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HOW  TO  CHOOSE  A  CD-ROM  DRIVE 

izonnpuTE 


JANUARY  1994 


ULTIMATE  VinNDOWS! 


30  TOP  TIPS  FROM  OUR  EXPERTS 
10  GREAT  DRAW  PACKAGES  ^ 
4  SUPER  CAPTURE  UTILITIES    " 


^c«^ 


SURROUNDED  DY  ANTI-AIRCRAFT. 

HUNTED  DY  SAMS.  EVEN  MACH  2  ISN'T 

FAST  ENDUGH.  IT'S  A  STUDY  CAPTAIN 

DEAN  PENNINGTON  DIDN'T  THINK  HE'D 

IIVE  TO  TELL.  WOOLD  YOD? 

;  A  TRUE  STORY 

*  Kuwait,  May  23,  1991.  Captain 

I      Dean  "D-Dawg"  Pennington  dives 

mt    to  take  out  an  Iraqi  85mm  gun 

yn    emplacement  below.  "Flares,  break 

Ha    left!"  his  wingman  screams.  He 

'^L  wrenches  the  stick  just  as  a  SAM 

P^^  explodes  10  feet  behind  his  F-16. 

Anti-aircraft  batteries  now  open  up 

y  all  around,  engulfing  him.  Too  low  to 

avoid  the  anti-aircraft,  too  slow  to 

evade  another  SAM,  he's  faced  with 

a  hopeless  choice  and  less  than  a 

quarter  of  a  second  to  make  it. 

Lighting  afterburners,  he  rockets  to 

safety  before  they  can  lock  on  again, 

THE  STANDARD  BY 
WHICH  OTHER  FIGHTERS 

ARE  JUDGED 
Captain  Pennington  survived 
on  skill,  nerve  and  the  awesome 


capabilities  of  the  F-16  Fighting 
Falcon.  Nothing,  aside  from  a  true 
F-16,  captures  the  "hair-on-fire"  feel- 
ing of  flying  America's  most  deadly 
fighter  like  Falcon^  3.0,  Spectrum 
HoloByte's  computer  simulation. 


FALCQN 


With  Fakon 
.W,  up  to  six 
placer  a  can 
go  mano  a 
mano.  May  the 
hest  man  win. 


SPECTRUM 


A  HIGHER  LEVEL  OF  FLIGHT 
Unlike  some  sims,  which  more 
closely  simulate  the  arcade  expe- 
rience than  the  flying  one,  Falcon 
3,0  features  a  depth  of  play 
♦      ^      that  almost  rivals  real 


life.  Like  real  pilots,  you'll  fly 
with  a  wingman,  allowing  you 
to  engage  in 
aerial  tactics 
like  bracket 
HOLOBYTE  maueuvers. 
Instead  of  enemies  who  fly  in 
circles.  Falcon  3.0  adversaries  fly 
according  to  true  fighter  doctrine 
so  they're  no  pushovers.  And 
Kuwait  looks  like  Kuwait  since 
real  geographic  theaters  are 
faithfully  mapped. 

NOT  JUST  A  SIMULATION 

OF  A  WARPL ANE 
A  SIMULATION  OF  WAR 
Falcon  3.0  lets  you  fight  as  part 
of  an  entire  campaign.  The  mis- 
sions you  fly  play  a  crucial  role  in 
your  side's  success.  But  they're  not 
hard-wired.  Each  result  affects  the 
overall  war  effort— and  determines 
your  next  mission.     ^    Succeed 


For  Visa/MasterCard  orders  call  24  hours  a  day,  7  days  a  week:  (800)  695-GAME. 
For  technical  questions  call  (510)  522-1164  (M-F:  9am-5pm  Pacific  Time). 


and  go  on  to  hit  the  enemy  in  his 
own  backyard.  Fail  and  find  the  bad 
guys  breathing  down  your  neck. 


FilLCOH  3.0  vs.  MiG-29 


IP» 


Electronic  Baftlefield  Series  sijnutations  link  up. 

So  tf(>u  don't  just  ekoose  if  our  mis^on,  you  choose  your 

aircraji.  Care  to  fly  for  the  other  side,  comrade? 

THE  ELECTRONIC 
BATTLEFIELD  SERIES: 

THE  ULTIMATE 

CYBER-BATTLEFIELD 

Choose  from  multiple  aircraft, 

multiple  theaters,  even  which 

side  of  the  conflict  to  fight  on, 

\mmmi  ■■    ■      .^ 


Go  head-to-head  over  a  modem  or 
with  up  to  six  players  over  a  net- 
work. It's  possible  because  each 
Electronic  Battlefield  Series 
title  works  with  the  others,  from 
MiG-29'^  to  the  upcoming  F/A-18 
simulation.  There's  even  a  multi- 


media guide  to  air-to-air  combat 
called  Art  of  the  Kiir*  to  help  you 
fly  like  an  ace.  It  all  starts  with 
FalamSD. 

The  simulation  for  people  who 
want  to  fly  the  not-so-friendly 
skies. 


Specbwn  IMi^te 


IjCOM 


art^khx 


p  ^ 


EI.ECTBDHIC  BATTI.EnEI.D  SERIES 

The  fiilit  of  yoir  life. 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  201 


connpuTE 


VOLUME  16.  NO.  1 ,  ISSUE  160 


JANUARY  1994 


FEATURES 
6 

WINDOWS:  BETTER,  FASTER, 
MORE 

By  Tony  Roberts,  Dan 
Gookin,  and  Clifton  Karnes 
30  Windows  tips  that  put  the 

win  back  in  Windows. 

16 

TEST  LAB 

Edited  by  Mike  Hudnall 

Ten  super  Windows  draw 

programs, 

72 

NEW  YEAR,  NEW  YOU 

By  Lisa  Young 
Digital  dieting. 

100 

PRODUCTIVITY  CHOKE 

By  Stephen  Levy 
Improv  from  Lotus. 

COLUMNS 
4 

EDITORIAL  LICENSE 

By  Clifton  Karnes 
IBM's  new  PS/2  E. 

40 

NEWS  &  NOTB 

By  Jflf  Champion  Booth 
Top  computer  news. 

46 

FEEDBACK 

Answers  to  tough  questions. 

50 

WINDOWS  WORKSHOP 

By  Clifton  Karnes 
Four  great  Windows  tips. 

52 

INTRODOS 

By  Tony  Roberts 
How  compression  works, 

56 

PROGRAMMING  POWER 

By  Tom  Campbell 

How  to  create  Windows 

Help  files. 

64 

HARDWARE  CLINIC 

By  Mark  Minasi 

Hot,  new  CPUs. 


Cover  photo  by  Mark  Wagoner  IBM  PS/2  E  displaying  clip  art 
from  Computer  Support's  Arts  &  Letters, 


68 

TIPS  &  TOOLS 

Edited  by 
Richard  C.  Leinecker 
Tips  from  our  readers. 

102 

PERSONAL  PRODUCTIVITY 

By  Bradley  M.  Small 

Third-party  support 

for  OS/2. 

104 

ART  WORKS 

By  Robert  Bixby 
Capturing  Windows. 

172 

NEWS  BITS 

By  Jill  Champion  Booth 
Top  stories  at  press  time. 


MULTIMEDIA  PC 
85 

FAST  FORWARD 

By  David  English 
Full-screen  desktop  video, 

86 

HOW  TO  CHOOSE  A  CD-ROM 
DRIVE 

By  Richard  O.  Mann 

What  to  look  for 

94 

NEW  MULTIMEDIA  PRODUCTS 

Edited  by  Polly  Cillpam 
What's  new! 

98 

MULTIMEDIA  SPOTLIGHT 

By  David  English 
Sound  Blaster  DigitalEdge. 


ENTERTAINMENT 
106 

DISCOVERY  CHOICE 

By  Scott  A.  May 

Microsoft  Dinosaurs. 

108 

GAME  INSIDER 

By  Shay  Addams 
The  latest  game  releases. 

110 

ENTERTAINMENT  CHOICE 

By  Keith  Ferrell 

Rules  of  Engagement  2. 

112 

GAMEPIAY 

By  Denny  Atkin 
Previews  of  new  games. 

115 

BUILDING  THE  ULTIMATE  GAME 
MACHINE 

By  Paul  C,  Schuytema 
PCs  for  playing  games. 

REVIEWS 

124 

Microsoft  Publisher  2.0, 

Ballpoint  Mouse  2.0. 

Discover  Space, 

The  Home  Series,  Release  2, 

OmniCD. 

The  Lost  Vikings, 

Americans  in  Space, 

Space  Hulk, 

ECCO  Professional, 

NCR  3150. 

Flashback, 

Lightning  CD. 

Baseball  for  Windows, 

Icon  Make-It, 

Wayne's  World, 

Dauphin  DTR-1, 

Wacky  Funsters,  and  more. 

COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED 

WITH^^*  ENTERTAINMENT 

SOFTWARE 

Top  computer  games. 
Following  page  48. 

ADVERTISERS'  INDEX 

See  page  149. 


COMPUTH  (ISSN  01 94-35 7X)  is  published  monthly  in  the  Umled  Slates  and  Canada  by  COMPUTE  Publications  International  Lid,.  1965  Broadway,  New  York.  NY  10023-5965-  Volume  16, 
Number  1,  Issue  160  Copyright  ©  1993  by  COMPUTE  Publications  International  Ltd  All  rights  reserved  COMPUTE  is  a  registered  trademark  of  COMPUTE  Publications  International  Lid, 
Distributed  v.-orldv^ide  (except  Australia  and  the  UK)  by  Curtis  C;'culation  Company,  P.O.  Box  9102,  Pennsauken,  NJ  08109.  Distributed  in  Australia  by  The  Homiz  Group.  PO  Box  306, 
Cammeray  rJSW  2062  Australia  and  in  the  UK  by  Northern  and  Shell  Pic,  P,0.  Box  381,  Milfharbour,  London  E14  9TW,  Second-class  postage  paid  at  Nej*/  York,  NY,  and  at  additional  mailing 
offices.  POSTMASTER:  Send  address  changes  to  COMPUTE  Magazine,  PO.  Box  3245,  Harlan,  lA  51537-3041.  Tel  (800)  727-6937  Entire  contents  copyrighted,  All  rights  reserved. 
Nothing  may  be  reproduced  in  whole  or  m  pan  without  written  permiss'cn  from  the  publisher.  Subscriptions:  U3.  AFO  -  Si  9.94  one  year;  Canada  and  eisevi^here  -S25-94  one  year.  Single 
copies  S2.95  in  US,  Tne  publisher  disclaims  all  responsibility  to  return  unsolicited  matter,  and  all  rights  in  ponions  published  thereof  remain  the  sofe  property  of  COMPUTE  Publications 
International  Ltd  Letters  sent  to  COMPUTE  or  its  editors  become  the  property  of  the  magazine.  Editorial  offices  are  located  at  324  W  Wendover  Ave.,  Ste,  200.  Greensboro.  NC  27408. 
Tel.  (910)  275*9809 

Printed  in  the  USA  by  R.  R,  Donnelley  &  Sons  inc.  #R126607415 


2        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


HOW  TO  BUY  A 

DOUBLE-SPEED  CD-RDM. . . 

WrraOUT  GETTING 

TAKEN  FOR  A  DRIVE 

Introducing  Creative  OmniCD. 

If  you've  been  thinking  about  adding  the  power  and  excitement  of  an  internal  CD-ROM  to  your  PC,  here's  some  great 
news:  thanks  to  our  exclusi\'e  Creati\^e  Double-Speed  Technology;"  double'Speed  CD-ROM  performance  is 
fww  (ivailable  at  about  the  same  price  you'd  expect  to  pay  for  a  siugk-speed  drive. 

And  we're  not  talking  about  just  any  CD-ROM  here.  This  is  a  full-featured,  MFC  2  compliant, 
XA-ready,  300KB/second,  multi-session  photo  CD  drive  with  a  blistering  fast  320ms  access  time: 
The  all-ne^v  Creative  OmniCD*" 


CREATIVE  ' 


PHONES  VOL.  BUSY 


®    CZ]    -  i 


WORKS  WITH  ANY  SOUND  CARD. 

Of  course  Creative  OmniCD  works  with  your 
Sound  Blaster^—  after  all,  it  is  the  industry  standard 
for  PC  audio.  But  what  if  you'\^e  akeady  got 
another  sound  card? 

No  problem.  Because  Creative  OmtiiCD 
xvorks  perfectly  with  just  about  every  major  brand  of 
audio  card. .  .or  even  without  a  sound  card  for  applications  that  don't  use  audio. 

Best  of  all,  Creative  OnrniCD  opens  up  a  whole  new  world  of  CD-ROM  applications.  Like  photo  CD— we've  even 
included  Aldus'  Photostyler'SE  image  enhancing  software  right  in  the  box.  And  also  games, 
multimedia  and  business  applications,  education,  and  more. 

THE  BOTTOM  LINE:  A  LOT  MORE  DRIVE,  A  LOT  LESS  MONEY. 
Sure,  there's  plenty  of  other  manufacturers  offering  double-speed  CD-ROM  drives.  But  as  part  of  a 
complete  package  with  an  SRP  of  less  than  four  hundred  dollars?'  Now  that's  Creative. 
For  more  information  and  the  name  of  your  nearest  Creative  Labs  dealer,  call  1-800-998-5227. 

isoundi  CRE  ^TIVE" 


BLASTER 


CREATIVE     LASS,     INC. 


^^    ImBM99I     ^  ^Vt)  n)(li  1 1^  Cmaw  Tcduwlogjr  LM  Cwitivv  Ckiubl^Siwil  Ttchnoiofiy,  Qjutivt  OwtXD,  SaaoA  OlAsler  and  the  Sound  mutet  and  Cieibve  bps  tn  tndnnufct  of  0«ativt  lechtKik^  Lta.  A  [UithFr  tnde- 
^^    Mtlllimetfiu  PC     "^'^  «*  "^e  proptrtyrf flielriHp«tiw ownn^  VS.  intfiincs:  CnatiiT  Ijbs  I-*ro-<WfL5227  or  14(ifl-e&^6fiO.  InftmtttoMl  bqnlitef:  Cktatht  Ttduttlogr Ll4  Sii»M>ottTELiS.773HJl33  FAX  iS-77Um. 


Circfe  Readtr  Service  Number  125 


EDITORIAL  LICENSE 


Clifton  Karnes 


In  1981  IBIVt 

invented 

the  original  PC, 

This  year  it 

reinvented  iL 


I  have  seen  the  future,  and 
it  has  an  IBM  logo  on  it. 
This  may  sound  strange  giv- 
en IBM's  stormy  past,  but 
It's  true.  As  most  of  you 
know,  IBM  didn't  create  the 
computer  revolution,  but  in 
1981  it  intercepted  the  ball 
from  Apple,  Commodore,  and 
Atari  and  carried  it  for  a  touch- 
down. The  original  IBM  PC 
was  a  big  win  for  IBM,  which 
all  but  walked  away  with  the 
entire  PC  game. 

But  in  the  late  1980s,  IBM 
started  to  fumble.  It  repeated- 
ly introduced  hardware  that 
was  underpowered  and  over- 
priced, OS/2  1.0  was  a  fiasco, 
and  the  company's  highly  pub- 
licized separation  from  Micro- 
soft left  IBM  out  in  the  cold  with- 
out a  software  partner. 

But  IBM  has  been  bouncing 


back.  With  OS/2  2.1 .  it  created 
an  operating  system  that  has  in- 
telligent design  and  delivers 
high  performance.  And  the 
ThinkPad  notebooks  are  a  sim- 
ilar win  for  the  company,  set- 
ting new  standards  in  perform- 
ance, design,  and  price. 

As  superior  as  both  of 
these  innovations  are,  howev- 
er, they  pale  beside  IBM's  lat- 
est hardware  creation.  This 
new  PC  from  IBM  points  the 
way  to  the  future  so  clearly,  it 
almost  takes  your  breath 
away.  I'm  talking  about  the  PS/ 
2  E— IBM's  "green"  PC,  the 
machine  on  this  issue's  cover. 


The  PS/2  E  (known  simply 
as  the  E)  is  an  innovation  in  sev- 
eral key  areas.  It  conserves 
space,  saves  energy,  cuts 
noise  to  near  zero,  and  all  but 
eliminates  emf  emissions. 

The  E's  look  is  distinctive. 
The  system  box  is  only  about 
one  foot  square  and  less 
than  three  inches  high,  bor- 
dered by  a  green  band.  The 
box's  design  is  clean  and  un- 
cluttered. On  the  front  you'll 
see  IBM's  logo,  an  on/off 
switch,  two  small  status 
lights,  and  a  small  panel. 
Where's  the  disk  drive?  Open 
the  panel,  and  inside  you1l 
find  a  1.44MB  floppy  drive. 

You'll  find  something  else  in- 
teresting inside:  four  PCMCIA 
slots.  Instead  of  a  traditional 
bus  for  hardware  expansion, 
this  PC  uses  PCMCIA  cards. 
There  are  four  bays  which 
can  accept  either  four  Type  1 
or  Type  2  cards  or  two  Type 
3  cards  (which  are  larger). 

Open  up  the  system  box, 
and  you'll  find  something 
else  that's  amazing.  There's 
no  fan.  Since  this  PC  runs  on 
a  low-power  50-MHz 
486SLC2,  there's  no  need  for 
cooling,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence, there's  no  noise. 

The  machine  also  comes 
with  8MB  of  RAM  and  a 
123MB  hard  disk  (which  is 
much  too  small). 

The  system  unit's  small  foot- 
print is  matched  by  the  key- 
board's {there's  no  built-in  nu- 
meric keypad,  but  one  is  avail- 
able as  an  option).  And  the 
mouse  is  built  into  the  key- 
board. This  is  the  same  point- 
er used  on  IBM's  notebooks, 
and  although  it  takes  some  get- 
ting used  to,  it's  quite  service- 
able, To  move  the  mouse  point- 
er, you  press  a  small  red  but- 
ton just  below  the  G  and  H 
keys.  The  left  and  right  mouse 
buttons  are  embedded  in  the 
keyboard  below  the  space 
bar  You  can  use  an  external 
mouse  if  you  prefer, 

Atop  the  system  unit  you'll 


find  the  E's  most  talked  about 
(and  expensive)  feature:  a 
beautiful  10.4Hnch  active-ma- 
trix color  LCD  monitor  that  fea- 
tures XGA  graphics  and  reso- 
lutions up  to  1024  X  768,  The 
display  can  handle  65,000  col- 
ors and  is  crisp  and  fast.  It's  al- 
so a  whopping  $3,000.  If  the 
LCD  is  too  pricey,  however, 
there's  a  low-power,  low-emis- 
sion CRT  monitor  available  too. 

When  you  boot  up  the  E, 
you'll  find  yourself  in  the  OS/2 
2.1  Workplace  Shell.  If  you're 
an  OS/2  fan,  you1l  be  right  at 
home.  And  even  if  you're  not, 
Windows  3,1  and  DOS  are 
just  a  couple  of  mouse  clicks 
away,  If  you  decide  to  bypass 
OS/2  altogether,  you  can 
move  the  WIN-OS/2  emulator 
or  the  DOS  session  to  your 
OS/2  Startup  folder  and  land 
in  either  environment. 

OS/2,  however,  is  worth  a 
look.  It  sports  an  attractive  and 
full-featured  interface  that's 
more  object-oriented  and  con- 
sistent than  Windows  3.1. 

Although  the  E  is  innova- 
tive in  several  areas,  the 
heart  of  the  machine  is  its  pow- 
er savings.  Not  only  does  this 
PC  use  less  power  than  tradi- 
tional ones,  it  has  several  pow- 
er-saving features  built  in — 
just  like  most  notebooks  do.  If 
the  power-saving  features  are 
enabled,  the  E  uses  less  pow- 
er than  a  60-watt  light  bulb, 
IBM  estimates  that  an  office 
running  100  Es  would  save 
$2,000  a  year  in  electricity, 
but  money  isn't  really  the  ob- 
ject; it's  saving  energy  and  re- 
ducing emf  radiation. 

The  E  has  the  price  tag 
you'd  associate  with  cutting- 
edge  technology  (about 
$5,330  with  the  flat^panel 
LCD  display),  but  as  more 
units  are  made  with  similar 
specifications,  the  price  will 
surely  go  down.  Meanwhile, 
think  of  this  lean,  sexy  ma- 
chine on  your  desk.  The 
thought  is  sure  to  make  you 
smile  and  sigh.  0 


4        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Introducing  C  Set  ++  FirstStep  for 

Object 


oriented 


applications 


Now  cvervlhin 
you  need  to  begi 
writing  C/C++  appIi(.*ations  is  at  your  fingertips  - 
and  well  within  your  budget,  C  Set  ++  FirstStep 
is  a  state-of-the-art,  C/C++  development 
environment.  It  includes:  'An  ANSI  stanrlard 
coniorniing  compiler  for  C/C++  'A  visual  tool  lor 
debuii^mnti;  0+  Collection  Class  Libraries  'A 

DO         O 

comprehensive  Developer's  Toolkit  (Version  2.1) 
with  all  necessary  programming  tools,  and 
•^r)rkl^"ra[ne/2:  which  |)rovides  an 
integrating  environnuMU  that 
increases  the  cfl'ectiveness  of  those  tool 
In  short,  with  C  Set  ++  FirstStep  for 
OS/2  i rom  1 BM  Software  Solutions,  you  can 
launch  vourself  right  into  writing  high  quality 
object-oriented  applications. 


start 


®  FirstStep  Technical  Features 


DD 


32- bit  C/C-+  compiler- 


Visual  PM  Debugger 


C++  Coneclion  Class  Libraries, 


Devetoper's  ToolKit  new  V2,1 . 


WorkFrame/2  (supports  DOS.  VVindovvs  and  OS/2  tools). 


Open  and  configurable  integration  framework. 


Seamless  integration  of  multiple  edit,  compile  &  debug  tools. 


To  order  C  Set  ++ 
FirstStep  for  OS/2,  or  for 
further  information  call 
1-800-342-6672 

(L  .S.A.)  or 

Pritfi'^sUmui  tlcrt'lofH'ts  mtiv  require  lht>  ttdditiomil  fenUm's  afC  Set  ++  \  2.L     1 -ftOQ-A^S-TQQQ    pvt    670  (Canada) 

ffur  iintfe\s,ion(il  del  eloper's  package  including  high-end  tooLsf  oplimizathti  i  1 1>  %  *         r  11 

,„.,ifi,ii .i,,>j.„„  umt svnia:  Or  contact  your  local  1 B M  soltware  dealer. 


right 
hera 


IBM  and  OS/2  are  registered  trademarks  and  C  Set  ++  is  a  trademark  of  International  Business  Machines  Corporation, 
Windows  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Microsoft  Corporation. 
©1993  IBM  Corp, 


WINDOWS: 

TIPS  FROM  THREE  WINDOWS  ACES 

BETTER, 

THAT  PUT  THE  WIN  BACK  IN  WINDOWS 

FASTER,  MORE 

BY  TONY  ROBERTS,  DAN  GOOKIN,  AND  CLIFTON  KARNES 


H 


ow  can  you  make  Windows  more  responsive  and  still 
enjoy  the  flexibility  and  power  of  the  interface?  Take  control  of 
icons,  learn  to  make  DOS  windows  more  responsive,  make  mem- 
ory do  your  bidding,  optimize  your  interaction  with  your  hard  disk, 
and  more.  In  this  article  you'll  find  tips  that  make  Windows  fly  tips 
that  make  Windows  fun,  and  tips  that  make  Windows  phenomenal. 


^    Reduce  Font  Load 

■  If  it  seems  as  if  your  Windows 
M  applications  take  forever  to  ini- 
tialize, your  system  may  be  suffering 
from  font  overload.  Cut  back  on  the 
number  of  active  fonts  in  your  system, 
and  applications  will  load  faster. 

Although  Windows  3.1  allows  you  to 
have  hundreds  of  fonts  active,  doing 
so  slows  down  program  loading  and 
slows  down  your  work  as  you  wade 
through  font  lists.  The  solution  is  to 
install  only  the  fonts  you  use  often  plus 
those  you  need  for  specific  purposes. 

Perhaps  the  best  way  to  manage 
fonts  is  with  FontMinder  1.1  (Ares 
Software.  P.O.  Box  4667,  Foster  City, 
California  94404-4667;  $79,95).  This 
utility  lets  you  group  fonts  that  you  use 
for  specific  projects  in  font  packs. 
When  you  go  to  work  on  the  company 
newsletter,  simply  drag  in  the  fonts  for 
that  project.  Once  the  newsletter  is 
published,  just  drag  those  fonts  out. 

If  you  work  with  hundreds  of  fonts, 
FontMinder  is  the  one  utility  that  can 
help  keep  you  sane. 

2  Create  Icons  for  Control 
Panel  Selections 
Control  Panel  contains  a  handy 
collection  of  utilities,  but  most  people 
frequently  use  only  one  or  two — 
maybe  Printers  or  Desktop,  To  get 
where  you're  going  faster,  you  can  run 
your  favorite  Control  Panel  directly. 

While  in  Program  Manager,  select 
File,  Run,  In  the  Command  Line  box, 
enter  the  command  control  printers. 
Control  Panel  will  load  and  automati- 
cally start  the  Printers  utility. 

Better  yet,  create  a  special  Program 
Manager  icon  to  run  any  Control  Panel 
utility  directly.  First,  select  File,  New, 
Program  Item;  then  click  on  OK.  In  the 
Command  Line  box,  enter  control  print- 
ers. Next,  select  Change  Icon,  Browse. 
Then  select  the  WINDOWSXSYSTEM 
subdirectory  and  in  the  File  Name  box 
enter  main.cpi.  Select  the  printer  icon 
and  click  on  OK.  Select  OK  again  to 
close  the  Program  Properties  dialog. 

3  Start  Screen  Savers  from 
an  Icon 
Windows  screen  savers  are 
great  for  covering  up  your  work  while 
you  turn  your  attention  elsewhere,  but 
there's  no  apparent  way  to  start  a 
screen  saver  on  demand — you  have 
to  wait  until  the  time  delay  occurs. 

Here's  how  to  start  a  screen  saver 
from  an  icon. 

Using  NotePad  or  SysEdit,  open  up 
your  WIN. INI  file.  Locate  the  Programs= 
line  and  type  scr  at  the  end  of  it.  Restart 
Windows  so  this  change  takes  effect. 

Now,  create  an  icon  for  your  saver 
by  selecting  File,  New,  Program  Item. 

8      COMPUTE    JANUARY   1994 


To  see  the  filenames  for  screen 
savers  on  your  system,  select  Browse 
and  enter  *,scr  in  the  File  Name  box. 
Select  one  of  the  savers,  and  its  name 
will  appear  in  the  Command  Line  box. 
Add  a  /s  switch  to  the  end  of  the  com- 
mand line,  and  click  on  OK. 

Now  you  can  start  a  screen  saver 
immediately  by  double-clicking  on  its 
icon.  If  you  want  to  change  the  screen 
saver's  configuration,  go  through 
Control  Panel  as  usual.  If  you  want  to 
start  the  saver  with  a  hot  key,  edit  the 
icon's  properties  to  include  a  hot  key. 

4  Shift  into  High  Gear 
The  Shift  key  is  more  powerful 
than  it  looks.  Here  are  three 
Shift-key  tricks. 

•  Hold  down  the  Shift  key  when  start- 
ing an  application,  The  program  will 
run,  but  it  will  be  minimized. 

•  Hold  down  the  Shift  key  when  start- 
ing Windows  to  prevent  the  programs 
in  your  Startup  group  from  loading. 

•  Hold  down  the  Shift  key  as  you  dou- 
ble-click on  the  Control-menu  box  to 
save  your  Program  Manager  settings 
without  exiting  from  Windows. 

5  Assign  a  Hot  Key  to 
Program  Manager 
How  would  you  like  a  hot  key 
that  would  get  you  back  to  Program 
Manager  from  wherever  you  are? 

Open  your  Startup  group  and 
select  File,  New,  Program  Item  to  cre- 
ate a  new  icon  for  Program  Manager. 
Enter  progman.exe  in  the  Command 
Line  box,  and  specify  your  preferred 
hot-key  combination  in  the  Shortcut 
Key  box.  CtrLAIt-Shift-P  is  a  possibility. 

At  this  point,  you  can  further  per- 
sonalize your  desktop  if  you  like  by 
adding  some  custom  text  in  the 
Description  box.  For  example,  try  typ- 
ing in  Bob's  Desktop  or  Tony's 
Analytical  Engine. 

Click  on  OK  to  close  the  Program 
Properties  dialog  and  double-click  on 
the  newly  created  icon  to  install  your 
changes  and  activate  your  hot  key. 
Because  the  new  icon  is  in  the 
Startup  group,  your  changes  will  go 
into  effect  every  time  you  start 
Windows.  Don1  be  concerned  that 
this  tip  will  leave  you  with  multiple 
copies  of  Program  Manager  floating 
around.  Program  Manager  is  a  single- 
instance  application.  If  the  program  is 
already  running  when  you  try  to  run  it, 
it  merely  becomes  active  rather  than 
starting  up  a  second  copy. 

^^  Eliminate  Group  Clutter 

■^  Almost  every  Windows  applica- 
^^tion  wants  to  create  its  own 
Program  Manager  group.  Before  long, 
you'll  be  swimming— or  perhaps 


drowning^n  groups. 

Create  a  more  efficient  workspace 
by  putting  the  icons  for  all  of  your  most- 
used  applications  in  one  Master  group. 
Close  all  other  groups,  and  then  select 
Window,  Tile  to  make  your  Master 
group  fill  the  screen.  This  will  allow  you 
to  perform  most  of  your  work  without 
opening  and  closing  a  !ot  of  groups. 

Further  reduce  the  group  clutter  by 
moving  similar  programs  from  their 
native  groups  to  groups  created 
based  on  function.  For  example,  put 
all  of  your  telecommunications  icons 
in  a  Telecommunications  group. 

/Reorder  the  Group  List 
You  can  open  a  Program 
Manager  group  that's  not  visible 
by  selecting  Window  and  then  click- 
ing on  the  name  of  the  group  from  the 
numerical  list.  However,  if  you  have 
several  groups,  your  most-used 
groups  may  not  appear  at  the  top  of 
the  list.  You  can  change  the  settings 
in  the  PROGMAN.INI  file  to  make  sure 
the  groups  you  want  are  at  the  top. 

First,  make  a  backup  copy  of 
PROGMAN.INI;  then  load  PROG- 
MAN.INI into  a  text  editor  such  as 
Notepad.  The  file  includes  a  Settings 
section  and  a  Groups  section.  Groups 
lists  all  of  the  groups  you  have  creat- 
ed and  assigns  each  a  group  number. 
In  the  Settings  section  is  a  line  that 
begins  Order=  and  then  lists  a  series 
of  group  numbers.  To  change  the 
position  of  a  group  on  the  V^indow 
menu,  place  the  group's  number  in 
the  desired  position  on  the  Order= 
line.  Restart  Windows  for  the  change 
to  take  effect. 

8Can  t  See  the  DOS  Error 
Message? 
Sometimes  when  you're  trying 
to  run  a  DOS  application  from  Win- 
dows, all  you  see  is  one  flash  of  the 
DOS  screen  before  the  DOS  box  exits 
and  returns  to  Windows.  There's  an 
error  message  there,  but  your  eyes 
aren't  quick  enough  to  see  it. 

To  get  a  good  look  at  the  error 
message  so  you  can  figure  out  what 
to  correct,  you  need  to  edit  the  PIF  file 
that  controls  the  DOS  application.  Run 
Pifedit  and  load  the  appropriate  P)F 
file.  If  the  application  has  no  specific 
PIF  file,  load  _DEFAULT.PIF. 

Deselect  the  Close  Window  on  Exit 
item,  and  save  the  modified  PIF.  This 
leaves  a  DOS  window  open  so  you  can 
read  any  error  message  that  may  have 
been  created.  Rerun  the  problem  pro- 
gram, and  take  whatever  steps  are 
necessary  to  correct  the  problem. 

When  everything  is  working 
smoothly,  reopen  the  PIF  file  and 
select  Close  Window  on  Exit. 


# 


(CITIZEN 


Your  Notebook  ?rinfmgPav»M. 

coUiv.*cNo\cU«k Contain  j 


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When  we  say  Citizen  works  where  you  work,  we  mean        Think  of  it.  Now  you  can  use  your  printer  at  your  desk  or 
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Tk  Notebook  Printer  II.  It  mrk  wliereyOU  Wrk  circle  Header  service  Number  174 

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9  Icon  Spacing 
You  can  pack  more  icons  into 
a  smaller  space  by  changing 
the  spacing  between  them.  To  do  this, 
open  Control  Panel  and  select 
Desktop.  In  the  Icons  section,  reduce 
the  spacing  setting  to  bring  the  icons 
closer  together.  A  setting  of  60  works 
well.  While  youYe  at  it,  make  sure  the 
Wrap  Title  option  is  selected  so  that 
long  descriptions  will  be  wrapped  into 
two  or  three  lines. 

Now,  go  back  to  Program  Manager 
and  select  Window,  Arrange  Icons, 
Your  icons  wil!  be  nestled  a  little  clos- 
er together,  but  the  vertical  spacing 
between  rows  of  icons  will  be  unaf- 
fected. Unfortunately,  you  can't 
change  that  setting  from  Control 
Panel.  You'll  have  to  edit  WIN. INI  to 
make  that  change. 

Open  WIN. INI  with  SysEdit  or 
Notepad  and  search  for  the  [Desktop] 
section.  Look  for  a  line  that  begins 
lconVerticalSpacing=.  Change  the 
setting  in  that  line  to  75.  If  the  line 
doesn't  exist,  go  ahead  add  it. 

Restart  Windows  for  the  change  to 
take  effect. 


11 


10 


Keep  DOS  Applica- 
tions from  Eating  Up 
Processor  Time 


Many  Windows  users  like  to  run  a 
DOS  session  and  leave  it  mininnized 
on  the  desktop  so  they'll  have  quick 
access  to  the  command  line  to  exe- 
cute DOS  commands. 

Although  you'll  rarely  attempt  to 
multitask  such  a  DOS  session, 
Windows  doesn't  know  that,  so  it 
spends  some  of  its  time  checking  to 
see  if  there's  any  background  work 
that  needs  to  be  done  in  that  session. 

You  can  save  Windows  some  effort 
and  speed  up  your  other  applications 
by  editing  the  PIF  file  that  runs  your 
DOS  session  (usually  DOSPRMPT.PIF) 
to  reduce  background  priority. 

Run  Pifedit  and  open  the  appropri- 
ate PIF  file.  Click  on  the  Advanced 
button  and  change  the  background 
priority  to  1— the  lowest  possible  set- 
ting. Save  your  changes. 

Now  you  can  keep  your  DOS  icon 
minimized  on  your  desktop,  but 
Windows  won't  worry  about  checking 
in  with  the  DOS  session  as  often. 

If  you  ever  do  need  to  increase  the 
background  priority  for  a  specific  rea- 
son, you  can  do  it  on  the  fiy.  If  your 
DOS  session  is  running  full-screen, 
press  Alt-space  bar  to  make  it  a  win- 
dowed session.  Then  select  the 
Control-menu  box  in  the  upper  left 
corner  and  choose  Settings.  Increase 
the  background  priority  as  needed  to 
give  the  DOS  session  a  greater  share 
of  the  system's  attention, 

10      COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Aiways  Use  the  Latest 
Device  Drivers  and  TSRs 

Microsoft  is  constantly  improv- 
ing some  of  the  core  device  drivers  and 
TSRs  used  to  make  Windows  a  pleasant 
place.  Three  of  the  most  important  are 
HIMEM.SYS,  EMM386.EXE,  and 
SMARTDRV.EXE,  These  must  always  be 
up-to-date  for  you  to  get  the  most  from 
Windows,  The  rub  is  that  both  DOS  and 
Windows  come  with  these  files,  so  you 
should  use  whichever  versions  of  the 
files  have  the  latest  date.  If  you've  just 
upgraded  DOS,  then  the  DOS  versions 
of  the  files  would  probably  be  the  most 
recent. 

^  ^^  Manage  Your  Memory 

I  m  Windows  needs  oodles  of 
M -ifcrf  extended  memory  to  run 
properly.  You  should  configure  your 
PC  so  that  all  of  its  excess  memory  is 
of  the  extended  type.  To  do  this  and  to 
get  the  most  from  Windows,  you  need 
to  have  a  good  memory  manager 
installed.  DOS  5  and  6  come  with  the 
programs  to  do  this  job.  and  third-party 
programs  such  as  QEMM/386  and 
386Max  are  more  than  up  to  the  task. 

With  DOS  6,  you  prepare  memory 
by  running  the  MemMaker  program. 
QEMM/386  uses  the  Optimize  utility, 
and  386Max  has  a  program  called 
Maximize.  These  utilities  will  configure 
your  PC's  memory  to  work  best  with 
Windows  by  controlling  extended 
memory  and  loading  device  drivers 
and  TSRs  into  upper  memory,  thereby 
saving  precious  conventional  memory 
for  those  programs  that  need  it.  This  is 
all  complex  and  heady  stuff,  but  the 
memory  configuration  programs  make 
it  painless — and  a  chore  you  may 
need  to  do  only  once. 

BUse  SMARTDrive  or  a 
Simliar  Dislc-caching 
Program 

Next  to  the  printer,  your  disk  drives 
are  probably  the  slowest  things 
Windows  has  to  contend  with.  Even 
though  your  hard  drive  may  be  slip- 
pery fast,  it  can  be  made  to  work  even 
faster  by  installing  a  disk-caching  pro- 
gram. DOS  comes  with  such  a  pro- 
gram. SMARTDRV.EXE,  the  SMART- 
Drive disk  cache.  Third-party  disk 
caches  are  also  available. 

The  disk  cache  you  use  will 
improve  disk  operations  by  storing 
disk  information  in  memory.  Since 
most  information  on  the  disk  is  read 
repeatedly,  the  disk  cache  speeds  up 
operations  by  having  Windows  read 
the  information  from  memory  instead 
of  the  relatively  slower  hard  drive.  This 
can  improve  Windows'  performance 
drastically— especially  on  systems 
with  ancient  hard  drives. 


M  Avoid  RAM  Drives 
RAM  drives  are  handy  tools 
for  speeding  up  some  DOS 
programs,  and  they  make  wonderful 
temporary  storage  areas.  However, 
when  you  use  V^indows,  the  memory 
you  sacrifice  to  a  RAM  drive  is  wasted, 
Windows  craves  memory.  It  eats  it 
all  up  and  then  wants  more.  Whatever 
memory  you  devote  to  a  RAM  drive  is 
lost  to  Windows. 

The  only  exception  here  is  if  you 
have  a  ton  of  RAM^16MB  or  more.  If 
so,  then  you  can  spare  memory  for  a 
RAM  drive.  Even  then,  Windows 
would  probably  rather  have  all  the 
memory  for  itself. 

^  IP  Avoid  DOS  Device 
I  ^  Drivers  and  TSRs 

^  ^^  Some  of  the  device  drivers 
and  memory-resident  programs  you 
load  in  CONFIG.SYS  or  AUTO- 
EXEC.BAT may  be  unnecessary  for 
Windows— hogging  memory  that 
Windows  would  rather  have  for  itself. 

For  example,  there  is  no  need  to 
load  the  ANSI. SYS  device  driver  when 
you  use  Windows.  The  command 
line-editing  program  Doskey  isn't 
needed.  Windows  comes  with  its  own 
mouse  driver,  so  any  MOUSE.SYS  or 
MOUSE, COM  commands  can  be 
resected  as  well.  And  if  you're  using 
the  SMARTDrive  disk  cache,  you  can 
dispense  with  the  Fastopen  com- 
mand. Just  edit  these  lines  from  your 
CONFIG.SYS  or  AUTOEXEC.BAT  file, 
and  Windows  will  gladly  gobble  the 
memory  they  took. 

There  is  an  exception  to  this  rule.  If 
you  run  a  DOS  program  in  Windows 
and  it  requires  a  TSR,  such  as  the 
mouse  driver,  then  you  should  load  it 
before  Windows  starts.  However,  if 
DOS  programs  are  a  thing  of  the  past 
for  you,  then  definitely  get  rid  of  the 
excess  baggage. 

^  ^  Create  a  Permanent 

M%#  Windows  runs  best  in  the 
enhanced  mode,  its  preferred  modus 
operandi  for  386  and  486  PCs.  And  it 
runs  better  if  you've  created  a  perma- 
nent swap  file,  which  Windows  can  use 
to  boost  your  overall  memory  situation. 

The  permanent  swap  file  is  a  large 
file  on  disk  that  Windows  uses  for  stor- 
ing information.  You  create  it  from  the 
Control  Panel;  start  the  Control  Panel 
and  click  on  the  386  Enhanced  icon 
and  then  the  Virtual  Memory  button.  If 
yoL  have  a  permanent  swap  file 
already,  statistics  about  it  will  appear 
on  the  screen.  Otherwise,  click  on  the 
Change  button  to  create  a  permanent 
swap  file  for  your  system. 

A   good    permanent   swap   file 


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(includes  all  the  above) 

I    □  10-User  SuperPack  ®  $249 


I 


I  enclose  a  total*  of  $ , 

*Add  $7  for  SikU  ($25  International). 


80M97-3743   80M6M909 


Great  Sofiivare.  Direct 

Serif,  Inc.  •  PO  Bi>x  803  Nashua  NH  0306l  *  Tel:  (603)  889-8650  Fax:  (603)  889-1127 
Serif  Europe  *  PO  Box  15  Nottingham  NG7  2DA  England  •  TeL  +44  602  421502  Fax:  +44  602  701022 
NOTE:  Clit'cks/nioney  orders  loSHRIF.  NiaiiterCard/AlS  A  American  Kxpress/Dbcovcraccfpied.  Cards  not  charged 
utuil  dispatch-  l*Os  wckorrif  from  Education,  Federal  and  Formne-lOOO.  10*User  SuperPack  is  a  Site  license  for 
10  users  in  one  ltx"ition,  Serif  prtxkicl  n:imes  are  trademarks  of  Serif,  Inc.  Alt  oilier  tniJeniarks  acknuwlfdged. 
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Support  is  normally  avLiilahU-  ii-hours-a-day*  7-day s-a -week,  French  and  Germ:in  versions  now  available. 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  120 


Check/Card  - 

I  Exp.  Date 

■  Signature 
Name 

■  Company.............. 
Address 

ICit>- 
State 

■  Telephone  ( 

Please  return  tO: 

■  Serif,  Inc. 
PO  Box  803 
Nashua  NH  03061 


ZIP  . 


Enua  i\n  u:^uni  ■ 

^ra-  Toll-Free  to:  800-869-8909       CPT01 1 


should  be  about  2MB  in  size.  If  you 
have  a  lot  of  memory  in  your  PC  (8MB 
or  more)  or  you  run  complex  graphics 
programs,  consider  a  larger  perma- 
nent swap  file  {say,  4MB). 

^  ^m  Optimire  Your  Hard 
I     a  Drive 

M  m  Regularly  optimizing  or 
defragmenting  the  hard  drive  will 
improve  any  PC's  performance,  espe- 
cially a  Windows  system.  The  idea  is  to 
check  all  the  files  on  your  hard  drive 
and  patch  up  any  that  are  fragmented. 
Files  get  fragmented  as  DOS  tries  to 
make  the  best  use  of  disk  space;  larg- 
er files  are  split  into  smaller  pieces  to  fit 
on  the  disk.  It  means  you  can  store 
more  stuff,  but  the  fragmented  files 
take  longer  to  save  and  load  since 
DOS  has  to  keep  track  of  the  pieces. 

Optimizing  your  hard  drive  is  done 
in  two  steps,  both  of  which  should  be 
accomplished  before  you  start 
Windows.  The  first  is  to  run  DOS's 
Chkdsk  program.  This  checks  for  lost 
clusters  on  the  hard  drive.  If  Chkdsk 
finds  any,  run  the  command  again, 
but  specify  the  optional  /f  switch.  Then 
delete  all  the  FILP-.CHK  files  Chkdsk 
recovers.  {You'll  probably  want  to 
delete  them.  The  odds  against  their 
containing  useful  data  are  astronomi- 
cal. When  in  doubt,  load  them  into  a 
text  editor  before  deleting  them.)  After 
that,  run  a  defragmentation  program, 
such  as  Norton's  SpeedDisk,  PC 
Tools'  Compress,  or  DOS  6"s  Defrag. 

It's  important  to  note  that  optimiza- 
tion isn't  voodoo.  It  doesn't  automati- 
cally make  your  PC  run  faster.  Before 
you  optimize,  check  the  percentage  of 
fragmented  files.  If  it's  below  10  per- 
cent, optimization  isn't  necessary. 

^  ^^  Avoid  Starting  Too 
I  ^(  Many  Applications 
M%#  with  Windows 

A  lot  of  Windows  utilities  may  automat- 
ically start  themselves  when  Windows 
starts.  When  this  happens,  it  takes 
you  longer  to  get  to  work,  since 
Windows  spends  a  goodly  amount  of 
time  running  all  those  utilities  and 
other  programs.  The  way  to  stop  this 
is  either  to  remove  some  of  the  pro- 
grams from  the  Program  Manager's 
Startup  group  or  to  edit  the  WINJNI 
file  and  remove  some  of  the  files  in  the 
[Windows]  section  by  the  load=  and 
run=  prompts.  The  second  method 
requires  a  little  more  Windows  savvy, 
so  you  might  want  to  consult  with  a 
guru  before  attempting  it. 

Note  that  some  of  the  programs 
automatically  loaded  by  Windows  may 
be  very  necessary.  For  example,  a 
screen  saver  or  font  manager  Is  a 
good  thing  to  have  loaded.  But  start- 

12      COMPUTE    JANUARY   1994 


ing  the  Clock  or  Fife  Manager  or  other 
tools  just  slows  down  Windows. 

^  ^^  Run  Your  Appiications 
I  ^W  Full -Screen 

M  ^  Windows  is  about,  well,  win- 
dows. Your  applications  run  in  their 
own  windows  on  the  screen.  And 
while  it's  fun  to  see  both  Excel  and 
Ami  Pro  at  the  same  time,  it's  more 
work  for  Windows  to  keep  everything 
sane.  You'll  find  your  applications  run 
better  when  they're  maximized  to  fill 
the  entire  screen.  {Another  benefit  of 
running  your  applications  full-screen 
is  that  you  see  more  of  your  work.)  To 
do  this,  click  on  the  Maximize  button 
(the  up-pointing  triangle)  in  the  upper 
right  of  every  application  window.  Or 
drop  down  the  Control  menu  (on  the 
upper  left  of  every  application  win- 
dow) and  select  the  Maximize  item. 

^^1^^  if  You're  Running 
#■  I  Oniy  One  Windows 
M^0  Appiication,  Run  it  in 
Standard  Mode 

Quite  a  few  Windows  PCs  are  set 
aside  to  do  only  one  thing.  Some  may 
be  running  just  WinWord  or  another 
word  processor.  Others  may  be  order 
entry  workstations  running  a  data- 
base. If  so,  you'll  see  an  improvement 
in  performance  if  you  start  Windows  in 
standard  mode;  type  win  /s  at  the 
DOS  prompt  to  select  standard  mode. 
The  advantage  here  is  that  Win- 
dows runs  without  loading  the  over- 
head it  needs  to  work  with  multiple 
programs  in  enhanced  mode. 

^^  ^    Ciose  Applications 
#1    Youre  Not  Using 

^^m  You  don't  have  to  quit  a 
program  to  stop  using  it  in  Windows.  If 
you  tire  of  WinWord,  you  can  minimize 
the  program  and  switch  over  to  your 
Games  group  for  another  two  hours  of 
Solitaire.  Then  you  can  easily  switch 
back  to  WinWord  when  the  boss  lum- 
bers by.  While  this  is  what  multitask- 
ing is  all  about,  having  WinWord  run- 
ning drains  power  from  Windows. 

Some  users  will  have  a  whole  row 
of  minimized  applications  lined  up  at 
the  bottom  of  the  desktop.  Each  of 
those  applications  draws  on  Windows' 
resources,  impeding  system  perfor- 
mance. If  you're  truly  going  to  stop 
work  on  a  program,  then  exit  it  instead 
of  switching  away. 

MUse  a  Plain  Desktop 
Pattern 
Falling  leaves,  interlocking 
Escher  patterns,  and  comic-book 
heroes  often  provide  the  backdrop  for 
Windows'  desktop.  But  these  graphics 
occupy  memory  and  take  time  to  paint 


on  the  screen.  If  you're  willing  to  sacri- 
fice beauty  for  performance,  tnen  use 
the  Control  Panel's  Desktop  item  to 
give  Windows  a  plain  background. 
This  uses  less  memory  and  makes 
Windows  screen  redraws  faster, 

^^k  ^^  Switcii  to  Lower - 
m   ^  Resolution  Grapiiics 

^trf^^  Just  because  your  Super- 
DooperVGA  card  can  support  a  zil- 
lion-by-ziilion  graphics  resolution 
doesn't  mean  you  have  to  use  it,  The 
higher  resolutions  Windows  supports 
use  more  system  resources  and  take 
longer  for  Windows  to  manage.  To 
recover  some  of  your  performance 
losses,  switch  Windows  to  a  lower 
graphics  resolution,  which  is  probably 
supported  by  your  video  hardware.  In 
fact,  the  boring  old  VGA  resolution  is 
the  fastest  of  the  lot.  It's  also  easier  to 
read  a  640  x  480  or  800  x  600  screen 
than  screens  of  higher  resolution  (par- 
ticularly if  your  eyes  are  over  40). 

M  Print  to  a  Networlced 
Printer 
The  slowest  part  of  any 
computer  setup  is  the  printer.  No  mat- 
ter how  fast  the  printer,  data  slows  to 
a  crawl  as  it's  transferred  to  paper. 
One  solution  is  to  use  the  Print 
Manager  to  handle  printing.  But  better 
than  that  is  to  print  to  a  network  print- 
er. You'll  see  files  virtually  fly  off  the 
screen,  seemingly  printing  in  an 
instant.  Don't  get  too  excited,  howev- 
er. Your  printout  is  just  waiting  else- 
where on  another  computer  that's 
having  to  toil  with  printing.  But  in  the 
meantime,  you've  wrested  control  of 
Windows  and  can  get  on  with  some- 
thing else.  (Needless  to  say.  this  trick 
doesn't  work  if  you  don't  have  a  net- 
work or  a  network-designated  printer.) 

^  IT  >^e)n^^A>K  Any  Win- 
M  ^%  dows  Program  Witli- 

M^'^m  out  Running  Setup 

There  are  many  times  when  you  need  to 
reinstall  just  one  program,  file,  or  group 
of  files  from  the  Windows  distribution 
disk.  You  usually  can't  do  this  without 
reinstalling  all  of  Windows  again, 

The  solution  is  to  decompress  the 
files  on  the  Windows  distribution  disks. 

1.  Find  the  EXPAND.EXE  program  on 
the  V\/indows  distribution  disks.  (It  will 
probably  be  on  disk  1  or  2.) 

2.  Copy  EXPAND.EXE  to  your  WIN- 
DOWS subdirectory, 

3.  You'll  notice  that  most  of  the  other 
files  on  the  disk  have  extensions  that 
end  with  an  underscore  (for  example. 
W!NHELP.EX_.  MOUSE. DR_,  and  so 
on).  These  are  compressed  files.  (Note 
that  in  early  versions  of  Windows,  the 


IHE   MOST  ADVANCED 
WAY   TD   MASTER 
3-D    GAMES.  . 


•i?^:r;:';'Ji;•.^iati^;;-  . 


y^ 


Now  moving  in  a  game  is  os  easy  os  thinking  about  11 
Only  CyberMan  moves  in  three  directions  (x,  y  and  z) 
and  three  rotations  (pitch,  yaw,  and  roll),  which  cor^ 
relate  directly  to  your  moves  inside  a  3-D  gome;  your 
intuitive  movements  tronsbte  literally  to  the  screen. 
It's  also  the  only  controller  with  tactile  feedback  that 
makes  you  o  physical  part  of  the  gome.  CyberMon  is  avail- 
able  now  at  your  local  dealer,  or  coll  1  -800-732-2923. 


The  Senseware"  Company 


Tiudcnms  baong  Fo  Iheirfe^^H^  own^. 


