the most powerful word processor on the Atari sr ST USER 4 88 "the best value for money in word processing on the Amiga" aui 9 89 "Protext deserves to be the system by which all other word processors are judged... Amor has given the market a superb product" YOUR COMPUTER "Amor's Protext 4 is just about unbeatable ... this really is an excellent program" PCAMSTRAD Protext... truly the professional's choice PRODATA "Designing layouts is incredibly easy" YOUR AMIGA Sfl«t fill Field 4 Field 5 Field i Field 7 Field I Field 1 : Del Mdr Field 18 : Del Mdr Field 11 : Del Mdr Field
17 : Telrtfoite Field 11 : Fn Field 14 : CwtKt
• Mrm Iflwlct *ddrns Jus) some of the features of Prodata: -
- Multiple indexes for accessing data
• Full editing facilities for data
• Comprehensive printing options
• Importing and exporting
• Undo changes facility ¦ Powerful filtering feature
• Easy to use layout design
• Password protection (5 levels) And of course, Prodata is fully
compatible with Protext.
Amiga owners please note that you need 1 MB to run Prodata - see below for special price for Prodata plus A501 (512K memory + clock expansion) "Totally menu driven, Prodata must rank among the top database systems... " ST user 12 89
* Prodata is a very sophisticated database package, and at
£79.95, it is most certainly worth the money" YOUR AMIGA 12 89
"Amor have a quality product at a very reasonable price" POP
COMP WEEK! .Y 19 10 89 ORDER FORM - Send to: Arnor (AC), 611
Lincoln Road, Peterborough Please send me (indicate where
applicable): PE1 3HA Name PROTEXT v4.2 @ £99.95 Address PRODATA
@ £79.95 PRODATA + A501 (Amiga) @ £179.95 Further information _
Protext demo disc Postcode Computer: PC 5' i" PC 3V*H Atari
ST Amiga I enclose Cheque Postal order for £ _ Access Visa
card no.
, or debit my fie easing your micro's potent a ... Arnor fAC , 611 Lincoln ffoad, Peterborough PEI 3HA. Tel: 0733 63909 24 hr) Fax: 0733 67299 All prices Include VAT, postage and packing. Credit card orders will be despatched by return of post If paying by cheque please allow 10-14 days for delivery.
H AMIGA Mmwrnxf; K-hrwm • .«« ¦ AMIGA SCENE ¦ ?
Interchangeable. The speed compares with a slow hard drive but has the advantage that the discs are removeable, The unit is made by Sony and uses what looks like 5.25 inch compact discs in a plastic case. Each disc costs £380 and the drive £4.000. Also launched at the show were a new multi-port card and the A2091 hard disc controller which uses the same chip as the A590 and has room for 2 meg of ram. At S399 without the memory or drive this seems expensive .but is likely to be discounted when it arrives in the near future.
The Amiga Centre Scotland (031-557
4242) was at Computer Graphics '89 with its new 32 bit frame
buffer. This looks great, but the human eye can't resolve
more than the 16 million colours that a 24 bit card gives.
The other eight bits are used for information which can
be hooked into video mixer.
Disc or discount REGULAR readers may think we've made a tiny mistake this month and missed the disc off the cover. We haven't. Made a mistake that is. We have left the disc off. But it is deliberate.
After a lot of discussions with readers, and the results of the survey in the disc pages, we decided that a magazine should be a means of education and entertainment, not just a source of cheap software. So we have reverted to the proven formula of doing what we are good at and not pretending to be a software house.
With the disc we successfully avoided the Reaction at the show has lead to the decision that the card will be genlockable and low priced. That means less than £1,000.
The Novotel may have witnessed the first show Commodore has run itself but little changed - the same faces manning the same stands, albeit with some welcome additions.
Selling 100,000 copies of any program will make a software house like you and that is exactly how many Batman packs Commodore expected to shift at Christmas. Good news not only for Amiga owners but also for Electronic Arts which has Deluxe Paint II and Interceptor in the pack, and Ocean which will see the boost to sales benefit Batman and New Zealand Story.
Both companies were at the show "to support Commodore", Ocean doing some great half-price deals on latest releases as well as giving out posters and stickers.
This was principally a chance to buy Christmas presents, so you wouldn't have expected many new products. One exception was Trip-a-tron. Jeff Minter's first soiree into Amigadom. The light synthesiser. Which makes your mind take off when you put a CD on, has been long awaited by Minter maniacs and sold well even on the pleasantly uncrowded first day. See the full review in this issue.
Bytes and Pieces was doing some great deals on big hard drives and showed an early version of AmigaDos 1.4. This had the new boot-up sequence but none of the fabby 3d icons.
The very fastest hard disc interface is HardFrame from Microbiotics in Texas. UK sales are handled by Oasis, busy answering every question possible thanks to the presence of the designers and marketing people over from the US. It isn't the cheapest and only works on an Amiga 20i'9. But it is the best.
The best selling item on the first day seemed to be a £1.99 pack of three paper aeroplanes from the Hamleys stand. Mindscape and Mirrorsoft seemed to have mastered the art of getting them to loop the loop.
The Christmas spirit of giving was represented by a balloon race in aid of Capital Radio's Help-A- London-Child a chance to win an A500, or a trip in a hot air balloon. Despite the fetching Biggies outfit Caroline from Commodore said she didn't fancy a trip in a wicker basket.
Commodore put on a good show with Amigas.
Music-X, midi instruments and some great sax playing.
But most of all the show was about bargain hunting.
The prices of half meg ram expansions and second disc drives tumbled. The going rate for 512k with a clock was £65. Disc drives could be bought for the same sum.
Printers were savagely discounted. If fact the only approach of charging a software house for a demo, half-filling the cracks with the first PD program which came to hand and then hiking the price. We like to think we gave you a genuinely useful disc which you would keep, rather than one you would format after half an hour.
Without the disc we have been able to bring the price of the magazine down to £1.95. We are also able to devote time to things like the free booklet on this month's cover. More people, especially users new to the Amiga, will be able to enjoy the benefits of the best Amiga magazine.
Thing which seems over-priced was the food at the bar. No, little changed at Commodore's first a 11 - Commodore show.
Fun for the kinder, too DATABASE Software (0625 859333) has produced a German version of its top selling Amiga educational package Fun School 2.
Cross format sales currently stand at 60,000 and Fun School is expected to top the 100.000 mark by the Spring, according to marketing director Chris Payne.
Fun School 2 comes in three age defined sections for children under six; six to eight; eight and over. It was designed by teachers to combine entertainment with a wide range of early learning skills.
Bonus buy ELECTRICIAN Michael Graham (24) from Dover-by- Cockermouth, Cumbria won himself a £500 video recorder when he bought the 500,000th copy of Mini Office, the small business package from Database Software (0625 878888).
"I couldn't be more pleased both with Mini Office and the unexpected bonus that went with it", he said.
Law lore goes online RECENT Department of Industry statistics show that the need to comply with employment law costs the average company more than £5,000 a year.
Where health and safety laws are concerned this can be as much as £13,500.
The best way to avoid these high costs is to get good advice on the relevant legislation and that is now available to computer users through the MicroLink communications sendee (0527 28515).
This new facility has been launched by MicroLink in conjunction with professional consultant Premier Employment Services which gives specialist advice on personnel and health and safety law 24 hours a day. 365 days a year.
"Making such a service available to subscribers minimises the risk for management", said MicroLink's head of marketing. Martin Turner. "Instead of going through the lengthy legal process, subscribers to MicroLink can now consult their computer ", The charge is £3 for each inquiry.
L-i'brujn 1111 III AxtltlA CnXtt'l 77.YO 'I M A lop quality stereo sampling system at a realistic price.
100% machine code software for realtime functions.
Jf HiRes sample editing.
F f M Adjustable manual autoi record trig level.
ONLY £79.99 i 256 x 256 display with 16 grey levels.
Realtime frame grab l SOth second.
Takes standard composite Video Input from camera or Video recorder.
Screen update 1 frame per second, single, continuous or buffered display.
Load. Save facilities Including IFF Save.
Edit picture, cut, copy, paste and undo.
Special effects, reverse, negative, mirror, compress, etc. Increase the width of the display to 320 x 256 automatically or manually.
Plugs Into the parallel port of your Amiga 1000 500 2000.
Comes complete with Its own power pack.
ONLY £89.99 M Full Midi Interface for A500 1000 T 2000 (please state model).
V Compatible with most leading Midi packages (including D Music).
Midi In - Midi Out x3 - Midi Thru.
S Fully Opto isolated.
NLY £34.99 ¦ A simple low price MIDI Interface T for the A500.
M All the features found on more expensive units. Fully compatible.
MIDI In - MIDI Out - MIDI Thru.
S Fully Opto Isolated.
NLY £24.99 A TOTAL MIDI MUSIC SAVE OVER PACKAGE k£75 FREE MIDI CABLES UNBEATABLE VALUE PACK - THE YAMAHA SHS 10 FM MIDI COMPATIBLE QUITAR-STYLE SYNTHESISER, THE ACTIVISION MUSIC STUDIO SOFTWARE PLUS THE I CONNECT TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM ACTIVISION MUSIC STUDIO V A full feature MIDI Recording T Studio.
¦ A multi channel sequencer with T realtime input and full editing facilities.
M Completely menu driven • full Mouse control.
Very simple to use.
MICRO MIDI INTERFACE V This unit connects your computer to any MIDI instrument.
M Fully Opto Isolated MIDI IN. MIDI T OUT. MIDI THRU.
M Just plug In and go.
FREE CABLES V 3 metre long MIDI Cables - completely FREE!!
(normally £6.99). YAMAHA SHS 10 FM SYNTHESISER KEYBOARD Superbly styled guitar-type keyboard with shoulder strap.
Top quality brandname.
2. 5 octave keyboard.
* 25 built-in Instrument and rhythm choices.
Si 0Ci*O EXPRESS Y SYNCRO EXPRESS IS A HIGH SPEED DISK DUPLICATION SYSTEM THAT WILL PRODUCE COPIES OF YOUR DISK IN AROUND 30 SECONDS!!
THE ANSWER TO YOUR DISK DUPLICATION PROBLEMS ON BOARD CUSTOM LSI CHIP MAKES THIS UNIT EXTREMELY SMALL & EFFICIENT. ¦ Syncro Express requires a second drive ft works by controlling ~ If ss a slave device A ignoring the AMIGA disk drive controller Ignoring the AMIGA disk drive controller chip, high speeds ft great data accuracy are achieved.
• Menu driven selection for Start Track End Track - up to 80
tracks. 1 side. 2 sides.
Very simple to use. Requires no user knowledge.
Also duplicates other formats such as IBM. MAC etc. Ideal for cltiba. User groups or just for your c No more waiting around for your disks to copy.
Probably the only duplication system you will ever need!
ONLY £34.99 COMPLETE HARDWARE SOFTWARE WARNING IMH* COI'VRIGIIT Ad WARNING Ijdlrl Kkilrtml s neither ramlnne* nr lUllltniMrs Ihe use nl it s prtxlrni* tor tl»e reproduction of ropyrtifhl nvtlertitl Tllr Un k iip LullIIH'S ul tills |irodui t are drsnpied to rrprodurr only software such as jmiIiIk- itonuiln nuilrrtnl.
Ihr user* own p««r.iim or sttllwarr wlterr pomlsalon to nutKr a lurk up lias been c learly iltvcn It Is illin.il to make t opics. R rn tor your invn use t cupyncht material, wllhnol the prmilvvMHi of Ihe 'nounlit itwn-i ihetr llecncec If you don't have a second drive we can supply SYNCRO EXPRESS together with a drive for ONLY £104.99. SP 11 SCANNER PRINTER ONLY UNBEATABLE VALUE 4 £449.99 INC. VAT ? PP IY UNBEATABLE VALUE - A FLATBED 200 DPI SCANNER PLUS BUILT-IN PRINTER!! FOR LESS THAN C450!!
Cornea complete with superb software to scan edit pictures.
Very comprehensive software allows for Capture. Writing. Cut Paste. Printing.
Load ft Save of images.
W Up to 16 grey a Images.
Complete - no : Save to your favourite graphlcs DTP package - very easy to use.
Easy to Install • connects to the Printer Port • ready to scan In minutes.
A M*U E 200 Dpi FLATBED SCAPOER PilSpTEII rales or black ft white modes - giving you superb scanned aore to buy.
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL... Not only does the SP11 scan at 200 Dpi - It la also a superb Image printer PLUS - Its a Photocopier!! Yea, Just press start and It will deliver a superb giving high definition output prints of scanned Images, screen dumps etc. photocopy of your original In seconds!
AMG 5a AT LAST - A TOP QUALITY, FULL FEATURE GENLOCK INTERFACE FOR THE AMIGA AT A REALISTIC PRICE.
V Genlock I. the latent Tmuwort- on the Amlfn it'. N Oeetce thnt nllon 7ou to mis computer text graphics with lire video pictures from either a camera or VCR. "Desk Top Video" as It'e become is probably the faateat growing productivity application for the Amiga.
PRO-GENLOCK ONLY £89.99 Lock your Amiga to external colour or B W video signal (camera VCR etc) - output la a composite combined picture.
9 Plugs into RGB port of A500 1000 2000. Provides composite video output to monltor VCR suitable TV etc. 9 With the Datel Pro Genlock, you can do all the things previously only possible with units costing hundreds of pounds 111 Perfect for video titling, captions c 9 Switch selectable to view video input overlay graphic or both (combined signal).
Top quality unit features VLSI Motorola chip as used on commercial devices.
* Unique fader control allows overlay to fade In or out. Ideal
for fading captions M r"m.. .... . . .
S(e tomes complete with necessary leads etc - no more to buy This Is a complete hardware solution - no software to load. Unbeatable price.
Y Boost the output of your Amiga in glorloua stereo.
9 30W ? 30W power amplifier with 5 band graphic equaliser, y Complete with cables for A800 A1000 A2000 models.
M Slimline colour matched metal A590 UPGRADES Y If TO" own nn *890 h.rd drl.n, then you can upgrade It to give up to an extra 2 Megs of Ram to your system.
ONLY £69.99 for 51 w (o.s meoi ONLY £134.99 for i MiG.
ONLY £259.99 FOR 2 meos mv.
Mil . _j.
CD CD El El C ? EJ KB ca m iii ONLYC59.99 speaker units In die-cast aluminium abelf enclosures.
30 Watte 8 ohm each.
NLY £39.99 pair 8 CHANNEL DIGITAL MIXER ICON PAINT 9 Now an 8 channel digitally controlled mixer for under ICON PAINT 9 A unique product to edit and produce your own Individual Icons.
9 Allows for multi-colour (up to 18) extra large Icons for use when customising workbench, disk, icons, tools, programs, etc. 9 Advanced editing facilities make for test and easy design.
ONLY £12.99 9 Turn your Amiga into a sophisticated measuring Instrument capable of measuring a wide range of data inputs.
DIGITAL SCOPE DISPLAY - 2 channel Inputs.Manual or contlnuos display.
Tlmebaae BOOms dlv to 20us dlv- accurate to 5%.
6 bit flash conversion gives 2 million samples sec.
PLOTTER DISPLAY Timebase range 1 sec to lOhrs per plot.
ONLY £99.99 PLEASE STATE A500 1000 2000 9 Master faders with bar graph £100.0011 9 This system comes In two parts - a 19" rack mounting mixer • and a superb control program. Use your Amiga to give top quality 8 channel "digital' mixing.
9 8 inputs via 0.28" Jack sockets.
Two outputs via 0.25" sockets.
Display of output levels. Suitable for mono and stereo applications.
When an Ideal mix has been achieved, then the overall "mix' can be saved to disk for re-load as required - Just like systems costing thousands II Auto aero of faders.
Connects to Amiga parallel port.
Control software gives 8 faders with super-fine increments, digital display of levels on each channel, stereo lock for each pair of fader;.
9 Top quality analogue and digital circuits give superb results.
9 Complete hardware software.
ONLY £99.99COMPLETE EXTERNAL 3.5" DISK DRIVE Slimline extra low profile unit.
NEW LOW PRICE ONLY £74.99 SINGLE DRIVE Top quality fully compatible dx mechanism.
Through port allowa daisy-chaining other drive .
A superbly atyled caae finished In Amiga colours.
1 1 meg unformatted capacity.
IX Good length cable for positioning I on your desk etc. (ONLY £129.99 twin drive I E5 FOR COURIER DELIVERY IF REQUIRED EXTERNAL 0RIVE SWITCH DPI ft DP2 controlled.
Fits between computer ft driverfs).
NLY £9.99 I Switch In out of external drives.
1 X Save on memory allocated for IY drives not currently in uac._ 512K MEMORY EXPANSION Ql X Now with this superb S12K expansion unit you can simply plug In more I memory. Bring your Amiga up to Imeg Ram In seconds!!
Featuring the latest 1 Meg fast Ram chips.
Comes complete with dissable switch (not offered by some others. Including A501 unit).
Available with without clock calendar feature. Clock version has high capacity NICad battery - never needs replacing.
Low chip count means extra low consumption.
High grade PCB with quality connector.
Buy direct from the manufacturer and save!
Vt Simply plugs Into Internal Ram extension slot ONLY £84.99 COMPLETE
o knowledge at all required.
SPECIAL OFFER COMPLETE WITH PHOTON PAINT FOR ONLY £169.99 INCLUDING HARDWARE SOFTWARE X An easy to handle Handy Scanner Y featuring 109 mm scanning width ft 400 dpi resolution enables you to reproduce graphics ft text on your computer screen.
X Adjustable switches for brightness ft contrast.
E A powerful partner for Desk Top " Publishing.
X With Genlscan you have the ability to easily scan Images, text ft graphics Into the AMIGA.
Printout for Epson compatibles.
X Powerful software allows for cut ft T paste editing of Images etc. X Save Images In suitable format for moat leading packages Including DELUXE PAINT etc. X Package Includes GS4500 scanner.
Interface ft Scan Edit software.
X Unmatched range of edit capture facilities simply not offered by other scanners at this unbeatable price.
0782 744292 raph Suitable ilcatlons.
Ill "mix' re load as ms costing DATEL ELECTRONICS LTD.. FENTON INDUSTRIAL ESTATE GOVAN ROAD. FENTON. STOKE-ON-TRENT. ENGLAND.
1 digital Its.
SALES ONLY 0782 744707 X Available with without clock v option.
Switch dissable feature.
X Simply plugs Into Ram expansion T slot.
X Fitted In only minutes - no user knowledge required.
ONLY £19.99 ONLY £34.99 ,o« VERSION WITH CLOCK CALENDAR NB. THESE PRICES DO NOT INCLUDE RAM CHIPS r High quality direct replacement for mouse on the Amiga, r Teflon glides for smoother movement.
Rubber coated ball for minimum slip.
Optical system counting - 500 mm.
TECHNICAL ONLY 0782 744324 For everyone who owns an Amiga computer, Club 68000 offers Members, Software & Hardware Accesories at huge savings off Recommended Retail Prices. Your only committment Is to pay £15 for one year's membership. You will receive a free Games Compendium and a free catalogue five times a year.
Club 68000 Ltd, Wickham House, 2 Upper Teddington Road, Hampton Wick, Kingston, Surrey. KT1 4DP.
Tel: 01 977 9596 Fax: 01 977 5354
• A500 512K Ram* clock ? On off switch £69.99
• A500 1.8 Mbyte card wiih 512K Ram £129.99
• A500 1.8 Mbyte card with 1 Mbyte £189.99
• A500 1.8 Mbyte card with 1.8 Mbyte £299.99
• A500 1000 2Mbyte External £319.99
• A2000 8 Mbyte card 2Mbyie ram £329.99
• 3.5' A2000 Internal £64.99
• 3.5' External £69.99
• 35' with Digital Track Display £84.99
• 5.25" External, 40 80 Tracks £94.99
• 5.25" with Digital Trick Display £109.99
* All drive* with on off switch Athrough Port A
• Ultimate back-up utility • Speeds up disc lc
• Copies 4 disks in 48 secs. • Qucd: SupcrfastTcxtl:
• Formats disk in 36 secs. • CV Parameter: With
• Update service Toolkit options
R. R.P. £39.99 Members £29.99 Hardware only £19.99 Software only
£19.99 Upgrade 1.0 - 2.0 £7.50 Member R.R.P. £37.99 £49.99
£37.49 £49.99 £217.49 £289.99 £52.49 £69.99 £37.49 £49.99
£52.49 £69.99 £172.49 £229.99 £59.99 £79.99 £187.49 £249.99
£59.99 £89.99 £69.99 £99.99 £99.99 £139.99 £44.99 £59.99
£59.99 £79.99 £69.99 £99.99 £174.99 £249.99 £112.49 £149.99
£89.99 £119.99 £374.99 £499.99 £37.49 £49.99 £49.99 £69.99
£104.99 £139.99 £172.49 £229.99 £12.99 £19.99 £84.99 £114.99
Member R.R.P. £59.99 £79.99 £59.99 £79.99 £52.49 £69.99 £59.99
£79.99 £82.49 £109.99 £24.99 £39.99 £29.99 £39.99 £37.49
£49.99 £37.49 £49.99 £59.99 £79.99 Butcher 2.0 Comic Seller
DOS Toolbox Deluxe Paint 111 Duluxc Music Deluxe Video Deluxe
Riotolab Deluxe Print II Digicalc Dos to Dos Digipaint 3.0
Director Design 3D Devpac U Fanuvision Fun School 2 Home
Accounts Desk Top Video Cad Graphics Harddisk Utility
Music Mid i Database Database £52.49 £69.99 £37.49 £49.99
£29.99 £39.99 £37.49 £49.99 £52.49 £69.99 £42.99 £59.99 £59.99
£79.99 £44.99 £59.99 £37.49 £49.99 £1299 £19.99 £22.49 £29.99
£119.99 £149.99 £22.49 £29.99
R. R.P. Members Batman The Movie £24.99 £15.99 Beach VoUey
Beverley Hill Cop Blade Warrior £24.99 £15.99 £24.99 £15.99
£24.99 £15.99 Bomber £29.99 £19.99 Cabal £24.99 £15.99 Chao*
Strikes Back £19.99 £12.99 Chase HQ £24.99 £15.99 Chess Player
2150 £24.99 £15.99 Continental Circus £19.99 £12.99 Double
Dragon 11 £19.99 £12.99 Drivin Force £24.99 £15.99 Dungeon
Master £24.99 £15.99 Falcon F16 £29.99 £19.99 Falcon Mission
Disk £19.99 £12.99 FI 6 Combat Pilot £24.99 £15.99 Galaxy
Force £24.99 £15.99 Games Summer Edition £24.99 £15.99
Ghoslbusten ?
£24.99 £15.99 Ghost n Ghouls £24.99 £15.99 Grand Prix Circuit £24.99 £15.99 Hard Drivin £24.99 £15.99 Honda RVF £29.99 £19.99 Indiana Jones last Crusade £19.99 £12.99 Infestation £24.99 £15.99 Intcrphase £24.99 £15.99 It Came from Desert £29.99 £19.99 Knight Force £24.99 £15.99 Leisure Suit Lorry II £29.99 £19.99 I jghlforce (4 Games) £24.99 £15.99 Moon walker £24.99 £15.99 Never Mind £19.99 £12.99 North and South £24.99 £15.99 Onslaught £24.99 £15.99 Operation Thunderbolt £24.99 £15.99 Paul Gascoigne Soccer £24.99 £15.99 Populous £24.99 £15.99 Powerdrift £24.99 £15.99 Pro Tennis Tour £24.99
£15.99 Red Storm Rising Shadow Of The Beast £24.99 £15.99 £34.99 £24.99 Space Ace £44.99 £31.49 Stryder £24.99 £15.99 Stunt Car £24.99 £15.99 Stryx £19.99 £12.99 Test Drive 11 £24.99 £15.99 Turbo Outrun £19.99 £12.99 Untouchables £24.99 £15.99 Xenon II £24.99 £15.99 jWild Sired £24.99 £15.99j
• Checks links virus
• For disks, files and Repairs Bootsecior disks (Also commercial
• Disk format and software) information ONLY £9.99 (While
stocks last) With Hardware £19.99
• Easy to Use
• Checks Bootsector
• For Amiga 500 2000
• Includes original 1.3 Rom
• Allows you to switch between Kickstart 1.2 & 1.3
• Easy to use
• No soldering
R. R.P. £69.99 Members £49.99 Kickstart Card without Roms £29.991
Kickstart 1.2 or 1.3 Rom £29.99 Aegis Animagic Animation Aegis
Modeller 3D Cad Aegis Sanix 2.0 Music Aegis Audiamastcr II
Music Midi Aegis Vidoetitlcr Desktop Video Appetizer 8
Business Programs Utility DTP Comic Utility Gra Animation
Music 3D Video Animation Anunatie - Ham Print Utility
Spreadsheet Utility Graphics Desktop Video Cad Elcc Technic
Prog, language Animation Education Financial
• U.S. Action I jght Gun Pack - 2 new games Gateway to Ypsilon
and Tin Can Alley & Light Gun Home Office Kit W-P Spr DB DTP K
Comm 2.0 Communications £34.99 i £19.99
• Mini Gen Genlock A500 £99.99
• Rendale Genlock 8802 £189.99
• Supcrpic - Video Digitizer. Genlock, Frame Grabber £499.99
• Digiview Gold Video Digitizer £109.99
• AMAS - Midi Sound Digitizer £84.99
• Golem Professional Stereo Sound Digitizer £59.99
• Midi Interface A500 2000 or A1000 (incl Cable Software) £39.99
• Boot Selector - Boot from External Drive £9.99
• Naksha Mouse £34.99 K Seka Assembler Kind Words 0 Wordprocessor
Lattice 5.0 Prog. Language Lights, Cam., Action Desktop Video
Mailshot Plus Mailmcrge Movie Setter Desktop Video Music X
Music Pagcsctlcr 2.0 DTP Professional Page 1.2 DTP Photon Paint
2.0 Anima Graphics ? 20 Mbyte. 40 msec. Autobool £349.99 30
Mbyte. 28 msec. Autoboot £399.99 40 Mbyte. 24 msec. Autoboot
£449.00 » 60 Mbyte. 18 msec. Autoboot £549.00 .
Sculpt 3D XL 3D Animation Sculpt 4D Junior 4D Animation Sculpt 4D 4D Animation Scribble Platinium Wordprocessor Starter Kit K words 2 Paint 3 Games Turbo Silver 3D 3D Animation Word Perfect 4.2 Wordprocessor Workbench 1.3 1.3* Manual X Cad Designer Cad Cam t 20 Mbyte, 40 msec. Autoboot £369.99
• 30 Mbyte, 28 msec. Autoboot £449.99
• 40 Mbyte. 24 msec. Autoboot £519.99
• 60 Mbyte, 18 msec. Autoboot £599.99 Photon Video Professional
Draw Quaitcrback Synthia Superbase Personal II Superbase
Professional NEC A2000 File Cards Phone tor frt* catalogue,
more than 200 different Items lto» to order: By phone 01 *77
*5*0 (Vlaa Acceee) By tox 01 *77 5354 By poet: Club *9000,
Wickham Houae, 2 Upper Teddington Road, llatn n Wick, KINGSTON,
Surrey Ktt 4DP Poet and PackaglngiSoftware: UK ? EEC 11. Non
E£r £3 Hardware: Courier Service it Prkei subject to change
without notice m m Amiga Arcade Arcana smashes back with style
119. 99
499. 99
109. 99 £84.99
139. 99 £9.99
34. 99 Xenon 2 Imageworb £24.95 Ocean £24.95 Shadow of the Bear!
Pt)JD »U £34 95 Kid. Off Anco £19.99
R. R.P. £49 99 £49.99 Pogo's got all his bits Stunt Car Racer
MicroStvIe £24.95 Beach Vollov Ocean £19.99 | Altered Beast
Acti virion £2499 tebotop Ocean Falcon Spectrum Holotnle
£29.95 Blood wych Imageworb £24.99 MAX TAYLOR is clearly a
resilient man. His company, Arcana Software, hasn't released a
game for ovor a year, thanks mainly to the aborted Mars Cops
project. But with a now sales and PR deal with Active Sales
and Marketing, it looks like 1990 is going to be the year that
Arcana at last gets back to producing high quality software.
Seeing the new year in with a bang is Rotor, a strategy shoot-'em- up coded bv Danish programming team Svstematics. Written on the Amiga with eight-way scrolling in 32 colours. Rotor has gameplay which is a mixture of Thrust and Oids with a dash of Cosmic Pirate.
"It runs at 50 frames per second," said Max Taylor.
"We don't believe it," said AMIGA Arcade.
"Nor did I," said Max Tavlor.
"Until I saw if And neither did we until we STARFLIGHT from Electronic Arts is a big game. It'll come as no surprise to you to learn, then, that Slarflight is a fantasy role-playing game.
The year is 4619 and your mission is to find colonisable worlds, gather minerals, ancient artefacts and learn the secrets of alien races.
Not exactly an original storyline, but what Slarflight lacks in plot it makes up for in size - 270 star systems and 800 planets, each with almost two million locations. It all adds up to over one-and-a- half billion locations to be explored throughout the galaxy.
Along the way you'll encounter giant gas planets, ice planets, lava planets, rock worlds and ocean worlds.
Navigation is aided by a detailed starmap. And no matter what planet you orbit, vital statistics flash on the screen to inform you what lies ahead - atmosphere, mass of plant, hydrosphere, lithosphere, temperature and global weather.
Your starship is well endowed with lasers, missiles, shields and armour, but you have been warned only to use violence as a last resort.
Communication is the key to the game.
If it's not in the shops now, it should be very soon, priced £24.99. saw the demo Max sent us. The colours are all there, the scrolling is all there, and it's smooth - smooth onough for us not to argue about the 50 frames per second claim.
Rotor uses the Amiga the way it NEBULUS was very pretty on 16 bit, but it was an 8 bit game at heart and it showed. It was not a Hewson success. Now the original programmer is collaborating with German programming team Infernal Bylo Systems to produce was built to be used, which has caused great problems with the ST conversion. Because of this the game won't be ready for review until after this issue goes to press - there'll be no reviews of demos in this magazine!
The sequel. Nebulus II.
Pogo returns in his adventure through Nor. Travelling from island to island, climbing, leaping and jumping up and down the 16 revolving lowers, Expect to sco him 93% Ninja Warriors 90% North & South 89% Onslaught 89% Shufflepuck Cafe 87% Maniac Mansion 82% Quartz 81% Hole in One 81% Mindbender 79% Switchblade 77% Clown-o-mania 77% Moonwalker 72% Dragonscape 72% Star Command 71% Eye of Horns 70% Turbo Outrun 70% Xenophobe 69% Keef the Thief 69% Magic Marble 68% Ghostbusters II 63% Rally Cross Challongo 62% Toobin' 61% Roller Coaster Rumblcr 58% Speedboat Assassins 53% Lancaster 49% Dragon
Spirit 32% Slayer 23% Kelly X 5% Pictionarv Gallup Chart Mat Aar W*.
Mpir ¦eftA ieet e«N* ffcee. • «r raeeef I" AVTC t ryyvl-~~ -K fKnmrr toon RETALIATO KEEPING up with t*chnolo*r tnakrs th* fli*ht-sin) writ*r'i Ilf* ¦ hard on*. So why both*?' F-:« Rrtaliator Is a Hisht into fantasy. It puts too in control o' on* of th* n*st **n*ratlon of |*t fi*ht*rs.
Trawl with futuristic srrapons.
If yon Hnd workin* out which ho" on to push to clot* th* canopy hard work, too htr* no chtnc* wh*n it cotn*s to compl*tin* 90 nhww. For this two? F-29 coo* c*ntrtt*s on th* action instead of train* to tccurttolr mimic th* yaw. Rat* of climb and roll
• hat an out-and-out simulator lib* Sub lode's J*t r*plk»t*s.
SUU. F-29 Is no slmpl*
• -if itmorasshocr A: ipi* ¦ AMIGA ARCADE ¦ R PREVIEW OCEAN has
found the right people to write the program. Phil Allsop.
Russell Payne and Martin Wright wrote Amiga and ST Falcon for Spectrum Holobyte. Anyone who has anything lo do with the promotion of Falcon may have given (he impression lhal the program was written in Ihe US of A, but Runcorn is a more accurate location.
The team has some other games pending. Russell and Marlin wrote Flight of the Intruder, which will be out soon from Spectrum Holobyte. Phil - the lead programmer - has many 8 bit titles to his credit and a couple of 16 bit things, including Road Wars and Mayday Squad.
Being local means that the programmers can pop into Manchester to visit Ocean, a significant help with a project of this complexity.
The plane SET in the future, F-29 Retaliator uses two planes which are still in development, designed not to be the next generation of fighter aircraft but the one after that. They are the Lockheed F-22, which is still so secret no one outside the Pentagon (or the Kremlin) has seen a photo of it, and the Grumman X-29. The X stands for experimental. In service Ihe name will be changed to F-29. Hence Ihe name of Ihe game.
The F-29 is tomorrow's fighter. II has swept forward wings, which give betler rales of turn and roll characteristics than normal wings. The controls are fly-by- wire. Which means a computer looks after little problems like stalls. The X-29 has itty bitty wings at the front called canards which make a stall less likely.
All fascinating stuff fo plane buffs. To the rest of us if means that the thing should feel like a cross between Interceptor and Falcon, and it should turn better and be easier to By. It does and it is.
Arcade game. The program is some- Ihing of a departure for Ocean.
King of 8 bit soflware, it has realised that the Amiga demands a more mature approach, with more sophisticated software.
Lology 's life a
• ? F-29 itasy. It i ofIhe ghters, ns.
Which canopy ihance ling 99 29 con- lead of tic Ihe nd roll nulalor imple ootit- You are taking part in a war.
There are fronts which show where opposing forces are dug in. The fhree scenarios, including one sea- based one, are based on maps of real places.
The actual data came from Cheyenne Mountain in the American Mid-West and has rivers which skimander and roads which join towns. This gets away from the artificial feel of ruler-straight roads and pyramid mountains which dug earlier games. The missions reflect the multi-role capabilities of Ihe aircraft, escorting carriers, saving your installations from attack and taking out Ihe odd enemy missile installation. Calling it a SAM-7 might imply xenophobia and taking sides which would result in Ihe game being banned in the peace loving country of Germany.
As with Falcon you can choose a rank, which affecls the amount of skill you need to play Ihe game.
There are lots of options, so a Zulu alert acts as a quick sel-up.
For advanced missions you'll have to choose the right weapon for the job. In keeping with the theme of the game, they are a futuristic lot from the Pentagon shopping lisl of the future and include the Backwinder - a sidewinder which you launch rearwards at pursuers. Dogfights are fun, and you have a machine gun for those close al hand manoeuvres.
The feel of flying has been cap- lured with graphic stipple effects which make the plane and landscape more realistic than the slab of colour style of F A-18 Interceptor. The drawing speed of 360 polygons per second allows a screen refresh rale of up to 12 frames per second.
Controls vary from a very-casv- to-fly mouse option to a more realistic keyboard selection. Making any plane, lei alone a fundamentally unstable fast jet, fly straight and level is a skill which lakes years to master. Ocean has made things a good deal easier with heavy damping on the roll and by giving the plane a natural tendency to fly upright. In the mouse-mode it won't even loop the loop.
This allows you to concentrate on the problem in hand - fighting the war. And winning.
Ocean certainly has a stiff battle on its hands with Activision's Bomber, Digital integration's F-16 Combat Pilot and Electronic Art's forthcoming F-l 17a Aggressor all lined up to fight it out. Ocean clearly has the game to do the job.
HOW many ninjas have you ever seen? No, really. 1 mean, 1 always considered Tooting to be fairly multi-racial but 1 don't think I've ever seen a ninja washing his smalls in the launderette or having a quick pastie and chips in The Dolphin, The point being that seeing as they seem to represent the ultimate in covert operations as witnessed by the plethora of ninja games, you never see them about.
Maybe that's because they're so good at sneaking around or something, but even they must have to nip down the Spar for a pack of fags every now and then, surely?
Anyway this is all irrelevant.
The sheet-garbed assassin of drug barons' nightmares is back, and this time he hasn't brought anything with him at all apart from a couple of sharp knives and a few shiiriken.
The evil Bangler, notorious dictator, gangland chief, pop group (no, not really) and fat old Sun reader has succeeded in becoming president. He now has the army and police at his control. The rebel heroes have constructed two robotic ninja assassins to track him down to his mansion and deliver rough justice.
At first you may be wondering why you have been transferred to the land of cinemascope because there are large tracts of black space above and below the play area.
Ah, but this is in fact a cunning ploy. If you ever ventured into one of those devil's armpits called arcades you will have noticed that Ninja runs on three screens to give a panoramic view.
In order to simulate all three screens properly, the programmers, Random Access, had to fiddle about and reshoot in wide-screen format. So there you are. They're not that cunning though or they would've flogged off some of the space for advertising.
The strategy is not too difficult to follow - just kill everything.
Guys wander on, have a go at you and either die or wander off again. You may also encounter rabid dogs, tanks and flying squirrels not to mention other patrons of the arts martial. It may seem a bit tame, but it is fun, very difficult and very, very absorbing.
Cunningncss part two: You will jjSSI be playing for some while and then ' notice something. Or. More like it. Seque not notice something, because I of the Ninja hasn't stopped to load any- there thing in yet. Well, actually it has lengit and it hasn't. It has loaded some- I thing in - it just didn't bother stop- gagge ping. Ten million cunning points one awarded. | "Mm Sampled sounds, pleasant I "Coir graphics and nice animated I ill three ammers.
) fiddle e-screen They're or they ie of the difficult mg.
: a go at nder off counter ig squir- ilrons of em a bit difficult Km will ind then i like it.
Recause ad any- Jit has some- ter stop- g points sequences recreate the atmosphere of the arcado. Easy to get into, but there's lots of it and it gets challenging later on.
If 1 was stripped, bound and gagged until I could sum it up in one word. I would say ''Mmmmph". Failing that 1 think "Compulsive" is the mot juste.
Green itMfcW-h [i
• ft- *...... February 1990 AMIGA COMPUTING 19 Don't waste your
shuriken - you'll need them to kill the guv in the tank "sasr |
tar Games • Photon Paint International Grand Prix Racing t
Cycles: International Grand Racing wraps you around ) chassis
of the fastest bikes ver built as you compete In le
International Grand Prix of lotorcycle racing, re only
motorcycle game with first-person perspective Bnse the rush of
full throttle eed. Look over the andlebors to see the avement
disappear under r wheels.
Will the racer in front blast into the lead or dump his bike frying?
Do battle with the world's racers in the sport's premier events.
Choosing either 500cc, 250cc or 125cc class races tackle 15 authentic Grand Prix courses across the world. From Australia to Brazil file down the foot pegs on the most gruelling circuits in motorsport.
Who's got the guts? Who wants the glory? Who'll emerge victorious to hoist the trophy as world champion?
E from 5 different skill Each level alters the ability of Ihe IBM PC & COMPATIBLES OUT NOW £24.99 AMIGA RELEASED DECEMBER 124.99 ATARI ST AVAILABLE FEBRUARY £24.99 CBM 64 128 AVAILABLE MARCH £9.99 Tape £16.99 disk (SPCCmUM and AMSTtAD 10 toDow) putsyou in the saddle Screen thou "om IBM PC version Accolade Europe Ltd , bit 14, The Lombard Business Centre, 50 Lombard Rood, London SW11 3SU.
Teli 01 738 1391 r-f-r~ii nr_ r v_ _uirujL MINDBENDER The unbearable lightness of spell casting rather like a beam of light. The corollorv to this is that a beam of spell can be redirected by means of mirrors and so forth. This is what the old wizard is set to test.
Setting up an elaborate array of mirror-bearing gnomes and assorted household objects, he aspires to achieve mastery of remote spell- casting. The softly spoken magic spell must pick up all the magic ingredients, located in effervescing magic cauldrons, before making its magic way to the magic door. Direction of the beam is controlled by making the gnomes change the angle of their mirrors.
Some obstructions are to be negotiated, like the polarisers which allow spells to pass through at one angle only, whereas some are to be completely avoided, like the odd bomb lying around the place. It is also to be appreciated that feedback is highly undesirable because the old duffer-cum-wizard is prone to overheating.
Other things to watch out for are walls of ice. Amoebas, prisms and evil gnomes who have an appetite for cauldrons. Extra fuel can be picked up - old McDuffin cant keep churning it out forever without assistance.
The puzzles get progressively harder, up to level 50, after which point you are expected to design DO you think you're protty smart, do you? Smart enough to out-wizard McDufEn, the greatest mage in the Western Kingdoms?
He's been having a little bit of difficulty with his experiments at transmitting spells over long distances.
As every student of life knows, there are three types of matter: reading matter, doesn't matter and old grey matter. Unfortunately it is in the department of the latter that the old wizard is deficient - he needs someone to help direct his spell casting activities.
Spell-casting over long distances can be a bit tricky, as we all know.
No sooner have you conjured an impressive maelstrom of magic to defeat a rival at a neighbouring castle, than it runs into some itinerant gnome twixt A and B and spends its force.
Now. It is widely held that spells travel in a straight line, r ta t'kj k 1 M A 1 KJT A____ A
- jUVV r-lVl i The show with everything but Yul Brynner assaila
parts o wise : hand) massr watch encout Flee just as oped c to
stay lems c superi as she slight.
Sot doing nor hi compr to war Alt] verys beenj- Clo taxinj way tl 40 lev ant ei anyon doing lying about in the path of insignificant clowns is not taken very far down the avenues and cul- de-sacs of rigorous investigation.
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that our little friend packs his trunk, says goodbye to the circus and trumps off to explore the 70 levels of wealth and woe that make up the game.
Crystals are to be collected to move on to the next level. Various creatures which will try to kill you.
Each stage is a sort of split level version of Pac-man, with the platforms connected up and down by The only my is down ladders or funnels, occasionally bending round on themselves like one of those perspective-based optical illusions.
The wonderful graphics really help to build up this effect, especially the parallax scroll of the grid in the background, which gives a vivid sense of the platform being suspended in space, Jumps may be collected, enabling Beppo to leap over BEPPO is a complete clown.
He is. Honest. Short, big feet, silly hat. Yup he's a clown all right.
And what is it that clowns do best?
Well, they sort of clown about don't they? Apparently not.
Obviously clowning isn't quite as vocational as it once was. One day Beppo comes across a map detailing where he may find treasures beyond belief. Exactly what this sort of sensitive document is gaBBHBHBBBg Mindbender £1999 Gremlin Graphics Overall - 81% tout own. They van* in style from being mad dashes against time to the sort of logical enigma that could perplex even a reviewer.
The more cunning of you will have already noticed that this is in fact the sequel to Deflektor. Dressed up with a bit of Pratchett.
Graphically it is a lot more cute and friendly, with some nice animated touches, though with a game such as this, frills mean very little when the old cogs of cognition are revolving. The purde is all. In that respect Mindbender excels.
If this goy's 0 o'vj fen. Wftr s hr so *r!I annrd?
A cant
• will,.
Siv&lv which design Green assailants or just to connect with parts of the platform that are otherwise inaccessible. Razors are handy for blowing away the massed hordes of anti-clown watchcreatures that Beppo will encounter.
I level a plat- vvn by Fleetness of foot (or joystick) is just as important as a highly developed degree of cunning in the fight to stay out of trouble. Most problems are easily solved by Beppo's superior foot-power. Though a mind as sharp as the editor's wit is a slight advantage in later levels.
Soundwise. The tune plods along doing nothing really spectacular nor having much to add. But it is competent and not so irritating as to warrant silencing it.
Mall,- is like based really espe.
LegHd ,ive» a being ctei).
Over Although the game is based on a very simple idea it still manages to be enjoyable and rewarding to play.
Qown-o-mania is no! Difficult or taxing until about a third of the wav through. That still leaves over 40 levels of well coded and pleasant entertainment. A bargain by anyone's standards.
Green EARTH is little more than a distant memory to the brave pioneers of outer space. Now. At the distant edge of the galaxy, things are moving along nicely for the descendants. Or at least they were.
Bands of wandering space pirates threaten to destroy all trade links. The threat of invasion by a race of highly developed insectoids looms ever nearer. And who are the robot pilots sometimes glimpsed at the outer reaches of your territory?
For some time now Star Command has been doing its best to keep on top of the situation. They've started drafting their troops at an early age. Putting them through training and giving them stamhips in the hope of regaining control before things get out of hand.
You control eight such troops.
It's your business to decide exactly what training they should undergo and in which areas - like astro- gunning, medical and heaw arms - they should specialise.
There are four basic classes - pilot, soldier, marine and esper (psychic warrior). Each of these Is further divided into 13 ranks ranging from private to grand admiral.
Once you have assembled and trained your squad you must equip lost in space, not a good place to be them ready for combat. A huge array of items Is available - 60 personal weapons, including nuclear grenades, flame throwers and laser rifles. 16 types of armour, four varieties of gun sighting equipment, plus numerous others.
There Is an equally wide choice of starships and accessories. You can't afford most of these in the early stages.
So. Equipped and eager, it's off to HQ to get your first mission, which will undoubtedly be fairly straightforward. Mine was to find and capture five freight ships. It took me two minutes.
Mission in hand, you launch into space, where you are presented by a star map divided into 1.024 sectors each containing one or more star svstems. Which in turn might contain numerous planets. This provides a vast playing area. There are no silly planet names, and the whole galaxy Is important during the course of the different missions.
Some missions require you to operate on a galactic level, finding pirates in space, that sort of thing Others require you to go down to a planet's surface, perhaps for an espionage mission.
Combat plays a major part.
C. PXEN Star Command £29.99 SSI
y. ~rinben Graphic* Gamrplar Overall - 72% There are two levels
of this in Star Command - man to man and ship to ship. Man to
man offers greater scope for weaoon selection and use of
terrain. It is the more enjoyable of the two.
Should you complete your mission successfully, all surviving squad members will receive a salary according to their rank. This can be used to buy more equipment. Or maybe a clone for when things get really nasty. Now you can accept a new mission, or just go pirate hunting to boost your finances.
The game is totally keyboard controlled, which is a shame. And messages sometimes flash by too quickly to be read, which is a pain.
The graphics are extremely poor, even for a role-playing game and the sound effects would have been better left out Sometimes humourous, sometimes frustrating, always thoroughly absorbing. Star Command is based heavily on the famous Traveller role-playing game. It combines the best of both RPG and strategy and is sure to please fans ofboth.
Mat Broomfield Death or glory RABID Tvophiles may recall a weary rice-opera which used to pop up occasionally on BBC2 going by the name of The Water Margin. If you don't, it doesn't matter - actually, even if you do it doesn't matter - all 1 wish to allude to is a section of monologue which used to appear at the beginning of the show, and which went something like this: of you ar think it t advance ner you upon wa Once been cap to their same as backdrop control.'
A thing v stuff at y table par If the your ban a stage i or one Talisman be used t sible ten range of sades at loss of t usually | The li own des gest.Of, can also ter - up Throi class gn up an a devastat addicti should!
At one s prised.
Anot ingraim 'Do not despise the snake because he has no homs. For who may say he will not turn into a dragon. So may one just man become an army...' There in essence you have the plot of Onslaught. No, nothing to do with snakes and dragons, but the bit about one man becoming an army, for in the land of Gargore thore is a mean son of a tank whose strength is as of 10 and whose ambitions Include travelling tbe world and meeting people, shortly before he cuts them up into little pieces and stamps on them.
This land is no sceptred isle of kings. II is slrown with (he countless dead (and undead) of a thousand sieges. The only way to bring peace and harmony to the blighted soil is to kill everyone. Ho hum - what must be done must, I suppose, be done.
