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THE WORLD S BRIGHTEST & BEST AMIGA MAGAZINE 



mVPRESS 


Keep mis number safe! 
You t^fuld have won a 
copy 6 f Wotdworth 


August 1 


DeluxePaint IV 


Multi-media ex 
and exj>(3ined 


Real 3D vl.3 
& Imagine 

Head to head 
3D art special 


PLUS 


USA Show report 
Latest news 
Machine Code 

D Desktop Video 
Code Clinic 
Music 
AMOS 

Communications 
Desktop Publishing 












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August IQ9I Amiga Computing 








Amiga Computing August 1991 


t 


WHO'S WHO 


MANAGING EDiTOH 

Derek Me^kin 

HJIItfiHEI 

tictonJ WriUami 

ASSOCIATE ETHTCKH. 

Eddie MtK-endrick 

AfTlOlTOt 

Mike la % 

FEATURES EDITOR 

Paid Amlin 

NEWS EDFTGR 

John (kiEiEiii 

TECHNIC Al EDITOR 

Sttvit K«Mwdv 

CHIEF SUB EDITOR 

CWfeWA 

CONTRIBUTORS 

|fl5nn Siybam 
MKgiret SUing^T 
PVter J^cknUA 
Rwiaby Page 

Kcnn Ruhn 
Ki«n Obrien 
UtEfe 
PrtfrtorflMi 
Stephen le toss 
5aftdriftfe|f 
Anth OFtf Punm 
Denny Atkin 

SALES £ MARKETING 

jane Conway 

ADVttHSINC SALES 

Sut Reindfl 
John Derbyshire 
Simon 1ms 

AD PRODUCTION 

Mkhe»f Alien ft 

ORQJLAT1QN DIRECTOR 

John Bums 

ORCtiUnON MANAGER 

Dvrid Wren 

SYSTEMS MANAGER 

DMdSlfwM 



Is multi-media the next 
step forward for the 
Amiga, or lust another 
buzz-wora? 

Amiga Computing -| q 
investigates * ® 



Td: 0625 878888 (AH departments) 
051 3572961 (Subscriptions) 

Fax: 0625 879966 


Have you won an A5000 accelerator? How can 
you win a copy of Wordwcrth? Ail Is revealed 
In the second Instalment of the great 
Amiga Computing GRAND GRAB 




e 


UtUPRESS 

PUSLI CATIONS 


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THE COVERDISK 


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Wrih my ait e liken. fot pUWvi am* i* Wd M^respwsiW 

to ary htecS ir wixia IflPflS or iitetKiwlL 
NmliMQdnlulii'v W96+44D55 


Classic Arcade Action! 

Fight your way through two of the best ever classic 
arcade games. Defend against hostile nukes in 
MiiiUe Command, and survive a Storm of Aiteroidi in 
our second game, 

F index 

Excellent card index style database. Fast and friendly 
lists, addresses or disk catalogues. All made easy with 
Findex. 


IFF2PCX 

Convert Amiga graphics to the PC's paintbrush format 
with this useful utility. 


Asolve H 

Make the most complex maths functions simple to 
plot and visualise with this science students' dream. 












C O M P u CONTENTS 



REGULARS 


FEATURES 


What's new 

Commodore reduce the price of their 
education bundle 

Beginner's guide: CLI 

Ifi not hard to get hard copy when you 
know how ■ 




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ACAS 


What sort of Internal disk drive is right for m «■ a 
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ESP 


Jupiter's moons, viruses and a short circuit 
it's a typical month for our very own tzra . 

Rock Lobster 

The cat, the thief, his wife and her lover.,, 
well not quite, bu t there IS a cat 


: 141 


146 


CDTV steals the show 

More hot afr than light in the windy city? 

The COTV bandwagon rolls on 


jLidku.li.HhHhsit 


16 


The producers 

With a strl-ng of recent hits, and DcluxePain t IV 
In the pipeline, we visit Electronic Arts .... 


39 


Colours and crops 

What's the difference between Word Processing -y 
and DTP? Pen Pal tries a bit of bother.'*.'*..**.**.*** f i 

3D head to head 

Two giants of the ray tracing world go head- ™ ^ 

to-head In the 3D shape of Imagine & Real 3Q / O 

DeluxePaint goes fourth 

How do you improve on the world's best a . 

paint package? We find out it IS possible 0*t 


3D made easy 

What is 3D modelling and how can you make 
it easier? An expert explains...... 


■ ui.tiAkajuoHtfa'tfhiiiiri 


89 



The section of Amiga 
Computing that takes 
having fun seriously! 

This month we have the hottest reviews of 

• 3D CONSTRUCTION KIT * CRIME DOESN'T PAY 

• LOGICAL* STORMBALL * LOGICAL 

• CENTURION * PRORIGHT • DISC HYDRA 


Add to all these our 
g regular dose of 

Previews, 

Cheats 

and our exclusive 
Callup chart of the top 
selling games and your 
trigger finger should 
already be itching a*| 



The Workstation 


Mate the most of Ajnlgd Computing's exclusive 
Workstation disk. This north a look at 
many extra facilities of The Workstation 



S 

pecial 

reader offer 


Not taking advantage of The Workstation 
yet? It's not !□ late to order your copy. 

See our special reader offer now! 

44 




— m 

Stuck with C? 
The Code 
Clinic may 




5 


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START COMPUTER SYSTEMS ARE IN 
NO WAY ASSOCIATED WITH 9CS OF 
WASHINGTON 


■■■ 









Education 
bundle price 
slashed as rival firm 


WHAT’S 


launches similar pack 


By JOHN BUTTERS 

AN IMMEDIATE £100 price fall has been 
announced for Commodore's lop selling 
Gass of the 90 J s First Steps education 
bundle only weeks after rival firm Atari 
UK released a similar package. 

But the Masdenhead-based computer 
giant was quick to dismiss speculation 
that its move had any connection with 
the introduction of Atari's Family 
Currkuhn Pack. They claim that the price 


drop was simply as a result of good sales, 
and a policy to pass reductions an to cus- 
tomers at the earliest opportunity. 

Spokesman Andrew Ball commented: 
"Irrespective of whether Atari had or not 
(released Family Curriculm), once our 
costs had been recouped, we would 
have passed reductions on to the end 
user* 

Education sates manager, Peter 
Talbot, added: "Commodore, as a lead- 
ing supplier to education, is striving to 
make computers more affordable and 


accessible bo schools. The First Steps pack 
represents excellent quality and value for 
money. 

in the £499.99 pack is an A50Q fitted 
with one megabyte of ram and eight 
software titles including Let's Spell, 
Deluxe Paint II, Deluxe Print II, a word 
processor and a multi-media filing system 
capable of storing sound and graphics. 

The pack is aimed at children aged 
over five and more than 1 7,000 packs 
have been bought by UK schools, which 
are also eligible for preferential prices. 



Peter Talbot "Ccmimodure it slfMng la 
make mmpulm man* dUurrhihlt- mul 
SCCflUlMa ity idKwh/ 


More support for CDTV 
as sales take off 

AS Cfifnmodore'i CDTV hit the High Street the computer giant has announced 
that the machine is to be compatible with Kodak's Photo CD system when it is 
launched next summer. The Kodak system converts conventional photographs into 
the format of compact disks and CDTV useis will be able to view their photographs 
on television sets. Up to 100 35mm images will be stored on each Photo CD. 
Managing Director of Commodore UK, Stephen Franklin, commented: "CDTV is 



Set few launch je tUe UK's main (riiurc show Is Cwnmodofe's CD-ROM. One problem faein-q 
ASM [wwri wltfi bard disk* will be that they will have to dliooonett tbr drive hePore honking 
the CD-ROM to the computer 


bringing the world of multimedia to consumer and compatibility with Photo CDs 
will be a vital component in this movement." 

Meanwhile, sales of the new Amiga-based CDTV are said to be doing quite well. 

Within a couple of weeks of its going o-n isle Commodore was claiming UK sales in 
excess of 2,000, its main problem being to ensure the product is available in 
shops. 

A Commodore spokesman told Amiga Computing that sales of the £599,99 
machine were split between those familiar with the Amiga but wanting to move 
over to something less complicated and people who would not buy a normal com- 
puter. 

And the firm is continuing to market the CDTV away from the Amiga. In a 
recent letter to trade magazine Computer Trade Weekly, Commodore's Marketing 
Manager, Dawn Levack, explained that if the multi-media player was shown to be 
an Amiga computer with a CD then it would confuse and put off those people 
who fear computers, or have no interest in them, 

She said that while those who understand the market and product think its 
positioning Is strange, it is essential that it is seen, regarded and perceived as 
something wholly new, different and exciting for both the long term and broad 
appeal of CDTV. 

Staying with compact disks, it has been announced that Commodore's CD- 
ROM, the A690, is to be launched at this year's European Computer Entertainment 
Shaw at Earl's Court at the beginning of September. 

The CD-ROM will play CDTV disks and plugs into an AS 00 expansion port after 
users have first unplugged hard disk drives or external memory expansion. Owners 
of other variants of the Amiga will have to wait until next year before they see a 
drive for thei r maoh ines. 

The A690 will cost £299. / 


August 1 991 Amiga Computing 




Amiga Computing August 1 99 1 


8 

ik 


WHAT’S 

new 


AT board to run 
faster 


The fair 

BRUCE EVEfUSS, organiser of the All 
Formats Computer Fair, has said that 
his rest event will be held in 
September, During the autumn the fair 
will visit several regions including 
Scotland, Leeds, Bristol, the Midlands 
and London. 

Everiss said: ^'No matter where peo- 
ple live in Britain [hey are going to be a 
reasonable drive from a show. There is 
a lot ol support tor regional shows - the 


travels 

last show had 70 exhibitors, including 
all sorts of littJe J people who do not go 
to big shows." 

The organiser of the shows and 
owner of several computer-related 
recorded telephone messages has 
recently moved premises. Bruce Everiss #• 
is now at PQ Box 71, Bishops 
Itchington, Leamington Spa, 
Warwickshire CV33 OKS, telephone 
0926 61 3047 


GERMAN hardware specialist Vortex is set 
to start work on upgrading the Amiga 
version of its PC emulator, ATonce, 

It has had several software upgrades 
since its release last year but now the 
developer has decided it is time to 
change the hardware to increase its per- 
formance, 

A spokesman for UK distributor Silica 
Systems (081-309 1111), Andy Leaning, 
said ATonce Plus "is planned to follow the 
same path as the (Atari) ST . - " The speed of 
the Intel 8Q286 CPU will be boosted from 
8MHz to 1 6MHz and the board will be on 
sale in three months. 

Industry experts believe the emulator 
will cost £225, and will lead to a massive 
price cut for the existing 3MHz ATonce, 
probably to £149. 

Meanwhile Vortex has just Finished its 
'second generation' A20GQ adaptor card 
which enables an Amiga to be trans- 
formed into a fully expandable PC. The 
£69.95 card is necessary for all A2000 
owners planning to use ATonce and 
allows extra memory and video cards to 
be accessed by the emulator. 



Shirts in up to 
4,096 colours 



LONDONER Peter Feetham, 22, has formed 
a company, using an A20Q0 and more than 
£30,000 worth of print technology to produce prints, T-shirt and sweatshirt 
illustrations with the computer's 4,096 colourpalette. 

The Silicon Picture Company (081-556 7607) began operations on June 
17th, from Peters home. Disks sent to the company with Amiga-created pic- 
tures can be output using professional equipment and returned within four 
days, although this should be cut down once things begin to settle down. 

The firm was set up because Feetham, who always wanted to run his own 
Company, saw a gap in the market for such a service. His background is in 
desktop publishing work and he has been responsible for producing promo- 
tional material for large corporations such as British Telecom and Shell, which 
will be beneficial when he starts to sell his own designs. 

The skills of PD author Tobias Rickter are being employed at the Silicon 

Picture Company and Feetham is 
already hoping that he will be 
able to take on somebody else 
before too long. 

He charges £5-50- for A4-sized 
prints, A3 prints cost £6.50 and 
larger ones range from £10. T- 
shirt costs are £16.95 and sweat- 
shirts, £19,95, although 
„ , . discounts are available for bulk 

Amiga artists can now oulput trwlr wort without 

hatting to own eipemlve printing equlpmenl Orders. 



Videoing with 
the Amiga 

THREE new desktop video products for 
the Amiga have been announced by 
Syntronix Systems (0332 298422). 

Editman is a computer-based editing 
system capable of controlling certain 
domestic VCRs and camcorders with an 
accuracy of plus or minus one frame. 
Auto assembly, insert and audio dub edit- 
ing is available from mouse-driven icon 
screens. 

IFF files can be edited with or without 
genlock support, accuracy being achieved 
without timecocte- Cost £587.45. 

Users of S-VHS or HiS equipment can 
record animation or computer-generated 
images without the fuzzy edges to 
colours found when using the composite 
PAL signal, with the use of the RGB to 5 
(Y/C) Recording Interface. Using the 
equipment makes genlocks an alternative 
that can be avoided. A YUV version is also 
available for those using professional 
component systems. Price, £293 JO. 

Professional Computer RGB Spliter 
accepts 5 (Y/C) signals and provides host 
software with respective RGB signals to 
get video sourced image grabs into the 
Amiga. Cost, £234.95. 


Drawing 
program 
on the horizon 



AMERICAN publisher of the best selling 
ProWrite word processor. New Horizons 
Software Incorporated (010 1 512 328 
665Q), have bought Central Coast 
Software, publisher of a wide range of 
Amiga utility packages. 

AH Central Coast departments have 
been relocated to New Horizon's head- 
quarters in Austin, Texas, and their 
Colorado office closed. Central Coast 
becomes a division of New Horizons 
Software. 

Among CCS's leading Amiga prod- 
ucts are Quarterback, a hard disk 
backup program* and Quarterback 
Tools, a set of disk utilities for undelet- 
ing files, correcting disk problems and 
increasing disk performance. 

File transfer program, Dos-2 -Dos, 
enables files to go between IBM-com- 
patibles and an Amiga and vice versa. 
Mac-2-Dos does a similar task but gives 
a link between Apple Macintosh and 
Amiga systems. 

President of New Horizon, James 
Bayfess, said: ’'Central Coast Software 
publishes a superb Fine of Amiga utility 
software. As with the New Horizons' 
products, their products are character- 
ized by powerful features and excep- 
tional ease of use. 

'With the addition of their products 
to our existing line we can provide a 
wider selection erf high quality software 
to solve the needs of Amiga users." 

Amiga Computing can also reveal that 
the next package to come from the 
New Horztons stable will be 
DesignWorks, a structure drawing pro- 
gram which should be available within 
weeks. 

Et is described as being the ideal tool 
for creating any type of detailed draw- 
ing, treating graphic elements as inde- 
pendent objects. Designs can be up to 
1D0 inches by 100 inches and all 4,096 
Amiga colours can be used 

An unlimited number of drawing lay- 
ers and a text system that enables any 
combination of Amiga fonts, sizes and 
styles are available. Up to 1 0 drawings 
can be open simultaneously and the 
firm claims that, because of its high res- 
olution printing, near PostScript quality 
results can be obtained from a normal 
dot matrix pnntEr. 

A minimum of 51 2K memory and 
Kkikstart version 1,2 is sufficient to run 
the program but New Horizons recom- 
mends the use of a second drive, At the 
time of going to press a UK pike had 
not been finalised although it will sell for 
1125 in its homeland. 

Shortly before its takeover Central 
Coast Software struck a deal with dis- 
tributor Silica Systems (081-309 till) 
for their entire range of Amiga products 
to be sold in the UK. This arrangement 
continues. 






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V word processor with immense power tu deal with most 
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Whilst working, you can open up to four documents 
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dictionary. You can import your favourite IFF/HAM 
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All this from a word processor and 
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As you can see, this is not just any ordinary word 
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with 32 fields per record, and 32,000 records per database 
m with a fast sort of 1 000 records in less than 
5 seconds this is a recti database. 

Pen Pat requires an Amiga 500/ 1 500/2000 
or 3000 with a minimum nf 1 megabyte 
c7\ aUabie memory. 


yy 


it 


A 




v ..AC 


A 


ifs Jiandling of graphics is unsurpassed: 

Pen Pal is the only program I tested that will 
automatically wrap lest around graphics ...' 1 

\mixn Warid-.Jul '90 




A 


** A 


m 


V 


x 


-without beating around ilic bush Pen Pal 
very special.." - "There is litllc to fault Pen Pal 
Laid ii dese rves 10 da well." 

t armtiL r .Dec. r 90 


Pi/ 









mi ««» 


r«sr 


w-f 3?S55 i*— 

SiSK ” 



I Order Line 



773 836781 

I \n Pal is abio avoiW from px%\ 
compuber bitwcs cwerywtficn?! 1 




Pen Pal 


When., .you deserve Ihe best! 


£ 79.95 



" 1 am extremely pleased with, your prod-iiul especially 
the Graphic Capabilities within (he Word Processor. Having 
the Dal LLhvisc on !hc sume disk has made PEN PAL ihe best 
program I have..." D.SJC, Phtiitshtui. LONDON 


" ...PJea^e let me (ell you luiw amj/ccl | mi ut how EASY 
IT ]5 TO USE HEN PAL. The manuals supplied are 
very infonTiaLLve ami very C le;u... " 
Mi-, Clifton. NOTTINGHAM 


"...A most excellent piece of software...." 

k J'Jf , Strufhi tyde. SCOTLAND 



HAR 

HAR 



Q 0 mp^ er3 


Gordon Harwood Compulerj 
New Slrtrci AifnAon Derbyshin* 



Wbrdworth 


a writer's dream 


The graphics! nature of Wordworth® makes producing 
documents faster and easier. The WYSIWYG display shows 
exactly how your printed document will look, different fonts, 
styles and sizes, headers and footers, graphics and so on. 

Commands are grouped under a series of pull-down 
menus, accessible either by the 
mouse or keyboard. Frequently used 
commands have on-screen icons, 
including Help, should you need it. 

Experience the look and fee! of 
the new and exciting WB2 (even if 
you use WBU), 


Word worth 



Digita's® innovative Human 

Interface Protocol 1 M " is incorporated and sets new standards in 
speed, style and elegance. Each document is a separate multi- 
tasking window, which means you could for example, print 
one while editing another. 

Graphics have always been the Amiga's strong point, 

Now it's better than ever. Pictures from Deluxe Paint can be 
placed in a document, and then sized, scaled and dragged 
(text automatically reformats around 
the image). 

Wordworth's enhanced fonts will 
give you the very best printed 
quality, You can also print special 
symbols, such as boxes, arrows and 
so on. Better still, you can mix 
graphics, Wordworth's enhanced 
fonts, Amiga fonts, Colorfonts and your printer's own fonts, 
all on the same page. 

Word worth integrates with most word processors, and so 
you'll be able to use any documents created with Kindwords, 
Wordpcrfecl Prow rite. Pretext, Excellence, and any ASCII or 
IFF Text document. 

As Amiga Computing put it, "the only Amiga word 
processor to rival Pro text for speed. I would recommend the 
program to anyone thinking of buying their first 
word processor or upgrading from Kindwords." 




Wordworth is written in the UK by Digits. Which 
means you'll be using an English Collins spelling checker 
and thesaurus, and you'll know where to come for 
professional support. 

When Amiga Format said ' a 
new word processor that will 
give the rest of the world a run 
for its money" they weren't 
joking. "Wordworth is the most 
user-friendly word publisher on 
the Amiga," Fraise indeed. 

The only way to really appreciate W'ordworth is to use 
it. Phone 0395 270273 for more information or, write to 
Digita, FREEPOST, Exmouth EXfi 2YZ. 

Wordworth costs £129,99, which includes VAT, postage 
and packing, If you already own a word processor and 
purchase Wordworth direct from Digita, you can save £30 
by returning your original disks with your order. 

Wordworth will be your writer's dream. 

However, if you don't agree with 
us {and purchased directly from 
Digita), return it in original 
condition within 7 days and we 
will refund your money. 


Machijve support 
Written specifically for the Amiga 
Fully Nypports WBV 1.3 and VZQQ 
Supports all medium or high 
restitution muck’s tmonu and colour) 
Requires ] MB of memory 


• DIGITA 

INTERNATIONAL 

software thats right' 



Digita International Ltd Black Horse House Exmouth EX8 IJL ENGLAND Tel: 0395 270273 Fax: 0395 268893 

A iwihff erf lh* Dig* a .group - 

CHgiU, Hu* h.v*.> ^urdworth and the Wonlwratti lego wr re^LsIemf iradnnjrki> and HTR FMpnd m& that* ngM m araJerrurti id HuWri» Ud 

All i»lhr< ttiiuifftifcfici iheii imurr^ arr acfcrwwlidijeii Sold sub*: I to standard fiHhiluuiiirf ^ Ik 






Westminster Exhibitions (OS T -549 
3444) has announced details of inter- 
esting Amiga products expected to be 
displayed at the 4th International 16- 
Bit Computer Show, to be held at the 
Novotel, Hammersmith from |uly 1 2 to 
14 . 

The 160 exhibitors at the show will 
be displaying the latest software and 
hardware in the leisure and business 
market, with several companies 
expected from North America and 
mainland Europe ready to launch 
products in the UK. 

Tornado flight simulator Prof light 
will be demonstrated on the Hi 5 oft 
stand. It has recently been converted 
from the Atari ST and is the most real- 
istic Amiga flight simulator. 


Domark makes its 
mark in the USA 

GAMES giant Domark Software have 
formed an American subsidiary and 
announced a line-up of CDTY products 
for users on the other side of the Pond, 
Domark USA (010 1 415 656 4374) 
will be headed by Randy Broweieit, a 
person who has gained previous experi- 
ence in the US market with software 
houses SSI and Tengen, 

"Domark have some great products 
that will do well in the States. I aim to 
build their brand over the next few 
months and that means a strong com- 
mitment to marketing/ he com- 
mented. 

The first products to hit the 
American market will be 3D 
Construction Kit, 'Nam and MiG-29 
Fulcrum. But the States is also set to see 
three releases for the CDTV. The first. 
Trivial Pursuit, is to be closely Followed 
by whodunnit crime buster* Herewith 
the Clues and Murder off Miami, 

Going for a 
better scroll 

SCROLLING package, the Big 
Alternative Scroller,, has had two major 
changes to improve its use. 

The scrolling has been improved to 
get rid of flicker and specialist training 
days are being offered to customers to 
use all the facilities that are up and run- 
ning at Alternative image (0533 
440041), such as 3D Modelling incor- 
porating full 24-bit graphic output, 
video graphics and DTP. 

Users can upgrade from version 1 to 
version 1.03 by sending their original 
disk with a cheque for £3.50 to cover 
administration costs. 

A programming guide 

PROGRAMMERS wanting to advance 
from writing Basic demos can graduate 
to C and Intuition after reading a new 
book, Intuition - A Practical Amiga 
Programmer's Guide from Kuma 



Show promises plenty for 
AmigaSHOW organiser 


WHAT’S 

new 


But the Bedfordshire-based software 
house are best known for their profes- 
sional programming packages and a 
new easy-to-learn Pascal system will be 
unveiled at the Novotel, The firm s C 
Interpreter should also be available in 
time for the exhibition. 

From Precision Software there will 
be Superbase Professional 4, a 
database package with graphical appli- 
cations that support sound samples 
and pictures. 

Pen Pal, Precision's wordprocessor. 


can open up to four documents at 
once and has cut and paste and 
spelling checker Facilities. 

Surface UK will have several ne^ 
products from American Supra 
Corporation including the firm's new 
ranae of modems and SupraffAM 
2000 . 

Other new products will be shown 
by Microdeal, educational software 
from LCL and the new RX-5CH5 one to 
eight megabyte ram expansion for the 
A5Q0 will be available from WTS 


Electronics. There will also be an 
opportunity for visitors to meet the 
editorial staff of Britam's Brightest 
Amiga Magazine at the Europress 
Publications stand, who will be happy 
to hear your comments about the 
magazine 


Computers (0734 844335). It is the first 
in a series of Amiga programming 
books planned by the firm. Author Mike 
Nelson has given many examples of the 
Amiga's Graphical User Interface, 
believing that the best way to start 
learning to program is by looking at 
modifying other people's code. 

Programs can either be typed into 
the computer or obtained on separate 
disks. The explanations of the code in 
the book are detailed and, in places, 
repetitive to reinforce some of the more 
unusual concepts. 

The book has a strong emphasis on 
practical programming and costs 
£16.95 and the disk veraon oF the list- 
ings contained in the book costs £10. 

Colour upgrade 

PHOTON PAINT users are being given 
the chance to upgrade to Oxxi's (010 1 
213 427 1227) new 4,096 colour paint 
program, Aegis SpectraColor. 

Qxxi president John Houston told 
Amiga Computing: "All Photon Paint 
owners benefit from SpectraColor's 
additional features, but for a very 
affordable price. 

■^pectraColor Is the first HAM paint 
program ever released for the Amiga to 
support full PeluxePainh style Brush 
Animation and Key Frame Animation/ 

Owners of the earlier product should 
send the original main program disk or 
a photocopy of their manual, together 
with 164.95 to the firm at 1 339 E. 28th 
Street, Long Beach, CA 900 39 r USA 


Top printer at under £300 


Making qyillty 24-pln printing mo * t accessible to Amiga owner* is Fujitsu’s new r>l 900 

AMIGA beginners are being targeted by Fujitsu Europe (081-573 4444) for a 
new entry-level 24-pin printer costing less than £300. 

The desktop DL900 has 110-column printing at 10 characters per inch and 
seven resident fonts including Courier, Boldface, Prestige Elite, Compression and 
Correspondence. It boasts a print speed of 1 80 character* per second in draft 
mode and 60cps in letter quality fonts. 

IL has three emulations, Fujitsu DPL24C Plus, IBM and Epson and while the 
price ts promised to be under £300, an exact figure has yet to be decided. 

Meanwhile rumours suggest that a \ow cost 9-pin printer is to be available 
soon from Amiga distributor Silica Systems (081-309 1111). 

Details of the machine remain sketchy but sources close to the firm have 
revealed that it will boast a print speed of 162 characters per second in draft 
mode, yet will be priced low. 

It is thought Citizen might be the mystery manufacturer of the printer. 


Do you know 
something we don't? 

Although Amiga Campy ting has scores 
of contacts in the Amiga world, we also 
need you. Ff you have some hot news 
pkk up the phone and ring jghn Butlers 
on l he newKfesk now on 0625 878888, 
All information supplied will be 
treated m the strictest of confidence and 
if it's really good your wallet will be 
heavier. 


August 1991 Amiga Computing 





Amiga Computing August 1991 








WHAT’S 

new 


Lasers added to 
printer range 

PRINTER manufacturer Kyocera 
Electronics (0734 311500) has added 
two new laser printers to its range and 
cut the price oF others. 

Hitting the market are the F-5GOO r a 
single bin printer which can print on 
either A3 or A4 paper priced at £5,350 
and the £1,995 F-820* a dual-bin laser 
turning out eight pages per minute, 
Kyocera models seeing a price 
reduction oF about £500 are the 10 


Fine tuning for pianists 


LEARNING to play the piano will 
become much easier with the intro- 
duction of a learning program from 
MindScape (0444 831545), 

The Miracle Piano Teaching 
includes software, books and a key- 
board and uses an artificially intelli- 
gent teaching system to 
automatically set the level of diffi- 
culty appropriate to the student's 
ability. 

The fully-compatible Midi key- 


board has built-in speakers and can 
operate as stand-alone, There are 360 
lessons which company spokesman 
Simon Harvey claims will "take you 



from learning the position of Middle 
C to Beethoven*. 

A series of games aid in the teach- 
ing of keyboard recognition and 
rhythm and stereo headphones can 
m be attached to make the lessons pri- 
vate. 

It will cost £249 and should be 
available in September. There will be 
a preview of the system at the 
International Music Show at 
London's Olympia on |uiy 12 to 14. 


¥ S T E II 


page per minute £-22205 to £2,920, 
the 18 page per minute F-1SQ0 to 
£2/920 and the F-33GO, £3,650. 

Marketing communications man- 


ager Neville Rawlings says: J, We natu- 
rally view our price educations as a 
positive move towards gaining ground 
in a highly contested market/' 


Silica goes on air 

LEADING Amiga distributor Silica 
Systems (081-309 1111) is believed to 
have become the first computer dealer 
to use radio for an advertising cam- 
paign. Over the bank holiday weekend 
May 24 to 27 the firm used London 
radio stations Capital Radio and Capital 
Cold to promote their ? Mad Spring Sale' 
and kept their Sidcup offices open to 
accept enquiries and orders. 

Silica spokesman Andy Leaning says 
that they were the ideal stations because 
the audience, of up to 3,000,000, is 
made up of typical Amiga buyers. 

*The market place we wanted to 
address was not represented by other 
media, such as those that wouldn't nor- 
mally read the computer press/ he 
commented. "You can never tell the 
response from radio immediately, but 
people see you as a more respectable 
company/' 

Leaning refused to comment on the 
cost of the promotion. 

Animation at 
city festival 

EDINBURGH-baied Amiga Centre 
Scotland (031-557 4242) will be holding 
the 1991 Computer Animation 
Competition and Exhibition to coincide 
with the city's annual festival. 

Last year a similar event was organised 
and because of its success and a growing 
interest in computer animation the firm is 
once again hoping to attract a high stan- 
dard of original work from Amiga users. 

There will be prizes of both hardware 
and software for the winners and work 
will be exhibited at the company during 
the 1991 Edinburgh Festival, to be held 
on August 21 to 23. 

Entries shoudl be submitted on either 
floppy disk or PAL video tape and should 


be accompanied by an official entry form 
which is available from the firm. The clos- 
ing date tor entries is July 31, 1 991 . 

Communication from 
the States 

AMONG several additions to Supra 
Corporation's Family of modems is an 
internal model for the A2QOO and A30Q0. 

Supra Modem 2400 Plus has MNP 2 to 
5 and CCITT v42bis error correction, to 
give up to 9,600 bits per second th rough- 
put when communicating with other 
v42bis modems and 4,80Obp* with MNP 
5 modems. 

Hayes compatible, it is an autoanswer 
and autodial modern supporting v21 , v22 
and v22bis protocols. Included with the 
pack is A-Talk III comms software and it 
sells for £1:69.95. An external version of 
the same modem is available without soft- 
ware for £199.95. 

Lower down the range h the 
SupraModem 2400 MNP, which has the 
same specifications apart from the 
absence of v42bis error correction. 
Costing £1 79.95, it will, before too long, 
be upgradable to the same standard as 
.SupraModem 24QQ Plus for about £30. 

A more specialist modem in the range 
is SupraModem- 9600 Plus, available oniy 
as an external modem and again offering 
MNP 2 to 5. Selling for £549 this v32 
model gives v42bis up to 19,200bps. 

A I the models are available with a five- 
year wauanty and registration by Surface 
UK (OS 1-566 6677], Albany-based Supra 
can be contacted on 010 1 503 967 
9075. 

Whoops! 

Amigo Computing would like to apolo- 
gise to Castle Software and its cus- 
tomers for printing incorrect pricing 
information in an advertisement in 
the |uly issue. 



Disk storage to be tidier 

DISK storage is a problem Facing many Amiga users. Floppies either lie scattered 
across desks or in disk boxes plied high, making access to the game in the bottom 
box a tedious task. 

But things are set to change thanks to a new storage system from Kent firm 
Accodata (0732 8S5555). Disk Ffle is made up of stacking boxes which slot together 
and can be built into a shape and size that suit the user. 

Each has a cany handle to enable the box to be transported. An optional extra is 
a bracket system which will connect the Disk File under a desk surface as a drawer. 

A 30Qndisk file costs £60. 











to the UK. . . 


Saxon Publisher provides you With performance Draw 4D is the first Multi Dimensional Structured Drawing 

unparalleled by other DTP programs, with features so . ' and animation software for Desktop Publishing and Video 

powerful and flexible that even the most complex KF.WING The Interface is the fastest, smoothest and easiest to use 


documents can be created in a fraction of the 
time. A program that incorporates numerous 
advanced typesetting features not available 
anywhere else ■ at any price. Saxon Publisher t 
will change your perceptions about what a truly 
professional DTP program should be... 

The DTP Standard for the Amiga 

Texr sizes up ro 2000 points 
Import text from any Amiga WP 
* v Rotate, Scale and Skew text in any direction 
* v The ability to import and print 24 bit images 
without converrions utilities 
Support for Encapsulated PostScript 


available on any computer. 

& Zoom range is nearly unlimited 
& DRAW 4D is fully multitasking 


ON 




PICTURE DISTORTION 

Saxon Publisher VI. 2.... £2 49. 95 
Draw 4P... £149.95 

Saxon Publisher/Draw 4D Package... 049. 95 


SURFACE UK LIMITED 5 ROCKWARE AVENUE ■ GREENFORD MIDDX UR6 OAA 
TELEPHONE 081*566 6677 EXT 204/205 FAX 081-566 6678 


; Limited 


Access Visa Welcome 


Healer eiujisirics welcome 


...and the New Supra Range 


SupmDrive ls ' Floppy quiet reliable floppy disk drive 
works with all Amiga* computers. 1MB unformatted capacity. 
Pass-through port for connecting additional diives.--C89.95 

Su praDri ve ™ Re m ovab le 

Syquest™ removable cartridge drive for the 
A500 or 2000. Great for primary' back-up j 
Storage. Comes complete with SCSI 
interface, or as add-on drive. INTERNAL 
£599.00 EXTERNAL £599.00 

Supra Drive™ 500XP Micro-power 
hard drive, SCSI interface, &t RAM for the 
A500. Easily expands for 1/2 to SMB RAM. 

Includes Amiga bus pass- through, SCSI port, 
software. From £425.00 

SupraDrive™ WordSync™ Easy-to-instalL autobooting 
hard disk card for the Amiga 2000. Uses high-performance 
Quantum 1 ” hard disk &r includes SCSI port, utility' software. 

40MB £425 - 52MB £475 ■ 105MB £625 

SupraRAM™ 500RX 1 / 2 , 1 , 2, 4 or smb of fast ram for 

the Amiga 500. Easy to expand. Zero wait states & hidden refresh. 
Amiga bus pass-through, from £1 29.95 


SupraRAM™ 2000 2, 4, 6 & 8MB of FAST RAM for the 
A2000 ifz .5000. Easy to expand. Zero wait states & hidden refresh. 
Four-layer board improves reliability'. From £1 19.00 

SupraModem™ 2400 100% Hayes IM - 

compatible 300, 1200, 2400 baud modem for 
virtually all computers, Compatible with all 
popular telecomm unications software. £149.05 

SupraModem™ 1400 Plus 

SupraModem 2400 with MNP5 & V,42bis error 
correction & data compression protocols, 

/ Allows transmissions up to 9600 bps. £199.95 

SupraModem™ 2400zi internal half- 
card modem for the Amiga 20Q0 & 3000, 
Installs easily in any Amiga bus slot. Supports 
mu it ip I e modems on one computer. From £1 19,95 


All prices include 17.5% VAT, 


Introducing 

Saxon Publisher & Draw 4D 




Amiga Computing August JU 



C9StT3L® 



®»ocTi i?«eu) mMmmwitm 


0782 575043 


AMIGA SPECIALS 

Armour Geddan 17.49 

Hera Quest 

Brat 

Moonshine Racers. 

Shadow Dancer,.-, 

Hydra 

I.K.+., 

Platoon 

Predator 2, 

Killing Cloud 

Gnds^ 

Life & Death 

Moonbase (Sierra) ... 

Mig 29- 

Heart ol Dragon,....., 

Eye Gf ttie Behokler. 

Cougar Force.. 

Toki 

Chuck Ruck. 

Kill Street Blues,.. 

Hostages 

Warcone 

F15 Strike Eagle I 

Midwinters., 

Railroad Tycoon, . 

Lemmings 

Super Cars 2 

Viz 

Swiv..,. 


Alcatraz., 

Colditz,... 

Turrican 2. 

3D Construction Kit- 

Super Monaco 

4D Driving 

Afrika Corps., 

Pro Sport Challenge 

Cohort,™ 

Crystals of Atorea... 

Das Boot 

Wonderland 

Switchblades 

Pro Tennis Tour 2 

Flight of Intruder™. 


17.49 

.17.49 

..17.49 

17.49 

..17.49 

7.49 

7.49 

...17.99 

...17,49 

...17.40 

...17.99 

...26.99 

,.25.99 

...17.49 

...19.99 

17,49 

17.49 

17.49 

17.49 

7.99 

17.99 

-.25.99 

25.99 

25.99 

17,49 

17.49 

14.99 

17,49 

,,,.,19.99 

21.99 

17.99 

34.99 

,17.49 
,17.99 

21.99 

,21.99 
,21.99 
,17.99 
,21.99 
,21.99 
,17.49 
,17.49 
.,21.99 



AMIGA SPECIALS 


Skull & Crnssbones ,,17,49 


Hard Drivin 6.99 

Toobin 6.99 

A.P.B. 6.99 

California Games 6.99 

Carrier Command B.99 

Speed Ball 8.99 

Defender of Crown 1 8.99 

3D Pool 8.99 

[Tournament Golf 9.99 

Sherman M4 7,99 

| North & South 7,99 

Lombard RAC, Rally 6.99 

Moonwalker 7.99 

James Pond 8.99 

Forgotten Wolds 7.99 

Violator 6.99 

Ninja Rabbits 6.99 


CJ Elephant Antics 6.99 

Adv. Fruit Simulator 6.99 

Jet Sublogic 8.99 

BSS Jayne Seymour 9.99; 

Predator 7.49 

Pro Tennis 4.99 

S.T.U.N. Runner 5,99 

TV Sports Football 8,99 


AMIGA SPECIALS 

TV Sports Basket Ball 14,99 

Wolf pack (1 Meg) 14,99 

Warhead .,..9.99 

Jl Out ...... „.... .6.99 

Xenon 2 .,,,.6.99 

Turrican .6.99 

Honda RVF „„J.99 

Treasure Trap - ,6.99 

Colorado, 7.99 

Theme Park Mystery 5.99 

Teenage Hera Turtles, ,,,14.99 

Kul .7.99 

Test Drive.,,,, 

Grand Prix Circuit 
«th 'hr Inches.,, 

Star Glider 2-, 

Three Stooges ,, 

Rick Dangerous, 

Leonardo 

P47 Thundertwh 
Orient Games „„ 

Ninja Spirit 

Kick Olf 

Gravity 

Hammerfisl „ 

Distant Armies „ 

Hill Si Blues 

Axels Magic Hammer 7.99 

CrickelSim(1 Meg) ,,21.99 

Back Future 2, 9.99 

Cadaver ,,14.99 

Corporation 14-99 

Dragon Breed .9-99 

Demoniak 21 .99 

Dynasty Wars ...... .7.99 

Batlletmond 1 7.49 

Wings, 14.99 

Wings of Furry 9,99 

Wheels of Fire ..,14.99 

Shadow of Beast ,9.99 

Space Harrier 2 7.99 

Wax 7,99 

Gun Boat ........... 21.99 

Escape Robot Monsters 9.99 

Fantawsion 14.99 




Fed Lip with Faulty Software ^ 

All ou games are tested before destwten. 

PhO^s A*avfi EWiMar 
We have Rnoe 


,,i.99 

...,£39 

.6.99 

-6-99 

.6.99 

.9,99 

.7.99 

,6,99 

.6.99 

.7,99 

£.99 

,.7.99 

,7.99 

.6.99 

17.49 


9. FLalunds upcm Requaar 
1G ft C*KS Meflfy Wol To 


Dflts m 57MH3 9JM 45 Home™ S36317 7-S 

Codename iceman 

,.13.98 

Gohanels Bequest....... 

,.19.99 

ConqueslofCgmelgt. „.™ 

Afterburner 

..22.99 

...,6.99 

Bomber Sdb 

-.15.99 

BaaJ., 

...AM 

Balance ol P-owe* 


Blue Angels... UI11J111 

...7.99 

Bards Tale 2 


Cloud Kingdoms „„„ 

m 

Crackdown , r 

5.99 

DeiaVu... 

Deja Wj 2 

7.99 

7,99 

Skychase 

. ..6.50 

De$lrdyer 

6.99 

Guandsan Angers 

.,.„G.99 

Elite tan 

...4.99 

Hot FM..,. 

?! 99 

Oulrun . 

7.99 

fctferdrome 

..,,6.99 

Peatman Rat 

a.39 

Fast Food Dizzy... 

6-99 

fiType 

,,.6 99 

Fantasy World Dizzy - 

.,6 49 

F10 Interceptor 

0.99 


0782 575043 


<: 


Vi' ifv js- ihe cuatcmw is, Klnq 
WaCnpWhrtt f 

MkI ol our games are deszslchsd within 
24-Afi hours -(beano m wrf we tes! 
evfrry game) 

Can't GgnYt m f M -anirr Bas h '* 

Rafunda deng on any game rat 
despslched by us ri requested 

Ga&ti frrees ^ 

TeoHaf an a xcBitenr service Ihe cuatemar 
it coiis menay. We are aHemg good 
puxlvcte si wiy press 

Cheapest Prices Around 

Wa can I afbrti In be an* die a par. clierwse we'd 
be bark'utf and psqfe *m bse dwt 
Seated? «i akays try to utfmn us mu 
Bargan Software, S.D.C., Main Fed, Gfard 
Sen, £ i. Price Software, Etc Efc 
E*aI ineyVe $ mMmtmn'n 

ySBJS te mers #Xi'l 
Why Chcwse Castte BaCtwesral 

1. f*aw Hanagerneni 

2. Fresh Approach 

3. All Software is Tasted 

4. 1 tCj Clii"i to Join. 

5. KwPrfcK 

6. Lsnfl Delays 

7. Vest hems m Stodt 
6. Helpft.il Sl&fl 


AMIGA SPECIALS 

S-m Cilyj'Populus 21.99 

Swdchblade 6.99 

Toyota Ceiica 16.99 

Back To Fulure 3 16.99 

U.M.S. 2 16.99 

Adv. Deslrgryer Sun ,,1 7.49 

Nam 21.99 

Ulile Pufi in Dragwland 6.99 

Bares Tale 3 17.49 

The Power,., 19.99 

Golden Axe.,, ,,,,,,17.49 

Pirates 16.99 

Dungeon Master (1 Meg }, 17.49 

Chaos Strikes Back 1749 

Prince of Persia ,,1 6-99 

Power Monger ,.,19,99 

Denaris, 

Buck Rodgers 

Operation WoJf 

Ultima V 

Gettysburg 

GengisKhan 

Lotus Esprit.,,,,,, 

Ml Tank Platoon,,,., 

Midwinter ... 

Amos 

Dragon Wars 

AT 0 Tank Killer 

Gaur.Het II 

Inc aniobis 500 .... 

Distant AmtieS 

Frontline.,,,,.,..,. 

Vulcan 

Ancient Denies 

Virus 




Wizball 
Treasure l. Dizzy — 

Silkworm 

Double Dragon 

Xenon.. 

Super Wonderboy 

Hally Cross Challenge 

Rocket Ranges,.., 

Shadow Gate 

S.E.U.C.K 


,7.99 

21.99 

6,99 

....19.99 
.....21 .99 

24.99 

16.99 

19.99 

19.99 

34.99 
17.49 

27.99 

7.99 

16.99 

.9.99 

9.99 

9,99 

9.99 

.,..,6.99 

.,,....6.99 

.4.99 

7.99 

7.99 

7.99 
.6.99 
7.99 
.6.99 

.6.99 

...9.99 


Post to: 

CASTLE SOFTWARE 
Castle House, 

2 William Clowes St, 
Rurslem, 
Stoke-on-Trent 
ST6 3AP 


Please rush m9> 


Title 

Amiga 

Amount 



















PAP (if applicable) 


Tbial Amouni 



Name 

Address,, 


Postcode.. Tel No. 

Please add S0p PAP per Game 


AMC AUGUST 


14 





Protar heads for Amiga 



BERLIN -based hard disk manufac- 
turer Protar E iektron ik [0923 
54T33) have jus! opened their first 
UK office and company boss Mark 
Dowling has told Amjga Comparing 
that they are set to produce their 
first senes of A 500 hard drives. 

The A 500 HD wifi have storage 
capacity ranging between 20 and 
200 megabytes and will connect to 
the computer by the expansion 
bus. There are 10 drives in the 
range, with the 2QQ megabyte ver- 
sion being built to order. 

Every drive has a data transfer 
rate in excess of one megabyte per 
second, with an optional disk cache 
which can accelerate data transfer 
time by up to 50 per cent. This is 
five times faster than the 
Commodore drives. 

Another optional extra with the 
disks is a SIMM memory expansion 
For up to eight megabytes of ram. 
The drives, to be shown at the 4th 
International 16 bit Computer 
Show, are expected to be on sale 
during mid-August at a price start- 


ing at about £295 for the 20 
megabyte version. 

Also coming from the company in 
August is a colour monitor based on 
the Philips CMS833, 

The Cl 41 M comes is supplied with 
cables to connect it to either an 
Amiga or Atari ST and although the 
price is still be be fixed is promised to 


be competitive. Frotar also manufac- 
tures an Amiga 51 2K memory 
expansion card. This sells for £30 
and is on sale immediately. The 
company is taking orders For the 
other products. 

The office is at Park House, 
Green hill Crescent, Watford Business 
Park, Watford WD1 SQU.ends. 


Amiga to help 
future dentists 

STUDENT5 at a leading London dental 
college are set to start using an Amiga to 
aid them in their studies. 

Kings College Dental Hospital are to 
use an A300Q from next term to teach 
undergraduates about root canal ther- 
apy. The students' tutorial will be made 
up of a combination of text, scanned 
pictures and X-ray films, together with 
Amiga-generated animation, diagrams 
and sound. 

Behind the system are Peta Smith, 
head of Lhe department Of Paediatric 
Dentistry and Andrew Gould, a general 
dental practioner with an interest in the 


application of computer and video tectv 
nology to dentistry. 

Both beleive that Endodonticss for the 
Deciduous Dentition will form a valuable 
accompaniment to conventional lectur- 
ers, seminars and demonstrations and 
once other subjects have been added 
they see it as an ibndispensible teaching 
aid. 

The machine at the heart of the oper- 
ation is an A3000 with five megabytes of 
ram connected to a 40 megabyte hard 
disk drive and two Sharp scanners for 
image capture. Audio sampling b done 
with Audio Engineer. 

The tutorial was made using 
Innocatronics' CanDo, Deluxe Paint III 
and ASDG's, the Art Department. 


Easy route to second 
upgrade 



A500 OWNERS with an internal 51 2K 
memory upgrade who Find they need 
even more memory are being offered 
a device which wifi double the com- 
puter^ memory from one to two 
megabytes, without having to dispose 
of their existing upgrade. 

Megaboard has one megabyte on- 
board and fits between the A5£>0 and 
the current upgrade, working with all 
fgur-chip memory upgrades that do 
not exceed 90 millimetres in length. 
No soldering is required and full fit- 
ting details are included with the 
pack. 

Boards with higher memory are 
expected to follow shortly from 
Worcester-based Evesham Micros 
(0386 765500). The two megabyte 
Mega board is available now and costs 
£64.95. 



WHAT’S 

new 


DIARY 

DATES 

12 to 14 July 1991 
Intematfontri Musk Show 
Qnjonrser: Weslkmd Assocrotes (07 J - 
730 7852) Veme: Olympic London 
A musician's paradise - instruments, 
synthesizers and celebrity visits. 

1210 14 July 1991 

4 th international ftf-tut Computer 
Show 

Organiser: Westminster Exhibitions 
(081-549 3444} Venue: Novate! 
Hotel, HornmersmithSc ores of 
exhibitors from Europe and North 
America meet under one roof. 

5 to 3 September 1991 
Computer Entertainment Show 

Organiser: WAP (071-404 4844) 
Venue: fad's Court 2 If you're inter- 
ested in games then a visit to Earl's 
Court Is a must. 

5 to 8 December 1991 
Computer Shopper Show 

Organiser: Blenheim Pe/ fPJTMMH 
4466J Venue: Wembley Exhibition 
Halls An opportunity to buy some 
bargains before Christmas. It's 
expected to be much larger than 
last year's show. 

7 to 9 February 1992 

Jrh international J 6-bit Computer 

Show 

Organiser Westminster Exhibitions 
(081^549 3444) Venue: Navotel, 
Hammersmith The first post- 
Christmas Amiga show. 

# if you are organising a show rele- 
vant to the Amiga and it is nqt listed 
above, please let us know so that 
we can include it in Diary Dates. 


i‘ 


August 1 991 Amiga Cortiput Inf 





WHAT’S 



T he big news this month com« 
from the summer Consumer 
Electronics Shaw (CE5) h held in 
Chicago, Illinois from |une 1 to 4. 

If you're looking for the latest and 
greatest developments in video, hi-fi 
audio, home entertainment and com- 
puter and videogames, CES is the place 
to be. 

This twice-yearly exposition is where 
dealers and the press go to find out 
what high-tech items are going to be 
hot during the next Christmas season, 

I went to the show expecting the 
popular technologies to be things like 
High Definition Television (HDTV) and 
expensive yuppie toys such as hand- 
held electronic Rolodex directories. I 
was in for a shock - it turned out that 
the most-talked-about technology on 
di-splay was Com mod ore's own CDTV 
unit. 

Commodore had a huge booth 
strategically placed right in the middle 
of the East Hall, with the consumer 
electronics exhibits, rather than in the 
North Hall with the computer and 
videogame exhibits. 

While the crowd at CES was a bit 
thin this year, probably due to the 
recessionary economy here in the U.S. r 
Commodore's booth was consistently 
crowded, The booth was almost 
entirely devoted to CDTV, with both, 
currently-available and future applica- 
tions on display. There were a few 
Amiga 500 units on display, but CDTV 
was the obvious star of the show. The 
player and two of its titles (Music 
Maker and World Vista) were named 
among the most Innovative consumer 
electronics products of 1991 by the 
Electronics Industries Association at 
CES 

COW wasn't the only compact-disc 
technology on display. North American 
Philips/Magnavox were once again 
showing their long-delayed CD-I 
(Compact Disc-Interactive) player, this 
time promising that it would ship in 
October. 

Similar in concept to CDTV, the CD- 
I player has been shown, but not 


shipped, since the late 1980s. The 
player has a few advantages over CDTV: 
it sports a 16- mil lion-col or palette, a 
slightly faster processor, and, most 
important, has the marketing muscle of 
Magnavox, Sony, and Matsushita 
(Panasonic) behind it 

However, it has Its share of disad- 
vantages as well: it's much more costly 
to develop software for than CDTV, it's 
more expensive ( S 1 400 compared to 
CDTV r s J999), and its fragile "thumb- 
stick" controller is less familiar to 
American kids than the Nintendo-like 
i ay pad used by CDTV (and more likely 
to be accidentally broken). 

While most of the CD-I software on 
show looked more polished than the 
CDTV applications, you have to remem- 
ber that developers have had years to 
develop them, thanks to CD-I's many 
delays. 


Compression 

The consensu* amongst shawgoers was 
that Philips was only shipping CD-I now 
because of CDTV's presence in the mar- 
ket. One of CD-I's most-touted features, 
MPEG (Motion Picture Expert Croup) 
compression, which will allow full- 
screen, full-motion video, isn't ready 
yet, and won’t ship until 1992. 

Philips will start shipping the 
machines in October and make MPEG 
capability available on a plug-in car- 
tridge sometime in 1992. Company 
representatives had no information 
about price and availability of the car- 
tridge. 

While Philips were making promises 
about CD-i, Commodore were showing 
the already-shipping CDTV, along with 
almost 30 applications that are cur- 
rently available, and another 20 that 
will be available soon, They also 
showed a number of new add-ons that 
will help give CDTV a technological 
boost to help it stay competitive with 
CD-I. 

On the first day of the show, 
Commodore premiered CDTV playing 


Kodak's new Photo CD discs. With 
Photo CD, you take pictures using con- 
ventional 35mm film. When you take 
thE film in for processing, each picture 
is scanned into a computer and stored 
on a compact disc, in both video-reso- 
lution, for display on a television set 
and a higher- resolution format, suitahte 
for use in image-processing software. 

You'll be able to take Photo CDs 



home and display the pictures on a TV 
using CDTV, CD-I, or a dedicated Photo 
CD player. Up to 100 images can be 
stored on each disc. Conventional 
prints can be made using the data 
stored on CD. Kodak expects Photo CD 
processing to be available in the U. 5. in 
June, 1992. 

Even more exciting than Photo CD, 
though, was the technology that 
Commodore was using to adapt CDTV 
as a Photo CD player. CDTV's standard 
4096-color graphics aren't good 
enough for Photo CD, which requires a 
24-bit "full-color" palette. While 
Commodore engineers would only 
admit that "some kind of 24-bit solu- 
tion was in the works, 1 ' a little poking 
around behind the machine displaying 
the Photo CD pictures revealed a unit in 
the video slot marked "DCTV by Digital 
Creations, 1 ' 

Currently available only for NTSC 
machines. DCTV is a J495 external box 
that adds full-color video output and a 
digitizer to any Amiga. The unit 
installed in the CDTV was a smaller. 






internal board sans digitizer. The oul> 
pnjl of the DCfV-equipped CDTV was 
absolutely stunning - television quality 
video with rone of the fringing oi 
b luckiness associated with HAM pic- 
tures. 

Most exciting, though, was the price 
- a Com mod ore representative esti- 
mated that the DCTV add-in would 
cost only about ISO. Other showgjoers 
were told that Commodore is negotiat- 
ing with Digital to make the DCTV out- 
put a standard feature in CDTV before 
the Christmas season. I only hope they 
change the name - "CDTV-DCTV" is 
quite a mouthful 


Motion video 

Other new technologies shown to the 
public for the First time were CDXL 
motion video and the CDTV- PIP pso 
tur-e4n-picture add-on. CDXL is a 
patented software technology devel- 
oped by Carl 5a s sen rath that allows 
developers to add 1 2 frame per second, 


1/3 screen motion video to their titles. 

CDXL is a bridge technology that will 
allow motion video to be added to 
CDTV titles while Commodore waits for 
MPEG compression. Like Philips,. 
Commodore plans an MPEG full- 
motion-video add-on once the standard 
is finalized. When combined with the 
DCTV full-color add-on, CDXL anima- 
tion looks as good as videotape output. 

CDTV- PIP is a special genlock that 
allows allows a 1/3 screen window con- 
taining live NTSC video to be displayed 
simultaneously with a CDTV applica- 
tion^ 

With this plug-in video card, you can 
watch video output from a VCR or 
laserdisc player while using your 
favorite CDTV application. Perfect for 
letting Dad keep track of h is foot hail 
game while the kids play games on the 
CDTV. Reps at CES weren't sure when a 
PAL version would be available. 

Third-party add-ons for CDTV were 
on display as well. The AirMouse 
remote control, which resembles a Star 
Trek; The Next Generation hand 


phaser r is a hand-held infrared mouse 
that works somewhat like a light pen. 
Instead of rolling it across a flat surface, 
you move it up, down, left, and right 
while pointing it at the screen. 

This $99 add-on will work at up to 5 
metres from the CDTV screen. Another 
neat gadget was a version of Very 
Vivid 's M and a la system tailored for 
CDTV, Mandaia, which has beeif 
around since the Amiga's birth, uses a 
video camera to allow you interact 
directly with objects onscreen. 

The camera displays a digitized out- 
line of your body, with which you can 
"touch* onscreen objects. Sample 
applications on display included a drum 
set, a paint program that could be 
manipulated by waving your arms, and 
an ice-hockey game that lets your 
image act as goalie. 

Software continues to pour out for 
CDTV. The most impressive title on dis- 
play won't be available for about 
another year: Psygnosis J incredible new 
3-D flight simulator that features a real- 
time-generated fractal landscape. If you 
want a preview, a demo is included on 
the same disc as the CDTV version of 
Lemmings, which should be shipping 
about the time you read this. 

Another dazzling title, which should 
be available in July, is Sherlock Holmes: 
Consulting Detective, from ICOM simu- 
lations. The game's conversational 
sequences use 15 frame-per-second ani- 
mated video, featuring 25 acton, in 50 
speaking parts, authentic costumes, and 
25 Victorian-era sets, making this game 
a truly cinematic experience. 

Jack Nick la us Go If -CD TV features 
over 8,000 digitized images covering 
every eight yards of the Muirfield 
Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, as 
well as a digitized version of |ack him- 
self to play against. 


Nintendo 

Other new titles shown at CES include 
the Guinness CDTV Disc of Records, 
Dinosaurs (a CD comic book in the 
tradition of Teenage Mutant Ninja 
Turtles), Wayne Gretzky Hockey 
CDTV r Trivial Pursuit (with animated 
graphics, sound effect, and stereo 
music accompanying 2,000 trivial 
questions), SimCity, Xenon 2, Falcon, 
and Sea Beast and Maelstrom from 
SuINvan-Bluth, 

The show wasn't all CDTV, of 
course. A number of companies were 
showing their latest wares for the 
Amiga, IBM!, Nintendo, and Sega plat- 
forms, 

Nintendo's Super NES booth domi- 
nated the software floor, although the 
machine didn't seem to generate the 
level of excitement many expected. 
There were some killer games shown 
for the IBM PC, including Chuck 
Yeager's Air Combat from EA, and 
Wing Commander II and Strike 


Commander from Origin. The new 
Origin games were probably the most 
technical ly-impressive programs 
shown at CE5, but the bad news is 
that there are no plans to port them 
to the Amiga (considering that the 
recommended minimum hardware 
platform for Strike Commander is a 
20MHz 386 PC with 2MB of memory, 
it's not hard to see why). 


Dungeons 

The good news is that Origin plans to 
release a version of Wing Commander 
for the Amiga before year's end, and 
they promise they'll do a much better 
job porting it than they did on the 
poorly-converted Ultima series. 

Electronic Arts' upcoming releases 
include Black Crypt, a Dungeon 
Master-style game with 12 dungeons 
painstakingly rendered in 64-color 
halfbrite mode. Battle Island from Ubi 
Soft (distributed by EA in the U.S-) 
looks to be a real treat for wargamers, 
as does Mindcraft's The Rules of 
Engagement. 

California Dreams, another EA 
label, will be releasing Solidarity, a 
simulation that puts you in the shoes 
of a Polish labor leader and gives you 
a chance to recreate the steps that led 
to the country's freedom. 

’Arena Entertainment, Mirror Soft's 
U.5. label, showed off Reach for the 
Skies, a fantastic Battle of Britain flight 
simulator. Unlike Lucasfilms' similar 
offering. Reach for the Skies uses poly- 
gon graphics and presents impressive 
animation speed even o«n an unaccel- 
erated Amiga. 

Finally, Psy gnosis gave me a private 
preview of their upcoming Amiga 
titles for release in the U.S- and U.K. 

Barbarian ll is similar to Barbarian, 
one of the company's first Amiga 
releases, but is much more playable. 
Aqua venture is a fast-action arcade 
game featuring first-person action, 
horizontally scrolling shoot-em up 
sequences, and 3-D tunnel sections. 

The real winner for arcade fans,, 
though, promises to be Leander, a 22- 
level platform arcade game with the 
best graphics yet in a Psygnosis game. 
Although I didn't see them, look for- 
ward to Shadow of the Beast 111 
around Christmas, and Lemmings ll 
early next year. 

That J s It for CES highlights. As this 
article went to press, news reached 
me that Commodore had actually 
sent Kickstart 2.0 off tg the ram burn- 
ers, so the new operating system 
should be available as soon as the 
company's marketing department 
gets the packaging ready. 

According to a well-placed source, 
the final release of 2.0 may contain a 
few surprises, such as scalable outline 
fonts. Hopefully I'll have more details 
in next month's column. 