Circte  Reader  Service  Number  123 


W^M^^^^Mm.-  '^^^'W 


compressed  files  ended  in  EXE,  but 
they  were  not  executable.) 
4.  To  decompress  one  of  these  fifes 
(for  example,  WINHELP.EX_).  type 
expand  a:winhe!p.ex_  c:\windows\win- 
help.exe.  C:\WINDOWS\WINHELP.EXE 
is  the  executable  file  you're  creating. 

^^  ^  Run  a  Specific 
M  m^  Recorder  Macro 

^J\0  Many  times,  you  want  to  run 
Recorder  and  have  a  specific  macro 
execute.  You  won't  use  it  often,  but 
Recorder  has  a  hot-key  switch. 

1.  Make  sure  your  macro  specifies  a 
hot  key. 

2.  On  the  command  line,  put  recorder 
-h  hot  key  filename. ext,  where  file- 
name.ext  is  the  name  of  the  Recorder 
macro  and  hot  key  is  the  key  combi- 
nation that  normally  runs  the  macro. 

For  the  hot  key,  use  the  following 
symbols,  plus  the  key  name. 


Key 

Symbol 

Alt 

% 

Ctrl 

A 

Shift 

+ 

For  example,  if  your  hot  key  is  Shift- 
F10  and  your  macro  file  is  named 
MYMACROS.REC.  you  would  type 
recorder  -h  +f10  mymacrosjec, 

0^  ^H  Create  New  Colors 

M  m  Most  people  don't  know 
Atf  M  the  RGB  values  for  colors, 
even  the  basic  ones,  and  when  you 
need  to  supply  the  RGB  value  for  a 
color,  you  usually  find  yourself  behind 
the  eightball  {RGB  value  0,  0,  0).  The 
solution  is  to  use  the  color  selector  in 
Control  Panel. 

1.  Run  Control  Panel  and  double-click 
on  the  Color  icon. 

2.  Press  the  Color  Palette  button  and 
press  the  Define  Custom  Colors  button. 

3.  In  the  Custom  Color  Selector  dialog 
box,  you'll  see  a  matrix  of  all  of  the 
available  system  colors.  You  can 
select  one  with  the  mouse  and  see  its 
RGB  values  in  the  three  text  boxes  on 
the  right  side  of  the  dialog  box.  When 
you  find  the  color  you  want,  simply 
write  down  its  RGB  value. 

4.  When  you're  finished  using  the 
Custom  Color  Selector,  click  on  Close 
and  Cancel. 

You  can  use  these  RGB  values  to 
specify  colors  in  Windows  Paintbrush, 
for  example.  Double-click  on  a  color 
in  the  palette  and  enter  the  RGB  val- 
ues in  the  dialog  box  that  appears, 

14      COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


^^^^^  Delete  Unnecessary 
#X  nies 

^bm^^  Windows  requires  a  large 
investment  in  disk  space,  which  you 
may  not  be  able  to  afford.  You  can 
ease  this  problem  by  deleting  unnec- 
essary files. 

1 .  Run  File  Manager  and  move  to  your 
WINDOWS  subdirectory. 

2.  You  can  safely  delete  any  of  the  fol- 
lowing files,  provided  you  don't  need 
the  applications. 

•.BMP  (These  are  bitmap  files— 

probably  wallpaper.) 
\SCR  (These  are  screen  saver  files.) 
CALC.EXE,  CALC.HLP  (Calculator 

and  its  help  file) 
CALENDAR.EXE,  CALENDAR.HLP 

(Calendar  and  its  help  file) 
CARDFiLE.EXE,  CARDFILE.HLP 

(Cardfile  and  its  help  file) 
CLOCK.EXE  (Clock) 
MSDOS.EXE  (the  MS-DOS  executive) 
PBRUSH.EXE,  PBRUSH.DLU 

PBRUSH.HLP  (Paintbrush,  its  DLL, 

and  its  help  file) 
RECORDER.EXE,  RECORDER.DLL 

RECORDER, HLP  (Recorder,  its 

DLL,  and  its  help  file) 
REVERSI.EXE,  REVERSI.HLP  (Reversi 

game  with  its  help  file  in  Windows 

3.0) 
WINMINE.EXE,  WINMINE.HLP 

(Minesweeper  game  with  its  help 

file  in  Windows  3.1) 
SOLEXE,  SOL.HLP  (Solitaire  game 

with  its  help  file) 
TERMfNALEXE,  TERMINAL.HLP 

(Terminal  and  its  help  file) 
WRITE, EXE,  WRiTE.HLP  (Write  and  its 

help  file) 

^#%  Ed  It  PROGMAN.INI 

m^M  Here's  the  scenario:  Win- 
^^  ^  dows  boots,  and  one  or  all 
of  your  groups  are  lost.  You  can  fix 
problems  like  this  if  you  know  how  to 
edit  PROGMAN. INI. 

1.  Run  Notepad  and  load  PROG- 
MAN.INI  (you'll  find  it  in  your  WIN- 
DOWS subdirectory). 

2.  The  file  has  two  sections,  [Settings] 
and  [Groups],  with  the  following  form. 

[Settings] 

Window=-4  0  801  528  1 

SaveSettings=1 

[Groups] 

Order=  71  5  4  3  2  8 

Groupt  =C:\WINDOW5\M  AIN.GRP 

Group2=C:VW]NDOWS\ACCESSOR.GRP 

Group3=C:VWINDOWS\GAMES.GRP 


Group4=C:\WINDOWS\STARTUP.GRP 

Group7^C:\WINDOW5\UTILITrE.GRP 

Group5=C:\WINDOWS\QCWIN.GRP 

Group8=C:\WIND0WS\APPS.GRP 

Groiip9=C:\WINDOWS\WPW51U5.GRP 

3.  If  your  groups  are  still  in  your  WIN- 
DOWS subdirectory  but  they  don't 
appear  in  PROGMAN.INI,  simply  add 
them,  following  the  form  Groupn=C> 
\WINDOWS\GROUPNAME.GRP.  where 
n  is  the  number  of  the  group. 

^^%  Re-create  Windows 

■»  I  Default  Program 
*^^#  Groups  and  Icons 

It's  often  necessary  to  know  the 
default  arrangement  Windows  used 
when  it  installed  your  groups  and 
icons.  The  solution:  Run  Setup  with 
the  /p  parameter. 

1.  From  Program  Manager,  choose 
File,  Run,  and  type  setup /p. 

2.  Click  on  OK. 

Running  Setup/p  will  re-create  your 
default  groups  and  icons,  but  if  there 
are  just  a  few  items  out  of  place,  you 
may  want  to  do  it  yourself.  Here  are  the 
groups  and  icons  Windows  3.1  installs. 


Main 

File  Manager 
Control  Panel 
Print  Manager 
Clipboard 
MS-DOS  Prompt 
Windows  Setup 
PIF  Editor 
Read  Me 


MAIN.GRP 

WINFILE.EXE 

CONTROL.EXE 

PRINTMAN.EXE 

CLtPBRD.EXE 

DOSPRMPTPIF 

SETUP.EXE 

PIFEDIT.EXE 

README.WRI 


Accessories     ACCESSOR. GRP 


Write 

Paintbrush 

Terminal 

Notepad 

Recorder 

Cardfile 

Calendar 

Calculator 

Clock 

Object  Packager 

Character  Map 

Media  Player 

Sound  Recorder 

Games 

Solitaire 
Minesweeper 

Startup 


WRITE.EXE 

PBRUSH.EXE 

TERMINAL.EXE 

NOTEPAD.EXE 

RECORDER.EXE 

CARDFILE.EXE 

CALENDAR.EXE 

CALC.EXE 

CLOCK.EXE 

PACKAGER£XE 

CHARMAP.EXE 

MPLAYER.EXE 

SOUNDREC.EXE 

GAMES.GRP 

SOL.  EXE 
WINMINE.EXE 

STARTUP.GRP 


Initially,  there  are  no  files  in  the 
Startup  group,  □ 


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TEST  LAB 


Edited  by  Mike  Hudnall 
Reviews  by  William  Harrel 

Not  long  ago.  graphics  art- 
ists and  desktop  publishers 
believed  that  using  a  Macin- 
tosh was  the  only  way  to  cre- 
ate quality  logos,  brochure  cov- 
ers, and  other  graphics — especial- 
ly full-color  drawings.  And  that 
may  have  been  true.  once.  But 
the  Windows  draw  programs  cov- 
ered in  this  month's  Test  Lab 
have  closed  the  gap. 

Until  Windows  3.0.  PC  users 
were  hard-pressed  to  create 
sophisticated  full-color  drawings 
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The  areas  where  designers  need 
the  most  strength — display,  type 
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high-coior  and  true-color  video. 
Adobe  Type  Manager  and  True- 
Type font  rendering,  better  Post- 
Script printer  drivers,  color  print- 
ers priced  at  under  $3,000.  and 
finally,  a  crop  of  excellent  draw- 
ing programs  that  exploit  the 
potential  of  Windows. 

Of  the  ten  programs  reviewed 
here,  some  are  full-featured  appli- 
cations that  can  perform  almost 
any  graphics  function  you  can 
think  of  (and  some  you  couldn't 
imagine),  some  are  economy 
packages,  and  some  are  special- 
ized illustration  packages. 

All  of  these  packages  claim 
ease  of  use^but  ease  is  a  rela- 
tive term  here.  If  all  you  want  to 
do  is  to  create  monotone  logos 
and  graphics  for  stationery  or  a 
newsletter,  or  full-color  images  for 
your  monitor,  then  learning  to  use 
any  of  these  products  is  easy. 
However,  taking  one  of  them  (es- 
pecially one  of  the  high-end  prod- 
ucts) to  its  full  potential  requires 
much  more  than  mastering  the 
rudiments  of  the  program.  You 
must,  for  example,  understand 
several  prepress  and  commercial 
printing  practices,  such  as  color 
separations,  knockouts,  trapping, 
overprinting,  and  printing  to  film 
on  a  high-resolution  imagesetter. 
These   concepts   and   others, 

16        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


such  as  halftoning,  fall  within  the 
realm  of  the  graphics  artist  and 
designer.  Learning  them  is  noth- 
ing like  falling  off  a  log. 

All  ten  programs  were  tested 
on  a  33-MHz  486  with  20MB 
RAM.  a  24-bit  display  adapter, 
and  a  high-resolution  19-inch  mon- 
itor. Drawings  and  separations 
were  printed  on  both  a  300-dpi 
laser  printer  and  a  1270-dpi 
Linotronic  330.  Not  all  of  the  pro- 
grams require  this  much  muscle, 
but  the  high-end  programs^ 
CorelDRAW!.  Micrografx  Design- 
er. Adobe  Illustrator,  Aldus  Free- 
Hand,  Professional  Draw,  and  Arts 
&  Letters  Graphics  Editor— really 
do  perform  better  on  a  high- 


speed CPU  with  plenty  of  RAM 
and  a  graphics  accelerator.  The 
others — Aldus  IntelliDraw,  Arts  & 
Letters  Apprentice.  Graphics 
Works,  and  Visio— all  run  well  on 
a  386. 

In  one  way  or  another,  all  of 
these  programs  let  you  achieve 
the  same  end^camera-ready  art. 
But  they  take  you  to  that  end  with 
varying  degrees  of  efficiency  and 
using  different  sets  of  priorities. 
This  is  especially  true  of  the 
advanced  products.  A  few,  for 
example,  offer  automated  draw  op- 
tions for  warping  or  creating  3-D 
objects.  Others  concentrate  more 
on  full-color  prepress  output,  with 
features  such  as  monitor  calibra- 
tion and  enhanced  PostScript  sep- 
arations. Which  one  is  best  for  you? 
It  depends  on  your  needs.  Moni- 
tor calibration  and  enhanced  print- 
ing, for  example,  ensure  greater  col- 
or control  and  fewer  prepress  mis- 
haps. Automatic  drawing  features 
can  save  hours— especially  if  you 


don't  know  how  to  draw  special 
effects  manually. 

All  of  these  programs,  except 
Visio  and  IntelliDraw  (which  handle 
drawing  much  differently),  have 
the  following  features  in  common; 

•  Bezier  curve  editing.  You 
can  add  multiple  handles  (or 
nodes)  to  lines  and  contour  line 
segments  independently  for  pre- 
cise drawing  and  editing. 

•  Gradient  and  radial  fills. 
These  involve  the  fading  of  one 
color  gradually  into  another  All 
programs  do  this  automatically. 

•  Fitting  type  to  a  path.  This  is 
the  aligning  of  text  along  a  curve 
or  other  shape.  When  done  man- 
ually, this  can  be  an  extremely 
time-consuming  process. 

•  Tracing  bitmaps.  This  in- 
volves turning  bitmaps  into  vec- 
tor drawings  for  easier  editing 
and  high-resolution  printing.  (The 
two  scaled-down  packages  do 
not  have  this  feature.) 

•  Clip  art  libraries.  These  are 
canned  images  you  can  use  as  is 
or  edit  as  needed. 

There  are,  of  course,  many  oth- 
er common  features,  such  as  the 
ability  to  align  objects  on  grids  or 
in  relation  to  other  objects.  Most 
programs  let  you  draw  various 
shapes  or  blend  one  object  into 
another 

Another  important  feature  that 
most  of  these  programs  support 
is  the  ability  to  lock  and  control 
multiple  layers,  or  "layering."  If 
you've  ever  tried  to  create  an 
image  made  up  of  several  stack- 
ed elements,  you  will  appreciate 
this  feature.  With  it,  you  can  lock 
layers  into  place,  name  them  for 
easy  selection,  hide  them,  copy 
their  attributes  to  other  layers, 
and  soon.  Without  layering,  it  can 
be  very  tedious  to  create  com- 
plex drawings  with  many  overlap- 
ping elements. 

These  are  all  very  good  pro- 
grams, but  some  are  more  suited 
to  certain  applications  than  oth- 
ers. A  few,  for  example,  excel  at 
giving  those  of  us  who  are  not 
artistically  inclined  the  ability  to 
draw — and  draw  well  Others 


work  better  for  graphics  artists 
who  already  know  how  to  draw. 
Visio  and  IntelliDraw  make  creat- 
ing diagrams  and  floor  plans  a 
snap.  And  so  on. 

One  problem  with  trying  to  cat- 
egorize these  products  is  that 
there  is  such  an  overlap  of  fea- 
tures. But  here  goes;  If  you  are  a 
graphics  artist  with  strong  draw- 
ing skills  and  prepress  knowl- 
edge, you  will  get  the  most  from 
Designer,  Illustrator,  or  Free- 
hand. If  you  don't  draw  and 
need  automated  drawing  fea- 
tures, consider  Arts  &  Letters 
Graphics  Editor,  Professional 
Draw,  or  CorelDRAW!.  For  blue- 
prints, floor  plans,  and  diagrams, 
check  out  IntelliDraw  or  Visio, 

The  two  low-end  draw  pro- 
grams are  great  for  creating  col- 
or computer-screen  drawings  or 
monotone  graphics  for  newslet- 
ters and  reports.  [However,  if  you 
are  not  artistically  inclined,  you 
should  probably  choose  one  of 
the  programs  that  support  auto- 
matic perspective  and  three- 
dimensional  effects. 

Whatever  your  needs  and  abil- 
ities, this  month's  Test  Lab  has 
information  that  should  help  you 
understand  Windows  draw  soft- 
ware and  choose  the  product 
that's  best  for  you. 

WILLIAM  HARREL 


Ailobe  Illustrator  4.01  for  Windows 
Minimum  reaulrements:  38a  PC, 
4(VIB  RAM.  VGA 
Suggested  relaii  price:  $695 

ADOBE  SYSTEMS 

1585  Charleston  Rd. 

P.O.  Box  7900 

Mountain  View.  GA  94039*7900 

(800)  833-6687 

(415]  961-4400 


ADOBE  ILLUSTRATOR 
4.01  FOR  WINDOWS 

Adobe  Illustrator  4.01  for  Win- 
dows is  a  serious  design  and 
illustration  package  for  profession- 
als; it's  not  for  the  occasional  bro- 
chure or  newsletter  publisher.  It 
takes  some  dedication  to  learn  to 
use,  but  once  you  nnaster  it, 
there's  nothing  you  can't  do. 

The  Windows  version  of  this  pro- 
gram, which  is  also  popular  on 
the  Mac,  installs  easily  There  are 
far  fewer  clip  art  symbols  and  bor- 
ders (325)  and  Type  1  fonts  (40) 
bundled  with  this  package  than 
with  the  other  packages.  What 
Illustrator  delivers  is  power.  It  sup- 
ports both  monitor  calibration 
and  enhanced  separations  (via 
Adobe  Separator),  and  the  pro- 
gram has  some  highly  advanced 


Adobe 
illustrator 


text-formatting  features,  such  as 
automatic  column  flow  and  sculp- 
tured text  wraps.  Only  Corel- 
DRAW!, Professional  Draw,  and 
Designer  (and  desktop  publish- 
ing software)  offer  as  much  format- 
ting control. 

Illustrator  comes  with  a  full- 
featured,  data-driven  overlay  for 
making  charts  that  (though  a  lit- 
tle slow)  eliminates  the  need  to 
go  elsewhere  to  include  profes- 
sional graphs  in  your  drawings 
and  publications.  It  supports 
numerous  color  models,  includ- 
ing CMYK,  RGB,  PANTONE, 
FocalTone,  Toyo,  and  TruMatch— 
all  built-in. 

Text  can  be  fitted  to  a  curve 
with  Illustrator  or  with  a  separate 
utility,  Adobe  TypeAIign,  Type- 
Align  allows  you  to  do  stupen- 
dous special  effects  with  text, 
such  as  stretching,  warping, 
adjusting  perspective,  and  creat- 
ing 3-D  effects.  However,  it 
works  strictly  with  text  (no  other 
objects),  and  you  must  import 
your  creations  or  bring  them  in  on 
the  Clipboard.  With  either  meth- 
od, you  cannot  edit  the  text  once 
it  is  in  Illustrator. 

An  important  strength  of  Illus- 
trator is  that  it  creates  its  images 
in  PostScript  format.  Although  all 
the  others  allow  you  to  export 
drawings  in  PostScript,  it  is  Illus- 
trator's native  format.  The  advan- 
tages are  many,  including  com- 
patibility with  almost  every  other 
draw,  desktop  publishing,  word- 
processing,  and  presentation  pro- 
gram available,  not  to  mention 
desktop  publishing  service 
bureaus.  And  even  in  the  best  of 


JANUARY  1994     COMPUTE 


17 


TEST  LAB 


the  other  draw  packages,  export- 
ing to  EPS  format  is  not  always 
foolproof.  With  CorelDRAW!,  for 
example,  you  can  sometimes  ex- 
port a  file  to  EPS  and  then,  upon 
trying  to  import  it  back  into 
CorelDRAW!,  get  an  inappropri- 
ate file  format  error,  I  have  had  or 
heard  of  similar  experiences  with 
some  of  the  others. 

Illustrator's  technical  support 
was  easy  to  reach  (surprisingly, 
since  Adobe  is  such  a  big  com- 
pany), and  the  technician  knew 
his  product  well-  Again,  if  you 
want  to  create  simple  graphics  to 
include  in  newsletters,  or  on- 
screen, or  in  slide  presentations, 
you  should  probably  choose 
something  that's  easier  to  use.  In 
fact,  only  one  other  program 
reviewed  here,  Aldus  FreeHand, 
has  as  high  a  learning  curve  as 
this  one. 

Illustrator  is  still  a  little  slow  in 
places,  such  as  in  screen 
redraws,  and  its  font  and  clip  art 
selection  are  limited.  But  if  you 
plan  to  do  desktop  design  at  this 
level,  you  probably  already  have 
a  bunch  of  fonts  and  are  not  real- 
ly concerned  with  clip  art.  If 
you're  sehous  about  graphics  de- 
sign, Illustrator  is  worth  spending 
the  time  to  master 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  371 


Aldus  FreeHand  3.1 

Minimum  requirements:  386  PC, 

4MB  BAM,  tiigh-resoiution  graphics 

adapter,  mouse 

Suggested  retail  nrlce:  $595 

ALDUS 

411  First  Ave.  S 
Seattle,  WA  98104 
(206)  628-2320 


ALDUS  FREEHAND 


3.1 


The  most  popular  draw  program 
on  the  Mac,  FreeHand  targets  pro- 
fessional graphics  designers  who 
need  four-color  prepress  preci- 
sion. This  becomes  immediately 
apparent  when  you  open  the  box. 

Along  with  Aldus's  traditionally 
fine  manuals,  you'll  find  color 
charts  and  extensive  information 
on  separations,  trapping,  knock- 
outs, and  many  other  prepress 
and  commercial-printing  topics. 
There's  even  a  75-page  booklet  de- 
voted to  explaining  process-color 
separations  and  printing  to  film. 

You  install  FreeHand  with 
Aldus  Setup,  which  you  will  surely 
recognize  if  you  use  Aldus  Page- 
Maker, Aldus  Persuasion,  or  any 
other  Aldus  program.  Not  only 


18        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


does  Setup  give  you  complete  dis- 
cretion over  what  files  are  installed, 
but  it  also  lets  you  run  diagnostics 
to  ensure  that  your  system  is  ready 
to  use  FreeHand.  Aldus  products 
share  the  same  import  and  export 
filters;  if  you  use  several  of  these 
products,  you  can  save  a  good 
chunk  of  disk  space. 

PageMaker  users  who  pur- 
chase FreeHand  will  discover 
that  the  two  packages  have  many 
features  in  common,  such  as  the 
pasteboard  metaphor,  the  grab- 
ber hand,  and  the  right-mouse- 
button  view  control.  Like  Page- 
Maker, FreeHand  is  friendly  and 
easy  to  use.  And  it  comes  with  an 
Asymetrix  ToolBook  online  tutorial 
that  demonstrates  (a  little  slowly) 
most  of  the  program's  features. 

FreeHand  comes  with  Adobe 
Type  Manager  and  the  standard 
typefaces  (Times,  Helvetica.  Sym- 
bol, and  Courier)  but  no  others. 
This  limitation  can  be  inconven- 
ient if  you  don't  already  have  a 
good  font  library. 

FreeHand  excels  as  a  serious 
drawing  tool.  Layer  control  is  ex- 
tensive, with  the  number  of  layers 
supported  being  limited  only  by 
system  memory.  You  even  have 
the  option  of  assigning  brief 
notations  to  each  layer — highly 
convenient  for  making  notes  to  your- 
self (or  others)  about  invisible  lay- 
er attributes,  such  as  line  weights, 
or  the  reasoning  behind  halftone 
screen  settings.  You  can  work  on 
up  to  nine  drawings  at  once. 
Styles  can  be  created  for  repetitive 
tasks.  FreeHand  provides  99  lev- 
els of  Undo.  Monitor  calibration 
and  PANTONE  matching  are  built- 


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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  168 


TEST  LAB 


in.  And  printing  is  enhanced  with 
printer-specific  add-ons  that  pro- 
vide screening  and  other  impor- 
tant controls  to  the  Windows  Post- 
Script printer  driver 

Two  interesting  features  are 
automatic  reblending  and  pres- 
sure-sensitive  freehand  drawing. 
With  automatic  reblending,  when 
you  change  the  shape  of  one  or 
two  blended  objects,  Freehand 
automatically  redraws  the  blend. 
All  the  other  programs  (except 
CorelDRAW!)  require  you  to 
reblend  the  objects.  Pressure- 
sensitive  freehand  drawing  !ets 
you  simulate  traditional  pencil 
and  brush  strokes  with  a  pressure- 
sensitive  digitizer  And  for  those 
of  us  without  graphics  tablets,  the 
feature  works  with  a  mouse  and 
the  right-  or  left-arrow  keys. 

i  found  only  two  drawbacks  to 
FreeHand — the  small  sampling  of 
fonts  and  Aldus's  technical  sup- 
port policy.  Free  support  is 
offered  for  only  90  days,  after 
which  you  must  purchase  addition- 
al time  or  use  a  900  number. 
With  a  product  this  sophisticated, 
your  support  needs  could  easily 
extend  well  beyond  90  days. 

This  application's  ability  to 
swap  files  with  its  Macintosh  coun- 
terpart can  save  time  at  the  serv- 
ice bureau,  since  most  service 
bureaus  are  still  Mac  oriented. 

No  program,  except  perhaps 
Adobe  Illustrator,  provides  better, 
more  predictable  output.  Its  Macin- 
tosh artist's-station  roots  render  it 
ideal  for  professionals  (and  would- 
be  professionals).  If  you  need  pre- 
cision, you  cannot  beat  FreeHand. 

Circle  Rtader  Service  Number  372 

ALDUS 
INTELLIDRAW  1.0 

Aldus  tntelliDraw  combines  a 
draw  program  with  rudimentary 
CAD  and  presentation  features. 
The  program  sports  a  standard 
draw-program  interface  with  Bezi- 
er  drawing  and  editing,  sophisti- 
cated technical  drawing,  and  sim- 
ple animation.  Whether  you  need 

20        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Aldus  imellfDraw  i.o 
Minimum  requirements:  386  PC, 
4MB  RAM,  VGA,  mouse 
Suggested  retail  price:  $299 

ALDUS 

5120  Shoretiam  PI. 
San  Diego,  C A  92122 
(619)  558^6000 


to  create  simple  drawings  to  em- 
bellish reports  or  draw  up  plans  to 
redesign  the  office,  IntelliDraw  will 
make  the  job  easier  and  more  fun. 

IntelliDraw  is  powerfuL  You'll 
hav/e  to  spend  some  time  to  mas- 
ter all  of  its  rich,  innovative  fea- 
tures. But  once  you  get  the  hang 
of  it,  you  may  prefer  IntelliDraw  to 
CorelDRAW!  or  whatever  else 
you're  using  now,  Aldus  takes 
some  of  the  pain  out  of  learning 
the  program  with  a  well-done  90- 
minute  training  video  that  covers 
almost  all  of  the  program's  impor- 
tant features.  After  watching  it,  I 
understood  IntelliDraw's  sheer  pow- 
er and  couldn't  wait  to  get  started. 

A  palette  of  action  buttons  lets 
you  lock  objects  on  a  page,  link 
them  to  other  objects,  group 
objects  and  ungroup  them,  and 
perform  a  number  of  functions 
that  other  programs  require  you 
to  wade  through  layers  of  dialog 
boxes  to  achieve.  intelliDraw'stool- 


E 


Aldus  IntellJDfaw 


box  is  full  of  easy-to-use  drawing 
tools,  such  as  the  Connector  tool 
that  allows  you  to  draw  lines  that 
automatically  snap  to  and  con- 
nect objects.  Connections  can 
be  locked,  stretched,  rotated,  or 
drawn  at  right  angles. 

Another  impressive  feature  is 
Auto  Align.  A  pair  of  cross  hairs 
follows  your  mouse  as  you  draw, 
like  a  pair  of  automatic  intersect- 
ing rulers.  The  cross  hairs,  or 
guides,  run  the  length  of  the  doc- 
ument window,  allowing  you  to 
align  the  object  being  drawn  with 
other  objects.  Auto  Align  also 
lets  you  align  existing  objects  in 
relation  to  one  another  When,  for 
example,  two  or  more  objects  are 
exactly  centered,  the  guides 
form  a  cross  over  them,  indicat- 
ing perfect  alignment. 

Unlike  other  draw  programs 
(which  use  grids  and  an  alignment 
dialog  box  to  accomplish  the 


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THE  COMPUTER  Ptx... 


TEST  LAB 

tw^j^j**      Desktop  Graphki  for      Igk 
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same  feats),  IntelliDraw  doesn't 
force  you  to  turn  off  the  alignment 
feature  to  place  objects  freely,  nor 
do  you  have  to  open  a  dialog  box 
to  align  objects.  The  cross  hairs 
constantly  inform  you  where  an 
object  is  in  relation  to  other  objects 
in  your  drawing. 

Yet  another  slick  feature  is  the 
user-defined  symbol  library.  You 
can  add  objects  to  your  symbol 
library  and  delete  objects  from  it. 
You  can  also  edit  symbols  once 
they  are  defined.  Symbols  are 
linked;  if  you  use  the  same  sym- 
bol several  times  throughout 
your  document  (remember  that 
documents  can  have  unlimited 
pages),  you  can  edit  it  once  in 
the  symbol  library,  and  Intel- 
liDraw will  update  every  occur- 
rence  in  the  document. 

There's  also  a  collection  of  "in- 
telligent" clip  art,  such  as  office  fur- 
niture and  landscaping  elements. 
You  can  add  drawers  to  file  cabi- 
nets or  change  the  shapes  of 
trees  simply  by  double-clicking  on 
them.  For  example,  you  can 
change  a  pine  tree  to  an  oak  with 
a  couple  of  mouse  clicks.  Change 
a  chair  into  a  sofa  by  stretching  it. 
No,  you  don't  get  a  distorted,  elon- 
gated chair,  as  you  do  with  other 
clip  art.  Intelligent  clip  art  actually 
converts  the  chair  to  a  sofa. 

There's  one  important  draw- 
back, though:  The  program  does 
not  support  process-color  sepa- 
rations. Creating  camera-ready  art 
for  multicolored  documents  could 
be  a  problem.  You  can,  however, 
print  separate  layers,  which  will 
give  you  spot-color  separations. 

The  color  separation  issue 

22        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Arts&  Letters  Apprentice  1.2 
Minimum  requirements:  386  PC, 
2MB  RAM 

Suggested  retaif  price:  $169.Q0; 
$29.55  for  Jurassic  Art 

COMPUTER  SUPPORT 
15926  Midway  Rl 
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aside,  IntelliDraw  is  a  great,  inno- 
vative draw  program,  especially 
for  $299.  White  it's  not  for  commer- 
cial prepress  applications,  it  fits 
neatly  into  a  number  of  other  ap- 
plications. Like  most  other  Aldus 
software,  it  is  a  solid  performer. 
And  since  there  is  an  identical 
Macintosh  equivalent,  it's  easy  to 
distribute  your  drawings  across 
platforms  or  on  a  network. 

Editors  note:  By  the  time  this 
review  appears,  there  may  be  a 
new  version  of  Aldus  intelUDraw. 

CJrcie  Reader  Service  Number  373 

ARTS  &  LETTERS 
APPRENTICE  1.2 

Until  I  had  an  opportunity  to  open 
a  few  menus  and  see  what  was 
missing,  it  was  hard  to  tell  the  dif- 
ference between  Apprentice  and 


its  high-end  brother.  Graphics  Ed- 
itor The  installation  is  the  same, 
the  interface  is  identical,  and  so 
on.  With  Apprentice,  you  get  the 
same  ease  of  use,  some  of  the 
same  great  clip  art  images,  and 
the  same  cataloging  system  as 
with  the  advanced  version,  for 
about  a  quarter  of  the  price. 
What  you  do  not  get  with  Appren- 
tice is  the  very  sophisticated  per- 
spective/warp feature,  as  many 
clip  art  images  (3000  rather  than 
5000),  or  as  many  fonts  {only  25 
instead  of  81). 

With  Apprentice,  Computer 
Support  offers  styles  and  a 
scaled-down  graphing  option.  If 
your  work  requires  you  to  do  col- 
or separations.  Apprentice  can 
handle  the  job;  Windows  Draw! 
(the  draw  program  in  the  other 
budget-minded  package  re- 
viewed here.  Micrografx*s  Graph- 
ics Works)  can't  do  color  separa- 
tions. As  with  Graphics  Editor,  the 
screen  redraw  is  a  little  slow.  But 
otherwise,  this  is  a  slick  graphics 
program  for  nonprofessionals. 
This  is  also  a  great  program  for 
teaching  children  about  comput- 
er graphics.  If  you're  trying  to 
stay  within  your  budget  and 
need  a  great  draw  program, 
check  this  one  out. 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  374 


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Designed  to  be  fun  and  easy  to  use,  BODY  ILLUSTRATED  is  a  visual  and 
audio  guide  to  exploring  the  human  anatomy.  BODY  ILLUSTRATED  examines 
hundreds  of  body  parts  from  different  views  and  is  full  of  detailed  illustrations 
with  stunning  realism.  Witli  just  a  click  of  the  mouse,  each  part  is  explained  in 
clear,  non-technical  language.  A  digitized  voice  provides  the  correct  pronuncia- 
tion of  anatomical  part  names,  "Instant  Help"  eliminates  the  need  for  referring 
to  the  manual. 

BODY  ILLUSTRATED  teaches  either  by  lesson  method  or  through  the  use 
of  the  game  mode.  It  is  an  ideal  study  guide  for  students.  It's  also  a  valuable 
reference  tool  for  lav\^'ers,  doctors,  nurses,  clinics,  or  anyone  who  needs  to  know 
about  the  human  anatomy.  Instructors  can  easily  use  BODY  ILLUSTRATED  as 
an  interactive  anatomy  teacliing  aid.  Licluded  in  the  box  is  a  full-color  anatomi- 
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DRAFT  &  PRINT  is  a  simple,  yet  powerful  drafting  program  that's 
easy  enough  for  the  beginner,  yet  powerful  enough  for  the  professional. 
From  tloor  plans  and  interiors  to  landscapes,  technical  illustrations, 
engineering  diagrams,  and  architectural  plans;  the  tutorial  will  have  you 
designing  on  the  day  you  install  the  program.  With  DRAFT  &  PRINT'S 
extensive  collection  of  drawling  tools,  full  layering,  powerful  text  scaling 
and  rotation,  your  drawings  will  be  far  more  accurate  and  to  scale  than  if 
done  by  hand.  And  changes  are  a  snap,  saving  you  countless  hours  in 
editing. 

Forget  about  special  cMps,  graphics  boards  and  extra  memory, 
there's  no  special  hardware  required.  DRAFT  &  PRINT  includes  a  library 
of  over  400  useful  symbols. 


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TEST  LAB 


ARTS  &  LETTERS 
GRAPHICS  EDITOR 
3.12 

Of  the  six  full-featured  Windows 
draw  programs  reviewed  in  this 
Test  Lab.  Graphics  Editor  is 
matched  only  by  CoreiDRAWl 
and  Professional  Draw  in  ease  of 
use,  overall  friendliness,  and  num- 
ber of  features  designed  to  help 
the  nonarlisl. 

The  program  is  built  around  a 
collection  of  5000  superb  clip  art 
images.  You  can  easily  edit  the 
images  or  incorporate  them  into 
drawings  as  is.  You  should  find  it 
simple,  for  example,  to  use  parts 
of  images,  such  as  the  state  of  Cal- 
ifornia from  one  of  the  many 
maps  of  the  USA.  All  you  have  to 
do  is  enter  a  number  correspond- 
ing to  that  part  of  the  drawing. 
The  program  allows  you  to  store 
and  catalog  the  images  you 
draw  in  the  same  manner. 

Easy  to  install,  Graphics  Editor 
includes  an  online  manual  with  an 
automated  "show  me"  option 
that  demonstrates  many  of  the  pro- 
gram's features.  However,  you 
must  install  everything — all  clip 
art  and  81  proprietary  fonts— in  or- 
der for  the  program  to  run  prop- 


Arts  &  Leners  Graphics  Editor  3.1  Z 
IVIlnimum  requirements:  386  PC, 
2MB  RAM  (4MB  recommended] 
Suggested  retail  price:  SS95.00; 
$29.95  for  Jurassic  Art 

COMPUTER  SUPPORT 
15926  Midway  Rl 
Dallas,  TX  75244 
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erly.  Accordingly,  the  full 
installation  requires  about  12MB. 

I  found  the  tutorial  to  be  one  of 
the  best  I've  used.  It  takes  you 
from  the  basics  to  more  compli- 
cated topics  in  an  easy,  friendly 
style.  Even  if  you  don't  have 
much  drawing  savvy,  you  will  be 
creating  drawings  in  no  time. 

Graphics  Editor  provides  an 
adequate  data-driven  feature  for 
making  charts  and  graphs.  To  cre- 
ate a  chart,  you  enter  data  within 
the  program  or  import  information 
from  spreadsheets. 

The  program  also  provides 
styles  for  automating  repetitive 
tasks,  such  as  assigning  the 
same  attribute  to  objects  in  sev- 
eral different  drawings.  You 
could,  for  example,  use  it  to 
automatically  turn  a  string  of  text 
into  a  logo. 

A  perspective/warp  feature 


24        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


lets  you  manipulate  text  and 
objects  in  ways  that  would 
require  much  artistic  talent  other- 
wise.  You  can,  for  example, 
make  objects  appear  to  move 
into  the  distance,  give  them  roller- 
coaster  contours,  and  even  wrap 
them  around  themselves. 

Again,  easy  describes  this  pro- 
gram—right down  to  the  levers 
(rather  than  text  boxes)  for  adjust- 
ing the  angles  of  gradients.  And  if 
you  do  have  trouble,  Computer 
Support  furnishes  free  technical 
support.  The  technician  I  talked  to 
was  a  little  sketchy  on  some  ques- 
tions; he  had  to  go  off  the  line  to 
get  some  answers.  But  at  least  he 
knew  what  he  didn't  know. 

The  absence  of  monitor  calibra- 
tion and  prepress  enhancements 
makes  Graphites  Editor  less  appro- 
priate than  some  of  the  other  dravy 
programs  for  creating  process- 
color  separations.  Also,  you  can- 
not import  and  export  EPS  files  or 
several  other  kinds  of  files. 
Instead,  you  use  a  utility  called 
Decipher  to  convert  files  to  the 
appropriate  format.  This  arrange- 
ment is  somewhat  inconvenient. 

Screen  redraws  of  blends,  gra- 
dients, and  warped  elements  are 
too  slow.  But  a  math  coprocessor 
version  (available  free  on 
request)  is  supposed  to  speed 
things  up  substantially.  So  if  you 
have  a  coprocessor  or  a  486, 
this  may  not  be  a  problem. 

Graphics  Editor  is  a  strong  pro- 
gram for  nonartists  who  need  to 
create  images  in  a  hurry.  Much  of 
the  included  clip  art  can  be  used 
right  out  of  the  box,  with  little  or 
no  modification. 

circle  Reader  Service  Number  375 


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TEST  LAB 


CORELDRAW!  3.0 
AND  4.0 

CorelDRAW!  is  powerful  enough 
for  some  professionals,  yet  it 
also  has  a  wealth  of  features 
designed  to  help  the  nonartist. 

Although  the  latest  version  of 
Corefs  popular  drawing  product 
is  version  4.0,  the  connpany  is  al- 
so selling  version  3.0.  In  both 
packages  you  get  a  lot  more 
than  just  a  strong  draw  program. 
You  get  CorelCHART!,  a  highly 
sophisticated  charting  applica- 
tion; CorelPHOTO^PAINT!,  a  pro- 
gram for  creating  and  editing 
bitmapped  gray-scale  and  color 
Images;  CorelSHOW!,  a  slide  and 
onscreen  presentation  program 
that  supports  limited  animation; 
CorelMOSAIC!.  a  program  for  cat- 
aloging drawings  and  clip  art; 
and  CorelTRACE!,  a  program 
which  turns  bitmaps  into  vectors. 
Version  4.0  also  contains  an  ani- 
mation module,  CorelMOVE!.  for 
creating  animated  graphics  for 
onscreen  presentations. 

And  if  all  this  isn't  enough,  with 
version  3.0  you  get  a  CD-ROM 
containing  12,000  clip  art  imag- 
es  and  over  250  Type  1  and  True- 
Type fonts  (the  floppy  version  con- 
tains 4000  images  and  just  over 


CorelDRAW!  3.0  and  4.0 
Minimum  requirements:  386  PC. 
4MB  RAIVI  (8MB  recommendetl), 
VGA,  mouse  or  graphics  tablet  CD* 
ROM  drive  for  CD-ROM  elements 
Suggested  retail  price:  $199  for  3.0 
(includes  CD-ROM  disc  and  floppy 
disks),  S595  (includes  CD-ROM 
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150  fonts),  and  you  get  a  great 
draw  program  to  boot.  Version 
4,0  has  two  CD-ROMs  containing 
over  18,000  pieces  of  clip  art  and 
clip  media  and  755  fonts. 

A  complete  instaltatton  re- 
quires over  30MB  of  disk  space: 
however,  the  installation  program 
lets  you  load  all  or  any  part  of  the 
package.  The  draw  program  it- 
self includes  a  spelling  checker 
and  thesaurus.  Many  options 
have  "roll-up"  menus  that  float  in 
the  editing  area,  allowing  you  to 
make  changes  to  objects  quickly. 
And  when  you  aren't  using  these 
menus,  you  can  roll  them  up  into 
a  title  bar  and  use  an  arrange  com- 
mand to  stack  them  neatly  in  cor- 


ners of  the  drawing  area. 

Extrusions,  perspectives, 
blends,  and  many  other  features 
can  be  created  and  modified  in- 
teractively with  a  mouse,  rather 
than  by  entering  values  in  dialog 
boxes,  checking  the  results,  and 
then  going  back  to  do  it  all  over 
again.  An  interesting  feature  is 
the  Rainbow  option  for  blends. 
With  it,  instead  of  blending  direct- 
ly from  one  color  to  the  other,  you 
can  reverse  the  blend  on  a  color 
wheel  and  get  a  rainbow  effect. 
In  other  words,  if  you  choose  two 
like  colors,  say  light  and  dark 
blue,  and  blend  them  back- 
wards, you'll  get  yellows,  reds,  pur- 
ples, blues— hundreds  of 
shades,  depending  on  the  num- 
ber of  blend  steps  you  choose. 
The  differences  between  ver- 
sions 3.0  and  4.0  are  many,  but 
not  so  extensive  that  you  could 
not  use  version  3.0  for  all  your 
graphics  needs.  Version  4.0  sup- 
ports multiple  pages  and  has 
some  page  layout  features  not 
found  in  previous  versions.  You 
should  look  to  version  4.0  if  you 
want  animation,  OCR,  and 
advanced  prepress  options,  and 
if  you  want  to  save  color  separa- 
tion configurations  for  future  use. 
However,  each  package  is  a  terri- 
fic value.  While  CorelDRAWI's 
draw  program  itself  is  not  neces- 
sarily stronger  than  some  of  the  oth- 
ers reviewed  here,  the  extras 
make  it  the  best  buy. 

Cfrcle  Reader  Service  Number  376 


CoilTiOT.Life  in  Ihe  Fast  Lane. 


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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  112 


TEST  LAB 


'v«^' 


GRAPHICS  WORKS 
1.0 

Looking  for  ease  of  use?  Then 
take  a  look  at  Graphics  Works, 
built  around  Micrografx's  popu- 
lar, economical  Windows  Draw!, 
a  relatively  sophisticated  vector 
draw  program.  Windows  Drawl  is 
a  scaled-down  version  of  Design- 
er. You  get  about  80  percent  of 
Designer's  functionality  for  about 
10  percent  of  the  price. 

Since  Windows  Draw!  doesn't 
support  color  separations,  trap- 
ping, and  other  commercial 
prepress  options,  it  won't  meet  the 
needs  of  professional  graphics  art- 
ists, but  it's  great  for  most  small 
business  and  home  office  set- 
tings— everything  else  you  need  to 
create  sophisticated  vector  draw- 
ings is  included.  With  Windows 
Draw!  you  can  rotate,  skew,  fill, 
and  manipulate  Type  1  or  True- 
Type fonts  in  every  way  imagina- 
ble, which  makes  this  program 
great  for  creating  logos  and  spe- 
cial effects. 

The  other  applications  in  Graph- 
ics Works  include  PhotoMagic,  a 
bitmap  photograph  editor;  Win- 
dows OrgChart,  for  creating  organ- 
ization charts;  WinChart,  a  chart- 
ing and  graphing  program;  and 
StideShow,  the  standard  slide- 
show  module  inctuded  with  Micro- 
grafx's  high-end  draw  and  pres- 
entation packages,  Designer  and 
Charisma,  There's  also  a  clip  art 
indexing  and  viewing  utility  for 

28        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


i^raphics  Works  t.O 
Minimum  requtrements:  386  PC, 
mB  BAM,  VGA  (SVGA 
ecommentleii],  mouse;  CD-ROM 
^riva  optional  for  some  programs 
and  Images 
Suggested  retail  price:  $199 

MICBOGBAFX 
1303E.  Arapaho  M. 
Richanlson,  TX  75081 
(800)  676^3110 
(2U)  234-1769 


managing  the  10,000  clip  art 
images  that  come  in  the  package, 
as  well  as  a  photo  index  and  view 
utility  for  the  1000  photographs 
also  included.  However,  to  access 
the  buik  of  the  clip  art  and  photo- 
graphs, you'll  need  a  CD-ROM 
drive.  (Both  a  CD-ROM  and  flop- 
pies are  included  in  the  box,) 

The  most  innpressive  aspect  of 
the  Graphics  Works  package  is 
its  ease  of  use,  which  arises  in 
part  from  the  use  of  similar  inter- 
faces for  its  various  programs. 
After  you  learn  the  basics  in  one, 
mastering  the  others  is  simple. 
And  there's  a  Run  command  on 
the  File  menu  in  each  application 
that  lets  you  access  the  other 
Graphics  Works  applications 
with  a  mouse  click. 


I  consider  the  10,000  clip  art 
images  included  on  the  CD-ROM 
some  of  the  best  available.  (Ac- 
tually, the  clip  art  and  the  photo- 
graphs are  worth  the  product's 
purchase  price.  Just  consider  the 
graphics  applications  a  bonus.) 
Micrografx  has  a  strong  reputa- 
tion in  the  graphics  industry  for 
superb  clip  art.  You  will  probably 
never  have  to  look  any  further  for 
a  suitable  image.  The  options  are 
nearly  limitless,  There  are  well- 
drawn  maps,  complete  with  cities 
and  other  geographic  informa- 
tion; terrific  anatomy  art;  and  a  col- 
lection of  business  scenes  and 
symbols  to  suit  almost  every  imag- 
inable situation.  And  when  your 
documents  or  presentations  call 
for  photographs,  surely  one  of  the 
1000  24-bit  images  of  nature 
scenes,  people,  animals,  and  busi- 
ness situations  will  fill  the  need. 

When  you  buy  Graphics 
Works,  you  get  Micrografx's 
great  support  program,  which 
includes  24-hour  service  duhng 
the  week  and  limited  hours  on 
weekends.  The  technicians  are 
very  well  trained  and  courteous. 
This  is  a  strong,  easy-to-use 
draw  program.  The  average 
small  or  home-based  business 
can't  miss  with  Graphics  Works. 

CErcle  Reader  Service  Number  377 


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Pwa**'''<'^"*^**'*<'*tfM<n>iiyii4m(i 


Mo     I 


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Car&Driver 

Explore  The  Auto  From  Bumper-to-Bumper  &  The  Body  From  Head-to-Toe. 

Both  Windows'"  &  DOS  Versions  Included! 


WITH  AUTO  IHSIGKT  SOME  Of  THl  TOPICS  (l^tUDt 

(::nrll,Khii»il  hmrn,.  lilrilnr,,!  Sy^trm.  /Vit-Vir. 
Su-ffinfir  Siupetmon  Syt4<~ t> t .  Trun.-.! i n  ■.f, nm  Itnxi^ 
Trs'm.  Car  Safety,  El^ricCuf^.  f-i!i\h-.iit;t  Cmtu-iif. 
Maintaining  Your  Auto,  Ttu-ili-^um'  <>!'  Tln'  \\iUt.  ninl 


Use  your  PC  lo  jtuirney  llirfmgh  ihe  automol^ili*  ajul  \\w 
huriuin  body  willi  Auto  Insi^lif  m\t\  Body  Insight.  With  an 
intrrnrtivo  InlrrfiuxNind  r(>loi-rui^ni[)hics.  diese  two  pro- 
^riinis  will  guiflcyoii  tlirout^h  ilic  nnijor  systems  of  tficst^ 
mirfKuhusmiifhitH'S. 

Detailed  high  resolinion  animations  slu)v\\  on  how  inlri- 
cate  pails  work  togethoi"-in  action.  I'ait,  Zoom  and  Search 
features  allow  yon  to  closely  examine  any  sfjectfii-  sysiein 
or  part  with  ease.  Tliorough  tlescriptions  are  hy[)er!inked  to 
colorful  illustTratioiis,  dearly  Idenlifying  juiris.  eompimems 
jirid  their  individua!  tmporiance. 

Peatures  Include: 

*  huriguiiiit  nninuitrd  diftp hi\ 's 

•  iiiHUir  inwmctiw  iniorfaco 

*  Hxtomiw  (lilt u biisr  oftnt ('n\st lui} 
fitrtsandfrivitt 

■  IniuiViitivo  word  stmtrliin^fcutuiv 

•  Powerfitl  Pan  &  Zaoin  ctipabilkhs 

■  /i-v/jor/  illiistnitions  U)  f)opular 
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System  Requirements: 

•  lB^}PCorvolupcllibk- 
''  3 1/2  HD  Floppy  disk  drive,  hard  disk 

•  For  Windows  3A:  386  orgivulen 
VGA  or  better 

■  For  DOS  3.0  or  c(/n>vp:  2H6  or 
greaicr,  VGA 

AUTO  Insight  or  Body  Insight 
Only  ^29'^^lEAcyi.  From  The 
Developers  of  Bodyworks 


WITH  BOoy  tMSIGHT  SOM£  OF  THE  TOIHCS 
MClliOl    Sh  !,  i:,l  Sy>.i,  m.  MitHt  ithtr Hysiffii, 

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I'  ,  i  n^i .\itttlit»irs\llfunPiH'i'r/Iiv^Piusa, 

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Insight 


Dc.-&ofxd  and  Publahed  by  (nftsfmatiyeefaphics  Ccfporstjoo. 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  237 


TEST  LAB 


MICROGRAFX 
DESIGNER  4.0 

Designer  targets  technical  illustra- 
tors, graphics  artists,  and  design- 
ers, who  care  more  about  preci- 
sion and  performance  than  about 
a  pretty  interface.  However,  De- 
signer's recently  reworked  inter- 
face provides  ease  of  use  along 
with  very  powerful  features. 

New  features  abound.  There 
are  so  many  in  fact,  that  choos- 
ing a  few  to  talk  about  is  difficult. 
In  terms  of  technical  enhance- 
ments, the  most  significant  addi- 
tion is  a  color  separation  utility 
that  lets  you  separate  not  only 
Designer  files  but  also  any  EPS 
graphic.  With  this  feature,  you 
can  trap  objects  and  perform 
undercolor  removal  (UCR).  dot- 
gain  correction,  ink  correction,  and 
a  myriad  of  other  functions^all  of 
which  are  prepress  options  neces- 
sary for  top-quality  reproduction  at 
the  print  shop.  And  as  with  the 
new  version  of  CorelDRAW!,  you 
can  save  color  separation  config- 
urations for  future  use.  If  you  cur- 
rently have  to  repeat  the  steps  re- 
quired to  set  up  separations  each 
tinne  you  print  to  your  service  bu- 
reau's imagesetter,  you'll  appreci- 
ate this  feature. 

Speaking  of  color,  no  longer 
must  you  order  optional  color  pal- 
ettes from  r\/1icrografx.  Palettes  for 
PANTONE,  FocalTone,  and  Tru- 
r\/latch  systems  are  provided,  and 
you  can  create  your  own.  You  can 
also  print  spot-color  separations. 


30 


COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Microgratx  Designer  4.0 
Minimum  requirements:  386  PC, 
4MB  RAM  (8M8  recommended), 
VGA,  mause 
Suggested  retail  price:  S6S5 

MICROGRAFX 
1303  E.  Arapaito  Rd. 
Ricirardson,  TX  75081 
(800)  676^3110 
(214)  234-1769 


Designer  has  never  had  good 
automatic  special-effects  fea- 
tures— until  this  new  version,  that 
is.  Before,  to  produce  3-D 
effects,  such  as  extruded  text  or 
objects  that  look  as  though  they 
fade  off  into  the  distance,  you 
had  to  have  the  artistic  knowl- 
edge and  talent  to  create  them. 
Even  graphics  artists  find  this  a 
trial-and-error  proposition.  Now, 
creating  3-D  objects  is  a  snap 
with  the  features  Extrude,  Rotate, 
Scale,  and  Perspective.  There's 
even  a  new  control  option  that 
lets  you  adjust  shading  accord- 
ing to  an  imaginary  light  source. 
These  options  make  Designer 
more  accessible  to  the  nonartist. 