Strategy is the first element of the game. Upon first embarking to his duly the player is confronted by a 16 x ID grid of the land. He may then elect to invade territories neighbouring his own. The indigenous troops come in several flavours, from bog-standard hill- men with clubs through boar-riders to kamikazee monks. There are 14 types of tribe in all. Each with their own peculiar characteristics and preferred strategies.
Enough of all this strategy prattle though, all you have to do is follow the worms to the field of dishonour and wade in gore.
Destroying everything that comes your way is not always the best policy. You can kill 50 to the right Sound of you and 50 to the left and not bink it too many, but unless you advance pronto on the enemy banner you will be awash with wave upon wave of demented avengers.
Once the enemy standard has been captured, it's off to lay siege to their castle. This is much the same as before but with a nicer tackdrop. Finally we come to mind control. This is where you take on a thing with lots of arms throwing stuff at you. Easily the most forgettable part of the game.
TOOBIN' Mucking about on the river :s and 1 pral- lisfol- Jld of gore, comes e best i right If the enemy should capture your banner first, you must go back a stage until either you have won or one side is vanquished.
Talismans picked up in combat can be used to (lit across the less accessible terrain in order to broaden the range of combat. Occasional crusades and plagues may result in loss of territory, but these things usually pass.
The land may be edited to your own design, to make it easier 1 suggest. Of course, this means that you can also save your current character-up to 10 on the disc.
Throughout are strewn Hewson- class graphics and sound building up an atmosphere for diabolical devastation. Gameplay is fast and addictive but very tough. If you should manage to conquer the land at one sitting 1 would be very surprised.
Another Hewson game with WE'RE obviously not in the UK here, since one of the things that menaces your toober in this coin-op conversion (can't say tuber 'cos that's a potato) is an alligator.
Mind you. As you float nonchalantly downstream you do get attacked by munching skulls and sea snakes, so it could be just about anywhere. And for Biff and let. The supercool tube dudes, this is too uncool to be real.
Some forward-thinking dude has left some six packs floating on the river. These make great ammunition for heading off the various critters that are bent on spoiling your day.
Fishermen and aiigun fiends on the bank also respond to the old Budweiser treatment, but your ammo is strictly limited to what you can pick out of the water.
Your tube is a bit like AmigaDos
- it needs to be patched from time to time. These patches are, in
effect, the number of lives you have, There are a few other
useful objects floating about. There are bonus beach balls and
treasure chests, and once in a blue moon you might happen upon
a patch or two. Unfortunately there are far more rocks and
branches in Ihe water than there are bonuses, so you've got to
be really careful with the steering.
For extra points you could try going through some gates for a bonus of up to 1,000 points. If you bounce off a gate, the bonus halves and the gate widens for you to try again. These, you might think, are just a slight interlude in the game.
Actually, if you are lagging behind and the big bad alligator is on your tail, negotiating a gate is the only way of shaking him, it's certainly Ihe only lively thing about the game.
The twin player option also suffers from the screen moving at the rate of the slowest player, at which rate the game gets naff PDQ.
The whole thing smells badly of a rush job. The original arcade game has plenty of potential for conversion, which the programmers have completely failed to take advantage of.
Toobin' has been promised as a conversion for a very long time.
This reviewer thinks it hasn't been worth the wait. Sure, there are some bits that aren't completely dreadful - every game has some good bits - but the whole isn't particularly great.
The title does have a good example of colour cycling in a fairly neat waterfall, but the rest of the graphics are small and slow moving. Even though the screen is nearly full height, it's nowhere near wide enough, and the scrolling is dead slow and stop.
It's got a nice tune, but then these days what hasn't? The stereo effect has been used well, with a great steel band sound throughout; ORTH & SOUTH, said Ihe manual. Aha, I thought.
Refined ladies with swirling dresses and cleavages that you could drive a steam engine down?
Rakish young gentlemen and army officers attired with mud stained Irenchcoats? Horse and traps racing through burning cities? Passionate embraces? Scandalous gossip?
Unfortunately, North & South is nothing like an American TV miniseries starring lane Seymour (pity).
Instead, it's based on a French comic book series called Les Tiniques Blues, but only vaguely.
The influence of Ihe books stops at using the characters to set the skill level for the arcade sequences.
When a mad bugler and a neighing horse gallop on screen issuing a wild discordant tune, you know that this isn't quite an SSI wargame that's coming up.
Moving around a very simple map of the USA - you can play against a friend, svhich is enormous fun. Or the computer - you must direct your forces in an attempt to rid the country of the opposing army.
As a secondary objective it is necessary to capture land to bring in tax revenues, which can be used to buy new troops and secure territories through which the railroad runs.
If you lurk around until the opposing army's train is about to set off. You can intercept it bv severing its route. This leads info one of the arcade sections - a frantic race along the roof of a moving train, reminiscent of Harrison Ford in The Last Crusade.
With enemy soldiers popping up and a timer rapidly decreasing, you must make it to the engine, stop the train and capture the gold. The scrolling is incredibly fast, your character very responsive and the animation distinctly dodgy. Still, it all fits in with the general pace of The second arcade section, where you try to capture a fort, is exactly the same but has you racing along the battlements towards the fort's flag.
War breaks out when the armies meet. The men line up on one of three types of battlefield, often The Union hunches its first moon shot punctuated by a river or chasm that necessitates trying to cross a narrow bridge while being shelled.
If you're playing the computer you'll notice that you are at a slight disadvantage here. You control each element of your army one at a time. The computer, of course, can have the cavalry charging with sabres slashing, the foot sloggers marching and firing, plus the artillery rolling around all at the same time, turning your side of the battlefield into the Somme.
Tyue, you can set the cavalry off and then switch control to another unit, but you can't have two units firing and slashing at once. It makes playing the computer very difficult. The trick is to eliminate the other side's artillery first, which then gives you an almost unbeatable advantage. If this happens to you, start retreating. Fast.
Come the end of the war, each side is rewarded with a well animated picture of the boys marching home in victory or a field full of corpses, one of which grins at you.
North & South is unlike any wargame or simulation that you have ever played. The graphics are cartoons and there are numerous engaging touches that add flavour.
Best of all, the sound effects and music are fabulous - demented bugling, explosions, horses neighing, and charges, victory and catastrophe are all perfectly accompied.
Duncan Evans Vorlh h South C24.W InfoBrunu's Sunil.: Brnua SaMln Overall - «IO""
* A DIGIPRO r
* - Except where stated Our Prices Always Include VAT and we
only supply first class goods 4 DIGIPRO Professional Video
System Cash Price £3218 inc VAT Amiga 2000 with XT 20MB Hard
Drive 2MB RAM G2 Genlock Hi Res Colour Monitor & Pro Video Plus
ase Hire £127pm inc VAT 95 95 95 .95 .00 95
Easy Payments A500 Starter System From Only £3.77 Per Week inc VAT Written Details on Software Specials!
Pro Video Pus £249 Video Effects 3D £159 Pagestream £199 Scnbble! Platinum £ 49 Hardware Specials SuperPic Frame Grabber £569 HP PaintJet £899 2MB RAM for A590 Hard Drive £240.
A590 Hard Drive With 2MB RAM Fitted For The Amazing Price of £599.95 (inc VAT) A590 Hard Drive With 1MB RAM at only £499.95 (inc VAT) Free M Car Phone With Marked Items Subject to Status Systems From Only £47.38 Per Month inc VAT Amiga 2000 XT Our Promise 8MB RAM Boards 2MB Fitted £399 inc VAT 4MB Fitted £599 inc VAT Cash Price £699.95 inc VAT tire [ Purchase from £6.29 pw DIGIPRO LIMITED 0703 703030-01 905 1030 Enterprise House, Howards Grove, Southampton SOI 5PR Unless Stated All Prices Include VAT Orders over £50 Postage & Packing Free Add £1.00 Postage & Packing for all other orders
Please phone for prices outside the U.K. 8MB Fitted £899 inc VAT FREE Video and Genlock Information Packs Available.
Call Now For Yours!
A500 Super Home Video System FREE 512K RAM & Titling Software With Amiga A 500 8802 Genlock Titling Software & Modulator Authorised Commodore Amiga Dealer o o Dealer, Export, Government, MOD and Educational OrdersWelc l elcome Hire-purchase and leasing finance available. Digipro are licensed credit brokers.
SMOOTH criminal Wacko Jacko has found yef another way to be seen in public without having to leave his oxygen tent.
Moonwalker has been a book, a film, a T-shirt, a cuddly toy, a type Mnnnuulkvr LIU.Ml S Cold Sound Graphics Saanln Overall - 77" ., of dance and now my Emerald Isle homeland has produced a twin disc game.
There are four stages, two viewed from above and two from the side. Each stage is preceded by a good animated sequence and accompanied by short repeating sections of sampled M] music. A bit like the video really.
The first stage reminds me of my long standing all-time favourite game, Rally-X. Jacko walks around the detailed landscape in a small scrolling window trying to collect parts of his rabbit suit, avoiding the over-zealous attentions of numerous fans.
The next stage adds a motorbike and the occasional fiattened pedestrian. Don't stop until you get enough green shiny orbs. Then you can transform into a car and jump over a roadblock.
Game three, and Jacko is clad in white suit, armed with a vicious line in automatic firearms.
Sideways scrolling displays the interior of a gaming club where there ain't no sunshine when you're gone.
Y other East Assas vent 1 Ye aroun they hours andn I, Moh charg force breat My g the h the i deslr Ht sons acros With navij ingt ingc Bl ishir H paci deac the Yanl Making sure the baddies have been blown off the wall is the only way to beat it. When you use all the ammo, more has got to be there when you need it, or its bad news all round.
The final stage is the real thriller. Our heroic plasticised young thing transforms yet again, this time into a robot with which you don't wanna be starting something. You have to convince some nasty kidnapper about the way your young girlfriend makes you feel or she's out of your life and it's farewell, my summer love, for ever.
You will certainly spend more than one day of your life playing this game. The stages are sufficiently different to provide interest and sufficiently tough to make it last. The graphics and animations provide the grab factor and if you are a Jackson fan the sampled music will come as an added bonus.
John Kennedy RE you one of those people whose idea of day out with the lads is to go to Blackpool, spend half the day in half the pubs in town, eat three portions of chicken vindaloo at the takeaway and then go on the roller coaster for a bit of a laugh?
Well now you can relive those fun-filled days with Roller Coaster Rumbler. You get all of the excitement with none of the mess down the neck of the mate in front.
Rumbler is rather like a drunken nightmare version of the seaside ride. It features obstacles, flying saucers, targets and lots and lots of shooting.
The basic premise of this 3D filled-polygon ride is that you have to whizz around the roller coaster track shooting all the objects and obstacles without running out of bullets or causing the car an excess of damage. There is a minumum speed, which increases with every run round the track.
Speed also increases after you heave up the hills and race down the slopes. This builds up to quite an exhilarating rate of knots, but can be pegged back down to that minimum by using the spacebar as a brake - a good idea as you certainly don't have time to shoot everything at the fastest speeds.
In the air you can spot flying things and can blow them away for more points. Equally, any poor unfortunate driving around on the ground as you pass is fair game for annihilation.
An extra dimension is added if there is a second player. Another gunsight is provided and he gets to shoot at the same things you are shooting at. I would have liked to have seen a split display and players chasing each other around, but then you can't have everything.
Something you do get is a sort of free blast. Using all the 3D routines. Tynesofl has patched in a kind of Starglider 2 variant wherein you fly around aimlessly p~nr|TTr Ti*rr * nn a nnmm UUA1 AJJ God help America!
Re! Again, th which ng some- ice some the way skes you e and it's for ever, nd more i playing re suffi- ) interest make it imations id if you ampled i added Kennedy T ~rT T17- XT' ivfcLLi a Seriously overpriced I shoot ids.
Flying i away ypoor on the me for Ided if nother le gets ouare kedto 1 play- id. But ng a son D mull in a riant ilesslv YOU aren't often given the opportunity to play "the other side" in games with a Middle East flavour, but in Speedboat Assassin you. Too, can be that fervent Iranian revolutionary.
Yes indeed, capitalist pigs around the world require killing as they revel in their decadent harbours. Protected by the warships and mines of Satan himself.
I, revolutionary brother Mohammed Evans, have been charged to destroy the imperialist forces of evil and fight to my last breath for the Islamic Revolution.
My gunship has dropped me into the harbour of New York, home of the unholiest pigs of all. I weel destroy them.
Hayeee! But what is this? Those sons of Satan have laid mines across the entrance to the harbour.
With God on my side, surely I can navigate my way through the winding channel, deadly mines hovering on either side.
BOOOOMMMM! Urk... ...Cough splutter. Quick, Ishmael, speedboat number two.
Ha! It seems I must go at the pace of a snail to avoid their deadly clutches. And here 1 am in the open and ready to teach the Yankee pigs a lesson. But what is shooting other aircraft. Fine as a demo, but this hardly qualifies as a game.
Once you have been round the circuit a few times, enjoyed the sensation of blowing things up, felt mildly ill at all the heaving, there really isn't anything else to do.
Though quite pretty and mildly impressive from a technical point of view, I'm afraid that Roller Coaster Rumbler has as much depth as a puddle.
Duncan Evans this? Ishmael. You fool! There are no weapons on this speedboat!
Quickly, bring the helicopter and drop them down to me.
Fah, with all this delay the Americans have spotted me and are sending their own speedboats and warship to intercept me. But I. Mohammed Evans, is more than WHILE the decision to launch Amiga games for under a fiver is laudable, the question is: Do you really want to play a game on the Amiga that a software house considers is a budget title?
A spokesperson for Virgin Mastertronic assures me that the company could indeed make money with only a £4.99 price tag.
This only works if the overheads are as low as possible. Low overheads mean very cheap and shoddy packaging and as little time as possible spent knocking up the program.
I imagine the profit margin on Kelly X will be hitting the maximum because the packaging is indeed cheap and nasty. The program, which looks like it took all of two weeks to write, is equally cheap and nasty.
Kelly X - which, by the by -as the pre-release name for Xenon, - is a 3D space battle. Fly through space using your Elite-style radar their equal to the task. Take that, imperial running dog tower. Take tha... BOOOOMMMM! Urk... ...Cough splutter. Those accursed Yankees are as treacherous as sin. Ishmael, the third speedboat.
Yaaeeyy! That is more like it. All four towers destroyed and now I escape to bring further glory to the revolution.
But what is this approaching?
God protect your servant Mohammed, a fat Yankee battleship is blocking the exit! All its guns is firing. Oh no, and there were another three capitalist harbours to destroy as well.
BOOOOMMMM! Urk... ...Cough splutter. Ishmael, kindly be telephoning Virgin Mastertronic that its simulation of revolutionary revenge is far too hard. The detection of the sprites also sucks like a camel.
Duncan Evans with 10 range settings, shooting government ships and canisters of toxic waste. Aw, an ecologically sound game as well. Avoid being shot since it depletes your shield.
Use hyperspace to get out of tricky situations. And that's the game.
Kelly X would be pretty damn boring if it worked to perfection.
Since it doesn't, it makes it one of the worst pieces of software I've seen.
Complete tat. Not worth keeping even if someone gave it to you.
Duncan Evans the ar scene Crane playc added neou Sprin coloui once, Spec Other space pie, I some Oasis seven part, won't Sexy have Emup Based on the overta comes turbo Thi plot, cated.
Ing pr have t Ferra indeet the ol motor SCREEN 7 IS A TRADEMARK OK ALL SAINTS VELOPMENTS LTD. Units 3-7 Baileygate Industrial Estate, itefract, West Ybrkshirv WF8 2LN.
NAME: ting tl ton e extra- things last ( bund Th.
With : which she m she li engine be a b ADDRESS: ly QUANTITV: V All Olden will he despatched on da - irf release.
R»Tirvnn ~itt a t t mTnn Matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs SPRINT has been through almost as many variations in the arcades as on the home micro scene. The bird's eye view of a Grand Prix started out in single player, black and white, then added up to four players simultaneously, and lastly, in Super Sprint, was resurrected as a full colour, mass Drive-in.
. BBS k, ' - •• j JW 1 Are you sure Ibis is Ihe kov to Coombe Abbey?
Rally Cross Challenge is another Super Sprint clone, and looks like a beautifully animated L.S.Lowry portrait.
Up to four players can race at once, using that rare beast the Special Joystick Adaptor.
Otherwise it's a case of fighting for space on the keyboard.
If you can't find three other people, the computer will provide some. The anti-sexism group.
Oasis, will be pleased to note that several women drivers are taking part. Then again, perhaps they won't be - the first one is called Sexy Legs. The male racing drivers have equally silly names, like Rev Emup and I.Killem. No comment.
Although there are adjustments you can make to fine tune the cars, I miss the little presents Super Sprint left on the track to race for.
Collisions between cars are also a let down - they merely hoot their horns at one another. In fact, at the start of a race they all sneak round the track in a tight pack, looking like a group of Killer Cars from a Monty Python sketch.
In an attempt to maximise the potential of the 68000 processor.
''humorous" little sprites pop on to the screen, on holiday from IK* no doubt. Heaven knows what will happen when we have the 68040 to play with.
Night racing is worth seeing though - the headlights effect is very clever indeed.
Sounds are so-so, conspicuously lacking in the Tedious Little Jingle department. Tedious is better than none at all.
The graphics, on the other hand, Rally Cross Chullen 'c ny.ur Ancu Overall - 63% are lovely.
Yet something is missing. That something which makes a game a success and one you will want to play for more than five minutes.
With Rally Cross Challenge it's not hard to put your finger on that something - it's the way the cars are controlled.
Until a better standard comes along, we are stuck with the eight position switched joystick. No amount of different acceleration and deceleration options will make up for the fact that it's too darn awkward to play.
John Kennedy Following on the heels of Outrun, or more probably overtaking it in the outside lane, comes the sequel, now with added turbo boost.
TURBO OUTRUN Rev it up and start again The first problem is with the plot, which seems very complicated. As far as it goes the underlying premise seems to be this: You have to drive your F40 (which is a Ferrari, not a jet) very quickly indeed from one end of the USA to the other along a giant six-lane motorway.
On the way you must avoid hitting things and' press Ihe fire button every so often to employ extra-super solid rocket booster things probably left over from the last Columbia, erm, Atlantis launch.
NAME: ESS:_ There is something else to do with some girlie and another car which you have to slay ahead of or she runs off with the driver. Maybe she likes to feel the power of his engine. To be quite honest it would be a bit of a relief if she did. If she weren't so ugly she might put you off your steering.
It would all make more sense if you were trying to outrun the tune, which is pretty painful.
Tarmac stretches ahead you to the far horizons. If all goes to plan you should be having breakfast in Los Angeles - all macrobiotic stuff, of course. But first you must brave the mind-numbing ierror of grit on the road, negotiate the snowbound interstates and wind your way along a freeway which seems to have been designed by an inebriated nomad with no sense of direction.
The race is split up into four stages, where remaining time is converted into an unfeasable number of points and super hi-power add- ons are added on by teams of trained adder-onners. The choice is between extra grip tyres, an even bigger engine or an even better turbo. I can't say 1 could tell the difference, to be honest.
This is also the point at which the girlie usually decides to run off with the other bloke. Bah. Women
- who needs 'em!
Another puzzling thing is the way, just after engaging interstellar overdrive and reclining back in your acceleration couch, the odd black-and-white cop car strolls past.
The animation is a bit jerky, but you won't notice it when you're going Mach 5 through Chicago.
Otherwise the graphics are acceptable, though not entirely stunning, All the hazards and layouts of the 16 stages have been carefully transferred from the arcade machine. This is not a great recommendation since the original wasn't very. Original, that is.
Interestingly the processed rain forest accompanying the game suggests that the turbo be used sparingly, when in actual fact it seems a physical impossibility to finish most levels without at least one stab at the fire-button.
Although certainly better than Outrun the first, and reasonably well converted from the arcade, Turbo Outrun does nothing to lift it above the crowd of good racing games around at Ihe moment.
Green Diabolical double disc debacle of digital death OLY cow... Oops, sorry - wrong hype. Ahem. When there's something weird in your outside toilet, who you going to call? Not a plumber anyway.
Suffice to say the present day Siivalents of Peter Cushing, the ostbusters, are back.
As you enter the world of the Ghostbusters you will be treated to a wonderfully animated display of cunning Amiganess. Then, of course, it asks you to swap discs.
Oh well.
This time latge amounts of slime are forming an underground torrent and converging on the downtown museum. There is also the smali matter of Dana Barret's (you remember her, played by Sigourney "I'm having a baby" Weaver) little sprog being snatched.
The first level of the game concerns Ray collecting a sample of the slime by abseiling down a haunted sewer. Swinging from left to right enables Ray to collect extra weapons, bits of the scoop with which to scoop up the slime at the bottom, and the odd bottle of dutch courage.
Floating down through the clouds of steam, ghostly hands come rushing up to meet Ray as he tries to collect the slime.
Some uncharitable ghosts in the shape of outsized fingers attempt to sever your cable as you descend.
Altogether an unpleasant experience, especially from the gameplay point of view - the whole level is too difficult.
In contrast, level two is incredibly easy. It is possible to get through the whole thing by firing just a few shots. You control the giant Statue of Liberty, hot-footing it down to Ihe museum and protecting gangs of mindless helpers.
Nice animation of Miss Liberty.
Various squadrons of flying ghosts and denizens of the nether- worlds attack in formation, but they're nothing to worry about.
Lastly the action moves to the museum, where all you have to do is rescue the ungrateful sprog from the altar. You cannot just write off this final scene however, because there are still two fearsome baddies to overcome.
The first of these is Jonosz. He will terribly resist your efforts to snatch the sprog by firing at you.
Unfortunately the entire range of death-dealing weaponry possessed by our heroes is not sufficient to give him cause for concern.
Likewise Vigo, who emerges from the picture eventually.
The opening sequence and the fillers between level feature excellent animation, digitised stills and good samples and arranged sounds.
Animation and well defined graphics are equally brilliant throughout the game, though the disc swapping gets a bit of a pain.
While Ghostbusters II is undoubtedly an audio-visual feast, there is little game in it that is fun to play. Rather like a Petor Greenaway film, we arc treated to a high degree of polish and art with very little underlying substance.
Green (ihoslbuslers II £24.93 Adi vision Overall - 68% Distinctly Digita Cleverly written and always favourably reviewed in the press, Digita produces a range of powerful, low cost software for the home and business user.
DGCALC Ihe fewest ard mow powerful spreadsheet available in this B'ce bracket with 512 rows by 52 cWumm giving you up to 2«24 cells As wth ill Digits products, the operation ot the program r» cleaty thought out Being either menu mouse or rotvnand dnven you II be able to start using it wlh.n minutes
- even rt you ve never used a spreadsheer before Some of Ihe
features which make it such good value are the exporting ot
ASCII files for integration with other programs, adiustable
coftxm width and tefl overflow, programmable function keys
(macros), and a unique windowing facility, so that you can look
at different pam of a sheet at the same time xngsure i
printed correctly Well now all that s a thing c* the past.
Because Mailshot actually shows you the labels on screen you
can type names and add'eases n exactly the correct place But
more than that, the labels are animated on screen as a
continuous sheet, allowing you to scroll bat*wards and
forwards, to search tor partcUar keywords or to edit entries
with the minimum ol fuss facilities include searching, detedon
ot dupt cate labels, sorting (even surnemei) 9 labels across.
999 copies ol any label Ttvshes to be the simplest and mow
effect-.* method ot creating a ~*" £24.95 E-TYPE Oo you ever
have to print names and addresses at awkward Paces on envelop**
or do you ever need to fill in tncky toms or moces where she
leu has lo be m exactly the right place? Usually you have to do
it by hand, or get your trusty cto typewriter c-ut of Ihe
onboard and dust it off Well not anymore The Emulated TVPEwnter
transforms your anouler and prmer into a tuty Hedged
Mttotng bold underline, dak and other type-styfes Because It can display and print teif INSTANTLY you can in up your form press Return and Space a few hmes lo move to the correct place, and then start typing. Ahernatvely you can swtth fo line-by-lme mode when offers wtxd-wrap.
LusPhcaton and prtportonai sparxng. So that you can edt £39.95 Advarced version ot Mailshot (or the business following extra teal lies ' integration with other software us.ng ASCII tiles)
* columrnYabuiatod summary idea) tor telephone lets. Elc|
• 4 extra memo lines per label (with detains) ' system lor coding
dahng and adding messages lo eetfi let* ' different layoies
available for horizontal and verscat
* - £49.95 Are you absolutely sure your laimen is doing hts job
correctly' Plan your own ta win ease this menu-driven program
will calculate your ncome ia» liability |4 lai years irduded)
and provide pertinent t*cs about your lax position You can
perlorm what-*' catcuUhcm to discover ways to minimise your tax
I lability In fad. The program will you on dungs such as. It
you are a marned man. Whether it
• ould be advaniagecus to have your wite s income taxed
separately or not. At this price who knows, you will probably
linj thai PTP will pay tor -tseit in tax savings the first time
you us* iff " STOP PRESS " July M - PTP user receives tax
refund ot over C2.9XT DAY-BY-DAY An excellent way to get
organised With it you II be remnded of brthdays and other
anniversaries, meetings and appointmants. Phone caffs to make
and so on As with all Dpta prcducts. Inpuffing mtormaiton is
simplicity taei and.
Once entered, you can search tor keywords or lor particular events such as birthdays to see when one is coming up Ixludes month1 week day planner, automate remnders lor Overdue apponlrrents. Monto and wwek summary at a garce For less than £30 ths is the ideal way to make sure you never miss that important occasion again' Available to the trade from: Digita, GEM, Greyhound, HB Marketing, Lazer, Leisuresoft, R & R, SDL.
DIGITA INTERNATIONAL CREDIT CAR[ JNE ? 0395 270273 S Post: Digilfl "Serious softrvare at a sensible price" All software written in the UK Prices include VAT & P & P (add £2.00 tor export) GAMES L, Is there a doctor in the house?
A COI TAKE one remote and mysterious old mansion. Include a kidnapped heroine and naive group of rescuers. For good measure, add a mad professor, a homicidal nurse and a teenage commando with a hamster fetish.
Put it all together and what have you got, apart from material for a dozen tacky honor films?
Yup, that's right, you've got Maniac Mansion.
Although this is essentially an adventure, Lucasfilm has managed to dispense with all that tedious typing, and has successfully created an animated game that is fun to play and enjoyable to watch. It uses a virtually identical control system to its predecessor, Zak McKraken.
Initially, you play the part of Dave, whose girlfriend Sandy has been kidnapped by Fred the mad prof.
You placed an advert on the school notice board asking for volunteers to assist you in your rescue bid. Before you stand seven applicants, each of whom has different abilities in areas ranging from surf- boarding to physics.
Having selected two people to join you, it's off to the mansion, where the game proper can begin.
Your group starts on the road just outside the house, A sign sets the tone of the game: "WARNING!
Trespassers will be horribly mutilated!" Ignoring this message, you quickly encounter the first problem
- how do you get in? The solution is as logical as it is a
cliche. Once inside, the puzzles become somewhat more
There seem to be so many objects available, but never the ones that you want. Unravelling the intricate web of the plot is a time-consuming but enjoyable process.
At various times during play the game will be interrupted by brief flashes from other parts of the house. These show what is currently happening to Sandy, who despite her bravery is due to have her brains sucked out.
Each of the three heroes can be controlled individually, and while they will be needed to work solo for much of the time, there are occasions when cooperation is the only solution.
Lucasfilm says that the game can be completed with any combination of characters, but the plot will be modified according to the selections you make. Thus you may play many entirely different games before truly completing Maniac Mansion.
1 can't help but draw comparisons between Maniac Mansion and the cult musical, The Rocky Horror Show. They both have a very offbeat sense of humour.
There are numerous other similarities, all of which serve to enhance the intriguing story line, recreating a Sixties horror atmosphere.
Mat Broomfield Maniac Mansion £19.99
l. ucasfilm (lames Overall - 87" .. SANTA IN 3 IN A BED SCANDAL
XMAS SALE £75 £68 r ;-| N r m
y. i id in be while solo e are s the ecan bina- : will ielec- may
lines niac ipar- sion »cky ve a our.
Ilari- ance iting field i ¦ n £309 £489 £499 TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOME Send cheques to: Dept AC Memory Expansion Systems Ltd.
Britannia Buildings, 46 Fenwick Street, Liverpool L2 7NB
(NEC Through Port ON OFF Switch) A2000TWOMEG (Microbotics 8
Up) A2000 FOUR MEG (Microbotics 8 Up) A2000 HARD CARD (48
Microbotics Hard Frame with 2SMS Seagate Drive) A590
(051) 236 0480 • 24 Hour Sales
(051) 227 2482-24 Hour Fax VISA FIRST micro HARDWARE & SOFTWARE
ZEALAND STORY F18 INTERCEPTOR Buggy Boy Ikari Warriors
Barbarian Thundercats Terra pods £289 £1250 £476 AMIGA A500
BATPACK £320 £799 AMIGA A500 + BATMAN 2 (five afimzty Amegas
Mercenary Deluxe Paint II - Mega Insanity Flight Paint Package
Art of Chess Microblaster Autofire Wizball Microswitched
Joystick 10 Blank 3.5'Disks Mouse Mat AMIGA B2000 INCLUDING:-
• 20Mb HARD DISK AMIGA A500 INCLUDING:-
• MOUSE • TV MODULATOR A500 A2000 MONITORS PRINTERS 1084(s) High
res monitor ..£209 Philips CM8833 High ros ..El 99
1901 C64 - colour .Call 1900 C64 -
Mono ..£119 AMIGA EXTERNAL DRIVES Cjr«n» C*
JME ______C7» M880--------- C7» HF30JC-------tW SuS'aMmoHtt .
* Al ci vea 1m© • orvotf s*ntc- * AMIGA ACCESSORIES A50l-5l2k
RAM., E109 TV Modulator ~ ... £22
Mouse Mat ....£4.39 Amiga dust-cover
3. 5 135TPIDS1X) ...£9.99 NEC 3.5" 1Mb 2nd DRIVE £64
COLOUR PRINTERS Hugely successful 9 pin printer, the Star LC10
provides 4 NLO fonts (with 96 print combinations) at 36cps and
144cps draft. Has a large 4K buffer and IBWparallel interface
built in. Includes a comprehensive front panel operation and
features paper parking, allowing single sheets to be used
without removing tractor paper.
COMPUTE* PRINTERS J1WJ LC24-10 £249 PRINTERS Star LC10 (P) 130CDS .....£139 Star LC10 Colour ..£189 Star LC24-10 (24 pin) £269 Citizen 1200 ...£105 Commodore MPS 1230 ...£119 Panasonic KXP1124 (24 pin).. £279 Panasonic KXP1081...... £149 Epson LX800 ..£158 Epson LQ500 .£250 ....£409 ..£382 Epson FX850 .... Epson FX1050 .. Epson EX800 .... Epson EX1000 .. ....£369 ....£419 LASERS Citizen overture .
£1299 £1825 HP Laserjet II ... A2000 HARDWARE A2000* 1 mb RAM ..£869 A2000 ? 1084(a) monitor ? Bridge BD ? 20mb Fvdisk...£l369 A2000 ? 1084(3) .£1049 20mb hard disk .....£299 XT bridge BO ...£299 BATMAN SALE
• Batman II
• The New Zealand Story
• F18 Interceptor
• Deluxe Paint II CHRISTMAS SALE A501 512K Ram expansion £75 inc.
VAT & Delivery ALL PRICES EXCLUDE VAT I I I CREDIT CARD MAIL
• S (0202)24927 OPEN MON-SAT 9am-5.30 pm All prices and
manufacturer's specifications subject to change without notice.
I™To: First Mtero, 13 Lansdowne Road. Bournemouth. Dorset. BH1 1RZ | I wish to order _ My computer is I enclose cheaue PO for £ Inc VAT.
Or charge my Access Visa No.
Exp. Date_ r*i Name r 1 Address opposing player. In this version a point is marked by smashing the glass screen in front of the opposing player.
To get through to the phone you've got to beat all eight of the local players. They range from the | wimpy Skip Feeney through the initially good but increasingly tipsy Lexan Smythe-Worthington to the reigning champion and hard man, Biff Raunch.
They have their own style and weak- nesses, but it will lake a lot of playing to beat Biff Raunch or Princess Bejin. The Cafe's number two player who just happens to have a telekinetic serve.
Practice can be had by playing any of the players singly or by programming a robot to be as good or as bad a player as you want.
Shufflepuck is simple, but with gameplay that's truly offworld.
From the weird intro tune to players' exclamations of disgust, the sound is neatly atmospheric. As this is a straight USA import, it's got a slightly shortened screen, but despite this the graphics carry the game.
Stewart C. Russell Vtnnie's hip and cool and really laid back.
But he suie plays a mean game of shufflepuck Slmttlepm k (lip tl'I.'Pi lhinlirhuii,l Princess Be in smiles seeeth- as she senes yet another telepathic Graphics Gamepliy Overall - 89% V SPOTTING a sales rep oul on the road is easy - he's the guy in the red Orion with a jacket hanging up in the back. In the future it'll be easier; just look for the jacket.
Things have taken a downturn in your life. On the way to closing the biggest sale you've ever negotiated, your new (possibly red) Nash Sombrero decides to play up. Forcing you to take the nearest exit. Too bad it had to be the one for Wrong Side of Town (Central).
Grabbing your jacket from oul the back, the only possibility of contacting the AA seems to be the local bar. This place isn't a quiet martini and wallpaper music establishment. No, in divo terms this one's the Acapulco cliffs.
The clientele appear to be what's left after the dregs of humanity and a variety of other races have decided to call it quits. You can see a phone way over in the far corner, but these people won't let you by until you've proved your worth at the Shufflepuck table.
Shufflepuck's like Air Hockey, that ancient arcade attraction that looked like a cross between a snooker table and a steam iron.
Each player has a | and the aim is t get the puck past the COMPOST THE SOUTHS LEADING COMPUTER BY POST SERVICE ¥r% CREDIT CARD MAIL ORDER 52 AMIGA A500 + BATMAN 2 (five elUMMf!
Including BATMAN THE MOVIE NEW ZEALAND STORY F18INTECEPTOR Buggy Boy Ikarl Warrior* Barbarian Thundercats Terrorpods Amegai Online Paint II - Mega Paint Package Microblaster Autollrv Microswitched Joystick 10 blanks 3.5'Disks Mouse Mat OPEN MONDAY - SATURDAY 10AM - 5.30PM Mercenary Insanity Fight Art ol Chess Wizball £345 AMIGA B2000 INCLUDING: • MOUSE • WORKBENCH
• BASIC • UTILITIES • MANUALS £799 HP DeskJet *________...
CP2200 .... NiC P8.
Pi.nasonc XP-.38- .
Panasonc XPV3C .
Panasonic XPi '24 .
Star ICO . S&' NX15 Sa*lC24iO S*a- XR24-0 STB' XB2415 NEC P . Cc*0u» SariCIO Colour Xerox 4020 Colour..... ..£544* .£254 £419 £538 £126 £156 £256 . £12$ £28$ . R257 £4*8 £545 £823 . C'84 £949 Citizen 1200 ________________ Ct nr -SOf C tzr VSPtb: Citze* HQP«Q cmm H0P4S tPSOI ,X400 E»on J«50 f oscn nnoso Epson LQ400 .. Epson 10550 .
F pscn 10850 Epson 101Q50 Epson 102550 Epson 0FXS000 'besmoi___ .... £108 f 126 ft £289 £299 £142 f*89 £379 ....£205 £2 2 C«04 CS49 £847 £10 8 £449* LC10 MPUTERPRINTERS 5* COLOUR AMIGA ACCESSORIES AMIGA EXTERNAL DRIVES A501 -512 K RAM ......£129 Inc Mouse Mat ....£4.95 Inc Amiga Dust Cover___________£4.95 Inc TV Modulator .....£21.95 Inc Steel Monitor .....£15.95 Inc Standard Amiga 5205 T Steel Double ......£25.95 Inc Monitor Stand Amiga ST AMIGA or MSDOS £89 Inc xr Brldge Board E39g + VAT 5° AT Bridge Board -----£675 * VAT 'S!nc INT
Genlock ...£179 ? VAT T99inc 5 Mb RAM B with 2 Mb RAM £85lnc .. £649 ? VAT 2nd Drive 3* ......£75 ? VAT ..£64 COMMODORE C64 Entertainment Pack £199 Inc CHRISTMAS SALE F501 512K RAM EXPANSION £63 ® 0202 292195 Open Mon-Sat 10- 5.30 ALL PRICES EXCLUDE VAT UNIT 6, FOREST CLOSE, EBBLAKE IND ESTATE, VERWOOD, DORSET, BH21 6DA £129 LC24-10 -Z,£169, r £199 I COLOUR PRINTERS LASER PRINTERS Cit2**HQP40 £349 3r:1«r".A« £1409* Cicze" VSPSO £359 Epspn G05000 CiWe-MSPSS £400 r-ew«n: aco«:
* Metf P*«ar: P*K ** £589 l aser Jei n NEC P8* £504 Sta f?4$
* ac 1 year on mar prance AMIGA A500 INCLUDING:
• BASIC* TUTORIAL Mail Order Hot Line Phone 0202 292195 DELIVERY
UK MAINLAND """HEX' 6 FOREST CLOSE "'vat ebblake INII ESTATES
Hardwire: 4 working (toy* VERWOOD
b. vat DORSET Next working diy £10 ? VAT AMIGA A500 1084 (S)
MONITOR £469 Philips CM8852 ________________£260 Inc 1541 Cl 1
51 4 C64 CBM CGA Compatible Philips 8833-----------------£229
Inc CBM 1900 Mono_______________£129 Inc Atari 124 Mono
.....£129 Inc Atari SC 1224 ......£259
Inc AMIGA BATMAN PACK INCLUDING BATMAN COVER £320 £399 Inc
Triangle 20Mb Hard Disk.. £459 ? VAT Vortex A500 Hard Disk 40
Mb ..... £510 Inc Triangle 40 Mb Hard Disk
....£579 ? VAT Cumana CSA 354
£89 Inc Cumana CDA3S8 £199* VAT So Mm v 1 v rOMPI 'TFP PrlNTr
accessories A2000 ACCESSORIES CBM 1901_____________ £149 Inc
Drive-----------------------£145 Inc PRINTERS NEC 2nd DRIVE
.... 20Mb Hard Disk.. C64 Hollywood Pack ..£149 Inc CBM
1084 S Stereo .£239 Inc C64 Home New A500 20Mb A590 HD
...£380 Inc MONITORS PICTIONARY was a nice game, I say was,
because it used to be played by people, and the real fun was
in how you worked for and against those people. It was a sort
of drawing game with rules, where guessing the word hidden in
the picture the other player had drawn would move you around
the board. Just the kind of thing to play with a group of
To make it different from Ihe board game, the computer version uses Ihe gimmick of the Amiga drawing the pictures. It also looks alter the board and rolling the dice for you. But it sadly misses the mark when it comes to Ihe guessing part.
If the Amiga is drawing one of its pictures, off it goes into a rather lackv black and white sketchpad program where every line or fill makes an absurd squeak, parp or pop, It's irritating the first time through. It gets more irritating Ihe more you play it.
So, Ihe Amiga scribbles away a picture, and once you guess ihe word you hit the spacebar. Then you have to hit Return to say that you really want to make a guess.
Then it finishes the drawing and tolls you what Ihe word was and asks if someone got it right.
PICTIONARY Is it a bird, is it a plane...?
If it's a picture where anyone can guess, it has to ask you who actually got it right. It then makes you click the mouse on the Continue button and then makes you click the mouse on the Next Word icon. This bit is just to make you feel busy, because there is no reason to it. What it actually docs is make you feel irritated having to repeat this monotonous process.
If you want to draw your own pictures you have to play as teams.
And even then the game has plastic cards with words on them which you are supposed to use to stop you cheating. More tedium.
I tried the game with a couple of friends, but all the computer succeeds in doing is killing any real game interest. The graphics don't help much, being tacky in the extreme with had colour choices and a singularly static board, most of which can be put down to it being released across 8 and 16 bit machines and catering to the low- Overall - 32% cst common denominator.
Pictionary is an unsatisfactory attempt at computerising a game, both from the technical and game- player points of view. There are too many gimmicks. There is even an option to save your black and white rough sketches as IFF images. As if the Amiga was short on art packages!
DJ Walkcr-Morgan QUARTZ Better than clockwork CRYSTALLOGRAPHY is a fun subject. No, really it is Packed with useful and everyday concepts such as Burgers Vectors and Peierls-Naharro Stresses. It's rivctting reading for insomniacs.
This gem of a subject (wit, or what!] doesn't exactly spring to mind as the plot for a particularly mindless shoot-'em-up, but Firebird has tried.
What has happened is somewhere. Somehow, a crystal lattice has come over all unstable. This has been deemed a Bad Thing, so a suitable bozo has been found (viz.
Youj, plonked in a small space fighter and shrunk down to be small enough to fit into the crystal.
To get a rough idea of the required size, think of the weeny side of very, very tiny, and then some. Even now. You're still out by a couple of hundred angstroms, which are nothing to do with what a depressed artificially intelligent system might have. A rogue nucleus is causing all the trouble.
It's big enough - relatively, of course - to cause you real problems with your standard issue weapon, so you must stroll about the nucleus, blasting open quarks to capture the valuable neutrinos inside.
Now a neutrino is an incredibly small and fast thing. Travelling through the Earth doesn't cause a neutrino to even blink. But that's only in real life. Once you've caught enough of them in Quartz you can use them to synthesise new and more destructive weapons.
The nucleus does its level best to get rid of you with an orbiting electron cloud. The more you shoot the nucleus, the faster it spins.
Until it splits.
Once the nucleus is destroyed, you fly off via an enormous change of scale, through a meteor storm to the next crystal.
Quartz has been pul together by Paul Shirley, he who wrote the 8 bit classics Spindizzy (clever) and Mission Genocide (violent!. All his games have some feature that's neat.
The new thing in Quartz is a multi-level scroll, with shadows between and above levels, and a parallax slarfield behind it all. The actual play area is small, and the screen is shorter than it has any right to be. But the effect is generally quite neat.
Overall - 82% The tune is palatable too, if you haven't had too much of electropop already. There is hut one problem.
This type of game, though fun and well presented, can't really justify its £25 price point, especially since some companies are trying to release bearable games for a fiver.
Quartz is certainly good. The lattice level is strongly reminiscent of Sinistar, while the meteor storm bit tastes of every scroller you've ever played, so it isn't exactly original.
Stewart C. Russell February' 199(1 A MIC A COMPUTING 39 SK MARKETING LONDON'S LEADING ? ? ? COMPUTER SUPPLIES j j j AMMGA 10 Fulham Broadway, London SW6 1AA DEALER COMPARE OUR PRICES BEFORE ORDERING FOR UNBEATABLE OFFERS!!
Export. Government and Educational orders welcome The 8° spend e mer effc lhat is the mat duce so for tho about t nude jc recomir The idea - a sligh have fu In-One It sh brain a onds ' media playin green I white : placed mouse which One movin line. T the str the bi where mouse hopefi Frc Digite with i frusta 10 yar For bump, cours shadt been of ph judgIT curvt Practi hole- crow impni Ha cours Digit Slowl water the si in-on Pa unde telep instai the n Th obsta rial i end.
Feelir AMIGA BOO Indudlna:- Mouse. Workbench. Utilities. Manual*.
Tutorial. Modulator SKMprioe------£055 Advanced Amiga BASIC . £18.95 Arnga 30 Graphics Prog BASIC £18.45 Arriga Applications . ..£16.95 Amiga Assembly Lang Prog -----£10.80 Amiga BASIC Inside A Out £18.95 Arnga C lor Beginners---------- £18.45 Amiga DOS Inside A Out ...£18.45 Amiga DOS Manual £22.96 Amiga DOS Quick Relerence ......£13.95 Amiga DOS Ret Guide .. £14.95 Amiga Disk Drives Inside A Out ...£27.95 Amiga Gd Graphics Sound Teieco £17.45 Amiga Handbook ------------------£15.95 Amiga Intuition Ret Manual
.....£22.95 Arnga Machine Lang Guide___________£19.95 Arnga Machne Language .....£14.95 Amiga Microsoft Basic Prog Guide £18.45 Amiga Prog Ham1000k Vol. I _______£23.95 Amiga Prog Handbook Vol. 2______ £23.95 Amiga Programmers Guide__________£16.95 Amiga Programmers Guide £18.45 Amiga ROM Kernel Ret Man Exec......£22.95 Amiga ROM Kernel Ret Man Lb ..£32.95 Amiga System Programmers Guide.... £32.95 Amiga Tricks and Tips__________________£14.95 Amiga lor Beginners ----------------£12.95 Becoming an Arnga Artist __________£18.45 Beginners Guide to the Amiga ....£16.95 Compute's 1st
Book ol Amiga ......£16.95 Compute's 2nd Book ot Amiga £16.95 Elementary Amiga BASIC .....£14.95 Inside Amiga Graphics---------- £16.95 Inside the Amiga with C 2nd Ed ...£20.95 Kckstart Guide to the Amiga ________£13.95 Kid A the Arnga----------------------£15.95 More Tips A Tricks lor Amiga---------£18.45 Programmers Guide to the Amiga £23.96 DOT MATRIX PRINTERS Panasonic KX P1124 ...... Panasonic KX-P1180 ....£180 CLASS OF THE 90's
* Amiga 500 + TV Modulator
* Midi Master Interlace A Deluxe Paint II
* Publishers Choice
* Maxi Plan 500 A Superbase Personal
* DR-T'S Midi Rec. Studio
* Amiga Logo A BBC Emulator + Mouse Mat
* 10 Blank Discs ? Disc Wallet ONLY £519 Inc. VAT!
CONTROL CENTRE Instantly transform your Amna 500 into an A1CXXV2000 'look a Hke- wthout any modification to the corrpuier. Simply slip the
• cxjntrol centre' over the Amiga 500 and by reason erf Rs colour
match and contour d conxTie s'ef0"** lntefl,al par1 Hides
untidy connections a rear of A5O0
• Holds disk drives, genlocks etc...