Despite a smaller crowd than 
usual at the Consumer 
Electronics Show in Chicago, 
you practically had to stand on 
shoulders to get a glimpse of 


Commodore's CDTV. 
Denny Atkin reports 




August 1 991 Amiga Computing 



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18 



M ultimedia Is one of those 
phrases you'll hear 
bandied about with gay 
abandon as advertising executives 
guzzle down spritzers while moaning 
endlessly about the state of the piste 
and how life has never been the 
same since the Crash. And if you ask 
what this mystical multimedia is, the 
answers you'll receive will probably 
be as varied as the people ques- 
tioned. 

In general terms, It s best 
described as the easing of interaction 
between machines, people and the 
real world. This takes many forms 
ranging from the user friendly con- 
trol of hardware such as video 
recorders to the interactive presenta- 
tion which avoids the usual constric- 
tions of a computer environment 


Multimedia Is, or should be, the 
panacea for all computer users' ills. 
Its sole aim is to make information 
and the abilities of the computer 
freely available to anyone, anywhere. 

Because of the Amiga's endless list 
of talents ft's an obvious choice for 
anything which requires supreme 
power and flexibility, and as a result 
it has been greeted with open arms 
by the purveyors of the new age of 
interaction. 

The multimedia explosion is 
almost upon us, and as a result a 
whole stable of high power and high 
price hardware and software pack- 
ages are appearing almost daily. 
Some costly decisions will have to be 
made, and hopefully the following 
article will show what's available and 
where best to invest. 


Instant information 

Hie point-and click, buy-and-sell side 
of multimedia will no doubt be the 
most obvious, and certainly the most 
striking, element of the interactive 
invasion. With the relatively Inexpen- 
sive combination of the Amiga and 
the embarrassingly friendly but 
Immensely powerful display soft- 
ware, the High Street will soon be 
awash with Amlgas advertising and 
Informing on all manner of products 
and services. The shop window 
equivalent of a st roily demo isn't the 
only place due to feel the winds of 
change - reception areas, restau* 
rants, information centres - the list is 
endless, and choosing the right pack- 
age requires a lot of thought and 
advice, so here we go. 




Yl blgham 

Ta GtoJ 

14 it’s also possible C# 

15 tuenauoi 

is entire tail crmade 


endless 







InfoChannel 

If you're going to start anywhere, start 
at the top, and InfoChannel is certainly 
that for both price and performance. 
It's perhaps the premier interactive dis- 
play system for the Amiga, being by far 
the easiest to use and most stylish of 
the available systems. 

For all its power and glamour there's 
a price to be paid, and to be honest the 
cost of InfoChannel is frighteningly 
high in relation to anything seen before 
on the Amiga. Of course, no one daims 
that tnfoChannef is aimed at Alt's cor- 
net shop, and if you're a corporate 
raider such piddling figures will barely 
raise an eyebrow. 

Frightening figures 

Hie basic InfoChannel system consist- 
ing of eight disks, one weighty ring- 
bound manual, and not much else will 
set you back £1 249. This allows a single 
link with a satellite machine over a dis- 
tance of a few hundred metres. 

This is InfoChannel in rts simplest 
form but If you're looking for more 
satellites, the initial cost soon becomes 
nothing more than a fond memoiy. - 

For example, each extra satellite 
machine requires a separate player 
module which adds another £874 a 
time,, and without this software dongle 
in place the receiving machine won't 
even give you the time of day. 

As well as the player module there's 
the added insult of another £1249 
thrown on top for the Infinity software 
which is the element of the system 
responsible for distributing Info's out- 
put to the network. 

And as if all this extra expense isn't 
enough there's the minor problem of 
the satellites themselves, each of which 
requires a minimum 20 meg hard drive 
plus a recommended 3 meg of ram. 
Then, of course, if you want to use the 
system's networking talents to the full it 
will need its own resident modem. 



Animations can be 
dragged Into the 
■rtkjn in a matter of 
momflnU th ats to the 
Lelenki trf old 
favourite! such m 
Dpalnt. 


What's on offer? 

OK. let's say you've remortgaged the 
house and bought the system What do 
you get? Quite simply one of the most 
powerful and easy-to-use authoring 
packages on the market which allows 
you to import Ham images - whether 
they be scanned or digitised creations 
of your own or one of the many high 
quality iFFs provided with the system. 

These backgrounds are then used to 
form the backdrops onto which stylish 
broadcast-quality text with its wide 
range of wipes, fades and effects can be 
presented. 

The system allows total control of 
the page and Its creation, for example, 
each background image can be drawn 
into the action using a huge range of 
effects, the likes of which were previ- 
ously available only to those working 


with Paintbox - the hardware responsi- 
ble for 99 per cent of all TV effects. 

The next step is to suck in some text. 
Because InfoChannel treats each line of 
text as an individual it can be assigned 
its own definable effect. For example, 
each line of the message can zoom in 
from a separate direction or materialise 
in a predetermined position. As with 
the backgrounds, a whole range of 
wipes, fades and general special effect* 
can be applied. 

The system uses any standard 
Workbench-friendly font, but it could 
be some time before you dig up your 
old favourites from Workbench because 
InfoChannel boasts a wide range of 
perhaps the best fonts yet seen on the 
machine, The selected font can be 


limit is your imagination. 

To add to the excitement, anima- 
tions can be imported. So, for example, 
corporate sales pitches could be given 
added impact by using the odd logo 
spinning into the picture. 

Any standard Amiga animation pack- 
age such as Dpaint Can be employed to 
add the Disney touch to a presentation, 
and thanks to the simple scripting con- 
trols the same sequence tan be revis- 
ited throughout the masterpiece. 

Interactive element 

If InfoChannel was merely a sexy titling 
system it would hardly count as a lead- 
ing light within multimedia, By defini- 
tion multimedia Implies interaction 



Flight 


to 


A primr twrnpk ol InfoOumel in Jtfkin ** the finlihif^ iuulIiei &?e 


added to a marketing masterpiece 


7 

■ 


SCALA 

Pointer 


close uiflihbench 

counter: upper right 


scalaprint 

Menu colors 

He 

Runtime 

User level: flduanced 


The Team 

Page buff pi: Dynamic 


size: used: Free; 
Chip 
Fast 
DF2: 

Pages 


DHQ: 

lines 


* 

Loops 

499* 

SeelaPlayei: 23.fi 
library: 23.0 oeuice: 23.0 

saue configuration 


ok cancel 

A qukk glance it th* stare erf the sytern *r*d tt’i 

buck td the action in th* page dr^Fgrcr 


stylised with the usual options of Bold, 
Italic and so on, but this is merely the 
tip of the iceberg as a complete palette 
of colours, drop shadows, borders and 
3D effects - all adjustable tor size, 
colour and orientation - are waiting. 
When this designer-animated text h 
combined with complete control of 
positioning, effects and timing, the only 


between the Amiga and other systems, 
whether they be human or machine. 

In the case of InfoChannel the inter- 
action is strictly with the anthropologi- 
cal alternative, it does not control any 
video recorders, CD units or any other 
form of hardware. 

InfoChanneTs main aim is Id inform, 


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Aug ust 1 99 1 Amiga Cotnpiitl ttg 






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> 

and to maximise its effectiveness a 
simple script language is used to 
divulge information in a form of 
hypertext. 

For example, a travel agent might 
create a series of yes/ no questions 
which lead you through a number of 
resorts showing you the sights, the 
hotel rooms, the beaches and so on 
while the text zooms in to add detail 
If you get bored it's straight back to 
the main menu for an alternative 
browse around the planet. 

Another application would be as a 
silent receptionist which, at the click 
of a button, would point the way to 
the toilets, direct you around the 
building or suggest the best place to 
buy a burger. 

Of course, when left alone it could 
return to toeing the company line 
with an endless stream of logos and 
product information. 

All this designing, scripting and 
general fiddling does sound like a dis- 
aster in the making, but with as little 
as a morning's tuition a complete 
novice could easily produce a 
sequence that would leave onlookers 
agog. 

The creative process couldn't be 
simpler and even the most complex 
interactive scripts take no time after 
just a little practice. 


Scala - the alternative InfoChannel 



/ 

* 

SCALA *| 

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speed « 5 ► 

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77 : “ m 

DH 


cancel 

Llnewipet made easy, simply wlect Hr* eHecI and sit back as the 

irripli stroll irtlMlhly in... 



Regular readers are likely to find InfoChannel's 
approach to exhibition familiar due to its more than 
passing resemblance to Digital Vision's first mufcti- 
medla release, Scala. To say the two are similar 
would be an understatement. They are almost iden- 
tical. In fact, if it wasn't for the logo in the corner of 
the screen it yould seem impossible to tell one 
from the other in all but one or two screens. 

Both use exactly the same design system, but 
InfoChannel has the ability to transmit to other 
machines, and an option for infinite rolling display 
as opposed to Scala's maximum of 99 loops. 

The only real difference between the packages is 
in the main program itself. All the support disks are 
identical and if both programs are placed In the 
same drawer, each will happily share all the avail- 
able scripts, backgrounds, fonts and layouts with Its 
companion. 

The obvious question is, why pay the massive ask- 
ing price for InfoChannel and the seemingly endless 
supply of expensive software dongles if Scala is 
almost identical? Well, it's the "almost" which 
makes ail the difference, 

InfoChannel is aimed squarely at the corporate 
market such as hotels, conference centres and so 
on. In short, anywhere that requires multiple out- 
lets ail instantly controllable from a central point. 

If, however, your needs aren't quite in the corpo- 
rate league Scala's 050 asking price looks very 
attractive in relation to its big -bud get alternative. 
OK, you'll have to copy files onto floppies and run 
extra machines Independently, but considering the 
alternative, Scala Is likely to be the option for most. 


-n 


m 

> 

—I 


m 




Hyperbook 

Hyperbook as the name suggests takes 
the interactive side of multimedia to its 
logical extreme. Its approach is that Of 
an interactive workhorse and informa- 
tion centre rather than an all-singing, 
all-dandng display and sales tool like 
Scala or InfoChannel. 

It uses the standard Workbench envi- 
ronment as opposed to a custom front- 
end like its glossy rivals. So its 
presentation isn't as stylish as the 
expensive alternatives, but considering 
that it's a fraction of the price of any of 
them it's bound to be high on the 
shopping lists of mere financial mortals. 

The Workbench-friendly element 
does sacrifice a little style and panache 
but it means that Hyperbook is totally 
happy about interacting with other 
Workbench- based programs and utili- 
ties. This particular talent has been 
exploited to the full by the designers 


Oridir, Gdcllddri faithful friend, bounding 
through a Hypcrbcwpk page In Ljkmaui 
colour. Education 


and all manner of applications can be 
called on by the program's Dos and 
ARexx options. 

For example, if a page contains refer- 
ences to animation or artwork, an 
onscreen button could be assigned to 
locate an external player, load the ani- 
mation or IFF and return to the original 
page after It's displayed. This means 
that the simple framework of the pro- 
gram can be expanded almost indefi- 
nitely. 

It's fair to say this approach does 
require more knowledge than other sys- 
tems but the possible applications are 
as varied as the Amiga's talents. 

As with all multimedia applications a 
hard drive is an essential for any serious 
user although Hyperbook, unlike all its 
rivals, will operate on as little as a half 
meg Amiga. 

Having said that, the storage and 
fast display of graphics and text is what 
makes the system usable, hence the 
necessity for the HD and a reasonable 
amount of memory. 

Easy editing 

As well as the cash saving and flexible 
design, the production of the pages 
themselves is extremely simple, being a 
cross between basic DTP and a paint 
package. 

All the design tools are lined up 




HyptrtoQl with Hi multiple choice approach to multimedia 


ready and waiting and a plethora of 
pull-downs add the necessary options 
to control, tweak and generally fine- 
tune each page 

Hyperbook doesn't have all the whis- 
tles and bells of some systems and 
apart from the occasional whip and 
funky fade, things are fairly static with 
special effects kept to a minimum. The 
only real moan is the program's dislike 
of Ham pictures which suffer badly 
when imported to a page. Of course, 


you could always display them sepa* 
rately thanks to the Dos and ARexx 
options. 

Overview 

Hyperbook is probably not the best 
choice if you want to stop shoppers in 
their tracks, but If your needs are to 
Inform, educate and generally assist the 
user, it's the perfect option. 

► 



August 1991 Amiga Cemputlny 












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■=7. 

< 


Si 

E 


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4 

S' 

I 



HiSoft BASIC 


fHMH 


A B ASIC Stan dard 

HiSoft BASIC is the answer to your program- 
ming prayers; a fast, interactive and e^sy-to-use 
60000 BASIC system conforming to l he industry 
standard for the BASIC language. 

HiSofll BASIC is designed to be as compatible as 
possible with the AmigaBASIC Interpreter, while 
offering you a friendlier, easier- to- use and 
infinitely more powerful Language. In addition il 
has many of the features of the world-standard 
Microsoft QuickBASIC, on the PC 

Some of HiSoft BASIC s features include: 

* Sfmcfured programming, using long !Fs r 

multi- line functions. jin 

procedures ^!Ib^il||L 

* Program line numbers are optisn&L j|gl!jjir 
alphanumeric labels can be use*?" "' 

* Full recursion for procedures ■£ fonctfons; 
local variables and arrays as parameters 

* Five types of variables 

* Progmm size limited on/y by memory 

* Variable size Untied only by memory 

* Integer and character constants 

* Compiles the maprity of AmigaBA5lC 
programs without change 


ProFlight 
takes off! 


ProFlight, the extremely accurate and flyable 
Tornado flight simulator from HiSoft,, is now 
available for all the Amiga computers. 


Full support of the Amiga is included as 
standard with extensive window, screen and 
graphics commands. Amiga libraries can also he 
accessed as if they were built-in statements 
allowing complete machine access. 

HiSoft BASIC indudes full MENU support, with 
event trapping and powerful sprite routines, 
using the OBJECT keywords. 

Programs can execute in their own windDw(s) 
or use the CU window for minimum size. CLi 
type programs may be easily written and made 
resident since they are fully re-entrant 


Devpac 2 


HiSoft BASIC is a no limits language; siring 
variables may be up to lGMbyles in length and 
there are no limits on array sizes either (subject 
to available memory). Code generated is fully 
60^10/020/030 compatible. 

;: CompiIed programs have no run-time over- 
head; all compiled programs share an Amiga 
library, which may be distributed with programs 
without charge. 

Extend 

An add on package for HiSoft BASIC, Extend 
includes routines for handling IFF files, gadgets. 
5 ub-menus r sound, HAM mode and much 
more. It is supplied as a library for ease of use. 

Normally HiSoft BASIC costs £79. 95 sod Extend costs 
£24 95 M 5 &? tde coupon beiow for b very spec&f Offer 
for the two packages together! 



Ea sy Assembly Languag e 

Devpac Amiga Version 2 is widely regarded as 
the most powerful, complete, assembly 
language development system for the Amiga. El 
incorporates an integrated edrtOf/assembler/ 
Einker/debugger, together with a siand -alone 
assembler and debugger and all the necessary 
indude tiles, and many examples. 



Complete with extensive ring-bound manuai 
detailing all aspects of the package, plus 
debugging strategies, Devpac is the choice for 
beginners and assembler experts alike. 

RRP is £59 9S r hut see the coupon frefow for a 
very special offer on this essential package 



First released on the Atari ST where it has won 
a high degree of critical acclaim from reviewers 
and users alike, ProFlight is nol only one of the 
most technically realistic simulators around but 
it is also tremendous fun lo Oy. As you would 
expect, the Amiga version has much improved 
sound and graphics! 

You can fly peaceful reconnaissance missions Or 
roar into attack after carefully planning your 
combat mission. ProFlight is supplied with a 
comprehensive, ring- bound Fligh! manual. 


SASC5 


SAS Institute (the parent company of Lattice 
Inc.) has taken over the development and sales 
of the Lattice C b compiler for the Amiga and 
released a new version, 5. LOa. 

The major features of this latest version are: 

AmlgaDQS 2.0 Support. LSB ARFJQC support, 
improved Workbench usage, many perform- 
ance fmproVtmerifs, support of _ aligned, 
automatic near to far conversion, £>+-sfyfe 
comments* compileTIink options now read from 
an environment variable .. . and more. 

We believe that these improvements and 
enhancemenss in this version establish SAB CS 
as the ultimate Amiga C compiler. The package 
includes 690x0 compiler, linker, screen editor, 
assembler, highly intelligent global optimizer, 
source level debugger, code profiler, libra nan 
and a host of tools and examples. 

5A5 C5 from HiSoft costs 
£229 (but see our special 
offer on the coupon) 
and includes full UK 
technical support, 
which Is not 
available from 
other sources. 

Upgrades cost £34.95 (from version 5.0k), £79 
(from version 4.xx) or £99 (from version 3.xx), 



Priority Order Form 

Yos, pleas# rush me copyfie &} of 

□ HiSoft BASIC A Extend & £59.95 
HiSoft Dovpmc 2 & £39.95 

□ SAS/Lattice C 5.10m & £199.00 
C ] ProFlight Tornado Sim & €39*95 

Name: 

Address: 


Post Code. __ r 

I enclose a Cheque/Postal Orders 
I would like lo pay by: 
Access/MasterCard/EuruCard etc 
Visa/TrustCard etc. 

Card No: ^ , VL ^_ . , 

Expiry Date: 


□ 




AH prices include UK VAT and postage within 
the United Kingdom Goods wilt normally be 
despatched within 2 working days of 
receiving your order Call, write or tax tor 
export prices 

Please post this coupon to H}Soft a!: 

The Old School, Greenfield. Bedford 
MK45 5DE UK. 

Tef + 44 525 713131 Fax: + 44 515 713716 


Free ProFlight T-SMrt 
with ev&ry order l 

HiSoft 


Hi0h GunlMy Softwiiro 





The CAPS lock 

A cf edible contender for InfoChanneTs 
crown presents itself under the name of 
CAPS an acronym of Computer Aided 
Presentation System. CAPS XL, to use 
iis full title, hails from I he Netherlands- 
based 1 001 Software Development and 
is designed to match InfoChannel, 
albeit via radically different means. 

CAPttal expenditure 

Before telling you why you can't live 
without CAP5, it makes sense to give 
some indication of what it can't live 
without. Just like other systems, CAPS 
will not be prepared to slum it on a 
low-spec Amiga configuration. 

Sit down, take a deep breath and 
get the following hardware together: 
one Amiga with eight megabytes of 
available hard disk space and three 
megabytes of ram. Add to this a second 
Amiga, this time with a mere four 
megabytes of free hard disk space and 
a modest two megabytes of ram. 

Having assembled the hardware and 
connected the two supplied dongles, it 
is a simple matter of configuring one 
machine as a CAPS workstation and the 
other as a CAPS script driver. These 
should then be linked either direct or 
via a modem using a standard serial 
cable as appropriate. Configuration is 
achieved by a very simple and compre- 
hensive install utility. It really is a case of 
point, dick and watch that disk space 
vanish. 

The result is an information display 
comprising various components such as 
IFF files, text messages, Deluxe Paint 
animations and video sequences. These 
elements are composed on the worksta- 
tion Amiga before being transmitted to 
the script driver Amiga for constant dis- 
play. The script driver is nothing more 
than a dumb storage and display 
device. Once configured, it can be left 
running a CAPS display sequence with- 
out any Further user intervention. 

The workstation 

The workstation is used to create 
■“pages" oF information and drspiay 
* scripts.* A page consists of various 
windows. Each window can consist of 
text graphics or a combination of the 
two. Page creation is achieved via a 
rather primitive screen-based desktop 
publishing- style layout System. This 
relies very heavily on menu selection 
and some keyboard hot -keys which 



Page traniltlons and wlpvf arc nol dU-similar 
to thfrse of InfoChannel 






Seiett wsft Design pairs 


Edit script 


a □ 



Send seript Cancel shatf 


Send, newsflash 
£ OH 


*1 ==■ 


. * 

m OFF 


Rfad/vite tWS/Systen 

nail preferences 


OFF 

Eh t CAPS XL 


Swift Slw s 


Display position fxl 
Display position iy> 

Default value x - 111 
Difiv.lt vilw t ~ H 


CL Dali rage setting s 


la-Utmttk «■ -frd in-ms 




Posi t 3 on i.k) 

pus Li si on \.y) 
Foil h«iw 
Fmt tut 

SpitEnj) 


OT aenltped 


Clock and d-it t f*sitLDn 

mium 


fonl tiaw 
Foni sue 

Sp^ihfl 


Ok 

Canue! 


CAPS k an kondflven heart, dearly illustrated by the 
main menu 


It is possible to configure the scrips driver remotely from the workstation, Including 
screen positions and how the flock Is displayed 



H He one to 

s. 

% 


il«l So f (war# DfUfLwwnt Ncwtler 
S Capyriah 


border on the cryptic. 

After pages have been created they 
can be compiled into CAPS scripts A 
script is a sequence of pages which are 
displayed cyclically. CAPS h slightly 
more powerful than InfoChannel in this 
respect. Rather than simply stringing 
pages and animations together, it is 
possible to indude other dynamic ele- 
ments within CAP5 scripts. These 
include a clock page and randomly 
generated "interlude"' sequences. 

The authors of CAPS say it is possible 
to control an external video device, allow- 
ing cue, start and stop functions to be 
integrated Into a CAPS script This func- 
tion requires an additional software mod- 
ule which it was not possible to review 
during the compilation of this feature. 


A very rtyliih wekune to CAPS awalti 
anyorw with enough mnney, mvrmry and 
hard disk apace 


m 

PeiT 

Mv 

I WflW . 

New 

M processor 

Open 

Ippe and size 

Open 

Open 

Mine 

Style J 

Open as .jj 

Place 

Resize 


Save $ 

Erase 

Neve 

Ifliscel] annus 

Save as J 

| Photo 

| Close 

Open header J 

Delete / 

Open 

Erase 

Palette 

hinj j 

Place 

lo front 

Open palette 

1 General 

Renap 

In boh 

Extra color 

Main wm 

Erase _ 

Clone 

Repaginate 




• ••! 
|la.; 


Creating CAPS pages, a a simple matter of pointing and clicking... and pointing and clicking., 
and polvHlngi and cikking 


AmigaVision 


Conclusion 


Although CAPS and InfoChannel set out 
to achieve the same end, they 
approach multimedia from two refresh- 
ingly different angles. There is fio doubt 
that in terms of ease of use and creative 
control InfoChannti Wins hands down. 

CAPS does however offer more disr 
play flexibility. Using CAPS it is possible 
to schedule events for specific days and 
times, something which Digital Vision's 
system fails to offer at present 

The CAPS system weighs in at 
around the £1,000 mark. Not cheap, 
but still a modest financial commitment 
compared to an InFoChannel system in 
ail its glory. Further details are available 
from sole UK distributor Alternative 
Image on (0533)440041. 


AmigaVision is Commodore's own 
Authoring System packaged free with 
certain Amiga systems in much the 
same way as Apple included HyperCard 
with their Macintosh systems. 

The AmigaVision manual is quite a 
hefty tome and daunting at first view - 
although it does make an excellent 
doorstop on sweaty afternoons. It is, 
however, well worth pulling out of its 
cellophane because after taking the 
plurge r you will be greeted with a 
friendly mouse and icon-ana ntated user 
interface. 


Go with the flow 


Below the title bar is a window contain- 
ing what looks like a garden parasol 
viewed from above with a triangle in 
the upper right-hand comer on a grid 
of squares. 

This is the Flow Window where the 


user builds up multimedia presenta- 
tions. 

The bottom of the screen has a line 
of icons which are the keys to sub- 
sidiary menus of icons which form the 
building blocks for the presentations. 
This FVlain menu is very easy to use. AV, 
for instance, takes you to the Audio- 
Visual menu for incorporating graphics, 
animation, sound and video in your 
presentation. The Wait and Data icons 
are Also self-explanatory. 

The intuitive layout is what makes 
the AmigaVision interface a dream to 
use. It's so friendly that it's possible to 
begin using AmigaVision after only a 
cursory glance at the manual- Active 
elements are brought into play by drag- 
ging them from the relevant menu into 
the flaw, just like dragging a file from 
one drawer to another. 

Double clicking on an icon brings up 
the option requester, whether it be the 
directory for a picture or the name of a 


23 


August 1 99 1 Amiga Comput lug 













Amiga Computing August 1 991 


UJ 


h- 


< 


LU 


u_ 


24 





Amjitfision Auihm'ins Svstrn (Euliili) 


Uni Hit fc 


jArEl I J 


VnrahM-f 


P 


ErfLiNn 


vhiC-P *Sfei 

P-iltTH i 


iT VPU ujinr tffc* ppB-3-pn Ljl [d EMtinw 
AJILftil JE4 |ls*s Inn fiilSt r s 

T» rhv Ik uniuEion pw» iKj^'i i 


■■(I Jr y ! JM lirt 

[-IHfJS ii ,irt jt ■ tilt li LfU I i 'ill • I JY 
i nri« ^tHT -.5 Ilf? I W*- ■ m 
-r EtjfS IT. Sficilb- «hP hd«**F' Df El 




Scripts sti* | ci Like sh ape thanks to AmlgaVIsiouj friendly front end If Ihings get « Utile tricky you can dwayi resort to the Hetp scran 


text Hie. It's really hard to do anything 
drastically wrong! If only all programs 
could be this robust, the world of com- 
puting would be a much nicer place. 

As a bonus, the Help menus really do 
help! They don't only explain "how 1 ' 
but also "why 1 '. The best tutorial is fust 
to try everything and when you get 
stuck ask for help. With the odd glance 
at the manual Index you can't go 
wrong. 

Say it with pictures 

If you can use Dpaint3 you can gel a 
multimedia presentation off the 
ground. First, create some pictures In 
Dpaint which you can tun in the back- 
ground with 2 meg of memory or 
more, and open the screen icon from 
the AV menu. AmigaVision will auto- 
matically detect which screen resolution 
and palette you used, 

Sound sample rates and animation 
rales are also auto-selected as long as 
they follow the IFF and Anim formats. 
There are a number of other options 
such as transitions between pictures in 
your presentation, fades and dissolves, 
plus some other video style effects, 
showing how much thought has gone 
into making AmigaVision accessible to 
as many people as pos&ible. 

AV icon elements can be linked 
together to allow multiple layers of ani- 
mation and digitised sound and back- 
grounds to be timed to coincide. This 
package fcreotfws DeskTop Video. 

Interactivity 

AmigaVision has what is called an 
Object Editor which can be used to 
define active Hot Spots on any screen. 
These Hot Spots are used to give a 
response to the AmigaVision flow that 
can call to other elements of the Flow, 
or load variables with values to be used 
later. Hot Spots can be simple shapes 
created in the Object Editor or brushes 
imported from a paint program. 

When a Hot Spot has been activated 
it can be assigned another visual or 
audio response, The Object Editor also 
allows the user to define the output of 
variables in any position and font size. 
Text windows can be placed anywhere 


and the user is given the option of 
importing Superbase and Dbaselll files. 

This allows the user to construct and 
test a database outside AmigaVision 
and then import it for the interactive 
multimedia elements to be added, if 
need be. Existing material can thus be 
revamped and reworked for multime- 
dia, 

But it's not all good news. 
AmigaVision is a large program and if 
you are serious about development you 
will need some extra memory - 2 meg 
or more for large presentations. There is 
also no true runtime module yet avail- 
able. 

This increases the memory over- 
heads when running a presentation as 
the delivery machine has to cany the 
overheads for the complete 
AmigaVision Authoring System {about 
60GK of code). This slows delivery 
dawn and excludes users with only a 
meg Of less who are itching to see what 
multimedia is about 

This is an important point for CDTV 


EkisvIi StonybBirt fU* 

I First Shot Ttw 


Shit tmi Fff 

Aninatitm for shot 


Second shut f*uw 


\\ Sound n 


An i hi tun for shat 


Ikfl’tU AgHIMfrtLE 

r == !\r rrrrrr-r 
ffTfr Tint ~ 


nr* 




PW }T\T\T * 


L 41 )P If! 

r.Nhiw 


® F rrrrn * 


Bs-xi 


* + u 


A full sc ri pt if! all 111 glory, ready flnd walling to inform, educate or boait those sales 

"AmyaVisigr frittering Systen ilnglish) 




4 


EMBltmsi kj 




la tabu i f 1 1 piuwi _ l : Ehiitp \ f s/Cus t Utw ils DBF 






* *b 


rillH 


Uwn 


Aml^aVIskiFi's internal database tdlt&r In action 


in a presentation and took are supplied 
to allow the user to scroll through text 
while within an interactive program, 

II you pull up a Data or AV icon the 
Object Editor can be made available 
allowing you to assign objects for inter- 
activity without having to come out d! 
the How, Also hidden within 
AmigaVision is a very powerful 
Expression Editor which allows string, 
numeric and Boolean operations to be 
defined, 

The list of user-defined variables can 
be used at any position or time within a 


Flow just by clicking on the variable 
from the list in the Expression menu. A 
full list of mathematical, Boolean and 
string operators are available so that 
quite complex variable responses to a 
Hot Spot or test input can be con- 
structed. 

Icing on the cake 

Finally we come to the database ele- 
ment of AmigaVision which is one of its 
main strengths, The Database can he 
used to search in all the standard ways 


Logical uprralJcriiiS made * aiy thpnfei to the 
uscf friendly taprciilon editor 

developers who will want to cram as 
much musie and pictures into CDTY's 
one meg of memory as is possible. 
Commodore promise to upgrade this 
soon. 

At present, AmigaVision does not 
support calk to CD-DA, standard CD 
audio, available in CDTV which means 
it can't use some of the wonders that 
CD technology brings. Again, 
Commodore claim that there is a new 
version of AmigaVision, version 1,7, 
about to hit the streets and it will 
indude more device handlers and oper- 
ators so as to satisfy the demands of 
developers. 

Conclusion 

AmigaVision is an excellent package as 
an introduction to the realms of inter- 
activity and multimedia. Presentations 
can be put together by even a novice 
with access to minimal memory in no 
time at all. It does, however, need to be 
taken up by a larger user base if it is to 
be the backbone of Amiga authoring. 

The package isn't quite yet the 
Amiga's answer to HyperCard, but 
given time it might be. The best way to 
judge a package is to see if it's being 
used in the commercial market We J re 
using it - is anyone else? 















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Video 

Multimedia embraces many different 
types of information and formats, but 
by far its most important feature is the 
amount of control it offers over video 
materials. Video is the cornerstone of 
multimedia without which the multi- 
media information system would be 
nothing more than a glorified interac- 
tive slideshow. 

The hardware is still in its infancy 
and new developments are announced 
almost daily. Despite this, the Amiga is 
at the forefront of developments, espe- 
cially with the launch of Commodore's 
CD-based Amiga, CDTV. 

The CDROM facts 

There are many different ways of incor- 
porating and controlling video materi- 
als in applications, ranging from basic 
digitised graphics stored on a hard disk 
to full motion Digital Video Interactive 
stored on CDROM, In the early days of 
multimedia, producers used just about 
any piece of video kit they could lay 
their hands on, and multimedia was an 
indistinct concept. 

These days however, outside video, 
multimedia has focused almost exclu- 
sively on CD and laser disk, You'll still 
find more exotic hardware employed 
far specific applications but multimedia 
producers have concentrated their 
efforts on these two established for- 
mats. 

In the early days, many saw CDROM 
as the ideal medium for multimedia 
work. After all, the CDROM disk could 
store a variety of information types, and 
even today other devices are restricted 
to one particular information format. 
VCRs only hold moving video, for 
example, but a CDftQM can hold 
almost anything. With such integration, 
multimedia systems can now be pulled 
together at minimal cost. 

Another advantage erf CDROM is its 
sheer capacity. Even a fairly basic 
CDROM can store upwards of 650Mb 
of information. Compare this with 
something like an average floppy drive 
or even a hard drive and you'll soon see 


why die CDROM format has became so 
popular. Hard drives can challenge the 
CDROM in terms of storage capacity, 
but they are restricted by the kind of 
information they can hold. 

The downside? 

That's not to say that CDROM is the 
answer to every multimedia producer’s 
dream. To begin with, current CDROM 
technology is restricted almost entirely 
to read-only operation. You can buy 
things like WORM (Write Once, Read 
Many) drives, but these 
are incredibly expensive 
and even then they are 
limited by the same 
restrictions as the hard 
drive. 

Unless you're prepared 
to pay the high cost of 
having CDROM applica- 
tions professionally mas- 
tered, then CDROM is 
restricted to generic {or 
mass market) applications. 

This is a problem plaguing 
CDTV - you won't find 
individuals producing 
multimedia applications 
on CDTV because of the 
high costs involved, As it 
is, most CDROM applica- 
tions will be general purpose, designed 
specifically for mass market consump- 
tion. 

Another disadvantage of CDTV is 
that it does not support full motion 
video, which is a very 
important aspect of the 
multimedia toolkit. 
Several manufacturers - 
notably IBM and 
Microsoft - are pioneer- 
ing Digital Video 
Interactive, a system 
which allows over an 
hour of video footage to 
be stored on a standard 
CD. Using fast cm- board 
compression algorithms, 
the host computer can 
pull images fn from 
CDftQM and display 
them in realtime. 

CDTV very nearly 
scored its own form of 


PV-F technology - Commodore had 
originally Intended to build in the nec- 
essaiy circuitry to allow CDTV to display 
full motion video in a quartet section of 
the screen. This would have made it an 
ideal platform for true multimedia 
applications. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't until the 
recent launch of CDTV that 
Commodore admitted that this feature 
was not included - much to the dismay 
of those gathered! 

Some view this as a missed opportu- 
nity for Commodore's multimedia 


machine but already there are rumour* 
floating around that Commodore's 
engineers are working on the next gen- 
eration of CDTV. Codenamed 
SuperBaby, the new machine will sup- 
port full motion video directly. 

Laser disks aren't dead! 

If you want to use live video In your 
multimedia applications you'll have to 
invest in an expensive laser disk con- 
troller like those used by the BBC for its 
Doomsday Project. With the correct con- 
troller card and software, your multirne* 
dia applications can call upon (and 
interact with) TV quality video footage 
directly. 

This is the most powerful aspect of 
multimedia yet. Uses for it within the 
education, local government and cor- 
porate markets are endless, but it r s 
fairly old-hat in the entertainment sec- 
tor. Remember Dragon's Lou Y? It's been 


around for years now, using many of 
the principles of multimedia before we 
even knew it. While rather limited in its 
gameplay, there's no doubt that it 
demonstrates beautifully the power of 
computer-controlled laser disk players. 

A better example of multimedia in 
action is Atari's Mad Dog McKray, 
which uses video footage of real actors, 
allowing pFayers to shoot it out with 
''rear bad guys. The level of interaction 
that Mad Dog delivers is amazing - it's 
just a shame that the game is so expen- 
sive to play] User disks, too, suffer 
from the same problem that dogs 
CDROM - high costs. Mastering a laser 
disk is a complex process leaving little 
room for mistakes. 

Not only that, but it's an expensive 
medium to work with unless you intend 
to market your disk commercially- The 
cost of the hardware needed to play 
laser disks is also considerably greater 
than a CDROM drive, explaining why 
CDROM h as been greeted with such 
enthusiasm. 

Control your media 

Controlling all of these video widgets 
poses another problem for the multi- 
media producer. If you're using an 
industry standard authoring system 
such as Commodore's AmjgaVision, the 
driver you require should already be 
available. AmigaViston comes as stan- 
dard with drivers for the more popular 
video decks including those produced 
by Panasonic, Sony and Pioneer. 

But what happens ff you're using 
one of the less well known packages 
fite INQVAtronics' CanDo or Deluxe 
Video 3? The answer lies in William $ 
Hawes' advanced message passing sys- 
tem, ARexx 

Now that it's an integral part of the 
Amiga's operating system (in 
Workbench 2.0), hardware vendors no 
longer need to write drivers for specific 
applications. Simply by producing a 
generic driver that can be controlled via 
ARexx, any ARexx-cpmpatible multime- 
dia authoring system should be able to 
drive that device directly by issuing 
commands through an ARexx port, 

Unfortunately, the true power of 
ARexx has yet to be harnessed. Getting 
third party developers to adopt ARexx 
hasn't proved too much of a problem 
for Commodore, but no one has used it 
to its full capabilities. 

With the eventual launch of 
Workbench 2.0 for the A500, ARexx will 
hopefully be taken more seriously. Until 
then it seems it will remain a powerful 
but underused Amiga tool. 

Using video in your multimedia 
applications is cumentfy an expensive 
task that will remain out of the scope of 
most users for a while yet. 

The multimedia revolution, however, 
is just beginning to gain ground and 
before long we'll all be able to afford to 
produce multimedia applications fea~ 
Curing fulf interactive motion video, > 



The heart and soul of maiiy ptrwvr applications, and peihjpi th* 
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Amiga Computing August! 991 


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Music and 
Audio 


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While video is very much restricted to 
high budget applications, music and 
sound effects can foe used in your own 
multimedia productions with very little 
outlay. . 

Trie reason for this is simple - while 
evert basic video requires the use of 
some expensive equipment, you 
already awn the hardware required to 
generate music and sound effects in the 
shape of the Amiga. 

There's no reason why you need to 
buy music -gene rating equipment for 
your multimedia production. The 
Amiga has built in to it some impressive 
circuitry that allows it to produce the 
kind of sound effects and music which 
would have turned professional musos 
green with envy a few years back. 


Wonder widget 

The key to all of this power It an inge- 
nious little widget called the sound 
sampler. Most of us might use them for 
little more than making Granny sound 
like Chip 'n Dale on a wet Sunday after- 
noon, but they have a serious use for 
multimedia authoring. 

Sound samplers can be picked up for 
around £30 these days, so there's no 
excuse for not rushing out and buying 
one now. The most expensive thing 
about using sampled sounds is the cost 
of memory and the storage device 
needed to hold your samples. 

Sound samplers provide a quick and 
easy solution to the problem of adding 
musk to multimedia productions. You'll 
have to be careful not to infringe copy- 
right, but simply by looping passages 
it's easy to produce impressive music, 



Composition corner 

If you require an original piece of 
music, the next thing to invest in is a 
decent music program. But be warned. 
It' i worth checking first to find out 
what type of music your system sup- 
ports. The most commonly accepted 
format for music within multimedia 
packages is Aegis' IFF SMUS. 

Packages which will generate this 
type of music file include Aegis' own 
Sonix and Electronic Arts' Deluxe 
Music. Micro Illusions' Music-X will read 
SMUS format files, but there's no con- 
version tool to reverse the prrcess. 

For point-of-sale applications and so 
on r you might want some form of spo- 
ken commentary to guide the user 
through the finer points of your pro- 
duction. This can be handled by sam- 
pling a real human, but such samples 
swallow up large chunks of hard disk 
storage space. 

A better bet is to use the Amiga's 
own speech synthesiser, tt's not the 
best of speech synthesisers, but it's 



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worth using l& save on valuable hard 
disk space. If you're lucky enough to 
have Workbench 2.0 you'll find that the 
speech synthesiser has been improved 
substantially, making it easier to under- 
stand. 

Adding Midi muscle 

If the sound your Amiga can generate 
isn't up to scratch far your particular 
needs, you can call upon studio-quality 
sounds using the musician's best friend, 
Midi- Sy its very nature, Midi is ideally 
suited to multimedia applications. 

Although connecting Midi instru- 
ments to a multimedia system may 
sound like a rather long-winded (and 
expensive) way of adding music and 
sound effects, the great thing about 
using Midi is that you have at your dis- 
posal a massive array of Midi-compati- 



Sound Miiittr fii tfre hardware that's 
launched a thousand sou nrl effects 


hie hardware for use within your sys- 
tem. 

Apart from the usual selection of 
professional-quality synthesisers, sam- 
plers and drum machines, you can buy 
Midi mics and even Midi -controlled 
switchboxes which can be used on 
various pieces of equipment 

You could, for example, control a 
desktop light through Midi by connect- 
ing the power line of the light to a Midi 
switch box. By programming your sys- 
tern to send the correct Midi messages, 
the light can be turned on and off. 
When applied to multimedia, the appli- 
cations for something like this are 
almost limitless. 

Midi is often criticised for being 
rather simplistic, but it is this simplicity 
that makes it ideal for budget multime- 
dia production. Just because it was 
designed for musical uses doesn't mean 
you should restrict yourself to this appli- 
cation. 

On other machines Midi has already 
been used successful ly for such things 
as networking and even multi-user 
games. Networking is probably the 
most useful: of the two, especially when 
you consider how simple it is to get a 
useable Midi- based network up and 
running. 

Sumptuous SMPTE 

Extending the multimedia ideal still fur- 
ther, It's possible to synchronise music 
and video material with pinpoint accu- 


racy using a system called SMPTE 
(Society of Motion Picture and 
Television Engineers). 

More commonly called SMPTE/EBU 
(the EGU bit stands for European 
Broadcasting Union), SMPTE was 
devised in 19-69 to allow television 
engineers to sync video and music with 
single frame accuracy. 

One of the more outrageous users of 
5MFTE and MIDI Time Code is that 
prolific French synth composer Jean 
MSefoe! Jarre. |arre uses SMPTE exten- 
sively during his impressive open air 
concerts to allow him to synchronise his 
musk with external devices including 
light sources, lasers and those infamous 
Jarre fireworks. 

If you were lucky enough to catch 
Jarre's Destination Docklands concert 
back, in 19B8 r you would have wit- 
nessed a vivid demonstration of the 
power of Midi and SMPTE. 

Of course, Jarre's coffers are slightly 
healthier than those of we mere mor- 
tals., but that's not to say that SMPTE is 
expensive. Although much of the hard- 
ware which accepts SMPTE time code 
tends to be restricted to the profes- 
sional end of the music market, the 
hardware necessary to allow your 
Amiga multimedia system to interface 
with SMPTt compatible hardware is 
fairly inexpensive. 

A couple of companies produce 
SMPTE time code generators. These 
Include Microillusions and Dr T x s 
Software, both of which produce musk 
products that can take advantage of the 
SMPTE standard (Music-* and KCS 3.0 
respectively). Both support the four 
more common SMPTE formats includ- 
ing 24 FPS (Frames Per Second), 25 
FPS, Non-Drop Frame and Drop Frame. 

The ARexx factor 

Once again, ARexx proves to be a key 
factor in the musk side of multimedia. 
Although music software vendors seem 
to have been less keen to build support 
for ARexx into their products, it's only a 
matter of time before these companies 
too realise the importance of data 
portability. And several companies have 
already jumped onto the ARexx band- 
wagon, so it's possible to use ARexx to 
a certain extent already. 

SunRize Industries' 1 impressive range 
of 12 and 16-bit sampling cards lend 
themselves beautifully to multimedia 
applications through their support for 
ARexx, Midi and even SMPTE, SunRize 
see the cards being mainly of interest to 
Amiga musicians (hence the Midi sup- 
port), but the Inclusion of SMPTE and 
ARexx support is sure to see them 
being adopted by multimedia and 
Desktop video fanatics. 

Once there cards are installed inside 
your multimedia workstation, you'll be 
able to call upon CD-quality audio held 
on hard disk. With this high quality at 
your disposal, such applications as voice 
recognition suddenly become a reality. 


• * <4 • # # 

Glossary 


AUTHORING SYSTEM - the computer 
hardware and software that is used to 
construct a presentation. The system is 
often larger and more powerful than 
the eventual delivery system the pre- 
sentation is aimed for, eg Amiga 3WX5 
developing for CPlV. 

DELIVERY SYSTEM - usually a stand- 
alone unit that gives users access to an 
interactive multimedia presentation. 
HOT SPOTS - either visible buttons or 
hidden areas within a presentation 
that allow interactive elements to be 
brought together. These are fully 
definable and there is usually no limit 


to the number that can be onscreen at 
any one time. 

INTERACTIVITY - the ability for users to 
ask questions of and receive responses 
from the delray system and presenta- 
tion, and to act upon them leading to 
other options or questions, 

RUNTIME - Runtime modules are exe- 
cutable objects which can operate 
independently of the authoring sys- 
tem on suitable delivery systems 
STORYBOARD - a collection of key 
frames from a film or video script 
which allows the director and clients 
to visualise a scene 





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C ast your mind back to whal 
some call "the good old days jr 
of the early arcade machines, 
and with a steady mind unaffected hy 
fawning sentimentality you'll be forced 
to agree that most of the original 
games were a waste of lOp. Not so 
Missile Command and Asteroids. 

Since the first home computers 
started to bring the arcades into our 
homes, these two games have 
appeared in countless versions both 
commercially and, more recently, in the 
public domain, for the disk's game of 
the month therefore, we decided to 
double up and bring you twice the 
usual classic arcade action, 

The Missile Command conversion on 
this disk is by Max Bithead of Boulder 
Colorado, and is a *beerware ir game. In 
other words, the author wouldn't mind 
if you sent him a six-pack in the post I 
The Asteroids clone is by Rico Marian i. 


Missile Command 

The object of the game is survival in the 
face of a hail of nuclear missiles. To stay 
alive as long as possible you must use 
your own anti-missile weapons to inter- 
cept the incoming nukes. 

You could say the programmers 
were the first proponents of Ronnie 






RayCun r s SDI (Star Wars) initiative! First 
off r you must choose whether to play a 
one or two-player game. The iwo- 
player option doesn't, unfortunately, 
involve both players at once in a joint 
defence, but dnce it pits them against 
each other in terms of the final score, 
you can always pretend you're defend- 
ing yourself against the other player's 
missiles! 

When the game starts, the player has 
a limited supply of missiles, represented 
by a number of yellow dots in the cen- 
tral silo. The nukes descend from the 
top of the screen, and to stop them the 
player fires missiles at them. 

Mouse missiles 

The crosshair mouse pointer focuses 
your aim, and missiles are fired with the 
left mouse button. When friendly mis- 
siles explode they do so in a ball of 
flames which lasts a couple of seconds. 
Any missile which enters this explosion 
is destroyed, so with careful planning, 
several nukes can be dispatched with 
one shot. 

The only way to survive more than a 
couple of screens in this game is to take 
out a group of missiles with every shot, 
as ammo soon runs out if you blast 
away indiscriminately. The best playing 
tip, therefore, is to hold your fire until 




Classic fun with the Amiga versions 
of two of the best ever oldiesl 



you suss out where all the incoming 
missiles are going, then plaster them at 
the busiest intersections. 

Another Up far the ruthlessly prag- 
matic is to allow all your cities save one 
to be destroyed, and concentrate your 
defences above this City. This ii espe- 
cially useful once the "smart bombs" 
begin to appear. 

Clever cloggs! 

Smart bombs are represented by small 
blobs which don't leave a trail behind 
them and which will not cany on in the 
same path if it will lead them into an 


exploding friendly missile. For these 
reasons they are more difficult to track 
and destroy, as they require a direct hit 
If you hit just below its position, a 
smart bomb will stop and hover above 
the explosion until the route is clear 
again, then carry on to its target. Sort 
of a cruise missile really, so What With 






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the 5DI angle, you begin to wonder if 
Ronnie didn't pick up a few tips from 
this game! 

On later screens the missiles speed 
up considerably, leading Id the desper- 
ate tactic known to old arcade players 
as "whizz-bang*, On the original 
arcade console the position of the 


crosshair was controlled by a track-bail, 
the first to be widely used for a game. 
This gave rise to a measure whereby 
a string of missiles could be fired very 
rapidly. All you had to do was whizz the 
ball quickly to one side, then bang the 
fire button as fast as possible. If you 
have a track-ball at home you can 



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recreate this manoeuvre perfectly, but a 
quick-wristed mouse user should be 
able to emulate it with some reasonable 
success. 

If you manage a decent score, the 
game will ask you to put an entry in the 
high score table, but be warned that 
unlike many high score tables this one 
is saved to disk. If you are still using the 
original coverdisk, BACK IT UP MOWJ 

The advantage of this method is that 
you can save your all-time best scores 
on disk for as long as you like, and with 
the classic gameplay on offer, that 
could be a very long time! 


Asteroids 


Dozens of colours! Amazing animation! 
Stunning sound effects! These are all 
descriptions which don't, unfortu- 
nately, apply to Asteroids, yet it was a 
huge hit in the early days and is still a 
very playable game. Why? 

As usual, the object of the game is to 
survive as long as possible against over- 


whelming odds. This was one of the 
most appealing features of roost of the 
old classics. You always knew you were 
doomed - the challenge was to see 
who could last the longest. 

You begin in the -middle of a screen- 
ful of hulking asteroids and it's only a 
matter of time before your ship collides 
with one, leading to your instant 
demise. Luckily, your ship is armed with 
a laser and can manoeuvre around the 
screen using its thruster and left-right 
directional controls. 

Be careful of the inertia effect faith- 
fully reproduced here from the original. 
This means that when the ship Is mov- 
ing it tends to stay in motion until you 
turn round and apply reverse thrust. 

When an asteroid is hit by iaser fire it 
splits into two pieces travelling slightly 
faster than the parent. Shoot these and 
they split again into boulders which 
whizz about at even greater speeds and 
cause real headaches. 

These boulders can be destroyed 
with a single shot, but there are often 


How to use The Disk 


first of all, you must make a back-up copy 
of the coverrfisk. To do this, boot up with 
your copy of Workbench then double dick 
on the Workbench disk icon, fallowed by 
die Shell of CLl icon. Now type: 


DISKCOPY FROM DFO: TO DFO: 


ftf F if you luve dn extra disk drive, put a 
blank,, formatted disk in DPI : and type: 


DttKCOPY FROM DFO: TO f>F1: 


locks tike the end h nigh 


The tohiii'banf HKtte m ww* 


Follow |he onscreen prompts until the 
copying procedure ties ended, then put 
your original disk away in z safe place. Now 
switch off the machine and wait lor 30 sec- 
onds, before re-booting with the copy. Wait 
until the CcwerOiSkl? icon appears, double 
click on it and away you go. 

That's all you need do to make a 
straight copy of the entire disk. However, 
you may also want to to copy individual 


programs from your copy of the covertfisk 
to a separate disk. In this case ensure that 
you fully understand which related files 
need to go with it. 

for example, all of the document files 
on the disk require that the text editor 
iPPmore is in the current disk's C: directory - 
Th#refane r if you copy the docs lo a new 
disk you will aha have to copy PPimore to 
the new C: directory before you can read 
them. 

Some of the smaller docs will run have 
been crunched, so for these you need only 
change the tool types on the icon's Info 
screen to reflect whichever text editor you 
do have on the new disk. 

As a general rule, you should carefully 
read the documentation for any program 
you copy from disk to disk, 

I hb can save a great deal of messing 
about and can help you avoid all those 
infuriating error messages! 


n 

o 

< 


L/l 

7^ 


33 


August 1991 Amiga Computing 









► too many of them to Lake care of 
before one of them gets you. 

fust to make things a bit hander and 
more interesting, the asteroids are aug- 
mented by the odd flying saucer. These 
appear from the edges of the screen 
and follow an erratic flight path spitting 
out laser bolts as they go. 

When the screen is already jam- 
packed with boulders and asteroids 
these little devils can make life annoy- 
ingly complicated, hut when the screen 
is dear of all except a few last boulders, 
the player can lie in wait for UFOs and 
pick up a few bonus points. When they 
appear at this late stage they are pretty 
easy to take care of. 

One last note for players of the origi- 
nal game - there is no screen wrap on 
this version. On the old game you 


could zip out the top of the screen to 
appear at the bottom, or exit stage left 
and come in again on the right of the 
screen, In Rico Marian i's game, players 


and asteroids bounce off the screen 
borders and go back the way they 
came. Now don't just srt there - get 
blasting! 


PrefSet 


Author Chris Simpson 


One o4 the annoying things 
about Workbench’s preferences 
is ihJl to change one aspect, say 
ibe printer driver, pOti have to 
open the preferences draw, 
then the preh program, then pa 
to the screen you need, tarry 
out the change and then dick 
on Use. 

it’s even more of a drag if 
you want to switch quickly to a 
setting containing several 
changes. There’s no last way to 


do it unless you use a utility such 
,15 PrefSet. 

Using FrefSel you can tills* 
a great many different prefer- 
ences setting s ( because unlike 
the standard Workbench file 
containing preferences settings, 
which must be called "sy stem- 
con Figuration" and are located 
In the DEVS: directory, PrefSet 
can toad or save a File and call it 
anything it likes. 

This means you tan have a 


long list of preferences settings 
ready to load in when needed. 
The PrefSet drawer m the disk 
contains five example settings 
for you to play around with, 
named example one through to 
five. To use them, activate the 
CLI window left open at the bot- 
tom d the Workbench screen by 
clicking in \l then type; 


CD S T s : JT X L [ T I E 5 1 1 P R E F $ E T 
PREfSE* ElMPLEt cAEUiM* 


Nothing could he easier. 

The attendant utility is 
PrefSave, which you use to save 
any preb you have tinkered with 


in Preferences. To save a new 
set, go into the CLI window as 
before and type: 


PHEmvi ElMPLfl 


You can, ol course, prefix the 
filename with the drive and 
directory of your choice. 


1 

MiJ 

S' 

— 

f 




IFF2PCXII 

Author: }f>hn 5fiaw 


Despite its daunting and vaguely hieroglyphic name, this is a 
friendly and. very useful utility. IFF2PCX converts Amiga 
graphics in the standard IFF format to IBM PC graphics in 
the PCX format, which is a rough equivalent of IFF in that it 
is accepted by most PC paint and DTP packages. 

The advantages of such a conversion process are obvious 
in that Amiga owners can now transfer their IFF files to a PC 
without having to buy expensive commercial conversion 
programs such as ASDG's Art Department Professional 
IFF2PCX makes it easy for anyone with a standard S12K 
Amiga to cany out the conversion for Free. 

To begin, run the program from CLI by typing: 

CD DFU:BTlLlHB/IFf!FCt <»fTillN> 

[FF3F01I <RETUB«s 

or double click on its icon, By opening the program from 
CLI, you can save quite a bit of memory, which is essential if 
you intend to convert a lot of graphics and hoid them in 
memory. 

Once the program is running, you are presented with 
four options. From top left, these are PICK IFF, PCXDIR, 
VIEW IFF, and CONVERT. 

The first of these when clicked, brings up a requester 
using the PD library, req .library as found in the disk's LIBS; 
directory. Using the file requester the user chooses the file to 
be converted to PCX format. 

A useful feature at this stage is the program's ability to 
accept a stack of IFF files if they are chosen using extended 
selection, This is done by holding down the shift button 
while clicking once on each file with the left mouse button. 


then on OK. For our purposes, move to the MachineCode 
directory of the coverdisk and choose the file called "piccy" 
then click on OK. 

The second gadget, PCXDIR, simply tells the computer 
which directory to write the PCX file in once it has been 
converted, Choose RAM; from the list of devices on the 
right-hand side of the requesters as the "piccy" File is less 
than 20K and should fit easily in even a M2K Amiga. Now 
click on OK. 

The VIEW IFF gadget gives the user the opportunity to 
view IFFs before choosing which one to convert, so we can 
skip over that one for now, 

Click on the last gadget, CONVERT, to begin the conver- 
sion process. This will read in the IFF, convert ft, and write it 
to the directory chosen with the PCXDIR gadget. The result- 
ing file is about 1 0 per cent bigger than the original IFF and 
will be about twice as big once detompacted on the PC, but 
the memory overheads are negligible when compared say, 
to those involved In the conversion to Mac TIFF format. 

The conversion takes proper care over MSdos file naming 
conventions, so it will automatically truncate any filename of 
more than eight characters and add the .PCX file extension. 
The user therefore has very little to worry about other than 
that there is enough disk space or memory available for the 
files to be converted. 

The coverdisk's ramdisk should! give you ample room to 
practise with small files, as even S12K Amiga owners will 
have 3QOK or so to play about with. 

Please remember that this program is shareware, so if you 
mean to use it regularly, send a donation to the author at 
the address supplied in the documentation on the disk. 


ASolvell 

Author: Lennart Oscatiion 
If you're about to start studying for 
your A levels or for a degree in 
maths, physics, or most sciences, 
ASolvell should be extremely useful. 

It is designed to plot a wide range of 
maths functions and represent them 
onscreen, and takes a lot of the work 
out of messing about with maths. 

By limply typing in the function 
you would like to plot, and setting 
maximum and minimum values for X 
and V, you can have an Instant 
appreciation of how the function will 
look an paper. This is very useful to 
give you an idea of where the max- 
ima and minima will occur, along 
with any points of inflection. 

In addition, the position of the 
cursor is continually updated in the 
top right-hand corner of the screen, 
and Its co-ordinates given in pure 
maths terms down to seven decimal 
points. 

A dastardly plot! 

If you want to know the exact carte- 
sian co-ordinates erf any point on the 
graph, you merely zoom in and plat* 
the tursof on your chosen point, The 
co-ordinates will be those displayed 
on the tap tight. 

Stop! I hear the differentia! calcu- 
lus fans shouL How can you plot a 
curve with an Infinite number of 
points on a computer screen of a set 
resolution? How can you find an 
accurate point on the gi^ph when 
your accuracy is determined by the 
size of your pixels? 

The answer rs the excellent zoom- 
in function. This allows you to zoom 
into the graph until you reach a suffi- 
cient pixe(-to-the-decima1-point ratio, 
for instance, you could zoom in on a 
turning point until it became virtually 
a straight line, then plot its co-otdi- 
nates. 

The zoom function allows you to 
choose the area to be biown up to 
full screen size by dragging a box 
around it with the mouse, so i! you 
choose a very small area, you can 
zoom in extremely close. 

Not as good as sitting down and 
wording out the function for yourself, 
but if we did that for you we'd be 
cheating, wouldn't we? 

A host of extras 

Extra features include the ability to 
plat up to six different functions on 
the same graph at any one time, 
plotting derivatives, second deriva- 
tives, integrals, and parameter func- 
tions, a calculator, and the option to 
save your graph to disk as an IFF for 
later output to printer or even a DTP 
package. If you're Involved in the 


Findex 

Author: Georg e Knight 


numeraire branch of education as 
other a student or teacher, ASofvefl 
rt"ll become indispensible and one of 
your most useful mathematics tools. 


Maths functions 


Here is a list of the maths operators 
you can use in A Solve 1 1 functions. 
The list should be comprehensive 
enough for most tastes: 


SIN 

COS 

TAN 

ASIN 

AC05 

ATAIM 

SINN 

COSH 

TANH 

EXP 

IN 

LOO 

sqn 

ABS 

INT 


addition 

subtraction 

multiplication 

division 

power function 
sin function 
cosin function 
tan function 
arc jin function 
arc cosin function 
arc tan function 
sin hyperbolic function 
cosinus hyperbolic function 
tangens hyperbolic function 
exponential function 
natural logarithm function 
base 1 0 logarithm function 
square mat function 
absolute value 
integer part 


Finde* is an easy-to-use -database program designed like an 
electronic card index. If you want a catalogue of programs, 
LjPs or books, or if you have a business and msh to store 
staff or stock records, this is for you I Findex helps you to 
find what you want easily. 

It operates on the basis of a two-dimensional array. Each 
item of data is regarded as an item belonging to a particular 
class, such as a program (item) on a disk (class). 

The class is always stored and: displayed in alphabetical: 
order whereas each item is stored in order of entry. To find 
any item of data, you either find the class and then examine 
the items belonging to it or you use the search facility pro- 
vided to find the item directly. You defrne display headings 
to suit your own needs. 


the item containing it will be highlighted in the lower box 
and the disk which has this item will be highlighted in the 
tippet box. Choose Continue from the Special menu if you 
want to proceed with the search through the remaining 
items. 

You will nbtigii that there are keyboard equivalents for 
the menu items, so things can speed up a bit once you get 
used to pfaying about with Findex. As fong as you remem- 
ber the distinction between classes and items, it r s easy to 
create your own database, as the on-disk documents con- 
tain a thorough tutorial section. If you get stuck try reading 
those, but you shouldn't have any real problems with 
Findex - ids friendly, simple and fast. 


n 

O 

< 


PD 

a 

on 


How it works 


The program opens to a largely blank window. Choose 
Open from the File menu and select the Hie Disks.fx, a small 
file created for demonstration purposes. 

fn the top box, you will see a list of disk titles. Click on 
any one of these and several lines will appear in the lower 
box giving the names of programs stored on the selected 
disk. Repeat as often as you wish to trawl through the disks. 