This  year's  draw  programs 
have  become  amazingly  adept  at 
text  handling,  and  Designer  is  no 
exception.  You  can  pour  text  into 


ngi:  ■►JUJfim'Ji 


frames  of  any  shape,  for  some 
interesting  effects,  such  as  text 
that  is  contoured  to  fill  a  star 
shape  and  other  forms.  You  can 
link  text  containers  (or  frames),  a 
feature  that's  similar  to  jumping 
text  from  one  page  to  another  in  a 
desktop  publishing  newsletter  lay- 
out, (By  the  way,  Designer  now  sup- 
ports multiple  pages.)  The  text-on- 
a-curve  and  wrap  features  are 
enhanced.  There's  a  spelling 
checker,  as  well  as  automatic 
hyphenation,  and  no  longer  must 
you  convert  text  to  curves  (an 
irreversible  procedure  that  leaves 
text  blocks  uneditable)  before 
applying  gradients  and  other  artis- 
tic effects  (which  means  that  the 
text  remains  editable). 

You  can  perform  these  wonder- 
ful  new  options  with  one  or  all  the 
250  Type  1  or  TrueType  fonts 
shipped  with  the  program. 

Another  useful  addition  to  the 
Designer  package  is  PhotoMag- 
ic,  Micrografx's  low-end  bitmap 
editor,  PhotoMagic  is  not  a  full- 
featured  photograph  editor,  as  is 
the  CorelPHOTO-PAlNT!  module 
bundled  with  CorelDRAW!  3.0 
and  4.0,  but  it  does  allow  you  to 
scan  directly  into  the  program 
and  perform  most  bitmap-editing 
functions. 

Designer  now  supports  multiple 


iiitiifx  Deslsncf  -  ip,1PS4£nTUnOO.DSfl 


llLm 


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a  1 1 1  WordPerfect  5.1 .  Secrets 

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Q  209  Improv,  Advanced 

□  210  Quattro  Pro  4.0,  Introduction 

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J  605  PowerPoint  3,0,  Intro 

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U  607  Freelance  WIN.  Intro 

□  608  Freelance  WIN,  Adv 

•    ;)cral  Utility; 
J  701  PC  Virus,  Prevention 

U  801   Programming  in  C 
U  802  Programming  in  C++ 
'J  a03  Prog.  In  Visual  Basic 


□  901  NetWaro  3.  Installation 

□  902  NetWare  3.  Setup 

□  903  NetWare  3.  Admin. 

□  904  NetWare  3,  Volume  1 

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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  146 


TEST  LAB 


fevels  of  Undo  and  Redo,  It's  also 
an  OLE  (Object  Linking  and  Em- 
bedding) client  and  server  You 
can  create  onscreen  presenta- 
tions and  slides  from  drawings 
and  use  Designer  to  show  your 
presentations,  or  you  can  use  De- 
signer as  a  stand-alone  viewing  util- 
ity that  you  can  take  on  the  road- 
Designer  is  known  for  its  pre- 
cision, and  version  4.0  lives  up  to 
that  reputation.  According  to 
Micrografx,  object  placement  is 
accurate  to  within  one  micron, 
and  the  program  supports  print- 
er resolutions  up  to  24,600  dpi. 
Not  for  the  faint  of  heart,  full- 
featured  Designer  is  aimed  square- 
ly at  the  professional. 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  378 

PROFESSIONAL 
DRAW  1.0 

At  S495,  Professional  Draw  costs 
less  than  many  of  the  other  pro- 
grams reviewed  here,  and 
although  it  does  not  have  all  of  the 
combined  features  of  the  applica- 
tions in  CorelDRAW!,  overall  it  is  at 
least  as  good  as  that  program. 
Gold  Disk  is  a  strong  company 
and  makes  great  software.  Profes- 
sional Draw  is  no  exception. 

The  program  installs  easily  and 
lets  you  decide  which  files  to  load, 
including  files  for  CorelDRAW! 
2. XX  WFN  fonts,  TrueType  fonts, 
Professional  Draw  proprietary 
fonts,  or  the  150  Type  1  fonts  that 
come  with  Professional  Draw.  In 
fact.  Professional  Draw  is  the  only 
draw  program  here  that  can 
import  CorelDRAW!  3.0's  COR  for- 
mat.   It   also    sports    many   of 

32        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Professional  Draw  1.0 
Mmimum  reQuirements:  386  PC, 
2MB  RAM,  VGA 
Suggested  retail  price:  $495 

GOLD  DISK 

5155  Spectrum  Way«  Unit  5 

Misslssauga,  DN 

Canada  L4W5A1 

(&00)  465-3375 


Corel DRAWrs  automatic  drawing 
features,  such  as  Perspective, 
Extrude,  and  Envelope,  It  supports 
interactive  mouse-manipulation 
and  light-source  adjustments, 
such  as  those  found  in 
CorelDRAW!  and  Designer.  Radi- 
al graduated  fitis  and  light  source 
can  be  adjusted  with  levers,  rath- 
er than  with  obscure  values  in 
dialog  boxes  that  make  sense 
only  to  mathematicians. 

A  feature  unique  to  Profession- 
al Draw  is  its  extensive  snap-to 
controls.  You  can  place  lines 
precisely — snapping  to  a  corner, 
on  a  circle  tangent,  parallel  to 
each  other,  perpendicular  to 
each  other,  at  center,  and  at 
midpoint. 

But  what  really  sets  this  pro- 
gram apart  from  CorelDRAW!  3.0 
is  its  advanced  printing  options. 
From  within  the  Print  dialog  box, 
you  can  set  knockouts,  traps,  over- 


SPEAK  UP! 

is  there  a  feature  topic  you'd  like 

to  see  covered  in  COMPUTE? 

Let  us  know  by  calling 

900-285-5239 

(sponsored  by  Pure 

Entertainment, 

P.O.  Box  186,  Hollywood, 

California  90078)- 

The  call  will  cost  95  cents  per 

minute,  you  must  be  18 

or  older,  and  you  must  use 

a  touch-tone  phone. 


prints,  and  many  other  options. 
Trap  settings  include  choke  and 
spread  amounts  for  each  color, 
whether  spot  or  process.  Halftone 
settings  include  control  of  dot 
shapes,  ten  of  which  are  prede- 
fined or  user-defined.  You  can  set 
color  brightness  and  contrast,  col- 
or balance,  gray-scale  conversion, 
and  posterization.  Drawings  can 
be  converted  to  gray  scale,  spot 
colors,  or  process  colors  automat- 
ically, and  you  can  invert  them. 

If  all  you  need  is  a  strong,  easy- 
to-use,  and  moderately  priced 
draw  program,  there  is  really  no  rea- 
son not  to  buy  Professional  Draw. 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  379 


After  63  Million  Years  Of  Extinction, 
hey  re  Back.  And  They  Mean  Business. 


Introducing  DinoPark  Tycoon" 
Software  Program  For  Kids. 

What  could  be  more  exciting  than  a 
dinosaur  amusement  park?  Running  it! 

With  DinoPark  Tycoon"  your  child 
will  discover  more  than  the  differences 
between  a  Tyrannosaurus  Rex  and  an 
Allosaurus.  Your  httle  tycoon  will  need 
to  decide  what  Idnd  of  land  to  buy  how 


to  set  ticket  prices,  even  what  dinosaurs 
attract  the  biggest  crowds. 

While  building  a  DinoPark  empire. 
kids  sharpen  math,  science  and  problem 
•^nl  ving  sldlls  without  even  noticing.  It's 
no  wonder  DinoPark  Tycoon  comes  from 
the  number  one  educational  software 
company  for  kids.  New  DinoPark  Tycoon, 
from  the  makers  of 
The  Oregon  Trailf 

circle  Reader  Service  Number  113  ®  ^^^  '^^^^ 


TEST  LAB 


VISIO  2.0 


Visions  approach  to  drawing  is 
entirely  different  from  the 
approaches  taken  by  other  pro- 
grams reviewed  here,  (InteliiDraw 
does,  however,  have  many  of 
Visio's  drag-and-drop  and  smart- 
graphics  features.)  Instead  of  call- 
ing it  a  drawing  program,  the  pub- 
lisher {Shapeware  Corporation) 
calls  it  shapeware.  This  product  is 
designed  for  business  users  who 
don't  know  how  to  draw.  The  con- 
cept is  that  you  create  business 
drawings — floor  plans,  diagrams, 
flow  charts,  and  so  on— by  com- 
bintng  predefined  shapes.  This 
approach,  though  somewhat  lim- 
ited, is  very  effective. 

Shapeware  calls  Visio's 
approach  drag-and-drop  draw- 
ing. To  create  drawings,  users 
drag  predefined  shapes  from  job- 
related  stencils,  or  palettes  of 
shapes,  and  drop  them  onto  the 
drawing  page.  Simply  by  moving 
objects  onto  a  page,  you  make 
your  drawing  come  to  life.  I  cre- 
ated a  complicated  organization 
chart  in  no  time,  without  spending 
much  time  in  the  documentation. 

VIsio  is  OLE  (Object  Linking 
and  Embedding)  aware,  which 
means  that  you  can  embed  draw- 
ings in,  and  link  them  to,  other  ap- 


Wi\i\m 


mm  2.0 

Minimum  requrrements:  386  PC  (20 
MHz  or  faster),  4IVIB  RAM,  VGA 
Suggested  retan  price:  $129 
tlirDugti  December  1993,  Uien  $299; 
$79  for  upgrade  from  version  1.0 


SHAREWARE 

1601  Fitin  Ave.,  Ste. 
Seattle,  WA  98019 
(800)  446-3335 


800 


plications,  such  as  your  Power- 
Point presentations  or  PagePlus 
layouts.  Text  is  integrated-  All  you 
do  is  select  an  object  and  start  typ- 
ing. The  text  is  automatically  cen- 
tered in  the  object.  You  can  cre- 
ate master  shapes  and  copy 
them  throughout  your  drawing; 
when  you  change  the  master,  all 
copies  are  automatically  updated 
(a  feature  known  as  cloning  in 
some  other  programs). 

Styles  let  you  predefine  frequent- 
ly used  formats,  such  as  text  attrib- 
utes, line  weights,  fill  patterns,  and 
so  on.  Once  a  style  is  defined,  all 
you  do  is  change  it  to  automatical- 
ly update  all  other  objects  format- 
ted with  the  same  style.  You  can 
set  your  measurements  system  to 
inches  and  feet,  metric  units,  or 
one  of  several  other  units. 

The  options  Glue  and  AutoCon- 


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Order  Process 


ISO  9000    r 

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OROER 
SUPPLIER 


Tfe  gmbd  rff¥PTT.*t  a  tW:i-Y!n  t  tv^rtayn  hjn^  fuyiJirwi 


34        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Mikl 


nect  allow  you  to  draw  a  line  be- 
tween two  shapes,  then  reposition 
them  without  breaking  the  connec- 
tion. Connecting  lines  stretch,  con- 
tract, and  change  angle  perfectly 
when  shapes  are  repositioned. 
The  AutoConnect  feature  lets  you 
connect  objects  automatically. 

Visio  performs  its  magic  with 
shapes,  or  clip  art,  called  Smart- 
Shapes.  SmartShapes  can 
assume  different  forms,  colors, 
proportions,  and  other  properties, 
depending  on  the  context  in 
which  you  use  them.  You  can  use 
them  as  Shapeware  has  defined 
them,  or  you  can  modify  them  to 
suit  your  needs.  Each  shape  has 
its  own  spreadsheetlike  form  you 
can  edit  to  modify  its  behavior. 

Visio  comes  with  several  prede- 
fined shapes,  and  you  can  buy 
several  themed  collections  from 
Shapeware.  The  collections 
include  Marketing.  Space  Plan- 
ning, Home  Planning,  and  Land- 
scape Planning,  as  well  as  sev- 
eral others.  Or  you  can  purchase 
a  book  that  shows  you  how  to 
develop  your  own  Visio  shapes. 

Visio  must  be  a  popular  prod- 
uct. I  called  technical  support  sev- 
eral times  and  had  to  wait  for  a 
long  time  on  the  line  each  time. 
However,  when  I  did  get 
through,  my  questions  were 
answered  clearly  and  courteous- 
ly. I  couldn't  find  a  problem  the 
technician  couldn't  solve. 

If  you  need  a  program  de- 
signed to  help  you  create  dia- 
grams and  flow  charts,  this  is  a 
good  one. 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  380 


HEALTHMAX  BEATS  SOLOFLErAND  NORDICFLEXGOLDl 

COSTS  $600 -$700  LESS! 

9  Powerful  Reasons  to  Choose  HEALTHMAX  as  Your  Total-Body  Fitness  System. 


Soloflex 


THE  REASONS 


HEALTHMAX 


SOLOFLEX 


KORDICFLEX  GOLD 


Low  price 


a'YK      $329 


(plus  S49  5/H] 


^No     $995 


<iSM      $999 


(plus  $105  S/H] 


(plus$99S/H} 


Easy  to  use 


^YES 


No  assembly/ 

disassembly  required- 

between  exercises. 


Requires 
f\Q     assembly/ disassembly 
between  exercises. 


^NO 


Requires 

assembly/ disassembly 

between  exercises. 


Leg  Extension 
Unit  included 


ITTyES    ^^"""^^^^  ^^"^^^^  ^*^fi  extensions 
1^  and  Mng  leg  curls. 


NO 


Costs 
$200  extra. 


i^fYES, 


BUT* •  .Leg  unit  included 

doesn't  permit  lying 

leg  curls. 


Butterfly  Unit 
included 


t^YES 


No 

extra  cost. 


;sfNO 


Costs 
$200  extra. 


i^TYES 


BUT.** You  must 
assemble  before  each  use, 
'      and  disassemble  to  use 
bench  press. 


Strength 

conditioning  for 

all  five  major 

muscle  groups 


^YES 


HSALTHMax  strengthens 

all  five:  arms,  legs, 

abdominals,  back  and 

pectorals. 


^YES, 


BUT** .You  must 

purchase  $400  in  extra 
accessories  to  do 

comparable  exercises 
for  legs  and  pecs. 


i2fYES, 


BUT.*. Why  would 
you  pay  $700  more 
than  HEALTHMAX? 


Comfortable 
bench 


^  Padded  bench  is  a  full 

I^YES      47"  long,  12"  uide,  and  a 
comfortable  20"  high. 


Padded  bench  is  only  40!^" 
Otf  NO  ^*^^8'  niaking  some  lying 
*^  down  exercises  awkward. 


j\^  M/\    ^^^^^^-^^  ^^^"  bench  is  short, 
Kl  NO    narrow  (only  9"  wide),  and 
too  high  (24" )  off  tile  ground. 


Hydraulic 

■  cylinder  resistance 

system 


^YES 


Adjusts  10  your  personal 
resistance  level  with  a 
simple  twist  of  a  dial. 


Uses  rubber  bands 
Cj^  NO    wh  ich  m  LI  St  be  chan  ged 
'^  to  vary  resistance  level. 


w  Uses  complicated 

BS  NO       cord /pulley/ mechanical 
resistance  system. 


Full  refund 
of  return  freight 
if  unit  returned 


^YES 


If  not  satisfied,  we  will 

refund  your  cost, 

shipping/handling  charges, 

and  all  return  freight! 


You  pay  over 
3^  NO    ^^^  ^°  return.  It  must  go 
^  by  truck  to  Oregon! 


_^  You  pay 

OB  NO  about  $65  to  return 

^  by  UPS. 


Payable 
in  installments 


jr  9  easy  installments 

^YES  of  just  $36.56! 

(S-)9.00  S/!  I  added  to  first  installmem.) 


t^'YES, 


BUT..* You  pay 

S3 9  per  month  for 
the  next  2  YE/\RS! 


gl^ 


BUT.**  At  4  payments  of 
Y£5      S250,  each  installment  is 


almost  as  much  as  the  total 
cost  of  a  HEAlfl-HMflX! 


When  you  compare,  the  choice  is  easy... it's  HEALTHMAX  ! 

Let's  face  it,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  what  you  really  want  is  a  body  hke  this.  Until 
now,  that  meant  spending  SI  ,000  or  more  for  a  Soloflex  or  NordicFlex  Gold.  But  now 
the  secret  is  out.,.H£ALTHMAX  gives  you  as  much  —and  more— for  up  to  $700  less! 
So  call  today  to  get  the  hard  body  you  want  for  just  $329.  And  while  you're  at  it,  take  the 
$600 -$700  you'll  save  and  buy  yourself  a  reward. 


"^^'"KKilS  1-800-458-4652  ^«'-*3«-.296 


NoidlcHex Gold  is  i\  tradcni,irk  of  NordicTrack,  Inc. 
Soloflex  is  a  rcK'siered  trndcniark  of  SoIoIIl'x,  inc. 


HEAIA'HMAX'' 

47  Richards  Avenue  •  Norwalk,  CT  06857 


circle  Reader  Service  Number  193 

Ol9d3  MB! 


TEST  LAB 


Windows  Draw  Program  Features 

Adobe 
Illustrator  4.01 

Aldus 
FreeHand  3.1 

Aldus 
IntelliDraw 

Arts  &  Letters 
Apprentice  1.2 

Arts  &  Letters 

Graphics  Editor 

3.12 

LAYERING 

Number  of  layers 
supported 

unlimited 

unlimited 

unlimited 

unlimited 

unlimited 

Layer  controt  and 
locking 

no 

yes 

yes 

no 

yes 

Layer  notations 

no 

yes 

yes 

no 

no 

TYPESETTING  OPTIONS 

Number  of  fonts 
included 

40 

13 

0 

25 

81 

Paragraph  text 

yes 

yes 

yes 

no 

yes 

Creates  fonts 

no 

no 

no 

no 

no 

AUTOMATIC  DRAWING  FEATURES 

Charts  and  graphs 

yes 

no 

yes 

yes 

yes 

Imported  fills 

no 

no 

no 

no 

no 

Extrude  (3-D) 

no 

no             ; 

no 

no 

no 

Perspective 

no 

no 

no 

no 

yes 

Macros 

no 

no 

no 

no 

no 

Styles 

yes 

yes 

no 

yes 

yes 

Number  of  undos 

1 

99 

99 

1 

9 

PRINTING  OPTIONS 

Batch  printing 

no 

no 

no 

no 

no 

Enhanced  PostScript 
printing 

yes 

yes 

no 

no 

no 

Enhanced  process- 
color  separations 

yes 

yes 

no 

no 

no 

Monitor  calibration 

yes 

yes 

no 

no 

no 

lii^CELLANEOUS  OPTIONS 

Number  of  multiple 
drawings 

20 

limited  by 
memory 

unlimited 

1 

1 

PANTO NE  Matching 
System  (RMS) 

yes 

yes 

no 

no 

no 

Focoltone  color 
matching 

yes            i 

no 

no 

no 

no 

Cataloging  of  clip  art 
and  drawings 

yes 

no 

no 

yes 

yes 

Number  of  clip  art 
images  included 

375 

500+ 

650* 

3000 

5000 

*Clip  art  is  dynamic;  changes  shape  as  needed. 

36         COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Kid  CAD 


Ages  7  and  Up 


No  hard  hat  required! 


Look  for  these  other  award-winning 
Davidson  Kid  Tools! 


Davidson's 
Kid  Works   2 

The  Creativity  Kit 
That  Writes,  Paints, 
and  Talks! 


Just  grab  your  mouse  and  start 
building!  This  amazing  3-D 
design  studio  lets  you  create 
houses.forts,  gazebos,  and  all 
sorts  of  structures  with  elec- 
tronic building  blocks  that 
click  into  place.  And  with 
Kid  CAD,  building  is  only 
the  beginning.  You  can 
paint  and  decorate  every- 
thing in  sight,  including  the 
kitchen  sink!  Then  fill  your 
customized  creation  with  a  huge  as- 
sortment of  people  and  pets,  furniture 
and  ferns — or  even  a  dinosaur. 

Kid  CAD'S  3-D  Virtua!  Environment  lets 
you  change  your  perspective.  View  your 
house  from  the  backyard  or  peek 


through  the  front  door.  With  the  simple 
click  of  a  button  you  can  zoom  in  or  out, 
switch  from  a  bird's-eye  view  to  eye  level, 
or  circle  around  to  see  your  house  from  a 
different  angle. 

Plus.  Kid  CAD  is  loaded  with  sensational 
sound  effects  that  make  building  as  fun 
OS  it  sounds! 


Suggested  Retail  Price: 
$49.95  Windows 

ORDER  TOLL  FREE 

(600)  545-7677  or  (3io>  793-O6OO 


MICROSOFT' 
COMBMIBLF 


Davidson, 

Teaching  Tools  From  Teachers 


Davidson 's  Kid  Keys" 

The  Magical  Typing  Tutor 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  106 

Avalloble  at  Babbages,  Best  Buy.  CompUSA,  Egghead  Software,  Eiectrorics  Boutique.  SofK-zare  Etc., 

and  ott^er  fine  retailers.  Windows"  is  a  trademark  of  tt^e  Microsoft  Corporation. 


TEST  LAB 


Windows  Draw  Program  Features 

CorelDRAW! 
3.0  and  4.0 

Graphics 
Works 

Micrografx 
Designer  4.0 

Professional 
Draw 

VIslo  2.0 

LAYERING 

Number  of  layers  supported 

unlimited 

unlimited 

32,767 

unlimited 

unlimited 

Layer  control  and  locking 

yes 

no 

yes 

yes 

yes 

Layer  notations 

version  4.0 

no 

yes 

no 

yes 

TYPESETTING  OPTIONS 

Number  of  fonts  included 

200  and  755 

32 

289 

150 

0 

Paragraph  text 

yes 

no 

yes 

yes 

yes 

Creates  fonts 

yes 

no 

no 

yes 

no 

AUTOMATIC  DRAWING  FEATURES 

Charts  and  graphs 

yes 

yes 

no 

no 

yes 

Imported  fills 

yes 

no 

yes 

yes 

no 

Extrude  (3-D) 

yes 

no 

yes 

yes 

no 

Perspective 

yes 

no 

yes 

yes 

no 

Macros 

no 

no 

no 

no 

no 

Styles 

yes 

no 

yes 

yes 

yes 

Number  of  undos 

1  and  99 

1 

99 

1 

0 

PRINTING  OPTIONS 

Batch  printing 

with 
CorelSHOW! 

no 

yes 

yes 

no 

Enhanced  PostScript  printing 

yes 

yes 

yes 

yes 

no 

Enhanced  process-color 
separations 

yes 

no 

yes 

yes 

no 

Monitor  calibration 

yes 

no 

yes 

no 

no 

MISCELLANEOUS  OPTIONS 

Number  of  multiple  drawings 

1 

1 

limited  by 
memory 

unlimited 

unlimited 

PANTONE  Matching  System 
(PMS) 

yes 

no 

yes 

yes 

no 

Focoltone  color  matching 

yes 

no 

yes 

yes 

no 

Cataloging  of  clip  art  and 

drawings 

yes 

yes 

yes 

yes 

yes 

Number  of  clip  art  images 
included 

18,000 

11,000 

13,740 

1000+ 

2300 

38         COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Give  Your  Joystick 
a  Tlirili. 


in  die  early  21st  century,  staged  flght- 

ing  has  become  a  lucrative  profession  for 

female  liardhodies,  with  dozens  of  legal 

arenas  in  the  city.   But  for  the  leanest, 

meanest  warriors,  the  real  money  comes 

from  the  illegal  bouts  held  outside 

the  city.  It's  the  hottest  day  of  the 

summer  and  you're  baking  inside 

/^       a  dilapidated  warehouse.   You  — 

and  your  opponent  —  wear  the  latest 

'        in  MECHA  armor.  The  best  fighting 

armor  in  the  world. 


..'M 


^^ 


"TT^^ 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  ROBO  BABES 


y 


intense  heat  and  action,  you'll  bot 
Up  in  less  dian  fall  body  dress. 

Ill  dream  babes  in  heavy  armor  batUhig  for 

■ — -  prize  money  —  action  packed,  arcade  style 

fun  for  your  PC.  But  be  warned  —  with  its 

intense  violence  and  voluptuous  w^omen, 

Metal  &  Lace:  Battle  Of  The  Robo  Babes  is  for 

mature  audiences  only.   And  not  for  the  faint 

hearted.  Available  now  at  your  nearest  dealer  or 

call  1-800-258-MEGA.   Or  write  Megatech, 

''.0.  Box  11333,  Torrance,  CA  90510.  Visa, 

.Mastercard,  checks  accepted. 


\-  V'ii-;'' 


T 


m^ 


This  game  ts  iiot  ioi  the  faint-hearted.  Contains  violence 
and  some  material  inappropriate  for  minors  under  18. 


/Qv 


System  requirements:  2-66*20  or  faster  fnochine 
(386  fecommended)  with  640K  RAM,  hard  disk, 
joystick  recommended.  Operoting  Sys.:  MS  DOS 
3.3  or  Qbove,  Windows  3.1.  GropNcs  compatible 
with  VGA.  Sound  support:  Sound  Blaster,  Sound 
Blester  Pro,  Thunder  Boord,  Pro  Audio  Spectrum  , 
AdU}  Gold  Qfld  Speed  Master. 


^If^fll  ;- A: 


i-%' 


ie  respective  I 


r  Service  Number 249 


m. 


NEWS  &  NOTES 


Jill  Champion  Booth 


Removable  mass 

storage,  mouse 

control,  t!ie  future 

of  taxes,  and 

tactile  feedback 

devices 


Feel  It  Hafipen! 

From  Logitech  comes  the  ulti- 
mate in  3-D  realism  and  sen- 
sory immersion:  CyberMan, 
an  interactive,  hand-held  con- 
troller that  dramatically  im- 
proves your  computer  game- 
playing  experience.  Cyber- 
Man's  design  gives  you  tac- 
tile game  feedback  with  full- 
motion,  multidirectional  game- 
playing  control  not  possible 
with  either  a  joystick  or  a 
mouse.  A  motor  built  into  the 
controller  allows  you  to  actual- 
ly feel  various  gaming  events, 
such  as  being  struck  or  bump- 
ing into  a  wall,  synchronized 


with 

the  game's 
sound  and  action.  CyberMan 
is  100-percent  compatible 
with  existing  Logitech  mice, 
but  to  take  advantage  of  the 
3-D  control  and  tactile  feed- 
back, you  must  use  a  special 
driver  Look  for  Access.  Elec- 
tronic Arts,  Interplay  Produc- 
tions, Knowledge  Adventure, 
Origin,  Sierra  On-Line.  and  a 
slew  of  other  software  compa- 
nies to  incorporate  Cyber- 
Man's  3-D  compatibility  into 
their  products  this  year.  The 
suggested  retail  price  is 
$129.  Contact  Logitech,  6505 
Kaiser  Drive.  Fremont.  Califor- 
nia 94555;  (510)  795-8500. 
(510)  792-8901  (fax). 

Fast  Travel  Info 

Whatever  your  vacation  inter- 
ests, from  the  Colorado  moun- 


tains to  the  French  Riviera, 
some  country,  state,  or  city 
tour  operator  or  private  group 
has  probably  put  out  a  free 
brochure  about  your  dream 
destination. 

To  help  you  get  your  hands 
on  all  those  useful  pamphlets, 
a  company  called  Travel  Com- 
panions has  set  up  an  electron- 
ic bulletin  board  listing  more 
than  9500  travel  brochures, 
maps,  and  information  kits.  Ex- 
cept for  your  own  telephone 
charges,  you  can  search  the 
database  free.  The  computer 
listings  describe  each  pam- 
phlet and  give  an  address 
and  phone  number  for  order- 
ng.  For  a  $12  annual  fee,  you 
can  order  pamphlets  electron- 
ically by  simply  marking  the 
items  you  want.  If  you  don't 
own  a  modem,  you  can 
get  the  information  on 
disk  for  only  $19, 
Contact  World- 
Wide  Brochures, 
1227  Kenneth 
Street,  Detroit 
Lakes,  Minneso- 
ta 56501:  (800) 
852-6752,  (218) 
847-7090  (fax). 

Flying  Toasters  for  DOS 

"For  too  long."  says  Wes 
Boyd,  Berkeley  Systems'  CEO. 
"Mac  and  Windov^^s  users 
have  had  After  Dark  all  to 
themselves.  One  hundred  mil- 
lion DOS  users  worldwide 
were  being  deprived.  Some- 
thing had  to  be  done  about  it, 
and  we  were  just  the  compa- 
ny to  do  it."  And  what  his  com- 
pany did  was  to  create  a 
DOS  version  of  its  top-selling 
After  Dark  screen  saver.  Now 
airborne  appliances,  aquatic 
fauna,  whirlpools,  shooting 
stars,  playful  kittens,  and 
more  than  30  other  surrealis- 
tic displays  are  available  for 
DOS  screens  everywhere. 
The  suggested  retail  price  for 
After  Dark  for  DOS  is  $49.95. 
Contact  Berkeley  Systems, 
2095  Rose  Street,  Berkeley, 


California  94709;  (510)  540- 
5535,  (510)540-5630  (fax). 

For  Your  Eyes  Only 

That  Windows  Solitaire 
screen  is  a  dead  giveaway 
that  youVe  .  .  .  uh  .  .  .  working 
"light"  today.  Or  maybe 
you're  the  chief  of  personnel 
and  you  prefer  not  to  broad- 
cast confidential  information 
while  working  in  employees' 
personal  files.  So  how  do  you 
protect  your  screen  from  all 
those  prying  eyes?  ACCO's 
new  SS  Security  Screen  Fil- 
ters are  equipped  with  a  film 
laminate  that  allows  only  a  15- 
degree  viewing  window.  On- 
lookers see  only  a  clouded 
view  and  are  unable  to  read 
what's  visible  to  you.  In  addi- 
tion,  the  optical-quality  glass 
used  in  the  filters  actually  in- 
creases contrast  more  than 
20  times  and  sharpens  on- 
screen images— but  for  your 
eyes  only.  Suggested  retail 
prices  for  the  different  models 
range  from  $149.95  to 
$189.95.  Contact  ACCO  USA, 
770  South  ACCO  Plaza.  Wheel- 
ing, Illinois  60090-6070;  (708) 
541-9500,  (708)  541-5821 
(fax).  (800)  247-1317  (toll- 
free  fax.  U.S.  only). 

Torture  Yourself  Early 

Want  to  get  a  head  start  on 
knowing  how  much  the  new 
Clinton  tax  laws  are  going  to 
sock  it  to  you?  TurboTax  Tax 
Planner  from  ChipSoft  wilt 
help  you  plan  strategies  to 
cope.  The  comprehensive  fore- 
casting and  analysis  program 
is  designed  to  evaluate  your 
tax  liability  across  a  broad  vari- 
ety of  events  like  real-estate 
transactions,  investments, 
and  retirement.  TurboTax  Tax 
Planner  analyzes  different  sce- 
narios and  presents  results  so 
you  can  easily  understand 
their  relative  tax  impact.  In  ad- 
dition to  incorporating  any  new- 
ly passed  tax  legislation.  Tur- 
boTax Tax  Planner  features 
tax  rates  and  brackets  that  ad- 


40        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


SEE  JACK  RUN. 


Meet  Jack  Ladd,  a  jack  of  aU 
trades,  most  of  them  illegal.  Jack's 
in  big  trouble.  You  see  this  is  the 
future  and  now  the  IRS  has  the 
right  to  use  deadly  force  to  col- 
lect taxes.  Guess  what  Jack, 
the  tax  man  commeth,  and 
they're  looking  for  the  gctzillion 
bucks  you  owe  them.  Now 
you  hove  only  28  days  to 
get  them  the  money,  how 
you  do  it  is  up  to  you. 

Join  Jack  as  he  cons  and 
coerces  his  way  through 
the  backstreets  and 
alleys  on  the  seedy 
side  of  the  galaxy. 
Eight-way  scrolling, 
full  perspective  scal- 
ing and  Hypertext- 
style  interaction 
give  this  game  a 
colorful  and  realistic 
edge.  This  unusual 
adventure  captures 
your  imagination  and 
thrusts  you  right  into 
the  heart  of  Jack 
Ladd's  bizarre  world. 


Innocent  is  available  on  IBM  compatible  and  Amiga  formats. 


Psygnosfs 

675  Mossachusetts  Ave. 

Cambridge,  MA  02139 

(617)497-7794 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  243 


Fly  higher. 


Higher.  Faster.  Farther. 
CH  Products  is  defining  new 
standards  of  design  and 
performance  for  computer  pilots. 
We'll  empower  you  to  effortlessly 
relay  commands  with  a  feel  of 
absolute  control,., to  swoop,  loop  and 
soar  like  never  before. 

Get  your  hands  on 

the  top  gun  precision 
FLIGHTSTICK  PRO^^'^  or  the  red-hot 
FLIGHTSTICK"-^  series  joysticks.  Or 
our  lightning-fast  GAMECARD  3 
AUTOMATIC.' ^-^  And  VIRTUAL  PILOT /^ 
a  yoke  that  will  defy  your  concept  of 
reality.  And  there's        ^  k  «         « ■ 

more  on  the  horizon.    "©30"  tartrier. 
From  drawing  board  to  your  finger- 
tips, ours  is  a  relentless  pursuit  of  new 
and  better  products.  CH  Products 
began  with  a  dream  25  years  ago, 
and  weVe  never  looked  back. 
Today,  we  give  you  the  wings  to  fly. 
Higher. 
Faster. 
Farther. 


P  fi  fl  fl  y  C 1 5 


970  Park  Center  Drive     Vista,  CA  92083 
Phone; 619.598.2518   Fax:  619.598.2524 


TM  1993  CH  Prodiicts,    n  Joystick  Tochno^oglcfs  Inc.  Co. 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  167 


NEWS  &  NOTES 

just  up  to  (and  even  be- 
yond) the  new  39.6*perGent 
marginal  federal  rate  for  the 
wealthiest  taxpayers— provid- 
ing accurate  tax  planning 
for  1993  taxes  and  planning 
flexibility  through  1997.  The 
suggested  retail  price  is 
$29.95.  Contact  ChipSoft, 
6330  Nancy  Ridge  Drive. 
Suite  103,  San  Diego,  Califor- 
nia 92121;  (619)  453-4446. 
(619)  453-1367  (fax). 

Curtis  Surges  Market 

Curtis  Manufacturing  has  a 
sleek  new  line  of  surge  pro- 
tectors that,  according  to 


$8,95  to  $149,95.  Contact 
Curtis  Manufacturing,  30  Fitz- 
gerald Drive.  Jaffrey,  New 
Hampshire  03452;  (800) 
955-5544  (U.S,  only).  (603) 
532-4123, 

A  True  Font  Library 

Bitstream  is  offering  its  en- 
tire typeface  library  of  near- 
ly 1100  faces  in  TrueType  for- 
mat for  Windows  3.1  operat- 
ing environments.  Larry  Op- 
penberg,  vice  president  of 
Type  Operations,  says  he  ex- 
pects the  Bitstream  Type- 
face Library  (BTL)  in  True- 
Type format  for  Windows 
3.1  to  appeal  equally  to  a 
range  of  users,  from  individ- 
uals to  businesses,  such  as 


Curtis  suppHes  multioutfet  power  protection  to  980  joules. 


the  company,  are  technical- 
ly superior  to  any  others  on 
the  market.  Each  unit  has 
been  designed  to  deliver 
maximum  performance  with 
high  joule  ratings.  The  line 
starts  with  single-outlet  pro- 
tection at  140  joules  and 
works  up  to  eight-outlet  max- 
imum protection  at  980 
joules.  In  the  company's  inde- 
pendent tests,  the  model 
SP5000  at  196-V  maximum 
suppression  outperformed 
UL's  best  standard  rating  by 
60  percent.  The  entire  line  is 
backed  by  a  comprehen- 
sive warranty  program;  Cur- 
tis guarantees  each  surge 
protector  and  its  perform- 
ance by  insuring  the  equip- 
ment that's  plugged  into  it, 
and  top-of-the-line  models 
even  cover  damage  to  con- 
nected equipment  caused 
by  lightning  strikes.  Suggest- 
ed retail  prices  range  from 


desktop  publishers,  design- 
ers, graphic  artists,  and 
marketing  communications 
departments.  General  target 
markets  are  small-office  and 
home- office  desktop  publish- 
ing, business  publishing, 
graphics  companies,  and 
graphic  artists.  Pricing  per 
BTL  format  begins  at 
$32.25.  Contact  Bitstream, 
215  First  Street,  Cambridge, 
Massachusetts  02142^1270; 
(800)  522-3668,  (617)  868- 
4732  (fax), 

Mousetamer 

Tired  of  mouse  cable  drag 
and  snag?  Now  you  can 
make  that  pesky  rodent  be- 
have with  a  new  device 
called  the  Mousetamer. 
Based  on  the  same  principle 
as  the  old  ironing-board 
"whips,"  the  Mousetamer  pre- 
vents your  cable  from  snag- 
ging and  pulling,  gives  you 


Personal^your  Microsoft^'lUhdows^' 

enviroiuiient  witli  incredible  images  &  digitized 

SOU!  ids  of  your  &vorite  aircraft 


Over  40  ifna|;cs 
of  vintage  and 
eoittemporar) 
aircraft -use 
as  Windows'^ 
Wlllpaper  ur  in 
tn  milomatetl 
slide  sliow. 


n  Savers 


crop  dusters, 
bombers  and 
skydivers  all 
work  to  eiUer- 
tain  yini  while 
preventing 
screen  burn-in. 


Aircraft  Fly-Bys 


Tliis  \isunl, 
eiLsy-lo-Ltse  aircraft 
encyclopedia 


Air  Events  Calendar 


IVnvIdes  die 
it»«rtioiis  and 
date*  of 
airslio^^  in 


Sample  aircnift 
imai^es: 
.NR.71 
•B' 1 7  Hying 
Fortress 

•  r-l4  Tnmcal 

•  hikkcr  Ur  I 
Triplane 


SPECT4Um 


mm  258^5985 


.-ilrtlaikrfof 


Statistics  on  each 
of  die  featured 
aircraft. 

PT 

iHHii 

'  ^Hiti^yft^ 

Ninnple  aircraft 
sounds  for 

Windows'"  events: 
•P-5I  .>liistang 
•r-lSKaijIe 
•K.2SMilcliell 
•F4U  Corsair 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  246 


Explore  the  Internet! 


Dial  By  Modem  1-800-365-4636,  Press  return  once  or  twice. 
At  Username,  enter  JOINDELPHL  At  Password,  Enter  CPT41 

Corr-n!^jto  dola'ls  ore  pfOviOed  Sunng  Sire  to'l-ire'j  f(M3:5tra!ion 


DELPHI  is  the  only  major  ontine 
service  to  offer  you  full  access  to  the 
Internet.  And  now  you  can  explore  this 
incredible  resource  with  no  risk.   You  get 
5  hours  of  evening/weekend  access  to 
try  it  out  for  free! 

Use  DELPHI'S  Internet  mail  gateway 
to  exchange  messages  with  over  10 
mitlion  people  at  universities,  companies, 
and  other  online  services  such  as 
CompuServe  and  MCI  Mail.   Download 
programs  and  files  using  FTP  or  connect 
in  real-time  to  other  networks  using 
Telnet.   You  can  also  meet  people  on 
the  Internet.   Internet  Relay  Chat  lets 
you  "talk"  with  people  all  over  the  world 
and  Usenet  News  is  the  world's 
largest  bulletin  board  with  over  3500 
topics! 

To  help  you  find  the  information 
you  want,  you'll  have  direct  access 
to  powerful  search  utilities  such  as 
"Gopher,"  "Hytelnet."  "WAIS,"  and  "the 
World-Wide  Web,"    If  you  aren't  familiar 
with  these  terms,  don't  worry;  DELPHI 
has  expert  online  assistants  and  a  large 
collection  of  help  files,  books,  programs, 
and  other  resources  to  help  get  you 
started. 

Over  600  local  access  numbers  are 
available  across  the  country.   Explore 
DELPHI  and  the  Internet  today.   You'll  be 
amazed  by  what  you  discover. 

DELPHI 

Q4Ja$1m^s>C^ll^8O0'S^S'40OS  Send  e-mail  to  INF0Od«lptii  com 


Attention  Current  Internet  Users:  See  what  DELPHI  can  offer  you!  Stock  quotes,  Grotier's  Encydopedia.  newswires,  and  hundreds  of  other  services 
are  just  a  few  keystrokes  away.    Telnet  to  delphi.com  and  enter  the  username  and  password  above  for  a  free  triai 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  161 


greater  control  of  the  mouse, 
and  makes  it  feel  like  a  wire- 
less mouse^ — witfiout  the 
drawbacks  of  radio-frequen- 
cy interference,  loss  of  sig- 
nal, slow  cursor  response, 
and  loss  of  resolution. 

At  a  suggested  retail  price 
of  $4.95,  the  Mousetamer  is 
a  bargain.  For  more  informa- 
tion, contact  American  Busi- 
ness Concepts,  4400  Sun- 
belt Drive,  Dallas,  Texas 
75248;  (214)  380-4422, 
(214)  407-9096  (fax). 

Kid  Rhymes 

Creative  Pursuits,  a  Los  An- 
geles-based company  that 
focuses  on  educational  soft- 


Kid  Rhymes  makes  for  good  times. 

ware,  recently  released  Kid 
Rhymes,  a  companion  prod- 
uct to  Davidson  &  Associ- 
ates' Kid  Works  2  and 
Broderbund's  Kid  Pix,  Kid 
Rhymes  has  six  activities 
that  can  be  accessed 
through  the  Kid  Works  2  or 
Kid  Pix  File  menu.  In  Dot~to- 
Dot,  kids  create  images  from 
popular  nursery  rhymes;  Col- 
oring Book  lets  them  color 
pictures  on  the  computer 
screen  or  print  them  on  pa- 
per; in  Mazes,  kids  use  prob- 
lem-solving skills  to  help  char- 
acters find  their  way;  Picture 
Gallery  lets  them  personal- 
ize predrawn  pictures  with 
their  own  colors;  Hidden  Pic- 
tures lets  kids  search  for  hid- 
den objects  in  familiar  nurs- 
ery-rhyme scenes;  and  in 
Color  My  Twin,  kids  copy 
and  color  the  patterns  of  a  fa- 
vohte  nursery-rhyme  charac- 
ter to  create  a  symmetrical 
twin.  Available  in  both  DOS 
and  Mac  formats,  Kid 
Rhymes"  suggested  retail 
price  is  S29.95.  Contact  Da- 


vidson &  Associates,  19840 
Pioneer  Avenue,  Torrance, 
California  90503;  (310)  793- 
0600.  (310)  793-0601  (fax). 

Removable  Hard  Drives 

if  you  can't  remember  to 
make  floppy  backups  or  you 
don't  want  anyone  to  access 
your  work,  get  a  pock- 
et-sized removable  hard 
drive.  A  new  line  of  drives 
from  Logisys,  called  Intelli- 
gent Drives,  allows  you  to  re- 
move or  insert  a  hard  drive 
carthdge  without  turning  off 
your  computer  Each  Intelli- 
gent Drive  system  consists  of 
an  [DE  controller  card,  a  pock- 
et-sized cartridge,  and  a 
bracket  for  SVa-  and  SVs- 
inch  drive  bays.  Logisys 
says  the  system  uses  the  lat- 
est drive  technology  to  en- 
sure that  the  carthdge  deliv- 
ers the  same  performance 
as  fixed  IDE  drives.  Cartridg- 
es are  available  in  capacities 
of  BOMB,  135MB,  1B0MB, 
260MB.  and  larger.  The  instal- 
lation kit  is  S150;  cartridges 
range  from  $399  to  S599.  Con- 
tact Logisys  at  4749  East 
Wesley  Drive,  Anaheim,  Cali- 
fornia 92806;  (800)  333- 
5679,  (714)693-1188  (fax). 

Freebies  for  Porents 

Microsoft  and  the  Computer 
Learning  Foundation  have 
developed  a  free  booklet  to 
help  parents  become  famil- 
iar with  multimedia  personal 
computing.  The  Power  of 
Learning  with  Multimedia  Per- 
sonal Computing  introduces 
multimedia  and  explains 
how  using  a  computer  at 
home  can  sharpen  key  learn- 
ing skills-  Call  (800)  426- 
9400  or  write  to  Computer 
Learning  Foundation,  Atten- 
tion: Multimedia  Booklet, 
PO.  Box  60967,  Palo  Alto, 
California  94306. 


Companies  or  public  rela- 
tions firms  with  items  of  inter- 
est for  "News  Sc  Notes" 
should  send  information 
along  with  a  color  slide  or  col- 
or transparency  to  News  & 
Notes,  Attn:  Jill  Champion 
Booth,  COMPUTE,  324 
West  Wendover  Avenue, 
Suite  200,  Greensboro, 
North  Carolina  27408.       n 


NOTEBOOK 


GflMEPORI 


Finally,  a  Joystick 
Connection  for 
Your  Notebook! 


/ 


Triinsform  your  high-perfoniiimce 
portable  into  a  serious  simulation 
machine  with  the  Notebook 
Gameport™.  Connect  any 
IBM-compatible  joystick 
or  yoke  and  rudder  pedals 
The  Notebook  Ganieport™  not 
only  maximizes  the  entertiiin- 
ment  potential  of  your  note- 
book computer,  it's  also  the 
quickest,  easiest  joystick 
connection  for  your  desktop! 
Ask  your  local  retailer 
for  the  Notebook 
Giuneport™,  or  call 
Colorado  Spectrum 
to  place  your  order. 


FEEDBACK 


Filling  in  the 

blanks,  automating 

your  PC*s  clock, 

and  batching  QBASIC 

tram  your 

AUTOEXECBAT 


Abort,  Delete,  Retry 

Because  of  a  printing  error, 
November's  multinnedia  fea- 
ture, titled  "Open  Windows  to 
Sound,"  includes  two  incom- 
plete paragraphs  on  page  80. 
The  complete  paragraphs  are 
listed  below. 

''As  if  that  weren't  confus- 
ing enough,  Windov/s  throws 
another  wrench  into  the 
works  by  combining  MIDI 
with  the  FM  synthesis  associ- 
ated in  the  DOS  world  with 
Ad  Lib  compatibility.  If  you 
don't  actually  have  a  MIDI  de- 
vice, V\/indows  will  let  you 
map  the  General  MID!  instru- 
ments to  your  sound  card's 
FM  chip.  You  can  see  this  for 
yourself  by  calling  up  the 
MIDI  Mapper  utility  through 
Windows'  Control  Device  pro- 
gram. MIDI  Mapper  lets  you 
specify  which  MIDI  device 
will  be  associated  with  each 
of  MIDI'S  16  channels,  which 
sound  will  be  associated  with 
each  of  Windows'  128  MIDI  in- 
struments, and  which  MIDI 
note  will  be  associated  with 
each  MIDI  drum  sound, 

"So  what  can  you  actually 
do  with  Windows  audio? 
First,  you  can  play  back  au- 
dio from  the  growing  num- 
bers of  Windows  programs 
that  support  sound.  In  addi- 
tion to  Windows  games,  such 
as  Super  Tetris,  SimCity.  Tess- 
erae, and  Cogito.  you'll  be 
able  to  use  the  many  MFC  pro- 
grams on  CD-ROM,  including 
Br0derbunds  Just  Grandma 
and  Me.  Microsoft  Encarla, 
Microsoft  Cinemania,  Comp- 
ton's  NewMedia's  Jazz:  A  Mul- 
timedia History  The  New  Gro- 
lier  Multimedia  Encyclopedia, 
and  hundreds  of  other  Win- 
dows-based multimedia  appli- 
cations. You'll  be  able  to  cap- 
ture and  play  back  software- 
based  video  files  using  Video 
for  Windows  and  QuickTime 
for  Windows.  And  you'll  be 
able  to  add  audio  to  your  pres- 
entations,  with  programs 
such  as  Action!  and  Compel." 


Saving  Time 

Why  don't  computer  makers 
build  into  the  ROM  a  program 
that  sets  the  system  clock 
when  daylight  saving  time 
goes  into  effect  and  again 
when  we  return  to  regular 
time? 

RAY  METZGER 
LEHIGH  ACRES.  FL 

One  of  the  dangers  of  the  com- 
puter age  is  that  we'll  be- 
come dependent  on  our  com- 
puters for  everything.  In  order 
to  forestall  this,  computer  com- 
panies got  together  in  secret 
to  form  a  cabal  that  will  en- 
sure that  we  continue  to  main- 
tain that  frontier  spirit— the  spir- 
it that  helps  us  to  survive  in 
the  face  of  adversity.  This 
Star  Chamber  decided  to 
make  every  computer  user  re- 
set the  system  clock  at  least 
twice  a  year 

We've  written  a  little  pro- 
gram that  you  can  run  from 
your  AUTOEXEC.BAT  to  set 
your  system  clock  ahead  in 
the  spring  and  back  in  the  fall 
Is  it  simpler  than  changing  the 
clock"?  No.  You  see,  we're  also 
members  of  the  cabal 

Seriously,  not  everyone  us- 
es daylight  saving  time,  so  for 
millions  of  users  such  a  utility 
would  be  more  of  a  problem 
than  a  solution. 

Here's  the  DSTBAS  pro- 
gram. 

currentdateS  =  RIGHT$(DATES,  4) 

+  LEFT$(DATE$,  2)  + 

IVI1D$(DATE$,  4,  2) 
ON  ERROR  GOTO  errorchecker 
OPEN  "Mimetemp.hhh"  FOR 

INPUT  AS  #1 
CLOSE 
IF  LEFT$(OATE$,  2)  >=  "04'  AND 

LEFT$(DATE$,  2)  <  "10"  THEN 
i  =  VAL(R[GHTS(DATE$,  4))  -1993 
s  =  4:  j  =  i 
DO  WHILE  j  >  0 
GOSUB  backl 

LOOP 

IF(i  +  1)/4  =  INT((i  +  1)/4)THEN 
GOSUB  backl 


sS  =  "0"  +  RIGHT$(STR$(s),  1) 
springforwardS  =  RIGHT$(DATES, 

4)  +  '04"  +  s$ 
IF  (currentdateS  >  springforwardS) 

OR  ((currentdateS  = 

springforwardS)  AND 

(LEFT$(T[IV1E$,  2) 

>=  '^02"))  THEN 
OPEN  "MimBtemp.tihh"  FOR 

INPUT  AS  #1 
LINE  INPUT  #1,  aS 
CLOSE  #1 

IF  aS  >=  springforwardS  THEN 
GOTO  ender 
ELSE 

GOTO  cfiangetlme 
END  IF 
END  IF 
ELSE 
IFLEFTS(DATES,  2)>="10" 

THEN 

I  =  VAL(RIGHTS(OATE$,  4))-1993 
s  =  31:  i  =  i 
DO  WHILE  i  >  0 
GOSUB  t)ack2 

i  -  i  - 1 

LOOP 

IF(i  +  1)/4=INT((i  +  1)/4)THEN 

GOSUB  back2 
sS  =  RIGHTS(STR$(s).  2) 
fallbacks  =  RiGHT$(DATE$,  4)  + 

"10"  +  s$ 
IF  (currentdateS  >  fallbacks)  OR 

((currentdateS  =  fallbacks)  AND 

(LEFT$(TI IVIES,  2)  >=  "02 ')) 

THEN 
OPEN  Mrmetemp.hhfi"  FOR 

INPUT  AS  #1 
LINE  INPUT  #1,  a$ 
CLOSE  #1 

IF  aS  >=  fallbacks  THEN 
GOTO  ender 
ELSE 

GOTO  changetime 
END  IF 
END  IF 
END  IF 
END  IF 
GOTO  ender 
changetime: 
aS  =  TIMES 
a  =  VAL(LEFTS(aS,  2)):  b$  = 

RIGHTS(aS, 

6) 
a  =  a  +  (MIDS(currentdateS,  5,  2) 

>=  "10')-((IVflDS(currentdate$, 

5.  2)  >=  "04")  AND 

(MIDSfcurrentdateS,  5,  2)  < 

"10")) 


46        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


The  World's  First  Photorealistic  Interactive  CD  Sci-Fi  Adventure 


Oiygen 

is  trriticiilfy  loW.I 


Da  iBveh  1S% 


EfitlmatEMJ 

time:  nOiDant 


.-% 


BioChip  -  Mapptngf 
Of^gowi  Tank 


Winner! 

INVISION 1993  Multimedia  Awards 

m    Award  of  Excellence 

plus 
•Gold-Best  Animation/Graphics 
•Bronze  -Best  Production 

Design 
•Bronze -Adult  Games 

"...the  world  of  interactive 
gaming  is  never  going  to 
be  the  same." 

MarkRhodes,  Multimedia  Editor, 
MicropublishingNews 


6June2318,0651Z. 


