Australian Commodore and Amiga Review, The - Volume 8 Issue 3 (1991-03)(Saturday Magazine)(AU)

Vol 8 No 3

March $3.50

The Australian

COMMODORE
and AMIGA REVIEW

Virus Update . BBS Sysop Interview

QuickWrite - Wordprocessing for under $100

Latest Games Reviewed • Tips . High Scores

Registered by Australia Post Publication No NBG 6656

* Recommended Retail Price Only

PRODUCIS

Wicked radical music
software from Dr. T's!

music software should be as personal as a vintage guitar, and as power
300 watt amplifier slack. Our sequencers have always been able to confi
themselves to the way you want to work. And the V3.0 Level II and K(
revisions are even more powerful and easier to use than ever before.

~ exclusive Multi Program Environment allows for dynamic data transfer. ■;

J as the standard multitasking. You can transcribe directly from the sequenc
to Copyist, record your Caged Artist editor "moves" directly into the sequence
use AutoMix (included free with Level II and KCS) to perform real time "MIDI
mixdowns." or instantly switch between MPE modules from the Intuition menu
II you need to sync to tape, our new Phantom SMPTE synchronizer will lock you
up faster and cheaper than you would have dreamed! And Dr.T's has added Laurie
Spiegel's acclaimed Music Mouse program to our line of quality products.

Dr.T's. software of quality and power that will never go out of style!

SEQUENCERS
LEVELII30w/AiiIoMik
KCS 3 w/AiiloMu
IlfilRCiib
MRS VI I

EDITORS/LIBRARIANS

CASIO VZ I V/ RIDER

CZ RIDER

DX HEAVEN

EMU Proteus

ESO'apatto ESQ- 1SO-80

4-OP DELUXE (Yamaha)

KAWAJK-1

KAWAI K-5

KORGM-1

IFXICONPCM-70

OBERHEIM MATRIX 6/1000

ROLANDO 110

ROLAND D-50

ROLAND MT-32

X-OR VI 1 (UNIVERSAL EDITOR)

COMPOSITION/SCORING

COPYIST APPRENTICE
mpviQi nip

COPYIST DTP

MISCELLANEOUS

( MODEL-A MIDI INTERFACE

) PHANTOM SMPTE SYNCHRONIZER

) Music Software ol the Year. 1 988
Commodore Magazine

"Our hands-down favorite new piece
1 ■ of software. TIGER is a music com-
position program whose elegance is
simply stunning Finally, a program
that bridges the gap between cold,
hard technology and the creative mu-
sician "
Keyboard Magazine

f 'The most powerful and dependable
| of MIDI sequencers for the Amiga is
[ KCS

Amiga World

("(Copyist is) a composer's delight
that provides score editing, file
conversion capability, and custom
| printing all in one package.
Amiga World

OWN»iif mdt» M alii —■■ H i ■ ! !■»>

pmpuTERmqTE

" product) touyraao] pt* B«L

P.O. Boi CM. Ml. KunngCi. N.8.W. 2000
Ph: (02) 4S7 8388 Fax: (02) 457 8739

ACN 002r6M43

•

The Australian

Commodore

and Amiga Review

EDITORIAL

RAM RUMBLES

NOTEPAD

A meagre
editor
speaks! 2

More
User
Groups 4

CDTV
software
arrives 8

Tfae Australian

COMMODC
and AMIGA REVIEW

isj.'.i .\r Eiiiuluii.

Australian Commodore Review:

21 Darley Road Randwick,NSW 2031
Phone: (02) 398 5111
Published by:
Saturday Magazine Pty Ltd.
Distribution: NETWORK Distribution
Printed by: Ian Liddell Pty Ltd
Editor: Andrew Farrell
Production: Brenda Powell
Design & Layout: Andrew Dunstall
Subscriptions / back issues:
Darrien Perry (02) 398 51 1 1
Entertainment Editor:
Phil Campbell

C64/128

EDUCATION

The C64 Column O. James
News & Views

Sound & Graphics G. Perry
Sprites to you

Education column A. Glover
42 Selecting maths software

59

AMIGA

Vista A. Farrell

Landscape Generator 1 2

QuickWrite A. Farrell

WP for under $100!

Maths software

A selection

Telecomputing

BBS list

A Glover

20
24

GENERAL

J. Scowen

36

AT-Emulator A. Farrell

IBM compatibility

In the Domain T. Strachan

Hints to get it going

CU-part9 A. Leniart

AmigaDOS tutorial

DOS device names T. Strachan

What do they mean?

MIDI interface W. Conner

Build it for under $50

Virus Alert O. Webster

More pesky ills

16

58

27

38

48

52

64

ENTERTAINMENT

That's Entertainment 65

News, Hints & Tips, Hall of Fame

Game Reviews 69

Powermonger, Supremacy,

Fire, Golden Axe, Maya,

Over the Net, Ultimate Ride

Quick Shots 72

A first glance at new games:

Turbo Esprit, Mystical, Botics

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Adventurer's Realm 78

Help, Hints, Problems, Chit-chat

Advertisers Index

79

VOLUME
NO. 3
MARCH
19 9 1

Advertising: Ken Longshaw (02) 398 5111 or (02) 817 2509

Regional Computers

The Amiga Supermarket

SPECIAL; Amiga 2000 Computer $ 1 499

Games port switch $24.99

Virus boot blocker $24.99

Video Digitiser A500/2000 $99.99

Audio engineer $165.00

ft Amiga 500 computer $799.00

ft Amiga 2000 Special $1499.00

ft Amiga 2000/40 meg HD $2249.00

ft Amiga 2000 Professional $1649.00

Amiga 3000/40 Call

AT bridge board $749.99

Amiga Midi Interface $ 129.00

Sound Sampler $50.00

Memory Expansions

512k Ram expansions
512k with switch & battery
1Mb Al 000/500 external
2MbA500 Internal/ Ax
2Mb A500/1000 Mini Megs
8Mb A2000/2Mb Populated
A500 Base Board 4Mb/lMb
A500 Base Board 4Mb /2Mb
A500 Base Board 4Mb/4Mb
KC XT Board
AT Once Board
Maestro Modems 2400
Maestro Modems MM PS

Hard Drives

GVP A500 40mg Quantum
GVP 42mg/F A500 Series II
GVP 50mg/Q A500 Series II
GVP lOOmg/Q A500 Sen's II
Data Flyer A2000 HD 40mg
Data Flyer A2000 HD 80mg
Data Flyer A2000 HD lOOmg
Data Flyer A2000 SCSI inter
GVP A2000 HC8/40Mb/Q
GVP A2000 HC8/80Mb
GVP A2000 HC8/ 100Mb
GVP A2000HC8/ 120Mb
GVP A2000 HC8/210Mb
Amiga A590 20mg

$69.99
$85.95
$289.00
$399.00
$409.00
$475.00
$299.00
$389.00
$585.00
Call
$649.00
$265.00
$379.00

$949.00
$1239.00
$1339.00
$1799.00

$888.00
$1099.00
$1199.00

$199.00
$1159.00
$1279.00
$1499.00
$1599.00
$2100.00

$569.00

Disk Counts

3.5" DSDD S7.99

3.5" DSHD $18.00

3.5" Memorex $16.00

Lifetime Guarantee

3.5" External Drive

$135.99

5.25" External Drive

$239.99

Action Replay Markll

$165.00
Roctec Mouse $39.99

Printers

Star

L C10-II

LC24-10

LCI 5

LC24-15

LC200CL

NX1000CL

LC24-200 CL

$ 299.00
$499.00
$579.00
$749.00
$449.00
$369.00
S699.00

Citizen coloured
GSX200 $439.00

GSX140 $699.00

LX400
LQ400

Epson

$269.00
$499.00

Public Domain

Fish 1/470 -Amicus

Amigan - T-Bag

Faug - Atnaz - NZ

17Bit. Amigoz

Update Old

Catalogues FREE

Cost $1.50-$2 per disk

Ribbons - Low Prices

Commodore MPS 801 $9.75

Commodore MPS802 $9.99

Commodore MPS803 $1 1 .00

Commodore MPS1000 $7.50

Commodore MPS1200/1250 $9.99

Commodore MPS1 230 $19 .95

Epson FX/MX80 $9.99

Epson FX100 $12,95

Epson LX800 $9.99

Star NX1000/LC 10 $6.99

Star NX1000/LC 10 4 colour $18.00

Star NX24/ 1 / LC 24/ 1 $1 2.50

We will never be beaten on price!

018 911 011 or 09 328 9062

PO Box E265, Perth 6001
611 Beaufort Street, Mt Lawley Perth 6050 WA

Editorial

Hands up all ihose
people who noticed we
goofed up on the front
cover last month. Yes,
we put January instead
of February and we got
the volume number
wrong too! Well, it's
only the second time it's
happened in over eight
years of publishing. No
doubt the February 1991
edition will become a
real collector's item. We
promise to get the dates right from here on so as
not to confuse anyone else. Well, what's hap-
pening in the world of Commodore?

The American winter releases have dried up,
and as the United States heads into winter, its
time to sit back and take stock. A lot has hap-
pened over the past six months. The develop-
ment of the Amiga into professional video has
blossomed as expected. However other areas
appear to have got caught on a snag somewhere
back in the mid-eighties. Mainstream uses of
computers, wordprocessing, spreadsheets and
databases, seem to have suffered on the Amiga.

Things are looking up. Superbase 4.0 is near-
ly ready to ship, QuickWrite from New Horizons
is a strong wordprocessor and it's reviewed in
this issue. It answers the need for something re-
liable at under $100. In other departments we've
seen the arrival of Professional Page 2.0, PageS-
Iream 2.1 and a range of new clip-art and acces-
sories. We plan to look back and compare some
of these products over the coming months.
What we would like to see is some of your com-
ments on products we plan to look at.

If you're into desktop publishing and are us-
ing the latest version of Professional Page or Pa-
geStream or Saxon Publisher, post us around
100 words on what you like and dislike about
your package of choice. The same goes for
owners of low end Epson, Citizen and Star print-
ers. We would also like to hear from anyone
who is using a 9600 baud modem often. If you
can help, post your comments to: P.O Box 288,
Gladesville 2111. Best comments will published
along with our own comparisons over coming
issues.

Last month I promised to spill the beans on a
new service involving the Amiga and TV-
modems. Well, at this time we are only days
from the launch, so we're going to keep you in
suspense until next month when all will be re-
vealed. Read about it in April! □

Andrew Farrell

GVP Announces a Technological Breakthrough...

SERIES U

THE NEXT GENERATION

in SCSI and RAM Controllers for the A2000 i

GYP'S New SERIES II A2000 SCSI and RAM Expansion
Controllers provide the ultimate hard disk and RAM expansion
solution for the A2000. Choose from two new models:

a

':•■--

■T

The Series II A2000
SCSI "Hard-Disk + RAM-Card"

State-of-thc-Art integration packs a high
performance SCSI controller, 8MB FAST
RAM Expansion and a 3.5" hard disk drive
INTO A SINGLE A2000 EXPANSION
SLOT!! Saves BOTH a valuable
expansion slot and a peripheral bay!
Incredible SCSI hard disk performance
achieved through GVP's innovative new
custom chip design, which provides DMA
performance and unique direct dual port
memory access to FAST RAM, eliminating
typical DMA side effects under heavy
graphics load.

Easy-to-install SIMM memory modules
allow flexible memory configurations from
ZERO through 8MB. Supports 6MB FAST
RAM configuration for BridgeBoard users.
NEWFA/WSTROM" SCSI Driver offers
optimum performance and includes such
features as:

v' Supports virtually any SCSI device
including, CD-ROMs, Tape Drives,
IOMEGA Bernoulli drives, etc.
y' Fully implements SCSI Disconnect/
Reconnect protocol, allowing
overlapping SCSI commands to be
executed.

Hard-Disk+RAM-Card

Hard-Disk-Card

Space

(no components)

for direct
mounting

of 3.5"
Hard Disk

Drive

GVP

Custom

VSLI Chip

Up to

8MB of

FAST RAM

Expansion

y/ Fully implements Commodore's Rigid
Disk Block |RDB| standard as well as
the new DIRECT SCSI interface
standard.

v" Removable media drive support.

Automatically senses cartridge changes
and informs AmigaDOS, ensuring safe
and reliable use of removable media
SCSI drives.

V Allows Direct AUTOBOOT from Fast
File System Partition.

• New INTUITION COMPATIBLE SCSI
installation and "tuning" utility
included. Major features include:

V ICON and gadget based INTUITION
interface.

V Bad Block Remapping of hard drives.
y/ Auto or manual hard drive partitioning

and AmigaDOS formatting.
y/ Read and modify existing RDB

parameters on hard disk.
y/ Simplest and Easiest SCSI installation

in the industry.

• Low parts count (through VLSI Integration)
EQUALS: lower power, higher reliability,
longer life and ultimate PRICE/
PERFORMANCE! Sec TRADE-UP offer.

The Series II A2000
SCSI "Hard-Disk-Card"

• Same as above but without the 8MB FAST
RAM capability.

• Specially designed for those users who
don't need memory expansion but still
need maximum hard disk performance at a
budget price.

• UNBEATABLE VALUE. See $199 trade-up
offer!

GVP's New FaaastROM SCSI driver and
installation software is also available as an
upgrade kit for GVP's original IMPACT SCSI
controllers, for ONLY S89.95.0ffers major
performance increase over previous GVP
AUTOBOOT EPROMs.

New Series II 48MB Removable media hard
disk drive. GVP now also offers the NEXT
GENERATION removable media hard disk
drive which offers increased capacity [48MB
formatted] and major technological advances
in cartridge air flow filtering design and
robustness. Call for details.

"Let's Standardize"

Distributed In Australia by

ower

program

• 1990
SCSI TIMES

The ULTIMATE
Trade-Up Offer???

G VP today introduced >.s new Ser
prod uct line and amtounc.d a bd*^

up program, which h> certain .
GVP's dominant market j|
hard drive marked
Details of GVPJ&.

end-y^VT^ Disk . Carcr (without

."S a money order or certified

payable directly to GW.
Al Urade-,n controllers must be sent to

FRE1GH 7anv E GvV D or Commodore SCS.
Owners of any GW or ddWona i

controllers, are eligible tor a

SSESSKb

» » the new Series H

can be traded-up

SB&KKw:

Uied with ZERO RAM.

popu

Seres ll. FAAASTROM and GVP are Irademaite of Greal Valley Pioducls. Inc
flAMOuaretegsteiedUademarts ol Commodore-A/roga. Inc

peripherals Pty.Ltd. Expansion

J- P O. BOX 555. LAVERTON, MELBOURNE, VIC 3028 ALJS1

pwriMF mr*i :n;n 70'jn fax ,nrj\ dkq mon

PHONE (03| 369 7020 FAX: i03) 369 7020

News

AM

User Group Updates

A reminder to all user groups out
there. If your most recent published de-
tails about your group were incorrect, or
you were not listed, write to us and we
will publish the correct details here. For
the latest complete listing of Amiga user
groups, see our Amiga Annual 1991.

Additions/Alterations

S.A.

Southern Districts Commodore Users Club
.Meetings: House behind Salvation Army
hall. 186 Elizabeth Road, Morphea Vale
S.A. 5162. Contact: R. Cloosterman (Presi-
dent) (08) 382 0781 orj. Van De Belt
(Newsletter Editor) (08) 382 8660
Meetings are held on the third Wednes-
day of each month. Address all corre-
spondence to: SDCUCI, The Secretary, 12
Alexis St, Christie Downs, S.A 5164.

Old

Ipswich Commodore Computer User Group
P.O Box 252, Ipswich QLD 4305
Meetings: 7.00pm every Tuesday night at
Ipswich East State School, Jacaranda St,
East Ipswich (Enter school via Leslie
Street.). Contact: Andrew Buttner (Presi-
dent) (07) 281 8820 home or (07) 281-
4355 (work). The group caters for C64,
C128, IBM and Amiga users. They have a
newsletter called "Feedback" and a disk
magazine called "AmiMag".

City Amiga Interest Group

Meetings: Third Wednesday each month,
7.30pm. Christian Life Centre complex,
Cnr Sydney and Lamington Street, New
Farm, Brisbane. Contact: Adrian Royce,
237 Harcourt St, New Farm 40005 (07)
254 1895. The group is geared toward
Amiga owners with tutorials and monthly
guest speakers.

NSW

Newcastle Commodore User Group

For ALL C-64 and Amiga Owners

4/13 Smart Street, Charlestown NSW 2290

Meetings: 4th Tuesday of each month in
Charlestown public library. Meeting
Room, Ridley St, Charlestown 7.00pm.
Contact: Sue (049) 471118 or George
(049) 574271

Another

Magazine-on-a-Disk

The Victorian Amiga Users Group
Inc, one of the better organised user
groups in the country, are softening the
step of joining up by offering a survival
guide to members. They are also pro-
ducing a disk to accompany their news-
letter, with extra pictures, articles,
sounds and advertising ready to run
from Workbench. The January issue con-
tained some interesting items including
an impressive ray traced opening screen
with music. For information call Alan
Garner on (03) 879 2683-

Commodore
in the Media

Fewer spottings this month. Do we
need better incentives? Isn't your name
in print enough? It should be! Send in
your spottings today. Any Commodore,
doing anything in public, on television,
in business. We want to know about it.

ABC Quantum

On Wednesday January 16th viewers
of Quantum had a quick glimpse of an
Amiga 2000 aboard HMAS Cook. It was
connected to "Gloria", a towed sonar
used to measure contours at the sea bed.
The Amiga was used to produce a col-
our relief and cross sectional maps of the
sea floor, not only for marine research,
but as an aid to submarine navigation.
So there you have it. The results were
spectacular.

Thank you Mark Schroeder of Telo-
pea for that juicy sighting. For your trou-
ble we've sent out a copy of Graphics-
Palette, the Graphics Desktop Video
Disk-Zine. This three disk set compiled
by Dennis Nicholson contains some fab-
ulous graphics, and reviews, hints, tips
and information.

Airport Exposure

"On my travels around central
Queensland I have always kept my eyes
peeled but never have I found one ex-
ample of the Amiga at work," writes Rob
Williams of Rockhampton. "Then during
the recent massive floods, at which time
the airport was closed, I was among the

Continued on p06

To all our avid readers - greetings! I have
some very good news for you, both in re-
gards to new products and special prices.
Firstly, Myer/Grace Bros, are currently run-
ning Expos in some of their major stores
and you will find there both a whole range
of our current and newly released products
and a wide range of Amiga products being
offered at half price, including Joysticks -
GO THERE!!!
On the basis that not everybody is near
enough to those stores and not wanting
our country cousins to miss out - if you will
ring our Head Office on 748 4700 or 008
227 465 and give your name and address
for Melissa, she will arrange for a list of
great Amiga products to be sent out to you
which you can order directly from us at
very special prices - many of them at half
price. This offer only applies till the end of
March and does not apply to our normal
range of full price products.
Now, on with the new products:
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING
MANAGER - AMIGA
All boxers want to be the champ! This
package puts your skills as manager / pro-
moter to the ultimate test! Great graphics!
TURN IT! -AMIGA

Simply the best puzzle game ever released
for the Amiga! Simple to play, but sheer
hell to learn. TURN IT! will have you
hooked!

FINAL COUNTDOWN - AMIGA
If you liked Impossible Mission, then you'
love Final Countdown! Explore an alien
spacecraft, and disarm all active devices,
once you find out what they look like, inter-
face with the alien mainframe; brilliant ac-
tion!! You'll love it!
CRICKET CAPTAIN -AMIGA
Can you take your team to the top? Stun-
ningly presented Cricket management
game with arcade sequences.
MUGICIAN -AMIGA

The supreme music utility from Thalion is
now available in Australia! Suitable for both
newcomers and professionals, MUGICIAN
gives you total control.
BOMBER BOB -AMIGA
Cute, addictive arcade shoot-em-up that
will have you coming back for just one
more go time after time after time.
SUMMER CAMP - C64
Screen after sccreen of madcap action, ad-
dictive gameplay and some of the most col-
ourful, cute, crazy but deadly characters
you're ever likely to find.
CREATURES -C64

Clyde Radcliffe Exterminates All The Un-
friendly, Repulsive Earth-ridden Slime; pos-
sibly the longest ever title for a game, this
arcade platform game was justifiably rated
96% by ZZAP magazine in the U.K. Great

fun.

Advertisement

ACAR04

Beauty and Functionality Redefined

'SERIES UA500-HD+

Hie Next Generation in Amiga* 500 Add-On Peripherals

Se^

II

Turn yourASOO 1 into a

■ Serious and More Fun

Computing Tool Today!

GVP's New SERIES n
A500-HD+ is The Ultimate in
Hard Drive, Memory and
Expandability for your Amiga 500.
Major features include:

Leading Edge

Same high-tech custom VLSI and
FaaastROM™ features as GVP's new
Series II A2000 SCSI-RAM Products.

Foresight

Unique new "Mini-Slot"™ brings out
all the A500 expansion bus signals,
allowing for exciting future expansion
options- the only intelligent
alternative to risky "Pass-Through"
functionality.

Reliability

Includes internal fan to keep you cool
and robust power supply ensuring your
A500 power supply will not be
overloaded. GVP will not compromise
on quality and reliability!

Memory Expansion

Internal RAM Expansion up to
8MB using easy-to-install SIMM
memory modules.

Sleek

Custom injection-molded styling
perfectly matches your A500 for
unequaled beauty and elegance, setting
a new standard for A500 peripherals.

State-of-the-Art

New l"-high internal hard disk drive;
available from 40MB through lOOMB.

Performance

Provides no-compromise hard disk
performance which until now has
never been seen on the A500.

Seeing is Believing

Take one for a Test "Drive" at your
nearest GVP Dealer today!

Callfor

v Special End-User
Trade-Up Details!

Take a Look under the Hood

k Game Switch: Enables RAM while
enabling full game compatibility.

K External SCSI Port Allows up to 7
SCSI devices to be attached.

K r-High Factory-installed Hard Disk
Drive: 40MB through lOOMB.

k "Mini-Slot": For future

' expansion options.

& GVP's Custom VLSI Chip.

£► GVP's FaaastROU SCSI Driver.

f> Internal RAM Expansion: Up to 8MB

Lt> Internal Fan: Keeps you running cool.

k Dedicated Universal Input Power Supply:

r Included.

Reinforced 86-PIN Card Edge Connector

Educational pricing program now available.

Series II, FAASTROM and GVP are Irademarfcs ol Greal Valley Products, Inc.

Amiga and A500 are registered trademarks ol Commodore-Amiga. Inc.

News

first to fly out on the sixteenth, the day af-
ter the airport reopened to light planes.

"I took a casual glance at the depar-
ture/arrival monitors on the way through
the terminal knowing they probably
wouldn't tell me anything, but surprise
surprise, there was a Workbench 1.3
prompt and familiar logo on the screen.
Obviously the folk at the airport know a
real computer when they see one."

Various spottings

Apart from the usual sightings on
Neighbours and Amiga 2000 on Play
School there was a poster of the C64 in
Revenge of the Nurds If - Nurds in Para-
dise. Also, in Let The Blood Run Free,
people who just died were checked into
heaven by an Amiga 500. New Idea, Nov
1990 page 28, shows a women who won
a competition for the best fiction story
submitted to them. Behind her the prize -
a C64. Thank you G. Jones of Budcrim,
Qld, for those media moments.

C64 SOFTWARE

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ACAR06

MEGADISC

WHEN YOU'RE THRU PLAYING GAMES

New Toll-free Number for ORDERS ONLY - 008 2274 18

MEGADISC was designed to help you really learn how to use your Amiga. Tutorials,
articles, reviews, hints and tips, useful software, and much more are Included to help both
the beginner and the veteran to use the Amiga more productively. Not too serious and not
too lightweight, MEGADISC entertains you while you learn. Available as single Issues,
subscriptions of any 3 or 6 Issues (past or future), or as a TRIAL PACK (Including
MEGADOS, our Amiga Manual-on-Dlsk and MEGADISC 19, and our Catalogue-on-dlsk).
If you get a TRIAL PACK, you can subscribe later for the lower rate mentioned below.
Megadlsc subscribers get lower prices on all our products, Including the largest
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the latest VIRUS-KILLER, and each Megadlsc contains as much material as 3 or 4
conventional magazines, plus material available only on a disk.

MEGADISC 20 AVAILABLE !

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and ARP described in layman's terms lor $19.95. Pries for current subscribers $13.95

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PUBLIC DOMAIN DISKS FOR $4.50 EACH - $3 JO FOR SUBSCRIBERS
All our Disks are fully described on our FREE Catalogue-disk
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Our PD collection contains databases, word-processors, spreadsheets, demos, graphics, and morel

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M V B & IComputa Magic

506 Dorset Road, Croydon 3136
Phone(03)725-6255

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Shop 5 / 30 Hall Street, Moonee Ponds 3039
Phone (03)326-0133

GVP SERIES II A2000 SCSI Hard Card + 8MB RAM Controller. (HC8/xx)

Series II A2000 HC8/52Mb Quantum $1 195 (New 1 inch high mechanism. 19ms access time)

Series II A2000 HC8/105Mb Quantum $1495

Series II A2000 HC8/1 70Mb Quantum $1 695 (1 5ms access time)

Series II A2000 HC8/80Mb Seagate $1 295 (Deal of the year)

GVP SERIES II A500 HD+ (SCSI controller, 8Mb
Series II A500 HD8/40Mb Fujitsu $999
Series II A500 HD6£2Mb Quantum $1 250
Series II ASM HDR/105Mh Quantum $ 1 786

GVP A3001 ACCELERATOR

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*6803028Mhz 68882 28Mhz
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12 months warranty on aUitems
24 months on Quantum Hard Drives

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I DataFlyer A2000 40Mb Quantum $895 19ms |

BASE Board (0-6Mb RAM for the A500)+Clock

- Simple "Plug-in" installation

- Works with Fat and Fatter Agnus

- 4 Megabytes contiguous memory

- 6 Megabytes contiguous memory optional

- Memory may be installed in 1/2Mb increments

- Multi-Layer construcion means it:

- Has perfect data integrity

- Works with any manufacturers DRAM

- Works with any combination of DRAM speed (60ns-150ns)

BaseBoard 0Mb $249 - 2Mb $449 - 4Mb $649

What they said...

If you want more than the
essential 51 2K RAM upgrade
for your A501 slot or if you
need Super Agnus support,
the Baseboard system is the
way to go.

John Wolfskill

Amiga World

Senior Writer, Technology

News

N

CDTV
applications

library

Commodore International
has announced a library of
more than 35 planned multi-
media titles which will play on
Commodore's CDTV interac-
tive Compact Disc system at i's
introduction around the mid-
dle of this year.

The library, which in-
cludes titles in numerous edu-
cational, instructional and en-
tertainment categories, will
bring new levels of interactiv-
ity and enjoyment into the
home environment. The titles
play on the CDTV player

which is similar in appear-
ance to a VCR or CD player
and is suitable for the home
living room or den. The
CDTV player is also compati-
ble with the more than 30
CD+G (Compact Disc Plus
Graphics) music discs availa-
ble, as well all standard audio
Compact Discs.

The CDTV library pro-
vides consumers with a com-

prehensive selection of top-
ics, including reference, edu-
cation, children's, women's,
sports and leisure, self-
improvement, adventure and
simulations. The titles range
from interactive versions of
the King James Bible and the
World Vista Alias, to enter-
tainment lilies such as Battle
Chess, Sim City, and Sword of
Excalibur.

"The challenge facing the
consumer electronics industry
is providing content, not just
advanced technology," said
Nolan Bushneli, general man-
ager of Commodore's Interac-
tive Products Division.

key is interactivity and imme-
diate access. For example, the
recipes in the CDTV version
of the popular Silver Palate
cookbook series (to be re-
tailed as New Basics Electronic
Cookbook) by Xiphias, pro-
vides the cook with step-by-
step instructions, alternate sea-
sonings, realistic "mouth-
watering" images of the meal
in progress, and the ability to
recalculate portion sizes in-
stantly. If the cook is plan-
ning a dinner party for 10 and
then decides to invite two
more guests, the program will
adjust the ingredient amounts
and cooking times according-

LOST

The availability of more Memory
for the Amiga 1000 or 500

FOUND

1 Meg. Auto Configuring Memory

boards, designed and manufactured

byXEL

REWARD

$299

provides you with either -

a 1 Meg fully populated board

or, 2 x 1 Meg unpopulated boards

MEMORY SPECIAL

512K Chip Packs Rec. set $48.

25% Dis. applies if purchased with XEL boards

XEL

Pty Ltd

G.P.O. BOX 121 Adelaide. 5001
Phone 08-2317396 or 018-824648 anytime

"CDTV enables consumers to
experience sound, images
and text in ways that are not
possible in the separate
worlds of audio, video and
computing."

CDTV represents a major
advance in technology and
capability over any commer-
cially available entertainment
format, combining audio, vid-
eo, graphics and computer in-
teractivity into a single, Com-
pact Disc-based system. The
storage capacity of the Com-
pact Disc is enormous - the
equivalent of more than
250,000 pages of typewritten
text. For example, the com-
plete American Heritage En-
cyclopedic Dictionary, fully il-
lustrated, will fit on a single
disc. This storage capacity en-
ables developers to engineer
products which combine un-
paralleled levels of interactivi-
ty with vivid graphics and CD
sound. "CDTV is more than a
new product, it represents a
dramatic shift in the way we
receive and use information,
are educated, and enter-
tained," said Bushneli.

According to Bushneli, the

ly. In addition, the program
will "suggest" menus based on
whatever combination of in-
gredients happen to be in the
house at mealtime, as well as
direct the cook to low-sodium
or low-cholesterol recipes if
desired.

Tiger Media's Airwave Ad-
venture — The Case of the
Cautious Condor, is the first
original entertainment title de-
veloped specifically for multi-
media compact disc. It's an
adult murder/mystery set in
the 1930's, where the "player"
has 20 minutes and 1500 pos-
sible paths to search rooms
and interview characters in or-
der to solve who had the
means, motive and opportuni-
ty to "do the deed."

Discis has developed a va-
riety of children's stories, in-
cluding Cinderella and 'Jhe
Tale of Peter Rabbit, featuring
the author's original illustra-
tions and text, with added mu-
sic and sound effects. The
user has the option of hearing
real human speech present
the text orally with the words
highlighted in phrase groups
common to normal speech

ACAR 08

Making Music is easy with the
KAWAI FunLAB MUSIC SYSTEM

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No technical knowledge
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operate the software.

No external amplification
is needed.

System operates on
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THE KAWAI FunLAB MUSTC SYSTFTVT

HERE'S WHAT YOU GET . . .
KEYBOARD-

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A 61 note keyboard with full size keys (colour colour co-ordinated with the Amiga), built in
stereo speakers, 100 different studio sampled instrument sounds, 100 accompanying rhythms,
programmable One Finger Ad Lib feature, and lots lots more.

Steinberg FunLAB software is a 5 track sequencer (allowing overdubbing and multitrack
recording) with music notation display, song lyric display, jukebox feature, optional 'quantize'
or error correct and three demonstration songs.

MIDI INTERFACE- Compact MIDI interface which fits directly into your Amiga serial port.
MIDI CABLES - Two MIDI cables for connecting the KAWAI keyboard to the MIDI interface.

AVAILABLE FROM:

Computermart Pty Ltd, WA (09) 328 9799
Computer Discounts, NSW (02) 281 7411
Hard Disk Cafe, NSW (02) 979 5833
Chanticleer Computer Centre, NSW (067) 72 8888
United Computers, Qld (072) 82 6232

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News

and speaking patterns. In ad-
dition, the user can point the
remote control and click on a
specific word and have it pro-
nounced for them, click again
for a definition, and again to
have the word said in an alter-
nate language (e.g., Spanish)
if desired.

According to Bushnell,
these first 35 titles represent
just the beginning of the de-
velopment of the CDTV li-
brary. The company and oth-
er developers plan to
introduce additional titles on a
regular basis, including Mur-
der Anyone?, North Polar Ex-
pedition and Family Medical
Advisor, among others. Sever-
al of the world's premier ap-
plications developers such as
LucasFilm, Accolade, Cinema-
ware, Sierra On-Line, Virgin
Mastertronic and Spectrum
Holobyte have products in de-
velopment for CDTV.

The CDTV player will sell
for less than 51,000 (US), and
is scheduled for launch in ear-
ly 1991. It will initially be
sold through selected audio,
video and computer retailers,
and department stores in se-
lect markets. Prices for CDTV
discs will range from $30 to
$100.

Preliminary
CDTV Titles

Home Reference

Gardenfax - Houseplants

Intersearch

King James Bible

Animated Pixels

World Vista Atlas

Applied Optical Media

The American Heritage

Encyclopedic Dictionary

Xiphias

Family Medical Advisor

Digita

6Mb Inside
Your A500!

1Mb $360
4Mb $640

2Mb $440
6Mb $CALL

ACCELERATOR SALE

25MHz 68030/68882 2Mb $1750

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Demo hard disks from $500

Call for best price on all GVP products

• Secondhand Amigas & peripherals

bought & sold

• Spare parts & Amiga repair service

Sigmacom

48 Jaffa Rd
Dural NSW 2158

Tel (02) 651 3667, 018 257 471 Fax (02) 651 1413

Time Table of Science

and Innovation

Xiphias

Time Table of Business

and Politics

Xiphias

Illustrated Works

of Shakespeare

Animated Pixels

Japan World

TopClass Tech

Chlldrens' Classics

Cinderella

Discis

Tale of Peter Rabbit

Discis

Scary Poems for Rotten Kids

Discis

Childrens' Stories

A Long Hard Day at the

Ranch

Discis

Moving Gives Me

a Stomach Ache

Discis

The Paper Bag Princess

Discis

Childrens' Fun

Animated Coloring Book

Gold Disk

All Dogs Go to Heaven

(Electric Crayon)

Merit Software

Snoopy

The Edge

Education

Nonh Polar Expedition
Virgin Mastertronic
Fun School (three discs for
different ages)
Mandarin

Cooking

New Basics
Electronic Cookbook
Xiphias
(Silver Palate
cookbook series)

Thinking games

Battle Chess

Interplay

Airwave Adventure —The

Case of the Cautious Condor

Tiger Media

Defender of the Crown

Cinemaware

Classic Board Games

Merit Software

Many Roads to Murder

Vent

Murder Anyone?

Vent

Adventure and
arcade games

Excalibur

Virgin Mastertronic

Space Quest III

Sierra-on-I.ine

Pacmania

Domark

Future Wars

Interplay

Xenon II

Spectrum Holobyte

Simulations

Sim City

Spectrum Holobyte
Falcon
Spectrum Holobyte

Professional
Page 2.0

A major update to Gold
Disk's Professional Page
has been released. The new
version includes the ability
to rotate boxes containing
text, structured drawings
or IFF images. Full Pantone
colour support is included,
with on screen representa-
tions of over 1000 Pantone
colours. Percentage tints of
colours are possible. The
new version can colour
separate 24 bit images
without the need for exter-
nal utilities. There's also a
powerful built in article ed-
itor with spell checker.
Style tags for paragraphs
can be set and applied to
text to make applying spe-
cific groups of settings to
text fast. For more infor-
mation contact Dataflow
on (02) 331 6153.

Eclips

PageStream, PageSetter or
Professional Page owners can
make use of the Eclips clip an
collection containing over
300 different clips. All are de-
signed for black and white re-
production, although you can
easily add colour using Pro-
fessional Draw, the program

ACAR 10

News

in which all the clips were
created. The collection comes
complete with a full catalogue
making each illustration easy
to locate on one of the four
disks. The files can easily be
moved to your hard drive. All
are high quality, with half
tones and highlights.

Available from Dataflow
dealers. For more information
call (02) 331 6153- RRP is
$139.95.

New touch
tablet

If you're after a touch tab-
let for your Amiga or MS-DOS
compatible, Serendipity Soft-
ware have a new offering at a
good price. For $499 you get
a 1000 LPI Calcomp Wiz tab-
let, 7.5 x 7.5 inches. The Tab-
let comes with a driver which
fully emulates the mouse, and

allows simultaneous of the
mouse and tablet. Supports
extended select in Work-
bench, works with screen
blankers, and mouse acceler-
ators. Also includes scaling
software for tracing very
small images.

For more information con-
tact Peter Skarpetis and Ser-
endipity on (02) 449 8133,
Ext 283. RRP is $499- The unit
works with any Amiga.
Sounds great - watch for a re-
view soon.

Flicker-free
video

MAS.T. are now dis-
tributing the FFV (Flicker
Free Video) by IDC. With
Flicker Free Video and a
standard VGA or multi-
frequency monitor, any
Amiga 500, 1000 or 2000

mm

computer can produce a abits of RAM, RRP $849.00
high quality flicker free For further information

display, without interlace contact M.A.S.T. on (02)
flicker and without visible 281-7411
scan lines. The product
plugs into the De-
nisc socket on all
models of the Ami-
ga. Installation is
simple and does
not require solder-
ing or advanced
technical knowl-
edge.

FFV is compati-
ble with all soft-
ware, works in low
and high resolu-
tions in interlaced
and non-interlaced
modes.

Works with

genlocks. Supports
PAL and NTSC, and
full overscan.

Comes with 3 meg-

Freepost 6, P.O Box 506
Engadine 2233. Ph: 520-2933

Now Available, the Autumn
Catalogue-on-a-disk for the
Amiga with over 1.000 items for
the Amiga including Modems,
Monitors, Hard Drives &
Software. Send $3.00 for the Disk
or get it free with any order over
$50.00. The Disk can be updated
for free anytime.
We accept payment by
Bankcard, Mastercard & Amex.