If you want to find something quickly, choose Search 
from the Special menu and type a name into the string 
requester. The search is not case-sensitive, so don't worry 
about whether the entry is In upper or lower case. 

If the search is successful and the search string is located, 



OGSI&aSSfSBfiS 








F Jgf up to ifr functJbfu at once 


— Cftgf «> 




□ Mntfol WLfiMu 


“cwlrfx) 

friLfl 

fax 




-I I In in 


Si' M.S 


net imfr HDD0EIO fanctiHi 


13 '-- 


Jnwttir"biM3s 


A fritirow of mpffoffriNsJfcrJ^ 


Think you can do better? 
Want to be famous? 


We are always on the lookout for new, quality Amiga 
pmgrams fw Hk cpv^dt^k. If you you have wrft- 
ten 5ometiwr>g good enough for oLhen to share and 
en|oy, ple«e send it in and well have a took. 

The Amigo Computing coverdisk is used by thou- 
sands of Amiga owners every month in places all CWf 
the world Item New Zealand to the U.S.A, so if yout 
submission finds its way unto the disfe, you could be 
famoifil 

Please rruke sure you list ALL Workbench and other 
files necessary for the program to work. Feel free to 
design your own icons for progs which ran from 
Workbench, hut please don't make them im big. 

If you ensure your program is as compatible as pos- 
sible with a wide range of Amiga*, i| wll also stand a 
better chance of pubJkalkm. We art especially inter- 


ested in programs designed to work with the A3000, 
although if they work only with the new machine 
they'll have to be quite small . 

We m prepared to pay our cunem rates for origi- 
nal work which hasn't been distributed in any nthe? 
way and which has not been put in the public domain. 

If you wish yew program to be released as share- 
ware or liveware we will be happy ip publish K but 
would, of course, be happier if we r d been given it first] 
Tour submission MUST be accompanied by tftt 
submissions form, a copy erf ft, or a signed declaration 
to the same effect. Please supply your full name 
address and pharw numb?. 

Unfortunately we cannot undertake to return cfaks 
sent to us as the volume of submission? make; this an 
impractical exercise. 


Name..,,.. 
Address ... 


Daytime phone. .... 

Submission name ..... 


..Age 


.Evening phone 

.Submission sire 


You must sign this declaration 


fhe material on thh disi; u mine. I didn't Seal it from someone rise. It hasn't been published before and I 
haven't submitted it els#wh*nr because I want Amigo Computing lo publish It I underT-tand Ifist by jub- 
mitting try work lo Arupo C&tviurjrtp and signing this declaration I am giving full copyright control lb 
Eunoprea Pubtkartkms Ltd 

l understand that if my submission ts bought by Amiga C£wnpviiAg I will be p^id Ihe current applicable 
tale I Itrtcjw whflt copyright means and I will b# responsible for any poflibfa litigation arising from 
breath flff II by EmtspiTH Publkatwns Ltd as a resuft of using my submission, 

Pair yixirsutirmswoiTS 
WITH A CQPr OF THIS FORM to. 

Stevie Kennedy, Computing, 

CoverDisfc Submissions, Europe House, 

Adlirtdion Park. Macclesfield. SK10 4NP 


Signed . 


Date.... Uk .^ 





Linlga Computing August 1991 


36 


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TOMS J15 


Electronic Arts have 
been bringing award- 
winning software to 
the Amiga since Its 
earliest days. 

Stevie Kennedy 
went to find out 
how they do it 



o 


m 



C ramped smoke-filled offices in 
a back room over a Chinese 
laundry, filled with half-eaten 
Pot Noodles and long-haired en-hjppies 
dreaming of the ultimate game. Pink 
f loyd posters on every available surface, 
a few weather-beaten and thoroughly 
under-used filing cabinets, and perhaps 
the odd game in development - this is 
the traditional image of the average 
games software company. Electronic 
Arts could hardly be more different. 

Maybe it's the ultra-modern head- 
quarters building in the security con- 
scious business park, or the obviously 
Californian-style open plan offices. 
Perhaps it's the award certificates plas- 
tering the reception area walls like so 


much adulatory wall- 
paper, or the reception desk 
groaning under the weight of Tilt D'Or 
awards. Whatever it is, the visitor is left 
in no doubt that EA are in the serious 
business of producing leisure software, 
and they're in it to stay. 

As Sara Shrapnel I, EA's effervescent 
Pit co-ordinator, told me, "We're not 
just here to make a Fast buck - we want 
to be here In Fifty years' time. 1 ' 

To date, the European subsidiary has 
been here for only four years, but in 
that time they have released dozens 




/? 


ness? 


r s 

termed by sue- 
cessful program- 
mers who wart 
)uynesi r 
vrcic formed by 
businessmen who 
wanted to make suo 
cessfuf software." 
Surety business 
acumen isn't the only 
way to make good 
games? h EA /usf a busi- 


□f titles on seven dif- 
ferent formats including pro- 
grams as diverse as lames Pond, 
Interceptor, and the all-conquering 
Deluxe Painl ill. The sleek offices in 


Langley, Berkshire are now home to 
nearly SO staff, and exude an aura of 
quiet confidence. 

What, i wanted to know, was the 
secret behind EA r s success? 


"No. We put a lot of effort Into pro- 
ducing good games. Our Producer sys- 
tem allows us to adopt an entirety 
'hands-on r approach." 



"Some companies/ Sara 
told me, "are 


fttpuJotre loo* the gaming world by flan it ortaf mad* Iktfmvk Am a nomt to wdtan with 


tteclnmic Arts 

PR 

fCNtjrfrf^icftw 

Jflnr Sfcroprwfl 


Movie makers 

Electronic Arts, I found, are very proud 
of what they call their Hollywood- 
inspired Producer system, adopted in 
an attempt to engender the "optimum 
environment" for software develop- 
ment. 

The idea basically involves a pro- 
ducer (project manager by another 
name) whose Job it Is to take a game 
from the initial stages and oversee its 
production and development right up 
to packaging and marketing. 

In this way, individual programmers 
and development teams code games 
out of house under the EA banner, liais- 
ing with producers who do their best to ► 



August 1 991 Amlg a Computing 



Amiga Computing August 1 991 


o 

Q £ 

o_ 


U 


From Tanx to John Madden 


Our regular readers could not help but remember the fea- 
ture game on our May coverdisk, Amiga-Tanx, written by 
Gary Roberts, The same Cary Roberts now spends bis days in 
a cube at Electronic Ms which he shares with Stefan Walter, 
the other half of EA's relatively new in-house programming 
team, 

' For years EA have relied on outside authors and coders to 
develop and convert the games they market, but in a recent 
move to promote flexibility and ensure titles appear on as 
many formats as possible,. the in-house team was formed to 
cany out the work of converting successful games to new 
machine formats. 

Gary is at this moment 
working on ]ohn Madden's 
American Football, already a 
smash hit on the Sega 
Megadrive, and Stefan is in 
the middle of bringing LHX 
Attack Chopper aver from 
the PC to the Amiga. 

Cary's route into the 
games software business was 
more conventional than tra- 
ditional After college and 
the almost compulsory three 
A levels, he went to IBM for 
a year on a work experience 


the stuff we receive from programmers is instantly for - \ 
ge liable. When we saw the Amiga-Tanx game we 
reached for the phone". 




placing. While working on 
one of Big Blue's multimedia 
projects, however, he still 
hankered after a job writing 
games. 

To this end, he set out to 
code Amiga-Tanx and a 
mammoth six-disk one-hour- 
Jong Pink Floyd demo (now 
available in the public 
domain) and sent them to a 
number of software compa- 
nies. The results weren't jcrfwi Madden j Amnion tootbail toofo pel to became os big n frfr p* 


« jit 

« a ■ 



* * ■ 

o iv. >: 




* — " vi ■ 

* 





long in coming 


as ft Wffj on F h* Sega. Look out for if at ChrlfEmoj 


Artistic Choices 

Gary, meanwhile, had received an offer from anothei 
large software house. So why did he choose EA? 

"Everyone here was so friendly, and when I came to see 
the company I just thought r wowl ,rf 

Electronic Arts have a reputation which attracts good 
programmers, but that's hardly 
unique to them. 

There are other large software 
houses with a track record to 
match, so was it the EA working 
style that appealed to Gary? 

"Yes, it J s all quite relaxed. There's 
no-one standing over you cracking 
a whip, but the work still gets 
done. Coming from IBM I was look- 
ing for somewhere less formal, and 
here you can turn up wearing 
anything you want and work more 
oi less to your own deadlines. 
People sometimes turn up in fancy 
dress and have discos in their 
cubes!" 

What's the most productive 
aspect of your weekly routine? It's 
all very well coming to work in a 
chicken suit, but is there an aspect 
of the work you could put your fin- 
ger on as especially important? 

"Communications are very good. 
Everyone gets to know what the 
other departments are up to at our 
Friday meetings^ That way if we 
have any moans we can get them 
sorted out. 

Other than that, it's just the 



Gary Rohetti 
who strodbfth 
refuted to do 
jvmthing tar 
the camtrv 


red tape, then you sign a contract and 
they take care of you." 

So the system works? 

JT Yes. They're definitely the best peo- 
ple to work with from the author's 
viewpoint. Kevin looked after every- 
thing for Eldritch." 

And do you think this is what pro^ 
duces good games? Isn't it true to say 
that games such as Bullfrog's Populous 
can land on EA’s lap as a fait accompiR 

'True to a poink but EA can spot a 
game's potential, and with their reputa- 
tion they attract good software teams," 


"You'd be surprised", Sara told me, "at just how much of atmosphere here that's very productive" 


► smooth the road to the final product. 
Kevin Shrapnel!, whose projects have 
Included Imperium and Hound of 
Shadows told me, "We phone all our 
artists every week* even if there's noth- 
ing specific to talk about. You end up 
consoling programmers whose girl- 
friends have left them! It all helps." 

The system, for all its "people man- 
agement" overtones, seems to work 
admirably and shows how the leisure 
software Industry can be as businesslike 
as any other. The company's policy of 
creating the right atmosphere and then 
allowing development to take place 
almost at its own pace encourages a 


relaxed and informal office and is popu- 
lar from the point of view of the 
authors as well Marc Dawson at 
Mandarin software, formerly of Eldritch 


The Cat, and co-author of Projectile 
(another of Kevin's projects) told me, 
"When they decide they like some- 
thing, they go away and sort out all the 


Talent hunters 

Bullfrog are a prime example of the sort 
of team whose work finds the light of 
day under the EA flag. Populous was 
one of the most original games to 
appear on the Amiga, and it was only 
after one software company turned it 
down that EA's Joss Ellis said "yes". 

Bullfrog's Peter Molyneux told me he 
had originally approached EA "when it 
was a flat in Bayswater" with a database 
program which EA turned down,. 
Bullfrog then developed the shoot-'em- 
up H Fusion, and a fledgling demo ver- 
sion of Populous. 

TelecomSoft turned them down, but 
EA saw the potential offered by 
Populous and one of the most success- 
ful partnerships Of the last couple Of 
years was born. 

"The game (Populous) was really 




40 


We’re not just 
here to make a 
fast buck- we 
want to be here in 
fifty years’ time m 



Here's a quick rundown of the releases 
Electronic Arts, would like to remember 
with affection, and a few they would 
not! All scores in parenthesis are as 
awarded by Amiga Computing^ review- 
ers at the time. 

1987 - Deluxe Paint released in Europe 
and makes EA a name in Amiga soft- 
ware. The company, just launched as a 


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- 1 MAJ>F GOLD) 

- i>h i t mii r * 


Bottle chftt md the Sard's Tote ht it* - typical [ ( * "/ J, ' , 
of EA 's early sumim in at they're unwind * <■ ■ * d ■ ■ 1 if - 

r i, . lj-.L , -II 

and afar cry from arcade ita»r-irn-upj m I i 

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nothirng more than a demo when we 
showed it to Electronic Arts, and we 
had about sex month's work to put in 
on it but they liked it straight away. 1 " 

What was your overriding impression 
of the EA way of doing things? Is there 
ore word that sums them up? 

"Professionalism", Peter to id me. 
"They have faults too, of course, the 
main one being the way their decisions 
can he d fiver by the parent compary 
in the States " 

And do they, in your opinion, have 
one secret to heip produce quality 
g^mes? 

Their quality control is very tight. It 
can be incredibly frustrating for pro- 
grammers to have a game returned to 
them for the smallest of changes, but 
EA r s thoroughness pays off in the end. 

"They're also quite flexible. The 
knights facility in Populous became are 
of the most important aspects of game- 
play, but it was only included a week 
before the original deadline for the pro- 
gram, 

"We convinced EA that it was an 
important feature and they agreed to 
its inclusion, even though they had to 
delay things by three weeks as a result." 

Cubes and QA 

electronic Aits' most thorough games 
testing takes place in what is called a 
4 cube" 1 - everyone at EA works in a 
"cube" of an open plan office - filled 
with games software and computers. 
There the customer services lads are 
locked for a week at a time to play 
games eight hours a day. 

If that sounds like fun, stop and think 
again. The CS people have a brief to 
play every game to exhaustion, and to 
the bitter end. Every move is recorded 
on VCR so that if a bug should arise, it 
can be played back tor the coders to 
see for themselves what's gone wrong. 

"Customer services have a vested 
interest in finding every bug", Sara told 
me, "because if there's anything wrong 

subsidiary of the giant American 
Electronic Aits, begins small but with a 
bang, 

1988 - Bard's Tale (84%) and F/A-18 
interceptor (%%} become smash hits 
and the latter is bundled with ASQOs, 
Other hits include Fusion (73%), Battle 
Chess (7 7%). Flops include Ferrari 
formula 1 and Earl Weaver's Baseball- 
EA now established as a name in the 
games market as well as productivity. 



of TwitighI fared wont than It d&rrvpd 



Birds of Prey 


When I came 
to see the company 
I just thought 
WOW! % 

with a game it J s them who have to take 
the calls From irate customers. They also 
get to know the games very well, and 
so can help with any queries, better 
sometimes even than the program- 
mers." 

After all the marketing and p-roduo 
lion has taken place, the documenta- 
tion with its si* language translations 
dotted to the last T, and the advertis- 
ing splash planned, a game's release 
date and final form are determined by a 
trio of joystick- wielding game players. 
As a last stage of development, the 
advantages of having a game tested to 
destruction by critical gamers should be 
obvious. 

In the final analysis it's the game 
players who count and even if you 
level the obvious criticism that EA is the 
corporate face of games software, and 
an acute departure from the sort of 
companies which brought us many of 
the older classics, you'd still have to 
agree they produce games that game 
players like to play. 

They've had their turkeys, of course, 
and the policy of taking on a certain 
number of odd or very different game 
projects has led EA into more than one 
Hop, With a long list of smash hits, 
however, and a development process 
favoured by the accountants and 
coders alike, you'd have to be a Few 
sprites short of a shoot-'em-up if you 
didn't think EA would continue to pro- 
duce the goods. 

1 For one am looking forward to 
Populous 2. 


Electronic Arts, as has been pointed 
out, have the reputation to attract top 
games writers and development 
teams, and this is the case with their 
next most awaited release, the flight 
simulator Birds of Prey. 

Coded by StargNder author |ez San 
and Argonaut Software, the game will 
be released "later this year' 1 and we 
have been reliably Informed that it 
wilF feature no Fewer than 40 different 
combat aircraft. Realistic flight perfor- 


mance is promised, as is a high 
degree of realism both in the air and 
on the ground. 

Son of Starglider? 

With Argonaut's past history, Birds Of 
Prey is likely to feature at the least a 
lot of smooth 3D action, but whether 
they can combine this with realism is 
something you'll have to watch our 
game zone to find out. 




1989 - D Paint Ell launched to critical 
acclaim. The punters go wild for its 
Anim facility and a bouyant EA success- 
fully completes their first issue of shares 
to the public. Populous (87%) attracts 
rave reviews. Other hits: Powerdrome 
[82%) and Zany Gaff (90% - though 
the punters didn't agree totally with 
our reviewer!). Flops indude Reach Fo i 
the Stars and Swords of Twilight. 

T990 - Though launched too late for 
the year, Powermonger becomes the 
most awaited game of 1951. The 
EA/ Bullfrog combination is proving a 
huge success. Other hits: 688 Attack 
Sub (82%), Meuromancer (80%). Flops 
include Keel The Thief and Hound of 
Shadow. 

1991 - Powermonger finally launched 
and is as good as promised. The game 
is smothered in awards. Other hits 
include PGA Tour Coif (75%) and 


Centurion (reviewed this issue). Bard's 
Tale 3 is a surprising disappointment - 
the RPG genre has overtaken the series' 
□Id-fashioned style of gameplay. 


Releases to look forward to include 
fohn Madden's American Football, LHX 
Attack Chopper, Zone Warrior, and Jez 
San's (of Starglider fame) Birds of Prey. 



Zone Warrior wilt he a tfath-ttHup and a departure from tA's usual jtnpfryy yawn 



Amiga Computing August 1 99 


★ ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ 

★ PUBLIC APOLOGY * 


42 


★ 

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M. D. Office Supplies would like to apologise to all its competitors in 
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Code Masters 


Treasure Island Dizzy 
Miami Chase 


Eye pflhe Beholder 
Monkey Island 
Fantasy World Dizzy 
Kick Ofl - Winning Tadics 
PGA Tour Golf 
Lombard HAC Rally 
Hero Quest 


Code Masters 


Digital Integration 


Microprose 


Railroad Tycoon 


Electronic Arts 
Hit Squad 
Gremlin Graphics 
Mirror Image 
Psy gnosis 
Mirror Image 


Code Masters 


Mirror Image 
Pysgnosis 
Mirror image 
Mirrorsott 


Carrier Command 


Lemmings 


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It's no secret that the Amiga is the most powerful home computer of them all. 
What has remained a mystery for most newcomers is how to make the most of 
its immense potential. Now Amiga Computing has produced a floppy disk that 
is packed with everything you need to take the hassle out of harnessing the 
inbuilt power of your Amiga. 

Many months of research and testing have resulted in a simple-to-use, single 
disk replacement for Commodore s Workbench which we re calling The 
Workstation. 

This indispensable collection of utilities, including some outstanding shareware 
never before assembled together on one disk, is 
now available for just £3.50. 

It's too good to miss! 


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Got a faulty floppy? When vital d*ks get 
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Workbench s geriatric DiskOoctor can be 
sent into retirement by this super utility! 


PLUS! PLUS! PLUS! 

As well as all these superb features The 
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includes a wide range of programs 
designed to make life with your Amiga 
a whole lot easier. There are simple solutions to 
everyday problems, such as mouse utilities which display 
screen co-ordinates and give your rodent a much needed 
speed boost. 

• You can even define extra pulldown Workbench menus 
that cut out the familiar icon clutter and let you really get 
down to business. 

• In addition to all of these valuable new features all 
traditional CU commands have been retained - for the 
old hands among you! 





6 ^ 


PEGASUS - Gremlin 

After milking the race game qenrc a tad, the lads St Gremlin have gone 
back to the days of -ancient Creek mythology for their latest offering 
Pegasus Set in the days of monsters and magic Satan (the baddy) has 

shattered Lhe magic crys- 
tals which hold the souls of 
the incarnations of six 
planes of existence. Satan 
no w has ultimate rule over 
the planes and the mortal 
world. 

You play the famous 
Perseus. With your friend 
and flying; companion the 
Pegasus, you must thwart 
Satan's evil plan by collecting all the fragments of the crystals, bringing 
them together so that the mca matrons can function once more. 



BEAST BUSTERS - Activision 

Fans of the gory Operation Wolf -like shoot-em-up Beast Busters will be 
pleased to hear that Activision have snapped up the rights to convert it to 
the Amiga. You must frantically blast through seven levels of Zomhie- 
Infeited screens ranging from the Subway section on level one, to the final 
confrontation with 
the mad sdentist on 
level seven. 

In true Operation 
Wolf style, two play- 
ers can blast away 
simultaneously at 
the Zombies which 
will attack you 
relentlessly. 











Jason Holbom spills the beans on m 
the latest offerings from the O 

Amiga games scene 2 


PROJECT X - Team 17 



Team 1 7 are a busy lot. 

With their first release, 

Full Contact, doing very 
nicely thank you and 
Alien Greed now only a 
matter of days away, the 
team are already bard at 
work on their latest pro- 
ject,. a very flash looking 
(but yet unnamed) 1 Mb 
only shoot-'em-up. 

The game features a full screen, scrolling overscan display, 50 frames per second 
animation, 32 colours and 10 butt-kickin' weapons. Packed to the hilt with speech, 
fabulous graphics, special effects and arcade-like gameplay. Team 1 7's latest looks 


set to be a real scorcher! 

Above is a picture of the team itself, sat on the bonnet of a very flash Iroc 
sportscai. From left to right they are - Andreas Tadic (programmer), Rico Holmes 
(artist), Peter Tuleby (programmer) and Martyn Brown (Team 1 7 leader ). 

Team 17 would like to apologise for the silly shades, but apparently they are stan- 
dard issue in such PR shots. 







THE GATEWAY TO THE SAVAGE FRONTIER - SSI/US Gold 


If you're after a decent role playing game, then 
there's no better label to look for than that of 55b 
the US-based company ih.it brought such classics as 
the Pool of Radiance series to the Amiga, 

Gateway to the Savage Frontier begins a new era 
of role-playing adventure In the Forgotten Realms. 
Starting in the town of Yartar, you must venture 
through a large area of wilderness on a quest to 
gather four magical statuettes. 

With these items of magical power, you can stop 
the advance of evil across die previously impassable 
Great Desert of An aura ch. 


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SHANGHAI II: DRAGON'S EYE - Activision 


The original Shanghai was a 
real corker of a game and 
Activision hope to achieve simi- 
lar success with the launch of 
r he sequel which h due home 
lime iin September. 

The game builds on every- 
thing that made the original 
such a playable game, hot add s 
even greater challenges (o bring 
the game right up to date. It 
use s if 2 different layouts token 



from I fi e Cfifnesc Calendar in the 
shape of the rabbit ram (mm with 
harm, not expansion rami), snake, 
roaster and more. 

After you've successfully cleared ail 
the tiles, you’re rewarded with an 
animated picture of the animal. 
Pretty good, huh? 

And when you have successfully 
mastered all the levels, you earn the 
right to rofce on the challenge af*the 
Dragon's Eye.., 


MAD TV - 
Rainbow Arts 

Falling in love is all very nice, but it can 
alio get you into an awful lot of trou- 
ble. Take young Archie for example. 
He's fallen in love with Betty 
Bolterblom, the attractive television 



announcer at Mad TV. In an attempt to 
get dose to Beity r Archie takes on the 
identity of Manfred L Feinbein, the 
new programme director. 

Unfortunately, in this humorous sim- 
ulation of television life, Archie is also 
expected to save the Mad TV studios 
from liquidation by increasing its view- 
ing figures substantially. 

He must plan the programmes, 
search for the hottest news and finalize 
contracts for TV spots to get extra rev- 
enue, but also not forget Betty - she 
needs lots of devoted attention to keep 
her interested. 


4i 


August 1 99 } Amiga Computing 







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I wondered lonely M a cloud, or jametfilng Jr** tfiot- ^ny»«7 
rtwre'i no (line Jbr ifgAltttfcig - 11‘if'T') onraronyou tnow 


jdih. mtrofiHQHHd/n" (reMirport Nfcf thk. Nolhlnp 
Hlr flJcJUng rhc Qtntrai'i tv to gttyouina good mood 


W hen you hear that a dicta- 
tor backed by a huge army 
has invaded a small terri- 
tory you may start to think, uh oh, they 
didn't take long to make a game out of 
thatt Indeed, it does sound very similar 
to what a certain person did to a cer- 
tain country not so long ago. 

But before the accusations begin 
about cashing in, let me say that 
Hunter was formulated way before any- 
thing happened out in the Gulf. Hunter 
comes from the revamped Activision. 
This month sees them staging a come- 
back the likes of which would make 
even George Foreman think twice. 

lust a matter of months ago it 
looked like Activision were to be a 
name of the past, another of the glory 
boys who couldn't quite hack it. Well 
just to prove everybody wrong, they've 
returned. With The Disk Company in 
France at the helm, Activision are back 
in business and out bo impress. 

In Hunter, a small but strategically 
important group of islands has been 
invaded by an army of some consider- 
able strength, Your commanders do 


not want to risk a full-scale military 
counter-attack just yet as the casualties 
would be unacceptably high, 

So they decide that Intelli- 
gence gathering, sabotage 
and small attacks are the 
way to weaken the enemy 
enough before attempting 
further escalation. This is 
where you come 
in. You 


are one of a new breed of soldier, 
trained in undercover work and all 
forms of combat. Chosen to under- 
take the missions deep in the 
heart of enemy territory, you 
& find yourself working jlunr: 
JHBB behind enemy lines where 
B you have to keeo your wits 
5BV about you just to survive. Set 
alone complete your mission 
and make it back home. 


Before you start each mission you are 
given a briefing by your superiors in 
which they tell you what you have to 
do and how long you have to do it. 

This ranges from a couple of hours 
to a couple of days - not real time I 
might add. After that you'll have to pop 
off to the stores to fill up your kitbag 
and away you go. 

One of the things which makes 
Hunter so damn addictive is that 



Publisher: Activision Price: £29,95 Release date: Late August 








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ch*y If mind M t borrow that armoured cost 




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□ ODBC 


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Coo, l can fit towft more in my kit bog 
and the thing a ton already. 

Con anyone see a porter anywhere? 









m>m i mjectm 


Y 041 ir - nj-?^ destroy 

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Y radar >JTit 1 

it feet 

1 Etoti& HQ 

V:** *■:< co«dfe% ate?' 

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Ah a doddtti Efutar (toyi fo «?yw toil much camaw- iao prafiffm 



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regardless of which mission you an e on 
there are no restrictions, apart from 
time, over how you do it, You can use 
whatever transport or equipment you 
like. This sense of freedom allows explo- 
ration and experimentation over trans- 
port and equipment mixes. 

For example a typical mission could 
go like this. Exit briefing and go to 
Stores, Fill up kitbag and grab ammo, 
lump in the oar and head to the 
church. Nick the vicar's bike and go to 
the boat. Sail over to the next island 
and jump in the helicopter. 

Then fly over to enemy territory. 


Graphics 

Tite limited use of colour 
doesn't detract from the 
game in any way, In fact 
It adds to tlie at mo 
iph ere, especially at 
night- The different vehi- 
cles are wonderfully 
drawn and Kook really 
good when In use. 


Sound 

The game Is let dawn 
badly by the sound. 
There Is no In-game 
music at all, so you have 
nothing to JLiten to on 
those long walks with no 
transport. The effects are 
limited to a few different 
blasts and some engine 
noises. 


Gameplay 

Hunter Is In a class of Its 
Own as far as gameplay 
goes. Loads of missions 
ranging from dead easy 
to outrageously tough. 
With so many variations 
possible no two games 
need be alike. If you buy 
no ocher game this 
month, buy Hunter. 


Land and raid some enemy buildings. 
Wear an enemy uniform and start talk- 
ing to enemy soldiers. Hick an enemy's 
car and run hFm over. Then find your 
mission objective, blow it up and stilt 
be home in time for tea and 
Neighbours. 

Or it could be completely different - 
that's the beauty of Hunter, so long as 
it's within the time limit anything goes. 
There are heaps oF different modes of 
transport but each has its own prob- 
lems - just try controlling the helicopter 
when it's at maximum thrust! 

On completion of a mission you are 
awarded a bounty For your efforts - but 
if you don't like chocolate they'll give 
you money instead. 

Hunter is very addictive with tons of 
missions,, each requiring different skills 
and each like a game on its own, Try 
the last mission where you have to 
assassinate the enemy leader and bring 
back his head - great fun. 

You can do the job quickly and wan- 
der about the islands for a while sight- 
seeing. Everything you da has a 
knock-on effect. If, for example, you 
blow a radar tower in one mission it 
wcm r t be able to detect you on any 
later missions and any soldiers you take 
out stay dead. 

The graphics are 16-colour solid 3D 
with the game viewed from an inde- 
pendent perspective, and the controls 
are easy to master. 

IF this is what we can expect from 
Activision in the future then it looks like 
they're back with a vengeance, fust 
watch this one zoom up the charts 
when jfi released at the end of August. 

Fred Reagan 





the veWefcs ho** u nasty ihaiir at farming aai at faet sa 

mgfcp sme yuv raid u dump samrwtwre for sewn* vmre 



fu%t popping iViEp the wrfl- for a dip- Nq pofUfliorf problems here, frvC WGfrih out for jfiarfu 















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T he mere mention or a puzzle- 
style game usual ly has arcade 
freaks turning to the next page. 
If there are no aliens to blast or end-of- 
ievel guardians to wipe out and no 
death and destruction to deliver they 
just aren't interested. 

All that could be about to change 
with the release of Logical from 
Rainbow Arts, the team who brought 
you Curse of Ra - remember? this new 
game requires a combination of fast 
reactions and a little brain power and 
should appeal to just about everyone, 
even little Johnny next door who is 
obsessed with playing |ohn Madden's 
football on his Mega drive. 

The baste concept, as with all the 
best puzzle games, is very simple and 
can be picked up in minutes. All you 
have to do is manoeuvre the marbles 
through the various receptacles until 
you have filled each one with four balls 
gf the same colour. 

Sounds simple so far doesn't it? Well 
there's a bit more to it than that. The 
receptacles am connected by channels 
all over the screen along which you can 
pass the marbles. Each one can be 
rotated through 90 degree angles so 
that marbles can be collected and 
despatched through the channels. And 
just to make things a little more diffi- 
cult, it is timed. 

Still sounds simple? Well that's all 
there is to the first few levels, but just 
when you're getting used to it and 


thinking you're really hot a few ele- 
ments are thrown in to make you stop 
in your tracks. 

Little things like colour stoppers that 
will only allow marbles of a certain 
colour through and colour changers 
that will let any marble through but 
change its hue on the way. 

And how about the traffic lights 
which mean that you have to fill the 
receptacles in a certain order before 
you can progress with the game? 

If all that isn't enough there are also 
one-way charnels and colour handi- 
caps and forecasts to contend with, but 
if I told you about everything it 


wouldn't be any fun would it? There 
are 99 levels to play through and a 
password system has been included so 
that you can avoid all those easy levels 
you have done before. And believe me, 
when you get up to the higher levels 
you will need all of your time to con- 
centrate on those tricky traps Instead of 
messing about with the easy stuff. 

When you have completed ' a l| 99 
levels (some chancel) you receive a 
password that enables you to enter the 
level construction kit where you can 
devise your own devious levels. You can 
save your creations on disk to amaze 
and confuse your friends with later. 


Logical may have you bashing your 
mouse in frustration but It will also have 
you coming back for more - a lot more! 

Fred Reagan 


FINAL 


Now it's lime to lose your marbles 


Publisher; Rainbow Arts Price: £19. 


The rwT r hall iv tome onscree n to tf Jr 

was yellow you would!# aWt to flntoih tfrJi 
level. The JndJcotoraf Chf t^rturti centre of 
the screen i hows whot's comfrtfl neat 


4rH 


Four some reason on this level the both seem fa- be trowing 
e.wuLlly rrt fJwnkjtof order, ijuf be assured ttooE nermLiJ imk 
wilt be resumed shortly and the n yoa won T feet so sure 1 




Thn level has more rifmnrrj mpst, lb* colour 
receptacle to the middle needs to- be c&plvd hi an 
empty receptacle tu enable any progress to be made 




“ 




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Graphics 

The onscreen presenta- 
tion 1 1 very good and 
sport & very clear graphics 
iq that you know exactly 
what Is going on - most 
of the tlme r There are 
four different sets of 
background graphics to 
choose from, which adds 
some variety. 


Sound 


Ms tfoch flrvei we on on there Is less mam w manoeuvre and the action soon becomes mlnd-btowlngty 
complex. This level shows the one-way charmeh ai ihebuttom right and the transpofim 


VoM '-nr w* at time on this level 

ond fudging by the state of the screen 
in probably fust as well 'cause ywV* 
Jfi a bit of a mess aren 't you? 


The effect! used through- 
out the game are quite 
neat hut not exactly 
what you would call mind 
blowing. There is some 
title music, but again, 
nothing to rave about. 


Gameplay 

Very easy to get Into 
with the early levels serv- 
ing at an Introduction to 
the many features of the 
game. One poor response 
from your mouse and you 
will start basiling It 
about in frustration at 
you miss that fast marble 
by a whisker. You'll find 
yourself coming back to 
try and hiss that last 
level many times. 










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4 ...take on Dan 
Trent and the 
rest of the 
Stormhallers 
to make your 
way to the top 
of the league ^ 


| l r s just as well that the software 
industry doesn't follow the pes- 
simists. Just think if they followed 
that “the end is nigh" bunch - 
there would be no such thing 
as future sport. And where 
would we be then? No 
Future Basketball, no 
SpeedbaM, no Speedball II, 
and God forbid, no 
Cyberball and no 
Stormball. 

Just a few weeks ago 
Dan Trent was wishing 
that the world was at an 

end. 

He was a major star 
on the Storm ball circuit 
before he lost his hand 
in a Treak accident 
while playing. 

Thanks to the mir- 
acle of modern 
surgery’ he was fit- 
ted with a mechani- 
cal gSovt which 
enabled him to keep 
playing the sport he 
loved. And now he's 
back, hungry for suc- 
cess. You can take on 
Dan Trent and the rest of 
the Storm bailers to make 
your way to the top of the 


Btfor f you flKcr Ehf lEa^tom ynu cdn itt Ehf gamt up to wit ya ursftf 


Th£ btimp mn cwcfliftM as m t acuort 
begin! to Chf itot Hum beSow 


present 




mi 


tf Eft? 40 pJlnb^i proved can f kttp you 
happy, you c an tEw^n yairt own 

league. The basic rules of Stormball are 
a doddle. Two opponents move around 
on hover boards over their own halt of 
the pitch. The bail is then thrown into 
your opponent's half, hopefully in such 
a way that your opponent can't inter- 
cept or catch it. 

By throwing the hail over bonus tiles 
and score multipliers you rack up 
points. The player with the most points 
at the end of the four quarters is 
declared the winner. 

This is a one or two-player action- 
packed game, In one-player mode you 







_ DAD TREOT 

- BGG- 

38 

4 &€*GUTZ 

£, Z 

WLIGHTi 

ZOO POUNDS 

feBTlDG: 

04 

PRICES 

OOBZO 


$jQRm&nct cHBmrtQto sz mt> ss. &UTmr*&u 

GGP\OOG IHJtJftV TO REGftT ftftfD ll> 3001 fmttLS. 

Doai ptms w\m artifi cwl GomrctT* still 
tipped m one of t hl best* 


After practice join the league ond rots on- the bfg fcoyj to earn same big doth 



The bail corner flying toward yo ii so try to 

intercept it Lirtd it whL'/ing btfdh 


Tifid a§ Qintf tarry, 0 frfi 
Cihrj ai Larry has /wrer atUratiy 
won a itormbal! match 


Sound 

Nothing mo|or here. The 



few bits of speech are 
good. If not very varied. 
There Is no music during 
the match and the spat 
effect! arc chirpy but 
again, nothing special. 


Graphics 

Unimaginative use of 


Publisher: Millenium/US Gold Price: £ 24,99 


can practise against a droid known as 
SIDD La hone your skills. When you 
have attained the appropriate skill level 
you are ready to enter the league. 

To play the professionals you must 
first put up some money - the better 
your opponent the more money it costs 
to play him. If you win you get back 
your original stake plus the same again 
as a bonus. Of course, if you lose it's 
back to the training ground 

If you are really confident of a win 
you can af ways stake a bet outside the 
arena with Podgy Defter. He Is the 
man responsible for getting Trent back 
into the Stormball arena after his injury 
but he is despised nonetheless, and the 
feeling must be mutual as the odds he 
gives on you winning are never that 
good. 

Control of the man is fairly easy - 


simple movement causes the board to 
move over the pitch, and to catch the 
ball position your man Id one side as it 
passes. 

Then throw it back and try to aim it 
so that your opponent can't reach it. 
This can be frustrating as he catches it 
with no difficulty and you race all 
around your half In a seemingly point- 
less pursuit. 

If you become bored with the com- 
puter-generated pitches you can always 
design your own. S torm ball real ly only 
comes into its own in. twa-player mode 
where the screen splits to allow both 
players the same view. 

There r s loads more pleasure in beat- 
ing a mate than beating the computer 
opponents. But this is the same for all 
games in this genre. 

Unfortunately, a less than brilliant 


use of colours mars what could have 
been in excellent sports game. When it 
tomes Lo the crunch, buy Speedbali 2 
Instead - it's infinitely more playable 
and more bin than this. StormbaH is a 
real disappointment, but Millenium will 
bounce bick- 

Thad Beaumont 



colour - Tin sure there's 
mare than Just brown In 
an Amiga's palette. There 
are some very nice Intro 
screens hut It s the game 
graphics proper that 
should be well done. The 
movement It smooth 
enough but there lin t 
much detail to the char- 
acters. 


Gamepliy 

It's awkward it first to 
Intercept and catch the 
ball - it s really frustrat- 
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off your tiles and 
straight back to your 
opponent. There just 
Isn't enough here to hold 
your attention for very 
long. 












I 




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Infantry Civriry 


L i.l i FT* tij* 


* 

Legions 
T rifeH/t* 

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1 




A If I can say about the Romans 
is that they must have had 
good night vision. Well they 
say that Rome wasn't built in a day? But 
enough of the had jokes. 

As you probably already know, the 
Romans' idea of a good time was either 
to organise gladiator battles that made 
even Mill wall football tans look like 
wimps, or to race around in chariots 
that would put boy racers to shame, 
And if that failed to amuse, they would 
go and invade some poor country for a 
bit of fun, 

In Centurion it's up to you to do just 
that. You begin as a lowly officer, the 
lowest commanding rank in the Roman 
army. This lack of status is not for you - 
you have to move up through the ranks 
until you attain the respect of the 
masses in the role of Caesar. 

There are several ways to gain favour 
and you will have to use a combination 
of them to advance in rank. The most 
obvious is by adding other provinces to 
the Roman Empire. 

There are two ways to do this - you 
either negotiate a treaty or you go In 
and kick the butt of the defending 
army, Of course, with the latter option 
you run the risk of having your own 
butt kicked in the process. 

Strengthening any peace treaties 


you have made is also a goad way to 
gain popularity with the hierarchy. A 
slightly more action-packed way to gain 
favour is to organise chariot races or 
gladiator Sights. This method never fails 
to please an angry population and 
make you a few talents in the process. 

The main screen of the game shows 
a map from which you can move your 
forces into neighbouring countries, but 
be prepared to be met at the border by 
some pretty angry natives. You have 
the choice of behaving aggres- 
sively or politely towards them 
in your attempt to add their - - 
lands to your own. 

If all else fails you move to 
the battlefield where the two 
opposing forces line up to fight. 

X 


You can adopt various Strategies in bat- 
tle which will affect the eventual out- 
come - and whether your army Is 
decimated or not. 

The arcade-like parts of the game are 
the races and the gladiator battles. The 
races feature a two-part screen, the top 
is a map showing your position on the 
track and the position of your oppo- 
nents. The bottom shows your chariot 
as it hurtles around the track - just 
watch out for the comers, 
in the gladiator batttes you train 
up a gladiator and take him to 
battle with an opponent. The 
idea is to make the fight as 
bloody as possible to please the 
crowd. 

Centurion is a fine 


Rome wasn't built in a day 



war game which includes some great 
arcade sequences. It's ideal for new- 
comers to the genre because it has a 
simple control system. 

Of course, it's tough at the start - 
but no Dne said becoming a caesar was 
going to be easy I 

Dave Luckhurst 


FINAL JUDGEMENT 


CENTURION 


Publisher: Electronic Arts Price; £25.99 



Initnit strategies, battle ptom and ’arc! nut 
soMfena jrtf dll needed to win battles 

Graphics 

Very pleasing all round 
with tome excellent 
attention to detail. Just 
wait til you tit the 
scene with Cleopatra. 
Some of the best seen In 
m war game with excel- 
lent arcade scene s- 


Griff way la keep the 
pmptt happy Is to 
bc*ti chariot ft km- 
Fihey atl turn up fust to 
watcb the crashes 


0 1! Move over Into yovr own 
For if. rbott boy racers think 
they Liwrt the road 


Sound 

Reilly good tunes and 
effects - quite surprising 
for a game of this 1 11c - 
The battle effects are 
especially tasty hut It Is 
generally very impressive 
throughout. 


Gameplay 

The Intense strategy Is 
broken up by the arcade 
scenes. It's very easy to 
get Into because It has an 
easy control system but 
perseverance will be 
needed to get anywhere 
near the rank of caesnr 
This could become one of 
the classics of the genre. 











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SUPERBASE 

PROFESSIONAL, 

I currently own a copy of: 

□ Supcrbase Professional □ Superbase Personal 2 

□ Superbase Personal □ Neither 



Name Job Title. 

Company 


Address 


Postcode - Tel „ 

Precision Software Ltd. 6 Park Terrace, Worcester Park, Surrey KT4 7JZ, 
Tel: G&l 330 7166 Fax: (Ml 3303069 



Aug us L 1991 Amiga Computing 






Avnig a Computing August 1 991 CAME ZONE 


i 


54 



SAyflaift armed am J locked on to on enemy pJorw 



The Mlg oo« Jnto cr ttotp tom Co brrpfr my minfteiozk-, 



Bl/( be can '* getaway! The jgyo, r e meant ht s fockerf in todd 


1 

wD At.; 

una- 

?5- 



A Then gmei rite .f A~pfTcji^i MiAirtei W Scratch one Mlgi 





T he mission plan seemed pretty 
simple. All I had to dp was fol- 
low a tortuous course through 
the hills, avoiding enemy missile sites, at 
about 200 feet and 500 knots, to the 
tiny building which was my primaiy tar- 
get. 

Once there, a simple matter of precis 
sion bombing would leave me the 
straightforward task of navigating jny 
way back to base through a solid wall 
of seriously annoyed, and by now very 
alert, enemy defences, 

All in .'i day's work for a Torn 
pilot, I tn ought, and, tossing my white 
silk scarf carelessly over my shohlder, 
winked at the ground crew, should 
"chocks. ^wayV r as an added touch of 
bravado, and powered off into the 
gathering dusk. 

Things went well enough at first, 
and I slipped through the first line of 
missile sites without incident. After only 
a few more miles, however, I realised 
with a trouser-endangering shock that 
the flight planning map had not been 
entirely up to date. 

Smack bang In my path there 
loomed a SAM site, and 1 heard the 
threat warning begin to whine in 
my ear. 

Praying for luck, l flipped 


off the autopilot and wrench^ wg 
Tornado round in an accelerating fc*t 
almost blacking out from the hig^ . i 
was pulling. 

Too late! The threat warning rt 
now doing banshee impressions, 
suddenly blanked out by the roar c# as 
explosion and the HUO flashed a 
age warning. 

No need to ask what had been h * 
however, as the controls began to ug 
like someone had coated the wimp 
^■th lead, 

flglMlened out of the turn with d ~ 
at 1 00 feet, *r 


Graphics 



Nat as good ns some 
flight Sims, but screen 
update U smooth and 
quite fast, which Is a nice 
change. 


Sound 

Good enough for the pur- 
poses to which it ii put, 
which are necessarily lim- 
ited In a flight sim, The 
explosions are satisfy- 
ing ly loud and violent. 


Gameplay 

Complex and Involved la 
the lung run, hut with 
very good dogfights to 
(keep the excitement lev- 
els high, ProFlIght Is 
pitched at Just the right 
level far flight combal 
fans. 



ION AREA MRP DISPLfl 
SOOOO NOOOO HOOO 
bOCM NOOOO HOOO 
SOOOO NOOOO HOOO 
SOOOO NOOOO HOOO 
SOOOO NOOOO HOOO 
SOOOO NOOOO HOOO 
SOOOO NOOOO HOOO 
SOOOO NOOOO HOOO 
EXIT 


M-sp c oo rdinites 
NH 79S EOT £8 HO OE 
WAV POINT HEIGHT 
Ti r =ie t i n tor«iti on 
Missile site...... 

Prirtiry target 


PE I MAR V TARGET SET 
GOTO NftV POINT FO 
TARGETS DESTROYED 
OOOX OF PRIMARY 
OOiX OF AIRCRAFT 


AffojJon planning h where ah the tactical devvon* are made 






















a as worth, reaching BOO knots in no 
Time. Then 1 noticed I had another 
problem - an airborne one. 

The Mig was above me and on my 
seven o'dock r so I pulled up as sharply 
is the controls would allow, hit the air- 
brake to bse speed, and went into a 
yo-yo roll. 

The manoeuvre worked! Unfortu- 
nately for my opponent, he obviously 
had slower reactions than !, and 
before he knew I was now on his six, 
l J d sent a Sidewinder up bis 
tailpipe. Scratch one bird! 

All that was left for me to do 
was return to the correct flight 
path, finish my precision bombing 
attack, and nurse my damaged ship 
back to base- As I said, all in a day's 
work for a Tornado pilot. 

HiSoffs first entertainment release 
may be a serious flight simulation, but 
as it revolves around one of the world's 
fastest warplanes, it also comes with a 
comprehensive combat option, allow- 
ing it to challenge FI 6 Combat Pilot 
and Falcon for the crown of the flight 
combat simulations, 

ProF light starts off on the right foot 
by concentrating on the Tornado 
which, as the fastest aircraft in the 
world at low level, is ideal for a 
flight combat sim. Fait flying 
and a healthy wodge of com- 
bat options carry the pro- 


gram along so well that it's possible to 
forget Pro Flight is designed to be more 
simulation than stimulation, 

Prom the word go the program was 
developed to be as realistic as possible, 
and was built around complex flight 
algorithms to match as closely as possi- 
ble the feeling of flying the real thing. 

I was relieved, therefore, to discover 
that my version of ProF light supports 
analogue joysticks. The first version sold 
did not contain this feature, but owners 
of these copies can recieve a free 
update from Hi Soft if they register as a 
user before |uly 1st, so send in those 
cards now, foiksl 

Without the analogue option, con- 


trol is centered around the mouse, 
which as a proportional device goes 
some way to providing realistic flight 
controls. 

There is a digital joystick option for 
those with a perverse need to cripple 
the aircraft before it gets off the deck, 
but l wouldn't recommend it. 

With an analogue stick, the armchair 
flyer has the best possible simulation gf 
real aircraft controls, so the omission 
would have been a serious one, espe- 
cially considering the realism angle 
taken by HiSoft- Please take note, soft- 
ware companies! 

With analogue joysticks such as the 
Voltmace Delta 3A selling for only £1 7, 


Canmsn-ffnnfl dogfighti trfvgrfat tun in Prof tight 


HiSoft launch a serious contender 


ProFught 


Publisher: HiSoft Price: £39,99 


Th* purwrid-ift fhrottk makes- landing feta jive ty etuy 


there's no excuse for not providing for 
them in flight sims. Now I've got that 
off my chest, I have to admit that 
ProF light flies like a dream, and both 
mouse and analogue joystick control 
works very well once you get used to it 
Digital joystick addicts might need 
some time to adjust, but with practice, 
both offer a much more sensitive and 
manageable form of control. 

Once on the runway the pilot can 
configure his or her aircraft to make the 
level of realism, and hence flight diffi- 
culty, as high or low as required using 
the extensive autopilot option- 

Flaps and stabilisers can be taken 
care of by the computer, as can a host 
of other tricky flight controls, to- make 
life as easy as possible for the harassed 
pilot lining up for the final bomb run. 

It's even possible to have the autopilot 
take the aircraft all the way to the tar- 
get via several waypoints, though it 
won't drop the bombs for you. 

For beginners there's a crash 
inhibitor, so you can bounce the plane 
off the ground as hard as you please 
while you've still got your L plates. All 
in all, the extent to which the program 
can adjust to the individual pilot's 
needs is very gratifying, 

Combat, rather than being a throw- 
away concession for adrenalin freaks, is 
an integral part of the program, and 
includes a detailed mission planner, 
ground and air targets, and a campaign 
option. 

The map area is very large and con- 
veys the impression of space oftEn miss- 
ing from other flight sims. There's 
nothing like a "now leaving map area" 
message to burst the realism bubble. 

Dogfights are very enjoyable, with 
enemy fighters acting intelligently and 
using tactics of their own. Locking on 
and firing a missile is not the end of a 
fight, as the Mig will often decoy your 
missile with chaff or flares. So towards 
the end of long missions I usually found 
myself having to resort to cannons, all 
six of my missiles having been used. 
Bomb runs are also rather hairy, as 
many of the targets are protected by 
missile sites. This forces you to plan the 
final approach to a target carefully, so 
that exposure to SAMs is kept to the 
minimum. In some sims it's possible 
just to fly straight to the target and 
back again, but in ProF light, mission 
planning means just that. 

ProFlighfs long term appeal is guar- 
anteed if you're a sim buff, and it will 
be a big hit for people who enjoyed 
FIG Combat Pilot. Those who prefer 
the more simplistic flight combat 
games might give up at the prospect of 
having to master aircraft controls, or fly 
within the realistic limits of pilot and 
airframe. 

Any serious gamer who perseveres 
with FroFiight, however, will be 
rewarded by a simulator that blends 
flight realism and excellent combat in a 
way that few can match. 

Sandra Foley 


o 

> 



Ni 

O 



5 , 


August i Amiga uompuung 























Amiga Computing August 1991 


LU 



o 


M 


LU 



< 

O 


56 

y, i 







^CtlpfCdH _► 

ffi jj rnir 


Y bur beloved Unde Don C has 
decided to quit the family busi- 
ness before someone makes 
him quit. The only person who could 
possibly take over is you. 

Ft's up to you to become the crime 
king of the city and the easiest way of 
doing this is by becoming mayor. Don't 
laugh, someone has to get elected, so it 
might as well be you. If any of the 
other contenders get in your way you 
can always deal with them in true Mafia 
fashion - you know, concrete boots or 
something like that. 

The basics are simple. You choose 
whether you want to lead an Italian or 
Chinese crime family consisting of three 
characters, and you take control of one 
of these as he or she walks around the 
town. 

Now this ain't no ordinary town and 
lying around the streets you will find 
useful everyday objects like safe codes., 
door keys and ammo, These are used to 
gain access to buildings, and to the 
people and objects inside. The objects 
can then be used for the gentler art of 
blackmail - now that's one way to win 
elections! 

There are 20 files dotted around 
which could reveal some juicy gossip 
on any of the town's leading figures. 
Store these and use them later on. 

Avoiding the police is also a good 
idea, especially if you're a bit trigger- 
happy r but a police locator beacon will 
soon sort that problem out. When you 
have a bit of skill on the gun and have 
found some dynamite and a detonator, 
you could always try to mb a bank to 
increase your finances and your social 
standing, 

Crime Does Not Pay players will 
spend hours at first just wandering 
around trying to work out what you are 
supposed to do. 

The control method, although some- 
what unusual, is quite easy to get 
used to and there are loads of different 
places to explore but they all look a 
bit "samey". It's not a bad game 
but then it's no Eye of the Be holder 
either. 

Thad Beaumont 


Meet the Italian team, vhttMiIfy 
unchiilieniftii fa r the thte at 
meanest had gyps m Cowt 


iiiii 


Graphics 

Big bold characters look 
fun but aren't terribly 
well animated. In fact. If 
It wasn't for the way the 
different characters pull 
their guns, it would be 
lousy. The scenery is very 
well done but the Inte- 
rior scenes start to look 
the same after a while. 


Sound 

Crime Does Hot Pay Is let 
down badly by the round. 
Terrible music greets you 
at tile start and the 
effects seem to be lim- 
ited to a pathetic gun- 
shot and a few others. If 
ever a game could be 
played with the volume 
down, this it It. 


meet the only people as ft 

tfote The OTrtf H (nt hvftf, 1 
dirty gifd oppa ready k FWW J 
jomeffti'm? about the use of tongs, 
fluf why uw kitchen utensils ? 


Time to bite the huliet us you raid 
jwntwir'f far Qtfmv ami 
j'nfciTnotfwi. Slay few kmg and they 
might tuttit you 


Gameplay 


Initially It s very com- 
pelling as there Is toads 
to explore, but after a 
while it become* baring 
and repetitive. Although 
It won't be finished at 
the first attempt there 
Isn't enough there to 
keep you trying. Spend 
your hard-earned rfosh on 
something else this 
month. 


Ho r jufey pkries of the hooker with 
a prostitute, they might tame in 
useful inter cm far □ bit crfAfadhrm.iJ 


Bonnie Biggs says ... 


CRIME 

DOES NOT PAY 


Publisher: Titus Price: £25.99 

























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— 

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OOM 


The ultimate challenge, ohnr 
human takei cut the Great Guide 


even a great guide. As with the diamp 
unship game,, your ranking improves as 
you progress, the only problem is you 
might not live long enough to enjoy 
your new-found fame. 

The last option is a straight challenge 
so, for example, if you've just lost a 
dose contest you could set the record 
straight without the hassle of facing a 
whole bunch of bad guys before you 
get to your man. 

Challenging isn't limited to players 
of similar skill, so if you Peel lucky you 


1*0 pin 9 □ divide white dodging the to a Hte and dealt* 


Our Hero defends hirn^eti ogalmt an incoming mSuile with ease 


leapt the final divide as 
the first disc slammed into 
the wall. As he landed, 
instinct was all that stopped the second 
disc from hitting home. The third he 
never saw, never had the chance to 
block. 

It hit bard and burned hot and every 
breath of air was blown from his aching 
body: Across the court cruel laughter 
echoed from his opponent. 

Then in a split second of silence a 
single bead of sweat fell from his tor- 
tured face and dripped slowly down on 
to the last remaining tile. He knew this 
had to be the one, and with a final des- 
perate lunge his only chance hurtled 
across the divide. 

The smug expression of his oppo- 
nent turned instantly to one of shock as 
she frantically tried to stop the unstop- 
pable, This final desperate scramble was 
no more than a vain gesture and as thE 
wall smashed into a thousand shards of 
exploding crystal her shock turned to 
horror as infinity appeared beneath her 
feet. 

A scream rang out as she plum- 
meted into the abyss- . this is Disc. 

When describing an essential simple 
game it's difficult to convey the emo- 
tions, excitement and desperate strug- 
gles It contains. Hopefully this little 
monologue will give you a taste of 
what lurks within perhaps one of the 
best action strategy games of the year. 


Combat options 

After loading and choosing the number 
of players the next task is to select the 
character of yt>ur choice. Initially 
all eight available players start 
at the rank of novice, this of 
course can change if you suc- 
cessfully challenge your 
peers in the arena. 

There doesn't seem 
to be any difference 
between individuals, so it's purely a 
case of which particular persona you 
want to take on. As all of the eight are 
men, this was a rather tricky decision 
for yours truly. 

Once your choke is made it's time 


to pick a particular challenge. This can 
vary between training, challenge, tour- 
nament or championship. 

The training option is an essential for 
the newcomer as throwing, aiming and 
blocking need to be second nature if 
you want to make any progress 
through the rankings. 

Once your training is complete it's 
time to take on the opposition, in the 
two^player game the choice is limited 


solely to your opponent, but the singles 
championship mode is probably best 
for the beginner, as it pits you initially 
against opponents of similar skill. 

As you progress your rank will 
improve, but unfortunately so does that 
of your opponents. The tournament 
option is perhaps the fastest way to 
glory, but be warned, if the gods are 
against you, your first match could 
have you facing a champion or perhaps 


Distributor: Infogrammes Price: £25.99 


Killer fristees in the 21st Century 
















ii . could go straight to the top and by 

is I beating a high ranking player instantly 
u I leapfrog the rest of the field. 

y ■ The gameplay is the real strength of 

Disc, being a combination of action 



The choke is youn r pkk yottf hem and take an the worid 


* mJ 


and strategy. This combination has 
already been proved a winner this year 
by the massively popular Lemmings. 

This may seem a rather strange com- 
parison, but nevertheless there's defi- 
nitely a similarity between the (wd. Disc 
is certainly fast and furious, but if logi- 
cal strategy isn't applied along with 
some fast reactions your challenge will 
definitely be a short one. 

The game is simple and not £ 
million miles away from the 
arcade classic Tron. The aim is 
simply to survive, and to do it 
you must either deprive your 
opponent of all of his or her 
body points or alternatively 
send them screaming into 
the abyss by destroying 
the tiles on which they 
stand and which make up their end of 
the court 

Tg do the damage you hurl discs 
across the void. If your opponent is 
struck a body point is lost. However, if 
the disc is defended you become the 
one under attack and as the weapon 
rkothets back across the court it J s your 



turn to defend- If a disc is thrown which 
neither strikes the player nor is 
defended it will inevitably hit your 
opponent's wall and this is where the 
strange shapes and symbols come into 
pfay. 

The number of sides on each symbol 
tells how many hits are left on its partk- 
ular panel. When a circle is struck the 
tile disappears and its counterpart on 
the floor of the court vanishes- There is 
a slight pause beforehand, but If 
you're too slow Ft's game over,, 
Some games have as many as 
four discs in play, As you can imag- 
ine, things car become just a little 
confusing as they bounce 
around the walh slam- 
ming into tiles and play- 
ers alike. 

If you can't keep a track an which 
have been thrown rebounded or 
defended finding out can be a painful 
experience. 

The only way to defend yourself and 
your precious platform is to deflect your 
aggressor's incoming arsenal with a 
defensive disc, the only use of which is 



to protect you and your wall. Once 
defended, a disc is on the attack and if 
it returns undefended it can be caught 
and launched at the target of your 
choke 

Various bonus discs become avail- 
able intermittently thanks to special 
tiles which appear at random. If hit 
they endow a specific ability such as 
speed, added power and so on to your 
discs for a limited period. 

Two player perfection 

Disc is a rare beast, not only is it excel- 
lent as a solo challenge but it becomes 
even more impressive as a two-player 
contest. The human v human option is 
one of Disc's real strengths, putting it 
easily on par with such two-player clas- 
sics as Kick Off, 

The two-player game differs from 
the rest as it's played over several legs, 
with victory only being secured by two 
wins In a row. 

Each player takes turns at either end 
of the court as apposed to the single 
game which always places the human 
player closest Id you. 

Against a machine it's good, against 
a screaming, yelling and often swearing 
human it's even better. 

Stephanie Ross 


Sound 

Sound Is not always a 
strong point In action 
strategy but Ol m-c Is an 
exception. The samples 
ace. 111 general, superb 
and add a good deal to 
the atmosphere. 


Gameplay 

Gameplay it very Impres- 
sive and as a two-player 
struggle It's nothing 
short of faultless. If you 
want to take an a friend 
in a fight to the death 
this Is a must. 


Graphics 

The animation and range 
of character movement 
are very good and when 
these are combined with 
the well designed and 
drawn court the overall 
effect is excellent. 



A tructkin too j Iqw cntf the d-i'w: hits home 









LL) 



O 

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B eing a courier may not seem 
like a very exciting pb. About 
the most fun you will get is 
delivering those suspiciously shaped 
"plain brown wrappings* lo old men in 
trench coats. 

But in the 21 st Century all this has 
changed. Standard couriers just 
couldn't make the grade any more, 
their methods of delivery weren't relU 
able. One man rose above the rest tor 
security and speed of service. Hu one 
knows his real name, but if the various 
governments can find him^ they can 
hire Hydra. 

The roads, airways and waterways 
are now ruled by terrorists. Nowhere is 
safe because they plunder anyone who 
dares to travel those routes. It's up to 
Hydra to run the gauntlet of terrorists 
and deliver sensitive and top secret 
packages to their destinations. 