^9^^ 


Attention  Temporal  Protectorate: 


A  rip  has  been  detected  in  the  fabric  of  time.  Only  moments  remain  until 
all  that  mankind  has  accomplished  is  laid  waste.  Your  objective-journey 
through  time., .from  prehistoric  lands  to  the  distant  fiiture,  to  prevent  any 
compromise  in  the  established  continuum.  But  before  the  game  is  over, 
you  must  discover  who...or  what...is  the  source  of  this  mayhem,  and  bring 
it  to  a  halt. 

Photorealistic  3D  modeled  worlds  to  explore  •  Over  30  minutes  of  full  motion  video 

Integrated  arcade  action  and  puzzles  to  •  No  set  order  in  which  the  goals  must  be 
challenge  any  player  accomplished 

•  Intuitive  interface  featuring  easy-to-use  •  More  than  one  solution  to  each  proh- 
inventory  and  movement  controls  lem  you  encounter 

Original  soundtrack  #  Also  available  on  Macintosh  CD 


Travel  through  time 


Intense  arcade  action 


Take  a  ride  through  time  on  the  CD  Adventure 

„m,iiiinin,i Ill  I     that  will  alter  history.  ^^^ 

Available  at  retailers  throughout  the  continuum  or  by  contacting: 
Quadra  Interactive,  Inc.,  P.O.  Box  188033,  Carlsbad,  CA  92009-9793 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  196 


Mum-level  challenges 


©Copyright  1 991»  1 993  PrcstoStudiaj,  Inc.; 
MPCvcrslonbyQuBdnilntcractivcJnc. 


QllADRA 


Come  on  down  to  Jack  Daniel's  someday  and  watch  us  make  our  smoolti  sippin'  wtiiskey. 

A  JACK  DANIEL'S  RICKER  KNOWS  the 

difference  between  whfskeywood  and  firewood. 

For  the  charcoal  that  mellows  our  Tennessee 
Whiskey,  we'll  only  burn  hard  maple  taken 
from  high  ground.  Anything  else  is  too  soft  and 
would  just  go  to  ash.  ( Jack  Bateman  here  is 
weeding  out  a  stack  of  creek  maple.)     ^^^ 
A  new^  man  in  our  rickyard  must 
learn  many  skills  before  w^e  bring 
him  on.  But  first  is  knowing  what 
w^ood  makes  the  whiskey.  And 
what  vv^ood  makes  the  fire  you 
sip  the  whiskey  by. 

SMOOTH    SIPPIN' 
TENNESSEE    WHISKEY 


Tennessee  Whiskey  •  i04l%  alcohol  by  volume  (80-86  proof)  •  DislilSed  and  Bottled  by 

Jack  Daniel  Distillery.  Lem  Motiow,  Propfietor,  Route  1,  Lynchburg  (Pop  36 U.  Tennessee  37352 

Pldccd  in  i/it'  Ndtitmul  Register  of  Historii:  Phict^s  (ry  the  L'nifed  Stares  GiPi'iTTimLiiK. 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  186 


FEEDBACK 

a  =  -(a  +  (-24*  (a  =  -1))}*  (a 

<>24) 
TIMES  =  RIGHT$(STR$(a), 

LEN(STRS{a))-1)  +  l)$ 
GOSUB  makelimetemp 
PRINT  "System  clock  changed." 
ender: 

PRINT  DATES,  TIMES 
SYSTEM 
errorchecker: 
GOSUB  maketimetemp 
RESUME  NEXT 
back1: 
s  =  s  ■  1 

IFs<1  THEN  s  =  7 
RETURN 
back2: 
s  =  s  - 1 

IF  s  <  25  THEN  s  :.  31 
RETURN 
maketimetemp: 
OPEN  "Mimetemp.hhh"  FOR 

OUTPUT  AS  #1 
PRINT  #1,  currentdateS 
CLOSE  1 
RETURN 

Auto  Execute 

Is  there  a  way  to  get  a  QBASIC  pro- 
gram to  run  from  my  AUTOEXEC.BAT? 

ROBERT  TQMLINSON 
MESQUITE,  TX 

Yes.  First,  place  the  command  SYSTEM 
at  the  end  of  the  QBASIC  program  so 
that  you'll  exit  from  it  when  it's  complete 
ed.  OthenAfise,  when  the  program  is  fin- 
ished, you'll  be  (eft  sitting  in  QBASIC. 
Make  sure  the  directory  containing  QBA 
SIC  is  In  your  path.  Then  place  the  com- 
mand to  run  the  program  within  your 
AUTQEXECBAT  Say  your  program 
was  called  DSTBAS,  To  run  it,  place 
this  line  in  your  AUTOEXEC.BAT 

QBASIC  /RUN  DST 


Do  you  have  a  question  about  hardware 
or  software?  Or  have  you  discovered 
something  that  could  help  other  PC  us- 
ers? If  so,  we  want  to  hear  from  you. 
Call  our  special  "Feedback"  line:  (900) 
884-8681,  extension  7010201  (spon- 
sored by  Pure  Entertainment,  P.O.  Box 
186,  Hollywood.  California  90078).  The 
call  will  cost  95  cents  per  minute,  you 
must  be  18  or  older,  and  you  must  use 
a  touch-tone  phone.  Or  you  can  write  to 
"Feedback"  in  care  of  this  magazine. 
Readers  whose  calls  or  letters  appear  in 
'Feedback"  will  receive  a  free  COM- 
PUTE  baseball  cap  while  supplies  last. 
\A^  regret  that  we  cannot  provide  person- 
al replies  to  technical  questions.         D 


48        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


THE  BEST  IN 
ARCADE  GAME 
SOFTWARE 

Historically,  arcade  games 
have  never  been  the  PC's 
long  suit.  Lacking  the  cus- 
tom graphic  coprocessors 
of  its  competitors — ^from  the 
humbte  C64  to  the  more 
advanced  Amiga  and  Atari 
ST— the  PC  simply  couldn't 
cut  it.  So  while  others  en- 
joyed a  deluge  of  cutting- 
edge  action  games,  the 
stodgy  old  PC  held  firm  to 
its  standing  as  an  artless 
business  computer 

Things  certainly  have 
changed.  The  once-dull  PC 
now  bursts  with  power — 
dynamic  sound,  graphics, 
and  precision  input  devices. 
Consequently,  for  the  first 
time,  arcade  games  are  hot 
on  the  PC-  As  if  making  up 
for  lost  time,  designers  and 
players  are  attacking  the 
genre  with  a  passion.  Al- 
though the  overall  selection 
remains  small  compared  to 
other  systems,  the  flood- 
gates are  now  open. 

Hint:  Traditional  analog 
joysticks  may  be  great  for 
flight  simulations,  but  they 
make  lousy  arcade  control- 
lers. Serious  action  players 
should  invest  in  the  four- 
button  Gravis  PC  GamePad 
(Advanced  Gravis,  604- 
431-5020,  $29.95),  a  mar- 
velous short-throw,  console- 
style  controller  made  espe- 
cially for  arcade  games. 

Arcade  games  generally 
fall  into  the  following  cat- 
egories: Platform  (run  and 
jump),  Shoot-em-Ups, 
Maze,  Puzzle,  and  Classic 
(traditional  games,  such  as 
pinball,  adapted  for  the  com- 
puter). Many  designers, 
however,  find  ingenious 
ways  to  meld  one  or  more 
categories — combining,  for 
example,  platforms  with 
puzzles- 

A  perfect  example  of  this 


CONTENTS 

THE  BEST  IN  ARCADE 

GAME  SOFTWARE »- 1 

Top  10  Arcade  Games ■■■* 2 

THE  BEST  IN  SIMULATION 

GAME  SOFTWARE 3 

Top  10  Simulation  Games —  4 

THE  BEST  IN  SPORTS  GAME 

SOFTWARE.... - ■ .4 

Top  10  Sports  Games  — •  6 

THE  BEST  IN 

STRATEGY  GAME  SOFTWARE  ........»*,. ....6 

Top  10  Strategy  Games.. .*■  S 

THE  BEST  IN  ADVENTURE 

GAME  SOFTWARE -8 

Top  10  Adventure  Games 9 

THE  BEST  IN 

ROLE-PLAYING  GAMES 10 

Top  10  Role-Playing  Games 1 1 

THE  BEST  IN  WAR  GAME 

SOFTWARE —  tl 

Top  10  War  Games - 12 

THE  BEST  IN  CD-ROM  GAMES 13 

Top  10  CD-ROM  Games 15 

HOW  PC  GAMES  PLAY  IN  EUROPE 15 

Top5  European  Games 16 


melding  of  one  category  with 
another  is  Wolfenstein  3-D 
(Apogee,  800-426-3123, 
$50),  which  combines  first- 
person  maze  running  with 
nonstop  shoot-em-up  ac- 
tion. Players  assume  the 
role  of  a  Schwarzenegger- 
style  World  War  11  prisoner 
attempting  to  escape  a 
heavily  guarded  Nazi  castle. 
Self-rated  PC,  for  Profound 
Carnage,  the  game  skyrock- 
eted to  cult  status  on  the 
strength  of  its  lightning 
speed,  outrageous  sound 
effects,  and  heart-pounding 
action.  The  full  game  fea- 
tures six  individual  episodes, 
each  containing  nine  or 
more  convoluted  castle  lev- 
els. The  designers,  Id  Soft- 
ware, have  followed  this 
success  with  Doom,  a  game 
that  features  more  involved 
play  mechanics  and  daz- 
zling graphic  effects. 

In  the  mood  for  some 
intense  arcade  aerobics? 
Prepare  for  a  fast-paced 
workout  with  The  Lost  Vi- 
kings (Interplay,  800-969- 
4263,  $39.95).  Take  control 
of  three  well-meaning,  but 
slightly  dense,  Viking  war- 
riors on  a  mad  romp  through 
time  and  space.  The  game's 
unique  challenge  involves 
alternating  control  between 
the  three  lead  characters, 
each  of  whom  possesses  a 
special  ability.  You'll  need  a 
thoughtful,  well-timed  group 
effort  to  survive  the  game's 
37  large,  puzzle-filled  lev- 
els. The  graphics  are  bright, 
colorful,  and  detailed. 

Few  titles  have  put  a 
more  lively  spring  in  the  step 
of  platform  games  than  Jor- 
dan Mechner*s  Prince  of 
Persia  (Broderbund,  800- 
521-6263,  $29.95).  Loosely 
based  on  the  Arabian  Nights 
adventure,  your  goal  is  to 
rescue  the  Princess,  held 
captive  1 2  levels  above  you 
in  the  Sultanas  castle.  Widely 
considered  a  milestone  in 
JANUARY  1994    COMPUTE     S-1 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' ' 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


the  genre,  this  game  pro- 
vides a  stunning  showcase 
of  rotoscoped  animation, 
featuring  incredibly  fluid  and 
lifelil<e  character  animation, 
Acrophobics  beware:  Much 
of  the  platform  action  In  this 
remarkably  physical  game 
takes  place  at  perilous 
heights,  guaranteed  to  in- 
duce sweaty  palms  and 
queasy  stomachs, 

Broderbund  recently  re- 
leased Mechner  s  long- 
awaited  sequel.  Prince  of 
Persia  2:  The  Shadow  and 
the  Flame  ($49,95).  The 
new  title  features  15  extra- 
large  levels  with  a  wider 
variety  of  settings  and  ob- 
stacles, vastly  improved 
graphics,  and  an  almost 
merciless  array  of  oppo- 
nents. Both  games  should 
be  considered  standard 
equipment  for  serious  ar- 
cade players. 

No  doubt  inspired  by. 
Mechner's  work,  French 
developer  Delphine  Soft- 
ware uses  rotoscoped  ani- 
mation with  even  greater 
success  in  Its  phenomenal 
arcade  adventure,  Flash- 
back (Strategic  Simulations, 
800-245-4525,  $49.95), 
This  futuristic  thriller  com- 
bines intense  arcade  athlet- 
icism with  explosive  fire- 
power and  mind-bending 
puzzles,  spread  out  among 
six  huge,  diversely  enter- 
taining levels.  Both  back- 
ground and  foreground 
graphics  are  excellent — 
highlighted  by  film-quality 
animation—  and  expertly 
blended  with  atmospheric 
sound  effects  and  cinematic 
transitions.  Fans  of  this 
game  also  should  check  out 
Delphlne's  previous  ground 
breaker.  Out  of  This  World 
(Interplay,  $29,95). 

Other  exceptional  plat- 
form games  with  a  strong 
puzzle  flair  include  the  wildly 
popular  Lemmings  and 
Lemmings  2:  The  Tribe  I 
8-2     COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


(Psygnosts,  800-438-7794, 
$29.99  and  $59.99,  respec- 
tively). The  object  of  both 

games  is  to  guide  tiny  green- 
haired,  half-witted  creatures 
across  dangerous  terrain  to 
the  exit  door.  What  sounds 
simple  in  theory,  however, 
proves  absolutely  madden- 
ing In  practice,  requiring 
steady  nerves,  quick  reac- 
tions, and  surprisingly  so- 
phisticated real-time  strat- 
egy. The  original  game 
boasts  80  one-player  and 
40  two-player  levels,  ar- 
ranged in  difficulty  from 
Easy  to  Mayhem.  Lem- 
mings 2  expands  this  pre- 
mise dramatically,  dividing 
Its  120  levels  among  12 
unique  Lemming  tribes.  The 
little  guys  also  are  given 
much  more  to  do— with  55 
different  skills  ranging  from 
archers  to  surfers — as  well 
as  a  wild  assortment  of  pre- 
carious, often  surreal  ob- 
stacles. The  sequel  offers 
improved  sound  and  graph- 
ics, although  the  original 
remains  eminently  playable. 


Those  looking  for  more 
edge-of-your-seat,  gut-level 

gratification  should  try  their 
trigger  fingers  on  the  grow- 
ing number  of  high-octane 
shoot-em-ups.  Firmly  en- 
trenched at  the  top  of  the  list 
is  Wing  Commander  Deluxe 
Edition  (Origin,  800-245- 
4525,  $79,95),  Chris 
Robert's  legendary  space 
combat  game.  Structured 
around  a  branching,  cin- 
ematic sto^ryline,  your  pilot 
skills  are  put  to  the  test  in  a 
series  of  increasingly  dan- 
gerous deep  space  mis- 
sions. The  key  to  the  game's 
success  is  the  ferocious 
action  scenes,  featuring  in- 
your-face  3-D  dogfights, 
exploding  with  fiery  bit- 
mapped graphics  and  script 
digitized  sound. 

The  game's  outstanding 
sales  have  prompted  sev- 
eral add-on  mission  disks, 
as  well  as  the  newly  re- 
leased Wing  Commander 
Academy  ($49,95),  This  lat- 
est stand-alone  game  for- 
goes the  original's  fancy 


TOP  10  ARCADE 
GAMES 

Lemmings  2.  A  wild 

and  wacky  120-level  puz- 
zler, featuring  sound  and 
graphics  enhanced  from 
the  best-selling  original. 

The  Lost  Vikings,  True 
arcade-quality  graphics 
highlight  this  fast  and  funny 
multilevel  contest. 

FlasEiback.  A  mind- 
bending  adventure 
sparked  by  brilliant  roto- 
scoped animation ,  this  one 
points  the  PC  in  a  bold 
new  direction. 

Prince  of  Persia  2; 
The  Shadow  and  the 
Flame.  Improved  graph- 
ics and  tougher  opponents 
mark  this  long-awaited 
sequel. 

Wolfensteln  3-D.  A 


runaway  hi!  noted  for  Its 
blazing  speed  and  ultra- 
violent  action,  often  imi- 
tated, but  rarely  equaled. 

D/Generatron.  Unas- 
suming and  often  over- 
looked, this  one's  a  nail- 
biter. 

Wing  Commander* 
Dynamic  space  combat 
wrapped  around  a  cin- 
ematic storyline,  this  one 
started  the  current  3-D 
action  craze. 

S.COUT.  Another  low- 
profile  action  puzzler  with 
an  incredible  built-in  con- 
struction kit. 

Stunts.  Auto  racing 
with  a  wild  and  wicked 
twist,  featuring  a  terrific 
built-in  track  editor. 

Super  Tetrls.  The  best 
rendition  yet  of  the  world- 
famous  computer  classic. 


theatrics  to  offer  nothing  but 
pure  adrenaline-pumping 
action. 

Another  popular  blend- 
ing of  styles  combines 
shooting  action  and  puzzle 
solving  in  an  overhead  maze 
setting.  One  of  the  most 
entertaining  in  this  category 
is  D/Generation  (The  Soft- 
ware Toolworks,  415-883- 
3000,  $24.95),  a  riveting 
race  through  10  levels  of  a 
mutant-infested  office  build- 
ing. Nothing  Is  as  it  seems— 
don't  even  trust  the  furni- 
ture—in this  brilliant  1991 
release.  On  a  more  abstract, 
pure  arcade  level,  S.C.OUT 
(Inline  Design.  203-435- 
4995,  $59.95)  captures  the 
imagination  with  its  finger- 
numbing  action  and  intricate 
puzzles.  The  game  boasts 
101  huge  4-way  scrolling 
levels,  with  a  built-in— yet 
curiously  undocumented — 
game  editor,  which  allows 
players  to  create  up  to  999 
diabolical  levels.  Graphics, 
sound  effects,  and  player 
controls  are  all  superb. 

When  you  feel  the  need 
for  speed,  strap  yourself  into 
Stunts  (Broderbund, 
319.95),  perhaps  the  best 
arcade-style  racing  simula- 
tion ever  made.  From  gut- 
wrenching  loops  to  elevated 
jumps,  this  one's  a  full-tilt 
screamer  on  even  margin- 
ally equipped  systems,  with 
amazingly  responsive  joy- 
stick control.  The  game's 
easy-to-use  track  construc- 
tion kit — with  user-created 
tracks  available  on  most 
major  online  services — as- 
sures almost  limitless  high- 
octane  fun. 

If  you  enjoy  vibrant,  chal- 
lenging entertainment,  but 
lack  the  twitchy  wrist  re- 
quired by  most  action-ori- 
ented fare,  check  out 
Russians  gift  to  the  gaming 
world,  Tetris  (Spectrum 
Holobyte,  800-695-4263, 
$19,95).  Sure  It's  simple, 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH 


••••e«90«» 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


but  try  saying  no  to  just  one 

more  game.  Creating  its  own 
cottage  industry,  there  are 
even  several  varieties  to 
choose  from:  the  VGA-en- 
hanced Tetris  Classic 
($44.95);  Tetris  Trio 
($49. 95),  combining  Tetris, 
Welltris,  and  Faces;  and  the 
best  of  the  lot,  Super  Tetris 
($49,95),  featuring  greatly 
improved  sound,  graphics, 
and  gameplay  options. 
Other  excellent  visual  puz- 
zle games  include  Tinies 
(Inline  Design,  S59.95).  Pipe 
Dream  (LucasArts.  800- 
STARWARS,  $19.95),  and 
Ishido  (Accolade,  800-245- 
7744,  $24.95). 

—Scott  A.  May 

THE  BEST  IN 
SIMULATION  GAME 
SOFTWARE 

At  their  best,  computer 
simulations  should  not  only 
entertain,  they  should  en- 
lighten as  welt.  As  an  inter- 
active reflection  of  real- world 
activities,  they  allow  ordi- 
nary people  to  experience 
extraordinary  things.  Let's 
face  it,  few  of  us  will  have 
the  opportunity  to  pilot  a 
real  jet  fighter,  race  the  In- 
dianapolis 500,  or  fly  in  a 
space  shuttle.  With  a  little 
imagination  and  a  powerful 
PC,  simulations  allow  any- 
one to  do  almost  anything. 
The  overwhelming  ma- 
jority of  titles  in  this  genre 
are  combat  flight  simula- 
tors— most  directly  based 
on  real-life  military  aircraft, 
both  modern  and  historical. 
Ifs  not  only  one  of  the  most 
prolific  categories  of  enter- 
tainment software,  but  a 
proving  ground  for  some  of 
the  industry's  hottest  design 
innovations.  Just  as  early 
lest  pilots  pushed  the  enve- 
lope of  man  and  machine, 
flight  sims  continually  test 
the  boundaries  of  today's 
powerful  PCs. 


Inline  Design  s  S.  C.  OUT 

The  field  is  so  crowded 
with  high-quality  products, 
it's  nearly  impossible  to  nar- 
row the  selection.  We'll  be- 
gin with  some  of  the  estab- 
lished classics,  particularly 
those  best  suited  for  rookie 
pilots.  Almost  four  years  old, 
but  still  flying  high,  Damon 
Slye's  Red  Baron  (Dynamix, 
800-326-6654,  $49.90)  re- 
mains one  of  the  genre's 
top  picks.  Test  your  skills  in 
the  skies  of  World  War  1 
Europe— on  both  the  Brit- 
ish and  German  sides — fly- 
ing such  vintage  fighters  as 
the  Sopwith  Camel,  Fokker 
Eindecker,  and  Nieuport  1 7. 
If  you're  looking  for  realistic 
dogfight  action,  you  can't 
get  much  better  than  this, 
squaring  off  against  some 
of  history's  best,  including 
Max  Immelmann,  Eddie 
Rickenbacker,  Oswald 
Boelcke,  and  the  Red  Baron 
himself,  Manfred  von  Rich- 
thofen.  Also  featured  are 
dozens  of  single  missions, 
historical  scenarios,  and  full 
campaigns,  augmented  with 
one  of  the  genre's  most 
versatile  flight  recorders. 
The  game  now  comes  pack- 
aged with  the  Red  Baron 
Mission  Builder,  which  adds 
untold  enjoyment  to  this 
award-winning  classic. 

For  dogfights  of  the  mod- 
em era,  you  can't  get  much 


better  than  Chuck  Yeager's 
Air  Combat  (Electronic  Arts, 
800-245-4525,   $59.95). 

Like  Red  Baron,  this  one's  a 
comparative  old-timer,  but 
one  that  still  holds  its  own 
agal  nst  the  mo  re  flashy  n  ew- 
comers.  A  fighter  pilot's 
dream,  the  game  simulates 
a  wide  variety  of  ai  rcraft  from 
three  combat  eras:  Worid 
War  II,  Korea,  and  Vietnam. 
Players  assemble  scenarios 
as  you  might  order  a  meal 
from  a  Chinese  menu — 
choosing  an  aircraft,  start- 
ing altitude,  and  tactical 
position,  as  well  as  the  op- 
ponent type,  number,  and 
skill.  Select  from  more  than 
15  available  aircraft,  rang- 
ing from  the  P-47  Thunder- 
bolt and  B-29  Superfortress 
to  the  F-4  Phantom  and 
MiG-21  Fishbed.  The  ac- 
tion explodes  in  a  white- 
knuckle  test  of  piloting  prow- 
ess, weapons  superiority, 
and  split-second  tactical 
skills.  The  program  also  fea- 
tures dozens  of  historic  mis- 
sions, a  flight  recorder,  and 
wonderfully  stable  joystick 
controls. 

An  excellent  choice  for 
both  beginning  and  inter- 
mediate dogfighters  is  Se- 
cret Weapons  of  the  Luft- 
waffe (LucasArts,  415-721- 
3300,  $49.95),  the  premiere 
Worid  War  ll-era  air  combat 


Sim.  Take  off  as  either  an 

Allied  or  Axis  pilot,  com- 
manding such  classics  as 
the  P-47  Thunderbolt,  P-51 
Mustang,  B-17  Flying  For- 
tress, Messerschmttt 
Komet,  Focke-Wulf  190, 
and  experimental  Gotha229 
fighter-bomber  A  series  of 
official  supplement  disks,  as 
well  as  dozens  of  user-cre- 
ated hexed  planes— avail- 
able through  various  online 
services— adds  even 
g  reater  f i  repower.  The  game 
offers  a  wide  scope  of  train- 
ing flights,  single  missions, 
and  full  campaigns.  One  of 
its  distinguishing  marks  is 
the  use  of  bitmapped  air- 
craft, instead  of  the  usual 
polygon  renderings,  result- 
ing in  even  greater  detail, 
particulariy  images  of  planes 
trailing  smoke  and  fire  dur- 
ing close-range  combat. 
Other  highlights  include  ter- 
rific sound  effects,  from  the 
vibrato  engine  hum  and 
teeth-chattering  explosions 
to  the  realistic  Doppier  drone 
of  passing  aircraft. 

Yet  another  bona  fide 
classic  of  the  World  War  11 
era  is  Aces  of  the  Pacific 
(Dynamix,  $59.95),  an 
award-winning  combat  sim 
from  the  creators  of  Red 
Baron.  The  sunny  skies  and 
blue  water  of  the  South  Pa- 
cific provide  stark  contrast 
for  this  sensational  aerial 
ballet  of  black  smoke,  bul- 
lets, and  bombs.  Hit  the  air 
in  dozens  of  vintage  U.S. 
and  Japanese  aircraft,  in- 
cluding the  Yokosuka  D4YA 
Judy,  Mitsubishi  Zero,  P-38 
Lightning,  P-39  Airacobra» 
and  F4U  Corsair.  Structured 
similariy  to  Red  Baron,  the 
game  features  extensive 
training,  single  and  historic 
missions,  and  numerous 
campaign  options.  Graph- 
ics and  sound  effects  are 
state-of-the-art,  with  inten- 
sity levels  heightened  by  the 
splendid  flight  recorder. 


JANUARY  1994     COMPUTE     S-3 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH™ 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


Dynamix  has  followed  this 
successful  product  with  the 
equally  Impressive  Aces 
Over  Europe  ($59.95). 

Other  air  combat  simu- 
lations, most  suitable  for 
intermediate  pilots,  include 
F-117A  Nighthawk  (Micro- 
Prose,  800-879-PLAY, 
$49,95),  Knights  of  the  Sky 
(MicroProse,  $19.95), 
Comanche:  Maximum 
Overkill  (NovaLogic,  800- 
245-4525,  $69.95),  and 
Strike  Commander  (Origin, 
800-245-4525,  $79.95). 

Those  who  feel  they've 
earned  their  wings  can  try 
their  luck  in  the  upper  ech- 
elon with  Falcon  3.0  (Spec- 
trum Holobyte,  800-695- 
GAME,  $79.95),  widely  con- 
sidered to  be  the  best  in  the 
business.  Packing  the  most 
realistic  avionics  of  any  PC 
combat  sim,  this  is  the  clos- 
est most  will  come  to  pilot- 
ing an  F-16  without  joining 
the  Air  Force.  Some  of  the 
game's  most  outstanding 
features  include  fuil  squad- 
ron-level command  of  up  to 


eight  fighter  jets  through  a 
variety  of  single  and  cam- 
paign missions.  Action 
erupts  hot  and  heavy  in  such 
theaters  of  conflict  as  the 
Middle  East  and  Central 
America,  with  more  than 
90,000  square  miles  of 
ground  detail  rendered  in 
stunning  3-D  contoured 
polygons.  In  addition  to  the 
computer  opponent's  re- 
markable artificial  intelli- 
gence, you  also  can  go 
head'to-head  against  a 
friend— flying  the  MiG-29 — 
via  null  or  remote  modem 
link.  Add-on  mission  disks 
include  Operation  Fighting 
Tiger  (39.95)  and  MiG-29 
($59.95). 

Even  the  most  jaded 
fighter  jocks  will  experience 
future  shock  in  X-Wing 
(LucasArts,  $69.95),  the  first 
full-fledged  space  combat 
simulator.  Why  putter  with 
biplanes  or  jet  fighters  when 
you  can  warp  out  in  X-.  Y-, 
and  A-Wing  starfighters, 
armed  to  the  teeth  with  la- 
ser canons  and  proton  tor- 


TOP10 

SIMULATION 

GAMES 

Stunt  Isfand.  A  stun- 
ning combination  of  flight 
simulation  and  full-fea- 
tured cinematography. 

Red  Baron.  Though  set 
in  World  War  L  Damon 
Slye's  masterpiece  is  the 
model  for  most  modern  air 
combat  sims. 

Chuck  Yeager's  Air 
Combat.  Dogfight  through 
three  combat  eras  . 

Falcon  3.0.  The  cur- 
rent champ  among  high- 
end  combat  flight  simula- 
tions, with  few  challengers 
on  the  horizon. 

Aces  Over  the  Pacific. 
Easy  to  learn,  but  tough  to 
put  down,  this  one  offers 
the  widest  appeal  of  any 


combat  sim. 

Secret  Weapons  of 
the  Luftwaffe*  Another 
historical  powerhouse, 
filled  with  fast  action  and 
an  explosive  presentation. 

X-Wing.  Rooted  in  the 
Star  Wars  saga,  this  is  the 
only  space  game  good 
enougfi  to  qualify  as  a  top- 
rated  flight  simulation. 

Flight  Simulator  5. 
The  pioneer  of  civilian  flight 
simulation  gets  a  long- 
awaited  facelift  in  this  fea- 
ture-packed update. 

Megafortress.  This 
high-tech,  high-stress 
bomber  simulation  cap- 
tures the  multitasking  in- 
tensity of  modern  warfare. 

World  Circuit.  Is  it  a 
sports  game  or  a  true 
simulation?  It  earns  a  spot 
on  both  lists 


pedoes?  Engage  in  an  in- 
creasingly difficult  series  of 
missions  against  the  evil 
Empire,  ranging  from  simple 
deep  space  recons  to 
multiphase  attacks  on  battle 
cruisers  and  star  destroy- 
ers. It's  a  rip-roaring  good 
time,  but  not  for  the  easily 
frustrated.  Both  graphics 
and  sound  effects  set  new 
standards  for  the  genre.  A 
supplement  disk.  Imperial 
Pursuit  ($29.95),  is  avail- 
able. 

Other  advanced  combat 
flight  sims  worth  consider- 
ing are  Megafortress 
(Three-Sixty  Pacific,  800- 
245-4525,  $59.95).  Gunship 
2000  (MicroProse,  $39.95), 
Tornado  (Spectrum 

Holobyte,  379.95),  and  F- 
15  Strike  Eagle  III  (Micro- 
Prose,  $69.95). 

Of  course,  there's  more 
to  flight  simulation  than 
blasting  things  to  smith- 
ereens. The  top  straight 
flight  simulator  is  without 
doubt  Flight  Simulator  5 
(Microsoft.  800-426-9400, 
$64.95),  the  latest  incarna- 
tion of  an  industry  pioneer 
Cosmetically,  the  game  fea- 
tures a  complete  Super- 
VGA makeover,  including 
digitized  cockpit  displays, 
texture-mapped  terrain, 
dithering  horizons,  and  eye- 
popping  3-D  landmarks.  The 
simulation  also  features  new 
satellite  navigation  tools, 
more  realistic  weather,  im- 
proved flight  models, 
sampled  sound  effects,  and 
a  more  useful  flight  recorder. 
Stunt  Island  (Walt  Dis- 
ney Computer  Software, 
800-688-1 520,  $59.95)  skill- 
fully blends  flight  simulation 
and  cinematography  into 
one  of  the  genre's  most  fas- 
cinating, utteriy  original  cre- 
ations. Designed  for  ad- 
vanced, ambitious  players, 
you'll  don  many  hats  in  this 
one — stunt  pilot,  director, 
prop  master,  set  designer. 


and  film  editor— as  you  as- 
semble daredevil  stunts  on 
the  worid's  largest  fantasy 
backlot.  Scout  locations  on 
the  island's  disparate  ter- 
rain, from  mountains  and 
skyscrapers  to  farmland  and 
urban  sprawl.  Choose  from 
an  amazing  assortment  of 
45  aircraft,  from  World  War 
I  to  modern-day,  including 
such  oddities  as  hang  glid- 
ers and  shuttles,  all  ren- 
dered in  fast,  beautifully 
shaded  VGA  polygons.  De- 
spite its  diversity,  each  as- 
pect of  the  game  is  inte- 
grated to  offer  a  long-last- 
ing, educational  experience. 
Coming  back  down  to 
earth,  the  genre's  few  non- 
flight  simulations  deal  with 
business-oriented  resource 
management,  although 
most  are  better  classified 
as  strategy  games.  Like- 
wise, most  driving  games- 
such  as  the  top  pick  here, 
MicroProses  World  Cir- 
cuit— are  true  simulations, 
but  usually  are  categorized 
as  sports. 

—Scott  A.  May 

THE  BEST  IN 
SPORTS  GAME 
SOFTWARE 

Sports  simulations  offer 
game  designers  a  unique 
challenge:  accurately  rep- 
resenting real-worid  com- 
petition on  the  computer. 
While  other  game  genres 
allow  the  imagination  to  dic- 
tate direction,  sports  titles 
demand  unerring  compli- 
ance to  rigid  rules  and  regu- 
lations. Sorting  statistics  is 
the  easy  part— after  all, 
computers  are  born  num- 
ber crunchers.  Simulating 
the  true  nature  of  any 
sport — ^an  almost  meta- 
physical balance  of  indi- 
vidual and  team  effort — is  a 
whole  other  ball  game. 
When  all  elements  come 
together,  however,  the  re- 


S-4    COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 


«<>••••#•••#• 


•   #   •   •   9    9    « 


i^    ^    ii    »    9    • 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


suits  are  often  the  most 
enduring  entertainment  of 
any  software  genre. 

Few  sports  are  as  fiercely 
contested  among  designers 
and  players  as  professional 
baseball.  Debates  over 
which  title  best  simulates 
the  action,  statistics,  or 
managerial  options  probably 
will  rage  as  long  as  fans 
argue  over  their  favorite 
teams.  Hardball  III  (Acco- 
lade, 800-245-7744, 
$59.95)  currently  reigns  as 
league  leader  in  the  action- 
oriented  category.  This  one 
has  a  lot  going  for  it:  beau- 
tiful 256-CDtor  graphics, 
VCR-style  instant  replay 
(with  option  to  save),  accu- 
rately rendered  stadiums, 
TV-style  close-ups,  multiple 
view  angles,  and  best  of  all, 
digitized  play-by-play  from 
veteran  sportscaster  Al 
Michaels.  Play  options  in- 
clude exhibition  games  or 
user-defined  full  season 
play,  with  mid-season  all- 
star  games  and  limited  sta- 
tistical printouts.  Add-ons, 
such  as  the  MLBPA  Players 
Disk  (S24.95)  and  Big 
League  Ballpark  Disk 
(S24. 95),  extend  the  game's 
instant  appeal. 

Heating  up  the  bullpen  is 
Accolade's  closest  rival, 
Tony  LaRussa  Baseball  II 
(Strategic  Simulations,  408- 
737-800,  $59.95).  This 
power  hitter  actually  boasts 
the  league's  best  graphics 
and  most  realistic  anima- 
tion, but  it  falls  short  of  the 
fence  in  terms  of  accurate 
and  responsive  player  con- 
trols. Announcer  Ron  Barr 
is  on  board  for  digitized  play- 
by-play— smoother,  but  not 
as  expressive,  as  Michaels 
in  Hardball  III.  As  you'd  ex- 
pect from  the  title,  the  game 
shines  on  the  managerial 
side,  featuring  a  roster  of 
2,000  veteran  players  and 
54  historical  teams,  with 
stats  updated  and  printed  in 


JSfll*:  li:  Per 

Hfnuf      Sflupf  TppJ  SfOTfil  Oropt 


♦fafle  It* 


Links  336  Pro  from  Access 

134  categories.  Optional 
add-on  disks  include  the 
MLBPA  Players  ($19.95), 
AUNL  Stadiums  ($29.95), 
and  Fantasy  Draft  ($19.95). 

For  those  who  see  base- 
ball as  merely  a  numbers 
game,  the  field  abounds  with 
several  excellent  atl-stat 
games.  Many  of  the 
league's  oldest  and  most 
respected  titles  recently 
have  resurfaced  with  much- 
needed  graphical  facelifts. 
Beneath  their  hi-res,  mouse- 
driven  facade,  however,  still 
beats  the  heart  of  a  spread- 
sheet. Among  the  best  new 
titles  are  MicroLeague 
Baseball  4  (MicroLeague 
Sports  Association,  302- 
368-9990,  $49.95),  APBA 
Baseball  for  Windows  (Miller 
Associates,  800-654-5472, 
S69.95),  and  Strat-0-Matic 
Computer  Baseball  4.0 
(Strat-0-Matic,  800-645- 
3455,  $60). 

Although  baseball  prob- 
ably will  always  be  known 
as  the  national  pastime, 
football  has  long  been 
America's  favorite  sport. 
The  computer  gridiron  is 
also  currently  the  scene  of 
the  game  industry's  hottest 
innovations.  Leading  the 
charge,  with  few  competi- 
tors even  close,  is  Front 
Page  Sports:  Football  Pro 


(Dynamix,  800-326-6654, 
$69.95).  The  game's  most 
obvious  virtues  are  the  daz- 
zling on-field  graphics, 
which  use  much  of  the  same 
3'Space  technology  pio- 
neered in  the  company's 
best-sellingflight  simulators, 
Red  Baron  and  Aces  of  the 
Pacific.  More  than  8,000 
frames  of  rotoscoped  ani- 
mation make  up  the  incred- 
ibly fluid,  lifelike  player 
movements,  with  nine  fixed 
camera  positions  capturing 
the  bone-crunching  action. 
Gamepiay  itself  is  fast, 
smooth,  and  responsive, 
with  support  for  dual  joy- 
stick controls  and  truly  re- 
markable computer  artificial 
intelligence.  But  wait,  we've 
only  skimmed  the  surfacel 
Beneath  this  slick  veneer 
are  the  real  goodies:  2,500 
plays,  real  NFL  teams  and 
players,  more  than  300 
printable  stat  categories, 
team  owner  and  general 
manager  duties,  and  the 
best  coach's  playbook  de- 
signer on  the  market.  No 
doubt  about  it,  FPS:  Foot- 
ball Pro  is  a  work  of  art. 

Of  course,  true  football 
fans  can  never  get  enough 
pigskin  action.  The  best  of 
the  second  string  titles  offer 
credible  performances  in 
their  own  right.  Tom  Landry 


Strategy  Football  Deluxe 
Edition  (Merit Software,  800- 
238-4277,  S49-95)  tops  the 
list  as  the  most  entertaining 
coaching  simulation.  High- 
lights include  a  team  and 
league  editor,  full  season 
play,  expanded  stat  track- 
ing, null  or  remote  modem 
play,  and  the  most  user- 
friendly  interface  in  the 
genre.  Other  top  draft 
choices  for  both  action  and 
strategy  football  include 
Unnecessary  Roughness 
(Accolade,  $69.95),  NFL 
Football  {Gametek,  800- 
928-GAME,  $49.95),  and 
NFL  Coaches  Club  Football 
(MicroProse,  800-879- 
PLAY,  $49.95).  Pure  strat- 
egy fans  should  check  out 
MicroLeague  Football  2 
MicroLeague  Sports, 
($54.95)  and  3-in-1  Foot- 
ball (Lance  Haffner  Games, 
S39.95). 

Few  sports  are  as  well 
adapted  to  computer  simu- 
lation as  golf,  with  its  under- 
stated strategies  and  grace- 
ful motion.  The  undisputed 
king  of  the  fairways  is  Links 
386  Pro  (Access,  800-800- 
4880,  339.95),  best  known 
for  its  digitized  full-motion 
video  and  scanned  Super- 
VGA graphics.  Most  people 
don't  believe  their  eyes  upon 
first  seeing  the  silky  swings 
of  the  onscreen  golfers.  One 
of  the  game's  most  fasci- 
nating features  is  the  ability 
to  play  a  round  and  give  the 
results  (on  disk)  to  a  friend, 
who  can  then  compete 
against  your  saved  game. 
Other  highlights  include  a 
user-defined  windowed  in- 
terface, multiple  camera 
views,  printable  stats,  and 
crisp  digitized  sounds.  Like 
most  other  established  golf 
games,  this  one  boasts  a 
batch  of  scenic  course  disks 
(S29.95  each).  A  Windows 
version  is  sold  under  the 
title  Microsoft  Golf  (Micro- 
soft, 800-426-9400, 


JANUARY  1994    COMPUTE     S-5 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


$64.95). 

The  runners  up  for  best 
golf  game  are  equally  good, 
in  their  own  way.  Accolade 
has  enjoyed  tremendous 
success  with  Jack  Nicklaus' 
Golf  and  Course  Design: 
Signature  Edition  (S69,95), 
noted  for  its  outstanding 
256-color  VGA  course  de- 
signer. Beyond  the  wide 
assortment  of  supplement 
course  disks  offered  through 
the  company,  dozens  of 
user-created  courses  can 
be  downloaded  off  services 
such  as  CompuServe, 
GEnie,  and  America  Online. 
Other  worthy  golf  titles  in- 
clude PGA  Tour  Golf  for 
Windows  (Electronic  Arts, 
800-245-4525,  S59.95)  and 
David  Leadbetter's  Greens 
(MicroProse,  800-879- 
PLAY,  S59.95),  the  latter 
noted  for  its  unusual  multi- 
player  modem  option. 

The  mechanics  of  com- 
puter auto  racing  force  most 
games  in  this  category  to 
straddle  the  line  between 
sport  and  simulation.  The 
best  in  a  new  breed  of  high 
performance  models  is 
World  Circuit  (MicroProse, 
S59.95).  The  game  features 
exquisite  reproductions  of 
16  world  class  Grand  Prix 
circuits,  from  Monaco's 
twisting  urban  sprawl  to  the 
gut-wrenching  figure  eight 
of  Japan's  Suzuka  raceway. 
Fabulous  first-person  per- 
spective, rendered  with  a 
speedy  combination  of  bit- 
mapped and  textured  poly- 
gon graphics,  puts  you  right 
on  the  tarmac.  The  game 
also  feels  right,  whether 
you're  tearing  down  the 
straight-aways  or  slipping 
into  a  tight  curve.  A  unique 
alternating  play  mode  allows 
two  drivers  to  compete  on  a 
single  computer.  Or  you  can 
play  two  simultaneously  via 
null  or  remote  modem  link. 
Other  worthy  contenders  for 
the  checkered  flag  are 
S*6     COMPUTE     JANUARY  1 


TOP  10  SPORTS 
GAMES 

Front  Page  Sports: 
FootbaH  Pro,  Unbeatable 
combination  of  3-D  graph- 
ics^  managerial  decisions, 
and  playbook  design. 

World  Circuit.  Great 
looks  and  smooth  piay 
combine  for  full-throttle 
action. 

Hardball  III.  Well-bal- 
anced design  of  action, 
graphics,  and  strategy, 
with  play-by-play  by  sen- 
sational Al  Michaels. 

Links  386  Pro.  Soars 
to  top  of  golfing  leader 
board  with  digitized  Su- 
per-VGA graphics. 

4-D  Boxing.  Polygon 
graphics  deliver  ultra- 
smooth,  lifelike  animation. 


APBA  Baseball  for 

Windows.  Polished  Win- 
dows interface  brings  new 
fife  to  this  venerable  stat 
classic. 

Jack  Nicklaus  Golf, 
Signature  Edition.  Lush 
graphics  and  built-in 
course  designer  highlight 
this  ail-time  favorite. 

Summer  Challenge. 
Up  to  10  players  compete 
in  8  expertly  designed 
Olympic-style  events. 

Tom  Landry  Strategy 
Football  Deluxe  Edition. 
Solid  coaching  sim  with 
excellent  stats,  piay  call- 
ing, modem  option,  and 
the  best  mouse  interface 
in  its  league. 

NHL  Hockey.  Excellent 
conversion  of  the  best-sell- 
ing console  classic. 


IndyCar  Racing  (Papyrus 
Software,  617-868-5440, 
S74.99),  Car  and  Driver 
(Electronic  Arts,  $59.95), 
and  Mario  Andretti's  Racing 
Challenge  (Electronic  Arts, 
$24.95). 

The  best  of  the  so-called 
minor  sports  include  4-D 
Boxing  (Electronic  Arts, 
$24.95),  an  amazing  new 
approach  that  borders  on 
virtual  reality.  Boxers  are 
rendered  with  large  poly- 
gon shapes,  affecting  an 
odd,  abstract  look,  but  fa- 
cilitating remarkably  fluid, 
lifelike  motion,  Muitiplecam- 
era  angles,  including  a  wild 
first-person  view,  puts  you 
right  in  the  ring.  Hockey  fans 
will  be  delighted  with  Elec- 
tronic Arts'  excellent  NHL 
Hockey  ($69.95),  a  potent 
combination  of  fast  action 
and  in-depth  coaching  skills. 
Converted  to  the  PC  from 
the  best-selling  Sega  Gen- 
esis original,  the  game  fea- 
tures full  rosters  of  real 
NHLPA  teams  and  players, 
with  your  choice  of  exhibi- 
tion or  full  84-game  season 

994 


play,  including  the  Stanley 
Cup  finals.  Other  highlights 
include  Ron  Barr's  digitized 
voice,  skate  or  coach  play 
options,  detail  stat  reports, 
and  two-play  competitive, 
mode. 

0th  e  r  0  utstand  ing  spo  rts 
titles,  in  a  variety  of  catego- 
ries, include  Summer  Chal- 
lenge (Accolade,  $54.95), 
Test  Drive  111:  The  Passion 
(Accolade,  $59.95),  Wayne 
Gretzky  Hockey  3  (Bethes- 
da  Softworks,  301-926- 
8300,  S59.95),  and  Cactus 
League  College  and  Pro- 
fessional Basketball  (Cac- 
tus Development.  800-336- 
9444,  $49.95). 

"Scott  A.  May 

THE  BEST  IN 
STRATEGY  GAME 
SOFTWARE 

In  many  ways,  the  strategy 
category  serves  as  a  catch- 
all for  games  that  don't  fit 
neatly  within  other,  more 
specific,  genres.  When  you 
think  about  it,  every  com- 
puter game  requires  the 


player  to  exert  some  de- 
gree of  strategic  skill.  Ar- 
cade contests,  for  example^ 
may  seem  like  mindless 
action  fare,  but  they  actu- 
ally demand  a  great  deal  of 
real-time  plotting  and 
scheming.  f\/Iany  of  the  titles 
you'll  find  here  contain  ele- 
ments of  arcade,  simula- 
tion, adventure,  or  war 
games,  yet  offer  enough 
strategic  prowess  to  earn 
separate  distinction. 

The  most  clearly  defined 
examples  of  the  genre  are 
titles  based  on  traditional 
board,  tabletop,  and  parlor 
games.  Chess  wizards  look- 
ing for  the  ultimate  oppo- 
nent will  find  nirvana  in  The 
Chessmaster  3000  (The 
Software  Toolworks.  415- 
883-3000,  $49.95),  avail- 
able for  both  DOS  and  Win- 
dows. Advanced  features 
include  a  library  of  1 50  clas- 
sic matches,  blindfold 
chess,  tournament  and 
championship  play,  and 
finely  tuned  computer  play 
and  response  settings.  For 
the  beginner,  there's  an 
online  mentor  and  built-in 
tutorial.  Al!  players  will  en- 
joy the  intuitive  mouse- 
driven  interface  and  wide 
selection  of  high-resolution 
chess  pieces  and  board 
designs.  For  those  in  the 
mood  for  a  strong  game, 
with  a  slightly  irreverent  feel, 
check  out  the  animated 
Battle  Chess  series  from 
Interplay  (714-553-6678). 
available  in  versions  for 
DOS  (S29.95),  Windows 
($49.95),  and  Super-VGA 
(this  one  is  called  Battle 
Chess  4000  and  costs 
$59.95).  All  are  strong  op- 
ponents with  exceptional 
graphic  flair  and  the  added 
attraction  of  remote  modem 
play.  Finally,  there's  Na- 
tional Lampoon's  Chess 
Maniac  5  Billion  and  1  (Spec- 
trum  Hofobyte,  800-695- 
GAME.  $69.95),  a  game 


,--^ 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


whose  self-described  "rude" 
sounds  and  animated 
graphics  almost  make  up 
for  its  rather  weak  chess 
engine. 

Solitaire  addicts  will  be 
easily  hooked  on  Solitaire's 
Journey  (QQP,  908-788- 
2799,  S59.95),  a  whirlwind 
tour  of  105  different  soli- 
taire card  games.  Other 
titles  in  a  similar  vein  in- 
clude the  Hoyle  Book  of 
Games  series  from  Sierra 
(800-326-6654):  Classic 
(S42.45),  Vol.  2  ($29.70), 
andVoL3(S42.95).  Forthe 
more  socially  minded, 
there's  Grand  Slam  Bridge 
II  (Electronic  Arts,  800-245- 
4525,  $49.95),  a  256-color 
VGA  update  of  the  best- 
selling  origina!  with  new 
mouse  and  sound  card  sup- 
port, customized  bidding, 
and  dealing  options  for  up 
to  four  human  players. 

Perhaps  the  most  fa- 
mous— certainly  the  most 
copied — solitaire  game  de- 
signed especially  for  the 
computer  is  Shanghai  11: 
Dragon's  Eye  (Activision, 
800-477-3650,  $29.95).  A 
brilliant  enhancement  of 
Brodie  Lockard's  original 
work,  the  program  is  loosely 
based  on  the  Chinese  tile 
game,  Mah-jongg.  The  lat- 
est version  features  8  tile 
sets,  13  board  designs,  a 
two-player  tournament 
mode,  and  a  built-in  board 
designer. 

If  gambling's  your  game, 
ante  up  to  Amarillo  Slim 
Dealer's  Choice  (Villa 
Crespo  Software,  708-433- 
0500,  $29.95),  which  fea- 
tures 28  poker  varieties, 
online  tutor,  and  user-de- 
fined house  rules.  What  it 
lacks  in  presentation — mar- 
ginal 16-color  EGA— it 
makes  up  with  fast,  fun 
game  play.  Those  on  a  bud- 
get will  also  enjoy  Villa 
Crespo's  Coffee  Break  gam- 
bling series,  including  Ca- 


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SimCity  from  Maxis 

sino  Craps,  Dr.  Wong's 
Jacks  &  Video  Poker,  and 
Dr.  Thorp's  Mini-Blackjack 
($12.95  each).  High  rollers 
can  wrestle  the  one-armed 
bandit  without  going  to  the 
cleaners  in  Strategic  Video 
Poker  (LWS  Software,  800- 
828-2259,  $49.95)  and 
Masque  Video  Poker 
(Masque  Publishing,  800- 
765-4223,  $49.95).  With 
detailed  statistical  analysis, 
numerous  payoff  configu- 
rations, and  optional  online 
strategy,  both  products  of- 
fer fast-paced  simulations 
of  the  most  popular  Las 
Vegas  and  Atlantic  City 
machines.  For  an  all-in-one 
guided  tour  of  casino 
games,  check  out  Beat  the 
House  (Gametek,  800-927- 
GAME,  359.95),  which  fea- 
tures detailed  tutorials  for 
slots,  blackjack,  roulette, 
video  poker,  and  craps. 

Computer  incarnations 
of  famous  multiplayer  board 
games  include  an  entire 
series  by  Virgin  Games 
(800-874-4607):  Risk 
($29.99),  Monopoly  Deluxe 
($49.95),  and  Scrabble  De- 
luxe ($49.95),  available  in 
high-res  DOS  and  Windows 
versions.  For  classics  that 
exist  only  on  the  computer 
screen,  you  can't  get  much 
more  famous  than  Tetris 
{Spectrum  Holobyte, 
$19.95),  a  simplistic,  yet 


undeniably  addictive,  strat- 
egy game  of  falling  blocks. 
The  game's  huge  success 
sparked  a  wildfire  of  inferior 
knockoffs,  culminating  with 
the  final— and  best— ver- 
sion, SuperTetris  ($49.95), 
available  for  both  DOS  and 
Windows,  Another  com- 
puter original  bound  for  clas- 
sic status  is  The  Incredible 
Machine  (Sierra,  $34.95), 
an  arcade-style  puzzle  feast 
inspired  by  Rube  Goldberg's 
wacky  homemade  contrap- 
tions. The  original  contains 
85  increasingly  difficult  lev- 
els, to  which  80  more  are 
added  in  the  enhanced  se- 
quel, The  Even  More  In- 
credible Machine  ($42.45). 
Game  designers  often 
look  to  real  life  for  inspira- 
tion. Currently  the  hottest 
trend  in  strategy  gaming  is 
resource  management,  ap- 
plied to  everything  from  big 
business  to  complex  social 
and  political  systems.  One 
of  the  first  to  open  this  stra- 
tegic can  of  worms  was  Will 
Wright's  phenomenally 
popular  SimCity  (Maxis; 
800-336-2947;  $49.95  for 
DOS,  $59.95  for  Windows), 
a  model  of  urban  planning 
highly  regarded  for  its  real- 
ism. From  this  tiny  seed, 
Maxis  sprouted  an  entire 
line  of  fun,  microcosm  soft- 
ware, including  SimEarth 
($49.95),  SimLife  ($69.95), 


SimAnt  ($49.95) ,  and  finally, 
SimFarm  ($49.95).  Bring- 
ing real-world  resource 
management  down  to  a 
more  earthy  level,  this  last 
title  looks  to  be  most  tan* 
gible  in  the  series. 