MIDI for Your Amiga

The Rhythmic Bytes MIDI Music Catalogue
is the source for all your Amiga MIDI requirements.
We have MIDI interfaces, sequencing software,
editor/librarian software, scoring/notation software,
and other MIDI accessories. We also have over 500
professional MIDI sequences in Amiga MIDI file
format and Bars&Pipes format.

All these products are available at good prices
backed by our experienced customer support. We
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ATonce

VORTEX

AT-EMULATOR

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Look at these features;

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ACAR 1 1

^VMIGA.

&l

It sounds like a new dimension of ex-
istence. With names like Virtual Reality
Laboratories and Hypercube Engineering
stamped on the packaging, you could be
forgiven for thinking we're about to cm-
bark on a journey into some new form of
existence. Actually, Vista is all about imi-
tating the reality we know. Real or ima-
gined landscapes can be generated, ren-

dered, explored
and animated - all
within Vista.

There are two
versions of this
product. The pro-
fessional edition
requires three meg-
abytes of RAM, of-
fers many more
features, and is
best used on a sys-
tem with some
form of accelerator
board. (See a full
review of it in the
March/April edi-
tion of Professional
Amiga User Magazine.) Right now, we'll
be examining the standard version
which runs happily on a one megabyte
Amiga.

What is it?

Vista generates three dimensional
landscapes. It does this using fractal ge-
ometry or from U.S. Geological Survey

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by Andrew Farrell

DEM (Digital Elevation Model) files, of
which several are included with the
package. This data enables you to render
real world landscapes.

What you see is controlled by setting
a camera and target point. Your view of
the chosen world is then rendered onto a
HAM screen. The image is constructed of
thousands of tiny polygons. Each poly-
gon is part of a particular geographic at-
tribute which is rendered in a particular
colour. These settings can be altered to
dramatically change what you see.At the
end of the day you'll have a pretty pic-
ture on the screen which can be saved as
an IFF file and used as a background for
a larger work. Or, you might have a se-
ries of images ready to load into a HAM-
animation paint program such as Photon
Paint. Or you might save the landscape
as a Turbo Silver object ready to animate
in more bizarre ways. Or you might want
to study what you can see for education
or recreational purposes. The uses are
many and varied only by your memory,
processing power and time. Vista works
fine on a standard machine, but it works
better on anything but. Add more memo-
ry, more processing speed and more disk
storage, and Vista comes to life.

Getting started

Vista is not copy protected. Installa-
tion is as simple as copying a few icons
across to the right spot. There is a ver-
sion for those with a maths coprocessor
(normally pan of an accelerator board);
this version runs appreciably faster.
Check out the readme file too as there
are some additions to the manual here
worth noting. You're now ready to start.

The screen begins displaying a top
view of a default scene. To the right is a
series of gadgets and requestors for set-
ling the render options and viewing posi-
tion. A few pull down menus allow you
to LOAD and SAVE projects, IFF images
or set up scripts.

To start, try loading one of the real
landscapes. Once the file is loaded, the
left side of the screen displays a simple
top view of the landscape. You can now
choose the camera and target position by
clicking on the appropriate gadget and
then clicking in the scene wherever you
want. The elevation for the chosen point
will be set slightly above the level of the
land you have clicked. 1 found that high-
er camera elevations tend to be better, as
they provide a sleeper viewing angle and
a lot more scenery is visible.

Click on the render gadget and a low
detail version is rendered. If you like it,

ACAR 12

^\MIG/^

select the higher detail version (more pol-
ygons are introduced into the detail) and
sit back and wait. It may take a while, but
the results are worth the wait.

Getting rendered

This method of rendering an image is
not unique. Other landscape generators
have used it for some time. (See end of
this article for a list, including public do-
main.) However, Vista offers a pleasing
interface, good control over the view,
characteristics and colour of the land-
scape from an easy to learn interface. It is
also the first to offer animation.

All of the gadgets are easy to under-
stand and relate to real life aspects of a
landscape view. First of all, the camera
has an X,Y and Z elevation and a zoom
or wide angle lens. These may be altered
using the mouse, clicking on the required
landscape position or you can manually
enter the coordinates.

The Target for the camera works in
much the same way. Each axis may be
locked to maintain its existing setting
even though a new position is selected
with the mouse. This is handy once you
set a specified elevation and wish to
change the x or y position. For animation
this enables you to maintain a steady
path along one axis whilst altering others.

The light direction can be set using
simple compass points, altering the way
high points cast shadows across the
scene. Like a real landscape, the further
away you stare, the more your view be-
comes distorted or clouded by the densi-
ty of the atmosphere. This is taken care
of by using the Haze gadget which can
be set from 1 (clear) to 32 (really hazy).

The snow and tree lines work from a
particular elevation point. As long as your
landscape reaches that point the artificial
intelligence does the rest. The trees will
automatically climb up and down ravines
into the mountains. Snow will fall off
cliffs, makes its way across tree tops or
freeze up rivers.

Clicking on the palette gadget opens a
new window filled with colour settings
and a few more angles affecting our cam-
era position. The base colour for each of
the 24 landscape characteristics can be al-
tered. Of course, each time this particular
attribute is rendered, depending on
where it is in relation to light, camera and
target, it will be rendered in up to 100 dif-
ferent shades of this base colour.

The camera bank, heading and pitch
can be set much like altering the stance
of an aeroplane. This is especially useful
for flyby type effects when creating a se-
ries of views for an animation, or for

viewing a scene from an odd angle. From
this menu you can also set a specific X, Y
or Z distance between the target and
camera.

One rather odd feature at this point is
the sound function. When selected, dur-
ing calculation of the polygons you'll
hear a brain scrambling array of odd
sounds as the numbers being figured are
translated into tones and noise. At least
you know it's working! Some landscapes
really sound good.

Polygons and
fractal graphics

With all these settings carefully adjust-
ed, the final most important one remain-
ing is the number of Polygons. In its fin-
est resolution you'll be staring down the
angles of some 131,072 polygons. Of
course, all this takes a lot of time to work
out and you may just want to see roughly
how it will all look. So, rendering with
fewer polygons is possible. Other settings
use larger polygons which require less
time to fill the screen and render the
landscape. The lowest setting is 2048.

Because each scene is constructed us-
ing these tiny building blocks rather than
topographical lines or preset objects, it is
possible for Visia to render a new imagi-
nary landscape generated using fractal
geometry. With this capability there is vir-
tually no end to the number of unique
landforms which may be generated. To
this end, there is a random seed for the
fractal generator, or you can enter a spe-
cific number. Once you find a landscape
that looks good, all you need to do is
note down the number. There's no need
to save the entire landscape when just
one figure can have Vista pumping out a
fresh copy whenever you need it.

In the colour menu there's setting for
the Fractal divisor and Fractal dimension.
Now there is not the space here to ex-
pound on how fractals work or just what
these settings actually mean from a goe-
metric view point. In essence, the divisor
will alter how many landforms a particu-
lar seed generates, and the dimension
will alter the vertical height of the land-
forms generated.

Animation

This is where the most amazing as-
pects of Vista become apparent. By
opening a simple script file, you can
record consecutive camera and target set-
tings. Vista will then generate a scene for
each setting automatically, and saving
each scene as a file with an ascending nu-
meric suffix eg: Zoom.002, Zoom.003 and

soon.

With all these IFF images saved, and a
little skill in the placement of the camera
(using axis locking will help immensely)
it is possible to generate some astounding
animations which resemble aeroplane
views of the most amazing landscapes
you've probably never seen. You'll need
Photon Paint or any other program that
can load single frame HAM animations.
The animation which originally sang the
praises of Vista at its launch was over 300
frames long and most people just shook
their tiny heads and said it couldn't be
done.

Here is also where you need lots of
memory and a fast machine. Because
many of you don't have that Vista yet, but
you may be thinking of investing in the
hardware to run it and other such pro-
grams, I've put together a Visia sampler
which you can order for a few dollars by
calling (02) 879 7455. On it you'll find a
few images and an animation or two
which should give a good rounded exam-
ple of what's possible.

Conclusions

Vista has a lot of power. It is scraping
the surface of a whole new application
for home computers which as processing
power increases will become part of our
entertainment, education and daily exis-
tence. The ability to generate three di-
mensional views of an imaginary world is
the first step to virtual reality where the
user feels a part of a world never before
explored. A world whose sensations, col-
ours and contours and mixed on the elec-
tronic easel and viewed through stereo vi-
sion headsets. Already, Amiga based
games using this technology have arrived
in arcade games in Europe. Vista allows
anybody to explore this area. It's a lot of
fun.

Distributed by:
Dataflow (02) 331 61 53

RRP Standard version $1 49.95
Pro version $199.00

For interest's sake:
SceneGenDemo - Fish 299

A scenery generator similar to Vista.
This demo version provides a good look
at what all those polygons can look like.
This is the enhanced low-cost commercial
version from Fish 155. Worth a look.

From your local PD supplier.
Scene Generator
Distributed by: Computermate
(02)457 8388 RRP $74.95

ACAR13

^UVUC/V

No thrills

wordprocessing, or a

high-powered entry

level package? It looks

not unlike a cut-down

version of ProWrite.

Andrew Farrell

examines what's

missing and what you

get in New Horizons'

latest $99 offering.

We've put up with TexlCraft,
KindWords and other equally
dodgy attempts at wordproces-
sors for under S100. For many, the only
choice was to use something costing
twice the price and wade through the

mass of unwanted features in the cum-
bersome manual. New Horizons have
managed to keep a relatively clean slate
in these departments. Their documenta-
tion has always been well designed,
easy to read and accurate. More impor-
tantly, their software has been almost
bug free. In fact they promise it is bug
free. Prowrite 3-0 is a classic "how to do
it right" wordprocessor.

QuickWrite is much the same, only
it's half the price with a few of the power
features chopped out. If you're not into
desktop publishing, and don't need the
integration Transcript offers for Profes-
sional Page, this product may be the an-
swer. It offers a degree of "Wysiwyg"-
ness and it is almost as fast as a pure text
editor.

Theres no fancy fonts, but there are
styles - Bold, Italic or Underlined . And
you can take advantage of your printer's
built-in fonts from the Print menu.

I guess many would consider this
lack of fancy features in the "end looks"

WMjU- 8 1998 New Horizons Software, Inc.

Dear «First Nane»,

Just thought you'd like to see an exanple of m new word processor.
Its called QuickHrite, and with it I can finally add sone style to ny
letters. As you can see, I can use any conbination of different type
styles (such as bold, i folic, and underline ) and even color!

But there is nore! QuckHrite also has advanced word processing
features, such as built-in Spell Checking (with a 58,898 word

You won't
"Only Ahjs

Sincerely,

irst Nane Last Nane Address City State Zip
286 Wild Basin Rd., Suite 189 Austin IX 78743
"23 Anywhere St. Anytown NY 18881 John

iver St. Lungstown CA 98881

;icl

lice

area a bit of a drawback. However, when
you consider the number of times you
found waiting for a bit map to print in
your letter, or the fact that the IFF logo
for your business looks so much worse
than the properly printed version, all
those extras seem pointless. The point is,
wordprocessors are for processing
words. Nothing gets in the way of that
aim in QuickWrite.

And when it comes to formatting
your text, you can set plenty of options
including margins, headers, footers, title
page, different pitch and spacing. Setting
TABs is easy, using the old ruler and
pointer method. Justification is achieved
by highlighting text and clicking the ap-
propriate gadget in the ruler or using a
pull down menu or key short-cut! That's
right, there's a few ways to do most
things, not to mention the AREXX port, if
you want to run QuickWrite from anoth-
er application.

At any point in your document you
can insert a page break, date, count, time
or page number. The format of these
items can be altered using another pop
up menu.

The find option is simple. You
"search" or "search and replace" with a
case sensitive option. What you can't
find is the odd character that may have
made its way into a document from a for-
eign source. The most common of these
are additional carriage returns or line
feeds. However, QuickWrite handles im-
port and export of ASCII files nicely,
with the selection of CR's after each line
or paragraph. This means you can just as
easily prepare a file for use in a publish-
ing program as you could create one to
be posted on a BBS.

The file requestor is a little out of the
ordinary, and yet it is still simple enough
to understand. You can easily switch de-
vices even whilst the directory is being
fetched - essential for floppy disk users.
QuickWrite normally only lists files
which it thinks it knows how to load - so
you won't see any .info files or program
files. You can load ProWrite files, but
any font or picture information will be
lost. A "show all" gadget allows all files
to be listed. Trying to load a file type
QuickWrite can't handle will result in a
requestor telling you this is a bad file
type - the program doesn't just GURU
out on you like some other wordproces-
sors. The worse pan about the file re-
questor is that you cannot enter in a
complete volume name or path directly;
you must use the mouse to work through
the directories and volume names.

(Continued on pi 6)

ACAR 14

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399

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60

48

29

90

80

65

55

58

68

35

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110

93

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ACCESSORIES

APROSPAN 4 slot cartridge holder 50
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ANIMATION STATION 129

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HOME DESIGNER 128 49

HOME DESiGNE R/Circuit Symbol Lib. 19
NEWSMAKER 128 43

SPECTRUM 128 49

BECKER BASIC FOR GEOS 64 72

FONTPAK PLUS 39

GEOS 64 VERSION 2 59

GEOS/PROGRAMMER64 39

GEOCALC128 49

FONTPAK INTERNATIONAL 39

GEOCHART 64/128 39

GEOFILE 128 49

OEOFILE 64 39

GE0PUBUSH 64/128 49

GEOS 128 V2 69

GEODEX 64

WORD PUBLISHER 64/128 60

GENERAL PRODUCTIVITY

POCKET FILER 2 65

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POCKET WRITER 3 (64 OR 128) 89

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SUPERSCRIPT C64 59

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS Syslem 128 85

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BANK STREET WRITER 89

DATA MANAGER 40

SWIFT CALC 64 35

WRITE STUFF 64 40

WRITE STUFF 64 W/TALK 49

WRITE STUFF 64 C128 VERSION 49

CMS ACCOUNTING 64 OR 128 260

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185
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65

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79

Entertainment

CRACKDOWN

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49
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AWARD MAKER PLUS 49

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Utilities -Languages

64 EMULATOR 2/AMIGA 500 99

64 EMULATOR 4/AMK3A 1000 99

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All in stock items shipped the same day. Please allow 14 working days for delivery of out of stock items. Should your product be faulty
please return disk only & copy of receipt for immediate free replacement. COD also available. Prices are subject to change without notice.

NAME

PH ( *

ADDRESS

CITY

DESCRIPTION

STATE ....

POSTCODE COUNTRY

QUANTITY EACH TOTAL

For complete list of products & prices, please tick AMIGA (

C64/128I

BK/CARD/MASTERCARD/VISA NO:

EXPIRY DATE
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^\M|G/\

QuickWrite can save text in its own
format, as ASCII or in Professional Page
format (styled text is preceded by a code
which will make it the same in Profes-
sional Page). It can also import ASCII
with CR's after each paragraph or line
and fix it up so you can edit it as com-
plete paragraphs. It will also import Pro-
fessional Page text and convert the codes
into the correct text styles. This is of inter-
est for Professional Page 1.3 users, how-
ever the next version which we now
have and are using to produce our other
magazine {Professional Amiga User) of-
fers an in built Article Editor which
makes the requirement for an external
wordprocessor redundant.

Mouse control during editing is fast
and intuitive. You can double click to se-
lect a word. A third click selects the sen-
tence, whilst one more returns you to a
normal cursor. ALT-double-click grabs a
paragraph, ALT-scroll up or down moves
up or down one screen respectively. Fast
perusing of text is a snack. There are key-
board shon-cuis for just about every
menu option, not to mention a few useful

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Send your PCB, PSU, Drive or Mouse tor next day

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e.g.

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ALL ITEMS MUST BE COMPLETE
AND IN SERVICEABLE CONDITION

TWO MONTHS WARRANTY

ON ALL MODULES

PLEASE CALL FOR FURTHER

DETAILS

extras for adding forced paragraph or
page breaks.

Spell Checker

For those involved with figures, there
is decimal TAB support, allowing you to
align numbers by the decimal point, eg:
128.7
4065.678
1.2
1985733.009
66.3
If you can't spell there is a 50,000
word dictionary. Now this may seem less
than the 100,000 offered by more expen-
sive programs, but it would certainly cov-
er the 2,000-3,000 you use on a daily ba-
sis. If there's something you need to add,
the spell-checker can learn as you go.
You can check a portion of text, or the
entire document.

Spell checking can be started from
any point in the document. The checker
is smart enough to ask if you want to go
back and check the top part of the docu-
ment you missed. You can also check
single words. Word
matching is reasona-
bly intelligent. Un-
known words are
added to a user dic-
tionary which can be
saved after a spell
check. The worse
point is that the dic-
tionary is American,
and you're forever
adding words it has
on file with a z in-
stead of an s!

Document infor-
mation provides criti-
cal facts such as the
number of words,
characters, para-

graphs, lines, pages,
average word and
sentence length and
a readability grade.
Display of the ruler,
page guides and for-
mat codes is optional
- each can be manu-
ally selected or
switched off.

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7/27 Justin St
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$200.00

$50.00

$75.00

Interface

The screen has a
neat organised ap-
pearance. There are
slide bars at the right
side and bottom

edge of the document window - of which
there can be several open at one time.

The program can open in a number of
resolutions, or in the Workbench enviro-
ment. Full support for Workbench 2.0
displays is included along with additional
features for Workbench 2.0 users, includ-
ing Public Screens.

Printing

When everything has been formatted,
you can print a range of pages in NLQ or
Draft mode. Presumably the documents
can be loaded into the Postscript output
program for Pro Write. (The AREXX MAC-
ROS are also upwardly compatible as the
commands are a subset of ProWrile 3-0).

The print menu also handles multiple
copies, collated and print back to front to
help with organising your printed pages
quickly. For marketing sorts, there's a
merge function to enable a list of names
and addresses or any other information
to be replaced into a standard letter. All
you do is enclose the field names in your
document in double angle brackets. At
print time these fields are replaced with
the entries in a separate data file.

Conclusions

QuickWrite is a solid wordprocessor
which although lacking some of the fan-
cy features other packages in the price
range offer, beats them all on reliability
and the inclusion of some of the real
functions that matter. If you're looking
for a reliable, entry level wordprocessor
which you may upgrade down the track,
QuickWrite could be the answer. I was
impressed by its speed, ease of use, ex-
cellent documentation and clean screen
layout. Certainly the best in its class. Well
done New Horizons, this is the sort of
professional quality software we need
more of. □

Distributed by:

ComputerMate

02 457 8388

RRP Amiga $99.00

ACAR 16

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^VMIC^V

ATonce-Amiga

- AT emulation for the Amiga 500

Yet another emulator. Only

this one is faster, cheaper and

more compatible than ever

before. And it can multitask. Is it

time to bury your bridgeboards

and take a look ATonce?

Andrew Farrell ripped open an

Amiga 500 to put the emulator

through its paces.

As soon as someone proudly points
out that such and such a program doesn't
exist on the Amiga, I am always quick to
respond; "I'm sure I have an emulator
that will let me run it on the Amiga". Yes,
only Amiga lets you pretend you're an
Apple Macintosh or IBM XT compatible.
Thanks to this neat little $549 package
you can also confidently operate at the
higher speed of an AT.

Installation

The Vortex ATonce AT emulator is as
compact as you could ever hope. The
board slots into the 68000 socket, replac-
ing it entirely. It is smaller than a 3-5 inch
diskette, measuring 8cm x 7cm, and con-
tains two large chips and four smaller
ones. One of the big boys is the 1 6-bit
80286 CPU.

There is no soldering or jumper leads
to install. The only tricky part is pulling
your Amiga 500 apart. Remember, this
voids your warranty, however if carried
out according to the included instruc-
tions you should have no problems. You
will need a special six point phillips
screwdriver to undo the screw at the
base of your machine. But it's all worth it.
Your memory expansion socket and sys-
tem expansion are left free. And so they
should, the ATonce board can take full
advantage of whatever else you have
connected.

Levering out the 68000 chip is easy if
you're patient and use a nice flat long
ended screw-driver to gradually lever it
out. Push the new board in place is best

done by aligning one group of legs and
then pivoting on this point until the oth-
er group begin to contact. At this point
you may need to squeeze the legs in
slightly to make them fit. Once they be-
gin to slide into their sockets, press the
board home firmly making sure you
have a correct fit as the legs slide into
place. Bent legs, should such a disaster
happen, can be very carefully straight-
ened, but do bend very slowly.

Once you have the hardware firmly
in place, store your old 68000 chip in a
safe place - push it into some polysty-
rene if you have any. You will also need
to remove the Gary, and place a small
socket with a built-in resistor under this
chip. Before you reassemble your Ami-
ga, test it all out to be sure it works.

Booting up

Before you can boot up you'll need
to lay your hands on a copy of MS-DOS,
as this is not included in the package.
Naturally, you'll want an original copy
with the manual. This will set you back
around $150. Even with this cost (assum-
ing you don't decide to use a copy of
MS-DOS from a friend), the Vortex unit
is around the same price as the opposi-
tion.

Two disks are included. One of these
is the ATonce system disk, and on here
is a startup icon. Before starting, be sure
to read the file readme.gbr. It contains
vital information regarding a few excep-
tions to the installation procedure and
important notes on hard drive installa-
tion. If all that is in order you're ready to
boot-up.

On the system disk is the startup
icon. Double click and your Amiga will
reset. Just when you think nothing is
working, the AmigaDOS copyright mes-
sage reappears, the MS-DOS screen
jumps to the front with a summary of
memory and devices along with the mes-
sage to insert an MS-DOS disk. Although
this rebooting of the Amiga to launch the
emulator is a little disconcerting at first, it
is understandable considering what is

taking place. If you get all the above
messages at this point your hardware is
correctly installed. Insert your DOS sys-
tem disk (3-2 or higher - 4.01 recom-
mended) and boot the system. Before
long you'll be staring at the standard un-
friendly MS-DOS A> prompt. The usual
CTRL-Alt-DEL reset key sequence is now
active. Your system will be configured to
a default of:

1 x 3-5 Internal floppy Drive

No hard disk

CGA (4 colours, Mode 2) Video

Emulation

DOS-memory of 51 2K

Expanded/Extended memory is zero

Amiga-mouse acting as serial Microsoft

mouse on CO Ml

Serial interface on COM2

Parallel interface on LPT1

These settings should be altered us-
ing the separate install program to reflect
your own personal preferences and the
hardware capabilities of your system. IN-
STALL is run from the CLI or Workbench
and is found on the system disk. You
can take advantage of extra RAM, hard
drive partitions of no more than 32MB,
and additional floppy drives be they 3-5"
or 5.25".

Video emulation of CGA, Hercules,
Toshiba T3100 and Olivetti G0317
modes is supported. The higher resolu-
tions are interlaced monochrome and I
would recommend them only to owners
of a flicker fixer or a good screen filter.
Overall, the manual explains installation
and setup of MS-DOS clearly.

Functions

If you want you can run Windows.
This is a graphic interface for MS-DOS
written by Microsoft. You'll need some
extra RAM and around 10MB of hard
drive storage. To run Windows you'll
also need to choose the Olivetti/AT&T
Monochrome or PVC video mode which
is 640 x 400.

You can set up a RAM-Disk from MS-
DOS and install the Microsoft expanded
memory device. The Amiga clock will
drive the MS-DOS date function. There
are a few odd little utilities to handle un-
usual compatibility requirements.

AmigaDOS hard drives are supported
in a similar fashion to the Commodore
Bridgcboard. You can devote an entire
partition to MS-DOS - this is the fastest
method of adding hard drive storage, but
requires complete dedication; the parti-
tion cannot be shared with AmigaDOS.

ACAR18

^WUG/>^

Alternatively, you can create a dummy
file on an AmigaDOS partition which will
appear as a drive to MS-DOS. This meth-
od is a little slower, but easier to set up.

If you have a large enough hard drive,
opt for the first method. Many partitions
and MS-DOS drives may be set up using
the install program. The procedure is rea-
sonably simple and partly automatic. I
created a file based MS-DOS hard drive
and installed MS-DOS. An autoboot op-
tion even allows you to boot from this
pseudo-hard drive. A well-designed sys-
tem.

Several utilities are included to handle
transferring files between AmigaDOS and
MS-DOS devices and numerous other ex-
traordinary functions.

The emulation will multitask with
Workbench. However, you must select
memory mode eleven to reduce the chip
RAM used otherwise you will not be able
to launch any more Amiga applications
which require their own screen. Never-
theless, it's handy to have AmigaDOS in
the background. The multitasking facility
is nothing like what you get running a
Bridgeboard where MS-DOS can happily

run in a window on Workbench; ATonce
only runs on its own screen. Reconfigur-
ing ATonce means rebooting.

Conclusions

Running under software emulation of
video handling, it would be loo much to
expect full AT performance. However,
the ATonce emulator does rate very well.
According to Vortex the unit clocks in
with a Norton SI rating of 6.1. It is twice
as fast as the KCS PC board (at around
S799) and six times quicker than the XT-
Bridgeboard.

The system is reasonably solid; al-
though we suffered a few minor hitches
along the way, these were sorted out
when we reseated the offending chips.
The readme file also suggests that various
revisions of the A500 may suffer some
other problems - most of which can be
overcome. The manual leaves much to
be said in the readme file. Hopefully this
will be changed. What is documented is
well explained, and the installation pro-
cess is illustrated with a number of photo-
graphs. Once booted the system per-

A few of the MS DOS

programs known to run on

the ATonce emulator

Borland Turbo

Framework

Windows

Lotus 123

Flight Simulator

Wordstar

Microsoft Works

GEM 2.2

UCSD Pascal

XTGold

WordPerfect 5.1

QA

Norton Utilities

PC Tools

XTPro

Symphony

Printshop

Telix

formed as could be expected. All the pro-
grams we tested functioned without any
problem. For the money, it's sure one
very cheap AT computer. Definitely the
best of its kind.

Thank you to Fonhof Computers for
the loan of ATonce.

ATonce is only available direct from
Fonhof Computers. Retail price of the
board has just dropped to $549.

For more information contact John
Fonhof on (02) 639 7718.

V.PO Box 3053, Manuka, ACT 2603
Phone: Canberra (06) 239 6658
BBS: 239 6659 Fax: 239 6619

l -—^—Z- " ■ ■- L_ ; 'jL- _^ ±_J

Desk

itOD Utilities

The Preferences driver
for Postscript devices.

Send your output from
any program straight to
the PostScript primer -

you won't need HP
emulation again! $99.

□ Contact 1 1956 CHF StttHNST n

CHF Softvare

CanBodore and Amsa Reviev

Desktop Utilities

Fred Fish

Interlink Software Pty, Ltd,

Power Pei> ifhepals

Tin Strachan

Contact $59

• Memory-resident personal contacts manager, hotkey.

• Fast, compact, unobtrusive.

• Dials phone, prints labels & lists (to PostScript too).

• Batch printing and custom son options.

• Talks to your current application.

• ARexx port and example scripts.

• Australian product.

"It's functional, solid, powerful and
compact." - Professional Amiga User
"1 am most impressed by the degree of
integration.. .with the Amiga' s powerful
operating system." - Amiga User
International

PROFESSIONAL
CLIPRRT

Professional
Clipart 1

S49RRP

Structured clips

For ProPage, ProDraw,

&PageStream2.1

Includes Australian

themes.

The Australian Maths
practice program for

grades K-6. Three skill
levels. Graphics and
sound feature popular

Australian animals. $39

AMIGA BUREAU SERVICES

SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION

SCANNING SERVICE

LASER PRINTING

COLOUR INKJET PRINTING

FILE CONVERSION

SHARP SCANNERS & COLOUR INKJET

e.g. JX100 Use with Scanlab 100 on any 1MB Amiga
Bundled price with software $1495

New advanced image processing
Art Department Professional

Save

■ Load

Multiple Loader and Saver modules

• ARexx port for in-
terprocess work

• Image processing
functions now run-

$356 time loadable

Colour image compositing facility
CI-3000 film recorder driver available

ACAR 19

Education

Some tips

for selecting

math

software

by Anne Glover

How is the Math homework going? Is
Mum having trouble with tangents and
trigonometry while Dad is stumbling
through quadratic equations? Meanwhile
are the kids getting frustrated? They must
do their homework but Mum and Dad
are about as helpful as the pel cat! They
have good intentions but keep on getting
in the way and making a mess.

Perhaps some help is at hand in your
local computer shop. There is currently
quite a range of Math software available
for the Amiga and the C64. The 12 pack-
ages I have recently examined are only a
sample from a wider selection. (Those
people who still think there is a limited
range of educational software available
for the Amiga must be walking around
the shops with their eyes closed. If your
computer shop doesn't slock a decent
range of education software, ask them to
get some more in!).

Each of the following programs have
differing styles and capabilities. One of
them, however, may help to alleviate the
homework phobias in your house. They
should also be able to develop mathe-
matical concepts, perhaps provide a
structured study session for exam times
and fill in some of the gaps a child may
have developed due to illness, changing
schools or changing teachers.

Firstly a few words of warning. A
piece of software, no matter how well it
is designed, will never on its own replace
a competent teacher. Nor will it do mira-
cles with a poorly motivated child. How-
ever as a supplement to or an extension
of classroom activities these packages

have a lot of value.

Further, don't expect any overseas or
interstate program to slot perfectly into
your local Math curriculum. There will
be significant overlaps but there will
probably also be major omissions. Even
a program produced recently in your
own State may still fall short of the sylla-
bus requirements. The style of teaching
will also vary between programs as it
will over time and distance.

Topic

Before purchasing the software you
will of course look carefully at the topics
to be covered. The teacher may be look-
ing to cover those traditionally difficult-
to-explain topics in a more effective way
or to put some extra life into those im-
portant but dry-as-dust topics; while par-
ents may be looking to extend a particu-
lar child's interest or reinforce a poorly
understood area of work. Some pro-
grams deal with a small component of
the Math syllabus eg multiplication and
division only, while others try to cover a
4 year course.

When examining the topics look to
see if they are dealt with in differing
ways and if they include a number of dif-
ferent types of activities. Do the activities
include varying levels of skill so the
child can grow with the program? Also
check to see if it presents problems in
differing formats eg horizontal ie
16+27=? and vertical ie 16+
27.

Does it mix these forms around, in-
clude more than two numbers in a sum
and locate the unknown in varying plac-
es: eg 12+3 / t+?=65. The best program
will not necessarily be the one with the
greatest number of topics, although this
one may initially appear to provide the
best value for money.

Fun to use

Check to see if the answers to prob-
lems are explained in a reasonable man-
ner, or do they just magically appear on
the screen. Will the student using this
program be able to understand and
work with these solutions? As always try
to buy programs that are student centred
with the student directing play. Is it easy
and hopefully fun to use? The motivation
and the personality of the student will
determine how important this factor is,
as will the use to which you hope to put
the program. The classroom context will
differ from the home context and this

should be kept in mind at the point of
purchase.

So try to determine if a strict program
with heaps of Math is what you need or
a basic program with small rewards after
completing a task, or finally, a games
program with Maths thrown in. It doesn't
matter how wonderful a program is, not
a lot will be learnt from it if it slays in the
disk box all the lime. Careful selection is
most important.

If necessary, determine if more than
one child can use ihe program at a time.
Students often learn a lot playing and
working together. Check to see if it suits
the range of students you have in mind,
either the class, ihe family or the group
of friends. One or two less able students
can easily feel ostracised if an inappro-
priate selection has been made. See if
the student can relate to the way the pro-
gram is written, eg are sums worked
from right to left, the way a child would
naturally do more complex sums.

Problem areas

Does your child have specific prob-
lem areas that need to be addressed?
This may have been your initial reason
for looking at Math software, don't be
swayed from your path by the pretty
packages, remember why you are there.
Look carefully at how the software ad-
dresses these specific problems.

Do you have a child with a Math pho-
bia? In this case a program ihat builds his
or her confidence is important. A pro-
gram with less Math and more fun will
be valuable if it changes entrenched atti-
tudes and builds a feeling of compe-
tence. So matching the software to your
needs is most important. If it doesn't suit
the needs of the group and will not grow
with them ii may not be good value for
your money. If copy protection is an is-
sue because of Johnny's habit of storing
disks under his bed with his other junk,
look into this too.

Finally, there does seem to be a
dearth of good, fun, Australian made
Math programs on the market at present.
So come on all you AMOS whizzes out
there, this could be a lucrative opening
for you! Surely a few of you budding
programmers with a talent for games
have a Math and/or teaching back-
ground, maybe now is the time to come
out of the closet! □

ACAR20

Education

Math,

math and

more

math

by Anne Clover

1 . Magic Maths

AGES: 4-8 YEARS

AREAS COVERED: Addition and Sub-
traction separately and mixed, three lev-
els of difficulty, horizontal sums only, ie
24+45=?.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: Magic Maths
is set up as a games program. The five
games cover Adding, Subtracting and
counting only. The tasks vary from
counting blocks for the four year olds, to
sums such as 116+17 for the older chil-

dren. Correct answers prompt the bus to
go or the robot to run. The kids may feel
as though they are playing games in-
stead of working, although this one can-
not compete with the true games on to-
day's market. The program runs quite
well, it is easy to use but is copy protect-
ed (disk-based) and this may present
problems if you have four or five year
olds using it unsupervised. The distribu-
tors have, however, told me they will
back these programs up with a lifetime
guarantee.

CONCLUSION: Useful for students
who need to have Addition and Subtrac-
tion reinforced in a fairly non-
threatening manner, at home or in the
classroom. However, only the horizontal
format is used and sums are worked
from left to right.

DETAILS: Produced by School Soft-
ware in Ireland.

Distributed by:

Pactronics (02) 748 4700

RRP Amiga $59.95

C64 $15.95 disk only

2. Maths Mania

AGES: 8-12 YEARS
AREAS COVERED: Shape recognition,
multiplication and division, separately
and mixed, three levels of difficulty, hor-
izontal format only.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: The Math in
this program is presented in the form of
games, as it is in its sister program Magic
Maths. This one is also copy protected.
Three of the five games deal with multi-
plication and division only. At the lowest
level students are given sums such as
5x2=?, at the more difficult level they are
asked to solve 3x40\4. A correct series
of answers will allow
the submarine to
submerge or the
scales to balance.

The remaining
two games develop
skills in shape recog-
nition, logic and
memory skills. The
first of these games
is like "Mastermind"
where a sequence of
shapes is to be
guessed at. The sec-
ond game involves
remembering the lo-
cation of shapes
spread across the
screen, a bit like
"Concentration".

These two games are quite fun.

CONCLUSION: A strong emphasis on
multiplication and division, so a useful
program to reinforce these skills alone, if
this is your requirement. Once again
only the horizontal form is used and an-
swers are worked from left to right.

DETAILS: Produced by School Soft-
ware in Ireland.

Distributed by:

Pactronics (02) 748 4700

RRP Amiga-$59.95

C64-$ 15.95 disk, $12.95 tape

3. Better Maths

AGE: 12-16 YEARS

AREAS COVERED: Includes algebra,
ratios and gradients, factors, quadratic
equations, mensuration, statistics, simple
interest, percentages and simple calcula-
tions, algebraic expressions and algebra-
ic factor tables, sequences and series, ge-
ometry, trigonometry and tests.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: This is the
third in the series by School Software in
Ireland. As it is produced for older stu-
dents no attempt is made to disguise its
function. This one is a straight Math pro-
gram with no games The first section tu-
tors the student in a range of topics, they
are then asked a question and required
to fill in the blanks from a choice of pos-
sible answers. Better Maths 1 and 2 fol-
low with plenty of questions and some
tests. Scores are registered to chart your
progress if you wish.

CONCLUSION: A good basic Math
program that includes a tutorial to help
motivated students. This one will fill lots
of gaps but will not extend top students
in the upper years. There is no attempt
to make Math fun or to make it relevant
to anything in particular, but it does cov-
er a lot of work.

DETAILS: Produced by School Soft-
ware in Ireland.

Distributed by:

Pactronics- 02) 748 4700

RRP Amiga-$59.95

C64-$ 15.95 disk, $12.95 tape

4. Primary Maths

AGES: 3-12 YEARS

AREAS COVERED: Includes counting,
adding subtracting, multiplication and
division, fractions decimals, tables and
Math problems in words. Topics cannot
be mixed.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: This is a
more serious Math program for young
children. It covers a lot of Math without
any real pretence at games. A basic re-
Continued on p24

ACAR21

INTERLINK ^cheaper

For this issue Interlink Software has decided lo benefit Australia* Amiga owners by lowering it's software prices. In an effort to keep these prices down we need your help, your
continued support will result in these prices becoming permanent interlink also has a number of other surprises up it's sleeve for 1991 that will shortly be revealed. STAY TUNED
HERE FOR MORE DETAILS AS THEY ARE RELEASEDIII

ARCADE GAMES

ATOMIC ROBOKID 56.90

AWESOME (w/T-Shirt) 76.90

BACK TO FUTURE II 56.90

BAR GAMES 5690

BILLY THE KID CALL

BOTICS 56.90

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CARVUP (Cule) 56.90

CHASE HQ II 66 90

CRIME WAVE 66.90

DRAGON FLIGHT 76.90

DRAGON'S LAIR II 86 .90

E-SWAT 56.90

FLIMBOS QUEST 56.90

FLIP IT AND MAGNOSE 56.90

GREMLINS 2 56.90

HAR0 DRIVIN II (Linkable) 56.90

JAMES POND 56.90

LAST NINJA REMIX 66.90

LEMMINGS (Great Fun) 66.90

LOTUS ESPIRIT TURBO 66 90

N. ARC (Ocean's Newie) 66 90

NIGHT HUNTER 56 90

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PANG 66.90

PIPEMANIA 56.90

PLOTTING 56.50

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WORD PROCESSORS

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129.00
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YOUR FAMILY TREE v2

96.90
185.00
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85.00
125.00
279.00
119 00

PROFESSIONAL PAGE
NEW Vers 2.0 449.00

SAXON PUBLISHER

55900

BUSINESS

DESKTOP BUDGET 95.00

EASY LEDGERS 379.00

GOLD DISK OFFICE 369.00

HOME ACCOUNTS 85.00

MARCH
SPECIAL

ACTION REPLAY

MKII

For Amiga 500

$195.00

GRAPHICS

30 PROFESSIONAL
3D TEXT ANIMATOR

495.00
74 50

ART DEPARTMENT PRO
339.00

AEGIS GRAPH. ST'R
ANIMATION STUDIO
ART DEPARTMENT
CREDIT TEXT SCROL
DELUXE PAINT III
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DESIGN 3-D
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ELAN PERFORMER 2
FLOOR PUN CONST

89.00
24500
129.00
56 90
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139.00
59.50
119.00
185.00
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IMAGINE
395.00

INTROCADPLUS 175 00

MODELLER 3D 115.00

PAGE FLIPPER .FX 179.00

PIX MATE 79.50

PRINTMASTER PLUS 56.90
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PROMOTION 115 00

SCENE GENERATOR 74.50

TOP FORM II CALL

TITLE PAGE 179.00

TURBO SILVER 3D 175 00

TV TEXT PROF 189.00

X-CAD DESIGNER 229.00

DESK TOP PUBLISH

CITY DESK II 189.00

PAGESETTER II 169.00

PAGESTREAMV2.1 369.00

PAGESTR. FONTS (ea) 54.50

PAGESTREAM FORMS 49 50

DO YOU WANT
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$10 per Parcel

Call for details

LANGUAGES

AMIGA VISION 189 00

AMOS
119.00

AReXX

7400

AZTEC C PROF.