The game puts you in the role of the 
great courier himself as he tries to 
deliver these packages. At the begin- 
ning you pick up cargo in your jet boat 
and then you're off. 

The terrorists know you're coming 
and throw all they have at you. 01 
course, you' re not unprepared yourself 
and your boat is equipped with the 
very latest state-of-the-art firepower, so 
let those lowlife terrorists have it. 

They will attack either singularly or 
in groups but these attack patterns are 
predictable so there F s no real problem. 
When the/re shot some of these craft 
very conveniently drop either fuel, 
boosts or money icons. 

As your own fuel supply is very lim- 
ited you will need to pick up as many of 
these as you can to finish the mission. 
The boosts can be used to make your 
boat leap out of the water for a short 


COLORGPO 


roct. rue. 


' 


CQLLLCt MO«C - 

3 nsc to SEN 
JSfdnc 

fi£CIEV£ OCT W 
QWJTGLC 


That's a mrdeor dtdtoe you hove In the bock 


time and caleh the money balloons 
that sometimes appear in the sky. 

There are nine missions with a total 
of 31 level 5 to go through to deliver 
cargo which varies from the Crown 
jewels to a top-secret nuclear device. 
Cor, aren't these governments trusting! 
At the end of each stage there is a shop 
where, if you have enough money, you 
can buy extra weaponry for your boat, 


hydra should have been an enjoyable 
3D shoot-'em-up arcade conversion, 
but unfortunately it isn J t. The action is 
quite slow and the gameplay is very 
repetitive and boring. 

This seems to be the norm lately 
with Dufflfrift arcade coin-op conver- 
sions, this and Skull And Crossbones 
being the latest Give this one a miss, 

Thad Beaumont 


10OA Dtif far these power-ops iyirr0 around the 
Yrtfltf - you itfflT flnkfc tfw count mOThm* them 


Graphics 

The 3D vis li ah arc unre- 
markable &nd about th* 
only thing I can say In 
file game's favour Is that 
the swirling effect on the 
water Is very nice, 
Otherwise It s mottling 
special* 


Sound 


11 the Post Office can't do it, call in. 


YDRA 


Publisher; Domark Price: £24.9 


LEVEL SELECT 


asc jovstia 

TO SELECT LEVEL 


mess 

TO START CLftV 






MISSION 3 


: 300DOO>TS 


E>£N03C 
}$00Q0 PT5 
FUEL v rtsv 


6" FT5 
rcJEL 0 RSV 


FUEL 2 R5V 


f M 

* + L_ 




,U|'™ in 
solid ortnde- 
bfajtJn j otiion. 
Weh r ifkdoboul 
the lost bit., h i 
about m exciting 

ai WOtcbincf 

pom t dry 


Having already seen the 
coln-np I was expecting 
jum* half decent sound. 
Again 1 wai badly disap- 
pointed - half-hearted 
tunes and effects ruin a 
potentially good licence. 


~ Gameptay 

Hydra suffers badly from 
repetition. It gets very 
boring after the first 
couple off games- There s 
no Addictive quality to 
keep you coming back for 
more. With slow-moving 
graphics It |ust doein'E 
take off. 


«. jih ; %33 




iMJ 


Not bod lor o special weapon - rt may ht 
o hit extreme to let oft a mite both** 
pan eon eolket those tioaimq power-upi 


Suffering from tonne 1 vision ai yvii 
come to ifre * nd at a level. Jirif sfl 
and woir far 1 the neit one 







KUO 




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61 


Au^us^ 1 9 *> I Amiga Computing 









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Phil South opens 
up a new 
construction kit 
and forms an 
opinion 


T he ID Construction Kit is a new 
interactive version of the 
famous Fr&ytape 3D modeling 
system from Do mark /Incentive. 
Freescape was Incentive's contribution 
to the 3D game era, with famous games 
like Driller and Castle Master, Now 
Damark/lncentive have put Freescape II 


at your disposal so you tan create 3D 
games for youralt # 

But the 3D Construction Kit is being 
sold as more a virtual reality system than 
merely a game creator. And to be fair it 
is more than this. The system allows you 
to make not only games but other more 
useful things - which is not to say that 
games aren't worthwhile, just that there 
are other uses for a 3D system, 

Virtual reality has become something 
of a buzzword over the past year, and it 
has long been clear that for any product 
to be hot in '91 \t would have to feature 
this concept- So the 3D Construction 
Kit, or ED Kit as it is known, is heavily 
flagged as a virtual reality system. 

This is stretching the truth a bit, as 
there is no provision yet for a pair of ED 



|usl h trie of NPCkl% but those tables are many storeys high, Whale eityitapes can be buHiwtth 
the 3D Kit, Itien movd around trt and explored 



Ypu can design a c writ rot screen - or whal the 30 Kft calls a “barrier" - and Iricer par ate ll 
within ji game Tlw *ontroi spots an the screen you use to move around (he wnHd Are mapped 
ta the areas covering the contrail drawn aniereen 


goggles Lo make the view of your world 
truly "virtual*. But having said that, it'} 
a very fast, flexible and highly usable 3D 
system. 


3D kit in use 

Creating your own shapes and putting 
them together is simplicity itself, and the 
process is made vastly easier by virtue of 
the fact that shapes cannot pass through 
each other at any point. So fitting the 
pieces of an object together is easy - you 
just slide the bits together until they 
Stop- 

Object creation is done with primi- 
tives, like cubes, pyramids and rectan- 
gles. A group of buttons on the main 
screen is used to select the most fre- 
quently used options: Select, Copy, 
Create, Edit, Test, Reset, Condition, 
Delete, Attribute and Colour. 

Select lets you select an abject you've 
created, either by choosing it from the 
menu or clicking on an icon. 

Reset clears everything, leaving you with 
a blank sheet of paper, as it were. Create 
allows you to choose from a variety of 
primitives, and the Edit function lets you 
alter the primitive objects and move 
them around. 

Colour lets you select the colour of all 
the faces of an object. Each colour you 
select from the menu can be attached to 
a face r so you have to choose the right 
shades to complement the shading on 
the abject or it looks funny. There's no 
light source shading here - you have to- 
do it all yourself. 

Condition and Attribute are game- 
related functions, and using these you 
can set what happens when you manip- 
ulate an object in a game. 

Copy is a powerful feature. If you've 
created a perfect shape, you can dupe it 
for moving around. Walls, for example, 
are easy to create but hard Lo repeat, so 
copying them is the only way lo get 
them all the same. 

All the toots are easy to use and very 
little space has been wasted on the but- 
tons. There are more complex choices 
on the menu bar, but most of the fre- 
quently used features of the program are 
on these buttons, meaning that they are 
always to hand. 

Uses for the system 

One of the first uses for the 30 Kit is the 
creation of environments which you can 
walk around. This is the virtual reality 
side of the system and enables you to 
make rooms and buildings. As with the 
games you create with the program, you 
car create a stand-alone version of your 
objects for other people to walk around, 

3D games are also easy to do, 
although you'll need to have a scenario 
worked out before you can create a 
game. It doesn't pay to try to holt a 
game together from scratch with the 
program in front Of you. 

Different rooms can be made and the 





a hole thing customised by creating a 
control screen using DPaint or other 
graphics package and pasting them into 
the program. Having done dial you can 
tell the program where to find the con- 
trol buttons and which part of the 
screen is the view window, and then 
you're away, 

The final use for the program is object 
rendering. You create a complex object 
and rotate it to see haw it shapes up to 
vour idea. The example given is that of 
the space shuttle, and this is an easy 
example. You can r t get much detail into 
the thing, but rough shapes are easy. As 
Far as the creation oF complex objects go, 
vou may be better off with a fulf-blown 
rendering program like Real 3D vlJ, 

Summing up 

On the pro side you have to admit that 
3D Kit is an excellent piece of progranv 
ming and h very easy to use. The objects 
are created quickly, and even a complete 
beginner can be up and running in a 
matter of moments. You can make 
shapes, whiz them around the screen 
and bolt them together with ease. 

The manual is a thickish wad of 
tightly printed instructions far the vari- 
ous controls, and hints and tips for the 
creation of objects. 

But there are a few drawbacks to all 
[his wonderment Ail things considered, 
3D Kit makes a fair attempt at being all 
things to all men. But as a 3D design- 
tool it is coarse and not veiy colourful, 
and you can't transport the 3D figures 
you make into any other Format. 

It is,, however, very fast and allows 
you maximum freedom in the creation 
and placement of your objects. But 
"'here it really excels is in the creation of 
3D Freese ape-type games. Actually 
there's no Jl type ,r about if, they are real 
F reescape games! And using the DIY 
borders you can create exotic variations 
on this very popular theme in a stand- 
alone form. 

So is it virtual reality? Well, yes and 
no. Vou never really feel like you are 
there in the fiesh r and the 3D effect is a 
trifle wide-angled in most cases, giving 
you the impression that you have the 
angle of view of a fish, 

But despite these technical reserva- 
tions, 3D Kit is very enjoyable to use, 
and one of the most absorbing pro- 
grams just to goof around with that ! r ve 
seen for a king time. New all it needs is 
an rnterface to X-Spets or a pair oF eye- 
phones and then you r d really be talking! 


£ 3D Kit is an 
excellent piece of 
programming and 
is very easy to use . 
The objects are 
created quickly 
and even a 
complete beginner 
can be up and 
running in 
moments % 



One? the program ham. been designed, fc tan he saved ai a stand-alone program* like this yne 
showing a view flf ihe dly skyscraper 




03 : 4000 .. 030© 4000 ROT - 0 





Then all you need do Is- ratour ftmr wbrfd. Shapes and lettering can be put in, and each shape can be animated and display various effects 



A group uE buttons on Ehe main screen li med to select the most fnecfutolly used option 


m 


> 


20 

m 



August 1 991 Amiga Computing 













< 

o 



We need you! 

If you're the kind of person who can walk through Rainbow Islands, thrash 
Lotus Esprit and get home in time for Neighbours, then you're the kind of 
person we want to hear from. We're after tips for brand new games, par- 
ticularly those reviewed within this issue of Amiga Computing. Not only will 
you be internationally famous* hot you could even win something! 

w 

Send your tips tor WE VP Amrgcr Computing, Europe Ho use, 
Adiington Part, MaoctafeW SKJO 4NP. 

Come on, stop reo ding and get writing I 


Jason Holborn is the man with the very 
hottest of the hot games tips 




PREDATOR 2 


The film may have been 
rather naFf (Arnie wasn't in 
it, so it was bound to be!), 
but Activision*! computer 
adaptation was quite a fun 
little blast-'em-up. 

To gjt infinite lives, pause 
the game and type in YOUR 
ONE UGLY MOTHER. Restart 
the game and you'll be able 
to come back from the dead 
more times than Bobby from 
Dallas! 





STRIDER 2 


Add a touch of Perestroika to US Gold 1 ! 
excellent Strider 2 with this great lithe 
cheat sent in by Usa Humphries of 
Semington in Wiltshire, To activate it, 
press Help, the left cursor key and 1 
together. You can now skip levels by 
pressing 1-5. 

viz 

gjfr*w**l£ 3 !! £ or should that be 
M elite?!) If Virgin's (fnarr fnarrl) 
game of the adult comic is too 
hard {Ooerl), then try out this 
great little cheat sent in by John 
Maslin in York. 

On the character selection 
screen, type in WHAT A GREAT 
LOAD OF B*” rt D5 (I'll leave you 
to work this one out!) and the 
screen border will change colour. 
You can now skip levels by press- 
ing 1-5- 


1 fcMsJ WWT' F i ( I 


CAR-VUP 

Here's a great little series of cheats for 
Core's Car-Vup sent in by reader Barry 
WWtehous* in Norwich. 

When the high score is displayed 



type BUMPER for unlimited bumpers, 
PUSSY CAT for an extra nine lives, 
WQOARRGH for speed turn (whatever 
that is), WHOOPSE to start in the pre- 
historic level and finally ARNIE for 
100,000 points. 


SUPERCARS II 

The original Super Cars was d pretty 
sedate little offering compared to its 
sequel, what with all your competitors 
trying lo blow you off the track with 
laser guided missiles and such. 

Jf you fancy getting your own back, 
type in player one's name as I WALK 
THE HILL and player two as INWARDS. 

You will then be rewarded with 99 
per cent of every weapon on offer. Not 
only that, but you'll qualify automati- 
cally, regardless of your finishing posi- 
tion. 

Now get out there and win! 


TURRICAN 2 

Old Tunica n may be one mean mamma, but even he needs a 
little help occasionally. To make him ^destructible, selecl 
tune one, type in 4 ? and iher pres* Escape twice Like Bat- 


fink f remember him?), bullets will bounce off his bonce! r w 



and the sequinned jacket and sings You Can't Touch This? No? Oh well, it made a 
pretty good intro didn't it I 


Anyway, here's the entire list of passcodes far Demcmwsre's PP Hammer, a 
brand spanking new game that hadn't even been released at the time of going to 
press, How's that for an exclusive! 


Level 

Code 

Level 

Code 

Level 

Code 

1 

BEVDESRR 

22 

sjedaatt 

43 

BURDIEGW 

2 

UDFCCFtA] 

23 

HHUDJVST 

44 

[TODCDUW 

3 

jCBBAJWI 

24 

5GRC5UGSI 

45 

BRAEEBIV 

4 

UAVBCBRI 

25 

dfdgrtub 

46 

IHJVAHU 

5 

AWHATGBH 

26 

SDAGERIft 

47 

BICJWWCU 

6 

TVDWVFTC 

27 

DCJWGJG) 

48 

JCWRIUJT 

7 

ITTW1DSG 

28 

5GCWA1UJ 

49 

FFTRITET 

8 

TSJVSCCF 

29 

CWAACCII 

50 

JEFHRSDS 

9 

ARCUFBUF 

30 

RVJBTFHH 

51 

FDCJERVR 

to 

TIWVGWIE 

31 

CUGBWECH 

52 

BB5IGIFR 

n 

IHI5AVHD 

32 

RSWQCJG 

53 

FAETAHDI 

12 

TGF5CUCD 

33 

CRTCSSEC 

54 

IWBSCGM 

13 

AEVTUSjC 

34 

R|FCFADF 

55 

EURSUEF 

14 

TDTJWRFB 

35 

QCBGWVE 

56 

ATHVWDAH 

15 

ICFIIP 

36 

RG5BAUFE 

57 

ESAVJCWH 

16 

T&tRSlWA 

37 

cfiadtap 

58 

IJUU5ARG 

17 

wwshfgga 

38 

REAWU5WC 

59 

EIGWEWBF 

IS 

SVIRHFAW 

39 

CCUWWJRC 

60 

AHDWCVTF 

19 

HUBJCEWV 

40 

RBHGJO 

61 

EFUA&TSE 

30 

S5VJECRV 

41 

CAECSHUB 

62 

IERBD5GD 

21 

WRHEVBBU 

42 

JVUGFFTA 




CHIP'S CHALLENGE 

Never has a cheat been as obvious as this one. There's no messing around with 
secret code, no pressing pause and moving your joystick in strange patterns, just 
press C to skip levels - it's as easy as that! 










1.8 MB RAM EXPANSION 
ONLY £130.45 

Populated to 5A2K £S3.95 

Populated to 1MB £89.95 

Populated to 1.5MB £118.05 

Expander board tot 

SL2K version £18.98 

AN vwsfaiH wort wttJf L2 Kkkstart except 15MB 


512ft RAM EXPANSION 
(4 CHIP VERSION) 

With clock only 
Without clock only 


£ 35.55 

£30.95 


NEW LOW PRICE 
512K RAM EXPANSION 
{16 CHIP VERSION) 

With clock only 
Without dock only 


£23.95 

£21,95 


I 12 MONTHS WARRANTY ON ALL PRODUCTS. 


ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT P&P 
SEND S.A.E FOR MORE INFORMATION 


198a Cowrlgm Act. AshMffi «wKlw condones no. flirt mn tlw use of this pachage ty the reprwuction ol EOf^tgited nwfen* The iru« offered by the M*: II m ffasjgned to reproduce users wp 
™ rtPBi 1 D s*™** * BUCh Proerama where pormisnioo has fcee* cfeaih ft .h^i m nvn-.-z cop*s or maunal without pwmlsai«i or dm cpp>njrm fielder w the llMftfltt ihofwf 


Only from ASHCOM, 10 The Green, Ashby-De-La-Zouch, Leicestershire LE6 5JU 

Telephone: (0530) 411485 Fax: (0530) 414433 


MON -- FRF 9.30-5.30 
SAT 9.30-4.00 


0530411405 


0530 411405 


PRESENTS 

THE POWER WITHIN 


FOR ONLY 






I NO. VAT & P/P 

THE MOST POWERFUL SOFTWARE BACKUP SYSTEM EVER PRODUCED FOR THE A500 

there is no software yet produced that cannot be copied using THE MAC II SYSTEM 

OUTSTANDING FEATURES 

• Menu driven options which make It easy to use 

• Load and save copy parameters in the built in filing system 

• Backs up all protection schemes: Long/short tracks, strong bits, data compression /expansion 

• On/off switch to make all hardware Cully transparent when not in use 

• Data verification & optimisation for fast loading 

• Also backs up other formats: IBM, MAC, ATARI etc 

• Quick and easy to install - hardware just plugs into the disk drive interface 
(second disk drive Is required) 


Mac II is die best, most professional and most versatile disk to disk copter ever made for the Arrtigr 50 
because it penetrates into the very heart of the Amiga. It's powerful- software and hardware devices ai 
protection. Other copiers cart only cope with existing methods of protection (and as you may already kr 
have to be updated to compensate for new protection schemes. 


ROCTEC 

SLIMLINE DISK DRIVE 
ONLY £59.95 
ROCTEC DISK DRIVE 
+ MAC 11 
+ UTILITIES 
DISK 


ONLY 

£09.95 


The Mac II system is designed with a future, 
’■w the user to navigate around any method of 
Jw not oil of them as claimed). Other copiers 


MAC It DOES NOT I IT WILL SERVE YOU FOR EVER 
Order Mac II now and you will never need to purchase another backup utility 

MAC II UTILITIES DISK 

The Mac FI UTILITIES DISK is a powerful addition to the MAC II system for the advanced user. It provides routines for alignment and disk speed check 
and! the MFM analyser. The MFM analyser allows the user to analyse individual tracks on a disk quickly and easily to determine the optimum method 
of copying for the Mac II. This makes foe Mac II system an incredibly powerful copier. 

ALL THIS FOR ONLY £19.95. BUY THE UTILITIES DISC WITH THE MAC M SYSTEM FOR ONLY £49.95 

TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOME ON AU. PRODUCTS 






New Showroom 
232 Tottenham Court Road 
London W1 

BUSINESS CENTRE 1ST FLOOR 
071 631 4044 


Di 




New Showroom 
232 Tottenham Court Road 
London W1 

AMIGA WORLD IN BASEMENT 
071 631 4044 



nD 


COMPUTER SYSTE MS LTD 


WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING 

We have limited numbers of our Diamond Packs 1 to 9. When these run out we will be supply ing^d iff e rent 
packages incorporating the Screen Gems Pack from Commodore These will cost at ^ast £50*M more. 
PRICES INCLUDE VAT PRICES INCLUDE VAT PRICES INCLUDE VAT PRICES INCLUDE VAT 




w NEW 

PacK j» 

AMIGA 


NEW 
1Mb 
AMIGA 

AMIGA 500 MEGA PACK 
incorporating 
AMIGA 500 + 

' 512K RAM Threa Manuals 

■ iMb Disk Drive Operating System 

■ 4096 Colours ' aul«-in Sp9«n 

■ Mouse ' TV r ModtotatOf 

■ Eflrfl 512k RAM with Clack 


ONLY 


£339.00 


WITH 

8833 MK II Colour Monitor 
ONLY £559.00 



NEW PAbK NEW 


AMIGA 500 MEGABLAST PACK 

incorporating 

' 512$ RAM 'Tin** Manual* 

■ 1 Mb phsk Drive ' OpOT-iinc SySiiffi 

■ 4096 Cafcura ' Buil-th Speech 

■ Mouse SyfrtMsflS 

T.V UI&duLalcr 

■ MEGA PACK * 

Man Undfld. ftKal! Recall Speed &3H IL 
Xenon I I, Teenage Murlari Nln|a Turlies, 
Final Botfr, St nt Car Raefll Golden A*a, 
Cadaver, Super Ofl-^eBd Racer 

ONLY £349.00 

WITH 

8833 MK II Colour Monitor 
ONLYC559.00 





PacK 


ONLY WHILE STOCKS LAST 

AMIGA 500 AXE RACK 
INCORPORATING 

■&12KRAM 8 T11W MaftUBl& 

• 1 Mb Cfcak Drive " Ogling System 

■ 4D9B CofaHire ' Suitl-in Speech 

■ Mouse Symfi*&is 

■T.V Modular 

* ID GAMES ' 

Golden Axe, Hard DrW\n\ Phobia, 
Shufffe Puck Cate, Silk Worm, 
Dataslomr Continental Circus, 
Turrican, Ninja Warriors 

Emotion 

only £349.00 

WITH 

0833 MK II Colour Monitor 
ONLY £559.00 



new PacK new 

AMIGA 5C8 SKILL PACK 

incorporating 

AMIGA 500 + 


' Disk Starve Box 

■ I Mb Disk Drive 

■ 4096 Colours 
1 Mouse 

■ T.V Mod^laUtf 

■ DUSl Cover 

‘ 1 0 3 5" Disks 


‘ Three Manuals 
1 Opening System 

■ e^n-in. Speech 
Synthesis 

- EXTRA 6 12h HAM 
4 Mouse Mat 

■ D paint II 


"DIAMOND MEGA 10 GAMES' 

M^n United, Toidib R*G 0 H SpeUd Ball II, 
XtfHon It, raanagre Mu l ii.nl N n\s T ulllftA 
Final RPtlle SluntCar Rft^r; Gflid^Ane. 
Cadaver, Super ptf-Road Fkinar + JoystMt 

ONLY £369.00 

WITH 

0833 MK II Colour Monitor 

ONLY £579.00 





PAbK 


AMIGA 500 NINJA PACK 
INCORPORATING 
AMIGA 500 + 


' oi?X Storage 
‘ 1 Mb Disk Drive 
■4096 Colours 
• Mduse 
■T.V Mpdiilalcf 
' Duel Cover 
1 10 3 5' Disks- 


'Thnje Manual* 

* Coaling System 
' Burfl-ln Speech 

Synltiegia 

1 EXTRA 512ikRAM 

* Moustf Mid 
' Dpaint li 


"DIAMOND MEGA to GAMES" 

Gotden At**, H;ud Drivirf, Phoba. ShUMIU FU6* 
Cato Silk Worm, Dalaatorm, Conimental Circus, 
Turricea E^neiion, Ninja Wurrlcr - Joystick 


only £369.00 

WITH 

8833 MK II Colour Monitor 
ONLY £579,00 





EDUCATION PACK 

FROM DIAMOND 

■ AMIGA 500 " Oust Cover 

1 512k RAM board ' Funschool 
Mouse mat 

ONLY £349,00 

INSTR UCTIONAL V IDEOS 
AMIGA MADE EASY part 1 
ONLY £0.95 

AMIGA MADE EASY part 2 
ONLY £9.95 


Volume Discounts and 
Educakonal Orders Accep*Ki*Sl 



AH prices include VAT 


No. 1 
FOR 


Diamond Retail Outlets 
Around The United Kingdom 




■ Dorset 

■f> 0202 71622S 

•Bristol 

© 0272 522044 

•Manchester 

© 061 257 3999 


•Southampton 
© 0703 232777 

• London 

© 081 597 8851 

• Edinburgh 

r 031 554 3557 


New Showroom 
232 Tottenham Court Road 
Telephone 071 631 4044 


512k RAM 

Upgrade 
with clock 

ONLY £24.95 


DON'T FORGET 
OUR PRICE 
PROMISE 



DON’T FORGET 
OUR PRICE 
PROMISE 


512k RAM 

Upgrade with clock 
AND Disk Drive 

ONLY £74-95 


COMPUTERS FOR BUSINESS 


At DIAMOND COMPUTER SYSTEMS we can provide you with expert advice on all your business 
requirements. We always have a large range of computers and software in stock, in addition 
to our desktop range of both Amigas and PC compatibles, we also carry a wide choice of 

laptops and personal organisers. 

PRICES INCLUDE VAT PRICES INCLUDE VAT PRICES INCLUDE VAT PRICES INCLUDE VAT 




q r% - 1/ WoT( t 

hin Packet 


* THE 

pin PAOK ult,mate 

QUALITY 1 nv/,X PACK 


1 

* PacK 

AMIGA 500 


COLOUR AMIGA 500 


A590 





20 Mb Hard Disk with 2Mb RAM 



PLUS HOME OFFICE 



* 51 2K RAM board 
Philips 8833 Mk 11 Monitor 


The ultimate word 
processor/D TP pack 


■ 20 FREE 3 1/2" disks 
" SO Disk Capacity, Disk Box 
ONLY £339.50 

* SWIFT 9 Colour 


* Integrated Word 


* Connecting Lead 


processor 


A590 20Mb Hard Disk 


* DTP 


0Mb RAM £279.00 

PLUS HOME OFFICE 


* Spreadsheet 


512KRAM £299.00 
1Mb RAM £319.00 

The ultimate word 


* Database 


2Mb FtAM £335.00 

processor/DTP pack 
* Integrated Word 
Processor 


PLUS 

24 pin SWIFT 24 colour printer 


IVS TRUMPCARO 

■ DTP 


Including colour kit 


D590 40Mb Hard Disk 

* Spreadsheet 


PLUS 


0Mb RAM £399.00 

* Database 


512K RAM Board 


2Mb RAM £499.00 



Philips 8832 Mk II Monitor 


4Mb RAM £622.00 

£775.00 


£399.00 


6Mb RAM £739.00 

6Mb RAM £939.00 

1 1 


For Details of Mr. Diamond s Incredible A2000 Part Exchange Deals, See Page 3 Of This Advertisment 


LEISURE SOFTWARE SPECIALS 


Golden Axe 
Hand Drivin' 

£5.00 

£5.00 

Phobia 

C5.00 

BAAL 

£5.00 

Silkworm 

£5.00 

BaJlistix 

£5.00 

Continental Circus 

£5,00 

Turrigan 

£500 

Saint & Qtb avste 

£5.00 

Minja Warrkirs 

£5.00 

Table Tennis 

£5,00 

Chess Player 2150 

£5.00 

Datastorm 

£5.00 

Dungeon Guest 

£5.00 

E-Motion 

£5.00 

Grand Monster Siam £5.00 

Kid Gloves 

£5.00 

Rick Dangerous 

£5.00 

RVF Honda 

£5.00 

Shufllepuck Cale 

£5.00 

Soccer 

£5.00 

Menace 
Blood Money 

£5.00 

£5.00 

Netherworld 

£5.00 


APPLICATION SOFTWARE 

HOME OFFICE KIT ONLY £69.00 
Due to popular demand Mr. Diamond is 
having an extra 1000 copies of this 
package made. It will be available in 
mid June. This package comprises a 
suite of six programs selected for their 
flawless performance and ease of 
operation. Everything you need to 
analyse your cashflow and produce 3 
professional report. 

Word Processor KindWords2.Q 

Spreadsheet MgxiRlan Plus 

Database Info Fife 

Paint Artist's Choice 

Desk Top 

Publishing PageSetter 

PLUS 

35 Gale Fonts and the Postscript utility 
LaserScript 

' GENLOCKS 
Rendale 8602 £144.00 

G2 £575.00 



THE GREAT 

DIAMOND PART EXCHANGE DEAL 

TRADE IN VOUR OLD AMIGA 500 FOR ONE 
OF OUR NEW AMIGA 1500 s. 

You gel the base unit plus the 1500 software 
pack comprising Deluxe Paint III (the video 
paint system} + four games. 

Their Finest Hour, Sim City, 
Populous. Battle Chess. 

FREE collection from your home or office! 

PRICE ONLY £499.00 
With a monitor £699.00 


DISKS DISKS DISKS 
SONY BULK 
3.5” 135 tpi 
only 35p each 
Limited Offer 





DON'T FORGET 


OUR PRICE PROMISE! 



WANT A 2000? . , 

GOT A 500? M 



SWAP IT 
FOR ONLY 
£349.00 



GREAT AMIGA DEALS FROM DIAMOND 




AMIGA 

A 1500 1Mb RAM 
3.5" floppy disk drive, 
base machine with 2x 3.5" floppy disks 
and software pack £699.00 

all above + Monitor £899,00 

with XT Grid geboa rd E999 . 00 

incredible PX OFFER 

visit Mr, Diamond and discover what 
your A 500 Is worth in part exchange 




XT Bridgeboard 
5.25" floppy drive 

AT Bridgeboard with either 
3.5" or $-25" floppy drive 


£149.00 


£575.00 


The NEW 

Commodore AMIGA 
AMIGA 3000-25-40 25Mhz, 40 Mb hard disk 

£2395.00 

AMIGA 3000-25-100 25Mhz, 100Mb hard disk 

£2695.00 

AMIGA 3000 4Mb RAM expansion 

£349.00 

Tins roach™ is a veritaBlft workstation; it comes with 
Wa--kt*>'vt:h 2.0 • The new Commodore Multi Tasking 
Operalmg System ■ l| can run the fmrnVH video monitor or a 
multisync monitor without having to M 9 IliiSiac huff, tl cam 
B v*n run tndar UNIX. This is Ihi machine to set [ha standard 
tor provisional use ei the tSBfl's. 


If ydu have reached the limits oMhe A500 
then take advantage of the Diamond Part 
Exchange Upgrade Option. Swap your 
1 Mb A500 for an A200 for ONLY £349,0fl 

Mr. DIAMOND AMIGA 2000 PACK 
A2000 Rev. B 48Mb Autobooting Hard Disk. 

28ms average access ONLY £995-00 
With Colour Stereo Monitor ONLY £1195.00 

A2060 base machine £469.00 

Ex -demo A200Q £645.00 

PC XT & AT Compatibility tor AMIGA 

XT Bridgeboard 

5,25* floppy drive tl 49,00 

AT Bridgeboard with either 
3 .5" or 5 . 2 5’ floppy drive £575.00 


IVS TRUMPCARD tor AMIGA 1500 5 2000 

The tVS T rumpcard is the top salting SCSI hard drive ^^^SSS! Tl is 
latest in technology directly from Ihe USA, ilwiil fit in either the A1S00 or A200Q. It is 
the only controller which will support IBM. Amiga and Apple MAC pardons .on one 
hard disk. This allows you to run software lor the ihree mam hardwarepLih o . 
machine. No more compatibility problems, only orte computer can do this. 


A1 500:2000 HARD DRIVE UNITS 


IMPULSE 64K CACHE 

IMP52S/LP 52Mb 9mS 


BBS 

.. 




Memory Upgrades for your 
Amiga 1500 & 2000 with the 

SUPRA 8Mb RAM board 

Bare board £81 -00 

2 Mb populated £75,00 
4Mb populated £1 49,00 
6Mb populated £223.00 

3 Mb populated £295,00 


-U. 


High Res 

1024 x769. 0.2B dot pitch 

Multisync Monitor 

£349.00 


AMIGA 

3.5" external 
□five 

£54.95 


1MPB0S/LP 

IMP105S/LP 

IMP170S 

IMP210S 


60Mb 9 ms 
105Mb 9ms 
1 70Mb Sms 
210Mb flms 


FUJITSU 

M2612 ESA-MJ 90Mb 19ms 
M2613ESA-MJ 135Mb 19ms 
M2614 ESA-MJ 180Mb 19ms 


£229.00 

£369.00 

£399.00 

£590.00 

£659-00 


£379,00 

£379.00 

£379.00 


J 


• ~ SYQUEST 44Mb 23ms re moveable 


To get those flicker free high res 
modes, use the FLICKER FIXER 
video card, ONLY £299.00 







cartridge drive. 
I VS Trumpcard for above add 


Installation and formatting 


P.O.A. 

£115,00 

£29.00 


Speed Up 

your 1500. 2000, 3000 wtth a , 
Co- processor Board ■ 
Phone for details 



PHILIPS 

6633 Mkli colour monitor 

only £234.00 

Inc. dust cover & lead 









L 

What is CDTV? Are you confused by all the hype? If you are then why not come in 
to one of our shops for a full demonstration of this exciting new medium, 

1 £599,00 inc VAT 

Great Part Exchange Offers, 

Come in and find out how much your old Amiga 500 is worth in exchange 

for a CDTV system. 

Introductory Offer - Either 2 CD's of your choice from the fist below 
Or an external Amiga drive free of charge! 



CDTV 


THE SOFTWARE 



Time Table of Science & Innovation 

£39.99 

R 

Lemmings 

£34.99 

E 

Time Table of Business Politics 

£39.99 

R 

Xenon II : Megablast 

£29.99 

E 

Dr. Wellman 

£54.99 

R 

Indoor Sports 

£29.99 

E 

The New Basics Electric Cook Book 

£39.99 

R 

Mind Run 

£29.99 

0 

World Vista Atlas 

£54.99 

R 

Thomas's Snowsuii 

£34.99 

D 

All Dogs Go To Heaven, Electric Crayon £34.99 

E 

Scary Poems for Rotten Kids 

£39.99 

D 

Classic Board Games 

£34,99 

E 

Paper Bag Princess 

£34.99 

D 

American Heritage Dictionary 

£49.99 

R 

The Tales of Peter Rabbit 

£39.99 

D 

Complete Works of Shakespeare 

£34,99 

R 

Mud Puddle 

£34.99 

D 

Illustrated Holy Bible 

£34.99 

R 

LTV English 

£34.99 

0 

Music Maker 

£34.99 

M 

Advance Military Systems Series 

£29.99 

A 

Barney Bear Goes to School 

£29.99 

D 

Many Roads to Murder 

£29.99 

E 

Fun School 3 (for under 5's) 

£24.99 

D 

Snoopy 

£29.99 

E 

My Paint 

£29.99 

D 

Spirit of Excalibur 

£34.99 

E 

Women In Motion 

£29,99 

A 

Horse Racing 

£29.99 

E 

Psycho Killer 

£ 29.99 

E 

Garden Plants 

£34,99 

A 

Wrath of the Demon 

£29.99 

E 

Trees and Shrubs 

£34.99 

A 

Case of the Cautious Condor 

£34.99 

E 

Fruits , Vegetables and Herbs 

£34.99 

A 

Battlestorm 

£29.99 

E 

Hutchinsons Eneycfopeadia 

£49.99 

R 

Animated Colouring Book 

£19.99 

A 

Ninja Highschoof Comix 

£16.99 

E 

Sim City 

£29.99 

E 

Dinosaurs for Hire 

£16.99 

E 

A Bun for Barney 

£34.99 

0 

Basketball 

£29.99 

E 

Defender of the Crown 

£29.99 

E 

Battfechess 

£44.99 

E 

Indoor Plants 

£34.99 

A 





[Reference [l Jnterta in merit [Mfjusic Education [ A] rts & Leisure 



SPEC I A L 

RETAIL SALES PROMOTION 


For the month of this cove relate we will be offering a 40% discount on Amiga 
leisure software to our retail customers. To qualify for this special promotion 
you must be a member of the Mr. Diamond software club. We are offering 
membership for £5,00 until the August renewal date when it is £20.00 for one 
year. Please bring this advertisment with you. 

This discount works out like this: 


Lemmings Normal Price £25.99 Club Price £15.59 


We are also running promotions on some applications software. For instance, 
Music-X ’s recommended price is £99.95. Mr Diamond is offering it to club 
members at only £59.95 or £74.95 with a MIDI interface. Please bring this 
advertisment with you. 

We also have a large range of budget titles for our club members. 


ICON PAINT £5.00 

Man United £5.00 

Total Recall £5.00 

Speed Ball II £5.00 

Xenon 11 £5.00 

Teenage Mutant 


Final Battle £5.00 
Stunt Car Racer £5.00 
Golden Axe £5.00 
Cadaver £5.00 

Super Off-Road Racer 


Ninja Turtles £5.00 


£5.00 


Mr. Diamond is also offering a 25% discout on all ABACUS books. Please 
bring the voucher on the next page. 


- i?F 



D501 512k RAM card + clonk \\ 

// 

D501 512k RAM card + 

ONLY £24.95 N\ 

Ir 

Disk Drive ONLY £74 .95 

ALL PRICES^ 

* INCLUDE VAT 




CHIPS & DISKS 


We only sell new chips 

A590 Memory chips 
0,5Mb El 7.60 
1.0Mb £35.25 
2 0Mb £69.00 

A590 2Mb Populated £339.00 

UUP BOARD & CHIPS 
Bare Board (0Mb) £61.00 
add cost of RAM to your 
specification 

2Mb +E69.00 
4Mb +E1 37.50 
6Mb +£205.00 
8Mb +E274.00 

DISK CONTROLLER CARDS 

The GRANDSLAM. new SCSI controller 
from I VS. Extra Parallel port - space for 
8Mb on board RAM 

only £229.00 

NEXUS SCSI hard disk contra Her card ■ 
space for 8Mb on board RAM. 
only £199.00 



MONITORS 


ALL PHILIPS U.K. MONITORS 
HAVE 1 YEAR ON SITE 
GUARANTEE 



PHILIPS 8833(U-K.) 

Colour Monitor wilh Stereo sound 
+ FREE LEAD & DUST COVER 
Only £234.00 

DIAMOND Multisync Monitor 
Only£349 00 
COMMODORE 1084,'s 
Only £229,00 

COMMODORE 1084/SD Monitor 
Only £234,00 

DISKS 

FOR A LIMITED PERIOD WE ARE 
SELLING HIGH QUALITY 3.5" SONY 
BULK DISKS AT ONLY £0.35 EACH 



PRINTERS & RIBBONS 


STAR Lcasa CQLOun 

£189.00 

CITIZEW t 2 4 D 

£109.00 

OKI DATA LASER 4fl0 

£599.00 

PHILIPS MNS 1433 

£139.00 

CITIZEN SWIFT 24 

P.O.A. 

wmt COLOUR 

P.O.A. 

PANASONIC K.XF- iia 

£175.00 

SWIFT 9 Colour 

P.O.A. 

STAR LC MONO 

£139.00 

STAR L&at'it) 

P.O.A. 

RIBBONS 

OKI 20 DOLOUR 

£4.95 

OKI 20 BLACK 

£.4.95 

P AN ASQ N 1 C Kx P: 1 1 24 

E4,95 

KXP’OBQ.'ifiia 

E4.95 

JUKI 6100 

£4.95 

M, TALLY MiBO 

£495 

STAR LClfl 

£4,95 

STAR LG 10 COLOUR 

£5,95 

STAR LC24M0 

£4,95 

EPSON LXB0Q 

£4,95 

AM ST RAD PMP40Q0 

£4.95 


APPLICATIONS 

XCAD Designer 

£69.33 

Platinum Works 1 

£00.12 

Transcript W/P 

£29.50 

ProPage 2.0 

£130,41 

Pro Draw 2,0 

£01,00 

Superbase 4.0 

£116,5 

Hyperbook 

£34,00 

Descartes Maths 

£22.50 

Word worth 

£05,00 

Pagestream 2 . 1 

£116.50 



VIDEO 

SECTION 


PAINT 

FRAMEGRAB 

Deluxe Paint III 

£54.95 

DigiView Gold 4,0 

£86.13 

Digipaint III 

£54.95 

Rombo Vidi 

£81.00 

Photon Paini II 

£23.50 

Disney Animation 


Spritz 

£3.50 

Studio 

£82,25 

Icon Paint 

£3.50 

Colour Pic 

£399.00 

Comic Setter 

£23,50 

MarKam 

£449.00 

Spectra Colour 

£65.00 




VIDEO TITLING 


Video Studio 

£116.50 ProTitler £149,00 

1 


AUDIO MUSIC AUDIO 

All she ifllfrSS and b^L aud*> and music 
pJKfi&pti* from Mf Diamond at the 

priGBS 

MusicX ver 1 . 1 £59.00 
Perfect Sound £39.00 
Audio Engineer £149.00 
Master Sound £25.00 
Quartet £33.00 
MIDI l/F £26.00 
Keyboard £25.00 


♦ 

♦ 

4 

4 

4 


Diamond Computers 
232 Tottenham Cl Rd. 
London Wl 
TEL 07 1 631 4044 

▼ OPEN ON SUNDAYS 

Diamond Computers Ltd + 
144 Ferry Road ^ 

Edinburgh ^ 

Scotland ^ 

TEL 031 554 3557 + 




OPEN ON SUNDAYS A 

Diamond Computers Ltd 
1022 Stockport Road 
Manchester 
TEL D61 257 3999 
FAX 061 257 3997 


This Voucher is worth 
25% off all ABACUS 
computer books 

WHEN ORDERING 
PLEASE QUOTE 


AGO 7 


HOW TO ORDER 

Simply telephone through your order, giving your Access 
or Visa card Number or send a cheque or posial urder to 
your Local Dealer. 

AH prices include VAT unless otherwise staled. 

Next Day Courier Service Delivery £11.' 75 
Please allow 5 working days for cheque clearance. 
Bankers drafts clear on [be same day 

All prirfi «K Lurtrtl ul [inl£ «rf yublg lu pra* L’Jl itiu> lI-lhiuc WLlhmJL nutlet 

THE 

Diamond 

PRICE PLEDGE 


If whiff t faying goods from ns. you find J 6 ciler prior m ihr jmtjpMlf 
j mm one of our 'U.% competitors tfiei i ■iJlflnriuid' uiiS jim/lIi <i\at price. 

‘Liten i f cmrpncts far* iacmbtJ a* will honour the prices m this 
aJvtrtLcmtttt an iicm ut stocKA* long os you frog it with tpa. 

'Jfiir I VSidgt appin t» mJif to nut mm pmfuritg arnfyug on this 
Mtomoment befott the end of the month of' publication. It does not apply 
» tmptiitm prices offend in dosing 4tm*t orttodcjckemut sides. 


ur-O'r'i Diamond Computers Ltd 
/ 84 Lodge Road 

SOUTHAMPTON 
TEL 1)703 232777 
FAX 0703 232679 

. t: Diamond Computers Ltd 

406 Ashley Road 
POOLE - Dorset 
TEL 0202 716226 
FAX 

T : Diamond Computers Ltd 

. 443 Gloucester Rd 

Bristol 

TEL 0272 522044 
FAX 0272 693223 


LAN Computer Systems 
1045 High Road 
Chad well Heath - 
Romford 

TEL 08 1 597 8851 
FAX 081 590 8959 


Amiga Computing AuguSil 1 991 





VERSION 1 .3 §pP 


u s-M Msm 

c *. ■. .. v v ; /*v .v v vv^v’i''' 




and Texture imp lit 
aney mapping. 


| wire frame 
manipulation 


Double Sided Double 

Density with labels 

Quantity 


Price 

Quantity 

Price 1 

10 



£4.30 

80 

*27,60 

20 



£7.80 

100 

*32.90 

25 



£9-95 

120 

*39.95 

30 



£11.50 

150 

*49.35 

35 



£12.95 

200 

±63.45 

40 



£14.25 

301) 

*9-1,00 

45 



£16.00 

400 

*123.50 

50 



£17.80 

500 

*152.75 


Full Ni> Quibble Replacement Guarantee 



BOXES (with keys, labels, dividers) 



10 

40 

5& 

80 100 

120 


0.9 4 

4.95 

5.60 

6,30 6.80 

8.75 


lixnat 

< lli nek Rock 
Cybcrcon 111 
Eye of BctioWvr 
Cods 

Hcrtxjuest 
Killing ClotHl 
MegaTraveller 1 
Mokkcy [*land 
Nam 


Latest Games 

& 1$,96 PGA Tout Golf £ 15.96 

£15.96 Ptiwermcpnger £18.95 

£15-96 Railroad Tycoon £18.95 

£18.95 SpecdbalJ 2 £ 15.96 

£ 1 5 96 Supercars 2 £ 1 5.96 

£ 15-96 Su per Monaco CVP £ 1 5 96 

£1 5 96 SWTV £1 5 96 

£ 18,95 Ttirrfcsm I] £ 15-96 

£ 15,96 Viz £ 15-75 

£ 18.96 Wonderland £1895 


Orders Accepted for any games not listed above 


Canon BJ 10c Bubble- Jet Printer £259,95 

Canon BJ 1 (if Bubble Jet Ink Cartridge £18,25 

CUMANA CASJ54 3.5" External Drive £59 95 

Cortes 0v5 Meg Expansion Memory £29*45 

Cortex 0.5 Meg Expansion Memory + Clock £34.90 


i 


72 






J 


ftn fhj 




ftnRii 

if a picture is worth 
thousand words, 
then PeftTPal is worth 
l^rleast a few do 
crayon sets, as Stevie I 

inift 


Kenheffy found out 




colours 


N o matter how often you look 
at it, the drafted thing won't 
go away. Scoff at the mere 
idea, deny its existence, or even insist 
that the whale thing is a figment of 
some marketing person's pettier-soaked 
imagination, the parish newsletter is 
here to stay, and with it the demand for 
a certain kind of wordprocessor. 

Come to think of it, so is the club 
newsletter, the fancy- headed notepa- 
per„ and the famine. The ore thing 
they all have in common Is a demand 
for an Amiga program which will com- 
bine words with graphic* in an easy 
and affordable way, and Pen Pal is one 
of the best available options. 

The DTP touch 

Pen Pal is one of the oider packages 
available on the Amiga and one of the 
few major wordprocessors we haven't 
yet looked at In our monthly coverage 
of this area. JL Is, however, probably 
best considered as a package in its own 
right rather than as competition far the 
likes of Protest and Word worth. 

It boasts mast of the usual word pro- 
cessor features, with 1 00, 000- word 
spell checker and comprehensive text 
formatting options, but it* real 
strengths lie in its built-in database and, 
m particular, its DTP-like graphics toots. 
With these, the Pen Pal user finds a 
program capable of loading and 
manipulating graphics faster and easier 
than any other Amiga wordprocessor. 
The results may not be as goad as the 
output from programs such as Pro Page 
and Pagestream, but for those with 
eight-tone colour printers they're per- 
fectly adequate. 

Cropped to perfection 

Graphics aFe loaded into Pen Pal by the 
Import Picture option which allows a 
series of operations to be carried out 
before the picture is placed in the docu- 
ment. 

You can choose on which side of the 
graphic the text wilt flow and whether 
it will do so in a straight line or contour 
itself to the graphic. Size can be scaled 
down with an option to retain the pic- 
ture proportion* of the original picture, 
and you can choose whether or not the 
picture's background colour is to be 
made transparent. 

Once all this has been sorted out, 
the image is placed in the document. 


From here on in it can be cropped and 
moved around with ease., and Pen Pal 
really begins to grab your attention 
with the speed at which ft can move 
and redraw a graphic. 

Graphic* are easily picked up by 
clicking on them and holding down the 
mouse button to drag them around the 
screen. If repositioning operations are 
to be carried out, a click on the Select 
Graphic icon in the tool bar on the left- 
hand side of the screen results in a 
graphics box with the usual drag han- 
dles appearing around the picture. 

Better still, though, is the Crop 
Graphic tool. Choose this and the cur- 
sor changes to a cropping tool which 
chops a graphic up by resizing the box 
around the picture. This is extremely 
useful for removing extraneous graph- 
ics or touching them up to fit perfectly 
into a document, and is carried out at 
an impressive speed. 

What's more, if a crop is made too 
tightly, it is possible to "uncrop* by 
pulling the box back out. The cropped 
area is not discarded and will simply 


reappear when needed. This is handy ff 
yau r re messing about to see what effect 
a crop will have on the graphic in ques- 
tion, and allows more experimentation 
with page layout. 

Pen Pal's most obviously un-word- 
proce*sor-like Feature is the integral 
database, designed to give users the 
option to keep relatively straightfor- 
ward databases and use them for 
mailmerging purposes. 

The database, however, is an 
unusual beast and more than an elec- 
tronic card index. In terms of the for- 
mat taken by each database, options 
are pretty limited, but it will carry out 
simple column addition operations and 
is capable Of Including formulae so that 
the database takes on the aspect of a 
spreadsheet. 

To make things easy for the user, the 
physical layout of the database is 
restricted to rows, columns and cells 
into which the user put* data which 
can take the form of dates, phone num- 


is useful when keeping tabs on r say, the 
total value of all subscriptions paid to 
the club secretary, you can use sub- 
totals on "Calc* columns with formulae 
containing any or all of the four arith- 
metic operators. 

Power options 

In addition to the extensive database 
definition options are some quite flexi- 
ble editing and sorting facilities and, 
most useful of all, options to print 
labels, columnar reports, and mailshots 
with the merge facility. 

The latter Is particularly powerful 
when used in conjunction with the 
database, and can produce letters con- 
taining several data items as well as the 
standard form -letter- with -address type 
of mailmerge, 

The whole database section is fast, 
easy-to-use, and an extremely useful 
addition to Pen Pal. In itself it doesn't 
match the likes of Prodata or 
5uperBase, but I found it much more 
appealing than the decidedly average 
wordprocessor. 

Standing on its own two feet a* a 
wordprocessor, Pen Pal would last 
about ten minutes. With the inclusion 
of so many DTP features and the 
database, however, 5oftWood elevated 
Pen Pal above the status of a mere 
wordprocessor. 

The only problem with this is that on 
this level Pen Pal will appeal to a rather 
narrowly defined set of usere. 

Conclusion 

I would recommend Fen Pal to anyone 
responsible for parish newsletters, and 
particularly to those involved in the 
administration of a user group, social 
club, or any other organisation that 
needs nice graphics touches and a 
database facility. Give it a whirt if you fit 
into those categories. 

If you don't fit the bill, try a program 
with more word processing bite or go 
the whole way and buy a set of dedi- 
cated utilities such as Prodata and 
PageSetter. 

Pen Pal l* a product of SoftWood Inc, 
Post Office Box 50178, 
Phoenix, Arizona 85078 
Available; Now 
Price: £79.95 (£99.95 with 
0.5 meg upgrade) 

Supplier; Gordon Harwood 
Computers (0771 8M781) 



tbt m p.a tr 


Tim 



Fiiti pogt frtew often a ureM p rtview of Jtoht rfrf poqe win Jaafc 


B4 r Tim pesky Pm Pal 

K rft nL L|ij| jL|| 
tTVWnl wW 1 ¥ WiW 


No ether Mh 1 
midi it for DIF 
tohHwmodt, though!) 

Ppi cart be very colauriuL*. 


. .. aftd h powerfully fit xifrlt 


bers, text, or formulae. There Is an 
option to calculate ihe sub-total for any 
one column, arid this in 
itself can be carried out in 
a variety of ways. 

Apart from a simple 
total of everything in an 
“Amount" column, which 



m 


> 


■jj 

m 



August 1 9 ? 1 Amiga Computing 






New Products From Checkmate Digital 



High quality RGB output for your Amiga 






The HAM-E system gives ywt hig» resolution pure KGB images on your standard 1004 KGB monitor. They ant pure RGB, not smeary composite. No other graphics 
expansion expansion device o fliers so much performance and costs so little! And all the software to run it is free. Even upgrades * T here is noi enough room to cover all 
of the advanced features of this system, so here arc jus? a few. 


Pain! Features: 


* ROB anti 


System Features: 

* Paint, Render, cvl ip &'w 

* IK/24 bit colour modes 

* 25&5 1.2 color rosier muds* 

* RGB pass ihfou^h 

* Screen overlay / underlay 

* Screens poll up .' down & go 
front back 

* View with 

* Animate via 
Page Flipping 

* Works with 

* Completely 

* NTSC 

* S-VHS encoder 
- PAL & NTSC 

* Uses only 

* FCC Class B. UL 

* Works w/si d Amiga monitors 

* Does nut use Amiga power 


sLurulurd IFF; 
RGBS and RGBN; 


free 

upgrade From BBS service 

* Color or 256 greys painting 

* 256 colour stencils 

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* Auto enhance std IFF paid 

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much more. 


BLACK BE LT SYSTEMS 


The Hyper Drive System. 

This exciting new system is the optimum upgrade for 
Amiga A500 owners, satisfying their needs for future expansion 


Incl tides the following: - 

* Checkmate A 1 500 Expansion System. 230.00 

* Checkmate 200watt, Surge protected Power Supply. 79.00 

* ICD inc ADSCSl 2000 Hard disk controller. 130.00 

* Checkmate A2000 adaptor card 68.00 

* Fujitsu 45mb High Speed, Auto- Park SCSI Drive. 239,00 

* 62mm High Power Fan . 25.00 

* Hyper Helpers Software from INOVAtronics 49.00 

Nonna! Price £ 8 1 1 .00 


Hyper Drive System Price Only £ 699.00 inc VAT & P&P 

You .still have room for a second Flippy Drive . Accelerator Card, upto 15 Mb of 
Ram. and « Flicker Free Video Card. Ring For Details. 

Larger Drives available;- 90Mb + £100.00. 184Mh + £300.00 











The Cando Enviroment 




So many people ask me ’What is CanDo ", I will try to 
answer this question as simply as possible without over 
: mplifying the power of this highly impressive package. 

Can Do is a complete program authoring system 
Ahich allows applications to be built by simply 
licking on gadgets for the usual 

Hyper-Media or Multi-Media 
applications then you can progress 
onto programming using the 
simple but powerful 
scripting language 
built into 

Cun Do. This 

scripting is 

written in most 
cases by Can Do for 
you, so for example, 
when you want to play a 
sound you call up a script 
and click on the sound 
tool gadget. This will bring 
up a requester asking for a 
sample from the Can Do Sounds 
directory, decide which one you 
want and click OK. Nest it will 
ask the Volume and then which audio 
channel is to be used. Once these 
are done then CanDo will generate the 
correct script for you. It is quite rare to 
have to actually type in commands so scripting really is a click 
of the button away. 

One great thing about CanDo is that programmers 
can prototype their software very quickly to iron out the 
design problems and if necessary can have another program 


by 1 NOVA ironies called Power Windows generate the code 
for the windows and gadgets used in the CanDo prototype 
and use a printout of the script as pseudo code to generate 
the rest of the progpm. Now this is software 
programming automation. Remember that the 
programs that CartDo generates are not only fully 
multi-tasking and highly efficient but it can also 
generate full run time code with no need to licence 
the Can Do support library from INOVAtronics. 

Wei! there you have it. A full object 
based software building machine that is simple 
and yet extremely powerful. Hope this 
answers your questions; if not then give us 
a ring at the office. 



Checkmate Digital Hardware Prices. 


A590 20MB + 2MB High Speed Ram {1349.00 

A590 42MB SCSI + 2MB High Speed Ram £ 499.00 

A59Q B4MB SCSI + 2MB High Speed Ram £ 599 00 

A59D 176MB + 2MB High Speed Ram E 799.00 

A59Q Replacement 29Mb Drive Unit £ 75.00 

ICD ADSCSI 2000 High Speed Drive 
Controller for A1 500 A200Q , CDL A1 500, 

CDL Plus, HiO Tower, HiQ Hippo. £ 130.00 

As above + sockets for BMB ram (pop 2MB) £ 299.00 


3,5 inch uncased Fujitsu SCSI drives, as used in 
CDL Hyper Drive System, Auto Park. 

45 MB average 25ms access, Fastest 10ms £ 239.00 

90 MB average 19ms access. Fastest 10ms £349.00 

184 MB average 19ms access. Fastest 10ms £ 535.00 

Ring for prices on the amaalng CSA Accelerator Cards, 
and our competitve Ram chip prices, 

DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME 



Phone Checkmate Digital Today On:- 
Tel +44 (0)71- 923 0658 Fax +44 (0)71-254 1655 
80 Mildmay Park, London, N1 4PR, UK 






Amiga Computing August 1991 


Two giants 
of the virtual 

•h 

world go 

HlEAD tol Q/\3Kl 


A liyri that wily exslsti In the ttw imagination of Real ID 


A s promised in last month's 
ray tracing Spectacular, this 
time I'm looking at the two 
leading lights in the held of reflection 
and refraction. Real 3D, as many are 
aware, isn't a new name in the virtual 
world, Nevertheless this latest Incarna- 
tion boasts some dramatic improve- 
ments cm its predecessor. 

Imagine, like Real 3D, is another 
product of evolution and its ancestry 
can be traced back to one of the found- 
ing fathers of Amigan ray tracing, 
namely Turbo Silver. Real and Imagine 
are both state of the art for quality, 
ability and speed but which is best for 
you? Hopefully what follows will point 
you and your cash in the right direction 
for perhaps the biggest software bill 
you're ever likely to face. 

Each of the contenders has a vastly 
different approach to modelling. Real is 
a solid modeller, and as a result all its 
objects are combinations of primitives 
or "prims". This isn't to say that fin- 
ished objects and images will be in any 
way "primitive", it refers only to the 
components used. A whale range of 
tools and techniques can be applied to 
stretch, extrude and generally deform 
simple objects to the required design, 
no matter how complex the result. 
These techniques can be used to 


such a degree that prims can become 
unrecognisable as their former simple 
forms, it's fairly safe to say that any 
object can be created with a combina- 
tion of the tools, lathes, primitives and 
logical operations. 

Imagined approach to the virtual 
world revolves entirely around surface 
modelling which creates a potentially 
infinite number of faces or facets on the 
surfaces of its objects. For example, a 
sphere within Rea! 3D would be one 
continuous mathematical plane sus- 
pended in space. Imagine however, 
would consider it as a float- . 
ing polyhedron made 
up of a vast number 
of tiny mtercon 
netted triangular 
plates. 

Imagine'* 
approach 
would, by defi- 
nition, seem 
prone to produc- 
ing rough results 
or "jaggies" due to 
the use of flat surfaces 
when producing, say, a 
curve. In practice this isn't the 
case - Imagines objects are easily on a 
par with those of Real both for quality 
and definition. 


Paul Austin finds it hard to pick the winner as 
Real 3D and Imagine face up to the ultimate 
ray tracing challenge 



76 



As promised in th* 
jftir lc he* e's a 
closer look fll the 
latest talents of 
Real lb, imocith 
ialhc?,. polygons 
the lot 


The thanks for this must in part go 
to Imagined phong shading routine 
whkh is responsible for the smoothing 
effect. Perhaps the only element which 
tips the quality balance slightly in 
favour of Real would be the inclusion of 
Real's eight levels of anti-aliasing, some- 
thing which Imagine can't match. 

You might well ask why 
Imagine employs surface 
mapping if it requires 
\ ^ extra processing. 
Well, as with most 
things it's a case 
h of swings and 

r roundabouts, 

- An object made 

up of multiple 
facets may 

i require more 

attention but it's 
also much more flexi- 
ble because of its com- 
ponent parts. 

The spiky sphere shown in the exam- 
ple was produced in seconds simply by 
dragging several points out from the 
surface of the sphere. All Imagine 
objects are formed by stretching a skin 
over a framework of individual points. 
Each of these points can be pulled, 
pushed and fiddled with individually. 

Ai a result of this flexibility, subtle 
forms and adjustments are easy to pro- 
duce. A spiky sphere takes moments in 
Imagine, but the same object in Real 
would require the creation of a sphere 
and several pyramids, all of which need 
to be adjusted and placed. In ray trac- 
ing terms the time difference would be 
minimal but it's worth considering if 
you're working commercially. 

QKj now you know how the oppo- 
nents shape up, it's time to look in 


detail at each package's favourite 
punch as well as pointing out the add 
weaknEss. First on the scales we have- . 

r 

Imagine 

Impulse's long-awaited sequel to Turbo 
Silver has finally arrived. Imagine, or 
Son of Silver if you prefer, makes its 
debut on a single disk which will auto- 
matically un-archive itself onto the drive 
of your choice as Either a "6SGGG or 
68030 version, or even both if you 
really want your money's worth, 

impulse claim that Imagine has 
thrown off the chains of complexity 
that haunted its predecessor. In the 
past, Turbo Silver was praised for its 
quality but was notorious for its hatred 
of humans. Is Imagine all that Turbo 
Silver was and more, while remaining 
easy to use? We shall see. 

