Amiga Computing 1-117 (June 88-Oct 97)

CygnusEd, for those '\ \ v \

programmers who

don't swan around Tifc*

File format fiddling
with Interchange and
fun with Fancy Fonts

AMIGATALKER

Phonemes, the easy
way to make Amy
laugh, sing and giggle

AMIGASTORE

Microfiche Filer, a
database which thinks

A star is born

We reveal the secret drama behind
the creation of the miracle machine

it is a photograph

COMMQDQM

NIPS 1200P

THE AMAZING AMIGA . . .

Pack includes:

A500CPU, Mouse, P S. U., T.V. Modulator,
Very First Tutorial, Workbench 1*3, Basic,
Extras and Manuals,

PLUS POSTRONIX BONUS PACK

WORTH OVER £250 which includes 10 Blank

Disk*, Disk Storage Box. 10 Excellent Games. Mouse Mat,
Mouse Bracket (Mouse Holder) Deluxe Paint.

£ 399.00

- £5.013 post and packing

AMIGA 500 + 10S4S STEREO/COLOUR MONITOR

{including the above items)

£ 649.00

- £10.00 post and packing

1084S STEREO/COLOIJR

MONITOR fISQ (10

Compatible with PC 7 V

Compatible with PC
Amiga, C64c, 028

+ 15,(10. post and packing

AMIGA 1010 DISK DRIVE

Capacity 880 K

£ 149.99

£5.00 post and packing

Amiga 3.5" external drive. Capacity 880 K
PLUS FREE DISK
STORAGE BOX &

10 BLANK DISKS

A501 RAM
PACK

512K fur the Amiga

£ 149.99

+ £5.00 post and packing

mpsi2oop £ 229.99

+ £5.00 post -and packing

The Commodore MPS1200P primer presents the state of the an in do* matrix printers, with all the features of a printer that
would cost much more . The MPS1200P is designed to be like three printers in. one. ft can act just like an Epksn FX printer, or
with the flip of a switch, it can adjust like an IBM Graphics Printer with IBM Group 114 character set (Damsh/Norwegiaii
character set j support. It cun also print all the characters available with The Amiga in the Amiga configuraiicm.The MPS121WP
is capable of all the printing functions you would expect, as well as some additional features you may not expect.

MPS 1500C COLOUR PRINTER £199.99

A. I ETHNICAL CH ARACTERISTICS

PRINTING TECIilNIQLrE
DRAFT MODE ............

TABULATION SPEED
PRINTING DIRECTION .

PRINT P1THES

LINK FEED

CHARACTER SET

+ £5.00 post and packing
print speed: 120ehar/s, at lWdiaf in

1 ntpacl dot mat rix (9-needle print head) .

- matrix: 9 vertical dots x (5 + ^horizontal dots;
chart's

hi-dircciionaJ , with opt imised k-ad movement

1(1 charfin tol4/chariin program mahlc from line, and in SET-UP mode

- lffim(4.23mm), 1/8(3.17 mm)aptdl7/72ni(2.4 mm): -nothin and ndUit,

ASCI I characters and special cha raneft.

MAX. PRINT LINK LKNCITI 40 top 192 charade™, according to print pitch selected-

♦ • •

AND MORE BESIDES!

£39.95

PHOTON PAINT

Ai last, a powerful Lo and Hi Resolution,
hold and modify pa ini program with
overscan and special effects for the Amiga
computer.

£69.99

Sunja Ports'

ZUMA FONTS

High quality typesivlcs for your Amiga font
library

* Each volume contains 3 typestyles, cadi
in 6 sizes approximately 20 to 100 lines
useahJe in 3 screen resolutions.

SHOW

FANTAVISION

The magic morion special elfccis generator.
Use “Fantavisions" simple tools to make
imaginary creatures creep, clouds Hit, or
lightning flash in amazing detail. Even
creaie your own sound Hack with our library
of realistic sounds. Then rapture all (he
.magic of "Faniaviskio” on a show disk.

:* m

| IUM * ZUMA

ns

TV SHOW

Special effect slide show. Incredible
screen transilioni. supports all IFF
graphics formats and includes powerful
script ediior. All these facilities make
producing animated presentations of your
graphics a snap.

£69.95

TV TEXT

TV Text brings the capabilities of
expensive video character generators to
y ou and your Amiga. Create professional
quality lettering and backgrounds for
presentation graphics- or video
applications. Bui Id your palette from 40%
colours and make exciting tides with
automatic rendering attributes,

£99.99

DIGI PAINT

Finally you lap the full graphics potential
of the Amiga with Digj Painl, The first full
f ' ' ,t ured 40% colour paint program .

excellence!

£59.95

EXCELLENCE

Cirammatical checker for word
processing. Sophisticated enough to use
in desktop publishing.

£185.00

ANALYSE

Integrated spreadsheet graphics for the
Amiga.

£59.99

ORGANISE

■ Profrakma] Data Information
Manager

* Powerful Mitheoalkai Functions

* Reports * files § Sorts

£59.99

SCRIBBLE

* Full Featured Word Processor

* Spelling Checker * Mail Merge
Whether you are a beginner or an
experienced user. Scribble is the word
processor Iliac can arc ommodate your needs.

£59.99

ZING

Over 100 enhance meets ... VI. 03 1 he fastest way
toaocessthe powerful Amiga operating sysiem.
Execute hundreds of operate without having to
type complex commands at the keyboard.

£54.99

ZING KEYS

Powerful ulility package which provides you with
full keyboard and mouse control

£34.99

WRITE AND FILE

The integrated word processor and daiaba.se
manager. Because 1 *' Write and File' has both a
word processor and database manager in one
program, it is easy to do mail merge. _

FLIPSIDE

Should you creaie a large spreadsheet.

" Flipside" can easily print [lie sheet as
large as necessary, thus allowing uni imited
columns and column widths.

£65.00

ZING SPELL

Check and correct your spelling as
you lype

£54.99

£59.99

£ 120.00

£34.99

‘rh cftwfe j THE WORKS

% I The Amiga computer starter kit indudes
* wordprocessor. spreadsheet and database.

* | I I |V| * A powerful electronic spreadsheet module.

* “■* *1 .II: 'Is # The word processing modules come with a spelling checker and
■|Li||i|nLiS mail merge facility.

LJ W^P * ^ profess anal database module helps you colled and
manage information or data easily .

SJEEX^SSEEt If ITS N0T LISTED IT DOESN’T MEAN WE
DON’T STOCK IT. RING FOR DETAILS & PRICES OF ANY
AMIGA SOFTWARE PRODUCT/ACCESSORIES (<WU) 791771

-postromx

r^T=~^i a m i . 1 1 1 1 >1 ! 1 1 1 1 . i i

TtTTI

ij^ - *it wHMMimHr t*f

fttm/natrsmumteum**

ECATAIjOGUE PLEASE tick O"

I I I 1 I 1 I I I I 111 I I i I

L I ; I I I

Mensging Editor

Derek Meakin

HOUSE CALL

Group Editor

Alan McUchlan

Editor

Simon Rockman

fWiirtbvi Editor
Peter Glover

Ait Editors

Mark Nolan
Doug; Steele

Etftoiis/Aftriftar:

Elaine Rawlins

New 5 Editor

Mike Cowley

.A^verfiseie^rtf Muaga
John Snowden

Advertising Sib*
Wendy Colboume

EffltmM W77 1H45B
JW^fl«tnt»n: wtamm

J ht i atM f 0G25 srMM
SubKTiptiDft!: M2SB7W<n

TeUcmGoW: iMkEm

Tf4ei E3121BSSU Pi
Tw: HU fpm*

pr«ctal Mailbox: fil4*H3U

7 LATEST

NEWS

What to look for at the Commodore
show, news of the BBC emulator and
the first HAM game plus latest gossip
from Jim Butterfield in America.

SEAFARING
FANTASY
Gel lost in the Bermuda Triangle, try
to fathom the Legend of the Sword,
plus a look at the very latest games
for those with an adventuring bent.

INTERCHANGE AND
FANCY FONTS
Two really handy tools to reduce the
effort needed to produce good looking
ray traced images by integrating with
Sculpt and similar graphics paokages.

F 4l THE AMIGA
mm JL STORY

Fascinating facts: How Commodore
came to produce the world’s best
micro. It is a tale which needs to be
passed on to new Amiga owners.

/ Kmeet

md 1 J ORIGIN
John Minson went to America to meet
Richard Gariott and Chris Roberts, two
Englishmen who have made good in
the new world by creating Ultima,

■ \ IX DIGICALC
\J ft OUT OF 10

The first thing you have to do with a
spreadsheet is work out how to repay
the loan needed to buy it. Res Lasl
looks at one which costs less than £40

business

g\ ASDG’S
U CYGNUSED
We look at a top quality test and
program editor which enhances an
American company's reputation for
being every programmer's friend.

Published by.

Database Publications Lid.

Eumpa House. Adlingjlan Park.
Adliogtai, Micskafiild SKlO 4NP.

Database Publication* is a
division of Enropmi Ltd

ISSN oaS2-5fl*B

Anigi Coincnjitifi^ wdcMW aiticks Per publi-
utinn. Mibffiil should b« lyped pr aunpwler-
priiriied, pud ptAnlbhdkniblMpoA Program ltd'
iep dwuld he mKnpmid by dist Flew *Bdo*
i flampK. self-addrwspd BiMlspe. Dthsrww the
rtfum of Biutiil rjmool bt -piflrtnteed. Canln.
Irataii as ady bt scceptal f« publication by
lie Lapse PnhteiioM Ud mi m bw*-

© 3980 Dttaiwsr PublkJtumi Ud- % mUfflll W
be ir-prahad in whole w in jafl wiAiMl wiites
pmtsuon While eswy care is likau- lh* W>-
IUkh cituhX he held Mb raptaaihle for my
arroti. in tiiJinjp nr iiwrtise nwnt-

Amp fjMBj»itnn k intiepeiHibJ pwWiurfjffli
ino 1 Ommodm touineu MacAinw |U£Jf Ud “
mrf j«pansihhj hs utf of the irtida in fit* usw nr
fHBqtJitapimtMtxFtmd.

Men inde itNn: Enrapres &l» and Ok
tribnotuKL l jntaL Unit 1, Bates toad. lijtew*
liM. Hasting, Smsw TN3S Tal; WJ4

ms2.

IX GETTING GOING
Tt WITH C
Hugh Aden has to write magazine
articles to finance his addiction to C,
He outlines some of the additional
packages you' ll need to get started.

Here's a system based on microfiche
which gives rapid access to text and
graphics-. It’s a novel approach thal
really simplifies using a database,

AMIGA COMPUTING December 1088

■CONTENTS®

SOFTWARE

PROGRAMMING

PROGRAMMING

LETTERS

fl / AMIGA
Km § ARCADE
Pioneer Plape and Rocket Ranger
head a collection of games which
prove lhat the Amiga can be an
unbeatable games machine.

ith a
epay
st

iM

h.lwir

%-F WITH WORDS

Rex Las), a professor of modem
languages, looks at phonemes and the
AmigaBasic SAY command to see bow
to make programs sound human.

fl IKE PLAIN MAN'S

\a GIODE TO ai

Phil South looks at multitasking, one of
the things which makes the Amiga
special, and finds that three tasks into
one will go, if you’ve the memory.

Game Killer Page 74

ABIT
KM IFFY

Dave Parkinson explains the Amiga
Interchange File Format, a convention
which makes software completely
compatible and fiihireproof.

fl FROM OUR
KM KM POSTBAG
Printer posers and missing memories
are among your questions this month
as we share news, views and opinions
of what affects the Amiga world.

PROGRAMMING

GAME
KILLER

The complete, unexpurgated guide to
winning at Virus, including how to fly
Ihe thing, plus super tips and maps to
help you win at StarGlider II.

HOUSE CALL

7ft

/ fl BITMAP BROTHERS:
m FRATERNAL CODERS

Three men and an assembler produce
the hottest cade. Ifieir latest game
makes ice hockey look like Morris
dancing. Anyone for SpeedBait?

December 1988 AMIGA COMPUTING S

:

1

ARCANA

Arcana Software Ltd, 2 Clare Street. Bristol, Avon BS1 1XS, UK
Telephone [0272) 297 162 Fa * [0272 ) 2 26 58 6

Amiga Scream

NO EXCUSES from Arcana, just auperbly addictive gameplay, Vou II need
test reaction*, lateral thinking and abov* all a cool head to play this
fascine ting game Fifty sheet* of joystick tingling excitement and a superb
construction kit will keep you playing and playing and playing .

TO ardor direct Irom Aroma. tit* thfl rai event box and. send this
coupon with payment to the addrew bleow or ring [02721 2 S 71 e 2

MO EXCUSES
f 19.95 □ Amiga
f 19 sSU Atari ST

POWEAPLAV
£ 96 □ Amiga

£19 95^ Alan ST

A stunrtingl
original qui
game for onel
four players.

f

s

£

t

I

C

I

i

I

(

1

I

i

i

t

i

i

!

I

]

:

AMIGA SCENE

Commodore has all
the Drams it needs

W HILE other computer
manufacturers suffer
from the memory chip
shortage. Commodore now
controls ahout 40 per cent of
the world's independent
Dram production.

“The dearth of Dram is
creating supply problems for
many of the industry's lead-
ing manufacturers - no
Dram, no computers”, said
Commodore spokesman Rob
Wait, “but no such supply
problems are affecting Com-
modore deliveries.

“We initiate enough for-
ward buying contracts each
year to assure supply of all
components, including the
vital memory chips. Where
many companies are floun-
dering to fulfil their orders
Commodore has a sound and
regular supply of machines,
"‘We are still building PCs
and Amigas at a time when
several other manufacturers
arc struggling to keep their
plants turning over.

“Traditionally the Dram
market has swooped from
shortage to glut with
monotonous regularity, But
the present shortage would
appear to be more than just a

Duff discs
discovered

C HEAP counterfeit copies
of the new Commodore
discs have been discovered
on sale in London’s West
End just weeks after the offi-
cial launch,

Imitation packaging with
the Commodore logo is
designed to dupe the public
- "but the poor quality discs
would only fool and disap-
point first time buyers”, said
Ivor Norkett, business man-
ager for RPS (0582 BG7222)
which supplies the genuine
discs.

His company has the
exclusive licensing agree-
ment to market Commodore
branded 5.25in and 3. Sin
discs in the UK. He told

Amiga Computing: “Our evi-
dence suggests that this is a
localised problem and we
have taken steps to eradicate
it.

“Initial tests show that
these pirate discs are totally
inferior in quality and per-
formance, and users are
going to experience pro-
blems.

"We will ensure the good
name of RPS and Commo-
dore is protected from this
kind of con trick. The speed
of this imitation is a
determined bid to cash in on
a vast consumer market.

“Sales of Commodore
brand discs in Germany last
year totalled more than 10
million and the total
European market this year is
expected to exceed 20
million”.

glitch in the manufacturing
supply routes, and looks set
for another 12 months.

“As long as the boom in
Far Eastern clone manufac-
turing continues - together
with the trend toward larger,
more expensive memory
chips - it would appear that
some manufacturers will be
breaking promises rather
than sales records.

“However, Commodore
won*t be one of them".

Commodore managing
director Steve Franklin
added: “It concerns me that
some of the so-called
captains of our industry con-
tinue to launch new products
and make new promises
without having the ability to
deliver.

"This is harmful not only
for themselves but also for
the industry as a whole,

"Difficulties - such as
supply problems - highlight
the true calibre of large mul-
tinational companies. In this
case they enhance the
strength and ability of large
multinational corporations
such as Commodore in long
and short term strategic and
operational planning”.

Joystick
shapes up
nicely

J fUST released is the latest
I joystick from Konix (0495
50101), “The Navigator is
the hest joystick we’ve ever
produced**, says Konix
director Sandra Holloway,
“It’s certainly the best look-
ing one on the market.

“I feel the Navigator is
likely to appeal to more
people than the Speed King,
being ergo no mica ly de-
signed with a pistol grip
handle so that it can be held
in either the right or left
hand.

“We spent a lot of money
researching the feel of the
joystick so we could be sure
the final shape was the one
the average person would
feel most comfortable with".

BT faces
backlash

O FTEL, the telecommuni-
cations watchdog, has
revealed it has received a
number of complaints about
recent Prestel price
increases.

"The complaints came pri-
marily from home computer

users who tend to access the
system in the evenings and at
weekends", said an GFTEL
spokesman,

“We have asked British
Telecom for an explanation
of the basis for the new
charges and have also raised
the question of quality of
service, which many people
say has deteriorated signifi-
cantly”.

Drive on
education

F RESH initiatives in Com-
modore's drive into the
education market have seen
the company courting more
distributors.

Negotiations are also
reported between Commo-
dore and both the Open Uni-
versity and the National
Union of Students for the
supply of Commodore
hardware.

Northumberland is the
latest LEA to take on Amigas
- with Kent. West Sussex
and North Yorkshire also
showing keen interest. An

attraction is the saving of
nearly 50 per cent on the
price to LEAs of the Amiga
2000 at just over £1,000.

Sales manager Brian
Talbot told Amiga
Computing that plans are
going ahead to build on the
success of the Commodore
Education Roadshow which
has been touring the country
in recent months.

The roadshow winds up at
the Middlesex Polytechnic
on December 6 and 7.

“Our plans for next year
include at least three major
education seminars - prob-
ably in London, Manchester
and Edinburgh”, said
Talbot,

Out ember 1988 A Mid A COMPUTING 7

Information on tap
at Christmas Show

C OMMODORE users’
group ICPUG celebrates
its 10th anniversary at the
Commodore Christmas
Show to be held at London’s
Kovotel from November 18
to 20.

To mark the occasion,
well-known members of
ICPUG will be giving daily
presentations at the Commo-
dore Theatre during the
show.

These include Midi for
beginners by David Annal, a
history of Commodore and
computer communications
by John Collins, Amiga
graphics by Richard Ahearn
and David Annal, Comal by
Will Light, databases by
Simon Tranmer and a gen-
eral quefltion-a ild-answer
session conducted by experts
from the ranks of ICPUG.

Microtext (0705 595894) is
launching The Upgrades a
£34,80 product which allows
C84 Microtext owners to use
their teletext adapters with
an Amiga.

“With such a large
installed user base and as
most serious C64 owners are
buying Amigas there was an
obvious need for The
Upgrader”, said a spokes-
man,

“We’ll also be demon-
strating a tuner that enables
users to watch TV on their
monitor when their com-
puter is not in use.

“Many Amiga owners
have colour monitors and by
simply connecting the TV
tuner and an aerial can
obtain superb colour pic-
tures together with sound”,
said a spokesman. Price is
expected to be in the region
of £50.

Power Computing [0234
52207) is releasing Video
Magic, a new audio visual
presentation system for all
Amigas.

Developed in the style of
Pro Sound Designer it has
the familiar buttons and
, other features to make the
program user friendly.

“Anyone will be able to
string to gether a professio nal

demo or presentation in min-
utes rather than days”, said
Power Computing’s Ken
Browning,

“The program features full
support for all Amiga
graphic modes, animation,
sound effects control, mul-
tiple transitional effects, syn-
chronised digitised sound
and an automatic script lan-
guage.

“We also plan to give
support to external synchron-
isation, allowing for multiple
VDU displays, video walls
and so forth”. Price £69,95,
From the same source, Pro
Sound Gold is a new
upgraded version of the best-
selling sound sampler/editor
which will be available at the
show along with two Pro
Sound accessory programs -
Pro Midi Plus and Pro Sound
Toolkit,

Price including hardware is
£79,95, with Pro Sound
coming down to £59.95,

Pro Midi Plus, which
works with all samplers,
allows samples to be played
as midi voices from an ex-
ternal midi source or
MM5OO0 keyboard. Price
£34,95.

Pro Sound Toolkit gives
programmers all the tools to
control digitised sound
effects from within their own
programs. Examples are
given in Basic,, C and
assembler codes. Price
£34.95,

Amiga Music System is a
complete package for those
who want to explore sound
on their machine - it con-
tains an MM5D00 keyboard.
Pro Sound Gold, Pro Midi
Plus and MM3000 midi
interface for £199.

The launch of Lombard/
RAC Rally from Mandarin
Software (0625 878888] will
be marked by the appear-
ance at the show of a real
Ford rally vehicle.

A faithful re-enactment of
the famous cross country
rally, the game puts players
in the driving seat of a
30(lhhp Group A Ford Sierra
RS Cosworth. Price £24.95

Frontier's
mega deal

A DEAL with the Supra
Corporation has given
Frontier Software (0423
67140) the sole UK import
rights to the US-made Amiga
hard disc drives.

SupraDrives will be avail-
able in 20, 30 and 60Mb
capacities for the Amiga 500,
1000 and 2000.

The systems include bard
disc drive, SCSI expansion
port and the capability to
expand the Amiga 500’s ram
memory.

SupraDrive plugs directly
into the expansion port on
the A500 and A1000 and
internally on the A2Q0Q.

The data channel is cap-
able of burst data transfers of
over 250k a second.

The A 5 DO version interface
can take plug-in ram mod-

ules with capacities of 1 or
2MB of fast ram. These ram
boards and the A500 hard
disc are powered by the
SupraDrive’s own power
supply, preventing potential
overloading problems.

Both the A 500 and A1000
SupraDrives offer full Amiga
bus pass-through, making
them compatible with ram
boards, digitisers and the
Amiga bridge board.

The software plus hard
disc utilities can partition the
drive into as many as five
separate sections, auto boot
from hard disc, provide the
option of using the new CBM
file system on some par-
titions while using the old
system on others, and the
ability to erase individual
partitions without affecting
those remaining.

Price of A5Q0 and A1000
drives ranges from £649.95
to £1,199 95, A2Q0U drives
from £629.95 to £999,95.

Hellbent
for success

T HIRD 16 bit release from
Nova gen 1021-449 9516),
following Mercenary and
Backlash, is Hellbent by Paul
W oakes.

Novagen’s Bruce Jordan
told Amiga Computing :
“This Is rather more than
your average scrolling shoot-
’em-up. It received a fantas-

tic consumer reaction at the
recent PC Show and we’ve
every confidence it will be a
mega hit this Christmas”.
Price £19,95.

Strike
speeds
fax plans

B ECAUSE of the recent
postal dispute which
brought UK business to a
shuddering halt, plans have
been rushed through to
make fax available on Micro -
Link, Britain’s fastest grow-
ing electronic mail service.

It now means that anyone
with an Amiga, phone and
modem can send a message
to a fax machine anywhere
in the world.

Head of MieroLink Derek
Meakin said: "We brought
forward our plans for fax

facilities as a result of the
damage being done to Brit-
ain’s trade and commerce by
the postal dispute,

M We are offering sub-
scribers a multiple fax
service - as with our telex
facilities they will be able to
send a message to up to 500
addresses simultaneously.

“We know this instant
service will be warmly
welcomed by companies that
need to get information into
the hands of their customers
without delay”.

Fax follows a number of
new services being launched
on MieroLink, They range
horn financial and business
management databases to
the cult multi-user adventure
game Shades.

B

0

c

tin

be

Pe

tbi

up

ta.

19

is

be

sh

be

hi

cc

th

ai

A

P<

8f

at

o:

f

t

1

P

4

w

Si

U

ff

si

d

n

a

fi

tl

b

ii

F

i

I

a AMIGA COMPUTING December 1988

AMIGA SCENE!

Building
on success

C OMMODORE is riding
high with the success of
the A500. The company has
been there before with the
Pet and the C64. However in
the 4 80s they failed to follow
up their advantage. Plans to
take the Amiga into the
1990s will ensure that there
is a strong upgrade path to
be followed.

Early in the New Year we
should see the AT bridge
board. This offers the same
high degree of PC
compatibility available from
the old Sidecar for the Al 000
and A2088 board for the
A2000, but gives increased
performance with an Intel
80286 processor.

The hardware is finished
and the software is under-
going final testing.

There will be two versions
of the 1008 by 1024

Spreading
the Plague

"piONEER Plague, the first
A computer game to incor-
porate a palette of more than
4,0on colours, had a
worldwide launch on the
same day in the UK, the
United States, France, Ger-
many and Australia.

These countries are all
strongholds of the Commo-
dore Amiga, the only
machine to offer the Hold
and Modify [HAM) graphics
facility which has enabled
the breakthrough software to
be developed.

HAM allows any or all of
its 4,096 colours to be dis-
played on screen at one time,

Ariadne

Beebulator

F IRST details are emerg-
ing of the BBC emulator
for the Amiga, Unlike most
versions of BBC Basic for
non-Acorn computers, the
Amiga version implements
operating system calls. This
makes it much more flexible
and means that many of the
simpler programs written for

Lurking bug lands
1.3 on the BLInk

JIM BUTTERFIELD
reporting from Canada

“Headly" monitor, the
previously announced
A2024 and an as yet un*
named large screen version
which is not being manufac-
tured or marketed by Com-
modore but using the same
custom chips under licence,
It will work with any 1 Mb
Amiga, but is primarily
aimed at the high end
workstation market.

For the summer there will
be an improved A200O with
a 68020 on the main circuit
board and an improved
A5O0 equivalent with 1Mb
as standard and a SCSI hard
disc controller built in. This
will allow you to add a com-
patible drive for around £300
at today's prices.

If Commodore's past
record is anything to go by
there may well be long
delays between the products
being finished and shipped.
It is certainly not worth
waiting for them.

but because it uses up so
much processor time, it had
never before been success-
fully incorporated in a game.

The unique title is a joint
venture between leading UK
software house Mandarin
and US based Terrific Soft-
ware, a division of Antic.

Pioneer Plague has been
written by Bill Williams, one
of the world's top Amiga
programmers and author of
Mindwalker from Commo-
dore and Sinbad the Sailor
from Cinemaware,

The game features scroll-
ing in eight directions,
human-like digitised speech
and a variety of original
music scores in stereo.

Pioneer Plague will he
priced in the UK at £24.95.

the BBC Micro will run with
few changes necessary.

A 6502 emulator is
included, but because the
code is interpreted and trans-
lated into 68000 it runs very
much slower than on a BBC
Micro, The Basic has been
efficiently coded in 680G0
and so runs closer to full
speed, with some of the
graphics routines outstrip-
ping the 8 bit machine quite
significantly.

S EASON'S greetings to all
my European friends in
Commodore land — may you
find your heart's desire,
whether hardware or soft-
ware, in your stocking on
Christmas morning.

The World of Commodore
show has been an annual
December event in Toronto,
Canada, for the past seven
years. Now WOC seems to be
undergoing a population
explosion - not only was a
similar show held in Phil-
adelphia in November but
new ones are planned for
Detroit next September and
Los Angeles around the
same time,

■. The 2Q99A hard disc con-
troller, which differs from
the 2090 in its autoboot
capability, is now shipping.
The new year will see a fur-
ther step in the evolution of
this series — the 2091.

It might be described as a
2 090 A with greater expan-
sion capability, but it seems
to be almost an expansion
compendium.

With the 2991 youTJ be
able to have the hard disc
controller plus expansion
ram - auto configuration of
course - for your system plus
an extra 3, Sin floppy drive.

By the time you read this,
1.3 should be out and about.
At the time of writing,
however, it’s still nut avail-
able to the average user.

At the last moment John
Toebes, of BLink fame, dis-
covered and reported a
previously unknown bug,
and 1.3 had to be pulled

back for one more version to
be produced.

Look for this Final version
to be identified as
Workbench 24.20 - devel-
opers would call this the
Omega 10 version. Dealer
training is under way and
I'm told that the documen-
tation package is splendid.

Since the new 1.3 system
draws on the concepts of two
independent developments -
ConMan and CShell - it
might be thought that those
earlier packages would fade
away as the new release
comes in.

Not so. The shareware
program Conman, by
William S Hawes, is said to
be ready for a new release.
And the free program CSH
by Matt Dillon has just been
released as version 2.10, The
CShell documentation rec-
ommends use of either the
new 1.3 console device or
Conman.

Word Perfect, the
premium word processor on
the Amiga, has a new ver-
sion which uses some of the
1.3 printer driver features,
This comes as a surprise,
to me at least, since Word
Perfect uses its own exten-
sive set of printer drivers.

Be that as It may, the
newest version - 4.1 - does
take advantage of some l + 3
features. Be careful,
however, in converting this
to the true 1,3 system - the
LIBS directory will need to
contain a mix of the revised
WF overlays and the new 1.3
system library items.

Dtttvmber 1938 AMIGA COMPUTING 9

EIDERSOFT

triangle

7 7 f f~\ 1

» Prices include :M

AT end Beli»erj«j| .

TRIANGLE DISK DRIVES STARLC-IO^RJN TER

/

■

Top-quality 88QK double-sided NEC 1036a dish drives

Single 3.5" Disk Drive with Thru' Port:

Single 3,5" Amiga 2000 Internal Kit

TRIANGLE MULTI-DRIVE

Top-quailly 3.5" and 5.25’ Drives inone case. Built-in
Multi-Drive:

power supply

£199.00

TRIANGLE 5.25" DRIVE

Superb quality 9-pin dot-matrix printer Epson

Mono Star LC-10 Printer:

Colour Star LC-10 Printer:

& IBM compatible.

£180.00

£249.00

COLOUR MONITORS

AH motors suppAW w,th Ms t0 ST cr Am>ga

L 1

t

t

(

Phillips CM883 Colour Monitor:
NEC Multisync Colour Monitor:
NEC Multisync GS Grey Scale:

£225.00

£499.00

£199.00

BARE DRIVES, ,

Bars dnra only Suppled wfflMt/r rase, pomr supply, connectors mertece. etc.

Hard Disk Drive Units:
Miniscribe SCSI 3.5"
NEC ST506 5.25"

Segate ST506 5.25"

Floppy Disk Drive Units:
NEC 1036a 3.5" Drive:

20Mb & 40Mb £CALL
20Mb & 40Mb £CALL
20Mb & 40Mb ECALL

£65.00

£70.00

£89.00

tsubishi SCD5 1/4 height 3.5" Drive:
tsubishi 504B 5.25" Drive:

IBM-Compatible 40/80-track 5.25" Disk Drive

5.25" Disk Drive with PSU:

5.25" Disk Drive without PSU:

£115.00

£99.00

Cheques POs to.

. Power Computing •

• 44a & b Stanley Street * Bedford - MK4 1 7RW ■
. Tel: 0234 373000 *

IBM Hard Card (with controller): 32Mb
Speed Pad" Mouse Mat - super quality

£239.00

£9.95

We take the following credit cards:

s tfKiude VA T am J Deirveuy and are SUpject 10 change without nolft*.

^ CL Q

Software

election

tJw 6ed£ do^tu/a/iz, th& Comwodwts ytffyuya,

All items regular stock lines - recommended and guaranteed!

** WE WILL MATCH ANY QUOTED PRICE - PLEASE CALL! "

ART & VIDEO
PRESENTATION SYSTEM

Amiga 500; Colour Monitor; 2nd Drive;
Photon Paint; Video Magic: Pro Sound
Designer Gold; Star LC-10 Colour Printer

Complete System: £999.00

Without Star L C- 1 0: £799.00

Accounting

Digita Home Accounts £26.95

Critics Choice,. £134.95

Art & Graphics

Deluxe Paint II ,.,,£62.95

DigiPaint 2 (PAL) .. £53,95

Express Paint 2 .. £62.95

Photon Paint ......... » » » £62 . 95

Pi x mate £44.95

Video Magic ........... ....£79*95

Sculpt 3D £76.50

Business Packages

Panmead Business Pack 1 ....£150.00
Panmead Business Pack 2 ....£150. 00

Communications

K-Comm 2 £26.95

Ruby Comm £89*95

Databases

Superbase Personal £53.95

Superbase Personal 2 .,...,.,£89.95

Superbase Professional £224.95

DTP

Professional Page £224,10

Publishing Partner Pro. ,£134,95

Languages / etc ,

Aztec C 86K Developer £269.10

HisoftDevpac £53.95

Lattice C v4,„ £155.25

Metacomco Shell £44.95

Sound & Music , etc ,

Aegis Sonix ,£51.75

Master Tracks Junior ,,£89,95

Pro Sound Designer £59,95

Pro Sound Designer Gold £79.95

Pro Midi Plus £34,95

COMPLETE

MUSICIAN'S SYSTEM

Amiga 500; Colour Monitor; 2nd Drive; Amiga
Music System (Pro Sound Designer Gold,
Pro Midi Plus, Midi Interface, MM5000 5-
Octave Keyboard); Master Tracks Jnr

Complete System: £899.00

Spreadsheets

Logistix £103.45

Maxiplan A500 £89.95

Maxiplan Plus ,.£134.95

VIP Professional £89.95

Utilities

Calligrapher £71.95

CLI-Mate £31.45

Power Windows 2.0 £67.30

Word Processors

Excellence £179.95

KindWords £44.10

Word Perfect £205.95

CAD

Intro CAD £53.95

X-CAD £449.10

NEED A COMPUTER?
PHONE VS FIRST!

| 0234 270133

4ntmym ncteto 'i*. frrtrth V* T rod tm.iv-, Dwmtf* twriw gtau xȣTSt!

Ht* IM s»™- h leuW-.D.,? *w pros *■ lWBV

4* 0fleM iulw.1' I* LTumj*. urthffiif npfuij
to* ttCSQ*** dl .'»*nr,T.r Tipnlmiwf
• 'SM 1 P J WsftCBifn TWijmtal i f

PHONE NOW FOR THE LATEST GAMES
A T PRICES TOO HOT TO PRINT !

Jx. - ,£r_

I Not ordering? Use this form to send now for our free glossy catalogue - due out mid-
November Everything you could ever want tor your Amiga under one roof !

NAME:

ADDRESS:

POSTCODE:

TELEPHONE:

COMPUTER SYSTEM:

Please send me the following :

Price:

Total:

1 . 1 enclose a cheque i PO made payable to Power Computing for £

2. Please debit my credit card: ACCESS / VISA

I i i i 1 i i i I i i i I i

Expiry Date:

Pieese Queue t^s wdw ordering:

AM-C 12/88

An objective
discussion

Sam Little wood looks at three tools
for improving your library of objects
in four Amiga modelling packages

T HE Amiga is blessed with
several interesting modelling,
animation, and rendering packages
which have produced many stunning
animatkrii and rendering packages
different strengths and weaknesses:
Sculpt-3d has a good modelling
interface, not Turbo Silver's strong
point. Turbo Silver,, however has a
very fast ray tracer.

The difficulty is that each package
has its own format for storing data,
making objects designed in one
package useless for another, and not
allowing the best features of each
package to be used together on one
project. Even the Amiga's JFK
standard is not comprehensive
enough to allow for 3D models.
Interchange sets out to solve the
problem of incompatible data,
allowing conversion of information

12 AMIGA COMPUTING December lifW

■REVIEW

between the various formats. The
other two packages reviewed are
libraries of objects that with the help
of Interchange can be included in
masterpieces. The Object Disc is a
general collection of objects and
scenes, while Fancy Fonts is a set of
three solid fonts.

Interchange is supplied in a small
black ring binder containing the
documentation, the core software and
modules that allow r conversion
between Videoscape 3D and Sculpt-
3d. Additional modules can be
bought which extend the system to
cope with Turbo Silver and Forms in
Flight, The documentation is short,
hut it does explain how to use the
software, Each expansion module
comes with additional documentation
detailing the particular quirks of the '
supported system.

The software has an Intuition
interface. The core program puts up a
window from w r hich all control takes
place. This core program alone
cannot do anything, the modules that
handle the individual formats being
separate programs. The modules for
the data formats being used must be
started as separate processes. As soon
as a module is run the appropriate
format appears as an option in the
main window.

Interchange does not completely
solve the problem of incompatible
data; it can only transfer objects, not
complete scenes or descriptions of
motion. It is not possible to produce
an animation in one system and then
just switch over to another.

D UE to the different ways in
which the various systems
describe objects, several of the
possible conversions between
packages will lose information. For
example, Videoscape 3D has 16
colours which can be either matte or
shiny. A multi-hued reflective object
from Sculpted is likely to have a
different appearance in Videoscape.

The Intuition interface is good, A
file requestor appears on the left hand
side of the window, allowing you to
brow r se through discs selecting files.
The names of the selected files to be
converted go into the window T on the
right hand side.

If any of the conversion modules
have been run, entries will appear in
a list al the bottom, showing the

Fancy Fonts images in Sculpt

available output formats. Having
picked one, the conversion can be
started by hitting the large suitably
labelled button.

The type of each selected file is
determined automatically, and if one
of the conversion modules recognises
it, the conversion starts. The output
filename is derived from the input
with a suitable extension added, If an
output file of that name exists already
it is renamed to x, BACKUP,

C ONVERSION is not

instantaneous, A running report
of progress is written to the bottom
right of the window. In addition a
large STOP button appears, allowing
the process to be aborted.

Within the limitations mentioned
above, the package is extremely
effective. It does require some
knowledge of how each system
defines ob jects to be able to make
good choice of colours and structure.

I am still learning how to use
Interchange to the best effect, but it is
something I am not going to let
anybody take away from me. The
package is not a complete solution to
the problem of incompatible data, but
it is approaching the best possible.
You have to he prepared to tweak the
objects around a bit after conversion.
However, if you are using more than
one of the Amiga modelling systems,
and you have not already bought
Interchange, get it.

Interchange Object Disc 1 is a

collect ion of assorted objects and
scenes for 5culpt-3d and Videoscape
3D. The Video escape objects are the
shuttle, a TIE fighter and a set of
office equipment produced with the
forthcoming Modellm>3D. This

REPORT CARD

Interchange

Syndesi&'HB Marketing QflfIS 444413
£49.95 Interchange. Modules £19,95
each

USEEt 1 \ ESS . lIL HI ~ 1 1

The number of people who have more
than one ren tiering tool is limited. For
them this is a necessity

EASE OF USE.

Weil designed, written and presented.
The concepts of 3D modelling are still
mindbending.

fNTUmOhi.

The author , John Foust, is an Amiga
celebrity. He knows the rules and has
kept to them.

SPEED .

The program shuffles its numbers with
aplomb „ nef lighting fast hut nothing

3D ever is.

VALUE ■H^^KDID

Fau have to be prepared to spend
money and time if you buy ray- tracing
soil ware. This costs comparatively little
and sa vss time.

OVERALL 68%

A very useful package for a small
number of ray-tracing fans, reasonably
priced.

December 196S AMIGA COMPUTING 13

D^fcjxePrmt tt What you see is .what
ym get'OeluxoPrint II has seven ready-;,
made page formats for signs, tiahflerS L •
cards, letterhead’s', calendars and morel

Deluxe Video Rock.videos r business
•graphics, cartoons . . , -this comprehensive
video animation package allows you to •
make your own -^tunning videos, without
complicatedjcommands and formats,.

DekjxePhatoLab Combines .three
powerful graphics tools - .a professional,
paint program t hat wo rks • in a 1 1 'Am iga
graphics modes'incldding-H.A.M,; a
colour image processor .and a poster
maker for posters! . ■ ■ .

Available now at- your nearest Amiga software outlet. More information is available from:
Electronic Arts, 11/49' StatiprvRoad, Langley, Berkshire SL3 8VN; Telephone (0753);49442.

Tho De uxe o

high quality creativity tools
from Electronic Arts.

A set of totally

HI ^ MJT^o f

1 wimiSi

integrated packages that is
so powerful and so flexible, .
it is limited only by your
own imagination.

DefuxePaint If with DelurcPrirct 1

The [wo fid standard DefuxePaint is now
unbeatable with the inclusion of Deiuxe-
Pnnt. With so many built-in] artistic tools,
they -If brin^ out the| artist in you!

DduxeMusic The' ultimate music tool
for. como osi rig, performing and printing, ■
'DfeltixeMusic features ari enormous'
variety of playback, options including

Midi i/0, ■ -

RETORT CARD

■ REVIEWS

The interchange
display
showing
windows for
the modules

M

includes things like a book, a pencil,
disc and a chair.

The Sculpt' 3d objects are rather
varied. The head that is being editied
on the back of the Sculpt manual is
there, along with a complete body, a
frog, a balloon, the sixth platonic
solid (the Utah teapot) and more. The
most useful objects on this disc are an
alphabet. There are two versions in
one, only the outlines of the letters
are stored: in the other the letters are
filled in plates. The outlines can be
extruded with 5cuLpt-3d and the end
filled to produce solid lettering,

In general this disc is good fun, and
the alphabet is very useful. Although
1 will not use the objects much, they
are a good source of test material and
inspiration.

F ANCY Fonts 3D solves the
problem of lettering in the
current modelling programs. There
are no built-in features or support
tools that allow the easy creation of
interesting solid characters in the
world being animated. (Videoscapc
3D did provide a rather zippy font,

but no tools to help glue it together).

My ideal tool would be a command
which I give to a string so it generates
an object representing that string, I
hoped Fancy Fonts 3D was just such
a program; unfortunately, it was not.

It consists of Sculpt- 3d objects for the
Letters of three fonts which still leaves
the problem of gluing them together
into a sensibly spaced string.

However, my expectations aside,
the three fonts - Bold, Ital and Fane —
are very good. These are respectively
a sans-serif bold font very similar to
Helvetica bold, an italic font very
similar to Bookman italic, and a
medium weight font very similar to
Clarendon medium. The shapes are
well defined, not having an excess of
polygons that would slow down the
rendering, while having enough detail
to he interesting.

The letters already have thickness,
although if flat lettering is wanted it is
fairly easy to strip them back down
with Sculpt-3d.

If you do want some good looking
fonts to put in your worlds, these will
provide them, but be prepared to do
some juggling and fiddling to get the
spacing right.

16 AMIGA COMFU7WG December 1988

Interchange Object Disc I
Syndtwii'HB Marketing 0»45 444433
£19.45

USEFULNESS ^■HDUm
A good way to quickly build up a
picture, useful for beginners who want
to get going.

E A SE OF USE,

As easy as loading any other object
into a rendering package

INTUITION

Not applicable , since the object disc is
fust data and does not run ,

SPEED..—

The objects are designed with an eye to
rendering speed, but the results depend
on your package

VALUE

Any more would be a rip-off A lot of
work has gone into the designs-

OVERALL 70%

A good buy when you are not used to
the vectoring programs .

REPORT CARD

Fancy Fonts 3I>

Access Technologies/ Amiga Centre

Scotland 031 557 4242

£44.00

USEFULNESS

Text is a primary requirement in
producing business graphics , an ideal
niche for the Amiga and Sculpt.

EASE OF USE ^^^■311111]

Would benefit from the automatic
spacing of characters in strings,
otherwise simple.

intuition I II 1 1 1 1 H I ! 1 1 1 1 1

There is no executable code on the
disc so there is no need for interaction
with the operating system ,

speed

No internal surfaces makes the shapes
extremely fast to render.

VALVE

While there is some clever design in
the characters which reduce the
surfaces , £50 is a lot for data discs .

OVERALL 59%

If you use a lot of text you can
probably justify the cost in terms of
design and rendering time. Too
expensive for the hobbyist.

AVON

to CumptMis lid
l?Ca*nto Srtwl
SraniraCiH
0nsid

Id 0?J2 637*1
AteCorapup? Ud
3 hann Cum
BfiHOJ

HiflZtt 566*41
Kin Mailtl Shsg
0 Farlli Sn-tff
EhiUN

id QjpjjrajM
Virgin (JjrTfls Cmira

IB Hicham 5lrMS

frud

ft* OffT? 294739

EtEDFClRDSHIfll

Hti'byie IflmEUlin;

IGThi Amdlll Cpilrt
Lulu*

Tri 05B3 wm
Sphimra Phi
inn II, Thg BhiIewKJs
H jipur CirriR
EUtfuid

Td U31 66599
BERKSHIRE
tuieCamsuiers Ltd
49S-499 Oflnrp Raad
Reasng

Tri: 0734 3S36IS

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Sflh-Lv

5 aw feu
topping llnldnq
jewd Mills' Kwes
Itl 03DB 5?06!0
CJlMBflmGE&Him
SphvHe P<j 5
43 Sudan* Stud
Cunbndgp
Tri 0223353643
CLEVELAND
Due Computer Jteip
151-153 Lirttflipi Item
M i thitiunE
Tel 0542 213133
Chips Chnpiiti Ship
5*hrr Garni Shipp-Jin C9«i?
SUu Sneii
SiKlian en tets
No itfeahw! ntmtvi
Mm Cuhuifd Micro Shoo
Dundhi Ai-chIe

DurtJw^iwl

Uriel eshipugh

y 064? 230323

Miin Cdoind H*tO Slwfl

DuwIk SlrMl

R*d:i

Id (164? 466643
The Damtuier Stop
14 Wtsi R n
SlMlUHHlfl- te«5
lei 061? EDGI&5
Tepsi* CampvlP Stfr*are

3 Harrftl.lqnart Wd

5t#*i(i-»rTeH

y 0$4? GJ0503

CO OU-RHAM

OpCmipdtrShop

Chits TSard

Uail*!pcii

Tri 0325 3B1046

topsail Csnpun 5flhw»-e

ETftStiirgiomijitil M&K,
Giangi toad

Cnmpmerwra
2?&Ltffi3«ite H«d
Ba*illtn-£ei
Td 0174 323340
uimti Computer*

71 Set Sirm
Bngitpn

Till 0273 E2668I
6im» OswiB

Mnnin

457-18

■lSIfesram Birari
hi cm

Tri 07/3 ??53E3

ESSEX

[Hnpdirami

00/91.1 London Rnad

Sauhand-an Sea

id 0702 335U3

Lin Compiln SrlldlE Lid

1063 flidi Read

ChtowriflWh

Item hu d

U. Of 53(0851

Hwtard CunpulP Ccm™

(2 NnnhSnwi

Pdmripf}

Til 6305 76$?7t

khHUtr*

36A Qe&ame Sum

Qplihejirr

tel C206 5B0E36

SatiMTC Plus

336 Chtn*dl 5quii*

Sndtote!

Tri 0307 GM7B4
Snhwiie Pus
LtolV Snapping Hall
BwiMbn
tel OZBB in 21
Softmtra Plus

REST

Crfnpj.n intuie Ctmra
07 High Si'Effl
OpnqrDH

Ted 0689 2000

FJnibl.i CunpEd Lid

30 Si Jshns Poad

Turtwidgt Mils

Tel GB92 511555

Sitaeira Plus

35 Wqh Sited

Grwtwto

W: D474 333)6!

MnWtflui

Lnii 3 1-6 Oanpg Sin?

Vi Comptfll Si
1 61-163 U4f di

Td mi 45SH7
tern's Comfulps 8 Video
90 High Slim
Side i«

Id: OK 300 0990
terns Cnmpuieej h Virin
29? IliRh Sueei

n-|i Mi|ici r

y D6B0 21515
The IMm Mathrifi
194 196 Cimerihirv Sirad

Cijlcihwifr

Td. 0206 f60S?7

StihhValB HUS

U*it I. 28731 Mmihen Sum

ChEjmsteiri

Ta4 0745 491716

Setae*™ Me

Un*l. OuiensqHi Cenlrt

Onsdt Road

Gli^S

Id 0375 391161
GuOJCESTiHSHlBt
Thi Muriel Shop
/S Nci:h;xrS;ieti
Ghucmv
W: 0452 n KIP 3
The M add Ship
22 tiri Si m
SMwdd

T* 0153 65a?B

liRtATifl M fl,NCH(5TER

MKIdb0a llnrre EMflUllinBN Cnlil
One 176 Halle Mai
lhe AinSile Cdlirt

tel: DB04 56460

LANCASHIRE

dim Htywrt Vidro md Cemyiir&fiti*
174 Chufth Sirm
feckfod
tel 0253 21657

CjsiIr Cempettfs of Lmcnsitf Li*

3 Qa;e Smer
Lpciwrti
U 0571 6033

Heme B Businisi rpihMlDqif Gb*hb

4fi.4BVort5h.eaim

Olrfim

tel OBI 633 «

IV CcmpEtrs Lid
104 hfalHf Si ef
tonnwixi
Td 0(754 35345
LEICESTERSHIRE
CrontUh Cpiwnadari CuiirE
HH Lunun Rnad
Ham

Itl 0533 550993
LINCOLNSHIRE
ChkUra CdrilpiXETi |Tuntesiril|

I l'ii 3. Ihe Old Malihn^v

5$i nqliald fltafl

GiHlHm

tel: 0478 76004

LONDON

Td 1161-03?- I43B
The ConpuiEr Ship
Kni^iistmdpi M?l
The Arnddn'&frtiie

Hanchpin

tel: OB! 03! DSTB

HAMP6HI6I

786 liieen Lane

Wnchmuft HTI

Loiikn N2I

Tel 01 JED 36 71

Atoms 'rtadd cd Snhirarf Lid

T79 Huh Paid

Nan h fine Iter

Lmisun hi 2

Td Cl 446 2241

6ipI CcmpucEns Lid

12S High Sum

Td. 0325 406689

0ER8V

Camomai Croia

17 Onpsdl Sumc

Beripqi

0whr

Tri: 0773 B36830

DEVON

Sohwa'B E«*iss Lifl
9 {id n Sum

1 1 -e Vnducrl

flvnmh

W 075Z26S372

Ihe Medel Ship

l| [id Tmm 5lr«E

Ptynwrih

Td 076? 221651

EAST SUSSEN

Snphlnnlnn'ipuie 1 Esctorqe

2 An* Stiwi

Bnq‘i:n

Tel: 0213 SJCJ40

SohWBtPlus

y 01 520 3353

Utni S FhtOauteidto

68 DCdmoiiei tltiuor<H Lid

WfeHinqian Cimra
Wnfei

230 iKienhim Cuun Rniil
LandanWl

tel 075! 29B62

Td Ol 255 1507/1

UhimiRainl Lid

G 0 13 fempettf Elrnmnns In

HO Ead Siratt

liTdiLinha" Cdun

Smlhampipn

LDrioaWl

Td 0703 639419

Tri: 01 50037(3?