• Easy access to joystick parts
• Monitor sits about A5CO £54.95 LEISURE SOFTWARE 0495 C160O
rtiso nan o*i«---------cu« pisuow ......tiers
d*., riiso powmiwn. Tiers PintuWII________________CI74S Pfwrnr
Cdbcbon I DO 90 PiKHMnta Mueng 0580 ProT*mTojr CIS 90
Pur*. Saturn Or,___Cl 5 90 Oadrdkn £13.90 0*1
.Cl 600 Ouwlaiot Sport £17 95 RmowWimc* ... £1690
Rm Okrg. (I Ottairrwig. 04 96 Red
Kid----------------------CIS00 Red!**"* DIOS Red 8tcrm
Hung--------C1690 Return dt.M _..O4 80 Rk*
Dwignt**_______________CIS90 Ra« Staten
.CIS90 .. CtSBS RtxSet
linger .....0090 Rdlng
Thundk-------------CI700 R »n*e bitxuitn ---------06 SO
HuitwGwunM____07.45 SergonlHOcn C1990 Bape&WH---Cl 3 90
Baxpio---Cl 6 SO Saepion----------CIS 90 Shadow of toi Bw I a*
OS S4«wtrtn ...Cl 4 90 BUI. Ot Art CIS 90
6*n9--------- C1SOO torn* ..... £14 90 Sink*
Fora Hamer ......C1199 Sredo-geb-------------CIS SO 81*** ri9»s
6 *ot emup Conelnjelan 6et C1990 SmrtSetvto CiS 90 «»"Oty
..C17 90 Sky Fa 7----- C1I9S SkpSUnm 0386
Sncapy---07 45 8orc*ry Rue--£1400 8peaQje*t2___0745 Spaa Ojeil
N____0090 3peaO*«tl ____________Cl 745 Spaces* ..... CISOO
Speed B* -----CI745 SpDos image------------- £14 90
SpynSgy----------- 009 SkrBrtdar-----------Cl 3 90 6krG»mwt)
------ DIOS Skr G idr 2---CIS 90 Skrwen----C130S CM BO 0175
rises o«s 0745 ICO: 01_ IcaOtEiXn 1»n» Icfig Artur lOng Qunt J
Piet KngMOrt__ ««¦---------- Kjt ..... nan raw £17.45
ores rises nen Cl 7 45 £13 es 074$ ri6 n naes run £1650 Cl 7 45
nsn nsn nseo Uadtitnn) BtrflK__ UeMOIM .... Uauft But Uny Imurt
But tarry 2 Uana b «------- IMMUtDi lortur RAC Rdty Urtidtw
Rung Bun £14 n £19 es rtsn nan nsn oon oon noes nan nees oum
tkrtcbr 2____nan Foott.1 Mwiign 2 land rtOlS foubufcbnv.2 nan
07. 45 £1490 run 0745 £1745 nan otoo ri6es nars ri6so naes £1745
nm £17.45 £16 50 Et6n nan nan £10.96 £17.45 0600 nsn nen nses
tnes ct7*s nan 0796 nr n £17.45 riBss Don n74s ALL PRICES
INCLUDE VAT CARRIAGE FREE AI1 pric»* are subject to chenge
without further notice. All goods subject to eveilebility
Please noie some Leisure ties ate awaiting release AMIGA 500
* Amiga 500 * TV Modulator
* Batman the Movie
* New Zealand Story
* Interceptor
* Deluxe Paint II
* Dust Cover and Mouse Mat ONLY £375 Inc. VAT!
* Latest B2000 Model
* 1084S Colour Stereo Monitor
* 20Mb Hard Disk
* PC-XT Bridgeboard with Floppy ALL ONLY £1495 A590 2OWB Hard
Drive Vortex 40MB Ha d drUe________ Phipe 8833
Monitor ...... Commodore 1064S Col. Monitor A501 Ram
ExpanskxvCkx* Commodo e A1010 3.5* Drive.... Video
Digitizer----------------------- Cumana 3.5* Drive
MES Halt Meg Ram Expansion .. Personal callers
welcome Opposite Fulham Broadway Tube Station - District Line 1
PROFESSIONAL AMIGA SOFTWARE 9 out ol
10 .. .£29.95 Amiga Dos
1.3 ... Animator Images
Animator--------------- Animator 30_____________________
£39.95 £99 95 Arena
Accounts .. ..-..£149.95
C-Llght .... .£39.95 Comic
Sorter______________________ OeKxe P»l* II ___ Dtauee P*m ir
_____... (WbHii?
Dek ie Muktc Coow'ji*.- .
JekulP "'OOX'O B____ .. .£44.95 «4S» T64 95 0995 £54 95 ** * Dekne Pnotoub 3e*n* Vdeo Of A Base kreorerw Gf Arasc Cumvta Of A ba» rve*preier 11 Miwft De-o*: V7 0*96 CSS 95 £4995 £3995 0995 C4295 HtsoftiancwC.- .... Homo Account - nuatr Musk _______ C'7595 £2295
- .. £?' 95 Kml Kgacger___ K Sosa 04 96 C'996 £2996 K Spreao
III ...... K-Text
...£75.00 ......£14-95 Kind
Mailshot . £33.95
£21.95 Mailshot Plus
Photon Paint 2 . C40.95
..£54.95 Protext ...
.£64 95 Publishers Choice ...
Sonlx_____ .. Superbase
Personal £4995 £54.95
Superbase Personal II.
Si*»rbase Professional.
Superplan ..... The Worksl ...
- ----------£65.95
- ..£169.95 £69 95 £109.95 Video
Title .... Zoetrop (5 In 1
- ---------£99 95
- ----------£79.95 Ski. Cm.id._______ 8kw Dm World 8nox»*r
BbrmlaM------ 019$ ..€1390 £1490 Timnannw ... tin Tin on
9x lAxn____ To(Ml . 0745 £1390 0490
8Dry SoFw Vd 1 StrettRgNir__ Stnair ctseo CI74S Town o'
em .. TncMui! Wngif__________ Tm _____
0690 £1495 D2B5 Slnp PoUr 2 SuhtCfUar .. £1696 _.C14 90
T"4d Atmuti Turbo _______________ IVSpork Fodttf £1595
£14 90 (ktat «¦, «...jiizi BioerScnrracSirTUrtor SiDcrQWikt
C174S £1690 ..06.00 Ukm.4_____ Urmmr Mtikry SwrirUla
UfWMkd______ 0590 05 90 CIS 90
• .... Sword or Sodn Swottk d
Twilight________ rum-------------- Tin* AM* ..
T. rjywn .... £1890 €17*0 £2090 CIS 90 . OS90 V10«*n*-----
Vitk*_____ V0WQ4T------ Wikiioo
W. r in Uddk E.rti ..... 0295 0745 .0745 £1990 0385
T. dnoCcg___________ . OS9S VAOf d_____________________ Wtmrn
0745 TrtJ Dhw ZZZZZZ.
Ted Dtta II________ OS 90
07. 45 DO 90 wwdWem'IZZL-Z!
WorWCtal Lrwdnhard 0745 04 80 IfcwkwlUdml ftnMw .. 0690 0500 Wort) Tail Cdf_________ Xincr I_______ Xmnrtd).
0795 0680 Ttidl Twn. Rlkxn I___ Thtrttatikdi-------- Tmt 4 lUgk___ TwwdLort . 0995 . CI74S C139S C1S90
* »»»•-- 2M McCnkei______ hn, Colt___________ 7oit2.ro
£1745 .0745 0745 0880 All Prices Incl. VAT Carriage Free Mail
Oder Immediate Despatch LIMITED OFFERS raes taw 7*d«tJ Story
£845 PM** _______ 0280 Ruwwg Mw . 01-381 6618 (24 Hours)
Callers Welcome Fax No. 01 381 0528 ING H0LE-IN-0NE Taking a
swing for the better mm r»v6 . £ 14.65 ...ow.96 cw.» £14*96
..£3U&6 . £44 66 ..£40,96 ... £84 96 ..£3H»6 £54 06 . CW tf*
.. £65 06 ,.£4U 06 E3«06 C3U-06 £4 06 £1 6.46 ..£2? 06 £21 06 £34*6 ..£1006 £20 06 ..£7500 ..£14 06 £3306 ..£21 06 £40 06 £54 06 .£54 06 .£74 06 .£40 06 £54 06 £65 06 £160 06 .£60 06 £100 06 £00 06 .£70 06 followed by the pleasurable sensation of spotting a shot that might just work.
Tnere are lots of courses, each with a theme illustrated by pictures and the appropriate SO, after another swift telling off, Root was pushed out of the town to survive the perils of the jungle. Realising that he was new to this civilisation, he studied some of his many notes strewn throughout his clothing, and remembered the history of the Tri-City and Tel Mercon.
Many centuries ago, a man without power or influence rose to become Emperor. Nobody knows quite how. Telloc was his name.
Telloc was more egotistical than Duncan Evans, loved himself more than Green, and showed it by plastering his name on all and sundry.
A city was built called Tel Mercon.
After a prophet predicted his future. Telloc had a fortress built and named it Tel Hande. He locked himself away tor many years and forgot about the welfare of his people.
Tel Mercon began to look strangely like the streets of London, with peasants begging on the road- .
THERE are iwo ways to write a golf game. The first is to spend every last ounce of programmer effort to produce a simulation that is as dose to the real thing as the machine allows. This can produce some spectacular results. But for those who think that golf is ahout as much fun as Antarctic nude jogging, there's not a lot to recommend it.
Tne second is to take the hasic idea - hitting a small ball towards a slightly larger hole - and just have fun with it. This is what Hole- In-One Miniature Coif does.
It should take anyone with half a brain and one finger about 10 seconds to get to grips with the mechanics of Hole-In-One. The .
Playing screen is a view of the .
Green from above. Tnore's a small white rectangle whero your hall is placed with an initial click on the mouse, and a small black hole into which that ball has to be propelled.
Once the hall has been placed, t moving the mouse away draws a line. Tne length of the line shows the strength with which you'll hit the ball, its direction indicates where the ball will go. Press the mouse button and the nail flies off hopefully to end in the hole.
From such a simple basis.
Digitek contrives to give a game with as much skill, subtlety and frustration as anything with a plot 10 yards long.
For starters, the holes can have humps and dips, like a normal golf j course, represented by different shades of green. Some care has been taken to get the normal laws of physics right. With skill and judgment the ball can bounce and curve as it would in real life.
Practice or a lucky shot can get the i hole-in-one. Where a digitised , crowd sighs in an impressively impressed way.
Half-way through the tutorial course you get the impression that Digitek is admirably perverse.
Slowly, features are added - sand, water, moving barriers - that make the shots more tricky and the hole- in-one less likely.
Parts of each screen get hidden under bridges, or connected via !
Teleport pads that move your hall instantaneously fiom one place to the next.
The skill with which each new obstacle is introduced in the tutorial is finely judged. Towards the ; end, each new hole generates a feeling of "But that's impossible!".
Side, living in dark comers and alleys. Tne rich stayed wealthy and the poor grew poorer.
Enough was enough. Grouping together, the streethound and homeless revolted. Thoy lay siege on Telloc's fortress, while the man himself was locked inside chanting spells he believed would save him fiom the prophet's prediction. But a single word out of place caused Telloc to disappear in a puff of sickly smelling green smoke.
The dty rose fiom the gutter and was renamed Same Mercon, The Jewelled City.
Releasing the notes from his grasp. Reef looked around this foreboding place. Survive he must, because at least one elder fiom his old town had 50 gold pieces riding on him.
Koof The Thief is another game in the long line of point and click adventures.
Reef begins in the jungle close to the dty of Same Mercon, where fiendishly testing gadgets littering the holes. The game comes with two course discs - the simple ones are merely designed to be tricky, the complex ones start to fiddle with the laws of gravity, logic and he can talk to many people and steal fiom many houses. 3ut Same Mercon has a great police force whicli patrols most streets and has an incredible knack for catching low-lifes like you.
Tne objective of the game is to break into the dty's treasury and steal a most valuable andent artefact. But the treasure is periodically moved around a maze - pinching it is not as easy as it at first seems.
Tnere are a few busty women in the game, all of them quite tempting for a young thief like yourself.
1 had no luck chatting them up.
But then I'm ugly.
The game is certainly a challenge. Especially creeping into empty houses and walking out with the booty without getting caught. I still haven't got the hang of combat and rarely survive an attack.
1 enjoyed Reef Tne Thief, hut can see that my days as a tea-leaf are numbered.
Andrew Banner eventually your sanity. But each new torture is solvable.
This, combined with the very simple user interface, makes Hole- ln-One a paragon of addiction.
Rupert Goodwins structible or suddenly being able to fly.
The maze scenes sounded tedious, but jumping ramps was dead exciting. Perhaps Sgin could get a job as a stand-in stuntmarble.
Not exactly a high budget pro"Tag along", he said.
The Sphinx office smelt of reformed pirates, people who didn't shy awav from composing unbelievably dull electropop durges on dodgcy copies of Soundtracker. Buster went into the office to be cast in Thvrid. Which Sphinx billed as Come Save Thyras
- beat The Guardians of the Bements.
Lying on the coffee table under- neath a copy of Playsprite Magazine. SgLn found a dog-eared script. Magic Marble. The plot looked thin. Something about a marble called Marvin travelling across three lands made of small tiles to save the planet MarbleBlue.
Yuk. Thought Elgin. And he was right But the action sounded Ok. Lots of stunts, transforming into a man.
Walking on the thin ice. Bouncing off mirror type devices, turning ho!
To melt the ice. Becoming inde- A K ina A roll on part RAGON Spirit - the very ' name conjures up a cheap Chinese hellbrew. The kind of electric soup which is bought with multiples of "the price of a cup of tea". Nothing could be further from the truth.
It's about Dragons, and we're not talking about the only computer in the world with a processor so slow that you can hear every tick. No.
We're talking napalm breath here.
The first thing you notice about Dragon Spirit Is that it's in the standard Tengen Atrocious Plastic Box.
The one that kilLs all known instructions dead.
The second thing you notice Ls that the loader makes the drive sound like an elephant after a nigh!
On the beans.
Disc protection Ls a necessary evil, but when it tries to bend Amy's drive in the noisiest way- possible. The evil surely Ls unnecessary.
3asicallv. Some dumb princess has got kidnapped by some lowlife, and it's Nerdbrain's job to do the fetching.
The local quack has convinced ELGIN sat in his agent's office.
She wasn't a very good agent Most of the scripts on her desk ended with the main plaver getting killed.
"Besides." She told Sgin in an Annabel Giles cut-glass accent, "there aren't very many parts for marbles in modern computer games. They are passd".
He wouldn't haw minded, but ; ever since he put on the boot polish for a roll-on part in Marble Madness as one of the evil spheres which try to knock you offi he had been out of work.
Sgin felt rejected and rolled out of the office knocking over the remains of a flower pot which had been backed to death by some Ninjas earlier that day.
Out in the street he me! Buster, a friend who worked as an explosion sprite in shoot-'em-ups. Buster was on bis way to audition at the fledgeling Sphinx software house.
GAMES ining Ihe md some through d so that i first act inhere in he very a cheap of dec- ht with a cup of her from re're not puler in so slow ick. No, here.
* about he stan- tic Box, instruc- lOtice is e drive 'a night
cessary 0 bend ast way mneces- irincess lowlife, 1 do the
tvinced Overall - 49% you that you're a dragon. "Here," he
says. "Eat these dubious mushrooms. Incidentally, you're a
dragon now".
So off you fly to kick some heads. Well, give them a thorough singeing at least. And while the subject of heads is still within its sell-by date, you start off with three of them, each capable of blatting out air-to-air and air-to-ground destruction.
As you flap your dismal way along the narrow river valley - made all the narrower by the programmers - you realise that it's YABS - Yet Another Boring Scroller.
Where a scroll would be described as smooth on the other thing, in Amiga terms this one is found wanting in the rapidity department, it's way too slow. And it gets even slower as more things appear.
Everything that could cause a young dragon harm wobbles in a most alarming way, and indeed this is the only reliable method of determining hostile intent.
The automatic rapid fire is useRemembering what symbols did what would prove a bit tough for someone like Elgin, who had never had a speaking part, but the Steely cast in the lead would have no problem.
But Elgin was wrong.
Bright the Steely burst out of the Boss's office in a cloud of cigar smoke, shouting: "I'm not working for you if you insist on having some metallic tart on the high score screen".
He did a double backflip to make the point, not realising that this doesn't look very impressive when you are spherical, "Don't worry", boomed a voice from the dark. "We'll find another marble to play the lead. Take your
0. 8 per cent carbon and stick it where the electron gun don't
shine." This was his chance. Elgin walked into the office...
Simon Rockman ful, considering impossible without it. Unfortu
nately it sounds exactly like a very slow marine diesel engine
and soon begins to grate, Later moments of the game include
exploding phoenixes and the brilliant ruse of recolouring the
alligators used in the first level to look like fire
In playability trials between Dragon Spirit and a dead crab, 9 out of 10 game players preferred the latter. The two clear advantages of dead crabs are that they're edible and they don't try to dismember the disc drive.
Stewart C. Russell Overall - 69% IT starts well. Like all Hewson games, Slayer has a short, inconsequential plot, which owes more to the Cliche School of Popular Prose than to any amount of imagination.
1 mean, it takes a fairly wild blart of imagination to think that some contiguous luminous phosphor dots portray the elegant form of a craft capable of flying the vast distances between stars, visiting interesting planets and knocking the Reginald Maudling out of them on arrival. It does, believe me.
Whinge numero uno: The loading screen, rather than depicting the heroic although not altogether sane descent of a space fighter into some enemy ground station, looks for all the world like a early sixties jet fighter attempting to lance a boil.
Another fairly major downer is the huge great grey advert for FAST. Now I happen to like FAST, but this load of text is just crying out for some oik of a cracker to put in a pseudo-witticism about how they think that FAST aren't that great.
Right, now for the game. Take Scramble, multiply by Zynaps and divide by Denaris. And you have Slayer, give or take several orders of magnitude.
Basically, it's a fly along the tunnel shooting the assorted colours of 18th-19th century British politicians out of anything you should happen upon. At the end of the level there is a big thing that will huff and will puff and will make you implode somewhat messilv.
Not merely is the scenery deadly, it gets very close together at times. It's much closer together than it should by rights be, said he engaging Incensed Reviewer Tone (which is nothing to do with Spiritual Sky Sandalwood) because we're being short changed by 56 lines again! That makes me so angry I could eat what's left of the ozone layer and still manage a couple of tins of beans for afters.
Many games have been described as addictive; Slayer is contagious. It should be locked up as far away from anything remotely computerised and left there to die.
The sound is nothing special, the graphics are equally zero-rated and the gameplay is elsewhere (in If you're into awesome grossed- out pestilence. Slayer could just be your mainest groove thing. And if the rest of you are thinking that the earlier reference to British politicians of a bygone age was purely because we reviewers get paid mostly by the word, you could not be further from the truth.
It was, in fact, an ingenious descriptive link. Yes. Slaver, is the Pitts.
Stewart C. Russell XENOPHOBE Two heads is better than one THE earth, which we all know and love and waste vast quantities of paper on talking about trying to save, is in a bit of a mess.
And it's not really its fault either, because external forces are causing the problem.
First it was the Martian virus, then it was the satellites vanishing, and now most of the orbiting space stations have gone quiet.
From some preliminary scanning it seems that the Xenos have taken over all the bases, killing the crews.
These Xenos are repulsive. Not merely are they less than pretty, but they'll do anything in their power to get rid of anyone who is trying to get rid of them. A motley crew of mercenaries, old soldiers and psychopaths has been formed to remove the monace, but only two mombers of the team can be on a base at any one time.
This means that two players can C" y simultaneously, each using f of a split screen.
There are five types of Xenos. All of them less than pleasant, all of them the same traditional shade of green. They each cause a health drain to your character, but most of them can be got rid of with one sort of weapon or another.
Different weapons and useful items are scattered about on the floor. Somo aro needed to get past security systoms, which have gone a little doolally with the alien invasion. There isn't any real variety in a game like Xenophobo.
Every mission looks roughly the same and there aren't any interludes where you might be able to have a slight rest or gain extra bonus points.
Basically, from start to finish it is one of the most frantic blasting games ever to appear in the arcades. There is never any time to think what you're doing and eventually the whole thing becomes automatic. There isn't the time to get bored - there's too much to do
- but the competitive and cooperative clement in two-player
mode is frequently the only thing that keeps a game going.
Xenophobe does try, however.
Overall - 70% There's something kind of cuto about the Xenos. The whole thing seems to have the menace of a Animation is simple, but smooth. There's a cartoony air to the game. But everything's a bit small. Not merely is there a fairly large and admittedly well done Xenophobe banner at the top of the screen, but the bottom bit of Ihe screen isn't used at all. So each player is stuck with a long strip about 80 pixels high.
In a one-player game the lower strip is blank, so only about a third of the screen is used. Mind you, the graphics are too well done for this to be YASTP.
The tunes arc good. MicroStyle includes a tape of the real arcade machine's sound, and they're pretty close.
What does worry me. Though, is the statement that Xenophobe embodies all that is best in MicroStyle games. If this is true, we could be looking for some quite gifted ordinariness.
Fairly good, but cigarwise it's out of the running.
Stewart C. Russell A ATARI ST and O Sixteen Bit Superdeals from the Sixteen Bit Specialists!
CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE! When comparing prices remember ours include fast delivery by courier.
520 STFM Power Pack £359.00 Inc. VAT and Next Day Delivery Power Peck Include*:
* 520 STFM 512K Keyboard with Built-in 1 Megabyte disk drive and
TV Modulator A Over £550 worth of flames software, including
OutRun, Gauntlet 2, R-Type.
Space Harrier. Super HangOn and 16 more Top Games A Organiser Business Software including WORDPROCESSOR, SPREADSHEET and DATABASE.
A First BASIC and First Music Utility Software.
A FREE JOYSTICK AND FREE MOUSE MAT WORTH £4.95. A All leads, manuals PLUS MOUSE and free mains plug!
REMEMBER! Many Sts do not come with BASIC - ours come with ST BASIC REV D by Meta com co.
520 STFM Explorer Pack £279.00
* Explorer PacK includes 520 STFM 512K Keyboard with built-in 1
Megabyte Disk Drive and TV modulator A I FREE Game, ST Tutorial
and METACOMCO Basic worth £25.00
* All Leads, Manuals PLUS MOUSE and FREE Mains Plugl A Free mouse
mat worth £4.95_ 1040 STFM Super Pack £439.00
* Includes 1 megabyte keyboard PLUS £450 worth ol Software.
Comprising 21 games and Oganiser Business Software. Also includes Metacomco BASIC, Mouse Pad. All Leads. Manuals and Mouse 1040 STFM Business Pack £439.00 Buelneee Pack Includes: A Atari 1040 STFM Keyboard with 1 meg memory and 1 meg built-in disk drive plus TV modulator A £385 worth ol Business Software including MICROSOFT WRITE word processor (£150). SUPERBASE PERSONAL Database (£60) and VIP PROFESSIONAL Lotus 123 Spreadsheet done (£150), Metacomco Basic (£25) A All leads, manuals and mouse.
MEGA 1 Business Pack £529.00 Features: A Separate Keyboard and System Unit A All the Software included with 1040 STFM Business Pack A Bitier chip installed for faster graphics Inc SM124 Mono Monitor .£628.00 ACCESSORIES Ouickshot II Turbo Joystick ..£.9.95 Branded Memorex 3.5- DS DO Disks Competition Pro5000 Joystick., ..E13.95 Boxol 10 ..£13.95 Competition Pro with Autolire.....£14.95 Memorex Disk Box Konlx Speedklng Joystick .....£11.95 For 40 3.5' Disks ..£8.95 Red Mouse Mat with Amiga looo .C5.95 Amiga 1 2 Meg
Expansion.....£119.95 Plain blue Mouse Mat ..£4.95 Control Centre Atari or Amiga......£39.95 Contriver Amiga and ST Mouse with FREE Holder and Mouse Pad £20.95 Star LC24-10 24 pm ind. Load raTERs . £249.00 Star LC10 including interlace lead tor ST Amiga ...£169.00 Star LctO colour induding Interlace lead lor ST Amiga ......£219.00 Citizen 1200 induding interface lead lor ST Amiga . £159.00 SEIKOSHA 80 COLUMN PRINTERS - AMAZING PRICES Seikosha 9 pin NLQ induding interface lead lor
ST Amiga .£139.00 Seikosha 24 pin LQ including interface lead for ST Amiga ..£239.00 CREDIT CARD ORDERLINE 0908 378008 (Mon-Sat 9am-6pm) To order elher can Ihe ordedine above with you credif card details OR make a cheguBPO payable »: Oigicom Computer Servers and send II wkh your order to the address below. Calers are abo most welcome at the arkkess below DIGICOM Unit 36, Wharfside, Fenny Stratford, MILTON KEYNES MK2 2AZ All price* Include VAT and next day delivery by courier.
* Merlin I c L_ on sec bat sel of kn fla do pi.
Tru of mi bu W!
Wr en inj to BATMAN AND MERLIN...A DYNAMIC DUO ZAP!, KAPOW!, ZOWEE!, KARUNCH, SMAK!,... That's right, straight from Gotham City (or the Commodore warehouse) comes the incredible, THE AMAZING, NEW AMIGA BATMAN PACK... Now you can laugh as much as Joker and cash in with some GREAT QUALITY GAMES. The Batman Pack includes, ALL OF THE FOLLOWING... Amiga A500 with Modulator, Mouse, I A REAL 'BAT-BARGAIN' AT ONL Y.. 1 Meg Internal Disk Drive, 512KRAM All Connecting Leads, Kickstart 1.3, Workbench 1.3 System Disk, and all Operation Manuals.
Pfit rip* BATMAN THE MOVIE, F18 INTERCEPTOR NEW ZEALAND STORY & DELUXE PAINT II Inclusive of VAT and Postage!
Gu tic tk ab dr en wi fat th A PACK TO KEEP YOU SPELLBOUND THIS CHRISTMAS!
Ju rAismmmmsQmoTfm iwizard deals in fo ne su to cc an as ei tn th a sa di dc
W to ar hi dr in th lc P* Ol PRINTERS STAR LC10 Mono £169 STAR LC10 Colour £209 STAR LC 2410 ...£249 NEW STAR LC10 MKII..£189 PHILIPS CM 8833.... £229 CBM 1084-Check Availability CBM 1084S £259 (Due to availability ot monitors, prices may vary. Please phone for latest inlormation) ACCESSORIES £389 1 06024244-44 ALL OUR PRICES INCLUDE V.A.T. AND POSTAGE (UK Mainland) FOR ADVERTISED PRODUCTS, SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY, ESOE.
ORDERING: Just phone our order line using your Access Visa card. OR, send a cheque postal order with requirement details.
(Cheques need clearance prior lo despatch) €UVERY: You choose either, by post at no extra cost, or simply add £5 per large item lor next day courier service. (UK Mainland) IARRAMTY: Goods that prove faulty within 30 days will be exchanged lor NEW.
Alter 30 days, but within 12 months laults will be repaired al our expense.
THE SORCEROR'S PACK II you don't think you've got enough to keep you going with the Batman Pack, consider this EXTRA SPECIAL PACK... Let Mertn wave his wand and as wel as the Batman Pack abwe you II get Ten Great Games worth a staggering £229.50!
The Sorcerer's Pack consists ot... The Batman Pack as listed above, Amegas. Art ol Chess. Barbarian the Ultimate Warrior. Buggy Boy.
Ikari Warriors. Insanity Fight.
Wizball, Thundercats. Mercenary Compendium and Terrorpods!
ALL OF THIS iSUL Merlin EXPRESS LIMITED DEPARTMENT AUI M2. 5 REDWOOD COURT SALISBURY STREET, NOTTINGHAM NG7 2BQ Telephone:0602 424444 (24 Hour Order Line) A 590 20Mb Hard Disk......£379 VORTEX 40Mb Hard Disk...£499 CUMANA... CAX354,3.5" Floppy ...£89 CAX1000 5.25" Floppy......£125 A501 RAMPACK ....£139 A host of accessories are available from Merlin Express at competitive prices. Just phone to obtain a quote for whatever you need.
£369 DISKDRIVES GREAT VALUE, THAT'S THE MAGIC OF MERLIN t ti n n mn nr1 (ittUin" in tin* spirit SO there 1 was, reading the instructions to Dragonscape on the bus, and I'd just got to the section where it said there is a loud hang and a flash and you find yourself transported to the magical land of Tuvania, when, what do you know, there was a loud bang and a flash.
I looked eagerly out of the window, strapping on my mighty codpiece, shiny mithrii armour and trusty rune-engraven quarterstaff.
Where was the mysterious land of magic and heroicai conquest? To my disappointment I saw that the bus had blown a tyre, the mithrii was really my sandwiches wrapped in bacofoil and the rune- engraved quarterstaff was the walking stick of the old geezer sat next tome.
I got off the bus in complete disgust, reading the rest of the instructions and muttering, "Who writes this rubbish?'
I mean, the next section went on about how you mounted this dragon called Garvan, who apparently didn't complain at all, and went off in search of the eight artefacts of Tuvania. How ridiculous, 1 thought, looking around me.
How many dragons do you see in Arnos Grove? 1 mean, you can go for days without seeing a human, never mind a dragon.
By the time I got home I'd sussed out that you were supposed lo fly around on this dragon's back, collecting artefacts one at a time and depositing them on top of an associated icon. Do this with all eight and you were magically transported to the next dimension, there being four dimensions in all.
Complete them all and the land is saved and you can re-format your disc or sell it to Dodgy Darren down the market.
Hmmm, despite initial scepticism, I was ready to experience the world of Dragonscape, 1 was ready to mount that dragon, to collect artefacts and torch any one that put his ugly face anywhere near my dragon's snout.
1 connected the alcohol drip, sat in the specially moulded chair, slid the disc into the drive, and bellowed, "Hit me!" My brother promptly thwacked me across the pate with a meat tenderiser.
And there 1 was, floating along on a dragon torching any sucker that got fresh, while figuring out which object went with what.
Bos were swarming, Aaaarrgghh,.... Later 1 regained consciousness, the drip hanging loosely by the chair, contents exhausted. Was it 'all a figment of my computer? I checked the bacofoil and deemed that it was. But it was a reasonably satisfying experience I thought.
Maybe, I'D try it again.
The shining mithrii armour was there again, but hang on a minute, I thought we were supposed to be scouring a medieval landscape, a fantasy land.
What's the first dimension? A printed circuit board, with radios, batteries, satellite dishes and bombs as the artefacts and matching icons. Erm, erm, something isn't quite right here.
Still it's not that hard as long as you keep refreshing your dragon spirit by running over the P icon that floats around, Aha, the next dimension is more like it. Invisible traps that stop the dragon in its tracks, ugly alien type things, proper artefacts, and a nice blasted wasteland for scenery.
If the first dimension was very straightforward, just time consuming. This one was downright unfriendly. There were people and monsters and strange blue things shooting at me.
And umphl. Who put that force field there, just as a horde of blob- FUTUREPLACE COMPUTERS 12 Loampit Hill, Lewisham, London SE13 7SW. Tel. 01-692 8700 i ALL GAMES SOFTWARE AT 20% DISCOUNT AMIGA A500 BAT PACK Includes AMIGA A500 Computer Mouse, Power Pack, Leads, TV Modulator.
Plus Batman, New Zealand Story, Interceptor, Delux Paint II ONLY £389.00 or £17.33 per month AMIGA A500 BAT PACK PLUS PHILIPS COLOUR MONITOR £664.00 or £30.32 per month STAR PRINTERS STAR LC 10 COLOUR PRINTER....NOW ONLY £229.00 or £9.95 per month credit STAR LC 10 PRINTER .NOW ONLY £169.00 or £8.64 per month credit CITIZEN PRINTERS CITIZEN 120D 9 PIN DOT MATRIX £139.00 or £6.95 per month credit CITIZEN 180E 9 PIN DOT MATRIX .£159.00 or £8.25 per month credit MONITORS PHILIPS CM8833 14" MED RES COLOUR MONITOR 2 SPEAKER STEREO IDEAL FOR THE
AMIGA OUR PRICE £275.00 INC. VAT or £12.99 per month credit CREDIT CARD HOTLINE 01-692 8700 Please add £1.50 to all orders under £75.00. All prices include VAT Access - Visa - Diners Club - American Express Oil DOUBLE SIDED DISKS Jj ' DOUBLE OENSITY W I 2 135 TPI AMIGA A500
25. ..£22.00
50. ..£43.00
100. £84.00 n m ray n iffifn mmami an
imMMn m i Please add £1.50 P&P £633.00 or £30.28 per month
SHOP HOURS Mon. to Fri. 10 to 6 pm Sat. 9 to 6 pm All prices
include VAT Credit based on 3 year period at
2. 65% per month Amiga 501 Expansion ...
...£139.00 Amiga to Scart
Lead . .....£14.95 Mouse Mats..... .....£4.99
Amiga 2nd Disk Drive ...
.£89.00 100 Cap Disk
Box ..... .£10.50 50 Cap
Disk Box ...£8.50
Amiaa Dust Cover .....
...£5.59 bool I U 1 o* _ A 1 »£309.00 AMIGA
A500 With FREE BAT PACK of software COMPUTER " AMIGA A500
With Mouse. TV Modulator. Workbench, Manuals, and BASIC
£289.00 AMIGA HARDWARE A1064S Colour Monitor - Stereo Sound
A1010 External 880K Osk Dnve 3 5* A590 External 20Mb Hard D.$ k
For A500 Philips 8833 Colour Monitor with Stereo Sound A500
Half Meg Memory Expanon A500 Half Meg Memory Expansion with
Clock A500 2Mb Memory Expansion Amiga Mini Genlock External
20Mb Hard Disk with SCSI Interface Control Centre for A500
AMIGA 2000 B2000 Amoa 2000 with Keyboard and Mo 2000
accessories ava abie) Armoa B2000 with 1084 Colour Monitor.
PC-XT Bndoeboard.
5. 2F sk Dnve. 20Mb MS-DOS Amga Hard Disk £1379.00 AMIGA SOFTWARE
Workbench 1.3 for A500 - A Must For Ail Amiga Owners Animaaic
ComicSetter - A Complete Comic Design System Deluxe Paint III
- Graphics and Simple Animation Design 3D - For Quick Results
And Animation Digiview Gold " • - - Heo_____ iusclor the
Budget Conscious Kabfc - professional Animator Sequence "
Photon Paint II Pro Video Plus - Video Graphics for Pai The
Works TV Text PRINTERS | Staf LC-10 - THE Number One Low Cos!
Primer Specrel Price Star LC-10 Colour - Colour Al Very Little
Extra £169.99 Epson LX800 - Epson Quelity But A Low Cost.
£154.70 Epson LQ550 - The Favourite For Letter Oualrty £299.87
Panasonic 1180 - 4 Fonts and Fast Pnntme. £169.73 NEC P2200 -
Never Beaten For Value For Money £289.00 ACCESSORIES Full
range of Amiga accessones available CLASS OF THE 90 s
EDUCATION BUNDLE Amiga 500, Midi Interface. D Paint II.
Superbase. Publisher's Choice. Dr T's Midi Recording Studio.
BBC Emulator and BBC Programs. Maxiplan 500. Plus lots of
accessories £476.25 SPECIAL OFFERS CALL FOR FULL PRICE LIST
EXPRESS LTD |] mmm CAXTON CENTRE • PORTERS WOOO • ST ALBANS
fan 'Jmr HERTS • AL3«XT . ,01771 )7*51 • FAX 0727 50619 EiJ
STAR LC-10 Our Christmas Special Price C125.9S or with VAT 6
delivery C152.31 1st 100 callers only PHIUPS 8833 Colour
Monitor, Stereo Sound Medium Resolution £189.95 Or (Jar In
advance, collect on Sunday.
Large Mocha oI Atari. Amiga and IBM
- ------------- era.AaSMonea scree nasty with i blyp select demo
day a are pr Wi one o crew switc avoic hit. T theg your with
AVAILABLE ON On t scree some scree abov the extre VIRGIN GAMES
• 2-4 VERNON YARD 119 PORTOBELLO ROAD • LONDON Wll 2DX
gunner's dream blocky view with some of the graphics looking
like products of a modelling package. Enemy planes trail smoke
and spiral realistically before plunging lo earth. Complete
chaos is simulated well.
The sound effects are poor. The voice is very hard to make out.
Other effects are nothing special.
Despite these reservations, the hackneyed subject matter and the mistakes. Lancaster is a pretty good example of its type.
Based on the missions of the famous bomber plane, II is in the usual Amiga Epic formal - combat scenes linked via much groaning from fhe disc drive with pretty graphics and animation, colourful maps, menus and fanfares.
It is not a bad game. At least the authors are honest enough to point out where the simulation departs from complete historical accuracy.
Alastair Scott Keep this up HERE does Second World War mania come from?
There are far loo many simulations of aerial combat around, and Lancaster is yet another. Whal is wrong with the distant past or the future? Couldn't the format of Theatre Europe be built on?
After a black and white loading screen, coupled with loud and nasty stereo sound, a menu screen with about 20 buttons and a wobbly pointer appears. The buttons select everything from cheat and demonstration modes to the lime of day and whether barrage balloons are present or not.
With this negotiated, you pick one of three pilots, watch the flight crew enter the plane outside the hangar and bang the hatch shut, switch to it taxiing out of the same hangar, then watch it take off along a green runway.
Once airborne, the scene switches io an excellent map of South East England, ihen Io one of France or Germany, with the plane's progress and the target marked.
Before long a voice screams that an attack is about to take place.
Messages flash on screen. You are given a view out of the tail gunner's dome - shoot everything on sight, the little arrows with AIM marked on them pointing to the barrage balloons leave you in no doubt as to in which direction your bullets would be besl fired.
Afler many ambushes you switch to a view of your target from above and get the chance to drop the most destructive bombs ever - when one hits a building, it vanishes without a trace.
You then struggle back home, avoiding more ambushes. If you are hit, the plane slides gracefully io the ground, bursts into flames and your pilot records are displayed with "File closed".
Graphics are of variable quality.
On the menu and introductory screens they are very detailed. On some of the take-off and landing screens - especially the view from above of the sight to be bombed - the graphics are solid and extremely blocky.
In one case you are whisked from a hi-res view of the plane with propellors spinning into lores where there are no propellors to be seen.
The combat screens are a mixture of detailed control panel and EYE OF HORUS Discover the secret of the pyramid Hiro today, gone tomorrow BEHOLD! The Tomb of the Unknown King reaches up.
Yes, towering up even on to the heavens. The tomb stands silhouetted against the setting sun, flanked only by palm trees bent in homage.
You can almost hear Ihe wavering strains of Wish You Were Here drifting across the mighty, turgid Nile, swollen with the tears of Ihe damned.
I. Horus, son of Osiris the King of Life, bid you welcome and
trust you can aid me in my quest. Many thousands of souls are
crying out in torment, awaiting release from their underground
prison. The evil god Set. Embodiment of darkness and general
bad egg. Hath scattered the dead King's body unto the far
corners of the huge tomb.
1 am bound to gather them unto themselves and make them whole once more. When 1 have achieved this task, Osiris will grant me great strength and that dog-breath Set will be banished to eternity, forever.
Having a godly aspect, I can assume the form of a hawk to fly between the chambers of the tomb in search of the dismembered parts, But curse that snake-loving Set! He hath cast a spell upon the hieroglyphs that bedeck the walls of the chambers. They swarm around in the form of many small animated sprites, sapping my life force and inconveniencing me something terrible.
Thank mother Isis for the many amulets scattered around the tomb, frequent as the morning dew. The magic contained in these charms will help me greatly, providing great strength and mysterious com- panions. The many rainbow coloured keys will grant access to locked chambers by way of the lifts, driven by a mysterious and ancient power source.
The enormity of my task overwhelms me. Even an immortal one as myself is temporarily stunned as the size of my mission is revealed.
How many more chambers have been encased in this giant sandstone sarcophagus? How many eons will it take to fully explore this dark, stone underworld?
03 But now my memory plays tricks on me. Is this a previous reincarnation? Have 1 been called Roland in the Caves in an earlier life? No. The memory passes and fades into oblivion as the haunting music engulfs me... |ohn Kennedy Examine everything, there ore hidden objects and hidden exits ail over the place EVIL lizard things are swarming all over the place. There's only one way to stop them and there is only one man for the job.
Collect the 16 pieces of the ancient fireblade and you can he a real hiro, sorry hero. Avenge the death of the other Bladeknighls and save the undercity from Havok's reign of havok. Might as well, there don't seem to be many pubs about.
The whole game is done in the style of those terrible new lapanese cartoons that you might catch a glimpse of if you wake up too early on a Saturday morning. You know the sort of thing, with robots that turn from Cappucinno makers into ICBM's in the flash of a screen refresh.
In the tradition of the Bladeknights, Hiro has had bits of his body chopped off and replaced with velly reriable cybernetics.
Exploring the undercity where the required blade bits are to be found is made harder by the fact that the screen only displays places already visited. This means many passages have to be actively searched for behind the boxes and tubes that litter the underground alleyways, which lends itself more to an adventuring feel than arcade blasting action.
The only real arcade elements are the biped alligator things that have to he despatched incessantly.
Despite having cybernetic limbs.
Hiro hasn't got much in the way of Snilchblmle £19.99 Gremlin Graphics Soi nd Graphi
r. ameplay Overall - 79% arms. He starts of with bare fists and
feet, which are effective only against the hedgehogs and minor
bcaslies on the first level.
You will need to pick up some I more advanced weaponry, widely available by punching open certain rocks or by taking a quick sortie behind the packing crates. Various devices will be uncovered which may look painful, but they suit Hiro fine.
The philosophy is never to take anything at face value. That might not be a solid brick wall over there.
That might not be a vicious alien advancing to savage you - he might j want to throw fireballs at you first.
Graphics are smooth and well animated, though not overly imagi- native. The shadow effects in the lower digestive tracts of the earth are nice, as are the occasionally dickering lights.
Addictive, if not state of the art, and enough puzzledom to last a good while.
Green DELIVERY SERVICE ... and the keenest prices we're programmed to help INTERNATIONAL ORDERS WELCOME AMIGA A500 Bapack ..£300.00 ? 10 game pack & joystick AUGAA50C 380 » 064-S MyAor ..... 259 X MW HAM e-paso- *4 9C 1 CHILDRENS ONLY! I AF Zoo r Apnssaei aron Deomaf D»ngec' Fu- SdPd 21 J* »r 6i 980 . 2090 _-1390 Fv" Scnoot 2»o 8i
C. .J C. . - ¦ 6 . . ... U90 'w' j noc» 2 i' * si Th**el1t*
°ig* T *ee Bears . The L0*y OxkAng 13 9C
• ___1990 1900 i X 'csitra* Dm ______________ M 690 .27 50
IBOOKS (Abacus) ONLY! 1 A* g« l Reg.
A -see base rws *nc 0.1 Madi ne language ¦ t A 00
- 14 00 Tncksand Tps Mo 'xtsano Tps Sysiw- Pr'og'ame
- ---14 90 4 00
- ---Ir- 00 A-sge DOS l*sde and Out Os» vee n»ce a O Out 1800 2'
00 Disks to accompany book* ....13.00 Balance of Power
1000 . Barbarian 2 (Palace) .. Barbarian 2
(Psygnosls)_______ Bard* Tale 2________________ Bans
Chess . Battle Squadron ... Bams
Tech _ | SPACE i 2990 Scraooe Oe*-«e S*oc* em
up OxeJ'jcX* .
S-i *sOv-» Ca*s StmCto . 3 *eea Space C-e*' u Space C.er H . 130C
• 39C 900 STAHLC-OOn-ieriUono) .
S'AH ,C'0 Pri'te* fCokxH .
If*we* nejvoeead] .. 19.00
• 800
• 390
• 390
• 500
* 5 90
• 500
• 900 ire fists ve only I minor ip some widely i certain k sortie
Various I which ey suit to take it might ir there, is alien le
might iu first, id well y imagi- s in Ihe te earth ionally the
art, e last a . « •. V.
• TUMTC Only: 8.00 eechl (2 tor £16.00) »v«o Action Service
Macadam Bumper Sptdertrontc Trauma Wanted Barbarian
W. C. leaderboard Captain Blood Phoenix TNT Turbo GT Warlocks
Quest Deep Space Bard* Tale 1
• SBC '69C SALE (Limited!) ONLY!
F:! J.1 »W1: i Locking Disk Box (50.) .. 7.90 Locking Disk Box (100.) ..9.90 Media Box (Holds 150) ... 19.90 Only: 4.00 eecht Destroyer Crystal Hammer Way ol Lme Dragon Spacebal Bad Cat Spitting Image Armageddon Man Molor Cross Sim.
Speedboat Assassin (S for £10.00) Firezone Gold runner Bontoouzal Vtxen Side Arms Prison Kelly X Roadwars Kicks tan 2 Furry Mouse Cover! ...6.90 (with cute little eyes, ears and noso') Mouse Bracket.... Mouse Mai ... Keyboard Cover.. Monitor Cover.....
3. 00 ......5.00
5. 00
5. 00 (Many More In our cataloguelll) LANGUAGES ONLY!
GFA Basic (V.3) ...... Hisoh Base ... ....59.00 ________£64.90 Hisoh Devpac (2) Modula 2 Developers ......
TV Show or TV Text ... Comic or Movie Setter ....52.50 ....59.90 Deluxe Paint 2 ..... ....49.90 Deluxe Paint 3 . ......59.90 0e.«eP»«r~2 ._34 90 De*,«e Phctoc aft DevieMiacCen Se* 0*M9'-30 49 90 40 00 89 00 Oveoo' ('he)
• D*eao* lock- 42 90 20 00 DIGIVIEW GOLD (PAL)..... ....119.90
FarrenAtton 29 00 '800 Mocete* V. UueK-X . .
P* do« Paw 2 80 9C 140 00 69 90 Pamaee. . . .
P-o Sou*d Designer Sa p*30iPALi _____ . .
Scum* 40 Ju*c- 3 90 50 90 50 90 00 90 Sonix
• Son* s Soundfreck 54 90 ....12.90 X-Cad
designer______________________ ..89.90 DISKS (DS DD
Bulk -100% GuaranteedI 10_____________________ 50-------------------- ice 990 39 90 74 90 AMIGA APPETIZER ...... Write: Word Processor Paint: Graphics package Music: Music program Tile: Puzzle game_ PUBUSHERS CHOICE .79.90 Indudes: Page Setter 1.2 Kind Words 2. Headine Fontspack Artists Choice Artpack GRAPHIC STARTER KIT..... Aegis Animator, Aegis Draw Aegis Images. Cip An
* Arazoks Tomb X-Copy - NEW Version 2 ......29.90 (The BEST
Backup utllityl) 1390 SO 90 9990 SPECIALS ONLY!
AmigaDOS Toolbox .39.95 BBC £ vi*Of -~-_3990 Oescenee ____ 2* » OtgfCek . 2990 DOS » DOS______ 3990 F icelence 13040 Mo-* Accou'ts 22 90 ScrPb* Pic 42.00 vn» Kie* 9 90 WORKBENCH 1.3 (NEW) ....14.90 Works Platinum .... 139 90 Green JOYSTICKS ONLY!
Joystick & Mouse Extension ...4.90 Joystick Lead - 3 met res I .4.90 WIZ CARD controller ......3.90 Quickshot II .....7.90 Ouickshot II Turbo 9.90 Cobra (NEW) ..... 12.90 Cruiser (CLEAR) .13.90 Companion Pro 5000 ....14.90 Competition Pro Extra 15.90 Arcade Joystick 16.90 The above is just a small selection of our VAST stock of AMIGA software!
Callers welcome; Normal Office Hours - 24 Hour Telephone Service!
BYTEBACK DEPT AC, 6 MUMBY CLOSE. NEWARK. NOTTS NG24 1JE Cheque, postal orders or credit card facilities are available 111] Lkjngeo' Over ¦y 90
* 800 TMI NWIi , 18.0C ,11 0C ,11 0C T89C , 18 0C '8 9C . 150C '
Vesuri ** t Ml B'MM . ------- RoMtnc Soccer fr*i Person • «*!
---------- O0T-. S«-%ldOr 20* JM
• 500 . 1 90 , .1800 . '380 29 90
- Cavo M Cbakwige T m* TV Spore -ixasa Lmqucracea W« r tan*
• Scenery 7.0O 11 u x* o- .apa- scenery footbal Dmsdor 2 toorbai
Manage* 2 t 16 Co-twr h»ci
• 390 . *390 . . 1300
* 390
• 0 00 Ww-c Oeam* xeno. M «*4as Zax
• 53C .18 3C ,t 9C 189C Caaxj ;c*ce Oa-we Svnv-er fcor.«n . 1800
18. 00 Gan*w
* * .... ...------ ?... Mercenary. Backlash. Eliminator
Custodian oanew - wrter* at* QaMMO Ue ysberg . *500 . *890
* 600 THRILL TIME (8 GAMESI) . Buggy Boy. Space
Harrier Live A Let Die. Thundercats Battleship*, Ikarl Warriors
.15.90 Gnosftxaiers 11 _ _ Gu'eh© _________ . -800
• 890 MelResM ______....__ . *390 Beyond The Ice Palace. Bombjack
* tsiar. ... . _____ Honoe HW ...