Software structure 

Imagine has a very different approach 
to Real, not only with respect to Its 
objects but also the environment in 
which they're made. It employs a mod- 
ular format which divides the creation 
of an image Into several distinct sections. 

For example, a single object could 
be created in [he forms editor then 
moved to the detail editor for refine- 
merits such as texture, colour and so 
on. if animation is required Ifs off to 
the cycle editor and finally to the stage 
editor for camera placement and Fight- 
ing. 

To render an image there's another 
trip to the project editor. All of these 
trips and detours require loading and 
saving both before and after you've 
used a particular module. 




Puzzling paths 

Another Idiosyncracy of ImaginE is its 
insolence on ridiculously complex and 
convoluted file paths. Each project has 
its own directory and then a separate 
sub-directory with Individual directories 
for objects and scenes and so on, If 
you're one of the lucky few with a hard 
drive all this module swapping and 
path searching Isn't really a problem 
buL for mere mortals working on flop- 
pies it's a bore. 

And so to the manuals. At first 
glance the reference and tutorial pro- 
vided seemed to support impulse's 
claim that Imagine is Indeed easy to 
grasp. The mam reason for this assump- 
tion came from their less than weighty 
appearance. After a little experimenta- 
tion it soon became clear that they 
were quite light on detail and on sev- 
eral occasions left me stranded, espe- 
cially during the tutorial. 

The detail editor goes a long way 
towards making up for the shortcom- 
ings of the manuals. It's a real joy to 
use, especially If you're the lucky owner 
of an Amiga 3000 or a flicker-fixed 
2000 - the combination of the smooth 
and stylish four window display plus 
rock solid Interlace Is wonderful 

Manipulate and altering of objects 
is a little tricky at first but with practice 
you soon master the rather delicate art 
of selecting objects by either point, face 
or edge. The ability to zoom in on indi- 
vidual windows is particularly handy for 
fine-tuning your creations. 

The perspective or fourth view is 
another big plus as it gives you a con- 
stant reminder of exactly what's going 
on in your image. The option to view in 
either solid or shaded modes also does 
wonders for your perception of what's 
what. 

Anyone who's worked with complex 
wireframes will certainly appreciate this 
particular addition. You 11 be pleased to 
know that it has no effect on the other 
screens when updating, so you can 
work on obliviously and simply enjoy 
the benefit of a constant reminder. 

As with Real, primitives are available 
but in considerably fewer numbers and 
variety. All the essentials are there 
however, - spheres, tubes, and so on 



The program employs boolean or 
logical operators which allow prims and 
other forms to be used as tools on 
objects - cutting, drilling and so on. 
Another powerful option is the mag- 
netic tool which boasts definable attrac- 
tion and repulsion. As a result surfaces 
can be be drawn up or forced down 
uniformly. 

Special mould and skin functions 
allow you to extrude shapes in some 
very strange ways and these can then 
be draped over surfaces or basic struc- 
tural skeletons. 

It's also here that the attributes for 
all your creations are defined. This is 
another element of fmagine's repertoire 
that's been very well thought out. For 
example, it's possible to combine 
coded textures such as "Wood" and 
"Disturb" while mixing IFF textures 
within the same object's surface. 

Of other editors 

The forms editor is something of a 
strange beast and I must admit it's an 
acquired taste. I found it a little difficult 
to come to terms with, but having said 
that, others rave about its power and 
abilities - no doubt with a little more 
time I might agree, 

In theory, the forms editor allows 
you to create organic and natural 
shapes easily and quickly by dragging 
and manipulating groups of points. 
With practice, almost any kind of form 
can be realised, but in my case it was 
definitely a case of luck rather than 
good management. 

The stage editor is the part of the 
program where most of the animation 
and all of the object positioning is 
determined and set. i he combination 
of the familiar four- way editing screen 
and an extensive staging sheet allow 
the user to choreograph complex 
motions for all of the elements within 
the defined scene. There are also pre- 


defined actions like explode and grow 
which can be applied to any object 
within your virtual creation. The staging 
sheet is reminiscent of a professional 
animation sheet with a strong cartoon 
and movie influence - objects are 
referred to as "actors" and playback a& 
'"action". 

Another impressive talent of Imagine 
is its ability to morph objects. This sim- 
ply means that elements Within in ani- 
mation can be transformed from, let’s 
say, a sphere to a cube. This is a strong 
point as such things would be a night- 
mare to attempt on imagine s oppo- 
nent. 

But it's the animation element which 
is the program's real strength. It has tal- 
ents and techniques that Real 3D sim- 
ply can't match. 

Again, it's far from, simple but with 
patience stunning results are ready and 
waiting. Having said that i^s worth 
remembering that ray-traced anima- 
tions ate strictly tor the power users - 
one meg simply won't do and without 
acceleration a single anim may uke a 
week to render. 


Real 3D 

For those unfamiliar with Real ID a 
basic outline of its approach to the vir- 
tual world is in order. The program 
consists of three elements, each adding 
its individual talents to the finished 
masterpiece, whether that be a single 
image or an entire animation. 

The most heavily used element of 
the Real threesome has to be the editor 
screen. This uses the now common 
orthographic or tri-view screen format 
which displays three dimensional space 
from separate elevations. 

Controlling what appears in your 
imaginary world is achieved using a 
variety of pull-dawns which give Instant 
access to everything you'll need, rang- 
ing from the primitives or prims, fa the 
most complex boolean operations. The 
latest version boasts some new point- 
and- click controls which make prim 
selection even easier. 

As well as placing and manipulating 
individuals, hrerachica! objects are avail 
able thanks to a simple process which 
finks individual prims to form complex 
objects. These are then considered to 
be individuals themselves and as a 


Cycling about 



Imagine 1 ? cycle editor is unique to Imagine 
and can be a little confusing. It's used to 
create animated objects which can then 
be imported into the stage editor. 

By sculpting an entire figure and then 
assigning object filenames to the struc- 
ture's bones, a stand-alone animated char- 
acter can be produced using key framing 


actions, When finished Ft's off to She stage 
editor tor tweaking and further anima' 
lion. 

To say Imagined rendering section is 
very compfEhensivt would be an under- 
statement It outputs any standard Amiga 
resolution as well as 24-txt The output b 
excellent and the quality of rendering 


* 


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fiunnduEO-i pfrimv jaaj isnbnv 



Amiga Computing August 1991 


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78 






Picking point* jrtd adding attributes within Imaginr'i Detail editor 


> 

result, can be moved, rotated, 
stretched and shrunk in the same way 
as a standard prim. 

The huge range of tools and prims 
make creation of objects simple and 
speedy. Alt the object modelling, 
manipulation and scene setting goes on 
here plus the addition of textures which 
can vary from imported IFF wraps 
straight from your favourite paint pack- 
age to bumpmapping a knobbly 
organic masterpiece. 

As you might expect, a complete 
range of boolean operations and defin- 
able macros help to make Real the easi- 
est modelling environment on the 
market. 

The only moan is the lack of 
booleans or macros within the begin- 
ner's version. This is no doubt a play to 
encourage upgrades, but to be honest 
it seems a little mean on Ac-liva's part - 
although they insist It's due purely to 
memory requirements. 

Wireframe 

This is perhaps the most user friendly 
element of the program as it allows you 
to move at will around your creation, 
zooming in and out, rotating and turn- 
ing with a. simple drag and a click. 
When you/re happy with the camera 
angle a single tap on the rodEnt has it 
ready to render. 

The ability to Fly around your cre- 
ation opens a whole range of surprising 
angles and alternatives that may never 
have occurred to you otherwise. 


Besides setting the scene, the wireframe 
rs also responsible tor previewing ani- 
mation paths and designing new ones 
manually. 

Simple paths can be assigned to 
objects in the editor screen but the 
fine-tuning is all done in the wireframe, 
and addition! such as manually 
designed camera paths are easily cre- 
ated in swift succession, simply by mpv- 
i ng from one to the next., hitting 
Record as the required position is 
reached. 

Another new addition to Real is 
the ability to animate boxes rather than 
the entire image. This is a real bonus if 
you want to render long animations 
quickly and opens up animation to 
those of us with less than a massive 
amount of available memory. 

In general, the animation controls 
are far simpler than Imagined but the 
results are still very Impressive. 
Imagines approach is much more the- 
atrical and, of course, has the added 
bonus of morphing. Morphing is 
planned for Real but at the moment is 
stuck firmly to the drawing board. 

If you're not desperate for ultra-corn* 
plex animation, Real should be more 
than adequate, its most appealing fea- 
ture is the creation of animation paths 
that consist simply of selecting an 
object, drawing a line and watching as 
the object dutifully follows your com- 
mand, automatically recording each 
frame in succession. 

Orbits and observer positions are all 
definable and can be altered within the 
animation for added excitement. 


Real'i bu Hip 
mapping ip 
action, 
Crofted In 
itKonds In 
the dll new 
material 
drvice 


Imagined implex but powerful animation Three H action. 


Rendering control 

As with most elements of Real, the ren- 
dering screen at first appears relatively 
unchanged but, in fact It's here that 
many of the new enhancements 
appear. For example, extra 24-bit ren- 
dering formats such as Targa and IFF 24 
and, of course, the highly impressive 
eight-level anti-aliasing control. 

This new feature adds considerably 
to rendering times if used to the Full, 
but with results which challenge 
the output of frame buffers it's 
worth the wait. 

The rendering controls 
essentially simple, being 
matter of clicking on 
buttons or drag- 
ging faded to set the 
desired combination of 
effects, the range and vari- 
ety of which only Imagine can 
match. 1 

In Real's Turbo version every combi- 
nation of resolution, light intensify and 
screen format are possible. The 24-bit 
formats herald the next generation of 
images waiting to appear, thanks to the 
increasing number of 24-bit boards. As 
with the editor there's a small blot on 
Real's copy book, namely the exclusion 
of the 24 -bat options from the begin- 
ner's version. 

What's new? 

IE we start -at the editor screen, the most 
obvious difference is the bank ot prim 
selection buttons which make mod- 


comp 


effing blisteringly fast. Hidden in the 
bank of buttons are a few new faces 
such as the smooth lathe tooi which 
you can see in action along with the 
other new pnm controls in the exam- 
ple. 

There are two new tools in addition 
to the lathe. The first is the polygon 
tool which allows you to create plain 
polygons of any shape. The second is 
the more complex polyhedron tool 
which creates a three dimen- 
sional object using polygons as 
components, 

The final new 
face is the conical tube 
J which creates objects 
#. > consisting of spheres 
of varying sizes joined 
by smooth Lubes 
* with either 

expanding or contracting radii. 
Ideal for fingers, limbs and gen- 
eral body building. 

The next big change comes in the 
material device which has a whole 
range of new features, such as turbidity 
which defines the density of the mate- 
rial itself. So, for example, it's possible 
to combine turbidity with the option to 
smooth the material^ boundaries to 
create a cloud of fog. 

Specularity control has been added 
plus some handy percentage displays 
and a material view option. Animators 
will no doubt rave about the inclusion 
of textured animation support which 
makes it possible to create chameleon- 


The now 
tjmilidr three 
way vl*w of 
the virtual 
wcirld thank 
Real 1 ? Edilgr 

screen 







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Amiga Computing Augustl 991 




ID 

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like effects on objects within animations 
- a big improvement. 

Mapping, as the sign shows, is big 
business and as a result, four new 
options have been added. The first is 
clip mapping which cuts surfaces. So if, 
say, a texture is mapped onto an 
object, any parts left uncovered are dis- 
carded. 

Next there is the bumpmapping 
option which allows the surface of an 
object to be covered with countless 
bumps and abrasions of definable 
height. Once again the only real chal- 
lenger in this area is Imagine, both 
programs being particularly talented at 
adding organic feel to the virtual world. 

Lastly we have the standard colour 
and special mapping techniques. 
Colour mapping simply defines object 
colour, whereas special mapping allows 
you to create shiny elements on a matt 
surface by relating various colours 
within it to either transparency or bril- 
liance. 

As well as these various modelling 
enhancements there are some new ani- 
mation additions such as direction con- 
trol and the new edit orbit option. 
Throughout the program various addi- 
tions have appeared, creases have been 
ironed out and keyboard short-cuts 
applied. In short. Real's new look is 
more a complete facelift than a simple 
nose job. 

And finally 

This article has been billed as a champi- 
onship match between the two con- 
tenders for the ray tracing crown, so I 
suppose there has to be a decision. But 
I’m merely the referee so l ! m afraid the 
final points decision is down to you. 

Having said that there are few points 


worth remembering. Firstly, Real comes 
in various formats with the Turbo ver- 
sion the only one to have a full comple- 
ment of abilities. Imagine, however, is 
complete whether run on a standard 
6SQQO or a ferrari-like 68030 or 68020. 
This is definitely Imagines biggest 
punch. 

Real in any of Us forms is a dream to 
use, with everything close at hand and 
all its talents merely a mouse click 
away. The sheer speed and ease of use 
are marvellous and show all its com- 
petitors to be sadly lacking in the user 
friendly department. 

As far as finished products are con- 
cerned there's little to choose between 
the two, with perhaps Real scoring on 
Image quality and Imagine hitting back 
with its superb, if slightly complex, ani- 
mation options. 

Imagine claims to have thrown off 
the chains of Turbo Silver's complexity. 
I don't agree, but with practice the 
results speak for themselves. Real on 
the other hand is a dream to use but a 
nightmare to pay for and Actives tac- 
tics for potential upgrades seem a little 
below the belt Who wins the fight and 
your money is up to you.,. 


Real'i all new rendering strewn, with n wrwlt fang* of extra options 




LE£ 


The creation of imagine'* -spiky sphere, all done Jn a matter of seconds thariki Id the 
flexibility erf point lehectlon 


PT is 






Product information 

Imagine £223.25 Ind vat 


Real 1.3 Beginners version £142.00 
incl vat 


Real 1 .3 Turbo version £409.00 incl 
vat 

Supplier; Alternative Image 
6 Lothair road 
Aylestone 
Leicester 
LE2 7QB 


Tel; 0533 440041 
fax: 0533 440650 


A commercial example of ReaF s gray scale fnrmai in «tfon 


Selecting the format for your masterpiece Is simple but yov murt be sore all the component 
parti are where they shouM be 










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Y ou can't fail ta appreciate the influence of ray tracing or 
each of this month's galley selections, if you want to find 
out which software tools are used to create these beauti- 
ful artworics, lake a look at the clash of the ray tracing giants else- 
where in this issue. Bui ray tracing is by no means ali we're after,, 
so keep those artistic submissions coming in. 

As usual, this month's winner receives a full colour photo- 
graphic image of their masterpiece, complete with frame, ready to 
hang on the wall of their choice! 

Entrants In next month's Gallery have an added incentive. A 
brand new copy of SpectraColor, the only HAM paint and anima- 
tion package capable of the 4096 colours will go to the winning 
artist. And if that little lot doesn't tempt you to pul mouse to mat, 
nothing wilL, 


lyfWrr by Biatae Mtiiam 







August 1 991 Amiga Computing 






Amiga Computing August 1991 


< 

U 


a, 

on 


J ust when you thought 
DetuxePaint was as good as it 
could get, Electronic Arts 
announces yet another upgrade. The 
program that revolutionized computer 
art is back in a new incarnation, sport- 
ing a much larger palette, new anima- 
tion and drawing features, and an 
improved user interface. 

If you're a serious Amiga artist, you 
probably own two paint programs - 
DeluxePaint for basic painting and 
work in hlgh-resoiution, and a second 
paint program such as DigiPaint 3 or 
Photon Paint for work in the 4096- 
colour HAM mode. 

Many artists preferred to use 
DeluxePaint for most of their work, 
using the HAM programs only to add 
extra colours or special effects. Well, 
now's the time to sell that HAM paint 
program to a friend and use the cash 
to upgrade to DeluxePaint IV. 

With support for HAM pictures and 
animations, as well as a suite of new 
special effects, DPaint IV is all the 
paint program any Amiga user will 
need, 


A Familiar (Inter)Face 

At first glance, DPaint IV doesn't look 
any different from earlier versions of 
the program. However, upon closer 
examination, you'll notice it now has 
a 3-D look and feel; the fiat, beige 
icons of DPaint III have been replaced 
by embossed grey equivalents. While 
the interface is deceptively familiar, 
the underlying program has received 
a major facelift. 

The first indication that this isn't 
plain old DPaint any more comes 
when you first launch the program, 
when you're asked which resolution 
you wish to work in. Along with the 
familiar choices of 2-64 colours, 
another gadget offers you the oppor- 
tunity to work in HAM mode. 

Another obvious addition is the 
selectable degree of overscan - you 
can choose STD overscan (704x566 in 
Ht-Res), or MAX overscan for video 



No matter how you slice it, 
DeluxePaint is much better with 
HAM, as Simon Walker 
discovered when he donned his 
artist's smock to check out 
version IV 




applications (736x580). Al! the other 
chores- are carried over from DPaint 
IH, including the ability to work in PAL 
or NTSC resolutions, and to load only 
portions of the program, saving mem- 
ory or Amigas without much ram. 



84 


DfPalfil hit tiwf loohrd w colourful 


An Order of HAM, 
Please 

The most -exciting addition to DPaint 
IV is support for HAM mode. No 
longer do you have to carefully pick, 
choose and tweak your palette 
colours. The Amiga's entire 4096- 
coio-ur palette is available for your pic- 
ture. 

If you haven't worked with HAM 
mode before, you'll be in For a mild 
surprise when you add the 1 7th 
cotour to your picture. In HAM (Hold 
And Modify) mode, you have 14 base 
colours, and additional colours are 
created by modifying the baie 
colours. 

Each pixel can be modified in only 
one of the six bit-planes used in HAM 
mode, so it can take up to three pixels 
of intermediate colour across the 
screen to reach a target colour. You 
may draw what you hope will be an 
orange pixel and end up with a grey 
one instead. This can cause the effect 
known as J, HAM fringing* that you 
see in some digitized pictures. 


A new emh*m*4 
\&&k For DPaint 
IgoI box 


By carefully choosing the initial 16 
colours and avoiding single-pixel- 
width vertical lines, you should be 
able to avoid most fringing problems. 

Working with all the extra colours 
available in HAM mode is made sim- 
ple by DPainfs completely revamped 
palette system. In 2-64 colour graph- 
ics modes, you choose colours from a 
palette box in the lower left corner ot, 
the screen, just as in earlier versions- 

In HAM mode, you're initially pre- 
sented with a box containing the 16 
base colours. Below this bo-x is a gad- 
get that allows you to scroll through 
an additional 15 sets of 16 colours, 
presenting you with a total of 256 
readily«available colour choices. (This 
palette system is based on the one 
used in the VGA DeluxePaint 
Animation on MS-DOS machines, 
which explains the choice of 256 
colours.) 

If you need to change a colour, or 
create a new one, hit P to bring up 
the palette requester. Instead of the 
familiar onscreen box from earlier ver- 
sions of DPaint, though^ you're 



RANGE: 




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CLEAR 


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instead greeted by a shorty wide 
palette requester that pops up at the 
bottom of the screen. 

At the top of this palette requester 
are 32 colour boxes, 16 of which are 
defined wtiEn you first enter HAM 
mode. Any of these 16 can be 
changed using the familiar RGB and 
HSV sliders, or you can choose one of 
the 16 empty boxes and define a 
colour for it. 

A set of scroll arrows next to the 
palette colours lets you move through 
the other 256 definable colours. The 
palette requester still has the familiar 
DPaint III functions, such as spread, 
exchange and copy. Colour cycling 
and range functions have been moved 
to the new Ranges requester. 

Next to the slider gadgets you'll 
notice a large, rectangular box. You 
now have a new way to create colours 
- you can mis them just as an artist 
does with a liquid paint palette, fust 
grab a brush and a. colour and stamp 
a few swatches of "paint" in the mixer 
area. Then change to a new colour 
and smear it into thE mixer area. 

As the two colours meet, you'll 
notice they begin to blend, creating 


new 5 hades from the mixture. Any 
number of colours can be mixed iin 
this area. When you've created the 
shade you want, just click in an empty 
palette box (or one you're redefining), 
dick the Pick gadget and dick your 
new colour. That colour is now avail- 
able to paint with. 

You aren't limited to 256 colours, 
either. Once a colour has been drawn 
on a HAM screen, you can change 
that colour in the palette box without 
affecting the onscreen colours (except 
for the 16 base palette colours). So 
you can paint a picture using 256 
colours, then go back and create addi- 
tional shades for highlighting or 3-D 
effects. 

Handling huge palEttes of colour is 
made easier with the Colour Set 
Load/Save menu choices. You can 
save an entire 256 colour palette, or 

Kliafka Would Be Proud 


just select sections of the palette to 
store in a file. These can then be 
loaded for use in another picture, or 
appended to your current palette. You 
might save a set of greens useful for 
landscapes in ane Colour Set file, for 
example, and a set of blues used to 
draw sky scenery in another. 

Home on the Range 

DeluxePaint’s Range system, used in 
colour cycling and multi-colour Mood 
fills, has been completely revamped. 
The new setup is easier to use, yet 
much more flexible. 

When you choose Ranges from the 
new Color menu, a quarter-height 
screen pops up at the bottom of your 
current screen. Using this requester, 
you can define up to eight different 
colour ranges for fills and colour 


cycling. A slider bar lets you choose 
which of the eight ranges you wish to 
work with. Next to that is a bar which 
allows you to add up to 32 colours to 
the range you're working with- Just 
click oncE on a colour in the palette at 
the bottom of the screen, then dick in 
one of the 32 slots on the colour bar. 

If you leave a few empty slots 
between each colour, DPaint will 
automatically generate the intermedi- 
ate shades between the two colours. If 
you're working in HAM made, the 
actual intermediate shades will be 
used when you use the range in your 
drawing for flood fills. 

If you're using 2-64 colours, the 
program will dither between the 
colours, like in earlier versions. DPaint 
IV now gives you a choice of two 
styles of dithering: Random, as in ear- 
lier version of DPaint, or Ordered-, 
which gives you a more regular, con- 
sistent dithering style. 

Random looks better when creating 
"natural" scenes, such as a flood-filled 
sky, but Ordered dithering tends to 
look better when drawing artificial 
objects, such as the silver skin of a jet 
aircraft. 

Colour cycling is more flexible now, 
as the colours you choose to cycle no 
longer need to be adjacent in the 
palette box. 

You can choose to cycle colours 4, 
5, 10, and 23, tor instance. A feature 
unique to DPaint IV is the ability to 
cycle colours in HAM mode, although 
you may only cycle the 16 primary 
palette colours. Cycling rate, as weII 
as the degree of dithering, are easily 
set using slider gadgets. 


If I had to single one DPaint IV feature out as being the 
most fun to play with, it's the new Metamorph option 
under the Brush menu.. With this, you can literally change 
one bitmapped brush Into another over a series of frames. 

If you're familiar with the "tween mg 1 ' capabilities in 
some structured -graphics animation programs, imagine 
being able to make such transformations with a bitmapped 
brush. Now, instead of [ust changing a circle into a square, 
you can change Margaret Thatcher into Ronald Reagan! 

Metamorph couldn't be easier to use. Just pick up a 
brush from your picture and copy it to DPaint IV's new 
Spare Brush Buffer. Then pick up the brush that you want 
the first brush to change into and select Metamorph from 
the Brush/Spare menu. Type in the number of frames you 
want the transformation to take place over, and DPaint will 
begin the alteration. 

A minute or so later (depending cm the size of the brush 
and the number of Frames you've chosen), Dpaint will have 


created an animbrush that cycles from your First brush to 
the second, slowly changing over a series of frames. 

You can create some spectacular effects with this fea- 
ture. One of the neatesl I Found was changing one word 
into another. For instance, you could create one brush 
with the word "Drugs" in blue Then a second containing 
the words "Just say NO!" in red. Tell it to metamorph over 
a period of 10 Frames and the result, once you've stamped 
the brush down into an animation, is a spectacular, eye 
catching effect - the first word appears, then begins to 
break up into chunks of pixels which swirl around the 
screen and gradually begin to change to a reddish colour, 
eventually reforming into the second set of words. 

it's a lot more exciting than a static tide screen, 
wouldn't you say? Of course, you can also create fun 
effects, such as taking a digitized picture of Betty Boo and 
morphing it into the words "Doin' the Dao." 


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A Transparent Ploy 

The folks at EA could have stopped at 
adding HAM graphics to DPaint IV 
and I doubt anyone would have com- 
plained. However; developers Lee 
Taran and Steve Shaw (who built 
DPaint IV from Dan Silva's original 
DPaint III code) didn't call a halt 
there. 

They also added a number of new 
painting modes that allow you to take 
Full advantage of DPaint IV p s enor- 
mous palette. 

The feature with the biggest '"this is 
cool" value is Translucency. With this 
turned cm, you can set a degree of 
transparency for your current custom 
or built-in brush, ranging from 0 to 
100 per cent. At a setting of about 50 
per cent, you can create nice effects 
such as semi-transparent titles 
stamped on your artwork, 

At high translueency settings, such 
as 90% r you can stamp down nearly 
transparent brushes for a ghostly, 
almost subliminal effect. It's also use* 
ful for simulating a watercolour effect 
in freehand drawing. 

You can alter colours already on the 
screen as well. Under the Process 
menu are adjustments for altering 
Hue, Tint, and Value. By turning one 
of these modes on, you can colourize 
a picture, shade it in or lighten up 
darker areas, all without losing any 
detail. 

There's a new painting mode avail- 
able as well. Along with old favourites 
like Colour, Smear, Cycle, and Smooth 
(which incidentally works wonders in 
HAM mode), you can now choose 
Mix, 

In this mode, your brush acts just 
like it would in the Palette requester's 
mixer - you can blend colours 
onscreen to create new ones, but you 
have the entire screen at your dis- 
posal. You can use this with the Pick 
option to create new colours, or actu- 
ally integrate the mixing into your pic- 
ture, to create smooth demarcations 
between colour changes. 

Let There Be Light 

Like its predecessor, DPaint IV sup- 
ports both full-screen animation and 
animbrushes. Mow that the program 
will read and write HAM animations, 
though, it's much more useful as a 
post-production tool for use with 
other animation packages, (How 
many of us were using ray-tracers to 
create 32-colour animations?) 

Moving through your animation is 
simplified with the addition of an 
Animation Control Panel, which sits at 
the bottom of the screen and can be 
toggled on and oft. 

ff you've ever used a VCR remote- 
control, you have all the knowledge 


you need to operate this panel. 
Buttons allow you to move to the first 
or last frame of the animation, move 
forward or backward through it, play 
it, and add and delete frames. Another 
set of gadgets to the right of the 
movement buttons controls DPaint I Vs 
new lightTable feature. 

LightTable is a feature similar to the 
onionskin capability found in Disney's 
The Animation Studio. With the 
LightTable on, you see a dimmed rep- 
resentation ol preceding or following 
frames overlaid on your picture, allow- _ 
ing you to see objects' movement in 
each frame, and to use moving objects 
as reference points when placing new 
objects in your animation. 

You can choose to see ghosted rep- 
resentations of the previous frame, the 
frame before that, or the next frame; 
or turn them all on at once to get a 
better perception of your object's 


direction of motion. Disney's animation 
program supports the onionskin capa- 
bility only in a black and while mode, 
while DPaint FV supports it in full 
colour. This is a mixed blessing, 
though. 

The LightTable is most effective 
when your picture has a dean back- 
ground, and where you have a number 
of darker shades in your picture that 
you'm not using. 

If you've gat a very busy picture 
with a digitized background, using all 
the colours available, you may not be 
able to make put much of the previous 
frame. I got the best results working in 
32 or 64 colours, using lighter shades. 

You can always use the LightTable 
to create youi animated objects on a 
black screen, then pick up the entire 
screen as an animbrush and stamp it 
down on a more complex background 
later. 


Wrapping Up 

There are many more new or 
improved features in Dpaint HV r too 
many to go into in a brief magazine 
review. Many older features just work 
better. 

For instance, there are a number of 
new options for wrapping objects 
onto brushes. You can now choose a 
direction for a light source, for 
instance, when mapping a picture 
onto a circle. With this option you can 
create a true 3-D sphere effect. 

Also, the Stencil feature has been 
much improved. If you're like me, you 
never used it much because of the 
complexity of choosing only certain 
colours to represent the stencil. 

Now, you can just paint the stencil 
on the screen, using any of the paint- 
ing tools. Create impressive effects 
using circles and polygons as stencil 
or just use the filled freehand drawing 
tool to mark off a certain area to be 
"paint- proof". 

Electronic Arts has done an incredi- 
ble job with DeluxePaint IV. New fea- 
tures abound, and old features are 
improved. There's not much to com- 
plain about save perhaps that some 
operations in HAM mode are a bit 
slow on a stock Amiga. 

DeluxePaint IV once again contin- 
ues EA's tradition of breaking new 
ground in Amiga paint programs. 
About the only feature I can see 
adding now would be support for the 
new 24-bit graphics boards now 
appearing for the Amiga. 

DeluxePaint IV has the features to 
satisfy even the most demanding 
Amiga artists - at least, until the 
release of DeluxePaint V, 



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t 





W hen I first played one of 
the games in Scetlander's 
new educational package I 
must confess I didn't find it very excit- 
ing, But if you can put yourself in the 
place of the under-fives (and in my case 
that's only eight years back) the games 
take on a whole new significance. 

In case you haven't made Maggie's 
acquaintance, have you ever seen the 
cartoon The Family Ness? Well, Maggie 
looks very similar to one of The Family 
Ness. She is green, wears a tartan hat 
and has a body which goes up and 
down like a rollercoaster. 


Scettander claim that everyone loves 
the way Maggie speaks. However, this 
seems strange because although 
Maggie speaks dearly, she doesn't use 
her voice very often, 


The games 

The three games are Two of a Kind, 
Odd One Out and Forget-me-not. A 
clock and calendar are also included in 
the package. 

After selecting any of the three 
games you are presented with an 
options screen. Here you Choose your 
method of play by selecting either 
Picture*, Shapes, Same (in which each 
picture is the same but in a different 
position) Large (capital letters} Small 
(small letters) or Number. 

In Two of a Kind a picture is dis- 
played at the top of the screen. You 
then select which one out of the four in 
a box at the bottom of the screen is the 
same. To select, press the spacebar 
when the pointing hand, which moves 
of its own accord, is pointing at your 



Scetlander's 
pre-reading age 
educational 
program deals with 
recognition, 
discrimination and 
memory. Sarah 
Williams has been 
matching shapes 
and spotting the 
odd-ones-out 


Mix and Match 

i .with • 

Maggie 


desired answer. 

If you are correct a tick will appear in 
the box. If you're wrong a cross will 
appear and you can try again. And if 


youTe still struggling after the third 
attempt, Maggie will help you. 

When you have chosen your method 
of gameplay for Odd One Out from the 


options screen, you have to identify the 
odd picture, shape, letter or number. 
To select press the spacebar when the 
pointer is at the right answer. 

To play Forget-me-not you again 
choose what you want to play with 
from the options screen. In t Ms game 
pictures, shapes, letters and numbers 
are flashed onscreen and the correct 
match must be identified. This game, as 
the name suggests, calls upon and 
hopefully develops memory skills. 


example, could be used more often. 
Maggie is quite an appealing character 
and she, and the ease with which the 
program can be configured to suit any 
tiny user - including those with learn- 
ing difficulties - are two of the best fea- 
tures. 

Finally, the way in which scoring is 
handled is good for young children. 
Smiling faces appear for correct 
answers and unhappy faces for incor- 
rect ones. 


Configuration 

An important feature of Mix and Match with Maggie is the ease with which it can 
be configured by an adult to suit tiny students of differing abilities. 

There are eight different options which can be saved. 

These are: 


Sound on/off Determines whether the various sound effects used 


throughout the games are to be played. 

Scan speeds (1-10) Sets how quickly the hand scans the available items as 
detailed below 

Seconds per move Choose from 0.5 to four seconds with halt a second 
between each choice. 


No of questions (1-10) Determines how many questions are asked during each 
game. 

No of Boxes (2-4) Lets you set how many boxes containing alternative 
answers appear at the bottom of the screen. 


Time Display <1-10) Determines how long (in seconds) the target item 
remains on screen in Forget-me-not, 

No of attempts (1-10) Sets how many incorrect attempts the user has before a 
hint is given by Maggie. 


Record use on/off Determines whether students' results should be 
recorded or not. 

Hide this section Determines whether or not the access instructions on 
the control screen are displayed. 


Clock and calendar 

A 12 or 24-hour dock and a calendar 
are displayed on your sawn. Pressing 
the tab key alternates between 1 2 and 
24- hour modes. The calendar shows 
the month and date. 

There's nothing else to the dock and 
calendar and it does seem rather a 
wasted opportunity to introduce some 
kind of educational activity relating to 
dates and times. 


Mix or match? 

This educational pack is quite reason- 
able although some things could be 
improved. The games need to be made 
just that little bit more interesting. 
Musk, and Maggie's voice, for 


Mix and Match with Maggie is a 
product of kedander Limited, 
74 Victoria Crescent Hoad, 
Glasgow, 9JN 
Tet<HF-J57 165* 
AvaibHlty! Now 
Price; £24.99 


L 


Ease of use 



m 

C7 


n 

> 

—I 




August 1 991 Amiga Computing 










Amiga Computing August 1 99 1 


t 


88 


MEGA BLITZ! 


THE ONE STOP SHOP FOR AMIGA PD SOFTWARE 


THIS IS JUST A SMALL SELECTION OF OUR VAST LIBRARY 


UTILITIES 


PDU 10 Word Processing * Databa*. ng 
PDU 1 6 Air Tunnei Simulation 
PDU 23Fish#1 10 A68K Assembler 
PDU 24 Fish#1 1 A C Ddcs 
PDU 26 Fish# 1 33 Console Handler 
PDU 27 Fi£h#l36 C reale own pu*zte& 
PDU 29 Fish#14QH 41 SRProlog 2 disks 
PDU 31 Fish# 143 RIM Database 
PDU 32 Fishff * 44 Analytic spreadsheet 
PDU 3a Fish# 1 85 Off ici a; C BM IFF di sk 
POU 43 Fish#203 Assembler ft C eg 
PDU 44 Fi sh#2 15 Mandel vropm V2.D 
PDU 4SFrgbD 210 Scientific calculator 
PDU 46 F«sh#213 IcqnsOM in S coloffi} 
PDU 51 Fish#2l9 AstronbrnyprogrHiTi 
PDU 52 Fish #52 A-Z Tesci Ed:lo? 

PDU 60 Fish# 237 CLIprini 

PDU 70 Fish 1 90 Key map Editor 

PDU 72 SID V 1 .06 T he ul li mate di £k util 

PDU 74 G-Man ual 

PDU 75 File Archiver 

PDU 83 Fonts and Surfaces 

PDU 61 Disksalve 1.3 

PDU 62 Seek, WDrdwnle 

PDU 86 Celtics Demo maker 

PDU 99 Ham Had □ ubls[5 disks] 

PDU 101 Menu- Maker 

POU IDZLabe design* 1 

PDU 1 03 Icon- Maker 

PDU t04 Icon-Mania 

PDU 105 CfDsswrsrd C r eatnr 

PDU 1 19 Var ou&CLi utils 

PDU 1 46 Grocery* Video hsl maker 

PDU 1 43 Icon Fun 

PDU 151 Fixdisk-disk repairer 

POU 1 64 Games Music Creator 

PDU 16S Vac&no-Boo5ler{Viru5killer) 

PDU 169 Quienfiase- Database 

PDU 1 71 Fish#3i5 Draw-map 

PDU 175Fishtf?^Pobdala 2D 

PDU 185 AMC22 (Exnllwt utils) 

PDU 1 86 Fri-COr. Ekralblock Creator 
PDU "83 Be&tbleckCo&er 
PDU 194 Pman Virus Killer 
PDU 1 98 Synchro Packer V4 6 
PDU 200 Virus Killer Pro V2.0 
PDU 207 PerfectSftund Vi .92 
PDU 257 Fr5h#349MED 
PDU 262 MED Modules 


PDD 31 Anarchy'^Ooh its obscene NT 

FDD 51 Hacksrickil Arsawipe 

FDD 52 F6ackinck#2Srnashmg dayesut 

PDD55Kefrens Megade-mo 6(2 disks} 

PDD 60 NilroAC Uama«i#22 

PDD 62 Narthslar Megadem«f2 

FDD 70 Re bn if . Me^adamo 

FDD 7t Rerc Sector Demo 

PDD 72 Red Sector DerfnHh£k#4 

PDD 75 5AE DemDsff23 

PDD 74 SAE Demos#56 

POD 75Scoape* Demos 

POD 76ScoQpe* Megadem® 

PDD 90 T n;-pgy DernD5#4 
P 00 9 1 Trilogy M egademo#! 
PDD63TWI D0-T1O+ Virus killer 
PDD 34 Vortex Mogadem® 

PDQ96 Magnetic Fi&'dS Demo#36 
PDD 97 Predators Megademo(2 disSis} 
PDQ99SemteK Megademg 
PDD 107 fiudbrSin I (2 d‘£ks) 

PDD 1 1 5 Magnetic F ®lds Dem®#40 
PDD 1 16 Magnetic Fields Demo#41 
PDD 130 Chubby Smwn 
POD 131 Crientcs Demo 
PDD 132 C-a nl? Megaee tid( 2 disks) 
PDD 134 Magnetic Fields Damons 
FDD 1 38 Page One Demofll 
PDD 1 39 Page One Da-tid#? 

FDD 1 40 Page One Dem®#3 

PDD 1 41 Page Qne Qamo#4 

PDD 145 SAE Demo#3l 

PDD 152 Flash-IMq Brain Ha Pan H (2) 

PDD 153 Billy Gonna! ly OemQfZ disks) 

PDD 1 GO HaJtkE^lCk' , Rave-on k, 

PDD IBS SAE Dorr«#q5 

PDD 166 SAE Demons 

PDDl77Budbrainll 

PDD 1 79 Gnomes Tola Destruction 

P DD 1 0G DMOB Vflctorde mo 

PDD 166 Flash Demos#2 

PPD 209 Rutger Demodisk 

PDD 21 2 Space Pack#32 


PDA 54 NASA Graphics 

PDA 58 Newtek Derweeil (2)(i meg) 

PDA 57 fcfewiek Demotes 13(2) (1 meg) 

PDA 58 Paradi so Slidosh ow 

PDA 61 SatKina 

PDA 63 Space Animal meg) 

FDA 65 Star Irek Anims 
PDA 6$ Wa ker Demol (1 meg) 

PDA eg Walker Dem® 1 ^meg.Zdi&ksI 
PDA 70 Walker Demo2C1 meg) 

PDA 73 Weskoasl Qrackert4(10+) 

PDA 74 Bodeans Bordelb#1(18+) 

PDA 75 Bodeens Bordo!lo#4(18 + ) 

PDA 76 Playboy 16*) 

PDA 77 Sam Fox(16+) 

PDA 70 Ulopa#l(ie>) 

PDA 79 The Final Ecsta£y#1< 16+) 

PDA 80 Wal kor Dorr® 2{2 meg .2 disks) 
PDA 81 Ray Trace ArLDBW Render Util 
PDA 86 Utopia#4(18 + ) 

PDA S9 Beoeans Bordel Kj#9 ( 1 8+) 

PDA 90 Bunsen Burner- Jet Fighter amm 
PDA 92 D. Landers Sci-f i Show# 1 
PDA 93 0. Landers Sci fi3haw#2 
PDA 95 Magician .'Jogger AmmS 
PDA 3 7 Mike T yson Knockout di sk 
PDA 106 Back to the Future II anims 
PD A 106 Adorns Family 
PDA 1 1D Bruce Lee Enter the Dragon 
PDA 1 1 Bruce Lee Slideshow II 
PDA 1 12 Dragonfi Lair 11 Demo 
PDAl 14 Neighbours Slideshow 
PDA 115 Terminator 


PDM 1 54 BassX#5 Power Remi* 

PDM 105 BbssK# 6 Sydney Yeung olwd 

PDM i OBBesty Boo 

PDM 109 DopecheMode 

PDM 1 1 0 DMOB M u sic I 

PDM m DMOB Music II 

PDM 1 12 DMOB Music W[2 disks) 

PDM 1 1 7 Flash Garden (2 disks) 

PDM 1 1 8 HackTr.ck , Lead5amQn9y , 
PDM 1 20 Laurel fi Harcy (2 disKs) 

PDM 125 Mr Food (2 disks-) 

PDM12SNASPV2.Q 

PDM 131 Pe tehdp Boys Rem in #1 

PDM 132 Petehop Boys Remix#® 

PDM 1 42 The Amiga Chart III 


GAMES 


PDG 1 Star Trek-Finei- Frontier^ disks) 
PDG 2 Star trek [3 disks, 2 drives) 

PDG 5 Card fi Beard Gamas 
PDG 16 Marble Slid* 

PDG " 9 Destination Moonbasa 
P DG 2 1 Boing the Game { 2 d sks) 

P DG 25 T reasure Search 

PDG 31 Mona 

PDG 32 Legend o' Fargh &it 

PDG 33 Areadiaffireakout style game) 

PDG 34 Dynamite Dick 

PDG 35 Pair It 

PDG 36 Snekes fi iaddars/fteversi 
PDG 37 Super Quiz 


CLIP ART 


MUSIC 


ANIMATION 


DEMOS 


PDD 1 Anarchy Demo 

PDD 3 Cult Demod^sk 

PDD 4 Death star Meg0demo(2 disks') 

PDD 7 Elvira Demo 

P DD 1 4 RAF Megad&mo (2 disks) 

PDD 18 Robocop Demo 

PDD 1 7 SAE Demo# 12 

PDD IS SAE Demo#i9 

PDD 19 SAE Demo#21 

PDD 20 SAE PamD#25 

PDD 21 SAE Demo#32 


PDA 9 K n igh t Amrrati on{t tneg) 

PDA 12 A gat I on Slar Trek Anims 2 
PDA 1 3 Agatron Star Trek Anims 1 7 
PDA 14 Puggs in Space 
PDA 15Mppnwalker Damo 
PDA 1 8 Mill* Lite Advert 
PDA 31 NiuoeGirlsAninr 
PDA 34 Baseball An im 
PDA 35 BFPO Slidoshow[ 1 8 +] 

PDA 36 BFPO Siitteshow#2(16+) 

PDA 3 7 Busy Bee An im 
PDA 41 DigiviewerSlideshow 
PDA 42 Drego ns Lai r Derr® ^ 

PDA 44 French Horn(t meg) 

PDA 45 Monpcycle & Sporlscarfl mag) 
PDA 47 Holste n P .1 & Adve rt 
PDA 48Magnum Jdgger Arum 
PDA 49 Mayfair Vol.23 no3>! 16*) 

PDA 50 Mega Cla&n Show Vl . ? 


PDM 2 Music Invasion I 
RDM 3 Music invasion II 
PPM 4 Music Invasion 111(2 d SkS) 

PDM 5 MFI'Etectric CLI IV' 

PPM 6 Winkers £eng(2d;5k3) 

PDM 9 Ride on time fi Batdun ce 

PDM 1 9 Bad-M Jackson 

PDM 20 Bat Dance 

PDM 27DMOG MegamuS4C III 

PPM 28 Enemies Music III 

PDM 30 Digital Cancan II 

PDM 31 Digital Concert III 

PDM 33 Helowoen' Follow the S<gn'(2) 

PDM 35 Think ws me tone now Tiffany 
PDM 36 Landol Contusion-Genesis 
PDM 38 Miami Vice Theme {4 disks) 

PDM 48 Ml-S Vangels Derr® 

RDM 65 Digital Concert IV 

PDM 71 r+QiseplayerV2.40 

PDM 72 Popaye meets sheBeachboys 

PDf^flO Digital Concert VI 

PDM 82 Freddy Kruger 

PDM 63 Kelrens June bo* 

PDM 84 Medanra-htankydanky 
PDM B5 Miami V=ce- Crockets Theme 
PDM 87 RIP Eruption 
PDM 88 Slab Music 

PDM 9 1 100 Most Remembered C64 tunes 
PDM 95 Hi-Fi Demo 


There is a total of 10 disks in Ihe Clip 
trt rang*. All ar* in IFF Format 6 are 
Ideal lor DTP. There are loads i>\ 
images to choose from p ratnglng f rom 
fancy bonders to special occasions 
& from people to animals etc ale. 


WE ALSO STOCK 


AMOS DISKS 

Va* mu a demo s. ,v nu sic and ga na & 

MAGAZINE DISKS 

Amiga Format fi Computing 

DOCUMENT DISKS 

Gama H-nts/$ol u t® ns etc etc 


DISK PRICES 


1-9 .....£1,50 

10-19 £1 .25 

20+ £1,00 


FREE CATALOGUE ON DISK 
FREE P«.P ON EVERY ORDER 


UK ONLY 

Please add 25p per disk tor 
Europe 50p per disk lot World 

WE ACCEPT ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS 
PLEASE MAKE CHEQUES PAYABLE TO - 

PO DIRECT 


&& PACK 

PACK 2** 

** PACK 3** 

4 f* PACK 4** 

Horn# Buisnesa P&ck 

Ths8di5k pack coni ans:- 
Spreaasneet 
Word Processor 
Amiga Spe? 

Mem^pad 

inveniofy 

Daiabasa exe:c 

A must lor home accounts!! 

EHM» ind. 10 cas. box. 

Demc Pack ;i0 disk pack) 
BudDrain 1(3 disks), fi 2 
M agnatic ?eitls #4C 
M agnatic Felds #41 
Ketemns Megadpma(2 disks] 
Puggs in Space 
Hlafthe Fish 
ScocpeK Megademo 
A gr&al siarfar pack 

El 1-00 ind. to cap box. 

Music Pack (tO disk pack) 
HellowEen {2 disks) 

Cfypnc Glidascope II 
B&almaster^ III 
J.M, Jarre 

feiisepayer V2.4 + SampM(2) 

Freddy Kruger 

Crockets Theme 

100 C64 tunes 

£1140 incl 1 0 cap box 

Adult peck |10 disk pack) 
Sacrina.Sam Fax [2 disks) 
3adeans Bo^dolk? #2 
B&tJean& Bordalo #3 
Bodoans Borde’lO *t0 
Badeans Movies 
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W hat was once the Holy 
Grail in computer graphics 
is now a common feature 
in most 3D programs on the market. 

Ray tracing produces realistic images 
through the accurate portrayal of light- 
ing, materials and shadows^ and at pre- 
sent a variety of packages exist on the 
Amiga which offer users. a multitude of 
modelling functions and rendering 
possibilities. 

Current raves are Rea 1 3D v13 and 
Imagine, both madly exploiting the 
Amiga, and producing results that 
would even make your Silicon 
Graphics-based Alias or Wavefront 
expert look twice. All very well you 
might say, but why bother with these 
incredibly expensive systems? 

The difference is speed! All major 
top-end animation systems run on very 
powerful SPARC or Transputer- based 
hardware which can leave the Amiga 
standing. 

As a basic machine - that is, just 
6fiOOQ-based - the Amiga can be highly 
productive and perform tasks such as 
wordprocesihg and database handling 
very well. General graphics applications 
such as paint programs and 2D anima- 
tion usually present no problem, but 
when the notion of rendering awe- 
inspiring epics such as checkered balls 
on mirrored landscapes becomes an 
obsession - watch out? 

What you need to do this kind of 
thing is an accelerator card. Ifs a won- 
derful piece of silicon which allows you 
to render a complex scene in the time it 
takes to feed the cat and make a cup of 
tea. We are talking 60030-based cards 
with a maths co-processor as standafd 
and at least 4 megs of 32-bit ram. So 
let’s look at what's available. 

In Che left corner we have Draw 4D, 
new from the States, and in the right 
corner Videoscape 3 D r ProMotion and 
Modeler 3D - a set of software that 
gives you modelling, animation, and 
rendering all in the time it takes to say 
JI The Unbearable Lightness of Being 
The first decent 3D animation soft- 
ware to grace the Amiga was 
Videoscape 3D. What this program 
offered seemed exciting and highly 


desirable and anyone with more than a 
passing interest in the world of 3D 
wanted it. 

Version 1 ot V3D was unusual to say 
the least. There was no sign of any 
halfway decent object editor - as a 
matter of fact, most if not all of the 
object building was achieved outside 
the main program in separate CLI- 
based programs called OCT and EGG. 

All your objects had to be worked 
□ut on graph paper and meticulously 
realised in all dimensions for the thing 
to work. Very, very hit and miss and 
unreliable. Since then it has been 
extensively uprated and modified by 
the author, Allen Hastings, and released 
as version 2.0. 

This is how the program remains 
now that Hastings Is concentrating 
entirely on the production and develop- 


ment of Lightwave 3D. This latest effort 
is a far superior piece of softwaie which 
is bundled with NewTek J s VldeoToaster 
and offers high quality rendering and 
an Intuitive modelling and animation 
environment. 

Draw 4D 

Before the appearance o! Draw 4D, yotf 
had little option but to use flat 2D tides 
and headings in programs such as Pro- 
Page, Pagestream and Pro Draw. OK, 
you could produce titles using perspec- 
k live and warp effects but they still 
didn't quite jump out of the page and 
smack you in the eye. Draw 4D allows 
you to reach out and grab your reader. 

!t J i a full 3D design package, with 
tools and facilities very much like those 
offered by the stock 3D programs such 


as Sculpt Animate 4D, When you start it 
you're presented with your 3D universe 
slowly notating in space. It r s up to you 
to fill it with objects. 

Draw 4D, In common with most 
other 3D modelling programs uses 
points or vertexes and vectors or edges 
to make up 3D objects. For example, a 
cube is simply eight points in 3D space 
connected by 12 edges. 

The most basic drawing tool that 
you will use in Draw 4D is the freehand 
tool. This allows you to draw a shape or 
polygon in any of the three dimensions, 
which are labelled x, y and z. Vou start 
with a single line of two points and 
then by adding points you create your 
shape or polygon. So, to create a 
square you would have to add two- 
points to your straight line. 

Once you have your simple object 


3D animation without the expense of ray tracing. 
Henri "mad dog" Bujko and sidekick Yuri explain how 
to create a wibbly wobbly world of your own 




drew 4D Hum wireframe 
Into- finished image in 
Why ray trace 
when It can be sa easy? 


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> you can use Draw 4D r s tools to manip- 
ulate it. There are eight main effects 
that you can use on your objects. These 
are - rotate, extrude, sweep, scale, 
clone, stent, stretch and mirror. 

The extrude tool lets you pull a 2D 
shape through space to produce a 3D 
object - an extruded circle produces a 
cylinder. 

Extrusion can be used to give a 3D 
effect to any object A 2D headline 
looks much more interesting when 
extruded and viewed from a different 
angle. 

The sweep tool lets you sweep an 
object around one of the three axes, so 
if you sweep half a circle around an axis 
you produce a sphere. It's useful for 
creating any object with a. circular cross 
section. 

The rest of the toofs/effects are 
pretty obvious from their names. They 
can be combined to produce many 
other effects - with a little Imagination, 
you should be able to create any 
object. 

The user interface in the object mod- 
eller is very simple to use once you have 
grasped the basics, it allows you to 
view your work from any angle by 
rotating the three axes in a way very 
similar to the perspective editor in 
□ Paint. However, you can only view 
your object from one direction at a 
time. 

A tri-view editor, where you can view 
the object from all three axes onscreen 
at once might have been useful. Many 
other 3D programs use such displays to 
great effect. However, for the uninith 
ated, the single-view editor is less clut- 
tered and can make Draw 4D a far less 
daunting program to use. 

Choosing fonts 

Draw 4D is supplied with two fonts - 
Times and Block. Times needs no intro- 
duction, and Block is a sans serif font 
much like Helvetica. Each font is pro- 
vided in two versions. The tint version 
Is for use as a 2D font and the second is 
for use when extruding. 

Hf you extrude the 2D font any holes 
in the letters end up filled when you 
display them. These two fonts are 
roughly the same as supplied with Pro 
Draw. If you have used Pro Draw you 
will be well aware of the variety of 
things you can do with these typefaces. 

If you want more fonts, Adspec - the 


\ \ \ \ vW \ \ \ s \ \ x \ s \ \\ 

\ v\ \ V.)i\ \ \ \ > x \ \ \ \ 

\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ 4 \ \ \ \ 

\ \ \ \ x y \ \ \ \ \ < \ 

\ \ N N \ > \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ V \ 

V \ \ \ i \ \ \ \ \ \ V \ \ N 

\ \ \ 


producers of Draw 40 - have allowed 
for font editing so that you can modify 
the existing fonts. In fact, all you do is 
load the existing letter into Draw 4D, 
modify it and then save it again. This 
process, as with any typeface design, is 
time-consuming but for a particular 
look it's very useful. 

Having selected or created your 
typestyle you enter the text Into a 
requester and click on Ok. The text is 
rendered according to the spacing and 
placing options entered, and thankfully 
it appears onscreen fairly quickly. It 
cannot be edited after this point, so use 
your dictionary before rendering it, 

In common with all the 3D pro- 
grams on the Amiga r the more objects 
in your universe the slower the pro- 
gram redraws. The fonts uied are par- 
ticularly complex objects, so unless you 
are using a supercharged Amiga you 
will probably find yourself limited. You 


^ ...render a 
complex scene in 
the time it takes to 
feed the cat... ^ 


Ffolftt J«n#I V? % 

■! . , , :i ;t * 


Qraphkol repfewfnauon aiatl 
the ntctacty rtumrrpcs far rhf 
ticpTi&n of o fvft-bl own 
swifmafran in VIdeosaspe 


should have plenty of room for the 
average headline or title. 

Before you import your work into a 
DTP application you need to render it 
You start the process by positioning the 
editor's view of the object, then set the 
rendering options for the type of screen 
you wart to produce. 

The options are HAM, interface, hi- 
res and overscan. The rendering screen 
displays the picture in full colour or 
grey- scale depending on the palette 
selected. 

After the picture has been rendered 
for the first time access is possible to a 
further set of options for lighting. This 
requester is quite complex, but basically 
it allows you to set the brightness and 
position of the two available light 
sources. 

It might sound like Draw 4D ray 
traces, but it does not. The lighting 
positions and brightnesses are just used 
to calculate the colour of each surface - 
no shadows or reflections appear, 

At this point you can also load a 
background. The results produced are 
similar to those achieved using 
VideoscapeJD solid modelling mode as 
each surface is totally one colour. 


Dithering can he used but is rather 
crude and applies to the whole of each 
surface. 

When the image is ready it can be 
saved as either an IFF piccy pr a Pro 
Draw clip. The IFF save capability is not 
terribly useful as the results produced 
are not on a par with other 3D pro- 
grams which use anti-aliasing and bet- 
ter dithering techniques. 

Saving strength 

Draw 4D's strength is in its ability to 
save your structured 3D object in a 
form that most DTP programs can read 
- it saves in Pro Draw clip format. Once 
in your DTP program it can be resized 
in any way and it wifi remain totally 
crisp. 

When saving a Pro Draw clip you 
can specify colour, black and white, 
and outlined, I found in several cases 
that clips I stored did not load properly. 
Pro Draw seemed to get the layers 
wrong for some of them, but this was 
easily remedied. 

Draw 4D also has the ability to ani- 
mate, but I for one am bewildered as to 
why this feature is included. In my 
opinion it would have been far more 




Pro flftfw's vfaw a# the wfrt uol 
worW - simple, speedy, pretty 
and painieu. What mare 

COulS you wimlT 




Amiga Computing August 1991 


AMIGA, ATARI & PC SOFTWARE 




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The now fiarndNar DrthtigmpArf view adopted hy 
itmiypoclngti, and Model** ii tm emptm* 


Pro Moti on bon die 

If you ate at all interested in buying 
Vide escape 3D, you will find that it 
comes bundled with another interest- 
ing package called FroMotion. 

This software was devised specifically 
to be used as a staging environment for 
Videoscape. Many people felt that the 
process of producing animation set- 
tings files for Videoscape was tedious 
and complex and wanted an easier way 
of inputting the information that 
Video scape required. FroMotion was 
supposedly designed to address these 
needs, 

So, let's deal with FroMotion first. 


it's an unusual program indeed, taking 
up the best part of 600K of precious 
memory and a pig to get working 
properly onto the hard disk. 

The code and internal workings on 
the face of it seem to be complex, and 
all the menus operate in hi- res interlace 
- make sure you have a Imeg Fatter 
Agnus installed. But let's get to the 
point. 


uses a graphical interface in order to 
plot the movement and positions of 
objects, lights and cameras. There's no 
modelling here, just pure staging of 
action, hence the tedious use of film 
directors' j-argon in the way the pro- 
gram describes operations. 

Once you have read the manual a 
few hundred times and also attempted 
the tutorials, you may feel ready to pro- 
duce your own staged mini-epic5- 
OK, so what can you do to achieve 
this? Well, supposedly FroMotion gives 
you the ease of using the mouse to 
point and dick on a graphical editing 
environment. So-called simple com- 
mands define motion paths for up to 
25 objects plus the camera. Because the 
scene that you see is based on a top 
plan view of the staged action you 
should be able to keep track of all the 
elements in your animation. 

Perhaps one of the most striking fea- 
tures of this program is the ability to 
assign effects such as wind, gravity and 
magnetism to one or all of the objects. 
All the effects can be defined in a vari- 
ety of ways to take Into account the 
strength and randomness of phenom- 
ena like magnetism, It is possible to 
combine the effects but it is unpre- 
dictable to estimate the outcome - very 
much as in real life. 


What we have here is software which 


Kw 


productive for the programmers to 
nave concentrated chi the DTP aspect. 
The competition in the animation arena 
is far ahead of Draw 4D, and I can't see 
the likes of Sculpt Animate 40 or Real 
3D being challenged. As for the compe- 
tition in the 3D structured drawing 
market - there is nonet 
The animation facilities are fairiy ele- 
mentary. Each object onscreen is 
attached to a path through which it will 
move in the course of the animation, 
The objects can rotate on the way. 

Objects may be placed into hierar- 
chies so that you can animate quite 
complex, combinations of objects, such 
as the human body. The example ani- 
mations produced by Adspec a re, to 
say the least, a tad un-awe-inspiring, 
although they might act as a guideline 
for a DPaint animation, 

Draw 4D Is an interesting program, 
the like of which the Amiga has not 
seen belore. Its strengths are its easy to 
use 3D modelling environment, its abil- 
ity to output 3D graphics in Pro Draw 
dip format and its simple rendering for- 
mats. However, there are certain areas 
which Seem pointless in the arena that I 
think it is aimed at. If you want to pro- 
duce 3D titles for DTP, there is simpiy 
no competition, but there won't be 
many of you out there.,. 


Th* ftnhhfd maiirrpttt* j'n crfJ its glory 


All the parameters that are available 


within the Videoscape 3D program 
have in FroMotion their equivalent rep- 
resented by menu commands with 
point-and-click ease. For instance, light 
sources and their intensity, and focal 
length of camera lens can ali be set and 
modified without typing sn sequences 
of numbers. 

Path generation within object 
motion can be visualised within the 
graphic screen. Also, the camera, 
objects and lights can he moved and 
placed around the screen. 

When you are happy with the set- 
tings the program will save everything 
m a special format not dissimilar to 
Videoscape's own file structure. This 
can then be loaded into V3D and all 
the rendering will be handled by the 
program, 

I could go on, but this is a program 
that's supposed to make Videoscape 3D 
easier to handle - and For me it doesn't. 

Modeler3D 

What in all honesty should have been 
bundled with VideoscapeSD is Aegis's 
Modeled D. This fine software takes all 
the drudgery out of graph paper and 
presents you with a de facto standard 
tri-view screen, ready and waiting with 
a definable grid.. 