HtH tFORD b WORCESTER

Mi[i[i Arab* Ltd

tones

22QA Isnenhsm Cmrt Raid

16 Ss SmlhHaSneti

led dsn W

felCISltl

Td Dl 636 2547

Tri: 0005 77330

hint Sahtmelld

Futshun Mitres Lid

32 Rahbane Plica

03 Ehdge Sirati

London Wl

Eieshm

Tri 01 636 2666

Wares

Chdhaaa Cam purer Servires

Id O3B0 7&5500

2?1 Tmiaditm Covi Eteri

HEHTfDftDSHIRf

Lanton A"l

Habbd* Cpmpdifq

Td 01 ESI 4627

10 Miuei Piaia

Srirstara Cpfos

Si AUtos

She Flam :ri OtdPld Sirtd

Tri 0727 41396

170 UilPid SirtK

CnhwaieHus

LpndpnWI

13 T«*n Sq»a't

Tri: 01 4367011

Siewnapa

SaHwaraFlNs

tel 6430 347374

In; hops. 32-43 South Mol

Srnham Plus

Idrrihiu &Efl* Shoppinj Ca

( nil 91. Inshsps

Ipndon NO

ll • Mall liyi

111 01 S3 3 0661

Td 0777 64343

Udjr dgi RnaJ

E*H)

(pntanTN>3
Td 01 040 6136
Virgin Oemps Dame

IDDQlMaiNi
Lmdcn in
TM 01 637 7011
V. on Danes Cemn
52^631 QdwDSirpri
I and on Wl
Id 01 401 B5B ?

Virgin UtpKftri

14 IB Wmri Sues
LwtonWl

Tb 01 631 1234
MERSEtSIDE

Res 9 HU'S CpmpUlPS Lid

15 Cent it* Sudan
Ridri^h Slreij*

( I » F! ' p'H 1 1

Td 051 70S 4036

MICDX

AdmiMiildcrSitaaianLrd

1PCC Sea an Read

(Pfiswra

tel 01 952 0451

fitomsrtbrtl nl SnhuWiieLid

26SSiHvn Pnari

Harre* 1

Td 01 B63 7202
Che iftm^ Spend, sill
IJm IF WHpbiIh Farm
Iptiuc Lane Nanh
SiBfMri! Mom
Slvne*

tel 0753 GB2908
Dfliirwiit 8 Comauiff Serwia
KIOO Lhfandqi Hoad

IJSsM 2100

NQflfOLK

.Jjrrwl Otpari -arc Sloras
: n'dpn Sum
hanMch

Id O603 BBD661
OneSiap Bayimri Lid
IIAGssIIb Vmi*

Comiv SiviHai
1 1 u At i hi ei i

SOUTH KORRSHI PE

Jua Micro Uri
72 C*™*i Sim

TheCampciH 1 Swe

2IA PnrRirg Lftlne Siien

Tri- 030? 75360
STAffORDSHIPE
Emit CamdulBH
6 Hope Sir«t
Hsnlts

Sa^ppnlieK

tel 0702 70705?

11 NwianlaSmuf
Bu'Slpn
SiPhe w Trim
Td 07*2 575013
Miles Bdsv ScriiBW!
JlWJI Ctmodi Road
Lhrdsmwr. CBinrrt
Td 0543 4685777079
Srftmni Cur
50 fmepaie Siraet
SiaBad

Id 0706 41*99
SUFFOLK

5A OrjKHradSiieH
IpsiPtch

Td 0173 53153

22 Sr

tawch
Tri 0473 54771
SURREV

F&nFjnari Camernai Senrim
in Floor, tudirnls cd Kmgsian
6/9 MBihfi Place
Kmpsiw
tel- 01 S941

WEST SUSSEX

Crwlfr CnmgnlE'5

67 lhr: Soiltvaid
CmritT

Tel 0?Elj 33B42
■Atan^naCompuiei tmee
T itaiwct Siraa
Wnrlhin}

H: 0903 ZIQBGI
WEST TMRSHIRE
Micsfimi teamtEddienii*™ Ctmra
33 Kihto'?

Mfcriirid
Tri IB74 336656

WicmpvrtHnne Emenanmeni Cm™

n flute* Vcifliit Scran

Ltafc

Td: 0532 450520

Uembyle HPK t*nn airmrKl Cfiriii
I Knhtoie Mill
The Nil Bril C#' , h*

PiBftrd

The Dxnptff > iir«f
HMslmpilpid Siraa
Mkehrid
Td 0974 290159
The CmpuiBr Slara
34/36. Iqti
Brtdlmd

Td Q274 332D04
ThtCampmai Si#*

40 T-ir.lv teCide
Lnft

W- 063? 420201
The fornpaiir Same
Kj SqrtiE. The Wbolihops
Hdtei

Td 0422 09037
Tre Compurtf Sima
4 Warhei Ptete

Td OKI 3 6B7^6
'■'ki*g Cmpraeri
Airiwv Rise
Dairen Gnaw Pwd
Hanwci

Tri D6K 401902

NDHf HAMPTONS HIRE

A-Z
734 U

WK1PI Fird emit
Xflnhampinn
lal DG04 414F2H
Ngrthtiti Cwipmtr Ctnira 04
13 Ah nqipn Saatra

Td 0604 22639
SafcSpM Campdii*

12 IhqhSlrari
Obwhpv
M nthirti
Tri: 0377 70020
NORTH HUM B6SSIDE
Tamarrws WPild
77 Puaqan Skhc
0ii

Tri: 0402 71O03
NORTH TQflKSHIRE
py Ccmpd*i Side
14 0 i Sim puns Squat

talk

Td 0904 646034
'BrurT lhn'hnk CompiCEc Sami
9 Ca^qaiM Ctmra
DmvspiK

VtNh

Tri 0904 B41B62

WOrTlNGHAMSHIHE

SvirtEct
6MuabrClh»

Mtwih

tel 0636 79097
ThaLjamme 1
Unn 750
tfiawta Cecure
NDnnnshim
Td QSO! 410633
Venn Qmas Ctm™

B- B WhaaltrqtLi

linn 15. F»-3vpS
Lfeam tedtor Marta
Nqh Sired
Epwm

Td 83773 444B5
The Madti Shw
BfiE^padhidqeFtey
Gulihcrd
tel D403 39115
l.lllima ritiari Lid
fan Hup'. Wine'upn Wilt
Gmttfqrd

Tri GHB3 506930

TVNE h W6AA

Mcrahvin Hn»« tderuinniBi* Ctmi*

5G foehn felt

lhgUtirD Centra

Catshtod

Id 091-460 6054

Sunsariind C«n[w*i Ob«ib

29 C'rWMBi Hand

SmfeM

tel- OST 565 S311

Ihe Cpmpuiei Shop
7 high Fnais
t'dnr. feuB!

NMtoSllB

Td OOI 261 6760
Tht Cni»puier Simp
0 Maeirhe Tarict

tel. 091 5H 0M2
WEST MIDLANDS
EvRhnm Ucips Lis
l!62 tetsmctlteBd
Cdiiendqa
tk-mngkpm
IP tel:CZt450 45B4

Ml Qist

l| 12 lTr»e Shres Oahflrad

■l 071 479 4996
Snhwaie Cci
's Lithlirid Pa»igt

Tri 0507 476120
OXFORDSHIRE
Sah Spai Campuiui;
SCHiqtSum
Sinhurv

y G295 68921

tel: 090? 75304
Sptme Cut
I iuadril Sum
mi*

Tri (B37 24*21
Satiwaia bpin; ltd
?|?ZI3 0ipvlSiria
Bcmvgham
tel 0!l 6430100

rtaicMopHun? tniaiiainmaiL Ctetmv
40 Qihpi Sum

Td 0104 514405
Vrqn 6mas Ctmra
94-96 Tht frqg-r

Leads

M: 0537 443681/?

WARWICKSHIRE

Spi Cprrema' Cenlra
OfiQaitnden Sind
Letminqian Spa
Td 0920 33640
WIITSHIHE
tai GpmpuiaiiLid
31 rariradm Eteri
S*Mdto

tel: 0704 512034
Armri

0 Ptegait CmM
Swintan

Td 0333 6ll?53
EIRE

Viigti Games Cmirt

IllgAsInnUuh

Cubtn?

Tri Duhtei 7 3 7361
SCOTLAND

Mtnime Earn paUf emit
12 Eniiik Sqttdt
tew Cmrt

Dembtmviilri

U. 0236 73038®

VimiA Cwties Cbwib
28 32 lAiinaStim
Glsjgu*
tel 041 721 0ID3
Viim Gamit Ctoiri
CSnPhnHH 5i*m
Eimfuigh
Td 041 ??5 4503
WALES

AtaCsmaiiiiiLid
BI Cnrftri

Cardiff

y D?2?4B3D€9
HnC V tor.

2?/24 Casil! tarrit
fo«N

Td 0222 229065
EC Cfopmer Ednbran Ctm™ (ta
7rd flnnL Oltmo'gan Hmdt
Used Sum
CanliH

Tri 0!?? 3902*6
Sah Caait
28/30 Hh Hartdt
Ctnnlytn Tmm fourt
Ddnlvin
Td. 05333 601 31

Tri 0902 313600
Vrgn Carnet Ctmra
98 CirpeiaiiPhSiraEi
0i-mFmham

LAN COMPUTER SYSTEMS

SHOW ROOM OPEN MON TO SAT 10.30am to 5.30pm
ONE OF EUROPES LARGEST AMIGA CENTRES
WE ONLY SELL GENUINE U.K. SPEC AMIGA

LAN AMIGA SOFTWARE PACK

AMIGA 500

Free 20 programmes condensed onto 2 disks for your convenience,

FREE MOUSE MAT FREE DUST COVER FREE JOYSTICK

£100 OF SOFTWARE WITH YOUR AMIGA

YES YOU CHOOSE THE SOFTWARE YOU WANT WITH YOUR AMIGA
(£1 00 RRP1 IF YOU WISH TO ORDER A TV MODULATOR THEN YOU WILL HAVE
£75.00 TO SPEND ON SOFTWARE

£419 INC. VAT

AMIGA COLOUR
PRINTER PACKAGE

AMIGA 500. Free Mouse Mat,
Free Dust Cover, Free Deluxe
Paint 1, Free 20 programmes
condensed onto 2 disks for your
convenience.

Oklmake Colour Printer
The Work (Word Processor, database
+ worksheet)

SAVE £100
£479 + VAT

★ MONITORS *

1034 High Res Col monitor...... ,£199 QO+VAT

if purchased with computer £189. 00+ VAT

Philips 8S33 monitor £2 19. 00+ VAT

if purchased with computer . ..... £209.00 +VAT

High resolution monochrome

monitors from ..£69 OO+VAT

* ACCESSORIES *

A501 RAM expansion ...£1 29.00 ioc VAT

Mouse mat £4,95 inc VAT

Amiga dust cover £4,95 inc VAT

Philippine* dust cover £4.95 inc VAT

3,5“ disk drive cleaning cit ,.*..,£7.95 inc VAT

TV modulator ...«** ...£24. 15 inc VAT

10 D/S 3 5 disks £14.95 inc VAT

20 D/S 3 5 disks in

80 capacity lockable box ...*„ £29.95 inc VAT

* DRIVES *

C Limans CAX354 with

on/otf swith ..,.,.,£99 95 inc VAT

Supra 20mb hard disk £400,00 inc VAT

CLEARANCE OFFER
Kumana Second drive for
Amiga — £*9.DD + VAT

★ PRINTERS *

Citizen 120D ..., £99. 00+ VAT

Panasonic KXP 1081 £139 00+VAT

Star LC 10 Printer £189.00+ VAT

Star LC 10 Printer, Stand Paper +

Cable £209 00+VAT

Nec 24 Pin Printer £279 00+VAT

Mac PS Plus Ti . +il *. ++ £469. 00+VAT

Epson LX8Q0 E179.00+VAT

256K Printer Buffer £160.00+VAT

Printer Cable £13,00+ VAT

Box of Paper 2000 Sheets £13 00+VAT

Printer Stand .... C9.95+VAT

Printer Stand ..«.*« £26, OO+VAT

Printer Ribbons from £3 00+VAT

New Star LC24-10 £299 00+VAT

IN STOCK -
AVAILABLE NOW

STAR LC10 Colour Printer
Parallel Version — E233+VAT

Oklmate 20 Colour Printer
£139.00 inc VAT

All prices exclusive of VAT + delivery
unless otherwise stated

★ AMIGA B2000 ★

Internal Genlock Phone

8Mb RAM Board Populated to 2Mb.,..., Phone

B2QG0 £849,00

2MB RAM BOARD £399 00

XT Bridge Board £399 00

20 MB Hard disk £399 .00

A501 RAM
EXPANSION NOW
IN STOCK

APPLICATIONS

SOFTWARE

The Works Alt For £69.00 inc VAT

A Wordprocessor + Database
and Spreadsheet

The Works is A Three in One Pack

Scribble 2 is the Word Processor
Analyse 2 is the Spreadsheet
Organise is the Database

LANSOFT CLUB
The Club for ST and Amiga
users everywhere.

All prices include VAT
* Special Introductory Prices *

* Membership - £20 - (per year) *

* Save up to 80% off Games Software *

* Up to 30% - Off Application Software *

* Over 500 titles available for the Amiga A

01 597 8851
1063 HIGH RD,
CHADWELL HEATH,
ROMFORD, ESSEX, RMS 4AU

HOW TO ORDER

Enclose letter with cheque, postal
order or credit card number for
amount Including VAT and delivery
charge. Credit card holders may order
by telephone. Contact sales desk.
Dispatch normally In 24 hours.

Prices current at time of going to
press. Subject to availability.

Official orders from Educational
Establishments, Local Authorities and
Government departments welcome.
Contact Education Department.

FAX: 01-590 5057. Telex: 99554S.

TV

TUNER

Turn your monitor into a TV
1 2 Programmes selection
Complete with all
cables + aerial
Switchable between TV +
computer.

ONLY £59.00 + VAT
if ordered with monitor
£55.00 + VAT

16 AMIGA COMPUTING December 19Btf

■ADVENTURES*

Dave

Eriksson takes
a trip to a place
that swallows
ships whole - and
tackles the dreaded
graphic interface

feffc e
Bwmda

Ttkwgfk

M ERkHRSOrr* latest Amiga

adventure sets ike seem?
among sun-drenched islands to I lie
linrlh til the Caribbean, The sort of
place you might expert tu find
cricket, guild fishing and friendly
people.

It is also tile locution of one oi the
most mysterious puzzles of modern
limes - I lie Bermuda Triangle, an
urea of nearly three quarters of a
million square miles between Florida.
Bermuda and the Virgin Islands,

In the Bermuda Project you plav
the part cif Kill Benson, a top reporter
for the New York Slur and Herald on
three months special leave to
investigate a spate id disappearances
within the infamous Triangle.

1 11 ha* never lieen far from the front

page since a flight of American Naval
planes vanished without truce in
Many planes and ships have
gone missing. Each time Ihe coniplele
mm,, absence of bodies or wreckage has

[ fueled speculation of everything from

►

December 19Hft AMIGA COMPUTING 1&

■ADVENTURESS

MOCJl d

instant mini-hurricanes In extra-
terrestrial intervention.

Kill's intentions are to interview as
many people as possible wlio might
have first hand experiences of any
strange happenings. He charters a
plane anil sets nil In get I hi: initial
background information he needs
White Ilyins ac ross the Triangle Ids
plane is hil by lightning and crash
lands nn an unknown island.

This is the stal l of the adventure.
Ymi have to guide Kill through a
number of puzzles, explore ihe island
and escape back to civilisation. The
pint is stereotyped and Hue puzzles
unoriginal hut the im piemen I a I inn is
novel and makes the game Fun.

The display uses full screen
scrol ling to show where Kill is on I In;
island, Kvery thing is conli idled with
the mouse — nn text is entered, II you
see something of interest manoeuvre
Kill up to the object and press the
right hand button. Keep H pressed to

display an action menu. Drag the
mouse down to highlight an action
and activate it by pressing the lell
hand button. This will either produce
a text response or a further ohjec t
menu.

Initially Ibis is a little fiddly, as
premature release ol a button loses
either the menu or the information
you need to read. Give it 2V\ minutes
or so In liecome accustomed to the
technique.

M OVING Bill around with the
mouse can prove frustrating
and although it did not stop me from
solving the puzzles, 1 found the
drunken movements I imparted to
him a little annoying.

The action menu has been
simplified to just six commands
examine, gel. drop, use, attach,
detach and options. This may well
irritate the purist who would demand
that w e "pour pel ml from fuel can

into fuel lank ' rather than "use fuel
can on fuel cap'\

1 ii practice the multifarious use of
’ use’’ becomes second nature and
completely negates Unit horrendous
search lor the right word or sequence
of words that can so often upset the
How of a game.

The options menu provides (he
expected save load game position,
restart game and slides - which gives
a percentage score anil perhaps a
due on what is needed next-

Thr initial scene finds Kill standing
next to the crashed plane The pilot is
dead and the plane on lire. It is
imperative In put out the Harries
quickly. If left to hum out, the hatch
will warp and you will not he aide to -
get a vital piece of equipment from
inside,

t here are several times in the
ad venture where quickness ot action
becomes important. Failure In
complete the rigid actions will result

Ye gods a pirate ship

Ho w can f persuade the piiot to get hack to the plane?

20 AMIGA COMPUTING December 1988

Probes
out of

Control R t

,nfec ^ma ne ; !

-r » ¥

■euc/idfa

Patterns
n °ote dhc

Pioneer Probe Mk IV — a seif-replica ting robotic spaceship
- Is out of control destroying alt fife as it travels from
planet to planet in the Station Cluster. Your mission is to
stop the spread of the plague before it's too late .

§ Drone flight patterns that you can program! to soak up energy from the city below

• Carefully-designed instrument panel - to help you plan your strategy

• Your performance analysed to show your strengths and weaknesses
§ Darling HAM -mode graphics. 4,096 on-screen colours
§ Eight-directional scrolling over a detailed cityscape
§ Stereo music score a

9 and digitised speech AmiA/lf

octMfrP*’^

Please send me Pioneer Plague for the Amiga,
□ I enclose a cheque for £24.95 made payable
to Mandarin Software

SOFT WA R E

In association with

*

It

mm

WmWm

k

□ Please debit my Aceess/Visa number

U-,1 1 I I I I I I L±_LLJ HIM

Expiry date
i

Signatu re

Name

Address

Europa House, Adlington Park,
Adlington, Macclesfield SK10 4NP.
ENQUIRIES: 0625 879940 ORDER HOTLINE: 0625 879920

L_r

.Postcode

J|

in death. Jn c lassic adventure style,
there art: pussier* to be solved before
you can get past the river In I lie east
nr the stockade fence lo the norths
{luce across the river, you will find
one id the recently missing planes.

Your task is now dear; you must
lind and rescue the sis passengers
with the pilot tn escape. The island is
large, with plenly lo explore. Kadi
passenger is held tn different groups
lit' natives and poses a separate
puzzle for you lo solve,

J lie atmosphere and tension are
maintained throughout the adventure
even I hough the story Sine becomes a
I it Hr st retd led by what you muul on
your travels. Hi; prepared lor
everything from hi-tech cavemen,
voodoo culls and cannibals tn Inca
pyramids, pirate ships and Red
Indians.

There are quite a tew nhjecls to
find most of vvliii li hut nnl all. are
useful. You can only carry a limited
number in your hui.kpui k. Remember
where you have left tilings, as some
items are used mure than once. Try
not to run mil of petrol while driving
the jeep as you will need LI lo supply
electricity later.

If Hermuda Proper I were lex I only it
would prohahlv he very run-of-lhe-
mill. The graphics and simplified
mouse command change it into an
entertaining game that most will
enjoy.

(iiiiphics are the key to success for

Raiubird s classic trolls, li Is,

sorcery and magic swords adventure,
Legend of the Sword. Set in ft dark
age far away, I lie laud of Anar is
under attack from the evil wizard
, Su/iir. With his mutated humanoids
he lias already overcome one of the
land's strongest armies,

tine of his must terrible weapons is
his ability to transform ihe bodies of
the fallen in In more ol t hese
murderous humanoids. These
immediately turn mi llieir former
comrades.

REPORT CARD

F ROM » l»uttt« im III)- i&lanil of
Anar, only one man managed to
escape, cross Ihe sea. and tell hrs
harrowing tale to King Harms. After
much deliberation it was agreed that
sending another army would prove
useless against the wizard's might.
Another way to defeat this evil
creature had to lie found.

Legends from Ho; distant past
spoke of a wondrous sword ami
shield. Would they he able lo prilled
Hie world from Suzar s evil? Is Ll
possible that they may even loi aide to
destroy the immortal Siizar himself?

Legend has it that those weapons
were hidden on the island of Anar in
the keeping ol the mysterious
Corsarians. A small hand of warriors
is chosen to journey hi Anar to try
and find the sword and shield. You
are let he the leader: the other five
have all carried not dangerous tasks
for their king in Hie past imd are
li a rde ned i a m p a i g n e rs.

Approaching thi 1 mast your boat
may land in only Hirer possible
places - to the north-east. east in

south-easi. You at the

liegiiiniikg id your quest, hot before
achieving anything really significant
you in list learn how to use vvlial you
sire before you - not oidv in Hie lenlm
ol Anar hut also on your Amiga's
mimilur.

(lemma ruts may he Ivped in al I lie
inpill line, and there are sirveral short
cuts for Ihe more commonly used
com in a nils. Above the input line is a
seel ion lor test descriptions and
responses. The lop half of Hie screen
contains a number id graphics
windows.

I'd the left of I lie graphics section
are two windows dial display cameos „
of where yon ale ami wind actions
you have post performed or w ho
you may meet.

I lie top rigid two thirds ol the
graphics section is the scroll window
which displays either a map ol Where
you have been or com mantis accessed
h\ the mouse pointer I mill a
command line at Ihe lop id the
screen. To Ihe I eft ol (lie send I
window is an arrow that enables
additional Hems lo he displayed in
the scroll window,

beneath the scroll window are
tliTen directional icons up down,
compass directions and In mil. If a
direction is possible 11 will In:
highlighted: click cm the appropriate
box anil you will move in Ilia I
direction.

Lastly then; is a picture of a candle
which indicates your party's strength

Bermuda Project

Mirrursofl

£ 24.95

STOk Y USE

Not exactly a real life adventure.

AURA..

Holds together well despite the plot ,
STAYING POWER.]

Should keep you guessing in places.

GAMEPLAY.

Mouse control arid simplistic approach
combine well to save an average game.

VALUE ■HUD

Will keep you busy and the pseudo
arcade action may encourage a replay .

DIFFICULTY.

A logical mind will make things easy.

Enjoyable entertainment. No real depth.

22 AMIGA COMPUTING December JSflfl

■ADVENTURES*

Ltllt^UrT

■ meet a tepfvehnun

The toll screen nut

jiiuJ life force, Across I he (up of the
screen are live command words
opiums, ca, mad, actions, map*
execute. Move the mouse pointer to
(pptieiiH and the scroll window will
idler inventory* vocabulary* save,
load, quit, rerap, (link, listen, wail,
help and colours.

Actions provides examine* show .
Sue. £<‘t. drop, throw, eat, drink,
allot k. smell, kirk and taste, t in k mi
any ol these and a tin I her menu of
nl) junta to which these actions could
he performed is displayed for vnur
■ holt e.

Map displays Ihe map mode williin
the si rail wimlmv and .1 further click
within the window will display a lull
smith map, centered upon lhal
shown in the scroll window, finally,
erectile will initiate an action such as
attack once you have indicated whal
you wish to attack and with whal,

Legend ol the Sword certain l\ has
si hit lining for it. I 'sod carefully , the
1111 m se -driven commands inainlain .1
Mow as vou miivi 1 around. I he
drawback is lhal only relatively few
commands are accessible in this
milliner*

I he program is complex and

such as took up. look

down or search are needed As these
are not available via the mouse il is
easy lo assume that leek and examine
Irani the action menu uiighl he all
I hat is required. Mouse commands
are only a small part uiw h.it is
understood.

There is a fair hit of 1 hararEer
i literal linn within your party and
with i realures you meet* You may
have to evert a little physic al
persuasion lo get members of you r
learn In tin 1vh.1l you ask,

I he Help command rarely gives
you a straight answer. You will still

have to work mil ihe answers to the
p uz/ lex. hut il sometimes indicates
where there is a puzzle v uti may have
missed. Commands like go to, find
and follow .ire recognised. Rani save
and imps are almost a necessity as
initially vou are very vulnerable.

9 would recommend drawing your
own maps, the un-si reen one is good
toil it is useful lo know what is at a
location* and this is not display ed, Il
could he embarrassing lo walk into
some angry Irolls just because y ou
had forgotten w hich room thee were
in,

l egend of Ihe Sw ord will keep vou
guessing for a long Mine* it is not easy
to solve hut 1 am certain you will
keep coming h.u k lo il for more.

1 \VO adv entures that should

prov e Mi he absolute w inners on
I lie Amiga are now in Ihe shops:
Lancelot, wnllen liy Level Vine and
distributed by Mandarin Software,
and l llimn }\ by Origin and
distributed by Micro prose*

They come from authors lliat have
such a pedigree you will hardly need
me to recommend I hem, Nevertheless
by next month I hope Lo have had
sufficient time at the key board to get
deeply into one or Imlh of them.

t.ancclm is a te\| (with excellent
graphics] ml venture tracing the story
of Lancelot s arrival al king Arthur's
court at, Camel 1 it, the formation of the
knights of the Round fable and the
quest tor Ihe Holy (iraik

11 has .dl of Level Yine\ commands
lliat others have since copied such as
oops, goto, run and many more.

There appears lo be plenty of
character interaction and rather than
developing their own fantasy based
on . it is moled firmlv on genuine

folklore and legend.

I 1 1 ■ mil IV is going to be a roll?
plover's deiighl. The system su
successful! v used in l' Itima HI has
hern expanded and refined, with
more logical use of magic and a great
deal nf character interaction.

The light against evil continues
here w ith your team of characters
attempting lo become perfect in every,
way. Any deviation from perfection
is noted ami has to he atoned fur. See
a beggar - give him help: a helpless
v illain aitai ked - save him. This is
the stuff (rue heroes are made of, and
> nil will not reach the heights if vou
are lai king.

Plenty of new monsters to give
battle to and deeper dungeons to
explore. Gird the loins, sharpen the
sword and prepare lor a heroic qiiesl
lhal will literally lake y ou iiui of this
world,

REPORT CARD

Legend of the Sword
I Rain bird
£ 24.95

STORYLINE
Good text supports and links puzzles,

a vr a .. ill MMMlhfiil

Sweaty palms keeps you on your toes,

| s ta ying po wm , . ■WTrill I I

I Plenty of devious puzzles to so he,

GA MEPLA Y

Well thought out operating system ,

VALUE*.,

Plenty to think about,

DIFFICULTY,

Not easy but the clues are there.

OVERALL

Hopefully the first of a ne?u breed.

December 1 Stitt AMIGA COMPUTING 23

T RULY innovative computers
only seem to come from teams
dedicated to their work. The owners
of special computers - Macintoshes,
Archimedes and Arnicas - grow to
love their machines, while people
using computers as tools, IBM and
Amstrad word processor users, rarely
have an affinity for their machine.

In the early days of the Amiga
A1D0Q there was a clubby feel. There
were very few owners - after all a
machine which cost more than £1,000
and had no software was a difficult
purchase to justify, and many of the
early owners kept in touch, spreading
news and gossip.

The Amiga is now three years old
and growing rapidly in popularity.
With this success the grapevine is
withering and now few owners know
how the engineers who designed the
Amiga suffered to bring us the best
computer in the world. The story
used to be told by R.J. Mical to
packed audiences, but now he has
decided that things must move on and
no longer relates the tale.

The Amiga was conceived in 1982
as a successor to the Atari 2600 VCS.
The VCS was an incredibly popular
machine which sold by the millions.
Activision was founded on the
strength of games for the VCS, and
Atari made a fortune.

It later blew the loot with some
major mistakes such as paying so
much for the game rights to the film
ET that it ran out of budget to
develop the software, rushed the
coding and produced a dreadful
program. But because it had spent so
much, Atari needed to sell a lot of
copies, and the cheapest way to do
this was to make a lot at once.

The game, in US parlance, bombed.
Atari was left with egg on its
corporate face and loads of unsold
cartridges which ended up as landfill
in a desert,

But enough about Atari — for the
moment - the company we are
interested in is Hi-Toro. That was the
name of the company founded to
build a new machine. The project was
initiated by three dentists who
between them had $7 million to
invest.

With hindsight they were foolish,
the entire Amiga project probably
consumed more than ten times that,
so you are doing pretty well to be
able to buy such a highly developed
machine for under £400, But with the
games machine market taking money
like there was no tomorrow it seemed

a wise investment, and $7 million a
vast amount of capital.

The company changed its name to
Amiga - Spanish for girlfriend - so it
had the right image. Besides a name
which alphabetically came before
. Apple was commercially stronger
than Hi-Toro. The best games
machine the world had ever seen was
to be called the Lorraine,

The men who were to make it
happen were Jay Miner and Dave
Morse. Jay had designed the chips in
the Atari 800 and the VCS as well as
a number of non-computer products

arcade manufacturer who produced
Defender, I oust, Robotron and the
best pin table ever, Black Knight.

At Williams Rf had worked on
SiniStar and Star Bike, an amazing
laser disc game where the players
raced other computer generated bikes
around tracks which grew harder and
harder. A neat touch was a SiniStar
face which floated above the track.
Unfortunately the colours used in
Star Bike were not the same as
those used in SiniStar
so the face

History’s

race i

olved- ^ h6 L

The Amiga b ff boX for on r-
machine out oi d inS jde- S* u pid 1
Christmas it has a *°$£ on s V

traces the trib ulau

like a heart pacemaker.

Amiga could not have chosen a
better man. It is thanks to Jay that we
have HAM mode - which he put in as
an experiment intending to remove it.
Dave joined from Tonka toys as vice
president of sales. A great leader of
men it was Dave who held the
company together through the
roughest times,

L ORRAINE was to be the games
machines to end all games
machines, more colours, faster sprites
and the most awesome sound ever.

But it was to be a long project. Amiga
was based in Silicon Valley where
industrial espionage is as common as
discarded McDonalds wrappers in
Oxford Street.

Amiga built joysticks as u cover. All
sizes of slicks, from an iddy biddy
little joystick which fitted in the palm
of your hand to a thing called the
Joyboard which you stood on to play
the game, Joyboard and the attractive
championship skier who helped
demonstrate it provided the Amiga
team with hours of amusement as she
displayed the best techniques for
playing the surfing and skiing
games.

RJ, Mical joined Amiga to work on
the software development. He had
formerly worked at Williams, the

looked wrong.
The development team
solved this major problem by
redesigning all the other sprites in the
game to use the colours the face
needed. Star Bike was launched as
the arcade boom died. A lot of
arcade manufacturers lost their shirts
and went back to pin tables.

So while Williams lost Rf, and later
Bart White brook, as great games
programmers, Amiga gained a
programmer for Intuition.

AmigaDos was originally
commissioned from an American
company which produced operating
systems, but when they looked at the
shaky finances of the company they
were supplying they took another job
instead,

Metacomco Software in Bristol
came to the rescue. It specialises in
Tripos installations and applications.
Tripos is a multitasking operating
system originally designed for mini
computers at Cambridge University,
but the Amiga was powerful enough
to handle it. Much of the work was
done by Dr Tim King, who has now
moved to Perihelion to work on the
Helios operating system for
transputer-based machines.

RJ moved from his home in
Chicago to the land of sun, sea and
earthquakes. While everyone else hid
under tables when a tremor hit the
area RJ stood in awe, watching the
car park ripple. He also took on the
distinctive name. His real name is

24 AMIGA COMPUTING December turn

■FEATURE!

he

y

job

|

is.

Eh

V

id

Robert but there was already a
Robert and a Rob on the project so he
became RJ. It was when he got to
Amiga, decided he liked them and
they liked him, he was told what they
were realty working on.

The machine the management
thought was a games console offered
some unusual expansion possibilities
for something which was only
supposed to have joysticks and games
plugged in. There was a disc drive
port, printer, serial and keyboard
connections. Little extras which
would save the Amiga's bacon.

B ECAUSE Ami gas didn't exist,
the software was developed
using simulators on 66000 based Sage
computers. The progress was frantic,
as they had a deadline of January 4,
1984. This was the Consumer
Electronics Show (CES) where they
wanted to demonstrate the machine in
private to software houses in the hope
of building up a base of games for the
machine when it was launched.

They had a stand with joysticks on

the outside and a closed off meeting
room for invited guests only where
they demonstrated the killer games
machine. Unfortunately an escalator
ran past the stand and visitors could
look in as they travelled up and see
something special was going on.

As an aside it is interesting to note
that Konix, the joystick company from
Wales, had a similar arrangement at
the 1988 PC show. Joysticks on the
outside and a killer games console
shown to a selected few inside. But it
is secret, so I won't tell you that.

The software was finished io days
before CES and running fine on the
Sage. But when they tried it on the
prototype hardware, things fell apart.
The prototype took the form of many
large printed circuit boards, packed
with chips. These were later reduced
to the custom chips Paula, Agnus and
Denise, but for CES each was so large
and fragile that it took up a seat to
itself on the plane.

There was a panic to get everything
working for the show, a panic which
meant that many people stayed in the
office 24 hours a day, even over

Christmas. RJ and Dale Luck played
loud music and danced to keep
awake, grabbing odd minutes of sleep
while programs compiled, working
with pillows on their laps so they
could doze.

The machine was a hit ai CES,
despite attempts to keep it under
wraps. The Amiga staff worked on
the stand all day and wrote programs
at night, including the famous Being
demo, Unfortunately the games
market was in mid nose-dive and no
one was willing to finance the hard
up project, The impact the machine
had made was enough to raise a little
cash and cheat bankruptcy.

Real chips were produced and the
gestating Amiga was taken to the June
CES in Chicago. The interest was
enough to raise more money,
although not enough to finance the
development which was needed. At
one stage Dave Morse took out a
second mortgage on his house to
finance the payroll.

Eventually Amiga had to look at

►

December 1988 AMIGA COMPUTING 25

■FEATURE!

4

selling up. Meetings were held with
Sony, Apple, Philips, Hewlett
Packard, Sears Roebuck - the large
US chain store - Silicon Graphics,
who make expensive workstations,
atid Atari, Jack Tramiel had been
squeezed out of Commodore, the
company he had founded, and bought
Atari to strike back at Commodore.

He knew the dire straits Amiga was
in and twisted the situation to his
greatest advantage. He lent Amiga
half a million dollars to tide the
company over for a month while they
negotiated a share price for the
takeover. The money was spent by
the end of the next day,

Dave Morse was in a weak position
when it came to haggling with
Tramiel over the share price, Amiga
asked for $ 2 a share. Atari offered 9a
cents. Amiga conceded to $1-5fl, Atari
offered BG cents. The price fell and
fell. Whenever Dave Morse tried to
get close to Jack Tramiel’ s figure the
offer was lowered.

The men who had put every ounce
of their waking energy into the

I project faced redundancy and failure,

I Three days before the deadline came
up Commodore called Dave Morse. A
meeting was arranged w r ithin 24
hours and papers were drawn up.

Dave had minutes in which to finish
negotiations and catch his plane back
to Amiga, Commodore offered $4.
Dave turned them down, saying it
was not enough. They offered $4.25
and he signed,

Along with security. Commodore
gave Amiga $27m for development,
enough to buy Sun workstations for
everyone who needed one. A few
changes were made to the design
shown at CES. The Lorraine bad a
300 baud modem built in as standard
and a device called the Chimney
which would have allowed for second
processors.

Commodore gave the machine
higher capacity disc drives and made
the base machine 258k instead of b4k,

The A 1000 was launched in New
York in June 1985. Debbie Harry
demonstrated the sound, Andy
Warhol the graphics.

Jay retired and is happy to have
seen Interceptor developed for his

computer, While he was working on
the Amiga he hoped someone would
produce a top notch flight simulator,
and for a while Bruce Art wick from
Sub Logic worked in-house at Amiga
on Radar Raiders, a game which
failed to appear hut formed the basis
for Jet, ,

Dave Morse and RJ went to Epyx
where they are working on a new
secret hardware project.

The Amiga reached the public who
took to it with a fanatical zeal. It has
not sold as well as the IBM or Mac,
but it is loved and that is what has
produced some amazing software:

The stunning Sculpt 3D and ray
traced demos by Eric Grahame.
wonderful animations by Allen
Hastings and Leo Schwarb and
around 15U megabytes of public
domain softw r are collected and
catalogued by Fred Fish.

Amiga users are nice people, they
help each other and enjoy their
machines. You can be part of this by
joining a club like the Amiga Users
Group or ICPUG and learn that there
is more to owning the best games
machine ever than just playing games.

£34.95 (Commodore 64/128 £24,95)

The award-winning premier jet fighter simulator, Strikingly beautiful carrier-
based sea missions complement multiple land-based combat scenarios. Je
also lets you explore the world of SubLOGIC Scenery Disks at lighting
speed!

£34.95

Nearly 1,5 million copies of this classic, premium flight simulation program
have been sold to date. Compatible with SubLOGIC Scenery Disks.

SubLOGIC is a small company dedicated to producing the finest in flight
simulation software Look for our flight Notes” advertisements, coming soon,
for in-depth descriptions of current SubLOGIC software products and projects.

LOGIC

35 Piccadilly
Suite 101-110
London WW 9FB
Telephone: 01-439 B985

26 AMIGA COMPUTING December 19SX

— ■

y-AVIOEQ TITLING

GRAPHICS

LATEST RELEASES

Aegis AM Tiller (PAL] ■ ^ . £11 0 40

create and animate pro/bncy teles State
copy/gKiiock presentations to video

TV' te>l (PALI £65 95

tie easiAt te use titles— create amazing frames in
frte shortest ol time

Trstew (PAL) tea .«

animaie your TV*Tert screen with wipes, lades,

scrolls, single items etc

Kara Foils £59.95

superlative tilling fcnte

PAINT PROGRAMS

Express Paint [PAL)

£69,95 :

paint large r than the screar ihffty fcso-

Mon. import text graphic* etc

DlfpiBM (PAL)

£59.95

4096 painting with lasso" cut and paste,

edge Wending, shading eic

Prism Plus

£5995

4096 colour painting, use .16 colour fonts

made wrthCalbgrapher

Ptoa Par®

£6995

4906cOlOurpainwig. Jighlsounce shading.

dithering, surfacf mapping

LEARNING TO
PROGRAM?

MCC Assembler

£69.95

Bewtaark Moduli 1

£139.95

Bcnchravrlr C library

£79.95

Benchmirk tff library

£79.95

Itereiwisric Statelier

£79.95

AM A/C Me 3

£195.00

AM A/C Fortran

£266,00

Fori™ Prof pick

£109.95

Artec

E1M.95

Lattice C ttontepere pick

£275.00

Modula 2 StuM

Moduli 2 Dmnkrpet

£149.95

, MCC Pascal 2

£89.95

Hi Soft Devpac 2

£59.95

ViricosHtpe 30 (PAL] £143.70

create and animate 3D objecte-as used by
video professionals

Sculpt 3D [PALI mm

create and modify stapes, move viewpoint ray

trace

Animate 39 £1 25.00

companion to Sculpt 3D— animate your objects,
lighi sources end viewpoints.

Turbo Silver 30 £139 95

30 graphics, animation and ray tracing
Animator Apprentice £ 1 99 .95

multi- module full colour animation
The Director £59.95

an animation "programming 7 ' system

CAPTURE & MANIPULATION

Digivlerw 3 0

£149,95

the still frame video digitiser

Digiview adapter

£22.95

tor A&00 2000. includes volt regulator

Pixmate

£49.95

image enhancing7maniputetioi software

Butcher 2

£29.95

picture manipulation- mall toning, mosaics, edge

mapping and more |

Polaroid Palette System

£2006.75

take 35mm slides/prints elc direct from the Amiga

memory

Cherry digitising tablet

£632.50

A3 type tablet for inputting drawings Accurately lor

DTP and graphics

.

MUSIC & SOUND

Cvmic Setter £69.95

Kerpow! Create your comic stop/page and
printer to colour or fi/W graphics printer.

Comic Setter Clip Art Disks

Super Heroes £24.95

Science Fiction £24.95

funny Characters £24.95

Lights, btara. Actios £57.50

Combine IFF pictures* ANfM animations and
Somx irtstrumeds and scores mfo complete
presentations

Fancy M Fcnfe Mfctt

Proportionally spaced characters tor Sculp* and
Animate 30 (inctodi^ European characters eg

£ a, u, 5, e, ete)

Provide Plus PAL £249.95

The ultimate professional tiding system,

PravidM Plus Furl Disks £99.95

Set 1 or 2

EXP51Z £5000

Empty 51 2k RAW boards your own chips,

EXP0OOO £phqi|p

Empty 8 meg RAM board for A50D (fit your own
chips to 2, 4, 6, Of 8 meg)

Design 3D £79 95

The 3D design package with a easy User
interface, taSS *. '

L«Hm C 50 2^5"% 55

C*+ Turhe Ca Compiler £356.50

Movie Setter TBA

Aagli Sonix £57.50

music composition. use digitised
sounds, control, midi. On screen
edit

£45.00

manipulate sampled sounds and
save for use in Sonia and other
software

A Drum £39.95

four voice drum roach ins, use
sample-3 sounds as percussion
fnsirumate

SpNi £1995

sound manipulation package

imi digital
£175 00

PrB'Sotmd faquir £79.95
Ftertect Sound £79.95

All the above products, and many more are supplied by
your local Amiga dealer, phone for details or your
nearest stockist:

HB Marketing Ltd.

Brooklyn House 22 The Green, West Drayton, Middx UB7 7PQ.
Tel: 0895 444433 Fax: 0895 441962 Telex: 934689 HBMK

British in the

New World

John Minson flew to America to interview
the men behind Ultima, who create the
Roles Royce of computer games

R ICHARD Garriott and

Chris Roberts had been on
the road for many moons before
they arrived at the castle of their
allies, Microprose, in Hunt
Valley, Maryland, USA. There
had been other visits,
interviews, business — and in
addition they were adding the
final touches to two games,
Ultima V and Times of Lore. No
wonder Garriott and Roberts
were exhausted.

But perilous travel is par for a
pair of adventurers, so throwing
off their dusty capes they tucked

And lo , it came to pass, in that
era known as the early eighties
BC - Before Computing... or at
least in the days when 76 k still
looked impressive - there
came to these shores , in a
tome of fantasy role playing
cailed The Space Gamer , news
of Lord British and his tribe,
also ceiled Origin Systems f the
people responsible for the
mighty saga of Ultima.

into a breakfast of Eggs Benedict
before talking to the band of
scribes who had crossed oceans

to join them. And when the
repast was past - and yea,
yummily, it was good - all
gathered to hear the famous
histories of Origin Systems.

It was then that the emissary
who had called himself Garriott
announced that he was in truth
Lord British, travelling incognito
(and in a plane) to confound his
enemies. So settling back, as a
bard strummed a Midi lute, he
told of how he had been born in
Britain but had been spirited
away to the American continent
as a child, where he had
partaken of such pursuits as role
playing games.

“I grew up on Dungeons and
Dragons 11 , he recalls, as well as
Tunnels and Trolls, a system
noted for ils simplicity and solo
scenarios. 'T think a lot of new
games are reaching a
complexity level that loses the
original attractiveness. Fantasy
is supposed to be a
psychological game with the
environment - nut just rules,

"Advanced Dungeons and
Dragons is a step back from
D&D. For me the thing about
role playing was the
intellectualising. AD&D is a
humungous addition of rules to
deal with all situations. When I
see kids playing now they’re not
thinking of things to do hut
arguing about the rules. It’s
become a game for the mass
market and there aren’t enough
creative people to run games out

there - which is why computers
take it on”,

Garriott had seen the link
between the tables and dice
rolling of rote playing and the
micro's number crunching way
hack in 1979, two years before
Sir Clive first gave the British
the Ik of the ZXB1 . Like so
many games pioneers, Garriott
wrote his first adventure for his
own and friends' amusement,
using a computer in the store
where he worked, teaching
himself Basic as he went along.

Q

I U1TE by chance, a
publisher got to see this
early^ffort and approached
Garriott, but the experience of
writing this first game
convinced him that he could do
better next time, so set to work
on Ultima 1, again using Basic,
though incorporating a couple
of machine code routines
written for him by a friend.

The game set the pattern for
all the Ultimas that followed,
introducing players to the land

of Britannia, which for the first
of many times was beset by
demoilic hordes. The game
combined large scale maps of
the wilderness, resembling those
of a war game, for travel and
chance encounters, with
dungeon adventures seen in [ID
perspective.

While the program now looks
primitive compared with its
successors, nobody had seen
anything like it at the time,
Garriott was fortunate that
Austin, Texas, was also the
home of Steve Jackson (no
relation to the British Steve
Jackson of Fighting Fantasy
fame), a board games author
with Metagaming and later his
own company,

A S well as designing a role
playing system, the
underrated Fantasy Trip,

Jackson edited The Space
Gamer, which included news of
computer fantasy games,
including Ultima, As Garriott
recalls: "Steve has always been
very supportive of Origin."

By the time Ultima 1 hit the
shelves, Garriott was already
considering a sequel, and felt
that it should he 100 percent
machine code, so once again he
taught himself as he wrote. It
took a long time and still looked
pretty chunky, so even though
he'd not intended the series,
Garriott started work on Ultima
111 almost immediately he'd
finished II.

Each successive Ultima has
come, not from a desire to milk
the marketplace, though each
sold better than its predecessors
as the series 1 fame spread and
their quality increased but
because Garriott wanted to
improve on his previous efforts,
fixing any shortcomings and
refining the game play,

The games appear at intervals
of two to three years. Garriott
throws out almost all the code,

Ultima IV abandoned the beat up the bad guy scenario

starting from scratch, unlike
some computer role playing
games which just add new
scenarios but do nothing to
develop their basic systems.

For example, Garriott
constructs the room and
wilderness scenery with basic
tiles. The number available has
been doubled! in each game, so
Ultima V featured 512
possibilities, and VI, which is
his next project, will feature
1,024* greatly adding to the
variety of the landscape. He has
also refined the sound
capabilities, with long,
atmospheric passages of mood
music, Midi links for the ST and
digitised sound effects.

N OW that Garriott has
perfected his game
system he is worrying about
loftier matters, such as adding
depth to plots. "The first three
were ‘go out and beat up the
bad guy' scenarios, and that is
still the standard plot. The
reason you have to kill them is
that you’ve been told to in the
instructions.”