(VoL2) ....
15. 00 H*.-d d Shadow . *800 Menace. BAAL. Tetris WMCMkOr
wenxnese___* non 1'«c*«*s . ----------------- , 1890 . *890 .
1390 MEGAPACK . P kit os.
Mouse Trap, Seconds Oul Winter Olympiad, Suicide Mission
15. 90 IT CAME FROM THE DESERT 22.90 Power Dr* . . -000
4DMbOf--------------- 1390 MEGAPACK
II ....15.00 E». Circus
Games, Summer Olympiad Formula 1 G.P- Man from Council .ac
Got .... . 1800 THE UGHT FORCE ...
18. 00
• a-prg'wooe Sow 18 9C 100C .. I30C Bio Chalenge. Voyager R-Type.
Int. Karale Plus ACTION AMIGA Kngdo"d E-gta-d . ... _ .aser
- Ml Nt'p 2 . 159C
- 139C . 150C 1 iwn ni*vn ...
* "vra. Deflector. Technocop Cybernoid, Motor Massacre
• aoarboa'd fc-cw I sew* S*jr Larry 2 lonfcerd RAC Ray od* d •
••* Su* . 15JC . 24 0C .. 15.9C 180C STARS WARS TRILOGY
. Stars Wars . Empire Strkes Back.
Revenge ol the Jedl
15. 00 uoncpofy Dmuxa------.-- Non* a«d Sodh fw.. ¦ . TK n
Ikarl Wamors. Banieshps Buggy Boy. Beyond Ice Palace
13. 90 1 Wzy 1 n.tOenJO* ohmi _______ u - . .
. 180C . 1300 THE STORY SO FAR (3) ..... Space Harrier, Thundercats
13. 90 ? Aaaic - -. . Paonan*. . .
13. 00 Bontojack, Lne and Let Die Pasang S*o« Personal Ng-
Peione-y 189C 180C 890 PRECIOUS METAL
...... Xenon. Cap! Blood Crazy cars.
ArkanokJ II
18. 00 Potce (Xes i« 90 HIT DISKS
15. 90 Popwous-
* AorrtM0 Lancs '800 800 Goldrunner. Karate Kid II Jupler Probe,
Slaygon Pn Tan** Tour ______________ Pa t ThAOatxyi
Ouaru--- _________ Rat, Crnsa 1890 1500
• 590 1300 HIT DISKS (Vol.2)
Major Motion. Time Bandit Learner neck. Tanglewood
15. 90 Re* Robocop ....
...15.00 ...15.90 Thai Boxing. Kart. G.P. Las Vegas Grid
Stan. Flight Path 737, XR35 SONY DaM -100% Guaranteed!
Borrtw .. Cabs* Ge~*-e*o« Scwarss O*7) CoossusC wm * COHIO fcu-OOS C©"»wa Glxus Os-vswrer SHADOW OF THE BEAST 24.90 I Sjob- Wonderboy .
Sword o• Soca- Sword*oI .
18. 00
15. 00
15. 00 18.00
18. 00
15. 00 18.00 ONLY! | GAMES cont. ONLY! ¦ HARDWARE ONLY! ¦
GUARANTEED RETURN OF POST Dolivury on ALL Stock items!
Ring us now! 0636-79097 Scapeghost... Sim City.. BYTEBACK February HIM A Mid A COM PI IIXC 5.7 ONCE upon a time there was the typewriter. Press the buttons and the letters appeared on paper.
Most word processors are like that.
|frn V 11 1 PM si f Ik ShlMlPPI«tr*'. DiUbi.evLi tiny. ITP m oW latabase lira: ill ?1 (wl! Ms Location B s Baths Garage Pool Price 1 1 1 House San Francisco 4 4 Yes 55,144 011 2 House San Clemente 4 4 Yes 54 000,000 It 1 J House Halibu 3 3 ' Yes
51. 400,000 4 Penthouse Century City 3 Y Yes 51,251,000 D J 5
Beach House Halibu 3 2 Mo Sl.S00.00t ri 4 House lucson 2 2 Mo
5900,000 bi 7 Beach House Santa Barbara 2 N Mo
5751. 000 1 Beach House Santa Barbara 3 2 No 5400,000 4 House
Santa Barbara 3 3 Yes 5500,000 11 House San Francisco 2 y
Yes 5450,000 11 Duplei Enctno 4 3 3 2 2 Mo 5450,000 12
House San Francisco 3 2 Mo 5400,110 13 Tollhouse Halibu 2 V
Mo 5400,000 14 House Pasadena 3 3 Yes 5400,000 PI 15 House
Santa Barbara 3 3 No 5400,000 14 House Santa Monica 3 3 Mo
5400. 000 17 House San Jose 2 Y No 5350,000 1!
House Encmo 3 3 Mo 5350,000 Even with the addition of spelling checkers and other magic, they are still typewriters under the skin.
Lately, with the advent of desktop publishing, graphics have become part of some word processors. But there's been little to stretch the parts of the Amiga that other computers cannot reach.
Pen Pal is an attempt to change all that. It's an Amiga-only word processor, but instead of conforming to the word processing rules it takes the features and potential of the machine to provide one of the most innovative and well thought out user interfaces to be found on any program on any computer.
As well as a word processor you get a simple integrated database As well as normal word processing functions, it also crams in simple drawing, graphics and database features. There's a lot to it.
To I 1 reli net pet isn coi wa Starting it up gives little indication of the depth of the program. At first it looks like any of umpteen packages - tools down the left hand side, menus along the top, scroll bars surrounding a large, blank area where your text will shortly appear. Nothing spectacular, except that it uses a PAL screen.
It's when you move the mouse around that things start to pop. As your strangely bent pointer glides over tools or areas, a box appears giving the name of the option beneath. A few minutes playing with the first window proves that Pen Pal uses Intuition - front-to- back and resizing behave exactly as they should. Any remotely experienced Amiga owner will feel at home.
Text appears in 11 point Topaz, the default font we're all used to.
Everything on screen reflects exactly what will appear in the final document - the infamous wysiwig- and selecting a new font or a new style produces precisely the expected effect.
Font selection is particularly clever in that it allows you to choose the size first and then the font to fit.
Pen Pal can import, and subsequently print, any IFF picture, including HAM ones. It handles them in the usual manner of letting you draw a box into which pictures can be placed. It's happy to let you force the graphic to fit the space, or just do a best fit without distorting the proportions of the picture.
I was impressed by the way anything I wanted to do just fell to hand without my having to go off and look up whether it was possible.
Pictures are displayed in eight colours. Pen Pal makes an attempt to map others, but with HAM stuff it merely shows a black blob. Graphics can be grouped together, locked into place and have text flowed around them.
Whatever mishandling the picture suffers. Pen Pal stores the original internally and uses the resolution and palette it knows about to give the best possible results on printing.
With the Forms Fill In option you can use the drawing tools to create a form, and the computer will then refuse to let you type in text anywhere but in the permitted fields.
The graphics tools arrayed down the screen are simple. Line drawing and Rupert Goodwins wants to be a paperback writer and wonders if Pen Pal is all he needs box creation, with some fill options, will produce most of the layout tricks you'll see in professional publications, if you want more than that, draw whatever it is in your favourite paint program and import it. Things created with the Pen Pal facilities can be resized, moved around and adjusted ad infinitum.
Pn dis to dr: to Po I The spell checker has some 100.000 words - all of them American.
Although it works well enough, I got confused by the options. I told it to start spell checking from the top of the document but it started from the current position of the cursor and worked its way up.
And the program doesn't understand ram discs. It always thinks that the ram disc is completely full and can't accept any more.
But the help system is a real winner.
It's got lots of text on most features, arranged so that it's as easy to browse through by clicking on entries as it is to find a given feature.
The text is a model of clear, concise, relevant information. It is not necessary to refer to the manual for 90 per cent of queries. Given that Pen Pal isn't copy protected, this is a courageous move, and one that I warmly appreciated.
TltS ick sif eels V icks linns.
Uni lalud sd
1. 000 got :o if Ihe To save space on the master disc the printer
drivers are held on the second disc and a small program is
provided to copy just the one you want. Painful, since you
have to type the name of the driver exactly, and printer
drivers tend to be more incomprehensible than a Polish street
Data basics PEN PAL'S database is interesting. It is really a list manager rather than a full-blown database. It accepts information in various formats, can sort it. Merge it with your text, print it out in label format, add up figures ail of the things tbat a computer really ought to be able to do.
Defining a database takes place in a standard Amiga requester with lots of fields to chose from. Data can be text, numbers, currency (Pen Pal helpfully supplies a dollar sign), dates, times... there are even picture and sound types.
Links »w (is These are there partially to mainrain compatibility with an earlier database written by the same people and partially because future Pen Pals will be able to display pictures in the 15 Point » Is Pout » 17 Pout » IS Pout » 21 Pout fist for its c I'« sure that you'll bo delighted »itb its style, ecoowy and ecological soundness.
Font selection allows you to choose thesize first and then the font to fit s That done, Pen Pal itself knows how to read the installed driver and uses that data to set up various things inside itself to do with graphics printing et al. It will either print full wysiwig or use the printer's own fonts to speed up pure text output. When doing Amiga fonts it takes about four seconds per line of text on my 80 cps Epson-compatible dot matrix printer.
1 immediately felt at home with this program. Other things worked well - hard drive installation on an A590 was easy and the various hotkeys are well chosen.
There are downsides. One is speed.
Database. Neither field type does anything at the moment.
The definition process creates a list of fields into which you can type your data Once you've entered it. You can order everything alphabetically, by date, or by any other held.
This done, you can create what Pen Pal calls a View. This is a particular set of things you'd like doing to the database - sort in a certain way.
Prepare the data in columns - and you can have more than one View per database, so you can display or use the data in various different ways with minimum effort once you've set up the details.
It's simple and very fast. A 100 item database can be searched or ordered in a couple of seconds.
In common with many wysiwig editors, Pen Pal can be diabolically slow when doing large, on-screen text operations. Three seconds to paste a 30 word chunk into a 200 word paragraph.
The worst problem I encountered was while testing its large document capabilities. I tried to feed it a 30.000 word Ascii file, some 170k. After 10 minutes of flashing its very pretty Please Wait icon at me. It died.
Now, I wouldn't have minded had it taken one look at the document and told me to go away and find something smaller. 1 wouldn't have minded as much if it had chuntered away for a while and then said "Burp
- I'm full" and let me recover. But on a multi-tasking machine
it's not the done thing to gracelessly collapse.
Because I tend to write plain text, and lots of it, it's not going to be my personal favourite word processor, mostly because of its lack of speed.
I'd recommend it. Though, to anyone who wants a fully-featured Amiga word processor to write small to medium documents, do simple newsletters or just the normal, domestic writing that the Amiga should excel at. Pen Pal makes all these things fun. It's nearest rival is Kind Words which although half the price doesn't have the database features, nor the ability to use HAM pictures or standard Amiga fonts.
REPORT CARD Pen Pal Brown-WaghlData Liberation (0983)405600 £129.95 EASE OF USE.... Correct use of Amiga menus and requesters helped by intelligent design and an install program.
SPEED ffT.iini.ir~~ i Wysiwyg needs processor power, and even helped by the blitter, mixing fonts with colour graphics is slow. Printing speed and quality are helped by using the printer's own fonts.
VALUE ...... For a database and wp this isn 'I too steep, but £130 less discounts is a lot to shell out in one go.
OVERALL A good product, which is well written and deserves to do well, but will probably suffer because of the price.
SIREN SOFTWARE nrpcp nts AMIGA SOUNDBLASTER Everyone knows that the Amiga has the best sound capabilities available on any popular computer today. Unfortunately, until now, unless you could connect your Amiga to your stereo system you could not fully appreciate the quality of the sound.
The Amiga SOUNDBLASTER is a small stereo amplifier that comes complete with 2 high quality 20 watt 3 way speakers. It is easily connected to your Amiga and adds a new dimension to all your games.
THE AMPLIFIER This small unit has been designed and built in the U.K. specifically for use with the Amiga. It uses the latest microchip technology to produce a hefty 5 watt per channel of high quality sound. Twin volume controls allow both volume and balance to be set and a LED indicates that the unit is in operation. The amplifier connects to the AMIGA via the two phono sockets at the rear of the computer.
Measurements:- 13cm x 11cm x 4cm.
SPEAKERS The speakers that come complete with the SOUNDBLASTER are 50 watt 3 way speakers and are contained in an attractive hi-tec enclosure.The speakers sound as superb as they look thanks to a powerful 3 inch woofer for all the low tones, a 2 inch mid-range speaker for all the middle notes and a tiny 1 inch tweeter to reproduce all the top of the scale tones. The speakers connect to the amplifier via 2.5 metres of cable for each of the two speakers. Speaker measurements:- 20cm x 10cm x 12cm.
The SOUNDBLASTER package is completed with a mains adaptor to power the amplifier and full instructions.
FREE STEREO HEADPHONES FOR A LIMITED PERIOD ONLY We are giving away a pair of stereo headphones free with every AMIGA SOUNDBLASTER for a limited period. These headphones plug into the SOUNDBLASTER allowing you to listen in stereo without disturbing the neighbours.
AVAILABLE NOW ONLY £44.99 + £2.00 for postage Payment is accepted over the telephone with VISA and ACCESS cards or through the post by cheque, postal order, eurocheque, bank drafts etc. Send payment to:- SIREN SOFTWARE, 84-86 PRINCESS ST., MANCHESTER M1 6NG. TEL: 061 228 1831 SPECIFICATION AND APPEARANCE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTIFICATION DEAL DIRECT ALL OUR PRICES INCLUDE VAT & DELIVERY, ALL OUR DISKS CARRY A LIFETIME GUARANTEE. ALL DISKS INCLUDE LABELS. ENVELOPES AND WRITE PROTECTS BULK PACK DOUBLE SIDED DISKS 10 20 30 50 100 200
6. 50
10. 50
15. 50
24. 99
47. 99
93. 00
6. 99
13. 70
20. 40
30. 00
59. 00
113. 00
7. 90
14. 99
21. 50
32. 00
63. 00
117. 00
7. 99
15. 50
22. 99
38. 00
69. 99
135. 00
10. 50
19. 99
29. 00
47. 00
89. 99
178. 00
3. 5 DSDD 135 TP11 Meg-880k No Name
3. 5 DSDD 135 TPI 1 Meg-880k JVC. KAO
3. 5 DSDD 135 TP11 Meg-880k Sony
3. 5 DSDD 135 TPI Branded Terra
3. 5 DSDD Branded Sony 3M Dysan TDK 10
3. 5'DS High Density 2.0 Meg 13.99 3* Maxell branded 21.99
5. 25" DSQD 96 TPI'25 disks 6 99 DISK STORAGE BOXES 1 2 3 89p
1. 70
2. 20
4. 75
9. 00
13. 00
5. 50
10. 50
15. 00
5. 99
11. 50
15. 00
6. 75
13. 00
18. 50
8. 99
17. 00
24. 00
11. 99
22. 00 with lock 499 950
13. 50 5 99 11 50 1600 6 99
13. 00
18. 00
3. 5 * 12 Holder Solid Plastic Extra Strong
3. 5 ' 40 Holder Lockable 2 keys & dividers
3. 5" * 50 Holder Lockable 2 keys & dividers
3. 5" * 80 Holder Lockable 2 keys & dividers
3. 5 * 100 Holder Lockable 2 keys & dividers
3. 5 * 120 Holder Lockable 2 keys & dividers
3. 5" * 94 Holder Lockable Stackable Sliding Draw
5. 25" ' 70 Holder Lockable 2 keys & dividers
5. 25" ' 100 Holder Lockable 2 keys & dividers
5. 25" ' 120 Holder Lockable 2 keys & dividers THE ULTIMATE 3.5
DISKS WITH LOCKABLE STORAGE BOX OFFER & 10 Disks
11. 99
12. 50
12. 99
13. 99
15. 99
17. 99 & 20 Disks
17. 99
18. 50
18. 99
20. 99
22. 99
24. 00 & 30 Disks
25. 99
26. 50
26. 99
27. 99
29. 00
30. 00 All Disks Supplied In These Boxes Are Sony-KAO or JVC
3. 5 * 40 Holder
3. 5 * 50 Holder
3. 5 * 80 Holder
3. 5* 100 Holder
3. 5" ' 120 Holder
3. 5 * 94 Holder
3. 5 * 12 Holder Solid Plastic with 12 * 3.5 Disks & 40 Disks
32. 00
33. 00
33. 00
34. 00
35. 00 Stackable-Sliding Draw & Lock
8. 50 ' 24 Disk Labels HARDWARE Amiga 500 Computer Batman Pack,
includes Batman, Interceptor, Delux Paint II & The New Zealand
Story, Workbench 1.3, Kickstart 1.3, Mouse.
Modulator £365.00 £80.00 £138 00 £370.00 £69 00 £24 00 Amiga A501 Internal 512k to 1 meg Ram expansion & clock £125.00 Amiga Internal 1 meg Ram expansion £79 95 Amiga 3.5" 880k External Cumana Oisk Drive Amiga Double External Disk Drive Amiga A590 20 meg Hard Disk unit Amiga Pro Sound Sampler Studio Amiga Replacement Mouse PRINTERS Star LC10 Mono Printer Star LC 10 Colour Star LC 24-10 149 00 199 00 239 00 Citizen 120D Epson LX 850 Epson LO 550 125 00 225 00 309 00 PRINTER RIBBONS Amstrad 8256 FN Amstrad8256 MS Amstrad 9512FN Amstrad 95I2MS Amstrad DMP 2000 3000 Amstrad DMP 4000 Amstrad LQ
3500 Brother HR 10 15-20'40 Brother Ml 009.1109 Canon PW1080A 1 2 6 3 99 750 18 00
3. 99 750 18 00
3. 50 6 50 14 90 JjbO 6 50 14 90 4 80 14 50 3 99
7. 50 1999 399
7. 50
18. 00 3 99
7. 50 1800
3. 99
7. 50
19. 99 650
5. 50 13 99 7 50 1800 OKI Microline 182.192 3 399
7. 50 1999 6 50
14. 00 OKIMicrolme 80.82.92 250 480 14 50 5 80
15. 50 Panasonic KXP 1081 90
3. 50 650 14 90
6. 50
14. 90 Ricoh 1300 1600 399
7. 50
19. 99 650 14 90 Shinwa CP8Q Legend 808 - 399
7. 50 19 99 650 14 90 Star LclOOng Mono 2 50 480 13 90
7. 50 1999 Star LclOOng Colour
6. 50 12 00
32. 00
8. 50 2299 StarLC24 !0 399
7. 50
18. 00 750 1800 Star NL ND NR 10 3 50 6 50 1490 350 399
3. 50 350 350
3. 50
- .350 399 ACCESSORIES ~*r~ Mouse Mat 6mm Top Quality Antistatic
2.50 AtarLSTTwin Joystick Extention 3.99 Alan Amiga IBM
Parallel Printer Cable 3 50 3". 3.5". 5.25 Disk Cleaning Kits 1
75 Thmgi II Adjustable Copy Holder 3 99 'iS Atari 520rlQ40 ST
Cover Thmgi Copy Holder Atan ST 4 Player Adaptor Amiga 4 Player
Adaptor Monitor Stands 14
2. 50 299
4. 95
4. 95 899 995 19.50 890 1600 10 50 i 9 99 8 99 17 00
7. 50 13.99 y Sureshot Standard POA - Turbo Junior 399 700
Turbo Super 499 950 _Zip-Stick Super Pro 9 50 18 00 Zip-Stick
Super Pro Autofire
9. 99 19.00 JOYSTICKS Cheetah Challenger Cheetah 125+ Cheetah
Mach 1 Cheetah Star Probe hPrpSOOO Koriix speed King Komx
Navigator Ouickshot It Turbo Ram Delta Deluxe Road Blasters
Stargliderll Paperboy Palladin Denaris Populous Crazy Cars II
Action Fighter Test Drive II Altered Beast Gretzky Hockey F-16
Falcon. Mission Disks Vol I Fiendish Freddy s Big Top Of Fun
AFTER 6.00PM 13 50 Kick Off 12 90 Shadow Of The Beast War In
Middle Earth Kingdom Of England Saint And Greavsie Honda RVF
750 Grand Prix Circuit Forgotten Worlds Dragons Spirit Lazer
Squad Centre Fold Squares Batman The Movie
23. 90
13. 90
15. 50 1390 13 50 13 50 16 50
19. 50 15 90 3D Pool 14 90 15 90 Hawkeye 12 90 14 90 The Duel
17.50 14 90 Xenon II 18.50 16 50 Mr Heli 15 99 15 90 The Duel
15. 90 APB 13.50 16 90 Xyborts 13.50
18. 50 Rally Cross 13 50 16 50 Shinobi 15.90 14 90 Lords Of The
Rising Sun 15 90 PostS A.E. For Free Price List PLEASE POST
LEICESTER LE30LB Trip-a-Tron WELCOME my son. Welcome to the
Trip-a-Tron. It is with this name, that seems to pay homage
to a hippie's favourite pastime and an obscure early svnth
favoured by certain psychedelic groups, that cultural guru to
the enlightened. Jeff Minter. Has deemed to bless his latest
venture into light synthesisers.
It all started on the humble 64 with Psvchadelia. Which returned in cut down form in Battalvx. His concept compendium. Then, in a fit of madness perhaps, he transferred his attention to various shades of Atari and produced Colourspace. Driven on by little voices in his head, or perhaps ' his ashtray, he has finally produced Trip-a-Tron for the Amiga.
The less hip and with it of you may be wondering what all this light synthesis is about. Well, without getting too uncool and heavy, it is just like a music svnth except instead of sonics you will be painting real-time swirling universes of pixels which expand and metamorphosisc and decay throughout a multi-verse like a million bright ambassadors of morning. Got it? Good.
Now that that's settled, the show must go on. The first thing it is advisable to do when coming into possession of Trip is to make a really strong cup of tea. Pull up beanbag and study the manual very carefully. This is actually quite a pleasant experience, since it is entertaining and informative at the same time, simultaneously even.
THIS cunning little volume comes in the form of an attractive filofax style bundle, the only regret being that it doesn't have an afghan cover. Many questions relating to possible stumbling points are answered early on like why it is called a light- synth and not a light-ukulele.
Tricky one that.
Dudes who recall earlier versions will be pleased to learn that you don't have to get too far into it just to have a good time - just load up the demo files and have a play with the mouse.
Pressing a button does something and moving the mouse does other things for light relief Me Veitch floats down through the clouds to spill a saucerful of sequences and everything is green and submarine. This is fine, but a new world unfolds for people who take their freak-out weirdo stuff seriously.
The foundation !lama...sorry. stone for all this is the language KML (yes the name does have a strange sound to it). KML is a cunning piece of mental engineering that allows you to program in your own effects.
It is. Obviously, specially written for this sort of application and has many advanced brain-disintegrating features and commands. Up to eight programs may be run simultaneously bv pressing corresponding (and programmable) keys during the performance phase.
The program can integrate and run effects and graphics designed with the other modules in the package, so in effect you can create a whole show which runs itself at the touch of a button.
THE programming environment is not state of the art wimp stuff, but is quite friendly and simple and displayed in a very legible font, which is the most important thing. Line-entrv syntax checking should remove most potential bugs.
A sequencer module allows you to pre-program effects to occur at exact instances in a defined sequence. This supports both real-time recording and editing functions, allowing highly complicated combination of effects to be produced. You pick the place and then chose the time and it does its thing in its own way.
Hippy hippy shake Starfields d la Star Trek, are available with controls for adjusting everything from trace length to angular velocity. Set the controls for the heart of the sun!
S dto lal for ly ires ns The sillyscope is the realm of waveforms, both default and user defined. They are used to control the laser-like effects you will see roaming around the demo.
It is hard to categorise something like Trip and therefore hard to measure it against anything meaningfully. It is out front in a field of which it is the sole inhabitant.
You don't have to spend hours pouring over the manual, you can certainly have as much fun with it as you would with Colourspace by just using the default settings and ignoring KML. But just as musicians love Midi and programmable synths, light artists will find more scope for expression with a programmable light synth.
In the nt uff.
I ich itry st o t iis nd In entertainment terms it is certainly worth more than its weight in tropical plant cuttings. It is nice to see that computers which rose out of what was basically hippy technology in the sixties have now got back to grass roots and repaid their debt to those attuned to a higher level of sensation.
Finally, it is hard to write about a Llamasoft product without letting the last word be something awesome.
VSEQ is a IfairlyI normal sort of picture squirming manipulation thingy. It takes standard IFF files and also uses its own run length encoded format. Various cunning effects like de-res, rotation, filtering and many.many more are available but it can take a while.
¦ REVIEW ¦ Thoughtfully a graphic is included to tell you approximately how long the process is going to take by way of giving you little messages like "Go make some tea" or "Go to the boozer" or as in the case of something adventurous I tried recently. "RIP".
Finished frames are once again called by a KML macro. Since everything interacts in this way there is a nice feel of building something solid from the bottom up. The other colossal advantage of this is that it is not necessary to become intimately familiar with each module before producing something brain damaging, you can take it at your own mellow pace.
REPORT CARD PATTERN IDIT v».t Cl Trip-A-Tron Llamasoft 073481 4478 £34.95 EASE OF USE.... Some advanced features can be a bit tricky at first. Mouse detection suspect in parts but everything is FUN.
PWTTWN MODE I IbEgftVI LINE BXPMNOOR EOXTINOI DSCAV-TVPE (STANDARD COLOURSPACII CURRENT LEVEL I INSERT LEVEL DELETE LEVEL MEM FREE! 2SA SET CENTRE POINT NEXT PREV CLEAR ifi DO ROT8 1 pix size x JL 1 PIX SIZE V " SPEED ...... Multi-tasking macros seem to work well. Video effects take time, but don't thev all?
VALUE.. Have you seen anyone selling one cheaper?
OVERALL The pattern editor forms an interface between your mind and the machine Some serious messing about made possible. Min ter ought to get a medal.
DEMO writers have a very bad reputation among "real" programmers. They are accused of being OS destroyers, illegal coders and of perpetrating the worst of all possible crimes, jumping into the rom.
This bad press is mainly due to the antics of obscure German coders and crackers - hackers is the wrong term to describe these people because they don't break into large computer systems, their only interest is in writing demos and, for some of them, removing protection from games and spreading these "cracks".
You will soon get rather annoyed when it slows down or stops each time you put a disc in the drive or move the mouse.
Commodore built two library Typically these crackers write a demo using the K-Seka assembler because it is the most similar to the assemblers they used on the C64. They will put in enough code so that it looks like it works and then bung it in the post next morning to all their friends.
There is nothing wrong in programming like this if you are just writing a demo for you and your friends. In most cases the authors of these demos do not expect them to end up in public domain libraries or reach the general public.
The problems begin when these coders find that after writing a few demos it is quite easy to write a game.
But do they make sure that it works properly on all Amigas? No.
It therefore seems an obvious thing for all coders to stick to the rules, especially new coders.
NOWADAYS the problem lies not in whether to obey the rules or not, but what the rules exactly are. If you take Commodore's words on the subject you might think that everything you do has to be done by using libraries and devices, not touching anything low level like the custom chips.
Of course. Commodore does not mean this. What the boffins there point out is that as the Amiga is a multi-tasking machine, if you don't access it via the operating system the Amiga will not be able to cope with handling all the different tasks - trying to take over the screen, trying to read the keyboard at the same time, trying to use any other aspect of the Amiga's input or output.
In this respect using the operating system is the only way to program the Amiga. But that is only if multitasking is necessary for your program, if you try to make a game multi-task functions for people who do not need to multi-task - Forbid!) And Permit!).
Forbid turns off multi-tasking, so any other tasks running are suspended, giving your program 100 per cent of Revenge the rom section base,code e ; Written with Oevpac v2.14. ; Put into chip aeaory.
Opt c-,o* ; No case sensitivity, optiaize on ¦ove.1
4. w,a6 ; Get execbase.
Isr -132 a6) ; lurn off aulti-tasking.
Lea gfx t i b.al ¦oveq 10, dO ¦ove. 1 4,w,a6 jsr
- 8228(a6) ; Open graphics Library.
Tst dO beq error ¦ove.1 DO.gfxbse ¦ove.1
• screen,dO ; Store screen address in copper list.
¦ove.w dO,ptOl ; That's pee ell zero ell.
Swap dO ¦ove.v dO,plOh swap dO add.1
• 10240,dO 'Size of one bitptane.
¦ove.w d0,pl1l ; Second bitptane (pee elt one ell).
Swap dO ¦ove.w d0,pl1h ¦ove.1 gfxbse,a6 ; Set up copper list.
• 832,a6 ¦ove.w »S8Q,Sdff094 ¦ove. 1 (a6),oldcpr ; Store
workbench copper list.
• newcpr,(a6) ; Use our copper list.
• 88080,Sdff094 ¦ove.w
• 88010,Sdff09a ; Enable level 3 interrupt.
¦ove.1 S6c.v,old ; Store old level 3 Interrupt.
• nev,S6c.v ; Use our interrupt.
* All we have to do now 1n our ¦ain prograa is wait for the aouse
* to exit. All the interesting stuff is done by the interrupt we
set up.
Wait: btst (6,Sbfe001 ; Test for left aouse button.
Bne.s ¦•it ; Wait if not pressed.
¦ove.1 old,86c.w ; Else return to workbench.
• S10,Sdff09a ; Disable copper interrupt.
¦ove.1 gfxbse,a6 ; Copper list.
• 832,at ¦ove.w
• 80080,Sdtf096 ¦ove.1 0ldepr,(a6) ¦ove.w
• 88080,Sdff096 ¦ove.1 gfxbse,at ; Close graphics library.
¦ove.1 S4.»,a6 l»r
- S19e(a6 ¦ove.1
4. H,a6 ; Execbase.
- 138(a6) ; PeraitO - restart aulti-tasking the Amiga to play
with. Permit!) Turns multi-tasking back on again for when you
exit your demo back to CLI.
Once you have turned off multitasking it is perfectly safe to "hit the hardware", assuming you do this in an orderly fashion and clear everything up before returning to AmigaDos.
Whatever you are writing, a demo or a game, you have to follow a standard leed it().
Anv 1, ' of Jolyon Ralph addresses the problem of politely trashing the operating system ; Eiit routine.
Addg I1,cot0 subq «2,eol1
* The following JSR instruction (84ef9) is altered by the
beginning of
* the prograe. This sort of self-aodifying code is frowned upon
by "real"
* coders, but it doesn't half work a lot easier than any other
Dc.u old: dc.l S4ef9 0 ; JSR instruction oldcpr: dc.l 0 ; Workbench copper list neucpr: dc.u
dc. u $ 100,*2200,*102,*0,*104,Sa,*108,0,*10a,0
892,$ 58,894,Sd0,S8e,S2c81,$ 90,82ce1,Se0 plOh: dc.u p 101:
dc.u pi1h: dc.u pltl: dc.u colO dc.u co 11 dc.u
dc. u
dc. u 0,Je2 0,Se4 0,Se6 0,8180 0,8182 0 89c,88010
* ffff,*fffe ; Foreground and ; background colours.
; Call copper interrupt.
; End copper.
Gfxlib: dc.b "graphics.library",0 even gfkbse: dc.l 0 screen: dcb.b 10240,*10101010 dcb.b 10240,0 ; Screen full of lines.
; Screen blank.
End ; End of listing.
Of jumpers neu: oovea.t d0-d7 a0-a6,-(sp) ; Save ell registers, and.v »S1Q,Sdff01e ; Check if it is copper interrupt, beq.s out ; If not, skip this code.
¦ove.w «S10,8dff09c
* This interrupt code is called once every 50th second (on PAL
* until the left button is pressed and the interrupts are
Out: aovea.l Isp)+,d0-d7 a0-a6 ; Restore registers.
; Change the foreground.
; Change the background.
Error: aoveq «0,dO rts set of instructions to kill the system, set up your screen and everything else your demo needs. 1 have written a file called BASE.S (Listing I) which I use for the basis of all my productions.
It starts by opening the graphics library. Although 1 do not use any graphics library functions in the program. 1 need the address of the library to tell me where the workbench copper list is stored.
I then have to create my copper list.
The main problem with my copper list is that 1 do not know where my bitplanes are going to be in memory because AmigaDos will load this file into whatever chip memory it can find.
Some less-experienced coders think that they can take a piece of memory, say at $ 70000, clear that and use it for their screen, regardless of whatever else may be there at the lime. While that will work most of the time on a 512k Kickstart 1.2 Amiga, it will generally fall down on any other system. If you have anything else in memory before running, it probably won't be there much longer.
Obviously this is not a very good idea, although I still keep coming across people who do it.
What I do is to put zero into the bitplane addresses in the copper list - $ e0 to Se6 in the example listing - work out the addresses of where my bitplanes are, and stick it into the copper list, MOVE.L Ifscreen.dO gets the screen address, and then it is transferred into the relevant places in the copper list a word at a time.
WITH this method, not only are you guaranteed not to rub over something that is already in memory, but it will work regardless of where it is in chip memory.
The easiest and cleanest way of setting up a copper list is to put your list address into the Workbench copper list address pointer - part of the graphics.library structure. First you must save the current value of this pointer so it can be restored on exit.
One odd command you may notice in my copper list is $ 9c.$ 8010. This generates a level 3 copper interrupt.
What is a level 3 copper interrupt, I hear you ask? Well, it's funny you should ask because that's what I'm going to talk about next.
Anyone who has programmed inferior processors to the 68000 series ?
- like Ihe 6502. Z80 or 80386 - will surely have come across
interrupts at one time or another. Basically, an interrupt
stops the execution of whatever the processor is doing at the
time and makes it go and run another routine before returning
to carry on with what it was up to in the first place.
What this means in practical terms is that the main program can just sit and wait for the left mouse button to be pressed while the interrupts go off and do all the clever work.
THE nice thing about interrupts is that they are called at regular time intervals, in this case every 50th of a second. This means you can write a routine which moves a series of sprites, for example, around the screen by one position. As the routine is called every 50th of a second it gives the illusion of smooth movement.
You will find these interrupts referred to as "exceptions" in a lot of literature because Motorola decided to be different to the rest of the universe, which calls these things interrupts. As interrupts are interrupts whatever type of processor you are using, I will continue to call them interrupts. There is no need for companies to add to the list of computer jargon unnecessarily.
In Listing I you can see how to set up the simplest type of interrupt, the level 3 copper one.
The Amiga system uses level 3 interrupts for all sorts of things. They are generated when a new disc is inserted, for example. Therefore we must be careful not to trash this interrupt and allow the system to carry on its necessary interrupts after our program has finished.
This system interrupt routine is at a fixed routine in rom. I could toll you where this is, but as it changes from version to version of Kickstart, we will have to work out where it is instead.
As it happens, it is very easy to find out where this routine is - you just read the contents of S6c in memory. To set your own interrupt routine you have to write the address of your routine into S6c and enable level 3 copper interrupts.
This is done by moving $ 8010 into Sdff09a (1NTENA). From then on, any write of $ 8010 to $ dff09c (1NTREQ), the interrupt request register, will cause the CPU to jump to the interrupt routine pointed to at address $ 6c. The copper move $ 9c.$ 8010 creates the desired effect OUR interrupt routine begins with a MOVEM instruction that saves all the registers on the stack. It has interrupted the 68000 at an unknown point in our main program.
OK, our main program is only two lines long this time, but it is a good idea to get into good habits and save all the registers at the beginning of an ALL OUR PRICES INCLUDE CARRIAGE & VAT HSV COMPUTER SERVICES LIMITED (AMC) 23, Hampstead House, Town Centre, Basingstoke, RG21 1LG.
3 1 2" DS DD Disks Bulk - Fully Guaranteed b 25 50 100 250 500
* 69p
• 63p
* 61 p
* 59p
* 57p 'per disk * Accessories Lockable Disk Boxes 50x3
1.2* £5.95
100x31 2' ..£7.95 31 2-Cleaning
Kit ......£4.95 Amiga 500 Dust
Cover ...£4.95 Amiga 1000 Dust
Cover .£9 50 Mouse Mat
(Foam) .....£5.95 Stationery... Stationery...
Stationery... L Mlcro-perl all edges SOS
9. 5" x 11-60gsm £9.50 £15.95 I True A4 70gsm £8.50 £12.95 £23 95
1 True A4 80gsm £895 £13.95 £25.95 I True A4 90gsm £9.75
£14.95 £27 95 I Labels
1. 000
3. 5" x 1.5" (1 across) £525 £9 50 £17.95 1
3. 5" x 1.5" (2 across) £5.75 £10.50 £19.95 I
4. 0" x 1.5" (1 across) £575 £10.50 £19 95 ¦ 4 0" x 1.5" (2
across) £5.75 £11.95 £22.95 ¦
2. 75" x 1.5" (3 across) £4.75 £8.50 £15.95 ¦ Special Box and
Disk Offer 100 capacity disk box only £4.95 when purchasing 50
or more disks Order Hotline (0256) 463507 Orders under £8 m
value carry a small order charge of £2 BATTLE Of AUSTIN IT7
(INFOCOM) BEACH VCLlEY BCYONO DARK CASTLE BLADE WAAKCR
2 00 COUOSUS CHESS * CONFLCT EUROPE CONTWENTAL CRCLfS
CORRUPTION (MBCROLLSl COSMO PIRATL CUTTHFOATB DAMOCLES DAY OF
THE VwfR 0CJAVU2 DYNAMITE DU* ELVIRA MISTRESS Of Daf* EMPEROR
OF 'Ml MINES ENCHANTER (INFOCOM) EYE C* MORU8 F16 CCA4BAT PILOT
f 16 FALCON F29 RETALATOR FAERY TALE PHOTON PAINT 6.49 To order
please wirte. Or complele (he coupon, or telephone us on 0279
600204. Please note (hat (here is a surcharge ol 50p per 9ame
lor orders placed b» telephone.
FATMOEAR i»«6 rtSM iMSCROU-Si 1188 FLASH DRAGON 1248 IIOHT SMXATOR 7 » 49 lOOTDAuER Of THE YEAR 21J48 IUN SCHOOL 2 l2« VRSl 12 49
• UN SCHOOL 2 6-8 VRSl 12 48
• UN SCHOOL 2 (8- VRS) 12 *8 lU'UR* WARS 1848 OALORCGCNS OOI4AM
12 48 OatWnfT2 1848 GEMINI WING 1299 GETTYSBURG (SSI) 1998
OCX.* GRIDIRON lU S FOOTBAl I (¦ ...... HAROORIVM HARLEY
DAV10SO* HL l WAR ,SSII HOLLYWOOD NUINX HONDA RVF 750 HOUND Of
ADERBOAPD BiROE LEMURS Sl«T LARRY I II MURE SWT LARRY 2 Can you
afford not to join?
NORTH ANO SOUTH OBI. ITERATOR OIL IMPERIUM OMEGA Speciaf Reserve Bi-monthly Buyer's Guide each with details ol 40 games.
Membership card. Release Schedule and a (older tor the Buyer's Guides 24-hour despatch o* stock items Most loes m stock Games sent individually by 1st class post.
Most lit through your letter-box 7-day hotline, until 8pm weekdays. 10 to 5.30 Saturdays. 11 to 5 Sundays Written notification ol delays and instant refunds on request No commitment no obligation to buy anything and no 'minimum purchase' The best games, carefully selected, available at extraordinary prices.
For just £5.00 All e're miles cheaper than elsewhere Below ate a selection ol otters at prices you might not believe You can buy games at the same time as joining - or join now and select Irom our full catalogue All items advertised are only tor sale to members and are subject to availability Note Upgrade to Official Secrets s offered to members of Special Reserve Amiga Software OMNI PLAY BASKETBALL OMNI PLAY HORSE RAC1F43 ONSLAUGHT OCBB SPELL BOO* SPILL KX» SPE LlBREAl .HHERICAl star blaze.
S'ARCOMU OUEST »OR THE TMJBIRD QUESTION 2 .&S*i RALLY CROSS CHAllENOE REBEL CHARGE. AT CHICK RED LIGHTNING |S9I| RCK DANGS ROUS 3NY3.S . DD DISK RCMOCOP ROCK 'N' ROLL RUN THE GAUNTLET SHINOBI 1299 SHOOUN (INFOCOM) 19 89 SHOOT EM UPCONSTRKlT 1849 SILKWORM 1299 SIM CITY 17 49 SPACE ACS 2748 SPACE OUEST j. SKRRAi 2148 For the Official serious gamer!
Secrets Members ot Official Secrets get all the benefits ol Special Reserve plus:
• Confidential. Our 32 page bi-monthly magazine is essential
reading tor those interested m adventures or role playing games
Written by experts. Confidential has covered everything trom
How to Host a Murder to Which F16 Flight Simulator' Our agents,
led by the Master Spy known as "The Boss Upstairs', seek out
the secrets ot RPG's, FRP's. MUG'S. PBM's. Leisure Suit Larry.
The Russians. Elvira . Myth. Written by Magnetic Scrolls,
authors ot The Pawn, exclusively for members of Official
Secrets Myth is a small adventure set m Ancient Greece In it
you'll meel The Ferryman, cheat Death and lace the nineheaded
Hydra Myth includes the famous Magnetic Scrolls parser and
graphics and is included in the price of membership
• Help-Line. Manned weekdays until 8pm and Sundays The Help-Line
can help you solve most problems on most adventures
• Gnome Ranger. Level 9 s brilliant 3-part adventure or a
Surprise Alternative.
Membership costs £22.00 UK including six issues of Confidential. Myth, the Help Lme. Gnome Ranger and membership ot Special Reserve Myth Quotes "An excellent adventure... witty, cunning and just plain good lun! II you liked Fish I you'll probably like this, because they're very similar in style: you may even prefer Myth, it's that good!"
Amiga Formal Myth is destined to become a classic."
Crash Magazine Myth Reviews Crash Smash 91%, CU 90%, Amiga Format 87%, TGM 85%
* 30* (4-6 'EARS I 1388 §»'£&• !i| Amiga Specials
11*9 TO 00 WttH WCROS ' I *9 REAL GHOSTBUSTERS 7 49 ROCKET
EUTi ....11.88 FALCON MISSION OISK 9 99
(SIERRA) 9 99 GOLDEN PATH SN HELLFIRE ATTACK i
PAX 4 89 KINO OF CHICAGO 9 89 Icings ouest 2 (sierra) 6 99
KINGS OUEST 3 (SIERRA) 8 99 KRISTAl .....9.99
...10.49 IN«OCOMl WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (1
MEG) .9.49 Name Address Post Code-
- Phone No.- I Computer_•5.25T3.5T3.0TTAPE Order Form SB9Cial
Reserve™mbe,shiB«UK' "EECorE7 Wo,ia Payable to: Special Reserve
or Official Secrets
P. O. Box 847, Harlow, CM21 9PH Special Reserve and Official
Secrets are trad mg names of ktfer Modules Ltd I Reg Once 2
South Block The Maltings. Sawbridgewodh. I -------- j
Registered m England Number 2054713 VAT reg. No.
Or Official Secrets membership £22 UK. £25 EEC or £30 World
• nth Gnome Ranger and Myth j j or with' Surprise Alternative and
Myth Item AMCOMP Item TOTAL Credit card expiry date Overseas
orders must be paid by credit card Prces include UK Postage and
Packing EEC orders please add 70p per item World orders please
add £1 50 per item 'CHEQUE1* POSTAL ORDER'ACCESS'VISA
(Including Connect. Mastorcard and Eurocard)
* Delete whoie applicable AMOS - The Game Creator is like nothing
you ve ever seen before on the Amiga.
Design the game of your dreams Developed by the a ithor of the number one, bestselling STOS, AMOS stretches the Amiga to its limits. Now for the very first time you can access the awesome power of your computer with bewildering ease.
Here's just some of the things you can do: ? Screens
• Define and display up to eight screens each with its own
resolution, size in x and y, position on TV. Colour palette,
and even in HAM, half-brite or dual playfield
• Clone a screen's data to another screen to create multiplayer
games with ease
• Scroll a screen simply by changing the screen offset. By
overlapping different screens you can create multi-level
parallax scrolling
• Load an IFF picture to create a screen or overlay it onto an
existing screen ? Sprites
• Create sprites with ease using the feature-packed sprite editor
• Display your creations as either hardware or software (BOB)
• Move up to a staggering 400 sprites at once thanks to AMOS's
intelligent routines. AMOS will even snap together hardware
sprites automatically when the image requires more than four
colours or exceeds 16 pixels in the x-axis
• Animate as many BOBs (Blitter Objects) as memory will.
Allow, definable to any size and displayed at lightning speeds with automatic screen buffering AMAL
• Use the AMOS Animation Language to create complex sequences for
sprites or screens which compile at run ¦The world of STOSH
With sales in excess of35,000 units, STOS has to be one of the
biggest-selling packages for the Atari ST. Users have written
shoot 'em ups, role playing games, adventures, dental
databases, financial programs - and scientists in Toronto use
STOS to conduct lightning research! In the shops you'll find
STOS Compiler, STOS Maestro (for sampled sound). STOS
Sprites600, Games Galore (a collection of four great STOS
- and soon ST owners will be able to buy STOS Musician, STOS
Vidi Digitizer, and more.
Again Again's Gilbert - Escape from Drill was written in STOS as was Fun School 2. Three other educational software houses are currently using STOS to create innovative teaching aids.
Time ana work on interrupt - up to 64 sequences possible
• Define sequences using the flexible range of commands or from
the AMAL creator accessory ? Music
• Play Sound tracker or GMC (Games Music Creator) tunes on
• Access the Amiga's sound chip directly
• Edit music with the easy-to-use music accessory ? Miscellaneous
• Modify the copper list using the built-in commands or insert
your own unique list _
• Access the Amiga's graphic primitives
• Move screen areas around at blitter speed
• Super-fast window and text routines ? Editor
• Use (he sophisticated scrolling editor to create programs with
lockable procedures, no line numbers and multistatement lines
• Choose from more than 400 different commands to produce the
results you want with the minimum of fuss
• Hold up to four programs and 12 accessories in memory at once
• Store music, sprites, IFF picture files and soon in memory
banks which you can load and save independently of your program
• Add new commands with ease (3D routines for example)
• Port STOS programs to your Amiga
• Works on the A500 with a single drive
• Supports hard disc drives ? Whet you get AMOS Basic, sprite
editor, sprite grabber, music editor, copper list editor,
example games, Basic manual. Accessories manual, reference
card - all for jus! £49351 ? Please send me more information
about AMOS - The Game Creator ? Please send a demo disc. 1
enclose a cheque postal order for £2 payable to Mandarin
Name Address Postcode Send to: Mandarin Software, Europa House, Adlington Park, Adlington, Macclesfield SKI0 4NP.
Interrupt. The next three lines determine whother the interrupt has been generated by our copper list or not, because level 3 interrupts can be generated by other system functions as well.
If it is not a copper interrupt, then the interrupt is passed on to the original interrupt handler routine in rom. This is done by a direct jump at the end of the interrupt routine.
However, this interrupt address is calculated by the program and will be correct for whatever version of Kickstart you may care to use.