Modeler gives you a few primitives 
to be getting on with such as cube, 
sphere and tube - certainly not as 
many as equivalent modelling pro- 
grams offer. But there are extensive 
tools such as spin, extrude and lathe 
which increase the variety of shapes 
which can be produced. 

Useful features such as shearing, 
twisting and re-mapping of points help 
the use-r to define more orgsnic-knklng 
objects, but the ability to have spheres 
with perfectly defined apertures can 
present an almost impossible task to 
the software. Again, look to the new 
generation of 3D packages such as 
Real 3D and Imagine to achieve the 
impossible. 

All objects are composed of poly- 
gons but are not limited to triangles. 
For instance, it is possible to make 
multi-sided polygons that take less ren- 
dering time than if they were con- 
structed with just triangular faces. 

A unique feature of the tri-view edi- 
tor h a multi -layering system which 
allows the accurate placements of 
shapes within the constructed scene. 
Objects can be copied and deleted 
from successive layers, and sized and 
moved without interfering with other 
shapes within the database. This feature 
is very similar to* CAD-type software. 

The tri-view can be physically 
stretched and sized depending on the 
view tg be tackled, and all scenes can 
be colour previewed, the representation 
being an outlined, unshaded picture. 
This screen car be sized and placed 
within the main tri-view to logk at the 
whole effect. A mouse point-and-click 
feature makes viewing the scene at dif- > 


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► ferent angles a doddle. Ai wrth 
ProMotion, contained within Modeler is 
the ability to define motion and camera 
paths, You simply draw the paths on 
the tri-view and assign tweens and 
number of frames to them. It's certainly 
simpler than ProMotion but not in the 
long run as intuitive. 

Perhaps one of the problems with 
Videoscape is its limited colour defining 
abilities. The program gives you a set 
palette to work with and allows some 
surface attributes, such as matte, glossy 
and transparent to be used. But these 
are limited textures and can't truly be 
combined. 

Modeler makes the same concession 
to this palette using point-and-dick 
mouse operations. 

In conclusion, ModelerlD is a good 
program of its kind and complements 
Videoscape3D well, more so than 
ProMotion I feel. But editing environ- 
ments such as Sculpts are better imple- 
mented and far less buggy. Modeler 
has not seen any kind of upgrade from 
version^ . and really needs some over- 
hauling in certain areas. 

Videoscape3D 

Videoscape 3D has been around for 
quite some time, even in its 2.0 version. 
It was probably because Allen Hastings 
decided to leave development of V3D 
that ProMotion and Modeler3D came 
into prominence. 

Taking Videoscape on its own 
virtues, what do we have as a program? 
The main screen consists of a fairly hi- 
tech looking poin band- click panel. 
Here you can load your objects that 
have either been created using the sup- 
plied CU -based EGG and OCT pro- 
grams or from ModelerBD. As the 
objects are loaded into Vtdeoscape a 


counter displays the total number of 
points and polygons. 

Bear in mind that all the models and 
rendered pictures you see in this article 
(excepting the Draw4D images) were 
produced on an Amigaf 00 with a A590 
hard drive and in total 3 megs of ram. 
The point limits on this type of system 
are around 21,500. 

After each object is loaded the pro- 
gram requests an associated motion 
file, if you have not prepared one the 
object is automatically placed at its 
point of origin. There is also a choice to 
rneiamorph the last two objects loaded 
into the scene. It’s a pity that more 
than two objects can't be morphed, as 
it's quite a nice feature, The panel 
below allows you to load camera 
motions and alter the nature of the tens 
used, such as normal, wide angle or 
telephoto. 

The motion and camera files are very 


4 Once you have 
read the manual 
a few hundred 
times you may 
feel ready... ^ 


simple Ascii formats and consist of a 
special header and a collection of X,Y ,Z 
and heading, pitch and bank co-ordi- 
nates, which you have to type in your- 
self. 

A variety of screen resolutions and 
rendering modes are possible including 
Extra HalfBrite and HAM, The quickest 
results are achieved with the ncn-KAM 
modes. Typically, the featured pictures 
took three minutes to render on the 



Hvw mPF ty limn w »N>w the tame thing and from Jm* many tan we stew 


aforementioned setup and HAM images 
35 minutes, the main reason being the 
necessity to use the Z - Buffer option. ! 
find that If you do not use this option 
the images do not look right, due to 
polygons being rendered in the wrong 
order. 

The Z-buffer effectively draws the 
polygons within the scene correctly in 
relation to viewing distance. It's a 
memory-intensive feature and slows 
rendering down considerably, but nev- 
ertheless is essential 

Other options are defining sky and 
ground colours to use in your scenes. 
Unfortunately, there ts no grading, just 
flat colouring. More interesting to the 
user h the ability to assign IFF images to 
the background and Foreground of your 
renderings. In the example HAM pic- 
tures a marble backdrop has been 
placed behind the render. 

Note that background or foreground 
Images do not react with the surfaces 
defined in your overall scene, except for 
translucent objects, which do exhibit 
show-through character! stks - see the 
blue ball in the picture. lt J s also possible 
to have a sequence of numbered IFF 
images loaded automatically into the 
rendering of your animation files or 
frames. 

For example, if you wanted to have 
20 images of consecutive movement 
automatically loaded behind a 20-frame 
animation sequence which you were 
rendering - leave the program to do 
the job. 

And when you have Finished Loading 
in the objects, motion files, camera info 
and set up the required resolution, 
lights, etc all this information can be 
saved as a settings file in a directory 
called, you guessed it. Set! 

This can be edited quite easily after- 
wards, since it's only a simple text foe, 
You can either save ybur scene in anim 
format or single IfFs for loading into 
other programs. 

Conclusion 

In summary what we have in 
Videoscape 3D is- a program that in 
today's well -stocked 3D land seems 
slightly outmoded, and a quality of ren- 
dering that is fairly fast but reeds work- 
ing on to get the best results. 

But with some effort in understand- 
ing the numbers and co-ordinates you 
get a program that can produce effi- 
ciently and quickly some of the most 
complex hierarchical animation you are 
ever to likely see or do. if you don't 
believe me, ask to see the &ass Robot 
animation. 

I've dwelled less on Videoscape than 
ProMotion or ModclerJD because you 
really need either one of those two in 
order to maximise results, 

having said that, I reserve judge- 
ment on ProMotion until some more 
time is spent using it. But a combina- 
tion of Modeler and Videoscape makes 
a fine package. 


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Amiga Computing August 1991 


, ’ 100 I 



or tc our LIMOTRGNIC 300 at 



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T he printei is a beast No, don’t 
spring to its defence, most 
average computer users arrive 
at the same conclusion shortly after 
opening the box and plugging it in, 
From the moment you boot up, the 


recalcitrant monster seems to snarl 
menacingly, and will beep sullenly at 
the slightest provocation. 

With the help of Workbench and a 
few AmigaDQS tricks, however, the 
printer can be made a great deaJ 
friendlier and easier to handle. 

To make your dealings with the 9 - 
pin nihilist a bit more constructive, 
therefore, we'll concentrate this month 
on those parts of Amiga DOS which per- 
tain most to printing. 


Setting it straight 

The first step for any printer user is to 
come to grips with the printer section 
of Workbench's preferences program. 
To open this, double click on the 
Preferences drawer, then on the Printer 
•icon inside. 

This will bring up the main printer 
screen shown in Figure I. It is here that 
the user selects the correct printer port, 
printer driver, paper type, lines per 
inch, and sets the print margins. Many 
wqrdprocesson utilise the preferences 
settings, and if you wish to send a text 
fiie to the printer from GJ your output 
will be governed by them, so their 


importance cannot be overstated. To 
change the selected printer driver, go 
to the top right-hand comer of the dis- 
play where you will find a scrolling list 
of drivers. Click on the up and down 
arrows, wait until the correct printer 
driver is highlighted in the middle strip 
then click on the OK gadget 

You have now selected your printer 
driver. The display will change to the 
main preferences screen, where you 
click on Save to record permanently 
any changes made. Your preferences 
are written to disk as the "system-con- 
figuration* fife in the D£V£ directory of 
the disk you booted from, 10 they 
needn't be changed again once saved. 

If you are using a colour printer or 


wish to put graphics on paper, you'll 
find a number of indispensable options 
available through the Graphic! and 
Graphic? screens, both of which are 
available from the mam printer screen, 

Graph id contains, among others, 
the afl-important threshold and shading 
controls, while Graphic? regulates 
dithering and print density. The only 
practical advice anyone can give con- 
cerning these settings is to experiment 
as much as possible. 

Guy some fanfqid continuous sta- 
tionery and draw or import a DPaint 
image on which to practise. The best 
type of image s either one which has a 
wide variety of different contrasts and 
shading (for monochrome printing?, or 



Mtirkbfjich frcrffttfi 


; jmk4?hg:. 


figure I: Thf JFiaJn print*/ i 


£h*r 


which makes use of dithering (impor- 
tant for colour printing). 

Experiment mainly with threshold 
and density settings, and the different 
types of dithering. This is the only way 
to arrive at a practical understanding of 
how Workbench settings can affect 
how your printer performs, and has the 
added advantage that you will probably 
end up with a set of preferences which 
match your printer and graphics 
requirements exactly. 

Routefinder 

One of the most useful concepts to 
grasp before going any further is that of 
redirection, the technique whereby 
Amiga DOS can be told to send output 
from a process to any legitimate device 
or file. 

When an Amiga program has output 
of any kind to be passed to the outside 
world, it does it through a "device". 
Under AmigaDQS, a device can be just 
about anything you want it to be, so it 
is possible to send output Lo a great 
many destmations. 

Examples of devices are any fFoppy 
Of hard drives, anything set up using an 
Assign statement, the monitor screen 
itself, and the many devices for which 
handlers and mountfrsl entries exist, 
such as AUX: and SPEAK:. Most CLI or 
Workbench programs will have a 
default output device, and most of > 


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these will be the screen or, to be more 
precise, the current CLi window. 

In the case of the primer, the devices 
most likely to be used are the FARr, 
SER:, and PRT : devices and For more 
advanced purposes the PIPE: device, 
Alternatively, output can be redirected 
to a fife, and if the named file does not 
exist it will in many cases be created. 

The redirection symbol is an angled 
bracket, which can be used in either 
direction, so two examples of 
AmigaDOS redirection might be: 

ECHO >f tlinm “This is ffJtrmHdfi - 



and 

rm mi: humh 

The first will create a file called "file- 
name* containing the text in the 
quotes* and the second will send the 
contents of the file to the PRT: or 
printer device. 

The PRT: device 

The PRT: devke uses the current prefer- 
ences settings for printer driver, paper 
type and so on, so if you want text out- 
put With any sort of control over how it 
will look and what paper size it will 
print on, use the PRT: device. 

The PAR: and SER: devices are crude 
gateways to the parallel and serial ports 
respectively, and act as sort of "binary 
bins* in that anything you send to 
them goes direct and unaltered. When 
a printer is attached to the port con- 
cerned, It will print out the text as it 
receives it, so most people will want to 
use the PRT : device instead. 

If, however, you were transmitting 
data to another source through the 
serial port, as when using a modem, 
you could use redirection to this port 
controlling the transfer through the 
serial settings in preferences. All prefs 
settings concerning baud rate, error 
checking, and protocols are followed 
when using the SER: device. 

When sending output to the printer, 
the three most useful AmigaDOS com- 
mands are Type, Copy and Echo, and 


Type is probably the one youll want to 
use most. This command normally 
sends its output to the screen, which is 
the default device, but it can be sent 
anywhere the user wishes. 

Use the Type command with the 
syntax: 

T T PI MM ffEuntn TO PIT: 
or 

TTRE mi: filtnm 

Either way, the text file will be sent to 
the printer device under the control of 
preference's printer settings and you 
should get some decent output. 

For example, if you have a file on 
disk called "readme.doc" Which is a few 
thousand words long and you'd rather 
not read it onscreen, you can print a 
rough copy using the command: 

TTPE > PR T 3 n jrfll.ffa 

if you later decide you want a NLQ 
copy on U5 Legal size paper with mar- 
gins of O.Sin on all sides,, you need only 
affecL the requisite changes in 
Preferences and type in the same com- 
mand. If you used the PAR: device for 



figure Uii Graphic P preference! 


4 With a few 

tricks, the prin ter 
can he a lot easier 
to ha ndle ft 


redirection, on the other hand, you 
would have no control over such fac- 
tors, but then you wouldn't have to 
mess about with preference settings. 

It follows that those who want to 
send letters to their printer will use the 
PRT: device, and those just outputting 
program listings will use the PAR: or 
SER: devices. 

Echo and Copy are useful in other 
ways, but generally speaking will be 
used tess than Type, You can use Echo 
with redirection from within a script file 
if you J d like at some point to send mes- 
sages via the printer rather than the 
screen or would like to keep a running 
check cm something, for example, a 
program variable. 

Copy, on the other hand, is really 
only of use if you want to dump a file 
to paper rapidly, 

Pipe dreams 

The PIPE: device is a little appreciated 
feature of AmigaDOS, mainly because 
it's designed to be used by program- 
mers and users of the most advanced 
AmigaDOS functions. With a little 
thought, however, it's one of those 
things you can have fun playing useful 
tricks with. 

If you use a text editor to produce 
simple documents such as letters and 
can't see the need to splash out on a 
decent wnrdprocessor, you might occa- 
sionally bemoan some of the features 
found on the more expensive packages. 



Horkbf TTiCh 


Figvft if- Use Giaph\c2 screen lo set print density 


:CIho: 215 rist:SfJ1 3:24:3? PH 


Hidth Lihi t 


I n< li<* " 


Sou nd#d 


H e ] g li t L in M 


C a reel 


Siioat b\ r>g 

L*fl Of Nel 

P 1 l J HE 1 tV 

i)N 1 1 in inches | 


Center! ON T UlU 


Co (or Correct 

hi t Freeing 

Seal i hej 


One of the most useful gimmicks is 
background printing, and it serves 
nicely to illustrate the uses to which 
some of Workbench* s more esoteric 
functions can be put. 

Open your text editor (ED or 
ME MACS would both be fine} and type 
in the following script file: 

LM sturt 

TYPE >P*T; PIPE : FELE 

SKIP it irl BACK 

then save it to disk as ‘"background 1 ' or 
some other suitable name. 

The listing does two things. First it 
types a File, named "FILE' 1 and located 
in the PIPE: device, to the PRT: device, 
then it SKIPS back to the Start and 
attempts to do the same thing again. 
The script will loop continuously until 
you re-boot the Amiga, so it is more of 
a sample fisting than an example of 
good programming!: 

Once the file has been output to 
printer, the listing will wait for it to be 
topped up again before continuing, 
and if the file was empty in the first 
place it waits until the user sticks some- 
thing into It. 

A cunning ploy 

To fool your text editor into carrying 
out background printing, type: 

Mil HI PIPE: <IETMI> 

IF the device has not already been 
mounted,, then run the script itself in 
the background by typing: 

m EXECUTE background «ETUM> 

Now all you have to do, when you 
want to print a file is to save it as 
PIPE:file rather than print it directly 
from the text editor. Vou will notice 
that the Amiga takes no time at all to 
accomplish the talk as the file is actu- 
ally being written to memory. 

The PIPE: device, written by Matt 
Dillon, is a channel through which two 
AmigaDOS processes can communicate 
with each other, and consists in essence 
of a 4K ram buffer. 

Thrs channel is four time* as large as 
the standard buffer on a cheap 9-pin 
printer, and is easily large enough to 
hold the text of an entire letter before 
passing It on. 

Once a file is written to the PIPE- 
another process can come along at any 
time and access rt, so if a process such 
as our "background* script is continu- 
ally attempting to access the PIPE:, any- 
thing sent to it will be used instantly, 
thus freeing up your text editor for the 
next document. 


That's all folks! 

Until we receive enough letters ask^ 
iriy for a specific tutorial, l here' II be 
no more CLI columns. 



















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o 

o_ 

Cl. 

on 


on 

esc: 

O 


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CT-. 


3 


E 

I 



will become instantly recognisable and 
picking out samples will be a breeze. 
When you've found the sound you 
want simply copy ft to the t directory of 
your auto- booting disk. 

Taking pictures 

There are two ways of adding an image 
to your disk. If you're an artistic soul 
you could create your own loading 


104 


I t's about time we explored the silly 
side of the Workstation and if you 
fancy some useless additions that 
do nothing more than raise a smile or 
impress a friend, read on... 

|aw dropping is a serious business 
and perhaps the simplest way to do it is 
by adding a few extras to your startup 
sequence. All the proud owners of last 
month's issue of Amiga Computing will 
already be at home with auto-booting 
disks created thanks to the Workstation. 
As a result, this month I'll be concen- 
trating on the nodding dogs and furry 
dice side of disk construction. 

To add a little glamour to the basic 
disk design we can use the Workstation 
to add graphics, sound and even a 
stylish backdrop to the loading 
sequence and the final Workbench 
screen. 

The first job is to pick your sound 
sample plus a suitable image for the 
opening screen. It's totally up to you as 
to what type of sample you choose but 
remember, big samples use up lots of 
space, so be careful . 

The same applies to the graphics, if 
you use a Ham picture with overscan 
and interface be ready for prolonged 
loading times and a considerably 
slimmed down amount of disk spate. 

Searching for sounds 

If you're not the musical type, finding 
samples may &eem to be something of 
a problem. Irk fact they're everywhere 
and you can use SID Co search them 
OUL 

The coverdisk is a great starting 
point but almost all PD disks md most 
commercial offerings have samples hid- 
den away somewhere. To find them 
click on the DISC button which you'll 
find hidden below SID's main control 
panel. 

Once the DESC option is activated 
all the files listed in any directory or disk 


Workstation Update 

Due to a hitch when the Workstation disk was in final production the DATE com- 
mand in the disk's C: directory was mangled. This has meant that many users 
have had a puzzling "Error 103: Out Of Memory" message during boot-up and 
have subsequently been unable to set their machine's Internal clock. 

Unfortunately, the problem was not detected until many readers had received 
their Workstation disks, so in order that we might remove the problem as 
painlessly as possible, we have included a script file on this month's disk which 
will carry out the required alterations to the Workstation disk, 

STEP 1 : Make sure you are using a copy of the Workstation disk, not the original, 
STEP 2: Turn or your Amiga and insert the August 1 991 coverdisk, 

STEP 3: Wart until the coverdisk finishes loading, then click once in the CLI win- 
dow left open at the bottom of the disk's Workbench screen. This will activate the 
window ready for your input, 

STEP 4; Type the following: 

U JTSlUTILITlES -clETiflllls 
ElECIfTL HSUpdm SlETUMP 

STEP 5: Follow the onscreen prompts until the message "Bug Fixed" is displayed, 
then re-boot with the Workstation disk. All should now be as the Workstation 
compiler intended, 



screen via the paint package of your 
choice - whether that be HAM or IFF 
the choice is yours. The alternative is to 
lift an image from elsewhere and that's 
when Screen X, the Workstation's very 
own graphic ripper comes into its own. 

If you plump for the Screen* option 
the image you're planning to grab has 
to use a non-custom screen. In other 
words, it must multi-task. One of the 
best ways to check for multi-tasking Is 


Nodding 



Add some whistles 
and bells to your 
designer disks. 
Paul Austin pulls 
out all stops to 
show you how 


to hold down the Amiga key and press 
N and M in turn. If the various screens 
alternate then there's a good chance 
ScreenX will capture what you're after. 

You'll find a guide to ScreenX in 
your Workstation manual so grabbing 
your favourite image should be simple, 
The only thing to watch is that you 
capture the correct screen. When you 
have the image you require it can be 
saved direct to the C directory on your 
auto-booting disk. 

Now we have both the image and 
the sample in the C directory of your 
auto-booting disk it's time to alter the 
startup sequence. To do this, exit 
ScreenX and open or expand SID. Now 
double dick on the S directory of your 
designer disk and highlight the startup 
sequence, 

OK, now click on Edit and after a 
brief pause QED should appear display- 
ing the selected startup sequence. Now 
simply add the following lines at the 
top of the sequence: 

Background 
sound ''filename'' 

PPshow "filename'' 

The "filename* is simply the name of 
the graphic or sound you've chosen. 
Remember not to add the quotes and 
leave a space between the program 
and the filename. 

In this particular example the sample 
loads and plays before the graphic but 
this is purely a matter of choice, either 



way round will be fine. After you've 
decided the order simply save and quit 

As you can see there are a few extra 
names that haven't been mentioned, 
Sound, Background and PPshow are 
three utilities which are employed within 
the Workstation but there's no reason 
why you can't use them as part of your 
own disks. 

Both sound and PPshow are to be 
found in the C directory of the 
Workstation so simply copy them into 
the C directory of your new disk, 
Background must be copied into the 
designer disk's C directory also, but in 
the case of the Workstation it's hiding in 
the Menu-2 directory so you'll have to 
double dick and copy from there. When 
this final task is complete it's time to 
reboot and marvel at your latest creation. 

Well, once again that’s all that space 
allows, so until next month, happy tin- 
kering and remember - If anything goes 
wrong, read the manual... 




Amiga Public Domain Software 

Over 1900 Disks Available, Thousands of satisfied 
customers. Most orders sent within 24 hours 



only 


a disk 



9. UNICYCLE ANIMATION 
14. WALKER DEMO 
15 WALKER DEMO II 
155. SPACE ACE DEMO 
196. PUGGS IN SPACE 
515 9HCWES SHOW (18) 

761. NOLZE&OmANIMS? 

765. OFF THE HEAD 
763. PIANO ANIMATION 
771. DIGIMOVE 1 Cl 8) 

804 FEET MANOEUVRE 

805 APPROACH 

806 WOWBEE AND PHIL 
809 BILLIARD ANIM 
885 FILLET THE FISH 
914 STEALTHY II 

1037 VIHUS FREE ANIM COMP 
1079 FROG ANIMATION 9C 161 
1077. SILTY ANIMATIONS 1 
1079. 5 WAYS TO KILL A MOLE (16) 
1030. LIFE'S A BITCH (18) 

1085. SILLY ANIMATIONS 9 
1095. BATMAN THE MOVIE 
1104. JUGGLER ANIMATION 5 
1110. BACK TO THE FUTURE 2 
1116 AT THE MOVIES 
1167. ADONIC MOVIE OEMO 
1201 5 WAYS TO KILL A MOLE 2 H 6) 
1517. THREE MORE STEALTHY ANIMS 
1544. STEVE'S ANIM DISK 3 
1555. VIDEO CUP ANIMS 
1565. TOOLS OF THE TRADE 



513 IF ONLY! COULD 1 MEG 
551 VOCAL ATTACK II 
558 THE POWER REMIX 1 MEG 
561 DIGITAL CONCERT 4 
565 FEEL THE RHYTHM 1 MEG 
589 CRYPTOBUSNEK MUSIC VOL. 4 
600. THE FUNKY DEE 1 MEG 
629. BACTERIA MUSK 
633. CHAOTIC SOUNDS 1 
785 SCOOPEX BEAST SONIX 
BBC REFLECTIONS 1 
892. REFLECTIONS S 

893 ALIENATION AURAL EXTASY 

894 CRISIS MUSIC DISK I 

899 GROOVE IS IN THE HEART 1 MEG 
907 PSA MUSK DISK 
920 100 C64 TUNES 

928. SLIPSTREAM CHIP MUSIC 
93B. PHANTASM JUKE BOX I II 

943. BASELINE MUSIC DISK 

944. MUSIC MAESTRO 7 
952. KEFRENS JUKE BOX 

958. LET'S RIP 1 

959. LETS RIP 5 

985 AMIGA SOUNDS 

995 AXLES MEGA MUSIC 1 

996 JT$ MUSIC DISK 5 

999 LONDON BEAT 1 MEG 

1000 COMPUTER WORLDS MUSIC 4 


LAST TRAIN TO 
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KASTkNG GRAND PRIX 

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ARTIFICIAL DREAMS 

VPP 05 

THAI BOXING 

VPP 06 

IAS VEGAS 

VPP 07. 

SECONDS-OUT BOXING 

VPP 08- 

FROST BYTE 

VPP 09 

MOUSE TRAP 

VPP 10 

PLUTOS 

VPP 1 1 


SPACE STATION 

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WAR ZONE 

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FIRE BLASTER 

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FLIGHT PATH 737 

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QUANTOX 

Only £.2-99 each 


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iXCI 

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Master Virus Killer 2.1 L 
Detects 1 24 Viruses 



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PD STARTER PAC 

Master Virus Killer 2,1 

Substance Grea 

:k 4 

The Best 
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Beatthiz. Sue 

Catalogue The bes 



ORDERING DETAILS 


All disks £1 .25 each unless otherwise stated. Please add 
60 p to total order for p&p in UK. For overseas orders - 
please add 35p per disk. Minimum order of 3 disks, 

VIRUS FREE PD,.,...„£1 .25 each AMOS UCENCEWARE £3.50 each 

AMOS PO .. .,£1 ,25 each POWER COLLECTION £2.92 each 

ftTce $ sutyrcf to change wfrwttf notice 



117. MOHA(RPG} 

141 DIP1CMACY 
154. TRACK-RECORD 
507. EAT MtNE 
509. PAitANQlD 

530 PACMAN B7 

531 BLIZZARD 
595 CAVE RUNNER 
855 XENON 3 

903. AMIGANUT5 GAME'S DISK 
936. AUTO BAJHN 3000-h 
1020 MASTER OF THE TOWN 
1028 ELECTRIC TRAIN 
1064, LETTRIX 
1184. MASTERMIND 
1904. WET BEAVER TENNIS 
1907. FRANTIC FREDDY 
1946. PSEUDO-COP 
1369. STAR TREK 
1382. TERROR LINES HI {19) 

1421. B04IXJ! 

1440 MEGA GAMES VOL. VDlSiC 4 
1466 RETURN TO EARTH 
1511 BLOCKIT 
1520 SHAPES 1 MEG 
1529 ENSIGN A MAYHEM 
1538. TANX 

1548. TALKING COOUHNG BOOK 
1549 ESCAPE FROM JOVHI I 
1557. PROPERTY MARKET 
1570. PNEUMATIC WEAPON 
1579 5EVEN TITLES 
1SB6 MEGABALL 
1621 MECH FLIGHT 
1631 TW1NTHIS 



142 LABEL DESIGNER 

143 THE NIB 
1S2 QUCK-8A5E 

164 RAINBOW WRITER 

181 COMMS DISK til 
193. A RENDER 
949. FREE WARE UHLS. 

333 VOICES 8 
923. PHWTER DRIVERS 
list C-LIGHT 

1162 VIRUS REE HOME UTILITIES 
1165 AUDIO UTILS 
1208 DATABASE WIZARD 
1229 THE RIPPERS GUIDE 

1310 MASTER V1EIS KILLER V2:i 

1311 IMMUNE 

1368 SPECCY EMULATOR ETC 
1370 UNBELIEVABLE UTILS 2 
1399 SCENE GENERATOR 
1406 VF2D UTILS 
1435. JAMCRAKER 
1469. ABRIDGE 

1507. DIRECT ACTION V2.Q1 

1508. AMIBASE 

1512 PENDAL UTILITIES III 
1547 ADVENTURE WRITER 
1634 HOLY SMOKE PACK 1 


Send cheques or Postal Orders to: VIRUS FREE PD, 23 Elborough Rd, Moredon, Swindo n, Wilts SN2 2LS, England 

Tel: 0793 51 2321 Fax: 0793 51 2075 ‘ 







mlga Computing August 1 99! 


rrmro 

PRICES INC, DELIVERY & VAT@ 17.5% 

Express Courier Delivery ; 

(UK Mainland Only) £ 6. SO Extra 


BUY WITH CONFIDCNCE 1 mm onn ai l-h* kmg*« 4 -fE*bl!*f*d 
LompnnlM In H-nlr 11 * 10 . Whh n MpulBUvn lor good ihvIcc- 
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any "epilr 0*1 our pro min* Wi 1 b*I * iite Ehal you woM be 
nimppulnk-d IF yau cticcs* EtohJibtti M rmB 


HOW TO ORDER 


Call us now on 

0386 765500 

Lines open Monday -Saturday. 
9.00am - S.JDpm 


^1% Send Cheque, Postal Order or 
access/visa cord details to : 

Evesham Micros Ltd 
Unit 9, St Richards Rd. 
Evesham, Worcs 
WRT 1 6XJ 



& 


ACCESS/ VISA 
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% 


Government, Education & PLC orders wele&me 
Same day despatch wheneve r pos sihk? 

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Matt Order Fax; 038 6-765354 


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Worcestershire WIN I iXJ 

® 0336 765100 

ran OJBe 74&3M 
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5 GJisson Rd, Cambridge CB1 2HA 

® 0223 323098 

la* Q223J22MJ 
Open Morins. 9.30 - 6.00 
and Sol. 900 S30 
Corparate S&Qt Q® 0t * ABM darter 

1 762 Pershore Road , CbHeridge 
Birmingham 030 30 H 

TOT 021 458 4564 

SO* QJ 1 4J33S25 
Open Wlqn-Soi. ,9,00-5.30 


-3T 0386-40303 

Monday lo Friday. 10.60 - 5.30 

1 2 MONTHS WARRANTY 
ON ALL PRODUCTS 

Afl Jfldiis avttft l h"i [' d ffljf ig to prgjg ■« AT SuCfrflCl 1C 1 JrtiiiWrfy 



AMIGA 1500/2000 UPGRADES 


HARD DRIV E / RAM UPGR ADE BOARD K IT 

Kits comprise qI full Size hard disk pgcitnpller cards 
meorporatirtg unpopulated SIMMS RAM enpansion sockils 
to# flcCcmmodaring up lo HMb RAM; PLUS high speed, last 
access NEC SCSI hard disJ(R 

40MB HARD DRIVE 4 INTERFACE / RAM CARD„., £ 349 00 
t'MMB HARO DRIVE I INTERFACE / RAM CARD., £ 499.00 

PLtASENQTf These am unpopulaied Si«h«B Add E i l^.Obpe* 
■2m □! RAU -^ounec 


106 



W BREAKTHROUGH^ 


AT LAST ... the chance to buy 
Quality, High Capacity Hard 
Disk Systems for the Amiga 
500 at realistically low pricesl 


40Mb MODEL ONLY £299 
100Mb MODEL ONLY £449 

3Mb RAM Vercktn: ADD £100 - 4Mb RAM Vrriion: ADD E2M 


> NEC SC^SI Hjird Ehfh MteClWl-rifilt P&r Djpr/mMm'p«rJrprdMhte 

25m& ficcuss Taik? \ Auiupwiunfl 

-V Include* Mr own Ctedltawd PSU 1 CBM ttstrjrmtwfc, aq.iu'i-.l use ' 
Hard [teNS W'llVhJ ilidspi^-.Jcnl pown EippJy 
i Opltan lu. up tD 4 MS ei ■ddHtonal mM ErcpnnBian 
A Inclines SCSI T Iti [?Liflhpiji | ui icm lor Hurlhpr expansion 

-i High qualify mc!nlCB?jnp,coiOur nwiched ki me Amig* Fri.JCi 

A -Included 'HB-B-ACKUP Pr*’ JS wrHl {in Con^ixalllYlVFtffltol i-jliwast- 


AMIGA ASOO SOLDERLESS RAM UPGRADES 



512K 

ONLY j 

RAM/CLOCK 

£28.99 

UPGRADE 

inc. VAT and delivery 


512K RAM Expansion also 
available wl| haul dock ; 


ONLY £24*99 


J 


> Oiroct roplacement lor the A501 expansion ,V Convenient On /Ott 
Memory Switch Ji A ulo- recharging h-Bttcry back&d Real-Time Clock A 
Compact Um i Size : Ullm-neal design T > Only 4 low power FASTS AMs 


1 .5MB RAM BOARD 


Jc Fully populsttd board Increases Iota! RAM in A&OO lo 2Mb ! r V Plugs into vacant 
trapdoor area. B conneclato WRY 1 Chip .V Includes outp-recharglng ballery' 
backed real-time ClOCh Socketed RAM ICs for accommodating up to 1.5Mb RAM 


Unpopulated RAM board with clock. E 34.95 

RAM Board wilh 512K FASTRAM installed ... EL 54.95 
RAM Board with 1Mb FASTRAM installed..... E 69. 
RAM Board with T.SMb FASTRAM installed.. C 79.IH3 


NR Th*M»ii pans Ion board 
requires Kkk$ifcfi 1.3 in 
Openato ■ 

klcfcstart 1.3 upMjriKlr 
HVirl jl.iH: Irfvn LfS Ic^CM S5 j 



'MEGABOARD 1 


Connects to your 5 1 2K RAM 
upgrade to give 1 .5MB 

With our MEGABOARD, you can further expand your A 500's 
memory to a total of 2Mb without disposing of your existing 51 2K 
upgrade (must b& 4 x RAM- chip lype. or not exceeding 9gm in length). 


ONLY 

£ 59.95 


MEGAHOAftD npede Klckilart 1.3 
Id operate |ftlck$t*Ti 1.3 ypgrede 
tviilabla irorn us tor E29 95| 
InslaliBliDn inflquiret cciwueclion to 
ttw Gary chip. e&$ v io roitow 
i msirueliona pmvldcd. 


BMb RAM iKpRhSlon Card with 2Mb Fitted 

easily upgradsable to 4Mb, 6Mb or 8Mb £ 1 49.9.^ 


3Vj" external floppy drives 


AMAZING LOW PRICE ! 

£ 54.95 

including VAT & delivery 






Very quiet 
Slimline design 
Suits eny Amiga 
Cooling Vents 

Sleek, high qualify metal casing 
Quality Citizen/Sony Drive Mechanism 
On / Off Switch on rear of drive 
Full 8S0K Formatted Capacity 
Long reach connection cable 



Also available : 
5.25" External Drive 
40/00 Track Swttchable 
Only £99.00 in c, VAT/delivery 












vv pi amplified stereo 
^ I “■ * speakers 


REALISE THE 
TRUE SOUND 
POTENTIAL OF 
YOUR AMIGA 
WITH THIS PAIR 
OF FULL RANGE 
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to ui Annoo Imi* qailly hHi KhiIVS 

EnfJr quaW U«<n npfKJjrtm to Ifte M* 

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ipilwn 1 FmI^w ap*nk&! boaw ! wffli 5 

=.punr*1a d toh* hi «*ch unH. dhd fichpothIm -i 
buit-rn tfnptrp wifi wiwSiitita votum# cufMrDl Hu^ia 
Insn PSU iiupuHUI C* P*m bEttlfws Irml "tchKtadl 
iXMMmr OxriiWKm f4£*93xt2Sf hip 



J 



CBM A590 HARD DISK 



Gh»d flutafty ConurodbirB Sfl**' H*rd Ltak yrel 
■nckidfig flv ^ P5U and buit-m EurtUfi lift F*rpnr« 
KKwHauiD Irakis 0l ur. board FASTR^M ««p»i5P^i 

|m* Cm km i BCms tecfliJ i W wih up «; : -tUbaec 
rlH« JwiDtoals wtian wtl »ih K<ktmri •: 


CBM A59D UPGRADES 


[ HAM u jiqrnd** IihM at CJliliq* *hpn bouqhl w*tl * AriP;. i 

ftlSK RAM Upor-ri* E 3B.M 

1 Mb flAA* Up B rnfl- c 5B K 

2Mb RAM Upfl.msK- E 

NFC 4DMb SU&I Drlvp c*pj^c**n»nl fn*cli*nfcim 1 1 «,« 

NFC 1 Di’M d SCSI Drin **pl*t*mBnt mechanism £ fli.QOi 


A 5 90 ADD-ON HARD DRIVES 


ASKF QtfNERBI EkpWld v hurt a sk slarupfr luriner wlh uwcl 
dpi Kfcl an, eifiemallv cewd BC&I Mini Grww, l^ulufrr^i Hms 
flufdparkinB NEC mnrchnrraStfii Mparalfl Simply 

p.jqs. kno bhfl swkfll; provided oft Ihb rear tH Ihe Hnrd Dink urri. 
EitemaJ 40Mb SCSI Drive CBSfld with PSU 

Wtfrecltv MM cn 10 Ihe C^modOfe A59fl £ 390.00 

Emernal 1 WMfcs SCSI On*. pased *im PSU £ 


TRUEMOUSE 



we guarantee vuttnit i* o» 

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tl f.3D 


GOLDEN IMAGE OPTICAL MOUSE Amiga ST compatible 
BKcallaN Irave* & teCCuff Cy assured E 37.B5 


GOLDEN IMAGE HANDY 
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Outoto«kr>g QuaFiy #^nfenni vihu In tow* - [fift 
pKktflk inrtLdfts a ujjiiXklu stum-et wlft i^rrrfir nniiona 

pl£ mo amuinQfjf poMdul TCrXfi-ijP' k^iiii 

MCka^e wich [Inw mo scanv dnOTy SCiniui 
mdiMBo i.'wwrR mnO^P A bac^ni Ibr Hurik 
Lj:^r>, Ohwy -mn Scat. Bilfta> Infe-AT l> g'fiv 
in-Dqns jp lu- JOOaDi Many imiga 
K W*em' «ft«S ivo«ab*o 

t'i-ji-. railhm Touch Up A bfrhtilNfl 

I'TvooIrrronl tur Cmkltip PubMhrq wwk 


ONLY £179.00 


INCLUDING VAT 
AND DELIVER V 


NEW! ROCGIN GENLOCK 



YQU WIL L HAVE TO PAY A T LEAST 
B tor - . TWICE AS MUCH M0Ni¥ la 

■Ml obtun a umllKT l»voJ ol 

vualltv. lunctlDPi uid 
jjflr lophli-UcilloD on»rpd by wr 
SMw waEMLOLKidipan 

^Hr cwnpdbbto Id all A ml dob’ Monv 
BVK-nl TitflWB* m* flbi 

Iy> r*aanl gnphu A uurnclranv an 
f Yidw r display ffjpmc *nd 
bud mtD vdeo nnd Luo your durrauli? 
CDtJur TV *t& A CC^ n«sfWKW CapaUt 
cl Mualh and a Vo bio lodpng *K 
QYDrloyipg n%ri inwg knob 


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PHILIPS 1 5" TV/MONITOR 



with Iti MtoM mwtf mptiV, M mod* 
■ Kfnrtwvn cH a ftlfift m*dhjm 

i.w monttn vtlA th* flflf W l W W 
ntndb MfttTSl TlWl*t |Y - m *« ■■cofcil kn prfc* 
NFW yiruen taint d*rk u*+* ktHP ^ |mpraw«. 

CT5ffli*i(. pkji tull iingo imwf 


poco nn ^'^"a ** T - 

Z.AU9.UU Ml^iy lnbl* 


Philips CMe«33 Mk.ll indwPng cable C 239.00 


AMIGA 

SPECIAL DEALS 


AMIGA 500 
COMPUTER 
BASE PACK 


Fe^ures.^ Gamine OK verarafi SI^K 
CommExtore NMQtWQ cwnpular wiPi 
I Ms Inlemal O&m, TV Hi^uiflKir. 
W<HJf;fi. Power SupglY Kcksfefl 1J» 

AMIGA SW BASE PACKAGE 
ONLY £ 307.49 
AS0D PACK AS ABOVE. WITH 
51 2K RAWCLOCK FITTED 
ONLY £ 333.99 
AMO PACK 

WHH EXTERNAL 37," DRIVE 
ONLY £ 357.49 
A500 PACK WITH EXTERNAL 
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N.S. CUFti NO* u-h-n^Hr ci.rJra 

*iftb cfhw/ pnrtapiHi 


LOOK WHAT nst 
YOU GET WHEN YOU 
BUY AN AMIGA 
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j THESE FABULOUS GAMES? | 

I Tr*rtiullU»Mg*r® . SublxUna* AiOrtu | 
! itac k AlincUe - Jungta Bcwh * Trtatur* Trip ■ t 


! fJmSj a #DnH>roc»Hr Md ipraMihwt J 

,*-J 


OHUIwi * BHHeS4u*dr«i - CHftWfll * 
T*nh &Bt!ta * Nig* mnitfl - Lwt WMazt 


AMIGA 500 SCREEN GEMS PACK 


fcndudea Amga 500 with i«b RAM. £*js 1Mb Drwa, TV moAMlor. 'Nighi Breetf, 
Thii BaabE Z Back to Ihe Future 2. 'Ctoy* &r Thuhdflf . , Deiuka Pa»ni IF 

A 500 1 MB SCREEN GEMS PACKAGE 1 369.99 

A500 Screen Gems Peckege PLUS 37.' External Drive .... £ 419.99 


AMIGA &00 CLASS OF THE 90'$ PACK 


P; &tfc Ifialntoa AS 00 COTpiiler pius -A5Q1 &13K HAM Upgrade. TV Mwiylitof, 

IS software Mies 1 0 Piikj. mt»iM itmjs. Video Tape A more 

CLASS OF THE 90’* Package.. E 49B.OO 

CIhsb ol the 90'i Pack plus 3V?" Orivt....... E 549.00 


AMIGA 1500 STABTER PACK 


I«^lvd4« A1FSOO campuiar (1Mb RAM. 2 x 3'k" Dtim*. B axpanaKrn iknH] 
CDmmmJustf Hi-Me^^^lion Colour Monitor, pkuu Sot wwt Including Da'uno 
Pninl 111 , 'BnTCta Ct^SN' a 5lm Crty' and Th* Wofna' flotow* ra^ 

A1 SOO STARTER PACKAGE £ 94B.QO 


VIRUS PROTECTOR 


BANISH VIRUS PROBLEMS* 

Our *OTtp*r! VFWI Pratscbof 111 mif 10 lh* W otlti* lift da* <frl¥* hft 
your ArrHftj gyrtwri, *11 InliiiTl wid aklwiH from botri 

blKk. MkWM mcorporit** • 

■witch lo «mhW 0* -itaiiWa 

Ihfl praL«clJKm fK>My Top 


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REPLACEMENT A500 PSU 



Genuine Commodore Ami-go A5QQ 
type rBpltMifWflt Rower Supply 
Unit. Good quality twitch mode' 
typo. Super low price! 


ONLY £39.95 


MIDI INTERFACE 


Ob* lusty KHTpanfcw . Iiiyt' qualfir MIDI |n|fi#lK0 OJniiKli rfretlly wfrl Ihe Am^a 
a er ol (kin arelprwides \te OUT a THRU ports tar good nem>t*y Fe^unrt LED 
nd^ubra on -eadi pod: to 

dAjffiiMlh:. piirtcisHS. Superb 

comped Aw> 


ONLY £19.95 


STEREO SOUND SAMPLER 


□flying fun cocmHifttay *ft h *^oa any M^ga au#o dtgllMi um 

Sound SarmHer lea^iKW picriicri ticirfliy, yleHlng jHoieswia! leasts tiw 
mam AiD ccnyierte r giww a Pflti^ing ;™fcJion & up to WhHr. wrth * ah:* 
TBlP Two phono SOCkelS EW prmkied kir slereb Irrt ilKXl, ptua an option few 
murdfrtfiWTf Ailusiatle gain « a&iw m *nh hurii NSrtrri knai ComoWe 
with nubile dDinumi disk 
cootalrwig pwnd aarT^lmg 
appcalcrti ; ijhm^ 


ONLY £29.95 


TRACKBALL 





Eecahrl new Ih^> pWlOftTWIW Iraappl. 
thtdbf fiempmbto m an-f Amiga w Atari ST 
Qpar^K Iran tiW UMiuU 01 ioyfliCk pod 
SLdrti-HTHOFi. iWVitaa and wraatrie 
you pfobnb<y wait war* Id HM 1 
IhCuW BfiB* 1 *81w mars Tha 
TracJihni I Tc3Li! mahvOpd mfHhH 
Top nudHy -HMTfthldQri Hid ofriiy 
Twndiancul OHi^v deWnna latf* iwd irtff 
accuracy a^eiy tira hb dnYBr -HWdPd 1 


ONLY £29.95 


NEWt A 5 00 INTERNAL 3.5" REPLACEMENT DRIVE 

FulFv compatible. Kit includes iuM filling instructions D 49 95 


VIDt-Afflto* -Jt&iTs d i p 1 1 it.tt r pm^avt iftC VIDS-CUhs™ . .. 

Vim-ChTOfti imlflaootoLr haffl# paiwalten kl from M* 
VIDPHOB r.ijtiur Imnn gawdlion ta trom RAW nugaa .. 

MJNipfM Stance. 4djsmai 

KCS Powmrbomnd PC £rrulaloi with ft mm 

1 Mb at HAM i3#Vfc»n* . 5 l?K lhbM In 
HtWl I Y.3 Upy»*W — 

AmlgJ SrOP Qii*1 Co¥H 


t Ilfl.M 
[ 1«K 
C *J« 


_... tzn.Yk 
M.« 
C *-ffi 


SOFTWARE 1 

Mn* 

Mlok-JI 1.1 

AMDS 

EH56 

t« Qfl 
.... C.37 S0 

MEW1 WDflDWOFtTM. 

cita.«» 


E in OQ 

Kind Wtri* 2 

\ :i.' -i\- 

gfa basic ya 

. f»« 


r ii b as 

rsFA Cenprlv 

.... EJ4.W 

Dejrj Horn* Ac C CH>rt 1 

.... (»K 

P*i«H£S15 .. ! , TT -, 111I ™, 

C 4A yi 

a..._ 

..._C7SftS 

Dnnp-p- Mmm&\ S*!**?- 

CESK 


NEW! Olivetti DM1 24C 

Outstanding 24 Pin COLOUR Printer 


PROFESSIONAL QUAUTY 
24-PIN COLOUR 
PRINTING NOW 
AVAILABLE -AT AN 
AFFORDABLE PRICE! 

Comtwwig toe edvardegra pi ndvanesd COLOUR oulpwl wtth tins 
supaftiM quatay oi OihrdfiL ProrMSApryai 24 -pin pnniina . tn * 
OMIE^C reprgs^nls ninmllcnl vOU& tor moneyl ConfllelenE ht^i 
quality *s es&ured every lime, wltn no vNk e*c esses or pain linos be 
any sreec Peacei Ol Mind idr irdubla-free use is Guamum?, weh 
OeweRi's 13 Mdfflhs On-Site Warranty ewer i 
J EDO bps nulpul ifs drah. 5C>Cp» to L-Q mods; PugmMQK Buffer 
_l 7 CdtDur oulpul; Qraphtea iwolullun up 1b 360 a IBDdpf 
■J FttEtallel Indedftise. Tr^ctpr i. Singlo stteer F*ed a« 

J Comfktal* With Ofltkta A 12 MONTHS DN-SlTI WARRANTY 

OllVdttK DM 124 C Normal RRP: £ 3^9 95 Ino.VAT 



Svesham Micros ONLY £269.00 

Special Offer Price Inc VAT. Delivery A cable 


- AUlBfntrk? Cut Shear Feeder liifWIf ter only £ 7935 - 


j-^ , ry i It i TfJ O' iDC ikJd G- V A 1 

r^KIfM I trO delivery and CQ&le 


EVESHAM MICROS SPECIAL OFFER > 
All STAR Printers Include 12 months On -Site Moinlenonce 


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Star LC £00 9- Pin Colour. 4 lonls. l30/45cps ., I 209-00 

Star LC 24-10 24-Pin, 4 lontS, tSD^toeps £ 209,00 

Slar LC 24-200 24-Pfcn a 5 fortt. 200/B?cps £ 249.00 

Star LC 24-200C 7 colour vflr^fcon of abova E 269.00 

Star FP-10 9-pm includifl-g Colour Upgrad# E 259.00 

Stir XB24-10 24-pto includl Ing Coif. Lkp^fac** .. E 3S9.00 


CilLffa 5 w#t -24 24 -PHri COLOUR PYMlW -t jn.QO 

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CHiv*ni DU1009 2O0I3Q bp* 9-frin, lh£. 1 2 month* O^M ... C 1 15.0ft 
flBfWMhl* KJIP1 1 33 good mtl* 7* prn primnr t 215.W 


NEW! 3'A" DRIVE with 
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High quality tioiAte- 
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special LED dtapley 
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cunmnrt Srack twiog apoeflepd 
dunnfj any dtak drive aqflwrty. 


ONLY £74.95 



































Amiga Computing August 1 991 


•108 


X-COPY 

PROFESSIONAL 

The essential package for all your BACK-UP needs! 
Now includes HARD DISK BACK-UP & FILE BACK-UP. 



♦The most comprehensive back-up utility +lncludes floppy disk 
back-up, hard disk back-up and file back-up. *Also backs up 
ST, IBM etc disks. *Check$ disks for errors. ^Optimises data 
for faster loading. *Fast formatting. *Copies up to 4 disks in 
48 seconds. *FufT update service available. 

X-COPY PROFESSIONAL caters for all your needs, included in the package is a small 
hardware interface that plugs into the external disk drive port at the rear of the Amiga 
and your external disk drive (if you have one) plugs into the back of the interface. This 
allows the DIGITAL BIT IMAGE COPY MODE to use the ADAPTIVE PULSE WIDTH 
MODULATION routines to backup virtually all known disks. 


AVAILABLE NOW ONLY £39*99 plus ei .00 postage and packing 


T988 COPYRIGHT ACT. Siren Software neither condones nor authorises the use of its software for the 
reproduction of copyrighted software. The facilities offered by X-Copy Pro are intended to back- 
up users own software, PD Software & other such programs where permission had been given. It 
is illegal to make copies of copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder. 


X-COPY PROFESSIONAL IS THE BEST, GUARANTEED 

OUR GUARANTEE; At time of purchase, if you can find o program that is more 
powerful than X-COPY PRO we will refund your money 


Ordering X-COPY PROFESSIONAL 

Access/Visa orders can be placed by 
telephoning 061-724 7572. For mail 
order, fill in the order form and send it with 


a cheque or postal order to: 

Siren Software, Wilton House, 
Bury Road, Radc liffe, 
Manchester M26 9 UR. 



Name - 
Address 







BLITZ BASIC has been designed exclusively for the Amiga. It's ease of 
use, flexibility and speed make it THE AMIGA BASIC for those people 
who want to create games, educational software or just explore the 
possibilities that makes the Amiga the success it undoubtedly is! 

BLITZ BASIC is a full basic compiler that has commands to directly 
access the blitter and sound hardware of the Amiga. It comes with a 
full 1 30 page ring bound manual and is available now. ONLY 
£69.99 inc VAT 


TO ORDER: By credit card, please telephone 061-724 7572 or Fax 061-724 4893 slating your 
credit card number, expiry date, name and address and the products you want to order. By mail, 
we accept payment by cheque, postal order, Eurocheque or bank draft drawn on a UK bank 

SIREN SOFTWARE, WILTON HOUSE, BURY ROAD, RADCLIFFE, MANCHESTER M26 9UR, ENGLAND 

TEL 061-724 7572 or FAX: 061-724 4893 


X-COPY 

PROFESSDNAl ...£39.99 

3.5" EXTERNAL 
FLOPPY .: £54.99 

SOUNDBLASTER ....£52.99 
X-COPY PROFESSIONAL 
& A 3.5” EXTERNAL 
FLOPPY DISK DRIVE 
ONLY £89.99! 

BLITZ BASIC AND X-COPY 
PROFESSIONAL 
ONLY £99.99! 


ADSPEED 
only £159.99! 

This low cost accelerator 
offers 80% -100% 
performance increase and 
full compatibility with all 
software. ADSPEED uses a 
1 6MHz, 68000 cpu and 
32K memory cache. If you 
want to see every program 
run faster without spending 
a fortune, ADSPEED is 
for you! 


A500 INTERNAL 
HARD DISK 

The smallest hard 
drive/interface in the world is 
now available for mounting 
inside your A500! This little 
sweetheart gives 20MB of 
high speed performance yet 
takes absolutely no desk 
space, includes full 
instructions for a simple clean 
no solder installation. 
Available now - only £379.99 



Annl|4 Computing August 1 991 


110 



BELIEVE 
THE PRICE 
LOVE THE 
SERVICE 
ENJOY 
THE DISKSI1 


LISTED BELOW IS A SELECTION OF OUR VAST RANGE, please add 50p towards postage and packing if you order less 
than 5 disks. Everybody receives a personal customer number which means all orders ere despatched the SAME DAY!!! 
WITH PRICES AND SERVICE SECOND JO NONE WE REALLY DO PUT OTHERS IN THE SHADE 

GAMES PACK 3 


THE VERY LATEST 

DISKS 


Truckin on (2 disks} 
Shapes 
Battle pong 
Sealance 

All four games for 
only £ 3.75 
THAIS 75p a disk 


Golf Recorder by P Wilson 
Meaning Of Life on Two 
Disks Very Funny 
Crossword Creator 
Life On Earth Slideshow 
Atic Atac Great Game 
Word Frenzy Spell Checkers 
Green Peace Demo 
Led Zeplin Samples 
Tron, Shall, Text Plus 
Yat2ee. Track Display 
Bits a Bats. Games + Utils 
.Useful Lf tils and Games 
MpBO-flLConverter 
Intro s 59 Stunning Stuff If 
(hire's MBen Better 
E eos Tfie Gn i -r 

1 057 intro's 57 Specially Compiled 

1058 ■ i^ gatyp PoruT (Great Game) 

1 056 B MfiwtVppers (Lots of Em 1 1 1 
1054 i Biorythms Program 
TOMi&SL Jetson Overload (Music) 

1 052A^ Trukin On Game On Two 
1 052 B Disks (Li ke Ports ol Call) 

1 051 A Vivaldi Four Seasons 

ifQ51B Classical Music (two disks) 
r 1 048). .Dynamite Fonts 

1 043 Pfimpife (Great Strategy Game) 

1047 Darkness Mega Demo 

1 04 6 Sh apes (Brill ianl Games ) 

m5n Crusaders Basomatic On 
1045ff^2 Disks (Brilliant) 

1 044 Light Mega Demo (Ace) 

1043 Gallows Mega Demo 

1042 Flipped Gems (Music) 

1041 Dominators Music 

1040 Prolog ic Music Disk 

1039 Aurora Mega Demo 

1038 Scrappers Music Disk 

1037 Brill New Virus Killer Disk 
103G Printer Drivers Lots ol em 

1035 P lasmatron ic Musi c 

1 034 Alcatraz 22 Min tune (Great) 
1033 Brainstorm 

1 032 Jugelte 2 (1 Meg Game) 


1031 R 

1030 H 

1029 C 

1028 £ 

1027 A Tl 

1027B 
1027C 
10270 
1027E 
1027F 
1026 
1025 
1024 
1023 
1022 
1021 
1020 
1019 
1018 
1017 
10 Ml 


1073 

1072 

1072B 

1071 

1070 

1069 

1068 

1067 


924 Real Time Fractals (Brill) 

916 Ham Lab (Great Util} 

897 RSI Demo Maker 

817 Noiseplayer (any module) 

784 Bowl V2 

763 Clipart 

748 Med V2 

9 1 8 Med V3 The Best Music Util 

778 Musk; Utils 4 

684 Fractal Flighl 

677 Clipart 

566 Odds & Sods 

599 + 560 Newtek Demo (1 Meg) 

51 7 Pictiorrary Demo 

505 Freeware Ulils 

462 GMC Music Util 

479 GMC Instruments Disk ^ 

478 Soundmen itor VI _ 

466 ARP VI .3 Amiga replacement joi” 

444 Comms Disk 3 1010 

353 Ghostwriter V2 i q 09 

300 Ghostwriter Data (for above) i Q 08 

265 Home Utils ici07 

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1 84 Spacewriler 1 004 

769 Comms 2 1003 

793 Jazz Bench 1003E 


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Educational Stuff 
More Educational Stuff 
Trackball Anim (1 Meg) 
Asteroid Field Anim (iMeg) 
Fantasy Force Music 
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Games Cheats 1 
Robocop 2 Slides 
Cool Fridge Demo 


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RAM EXPANSIONS £24.95 
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912 Batman Anim 

911 Applecus 

969 Porky Pig 

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780 Epic Demo 

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iV no one ts flh&ra fnw? oof taittitu! Answer Pham mi 1 
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Forget any P.D. EARTHQUAKES you might have seen over the last few months. We re going right through the floor with 
P.D. MELTDOWN. To improve our service even more disks are now only 09p probably the cheapest P.D, anywhere. Our 
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provide the very best in disk magazines (OUR UPDATE AND NEWSFLASH), ram expansions, disk drives, come to think of 
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three years in the biz we think we know how to satisfy the most hardened customer. Join the 20.000 strong members in 
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WE ARE THAT BIT BETTER THAN THE REST 


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Have a look at other 
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Magazine 
currently 20 
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Wp also arc? I he sale dislnbutors of 
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W e kick off this month with 
a selection of rather splerv 
did games, If you find 
puzzle games appealing then. 
Arm jgj Nuts disk #1077 could be just 
the right prescription for an otherwise 
uneventful day with your Amiga. 


Clear 

Dear is a tile game wtiich is quite fun 
to play and more compelling the longer 
you stay with it. The idea is to fid the 
table of matching symbols by bringing 
them together in a horizontal or vertical 
row and then clicking on the first and 
last of the bunch to remove them from 
the board. 

To manoeuvre them you move a line 
horizontally or vertically, one tile space 
at a lime, by selecting the gadgets 
which are placed around the screen. 

There are hazards to avoid, such as 
keeping the tiled hands away from each 
other - if the hands come together you 



Tltr tun 



will find that the rows the hands are on 
can't be moved and you're stuck 

It's an enjoyable and addictive 
game which has been converted from 
the popular arcade version. The graphs 
ics are quite pleasant but the sound is 
practically non-existent. Overall, it's 
one worth having. 

Megaball 

There are games whose appeal lasts for 
years and years and always seem to 
pop up at some stage in a computer's 
development. 

Breakout is one of these. Invented 
some nine or 10 years ago r it now 
appears on Goldstar's disk #G43 and 
has been renamed Megaball 
There always seems to be someone 
willing to code versions of this popular 
game for the PD scene and there are a 
number of versions available on other 
disks, but Megabail is worth a look. 
There's no point in explaining this 
game because everybody knows what 



CmWsJ-ar bmfcouE with mart titiiilt PD 









I 


I 


S 


f 

2 

I 



PUBLIC DOMAIN 
































Amiga Computing August 1 991 




O 

D 

U 







Breakout or its clones such as Arkanoid 
or Cigaootd are like, except to say that 
the use of colour is excellent, and there 
are a number of pieces you can collect 
for extra options within the game, such 
as magnetising your bat and enlarging 
it to practically the same width as the 
screen. Marvellous! 

The music and sound effects are also 
brilliant and it all makes for a splendidly 
entertaining time. 

Rubik's revenge 

Around 1982/3 a crazie overtook the 
nation and almost no-one was immune! 
It was to sweep the oceans and worm 
its way Into the minds of children and 
adults alike. 

The fiendishly mind-boggling RubiVs 
tubej created by a Hungarian mathe- 
matician, is still with us. Now, you can 
re-live the experience with a game from 
Riverdene PD called Cubulus. It's a 
Rubik's cube in two dimensions, 

You are presented with a board con- 
taining nine sets of 16 blocks in differ- 
ing colours- The object of the game, as 
with the original cube, is to rearrange 
the colours and put them back in the 
correct order. The game is similar in 
style to Clear and is just as addictive.. 

The blocks are mixed up by the 
computer and then it's all up to you. 
The gameplay method is again similar 
to Clear - you move the blocks by 
means of arrows placed around the 
sides of the board. You can move left or 
right and up or down. It may take some 

tit's tremendously 
entertaining stuff 
and well worth 
thedosh ^ 


112 




00 : 01:00 


JZnIiU tub* MJftaftuE the thumb ache 

time to do this but it feels great when 
it's finished! 

It's tremendously entertaining stuff 
and well worth the dosh. I've seen 
games like this being sold for over £20 
in the shops - why part with so much 
when you need spend so little? 