“Well, Fd got my machine
code and matured a Lot, so in
Ultima IV I abandoned that
scenario and developed a

literary storyline”. That
storyline concerns virtue, and
instead of “slay the dragon, get
the gold” you have to develop
your primary virtues to 100
per cent in a variety of missions,
with the computer secretly
marking your behaviour.

Ultima V takes the story
further, investigating what
happens when virtue is taken to
extremes, as it was by the
Spanish Inquisition, Lord
British is kidnapped and the
zealot Blackthorn takes his
place, establishing a tyrannical
rule against which you rebel To
give you a real reason for
revenge, Blackthorn kills one of
the long-standing members of
your party. This time, ifs
personal!

Garriott is also keen to get
away from the idea of characters
as a series of numerical
attributes, which is why Ultima
IV opens with a questionnaire.
You have to answer how you'd
behave in certain impossible
moral predicaments, such as
being entrusted to guard a rich
man's gold but encountering a
starving beggar; Would you be
honest and pass him by or
would you show compassion
and give him a coin?

As Garriott says, you're
caught between a rock and a
hard place, so think carefully.

fm ^ gpo

because your answer will create
a secret moral profile for your
character.

Another way that Garriott
helps hide the machine behind
the characters is using an
artificial intelligence
conversation system. Selecting
Talk from the control menu
allows you to type in a topic on
which you want information.
Should the character know
about that, or just feel like
chatting, the answer will
contain certain keywords as
clues to useful lines of enquiry.
It allows the player to converse
with the non- player characters
almost as if the game was being
controlled by a human.

E VEN the packaging helps
draw you into the realm of
Britannia, As well as discs, the
boxes contain several books of
lore as well as less likely items
such as magic coins and
colourful cloth maps, The
colourful extras cut $5 or $6
from Origin's profits* but
Garriott reckons that they are
worth it. So, apparently, did one
retailer who was returning
programs minus the maps;
investigations by Origin's tame

This is no orAintrv trivtllint

= ^=1

S.C.C. MAIL ORDER

COMMODORE HARDWARE

PACK 1

■ArripaWO

Modulator
DeAixe Paint
Mouse
WotHwAch
03f iuEFIrae r
The Veiyfirai two manuals

PACK 2

PacK 1 A the following
Barbarian
TarrorpOtfH
Go
WlibsH

PACKS

Padt i a Pacn 2
A the taf lowing
CorrpatHon Pro 5000
Joy stick

Mdum Mai. Dust Cover
5 * 3.E h DStTffi Dteks

£369.99

£3B9.9B

£409.99

Affllji 500..

S®flOB44 .

AlO'OPtnpoy DUOrtv*

HUWad Ft HUtui Morrtn

l«OM HI HhUou Mooto

ASH Run Etpvwi/GkM*.

A5®MfldiJUr

MPaiaooPi#iHf

-cw.®

.Cl 34 00
£22.50

Amiga 2DW1MUS £POA

AZOiaSA* 1Ub imgrpta DU. Drtva ...... E13B.M

AJPW 2C*4b Amiga DOS H«d Ortrt US* 99

Aaoga 2tMfc> MS-DOS Hard o+n __£476.®

AJUS2 2I* Ojrr Expan «l»n £344.®

A2M6 PC XTOildfla Board _ £454 94

HFB1300CC<Wm»ftrlntW «W.»

CUMANA DRIVES

iw 15- Flmpy Du Dd»

I Hi 3.1* ftflppy DU Dnv* ■+ F>9U .

.£» IW 1Mb 5.217 Floppy DU &i« .

...£116.99 lilt 5 25* Floppy DUDnv* .

SUPRA DRIVES

30Mb Hard (MR Driva A5CKV1 ®0 . .
WMb HarfPUOrtW A5C*1£B0
AOMb Hirt DU Onva MOffl DM ..

?HUb Hard DU CWa A2WW ..
30Mb Hart DU Cm™ AjdDo
. ■ filPTV.W MMb hard Du cmv* A200Q .

PHILIPS MONITORS

DMlLdCI U 1 R&a tacur ..

CMB*E 14* ROftCVBS Coidw ... £304 « £101*5*2 14' fKBtCVBE 1 4-1M H*a Cctaii

MATRIX PRINTERS

AflWad OMPJ1 » . £1 4299 NEC P23CO

C*ftWi PW14«A . ...

C«m A-40 F

Epn-iUl&M

EpwnUlW

WffePMPias^ .
Mrrp P MF155+- ...

£4»90

. ,£Z7S.®

£144®
. E1W.H

Pi 051 ..

SMhnaha SMW ...
SatUHh*SP-1200A ..

Sta LC10

star LC1Q Cdflw .....

LASER PRINTERS

Canon L-BF-fl A3
EfrfenGOaSM ....

£1700.00 HP LaaBtfl: I

... £i 70S.® Fananric P44S0 .

GRAPHIC TABLETS

I*!* 1 — — - £j701« Oh«ry A3 T|M ...

CAPAJTUal — Eaay LU Tabu ..

VIDEO DfGITISERS/ENHAMCERS

ClGlVlEW JP i Adaptor

PKilPCFramaatatHwr.

..... tup n VOS Fram* Grtffear

El W.M VOlfCUwrFnamQralMiar

SOUND DIGITISERS/SAMPLERS

-,~,..£*?.» FoMaaaind .....

— £24.50 ParMdSnjnd.

— — ei»H

MIDI INTERFACES

£49.90 H4I Mart* 506

MODEMS

Wfcon W34D01 .

.... «14KM
.£1®.»

£140.99

* Four 12C0S
PaeaSwl** Four 21Z3S .
P*o*S*riaa Four 34009 ...

EMULATORS

CABLES

Standard Cwttnw PrH 1 * CaH*

QA w CtoWwtUftkiU Cap* ...

TUI MtamWJoyffcfc EhbhUn Cabl* ..

. E7W

£099

... U H

4-ftap Adaptor ...
MdiCafcAf

.. . £4.99
-£2«

DISK STORAGE/HEAD CLEANERS

tUBd**. 10x3 .....

Oik (kii far 4Q ., 3 5" dWn

eu E*. ter Me 3 ......

Oak Boiler 1 3D * 3 5" 4Ua
D«W«J«Pa lOiSl-dlaMi
3 S' DIM Hud Claan+i

DldiBaitolQH 5 2S‘ dlakt . ...„

Utah fe.k, 50 ■ S.25* dkki

DHfc Soi fa 1 ® i 5 »5- dMU . ..
OUeoxfoi 150 jq 5.23- daha „
OU Wilahi Ifiiln'M.t .
533'(Mhm( guru

Et.M

£4,®

— Eld.®

£12®

£10.90
£4.®

BLANK DISKS

50H9 J 5 - OS/DB Linbrandad Dirt* 1 10 £13. »

SOMV 3 ¥ DS/DD Urtoranded DUi , 25 £u ?*,

SOHV 3.5* catw Unbran dad Duka a » £64.®

$Q*(Y 3.5- DSM Unbr«Pdad DMd r 1 » . .. £133 «

£!».« CMBB33 14" Rti&.!GVBS Mad RaaCdojr ....ffaSH.®

...£340.®

. .£542.®
..._.£2ia.®

£252 W

C1C090

E1B9W

£221 ®

WORD PROCESSING

..„£« LPOVtoUpr^, FW viiaWHba

, £1 59 FW Writ* V2.B _ £71 Wad Mat 4.1 ..

.... £35 T-l ftp £47 WrH> 4 FH*

-....»
.. . E1K
£95

DATABASES

™ vi s

Data WM

Data Uaa Ptef...

... HhO M Amiga Fit* .

-£113
, RING
£39

SPREADSHEETS

...C47 LofladiVI 15 ,

.£66 Ma-lplan A5M .

■»™ VIP ProUalwid .

DESK TOP PUBLISHING

LANGUAGES/ ASSEMBLERS/COMPILERS

ACiFarkm

ACJFwfcTurbo Amiga
APC W®0 Amiga

AtMttC PrdUaloiaJ
AdacG CUalrtwr .

Bar,«ft>naA Modula 2

3DGr«pM«4

Simg FuncHoia

— , El S4

£232

£406

— ram

.H7

£15*

n.....£245

£4M

£110

BWiOhftlark C Lb EM

Banshmark IFF Lb . £*a

Bwidwnadc Smpifwr . . £63

Caa*«Ja* U® „.£1U

0*vpac £45

f o4*n PrM Pack. n»

K S4i Aaaam Mtr VI .5 .._ £34

(Jl»d* C V'4.1 ^.^..£131

Latica c Fret

MCC Paacd WO .

UbdtaaastwHftad
Mnduta 2 DawtaOp* 1 ...

. ..£49
. £49

£114

MCCBMf „

MCC To**

Trw Baste

Tfcamc Djitlihi Sy« ..

Tnw B**lc Programming Ltomriaa al £33 a*ch

Davtoqpsrp T^lkit

UTILITIES

Botehar 2 ...
CLrnaif ...„

DU 2 DU

CO£20OS

EjaUtS^aUn Kit...
Faccii

£»

Glnngj 2.4 ....

Ciotdapei 2

£41

£31

GOMFV2.1

Wi

£24

GrtoJW

- ....nfil

£29

tofartavang* , .

„»

£»

Irivckoda .,._

£36

ART/G RAPHICS/ANIMATION

Aagu ArUaKi/lmagaa .

Aagia A^u: 1 ..

Aagri Imago*

Aagia krvaai rao

Ljghto.ram^a.A.chsnl .£45

Aagl* Vidacacapa 30 £1 1 3

A*gl*V5dwiTd» .... t ..a7

£®

.£155

Ammstof App ^lf £47

Arim App jhr Ubs ... ..EU

HUaa Art Part* . £*

£42 Datura PaliM ■ .,

Datoi* PhofcJMj . .
OaAinaPHntVTi

DUj» VtawlJ,....

Paint

ExprauPA«1tV2.0 ...

Fcrmaai

uodalar 30

Paga Flppat

P*0* Flpf* -y £* ...

— £S4 Hwista

£54 PkkitoHUrPlw.^....

£10 FAiHto<ra Art„,_

..£107 Priam PtuaVl.f

.....£54 FTaVldM

£42 ftaVIdao Fdnl Uba ..

CM 3du%jt30,„

— £S5 $«Mpt 30 Anhut* ...
.HIP4Q TVT*»t„.

£29 TV 3bw ...„„
..£91 Th*D**MCr ..

.£53 Turbo Sttvpr

COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN

Aagi* Draw 20041 .....

EV1WHCA0VZ3

MUSIC/SOUND

OaAiKi Muaic Pad £4

Dntm Btodto ^...,£19

..£S4 kAJtac X ..

Pro Mkfi Studio aw
ftd Ba«1d &9dijri*r aAw
Tha ULtU Stodto

. ram uilmat* Sound Tra

COMMUNICATIONS

Dl^ld Ur*.. .
K Comm 2 ...

On Una ,._, P

Ftot^r VluTarm .,

EDUCATIONAL

Trw Ba*k Plogrammlng UbnrlH at Cto aactl

PTrialUy Th*wy

Wfl car Qf a large ranga of Bntsrlainmeni eoftwire. .
Please ring tor |jrici

and availability

Please make cheques/postal orders payable to SCC MAIL ORDER. All prices are inclusive of V.A.T. Courier/Overseas rates on
request, All prices correct at time of going to press. . . Please ring to confirm before ordering.

Alf orders over £30 P&P Free (UK only). Orders under £30, add £1 P&P.

S.C.C. MAIL ORDER

29 Crowtree Road, Sunderland SRI 3JU. Telephone: 091 565 5756

December IQ# ft AMIGA COMPUTING 31

The Ultima games are more than fust dungeon adventures

band of ores discovered that
they were being sewn together
and sold as pillows!

As Garnett says, the Ultima
games are more than just
dungeon adventures. They
contain complete worlds
waiting to be explored by
characters who develop over the
campaign — just what hardened
role players want. Start with the
most recent, Garriott advises, It
will be the most sophisticated,
then work your way backwards
if yon want to investigate its
predecessors.

But what of people who find
such depth daunting - arcade
gamers who want something
more than a shoot- 1 em-up, but
don’t up to an Ultima? This is
where Chris Roberts comes in.

He has been sitting silently
while Garriott explained his
games. Roberts, a Mancunian, is
a rather more recent export and
his Manchester twang can still
be heard behind his Texas
tones. He worked for Imagine in
Britain before Origin's desire to
develop a populist role playing
transported him across the
Atlantic,

T IMES of Lore is the fruit of
Roberts’ labours, a game
which at first resembles
Gauntlet with its overhead view,
but w r hich adds the depths you
expect from role playing,
including prohlem solving and
even conversation. The idea for
this popular form of role

playing game stems not from
the American scene but from
Japan, In the West role playing
grew out of text adventures, bid
in the land of Nintendo the
basis was arcade games and
action. Times of Lore will
combine the best of both
approaches.

You can play a Knight,
Barbarian or Valkyrie in the
game, and though the woHd is
smaller than in Ultima, it would
still take a 20 minute marathon
run round borders, to say
nothing of entering towns or
discovering dungeons. In fact
Chris reckons there’s more than
50 hours of gameplay in the
program, and play testers with
full solutions still took three
days to complete the quest

To dispel the image of role
playing games putting game
detail before graphics. Times of
Lore looks beautiful — there’s a
great wave effect on the sea
shore. It also features superb
music - the opening theme by
Martin Galway lasts seven
minutes. Conversation uses the
Ultima keyword system, but to
save typing, the topics for
questions are entered from
menus, which only feature
useful options. The idea is to
make the experience every bit as
smooth playing as an arcade
game, but with much more
depth,

Chris has taken care to
balance the difficulty, so that
players won't get into too many
fights early on, giving them a
chance to learn about the place
before meeting any really mean

monsters, such as Drcs, Rocs,
Skeletons and the like.

Meanwhile the dungeons
contain teleports and hidden
doors which players have to
learn how to handle, and there
are potions and spells to
discover including a very useful
magical equivalent of the smart
bomb.

Though you can play Times
of Lore for the combat alone, it
has a fairly complex plot to
solve, involving two kings and
their spies. Discovering who’s
really good, while solving a
variety of puzzles, will test both
brain and brawn. To complete
them all you’ll need to follow a
series of dues, and a good place
to start is by questioning people
in the town.

When it comes to choice of
character, Chris sways between
the Barbarian, who hits hard
but has no armour and is slow,
and the Knight with less
strength but more protection.
However if you fancy speed, the
Valkyrie gets around but doesn't
do so much damage.

Y OU don't actually increase
attributes as in traditional
role playing games - Chris
found it detracted from the
gameplay - but obtaining extra
equipment, such as a dagger
which boomerangs back to you,
makes you more formidable.

"What we see Times of Lore
doing", Richard explains, "is
crossing the line between action
and role playing and it should
draw a lot of people in.
Computers will never capture
the social element of tabletop
games unless you network, but I
think it’s a misconception that
you need multi-players".

While nowadays everybody
appears to be leaping on to the
role playing bandwagon, Origin
has a head start. After eight
years of development its games
have had time to mature, rather
like fine wines. Anybody the
least bit interested in role
playing must try Ultima V, the
ultimate Ultima. And even if
you’re a hardened arcade
gamer, load up Times of Lore
for the time of your life.

B4LH533

inttmt# tfc»v

6.25"

CS/D© 40TP1

Fora LIMITED PERIOD ONLY

Buy 4 boxes of any one type of disk and gee a
fifth bps ABSOLUTELY FREE I ! I
a.fl'. Buy 4 boxes of 3. 5" DS Disks «n d receive
another box of 3.5" OS Disks
FREE OF CHARGE f 1 1

SAVE £17.95

I f PUrri an(

&OrtZ^I

CREDIT

TERMS
AVA\ L.AaLE

! (Monitor not included)

^Great Deal More
For a Good
- Deal LessJ/L^

CREDIT

TERMS

AVAILABLE

Phone for other great Amiga deals S

PRINTERS

um

\//AMIGA

A500

SUPERPACK

Buy this terrific Amiga pack now and you get
an A50G with 1 meg. drive, 40913 Colours, Stereo
Sound, Mouse. Manuals, Operation System
Disks, Speech Synthesis, and Multi Tasking
and ONLY FROM COM PU MART , . .

PHOTON PAINT WORTH £69.95
MODULATOR WORTH £24.95
rT ygg MOUSE MAT WORTH £5.95

£399

ll

BLANK DISKS

(fA

I'WNT

HEAD

* hn

1 —

•

•

e

*

"iTpiT

COLUMN

WiOTh

aac.j

h=-

•

•

•

*

1 32 Cal

« ~~

PAffB

TEED

F-ilLilhi

*

*

■

•

~e

TtlKrOf

_*

* |

•

m

•

PRitaTlii

SPtED

Oikcpt

Jioj

1KJ

1 BO

■w

2«

NlQ CW

Jfl

-»J

40

5T"

9S

1 1 P BjF‘-£h|I' 4k ^

1 K

2K.

it

| BK

M .rfiH5

— 3

C21 7 38

EM^kji 1 ■: ?b|

Why buy unlabelled disks when you can
have Commodore branded quality at prices
like these I ! !

SUNDRIES - For Your AMIGA

LISTING PAPER

2000 sheets

(rGgsm, 9V £14.95

JOYSTICKS

The mw 'Micro-blaster
joystick from REPLAY,
order today and pi o rir
Take Control

MOUSE MATS
High quality Mouse

Mats £5.95

DISK STORAGE

MD 70 L Lockable 3!V’ disk
Storage box, holds aj, a a>-
up to 70 disks. L IZ. JO

WITH 2 FREE 3Yj" DISKS

Commodore

Th« Original Dithottn
Hifihar Quality. lw*m POca

z

n

P> UauaHy |«i» Jay do*patch on man

FHEE. nmfl working day i ,

turdwar*. Hlkiv, 2-5 dav's tn aihar rtarvtj

L> Leg* Mocfci lor in-trn«tirtfl- dnparch
[> FAST, i

t> 3Q djTr » and within Ih* wvwvty pwkxi

All prices inclusive of VAT

and UMMlhr 4a!

Prices/ delivery subject to availability end only applicable to UK mainland, N Ireland and SFPO'a.
Compumarl are licensed credit brokers. Simply ask for written details.

Fxm|rr ~

Lompumart

— A Great Deal More. For a Good Deal Lass. —

COMPUMART LTD
FREEPOST (AM CJ
LOUG HGQROilQK
IE ICS L E 1 1 0 B R

TEL: 0509 610444

FAX: 0509 610235

1 .

i

i

j

s

i

i,

i

!

i

I

(

i

W HO was it who once said that
90 per cent of the effort goes
into the last 10 per cent of any
undertaking? And usually no one
even notices that last 10 per cent.

It's Tather like the hi-fi freaks who
hang all kinds of expensive bells and
whistles on to perfectly adequate
audio equipment and then need even
more expensive electronic monitoring
equipment to detect the enhancement
of sound quality they've achieved,
because the poor old human ear can’t
tell the difference.

That’s what Digita International is
banking on in its oddly named new
spreadsheet: 9 out of 10, The idea is
that ifs putting on offer a slightly
scaled-down product at an affordable
price. All that's missing - so goes the
claim - is that last 10 per cent that no

one needs in most spreadsheet
situations, anyway.

So I cranked 9 out of 10 up and
gave it a whirl. It was almost a case of
love at first byte, but with a couple of
reservations. Out of the box comes a
disc, a clearly printed 30 page manual
and a reference card which props up
nicely against the front of my Amiga
2000 .

The spreadsheet screen itself is
clear and unfussy, with a menu bar
across the top which is dual-purpose
in that the package can be command
driven as well as menu-driven. For
example, if you w r ant to load or save a
file 4 you can either click on the word
“File” or type its initial letter.

Then you are in a submenu, again
with a number of clearly-defined
options Digita deserves full marks for

the way in which the menus and
command -driven operations have
been implemented. After a few
moments fiddling around, even the
most computer illiterate operator
should make pretty good sense of
what's going on.

For the spreadsheet novice, there’s
a tutorial introduction, which offers a
sound, if unadventurous, hand*
holding exercise. You're told about
“cell references”, in other words, how
to put information into an individual
box. Take the following examples:

A3

A1;G1

- means that you are accessing cell
| A3 by itself, and in the second

34 AMIGA COMPUTING December tSM

GX£

FI,

del

hv

wi
to l
en
sir
otl
of
co

ac

kc

cli

ttl

qi

S*

bi

fl

C(

V

a

d

c

\

■ REVIEW!

d

■ r e

the

r

>f

ms
fers j

mt

* how

dual

§:

ell

Example, the ceils Al, Bl, Cl, Dl, El,
Fl, and Gl. Note that the two cells
defining, the range must be separated
by a colon.

You're shown how to change the
width of each column, and you're
told to ensure that when you are
entering text you must begin with a
single nr double quote mark,
otherwise you’re on the receiving end
of the error message: "Bad cell
contents**.

Moving about the spreadsheet is
achieved either by using the cursor
keys or by moving the mouse and
clicking on the location youVe after
(the latter is by tar the easier and
quicker option for the Amiga user).

One important plus of the Digiralc
system is that the function keys can
be preprogrammed by the user. Keys
fl-f4 come with these off-the-peg
commands:

fl - Go to cell Al.

F2 - List files in current directory,
f3 - Print the current spreadsheet.
f4 - Zap spreadsheet.

Zap, as you might gather, means
wipe out the present spreadsheet
altogether. As this could he a pretty
drastic action, you are prompted to
confirm that you want to go through
with it

T O change the function keys,
select the Misc item from the
menu bar. No prizes for guessing that
this refers to miscellaneous, and the
other diverse things you can do are
change the direction in which the
cursor moves after you’ve entered
information into a coll - it defaults to
one move to the right - and enter a
password, about which you are given
dire warnings as to what happens if
you forget it.

So I had a go at reprogramming f9
to move the cursor to cell B4, At this
point the honeymoon period began to
wear a hit thin. I had to type:

□

- which achieved the desired result,
but isn’t the most user-friendly
combination of characters I've seen in
a command line. The instruction
codes contained in f3 - print the
current spreadsheet - frightened the
living daylights out of me, and it took
me quite a while to work out what

►

But what IS a spreadsheet?

T HE computing world is full
of jargon words and Iiukz
phrases, and the trouble is that
most people who write about
computing assume that most
people who read about computing
know what those verbal mouthfuls
all mean.

And of all the common terms
bandied about in the computing
mags, spreadsheet is Ihc one that
causes the most mystification. In
case you are one of the mystified,
here’s a brief word of explanation.

In a nutshell, a spreadsheet is a
computer program to perform
calculations on rows and columns
of figures. For example, you might
have down the left hand side of the
page headings of expenditure for
each month, like rates, electricity,
food, transport, and so on, and
across 12 columns the details of
monthly expenditure for each item.

At the bottom of the columns are
totals for each month and then a
grand total for the year.

So what is so very special about
that? Nothing - except that, once
you’ve written that information
down on a piece of paper you’re
stuck with it. and any changes will
send the shares of Tippex soaring,
Alter the mortgage rate, and
you’ll have to rewrite a dozen or so
figures and add up 12 columns of
figures all over again.

What the spreadsheet does is to
do all that calculating for you,
once you’ve set the template up.

The spreadsheet works as a series
of cells referenced like this:

A: B: C: D:

1

2

3

4

(and so on in both directions.)

Each cell, as it's called, is
referenced by its column and row
number: Al, B4, and so on. You
can put numbers, text and
formulae in the cells. So Al, A2
and the rest could contain text like
"rates”, "mortgage**, "food", and
so on, and against A: you could
enter the title “Outgoings and
against B;, G and so forth the
names of the months of the year,
like this:

A:Out goings

B: Jan C: Feb D: Mar

1 Mortgage

500

S(JO

500

2 Food

ISO

150

150

3 Wine bar

35

45

55

12 Totals SUM(B1:B11J
SUM{Cl:Gll) SUM(D1:D11]

What would appear on the screen
at B12 and so forth would be the
actual calculated totals.

N OW let’s assume that the

mortgage payments are in cells
Hi, Cl, Dl, and so on across to the
end of the year.

Instead of putting in an actual fixed
amount, you can enter a formula,
which can be copied right across the
12 columns.

Then a flick of the electronic wrist
will enable you to alter the formula
based on a new mortgage rate and all
the cells will be changed and the
totals added up again automatically.

You'll then be able to see at a
glance what the effect is of upping the
mortgage rate by one per cent, or in a
different column what the knock-on
effect is of adding a couple of pence
to the price of a pint of best bitter in
the local hostelry.

With a touch of imagination, you
can readily realise just how
enormously powerful this computing
tool can be.

Dtn:ember 1988 AMIGA COMPUTING 35

T

H

E AN

IIGA

iCI

JTI

IE

| 77/79 Rochester Row, London SW1

0

1

931 7161

SELECTED ITEMS

Digits

- Home accounts

£29

Infinity

- Shakespeare

....£129

Soft Vis.

- Microfiche Filer Plus

£79

A Squared

- Live (A1 000)

....£249

- Uve (A500)

....£279

Emerald

- Magellan A.I

£160

Gold

- Comic Setter

£79

Manx

-Aztec C (Dev)

£229

Microill

- Photon Paint

£69

HiSoft

-Devpac Assembler

£59

Cameron

- Handy Scanner

£299

Sunrise

-Studio Magic

£79

- Perfect Vision

£199

Exp. Tech.

- Escort System 500 (2MB) ...

£999

Spirit

-1.5MB (A500 or 1000)

Rainbird

-Starglider II

£24

Psygnosis

- Chronoquest

£29

Mindscape

- Rocket Ranger

£24

Microsearch

- Head Coach

£39

Origin

- Ultima IV

£24

Logotron

- Sargon 111 Chess

£24

All prices include VAT. Add £2.00 for postage
UK/Europe

Monday-Saturday 10.00am/6.00pm

Access/Visa/Eurocheques accepted

36 AMIGA COMPUTING December 19R6

*

the sequence of six times e +t actually
meant.

For those of you bursting to know,
it means answering Return to each of
the prompts before printing takes
place - in other words, print the
spreadsheet using all the default
values.

While I'm on a mildly negative
tack. I must admit that I’m a little
puzzled as to why Digicalc is so
proud of its line editor. If you type
the following, for example, ready for
entry into a cell:

"Food

- remembering that text must be
preceded by a quote mark, and you
suddenly realise that you really mean
to type "Fodder", for the family
horse, you can move the cursor to the
second o, overtype with d and then
add the rest of the word. But if you
want to insert characters into the line,
it’s a whole different ball game, to
coin a cliche. Say you'd entered:

Food wine

The first thing you would realise is,
of course, that you have forgotten the
quote mark at the beginning.
Unfortunately for you, the line editor
remains in overtype mode all the
time, so you have to go the beginning
of the line with cursor lefts, type

Ctrl + 1 (= insert character), enter the
quote mark, move the cursor over the
w, press Ctrln-T four times, then add
and - and there you are:

"Food and wine

Nothing could be simpler. Or could
it? I just gave in and retyped the
whole line, If a public domain shell
can offer a Rolls Royce command line
editor to its customers, surely we can
do better than a fiddly routine like
this,

B UT back to the good news. The
spreadsheet can cope with up to
512 rows of up to 52 columns each,
and that's a lot of spreadsheet for the
money. You can add or delete
columns or rows wherever you like -
but, as the manual very properly
points out, there can be an
unfortunate knock-on effect where
you have a cell which contains a
formula Like:

SUM

Then add a new row at E4, say, and
the consequences could be interesting
and, we hope, intended.

On the subject of SUM, this
spreadsheet has the usual standard
arithmetical functions, hut there is
no function which allows you to test
for conditions in cells. For example,

you may want to test to see if the total
in a particular column exceeds a
given sum.

Maybe it's a creditor who has gone
over his standard credit limit, and if
IhaFs the case, you would want to
flag the column with some kind of
warning. That's part of the minus side
of Digicalc 1 s package.

Another absent feature which might
cause you to think hard about
whether to choose this product is the
inability to create graphics from the
spreadsheet, in the form of say, bar
charts and pie charts,

B UT you can export spreadsheets
from the system in Ascii form,
which may enable other products to
import it and process it. One of those
products may well be a future
Digicalc graphics package.

So what's my conclusion? I really
liked the package to begin with, and
first impressions are important, It’s a
no-nonsense spreadsheet with a few
minor irritants, but despite them Fd
certainly recommend it for general
purpose spreadsheet work, and in
particular in the educational Field for
teaching what spreadsheets are all
about.

On a scale of 1 to 10? For me & out
of 10 is about right.

REPORT CARD

Digicalc

Blgita [ntrcmaMOElal 0195 45059
£39.95

USEFULNESS

A no-nonsense product lacking
graphics frith - a stout workhorse ,

EASE OF USE.^. f ^^■■ULLLl
Overall very good, but some details I
found frustrating.

intuition, „ WmMKUl

A portable program, written in C which
fits reasonably well into the Amiga
environment

SPEED

Goes like a rocket because the
spreadsheet sits in memory,

VALUE

Solid middle of the road performance
at a budget price.

OVERALL

Ported to the Amiga following its
success on the ST. Perhaps we have
something to thank Atari for?

December IMS AMIGA COMPUTING 37

Bill Tomlins
looks at a
text editor
which could
do wonders
for your
programming
productivity

Super

swan

C YGNUSED Professional is a
fully featured text editor by
ASDG Incorporated, which is
probably best known for VDisk - the
Recoverable Ram Drive program.
ASDG specialise in hardware and
"Programmer’s Programs”. It is
obvious that they were developed by
programmers, probably for their own
use initially.

Unlike VDisk, CygnusEd is not in
the public domain. In fact, far from it,
the recommended price. in the USA
being only five cents short of $100,
For this you would expect something
a lot more sophisticated than the
standard ED or MicroEmacs, It is.

CygnusEd is a specialist tool,
intended for use hy the serious
programmers of the Amiga world and
is not the sort of program that you
would buy if you only write a 10-
liner Basic program every now and
then.

Having said that, text editors have
come a long way in the last year or
two, and the distinction between them
and word processors is narrowing
considerably. CygnusEd includes the
ability to set right margins and insert
printer control codes.

It is supplied on a single disc with
a 100 page A4 ring binder manual.
Having written a few manuals, I am

very aware of the problems posed.

The CygnusEd manual is fairly good
as far as it goes. Explanations and
descriptions of functions arc clear and
well organised into sections of similar I
commands, hut the manual is not
really complete as there is no index,
nor are there any appendices giving a
list of editing keystroke shortcuts.

This last omission is not too much
of a disaster, as the shortcuts are all
displayed in the pull down menus
alongside their commands. However
the lack of an index is more than just
easy meat for a critical reviewer, it is
a major shortcoming.

The manual is cumbersome to use,
being large and with text on only one
side of the paper. This is slightly
strange in that the page numbering
and headers are offset on alternate
pages in the form used when printing
on both sides, This means that on
some pages you have to look on the
left for the page number, on others, to j
the right. This, combined with the
large physical dimensions, makes it
less than a handy reference.

It would have been far better
produced in a more compact A 5
format and also with a few pictures of
the menus in the appropriate places,

T HE program is a different matter
altogether, with lots of
thoughtful features. The first time you
use it it even loads with two
documents present, one of which says
it is only there to remind you that
CygnusEd supports split screen
editing.

There are so many editing features
that I shan’t attempt to describe them
all, merely say that it has all the usual
features, such as delete character,
word, or line, to left or right, insert
and overwrite mode, as well as ways
to jump quickly around the text.

Various un-delete options are also
provided,

Screen dimensions are
customisable, and Interlacing is
supported with a suitable monitor,
but this is somewhat memory hungry,
of course,

Special attention has been paid to
the speed of movement around text
and it appears that a lot of work has
been put into handling the blitter, as
the speed and smoothness of scrolling
is exceptional, A vertical scroll bar is
provided and may be positioned on
the left or right or the screen, or even
removed.

Dragging the scroll bar results in

38 AMIGA COMPUTING December 1988

swift and smooth movement of the
test as the bar is moved. As with
most features of the program, the
smoothness and hence the speed of
scrolling may be configured to vour
requirements. The larger the scrolling
amount, either 1, 2, 4 or 0 pixels, the
faster the movement.

CygnusEd is pretty intelligent and if
asked to move by larger amounts,
decides whether to scroll the screen if
the movement is within a small
distance, or jump to the new area and
redraw the screen.

The program is full of special
features and 1 shall concentrate on
these. Many of their default settings
are alterable and may be saved as
part of the environment.

You can load CygnusEd as a
normal program either from the CLI,
optionally passing the names of a
numher of files to load at the same
time, or from Workbench, where you
can shift click on a number of text file
icons and finally shift double-click to
load CygnusEd and the files,

A number of parameters can be
passed to CygnusEd when it is loaded
and these can be used to modify its
operation to allow access to Dos
commands from within the program.

Alternatively, CygnusEd may he
loaded as a TSR - Transient and Stay
Resident - program. When loaded
this way it is possible to exit
CygnusEd so that it still remains
resident in memory* reduced to the
minimum possible size, but can be
recalled at any time from any window
by pressing Right-Alt, Right-Shift and
Return at the same time.

A SMALL program called ED
lets you recall CygnusEd,
passing filenames to load at the same
lime. With a multi-tasking computer
like the Amiga, this might appear to
be of limited use, but the advantage is
that it provides instant access to
CygnusEd at all times. You could
keep a copy of the program in RAM:,
which would load quickly, but this
wastes memory because when you
run CygnusEd it means that you
actually have two copies of the
program in memory, the one in RAM:
and the loaded version.

CygnusEd can display up to 10
windows on screen at the same time,
containing either different views of
the same document, different
documents, or a combination of both.
You can move between windows by
clicking on the one required. Windows

■ REVIEW*

are all full width and,
by default, initially
split the current window
equally, This can be
changed so that the
current window is
always expanded to
maximum size when
activated, or you can
re-size ft by simply
dragging bars, Text may
be copied or moved
between these windows
by highlighting the block
to move, cutting or
copying it, then moving
to the destination
window and inserting
the cut or copied block.

N OT only are the usual Block
Copy, Move and Delete
features available, but also a
Columnar Block or box mode. When
used, instead of the block being a
contiguous piece of the text from
beginning mark to end, the beginning
block marker and the end of block
marker form the diagonally opposite
corners of a box. This may then be
cut, copied or deleted as normal.

This is very useful for re-arranging
columns of text or
numbers and can also be
used to create a multi-
column document by
formatting it to a narrow
width and then, moving
the lower part up and
alongside, just before
printing.

Word wrap is taken
care of by the provision
of an option to set a right
margin at whatever
column width you
require, and the facility
is also provided to auto-
indent a new line. This is
done by pressing Shift-
Return or Enter on its
own. Tabs may be set
at any required spacing, or at a
constant number of spaces apart.
Printer escape code sequences may
be inserted into the text and when
Caps Lock is on the function keys
may be used to insert pre-set codes
for underline, bold, super and
subscript, Proportional and so on.
These are not displayed on screen,
but may be indicated in inverse if
requested.

Search and Replace options are

well catered for, with options to
ignore the case of words, search for
complete words only, forwards or
backwards. Wild cards may also be
used and the asterisk indicates any
single character.

Another, separate, Search command
is the Find Matching Bracket option, a
feature of great use to programmers in
C, Positioning the cursor on a curved,
curly or square bracket and pressing
Amiga-h wil I make the cursor jump
to its matching bracket, pause for a
second, then return to the original
position. I would have

preferred it to remain at the matching
location rather than return, as you
would only need to repeat the
command to return anyway,

Another feature is macros. A learn
mode is provided and once selected,
you press the key or key combination
you want to assign the macro to and
then carry on entering the keystrokes.
Macros may contain text or CygnusEd

►

(U VJrv H i*U*l*Hf _ * Un« il (i l T

! vv\i PiilfiO

Lh dt t j, ikttm.iiHti

*

I ”" (

PPifitmnyaJiS lii#WU
CDntllHl* J

dtu s •;

21) S e - ll;

CD HkI < lim ft ' '

ill* toon tlit m* ift jw aW t m Mining, rilich pi kith

The scroll bar is a quick way to get arnijnd

December mm AMIGA COMPUTING 39

■ REVIEW

key strokes, or a combination,
enabling you to create your own
commands.

It is a simple thing to create a
macro to produce a new command,
say, start a new line indented to the
previous level, insert an opening
curly bracket, move to the next line
and indent one stage further,
something that a C programmer will
find useful for example,

One rather useful feature is that
when you select the key to define,
CygnusEd asks whether you wish to
use further keys as part of the
command. This provides a means of
having Wordstar type keystrokes,
such as Ctrl-K then B to mark the
beginning of a block.

Nearly all keys may be redefined
and the macro definitions may be
saved and loaded again in the future.
CygnusEd is provided with an
example definition in the form of a
MicroEmacs emulation file.

One option that 1 was not able to
try out is the Interface with ARexx
option. ARexx is an interpreted
programming language for the Amiga
and apparently has the ability to
interface with other programs,
sending commands to and receiving
from them. It is not supplied with
CygnusEd. The manual devotes about
25 pages to using ARexx,

The option does have one other use
though, in that it allows you to
execute AmigaDos commands from
within CygnusEd. This will only work
if the CLI is left open on entry to
CygnusEd — an optional command
switch on loading, if the RUN

I ?fri j »t th* iatt and tint on tfc* taipi

* ■ Scr*tn aNrfo vrmntnf, tat it nafctt * nit*

nS dart functions.

■/

■

static c B - v 1 - n ‘ i <

|

asm,/

& [•*

& x

I trailed?

itid mi A I

U '*■* MEUl;

.A E

Stem

iitt is sti ks\n" j 3 ,
pifttirEfttw nty iit* ">I

command is present in the C:
directory and if the command is in
the current or C: directory.

There is more to CygnusEd, in fact
much more, with features like place
markers and jump to line, that there
just isn't room to mention, but you
will have got an idea by now of its
extensive nature.

C YGNUSED isn’t perfect, but it
tries very hard. The only bug I
have come across is that when
expanding and contracting windows
if any blocks are marked and
displayed the highlighting can get a
bit spread around where it shouldn’t.
This eventually corrects itself when
the screens are redra wn and is visual,
rather than dangerous.

i would have preferred the gadget
in requestors to have said “Cancel
instead of “No wav!” or “Forget it! .
But when you are reduced to this
level of nit-picking you know r there is
not much wrong with the software.

One other good feature of
CygnusEd, also a bit of a problem, is
that virtually all the commands are

t* wch/Rtvlae*

allocated to Amiga keystrokes as well
as being selectable from the pull-
down menus. The consequence is that
some of the keys do different things
depending on whether Shift is
pressed w ith the Amiga key or not,
and this takes a lot of getting used to.

In a couple of places the manual
incorrectly shows the command in the
wrong case as well There are eight
different pull down menus and some
of those are large and in turn open up
further menus.

Macros are very flexible, but there
is no way to construct a new
command that cannot he reproduced
with other keystrokes. At least one
other editor on the Amiga and several
on the PC allow you to use a
programming language to construct
your own commands, though this is
very time-consuming and for 90 per
cent of purposes, the CygnusEd
method is quicker and simpler.

If you are a serious programmer
and need an editor w ith a lot more
power than the supplied ED, or
MicroEmacs, then CygnusEd must be
at the top of the list for consideration
and is good value. But if you only
have occasional need for such a thing
then you may well consider the cost
too high.

In either case, it doesn’t alter the
fact that CygnusEd is an excellent
example of a modern text editor.

REPORT CARD

CygnusEd Professional
ASDG /Amiga Centre Scotland 031-557
4242
. £69,99

USEFULNESS ..

CygnusEd does a lot and what it does,
it does very wed

EASE OF USE

Due to the sheer number of commands
available, it lakes time to lean j, though
basic operation is natural,

INTUITION ,

Folio ws the guidelines and includes
Jots of shortcuts.

SPEED

Speed of movement round text and
searching is ex cedent.

VAl IE

Good value if you need a powerful text
editor, expensive if you don't

A comprehensive
range of hot keys
speed things for
the experienced

Ol'Mt ■!/,/.

A smooth,, powerful and wed thought
out program at a not too horrific price,

4U AMIGA COMPUTING December l<wa

Mich iron
Box&Q
St, dtisteff
Corfiwal/FL25 4Vfl
England
Telephone; 0726 66020

Available tn the UK from:

only

gfa-basi

it

maKe s

NOW

TAKEN

Castle House,
11 Newcastle Street,
Burslem,
Stoke-on-Trent,
ST6 3QB
Tel: 0782 575043

AMIGA SPECIAL
OFFERS

Aaargh! 1 1 99

Action Service..,, 12&9

Afterburner 14.50

Alien Strike , 3 99

Alien Syndrome 12.99

Alternate Reality 12.99

A Mind Forever Voyaging 8 99

Army Moves 14.99

Around Hie World in

SO Days 12-99

Balance of Power — .... 17.99

Ball Raider 3,99

Barbarian II 14.99

Bards Tale I .,15.99

Bards Tale II 15.99

Bat.. .16.95

Batman . . 1 6. 99

Battle Chess 15.99

Battleships .*«« 12 99

Bermuda Project 14.99

Better Dead Than Alien ..... 12 99

Beyond The Ice Palace 15.50

Beyond Zork —.——16.99

Bionic Commando 14.99

Bismark ,.16 99

Black Lamp 12.99

Black Tiger.. .. 17,99

Blazing Barrels ,.,,...,12 99

Bombjack — 14 99

Bone Cruncher. .9 99

Bubble Bobble 11. 99

Buggy Boy 14.99

Bureaucracy S 95

Capone ♦ 19.99

Captain Blood 15 99

Carrier Command 14.99

C D. Music ,,,10.50

Championship Cricket 9 99

Chronoquest — — 19,99

Cogans Run 4 99

Combat School — ... 15.99

i Corruption .14.99

Crazy Cars , t „ + ,.,..,....7.99

Cybemoid 14 99

D. Thompson Olympic

Challenge 15.99

Dark Castle « B.95

Deep Thought 16 99

Deja Vu .,.17,99

DejaVull .,.16.99

Deluxe Paint II 46.99

Deluxe Phoiolab 46 99

Deluxe Video — . 46.99

Diablo.. — 3.99

Division t .4 99

Dragon Ninja 16 99

Driller 16.50

Druid II - 11.99

Drum Studio 12 99

Dungeon Master 15.99

Earl Weaver Baseball 16.50

Ebon Star., 14 99

Elf ,,,-14.99

Eliminator . ....... — 14.95

Elite 14.99

Emerald Mines 12.50

Empire 16.50

Empire Strikes Back ..,12 50

Exceion * 14 99

Faerytale Adventure 16.99

Fantavi&icn 24.96

Federation Of Free

Traders 21 99

Fernandez Must Die .14 99

Fire And Forget 14 99

Fire Power — —.15,99

Fire Zone 16.99

Fish ,-16 99

Ftintstones 12 99

Football Manager LI 1 1.99

Fortress Underground 9.95

Frontier ...15,99

Fusion 16 99

Gany Med 14.99

Garfield 12 99

Garrison II — 14.99

Gee Bee Air Rally 15 99

Gettysburg — — 17.99

Ghosts and Goblins 16,99

Giganold — 10.50

Guerilla Wars 16,99

Hacker _ 4.99

Hacker II , 4 99

Hard Ball 6 39

Heltar Skelter ..—1095

Highway Hawks 13 99

Hollywood Hijinx 6 99

Hollywood Poker 4,99

Hostages 16 50

Hotball ... 15,99

Hunt For Red October , t „ + 15,99

Ikari Warriors — 14 99

Interceptor 1 6 50

International Karate + 13 99

International Soccer .12.99

Instant Music.,,,,.. 16 99

Iron Lord ,17.95

Jet 24.99

Jigsaw Maniac * -.3.99

King ot Chicago „ 19 99

Kwasimodo 3-93

Lancelot 12 99

Land Of Legends , 16.50

Leather Goddess .. 9,99

Leathernecks 12.50

Live And Let Die ,16.99

Lombard Rally Sim ,..13.50

Lords Of The Rising Sun .. .21.99
Lurking Horror 8 99

Macadam Bumper 12.99

Manhattan Dealers ...15,99

Mamiax ...12.99

Mercenary Compendium ...11-99
Mickey Mouse 15 99

Mind shadow —.4 .99

Moonmist 7,99

Morteville Manor ............... 14.99

Motorbike Madness 9 99

Narcom 6 -12 99

Nebula S - — - 1 4 99

Netherworld — „.,14 99

Night Raider ,...14.99

1943 ,....17.99

Nord and Bert -7.^9

North and South.,...,... ....... 15.99

Obliterator 15 50

Operation Nempune 15.99

Operation Wolf ,..-...., ,,,15.99

Othello 4 99

Outrun 14 99

Overlander 14 99

Pac Boy 3-99

Pac Land -.15,99

Pac Mania 14.99

Pandora 1 1-99

Paper Boy 16.99

Par 3 — ,17 99

Peter Beardsleys Soccer .12.99

Phantasm 14 99

Platoon .,.1499

Plundered Hearts 7 99

Port of Call 27.99

Powerdrome ..16,99

Prisoner of War, 19.99

Question of Sport,,. 16 99

Rambp 111 16.99

Return To Genesis - 1 1.99

Revenge II 6 99

Robbeary 12.99

Hobocop ...» — — 16 99

Rockford 12,99

Rocket Ranger , .-.. .,.,,16.99

Rocky — 4.95

Rugby League —.— 9,99

Sarca phaser 14 99

Scorpio .——.13,50

S.D.I, IS 99

Seconds Out .,, .6.95

Sex Vixens From Outer

Space * 24.99

Shadow Gate 15.99

Sherlock -..-9,99

Shoot em Up Con Kit.* 15.95

Shooting Star..,, .2 99

Sidewinder ,.6.99

Silent Service 15,99

Sinbad _ - 18.36

Skate or Die ...... — 16 99

Key tig hter . . ....... - . .. , .3.99

Soccer Supremo .',,,9-99

Space Harrier _.... 14.99

Space Port 2.99

Speedball 15.99

Spider Tronic 12.99

Starfleet I — ,,.16.50

Star Glider II ..-.14.99

Star-Goose — , 12.50

Starwars ,,— 11.99

Strange New World ..—,7.99

Street Fighter 16.99

Strike Force Harrier . 6 95

Stunt Man — 13 85

Sub Batde Sim 17 99

Summer Events 13 50

Suspect .,- - 7,99

Sword Of Sodan P.O.A.

Tanglewood ..,.12.99

Test Drive .16.99

Tetris 8 99

Three Stooges 14.99

Thunder Boy .. .6.99

Thunder Cats

T.V, Football

Ultima 4 .

Ultimate Golf

Uninvited

Univ Mil Sim

Vectorball

Vemninator «...

Victory Road

Virus — ~

15.99

..... 19.99
. ... 14 99

14 99

17 99

15.99

- 9.95

15,50

.,,..16.99

1299

9.99

Warlocks Quest

12 99

War Zone

_ 3.99

Wee Le Mans

16.99

Weird Dreams

16.99

Western Games

4.99

Whirligig

12 99

Whitness

7.99

Winter Olympiad 86 .....

6.99

Witness

7.99

Wizards Castle

13,99

World Tour Golf

15 50

Xenon .

12.99

Zoom -

12,50

Zynaps

1499

JUST ARRIVED
SPECIAL CLEARANCE PRICE

Pro 5000 Black Joystick
RRP 14.95 Our Price 10.50
Pro 5000 Clear Joystick
RRP 15.95 Our Price 11 50

T.RXA.D,

Starglider

Defender ot the Grown
Barbarian
ONLY 19.99

Have you missed our
Special Offers?

Crazy Cars .-,...7.99

S.D.I, (from Ginemaware)9.95

Powerplay ...,,...8.99

Strange New World ...-.-.4,99

Gettysburg 17.99

Winter Olympiad '88 6.99

Universal Disc Drive

Cleaning Fluid 1.98

Antistatic Spray ....... 1.99

Antistatic Foam Cleaner .1.99
Antistatic Screen Cleaner 1 .99
or all 4 plus cloths, brushes etc
only £5.95

DON'T GET RIPPED OFF
THIS CHRISTMAS
COME TO THE
PROFESS ION ALSEIII

Most goods sent by return
otpost. New releases send
day of release.