We then have space for our interrupt code. In this example we are just changing the foreground and background colours by -2 and 1 respectively every 50th of a second, hence the colourful effect.
After our lines of interrupt codo we jump into the level 3 routine in rom.
Just in case the rom routine does anything important. 1 don't think it does in Kickstart 1.2 or 1.3. but it doesn't do any harm to jump in anyway, and it may be necessary for future Kickstarts.
Now we move back to the main code and, assuming you have got bored of the Jeff Minter style colour changes and have squashed your mouse button, the program carefully shuts down and rebuilds AmigaDos for you.
FIRST we put our old level 3 interrupt address - the rom address we read from S6c earlier - back into S6c. For good measure we then disable copper interrupts, as we like to return things to the way we found them.
Next we put our old copper list address back into the Workbench copper list pointer. This re-enables the good old CL1 screen. We close the graphics library we opened earlier and re-enable multi-tasking with a Permit!). Now we are ready to return to CL1. The last thing to do is clear do
- MOVEQ 0,d0 is faster way to do it than CLR.L dO.
When a program exits to CL1, the value in do is returned as the error code. It is a good way to pass parameters back to the CLI, but we don't particularly want an error code with our demos.
Then we RTS and return back to AmigaDos. If you find that it doesn't work and you get the good old strobing power light and red boxes, then you know that it's your code at fault.
With this routine set up. All you need to change each time is your interrupt routine, the copper list and the number of bitplanes you initially set up.
• NEXT MONTH: Some special effects you can use from your inter
rupts, plus the practical side of getting sound and graphics
into your programs.
Travel the globe with the best In simulation software: UFO'. Flight Simulator'''.
ThunderChopper". Jet'", and r, Stealth Mission ". Diseover the world with Scenery Disks. Flight Controls I. and other supplements lo our integrated flight line!
THE MR WORLD'S LARGEST CHAIN DIAMOND'S OF c»EXECUTIVE DIAMOND PACK 1 ALL OUR AMIGA A500 PACKS CONTAIN MACHINES WITH THE FOLLOWING STANDARD FEATURES
• 512K RAM • Built-in Speech Synthesis
• 1 Meg Disk Drive •Two Operation Manuals
• 4096 Colours • Operating System Disks
• Multi Tasking • All Appropriate Connecting
• Mouse Cables AMIGA 500 * Batman the Movie ? New Zealand Story »
F18 Interceptor » Buggy Boy + Ikari Warriors * Barbarian *
Thunder Cats *Terrorpods . Art ot Chess * Wizball + Mercenary
Compendium * Sanity Fight ?
Amegas * Deluxe Paint II * Microswitch Joystick + 10 Blank 3.5" SAVE EVEN MORE WITH DIAMONDS MEGA Disks * Mouse Mat ? _ _ _ _ Amiga Dust Cover + CQQQ Mil Tutorial Disk . TV tUili iVU Modulator INC VAT + DELIVERY DIAMOND PACK 2 ,WORD PROCESSING PACKAGE Exclusive to Diamond AMIGA A500 PHILLIPS HIGH RES.
MONO MONITOR KIND WORDS STAR LC10 PRINTER 3 METRE PRINTER CABLE PC EMULATOR METAL MONITOR STAND ALL CONNECTING CABLES Free delivery £599 QQ anywhere in
U. k. INC VAT BULK DISKS Top quality 3.5" DSDD disks
10. .£7.00
25. ...£13.00 50 £25.00
100. ..£48.00
200. ..£94.00 Prices inc. labels and VAT. Add £4.95
for 80 capacity disk box (only when ordering disks.
M DIAMOND PACK 3 THE NEW AMIGA 500 REVISION 6a 1 MEGABYTE VERSION £399 INC VAT
ONLY £425.00 INC VAT A590 2MB Populated £449.00 ACCESSORIES
TAILORED AMIGA DUST COVERS ONLY E4.95 (Also available for most
monitors printers ©tc.)
JOYSTICKS (New low price) QUICKSHOT1 .4.95 QUICKSHOT2TURBO ......8.49 EUROMAX MICROHANDLER . 22.95 ARCADE 14.89 JOYSTICK PRICES INCLUDE VAT PAPER 1000 SHEETS CONTINUOUS STATIONERY £9 95 2000 SHEETS CONTINUOUS STATIONERY £16.95 FULL RANGE OF RIBBONS STOCKED - PHONE FOR PRICES DIAMOND - THE NAME YOU CAN TRUST EXPORT HOTLINE 0272 693545 CHEQUES MADE PAYABLE TO THE RELEVANT BRANCH NAME ACCESS VISA ORDERS WELCOME DIAMOND A501: ? TWO YEAR WARRANTY ? BATTERY BACKED
Only £69.00 CHIP SHOP PRICES 8up Board RAMS - 9.95 each A590 RAM Chips-9.59 each 256K RAM Chips - 2.95 each (Chip prices exclude VAT) Mr Diamond is now in Southern Ireland MONITORS PHILLIPS 8883 COLOUR MONITOR WITH STEREO SOUND ONLY £219.00 +VAT includes 1 year on site maintenance DIAMOND MULTISYNCH MONITOR ONLY £295.00 + VAT PHILLIPS 8852 MONITOR ONLY £219.00 +VAT Umited offer while stocks last - Indudes FREE tilt ? Swivel stand.
PANASONIC KXP-1124 24 PIN D MATRIX PRINTER £21 9 ? VAT OKIMATE 20 24-PIN COLOUR THERMAL DOT MATRIX PRINTER £1 59 * VAT STAR LC-10 MONO MuRipto tont options from Iront panel, enceilent paper handing C64 128 verson available £119* VAT STAR LC-10 COLOUR Colour version of the popular LC-iO.aloWng the effect ol hA colour on screen durrps (requires colour primer drtvvig sohware) C84 128 verson avatatae STAR LC-24-10 £169-VAT 24 Pin version ol the popular 1C seres vnth esceptenal lerter print quality £1 99 * VAT STAR XB 24-10 24 PIN COLOUR r% Anr PRINTER (me colour opton) L4o9 * VAT AMIGA B2000
REVISION 4.6 KICK START 1.3 1 MEGABYTE AGNUS CHIP £599.00 + VAT FULL GUARANTEE IMPORTED MACHINE AMIGA 2000 ACCESSORIES Microbtoocs 8-up board 2 megabyte populated ... £295 Mcroboocs Hard Frame .._...£175 UooboDcs Hard Frame 49MB 28 mrilesecond Hard Disk ......£349 Kick Siart 1.3 ROM PO A New Enhanced Chipset .P.OA. £139. Vat NEWLC-10MKII INTRODUCTORY OFFERS TO MR DIAMOND-SOFT MEMBERS 0501 Amiga Ram Expansion ....£58.95 Interceptor ...£5 00 Deluxe Paint II ..£14.95
Diamond Amiga External Drive £65 00 Phonton Paint .....£9.95 Diamond Disks 3 5' DSDD 50p each New Zealand Story ....£5.00 Star LC10 Mono Printer £119 ? VAT Batman .£5.00 End ol line Philips Printer ..£115 . VAT INC VAT + DELIVERY was £2M DISK DRIVES Diamond NEC 2nd drive £74.95 incval Oiamond Qtec drive - ....£79 95 me val Diamond 5.25' disK Olive.....C99 95 me val A590 20MB nard disk ..£319 95 . VI!
A590 2MB populated ram ... £449 95 . Vat MIDtANDS (LHC MICROSALES) ESTABLISHED 20 YEARS 121 REGENTS ST, LEAMINGTON SPA WARWICKSHIRE. TEL: 0926 3121S5 SOUTHAMPTON (DIAMOND COMPUTERS) 114 LOOGE R0. SOUTHAMPTON. 5012GS TEL 0703 232777 LONDON (LAN COMPUTERS) 1045-1047 HIGH R0, CHAOWELL HEATH, ROMFORD ESSEX TEL 01-597 8851
SOUTHERN IRELANO TEL 061 76125 24HR ORDER LINE 0703 232669 EXPORT HOTLINE 0272 693545 SOFTWARE HOTUNE 01 597 8851 FAX 0272 693 223 SOFTWARE CLUB FREE GAME FREE T-SHIRT EXCLUSIVE 30% OFF ALL SOFTWARE PART EXCHANGE YOUR OLD SOFTWARE TITLES FOR NEW ONES FREE BULLETIN BOARD NO 0272 693545 FREE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER ALL FOR JUST £20.00 INC VAT AMIGABASIC works - and that is about all that can be said of it. It will do what you ask. But only if it really feels like it. And it will never do it nearly as fast as you'd like it to.
It's hardly surprising then, that a variety of other Basics have sprung up; compiled ones like HiSoft Basic Compiler and interpreted ones like GFA-Basic. Which now has a separate compiler. But they aren't cheap, so what the world in general has been waiting for is an extension library which gives AmigaBasic what it Anyone who has played with AmigaBasic for more than five minutes will know that it has a few bricks missing.
Stewart C. Russell looks at a package which sets out to fill in the holes should have had all along.
The waiting is now over. HiSoft. In conjunction with SunSmile Software in the States, has released Extend.
This wondrous wad of longwords won't actually make the daily running of AmigaBasic any quicker - what it does is to allow the Basic programmer full access to Intuition without having to open every Amiga library in rom and on disc. And this is a good thing.
Extend is a disc-based library like Translator.library and Diskfont.library. You put in your Libs: directory. To use libraries AmigaBasic needs to access the relevant bmap file, and HiSoft provides the Extend.bmap file for this purpose.
The usual problem with using library functions and routines from Basic is that they need oodles of code to get them working. Basic and C variable types are different, one tiny error in the protocol will rosult in a Guru, Believe me, I know I've been thore.
Extend vl.3 contains 50 functions and subprograms. The majority of them deal with menus, requesters and gadgets, while some others deal with fonts. IFF and scrolling. The latter might seem strange as AmigaBasic does have a scroll command: unfortunately it is bugged.
Sere we i s Vur HA lets too of.
Bas huf coli via 1 fon hat evi me for do cu g ' ca, be dc all n If you've ever tried loading and saving IFF screen images from Basic you will know how difficult, and above all, slow it can be. Extend's SavelFF routine saves the day. A 16 colour med-res display can bo saved to ram about 60 times faster than a Basic routine would. SavelFF also compresses the data, so the resultant file is often less than a third of the size the uncompressed data would be.
There's also LoadlFF, which quickly loads your image on to a screen that you specify. It is here that Extend shows its transatlantic origins - if you don't have a PAL screen open for a 256 line PAL image. Extend creates a very crushed 256 line NTSC interlaced Extend your Basic BITPOS BUSY CHANGE CHECK CHECKSUB CIEARBUFFER C10SEIIB COMMANOKEY • CREDITS DISKSPACE 00S EXISTS FILESIZE FONT FREEMEN GAOBCOIOUR GAOGET GADTCOLOUR GETFILES GET INPUT GETSTRING 10A0IFF MAT Returns current x.y coordinates in the current bitmap Change the mouse pointer to the word Malt.
Change a window title.
Poll a series of gadgets.
Chech for a submenu selection.
Clear out a string gadget's contents.
De-allocate all memory allocated for all gadgets.
Assign a hotkey sequence to a menu Item.
Display Fitend credits.
Return the dish space free and useable.
Execute any valid AmigaDos comaand.
Chech to see if a file exists.
Returns the size of a file.
Set the current window with the desired font.
Oe-allocate all memory allocated with the Mem.
Set the drewlng attributes for all gadget borders.
Put a gadget on the Basic window.
Set the text attributes for all gadgets.
Olsplay a file requester and prompt for mouse input Activate a string gadget for string Input.
Return contents of a string gadget, loads and displays a standard IFF screen.
Change the highlighting attribute for a menu.
Get a block of allocated system memory.
Move the current screen up or down.
HiSoft Extend Command summary ¦ REVIEW ¦ screen, which looks awful. Ah well, we can't have everything.
Serious headbangers can use the ViewHAM command to have a look at HAM images. Unfortunately Extend lets you look, but not touch - HAM is too complicated for Basic to keep track of. This isn't strictly true; HAM from Basic has been done, but the routine is huge, very slow and suffers from colour banding problems, so it's not viable.
There are a few other functions for fonts, external commands, file handling, memory allocation, and even a routine to produce a "Wait" mouse pointer. Setting up the library for use is very simple, all the work is done by one command to initialise the current window.
Extend is as forgiving as it can be.
Given AmigaDos's somewhat capricious nature, but if it says in the manual that a function called incorrectly will cause a crash, you'd better believe it.
Some routines must be slowed down with the PTIME command to allow AmigaBasic to catch up.
Thankfully most of these are not speed critical, so the extra second or so won't be noticed.
:ed Souped-up menus AMIGABASIC, despite being a bit of a dog, does handle menus fairly well. Extend goes much further - it allows subitems on menu items, and hotkey shortcuts, like Right-Amiga-Q for Quit for instance.
On top of this you can define exactly how you want menu items coloured and highlighted. Most powerfully of all, you can set up mutually exclusive items. This is useful, say, if your program has a load option and you want to disable the save option while the data is The manual is good, written in that weary but snappy style which gets a bit old after a while. It does the job though, and it's packed with examples, which are also present on the disc one example for every command.
What, for me, makes Extend so good is that you can use it in your programs and then distribute them withbut any complications. The downfall of Basic loading. Now if you need anything more complex, you've outgrown anything AmigaBasic could ever do.
Extenders for many of the 8 bit machines was caused by their non- distributable status, but Extend has none of these problems - HiSoft and SunSmile have made Extend.library and Extend.bmap freely distributable.
And because you can use Extend with the HiSoft Basic Compiler, you can now write good code in Basic and hold your head high.
Easy Gadgets THE real giveaway that a program uses Basic is that there is a complete lack of gadgets, or at least, proper Intuition ones. Here, SunSmile gives as good a reason as any to use the word plethora in describing its options. Both boolean and string gadgets are supported. The former allow program options to be activated, the latter allow for the input of text.
You can make them as big, small, dull or garish as you like - just as long as you remember to remove them all before the program is exited.
T. uK.hitt ) LIBRARY 'thii if ntotfitry for BMIC EtT
Uir«imnini».iu;iini7r3n if i I ill ' "ihjf*3*™ htrt to shorton
REQUEST lino ; :CISE HURT "HO *; Point and click - flexible
and easy to code OFFQAO - Disable a gadget.
ONGAD - Enable a gadget.
PROTECT - Protect a Basic string.
PTIME - Pass some time.
PUTSTRING - Put a string Into a string gadget's buffer.
REFRESH - Attempts to refresh the current output window.
REMOVEGAD - Remove a gadget from a Basic window.
REQC010R - Alter the text colours of requester text.
REQUEST - Prompt the user with a requester.
SAVEIFF - Save the current screen 1n standard IFF format.
SETHILIGHT - Sets the highlighting for gadgets.
SETSTYIE - Set text attributes (Italics, bold, etc.) SETSUB - Set the position of a submenu.
SETW1N00W - Passes Extend important Info about the Basic window.
SREQCOLOR - Alter the text colours of the custom string requester.
SREQUEST - Set the details for requester text and position.
STATUS - Determine the status of a string gadget.
SUBCOLOR - Set colour attributes for all submenus.
SU8MENU - Assign a submenu to a menu item.
TOGGLEOFF - Switch a select gadget to the Off position.
TOGGI EON - Switch a select gadget to the On position.
VERSION - Returns the current Extend version number.
VIEWHAM - Load and display a HAM screen.
MAITOAD - Walts until a specified gadget Is not active.
XSCROLL - Scroll whole or pert of a bitmap.
¦ REVIEW ¦ Spit and polish PROGRAMS often have to ask Ihe user Yes or No questions, such as whether it's OK to format the hard drive or not. This is where requesters come in.
With Extend it's just as easy to produce a pretty little system requester as it is to use an unpretty "INPUT Y N" statement. They both do the same job, but the requester looks far better and is resistant to turnipheads trying to input garbage.
If the program processes any amount of data you'll want to ask the user for a filename in the nicest possible way. Unfortunately, the Extend file requester is really quite an appalling kludge. Instead of using the standard ARP file requester, which most of us (including HiSoft) know and love. SunSmile has gone for its own rather feeble offering.
It doesn't even have a scroll bar or a device selection list, so if you're looking for a file from a hard drive you have to edit the string gadget and then click on the down arrow repeatedly to find the file you want.
It refuses to be put on a lo-res screen (the ARP one can be coaxed to do this) even though it is narrow enough to do so. It also doesn't update the directory list at every access - this can sometimes be good, if you've got a very full disc, or can sometimes be a pain, if you want to access a file you've just written.
SunSmile could do itself a great service by replacing the Extend file requester with something better. It's better than nothing, but it's not good enough.
REPORT CARD Extend HiSoft 0525 718181 £19.95 EASE OF USE ... Straightforward, but not for the complete novice. Could do with a better file requester.
Very fast, especially when IFF is involved. Some functions have to be slowed down or AmigaBasic misses them.
VALUE.. Superb value. Lots of useful features at a low price. Plus you can freely distribute your programs written with its use.
OVERALL Extend makes Basic a viable proposition. Comprehensive, fast and cheap - even' AmigaBasic programmer needs it.
A i EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE JLJi r SPELLBOOK Simple lo use. Mouse controlled spelling gome Forget the keyboard Improves hand eye co ord.
Extremely effective and entertaining educational program Two age ranges 4 6 and 7 4 £19.95 SOFT STUFF SPELLING PACKS 4-6 or 7+. Two complete alphabets of words and pictures on 2 disks.
Expand the words on offer through 'Spellbook! Gain inspiration to design your own pictures with Alphabet Creator £14.95 19 Quarry Hill Road Tonbridge Kent TN9 2RN P THINGS TO DO WITH WORDS 3 programs to consolidate spelling word and sentence structure Anagrams rearrange the words. Word Hunt: discover words within words. Jumbled Sentences make sense from sentences Mouse controlled with no keyboard distraction £19.95 T SPELLBOOK ALPHABET CREATOR compatible with Dogas & Neochrome
- allows the creation of unlimited words and pictures - comes
with P.O. Neoondisk £9.95 THINGSTO DO WITH NUMBERS Maths from a
different angle!
Time Teller: Tell the time using the mouse 12 hour and 24 hour clock All Aboard: multiplication and division needed to answer these Book Search: subtraction and addition handling small numbers. £19.95 MAIL
LINE (0473) 257158 210605 FAX NO. 0473 213457 Wifiaa- 30 Port
- -- 1399 1699 A**caa Gorce* Shoe Ate-eo Bear *----- Ara-or* -
689 __ 698
* 698 103
• 3 99 Aatont-ipmer 6 99 Aeon • v 2 (Cor&M y".
• 999 .....24.80 Balance of Power 1990 . .....15 99
16 99 16 99 ftarau* Kogh* Banairees------ Baimam (The Mo.*)
- ---- 6 49 __1689 16 89 s«'«y- - 6 99 BlOOdWyCh 3« So*
?689 680 208 689 6 98 1388
16. 88 688 it 98 BMC-' Vol«y .
BaT*.*)*, 8h*» 8*0 Co"va-» Bae* or Auwaltt .
CnaaeKJ 1698 . 1398 698 1398 16 88 6 98 388 6 98 '6 09 898 1? 89
* 298
• 889 "8 99
• 889
* 698
- 699 698 o» Si'M* R*« U»eWtf'W ™ Mo'iiGrvi Cabal -__ Cor'd
Eo*ooe Unwa C- ti* Chard* 0«W-*h Carhaoa __ Corvette Chcagc
80_____ Co"wir«Jo _ _ ., Ch*nt*n * Shao*' Cheea-wwa* 200C
Oa, or i** v**r 3*ft o» 1*1 P-*raon 14** oe-- 0*Hard . " aox*
o* Ham* :Xngeo- Maaiw rkngao' Mum F«or .
688 688 998 . 1389 .13.89 398 389 889
• 689 1389
• 298
• 889
• 388
• 888 1688 1888 1388 16 98 . 1898 1898 . 1888 , 1398 . 16 89 388
• 389
* 299 298
• 699
• 699 '998 888
• 388 rVaacoouQ'i --- Demons Torrto------------ Oregon Sovr.
Dark f uhou -- Orawar ... _______ Dyna-we 0j« --- UouO* Osooa ii Docs o' wat_ Deovggw Dynamic C tooc " _ -------- f*a a* n foies Eye a• mo»us FaahOagor F28 «a*a»a» f*9 vaaanfo'sa* .
F -eco-t»«®.ci .
Fuar Fa*»-Maaon 0*w .
Fen sr Cor-ouCne .
T-oorbafcyor-he .
Forgnrtm WorkSs Fas* .ana_______ FfarMnsJa* Fuu-e wars Fto'irg Socca* - FI n«Ja'F-a« C» i-oNet 6o a» ¦ .*• Cowac* Ganv-i nno _____ Gu-tt fCOTOWvn. .
Gowraoons Oomar Grano briir Siam Gm «pn _____ Gm BCOd 3 88 GhoatMiars n---- -689 ( .r«np 899 Oarra* Su-v*** fconor * 3 98 Cvaaxaaca *588 Qvy uneAar S S-oH .... ....13 99 Gora _______ 688 Galaxy Force----------698 Gnovisa«JGnos» 698 ¦+& *», Pmrv __________16.80
• * Ira- - ... 16 88 Han Orv*g_____________1388 HATfc----
1398 naavy Maul 16.90 HOU-KJ a Shaco*----------16 89 Ho*SlW._
____.. . 1380 ind*ne ronee :.uoas F«n*: ___ _ 16 89
• xjanavonae •-Scax: 388 nvannoa .. . _ '6 89 rtfarton . '289
eon TracMr---- -2 89 rfasiauin------ '6 88 «eVL4»« ___.. 1690
vra-nanor'al Aif*«i » _ ------ 2 99
• Came *om the Dewr '988 impuasbie Maaon l _-- 16.88 JachOooi
1690 jac*Tha8»joaf 1200 u» _ 1380
• Oca 0*1 1290
* «* O" Em Tvt» ------- 900 Kryaitf. ..... 998 M me Thai 16.90
Ming Gama Snoa 1309 KroMws - 168O LasarSa-ao . "2 »
IcancaioMl - ..1389 Lage' 5 ol J*ai _ '6 88 iaaum Sue
.ar» . -9 99 igWiorce (Cpnp*a«K. 6 88 Lombard R-A.C Haly -6
98 LOTOS 0l!na««nQ3.n 1988 '.asi N. «a n 6.99 COM PMAJI .
16 98 . Fearpoo ------------ • 1389 .ancasi* . A»j
Si.mman-----.... --------------- '2 99 Mane Mason '698 Mc-X-W
SO.X* ..... . 13 98 a* Ha* ________ 1690 M«ac Jonraon 1208
Moonaafsar 1690 Mu*oa»i* van ia _ ---- 16 99 Mami Man aoars '6
88 Mihtrie. 1600 NV-OM.sr-or . _______________13 98 Naa
Zaaano Siory _ . -'8 98 Nor* and SoMh _'388 Navxonancar . 16 88
Navanrwc .. 1389 Opa'aor cwboa _ 188 &a-iai
. 13 98 Oaia gN ---------1380 Oo7 ...... . 1380 OUT-n
Ev-opa - 1089 Pspartw, ---------------12 89 °r®al
Maio_________________ 6 88 F-pscaOuesi I . 1689 Pooa 3 8ac*arca
------ . 1609 P«XMKxa --... .... 698 Populous Dau DaM 988
Powennme . 6 99 P*aoow* M« Cconw*»on ------ ' 6 89 P-enw
Coaaon Co pfirxjr -------• 9 99 Persons) Kmgrsma-a " " .'9 89
P-sOaior . _____ 1698 Paya* Marage* -------- '2 88
P4?------------ __ _"1388 PoaarOW ... . .1690 Paseng SNX
.... '« 90 denary 1680 p»sc S'JHOt, . i 90
Quartz ______________________________________15.99 Quarter Back
_____________________________________13.99 Quest for Time
Bird------------------------------19.99 Red
Heat .16.99
• sa eoude------- _ " 99 Rxa Danparaua -------1690
- ----1690 Rooai Ranger------------1998 fVjfi t GsLntai--1689
RVF Honoe------1689 Reo Slorm R»rg_________16 88 -- 1388 Raa
_________13 99 Ra*y Crosa------ *288 Rof»ancRo _____ 398
SfcLCX---------10 08 SO« __ 1398 SoacaSa.ag
_________________13 88 Stryx________________________________
13.89 S-.noer ..... 1690 Slawor- ----*___13.90 Snuee«
--------- . 1300 Soaca Aga ... 2990 Smce Ouaai ir __ ... 19 90
Spaadba* _ 690 Sieve 0»At Snooaa- -289 S TOS___________ ~ _
• , • : S Ofy Sc'a» 3fC©nv*®*x ---- '288 Stus Car ..
13 88 8-1061 1388 tpraai a*M«Q Man .
13 98 8oo* 1200 Sa 0rd0» Tarugm . 690 S TCfWaoa 1390
Surwars Co-r W»n 1690 Sntfiepu*Cala ...... 338 S**' Scn-oe
Sruuj ...... 398 t* 6 98 S c-aac i989 Sieaoang Gods ..a ..
699 Soa*2000 -------- 299
- -------- 389 ___ 389 Sormorp _____ .. _ . Sh«o*«i ot '•« Beasi
8»Om_________ SiMT Outer Sjoar .sagj* Sorxe*-- SuparCat .. -
_____ SnCry--------- Sad ancGraa«s a 6a n Gaiee oi .arrpaa __
Sia Comnanc ---- 3-rvtvor------------- SieAa- O.sade T ad ¦
(Conpdason) Tas- Onve i . _ .... TV Soots Footftai 'r «) Pu-sua
;F»v8, Eoao : eC,oas .... o Baoe 'w___________ TM Pwnun
:Co pWion) .
Tarrys Big Affvat.ra _ . .
TrMt.. . . _ ------- TracaATUC*...... TutmO.«jn .
UfimraGo* ------ Lfjmre Dans ----------- I nverse II '-mpvcnjeies UM8I 24 98 ____-388 699 1688 _________ 3 88 ____ . 19 98
- --------1388 169 9 89 1398 24 89 . 689 6 99 '999
• 689
• 298 , 699 . 389 '298 . 598 1288 , 1388 . 698 , 1689 . 1698
1398 12 89 , i6 38 1399 689 389 Jwi w . V04NI .
ver-eraio war p Mo«je Ean* w«a*oo _ w F C la Mara w«p
---------- 'Adersi npttarx.) .
Xenon i .jmzn.'
• 398
• 698
AND PACKING FREE IN UK. OVERSEASf 1.50 per item. Sub|cct to
availability and price change without notice.
Not all lilies released at time ol qomq to press. Shop prices may vary, but personal callers can claim advertised discounts on production of cut-off slip.
TITLE COMP COST Name .... Address . Tel No ... Have you ordered from us before YesD NoD AMC February TOTAL COST £ PUBLIC DOMAIN LIBRARIES All supply the same disks - don't they?
SOFTViLLE COLLECTION We have collected the best from around the world and compiled them into our own collection, so good other libraries sell them as~is! Now over 400 disks - select from the BEST!
A NEW FORCE ON THE AMIGA - UGA Available exclusively from SOFTVLLE Below is a small selection USONl- U SmUincJulin,DUELUNG,ELECTS 1CDKF M. WOJ d U»DESPJII USON2- SsooU«»(ifacludvi NEVEI ENtXNCSTCeV;RCeOa»FEEI.TllEinT1IM USUDI- 16 rnocthr hifh-m picture* arungni in a d idea how. Greet tuna pbyi tkng m they ihcrel USLJD4- Skkahow from The Deifc Lori', one of Eun*** leading fhntaiy artirt. Brill Ure US U 1)5- fhbulcu* ilkVa how oI 'Deatinalicn dodlendi' ptaurea * grrel tune pUyi alongt UMUS3 - 10 great tunaa include* SUBURBIA, GAME OVER, FUTURE TRIE POWERFUL tip muikdana wrote thcec far thia
diak, f peal aonp.
UMUS12- Taitura minor aoundiak', I great tunaa included, great graphka. To amaia y*i UINT4 - | great dema'i incluVa TEARDROPS, ANCGTTl IER, MEGA PICTURE at ale.
U INTI I- 6 great damo'i inchak* ROGER RABBfT, OVERLOAD ADD DGMQ COCL UANLM2- 2 animation, STAMP and UGA logaTVotf the very beat jouU eee cei ya*r Amiga.
UAN1MS- J animation*. HAPPY GUY, WINDOW and FIS MIRRCR - incredOU USPEC1- ZOUNDMCNITCRpluj others,now writoyairown great eongi far yourdamo'd USPEQO T1 IE MUSIC CCMPOSER ptuj convertor* ale. Plua thwa Thunderbiida derm USPECU-GAME MUSIC CREATOR phi* dim, brilliant program and utilitke.
Fvcr wondered where to get those really unusual utilities from?
UOT1U-BOOTEM. DBWIZARIX MASTEHZ ICON LAB, SNIP-TO BACKGR.MUSC. CRUNCHER. SHOWFONTS, BOOICONTROL BOOTUNE. BOBEDfTOK ak it UUT1L4-MO DULE PLAYER. GRAND BOOT MOUSEBACK. BOOTCOPY. BROWSER.
POINTER ANIMATOR. FIND RLE. DE-ICONISER. MAKEPIAY. MAKECOPY «k UUT1L7-PLST CREATOR. BOOTLEG. BOOTUP. GET FAST. BOUNCEPIC. BOOTLOADER.
SCROLLMAKEK BOOTCOKTROL SOPERV1EW VIRUS HU NT. PRESET ED etc. YOU COLLECT DEMO'S DO YOU?
DEXTSTAR MEGADEMO - Simply the BEST - 2disks - £5 The WALKER demo, brilliant animal ion - lmeg version The WALKER2 demo, the legend continues - lmeg version.
NORTH STAR FAIRLKj ITT Megademo3 - 2disks - £5 ROTO-COP demo, sampled from the smash hit movie!
MUSIC MODULES for use with GHOSTWRITER (Uspec4) PHALANX BEATBOX - Loads of 1MJarre type songs!
PHOENIX MEGADEMO 1 - One of the best demo compilations get this for your collection now!
SARGON MEGADEMO - Fabulous loading screen, love ill ALCATRAZ MEGADEM03 - Brilliant selection I MAHONEY KAKTUS music demo disk with over 40! Songs MADE IN HEAVEN from KYL1E MINOGUE - Very good sample and very popular now - 2diski - £5 GOLDISK (EMI of Ivory) more great music how do they do it?
QUADLITE MEGADEMO JUKEBOX 64, very differenU VISION MEGADEMO, some more brilliant graphics music on this, their latest demo disk.
IT y ALKMAN MUSIC DISK, one of the very latest, and one of the very best around.
PLUS we have the largest collection of FRED FISH disks in the country, the latest sent to us monthly from the man himself. WE ALSO STOCK The F.AU.G, SLIPPED DISK, PANORAMA, A.R DC collections and a selection from the AMICUS collection, t, if you want CHOICE and SERVICE, come to ViLLE, BRITAINS NO.l DISTRIBUTER If you want to know more about the BEST Send S.A.E. (28p stamp) and state AMIGA for your FREE 80 page catalogue SOFTViLLE Unit 5, Stratfield Park, Elettra Ave, Waterlooville, Hants P07 7XN. 24hr Orderline on ___ 0705 266509 wsT Fax 0705 251884_ 2 Williams Clowes Street Burslem Stoke on
Trent ST6 3AP Tel: 0782 575043 COME TO THE PROFESSIONALS!!!!
13. 99
13. 99
15. 99
14. 99 7 99
12. 99
12. 99
12. 99
15. 99
4. 99
16. 95
16. 95 16 95
9. 99
15. 95
15. 99
13. 95
13. 95
- ...14.99
15. 95
15. 95
15. 95
24. 95
29. 95
15. 95
15. 95 15 99
14. 95
13. 95 1696 1596 15% 26% 5% 999 15 99
27. 95
23. 95
12. 95 .15.95 .15.95 ..15.95 ...9.99 ..13.95
9. 99
4. 99
4. 99
9. 99
7. 99
7. 99
7. 99
7. 99
2. 99
4. 99
5. 99
15. 95
5. 99
6. 99
6. 99
9. 99
5. 99
3. 99
4. 99
5. 99
6. 99
6. 99
5. 99
6. 99
- ....7.99
19. 99
5. 99
3. 99
3. 99
9. 99
9. 99 ....4.99
4. 99
6. 99
16. 99
14. 99
13. 99 AMIGA SPECIAL OFFERS Street
Fighter .5.99 Roan
Blasters 5.99 Drum
Studio ...4.99 Joe
Blade ..4.99 Joe
Blade 2 ...4.99 Into
Eagles Nest ..4.99 War
Machine .- .... .4.99 Hollywood
Poker 4.99 Karting Grand Prix
3.99 Ice Hockey .. 3.99 Grid
Destroyer-----------------------------------------9.99 Sub
Battle Sim_________________________________9.99
Nebulous .5.99
CusloOian ..5.99
Netber World *------------ 5.99 Turbo Cup (*
car) 7.99 Fight Path 737
Jinxter .. 9.99 Corruption .
9.99 LED Storm ... 5.99 Strip
Poker 2 ..5.99 Rocket
Ranger------------------------------ 9.99
Flintstones .....4.99
Pacland----------------------------------------------6.99 IK*
Type ......8.99
Afterburner ...8.99 Melenium
2.2 ...9.99
Elite .....9.99
Roger Rabbit ....- ..7.99 Saint and Greavsey
__________ .6.99 Peter Beardsley
Soccer----------------------6.99 Time Scanner _________ 7.99
Fire Power.. ..... 4.99 Space Quest
Leather Goddess
Phantam Fighter .. Police
Outrun ... World Class
leaderboard..... Soldier of Light ... Alien
Syndrome ... Hellfire Attack .....
Star Goose ...
Wicked .. Dungeon Master
(1Meg) Fernandez Must Die Blasteroids
... Phobia Football
Manager 2 . FM2 Epansion Kit ...
Warlocks Quest .. Gold Runner .....
Gold Runner 2 ... Leather
Necks ..... Running
Man ...... Jug
. 3 Stooges - .....
Bards Tale ... Space Quest
3 .... Dominator ..
Phantasm ..... Hyper Dome
Manhunter in NY Gold
Rush .. Pioneer
Plague ... Foundations Waste .
Portal F29
Retaliator ..... Xenon 2
Player Manager
Dogs of War ...
Commando ...... On
Slaught ...... Double Dragon
2 . Postman Pat .... Fun School
2 Under 6 Fun School 2 6-8 . Fun School 2
8-12 ...... Blood money - .
Robbeary .. Indy Jones Last
Crusade... Ferrari Formula One ....
Cabal . Take Em
Out .... Super Wonderboy ......
Interphase Fallen
Angel ..... Forgotten Worlds ......
Lombard Rally . Microprose Soccer ....
North and South .. Days of the Pharaoh ...
Beast (Shadow of) ...... Space
Ace . Hard Drivin _______________
Chase HQ .. Chambers of
Shaolin .. Toobin . Continental
Circus ...... somber Var«hesier jn ten Renting Socca*
Sm Cny-------- Str 39- Vig*a*t8 Grand Pnx Master ......
Stella Crusade .. Star
Command Turbo ... Hound ol
Shadow .....16.95
Paperboy .13.99
Grand Prix Circuit .....16.99 Ivon
Hoe ..16.99 Light
Force ....16.99
Ghostbusters 2 ..16 99 The
Untouchables .....16.99 Blood wych
..15.99 Beach
Volly ....16.99 Batman the
Movie ....16.99 GamyF&T* 6 99
* aiy Cess Chai U99 fa co* 1899 Fgicon Mfssio* Jiscs 13% »00uCwS
16% 5ocu -s Scene«v Ost 7% Dragon Sprit 13% B-Cb e 8cb:«e 7
15% Rcboccp 6% %*%2aaancSm 15% Stunt Car-lace* 15% rtondB Wt
15 95 Fi6 Conv:at 15% Strke Fcrce *ta*ner 99 Proprietor* fA
*1* RA Beech We otter a last reliable service deque's P.O.'s
to: CASTLE SOFTWARE Any games not listed phone our Hotline now
on 0782 575043 Please stale Amiga when ordering. AH orders
Turbo Outrun... Tusker .. Myth .. Space
Quest 2 .
Lancaster.. CALL US FOR YOUR BEST POSSIBLE PRICE COMPUTERS MANNESMANN TALLY LASER 6 ppm, 5,000 pages per month MT905 300,000 page engine life £950 Hewlett Packard Laserjet Series li emulation INCLUDES ON SITE MAINTENANCE AMIGA 500 i AMIGA 500 From £259 AMIGA 500 BAT PACK WITH DPAINT II, BATMAN THE MOVIE, F18 INTERCEPTOR, NEW ZEALAND STORY TV MOD.
£315 A500 * TV MODULATOR * RETURN OF THE JEDI - CUSTODIAN - MERCENARY - WARLOCKS QUEST - ZYNAPPS - HELLBENT POWERPLAY- ELIMINATOR- 23 PUBLIC DOMAIN GAMES £315 PHILIPS 8833 MONITOR £189 COMMODORE 1081 MONITOR £165 COMMODORE 1084s MONITOR £199 RAM EXPANSION £99 SECOND DRIVE £75 ATARI ST ATAR11 MB EXPLORER PACK £220 ATAR11 MB + SM124 MONITOR £320 SUPER PACK 21 GAMES + ORGANISER SOFTWARE DATABASE SPREADSHEETWP £290 TEL* 0202 * 715989 CALL IN TO OUR EXTENSIVE SHOWROOM IN POOLE, DORSET SHOWROOM OPEN MONDAYS TO SATURDAYS 9.30 to 6pm WE STOCK A FULL RANGE OF AMIGA SOFTWARE COMMODORE Pcs MONO COLOUR
HPLASERJETII £1,270.00 MY905 £950.00 INKJET CAN ON BJ130 INK JET PRINTER £575.00 All accessories low low prices Full software list inc: All Epson Printers AIIBrother Printers All NEC Printers AIIToshiba Printers Lasers HP Roland Calcomp Plotters Minimum All Hewlett Packard Lasers All Amstrad Printers LOTUS Wordstar Ventura ASHTON TATE WordPerfect Ability DIGITAL (GEM) SACE Clipper Multimate MICROSOFT Smart Supercalc ALL PRICES EXCLUDE VAT 406 ashley road, parkstone, poole, COURIER DELIVERY £5 dorset telex 41445 jeme g MUSIC on the Amiga comes of age with Music-X from Microlllusions. Instead of
an average- to-good sequencing package, we are treated to a superlative sequencer, plus a whole host of utilities which integrate perfectly to provide a complete music editing workstation.
Music-X makes full use of the Amiga's multi-tasking environment to provide four packages in one - a Sequencer, a Midi Filter, a Sampler Playback and Editing system plus a Patch Editor and Librarian.
The Sequencer mimics a cassette recorder, using conventional Play, Fast-Forward, Rewind and Record controls. Assuming you have a Midi interface and keyboard connected, to begin recording you just hit Record and start playing - a metronome signal can be routed through the Amiga's sound channels to keep you in time.
There's no need to fret if you don't have any music hardware - you can use the internal Amiga sound channels.
Musica ex machina So you wanna be a rock star? John Kennedy investigates the package that is leading the Amiga Midi revolution Once you have finished laying down your first track you can slip into the editor page to correct any errors that may have crept in. Here you have a choice - the Bar Editor or the Event Editor.
The former is a graphical masterpiece that displays all the Midi information, not just notes, in a colour-coded grid form. A musical keyboard up the left hand side of the screen shows which note is which and the horizontal axis is labelled in time units.
The whole screen scrolls from right to left displaying the next section under scrutiny. Altering a note is a move-the-mouse-and-click affair, cutting and pasting large sections is just as simple. From this editor, transposing notes and altering individual Midi channels can be easily done.
The quantise module is also accessible from here, although it operates in a slightly different way from lhal on other sequencers. A quantiser will tidy up any slight variations in timing and duration that you may have inadvertently introduced while entering your tune.
The Music-X quantiser operates on notes that have already been stored in memory, instead of the more usual quantise-while-you-play system used on other packages. The Music-X system is better because it allows little variations to be introduced to stop the music sounding totally on time, hence losing all vestiges of sounding human.
The Event Editor differs from the Bar Editor in that it displays the recorded sequence in memory as a long list of Midi information, or events. As a result it looks very complicated, but is perfect for correcting mistooks with absolute accuracy.
As well as being able to map any output channel on to any other from the Sequencer screen, Music-X allows complete redefinition of incoming Midi signals.
Producing keyboard splits whereby different parts of the keyboard can send information on different Midi channels is only the start. All Midi Yesterday MIDI, or Musical Instrument Digital Interface, is one of the greatest success stories of modern electronics. Back in the old days, some manufacturers realised that a standard protocol for inter-connecting musical instruments was needed to replace the rather haphazard "CV and Gate" analogue system they were using.
After lots of meetings and expensive lunches, the Midi standard was finally decided upon. Soon all the new keyboards and electronic drum kits started having funny little 5-pin DIN sockets on the back.
The Midi interface was a true digital system - a fast serial interface like the RS232 we all know and love. And it was going to change modern music dramatically.
Midi could send details of notes to be played, their volumes, which voices to use and, in fact, anything that could be represented digitally.
Since all the new synthesisers were digital by design, this meant nearly everything that could be played by hand could be represented by a string events can be split between channels, allowing almost total control of a music system from a single keyboard.
This provides even the simplest Midi keyboard with capabilities usually only found on considerably more expensive models.
A total of 16 IFF or Sonix samples can be loaded and re-tuned from the sample Playback screen. Their volume envelopes can also be edited using a of serial data.
The similarity between Midi and a normal computer serial interface was soon exploited by computer enthusiasts in a way in which the early Midi designers had not even dreamed of.
Now that computers can generate and control Midi signals the pop charts will never be the same again.
Cute graphical system. The sound channels of the Amiga will provide up to four different sounds at once, although the sample to be played can be changed between the 16 in memory at any time.
The use of internal samples means that it is possible for the user with no external hardware to compose and play tunes, although the range of We can work it out Hello, goodbye THERE are three types of Midi socket
- the IN. The OUT and the THRU. The IN receives incoming Midi
signals, the OUT sends them out and the THRU echoes any
incoming signals received at the IN socket.
Thus a keyboard needs at least an OUT socket and a sound module needs an IN socket. In practice most equipment has at least one of each to allow information to be passed both ways.
If you have a large number of keyboards, modules and drum machines you can arrange them daisychain fashion, where the IN of one unit is connected to the OUT of the other, and so on until the ring is complete. This tends to be frowned upon because each link in the chain delays the signals a little.
Alternatively you could drive each unit with a direct IN OUT signal and use the THRU to carry the signal to units such as Drum machines which don't need to send anv information back.
MIDI works by assigning each instrument a channel number between 0 and 15 - or sometimes 1 and 16 - rather like an address in computer memory terms. When the instrument recognises its ciannel request it pays special attention and gets ready to play a note or do whatever the Midi signal asks.
Sometimes a synthesiser can respond to more than one channel at once, allowing it to play several tracks totally independently using different voices.
N pi iz rs 3* CC sample least, s IFF sta sounds you to All [ hold si fine ur keybot store v The downl disc ai is not!
From v Fror possib of a Ps create: differt each k REVIEW ¦ ?
Sampled sounds supplied is, to say Ihe leasl. Small. Of course, the wonderful IFF standard means that lots of PD sounds are out there just waiting for you to use them.
All programmable synthesisers can hold several voicos internally. This is fine until the batteries run out on the keyboard or you run out of room to store your latest sound-patch.
The Librarian page allows you to download all the voice data, save it on disc and re-load it at a later date. This is nothing new. But being able to do it from within a sequencer package is a large step forward.
From this part of Music-X is also possible to edit the sounds by means of a Patch Editor. As each synthesiser creates and stores its sounds differently, supplying an editor for each keyboard is impossible.
Editors for specific machines will be available in the future at ridiculously low prices, but in the meantime a horrible hex dump is available for you to experiment with.
Midi timing can be internal, external or taken from the television and cinema industry standard SMPTE signal by moans of some optional hardware. The internal clock is the system most users will use. With a resolution of 1 192, or a quarter note, it's unlikely that a more accurate clock will be needed.
Documentation takes the form of a well written 480-page epic which takes you by the hand through all the facilities and yet works well as a reference guide.
A utilities disc is provided to help install Music- X on your hard drive, should you be lucky enough to own one. Also on this disc are programs to convert Music-X files to a standard Midi file format and to convert Smus files to Music-X format. All that is missing is a stand-alone program to play Midi files.
Add-on modules are promised which will extend yet further Music- X's many capabilities. One of the first available should a proper music printing module to provide a top rate hardcopy of your carefully edited music. What about a module to add an automatic Stock-Aitken- Waterman facility? Should only take about 5k... With so many facilities available from within the one program. Midi musicians have never had it so good.
The use of the Amiga sound channels means that even if you don't have any Midi hardware you will still be able to produce music of superb quality.
Music-X is the ultimate sound package. If you are in the least bit interested in music on the Amiga, you must buy it.
With a little help from my friends ONCE you get bored with the samples supplied with Music-X, or want to expand on the number of sounds you can play at once, you will need to acquire some extra musical hardware.
First you will need a Midi interface
- Music-X does not come with one.
Interfaces are available from many sources for around £30.
All these interfaces are practically identical, they only provide a connection between the Midi signals and the Amiga's serial port by means of an Opto-isolator. Get the cheapest one you can. Or if you are feeling adventurous, build your own.
If you buy, make sure the one you choose has at least one Midi IN, one Midi THRU and as many Midi OUTs as possible.
Mine is a DIY job that cost less than a tenner to build and sports an IN, a THRU and three OUTs.
There is now a whole range of Midi instruments available starting from about £100. The now classic Casio CZ101 can be picked up for between £100-£200 secondhand. It has four or eight channels of sound, which you can edit freely to produce all sorts of weird effects. The CZ1000 is identical except it has a full-size keyboard instead of the little fiddly one on the
There are also lots of small keyboards available in the £100-£300 range that offer a collection of pre-set sounds and a built- in drum kit.
Some of these keyboards sound very nice and may provide a good starting point for your introduction to Midi.
Have a play with them next time you aro in Boots and see what you think.
Never worry if you can't play a tune with Music-X you will be able to edit the notes with the mouse until you got it right.
For those more used to wind instruments, you can get a Midi saxaphone from Casio. Casio even produces a Midi guitar, so the old excuse that goes "But 1 can't play a keyboard" doesn't wash any more.
TOP HEADING ¦ Come together WHEN the Midi standard took off.
Sequencers to exploit it were soon available. A sequencer stores notes and drum patterns, not as sound but as the Midi signals needed to trigger them. Once the Midi signals are stored in memory they can be manipulated in all sorts of ways.
Early sequencers were small boxes that consisted of little more than record and playback buttons. With the introduction of computers it is now possible to store, display and edit the individual Midi signals using the sort of Cut and Paste techniques used in word processing or graphics packages.
- Getting better REPORT CARD Let it be AFTER using a small
keyboard you may get bitten by the bug and want to upgrade to a
slightly more sophisticated system. Since with a Midi system
you really only need one keyboard - the "mother" keyboard - why
waste money on buying another synthesiser?
Using this line of thinking, manufacturers have started to release modules which contain nothing more than some sound electronics, some Midi IN OUT signals and a multi-channel audio signal to connect to your tape recorder or amplifier.