The PQ scene is coming up trumps 
with good quality entertainment that 
wouldn't be out of place in an arcade 
and costs a lot less than some commer- 
cial offerings. 

Ye gods 

If you're a fan of the Tetrii-type games, 
I have two which may be right up your 
street - namely Shapes and Zeus. 
These are terrific puzzle games that 
grow on you the more yog play them . 

In Shapes you have to fill a space, a 
bit like a cross, with different shapes. 
Only a certain number of each shape 
are available and you have to use your 




^CCCCCGCC'CnD 

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C«r r r r r 

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skill and judgement to determine what 
shapes will fit where. 

You choose a shape and an outFine 
of it will appear where your mouse 
pointer would be. Using the mouse to 
position the shape you can tell if your 
chosen shape will Fit the cross. It may 
take some time to figure out what final 
shapes you need and you'll be fighting 
the timer to finish before it counts to 
zero. 

Addictive and compelling Shapes will 
keep you occupied for quite some time 
and is on Seventeen Bit Software disk 
#1046. 

Zeus is another fine example of the 
quality you can expect from the current 
PD scene. The object here is to match 
up similar objects while moving others 
around This is not as easy as it sounds 


as a number oF Features make this one 
of the most puzzling games I have seen 
for quite some time- 

individual matching objects must be 
placed side by side or on top of one 
another. The only problem is this may 
entail dropping them from a height on 
to another object which may or may 
not be the last of its type on this level. 

Tremendously enjoyable and having 
a quality unseen in many commercial 
games. Zeus is available on Seventeen 
Bit Software disk #1 053. 

Boulderdash 

If you ever owned a Commodore 64, 
the chances are you bought the game 
Boulderdash. If you didn't, you missed 
out on a very addictive game whose 



SCORE 



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THIS PRiCBRH HHY EE 

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Q Goldstar Computers (EC) 

P.O. BOX 2, TYLDESLEY, MANCHESTER, M29 7BN 

(0942) 895320 


r?n 


MailwCard 


We have been appointed the OFFICIAL UK Distributor for 


PREMIER SOFTWARE™ of the USA. ' 


Public Domain like you've never seen,,, 



Premier Sotm ;irc™ is supply HXACU.V the -iamc is it Is disiritniLtiJ in the* USA. 
ALL disks have full cokrnr Isbds and parked as sets, a primed list is supplied with r ad l set. 
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The Bible, King James version, with Tcxtni Text 
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A 1,3 Workbench Disk with the Deskbeneh 
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A massive seventy game's on seven disks, huge 
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Library of Pointers, loads of Them Si n gle DLsk - 
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A' 'A I H" : '■ H MOEE ER.JUPB5 
■^vLr.-A> PROLOGUE - 00 MR: :■ I K1F STUPY 
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j*sygrosl-> SI 2PESlr09 i - W.J'LhJ* 

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DHQ A3tE.STOB - VEST fjOOD 
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HAE-Wi A^[^ SK*C1. MATHS 

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STEVES ANI Ytw - VFEV CLT F 'PI 

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ADATADN B1 - MILLENIUM F^!j"<4N 
DIMXyV^PV »ILTm-h_CY1>.X SK.-i|lE 


Greets: Brian. Paul, Barry'. Steve & Sandra and all custonieis 

If you order 10 disks nr more, you get a FREE disk! 
LJK and BFPO; Please add 50p to order. 

Europe: Please add 20p sper disk. 

World: Please add 40p per disk. 



y mi uniu.H sKUr dcsne 

J.Y3EZ1L - STlAPt IDITC* 

* t^THL BLAiTMAN HE MH 
VTY'MIN - .ASOfTHTDI B1 Ml BaXTEH 


★ Fish 1-490! * 
T.B.A.G. 1-49 
Tai Fun, Slipped Disc, 
Amigos and Snag 
and LOTS MORE* 


Postage 


113 


August 1991 Amiga Computing 






LU OKHSLITO FHLBIST 


BATTLE AXE P.D. 


ItVTTH Ul.r.13., lBKISG51YLX)aTHUB.I , l M.MUtltil t NORWICH MUtlU- TILitWH | 

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t. MANUAL 43 oiakft) .... ..All nan read toNnow 

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93 Star Trek (2) New vecscrn 
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R& Reiutn to Earth (Sd-FD 
R7 Pacman &7 
R& Br&cftout Construction Set 
R9 F^eudo Cop (Shoot em up) 

RIO Holy Grail (Text Adventure) * 

R1 1 Golden Fleece (Text Adventure) 
R12 Hack the Classic D + D Game 
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Fred Fish) 

Rl 5 Bottle Force (Strategy gome) 
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ft IQ Game? Pack t. Arcade games 
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R29 jaa Bench 
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R31 Ultimate Virus Killer 
R32 Uttimate Utilises 1 
933 Credit (Tent editor) 


* = } Meg 

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m Cll Tutorial 
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933 Trooper Fonts (3) (D Paint etc) 
939 C ManaaS (3) 

R4Q Utility Disk Set <10 

MUSIC 

mi mo 

RA2 Soundtracker Ir^f Set (10} 

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R57 808 State Remix 

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ft-58 Budbrdn 1 (2) Over IB's 
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RW The Run (Amazing animation) 
1361 100 C64 Tunes 
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appeal lasted for months. The object 
was to collect a number of jewels hid- 
den in various caves while avoiding 
boulden which were strewn about the 
place. You would lose a life if a boulder 
fell 00 you from a great height and it all 
added up to a very enjoyable experi- 
ence. 

Now AmigaNuti have released a 
done of this written by Ian Cogings 
and I must say 1 enjoyed playing it. The 
graphics are cute and the gameplay is 
identical in style to the original. 

Its name has changed this time 
though to Amidash and it's available on 
AmigaNuts Disk #1038, Enjoy it - 1 did! 

Utilities 

If you like mucking around with utility 
programs you may find Amiga Nuts disk 
#848 a nice little addition to your col- 
lection. 

On this disk there are two font 
designers., one For 8 x 8 fonts and the 
other for 16 x 16 size fonts. My only 
complaint here is that the grid! contain- 
ing the 16 x 16 edited characters is a 
little small. A magnify Option here 
would have been nice. There are 
options to move, mirror, reverse, cut 
and paste parts of the font set and to 
save the Font to disk. 

Also on this disk is a program called 
Power boot which allows you to create 
a menu for your disks and store it on 
the bootblack. 

For those of you unfamiliar with 
bootblacks, it is track reto on your disk 
which can contain a IK machine code 
program to do something as soon as 
the disk is read after being inserted 
That's haw all those fast loading 
schemes work on commercial games - 
pop in the disk, and the game begins 
to toad in no time at all. 

PowerMenu is a nice little utility 
similar in style to powerboot except 
that it's a bit more aesthetic. Again, 
you're allowed to create a menu, but 
this time you can design a screen for- 
mat around it. 

By creating a menu data fife, and 
embedding within it special formatting 
characters - similar to macros on a 
word processor - you can change 
colours, execute script files, run pro- 
grams and more, all at a elicit of the 
mouse. 

The screen setup is attractive, with a 
few stars floating away in the back- 
ground, and it makes the user interface 
a pleasure to use. 

Brightening Topaz 

1 don't know about you but I find the 
standard system Topaz Font rather bar- 
ing. Wouldn't it be nice La change st 
once in a while and add a bit mare 
appeal to your old Amiga? Well, now 
you can. 

Simply use the NewTopaz command 
on AmigaNuts United disk #848. All 
you have do is type NEWTQPAZ 


<FontN>me> and there you have it. 
You could use this command with a 
font you've designed yourself with the 
font editor mentioned above. If you use 
the gadget editor supplied on the 
coverdisk a couple of months back, you 
could give your Amiga interface a 
whole new look, it makes a change 
from looking at the same old Amy 
screen time and time again. 

Intuitive 

Every so often a program emerges that 
is user friendly, pleasant to look at, easy 
to use, and an absolute godsend. 
IntuiMenu on AmigaNuts disk Pi 075 is 


just that type of program. IntuiMenu 
allows you to set up a menu and from 
within it execute programs, perform 
CLI operations, move to another page, 
and do basically anything your pro 
gram it to do. I can seE it being of most 
benefit to hard drive users, as hard 
drives a I tow much more data to be 
stored. 

You could design your whole com- # 
puting environment around IntuiMenu. 
You could run Deluxe Paint III or 
PageStream with a little setting up and 
a click of the mouse. But IntuiMenu 
scores best in its user interface - there 
are gadgets to perform text manipula- 
tion and command execution, and boy 


it's just so pretty to look at! IntuiMenu 
would rate highly on anyone's PD 
shopping list and l suggest you get 
hold of a copy now! 

Print happy 

(f you have a printer, are lacking some 
serious utility software, and use it a lot, 
then AmigaNuts disk #1033 can come 
to the rescue. 

Have you ever wanted to print out a 
text file with a different font and been 
boned with the fonts supplied with your 
own printer? 

Well now Fontconvert allows you 
(providing your printer is capable of 


T7 


□3 


n 




o 



> 


RAY TRACING 


If you've seen any sort of ray-traced 
pictures, either on disk from a PD 
library, or if you make your own, 
you'll know how good the Amiga is 
at creating some pretty impressive 
pictures. 

Seniac Software are specialists in 
ray-traced pictures and animations, 
and have some quite Impressive 
disks of the same. There’s not much 
to be said about these except that 
they are very, very impressive and 
have taken hours to generate. 
Definitely worth a look- 

Ray-traced pictures take an 
incredibly long time to render - 
these specially constructed pictures 
take hours and sometimes days to 
generate on mainframe computers 
let alone the Amiga, but the results 
are worth the wait. 

It just takes time, unless of course 
you happen to be blessed with the 
ownership of an accelerator board. 
The chips on these boards allow for 
much quicker mathematical calcula- 


tion and enhance the ray tracing 
experience by allowing pictures to 
be created in less time than normal 
on the Amiga. 

The only way to produce ray- 
traced pictures, was to invest In the 
very expensive Sculpt series of pro- 
grams, which cost in the region of 
£300 to £400 depending upon the 
complexity of the program and Its 
capabilities. 

Well now you have the chance to 
produce your own pieties at a frac- 
tion of the cost, with Senlac 
Software's new release.. 3D Master. 

This is a budget ray-tracing pack- 
age and is capable Of some quite 
outstanding renderings. Most geo* 
metric shapes are catered for like 
spheres, cubes and cones. Dull shiny 
and mirror surface textures are fea- 
tured, and the author has written 
some pretty fast rendering algo- 
rithms to make the tracing process 
speedier than with commercial sec- 
tor programs. ID Master is not 


actually PD, It is shareware, so the 
author has disabled some of the 
features in the public domain 
release. Should you be suitably 
impressed (and I think you will be) r 
he would expect you to make a con- 
tribution and send him approxi- 
mately £20 to get the fully working 
3D Master package. 

I am very Impressed with 3D 
Master, having played around with 
it for a while. It offers the user a 
simple but interesting introduction 
into the world of ray tracing at a 
price (hat is quite unbelievable. 

The author has been very charita- 
ble Considering that this program 
could be sold for over £100. Indeed, 
one company hoped to market it at 
over the hundred pound mark but 
the author intended It to be 
released as a cheap alternative to 
the hugely expensive packages 
available elsewhere. You can con- 
tact Senlac Software on 0424 
44549B. 



August 1991 Amiga Computing 




O- 


downloading character sets) to use any 
font you find attractive- It does this by 
reading in the font file and scaling and 
sending the characters along the serial 
ar parallel port to the printer. Most 
popular printers support downloadable 
characters, so If you have a STAR or 
EPSON 9-pin P you're in for a bit of a 
treat. 

As well as FontConvert there's 
PrintStudio. This is a nice little program 
which you can use for printing text 
files, DPaint IFF files or Commodore 
ILBM format files., A nice user interface 
is used, even if the colours are a bit 
sickly and you won't have to load up 
your other programs like DPaint to 
print out your file. 

You can do screen dumps - this 
includes WorkBench screens - without 
a lot of fuss and you'll only have to set 
your printer preferences from within 
PrintStudio if you require a different set- 
ting. 

IF you're used to mainframes you'll 
know what spooling is, if not It means 
simply: I want to do this, but 1 don't 
want to wait until it's finished, I'd rather 
be doing something else? So you can 
send a job to the printer, like a text file, 
and be carrying on using your Amiga 
white it's printing. 

The only problem here is that 
PrintSpool is implemented as a library 
of procedures which you would call 
from a C or Assembly language pro- 
gram, so for those of you who have no 


knowledge of either It's probably 
worthless. I would like to see a CU 
command like Print Spool. I Can do this 
just by typing: SPOOL ^filename*. 
Maybe someone could come up with a 
command like this soon - it would sure 
be handy and if you do r maybe you 
would consider releasing it into the 
public domain. 

Useful utilities 

On Fish Disk #479 ttirs month there arE 
a couple of small useful utilities. 
Checkprt allows you to check whether 
you havE a printer available in your 
startup sequence, CheckPrt returns a 
failat value of 1 0 if a printer is not con- 
netted or off, and a value of zero if 
you're in luck and you remembered to 
switch it on. Small but useful. 

Then there's TDP, a disk drive track 
display program which shows you 
where your drive's heads are when 
they're accessing the disk drive. Small 
hacks, but very useful if you do a lot of 
disk and printer work. You could install 
both these programs in your startup 
sequence. 

Back in time 

IF, like me, you are a Commodore 
fanatic, graduating through the ages 
from trie humble VIC-20 (remember 
that?), to the 64 and then on to the 
Amiga, you'll have enjoyed every minute 



Big Brother 

George Orwell's novel ) 984, predicted a gloom of oppresskin administered by 
the government rind named Big Brother. Well now Big Brother is a program an 
Fish Disk #473 which monitors your Amiga system and alerts you to any danger- 
ous viruses present in the memory. 

It monitors the vectors that so many viruses change to perpetrate their nefari- 
ous deeds, and allows you to reset them if they change In addition to this you 
can install disks, examine bootblocks, dear the memory, do a warm reset and 
execute script files, 

It sits in the background in a so-called "sleep" made and comes ta life rF Ft Feels 
your happy, bubbly and smooth computing environment Is threatened with virus 
infection. One complaint though as I use a 1.3 machine, the contents of the 
DolQ vector have changed to that of earlier machines and as a result, BigBroLher 
tells me so. 

Ah! But one look at the documentation enlightens me. I here should be a pref- 
erences file ior Big Brother to operate in a 1.1 environment- 1 think this has been 
missed when collating material lor the disk and you should try to get hold of it 
from the author. It should pose no problem for 1 .2 users but If you use 1 3 you're 
in for a tantrum or two. 


I 

DRIVE-MEMORY-VIRUS UTILBOOT VI 
DRIVES ARE: OFF FASTMEM IS: ON 

FI FASTMEM OFF F2 DRIVES ON/OFF 
F3 FASTMEM ON F4 INSTALL UTIL 
F5 RESET AMIGA F6 FILTER ON/OFF 
F7 KILL VIRUS* F8 QUIT TO CLIt 

THERE IS NO VIRUS IN MEMORY 
EN-CODED BY EKO-RANGER 1991 


ViitriH bvwurat Big Bfother h watching 


of it. The VIC-20 was around at the time 
of the ZX-81 and Spectrum computers 
in the early eighties. It wasn't a very 
powerful computer, being equipped 
with only 3.5 K of ram and a rather small 
screen size, but how I loved iL 

Unfortunately, mine broke down and 
was replaced by the 64 a couple of 
years later, and what a machine that 
was! Eight sprites and three channels of 
sound. WOW! 

If you had a 64 and came to love the 
machine you'll be pleased to know you 
can travel back in time and re-live the 
experience with the 64 emulator From 
Amiga Nuts United. 

It comes on disk #1 030 along with a 
Spectrum emulator - but to what use 
you'll put that I cannot think! So H if you 
have any old 64 programs lying around 
that you would like to see running 
again, get hold of this disk. 

Other bits 

Most emulators, unless they are sup- 
plied with a microprocessor, are suited 
only to text-based applications, but I 
must say I have had DBASE III running 
under the PC transformer on the 
Amiga, albeit a little slowly, and it 
seemed to work OK. 

I don 't know how well the 64 emula- 
tor stands up, but you can contact 


AmigaNuts United on 0703 785680 
with this or any other PD enquiry you 
may have. 

For those who use Deluxe Paint reg- 
ularly and use the WorkBench fonts a 
lot, you might like Po% Softs font disks. 
They contain a variety of colourful, 
attractive fonts which you can use in 
DPaint. There are small and large Fonts, 
fonts of every colour and size, and 
some quite beautiful designs that will 
add mane life to your DPaint creations. 

Some of these fonts have been used 
in PD demos, and you may have seen 
them if you Follow the demo scene 
closely. They could be included in your 
own creations, provided you have some 
knowledge of bitmap conversion. 


Famous last words 

Should you purchase any of 
the above programs or 
indeed any public domain 
software, spare a thought 
for the author who has 
spent time and effort to 
make your computing expe- 
rience an enjoyable one. 

Listen to your conscience 
and send in the cash - after 
all It's a small price to pay 
to keep PD alive... 













SENLAC SOFTWARE PD 

UNIT 6, WEST HILL ARCADE, GEORGE STREET, 

HASTINGS, EAST SUSSEX TN34 3AN 

TEL: 0424 445498 FAX: 0424 755093 

2-10 disks £1,25 each, 11 or more disks 99p each 





GRAPHICS h 

IFF Pixs I 

Forgotten Realm 

IFF Pixs H 

Paradise Slides 

IFF Pixs 111 

Joe II S/iffashou 1 

IFF Pixs IV 

Nasa Digipixs / 

IFF Pixs V 

Susa Digipixs 11 

Fantasy I 

Disney I‘ 

Fantasy a 

Gtuniacb Fantasy i 

Fantasy III 

Couniacb Fantasy If 

Fantasy IV 

Viz Slide Show 

Fantasy V 

Agdtrvn Reflections 

Fantasy VI 

Sun Connection 

Photomontage I 

Gala ms Gate 

Photomontage II 

Turbr > Silver Masks 

Photomontage 11! 

Sik Williams Broadcast 




LATEST IN 

3D Master Raylracer 

...15.00 

Celebras examples. 

.... 13-00 

\ Eric Schwartz shuttlecock’ 

A3. 00 

iuxa Teenager Objects 

13.00 

LEMM1NS ANIMA HON 


by Eric Schwartz 


Brilliant.™ 


2 Disks Requires 2 Meg Min 

...16.00 






AMOS PD 


-4 


Note £2 per disk. Nodhmuwifhr quarmiy 
DMiamat r Music 85 femi'Mi & knitters 


Anti Flicker 
Virus 4, 1 
Disksalv 1 42 
ESA Utilities 
FuUFonxIB 
Ghostwriter 
D-Capy 
Copiers l 
TV GFX/Fonts (2) 
Rootbiudm (2) 
Video Progs (2) 
Gravies Apps (2) 
Amiga/ Alari GFX 


UTILITIES . 

Convert ors 
Energy Utilities 
SID V I . 06 
Aardvark Utilities 


•Handle Generators 
Archive Utils 
ARP. 1-3 Installer 
North CO) 

C Manual (2) 

CIJ Tutor 

VSton + Big Brother 
Chaos Strikes Back 

Maps 


GAMES 


Boomerang 

Frantic Freddie 

Flasbhier 

Earn line 

Hack 

Drip! 

Lam 

Tricky 

Autobahn 3000 

Ca rd Games 

Zerg 

Blizzard 

Casino Crajis 

Return To Earth 

Maria VJ.O’ 

Sub Culture Level I 

Empire 

Kit! to Free 

Crihhagt! 

Games Galore I 

Trainset 

Games Galore 11 

PC Chess 

Star Trek V.l 85(2*) 

Breakout 

Mech Fore 3. 71 



RAYTRACING 




C-Light anims 

Rayiracing 

DBW Render V2.0 

Sculpt-Toois 

DKB Trace V2.0 



SENLAC COMMERCIAL 
RELEASES 


22Funsctml IB Dem 
I 11 Scrum Designer 
.iji PinkGoesApe 
,i5An*cto 
21 Wml Square Sdwr 
26 Arc Auget Demi 
| ’2 FriyyCan/Feiirn 
/Nadeem 
1 J iluhr Miller Music 
\36AMmi2[pdm 
\ 38 POSTS *4 
5 SMI 1 

| 53 Cums'Skamf Demo 2 

19 Super Quiz 
62 Arcadia 
1 54Pn$3 

% Stainbtiu Wclniur 
I 77 frogs 5 

1 81 Juke Omega Demo I 

1 82 fuke Omega Dem 2 
I 83 Paint 

84 l.uiv Milter Music j 


97 DyredmaBt' JDiti 
98 Music 24 
99BefmmDemo[ 

100 Amos DmuIS 

101 Autopbyer 

102 Cbsiimt' Death 
103 Pick 'a'hicdciB 

105 Picture ti ll 
l0?AmmPmp6 

108 Muslcphuvr 

109 WeirdscieticeH 
DO Crossfire 

112 Puntbom Mega 
Dem (2) 

1 20 Amos Music Player 
124 Boh s Maniacs 
]25BtnmDemH 
1 26 Dreamers Disk Mag 
130 Wooten M 
135 Simon Says 
UJTte Trial 


BUSINESS FINANCE 

Wordwngbi 

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Analyticalc * 

Amibase 

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Spread 

QBase/VC 
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! nventory/Memopad 
Journal 

Analyticalc 3D 

MISCELLANY | 

Workbench I! Look 
Rayiracing 
Sampled Sounds 
Demo Creator 
; Dope Intro 
MCAD VI. 25 
Rot 

Jazzbench 

Celtics Demo Maker 
(not 13 Sums) 
Halloween Samftte (2) 
Direct Action * 
Utopia Postcards 
Cimdo Support ! 
Catido Support II 
Fractal Flight 


Sculp! objects / 


19.99 1 

Sculpt Objects n 


19.99 

Sculpt Objects ///. 


19.99 

iMtige object I 


19 99 

PiW&rtiark Pro l.Oh 


19.20 



ANIMATION 


Stealthy II 
Walker II 
Kuti (Pen ) 
Knight 11 
Rotating Ship 
Shark 
Gymnast 
Walker! 
let FI 5 
Rubo 


1 MEG 

Radio 11 
Italia Cinema 
Gangsman 

Shotcbiz 

Bad Bird 
Billy The Kid 

TV 1 Commercials 

Batman 

Juggler 2 


jAMO^UCENCEWARE 

[ Note:^£3.50 per disk. No discounts for quantity I 
l Colouring Book XI Go-G'etter (. 1 meg) 

XU Hypnotic hind 
XJII Gig Mania 

XI\- Play it Safe 

XV Arch Angel Sha[jes 


All nett > StarTrek (2) 
StartrekC 3RD) 
Star Irek V2.0 (* 2 
_£DJ 
I StarTrek Flei't 
•A Mu tiat'i t are A Hint ' 
StarTrek Dry Dock 
Anim* 

StarTrek Enterprise 
Reliant Anim * 


TREKKERSH 

MMiscellaneous 


StarTrek 


Anims * 

Tnrktriiria 

Enterprise 

Approaching’ 

Karris Attack* 
Wonfefov anim * 
Warpdrive anim* 
Star Trek VI. 55* 
Star Trek VI. 85X2) 


2 MEG 

V/i MEG 

Station at Kherne 

- At the Movies, - 

(3) 

3+3 Vi MEG 

Lost In Scape (3) 

Sentinel (2) 


II Arc Angel Maths 
IV Thingumajig ( 1 

meg) 

V Jungle Bungle 
17 Pukadu/Sprites 
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Infernal infernal! 

I have had my B2OQ0 for about (wo and a half yeara, 
and at first I was full of praise for the Amiga. 

About 10 months ago, however, I started getting 
messages about read/write errors (Argh! - Ed), floppies 
not being validated [Eeek! - Ed), and using DiskDoctor 
(Groan! - Ed). These appear intermittently, such that a 
disk might work once, then five minutes later prompt 
a host of errors 

The result was that I couldn't use my Amiga for 
hours on end, and even then had to wait until the fol- 
lowing day to use it again. Any disk can succumb to 
the dreaded messages, and the same disks work per- 
fectly on an A50Q. 

I have tried evefy virus killer I can find, but thi 
come up with nothing, so in desperation I sent the 
machine to be repaired, only to be told that there was 
nothing wrong with it! 

Please help before Tm forced to buy an Atari! 

Andy Hamilton, Da I Met h 

Hmm » desperate though you may be, there's no 
need to sink to the level of an ST. 

You say the disks work in an A5QQ but not the 
2000, so the disks aren't at faufl. This also suggests 
that the problem Isn't simply one of drive align- 
ment. tf the A50Q can read disks from the B2Q00, 
the latter's write function can't be too badly out of 
step. 

It sounds like the internal drive on the B20OG is, 
to use a technical term, fritied. The first thing to 
do is to send your machine to a reputable repair 
company. It sounds like the one you used took no 
more than a cursory glance at the Amiga. Our 
repair feature in the fune Issue highlights a few of 
the better companies. 

Remember to include as detailed a note as you 
can on the problems you've been encountering. 

Clocked out for good? 

I bought a ram expansion a week after I bough! my 
Amiga, and at first I set the dock from pref ere ness. 
After a while, however, I decided to try this operation 
from CD. 

I opened up the CM, set the dock, pressed Return, 
and got a "'Battery Backed-up Clock Not Found* mes- 
sage. I did the same thing three times with the same 
reply, got fed up, and decided to reset the Amiga. 

The next thing I see upon resetting is the 


:s«? C °% 



Printer out of ptilf? 
Computer cracking up? 
We're here to help! 

Write to Amiga Computing, 
Euro pa House, Adlington Park. Macclesfield SKI 0 4WP 


Workbench prompt (the hand holding the disk) flicker 
and disappear as if I'd just lost the reception on my TV. 

I tried to re-tune it, but couldn't 

In the end, l turned off the computer and came 
back about an hour later, but the result was the same 
- no Workbench screen. The power light is on and the 
drive light now goes without the drive motor making 
any noise, but the drive doesn't do anything when I 
put a disk in. 

I don’t know if it's a virus or bad luck br what, but I 
need HELP! 

Murmitaz Arif Qadeer, London 

Try taking the ram expansion out and booting the 
Amiga again. If, ai sounds likely, the card is duff 
[the on board clock certainly doesn't work) it might 


Picking the right sort of drive 


I have had my ASM for six months and I would like 
to expand it. I already have a 1 meg upgrade but I 
am considering buying m external disk drive. 

Could you tell me which one does the best job 
for the cheapest price? Also, could you tel! me which 
is the best PD C compiler? 

Where can I get the AT 5 00 expansion kit? I have 
also heard of a similar expansion kit called Bodega 
Bay. Where can I get information on this and how 
much will it cost? 

John Hatwell, Templecombe 

There are many makes of external drive available, 
and most are as good as each other. Make sure 
the one you pick has an enable/d liable switch 
and a throughport and you shouldn't go too far 
wrong. 

Most of them use mechanisms from one of a 


half dozen or so Japanese manufacturers, so are 
Identical on the Inside in any case, but we did 
once have a drive with an NEC mechanism which 
was both reliable and very qulte. 

The best PD compiler is probably Sozobon C, 
available on Fish Disk 140 under the guise of 
North C. 

The A15Q0 kit is available from Checkmate 
Digital <071921 0658) for 030- The Bodega Bay 
unit will soon be available from Amiga Centre 
Scotland (031 557 4242) as soon as a price is set 
tied (it s 1150 in the US). 

We would recommend neither unit unless you 
are a confirmed A500 fan. The best path at pre- 
sent for an up grader is to sell the A500 (you 
should be able to get £300 to £400 depending on 
how much software you flog with it) and chip in 
the difference for an official Commodore AT 500. 


be stopping the Amiga from booting up because 
the memoty isn't configuring. 

If this is happening, the machine might be lock' 
mg up when it does its system checks. We once had 
a 2000 da that because one leg of one chip out of 
32 on a ram board was out of its socket. 

If the Amiga refuses to budge with the ram card 
removed, the only option is to send it for repair. 

Sizeable problems 

I have a Citizen T2QD printer and my stationary is A4 
paper. My printer, however, can only print on 11 in or 
1 2in paper depending on a DIP switch setting. 
Consequently, I cannot print to top of page, no matter 
how hard S try. 

I believe it can be done, perhaps through printer 
escape codes, but unfortunately I am unable to locate 
the correct ones, I was hoping to encode the changes 
on Workbench through the startup^sequence or pref- 
erences, but I'm not sure how it is done. 

I; there any way to edit or browse through a binary 
file using Shell or some other package? 

Could you tell me if the Bench 2.0 demo an the 
Apnl coverdisk is supposed to do anything but disinte- 
grate the screen? 

R B Lavender, Poleswprth 

The printer driver Itself is written so that the full A4 
paper size is 11 in, so even If you have the correct 
printer driver set in your Workbench preferences, 
you will only be able to print to that length. 

You can examine and edit a machine code file 
using a hex editor such as the shareware program 
Newlap. However, unless you are a machine code 
programmer this will be of little use to you. 

Fortunately your ever- helpful coverdlsk next 
month will include |orgen Thompson's excellent (If 
a little daunting) shareware program Printer Driver 
Generator (PrtDrvGen) With this, you can either 


o 

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n 


11 


August 1991 Amiga Computing 


LLi 

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cd 

i — i — t 

LT) 

1 1 I 


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Tin box blues 


I would like to ask a few questions about the possi- 
bility of expanding the A5QD farther up the Amiga 
ladder. 

• Is there an external board far the A500 that per- 
mits us to make use of A2000 add-ons? 

9 If It exists, does it support full size cards? 

9 Can any of the slots make use of PC cards? (I have 
a Vortex ATOnce installed) 

9 What is its price, where can I get it, and is it 
worth buying? 

Stephen Seem, H'Attard, Malta 

Another aspiring A5O0 owner! To answer your 
questions one at a time, 

9 Yes, the main contenders being the 
Checkmate Digital A 1500 and California Access's 
Bodega Bay unit. 

9 The Bodega Bay has four Zorro II slots (Zorro II 
Is flie standard Amiga 2000 expansion slot) and 
the At 500 can be given a half-length card slot for 


£69. With the addition of the Imminent Overrider 
box, the A 1500 will have two full-size dots. 

9 Three of Bodega Bay's slots are PC compatible. 
9 The A1S00 base unit is £230, and a half-length 
card Is a further £69 , Phone Checkmate on 071- 
923 065H for details of the Overrider box. 
Information cm Bodega Bay (which costs 1350) is 
available from Amiga Centre Scotland (031-557 
4242) or direct from California Access on (010?) 
408 378 0340. As I said earlier, these upgrade 
options are really only suitable for the A50O 
owner who either detests the thought of parting 
with hii or her machine, or who has a targe 
range of expensive A500- specific peripherals. 

If I had to plump for one option. I'd go for 
Bodega Bay. as it has four full-length slots and a 
built-in power supply for the extra hardware. 
The A 1500 unit, on the other hand, has the 
advantage of being cheaper and more readily 
available. 


create your own printer driver from scratch or, 
more usefully, modify existing Workbench drivers 
to suit your needs. 

By manipulating the values in fields 28 to 31, 
which contain settings for the custom paper size, 
you can decide exactly what size of paper your 
printer will print on to the nearest 0.01 inch. 

A590 horrors 

My A590 has been soldiering on now for about two 
years, and apart from a steady increase in the noise 
from the cooling fan, it has given me little to worry 
about - until last weekl 

l was half way through a long de-arc hiving process 
involving an archive of some 24 files, when the system 
locked up with my very first read/wrile error. Help! 

Paul Flannelin, Blarney, Ireland 

Don't worry too much - read/write errors will hap- 
pen on old drives. You should be able to save most 
of your files with FixDisk, and patch up your 
read/write error. We’d also suggest you make back- 
ups from now on. 


Ch. 


f 


I 



id. 


E 


120 


Multilingual Amiga 

I am a student working towards a degree (hopefully!) 
in computer science, so as you'd guess my budget is 
limited. I work at college on a DEC mini network, and 
use a variety of languages including Fortran 77. 

Could you suggest a Fortran package far the Amiga 
in the public domain? it doesn't have to be any great 
shakes, just so long as I can do my 'homework' on the 
A5Q0 r then carry on at college on my terminal. 

The ability to use the same files on either machine 
would be a bonus, but I'd be prepared to forego this 
feature. 

Also, I program in Pascal on my 2 B6 AT and would 
be interested in a Pascal compiler on the Amiga. 

f Parker, Paisley 

You will find the BCF Fortran compiler complete 
with linker and runtime library on Fish Dfsk 47Q, 
one of the most recent Fred Fish releases. 

It claims to be a standard implementation of 
Fortran, so it shouid be compatible with the version 
you use at college Any uncompiled Fortran Ascii 


source should be easy to port from machine to 
machine, but how youll get it into a DEC network 
we leave to you to sort out! 

To transfer files from Amiga to PC is easy 
enough using CrossDos, Dos-2-Dos, or the PD pro- 
gram Messy Dos (Fish 357), so you'll have no prob- 
lems working on the AT with Ascii source 
generated on the Amiga, or vice versa. 

As for a PD Pascal compiler, you could do worse 
than try PCQ, which you'll find on page 56 of the 
Akore shareware catalogue. We gave the catalogue 
away fret with our |une issue, but if you didn't get 
it, you can order PCQ by phoning 0 8D0 252221 and 
asking for disk UT4144. 

Star performer 

Last year 1 bought a black and white LC24-10 dot 
matrix printer and since then i have heard of colour 
conversion kits that allow you to change your printer 
to full colour. Ptease tell me more about these kits. 

Are they available for the Star LC24-1 0? How much 
do they cost and are they difficult to install? 

Also, I am veiy interested in PD music programs, 
especially MED. Is there any way that finished songs 
could be output clearly to cassette tape? 

Philip McOonaldr Sunderland 

I'm afratd to say the Star LC24-10 does not have a 
colour upgrade option, unlike the LC10 which can 
be upgraded easily and quite cheaply. 

The Amiga's stereo output can be taken directly 
to tape from the two Jack sockets at the rear of the 
A50Q, though for the best quality you might want 
to use an amplifier or mixer and take the signal 
down so it won t overdrive the tape. In other 
words, you can treat the Amiga as just another 
music source. 

Expanded to the limits 

I am the owner of an A5GQ with a standard internal 
half meg expansion board (no Gary board) and an 
A50&Q accelerator card. Since I use my machine for ray 
tracing a lot, I find that I run out of chip memory a lot. 

Mine is an old issue 1.2 A500 with an ofd Fat 
Agnus. I have heard that there is a hardware modifica- 
tion to the motherboard to enable the use of a full 


meg of chip ram with a Fatter Agnus, and I was won- 
dering exactly what this modification is. 

W1H there be any problems with the A50Q0 board 
either physically (it is quite large) or in terms of DMA 
conflict? 

I would also like to know how I could use an FPU 
such as the 6B8B1 if I installed it on the board. I know 
that some programs detect and use it automatically, 
but as I code my own ray tracing software I would 
need saree way of doing this myseff- 

If I could make my ray tracer friendly enough, 
would you want it for the coverdisk? As a last question, 
I have heard much about Real 3D, but always the Pro 
version. What is missing from the Beginner's version to 
make it so much cheaper? 

Barnaby Madgett, Leighton Buzzard 

On old Amiga* the motherboard modification Is a 
bit of major surgery we can't go Into here. Needless 
to say, cobbled-up hardware projects are a hit-and- 
miss affair which the soldering iron brigade love, 
and Commodore (not to mention almost every 
engineer) hates. 

Newer revision 6A boards actually have spaces 
for a further half meg of chip RAM which you can 
solder on yourself, but you are warned that this will 
render your trapdoor expansion slot useless for fur- 
ther memory expansion purposes. Commodore's 
technical bods recommend you stay well away from 
it, and I heartily agree with them. 

On a slightly more positive note, you can use one 
of the trapdoor boards which utilise the Gary chip 
connection, but as you rightly suspect, these can 
physically dash with the A50G0, which spreads over 
the top of the Gary chip. 

The ICD AdRAM board Is one we definitely know 
to be Incompatible with the A5D0Q, but there may 
be others which aren't. Check carefully before you 
buy. 

Finally, your questions on Real 3D should be 
answered by this month's In-depth ray tracing 
head-to-head feature. 

No way. Pal! 

I am emigrating Lo Canada shortly, and will obviously 
be taking my Amiga. What changes to my set-up will I 
need to make for NTSC, the 1 ID volt supply, and so 
on? 

Will my existing PAL software purchased in the UK 
run in Canada? Also, could you suggest a UK distribu- 
tor where I can obtain the necessary hardware, Irke a 
new power supply and TV modulator, if these are 
needed? 

Nick Glover, Brighton 

No you won't be taking your Amiga! Sell it here 
and buy a new one in Canada - it's an involved: and 
tricky hardware project to convert an Amiga from 
PAL to NTSC and it's not worth the bother. 

The power supply problem Is easily solved with 
a transformer which you should be able to get 
In most electrical shops (try Tandy), but the 
Amiga's internal architecture is another thing 
altogether. 

In addition, all software which opens up a full 
PAL screen will not work on NTSC machines, so 
you'd be best to sell such titles along with the 
Amiga. Hang on to those which open in NTSC 
mode (frith a black area in the bottom fifth of the 
screen) as these will work on your new NTSC 
Amiga. 

Sorry about the bad news, but we didn't invent 
the incompatible standards, and neither did 
Commodore. 


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Amiga Com puling August 1 991 


122 




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DTV 


125 




fa son Hot born takes a look at two new genlocks 

designed to have an impressive impact on your 

video presentations rather than your bank balance 

'■ 

MACHINE CODE 127 

Margaret Stanger goes soft in her old age with a look 
at the noble art of machine code and teddies. Find 
out what these two have in common 

MUSIC ; 129 

Jason Holborn brings us his regular look at the 
world of Amiga music. This month he reflects on 
important news about Passport software 

COMMUNICA [IONS ....... J 31 

■ * w 

Bulletin board news and Micnonek monthly. The . 
total package Tor comfits cnihu*iasts from Eddie 
McKcndricU^and Anthony Puryjs * 

AMOS 133 

» 

More#! eddies, this time from AMOS guru Peter 
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CODE CLINIC *13? 

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DTV 


Devices 


mil fJiijr 


r \ 






Jason Holborn checks out two genlocks that 
won't reduce your bank manager to tears 



Thv RocGen of She PAL? 
froth provide Inqrrdrtly 
■go&d value for money 


■ Mhen Applied Software and 
■II# Peripherals (ASAP} launched their 
MiniCen genlock onto the Amiga 
market almost three years ago, it set new stan- 
dards in price versus performance. Up until then 
even the most basic of genlocks would have set 
you hack over £250, but ASAP's unit cut that 
price by over £150. 

Cheap it most certainly was, but its quality still 
left a lot to be desired. OK, it did the job, but 
that's as far as it went, Not only that, but picture 
quality was hideous with signal tearing and blur- 
ring left, right and centre. Straight lines came out 
warped and blurred, and colours bled more than 
in the latest designer fashions. 

Spotting an obvious gap in the market, two 
companies have released genlocks which look set 
to put an end to ASAP's monopoly for good. No 
longer does cheap mean underpowered - you 
can now produce high quality video productions 
without having to break the bank. But how do 
you decide which is best? 

The competition 

Roctec Electronics are a pretty big name in the 
disk drive market, but have only recently begun 
to break into the Amiga market Their first major 
release for the Amiga is the Roc Gen RG300C, a 
nifty little genlock wit hi a very impressive price 
tag. It has all the functions you'd expect from an 
Amiga genlock, plus full fade and dissolve con- 
trols. 

Providing the competition is HB Marketing, a 
company which should be familiar to just about 
all Amiga users. They've been importing and dis- 
tributing serious Amiga products for years now, 
giving UK Amiga users the opportunity to play 
with Amiga products from across the globe, Their 
latest aquisitron is the imaginatively named PAL 
Genlock. 

Unlike the RocGen unit, HB Marketing's 
Genlock Isn't a new product. As soon as I saw it I 
thought to myself, Oil This looks familiar. And, lo 
and behord, I was right. It's none other than my 
old friend Lhe fiendale B802 P a classic little gen- 
lock. If you J d bought this baby just a few months 
back it would have cost you £260! 

Licensing the guts of the Rendale genlock is a 
pretty shrewd move, but I'm surprised that HB 
haven't made more of the Rendale name. 
Personally I would have played it up as much as 
possible. 

fust like its forerunner - and pust about every 
other external genfock - the HB Genlock con- 
nects to the Amiga via the RGB video port. It also 
has a 2 3 -pin passthru connector so you can still 
connect your Amiga monitor directly to the RGB 
output of your Amiga without loss of picture 
quality, 

Obviously you won't be aWe to view the gen- 
locked signal this way, but to SQ3ve this problem 
connect the Composite Out from your destina- 
tion deck to the CVB$ In on yout monitor. This 
way you can view both the RGB and genlocked 


signals at the Hick of a switch. As you'd expect 
from a genlock with such a good pedigree, the 
image quality of the PAL device matches up to 
those costing hundreds of pounds more. It's cer- 
tainly a lot better than MiniCen, but then you'd 
have to try pretty damned hard to produce one 
that isn't! 

The RocCen has pretty much the same fea- 
tures as Lhe HB Genlock, but the one thing that 
makes it so special is that it isn't restricted to 
overlaying Amiga graphics onto a composite 
video signal. 

The RocGen features both fade and dissolve 
functions which allow you Lo fade out your gen- 
locked graphics gradually leaving just the com- 
posite video signal, or vice-versa. A very nice 
touch which is sure to gain the RocGen many 
friends. 

One of the first things I noticed about the 
RocGen is that it doesn't feature an RGB passthru 
connectoFr an unfortunate omission, As a result 
you can't really leave the genlock plugged in per 
manently because the picture quality, although 
good, isn't quite up to the same standards as 
pure RGB. It's fine for video work but i wouldn't 
want to word process with ft! 

Obviously the greatest selling point ol the 
RocGen is its fade and dissolve controls, but ever 
these have a few annoying problems. For exam- 
pie, when you turn the knob so that the Amiga 
image is completely faded out, you can still see it 
ever so slightly ghosted over the video image 
This Un r t too noticeable once the image is laid 
down on tape, but k*& still annoying. 

Another gripe I have is with the control knob 
Itself, Although the knob turns almost 360 
degrees, the image doesn't actually lade in or out 
until the very last 45 degrees. As a result the tran- 
sition is rather too severe. It would have been 
nice ii this had been less extreme, perhaps requir- 
ing at least a 1 BO degree turn of the knob before 
the image appeared or disappeared completely, 

Gripes aside, the picture quality of the RocGen 
seems better on the whole than the HB Genlock, 


which is really going some. If you then chuck it 
through a PAL Encoder, the results that are 
obtainable are pretty damned impressive. 

The RocGen doesn't come with any form of 
software at all, which is surprising, t would expect 
at the very least to receive a few test images - 
wh ch is all you get with most genlocks. - bur no 
such luck Personally I wouldn't be too concerned 
about this, mainly because most of us have some- 
th fn] like a. paint package anyway. 

HB Marketing have very cleverly decided to 
bundle Geni5oft's acclaimed Home Tiber package 
with their genlock. For those of you who haven't 
reen it, Home Titler was reviewed in the May 
*ssue of Amiga Computing so I'll skip the detail. 
Originally released a few years back under the 
name ol Video Generic Master, Home Titler has 
aged very- well indeed. It's not quite up to the 
*ame standards as something like Broadcast 
Fitter, but then what do you expect? 

The last word 

Brth genkxki represent a breakthrough in value 
for money There are very few genlocks below 
she £500 mar*, that can honestly claim to offer 
anything substantially better than these two 
un ts Sure, you might get better quality, but 
connect up a PAL Encoder to your system and 
realty have a desktop video System worth 
boasting about. 

In the end though, there can be only one. If I 
“’ad t o choose between one or the other, t must 
admit that - despite the fact that I'm a fan of 
Rendale genlocks - I'd have to plump for the 
Roc tec unit The thing that really won me over 
was ns powerful Fade and dissolve controls, but it 
wms hands down in just about eveiy other cate- 
gory too! 

PAL GENLOCK £130.00 HB Marketing 
0753 6S6000 

RG300 ROCGEN £117.50 Silica Systems 
081 309 1111 





B 


hO 


> 

3 

iS 


n 

I 

1 

I 


125 



Amiga Computing August 1991 


126 


^commodore 



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> 



MACHINE CODE 



Artist's 9 




Margaret Stanger brings art to your screen 


HntM now the display area on your 
jH Amiga's screen has been ■covered in 
boring stripes. Now this column gives 
you Uhe technology to read in a Dparnt master- 
piece of your choice and arrange any part of it 
tastefully onscreen, 

Although it is possible to use the Amiga Gels 
routines to transfer blitter objects, I Find it quicker 
and far less of a hassle to copy picture data using 
the BltBitMap command. 

Last month a primitive graphics viewport was 
set up using a bitmap structure with information 
about its bifplanes, It is possible to set up another 
of these bitmap structures elsewhere in memory as 
long as there is room for ail of Its bitplanes. This 
backup set could contain some offscreen images 
that could be copied to the display screen when 
needed, 

There is a useful command to copy a rectangle 
from one bitmap to another It is necessary to 
specify the address of the source biLmap, the s-off- 
set of the source rectangle and the y-offset, the 
address of the destination bitmap, the x-offset and 
y-offset of the destination, the horizontal size in 
pixels, the vertical size in pixels, the minlerm or 
logic function, the mask or combination of planes 
to be transferred, and the buffer used to hold 
information if source and destination overlap. 

Today the m intern will be 192 [JCO for the 
techies) in order to copy straight from source to- 
destination. 


*4 *>*i 64 04 t 


PT §L JK M W ^ 

##¥# 1 1 


|»f W 04 , 




© 

M M I 0* 


Cute and cuddly cutTin^f 


is 1LBM or ACBM and that the bitmap and 
coiouriist are OK. When these conditions are met 
the module will read in the named picture file, 
unscramble it, put rt in the chosen bitmap, and 
put its colours into your colourist. 


Connecting up 


Calling a C module from Assembler source gave 
me a bit of grief at first. Anyone with Sozobon C 
would be well advised to compile the C code to 
Assembler source code and avoid most of the 
problems. 

I used the -u underscore option when linking 
from an assembled object module to a C module. I 
also found that the program would not run if I 
used the a4 register at all, even if I preserved it at 
the beginning and restored it at the end. ! used 


and stix were assembled using makefile; 


isi - 1 a s &« i b L e r_h#a-d«r s / -y pis 
]£« -1m(iiLtr_h*ad*rsF -u itii 
blink vith pixUni 


and linked using pixlink: 


from 


L[B:c .o+ H piK.o M *"iff re«d2 .o-t-stl* .e" 1 
T& *p1i" 

L : B LIB: Li . L ih LIB: Lea. Lib L!H : niga . U* 
BUTCH 


Vital disk 

The support disk contains a program, pix, that will 
read in a picture file or piety. The picture data will 
be displayed on the screen, and the top half of the 
screen with ib selection of teddy hears will be used 
as the source bitmap- The joystick ports are read, 
and the appropriate teddy is copied to the destina- 
tion bitmap on the bottom half of the screen. 

To smooth the movement out a little, there ts a 
short delay before the joysticks are read again, The 
program wiH exit when a fire button is pressed. 

fautfut 



jsr _pl*]f5ig 
tlr . L dO 
idd.L jiDWfdQ 

idda 

tat L 30 ,-itGft 

btq wrticil 
bLt Lf f t 

■pvc i L ; teddy LoDling Mfllt 

■m.L M0f,dQ pMDurct jf ca-ard 

hrt cut 


To move left: 


mvi.L 

idm.L 

bri 


IJM1 
JZSM D 
eut 


;tEddr leaking Lett 
;sdurte y 





To move vertically: 


Reading the piccy 

I prefer to store any picture in compressed form 
and save disk space. My file reader looks for 
BMHD r the bitmap header with the relevant sizes 
and the compression flag; CMAF*, the colours used 
on the picture; ABlT r the main data for an ACBM 
picture, and BODY or brtpJane data. 

If there are a tot of pixels of the same colour the 
data may be compressed to save disk space. The 
usual algorithm is Lo use a flag to indicate whether 
the next few bytes are to be read individually or 
cloned. For example, where the next byte is n, ,f |f 
n<1 2B read in the next n+1 bytes, if n>1 28 the the 
next n+1 bytes are the same". 

f wrote a general purpose file reader that could 
be accessed from any C or .Assembler source mod- 
ule. The picture filename, destination bitmap, and 
the coiouriist form the input parameters for the 
routine. 

readf i LE^jn r bitup, :oLaurL i s 1 1 

reads an ILBM or ACBM file where name is the 
address of the filename, IwOmap is the address of 
the bitmap structure to be used assuming this 
bitmap is initialised and the rasters correctly alk> 


the Lattice Assembler, so the Devpa c syntax may 
be different. The routines called in Assembler from 
the C module had to be declared as external refer- 
ences, and the linker also needed _main declared 
as an external reference. 

(REF teiti 

(REF judflU 
ID E F _*iin 

The C source module expected to have its 
parameters passed via the stack. 

■m.l HHtnm,4D ;1n this case \ Heejf 

■m.l ;in1 clilfistd biltap 

■w-l lcgUurli*t # dZ ;LUt lo-r colours 
idvtt.L ;pus.l rtg liters 

jsr jf ted f i L e ;n*4 (Ie iff f i L e 

; using t iudvlp iff read? 

■npii. L ;pp(i rtgiiteri 

The program, pix r calls an Assembler module, 
stix. Any variables likely to be used by other mod- 
ules have to be defined as external references. Stix 
declares: 


ID E F _ii4JTf e 
ID E F _jMye 
1DEF jhm2 
1 DEF jiomI 
1DEI fir? 
SD£f JMieI 
mf jliytig 


■m.l 

FO.di 


lovc.i 


;iour<E icoord 

»cd.L 

JfMMfdl 


idd.L 

JfftfiM^dl 


Ht.l 

di 

;rt»t 

Ibeq 

out 


bLt 

dean 

; teddy, iris filiil 

■ GY* .1 

fn,di 

;*&UfC* y 

To move 

down; 


■QVGil 

out: 

m,d1 

ifttfif 

Lei 

EHicmmI 

; dii! Sut 1 m 11 s to 

HTI*l 

ii Lit 
illM* 

* EMri 

unrej 

jdEiTlMtif* f 

Htl.L 

i32 P da 

;»1iti 

MM A 

!37,dS 

ii*MA 


mm,L 

Jtiiltfl 

■gte.L 

IMI 

sm 1 

MM.I 

jlltlfir 

(ei 


;i*ffrti bir tip 

■eii.L 

irvfblrrluiffl 

j*r 

LTQfllT§lTltp4*il JEW tit t(ddj 


AI-: □ on the disk * the hilly documented source of 
the main program (pix.a), the joystick reader 
(slixJX and the IFF picture reader (iff?ead2,c). Any 
code quoted on this page is not stand atone, so I 
would advise using the support disk rather than 
using the Machine Code page, 

I have also included the make and link flies 
which may need altering slightly for other assem- 
blers, the object files and finally, the picture data. 




cated, and cofourfrsl is a pointer to where the 
colours ate to be stored, for example, cotourtist; 
ds.w 32 foe 32 colours. 

The module assumes that the hie is present, and 


for use in other modules. 

Pix has to use XREF for all these variables from 
stix. hf only Assembler modules were being linked, 
the underscore option would not be needed. Pix 


COMING SOON...... more blobs, masking 

double buffering. 



August 1991 Amiga Computing 





Amiga Computing August 1991 


128 




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It’s a magazine written by Amiga users, for 
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MUSIC 



afe 

Jason Holborn continues his quest to bring you 
the hottest news from the Amiga music scene 



W hile everything arcnind k is thriving, 
the Amiga musk market has suffered 
yet another blow with the shock 
announcement from US-based Passport software 
that development has ceased on all its Amiga 
products, 

This comes in the wake of Microlllusions 1 
recent announcement that it. to o, has put an 
end to its successful Amiga Midi sequencer, 
Music-X. 

This effectively means the end of Passport's 
Master Tracks Pro sequencer and its great little 
budget sequencer, Trax. We almost certainly 
won't see improved versions of these two prod- 
ucts, but Passport still plan to fix any major bugs 
that appear in either (I should hope so r too!). 

According to UK distributor MCMXOX (GBI- 
963 0663), Passport have decided to leave the 
Amiga market to concentrate more on producing 
music products for the more profitable Macintosh 
and PC platforms. 

With the dominance of these two machines 
within thE American music market* even the ST 


has taken second place. Indeed, it is believed that 
the ST's dominance of the UK music market was 
the only thing that stopped it from facing the 
same fate 

So what has become of the Amiga Midi mar- 


ket? Has it had its day? Did it ever has that day? It 
seems to me that the Amiga never quite achieved 
its full potential as a Midi controller due to the 
lack of decent software and some pretty lousy 
marketing from Commodore. 

Products like Music-X and Master Tracks Pro 
are all very nice, but they hardly compare with 
similar products on machines like the Mac and 
even the ST - just compare something like 
Steinberg r s Cubase or the C-Lab Creator series 
with any Amiga sequencer and you'll set what I 
mean. 

Lousy marketing is also another problem 
which the Amiga has had to suffer. With the 
machine's obvious strengths in the video indus- 
try, Commodore would have been well advised 
to have pitched the Amiga as an audio and video 
post- production workstation, allowing users to 
pull together the two mediums at a cost that 
makes existing systems look almost laughable 

Until Commodore wake up to what is 
undoubtedly such an obvious market for the 
Amiga, it seems that our beloved machine will 
remain a stranger to the recording studio. 

CD goes Midi 

The Music Data Company, a dMnon of US-based 
Passport* have announced the Launch of a new 
product which will be of particular interest to 
Midi-based musicians. 

Their MidiWortd is the rim In a range of new 
interactive muwc systems which integrates tradi- 
tional CD audio with Midi performance data. 

Looking like a conventional CD player the 
MidiWortd system will happily play conventional 
CDs, bul its greatest asset is the fact that it will 
also handle the new breed of CDs which also 
contain Midi data. 

Obviously you can't chuck in your favourite 
Depeche Mode album and expect to have 
Personal Jesus fed through your Midi system, but 
a wide range of MidiWodd compatible titles are 
being prepared as we speak. They cover a wide 
range of musical tastes from classical, Pop and 
Rock to Country and Western- 
er more information, contact UK distributor 
MCMXCIXon 081 963 06*3, 


Sounds like good sense 

If you're bit of a Strauss with Sound Tracker, then no doubt you'll be interested in a range of compact 
discs marketed by music specialist MCMXOX [071-724 4104), Designed originally for professional 
mustdani, theyTe starting to find a new audience with the availability of low cost samplers on 
machines like the Amiga. 

Each disk contains on average over 250 sounds, each being played at various pitches to allow it to 
be spread across several octaves. Whether you're using a Fairlight or MasterSound* these sounds can 
be sampled and used - in the case of the Amiga - in just about any IFF -compatible music package 
including Music-X and MED. 

Obviously you'll need a compact disc player to be able to gain access to the sounds, but the com- 
bination of a CD-quality sound source and a decent sampler can produce some of the cleanest sam- 
pled instruments you're likely to hear on an Amiga. 

\ use several of these CDs extensively. Here's a rundown of what J s on offer. 

EXOTIC PE«C (302 Sounds} - pizzacalo, harmonics* Sul 

Eonticelfci, slaps etc 


Pitched and im pitched sounds 
including warped harmonics, eerie 
scrapes and mere. 

ORCHESTRAL PERt (359 Sounds} - 
Various cymbals, marimba, slap- 
stick, temple block timpani, xylo- 
phone etc. 

DRUM AND BASS (61 B Sounds} ■ A 
comprehensive percussion disc fea- 
turing a wide variety of drums, 
tymbasi and basses. 

ELECTRIC GUITAR (475 Sounds) 
Those killer electric guitar licks 
including StraL Tally and Les Paul 
lllmmy Hendrix would turn in his 
grave! 

VIOUN SECTIONS & SCJLO VlOUN 
(300 Sounds) - Sustained, Sul: pon- 
ticello tremolos, harmonics, chro- 
matic runs* effects. 

CELLO SECTION; k SOLO CELLO 
(247 Sounds) - Sustained, nweate, 
g liases, harmonics, pizzacalo and 
many more. 

VIOLA ft BASS SECTIONS k SOLO 
(225 Sounds) - Various Sustained, 


TROMBONE AND BASS TROM- 
BONE (403 Sounds) - Various Siiir 
tained, swells* mute, cup mute, 
fortissimo, mezzo brie* piano etc. 

TRUMPFT (7Si Sounds) - Pop Bb 
trumpet, llugethorn, cornet (isn't 
that an ke cream? - Ed), pop pic- 
colo trumpet, classical Bb trumpet 
and classical piccolo trumpet. 

FRENCH HORN AND TUBA (2&7 
Sounds) - Various french horn sus- 
tained* swell?, t tuba, F tuba, cem- 
basso tuba and tuba FX. 


BRASS SECTIONS (348 Sounds) - 
Rock n 1 roll horns* large brass 
ensemble, brass quintet. Large brass 
ensemble FX. 



AflfW dtCHit IfHFipJn with 
AfCAI j rvnQt**' CDj 


SYNTH STACKS (439 Sounds) - 
Various strings including octave, full 
orchestra and attack, voicerealm, 
fuzzy sErmgs, bellsweep, ominous 
strings plus many more. 

City SOUNDS (700 Sounds) - 
Subway, trams* car sirens* airports, 
helicopters* trucks* city people. 

GRAND PIANOS (273 Sounds) 
Five beautiful grand pianos includ- 
ing Steinway, Bo sen dorter and 
Yamaha. 

WOODWINDS -DOUBLE REEDS 
(356 Sounds) - Oboe* oboe 
d J amore* English hewn, bass oboe, 
bassoon and contra bassoon. 

STRING DR OH k FX (1 77 Sounds}- 
Sustained,- puwJto* marcato, glis- 
sand®, various strings effects. 

SAMPLER SAMPLER (191 Sounds) - 
Various sound samples and effects. 
If you only intend buying one disk, 
then this is worth checking out. 





July 1991 Amkp Computing 





Amiga Computing August 1 991 



READER OFFERS 

See order form on page 143 



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Capture any 
sound you 
hear and 
replay it in 
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Master Sound 

It’s so easy to use: Simply connect the sampler to your 
Amiga, load the software and immediately you have the 
ability to capture sounds with amazing accuracy. 

Connect your compact disc player or personal stereo and 
digitise sounds to incorporate into your own games and 
tunes. 

The supplied software provides complete control over the 
sampled sounds: Cut and paste them, flip and fade them 
and you're still only using a tiny fraction of the sound 
processing tools available. 

Best of all, the comprehensive instructions will soon have 
you creating your own public domain demo disks complete 
with IFF picture files. 

It s the perfect sound sampling package for beginners and 
experts alike. 

Master Sound is a complete hardware and software 
sampling system for only £34.35 

“Is it real or is it Master Sound?” 

- Amiga Computing, May 1990 








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FIVE ways to improve your spelling 


In <i Flash: Read Ae word at it Rathe s on (he screen, fhen type it in. 
For practice runs, the word is left on the screen as it is typed. 

Rocket: Hidden words have to be discovered in Ais hi-tech version 
of the old favourite Hangman. If they are guessed correcfiy Ae rodte# 
wili blast-off. Fail and ail that's left is a load of scrap, 

Lunar Buggy: Type fast far fun. The orm is to key in tfie word os jTs 
pulled across Ae screen by Ae buggy. It has ta be completed before 
the letters drop down a outer. 

A If Mixed Up: Jumbled letters have to be sorted out to find Ae 
scrambled word, 7b help beginners - and 
anyone else who is stoci - clues can lie 
obtained at the press of a key. 