39500

BENCHMARK MODULA-2

279.00

CAN DO

195.00

CAN DO PRO PACK

64 50

DEVPACK 2.0

149 00

GFA BASIC

135.00

HI-SOFT BASIC

179 00

HI-SOFT EXTENSION

59 50

SAS/LATTICECV5.1

455 00

SAS/LATTICE C++

559 00

MUSIC

AMAS

AUDIO ENGINEER PROF
AUDIO MASTER III
BARS S PIPES
DELUXE MUSIC CS
DR T'S COPYIST APPR
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DR T'S TIGER CUB
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UTILITIES

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DUNLAP UTILITIES
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KCS POWER BOARD
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NO VIRUS
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PROJECT D
QUARTERBACK v4
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STARSOFT HD BACK
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SYNCRO EXPRESS
VIDEO TOOLS ON TAP
XCOPY * Hardware

279.00
429.00
129.00
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98 90
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119.00
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349.00
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24.95
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169.00
74.00
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99 00
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109.00
139.00
119.00
139.00

EDUCATION

We also carry a large range ol
education software. Please call lor
more information on our range.
BIBLE READER 129.00

CARMEN SAN DIEGO (ea) 76.90
CROSSWORD CONS SET 58.50
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LEARN TO READ WITH 44.50

MCGEE 58.90

PRIMARY MATHS 48.90

PUZZLEBOOK 2 48 90

TALKING STORYBOOK (ea) 49.50

PRICE
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We will match any

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(Specials excluded, subject
to availability)

AND EVEN BIGGER

512KRAM

Now you can expand
your AMIG A 500
with one of our
Quality Half-Meg
expansion boards.
They come complete
with clock/ calendar
plus a long disable
switch, for just ....

~.oo

$99.

Quality GOLDE N I MASE

products tor your AMIGA

available NOW from
INTERLINK

'Optical Mouse 139.50
■ Hand Scanner 439.00
■3.5in Drive 189.00

' 3.5in Drive With LED
Track Readout 219.00

UYouqreconstqptlv,,,

- swapping floppy disks

- running out of RAM

- falling asleep while

waiting for your program

to load ...
then it's time you
considered a Hard Disk ...

GVP Series II

(the one's we use at Interlink)

Call for prices.

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Education

ward is provided at the end of some tasks
for the younger children.

The program is easy to use, but some
sections are very hard on the eyes. The
graphics and sound are very basic and
much of the work is pretty dry. My junior
tester called it "a bit boring".

CONCLUSION: This program includes
heaps of Math for your money but it is
certainly not the most exciting treatment
of the work. It may be of some use in the
classroom or by very motivated students
in the home.

DETAILS: Produced by LCL in Britain.
Distributed by:
Pactronics (02) 748 4700
RRP $49.95 Amiga and C64

5. Mega Maths

AGE: 14 YEARS-ADULT

AREAS COVERED: Includes Logs., 3
dimensional geometry, tangents and nor-
mal of curves, standard integrals, stan-
dard derivatives, integrals of functions,
uses of integration and trigonometry.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: This the the
third in the series by LCL in Britain, the
first being Primary Maths and the second
(not reviewed) called Micro Maths. Here
is a serious Math program for more ad-
vanced secondary students or adults..

No tutorial is included, it is based and
a question and answer format. Basic in-
structions are given after incorrect re-
sponses so the motivated student with
adequate resources and support would
be able to teach himself or herself to
some degree. The average student will
not only be lost, but possibly discouraged
and certainly bored.

CONCLUSION: This is the most ad-
vanced Math course in this batch of re-
views. It includes heaps of Math and if
that is what you are looking for it repre-
sents good value for your money. If you
are looking for a program to motivate
and gently extend an insecure student,
this is not the program for you!

DETAILS: Produced by LCL in Britain.
Distributed by:
Pactronics (02) 748 4700
RRP $49.95 Amiga and C64

6. Math Blaster Plus

AGES: 6-12 YEARS.

AREAS COVERED: Addition, Subtrac-
tion, Division and Multiplication. Frac-
tions and percentages. Some functions
can be mixed, come in different formats
and varying levels.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: This Math

program has the
work set out in five
different games.

These games vary
from good fun to the
mundane, they are
aimed at the younger
students. Sums are
worked from right to
left.

The program is a
very flexible one as it
allows you to pro-
gram in your own
data, keep records,
print certificates and
even set tests. A com-
prehensive booklet is
also included.

The graphics are
cute and in most cases large enough and
clear enough to be used by a group of
students. More than one child can make
use of this program. The pull-down
menu allows you to vary and mix the for-
mat of the questions. Terms such as quo-
tient, dividend and factor are used during
questioning.

CONCLUSION: A good flexible Math
program that tries to make the work a bit
of fun. It covers a lot more than some
programs, but less than others. If the abil-
ity to program in your own sums, keep
records and print certificates is important
to you, tliis will be the program for you.
As it is suitable for individuals or small
groups, this is a good one for the home
or school. Highly recommended for the
younger students.

DETAILS: Produced by Davidson and
Associates in USA.

Distributed by:
Dataflow (02) 331 3665
RRP $69.95 Amiga format

7. Math-a-Magician

AGE: All ages (suggest primary stu-
dents).

AREAS COVERED: Addition, Subtrac-
tion, Multiplication and Division all separ-
ately. Pour levels of difficulty. It can deal
with whole numbers or fractions, with or
without a timer. Horizontal and vertical
formats.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: After some
great introductory graphics and music the
program doesn't quite live up to our now
high expectations. This is pretty much a
straight Math program. Beginners will be
asked to add 5+3, and the experts to add
4784 + 3037. Points are allocated for each

attempt, until the correct answer appears.
Sums are worked from right to left. The
graphics are large and clear and some
cute comments are made in response to
the student's answers.

Multiplication and Addition tables are
also dealt with but I cannot imagine the
average child spending much time on
these unless their hands are tied behind
their backs.

CONCLUSION: This one is cheaper
than many of the other Math programs
and is reasonably good value. It would
be useful to reinforce the basics of Addi-
tion, Subtraction, Multiplication and Divi-
sion, however all are worked on separ-
ately. The numbers are large and clear
and would work well with groups of stu-
dents.

DETAILS: Produced by The Other
Guys in USA.

Distributed by:
Dataflow (02) 331 3665
RRP $49.95 Amiga format

8. Math Wizard

AGE: 5-10 YEARS.

AREAS- COVERED: Addition, Subtrac-
tion, Multiplication and Division separate-
ly or mixed in horizontal or vertical for-
mats. Three levels of difficulty and word
problems are also covered.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: This program
takes a while to get going but it does
have some reasonably good Math activi-
ties. Two players can be involved at times
and the program has a lot of flexibility
built in. Sums are worked from right to
left.

"The Troll's Toy Shop" presents prob-
lems in a written format, eg Bill has 12

Continued on p26

ACAR 24

Three top titles from Pactronics

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Amiga Desktop Video Guide

A book for everyone who wants
to use the Amiga for vdeo. You'll
find information on video basics,
videtape equipment, video/
Amiga interfaces, artwork and
more!

Amiga Printers Inside & Out

Learn how to overcome
problems with printer drivers,
print foreign characters and
more. Get the most out of your
printer!

Making Music

All aspects of music development
on the Amiga are covered. From
the fundamentals of music
notation to special circuitry to
interface your Amiga to external
instruments.

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Also available from all major book shops and your local
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Pactronic

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Education

loads of sand to deliver. His truck will
hold 3 loads. How many trips does Bill
need to make?

CONCLUSION: This program is quite
flexible and can be used by two players.
If word problems are an area that need
special attention, this is one of the few
programs that would suit your needs.

DETAILS: Produced by Unicorn Soft-
ware in USA.

Distributed by:
Dataflow (02) 331 3665
RRP $69.95 Amiga format

9. Math Master

AGE: 5-12 YEARS

AREAS COVERED: Addition, Subtrac-
tion, Multiplication and Division. Three
levels of difficulty in either horizontal or
vertical format.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: This is a very
basic program with a real Aussie flavour.
There is no attempt made to turn the
work into games but the cute Aussie
scenes may provide some interest for a
short time. Watching a joey jump into its
mother's pouch or a platypus swim
across a creek is the reward for a correct
answer. Sums are worked from right to
left.

CONCLUSION: A rather "plain Jane"
program, but it is made in Australia so if
supporting the local product is important
to you (and it should be important to all
of us) then this program is worth a look.

DETAILS: Produced by Southern Cross
Software in Australia.

Distributed by:
Southern Cross Software (06) 239 6658.
RRP $49.99 Amiga format

10. Math Talk

AGE: 5-13 YEARS

AREAS COVERED: Addition, Subtrac-
tion, Multiplication and Division. In hori-
zontal or vertical formats or mixed, with
timer if required. Variable levels deter-
mined by your input.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: This is an in-
teresting one, it allows students, teachers
or parents to enter their own Math prob-
lems into the program. If you wish, the
computer will then help you solve that
problem. Of course they are worked
from right to left. Results can be recorded
and pages of work printed up. This might
be all a bit much for the 5 or 6 year olds
but the middle and upper primaries
would get a lot of use out of this one.

There are also two Math games in-
cluded, these are true Math games and

not simply rewards
for correct answers.
CONCLUSION: A

bit much for the litt-
lies but a great pro-
gram for the 7-12
year olds. This is a
very flexible and
functional program
that will really help
solve some of your
student's little prob-
lems. Highly recom-
mended.

DETAILS:

Produced by

First Byte in USA.

Distributed by:

Dataflow

(02)331 6153.

RRP $59.95.

11. MathTalk Fractions

AGE: 8-15 YEARS.

AREAS COVERED: Fractions, Decimals
and Percentages. Addition, Subtraction,
Multiplication, Division and conversion
of the Fractions etc. Levels are deter-
mined by your own input.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: This is a su-
perb program, it is easy to use, extremely
flexible and really fun. As the levels are
determined by your own input, the pro-
gram will suit a wide range of abilities
and will grow extensively with the child.
It also gives students the opportunity to
develop some responsibility for their
own learning if they place their own
problems into the computer.

Like its sister program "Mathtalk", stu-
dents will be tutored if they wish in the
questions they were unable to answer.
The Math is at times presented in the
form of true games. The only drawback
of this program is that it cannot cover a
huge amount of the syllabus.

CONCLUSION: Highly recommended
for students floundering through frac-
tions, decimals and percentages. Don't
however expect this program to cover all
of the Math syllabus.

DETAILS: Produced by First Byte in
USA.

Distributed by:

Dataflow (02) 331 6153

RRP $54.95

12. Amiga LOGO

AGE: 10-ADULT

ABOUT THE PROGRAM: AMIGA
LOGO is a programming language, it is
not a Math tutor in itself. However I have
included it here because it is used exten-
sively in Math classrooms.

AMIGA LOGO can be used as a calcu-
lator, it can speak and print answers.
Freehand images can be drawn with the
mouse or you may instruct your Amiga to
draw images on the screen. This latter
function is AMIGA LOGO'S main claim to
fame as it allows student or teachers to
draw up accurate diagrams to be exam-
ined, edited or studied.

Computer Studies classes also use
AMIGA LOGO to demonstrate or study
programming, while the Industrial Arts
Departments use this program to devel-
op, adapt and study their models with
ease and accuracy.

CONCLUSION: Recommended for
classroom use, with the teacher's guid-
ance. In the home it could be used to
complete Industrial Arts, Computer Stud-
ies, Maths or Art assignments, or to ex-
periment with programming and design.
This is not a Math tutor, it is a program-
ming tool.

DETAILS:

Distributed by:
CBM Education Dealers
RRP $100 Amiga format

ACAR 26

^VMIG^

DOIVI/tllM

USING PD DISKS is not always as
straightforward as you'd like, especially if
you're a beginner. The disks are usually
full of terrific software, but it's not always
obvious what you do with them to make
them work. The great variety and occa-
sional experimental nature of PD soft-
ware sometimes makes it hard to know
what to do. Tim Strachan gives us a few
points that may help:

Bootable and
non-bootable disks

A disk is either "bootable" or "non-
bootable" - ie, you can "boot up" with it
like a Workbench disk where you see the
"Workbench hand" screen when you
power up; or you'll find that you put it in
the drive and the hand just stays there. In
this case, all you have to do is boot up
first with your own Workbench disk, and
then put the PD disk in a drive.Then just
click on the icons as usual.

If you don't know what kind of disk a
disk is, try to boot up with it first - if it
won't boot, try your Workbench disk
first.

NB: it's a good idea to get into the
habit of checking all disks (bootable
ones at least) with a good Virus Checker
before you do anything else with them.

Instructions

A bootable PD disk will usually either
load up the Workbench screen and
present you with icons to click on; or it
will load directly into a program such as
a game, or possibly give you instructions
of what to do. Quite often the instruc-
tions you need are in a "doc-file", ie doc-
ument-file of some kind visible as an
icon. Occasionally, the instructions you
need can be accessed from within a pro-
gram from the Menu.

Exiting programs

Usually you'll be able to click on the
"close gadget" in the top left corner of a
window or screen. If not, try finding a
"quit" or "exit" option in the menus. To
exit Basic programs, the CTRL-C key
combination usually works. If you've

tried these and nothing works, here are
desperate measures - the ESC key some-
limes works, as do such combinations as
CTRL with X or S or Q or ESC. And occa-
sionally a mouse click on one or both
buttons will get you out. Graphic screens
are often exited by clicking in the top
left comer on an invisible close gadget.

Multi-tasking

You should still be able to access the
rest of your windows and screens what-
ever you've got running, by clicking on
the "front/back" gadgets in the top right
hand corner. If not, you can almost al-
ways switch screens with the LEFT-
AMIGA key pressed with the N or M
keys. At least you can use this method to
get back to your Workbench screen in
the occasional case of a program "hang-
ing". But, in general, don't leave unsaved
work around when you're playing
around with new PD programs - if a pro-
gram crashes the computer, your work
will be lost.

Directory utilities
and CLI

You can always use a "directory utili-
ty" (such as Zippy, SID, Dutils, Diskmas-
ter or OPUS) to investigate any kind of
disk - 1 recommend that you become fa-
miliar with such a program, it will save
you a lot of messing around and make
your computing much more enjoyable
and speedy. If you want to go further,
you can learn how to use the CLI to in-
vestigate disks.

Remember that Workbench usage
only lets you see files and other objects
which have icons attached - however
there may be other files which have no
icons and are therefore inaccessible from
Workbench.

"NDOS" & "bad" disks

If ever you put a disk in your disk
drive and up pops a disk icon with ei-
ther of these labels under it (such as
"DFOuNDOS") you've got a disk which
isn't a standard Amiga format disk. This

could be because:

a. the disk isn't formatted or initial-
ised for the Amiga - hence "BAD"

b. the disk has a "read/write error", in
which case you'll probably get a system
message telling you so c. the disk has a
"non-Dos loader", ie can be booted up,
but not in the normal Amiga way - some
games appear like this, and will be
"NDOS".

Mandel Set

For mandelbrot, juliet and other frac-
tal type people a new compilation of all
the best mind-altering graphic generating
programs has been made. The six disks
of colourful math-based software cost
$24 and contain ali the best programs
from the Fish collection including deriva-
tives of the theme to generate clouds or
water. Includes FracialLab, DEM, CPM,
Cloud, Fractals, Mandel, IFs, MandA-
nim, IceFrac, Slicer, Mandelbrot, Plas-
ma, MandelBlitze, MandelMountains,
MandelVroom, Zplot, PolySys and Turbo-
Mandel for those with 68881/2 math co-
processors. Ideal for the animator, and
artist.

Chemistry

Students of this fine subject will relish
the wonderful three dimensional shades
models of molecules generated by
Chemesthetics. Includes the IFF and ARP
libraries with icon based installation.

Movie-Setter Anims

Two disks of cute cartoon animations
by the famous Eric Schwartz produced
with help from Moviesetter. Includes
Stealthy, VTOL_contest and Pogo. All
have sound and are really worth check-
ing out. 1MB recommended.

Gallery

Over the past six months we've col-
lected some very slick HAM ray traced
and digitised images, not to mention
some very sharp hand drawn hi-res im-
ages from CompuServe, local bulletin
boards, artists and Fred Fish. Now
they've been compiled into a collection
which will continue to extend in Gallery
disks as time goes by. All may be viewed
from the Workbench. Many are ray-
traced using the latest programs such as
Imagine or 3D-Professional. Full listing
will be published soon.

These and other disks are available
from your local supplier of PD, Bulletin
Boards or by calling Prime Artifax on
(02) 879 7455.

ACAR 27

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Specialised staff trained in specific

applications of the Amiga are on

call to help you.

Computer Spot

MAIL ORDER

TOLL FREE (008)252 130

phone (02) 638 2897

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Ideal for Amiga or PC For on/y $ 4 g 95

PC 40 286
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Lots ol great games available
Plugs into your TV

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NX1000

COLOUR PRINTER

AMIGA 500

Computer

$799

Amiga 500 Computer

Power Supply

Mouse

3 Manuals

2 Systems Disks

ODS Tutorial Tapes

Plus 10 free Games

MEGA DRIVE

$369

Hot NEW 16-bit console!

4096 colours,

Stereo arcade sound.

The only thing missing is a

coin slot.

CITIZEN
Colour Printers

GSX140

$799

24 pin

200GX

$499

9 pin

SUITS AMIGA AND PC

UNBELIEVABLE VALUE!

These printers have features

that put others to shame.

• Push ' Pull / Bottom feeding

• Superior paper handling

• High speed - light weight!

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A500

1/2 MB

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ttO?t
$99

AVTEK

MODEM 3+ 12

$99

Suit Most BBS's
VIATEL Compatible

I Hang up your Datasette

1541 Disk Drive

$299

|170K, Fully compatible, Daisy|
chainable. On/Off switch.

C- Commodore

1084S Monitor

$449

• Suits Amiga computers

• Suits CGA

• Sega & Nintendo

•C64& C 128 computers

Cables for some systems extra

Nintendo

Game Boy

$149

Fantastic new hand-held portable

games system. LCD screen.

Includes free game. Others available.

O Commodore

Amiga 2000

$1669

Amiga 2000HD

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A2000 Pro-Pack $1769

A2000-HD Pro-Pack

$2495

1084S Not Included

AMIGA

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If it doesn't work when you get home,
we'll replace it!

AMIGA SOFTWARES
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ART & UTILITIES

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3D designing package 159,95
Voted, best digitizer, new dynamic res 299,00

Astronomy Software excellence 9935

Animate your art 89.00

Ultimate 3d render animation system 799.00

Fractal landscape generator system 149.95

Build motion scripts lor videoscape 1 29.95
Icon based software authoring system 149.00

Games demos creator language 129.95

Programing language B4.95

Fastest assembly language compiler 1 39.95

Speed disk access 89.95

Access msdos files on amlga drives 59,95

Programmers assembly language 18955

High quality file utility 6935

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The HI 'c' compiler 499.00

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Vol. 2 thru to 20 available 1935

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49.95

NIGHT BREED

Excelleni 3D adveniure

59.95

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3D Space aclon strategy game

49.95

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Arcade action game

59.95

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Arcade Frying circus madcap fun

59.95

NARC

Great arcade conversion

69.95

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Hoi new car racing fun

59.95

NINJA WARRIORS

Supeto quality arcade hit

54.95

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49.95

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Hot arcade spectacular

59.95

RICK DANGEROUS 2

Top quality arcade fun

5935

ROBOCOP2

Arcade smash em up go robo

63.95

SHADOW OF BEAST 2

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7935

SHADOW WARRIOR

Kunglu action arcade
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5935

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49.95

SPY WHO LOVED ME

007 arcade action game

5995

STUN RUNNER

3D fast paced acton

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Sequel to great arcade game

6935

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Great arcade shoot up'

59.95

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6935

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59.95

UN SQUADRON

Arcade hit

59.95

VENUS FLY TRAP

Arcade super sc-fi plant tun

59.95

WHEELS OF FIRE

Excellent car compilation pack

49.95

WINGS

Cinemawaie shines again' lanlaslic

79.95

WRATH ollhe DEMON

High quafcly adveniure game

8995

Wonder Boy in Monster Land

Arcade smash hit

4935

XIPHOS
I BATTLE COMMAND
I CAPTIVE
|CELICAGT4
I CHASE HO 2
I CHAMPIONS OF KRYNN
I CORPERATION
I CORPERATION MISSION DISK
I CODENAME ICEMAN
I COLONELS BEQUEST
ICONOUESTOFCAMELOT
I DRAGON FORCE
I DUNGEON MASTER
I Dungeon Master Data Disk 1

KINGS QUEST 4
I LOOM

LEGEND OF FAERGHAIL

LEISURE SUIT LARRY 3

MEAN STREETS
I MIDWINTER
I MIGHTS MAGIC 2
I MURDER

i nobungas ambition

i narco police

i pool of radiance

i pirates

i police quest 2

Iranx

i total recall

i space quest 3

Hotter NEW shoot em upl 59.95

3-D tank simulator 6935

SC-FI role playing game 59 95

Excellent new rally cross game 69.95

High speed racing fun 69.95

Role paying epic 59.95

Sc Fi role playing 6995

con: hub the adventure 49,95

Sierra secret agent adventure classic 59.95

New release sierra adventure 5995
A highly recommended sierra adventure 59.95

Sc-fi role playing combat team 59.95

3D excellent role playing 69.95

Chaos strikes back, requires above 59.95

The classic comes to Ihe amiga 5995

Adventure game epic 5935

3D role playing epic 59.95

Sierra hit adult adventure 59.95

Sci-Fi detective adventure 69.95

Epic 3d arcade adventure 7995

Known as the best role playing epcs 59.95

Cludeo type mystery detective game 5995
VERY HEAVY QUALITY ADVENTURE 7995

Great new arcade game 59.95

DSDroleplayinggame 49.95

Role playing buckeneer 59.95

More cranobustiri adventures! 59.95

Crazy new luluris&c game 5995

Arcade movie tie-in 69.95

Outer space sierra 59.95

SIMULATORS & STRATEGY

A-10TANK KILLER

BATTLE OF BRITAIN

F16 COMBAT PILOT

F29RETALIATOR

FIGHTER BOMBER

F19 STEALTH FIGHTER

HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER
I INDIANAPOLIS 500
I BALANCE OF POWER 1990
I GENGHIS KHAN
I Bandit KING ol Ancient CHINA
I BATTLE CHESS

BLITZKRIEG
I CHESSMASTER 2000

HARPOON
|HOYLESGAMES2

IMPERIUM
IISHIDO

I Ml TANK PLATOON
I OVER RUN
I OPERATION HARRIER
I POWER MONGER
I REACH FOR THE STARS
I SECOND FRONT
I SIMULCRA

SHERMAN M4

STORM ACROSS EUROPE
I SUPREMACY

TEAM YANKEE

TRUMP CASTLE

ULTIMA 4

WOLFPACK

WHITE DEATH

3Dwaistralegyaction 6995

Their finest hour' 59,95

The tignting simulalor 5495

3D combat simulator 59.95

Voted best game 1 comhat simulator 49.95

Absolutely amazing' 7995

Submarine strategic wanare 49.95
3D Car racing GAME OF THE YEAR 90' 49.95

Excellent political strategy 69.95

Ancient orient strategy 99.95

Deep and Involved slrategy 8995

Famous animated chess game 59.95

Bailie ol ardennes 59.95

Best quality 3d chess ever 49.95

Submanne simulation wariime 59.95

More great card games 69.95

Very eavy' sc-fi galactic power 49.95

Andenl Chinese strategy game 69.95

Quality 3D tank simulation 89.95

Military war game 4935

Aircralt war strategy 59.95

Awesome 3D global control game 59.95

Conquest of the galaxy 39.95

War game 5995

3D sc-fi strategy game 49.95

3D tank battles 49.95

War gaming strategy 49.95

SC-FI EPIC Role Playing 69.95

Excellent 3d tank simulation 8495

Gambling compilation 49.95

Heavy d8d slrategy 79.95

Submarine simulation 7995

Strategy on the russian front 59.95

SPORTS

AMIGA CRICKET Excellent game needs 1 meg 4935

I PRO TENNIS Best tennis game seen 49.95

I TV SPORTS FOOTBALL Enjoy grkfton •" gel this 6995

I TV SPORTS BASKETBALL Best spons (it game 69.95

KICKOFF2 Still the best soccer game 5995

HARDBALL 2 Baseball skills are lesled here! 5995

I INTERNATIONAL SOCCER Excellenl 3D soccer classic loiever 59.95

Jack NICOLAS Course Design Fantastic 3D goll and course maker 79.95

TOURNAMENT GOLF Arcade stylo goll game 59.95

WINNERS ITALY 1990 Soccer lans go for it 1 49.95

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SOCCER New

soccer game 6995

WORLDCUP 90 SOCCER More soccer tun 4995

ULTIMATE GOLF Golfing great 5995

BUSINESS & HOME

I ADVANTAGE
I DAY BY DAY

DGCALC

EASY LEDGERS

ELECTRIC THESAURUS

EXCELLENCE Z0

GOLD DISK OFFICE

KIND WORDS

MAILSHOTPLUS

MAXIPLAN PLUS

PAGE STREAM 2.1

PAGE STREAM FONTS

PROFESSIONAL PAGE 1.3

Powerful high speed spreadsheet 299.00

Home planner package 59.95

Qualify spreadsheet 99.95

Accounts payaole& receivable 399.00

Online multi-tasking excellent 69.95

Professional wordprocessor 299.00
Complete Dbase/SpsheevWptographics399.00
Woid processing package r dictionary 99.95

Mailing label processing package 69.95

Top spreadsheel 199.00

Quality desktop publishing 399.00

Additional lonts 59.95

OuaSty dtp package 299.00

PROWRITE3.0

Woidpro witn colour S graphics

219.00

SCRIBBLE PLATINUM

Hgh speed quality word processor

12995

SUPERBASEPERSONEL2

Excellent Dbase packaqe

139.95

SUPERBASE PROFESSIONAL Fully programablo database

29900

SYSTEM 3

Excellent business pack, call.

129.95

SYSTEM 3 E

New executive version of above

159.95 1

TRANSWRITE

Quality word processing system.

99.95

WORDPERFECT

The ultimate word processor

499.00 1

WORKS PLATINUM

Improved word prospread sheerdbase 229.95 |

DESKTOP BUDGET

Home finance controller

99.95

HOME ACCOUNTS

Balance visabankcard and the gas bill 89.95

PAGESETTER II

Beginners dtp package

179.95 1

EDUCATIONAL

BEGINING GERMAN

Sprechen sie deutch

89.95

DUCK TALES

Great fun lor the kids

59.95

DECIMAL DUNGEON

Educational junio' high 5th

69.95

DISCOVERY MATHS

Educational lun

39.95

DISCOVERY SPELLING

Educational fun

39.95

DINOSAUR DISCOVERY KIT

Learning prehistoric world

54.95

FUNSCHOOL8-UP

Educational collection

49.95

FUNSCHOOL2-5 (3)

Educational collection

49.95

FUNSCHOOL5-7 (3)

Educational collection

49.95

KID TALK

Quaicy sentance learning

49.95

INTELLITYPE

Learn to touch type on computer

49.95

LOGO AMIGA

Educational programming skills

13935 1

MATH BLASTER PLUS

Great learning fun for all

69.95 1

MATH TALK

Quality maths learning 5 to 10y

4995

MAVIS BEACON TEACHES TYPING

el

Typing tutor al ages

6935

MICROFRENCHI82

Learn French

54.95

PRIMARY MATHS

Education Senes

54.95

READS RHYME

Educational 5 to 10 yr olds

69.95

READ A RAMA

Reading program

69.95

SIM CITY

Design and mainiam model city

89.95

SPELLER BEE

Learning words

4935

SPEED READ

Quality training package

99 95

WHERE IN EUROPE CARMEN Geography adventure'

84.95

WHERE IN USA CARMEN

Geography educational game

84.95

WHERE IN WORLD CARMEN

Geography educational game

84.95

WHERE IN TIME CARMEN

Latest release in the series

8435

WORLD ATLAS

Unique computerized world atlas

89.95 |

MUSIC

BARS S PIPES

Professional mldi sequencer

'.:•.-.-

Deluxe Music Construction SET Composition ecSot

99.95

MUSIC X

Quality midi S editing tool

299.00 1

SONIX

Music editor

1-19.95 1

HARMONI

24 track MIDI sequencer

14995 1

HARDWARE

I 40 MEG SCSI H'Onve Quantum Voice-coil, auio-pa'k. 1 1-18ms
8UP Memory Board 2MEG RAM A2000 ram exp board
A20I0 INTERNAL DRIVE
Acellerator GVP A3001 4MB
ACTION REPLAY MK2
I ADRAM 540 OK INSTALLED
I AMIGA 500 RF MODULATOR

I AMIGA A590 20MB Hard Dnve Suits amiga 500 2meg ram options
ICOMIDIAMIGA QuaHy amiga midi

I COMIDI MINI Budget midi interlace

I COMPUTER AMIGA 500 Powerful home computer

I AMIGA 500 STARTER PACK Inc tv modulalor S software

DELUXE KIT AMIGA 500 1Mega500. heaps ol software

I COMPUTER AMIGA 2000 Latest model, we love iti
COMPUTER AMIGA 2000 PRO With extra S1000 in software
Computer Amiga 2OO0HD 40 Meg dnve factory fitted!
Computer Amiga 2000HD PRO With 40 Meg drive and software
Computer Amiga 3000 25MHZ The stuff that dreams are made ot
GOLDEN IMAGE Optical Mouse Look ma, no balls!
KCS POWER BOARD A500 Ibm emulalor for your a500 amiga
MONITOR CBM 1084S Stereo, suits amiga atari c64 S PC

ROCTEC AMIGA MOUSE The best amiga mouse!! 1
PC Emulalor BRIDGE Board AT Inc. 5.25" 1 .2 meg drive
PHILIPS MONITOR ICM8833I Stereo. 2 yrs warranty!
I PRINTER STAR NX I000C
PRINTER CITIZEN GX 200
PRINTER CITIZEN 140 GX
PRINTER EPSON LQ 400
PRINTER CBM MPS 1230
RAM CHIPS A590 ADRAM
RF302C AMIGA DISK DRIVE

749.00
699.00
A2000 iniernai drive 199.00

68030.4Meg 32 bit tam.82copro,28mbz2695 00
New version for A500 and A2000 1 24900
Expandable to 4 meg lor the aSOO 269.00
Connect amiga tow or video 59,95

699.00
17995
94.95
79900
889.00
1099.00
1669.00
1769.00
2395.00
2495.00
5695.00
139.95
799.00
449.00
4935
799.00
489.00
399.00

Colour 9 pin. Feature packed .
Colour 9 pin. Outstanding performance 499.00
Colour 24 pin. Feature packed 799.00

Black 24 pin. Superb print 599.00

Budget 9 oil 299.00

PER MEG 149.95

Slim externa! drive on/off switch 169.00

Trumpcard Professional A2000 Top speed performance scsi tfitcrface 499,00
SCANNER 4- hand held Cameron type 10 suits A500 only 699,00

DIGIVIEWPALV4.0 Besl quality st.ll dig nzor 299.00

VIDI AMIGA Frame grabber pal now with vkWtrome 499.00

MODEM AVTEK 124 Aulo everylhing quality high speed 399.00

WHITE DEATH »-

'■-. ;'

-'•TOVOTA

Compute

There's a Spot near you!

PC SOFTWARE & HARDWARE • C64 SOFTWARE & HARDWARE

PC SOFTWARE &
HARDWARE

ART, GRAPHICS, UTILITIES,
BUSINESS & HOME

BANNERMAN1A

Signs nanners etc...

69.95

DELUXE PAINT ANIMATION

Animaten lot your pc!

99.95

DELUXE PAINT 2 ENHANCED Best graphic editor colowpiiMJ

99.95

GREMLINS PBINT KIT 2

Fun priming package lor kids

29.95

LABELS UNLIMITED

Quality Label pnrling package

89.95

NEWSROOM

Home desk top puottshing

49.95

PRINT POWER

Print cards 4 banners

29.95

PRINT SHOP

Print cards banners signs..

99.95

MENU MAKER

E*ceHen! menu designer package

49.95

Hlnja Turtles Colour Book

Great tun lor the kids

49.95

MAILSHOTPLUS

.'.'. r-i .-;.':,;:::-. -,■■■-

109.95

SUPEFCOMM

Quality commurcatiorts package

119.95

B Weak Ohoteaterol Cure

Book and software Quaily package

59.95

ATTACHE 4

Accounting package

89900

DATA MANAGER

Simple Quality database

59.95

DGCALC

PC spreadsheet

89.95

FIRST CHOICE

QuaUy 3 In 1 busness package

24995

ON BALANCE

Cash book

89.95

PUBLISH IT 1.2

Quality desk top publishing

349.95

PUBLISH IT LITE

Budget dtp package

9995

PROFESSIONAL PLAN

Superb quality speadsheel

169.95

SWIFTCALC

Quaily spreadsheet

59.95

SYSTEM 3

Ouakty business pack, cal

129.95

WORD WRITER

QuaVfyword processor

79.95

ARCADE & ADVENT

ALTERED BEAST

Classic arcado game

59.95

ATF2

Sc-Fi 3D acoon game

•■■ ■;

BACK TO THE FUTURE 2

Arcade game ot the movie

6995

BATTLE TECH 2

Cresenl hawks revenge

69.95

BANDIT KINGS

Role playing adventure

go gs

BUCK ROGERS

Fantastc adventure tun

69.95

DOUBLE DRAGON 2

Hot arcade smash em up 1

59.95

ELVIRA

Advcrture game horror tun

89 95

INDIANAPOLIS 500

Best Jo cat radno seen!

59.95

IT CAME FROM THE DESERT Excellent ciremaware honor movie

59.95

FOUNTAIN OF DREAMS

Fantasy adventure

5495

GENGHIS KHAN

Excellent oriental strategy gamo
Yuppie Adventure Sierra' HIT

89.95

JONES IN THE FAST LANE

6995

LASTMNJA2

3D ninja fighting classic

5995

PUNISHER

Hoi new release

89.95

STREET ROD

Buy it bu*d it up n race ill

5495

Teer-ace Mutant Nova TurUos

Suck on the pizza dudes!

69.95

TEST DRIVE 3

VGA 256 colour car driving game

69.95

CtNlURICt.

Bedvfl the days ol the remans
Reft playng fit

5995

CHAMPIONS OF KRYNN

54.95

COOENAME ICEMAN

Sierra secret agent adventure

69.95

COLONELS BEQUEST

Sierra epc adventure game

69S5

CONQUEST OF CAMELOT

Sierra medieval quest

69.95

COUNT DOWN

VGA adventure spectacular

69.95

KINGS QUEST 5

Epic sierra adventure in VGA

99.95

KINGS QUEST TRIPLE PACK

12301 the series

8495

LARRY TRIPLE PACK

leisure suit larry t .2 and 3

89.95

LEGENOOFFAERGHAIL

NEW ADVENTURE OUEST

6995

MECH WARRIOR

Its back ! Sc-Fi role playing ope

69.95

MEGATRAVELLER

The no.i sc-ti role playing ho 1

109.95

MONTY' PYTHON

Classic madcap arcade madness

6995

MICROPROSE COMPILATION Gunshlp Sllenlservice Alrbourne

59.95

MIGHTS MAGIC 2

Voted no. 1 adventure rota playing

54.95

NIGHT BREED

Excellent honor adventure

6995

NOBUNGAS AMBITION

Deep asian historic adventure ep»c

89.95

HOBUIIGAS AMBITION2

Great sequel strategy

99.95

OPERATION STEALTH

Secret agent adventure IM

59.95

PUNISHER

Arcade super hero fun i

7995

QUEST FOR GLORY 2

Sierra hit new adventure

79.95

RISE ol the DRAGON

VGA 256 cult adventure game

79.95

RANX

"'.]■.■■■■ :...-■:.'-

5995

SECRET SILVER BLADES

More dad role playng

54.95

SEARCH FOR THE KING

Elvis myslery adventure
SpaceQuest Larry 'Police Quest

69.95

SIERRA STARTER PACK

79.95

stellar;

Fantastic Arcade game supports VGA

69.95

STAR CONTROL

Deep SC-FI adventure strategy game

6995

SUPEROFFROAO

Hot new car racing tun

5995

TRANSYLVANIA 3

Horror adventure

7995

THEXDER2FIREHAWKS

Arcade smash hit

79.95

ULTIMA 6

Epc role playing M

8495

WING COMMANDER

2S6 colour space simulator

8995

SPORTS

Jack Ncklaus Gull Designer

GctT simulator fantastic

69.95

ITALY 1990

Soccer mama

5995

Intematonal Soccer

Wow more soccer madness oicelent

6995

HARDBALL 2

Great basobati hn game

5995

LINXGOLF

VGA 256 the best goll

69.95

Lakers YSCeaics

Basketball at the lop!