One of the cheapest is the now Cheetah system called the MS800. It retails at around £200. The one I heard at the PC Show last October certainly gave a sound that I would like to experiment with.
Cheetah also produces various other modules and drum machines, as well as a complete range of mother THE ST used to be Ihe computer to interface with Midi equipment, thanks to its Midi IN and OUT sockets. This was rather a good marketing ploy by Atari, but the tables are turning.
Anyone using Midi at all seriously will need a Midi THRU and more than ono Midi OUT. Making an external interface on an ST just as necessary as on the Amiga.
The Amiga starts to score heavily with its built-in sound capability. It has a sampler system as an integral part of its design - no uprated Spectrum chips here. This means you have an extra four channels of sound straight away.
Where the Amiga wins hands down is with its multi-tasking operating system. Flipping from one utility to another is child's play and totally impossible on a lesser machine.
With Music-X and a Midi interface, the Amiga can now be the heart of the Music-X Microlllusions 0480 496497 RRP £199»vat. But shop around, we've seen it on offer at £20 less than that, inc. vat.
EASE OF USE... Using idi sequencers will never he simple, bul Music-x is Ihe best yel.
More sinc'ing options than a submarine. Nothing takes any time to do.
VALUE.. Nothing comes close at this price point on any machine.
OVKRALL In a class of its own. All things come to he who waits. Music-X was worth waiting for.
You can bring THE LIVING to your Amiga screen ANIMATION The series that brings you action-art of real living things orses Horses HoW .
Requires Amiga (1 Megabyte minimum) & DeLuxe Paint £24.95 inc VAT from your dealer 0703 703030 Produced by RGB STUDIOS • Distributed by DIGIPRO LTD Killer V 'K Max the Hax presents the collected wisdom of the greatest games players on earth - all of them Amiga Computing readers Name Reward Offence Resistance Freddy Freak SI.000 Selling drugs 2 Candy Goodbody $ 2,000 Hooking 3 Bemie Gasman S3.000 Arson 4 Resistance of each target The NEIL MANSELL says: To avoid demerits keep your finger on the siren, this has the added advantage of getting other cars out of the way. Go straight to the station if
you catch the criminal.
You don't have to worry about your quota.
Never miss the opportunity to enter either the car or donut shop. Don't, however, get gas unless you need it because it slows you down. Hitting a sign or building results in a demerit.
Opponent Sirens Litterbugs 1 Helps 1 Hitchers 1 Honkers 2 Doper 3 Drunks 3 Table showing how many times you have to hit a car with your siren on will to win RICHARD HADDEN says: If you get a high score type ZBACKDOOR with no spaces instead of your name into the high score table. You will start the next game with infinite lives and energy.
¦ HINTS ¦ RICHARD HEATH says: This, like Impact, was written by an errant Monty Python Fan. There is a lot of it about. Pause the game and type SP1NYNORMAN.
Q) Hm C o 'Sc 2 This will give you infinite lives, but get
comfortable first because it will still take you about three
quarters of an hour to finish the game.
Cave Runner Fernandez must die MATT BURT says: Here's one for Cave Runner which was on the Amiga Computing Cover disc last November. Get to level two, which is easy enough, then type SUB B BOYS including the spaces. The screen will flash blue then FI gives nine lives, F2 sets the timer to 99 - useful for level D and F3 exits the current level and starts the next.
RICHARD HEATH says: It's simple, just get on to the high score table and type Green Crystal. Press FI a few times to keep your lives topped up.
If you can't be bothered to go through the long, slow-moving levels press F8 to skip them one by one.
Write to Max GAME KILLER is always on the lookout for hot tips, so if you have found a cheat mode, bug or written a poke then drop it in the post - on disc if it is a long listing. If your work is used I'll send you a game draw at random from the goodie box and a Konix joystick.
To speed up getting the prize to you please cut out, photocopy or copy this form. It will be used as the address label to send out your parcel so please write neatly. May all your bugs be simple ones.
R have supplied tips pokes cheals for Name...... Address.. I confirm that the information I have supplied is mine, it hasn't been published elsewhere and I haven't sent it to anyone else.
Send this form to Max "The Hacks " Tennant, Game Killer, Amiga Computing, Second Floor. North House, 78-84 Ongar Road. Brentwood. Essex, CMIS BBC.
Signature.. Date ... PPuMstag Mentations UP YEARBOOK The Desktop Publishing Yearbook 1990 is an invaluable buyer's guide containing Ihe most detailed survey available of hardware, software and services in the electronic publishing field. And there are dearly-written •how-to" articles for both the newcomer to Desktop Publishing and the experienced user.
Articles cover software, laser and other electronic printers, matrix printers, digitisers and scanners, training and forms creation, bureau services, word processors, and many other key topics including the emerging desktop presentations technology.
Whether you're a beginner or professional and would like to find out more about the exciting possibilities ol DTP, then this book has all the information you need. Send for your copy today 1990 Yearbook now available Save over £5 on RRP Our price including UK postage £14.95 Learning has never been such fun!
Fun School 2 has been a tremendous success with more than 60.000 copies sold to date - even reaching Number 3 in the Gallup full-price software chart!
Each pack contains rigft colourful and exciting programs designed by a team of educationalists, a colourful button badge and detailed instructions giving educational help.
The computer itself monitors the child's progress. The skill level - initially set by you - is automatically adjusted to suit your child's ability.
Now children can enjoy using your computer while they learn at their own pace.
Give your children an unfairadvantage with Fun School 2!
"The number one choice in our school"
- The Micro User "Fantastic!"
- New Atari User "It is fun, and your child will almost certainly
learn too."
- Amstrad Action "Full marks to Database'
- Amstrad User On sale at top dealers nationwide a nd selected
branches of WH Smith and Boots subject to availability Order by
telephone on 051-357 2961, or send your name, address, postcode
and product code number together with a cheque payable to
Database Software or your Access Visa number and its expiry
date. Postage free in the UK. Add £2 per program for Europe &
Eire (£5 Overseas).
Send to: Prices from £9.95 Database Direct. FREEPOST. Pmesmerr Port, South Wrral L65 3EB.
Format Under 6s 6-8 ears 0»ei 8s Tope Disc lope Oise lope Disc Spectrum 9094 9095 9096 9097 9098 9099 Commodcce 64 9064 9065 9066 9067 9068 9069 Amstrad CPC 9179 9I80 9181 9182 9183 9184 BBC Wiao Electton 2239 2242 2245 BBC B. ftostet 40 Track 2240 2243 2249 BBC Bi Mostec 80 track 2241 2244 2250 Atari SI 9192 9193 9194 AMIGA 9842 9843 9844 PC 5.25' 5764 5765 5766 PC 3.5' 5767 5768 5769 Atthmedes 2900 2901 290 2 Sbit formats: £9.95 tcassette) £12.95 (disc) 16 52-bit formats (ST, Amiga. PC, Archimedes): £19.95 Please quote the product code number (as shown abate) when you order.
To order please use the form on Page 113 DATABASE EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE Vmv Products A host of new features in Version 1.05 HiSoft BASIC on Ihe Amiga has already proved its worth tor thousands of people because ot its speed, its compatibility with AmigaBASIC and QuickBASIC on the PC and its ease of use. Now we've added features that make HiSoft BASIC irresistible. Version 1.05 gives you:
• Even more compatibility with AmigaBASIC making it simplicity
itself to compile all your existing programs into super-fast,
stand-alone machine code.
• Linking with assembler and C programs. Now you can use external
functions and sub-programs from either assembly-language or C
programs, giving BASIC a power you will find hard to believe.
• Extended editor for 1M users with automatic upper-casing of
BASIC reserved words as you type them in, making for clear,
easy-tounderstand program listings.
Remember that HiSoft BASIC is not just an incredibly fast compiler producing compact, very fast machine code but it is a complete programming environment - you create and edit your programs |ust like you do with an interpreter but then, when you run your program, it is automatically compiled to give the best of all worlds One package, one price. HiSoft BASIC 1.05 still costs only £79.95 inclusive. Upgrades are available to existing registered users at £5.
Invaluable libraries for HiSoft BASIC •o 8 The Extend package is available at lastl The Amiga is a difficult computer to program and AmigaBASIC offers little help in using the gadgets, menus and requesters that the operating system supports. Extend gives you an extensive library of sub-programs and functions that is available from both AmigaBASIC and HiSoft BASIC to fill these gaps.
* W Extend allows full control over the system gadgets, menus and
sub-menus, requesters, windows, IFF-tormat files and much more.
It comes complete with over 50 pages of documentation packed
with clear examples of the usage of the library and. Of course,
the library itself (and examples) on disk. All for £19.95
Now you can extend the power of your Amiga's BASIC with this great new package.
Also available for the Amiga are: HiSofl Devpac version 2 (£59.951, the most complete and reliable system for assembly language programming on the Amiga and it works on all Amigas (unlike some other assemblers wo could argue about! I; Lattice C 5.04 (£229), the ultimate C package - very fast with everything you need including a global optimiser and extensive. 2-volume documentation.
HiSoft High Quality Software All software should be available from your local dealer. In case of difficulty, you can order directly from HiSoft by phone, using your Access or Visa card or by mail, using Access. Visa, a cheque or postal orders. Our prices include VAT and shipping within the UK.
HiSoft, The Old School, Greenfield. Bedford MK45 5DE.
Tel: (0525) 718181, Fax: (Q525) 713716 Joloyon Ralph, hacker extraordinaire, adjudicates in a battle between a young upstart and an established friend UNTIL recently there has only been one assembler worth using on the Amiga - HiSoft Devpac.
There have been other assemblers.
Argasm The Metacomco one is now out of date and terribly slow and difficult to use and Kuma's K-Seka, favourite of the European demo writers, is more of a monitor with a little assembler thrown in. Now there is a new challenger: ArgAsm from Argonaut Software.
I've never thought that assemblers are slow. Indeed the reason I started programming in assembler in the first place was because after a couple of weeks of coding in C I got bored of waiting for compilers and linkers and all the other disc-spinning, time- wasting progletts to finish, only to tell me I'd left off a squiggly bracket from the end of line six.
What I needed was a language where 1 could make changes to my program and see the results almost instantly. 1 was, of course, used to Basic, where all one has to do is type DEVPAC V2.14 consists of a blue and white plastic ring- binder containing a 154 page manual, the two unprotected program discs and a pocket 68000 reference guide.
Initially 1 thought this 68000 guide was a cheap gimmick, but looking through it I found that it contains all the useful pages from the Motorola 68000 programmers reference manual, a book I needn't have bought now. It won't teach you machine code, but it's an invaluable guide for any programmer.
The Devpac manual is comprehensive, covering setting up your system to run the assembler, an introduction to the editor, assembler and debugger, plus a good set of appendices covering everything from AmigaDos error codes to a bibliography. It is well presented and easy to follow.
Devpac HiSoft 0525 718181 £59.95 EASE OF USE.... The first program disc is a slightly cut-down workbench, containing the assembler, debugger and editor, all in the C directory, along with the include files and some example programs.
The examples are fairly simple and unimaginitive, but are a good introduction to using the Devpac assembler and editor.
The second disc contains various alternative include files and the Arp includes (Amigados Replacement Project), allowing you to use Arp requesters in your programs. Most of the time you will only need the first disc, leaving your external drive free for your source disc.
SPEED ...... Fast enough for most. Experienced coders may have to twiddle their thumbs or juggle for a few moments.
VALUE ...... The excellent manual. 68000 pocket book and powerful monitor debugger make this the best value Amiga assembler on the market.
OVIMALL There is always room for improvement.
A faster upgrade is promised. But probably won't reach Argasm's speed.
Devpac directly to memory instead of only Io a disc file, which means you can assemble code and test it without having to leave the editor.
In the program and run the thing.
Devpac did the business. I typed in my code, assembled it, and it was there, ready to run, in about 30 seconds.
HiSoft has since released an upgrade. Devpac 2. This is faster and has more options than the version 1 first used. It can now assemble Jez San of Argonaut Software was one of Devpac's greatest fans. He used it to write, among other things, the ST and Amiga versions of Stargliders 1 and 2. But Devpac was not fast enough for Jez, so he wrote his own assembler called ArgAsm 68000. It claims to be the fastest Amiga assembler, being able to assemble your code before you've even finished typing it. Well, almost.
Since ArgAsm is designed to outperform Devpac it is not surprising that it is compatible with the Hisoft assembler, even down to understanding Devpac's ST directives.
What is surprising is that it is also compatible with Metacomco and Cape assemblers.
Total compatibility with three things which are not compatible with each other is. Of course, impossible.
Common sense is the usual solution to this problem. And this means Argasm does not suffer some of Devpac and ARGASM 68000 comes in a yellow and black plastic ring- binder. The manual is shorter than the Devpac one at 69 pages - not always a bad thing, but this time it is. It doesn't go into nearly as much detail as the Devpac manual and gives me the impression that it was written in a hurry.
Fast and furious ArgAsm 68000 Argonaut 01-906 3744 EASE OF USE.... Newcomers to assembler may have trouble because of lack of a good monitor debugger.
I Not only is it short, but it seems to miss out several features of the assembler all together - the Assemble to Binary File function, for example.
Hopefully a future release of the software will contain a completely new one.
The program comes on two unprotected discs. The first contains the assembler. Arg, and the editor, ArgEd. You do not gel a debugger with ArgAsm. The manual recommends the best debugger to use is Monam2. The one supplied with HiSoft's Devpac 2.
As this is not available separately from Devpac. You would have to buy both assembler packages to use ArgAsm with its recommended monitor.
The first ArgAsm disc boots up into an Amiga shell, better than Devpac which drops you out into a CLI.
The second disc contains the include files and some example source files, which are a little more interesting than the HiSofl offerings.
Putting the include files on the second disc is a pain if you only have two drives, because you will presumably have to have the assembler in dfO: and the disc with the includes in dfl:, leaving no drive free to store your source files.
SPEED Can't be beaten for speed. Assembling is exceptionally quick. This is the reason the program was written.
No monitor debugger means you 'II have to shell out again, even if it's only for a shareware one. HiSoft will sell you Monam for£39.95. OVERALL ArgAsm has been designed to beat Devpac. With the time and effort Argonaut has put in it would have been surprising if it had failed.
¦ REVIEW ¦ THIR Amiga A5C Basic, Tub Amiga Asd Amiga A5 BE XetacHi tor toe A; JVS32S 45 Meg.
65 Meg.
85 Meg.
109 Met 251 Met 22 Meg 45 Meg 50 Meg 65 Meg 85 Meg 109 Me 251 Ml ASSEMBLE TO ARQASM vl.0 Nothing Memory DFO: RAM: MOVES.S MOVES. S MOVES.S MOVES.S Nothing Memory DFO: RAM: ZOWEE.S ZOWEE.S IOMEE.S ZOWEE.S needed 1 meg Amiga Amiga Amiga Amiga Amiga Two flies were tested. MOVES.9 consisted of 6,000 lines of the instruction MOVE.l *12345,dO. However, these sort of test files do not slways give realistic results, so the source code for the AMIGA Computing Zowee Demo was also tested. This source includes 1NCBIN files read from the hard drive in both cases.
Sari sari sari ES ProU RGB Mini PfOT Ren MIC X-S Pro MP Capo's nasty idiosyncrasies.
There is no ST version of Argasm.
Although one programmer has offered to do the conversion for free just to get the speed. This is a real bonus. It means the program has been designed without being fettered by conversion considerations, and with the Amiga in mind.
The Argonaut program has better support of the AmigaDos link file formats in that it allows expressions containing external references within brackets.
Copper instructions are built in - again the kind of feature you wouldn't expect unless the program was produced by Amigaphiles.
Commercial realities mean that programmers do have to cater for the ST, and Argasm has an option to produce raw binary files suitable for porting down.
On loading the two programs the first thing 1 noticed is that they look almost identical. They also share most of the same function and control keys, which makes converting to ArgAsm a lot easier for Devpac users like myself.
ArgAsm's editor, ArgEd, is definitely the smarter of the two. You can split the window into two separate ones, horizontally or vertically, and subdivide each of these windows into two more. I spent quite a while dividing windows up into for text handling. However, a similar speed can be approached with Devpac editor by running FastFonts (FF), which comes with Workbench 1.3. or BlitzFonts, which was on the January cover disc.
Jez doesn't like waiting, so Arg's search and replace is significantly faster, there is an expression evaluator to save digging under papers for a programmer's calculator and the save function can remember all the windows and settings so that getting going when you start up is as quick and automatic as possible.
On Devpac the sleepy bubbles pointer has been replaced by a little even smaller windows before I remembered that I was meant to be reviewing the package.
Having one window displaying the end of your source and another displaying the beginning is useful. It saves having to jump around your source code all the time. This is made especially useful by the ability to cut and paste between windows.
ArgAsm's editor is faster than the Devpac one because it uses the blitter DEVPAC v2.14 9 sec*
19. 5 secs 14 secs hourglass. Argonaut definitely has tongue in
corporate cheek with its animated equivalent.
The main selling point of ArgAsm is its speed. It claims to be five to 15 times faster than Devpac 2. As 1 never take anybody's word for anything, I did my own tests on the two assemblers.
The first thing to note about these tests is that ArgAsm has no Assemble to Memory option. In Devpac 2 you can assemble a file to memory and test it. Still within the assembler. The nearest you get to this in ArgAsm is assembling to a ram file.
If you only have a 1 meg machine you will soon find that you haven't got enough memory to assemble'. If you do have enough memory to save it to ram, you then have to switch to a shell window and run the program from there to test it.
Both of the test files I used could not assemble to a ram file on a 1 meg Amiga. Both assembled to memory easily in Devpac 2.
Because there is no Assemble to Memory option in ArgAsm. And there is not enough ram in a 1 meg Amiga to assemble anything much over 300k as source and object to a ram file, the only way to test your programs in ArgAsm on a two drive, 1 meg Amiga is to assemble to floppy. This can take longer with ArgAsm than assembling to memory on Devpac 2.
ArgAsm is fast, although 1 don't think Argonaut is being entirely reasonable about the performance Assembly Options Sc'1 ' 1*5VI, L & WAP IT W8 ;Is current screen:screen1 ;No then branch .'Display Screenl ;Insert it Into Copper ;Screen2 = Logical ;Address to Clear I ' ;bo it m HOVE,I SCREENUB ;Use screen2 ?3 Col : 1 hm: 27721 Devpac's assembly options Include Assemble to Memory Object cod* type I Case dependence Debug information Output to ran!m| Error options List options ¦¦¦¦¦ Maxiim object size $ 5536 Hacro definition size 16384 Header filename Optinise Hi IMCDIR path list Assenble options
Statistics H Cancel I Assemble v ArgAsm's Optimise function will try to speed up the execution of your code ..£449.00 f 549 00 f 699 00 f 99 00 £999 00 EXTERNAL 3.5" DISK DRIVES £7999 £33900 C490C £689 OC £•09900 THIRD COAST TECHNOLOGIES LTD Amiga A500 Basic pack (Indudes A500, TV Modulator, Workbench, Utilities. Manuals.
Basic, Tutorial ..... £369.00 Amiga A500 . Batpack_______________________________ £369.00 Amiga A500 ? Batman Pack ? Tenstar Option ...£386.00 Xetec Hard Drives are the fastest hard drives for the A500 & A2000 Commodore A590 22 Meg ------------- £365.00 2? Meg Hill SCS 25 Mi iseconds Head Park C399 00 «5 Meg hjD SCS 25 Mfltstcorts Head Pan. £ 499 00 50 Meg Hiii SCS 25 MJ&secxrds Head Park £599 00 65 Meg Mi SCS 25 Mia$ e»rds Head Pam C649 00 85 Meg Ml SCS 25 Mmseards Head Pam . £799 00
• 09 Me; M SCSI 25 Mltseconrs Head **fk £949 00 251 Meg Ful SCSI
25 Mutsacond* Head = a-k £'899 00 Am ga A500 i Meg Ra-i u» ade
(he coc« 6 swiicN Amiga A500 2 Ve; interna Par Eipa'isiw (poa
Atedj Amiga A500 2 Ve; irtema Par Li pansier (uxooua*:) .
Amiga A500 4 0 Me; I'lemai Ra-loans on Amiga A500 8 0 Me; i'»maj fta- tapanscn 45 Meg.: 65 Meg. Full SCSI 25 Milliseconds Head Park .. 85 Meg. Full SCSI 25 Milliseconds Head Park .. 109 Meg. Full SCSI 25 Milliseconds Head Park .
251 Meg. Full SCSI 25 Milliseconds Head Park JVS 32 Meg. Full SCSI 25 Milliseconds Head Park.. ig. Full SCSI 25 Milliseconds Head Park________ AMIGA A5Q0 & A2000 RAM UPGRADES A2000 HARD DRIVES A500 HARD DRIVES AMIGA AUDIO DIGITISER
- NEW, CHOOSE MONO OR STEREO VERSION NT Both Amiga audio
digitisers give superb performance, unsurpassed at Ihe price.
No software is supplied, since they are fully compatible with
Perfect Sound. Prosound Designer, Audiomaster, and Datel's
Prosampler. Sampling rates up to 6OKH2 are possible depending
upon the software An audio lead is supplied for connecting to
the headphone socket or line output of a radio personal stereo,
keyboard etc. Full instructions are included, and the mono
version also has an L.E.D. overload indicator. A public domain
'Sound Workshop" disk is available which has demo versions of
Audiomaster & Fterfect Sound etc. STEREO
MONITOR LEADS We have leads to connect all AMIGAS to your TV or
colour monitor provided it has an RGB input socket. All leads
give a much clearer picture than using the AMIGA MODULATOR,
permit ALL 4096 colours to be displayed and include the audio
lead (to give stereo with stereo tv's).
ORDER AL 1 FOR TV's WITH 21 PIN EURO (SCART) SOCKET.
FITS PHILIPS. FIDELITY. SONY. GRUNDIG. NORMENEDE. ETC ... ORDER AL 2 FOR FERGUSON TV's WITH 7 or 8 PIN DIN SOCKET.
MODELS MCOl & MC05, ETC. ONLY £10.99 _ ORDER AL 4 FOR HITACHI 4 GRANADA TV's WITH 7 PIN DIN SOCKET MODELS CPT1444. ETC ...ONLY £10.99 ¦ AMIGA TO MULTISYNC MONITOR (analogue RGB) ALII .. MANY OTHER AMIGA M0NIT0R7V LEADS LISTED IN OUR FREE CATALOGUE OUR LEADS ARE GUARANTEED TO WORK WHERE OTHERS DON'T' LEADS ALSO AVAILABLE FOR ATARI ST RANGE PLEASE CONSULT US IF IN DOUBT MONO DIGITISER £27.99 POST FREE SOUND WORKSHOP DISK ...... ADAPTOR FOR AlOOO ... NEW - MONITOR SHARER Star LC-10 Mono Printer...
Star LC-10 Colour Printer.. Star LC-24-10______________ ...£215.00 ...£199.99 NEW PRODUCTS Professional Monochrome Digitiser Low Medium and High Res.. ..£149.99 RGB So iaerfo'CO*our cameras a lows fur colour digit si*; £99 99 Vi- ige* Amiga A500 A A2Q00 Grfoo £95 99 Pro-essio-ai Geriocn Overscan, fader. Dwt n RGB Seine' too many mtirmom ... £49900 Rfc'flM 8802 Gemock £195 00 M6IMM Teieteat Adapters Out: hi tj-er £139 99 x Specs 3- Glasses. Cvca am fcr Cad Cam L q jo Crysta sputtering grvts a whcrfe new cutcofc on yo.- A~i;a £149 99 Processor Accelerators Mhz Accelerator will support
MC68881. Offers between 45-50% more performance whilst maintaining complete compatability with software 8-16 Mhz switch .. £149.99 Replacement An ga Mo.se A500 & A2000 £2499 A Max Mac fmuttto* Roms _ ______ £249 99 Am ga A2000 8 Me; Ixoanscn Beard .npoo.iated £U5 99 Am ga A2000 8 Ve; I *pans y Popua'ed 2 Ve;s £349 00 Am ga A2000 8 Me; I ipans or Popua'ed 4 ve;s fS'900 Amga A590-pgra:eC ps £1100 0 y wts to menace embedded SCS hard drve cri Bv * ST506 d«ve to A- ;a A500 or Amiga A2000.
Trumpcard includes power supply, enclosure, software, auto-boot roms. Will accept 3.25 Inch embedded SCSI drive any capacity. Simply plugs into side of A500 can draw power from machine or external source. Up to 4 megs of desk cache or system memory can be Installed.Offers transfer rates up to twice that of A590. Board can Be removed and used In A2000 at a later date offering future expansion .... £199.99 ALF MFM drive kit for A500. Offers support of ST506 IBM PC drives. Available with or without power supply and enclosure. Host board and controller available. Entire kit
including Enclosure host board and controller auto boot roms cables and software - . £299.99 ALF RLL Wt available at the same price for people with RLL IBM ST506 type drives ..... -__________ £299.99 A500 ALF controller and host board without power supply and enclosure £199.99 A500 ALF host board will accept standard PC hard card full software including enclosure for host_________________________________________________ £129.99 Toolbox 3 slot or 2 slot box available, allows the A500 user to have A2000 power at A500 prices, the
toolbox dips onto the side of the A500 and allows support of A2000 products on the A500. Eg: 8 meg ram board, hard card, 68020 accelerator board.
Features 2 or 3 slots 40 watt supply, on off power. ...£299.00 THIRD COAST TECHNOLOGIES Unit 8, Bradley Hall Trading Estate, Standish, Wigan WN6 OXQ Tel: 0257 472444 Fax: 0257 426577 We accepl Bank Oralis, Company ana Personal Cheques and also Access and Visa Cards All prices Indude VAT at 15%. A lull warranty Is offered on all products.
TRILOGIC. Unit 1. ENQUIRIES S 0274 678062 253 New Works Road. Bradlord BD12 OQP. - i Tel 0274 691115 fj. 0274 600150 SHARE 2 COMPUTERS WITH ONE TV MONITOR Plug-in the scarf leads from any two computers eg AMIGA 4 ST, and connect the SHARER to the tv or monitor's scart socket. Just press the switch to instantly select either computer MSWI £15.99 " OTHER LEADS AMIGA 64 EMULATOR LEADS ... AEL 1 ONLY £4.99 MODULATOR EXTENSION LEADS ... MEL 1 ONLY £8.99 AMIGA PRINTER IEAD - Parallel Type 1.5M long AMP 1 ONLY £6.99
3. 0M long ..AMP 3 ONLY £9.99 AMIGA
5m .RSI ONLY £9.99 AMIGA A500 TO MODEM
(25W D ) 15m . RS6 ONLY £9.99 AMIGA NULL MODEM LEAD - LINKS
TWO A500s 1.5m RS5 ONLY £7.99 AMIGA TO HIFI LEAD 3m 2 PHONO
PLUGS EACH END HL1 ONLY £4.99 AMIGA TO HIFI LEAD 5m 2 PHONO
£8.99 EXTERNAL DRIVE SWITCH FOR Dfl 4 DF2 ADE4 ONLY £10.99
liilll III II»
• PUSHBUTTON SWITCH CAN BE OPERATED KjHsSSi l W y WHEN THE
COMPUTER IS ON NEW COMPACT DESIGN £12.99 order as DJA1** AMIGA
MINI STEREO AMPLIFIERS MINIAMP 2 combines a mini stereo power
amp with two neat speaker units which connect directly to your
AMIGA They are ideal lor use with mono TV s 4 monitors. 4
simply plug in for instant stereo sound bu'll be amazed at the
MINIAMP 2 WITH REMOTE VOLUME CONTROL 4 ALL LEADS ONLY £19.99 MINIAMP 4 comprises separate 4 watts per channel high quality mini stereo amplifier with loudspeaker'headphone socket, separate speaker units with 4" twin cone drivers, mams power pack 4 connecting lead lor AMIGA. V .
CAN BE USED AS YVALKMAN'BOOSTER 4 WITH OTHER COMPUTERS 1 I STEREO AMPLIFIER SPEAKER SYSTEM MA4 £34.99 RFACE 1 FOR A5002000 OR AlOOO MIF1 £29 99 _ This has MIDI IN.OUT 4 THRU sockets MIDI INTERFACE 2 FOR A500'2000 OR AlOOO MIF2 £34.99 ¦ This has MIDI IN, MIDI OUT. MIDI THRU plus 2 UNIQUE switchable MIDI OUT7THRU SOCKETS to save you having to swap MIDI leads when using more than one MIDI instrument. FREE MIDI LEAD WITH BOTH INTERFACES SUNDRY ITEMS - BARGAIN PRICES SONY 3.5" DISKS 100% Guaranteed DS'DD disks Lowest Prices F*r 10 £12.99 4 Postage Lowest Prices Per 25 £28.49 Post Free Lowest
Prices Per 50 £55.99 Post Free Lowest Prices Per 100 £99.99 Post Free 3 * DISK BOX FOR 40 DISKS SMOKED LID. LOCKABLE, DSB4 ONLY £8.49 3 W - DISK BOX FOR 80 DISKS. SMOKED LID LOCKABLE. DSB6 ONLY £9.99 A500 DUSTCOVER ANTISTATIC TYPE, ADCl ONLY £4.99 A4 NON SLIP MOUSEPAD. AFMl ..... ONLY £4.99 WE ALSO STOCK AMIGAS Pcs, PRINTERS MONITORS. HARD DISKS. MEMORY EXPANSIONS. VIDEO DIGITISERS. SELECTED SOFTWARE 4 BOOKS PHONE FOR OUR FREE 20 PAGE CATALOGUE TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOME Please add 75p part postage -1- packing to orders under £15.00 FREE CATALOGUE WITH ALL ORDERS EXPRESS
DELIVERY Cl99 Em ,t13» r? as . C?» .eta* £1699 0909 0899 00 99 0299 0609 05 99 0699 £26 99 v3"ev Space Ac* C 16.99 0399 fiaoft .0699 .0999 (1690 (1490 (16 99 £1699 Ci699 (1699 (1699 (1699 (1399 (1899 (2899 JC f Jt wee TRIAD-ONLY £13 M Barbarian, Starglider, DefenOer ol the Crown PREMIER COLLECTION II-ONIY £19.99 Eliminator. Custodian. Backlash. Mercenary COMPUTER HITS II-ONIY £8.W PREMIER COLLECTION-ONLY £12.99 T W*. Bat* Shadow. Golden Palh, Joe Biadej ExQon, Nebulus.Netherworld. Zynaps PRECIOUS METAL-ONLY £15.W Captain Blood. Xenon, Arkanold II. Crazy Cars LIGHT FORCE-ONLY £16.99 ART &
SOUND A Drum £27.99 UTILITIES & BUSINESS A-Max (Mac-Emulator) .....£109.99 C2O5 0V Devpac 2 (a* 99 DOC*: £2'99 3" A Base - i £3999
• vso*i Bes : (69 99 O'xnert V * (69 99 C V 5 06499 v*rf*
beacon-* tyo c (9 99 kn *« rsv2 C3'V9 EDUCATIONAL scover re C14
99 OtX-e* N.rr«* • (14 99
* g Band .....£139.99 con
Paint ...£14.99 Studio
24 £134.99 Track
24 ....£59 99 »hoton
Pant II ..£69.99 Deluxe
Paint III .£59.99 Deluxe
Music Consl. Set ....152.99 Deluxe
Video ...£52.99 Mis Parts 1
.£7.50 Ta'lspn Adv.
Creator £18.99 A M OS
..£34.99 TnTnon »*»
Moon Tusker Verm new Ba'tanan II (Psygnoes) Ivenhoe ..
mere e«rr»m».3r (2(99 F_n Scncck 2 u-de 8 03 Stuc-oM«c (62 99
Mscnc ?t»8 03 *0 Sourd Ce* jne- (3299 F bctKV 2 8- 03 Please
Note: Some Titles may not De released.
* These will be despatched within 24 hours of release, subject to
NEW RELEASES HOT NEWS Pert Manager _._____________________13.1 WW Streets _______________________ O Doom s Revenge . Hound o' Shwdow Galaiy Force F 29 Retaliate- Double Dragon II ... European Suoer Leaoue Poe* ol RaOerce .... Dragons Ol Flam . ..._ ...... Oparwon Thunderbch-------------------- Adooes Ge*den Shoe ...
U. M.S. II ..... TURBOSOFT Dept (Amiga Computing) 41 South
Street Leighton Buzzard Beds. LU78NT MAIL ORDER ONLY TEL: 0525
377974 FAX: 0525 852278 tC Kevw b«gi tr ' it AT*ad Bair 13
Democfe* 13 Baacn Vo* y 14 Space Ac* 18 tonrTheMj e 19 Qmaoa
3C F -6 Come«o r 31 Gazze t Sooe* Soccer 32 'Mm 33 Caba 24 aM
!*| i 26 Ndrnanc 36 F F-ecdyt&g 'ooFv.n IOP 30 CHART Ha-1
D*v»» . Com nmm C*vu» Shadow y -t* Reaai «c* O" *r» ' -•
* 4rsr* »T) Junonll 0* r* R 4-no S«x- -'•Car Hate- Crooss Bwcn
Vo- TOP 30 SPECIALS
1. Alternate Reality .....
2. Brian Clough'* football ...
3. Strip Poker II .....
4. Football Manager II ..... i -*» 6 Cxr r 7
o*ow 8 Ru-tngrvg wj-i J TW'Oe'tfr'Ct . .------ 1C Our ii «ooe-
Rawy i? 'v pci.»»n» ¦J Gaic-aui*** ( »**' 14 CaanoRouen* ¦5
w» icCiM*iaaa**joa'0 16 'r V» Pc-WI* New ft*L »V *IQ i?
• 8 fce rerods
• 9 Fjutfowoae PC de**o*e » Soccer ?1 frraw e 2? Roc** Rang* 23
Sorea*3r i 0% Barbaran ut -aia w*no* 25 Phoo* ? Grss.
28 F "«arOe* »ov e 29 Atmar* 3C M.rv Cor Red Daoo* CLASSIC COLLECTION 30 POO C'3 99 Airborne Ranger__________________________C15 99 Battleches* ......Ci6 99 CoiOmus Chets X ....Ci5 99 Double Dragon C*3 99 D-agon Nm|a ....------------------------------C'S 99 (Xingeon Mastar M Mag) €'5 99 Dungeon Matter Editor C7.99 F»gni Smuiawr II -------------------- C26 99 MWVeoofl Poker Pro___________________________C14 99 King* Oueet Tnpie Peck ... € 17 99 Lombard R»y ----------------------C'5 99 Mcro Soccer €15 99 Scenery Oise 7. 9 or 11 .
C'3 99 Scenery OacJaoan or Europe €13 99 State Dav s Snooker €13.99 War n Mece term .... €i3 99 Operation Wolf ... C15.99 Waterloo ..... ----------------€15 99 Bismark .C1599 Archipelagos .... C16 99 8a roe ecu------------------------------------ ci6 99 D*r«K e --------------------------C18 99 Deluxe Scrabble-----------------------------€13 99 Oagon»le (i Meg) €2*99 Ba-tf. Tala II €18 99 Ferran Formula I ___________________________C16 99 Grand Pn« Circuit € • 6 99 Kingdom ol England ......_ ....€16 99
Rocket Ranger .€20 99 Trivial Pursuia -------------------.Ci3 99 S»o«J oI Sodan .... C16 99 Uima IV ... €16 99 ZakMcKraWen ..C16 99 GWOruah C1699 Mannumer m New Vo'k €18.99 Rottocop ....€18 99 New Zealand Sion, €16.99 Kick0« ......€12 99 Forgotten Worlds €'3 99 R * Dangerous Ci5 99 Blood Money ..... C1S99 Ifd, Jones Adventure ..€16 99 Test D-tve II
...€16 99 Ginsfvp ... €'5 99 Mlleoum 2 2 ...€'6 99 Baanceol Power 1990 ...... €-6 99 Please make Cheques & Postal Orders payable to: TURBOSOFT PSP in UK FREE elsewhere please add £2.00 per item.
N. B. Please state make ol computer when ordering HI-TEK MONITOR
BY IN Auo HALIA AMIGA USER GROUPS, DOCTORS, HIGH SCHOOLS AND
PRICE $ a 59.95 - £26 INC P&P MONITOR TYPE ?
CHEQUES. P.O.'s. EUROCHEQUES. PLEASE MAKE PAYABLE TO: HI-TEK EUROPE LTD HI-TEK EUROPE LTD.
CROWN SHIELD HOUSE, 143 ST LEONARDS ROAD, WINDSOR BERKSHIRE SL4 3DW. UK TEL: 0753 851269 or FAX 0753 850897 Credit Card Orders Same Day Shipping AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND OCEANIA HARRIS HI-TEK PTY LTD
02671 1856 Credit Card Orders Same Day Shipping "Can't
wait?" "OK go to Australia's top Computer Retailers Harvey
Norman Discounts.
Increase over Devpac 2. Any assembler is limited by the speed of the Amiga's drives when assembling to or from floppy. And as ArgAsm relies on assembling this way, you lose the advantage of speed.
Where ArgAsm comes into its own is on very large files. For these you are talking at least 1.5 megabytes of ram and a fast hard drive. Games programmers will find ArgAsm invaluable because assembling to memory is not something they use.
ArgAsm would seem to work best for assembling to floppy - and that is what it was written for, a fast assembler to use for the development of future Argonaut games like Hawk, the new flight simulation soon to be published by Electronic Arts.
No only is Argasm fast, it is aimed at programmers who want to write programs which run fast. To this end Argasm will display instruction cycle timings and flag settings to help optimise your code.
A valuable Devpac option missing from ArgAsm is Jump to Error. If you assemble a file and there are. Say, three errors in it, by selecting Jump to Error you can go to each line in turn which contains an error and alter it or add more code. This will be implemented in future versions, if only because the programmers at Argonaut want it. ArgAsm has an ¦ REVIEW ¦ option on the assemble screen to edit lines with errors while assembling. It is supposed to stop assembling when an error is found, allow you to correct it, and then continue assembling. This option did not seem to do anything on my
review copy and 1 could find no mention of it in the manual. I assume it is a feature to be added at a later date.
One of the irritating things about Devpac is that it refuses to load a source file larger than the buffer size set previously. ArgAsm has fixed this.
Any size source file can be loaded into ArgEd - it automatically sets the buffer size.
However, on Devpac 2 the buffer allocated to the assembled code is set automatically, but on ArgAsm you have to set the buffer manually. And if you haven't set a buffer large enough, ArgAsm is limited in what it can expand, and sometimes refuses to assemble.
No one writes perfect code first time, especially when just starting off.
To aid this problem Devpac comes with a monitor. Monam2. This can either be used inside the assembler environment or as a stand-alone monitor debugger.
The debugger has a status screen at the top giving information about the current state of the registers, and it allows you to browse through memory disassembling, single stepping or just hunting around for Ascii text. You can even load source code to into a separate window to allow you to examine the source while you debug the assembled code.
Once you get used to Monam2 - and it is very different from every other monitor I have used on the Amiga - you will find it invaluable in helping debug your code. Even Argasm's superior error messages can't compete.
HiSoft has promised a faster Devpac, Argonaut will undoubtedly release an ArgAsm with more features.
Perhaps by then the gap will have closed.
So which assembler should you buy? Well, if you are learning to program in machine code and have had little experience with assemblers, you should definitely go for Devpac 2.
The documentation is excellent and you will get everything you need in the one package.
If you are already an Amiga machine code programmer and find your current assembler too slow, you should look at ArgAsm. It certainly is the fastest assembler available for the Amiga.
31 " 3V" DISK BOXES (lockable) ACCESSORIES Mouse Mat Rigid ....£4.50 3 1 2"-50 Capacity ...£5.25 3 1 2--100 Capacity .£6.95 Above price only with other purchases ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT & P&P. UK & BFPO ORDERS ONLY 24 HOUR OROERLINE 0597 87784 Cheques anil Postal Orders to: M C Tel: 0597 87792 Manor Court Supplies Ltd Dept. AMCB2, Glen Celyn House, Penybont, Llandrindod Wells, Powys, L01 5SY EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT ORDERS WELCOME DISK DRIVES AMIGA EXTERNAL DRIVES
* 3 1 2' 1 Meg. 880k Format
* As above plus
* On-Off Switch
* Through Port SPECIAL PRICE £74.99 ATARI EXTERNAL DRIVES
* 31 2' 1 Meg. 720k Format
* Super Slim
* Very Quiet
* Teac Drive Mechanism SPECIAL PRICE £78.99
* 51 4' Half Height
* Very Quiet
* Teac Drive Mechanism SPECIAL PRICE £99.99 ? 5 1 4' Half Height
* Spec as above SPECIAL PRICE £95.99 20 3 1 2- DS OD 135TPI + 80
Cap. Box ..£20.00 40 3 1 2- DS DD 135TPI + 80
Cap. Box ..£34.50 50 3 1 2- DS DD 135TPI + 80
Cap. Box ..£40.00 70 3 1 2- DS DD 135TPI + 80
Cap. Box ..£54.00 All disks 100% certified &
guaranteed 135TPI All boxes inc Lock & Dividers Benchmark DISKS
• • Benchmark DISKS AND DS DD 135TPI
25. £17.80
50. £34.80
100. .....£63.25
200. ...£117.88
400. ...£223.68
600. ...£319.13
1000. .£503.13 Mai! Order Offers You know how
expensive it is to replace your batteries when they run
down. Even with rechargeable batteriesyou stillhave to wait
14 hours co' ' for a full charge.
We have solved the problem with the unique superfast powerful battery and charger kit.
This amazing device will completely charge four standard AA size rechargeable batteries in under 2 hours and each battery can be recharged at least 1,000 times.
Further, for a limited period we can sell the charger and four rechargeable batteries at the staggeringly low cost of £19.95 (plus £1 p&p).
* ]t coitt fuzy faw ifoety ovitAiK coeefa, Place your order
today, using the form on Page 113 C= Commodore TENSTAR PACK
FREE! - AMEGAS - by Players FREE! - ART OF CHESS - by SPA FREE! ¦ INSANITY FIGHT - Dy Microdeal FREE! - MERCENARY COMP Dy Novaqer FREEI- TERRORPODS - Dy Psygnosis ¦ ¦EHBn H INCLUDES Frbt UK H DELIVERY The Amiga 500 is one of a new breed of technologically advanced computers, which are now emerging as the new standard for home computing, based .around the new Motorola 68000 chip The A500 has 512K RAM and a 1Mbyte double sided disk drive built-in. It can be connected directly to a wide range of monitors, or to a domestic TV set through a TV modulator Designed with the user in mind, the A500
features a user friendly WIMP environment and comes supplied with a free mouse And. When you buy your Amiga from Silica Shop, the UK's No1 Amiga specialists, you will experience an after sales service that is second to none, including a technical support helpline and free newsletters and price lists Return the coupon below for our current information pack, which will give details of the Silica service and the very latest Silica Amiga offers e&oe FREE! - THUNDERCATS by Eme FREE! - BUGGY BOY by Elite FREE! - WIZBALL - by Ocean FREE! - IKARI WARRIORS by Elite MAN* THE FULL STOCK RANGE: ' he
largest range of An rented peripherals accessories books and software m the AFTER SALES SUPPORT: The staff ai Silica Snop A500 Computer TV Modulator Photon Paint TenStar Pack TOTAL RRP: LESS DISCOUNT: PACK PRICE X When you Buy the Amiga 500 Irom Silica Snop you will not only get a high power value for money computer, we will aiso give you some spectacular tree g-its First of an we are now including a TV modulator with every A500 stand alone eyboard. So you can plug your Amiga straignt into your TV at home (the modulator is not nciuded with the A500*A10WS pac* as't $ net required lor use with
monitors) Secondly we have added a free copy of Photon Paint an advanced graphics package witn an RRP of £69 95 Last land By no means least'), so that you can oe up and runmng straight away we are giving away the sensational TENSTAR GAMES PACK wdn every A500 purchased at Si'.ca Shop This pack features ten top Amiga titles which have a combined RRP of neariy £230' Return the coupon lor details FREE TENSTAR PACK FREE NEWSLETTERS: Mailed direct lo your home as soon as we print them featuring otters and latest releases FREE OVERNIGHT DELIVERY: On an nardware orders shipped to Silica Shop customers
within the UK mainland PRICE MATCH PROMISE: Wo will normally match our competitors offers on a same product same pr.ee' basis FREE TECHNICAL HELPLINE: Full time team ot Am.ga technical experts to help you with your technical queries But don t just take our word tor it Complete and return the coupon beiow for Our latest Amiga literature and begm to experience ine Silica Shop specialist Amiga service A500 Computer £399.99 1084S Colour Monitor £299.99 Photon Paint £69.95 TenStar Pack £229.50 TOTAL RRP: £999.43 LESS DISCOUNT: £350.43 PACK PRICE IE: £649 TOTAL RRP: £229.50 e *¦ -s -"ow We wu o.
pleewd la *e"d you COO** ot our P*H* Ml anO CHARGE a* tney Become availaole Complete me coupon return it to To: Silica Shop Ud, Depl AMCOM 2 901-4 The Mews. Halhorley Roed, Sidcop, Kent DA14 4DX PLEASE SEND ME FREE LITERATURE ON THE AMIGA Surname Mr Mrs Ms Address; SIDCUP (Sc Mail Order) 01-309 1111 1-4 The Mews. Hatherley Road. Sidcup. Kent. DA14 4DX OPEN MON SA ! J 30pm LATE NIGHT: P ft! DAY 3am 7pm LONDON 01-580 4000 52 Tottenham Court Road. London. WlP OB A OPEN MON SA r 9 30-ti" 6 00pm LATE NIGHT NONE_ Postcode ONDON 01-629 1234 ext 3914 Do you already own a computer II so which one do
you own' SeltnOpes 1st floor'. Oxford Street. London. WIA IAB OPEN MON SAT Mm R : .ir- LATE NIGHT THURSDAY -cm Hrm Pen Pal for Amiga Intergrated Word Processor and Database Manager System.
Word Processor Features:
• Open up to 4 documents at a time.
• Find, Find Next, Replace, Find & Replace Next, Find & Replace
• 100,000 word main spelling dictionary, and user defined
• Word, sentance, character counts with average and maximums.
• Document readability index.
• Left, right, centre & decimal tabs.
• Ruler settings by paragraph thatinclude paragraph indents, tab
stops, left & right margin settings, and paragraph alignment.
• Horizontal and vertical rulers.
• Headers and Footers.
• Odd Even pages.
• Go directly to any page in document.
• Multiple fonts, sizes, colours, and styles. Supports up to 200
• Fonts are arranged by both name and sizes for easy access.
• Subscripts and superscripts.
• Left, right, centre, and full justification of paragraphs.
• Automatic date, and page number.
• Forced page breaks.
• Cut, Copy, Paste, Clear, and Undo.
• Full Page View.
• Mail Merge.
• Import IFF Pictures, brushes, and clip art of different sizes,
colours, and resolutions including HAM.
• Automatic, real-time, flow of text around graphics - even while
• Reduce, enlarge, and resize pictures.
• Draw lines, boxes, and borders as graphic objects.
• Specify box fill colour, line colour, line weight, and line
fill colour.
• Depth arrange objects front to back.
• Cut Copy Paste objects from one document to another or within
the same document.
Database Manager Features:
• Open up to 4 databases at a time.
• Sort and Search database.
• Locate and Remove Duplicate data.
• Print columnar reports with sort breaks, sub-totals, and final
• Print labels, 1-8 across page.
• 9 data types including calculations.
• Data type checking during data entry.
• Cut, Copy, Paste.
• Transfer data between databases.
• Delete multiple records.
• Saved report formats.