Players  with  a  nose  for 
economic  planning  and 
elaborate  corporate  infra- 
structures can  find  reward- 
ing careers  in  such  games 
as  Railroad  Tycoon  Deluxe 
(MicroProse,  800-879- 
PLAY,  $69.95),  Rags  to 
Riches  (Interplay,  $59.95), 
A-Train  Construction  Set 
(Maxis,  $69.95),  Buzz 
Aldrin's  Race  Into  Space 
(Interplay,  $69.95),  and  Air 
Bucks  (Impressions,  203- 
676-9002,  $59.95). 

Why  manage  a  business 
when  you  can  control  the 
u  n  i  ve  rse— or  at  I  e ast  a  sm  al  1 
corner  of  it— in  Populous 
(Electronic  Arts,  $24.95) 
and  Civilization  (Micro- 
Prose,  $59.95).  Populous 
is  set  in  an  abstract  fantasy 
world,  where  two  gods  vie 
for  supreme  deity,  via  mo- 
dem if  so  equipped.  Civili- 
zation is  Sid  Meier's  mas- 
terpiece of  human  survival, 
splendidly  drawn  from  the 
pages  of  world  history.  Both 
games  gave  rise  to  a  flood 
of  excellent  so-called  god 
Sims,  including  Populous  II 
(Electronic  Arts,  $59.95), 
PowerMonger  (Electronic 
Arts,  $49.95).  Utopia 
(Gametek,  800-927-GAME, 
$19.99),  Global  Effect  (Mil- 
lennium, 800-245-4525, 
$14.95),  Caesar  (Impres- 
sions, $59.95),  and  Mega  lo 
Mania  (UBI  Soft,  415-332- 
8749,  S49.95). 

Looking  for  heavy  strat- 
egy, but  with  a  lively  arcade 
bite?  Take  a  walk  on  the 
dark  side  in  Syndicate  (Elec- 
tronic Arts,  $59.95).  a  grim 
look  at  the  future  of  law  and 
disorder.  Command  an  elite 
squad  of  heavily  armed  cy- 
borg hitmen  In  this  one- 


JANUARY1994     COMPUTE     S-7 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


player  power  Struggle,  noted 
for  its  stunning  sound  and 
graphic  violence.  Slightly 
less  cynical,  and  more  ab- 
stractly violent  in  nature,  is 
RoboSport  (Maxis,  S39.95), 
a  1-2  player  Windows  game 
loosely  based  on  the  old 
Capture  the  Flag  premise. 
Strategy  games  and  TV 
quiz  shows  have  a  lot  in 
common — a  connection 
best  exploited  by  LexiCross 
(Interplay,  S39.95),  a  flashy, 
futuristic  word  puzzle  game 
played  with  quick  wits  and 
tongue  firmly  in  cheek.  With 
several  levels  of  difficulty, 
modem  option,  and  superb 
multiplayer  tournament 
mode,  this  classic  offers  true 
fong-iasting  challenge.  An- 
other excellent  offering  in 
the  TV  game  show  format  is 
CrossWire  (SilverSun,  800- 
874-5837,  $39.95).  Test 
your  knowledge  in  more 
than  16  categories,  includ- 
ing pop  culture,  history,  sci- 
ence, art,  sports,  music,  and 
geography  in  this  fast-paced 
Windows  game. 

— Scott  A.  May 

THE  BEST  IN 
ADVENTURE  GAME 
SOFTWARE 

Adventure  games  are  cur- 
rently the  most  popular  form 
of  computer  entertainment. 
If  you  can  look  at  pictures, 
read  a  few  words,  and  click 
with  the  mouse,  that's  all 
the  skill  needed  to  play  one. 
A  distant  relative  of  the 
industry's  early  all-text  ad- 
ventures, today's  adven- 
tures are  more  akin  to  huge, 
interactive  versions  of  what 
the  comic-book  Industry 
now  calls  graphic  novels. 
It's  a  blistering  hot  field, 
thanks  to  continuing  ad- 
vances in  cinematic  tech- 
niques, digitized  sound,  ef- 
fortless interfaces,  and  qual- 
ity scripts. 

Like  its  close  cousins  in 
S-8     COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


TOP  10 
STRATEGY 

GAMES 

Civilization.  Grow 
your  own  society,  loosely 
based  on  human^  history, 
both  good  and  bad.  Like 
an  interactive  civics  les- 
son, but  more  fun. 

The  Even  More  In- 
credible Machine.  Be- 
neath the  silly  arcade  front 
lurks  a  seriously  fun ,  mind- 
bending  strategy  game. 

Populous.  First  of  the 
so-called  god  sims  re- 
mains the  genre's  most 
polished. 

SImCity.  The  micro- 
cosm that  started  a  revo- 
lution. If  only  real  cities 
were  this  much  fun  to  build. 

Railroad  Tycoon  De- 
luxe, if  you  build  it,  they 
will  run— railroads,  that  is. 
A  classic  of  hands-on  en- 
trepreneurial strategy. 


LexiCross.  Take  a  TV 

game  show,  zap  it  into  an 
offbeat  future,  and  you've 
got  a  classic  multiplayer 
word  puzzle  game. 

Buzz  Aldrin's  Race 
Into  Space.  Find  out  if 
you've  got  the  right  stuff  to 
beat  the  Russians  to  the 
new  frontier.  Complex,  his- 
torical, and  thoroughly  re- 
warding. 

Chessmaster  3000 
(Windows  version).  This 
one  has  beauty  and  brains, 
an  unbeatable  move  for 
serious  chess  fans. 

RoboSport.  Employ 
unusual  think-ahead  strat- 
egies to  program  robots 
for  real-time  combat.  A 
two-player  classic,  with 
modem  option. 

Syndicate.  Populous 
meets  Blade  Runner  in  this 
dark,  violent,  and  man/el- 
ously  original  action-strat- 
egy game. 


the  role-playing  genre,  ad- 
venture games  are  heavily 
influenced  by  mystic  lands 
of  magic,  lost  treasure,  poor 
souls  held  captive,  and 
brave  heroes  to  the  rescue. 
There  are  also  extremely 
strong  puzzle  elements,  in 
the  form  of  clever  word  play 
or  visual  riddles,  which  of- 
ten must  be  solved  before 
turning  the  page. 

The  grand  old  master  of 
the  genre  is,  without  a  doubt, 
Sierra's  King  Quest  series, 
created  by  Roberta  Will- 
iams. Now  in  its  sixth  install- 
ment, each  stand-alone 
adventure  delves  deeper 
into  the  lives  of  its  cast  of 
recurring  characters,  the 
royal  family  of  Daventry.  To 
ardent  followers  of  the  se- 
ries, Williams'  elegant  prose 
evokes  imagery  as  rich  and 
rewarding  as  any  in  tradi- 
tional literature.  Combining 
beautiful  scanned  artwork, 
ambient  sound  effects,  an 


open-ended  storyline,  and  a 
comfortable  mouse  inter- 
face, King's  Quest  VI:  Heir 
Today,  Gone  Tomorrow 
(800-326-6654,  S67.95)  is 
by  far  the  best.  Although 
technically  less  dazzling, 
King's  Quest  V  ($59.45)  re- 
mains a  solid  choice,  and  in 
many  respects,  offers  a 
more  intriguing  plot. 

Another  top  fantasy  ad- 
venture is  The  Legend  of 
Kyrandia  (Virgin  Games, 
800-874-4607,  $39.99), 
designed  by  Wesiwood  Stu- 
dios, creators  of  the  original 
Eye  of  the  Beholder  role- 
playing  games.  In  this  quest, 
you  must  defeat  the  evil 
court  jester  Malcolm,  who 
has  slain  the  king  (your  fa- 
ther), stolen  the  magic  gem- 
stone,  and  cast  the  entire 
land  of  Kyrandia  into  tur- 
moil. Beneath  this  simple 
story  lies  an  adventure  filled 
with  uncommonly  hch  char- 
acters— and  surprising  hu- 


mor— enhanced  by  excel- 
lent graphics,  sound,  and 
animation. 

Graphic  adventures  with 
a  more  modern  twist  include 
Indiana  Jones  and  the  Fate 
of  Atlantis  (LucasArts,  415- 
721-3300,  S34.95).  loosely 
based  on  Steven  Spiel- 
berg's popular  movie  series. 
Join  the  offbeat  archaeolo* 
gist,  master  of  the  bullwhip 
and  double-entendre,  as  he 
battles  Nazi  spies  on — and 
below — several  continents. 
It's  the  best  Indy  movie  that 
was  never  made. 

Those  who  prefer  to 
leave  graphics  to  the  imagi- 
nation will  enjoy  a  game  from 
Activision  (800-477-3650) 
called  Lost  Treasures  of 
Infocom,  a  fantastic  collec- 
tion of  all-text  adventures 
from  a  true  pioneer  in  the 
genre.  Volume  One 
($69.95)  features  20  indi- 
vidual titles,  including  the 
entire  Zork  series,  as  well 
as  such  classics  as  Dead- 
line, Witness,  Lurking  Hor- 
ror, Infidel,  Planetfall,  and 
Hitchhiker's  Guide  to  the 
Galaxy.  Volume  Two 
(S49.95)  offers  an  additional 
11  titles,  including  Border 
Zone,  Bureaucracy,  Cut- 
throat, and  Wishbringer. 
Beyond  sheer  entertain- 
ment value,  both  libraries 
contain  bona  fide  collector's 
items,  chronicling  the  his- 
tory of  early  computer 
games.  Despite  their  age, 
few  of  the  adventures  have 
lost  their  appeal.  Fittingly, 
the  groundbreaking  Zork 
series  has  reemerged  with 
state-of-the-art,  digitized 
graphics  in  Activision's  re- 
cently released  Return  to 
Zork  ($79.95). 

Science  fiction  adven- 
tures are  staging  a  strong 
comeback,  boldly  led  by 
such  titles  as  Martian 
Memorandum  (Access, 
800-800-4880,  $39.95), 
Star  Trek:  25th  Anniversary 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 


^  ^  4  #  d  s  £ 


&««»«»$£( 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


(Interplay.  714-553-6678, 

$49.95),  and  Space  Quest 
V  (Sierra,  S59.45).  One  of 
the  most  original  works  in 
recent  years  is  Inca  (Sierra, 
$50.95),  designed  by  Paris- 
based  Cote!  Vision.  Sparked 
by  myriad  puzzles  and  ar- 
cade sequences,  it's  a  sur- 
real blend  of  fact  and  fiction, 
topped  with  gorgeous 
graphics  and  full-motion 
video.  Another  French  de- 
veloper on  the  cutting  edge 
is  Delphine  Software,  best 
known  for  Out  of  This  World 
(Interplay,  $59.95),  a  fasci- 
nating blend  of  rotoscoped 
action  and  cinematic-styled 
adventure.  Those  who  de- 
sire more  traditional  excur- 
sions into  science  fiction  will 
thoroughly  enjoy  Frederik 
Pohrs  Gateway  (Legend, 
800-245-7744.  $59.95)  and 
Gateway  II:  Homeworld 
(Legend,  S59.95).  Both  titles 
feature  Bob  Bates'  intuitive 


and  efficient  windowed  text 
interface. 

Hardboiled  detective 
fans  have  a  lot  of  graphic 
adventures  to  choose  from. 
Police  Quest  3  (Sierra, 
$59.45)  and  Blue  Force 
(Tsunami,  209-683-9283, 
$69.95)  take  players  into 
the  heart  of  darkness.  These 
tough  urban  crime  dramas 
unfold  at  a  brisk  clip,  packed 
with  intense  action  and  mys- 
tery. For  more  old-fashioned 
detective  fare,  crack  open 
The  Lost  Files  of  Sherlock 
Holmes  (Electronic  Arts, 
800-245-4525,  $69.95),  a 
large-scale  murder  mystery 
that's  anything  but  elemen- 
tary. This  one's  notable  for 
its  Intuitive  icon  interface, 
context-sensitive  musical 
score,  and  handsomely 
drawn  artwork. 

Of  course,  many  of  the 
best  adventures  aren't  con- 
fined by  traditional  story- 


TOP  10 

ADVENTURE 

GAMES 

King's  Quest  VI.  Lat- 
est edition  of  Roberta  Wil- 
liams'trend-setting  adven- 
ture series  is  bigger  and 
better  than  ever. 

Monkey  island  2: 
LeChuck's  Revenge. 
Side-splitting  pirate 
parody  doubles  as  chal- 
lenging adventure  yarn. 

Inca.  Uncommonly 
original  and  perfectly  ex- 
ecuted blend  of  disparate 
gaming  styles,  held  to- 
gether with  stunning 
graphics  and  sound. 

Indiana  Jones  and  the 
Fate  of  Atlantis.  Filled 
with  action  and  humor,  this 
rousing  adventure  fea- 
tures a  plot  even  Holly- 
wood can't  match. 

Alone  in  the  Dark, 
Turn  out  the  lights,  turn  up 
the  sound,  and  enter  a 


spine-tingling  world  of  hor- 
rifying entertainment. 

Day  of  the  Tentacle. 
Vintage  B-movie  spoof  for 
kids  and  parents  alike,  ac- 
cented with  colorful,  styl- 
ish cartoon  graphics, 

Ericthe  Unready.  Fan- 
tasy role-playing  may 
never  be  the  same  after 
running  this  gauntlet  of  in- 
jokes  and  pratfalls. 

Out  of  This  World. 
Strikingly  original  combi- 
nation of  rotoscoped  ani- 
mation, cinematic  action, 
and  problem-solving  ad- 
venture. 

Pirates!  Gold.  The  pe- 
rennial swashbuckling  fa- 
vorite returns  with  en- 
hanced gameplay  and 
knockout  Super-VGA 
graphics. 

The  Lost  Treasures  of 
Infocom,  Two-volume  set 
offers  glimpse  of  gaming 
history  through  31  classic 
all-text  adventures. 


fnca  from  Sierra  OnLine 


lines;  they  incorporate  ele- 
ments of  arcade,  role-play- 
ing, and  real-time  strategy. 
You'll  find  both  action  and 
suspense  on  the  high  seas 
with  Pirates!  Gold  (Micro- 
Prose.,  800-879-PLAY, 
$54.95),  a  full-blooded  en- 
hancement of  Sid  Meier's 
best-selling  original  Set  sail 
under  an  English,  French, 
Dutch,  or  Spanish  flag  in 
one  of  six  rich  historical  eras, 
ranging  from  1560  to  1680. 
As  a  dashing  buccaneer, 
you'll  live  a  fascinating  life, 
full  of  exploration  and  con- 
frontations, from  political 
posturing  and  trade  nego- 
tiations, to  exciting  ship-to- 
ship  combat  and  deadly 
fencing  duels. 

Horror  buffs  have  plenty 
to  howl  about,  beginning 
with  Alone  in  the  Dark  (In- 
terplay, $59.95),  a  blood- 
curdling adventure  inspired 
by  H.  P.  Lovecraft.  Explore 
every  creaking  inch  of  a 
creepy  old  mansion,  fend- 
ing off  ghosts,  ghouls,  and 
insidious  traps.  Rendered 
with  fluid,  3-D  texture  poly- 
gons, the  designers  suc- 
ceed in  creating  a  kind  of 
virtual  reality  nightmare. 
Unsettling  mood  music  and 
crisp  digitized  sound  effects 
will  keep  you  up  all  night, 
chilled  to  the  bone.  Other 
harrowing  horror  titles  In- 
clude The  Legacy:  Realm 
of  Terror  (MicroProse, 
$59.95),  Dark  Seed  (Cyber- 


dreams.  800-238,4277, 
$69.95),  Return  of  the  Phan- 
tom (MicroProse,  $59.95), 
Uninvited  for  Windows 
(Viacom  New  Media,  708- 
520-4440,  $59.95).  and 
Elvira  II:  Jaws  of  Cerberus 
(Accolade,  $69.95).  Players 
with  itchy  trigger  fingers  can 
even  lead  a  space-age  bug 
hunt  in  Space  Hulk  (Elec- 
tronic Arts,  S59.95),  an  ut- 
terly visceral  adventure  with 
strong  arcade  and  strategy 
elements. 

On  the  lighter  side,  noth- 
ing is  sacred  on  Monkey 
Island  2:  LeChuck's  Re- 
venge (LucasArts,  S34.95), 
Ron  Gilbert's  agonizingly 
funny  sendup  of  the  pirate 
adventure  genre.  Role-play- 
ing games  get  an  equally 
painful  kick  in  the  pants  with 
Eric  the  Unready  (Legend, 
$59.95),  a  text  and  graphic 
adventure  with  more  inside 
jokes  than  you  could  shake 
a  talisman  at.  You'll  never 
look  at  a  detective  story  with 
a  straight  face  after  playing 
Sam  and  Max  Hit  the  Road 
(LucasArts,  $69.95),  a  slap- 
stick misadventure  starring 
everyone's  favorite  free- 
lance police.  Yet  another 
hot  LucasArts  comedy  is 
Day  of  the  Tentacle 
($69.95),  a  marvelously 
drawn  B-movie  parody.  Fi- 
nally, there's  Freddie 
Pharkas,  Frontier  Pharma- 
cist (Sierra,  $59.45),  a  ter- 
rific wild  west  spoof  from  Al 
JANUARY  1994    COMPUTE     S-9 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


Lowe,  king  of  sophomoric 
satire  and  creative  father  to 
Leisure  Suit  Larry,  world 
famous  lounge  lizard.  For 
those  who  can't  resist  sex- 
ist gags  and  toiiet  humor, 
check  out  Leisure  Suit  Larry 
5  (Sierra,  S33.95),  but  don1 
say  we  didn't  warn  you. 

—Scott  A.  May 

THE  BEST  IN 

ROLE^PLAYING 

GAMES 

Role-playing  games,  by  na- 
ture, are  unquestionably  the 
most  personal  of  all  enter- 
tainment genres.  After  ail, 
the  basic  premise  of  any 
role-playing  game  is  to  delve 
as  deeply  as  possible  into 
the  psyche  of  its  main  char- 
acters. Most  games  let  you 
carefully  craft  a  party  of  char- 
acters, then  pamper,  pol- 
ish, and  protect  them 
through  outrageous  adven- 
tures. Some  fictional  char- 
acters are  programmed  to 
develop  such  distinctive 
personal itLes  that  if  they  fall 
to  harm's  way,  their  human 
caretakers  often  react  with 
intense  emotions. 

Computer  role-playing 
games  (CRPG)  are  natural 
extensions  of  their  tradi- 
tional pen-and-papergames 
or  table-top  miniatures.  In- 
stead of  simply  imagining 
monsters  and  moss-cov- 
ered labyrinths,  computer 
games  burst  with  ethereal 
life,  thanks  to  ever-evolving 
graphics  and  sound  effects. 
Hard-liners  may  complain 
that  the  real  magic  has  been 
lost;  for  the  rest  of  us,  how- 
ever, CRPGs  are  the  real- 
ization of  our  dreams — or 
more  often,  our  nightmares. 
Almost  without  exception, 
role-playing  games  are  dark, 
otherworldly  affairs.  Most 
CRPGs  take  place  in  the 
distant  past  or  in  strange 
fantasy  realms  populated  by 
wizards,  dragons,  and  elves 
S-10     COMPUTE     JANUARY 


and  topped  with  an  over- 
abundance of  evil. 

The  fantasy  realm  Is 
stocked  with  so  many  qual- 
ity efforts,  it  would  be  im- 
possible^— and  downright 
confusing— to  mention  them 
all.  An  excellent  place  to 
hone  your  skills  is  the  third 
installment  of  Jon  Van 
Caneghem's  popular  series, 
Might  and  Magic  III:  Isles  of 
Terra  (New  World  Comput- 
ing, 800-325-8898.  S39.95). 
Unlike  many  single-minded 
adventures,  this  game  con- 
sists of  a  series  of  mini- 
quests,  each  taking  you  a 
step  closer  to  your  final  con- 
frontation. Foremost  among 
the  game's  many  innova- 
tions is  its  icon-driven  player 
interface  and  its  use  of  large 
scale,  brightly  colored 
graphics.  The  game  also 
introduces  new  techniques 
for  unrestricted  wilderness 
travel;  this  allows  players  to 
explore  virtually  every  nook 
and  cranny  of  this  massive 
gaming  universe.  Van 
Caneghem  has  followed  this 
landmark  game  with  two 
equally  impressive  Might 
and  Magic  titles:  Clouds  of 
Xeen  (S39.95)  and  Darkstde 
of  Xeen  ($49.95). 

One  of  the  genre's  most 
successful  pairings  has 
been  Strategic  Simulations' 
computer  recreations  of 
TSR's  legendary  Advanced 
Dungeons  &  Dragons  se- 
ries. The  result  has  been  a 
steady  stream  of  high-qual- 
ity products,  known  to  fans 
as  the  Gold  and  Black  Box 
games.  The  cream  of  this 
prolific  crop  is  without  doubt 
the  Eye  of  the  Beholder  se- 
ries, volumes  1  -3  (408-737- 
6800;  S19,95,  $59.95,  and 
$89.95,  respectively). 
Trademark  features  of  the 
games  include  superb  char- 
acter generation  and  com- 
bat controls,  intelligent 
nonplayer  characters,  cin- 
ematic-style story  transi- 

1994 


tions,  and  chilling  real-time 
action  in  the  3-D  graphics 
window. 

The  final  installment, 
Assault  on  Myth  Drannor,  is 
particularly  challenging  and 
recommended  for  experi- 
enced players  only.  Those 
who  have  mastered  every 
castle  and  dungeon  in  the 
series  can  now  create  their 
own  with  Strategic  Sim- 
ulation's Unlimited  Adven- 
tures (S59.95),  a  full-fea- 
tured AD&D  fantasy  con- 
struction set. 

Another  long-running  fa- 
vorite in  the  genre  is  the 
Ultima  series  by  Origin's 
Richard  Garriott,  a.k.a.  Lord 
British.  Like  many  of  its  con- 
temporaries, the  series  re- 
cently replaced  its  flat  graph- 
ics and  stilted  interface  with 
exquisite  256-color  VGA, 
mouse-driven  controls,  and 
digitized  speech.  The  latest 
editions  of  the  award-win- 
ning saga  are  Ultima  Vll: 
The  Bfack  Gate  (800-245- 
4525.  $79.95)  and  its  add- 
on disk,  Forge  of  Virtue 
(S24.95).  This  game  contin- 
ues the  series*  familiarthree- 
quarter,  top-down  view  of 
the  action  but  fills  the  full 
screen  with  improved 
graphic  detail  and  periph- 
eral animation.  The  storyline 
is  huge  and  delightfully  com- 
plex—not  surprisingly,  it 
takes  nearly  20  megabytes 
of  hard  drive  space.  Garriott 
also  jumps  on  the  first-per- 
son bandwagon  with  Ultima 
Underworld:  The  Stygian 
Abyss  ($79.95).  Unlike  simi- 
lar efforts,  where  charac- 
ters must  walk  a  path  with 
limited  view  angles,  this 
game  allows  unrestricted 
360-degree  movement. 
Combined  with  beautifully 
drawn  3-D  modeled  terrain 
and  a  remarkable  illusion  of 
depth,  the  experience  is 
extraordinary.  Origin  re- 
cently followed  with  Ultima 
Underworld  11:  Labyrinth  of 


Worlds  ($79,95),  which  fea- 
tures a  slightly  revamped 
interface  and  the  return  of 
some  old  enemies. 

The  oldest  of  the  genre's 
esteemed  originals,  by 
many  accounts,  is  perhaps 
the  best  of  the  bunch:  Wiz- 
ardry Vll:  Crusaders  of  the 
Dark  Savant  (Sir-Tech,  800- 
447-1230,  S69.95).  D.W. 
Bradley's  epic  series  was 
the  first  CRPG  to  feature 
phased  combat  and  3-D 
perspective— in  1 981  's 
Proving  Ground  of  the  Mad 
Overlord.  Although  Sir-Tech 
subsequently  fell  behind  in 
the  audio/visual  depart- 
ment, the  company  makes 
a  bold  comeback  with  this 
dazzling  work.  Atop  the 
game's  traditionally  styled 
role-playing  engine — widely 
considered  the  strongest  in 
the  genre— Bradley  inte- 
grates a  marvelous  mouse- 
driven  graphic  interface.  Of 
special  note  is  the  spine- 
tingling  sensation  of  crea- 
tures rustling  just  beyond 
your  field  of  vision,  accom- 
panied by  distant  growls, 
growing  louder  as  you  ap- 
proach. Other  new  features 
include  wilderness  travel, 
automapping,  day/night 
cycles,  and  vastly  improved 
magic  and  combat.  For  play- 
ers continuing  on  from  the 
previous  bestseller,  Bane  of 
the  Cosmic  Forge  ($59.95), 
the  game  boasts  multiple 
starting  points. 

Among  the  best  in  a  new 
breed  of  role-playing  games 
is  Betrayal  at  Krondor 
(Dynamix,  800-326-6654, 
$59.45),  based  on  the  best- 
selling  Riftwar  Saga  by 
Raymond  E.  Feist.  In  this 
totally  unique  blend  of 
CRPG  and  graphic  adven- 
ture, the  story's  characters 
aren't  created  by  the  player; 
instead,  you  function  as  a 
kind  of  interactive  narrator, 
guiding  the  otherwise 
fiercely  independent  char- 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


TOP  to  ROLE- 
PLAYING  GAMES 

Might  and  Magic: 
Clouds  of  Xeen.  Big  and 
colorful,  this  one's  an  ex- 
cellent clioice  for  rookie 
role-players. 

Betrayal  at  Krondor, 
With  a  unique  open-ended 
style,  this  is  the  vanguard 
of  a  new  breed  in  role- 
pfaying  adventure. 

Wizardry  7:  Crusad- 
ers of  the  Dark  Savant, 
The  grand  elder  of  the 
genre,  graphically  updated 
and  wicked  as  ever. 

Ultima  Underworld. 
Lord  British  goes  under- 
ground with  this  stylish,  3- 
D  virtual  fantasy  environ- 
ment. 

Eye  of  the  Beholder 
III.  The  final  installment  of 
this  trend-setting  series 
offers  tough  challenges  for 
advanced  players. 


Unlimited  Adven- 
tures. Design  your  own 
diabolical  quests  with  this 
full-featured  role-playing 
construction  kit. 

StarfJight  2.  The  first 
true  science  fiction  role- 
playing  classic  makes  up 
in  gameplay  what  it  lacks 
in  graphics. 

Star  Control  II.  Inter- 
stellar epic  combines  ex- 
ceptional graphics  with 
role-playing,  adventure, 
and  arcade-style  space 
combat. 

Ultima  Vll.  Latest  in 
long-running  Lord  British 
series  features  vastly  im- 
proved control  scheme, 
sound  effects,  and  char- 
acter intelligence. 

Lands  of  Lore: 
Throne  of  Chaos.  A 
graphic  knockout,  with  a 
storyline  to  match,  en- 
riched -by  an  intuitive, 
streamlined  interface. 


acters  through  a  series  of 
adventures.  Likewise,  the 
game's  structure  can  be  tight 
or  loose,  closely  following 
the  main  plot  line,  or  branch- 
ing off  to  explore  a  3-D  vir- 
tual fantasy  world— 224  mil- 
lion square  feet  of  trails,  riv- 
ers, mountains,  lakes,  is- 
lands, towns,  twisting  sew- 
ers, and  abandoned  mines. 
Because  characters  learn 
behavior  based  on  decisions 
made  at  a  particular  time  or 
place,  no  two  games  are 
exactly  alike.  Also  worth 
noting  is  the  extensive  use 
of  scanned  artwork  and  digi- 
tized actors,  as  well  as  the 
3-D  tactical  combat  system. 
Other  worthy  titles  in  the 
fantasy  realm  include  Lands 
of  Lore:  Throne  of  Chaos 
(Virgin  Games,  800-874- 
4607,  $49.95)  from 
Westwood  Studios,  creators 
of  the  original  Eye  of  the 
Beholder;  Magic  Candle  III 
(Mindcraft.  800-525-4933, 


S59.95);  Challenge  of  the 
Five  Realms  (MicroProse, 
800-879-PLAY,  S49.95): 
Realms  of  Arkania  (Sir- 
Tech,  $59.95);  Elvira  (Ac- 
colade, 800-245-7744, 
S24.95);  and  Darklands 
(MicroProse,  S59.95). 

Tired  of  trolls  and  arcane 
magic?  Blast  off  to  the  fu- 
ture with  science  fiction  role- 
playing  games.  Although  the 
selection  isn't  nearly  as 
large,  this  category  recently 
has  sparked  renewed  inter- 
est among  game  design- 
ers. Two  of  the  oldest,  yet 
still  highly  regarded,  are 
Starflight  and  Starflight  2 
(Electronic  Arts,  800-245- 
4525,  $24.95  each).  Al- 
though the  graphics  and 
sound  are  primitive  by 
today's  standards,  these 
intergalactic  quests  are  un- 
paralleled for  their  deep 
space  atmosphere  and 
player  involvement.  Much 
of  this  spirit  also  can  be 


found  in  Star  Control  II  (Ac- 
colade, S59.95),  an  epic- 
flavored  star  quest  boast- 
ing excellent  sound  and 
graphics,  involved  alien  in- 
teraction, and  the  best  ar- 
cade-style space  combat  In 
the  genre.  Other  titles  of 
this  caliber  include  Planet's 
Edge  (New  World  Comput- 
ing, S29.95),  Hard  Nova 
(Electronic  Arts,  S24.95), 
and  Tegel's  Mercenaries 
(Mindcraft,  S59.95). 

Another  title  of  excep- 
tional quality  is  Rules  of 
Engagement  2  (Impres- 
sions, 203-676-9002, 
$69.95)j  Omnitrend's  mam- 
moth space  saga  that  com- 
bines starship  roie-playing 
with  strategy  and  real-time 
tactical  combat.  The  game's 
most  remarkable  feature, 
however,  is  called  the  Inter- 
locking Game  System, 
which  offers  internal  links  to 
Impressions'  classic  Breach 
2  (S14.95)  and  upcoming 
Breach  3. 

—Scott  A.  May 

THE  BEST  IN  WAR 
GAME  SOFTWARE 

Historical  conflict  games  or 
war  games,  as  they  usually 
are  known,  have  been 
around  for  many  years. 
Originally  available  as  board 
games  from  such  giants  as 
Avalon  Hill,  SPI,  and  GDW, 
the  war  game  was  the  stan- 
dard start  up  fare  of  a  num- 
ber of  companies,  most 
notably  Strategic  Simula- 
tions (SSI).  Although  much 
maligned  as  an  adjunct  of 
"war  toys"  by  the  politically 
correct,  historical  conflict 
games  are,  in  fact,  the  pref- 
erence of  those  who  com- 
bine a  love  of  history  and/or 
find  chess  too  abstract  as  a 
strategic  challenge.  For  the 
purposes  of  this  article, 
games  that  include  warfare 
as  an  intrinsic  part  of  the 
game  also  have  been  In- 


cluded. Many  of  the  new- 
comers to  computer  war 
games  have  come  from  the 
board  game  market.  A  half 
way  point  in  that  journey  is 
HPS's  Aide  De  Camp 
($79.95).  Aide  De  Camp  is 
a  gamer  aid,  which  allows 
the  conversion  of  board 
games  into  computer  rep- 
resentations that  can  be 
used  for  e-mail  gaming. 

Three  companies  domi- 
nate the  war  game  field  to- 
day. SSI  has  been  joined  by 
Three  Sixty  and  the  Austra- 
lian firm  SSG.  While  it's  im- 
possible to  issue  a  blanket 
recommendation  for  each 
company,  it's  fair  to  say  that 
most  of  their  products  are 
impressive. 

In  1992,  Three  Sixty  Pa- 
cific (800-653-1360) 
changed  the  face  of  com- 
puter war  gaming  with  the 
introduction  of  V  for  Victory: 
Utah  Beach  (S69.95).  Here 
was  a  game  designed  for 
the  computer  but  set  up  in 
board  game  style.  Immedi- 
ately, a  large  segment  of 
the  potential  audience  was 
completely  at  ease.  More- 
over, the  June  44  Normandy 
Invasion  was  a  perfect  back- 
drop for  an  entertaining  chal- 
lenge. Subsequent  releases 
in  the  V  for  Victory  series 
have  included,  Velikiye  Luki 
(S69.95),  one  of  the  more 
obscure  Eastern  Front 
Battles;  Market  Garden 
($69.95);  and  the  recent 
release  of  Gold  :  Juno  : 
Sword:  ($59.95).  Three 
Sixty  will  be  packaging  the 
first  three  V  for  Victory 
games  into  a  special  Vic- 
tory Pack  (S69.95),  which 
may  qualify  as  one  of  the 
better  Christmas  bargains. 
The  developers  of  the  V  for 
Victory  series,  Atomic 
Games,  have  now  moved 
over  to  Avalon  Hill  and  will 
be  working  on  a  conversion 
of  the  venerable  Squad 
Leader     board     game. 

JANUARY  1994    COMPUTE    S-11 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 


«««•«« 


-^^;^^^i)tj^ 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


Strange  how  cyclic  this  busi- 
ness can  be.  Three  Sixty's 
other  World  War  II  Euro- 
pean Theater  depiction, 
High  Command  ($69.95),  is 
in  many  ways  more  of  a 
game  than  a  simulation. 
Until  Avalon  Hill  redoes  Third 
Reich  properly,  High  Com- 
mand remains  locked  in 
battle  with  Clash  of  Steel 
(SSI,  408-737-6800, 
$69.95)  for  the  attention  of 
strategic  gamers. 

Clash  of  Steel  is  the  lat- 
est in  a  long  line  of  great  war 
games  from  SSL  Simpler 
than  High  Command,  Clash 
of  Steel  still  aliows4he  op- 
portunity to  explore  differ- 
ent historical  what  ifs  and 
various  areas  of  research. 
For  most  war  gamers,  both 
strategic  simulations  will  be 
of  interest.  SSTs  war  games 
are  too  many  to  list,  but  one 
that  should  be  noted  is 
Battles  of  Napoleon 
($49.95),  one  of  the  more 


accurate  games  on  the  mar- 
ket. It  includes  four  battles 
and  a  scenario  construction 
set.  Of  the  many  Civil  War 
titles  produced  by  SSI, 
Gettysburg:  The  Turning 
Point  ($59.95)  remains  the 
best  of  the  lot  even  after 
seven  years.  Pacific  War 
($79.95),  Western  Front 
(S59.95),  the  somewhat 
strangely  named  East  Front 
Game,  Second  Front 
($59.95),  the  out-of-print 
USAAF,  and  Carrier  Strike 
($59.95)— all  have  one  thing 
in  common:  Gary  Grigsby. 
A  prolific  designer  of  good 
and  occasionally  great 
games  during  the  1980s, 
Grigsby  has  been  putting 
out  hit  after  hit  recently.  If 
you  come  across  a  game 
produced  in  the  1990s  and 
designed  by  Grigsby,  get  it. 
Grigsby  also  supports  his 
own  games  on  the  GEnie 
online  service. 

The  only  design  team  to 


challenge  Grigsby  in  quality 
and  quantity  is  the  Austra- 
lian team  of  Roger  Keating 
and  Ian  Trout,  Their  com- 
pany, SSG  (904-494-9373) 
has  been  putting  out  con- 
sistent product  since  the 
release  of  Battlefront 
($39.95)  in  1987.  While  a 
good  corp-level  World  War 
II  game  in  its  own  right, 
Battlefront  has  become  the 
framework  for  a  string  of 
quality  historical  recreations. 
Most  notable  is  the  civil  war 
trilogy,  Decisive  Battles  of 
the  Civil  War  I,  II,  and  111 
($40  each).  Each  game  con- 
tains 5-6  significant  (though 
not  necessarily  decisive) 
battles  of  the  Civil  War. 
SSG's  Carriers  at  War  ($50), 
the  company's  first  release 
nearly  1 0  years  ago,  contin- 
ues to  age  welt.  The  up- 
date, Carriers  at  War  2  ($70) 
is  even  better,  and  the  re- 
cent Carriers  at  War  Con- 
struction kit  ($60)  contains 


TOP  10  WAR 
GAMES 

Civilization.  Quite  sim- 
ply the  best  game  on  the 
market.  Not  specifically  a 
war  game  but  more  a  com- 
bination of  the  best  ele- 
ments of  Sid  Meier's  pre- 
vious Railroad  Tycoon, 
Maxis'  Sim  City,  and  a 
multitude  of  strategy  and 
war  games. 

Master  Of  Orion. 
While  not  quite  Civilization 
in  Space,  Master  of  Orion 
comes  close.  Featuring 
multiple  races  with  differ- 
ent strengths,  plus  an  arti- 
ficial Intelligence  that 
doesn't  cheat  while  play- 
ing the  impossible  level. 

V  for  Victory  series. 
For  board  game  players 
making  the  transition  to 
computer  games,  nothing 
could  be  better  than  the  V 
for  Victory  series. 


Empire  Deluxe.  While 
no  longer  a  top  seller,  Em- 
pire remains  one  of  the  bel- 
ter games.  Empire  Deluxe 
adds  the  best  wish  list  re- 
quests to  make  the  ultimate 
game  for  many. 

High  Command.  Re- 
turning once  more  to  World 
War  II,  High  Command  fol- 
lows the  Three-Sixty  Pacific 
tradition  of  producing  com- 
puter war  games  that  re- 
semble board  games. 

Battlefront  Series. 
Rather  than  pick  one  of  this 
series,  it*s  better  to  recog- 
nize the  entire  group  of 
Battlefront  games  from 
SSG. 

Caesar.  An  impressive 
move  into  the  U.S.  market 
from  the  British  firm,  Im- 
pressions. Sim  City  does 
Rome  best  describes  this 
sleeper  hit. 

Clash  of  Steei.  A  strate- 
gic treatment  of  the  War  in 


Europe  1939-1945.  In 
many  ways,  Clash  of  Stee! 
is  a  poor  man's  High  Com- 
mand. The  program's  arti- 
ficial intelligence  is  its  best 
selling  point— it  performs 
well  on  both  offense  and 
defense. 

Dune  li.  A  game  over- 
looked by  many  war  game 
players.  Set  within  the  clas- 
sic Dune  world,  Dune  II  is 
a  game  of  economic  and 
military  struggle.  It  con- 
tains classic  board  game 
strategies  with  Sim  City- 
like  construction. 

Fire  Brigade,  Truly 
ahead  of  its  time,  this  game 
of  Kiev  eastern-front 
battles  by  Dave  O'Conner 
and  Panther  Games  con- 
tained many  of  the  ele- 
ments that  made  V  for  Vic- 
tory so  successfuL  Hard 
to  find^perhaps  someone 
will  acquire  the  rights  and 
update  this  classic. 


nine  new  scenarios  and  the 
ability  to  design  your  own. 

Australia  also  has  pro- 
vided the  biggest  diamond 
in  the  rough.  Panther 
Games,  ably  led  by  Dave 
O'Conner,  produced  Fire 
Brigade.  While  hard  to  find, 
this  game  of  late  1 943  East- 
ern Front  battles  was  a  f ore- 
runner  of  the  V  for  Victory 
series.  Strong  artificial  intel- 
ligence also  was  featured  in 
this  product. 

Few  games  In  our  time 
have  had  the  reputation  of 
Empire.  Mark  Baldwin's 
game,  published  by 
Interstel,  is  no  longer  avail- 
able, but  New  World  Com- 
puting (800-325-8898)  In- 
troduced Empire  Deluxe 
($59.95)  in  1993.  Deluxe 
adds  most  of  the  requests 
made  by  Empire  fans. 
Castles  II  (Interplay,  714- 
553-6678,  $59.95)  was  a 
pleasant  surprise.  A  sequel 
that  was  better  than  its  origi- 
nal, as  Vince  De  Nardo  and 
crew  added  more  gameplay 
elements.  Bruce 

Zaccagnino  and  QQP  (908- 
788-2799)  released  Mark 
Baldwin's  Perfect  General 
($59.95),  a  game  designed 
more  for  playability  than 
accuracy.  Zaccagnino's 
own  Lost  Admiral  ($59.95) 
owes  more  than  a  passing 
compliment  to  Baldwin's 
Empire  and,  therefore,  was 
well  received.  Lawrence 
Schick  at  MicroProse  (800- 
879-PLAY)  was  behind  Task 
Force  1942  ($69.95),  a 
game  that  might  qualify  for 
the  simulation  list. 

Probably  the  biggest  sur- 
prise this  past  year,  and  a 
pleasant  one  at  that,  was 
Dune  II  (Virgin  Games,  800- 
874-4607,  $59,95).  Devel- 
oped by  Westwood,  which 
is  better  known  for  its  ad- 
venture games,  Dune  I!  pro- 
vided some  of  the  best  tac- 
tical challenges  in  years. 
Impressions     (203-676- 


S-12     COMPUTE     JANUARY  1994 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


9002)  is  a  new  kid  on  the 
block.  Its  When  Two  Worlds 
War  ($59.95)  is  simplistic 
as  a  one-player  game,  but 
as  a  two-player  modem 
game,  it  really  shines.  Cae- 
sar (Impressions,  $59.95), 
the  company's  Sim  City 
meets  Rome  game,  remains 
a  favorite.  Impressions  is 
also  the  home  for  Rules  of 
Engagement  2  ($69.95).  A 
space  conflict  game  stun- 
ning in  its  scope,  Rules  of 
Engagement  2  has  one  of 
the  most  detailed  built-in 
scenario  editors  ever  pub- 
lished. 

Space  conflict  games  as 
a  whole  are  an  interesting 
breed.  Our  Australian 
friends  at  SSG  have  put  out 
a  classic  in  Reach  for  the 
Stars,  one  of  the  few  games 
worth  buying  an  obsolete 
machine  just  to  play.  The 
release  of  Master  of  Orion 
($49.95)  from  MicroProse 
ups  the  ante  In  the  space 
warfare  genre.  Which 
leaves  us  with  the  best  game 
on  the  market  today.  Civili- 
zation (MicroProse, 
$69.95).  Because  it's  a 
game  that  doesn't  fit  neatly 
into  any  particular  classic 
pigeon  hole,  we  can  only 
proclaim  it  the  best  in  what- 
ever category  you  might 
choose  to  place  it. 

The  future  holds  much 
promise,  as  Jim  Dunnigan's 
Victory  at  Sea  (360).  Sid 
Meier's  Civil  War  Game 
(MicroProse)  and  Atomic's 
Squad  Leader  (Avalon  Hill) 
are  all  potential  inductees 
into  next  year's  war  game 
top  ten. 

— Wallace  Poulter 

THE  BEST  IM  CD* 
ROM  GAMES 

CD-ROM  games  have  come 
a  long  way  in  the  last  few 
years.  WeVe  gone  from  CD- 
ROMsthatcontain  only  disk- 
based  versions  of  games  to 


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CmHzation  from  MicroProse 

CD-ROMs  with  games  cre- 
ated especially  for  the  new 
medium — and  everything  in 
between. 

For  the  sake  of  simplic- 
ity, lefs  break  these  CD- 
ROM  games  into  three  cat- 
egories: ports,  hybrids,  and 
pure  breeds. 

Ports 

When  CD-ROM  drives 
started  to  sell  well  in  1989. 
game  developers  began  to 
portthe  disk-based  versions 
of  their  most  popular  games 
to  the  new  medium.  It  was 
the  easiest  and  quickest  way 
to  test  the  waters.  Access 
released  a  CD-ROM  with 
many  of  its  previous  hits, 
Origin  combined  Its  popular 
Wing  Commander  with  two 
mission  disks  onto  one  CD- 
ROM  and  Ultima  Under- 
world I  &  II  onto  another, 
and  LucasArts  produced  a 
CD-ROM  with  Secret  Weap- 
ons of  the  Luftwaffe  and 
threw  in  some  add-on  disks. 
The  extra  value  came  from 
buying  several  games  for 
the  price  of  one  and  not 
having  to  install  the  games 
on  your  hard  drive. 

Even  today,  you  can  find 
vendors  offering  CD-ROMs 
in  value-pack  ports.  By  the 
time  your  read  this, 
Psygnosis  will  be  selling  a 


CD-ROM  that  contains  both 

Lemmings  and  Oh  No!  More 
Lemmings  for  the  price  of  a 
single  game  (Psygnosis, 
617-497-7794,  $59.99). 

Hybrids 

Most  of  today's  CD-ROM 
games  are  actually  hy- 
brids—disk-based games 
that  are  given  extra  features 
when  converted  to  CD- 
ROM.  The  immense  space 
provided  by  the  CD-ROM 
(as  much  as  680MB)  lets  a 
company  take  a  popular 
DOS-based  game  and  add 
voices  to  the  characters,  a 
digitized  music  track,  and 
even  additional  graphics  and 
puzzles. 

The  most  dramatic  ex- 
ample of  these  added  fea- 
tures is  the  adventure  game, 
King's  Quest  VI  CD  (Sierra 
On-Line,  800-326-6654, 
$79.95),  which  is  an  en- 
hanced version  of  the  disk- 
based  King's  Quest  VI:  Heir 
Today,  Gone  Tomorrow. 
The  CD-ROM  version  re- 
places the  characters'  on- 
screen words  with  actors' 
voices  (for  a  total  of  four 
hours  of  dialog  and  narra- 
tion) and  adds  higher-reso- 
lution graphics  throughout 
the  game  (under  Windows, 
the  icon  interface,  inventory 
items,  and  talking  charac- 


ters are  shown  in  640  x  480 
with  256  colors).  The  CD- 
ROM  also  includes  a  50- 
megabyte  animated  se- 
quence that  runs  for  7  min- 
utes, as  well  as  a  4'-  minute 
Video  for  Windows  movie 
that  shows  how  the  game 
was  made. 

Most  hybrid  CD-ROM 
adventure  games  add  spo- 
ken dialog  and  narration. 
These  include  Sierra's  other 
CD-ROM  games.  King's 
Quest  V  ($69.95),  the  previ- 
ous adventure  in  this  popu- 
lar series;  Space  Quest  IV 
($69.95).  a  rollicking  spoof 
of  space  adventures,  fea- 
turing the  voice  of  Garry 
Owens  ("Laugh- In");  Laura 
Bow:  The  Dagger  of  Amon 
Ra  ($69.95),  a  mystery  ad- 
venture in  the  tradition  of 
Nancy  Drew;  and  The  Ad- 
ventures of  Willy  Beamish 
(on  the  Dynamix  label. 
$69.95).  a  light-hearted  look 
at  the  action -packed  life  of  a 
pre-teen. 

LucasArts  offers  similarly 
enhanced  CD-ROM  ver- 
sions of  its  popular  adven- 
ture games,  including  Loom 
(415-721-3300,  $59.95),  a 
magical  tale  that  success* 
fully  integrates  a  musical 
theme  into  the  story;  Mon- 
key Island  (415-721-3300, 
$59.95),  a  satisfying  spoof 
of  pirate  adventures;  Indi- 
ana Jones  and  the  Fate  of 
Atlantis  (800-STARWARS, 
$69.95),  an  original  story 
based  on  the  popular  movie 
character;  and  Day  of  the 
Tentacle  (800-STAR- 
WARS,  $69.95),  a  droll 
parody  of  1950s  science- 
fiction  movies. 

Other  hybrid  titles  include 
Dune  (Virgin  Games,  800- 
874-4607,  $99.99),  which 
integrates  actual  footage 
from  David  Lynch's  classic 
movie,  Dune;  Battle  Chess 
CD-ROM  Enhanced  (Inter- 
play, 714-553-6678, 
$79.95),  which  sports  a  new 


JANUARY  1994     COMPUTE    8-13 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 


o    o    w    o    «    •    •?    S* 


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a     ii     &     Vt    * 


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ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


music  track,  additional 
sound  effects,  and  higher- 
resolution  graphics;  The 
Chessmaster  3000  (The 
Software  Toolworks,  415- 
883-3000,  $79.95),  a  first- 
rate  chess  game  that  adds 
full  voice  Instruction;  Micro- 
soft Multimedia  Golf  (Micro- 
soft, 800-426-9400, 
$64.95),  which  adds  spec- 
tacular flybys  of  each  hole 
and  video  golf  pro  tips  to  the 
disk-based  Microsoft  Golf 
for  Windows;  and  Inca  (Si- 
erra On-Llne,  800-326- 
6654,  $69.95).  a  marvelous 
mix  of  ancient  cultures  and 
high-technology  with  anima- 
tion and  sound  added  to  the 
CD-ROM  version. 

Pure  Breeds 

The  future  belongs  to  games 
that  are  designed  especially 
for  CD-ROM.  You  only  have 
to  compare  the  quality  of 
most  of  the  new  made-for- 
CD-ROM  titles  to  the  typical 
port  and  hybrid  games  to 
see  the  Incredible  potential 
of  the  new  medium. 

Many  of  the  companies 
that  have  dominated  the 
hybrid  market,  such  as  Si- 
erra and  LucasArts,  are 
designing  games  that  will 
be  available  only  on  CD- 
ROM.  In  1994,  many  of  the 
top  games  from  the  well- 
known  game  companies  will 
be  designed  especially  for 
CD-ROM  and  then  scaled- 
down  for  the  disk  version. 
By  1995,  many  of  these 
same  companies  will  either 
be  producing  games  only 
for  CD-ROM  or  releasing 
each  game  in  separate  ver- 
sions for  both  CD-ROM  and 
disk.  With  as  much  as 
680MB  available  for  a  CD- 
ROM  game  versus  20- 
30MB  for  a  disk-based 
game,  it  shouldn't  be  sur- 
prising that  the  leading  edge 
games  are  moving  to  CD- 
ROM. 

The  year  1993  has 
S-14    COMPUTE    JANUARY 


Rebel  Assault  from  LucasArts 

brought  us  the  first  group  of 
games  created  especially 
for  CD-ROM.  While  not  all 
of  them  are  as  playable  as 
the  best  disk-based  or  hy- 
brid-CD-ROM games,  their 
advanced  graphics  and 
sound  have  dramatically 
raised  our  expectations  for 
computer-based  games. 
The  most  famous  of  these 
would  have  to  be  The  7th 
Guest  (Virgin  Games,  800- 
874-4607,  S99.99).  Too 
large  to  fit  on  a  single  CD- 
ROM,  this  double  CD-ROM 
game  features  a  terrific  mu- 
sical score  (especially  when 
used  with  a  General  MIDI 
music  device),  full-motion 
video  characters^  and  eye- 
popping  3-D  rendered  back- 
grounds. 

Sherlock  Holmes:  Con- 
sulting Detective  Volumes 
II  &  111  (Viacom  New  Media, 
708-520-4440,  $69.95 
each)  are  the  follow  ups  to 
Sherlock  Holmes:  Consult- 
ing Detective  Volume  I 
($69.95),  which  was  one  of 
the  first  games  to  integrate 
video  clips  into  the  game's 
action.  Viacom's  latest  title, 
Dracula  Unleashed 

(S69.95),  includes  over  150 
video  scenes  (for  a  total  of 
90  minutes  of  video)  that 
you  navigate  using  a  VCR- 
like  interface.  Who  Killed 
Sam  Rupert?  (Creative 
Multimedia,  503-241-4351; 
$39.99)  also  successfully 
integrates  video  clips  into  a 
1994 


mystery  setting.  A  sequel  to 
Sam  Rupertshould  be  avail- 
able by  the  time  you  read 
this. 

Model  car  fans  will  enjoy 
two  innovative  CD-ROMs 
from  Revell-Monogram 
(708-966-3500):  European 
Racers  ($69.95)  and  Back- 
road  Racers  ($69.95).  Both 
feature  an  actual  model  car 
kit,  step-by-step  instructions 
on  how  to  construct  the 
model  (rendered  onscreen 
in  high-resolution  3-D  poly- 
gon animation),  and  a  rac- 
ing game  where  you  can 
square  off  against  similar 
vehicles  (here  you'll  inter- 
act with  video  footage  of 
various  characters,  such  as 
a  policeman  and  a  pit  crew 
member).  Each  CD-ROM 
includes  the  simulation  soft- 
ware for  three  additional 
models,  which  you  can  buy 
separately  at  toy  stores  or 
hobby  shops. 