Please note We use 1st class
post and offer 1st dass service

We offer a fast reliable service by return of Post ! Cheque's P.O's to:
CASTLE COMPUTERS

Any games not listed phone our Hotline Now on 0782 575043

42 AMICA COMPUTING December 1938

■PROGRAMMING!

Hugh Allan finds out what it
takes to be a C programmer.
A logical mind, skill and
patience help, but you won Y
get started without a really
understanding bank manager

be
aC

programmer?

E ven in this age of "all power to
the user’s elbow”, a few
Amiga ns still feel they want to try
their hand at C, the Amiga's native
language. Most of the applications
you use on your Amiga are written in
C t and a good amount of the system
■ software is too, so there must he
something in it.

Why C7 It is a programming
language developed from B, as was
RCFL, l he language the infamous
AmigaDos is written in, Tt was
designed for systems software
development, so it allows you to get
down and he dirty with the machine,
and still take advantage of the
elements that make high level
languages - Basic, Pascal and
such like — bearable,

C is usually a compiled language.
This means the compiler reads a text
file line by line and turns it into
machine code, rather that reading the
program a line at a time then
executing it. So C also has the
advantage that you don’t have to keep
an interpreter on your program disc
in order for your program to run, as it
is fully selfcontained.

As a rule C runs much faster than
Basic, and as the Amiga system
1 software was written in C so you will
be able to access and take full
advantage of it directly.

With any new language its always a
good idea to read a book about the
language before you splash out on a
package. The book that is always
recommended is Kernigham and
Ritchie’s The C Programming
Language, known as K&R. This was
the original book describing the
language, and although you may find
the text heavy going, it’s an essential
if you are to master the language. Be
warned it is pricey, a slim volume, it
belies the cost of £25.

I he hook I would recommend
would be the C Users Handbook, by
Weber Systems Inc, It gives a good
history of C, and always accompanies i
(ext with an example, The style plods
a hit, text books rarely rival a good
thriller and never have the obligatory
bedroom scene. Perhaps this is why
they have to charge so much for
them. Whether you choose the
traditional K&R route or go for a
young upstart you will need to buy a
C book eventually, as the manual
with your compiler will make no
, attempt at tutorial.

So you’ve read the hook, and you
haven't been frightened off by the , -
& ! like phrases. C is famous for its I

terseness and lack of readability, often
referred to in jest as a write-only
language. You will have to buy a
compiler, which isn’t a single
program, but a suite of programs For
software development. Also you may
wish to buy extra packages to save
time on telling the system how you
want various parts of your program to
look, and utilities to check and debug
your code.

When you lake the plunge, dust off
the Visa card and think about all the
pro Tile points you will rack up. This
is what should be on the shopping
list:

• Compiler: The strict definition of a
compiler is a program which takes a
text file of C instructions (a source
file) and compiles it into an
intermediate file called an object file,
The object file cannot he run, it is
there to be combined with other
object files to make your runnable
program.

• Librarian: When you have a
collection of object files, you may
often see them in the form of a library ,
file, A library file, is simply two or
more object files put into one, so they
can be searched for the object file you
want for inclusion in your program,

\gu will get a librarian program
with your compiler. This will list,
include, update or extract object files
from a library, and a set of ready-
made libraries so you can access a
standard C Set of functions - mostly
ones to deal with strings - and a set

of libraries that let you access the
Amiga system software.

• Linker: This takes a collection of
libraries and object files and turns
them into an executable program. The
linker will make sure only the object
I tiles needed by your program are
included.

The standard linker is called ALink,
written by MetaComco - or
MetaComSlow as the wits have it.

This used to be the only one
available. It is slow, but it gets the job
done. Then a company called The
Software Distillery wrote a linker
Called Blink, which is the one most
developers use, Laltice has bought the
rights to Blink.

• Assembler: Some compilers come
with a machine code assembler. Many
programmers will want to rewrite
parts of their program in assembler to
speed them up.

• Debugger: It is doubtful that any C
program you write will run first time.
Programmers who write code which
compiles first time fall into two
categories - lucky and liars.

Most of the errors will be typing
mistakes, but sometimes bugs will
come up and you have no idea where
they are, let alone know how to fix
them. There are many different kinds
of programs to help you in this task,
the main types being:

□ Lint: This is a program which w ill

►

December 1966 AMIGA COMPUTING 43

Have a look at Mem Watch, ConMac-
a console handler and the ASDG-
Recoverable Ram Disc (ASDG'RRD),
The PD version of GOMF (1.D), the
program which lots you survive an
attack of the Gum, is also a must.

The Lattice C manual says you
really need two disc drives to run a
compiler. The manual is not lying. It
is possible to run the compiler in
512k, hut you can't compile large
source files. An extra megabyte will
allow you to put the C: directory from
your compiler disc in the ram disc,
and two extra megs will allow you to
also put the source and the libraries
and header files in ram also, making
for really fast compilation,

So you see, starting on C can be
rather expensive, but the rewards are
enormous, Any application you see
on your Amiga you could write if you
had the patience and talent - in that
order. Although C may look difficult
at first, you will find its difficulties
turning into powerful aids in time.

Do remember to stick in there, it
could take up to six months before
you get good enough to write largish
programs. Besides, you need to sell
some programs to pay off the loan
you took out to learn C.

Bibliography

■PROGRAMMING*

■4

check through your source file
looking for errors not covered by the
source checker in your compiler. Its
name stems from the way Lint
collects all the "fluff” from a
program.

□ Debugger: This will sit in the
background while your program is
running and lets you stop the
program to examine memory and
registers, This means you can watch
programs while they run.

The fiHUUU microprocessor in the
Amiga has debugging facilities built
into il, making such programs
possible. They tend to need a great
knowledge of the Amiga and the
IStmilO to be of any use though.

□ Source level debugger: Only
available for the Manx compiler, these
programs work with your source code
and let you debug it, acting like a
normal debugger for C code,
Wonderful things if you can get one,

□ Object mobile disassembler: These
programs will turn an object file into
an assembler source file. Since
debugging a disassembled, compiled
program is only a shade less taxing
than eating a Big Mac with
chopslicks, you are usually better off
looking at the source code.

N OW you know what sort of
programs you want, it is a
matter of deciding where to spend
your money, Choosing a compiler is
always very difficult, hut on the
Amiga ifs a case of less is more, In
the red corner is Lattice, while in the
blue corner Manx lurks undeT a
trilby.

Some of the success of the Amiga is
due to Lattice, II was ready at the
beginning to convert its C compiler to
the Amiga, and most of the early
Amiga applications such as D Paint
were developed with 1-attice C.

Just as things start to look simple
Lattice confuses matters by offering
two flavours of C Compiler, Lattice C
V3,m is the no frills version of the
compiler perfect for beginners, It isn't
as fast as Manx or Lattice C V4.U1,
but if you get taken hy C you can
easily upgrade to V4.01.

When you buy the compiler you
will get the compiler, an assembler, a
librarian, blink, and an object mobile

dissasemblcr, It costs around £120.

Lattice C V4.U1 is the faster version
of the compiler, If you intend to do
any serious work you most get it.
Programmers refer to it as Lattice
V4.01 and not just C in the same way
boy racers drive XR3LS, not Escorts.

Its faster, and can handle overlays.

The compiler comes with header tile
compactors which make
programming easier and simpler, so
your C program will compile and run
faster. With an extras disc, various
tips and useful programs throw n in
V4.01 costs around £200,

Manx C is newer than Lattice, and
was favoured by software developers
more until the advent of V4.01, The
new Lattice compiler s speed and
flexibility have caused many people
to switch back. Manx has the great
advantage of offering a source level
debugger.

[\ /I ANX comes in two versions,
XV A Professional and Developers,
although all the latter version has
extra is some Unix utilities and extra
math libraries. The source files of the
supplied libraries are available at
extra cost. The Professional version
comes with compiler, assembler,
linker/ librarian with overlays and
debugger. The source level debugger
is an invaluable tool. This lot works
out at £245 for the compiler and £50
for the source level debugger.

Along with your compiler you will
need a sel of technical manuals. The
best to buy are the ones written by
Commodore- Amiga and sold by
Addison Wesley. C is a rich man's
game, the manuals w r ill set you back
by as much as £100. For the
information they give it is a fair price,
but you may instead choose to go lor
the Sybex programmers' manuals -
not so good but affordable.

Having lashed out more than £300
on software and documentation you
will not be surprised to learn that
there is plenty more to buy if you
want to keep your account in the red,

Tt is a good idea to buy Power
Windows 2, which will allow you to
set up the windows and gadgets of
your program without spending hours
over a hot editor and pocket
calculator. It costs around £65, and
was reviewed in the August issue of
Amiga Computing

Some software is free. There are
some PD /Shareware programs
kicking ahout that you should get.

Kernigham , Brian W and Dennis M
Ritchie The C programming language.
ISBN o- 13-110163-3 Trent ic* Hail

He her Systems Inc C User’, 's Handbook.
ISBN 0-201-18082-0 Addison- Wesley

Traiser, Robert /, Going from Basic to C
ISBN 0-13-357799-6 Prentice Hall

Commodore-Amiga Inc The AmigaDOS
Manual Bantam Electronic Publishing

Commodore- A jniga Inc Amiga RUM
Kernai Reference SfanuahExec, ISBN 0
201*11099-7 Addison Wesley

Commodore- Amiga Inc Amiga RUM
Kernai Reference ManuaI:Libmries and
Devices ISBN 0-201-11076 Addison
Wesley

Commodore- Amiga tnc Amiga

Hardware Reference Manual, ISBN 0-
201-1W>7-6 Addison Wesley

Com mod ore- Amiga Inc Amiga Intuition
Reference Manual, ISBN 0-20I-11076-B
Addison Wesley

Mortimore , Eugene P. Amiga Pro-
grammer's Hand Book, Volume 1, ISBN
0-895880-343-0 SYBEX //IC

Mortimore, Eugene P. Amiga Pro-
grammer’s Hand Book, Volume 2 , ISBN
0-895688-384-0 SYBEX Inc

AH these books are available from Com-
puter Manuals Ltd . 021 706 6000 ,

44 AMIGA COMPUTING December IMtH

NEW FROM '

NEW - AMIGA AUDIO DIGITISER

5u[*rbpertorman«. *mh «J|uilabt senirtiwty. and Mr tod LED mtol^

Sup 0 »ti w-lh conwtag lead ta paranal Manses, rW*«. *tr. lAtm *Hh
all Dislinfl wmmertial uXlwait, t« PTWOSird. AudiuroilBr 'JlM Pm*T,cHlf «£

ONLY £2499

£ 2.90 EXTRA,

A 5 G 0 DIGITISER, LEADS A INSTRUCTIONS

N 6 GENDER CHANGER REQUIRED FOR AiOOO

wmumum

USE YOUR C64 PRIMTER WITH THE

AIIIV ln b^anM)h|wteuHiMCBHS^ l pn*itB<.i. taP$wg Irtfl AMIGA
'mat hom* cqm^rtsrt 1 1. AMIGA ATARI, IBM PCjAT'IT Me
All make uw-ol psur redundant COMMODORE M nr l2»u be
'rtertaca and cprtutf 0* 10 Pfltarfkci carfmM* MU inttfral wtt** 1 *

nmnnzsw *

PARALLEL TO CBM SERIAL PRINTER

0» Print link I with most and one CBM Serial PHM*r CONVERTER

— ONLY

= £34.99

AJYjra ktl Irnut rerrwt 1 q 1 h* amyuMr pmtg jwrt.

* CBM 5 * rial Output fcr Ten LJwyi farr u rofort Benaf Pnn1er>

* H>| ^Tints ' Bu tter <igc5 gynpulaf whi te iSoCurtfdnts- a*r prtr^

* P 1 -'Icr fli-.+lFi r f/H'-i ndi d i ftiflt Repeat ft rgm irLace dli:

- ITU BP SHARPE*. AMCLEAjmWTH *

SCWWLfAOS

AflFMTT
.IWlA&tf FOR

M4NES

mkwjwjk;

4Mf, SfiSMO*
PHtimcnu*
mmsortm
m asp socket

m hMto* feawiMrt * A™ to four TV qr «*»r rfuniitar pr™d*f rf

AimSA «3t?ULAFW7, permit Ail *396 aston to he rtustywi and rfiriU* rJh*
amAd leadrtojn * sajim Atf-h intreo

OflKR AL I R3« TV't WfflH 21 PIN PUPW3 iSCAffT) SCKXE T
f ns philips F IDELITY. SONY. fiBUNDK] MDRMENEOe.EUt 0NLYE9W

OnMRALZ POftFER&USOMTV'iWlTH 7 OH 8 PIN
«N SOCKET MODELS MCDt 1 MOM. ETC.

MDE R AI 4 FOR HITACHI A GRANADA TV 1 * WITH ? FIN DIN 3PP(ET A MW OTBWBE.

MODELS 0FT1444, FTC flNI Y M w PUEASf CDWSUir

USJPfRDOUKT

ATTENTION 1901 MONITOR OWNERS,

WHIT NOT HAVE YOUR l&l MONITOR CONVERTED TO WORK WITH THE AMIGA?

Our COrertnon enable* jw/r 1901 to dripl*/ all 40» odour* *mJ j-y« a mi tv
troetent prelum m fcMrtHed hundmiftflt Iffl's -nrh JDOS, ML^ad<r,

Prw '^Hiring Ihe lead u ONLY E39 35 - ttw altars Phono to arrant an
appCnnCrnenr or e* can codKt. aomtn and return war momtor ALL WITHIN 4
DWS kjr thi «■ .neluir* price d ti J «.

OTHER INEXPENSIVE AMIGA LEADS

PART NO.

PRICE

Jim MIVE SWITCHED LEAD - D< sable!

cklnrrji clrn* Ml pfritiil prasrami tq Kw

ADE 2

ONLY E9.99

Zfld DRIVE S-WTFCHER - Fits betwoan drii* □onnectcr and Am^a

Disk drii#|port. Can ba uM *r*n paper is an. AM 3

ONLY £3.49

JOYSTFCK PORT EXTENDER — F«1 uti w4h fTtpru anxind
Ghd roar of jwr Arragi — then jou need 1 1 Ns Hod

Jffi 1

ONLY £3.99

M0USE.-JOYSTB* SWITCHER t PORT EXTENDER - e*t*r>ds Ihe port

and has socksti kM dtouS* and AJwstick with

push-bJttofi i*itdi fcr mouE« qr WlKtcn. Cu* 1

ONLY 6999

3 £ 4 JOYSTICK ADAPTORS - Sam* li« 3 or 4 Jaytfidii

- !*u'# need Hu* load to us* mq<* IhWl 2 Jn^lkfa JCL 1

ONLY CT 99

AMIGA 64 £ MJLATDR LEADS. - CdftWfls 1M1 ETC to >our AMIGA
Thw*wtifmi iwpHmaMhnHtlltMhKl. AEL n

ONLY £4 99

MOOUJvnR Extension leads

Hfc.. J

ONLY ES.99

AMIGA FNtlNTER LEAD - Ptualvnnid 1 $M lv«

a.Mimi

AMPL

.ftMPJ

ONLY £« »
ONLY £9 99

PLEASE STATE WHtCH AMIGA tOU HAVE WHEN ORDERING.

HAVE YOU HEARD YOUR AMIGA'S
AMAZING SOUND IN STEREO?

AMIGA

Thft ttftal ite*BD amplrlwr connect* (Jewlty to jdur AMIGA And tcodi It*
...... iirfnautpLrisdttiatpPMHnerlOyiheAMIGA'iamMr* st*r»w4lto

M IN I - AMP prvacr Ji-ne I or 2 pen d SlerDD headphone!

I COMPLETE WITH Auon A. POWER LEW3& AMA 1 - DNLV 414.99

ADAFTDR FOR CONNECTING 2 FAIRS OF HEADPHONES- £2.»

HUGH QUALITY STEREO HEADPHONES FOR MINI AMP l FTC PER SET.l4.99

AM IG A HlNlAMP 2 It A neat ilenc. ampiher awivH*l* Y»Tth hre meu tpaakar u«li
M IN I- A MP (Mn!i * 5r " >ecl1 AMIGA. FVIad tor uj* mtli rtMhO lu'i and

COMPLETE WIT H ALChQ 4 POWER LEADS . AMA t - ONLY £19. W

BARGAINS ON DISKS. BOXES. JOYSTICKS, DUSTCOVERS

aa; wsks aMLiir csroo bulk packed disks per not ; * w owr tu»
Di^w*J.iTrcstiOBULKMCKFD disks permcxm »c*u mm

fREE mL-,—

CATXLOGUf 3L-.Z' DISK BOH FOB 4D0ISHS SMOKED LID LOCKABl£ DSfi4WILTC799

tfjffl-f EVERT 31 ?' DISK «H FOP 0D DISKS SMOREO LID. LOCKABLE DSB J ONLY H.99

i K, ‘ WSK KK FO* UH D5K5 SUMFD UD UKKAALE DS« 6 ONLY £U 9t

QJCKSHW 2 JOYSTICK WITH AUTCPIRE 05J 1 OWY 17 9S

OLAiMHDr 2 TURBO, MICROSWiIChE^ t ALITDFIRE GREAT Q$JI0f|LYfl3.99
AS® DUSTCOVER. FLAiEPROOF MATERIAL ADC 1 ONLY U <n

M ANTISTATIC ROAM MOUSE PAD AFM 1 ONLY S4 19

ORDER

/S^KOOftTJ *

L5SWofB 57/ *M«^da^rtcM F ^^l vn »artad®

I zu * eipmir^itertdpwtwifiMmdJhcM^^

elav (taapaWi - ptoau a® C1.H

HOW TO ORDER

flV PHQNE > 02 7 4 691115 BY MAIL ► Send Cheque Plural Order po Gim

no rax a no? A finn 1 firt [T ^SR'ttredalMtWM- tur«h«pje &ank*n

Oft r AX p UZT4DU01W Orah Eijicri uinour Ef>«ialri f e4n» add U 00

urrfu a/V’JTCC no i/KJ Jdddiijn.il 00^1444 and sand MYit*ul >n slerlmg nn»n

Wfirl ALL C33 Vff VISA. E'f», r Mjilercjrri Actei-, and (Aia Ordar* ^ccecJhM

trr phonf gr fAK

Trilogic. Dept A.C. Unit I,

253 New Works Road. Bradford BD12 OQP

Xerox 4020

Colour Ink Jet Printer

WithNLQtoo!

The Xerox 4020 colcur irtk Jet prinltu’ makes Ilia roosl of your Amiga
colour pictures, printing (Tear, bright images silanitv in 7 distinct
colours and over’ 4,000 shades at 240 dots per inch resolution.

the 402G handice oil you*. eomcspondcrFCC and 6csk-top
pij6ii$hin^ needs too/ choose fjtom ^ Resident fonts in vattoas sl2es
and achieve neai* Itttti qua£% tcauits at a healthy 40 cp®.

Srrra 4020 : fit l&Rd ^ntega prinltrt

d fe AviiidbJt Iran* youi Jocii cteadtr nt diiecOy from

mM Precision Software Lid 6 Park Terrece
I Worcester Park, Surrey KT4 7JZ
J Telex 395502 1 Precis G

Sot | Wd iv 01-330 7166

December 1WS AMIGA COMPUTING 45

T

*

1

I

I

!

(

I

I

MICROFICHE

The traditional microfiche is a
photographic reduction of a large
amount of data in “page form on
to a transparency. It is related
to microfilm, a similar method
using spools and microdots, the
things spies hide behind stamps in
poor espionage stories. The object
is to pack a lot of information into
a small amount of space and still
allow easy viewing.

The microfiche may be viewed
using a special projector and is
used by moving a square grid over
the transparency to highlight the
page you require. At the same time
an enlargement of the currently
selected page is displayed on a
large screen above.

Microfiche have been used for a
long time by car manufacturers as
a means of distributing spare parts
lists and by companies such as
W ,H. Smith to catalogue all
currently available books. They are
a very compact way of storing
large quantities of read-only
information, but ere likely to be
superseded by optical discs.

UST when I thought I had seen
every possible attempt at making
a database look different, along
comes Microfiche Filer - MFF from
now on.

MFF is a computerised version of
the traditional microfiche system and
the presentation attempts to follow
the original in many ways. Hnw r well
does this work in reality? On the
whole, the idea works well, hut with
one or two reservations.

The program is supplied on a
single disc with a spiral bound AS
sized manual of about 100 pages. I he
manual makes easy reading and is
clearly laid out with lots of pictures
of the screen displays at various
stages. It includes full details of how
to make backups of the program disc
and how to install it on a hard disc.

That is immediately followed by a
quick lour of the program, making
use of some of the example databases
supplied on the disc. Each part of the
program has a chapter to itself and
additionally, there are appendices
covering concepts for new users, lips
and shortcuts, quick reference and
troubleshooting. Detailed contents
pages and an index at the hack go

4€ AMIGA CQMPU1WG December 1988

towards making the program as easy
to Learn as possible.

The supplied disc is not self*
booting, MFF may he run from either
the Workbench or the CLI, bnt you
must have at least 5 1 2k and
Amigados 1,2.

HE manual makes suggestions
about closing windows and
even re-booting with a copy of the
original Workbench disc if problems
are encountered wilh loading. Ihe
reason for this is that MFF is a
memory-based program and both the
program and all data have to be held
in memory at the same time. It is
therefore worthwhile freeing as much
memory as possible be lore loading,
MFF runs very well with only a
single drive as the disc is only
accessed when you save or load a
database.

From Workbench you can select the
required drawer and clicking on Ihe
required database icon will load both
MFF and the database. Once loaded,
you are presented with a screen with
several windows already open, I he
main part of Ihe screen is taken up

with Ihe microfiche magnification,
which is the equivalent of the
traditional screen. In the lop right
hand corner is a small window called
Ficbe, representing the microfiche
transparency and below this is a
third window called MFF Form List.
This contains details of the available
forms or views and has no equivalent
in the original.

Taking each of these windows in
turn, the Microfiche Magnification
window contains some of the
contents of Ihe database. The exact
pari of the data that can be seen is
directly related to the Fiche window,
which is a miniature representation
uf the transparency, or as much of it
as will fit in the window.

The window is of fixed size and a
vertical scroll bar is provided to
enable you to see the remainder of
Ihe database. The window also
contains a smaller hollow square and
this can be moved around the
window. As you move il, the data in
the main magnification moves
proportionally with 11,

One way to picture it is imagine a
lot of card index cards Laid nut on a
table and you can only see some of

■ REVIEW!

Flat File is one o f the terms used to
describe a database that on!y uses
da fa from a single data file. Tn
many cases it can he considered
the computerised equivalent of a
card index system, or in this case a
microfiche .

The term is used to describe the
fact that it is not capable of relating
data in one file to data at a
different level in another file.

A database that can select
records from another fife according
to the values it finds in the current
record is known as a relational
database .

Microfiche Filer is of the flat fife
variety ,

n As 6 56 2

1 94 Terrain

Print Title:
Print Record:
Print Totals:
Sort Torn!
Edit Torn:
Display fnrn:

PrtDrvGen

Shortcut

Shotfrint

|98 Siiiltrs

The flat view is a quick way
tn skim through files

them lit a time and have to keep
moving to see others. This provides
the main mechanism by which you
can randomly scan the database.

The form in which the data is
displayed is determined by the
settings in the MMF Form List
window, which provides a list of all
the available forms. Forms determine
(he way that the data is visually
presented on screen and also when
printed and you can add more forms,
or alter existing ones, at any time.

Huicr:

Tunctitn:

Author:

Ham:

i script ion

HE Form List window contains
six fixed headings down the
side and a number of boxes to (he
right containing the names of (he
various forms. The headings are Print
Title, Print Record t Print Totals, Sort
Fnrm t Edit Form and Display Form.
You can drag any form name into
any of the boxes alongside these
headings and the selected form will
then be the one used to carry out that
function.

tn a name and address database,
for example, you might have a form
containing only a name field and if
you drag this into the Sort Form box*
then sorting of the database will lie
carried out in name or tier. Similarly,
dragging a form that contains the
name and Udephone number fields
into Ihe display box will change the
display in the magnification window
to display all records showing only
the name and telephone number.

In individual record can be shown

Clicking on a form in the Form List
Window will open the Form Edit
window and this allows you to
change the layout of existing forms.
New forms can lie created by
selecting from the pull down menu*
then adding the required fields. When
you select a new field, it appears in
the Edit window and you can then
scroll through the availahle field:
names and drag it around using
miniature gadgets in the highlighted
field.

The Form List Window contains a
gadget to select data definition. In an

unprecedented fit of honesty the
manual admits that it is here
primarily because they couldn't think
of anywhere better. Selecting this
opens yet another window and is
where you specify the name of the
database, together with the names of
the fields.

Three types of data Field are
supported. Text fields are variable
length, which saves valuable disc
space and each may, in theory, be up
to 32,0041 characters long. Number

&7

Sc

m

mi

OT

TekUtt

pi

187

HarpTtxt

“Sr

Bank

87

HMualFF

1*2

HimkPad

87

YiiTfr

m

Less

87

Zdo

— hr

Hdir

»

De cumber 1&&B AMIGA COMPUTING 47

■REVIEW!

iic* 1,1

itfififi

Fields are essentially the same as text
fields and may be of unlimited
length, but they differ in the way that
they are handled when searching and
sorting, ignoring anything except
numbers, negative symbols and Ihe
decimal point. Number fields may
also be totalled.

One slight oddity is that number
fields are always assumed to have
iwo decimal places, although they are
nut visible unless relevant and are
ignored at other times. The third type
of field is Picture, of which, more
later, hut suffice to say for now that
these are used to hold the filename of
a picture.

If you want to enter a new record,
you just create a blank record by
selecting the option from the menu
and filling in the details in the
Record Editor window that appears.
The layout is determined by the form
selected for the Edit Form, Once the
details are entered, closing Ihe
window causes MFF to ask whether
you want to save the record and then
automatically inserts it according to
the currently selected Sort Form,

Existing data may he changed in a
similar fashion and you select the
record to alter by double flicking on
it and the details will appear in the
Record Editor.

Cffiwiit Eir niter?: MMisJwiin
flit paw Fi

mjiU*

Ladv fulls CtfiniA rr/frrsJirtfnt trow i>idsi
W: 7 cut &f II opera Lovers chouse to 1
Ht ndw nts froH cans

A picture From the
supplied examples

Print Record;
Print Totals:

tidily l»n:

directories and databases in the
current directory. You can select
from these by double clicking on one,
or one marked Parent Dir, if the
entry is a directory, the new directory
is displayed, but selecting a database
will once again load MFF, hut with
the selected database.

MFF can be used to display
pictures in IFF format and
Workbench Icon pictures. The picture
Files are nut actually incorporated
into the database and w r hen a Picture
field is specified, it is used to hold
the name of Ihe picture file,

A Preference option, known as
picture squeezing, is available.
Squeezing is a process whereby a
picture that is too large to display in
Ihe designated space is compressed so
that it is displayed in reduced size. In
the process, the colours are reduced
down to two nr four colours.
Alternatively, truncated may be
seleced* in which case MFF displays
as much as it can and discards the
remainder. Squeezing slows down the
process of display and truncating is
much faster. If you load a database
with the squeezed option, all pictures

records, you can soled yet another
window to set things like Ihe number
of records to print per page, skip
over for continuous stationery* and
no title. From this menu it is also
possible to specify that ihe output
should go to a disc file instead of the
printer. Selecting Print from the
menu will execute the process.

A special MFF preference option is
available from the pull down menus
to let you customise the program. You
cao specify whether Stirling should be
in ascending or descending order,
whether info files are to be saved if
using the Workbench environment,
whether sorted data is to be
displayed horizontally or vertically
and other miscellaneous functions.

ELECTING a range of records to
print may be done either by
Shift clicking on any records you
want, selecting All from the pull
down menu or by making use of the
search options to select records that
mulch given criteria. Selecting the
latter option opens the Selection
Editor - MFF certainly isn't short of
editing windows of one type or
another - and lists the available
fields with boxes alongside. You just
enter the words or numbers, together
with Ihe operators to be used.

Symbols like «text can be used In
indicate "beginning with", >>text to
indicate ending w’ith and I to indicate
NOT, as well as the normal greater
than, less than and equality symbols.
Additionally* & may be used to
require two expressions to match in a
field. Once the criteria have been
entered for the various fields, dosing
the window' makes MFF search and
highlight all fields that match the
conditions.

Once a range of records has been
selected, they may be copied, deleted
or printed. If you want to print the

ions lake effect

M ost of the opt

immediately, although the
choice of whether two or four colours
are to be used and one or two others
only lake effect next time MFF is
loaded.

There are several ways to exit MFF,
including options to go to the File
Menu. This is a special MFF option
and on leaving the main program it
presents you with a list of the

48 AMIGA COMPUTING December 1988

I*C*P*U*G

the independent

Commodore Products Users Group
is the largest and most helpful
computer club in the country

+ Many local groups with regular meetings

• Superb group magazine Included in subscription.

100 plus pages of reviews, news and information
every two months.

• 1907 Back issues available to all - El .50 per issue

• AMIGA Specialists

• FREE Software library of public domain programs
contains over 200 disks

• Help and advice • Discount scheme

• Subscription £13 per year (UK) plus £1 joining fee

• Please wait for membership details before applying
for software

• Overseas rates on application

For serious users joining ICPUG is a must
Send SAE for an application form to

ICPUG Membership Secretary, Jack J.
Cohen,

30, Braheaster Road, Newbury Park,

Ilford, Essex, IG2 7EP

01-590 8849 Day 01-346 0050 Ev. & W r ends

. . . GEORGE THOMPSON SERVICES advise all Amiga
Cnmara that they have available the complete
TBAG and AMUSE Public Domain Libraries STOP
plus the latest FISH Disks fedexed in from the
USA for the Cotanodora Show STOP All PD disks
are £3,00 each or £30.00 for eleven inc. STOP
For more information* please refer to the new
'MEGA P.D. LIBRARY PACK' STOP Two disk* for
£4.99 STOP This includes a £5.00 Voucher re-
deemable against the first purchase of 10 or
more disks STOP Regards Id. . » END

7 couldn’t have put it better
myself Lou . Just one point
to add! These guys are the
originators of good PD on
quality Sony disks. You
may see libraries such as
TBAG and AMUSE adver-
tised later by others , but
remember ; you saw it here
first f And Lou did you know
they r if be on stand 32 at the
Commodore Show in
November?"

GEORGE THOMPSON SERVICES, specialists in good
quality innovative software at competitive prices,
can be contacted at DIPPEN, BRODICK, ARRAISI,
SCOTLAND KA27 8RN TEL: (077 OB2) 234

TWO WAYS TO ENSURE
YOU GET

EVERY MONTH

1. Complete and mail subscription
form on Page 97

2. Hand this form to your newsagent.

Please reserve me a copy of Amiga Computing!
magazine every month until further notice.

□ I wilt colled

□ I would like it delivered to my home.

Name — . —

Address —

Not* (0 newiagenr; Art)*?! Computing ifWUltf 0#

Obtainable from your Uxal w#iole«fir, Of contmt-t Mika fffce
Circulation Manager on 0*2* *30*22

-

* *********************************************** ** *** *

2[ 16-BIT SOFTWARE OF ROCHDALE - *

AMIGA BOOKS AND UTILITIES SPECIALIST

Ve*****ft******i^**^ +*****************A ^ **ft***ftm* *

*

Motorola B80GC Programmafs RMerencs Manual {Motorola) — M.9S

Amiga for Beginner* |Ab*OUS - MEW Rev Edition) — £10.«

Amiga Macfiine Language (Abeeue) (D) .... — .

Kick*t*rt Gu ide to the Amiga (Ariadne) E12.9S

Kids- and the Amiga (Computel) — *

Elementary Amiga BASIC (Compulel) (O)

Amiga Programmer* Guide (CompulMj.... .El* 95

Amiga DOS Reference God* (Computel) — ......£14,95

|n*ide Amiga Graphic* (Comgu1*l} (D) — E14.9S

Amiga Tricks and Tips (Abaco*) (D) - £14.95

Amiga Applications (Compulel) (D). fU “

First Book pi the Amiga < Computel) (D) ..., H* 1 ® 5

Amiga BASIC - ln*ld« 1 Out (Abacue) (D> El 6.95

Advanced Amiga BASIC (Compulel} |D) — - —

Am>ga Machine Language Programming Guide (Compute!) {D> £l7.BS

'• ' luide to Gf«j

Amiga User's GukMto Graphics. Sound, Telecom {Banlam)

Becoming »n Amiga Arliat (Soofl-Forelmen) .

..£17.96

Using Deluxe Paint II {Compvle I)- nimm , n , rn „,...u... £17.95

Learning C - Prog. Graphs on Amiga A Atari ST (Computel) (D) £17.96

The Amiga Microsoft BASIC Programmer's Guide (Microsoft) - - £l9.»

Inside the Amiga WUh C (Sams) £19.95

Amiga Hardware FWerence Manual (Addieon- Wesley) ............... £22 95

Amiga IntvitiQft Reference Manual (AdOlttn-We'Siey) £22, 95

Amiga F»OM Kernel Reference Manual: Exec (AddiSOrt- Wesley) E22.95

Amiga DOS Manual (Benlam) „...C22 95

Programming tha &80O0 (Sybex)

Amiga System Programmer's Guide (Abacus - NEWI) ..

Programmers Guide to the Amiga fSyber) ,

Amiga Programmers Handbook (Sybex) .

Amiga Progremmara Handbook, Vd. 2 (Sybex)

Amiga. ROM Kernel flel. Minimi: Libs 6 Devices (Addaon-Wesley)

Book Programa On Dlefc - Aveiiable 1 (X all tilas marked (D) £9 96

£22.95

£22 95

£24 95

£24 95

£24.95

. £32 95

ANNOUNCWG 15-BIT SOFTWARE'S PUBUC DOMAIN SOFTWARE CLUB
S£ND JUST £l.M FOR OUH SPECIAL INTRO (HSU 1 PRINTED CATALOGUE
AND BE AMAZED AT THE ULTTU-LOW PRICES ON ALL AMIGA SOFTWARE!

SPECIAL OFFER! CUMANA 1 MEG EXTERNAL D RIVE NOW ONLY E97.5QJ

CALL OUR CREDIT CARD HOTLINE
TEL: 0706 43519

fft€£ AWJGA CATALOGUE OUT NOW
Contains (WarHed deserptronj of Books.

Pariptwrab S UjWtM, at Low. low
Prices! SEND AN $ A E-

All Offers are wubted to euailability and may change al any lime. E.fiO E.

All Frees include PAP in UK, Olharwisi add 23% Air (Mail Abroad
Bend Cheque, 'P.O.-Uaslercard/Arxess Of Vi» details la:

16-BrT SOFTWARE, Dept. AC, 24 Bankfidd L ^, Norden,

Rochdale, Lancashire OLl T 5fU

******************************************************

December 1*188 AMIGA COMPUTING 49

* **ee*5"

.. E3&5.00
... £14.99
.... Cl 1 .50
....£11,50
£19 75
..£199 00
£540 00
.... £29.00
£24900
..£279.00
£259 00
,.,.£9295
£745 00
£259 00
£2*5 00
£599 00
£1240 00
..£499.00
,.£439 00
... £265.00
.. C2B5.00
... C460.00
...£159.00
...£169.00
£209 00
£31000
... C *50-00
... £390.00
.£1150.00

£11.50

£1.50

Am.ga A 500 Pockoo*

Amigo Bo«t lmk(» * Ovl

Amigo Mochina Longuog*

AmiooDOS Mo*iucJ (2™4 Edition]

BoxSl Com*™

Ch*rry A3 Digiiizi.r*H Toblif .

Ch*rry ToUrt!*^

C'iqipic From* Grobbw

Eoiy 1 Drawing T^bkd

Hrtwlii *50 Lift* Comrro

NEC External 3.5* Driv* .

Pwtaiionol G*nkd(

PAL Gwtlodi. ..

Hoitar Soomw ...........

Siifpro 20mb Externd Dr™*

Sumpor *Qmb External Dm* ...

Canon 1QBOA Colour Wt Jrt

Ep«sn FXS00 Matrix

Ep»n LX600 Msirix

Juki SSlOPMoIri*

Juki 5520PAta*l*

MP 135 Mot*

MP 135+ Motrin

MP 1*5+ Motrin

MP 200+ Maw*

NEC P2 200 124 M

Xtron 402C fcolcwU**

10*3 5' Disk* IPS/ODT. -

Ditk Bern br 40 Dinki [+ lockl....

Lion] FoflS-

Legisti*

Moruudw 2

Mo ^ motion ........

Mom-plan A 500

Atauplon Fgi •••

MCC JWsef* Au#*nW«t

M CC SIhI

Module 2 Standard System ..

Pop* Flippw — ■

Pag. Flippir plui F/X

P^wiSTGoW)

Photon Pdht

P&w*r Window** 2

Prism FHu+V1.2 [PAL]

RkpVidao

Pm VkWo FchU* Library

Pm Writ* 2

Publisher Plui

Oyiimaltof

Scribbl* 2 -

Sculpt

-Sculpt 34) Animate

Sihw Ray Tracing ...

SofteraoJ Writ* and fila

SounduKip* Midi Interne# ..
Soundtcop* Promidi Studio .
Souncboop* bind CNflMaw

StUii* Magic

5i^p*Hbm* W*««l ............

Tru* B«k 3-D Graphic*

Tru* Imhc Aiithnwbc

Turbo $ilv*f 3-D

will he shuwn in reduced size* but
selecting that record lets you select
an option to display the picture, in
which case it is enlarged and
displayed in its full colour glory.

T HE more that I use MFF, the
more I like it. Ami note that I
say use rather than used, because l
intend In keep it in the front of the
disc box when this review has gone to
the printers. St is obvious that a lot of
thought has gone into its design and
implementation.

MFF is entirely consistent in the
way you use iL There is nearly
always more than one way to do
anything, virtually all options being
selectable by pull down menus which
vary according to the window you
are in, or alternatively] by clicking on
a gadget or box, There are quick
keystrokes to select all options and

once learnt they are displayed in
the pull down menus as a reminder
which speed things up considerably.

MFF isn’t perfect though, and on
occasions it seems to take unduly
long to redraw the screen when a
window doses and the little tlche
window lakes time to redraw,
although this is probably because the
program is actually manipulating a
Lot of data at the same time, I also
wish that there was some mechanism
that allowed you to save search
criteria for future use, as Ibis would
save a lot of time if you have to
frequently use the same search
patterns when using the database.

? started using MFF ihinking that
the microfiche concept was just a
gimmick, hut as time has passed, it
has proved to lie an entirely practical
way of using a flat file database. T
wouldn't hesitate to recommend that
it is worth considering if your
database requirements don'l demand
relational files or the ability to
program your own applications.

REPORT

Microfiche Filer

Software Visions' Amiga Centre

Scotland 031-557 4242

USEFULNESS

ft you need a soph istira ted card index
type of database. Microfiche Filer is
well worth considering.

EASE OF USE

Extremely easy to use and consistent in
its use of commands and windows.

INTUITION,,

Follows Commodore s guidelines well.

SPEED HH3

Being memory bused, most features are
very quick, although screen redrawing
can sometimes slow things down.

VALUE

Excellent value at the price. Plus
version out soon ,

OVERALL

Professions ily presented and well
thought out Unusual presentation, but
entirely practical in use ,

MAIL ORDER

for all your
software
needs

GAMES/ STRATEGY

Aargli

Annoli til JttifYi*

ArloFCb*u

backtab

Bad Cal

Boloi*c* of Poww

BaWtiihipJ.

Branoccui * A#*n&

Canno fitiulaPte

D*fca Vu ,„

Ebo»tor -...

ECO

Flight 1 Simulator 2

FlitrtHoo**

foofctill Mtitioger 2 ...
Galactic Invawon

Garriaon

Hardball

Indoor Spurs

M

LonCilol „„

lwd*fboord

M*re*no»y Comp*ndiui

Pink Pdntear

PcJic* 0 miI . ,„

Rollina Thurtiof ..........

SiLnf 5*rric«

Spoc*Qu*+r2

&ylor CooNich

Taira Quart

Thr** Stoogai .

Tim* *. Mogilt

Uiunvihod

Voiftptrai Empira

Wintor Otymp<ad B0
Zanom

BUSINESS/UTILITIES

&iS2ns&u |

£'03 «

:::::::::::::::: ]

Aj1*c C Compita [Com

AztocCCanpibr (Sd )

B*ckarto!cr ; —

Bwno*uwrar* Iw^l

Cdlrtrophar C Jourt(Wiri

CiN D-iw pLJbli»hing $£?•?•?

[Wuw* Muiic CooiPvcboti £51 -3*

Data* Point 2 ■“•JfS

D*U«*Vid-a(PALi £51-20

iVi ll

Dtgivww 3 c J24.?i

DQS to DOS C2& ?5

t^te?“=rSS:g

agaaf.=~ —

IntoCAD ,,n„

lt-S*k,a *«000 Awmbkf £34.95

HARDWARE

722ZL " , . £42.95 TV Show * TV T*tf (oochf »

£SJliiigo't]05 C V4 tl 3 1 -65 Z^oofenfc £2i ' 75

Just b«cpu» you don't Me it - do»n> mean wu hgvon'f gof it
f& fuH details-, **nd a lafg# *mmp»d addrwwd ortvaksp*

PImm mot* thsques and portal orders pgyahle loi

COTTAGE SOFTWARE"

Please -endorse cheques with bankers cord number

P.O* Elox No. a. Show, OL2 8QN, Telephone: 07CM 8453*5

Mduh £ 3,^0

Mouw Md ...-£4,50

3,5' Duk Dr™* Cl«?n*r £5-99

Am igo A500 Drt - : ^.50

SO AMIGA COMPUTING December 19SS

,r

commodore

■ Amiga A600 wilh 1 BOOM

hlgh-ras mono ironiter

■ Amiga A§DQ wnh A 1DB4 £ 61 5

higb-ras colour monitor

■ Amiga A50Q wHh ArOB4 £699

plus ii H exlarnef drive

■ Amiga E^PQO wi|ft i W & RAH , £"995

69QK. a.a" disif, mpusw, spFtwgrp

■ Amiga BaooqM As above, £1245

plus A 1094 hi -rw colour monitor

■ Amiga 32000 xm As above, £ 1 69 5
plus PC-XT bridge board ft lloppy

■ Amiga 37000 XTMHD As above £ 21 4 5
plus A2QgoPC 2D MB hard disk

Prices Includo 15-% VAT, FREE delivery
to your ctoor, and r year manufacturer's
warranty, Add £ 1 a fo r next day del Ivery.
Ah aysEcma are tested before despatch,
□n-sltn maintenance □pClon available,

PERIPHERALS

I Si2K pAig-m ftAMtolack (A5M)
I A fafl l high-raa colour monilor
| AIDS-* high-ros. eetnui mtiniici*

I 19AQM high-res mono morvior
I P tillllpj TV Tuner
I A it! 1 0 3 5" external disk drive
I 3.5“ twin- port external Owe
I 5.35” twin-pod external c*tve
1 3 A" internal drive A2000
I MFnlGen PAL Genlock
I Gan lack PAL fiendale
I Genlock PAL Randala Pro
t Micron 2MB RAM ceid APMd

£145

£225

£249

£99

£79

£149

£99

£99

£99

£116

£275

£799

€399

8 A Id 52 A 20MB into nal hard £ 5 99
etek wrth Amiga DOS controller
V A 2092 PC 20MB into nal hard £ 4 99

tidk wHh MS DOS controller
8 A20M PC-XT bridgn board £ 475
with 525" Internal drjk drive

■ Supra 20 MB rnrtra: nal hard dir^k £ 67 5

8 Citizen 120D 120 cpra, f/T, NLQ £125
8 Star LClbC colour 120 epa, NLQ £275
8 Star LCJ4-1 Q 1 TO cps. 5T NLO £ 375
8 HP DeskJet aooctpi inkjw, B/W £795
8 HP Pal-nlJet colour. t80 dpi £995

■ Xerox 4020 colour, £40 dpi £1095
8 Handy Scanner 240 dpi scanner £ 299

■ DlglPIc larJ Irame grabber £225

■ DigHVIew V3.Q video digitizer £ 175

8 Easy I A4 dr Owing tabtel A500 £275

■ Easy! A4 tftSwing tablet! A2000 €325

8 Cherry A3 rJrcqili jinq- toblnt £599

I The Wor ka
I VliaWill* Desktop
I ProWrlLe (V2,d|
l Word perfect
I Peblfaher Plus
I Pyoleaslonaf Page
I Flow

I Photon Paint
I Be Lure PholgLafc
I Pi-Male
I Prism Plus
I Express Pain t
I Calligrapher
I Da Luxe Video 11
I Qe Luxe Production*
I Aegis VldeeSeapn
I Pro-Video CGI
I Inlrp Cad
I X-Cad
I Ad of Chess

■ De Luxe Palm II (PAL) £59 si

■ Dl glPa.lnt (PAL) ecgft cotours 33.51

* De Luxe Mu sic (PAL) 59 vi

■ Page Setter 79 n»

■ City Dcnk {V3 0) 13? 91

■ Excellence I 179 as

Analyze + Organize + Scribble, integrated desktop S9 «a
High porlnrrrtance desktop pubkshing wordprocessor 69. *3
Wordprocassing lully ittlsgr alad vmh graphic* 79 ?■.

Amca vareion oi Ihe No.1 best sebng wordprotesftoi 179 *•.
Enhanced version oi the erlginaT dnakrop publisher Stas
Include* WP, Desktop, colour soparadons, CAD 199 it

The Idea Processor hom Nrnw Horizons Sohwarg ay.-;*

HAM Wlh. overscan. Special OBOtls, nnlarpod Font; £9 <;<•
Prim £ manipulate photo quality magns n

PTotewkjnai image enhancamtmi str aight tram NASA!

4096 HAM cotour perm pack 1024 k 1024 (needs iMfl)
Overscan PAL * S* colour Exlra Hall Brito, tart merge
Pmlocsional lont editor, tom* up to iBO x 256 pixels
Crnato all rypag gl video puMonlaltons with ease
Oohrniiva high -roc graphics animation package
Full 3D anim?riens m all resolutions wlh averse an
Prclascional video litter wlh touts, edra lorn* available
Entry level CAD package, printer or planer Output
Protossional CAD system {needs ZMB)

Tha bi^r Amiga chg?g yel, p ecked wrth tealurag

44.q

54.95
49.s»
79. as
59. Si
129.'Ji
124. Si
159.1*

49.53
099.53

15.53

IF you can tfrnk of it, Sup*fBjeei r ProfeisFon.al can do MF
y Wflh its unique oombmalion or Incredibly simple date
miinivgement. massive processing ability and high-lavdl
program language, SuperBasa PreFeaalanal is ihm pi9y
cFujicu for your Amiga' And wilh tesrt, sound and graphics
□ □ AVroo | rrvinagpmonr, p*US reiabonfll dais handling, SupcrBast

rniJr bo blUNAL Prof csslorval is eosoniial lor both beginner and export .

PRODUCTIVITY

mum

Alt HasEc conqpilos Amiga Besit Cl 24.95 I
179 as ■
T24.S&
299.S&
29?5

AiC F ortr Jn
LMH» C 4 ,d
Lmile* C Profeiaslonal
PC Emutelor
SAM Basic

■ Super Base Pcr*oru I Relalional: dalabase power, wilhoul pfogramming!

■ SuperBasa ParsoniJ 3 As flbo^e. phis text, mar merge, balch entry ote
■' SuperBiiaPrafe-ijIonal Wflb Forms Editor and DML program langusgu

■ Acqulsllton (Vf.3| ....