Conveyor Beit: Words pats by on the 
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Aey must be typed in - spelt correctly 
This is a challenging test of both spelling 
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All Ihe programs have several 
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tor using with SPEUf This 
•notes the packoge ideal 
mr practising rfio* honf-te- 
7° m or for 'Learn 

es * speJlr^1^| rt, homework. 


130 








COM MS 


The baun 








There are hundreds of BBS services to choose 
from. But which ones are worth calling? 

Eddie McKendrick goes in search of clues 


S ome fads come and go constantly - 
skateboards, hula -hoops, harrstyles and 
now, it would appear, bulletin boards. A 
couple of yean ago it was hard work fishing out a 
BBS to hook your modem up to. These days ifs 
more a case of finding one which isn't constantly 
engaged- 

Many beginners in comms make the mistake 
of trying one or two boards and either sticking to 
them or giving tip the comms habit for life. This 
is a great shame, as one of the benefits afforded 
modem-owning explorers is the ability to sample 
as many different services as time and finances 
allow. 

Buying a modem tends not to be an impulse 
decision. There is usually a specific service in 
mind, like Micronel, GX or CompuServe, when 
the purchase is made. Often BBS services are 
stumbled upon by chance rather than explo- 
ration. 

Many times people have contacted me here at 
Amigo Computing to a^k Why a board doesn't 
exist in their area, when in reality there are usu- 
ally a few and sometimes dozens to dial into. 

Quality matters 

Just because a lot of boards exist doesn't auto- 
matically mean it will be easy to Imd services 
worth logging on to. 

I'm not saying anything new here, in fact the 


last Lime I suggested that the quality of some 
boards left a lot to be desired 1 was greeted by 
baseball bat-wielding sysops up and down the 
country, determined to persuade me that every 
BBS in the land was worth its weight in phone 
bills. 

I have decided to stick my neck out again 
solely because the state of British bulletin board 
services seems to be getting worse by the day. 
Time and time again I have called boards only to 
find an egomaniacal sysop closely guarding a pile 
of public domain software that I already have, or 
don't want, 

Please don't get me wrung, I don't expect 
every board to have up to- the minute releases 
ready for me to grab. But on the other hand I 
don'L expect to download archives plagued with 
a virus or missing vital modules. 

Nqr for that matter do I expect to have a 
download interrupted in order to afford the sysop 
an opportunity to inflict his immense charm and 
wit upon me. 

Most badly run boards are short-lived affairs, 


usually because people stop calimg an .3 the ent- 
whiSe sysop eventually realises there must be eas- 
ier, cheaper ways to command fame and fortune 
without having to tie up a telephone line a^d 
Amiga in the process. 

Only the best 

A couple of issues ago I listed what I considered 
to be good examples of what well run bulletin 
hoards can offer. At the high end there was Tony 
Millers 01 For Amiga on 071-377 1 35S (8/N/1), 
while on a more modest but no less professional 
scale there was Steve Brazil's Speed BBS on 0734 
475549 (S/N/1). 

Two boards is hardly a definitive list Indeed, I 
receive letters- every month asking rf we wilt rein- 
state the Almanac BBS list which stopped Iasi 
year. Well the good news is Amiga Comping will 
be featuring BBS listings again, in a new, more 
detailed format than was previously possible. 

We aim to select the very best boards available 
from the hundreds on offer and provide some 
background detail for each service we feature. 

In order to get things moving, this is an open 
Invitation lor all interested sysops to send details 
of their boards for possible inclusion within our 
new-look listing. It's no good fust supplying the 
board name and number, I want to know what 
sets your board apart from the hundreds of oth- 
ers available. 

It doesn't have to be a massive board with 20 
lines and five networked Amigas in order to be 
featured. We are more interested m the board's 
content than its resources. Send details to - BBS 
List, Amiga Computing, Eunopa House, Adlmgton 
Park, Macclesfield, 5K10 4NP. 

Shop your sysop! 

Every board featured within the new listing will 
be called and verified by us before contact details 
are published. We won't be logging on with the 
name Amrgo fompuNng. After all, we wouldn't 
want to receive any special treatment just 
because we are a magazine! 

We are also very keen to hear what bulletin 
board callers rate as the best around, if you have 
experienced a particularly good, or bad, BBS on 
your (ravels, please do write in and let us know. 


Next month 

More Micronel monthly and how to 
become a sysop. 


Micronet monthly 

An (I foray Big Meuse ’ Purvis staffs the tint of your motrthfy Mtetoml 
sfors wish a whiitiesiop (our of online gomes 


One of Micronets strong points is the vast 
selection of online games. These range from 
Starnet which is essentially a big J 'play by mail" 
game, right up to the three big interactive 
attractions- Shades,, Trash and Casino. 

At the casino 

Casino is very much like the fruit machine and 
roulette games that are TQ-a-penny. Casino, 
however, is 2 p pet minute, which brings no real 
benefits over and above the chance to compete 
against other tellers For the highest store, 

In the shade 

Shades is a different matter, Imagine a huge 
text-only adventure game, add to this hun- 
dreds of other people playing at the same time 
who you can (and must) interact with to 
progress,, and you have Shades. 

Players (or Sbadists as they are known) 
are ruthless in their pursuit of 
points in order 
that they may 


r MlCR< 



make their way up to wizard status, usually by 
flashing their sword at thE odd passer-by and 
stealing his treasure! 

To some, the game is more a way of fife than 
light relief - it's easy to get hooked, and soon 
you could find yourself going to Shades 
’'meets", finding out what everyone else looks 
like in personl 

Digging the dirt 

Trash is a similar game to Shades - you work 
your way up from slave to lord by collecting 
rubbish that is littered around the mulhverse. 
The whale scenario is much more comical than 
Shades, not taking itself nearly so seriously. 

Both games are good ways to meet new 
'natters and have fun at the same time, if 
you're a fan af adventures. Shades and Trash 
will open up a whole new world to you. Even 
so, they are charged at, 2p 
p«r minute, and sometimes 
5 ^ 1 ^ \ . 1 you won't want to log off, 

f t Be warned,, Shades and 

Trash can seriously damage your wealth! 






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AMOS 



H ave you ever wondered about the 
Amos functions Sprite Base and Icon 
Base? They provide little hooks into 
Amos which allow you to find out more informa- 
tion about the bobs and icons you may have 
stored in memory. In this month's Amos column 
we explore these hooks, write some procedures 
to exploit them, and finally come up with a rou- 
tine to allow pasting of bobs according to their 
hotspots. 

Although Amos gives the illusion that bobs 
and icons are stored in a bank, they are spread 
about in memory to make maximum use off the 
space available. The Sprite Base/Icon Ease func- 
tions return the memory address of the Image 
you specify. For instance, if you type 
TEMP=5PRITE BASEO), the address of BO& num- 
ber one will be placed in the variable TEMP. 

OK, let's try that with a real set of sprites. 
Check out the coverdisk and you will find a bank 
called “TEDC>Y_BOB.ABK # - Load this bank into 
memory by pressing Escape to go to Direct mode 
and type 


Ittad nEMVJOB.AK" 

[ust so we have a nice clean screen to work on r 
type in 


FLiife Dif 
Cuts &ff 
CLi 0 

6et Sprite Fllctti 
?%m bob 50 # 5U 



You should now have a picture of a teddy bear 
sitting on you r screen I Ideally, it would be nice to 
find out a little more about the image which is 
sitting on the screen and it is through the Sprite 
Base function that we can achieve this. 

The area of memory Where the sprite image is 
stored also contains information on the width, 
height number of bitplanes, X hotspot and the V 
hotspot. To start by looking at the width of the 
teddy, jump back into the editor and type: 


HIZEHJ 
VMH-Firii 
Print WIDTH 
End at - * 

*o«d Sire XSEIEtSPIlUPU 
TgHMpHtc But {SHUN 

Erd PratCHIlc] 

If you run this program the number 4B should 
pop up on the screen. If it is not then start worry- 
ing! The procedure XSIZE[] finds out where in 
memoiy a sprite is stored and then looks at what 
value is stored in this memory beat ion, 

Things get a bit more complicated now. You 
will see that whatever value is found in this mem- 
ory location is then multiplied by 16. This is the 
way Francois Lionet designed Amos and is noth- 
ing to worry about. 

When you grab a bob or sprite Amos will 
always round the width up to the nearest multi- 
ple of 16, then store this number divided by 16. 
Fortunately this is only done withi the width so 
we don't have to worry about it For anything else. 


Peter Hickman ducking and diving on 
hooks and bobs, sprites and icons 


To the find out the height of an image, located 
two bytes or one word further up in memory, 
add the following lines to the bits you have 
already typed, remembering to put the first three 
lines above the End command which we used in 
the part of the program. 


mmii 

HECGHT=Pan« 

’ HE 1 «HT 

t 

Procedure TStlEESFAUM] 
tEflPz Sprite BmUrilUII) 
IJttE-»eeimilP*Z 3 
End frocCiSUE] 


The Amiga uses a series of bitplanes to store and 
display its images and Amos keeps to that standard 
even down to the sprites, A single bitplane is used 
for displaying a two-colour screen, two bitplanes 
are used for a four-coffpur screen, three bitplanes for 
an tight-colour screen and so on. 

A simple way to change the number of bit- 
planes into the amount of colours an image 
takes up is to use the formula COLOUR5=2 A BIT- 
PLANES- Type in the next bit of code, and 
remember to place the first three lines before the 
End command, 

SPUME SCI] 

PLMEWarti 

? mans 

I 

Procedure SPUME SESFMUVD 
T EWF* Sprite Bi^SPNU 
lUl=D#ifc£TEIP+4l 

in-d Pi-kUP] 



Now we will do something useful with the next 
two procedures - which return the X hotspot 
and Y hotspot. Note that although the hotspots 
are used in Amos when the Sprite or Bob com- 
mands are activated, they do not function when 
ysing the Paste Bob command. 


flith Off 
Curs off 
iu 0 

(it suritft unit# 
lot Spot 1,111 

STICKJ!I5(M,13 


Prfl«d«rr STIHJWKEAIW] 



mmm 

XiQT=Pin« 

THDTIHJN] 

TNOTiPirii 

PiStf Brt MM&V-IHOMUII 
End Prat 


Prccedurt PtOTtSPHUM] 
TEIMprite Bbje£ SPILTH 3 
HDT=DE-ik(TEMPt&> 

End ProctHOT] 


PrnCiduff THOTCiPMUHj 
lEPP-Sprlll Bii-s 1 
flftTMitl(TElM) 
End PrtcEim 


Things become even more complicated when 
using negative hotspots, mainly because Amos 
does strange things to store them. As a result this 


Bob sticker can only be used *ot *n*ge s pcs- 

itive hotspots. Ill give you a 99101 ! purpose rou- 
tine which can cope with any hotspot nest twr»^ 
Everything I have said so far can be used p -ar 
koni as wtil. Check these out 

Load "TFDfllJtfll Air 
Flask dm 
C urs flfi 
CLi 9 

Bet lean PilsStt 
Pute Icon 50,50,1 


Procedurt ISIltCSMJH 
TEHP=Icdh BiieLSFHLJI) 

1 S 12 E-leelfctTilP > *1 fi 

Eftd ProttlSJIEI 

Prpc«dure T$!TE(§PiUi] 

1IHF = Ic*n BihCSPHWI 
Tmt-heMTCMPti) 

End trulTtUE] 

i 

Prcctdure BPL'HEiCJPN JCl 
TEHP=I MitUrmil) 

End PmHilM 

t 

Protedurt KM ft SUMS] 

TE1P=kin BaseCSPHUm 
H0T=6nkCTEBP+6> 

End Prjttim 

frotedurn THOU iPdlilH 
teiif-iiM e^e( 5 PNun 
HCT-DetH '5d p +B:' 

Erd Pr«<[H^Tl 

One strange thing about icons is that although 
they don't use the hotspots, the gaps in merrwr, 
are still there. This was to retain compatib'i’ty 
with the sprite banks. This means that four bytes 
are wasted for every Icon you have in memory 
Perhaps you could come up with something use- 
ful to store in these empty slots? 

That's all the programming for this month 
The compiler should be in the shops pretty soon 
now and I'm sure you will be impressed by the 
speed increases it delivers. 

Ctext extension 

Another new extension is being developed for 
Amos. Called Ctext it a H -lcn« you to produce pro- 
portional or noivpfoportion&l font displays by 
using a quirk of the Amos system. 

All the characters are stored as icons bul not in 
bank number two, which means that you can 
have two icon banks in memory and your fonts 
can be any size 01 amount of colours. This means 
no more waiting around for those horrible 
WorfcberKh things. 

Oh welt I've nothing else to say except that if 
William Cochrane Is reading this - phone me! 
Willie wrote Electricity on FS3 5-73, and it's giving 
me a few headaches converting it to the CDTV 
version. Unfortunately he has moved and trying 
to track him down is proving pretty difficult. So 
call me Willie or 111 leave your name off the CDTV 
5 - 7s credits! 








N& 

SO 


3 


133 


imlga Computing 


ADVERTISERS’ INDEX 


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OTBS 128 

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JGL Business I.6.C. 

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Micronel 3 

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. 









CODE CLINIC 


P rogram source modules are solitary by 
nature and like to keep themselves to 
themselves, But a C module communi- 
cates with others of its kind, and even acknowl- 
edges an assembler source module. The software 
on the support disk contains no Fewer than four 
linked modules, as wefl as examples of key pro- 
cessing and the Execute command From the Dos 
library. But first a brief look at Sozofoqn C. 

Inspired by a letter to Amigt i Compuo'n^ | per- 
suaded Stevie Kennedy to send me a copy of the 
PD C compiler to try. I felt that if there were any 
readers using Sozobon, I ought to make my 
source code compatible. I find that if I remember 
to do any casting properly, and do not write the 
first array address as Smybuf when I really mean 
£tmybtif[Q] my code will compile with Sozobon, 

I was very Impressed with the package. 
Someone has gone to a great deal of time and 
trouble with this piece of public domain software. 
The code compiles to 68000 source code which 
it stores in ram. All modules are then assembled 
with the A6BK assembler and linked using the 
public domain linker Blink. 

Documentation on the disk includes adequate 
instructions on un-archiving and using the com- 
piler and assembler. Include files are not 
included, but there is an explanation of how to 
use them and where they can be obtained. 

The assembler version of a C source file could 
be very useful to someone translating from C to 
assembler, or wanting to optimise some of the 
code. I also found it useful to have the C Fibrary 
routines available for assembler modules. 


In the archives 


This month's software needs an IFF file reader, so 
I have included the source module itfread.c 
which reads and decompresses a picture File, 


ri adf 1 1 * \ na n> b i tup , 1 1 tirpcr t, t ode 1 


rEidl i LpC'loadpi c \l?i rBi Mlap, IIVP # 0*f 
Siltl IP ip{ Iff it i (Nip f D , C , IS t r c tnftl t p i Fv 

HavtSmentCiritScr/Dj-ffl)); 



Links a 




jjdlc'DirjjjeciJDm 




This reads an ILBM or ACBM File where name is 
the address of the filename, and bitmap is the 
address of the bitmap structure to be used 
assuming this bitmap is initialised and the rasters 
correctly allocated, viewport is a pointer to the 
viewport, and code is a colour change lag. 

The module assumes that the file is present, 
and is ILBM or ACBM and that the bitmap and 
viewport are OK. In this case, the picture is read 
into a buffer, copied to the screen, the colours 
changed to those of the IFF file, and then the 
screen is moved into place. 


There b no need to declare a void external func- 
tion readfikO as an external reference. 

The gadget module, imaginatively named 
gads.c, contains the data for the Four screen gad- 
gets - courtesy of Power Windows. The window's 
first gadget is declared as an external reference in 


Margaret Stanger plays tricks with IFFs 


lynx.c so that it can be used by lynxx. The main 
file lynxx contains: 


tslfrn Struct fiarijet LEidpttl; 
f^olstir la fir it gadget in gids.c file*/ 


where gads.c has /Gadget? defined as a structure 
in the normal way,. The gads.c file also contains 
the gadget handling routine; 


foie HjD^leEvenU ofc j tc t) 

APT! object; 

S 

if (object - ti»TR)ILGadget]] 
[ prd|ruZO;rfturn;3 
if fobjtct =- tAHt)H6*djet2> 
{ iad*{);f*turn;} 
if Object = ; 

{ pppsriilfJj return; 3 
11 lobjfct == MFTIUIl LMgiiU 
{ qiittO^riturn;} 

> 


Assembler joys 

It is possible to call an assembler function from a 
C module by declaring the assembler function 
address as an external reference. Values are 
returned via register dO, so all the joystick values 
from the joystick reading routine are put in dO, 
where the C compiler would expect to find them. 
The assembler source module 5tix2.a declares: 

KPEF .jllyalf 


for use In other modules. The C source module 
lynx.c declares: 


ixttrn Long pliyilgO; 
f*Ut t*( vgty? returned frai stiiZ.a*/ 


and uses it in the program as: 

JeyviLut = pliyiigO; 


The joystick routine uses the data registers. It is 
advisable if using any address registers other than 
a0 and al to push the registers on to the stack at 
the beginning of the routine, and pull them off at 
the end, paying particular attention to a4, 


The link 

The assembling and compiling of this month's 
code is straightforward: 


3 SR stiirf 

Lc [ym gad i 1 ff read 


and linked using part 7-Ink: 


mn LEB:s .fl* n lyni. d* 
* H iffrtsd,Q p * H stit2,9" 

TO 'iytkt* 

ill LIBrtt .fib ll^amgiAib 
BITCH 


The software 


The support disk contains a program - lynx - that 
will read in a picture file, loadpic. The four screen 
gadgets are View, which runs the May Code 
Clinic program. Fade, which fades the colours in 
and out. Window, which runs the March Code 
Clinic program, and Exit for when you get bored. 

Keys 1, 2, 3, and Esc haive the same function 


L®od Tfrttv? 

as the gadgets. When only 1 lew keys are 
involved, a simplified key handling routine car* be 
ustd. The code from the IntuiMessage gwi 
internal key code of the key pressed: 


i'* Handle eejtj 1 a r Laid icriEfl' 1 '/ 
laid HindLEKiyO 

{ 

cn9fi=<EddElZ55; /’■intirinl Ur itlt* 

if rt&dt==0:<Dl ? tpr(|r#i1(lffB4e=®;rttM™;: 

\\ Cca-de~=QiOS> (png NVOftadtrtl; return;? 
if ic9de— fliDZ) (fidt();rtl«rn;]i 
if tauitt3;cedE=D;f iturt;} 

} 


A program can be run from inside anotfrr pro- 
gram using the Execute command from the Das 
library. In this case, the program name u ali that 
is needed. There is no input or output fife* handle. 


vdld pragtisKJ 

S 

} 


This will read in and execute the Viewports pro- 
gram from the May 1991 edition of Code Clinic. 
After execution all the memory will be released, 
including that of the Viewports program code. 

When there are no messages fonn the window 
port the joystick is read, reluming a value with 
the appropriate left, right, up, down, and fire 
flags, 


jflriilue = pitriiflD; 
if C Joyvi Luc 1*0 ) 

{ 

if Joyratue l ll^il iriitlf AitiiJLi 11 “r\1! l f 
if ifjgy^UE * ZU±li 

if ft jay value ft l)“4} lfMtf[filil#rtLi,V,1); 
if (fj offline ft 1)^11 IfriTsifi^tinm/dV); 
if fl jgjpvaluE 1 Vr 11i< i i %1J; 


The results are written to the Dos screen using 
the initial output filehandle. The only value of this 
data is to show that the \o ystick routine is work- 
ing and returning a value. 


Disk goodies 

Also on the disk is the fully documented source of 
the main program (lynx.a), the joystick reader 
(itu2 a), the gadget data (gads.c) and the iff 
picture reader (iff read. £). Any code quoted on 
this page is not stand alone, so I would advise 
using the support disk rather than typing in any- 
thing From this page. 

I have also included the make and link files - 
although they may^need altering for other com- 
pilers - the object files, the picture data, and 
finally two- executable programs, 


COMING SOON... 

Fonts and the riiskfcmt 

library. 



f 7 



13 : 


August 1991 Amiga Computing 










Amiga Computing 





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DTP 


Picture this... 



T hese days, when the best wondprocessors 
support many different fonts and shies, 
multi-column layout and the like, it is the 
ability to incorporate pictures into a document 
that really sets DTP apart. And over the Iasi two 
years the growth in popularity of hard-held scan- 
ners - along with price cuts in desktop scanners - 
has allowed many DTP designers to use " real- 
world ^ images such as photographs, signatures 
and company logos, as well as computer-gener- 
ated art 

But the use of pictures, like the choice of type, 
can break a publication as well as make it In par 
titular, too many designers use a picture because 
it looks good on its own, without considering the 
way it fits into the page and the publication. 

After all, unless you're producing an art journal 
or what is euphemistically described as * men's 
interest'' magazines, people pick up your publica- 
tion to read the words. The pictures serve two 
functions: they can help bring the words LO life, 
and they give each page an individuality that 
pure text often lacks. 

The bigger the better 

But pictures are emphatically not merely decora- 
tions. Carefully ^chosen images are apparently 
worth a thousand words, and you should give 
them almost as much space, rf your eventual out- 
put will be on anything less than a laser printer, 
or tf it is likely to be photocopied, small pictures 
will lose impact along with detail. The shapes of a 
large image, however, are recognisable even 
from a dot matrix printer. 

Nevertheless, moderation in all things is the 
thing to remember. A picture which is foo big 
cannot be taken in at a single glance and its 
sense may be lost - just as an overlong sentence 
is difficult to follow. 

As a rule of thumb, a picture should not be 
larger than the field of vision at about a foot 
away from the eyes. To maintain the cohesive- 
ness of a page, make sure that pictures fit in with 
the grid you're using for type. 

Huge pictures can also unbalance a page. If a 
publication is predominantly text and small 
images, the sudden appearance of a picture 
almost filling the page will unnerve the reader 
who may then kg none the text beneath, uncon- 
sciously assuming that it's a full-page picture. Of 
course, this doesn't apply on title pages and the 
like, where text will normally be brief and set 
large. 

The bigger a picture gets, the tighter you 
should crop it for an exciting effect. Show only 
the interesting area of the image, and eliminate 
backgrounds. 

This is especially true with photographs of 
people. Far instance, take a picture of an angry 
politician in a room full of tedious grey-suited 
types. Printing the whole image means giving 
over a large part of your page to distracting irref- 
evanties, but crop right up to the politician on all 
sides and he'll jump out of the page. This is now 


Barnaby Page with a thousand words 
or so on the worth of pictures 



done very well in the national quality papers, fal- 
lowing the lead of The Independent, 

If the photograph, scan and output device are 
really of high quality, you can crop right Into the 
personas face, stopping fust below the chin and 
above the hairiine. And ears are there to be cut 
off, as Vincent said. 

All this is assuming that your images are 
scanned photographs. But for many publications, 
computer-generated art or diagrams are morn 
appropriate - and without access to a scanner, 
they 1 re all you can use anyway. 

The advantage ol computer-generated pic- 
tures, whether the/ re dip art or your own cre- 
ations, is that when properly done they take 
advantage of a printer's output resolution. 
Photographic prints are continuOUs-tone images, 
and the smooth greys of the original cannot be 
reproduced perfectly by any printer, however 
high its resolution; printers don't have grey ink, 
after all 

Instead, when they're scanned they go 
through a process of "halftoning", in which the 
original greys are approximated by altering the 
concentration, and sometimes the size, of black 
dots. You can see this effect by examining a lasers 
printed photo under a magnifying glass. 

How good the halftoning is depends on the 
scanner and the scanning software, but by defini- 
tion it is never perfect. Computer-generated art r 
by contrast, is usually drawn with a laser printer 
or 24-pin dot matrix in mind, and the artist can 
avoid effects which won't print satisfactorily. 

Remember here that what looks good an the 
screen won't necessarily work on paper. Popular 
Amiga techniques such as retracing, as shown 
in Amigo Computing's Gallery section, can be 
stunning in screenshots but often use too many 
subtle gradations to work well on a low-resolu- 
tion output device. 

The right line 

When creating art for publication, it's often bet- 
ter to rely on line drawing - printers can cope 
with straight lines better than anything else. 
Work in black and white unless you have access 
to a colour printer some colours appear stronger 
than others onscreen (red appears bolder than 
yellow, for in stance ), which can cloud your 
judgement of the eventual mono result 

And then of course there's clip art - free, pub- 
lic domain, ar strictly commercial much of it 
advertised in this magazine. The best bet when 
obtaining clip art is to go for one of the specialist 
collections - computers, motorbikes, fish, what- 
ever's relevant to you. 

The more general disks tend to include too 
many useless pictures of hearts, birthday cakes 


and the like, which many a desktop publisher has 
been forced to use out of desperation A* : that 
trap - pictures are as much a part erf yout docu- 
ment as the words, and deserve the same atten- 
tion. 



Copyright caveat 

Everyone knows that words belong to their 
author, although as is usually the case with 
m' learned friends, the details are a bit more com- 
plex than that. More confusion surrounds the 
copyright over pictures, but the important thing 
to remember is that it does exist. 

You must not reproduce a picture from the 
local paper or a book without the copyright- 
holder's permission - usually this will be the pub- 
lisher, However, if your publication is 
non -commercial, a phone call and a promise to 
acknowledge the source is usually all that's 
required for permission. Newspapers are happy 
to provide prints (at a cost) if you want ro scan 
them. 

On a brighter legal note, the invasioo-d-pn. 
vacy laws in Britain are much less restrictive than 
most people believe. You are perfectly free B : 
publish photographs of people without ttw per- 
mission, iprovided the context isn't Rxiloul 






CortfuT cropping Mngt 
out the bet l -orkavti It 
out - in | fiwt plctutes 


ID 


Barnaby Page Is editor ol PrePrcss m.ig,i 
zine and a DTP consultant. He can be 
reached on GX as ‘prepress 1 . 



6u | induing p6|ujv 1661 isnfiny 






Computing August 1991 


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Public concern 

As a relative newcomer to the world 
of computing, I have become inter- 
ested in public domain software. To- 
obtain programs for about a twentieth 
of the price of commercial one* seems a very 
good deal, but I wondered wether it was too good to 
be true, and hence I Initially regarded PD with scepti- 


cism. 

I now know a little more about reasons why pro- 
grammers might not want to make a profit on their 
work, but I still have misgivings that this kind of soft- 


ware might be prone to computer viruses. 

This leads me on to my main query. There doesn't 


seem to be a definitive work an viruses, so what little I 
know about this subject has been pieced together 
from articles in magazines. 

As I understand it, they are programs lurking on a 
disk inserted by practical jokers as an act of sabotage, 
and they can do anything from broadcasting silly mes- 
sages to wiping the main program on the disk dean. 

They can also corrupt any disks subsequently used, 
but you should be OK If you switch off the computer 
after using the disk containing the virus (shouldn't 
you?), and the virus cannot harm the computer's oper- 
ating software {can it?). 

So much for that, but I'm still a little unclear about 
how viruses get there in the first place. I suspect that 
when one Amiga user swaps his programs with 
another and this turns into a chain, then sooner or 


later some unsuspecting person will be landed with a 


virus. 

As far as L know you can't pick up viruses from com- 
mercial software or blank disks purchased from a rep- 
utable supplier (can you?). At any rate, I don't know 
any other Amiga users, and I've never had any trouble 
with viruses. 

So why do I think that PD software might be prone 
to viruses? Let us suppose that scene nasty person sub- 
mits a virus-infected disk to a PD supplier under the 
guise of donating his program to the nation out of the 
goodness of his heart. 

No matter how reputable the PD supplier is, will he 
be able to know what has happened? Put another 
way, can a PD supplier guarantee that his software is 
virus-free? 

It could be that l r m worrying unnecessarily and PD 
software isn't any more prone to viruses than any 
other kind. However, before S invest my life's savings in 
PD software, your advice would be appreciated. 

Howard Piizey, Staplehurst, Kent. 


What you say about viruses is correct for the most 
part. The best way to define a modern day virus Is 
as a piece of hidden code which transfers itself Into 
ram and then on to any further disks you Insert, 

A virus can, as you suggest be trivial or trau- 
matic. Powering down your Amiga should clear any 
virus from your system, simply because ram is 
volatile and is cleared when the computer is totally 
reset 

There h nowhere for a virus to hide long term 
Inside an Amiga. The obvious risk centres from any 
floppy dlski that have been Infected by the virus 
while it was In ram. 

There Is a whole range of virus checkers avail- 
able. These simply sit in ram and scan every disk 
Inserted Into your drive for each of the currently 
known viruses. When a virus Is found It can be 
examined or deleted. 

Most reputable PD libraries put all of their disks 
through a virus checker as part of the duplication 
process. You shouldn't rely on them doing the 
safety checks for you though. Every Amiga owner 




should have a virus checker. It Is you that has to live 
with the consequences of any Infected disks that 
slip through. All good sources of PD can supply you 
with the latest In virus killers. 

It makes very good sense to keep abreast of the 
situation and update the virus killer you employ 
every time a new version Is released. 


Back issue blues 

Regarding the Klondike game on issue 34's coverdisk, 
please could you let me know where if possible I can 
obtain further card games and how I go about obtain- 
ing another copy ol issue 34 J s ecverdisk. as mine has 
been kidnapped by another Amiga user. 

j Belcher, Swlnton 

There are loads of captivating card games available 
\n the public domain. Check out the PD section of 
this Issue for some contact details. 

Back Issues, including coverdisks, are available 


Ezra online 

Ezra Surf can be contacted on a whole host of 
bulletin boards and conferencing systems. IF you 
have anything to say, get it off your chest online! 

Amiga Computing now also has its own 
Fidonet echo which is being earned by BBS sys- 
tems up and down the country. Any Fido sysops 
interested in hooking up should contact 01 for 
Amiga to receive this echo. 

Additionally our mail man with the most, Lra 
Surf, hangs out on the following senriew:. 


Service 
Mitronel 
Telecom Cold 
CiX 

CompuServe 

The Direct Connection 

01 For Amiga 


Account number 

999900263 
74;MIK911 
amigacomputing 
70007,4734 
uadi 132 

Amiga Computing 


Write away! 

Cot something ia iav Through I He p.s of 
Computing 7 

E ztA burf ii our mailman, dedicated 10 vltoa ** ■ 
cornw reacting \ our lelten. .r 1 setecl 'xj lb* 
interfiling lor publication 

Ezra's favourite Mtm n^. 4 *-' " --1- i 

exclusive Amga CmtpwftftQ d-. r * 

Drop firm a firve ill Ejffl SuH * Povibaq " ; - 
Com puffin qr. Furopa H«ju- *%-’ - ,,J '® 

Mixdcitwid, SKI 3 -* ,fc . n 


for a limited period from out depart- 

ment, turopress Direct- 

See the reader order form on page 161 for their 
address and telephone number 

PD price plummet 

Regarding your |une 199T asue. in your rather nice arti- 
cle about the world at pJbkt domain you staled that 
Amiga pubk demw was available for 50p up to £5. 

Well I am rupp-. to teH you that I am running a PD 
company which setli public domain for 4 Op. The price 
indudes a copy of the requested software, label stating 
the software on the disk and return postage. All the 
customer njs to tend is 40p and the disks. 

My library consists of over 200 disks and is growing 
every day. To join ail the person has to do is send a 
disk and a stamped self-addressed envelope. 

I will In return send them a copy of my latest cata- 
logue disk which has a list of all my PD, a few demos, 
some utilities, a PD game and a classifieds section. 

They will also receive an order farm. Orders are always 
put back into the post within three days. 

I am not offering the best service, what l am offer- 4 
ing is value for money. "But what has it got to do 
with me?", I hear you ask. Well, with prices as low as 
that I just cannot afford to advertise In the more 
famous magazines, I have to put up with adverts in ► ^ * 



Amty* Computing August 1991 


O- 

UJ 


But is it art? 


White browsing through my elderly computer maga- 
zines E suddenly had a brilliant idea. 

Many of the game advertisements which I see fea- 
ture superb artwork of the highest quality, and it 
seems such a shame that much of ft is now long for- 
gotten. 

This is where the computer companies tome in. 
They could produce an annual calendar and poster 
book containing all their best pieces of artwork as 
nominated by the general public and various com- 
puter magazines. 

These books and calendars could then be sold for a 
couple of pounds each and I'm sure that everybody 
with an interest in art would buy them. 

The artists who draw these illustrations must spend 
hours on them - compiling calendars and poster 


books would widen the audience of appreciative view- 
ers and form the definitive collection of computer 
drawings from oniy the very best artists. 

What do you think of this rdea? 

5 N Hardy, Wales, Sheffield 

Many software houses give posters away with 
games these days. The idea of an annual or calen- 
dar seems a good one, but you will probably find 
that only people interested in computer games 
would actually appreciate the very distinctive style 
of art used on most software packaging. 

Our sister weekly games magazine Cnmrs X pro- 
vides computer art posters every week. 

One last thing, just how many different colours 
of pen do you have? 


►free ad columns. People just don't take any notice 
though because they think that there's a catch and 
that they are going to lose their disks, but it is not true! 

There are many fly-by-night libraries which go bust 
and punters never see their money again. Burman's PD 
has been running now for a year and I have only 
received one complaint which I instantly solved. 

Richard Burman, 41 Pinner Park Cardens, 
Harrow, Middlesex, HAl GLQ 

We have a regular PD column every month in 
Amiga Co mputing which provides a platform for PD 
libraries, large and small. Why not send in your cat- 
alogue disk with some of your latest releases? 

Commodore con? 

Why do Commodore make such wonderful computers 
but such pathetic peripherals? 

Take for example the A1 01 0 drive. This was origi- 
nally sold for £150, and was eventually considered to 
be a bargain offer when reduced to £100. 

Why, oh Why, would anyone wish to pay £1 00 far a 
chunky big bo* identical to the internal drive when 
they can buy a sophisticated model for £40 less? 

Perhaps their selling strategy b to make the inno- 
cent Consumer believe that because the price is so 
high it will be of very high quality. 

If this is the case, then \ fell into their trap when I 
purchased the A501 ram expansion for a staggering 
£85, rather than buying one of those £30 efforts- 

Another fine example of this is the Commodore 
mouse, which will be quickly replaced by any serious 
user if ft is not broken first. 

Obviously Commodore have the technology to 
develop better peripherals, so if they had any sense 
they would start concentrating on more competitive 
prices to avoid them losing money to the other firms, 
Brian Greenhill, Whitecraigs, Glasgow 

Commodore disk drives have been notorious right 
from the days of the 1S70 external drive for the 
C64. I agree with you that Commodore peripherals 
tend to be on the hefty side both in terms of 
design and price. 

Why do people buy them? Well you can answer 
that question yourself with your purchase of the 
ASDt. People Instinctively trust a brand name. 

I have to confess that Arnica Computing Is far 
from impressed with the quality of Commodore 
bott-ofis, having waited two months for a monitor 
for our Amiga 3000, only to find it was faulty 
before we got it out of the box. 


Workstation wait 

1 saw an advert for the Amiga Computing Workstation 
disk in your magazine last month. It sounded like a 
really goad idea, so I sent off my £3.50 and waited 
eagerly for two weeks for it to anive. 

You can imagine my horror when nothing came 
and my cheque hadn't been cashed. 

After phoning Europress Direct I found out that 
there had been a big demand for The Workstation and 
you were sending out the disks as fast as you could. 
Luckily my own copy of your excellent Workstation 
arrived just two days later, complete with a very nice 
manual. 

Would it not be better to make sure you have lots 
and lots of spare copies of something as impressive as 
The Workstation before you advertise it? Having said 
all that, it was worth the waft!: 

A, Parker, Cork, Ireland 

You would not believe the number of orders we 
received for The Workstation within a week of the 
first advert hitting the streets. 

Our order processing and dispatch people did 
duplicate loads of disks ready for the orders to flow 
In, but we obviously didn't reel off enough of them. 
It just goes to show that a good idea can go a long 
way. 

Pm glad you think ft was worth the little waft. As 
an aside, we now have enough Workstation disks 
to undertake major land fill and reclamation pro- 
jects, so order with confidence 

Shareware scam 

After reading your excellent feature on viruses in the 
March edition of Amiga Computing I sent off 10 dollars 
to obtain the program VScan 4.9 fk from Arthur Hagen 
johan of Norway. 

After waiting over a month and receiving nothing I 
posted a second letter and I have had no reply. I won- 
der if any more readers have had the same problem 
with this man. Do all shareware - or whatever you call 
them - authors treat you this way? 

J Gower, Putney, London 

Considering most users of shareware programs 
make no donation whatsoever It is sad to hear that 
an author is treating you in this way. 

All I can say to reassure other readers Is that I 
personally have made shareware donations In the 
past and received very polite, prompt service from 
authors with better manners than Mr johan would 


appear to possess, if you read this Mr johan and 
there has been some misunderstanding, please get 
in touch with Mr Gower. I wf FI keep everyone In 
touch with any progress through these pages. 

By Jupiter 

Would you think I was being cheeky if I asked you 
whether our not your headquarters are located OH the 
sa me industrial park as those of AMOS fame? 

If so, would you mind popping over there and ask- 
ing them (very politely) where they've hidden the fries 
associated with June's AMOS column? 

1 can't find them, and I am now a very frustrated 
beginner who, tomorrow shall buy another copy of 
your magazine in a desperate quest for AMOS satisfac- 
tion. 

Stephen Mackenzie, Woodsmoor Park, Stockport 

It's a fair cop! Our AMOS main man Peter Hickman 
supplied the code too late to be included on the 
coverdisk you mention. All was put to rights the 
month after though. 

Amiga Computing Is located in the Idyllic 
Adlmgton Park in a building called Europe House. 
Mandarin Software on the other hand are located 
across the road in Triton House. Why our respective 
buildings are named after Jupiter's moons Is one of 
the many unsolved mysteries of our iFme. 

Short circuit 

I have just read the feature in the June edition of Amiga 
Comparing by Paul T. Whiteley about what to do if 
your Amiga's heart stops beating. Ar first 1 could not 
believe that the article was meant to be serious and 
then, horror of horrors, I realised that it was. 

I have been in the electrical and electronic trades 
since I started work, nearly 40 years now, and a short 
circuit, whether you prefix it with LIVE or DEAD has 
always meant one thing - somewhere in the circuit 
two or more conductor, be they wires, tracks, compo- 
nents leads or any combination of these, have made 
contact with each other at a place where they 
shouldn't, allowing a current, normally a high one, to 
flow. 

What Mr Whiteley describes as a dead short circuit 
is what is usually known as an open circuit, which 
seems only Fog leal when you come to think of it. If the 
circuit is broken it must be open. 

What I find so disturbing about an article such as 
this is that it may encourage some Amiga user who ii a 
complete novice at electronic i to have a go at repairs 
that are well beyond his capabilities and a £300 
Computer is not the place to experiment 

P | Richards, Kent 

l agree totally that people who don't know what 
they are doing shouldn't meddle inside their 
machines. Paul was at pains to emphasise that if 
anyone is unsure, an expert should be consulted. 

To quote the article “A five short triof you don'f 
know about could hilt you... Get a professional'" 


Oiltere sutyecf 
Tc]- avajJatiifay 


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Spell - See Page 130 
CompactfArob/Eiec 3-5 

£9.95 

3612 


BBC 5.25 40T 

£5.95 

3610 


BBC 5.25 SOT 

£6.95 

3611 


BBC.i'Elec Ta p« 

£6.95 

3617 


Amiga 

£8.95 

3614 

— 

ST 

£8.95 

3613 

— - 

PC 3. Sin 

£5.95 

3616 

— 

PC 5 25in 

£5.95 

3615 

— 

Photon Paint 2 _ 

Pam in 4096 Colours 

£39.95 

9945 

LJ 


Personal Stereo System 

£19.95 9993 □ 


Rolling Ruler 

£6.50 

* 

*» n 

Amiga Computing Cover Disks 

( Misc . setecftorty 

Etfna disks (set of 5) 

£7,50 

9387 

d 


E*tra disks (set of ?0) 

£2000 

9S33 \ 


Amiga Music 





Soundbfaster (See Page 136} 

£47.95 

9959 



Quartet 

£39.95 

9913 



Master Sound (See Page 130) 

£34.95 

9914 



Package of all Ihree 

£104.95 

9960 




Amiga DABhand Guide - see page m 

A comprehensive gu*Je to the Amiga's disk — . 

eperaling system (veretori! 1 .2 and 1 .3} £14.95 9666 • 1 


Send to: Europress Direct, FREEPOST, 
Ellesmere Port, South Wlrral L65 3EB 

(No stamp needed It posted in UK> 

Products are normally despatched within 46 hours of receipt 
but &ztiv$<y of certain items couW cate up to 28 (fays 


ORDER at any 
time of the 
day or night 




Don'r /orgef to give your narm r 
address and credit card numb&f 


By phone: 051 357 1275 
By Fax: 051 -3572813 
General Enquiries : 051-357 2961 


OFFER OF THE MONTH! 


Mavis Beacon 
Teaches Typing 

RRP £29.95 Our Price £22.95 9953 □ 


Re-Ink Spray -See Page 122 

£12.95 9998 □ 



Persona/ Finance Manager - See Page 136 

£24.95 9942 □ 


Joysticks & Mouse 

Comp Pro GIg Green £1 4 .95 9954 

Comp Pro Eulra Joystick £13.95- 9955 

GfiStolnar Mouse £19.95 $$56 


Dust covers 


E4.95 950? 


a 


Mouse mats 


£4.95 9506 


□ 


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£5.95 95M 


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£4.95 9W0 


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Addition for postage. Europe & Eire add £3 jj 

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unites otherwise indicated 


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■fijUfY 166L 1*I'6 rl V 






Amiga Computing 




144 



POPULOUS 

Create the world . . . govern the people . . . unleash 
natural disasters on your enemies . * . change the 
geography of mighty planets. 

4 Game of the Year, Most Original Game , Best 
Game 9 - European Computer Leisure Awards 




\ 


\ «e® 


V 


REAL VALUE FOR MONEY! 

Subscribe now, and receive either the Persona/ Sound System or 
the two games absolutely FREE! You will receive 12 issues of 
Amiga Computing at £2.99 each (£35.88) plus your gift worth 
£29,95 - that ’s a total value of £65,83 for only £34.95! 


For UK subscribers who would prefer free games software 
to the Personal Sound System (see opposite page) we 
are giving away TWO brilliant Infogtames award-winners 
which have impressed reviewers worldwide. Normal rrp 
for the package of these two games is £29.95 


SIM CITY 


Take the destiny of the world's greatest cities or the 
city of your dreams in hand , . , build factories, houses, 
airports . . , fight crime and pollution. Will you prove to be 
a good Mayor? 


4 Entertainment Program of the Year, Educational 
Program of the Year, Best Simulation of the Year f 

- USA Software Publishers Association 







SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM (including FREE monthly disk) 


Please tick the appropriate box 

12 months" Subscription {Including monthly cover disc) 

Hew Renewal 

UK £34.95 as* 

Europe/Eire £39.95 asm 

Rest of World - Airmail £54 .95 



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Personal Sound System 

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By phone: 051-3571275 
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Genera/ queries: 051 -357 2961 










Subscribing now to Amiga 
Computing brings you not only 
12 months of the best in Amiga 
news, features and special 
interest coverage. 

You also get, ABSOLUTELY 
FREE ; the Amiga Computing 
Personal Sound System 
-RRP £29.95. 


Lose yourself in a new 
dimension. Experience all 
the fun and excitement 
of your favourite games, 
music packages, etc - 
without disturbing 
the rest of the 
household 1 


The Personal 

Sound System comprises: 

* A cleverly designed interface and the latest 
high-velocity lightweight headphones 

* Crystal char stereo sound reproduction 

* Can be used in three different ways: headphones 
sound only, monitor sound only, sound on both 
headphones and monitor 

*■ Interface features a tough plastic case with 
volume control 

the headphones with your personal 


* you can also use 
stereo or hi-fi system 

■k Full instructions supplied to help you get the most 
out of this superb accessory 





' fm 1 

I r All 

W h * 

Hv\ v • r ■ 











Horror story 

We just can't stand any more virtual 
reality puns, so k is with a certain 
degree of reiser that we are closing 
Caught in the act! 37. 

Entries came in thick and fast, 
though mainly thick it has to be 
conceded. After much sifting, coffee 
drinking, and very little delibera- 
tion,, if the truth be told, the Amigo 
Computing team have gone for the 
witty barb below submitted by 
Colin Sanders bom Denton 

A copy of Elvira the game is in 
the* post as you read this, adding a 
whole new dimension to the term 
*bod>y n prize. fust 



TVi always A btoiv-ufj Nkfr Vfrtch 





Cover story 


Who‘s glory? 

In a sudden, unexpected deviation from 
Caught in the oct/ tradition, competition 
number 39 is totally devoid of any 
Amiga Computing staff. 

instead we have a snapshot of some- 
handsome footballing fella, plucked 
from the family album while he was out 
recording his next hit single. If you 
have any witty words that set this slice 
of photographic history off a treat, do 
send them in, 

Aik entries to: Caught In the act! 39, 
Amiga Computing, Europa House, 
Adi I ng ton Park, Macclesfield, SKI 0 
4NP, 


(□it a quick thank you to Henri 
Bujko for producing last month's 
Amigo Computing cover. I he 
Stunning ray- traced jet and shiny 
AC logo was produced by Mr 
Alternative Image himself, 
using a whole range of 
advanced 24-bit techniques. 

To find out what ray trac- 
ing can do for ynu r just give 
those really nice Alternative 
Image people a call on OS33 
440041 


Lemmings! 

We can at last announce the lucky win- 
ners in our great Lemmings giveaway. 
You are probably expecting this article 
to lunge into ail the tried and tested 
eompo-gibber, you know the sort of 
thing; "we had an overwhelming 
response" and the like, 

The fact is. being hardened 
Lemmings fans here in the AC office, we 
did expect a big response. What we got 
though was a huge response, 

All we wanted was a name and 
address, nothing more. That didn't stop 
some entrants spinning us an elaborate 
web of emotional blackmail. 

Take, for example, this disgusting 
threat from Antony Brewer from 
Newbury Berks. I think you will agree 
he is a truly sad character. We could 
hardly ignore this Lemming death threat 
and as a result our man Anthony is one 
of the many winners. 

Many thanks to everyone who 
entered, it's just a pity we don't have 


Bunder banter 

We have also dosed the mail sacks for Caughr 
m tbt wrf IS. In a sudden bout of oompas- 
jbri, we have decided to let Leslie choose the 
best caption himself 

Apparently he has lots of pri« ideas lor 
(he eventual winner M CITA IS. front runner 
at the moment appears to be a Mow torch 
with flame-thrower attachment. 

Who knows. Leslie may even deliver the 
prize to the lucky winner. . 



enough Lemmings gear to give every- 
one some goodies. 

The other lucky winners are; V 
Simmons (Middlesex), t Manning 
(Southend-on-Sea), A K Woolgar 
(Sussex), M Burbridge (Kent), H 


Moore, (Sheffield), B Kltt, (Cornwall), 
D Litherland (Bolton), ft Walker 
(Dudley), D Griffith (Cheltenham), 
Peter Mitchmen (Boston), Ben 
Hampshire (Kent), 1 Oliver 
(Cleveland), T Arnesen (Norway), 



Yes, we know, it's a silly picture. Even 
more silly than the infamous snapshot ol 
a cat clawing at an Amiga mouse which 
Amiga Computing was so fond of using 
In its formative years. 

As well as being an opportunity rto 
publish another silly photo, it r s a chance 
for us to dear more room in the AC cup- 
board by having another Rock Lobster 
Compo. 

To win a prize that will leave you 


completely speechless, simply write in 
and tell us which member of the AC 
team this moggie belongs to and what it 
is called. 

So you're not left totally clueless, this 
feline could tome from Devon and it 
loves custard. 

Send your entries lo^ Stevie's Cat, 
Rock Lobster, Amigo Computing , Europa 
House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield, 
SKI (MNP. 




We do 


COLOUR 


Our VIDEO DIGIT ISERS are RIAL- TIME and 
COLOUR, They GRAB a FRAME s- 

a TV camera can provide it, PL I S v ■ . 

include a live framestore output inr 
connecting to a second picture monitor or 
even a TV set to simplify focusing a ‘ : 


Step into the real-world of real-time AMD colour 
No need for a perfect freeze frame VCR ' 

No need for a colour splitter! 

No need for a colour wheell 

Perfect pictures from a mowing < « ^ m 

button 

With SupcrPic ard ColourPit 

* GRAB a frame from a moving pit lure - M GOO v*r« 

+ SAVt and display pictures in over J J.tM 

* ENHANCE your DTP skills wtih a a ■> ■■ 

monochrome tools. 

* INTERFACE directly with! hr ajm ,-.x - ■ m <* 

use its wide range of powerful muse ?«««>* 

* CRFATE pictures. lor use in image • ** kws 

* CREATE a piclure whn h , ,m in- ■ - ini - ' rj%< - ■ 
package . . . Deluxe Paint, Photon P» 

* PRINT to your colour or tt ' - ' ' ■ 

* SEE your SCULPT images as - hi has# 

Use ColourPic tit SaperfM - 
device! 

* DIGITISE images in HAM, inlertace and overscan modes, 

* MULTI-TASK safety with ywa other software 


t seen ifrem betore' 
SCULPT drspUv 


ColourPic - a real-lime colour video digitiser for the A500, A20D0 
and A3000, 

NEW recommended retail price £399 inc. VAT. 

SuperPic - a real-time t niuur video digitiser for the A50D and 
A2000 including a superb quality genlock for Ihe discerning 
Amiga user. 

NEW ri-t orn mended retail price i-199 inc, VAT. 


ColourPic and SuperPic tan he obtained from selected Amiga 
dealers or direct from |Q. Fur your free show disk of picture’s 
contact Carolyn on 0892 757’Jt. r~ 


JCL BUSINESS SYSTEMS LIMITED 

Ktiowle Farm Clock House, Wadhurst Road, Frant, East Sussex TN3 9EJ, England, 
Tel: 089275 791 (INT) +44 89275 791. Fax: 089275 440 TINT) +44 89275 440. 






■ 


new TBSH ۩$&(PH1?I 

c©n©y^ mmwm 


£ 179 


Vidi ... No 1 in UK & Europe (Leading the way forward) 



"The Complete Colour Solution" 

The Worlds ultimate creative leisure product for your 
Amiga. Capture dynamic high resolution images into 
your Amiga in less than one second. 


Images can now be grabbed from either colour 
video camera, home VCR or in fact any still video 
source. The traditional method of holding three 
colour filters in front of your video camera is certainly 
a thing of the past. Because Vidi splits the RGB 
colours electronically there are no focussing or 
movement problems experienced by some of our 
slower competitors. Lighting is also less of an issue 
as light is not being shut out by lens filters. Put all 
this together with an already proven Vidi- 
Amiga/Vi diChrome combination and achieve what 
is probably the most consistant and accurate high 
quality 4096 colour images ever seen on the Amiga. 


' Actual wreteuched diyiliwtl screenshot ' 


The colour solution is fully compatible with ail 
Amiga's from a standard A 500 to the ultimate A3000. 
No additional RAM is required to get up and running. 


You will see from independent review 
comments that we are undoubtedly their first choice 
and that was before the complete solution was 
launched. If you have just purchased your Amiga 
and are not sure what to buy next, then just read 
the comments or send for full review and demo disk . 


Grab mono images from any video 
source 

Capture colour images from any still 
video source. 

Digitise up lo 16 mono frames on a 
Imeg Amiga. 

Animate 16 shade images at different 
speeds. 

Create windows m both mono & colour. 
Cui & Paste areas from one frame to 
another, 

Hardware and software brightness & 
contrast control. 

Choice of capture resolutions standard 
& Dynamic interlace 
Full Palette control. 

Add text or draw within art package 










There has NEVER 


Subscribing to Amiga Computing brings you 1 2 
m 


been a better time! 


months of me best in Amiga news, Features and 
special interest coverage. Now here's on extra 
bonus: whether you are a new subscriber or 
renewing an existing subscription you can choose 
between these two unique gifts: 


SOUND SENSATION 

Subscribe NOW and you can 
enjoy the sensational sound of 
the Amiga in total privacy - with 
Amiga Computing's exclusive 

PERSONAL SOUND SYSTEM 


OFFER 


Take your pick! 


TWO FREE GAMES 

Subscribe NOW to Amiga 
Computing and we will send you 
the award winning games duo 
SIM CITY and POPULOUS - 

both absolutely free! 


SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM (including FREE monthly disk) 


R&AStf Jfc* The appmwato tx>x 

12 months' Subscription {ineiuding manthty eawiKj 

Me* RtmettB* 

UK £34.95 

Eurapg/Eire £39 95 

Qt World - Airmail £54 95 


SUbwnpjfiiJVl ffltfsrs rgcffVstf Onfcrffl AiJy Pfi 
ccktwtwH^ iinWl SeplFi^itWJ- 


Piymera: fHaasa moftrad ^ 






n 


JS» 


1 so? 



remit 

U LLLL 



E 


J 


Send to: Europress Direct, FREEPOST, Ellesmere Port, 
South wirral L65 3EB (Notfamp needed H posied m W) 


By phone 051-3571275 


Bybx OS1-357 2B13 


General queries: 051-357 2961 


-ri-B-i. uv ■ 


uu uai.i ih?% 


Quality matters 

lust because i lot of board* mft (taint aulio- 
maticatty mear ^ p* to find unices 
worth logging c*r to 

I'm not saying; anydwtg w Im, in fact the 


l^iuLjULu iibui 

a vims or missing vital modules. 

Nor for that matter do I expect to have a 
download interrupted in order to afford the sysop 
an opportunity to inflict his immense charm and 
wit upon me. 

Most badly run boards are short-lived affairs, 




_» ■ 


Micronet monthly 


. \ • Pun i iUirfi (he firit at your monthly Mkronet 

i >' -,fh e »hJilVilt»p tCKJr of online gomri 


One of Micmret v urong pc -p, t the vast 
selection ol uniir-e *-<:« a ?? from 

Stamet which is esser'^v i fc*j "cnt. fiv mail' 
game, right up to me « r ; : r-tef active 
attraction! - Shades Trash jn 3 C*V"o 


At the casino 

Casino is very much kg t^e fru r whine and 
roulette garner that j-? 10-*-penn> Casino, 
however, is 2pp^m- ■* - : - gi oo real 

benefits av*rand jbew vw < * - - compete 

against other 'iwnw fey score 


make their way up to wizard status, usually by 
flashing their sword at the odd passer-by and 
stealing his treasure! 

To some, the game is more a way of life than 
light relief - it's easy to get hooked, and soon 
you could find yourself going to Shades 
■'meets", lifting out what everyone else looks 
like in person! 


. i_h_h_i v l. 14. si ^ ivi j IMUIIU i ujp>i .y I! *PU mn ■ 

state the Almanac BBS list which stopped last 
year, Well the good news Is Amiga Computing will 
be featuring BBS listings again, in a new, more 
detailed format than was previously possible. 

We aim to select the very best boards available 
from the hundreds on offer and provide some 
background detail for each service we feature. 

In order to get things moving, this is an open 
invitation for all interested sysops to send details 
of their boards for possible inclusion within our 
new-look listing. It's no good just supplying the 
board name and number, I want to know what 
sets your board apart from the hundreds of oth- 
ers available. 

It doesn't have to be a massive board with 20 
lines and five networked Amigas in order to be 
featured. We are more interested in the board's 
content than its resources. Send details to: BBS 
List Amiga Computing, Europa House, Adlinglon 
Park, Macdesfieldl SKID 4NP. 


In the shade 


Shades n a drflefent ~ 2 ”f' -tf-"* i huge 
text-only adventure kxJ to thii hun- 

dreds of other people pw. at the s*rc time 
who you car 1 (aod rnuj! 'te'ict with to 
progress, and you have Shadn 

Players (or Shatfcfts as they are known) 
are ruthless in then fnrui * o# 
points in order 
that they may 


\ \lCR ( 



Digging the dirt 

Trash is a similar game to Shades - you work 
your way up from slave to lord by collecting 
rubbish that is littered around the m universe. 
The whole scenario is much more comical than 
Shades, not taking itself nearly so seriously. 

Both gamps are good ways to meet new 
'netters and have fun at the same time, if 
you're a fan of adventures, Shades and Trash 
will open up a whole new world to you. Even 
so, they are charged at 2p 
P er Samet -imes 

1 you won't want to log off. 

| Be warned, Shades and 

Trash can seriously damage your wealth! 


Shop your sysop! 

Every board featured within the new listing will 
be called and verified by us before contact details 
are published. We won't be logging on with the 
name Amiga Computing, After all, we wouldn't 
want to receive any special treatment just 
because we are a magaiine! 

We are also very keen to heat what bulletin 
board callers; rate as the best around. If you have 
experienced a particularly good, or bad, BBS on 
your travels, please do write in and let us know. 


Next month 

More Micronet monlhly and how to 
become a *ysop. 





Amiga Computing August 1991 


Europress Direct 
FREEPOST 
Ellesmere Port 
South Wtrral 
L65 3EB 






j|^ “hit 


real or is it Master Sound?” 

-Amiga Computing, May f 990 


•) 






m 


m m * 




* * * 




Passing an exam 
applying for a fob 
whatever you want to do in 
able fo SPELL! 


yea need to be 


There's mouniing dorm about the 
appalling slanaards of spelling 
among Britain's schodchildren:. MPs, 
leathers, parents and wnpkyyers ore 
□II stressing ihe vital importance of 
being abb to Spdl correctly. 

Yet moit homes have who* could 
be the ideal means of teaching 
spelling - ihe computer, 

Imteod of sopping aliens ii could 
be turned into the best weapon of all 
to deal o body blow to bad spelling. 
With the help of 0 brim on I new 
sottwars 
package that 



make* practising spelling painless but 
also loads of fun as well. 

SPELl! is unique It lets the user 
learn ot his or her own pace. They 
con take OS long as they like - or lake 
on the computer in a high-speed 
challenge! 

And this one package is ideal for 
everyone - with the lowest age gtoup 
suitable few under-Ss* while me mare 
advanced words will stretch even the 
mosi able students. 

If includes five different teifc r each 
making U-se &f mare fhofl 5 f 00Q 
words - so much variety that you'll 
never get bored. 


• 5 DIFFERENT TESTS 

• O VER 5,000 WORDS 

• FOR AGES 5 TO V 5 


SPFUf only costs £8.95. It is now available on 
disc and tape for six of the most popular home 
computers 


FIVE ways to improve your spelling 


In 0 Flask Read rfie word os it Rashes on the screen, then type it fn. 

For practice runs, /fie word is left on the screen as it is typed, 

Rocket: Hidden words have to he discovered in this hi-tech version 
of ffie ofd favourite Hangman, If rfiey are guessed correctly the rpclref 
will blast-off. Foil and all that's left is o load of scrap. 

Lunar Buggy: Type fast for fan. The ofm is to key in die word as if 's 
pulled across die screen by the buggy. II has to be completed before 
fas fetters drop down a crater. 

All Mixed Up: Jumbled letters have to be sorted otrl to find fee 
scrambfed word. 7b help beginners - and 
anyone efse wiho is Stuck - clues can be 

obtained of fbe press of a key. , firm rflori * Cl USjn 9 the 

0,000 words proyjjgj 

Conveyor Beit. Words pass by on fbe porenfs - or _ (Qfl ' 

screen and have to be remembered. Then create tta r own word into 

they musf be Typed in - spelt correctly. for using with SPELLi This 
This is a cboffenging test of both spemng I"*’* 6 * potStog* ideal 
and memory. j procfiiing tf»se ftard-to- 

teom words, or for "team 

All the programs have several these spellings’ homework 
options for extra flexibility - like 
a timer with on/off option to 


130