5495

TV SPORTS BASKETBALL

Best seltotg sports tuti

7995

TV SPORTS FOOTBALL

Best setting sports tit!

59.95

Pp.0 TENNIS
PGA TOUR GOLF
World Class Leadertcard

Hanging in tfere sees weU
Fanlastlc gotl tun!
Classic quality 3D golt

59.95
59.95
59.95

STRATEGY & SIMULATIONS

BATTLE CHESS 2

BLUE MAX

F15 STRIKE EAGLE 2

F19 Stealth Fighter

FIGHTER BOMBER

FLIGHT Of INTRUDER

GALLEONS ol GLORY

KNIGHTS OF THE SKY

RAILROAD TYCOON

SIM EARTH

SILENT SERVICE II

A10TANK KILLER

COVERT ACTION

CURSE OF AZURE BONDS

DAS BOOT

Global D*mma Guns Butter

HOYLESGAMES2

ISHIDO

JET FIGHTER

Ml TANK PLATOON

Nobunagas Ambition

MIDWINTER

PANZER BATTLES

REACH FOR THE STARS

RE hhon

SECOND FRONT
STRATEGO
STORMOVIK
TEAM YANKEE
TEST DRIVE 3
THEIR FINEST HOUR
WOLFPACK

Oriental chess 3d animated 69.95

WW2 Biplane heras 69.95

Air combat msson simulator 69.95

Complex lighter plane simulator 109.95

Voted st combat simulator 59.95

Top quality righiet plane simulator 6995

B-.ti- - :ei 7995

Mlcroprose WWI simulation 69.95

The ultimate business simulation 89.95

Create your own planet 109.95

-■.'-.-.•-..-.T ...,-.-■ 79.95

Tank battle smulator 69 95

rVarslrattgy 79.95

-■:>::,.■■ - .;.".■■:.'- 5495

Wortf war 2 sutirrianrie simulation 69.95

The best tea ol your leadershp 7995

Moreexol ant :.yo-ij-v-:. 69.95

High Quaily* game 69.95

High speed combat simulalor 6995

.•.'„' «;; ..r :.' 69.95

Deep strategy game ancient Japan 89.95

3D strategy game ot me future 8995

War games 4995

Space strategy epc 39.95

VrtVIItyngsmulaicii 7995

War Dme russian strategy 69.95

Aroemswjecygame 69.95

Russian fighter combat game 5995

3D hvjh quality combat game S995

ExceJertonVGA 6995

Brilliant 3d air combat game 69.95

Y7W2 sea correal submarine game 89.95

EDUCATIONAL

DUCK TALES
FIRST WRITER
FUNSCHOOL 2-6
FUNSCHOOL 6-8
FUNSCHOOL 8-UP
MATH BLASTER PLUS
May* Beacon Teaches Typng
MICKEY ABC
MICKEY SHAPES
MICKEY MATHS
PLAYROOM
SIM CITY

spell rr plus

WHEEL Of FORTUNE 2
Where In Europe rs Carmen
WHERE IN TIME CARMEN
WHERE IN USA CARMEN
WHERE IN WORLD CARMEN
WORLD ATLAS

Educational

Early word ptocessirc skfe

Educational fun

Educalionaltun

Lr-ir'-;0:-'i:^

Quakty mains package
Typng tutor
Early educational
Early educational
Early educational
Early learning fun & games
Design & control a city
Quality education package
Great fanny heme game
Geography game
Teaches ttstory & geography
Geography gamo
Geography game
Atlas on computer, fantastic!

5995
29.95
49.95
49.95
4995
69.95
6=95
59.95
69.95
69.95
7995
3995
69.95
3995
84.95
8495
8495
8495
89.95

HARDWARE

ADLIB SOUND CARD
PC COLT
PC 10 series III
PC 40 scries III VGA
CGA MONITOR
EGA MONITOR
VGA MONITOR
IBM GAME CARD
JOYSTICK ANALOG PLUS IBM
JOYSTICK ANALOG EXTRA
JOYSTICK PC
SOUND BLASTER CARD
LIGHTSCAN2O0J SCANNER
LIGHTSCAN 400H SCANNER
GENIUS PC MOUSE GM6X
GENIUS PC MOUSE GM-F302
GENIUS PC MOUSE GMF303

The original sound card 239.00

Twin 525" XT computer 69900 I

Single 5.25" 40 meg HD XT computer 1 495.00 1

AT 266. 1 mb ram. 40 mb HD.inc VGA t995.00 1

4 colour PC monitor 449 CG f

16 colour Hl-RES PC monitor, card 689.00 I

256 coour HIRES PC monitor -card 99900

Required tor PC joystick 3995

Quality Joystck 59.95

Superb PC joystick 6995

Budget PC pystck 2995

MagnitcorB PC sound arjd-on' 34900 ]

Handheld scanner 200DPI 199,00

Handheld 4000PI with OCR 369.00

Mcicsolt compatible 3 button 79.95

As above inc Graphc Art software 139.00 I

As acc-wjtnc CAD software 159.00

PRINTERS :-

SEE PRINTERS UNDER AMIGA HARDWARE all compalible 10 PC I

-&/W*- s

C64 SOFTWARES.

HARDWARE

ART & UTILITIES

1 AWARD WARE

Create & pent own awards

2995 1

1 PRINT POWER

Signs, calenders, banners

2995 1

1 PRINT SHOP

Print sign5,cards,banners

79.95 1

1 DATA MANAGER

Ouakty database package

3995 1

1 KWIK WRITE

Budget word processor

29.95 1

1 MINI OFFICE 2

Wordproobase spreadsheet comms

44.95 1

1 NEWSROOM

?■■■- nap put ■■'"- padoQfl

3995 1

1 PAPERCLIP PUBLISHER

Desktop publishing

5495 1

1 SWIFTCALC

Fully featured spreadshoel

3995 1

1 TOP 20 SOFTWARE TOOLS

Great coilecoon ot classic utilities

3995 1

1 WORD WRITER 5

Promising word processor

6995 1

1 ACTION REPLAY MK6

Hacker ulillly cartridge

13495 1

1 FAST LOAD CARTRIDGE

United stocks

49.95 1

1 EXPERT CARTRIDGE

LMIycarSOge

14995 1

1 TURBOLOADFASTLOAD

Fastloader cartridge with reset

49.95 1

ARCADE & ADVENTURE

1 ATOMIC ROBOKID

Arcade smash hi

39.95 1

1 BACK TO FUTURE 2

Great game of the movie

39.95 1

1 BUCK ROGERS

Comic book classic adverture

39.95 1

1 CASTLEVAN1A

Arcade adventure

39.95 1

1 DOUBLE DRAGON 2

A/cace smash ru

39.95 1

| DRAGON NINJA

Kung tu acton game

39.95 1

Ieswat

Arcade action hit game

39.95

1 GHOULS a GHOSTS

Quality arcade conversion

3995 1

1 GOLDEN AXE

Arcade smash r«t

3995 1

1 FLIM30S QUEST

Arcado smash hit

3495 1

1 KINGS BOUNTY

Adventure quest

39.95 1

1 NINJA REMIX

New release of Last nmja 2

39.95 1

ROBOCOP2

Hit movie based arcade game

49.95 1

: •■•■_ 7. .•.■•••!•■ .

Kung fu hit arcade

39.95 1

1 STAR WARS TRILOGY

AH 9 star wars games

39.95 1

1 STREET ROD

Buy it. build it up. n' race it 1

44.9!

1 TURRICAN

My favorte arcade hit game'

39.95 1

1 WHEELS OF FIRE

Top collection ot racing car hits!

39.95 1

1 Wonder Boy In Monstet Land

Arcade smash hit

3995 1

1 BARDS TALE 128 3

Role playino adventure

5995 1

1 PIRATES

Classic role playing epic voyage

4995 1

1 CHAMPIONS OF KRYNN

Role playing hit

4995 1

1 MONTY PYTHON

Arcade madness

3995 1

1 MIGHTS MAGIC 2

Excefeffl role playing game

44.95 1

1 SECRET SILVER BLADES

Great new role playing hit'

3995 1

STAGER!

Arcade smash hit

59.95 1

1 SUPER OFF ROAD RACING

;.• '-!.:'., ;

39.95 1

| Teen3ge Mulanl Ninja Turtles Finally it's here!!!!!

3995 1

TOTAL RECALL

Movie lit game

49.95 1

ULTIMA 5

Classc role playing

7995 1

SPORTS

1 ALL STAR TEST CRICKET

New cricket game

39.95 1

BLADES OF STEEL

Ice hockey action

39.95 1

1 JACK NICKLAUS GOLF

Great gol game

3995 1

1 INTERNATIONAL SOCCER

Excellent classic hi'

2995 1

1 JORDAN V BIRO

One on one basketball

29.95 1

1 ITALY 1990

Soccer mania

3995 1

TV SPORTS FOOTBALL

3D sports gamo

4995 1

1 WINNERS ITALY 19=0

Soccer at : 5 best

39.95 1

PRO TENNIS

Same best lennis game

39.95 1

1 WORLD CUP 93 SOCCER

Etcetent sports fun

3995 1

ULTIMATE GOLF

New goKreJiasti

4995 1

STRATEGY & SIMULATION

BAHLE CHESS

3D anrmated chess tun

39.95 1

1 CHESSMASTER 2100

Latest chess game

4995 1

1 CARRIERS AT WAR

Back allasl the deepest simulator

39.95 1

PANZER BATTLES

Strategc lank battles

39.95 1

1 REACH FOR STARS

Classic space strategy

3995 1

STORM ACROSS EUROPE

Strategc wargamo

34.95 1

. 7:'.", ;.

Utimtt rcteptai no mrm

79.95 1

I ULTIMA TRILOGY

UUtia 12 S3 pack

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by Andrew Leniart

This issue I will go over some of ihe are-
as that a lot of readers seem to be having
problems with, and go over previously
discussed topics from a slightly different
angle. If you are one of the many that
sent in a letter saying you didn't quite
understand one tiling or another, go and
grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit down
and give the Amiga a boot and we'll see
if we can set you straight.

Back to basics

There seems to be a bit of confusion
about the formatting of a computer disk,
what it is, why it needs to be done and
how. Let's start at the beginning.

When you buy a blank computer
disk, it is not yet ready to be used with
your Amiga. As a matter of fact, any 3-5"
blank disk you buy, regardless of brand
name, can be used on any sort of ma-
chine, be it an IBM, Apple, Macintosh or
whatever, that takes a 3.5" disk.

Try this little test. Get out a freshly
bought unformatted disk from a box and
insert it into one of your disk drives.
What you will find happen is that the
Amiga's disk drive will grunt and groan
for a bit as it tries to make sense of the
disk you've put in and will eventually
spit the dummy and place a name such
as BAD under the disk icon on the work-
bench screen. Try to access this disk by
double Clicking it and you will soon un-
derstand why the need to first format a
new blank disk.

In order to be able to use a new disk
in our Amiga, we first need to prepare
the disk in such a way so that the Amiga
may use it. We do this by the way of For-
matting. So what is Formatting?

Formatting

Formatting a disk simply means to
prepare a disk in such a way that the
Amiga can Read and Write to it. Simple
as that. Normally, the new Amiga user
would use the Workbench menu item
called Initialize, and I guess that most of
you have used this function at one time
or another.

Initialize does exactly the same thing
to the disk as the CLI Format command.
The only difference is that it does it via
the simple point, Click and menu pull
down menu methods from the very easy
to use Workbench. When doing this pro-
cess from the CLI, things get a little more
complicated as you need to enter certain
arguments (or instructions) specifying
the disk drive and any additional details
about the new disk's name and so on.
Let's have another quick look at the For-
mat Syntax or Command template. 1.2
Version Workbench:

Format DRIVE <disk> NAME <name>
INOICONS]

The 1.3 version of Workbench has an
extra couple of goodies, but there is only
one of which I'll cover here to avoid
confusion, and that's the [QUICK] argu-
ment.

Looking at the above command tem-
plate, we see that we need to enter the-
following information for the command
to work.
FORMAT • The command name itself.

DRIVE - The drive which contains the

disk you wish to format.

NAME - The name which you want

the disk to be called when the process is

completed.

NOICONS - Specifies whether or not
you wish to have a Trashcan icon auto-
matically placed on the disk for you.

QUICK - This argument speeds up the
formatting operation so that it only takes
a few seconds on a disk that has been
formatted at least once before. This is
useful if you just want to clear a disk
completely of data and make it blank.

Note that the last two arguments
[NOICONS] & [QUICK] are optional and
need not be entered for the command to
work. So, keeping in mind the input re-
quired, to format a disk in your external
drive DF1: you would enter, the follow-
ing command in a CLI or Shell:

Format Drue DF1: Name "Spare-
Disk" Nolcons

Having typed that in, pound the RE-
TURN key once and just follow the in-

Parts

struciions given on screen. At the end of
the process, you will end up with a disk
called "Spare-Disk" on your Workbench
screen without a Trashcan in it once
opened. Go ahead and try it now.

A final note about this command. If
we had left out the "No-Icons" argument
in the above example, then the disk
would have a Trashcan in it. Format the
disk again leaving this argument out to
see what I mean.

Diskcopy

I've received a few letters from read-
ers complaining that the examples I gave
for using the Diskcopy command in the
second installment of this series would
only work some of the time and not oth-
ers. After a little bit of investigation, it al-
ways turned out that this problem was
not the fault of the command, but that of
the software companies which release
the disks which you are trying to back-
up. What the hell am I talking about'

Copy protection

The Amiga DiskCopy command can
only copy disks which are not copy pro-
tected. The same goes for the pull down
menu item on Workbench, "Duplicate"
which does the same thing as the CLI
Diskcopy command. For example, your
Amiga will always happily copy disks
which you have created yourself or disks
which are not copy protected such as
your original WorkBench and Extras
disks, and some other unprotected com-
mercial software. However, for obvious
reasons, commercial software that has
been released without some type of
copy protection is a rare commodity
these days.

But it is still possible to back up com-
mercial software. Whether or not it's le-
gal is another question which you'll have
to find the answer to yourself.

The way to backup a disk which
Diskcopy can not handle is to use a spe-
cial copy program designed for this pur-
pose. There are quite a few around, with
one of the most popular probably being
Continued on p34

ACAR 32

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Xcopy. Another old favourite goes by
the name of Marauder and there are oth-
ers as well.

These programs may be bought
quite legally just like any other piece of
software from most software distribu-
tors. Nuff on that for now - so moving
right along...

A smaller CLI

Just about everyone knows that the
CLI or Shell window which we work
with can be re-sized to any size we
choose by using the mouse and drag-
ging the window to the size we want
with the gadget on the lower right cor-
ner of it's window. But did you know
that you could have the CLI open up to
any size you desire every time you start
it up? Here's how...

Open up a CLI or Shell and type in
the following command and hit return:

NewCLlConio/20/250/50/My-CLI

What you should end up with is a
small NewCLI window in the topleft
hand corner of your workbench screen
with its title being "My-CLI". Let's have a
look at the command parameters.

NEWCLI CON: are the commands to
make a new CLI window a certain size.
The numbers which follow this are the
important ones that tell the Amiga what
size we want the CLI.

The first number tells the Amiga
where to put the CLI in regard to the left
hand side of your screen. Let's call this
parameter X. When X=0, then the Amiga
places the CLI at the very left hand side
of the screen. Increasing this number
will move the CLI that number of "pix-
els" to the right side. So the same com-
mand above with an X parameter of 10
would have placed the window 10 pix-
els to the right.

The second number after the first for-
ward slash "/" tells the Amiga where to
put the window in relation to the top of
the screen. We'll call that parameter Y.
In our example above, Y=20 instructed
the Amiga to place the CLI 20 pixels
down from the top of the Workbench
screen. Type in the command again and
change both of the parameters to zero
and you will find that the CLI will end
up right in the top left hand corner.

Okay, that's the positioning of the
CLI window to Stan off with. But what of
the size? That's where the last two num-
bers come into play. The third number
in our example specifies the width of

the CLI. In our example, this is 250 pix-
els wide, while the last number specifies
the height of the window. The final pa-
rameter is naturally the name which you
want to give the CLI, My-CLI in this par-
ticular case.

Note that this name can be anything
you like. Try it out and experiment a bit
by changing the numbers around and
you will soon get the drift of how it
works. There is not a great deal that can
go wrong. If you enter too high a num-
ber the Amiga will simply report back an
error and you'll just need to try again. Af-
ter playing around with this feature,
some of you, like me, might find a par-
ticular size and positioned CLI window
that you would like appear each time
you double Clicked your Shell or CLI
icon. Well the good news is that it IS
possible and here's how to do it...

First up, make sure the copy of your
WorkBench disk that you are using is
"write-enabled". Check this by making
sure the little square hole at the top right
corner of the diskette is closed. We need
to do this as we are going to get the Ami-
ga to write information to the disk. Hav-
ing done that, open up the disks win-
dow on Workbench and highlight the
CLI or Shell icon you start your CLI's
with by Clicking on it ONCE.

Next step is to go up to the Work-
bench pull down menus and using your
right mouse button, select the "Info"
menu item, A window will appear giving
you all sorts of information about the
icon you have selected. Here is where
we make our changes. At the bottom of
the window is a long box tabled "TOOL
TYPES". Within that box are two extra
gadgets, those being ADD and DEL.
Click once on the ADD gadget and a cur-
sor should appear in the box ready to ac-
cept your new parameters. Now is the
time to type in your favourite size and
name parameters for your CLI window.
However, it must be done in the follow-
ing format.

WINDOW=CONiO/45/640/90/AutoCLI_
Shell

Note that the two commands "WIN-
DOW=CON" must be in upper case oth-
erwise your changes will not work. The
above example contains my personal fa-
vourite parameters and while these suit
me, they may not suit you. Just change
the parameters to your own favourite
size, position and name that you discov-
ered when experimenting earlier. When
you've finished typing in the details, sim-
ply Click on the SAVE gadget and the

Amiga will save the changes to disk.
Double Click the CLI icon again now to
see the results.

If ever you wish to revert back to
the original way the CLI used to open,
it's a simple matter of going back into
the Info window we made our changes
in and Clicking on the DEL gadget in
the Tool Types box. Save this again and
all will be back to the way it was be-
fore.

Letters

Time to answer one or two of your
letters. Please keep them coming and
thanks to all those that have already
sent in some feedback. The first for this
month comes from Lance Turner of
Tweed Heads NSW who writes.

"I have subscribed to ACAR and
read the CLI Tutorial parts 6 & 7 which
have helped, but missed the first five
parts which I assume covered the ba-
sics which we need. Could you please
tell us how to gel hold of these first five
parts and also the name of a good book
on AmigaDOS VI, 3 and using the Ami-
ga. Also, when listing a large directory,
ie: <List c> the information is scrolled
up quite fast. I know this can be paused
with the space bar and continued with
the backspace, but is there any way to
scroll down and re-look at information
already off the screen?

Reply

In answer to your first question
Lance, you can order back issues of
ACAR by writing to us direct at:

21 Darley Rd
Randwick NSW 2031.

$2.50 per back issue.

As for good books on the Amiga
and CLI, I like AmigaDOS Inside and
Out published by Abacus, and distribut-
ed by Pactronics (02) 748 4700. It's well
worth the forty odd bucks it costs for
the wealth of information that it con-
tains.

Another good way to get informa-
tion about using your Amiga is to grab
hold of a copy of Megadisc, advertised
in ACAR. Megadisc is a magazine on
disk and contains a heap of tricks and
tips for the new Amiga user which are
all written by enthusiasts of the ma-
chine and the editor, Tim Strachan,
himself. Very reasonably priced and
well worth the money.

Your request to view information
that has already scrolled off the screen
is not really possible from the CLI itself.

ACAR 34

^MIG^

There is an easy way to do it though,
and that is to "redirect" the output of the
DIR command to a text file somewhere
like in Ram.

Here's one way to do it:

CDDFO:cDIR>Ratn:C-D«rectory

What this does is create a text file in
Ram: by the name of C directory and
copies the information normally scrolled
on screen to this text file. Having done
this, you are now in a position to use a
text viewer like More on your Work-
bench disk or one of the many text view-
ers available in the public domain to

view the text file.

Try it out and you'll see what I mean,
but don't forget to save it to disk if you
want to look at it another day without
going through the above exercise all
over again. For more detailed informa-
tion on redirection, check out this col-
umn in the back issues of ACAR when
you get them. Hope that helps you out.
In any case, thanks for your input, a PD
disk on its way.

The other letter for this month comes
from Russell Hunt at Chiltern who
writes..

"Andrew, how can I bring about the

use of fonts that have been transferred
into a word-processing program from
another. I can tell from the CLI that the
transfer has been successful but the new
fonts do not show up on screen in the
fonts menu in KindWords. Would you
be able to describe the correct proce-
dure please?"

Reply

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Unfortunately Russell, the word pro-
cessor that you are using does not have
the capability to use other external fonts,
so you will need to upgrade your soft-
ware to a package that does. There are
quite a few available
and probably one of the
best ways to choose one
would be to read some
reviews on various word
processors in previous
issues of ACAR.

However the way to
copy any fonts over
from another disk is rela-
tively easy. Assuming
you have the disk con-
taining the fonts you
want in DF1: and the
disk you wish to copy to
in DF0: then all that is
required is the follow-
ing:

CopyDFliFoati
DFotFontaall

and hit return. Though I
suspect that you already
know this as you say
you can see the fonts
have been copied over
successfully via the CLI.

Well, that's about it
for this month. We'll be
doing some more re-
capping of problem are-
as next issue along with
more replies to individu-
al questions and prob-
lems, so stick with us.
Till then, keep hammer-
ing that keyboard.

Catch you later. □

ACAR 35

^VMIGA

Telecomputing

lumn

In this month's column we'll be look-
ing at some of the bulletin board pro-
grams available for the Amiga, and
there's a brief interview with a BBS sy-
sop (System Operator, pronounced
Siss'Op). I also went into finding out a
bit more information about SkyPix, a
novel new way of making your way
around BBS menus.

BBS Programs

The best son of BBS program is one
with the power to grow with your needs
down the track. You would want one
that could handle Fido (the international
echo mail system) and several telephone
lines. One such program for the Amiga is
Paragon by Inner Circle Software in
America. Paragon can handle up to nine
lines and Fido. It is a BBS that can just
about do anything, if not, it will be able
to soon. The authors, Jon Kadoff and
Eric Drewry, are constantly upgrading it.

The other good thing about Paragon
is the number of doors available - these
are programs to run with it. There are
hundreds of programs available, includ-
ing TimeBank programs and programs
to gamble your time. Also a multi user
chat program comes with the package
which has 99 rooms and many options.

To operate Paragon, you need any
Amiga computer, a Hayes compatible
modem, at least two disk drives (a hard
drive is recommended), and at least 1
Meg of RAM.

Paragon is not available through
shops in Australia to my knowledge, the
agent for Australia is unknown due to re-
cent changes but it is available in Ameri-
ca at :

Inner Circle Software
P.O. Box 486, Northborough, MA 01532
Support BBS: 508-393-3875, 9600 baud
(HST). FidoNet: 1:322/545

I will let you know when it is availa-
ble in Australia.

Paragon has very good SysOp secur-
ity options, just about anything can be
edited for individual users, menus are to-
tally made by you and can do a wide va-

QJ7 dUlffiffiEID 93QM3D

riety of things. It costs approx $260
(Aust). For the latest information on Par-
agon call All Amiga BBS (02) 876-8965.

The cheaper alternative is to get a
Public Domain program. There are sev-
eral available for the Amiga, including
Tag-BBS, MicroHost, ColourBBS, Soft-
Span BBS, and many more which are
available on most BBS's or Fish Disks.
More about these next month.

Skypix kicks off!

I had never seen Skypix before until I
called a BBS in Sydney called The Dense
Mist BBS. It was amazing the things that
you could do. Skypix can only be used
on the Amiga due to its advanced graph-
ics and sound capabilities. JRComm
VI. 01 or SkyTerm are the only two termi-
nal programs that can handle SkyPix
BBS's.

When on a SkyPix BBS you can use
your mouse, which is quite an unusual
feeling via modem. You also get quality
graphics (not ASCII characters) almost
just like ordinary pictures. Animations
and sound are also possible. SkyPix re-
quires you to download the files first be-
fore using them; this process can be rath-
er long, sometime 10 minutes for sound
samples, but pictures are less than a min-
ute. A directory has to be set for these
files to work inside your terminal pro-
gram. Once downloaded it is quicker to
load up the menus next lime.

Skypix is a superset of commands
above ANSI graphics commands. Basi-
cally a protocol between the BBS and
the terminal software program to display
fancy graphics, play sound/music, make
use of mouse functions, transparent Up-
load/download, etc. Skypix is copyright-
ed by the Author Michael Cox in the
USA. Permission to use the protocol
within a terminal program or otherwise
must first be gained before it can be im-
plemented.

BBS Update

I apologise to readers in other states

beside NSW - as I am based in Sydney it
is a bit too expensive to call other states,
but I will try my best. If anyone is inter-
ested in helping me in calling new BBS's
in other states could you contact me at
the places mentioned at the end of this
article.

The Dense Mist
(02)416-3143

A great BBS. This system is operated
using SkyTerm (a SkyPix program)
which enables you to use your mouse,
view pictures/animations, and hear
sound samples. If you have never seen
SkyPix 1 suggest you call for a real sur-
prise, it is quite unbelievable what is
possible. At the moment there are not a
lot of files but another hard disk is on its
way which should make it a very good
BBS.

Telelnfo Systems Australia
(02)975-1099

This BBS is one of the biggest in Aus-
tralia. There are two gigabytes of stor-
age, 20 lines and 14,000 files accessable
for members. The BBS is great for a
chat. There is also for lots of mail, files,
and everything else. Teleinfo never
seems to stop expanding, it just keeps
on going and going. The BBS caters for
C64/128, Amiga and IBM computers. See
interview with the SysOp later on in this
article. This BBS is very good for new
callers, you get very good access as soon
as you register.

ADAM BBS (08)370-5775

This one of the biggest BBS in Aus-
tralia too. Like Telelnfo, ADAM runs on
TBBS. There are 32 lines and 2.1 Gigaby-
tes storing 20,000 files. There are files for
the Amiga, C64/128, IBM, Macintosh,
Atari and others. Members are encour-
aged strongly to pay membership by
many options unavailable.

All Amiga BBS
(02)876-8965 "NEW*

This BBS has 100 Megabytes of stor-
age, one line and approx 500+ files.

It is run by an Amiga 2000 using Par-
agon BBS. There are heaps of online
games and role playing games. Decent
access given to first callers and Guests
(including downloads first call!).

Continued on p38

ACAR36

THE AMIGA 500 PC/XT IS HERE

*&*

WWWttW \\\\\\\\\l '"Willi WW////

M

Run Professional

MS DOS Software

On Your Amiga 500

At A Price You Can Afford

o

Povn*

*

c

Why Did You Buy An Amiga 500?

Of course, because of its superb graphics, music and animation capabilities. However if you
want to get serious, you soon realise that it is distinctly lacking in memory and professional
software.

Well - They Said It Could Never Happen - But It's Here At Last!

You! In your own home can transform your Amiga 500 into a real IBM compatible PLUS up to

ONE AND A HALF MEGABYTE Amiga memory expansion,

It's simple - No screwdriver, no soldering iron and no technical knowledge required. Just turn

your Amiga over, open the cover, slide the Power PC Board into the connector, close the cover

and your Amiga PC/XT is ready. (In other words, no loss of guarantee)

You are now ready to use a wealth of professional MS DOS software at speeds faster than a

PC/XT (ind. review), and in colour, with compatibility thanks to Phoenix-Bios.

You can also rety on the correct date and time at any moment in Amiga and MS DOS mode

(with the aid of a battery).

* Video support: monochrome, Hercules and Colour Graphics Adaptor (CGA)
(4 and 8 colours)

ir Disk support: internal 3.5" external 3.5" external 5V4" drive. (Software-upgrade to
H/D A590in pipeline)

* Including MS DOS 4.01, MS DOS shell and GVV Basic (market value approx C130.00)
1c Including English Microsoft books f KCS manual * FREE software

1c Further exciting software upgrades in the pipeline

* Available memory: 704KB . 64KB EMS in MS DOS mode. 1 megabyte + 512KB RAM
(disk) buffer in Amiga mode

* No extra power supply necessary thanks to the most modern CMOS and ASIC technology
1c OK with TV. No special monitor required

Compatibility is excellent, but no-one can guarantee every single program available therefore
if your purchase depends on a particular program, please ask us first or send in a copy of the
program. (With suitable S.A.E. if to be returned). Price subject to change without notice.

HARD DRIVE SUPPORT NOW AVAILABLE

HPDPty Ltd
5-7 Railway Terrace, Dry Creek, SA 5094

PO Box 121, Dry Creek, SA 5094
Phone: (08) 349 8486 Fax (08) 349 4667

DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME

tuviica.

Sysop Interview: Ross Delaforce

Telelnfo Systems Australia (02)975-1099

As mentioned above Ross owns one of the biggest BBS's
in Australia. I met Ross for a personal interview and found it
very interesting to see a BBS on such a large scale as Telelnfo.

Telelnfo currently has 20 lines. It also has 2 gigabytes of
drive storage containing 14,000 files available for download-
ing for the C64/128, Amiga and IBM. Telelnfo Australia runs
the multi-line MS-DOS Bulletin Board software TBBS {The
Bread Board System), from eSoft Pry Ltd in Colorado, USA.
Software: TBBS 2.1MI32], with - TMail vl.20 by Larry Lewis
-TDBS 1.1(32] -SysOMl.O
32 lines possible (20 being used at present)
Unlimited number of Menus possible.
Max. 63 Mailboards used

Max. 30,000 message base (approx. 18,500 set currently)
Hardware: Micronics 80486 motherboard in a 'tower" case
5MHz clock, with 64k Cache. 8192KB RAM

1 x 1.2MB 5.25" floppy drive
1 x 1.44M/720K 3-5" floppy drive
3 x 760MB Maxtor XT-8760S SCSI hard drives

1 x 150MB Wangtek tape backup drive

2 x 16 Port DigiBoard PC/16 multi-serial-port cards
20 x Maestro 2400ZXR modems

Value: $85,000 (approx)

The BBS averages around 275 callers per day. The userlog
consists of 1,700 users (350 of which have paid membership).

AMIGA PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE

• Free delivery • 1 ,000's of programs
• All orders despatched next day

One of the most

comprehensive ranges of

Amiga P.D. Software.

* FISH DISKS

* AMICUS DISKS

* AMIGAN DISKS
* ALPHA DISKS

* TBAG DISKS

* TOPIK DISKS
* F.A.U.G. DISKS

All $4.00 each

* LATENIGHTER DISKS

$5.00 each

Bestnf Public Domain.

Over 450 of the very best
from only $2.95 per disk.

INTRODUCTORY PACK

comprising:

PUBLIC DOMAIN

CATALOGUE

1 ,000's of program listings.

SAMPLE DISK

1 great games/programs

HINTS AND TIPS DISK

1 .5 Megabytes of hints & tips.

TUTORIAL DISK

Amiga Tutor and DOS Helper.

GAMES DISK

7 fantastic games.

UTILITY DISK
5 incredible utilities.

Total Value $30.00

Introductory Price....$19.95

Q For only S5.00 we will send our Catalogue Disk wilh a free game and

virus checker PLUS a sample disk of 10 great Games/Programs.
□ OR try our INTRODUCTORY PACK for only $ 1 9.95. PLEASE TICK.

LEEJAN ENTERPRISES PTY LTD
PO Box 66 Happy Valley SA 5159 Tel (08) 322 3392

BANKCARD/MASTERCARD/CHEQUE/MONEY ORDER

BCARD/MCARD NO EXP

NAME SIGNATURE

ADDRESS

..PCODE..

Ross Delaforce says.- "I started out playing around with a
piece of software called KBBS, and was shown the ropes of
BBS'ing by a guy by the name of Warren Hillsdon. Warren ran
Commodore Pursuit, off a C64, an IEEE interface, and a couple
of D9090 hard drives - a massive 5 megs per drive. After see-
ing, and being amused with the whole idea of other people
ringing in and using your system, I decided to play around
with BBS software myself.

Eventually, I upgraded to a CI 28, and played around with
EBBS, then finally bought myself an Amiga 1000, and used
BBS-pc! on a 20 Megabyte hard drive. Eventually, due to limita-
tions of storage space at the time, I went to an IBM (AT-
lOMeg), and bought ConCurrent-DOS, and the IBM version of
BBS-pc!. This gave me around 140 Mbytes of storage, and two
lines multitasking the same program.

This was early 1988, and the BBS at that time was called
AmigaLink BBS. I started taking 'memberships', and used it to
expand my software base and save up for a faster machine to
run more lines. In late 1988, I was shown TBBS remotely, and
was impressed. I even drive 290kms to see it running locally.
Needless to say, I was hooked.

I had to move from the location in Neutral Bay where
AmigaLink was running, and to where I am located now in Bel-
rose. I was unhappy to find that there was already an Amiga-
Link BBS running in Melbourne slightly longer than me. It was
here I decided to come back at the new location, with a new
name, and new software. February 1989 saw the birth of Tele-
Info - 'Information from afar 1 . The system was running around
300Megs worth of drive space, and was basically an Amiga/
C64-128 orientated BBS. It was running on 2 lines, and this was
increased to 4 lines to cope with the traffic.

At this stage the system was averaging around 40-60 callers
per day, and slowly growing. Hence, the time to look seriously
at expanding both lines and hardware came. I guess the rest is
fairly self explanatory. From the 4 lines, Telelnfo went to 6,
then 8, then 12, then 14, then 16, then the split of l6 and 2, to
now - 18 and 2. Also, Telelnfo's main motherboard was up-
graded from a 20Meg 80386, to a 33Meg, then to the present
486/25 meg machine. Also, online drive capacity grew from
300 Megs to 2 Gigabytes. Of course, as the system grew, so did
the demand of getting in help.

Fellow workmates at ABC -TV, Mark Avis and Peter Hanra-
han, joined the team. Shortly after came Glenn Percival. Then
appeared Stephen Harrington (Mr IBM), and Stephen Jannese.
Without the help of these guys, I guess I would have lost most
of my enthusiasm for expanding Telelnfo, and been around
330,000 richer (thanks a lot guys!). The system now averages
275 callers per day, and around 1700 people in the userlog.

What's in the future? Putting on more lines - a few 008 num-
bers to make it more attractive to STD Members, maybe the
new version of TBBS (v2.2) due out Winter 1991 .»»

Ross runs his BBS as a hobby and doesn't force New Users/
Guests to pay membership fees as he is not totally in it for the
money. Ross puis just about all membership fees into a new
line - it costs about $600 by the time he gets the line installed
and the modem. A recommended BBS to visit!

Letters and questions

If you have any questions or comments I can be contacted
at: PO Box 162, Epping NSW 2121. Call my BBS: ALL AMIGA
BBS! (02)876-8965.

Next month - a look at Public Domain BBS programs, more
BBS reviews, more SysOp interviews and much much more!
Until next month, happy BBSing! Q

ACAR38

AMIGA SYNCRO EXPRESS

Syncro Express is a high speed floppy disk backup system for the Amiga

computer. Data is transferred directly from source to target using the Syncro

Express Interface producing a copy in as little as 50 seconds!

The system requires an external 3.5" disk drive which is connected via the Syncro Express interface
provided. The switch on the interface should be in the ON position while making high speed data
transfers and should be in the OFF position for normal computer use. The special switching hardware
in the interface will be fine for the majority disk drives but if you encounter problems when using
your drive in normal mode (switch in OFF position) then it is advised that you only install the Syncro
hardware when actually making backups.
NOTE. By popular demand we have included the abil-
ity to copy up to 90 tracks! It should be noted however
that no one will put data above track 81 since it cannot
be read reliably by all drives. It is recommended that
you only copy upto the default setting ie. track 81 since
some drives are not capable of going any higher with-
out damage .... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
AMIGA 1000: Operation for Amiga 1000 is exactly
the same as for the A500

AMIGA 2000: If you have two drives in your 2000,
then the second drive is DF1. Since Syncro Express
cannot be connected to this internal drive, you must se-
lect DF2 (and DF3 if you have two external drives) by
pushing the right hand mouse button. You cannot copy
to DF1 with your 2000 in the normal way.

CABLE TO EXTERNAL DF1

NORMAL

SYNCRO

REAR OF COMPUTER

DISK DRIVE PORT

Tel: (08) 349 8486
Fax: (08) 349 4667

DISTRIBUTORS OF COMPUTER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

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Write To:

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(06) 293-1437

See Interlink's 2 Page
Super-Ad elsewhere In this
mag for more Ideas on how
to save $$$ by mall
ordering the Interlink Way

I

AMIGA

PO!

col

PRIVATE COLLECTION

SWEAT: 100% Cotton with fleecy
brushed inside. White with Amiga
name on front, full colour print
on the back. Washable.
M/L/XL. Postpaid,
each $30.