■ Super P lan

■ Maxiplan 500

Sd -

■ Maxlplan Plus
M LogfaHx

■ DGCak

■ Home Accoun ts

I Bus'ncsswnre Ac c 1

■ Bualne&swar* Acctt 2

■ K -sake Assembler

■ MCC Assembler

■ MCC Pa.K*l V2.0

■ MCC Shrjli

P Ultra Dos Utilities

49.35
79.US

17935

Rntaiiprutf diabase with pragramnyng langsiage 1 74, ns

Prn Spreadsheet wlh business graplvcs, bnw planner 79. ti
Lfaimate Amiga spreadsheet, s texti'graphics^'speBch

As Maxipten Dog above, plus powerlul Macro language 129 vs
2Q*6 H 1024 SprcadShOrM, dalabase. qrfphs ft calendar 79 Si
All Ihe spi eadslwtoi osconaala, rsary to 51 so 3s 35

Gompreiiensiva personal acoounls, ssurplfl 1o usa 39.* i

i nvoicjog, Sate 3 Ledger, Stock Control, by Paonread 139. si
GnrmriiJ Lodpor. Purcbasa Ledgor, by Panmcad 129 '.as

Eflkarsni momory’iesidont assemWor 29 ss

riOtoSStOri.il drrvnlnprnonE synksm with hiker ft kbroiios S93s
Excoods ISO 7 lAS specs. I ndcixnd 330-page marwt si, 69 55
Enhanced CLI by mo aulhors oi AingaDus 29 15

HiOh Speed disk backup, idnal Igr lia'd-dink "UTS 34 a--

Is

■ ■■ IF you WANT IT TOMORROW,., CALLUSTODAVr ON 01-546-7256 1

Prims are POST FREE ft includa VAI .
■Or-dor by phone wHh your credit card,
orsendc hoque/FO or your oredil card
number Ot^ci-al orders welcome. We
despelch same day by FIRST CLASS
po&l. Please allow 5 days tor dtmtery
oi bsrdwara order*. Prices erg quoted
subject 10 availability n*-i *«*

LAKESIDE HOUSE. KINGSTON HILL, 5URREV, KT 2 7flT. TEL 01-546-7259

BYTE-BACK

aV

AlSrt Syndrcme
&etW Dead than Aten
Barbarian .„,

Beyond The lc« PlbC* ...

Cayxii

SKlATip"- “

E liter alii Mines ,„„„„

Flj^itSmulalcf %

' Scowydrit 7<r 1 ]

' Western futeca «o«nvy
' Japan Scanary ditit
Ititetcepwr

flafufai loGansas

5**1 Cltte4'df'Gc«'"_!II!

SUr Vi'drs

TlteeStooga*

AegliAnTckATomb ...

arced Power

Beyond Icrt

Cenuplofl

FanyTaie

Semantic Encnkiters ..

,. -is.so

,.. 2Q.95
... 16.65
,..ie,re
.. 20.9&

Annate oFHan*....._
B*dteTtee 1 t?._,
OxAiniMi Croten

Otefi

AtcrMle Mancr

1ft55

. „te95
_ 2&J5

,,,,13 95
.... 16.95

Photon Palm

52, W

FantaMilori

PtoStwNJ Dwaonef

59, »

Th*(Mtecfet

4500

31

5

13ft OO

DlgMe* 2 [PALI

(Xpfcjtt<PAU -

&Wlpt 30 (PA4
Detute Pdnl2

1*2.30

4 Z£b

».»

39 95

— .SRSO

1I.M

InsiarlMjsic

18.50

[kyjjte Paint 2

izio

Dteuxe Video

fle.oo

Dduit Ui^cCen»ncfon

f UTILriES

ONLY^

ONLY 1 I

KUdWcriJs

3995

SoibdaJ,-

7500

Sdtirtwd Write Fjte

7250

SvqeiBate Pasonal . ..

-_.I095

St 4 »rba 6 e Profauoui ...

179.96

F Basic

5600

MCC M.we AtewntJ*

46.95

MOCPwcte

6600

Late* 0(4.0)

I2g 00

CamMdg* Utp

D**fteC Amtflii —

S6J6

| ACCE550BIES ONLY! ONLY! 1

Locking Drsk &ci jftD)

9.95

upnu. BT'.v iIkM 1VU**|

Lodangi Disk ^

7,96

Mmite Itol

5,96

3,5" Ofth* DSxDD ficIO}

11.95

Arcade kfarowirfi Joyslck .....

16.95

OrJdrstid Turbo

12.65

Jaystick/Mciisa ei tension

^-4.96

Ouduhot I

T.35

Tha dbo vs is |ust a small selection oi our VAST slock oi t6 BIT Software

BYTEBACK

PAY BY CHEQUE,
POSTAL ORDER OR USE
YOUR CREDIT CARD

0636-79097

DEPT. ACO, 6 MUMBY CLOSE
NEWARK, NOTTS NGM 1JE

24 HOUR

SERVICE

December 138e AMIGA COMPUTING SI

jf^

ft Kn

All prices include VAT/delivery

SPFriAL OFFER AMIGA PACK

Our new specloi offer pock Includes the following:

.-vjT J. ■ J

* Am iga SM computer

* TV Modulator

ft Mouse & Mouse mat

* Joystick

* Photon Paint

* Karate Kid II
ft Sky Fighter

* Grid Start
-ft Demolition
-ft Quiz Am

* Black Shadow
-ft Las Vegas

ft plus 5 disks or

public domain smare

STAR PRICE RISE

Dli^ ro EEC levy StEir raided m^ir
pticPB Hif. Ircrfn im Septembei Our
jjucc& Idled mis cnange Please
feme 1 1 I ~r\- -,'V n i o hi:m-ii^ i^ps

St^LcS^AmJes 4 ^LQ^onts (with Only £ 219.00

?S*ff dS?SSW 1 8U2 colour version also available,

and IBM/par allel intaftace buillt in OfllV £269.00

imJudes a oomprehdrisJvB front panel Willy a*
operation and features paper parking prices Include 2 extra

Mart ribbons tree ot charge.

Star SF-10DJ cut sheet feeder for LG-1Q m

Star LC24-10 feature-packed multifont 24pm printer £333.00

Star NB24-10 24 pin printer 21 6/^ cps,

including cut sheet feeder and 2 extra

Star Laserprinter 8 high specification 8ppm /300dpi laser,

(price ina 1 year on site maintenance) “ £169 00

Panasonic KXR1081 reliable &pm 10' printer 1 20/24 cp® £169.00

NEC P2200 budget 24 pin 16B/56cps * plg'S

NEC cut sheet feeder for P2200 printer "«S’ S

Citizen 120D budget Spin 10" 120qP® : - "'""Si Sm

Citizen LSP-100 budget 150/30cps10 carnage ... ■ £169.00

Th© total retail value of extras supplied Is 6270.45.

ah this for only £399.oo? || AMIGOS low price hard disks

Rye 1022 TV/Monitor excellent medium res. picture, with

lull remote centre! as well Lead supplied, next daydelivery ... £1 99,00

Philips CMB333 colour monitor suitable for Amiga 500 «... 259-00

Philips CMS652 monitor as above, but higher resolution^..... £^9 00
Philips TV Tuner AV73O0, use with any composite monitors ....,09.00

Word Perfect - — — E

Superbase Personal — -- ~ ImtS or

Supertase Professional — -■* £70 Ifi

Arnica 500 Dust Cover, protect your computer

'Amigos' good value hard disks now ;
Seagate mechanisms with ah average
30Mb, and 40ms ter 40Mb and 60Mb
are smartly and sturdily cased in beige,
are even strong enough to stand your

21 MEG £399.00

30 MEG £469.00

available, incorporating ever-reliabla
i access time cl 65ms far 21 Mb and
versions. Including coding fans, they
f, colour matched to your Ami<W- They
r monitor on top. Software included.

40 MEG £549.00

60 MEG £649.00

Cumana 5.25" External
Floppy Disk Drives

(model CAS 1000 S)

VVe are now supplying whisper quiet slimline 5.25 floppy
drives for the Amiga user from Cumana. The Transformer
compatible drive features an integral power supply, 40/B0
track switching, 36G/72GK formatted storage capacity and
through port connector. It also has an on/off switch which
effectively unplugs the Aj £A ftc

drive from the Amiga OfllV tl OiJ .95

when il is not required. J

3.5” EXTERNAL DRIVES

using Citizen drive mechanisms

Probably the best and most 1
complete 3.5" disk copier for |
the Amiga user. Can even
copy MS-DOS, Atari ST,
CP/M. Xenix and Archime-
des disks. Because of the
high specification of the
Amiga drive, this copier is
probably the best for the
Archimedes or ST. Also in-
004 rtr eludes track editor. Updates
Un IV LvH.^D will be available in the future

.. as and when new software

mC-VAT/dellvery pfotedion schemes arise.

3.5" Disks

• Suits Amiga 500 Of Atr*g* 1000
•Top quality Citizen drive machenlam

• On / Off i witch on rear of drive

• Throughport connector

• One megabyte unformatted capacity

• Slimline design

• Vary quiet

• Long cable tar location either
side of computer

• Full 12 months guarantee

Ultra low price!

£89.95

inc.VAT and
delivery

, . fpAm l AM. prtoaa Induda VAT and delivery, Nam day (Winery £ 5.00 extra.

How to order from) — e " | p v <«hnm Micros Ltd

Strut cheque, Poitol Order I bVftSnam M ICTOS LIU
„ armmvKA mni tbtniki 63 BRIDGE STREET

Evesham Micros]

Phone us with your
ACCESS or VISA
card details on i
TT 0366-765500

^ or ACCESSfYlSA card details

GorL, teat ft MX wdtn wtk***
Swde da J dapfclfto whenever pcmtiM
All

Open to calkn i dijk 131-5-W

AJx> m; 1741 Ftrtfcart K<L CbdwMy , W

63 BRIDGE STREET
EVESHAM
WOHCS WR11 4SF
<£> 0386^765500

fern Q3&8-7853S4

telex 333294

ukip H 30 3811 T(k R 1 *$* ««

52 AMIGA COMPUTING December 1988

■FEATURE*

S PEECH is the one means of

communication we're all best at.
It s far easier and quicker than the
written word, sign language, Morse
code, smoke signals or any other
means of getting a message across
which has a verbal contenf
But somehow speech and
computers don't appear to have got
on too well together, and you don't
have to dig very deeply to discover
the reasons why.

The first and most obvious is
historical: When people first
discovered that there were better
ways of communicating with the
computer than flicking switches on a
console, they hi-jacked the nearest
available chunk of technology which
could readily be adapted to the
purpose, and that was the Hollerith
punched card or the teleprinter with
five-hole paper tape (and its more
classy descendant, the eight-hole
variety). Then the cathode ray tube
gradually slipped into prominence as
on-line interactive communication
took over from paper tape or punched
cards in, line printer out - usually
after a lengthy delay.

One way or another, keyboard
skills, whether of the two-fingered or
touch-type variety, were very much at
the heart of effective interactive
communication with the computer,
and they remain so today.

There are other more exotic modes
of communication, too, like light pens
and bar code readers, but the human
voice and the responding computer
M voice" have played virtually no role
at all in the explosion of computers
that has taken place in the micro age.

Why is this so? Why has it proved
to be so difficult to devise a means
whereby you can talk to your micro
and it can respond in like manner?

T HE key reason is the need for
absolute precision and
unambiguity in our interaction with
the micro sitting on our desktop.
Computers as a general rule cannot
cope with anything but what are
called in the trade strong algorithms
and deterministic programs. This isn’t
the place to get entangled up in the
artificial intelligence debate - I'm
talking about Systems and packages
up and running today on today’s
generation of micros,

There's the very familiar story

►

Rex Last has discovered the speech
synthesiser on his Amiga
and ponders on its potential

December I9S8 AMIGA COMPUTING S3

illustrating this fact of life which has
done the rounds in computing circles
for many years. How, it goes, do you
keep a programmer in the shower for
ever? Answer: Give him a bottle of
shampoo. And why? He — or she -
will dutifully read the instructions on
the label which go something like
this:

Wet hair, Apply blob of shampoo,
Rinse. Repeat.

We all know what it means. But the
computer wouldn't - nor would
anyone who thought like a machine.
Both would find themselves stuck in
an infinite loop, unless and until
someone intervened and built in an
upper limit or two on that particular
iterative process.

Human written communication is a
rich breeding ground for ambiguities
which our brains are very good at
resolving by means of processes
which wc are still light years away
from understanding. And the
ambiguitiy potential of the spoken
word is even greater.

Why is that? Well, as you read this
page, you at least have the benefit of
having gaps between the words to tell
you how each bit of meaning is
carved up. Ifitwasal] written together-
i t wou 1 dheextre mely difflc uit f A nd
that’s just one of the problems in
getting a machine to unsnarl human
speech.

We don't obligingly speak with neat
gaps hetween each word - it all tends
to flood out in a more or less
continuous stream. A sentence like
"‘Micros cope with magnifying
problems" might well be
misinterpreted by the electronic ear as
"Microscope ... ”, especially if its
program is tempted by the word
"magnifying” to disambiguate the
sentence in the wrongest possible
way.

A NOTHER problem surrounding
speech recognition is the
unobliging fact that a great deal of the
content of the voice is concerned not
with the "meaning” of the spoken
words, but with other factors such as
the speaker’s class, regional origin,
age and sex, and whether or not he or
she is angry, pleased, exasperated or
whatever.

All these factors form a substantial
proportion of the content of the
sounds that either delight or bruise

54 AMIGA COMPUTING December 19HB

Say can bf>
used from Basic
or Workbench

our auditory senses. So let’s give up -
for the foreseeable future at least - the
idea of shouting commands at the
computer, even given that we could
formulate our words in an
unambiguous fashion and not erase
all our key files by having our
instructions misinterpreted. Let us
concentrate instead on the less
demanding, but by no means trivial,
side of the coin: Getting the computer
to talk to us.

Early micros had tinny little
loudspeakers, to reproduce the
warning "hell" sound inherited from
the teleprinter, and many of the
mainstream machines have not fared
much better. Think, for example, of
trying to reproduce the full grandeur
of a symphony orchestra through the
feeble electronic larynx of an IBM PC.
The BBC B micro fared a lot better,
but the complexities of the commands
surrounding sound generation —
remember envelope and its clutch of
14 parameters, no less? - loft most of
us gasping and leaving well alone.

The Amiga, however, comes with
its own built-in speech synthesiser
and a pretty comprehensive command
structure which is more than user-
friendly enough for us to have a go at
understanding the way in which it
works and in putting together a few
routines to make the generation of a
passable speaking voice even less of a
hassle.

Before we consider the snags and
pitfalls, let's first get a primitive
experiment up and running on the
Amiga. I found the "Say” icon of the
speech synthesiser lurking on the
Extras disc, along with AmigaBasic,
the calculator and various tools and
utilities.

To do the job properly, we’re going

next time to dig into Basic, but for the
moment just double click on the
“Say" icon. It’s the one with the
speech bubble containing "#*?!”,
making it look more like a "Swear”
icon than anything else. Depending
on what system you have, you may
well have to engage in a spot of disc
swapping.

Two windows pop up: The
Phoneme window, and the Input
window. One thing not to do at this
stage with the Input window
highlighted is to pTess Return, since
that ends you up where you started
from, and you’re out of Say before
you’ve had a chance to say anything,
In the Input window, type "Hi
there" and press Return, You will
hear a voice speaking the words - it
sounds a little as if it’s trying to chew
one of those doggie rubber bones at
the same lime, but it’s quite
comprehensible,

I NCIDENTALLY, hands up all of
you who also typed in the double
quotes. If you didn't, try that too:
You'll discover that the system
responds with: "Quote — Hi there -
unquote", So one thing is clear: It’s a
pretty powerful and comprehensive
tool that has been bundled with your
Amiga.

Raise your eyes slightly to the
Phoneme window, and you will see
something odd happening. Your
words are being echoed — ever so
slightly queerlv, it appears - in the
windo w. It looks like:

/HAY4 DHEH1R

As we shall see, this jumble of
upper-case letters and digits does

PlOJCf 1

Edit parameters

Edit ploy qrem
Edit storting position

menu driven

professional results

easy to use editors

Already a massive success on the Commodore 64, Shoot ’em up Construction Kit has been
hailed by ZZap!64 as "one of the greatest packages ever released on the 64". Now a team
of top programmers, between them responsible for a string of hits including Wizball and
Barbarian, have brought their skills, and experience together to produce the ultimate user-

friendly 1 6 Bit game designer.

AMIGA - £24.99 ATARI ST - £24.99

COMMODORE 64 Cassette - £14.99 COMMODORE 64 Disk - £19.99

*!>

CT* M P?

Outlaw Productions, The Old Forge, 7 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX

PI c ti se check lor a variability of itihividual fprmdis

■FEATURE*

make sense, but in order to sort out
the tangled threads of that output we
first need to determine what a
phoneme is, and why it has been
built into this speech synthesiser,

A phoneme, to cut through most of
the linguistic; red tape, is a basic
building brick of sound that goes to
make up a word and hence a
meaningful sense unit, or lexeme. If
you think computing is overburdened
with jargon, just try dipping your toes
one day into the muddy waters of
linguistics, and you'll see that we
computer folk are not alone in that
respect

Unfortunately, there's a really large
obstacle to overcome when
representing the sounds of language
as text on a piece of paper. It’s a two-
part obstacle, if you like. The first is
that you don't get the same sound
from the same combination of letters
each time. If you don't believe me, try
(a) saying the following list to
yourself, and (bj running them
through the synthesiser to see what
kind of a score It achieves: Though,
tough, bough, thought, sough, slough
The Amiga scores four out of six on
my reckoning,

O BSTACLE number two is that
not every letter In a word gets
pronounced - French is much more
of an offender in this respect than
English- II seems that the rule in
French is that you pronounce every
third or fourth letter when you feel
like it. If you type "faux pas" into
Say, it comes out sounding almost as
embarrassing as one of Edward
Heath's efforts at the French tongue.
The clue to the solution of the
problem comes when you type
instead: M fo par", and out comes a
reasonable rendition of the French for
a goof or false step.

In the last century, members of the
International Phonetic Association put
their heads together and invented the
IPA - no, not India Pale Ale, that
privilege w r as reserved for another
striver after truth, The International
Phonetic Alphabet boiled language
dow n to a set of sounds represented
by a standardised set of symbols.

But - you guessed it - many of
those symbols aren't on the computer
keyboard, or any standard keyboard
for that matter, So an American

agency called ARP A (Advanced
Research Projects Agency) came up
with the Arpabet, an equivalent of the
IPA using individual letters or groups
of letters.

So "Hi there" is represented bv the
following. Eve pul in plus signs
simply to indicate where one symbol
ends and another begins:

1 ZH + AY UH+EH + R~|

So at the simplest level, Say takes
English as she is wrote and does its
best to convert the sounds into their
Arpabet representations, and duly
echoes them in the Phoneme window.

But it doesn't end there, as you II
have noticed. There am numbers as
well as letters. What are they doing?

L ET me answ r er that question with
one of my favourite Jewish
stories. The Russians call in the Israeli
ambassador and berate him for some
military escapade organised by
Jerusalem. The ambassador states he
will consult with his government, and
in due course returns with a telegram
which reads as follows:

You were right. We were wrong. We
surrender.

The Russian smiles are soon wiped
off their faces, though, when the
ambassador reveals the true meaning
of the message:

You were right? ITe were w r rong?
We surrender?]

Intonation makes all the difference.
Change the weight of emphasis and
the pitch, and the meaning itself can
alter - sometimes beyond recognition.
And by the same token, if you take all

the in to national patterns out of speech
you end up with the kind of f>alek
voice that people tend to associate
with computer-generated speech.

That yery lack of variation in
emphasis is what gives the Dalek's
cry of “Ex-ter-min-ate” its sinister
ring, and sends countless thousands
of children scurrying behind the sofa
for protection (in most cases, to join
their fathers who are already there, if
the truth was known).

That's what the numbers in the
Phonemes window' are ail about,
putting stress patterns into the speech.
In every' sentence there are words we
stress ami words w r e don't. And as for
pitch, we change that in questions,
where we tend to go up the scale at
the end of a question: Is the train late?
But in a sentence - The train is late -
the voice drops towards the end.

So we are wandering into pretty
dangerous enemy territory when we
try to reproduce human speech on
our Amigas. But wouldn't it be
invaluable to have a situation in
which words typed into the computer
are echoed by its voice in as
reasonable a fashion as possible?

There are clearly applications
galore here, from spoken help
information for the user to text
readers for the visually handicapped,

It would he a great idea, too. if the
program we knocked together could
be taught how to pronounce plain
English and improve its performance
as it goes along,

I w r onder if that can be done? See
you next time with the result. Now
where did 1 pul the Extras disc with
Basic on it?

The Amiga can
translate from
text to

phonemes

56 AMIGA COMPUTING December I98S

AMIGA

SPECIAL

OFFERS!

500

10 Commodore Disks £15
10 Unbranded Disks
Inc Library case & labels £10

PACK 1 £349 inc VAT!

Commodore Amiga 500
Commodore A520 TV Modulator

PACK 2 £389 inc VAT!

Commodore Amiga 500
Commodore A520 TV Modulator
Quickshot Joystick \

Karate Kid Jl
Goldrunner
Skyfighter
Demolition

Grid Start *

22 Public Domain Games (4 Disks)

To order please send your cheque for the pack
amount plus £6 carriage (3 day delivery)
or £1 2 (overnight delivery)
to:-

FRONTIER TECHNOLOGY
1, LLANDOW IND. EST, COWBRIDGE,
S. GLAMORGAN, CF7 7PB

Telephone Hotline 04463 4980
Out of Hours 04463 2935

Worth

Over

£75

Telephone

for

software

prices

1084 S Stereo Colour Monitor £269

A501 51 2K Ram Expansion/Clock £129

External Chainable 880K Disk Drive ..„. + £85

(with on/off switch)

Citizen 120D Parallel Dot Matrix Primer £149

Star LG1G Colour Printer £225

Xerox 4020 Colour Printer including
Cut Sheet Feeder £1099

PRICES

INCLUDE

VATf

FREE PRIZE
VOUCHER WITH
EVERY GAME
ORDERED

C

AMIGA GAMES

RRP OURS

King 0 ! Chicago...

29.m

1999

Defender of the Crown

29:99

1999

Sm bad

29 99

1999

S.D 1

29.99

1999

24 95

16 95

TerrprpOdS ..

24 95

16 95

Obiiierator .

.... 24 95

16 95

F/A-te Interceptor

.......24,95

19.95

..... 45 95

29 95

Balance of Power ..

24.95

16.95

Barbarian (Palace)

.19 99

13.95

Three Stooges

29.99

10.95

Nebuius

1996

13.95

Grand Slam Tennis

24 95

16.96

Platoon

24.95

16 96

ECO —

,24.95

16.96

Quadraiien

... . .24.95

15 96

Elite

£4.95

15 96

Rolling Thunder

24 99

16.99

Empire Strikes Sack ....

24 95

16 35

Shadowgate

24 95

1695

Star Wars

16.95

Xenon

19-95

13 95

Birdie ,,,,

24.96

16.95

Summer Olympiad

24.96

16 95

Football Manager ||

19.99

1399

Flight Simulator II

29 95

Turbo

19.93

12.96

Art ol Chess

...... 24.95

16-96

Eboostar .

,..,..24.99

15.99

Craps Academy

24 99

15.99

Pane tore

12.95

Strip Poker II

10,95

Tetris

19.95

13.95

HocM Ranger

24 99

T6.99

WizbaJl -

24.95

16.99

Street Fighter

.... .24.95

15.95

CUT PRICE SOFTWARE LTD.

Blank 3.5" Disks with labels only £10.95 per box qf 10)

FREE PRIZE
VOUCHER WITH
EVERY GAME
ORDERED

AMI G A G A ME S FtRP OURS

Port of Call 3995 2995

Moebious ...24 06 1695

Star Glider II 24.95 1695

F<re A Forge) 24.95 16.95

Garrison II .24.95 16-96

Quadrslwn 1 9. 39 1 3.95

Mortvilha Manor 24.35 1 6.95

Starray „ ...24.95 15.95

Btoh tc Commandos 24.99 1 6.99

Better Dead tfian Alien ..... , 1 9.95 i 3,95
Peter Beardsley Soccer .. . . 1 995 1 2.95

Stock Market Game „ 1 9 95 1 3 95

Dark Castle 24.95 16 .95

Geo Boo Air Rally 24.96 1 6 95

Virus — 24 93 15.99

Army Moves ..„, w , 1+++ 24.95 1 6.35

Netherworld 19.95 13.95

Sky Blaster 1 9 95 1 3. 95

Flints (ones 19.95 13.95

Arisanoid II. 19 99 13 95

Soccer Supremo 1 4 95 1 0 95

Crystal Hammer .....19.95 13 95

Whirligig 1 9.95 1 3 95

Battlesh ips 1 9.99 1 3.95

Hollywood Poker 1 3.95 1 3.95

Vam pines Empires 1 9.95 1 3.95

Bad Cal 24 95 19 95

Time Siood Still 1 9. 95 12.95

Silent Service .,...,24.95 16.95

Bubble BobdlO 24.95 1 6.95

T.RJAD - ..29 95 19.95

Elite (Sept) ....... 24 99 16 99

Borabjack 24.99 1699

GFLFootoali 24.99 16.99

Ptwttate (II 24.99 1 6.99

Thunder Boy 1 4.95 1 0.95

AGHHHHH ....29.95 19 99

AMIGA BUSINESS PRODUCTS

RHP OURS

Superbase Personal 93.95 64.35

Superbase Professional ..249.95 169.95

WordPerfect 226 85 149.95

Logistic .,,.114 95 75,95

VIP Professional , ,...223.65 149.95

Assembler,, 69,35 49.95

Amiga File „„ 6995 49,95

Lattice C 189-95 139 95

Pusca ,09.95 59.95

Promise . 3995 29,95

Toolkit 39,95 29.95

Comic Setter , 69.95 49.95

Macro Assembler 69 .96 49. 95

PrOwnte 75.00 49.95

Photon Paint ,....69.95 49.95

Animator/Images 103.50 09.95

Animator „ ......57.50 39.95

Animator 3D 1 29.95 99.95

Impact 63,25 54 95

Video Titte .....110,40 99 95

□■Qipaim ..59,95 39.95

Sculp! 3D 69.00 79.00

Draw Plus 196.95 149 95

Express Paint .,,,.69 95 49.95

Audio Master ...46.00 39.00

Sonix .....57.50 44.95

K-Spnead II 79 95 4995

K-Data „ 49 95 34.95

K-Seka. 49.95 34.95

K-Ftoge) 49.95 34 96

K Gadget , 29,95 19.95

K-Tejrt 19 95 14.95

K-Commll ......43 36 34.95

The Works!,. .149.36 119 95

Drum Studio 39.95 29 35

Prowrite 75.00 49.95

AMIGA AOVE NTU RES RRP OURS

Jinxier „.24.95 16.95

Guild of Thieves ....... , ..24.96 16.95

Mtaffightar 24.99 15.99

Deja-Vu., ,..,,,...29.95 19 95

Curuplion .,,,24,95 15.99

Uninvited .29.95 19.99

Lancelot 19,95 16.95

Hi tch Hi kef S Guide 29,99 1 9. 95

Leather Goddess „ 29.99 1 9. 99

Plundered Hearts £4.99 16.99

Chronoquesi 29.99 19.99

Phamasie HI 24.99 16.99

Tima A Mag«k „ 1 9.96 1 6 .95

Legend of the Sword., ,,.,,,.29.95 19 95

Haw to Order

All Prices include VAT
Game products postage iree
U.K. mainland only.
Overseas orders add £ 1 00 per disk.
Air Mail £2-00 per disk.

Cheq ue& /Postal Orders
(Sterling only please).

Made payable to:

Cut Price Software Ltd,.

17. Staple Tye, Harlow,
Euex CM18 7LX

Securlcor Delivery £6,95

Recorded Delivery £2.50

Visa or Access orders

(24 hour Ansaphone} m
f( 0279} 24433/31956 1

Collect vouchers for . . . Free Discs . . . Free Games . . . Free Day Trip to France . . . Free Weekend Breaks .

December T98fi AMIGA COMPUTING

1

l

l

I

s

i

i

I

i

!

i

i

i

i

i

!

^ BIRTHDAY A
CELEBRATIONS
on SttHid 105
Commortore Show
Novotel, Hammersmith
r 1Bth 20th November
^ JOIN US

AMIGA SPECIALISTS

Unit 1, Willowsea Farm, Spout Lane North,
Stanwell Moor, Staines, Middx TW19 6BW
Telephone: (0753) 682988

CM

Itb S,aP Wc«

Tpou&le Ml««n II -, Cl B.W MMO

SPECIAL OFFERS WILE CURRENT STOCKS LAST
ter Slfike £2*99 £16.50

£ia.»

laatbaJI C9 96 K.SJ

or towed Time — S? jJ-S

rwttafm £31-00 £5, SO

lougan* Run E14.99 £0 00

WleeNwt £10,00 £12.50

:3Wjr £9 99 £6-50

e».oo

*W rasa

MMI — — P*W £15.60

rgethyte U..CU.M £9.00

54LACt k Invwlon — C24-B0 El 6 50

knkJiunner £24-99 £15^0

ump Jet — £14.99 £9 00

iartda Kid II...-..- - — ££*.» C15.50

JSh3 £12 80

4 ndabaftow - EW-M Cl 2 00

A town Elevator — — £19-99 f «.gj

’SkPanllW £19M C^W

£9.00
£9.00
£12.50
£12.50
£5.50
£12.50
£12. BO

£12, a

£12,50
£12.50
£12.50
£12.00
£12-50
£12:50
re.oo
£9.00

Our
Price

£13,60
£26.60
£13.50
£19.50
£22-50
£19.50
£13.50
£13.60
£4.50
£16 50
£13.50
£14.50
£17.60
£13.50
£16.50
£19.50
£16.50
£10.26
£16-50
£16.50
£5.50
£19.50
£1 3.50
£16,50
£10.25
£19.50
£7.00
£16.60
£17.50
£7,00
£2560
£13,60
£7.00
£10-50
£16,50
£17.50
£13.60
£7.00
£13 50
£19.60
£16.60
£19-50
£10.25
£13.50
£13.50
£13.50
£13.50
£1350
£13.50
£13.50
£10.26
£16.50
£7.00
£19 50
£13.50
£17.50
£19,50
£7.00
£1650
£13-50
£17.50
£16,50
£13-50
£13.50
£10.25
£19 50
£16.60
£10.25
£7.00
£19.50
E 13-60
£13.50
£13.60
£19.50
£16.60
£13.50
E1S.60
£19.60
£16.50
£13.5D
£13.60
£16.50
£16.60
£16.50
£19.60
£1650
£13 60
£10 25
£7,00
£13,50
£19 50
£16.60
£19.50
£10.25
£17.50
£13,60
£13.50

„™ _ CIS- SO

YOiJ CAFfT SEE IT ON TlHE LSI THEN PLEAS E ASK
WE CAN'T LIST EVERYTHING AVAILABLE

NEW RELEASES HOW IN STOCK

« SM — £19 99 £13.50

£1 3.50
£13.50
El 3.50
£16.50
£1650
£19.50
£17. HJ
£13-50
£19.60
£13.50
EI-9,50
£13.50

HARDWARE LIST
M from the 1*1 October iwa
nil* S.i

A 5Q0 CoiTDUler [Built ki 3.5 - Disk Drivel
(Amiga Dos. Kick. Start, Work Bench 1.2,

'Thewsry Finer — - I

A500 (as above) wlltl Ihe 10*4

colour mcoHef ......

A SCO Business Pack

A 500, 1 094 Colour Monhof and AFB60
AFB80 (CHWOff Switch Thru Port)

Dwk drive -

M PS 1 200C Disk Drive

1084 Colour Mentor

1054 Colour Man Nor & TV Tuner
T,V. Tun*

Cumana Amiga Drfre CAX364

Cumana Amiga Drive inc PSU CAS354 . £150.99

Arriga Genlock (A5QC) ™™~h £299,99

flF3Q2S Slimline Amiga 2nd Drive £105.99

A 501 Mg Ram Upgrade m _.£ 175.98

A2000 <91 ,..,£146925

I rid ion

Kind of Chicago . —

Lance k* -

LeaHtwnecfc

Leather neck 4 Play * Adapter
Legend of SvKMtl

£699.90 £620.00
£603.05 £760.00
£705.99 £665,00

Major Motion

Mortvile Manor

Motorbike Madness

OWHerater

Off Shore Warrior...,

P.O.W

Pandora

Passenger* on I ha Wind

Phalanx 1 1

Phanlasie HI

Pinball Wizard

Platoon

Plundered Heads

Pod

Porta ol Call

Pewerplny

,,£704.75 £701.00
£196615 £1755.00
..£747.50 £650.00
£2070,00 £l 679.00
.. £632.50 £565.00

AKE4HI fie* Mono Monitor

A262Q0 Unix Card — ««,

14- Oat run HI Res Colour Monitor
20" Cm fen HI fte* Colwuf Monitor

Cherry Pad A3 DigiliS^g Tablet

Vid*) Drlu* Cere! [M urt be Mid

Mth Cotran)

A 2000 SPECIAL Cf FEH (VWill*
A2OO0B ConrtutBr with 1O04 Cofour M>
and A20KV2O92 Amiga Hard Disk . .

peripherals

Disk Sox < Wolds 50 Dfeiaj

Disk Box (Holds 100 Disks)

CIA M0u*e Md

Pro SOOO Joynilck

Ram Delta Juystkfc

■Speed Kbgs JoyEilek

.Afcop Urriwrael PrintwrtdonNor Stand,

Citizen 1MD Primer Ribbon

10 Blank Disks with Box —

Disk Drive Htead Cleaner

Seconds Out.,.,
Sdlpon Dreams

Slaygon

Spice Port
Stamayi
Strange Nw W
Tass Time*... ..

Terrame*

Telrle

Chjadrallen

£■19.99

Ro4lng Thunder
Romante EoctMTtert

£10.50

£13.50

£5.00

£14,60

9S0

£12.50

£9.50

£3.50

£13.50

£0-50

W«lem Games ..... — E 1 9- W £ 1 2^50

PLEASE CHECK AVAILABILITY ON SPECIAL OFFER
PROOUCTS

BUSINESS SOFTWARE UST

A.CJBaaic ■■*!».» ^.50

£32-50
£76.50
£7.5D
£7,50
£32L0D
£29.60
£132.50
£69.50
£21,50
EB0.5O
£72.50
£29,60
£50 50
£24 99 £16-50

: 149.99 £1 55.00
C57.99 £42,50

£98 99 £50 50

. £69.89 £50.60

£69.99 £60 50

£24.99 E.1B.50

C139.90 £115.00
. £69 99 £8090

, £59.96 £45 50

.£57.99 £4? .SC

.£39.99 Baa
, £69.90 C42 50

Lis9.9e £106.00
. £22.50 £19.50

£69.99 £50 50

, £69.99 £50.50

. £59.89 £45.50

.£39.99 £29.50

£220.39 £165.00
, £09, » E50.50

. C29.M £21-50

.039.99 £29.60

S&rgon II

Scenery Cfec7 —

Scen*Y D*sc 1 1
Scenery Disc E urope
Scenery Dii Japan

£19-99

£103.50

Anlmaiof images
Als Part 1
An* Pan 2
AuMomesler „,^..

SOFTWARE

£13-50
£20.50
£15.50
E1650
£13,50
£16.00
£14.50
£16.50
£13,50
£17.50
Cl 6.00
£19,50
£15-50
£17.50
£17,60
E13.50
£16,60
£13.50
E16-60
E 19.50
£13,60
£16,50
£15.60
£13 50
£13.50
£16.50
£19.50
E16.50
£27.75
£17.50
£13.50
£10,25
C 16.50
£13-50
£16.50
£16.50
£14.50
£19.50
£19.60
£13.50
£16.50
£16.50
£1026
£13,50
£17.50
£13.50
£13 50
£32.60
£17,50
El 6.50
£7.00
£1650
£26 50
£13,50
£10.25
£10.25
£17.50
___ £19.90

£19.99 El 3. 50

£29.99 £19.50

£14.95 £10.25

£2499 £16.50

£24.99 E1650

,£24 95 £17.50

Award Maker

Alan Syndrome .
Annals ol Rome
Arcade Classic* .

Aztec C PrciaaSiOftal

B B S PjC Commmi Pack

auiolw It

C. Lbrary

Arkanold

Armageddon Man

Army Miwee —

Around the World 1 n BO Days
Anlc Fox

Comic Sett*

Comic Sett* Library* (Eacftl
Critics Chaleo

Balance of Power

Barbarian

Deluxe Music Con S*

Deluxe Pain! II

Deluxe Phrtolfb
Deluxe Prim
DeluxB PfodLU-liOi".?.
□eijxB Video

Batde«h(pe

Sir* PDtef I

Slr^j Poker II Dala Disc I

Sub Batila Slmulanor..

Summer Ofropiad ..„ Irt ,.,

Bermuda Pn^Kl

Beti* D *Kl Than Alan
Behind the Ice Palaoe ,

Bionic Commandoa

Black Larrp

Blackjack Acader

Bonb Jacit

Tenapodi

Telrecueii

Bubble Ghwt

[>glv«w Stand

ChracfoT

Doe 2 Dm .......

tCarrlar Command .,
Chenpionihip <3olf
ChftSGmaEier 2000

Time and Magic
t™ Bandit*..-.

F«oc II
Fanta vision

Chubby Grlttle

Fomieln Fll

S33SSRP

Phone I Of

LJnnvrted

VactorbaJl

Crash Garrefl

Daley Thonpeona Olyrrpk; Cballefige
Defender (4 Ihe Crown .

Data Vu

-FJF. Ltofary

Division One

Interchange

£19.99

ire Strikes Sack

Nwharworid

Robeary — —

Alternate Reality

Garfield ..._ -

wizard Wan .

Chrono Quest

Battle Che**

Trivial PudtUlt [New BeginnngS

Fire Paw*

Flight Srnglnot II

Football Manager it

Formula One Grand Prlx
Fafirw* Und*a«vnd —
FUikXI

Garrison II

Gettysburg
dganoid ...

£24.99

Black Shadow .. -k

£19.99

£9 W

E24.99

£9.69

£14,99

Oriw5

£18.99

£19.99

C9.9S

c— ........ ..... £14.96

r*od

£9.99

£24.89

. . — £24.99

£14.99

C9.9Q

Levlalhan

Cl 9-99

M.icri 3

E1S.99

£29-69

Mission elevator

, ..... £19.99

.. £24.96

£24.96

,..,,.,..£19.96

Pluto*

£14.99

C14.69

OB All

£19.99

£16.89

Rockay . £9-M

filter II £24.95

Space OueSl

Space Si el ion

£26.99

£6.99

£24.98

Slflr Wars

, £19,99

Slarflefll 1

sun*

Sl*r Crazy (Bobo) -
S.iock Mark* .

- £24,95

,....£24.69

£19.99

£19,99

Sireelgang

El 4.96

StreetTighter

Strike Force Harrier

£24.99

58 COMPUTING Detvmber 1988

■PROGRAMMING*

The Amiga’s Interchange File Format (IFF) is responsible for
the way that different Amiga programs can read each others’
data. Dave Parkinson presents a view of where IFF came
from, where it is — and where it might be going

M OST Amiga users have heard
of IFF. If pressed, they would
probably say that it was invented by
Commodore For the Amiga, and that it
is a standard way of storing graphics
images. But in fact, IFF wasn ’t
invented hy Commodore, wasn't
invented For the Amiga, and hasn't
got anything especially to do with
graphics!

IFF is intended as a completely
general-purpose way of transferring
any data between any programs on
any computer, or between any two
computers. It was originally invented
by Electronic Arts (of DeLuxe Paint
fame], and it started life on Ihe Apple
Macintosh,

It is important not to be deceived
by the Mac's nasty imitations into
failing to realise what a beautiful
machine it was and remains, and how
important it has been in the
development of personal computing.
The origins of IFF are to be found in
the Mac s clipboard, and Ihe File
conventions which allow r data to be
cut and pasted between different Mac
applications. The success of this led
Electronic Arts to wonder — why not
generalise this? Why not create a
completely general purpose format tor
interchange of any data between any
programs, even running on different
computers?

Unfortunately, this was too late for
the Mac. By the time the first drafts of
the IFF specification had heen draw n
up, the first important Mac packages
were already out, all using their own
incompatible formats, and w ith no
ability to exchange data except via ihe
clipboard. And of course, once a

manufacturer has released a product
using a particular File format, it has to
stick to that format in future to
maintain product compatibility, even
if something better comes along — like
IFF.

However, the timing was just right
for the Amiga. Electronic Arts worked
closely with the original Amiga team,
trying to get some decent application
programs sorted out in time for the
Amiga's release. Here was a brand-
new r computer with no standard Tile
format, here was a nice standard File
format w f ith nowhere to go. The two

fitted together very neatly.

Commodore- Amiga adopted ihe
idea with enthusiasm, and worked
closely with Electronic Arts, refining
the standard lo better tit the Amiga,
The Amiga was then released with
IFF in place, and developers given no
excuse not to use it. Oil the whole,
this has worked out very w r ell -
nearly all Amiga packages now
support at least a limited form of IFF.
and are therefore able to exchange
data,

A key objective of the IFF design

Chunk name = 1, 1ST
Chunk length

4-hyle LIST name |

PROP chunk(s)

FORM chiiEik(s)

PROP i;hunk(s)

FORM r.hunk(s)

(padding hyie o)
IFF [.1ST

Figure /, Chunks - the haste building blocks in IFF da l a fifes

Ihrcember I ms AMIGA COMPUTING 59

■PROGRAMMING!

1 ,

team was to make it "future proof' -
it had to he capable of changing and
evolving to meet new requirements as
computers became more
I sophisticated, and as people thought
up clever new things to do with them.
To achieve this, the standard had to
be extendable so that people could
add new elements to it as necessary.
And it had to be recursive, meaning
that it would be passible to build
complex structures out of simple
elements, then more complex
structures still out of these complex
structures, and so on.

The use of recursive structures is a
fundamental technique in computer
science, and perhaps in nature, for
building up systems of potentially
infinite complexity - see Douglas
Hofstadter’s hook Gndel, Escher, Bach
if you want to know more about this.

The basic building-blocks in IFF
datafiles are called chunks. The
structure of a chunk is very simple -
it consists of a four- byte name
identifying the chunk, then four bytes
of data length, then the chunk data.
Following the chunk data there may
be a padding byte of zero to keep
things aligned on an even-byte
boundary, which makes things easier
I for a BtJOOO processor. And that's
it .This is shown in Figure 1.

A T the lowest level, the simplest
chunks arc data chunks
containing actual data, and property
chunks giving information about that
data. For example, a screen-image is
stored in something called an RLBM
form: This contains a BODY chunk
containing the actual screen data, and
a BMHD ffor BitMap HeaDer] chunk,
which is a property chunk containing
information like the width and height
of the image and the number of
colours. Other property chunks that
may appear include a CMAP chunk
giving colour settings.

At the next level up are FORM
chunks, used to represent complete
objects, such as a screen image or a
digitised sound. The data in a FORM
chunk consists of a four-byte FORM
name, followed by a number of other
chunks describing the object,
Examples of FORMS are the ILBM
FORM used to describe screen
images, the 8SVX FORM used to
describe 8 bit digitised sound, and the

SMUS FORM used to describe a
simple musical score. Diagrams
showing various typical FQRMs are
given in Figure 11.

At the highest level of all are CAT
and LIST chunks, which represent
collections of several objects, and
PROP chunks, which represent
properties shared between objects.

The data in a CAT is simply a series
of FORMs conCATenated (joined
together). The individual FORMs in a
CAT are quite independent of each
other - a possible example would be
a number of ILBM FORMs, joined
together to give a simple slide-show,

A LIST, on the other hand, is used
to contain a series of objects which
share common properties, these
properties being contained in PROP
chunks. A possible example would be
an animation LIST, containing PROP
chunks giving information about
things like resolution and screen
colours and a series of II,BM FORMs
containing picture elements all
sharing these common properties,

A complete IFF fde consists of a
single FORM, LIST or CAT. For
example, the output of a graphics
package probably consists of a single
ILBM FORM. The output of a sound
digitiser probably consists of a single

8SVX FORM - though it is of course
possible for packages to be more
complicated than this.

This arrangement is extendable in
that you can keep on inventing new
FORMs and new chunk-types almost
indefinitely. It is recursive in that
LISTs and CATs can contain other
LISTs and CATs, while FORMs can
themselves contain other FORMs, or
even LISTs and CAT!

Thus a LIST representing an
animation might contain "sub-
animations 11 - representing a single
moving character - contained in other
LISTs, To handle this sort of thing,
you need routines which figure out -
parse in the jargon — an IFF file by
keeping on calling themselves until
they get to the elementary data and
property chunks at the bottom: This is
called a recursive descent parser.

A S already indicated, the current
position with the IFF standard
is pretty good — but it could be even
better. A lot of discussion took place
at the recent Washington conference
about improving IFF, in at least the
following areas.

First, although plenty has been

FORM

length

ILBM

BMHD

length

1 Width, Height, X. Y,
Planes, Mask, Comp,
Pad. Transp. Xasp
| Yasp, Pwidth, Pheight :

(□)

CMAF

length

RGB for colour U
RGB for colour 1
etc.,.

(0)

BODY

length

Data for lime U
Data fur line 1 1

etr...

(cum pressed)

[Oj

(padding byte 01

ILBM FORM

FORM

length

BSVX

VHDR

length

4 samples 1-shot,

# samples repeal,
rate, #odaves,
compression, volume

[0)

NAMF.

length

. | “BRAINIAC BANJO"

(0)

BODY

length

hboctave 1-shot
hi- octave repeat
mid-octave 1-shot
•; elr:...

(0)

(padding byte 0)

B5WX

c

FORM
length
ANIM

IQRM

Irnglh

ILBM I

BMHL1 thunk |

| CMAP rhunk ~~|

r HOflY I -li I Jtik |

FORM

length

II .BM

ANHD rhunk

[ DLIA chunk ~\

J2L

FORM

length

ILBM

L

mi

| AN HD chunk"

DLTA chunk

(padding byte 0)

ANIM FORM

Figure II: Some examples of FORM chunks

60 AMIGA COMPUTING December l<Mti

professional music systems

iMUSIC SYSTEM

- SPECIAL! -4 channel stereo sampler with midi controller r midi interface and' 5 octave keyboard - £149.95 *

four-channel sound sampler; high-quality 8-bit stereo hardware; sample 1 to 28 kHz mono & 1 to 17 kHz stereo; playback to 35 kHz;
advanced editing functions: block copy, move, cut. overlay, echo f edit waveform “Super Edit mode", fade .adjust value, c o mp res s/ex pa nd ;
save / load standard IFF samples; save as multi-octave IFF instrument; edit up to 8 samples; playback up to 4 samples; independant
looping; volume control ; etc. Original Pro Sound Designer (vl) still available - only £59.95 *Upgrade your old vl * please phone!*

PRO MIDI PLUS - MIDI SAMPLE PLAYEU £24,95

four channel polyphonic: play sampled sounds as real midi instrument voices; toad up to 10 sampled instrument sounds at once ; select
any sound to act as instrument voice; up to 4 keyboard splits; looping, hold 8 sustain controls; fade controls; save 8 bad sample sets
automatically; works with most midi instruments via standard midi interface; works with MM5000 Keyboard

MM5000 ? OCTAVE PROFESSIONAL KEYBOARD £99,95

very high quality 5 octave polyphonic keyboard with a real professional feel; connects via parallel port; software patches keyboard in to
act as midi keyboard - without the need fora midi interface, works with most midi software, including Pro Midi Plus; includes ail software,
instructions and interface. In terface and software a Iso available to make C64 Music Expansion System keyboard work with Amiga*

MIDI INTERFACE

€24. 99

Standard midi interface for ail Amiga 500 and 2000 computers {connection to Amiga 1000 computers requires separate gender changer
- not supplied). Plugs directly into serial port and conforms exactly to Commodore's Midi standard.

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL OFFER:

/Normally £? 79 S5 ' ■ save £30 f }

' Amiga Music System including Midi Interface,

Pro Sound Designer Gold, Pro Midi Plus and Keyboard:

Name:

Address:

Post Code:

Please make cheques POs payable to Power Computing
Access / Visa: I i i i I i i > I i a i I

J i i

Expiry Date:

Please rush me Amiga Music System as shown below:

□ M u sic System : £149 .95 □ Midi I nt&rtace : £24 . 95

□ Pro Sound (v2) Gold: £79.95 □ MM5000 Keyboard: £99.95

□ Pro Sound (vl ): £59.95 □ Programmer's Toolkit: £34.95

□ Pro Midi Plus: £34.95 □ C 64 Keyboard l/F: £49.95

POWER COMPUTING

* 44 a&b Stanley Street * Bedford * MK41 7RW * Tel: 0234 273000 *

4

done with IFF FORMs, very little has
been done with CATs and LISTs. This
is probably the fault of the original
IFF documents, which were expressed
in rather technical language. They
went on about recursive descent
parsers, and referred readers to a
book on advanced compiler
construction if they needed an

explanation! The result was that many
developers thought “the heck with
that 11 , and ignored the stuff about
CATs and LISTs completely.