Quite  a  few  pure  breed 
CD-ROM  games  will  be 
shipping  just  before  Christ- 
mas. They  all  feature  graph- 
ics, sound  effects,  and  mu- 
sic that  are  state-of-the-art. 

Hell  Cab  (Time  Warner 
Interactive,  800-593-6334, 
$99.99)  includes  photo-re- 
alistic characters  and  a  plot 
that  involves  a  New  York 
City  cab  driver  (he's  really  a 
trainee  devil),  prehistoric 
jungles,  Nero's  Rome,  and 
the  trenches  of  Worid  War  I . 
Your  goal  is  to  make  it  back 


to  the  airport  with  your  soul 
Intact. 

If  you  liked  X-WIng,  you'll 
love  Rebel  Assault  (Lucas- 
Arts, 800-STARWARS. 
$69.95).  This  thing  looks 
and  sounds  so  much  like  a 
Star  Wars  rnovie,  you'll  do  a 
double-take.  The  ships  and 
planets  are  rendered  with 
high-resolution  graphics  to 
match  the  ones  In  the  Star 
Wars  films;  John  Williams* 
score  is  there,  often  note  for 
note;  and  even  the  dialogue 
and  position  of  the  charac- 
ters recall  specific  scenes 
from  the  movies. 

The  Journeyman  Project 
(Quadra  Interactive,  619- 
931-4755,  $79.95)  has 
some  of  the  most  innova- 
tive graphics  I've  ever  seen 
in  a  game.  The  year  is  231 8. 
Your  mission  is  to  repair  a 
rip  in  time  caused  by  care- 
less time  traveling.  The 
game  features  both  arcade 
action  and  mental  puzzles. 
The  pre-release  version  1 
played  ran  slow,  but  Quadra 
Interactive  was  working  on 
speeding  it  up. 

Iron  Helix  (Spectrum 
Holobyte.  510-522-3584, 
$99.95)  is  an  action  adven- 
ture game  set  in  the  future. 
A  biological  weapon  threat- 
ens to  start  a  galactic  holo- 
caust— unless  you  can  pilot 
a  small  robotic  probe 
through  an  enormous  star- 
ship. 

Othertitles  scheduled  for 
Imminent  release  include 
The  Labyrinth  of  Time  (Elec- 
tronic Arts,  800-245-4525, 
price  not  available),  a  Su- 
per-VGA maze  with  logical 
puzzles  and  historical 
themes  (you  travel  from  a 
subway  car  to  various  his- 
torical eras);  Myst 
(Broderbund,  800-521- 
6263;  $59.95),  a  stunningly 
photo-realistic  adventure 
from  Rand  and  Robyn  Miller 
(developers  of  the  Manhole 
and  Cosmic  Osmo),  ship- 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 


9e««9«>oe<&«^«««*«e*«>«<v9«^«e0»#0»i»#«#o 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


ping  in  early  1994;  The  Xlth 

Hour:  7th  Guest  Part  li  (Vir- 
gin Games),  the  eagerly 
awaited  sequel  to  The  7th 
Guest  (planned  for  late  1 993 
or  early  1994);  Microcosm 
'(Psygnosis,  617-497-7794, 
$59.95),  yet  another  great- 
looking  sci-fi  game;  and 
Conspiracy  (Virgin  Games), 
a  Soviet  thriller  starring 
Donald  Sutherland. 

If  you  think  Conspiracy 
sounds  more  like  a  movie 
than  a  CD-ROM  game,  pre- 
pare to  be  amazed  by  the 
CD-ROM  games  that  will  be 
released  in  1994.  Access 
(800-800-4880)  is  set  to 
release  its  double  CD-ROM 
game,  Undera  Killing  Moon, 
by  early  spring,  starring 
Margot  Kidder,  Brian  Keith, 
and  Russell  Means.  If  you 
have  the  new  $449  Reel- 
Magic  board  from  Sigma 
Designs  (510-770-0100), 
you'll  be  able  to  view  its 
virtual  reality  sequences  as 
full-screen,  full-motion  video 
with  CD-quality  sound. 
Other  CD-ROM  games  that 
will  be  available  in  Reel- 
Magic's  MPEG-compres- 
sion format  include  Acti- 
vision's  Return  to  Zork, 
Interplay's  Lord  of  the  Rings, 
Readysoft's  Dragon's  Lair, 
Sierra's  Outpost  and  Police 
Quest  4:  Open  Season,  and 
Virgin's  The  Xlth  Hour:  7th 
Guest  Part  11. 

Expect  1994  to  be  the 
year  that  interactive  movies 
truly  come  of  age. 

— David  English 

HOW  PC  GAMES 
PLAY  IN  EUROPE 

The  PC  game  scene  is  quite 
different  in  England  and 
Europe  from  that  in  the  U.S. 
For  a  start,  the  PC  isn't  the 
only  machine  in  the  picture. 
Another  factor  is  that  En- 
gland and  Europe  tend  to 
lag  behind  the  U.S.  in  many 
technical  respects. 


TOP  10  CD-ROM 
GAMES 

The  Journeyman 
Project.  The  pre-release 

runs  slow,  but  the  graph- 
ics  are  the  best  IVe  seen. 
Looks  to  be  the  best  con- 
celved  of  the  bumper  crop 
of  science-fiction  CD- 
ROM  games. 

King's  Quest  V[,  One 
of  Sierra's  best  games, 
enhanced  for  CD-ROM 
with  dialog,  a  high-resolu- 
tion interface,  and  a  50MB 
opening  animation. 

The  7th  Guest.  Most 
celebrated  and  innovative 
CD-ROM  game  of  the  first 
half  of  1993.  Great  musi- 
cal score  and  eye-popping 
interiors  paved  the  way 
for  the  current  wave  of 
stunning  titles. 


Day  of  the  Tentacle. 

Wacky  graphics  and  humor- 
ous storyline  makes  this 
spoof  of  1 950s  sci-fi  movies 
a  joy  from  start  to  finish. 
Cast  includes  Richard  Sand- 
ers of  "WKRP  in  Cincinnati." 

Rebel  Assault.  Com- 
bine the  excitement  of  X- 
Wing  with  high  resolution 
graphics  and  a  movie-like 
score,  and  you  have  the 
first  high-powered  arcade 
game  for  CD-ROM. 

The  Chessmaster  3000. 
Simply  the  best  way  to  learn 
chess  on  your  own.  The 
spoken  instructions  make 
the  CD-ROM  version  ex- 
tremely easy  to  use. 

Space  Quest  IV.  Roger 
Wilco  is  back,  and  this  time 
in  full  voice.  Garry  Owen,  of 
"Laugh-In"  fame,  provides 
the  commentary.  Even  more 


fun  than  the  disk  version. 

Hell  Cab.  Great  graph- 
ics and  a  cunning  sense  of 
humor  make  this  the  game 
to  show  your  neighbors. 

Microsoft  Multimedia 
Golf.  Though  it  doesn't 
have  the  high-resolution 
backgrounds  of  Links  386 
Pro,  this  CD-ROM  version 
of  Microsoft  Golf  for  Win- 
dows includes  spectacu- 
lar flybys  of  each  hole  and 
video  golf  pro  tips.  Com- 
patible with  Access'  Links 
golf  courses. 

Undera  Killing  Moon. 
Given  the  strength  of  early 
previews,  this  looks  to  be 
one  of  the  top  CD-ROM 
games  of  1994.  It's  the 
first  CD-ROM  game  to  use 
several  well-known  actors 
and  include  virtual  reality 
technology. 


The  Competition 

The  European  hardware 
purchasing  public  is  less 
affluent  than  that  in  the 
United  States  and  yet  is 
faced  with  relatively  more 
expensive  equipment. 

The  low  end  of  the  mar- 
ket is  made  up  of  kids  who 
would  buy  Sega  or  Nin- 
tendos  in  the  U.S.  Many 
European  youngsters  shell 
out  around  £100-200  for  a 
console,  though  there's  a 
significant  overlap  with  a 
second  group  of  youngsters 
who  persist  with  the  classi- 
cal home  computer.  Com- 
modore sells  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  A1200s  and 
A600S,  as  well  as,  until  fairly 
recently,  millions  of  C64s. 

PCs  and  Games  in 
the  UK 

Rarely  are  PCs  purchased 
simply  for  game  playing.  The 
main  reason  is  cost.  A  basic 
386  PC  system  in  the  UK 
will  set  you  back  around 
£800-1000,  depending  on 


the  amount  of  hard  drive  and 
RAM  resources  you  get-  This 
is  without  the  obligatory 
sound  card,  speakers,  and 
joystick  gizmos,  which  will 
add  an  additional  £100  to 
the  total,  giving  you  a  layout 
of  around  $1600,  before 
you've  even  fired  a  shot  in 
anger  at  any  alien 
scumbags.  Is  it  any  wonder 
why  the  English,  hassled 
into  poverty  by  the  reces- 
sion, would  prefer  to  spend 
their  hard  earned  cash  on  a 
S500  Amiga? 

I  think  it's  fair  to  say  that 
there's  a  cultural  difference 
between  the  two  sides  of 
the  Atlantic  in  terms  of  PC 
usagp  and  general  com- 
puter literacy;  U.K.  users 
lag  behind  a  couple  of  years. 
This  is  reflected  in  the  num- 
ber of  personal  computers 
required  at  home  to  keep  us 
up  to  date  with  the  office 
work,  and  since  this  group 
makes  up  the  bulk  of  game 
purchasers,  it's  been  a  slow 
start  for  PC  gamers  over 


the  years,  a  situation  which 
is  finally  changing.  Software 
sales  are  roughly  50-50  with 
those  for  Amiga  computers 
for  any  given  product. 

It's  only  recently  that  the 
U.K.  has  seen  widespread 
availability  of  386  clones 
(about  a  third  of  PCs  sold  by 
games  retailers  are 
Amstrads,  a  third  are 
badged  Eastern  Imports, 
and  the  rest  are  IBMs). 
These  PCs  now  are  able  to 
keep  up  with  the  fast  graph- 
ics and  wild  sound  that  U.K. 
gamers  demand. 

Prior  to  1 993,  few  of  the 
popular  action  games  would 
even  run  on  the  older  286 
EGA  computers.  Games  on 
the  PC  were  seen  as  mind- 
numbingly  boring  strategy 
affairs,  with  long  drawn  out 
scenarios  that  required  a 
Ph.D.  in  warfare  and  twelve 
years  to  play.  They  took 
ages  to  get  into  and  ages  to 
lose,  and  the  graphics  were 
depressingly  uninteresting 
to  say  the  least.  Flight  simu- 


JANUARY1994    COMPUTE     S-15 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 


ENTERTAINMENT  SOFTWARE 


lators,  which  took  advan- 
tage of  the  PC's  superior 
number  crunching,  were 
easily  matched  by  the  other 
computers'  graphics  chips, 
and  programmers  often 
used  tricks  to  noticeably 
speed  things  up.  The 
dolphinesque  clicks  that 
emanated  from  the  minus- 
cule internal  speaker  were 
laughable  to  those  used  to 
8-bit  stereo  sampled  sound, 
thundering  out  of  your  ste- 
reo system  as  the  last  alien 
exploded  into  a  flaming  fire- 
ball of  cycling  color.  So  what 
if  your  game  ran  off  three 
floppies,  required  26  disk 
swaps  to  get  past  the  title 
animation,  and  the  copy  pro- 
tection meant  one  in  three 
loads  aborted— you  could 
live  with  that,  couldn't  you? 
What's  changed?  The 
PC  still  has  mind-numbing 
strategy  games  with  the 
graphic  prowess  of  a  house 
brick,  but  nowadays  com- 
panies such  as  Gremlin 
Graphics,  Team  17,  and 
Psygnosis  have  woken  up 
to  the  fact  that  you  can  do 
animation  on  a  PC^ — it  does 
have  more  that  1 6  colors  to 
play  with;  and  16-bit  sound 
cards  aren't  as  rare  as  rock- 
ing horse  manure.  There's 
a  new  wave  of  computer 
games  about  to  hit  the  PC, 
and  they  owe  their  origins  to 
the  fast  action  multicolored 
worlds  of  the  other  systems 
mentioned.  Spectacular  still 
graphics  is  easy  enough  with 
640  X  480  X  256  colors,  but 
moving  it  around  at  30-50 
frames  per  second  isn't  as 
straightfonA/ard. 

Conversion  Problems 

A  game  developer  who  has 
to  code  for  widely  different 
platforms  such  as  the  PC 
and  Amiga  faces  a  number 
of  tricky  problems.  Since  a 
given  game  usually  will  ap- 
pear simultaneously  on  all 
platforms,  it  tends  to  be 
S-16     COMPUTE    JANUARY 


TOP  5  EUROPEAN 
GAMES 

Lemmings:  This  Psyg- 
nosis original  releases  as 
many  as  1 00  of  these  stu- 
pid creatures,  which  duly 
walk  over  the  nearest  cliff, 
through  the  closest  drown- 
ing pool,  and  into  the  most 
convenient  trap.  Only  you 
can  save  them.  The  graph- 
ics are  wonderful  (imag- 
ine 100  sprites  all  doing 
their  own  thing  at  once). 
Just  perfect. 

Populous:  Marketed 
by  Electronic  Arts  and  re- 
cently released  at  a  bud- 
get price.  For  anyone  who 
wants  to  be  God— for  just 
a  while. 

Zoo!:  In  this  platform 
game     from     Gremlin 


Graphics,  a  cute  Ninja- 
type  character  bounces 
around  avoiding  the  bad 
guys,  collecting  the  good- 
ies, and  killing  the  end-of- 
level  guardian. 

Alice  in  Wonderland: 
A  great  adventure  in  the 
type-in-and-go  traditional 
sense.  Graphics  are  ex- 
tremely detailed,  but  the 
charm  of  the  game  is  in  its 
superb  parser. 

Lotus,  The  Ultimate 
Challenge:  Flying  around 
various  circuits  in  an  Es- 
prit is  OK,  but  the  game 
really  accelerates  away 
from  the  rest  if  you  play 
with  another  person.  It's 
great  fun,  and  the  graph- 
ics whizz  by  so  quickly  the 
slightly  rough  scrolling  is 
forgivable. 


developed  concurrently, 

rather  than  converted.  Con- 
soles are  easier  to  code  for 
because  they  have  lower 
resolutions  than  the  PC.  Eu- 
ropean game  developers, 
who  are  accustomed  to  writ- 
ing games  for  minimal  sys- 
tems where  there's  precious 
little  RAM  to  play  with  and 
disk  access  must  be  kept  to 
a  minimum  as  the  luxury  of 
a  hard  drive  can't  be  counted 
on,  are  among  the  best. 
Their  talents  for  squeezing 
the  most  out  of  very  little  are 


being  applied  to  the  PC  and 

its  unique  problems.  Brute 
force  and  processor  power 
seemingly  can  overcome 
the  lack  of  dedicated  video 
graphics  chips  with  scroll- 
ing hardware,  sprites,  and 
fast  rendering  engines. 

These  days,  most  games 
require  at  least  VGA,  and 
while  many  will  run  on  a 
640K  machine,  most  of  the 
decent  ones  will  tax  2MB  of 
RAM  and  take  a  3-5MB 
chunk  of  hard  drive  out  of 
your  way. 


NEXT  MONTH: 

COMPUTE'S 

GETTING  STARTED  WITH' 

Buying  A  New  PC 


COMPUTE'S  GETTING  STARTED  WITH™ 

Entertainment  Software 
IS  PRINTED  ON  RECYCLED  PAPER. 


Is  there  a  lopjc  you'd  like  to  see  covered  in  COMPUTE'S  Gettmg 
Started  With  '^'  Booklet?  Let  us  know  by  calling  1  -900-884-8681 ,  ext. 
7010301 ,  The  call  will  cost  95  cents  per  minute,  you  must  tie  18  or 
older,  and  you  must  have  a  touch  tone  phone.  Sponsored  by  Pure 
Entertainment,  PO  Box  186,  Hollywood,  Califomia  30078, 


Price  and  Piracy 

Games  in  the  U.K.  are,  on 
average,  more  costly  than 
In  the  U.S.  Usually  you  find 
a  direct  swap  of  the  pound 
sign  for  the  dollar  sign,  and 
it  doesn't  take  Lotus  1-2-3 
to  see  the  exchange  isn't 
favorable.  However,  things 
are  changing  with  many  of 
the  best  older  titles  being 
re-released  at  budget 
prices,  usually  £10-20,  and 
these  really  represent  good 
value  for  money. 

It  has  to  be  said,  and  I'm 
ashamed  to  say  it,  but  we 
have  the  best  pirates  in  the 
business  manning  all  kinds 
of  bulletin  boards.  It's  not 
unusual  for  a  fully  cracked 
game  (that  is,  all  copy  pro- 
tection vanquished  and, 
somewhat  cheekily,  a  whole 
host  of  cheats  built  into  the 
code)  to  be  up  on  a  BBS 
before  the  game  is  launched 
officially.  Clearly  this  is  det- 
rimental and  is  one  reason 
why  many  companies  are 
moving  to  the  PC»  where 
the  problem  is  less  acute. 
(Amiga  versions  of  a  top 
quality  game  may  only  ship 
30,000  units  in  a  potential 
market  of  1.5  million 
machines.) 

The  PC  world  definitely 
is  changing  its  face  in  the 
U.K.  f^ore  of  the  top  com- 
panies are  porting  their  stuff 
to  the  platform,  and  several 
are  developing  exclusive 
titles  for  it. 

U.K  programmers  are 
quit  adept  at  squeezing  the 
last  ounce  of  animation 
power  out  of  their  comput- 
ers, and  to  this  end,  you'll 
be  seeing  many  more  ex- 
cellent action  games.  Plat- 
form games,  football  (or 
rather,  soccer)  games, 
blast-'em-to-bits-and-beat- 
the-living-daylights-out-of- 
the-Ninia-Nasty  type  of  pro- 
grams also  will  become 
commonplace. 

— Mike  Nelson 


1994 


Editor 

Art  Director 

Managing  Editor 

Features  Editor 

Reviews  Editor 

Gazette  Editor 

Entertainment  Editor 

Senior  Copy  Editor 

Copy  Editor 

Editorial  Assistant 

Coniributing  Editors 

interns 


Ciifron  Karnes 

Re  bin  Case-Mykytyn 

David  Engltsh 

Rebert  Sixby 

Mii(e  Hudnali 

Tom  Netsei 

Denny  Aii^in 

Karen  HLtfman 

Margaret  Ramsey 

PoHy  Cillpam 

Sylvia  Graham,  Eddie  Huffman, 

Tony  Ftoberis.  Karen  Step  a  k 

CfiucK  i^ali.  Robert  Stone 


ART 

Assistant  Art  Director    Kenneth  A  Hardy 
Designer    Katie  Murdock 
Copy  Production  Manager    Terry  Cast! 
PRODUCTION 
Production  Manager    De  Pctter 

Tratlic  Manager     Barbara  A,  Williams 

PROGRAMMING  &  ONLINE  SERVICES 

Manager    Troy  Tucker 
Programmers    Bruce  M.  Bowden 
Steve  Draper 
Brabley  M.  SmatI 
ADMiNiSTRATlON 
President,  COO     Katny  Keeion 
Executive  Vice  President,     Wliltam  Tynan 
Operations 
Ediloriai  Director    Keith  Ferreti 
OperationsManager    David  Heosley  Jr, 
Office  Manager     Sybil  Agee 
Sr.  Administrative  Assistant    Julia  Flemmg 
Administrative  Assistant     Lisa  G  Casinger 
Receptionist    LeWanda  fax 
ADVERTISING 
Vice  President,    Peler  T,  Jofinsmeyer 
Associate  Pubiisher    (21^)  496-6100 

ADVEHTiSiKG  SALES  OFFiCES 
East  Coast;  Full-Page  ana  Standard  D splay  Ads— Peter  T  Johns- 
meyer.  Criris  Coeiho,  COMPUTE  Publ.caiiOns  international  Ltd., 
1965  Broadway.  New  York,  NY  10023;  (212)  496^  IX.  Southeast- 
Harriet  (fcgers.  503  A  St  SE,  Washington.  DC  20003;  (202)  546- 
5926  Rofida— J  M  RerT>er  Associates,  7040  N,  f^lmetio  Park  Rd.. 
Suite  308.  Boca  Raton.  FL  33433;  (305)  933-1467.  {305)  933- 
8302  (FAX).  M-cwesl— Full-Page  anc  Standard  Display  Ads- 
Starr  Lane.  Naticna!  Accounts  Ivlanager;  7  Maywood  Dr.,  Danville, 
iL  61832.  (317)  443-40^Z  (217)  443^043  (FAX)  Deiroit-^im  Chau- 
vin.  20O  Ea5l  Big  Beaver  Rd  .  Troy,  Ml  49083,  (313)  680-46  tO; 
(313)  534-2866  (Fax)  Nofth west— Jerry  Thompson,  Jules  £.  Th- 
ompson Co..  1290  Howard  Ava.,  Suise303,  Burlingame.  CA  94010; 
(4t5)  348-8223.  Lucilfa  Dennis,  (707)  451-8209.  Southwest- 
Howard  Berman  6728  Eton  Ave  ,  Caroga  F^rk,  CA  91303;  (818) 
992^777.  Produ::t  Marl  Ads— Lucille  Dennis,  Jules  E.  Thorrpson 
Co.,  1290  Howa'd  Ave.,  Suite  303.  Burlingame.  CA  94010.  (707) 
451-8209  UK  &  Europe— Beveriy  Wardaie.  Flat  2.  10  Stafford  Ter- 
race. London  W87  BH,  England;  011-4711-937-1517.  Japan— 
Intergroup  Comnunicalions,  Ltd.;  Jtro  Semba.  President.  3F  Tiger 
Bldg  5-22  ShJba.koen,  3-Chome,  Minato  ku.  Tokyo  105,  Japan.  03- 
434-2607.  Classifhed  Ads— Mana  Manasen.  1  Woods  Ct ,  Hunting- 
ton. NY  11743.  (TELFAX)  (516)  757-9562 

THE  CORPORATION 

Bob  Guccione  (chairman  and  CEO) 

Kalliy  Keeton  (vice-cii airman) 

David  J.  Myerson  (presicent  and  CEO) 

Wtiliam  R  Marlieb  (president,  marketing,  sales  and  circulatiori) 

Patrick  J.  Gavin  (senior  vice  president  and  CFO) 

Richard  Cohen  (executive  vice  president  and  treasurer) 

Frank  DeVino  (exocutive  vice  presdent.  graphics  direcSor) 

Jim  Martise  (executive  vice  president,  circulation) 

Jen  Winston  (executive  vice  presicent.  corporate  services) 

Hal  Halpner  (vice  president,  director  of  manufacturing) 

William  Tynan  (vice  president,  technology  and  information 

services) 

ADVERTISING  AND  MARKETING 

Sr.  VP/Corp,  Dir„  New  Business  Development  Beverly  V/ardale.  VP/ 
Dir..  Group  Advertising  Sales  Nancy  Kestenbaum;  Sr,  VP/South- 
ein  and  Midwest  Advertising  Dir:  feter  Goldsm;th  Offices:  New 
York:  196S  Broadway.  New  York.  NY  10023-5965.  Tel  (212)  496- 
6100,  Telex  237128.  Midwest;  111  East  Wacker  Or ,  Suite  508,  Chica- 
go. IL  60601;  (312)  819^900.  (312)  819-0813  (FAX)  South:  1725 
K  St.  NW.  Suite  903.  Washington,  DC  20006,  Te!.  (202)  728-0320- 
West  Coas;  6728  Eton  Ave..  Canoga  Park.  CA  91303,  Tel  (818) 
992-4777  UK  ard  Europe  Flat  2,  10  Stafford  Terrace.  London  W87 
BH.  England;  Te>  Ot  1-47 11-937- 1517  Japan  I  ntef  group  J  if  o  Sem- 
ba, Telex  J25469IGLTYO.  Fax  434-5970  Korea  Kaya  Advtsng  , 
inc.,  Rm  402  Kunshtn  Annex  B/0  251-1.  Dohwa  Dong,  Mapo-Ku. 
Seoul,  Korea  (121).  Tei,  719^906,  Telex  K32l44Kayaad. 

ADMINISTRATION 
Sf.  VP.  CFO;  Patrick  J  Gavm;  EVP; Corporate  Sen/ices;  Jen  Win- 
ston; VP  Director  Sales  Promotions:  Beverly  G reaper:  Dir,  Newsstand 
Circulation;  Maureen  Sharkey;  Dir,,  Newsstand  Operations:  JosGal- 
!o;  Dir.  Subscription  Circulation:  Beatr  ce  J,  Hanks;  VP  Director  of 
Research:  Robert  Ratiner;  Adveriising  Production  Director  Char- 
lene  Smith;  Traffic  Dir,  William  Harbutt.  Dir .  Budget  and  Fjrance: 
Tom  Maley;  Produciior^  Mgr  Tom  Slinson;  Asst.  Production  Mgr: 
Nancy  Rice;  Mgr.,  International  Div.:  George  Rojas;  ISiationai  Mar- 
keting Director:  Anne  M-  Zink;  Exec.  Assi.  to  Bo5  Guccione:  Diar^ 
O'Connell,  Special  Asst,  to  Sob  Guccone:  Jane  Homiish 


MMsm 


□  a:j.,in] 


OR  $500,000.00  CASH! 


One  of  these  or  98  other  cosh  prizes  could  be 
yours  in  the  next  six  months.  All  you  hove  to  do 
is  play  and  win  in  COMFUQUESF S  WIN  A 
MANSION  CONTEST. 

What's  i!  lake  to  ploy?  Three  simple 
items  you  probably  already  have:  (1 )  a  com- 
puter with  a  modem,  or  access  to  one;  (2)  a 
knowledge  of  either  Sports,  Entertainment 
or  General  Information  trivia;  and  (3)  on 
entry  fee  of  SI  00.00. 

And  look  how  easy  it  is  to  win!  Using  your 
computer  on-line  with  the  contest  (we'll  even 
provide  an  800  number),  answer  the  trivia 
questions  in  the  category  of  your  choice,  A 
series  of  eliminotion  rounds  based  on  accuracy 
and  speed  result  in  the  Grand  Prize  Winner 
being  given  the  choice  of  the  luxurious 
mansion  (valued  at  51,000,000.00)  or 
S500,000.00  in  cash.  And  98  other  finalists  win 
cosh  prizes  ranging  from  $500  to  550,000  for  a 
total  of  $1 22,500.00  in  secondary  prizes. 


So  how  con  we  do  this?  Well,  ofter  we  get 
22,000  entries  the  game  begins  and  if  we  don 't 
hove  enough  entries  we'll  return  your  money. 
Guaranteed.  All  the  entry  fees  will  be  held  in 
escrow  by  a  major  honk  until  the  gome  starts. 

But  the  most  entries  we'll  accept  is  60,000  so 
your  odds  of  winning  something  are  about  1  in 
600  -  pretty  good  odds  in  our  book.  Only  57.00 
starts  you  on  the  rood  to  possible  fame  and 
fortune.  For  that  57.00  we'll  send  you  a  com- 
puter disk  with  a  demonstration  of  the  game 
with  sample  questions,  complete  set  of  rules, 
entry  application  and  the  communication  pro- 
gram for  the  type  of  computer  (DOS  or  MAC) 
thot  you  will  use  on-line.  No  magazines  to  buy. 
No  swampland  to  visit.  No  essays  or  jingles  to 
write.  And  if  you  don't  like  the  demo  you're 
under  no  obligation  to  enter. 

Simply  fill  out  the  necessary  information 
below  and  return  it  to  us  with  57.00  today. 
(Photo  copies  will  be  accepted.) 


teak    Will  A  Mansion,™  Inc. 


604  Corporate  Drive  West  •  Langhome,  PA  19047  USA 


Phonel 


DOS  n  3,5  D  5.25      MAC  D  3.5      Check  D 


.Zip 

_  Entrants  must  be  1 B  years  of  age  or  older. 
Money  Order  D         IC 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  122 


WINDOWS  WORKSHOP 


Clifton  Karnes 


FOUR  TIPS 


By  creating 

a  blank  sound 

file,  you 

can  break  Sound 

Recorder's 

Go-second  barrier. 


Program  Order 

Problem:  When  you  run  a  pro- 
gram  by  specifying  its  file- 
name witliout  an  extension 
and  there  is  more  than  one  pro- 
gram with  that  name.  Win- 
dows uses  the  extensions  to 
decide  which  program  to  run. 
In  other  words,  with  the  two 
programs  MYPROG.EXE  and 
MYPR0G.COM,  Windows,  by 
default,  will  search  for  and  run 
the  COM  program  first.  This  is 
inefficient,  however,  if  you  use 
mostly  Windows  programs, 
which  are  EXE  files. 

Solution:  Change  the  order 
Windows  uses  to  search  for 
programs. 

Background:  Both  MS-DOS 
and  Windows  look  for  pro- 
grams in  a  certain  order,  DOS 
first  checks  to  see  if  the  com- 
mand issued  is  an  internal 
DOS  command;  next  it  looks 
in  the  current  directory  and  on 
the  path  for  files  in  this  order: 
COM,  EXE,  and  BAT,  Win- 
dows doesn't  check  to  see  if 
the  command  is  internal,  but  it 
runs  programs  in  the  same  or- 
der; COM,  EXE,  and  BAT,  fol- 
iowed  by  PIF. 

The  big  difference  between 
Windows  and  DOS  is  that  Win- 
dows lets  you  change  the  or- 
der in  v/hich  it  runs  programs. 
If  most  of  the  programs  you 
run  are  Windows  programs, 
which  always  end  in  EXE.  then 
having  the  system  search  for 
COM  files  before  EXE  files  is 
unnecessary  overhead. 

Step  by  step: 

1,  Run  SysEdit  and  make 
WIN. INI  active. 

2.  Find  the  Programs=  en- 
try in  the  [Windows]  section.  !t 
will  probably  look  like  this. 

Programs=com  exe  bat  pif 


3.  Edit  the  line  so  it  reads 
as  follows- 

50        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Programs=exe  com  bat  pif 

Note:  When  you  run  a  pro- 
gram, you  can  eliminate  the 
search  in  DOS  or  Windows  by 
including  the  extension  along 
with  the  filename.  For  exam- 
ple, if  you  specify  NO- 
TEPAD.EXE  instead  of  NO- 
TEPAD, neither  DOS  nor  Win- 
dows will  search  for  other  files 
named  NOTEPAD. 

Make  Sound  Recordings 
Longer  Than  60  Seconds 

Problem:  Sound  Recorder  has 
a  maximum  default  recording 
length  of  60  seconds. 

Solution:  Create  a  blank 
sound  file  to  insert  in  another 
file. 

Step  by  step: 

1,  Run  Sound  Recorder 
and  record  for  60  seconds 
with  your  microphone  turned 
off. 

2.  Save  this  file  as 
BLANK60,WAV  (don't  forget 
the  WAV  extension). 

3. Whenever  you  want  to  ex- 
tend the  recording  time  of  a 
file,  open  BLANK60.WAV; 
choose  Edit,  Insert  File;  and  in- 
sert another  copy  of 
BLANK60.WAV  in  the  file. 

Nofe;  BLANK6G.WAV  is 
2.5MB  in  size.  You'll  have  to 
have  a  substantial  amount  of 
RAM  and  disk  space  to  make 
sound  files  longer  than  the  de- 
fault 60  seconds.  One  solu- 
tion is  to  make  a  second,  short- 
er blank  sound  file  to  insert. 
I've  created  a  file  called 
8LANK15.WAV,  which  is  a 
blank  15-second  sound  file.  I 
simply  insert  this  as  many 
times  as  necessary  to  in- 
crease the  length  of 
BLANK60.WAV. 

A  Solid,  Nonblinking  Cursor 

Problem:  Windows'  blinking 
cursor  can  be  irritating. 

Solution:  Change  the  blinking 
cursor  to  a  solid  one. 


Sfep  by  step: 

1,  Run  SysEdit  and  activate 
WIN. INI. 

2.  in  the  [Windows]  section, 
find  the  CursorBlinkRate^  en- 
try, 

3.  Change  the  value  to  Cur- 
sorBlinkRate=-1. 

4,  You  can  test  your  cursor 
by  running  Control  Pane!,  Desk- 
top and  clicking  on  OK. 

Note:  The  default  blink  rate 
is  530.  with  a  range  of  0- 
1200,  These  numbers  deter- 
mine how  long,  in  millisec- 
onds, the  cursor  will  be  dis- 
played, so  larger  numbers 
mean  a  slower  cursor.  The  val- 
ue -1  turns  the  cursor  on.  You 
can  change  the  cursor  blink 
rate  in  Control  Panel,  but  you 
can't  turn  blinking  off,  as  we 
have  done  by  editing  the 
WIN, INI  file  and  adding  a  -1 
to  CursorBlinkRate. 

Save  File  Manager  Settings 

Problem:  When  you  set  up 
File  Manager  just  the  way  you 
want  it,  the  normal  way  to  save 
your  settings  is  to  select  Save 
Settings  on  Exit,  close  File  Man- 
ager, run  it  again,  and  turn  off 
Save  Settings  on  Exit 

Solution:  Shift-double-click  on 
File  Manager's  Control-menu 
box. 

Sfep  by  step: 

To  save  your  settings  at  any 

time,  simply  hold  down  the 

Shift  key  and  double-click  on 

File  Manager's  Control-menu 

box. 

Note:  There  is  a  similar 
(and  better-known)  way  to 
save  settings  in  Program  Man- 
ager by  clicking  on  its  Control- 
menu  box,  but  most  people 
don't  know  you  can  do  the 
same  v/ith  File  Manager. 

These  four  tips  are  taken 
from  my  new  book,  Essential 
Windows  Tools  (published  by 
COMPUTE  books).  All  are 
drawn  from  the  chapter  "52  Es- 
sential Power  Tips. "  D 


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INTRODOS 


Tony  Roberts 


DATA 

COMPRESSION: 
PACKING  IT  IN 


Compression 

is  an  inexpensive 

way  to 

doubie  the  space 

on  your  disk. 


52 


It's  axiomatic:  Data  expands 
to  fill  all  available  storage 
space  on  your  disk. 

When  you  run  out  of  room, 
you  can  either  delete  files,  pur- 
chase additional  storage,  or 
find  some  way  of  making 
more  data  fit  into  less  space. 
For  more  and  more  computer 
users,  the  last  option,  data  com- 
pression, is  the  best  way  to 
go.  Lets  see  how  compres- 
sion works  and  look  at  the 
ways  it  can  be  achieved. 

Compression  software  uses 
a  variety  of  algorithms  to  com- 
pact files.  These  programs  usu- 
ally start  by  looking  for  repeat- 
ed characters  in  a  file.  For 
example,  many  people  routine- 
ly press  the  space  bar  five 
times  every  time  they  indent  a 
paragraph.  The  compression 
software  identifies  these  repeat- 
ed strings,  and  instead  of  stor- 
ing five  spaces  in  the  disk  file, 
it  stores  a  code  that  means 
five  spaces. 

The  compressed  file,  there- 
fore, is  a  series  of  special 
codes  that  describe  the  origi- 
nai  file.  When  file  decompres- 
sion is  requested,  the  codes 
are  expanded,  and  the  file  is 
returned  to  its  original  form 
and  size. 

Graphics,  word-process- 
ing, database,  and  spread- 
sheet files  usually  compress 
well  because  of  the  high  inci- 
dence of  repetitive  data  that  oc- 
curs in  them.  Program  files, 
however,  normally  do  not  com- 
press as  much. 

For  years,  telecommunica- 
tors  have  been  big  fans  of  file 
compression.  Smaller,  com- 
pressed files  transfer  much  fast- 
er than  uncompressed  files, 
and  that  means  lower  connect- 
time  charges,  which  in  turn 
means  lower  long-distance 
bills.  But  even  if  you're  not  a 

COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


telecommunicator,  you  may 
want  to  begin  compressing 
some  of  your  files  to  free  up 
some  disk  space  and  to  sim- 
plify file  management. 

Single  files  or  groups  of 
files  can  be  compressed  with 
utilities  such  as  PKZIP  and 
LHArc.  PKZIP  has  become  a 
widely  recognized  standard. 
LHArc,  another  well-known 
compression  program,  is  free- 
ly distributed.  Be  aware  that 
the  compression  algorithms 
used  by  these  programs  dif- 
fer, however,  so  a  file  com- 
pressed with  PKZIP  can't  be 
decompressed  with  LHArc. 

In  addition  to  saving 
space,  compression  utilities 
can  take  several  files  and  com- 
bine them  into  one  file  called 
an  archive.  For  example,  you 
can  gather  up  ail  the  files  you 
used  to  prepare  last  year's  tax 
returns— spreadsheet  files, 
word-processing  files,  tax-prep- 
aration software  files,  and  so 
on^and  bundle  them  into  an 
archive  called  TAXES92. 
Copy  this  archive  file  to  a  flop- 
py disk  and  store  it  with  your 
income  tax  materials.  When 
you're  ready  to  work  on  your 
1993  tax  return,  you1l  have  all 
of  your  1992  documents  to 
use  as  a  handy  reference 
right  at  your  fingertips. 

Or,  for  another  example, 
look  at  your  correspondence 
subdirectory.  Does  it  include 
dozens  or  hundreds  of  mem- 
os that  you  keep  on  hand  be- 
cause you  may  want  to  refer  to 
them  sometime?  Why  not  take 
al!  of  your  letters  from  1993 
and  compress  them  into  one 
archive  called  LTRS93?  In  ad- 
dition to  freeing  up  hard  disk 
space,  archiving  your  letters  re- 
duces the  clutter  in  your  cor- 
respondence subdirectory.  If 
you  ever  need  one  of  the  let- 
ters in  the  archive,  you  can 
give  a  command  to  decom- 
press only  the  one  you  need. 

In  the  past  few  months,  an- 
other type  of  compression- 
whole  disk  compression— has 


received  considerable  atten- 
tion, thanks  to  the  inclusion  of 
DoubleSpace  as  an  integral 
part  of  DOS  6.  Under  this  sys- 
tem, everything  that's  stored 
on  disk  is  compressed  as  it's 
being  saved  and  decom- 
pressed as  it's  being  read. 
And  it  all  happens  without  any 
intervention  from  the  user. 

Disk  compression  may 
slow  system  performance  a 
tad.  but  the  payoff  is  that  you 
can  store  nearly  twice  as 
much  data  on  any  given  disk. 
On  a  fast  computer,  the  slow- 
down is  barely  perceptible. 
DoubleSpace  and  similar  utili- 
ties, such  as  Stacker  from 
Stac  Electronics,  can  provide 
a  low-cost  way  to  expand 
your  system  without  your  hav- 
ing to  open  the  box  and  install 
new  hardware. 

However,  the  inclusion  of 
DoubleSpace  with  DOS  6  has 
fueled  a  continuing  debate 
about  the  safety  of  disk  com- 
pression. While  the  majority  of 
users  have  installed  Dou- 
bleSpace successfully,  a  few 
have  reported  problems  and 
have  experienced  data  loss. 
Most  of  these  problems  ap- 
pear to  be  installation  issues, 
and  Microsoft's  answer— a 
DOS  6.2  maintenance  re- 
lease—may be  available  by 
the  time  you  read  this. 

Ifs  clear,  though,  from  Stack- 
er's track  record  and  from  the 
experience  of  those  who've 
achieved  successful  installa- 
tion of  DoubleSpace,  that 
whole  disk  compression  is  a  vi- 
able alternative  to  installing  a 
new  hard  drive.  Still,  the  stan- 
dard computing  caveat — al- 
ways keep  backup  copies  of 
your  data— bears  repeating. 

If  you  use  whole  disk  com- 
pression, note  that  you  won't 
doubie  the  benefit  by  trying  to 
combine  the  effects  of  Stack- 
er or  DoubleSpace  with 
PKZIP  or  LHArc.  Once  a  file  is 
compressed,  the  whole  disk 
compression  program  won't 
be  able  to  do  much  more.     O 


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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  176 


PROGRAMMING  POWER 


Tom  Campbel 


RTF  is  a 

minilanguage  in 

wtiicli  the 

keywords  start  witti 

a  backslasli. 


PROGRAMMING 
WINDOWS  HELP 
FILES 

To  create  a  WinHelp  HLP  file, 
you  need  at  least  two  source 
files.  The  first  is  a  project  file, 
with  the  default  extension 
HPJ.  The  project  file  contains, 
at  a  minimum,  a  list  of  all  the 
help  source  files  (called  topic 
files)  in  the  project.  The  other 
file  or  files  are  the  actual  help 
source  files,  which  use  a  de- 
fault extension  of  RTF. 

Project  files  are  in  sections 
and  look  somewhat  like  the  INI 
files  so  common  to  Windows 
applications  and  the  Windows 
system  itself.  At  a  minimum, 
you  need  a  [Files]  section  and 
a  list  of  the  topic  files.  For  ex- 
ample, the  minimum  HPJ  file 
for  a  product  called  Super- 
Note  might  be  named  SUPR- 
NOTE.HPJ  and  contain  just 
one  topic  file  in  its  [Files]  sec- 
tion. It  would  look  fike  this. 

[Files] 
SUPRNOTE.RTF 

Most  help  files  also  have  an 
[Options]  section  with  such 
items  as  compression  level, 
copyright,  title,  and  so  on;  but 
you  can  get  by  just  fine  with- 
out it  to  start. 

Topic  files  are  much  more 
complicated,  even  at  a  mini- 
nnum,  and  that's  what  brought 
this  column  about.  I  have  to  cre- 
ate large  help  files  frequently. 
They  need  good  indexes,  gen- 
erous keyword  lists,  and  lots  of 
hyperlinks.  They  don't  need 
the  many  impressive  bells  and 
whistles  that  come  with  the 
help  engine,  such  as  user-de- 
fined buttons,  custom  DLLs, 
or  CD-ROM  file  systems.  All 
that  stuff  is  great,  and  I  strong- 
ly encourage  you  to  read  the 
help  compiler  documentation. 
It  won't  take  you  long  to  real- 
ize that  the  Windows  help  sys- 
tem is  an  unsung  hero  in  the 


development  world.  But  that 
doesn't  solve  the  simple  prob- 
lem of  creating  a  minimal  help 
system.  The  help  docs  just 
don't  tell  you  what  to  leave  out. 
So,  here  goes. 

RTF  is  a  minilanguage  in 
which  the  keywords  start  with 
a  backslash,  and  compound 
statements  employ  the  curly 
braces  and  semicolons  so  fa- 
miliar to  C  programmers.  All 
the  rest  is  ASCII  text. 

1.  The  file  must  begin  with  a 
left  brace  and  end  with  a  right 
brace. 


2.  The  first  keyword  is  Vtf. 
IVtfl 

3.  The  second  is  the  \ansi  state- 
ment. 

|Vtf\ansil 

4.  Next,  you  should  include  a 
\fonttbl  statement  enclosed  in 
braces.  The  syntax  is 

|\fonttbl{\f<num- 
berxtagxmultiword    font 
name>;)  .  .  .  } 

where  <number>  is  replaced 
by  a  number  such  as  0.  1,  or 
15,  <tag>  is  the  one-word 
font  name.  <multiword  font 
name>  is  the  typeface  family 
name,  and  the  three  dots 
mean  0  or  more  more  occur- 
rences of  the  \f  statement  It's 
much  easier  to  see  the  follow- 
ing example. 

{\rtf\ansi 
IVonllbl 

(\fO\froman  Times  New  Ro- 
man;} 

|\f1\fdecor  Courier  New;) 
(\f2\fswiss  Arial;J) 


5.  Specify  the  default  font  us- 
ing the  \def  statement.  The 
syntax  is 


\deff<font  number> 

where  <font  number>  is  a  num- 
ber, such  as  0. 
Here's  an  example. 

(VtfNansi 
IXfonttbl 

j\fO\froman  Times  New  Ro- 
man;) 

(\f1\fdecor  Courier  New;} 
{\f2\f Swiss  Ariai;}} 
\deffO 


In  this  case,  the  default  is  fO, 
for  Times  New  Roman. 

RTF  is  interesting  in  that, 
like  most  "real"  programming 
languages,  white  space  is  ir- 
relevant. That  is.  between  the 
backslash  keywords  and  the 
curly  brace  statements,  you 
can  use  any  number  of  spac- 
es, tabs,  or  newlines — or 
none.  The  dreary  part  is  that  a 
simple  blank  line  needs  its 
ownVpar  keyword  and  a  tab  us- 
es the  \tab  keyword,  instead 
of  an  ASCII  9.  (This  is  actually 
good,  DOS  uses  a  different  AS- 
CI I  convention  for  blank  lines 
than  UNIX  and  the  Mac,  and 
IBM  mainframes  use  some- 
thing different  from  all  of 
them.  Consequently,  RTF  files 
offer  an  accurate,  though 
bulky,  means  of  assuring  cor- 
rect formatting  on  all  comput- 
er systems.) 

6.  Create  the  topics  with 

#|\footnote  <UniqueContext>} 
${\footnote  <Opt!onal  Topic  Ti- 
tle>}<Topic  text> 
\page 

where  <UniqueConlext>  is  re- 
placed by  a  unique  context 
name.  The  name  may  consist 
of  letters,  digits,  and  the  under- 
score character. 

<Topic  text>  is  just  that — 
what  you  want  to  talk  about  in 
the  help  file.  Note  that  new- 
lines  are  ignored.  To  start  a 
new  paragraph,  use  the  \par 
statement. 


56        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


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LOOK  INSIDE 


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FANTASY 


QUEST  FOR  GLORY 


Save  Mordavia,  AND  enjoy  phantomfui  fun! 
This  latest  offering  in  the  award-winning 
series  was  created  especially  for  adventurers 
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I)     Their  celebrated  games  have  won  a  myriad  of  awards,  including 
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SIERRA' 


REAUTY 


(Jiicf  Daryl  F.  <jsite«' 

POLICE  QUEST 
OPEN  SEASON 


Someone's  on  a  killing  spree,  and  it's  up  to 
you  to  solve  a  string  of  seemingly  random 
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iUisoim 


LEISURE  SLIT  LARRY 

Shape  Up  or  Slip  Out 


This  time  around,  Larry's  at  a  posh  resort 
spa,  surrounded  by  luxury  ...  and  nine 
gorgeous  girls!  How  could  he  possibly  mess 
this  up?  Easy!  After  all,  we're  talking  about 
Larry.  This  is  the  longest,  hardest  Larry  ever! 


Game  designer  Al  Lowe  is  tlie  culprit  behind  the  leisure  Suit  Larry 
phenomenon.  Al  is  a  former  music  teacher  and  jazz  musician,  which 
accounts  for  all  the  sax  and  violins  in  his  games. 


SIERRA^ 


2. 

3. 
4. 


Key  to  Adventure  Contest! 

1 .      Remove  the  Key  to  Adventure  card.  You  can  also  write  to  Sierra  to 
receive  a  Key  to  Adventured  Write  to: 
Key  to  Adventure  Contest,  P.O.  Box  485,  Coarsegold,  CA,  93614 

Take  it  to  any  participating  software  retail  outlet. 

Check  the  key  sequences  on  the  poster. 

If  your  key  pattern  matches  any  pattern  found  on  the  poster,  you'll 
win  a  fabulous  prize  from  Sierra!  We're  giving  away  the  following: 

One  Gateway  State -of -the -Art 
Multimedia  Computer! 

Valued  at  $3299.00 

Two  MediaVision  Multimedia 
Computer  Upgrade  Kits! 

Each  valued  at  $899.00 

25  Gravis  Ultra  Sound 
Sound  Boards! 
Each  valued  at  $199.00 

50  Sierra  adventure  games! 

(Jeaiured  insutv) 

Each  valued  at  $69.95 

2,000  Sierra  hint  hooks! 

Each  valued  at  S9.95 

So  why  are  you  still  sitting  there?  Grab  your  Key  to  Adventure  and  get  going! 


Gateway  State -of -the -Art  Multimedia 
Computer! 


MediaVision  Multimedia  Computer 
Upgrade  Kits! 


Check  your  Key  to  Adventure  card  at  these  and  other  participating  computer  retail  stores: 
CompUSA,  Computer  City,  Electronics  Boutique,  Incredible  Universe,  Software  Etc. 

Odds  of  winning  PC:  1  in  1 ,700,000. 

Odds  of  winning  upgrade:  1  in  850,000. 

Odds  of  winning  sound  card:  1  in  68.000. 

Odds  of  winning  Sierra  game:  l  in  34,000. 

Odds  of  winning  Sierra  hint  book:  1  in  850. 

Efigibility  requirements:  AW  contestants  must  be  18  or  older  to  participate.  Employees  and 
their  families  of  Sierra  On-Line,  Inc.,  its  affiliates,  and  outside  materials  suppliers,  are  not 
eligible.  Good  only  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  Contest  void  where  prohibited  by  law. 
No  purchase  necessary  to  win. 

For  a  complete  list  of  contest  rules  and  prizes,  send  a  self-addressed  stamped  envelope 
along  with  your  request  by  December  15,  1993, 

Contest  ends  January  31,  1994,  Write-in  requests  must  be  postmarked  by  December  31. 
1993,  Prizes  must  be  claimed,  in  writing,  by  February  28,  1994. 

Please  allow  4-6  weeks  for  delivery  of  prizes  after  receipt  of  winning  contest  cards  at  Sierra. 

Unclaimed  prizes  will  remain  the  property  of  Sierra  On-Line.  Inc. 


Gravis  UltraSound  Sound  Hoards! 


*while  supplies  last 

Sierra  Publishing  DiviSiDn  is  a  de^^e'oper  ar<j:  publisher  of  pfemium  antertainmeni  and  educational  software.  Sierra  Publishing  is  a  division  of 
Siefra  Ofl-Line,  Inc.,  located  at  40033  Sle:ra  Way.  OaKhurst.  Califonia,  93644. 


SIERRA^ 


Sierra  hint  books! 


msm 

GABRIEL  KNIGHT 

Situ  <U  t^  "^eU&enA 


He  started  out  writing  a  book  on  voodoo.  Now  he's 
fighting  for  his  very  soul  in  this  dark,  erotic  journey 
into  the  supernatural.  Help  Gabriel  Knight  unlock  the 
secrets  of  his  past,  and  atone  for  the  sins  of  the 
fathers. 


-ro- 


Designer  Jane  Jensen  has  written  horror  and  suspense  stories  for 
many  years.  She  co-designed  EcoQuest:  The  Search  for  Cetus,  and  is 
co-author  and  co-director  of  the  bestselling  King's  Quest  VI 


SIERRA^ 


PROGRAMMING  POWER 

The  <Optional  Topic  Title>  reaily  isn't 
optionaL  If  you  want  the  topic  to  show 
up  in  the  search  dialog,  you  need  it.  The 
<UniqueContext>  string  is  what  gives 
it  a  position  in  the  file — titles  don't  have 
to  be  unique,  but  contexts,  like  sub- 
routine names,  do. 

Here's  an  example, 

{Vtf1\ansi 

\deff2 

(Monttb! 

(MO\froman  Times  New  Roman;) 

(\f1\fdecor  Courier  New;} 

(\f2\fswiss  Arial;}} 

#(\footnote  SuperNoteOverviewl 

$(\footnote  Overview  of  SuperNote} 

SuperNote  makes  note  taking  easier 

than  ever. 

\par 

\page 


Why  are  the  critical  help  context  and  top- 
ic title  functions  given  \foolnote  com- 
mands? It's  a  kludge,  that's  why.  Remem- 
ber, RTF  wasn't  designed  for  the  crea- 
tion of  help  systems.  Microsoft  just 
chose  RTF  as  the  vehicle  for  help  sourc- 
es, perhaps  because  it's  easy  to  create 
RTF  filters  for  word  processors. 


SPEAK  UP! 

Is  there  a  feature  topic 

you'd  like  to  see  covered 

in  COMPUTE? 

Let  us  know  by  calling 

900-285-5239 

(sponsored  by  Pure 

Entertainment, 

P.O.  Box  186,  Hollywood, 

California  90078). 
The  call  will  cost  95  cents 

per  minute, 

you  must  be  18  or  older, 

and  you  must  use 

a  touch-tone  phone. 


7.  End  each  topic  with  a  \page  state- 
ment, as  shown  above.  You  can  have 
as  nnany  topics  per  file  as  you  wish; 
one  common  convention  is  to  have 
one  file  per  menu  and  dialog  in  the 
application. 