POSTER: Classic Amiga poster printed full
our on heavy art paper. Ideal for wall or
ceiling mounting. 762mm x 506mm.
Comes in a tube. Postpaid, each $5.

STICK IT! : New Amiga stickers. Self-adhesive
vinyl. Goes on your board, bumper, case or
anywhere. Postpaid, $2.50 per set.

T's: 100% cotton baggy
T shirt. While, with Amiga
name on front, full colour
print on back. Washable.
Sizes M-L-XL.
Postpaid, each $20.

rf

Now you can get into Amiga gear !

As well, you'll be helping some less fortunate kids, because 10% goes to the Autistic Association.
Like the man says, only Amiga makes it possible. This is just the start - get into it !

USK THIS OKDKR FORM

^

TO: Amiga Gear, C/- The Mailing House, P.O.Box 663, Artarmon NSW 2064.
Here's my order.
This is the Amiga Gear I want

Please PRINT all details clearly

ITEM

AMIGA CAP (adjustable) $12.50

AMIGA SWEAT (M/L/XL) $30.00

AMIGA BAGGY T (M/L/XL) $20.00

AMIGA POSTER (762mm x 506mm) $5.00

AMIGA STICKER (297mm x 210mm) $2.50

SIZE

QTY

(All items are postpaid)

TOTAL $

COST

If you buy one of each
(normally $70) tick here and
all you need to send us is
$60! □

NAME

ADDRESS

P/Code

10%

GOES TO THE
AUTISTIC ASSOCIATION

Payment by: D Cheque DMO □ Credit Card

CREDIT CARD DETAILS

□ Bankcard □ Visa □ Master □ American

Express

Card No: Mill I I I I I I I I I I Mill

Expiry Date:

Name of card holder: .

Signature of card holder: .

^

4

mm

C 64

There's been a number of new re-
leases in the States recently. Most
of these are games (groan). How-
ever, ArEngton Software, a New Jersey
software crew, has recently released the
Code Shadow Symbolic Debugger for
the 64.

I'm told it is feature packed, provid-
ing capabilities such as disassembly, as-
sembly, step execution mode etc. Sym-
bol tables can be imported into the
debugger, or if preferred it can generate
its own. The good news is that it will
function more than happily with REUs
and the like, so it won't interfere with
memory if you have extra RAM attached.

The debugger ships in the US for
S 19-95, and Arlington Software can be
contacted through this postal address:

P.O Box 916,

North Arlington,

New Jersey 07032 USA

What could have been

A bit more news from the "What
could have been" department concern-
ing the supposed "C65" - a modern-day
reincarnation of our friend the C64. Vari-
ous sources claim it had a built-in 1581
drive that could read MS-DOS disks, and
some claim compatibility with AmigaDos
disks (of course it wouldn't have been
an Amiga emulator).

Anyway, the word is that 51 2K would
have come as standard with memory up-
grade cards available for those power
hungry users. Sound unbelievable? Wait:
There's more! The C65 was supposedly
capable of 8-bitplane graphic screens (in
simple terms - 256 colours on-screen).
Even the Amiga can't do that!

Is this the same computer that was
rumoured around three years ago but
was totally rejected by software develop-
ers as being yet another nuisance format
to cater for?

To add more fuel to this very persis-
tent rumour came Harry Copperman's
speech at the Chicago World of Amiga.
He claimed that Commodore not only in-
tends to continue selling the C64, but
also intends to enhance it. Would the en-

ACAR 42

hancements come in the form of 512Ks,
built in 1581s, and 8 bitplanes? Well, he
wasn't letting on too much. Hmm, very
intriguing.

I think Commodore have already
tried and failed to create an 8-bit plat-
form to fill the gap between the C64 and
the Amiga with the 128. Maybe if they
got themselves some decent marketing
plans they could revive the 128. But as
for the C65? Only time can tell.

Magazines

Some readers may have noticed that
Compuie/'s Gazette disappeared some
time ago. The good news is that it's back
in a new format, and one that appeals
hugely to people like me. Compute! has
been taken over, had all of its publica-
tions pulled under one masthead, and
has dropped its pretentious exclamation
mark!

Instead of me now buying Gazelle
and Amiga Resource , I get both publica-
tions, plus a PC, Mac and the original
Compute! magazine all in one very thick
compilation. Each section gets the identi-
cal coverage it used to because basically
all that has changed is that the publica-
tions have just been stuck together as
separate magazines.

Info magazine is now '.info' and has
officially dropped all C64 coverage.
Even though editors Mark and Benn ap-
pear to have betrayed us, they have cer-
tainly provided a remarkable service to
64 users in the past, and they say it was
not without serious thought and careful
consideration that the C64 side of the
magazine was dropped. Info can claim
to be the first magazine to use only Com-
modore computers in its production -
right from the start when the 64 was
Commodore's only baby and Desktop
Publishing was unheard of.

Also on the magazine front is a brand
new magazine - Commodore Format. I
read and enjoy the Amiga version {Ami-
ga Format) and it will be interesting to
see if a new C64 publication can survive
in these days when so many others have
died. Commodore Format is not without

gimmick, though. Like the Amiga ver-
sion, it comes with a monthly cover disk
(cassette, to be more precise).

In these times of dwindling support
from the computer media it is nice to see
there are still publications willing to sup-
port the 64. Closer to home, I'm here to
provide support for the Australian C64
market and will be for a long time to
come.

Commodore sales

While on the subject of "dwindling
support", the news isn't as bad as is often
made out from the point of view of C64
sales. World-wide Commodore sales fig-
ures are out and they show that in 1990
the C64 still held 18 percent of Commo-
dore sales. While this may seem a far cry
from the 39 percent of Commodore sales
that the 64 held in 1988, you must keep
in mind that, according to the December
edition of Jumpdisk, this adds up to
more than 700,000 units. Compare that
to the sales of other types of computers
and you'll sec just how much life the
C64's got left in it yet!

User Group

Penrith Commodore User Group has
sent me some information about them-
selves, and I must say that the group
sounds great. Just looking through their
monthly newsletter, Commodore Ca-
pers, it is obvious they have heaps to of-
fer Commodore 64/128 users.

Membership fees are extremely rea-
sonable and membership would, in fact,
pay for itself if you use the vouchers in-
cluded in their newsletters which offer
discounts from companies such as Com-
puterSpot and the Games Wizard. They
even offer a six month ACAR subscrip-
tion for only $15 for members. The
group also maintains a library of maga-
zines, books and public domain soft-
ware, all of which are available to mem-
bers.

User groups are a fabulous source of
information and help, and provide an
ideal environment for meeting other us-
ers with similar interests to yourself. The
postal address for the PCUG is 42 Alpine
Circuit, St Clair NSW 2759. Phone them
on either 670 3207 or 623 4258.

Music

After reading the December column
on music, Andrew Smith, from Bayswa-
ter, Victoria, purchased the Music Expan-
sion System from The Gamesmen. He
says he is entirely happy with it, but is
unable to locate the Composer/Editor

C 64

software to work with it. Surely somebody out there knows
something about getting the software for it. If you can help,
please contact me and I'll pass the info on.

Marc Walters, from Edgeworth NSW, recommends users
that are interested in music should look at the efforts of "hack-
er-styled" programmers. The music editor 1 use on the Amiga,
MED, is of this type and of exceptional quality. One that Marc
recommends is UBIK's Music from Firebird. If you can locate
it, give it a try.

Marc also writes to ask how it is that ACAR knows that
there are more Amiga owners than C64 owners that read the
ACAR. A good question. Yes, it's very possible that C64 users
outnumber Amigarians in reader numbers. Marc writes on:

"About a year ago in an editorial, Andrew Farrell men-
tioned that there was a questionnaire inside the issue. There
wasn't. Will ACAR ever have a readers poll to find out what
the balance of Amiga and C64 owning readers is?

Actually, I'd often wondered what had happened to that
questionnaire myself. Anyway, I should point out that official-
ly the number of C64s in existence far outnumbers the
amount of Amigas and I think it will be a good number of
years until the Amiga looks like catching up. But as for actual
readers? Judging by the mail I receive there are still heaps of
users with as much enthusiasm for the C64 as ever. Write to
me, dear 64 users, and make your presence felt.

Help needed

Danny Collins, of Davistown NSW, has some questions
that someone might like to help with. Firstly, "With wordpro-
cessors such as Speedscript where screen/text colour change
is possible, what should be set to be best for the eyes?" Try
shades of contrasting greys or white on black or vice versa.

"I'd had about six separate chip replacements over two
years. My friend's computers seem to be more reliable than
this so I replaced the power supply but I'm still having prob-
lems. Does the "Ram Rumbles" article on spike protection
give the answer to my problems, or are they only useful for
the more sensitive Amigas?"

Spike protectors are useful for protecting equipment from
power surges and the like. How unstable is the power flow at
your place? You could try a spike protector. What chips blow?
It could indicate a more serious problem with your 64. Best
bet would be to get it checked over by an authorised Commo-
dore repair centre. In the meantime, don't even think about
performing "paperclip resets" as this would be likely to aggra-
vate the problem. Any users with similar problems?

"I'm beginning to play the guitar but do not have a tuner.
Could I program the 64 with the A/D/S/R [Attack, Decay, Sus-
tain, Release.) characteristics of a guitar, at the note I wish to
tune to and then play the guitar string at the same time the
noise is being produced? ...What are the A/D/S/R characteris-
tics of a note anyway?"

Nice idea, Danny. In fact you wouldn't need the A/D/S/R
values. You could program the 64 to act like a piano, but just
playing the notes E, A, D, G, B, E (the guitar strings). You
could then just tune the guitar the same way you would if you
used a piano for the reference notes. Any guitarists out there
who've used a similar technique?

Suggestions

Danny has also included some "humble suggestions", as
he put it. Here they are:

"Run a competition for best programmer. Set a task that
the program must complete and the winner is the one who
uses least bytes or is most efficient." Sounds good. Any com-

panies out there want to sponsor us with a prize?

"Have a programmer's help column (like Compute's Ga-
zette) where people can send in their programming problems.
You could answer them or invite readers to answer them."
Again, a great idea. I fully welcome programming questions
in the column. 1 can't guarantee an answer to every one, but
I'm sure someone out there could help.

"Do a monthly project for making your 64 spectacular -
the one that comes to mind is adding a speech recognition IC
(Tandy #276-1308) or speech chip (belter than using poor old
SID). ...How about a numeric keypad for those occasions that
I type in pages of numerical data statements?"

I like the idea. Projects like that are beyond the scope of
this column, but if technically minded users out there want to
send in their plans etc then I'd be more than happy to lake
care of giving them out to users who request them. Alterna-
tively, users could send articles detailing projects to the editor
to be evaluated for inclusion in the magazine.

Many readers have sent in submissions for the user soft-
ware disk that I've been raving about for a while now. Thanks
to everyone who's responded to my call. Already we have
disk utilities, menu makers, demonstrations, file compressors
and much, much more. But I still want YOUR contribution.
Send me your original home grown programs on disk, tape,
or printed listing (disks and tapes preferred!).

Tips and Tricks

Michael Rideout, from Nambucca Heads NSW, has sent
me some short utility programs which are extremely useful.

Phoenix

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Audio Digitiser - Mono $49.95

$119.00
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Canon Bubblejet
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Phone (08) 293 8752 Fax (08) 293 8814

ACAR 43

C 64

The first is a machine language subroutine that protects the
top two lines from being scrolled off the screen. You can still
print text in these lines and erase them by clearing the screen.

3000 FOR 1=828 TO 87S : READ D j POKE I,Di NEXT i SYS

828

3OI0 POKE 59639, 1 ' POKE 64982,53 ■ POKE 1,53

3020 RETURN

3030 DATA 160, O, 132, 38, 169, 224, 133, 39, »T7, 38, 145,

38, 200, 208, 249, 250, 39, 165

3040 DATA 39, 201, 0, 208, 241, 160, O, 132, 38, 169, 160,

133, 39, 177, 38, 145, 38, 200, 208

3050 DATA 249, 230, 39, I65, 39, 201, I02, 208, 241, 96,

To use it, simply GOSUB 3000 whenever you want the top
two lines protected, This subroutine needs to be executed
only once.

Thanks Michael! One use for this routine would be a real-
time clock that always sits in the upper left-hand corner of the
screen. A clock routine wouldn't take too long to program, so
I put out the challenge for a reader to take advantage of the
above routine and write a short clock utility to match. Let's
see what we can come up with. We'll have another short utili-
ty like this one from Michael next month.

Preston Guise, from Parkes NSW, has sent me a number of
tips. The first will increase or decrease the speed of the cur-
sor. Simply type POKE 56325, N where N is a number be-
tween 1 and 255. The lower the number, the faster the cursor
is. You can restore the cursor by pressing RUNSTOP/
RESTORE.

Preston also has some tips for Final Cartridge II] owners:

DOS"F: - This will fast format a disk from BASIC.

DOS"D: - This will change the header of a disk from BA-
SIC allowing up to 5 characters for a header.

Danny Collins also provided some tips and tricks for us.
The first is an un-ncw routine. Try this:
POKE 2050,8
POKE 45,PEEK(l74)
POKE 46,PEEK(I75)
POKE 47,PEEK(I74)
POKE 48.PEEKCI75)
POKE 49,PEEK(I74)
POKE 50,PEEK(I75)

Danny recommends that when typing the last six pokes,
simply type the first two them move up the cursor to change
the fifth and sixth character.

And now some pokes etc:

POKE 22,35 Lists without line nui.ibers (admittedly

useless, but Sun J

POKE 774,0 List line numbers only

POKE 657,0 Sets keyboard buHer to - Effectively

disables keyboard.

SYS 64738 Reset

SYS 64739 Freeze, invert screen

SYS 2020 Freeze

Thanks to Danny for those.

Remember this section can only survive with your sup-
port, so gel your tips and tricks sent in to me NOW! The ad-
dress to send your tips, tricks, questions, or general chit-chat
(chip-chat?) is: The ACAR, P.O Box 288, Gladesville, 2111. Q

Continue the Winning Tradition

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BAD DISK OPTIMISER $69

BARS AND PIPES S379
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CAN DO PRO PACK $59

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ACCOUNTING $375

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NUCLEUS COMPUTER SERVICES

1048-1054 Dandenong Road, CARNEGIE, VIC 3163

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Shop 4, 62 Little Malop Street, GEELONG, VIC 3220

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Service Centre

Address

Telephone

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5 Somerset Circuit, LONSDALE, SA 5160

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RADCOM

Unit 7, 100 Hewittson Road, ELIZABETH WEST, SA 5113

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Service Centre

Address

Telephone

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COMFIX COMPUTER MAINTENANCE
DAVES OSCITRONICS
CHIP BUSTERS

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Shop 5, Victoria Park Village, 910 Albany Highway, PERTH, WA 6101 (09)472 3899

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Service Centre

Address

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^VM|G/\

device

Confused by device and volume names? Not

sure what they refer to? Here's a guide to when

to use which one and where, by Tim Strachan.

There are several types of names that
may be used to refer to physical devices,
disks, or directories.

PHYSICAL DEVICE NAME - This usually
refers to a piece of hardware, like DFO.
for the internal disk drive or RAM: for the
RAM disk.

LOGICAL DEVICE NAME - These names
are ASSIGNed to both physical devices
and to disk directories. Logical names are
used to give special meaning, like C: for
the directory which contains the default
DOS commands.

VOLUME NAME - This is the name giv-
en to a disk when it is formatted. The
name may be changed later using RELA-

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ACAR 48

BEL (or RENAME in the Workbench).
NOTE: All device names must end with a
: (colon) character.

Devices and handlers
in Workbench 1 .3

While these, like a couple of those
mentioned above, are actually software
handlers, they are treated like DEVICES
by AmigaDos, and so a colon is used af-
ter the name, just a physical device.
NEWCON: This must be MOUNTed,
like a hard disk, and has an entry in the
MOUNTLIST. For details, see "1.3_Shell"
in the 1.3_INFO drawer. Basically an im-
provement on the
old CON: handler,
and works with
the SHELL.
PIPE: Creates an
"interprocess com-
munication chan-
nel", essentially a
buffer of 4 kbytes,
which other pro-
grams can take as
input immediately.
So you can copy a
large file to
PIPE: name for ex-
ample, and have
that read by the
displayer MORE as
if it were a normal
file. Useful for
very large files.
SPEAK: Improves
the voice capabili-
ties of the Amiga -
must be MOUNT-
ed before use and
acts rather like
PRT:. You can
have any file read
to you by simply
COPYing the file
to SPEAK: and
there are many
options to change
the sound attrib-

Standard DOS
device names:

DFO: Internal 3-5" Disk Drive

DF1: DF2:, ..External 3-5" or 5.25" Disk

Drives (up to 3)

DHO: DM:, ...External Hard Disk Drive;)

SER: PAR: Amiga Serial and Parallel

Ports

NIL: The 'Nothing' or Null Device

PRT: the current Printer Device

CON: Normal Line-Buffered Console

Device

RAW: Untranslated Key-by- Key Input

Console Device

RAM: Special Memory-based, Variable -

Sized memory - acts as a disk drive

utes.

Requires the NARRATOR.DEV1CE
and the TRANSLATOR.LIBRARY in the
DEVS: and LIBS: directories respectively.
SHELL-SEG: Not really a device, it con-
trols the new SHELL by being invoked by
the RESIDENT command under the
name CLI.

AUX: Makes it possible to link up anoth-
er terminal to your serial port, by mount-
ing AUX: and issuing a NEWCLI AUX:
command. Almost makes the Amiga a
Multi-user machine, but will be of little
use to the average Amiga user. To open
a Console Window, use the device
CON:, with parameters as follows:
"CON:X/Y/Width/Height/Window
Name", where X,Y is the top left corner
NOTE: To use RAM:, DOS must find the
run-time library (Ram-Handler) in the
logical device L: (usually the 1/ directo-
ry).

Standard DOS logical
device names:

SYS System Disk Root Directory
C DOS Commands Directory, where
DOS looks for commands given on the
command line of a CLI.
S Sequence Directory, where the DOS
(startup-sequence) is located, (see the
EXECUTE command for more on se-
quences)

L Specialized DOS run-time libraries,
such as the Disk- Validator, or the Ram-
Handler.

UBS Code Libraries which are not al-
ready RAM-resident,

DEVS DOS Device Handlers, needed to
use such devices as the parallel or serial
ports!

FONTS Loadable fonts for programs
such as the Deluxe Paint or Notepad.

continued on page 50

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.Release!!

Version 6

The first in a new series of integrated
C64/C128 hardware products from CMD

JiffyDOS

Give your system a new lease on life and the power to
compete with today's newer, more expensive magazines

• Ullralasl mulli line serial technology. Enables JiffyDOS lo outperform
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Available for C64, 64C, SX-64, C-128 and C-128D (JiffyDOS/128
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Swan, Indus & Bluechip disk drives. System includes ROMS for
computer and 1 disk drive, stock/JiffyDOS switching system,
illustrated installation instructions, User's Manual and Money-Back
Guarantee.

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RETAIL

JIFFY DOS 64 SYSTEM
JIFFY DOS 128 SYSTEM
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POWER CARTRIDGE
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PARALLEL CABLE 1571
RESET 64
C.M.D. 20MB DRIVE
C.M.D. 40mb DRIVE
C.M.D.IOOmb DRIVE
DRIVE DOCTOR
DATASETTE DOCTOR
DOCTOR CARTRIDGE
EXPERT CARTRIDGE 3.2R
EXPERT V41R DISK
AMIGA STEREO DIGITISER
AMIGA MINI-AMP (LESS PSU
AND SPEAKERS
PRINTER ADAPTOR
BMC CORDLESS MOUSE

AMIGA ACTION REPLAY
A500 PC EMULATOR

AMIGA KICKSTART

AMIGA MIDI-INTERFACE

SPEED ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM FOR C64 $99.00

SPEED ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM FOR 128 $129.00
ADDITIONAL KERNAL/DRIVE ROMS FOR J/DOS $50.00

PROGRAMMING TOOL FOR C64 $49.95

FAST LOAD CARTRIDGE C64/1 28 $44.95

1541 PARALLEL CABLE $32 95

1571 " " $32.95

RESET CARTRIDGE C64 $14.95
20 mb HARD DRWE(SUIT 64/128 ONLY) ENQUIRE
40 mb
100mb •

DRIVE ALIGNMENT KIT FOR 1 541/1571 $42.95

DATASETTE ALIGNMENT KIT FOR C64 $29.95

DIAGNOSTIC CARTRIDGE FOR C64 $54.95

BACK-UP CARTRIDGE (MANY FEATURES) $1 1 5.00

ENHANCEMENT DISK FOR ABOVE S29.95

SOUND SAMPLER A500/2000 S1 10.00

PERFECT SOUND BOOSTER FOR COMPUTERS $105.00

PR INTER ADAPTOR FOR STEREO DIGITISER S49.50
INFRA-RED CORDLESS MOUSE (AVAIL FOR

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Phone: (08) 349 8486 Fax (08) 349 4667 ^^

Device and volume name usage: File/
filename/ pathname

Very important terms for anyone using the Amiga. A FILE
refers to any collection of data with its own name, so a file is
any document you type on your WordProcessor, a graphics
image, a song you compose, or any program that allows you
to create these things.

A FILENAME, as it implies is any legal name you give to a
file, and in the CLI for example, can consist of up to thirty
characters except slash CO and colon (:) which mean a lot to
AmigaDOS. To keep life simple, it's a good idea to avoid spac-
es in filenames (though it can be done by enclosing the full
pathname/filename in double-quotes), and to make filenames
sufficiently informative so that you can recognise what they
mean at a later time. Filename extensions or suffixes, such as
.Itr (for a letter), or .hr (for a DPaint hi-res image), are useful,
and in certain programs they are essential, such as .doc (for a
document in Scribble). You can put as many full stops as you
like in a filename.

PATHNAMES tell AmigaDos exactly where your file is, so
if you're in a directory of the CLI, and you want to operate on
a file in another directory (type, or copy, or whatever) then
you have to include the PATH to the file so that the system
knows where to go. So if you are in Workbench:system and
you want to delete the note Novel. notes that is sitting in the
directory Workbench utilities, you'd have to enter: 1> delete
dfO : u tili ties/no vel . notes

Here the FILENAME is "novel. notes", and the PATHNAME
is dfO:utilities/novel. notes which could have been /utilities/
novel. notes since the "/" character tells the system to move up
the directory tree one level, then down to the "utilities" direc-
tory to the "novel. notes" file.

Using logical device names instead of
pathnames

If you ever have to copy something to, say, your C directo-
ry, or mention it in any way in a CLI command, rather than re-
fer to it as dfO:c or sys:c you can simply refer to it as c.-, be-
cause the C directory of your boot disk is a "logical device",
recognised as such by AmigaDOS, just as your external disk
drive is recognised as a "physical device", DF1:. The same
comment goes for any of the other logical devices - DEVS:,
LIBS:, etc. To see what are the logical and physical devices
recognised by the system, simply type > assign in the CLI.
And of course you can ASSIGN whatever you like, so if you
often refer to, say, the directory MYLETTERS.LOVELETTERS/
ANNA, you could simply type this:
> assign A: myletters:loveleiters/anna

and in future just type a: when you would normally have
typed the whole thing.

In fact, if you have a regular pattern in this way, you could
set up an ASSIGN_TABLF. in your favourite text editor of all
the ASSIGNS you want to make each session, and then insert
in your startup-sequence the command EXECUTE AS-
SIGN_TABLE. For more information along these lines (ie,
CLI-related, system-related) get the MEGADOS manual on
disk for the Amiga from MegaDisc - it's full of information on
how to get more out of your Amiga. □

WE CAN BEAT ANY ADVERTISED PRICE! BUT WE SELDOM HAVE
TO - OUR PRICES ARE THE LOWEST I (IF YOU SEE A LOWER
PRICED ITEM, TELL US, IF YOU DON'T, TELL YOUR FRIENDS.)

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Comic Saner ..- 92

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Deluxe Paint III 97

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Day By Day „ 57

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Easy Ledgers ..._ 375

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Data Retrieve Pro .... 185

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Director ........... 89

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Ham It Up 59

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Pen Pal

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Devpack 2.0 1*5

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UTILITIES

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American Civil War... 52

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^VMIGA

There are many commercially availa-
ble MIDI interfaces, and a number
of designs have been published in
various magazines, however I haven't
been able to find one that actually works.
Well the good news is this one does, and
with a small amount of effort you can
build it.

The interface can be built for around
$30 to $35, which is quite cheap, as a
commercial one can cost S100 to $150,
and have only a MIDI IN and OUT. I
have tried to make the article simple for
some of our not so technically minded
readers. I will describe a little bit about
what the interface has to do, and then
how it does it, and finally how to build it.
MIDI stands for Musical Instrument
Digital Interface, and as the name sug-
gests, is a standard
by which we can
hook up digital
electronic instru-
ments in a way that
they can send infor-
macion to each oth-
er. These instru-
ments may be
keyboards, synthe-
sisers, drum ma-
chines, MIDI sound
modules or other
devices. MIDI al-
lows a keyboard or
computer to access

and play sounds from an instrument, as
well as the instrument to play sounds
from the computer.

The information sent between the two
MIDI devices may be a simple note-on
note-off signal, or a number of control
signals such as note velocity, pitchbend
information, sequence start/stop, note
duration, modulation speed, or patch
change signals (allowing changes in the
instrument being played mid-song).

A MIDI interface allows a computer,
such as the Amiga, to record, edit and
play back sequences (of notes, hence the
name sequencer), to up to 16 different
MIDI devices. This is very handy for the
musician, as it allows him/her to build up
a library of songs on disk, which can be
later played back live or onto tape, not to
mention how easy it makes songwriting.
Programs such as Bars and Pipes allow
songwriting features such as harmonis-
ing, arpeggio playing of chords, transpos-
ing etc. The Reels, and more recently, the
B52's both use an Amiga as a sequencer
to record their drums and keyboard se-
quences.

There's some great MIDI sequencing

software available for the Amiga, with

more arriving all the time, including a new

version of Bars and Pipes just about to

appear. Bridging the gap between

computer and instrument requires yet

another peripheral - But this is one

YOU CAN BUILD!

The MTD1 interface has a socket
which plugs into the serial port of your
Amiga, and four MIDI sockets which
can be plugged into MIDI devices. MIDI
information is only sent one way down a

Build an AJIM

Amiga Y\\V\

by Wayne Conner

cable, so to send and receive two cables
are needed. This MIDI interface has one
MIDI in, to receive information, and
three MIDI outs, to send. The third MIDI
out doubles as a MIDI thru which dupli-
cates any information coming in the
MIDI in port, to allow daisy-chaining.
The MIDI interfaces must convert the
Amiga's serial signal into a MIDI signal,
and vica-versa, while taking into account
the various standards set out for a MIDI
interface.

Firstly, the speed at which the MIDI
device communicates is 31250 baud.
This conveniently happens to be the
Amiga serial port's highest speed (this
can be seen by going to the change seri-
al option in preferences). Hence the
Amiga is well suited to MIDI, and it re-
mains relatively simple to convert the
Amiga serial port into a MIDI interface.
Designing a MIDI interface for a C64, or
even a Macintosh, on the other hand is a
little more complicated. The C64 serial
port is unable to handle the high speed,
hence a C64 MIDI interface needs to

connect to the parallel port, and convert
the parallel signal to a serial one. With
the Macintosh, the internal clock cannot
handle the 31250 baud rate, so the Mac
interface needs an on-board clock to
generate the re-
quired speed. Com-
modore, it seems,
did something right
when they decided
on the high baud
rale.

The Amiga uses a
standard RS232 Port,
that is a signal of
+12V to -12V repre-
sents a signal of or
1 respectively. Now
the standard MIDI
signal however uses
5V for and 0V for
1. Therefore to convert die MIDI signal
to one that the Amiga can recognise, the
voltage must be stepped up or down, de-
pending on whether we are going from
the Amiga to a MIDI device, or from a
MIDI device to the Amiga.

As well as the above, we must keep
in line with the MIDI standard. This is
available in any MIDI handbook. The
standard states what the MIDI IN/OUT
sockets must look like from the device's
point of view, and regulations to keep to
when designing an interface. One of
these regulations is that the two devices
that are to be hooked together must be
electrically isolated from each other. This
may seem strange. How can we send in-
formation from our Amiga to our MIDI
keyboard if they are not allowed to be
directly joined by wires ? The answer is
to use a device called an opto-coupler or
opto isolater. This is a chip which houses
a small LED (light emitting diode) and a
light dependent transistor. The signal is
sent through the LED, which flashes,
emitting light onto the transistor. The
transistor is used to detect changes in the

ACAR 52

intensity of the light, and convert these
back to an electrical signal, as the resis-
tance across it changes. The opto-isolator
is the 6N138 chip that can be seen in the
circuit diagram.

You may also notice that the Ground
cable only connects to the MIDI OUT
socket. This is also to create an electrical
isolation between the devices. The rea-
son for this isolation is to prevent Ground
Loop Hum, a low frequency hum which
may arise from two devices at different
potentials being connected.

Well, that's about all the theory there
is behind the interface, let's see how it ac-
tually works...

MIDI OUT

1 will start by explaining how the
MIDI OUT works as it is by far the sim-
plest. As can be seen in the circuit dia-
gram, the MIDI signal comes out pin 2 of
the Amiga, the TXD or Transmit Data pin.
The 2Kohm resistor simply limits the cur-
rent drawn from the Amiga when Diode
1 is conducting. Diode 1 only conducts
when the signal is negative and is used to
clip the negative half of the signal (ic it
now swings between and +12V instead
of-12and+12).

The signal is then fed into pin 3 of the

Hex-Inverter. As the name suggests this is
a chip containing six inverters, which
each invert the signal applied to them.
The inverter also brings the voltage down
from 12 volts to 5V, as required by the
MIDI device. The inverted signal is fed
via a 220 ohm resistor into pin 5 of the
■MIDI out socket. Pin 4 is connected to
+5V via a 180 ohm resistor, and pin 3,
which connects to die sliielding in the
cable, is grounded. That's all there is to
the MIDI out, if two or more are needed
then the signal is simply taken from after
Dl again and the rest of the circuit re-
peated.

As you will soon see when reading
about the MIDI in, the MIDI out port
drives an opto-isolator. This is the reason
for the +5V on pin 4 of the MIDI out
socket. When the output from the invert-
er is low (0V), the opto-isolator on the
connected MIDI device will have a 5V
potential across it, and will conduct.
When the output of the inverter is high
(5V), there will be no potential difference
across pins 4 and 5, and hence the LED in
the isolater will be off. This is also why
the signal needs to be inverted, as the
opto-isolater is driven when the output is

low, not high. ,

Continued on po/

Parts list

Resistors
R1,R2
R3

R4, R9
RIO, R12

lOKohm
2Kohm

220ohm
1 80ohm
SEMICONDUCTORS
D1,D2 1N4001

IC1 (5V regulator) LM7805
IC2 (Hex inverter) 74LS04
IC3 (op-amp) TL071

IC4 (opto-coupler) 6NI38
MISCELLANEOUS
Four 5 Pin Din plug right angle
PCB Mount Sockets
Jaycar cat PS-0350

25-Pin D-connector to suit

Amiga serial port

Jaycar cat PS-0844

PC Board

Ribbon cable

Approx cost all up -

$30-$40

ARTWORK FOR PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD

Copyright on the Printed Circuit Board has beem retained by the author. Those wishing to make boards for their own purpose may do so.

Otherwise boards and Kits can be obtained from:

WAYNE CONNOR RMB 80 LEETON RD YENDA NSW 2681 Ph (069) 681093

Approx cost. Boards $9, Kits S35, +P&P

ACAR 53

Phone:
(02) 979 5833

Fax:
(02) 979 6629

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GAMES

A.P.B.

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ADVANCED TACTICAL FIGHTER II

$69.95

ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN

$69.95

AMOS GAME CREATOR

$125.00

ANARCHY

$59.95

APPRENTICE

$59.95

AOUANAUT

$39.95

ASTATE

$49.95

$49.95

ASTRO MARINE CORPS

$69.95

ATOMIX

$49.95

AWESOME + T-SHIRT

$79.95

BADLANDS

$69.95

BARDS TALE 1

$44.95

♦ BARDS TALE II -SPECIAL

$19.95

BAT

$89.95

■fr MAL'S NEW & HOT GAMES ft

SPEEDBALL2$59.95

NARC S69.95 HARD DRIVIN' 2 $69.95

CHAOS STRIKES BACK (DUNGEON MASTER 2) $69.95

SUPER SKWEEK $59.95

BATMAN -CAPED CRUSADER

$45.00

BATTLE SQUADRON

$59.95

BATTLE CHESS

$61.95

BATTLE SQUADRON

$59.95

BATTLE VALLEY

$49.95

BATTLESHIPS

$19.95

BERLIN- EAST V WEST

$59.95

BERMUDA PROJECT

$59.95

BIO CHALLENGE

$49.95

* BLITZKRIEG STRATEGY - NEW

$79.95

BLOCKBUSTER PAK- SSI

$59.95

BLOODWYCH

$59.95

BLUE ANGEL 69

$49.95

BORODINO

$49.95

BOULDERDASH CONSTRUCTION SET

$16.95

BRAIN SCRAMBLER - JIGSAW

$29.95

BREACH 2

$59.95

BRIDGE PLAYER

$59.95

B.S.S. JANE SEYMOUR

$69.95

BUBBLE 80BBLE- 2 CAN PLAY

$59.95

BUCK ROGERS-C/DOWN DOOMSDAY tT-SHIRT $49.95

** BUDOKAN - SPECIAL $19.95

BUFFALO BILLS RODEO $59.95

CAPTIVE - NEW $69 95

CAMELOT (SIERRA) $59.95

* * CARRIER COMMAND - SPECIAL $59.95

CARTHAGE - NEW $69.95

CASTLE WARRIOR $69.95

CHAMPIONS OF KRYNN $54.95

CHARIOTS OF WRATH - SPECIAL $49.95

CHESS CHAMPION 2175 $79.95

CHESS PLAYER 2150 $69.95

CHRONO GUEST II $79.95
CINEMAWARE COMP - 3 FABULOUS WORLDS $59.95
(ROCKET RANGER+THREE STCOGEStSINBAD)

CINEMAWARE COMP - 3 MORE WORLDS $59.95
(SDItDEFENOER OF CROWNtKING OF CHICAGO)