As a consequence of this, FORMs
have been used in areas much better
suited to LISTs. An example is the
AN1M FORM, which is an example of
a FORM containing other FORMs,
which in this case are TLBM FORMs
which aren't really ILBMs at all -
yuk! This works, but has room for
improvement.

Next, a standards committee is
needed to resolve this sort of issue,
and to consider more complex
questions like cross-referencing
within CATs and LISTs, A related
important question is what software
should do with "alien" chunks - ones
it doesn’t understand. At the moment
the rule is that these should be
ignored and never rewritten, which
seems rather restrictive.

Thirdly, a lot of effort has been
spent re-inventing the wheel - all
programs that want to use the IFF
standard currently have to contain

their own IFF routines, and although
"standard" routines are available on
Fish disk 64, they are not very fast
and people have tended to rewrite
them. This has resulted in some
subtle* incompatibilities . There is a
growing feeling that w r e need an
iff.library and an ilbm.lihrary
containing fast standard routines for
basic IFF operations. These would be
shared by all programs wishing to use
IFF, thus improving compatibility and
freeing up code space.

F INALLY, IFF needs to spread to
other computers. IFF has been
adopted as the standard for 16 bit
terminals on the Compunct network,
and Gossamer Graphics has put IFF
on the Atari ST. The result is that
Amiga users can access any graphics
uploaded by an ST, and ST users can
get an approximation of what's
possible on an Amiga. This is the serf
of thing IFF was designed for - let's
hope it catches on much further.

THE SILENT PORTABLE PRINTER

The HUSH-80 from Ferrotec is a small portable
thermal printer, quiet in operation, which is ideally
suited for home use, office back-up and everywhere
when NLQ isn’t required. Fast and efficient - no
pretensions to anything else. Easy to operate,
quick to load and simple to service, A friend to the
budget conscious, a professional product at an
economic price.

DISKDRIVES

* Compatible with A500/A100G/A2000 and PCL

* Both 3Vfe and 5 ! A give 880K Formatted.

* Throughport, to add more drives.

■ Enable and disable switch.

* Very quiet and reliable Drive Mechanism,

• 1 3 Metres of cable so you can put your second
drive wherever you want to.

• Full 12 Month Warranty,

* Made in the EEC to European and British Safety
Standards,

■ Already 180,000 Drives sold in Europe,

For More Information Call:

EWD. Limited, Dublin, Ireland. Tel: 522811.

Fwillstar Ltd., Middlesex, England. Tel: 01-5716551.
Amtron AB, Houten, Holland. Tel: 03403-79600.
Bruce Campbell OY, Helsinki, Finland. Tel: 80-780433,

0 FERROTEC

Dealer Enquiries to Manufacturer:

Ferrotec Ltd., Unit T9, Stillorgan IndusUial Park. Sdllorgs^ ^o, Dublin, Irelan
Tel: 353-1-952529. Fax:353-1-953625 Telex: 91810.

* Price applies to
C 373 Mur GD90F
Other prices on
application

SUPER DEALS FROM
DELTA COMPUTERS

Amiga 512K inc 3.5" D/Drive Mouse ., . .£369.00

Amiga 51 2K tnc 3,5* D/Drive Mouse + Modulator £389.00

Amiga 51 2K inc 3.5" D/Drive Mouse +

Philips 8833 Monitor,...,™ £625.00

Add Citizen 1 20D Printer £149 or
National Panasonic Printer £159

Cumana CAX 354 1 Meg ext D/Drive £95.00

CAS 1000$ 5.25“ O/Drive .....£142.00

PRINTERS inc lead

Amstrad DMP3 160 £189.00

Amstrad DMP3250DI + E199,00

Amstrad OMP4COO . ,,£310.00

Amstrad LQ3500 ,.....£310.00

Amstrad LQ5000 £399.00

Citizen 120D ......£159.00

Panasonic KX-P 1081 .. r £1 69,00

Star LC10 £199.00

Star IX 10 Colour £259.00

All prices include VAT

Please add £2,50 for orders under £100, £5 carnage on orders over
£100, Mail Order only at this address.

Trade and Educational enquiries welcome.

85 Union Street,

Oldham Lancs.

Tel: 061-626 3841

HUMGOLD
COMPUTERS LTD

for your AMIGA requirements

Cttrmodon* fcnfga Gama*

RHP Our Pika

Cammesla re Anil g* Game*

RRP Our Prior

Aland* fealty

Cl 5.96

Vman

.. £1999

£46.19

Bv*T*L1liath

....£24.04

Zortc Lltiri mm*

£29 99

£24.13

Balter Dud Than Aim

C1995

£1598

Bri» Cbigft'i Foetid Falun** . £14.95

Cemnedera Artgi $ 041 ***

BvWy to* .

.... £24 94

£19.96

Mwikirt: Flfvar

£42.00

£3361

Capons

... £24.94

C1096

Anffiatw UuHplm

.... tt3.ro

C59.70

Carrier Command

. . £24 94

C19-96

BedwrTeri

. Cl 19.9S

£96,96

FA-1 B Interceptor _

_ £24 «

00.21

Ctmk 5dtar

. ...BMG

£5664

Ferrari Formula 1

_ C2494

£20.21

Conk Sattar City Ad Lbrary Cwk £54 $5

£2027

Football hbrag* 2

..C19.S6

£15.96

DeLuxa Video (PAL)

... £69.95

£66.66

fcari Wane*

£24.94

£1996

Faccl,

....£24.00

£19.32

Jinxter

... £74 94

£1996

....£29.96

£23. 9s

Lanwtot

...£19.95

Cl 5.96

K-Rogtl

_ 14994

09.96

Legend Of T^Swcrd

... C24.B4

f 19 96

KMWunk

,. £4900

£40.43

Mrdi^rtf

£24 04

£19.96

IWRihi

£14995

£12371

Rat jn Tt, Genesis

...ttg.ss

£15.96

Reason

..£304 75

E2SI.42

Roctyt Pii/ijw ...

...£29 96

E23.95

Tbs Binder

... £47.00

0784

tMne

£15.96

Pjfctc Domair. CWu

n 7h aar - h

S W0ttw 2 * __

.0494

E 19.96

Sub B*He Sanutatcr

.£2494

£20.59

Cwnmafe* Amiga Hardware

Thunder C*a

...£24.64

£19.96

DqiVww 3 6 (PAL)

. C149.9S

C127.45

V ad otbal

...Cl 4.95

£1 1.96

*•*•9*500 * Starter Kit

.£39090

E365ffi

Vein

. E1M&

£1596

TV Modulator

.. E24 90

E3749

Please send your orders (cash/cheque only) to:
HUMGOLD COMPUTERS LTD <Mall Order Dept.)

85 Longhurst Road, Lewisham, LONDON SE13 SNA
01-852 3992 (ansafone) for full price list
At! prices are subject to change

E*oe

IREN^^HiH

oftware

MEW NEW

AMIGA SOUNDBLASTER w w w

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 500/1 000 and adds a new dimension to aJI

games.

Everyone knows that the Amiga has the best sound facilities available
on any popular computer today. Unfortunately until now, unless you
could connect your Amiga to your stereo system you could not
appreciate the quality of the sound

* Comes complete with 2 high quality stereo speakers

* Twin volume/balance controls

* Headphone Socket

* Very easy to connect

* Compatible with all software/hardware

* * Free stereo headphones with all orders for
a limited period * *

Amiga Soundblaster is just £39.99
including VAT and P&P

SIREN SOFTWARE TEL 061 228 1831
2-4 OXFORD ROAD, MANCHESTER Ml 5QA

Detxntber 19SS AMIGA COMPUTING S3

Lombard

See [he

s™°°MyrfWt^ exh of m7<*

&4 >c

urw down

anjncredibte 3D --- ■ ■

weiv <3/ the road >

p ** re P asr your car at any time
w*#*quipped workshop

fi otJf ,;.r Lrfj [M

Five . . - four . . - three

Your BOOhhp Ford Group A Sierra Cos worth roars
away from the starting fine, skidding round hairpin
bends f as you speed through unfamiliar ; ever-
changing terrain . r . in a race where every fraction of
a second counts /

Lombard RAC Rally recreates all the excitement of
the world-famous rally - with the help of RAC drivers
who guarantee its authenticity.

Complete the five stages - down winding tracks,
through verdant forests and over precarious mountain
ranges - with the additional hazards of night driving
and fog

Repair damage and add new features to your car in
the workshop, and earn money for spares by taking
part in a TV interview,

pHnknt\in

SOFT WA R E

in association wrrt

. . two . . . one . , * GO.

This is the official simulation of a lifetime * will
your skills measure up to the challenge?

# inside every box: A detailed f 6- page booklet
containing a history of the rally and technical
specification of the Cosworth , 15 maps to help
you plot out your course, and a colourful sticker
to commemorate your participation In the rally.

r

i

i

i

i

L

Please send me Lombard/RAC RalJy for:

□ Atari ST □ Amiga □ PC ( 5 «A") □ PC [ 3^1

□ I enclose a cheque for £24 95
made payable to Mandarin Software

□ Please debit my AccessA/isa number:

Name _
Address

Expiry daw
/

1

_ Postcode _

i ropm House, Adllngton Park, AdNngtcn. Macclesfield SKTO 4NP.

Order Hotline: 0*2 S 679920 ni«il

/*# f ffj CO/l/)/> LARGEST AMIGA
vtl/D OOC/C/C/ CLUB IN EUROPE

DO YOU OWN AN AMIGA COMPUTER?

For everyone who owns one of these computers , Club 68000 offers members software, hardware and accessories
at huge savings off recommended retail prices! Each item has been carefully chosen to offer the best value and quality i

HERE S WHAT YOU GET: When you join you will receive a free disk with a games compendium.

A free catalogue (New every 3 months) on the top commercial products with huge
discounts (top games, fop business programs s, hardware and accessories).

HERE’S WHAT YOU DO

Fill out the coupon below and return it to Club 68000 Ltd. Your only commitment is to pay £ 10. 00 for one years membership
of Club S8000, Suite 1, Wickham House , 2 Upper Teddington Road t Hampton Wick , Kingston on Thames . Surrey KT1 4DP

HARDWARE & ACCESSORIES

PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE

3.5 Disk Drive - DD5D 7 Mbyte
5 25 to Drive - 4Q.W Tracks. IBM
35> i 5 25 to' Drive - 3.5 + $ 25
3. 5 Disk Drive + TktCk Dfeofey
5.25 Track Display Disk Drive
35 + 5.25 Track Display Disk Drive
3.5 Disk Drive -A3000 Internal
70 Mbyte Harddisk - A&MtOSOOOBB
310 Mbyte HsrifdiSk - ASO&IDQtVSOOO
40 Mbyte Harddisk - ASOGDOOOVOM
60 Mbyte Harddisk - A5oa-iooL\vm
512k Kam Expansion — A500 + Clock
}.B Mbyte Ram expansion - A500 Internal
tariff. without Ram Chips
2 Mbyte flam Expansion - A 500/1000
Midi interface - MkShVPtful30ut
toxttSeiektcr - Extern# Drive Autobnoi
Oock -AI0W

Digiview Video DtgtiltfASm'IOOQ.'Zm
Digivtew Adaptor
floppy Switch Sox - for 3 Drives
Ganiock-A500rl(m2000
Kikstirt i Clock -Aim
Xftstart 1.3 4 AntlWvS -AMU
Sound Digitizer - Hardware
Sound Digitizer - Hardware A Software
Sound Digitizer — Prof. Hardware

R.fl.P.

Aarghhh 19,95

Alternative Reality 19 95

Army Moves 24.95

Men Syndrome 19.95

Auto Duel 24 95

Bad Cat 2495

Bubble Bobble 1995

Barbarian 24 S5

Buggy Boy 24 .95

Bionic Commando 24.95

Corruption 24.95

Capone 29.95

Captain Blood 24.95

Carrier Command 24.95

Chmnoguffst 29.95

Daley Thompson 24.95

Defenders of Crown 29.95

Eddie Edwards Super Shi 19.99
Empire Strikes Bark 19.95

fright Night
Foundation Waste
Flight Simulator If
FSim II Scenery Disk
Fite & forget

iirecioril

R.R.P.

104 95
149 95

249.95
11995

mos

269.95

95.95

moo

599.00

moo

moo

1299$

149.9$
599 00

39.95
12.99

69.95

169.95
29.9$

49.95
79995
149 9$
B9.9S
$9.95
6995
729.95

MEMBERS

89.9$

119.95
21995

99.9$

129.95
22995

29.9$

429.00

529.00

629.00

229.00

119.95

119 95

549.00

29.95
8.99

$5.00

149.95
19.95
39-95

239.95
11995
6995
45.00
$5.00

m.95

ft H P

MEMBERS

R.R.P

MEMBERS

R.ti.P.

64 Emulator

69.95

49.95

Hakalc

59.95

49.95

Pagesetter Professional

249.95

A egtsAnimstor

109.95

76,95

ihtfocad

59.95

49.95

Ftootdh ftirtt

69.95

Aegis Draw Pivs

199,95

139.95

K Comm It

2995

21.95

Photon Paint Utility

24.95

Aegis Impact

69.95

48.95

KOata

4995

34,95

Prism Plus

69.95

Aegis Sons

5995

41.95

K Gadget

29.95

21.95

Pm Write

89.95

AagisAudiemster

49.95

M.95

KRoget

49.95

3495

Quarterback

49.95

Aegis Vtdeos&pe 3D 14995

104.95

KSeka

49.95

34.95

Superbase Personal

99.95

Aegis Vhuotmr-

109.95

76.95

K Spread If

79-95

55.00

Superbase Profession#!

24900

Aegis Digs

59,95

41.95

KText

19.95

12 M

ScuiptJQ

89.95

Aguisitim 1,3

249.00

186.95

Logistix

99.95

79.95

Studio Magic

69.95

Cambridge Ltsp

149.95

104.95

Lattice C 3,84

169.95

m.95

holm

3995

Drum Studio

2495

15.95

MCC Pascal

89.95

62.95

Turbo Sliver 3D

13995

Dtgtat

39.95

27.95

Microfiche FUer

7995

69.95

TVText

7995

Devpac

59.95

41.95

Mactd Assembler

89.95

46.95

TVSbow

79.95

Digtpahii

5995

41.95

MaxiplanASOO

99.95

7995

VIP Professional

9995

Express Paint

69.95

59.95

Maxiplan Plus

149,95

124.95

Ultimate Swndtmker

69.95

Barmin Ftf/ht

69.95

59,95 |

Omegatile Database

24.95

15.95

Word Perfect 4.2

299.00

GoktspeH
Hercules Copy

29.95

24.95

24.95

14.95 '

Pagesetier

39.95

59.95

X Cad Designer

460.00

MEMBERS

199.95

55.00
1795

49.95
7995

34.95
5995

174.95

65.00

55.00

24.95

99.95

59.95
5995
7995

46.95
m.95 -
m .95

TOP 100 GAMES

19.95

24.95

39.95

24.95

24.95
2495

MEMBERS

H.R.R

MEMBERS

R.R.P.

MEMBERS

R.R.P MEMBERS

12.95

Football Manager H

19,95

12.95

Overlander

19.95

12.95

Space Racer

W.99

1299

12.95

4th & Inches

1995

12.95

Oblrletetor

24 95

15.95

Strip Poker IS

14.95

995

15,95

Fed. of Free Traders

29:95

19.95

Pawn

24,95

15.95

Star Goose

24.95

15.95

12.95

Games Pack (5 games) 14.99

9.99

Pub Pool

995

6.95

Street Fighter

24 95

15.95

15.95

Garfield

24,99

15.99

Peter Beardsley's Soccer 24 95

15.95

Skv Chase

24 95

15.95

15.95

Garrison SI

24.95

15.95

POM

29.95

19.95

Silent Service-

24 95

15.95

12.95

Gold Runner ft

2495

15.95

Platoon

24.95

15.95

Space Harrier

24 95

15.95

15.95

Gridstart

14.95

9.95

Phantasm

24.95

15.95

Tanglewood

19.95

12.95

15.95

Gimsbip

2495

15.95

Ouedratm

24 95

15.95

Terropods

24 95

15 95

15 95

Hunt For Red October

2495

15,95

Quanto*

14.95

9.95

Tetraquest

19.95

12.95

15.95

f kart Warriors

19.95

12,95

Roadwars

19 95

12.95

Thundercats

24,95

1595

19.95

1

|

|

1

24.99

15.99

Rocket Ranger

2995

19.95

Triad

24.95

19.95

15.95

International Soccer

24.95

15.95

Rockford

19.95

12.95

Trivial Pursuit if

19 99

12.99

15.95

Kikstartl!

9.95

6.95

Road Blasters

24.95

15.95

QMS

24.95

15.95

19.95

King of Chicago

2995

19.95

Revenge ft

9.95

6.95

Virus

19.95

12.95

15.95

Karting Grand Prix

9.95

6 95

Sargon fit Chess

24,99

15,99

Wctorball

995

6.95

19.95

Leatherneck

19.95

12.95

Sentinel

19.95

1295

Winter Games

24 95

15 95

12.99

Legend $fm Sword

24.95

15.95

Skrul

24.95

1595

Wizard Ware

24.99

15 99

12.95

Lives, Let Die

24.99

15.99

Staygon

19.95

. 12,95

World Games

24.95

15.95

12.95

Maniax

19.95

12 95

Star Glider It

24.95

15,95

I

1

19 95

12.95

15.95

Menace

24.95

15.95

Star Flay

24.95

15.95

Wi2baf{

24 95

15.95

27.95

Motorbike Madness

14.99

999

StarVfars

19.95

1295

WDrld Darts

1495

9.95

1595

Nebulas

19.99

12.99

street Sports Basketball 19. 99

1299

Whirfygig

19 95

12.95

15.95

Netherworld

19 99

12.99

Summer Olympiad

19.95

12.95

Xenon

19,95

1295

15.99

Offshore Warrior

2495

15.95

Sorcery Plus

19.99

12.99

Zynaps

19.99 ^

* 12 99 C

CLUB 68000 INTRODUCTORY OFFER

Mail to CLUB 68000 , Suite l Wickham House, 2 Upper Teddington Road , Hampton Wick t Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 4DR
Please send me £ £

£ — £

£ Total £

Type of computer Pius Membership only £10. 00

Software: Free Post & Packaging within the UK, Europe £1.00. Overseas £3.00 Hardware: Courier service £600 enclosed

□ Cheque enclosed □ Visa/Access/Mastercard □ Postal Order □ Credit Card No.

Name — — . — - — Signature.

Address Telephone No.

Code _ — . — Please allow 28 days for delivery

Expiry Date

December 1983 AMIGA COMPUTING 65

TURTLESOFT AMIGA XMAS PACK
AMIGA A50Q

Free TV ModulaiOf Free Paint Frog
Frea Software Your Cihcice £75 RRP
Or Software Ei 00 RRP & No Modulator
Plus WbendvBasioT uitKialf Manuals

£419.95 INC VAT FREE DELIVERY!!

TURTLESOFT XMAS PRINTERS

Citizen 120D NLQ

£149.95

PanasaniG KXP' 1 M 1 NLQ

£179.96

MP1&5 *o NLQ 165CPS

Star LC-1 0 ....

£190.96

,,..£210.96

Star LC-10 Cntour

£259.96

Selkosha SP-16CA1

£169.95

Seikpsha SP-1200AI

£1 09,95

?o.Lnt.,i Cl .nrul Pin

£339.95

1

1 GAMES SOFTWARE

Retail Oor

Price Price

A&i^h 1

...£19.95 £13.95

Advanced Dungeons A Dragon*

Adventure Cgcisuuction Set

Alien Syndnyre

Annals ol Ronta....^.»u,

Archon Cal lection —

Armageddon M&n

,.£24.95 £19.95

... £14.96 £10.49

„ £24.95 £16,05

... £24.95 £16.95

,.,£19,95 £13,96

„ r £19.95 £13.95

ArmyMov« — — »■■■—»

RfiT

.£24.95 £16 95

...£24.05 £16-95

fifi/j r^t

...£24,95 £19-06

Barbariii (tnr Palace) —

RarH* Taiu» tl

,,,£10.95 £13,95

... £24.95 £16.95

QaHlArhAqn £24.95 £16.95

Qikrm.irla Pmiirt _ . £24.95 £16.95

Batter Dead Than Alien

fLavond Ihe Ice Palace

,, r £19.99 £13.95

..£24,95 £16 95

Beyond Zork — . C24.ee

Bionic Commando .... £24-96

BMX Simulator — Ei 4 -®

Bcrrtjfacit . £24 .05

Bubble Ghost Ei 9 ®

S W £29.36

£24.96
£24.35
£19.95
£24.95

Capone

Cajuain Bkxtd

Carrier Command ..............

Casino Roulette

Chessmasler 2000 ,

Chubby Gristle. £\$.95

Clwsic Bridge Phone

Corrupl idiT ._ H . £24 ,95

Crash Garrett — £24.95

Crazy Can £2^95

□ark Castle £24.95

Earl Weaver* Baseball — £24.95

£ txxi&tair +1 .. £24.95

ECO ■ £24.95

£lt £19.96

Emarad Mine £14.95

Errpire „ £24.95

Emsire Stlk** Back — ... E19-&5

Enwahtenment £19.95

Face Oft..... £14.95

awga software

Retail

Our

BUSINESS UTILITY GRAPHIC SOUND

Price

PriM

Aegis An mator.' Images £103. 50

Aagis Audio Master - £46-00

Aegis Dlga {ComiTE aware) CSfi.M

Aegl* Draw-PhiS „, r „E19B.96

Aegis l r T3aet £63.25

Aegis VldeoScape 3-0 £143.76

CUrnate ................ , jE 2j3i£

□bIus An* Part i Data Disc £9.99

Dekiit Ana Part 2 Data Dec — £9.99

Delu* Hot A Cool Jazz Dfo\iC Jg.W

Delu* Mu*iC Contfrwikin ...£W-95

Oelua Palrtl II - £69-95

Delu* Print £24.95

Dakra Print II £40.95

De4ys Video £69.95

Delu* Photo Lab £69.95

TURTLESOFT AMIGA XMAS MONITORS

New Ai 0B4S Hires Col Mon — £249,95

Philip* CM6B32 Col Mon £219.96

Philips CMBB33 Col Man £279.96

Ph ilipsCMB5B3CotMon .— £299.95

TURTLESOFT XMAS DISC DRIVES

CumarmCAX354 SflOk 3 .5“ Drive

Mow with On-Off Switch

E99.95 INC VAT FREE DELIVERY!!
TURTLESOFT XMAS J.S' DISC BONANZA

10 DSOO + Library Case „.„,H-..™.......™.,™rEl2.95

WDS DDQuaWy Branded — „._£ 16,95

20 DSDD * Lockable t>K Ba* £22.96

40 [>SDD * Lockable Disc Bax — - £39.95

50 D5DD * Lockable Disc Bo* £47.95

90 DSOO + Lockable Disc Bo* — £69,95

AMIGA

GAMES SOFTWARE

Ferrari Formula On* £24.95

Final Command — . - £24,95

Fire A Forget g4-S5

Flight Slmul^PF R - £39.95

Football Manager 2 » .£i9,95

Formula OneGrpnd Pri* ..,.£19.95

Fortress. Underground — .£14.95

£16.95
£19.95
Eld.49
£16.95
£13-95
£16.95
£20.95
£16.96
£16.95
£ 1 3.95
Cl 6.96
E 13.95
Phans
£16.95
£16.95
£16.95
£16.95
£16.95
£l$95
£1695
£13,95
£10.49
£ 16.96
£13 93
£13.95
£10.49

GF- l American FodCball

Guild ol Thieve* — -

h.™ EM.05

Highway Hawk* — -

llmri Warrior

£24.95

In'ercaplor

Iridr>n ......

£2495

.... £19.95

Iron Lond

£24,95

Jet iSG/Oliic Comiatibini

£39.95

.— E 19-05

hr' ng K 1 li

£24.95

Lescot board ColfSdion Birdlie
Legend d the Swprd

1 dKLI 1 143 'Q 1 lit 1 aifu

..... £24.03

£24.95

£10.95

LtlEiU IH J'Uil LdPJ

Map, ycflijn

£19.95

£19.95

Marbl* Madneaa- - — ,

Mika the Magic Dragon

Mind Fighter Uimm.n • --.J L

£14,95

C19.B6

£24.96

£10.05

Nigel Mansell Grand Prist

„„. r . £19.95

oolaeralor

£24 05

£29.95
£63.95
£36.95
£46.95
£156.95
£51.96
£116,99
£31.06
£6 99
£6.99
£9.99
£49.95
£4995
£16.95
£35.96
£49.96
£49.95

pn w

..,,.£20.95

£19.93

Pbiof SssLrdBtey

...... £10.95

£14 95

Phantasie III

Phantasm —

....£24 90
....£19.95

Prik PamhSf

Platoon

..„.C19.SS
..... £24.95

Port of CaH„ -

£39-05

prnkjAT [twmn ..

..... £24.05

£24.95

^l/rlFpliort

£10.05

£14.05

1 AMIGA SOFTWARE

1 business uhlitt graphic sohno

Hcuil

PlK?

nigi Pwinl

£59.95

DOS-2- DO S- Atar i/Amiga Trsn&fer

Inor^nt Uimir;

£39.95

£24.95

K’SeAa 6B000 Assent** £49.96

Leitlce C Ver. 4 £189.95

LMhtl* VI ,2 SP/DB7GR i lMB) —..,£114.06

MCC Macro Assembler £®9-0f

um Pw-jI £89.05

MCC Shall

£40.95

Micro Bate „ — - — w—

, £19.05

Micro Text £1 9.95

togdula 2 (Standard) - -»*•£

Module. 2 I Developers} ®

Must Studio — —>—£34,99

Pago Setter - m.95

Photon Paint B9&-95

MOUSE MATS
SPECIAL PRtCE £ 4.95

Disk Cleaning Kits only £4,95
Amiga Dust Covers from EE-95
Lockable Storage Box (holds 40 3,5"
disks) £6.95
Mouse Brackets £2,95
Amiga Joystick Extension (pair) E6.95)

SPECIAL OFFER
STBS Colour Monitor
Same spec as Philips CM8&33

While stocks last

£16.95
£16.95
£16-95
£27.95
£13.95
£13.95
£10,49
£ 16.95
£16.95
£16-96
El 3.95
£10.95
£16.95
£13.95
£16.95
C27 9S
£1595
£16.95
£19.95
£10,95
£13.95
£13 95
£13.96
£10.49
£13.95
£16.96
£13.96
£13.95
£16.95
E2Q.95
£13.95
£13.95

£10.49
£1695
£13.95
£13,95
£1695
£27.95
£1695
£16.95
£13 95
£19.49

Our

£41.95
£41,95
£31.95
£16 95
£36.95
£134.96

AMIGA

GAMES SOFTWARE

Reach lot lit* Siam .

Ftoadbiwrsr

RDbbeanr

Retail Our

Price Price

., £24.95
...PTwn#

.,.£19,96

£24.95

Romantic Encounter*

...£24,05

£14.95

Sargon ill

£19,95

.Qrauiani TTiiifcrt-- 1 1 _

£24.95

r Mar. 7 E24.9S

Scenery Disc Japan

£19.96

Scenery Dl*c W^umpean

Scrabble DeKine

£19.05

£19 95

Shadow Gala...

£2*-»S

£24 .95

Shanghai ,,,

Qkilanr Fi\a

£24.95

CLnl Jn I £24.95

S)ty ^hafie -

£10,96

Rbyfr» j

£24.95

Soccer Supienra

ftt.Br Fleel 1

£14.96
£24.96

niirlar II

£24 05

Star Goose _ u ..-i

£19.05

Stir Crazv

-..,........,£10.95

Rrraar Fiflhmr £24.95

Slrkj ? Piu*

£14.95

Sinp Poker Plus 2 Daia Owe 1

Summer Olyirpiad

The Hunt for Red Odctier ......

Three Stooge* _ JCU irm

£9 90

£19.96

£24.96

£29.96

Jh , inrHmirjM

...,££4-05

Jli^n*. Liagik

£19.95

Utlima IV —

£24.96

tlmpir*

Whirligig

Wizards Crown

Work) Dart*

World Tqur GoK

Xenon .

Zany Go!

Zoom

.,£19.95

..£19.95

..£19.95

..£19.95

,.£29.95

....£14.95

£24.95

.£19.96

.....E24.9G

El 9-95

£55.95

£64.95

£39-95

£13.95

£13.95

£77.95

£116.99

£2395

£04.95

£49.96

M1ICA$0FTWAH£ FtCWH

BUSINESS UT1L1TT GRAPHIC SOUND Price

Pro Sound Designer (SAW A HiW) £79-95

Pro Sound D«l p I&W Only} S4.M

Publishing Plu* DTP „„„, rJ -£9i,95

Pubtlthing Parnsr Profn*! r ,„ r ,..._ £H9 *

ScribWelr. — ^

siSSSe P.ofe«bnH £349.96

Tramforr"-

Tv ' Shew .,

TV * Text ....

VIP PR3(fW»l™l ..

£49.96

£69.96

VIUNMlt* OHkcp

Word Perfect Y4-1

Worn* (The) WP/SP/Q6

..E99-M

Write i Ftto'rWPVDB n«d»tUB) £99.96

Zuitm Font* Vot 1,24 3 £39.96

£1695
Phcns
£13.«
£13.96
£19.95
£16.95
£10.40
£13.95
£16.95
£16.95
£13.96
£13.96
£13,95
£16.95
£16.95
£16.95
£16-95
£13.95
£16.05
£10.49
£13.95
£16.95
£13.95
£13.95
£1995
El 0.49
£6.99
£13.95
£16.96
£20.96
£10-96
£13.95
Cl 6.96
£13.95
£13.95
£13.95
£13.95
£20.95
£10.40
£16,95
Cl 3.95
£'6 35
£13.06

£62.99
£27.95
C02.95
£116.99
£4995
£45.96
£160.95
£29-95
£56.06
£56-96
£77.86
£77.®
£179 96
£99.05
£77.06
£33.96

AMIGA SOF TWARE SPECIALS
Special Price

AMIGA SOFTWARE SPECIALS
Specie! Price

AMIGA SOFTWARE SPECIALS
Special Pr^e

AMIGA SOFTWARE SPECIALS
Special Price Special Pn

Aim Scik*
Am eg*
Aitide

...,,£6,04 Diatto

^._£609 feud

Ar^iMn(BotMk) £999 FiO^ByT* .

JjfJde Dww* Anco) g 99 GdPurrw

AfCfc r .Tr-ty^ ““

Arena,6rzlUCu* P»ck ..

Bpnldnn

CArfcfw Fadcry .*«-

£9.99
£9.00
£4 99

....£9.9*
„. C9.99
... £9.99

,.£6» imanitir FH|ht

£399 JUTlpJII ....

_ £4.99 KrtdltOH!..

£900

S6JM

...£0.M

Lmlatian -05 £

btrkkig Hnn* ISM

SSmElevifcr g-W

^ £9-09

RwrJvw* -
Rodcy

SwW I 'Out .

.... E9.99 SSrGTid* ••
£13 95 SwWara ..
._£A£9 Starway
_tt00 “■

SWmy ....
SblcnlJ

..M09

(DM

£9.99 Sqjer Huey ....
..an SKKfii

...E990

,.0.90

fSto [ZZZ1ZZZZZ um Swm c^'pj qmZZIZZ. jg# tbitmo*-.-.- »-»

Ea fflfr Sj lxr::.:::i-r-="gs

i rt.™ **nrT.f C/»* Po»i. Ch* ,v* r^ulr, 7 d,y* tor cl-nnet. Plm* mtk* thorn" poytblo u Ookttoo Conoolldotod Ud

Hardware iiema sent by overnight courier - Now free of charge

Pieaso ring tor availability of new software I tarns _ _

fttoq ut for super Atari ST D*ili Hurdwir* A Software. Just because you donl see it - Doesn’t mean we haven t got it - Call lor Decals

Pmi: s*nd Ch.qu*s/PO or VIio'Accom dotallo to ih. .dd.M. bolow. Phono: Coll (MW) SMMO. 24 Hour Sorulco wtlh your VIm/Aocoo. d>uilo

Turilesoft, Dept.AMC12, Unit 3, The Old Malthouse, Springfield Road, Grant hatn, Lines. NG31 7SE

Subject to availabi li ry, all itams are dea patched with in 24 hours. E 4.0E

m AMIGA COMPUTING December JSfltf

A MIGA 1000 owners may well
remember Mind walker, a game
from Commodore which was one of
the first things to show off the
machine, the first game to use the
custom chips , Now (he same pro-
grammer, Bill Williams, has
produced Pioneer Plague, the fust
big game to use HAM. Eat pixels
lesser computers!

The human race is overpopulating
earth ~ nothing new in that - so some
bright spark has invented the Pioneer
Probes. These incredible pieces of
human ingenuity have been created
to terraform lifeless hunks of space
flotsam - asteroids for instance - into
habitable planets.

As each new world is completed,
the probes build copies of themselves
and send them to search out new
asteroids to build on. Now here's the

snag, with all genetically reproduced
systems there's always a chance of
random mutation, as Darwin demon-
strated in The Origin of Species,
Mutations were something the
designers of Pioneer forgot, so now
there's a whole bunch of self-
replicating mutants drifting around
in space, bent on terraforming
anything in their ken, inhabited or
not, and Earth is next on the list.

The designers would just like to
say they're verv, verv sorry. Cheers
fellas, you're off my Christmas card
list.

The game is split into three sec-
tions -ground attack, navigation and
drone prog ramming, all selected
from the main screen which doubles
as the interior view of the ship.

At first glance those with long
memories might well murmur SOI,
especially if you are clued up enough
to know that Mr Williams 1, previous
work was Sinbad and the Eye of the
Falcon, before collapsing like a heap
of cold jelly - 1 did.

Pear not though, while SDI was
Cinemaware'sfoneand only) howler,
Mandarin's Pioneer Plague is a veri-
table feast of arcade delights.

At t he start of the game your ship is
positioned in geostationary orbit
high above the surface of an infected
planet, Clicking the navigation
window shows the level of infection
to ha low at this stage.

Click (he launch window and it's

down to business. An interim screen
shows the planet approach before
switching to a ground display, with
the LifeSlar - you - drifting around.
Another click launches the attack
ship,

Another little something the
designers forgot to mention was the
probes have an in -built defence
mechanism, provided just in case
something got in their way.

The mutations have evolved the
defence system even further -
nobody's quite sure how far. This
makes it necessary to shoot and

bomb everything that moves until
you find out what's what.

Onoe you dear or retreat from a
planet, you have to navigate through
suh-Eudidian - attack of the jargon
psueds - space to get to the nest one.
This is used as a poor excuse for a
stunning sequence, reminiscent of
Star Trek The Motion Picture, where
you fly through a worm hole while
trying to shoot the image of the
planet as it whistles around the hole.
Tiicfcy stuff, because the longer you
spend in space the more the probes
spread.

Pioneer Plague is an unusual and
well thought out game that refuses to
lake itself too seriously. HAM mode
graphics are used throughout, not
just on the loading screens, which
adds a touch of class, In play it's fast
and challenging, but never too hard.

Definitely one for the Christmas
shopping list - eveiy Amiga should
have one.

Karen Adams

Pioneer Plague
£24,95

Mandarin Sofln are

In geostationary orbit high shove fta surface of an infected planet

Overall

December 1988 AMIGA COMPUTING 67

DALEY THOMPSON'S OLYMPIC CHALLENGE

Y OU can t help bul admire Daley
Thompson, Injured by bad luck
and a faulty pole, he lost his bid to be
proven the world's finest Olympic
athlete.

Now, somewhat premalurely per-
haps and, with the aid of Pete Johnson
and the team at Ocean, we can all
have a crack at reliving dishy Daley s
victories past, and perhaps set a few
new records into the bargain.

And so 1o the gymnasium, This is
where the game begins to flex its and
Mr Thompson's muscle. Training is a

simple matter of doing some jerks
and squats - lhafs sporty lingo for
lifting a few weights - but to add to
the difficulty you have to keep up the
exercise for a full Four minutes.

This means a lot of joystick
waggling, making the simulation
painfully realistic,

During the session the main por-
tion. of the screen depicts an
animated digitised image of Daley
doing his stuffi while smaller periph-
eral windows show your current
energy level and time remaining. The

energy meter is a bottle of Daley s
favourite thirst quencher, and as the
bottle fills it s replaced by a can of -
yes the very same,

Cans are used to provide extra
energy in your weaker events, so a
full complement is useful.

Finally you're ready to enter the
competition. This is split over two
days, with five events each day. An
intermediate scrEcn depicts a com-
puterised scoreboard showing the
next event

ft s here that Olympic Challenge
falls flat on its face because you canl
choose which event to compete in
nexl. This means if you get knocked
out in say, the ninth event for
whatever reason, you'll have to star!
again from scratch.

The games consist of four running
events plus all the field trials like
discus, javelin and long jump - so
there’s plenty of variety.

There are some fantastic animated
sequences of a digitised Daley doing
his stuff, and intermediate digitised
stilts white each event loads. In fact
alt of this is quite breathtaking. At the
expense of all this p ret I mess is screen
ergonomics.

A typical case is the LOO metre

sprint, which has no less lhan seven
sections all displaying information at
once. Fine up to a point. But the real
action, down on the track is shown
from a viewpoint you might get from
a blimp floating hundreds of feet
above the stadium,

At the end of the day 1 concede
defeat. 1 tried to get to like Olympic
Challenge, but failed. It’s just too
hard to be credible. That, coupled
with needless comments about being
disqualified and sent home in dis-
grace for choosing the wrong shoes,
leads me reluctantly to suggest you
avoid this one. Sorry Daky.

Kathy Forester

Ditie i Th a topsail "s Oh -topic .

Chafienap

£13*95

Ocean

Overall - 47%

F USION from Electronic Arts is
the first British title to he
released on that label. If you played
the game for five minutes you'd ask
yourself why EA bothered to sign it
up,

On first impressions it looks like
the good old standard game of wide-
sctolling landscape-with-ship- rolling-
around - and-killing-anythmg-in-sight,

I thought so at first, and as this type
of game, it's quite average. You have
a small crawler vehicle, with a smal-
ler cannon, which moves quite
slowly over the very pretty graphical
back drop using the Amiga's extra
half-britc mode for a wider range of
colours.

You'll quite quickly find a mother
ship in which you can fly around the
landscape and start blowing aw r ay
the various aliens, missiles, cannon
turrets flying and driving pods. If you
don’t know what you are doing,
you'll quickly be bored, and prob-
ably dead.

This is where Fusion's biggest
problem lies. Hidden on the land-
scape are switches, in one of two
colours and many shapes,

By using the small crawler vehicle
you can flick the switch, and
somewhere else on the landscape, an
obstacle will vanish or a gate to

It may look like so action game, Gui 1 underneatA is a puzzle

another screen wilt open. But if you
flick a switch of the same colour, the
effect of the previous switch is
undone. You can't just open all the
gates and you have to plan which
switches you want to get on to other
screens. That's not the end of the
problem though.

The mother ship can only land in
certain locations, and this leaves the
crawler with a dangerous journey to
wherever the switch is. This, I’ve
found, means planning the crawler's
journey adopting a scorched earth
policy en route.

Wreaking such havoc becomes
easier once you have picked up the
extra weaponry that is available for

the mothership, but the crawler will
always be vulnerable, and finishing
later screens can mean travelling a
route totally surrounded by turrets
and missile bases.

Once you've done that you can
start using the switches to assemble a
bomb, parts of which are scattered
through the landscape. The land-
scape is a mapper's delight and
figuring nut the switch combinations
will keep a lot of people puzzling.

Fusion is a different game, trying to
evolve the traditional shoot-'em-up
and add a puzzle behind it, Because it
looks like a shoot-em-up il doesn’t
maintain interest as such. It doesn t
have the immediacy of many arcade

games, and puzzle-lovers may not
look at ii because it looks like a
shaot-’em-up.

If you are cither of these types of
players, Fusion is worth an extended
play, if only to scratch at the depth
that actually is there.

Jf I had to quibble with it, I think
I’d have to complain about the 30
lines smaller than NTSC display
which makes it feel like the game
area is more cramped than usual, and
the fact that when you save a game,
you ca n only save one game at a time,
and when you load up the game it
resets all the aliens.

Bullfrog should do something
about this, gel rid of the cryptic score
system, and maybe add an able-to-
land indicator for the mother ship.
Fusion's worth a look though.

Fiihinn
19 . 9 . 5

yh'ttfiitUi , Irf.v

(to AMIGA COMPUTING December WfW

■ REVIEWS

ROCKET RANGER

A ND it came to pass that the
great Gums of the technical
department finished iheix mighty lab
ours, and the Amiga was created,
And they summoned the Men of
Marketing, and said: “Behold what
we have done. A computer with
graphics greater than the Beeb of
Beelzebub; sound more sampled
than the Spectral Bleat, verily we
have produced a games machine that
will cause the eyes of the people to
□pen wide with astonishment”

And the Men of Marketing went
forth and multiplied, and brought the
glad news to the people, And the
people said: "Wow?” And on the
second day, the first game was
produced, a quick rip-off of Space
Invaders, And loud was the wailing
and gnashing of keyboards across the
land.

"Who will deliver us from these
wares of naffness? 11 ”, asked (he
people? And it came to pass that,
many years later, there came a game
that took the Amiga and shook it till
the chips squeaked. And the name of
that game was Rocket Ranger.

Here endeth the first lesson

But what is Rocket Ranger? It’s a
game that 's trying to be a film. This is
obvious from the start, where an
animated sequence describes the
scenario that you, Rocket Ranger in
person, find yourself in,

History, it seems, was wrong; The
Nazis won WWJF more than 100
years ago. But now unnamed agents
have sent you a rocketpack, wrist
computer and radium gun, You have
to go- back in time, fight and finally
defeat the jack booled menace of

| National Socialism, The game revol-
ves around Lunarium, a powerful
J elemenl that is both fuel for your
rocket and an essential component of
, the bombs (hat will ultimately seal
the fate of the free world.

The Nazis are bringing supplies in
from the Moon; you have to stop this
| by assembling and fuelling your own
spaceship from bits found around the
world.

Information about the slate of the
world comes in from a network of
spies that you control, These can just
act as passive espionage agents, or at
your command actively promote
insurgence in enemy territories.

You fly around lhe world by
selecting a country, fuelling your
rocketpack from the limited supplies
at your Fort Oix HQ, and battling past
such resistance as you find when you
reach your designation, This can
include aerial dogfighting, fisticuffs
and sharpshoobng on the ground.
Once local forces have been de-
feated you can damage the Nad war
machine, pick up more fuel or more
parts for the spaceship. If you can
assemble that before you either die,
run out of Lunarium or die as (he
Nazis fake over America you can gel
to the Moon and strike the final blow.
Your only weapons are your pistol
and yourself.

Now this might not sound much of
a game, but that's like saying
Beelhoven^s Third w r ould make a
good TV jingle.

Take the soundtrack, A strong
theme tune, multipart sounds
synthesised, not sampled. Loads
more throughout the game - uplifting
for victory or downbeat for disaster,
all of it high quality both technically

uvm

COLOMBIA
INFILTBRTED
ORDERS: tNFILTBBTE
COUEfi: LOW PMHLE/LOW BtJK
BESEBUES BSSFBNED

t AGENTS t

CHANGE ORDERS
CHANGE CODER
BEPOBT
CONTINUE

An effective mix

and musically.

Some samples are used for spot
effects, but everything is synchro-
nised, sequenced and mixed to a lee.

The graphics - ah, the graphics!
It s not just the quality of Ihe pictures,
nr (he sheer amount and variety, nr
the little visual jokes that pop up
when least expected. All these con-
tribute, but the overall effect is

compelling.

There are lots of gaps between
action; on every other game fve seen
these soon become boring, but
Rocket Ranger kept my interest night
after night.

The gameptay is stronger than it
might appear, too. There are eight
action sequences w r here things have
to be shot, zapped or punched, but
Lhe various countries have to be vis-
ited in the right order.

Time runs out fast and, a_s the notes
suggest no game lasts longer than
about an hour. All the lime the
advance of the Nazis has to be
watched and your agenls controlled
Everything falls together. The little
touches of typography and layout
that breathe the 1940... (he flight
sequences.,, the deadpan humour,
The only small fly in the woodpile is
the lack of a constant onscreen dis-
play of Nazi strength and the passage
of time,

Rocket Ranger comes on tw r o discs,
but unfortunately can ’I be installed
on a hard drive. On an unexpanded
A 500 Lhe disc swapping can get a
little tedious, but it's far better
thought out than many.

This game shines out from the
indifferent conversions, hackneyed
shoot- "em-ups and unimaginative
games thal infest the market place.
This one will run and run.

Rupert Goodwins

Rat:ket Runipr
L2HM

Cittern it 1 1 mr Mirronofl

Nowhere i$ safe hoar the Nazi menece

Decfimber 1983 AMIGA COMPUTING 09

■REVIEWS

70 AMIGA COMPUTING December 1 9m

FERNANDEZ MUST DIE!

got Ben Johnson into trouble. It go
bang. II go whoosh. It go quiet when
you tom the volume down.

“Gameplay. Shoot and be shot.

“What was the question again?''

Is it any good?

'Tt’s as good as the last soldier
shnot'em up, and the one before that,
and the one before that.., and it's
probably just as good on the
Spectrum”.

Which is to say?

“Er.J'

Rupert Goodwins

Fernadfti Muni Die!
Imstgif I Yorks
£24.99

Sound

Graphics

Gameplay

Value

Overall - 37%

appears on the square it was
occupying.

For those who want to dispense
with the ''distractions” of the battles,
a standard 2D board can be called up
from the puli down menu which is
actually a scroll suspended in mid-air
by a pair of flapping angels.

Other features include nine skill
levels, modem play, and 20 famous
games that can be loaded and
reviewed in either ZD or 3D,

Although Battle Chess will prove a
worthy opponent for the majority of
casual players, it falls short of the
high standard set by Cbessmastet
200Q on the. Amiga and Psion Chess
on the ST.

So, if you fancy yourself as a chess
whittle id and want a tough game
Batde Chess may well disappoint. But
for average players it will not only
prove itself a worthy opponent but a
rare graphical and audio treat loo.

David Bishop

Hittik Chess
£ 19.93

Elwtitmk Iris

Sound

Graphics

Gameplay

VMw!

Over ill! - 77%

Y OU have twenty seconds to
describe KMD, starting.,, now!
"Ah. Um. Well, you're this soldier
blob, see, and you drive this jeep into
an enemy base, right? And then you
shoot all these other soldier blobs
with what look like pingpong balls
but are in fact high velocity bullets
bul they caul shoot you while you’re
in your jeep,

"They can set fire to it, when you
have to drive through a carwash to
pul it out. Errr, and then you have to
get out of the jeep and walk up lo a
building and attach some dynamite;
the door then explodes and you can
gel the gold, bullets or prisoners,
inside.

“Err. There are eight enemy bases.
Get 'em all, and then get the junta
blobs, and you win. Die eighl times
in the hail of bails and you lose.

“Err

"Oh yes. You've got some rockets,
which can blow up trees. This is
important, as sometimes the enemy
blobs hide in trees, Um. The enemy
also have big tanks which blow up

when you hit them three limes.
There's a train, and jeeps, and, er.
and, or, boats".

Beep beep beep beep. Well done,
Next question. Is it any good?

“Er. Well, the houses move about
quite smoothly - this must be the
suberb animation mentioned in the
press release - the soldiers sort of

mill about in a random way shooting
everything, so its a bit random
whether you survive. But keep
moving, and you'll he OK.