8.  While  you've  just  been  given  the  abso- 
lute minimum,  a  help  system  is  nothing 
without  keywords.  Keywords  appear  in 
the  search  dialog,  using  WinHelp's 
cool  word-completion  algorithm,  which 
jumps  to  the  first  word  matching  the  let- 
ters as  you  type  them.  You  can  have  as 


-wGia 


Creating  s!mp!e  help  files  can  be  easier 
than  you  think. 

many  keywords  as  you  wish  per  topic, 
and  they  too  use  a  footnote  (this  time, 
the  K  footnote: 

K{\footnote  Overview; Starting  out)). 

Footnotes  can  consist  of  more  than  one 
word,  and  you  use  semicolons  to  sep- 
aratethem.  You  can  put  them  anywhere, 
but  I  put  them  right  after  the  title. 

9.  Your  last  task  is  to  include  hypertext 
links  within  the  help  text.  The  link  con- 
sists at  a  minimum  of  the  {Xv}  command 
with  the  name  of  the  context  following 
the  \v.  Normally,  you  will  precede  it 
with  the  text  you  want  to  show  in  green 
as  the  highlight  using  the  jXuidb)  com- 
mand vyith  the  text  following  the  Vuldb. 
As  an  example,  here's  a  link  to  the  Su- 
perNoteOverview  context  shown  in  the 
example  above. 

{\uldb  The  Overview}i\v  SuperNoteOver- 
Viewjwill  give  you  the  basics  if  you're 
new  to  Windows  text  editors. 

Technically,  the  \uldb  isn't  required.  If 
you  omit  it,  the  context  name  will  ap- 
pear, which  often  works  out  fine  in  the 
case  of  SuperNoteOverView, 

That's  it.  Fewer  than  ten  steps  as  a 
basis  for  creating  commercial-quaiity 
help  systems  with  tools  you  already 
have.  Your  applications  will  have  a  bur- 
nished. weSI-rounded  appearance  that 
matches  that  of  professional  software. 

Tune  in  again  next  month  for  an 
easier  way!  0 


MEET  THE 
EDITORS 
ONLINE 

If  you  like  reading  COMPUTE 
magazine,  you  should  see 
what  we've  done  with  the  elec- 
tronic version.  That's  right — 
COMPUTE  now  has  its  own  ar- 
ea on  America  Online.  Log  on 
to  AOL  and  then  go  to  the  key- 
word compute.  Once  in  COM- 
PUTE Online,  you  can  read 
the  current  issue  and  back  is- 
sues, conduct  an  electronic 
search  for  articles  or  topics  of 
interest,  read  reviews,  down- 
load software,  and  much 
more.  You  can  even  download 
entire  copies  of  COMPUTE 
books. 

Need  a  quick  answer  to  a 
computing  question?  Contact 
the  editors  in  the  message  ar- 
ea or  chat  with  them  live  each 
week  in  COMPUTE  Confer- 
ence. You  can  also  reach  the 
editors  by  E-mail.  Here's  a  list 
of  the  COMPUTE  editors  and 
their  online  names. 

Clifton  Karnes,  editor:  CKarnes 

David  English,  managing  editor: 
DavdEnglsh 

Robert  Bixby,  features  editor: 
RBixby 

Mike  Hudnail,  reviews  editor: 
MikeHud 

Tom  Netsel,  Gazette  and 
COMPUTE  Online  editor: 
Tom  Netsel 

Denny  Atkin,  entertainment 
editor:  DennyAmiga 

Stephen  Levy,  books  editor: 
SLevyl 


JANUARY  1994     COMPUTE        57 


SSN-21  SeaWdtr^  and  080  Attack  Sub'"  arc  trndemarKs  of  Bec^Uonic  Arts,  €?1993  Etectronic  Arts, 


f/m 


llrver  wonder  what  it  s 
liht'  io  nave  your  lite  IIukIi 
iK'lorc  your  earsi? 

lou  11  lind  out  when  you 

]    pl..y  ^N-21  ScBWoir' tlib 

secfue!  to  688  AltftckSub?^ 

An  J  tKe  most  reauRticf  I'G 


p:    .sulunarliie  Hiutuiutton  I  Kin 
1^    *;uie  cil  Aiinapaliis.     -  i 

;]  At-\T>u  sttippcr  tne  >\t>rlds 
..newest, most  neavily  armq<J., 
nuclear  a li  uiclr  .Kuliv^ttb  les*^ : 
In  an  100  dUu'rirnt  soiinj 
enects  ujisauft  ^ur  s eft's t^' 
via  owT  rtnoiulionarj'  1(5  -  bit  -^ 
ttll  at  Altai  !it:ereo  ROvincL   -  ^' 


--^H   ^li 


»SOBO»Y  KSlSOWSV¥HAT  HIE  I. 
OIViE  YOU  A  PKIETTY  GOO 


itm  I!    heat"    tnc    ccriL* 

^     n  ifJn  -  pit  citrti     whine     ol 
torpt'tlofs  :is  Iney  liomt? 


in  oil  I  hv i r  L a r «^* c t s ,  T Itc' 
nuMiacint^  tli-oiii,-  .ol  ii 
dc,'Htro\f  r  paxsin^  overneatL 


y-f^' 


'.^■^J^ 


I.  LOOKS  1.1  KIE.  BUT  Wli'LI. 
IE  A  HOW  IT  SOUNDS. 


Circle  flreitfef  Serv^'cs'tftmiber  164 


READERSHIP  SURVEY 


We  want  COMPUTE  to  be  as  useful  and 
interesting  as  possible  and  to  provide 
you  with  tiie  coverage  you  want  Please 
help  us  by  taking  a  moment  to  fill  out 
and  send  us  this  questionnaire.  You  can 
mail  the  completed  questionnaire  to  us 
(photocopies  are  fine)  or  fax  it. 

Mail: 

COMPUTE  Readership  Survey 
324  W.  Wendover  Ave..  Ste.  200 
Greensboro,  NC  27408 

Fax:  (910)  275-9837 

What  computer(s)  do  you  own  or  plan 
to  buy? 

Plan 
Own   to  Buy 

□  □  8088/8086,  brand 

□  □  80286,  brand 

Q  a  80386,  brand 

Q  □  80486,  brand 

□  Q  Penlium,  brand 

Q  □  Notebook/laptop,  brand 

Q  □  Macintosh,  mode! ^^^ 

Q  Q  Game  system,  brand 

□  □  Other _^ 


Which  video  display  system(s)  do  you  use? 

□  Monochrome 

□  Hercules 

□  CGA 
a   EGA 

□  VGA 

□  SuperVGA 

Which  peripheral(s}  do  you  own  or  plan  to 
buy? 

Plan 

Own  to  Buy 

□  □  5y4-inch  disk  drive 
Q  Q  S^s-inch  disk  drive 

□  a  CD-ROM  drive 
Q  □  Dot-matrix  printer 
Q  □  Fax  modem 

□  Q  Hard  disk 

Q  G  Laser  printer 

□  □  MIDI  device 
a  □  Modem 

□  □  Mouse 

□  □  PostScript  printer 

□  3  Sound  card 
~l  3  Speakers 

□  □  Tape  backup  system 

60        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


How  much  memory  does  your  computer 
have? 

□  640K  or  less 

□  1MB 

□  2MB 

□  4MB 
a  8MB 
a    16MB 

Which  operating  system(s)/environment(s}  do 

you  use? 

Q   DR  DOS  version , 

□  Microsoft  Windows  version  ^^_^_^_ 

Zl   MS-DOS  version ^ 

a  OS/2  version 

□  Otner.^ . „ 

Which  parts  of  the  magazine  do  you  like  the 

most? 

-1  Artworks 

a  COMPUTE'S  Getting  Started  With 

Q  Editorial  License 

3  Fast  Forward 

3  Features 

3  Feedback 

3  Game  Insider 

G  GamePlay 

G  Hardware  Clinic 

G  IntroDOS 

G  Multimedia  Spotlight 

□  New  Multimedia  Products 
G  News  &  Notes 

G  News  Bits 

G  Personal  Productivity 

G  Programming  Power 

G  Reviews 

□  Test  Lab 

G  Tips  &  Tools 

G  Windows  Workshop 

Which  of  the  following  computer-related  top- 
ics do  you  like  to  read  about? 
G  Databases 
Q   Desktop  publishing 
G  Disk  management  and  MS-DOS 
G  Education 

G  Games  and  entertainment 
G  Graphics  (paint,  draw,  or  CAD) 
G  How  to  upgrade  your  PC 
Q  Integrated  software 
G   Local  area  networks  (LANs) 


Q  Money  management 
G  Multimedia 

G  New  computer  technologies 
G  New  hardware 

Pen  computing 

Programming 

Spreadsheets 

Telecommunications 

Windows 

Word  processing 

Other 


Where  do  you  use  your  PC? 
G  Home 
G  Work 

Q  School 

G   Other „ 


Where  did  you  get  this  copy  of 

COMPUTE? 

G  Subscription 

G  Newsstand 

G  Other 


How  long  have  you  been  reading 
COMPUTE? 

□  Less  than  two  years 
Q  Two  years  or  more 

If  you  have  a  modem,  wfiich  online  service(s) 

do  you  use? 

G  America  Online 

□  BIX 

G  CompuServe 

G  DELPHI 

Q  GEnie 

G  Internet 

G  Prodigy 

G  Other 


Comments . 


Can  You  Change  Automotive  History? 


jBHl-'r-.! 


Design  cars  and  put  them  through  their  Create  unique  marketing  campaigns  to  As  your  auto  empire  grows,  open  up  new 

paces  with  a  variety  of  performance  tests!  hEow  away  the  competition!  factories  and  safes  offices  around  the  world! 


bnpressinns 


1993  Impressions  Software  )r>c 


Committed  to  Excellence  in  Strategy  Entertainment 

Impressions  Software,  Inc.  222  Third  Street,  Suite  234.  Cambridge  MA  02142 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  183 

IBM  PC  VGA  Screenshots 


Kiss  Cdnventional 
Logic  Gdddbye 


i\|ow  vou  sec  iL.    Now  you  don't.    The  land  of  Kyrandia  is  disappearing  piece  by  piece 
and  all  the  evidence  points       W^^'     '  -  ^f    ^'^'^jf^'       toward  one  perilons  con 
elusion:  a  curse,     \y     Thus       f  "^^ 


begins  7  '/fr  Ha  n  d  of  Fa  tc 
second 'mx\\c  Fables  6^ Ficndf      f}'__\    .     '   "^^^^^'T-^       scries,  where  you  are 
the  offlrcat,  young  tnystic  who  must  voyage  to  the  center  of  the  world  to  break 
che  spell.    Ovit  of  sync  and  out  on  foor,  your  aberrant  journey  re\eals  nothing 

seems.     Ex'ervthino;  is  what  it 


^W 


is  what  it 


isn't.   And 


one  hand.   ■ 


you  can  count  your  friends  on 
Literally-   \/    Conspiring  to  push 


W 


the   twisted   edge   of  c  i  n  c  ni  a  g  r  a  p  h  i  c   c  n  t  e  r  t  a  i  n  m  e  n  t ,  W  e  s  t  w  o  o  d   S  t  u  d  i  o  s   h  a  s 
signed    in  o  re  p  u  z  a  1  c  s  a  n  d  g  a  ni  c  p  \\\\'   in   t  h  e    f  i  r  s  t    f  e  u'  c  h  a  p  t  e  r  s  o  f 


than    in    all    o  f 
\y      1  h  e    m  o  s  r 


The  Hand  of  fate 

7  he  L i-jje n d  of  Kyra ndta, 

wdywnccd  graphics 


on  the   market  are  first  pencil  tested,  then  painted       Ij 

on-screen  to  surrealistic  pcrtcetit^n.    \/    Breakrli rough       ^, 

Triilifjht  teehnolou\       »&t^^      M.51B      illuniinatcs  eacli  scene  more  cinemat- 

ic al  1 V  for  a  fu  1 1 e i\  fo u r t h      ■^^™      *  i\{ nie n s i o n a  1  p i c t u re.      J  /      T h e  n e w 

Shadow  Sunllghl  W' 

State  of  Mi  fid  Systew^  along  with  superior  intuitive  interfacing,  enables  you  and 

over  5  0  characters  to  change  your  mind,  mood  and 
mayhem  based  cui  precediiig  e\'cnts.  fy  Don't  just 
pla\-  with  your  mind,    (Change  the  wa\'  \'our  mind  plays. 

Grasp  The  Hand  of  Fate  and  kiss  conventional  logic  goodbye. 


Hand  df  Rate 


WestwQod 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  19F 


HARDWARE  CUNIC 


Mark  Minasi 


As  the  PC 

reaches  the  end 

of  the  frail, 

what  alternatives 

await  us  just 

over  the  horizon? 


THE  TWILIGHT 
OF  THE  PC 

If  you've  been  following  the  in- 
dustry recently  with  an  eye  to 
buying  a  new  computer, 
you've  probably  noticed  an  im- 
portant trend.  PCs  are  less  ex- 
pensive than  they've  ever 
been. 

There's  nothing  new  in  that. 
PC  prices  have  been  on  a  con- 
stant downward  spiral.  But.  if 
you've  been  jn  the  market  for 
very  long,  you've  probably  no- 
ticed another  important  trend: 
The  computer  you  want  to 
buy— the  one  with  the  latest 
technology,  the  most  RAM, 
and  the  biggest  mass  storage 
capacity— has  always  been 
just  out  of  reach.  Until  lately. 

The  low  prices  for  the  best 
of  the  best  should  make  PC  lov- 
ers jump  for  joy,  but  there  is  a 
dark  side  to  this  phenomenon 
because  just  as  the  rapid 
drop  in  prices  has  spurred 
sales,  it  may  also  signal  the 
end  of  the  line  for  PCs. 

Since  shortly  after  the  arri- 
val of  the  PC  in  1981 .  the  mar- 
ket could  be  separated  into 
three  distinct  levels.  A  basic 
computer  system  that  couid 
run  the  low-  to  midrange  pro- 
grams of  the  day  cost  around 
$1,000, 

Even  five  years  ago,  $1 ,000 
would  buy  you  enough  XT  pow- 
er to  run  WordPerfect  5.0  and 
Lotus  1-2-3  2.0. 

If  you  had  a  little  more 
cash,  or  higher  expectations 
for  your  machine  in  terms  of 
speed  and  processing  power, 
the  next  price  point,  around 
$3,000,  got  you  either  a  pow- 
er user's  clone  or  a  low-end  ma- 
chine from  a  major  computer 
company. 

If  you  had  a  lot  of  cash  and 
were  running  major  applica- 
tions that  required  lots  of  horse- 
power  like  a  huge  database  or 
CAD  software,  you  could  get 
a  top- of-the- line  machine  with 
the  best  display,  largest  and 


fastest  hard  drive,  and  so  on, 
for  $6,G00-$1 1,000- 

PC  prices  have  always 
dropped  at  a  steady  rate;  in 
general,  today's  $3,000  pow- 
er workstation  is  tomorrow's  ba- 
sic PC,  It  goes  through  this  met- 
amorphosis to  a  basic  PC  be- 
cause the  basic  requirements 
of  software  grow  over  time. 
For  example,  an  8088-based 
XT  will  run  WordPerfect  5.1 
with  no  problems,  but  6,0 
doesn't  run  very  well  on  an  XT 
Even  on  a  16-MHz  286  AT 
clone  it  seems  slow. 

While  these  price  points 
have  remained  steady  for 
close  to  a  decade,  the  drop  in 
PC  prices  in  the  past  two 
years  is  unprecedented.  The 
reason  for  the  price  drop  is 
that  the  PC  world  is  different  to- 
day. The  difference  can  be 
seen  on  the  high  end. 

Since  today's  high-end  ma- 
chine is  tomorrow's  midlevel 
machine,  we  should  be  able 
to  predict  what  tomorrow's 
midrange  machine  will  be.  We 
look  up  from  our  fire-breathing 
desktops  to  see  what's  on  the 
horizon.  And  we  see  nothing. 

What  did  a  top-of-the-line 
computer  look  like  two  years 
ago?A486DX2/66with  16MB, 
SCSI  controller,  380MB  hard 
disk,  CD-ROM  drive,  local-bus 
video,  and  17-inch  monitor 
would  have  been  a  high-end 
computer.  That  would  have 
cost  about  $7,000-$9.000. 

How  about  a  top-of-the-line 
computer  today?  It  looks  pret- 
ty much  the  same,  except  that 
it  would  probably  have  a 
520MB  hard  disk  and  would 
cost  around  $4,500. 

The  high-end  machine  is  rap- 
idly becoming  the  midrange 
machine,  and  there  is  nothing 
taking  its  place.  As  I  see  it,  the 
big  issues  are  the  following: 

•  Processors  are  maxing  out. 

•  PC  buses  have  unaccepta- 
ble speed  limitations. 

•  PC  BIOS  cannot  exceed 
1GB  hard  disk  size. 


•  Networking  isn't  built  into 
DOS  or  Windows. 

•  PC  operating  systems  lack 
good  memory  manage- 
ment, multitasking,  and 
security. 

We  haven't  seen  a  new  PC 
processor  in  two  years— not 
even  a  faster  version  of  an  ex- 
isting chip. 

You  may  be  thinking,  What 
about  the  Pentium?  Well,  what 
about  it?  The  Pentium  may 
turn  out  to  be  a  practical  chip 
one  day,  but  that  won't  be  to- 
day, or  even  by  the  time  you 
read  this. 

The  Pentium  is  plagued  by 
heat  problems  and  production 
difficulties.  Intel  designed  the 
Pentium  with  a  0.8-micron  res- 
olution on  the  chip  mask,  requir- 
ing the  Pentium  chip  to  be 
quite  large  as  chips  go  and 
making  it  harder  to  build  in 
quantity. 

And  at  66  MHz,  the  Pentium 
doesn't  really  produce  real- 
worid  speed  that's  much  in  ex- 
cess of  that  of  a  4B6DX2/66; 
the  real  improvement  will  be 
seen  if  a  100-MHz  version  ev- 
er appears.  As  you  may  have 
read  a  few  months  ago  in 
"Hardware  Clinic,"  Intel  won't 
be  ramped  up  to  produce  Pen- 
tiums in  any  quantity  until  late 
in  1994. 

So  the  basic  CPU  has  been 
in  a  developmental  stall  for  a 
couple  of  years.  Maybe  we've 
gone  as  far  as  we  can  without 
a  major  CPU  change.  It  hap- 
pened to  the  6502  series  that 
powered  the  first  generation  of 
8-bit  computers  like  the  Apple 
II  and  the  Commodore  64  and 
the  Z80  that  powered  the 
CP/M  machines  that  paved 
the  way  for  the  PC.  We  have 
to  learn  to  accept  the  fact  that 
you  can  only  improve  an  exist- 
ing technology  a  certain 
amount  before  you  need  to 
scrap  it  and  start  from 
scratch. 

The  notion  that  PC-compat- 
ible processors  are  maxing 


64        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


L-LLQt  Dl\ 


iZLnnLLiiiLi 

The  F-14  Tomcat  Simulation! 


It's  al!  up  to  you!  The  skies  are  swarming  with  bandits. 
Only  you  stand  between  the  threat  and  your  carrier 
battle  group. 

Lock  on  your  radar  and  launch  the  Navy's  advanced 
weapons  to  destroy  the  most  sophisticated  enemy 
targets  ever  developed  for  a  MicroProse  simulation. 
Roll,  turn,  climb,  and  dive  to  out-maneuver  enemy 
aircraft  using  an  artificial  intelligence  developed  right 
out  of  Soviet  and  Third  World  military  doctrine. 


ENTERTAINMENT      •      SOFTWARE 

1993  MicroProse  Software,  Inc,  ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED. 
For  IBM-PC/Compatibies. 


A  computer-controlled  wingman  responds 
to  your  every  command.  And,  you'll 
interact  with  strike  packages  that  include 
F/A-18  Hornets.  A-6  Intruders,  A-7  Corsairs 
and  E-2C  Hawkeye  AWACS. 

Featuring  the  latest  in  3-D  terrain  technology 
derived  from  digitized  information  taken  from 
LANDSAT  geological  surveys,  you'll  pilot  your 
F-14  through  actual  locations. 

Fleet  Defender  from  MicroProse.  We  brought  you 
the  F-15  Strike  Eagle,  now  try  the  F-14  Tomcat 
featuring  the  most  authentically  modeled  F-14 
systems  available  anywhere  outside  of  the  Navy. 


J. ^- — I 

To  get  our  free  cotatog,  call  1  -a0O-B79-PLAY  Mon.-Fri.,  8:30  am  -  5:00  pm  EST 
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Nome: . 


Address; . 
City;^ 


.ap;. 


.GAa 


circle  Reader  Service  Number  119 


HARDWARE  CLINIC 

out  in  power  is  more  serious  than  it  ap- 
pears on  first  glance. 

Microcomputers  got  their  start  in  the 
mid  1970s  as  hobbyist  machines  and 
as  machines  that  a  computer  junkie 
could  controi  completely.  But  one  of  the 
things  that  made  the  PC  popular  was 
the  relatively  high  amount  of  computing 
power  that  you  could  buy  for  a  relatively 
small  amount  of  money.  The  idea  that 
Intel-compatible  microprocessors 
have  increased  in  power  by  a  factor  of 
about  100  in  ten  years  while  mainframe 
processors  have  only  jumped  by  single- 
digit  factors  in  that  time  is  one  of  the 
things  that  has  fueled  the  move  to  client/ 
server  architecture. 

But  would  corporate  America  Invest 
all  that  time  and  money  if  it  knew  it  was 
moving  from  one  dead-end  architecture 
to  another? 

What's  faster  than  the  Pentium? 
These  days,  lots  of  things  are.  But  first 
and  foremost  is  the  DEC  Alpha  chip. 
Not  only  will  it  run  NT  programs  very 
quickly,  but  it  can  also  run  regular  old 
DOS  and  Windows  programs  (under 
NT  of  course). 

But  a  chip  maker  recently  told  me, 
-'The  Alpha's  obsolete  already.  A 
whole  bunch  of  new  128-btt  supersca- 
lar chips  will  be  out  before  you  know  it, 
and  they'll  cost  about  what  the  Alpha 
does  ...  or  they  may  be  cheaper." 

IBM's  Power  PC  chip  is  a  real  alter- 
native. It  will  offer  desktop  systems  in 
the  $10,000  range  that  will  outpace  a 
486  by  a  factor  of  about  4.  Count  on  the 
$10,000  price  to  come  down  quickly. 

Originally,  IBM  and  Apple  were  set 
to  work  with  each  other  on  the  Power 
PC  and  its  accompanying  operating 
system,  Taligent,  Taligent  was  sup- 
posed to  be  essentially  Macin 
tosh  System  8  and  to  run  on 
Macs,  PCs,  and  Power  PCs 
But  now  IBM  has  backed 
out  of  the  Mac-compaiibil 
ity  promise,  giving  Ap 
pie  good  reason  to 
want  to  sell  Power 
PCs  for  less  mon- 
ey   than    IBM. 
And  if  neither 
IBM  nor  Ap 
pie  sells 


cheap  Power  PCs,  any  company  can 
buy  the  Power  PC  chip  set  from  Motor- 
ola and  undersell  IBM  and  Apple. 

The  next  problem  in  the  PC  architec- 
ture is  the  speed  of  buses.  The  ISA  and 
EISA  buses  operate  at  only  8  MHz,  and 
the  MCA  bus  operates  at  10  MHz— and 
this  in  an  age  of  66-MHz  computers. 

Yes,  there  is  a  local-bus  standard,  in 
the  VESA  (Video  Electronics  Standards 
Association)  local  bus,  but  it's  not 
much  of  a  standard.  I've  seen  a  fair  num- 
ber of  compatibility  problems  with 
boards  using  the  VESA  standard. 

State-of-the-art  buses  should  trans- 
port 64  bits,  not  32,  and  should  allow 
bus  mastering  (intelligent  boards  trans- 
porting data  between  themselves  with- 
out CPU  intervention).  You  probably 
know  that  bus  mastehng  is  already  avail- 
able with  the  MCA  and  EISA  buses,  but 
it's  not  part  of  either  VESA  or  PCI,  the 
new  Intel  local-bus  standard. 

Some  help  may  come  from  the  PC 
MCIA  (Personal  Computer  Mem- 
ory Card  Industry  Association) 
bus     slot     type.     PCMCIA 
boards  are  smart  enough 
to  be  able  to  configure 
themselves  when  insert- 
ed, and  they  can  be 
changed  while  the 
computer  is  run- 
ning. These  are 
both  powerful 
features 
But    PC- 
MCIA 
does 


not  support  bus  mastering  yet,  and 
it  ticks  along  at  a  mere  8  MHz. 

Ever  notice  that  the  Enter- 
prise's chief  engineer,  Geordi 
LaForge,  never  has  to  screw 
around  with  cables? 

Every  time  Tm  fum- 
bling  around  with   a 
LAN  cable  or  install- 
ing a  new  SCSI  de- 
vice. I  find  that 
Geordi  comes 
to  mind.  Ap- 
ple's New- 
ton can 


ACCESS 

Brings  You 

a  Virtual  Worid 

Interactive  Movie! 


What  Reviewer$  are  Saying: 

"Lots  of  games  claim  to  be  pushing  the 
envelope — Under  a  Killing  Moon  blows  it  to 
smithereensi" 

—William  TVotter,  PC  Entertainment 

^^Under  a  Killing  Moon  ...the  most 
-771     elaborate  graphic  adventure  to  date.  A 
ground  breaking  CD  adventure!" 

^Joyce  Worley,  Electronic  Games 

^  ™™-Jp     ^^Under  a  Killing  Moon  combines  the  best 
j  '"  i^^m^     elements  of  movies  and  computer  games  and 
— ^*'— I     creates  an  amazing  interactive  experience 
that's  better  than  either  of  them.  It 
literally  pulls  you  into  the  screen." 

— ^Denny  Atkin,  Entertainment  Editor, 
Compute  Magazine 

fliis  category-creating  Interactive  Movie  from  ACCESS  Software  goes  light 
years  beyond  any  other  product  labeled  "interactive."  Under  a  Killing  Moon 
takes  you  to  the  streets  of  post  World  War  III  San  Francisco  and  casts  you  into 
the  role  of  Tex  Muiphy,  Private  Investigator,  who  first  appeared  in  Mean  Streets, 
^^^^^^^l^^morandum.  Under  a  Killing  Moon  is  a  \ii||p|  World  full  of 
pedpirand^laces  so  richly  detailed,  you'll  feel  like  you're  actually  there. 


beam  its  information  from  one  New- 
ton to  another.  Why  can't  my  lap- 
top beam  data  to  and  from  my 
main  desktop  PC? 

Another  communications 

problem  that  plagues  PC 

users  is  setting  up  and 

maintaining  a  network, 

LANs  are  a  major 

pain    for    several 

reasons. 

Some  of  the 
most  impor- 
tant   rea- 
sons 


stem  from  the  general  problem  of  keep- 
ing wires  in  the  walls  attached  to  PCs 
without  any  breaks,  cracks,  nicks, 
cuts,  or  bruises.  That  problem  applies 
to  all  computer  communications.  But 
the  PC  adds  an  extra  element  of  troub- 
le with  its  antediluvian  operating  sys- 
tem, DOS  and  Windows.  DOS  was  not 
designed  with  networks  in  mind.  Pile 
sharing  was  a  notion  tacked  onto  the 
side  of  DOS,  and  networks  become 
part  of  DOS  workstations  with  the  inclu- 
sion of  temperamental  device  drivers. 
By  contrast,  the  Mac's  operating  sys- 
tem was  built  with  networking  in  mind 
from  the  very  beginning.  It  was  fairly 
lame  networking— a  serial  port  connec- 
tion no  faster  than  0.24MB  per  second- 
but  the  underlying  architecture  makes 
adding  a  high-speed  network  like  Eth- 
ernet a  simple  matter. 

NT  and  UNIX  are  examples  of  micro- 
computer operating  systems  that  are 
designed  to  network,  but  DOS  will 
never  be  NT 

Which  brings  me  to  PC  operat- 
ing systems.  DOS  was  an  ob- 
solete piece  of  garbage 
back  in  1987,  but  we  still 
use  it.  We  use  it  for  var- 
ied reasons,  but  the 
main  one  is  inertia. 
What  we  have 
in  the  DOS  and 
Windows  envi- 
ronment   is 
adequate. 
But  our 
use  of 


new  CD  thriller  Under  a  Killim  Moon! 


the  PC  is  limited  terribly  by  DOS  and 
Windows.  There's  the  annoying  640K 
limitation.  Getting  around  it  with  DPMI 
(DOS  Protected  Mode  Interface)  or 
XMS  (extended  Memory  Specification) 
code  is  cumbersome  and  apparently 
poorly  understood  by  programmers.  It 
can  be  quite  a  trick  to  get  a  number  of 
DOS  and  Windows  programs  to  work 
together. 

DOS  is  inflexible.  It's  necessary  to  re- 
boot your  system  every  time  you  make 
any  change  to  CONPIG.SYS  or  AUTOEX- 
EC.BAT. We  take  it  as  a  given,  but  why 
must  it  be  that  way?  Other  operating  sys- 
tems don't  require  this  of  you.  The  prod- 
uct manager  of  Windows  NT  told  me,  "If 
you  ever  have  to  reboot  your  computer 
after  you've  got  NT  up  and  running, 
then  we've  failed  in  our  job/' 

DOS  doesn't  support  true  multitasking; 
it's  still  quite  possible  (in  fact  it's  simple) 
to  crash  a  Windows  communication  pro- 
gram by  accessing  some  large  file  in  one 
program  while  Windows  communication 
goes  on  in  another  program. 

In  every  computer  generation,  pro- 
gress and  innovation  go  on  for  years. 
It  seems  for  a  while  that  the  sky's  the 
limit.  But  the  constant  need  to  support 
the  old  while  inventing  the  new  eventu- 
ally dictates  that  nearly  all  of  the  in- 
dustry's time  is  taken  up  with  the  old. 
leaving  nothing  for  the  new.  That  gen- 
eration of  hardware  and  software  even- 
tually becomes  entrapped  by  the  fact 
that  it's  good  enough. 

Soon,  we  PC  users  may  have  to 
make  a  choice.  We  can  either  join  the 
vanguard  or  be  left  behind.  And  just 
when  I  thought  I  was  done  buying  hard- 
ware for  a  while. 

Speak  Up! 

Do  you  have  a  hardware  problem 
you'd  like  Mark  to  tackle  in  this  col- 
umn? Let  him  know  about  it  by 
calling  (900)  285-5239  (spon- 
sored  by  Pure  Entertain- 
ment, P.O.  Box  186,  Holly- 
wood. California  90078). 
The  call  will  cost  95 
cents  per  minute, 
you   must  be   18 
years  of  age  or 
older,  and  you 
must  use  a 
touch-tone 
phone.    D 


FoniiJEits 

2CD*sf6r 

MS4DOS 


coming  soon  S„„  ^ake  aty,  m 84II6 

I  [>ealer  Near  You!     i.8oo-800-4a8o  1 


Circle  Reader  I 


SOFTWARE iHCORPaRATED 


TIPS  &  TOOLS 


Edited  by  Richard  C.  Leinecker 


Creating  a  tip  tor 

COMPUTE, 

saving  your  setup, 

and  zeroing 

out  ileleted  tiles 


68        COMPUTE 


Tips  Ahoy 

This  column  is  dedicated  to 
making  your  life  easier. 
These  tips  represent  the  best 
of  our  readers'  sage  advice 
on  subjects  ranging  from 
DOS  prompt  hints  to  applica- 
tion shortcuts  to  Windows 
tips.  And  the  tips  I  receive  are 
getting  better.  This  morning  I 
decided  to  use  the  first  four 
tips  !  opened  and  after  that 
rejected  less  than  50  percent. 

But  that's  not  the  end  of  it. 
If  for  one  single  month  I 
didn't  get  submissions,  you'd 
read  a  column  entirely  written 
by  yours  truly.  Td  also  like  to 
see  some  areas  given  more  at- 
tention. That  way,  ''Tips  & 
Tools"  would  be  even  more 
useful  for  more  people.  Last- 
ly, I'd  like  you  to  have  the  ex- 
perience of  seeing  your 
byline  in  this  magazine.  Here 
are  some  tips  for  sending  in 
tips. 

The  most  important  rule: 
Don't  submit  a  tip  similar  or 
identical  to  one  that's  been  re- 
cently published. 

The  second  rule:  Neatness 
counts.  I  read  hundreds  of 
tips  each  month,  and  the 
ones  that  are  hard  to  read  are 
also  hard  to  accept.  Handwrit- 
ten tips  are  OK;  just  make 
sure  they're  legible. 

Try  to  think  of  tips  that'll  ap- 
peal to  a  wide  audience.  We 
like  to  please  as  many  folks 
as  possible  with  each  tip. 
Some  excellent  tips  don't 
make  it  because  they're  too 
specialized. 

Short  tips  are  fine  {and 
sometimes  they're  priceless). 
For  debug  scripts  you  need 
to  include  source  code. 

I'd  like  to  add  more  applica- 
tion tips.  Stick  to  the  major  ap- 
plications, though.  Access, 
dBASE,  Excel,  Lotus,  Para- 
dox, Word,  WordPerfect,  Word- 
Star, and  Works  are  all  good 
examples  of  applications  that 
are  widely  used.  Batch  file, 
QBASIC,  and  debug  tips  that 
perform  useful  functions  are 

JANUARY  1994 


welcome.  Several  specific 
things  I'd  like  to  see  are  using 
PKZIP  to  compress  a  large  di- 
rectory to  multiple  disks,  do- 
ing high-density  disk  copies 
with  a  single  pass,  and  play- 
ing notes  through  sound 
cards.  Windows  tips  are  espe- 
cially welcome. 

RICHARD  C.  LEINECKER 
REIDSVILLE.  NC 

Wliat's  Your  Type? 

Here's  one  I  learned  the  hard 
way.  Always  have  your  hard 
drive  type  written  down  in  a 
safe  place.  That  way,  if  your 
CMOS  loses  its  information  or 
the  battery  runs  down,  you 
can  restore  the  hard  drive  set- 
tings with  no  difficulty.  All  of 
the  other  CMOS  settings  are 
easy  enough  to  get  right,  but 
your  hard  drive  probably  has 
several  cryptic  setup  num- 
bers that  are  essential. 

When  your  system  boots, 
press  the  key  that  brings  up 
the  CMOS  setup  screen  (it's 
usually  the  Delete  key).  Then 
write  down  all  of  the  hard 
drive  descriptor  numbers. 
You  may  be  able  to  send 
your  CMOS  setup  screen  di- 
rectly to  your  printer  by  press- 
ing the  Print  Screen  key, 

KELLEY  MARTIN 
ABINGDON.  MD 

Multiple  Cleans 

In  your  September  1992  is- 
sue, you  published  a  debug 
script  that  creates  a  file 
called  CLEANDEL.COM.  It  de- 
letes a  file  and,  for  security,  ze- 
roes all  of  the  information  that 
was  in  the  file.  I  found  this 
very  useful,  but  it's  limited  be- 
cause it  only  accepts  one  file- 
name. I  wrote  a  batch  file 
which  calls  Cleandel  from  a 
DO  loop,  thus  allowing  wild- 
cards and  up  to  three  possi- 
ble file  specifications. 

As  a  safeguard.  I  also  test 
for  *.'*  and  display  a  warning 
message  with  an  opportunity 
to  abort.  Here  is  the  program 


listing  for  ZERODEL.BAT 


'  GOTO  USAGE 
/"GOTO  WRNING 
/"  GOTOMRNING 
/'GOTOMRNING 


@ECHO  OFF 

CLS 

IF"%1"=="" 

1F"%1"="* 

IF''%2"=='* 

IF"7o3"=='* 

:DOIT 

FOR  %%r  IN  (%1  %2  %3)  DO 

CLEANDEL  %%t 
GOTO  END 
:WARNING 
ECHO. 
ECHO  AIL  files  will  be 

permanentiy  deleted. 
ECHO  !s  this  what  you  want  to  do? 
ECHO  LAST  CHANCE 
ECHO. 

ECHO  Press  Ctrl-C  to  abort. 
PAUSE 
GOTO  DOIT 
:USAGE 
ECHO. 
ECHO  USAGE  ZERODEL  %%1 

%%2  %%3 
ECHO. 
ECHO  Example:  ZERODEL  *.BAK 

*.OLD  *JXT 
ECHO  will  delete  all  BAK,  OLD, 

and  TXT  files. 
ECHO. 
:END 

BOB  INDOVMA 

PITTSFORD,  NY 

Summory  to  the  Rescue 

In  my  office  we  use  WordPer- 
fect and  frequentiy  have 
more  than  one  person  work- 
ing on  a  document.  It  can  be 
terribly  frustrating  trying  to 
find  a  piece  of  correspon- 
dence someone  else  created. 
I  found  the  document  sum- 
mary function  to  be  an  invalu- 
able tool  in  solving  this  diiem- 
ma.  The  document  summary 
shows  when  the  fife  was  cre- 
ated, the  last  revision  date, 
the  name  and  type,  the  au- 
thor, the  typist,  the  keywords. 
the  subject,  the  account,  and 
an  abstract  of  the  first  400 
characters  of  the  document. 
The  dates  are  automatically 
generated,  but  the  other  en- 
tries must  be  filled  in  by  the  us- 
er If  you  don't  need  a  summa- 


TIPS  &  TOOIS 


ry,  press  F7  when  the  screen  appears. 

To  set  up  the  document  summary 

function  for  all  files,  follow  these  steps. 

1.  Press  Shift-F1  (Setup). 

2-  Press  3  or  E  to  select  Environment. 

3.  Press  4  or  D  to  select  Document 
Management/Summary. 

4.  Press  1  or  C  to  select  Create  Sum- 
mary or  Save/Exit  and  select  (Y)es. 

5.  Press  F7  (Exit)  to  return  to  the  edit- 
ing screen. 

NANCY  L.  NEWTON 
DAVENPORT,  !A 

No-Skid  Keyboards 

I  love  to  get  ahead  of  the  computer  by 
typing  in  the  next  file  to  run  along  with 
its  command  line  arguments.  It  makes 
me  feel  like  Tm  not  wasting  my  time 
while  I  wait  for  the  system  to  complete 
an  operation.  There's  only  one  prob- 
lem: What  if  I  change  my  mind?  How 
do  I  cancel  a  series  of  commands  al- 
ready entered?  The  answer  is,  I  can't. 

It  happens  to  me  mostly  when  I'm  com- 
piling a  program  and  in  a  rush.  I'm  just 
about  done  with  the  task  at  hand,  and 
someone's  anxiously  awaiting  a  call 
from  my  modem  to  get  the  revised  ver- 
sion. Just  as  the  compiling  is  about  to  fin- 
ish, a  zillion  errors  appear  and  the  pro- 
gram goes  on  to  link  nonexistent  files. 

Of  course,  compilers  aren't  the  only 
things  prone  to  this  sort  of  problem.  Tm 
sure  in  your  computing  career  there 
have  been  many  times  youVe  wished 
you  could  put  on  the  brakes  and  can- 
cel what  you'd  typed,  We[l,  relax;  I 
have  a  solution — it's  a  program  called 
CTRLC.COM. 

To  use  it,  just  type  ctric  from  the 
DOS  prompt.  The  program  is  a  TSR,  so 
once  it's  loaded,  it's  there  until  you  re- 
boot. The  program  looks  for  a  Ctri-C 
key,  and  anytime  it  gets  one,  it  clears 
the  keyboard  buffer.  Now,  when  I've 
typed  in  the  next  set  of  commands  and 
I  get  errors,  t  just  press  Ctrl-C,  and  the 
keyboard  buffer  is  cleared.  A  word  of 
warning  is  in  order.  This  utility  may  not 
work  if  you  have  other  TSRs  that  trap 
the  keyboard.  But  as  a  DOS  process  un- 
der Windows,  it's  fine. 

You  can  type  in  CtrIc  using  the  DOS 
Debug  command  or  Tipjool,  which 
can  be  downloaded  from  the  COM- 
PUTE area  on  America  Online  or  from 
CompuServe  or  GEnie.  If  you  are  using 
Debug,  make  sure  the  DOS  program 
called  Debug  is  in  your  path  or  the  cur- 
rent directory.  In  these  examples,  the 
italic  text  is  what  the  computer  prints; 
the  roman  text  is  what  you  should 


type.  One  way  to  be  sure  you  get 
these  programs  exactly  right  is  to 
have  someone  read  the  numbers  to 
you  as  you  type  them  in.  Another  way 
suggested  by  one  of  our  readers  is  to 
read  the  numbers  into  a  tape  recorder 
and  then  play  them  back  as  you  enter 
the  program  code. 


debug  ctrlcxom 

File  not  found 

-eB8  09  35  CD  21  89  1E  3F 

-e  01   8C  06  41  01  B8  09  25 

-eBA  1C01  CD  21  B4  31  BA 

-e  20   00  CD  21  DG  50  2B  CO 

-e  BE   CO  26  80  3E  17  04  04 

-e  75   OE  E4  60  3C  2E  75  08 

-b26  A1  1C04  26  A3  1A04 

-e  58   07  2E  FF  2E  3F  01  00 

-e  00  00  00 

-RCX 

CX  0000 

:0043 

■W 

Writing  9043  bytes 

The  checksum  value  (see 

the 

July 

1993  "Tips  &  Tools"  for  the  new  Check- 

sum program)  is  04863. 

RICHARD  C.  LEINECKER 

REIDSVILLE,  NC 

Correction 

TDOS.BAT  and  DDOS.BAT,  published 
in  the  November  "Tips  &.  Tools"  each 
have  a  minor  error  that  prevents  them 
from  working.  Here  is  the  corrected  list- 
ing for  TDOS.BAT 

@SET  DP=%PROIVIPT% 
@SET  PRO[VIPT=$T$_ 

@SET  PROIVIPT=%OP% 

Here  is  DDOS.BAT 

@SET  DP=%PRGMPT% 
@SET  PRGIVIPT=SDS_ 

@SET  PROfVIPT=%OP% 

The  blank  line  between  the  second 
and  third  lines  is  necessary. 

ROBERT  BIXBY 
GREENSBORO.  NC 


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JANUARY  1994    COMPUTE        69 


King  Richard  falls.    And  Scotia 
beckons  you,  laughing... 
In  her  mad  quest  for  power,  Scotia  has  ravaged  the 
kingdom.    She  seeks  the  throne,  yet  it  eludes  her. 
She's  getting  desperate.    She's  getting  mean. 


Can  YOU  STOP  HER?  DO  YOU  DARE? 


m 


'"•^  Make  Friends  aiid  Influence 

People -Coopcralr  with  the  helprul, 
sidestep  the  treacherous  and  dcslroy 

the  daiiL^^  rous. 


^  Qui<!k  and  Easy  CanAat  and 
SpeU  Cais^ig. 


FEATURING 

^^'  Conipa.«is  and  AiiAonia|i|)ei* 

Included  -  Ad  w  n  1  u  rt^  t  h  ro ugh 
ancient  keeps  and  liv  inif  forests. 
Inearth  hidden  niins  and 
haunted  caves. 

^^  Indulge  in  a  Land  of  Sensory 
Delists-  Over  20  megabytes  of 
compressed  art  and  speeial 
effe*  ts.   Actually  hear  the  clash  of 
?^teell   Feel  the  blows  of  terrors 
who  slip  beneath  your  guard! 


AN  INSPIRED  FANTASY 

RPG  EXPERIENCE  FROM 

THE  DEVELOPMENT 

TEAM  THAT  CREATED 

EYE  OF  THE  BEHOLDER™  I  AND  11. 

Westwood 


Disiributed  Exclusively  by 


Available  for  your  IBM  PC, 


Eye  of  the  Beholder  I  and  II  aie  trademarks  of  TSR,  Inc. 

The  Eye  of  the  Beholder  gamesTSR,  Inc.  and  SSI  are  not  connected  or  relat^ 

in  any  way  to  the  L^ds  of  Lore  game.  Virgin  GameSv  InGi^or  Westv^ood  Studios,  Inc. 

Lands  of  Lore  is  a  titdemark  of  ^VfestAvood  Studios.  Inc.  ©  1993  Westwood  Studios,  Inc. 

Ail  rights  reserved-Viigin  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Virgin  Enterprises,  Ltd. 


Circle  Reader  Service  Numtter  132 


This  year,  your  computer  con  help  you  keep 

your  resolution 

to  lose  vs^eight,  eat  better,  and 

exercise  more  regularly. 


^^V^ 


4^J 


h^yo 


^ 


Whether  you're  ready  or  not.  the  new  year  is  upon  us,  bringing  with  it  the 
timeworn  tradition  of  New  Year's  resolutions,  those  promises  that  you 
make  each  year  to  live  life  to  the  fullest,  to  be  a  better  person,  and. 
most  urgently,  to  improve  your  physical  condition.  Although  these  may  seem 
like  simple  goals  on  January  1 ,  at  least  one  tends  to  fall  by  the  wayside  the  next 
day  when  you  walk  into  a  kitchen  full  of  leftover  turkey  and  holiday  candy. 

But  1994  can  be  different.  You  can  keep  your  resolution  to  shed  those  extra 
pounds  and  develop  a  sensible  diet.  Your  computer  can  help  with  diet  pro- 
grams that  make  it  easier  to  manage  your  diet  and  watch  your  weight  loss. 
Many  of  them  also  help  you  design  and  monitor  a  fitness  regimen. 

The  software  you  choose  will  ultimately  depend  on  your  lifestyle  and  goals, 
but  there  are  certain  features  that  you  should  look  for  in  any  program.  The  first 
is  good  nutrition,  says  Dr.  William  R.  Fackler,  a  Richardson,  Texas,  pediatncian 
who  has  used  Diet  Analyst  from  Parsons  Technology.  A  program  should  stress 
healthy  eating  habits  and  should  contain  reliable  nutritional  information.  But 


By  Lisa  Young 


x_ 


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before  you  select  any  diet  program, 
you  should  tafk  with  your  physician, 
says  Dr.  Fackler.  It's  Important  to  take 
into  account  any  medical  problems 
that  would  require  a  special  diet  or 
any  fitness  limitations  that  would 
restrict  activity. 

Harry  Barney,  associate  professor 
in  the  School  of  Applied  Health 
Professions  at  the  University  of 
Connecticut  and  a  user  of  another 
program,  Fitness  Software  Systems' 
Nutrition  Expert,  for  nearly  two  years, 
recommends  that  you  select  a  pro- 
gram that  provides  detailed  feedback. 
Its  essential  that  you  understand  why 
a  particular  food  is  good  for  you  and 
why  others  are  not.  The  educational 
value  of  a  program  is  important  in 
helping  you  maintain  a  healthy  diet 
after  youVe  lost  weight.  Barney  also 
recommends  that  you  choose  a  pro- 
gram that  you  can  personalize. 
Because  everyone  has  specific 
needs,  it's  important  to  find  a  program 
that  will  treat  you  as  an  individual. 

Orgoniie  Your  Appetite 

One  of  the  biggest  challenges  when 
you  begin  a  diet  program  is  knov^ing 
where  to  start  and  how  to  get  orga- 
nized. No  diet  program  is  going  to  be 
successful  if  you  dont  monitor  your 


Fitness  Partner  can  be  your  coach 


11                                                «u,^,._     ■ 

iNtewtey 

B 

■  Wofkout 

11             1 

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n 

H^A^  Presses 

Hi 

^^^1     D-j^.o 

j.  "■'"•■  i 

Design  your  own  workout 

eating  and  fitness  habits.  Knowing  the 
quantity  and  nutrient  content  of  what 
you  have  eaten  can  be  a  determining 
factor  in  losing  weight, 

"Most  times,  poor  nutrition  can  be 
directly  attributed  to  a  lack  of  under- 
standing of  how  foods  and  their  nutri- 
tional components  affect  our  bodies," 
says  Michael  J.  Harnad,  president  of 


Fitness  Software  Systems.  "Knowing 
what  your  present  requirements  are 
allows  you  to  make  the  dietary  adjust- 
ments to  lose  or  gain  weight." 

Harnad  had  been  an  amateur 
bodybuilder  for  nearly  13  years  but 
felt  that  he  was  not  competing  at  his 
full  potential.  The  problem,  he  discov- 
ered, was  a  lack  of  organization. 
Without  a  detailed  nutritional  plan,  it 
was  easy  for  him  to  overeat  slightly, 
producing  a  bit  of  flabbiness  that  cost 
him  points  during  competitions.  Using 
his  master's  degree  in  computer  sci- 
ence, Harnad  developed  software 
programs  to  help  regulate  his  nutri- 
tional and  training  regimens. 

'It  started  as  a  personal  project, 
and  then  I  discovered  that  otfier  peo- 
ple were  interested  in  it,  too,'  he  says. 
'To  achieve  fitness,  one  must  commit 
to  a  lifestyle  that  includes  regular 
exercise  and  sound  nutrition.  This 
means  knowing  what  exercises  to  per- 
form and  what  foods  to  eat." 

Nutrition  Expert  uses  your  age, 
sex,  height,  weight,  and  activity  level 
to  develop  a  personal  profile.  Then  it 
uses  that  profile  to  help  with  meal 
planning  and  diet  analysis. 

This  user-specific  response  is  one 
of  the  program's  most  valuable  fea- 
tures, according  to  Harry  Barney. 


From  the  Beaches  to  the  Mountains... 


'L 


:huc 


f/^m^m^i'//A//' 


.OUIl: 


r\ 


y^cccss  Softwiirc  has  j^onc  the  world 
2\()\cr  U)  toiivcrt  sonic  ol  llic  finest 
^olf  courst'S  so  thnt  you  (dii  play  ihvm  on 
your  computer  anytime  ol  Ihe  day  or 
night.  Each  is  faillifiilly  rei)rochiccd  in 
exacting  detail  to  make  you  feel  like 
you're  playing  the  actual  course. 

FT 


Wa 


7c  call  these  renditions  our  LINKS 
Championship  Courses.  With 
Pebble  Beach;  our  newest  release,  we  now 
feature  a  line  of  twelve  world  famous 
courses  besides  Harbour  Towiu  featured  in 
LINKS  386  Pro'',  and  Torrev  Pines,  includ- 
ed with  UNKS^  and  Microsoft  Golf  \ 


"People  are  really  hungry  to  under- 
stand what  they  should  be  doing  on  a 
personal  level/'  he  explains.  "Diet  is  a 
very  individualized  thing," 

Nutrition  Expert  analyzes  your  diet 
for  carbohydrates,  protein,  fat,  sodi- 
unn,  cholesterol  amino  acids,  and  var- 
ious vitamfns  and  includes  a  500-food 
database  that  you  can  personalize  by 
adding  your  favorites. 

Barney  says  the  progrann  is  easy  to 
use  and  adapts  to  your  changing 
needs.  Once  you  reach  your  weight 
loss  goal,  you  can  redesign  your  profile 
to  develop  a  maintenance  progrann. 

Only  a  combination  of  good  nutrition 
and  fitness  habits  will  lead  to  better 
health,  Hamad  believes,  so  he  devel- 
oped another  program,  Training  Ex- 
pert, to  help  you  plan  a  fitness  routine. 

Training  Expert  compiles  a  person- 
al profile  based  on  your  height, 
weight,  and  training  goals  and  pre- 
scribes a  customized  wor[<out  de- 
signed from  75  varied  fitness  routines. 

Both  programs — designed  to  be 
used  together — include  graphic  fea- 
tures to  help  track  your  progress. 

Searching  for  Discipline 

Craig  Leonard,  a  technical  sergeant 
with  the  114th  Fighter  Squadron  in  the 
Oregon  Air  National  Guard,  had  trou- 


Diet  Balancer  charts  your  progress. 


Diet  Balancer  tells  what's  good  for  you. 

ble  finding  the  discipline  to  maintain 
his  weight  at  military  standards,  so  he 
turned  to  his  computer  and  DietPro  by 
Lifestyle  Software  Group.  Leonard 
finds  that  it's  hard  to  cheat  when  you 
have  to  account  daily  for  every  morsel 
of  food  you  eat. 

"I  have  problems  maintaining  my 
discipline,  [but]  I've  found  that  this 
program  really  works,"  Leonard  says. 
"I've  made  recommendations  to  the 


medical  hospital  at  the  base  to 
include  [DietPro]  in  its  library  for  any- 
one who  is  having  problems  [with 
weight  control]." 