CODENAME ICE MAN (SIERRA) $59.95

COLONEL'S BEQUEST $59.95

COLORADO S69.95

COMMANDOS PACK $59.95

CONTACT $59.95

CRAZY SHOT -USES GUN/MOUSE $49.95

CREATURE USES GUN/MOUSE $49.95

CRIBBAGE& GIN KING $59.95

CURSE OF THE AZURE BONDS tTSHIRT $49.95

CYBERBALL $49.95

CYBERWORLD $59.95

DAILY DOUBLE HORSE RACING - NEW $54.95

DAMOCLES $4995

DANGER FREAK $61.95

DARIUS* $49.95

DARK CENTURY $59.95

DARK SIDE $49.95

DAYOFTHEPHAROH $54.95

DAY OF THE VIPER $59.95

DAYS OF THUNDER $69.95

DEATH TRAP $59.95

DEBUT $59.95

DEMONS TOMB $54.95

DEMONS WINTER $45.95

DISTANT SUNS $9995

DOUBLE DRAGON II $54.95

DR. PLUMMETS HOUSE OF FLUX $49.95

DR. DOOMS REVENGE - SPECIAL $49.95

DRAGON FLIGHT $79.95

DRAGON'S LAIR II $59.95

DRAGON OF FLAME- AD &D $45.95

DRAGON SPIRIT - SPECIAL $39.00

DRAGONSTRIKE - EA TShirt t Sunnies $59.95

DREAM ZONE $39.95

DUCK TALES -QUEST FOR GOLD $59.95

DUNGEON MASTER 1 MEG SPECIFY $61 .95

DYNASTY WARS $59.95

ELITE GAMES PACK VOL 1 $49.95

EMPEROR OF THE MINES $49.95

ESCAPE - From planel robot monsters $49.95

ESKIMO GAMES $49.95

EUROPEAN DREAMS -COMPILATION $59.95

EXTRA TIME - FOR KICKOFF $59.95

F-1 6 FALCON $59.95

F-19 STEALTH FIGHTER $89.95

FA/18 INTERCEPTOR $45.95

FALCON MISSION DISK 2 $49.95

FACES TRIS III $59.95

FIENDISH FREDDY - SPECIAL $49.00

FERRARI FORMULA ONE $19.95

FIGHTER BOMBER $59.95

FIGHTER BOMBER MISSION DISK $59.95

FIRE & FORGET II $59.95

FLIPPIT + MAGNOSE $59.95

FLOOD $49.95

FORGOTTEN WORLDS - SPECIAL $49.95

FORMULA ONE GRAND PRIX $16.95

FUSION S45.00

FUTURE BASKETBALL $59.95

FUTURE BIKE (SIM) - NEW $39.95

FUTURE CLASSCS- COMP $59.95

FUTURE DREAMS - COMP $59.95

GHOSTS & GOBLINS $49.95

GLOBULOUS $59.95

GOLD FEVER PACK $49.95

GOLD OF THE AZTECS $59.95

GOLDRUSH - SIERRA $61.95

GRAND NATIONAL (Horses) $49.95

GRAND SLAM TENNIS $16.95

GREMLINS 2 $59.95

HARD DRIVIN' 2 -NEW CALL

HARLEY DAVIDSON BIKES $69.95

HARPOON S6995

HEATWAVE (Boat racing) $59 95

HEWSONS PREMIER COLLECTION S49.95

HILLSFAR - DUNGEONS & DRAGONS $45 95

HOLE IN ONE GOLF- MINI -144 HOLE $44.95

HONDA RVF -PLAYS WELL $49.95

HONG KONG PHOOEY $39.95

HOYLES SOLITAIRE VOL 2 $69.95

HOYLES SOLrTAIRE VOL 1 $59 .95

HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER $44.95

IKARI WARRIORS $1995

INDIANA JONES LAST CRUSADE $69.95

1NDY 500 tTSHIRT AND SUNNIES $49.95

INFESTATION $59.95

INTERPHASE $59.95

ISHIDO $69.95

JOKER X-WORD $19.00

JUDGE DREDD $59.95

JUMPING JACKSON $49.95

KEEF THE THIEF -ADVENTURE $49.95

KELLY X $19.95

KENNY DALGLISH SOCCER $49.95

KHALAAN $59.95

KICK OFF $49.95

KICK OFF -EXTRA TIME $59 95

KID GLOVES $69.96

KILLING GAME SHOW $69.95

KINGS QUEST I $49.95

KINGS QUEST II $69.95

KINGS QUEST III $69.95

KLAX $49.95

KONIX SPEEDKING JOYSTICK - GREAT $39.95

LEGEND DJEL $49.95

LEGEND OF FAERGAIL-MAL LIKES n" $69.95

LEISURE SUIT LARRY $49.95

LEISURE SUIT LARRY II $49.95

LEISURE SUIT LARRY III $59.95

LICENSE TO KILL $49.95

LITTLE COMPUTER PEOPLE $1 9.95

LOST DUTCHMAN'S MINE $69.95

LOST PATROL $5995

LOTUS ESPIRIT TURBO CHALLENGE $69 95

Ml TANK PLATOON $89.95

MANHUNTER - NEW YORK (Sierra) $49.95

MANHUNTER 2 (San Francisco) $59.95

MANNIX $59.95

MATRIX MARAUDERS $59.95

MAYDAY SQUAD $49.95

MICROPROSE SOCCER $59.95

MIDNIGHT RESISTANCE S59.95

MIDWINTER $79.95

MIGHT S MAGIC - EA TShirt + UV Sunnies $64.95

MIGHT & MAGIC II tTSHIRT t SUNNIES $59.95

MIND GAMES $69.95

MR. HELI - SPECIAL $49.95

MURDER $59.95

MYSTICAL $69.95

NARCO POLICE - NEW $59.95

NEUROMANCER $59.95

NEW ZEALAND STORY $59.95

NIGHT BREED ACTION $59.95

NIGHT HUNTER S59.95

NITRO $59.95

NOBUNGA'S AMBITION $89.95

NUCLEAR WAR $49.95

OCEAN ACTION PACK $59.95

OIL EMPORIUM $54.95

ONSLAUGHT $49.95

OPERATION COMBAT $7995

OPERATION HARRIER $59 95

OPERATION STEALTH $59.95

ORIENTAL GAMES $69.95

OVERRUN $49.95

PANG $59.95

PARADROID $59.95

PERSIAN GULF INFERNO $69 95

PHANTASM $29.95

PHASER GUN -SPECIAL $3995

PICK 'N' PILE CALL

PICTIONARY $45.95

PIPE MANIA $5995

PLANET PROBE $49.95

PLOTTING $59.95

POLICE QUEST $61.95

POLCEQUEST2 $61.95

POOL OF RADIANCE (D&D) $64.95

POPULOUS $4595

POWERDROME $4595

POWERDRIFT $59.95
POWERMONGER t TSHIRT - TWsXmas Present $49.95

PRINCE OF PERSIA $64.95

PROJECT TYPE $45.95

PUFFY'SSAGA $5995

PURPLE SATIN DAY $49.95

PUZZNIC- ADDICTIVE $59.95

PYSCHO $49.95

QUADRALIEN $69.95

QUARTZ $49.95

RAINBOW WARRIOR $59.95

RALLY CROSS $49.95

RANX - NEW $59.95

REACH FOR THE STARS -NEW $49.95

RED LIGHTNING $54.95

RED STORM RISING $69.95

REALM Of THE TROLLS $61.95

RESOLUTION 101 $59.95

RICK DANGEROUS 2 $59.95

RISK $29.95

ROADWARS $19.95

ROBOCOP 2 $59.95

ROGUE TROPPER $64.95

RUFF AND REDDY $39.95

RVF HONDA $49.95

SAFARI GUNS $49.95

SCRAMBLE SPIRITS $49.95

SHADOW OF THE BEAST II tTSHIRT S79.95

SIM CITY $84.95

SIM CITY TERRAIN EDITOR S34.95

SIMILCRA-NEW S49.95 \

AMIGA 3000 's

Phone:
(02) 979 5833

Fax:
(02) 979 6629

GAMES

SKIDOO

$39.95

SKYCHASE

$52.95

SLEEPING GODS LIE

$69.95

SOLITAIRE- VOL 1 SEA HAVEN

$39.95

SOLITAIRE - VOL 2 CALCULATION

$39.95

SOLITAIRE • VOL 3 ACCORDION

S39.95

SPACE RACER

$49.95

SPACE SCHOOL

$39.95

SPACE QUEST

$44.95

SPACE QUEST II

$59.95

SPACE QUEST III

$59.95

SPEEDBALL2

$39.95

SPY V SPY

$16.95

SPY V SPY -ARCTIC ANTICS

$16.95

SPY V SPY -ISLAND CAPER

$16.95

STAR BREAKER

$49.95

STAR CURSOR J/S - 3 YR GUARANTEE

$54.95

STEEL

$49.95

SUPERMAN - MAN OF STEEL

$49.95

SUPERMAN - NEW

$49.95

SWORDS OF TWILIGHT

$45.95

STORM ACROSS EUROPE

$49.95

STRIDER II

$59.95

STUN RUNNER

$69.95

SUPER SQWEEK

$59.95

SUPREMACY

$69.95

T.M.N. TURTLES

$69.95

TEAM SUZUKI -NEW

$69.95

THE BIG ONE - LOTTO SYSTEMS

S19.95

THE POWER PACK

$79.95

THE COLONELS BEQUEST

$59.95

THE HOUND OF SHADOW

$49.95

THE MUNSTERS

S49.95

THEIR FINEST HOUR - Bailie ol Britain

$59.95

THEME PARK MYSTERY - LOOKS GOOD

S59.95

THRILL OF WINNING VOL II

$59.95

THUNDERSTRIKES

$59.95

TIE BREAK

$59.95

TIME

$69 95

RICK DANGEROUS

$19.95

TRIVIAL PURSUIT DUAL PACK

$19.95

PHOTON VIDEO CEL ANIMATOR

$99.00

(BARGAIN)

AMIGA GIFT PACK $59.95 (CALL)

TIME MACHINE

559.95

TORVAK WARRIOR

$69.95

TOTAL ECLIPSE

$49.95

TRACKSUIT MANAGER - SOCCER

S39.95

TUR80 OUTRUN

$49.95

TURRICAN

$59.95

TV SPORTS FOOT8ALL

569 95

TOM AND THE GHOST -NEW

CALL

TOTAL RECALL

$6995

TOURNAMENT GOLF

$59.95

TRIVIAL PURSUIT TWIN PAK - SPECIAL

S19.95

TWYLYTE

$16.95

ULTIMA V

$79.95

U.M.S VIETNAM

$29.95

ULTIMA IV

$79.95

UNREAL -GREAT GRAPHICS

$59.95

VAXINE

$5995

VENUS FLYTRAP

$59.95

VOYAGER

$59.95

WAR GAME CONSTRUCTION SET - NEW

$49.95

WHITE DEATH STRATEGY

$79.95

WICKED

559.95

WINGS OF DEATH

$49.95

WINNERS ITALY 1990 SOCCER

$49.95

WINGS - SIZZLING HOT - CINEMAWARE

$69.95

WINGS OF FURY

S69.95

WOLF PACK

S79.96

WORLD CHAMP SOCCER

S69.95

WORLD CUP COMP

S69.95

WORLD TOUR GOLF

S45.95

WRATH OF THE DEMON

$89.95

XENOMORPH

$59.95

XYBOTS

$45.95

ZAK MC KRACKEN

552.95

ZANY GOLF • NEAT GAME

549.95

ZOMBIES

$59.95

PRODUCTIVITY

3-D PROFESSIONAL (WITH VIDEO) $550.00

A TALK 3 -SPECIAL $69.95

A-MAX- SPECIAL III $179.00

ADVANTAGE -SPECIAL $199.00

AMIGA POST CODE $49.95

AMIGA VISION - SPECIAL $150.00

AMOS $125.00

ART DEPT PROFESSIONAL $$349.00

ARTPARTS-FORDPAINT3 $49.95

ASSEMPRO $149.00

AUDIO ENGINEER S/WARE-H/WARE $CALL

BROADCAST TITLER V.2 PAL - the best) $450.00

CROSS DOS - V4.0 $64.95

DELUXE MUSIC CONSTRUCTION SET $99.00

DELUXE PAINT III $99.00

DELUXE PHOTO LAB (POSTERS TOO) $99.00

DELUXE PRINT II $99.95

DELUXE VIDEO III $99.95

DESKTOP BUDGET -SPECIAL $49.95

DIGIPAINT3" $135.00

DIGIVIEWGOLD4 $269.00

DIRECTORY OPUS VER 2 -HOT $49.95

DRAW 2000 - SPECIAL $69.95

EASY LEDGERS (WITH JOB COSTING) $499.00

EASY LEDGERS ACCOUNTING $375.00

ECLIPS - PRO DRAW/PAGE CLIP ART $1 39.00

ELECTRIC THESAURUS $69.95

ELECTRONICS DEBTORS SYSTEM $299.00

FLASHBACK -HD BACKUP -NEW $79.95

FLIPSIDE $39.95

GOLDSPELL2 $44.95

G.P. TERM - TERMINAL PROGRAM $99.00

HAM IT UP -WORKS WITH DPAINT $69.95

HEADLINE FONTS 1 $99.00

HEADLINE FONTS 2 $99.00

HEADLINE FONTS SUB $99.00

HOME BUILDERS CAD $299.00

IMAGINE - HOT -NEW - RAYTRACING $399.00

INTROCAD $99.00

KARA ANIM FONTS $79.95

KINDWORDS $69.00

LATTICE CV5 $399.00

MAC TO DOS $189.00

MICROFICHE FILER - SPECIAL $59.00

MODELLER 3D - SPECIAL $69.95

OUTLINE FONTS FOR PRO PAGE $269.00

PAGESTRE AM FONTS VOL 1 .1 $59.95

PAGESTREAM V2.0 $399.00

PHOTON PAINT V2 - HAM PAINT $1 99.00

PRINTMASTER ART GALLERY 1 $49.95

PRO VIDEO FONTS (SET 2) $149.00

PROFESSIONAL DRAW V2.0* $275.00

PROFESSIONAL PAGE - SPECIAL $295.00

PROF PAGE - STRUCTURED CLIPART $79.95

PROFESSIONALPAGEV2-NEW $449.95

PROWRITE V3.0 $199.00

PROWRITE - GERMAN DICTIONARY $49.95

PROWRITE - PROFONTS 1 (extra fonts) $49.95

PROWRITE - PROFONTS 2 (extra fonts) $49.95

QUARTERBACK (HD BACKUP) $99.00

QUARTERBACK TOOLS $99.00

QUICKWRITE- WORD PRO -GOOD ONE $99.95

SCENE GENERATOR $74.95

SEASONS & HOLIDAYS CLIP ART $49.95

SPRITZ PAINT PROG $99.95

SUPERBACK $99.95

SYSTEM 3 (ACCOUNTS) $1 29.00

THE ART DEPARTMENT $129.00

THE DIRECTOR $99.00

THE OFFICE - GOLD DISK $399.00

TV TEXT PROFESSIONAL $259.00

ULTRA CARD PLUS $145.00

VIDI AMIGA F/GRABBER B/W LO-RES $399.00
WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIO - Hot $249.95

MUSIC

BARS AND PIPES

BARS AND PIPES EXTRA MODULES

DELUXE MUSIC CONSTRUCTION SET

DR T'S COPYIST APPRENTICE

DR T'S COPYIST DTP

DR T'S PHANTOM (SYMPTE SYNCH)

DR T'S TIGER CUB

FUTURE SOUND - (STEREO DIGITISER)

HARMONI

KAWAI FUN LAB KEYBOARD - SI 00 off

KEYBOARD EDITORS

MASTER SOUND (MONO DIGITIZER)

MIDI MAGIC

MIDI INTERFACE

MUSIC X- STILL THE BEST

MUSIC X JUNIOR

PERFECT SOUND 3.0

SONIX 2.0 - MUSIC

SOUND EXPRESS - (STEREO DIGITISER

BOOKS

AMIGA 3D GRAPHICS PROGRAMMING
AMIGA BASIC INSIDE & OUT
AMIGA C FOR BEGINNERS
AMIGA C FOR Advanced Programmers
AMIGA DESKTOP VIDEO GUIDE
AMIGA DISK DRIVES INSIDE & OUT
AMIGADOS INSIDE & OUT
AMIGADOS QUICK REF GUIDE
AMIGA FOR BEGINNERS
AMIGA GRAPHICS INSIDE & OUT
AMIGA HARDWARE MANUAL
AMIGA MACHINE LANGUAGE
AMIGA MORE TRICKS & TIPS
AMIGA PROGRAMMERS HANDBOOK
AMIGA ROM KERNEL LIBS & DEVICES
AMIGA ROM KERNEL REF MANUAL
AMIGA SYSTEM Programmers Guide
AMIGA TRICKS & TIPS
AMIGA BASIC ADVANCED
AMIGA BASIC MANUAL
SIERRA & OTHER HINT BOOKS

$199.00

$CALL

$99.95

$149.00

$449.00

$CALL

$199.00

$299.00

$149.95

$895.00

$CALL

$89.95

$299.00

$89.95

$299.00

$CALL

$199.00

$99.00

$1 29.00

$49.95
$49.95
$49.95
$69.95
$49.95
$49.95
$49.95
$29.95
$39.95
$49.95
$49.95
$49.95
$49.95
$54.95
$59.95
$59.95
$69.95
$39.95
$34.95
$29.95

G'DAYS

DENNIS JOHNSTON -
UMPARANGA SCHOOL NT

DAVID THORPE - NT

ALL THE AMIGA LOVERS AT
GROOTE EYLANDT

HI TO ALL OUR FRIENDS

FROMPC-91

OUR A3000, MAC KILLER,

WENT OVER WELL

HI TO OUR COMMODORE
SUPER-REP, BERTLORETO

THANKS WAL FOR THE PRISM

(SPLITTER) EARRINGS

THE RGB LEDS WORK WELL

n n ' THDC

K OiV DISPLAY, ALWAYS

SHOP 9 AKUNA LANE - P.O. BOX 879, MONA VALE 2103

EDUCATION

READINGS TYPING AGE 3-6

ALPHABET PRESCHOOL

ANIMAL KINGDOM AGE6-12

ARITHMETIC HIGH SCHOOL

ASSOCIATED - WORD ASSOCIATION AGE 3-8

BAMBINOS JIGSAW PUZZLE AGE 3-8

BASIC GRAMMER AGE 7 S UP

BETTER SPELLING 8 TO ADULT

CROSS OUT THE INTRUDER AGE 3-8

DECIMAL DUNGEON AGE 5 & UP

DISCOVER ALPHABET AGE 6 & UP

DISCOVER CHEMISTRY AGE12&UP

DISCOVER MATHS AGE 10 & UP

DISCOVER NUMBERS AGE 6 & UP

DISCOVERY GEOGRAPHY .„«™»*o« GRADE 9-1 2

DISCOVERY HISTORY expansion disk GRADE 9-12

DISCOVERY MATHS MASTER DISK GRADE 1-7

DISCOVERY SCIENCE expanson disk GRADE 9-12

DSCOVERY SOCIAL STUDIES em« GRADE 9-12

DISCOVERY SPELL MASTER DISK GRADE 1-7

DISCOVERY TRIVIA 1 EXPANSION DISK VARIOUS

DISCOVER TRIVIA 2 EXPANSION DISK VARIOUS

EZ-GRADE (TEACHERS GRADEBOOK) TEACHERS

FUN SCHOOL 2 AGE 6-8

FUN SCHOOL 2 OVERS

FUN SCHOOL 2 UNDER 6
FUN SCHOOL 3 ' NEW

GLOBAL TREK VARIOUS

KIDS COLLECTION AGE 3-7

KINDERAMA PRESCHOOL-6

MAGIC MATH 4 TO 8
MATH A MAGICIAN
MATH BLASTER PLUS-fflKtsctflifiCATtsPRIMARY

MATH MANIA

MATH WIZARD

MAVIS BEACON TEACHES TYPING

MEDAL WINNER

MEMORISE

PLANET PROBE

8T012
AGE 5-10
AWARD WINNER

AGE 3-8

AGE5&UP

READ A RAMA

ROBOT READERS - AESOPS FABLES

ROBOT READERS -THE LITTLE RED HEN AGE 4-8

ROBOT READERS -THE THREE BEARS AGE 4-8

ROBOT READERS - the three lithe pigs AGE 4-8

ROBOT READERS - THE UGLY DUCKLING AGE 4-8

SESAME STREET - LETTERS FOR YOU

SESAME STREET - NUMBERS COUNT

SESAME STREET - OPPOSITES ATTRACT

SPACE MATH AGE 8 SUP

SPELL BOOK AGE 4-6

SPELL BOOK AGE 7 & UP

SPELLBOUND PRIMARY

SUM- IT MOUNTAIN

SUNNYSIDE UP

TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS

TALKING COLOURING BOOK

THE BIRDS & THE BEES- sex education AGE 7-12

THINGS TO DO WITH NUMBERS PRIMARY

THINGS TO DO WITH WORDS PRIMARY

THREE BEARS 5 T0 10

TRACKERS QUEST AGE 4 & UP

TRIGONOMETRY HIGH SCHOOL

WHERE IN EUROPE IS CARMEN VARIOUS

WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN VARIOUS

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN VARIOUS

WHERE IN TIME IS CARMEN - Mystery VARIOUS

WORD MASTER AGE 3-8

AGE 8-12
PRE-SCHOOL

$39.95
$49.95
$69.95
$69.95
$39.95
$39.95
$49.95
$59.95
$39.95
$69.95
$39.95
$39.95
$39.95
539.95
529.95
$29.95
$59.95
$29.95
$29.95
$59.95
$29.95
$29.95
$89.95
$49.95
$49.95
$49.95
$49.95
$34.95
$59.95
$69.95
$49.95
$49.95
S69.95
559.95
$69.95
$69.95
$49.95
S39.95
$49.95

$69.95
$34.95
$34.95
$34.95
534.95
534.95
$49.95
S49.95
$49.95
$39.95
539.95
$39.95
$59.95
$49.95
$49.95
$69.95
$49.95
$39.95
$39.95
$39.95
$49.95
554.95
569.95
S84.95
$84.95
$84.95
$79.95
$69.95

HARDWARE & ACCESSORIES

Amiga 503 Sorter Kit with In&o VideoTutorial with

Extra 18 Programs

S850.00

Amiga A590 Haiti Drive

599.00

Amiga A590 Hard Drive with 2M3 Ram

S799.00

"'Call Aboul Larger Hard Drives "'

Amiga A501 Ram Expansion & Clock

SI 45.00

Amiga 1010 External 3.5' Drive

$165.00

Amiga 2000 - Special Price

SI 599.00

Amiga 2000 Pro PacK (Heaps of SWare)

$1699.00

Amiga 2000h0 Pro Pack (Heaps otSWare)

SCal

Amiga 2091 . 40Mb Hard Dme (Expandable)

$1100.00

1 950 Hi-Res Monitor (For A3000 s Ver2.0]

SCal

Stereo Amplied Speakers

$72.00

Amiga 2000«2500/3000 Internal Genlock

$399.00

Neriki Desktop Genlock VHS/SVHS

$1199.00

Vidlek Scanlock Genlock VHS/SVHS

S1 699.00

Vidtek VldeoMaster Genlock VH&SVHS & Splitter

$2495.00

A2000 AT Bridgeboatd i 5 1/4' Drive

$875.00

A2000 XT Bridgeboatd i 5 1/4' Drive

S475.00

A500 XT Card With 512k. Clock t Dos 4.1

$699.00

Ver 1.3 Rom Chips

$29.95

Super Agnus Chip

$59.95

Super Denise Chip

$59.95

Keyboard Cover Skins lor Amiga 2000

$39.95

Keyboard Cover Skins lor Amiga 500

$29.95

Amiga Morito Extension Cables

529.95

Amiga Drive Extension Cables

S29.95

Joystick Extension Cable

$10.95

Dijsview'printer Switch Box S Cable
MITY MOUSE Joystick/Mouse Switch Box

$69.95

S54.95

Stereo Monitor Switch Box

$29.95

Hauls Hitek Filet Screen (Reduces Flcker)

S39.95

Prism Colour Splitter t Extra Cable

$499.00

Canon ION Sill Video Camera Kit

$1250.00

vldi Amiga Frame Grabber BAV

$399.00

BAY Video Camera (The ad Wayl)

$699.00

Sharp JX-1 00 Colour Scanner

$1495.00

Coloutbutst24Bit System

$Cal

Kmia Graphics Tablet 8 S/Wate

$899.00

Kawai Funlab Keyboard & Midi l/Facs

$895.00

Commodore 1 230 9 Pin Printer BW '

$325.00

Commodore 1280 9 Pin Printer B/W Wide '

$399.00

Cihen 58009 Pin Plinlei B/YV '

S350.00

Star NX-1000 Colour 9 Pin Printer '

$375.00

Ciizen 200GX Colour 9 Piin Printer 8

$475.00

Star LC24-20O Colour 24 Pin Printer '

$750.00

Ciizen CSX-140 Colour 24 Pin Printer '

S799.00

' > All printers come with Fiee printer cable.

Amiga 3000's 100mb or 40mb

$Call

Amiga Deluxe Kit

$1099.00

NEWS 'N' STUFF

And the Winner is . . .

Thanks folks for the many entries

received for the Hard Disk Cafe

Demo Competition

1ST PRIZE OF $150 VOUCHER

1 . Aris Skarpetis of Chatswood NSW
2ND WINNER OF $75 VOUCHER

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3RD WINNER OF $50 VOUCHER

3. Lorraine Robson of Dungog NSW

Watch this space for future

competitions.

Start producing your demos now!

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^VMIG^

I OK ohm

I OK ohm

220ohm

TXD
RT5

CTS
D5R
DCD
DTR |20

6ND
GND

12V

•12V

H

3

AMIGA
SERIAL
PORT

-

'— I TU^ vVWr

i . .J4LS04

Xl jL(>^_etc MIDI OUT +5

A-.- T £).r iHi\t

MIDI OUT
1 80 "ohm

IN
"4~ 12V

I GND |

78051 "•'

0UT T *5V

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Op p rSp po

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6N138 OPTO-ISOLATOR

OUT THRU

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220

OUT

OUT

J

ROUGH GUIDE TO COMPONENT OVERLAY

MIDI IN

The MIDI in port is slightly more com-
plicated due to the necessity of the opto-
coupler and the op-amp, but neverthe-
less it is still in the scope for beginners to
build. The signal comes into the interface
through pins 4 and 5. Diode 2 is just
there to make sure there is no stray nega-
tive signal which could harm the opto-
isolator. As stated before, when pin 5 is at
0V the LED in the 6N138 illuminates, and
light falls on the transistor which is across
pins 5,6 and 8. Pins 6 and 5 form the
base-emitter junction of the transistor,
and when the transistor turns on, they
conduct, bringing pin 6 down to the 0V
on pin 5. When the LED (and hence the
transistor) are off, pin 6 is held at 5V by
the 220 ohm resistor.

We now have a signal identical to the
input signal, yet totally isolated from it by
the LED/transistor pair. This signal is in-
verted by another inverter in the Hex-
Inverter, and then fed into the op-amp.
Remember that the Amiga needs a signal
swinging between -12V and 12, not and
5 V. This is the job of the op amp. The op
amp is set up as a VOLTAGE COMPARA-
TOR. This means that it compares the
voltages on its two inputs. One input is
pin 3, the incoming signal. The other is
pin 2, which is held at a constant 2.5V by
the two 10K resistors (2.5 Volts is halfway
between the and 5 volts of the MIDI sig-
nal). When comparing the two signals, if
the voltage at pin 3 is higher than that at
pin 2 (a 5V signal) then the output will
swing to the positive supply voltage,
+12V. If pin 3 is lower than pin 2, then
the output will swing to the negative volt-
age, -12V. Hence the op amp compares
the input signal with 2.5 volts, and chang-
es its output voltage from -12 to +12V ac-
cordingly, exactly what we wanted. This
signal is fed straight into pin 3 of the Ami-
ga, the RXD or Receive data.

MIDI THRU

If a midi through socket is required,
then the signal is taken between the in-
verter and the op-amp, and then treated
exactly like a MIDI out. The switch in the
midi interface switches the 3rd MIDI out
to a MIDI thru if required.

Construction

Construction of the interface is rela-
tively easy. All the parts can be obtained
cheaply from most electronics stores, the
dearest component being the 6N138
opto-coupler which costs approx S8-S9-

ACAR 57

^VM!G/V

This could not be avoided however as
the cheaper 4N28 opto-isolater cannot
handle the fast MIDI speed. I have in-
cluded the circuit diagram for those who
wish to construct it on a breadboard or
veroboard, however I would suggest us-
ing the Printed Circuit Board, as this
makes construction a lot simpler. The
pattern is printed for those who wish to
make their own, otherwise the boards
can be ordered from the address given.

Before you start soldering check the
board to make sure there are no faults in
the tracks. You may need to drill out the
holes for the MIDI sockets to make them
slightly larger, probably a 1.2mm bit
should do. I suggest that you solder the
resistors on first, then the diodes ,the ICs
and lastly the sockets and switch. Be
careful not to overheat the ICs during
soldering It may be easier to first solder
in IC sockets, and then place the ICs in
these if you are not very experienced at
soldering. Don't forget to join pins 5&4,
6.8&20 and 1&7 on the socket to the
computer. Just follow the overlay as to
where the components fit on the board.

TESTING

Before you plug the interface in care-
fully check your soldering, and the place-
ment of the components. Make sure there
are no bridged tracks, especially around
the ICs, and that there are no dry joints.
Make certain that you turn your Amiga
off when you plug the interface in. If you
get your Workbench screen when you
power back up that's a good sign. You

will need a MIDI compatible program
such as Sonix, Deluxe-Music, Music-X,
DrT or Bars and IHpes, otherwise there
are some public domain ones about -
M1DIUB, MTD.and NOISETRACKER.

You will also need to get hold of a
MIDI keyboard, if you don't already have
one, see if you can get a lend of one from
an unsuspecting friend. (I must thank
Paul Ceccato for letting me try all the pro-
totypes on his keyboard!) Connect a lead
from the MIDI out socket to the MIDI in
socket on your keyboard or drum ma-
chine, and set the device to MIDI receive,
omni on. Now go into Sonix or Deluxe
Music, and select MIDI as the instrument
(with Sonix it's an instrument called MID-
IPatch in the Instruments directory).
Everything that would normally be
played by the Amiga should be sent
down the MIDI cable and be playing the
keyboard. With Music X and Bars and
Pipes the keyboard should play as you
enter notes into the sequencer, from the
EDIT sequence option, (for Music X click
on EDIT on the main screen). All the Pub-
lic Domain ones are relatively easy to
work out.

To test the MIDI in you need to con-
nect the MIDI cable from the MIDI out of
the keyboard to the MIDI in on the inter-
face. Now if you load Deluxe Music , turn
MIDI on, and set your keyboard to MIDI
send, the notes you play on the keyboard
should appear on the score of Deluxe
Music, and also show on the keypad on
the screen. Sonix does not support MIDI
in. To test the MIDI in with Music X from
the main screen select record, and then

when the requester appears, press any
key on the MIDI keyboard and Music X
should stan recording.

Bars and Pipes, Music-X and Dr.T's
Studio arc all more advanced with many
MIDI features, which 1 cannot explain
here. Dynamic Drums is also MIDI com-
patible, and will keep in time with the
sequencer on your keyboard via MIDI,
allowing your Amiga to be used as a
drum machine. Just connect a cable from
the out socket of your MIDI keyboard to
the in on your interface, select 'MIDI on'
and 'Play' on Dynamic Drums, and the
Amiga should stan playing when you
start a sequence from your MIDI key-
board, keeping in time.

If you cannot gel the interface to
work check the voltages on all the pins
of the ICs:

• Pin 7 of the 74LS0<i should be OV
and pin 14, +5V.

• Likewise with pins 5 and 8 of the
6N138.

• The TL071 should have +12V at pin
7, -12V at pin 4 and 2.5V at pin 2.

If not check the orientation of the
chips and the output of the 7805 voltage
regulator. For those that are new at elec-
tronics, I suggest you find someone who
knows a little more to fault find for you
if you cannot get it to work. For the
more advanced, check that the op-amp
is actually stepping up the voltage by ap-
plying and 5V to pin 3 and checking
the output at pin 6. Also, check that the
voltage at pin 6 of the 6N138 varies with
the input voltage across pins 2 and 3.

Good luck. □

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ACAR58

2VMICi

^MVliG^

As we have seen before, the correct
decimal number for each byte is calculat-
ed by adding across the grid to find the
combined values of whichever of the
eight bits are turned on. This process is
continued for the three bytes in each
row and for the 21 rows to give the 63
numbers to define the sprite. Remember
that in the binary system each bit from
to 7 represents the corresponding power
of two as

by Greg Peppy Figure 5-2

This month we

continue to examine

sprites, creating a few

of our own and getting

them on screen

Sprites are constructed in a 24 x 21
grid of dots. Each of these dots cor-
responds to a bit in the RAM mem-
ory, giving 504 bits. Since eight bits
equals one byte, our sprite pattern can
be considered as three columns times 21
rows of bytes or 63 bytes.

The sprite pattern is created in a simi-
lar manner to that used in creating a user
defined character, only on a larger scale.
The required pattern of dots for the de-
sired sprite image can be drawn out on a
24 X^v.21 grid. This then has to be con-
verted into the 3 X 21 numbers to be
POKEd into successive bytes in the RAM.

A dot in the sprite pattern will light a
pixel on the screen and corresponds to
turning "on" (setting to 1) that particular
bit. A space in the diagram means that
the bit is set to and the pixel will be
"off. The combined values of the bits in
each byte must be calculated.

Figure 5-1

BIT NUMBER
7 6 5 4 3 2 10

! ! !

ttnttt

54 16 4 | 1

64
128 32

The bit value equals 2 to the power
of the Bit Number (BN) or 2ABN. The
value of the bit 4 for example is 2A4 or
16.

Exercise No. 1

BIT =
ROW

7

6

Column 1
ByleO

5 4 3 2

1

7

6

Column 2
Byte 1

5 4 3 2

1

7

6

Columr
Byte !

5 4 3

3
2

1

1. On the above grid, draw a pattern of
an image you would like to use for a
sprite, for example, a face, a car, a plane,
or something more simple, a cross, a

box, etc.

2. Calculate the corresponding byte val-
ues for all the 63 bytes as explained
above so that you can use your sprite

1

2

3

pattern in one of the following exercises.
This process is rather tedious. However,
you should work your way through the
whole procedure at least once so you

4

5

6

understand how the process works.
Once you have got the idea, a better
method in future is to use a program for

7

8

the hard work of calculating the num-

9

bers, as we will do below. Better still,
use a "Sprite Editor" for the whole exer-
cise. (All the sprites used in this chapter

10

11

were created very easily using the Com-

12

modore Public Domain Sprite Editor.)

3. Work through the following exercises
to build up a program that will display
your newly created sprite on the screen.

13

14

15

16

Storing sprite

17

patterns in RAM

18

The 63 numbers you have calculated
for your pattern must now be placed
somewhere in RAM so that the C64 can

19

20

ACAR59

^WL!C^\

^VMJG^

display the sprite on the screen. The computer must also be
told where each sprite image is stored by setting the appropri-
ate sprite pointer.

Herein lies the first problem - what memory locations can
be used to store the sprite image?

Just as we have seen for the other advanced graphics, the
VIC II chip controls the operation of the sprites. As we know,
the VIC II chip can only access a defined area of l6K at any
one time. (See Appendix 1.) Initially, when the computer is
turned on, this 16K area is from memory locations to 16383
(BANK number 0). All the sprite data must be placed in this
area.

We have seen that only 63 bytes are required to define the
actual sprite image. However, the number 63 does not divide
evenly into the 16384 bytes of RAM available in a BANK. To
make the calculations easier, an extra byte is added at the end
of each set of sprite data (as a "handle" if you like), bringing
the total number of bytes in each sprite data block to 64. With-
in the 16K memory area there are 16384/64 or 256 possible
sprite data blocks. These are numbered 0-255. Block is loca-
tions 0-63, block 2 is 64-127 and so on. (Commodore calls
these sprite blocks "pages", but normally with microcomput-
ers a page is defined as 256 bytes. To avoid confusion we will
use the term "block" instead).

The C64 uses certain areas of this RAM for itself and not all
of the area will be available to us to store sprite patterns. In
the RAM area 0-16383 (memory BANK 0), the possible blocks

Block # Location Availability

0-12 - 831 no - operating system

13-15 832 - 1023 yes - cassette buffer

16 - 31 1024 - 2047 no - screen memory

32 - 63 2048 - 4095 no(?) - BASIC RAM

64 -127 4096 - 8191 no - ROM character image

128-255 8192-16383 yes(?) - BASIC RAM

(Blocks 64-1 27 are never available in BANKs and 2 although
they are in BANKs 1 or 3.)

A user generated sprite pattern cannot be put anywhere
below location 828, since this is used by the C64's operating
system. Memory locations from 1024 upwards are used for the
screen RAM and above that is the RAM area used by the pro-
gram. There is a small area of space below the start of the
screen RAM and, provided only three images are to be used,
this is the most common area for storage of the sprite data, in
blocks 13-15 with locations 832-1023. Since this area is a buf-
fer allocated for the cassette operation, any patterns stored
here will be erased if the cassette is used. (This is not a major
problem).

Blocks 32-64 cannot normally be used since the BASIC
program resides in this space. However, blocks 128-255 can
be used with small programs (less than approximately 8K).

Note: If you wish to store more than three sprite images,
the safest method is to move the start of BASIC up to higher
memory, above this l6K area. Then all of blocks 32-63 and
128-255 can be safely used. If you wish to do this it must be
done before you enter a program either from the keyboard,
tape, or disk. The start of BASIC is moved to 16384 in the di-
rect mode.

POKE 43,li POKE 44,64

and

POKE 64*2S6,Ot NEW

The 63 numbers for the sprite pattern are normally POKEd
into the correct location as shown in the exercise below.

Setting sprite pointers

Once you have decided on where to put the sprite data,
the sprite pointer is set to whichever of these blocks contains
the required image.

Sprite Data Pointers
Location 2040 2041 2042 2043 2044 2045 2046 2047
Sprite No 01234567

For example, if wc decide to use sprite number and put
the sprite data in block 13 at 832-895, then sprite pointer
(2040) is set to 13. The value placed in the sprite pointer can
be readily calculated from the start location of the sprite data
block divided by 64, that is

832/64=13

Exercise No. 2

Take the 63 numbers which you calculated in the exercise
above and put them sprite data block 13 (832-859) with a for-
mula such as:

for 63 locations POKE 8 32+ ROW* 3+BYTE, Byte NUMBER

(Rows 0-20 Bytes 0-2).

The usual method is to put the numbers consecutively in
DATA statements and READ and POKE the values in a loop.
Enter the following line:
XOO FOR 1=0 TO 62: READ A: POKE 832+I.A: NEXT

If you were too lazy (!) to calculate your own pattern, use
the following data statements:
lio DATA o, o, o, 0, o, o, 3, o, 192, o
1X0 DATA 195, O, O, 60, o, 7, ass, 224, is, 255
130 DATA 240, 28, 153, 56, 60, 153, 28, 127, 255,
254

140 DATA 255, 255, 255, 1, 153, 128, 3, 153, 192, 7
ISO DATA 255, 224, 15, O, 240, 12, O, 48, 12, o
160 DATA 48, o, o, o, o, o, o, O, o, o 170 DATA o, o,
o, o

Then set sprite pointer at 2040 to this block withl
80 POKE 2040, 13

Placing the
sprite on screen

Now that the sprite data is in memory and the sprite point-
er has been set, the various pointers in the VIC II must be set
to display our sprite on the screen. As mentioned above, these
will all be referenced to the starting address of the VIC II at V
- 53248.

For a non-expanded sprite to be fully on the screen, the
horizontal (X) screen position must be within the range of 24-
320 and the vertical (Y) position in the range of 50-229. This is
the position of the top left-hand corner of the sprite block.

It does not matter whether the actual sprite image extends
to the edge of the block (for example, if the sprite consists of
only one dot in the centre, like a "mine" in a battle game), the
screen positioning still remains referenced to this top left-
hand position. These ranges for X and Y screen locations will

ACAR 60

^MV|!C/\

^VjVMG^

.

appear somewhat strange at first and we will see later how
they arise. But for the present, let us assume we wish to put
the sprite at coordinates 100, 100.

Sprite position
registers

Once you have decided on the X and Y coordinates they
must be POKEd into the two position registers allocated to
that sprite number (SN) (and a third if the X position is greater
than 255). The X and Y position registers come in pairs start-
ing at V (location 53248).

The X and Y coordinates are set by

Register
Sprite X pos
Sprite Y pos

To Use
POKE V+SN-2, X
POKE V+SN * 2+1, Y

where SN is the sprite number from 0-7 and X and Y are in the
range 0-255.

Situations where the X position is greater than 255 are dis-
cussed in greater detail below.