“The graphics are a bit small, bul
there are a lot of them. Collision
detection is a tad dodgy - stand next
to a hut and you can't be hit.

“Sound.,, the sort of samples that

BATTLE CHESS

T HERE are precious few games
that really make the Amiga
sweat. Many are simply ported
directly from the Atari ST, or worse,
are lackluster conversions of fl bit
titles. Discerning Amiga owners,
therefore, especially the chess
playing ones among you* will be
reassured to hear that some com-
panies are prepared to invest their
time and money in taking advantage
of the additional graphical and sound
capabilities their machine has to
offer,

Such a company is Interplay, cre-
ators of the now legendary Bard's
Tale, which has turned its redoubt-
able talents to the creation of what

has to be the most graphically stun-
ning chess game ever conceived,

Battle Chess is more lhan just a
chess program, it 's a work of art. The
beautifully marbled board is viewed
from behind and above your pieces,
from a more elevated viewpoint than
is seen in most other traditional 3D
chess games,

Each piece has been painstakingly
designed to look so realistic that you
could almost reach into the monitor
and move it by hand.

Rather than slide clumsily from
one square to the next, the pieces
come to life and walk lo their desti-
nation. Each piece is animated in a
different way to bring out its own

A rare grapMai and audio treat

character and importance in the
general scheme of things.

The knight, for example, heavily
weighed down by his armour, clanks
laboriously to his destination, while
the Queen, complete with wiggling
backside, glides gracefully across the
hoard in true regal fashion.

But my favourite is the rook which,
when not moving, appears as a castle
tower constructed from huge blocks
of stone. When called upon to move,
he metamorphoses into a hnlk-lifce
creature which stomps from square
to square with all the finesse of a JCB,
And what a feast of animation and
sampEcd sound effects the battles are.
Each piece has its own method of
combat commensurate with its
character. The knight fights with a
sword, the castle rock-monster hits
people over ihe head and even,
resorts Lo eating the queen!

The bishop brandishes his staff,
while the queen raises her hands
above her head before casting one of
a number of awesome spells on her
victims who get fried to a crisp,
reduced to nothing more than a heap
of charred bones.

The battle sequences are both real-
istic and humorous. The knight-takes
-knight battle in particular is
hilarious, having been plucked
shamelessly from the guardian of the
bridge sequence in Monty Python's
Holy Grail. Other battles end with a
piece being butted in the groin or
falling down a hole which suddenly

TM

a Powerful sorting and searching facilities on any field; up (o 999 key fields
a VCR style control panel gives easy access to unlimited files, fields and records^—

■ 3 ways of viewing data to cover entry review and comparison ^

a Set up and change file definitions quickly for system flexibility V* □

a Define and print multi file Reports with Superbase Query function YJjf
a Include images and lext as external files wilfiin your database record for cataloguing

■ Superbase Personal: Multifile relational power at a flat-file price

POWERFUL DATABASE WITH BUILT-IN TEXT PROCESSING

All the features qI Su perbase Personal PLUS

a Text Editor lor creation of letters and documents: editing options include cut and paste
a Improved date handling facilities including batch for speedy date entry
a Keyboard controls for easy editing

a Time field type and additional validation options including cross-file lookup for accurate data
a IVIaif-merge facility for pnoducrng personalized fetters and mailings
a Built-in telecommunications for swift data transfer

■ Superbase Personal 2 : Full-featured file management at your fingertips

THE MOST POWERFUL DATABASE FOR THE AMIGA COMPUTER

Database management language (OML), Superbase's own BASIC -style programming language.

Over 250 high-level commands, and other powerful features such as arrays, looping constructs and branching
Create sophisticated custom programs and applications including user defined menus
Report generator for ease of set-up and output of reports

Intelligent Forms Editor enables you to generate multi-file applications without the need lor programming
Automatic transaction processing lets you reproduce standard business forms
Extensive programmable communications facilities

! Superbase Professional: Powerful programmable database trial's fun to learn and easy to use

SPREADSHEET * BUSINESS GRAPHICS * TIME MANAGEMENT

Full featured spreadsheet environment that tracks time, resources and money to give a complete
picture of your project plans

Print wall planning charts, Gantt charts; do critical path analysis

Graphics facility to visually portray your data in over 100 different graph styles and options

Sideways printing, full color output to extensive range of printers and plotters

Fully programmable, Lotus 123 and dBase file compatible

Works stand alone or with Superbase to provide superb productivity environment

UPGRADE b
PATH 1

r IP J WAA '

1

■ Superplan: The Fourth Dimension

ij

_ Precision
_l Software

Precision Software Limited
6 Park Terrace
Worcester Park
Surrey KT47JZ

Tel: (01) 330 7166. Fax : (01) 330 20S9

Available from your dealer
or call ( 01)3307166

Pwceo"’ acinmisitjK af Iragemark*.

Alpnc^rck^Wf

■ REVIEWS!

I N days long shoe past there; was a
game called Scramble, where the
player was cast as pilot of a rocket
ship charged with blasting his way
through an underground complex. It
was the first arcade machine to boast
sideways scrolling, but featured
precious little else. Recently the
Scramble theme has been revamped
by dedicated systems like Sala-
mander, Nemesis and Vulcan
Venture,

And so lei Zynaps enler the Amiga
software arena. One of the first sida-
ways scrolling games to appear in a
market already flooded by vertically
scrolling ones.

From the start the layout looks very
Salamanderish, with the screen
rolling past and the first wave of alien
life forms squirming on, ready to
release plasma bolts of death upon
the intruder, That’s you.

If the baddies are the first thing
you'll notice, the pathetic response
speed of the ship will be next,
because if you don't blast the first
nasties pronlo it's curtains.

Of course the dedicated gamer
should have little difficulty de-
spatching the First lot, catching and
activating the first energy bonus - a
speedup, which makes the ship
several times more responsive.

around, he paints in any lines that he
passes over, He must join up all the
squares on the 3D grid before he can
attempt the next level, There are 50
screens to he conquered.

Doing their best to stop Zoomer are
a wide variety of bizarre beasts, most
notable of which are the deadly
Juggernauts (blond-red, flapping lips
- no need to spell out the allusion
here), the Wormlcts (rubbery green
creatures who rub out any painted
lines belonging to an incomplete
square) and the fast moving
Angle heads,

Black holes pop up at random,
swallowing Znomer if he happens to
blunder into one. The enemy doesn't
have it all its own way - Zoomer can
lay a trail of bombs as he goes.
Inanimate objects strewn around
the grid can be helpful. Candy gives
him a short burst of speed, apples
cam four bonus squares, ice cubes
freeze the enemy to the spot while a
lube of glue slows them down.

A mystery object in the shape of a
question mark may reward or punish
Zoomer. Host of ah, a rocket enables
him to leap to the next level,
Graphics are very good, with the

siles. Mean beasts these, taking out
almost everything in sight, and
what’s more it’s possible to have
several on the go at once,

As the first level progresses the
tunnel starts to narrow' significantly,
making life very tough going, since
bashing into any static abject inflicts
a nastv case of death by destruction,
Staying with (he Salamander
mould, at the end of each level -
there are 14 ah told - is a mother
ship. Hideously well armed and well
protected it has to be destroyed
before progressing further. To add

Z OOM should bring a whiff of
nostalgia to those gamesters of
maturer years. Longer ago than 1 care
Id remember there was an arcade
game which involved racing
round a two-dimensional grid made
up of blank squares - Amidar, I think
it was called.

Assorted creatures infested the
grid, determined to make life difficult
for the player. The aim w r as to avoid
the pursuers and try to pass over all
four sides, of a square, whereupon it
would be painted in. The ultimate

abjective was to join up each and
every square on the network,

At heart, Zoom is that game,
dressed in new logs. The flat grid has
gone three-dimensional, the game
can be played alone or with another
player - alternately or simulta-
neously - there are umpteen varieties
of bizarre nasties chasing you and
various other embellishments have
been added, including sampled
sound effects.

The hero of the game is Zoomer, a
Par Mao style character, As he dashes

Zoom - Amidar goes 3D

72 AMIGA COMPUTING December 1988

Only the graphics save a poor 3 bit game

Without this the game is almost
impossible, since the enemy's
homing plasma bombs are devilishly
hard to avoid.

Holding down the fire button
while collecting the energy pod acti-
vates an item. This unusual method
saves the trouble of pressing a key,
but it can keep your trigger finger
busy when the action starts to hot up
- and it does.

By collecting more energy pods
along the way the ty pe of weapon
changes, going horn extra speed and
pulse lasers right up to seeker mis-

spice, the mother ship gets bigger
and meaner with each level

Sadly, Zynaps fits rather uncom-
fortably into the “what might have
been 1 ’ category. I'm not saying it’s a
bad game - but much of the original
leg work seems to have been carried
directly over from the ST version.

It would seen, in fact, that the
game w r as never destined to take
advantage of the Amiga's superior
sound and graphics. Although the
music sounds very lean Michel |arre,
the game sound is loo little simplistic
for my liking, with no voice synthesis
in sight.

When compared with Anco s blis-
teringly fast budget title, XR35, it is
overpriced.

Mark Smiddy

ZOOM

three-dimensional effect working
well, Animation is smooth and
competent and quite humorous In
places. This is an entertaining game,
presented with much sparkle and
polish. There’s a large variety of grids
and many fast and furious aliens to
keep the adrenalin Bowing.

Zoom’s problem is that it is just too
tough, even on the lower levels.

If you have fast reflexes and a
quick eye. this could he just the game
for you. Others a touch slower with
the joystick might find Zoom more
fmstral ing than entertaining.

Boh Chappell

Zoom

mutr*

Disim-pn Software
International SIN.

Sound

Graphics

Ganieplay

Value

Over iill

ZYNAPS

fcitill UHJI

free

T-SHIRT

OFFER

TYNES#FT

COMPUTER SOFTWARE

Attftsn InrJiFSlrial t-siaiB,Blti^don.

T*™ & VtearttE21 41 £ Tel; fOTI > 4t4 4fi 1 1

Help Superman light the powers of
evil in this comic strip game

Irom Tynesolt

ST

£24,95

AMIGA

£24.95

PC

£24.95

AMSTRAD

C £ 9,95
0 £14.95

SPECTRUM

C C S.95
D £14.95

C B M64

C £ 9J5
□ £14.95

Specialist treats
a virulent Virus

V IRUS is infectious and the

doctor with the antidote is Gary
Sheinwald. He has put together a
comprehensive set of tips.

It is perhaps wise to describe Virus
as two games. The first is trying to
keep your hoverplane airborne for
more than a couple of milliseconds,
and the second is the one you bought
the program for in the first place -
killing the nasty aliens, stopping the
spread of the virus and watching that
incredible landscape roll by.

Your Amiga has two mouse buttons
- the right one is your laser gun, and
the left is the hovcrplane's vectored
thrust control This is the one that
seems to cause many people - and
other life forms such as editors - a bit
of a problem,

Sn the words of Mr Waters, learning
to fly is the difficult bit. Keeping the
mouse central on your mouse mat,
desk, floor or YOP scheme employee,
hold down the thrust button and, hey
presto, the hoverplane takes off. Don’t
move the mouse. You'll shoot off
somewhere.

Now is a good time to practice
landing, which you'll have to do
when your fuel runs low, Gently let
the craft down, using small amounts
of thnist until it settles. Wasn't that
easy? Now foT flying around - just
the same, but different

T AKK off so that you’re clear of
the trees and houses, but not too
high up, and push the mouse forward
so that the Hoverplane is at 45
degrees to the ground. Now hold
down the thnist button and the ship
will start moving away from you.
Release the thrust button and lei
gravity pull you down again. To bring
the craft level, pull back on the mouse
until it is square with the ground.

This is the basic principal of flight.

To turn around move the mouse left

By Max Tennant

or right - the plane will pitch over
and turn in the desired direction.

Then begin to tip the nose. Once you
are facing in the direction required,
press the thrust button,

Remember not to move the mouse
too quickly - and not too far - you
actually have to move it a very small
distance for complete control. One
problem you’ll get into is flying
upside down, heading towards the
ground. Don't panic. Move the mouse
back in the apposite direction to your
last movement — rule two — don't
forget the last direction you moved

VIRUS FAX

• There are 15 real levels; after
that level 15 is repeated with
gravily increasing each time and
the map changing every five
levels.

• The map is a torus. Fly off the
edge to take short cuts.

• Don’t move the mouse when
paused. You’ll probably restart
upside down.

• Allhough you score 40 points for
shooting each infected tree the
explosion you cause spreads the
virus, so only shoot trees where
the ground has already been
infecled.

the mouse in - remembering not to
shift too quickly.

The hoverplane should return to its
upright position. Then, and only then,
hit the thrust button to get out of
danger.

Flying upside down is an artionn —
it s great fun. Another neat trick is
hovering above the sea. It is a matter
of practice with the thrust button, so
you can sit just a pixel above death
and watch the Fish jumping happily
around.

Once you have won your wings
you need to learn how to win at the
game.

At the beginning of the First level
the First thing most people do wrong
is take off. Don’t. Wait until you are
refuelled before leaving the pad.

L OOK at the map and find the
nearest Seeder, represented by a
light blue blip on the scanner. Fly
towards it until you make visual
contact. Dog fight by using the
shadows — no, I didn’t know Hank
Marvin was in this game either-
they make it much easier to work out
the distances between craft.

Fly as close as possible, slightly
above and to one side of the Seeder,
This is because if you are above the
alien you have to point your nose
down, which means the vectored
thrust will keep you aloft. When you
are sure of a kill, fire one shot. Each
bullet costs you a point, so only fire
indiscriminately in the most dire of
emergencies.

Watch out for Drones shooting
trees. These mutate from the regular
red and brown spaceships which
behave rather like low power
ho verp lanes to red and purple mutant
drones which will head straight for
you. So listen out for the sound of a
drone firing at foliage to know when
it is trying to mutate. You don’t get
any such warning from Fighters,

74 AMtGA COMPUTING December 19BA

■ADVENTURES!

These move in a similar way to
mutant Drones* but need to be shot
twice, Fighters can give as good as
they get* so don't worry about
wasting a few shots In your attack.

Even trickier are the Bombers,

When you hear Ihe whine of jet
engines fly towards the source and try
to get behind and slightly above your
quarry. Bombers are difficult to hit, s>
fire like crazy* and don't worry about
the cost in points. It is a good strateg;
to kill the parachute bombs first,
since they arc the major spreader of
the virus.

Pests are nasty little things who
home in on you* firing an incessant
barrage of bullets, and will crash inlo
you kamikaze style. Since Pests
accelerate towards you as they come
in to attack U is possible to use their
momentum to your advantage.

Find somewhere on the map that is
close to sea level but surrounded by
hills or trees, and hover, waiting for
the Pest. When it zooms in, with a bit
of luck it will crash straight into the
ground.

Once you have progressed through
a few levels you will meet an

Attractor, This is a ship which pulls
you towards it, Rather than trying to
escape, use its force to your
advantage, Fly towards the Attractor,
slingshot round using Ihe extra force
it provides, then turn and shoot.

The mystery craft is the biggest foe.
It is a space battlecruiser which
launches a stream of pest-like mini-
fighters. which make attacking the
craft difficult. Not only do you need
to swat the mini-fighters, you can’t
use a missile on the cruiser because
your weapon might lock on to a mini-
fighter instead.

Depot

Bouncing bombs
may be obtained
in this depot

Grid ref 0178

T HANKS Gary, and I must also
thank Matt Peck and Sally
Pritchard for their programs and
maps which unfortunately have
proved too long to print. Another
mouse-moving superhero is Dermot
Smurfit from Surrey. He has some
hints for StarGlider 2.

Find Professor Taymar early on. He
will install a cuboid launcher. You get i
Fire and Flee missiles from the depot

TUNNEL SYSTEMS

Grid ref.
O110

BROADWAY

Fire and flee
missiles
found in
depot

ou Broadway and the Bouncing
Bombs you will need for destroying
projector bases on Castmn. The maps
show r how to navigate around the
tunnels.

The best place to re-fuel is Castro n
because it is small and the power
lines can be found quickly. Before
going there visit Enos to collect a
petrified tree. This can be swapped
for a crate of Castrobars on Caslron.

Some of the objects on your
shopping list are just lying around if
you know where to look. Crates of
Vistan wine litter the surface of
Vista, mini-rockets can be found
on any, heavily Egron-occupied
planet and clusters of nodules
can be found on Dante. But
some things require a

►

December 1963 AMIGA COMPUTING 75

■ADVENTURES*

trade. You will have to swap a space
whale to get a flat diamond.

Once you have the neutron bomb
built you need to get it to the space
station. Use stardrive until the very
last moment when approaching the
space station to avoid Egron craft.
Once the bomb is launched hit the
Stardrive to escape or else the bomb
will explode and kill you.

T HE final tip this month comes
from Trev Meredith, who has
mastered Sunlogic's Jet. He says:

Press 1 to select the scenario and then
R for the skill level. Take off as
normal but as soon as the enemy
planes appear on radar use the M61,
The score will advance very rapidly
up to 600,000.

Another neat Jet trick is to use
scenario G and* select only AIM 9 and
7, Without altering attitude fire at
ships as soon as any detail becomes
visible, this will get you to level 8
where there Is a surprise in store.

Entrance/ exit

h

Tunnel forr-efield

APOGEE

Max “ The Hacks” Tennant is the master of
game play. If you have a tip for a game send it
to Max Tennant, Amiga Computing, 78-84
Ongar Road , Brentwood, Essex CM15 9BG.
For every one we print we’ll send you a game
from the collection in our goodie drawer and
a fabulous Konix Speedking, as used by all
serious joystick jockies.

L

WANT IT CHEAPER?

|

01-6724791

Phone
Between
8AM-9FM
7 days a
week

IHAIIDWAIE

A 500, E375

A1 054 Col Monitor ™,„£28Q

A5D0+ 1084 ........... „E579

A501 V. Meg E*p £105

A52Q Modulator, .£22

ExL 3.5" 1 Meg Drto., Et05

A2CKKU10B4 Mon, £1377

peripherals

Easyi A4 Graphics Tablet £270

Oierry A3 Gr**te. Tablet...,. £500

Taxan Plotter (6 Ports) £730

Amiga MPS150QC Cot Printer £277

Epson UtflOO Dot Matrix £279

XEROX 4020 .E99Q

Star Colour Printer £239

OKI 20 Col Printer £166

LMSltMiES

AC BASIC Compiler 1150

AC FORTRAN. £230

Assent Pro £39

Aztec C Developer.. £224

Devpac — £40

KSeka ..-..£35

Lattice C — £130

True Basic £55

True Basic Retime .£55

D.E0SID0BE

I AaaigM

.£13,50

Dungeon Master
Bite

.£16.00

,£13.50

Empire Strikes Back ^
Creature

£13.50
£1 6.50

Final Mission

Entefceptor

Lartoelci

£1350

£1750

£1350

Star Glitter 2

Ster Ray

£16.50

,,£16-50

Virus

.£13,50

Whirligig

£13.50

Xnnnn

£13.50

PlusManyMw

All Pikas INCLUDE VAT
Some prices may be cheaper I So
why not phooe end find outl This is a
small selection, so phone tor any Hem
you require chesty, i e. Paper,
Disks, Business Pasks/Software,
Games. Hardware, Printer, Modems,
Unities, and Consumables
And Much More.

DATA BRAIN LTD. 52 Idlecumbe Road. Tooting, London SW17 9TB

The U.K. Amiga
User Group

Are you new to the Amiga, finding it difficult
to harness the power of this amazing com-
puter?, Then what you need is help from the largest
group of Amiga enthusiasts in the world outside of the
United States.

Members receive:

• Excellent discounts on software

• Technical support and on line help

• Superb hardware reductions

• A bi-monthly newsletter of over 60 pages!

• Access to a PD library of over 250 disks

• AUse of an Amiga only bulletin board

DONT HESITATE - JOIN NOW and Start to
appreciate what Amiga computing is all about , , .

For further details write, enclosing a stamped
addressed envelope to:

The ILK. Amiga User Group
66 London Road
Leicester LE2 OQD

Or Telephone:

Leicester (0533) 550993

76 AMIGA COMPUTING Dwember 1988

ft *

lit ,

ALL ORDERS OVER £30
GUARANTEED SECURICOR DEUV

Lifetime
Guaranteed,
double sided,
double density,
135 TPI,
bulk wrapped
discs with labels

Quantity Price

10 £8.99

20 .....£17,89

25 £22.29

SO £43.99

100 £84.99

Lifetime
Guaranteed,
double sided,
double density,
48TPI,

bulk wrapped
discs with labels

Quantity Price

10 £3.49

20 £6.50

25 ...£7.99

50 £15.50

105 £31.00

NEW BULK DISC
PACKAGE DEALS!

3.5" Discs

40 Discs + 40 Capacity box £39.99

80 Discs + 80 Capacity box £74.99

5.25" DISCS

50 Discs + 50 Capacity box £17.99

100 Discs + TOO Capacity box ...£34.99

LOCKABLE DISC STORAGE BOXES

35" 5.25"

40 capacity £5.49 SO capacity £5.49

80 capacity £7.49 1 00 capacity £7.49

Plastic Storage Box - holds 10 (State 3.5" or 5.25") 75p

QT as AMICAO Rin 9 us N0W for our ultra low prices
v I VJI HIVIIUH f on these two leading computers

UP TO 35% OFF ALL 16 BIT SOFTWARE

e.g. Rocket Ranger (Amiga) £20.99 Starglider II (ST/Amiga) £17.39

| ALL PRINTERS NOW WITH FREE BOXO^ApS

Branded discs: Sony, TDK, Verbatim, Dysan 3.5" Discs
FULLY GUARANTEED MEDIA - BEST PRICES IN UK!

CHEAP! CHEAP!
3.5" DISKS 3.5"

.£7,30

£18.00

£35.50

£52.50

£69.00

UNCERTIFIED,

UNGUARANTEED,

3 S* BULK DISCS

^ ^ —

BY PHONE 0244 312666

1

BY POST TO ABOVE ADDRESS

| Postage: All orders under £15.00 add
75p, Overseas £3, Over £15.00 FREE
All prices Inc. VAT

1

BY FAX 0244 314635

BY TELEX 61556 CARIBA G

-

T HE Bitmap Brothers, like the

Thompson Twins, are not really
related. Mike Montgommery, Eric
Matthews and Steve Kelly met
through programming. Mike was
project, leader at Virgin where he
worked with Eric on the Spectrum
version of Scalextric,

Steve had also worked on a
Spectrum driving game. Chequered
Flag for Psion, but it was not until 16
bit computers arrived that they
became siblings.

The first Bitmap Brothers game was
Xenon, which was sold through

Melbourne House, a
label owned by
Mastertmnic which
has now been bought
by Virgin games.

Most computer
companies seem
to exist inside
one another like
Russian dolls. Xenon
was a huge success,
helped by its
appearance on the
television programme
Get Fresh.

They produced a
special version for
the telly where you
only lost points for
getting shot, and did
not get killed. The
time was limited, so
you could only get to
the end of level one.
“Unfortunately all the
games were recorded
in a two day stint",
says Mike, "and the
kids realised that if
they flew slowly they
would avoid the big
enemy at the end
which would rob you
of all the points you
had won in the last
few seconds. A poor
but sly player could
beat a brave, skilful
one".

The success of
Xenon attracted the

Terrible
trio hit
the spot

Are you ready to tackle Speedball?
Simon Rockman talks to the
programmers with spiked gloves

big bucks from Mirrorsoft. Along
with an offer of more money than the
massed ranks of Melbourne House,
Mastertronic and Virgin could muster
came Mirrorsofts new games label
“The Image Works", which some
people still think sounds more like a
question than a name.

The game the fuss was over was

73 AMIGA COMPUTING December matt

■HOUSE CALL*

ally

16

SpeedbaU, a proper Amiga game. Yes.
there is an ST version, but it lacks the
finesse of the Commodore
implementation. Only Amiga owners
benefit from hardware scrolling and
full screen overscan.

The playing area is three screens
high and it takes up 592 by 160 bytes
for each of the double buffered
displays. A total of 186k screen ram.

No wonder the Bitmaps ran low on
space; sound takes another 90k and
the player Sprites a further 80k.
Obviously there wasn't enough room
for the digitised picture which
provided an entertaining start to
Xenon.

The game ''borrows”
ideas from Rollerhalf
football and Mike’s fave
sporl squash. “It is not",
insists Eric, "metal men
playing football”. Still it
does take place on a metal
clad pitch and you play
five a side. Your aim is to
score goals either against
the computer or a friend.

When the instructions say
that SpeedbaU is a contact
sport [ don’t think they
mean clouting your sister
with a joystick when she
is winning.

Initially jthe controls
look simple - eight
direction joystick
movements to move the
player nearest to the ball
around. But the fire button
adds a degree of subtlety.

important. Learn to pass to avoid
being tackled; if necessary, run back
down the pitch and double back,

Keep zig-zagging to avoid tackles. As
in soccer, games are won or lost by
the goalkeeper. When the screen
scrolls to show your goal you gain
control of Mr Goalie, This works in
conjunction with the highlighted
player, so you need to decide which
of the two players you should be
looking at. About half-way down the
bottom screen is where Mike switches
over.

The goalkeeper cannot hold the hall
hut can lob it upheld. Learn how the

The deflectors only affect the hall at ground level

irunru'miT tmimn nn

I:

F the player is in
* possession of the hall
the length of time the
button is held in
determines the level of the
throw. A short jab to fire
at waist height or a mean
grip to lob the ball over
the heads of the enem,„
erm, opposition.

If you don't have
possession and the hall
is overhead, a touch of the fire button
allows you to jump and grab the ball.
Fire and a direction pul you into a
sliding tackle, which is a rapid way to
move around the pitch, and is the
move you should execute at kick off.
When you have control of the goalie a
touch on the fire button makes him
dive.

Possession of the ball is all

TERM

[.TCEnTTV

fthf to

nonony

np.RY oo Ftn

rROTRir.

vrnori

HEIGHT.

1 PPM

roo Mftin Ticno

ME

TOHT-

1 RUM

t'Kinmr:

. •

nt. **Yirvs r tr, y

OF

I5HT' •

rovo

"T Pi F "1 .1 Oft

: 034, •

F.TTVfTnn

• O£0

PQMCf}

POO-

nni-iFi-

• ion

ft* ILL

por

; *.»

ICC ; ::

OMR

You need to learn which statistics matter

ball hounces. Shots which bounce off
the side walls can be very difficult to
save - a useful tactic for offence.
Almost as useful as taking out the
opposing goalkeeper.

In this game of the 21st Century it
is not considered bad form to foul the
goalkeeper and an aggressive tackle
will knock him out of the area.

Other tactics are less overt. A

number of tokens appear on the
screen in the form of spinning tiles.
With 16 frames of animation for each,
they look great, and the effect is even
better. A tiled marked D will decrease
your opponent's stamina, while S will
increase yours. Running over a mine
yields eight death dealing balls which
will knock out enemy players,
whereas an E will only produce one
hostile ball moving in the same
direction as your player,

A G gives your player the ball.
Keeping it is important, so picking up
a P is useful because that gives you
ID seconds during which you are
protected from being
tackled. Trashing the oppos
is easier if you grab a
question mark which will
slow them dow n or an F
which will freeze them.

In a two player game
you can baffle your
brother by running over a
letter J,

This reverses the wav his
joystick works.

HE most common
kind of token bears a
red square. These can be
collected like Esso tiger
tokens and redeemed at
the end of a game. Two
tokens are sufficient to
bribe the official. This
makes the next game last
longer.

For three tokens you can
either buy extra stamina
(Ben Johnson - watch out)
or bribe the timer. This
makes the tokens stay on
the screen longer,

With four tokens saved
you can nobble your foes
by bribing their trainer or
reducing their stamina,
which in turn reduces the
speed of their moves. Four
tokens will buy you
extra stamina.

Either by saving up from previous
games or by some extra nifty
footwork, you could have gathered
six tokens. This buys extra power for
you, reduces the opponents 1 skill, or
best of all allows you to bribe the ref.
This means you start one goal up in
the next game.

A full house of seven tokens can be

Det ember ima AMIGA COMPUTING 79

I T is possible to finish, for which
you are rewarded with a special
message from the Bitmaps, However
it takes a lot of practice, only one of
Mirrosoft's ski lied games testers has
managed this feat, A league match

Speed baH bears
H family
resemblance
to Xenon

refused to say much about their next
project.

If you have a modem you could try
asking for yourself. The Bitmap
Brothers BBS is on 0245 413728,
Getting a meaningful answer might be
difficult, but you'll have fun on the
hoard.

<

swapped for a reduction of the
enemy's power, This means they can't
throw the ball as far as you can.

You can either play against a
friend, in a league or as a knockout.
Speed ball is best as a two- player
game. A modem option was ruled
out, but may feature in the next
Bitmap Brothers game.

The knockout is a progressive way
to play. The opposition gets harder as
you win more matches. Each round is
played as a best of three, with two
points for a win and one for a draw,
Three points are needed to get
through.

offers you the chance to assess your
ability against all the other teams with
opponents drawn at random, I spent
far too long at the bottom.

Speedball heads up an amazing
array of Image Works products -
Rombuzak Fernandez Must Die and
Rocket Ranger. While the Bitmaps

BULK DISKS AT CRAZY PRICES

OUR SPECIAL OFFER PRICES ARE UNBEATABLE!

PteiK nottwft npwtrt a a»n itecfclng atim- OuisWe orn» hour* s toMwn* 4 ^
FWnffnbBr - al priow indud* VAT ind Wkwryl Thete *re no hidden hitbs to pay! FwonH caWers wetaHi*: tlandiy- Friday 9.3frm - 4.30pm

m AMIGA COMPUTING December 1988

MIRACLE SYSTEMS

NBC, Dean Road, Yate, Bristol BS17 5NH
Telephone orders welcome on (0454) 317772

2nd PRINTER INTERFACE

Use your Amiga’s serial port to
drive a second Centronics
compatible printer. A 3 metre
cable is included - no extras
required.

By selling direct we can provide
the best price and maintain the
highest quality. Rest assured that
if, for any reason, you do not wish
to keep the item, then return it to
us within 14 days of purchase and
we will refund your money in full.
Should any item purchased from
us fail during the first 12 months
then we will repair it free of
charge.

NEC mechanism
880K capacity

Access

December mm AMIGA COMPUTING Si

DATbL cLECTitOpiCS 1

r

*— i f=f writ

M^W ITIf^

flP| BBMI

DlIlEL

stnpui

A top quality sound sampling system
at a realist price,

0 1 00 ^ m^hlnccvde software for
realtime futictluns.

0 HIRes sample edihng.

0 Realtime frequency display
0 Realtime level meters,

0 Files saved In IFF fbrmal-
0 Adjustable mariu&l/autufnatlc r«nrd
trig level.

ONLY £69.99 PLEASE STATE A500/ 1000/2000

Variable sample rate & playback speed-
Separate sc mil line waveform windows
plus mom function with Edit windows
for line accurate editing-
3D shot of sound waveform- Wave
editor to design your own waveforms

or adjust existing one*.

Microphone ft line Input 1/4' Jack S
Ddn cOCWKCtlOOB.

Software flies can be used within
other music utilities.

To complement the Sample Studio I he
D*tel Jammer gives you a 5 octave
keyboard to play & record your sampled
sounds.

FEATURES :

0 4 track sequencer up k 99^9 events.
0 tempo & Heat coni rols
0 Mixer Controls Oh Instruments.

0 Load & Save sequence.

0 Works on standard IFF file sounds

□ MIDIMASTER

0 Full Midi Interface for A500/ 1 000/
2000 (please state model!

0 Compatible with moat Jelling Midi
package^ (Including D/Mualc) .

0 Midi In - Midi Out *3 - Midi Thru.
0 Fully Opto isolated
0 Ho need to pay more - Full Midi
standard, _ _

on ly £34.99

□ MIDI CABLES

0 Top quallty-
0 3 metre length

ONLY £6.99 PAIR

UNBEATABLE VALUE

□ MIDI MUSIC
MANAGER

A TRULY PROFESSIONAL

MIDI PACKAGE AT A

realistic price

0 Flay sampled sounds cm Amiga from
any Midi track.

0 Full dubbing - listen to one track
while recording another.

0 Works with many Midi interfaces

including Batel Midi Master Isee Ad) ■

0 ft realtime Midi tracks for record/

0 Adjustable track length - limited only
by av-.il able memory,

0 Work* with siamdard IFF flic*.

only £39.99

□DISC/STORAGE □ DATA/SWITCH
BOX OFFERS BOXES

0 DP40 holds 40 3. 6" diacs. Lndkablr--

only £6.99

0 DDdO holds 30 3.5' discs. Lockable.

only £8.99

□ discs”

0 3.5 DS/DD.

0 Top quality- bulk packed-

only £22.99

FOR 25 DISCS

□ ROBOTARM

FULL FUNCTION * 5 AXIS MOVEMENT

~ A ■— - - - auljt-l-i tLr-f+Miu-af

0 Explore the fascinat Lng science of
Robotics with this full feature
Robot Arm.

0 Human like dexterity with 5 Axis of
movement St is so versatile. It can
manipulate small objects with
amazing ability.

0 Easily controlled using 2, Joysticks
[any 9 pin type) or connect to your
Amiga with our Interface + Software
to gtvo Compuler/RobOtie control
[see Interface after).

□ INTERFACE OFFER

0 Unique Sofhvarc/mrdwart package
to allnw you to Interface your Amiga
with the Rohotarm.

0 Train mode allows you te store & then
repeat movement sequences.

0 Very easy to use.

A/B type canned iwo primers to one
computer or vice-versa.

A Centronics connections or R5J32

Serial connections (2$ pin). Please slat*. I

ONLY £24.99

0 ABC type connect three printers to
one computer or vice-versa.

0 Centronics or HS232 connections.

o nly £34.99
□PRINTER LEADS

0 25 pin 'D" to 36 way Centronics

parallel lead. S im lengt h

0 A5O0 or I GOO. please state.

only £8.99

Comes with Accessories Inducting
Finger 1 Jaws, Magftehc Attachment,
Shovel Scoop, 4 Stabilizing Suction
Rase Legs, etc.

Uses 4 HP2 batteries [next supplied! to
power motor movement so uses no
computer power.

Self contained, ready to use [except
batteries. Joystick*!-

only £49.99

This interface Is not needed lo use the
tiobotarffl hut interfacing with your
Amiga has great possibilities.

only £24.99

COMPLETE WITH CABLES.

AMT. 1

DATbL ELECTROnlCS'

□ EXTERNAL 3.5" DISC DRIVE

0 Slimline extra Low profile unit - only
6" long!

9 Tup quality NEC drive mechanism.
9 Througfipcrt allows, daisy-chaining
other drives,

0 A -superbly styled ease finished In
Amiga eotoure.

9 Fully compatible.

0 1 meg unformatted rapacity.

9 Good length cable for positioning on

9 Value for money - before you hyy a
drive please compare (be features
this drive bas an NEC drive unit & is
housed In a superb housing - many
units available are built In a price &
not a standard. I Jon's spend a lew
pounds less & end up with 'rabbLsh 1 -
A remember you are buying from the
manufacturer,

Complete - no more to buy.

Single or twfr drive models available.

your desk etc

ONLY £ 89.99 SINGLE DRIVE £1 49.99 TWIN DRIVE

ADD £5 FOR COURIER DELIVERY IF REQUIRED

J 51 2K RAM EXTENSION CARD

0 Available with /without calender/clock option.

0 Simply plugs internally into A500 slut.

0 Switch in/out with switch -Supplied.

0 Fil led In minutes - no Boldertr^, etC-
^ Accepts 4 1 256 DRams [zero K fitted] .

9 With calendar /clock onboard tlme/date automatically booted.

9 EiiUeiy backed to retain tlme/date.

only £19.99 FOR STANDARD CARD TO ACCEPT 312K
only £34.99 FOR VERSION WITH CLOCK/CALENDAR

PHONE FOR LATEST

FULLY POPULATED BOARD / RAM PRICES.

□ MARAUDER II

QUITE SIMPLY THE BEST DISC COPIER AVAILABLE FOR THE
AMIGA (ALL MODELS]

Superfast disc ropier will copy almost
any rammerckd disc.

Friendly user lolerioce ■ Mouse driven
throughout.

t’ornpletly oompalLbfo with Amiga
multitasking system,

Even decrypts many encoded
programs including D- Print/Vldeo/
PalnL/Muslc/[| etc.

Supports up to 4 drives
simultaneously for multple copies.

Special Strategy Files' cope with oven
the mofll advanced protection
schemes,

Now shipping the latest version.

Fast option •
seconds.

ONLY £29.99 POST FREE

typically around 80

Q USA’* top selling copier,

□ EXTERNAL DRIVE
^ SWITCH

V Switch Jn/out of extemal drives.

# Save on memory allocated for drives
not currently in use.

• DFI & DF2 coni rol led .

ONLY £ 9.99

□ REPLACEMENT
MOUSE

El Fully Amiga compatible.

41 Rubber coated ball.

^ Optical type.

o nly £ 24.99

□splitter lead

9 Allows joystick. * mouse to be

connected to same port.

ONLY £ 4.99

„

□ DATA ACQUISITION
UNIT

A Tum your Amiga Into a sophisticated
measuring instrument capable of
measuring a wide range of data Inputs.
Q Sample Si display events from
microseconds to hours- wit h,
amplitudes from mlltvolls to 50 volts.
• A Hardwajre/Software package with
Very high spec, including: -
DIGITAL SCOPS DISPLAY 2 channel
inputs, Manual or continues display.
Hmebase SQOms/div to 2Qus/d1v-
accuratc to B%.

A 1 6- bit flash conversion give* 2 million
samples/sec.

PLOTTER DISPLAY

Q Tlmebase range l see to JOhrs per plot.

All feature, found qn units coating
ihnuitndt of pounds,

only £89.99

PLEASE STATE A500/ 1000/20t»

ALL ORDERS NORMALLY DESPATCHED WITHIN 48 HRS

HOW TO ORDER ...

BY PHONE

D® S

07S2 744707

fthr Credit
Card Una

B Y POS T

Send cheques/POs made
payable to ' Date!
Electronics

FAX

0782 744292

UK ORDERS POST FREE
EUROPE ADD £1
OVERSEAS ADD £3

PRICES ANP SPECIFICATIONS CORRECT AT TIME OF PRESS
AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE

CALLERS WELCOME - Please reserve good* by telephone prior to

dAtel

ELECTT^OpiC?

PATEL ELECTRONICS LTD.* FENTON INDUSTRIAL ESTATE
GO VAN ROAD, FENTON, STOKErON-TRENT. ENGLAND.

SALES ONLY
0782 744707

TECHNICAL ONLY
0782 744324

AMG 1

Flight Sim 2
Scenery Dr&t 7 0fH

Infencspter

Indoor Soorts
Impact

PROFESSIONAL AMIGA SOFTWARE

PRINTERS

AMIGA HARDWARE

DATABASES

WQRO PROCESSING

DESKTOP PUBLISHING

ACCOUNTS

MUSIC

AMIGA B 200 Q

Micro PBfpherdft

SlarLCID

£14B

.......... £192

5-t-ftr 10 nnim ir

£263

Star LG24 10

site

Star NB24 in

....... £S00

SiarN&2* t<l -

£626

Epson LStSM —

Eo«n LQ5®

£340

Epson LQ0SO.

Epson LQ1050 ~

C656

Epton C-X650 iNsw my —

C3I79

Epson FX1Q5C< New in)

Cfcizai 120D

£478

£1S6

PanaaOniC 1081

_ El 71

ucr' PWin

ms

ucr 1 Lie Ok PUIS

NEC P7 Plus ...

„E679

Juki 6100

...........£296

Airstrud DMP 4000 .

£306

Epson Laser GQ35®

£1308

Panasonic Laser

cia*o

Mmvldt Packard j« 2

EtfltS

SKM SPECIALS

Sorry IF D&’DO .£15.®

90 Col Space Saving Printer -Stand C45.00

£10.00

£5.75

£10.00
__.E 5.75
— £17.25
£10.®

Storage Bos (100) —

Mouse Mai

Out Cover — — —

Primer Dual Covers

A4 Cqpy HoWw H33

4-Way Anti Surge
Nfoflfe Speed king Joystick — £20,®

LANGUAGE

LEISURE SOFTWARE

LONDON S LARGEST

^Mwbga

DEALER

All Prices Inel VAT
Carriage Free/Mail Order
Immediate Despatch

SK MARKETING

EEE COMPUTER SUPPLIES jj 4

10 Fulham Broadway, London SW6 1AA
(24 Hours) Telephono 01-381 6610^- Fax: 01-3B1 0528

, COMPARE OUR PRICES BEFORE ORDERING

FOR UNBEATABLE OFFERS!!

Export, Government and Educational orders welcome

Personal callers welcome
opposite Fulham Broadway
Tube Station - District Line

A 500 £375

• Amiga A 500 complete,

now only — - E375

■ Amiga A5O0 with TV modulator , £395

• Amiga ASOOwith 1900M high res

mono monitor — ...£460

• Amiga ASOO with A 1 084 high res

colour monitor ....... £6 10

• TV Modulator + £23

• Philips 8633 Monitor ...£270

• Amiga 32000 with 1 Mb RAM,

300 K 3,5" disk, mouse, software

,™..£ 114 S

• Amiga B2000 as above, plus
A1QS4 hi-ras colour monitor „,,£1355

• Amiga 02000 TM as above,
plus PX XT bridge board 3 floppy

£1745

• Amiga 1084 Monitor. £2i0

• A2010 Internal 3.5" Drive £175

• A2052 2Mb BAM Expansion £393

Eiipmsomat — , —

ETS.95

. ,....£16.05

fPT

£16.85

Earl Weaver Baseball

£16-50

ECO —

£18.95

Higmrwgni

..,£15,95

rinrltolrt

.£13 95

tflrvzo r ...... ,.— £16,56

GunshC

... £16.95

QT Qiana SisInS —

... £1 5.95

Gokton Patn

„ , £13.195

Qokkunner

... £17,95

Gotopjnner 2

£13 95

Guild erf Thieve* —

... £15.95

Gm&m Air nay

_.£16,95

,,.£15.®

Garrison 2— —

HeliSf ...

...tie®
... £13.96

HttcTihikef . .„ —

... £19,95

... E1B.95

Hollywood Hlplst - „

..£10®

Hollywood Poker

Hum fw Red Octijer —

,..£13.95

...116.96

j tori or — £1 5 as

Jewett qI Dsihnwi „ — f™

Ktogt Quest 3 Pack £19®

Kton el Cmcagc

ftdblarr 2 — - £7®

01-381 6618
(24 hours)

Mail Order -
Immediate
Despatch!!

ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT/CARRIAGE FREE

All pric«s are subject to change without further notice, All goode aubjacl to availability

■INTERFACE*

Phil South takes us into one of the most
important functions of the AmigaDos
command line interface

I T is not surprising that no one has
much experience of true multi-
tasking, for the Amiga is the first
micro to offer it as a feature, There's
so much to the Amiga as far as
graphics and sound are concerned,
that the productivity consequent on
running more than one program
at once has tended to take a hack
seat. But, if you do more on
your Amiga than play games, yon
can’t do without multitasking.

How do you use the system in a
multitasking format? As you probably
realise, every program you use on the
Amiga is in its own window, which
acts like the screen display on any
other computer. On the Amiga you
can have several programs stacked up
on your screen like a deck of cards.
You can click back and forth between
windows and programs by using the

To back and To front gadgets on each
window.

The commands you can use are
RUN, NEWCLI and the keypresses
which simulate Workbench mouse
button selections: Left Amiga/M sends
the current screen to the back. Left
Amiga/N brings the current screen to
the front, Left Amiga/V selects
CANCEL in a requester, Left Amiga/ B
selects RETRY, in a requester.

T HE basic rule about

multitasking is you can run
ANY programs together, provided
you have enough memory. You can
launch applications in AmigaDos in a
number of ways. You either click the
appropriate icon in the Workbench
screen, which is itself just a program f

Three
(or four)
tasks
into one
Amiga
will go

with its own screen, or you can type
the name of the program in a CLL
If you type NEWCLI a new window
opens with a 2> prompt instead of
the original 1>. This means that the
new CL! window is task 2, Each
window you open, each program, is a
task which the Amiga serves with
resources as required, hence the term
multitasking if you are running more
than one program at once.

Anything you type in this new
window will be acted upon in the
same way as any information typed
into the first window,

You can use each window
separately or run two processes
simultaneously. For example, you
could run a spelling checker over a
text file in one window while

December 1M8 AMIGA COMPUTING 85

ORDER FORM

TRYBRIDGE SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION

TWa

IT*

»»
11BS
llMS
... 13.16

11*
14. BA
1*46
i «46
1416
IT*

11 .*

U*

u*

11.15

11.15
11.95
1 **
1* 95

11.16
1495
1495
1195
I Z 95
i*95
1115
15 *
BN
i 3 *
•fl»

u.»

■3K

Tn*

Trrey

Tn™H*irtuH

UlmwQei

VrtDrpfW
Vxlit

wECL.Uuti

WwdOun

WVK*

WAS*

tircn _

IT*

chtaut

,„je ud. 7 — m i

PlltH rtmsmbif Id atata lh* make and modal dI your tempuler whan ordering,
PSP Inc. UK £1.00 Europe, ££.00 ElaOwhare ip*f Him. Telephone OV3*t*; 07M 76H3

Plaaaa aand rtieoueP.O.-Acceea. Vlaa numUl *r>d expiry d*la ta.
TTybTld&a Ltd. 72 North Street, Homlord, E*ux RUl 1 DA.

Send to: EREEPOST. Vidao Action, Europe House, Ad ting ton Park,
Arlington, Macclesfield SK TO 4NP. AIW

The bright new magazine that
shows you how easy it is to
make your own video movies...

If you have a video camera - or just
thinking of getting one - you'll find
Video Action! your passport to an
exciting new world. No dull technical
reviews but pages packed with help
and advice - written by experts in a
language anyone can understand.
You'll find all
you need to know
about lighting,
scripting, directing,
sound dubbing . . .
and the magic of
desktop video -
using a home
computer to
create titles and
captions and
generate your
own startling
special effects.

* Please send me the next 12 issues of Video Action l

1 for the special price of £13 (normally £jg)

| Payment; Please indicate method ( }

■ AccesssMasttifctif'ft-'EiitQCiifdfSarci&ycetd/Vtsa

I I I i i i i i lj LL.I...I. I

1 ~~}cheque/Eurocheque made payable to Database Publications Ltd

" Marne .

I Signed —

I A ddress

Expiry I j

Date L_ l

THE GAMES
SHOPPE

MAIL ORDER DISCOUNT SOFTWARE

CliMfStriligy

Fernandez Mut ^

£16 m

Gemea/SIrategy

Sde Arm*.

,.,,£13.95

£1695

Ptotoon

£1695

Ikari Warriors

£16 95.

Action Serwica

£13.95

Sufc Bailie Simulator

£16.95

£16.95

Tlnee Sleoge*

Joan of Arc — .

£20.95

.. £1 7.95

Crush Garrtf

E13.95

R(Kke1 Ranger ......

Gtriield

,..£20.95

, ,, £13.95

Spitting Inns^n

£13 96

Shr Oruy

£13.95

Bsyord the loo Pal see

£16 96

Jel

£27.95

£"!hnhiiy f5ri itfln

£13.95

Flighl S«fiuli1or ||

£279$

Vsdiorbal , ...

,..-.£10.96

C-alrluiTiifl Games

£16.95

Stnr fTurme

£13 95

Carrier Command

„rt.£16 9S

Streetlightar

£13.95

FiA ie Interceptor .....

£1695

Vixen ,

£13.95

£13.95

gtar Pay

£16.95

Adventuree

Tried

£20 95

Lancelot „

........,...£13.95

£16.95

MortvPi Manor

£16.95

Spaed ball

£16.95

Polk* Quest 1 * 2

each H6-9S

Pat Man ji

£13.95

Legend gl the Svkrd

£16.95

Federation Of Free Traders
Mol or Massacre

. rt ...E20.95

UiXnvItad

£20.95

£13.95

Shedowgete

ADSD - Pool pi Radiance ...

. . .£16 95

.. £13.95

£15.95

Butcher Nil!

......£13,96

Beyond ZorttV:..-.-,.