System Requirements:
• Amiga Computers with 1 megabyte of RAM
• RRP £129.95 inc VAT
• UK Exclusive PAL version Data Liberation Ltd 5 St Johns Road,
Sandown, Isle of Wight. P036 8ER Translation trouble Surfs up.
An dis Surf is Ezra Surf. It's my job to sort your scribblin's
and come up with an answer to any grief Ihe Amiga gives va. So
if you've got something to say, say it to me. I'm a first name
kinda guy. So please don't hide behind initials. It's too suit.
Rest letters will be sent prizes of up to -100 so get a copy of
Protext into your drive pronto. Drop me a line at Ezra Surfs
Postbox (ESP), Amiga Computing, Second Floor. North House,
78-84 Ongar Road, Brentwood. Essex, CM15 9BG.
WHAT a fab magazine you have. 1 am studying HND computing and need to know if there is a version of Pascal for the Amiga which will enable me to run any Turbo Pascal programs (PC1512) if 1 connect a
5. 25in drive.
Tom Davidson, London SW17.
No worries. First to read the IBM format discs you need a 5.25in drive. £99.95 from Club 68000 (01- 977 9596). You'll need some software to read the daft 36Ok format.
Club 68000 can furnish you with this for £39.95. Lastly you'll need a Turbo Pascal type compiler. Getting hold of the Metacomco one can be tough 'cos they don't answer the phones. HiSoft is working on a suitable program, expect it sometime around March. Call HiSoft on 0525 718181.
Telly addict cheap monitor bundles you might be better off getting an A2000, Commodore or Philips monitor and the Microtext adaptor. This costs £143.75 and lets you use the monitor as a TV as well as giving you teletext.
Fixing a hole HELP! Please, please help me. Let me explain my problem. Before getting an Amiga 1 was a dedicated PC user. My friend bought an Amiga. Two months later I had one.
I play keyboards and already know that Midi exists. I looked Empty article I AM WRITING to complain about the Build a better Basic article written by |ohn Kennedy in the October issue of Amiga Computing.
The whole of the first page was devoted to a juvenile piece of rubbish of no relevance whatsoever to programming.
If Amiga Computing cannot fill its pages with "carefully researched and finely crafted into upgrading my PC for use with my keyboard. This turned out too expensive.
Then along came Ihe Amiga A500, a Casio CZ250S Midi-compatible keyboard and a Midi interface with all the necessary leads.
The problem is software. So many different packages, different prices. What do I buy? I need a program with which to input keyboard parts, preferably without having to enter in the information note by note.
Oh yes, and it needs to speak English, not Mandarin Chinese.
Obviously the lower the price the better. The reason I am writing to Amiga Computing is because of the instructional prose" then 1 suggest that they be left blank.
A Stevenson, Middlesborough, Cleveland.
Can't please everyone. One man's juvenile piece of rubbish is another's party manifesto. Because I know it will make you happy I am sending you some blank pieces of paper.
Article Smash and Grab in October's magazine. At least your magazine doesn't just review Tim Thompson, Wibsey, Bradford.
Thought you were going to break out into song there. Music-X cannot be beaten. One day there will be a cheaper version but you can go grey waiting for the next version, of everything. Take the plunge. Shop around for the best price. DateI does a nifty Midi interface for £34.95. Give them a call on 0782 744707.
Raised hackles YOUR C-light review in the October issue is the worst review I've read. The writer seems like he has just finished two years of using his Amiga solely as a word processor. He talks of C-Light as if it was the only ray tracing package available for the Amiga.
A reasonable review would give a comparison with other 3D paint packages, and not with supercomputers.
It's totally untrue that this is the most that can be achieved with the hardware, as the reviewer thinks.
Turbo Silver, for example, is not only faster but allows you to determine how much light will be reflected and its colour, and how much light will pass through an object, its colour and the bending of light when it passes through, and more.
Scupll 3D is a bit faster already, but the new XL version would ??????????????????????????????????????
M. D. Office Supplies would like to take this opportunity to
apologise to all its competitors. We shall with immediate
effect supply direct to the public.
Computer discs. Storage boxes, etc. AT BELOW WHOLESALE PRICES CHECK OUT OUR NEW LOW LOW PRICES
1 6Mb plus 50 BOX .£19.99 50 525- DS
HD 1,6Mb plus 100 BOX ......£37.99 75 525' DS
HD 1,6Mb plus 100 BOX ......£53.99 100 5.25-
DS HD 1.6Mb plus 100 BOX ......£69.99 150
525- DS HD 1 6Mb plus 2,100 BOX ..£94.99 200
5.25- OS HD 1.6Mb plus 2,100 BOX .£119.99
STOP PRESS - STOP PRESS - STOP PRESS For all you bulk buyers
oul there we have some unrepeatable FIRST COME - FIRST SERVED
3. 5" DS-DD 135 TPI 100% error free top quality discs 100 DS DD
TPI ....£120.00 ACCESSORIES Do you also know
we sell, DISC DRIVES, DATA SWITCHES, U.P.S Power Supplies,
Printer Buffers all at incredibly cheap prices.
For more details and to save yourself LOADSAMONEE RING US NOW!!
350 DS DD 135 TPI ....£158.00 500 DS DD 135 TPI ....£210.00 1000 DS DD 135 TPI ..£425.00 PRICE & QUALITY GUARANTEE We pride ourselves on offering you the very Highest Quality products at the best possible prices. H you should ever see a comparible product ottered cheaper in this magazine DO NOT HESITATE give us a call because we wont match it.
18 CRESCENT WAY, FARNBOROUGH, KENT BR6 9LS TELESALES HOTUNES: 0689-61400 Trade Accounts Welcome All prices include VAT and Delivery UK Education Orders Welcome ??????????????????????????????????????
Starting trouble ?
Make it several times faster. C- Light's originality is in its user interface. Apart from that, a list of options available with the program would have been helpful. Does the 640'256 resolution allows for ray tracing using dithering?
So please let someone who knows his business review software packages. No more wrong statements, like "as fast as you can get considering the hardware".
These kind of packages always beg for comparative reviews.
Eyal Teler.
(erusalem, Israel The magazine has several ray tracing experts, yet the editor made the very wise, I think Icrawl, crawl, can 1 have a pay risel decision to give C-Light to someone who both understood the techie side of ray tracing and hadn't been spoiled by playing with more expensive pro- grams.
C-Light doesn't look too hot if you have used Sculpt-Animate 4D.
But then Sculpt is eight times the price. It is aimed at someone who just wants to tinker and for that reason it was reviewed by the right person.
Bargain binder AFTER reading issue 6 volume 2 I could not help to notice that you quoted to your Finnish friend £4.95 for the binders. Yet on the order form in the same issue it is priced at £5.95. Is it cheaper in Europe than it is in the United Kingdom?
Mf Taylor, Pontefract, W Yorks.
Yes, that was a special price for Kalle Saariaho because he doesn't pick holes when I make a silly mistake. Besides, that was before I started. It was the editor's fault.
Animatics antics HELLO, I'm new to computing. I want to be able to assemble a storyboard and 3D animatics in memory and then download into a domestic VCR for a showreel.
Here are my problems so far: Memory and compatibility. The Commodore A590 looks tempting with expandability to 2 meg.
However, would this memory clash with future expansion in the slot THE Amiga was a gianl leap into the unknown for me. Unfortunately I haven't come on very far. I can load all my discs, play games. I have read the manual but it gets really confusing. I've done a dir of just about every disc I own, why I couldn't say, it just looks good on the screen!
What I need is a book or disc tutorial that takes it a step at a time for someone who can only turn on the machine and load a disc. I want under the Amiga?
Would 1 have any syncing errors if I spread a sequence between them before editing downloading?
Since I've heard certain hard discs have access times equalling ram speeds should I buy a larger hard disc (bigger than 20MBj and not worry too much about large ram expansion?
Finally have you heard of a domestic video which will enable me to accurately edit and sync my animatics with sound? Any help would be biblical in its proportion, may your seed to fruitful etc... Simon Bunn, Worthing, West Sussex.
You are talking serious money when dealing with editing video.
And a domestic system probably won't be man enough for the job.
No. Not even one of the flash new S-VHS ones. Put your bank manager on danger money.
Animation needs ram. There are no problems with using the half meg internal expansion with an Beware bandits which byte FOLLOWING your letter page section in the September issue, I feel that I must write in to warn Roger Fenton and any other readers who have bought Wizball.
Mr Fenton complained that alter completing a level the computer locked up and you replied that this was because the game was an ST port. I suffered from an identical problem.
Then I got a copy ot Virus X. My Wizball disc was intected with the Byte Bandit virus, which causes the screen to turn black and the system to crash at various times - exactly the bugs that Mr Fenton described.
To be able to program and do graphics and everything, but don't know where to start.
I followed one of your features to teach you how to use say translates and I thought it was greal when my Amiga spoke to me.
The other thing is when the manual talks about the Say speech synthesiser it says you have a choice of voices, but even when I change the pitch it sounds exactly the same.
AMIGA connected to an A590 and 2 meg. I do it all the time and would recommend this route. The A590 hard drive is a bit slow and small.
Look at replacing the mechanism within the drive.
Video bods are wise to sync problems and have a protocol called SMPTE which can handle it.
You are lucky in that there is a good dealer not far from you who understands these problems.
Contact DigiPro on 0703 703030.
Born in the USA This could be me. So what are the correct pitch and speed for speech variations? Thanks for your help.
Pennie Jones, RAF Bruggen BFPO.
The Amiga for Beginners, from Abacus for £12.95 is a good place to start. The Computer Store has it in stock. Call on 021-770 0468.
People lhat there is no difference between British and American machines, but there seems no other explanation as to why Silkworm docs not load. Please can you help?
Is there a chip that needs replacing? Surely it can't be serious, as all other commercial software works with no problems.
Tony Corvesor, Kettering. Northants.
Many people are wrong. There are substantial differences between US Amigas and those used in the old world. The principal difference is that European IPALI Amigas can display 256 lines in the non-interlaced mode while American INTSC) Amigas can only show 200 lines. This means some programs will fall off the bottom.
Your local Commodore service centre can fix all this by changing some of the chips and crystals to translate a machine.
Sometimes a company only has the rights to sell a game in one country. To stop you calling America and ordering games you aren't supposed to be able to get here on your Visa card the software houses "fix" the game so that it will only work on certain nationalities of machine.
This may well mean that you'll have trouble with British software.
XENON II deserves high praise indeed, but I do feel that 100 per cent is over the top. A score of 100 per cent must surely signify perfection, and a game which one will be playing forever.
Although the game is quite amazing, I am sure that you will agree that the mark is unrealistic.
So in future can you tell Jeff Walker to remember not to get car- ?
17Bit Software That Bit Better Than The Rest!
THE Uks LARGEST AMIGA ONLY USER-CLUB WITH OVER 9,000 MEMBERS, AND A REPUTATION SECOND TO NONE FOR SERVICE 17Bit have one of the largest PD Selections around and prices start from just £2 per disc* fully inclusive of all postage and packaging costs. All PD used is the best around, you would be amazed at the ease of use and quality of it all... so good other libraries use the discs and claim they have compiled them! So make sure you deal with the people in the know ... And we don't just handle PD, we supply all the latest software at amazing prices to members, give out hints, tips and help with
all sorts of problems and much more ... Subscribe to the best Disc-Magazine around ... NEWSFLASH (from 17Bit UGA) - Only £2.99 per Issue!
Join now! Quickstart + Pack: Utility Disc, Demo Disc, Catalogue Disc and an issue of our Disc-Magazine PLUS Membership for just £6.50!
17Bit Software, PO Box 97, Wakefield WF1 IXX, UK TELEPHONE 0924 366982 |-H 'Individual discs £2.50. 10 discs Tor £20 inclusive of all postage, packing and quality media SOFTMACHINE AMIGA HARDWARE SOFTWARE £134 95 £249 95 £28 65 £47 75 £32 50 £39 95 £28 65 £32 50 £70 60 £39 95 £39 95 £39 95 £13 85 £24 85 £39 95 £28 65 £24 85 £15 75 £39 95 £17 25 £17 25 £17 25 £5535 £21 95 £35 50 £47 75 £35 50 £24 85 £5535 £32 50 £47 75 £24 85 £41 95 £55 35 £70 60 £26 35 £16 90 MmSeX Are malor lmages D raw 'Architectural Design SSUr Comic Seller Dip Art Deluxe Pant III Deluxt Phololab Deluxe Print II Deluxe
Productions Deluxe Video Design 30 D19 P«nt3 Deluxe Music DrTsKCS Dynarrec Drums Dynamic Sfudo LaMUAMS OMWIERS EtCI UonsFonts API68000 ____£99 95 " A-Reo £36 30 Artec C Developer £13715 Artec C ProtessKinal £99 65 Artec C scd £61 25 Benchmark Module 2 £132 50 Benchmark C Ubranes £70 60 Devpac2 .... £43 60 GFA Basic V3 £47 55 Hisofl Basic .... £57 35 K-Seka Assembler £35 50 Lattice CVS £174 75 £23 20 £23 20 £18 20 £55 35 £23 20 £47 75 £51 55 £23 20 £62 95 £39 95 £93 50 £60 95 Please ring for prlcas avariability on any hardwi s not listed. (Fell price list on rogoost) spostal orders
payeCXe to SOFTMACHINE. Ail prices are mduwe ol V.A.T. 6 pncM mtyect to tfrenge vwthout noOco Al name tutyed to availab4iTy E.6 O.E. SOFTMACHINE D«pl. AMC 2, 36 Guernsey Ro»d. SunderUnd SR4 9RR. Telephone: 091 385 7426 Mouse Bracket 10 TDK MF2DO Disks 0 Cepeoty Drek Storage Br 3 5* Haad Ciaanar A5O0 Dust Covar ONLY C2S* A500 PACK ?
Padt 1 plus tie 1000wing: Mart Warriors . Insanity Fight Marcanary 1 . Art ot Chats The Very First Tutorial introduction to fie A500 WB1 3 Supplement Arrsga Bavc New Zealand Story ALL PRICES INCLUDE
V. A.T. AND DEUVERY (U.K. ONLY) A500 BAT PACK Amiga 500 1.3 ROM)
Mouse . P.S.U. Starter Pack CounarOvarsaas next or leal month
* Amiga Computing tor Peripheral* Amiga 500 . A1064S £624 99
A590 20Mb Hard Dftva £372 99 A501 Ram ExpansiorVCIock £134 99
A520 Modulator £24 99 MPS1230 Pnntar £13999 A1064S Colour
Monitor £25199 A1900M Mono Monitor £99 99 A1010 Mi Dnva £9199
Al352Mmaa_£33 99 A2000 P0A A2000 • A1064S P0A A2024 Hres Mono
Morelor P 0 A A2C10 Internal Drive P0A A2090 20Mb Hard Drwe
P0A A2093 20Mb A boot Dm* P0A A2095 40Mb A oot Dnva P0A A2092
20Mb MS-00S Dnva P 0 A A2086PC-XTBndgaboard P0A A2286 PC-AT
Bndgaboard P0A A20S8 Ram Expansion P0A A2620 68020 MW 1 P0A
A2621 Uni* Card P0A A2300 Genlock P0A A2350Prol Video Adaptor
P0A A2032 PAL Conp Vtd Card P0A A2000 SYSTEM 2 Amiga 2000
A1084S Momor A2088 PC-XT Bndgatoard A2O02 20Mb MS-DOS
HerdDRIVE PHONE • Whil stocks last' A2000 SYSTEM 1 Amiga 2000
A1084S Monitor Acquit.cr 1 3 ri9:5D K-Otfi----------- .06 JO
Microhche filer £62 95 Microlche filer Pus £123 95 Superbase
Personal £41 35 Superbase Personal 2 £68 50 Superbase
Professional £166 95 SPREADSHEETS Woro Prochsiwo 1 £136 95 £36
£133 55 £66 50 Enhancer (WB13)--- Face II_______________ Fancy
30 Fonts ..... Good V3.0------------------ Grabbil
..... HiSoft Extend ...
Interchange . interchange 0S*cls 1 .
Vthange Mod V3tVfinF I Change Mod V30fTurbo Kara Fords___ KgadgM-- Quarterback- Sjudo Fonta .
Superback -------- Text Ed Plus______ The Caiigrapher Treniformer XCOPVW .... Cygnui Ed Proiesscnal Disk? Dak___ Dos 2 DOS-- A Mai wlh Poms UTILITIES CADASMwact AinuTiw I £62 95 £97 35 £55 00 £23 20 £39 95 £39 95 £17 25 £60 50 £5315 £38 55 £104 35 £53 15 £62 95 £55 35 £78 75 £172 95 £32 30 Pi IK Top Puiuihinb | ty Desk ..... £83 20 ________RING I £193 50 Puttshen Ounce £78 75 Impact-----------
• Intenor Design IntroCAD Uflhts Camera Action2
• Microbot Devon Modeler 3D Movie Setter 'Future Oevgr Photon P
* F X TheOwctorsTodU £2865 TarboStver £10175 TV Show £7060 TV Tad
__E7OJ0 Vtoeo Effects 30 £123 95 Video Generic Master £55 35
Vwtoo Tiler £86 20 Video Wipe Master £55 35 Videoscape 30 £123
95 X-CAD Designer £89 75 X-CAD Professional £35? 80 Zoelrope
£86 85
• stale Sculpt or Videoscape' PIXmate --------------- £39 95
Prolessronal Draw £106 75 Pro Video Plus £193 50 Sculpt 30
£6680 Sculpt 40 £367 45 £3250 £62 95 £5315 £154 50 £47 75
£11635 £20 25 £184 15 £79 95 £11135 £5155 £82 95 £69 85 £74 70
£74 95 ComtumcATioiu Music Sound Oass Studio Magic 9ynNa .....
Track 24 ...... ?
Ried away, and give more realistic scores.
David Fairweather.
Blackburn, Lancashire.
OK, leff wants to know if you have problems with the 10,000 holes? His latest rating is for your letter. He gives it minus several million. If it makes you feel any better a couple of continental mags gave Xenon II100 per cent as well.
Name that tune DO YOU know if there are any PD discs containing an assembler source of a Aegis Sonix (SMUS) play routine? If you know about any could you please print which one in your mag and could you please also explain how SMUS files are stored? Thanks for an excellent mag.
Joel Hargen, Norway.
While there seem to be quite a few PD players for Sonix tunes - the program even comes with one - none of which include source.
Since Aegis has gone into liquidation and disappeared down a plughole I can't think of anyone to call.
Box o' tricks Where in the world I HAVE noticed that there is a bug in the Kickstart roms.
Occasionally the computer boots up with the CLI screen in the NTSC screen mode, not allowing the display or mouse pointer go past line 200 and forcing you to reset.
All one has to do is to copy the program called reset trom the c directory ol the October disc ot Amiga Computing to your Workbench disc and change the startup sequence to run it. Then if you boot up your Amiga one day and it has not Pathetic printer I RECENTLY bought an NEC PC8023 printer. However none of the printer drivers on Workbench
1. 3 will work, I have tried to customise my own with a PD
printer driver generator but was unsuccessful because of the
very technical nature of the program and lack of data on the
1 wonder if anyone can help with details of where I could obtain a driver?
Garry Cogman, Norwich, Norfolk.
Give up. NEC was distinctly unhelpful. Companies which haven't heard of the Amiga I can sorta handle. NEC not knowing if an 8023 is a printer or a portable computer I cannot. The call did yield the information that the 8023 is a bit of an odd-ball and not compatible with anything decent.
From A to B WHAT is the difference between the Amiga A2000 and the Amiga B2000? Can you get an Amiga 2000 with the ECS? I have seen an advert for the B2000 which has 1 meg of chip ram. Will most software on the Amiga 500 run on the Amiga B2000?
Chris Denman, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey.
All 2000s are A2000s, but some are more equal than others.
Commodore changed the design of the original revision Al board to revision B) and some dudes call booted up in PAL your Amiga will reset itselt.
I think many Amiga owners are sick ot commercial games coming out in the American NTSC screen format in England and Europe. We are stuck with a horrible black band at the bottom ot the screen 56 pixels deep.
There have been documented methods of telling whether a machine is PAL or NTSC since it does not take all that much extra effort to program a piece ol software that utilises the PAL Amigas.
Anyway, there is no excuses these B2000s.
ECS is a two chip set. The first, Agnus, gives 1 meg of chip ram.
The second, Denise, gives new screen modes when used with the Istilll forthcoming 1.4 version of AmigaDos. So no, you can't get ECS yet.
The situation wouldn't be so confused if a sawdust-for-brains columnist in a weekly magazine hadn't got it all wrong. A few games don't scan the keyboard properly. This means they don't work on A2000S but the problem is quite rare.
Pondering Protext READING the November article about printing from Protext we could not understand a word. For instance OC - what is it? Where do you put it? How do you put it?
We are no good at programming and do not understand much that is written in your articles, so please think of those less fortunate and explain things step by step in easy to follow instuctions.
Also could we have more short listings to type in demonstrating the Amiga's potential. We have found in the past that copying listings helps us to understand Basic programming much more easily.
Richard Gray, Norwich, Norfolk.
Go and make a good, hot, strong cup of tea. While the kettle is boiling take another look at the November article. OC stands for Output Character. This sends a number to the printer. It could produce a letter or make the printer go into a special mode.
Try the example on page 96.
For software houses when the Kickstart 1.4 operating system comes out lor Amigas. Since it will have built-in software to detect whether a machine is NTSC or PAL.
Mr W M Liu.
Morden. Surrey.
Ouite agree. Although even when 1.4 does appear there are still going to be a million Amigas out there with 1.2 and
1. 3. so this won 't be a reliable way ol telling where your
Amiga is. P'raps they ought to lit them with homing beacons.
What happens? Small letters right.
Now sit down at your Amiga, drink your tea and work through the article slowly.
Virus victim?
WHEN 1 borrow software from my friend 1 load it up to see black lines and dots come up on my monitor. 1 looked it up on my virus killer.
Nothing came up and only sometimes it comes up with black lines.
Could it be a virus? What is the best virus killer I can get? If you kill a virus from the memory can it still be there? If I could not get rid of it what would I have to do?
Alan Young BFPO114.
Hmmm, Sounds much more like a hardware problem to me. I suspect you have a sick Denise custom chip. Do the lines look like those on page 89 of the September issue?
If you are feeling brave, and the machine is not under warranty, New crew 1 have been reading your articles and have progressed very far. 1 have learnt so much from them that 1 have almost finished my very first Amiga demo. Our newly- formed crew is called Meltdown the members are: Coding - Club 2000 (me!). Music - Art'n' Image and Conz. Grafix - Art'n' Image and H-Angel, Spreader - Bruno.
Duncan Chambers, South Shields, Tyne and Wear.
S£l -r| vx 3 X &%*tutuKOvie rfntiya, Softuwie &o*nnu donc 4*U pi "% vi*U *vtt
A. P.B ..... 8arborion
II .. Batman: The
Movie ... Beach
Volley . Blode
Warrior ...
Cabal .... Chicago
90 . Demon's
Tomb .. Dynamic
Debugger ... Fiendish Freddies Big Top
o' Fun .. Future
Wars .. Gemini
Wing Ghostbusters
Gridiron . Hard
Drivin' . Highway
Patrol . Horse
Infestation .....
Interphose ....; ... Iron
Trocker .. It Came from the
Desert ....
Ivanhoe .. Jig
Sow .. Keef the
Knightforce ... Laser
Squod .. Life &
Death . Matrix
Marauders .....
Neuromoncer Never
Mind .. Operation
Thunderbolt ..... Populous: Promised
lands . Power
Drift ... Shadow of the
Beast .
Silkworm Sim
City Star
Blaze .....
Strider ...
Stryx ..... Super
League Soccer Super
Quintet ... Swords of
Twilight .... The lost
Patrol ... The New Zealand
Story ... The
Untouchables .....
Toobin ... Triod
II .. Xenon II
Megablast ...
Xenophobe ... Xenon
Technology, Dept. AC 71 Wadham Road, North End, Portsmouth,
Hants. P02 9ED IT (0705)6708781?
Commodore A590 20MB Hard Drive ......£349.95 Commodore A590 CMOS RAM Chips xl (128k) ..£13,95 Commodore A590 CMOS RAM Chips x4 (512k 0.5MB) £49.95 Commodore A590 CMOS RAM Chips x8 (1024k 1 MB) £99.95 Commodore A590 CMOS RAM Chips x 12 (1536k 1,5MB)..... .....£149.95 Commodore A590 CMOS RAM Chips x 16 (2048k 2MB) .
.....£199.95 Exlernol Floppy Disk Drive £74.95 Cordless Mouse ......£117.95 Commodore A501 512k 0.5MB RAM Expansion £98.95 Minigen £99.95 Commodore A520 Modulator .£22.95 Commodore MPS 1200S Serial Printer ....£159.95 Mouse Mat .....£3.25 Dust
Cover ......£3 .20 Mouse House ..£2.95 External 3.5" Drive DS DD .....£69.95 Konix Navigator Joystick ....£9.45 Konix Speed King Joystick ..£8.45 Sure Shot Zip Stick ....£12.45 10 DS DD 3.5* Disks .£6.50 SPECIAL OFFERS!!
Any less and we'll be giving them away.
"And why not?" I hear you ask!
Because we're not as stupid as the competition looksll All proskjcls on dliqolched wilhin 24 hour* |.ubj«ctto ova.labJity) by FIRST CLASS poll All now Allot oro dispolched whon rolooiod Al pticoi shown o o lull* Induslv* ol VAT. Poilogo. Pockoging and o ful guoronfco (plooio odd Cl.10 pet iletn ovotiooil Plooio moko cheques ot postal otdott payable k) "Xenon Technology" To ocder limply writo on o piece ol popot, your none, pos tol oddreu, o telephone number |ll possible, only used il absolutely necessary!. And Ihe software Mle |wilh the machine model) Then pop in your payment |eilher a cheque
or o postal order) ond frea pop A n Ihe post |noi fergelhng ol course out name on Ihe Iron! Ol Ihe envelope ond o llompl.
VAT Regisealion Number: 543 9020 57 Proprietor: Steve Lowe Note: Xenon Technology it Moll Order ONLY.
THE POWER DRIVE VM for You- INCLUDING: BATMAN THE MOVIE INTERCEPTOR * NEW ZEALAND STORY DELUXE PAINT II • AMIGA BASIC * MOUSE 3 MANUALS • MODULATOR AMIGA EXTRAS 1-3 BASIC 1-2 * WORKBENCH 1-3 THE VERY FIRST (ENGLISH) plus 10 EXTRA TITLES including BARBARIAN * MERCENARY • IKARI WARRIORS Sold Separately £699 £399 (Tidei may my) £17 mOllth' 'BUDGUA C AVAIlABll 41*345% AMIGA SCART (RGB ANAlOGUEl £11.95 AMIGA MONITOR (TTL RGB) £11.95 AMIGA El AJ SOCKET £11.95 A500 A2000-CENTRONICS £9.95 RS232 CABLE FOR A500 2000 (suit OCE » DtE £9.95 AMIGA DISK DRIVE EXT £14.95 AMIGA 3' ," DRIVE CUMANA 3%" DRIVE
BARE 3%" DRIVE £7995 £95.00 The Power Drive from Power Computing sets new standards in performance and quality for your Commodore Amiga™ or Atari ST™ computer at a price that leaves our competitors behind!
THE FACTS PC720 Atari ST Super Slim Case 720K Formatted Built in 240v PSU* On Off Switch 12 Month Guarantee PC880 Amiga Super Slim Case 880K Formatted Thru Pori Isolating Switch 12 Month Guarantee Both Power Drives include cables and instructions
• The 720E lakes il's power from Ihe ST Computer 25 MICROSNIPS
IN 10s) £18.99 LOCKABLE MULTIPURPOSE DISK BOX (Holds 40 3Vi'
DISKS) £8.95 LOCKABLE ANTI STATIC DISK BOX (Holds 80 37. DlSKSl
£4.95 STAR NL-10 RIBBON 2 lor £9.95 STAR LC-10 MONO RIBBON 2
lor £9.95 STAR 1C-10 COLOUR RIBBON £7.95
2. 000 SHEETS 60gm MICROPERF FANFOLO £15.95
2. 000 SHEETS 80gm PLAIN FANFOLO £13.95
1. 000 SHEETS 80gm MICROPERF £10.95 PHILIPS 8833 MED RES COL
£24900 £239.00 £289.95 Number 1 3' ," DISK IN THE WORLD TDK
CAME TOP OVERALL IN II CATEGORIES TDK MF-2DD MRND3 95 lot 10 f
14.50 | IS ™ Instant Credit Available ¦ Ask for Details K
Postage and Packaging items under £50 add £2 Items under f 100
add £5. Items over £ 100 add | £10 tor Courier Delivery
Includes delivery to you the day alter despatch Overseas
customers Europe II price shown will cover carnage and
packaging Non-European add 5% to total 37 Seaview Road,
Wallasey, Merseyside L45 4QN.
051-630 3013 051-630 5396 051-691 2008 Fax 051-639 2714 Power Drives are available by mail order direct from Power Computing or al better computer retailers. Look out lor the bright red box!
Mail Order Hotline 0800 581742 Free Call!
Power Computing Ltd 44A Stanley St • Bedford • MK41 7RW 0234-273000 Trade distribution 01 -300-3399 "•All trademarks are acknowledged WARNING THE ONE ON THE RIGHT IS HANDLING STOLEN GOODS.
If you are involved in software piracy then you are breaking the law.
THIS CAMPAIGN IS ORGANISED BY . - T J nnn Any information on piracy niDlirV H _ should be passed to rIKftvV euhopeanIeisuresoftware Federation Against Software Theft. |g j||EFT * innate men. Ar* TiirrT irvrovi iciovnc our ' nunc _ _ __ _ publishers association Telephone 01-240 6756 you could open it up and moke sure all the chips are properly seated in their sockets by giving them a gentle push. Otherwise take your Amiga to a computer doctor who will make it better for you.
Tired mouse IN his letter in the November issue
V. S. Kirby's said that if you put a 1mm piece of card on the
leaf contacts in the mouse this will improve the button's
This is all right for a while, but eventually the paper wears down and so the buttons become unre- Ian Wickham, Cheshunt. Herts.
Fun for four Corporal Elsdon had a query about Gauntlet 2 last month and I have the answer. I have got Gauntlet 2 and I bought a four player adaptor from Softsellers (0473 257158 210605) for £5.95. All you have to do is plug this into the parallel port and then you can play with four players.
[erry Spencer, Mill Hill, London.
Great, thanks now he and his friends can rush around mazes, killing monsters and shooting at each other. Which will make such a change from his day fob.
Tall order Happy memories WELL this is the fourth issue of Amiga Computing I've bought, and so far you seem to be maintaining a high standard. Now, on to the serious stuff. I've already figured out that the half meg provided with the machine is woefully inadequate for serious use, so I now face the expense of a ram upgrade.
Looking through the mag I noticed Third Coast Technologies advertising a 1.8 meg internal board, and I've seen other companies with the same sort of thing.
However, before I splash out and buy one, is it safe?
Can the A500 provide enough be painfully slow. And it isn't really the right solution to the problem.
Pagestream might do what you want but the last version the experts here saw la while ago mindl was buggy and oh. So slow.
ProPage 1.3 has not yet come in for review, but is reputed to have lop notch dot matrix printer support. Call the importers. HB Marketing, on 0895 444433 and see what they have to say. It's the one I'd go for.
Shame you want something easy to use 'cos TeX gives the best results - after six months learning to use it.
Lost adventure WHAT has happened to the brilliant adventure section you had? It was great and informative, but now there isn't a trace of it in your magazine. Is it possible to buy the discs from back issues separately or would 1 have to buv the magazine as well?
Can you please advise me on whether 1 should buy a second disc drive or Commodore's 20 meg hard Sharp eyed I READ your excellent magazine. The November issue, for the first time the other day.
Your games reviews are very good, but whatever happened to the Beach Volley review?
Was it perhaps zapped by aliens, or was it just lett out to encourage readers to read the power for the extra ram without overloading? Where would the extra ram fit into the memory map?
Is a battery backed up clock worth the extra money? Will the new super Agnus chip be able to recognise one of these boards as chip ram and use all or part of it for programs?
Cecil Banks, Southampton, Hants Safe is not quite the right term.
And it depends on your system.
Commodore says an Amiga is OK with an extra 512k and disc drive.
But means one of their massively drive? I would like both, but at the moment I can only afford one of them. I already have a ram expansion.
One last thing. What happened to the review of Beach Volley last month? It was listed among the games that were reviewed but the review did not appear in the magazine.
Graham Hy, Blackball, Edinburgh.
We didn't get enough mail about adventures. Perhaps if we get more requests from people like you we could start one up again. Discs from the August to fanuary issues are available at £1.50 each from Protoscan Ltd, Amiga Computing Cover Disc, Burrel Road, St. Ives, PE17 4LE.
A second floppy drive costs about £70, a hard drive £400. They art n't really comparable. If you can afford it go for the hard drive.
Well done on spotting the Beach Volley mistake. There wasn't room to squeeze it in when we came to put the magazine together. It shows you read the mag very carefully.
Magazine from cover to cover?
II so. Do we really need any encouragement?
Terence McGrath.
Fairfield. Liverpool.
Not bad. Not at all bad. There is nothing lor it. I'll have lo send you a prize lor observation.
Power hungry floppies not the nice efficient drives folks like Evesham sell. So there is a fair stack of power left over.
You'll need to find out what chips the expansion you are interested in uses but I can't think that there will be any problem. It might run a bit warm. A battery backed up clock doesn't cost much and is well worth having.
The super Agnus Iamerican Tourist or FANG2 as some call herI can access 1 meg of chip ram but you will need to cut some tracks on the board. Use a sharp knife and get a grown-up to help you.. Red letter day YOUR disc should have solved my problems as 1 do a lot of word processing using only the CLI Ed facility. But I was disappointed to find the Protext version on the September's free disc would not print out on my Star LC10 colour printer.
I have tried every printer selection possible, even altering the DIP switched, but to no avail. Is this because this version will not drive this particular printer or because my Amiga A500 has insufficient memory to use the program?
If is has insufficient memory, does this mean the full version of Protext would also be unusable without a memory upgrade?
Susan Kirke, Sunnyside, Newcastle Upon Tyne.
The LC-10 colour is quite capable of producing black and while type.
Use the Epson driver and set the switches lo the Epson settings and all should be tickety-boo. Amor does supply a version of Protext which works in 512k but for serious use you should get an extra half meg.
Get knitted!_ I'VE found a wonderful program which 1 thought you might enjoy (see enclosed package]. It is easy to use and produces beautiful results.
However, it is not fully Amiga compatible, so I have also sent ?
AMIGA ACCESSORIES MinlQEN Genlock adapter .£95.00 Omega Projects MIDI Interlace. Including 30' serial cable .£29.95 Contriver Hl-Res Mouse, includes Mouse Mat & Pocket ... £22.95 A500 Dust Cover £4.95 ITT CP3228 16.5" FST TV Monitor Inc. rem control & cable .... £229.00 Philips CM8833 14'colour monitor, suits lor Amiga 500 ...£229.00 GFA BASIC Version 3 . £49.00 ONLY £69.
BE inc.VAT & delivery I 512K RAM CLOCK EXPANSION FEATURES : it Direct replacement for the A501 expansion it Auto-recharging battery backed Real-time Clock it Compact unit size : Ultra-neat design it Uses only 4 D-RAMs for High Reliability it Low power consumption AMIGA 500 LOW COST RAM UPGRADE RAM expansion without clock, only ... £59.00 . £18 95 . £37.95 £69.00 Kind Words Version 2 _ Supert ase Personal Supertoese Professional.
Super-Plan .
3. 5" EXTERNAL DRIVES using Teac Citizen drive mechanisms .
£179.00 ... £74.95 ... £60.00 . £183.00 Track 24 (MIDI
sequencer package) .
An AMIGA COMI'UIING GokJ Medaffir.. allows Amiga uaars lo omulale a Mac Plus In order to run Apple Mac and Mac Plus software.
Mac disks can bo road directly In when an external Mac Drive is connected lo the cartridge hardware. Rune at least as last as a Mac Pus I Software compatible with the A-Max includes MacPaint. MacOraw (V1&2). MacWrite.
Pagemaker (VI42) plus aI versions of System A-Max without 2 i Mac 128K ROMs _ £129.00 A-Max WITH 2 x Mac 128K ROMs £249.00 A-MAX MACINTOSH EMULATOR
• Suits Amiga 500 or Amiga 1000
• Taac Citizen driva mechanlam
• On Off twitch on mar ot drive
• Throughport connector
• One megabyte unformatted capacity
• Slimline design
• Vary quiet
• Long cable for location either aide ot computer
• Full 12 months guarantee Ultra low priceI £69.95 Inc. VAT and
delivery 7ltSl T6 muMot Sepln pft..., supu. Lo.
Pnc ...cna.oo r LC24-15 wide
carriage version ol LC24-10.
200 67ope-----------------------£409.00 r LC1S wide canlage
version of LC10,10O 45cpe .£329
00 l LC-10 Mk.ll taster version ol LC10.
180 45cpe ...£199.00 mttt
DM100S 9-pln 10* primer 200 30 cps inc. 1 year on-stte warranty
I .... £129 95 rasontc KXP 1061 reiable . Sturdy 9pm 10* primer
12ty24 cpe-----------£159.00 stone KXP 1160 super new
teeture-pecked rnuSSom 9pm if-£179.00 rasomc KXP1124 new good
spaOftcation rmdMort 24pm 11*.
C P2200 budget 24 pm I6&*6cpa ..£279.00 ion LX400 (wee 1X800) 10* 18025 cpe_£17940 ion LO560 good 24pm 15050 cpe-£31940 ten 1200 budget 9 pm pnmer 120 cpe ..£139 00 vortex system 2000 40 Mb hard disks Low Cost 5.25' External Drive Th* RF542C is ft high quality 525* drive compatible to the Amiga Capable ot a number ot configurabone induing 40 80 track switching. 360 720K lormat. Giving tuft Transformer* compaBbiKy. Colour matched to the Amiga, quiet in operation, and Includes a throughport connector.
These high specification units ofler versatile high capacity storage suitable lor use with the Amiga 500 or 1000. Autobooting capability, a formalted capacity ol over 42Mb.
With an average access time ol 45ms. Includes cables. Amiga Interlace module, plus utilities software including hard disk backup.
PYE 15" TV MONITOR (MODEL 2325) i TvSnonSor now avanatae I to suit the Amiga Featuee Metait Ml Mamd mmol* control. SCART connector.
I Video Audio input and hsad ouput connector*. 39 ONLY £269.00 prica includes VAT. D9itv9ry and cable £114.95 *tSff tSfi System 2000 40Mb Hard Disk Package.
3. 5" Disks 10 Bulk packed DS DD 3.5" disks with labels, fully
guaranteed _ ..... £ 9.95 25 bulk disks as
above___________£22.95 10 disks as above with plastic case
£11.95 25 disks as above, with 40 capacity lockable storage
unit------------------------£29.95 Kodak DS DD 3.5' disks, top
quality storage media. Bo* of 10 ...£17.95
EmTiSmmcros [ All pricee include VAT and dallvary. Eiprete
Courier delivery C5.00 eitra. | |w| Send cheque. PotUl Order
or ACCESS VISA cord details Evesham Micros Ltd 63 BRIDGE
STREET EVESHAM WORCS WR11 4SF © 0386-765500 (aw nnoa tccoca
Phone us with your ACCESS or VISA Gove, rduc. A rtc ordnv Seme
day dnpetch whenever possible AU roods subject lo
aveilabtllty. LAO.H Open to callers 6 days, 9.30-5.30 m card
details on: ¦B 0386-765500 "•"'L 1 41 Prrvhorv Road.
CoUrridfr, Bi Si ., : S GIIimo Rued, Cambridf tax ujoo-'Ojjda
rmingham B30 3BH Tel: 021 4514564 t CBI 2HA Tel: 0223 323808
Open chequebook, and repeat after me... UNTIL recently I have
had no problem with my internal disc drive. Approximately two
months ago I started to get requesters saying that the disc
in dfO: had a read write error.
When I used the CU command info thore would be a number in tho errs column. The unusual thing is, when 1 put the same disc in dfl: and type info, no number appears in the errs column.
Do you have any idea what could be causing the problems, as some pieces of hardware that you might find useful. Have fun and enjoy yourself. (Oh by the way. 1 have assumed that you have grasped the art of knitting from trying out a few of your own stitches and patterns.) Let me know how you get on!
1 have actually assumed that you can't knit, but hope you now know how 1 feel when 1 read articles such as Through the Square Window, AC Vol 1 No 9. Before buying my Amiga I was totally computer illiterate. By now 1 have just about learnt my alphabet and am having a go at 2 and 3 letter words.
Please could you run a regular spot for complete beginners, or at least provide a glossary of terms and abbreviations.
I have found the process of learning a very frustrating experience. The manual provided with the A500 is good in places but just doesn't work in others.
I am reluctant to buy books which are expensive, without being sure they are any good.
Libraries don't have any for the Amiga, and magazines such as yours are written for people who know what they are doing.
Software comes without instructions or with very poor ones - they frequently assume you know how to play the game. Please help the beginners.
Anne Scotney, Loughborough, Leics.
Thanks for the needles and wool.
No. I can't knit, but they made fine improvised chopsticks for gobbling susi. And they made your point brilliantly. When you live and breath Amigas all day. Every day. It is often easy to forget that there are new users.
And it is for you that we have provided this month's free booklet.
I hope you enjoy it.. the drive is so bad I cannot boot up sometimes.
Simon Colley, Camberley, Surrey.
I, too, have a similar problem. It is the sign of a dying drive. And it is a real downer. Shop around for repair prices. Shield Computer Services in Manchester seem pretty reasonable guys at 55 quid flat rate. Call them on 061-747 3185.
Little letter THE Protext demo has turned out to be one of the most useful programs I have. Although not one of the friendliest ones around, it is quite powerful. I've managed to create a small but useable dictionary, and I'm quite pleased.
The 2k limit seems to have been just as helpful. I use Protext solely for writing letters to computer magazines, and I usually tend to write long stories instead of going straight to the point. The 2k limit doesn't let me do that (lucky for you).
The only really annoying faults are Protext's inability to cope with file names containing spaces in its catalogue mode, and that it doesn't work with a Workbench more than 640 pixel wide.
Eyal Teler, Jerusalem, Israel Yes, keeping your letters short is great, it doesn't help when you send five in each envelope.
Serial sergeant I'M the proud owner ol an A500 (well my wife is). The problem is I have a printer which I have used with a Tandy. The printer is a Tandy DWP-210 daisywheel which worked perfectly with the other system.
As the printer was very expensive I would like to use it on the Amiga, but cannot seem to get it to work. Could you please assist me with this problem? What cable connections?
Sgt B V Matthews.
RAF Gaton BFPO.
The printer is a straightforward Centronics, so a PC printer lead should work perfectly well.
Good dealer 1 write to sing the praises of one of the companies that advertises in Amiga Computing. At the Commodore show 1 bought a Micromegs ram expansion. A couple of months later my son bought a game that refused to work with the expansion module in, so I removed it and afterwards could not get the computer to "see" it When 1 rang MAST, the person 1 spoke to was Mr Tony Thompson who made it quite apparent that he was committed to customer service. Not only did he arrange for an immediate replacement to be sent (trusting me to return the faulty unit), he actually sent several goodies
and the latest specification board with an oxtornal disabling switch.
Graham Callaghan.
Christchurch, Dorset High TeX price SOME of your readers might be familiar with TeX. The mathematical typesetting package that is available in the public domain for the likes of the PC, Atari ST and so on.
I am therefore wondering why TeX only seems to be available for Amiga owners if they are prepared to spend £125? Is there a genuine PD version of TeX that 1 don't know about?
Seekers of high quality branded discs could do worse than going along to their local university's computer supplies. Edinburgh University sells Sony discs to nonstudents for 65p each.
Stephen | Richards.
Barnton, Edinburgh While Ihe TeX compiler is PD the fonts and printer drivers are not. There is a version without the drivers - but with a screen previewer - on a Fish disc.
The version The Text Formatting Company 101-806 19441 sells represents a lot of additional work.
Watching the defectives has stopped making the stereo 1084S monitor and replaced it with the old mono 1084. What is the difference between the Philips CM8833 and CM8832 models? Is the CM8832 capable of accepting stereo sound? Which monitor do you recommend?
Well the answers to some of those questions may seem blindingly obvious to you, but to me they pose a problem, and I'd value your help with them.
Stuart Lawson.
LtVERSION. Cumbria.
The line about the 1084S being stopped has a high BEI. I suspect it comes from a salesman with a lot of old stock to shift. Whatever you buy don't buy it from him. It isn't true.
Philips makes the monitor in the Commodore box so there isn't much to choose between the 8833 and 1084S. Buy whichever is cheaper. BEI? Oh, Bovine Excrement Index.
Michael Jackson competition THE answer to the Michael Jackson Moonwalker competition question "Who is he and what is the name of the film" is, of course, Jeff Walker (is this the one from the Walker demo?) NO???? What do you mean - NO!!!! Oh, you said Moon-walker. Well, sorry about this, but 1 just didn't know where to write.
Couldn't you say 'write your letters to magazine to find an address which looks right. And could you please write the name of the product you're reviewing on the contents page. I often search for a certain review through my magazines. And it helps greatly if I can see it on the contents page.
Eyal Teler, lenrsalem. Israel Hey, hang on a sec already, this is your third letter this month. Are you making a bid for a take-over ? I do put my address on the letters page. You want I put your address at the top? Eyal Teler's Postbox perhaps? Even though you got the answer to the question wrong we put your entry in the correct entries box, and sneaking a look over jeffs shoulder at the winners list I noticed that you were one of the winners.
Bugs or broken?
PLEASE could help me with two problems. The lirsl is that our unexpanded Amiga A500 is unreliable. We have sent it away lor repair with only a slight improvement. Please could you tell me it the following faults are normal.
• Workbench 1.2 can be crashed by putting files into Ram disc.
• Protext develops errors, such as not enough memory to sort
tiles, disappearing menus, and numerous Guru messages.
All these happen after you incur a system (usually disc) error.
• Amiga Basic also crashes quite frequently.
There are a few other probCompatibility crisis WHEN I bought a copy of War in Middle Earth and I was most disappointed to find that it wouldn't load. It was my memory expansion which was causing the problem. I had believed that this problem only existed in older games written before expansions became popular.
Apparently not!
A further problem was caused by my A590 bard disc which grabs some memory on startup. This was solved by disabling the autobool roms.
Now Silkworm works perfectly without all this bother, as do a number of other games so the problem is not insoluble. How about introducing a compatibility guide as part of the usual ratings roundup? This would enable those of us with extra ram to avoid buying such poorly written software and would put pressure on software bouses to tackle this annoying problem.
On the serious software front, how about a series of reviews comparing the best in various categories. No prizes for guessing which word processor would win.
Just how much are Arnor paying you for all the publicity? Over the top or what!
Mark Hadley, Fulford, York lems. But these are the most frequent and troublesome.
Have you any suggestions lor the best course of action to solve them.
The second point is that I need a good budget Eprom blower and assembler for the Z80 series. I hope to be able to create software on the Amiga to run in a separate Z80 system. Any advice you could give would be much appreciated.
Sam Hugh.
Wigan. Lancashire.
Only one ol your laults is normal. AmigaBasic crashes il asked Io do anything moderately taxing. The solution is to call Hisott on 0525 718181 and order a copy ot the Basic comTesting everything on all configurations of machine with different roms, quantities of ram and peripherals would take forever.