Exercise No. 3

First, set V equal to the start of the VIC II, then set the
screen position of the sprite created above to X=100 and
Y=100 by

I90 V=53Z48

200 POKE V,looi POKE V+ 1,100

Making sprites appear

Once the other registers are set, it only remains to set the
VIC n to actually display the sprite. The appearance or non-
appearance of each sprite is controlled by setting the appro-
priate bits 7-0 corresponding to the sprite number in the sprite
enable register. A general formula for all cases, especially
where more than one sprites is in use is as follows:

Turn sprite on

POKE V+2I, PEEK (V+2X) OR (2*SN)

(set bit to 1)

Tu rn sprite off

POKE V+2X, PEEK (V+2l) AND Gt55-Z A SN) (

set bit to 0)

For simple cases, use the direct bit values. Just add the bit
values from
Figure 5-3.

SPRITE NUMBER
7 6 5 4 3 2 10

II II

ttttttt

64 | 16 4 ; 1

| 64

128 32

For example, to enable sprite 3 ONLY use 2A3 or 8
POKEV+21,8

to enable both sprites 3 and 5 use 2 A 3 plus 2 A 5
POKE V+21 ,40

to turn off sprite 5 but leave sprite 3 on
POKE V+21, 8
or, more correctly,
POKE V+2X, PEEK CV+2I) AND 223.

With practice, the calculation of the bit number is quickly
mastered.

Exercise No. 4

1. Turn on our sprite with
2XO POKE V+21,1

(To turn off sprite you would use POKE V+2X.O)

Now RUN the program and your sprite should appear on
the screen. If it does not, you should check the program lines
again.

2. change the X and Y coordinates in line 200 or directly
with POKE V, X and POKE V, Y.

Next Month: Sprite Colour

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EXPIRY DATE

INITIALS

ACAR61

Prime Artifax Public Domain

Amiga-Live Issue Six

$24.95 {3 disk set)

FEATURE Game

Drip: A full blown arcade game that's very out of ihc ordinary.
It's up to you. as the 'Drip*, to rust your way up 15 floors and get
the juices flowing again. Avoid running or dripping into ihe acid,
plasma and icecubes shooting out of pipes. You can get a little
help from party balloons and bubbles that float by. Drip requires
5 12k of memory.

Entertainment

BoingDemo: Despite the name, this is not a demo as such - it's
one of those try before you buy versions of a commercial game,
only this one is very playable. The Boing part is a salute to ihc
original Amiga Boing Demo! In this level and ladders game, you
travel about on poles, ladders, teleport points and at all costs
avoid the Boncing Amiga Ball!

RollOn: The play is a little like Boulderdash or Emerald Mine.
Eight levels are included. To win you need to plan ahead and or-
ganise your moves carefully - sort of a joystick strategy. Includes
a level editor to design your own games.

SlOtCars: A complete working game of SlotCars...just one of
four games in the commercial package known as: 4 IN ONE -
EASY BUT FUN! The game concepts are simple but addictive.
A combination of strategy and dexterity is needed to beat this
one.

MoonBase: Adventure/Arcade - guide the shuttle ship to and
from ihc mother ship with the valuable cargo. A multi-level lunar
lander.

Strategy

Turn; A strategy game - the aim of which is to produce a given
pattern of stones on the board. In order to complicate the game a
little bit, all stones around the selected stone will turn either from
black to while or from white to black. There are 18 levels
available. There's also a pattern editor to design your own
games.

China Challenge: Similar to die well known game Shanghai
or Mahjong, the target of China Challenge is, to remove all parts
of the pile, the so called Dragon, step by step. This dragon is
composed out of 120 different pieces. A challenging past time.
fun for two players too!

MarbleSlide: You've got to be quick to get this one. This is the
fullest extent to which we've ever seen the old magic square the-
me taken - and one of the best. Slide the sliders to guide the mar-
ble home. But your time is VERY limited!
AmiGo; Strategy Board game for one, two or no players!

Workbench

SimGen: How would you like Saturn on your Workbench?

SimGen makes your screen look like it is Gcnlocked. A number

of example imagaes are included. Much better than DropCloth or

any other of these Workbench background programs. Doesn't

slow your Amiga down either!

FHprThis screen gag will drive you nuts. Try it out!

Rocket: Yet another in the great line of Workbench gags. This

little number releases a guided rocket which heads straight for

your mouse pointer. If you don't move in time, on impact the

whole lot explodes. Stick it on a friends Workbench for fun!

Business

'Liner: Our serious program for the month. If you develop out-
lines for speech, writing, essays or reports, this program will help
you organise and edit your material in point form - the best way
to develop an outline. A fast solid program.
WO: A short and quick utility, which helps you to bring order in
your addresses and codes them and saves them (password-
encoded) on disk.

Graphics

MandAnim: If you enjoy madlebrots, you'll love MandAnim.
Using a simple tweening process, you can select multiple key ar-
eas of a mandlcbroL MandAnim will generate as many steps as
you spcciliy between each frame creating an expanded anima-
tion file which you can load and animate in Deluxe Paint HI.
Some impressive graphics can be achieved.
Hennon: You can create some fabulous looking images using
this program which lets you explore Hennon mapping. The pro-
gram produces patterns like the one below using the formula x =
x * cos (a) - (y - x * x) * sin (a) and y = x * sin (a) + (y - x * x) *
cos (a). Several cxmaple images are included. Full 640 x 400
hires is supported.

plus FREE $5.50 Graphics
or Animation disk of your
choice with Amiga Live 6.

Save on Back Issues!

Amiga Live #1 (2 disk set) $8.95

Amiga Live #2 (2 disk set) $1 1 .95

Amiga Live #3 (3 disk set) $1 8.95

Amiga Live #4 (3 disk set) $1 8.95

Amiga Live #5 (3 disk set) $24.95

NEW

THEME DISKS!

Emulators and File Transfer

MS-DOS Theme Disk $5 so

Install a full MS-DOS device using a simple install icon. You can
then read/write 720K IBM disks and format them too! MSH: acts
like any other Amiga device. You can share the selected drive be-
tween MS-DOS and AmigaDOS. Full documention and other
useful utlities included.

Atari Emulator $5.50

Despile the German menu titles, it is possible to put this Atari
emulator which runs in low. medium or hires to some use. Will
run some applications and can be used to view Atari graphics.
Assorted other utilities are included on the disk.

C64 Emulator

$5.50

A very full-blown C64 emulator. Lots of utilities, more menu
control and transfer options than previous commercial programs.
If you like what you sec you'll need to purchase the seriel inter-
face direct from the U.S.A. - full details included with the disk.

Full documention on disk.

N-J^

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MandelBrot &
Julia Collection

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Brownian: A demo based on both fractal theory and brownian
motion.

Cloud: A program that generates and displays fractal surfaces
that look remarkably like clouds.

CPM: A program to compute mandelbrots via the Continous
Potential Method, as described in the book '"Irtc Science of
Fractal Images" by H. O. Pietgen and D. Saupe. It is used to
make 3-dimensional pictures of the mandelbrot set. This is a
batch mode type program so several images can be generated,
one after the other, without any human interaction.
DEM: A program to compute mandelbrots via the Distance Es-
timator Method, as described in the book "The Science of Frac-
tal Images" by H. O. Pietgen and D. Saupe. It is used to make
high resolution black-and-white images. This is a batch mode
type program so several images can be generated, one after the
other, without any human interaction.

FractalLab: Investigate the realm of fractals and allow your
imagination to run wild. Virtually an unlimited number of these
self-similar curves can be created with FractalLab. Includes
samples.

Fractals: A Fractal generator that generates many different
types of fractals based on the iteration of complex-valued for-
mulas. The program can generate the Mandelbrot and Julia sets,
as well as the sets of more unusual formulas such as lamb-
da*COS(Z) and Newton-R.

IceFrac: A fractal generator using Ihe Diffusion Limited Ag-
gregation algorithm, as described in the book "The Beauty of
Fractal Images".

Ifs: An Iterated Function System viewer which graphically dis-
plays iterated function systems and allows the user to interac-
tively create the affine functions that define such systems. An
IFS can represent complex pictures very compactly. Simple IF-
Ss can describe an infinite number of different and interesting
fractal displays. Includes a number of displays that the author
and others have discovered.

MandAnim: A Mandelbrot Animation program that allows
you to'easily generate series of Io-rcs/16-color pictures. Fea-
tures full mouse and/or keyboard operation, zooms, auto-save,
high (cheat) speed, iconization, etc. The generated pictures all
remember their positions and settings so they can be re-loaded.

MandelBlitz: Very fast Mandelbrot plotter with Iols of
handy functions such as color cycling, zoom, special palet-
te control, file requestors and more.
MandelMountains: A program that renders three-
dimensional images of blowups of the Mandelbrot set. In-
cludes several example images.

TurboMandel: A fast mandelbrot program, written in a
mix of C and assembly language. You can select between
using floating point or integer calculation. Other features
include a full intuition interface, cycling capabilities, exten-
sive color control, a user definable iteration depth, fully im-
plemented zoom, a 3-D display mode, support for extra
haifbrite as well as interlace and hires, IFF load and save,
accuracy selections, and more.

Mandelbrot: A fast Mandelbrot rendering program that
uses some-of the mathematical properties of the Mandel-
brot set to greatly reduce the drawing time. Demonstrates
graphics programming, assembly language, menus and IFF
file I/O.

Mandel: Another mandelbrot generator program. New
features and improvements include an ARexx interface, co-
ordinates in sight, more state info saved with a picture,
batch files, programmable functions, and more plotting op-
tions.

MandelVroom: A MandcIbrat/Julia-curve generating
program that features five numerical generators (integer,
ffp. ieee, 020. and 020/88 1 ) in hand-crafted assembly for
maximum speed, online mouse selectable help for all func-
tions, generation of multiple pictures simultaneously, a so-
phisticated user interface with shaded gadgets, etc. Some of
the other features include zoom, magnify, color-cycling,
contouring, auto-contouring, histogram, statistics, presets,
extra- haifbrite support, overscan, orbits, pan mode, and
more. Requires I Mb or more of memory.
Mandel: Another mandelbrot generator program, with bits
and pieces of code from C. Hcalh and R.J. Mical.
Plasma: A plasma cloud generator program that uses the
extra haifbrite mode. Plasma clouds arc a special form of
fractal which show very smooth color gradations.
PolySys: An extended version of the OL-system described
in The Science of Fractal Images. The basic algorithm has
been expanded and modified extensively, and looping com-
mands similiar to those found in other Turtle graphics sys-
tems (Logo, etc) have been added. Support for three-
dimensional drawing, with perspective, is also included.
Sheer: Sheer computes and displays images of the Man-
delbrot and Julia sets. Unlike many Mandelbrot programs
that generate pictures directly, Slicer computes and stores
an array of raw data which it may then render into pictures
in a number of ways.

ZPIot: Graphs formulas based on 4-D complex number
planes. ZPIot currently supports the Mandelbrot set. Julia
sets, and Phoenix curves, with over 500 mapping varia-
tions. The math functions supported include sin(z), sinh(z),
z A z, e A z, z A n, sqrt(z), cos(z), cosh(z). tan(z), tanh(z). log(z),
ln(z) and n A z.

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Wordprocessing $8.95

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Graphics and Animation

Ace #06

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Busy Bee

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Cameron Scanner

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Crionics

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CSIRO Sat-Piccies

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Compilation of the best CAD in PD

Communications $8.95

JRCOMM, ARC, ZOO and useful tips.

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C64 Emulator $5.50

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DTV Still Store $5.95

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DTV/Graphics $8.95

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Hacker 1 $5.95

PowerPacker, Sound Scanner plus many more.

Mr Sandman $8.95

Digitised sound demo (2 disks).

MS-DOS theme disk. $5.50

Icon driven MS-DOS reader

Sound Tracker Modules $5.50ea.

Four disks available.

Our Service

Order Processing

Most orders are processed within 24 hours of re-
ceipt. You will not be charged if you're paying by
credit card until the goods have been dispatched. Or-
ders are sent by surface mail - however, we do have
a range of courier services available if you need
speedier delivery.

Support

If you have a more obscure problem, write down the
error or problem and call for advice. It is best if you
can also have the disk or program ready at your
computer as this can help us help you quicker.
Please use our Support number on (02) 879 7455.

What if it doesn't work?

If for some reason, the disk you buy is damaged -

just return it for a free replacement. Please include a

short note explaining the problem which occurred

and your correct return address, and day time phone

number.

Cycle Ball Demo
Digi-Slide Show 1
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Dragon's Lair Demo
Epic Demo
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Luxo Teenager
Music Mania #10
Music Mania #12
Music Mania #13
Newtek Demo 1
Newtek Demo 2
Northstar Demos
PC87 Slide Show
RGB Hazzards
Soundtracker 5-Set
Space Ace Demo
Stamp Collector
Vaux Killer (1MB)
Walker 1 (1MB)
Walker 1 (2MB)
Walker 2 (2MB)
Walking Cat
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ORDER FORM

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Virus Alert

by Ov/en Webster

This month there has

been quite an outbreak

of both bootblock and

file viruses - so many in

fact that they will be

carried on next month!

Special thanks to Max and Ian who
supplied me with viruses to examine
both this month and last month. Below
is a description of the new viruses this
month:

MTA bootblock

MTA bootblock virus with no text of
who created it. This one sometimes
takes a few minutes Cup co thirty) before
deciding to start infecting disks. It was
named after the first person in Australia
to discover it.

Amiga Freak

Amiga Freak is very similar to the
original Byte Bandit strain. The only ba-

NOW available at leading
Computer Outlets

COCKROACH SOFTWARE

TURBO ROM
CARTRIDGE

GRAPHICS
UTILITY

$39.95 R. Retail

... $59.95 R. Retail

Dealer Enquiries to:
MULTICOIN AMUSEMENTS PTY LTD
ph: 075 37 5711 Fax: 075 37 3743

sic difference is the text in the boot-
block.

OPAPA

Whoever wrote this one actually has
a (slight) sense of humour. After a few-
disks have been infected, the virus dis-
plays a screen with a black background
and yellow text which reads:

I'M THE OPAPA VIRUS! READY
STEADY FORMAT!

When the word "FORMAT" appears
the disk drive head starts stepping, mak-
ing a noise as if the disk is actually be-
ing formatted. Fortunately, it doesn't do
it.

Pentagon Circle
Virus 2

As if there wasn't enough sequels al-
ready, along comes Pentagon 2. Like
the first one, this one will detect and in-
form you of a few of the older viruses,
but it writes itself to the bootblock of
any write-enabled disk, meaning it is ac-
tually a virus.

Butonic bootblock

Both a bootblock and a file virus ver-
sion exist for this one. The bootblock
one as usual infects all write-enabled
disks inserted, and it also displays a
message with a blue background with
pink writing which says:

"BUTONIC'S VIRUS 1.1 GREETINGS
TO HACKMACK".

BGS9/TTV1

This virus, and the following two are
all file viruses. The BGS9 virus examines
the startup-sequence file, finds the first
command filename and copies that
command to the devs directory of the
disk with an invisible filename. It then
writes itself to the disk as the filename it
found before, making sure it will be ex-
ecuted every time the disk is booted.
When it is executed it also executes the
command it copied into the DEVS direc-

tory, making it hard to detect. Although
after it is in memory and there have been
about three reboots, it pops up a mes-
sage which says:

A COMPUTER VIRUS IS A DISEASE,
TERRORISM IS A TRANSGRESSION,
SOFTWARE PIRACY IS A CRIME, THIS IS
THE CURE.

Disaster Master

This one is quite nasty. When it in-
fects a disk it will name itself "els" and
edit the startup-sequence to execute it-
self. It does clear the CLI screen like els
should, but then it becomes active. It can
change the border of the AmigaDOS
screen to the cursor colour. After it has
been around for a random period of time
it displays the following alerts in order:
Software Failure.

Press Left Mouse Button to Continue
Guru Meditation #00000002.06001989
Incoming Special Message, Your Amiga
is infected by DISASTER-MASTER V2 !!!
probably the best virus ever created by
mankind....

Left = continue

Right = self-destruction

If the "self-destruction" option is cho-
sen, the screen flashes random colours
and it is not to possible to reset the ma-
chine.

Butonic file virus

The nastiest file virus to date. It does
many different things, which include
changing the title bar of the CLI window,
producing an alert, deleting the directory
structure of an infected disk, and de-
stroying the boot block! After a certain
time in memory it spreads to other disks
as an invisible filename.

Don't forget, if you think you have
found a new virus, or have any queries
or problems concerning them, don't hesi-
tate to write to:

Owen Webster

C/ ACAR

P.O. Box 288,

Gladesville NSW 2111

ACAR 64

Entertainment

■

All the latest news and views from the world of entertainment...

The Iceman melteth

Keen C-64 readers will be disappoint-
ed to know that the Iceman has apparent-
ly melted. You may recall that we got off
to a promising start in the January issue
with a brand new C-64 tips section and
increased C-64 coverage - all thanks to
the mysteriously code-named Iceman.

But where is he now? After pestering
the editor for months about running the
section, good ol' Iceman has now run
simply off. Which means if anyone else
wants to have a crack, send a sample disk
with C-64 hints and two 300 word re-
views of current games to: Phil Camp-
bell, PO Box 23 Maclean NSW 2463.

Software companies
feel the pinch

The recession is starting to bite, and
software companies are starting to no-
tice. So are we - Questor, for example, is
now enclosing return courier bags so
we can send back software samples af-
ter we've reviewed them! A nasty busi-
ness indeed. Other companies report
shrinking orders from large retailers, so
things are starting to look a little grim.

What it means is this. If you want
your favourite pastime to survive, then
support your Aussie software compa-
nies. That means no more piracy! If you

want to play a game, then go out and
buy a copy. Otherwise, it will be back to
the dark ages!

Midwinter II soon

Rainbird have announced the release
of their sequel to the remarkable game
Midwinter, in which you had to co-
ordinate the liberation of a frozen island
community. The new game is huge -
much bigger than the already impressive
Midwinter. There are now 22 modes of
transport, including aircraft and mini sub-
marines. I just hope they're easier to con-
trol than the hang-glider in the original - 1
never could get it into the air!

Drive harder

First there was Hard Drivin\ the
speedcar simulator that was just too hard
to play! Looked great though, didn't it.
The sequel is even faster, with an im-
proved frame rate and a "nitro-injection"
feature that will knock your socks off.
There's also a Track Editor option and a
data-link that lets you race head to head
with a friend playing on an Amiga, Atari
ST or IBM compatible through an RS-232
cable. At a recommended price of $59.95,
Hard Driviri II sounds like a winner.

MtNIVjw.Pf INT

MINDSCAPE COMPETITION

SV*s—

MIND!..:" /.PI IN r

Ultimate Ride

Before you read any further, turn over to our review of THE ULTIMATE RIDE.

This game is hot! One of the best bike simulators of all time! And you can win

your very own copy from Mindscape. What do you have to do? It's easy,

especially if you've ever played Boggle. Below, you'll see a grid full of letters.' The

rules are simple. Make words by joining any letters that are touching, either

horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Each letter can only be use once in a

particular word. For example, starting at the top left corner with the letter "M", you

can go down to "I", right to "N" and diagonally down to "D" making the word

"MIND."
Five copies of the game will go to the entries with the most words.
MPOERSPRT

I

N W A P

E O K Y

N

R S C O

S E L R

G

D E U L

R D X Y

B

I E T I

M E F W

I

K M O O

A T U N

P

E L R F

A S E R

ACAR 65

Entertainment

Exploring space on
your C-64

Local programmer Gary McCleary has
just released The Space Explorer, a new
adventure game for the C-64 and C-128.
You'll get to visit all the planets in a sec-
ond-hand spaceship as you search for
your missing wife. You can trade, bargain
and fight to your heart's content - there
are all sorts of aliens to deal with, and
they're all displayed in glorious technicol-
or. Well, Commodore color, anyway.

For further information, contact Gary
McCleary Software, PO Box 24, Emu
Plains NSW, 2750, ph 047 353932. The
Space Explorer retails for $39-95.

January Mindscape
winners

Once again a great response to our
Mindscape word hunt! The effort some
people put in to the competition was
phenomenal, with entries spanning pag-
es and pages! The five prizewinners were
outstanding, and all will receive a brand
spanking new Celica GT4. Well, a pre-
tend one, anyway. The winners are:

• Mark Hesse, Townsville Qld,
with a tally of 1 069 words

• Gordon Keir, of Booval, Qld,
with 1 023 words

• Chris Wootton, of Mornington, Tas,
with 945 words.

Keen eyed readers may recognise Mr
Wooton's name as this is the second time
he's won a Mindscape competition. What
can I say? He deserves it!

Choosing winners in the "best sen-
tence" category was not quite so easy -
there were plenty of sentences with piles
of adjectives and very little meaning, so I
decided to pick winners who went for
quality over quantity. So here they are ...

Chris Hutchinson, of Sherlock, SA
came up with the following timely mes-
sage. 'To get our oil fee low, I fail to
want the filth of "fight." Nice one Chris!

Finally, Yvonne Chandler of Griffith
NSW says "We await with awe to win at
final flag the new hot wheel wagon flee-
ing along a lane."

Congratulations to all those readers -
hope you enjoy your prizes! □

Entertainment

Letters

Send your entertaining entertainment let-
ters to Phil Campbell, PO Box 23, Macl-
ean NSW 2463, or fax them in on 066
452060. Keep your letters brief and to the
point, and if possible entertaining! And
remember, entertainment only ... letters
about technical stuff go to the other end
of the mag!

Dangerous situation

Dear Phil, Can anyone help me with Rick
Dangerous I? I can't get past the Egyptian
level where you have to shoot the rock to
make the stone fall down for you to
climb on and get down to the next sec-
tion where the spears come out of the
wail. I've tried everything possible!

Mark Peterson,
Grafton NSW

Ed: One thing's for sure, you haven't
tried EVERYTHING possible - there is a
way, and maybe another reader can
help. Stay tuned - we'll print any replies
in a future issue.

Cracked McKracken?

Dear Phil, I'm wondering if you might
have the documentation to Zak McKrack-
en and the Alien Mindbenders, a game
which I have recently become addicted
to. Mainly, I'd like to know the exit visa
codes required at the ticket machines in
the airports, but anyth ...

Ed: Hold it- there a minute, buddy. What
exactly are you after? If you want DOCU-
MENTATION for the game, as in the
manual that came with it, does that
mean you're playing a PIRATED COPY?
Surely not! If, on the other hand, you
mean you're looking for a hint sheet,
then why didn't you say so? Hint sheets
can only be obtained by sending a
stamped, self addressed envelope to AD-
VENTURERS' REALM, at the address at the
front of that section. Next please ...

Ultima VI - where,
when and how much?

Dear Phil, I'm writing to ask if you can
get Ultima VI on Amiga, and if so, how

much does it cost? Also, I want to say
your entertainment section is tops!.

Martyn Cole,
Randwick NSW

Ed: Ultima 5 has just been released in
Australia priced at $7995 - Ultima 6,
however, is still quite a long way off.
Even though some English mags are re-
viewing pre-release versions already, that
doesn't mean you can buy it! Dataflow
are the Australian distributors - you can
phone them on (02) 331 6153 for the lat-
est information, or speak to Mai at the
Hard Disk Cafe on 979 5833 - they'll
have the game in stock as soon as it's re-
leased.

Special hints disk offer

Dear Phil, I think the magazine is great,
the only real Australian Amiga magazine.
I do have a suggestion - I'd like to see a
special issue, or separate one-off publica-
tion, containing all the hints and tips
you've ever had over the years. I bought
my Amiga fairly recently, and missed out
on many of the hints and tips for games
which I now have. I suspect many other
people are in this position, judging by re-
cent sales figures.

David Banks,
Newtown NSW

Ed: It's not likely that we'll have the time
or resources to produce a special hints is-
sue, but how about this for an idea? We'll
put together a hints disk in Amiga format
text files, which includes all the hints
and tips from the past year, and a few
more as well. If you'd like a copy, send
me a blank disk, a stamped, self ad-
dressed envelope and a cheque for $500
at PO Box 23, Maclean NSW 2463-

Calling all ports

Dear Phil, I wonder if you or anyone else
out there can help me in an Amiga game
called Ports of Call? It's a shipping busi-
ness where you try and make money by
buying and running ships. One of the
problems running this business is that
you encounter life rafts that have to be
picked up. I can never pick them up as I

ACAR66

Entertainment

.

usually end up ramming them. Any ideas
would be welcome.

Steven McKinlay

Ed: There's bound to be someone out
there who can help. If you can, write
now, and don't delay! Steve sounds like a
desperate guy.

Price wars - who are
the real pirates?

Dear Phil, I've been buying Commo-
dore and Amiga Review for about a year
now, and look forward to it every month.
You seem to have struck the right mix of
articles for just about all tastes.

The main reason I'm writing is to give
one person's view on piracy. I don't think
kids giving copies to friends will ever be
stamped out, and personally, I don't real-
ly believe it makes that much difference
to the profit software companies receive
for a given program.

However, with my Amiga, I only ever
buy legal software, which is where my
next point comes in. To be quite blunt, I
think software buyers are being ripped
off by the importers. If not, why is it that I
can buy Wings by mail order from the UK
for only $58.50 including postage and
bank charges? The Australian prices quot-
ed in your magazine vary from $79-95 to
$89-95. How can this be? If companies
priced their software reasonably, they
would probably sell a lot more and cut
out a lot of piracy.

M C Adams,
George Town, Tas

Ed: The points you raise are certainly
not new. Everyone knows that cheaper
prices make it easier to buy a product -
the local software distributors know it
better than anyone. They analyse the
market carefully, and price products at
the optimum level. All the things you
mention are certainly taken into ac-
count.

The fact is, especially in these tough
economic times, many local software
companies are feeling the pinch, and if
we want to keep top quality software
flowing into the Australian market then
we need to keep supporting them. Espe-
cially now. Readers need to keep that in
mind, because without the support of our
Aussie software companies, ACAR
wouldn't be here either! By the way,
thanks for your comments about the
magazine. It's good to know we're hitting
the right spot.

NO CHEAT MODES ALLOWED!

AMIGA

ARKANOID 976,548 Kamikaze Andy

AMAZED 130,500 Chris Tumadge
BATTLE SQUADRON 99,999,999(c)A Burbidge

BEYOND ICE PAL. 67,626(c)Chris Turnadge

BLOCKOUT 85,281 Stephen Lark

BOMBJACK 200,680 D Thompson

BUBBLE BOBBLE 1,200,460 V. vdHeyden

BUGGY BOY 103,350 D Thompson

CHASE HQ 4,851,590 Juris Graney

CONT. CIRCUS 4,529,690 A Burbidge

CRAZY CARS 86,064,640 KWehner
CRAZY CARS CHALL 2,627,935,660!! N Mercure

CRYSTAL HAMMER 43,847 David Thompson

CYBERBALL 475,000 David Marsh

DENAR1S 53,900 Peter Evans

DRAGON NINJA 246,400 Rod Matthews

DOUBLE DRAGON 124,630 James Knight

ELIMINATOR 246,570 GregMunro

FLOOD 6,455 Embah Beaton

GEE BEE AIR RALLY 307,466 Kamikaze Andy

HYBRIS 1,826,075 Embah Beaton

IK+ 114,400 Scott Southurst
IMPOSSIBLE MISSION 66,380 Diane Unwin
INDIANA JONES L.C. completed Phillip Nicoll

SS 1,420,450 AG Smyth

KARATE KID n 52,000 Robert Dunn

LEATHERNECK 84,700 Rod Matthews

LIVE AND LET DIE 96,520 Merekee Beaton

MAJOR MOTION 50,658 Owen Webster

MENACE 996,481 Kamikaze Andy

MINDWALKER 306,214 P Schumacher

MOUSETRAP 71,977 David Rich

N. Z. STORY 546,695 Embah Beaton

OPERATION WOLF 344,800 John Boyle

OUTRUN 26,331, 122(c)Ben Moen
OFFSHORE WARRIOR 626,345 Jacob Booth .

PACMANIA 3,250,l40(c)A Burbidge

PINBALL MAGIC 332,390 Tracey Chilcon

PINBALL WIZARD 171,150 Aaron Sanderson

PIONEER PLAGUE 35,412 KeirSooby

PLUTOS 129,450 David Rich

POPULOUS 208,600 MalCockburn

POW 612,865 D Thompson

RAINBOW ISLANDS 781,370 Jurrun Beaton

RAMPAGE 111,600 Kamikaze Andy

ROBOCOP 352,780 Rob Matthews

ROTOX 183,050(c)Faye Doherty

SIDEWINDER 81 1 ,250(c)Amos Burbidge

SILKWORM (I leli) 1 , 186,000A Augostis

SILKWORM (Jeep) 515,100 A Barker

SKWEEK 1,525,740 E.Beaton

SPACE ACE 22,140 Neville Clarke

SPEEDBALL 17,650 Amos Burbidge

STARWARS 5,722,822 C.Mingo

STRIDER 113,950 Kamikaze Andy

SUPER CARS 13 races David Marsh

SUPER HANG-ON 25,042,850 D Worthy

SWORD OF SODAN 364,750 Kamikaze Andy

TEEN.M.N.TURTLES 546,60O(c)James Leeken

TEST DRIVE

TEST DRIVE 2

TETRIS

TETRLX

THUNDERBLADE

THUNDERCATS

TOWER OF BABEL

TURBO OUTRUN

TURRICAN

TV-SPORTS F.BALL

TWTNWORLD

TYPHOON

VIRUS

WHIRLIGIG

XENON II

ZOOM

112,915 Wayne Haesler
521,918 David Banks
10,101 Cheryl Marsh
Level 232 Stephen Lark
336,520 Rod Matthews
522,300 Scott Southurst
25,934(c)Stephen Lark
100,260,819 Man Mantle
l,302,650(c)Stephen Lark
189-0 David McKinney
24,640 Carol Love
54,255 Owen Webster
14,576 Amos Burbidge
28,210 Nathan Allen
1,007,830 Kami Andy
58,903 Sally Pollock

\

COMMODORE
64

BATMAN 473,230 John Nunes
BANGKOK KNIGHTS 36,800 N Van Heeswyk

BOMBJACK 344,560 J Jacobs

BUBBLE BOBBLE 4,409,030(c) John Nunes

BUGGY BOY 119,510 John Nunes

CHASE HQ 9,220,121(c)ICEMAN

DOUBLE DRAGON 22,840 Joshua Smith
DOUBLE DRAGON II 255,190 N Heeswyk

FAST BREAK 136 to 9 Chris Byrne

GIANA SISTERS 105.200(c) Russell O'Neill

GRYZOR 203,900 Paul Millward

H. MARADONA Level M N. Heeswyk

HAWKEYE 59,000 N Heeswyk

IKARI WARRIORS 267,800(c) Iceman

INT. KARATE 139,300 Paul Millward

LAST NINJA II 34.2sec(c) Nick

OPERATION WOLF 168,789 Kishore Ludbey

OUTRUN 6,438,787 K Ludbey

PAPERBOY 103.100(c) John Nunes

QUE-DEX 639 Chris Byrne

R-TYPE 684,200 N Heeswyk

RAINBOW ISLANDS 265,840 M Worboys

ROBOCOP 82,250 Tim Lockwood

ROLLING THUNDER 222,740 Iceman

SALAMANDER 235,300 Paul Millward

STREET FIGHTER 127,050 C. Byrne

SUPER CYCLE 212,210 Iceman

TEST DRIVE 36.144(c) John Nunes

TEST DRIVE n 215,100 Steven McKinlay

THUNDERBLADE 1,734,040 T Morrison

THUNDERCATS 57,500 Chris Byrne

TARGET RENEGADE 330,450 C. Byrne

UNTOUCHABLES 70,230 Simon Watford
WONDER BOY 402,680 John Nunes
Scores followed by (c) indicate
that the game has been completed.

ACAR 67

Entertainment

NTS

^TIPS

Keep those hints and tips rolling in - this
page won't be here if you don't! Send
them to Phil Campbell, PO Box 23, Macl-
ean NSW 2463, or fax 066-452060. Please
submit them on disk!

Amiga

Peter Cain of Warnambool congratulates
us on our "top class mag" and passes on
the following tips for some top Amiga
games:

Shadow of the Beast II

Say "ten pints" to the first spear chucker
for unlimited strength.

F-18 Interceptor

Type this program into Amiga BASIC, run
it and put your log disk in when prompt-
ed. When you play the game next, put
your log disk in and all the missions
should be available.
print "Insert Interceptor Log
Disk in DFo:"
print "then press any key"
while a$=""
a$=inkey$
wend

print: print "please Wait"
open "R", #i, "dfo:Config",l
Held #1,1 a$ b$
lset b$=chr$(i)
put #1,1
for n=zx to 27
put #i,n
next n
close #l
print: print "Finished"

Flood

Here are some handy level codes for

Flood players:

1. Frog 2. Year

3.Quif

4. long

5. word

6. fred

7. wine

8. grip

9. trap

10. thud

ll.frak

12. vine

13- jump

14. nil!

15. four

16. grit

17. zing

18-jing

19. lido

20. pool

Fighter Bomber

When on the Pilot selection screen, press
space to enter a new pilot and then enter
BUCKAROO, with a SPACE after the
word - this makes all missions available.

Super Cars

When asked to enter your name, try
these variations: RICH - for 5500,000 in
your bank account. ODIE - to go straight
to level 2. BIGC - to go straight to level 3-

Hard Drivin'

Make sure you've got manual gears, then
accelerate to full speed, and at top speed
change into neutral. You should now be
impervious to collisions.

AMIGANET

Ethernet network for Amigas

• Industry standard Ethernet
Architecture.

• Networking software included.

• True peer-peer Amiga Networking -
access any screen, hard or floppy
drive, serial or parallel printer attached
to any Amiga on the network.

• A500 version - ABS injection
moulded case connects to expansion
port of computer.

• A2000 version enhanced with
64Kbytes data buffer with 16bit
datapath assisted by a DMA
sequencer. (For high traffic centralised
facility or a file server.

AmigaNet A500 $700.00 (ex tax)
AmigaNet A2000 $900.00 (ex tax)

GPTerm-Amiga V4

Australia's most popular Amiga
telecommunications software

Mouse or keyboard driven, fully
multitasking from CLI or workbench.
User defined 'configurations' for
different services, 1 10 page manual
and more.

Full terminal emulations for videotex
and ANSI/Amiga, IBM, VT100 ANSI
terminal emulations for Viatel &
Discovery 40/80, Pegasus and other
text based services as well as BBSs.
File transfer with XModem, YModem,
full ZModem, SEAlink, KERMIT,
Punter and ASCII protocols. Batch
transfers supported.

Packaged with an extensive
manual, not copy protected.

GPTerm-Amiga V4 $99.00

Also available:

Amiga and C64 Modem
packages

GPTerm-64

(videotex and ascii communica-
tions for C64/128, rrp $59.00).

Full range of NetComm and
AVTEK modems.

Available from your local dealer
or direct from

GP Software

Specialists in Amiga Communications
21 Aloomba Rd ASHGROVE Qld 4060 Ph (07) 366 1402

ACAR 68

Entertainment

Sick of people kicking sand in your face at

the beach? Tired off being treated like a

wimp? Then here's the game for you.

Now's your chance for a taste of raw

power, as PHIL CAMPBELL checks out ....

Ratings:
.Graphics

If power corrupts, and absolute pow-
er corrupts absolutely, then here's a
game to steer clear of. Unless, of
course, you want to be corrupted. Power-
monger gives you more power than you
can poke a stick at - potentially at least.
But first you've got to earn it.

The game is set in an imaginary land
made up of 195 rich and fertile territories.
You may find this hard to believe, but
this seemingly pleasant place is populat-
ed by tribes led by petty warlords and
captains whose only desire is dominion.
Then again, you're not much better -
your only desire is dominion too.

As Philippos III, former King of Mir-
emer, I am in an invidious position. An
earthquake has destroyed my formerly
prosperous kingdom, and I am left with
just a band of 30 loyal followers. Nothing
else. As the old saying goes, there's noth-
ing quite so "ex" as an ex-King, and I am
more "ex" than most. Clearly, I have no
other option - the only way to salvage
my self-respect is to set out on the path
of conquest.

Conquest is an art rather than a sci-
ence. I can use my powers of persua-
sion, or I can kill people - after all, isn't
that what leadership is all about? In the
meantime, I'll need to feed and equip
my troops, provide for my loyal subjects,
and avoid stronger armies as they prowl
around my prospective territory.

So far, Powerrnonger sounds like any
number of strategy-cum-wargames. But
it's not. This game is unique, and it's al-
ready turning heads. The magic is diffi-
cult to describe, but in essence you're
playing with a simulated "slice-of-lifc."
You're manipulating a tiny world, in
which every tiny character has a name, a
home, and a place in society.

The game screen is a work of art.
The main feature is a contour map of a
small part of the continent. As you adjust
the "zoom" control houses will come
into view on the hillside. Then you'll no-
tice trees, clusters of tiny people, and
even sheep grazing in the longer grass.
In front of the map are the icons for con-
trolling the game - command symbols

that let you
get food,
trade, in-
vent and at-
tack. Be-
hind the
map stands
a large,

ugly look-
ing warrior.
That's you .
This is your
Strategic
Command
Centre,
though in
this case
the Strategy

map is alive - plan and execution blend
into a single action.

I begin carefully. My troops stand in
an idle cluster. With my pointer I indi-
cate a nearby tree, then click on the "At-
tack" icon. There is a flurry of activity as
they set to work - and in moments, the
tree is definitely dead. Victory! Suddenly,
I hear a plaintive "baaa" as a hapless
sheep wanders onto the screen. Click
goes the mouse button - and it's roast
lamb for dinner.