Dungeon Maater - .

Jlnsrier ...

£16.95

LHlmnate Golf

£13,96

£16.95

Highway Hawk*

Alien Syndrom* ................

£13,95

_£16.95

rt ..- £13,95

Mlnjfighter

£16.95

* All orders over £20 reeerv&d before 25tti December entered in prize draw #
Send SAE lor full price list, slating machine
prices Include postage & packing and VAT
Same day posting of goods in stock,
but please allow seven days
Please make all cheques/POs payable lo:

THE GAMES SHOPPE

4 Maggots Nook Rd., Ralntorri, St Helens WA11 8PL

■INTERFACE*

accessing the disc to got a directory in
the other.

Open up another window, and you
could be copying the contents of this
same disc to RAM: while the other
tasks are proceeding. Obviously
they 11 be queuing up for use of the
disc drive, the resource in use, but
they'll wait their turn and then
perform the task allotted them.

The next way to use this facility is
to use the word RUN when launching
a program. This opens a new window
and executes a program
automatically, just as if you'd opened
the window yourself and typed the
name of the program,

The last way of entering the
multitasking environment involves
either the CL1 or Workbench, You can
double dick on a program icon to
start it, then send that screen behind
the Workbench and launch the
application again. You can shuffle the
windows on your screen, and resize

them so you have the same
application running twice.

This ability to run the same
program twice, with each version
believing itself to have complete
control over the computer, is unique
to the Amiga. It is best with text-
based applications. Although the
game Tracers from Aetivison will
multitask, it is best left to word
processors, adventure games, text
editors and programming languages.

T HIS way you can cut and paste
information between the
applications without time wasted
powering down and booting up
again The only real Limits on how
many tasks you can run are the
amount of ram and the time you are
prepared to wait for them, as things
slow down considerably.

I'd be interested to hear anybody's
interesting multitasking stories,
especially any unique uses or
techniques you find useful. Write to

me with all your AmigaDos and CL1
problems: Phi! South, Amiga
Computing, 78-84 Ongar Road.
Brentwood, Essex, CM15 9BG.

IF ALL ELSE FAILS

If you ever get jammed up. and
something you've actioned doesn't
happen, search all the open win-
dows , either by clicking the gadgets
or by the Left Amiga keys. You may
find that there is a CANCEL RETRY
requestor or even an error message.
These must he answered before you
can continue.

If you still can 't get anything
going you *ve fust got your resources
in a twist. You 7 1 have to shut down.

Try using one of the public
domain utilities, like GOME to
prevent gurus from being terminal,
and a monitor program to chart
memory usage . They can save you a
lot of trouble when putting the
Amiga under stress by loading up
the tasks.

DISCOUNT SOFTWARE

GAMES:

Arcade Classics £12 95

Annals of Roma * £1595

Backlash £12.95

Bubble Bobble £12.95

Capone . - £18.95

Canier Command - ,.,,.£16.95

Eagles Nest Cl 2.95

Eco ....... £15.95

Ebon Star ... ... £15 95

Fit ntetones — — £12 95

Football Manager II .£14.95

GqJdru mer £ 1 595

Guild of Thieves ....... ,£15.95

kari Warriors ..£ 19.95

Lancelot £12.95

Fink Partner ,,,,£12.95

Rollng Thunder ,,,£15.95

Star Glider II £15-95

Stir Crazy £12 .95

The Pawn £15.95

Time Bandil £12.95

Time 5 Magik ,........£12.95

T#1ris„...r:. — < £12 95

Tracers — d 5 95

U.M.S - £15.95

Vector Ball ......,,...,, £1095

Virus £1395

WNrWfl.. < -.£13.95

Wizball £12 95

PHILIPS COLOUR
MONITOR CM8B33
with stereo sound

OUR PRICE £279.35

FOR THE AMIGA

WORD PROCESSING:

KText ..-Call

Kind Words £3995

Microtext £15-95

SPREADSH E ETS ; ^

ipread II ......... £49.95

□igicalc
KSp

GRAPHICS;

Digi Paint — £4195

Iniro Cad £44 .95

Photon Painl .£4995

PRO G RAMMING ;

Hisoft Base £68.95

Hisoft Devpac £39.95

K Saka £34.95

Metacomca Pascal .,..£68 95

DATABASES.

K Data — £34.95

Microbase £15 95

Omega fife £18.95

Superbase Personal ,.,,£68 95

COM MS;

K Comm II ,,*,,,,,..,£34.95

Pace Linnet Modem .....El 44 95

SOUND;

Adrom £29.95

Pro Sound Designer £59.95

Sound Design Software £27,95

ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT
it DELIVERY

accessories

Mouse Met £3.95

Amiga Keyboard Cover £3.95

Prim Lead (cenfl ■ £6 -95

Quicks hot tu rbo Joystick £11-95

3.5 Head Cleaner - ET.95

PRINTERS:

Panasonic 1081 : SO Column, 1 20 cps,

" Friction & Tractor £169.95

Sla# LC 1 0: 80 Column. 144 taps,

Fricton 5 Tractor £234.95

Star LC 10 Colour: As above with

seven colour option £269 95

Sw LC 24 10: 24 pin, 170 cps.

Friction 5 Tractor., £379,95

ROOKS:

Elementary Amiga Basic - Hi 95

Kiekstart Guide £ 2-95

Amiga Tricks £ Tips - £12 95

Advanced Amiga Basic £16,95

Amiga for Beginners £10-95

Amiga Machine Language .........,£12,95

Amiga Microsoft Basic £18.45

DISCS & BOXES:

Bulk 3.5 Discs 10 oft £9 95

Sony Branded Box of 10 - „ £15£5

Disc Box holds 50 ....£6.95

Disc Box holds 100 £7-95

All goods offered subject to availability. Overseas orders welcome - Please write tor prices. Callers welcome; Monday to Friday 9.30 to 5-OQ. Saturday 1 0.00 la 4.00

Please send cheques/PGs to:

M.J.C. SUPPLIES {AMG)

40a QUEEN STREET, HITCHIN, HERTS. SG4 9TS

■■I Tel: (0462) 421415 lor Enquiries/Credit Card Orders

December 1988 AMIGA COMPUTING 87

♦ HOME ACCOUNTS ♦

4 MAILSHOT ♦

4DGCALC4

Name

Address

Bfi AMIGA COMPUTING December Iftm

Cr EAZ YPRIM T Cl

Commodore

THE SINGLE SOURCE FOR YOUR AMIGA NEEDS

MAIL ORDER AND RETAIL SALES - Telephone: STAINES (0784) 66744

EXTERNAL 3.5" DISK DRIVES

- CUMANA, RF302C or AF880 -

ONLY £89.99 Inc VAT

LIMITED STOCKS - CALL NOW!

STAR LC 10 COLOUR

7 Colours

£284.00 inc VAT

THE EAZYPR1NT 'FULL SYSTEM*

- UK SPEC AMIGA A500 inc workbench, extras, basic, tutorial

- Commodore 1 084 Stereo colour monitor

- External iMb 3.5" drive

ONLY £685 inc VAT

■ As above with LC10 Colour printer. ..£960

- As above with A510 RAM . ...... £810

Olber specifications available - please call
(0784) 66744

ANY OF OUR PRODUCTS MAY BE ORDERED WITH MASTER
CARD OR ACCESS FOR SAME DAY DESPATCH

Amiga A5D0 — — — — £360.00

1064 Stereo Monitor.™ - ,£241,50

EXP 512K Ram (Unpopulated) - £60.00

A501 51 2K Ram ~ - „„.£1 32.25

TV Modulator ES 4.00

Amiga A 500 40Mb Hard DISC ES94.00

Amiga B2000 E1210.00

XT Brldgeboard ..... £300.00

20Mb Hard Disk £330.00

REMOVABLE HARD DISCS

Single External Unit (All Amigas) £1 144 inc VAT

Dual External Unit El 949 inc VAT

20Mb Cartri dge E74 inc VAT

ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT AND ARE BASED
ON CASH SALES

Courier Charge on orders under £500.00
ts £15.00 otherwise £10.00

P,e EAZYP C RINT(^pt. AMC), NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE, DRAKE AVENUE,
GRESHAM ROAD, STAINES, MIDDLESEX TW18 2AP

Official Company /Government outers accepted All prices subject to change.

V WSI

SEND FOR~"'^-'

FREE

BROCHURE PACK

At last, an inexpensive and genuinely
easy to use spreadsheet program.
Command and menu driven, 51?
rows* 5? columns, programmable
function keys, text overflow and
much, much more. Simple enough
for the beginner, powerful and fast
enough tor the professional

^£39.95

s ORDER NOW 24 HR
CREDIT CARD HOTLINE

\ 0395 45059

Ideal for both home users and small businesses.
Supports Workbench and multitasking, sim3*e to use,
this complete home accounting package will cat & tor
up to 10 income account* (t-S-, bar*, credit card,
and 6Ci categones of household attenditiK {e.g^
mortgage, rates, food, etc,} wim optional budgeting.
The program will automatically handle 100 Standing
Orders^ etc,, and allow you to produce your own
statements to check bank accounts )/char^es,
card*, etc. . . . Process up to 300 transactions per
account per year. Comprehenswe reporting facilities
inducto detailed statement, budget forecasts, p*e
and bar ctwts, etc.

S? 5 £29.95

A powerful merttiKSnven mailing,
program u$mg a unique system for
on-screen scrolling of labels. This
WYSIWYG {what you see is wM you
get} system means that any label
format you define on screen will be
identical wrtren punted.

As well as powerful sorting and
searching; (search tor anything, any-
where'}, Special Routines include
detection of duplicate labets, sur-
name sorting and many, many more
for business users, MAILSHOT PUJS
is a*» available.

£r £24.95

• DIGITA

INTERNATIONAL

TOP QUALITY PROGRAMS ATMAGICAL PRICES

All softwa'e written i n the UK Prices inc lude VAT & PSP ( add £2.00 tor expert }

rJtEASf RUSH ME PV RETURN (enter quaw; Please debit my ACCESS/VI5A CAFD

□GCALC

HOME ACCOUNTS
MAILSHOT

mailshot PLUS

Please send FREE Brochure
Pack

Signature .

Post to- DIGITA I NTtRN ATIONAL LTD
KELSEY HOUSE, BARNS ROAD,

BUDIEIGH SALTERTON, DEVON EX9 &HJ

■LETTERS!

Forgotten memories

TAM puzzled about the memory
management of the A 500, The
memory map shows there is 1 G meg
in the Amiga, If there is only 512k of
ram available to the programmer
what is the other 15 meg used for?

Also, where arc the "magic”
locations in the Amiga? The
Commodore 64 has chunks of
memory that control sprites, graphics
and sound [VIC II and SID chips] but
where are similar locations in the
ASOO's memory and whal should be
poked into them to get results?
Finally, could you explain how ray
tracing works?

Dean McCabe,
Dundee* Scotland.

Ah! an ex-C64 user. The (WOOD
processor in the Amiga can address
m megabytes. However the Amiga
itself can only use 9 meg because o f
positioning of the custom chips and
rom in memory: These need some of
the address space so that the 83000
can talk to thorn.

The reason that only 51 2k is
available to the programmer is that is
all Commodore fits as standard. You
can upgrade it to 2 Mb by using an
A 501 board, or if you had an Amiga
2000 you would start with 1Mb and
he able to upgrade to 9Mh,

Poking is a system of using a
machine which has Basic in place of
an opera ting system , All the "magic”
effects should he controlled from
Basic by using proper keywords.
Commodore brought out the dreadful
Simon *s Basic cartridge for the 64 to
do this . With the Amiga Commodore
has got things right Study the Amiga
Basic book and you will see that you
don't need to poke.

Ray tracing is a technique which
calculates the way objects react to

light. If you drew a white cube on the
screen and imagined that it was lit
from one side the opposite side would
be black and the top grey. A proper
ray tracing program calculates this
and can also work out the effects of
metallic surfaces, glass and textured
materials.

Have a look at the re views of ray
tracing programs in Amiga
Computing to see what can he done

Which printer?

1 AM going to buy an Amiga A500
and a colour printer. After reading
your review on the Star LC-10 and the
Okimate 20 in the July edilion, I think
that the Star LC-10 would be the best
machine for my requirements.

The trouble is that the LC-10 is not
available from the stores. Instead, 1
have been offered the Commodore
printer - the MPS 1500C - with the
Amiga. Having also read about the
shortage of ribbons for the printer I
am not sure this is wise.

In the Amiga A 500 brochure of
May 198? there is a photograph of the
MPS 2000C colour printer, yet when 1
ask at the computer stores nobody
can tell me what it is. Lei alone get
their hands on it.

Robert Steward,

Wolverhampton.

We would still recommend the Star
Call around a few dealers, you should
find someone who has an LC-10 in
stock. Both the printers are nine pin

Write to: The Editor, Amiga
Computing, 78-34 Ongar Road \
Brentwood, Essex, CM 1 5 9BG.
Well send the writer of the best
letter each month a program from
our goodie dra wer

and look pretty equal on paper,
although we \ e not seen the
Commodore model , The MPS 200UC
is no longer a lail&ble,

Which Amiga?

HAVING just sold my Commodore
64, 1 want an Amiga for Christmas
and I know that they are very
expensive machines so I am trying to
find which is the best package to get,

I know there are business packages
and ones which include monitors
[which l can! afford) and there are
just plain packages which contain the
Amiga and DPaint.

My query is about the modulator: Is
it standard in all packages which
don't contain monitors? Does a
modulator give a picture as good as a
monitor?

Spencer Smith*
Stockton-on-Tees

A modulated picture will not look as
good as one on a monitor. If your
television has a Scart connector on
the hack you won Y need a modulator
and the picture will approach the
quality of that on a monitor. For most
televisions you will need to buy an
A 521 modulator, which costs about
£25, Ignore the business packages - a
first look at the Digita Home Accounts
package shows it reasonably good but
we suspect you want to play games.

Go for an A 566 - which comes with
Basic and DPaint — and a modulator if
you need it.

New Kickstart

I HAVE recently bought a second-
hand Amiga inno and T am confused
as to whether it is compatible with
the Amiga 5IKI, I have spoken to a

►

Ltecembe r 1999 AMIGA COMPUTING 99

■LETTERS*

number of Amiga 50t> users and from
what they said it appears to me that
the A 5 00 has a built-in operating
system, version 1.2. Whereas my
A 1000 loads in the operating system,
version 1.1 from the Kickstart disc, Is
this true?

What is the difference hetween Vl.l
and VI, 2 operating systems? Do l
have to get Vl.2 to get compatibility
with the A50D? If so how do 1 get
VI. 2 for my computer? On another
Kickstart disc?

Damian Watts,
London.

Your local Commodore dealer should
be able to order a 1.2 upgrade kit for
you , He may have difficulty In getting
hold of one , in which case you should
contact Commodore direct on 0628
770088.

The Amiga 500 has Kickstart L2 t
but the greatest advantage of the 1000
is the ability to load whichever
Kickstart you want. Version 1.3 will

be available soon , and while A 500
owners will have to open up their
machines to fit a new chip you only
need to start the day with a new disc ,

Blown chips

COULD you please supply me with
the name and address of a company
which supplies an Eprom
programmer for the Amiga A 5 00? It
must be able to read, write to and
save to the common range of eprums:
2764. 271 2fl, 27256, The programmer
only needs to read hex format.

Andrew Wyllie,
Norfolk.

Merlin Computer r Industriestr. 26,
6236 Eschbom. West Germany can
fulfil your needs

IV is dead. Long live CBT

1 READ with great interest the article
on interactive video in September's
issue of Amiga Computing. 1 work for
a training establishment which after

investigating IV video decided that it
did not meet our training
requirements. As most subjects
demand constant updates and
changes to reflect modification states,
the expense of filming these changes
rules out video disc as a medium.

Good graphics and the ability to
manipulate these in a variety of ways
was the major consideration, and it
was decided that Commodore Amiga,
DPaint TI and AAAE - or in the
beginning Microtext - were the tools
required to meet the task.

To date the combination has proved
to be unbeatable, and some 60
training packages have been
produced reflecting many, but by no
means alL of the possible
applications.

It has also proved to be the best
and cheapest method of achieving the
type, quality, and quantity of training
required and has resulted in
substantial reductions in the training
times for most courses.

Roy Stephenson*
Preston.

Aaargh £13.50

Annals of Rome . £16.20

Arcade Classics £13 20

A re na .... — £22 .50

Amegss ..,.£16 20

Arkenoids f 16.20

Balance of Power ... £19,40

Barbarian (Palace) *..**...*.*..» £13.50

Barbarian (Psygnosisj .............. ........ ..£16.20

Setter Dead Than Alien * .......,.,£13.50

Beyond The Ice Palace £17.20

Carrier Command £16.20

Championship Golf ,,£22.50

City Defence £10,00

Crazy Care £16.20

Defender of the Crown £19.40

Elf £12,50

Empire Strikes Back* ...... ,,,£12.50

Flight Sim. II .......£26.40

Scenery Disk 7 £16.00

Scenery Disk 11 ...£16,00

Scenery Disk Europe.... Cl 3. 50

Scenery Disk Japan £13.50

Football Manager II £13.50

Ga rrison II ,*....„. — ■ ■ £1 6 20

Gauntlet* £16.20

Guild of Thieves ....,.......£16.20

Gunship £16,20

Hunt for Red October „,*„ £16,20

Insanity Flight £16,20

Jet £25 SO

Mike the Magic Dragon ......,£10.00

0 bl iterate r “*■ ..£16,20

Peter Beardsley Football ...*....,...£12,50

Pink Panther £12-5*

Ports of cail .*.*..,,,£25.50

Roiling Thunder ............ £16,20

Sentinel 3,50

Silent Service £16.20

T e rra me* £ 1 3 .50

Ultima III £16,20

Xennon £13.20

Access 64 for A500 ............................. f46,50

Access 64 for A10CC £46.50

AC/Basie Compiler ,£107.50

AC/Fortran £16000

Analize £1 25.00

Analise tl £58.50

Azetec C Comp. Prof £150.00

Azetec C Comp, Devlp. £233,00

Azetec C Commercial ,....* ..*.*,,...,,£387.50

Calligrapher V1.05 - £50.50

City Desk 1.1 £73,50

Cl imate * ■ ■ 50

Data Retrieve ..*..£44,50

Digi Paint *.*......£42,00

Digi View ... *.*,,£102.50

Director £44.50

Ring now for more details. We stock a vast collection of utilities.

All prices include P&P in the UK. For Europe add £2 for P&P. Titles with asterisk not available at time of going to press
3 Ripley Close, Langley, Slough, Berkshire SL3 7QH. Telephone; (07531 41187

UTILITIES

DiskMaste r ,*..*... .*,., ■ £29 -SO

Excellence £170 00

Express Paint ....£50.00

Intro Cad £42,00

K Seka 68000 Assam. 1.5 £37 30

Lattice C 4.0 £132.50

Lattice Prof £225.00

Lisp - £101.50

Micro Assembler .*„* * .£53.50

Maxiplan A 500 £72.00

Maxiplan Plus ........ - .........,,...£110,00

Music Studio - £21,50

Page Flipper £25.60

Pag e Plus - ..... ..... ...... £93 .50

Pag e Setter .. ... .. ..... - £90 .50

Pascal 2.0 £65 50

PixMate * ...£36,50

Pro-Sou nd Des i g ner . . , „ £56 00

ProSound Software .,,,£25 50

Publisher 1000 £148.50

Scribble * £72.50

Shell - - £34 ,50

Superbase Personal ,,,£73.50

Superbase Prof. £184.50

TextPro - £42,80

Toolkit £29.50

TV Show ,*£61. 50

Word Perfect .,,,£171.50

BLANK DISKS 3.5* DS/DD (10) ..£12.50

5,25 DS/DD (101 £6.50

All with labels

90 AMIGA COMPLETING Perembit 1WM

1. -mw v wii 3 m i *

Gacne^ §

1 . 1 '

t’^rtron

Look what

s

waiting

when

you

you join the

fas.es. grow-^g.

electronic mail serv.ce

Four years' continual development have made MicroLink Into
the COMPLETE communications and information system for
everyone with a home or business computer.

And it's so easy to use. From your keyboard, linked to a
modem and phone, you can directly key into the services
shown above - and many, many more.

Every day thousands of electronic mail messages pass between
MicroLink subscribers throughout Britain . . . and many other parts of the
world. From their keyboard they can also send telex and fax messages,
without the need to buy expensive equipment.

MicroLink can be used with ANY computer, from a tiny hand-held Psion
Organiser or Z88 portable to the most sophisticated computer of all And from
anywhere where there is a telephone point.

So if you want to speed up your mail, tap into a weather satellite, carry out
company searches, obtain free legal and financial advice, order flowers, book
theatre tickets, negotiate a mortgage, help yourself to free telesoftware programs
- or go adventuring in the land of Shades, the world's biggest multi-user game -
then there's only one answer - MicroLink.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT mkioUDk

Please send me Name

more facts about Address

! rnicroLiok

Send to: MicroLink, Europa House , Adtington Park r Adtington , Macclesfield SK10 4NF. AMcia

J

One number to dial . . .
one security password .
one simple log-on ,
and you're only a
keystroke away from
the best information
and entertainment
services now available!

SAVE ££££*8 SAVE ££££'n SAVE ££££*8 SAVE ££££'s SAVE ££££*s^

Address •

.P&tfrndi

untry

Ttrt jI Amount £

hL^iuiture

VE ££££'a SAVE ££££■ a SAVE ££££’s SAVE ££££'s SAVE ££££'8 SAVE ££££’s SAVE ££££^s

Don't dice with dodgy discs! ^jjp
Buy top quality products
from the Mail Order Specialists!!

1

MELTON COMPUTER SUPPLIES 5

Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. LE13 1YG ^

.Tel: 0664 410666 (24 hra). Fax: 0664 410221 mtgm tg

Pio» for our bfrt priw Wt.» ■■ R

v — 1 EDUCATIONAL * GOVERNMENT ORDERS WELCOME ■ ^

e*oe Remember the price you see is all you pay (U.K. only). Prices include VAT and carnage

AVE ££££'« SAVE ££££’« SAVE ££££'« SAVE ££££’s SAVE ££££'s SAVE ££££'s SAVE ££££ a

92 AMIGA COMPUTING Da ember 1988

JOYSTICKS - NEW RAMiK!

Wk

MOOSE BRACKET - £4,99

::: HjOPPV mSKounts*!

the more you hit -

THE MOKE YOU SAVE!!!

Pleaie rmg“

► lor our Special 4
V Prices on m

siokack nows

BRANDED B.5 M RISKS

HULK PACKEI1 OFFERS -
1IEST VALUE IN TOWN

README.DOC

Eidersoft, Triangle, Computer Factory

By the time that you read this magazine Power Computing and
Eidersoft Software will have joined to form a larger, stronger
company, better equipped to serve the needs of our customers,
The new Power Computing will operate from more central
headquarters in Bedford with new offices, warehouse and retail
computer shop.

This change also means a massive increase in new and exciting
products as well as a change in the way that Eidersoft Software
and Triangfe Peripherals are distributed to you our customers.
Wore direct distribution will mean much, much fewer retail
prices of the same high quality product. You won t find our
products “cheap" m the small ads any more but you win find us in
WH Smith , belter computer shops and direct in mis magazine
Wherever you buy you can be assured of the same competitative
retail pricing and total commitment to quality and no quibble

Don't accept second best look out for our new trading styles and
super products in mis magazine and at your computer shop.

x

POWER

goMFimRE

C $*ea&v* TovirfyUdmp

\ see ui

The V ,,he v

’Kickstart'™ Guide X \
to the AMIGA™ NTS

* si ill the recommended introduction to the Amiga \
for all serious programmers.

$ still available by mail order, and in bookshops.

ft still only £12.95 (+p&p) from Ariadne

jj* if you want to programme the Amiga, . . START I IERE!

KICKST ART II - More about the AMIGA
ft Coming soon - (advance orders being taken)
ft Includes: Going in low, without breaking everything.'
plus: lots on assembler, a bit more C,
and: loads of other new things

ARIADNE S OFTWARE LTD L | l~

273 Kensal Road. London WtQ 5 DB I r.- .

t & i; oi-96o 0203 LqL

ORDER FORM

Tiek

□ The 'Kk-ksurf Guide m the

A P, K 1 . \ fllK * r.An

I — I KICKS! A KT II - Moie Atom the
1 — 1 AMIGA £ 13,95 + pfcp

' AMIGA. £12.W* pfcF AMIGA E1J.6S + p™p

I’StT^ Lias UK r £1 JfiS flifnuil Europe, surface oui*ide Europe
| | Cheque 1 -m-li.wd If! tfetHflg) io AriadbeSoUwran’ Lid.

" 1 VISA □ACCESS □ AMERICAN EXPRESS,

Card Number— „ Expiry dMC—.

44 a&b Stanley Street, Bedford, MK41 7RW
0234 273000

I

j

|

a

v

H

a

II

II

i\

t!

f

1.

I

>

WIN

this solid silver
Grail worth £5,000,
in the exciting Quest
for the Holy Grail
competition , Full
details in every box,

Inside every box there’s a detailed guide to
playing Level 9 adventures, a background story to
the classic legend, a parchment map of Arthurian
England - and full details of how to take part in
the Quest for the Holy Grail competition,

Please send me Lancelot on □ cassette □ disc:

for: {state machine )

D / enclose a cheque for £ _ (including VAT and p&pf

made payable to Mandarin Software

O Please debit my Access/Visa number: date: | / J

INI: Hill M il) 111)1

Signature

Send to: Mandarin Software, Eure pa House,

Arlington Farit, Adlington, Macclesfield SK1Q 4NF.
Enquiries: 0625 879940 Order Hotline: 0625 879920

Screen shots front
Atari ST torsion

Note: Tape
versions have
three cassettes
in even package

These formats and all tape versions are test only

Format

Tape

Disc

Price

Atari ST

•

£19.95

Amiga

•

£1995

Amstrad PC, IBM PC
and compatibles

•

£19,95

Amstrad CPC/PCW/
Spectrum Phis 3

•

£19.95

Commodore 64

•

•

£14.95

Spectrum

•

£14.95

Amstrad CPC

•

£14.95

* Atari XL/XE

• "

* “

£14.95

BBC Master

• ;

£14.95

* Appl e II

•

£14,95

Macintosh

•

£19,95

MSX 64K

•

£14,95

1 BrWfl* SIIMl
Galiimhkli

TD1 1SW
T*l: 509*6 5700*
(2* hour*)

WORLDWIDE

■SOFT WA R E

49 Stony 3tr*f1
Monir»oh*m
M01 1LX
Tol: 0602 400779
F* X 0607 4831 OZ

.13.29 QuadoITtilM*
19+5 MgNpay Hwrt*

At^jDvwitur* .
AjrnyMow*
m &

Garbjrwr It

0ufd9T B k*M

6*Tt*rDwVM>n .

* Tli»f
ling Mrrtlt .

■Bugm Bey ™

Butch* HIM

OBJIPe+nH-Sw™* •

Caplin Btacrf . ...

13.26

,19-55

_..... 1329 JatMU

,,,17.99 J* ...._ -

i7.« utimn.—

17,95- King 01 CNC 9 QO ,„„

>+.35 LJPC*fc*

+9*5 Urttwn*** ...

1329 L*g«nd ol S»rart .

— 1445 Mania?

,,,14.39 UHH „

1 7,94 Mika Th* Ml&C Dfl

1-8.45 MmdBghlar,

-..19.45 Mortvii* Marw

14 96 Mai.cn MflK»

?1 BB NKWWn*-

19 46

13 23

.. .19*5
14 45

.. .. 19.45
.. .14 45

1328

.16.45

19.45

. .. 39 94
,..18.44
... 21.95
... 13 49

1145

. 1945
. ...1345
.. ia4S

155

. 14+9

14.49

14 39

.... IB-49

AHK)* LEra+JRf
4 * 4 Qtt Road H*c9tB 17.95

Sp*C* Harh* .._. 19 +8

51W Gild* ■ „ 18.45

SlirgocM - 13 25

SWi*ty._.„. — . 16*3

9Uf Cnnuv 1 3-2*

— ‘ - 11J5

..1329
„ 1 4 34
...1645

T*etmeC+)p.

The tww — ,

TTw Krlwai _« ,>*^5

Th* Pawl ...... 1(46

Z *M

...1329

1649

...14.35

Timo and MagM*

833" .

Ful dilinry on all SlM* M*ra bw lit CI«H Mail in UK. ShchI owraH* »rvi» by M
Mail worldwide. Credit Card ord*ra KcapHad by Phon* ?r Mail
Crsdit Cwd Order tatopbon* Lin9*: Worth, Swtonri. H.l rtfrnd. O y9nwM -M» S70M
(24 hourTT Soudh. M*JI*Adi. WalM -0002 *00779 (24 hqura)

Now you can use an Amiga
(or any other computer)
to send correspondence
in seconds to ANY of
the many millions of fax
machines in ANY part of
the world.

And if you want you can
send the same fax to up
to 50 different addresses
simultaneously.

All you need, in addition
to your computer, are a
telephone, a modem —
and a subscription to
MicroLink.

Fax is just another of the
many new services now
available on MicroLink,
Britain's fastest-growing
electronic mail provider.

Please make cheques art pslil orders payrtlt la WORLDWIDE SOFTWARE. AN piees include
posiage and packing m UK ti^rsea* pl«»» add £ 1.50 p<* d'Sklar Air Mad (Wlwy

&«dn card orders aetflflMl By phone or nail. . i

Pals jhiels: 57001 (?* Hollmgham : (DM21 4DG7T9 124 Hdursj. ^

AdWfliSfd prices a*e to* Wail A Telephone ONders

SHACKSOFT

MOUSE MASTER

iTI

Are you tired of fumbling
under or behind your com-
puter to swap your mouse
and joystick cables ? Are
your cables and computer connectors worn out from all the
plugging and unplugging? Then Mouse Master is a must
for you!

Mouse Master is an innovative switchbox that allows you
to instantly select either your mouse or joystick (or other
controller) in port T A switch on the top does the
swapping for you! Additionally* port 2 is brought out to
make all the ports easily accessible. £24.95]

i*.

MONITOR STANDS

specifically designed for use with your AMIGA 500 with
i slot cut for the disk drive. Your Amiga fits realty under
pour monitor with no untidy ^ view. £19,95

Quality
Mouia Mils
Only £6,95

UNIT lift? While Hays South
West Witts Trading Kstaie
Wcsthury* Wiltshire
<0373) 858031 (2 l ines)

94 AMIGA COMPUTING December

U DIRECT

HOT HITS - HOTTEST PRICES

W/ord Processing

)

Excellence!
ProWrite 2,0
Scribble! 2 JO

£

129.95

64.95

39.95

Productivity

£

File llsg

49.95

Microfiche Filer

59.95

Online! Telecomm,

34.95

Analyze’ Spreadsheet

39.95

Utilities

£

Disk 2 Disk

2995

Dos 2 Dos

24.95

Quaterback

35.95

Project D

27.95

Zing

49,95

“Our Pledge to You”

If you want a product not listed
here, just call us and we T ll get it
for you at the lowest price.

Video & Animation |

Graphics

£

£

Aegis Animator

79,95

Butcher 2.0

21.95

The Director

38.95

Calligrapher 1,05

79.95

Fanmvision

45.95

Digi-View 3.0

144.95

Forms in Flight 2

49 95

Draw Plus

134,95

Lights, Camera, Action 54,95

Express Paint 3,0

44,95

Modeler 3-D

59.95

Impact

54.95

PrdVideo Plus

179.95

Photon I^int

49,95

Sculpt 3-D Animate

99.95

Pixmate

37.95

TV* Show

49.95

Scuipt-3D

55.95

TV* Text

49.95

Turbo Silver

104.95

Video scape 3-D

99.95

3-Demon

59,95

Video Titler

79.95

Zuma Fonts 1-4 6ea.)

19.95

Music

Desktop Publishing I

£

31.95

£

Dynamic Drums

49.95

Publishing Partner

99.95

Dynamic Studio

119.95

Publisher Plus

47.95

Midi Magic

79.95

Midi Rec, Studio

49.95

Sonlx

39.95

Specials Of The Month

Video Bundle

TV*re*t + TV* Show

DTP Bundle

Scribble! 4- Publisher Plus

R,R*P.

162.00

Your Price

Only. .84.95

13900 Only. . .74.95

Get Up and Call In Now

Please Make cheques/postal orders payable to:

BROWN -WAGH DIRECT 2 Hazlitt Mews, Hazlitt Road, Loudon W14 OJZ

01-371 1857 or 01-602 2502

Games

1

£

Arkanoid

1595

Battle Chess

24.95

Bubble Ghost

19.95

Capone

19.95

Captain Blood

24.95

Carrier Command

24,95

Champ Football

24.95

Fire & Forget

19,95

Firepower

15.95

Flight Simulator

24.95

Fourth and Inches

24,95

Gee Bee Air Rally

19.95

Harrier Combat

24.95

Hole-in-1 Golf

19.95

Hybris

19.95

Indoor Sports

24.95

Lethcrneek

19.95

Major Motion

19.95

Obliterator

19,95

Piladin

19,95

ROW

19.95

Solitaire Royale

24,95

Stellar Conflict

19.95

Superstar Ice Hcky

24.95

Tanglewood

19.95

Uninvited

24.95

Vampires Empire

17.95

Virus

19.95

Warlock

19.95

WbrdPlex

19,95

World Class Leader

25.95

Zoom

15.95

All prices include VAJ

and R&.R in

UK

add £2 DO for EEC orders

Dumber imt AMIGA COMPUTING 95

Mailorder Offers

■i-

FOR THIS...

Rolling Thunder is a game of intense action, intrigue ^ ^ er °' s „ o// -
A secret society is threatening to conquer the world, while the Ho g
Thunder undercover police organisation is assigned to expose the
conspiracy. Your role as top agent - code name Albatross - is -to
invade the enemy headquarters to complete the mission and free
allies who have been held hostage.

And this latest arcade smash conversion from U.S. GOLD can be yours
for only 99p when you take out a subscription to Amiga Computing.

r

<

i

i

m

Our price
{with sub)

99p

Binder

Your Amiga Computing
is the ideal source of
reference for every
Amiga computer
Keep your magazines
tidy and in tip-top
condition by using on
top quality binder,,
holding 12 issues. Each
is embossed in silver
with the distinctive
Amiga Computing logo

Normally £5.95

-

Dust cover

Keep your Amiga 500
keyboard free from dust and
grime with an Amiga Computing dusteover, made
from clear pliable vinyl, bound by strong blue
cotton and sporting "
the Amiga Computing
logo.

Normally £4.95

I

.

NOTE: These items may be bought separately^ using the order form .

WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE TO

i

i

I

* Offers rnuch smoother movement

* Gives super positive control!

* Protects tabletops!

* Extra iarge! (277 x 240 x 9mm)

Your mouse won't
frighten our
jumbo size top
quality Amiga
Computing
mouse mat!

With its specially-
designed perfect-
grip surface, it
provides the
ideal desktop
environment for
your rodent^

VZ/C O M P U T I N G

Offers

fO amiability

At UK pricm Include
postage, packing S VA T

jMowjWSMfcS OftfafS
despatched by Airmail

COMPUTING

Valid tc31. 12.1H

Annus/ Subscription

UK £25

Europe A E iro £34
Overseas Airmail £44

950?

$$Q2

Commence *4h

When you aubeciipeV
you tin pick Hither qi \

99 p >

- lick gnetwy only /

S5M 1 |

Rolling Thunder
OH

Amiga 500 lUtytoari dust cow,

Moub* mat and binder (UK ortffl 9521 [

Back Issues

UK £2. to

Europe A Eire £2,60
OvMW Airmail £4.10

June 9700
July 9701
Auguit 9702
September 9703
October 97V4
November 9705

Pioneer Plague

r*e* page 2 t}

4239^

£24* *2*

Lombard Ratty

(see pages*}

^SSSfc

£24.» $$29

Lancefot

(am page 9$}

Time and Magtk

Dust Cover

Amiga 500 Keyboard
Add £1 lor Europe end Eire: £2 Owarw

Mouse Mat

Add Ct for Europe and Eire; £2 Overseas

Binder

Add E3 for Europe and Eire; £7 Oui

9509 | 1

For each item add £2 for Europe and Eire Or
£5 for Overseas, unless otherwise indicated

Payment: please indicate method {✓)

TOTAL

N0-I_U_1_I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

j Chequed UFQtheqito payola

I 1 to Amiga Coroutine

Em.

\zz

Name

Address^

-Signed .

Postcode .

Daytime telephone number in case of queries-

Send to: Amiga Computing, FREEPOST
Macclesfield, Cheshire SKlO 4YB

(No Hamp needed i peartf In UK) Pfoasealbw up to 28 days tar delivery

Cmdflf Card to**™ phone «*$ 979920

Fax Orders:

MH 979959

Orders by Prmtel ; 1 1 Uii/aLinkfTefocom Gold"

Key'N, then 6l45*iMJ J | 72: MAGOG 1

Don't forge* yaw name.

AMCt^j

A500 Games pack

Workbench, Extras, Tutorial Disk, Handbook, Basic
Manual, TV Modulator, Karate Kid II, Goklrunner,
Skyfighter, Demolition, Gridstart, 4 PD Disk's,
Quickshot Joystick QHLY1 ! £399-00
A 500 + Ai 084 Colour Monitor
As Above

Only! I E 649 . 00 ^

Sunny AMGA Owfltra

A Full Range of Sdlwarn and H*fdwaf* A (ways in SlOCh.
foal fra* to drop ai far a chat and to S« what ra happening fl
the exerting world of Ihe AMIGA

lines, Middles** TW19 4LG

Computers

MICROWARE COMPUTER SERVICES

For ALL v<?ur Amiga requirements from one source

Amiga 500 wttn TV Modulator, ovar £7Cn#orth ol «ft#ar#, DpaiH .... £S9C

Amiga 500 with NEW A10*4 Slarao Colour Monitor. £1 19 worth o( flftmaa, Opaint £509

Amiga 500 with At»4S Monitor, Comarva 3.S' Dm*. E119ofgamM „ £669

All Amiga's come with: MouM, Workbench, Basic. Utilities, Tutorial. 2 Manuals
Aocatollftor Board A5QG with 1 4 34MHz 63000 GPU A 5&601 sodket ..£176

Cumunt CAX3S4 3.5* Drive onAft .£95

A501 512K Ram par* with clock £129

AI Dfi4S Stereo Colour Monitor ,....£279

NEC P22O0 24 Pin Printer ......... £349

Star LC10C Colour Prlnlar £279

Citizen 1 20D Printer A Cable £ 1 $9

Ogiview 3 W*f|h edstytorfor ASM ..£145

G Gate 40Mb. 40m* Hard Disk £590

TV Tuner turns Monitor to TV ,..,-£69

Miracle WS4QQQ 1*odem ADrAL £159

Epson LQ5O0 24 Pin Printer £379

Star LC24-1UP24 Pin ..,,.£369

FuturtOurid Dgiflzer £148

Genlock merges Grapht£*/VidM .. ...... £230

Full rang* ol germ* available at 25 % off RHP. We cm supply around « 5 % ol all Amiga
product*. Phone of Bend SAE for catalogue of produdLa and detail* ol epeclal ohera
etc.

P.Q. Box 2, Skegness, Lines. PE25 2QL
Telephone (0754) 610217

“The definitive Pascal I

;ompilerfortheAmigaj

METAC0MC0 PASCAL
NEW VERSION 2!

Melacomco, lh& authors of
AmigaDOS, announce the release
ot version 2 of their unique single
pass Pascal compiler. It is the
most powerful and useful ISO
Pascal on the Amiga with the
frier diiness on d ease-ol-u sc ot
a Turbo Pascal type environment.

The new manual even
includes a section covering con-
version of Turbo Pascal programs
roMetacDmcD Pascal.

Ideal for beginners and
experienced
programmers.

£ 89.95

Other extra features in the new
release (which are optional exten-
sions to the ISO standard! Include:

■ Dynamic strings ■ Separate com-
pilation and conditional compilation

■ Single and doutate precisian

M oa ling point ■ Full 32-bit pointers

■ Bitwise integer operations

■ Enhanced I/O error handling

■ Sequential and random access files

■ OTHERWISE in CASE statements

■ Complete access to the graphics
and sound capabilities of the Amiga,
with extensive examples ■ Includes
linker and MAKE utility ■ Extensively
rewritten 330 page manual

NETRCOnCO •

28 Portland Square, Bristol BS2 SRZ, UK.

Telephone (0272) 428701

Fax (0272) 42M18 TilflX 444874 METACO G

C MITtCSMCD 1 H4 MTltyl if I trjfiamgri 3I Cgmrr.jdnic-Amigi Ini;
Turt» PJKKI It I Munir* ffl Sirtjnd IrtlfrftlliHlll.

your lotll W fl <rect ^
from MHlacomcD. Pncw include
VAT indFSPId* Lftt mainland.

Add t'&'rn delivery outsiC* UK
Reg&Hsred users
Ol m*»0us ursions
tan upgrade &y

seodirg origin! wm*

diskette plus £3850 ^

dirKiwMelaconicc) ' ‘ ’

ADVERTISERS' INDEX

16 Bit Software - 49

An co Software,,...*, 1 OO

ARB Computers..., 98

Arcana ...... — .. * 6

Ariadne Software 92

Brown-Wagh UK - 95

Byte back 51

C64 Centre 36

Galco Software. ,, -■ 51

Castle Computers.... 42

Centec - — * * 80

Cestrian Software... — .... 77

Clik * 58

Club 6BOOO ■. 65

Compumart ............ — . 33

Cottage Software 60

Cut Price Software.... 57

Databrain 76

Da tel Electronics.,,,. — 82,83

Delta Computers 63

Digita International 88

Easy print 88

Electronic Arts 14,15,17

Evesham Micros -,-- - 52

Ferrotec — — ......... 62

Frontier Technology 57

George Thompson Services. 49

HB Marketing 27

Humgold 63

ICPUG.. 49

Lan Computers.. — 18

Mandarin Software... — ...... — 64

Melton Computer Supplies 92

Metacomco. . 98

Microdeal, 41

MicroLink, 91

Microprose . 99

Micro ware Computer Services...,,. 98

Miracle Systems 81

MJC Supplies 87

Palace Software... 55

Postro nix.. — ... — 2„3

Power Computing — 10,1 1 „61 ,92

Precision Software ..,. 45,71

Shacksoft - ■■ 94

Siren Software. ---- -...... ... 63

SK Marketing ----- 84

ST & Amiga Club..,.,..- ----- 98

Sublogic.- ... 26

Sunderland Computer Centre ....... 31

Syntax - - - - - - 90

The Games Shoppe. 86

The UK Amiga Users Group 76

T ri logic .....45

Try to ridge Software 86

TmTlesoft 66

Tynesoft 73

Worldwide Software ...... — 94

ST & AMIGA OWNERS

• Have you ever boughl software only to find iTs not whal you expected?

CENSORED!!

• Would you like to buy software , hardware, periph er&ls & consu mabtes at prices
only available to dealers?

• Are you thinking of buying an ST or Amiga?

We can supply members with:

Amiga's (incl. Modulator) £341.50
520 STFM'S Super Pack £341 .SO
Xon>* 4020 oolour ink jet printer Irom £1 000.00
Blank Disc's DSDD Unbranded (Memorex} 25 for £25,00
Alt prices arc Mfy inclusive, Nothing so add.

Save up to 35% on all software, not just games
We supply a tell product range from A to Z

II you answered yes to any ol die above questions then send an s.a e. to

ST & AMIGA CLUB

(Dept AC). PO Bo* 3, Opensfiaw, Manchester Mil 4F2

For fuSdmUs and ^RpJeafwn Harm (liJC tnd B.F.P.O, only)

Pont anrof wflri tnyoth* club until youV* eftarttf ur out tint

tm AMIGA COMPUTING December isas

i \i

Commodore Amiga

The Knight
one of three
character
classes.

I EpJ-UL I 1

Iir^ irMiftoir in ike*.

Converse through
simple commands
and menus.

DISCOVER AN ARCADE ADVENTURE WITH HIDDEN DEPTHS

Discover Times Of Lore, Grtgink first adventure
on cassette. Acclaimed British designer Chris
Roberts has taken the best of arcade and adventure
- fast and furious combat stunning graphics and
an ima lion, unrelenting danger and challenge -and
introduced the depth of a classic fantasy role
playing game.

Entirely joystick driven, Times Of Lore com
tmuously tests your combat skills while you
gradually become involved in a compelling plot.
With 13,000 screen locations, a powerful but easy'
to-use menu and icon interface, scores of interactive
characters and music by Martin Galway it ventures
further than other arcade adventures.

Origin have broken new ground in Times Of
Lore. lsn r l it time you did too? Available for;
C64/I28 Cassette £9.95, Disk £]4.95 r Spectrum
48/1 2 8R, Cassette £9.95, Spectrum +3 Disk
£14.95, Amstrad 464/6128 Cassette £9,95, Disk
£14.95, Atari ST £24.95, ItSM/ftl & Compatibles
£24.95, Apple £19,95, Commodore Amiga £24.95.

mmammm

5pectrum

Amstrad

Journe 1
world d

lhan immense
iungconsand

a stunning variety of natural

terrain.

Origin, MicroPros^, 2 Market Place, Tetbury Glos, GL8 8 DA. Te(: 0666 54326

s

:

i

EMERALD MIME

A giant arcade adventure which has
received rave reviews. Each level
has its own unique solution and
requires ingenuity and dexterity to
complete. One player or two players
TEAM action lor added enjoyment.
AMIGA £14.95

CBM 64- PLUS 4 £7,95 (D) £9.95

STRIP POKER II PLUS

A sizzling evening with
Sam & Donna

AMIGA' ST- IBM ARCH, E14.9S
SP- A M S MSX- BBC - EL ECT RO N
CBM64-PLUS 4 £7 95

ROBBEARY

Bertie, an agile and ctever bear has
targeted a famous 24 floors store for
his last and most daring ROBBERY
With ns alarms or visible guards and
fabulous treasures, yet it has bean
avoided like the plague by the
criminal fraternity. Bertie soon
discovers why?

AMIGA £19.95

HIGHWAY HAWKS

Grand Prix driving shills is sssenbal
lo negotiate the crowded highway at
speed. Obliterate the assassins cars
and the ores that get in your way
but heap the t>ger in your tank fad.
the engine cool and the tyres and
steering intact. Acquisition of tester
cars and lethal weaponary depends
on your driving and trading shills,
AMIGA £14.95 (2 DISCS)

GUANTQX

Progress through 24 levels of this
fast and furious action. Lightning
responses are secondary to the
strategic choices between better
weaponry or better defence,
AMIGA £14,95

FACE OFF

Experience the sheer pace and
exhilaration of ICE HOCKEY. Be
prepared for the body checks,
fouls and rough play. League
competition, 1 or 2 player option.
AMIGA ST IBM £14,95

FACE OFF

MANIAX

Maniax relentlessly pursued by
the creature undertakes to clear
the thick fog engulfing the world
capitals. An addictive game
requiring quick thinking and
action.

AMIGA-ST-IBM £19,95
CBM64-PLUS 4 £7,98 (D) E9 95

STRIP POKER II PLUS DATA DISCS

Requires Strip Poker 31 Plus disc
to load

Disc 1 Beverly & Dawn
Disc 2 Lee & Roy
Disc 3 Suzanne & Bianca
Disc 4 Rachel & Kim

AMIGA-ST £9.95

DAWN

MICRO TEXT MICRO BASE

Ideal for home and business use. Menu driven to enable a novice to use
powerful capabilities with minimal reference to the tutorial manual.

Micro base ■ a powerful data base with fast SEARCH and SORT facilities
includes a very flexible label printer. Sorted files can be used by the Micro Text
word Processor to send personalised letters. A boon to any Club Secretary.
AMIGA £19.95 EACH

BEVERLEY

ANCO SOFTWARE LTD, UNIT 9-10 BURNHAM TRADING ESTATE
OFF LAWSON ROAD, DARTFORD, KENT DAI 5BH TEL: 0322 92513
MAIL ORDER HOTLINE: 0322 522631 FAX NO: 0322 93422
PAYMENT BY CHEQUE, P.O., VISA OR ACCESS