Commodore Technical offers software houses a testing service, bul since this takes a day for each program and we review more than 20 programs a month it would not give the people caged up in the review room time to write or play the games, - although some other mags don 'I seem to bother with playing their review copies so here is my guide to what works as a rule: Everything which should, works on a vanilla A500 except Ttmescanner (and that is the kinda thing our guys spoil. Add an extra drive and you may need to unplug it for some programs. Add memory and you may need to unplug it for
some very naughty games.
Club 68000 does an expansion with a switch which is dead useful.
There are some programs which will do the same thing.
KillFastMem on the October cover disc is one.
The richer you get the more grief you gonna have. 'Us true that money can't buy happiness. Hard drives gobble ram and have autoboot roms again most programs can handle this unless they expect to sit in a specific area of memory.
Anything from America should be kosher, stuff from Germany is suspect.
Buy a 2000 and you really have rich kid problems. The keyboard piler. While you should upgrade your Workbench 1.2 to 1.3 - it only to get the excellent manual - there is no reason why
1. 2 should give you problems and neither should Protext, so I'd
ad vise you to take the machine to a dealer who can run some
tests on it.
Most Eprom blowers accept serial input, although I can't find any details ot an Amiga- specitic one. A friend has been looking tor a 280 cross assembler lor a while and the best solution he has come up with is to use the public domain CP M emulator and run a 280 assembler under that.
Seventeen Bit Sottware on 0924 366982 should be able to lurnish you with the emulator.
Liming is different. Now there is a proper way to scan the keyboard and "the way which works on my A500". Listen to what the man says and the program will work.
This is the second most common compatibility problem and as so few people play games on A2000S it isn't a mega worry.
So what wins the prize for being the hardware most programs hate?
It is the add-on processor. The 68020 and 68030 have a little bit of memory inside 'em called a cache. This reads chunks of program ready for the rest of the chip to run.
So if the chip changes the chunk in proper memory after it has been read the chip doesn't get to hear of it, and everything falls in a heap.
This is called self-modifying code. This is a no-no. Partly because il causes problems and partly because it is frighteningly difficult to debug. Sometimes programmers want to write unreadable code, particularly when working on disc protection routines. Otherwise the crackers wouldn't have a challenge. So the protectors use selfmodifying code.
This is really annoying because it means that games which would run much better on a foster Amiga won't even load.
I like the idea of serious roundups. But then who am I to make policy decisions? I pass it on Io the powers that be.
Time warp BROWSING through back numbers I came across a couple of points which may be of interest to you and readers. In an article about a fancy monochrome high-res monitor, Simon Rockman implies that there is a problem in getting Protext to fill an interlaced screen with its default window, I use a flickerfixer and a Multisync II and found this problem too.
However, 1 contacted Mark Tilley (the author of Protext) at Arnor and almost by return of post he sent me a 'fixed' version which will produce a full window on an interlaced screen. I am writing this on such a screen which gives me nearly a full A4 (some 50-odd lines).
Used on a monochrome long persistence monitor, the window is slightly larger than can be attained with the Multisync. While not exactly in the Viking league, this version puts Protext streets ahead of any opposition. IBM or otherwise. For the price and gives credit to Arnor for prompt responsiveness.
Secondly in your letters page, Keith Stark of Bury St Edmunds, had a grumble about the Beebulator in that it couldn't be copied. Well, that may be. But it can be installed on a hard disc.
1 have played about with one for about three months and was not aware of the copy- protection. I just installed it. 1 can't recall how 1 did it but I can assure you it works.
Sorry that these responses are a bit late, but I trust they are useful comments.
|ohn Stanley Wistaslon, Crewe.
Time and tide wait for no man.
And while they are waiting the rest of us get around to some de-bug- ging. It was as a direct result of Simon's review and a number of messages on the truly wonderful Cix modem service, that Arnor fixed Protext. When the article was written the statement was correct honest your honour .
The same is true of the Beebulator. The first 1,000 copies were protected, But thanks to several complaints, of which the letter in Amiga Computing, was one, Commodore changed to an unprotected version. And that is what you buy today. Well done, Commodore.
Public Domain Software for the Amiga H TEL: 0983 79 496 S from £3 per disk all inclusive We have one of the largest collections of PD software for the Amiga In the UK.
? Over 500 disks!
* Membership not necessary ? Fast Service We currently stock: O
O PANORAMA 1-71 O AUGE 1-25 O T-BAG 1-23 All the above are £3
each ? 1 FREE when you order 10 2 catalogue disks available at
£5 which give details of the above collections Our own special
selection £4.00 each O AP0146 CU HELP Confuted by CLI? This
one's for you O APDL 7' ...... _L 8 AmlGA'O'lSK DOCTOR Is
saving programs!
0L 414 BEST ARCADE GAMES AP0L 415 BEST BOARD GAMES RffiRMsaeis preadsheet & Da 1 DATABASES urdata JNTURES Vol 2 Castle: A graphic adventure & several text adventures O APOL 443 C COMPILER ASSEMBLER AND LINKER O APDL 444 WORD PROCESSING Word Processor & Spellchecker O APDL 445 PUZZLE & STRATEGY GAMES O APDL 448 MAGNIFICENT FORCE II 20 Great Tunes O APDL 452 FRACTAL GENERATORS O APDL 453 UNKNOWN 5 OEMOS Superb eye-popping demos with great music O APDL 457 JUNGLE COMMAND Musical Invasion 3 O APDL 458 CHET SOLACE SHAREWARE EXTRAVAGANZA Some ol the best sharewaro programmes on easy-to-use menu
driven disc SPECIAL Startrek _ tor those with 1 Mb 3 discs £ Write or phone for a FREE List ACCOUNTS Arena Int. Accounts 1MB129 95 Desk Top Budget 34 96 Home Accounts 23.92 Panmead Modules (each). 39 79 Personal Tax Planner 34.96 SBA Cash 1 MB 59 80 SB A Xtra 1Mb .....99 82 BOOKS 4 CONSUMEABLES Please call COMMUNICATIONS A Talk 3 59 80 BBS PC 88 78 K Comm 2 . 23 92 Ruby Comm (ViewtTerm) 68.77 COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN Design 30 1MB 57 96 Draw 2000 . 149 96 Professional Draw 1MB 99 82 X Cad Designer 1MB 79.81 X Cad Prof 1.SMB 339 W DATABASE
MANAGERS Acquisition ... 159.85 Data Retrieve Pro 179 86 Mailshot Plus 37 95 Micro Base .....17 94 Microliche Filer Plus 117 76 Microfiche Filer ... 49 91 Prodata 54.97 Race Horse Form Master 39 79 Superbase Personal 39 79 Superbase Personal 2 .62.79 Superbase Professional 159 85 Who What When Where 29 90 DESKTOP PUBLISHERS PageSetter .....59.80 Pagestream 1MB 129 95 Professional Page 1MB 174 80 EDITORS CygnusEd Professional . 59 80 GRAPHICS Animap* Effects 1MB 54 97 Clighf Ray Tracing 39 79 Comic Setter 1MB 39 79
Deluxe Paml 3 1MB 57.96 Deluxe Video 54.97 Digi Pamt 3 .54.97 Elan Perlomer .44 85 Movie Setter 51.98 Turbo Silver Ray Tracing _____ Video Studio Tools .89 93 Zoetrope Animation 1 MB 79 81 vSISSK* 2 1.3 Switch 64 86 3 5* NEC Drrvs Switch Toolbox..... Beginners... Arexx Language " ' 7. Disk Optimiser .
Thro ....69 92 A4 Ral ... at&tsDt giwer i a1*™" * Masterpiece Fonts .. Maxidesk Workbenc Protect 0 Backup Ed Superbeck 2 Virus Infect. Protection.. _____0 MidiKytard If View Gold Digitiser . 1i Interface..... . I lock ... riga PAL Digitiser PACKAGES Richard Howe 4 Angels Hammett Applied Research Kamel Cone Farmhouse. Chela Green. Vsntnor. P0312U. U.K. POSTAGE: UK Free Each item under 1kg Europe £4. World £10 CHEQUES: London Sterling Payable to A R K please EXPORT 4 BFP0: Remove U.X VA T (-Pricw 1 15) VA.T.:AII prices mcfude U.K. VAT at 15% PHONE:
Monday to Saturday 9am to 7pm 0ESPATCH: Usually withm 48 hours PRICES. Are subject lo change OVER 1600 AMIGA PROOUCTS LISTED THE AMIGA PD LIBRARY Dept. AMC. 72 Glencoe Road. Sheffield. S2 2SR PD Hotline 0742-588429 (9am-9pml DELTABASE A COMPUTERS I.LTD 10 Petersfield Avenue, Slough, Berkshire SL2 5DN Tel: 0753 35557 Fax: 0753 511122 .139.00 40500 19500 ...255.00 395 00 ...51800 649 CO 26500 334 00 .399.00 ...438.00 ....524.00 646 00 . 864 00 12
279. 00 289 00 46500 £235 £188
- £260
- £325 . £349
135. 00 168 00
225. 00
234. 00 ..-.389.00 49900
80. 00
128. 00 Analogue Yoke Joystick for Right Sim II. Similar lo a
light aircraft control it rocks from side to side for
aileron movement and slides in and out for elevator
controls £29.95 DELTA 3A - A light action analogue
joystick with tire buttons.
Introduced so that software companies can produce the software to use it Meantime this also will only run flight SIM
DELTA 3S - A unique fast light hand held switched (oystick with fingertip control which will have you still nipping around the screen, when the upright sucker brigade are nursing their aching wrists . ... £14.95 AMI-CAT - Mouse eliminator joystick for where a suitable surface cannot be found. AMI-CAT will provide variable speed control of mouse software. It you point the stick, the mouse pointer cursor etc will move in that direction. The speed is proportional to the degree of deflection. When the stick is released the mouse pointer remains
stationary £29.95 SIMULATOR Sublogic Flight Sim II ....£27.95 SOFTWARE Scenery Discs ..£15.95 Unit 9, Bondor Business Centre ¦L V London Road. BakJock, SG7 6HP « i * Telephone 0462 894410 Prices include VAT s 1 si class post Dealer S Distributor terms available VOLTMACE AMIGA HARDWARE A500 Complete _____________________ A500.TV Modulator .... A500*Phikps Med. Col AMIGA 500 BATMAN PACK - include*
• Amiga 500 computer« TV Modulator. Mouse
• Batman Movie Game
• F18 Right Simulator Game
• Paint II
• New Zealand Story
• Dataplex offer of Free Joystick PRICE
A501-512K Ram. Clock Free lltlxig if bought with Amioa
500 TV Modulator Mouse Mat
. Amiga to PhHip* lead
...- Amiga to Printer lead Quekshot II Turbo
Joystick_______ DATAPLEX DRIVES 1MB 3 5' External Or4 ......
1Mb 3 5* Internal Orkve 1Mb 5.25* Floppy
Orve .... AMIGA HARO DRIVES 20Mb 0nveA50(V1000 .. 329.00
30Mb AS0QT1000 .....- .....- ..529.00 40Mb
Dnvt A50Q 1000 ...... 458 00 60Mb Drive
A500 1000 .. 91000 Please nng lor othei capacity
drives PHILIPS MONITORS CM8833 14* RGBCVBS Col Mon 199.00
BM7502 12-Green Monitor ---------- 79 00 BM7522 12* Amb«r
Monitor .89 00 CM8852 Hi Re* Col Mon -------- 249 00
PRINTERS Amstrad 103500 Dl ..189.00
Amslrad 0MP4000 17500 Amstrad 105000 Dl ..
295.00 Oot Matrix Range Citizen 1200 115 00 Citizen 180E
- ......127.00 New 24pm Swift 24 _____________ 255 00
Colour upgrade for Swift .. 4200 All Citizen printer*
com* with 2 year warranty Epson LX400
___________________________ Epson FX1060
..... Epson LQ 400 Epson LQ550 Epson
LQ850 Epton LG860
..._ Epson LQ1060 Hewlett
Packard ThWkt ... Ouietiet
..... Quietjet.
..... DeskJet
__ .. Su
.... PaintJet .. Rugged Wrser
._ ..... Al Hewlett Packard Printers
come w*h months onsae warranty Brolhsr Ml 109 Brother M1209
...... Brother Ml224
. Brother M1818 ....
Brother Ml709 ... Star LC10
Mono ________________ Star LC10 Colour ...
Star LC24-10 .... NECP2200
.. ------------------------- NEC P6.80 Character . NEC
P7.136 Characier Colour Upgrade K4 ...... Panasonic
KXP1061 ... Sheetfesder . 89 00 Panasonic KXP1180
...-144.00 Panasonic KXP1592
-253.00 Panasonic KXP1595 .... 319.00
Panasonic KXP1540 ___________ 404.00 NEW Mannesmann TaBy MT81
(Oot Matrix)______________ 115.00 Sheetfesder
. -62.00 Serial l£
- ..v_ 4900 RIBBONS Various ribbons
in stock, please cal for prices FmH, Prohuional ind EffKlaid
rtftkt unM oul.
CoMIIJoro ol ula ' All price* exclude VAT and delivery charge*
• E40E all price* *ubject lo change without notice
• Al collections made by prior arrangement from our warehouse
• Please add £1 »VAT lor consumables and £3»VAT lot all other
item* for next day delivery The fate of the world lies in your
hands. Magic, animation and monsters add up to a game which no
role-playing enthusiast should miss. SAVE £51 OUR PRICE £24.99
You are in control of a city.
Build the metropolis. Live your imperialist dreams.
Can you rule for 100 years? The thinking man's Populous. SAVE £51 SIM CITY RRP £29.99 Buy both OH Cl and save I O ¦ PLEASE USE THE ORDER FORM ON PAGE 113 COMPUTING SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM Please register my subscription to Amiga Computing: Valid to February 28. 1990 Please lick the appropriate box TIN TIN From cartoon to computer game with graphics to match. Help TlnTin and triends on their quest to reach the moon. Snowy is on your side, but watch out for the evil Colonel Boris. Blistering Barnacles!
12 MONTH SUBSCRIPTION Renewal UK Europe & Eire Overseas Airmail £24.95 £34.95 £49.95 . 9567 . 9571 9573 9570 9572 24 MONTH SUBSCRIPTION Order either Tin Tin or Kult (but not both) for the stunning price of £4 - but only when you subscribe to Amiga Computing New Renewal UK £54,95 Europe S Eire £63.95 9S74 9S76 as7s 9577 Overseas Airmail £91.95 Orders received by January 11 will commence with March issue I would like to take advantage of ONE of your special offers: Tin Tin moo or Kult £4.00 9449 Payment: please indicate method (?)
Chequ&Eurocheque made payable to Database Put* teat ions Ltd.
| Access Mastefca d Eurocanl Bafclaycard VkaGonnect fcxpiryl Date 1 ! | 1 1 1 Mil Signed .
KULT Daytime telephone number in case of queries_ Lively, colourful and challenging. The unexpected humour and puzzles promise many sleepless nights Send to: Database Direct, FREEPOST, Ellesmere Port, South Wirral L65 3EB (No »tarrp needed I posted in UK) Order at any time of I Orders by phone 051 -357 1275 | the day or night I- -1 Orders by Fax: 051-357 2813 Don! Forger to give your name.
Address and credit card number Orders by KucroLktk: MAG001 General Enquiries: 061-357 2961 PLEASE USE THIS ORDER FORM AmigaTEX AmigaTEX provides a powerful alternative in document preparation. It enables you to typeset complex or long documents, especially those of a technical nature such as user manuals or journal papers. It gives you true typeset quality with kerning, ligatures, full floating accents, mathematical and technical symbols and the ability to produce tables and special formats. AmigaTEX will accept input from any text editor or word processor and with its built- in screen
previewer, a document formatter of mainframe power becomes available. Also included with AmigaTEX are LaTEX - a document formatter with dozens of preformed styles, SliTEX - a slide generating macro, and BibTEX - a bibliography database program. AmigaTEX is fully file compatible with other versions of TEX.
Printer drivers are available for most printer types and the complete set of Computer Modern Fonts is included. A companion program METAFONT is available for those who wish to create new fonts or modify existing ones.
AmigaTEX is £125 and printer driver sets (laser series, Epson FX series, NEC P6 and Epson LQ series, HP DeskJet) are priced at £75 each. METAFONT is £50.
All prices include VAT and carriage.
Access and Visa accepted.
For further details and free demo disk write or call: THE TEXT FORMATTING COMPANY SUFFIELD WORKS, 1 SUFFIELD ROAD, LONDON N15 5JX TEL: 01-802 4470 MONO £129.00 ? VAT COLOUR £169.00 ? VAT (with cable & paper) Philips CM8833 £119.00 . VAT LC2410 £194.00, VAT Amiga 500 + Mod £279.00 . VAT Citizen 120D £104.00, VAT Amiga 500 Bat Pk £312.00, VAT Epson LX400 £129.00 , VAT Tenslar pack with A500 £17.30 Commodore A501 upgrade £99.00 Cumina CAX54 (1M) 3.5- £69.00 All prices Include Cable & Paper Panasonic KXP1081 £119.00, VAT DISKETTES (lltoUma warranty) (100% certified error free) 1035" 135tpi DS D0
£5 60 +VAT Panasonic KXP1180 £139.00, VAT 50 3.5' 13Stpl DS D0 £26.30 , VAT 100 3.5- 13Stpl DS200 £52.00, VAT 50 DISK box hinge & lock......£4.30 , VAT 100 Disk box hinge & lock ....£6.80 . VAT Phone for our full catalogue best price. Fast service & 12 months guarantee Prices subject to change. We are closed Saturday Postage £1.00 *VAT (£1.15). Securtcor £7.00 ? VAT (£8.05) Hampshire Microcomputers Hampshire Micros Unit 11, Kingdom Park, Segensworth, Titchlield, Hants P015 5TJ.
Stel:0489 885911 (Fax 885651) Larger Itsms by Securkor Software for serious .worn enthusiasts POOLSWINNER n Till. I I TIM Ml IVMH S OKI DICTION I'kOOK l i t ;i: n'i ' n £28.50 Poolswinner with Fixgen £26.00 AU availablefft IBM • group to belong to regardless of your age or level of experience, our aim being to provide support and encouragement to everyone. Why not join us and start to appreciate what Amiga computing is ad about.
It' tw» fa 5io°66 The 11.% Amiga Users group is the Largest Amiga only user group in the world We are now in our fourth year and are the most established and e (perienced Amiga user group in the 11.% We have over 1,500 members and are able to offer an unrivalled level of support. Our members receive a 60+ page bi-monthly nezvsletter packed with articles of interest at all levels, we Have a massive library of public domain softivare and run an Amiga only bulletin board We offer our members superb discounts on all hardware,software and books- The ll.TQA.ll.Q. is the Amiga Amiga Amiga Amiga Amiga
• MASSIVE DATABASE Poolswinner is a sophisticated Pools
prediction Aid. It comes complete with the large*! Database
available 22000 matches over 10 year*.
• PREDICTS Not just SCOREDRAWS. But NO-SCORES, AWAYS and HOMES
too. Predictions are based on many factors _. Recent form, the
massive database, current league standing, goal scoring rales,
and draw averages (each factor is independently switchable by
the user!.
• SUCCESSFUL Selcc guarantee that Poolswinner performs signifi
cantly better than chance.
• LEAGUE AND NON-LEAGUE matches are covered
• FULL LEAGUE TABLES are automatically generated as results are
• AUTOMATIC FIXTURE GENERATION : Fixtures for English and
Scottish League matches are generated automatically by
Poolswinner'* sister program FIXGEN-
• FIXGEN : No need lo struggle for hours lo get the fixture list
into the computer - just type in the date, Fixgen contains the
complete fixture list for the whole year's league soccer.
(Published under licence from the F ootball League. And the
Scot tail Football League!.
• Whether you use a scientific bet, or family birthdays, PPP will
check the performance of any bet over the years, revealing
which weeks it won prizes. Test your theories, or compare
perms' performance. Complete with 5 years coupon result*
• Also you can use Pools Perm Plus to check your perm for winning
lines each week: the program comes complete with 20 lop perms.
I The ORIGINAL, and still the BEST computer punter's aid.
B Course winner VJ uses all the most important form pointers (past form, speed ratings, prize money, course statistics, jockey form .trainer form etc) to give a detailed assessment of every runner's chances, not just a tip.
B ViUl statistics of all British courses (Draw advantage. Top Trainers and Jockeys etc) are included in the database. £26.00 B Includes both FLAT and NATIONAL HUNT versions.
POOLS PERM PLUS SDI'IIINI l( Mi l) I DOTH M l. IVX)I S TKRM AVMTSTK COURSEWINNER vs l lll 1*1 VII-RSlOMI'l I I K INMXiKAM AMIGA. ATARI ST. Amst PCW SiZ Selec Software Q 62 Altrincham Rd. Galley, ( headlc. Cheshire SK8 41)1* Tel 061-42*7425 ivVlia full liu ol uur will wart) r*»24hr ES 0530 411485 ASHCOM RAM expansion without clock £73.95 512K RAM Expansion with Clock for Amiga 500 Features:
* RealTime Clock with High Capacity NICAD Battery Backup
* Memory Disable Switch
* Low Power Consumption
* Latest Technology 1MBit RAMS
* Low Chip Count for High Reliability
* Direct Replacement for A501 Expansion ONLY £79.95 & fa ¦tidal
Ti TK-frrir.
I 1' ¦ £ 'li i 24 HOUR ANSWERING SERVICE 44C256-12 DYNAMIC RAMS £10 inc. VAT each All prices include VAT and Delivery.
British made. Trade Enquiries Welcome.
Please make cheques & PO's payable to Ashcom Only from ASHCOM. 10 The Green, Ashby-De-La-Zouch, Leicestershire, LE6 5JU Telephone: (0530) 411485 RAMSOFT t j' | FORMERLY 16 BIT SOFTWARE | RAMSOFTS - BOOKSHOP ¦0 Amiga DOS Quic* Reterence (Abacus) .. Motorala 66000 Programmers Ret Man (Motorola) .
IOC* igs "O Do rtf -Our Ansga TaO' A-'-jg* 'xf be»,r -e«s Abacus £•**". Gece *o Te Araga (*az**e.
¦( dt tnc In *- }• (C«b«M0 f e-'e-'A'Y Am. Ga RaSic (Comou1* ' (D) A" ge Macrt *e La-g .age ;Acecut iO) A ga a-ogrammer* Gude :Com«ute'i A~.ge DCS Re*e-ence 0 *;e Cornice Amiga Tricks and Tips (Abacus) (D) inside Amiga Graphics (Compute1) (D) ... Amiga C for Beginners (Abacus) (0) .. Amiga Applications (Compute') (D) .
A500 BAT PACK A500, TV modulator, Joyslick, Deluxe Paini II.
Arceptor, New Zealand Slory, & Batman The Mo £359.00 g A500 BAT PACK + This pack as above plus Ten Star Pack 2: Art ol Chess, 3: Barbarian,
y. 5: Ikari Warnors. 6: Insanity rcenary Comp, 8: Terrorpods.
Undercats, 10: Wizball PRICE! £379.00 BASIC PACK This pack as above minus Bat Pack.
Only a lew left at this price £349.00 PHILIPS CM8833 £215.00 II purchased with any Amiga Commodore 1084S £254.00 Philips CM8833I £229.00 ALL MONITORS INCLUDES LEADS' ROM UPGRADE Upgrade your 1.2 Kickstart new 1.3 roms now available £29.00 First Book of the Amga (Compute!) (D) .
Amiga DOS - lns.de & Out (Abacus) (D) .
Advanced Amga RaSiC Co"W* tt: Cc-a ter vr.net - A h gn Tec*- Disease iAbacus-nFw: A" ga-sers Guce-o cs Sov-d 'e-ecom 8«ri*rr y Scon e - New A- j* j5 G apf-cs Ptoyanvwg bAS C .Aowcu* - NfW; ;C: A*-ga Madt a Programm.ng Oade Comoute*: .3: J»*ng De me Pan* I Compute1 .earngC - Gra fec* r A~ go 6 Ate' S' Compete1: C' A~ ge 3AS C - nsce & Ou :Apaa.ii Dj Amiga Microsoft BASIC Programmers Guide (Scott-Foreman)..... Ins.de the Amiga with C (Sams) Amiga DOS Manual (Bantam) . Programming the 68000
(Sybex) .. Amiga Disk Drives - Inside & Out (Abacus) D) ... Programmers Guide to the Anvga (Sybex) Amiga Programmers Handbook (Sybex) .. Amiga Programmers Handbook. Vol 2 (Sybex) .... Amiga ROM Kernel Ref. Man.: Includes & Autodocs (A.W. NEW') Amiga C tor Advanced Programmers (Abacus - NEWI) . Amiga System Programmers Guide (Abacus) (D) ...... Amiga Graphics Inside & Out Abacus (New)
.. PRINTERS Star LC10 Mono Star LCIOCol £165.00 £215.00 SEIKOSHA ALL MODELS AVAILABLE ALL OUR PRINTER PRICES ARE INCLUSIVE OF LEADS BOOKS MARKED (D) HAVE A DISK AVAILABLE, £9.95.. DISK MAY BE PURCHASED SEPARATELY NEC1Meg3.S*Ext. Qhwa. Low pow»r. Ihrougbpm. Slimline. ONLY [7995 | ' RAMSOFT EXTRAS
* *********** UmversW monitor TV stands, lockable base RAM
EXPANSION - 512K CARTRIDGE: - WITH CLOCK £89.00 Joysticks...
Korn Navigator C1395 Owckshot I! Turbo SOFTWARE SPECIALS
INCLUSIVE OF POSTAGE Please note. All our prices include VAT &
Courier delivery.
All items despetched within 24hrs. Dependant on availability & cheque clearance, prices subject to change without notice at any time All prices shown are tor mail order only. E. & O.E. Mail Order Offers Mavis Beacon .& Teaches Typing Learn to type quickly, easily and perfectly - the fun way!
This is an artificial intelligence software system from the writers of Chessmaster 2000 - winner of the US Chess Federation Computer Chess Championship.
It checks your progress lesson by lesson, every step of the way. Through a typing course tailored to your individual needs Mavis makes the learning fun when creating your lessons by selecting quotes from history's greatest writers, countless riddles, rhymes, jokes and hundreds of fascinating facts from the Guinness Book of World Records RRP £29.99 OUR PRICE £24.99 If you leel your typing could be better, this is the ideal way to leam!
MiniGEN (EH
- Genlock E3E1 The MiniGEN takes the output from your Amiga and
combines it with an external source such as TV. Video or
camera, to give a rock-steady image This is the ideal way to
overlay titles or animation created with packages such as
Once you've plugged In your Mini GEN you'll be well on the way to having your own professional Desktop Video system!
RRPE113.85 OUR PRICE £98.85 AMIGADOS: A Dabhand Guide Is a comprehensive guide to the Commodore amiga's disc Operating System (Versions 12 and 1.3). It provides a unique perspective on this powerful system in a way which will be welcomed by the beginner and the experienced user alike.
Rather than simply reiterating the Amiga manual, this book takes a genuinely different approach to understanding and using the Arnica and contains a wealth of practical hands-on advice and hints and tips.
The many features of this book indude:
• Ful coverage of Amiga DOS 1 3 functions
• Ffeng with and without the Workbench
• The Amiga's hierafchcal ting system
• Pathnames and Device names
• The Amiga's multicasking capabilities
• The AmgaDOS screen edtor
• Amiga DOS commands
• Batch processing
• Amga Error code desorptions
• How to create new systems decs
• Use of the RAM decs
• Using AmigaDOS withC Amiga Computing approved reading £14.95
SOFTWARE SUPERMARKET Each month we scour the Amiga marketplace
to find special reader offers with a difference - either the
price is lower than youII normally find, or it's an excellent
product that's not easily found.
Now. After many weeks of elimination we have narrowed these products down to those few we think represent the best value, or are the most innovative or powerful.
However, there are still more than we can fit in this section, so over the next few months we will be discontinuing some lines to make room for new ones.
To make sure you don't miss out on any of these exceptional offers, place your order soon. Remember, we can only guarantee to supply goods up to the date WordPerfect This is THE word processor for Ihe Amiga. It features all the power and flexibility of the PC version, and is specially adapted to the strengths of the Amiga Itself.
WordPerfect works the way you do. It can be controlled with either the mouse or function keys, and you can display up to five text columns, side by side on a screen.
Plus, all the extra features so often missing from other word processors are fully implemented - such as footnotes, endnotes, a thesaurus, spelling checker, mail merger, over 200 pnnteis supported - and FREE SUPPORT is available should you need it.
RRP £228.85 OUR PRICE If you're in any way serious about word processing WordPerfect is the program you need. And with a £50 saving it represents exceptional value for money.
£178.85 RRP £99.99 OUR PRICE TO ORDER PLEASE USE THE FORM ON PAGE 113 RRP £113.85 RRP 114.95 OUR PRICE OUR PRICE £89.85 £89.95 Publishers' Choice Whether you are designing a simple flyer, creating a newsletter, banners, posters, or even producing a magazine, Publisher's Choice offers a comprehensive solution to your Desktop Publishing and presentation requirements.
With the program you can easily combine text in a variety of styles, in multiple columns and with customised graphics It comes with over 200 professionally designed images, and high quality "Headline' fonts.
In fact. Publishers' Choice combines the Kmdwords 2.0 wordprocessor, Page Setter 1.2 page composition package, Artiss' Choice art program, and the Readme fontpack.
Because the Amiga ts multi-tasking you can have all the programs working on the screen at the same time, or just use them individually as powerful stand-alone programs SBA Xtra Is designed for the many small businesses with both credit and cash customers, who need a system for providing quick lists of Debtors and Creditors and Individual account histories, without the effort of keeping a complicated Sales and Purchase Ledger system.
Among Its many features are:
* Profit and Iota atitemanta * Day booka
* Balance aheat * VAT reports
* Trial Balance * Account group reporta
* Budgets * Transaction listings by batch or account haading
* Full audit trail * Constants an-ecreen update of cash position
and profit figure What the press say "SBA Xtra la a winner In
the low-cost accounting stakes." - What Personal Computer "If
you're running a small business, SBA Xtra should be Just fine
for you."- PC User SBA Xtra £79.99 Probably the most powerful
and comprehensive Amiga Cad program available.
X-CAD Designer is a full- featured, professional, two- dimensional design and draughting tool suitable lor draughtsmen, designers and engineers alike. It's also Ideally priced for education and technical training organisations.
It features an easy-to-use and learn pull-down menu system and a comprehensive tutorial guide - so that even a beginner to Cad can get going very quickly.
The combination of X-CAD Designer and the Amiga create one of the most cost- effective and flexible Cad workstations you can buy X-CAD | Designer Just how good is Protext?
'...merely the best wordprocessor for the Amiga' Amiga Computing, January 1989 RRP £99.95 OUR PRICE £79.95 1- EXCLUSIVE!
SAVE £20 Some ol Protcit'5 features Pretext is acknowledged by many as THE word processore lor most home micros, and the Amiga version Is no exception. What you gal with Amiga Protext is a powerlul workhorse with a proven track record. Plus a saving ol £20 oh the retail price ot the new version 41 | Press comments :r*ferm*ingoltsit Pag* trMfcs shown &mg *dBng Can k*I dt*dt as you type Ore 70.000 word Ergkh defcnvy Uaoo r*coid mod* Alto index to (log d Iro Fa*l and l«d*a Ind and rapac* Pow*rtJ mafcn*rg* baity Boi mod* for awing a*mnt Ef* ftro at a Bn* Kayttoard or mous* opsraton "For power and
value tor money. I don't think that Prolexl can be beaten It can be used as simply as you choose, or can handle the most complex maimerge routines... in short, it can be what you want it to be'. - Micronet ¦Anyone with a professional interest in words is likely to tind it pays dividends'. - PC Business World 'It is a refreshing change to review an inexpensive WP package which lives up to every expectation' - Which PC 'Protext deserves to be the system by which alt other word processors are judged*. - Your Computer
• The great strength ol the package Is its ease ol use'. - CPC
Computing ¦Deserves very serious consideration' - Amstrad
Professional Computing Mail Order Offers Keyboard dust cover
(A500) £4.95 Protect your Amifla with this top- quaJity cover
made from clear, water-resistant vinyl.
It's bound with strong cotton and features the Amiga Computing logo.
MOUSfi The perfec! DosWoP environ- ment for your mouse with its mot specially-designed, pertect- ,ai grip surface. It ensure much smoother movement, gives super-positive control and protects your table top from scratches.
£6-95 ~ fti Binder £5.95 Twelve rods hold your issues in place and keep them in pristine condition in this smart PVC binder.
Disc storage box £4.95 This luxury padded box is the ideal storage medium, holding up to FIFTY 3.5' discs Need some extra discs?
There's always a demand tor spare Amiga discs - and at AmigB Computing we have lota we will be happy to sell otf at a really exceptional price. They are all discs that have been prepared as monthly cover discs, but they are brand new and have never been used. Look at these prices: 5 for £7.50! 25 for £20!
You will receive a random selection of dltcs - from when we started offering cover dltcs last August to date.
I Batman the Movie computer game at a knock-out price Home Accounts Day by Day Horn* Account* has boon dosignod to mako full uao of th Amiga's faaturas, giving you tho widast rango of homo accounting facilities available at this price.
Tho program lets you set budgets and control up to 13 separate accounts, with optional printouts of any data Within seconds of loading you data disc you can check your budget or any account, and even display or print the data in bar or pie charts.
Day by Day replaces your manual system for diary, busins notepad, planner, reminder and so on.
RRP £54.90 OUR PRICE £34.90 irganlaer, It's suitable for both business and home applications, including numerous useful functions which serve every requirement.
It's suitable for both business and home applications, including numerous useful functions which serve every requirement.
Among its many features are: ? Calender deryptanner ? Categones such as bills, birthdays and letters ? Appointment sorting ? 'Urgent* note board ? 'Overdue' notice board ? Advance notice ol forthcoming events ONLY £14.95 ? Updating ol regular appointment ? Comprehensive search facility ? Automatic reminders ? At-a-glance week and month summares ? Print option ? Grouping of related messages Both of these powerful programs are excellent value on their own, but if you buy this exclusive combination package well knock £15 off the combined retail price.
Place your older NOW - this exceptional oiler Is only available whilst stocks last ArgAsm Probably the fastest assembler ever for the Amiga!
When you're developing software, the last thing you 'n want is to hang around tor ages while your assembler processes your code - when you could be getting on with further program development.
Exclusive price for readers of But now all that waiting's a thing of the past, because ArgAsm Irom Argonaut Software is a revolutionary machine code development system.
It assembles at an incredible rate of 250,000 lines a minute!
T at least live times faster than anything else, and over 100 times faster than the original Commodore assembler - and it remains fully compatible. 6 £54.95 RRP £59.95 SAVE £5!
What's more, ArgAsm is the first assembler to be compatible wHh all the three major assemblers; Assem, Devpac and Cape. So it you're looking to upgrade, the chances are you'll be instantly right at home with ArgAsm.
And for a limited period we're exclusively knocking £5 off the recommended price.
ASSEMBLER EDITOR Iiyou're serious about Y producing prolessional I quality software - last, this is THE assembler lor » you. Bui remember, this V, is a limited oiler, so to ) be sure ol yopr copy T place your order today. F J Place your order today, using the form on Page 113 READER OFFERS VlbdB 281.90
• O M P U T I N Mall Order offers (seepage norm) Publishers
Choice ____ Mini-Gen Word Perfect 4.1 version €79.99 €98 85 178
85 9867 9869 9870 - X Cad Smal Business Accs Xtra €89 85 €89 95
9871 9873 - Mavis Beacon Typexi €24 99 9874 Home Accounts Day
by Day €34 .90 9851 - Sim City ttSSUk (Seepage 108) €24.99 9883
Drakkhen 4fJT (eeepape 108) €24 99 9884 l Sim City and
* *w "xi rtSSJa C44 99 9885 nzi Batman - The Movie Game (seepipe
III; £19.99 9882 cn Tank Attack C19.99 9848 ?
ArgAsm (seepage 112) €54 95 9858 ?
Dust covers €495 9507 CZI Mouse mats C4.95 9508 UZJ Binders €5 95 9509 _J Disc boxes €4 95 9860 l=Z Addition for postage: Europe & Eire add €3 Overseas add CS Unless otherwise indicated Payment: please indicate method ?)
ChequeEurocheque made payable to Detebeee Otreci _Exp I AccewAAaa tercenlE urocardtBardaycardVseConnecl Da
* '•1...1 1. I I I I I 1 I LJ .1 1 I SI 1 Signed Protext
Version 4 £79.95 9530 C=D DTP Yearbook 1990 e~o*e®l £14.95 9862
(=l Casio Pocket TV400 colour TV £94.95 Plu« poll and packing
£1.50 9865 B Battery charger £19.95 WCSHw Plui poll am) padung
£1.50 9861 bd Amiga DABhand Guide A comprehensive guide to the
Amiga's disc operating system (versions 1.2 and 1.3) €14.95
9866 ?
Amiga cover discs 5 assorted discs £7.50 25 allotted duel £20 .00 9687 9888 EE3 Send to: Database Direct, FREEPOST, Ellesmere Port, South Wirral L65 3EB (No stanp needed 1 posted in UK) Products are namely despatched within 48 hours ol recepl but dekvety of certain isms could take up lo 28 days Order elany lime of Orders by phone 051-457 1275 Ihe day or night Orders by Fax 051-457 2S1J addreea and creda cmrd runtter Orders by tfcrotn* IAAQ0OI General Enoumaa 061-457 2961 Name _ Address Daytime telephone number in case of queries August 1969-January 1989 bundle t€i8.00 9680 Tadd C3 Europe 4
Eire C12 Overseas
• August 1969 €3.10 9714
• September 1989 €3.10 9715
• October 1989 €3.10 9716
• November 1989 C3 10 9717
* December 1989 €3.10 9718
• January 1989 €3.10 9719 irxJulee cover dec Cover Discs
August-January €9.00 9881 Back Issues TWO WAYS TO ENSURE YOU
GET !"Please reserve me a copy ol Amiga Computing ""!
J magazine every month until further notice.
I will collect ¦ ? I would like it delivered to my home | Name: . ¦ I Address: ... | EVERY MONTH
1. Complete and mail subscription form on Page 107.
2. Hand this form to your newsagent.
J Postcode: .... . Note to newsagent: Amiga Computing should be 1 obtainable from your local wholesaler. It not, ! Contact Circulation Manager on 0424 430422 I------------------1 COMPUTERWISE np* BRIGHTON Wm AMIGA SPECIALISTS WE HAVE 100s OF SOFTWARE TITLES (MANY ARE NOW DISCOUNTED!. BOOKS AND PERIPHERALS IN STOCK AT ALL TIMES.
CALL IN TODAY FOR YOURS £1000 INSTANT CREDIT AVAILABLE TO PERSONAL CALLERS S' 0273 674626 OPEN 10 AM TO 6 PM MONDAY TO SATURDAY 44 GEORGE STREET. KEMPTOWN. BRIGHTON OPPOSITE THE AMERICAN EXPRESS BUILDING A500 S ? £54.05 FIXED PRICE REPAIR ? ST's Includes parts, labour, full service and V.A.T., 12 month warranty, 7 day turnround (Subject to our terms of trade, copies available on request.)
Collection can be arranged £11.50 extra.
All our engineers are fully experienced in 16 bit techology Don 'I risk damaging your ST. Ask about our all inc. Bam and Drive Upgrades Repairs undertaken on Amiga 2000, Atari Mega ST, Printers, Monitors, V.D.U.'s etc. and most Business & Home Computers SHIELD COMPUTER SERVICES LTD 50 Flixton Road, Urmston, Manchester M31 3AB Tel: 061-747 3185 Fax: 061-747 0515 MAKE YOUR AMIGA EARN!
Yes making money with your Amiga becomes incidental when you know how. Your micro is, it only you knew il. A gold mine. The size and make is irrelevant. Make Ihe initial ellon. NOW by starting your own HOME BASED BUSINESS.
This may be the most important move you will ever make' REMEMBER: You'll never get rich by digging someone else's "ditch".
Anyone in the country, including YOU, can become very rich in a relatively short period ol time |ust by doing a few basic things! It's more rewarding than playing games. The benefits are many and varied. Full or part time. For FREE details send S.A.E. to: mmsm mammm Bwmmmm 31 PILTON PLACE (AM2) KING AND QUEEN STREET WALWORTH, LONDON SE17 1DR ADVERTISERS' INDEX 17 Bit Software ..... ....96 )em Computers ...... .,..73 Accolade . ....21 KLR Electronics ..... ....20 Alternative..,.., ...... ....30
Mandarin Software . . .64 Amiga PD Library . ....95 Manor Court Supplies ... 90 Amigatex . ..108 M D Office Supplies . ..104 Amiga Users Group .. Applied Research Kernel ..108 Memory Expansion Systems... ....95 Merlin Express ...... 35 ....46 Amor ... .. 99 Ashcom ... 57 Bytcback . 116 Castle Software ..... 3 Club 68000 ..... 99 65
Compost .. Power Computing . Computer Bookshop . ",115 RGB Studios .. ....79 Computer Express 70 Computerwise ...... Rise Time Electronics ...... ...114 _ , Cumana ... Rombo . ...109 1IU Database Educational Software ...82 , . .
Shield Computer Services..... Data Liberation ....56 , Silica Shop .... Dataplex ....95 114 .....91 Dalcl Electronics .. Diamond Computers ...... oireiiouuwcire ...... 10*13 66,67 S K Marketing 45 Softmachine ... .40 .....96 Digicom, . 2? Softsellers ...... .....71 Digipro ... Digita international . 22 Softville PD .
.....72 jQ2 Special Reserve .... .....63 First Micro .... 20 Sublogic Corporation ...... .....65 Futureplace Computers .. 48 Third Coast Technologies...... .....87 .no Tvilntic ... .....87 ndiiipiiiit: miuiu ....iuo « Harric Hi.ToV fifi TlirboSOft . 88 Hi-Soft 83 Virgin Maslertronic . .....50 114 Vollmace .....95 62 WTS Electronics .. ...114 Inf no ramps ?. Xenon Technoloev .. .....98 rc OMPUTER
REPAIRS ATARI ST AMIGA Simply send your machine glong with a £15 diagnostic fee a you will be sent a written quotation for the cost of repairing your machine.
FIRST AID STOP PRFSS- FOR A500 512K RAM upgrade switchable £74 TECHNOLOGY
* TVTlejflTV £45. 1 WEEK TURNAROUND * _
W. T.S. ELECTRONICS LTD, CHAUL END LANE, LUTON, BEDS LU4 8EZ Tel:
0582 491949 (4 LINES). Fax: 0582 505900 Amiga C for Advanced
Programmers Amiga Graphics Inside & Out A comprehensive book
lor understanding and using Amiga graphics An atKanced gude »
programmng the Amiga using Ihe C language Abacus AMIGA
Graphics Inside G O an in depth treatment or the A graphic
features ond fbnctionj access these graphic feeturei
AmigeBASIC or C Loam Qrap super i how to linos, rectangles,
polygons, c( kI mom Contains a complete duscripti graphic
system View. ViewF U 1 1 Iwl U'
o Amiga istPort.
Bitmaps, screens, end windov May 1989 about 450pp Abacus AMIGA C fer Advanced Programmers - contains a wealth orinfermation from tho proa: how compilers, assemblers and linkers work, designing end programming user friencXy mterfeces using Intuition, combining asBotnbly language ond C code togettkor Inckidos complete source code fer o working text editor.
April 1089 about 380pp Amiga Tricks & Tips AmigaDOS Inside & Out Amiga C for Beginners Inside and Out AnrvaopmgLideto AmtfiOQS and neCU Amiga C for Beginna an introduction to leal language of choice aij programmers Unlike!
The examples here an ueored to the Amiga. I language oluments oj language ho ttwit youl use the C library routl how tbe compiler woJ 280pp Amiga System Programmer's Guide Amiga System Programmer's AmigaDOS - Inaide G Out - covers AmigaDOS m depth so that you can use many of its advanced capabilities fbrpracticol applications. Includes comploto reference section detailing all or the DOS commands, infermotlon on using tho DOS editors ED and EDIT, creating and using script files and taking advantage oT tho Amiga's mtrftitoskmg features 280pp Tricks G Tips - here is a large collection oT used* and
important programming techniques that mokes working with your AMIGA friendlier and easier. Presents dozens or tips on accessing libraries from BASIC, making and using custom character sets, using AmigaDOS.
Important 68000 memory locations, and much more.
Amiga Machine Language AmigaBASIC - Inside G Out - is THE definitive step-by step guide to programming the Amiga in BASIC Each BASIC command is felly (inscribed and detailed. Some ortl»u topics oovsred Include files and file handling, using pulldown menus, sensing tfie mouse, handling windows, drawing cf karts and using the speech commands.
Techniques for advanced BASIC progra 554pp A compienersve gjds to the rmsi nokrgs d yax Amga ragjfKbeamrg orfwAmga Covers 68000 microprocessor architecture ond addressing modes, making speech and aound from machine language and more. Tns book is also o perfect companion to our AssemPro machine language dovelopment Hoftware.
264pp hardware ond software aspects or the Amiga. Covers the EXEC ond its structure, handling LO requests ond tho interrupts, managing tho Amiga's resources ond multitasking functions, more.
Considered by many to be a standard reference for all Amiga programmers.
438pp ?ft*' so?:*?
Abacus Abacus
30 LINCOLN RD, OLTON, BIRMINGHAM B27 6PA CALL021 7061188 FOR YOUR NEARESTSTOCKIST 6 Central Street Manchester M2 5NS Telephone: 061 832 6633 Telex: 669977 OCEANS G Fax 061 834 0650 1 need a TV monitor in one due to lack of space. Is it possible to connect a modulator to a B2000.
And finally what is the official Commodore retail price for a base B2000?
Dave Thomson, Brought)' Ferry, Dundee.
It's impossible to keep track of the latest models of televisions. These days they nearly all have Scart inputs. Separate sound channels are rarer, and you are probably better off running a couple of leads to your hi-fi or using a sound booster like the one in last month's project.
Fes, you can use a modulator with a 2000, although the quality will suffer. The official price is £1489.25, digging through the ads in this mag you should find one for under £800. Because of some of the 2 have been assured by many Don't ask me how the virus got there. I got the game with the tester pack when I bought my Amiga, and I saw the cellophane wrapping taken oil the pack, so it could not be because the shop had used it tor demonstration purposes or anything.
On a lighter note, after reading your section on buying discs. I get mine from a place called Midland Microsoft which are only E6.99 for 10. They also have a brand number on the back, and ol Ihe 20 I have bought, none have been laulty.
Remember, death to all virus writers. Love the Jolyon Ralph Machine code tutorials. Keep up the great mag!
Jonathan Heron, Gosforth, Newcastle Opon Tyne 3 want to upgrade to a B2000. I've been hearing rumours about a kit on sale in Germany which allows you to transform the A500 into a fully operational B2000 and wondered if in all your wealth of knowledge and experience (creep creep) you knew anything about it.
Dave Turnbull, Newbury, Berks.
Variobs expansion boxes are available; Bytes and Pieces sell the AX-S which takes Amiga 2000 and PC cards. For more details call them on 0253 734218. However as a rule the timing signals on the expansion boxes aren't as reliable as those on a proper 2000, so some card manufacturers, Microbiotics for one. Aren't keen on them.
You really are best off getting a 2000 if you need to use add-ons.
4 joining our user club? Write or phone for details 5 5 JOIN THE CLUB! Interested In