Settlements are not quite so easy to
overcome, and in my next campaign I
make the fatal mistake of biting off more
than I can chew. My rag-tag group is sim-
ply not up to the task of taking on a well
equipped township, and we are soundly
defeated. Maybe I should have tried a lit-
tle more diplomacy? Or even trade sanc-
tions?

Powerrnonger runs on all Amiga com-
puters, and it's a game that really makes
the machine strut its stuff. Graphics are
both beautiful and finely detailed, and
the sound effects add real atmosphere -
you'll hear the birds whistling in spring-
time, the wind howling in winter, and
happy workers humming as they hoe.
And, no doubt, hoeing as they hum.

The overall effect is an absolute treat,
guaranteeing Powerrnonger a place in
computer gaming history. Add a hugely
complex and satisfying scenario, and
you've got all the ingredients of a top
class game. Even if it will turn you into
the sort of person your mother wouldn't
be proud of. □

Distributed by:

ECP/Electronic Arts

075 963 488
RRP Amiga $49.95

ACAR69

Entertainment

SlilEBEIMHGM

If Saddam Hussein had

an Amiga, this would

have been his

favourite game. And

you can probably say

the same for George

Bush. What's it all

about? KEN SIMPSpN

discovers the thrills.

We are seeing the most obvious out-
working of our need to dominate each
other in the Persian Gulf at the moment.
You can also see it in the computer
games that are released over and over
again. From the first space invaders to
the latest version of some flight simula-
tors, it is all about winning. With a name
like Supremacy, you can hardly think
that it will be any different.

The overwhelming thought I had as I
booted the game was one of class. From
the opening sequence the graphics were
outstanding and the music was just mar-
vellous. In fact I spent a couple of hours
one day just running the opening se-
quence again and again.

Of course the object of the game is to
win supremacy over the star system that
you choose. You can choose any of four
systems, Hitotsu, Futatsu, Mittsu and

introduced to your opponents with such
wonderful names as Wotok, Smine,
Krart, and Rorn. To defeat Wotok you
are informed that you only need 3% neu-
ral capacity, but to defeat Rorn? Well the
comment is "We pity you".

After this impressive introduction,
you're dumped into the main screen.
Again the graphics are beautifully crafted
and the interface is all gadget driven.
From the main screen you can then go
to any of ten subsidiary screens from
which you can view the political and ec-
onomic status of your planets, do busi-
ness and buy ships and stations, 'format'
planets - terraforming them - making
them livable to humans, recruit, train,
equip and deploy your army, as well as
saving the game.

Defeating Wotok was actually rela-
tively easy and took me all of about one
hour - though on the way I did have to
starve one of my planets. At times the
decisions you have to make come so
quickly that it overwhelms you a bit, it
was not for nothing they added a pause
feature. I'm sure the next battle won't be
so easy.

The manual is a well written 90 pag-
es with plenty of description and pic-
tures. It is well organised and indexed
with a quick start tutorial to get you into
the game though they recommend that
you read the whole manual first - and so
do I! The game really does have a large
scope as you juggle the needs of coloni-

Yotisu, or in actuality, one of four oppo-
nents. As you are introduced to the game
you are asked for the almost obligatory
password from the manual. You are also

sation and conquest. You can't spend
too long developing home, because you
need the resources and growth that
come from colonies - but if you don't de-

velop Starbase enough then you run out
of funds too early and you can't equip.
Always a problem being an absolute rul-
er I suppose.

My main gripe with playing the
game, other than my inability to react
quickly enough to the changing situa-
tion, was that you are restricted as to the
number of vessels you can have at any
one time. It may sound plenty to have
spaces for thirty-two ships but I found
that toward the end of the game, I had
so many farming and mining plants go-
ing to feed and fuel everything that I
couldn't transport my troops adequately,
and support them properly.

Again, my overall impression of the
game is very favourable. It is one of the
few games of this type that has actually
kept me interested to the end. I will be
playing this one again and again, even if
it is only to hear that opening music and
see the graphic sequences. Just as a
teaser, the final sequence is clever, if a
bit horrible, but definitely worth seeing.
My other major problem is: All this was
almost exclusively on one of the two
disks. What's in store on the other!?

Ratings:

Graphics:

Sound:

GamePlay

Overall

92%
95%
90%
93%

Distributed by:

Mindscape

02 899 2277

RRP Amiga $69.95

ACAR 70

Entertainment

Believe it or not, ANDREW

PHANG wrote this review

before everyone got stuck into a

real live war for the sake of a

"new world order." Uncanny,

cause as you read on, you'll see

that this game could well have

been written by ol 1 George

himself. So get ready,

aim, and ...

B

efore you play Fire!, please read
the manual. It is simply an excel-
lent example of how French in-
structions are translated into English. Let
the designers of the game tell you about
this latest release in their own words...

"We hear every minute about bad
news coming from the five continents:
wars, criminal attempts, massacres and
scourge are always at the front page of
the most important daily papers. Under
the pression of media, political, ecologi-
cal or pacific organizations, governments
of the so-called civilized nations agree to
solve the most urgent problems. You are
appointed to pilot FIRE, the super fight
helicopter and you go on board of the
aircraft carrier USS New Deal."

You have to hand it to the French.
We trash them at Rugby League, and in
revenge they omit Terra Australis from
the map (yep, the "five continents" don't
include us or penguin-land). So, as the
plot spells out (insen laughs here), the

"pression" has finally forced world gov-
ernments into joining forces. As the pilot
of FIRE, it is your mission to destroy evil
in the world. You have five assignments
to complete, and your first is to destroy
the drug lords of Latin America. Other
missions include wiping out SCORPION,
an evil group (of Eskimos?) based in the
North Pole, and "to help out boat people
and to eliminate the launching ramps of
nuclear missils located in the Asiatic jun-
gle of South East." After all, those "mis-
sils" are a threat to all humanity.

After a zippy loading time and an im-
pressive looking title screen, some snap-
py music booms from my Amiga.
"FIRE!", roars a digitized voice. A click of
the joystick button launches my helicop-
ter from the carrier deck. The jungle of
the Americas envelops my fighting ma-
chine. To complete this section, I will
have to "attack the coca plantations and

the refineries which will transform the
coca into coke." I guess if you can't beat
the feeling, you'll have to destroy it.

Keeping the fire button pressed
down, I move the joystick to the left.
Boom! Up goes one plantation! Your hel-
icopter can fire downwards or straight
ahead, so you can easily dispose of ene-
my gunships that stand in your way.
With all the bad guys trying to get you,
thank goodness for your unlimited sup-
ply of bullets. However, you do have a
restricted amount of fuel and shielding.
So, if you get hit one time too many, it's
"boom!" for you too. Complete a mis-
sion, and you will return to the USS New
Deal for more supplies.

I must admit that the graphics are
quite good. Horizontal scrolling is
smooth and fast, just like the action. The
colours used make it easy to distinguish
the plantations from the rest of the
ground. And I just love those explosions!
This is a game of pure violence all right.
You have to shoot everything in sight,
and once you pick up a "double shot"
icon, tracer bullets fly all over the place.
The manual states that you should NOT
try to kill "the local populations hidden
in their poor dwelling houses", but even
if you do, nothing bad happens to you. I
know, out of common decency you
SHOULD NOT do these things. But it
DOES get awfully hard to tell a poor
dwelling house from a refinery. I mean,
they don't actually have big signs saying
"REFINERY! SHOOT HERE!"

Although I only got to the second
mission before writing this, the game's
entertaining manual intrigued me with
its descriptions of your other jobs. I can't
wait until the fourth mission into the
"South East", possibly the greatest assign-
ment of all. I quote, "you will have to
flight to the China See in order to save
the populations which are on board of
ships in distress. " I sea.

Fire! is basically a cross between De-
fender and a horizontal blastfest, using a
helicopter instead of a spaceship. It will
turn off those who detest violence, but if
you're into ridding the world of evil by
means of force, then you should have a
look at this.

Ratings:

Graphics: 81%
Sound: 83%
Gameplay: 73%
Overall: 78%

Distributed by:

Pactronics

02 748 4700

RRP Amiga $49.95

ACAR71

Entertainment

The year is 2085, and the
Satellite TV Companies rule
the world. Each home has
952 channels to choose from
- one plays constant re-runs
of Neighbours. The demand
for Sports coverage is insatia-
ble, and there's a growth mar-
ket in Robotic games. The
main event, known as Botic,
is a sort of mechanised soc-
cer. The metallic opponents
face one another from oppo-
site ends of the field - an en-
closed area, with elongated
gaps behind each player.

They're the goals, and the
aim of the game is to bounce
an android ball past your an-
droid opponent into the goal
mouth. Succeed, and you
move on to the next play-
field, the area beyond the
window you've shot through.
Got that? It's sort of wander-
ing soccer, moving from pitch
to pitch as goals are scored.
Keep scoring, and you keep
driving your opponent back.
After four failures, the game
is over.

Botics is essentially a sim-

ple little game, and it's quite
enjoyable to play. It's a bit
like Arkanoid - or even Pong,
the first ever computer game -
because all you've got to do is
move your bat back and forth
to meet the ball. This time it's
in three dimensions, so you
need to be at ihe right height
as well.

Simple or not, it's beauti-
fully presented. The game
scenario is developed nicely,
with robotic sportscasters an-
nouncing the games and
even robotic cheer squads.
Sounds are nice, with good
use of speech and other ef-
fects. All in all, very smooth,
but not much depth.

Ratings:

Graphics: 85%

Sound: 79%

Gameplay: 68%

Overall: 71%

Distributed by:

Pactronics

02 748 4700

RRP Amiga $42.00

Vrooom. I was wondering
why people kept saying Loins
Turbo Espirit knocked the
socks off Indianapolis 500.
Now 1 know. The latest Mind-
scape roadster is hot indeed -
and very nicely detailed, as
well.

Title screens strut their
stuff nicely, with neat touches
like a track selector that looks
like a fancy car stereo system
- press a button and the music
changes, and so do the track
details. Neat, with the side
benefit that you drive each
circuit to the beat of a differ-
ent soundtrack. And they're
all good.

You start out in position
20 on the grid, and your task
is to overtake as many cars as

you can. There's a two player
option, so you can play head
to head with a friend.

Graphics are crisp and
sharp, control is positive and
firm, and the overall feel is
one of speed and precision.
Nothing has been sacrificed
in what's clearly one of the
best race games to date.

Ratings:

Graphics: 88%
Sound: 85%
Gameplay: 84%
Overall: 87%

Distributed by:

Mindscape

02 899 2277

RRP Amiga $69.95

ACAR 72

Entertainment

Put on your best British
BBC accent, because ... it's ...
Monty Python's ... Flying Cir-
cus. Da Dum de diddle e
dum de de trala trala trala.
Yes folks, it's here are last.
You've seen the TV show.
You've read the books.
You've heard the records.
You've memorised the dead
parrot sketch. And now, after
all these years, you can final-
ly play the computer game.

And it's great. Well, not
great maybe, but darn good.
Although it is a little bit silly.
But that's beside the point,
because obviously it's meant
to be silly. Well, a bit silly,
anyway. And it is.

For a start, in the first ten
seconds your head gets
pulled off and stuck onto a
big fish. Then you have to
swim round a nasty maze
throwing smaller fish at
everything that moves and
picking up goodies in the
quest for the four missing
parts of your brain. To get
your bit of brain back in level
one you've got to find sixteen
tins of Spam, which isn't easy.

And it gets worse. Between
levels there are bonus screens
where you can earn points by
having arguments, or bounc-
ing your head around on a
boot. Silly, I know.

Seriously now, folks, Mon-
ty Python's Flying Circus is a
game that almost does justice
to the classic TV series. The
sound effects and the music
are all there - in the Amiga
version at least - and the
graphics capture the style of
Terry Gilliam's famous anima-
tions almost perfectly. If you
liked the show, you'll like the
game.

Ratings:

Graphics 81%
Sound 76%

Gameplay 75%
Overall 79%

Distributed by:

Mindscape

02 899 2277

RRP Amiga $59.95

C64 disk $39.95

cass:$29.95

The first thing that will im-
press you about Mystical is
the shiny gold box. I'm going
to keep mine and use it for
something special. Don't
know what, but I'll find some-
thing. But is there anything in-
side the box that's equally im-
pressive? Let's see.

The title screens are beaut,
with a rollicking sound-track
and very nice graphics. The
game begins, and it looks just
as good. Your aim is to con-
trol a cute little magician, who
must collect as many phials
and scrolls as he can while he
walks up a vertically scrolling
landscape, all the while dodg-
ing other characters walking
down the screen towards him.
Nothing fancy, maybe, but

very nicely done and poten-
tially rather addictive.

Mystical won't run on my
Amiga 2500, even in standard
2000 mode, so be careful - it
does however work fine on a
standard A500. All in all a
nice smooth game from Info-
grames - look out for a full re-
view soon.

Ratings:

Graphics: 78%

Sound : 79%

Gameplay: 76%

Overall: 78%

Distributed by:

Questor

02 662 7944

RRP Amiga $69.95

ACAR73

Entertainment

GOLDEN AXE

Arcade ace ANDY PHANG couldn't

wait to get his hands on this one -

the beat-'em-up to beat-'em all

When it was released in the arcades,
Sega's Golden Axe was immediately
hailed as a classic beat-em-up. Just like
many other coin-op games, the license
for converting Golden Axe was quickly
snapped up, this time by Richard Bran-

son's Virgin/Mastertronic software label.
After a year and a half of coding, the
Amiga version is finally upon us. Is it as
good as the arcade game?

Yes it is! The gameplay is all there.
The controls move smoothly, and execut-
ing an overhead chop (probably the
most difficult move in the game) is no
problem at all. Control is via the joystick,
though the keyboard must be used if one
is to cast magic spells. All the major fea-
tures found in the arcade game, from the
running villagers to the great endgame
sequence, have been included. The flash-
ing "GO" sign, the campfire sequences
where you can get extra magic potions
and health drumsticks, the tattered map
with the animated quill - none have been
left out.

Most importantly, the fun of bashing
monsters (in Double Dragon style) is still
there. Many arcade conversions fail to
bring the "fun" of playing the original
onto the home computer, bu< Golden
Axe conveys this feeling superbly.

So what is the plot? Basically, just slay
and slaughter every evil creature that
roams the land. The land in question is
Yuria, now under the clutches of the evil

Death Adder. It is up to you, brave warri-
or (or warriors, for your friend can also
join in the monster bashing with a joy-
stick plugged into the mouse port) to
free the land of this tyranny. When you
kill the tyrant, you will also recover the

precious Golden Axe, symbol of the
good and strong that will return to Yuria
following Death Adder's demise.

You can choose from three valiant
knights: Ax Battler (a Conan lookalike
with a huge sword), Tyris Flare (a female
Conan with huge, uh, muscles?), and fi-
nally Gilius Thunderhead (a dwarf with
nothing really huge at all). All three have
their personal reasons for slaying Death
Adder.

Each character has a wide variety of
combat manoeuvres, as well as a special
skill. Ax and Tyris possess a great over-
head swing which spins the warriors 180
degrees and kills the monster trying to
sneak up behind them, while Gilius has
the ability to roll on the ground to avoid
attacks and strike at the enemy's under-
belly (and it hurts, too!). Then there's
magic. After collecting the magic potions
left behind by blue thieves, our brave
heroes are able to call upon this ancient
art.

The graphics of Golden Axe are up to
Amiga standard, with good usage of col-
ours (especially in the background),
shading, and some great detail in the de-
piction of enemies. The animation, how-
ever, is not as good as it could have

been. Movement of characters would be
more realistic if more frames had been
used. Not that the screen is jerky -it's just
that the animation is lacking in compari-
son with other Amiga beat-em-ups.

Musically, the tune is great but the
sound effects are pretty ordinary (I espe-
cially missed the meaty "Arrgghhh''
when your warrior died. On the Amiga,
it's just a whimper of defeat).

Overall, Golden Axe is a good game
(it got some great reviews in UK mags)
on its own, and a fairly accurate arcade
conversion. Understandably, the pro-
grammers of the computer versions
chose to concentrate more on the game-
play of the arcade machine rather than
just converting (the brilliant) Sega Mega-
Drive version, and therefore some parts
of the McgaDrive version (like the extra
two levels and most unfortunately, the
one-on-one combat section) will not ap-

pear. However, the programmers have
made the right choice, and Amiga Gold-
en Axe is (after the arcade machine) ar-
guably the best of the lot.

Ratings:

Graphics: 88%
Sound/Music:85%
Gameplay: 91%
Overall: 87%

Distributed by:

Mindscape

02 899 2277

RRP Amiga $59.95

ACAR 74

Entertainment

DAVID SANNA bravely

follows in the footsteps

of Indiana Jones as ne

takes on the dark

forces of the jungle.

From deep within the humid and
thriving Yucatan Jungle, you, as Mi-
chael Fairbanks, the faithful student
of the recently departed Professor Ed-
ward Halifax, must endure the tropical
climate with its animal and human inhab-
itants to recommence your deceased pro-

fessor's work. The aging archeologist dis-
appeared more than three years ago with
an old parchment believed to have be-
longed to the Mayans.

After hearing about your teacher's
tragic death, you booked on the first
available flight to Mexico to continue his
important work. However when you ar-
rive at the "COMERCIO" supply store you
unfortunately learn of the presence of
your rival scientist Orlik Karloff who is
also searching for the mysterious fetish
which the Mayans praise.

After purchasing your supplies you
are rudely met by your rival Orlik and a
punch up begins. You must defeat him
without being hit too many times as this
will deplete your energy bar. Once inside
your jeep you will have a choice of
which village you can go to. One of the

most exciting parts of this game is driv-
ing the jeep through the densely thick
jungle, looking out for bridges so that
you can cross ravines safely. In some
cases, there is no bridge and you have to
brake in time or you'll fall down the
wide rift and die. Soon after the bridges,
ravines, dead ends, giant boulders and
traps you will arrive to your destination
and will be given the choice to either
carry on down the ever winding jungle
track or leave your jeep and inspect the
place.

Usually you'll find that there are tem-
ples guarded by venomous snakes or
poison-dart blowing natives that you'll
have to dodge before you can enter. In-
side the stone buildings you will find a
number of things ranging from food to
treasures to huge spiked metal booby
traps. In one temple there are special
stones which you must step on to get to
the end of the room but as you make

your way across them, you will probably
be crunched over the head by a giant
mace-like object.

In another temple there are many
steps for you to climb and a great eagle
to watch out for as it tries to hamper
your feeble efforts to access the great sil-
ver door to the Mayans' culture.

In your travels you will come across
many different items - you must decide
whether to keep them or to barter with
the more civilised Indians. Fortunately,
there's a game save command, so all is
not lost when you bite the dust. Howev-
er, you can only use this function once,
so pick your time carefully.

The graphical background consisting
of scenery, natives and animal animation
together with the "real life" sound effects,
have a certain air about them that makes
this adventuresome game addictive. So
exert all of your archeological knowl-
edge and remember the wise King Tus-
cans last words 'There is only one who
can reconstruct the broken fetish by him-
self and he alone will inherit the fabu-
lous riches of the Mayans."

Maybe it's you. □

Distributed by:

Mindscape

02 899 2277

RRP Amiga $29.95

ACAR75

Entertainment

Beach boy ANDREW

BAARTZ slips, slops

and slaps on the sun

protection as he leaps

into a game of beach

volleyball in...

Some of the most challenging com-
puter games I've played let you take on
a human opponent as well. This particu-
lar action game can have up to four
players, and the challenge develops pro-
portionally. But more on that later!

Over the Net is about a beach volley-
ball match. It's just like the game Mave-
rick (Tom Cruise) and Goose played in
the movie "Top Gun" against Iceman
and his buddy. Four sweaty sun tanned
guys in nothing but boardies and a pair
of sunnies, battling over the net, before a
growing crowd of bikini clad beach hon-
eys. So far I'm not sure what happens if
you win the match. But even if you lose,
defeat has its compensations (I'll let you
discover this for yourselves).

This is one very professional game.
The sound and graphics are perfect,
right down to the crowd responses and
the fluttering of the flags in the back-
ground. The program runs in a special
graphics mode called 'Overscan', so the
game uses the entire width of the moni-
tor and it smoothly pans to follow the
play. It has a number of options, on a
simple to use mouse driven menu. This
allows for variations in the match rules

and the nature of the competition.

Players one and two connect their
joysticks to joystick ports two and one,
respectively. The third and fourth
players use a special interface that uses
the parallel port, providing two leads for
connection to their joysticks. (This spe-
cial interface wouldn't work on the Ami-
ga 1000).

It takes a while to master the- con-
trols. There are two basic types of shot:
with or without a jump. But the permuta-
tions are endless.

•',— i rrrmk —3

y>

iF**«

When serving, the fire button begins
the serve and the joystick determines the
nature of the shot, from gentle serve to
jump shot to volley. The volley requires
a little more practice since this apparent-
ly simple move hides a mechanism
which permits hundreds of different vol-
leys. In fact, the direction of the volley
depends not only on the position of the
joystick but also on the point upon
wliich the ball is struck and the force of
the blow. The strength of the blow ap-
pears to be proportional to the number
of times the fire button is pressed in the
interval of time between the launching
of the ball and when it is hit.

During the game, all you have to do
to volley the ball is move to a position
close to where it is falling. Press the fire
button when the ball is over the man (it
is advisable to move a fraction earlier)
and the appropriate type of movement
automatically takes place. The relative
positions of the ball and man cause a
bagger pass, a toss or, in extreme cases,
a dive. The direction seems to be calcu-

lated by the computer according to the
position of the other team player (hu-
man or computer) and the difficulty of
the shot.

After a bit of experience you'll be
blocking volleys at the net and smashing
returns like the best of them.

There are eight teams that the human
players can join, from the 'Golden Boys'
to the 'Freaks', from the 'Surf Men' to the
'Spiders'. Each pair seems to have its
own subtle strengths and weaknesses,
understanding these could give you an
advantage in the 'Sea Cup'.

The 'Sea Cup' is what Beach Volley-
ball is all about. It's a competition that
takes three of the eight teams to tourna-
ments in the Seychelles, Miami, Rimini,
Ibiza and Fiji, to face the various local
teams. The teams all play one another
and the one that comes last doesn't con-
tinue on to the next seaside resort tour-
nament. The team that wins the fifth
tournament wins the 'Sea Cup'.

Between games the scoreboard dis-
plays the results of the various games,
the provisional placings and a series of
statistics concerning the games. The sta-
tistics take into account the points won
and lost for each team. For each player it
reveals the points gained, the shots
blocked, the saves in extreme situations,
and the errors made (missed balls, bad
passes, etc). This ends any disputes
about who was the best human player
(or whose fault it was if you were elimi-
nated). In the end, the only dispute we
had was over who was going to play
next. It's a great game!

Ratings:

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:

82%

84%
82%

Distributed by:

Pactronics

02 748 4700

RRP Amiga $49.95

ACAR 76

Entertainment

T l-l IE U I.

Plenty of games call

themselves the

ultimate - but here's

one that deserves the

title. We asked MIKE

FISCHER, a keen biker,

to check out ....

I have to confess, there's a part of me
that just hungers after big, fast motorcy-
cles. Bikes that snarl like a caged anima
as you tweak the throttle. Bikes with
loads of tyre-shredding power. Bikes
with such razor-sharp handling that
you can feel every stone on that bitu-
men passing under your wheels. I
long for truly obscene angles of
lean, to sense the rubber beginning
to slide and shudder across the road.
1 long to feel those foot-pegs scrap-
ing, to hear the fairing whining
through the air.

My hunger is only partly satisfied.
I've got an overworked 10-year-old Ya-
maha for getting around on. It's not a
monster by any means, but it gives me
enough to prompt dreams of bigger and
better bikes. Bikes that really handle,
bikes that pull your arms out of their
sockets when you
yank the throttle.
I crave the ul-

timate ride. Enter the computer game to
make any rev-head's palms sweat. The
Ultimate Ride, from Mindscape Interna-
tional, puts you in the cockpits of the
world's fastest production motorcycles

You start on the grid. You're sitting in
the cockpit of your selected motorcycle.
Looking across the top of the instru-
ments and fairing, you rev the engine
(pushing the joystick forward to increase
revs, pulling it back to decrease revs),
and the tachometer needle rises and
falls. The countdown reaches zero, and
you drop the clutch (right 'fire' button).
The horizon dips as you pull a whopper
of a wheelie off the line. The engine
screams - time to shift into second. (Gear
changes are done by a combination of
joystick and 'clutch' movements.) Push
the joystick to the left, and the whole ho-
rizon tilts as you find yourself tearing
around a sweeping left-hander.

The barriers and field-marshals are
whizzing past at blinding speed. Then
the inevitable happens - you leave the
track at high speed. Your vision is jarred
as the bike hammers
the rough in-

Ratings:
Graphics 91%

Sound 88%
Gameplay94.*%»
Qvwall: 92% ;

with all the safe-
ty of your arm-
chair.

Load the disks (there are two, a Mas-
ter Disk and a Scenery Disk), and grip
the petrol tank between your knees for a
great motorcycle simulation. Each player
(one or two) begins by selecting their
bike for the ride. There are six abso-
lute rocketships to choose from.
There's the Suzuki GSX-R 1100 and
the Kawasaki ZX-10, just to name a
couple. But to top off a good selec-
tion of weapons, you can also ride Ya-
maha's awesome V-MAX, a bitumen-
eating, stump-pulling mutha of a
street-bike. The game is chocka-
block with choice: you can either ride on
Grand Prix tracks (actual GP layouts like
Laguna Seca, Suzuka, etc.) or some pret-
ty wild street circuits (I liked the Califor-
nian Death Run myself).

But with my hunger for power and
speed, I went straight for the racetrack.

field. Try to ease the whole
plot back onto the track
now ... easy ... easy ...
damn. With a sickening
crunch you've connected
with one of the many trees
lining the track.

But not to worry - the
computer puts you back on the track ex-
actly where you left it. Once you've
passed the qualifying laps, you get to be
in the Grand Prix race at your chosen cir-
cuit. If you win, you end up on the win-
ner's rostrum with a couple of busty girls
sleazing over you while you're being
sprayed with champagne. Yep, it's just
like the real thing.

I walked away from this one with a
REAL sweat ... the whole package is
smart and realistic. It's sure to please
even veteran bikers with its accurate
graphics and motorcycling feel. The ulti-
mate ride? Well, it has to be as close to
the real thing as a computer can get.

Distributed by:

Mindscape

02 899 2277

RRP Amiga $59.95

ACAR 77

Adventurers Realm

to

Welcome once again to the
world of the Realm, the only
section in Australia dedicated

helping adventurers,
roleplayers, and wargamers in
completing their mission. If you
are stuck in any adventure or
wargame, or if you can give any
help to those who are stuck, then
write to the following address:
Adventurers Realm PO Box 351 Pakenham Vic 3810
Kamikaze Andy is in his Dungeon just waiting for problems to pour in from players
stuck in role-playing-games. You can write to him (but don't ask for hint sheets) at:
The Dungeon PO Box 315 Maddington WA 6109
• ALWAYS ENCLOSE A STAMPED ADDRESSED ENVELOPE •

by Michael Spiteri

The following hint sheets are available, free of charge, thanks to many kind and
considerate Realmers. On the back of an envelope, select up to four hint sheets,
and send it to the following address with a stamped addressed envelope.

Free Hint Sheets P.O.Box 351 Pakenham Vic 38 1
Guild of Thieves, Jinxter, Maniac Mansion, Bards Tale I, Bards Tale II, Bards Tale
111, Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Hitchhikers Guide, Faery Tale, Hobbit, NeverEnding-
Story, Castle of Terror, Borrowed Time, Pawn, Fish, ZZZZZZZ, Deja Vu, Uninvited,
Dracula.

Yet another Clever Contact to join our team of merry crusaders: Stuart George,
66 Sharon Road, Springvale Vic 3171.

Stuart can offer help in Pool of Radiance, Zak McKracken, Bards Tale II, III,
Wonderland, Fish and King Solomons Mines.

Official Realm Bulletin Board

Island BBS in Werribee has a super Adventurers Realm section where you can
chat and exchange problems with other adventurers, as well as download hint and
tips.

Island BBS offers a whole lot more too, including online games, many chat
boards, and many files to download! Take a peek at the 24hr BBS on (03) 742 3993-

& or the S
Smart Adventurers
Dept.

Hints and tips for troubled adventurers
have been rolling in, so a very big thank
you to those who participated in the
helpful handover! If your problem ap-
peared a few months back, then there is
a good chance it listed below - with a so-
lution!

Game: Mystery Fun House

For: Peter Nuzum

From: Scott Pitcher

Help: First map the Winding Maze.

There are only four locations, so drop
an object in each one and then start
mapping!

Game: Swiss Family Robinson

For: Lisa Granstoun

From: Scott Pitcher

Help: To make a candle, get the wax

berries on the Island and boil them in

the pot. Then put your piece of string in

the pot.

Game: Leather Goddesses of Phobos
Fon Graeme Evans
From: Noel McAskill (Revesby, NSW)
Help: At My Kinda Dock, let the barge
go whilst standing on the dock. After
waiting for sufficient time for the barge
to drift past the ion beam, go down the
well in the garden and you will then be
transported into the barge.

Game: Shadowgate
For: Richard Vaughan
From: David Marjanovic (Revesby,
NSW) and Yvonne (? ?)
Help: With the wand, go back to the
mirror room, go down the rope and back
to the two bridges. Drop all your inven-
tory except for the wand and a torch,
then cross the wooden bridge. Operate
the wand on the snake. Take the staff
and drop the wand. Go back across the
bridge and pick up your inventory again.
To open the top left door in the Banquet
hall, the key is in the globe in the study.
Simply operate the terra terrakk scroll on
the globe. When back at the vault, oper-
ate the talisman on the sword panel,
blow the horn, and then operate the
golden thorn and the silver orb on the
staff. Ignore the door in the well room
and the hobgoblins.

Continued on p80

ACAR78

The Official Adventurers Realm Hint Book

■* Hints and tips on more than 40 games, by Michael Spiteri, whose

"Adventurers Realm" appears every month in this magazine. >$£

Only $9*00 from newsagents and computer dealers

Or from Commodore and Amiga Review (02) 398 5111

Essential reading for adventurers -
- - - get your copy now!

*

AMIGA PUBLIC DOMAIN
SOFTWARE

Over 1 500 disks to choose from
No subscription fees
No joining fees
No postage charges
Disks $3 - $4 - $5 each
Send $3 for catalogue disk
to

AMIGA PUBLIC DOMAIN
CENTRE

PO Box 435, St Agnes SA 5097
Phone (08) 396 2163

Information

for

discerning

readers

AUSTRALIA'S
CHEAPEST DISKS

FREE CATALOGUE PLEASE CALL IN & PICK ONE UP

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Advertisers Index

Amiga P D Ctr

79

Interlink

22 23 39

Pactronics 4 25 49

Briwall

15

Kawai

9

Parcom 16

Brunswick

6

KISS

48

Pelham 79

Commodore

40 41 46 47

Leejan

38

Phoenix 44

Computer Discounts 17

Logico

51

Power Peripherals 3 5

Compute rmate

IFC35 44

Gary McCleary

79

Prime Artifax 62 63

Computer Spot

28 29 30 31

Megadisc

6

Quadrant 44

Desktop Utilities

19

Mindscape

OBC

Regional Computers 2

Fonhof

11

Multicoin

67

Rhythmic Byte 1 1

G P Software

68

MVB Computers

7

Rod Irving 79

Hard Disk Cafe

54 55 56

Nortech

45

Roseneath 1 1

Harris Hi-Tek

61

PCM Computers

45 58

Sigmacom 10

HPD

37 39 50

Pacific Microlab

33

Unitech 79
XEL 8

7.60

7.60

Amiga 3000 42.00

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GVP HARD DISK 68.00

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I've done it again!
To the first person to solve

d

on the Commodore 64/128

AN ALL GRAPHICS

ADVENTURE

IN SPACE £$

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announced here)

Game is available on disk

for $39.95 from

Gary McClearv Software

PO Box 24
Emu Plains NSW 2750

ACAR 79

Adventurers Realm

Game: Deja Vu II
For: Dave G. and Ian Myers
From: David Marjanovic
Help for Dave: To get into the' laundry
you need to hide in the laundry dump-
ster. You will eventually be taken into the
laundry and tied up by the mob. To untie
yourself, operate the rope on the crate.
Help for Ian: Ignore the safety deposit
key and the Mercedes key - they are use-
less. In respect to a data disk, simply for-
mat a disk, name it anything, and when
saving games, simply specify the drive
the data disk is in.

Game: Zak McKrackcn
For: Andrew Corbin

From: David Marjanovic & Stuart George
& Zaun Bhana

Help: On the Sphinx leg you must draw
the symbol as noted in the first maze on
Mars. In the Mexican temple, the mark-
ings on the huge statue in the Great
Chamber must be drawn. The whiskey
can be obtained at Miami Airport (give
the bum the book). The scroll is in the
left eye on the bird feeder. Just operate
the blue crystal on the bird.

Game: Last Ninja II
For: Ainsley Travers
From: Robin Hood

Help: When you enter the room with the
fan, pick up the grate and go out onto the
ledge. Go along the ledge and go up the-
ladder. As the helicopter pulls away, flip
onto the landing skids.

• Adam Read of Morphette Vale
would really like to know where in South
Australia he could buy Hitchhikers Guide
To The Galaxy, or even the Scott Adams
Adventure Packs.

• Allan Mills of Cootamundra writes
with some handy cheat lips for Pool of
Radiance or Curse of Azure Bond:

"Whenever a character finds an ex-
tremely useful item, go to the nearest ad-
venturers guild and remove the character
who has the object so a saved copy of
him/her is made. Now reinstate the char-
acter (who should still have the object).
Leave the guild and make camp some-
where, strip the character of all their valu-
ables and remove him/her from the par-
ty-
Mow return to the guild and add the
character back to the part)', and the party
should now have two of every item the
character possessed. Also, in the game
Shard of Spring, alter lines 1042 and 1050
in the file Aftermath (side two of disk) to
increase gold and experience points. This
cheat does appear fairly limited as the
game locks up when you get too much
experience, namely around level 25.

• Finally, how can I buy the Official
hint book? It has been mentioned in your
section but not details on cost or where
to write to. Why are most hint books for

adventurers close to the cost of the game
itself? I know their use is discouraged, but
their cost is beyond belief."

The Adventurers Realm Hint Book
contains hints for over forty adventure
games, and will be released, this month.
See advertisement on p79- Specialised
hint books usually go into great depth
about the game concerned, and only a
small number of copies are printed (the
more copies printed, the cheaper the
book is). Generalised hints books that
cover many games are available at cheap-
er or around the same price as specialised
hint books.

The Official Realm Hint Book is one,
and another is Corish's Book of Hints &
Tips. Both books are produced in Austra-
lia.

• Scott Pitcher of Reservoir writes:
"In the January issue Chit Chat, Mi-
chael Walsh mentions a bug in Scott Ad-
ams adventure number 10, Savage Island
Pi 1. I bought the adventure pack compi-
lation and mine has the same problem.
This only happens in the first few loca-
tions - on the beach and on the volcanic
plateau.

To get around this, to each location
and enter QUIT. Before asked to hit y to
end, you should get a description of the
location. Be careful, if you dig on the
beach at the start you should find a bottle
of rum in the hole - something you might
miss." Thanks Scott!

• Finally, a special thanks goes to
newest adventure extraordinaire Stuart
George of Springvale (VIC) for the very

or the
Troubled Adventurers
Debt.

Many adventurers this month are

stuck in one place or another. If

you can offer help, please do!

A.S.A.P!!

• What is Murielle's occupation? That is
the question that has Ben Falcone baf-
fled in Mortville Manor. Also, Ben is try-
ing hard to put the gold ring on Madon-
na's orb, but ol' Max keeps advising him
to be more discreet! (Try closing doors,
Ben!).

• It's been a while since we had an Aztec
Tomb Adventure Ptl problem, but a letter
from an unsigned adventurer tells of diffi-
culty when passing a bull. Removing a
possibly useful cloak is also causing a di-

lemma. While on oldies, the same adven-
turer is stuck trying to enter Baslow Man-
or. Any takers?

• Michael Fitzgerald of Burnie is stuck
in the game Keef the Thief. Where is the
Artefact of Mem located?

• Scott Pitcher requires help in a few
games. Firstly, in Asylum, how does he
stop the exterminator from fogging the
pestilence? Then in Wizard and the Prin-
cess, how does one get past the Gnome
without him stealing something? Finally,
in Valkyrie 17, how does Scott stan the
aeroplane?

• Adam Reed (Morphette Vale, SA) is
being troubled by a sloth-like creature
called Omarod in the game Magic. Also,
in Shard of Inovar, he would like to
know how to get the Amulet of Fire from
the temple.

• Martin McLaren of Rosanna (Vic)
asks the following questions about Pool
of Radiance. How does he stop the pollu-
tion of Stojanow river? Is there anyway of

stopping yourself being attacked in Zhen-
til keep? Where is the Pool? Is the maze in
Valjevo castle any use? Finally, where is
Tyranthraxus?

• Zaun Bhana of Palmerston (NT) is
stuck in Deja Vu II. He wants to know
how to find the Mayor or the Police Chief,
as well as getting past the drunk. Any tak-
ers?

• It Came From The Desert is really trou-
bling Jamie Gallagher of Chester Hill
(NSW). He knows where the ants nest is,
but that's about it! Can anyone suggest
how he progresses further?

• Stuart George needs help in a couple
of adventures. In Gold Rush, what should
he say to the man in the Green Pastures
hotel, and what is to be done with the
branded mule. Then, in Colonel's Bequest,
Stuart has finished the game, but did not
come across the location of most of the
bodies. Finally, in Police Quest I, what
does he actually type in to get sweet
cheeks Marie out of jail? □

ACAR80

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