Every  morning.  Leonard  uses  the 
program  to  plan  his  day,  and  each 
evening,  he  makes  sure  that  every- 
thing he  ate  is  listed  in  the  computer. 
At  the  end  of  each  week,  he  prints  a 
compilation  of  his  exercise  and  eating 
habits  for  that  week.  He  checks  his 
progress  and  can  tell  what  nutrients 
he  lacks  or  where  he  has  over- 
indulged. 

DietPro  analyzes  36  nutrients  in 
more  than  5000  foods  from  the 
Department  of  Agriculture's  food  list 
and  from  fast-food  chains.  You  can 
also  enter  your  own  foods  and  recipes, 
an  option  that  Leonard  enjoys. 

"It's  a  pretty  powerful  option/'  he 
says.  "Not  everyone  consumes  every- 
thing, so  to  be  able  to  [analyze]  your 
own  recipes  is  useful." 

DietPro  also  offers  an  extensive  list 
of  activities  and  allows  you  to  develop 
a  fitness  plan  based  on  your  own  per- 
sonal profile. 

"You  have  to  take  the  average 
...profile  with  most  programs."  Leonard 
explains,  "but  with  DietPro,  if  you  have 
a  low  metabolism,  you  can  adjust  the 
program  to  account  for  that." 


from  Canada  to  England  to  Florida... 

^~  "%  ir  .- .  _^j.l-^  :.-  ^1..  J ^m  11   T  T  Xl*  T/C^   /'^It     **irii  YiTinli  \t\  i    t\i  i  ffixi"  'i  rf\  ^^^^^^^^^^^^M  E^^^^^^^^^^^l  Ea^ta^BBMKna 


0 


ur  lineup  currently  includes: 


Troon  North 
'Firestone 
'Dorado  Beach 
'Barton  Creek 
'BayhiUClub 
'Bonntifiil 


-Pinehurst 
•Manna  Kea 
*Banjf  Springs 
*Tlie  Belfry 
•Innisbrook 
'Pebble  Beach'' 


ylll  LINKS  Chanipinnshii)  Courses  arc 
ylconipletelv  Lonijiatihle  with  and 
require  UNKS-the  Challenge  of  G(»lf , 
Microsoft  Golf' ,  OR  LINKS  386  Pro"'  to 
operate.  iToni  mountains  or  I>carhes,  from 
across  the  sea  or  on  the  islands — happy 
golfing  from  ACCl'SS! 


ACCESS  Software,  inc.  1SOM004880 

4910  W.  Ameiia  Earhart  Dr„  Salt  Lake  City,  UT  84116 


Siared  Healthy 

For  some,  weight  loss  goals  may  be 
diclaled  by  health,  not  just  a  desire  to 
look  and  fee!  better.  That's  how 
Dieter's  Edge  2000  was  born. 

"Seven  years  ago,  my  doctor 
scared  me  into  a  diet,  and  I  lost  60 
pounds, '  says  Fred  Shadko,  develop- 
er of  this  program.  "I  wrote  a  little  pro- 
gram to  help  me  with  that.  When  I 
showed  it  to  other  people,  they  were 
also  interested." 

Distributed  by  LivingSoft,  Dieter's 
Edge  2000  can  help  you  balance  your 
intake  of  protein,  fats,  and  carbohy- 
drates as  well  as  achieve  targeted 
minimums  and  maximums  of  choles- 
terol, sodium,  fiber,  vitamins,  and 
other  food  components.  The  program 
has  a  database  of  more  than  2000 
items,  including  products  from  seven 
fast-food  chains. 

One  unique  capability  of  the  pro- 
gram is  that  it  can  determine  your  per- 
sonal break-even  point  based  on  how 
your  body  reacts  to  your  diet  and 
exercise  in  a  30-day  period,  Shadko 
says.  Your  break-even  point  is  the 
number  of  calories  that  your  body 
needs  to  maintain  your  current  weight 
and  activity  level.  Once  you  have 
determined  this,  you  can  adjust  your 
calorie  intake  to  safely  lose  weight. 

Evelyn  Richards,  a  retired  Xerox 
salesperson,  used  Dieter's  Edge  2000 
for  nearly  five  months  and  lost  about  40 
pounds.  She  found  that  entering  her 
personal  data  was  fun. 

''\[  got  to  be  kind 
of  a  game,"  Rich- 
ards explains.  'It 
was  very  motiva- 
tional to  see  the 
numbers  change 
and  the  graphs 
come  up  and  to 
see    how    f    was 
doing.  I  looked  at 
the   graphs  daily 
because     I     set 
daily  goals." 

Entering  this 
personal  nutri- 
tion   and    fit- 
ness data  was 
also  a  motiva- 
tional factor  for 
certified  finan- 
cial consultant 
Rusty     Welch, 
who  has  written 
off    nearly    30 
pounds  using 
Dieter's  Edge 
2000.  Learning 
about  the  nutri- 
tional content  of 
his  favorite  foods 
was  also  re- 


warding, he  says. 

"\  had  previously  just  counted  calo- 
ries, and  this  really  opened  my  eyes 
to  overall  nutrition,"  Welch  explains.  "It 
was  a  real  education." 

To  help  you  stay  within  the  nutri- 
tional boundaries  you've  established, 
Dieter's  Edge  2000  also  includes  a 
treat  feature,  which  will  calculate  the 
allowable  portion  size  of  any  food  you 
want  to  eat.  For  example,  if  you  crave 
a  hot-fudge  sundae,  this  program  will 
tell  you  what  size  sundae  you  can  eat 
without  blowing  your  diet. 

'The  single  biggest  hazard  is  peo- 
ple getting  discouraged."  Shadko 
explains,  "so  we  give  them  the  ability 
to  have  a  treat." 

Reversol  of  Fortune 

As  a  pediatrician,  Dr.  Fackler  under- 
stands the  importance  of  good  health, 
but  two  years  ago,  his  was  question- 
able. Since  then,  Fackler  has  adjusted 
his  lifestyle,  using  Parsons  Technolo- 
gy's Diet  Analyst  .  He  has  reached  his 
personal  weight  goal,  lowered  his  cho- 
lesterol from  about  240  to  180,  and 
reversed  the  clogging  of  one  artery. 

"It's  not  a  diet  program;  it's  a  life- 
time eating  program,"  Fackler  says-  '1t 
has  taught  me  to  select  the  healthy 
foods  and  ignore  the  others.  This  is 
the  first  program  that  I  have  been  able 
to  stick  with." 

Diet  Analyst  helps  you  manage  your 
health  program  by  tracking  26  nutri- 
ents from  a  database  of  1700  foods, 
including  brand-name  products  and 
menu  items  from  13  fast-food  chains. 
You  can  also  monitor  your  exercise 

ExerCitement  from  Computer  Athlete 
turns  exercise  into  an  arcade  game. 


regimen  and  generate  a  variety  of 
reports,  such  as  an  exercise  log,  an 
account  of  your  current  nutritional  sta- 
tus, and  a  compilation  of  the  data  for  a 
single  day  or  a  number  of  days. 

Fackler  uses  his  Diet  Analyst  twice 
each  day  for  about  five  minutes.  He 
records  everything  he  eats — even  the 
binges  and  mistakes^so  that  he  can 
accurately  determine  how  he's  doing. 
Fackler  also  recommends  the  program 
to  his  older  patients  and  their  parents. 

Kutrition  Counts 

As  a  personal  trainer,  Tona  Hilwig  rec- 
ommends ways  to  help  clients  devel- 
op a  personal  weight  loss  program. 
Diet  Balancer  by  Nutridata  Software 
helps  her  clients  understand  the  nutri- 
tional content  of  foods,  she  says.  It 
teaches  them  to  think  about  what  they 
eat  and  how  they  can  maintain  a 
healthy  diet. 

Diet  Balancer  tracks  26  nutrients, 
including  calories,  fat,  cholesterol, 
and  fiber,  and  has  a  database  of  more 
than  1700  foods,  including  products 
from  13  fast-food  chains,  You  can  also 
add  your  favorite  foods  to  the  data- 
base. If  you  must  minimize  certain 
things  in  your  diet,  such  as  fat  or  sodi- 
um, Diet  Balancer  can  help  you  plan 
meals.  The  program  also  includes  a 
selection  of  prepared  menus. 

One  feature  that  is  important  to 
Hilwig  and  her  clients  is  the  graphic 
section  that  can  track  your  perfor- 
mance for  up  to  60  days. 

'The  charts  show  them  what  they 
should  be  doing  and  how  they  are 
progressing,"  she  explains,  speaking 
of  her  clients.  "It  helps  them  see  how 
close  they  are  to  their  goals." 

Reach  Your  Goal 

Once  you've  reached  your  weight  loss 
goal,  these  software  products  can 
help  you  maintain  a  healthy  lifestyle. 

Sharon  Brehm  began  using  Diet 
Expert  by  Expert  Software  to  help 
maintain  her  weight  and  plan  a  health- 
ier diet.  Through  the  program,  she  has 
learned  the  fat  and  nutrient  content, 
as  well  as  the  caloric  value,  of  differ- 
ent foods. 

Diet  Expert's  database  lists  the 
nutritional  content  of  2300  foods  and 
can  help  you  track  items  that  you  may 
be  trying  to  avoid,  such  as  sugar,  salt, 
and  cholesterol.  The  program  ana- 
lyzes your  current  diet  for  30  nutrients 
to  help  you  overcome  excesses  and 
deficiencies,  and  it  analyzes  your  cur- 
rent fitness  plan  to  develop  an  exer- 
cise regimen  based  on  your  age,  sex, 
weight,  and  frame. 

'I  liked  the  \ovj  price  and  flexibility  of 
the  program,"  Brehm  says.  "If  you  just 
wanted  to  plan  a  few  meals,  you  could 


Loiioe\i|\  Maiia/.iiu>'s\Aorkonl  Nidcos  Pur  \n   Viieloss  l>()(K 

REJUYENETIGS. 

^  SHE'S  S5\  Kathy  Keeton,  the  publisher  and  president 

of  Longevity  magazine,  stars  in  REJUVENETICS  and 
MORE  REJUVENETICS.  These  two  new  video 
workouts  are  specifically  designed  to  slow  down  the 
effects  of  aging  on  the  body  and  actually  turn  back  the 
biological  clock  for  a  stronger,  more  youthful  body. 
REJUVENETICS  features  non-aerobic  ballet,  t'ai 
chi,  and  yoga  inovemenrs. 

MORE  REJUVENETICS  concentrates  on  bod)' 
sculpdng  specific  muscle  groups  to  build  lean  body  mass 
while  speeding  up  the  nietaboUsm. 
Follow  either  30 -minute  program  just  three  times  a  week 
for  satisfying  results  without  the  stress  and  strain  of 
aerobics.  Only  $14.99  each. 

Call  800-527-2189  and  ask  for  Department  R,  or  send  S14.99  plus  S3. 50  (S8.00  outside  U.S.)  shipping  and 
handling  for  each  video  to:  Best  Film  &  Video  Corp.,  Dept.  R,  108  New  South  Road,   Hicksville,  N.Y.  1 1801. 


Sim  City  eooo  Design  Coniesl 


Maxis  and  COMPUTE  Publications  are  lool^' 
ing  for  the  very  best,  original  cities  designed 
with  the  new  Sim  City  2000  from  Maxis  All 
winning  cities  wilt  be  included  on  one  of 
COMPUTE'S  Winning  Cities  Disks.  Each 
winner  will  receive  $50  plus  a  software 
package  fronn  Maxis  and  a  game  hint  book 
from  COMPUTE.  So  put  on  your  city  man- 
ager's hat  and  design  your  best  cities. 

Interested?  !f  so,  read  on: 

Official  Rules 

NO  PURCHASE  NECESSARY 

1.  Entries  must  b%  your  original  worit  and  never  have 
been  distributed  by  electronic  means.  All  winners  will  be 
required  to  affirm  this  in  writing. 

2.  Submit  as  many  entries  as  you  want,  but  we  cannot 
consider  cities  whicfi  hiave  been  distributed  on  disk  or  are 
available  on  any  BBS  or  commercial  telecommunications 
service  such  as  CompuServe  or  America  On-line, 

3.  All  entries  must  be  received  no  later  than  April  1 .  1994, 
Print  your  name,  address,  daytime  phone,  and  social 
security  number  along  with  your  disk  to  Sim  City  2000 
Contest.  COMPUTE.  324  West  Wendover  Avenue. 
Greensboro.  NC  27408, 

4.  Entries  must  be  created  witft  either  the  MS-DOS  or 
Macintosh  versions  of  Sim  City  2000,  Cities  aeated  with 
the  original  Sim  City  will  not  be  accepted.  Entries  may  be 
submitted  on  either  a  Macintosh  3-1/2  inch  floppy  disk  or 
a  MS-DOS  3-1/2  inch  or  5-1/4  inch  floppy  disk.  A  sepa- 
rate copy  of  this  entry  form  must  be  submitted  for  each 
city  submitted.  Readable  photix^pies  of  this  entry  form 
are  acceptaJDie, 

5.  The  staff  of  COMPUTE  magazine  will  handle  the  judg-       Macintosh  or  DOS  (Cifde  one) 


ing.  The  decisions  of  the  judges  is  final  as  to  all  aspects 
of  any  entry,  including  similarity  to  any  entry.  There  will  be 
at  least  five  winners,  but  there  can  be  as  many  as  twenty 
winners  depending  on  the  quality  of  the  entries.  Winners 
wilf  be  selected  on  the  basis  of  their  originality,  unique- 
ness, complexity,  balance,  general  appeal  and  use  of  the 
new  features  in  Sim  City  200 D. 

6.  Winners  will  be  notified  by  mail  by  September  30. 1 994. 

7.  The  contest  is  opened  to  residents  of  the  United  States 
and  Canada,  except  Quebec-  Full-time,  part-lime  &  previ- 
ous employees  of  COMPUTE  Publications  International 
Ltd..  General  Media  International  Ltd,  and  Maxis,  their 
immediate  families  and  their  advertising  agencies,  are 
ineligible  for  the  contest. 

8.  Contestants  must  a&sign  the  copynght  in  their  entries  to 
COMPUTE  using  the  attached  form.  All  winning  entries 
become  the  property  of  COMPUTE  Publications 
International  Ltd.  Sorry,  we  cannot  return  any  entries. 

9.  The  approximate  value  of  each  of  the  prizes  awarded  is 
as  follows:  software  S50,  hinJ  book  $15,  and  cash  S50. 

to.  This  contest  is  void  where  prohibited  or  restricted.  All 
winners  will  be  required  to  submit  an  affidavit  of  eiigibility. 
including  permission  to  use  winners  name  and  photo  for 
promotional  purposes  without  further  compensation:  fail- 
ure to  return  this  affidavit  within  ten  days  will  forfeit  prizes. 
Neither  COMPUTE  nor  Maxis  is  responsible  for  delayed 
or  misdelivered  mail.  Taxes  are  winners  responsibility.  Mo 
alternative  prizes  or  cash  equivalents  of  prizes  will  be 
awarded, 

Every  Contestant  Must  Fill  in  and  Sign  This  Form: 

Name  of  Your  City. .. . . — 

Your  Name — — — 

Street . ^ _— 

City,  State.  Zip . -^ 


I  hereby  warrant  and  represent,  knowing  that  COMPUTE 
will  rely  thereon,  that:  I  have  read,  understand  and  agree 
to  be  bound  by  the  Official  Rules  and  each  term  and  con- 
dition thereof;  that  the  city  presented  on  the  enclosed  disk 
is  my  own  original  work,  has  not  been  submitted  else- 
where nor  made  avail aole  for  distribution  on  any  BBS. 
commercial  telecommunication  service,  shareware  disk  or 
-any  other  general  distribution  whatsoever,  and  that  I  have 
the  sole  right  to  assign  the  copyright  and  all  other  nghts  in 
it  to  you.  I  am  18  years  old  or  older  and  of  lawful  age  to 
sign  this  contract  in  my  state  or  if  I  am  a  minor  my  parent 
or  guardian's  consent  is  attached  below. 

ASSIGNMENT  OF  COPYRIGHT 

In  consideration  of  the  opportunity  to  enter  this  contest 
and  win  the  prizes  offered,  I  hereby  sell,  transfer,  assign 
and  convey  to  Compute  Publications  International.  Ltd..  all 
right,  title  and  interest  t  possess  in  and  to  the  above-titled 
work  (the  "city"),  including,  but  not  limited  to.  the  copyright 
and  all  renewals  and  extensions  thereof  in  the  United 
States  of  America  and  all  countries  of  the  world  and  any 
and  all  claims  or  causes  of  action  whether  asserted  or  not 
relating  thereto. 
SIGNED:- . ^ ^ 

Parental  Consent 

(complete  this  section  if  minor  is  named  above) 

1 ,  hereby  certify  that  t  am  the  parent  or 

legal  guardian  of  the  above-named  person  who  is  a  minor 
below  the  age  of  18  and  that  I  ratify  and  consent  to  the 
execution  of  this  entry  fonrr  by  such  minor  and  to  the  use 
of  his/her  name  and  likeness  for  pna motional  and  commer- 
cial purposes  should  he/she  be  selected  as  a  winner. 

SIGNED  BY  PARENT  OR 

GUARDIAN: . — 

ADDRESS  IF  DIFFERENT  FROM  ENTRANT: 


Phone _ 


SPEAK  UP! 

Is  there  a  feature  topic  you'd  like 

to  see  covered  in  COMPUTE? 

Let  us  know  by  calling 

900-285-5239 

(sponsored  by  Pure 

Entertainment, 

P.O.  Box  186,  Hollywood, 

California  90078).  The  call  will 

cost  95  cents  per  minute, 

you  must  be  18  or  older, 

and  you  must  use 

a  touch-tone  phone. 


use  it  for  a  few  days,  but  if  you  wanted 
to  drastically  change  your  eating  habits, 
you  could  p!an  meals  for  up  to  a  year." 

Monitor  Your  Progress 

Other  software  programs  that  help 
monitor  your  progress  toward  better 
nutrition  and  fitness  include  Nutri- 
tionPro  by  ESHA  Research;  Sante  by 
Hopkins  Technology;  Nutri-Calc  by 
CAMDE;  NutriBase  by  CyberSoft;  and 
Diet  Simple,  Diet  Simple  Plus,  and  Diet 
Easy  by  N-Squared  Computing, 

NutritionPro  calculates  the  nutrition- 
al values  of  2000  foods  and  can  track 
excesses  and  deficiencies  in  your  diet. 
You  can  also  plan  a  fitness  workout 
cycle  from  a  database  of  110  fitness 
activities.  NutritionPro  is  also  available 
in  a  scaled-down  student  version. 

Sante  monitors  your  progress  by 
analyzing  your  food  intake  for  30  nutri- 
ents. It  maintains  a  database  of  3000 
foods.  The  program  also  determines 
your  daily  calorie  need  based  on  a 
personal  profile  and  can  help  you 
develop  a  weight  loss  plan.  Colorful 
charts  and  graphs  display  suggested 
caloric  and  nutrient  breakdowns 
based  on  the  most  recent  government 
recommendations. 

Nutri-Calc  assesses  foods  and 
recipes  for  30  components  and  com- 
pares the  results  to  U.S.  recommended 
daily  allowances  or  your  own  dietary 
goals.  The  program  comes  with  a  data- 
base of  1600  foods,  including  fast 
foods  and  prepared  foods,  and  you 
can  add  your  favorite  foods  and 
recipes.  You  can  also  buy  an  addition- 
al food  database  that  includes  1800 
more  listings.  One  of  Nutri-Calc's 
advantages  is  that  it  will  display  ratios 
such  as  calcium  to  phosphorus  or 
polyunsaturated  fat  to  saturated  fat. 

NutriBase,  an  unusually  compre- 
hensive diet  tracker,  lists  the  nutrition- 
al content  of  more  than  30,000  foods, 

78     COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Fitness  I/O 


Although  you  know  that  exercise  is  a 
necessary  component  of  weight 
loss,  does  the  thought  of  spending 
endless  hours  doing  the  same  mind- 
less routines  with  the  same  old  fit- 
ness equipment  discourage  you? 
Your  computer  can  put  the  spark 
back  into  your  exercise  routine  with 
programs  from  Computer  Athlete 
and-Computer  Directions. 

ExerCitement  by  Computer 
Athlete  links  your  exercise  equipment 
and  home  computer  to  create  an 
arcade-game  fitness  program. 
ExerCitement  is  compatible  with  all 
brands  of  exercise  bikes,  stair-climb- 
ing machines,  treadmills,  cross-coun- 
try ski  machines,  and  rowing 
machines.  There  are  only  two 
requirements:  Your  exercise  equip- 
ment and  your  computer  must  be 
located  in  the  same  room,  and  your 
computer  must  have  a  game  port. 

You  control  the  game  with  two 
directional  buttons  attached  to  the 
machine  by  Veicro;  a  photoelectron- 
ic  eye  and  a  reflector  measure  your 
speed.  A  12-foot  cable  connects 
your  computer's  game  port  to  the 
exercise  equipment  base  and  com- 
municates  your  movements  to  the 
computer. 

As  you  start  exercising,  you 
become  a  contestant  in  a  race  where 
your  motions  directly  correspond  to 
those  of  the  computer  athlete.  The 
program  has  five  different  race 
sequences  {one  for  each  of  the 
machines  mentioned  above).  For 
example,  you  could  cycle  down  a 
winding  road,  row  through  open 
waters,  or  bound  across  the  craters 
of  an  alien  planet— the  race  scenario 
used  with  the  stair-climbing  machine. 
However,  you  can  choose  any  game, 
regardless  of  the  equipment  you 
own.  Besides  choosing  the  game 
you  play,  you  can  also  designate  the 
speed  of  the  race;  it  can  be  set  fast 
enough  that  even  expert  arcade 
players  are  challenged. 

You  score  points  in  each  race  by 
dodging  obstacles,  avoiding  men- 
acing characters,  and  demolishing 
your  opponents.  For  every  1000 
points  earned,  you  move  to  the  next 


level  and  a  new  world. 

ExerCitement  runs  off  a  floppy 
disk  and  requires  512K  of  RAM.  For 
more  information  about  the  pro- 
gram, contact  Computer  Athlete  at 
5193  Betonywood  Place,  Dublin, 
Ohio  43017,  or  call  (800)  860-4506, 
ExerCitement  sells  for  $129.95  and 
includes  all  the  hardware  you  need 
to  run  the  program. 

If  you  prefer  getting  out  on  the 
aerobics  floor  for  exercise,  Fitness 
Partner,  developed  by  Computer 
Directions,  is  a  CD-ROM  that  can 
help  you  design  your  own  exercise 
routines. 

When  you  begin,  the  computer 
will  create  your  personal  profile 
based  on  your  sex,  age,  fitness 
level,  and  weight  loss  or  muscle-ton- 
ing goals.  Then  the  computer  auto- 
matically selects  from  75  full-motion 
video  exercises  to  design  your 
workout,  setting  the  speed  and 
number  of  repetitions  for  each  exer- 
cise. Fitness  Partner  can  design  up 
to  nine  routines,  one  for  each  day  of 
the  week  and  two  alternates,  for  up 
to  ten  users. 

Fitness  Partner  also  lets  you  cus- 
tom*design  your  own  workout.  You 
can  choose  exercises  for  the 
warmup,  workout,  and  cool-down 
sections;  pick  the  style  of  back- 
ground music;  and  set  the  speed 
and  number  of  repetitions  for  each 
individual  exercise. 

Roni  Smaldino,  a  certified  aero- 
bics instructor,  leads  you  through 
each  routine,  providing  audio 
coaching  and  words  of  encourage- 
ment. If  you  don't  understand  a  par- 
ticular exercise,  you  can  stop  the 
workout  and  go  to  the  learning 
mode  for  a  personal  demonstration. 

Fitness  Partner  requires  a  multi- 
media-compatible computer,  includ- 
ing a  CD-ROM  drive,  VGA-plus  color 
capabilities,  a  digital  sound  card, 
and  Windows  3.1  or  higher.  Fitness 
Partner  lists  for  $69.95,  For  more 
information  about  this  CD-ROM 
product,  contact  Computer  Direc- 
tions at  2712  West  Shaw  Avenue. 
Suite  234,  Fresno,  California  93711, 
or  call  (800)  600-2348. 


including  the  offerings  of  44  national 
chain  restaurants. 

N-Squared  Computing  usually 
develops  programs  for  professional 
use  but  has  also  produced  three 
scaled-down  programs  for  use  by 
individuals.  Diet  Simple,  Diet  Simple 
Plus,  and  Diet  Easy  each  contain  a 


database  of  2025  foods  (other  ver- 
sions of  Diet  Easy  listing  5000  and 
8500  foods  are  aiso  available). 

Diet  Simple  tracks  28  components  in 
the  foods  you  select  and  graphs  the 
results  by  the  percentage  of  the  U.S. 
recommended  daily  allowance  that  is 
satified.  Diet  Simple  Plus,  an  extension 


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Kat,  chopper  pilot—  turned  survivalist,  has  only  one 
hope  for  escape  from  Generalissimo  Minh's  maximum 
security  facility... You.  Guide  Kat  along  the  Meal  Path, 
through  scene  after  scene  of  killers,  mutants,  traps 
and  high-explosive  surprises,  It's  a  gritty,  realistic 
cinematic  experience! 

"This  isn't  a  game.,, they're  going  to  KILL  me!" 
From  your  fully^quipped  Gont^ol  center,  you  share 
Kat's  view  via  a  camera  mounted  on  her  headset, 
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Fit  Products 

Nutri-Calc— $39.96 

Nutrition  Expert  2.0— $79.99 

Diet  Simple-'$25.G0 

Nutri-Calc  Expanded  Foods  Database 

Training  Expert  2.0— $79.99 

Diet  Simple  Pius— $49.00 

(additional  1800  foods)— $19.95 

($139.98.  if  purchased  together) 

Diet  Easy  2000 

CAMDE 

FITNESS  SOFTWARE  SYSTEMS 

(2025-food  database)— $49.00 

449  E.  Saratoga  St. 

P.O.  Box  160 

Diet  Easy  5000 

Gilbert.  AZ  85296 

Willington,CT  06279 

(5000-food  database)— $249.00 

(602)  926-2632 

(203)429-2519 

Diet  Easy  8500 

(8500-food  database)— $349.00 

NutriBase— $69.95 

Sante— $59.95 

Nutritionist  lll--$495.00 

CYBERSOFT 

HOPKINS  TECHNOLOGY 

Nuthtionist  IV— $495.00 

3851  E.  Thunderhill  PI. 

421  Hazel  Ln. 

N-SQUARED  COMPUTING 

Phoenix,  AZ  85044-6679 

Hopkins,  MN  55343-71 16 

3040  Commercia!  St.  SE,  Ste.  240 

(602)  759-4849 

(612)931-9376 

Salem,  OR  97302 
(503)364-9118 

NutritionPro— $79.00 

DietPro  (for  DOS)— $39.95 

NutritionPro  (Student  Version)— 

DletPro  for  Windows— $59.95 

Diet  Balancer  3.0— $59.95 

$29.95 

LIFESTYLE  SOFTWARE  GROUP 

NUTRIDATA  SOFTWARE 

ESHA  RESEARCH 

63  Orange  St. 

P.O.  Box  769 

P.O,  Box  13028 

St.  Augustine.  FL  32084 

Wappingers  Falls.  NY  12590 

Salem,  OR  97309 

(800)289-1157 

(800)  922-2988 

(503)  585-6242 

(904)  825-0220 

(914)298-1308 

Diet  Expert— $14.95 

Dieter's  Edge  2000— $79.95 

Diet  Analyst  2.5— $59.00 

EXPERT  SOFTWARE 

LIVINGSOR 

PARSONS  TECHNOLOGY 

800  Douglas  Rd..  North  Tower 

711-700  Pine  Acre  Rd. 

P.O.  Box  100 

Ste.  355 

Janesville,  CA96114 

Hiawatha,  1 A  52233-0100 

Coral  Gables.  FL  33134-3128 

(800)626-1262 

(800)  223-6925 

(800)  759-2562 

(916)253-2700 

(319)395-9626 

1  -^    ^Mkt 


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-r-.v^^ 


of  Diet  Simple,  tracks  58  items.  Both 
programs  also  include  text  explanations 
and  recommendations  to  help  you  over- 
come deficiencies  and  excesses. 

Diet  Easy  creates  menu  plans, 
tracks  your  progress,  and  maintains  a 
database  of  your  favorite  recipes.  It 
also  helps  you  create  weight  loss  and 
exercise  plans  and  can  generate 
graphical  printouts.  N-Squared  also 
makes  diet  programs  Nutritionist  Ml 
and  Nutritionist  IV  for  use  by  profes- 
sional dieticians. 

DedHote  Yourself 

Although  tracking  every  crumb  of  food 
that  you  consume  and  every  movement 
that  you  make  in  your  fitness  routine 
may  seem  tiresome,  dedication  is  the 
key  to  success  with  these  software  pro- 
grams. As  with  any  traditional  weight 
loss  program,  hard  work  is  the  phmary 
requirement— but  your  computer  can 
help  make  the  struggle  easier. 

I've  probably  got  umpteen  calorie- 
counting  books,  but  when  you  can  sit 
down  at  the  computer  and  enter  what 
you've  eaten,  it's  much  simpler,"  says 
Jennifer  James  Chadwick,  who  is 
halfway  to  her  goal  of  losing  20  pounds 
with  the  help  of  Dieter's  Edge  2000. 
"It's  so  painful  with  the  calohe-counting 
books,  but  it's  much  less  painful  with 
the  computer.  The  hardest  part  is  to 
overcome  human  nature.  You  have  to 
make  yourself  be  consistent,"  □ 


80     COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


E.Santa 


scheduT^. 
laineddelay^ 
b'ontic 


'^9^ 


%ij\ 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  227 


Briflg  a  Lemming 

home  for  the 
f    Holidays! 


It  vou  can't  find  otu^  great  games  at  \'uur  favorite 
retailer,  call:  1(80(11  438^794  (GET  f%VG) 
to  order  your  copy  today. 


Lemmings  products  are 
sold  at  Radio  Shack-  and 
other  fine  software  stores. 


Psygnosis 

675  Miissachusctts  A\t. 
Canibriduc,  MA  (12139 


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SubLOGIC  -  Dedicated  to  bringing 
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All  SubLOGIC  flight  simulations, 
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i>e  greatly  enhanced  with  the  USA 
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USA  integrates  three  products  in  one 
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USA's  scener>'  management  system 
provides  instant  inflight  information 
about  or  relocation  to  any  airport  or 
nav-aid  facility.  Navigation  aid 
symbols  can  be  turned  on  an  off  as 
desired  to  help  you  visualize  the 
location  of  all  radio  nav-aids.  Huge 
floating  traffic  patterns  and  runway 
approach  arrows  guide  you  doi^ii  to 
a  safe  landing  at  the  destination 
airport. 

The  automatic  flight  assignment 
system  designs  structured  flights  for 


Our  aviation  dedication  is  demon- 
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8MHz  286  and  top-end  users  aVike 
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features  are  organized  under  a 
brand  new  menu  s>'stem  that  offers 
context-sensitive  help* 


Our  devotion  to 
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the  world  Inspired 
us  to  release  Flight 
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DESKTOP  VIDEO 

FAST  FORWARD 

LURCHES  AHEAD 

BY  DAVID  ENGLISH 


When  Microsoft's  Video  for  Windows  was 
released,  many  industry  pundits  predicted 
a  revolution  in  desktop  video-  A  year  later, 
most  computer  users  aren't  even  aware  of 
Video  for  Windows,  So  what  happened? 

Too  few  people  are  buying  Video  for  Windows  or  the 
video  input  cards  that  let  you  bring  video  clips  into  your 
computer.  There  seem  to  be  two  reasons  for  this.  First, 
as  originally  released,  the  program  pretty  much  restrict- 
ed you  to  a  stamp-sized  video  image  (160  pixels  x  120 
pixels).  It's  hard  to  get  excited  about  video  images  so 
small  you  can  barely  see  them.  Second,  the  actual 
video  files  take  up  a  huge  amount  of  space 
on  your  hard  drive.  Even  compressed,  a 
30-second  video  clip  takes  up  about 
4MB— and  that's  at  the  160  x  120 
size  and  a  slightly  jerky  15 
frames  per  second.  So  is  it 
tinne  lo  declare  the  revolution 
over,  even  before  it  begins? 
Some  revolutions  take 
time  and  occur  quietly, 
almost  without  notice. 
The  main  effect  of  this 
quiet  revolution  has 
been  on  CD-ROM  titles. 
If  you  have  a  CD-ROM 
drive  and  regularly  try 
out  new  titles,  you  proba- 
bly have  the  drivers  for 
Video  for  Windows  and 
QuickTime  for  Windows 
without  even  knowing  it. 
Many  of  the  CD-ROM  titles 
released  in  1993  (and  an  even 
larger  percentage  of  those 
scheduled  for  1994)  are  using 
video  clips.  When  you  install  one  of 
these  CD-ROMs,  you  receive  the  play- 
back drivers  for  the  video  clips,  but  you  don't 
get  the  video  capture  utilities.  The  video  input  cards 
include  the  video  capture  utilities,  so  there's  no  longer 
any  reason  to  buy  the  Video  for  Windows  package. 

The  PC  industry  is  making  real  progress  in  overcom- 
ing desktop  video's  too-small  image  size  and  too-large 
storage  requirements.  You  can  buy  several  video  input 
cards  (Creative  Labs'  VideoSpigot,  Media  Vision's  Pro 
MovieSpectrum.  and  Intel's  Smart  Video  Recorder)  that 
let  you  work  with  320-  x  240-pixel  video  clips.  Cards  that 
offer  the  Holy  Grail  of  full-screen  video  (640  x  480)  are 
still  expensive  but  are  quickly  falling  in  price.  Sigma 
Designs'  $449  ReelMagic  card,  which  should  be  avail- 
able by  the  time  you  read  this,  will  boast  full-screen 


playback  with  MPEG  compression—but  has  no  provi- 
sion for  recording  video. 

What  else  is  needed  to  bring  you  and  me  into  this  new 
world  of  desktop  video?  Powerful  but  easy-to-use  video- 
editing  programs.  The  first  two  of  what  will  be  many  such 
programs  are  Adobe  Premiere  (Adobe,  415-961-4400, 
$295)  and  MediaMerge  (ATI  Technologies,  416-882-2600, 
$295).  Both  let  you  combine  video  clips  with  a  variety  of 
special  effects  and  save  the  result  as  a  new  video  file. 

Adobe  Premiere  1.0  is  a  subset  of  the  highly  respected 
Adobe  Premiere  3.0  for  the  Macintosh,  which  offers  a  larger 
set  of  professional  features  for  a  hefty  $795.  The 
Windows  version  supports  both  Video  for 
Windows  and  QuickTime  for  Windows  files, 
allowing  you  to  mix  the  formats  and  save 
to  either  format.  The  program  comes 
with  over  35  image-processing  fil- 
ters, including  antialias,  emboss, 
and  sharpen  edges,  as  weli  as 
35  effects  and  transitions, 
including  cross-dissolve, 
zoom,  and  Venetian  blinds, 
Even  though  it  doesn't 
have  ail  the  features  of 
the  Macintosh  version, 
the  Windows  version  is 
still  a  powerful  program. 
The  manual  shows  you 
how  to  insert  one  video 
image  into  another  (for  a 
picture  within  a  picture), 
superimpose  a  person 
against  a  background  (simi- 
lar to  the  Chroma  key  tech- 
nique used  to  place  a  TV 
weatherperson  in  front  of  a 
weather  map),  and  even  create  a 
360-degree  video  presentation  (sim- 
ulating a  three-dimensional  space  with 
movies  playing  on  each  of  five  walls). 
Compared  to  Adobe  Premiere,  MediaMerge  is 
easier  to  use,  but  that's  mainly  because  it  offers  fewer 
features.  For  example,  MediaMerge  offers  only  nine  tran- 
sitions—though you  can  alter  their  direction,  color,  and 
duration.  In  its  favor,  MediaMerge  offers  a  separate  WAV 
file  audio  editor,  an  integrated  text  animator,  and  a  CD- 
ROM  full  of  videos,  animations,  sounds,  photos,  and 
backgrounds  that  you  can  use  in  your  video  productions. 
With  a  new  generation  of  cards  that  offer  full-screen 
video  and  with  powerful  editing  programs  such  as 
Adobe  Premiere  and  MediaMerge,  desktop  video 
should  finally  arrive  for  the  PC— a  bit  late  for  the  revolu- 
tion, but  just  in  time  for  the  victory  celebration.  □ 


MUI.TIMEDIA  PC 


By  Richard  O.  Mann 


If  you  haven't  already 
bought  a  CD-ROM 
drive  for  your  PC, 
chances  are  that  you'll 
buy  one  soon. 

Market  researchers  esti- 
mate that  over  6  million  CD- 
ROM  drives  will  be  sold  in 
1993  and  a  staggering  18 
million  will  be  sold  in  1994. 
If  you're  one  of  the  18  mil- 
lion who'll  be  buying  in 
1994,  you've  got  some 
homework  to  do.  If  you  buy 
a  drive  to  work  with  your 
existing  sound  card,  you1l 
face  the  whole  lineup  of  dri- 
ves; if  you  buy  it  as  pari  of  a 
multimedia  kit,  your  choices 
will  be  more  limited.  Even  if 
you  buy  your  drive  as  part 
of  a  kit,  you'd  better  know 
something  about  the  drive 
that's  included^it's  too 
easy  to  get  stuck  with  less- 
than-adequate  equipment- 

The  problem  is  that  CD- 
ROM  drives  come  shroud- 
ed in  a  cloud  of  technobab- 
ble:  Average  seek  time, 
sustained  throughput, 
SCSI-2,  XA  specs,  multises- 
sion  capability,  and  High 
Sierra  compatibility  are  just 
some  of  the  terms  you'll 
see.  Relying  on  different 
measures,  at  least  three 
major  manufacturers  claim 
their  drives  are  the  fastest 
on  the  market,  while  others 
emphasize  the  particular 
performance  specification 
that  makes  their  products 
look  the  best. 

There  are  no  absolutes, 
and  there's  no  way  to  pick 
out  the  fastest,  most  reli- 
able, or  overall  best  value. 
But  doing  a  little  homework 


to  understand  the  terms 
will  help  you  identify  the 
drives  that'll  best  fit  into 
your  system. 

Lesson  1:  Speed 

Double  speed.  This  is  the 
most  important  measure 
and  the  easiest  to  under- 
stand. The  original  CD- 
ROM  drives  spun  their  plat- 
ters at  the  same  speed 
used  by  audio  CD  players. 
By  1992,  it  was  obvious  that 


for  Windows,  Microsoft's 
live-action  video  and  sound 
program  used  in  dozens  of 
the  most  popular  new  multi- 
media CD-ROMs.  If  you 
want  to  enjoy  the  video 
footage  in  the  encyclope- 
dias, most  of  the  atlas  and 
travel  discs,  and  hundreds 
of  new  discs  that  will  appear 
in  1994,  you  need  a  double- 
speed  drive.  Many  of  the  old 
single-speed  drives  will  stut- 
ter when  playing  a  long 


simply  wasn't  fast  enough, 
so  drive  makers  upped  the 
rotational  speed,  resulting 
in  double-speed  drives. 
Double-speed  drives  can 
still  play  audio  CDs  at  the 
regular  speed,  but  they  can 
literally  double  the  speed  at 
which  they  grab  data  and 
feed  it  out  to  the  computer. 

Increased  speed  is 
always  pleasant,  but  it's 
essential  when  using  Video 


burst  of  video. 

Unless  your  CD-ROMs 
are  primarily  text  oriented 
and  you're  a  patient  sort 
who  doesn't  mind  several- 
second  delays  in  informa- 
tion flow,  get  a  double- 
speed  drive. 

Data  transfer  rate. 
Transfer  rates  measure  the 
amount  of  data  fed  from  the 
drive  to  the  computer  bus, 
measured  in  kilobytes  per 


second  (KBps).  Although 
most  manufacturers  will 
quote  a  burst  mode  rate 
(the  fastest  rate  at  which  a 
single  read's  worth  of  data 
can  be  put  out),  the  one 
that  matters  is  the  sustained 
transfer  rate.  The  sustained 
transfer  rate  indicates  the 
speed  of  a  continuous  flow 
of  data  resulting  from  many 
disc  reads. 

The  sustained  transfer 
rate  is  a  function  of  the  disc 
rotation  speed.  Single- 
speed  drives  run  at  150 
KBps;  double-speed  drives 
achieve  at  least  a  300-KBps 
rate.  Toshiba's  latest  drive 
runs  at  330  KBps.  and 
Plexstor  has  hit  335  KBps. 
In  certain  applications, 
such  as  ones  that  use 
Video  for  Windows,  the 
increase  of  30  KBps  to  35 
KBps  can  be  surprisingly 
significant. 

Average  access  time. 
Also  called  average  seek 
time,  this  measures  the  time 
in  milliseconds  (ms)  it  takes 
the  drive  to  receive  a  data 
request,  move  the  head  to 
the  data  location  on  the 
disc,  and  retrieve  the  data. 
It's  possible  to  monkey  with 
this  one,  because  there's 
no  real  standard  on  how  far 
the  head  has  to  move. 

Access  time  is  onfy  the 
second-most-important 
measurement.  Real-world 
use  of  CD-ROMs  often 
involves  sequential  reads 
right  down  the  data  tracks, 
requiring  little  or  no  head 
movement,  making  the 
access  time  extremely  fast. 
Remembering  that  hard 


HOW  TO  CHOOSE 


disks  offer  access  times 
under  20  ms,  the  fastest 
CD-ROM  drive's  200-ms 
access  time  seems  rather 
poky.  But  compared  to  the 
1000-ms  to  400-ms  times  of 
drives  from  two  or  three 
years  ago,  it's  quite  re- 
spectable. If  a  CD-ROM 
drive  has  an  access  time  of 
200  ms  to  250  ms,  it's  con- 
sidered fast, 

CPU  utilization  per- 
centage. It's  important 
that  interacting  with  the  CD- 
ROM  drive  not  monopolize 
your  computer's  CPU, 
which  needs  to  be  doing 
other  tasks  between  the 
times  it  talks  to  the  drive. 
This  measure  isn't  always 
published  by  the  vendors, 
but  it's  still  significant.  In 
fact,  the  Level  2  MPC  spec- 
ifications (explained  later) 
require  no  more  than  50- 
percent  utilization. 

If  the  drive  takes  too 
much  system  time,  every- 
thing else  slows  down. 
Higher  transfer  rates  re- 
quire more  CPU  time,  so 
newer,  faster  drives  have  to 
struggle  to  keep  the  utiliza- 
tion within  bounds.  The 
standard  was  raised  from 
40  percent  to  50  percent  in 
Level  2  MPC  to  accommo- 
date the  new  generation  of 
superquick  drives. 

Buffer  size,  A  buffer 
reads  data  ahead,  stores 
the  data  on  a  chip,  and 
feeds  it  out  to  the  CPU 
when  requested.  Without 
the  buffer,  all  reads  would 
have  to  come  directly  from 
the  disc,  which  is  much 
slower.  Buffers  range  from 


64K  to  256K.  For  single^ 
user  systems,  smaller  buf- 
fers are  perfectly  adequate; 
the  larger  buffers  have 
noticeable  effects  only  in 
multiuser  networked  ses- 
sions- 

Lesson  2:  Dato 
formats 

Originally,  CDs  were  de- 
signed to  play  music.  The 
standards  for  data  on  music 
discs  were  embodied  in  the 


Video  for  Windows 
required  an  update  to 
ISO9660,  codified  in  the 
"orange  book."  This  stan- 
dard—which wasn1  given 
its  own  new  name— en- 
codes audio  information 
into  the  normal  computer 
data  and  ships  it  out  to  the 
computer  bus,  where  Video 
for  Windows  separates  it. 
Such  interleaved  audio  data 
speeds  up  CD-ROM  drive 
access;  the  old  system  had 


"red  book."  When  computer 
data  came  to  CD-ROMs, 
the  High  Sierra  or  ISO9660 
standard  (in  the  "yellow 
book")  controlled  the  for- 
mat. This  standard  allowed 
for  higher  speeds  than 
audio  required  while  still 
allowing  playback  of  red 
book  audio  tracks  through  a 
separate  channel  to  the 
headphones  or  stereo  jacks 
on  the  sound  card. 


to  read  the  disc  twice— 
once  for  the  sound  and 
once  for  the  data. 

The  orange  book  is  the 
current  standard.  The  next 
step  is  the  XA  standard, 
which  involves  full  interleav- 
ing of  audio  and  data,  with 
the  audio  then  going  direct- 
ly to  an  audio  chip  for  pro- 
cessing. It  also  provides 
compression  of  video  data. 
The  bugs  aren't  fully  out  of 


XA  yet.  but  drive  makers 
are  building  it  into  their  dri- 
ves as  it  currently  exists.  XA 
requires  that  the  software 
be  written  to  the  standard. 

Lesson  3:  Photo  CD 

The  new  Kodak  Photo  CD 
system  records  photo- 
graphs in  digital  form  on  a 
CD-ROM,  Kodak's  Photo 
CD  standard  is  a  takeoff  on 
the  XA  standard,  making  it 
relatively  easy  for  drive 
makers  to  add  this  addition- 
al compatibility. 

The  buzzword  here  is 
multisession  capability. 
Onginally.  a  Photo  CD  could 
only  be  written  to  one  time, 
even  if  the  disc  ended  up 
being  only  partially  filled.  An 
update  to  the  standard 
allows  appending  images  to 
existing  photos  on  a  CD. 
Current  drives  have  the 
extra  intelligence  to  find  sec- 
ond and  additional  ses- 
sions. 

Usson  4:  MPC 
Standards 

The  Multimedia  PC  Market- 
ing Council  sets  the  mini- 
mum hardware  configuration 
required  to  successfully  run 
software  that's  MPC  compat- 
ible. The  original  MPC  stan- 
dard, set  in  1990,  has 
proven  inadequate  to  sup- 
port today's  more  demand- 
ing CD-ROM~based  soft- 
ware, so  the  council  set  the 
new  MPC  Level  2  (MPC-2) 
standard  in  the  summer  of 
1993. 

MPC-2  mandates  a  486 
processor;  4MB  of  RAM;  a 
160MB  hard  disk;  a  double- 


A  CD-ROM  DRIVE 


MULTIMEDIA  PC 


How  to  Play  Audio  CDs 

Your  computer's  CD- 
ROM  drive  is  a  high- 
priced  CD  player  opti- 
mized for  the  special 
needs  of  computer  data 
storage,  but  it  can  still 
play  standard  audio  CDs. 

If  all  you  need  is  a 
basic  CD  player  program, 
you  can  use 
Windows' 
own  Media 
Player 
(MPLAY- 
WE.EXE).  11 
lets  you 
start,  stop, 
and  pause 
your  CD,  as 
well  as  move 

from  track  to  track.  Most 
multimedia  kits  and  CD- 
ROM  drives  aiso  come 
with  utility  programs  that 
play  audio  CDs. 

You  can  augment 
these  basic  programs 
with  full-fledged  computer 
CD-player  programs  that 
allow  you  to  enter  artists' 
names  and  track  titles. 
Once  you've  cataloged  a 
CD,  the  player  remem- 
bers it.  You  can  pick  from 
the  displayed  track  titles 
to  create  your  own  indi- 


l**T**j 

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m^MH-tfttt^m^H, 

ItTt*.^ 

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TWrSS** 

p.i{V:^'i':i: 

on  Your  CD-ROM  Drive 

vidualized  program. 

CD  Player  3.0  (Graph- 
ical Bytes,  516-283-4473. 
$55)  puts  a  familiar  CD- 
player  control  panel  on 
your  Windows  desktop 
with  VCR-like  control  but- 
tons. To  record  a  CD  on 
an  audiocassette,  use  the 
fit-to-tape 
feature  to 
compute 
how  best 
to  put  the 
tracks  onto 
various 
lengths  of 
tape. 

Sound- 
Works 
(The  Software  Toolworks, 
800-434-3088  or  415- 
883-3000.  $49.95)  is  a 
DOS  application  that 
runs  memory  resident  in 
15K  and  can  be  un- 
loaded when  not  need- 
ed. It's  old-fashioned  and 
also  a  tad  slow  to  work 
with,  but  it  plays  CDs 
and  catalogs  your  collec- 
tion nicely,  it  comes  with 
a  Works  application  that 
serves  as  a  graphical, 
icon-based  menu  system 
for  DOS. 


speed.  XA-ready,  multises- 
sion-capable  CD-ROM 
drive;  a  16-bit  sound  card; 
and  a  16-bit  Super  VGA 
video  card  capable  of 
65,000  colors  in  640  x  480 
mode.  The  standard 
doesn't  specify  local  bus, 
but  it  would  be  difficult  to 
meet  the  required  specs 
without  it. 

The  CD-ROM  drive  must 
achieve  a  sustained  trans- 
fer rate  of  at  least  300 
KBps.  MPC-2  machines 
should  be  able  to  play  digi- 

88      COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


tized  video  in  a  320  x  240 
window  at  15  frames  per 
second.  The  fast  CD-ROM 
drive  is  a  key  component  in 
achieving  that  goal. 

We're  talking  about  a 
powerful  computer  here, 
one  that'll  set  you  back  a 
fair  piece  of  change.  It's 
smart  to  buy  your  CD-ROM 
drive  and  sound  card  to 
match  the  MPC-2  specs, 
even  if  you're  still  running  a 
mere  386.  Itll  pay  off  in  the 
long  run.  Certainly  not  all 
current  CD-ROM  software 


requires  that  kind  of  power, 
but  with  Video  for  Windows 
entering  the  equation, 
you're  going  to  be  needing 
that  486. 

Lesson  5:  CoUhing  the 
Right  Bus 

Most  CD-ROM  drives  run 
off  a  SCSI  (pronounced 
"scuzzy")  bus,  usually  con- 
trolled by  a  SCSI  controller 
on  the  sound  card.  Creative 
Labs,  the  manufacturer  of 
Sound  Blaster  sound  cards 
and  associated  multimedia 
upgrade  kits,  is  the  most 
visible  holdout.  Sound 
Blaster  kits  control  their  CD- 
ROM  drives  through  an  IDE 
bus.  If  you  plan  to  control 
your  CD-ROM  drive  from  a 
Sound  Blaster  card,  you'll 
have  to  buy  a  compatible 
drive  that  runs  from  an  IDE 
controller. 

The  advantages  of  the 
SCSI  bus  are  speed,  a 
widely  known  standard,  and 
the  ability  to  add  as  many 
as  seven  devices  to  any 
SCSI  board.  You  could  run 
a  tape  drive,  a  Bernoulli 
box,  a  scanner,  a  hard  disk, 
and  another  SCSI  device 
without  using  a  slot  for  a 
controller  card  for  each 
device. 

Also,  look  for  compli- 
ance with  the  new  SCSI-2 
standard. 

Lesson  6:  Physical 
Matters 

You  can  select  either  an 
external  or  an  internal  drive 
strictly  on  the  basis  of  avail- 
ability of  drive  bays  and 
desktop  space;  there's  no 
performance  difference.  But 
remember  that  even  an 
external  drive  requires  a 
controller  card  inside  the 
case. 

There  are  two  ways  to 
handle  getting  a  disc  into 


the  CD-ROM  drive.  Most 
common  is  a  caddy  system, 
involving  a  removable  carri- 
er that  holds  the  CD-ROM 
as  it  s  inserted  into  the 
drive.  Less  common  is  a 
motorized  assembly,  where 
a  metal  tray  slides  out  of  the 
drives  housing  to  directly 
accept  the  CD-ROM  . 

Because  CD-ROM  dri- 
ves are  optical  devices 
(they  reflect  laser  beams  off 
tiny  spots  on  the  disc's  sur- 
face), keeping  the  drive 
clean  is  essential.  Although 
the  drawer-system  drive 
manufacturers  would  prob- 
ably dispute  it,  using  a 
caddy  probably  reduces 
the  risk  of  internal  contami- 
nation of  the  laser  mecha- 
nism. Many  drives  include  a 
device  that  physically 
cleans  the  laser  lens  each 
time  you  slide  a  CD-ROM 
into  or  out  of  the  drive. 

Midterm  Exam: 
Choosing  a  Drive 

You've  now  done  your 
homework  on  general  con- 
siderations for  buying  a  CD- 
ROM  drive.  How  do  you  put 
it  together  to  select  a  drive? 
Try  this: 

1,  Determine  if  you  need 
double  speed  and  low 
access  time.  Will  you  be 
using  current  educational 
and  reference  CD-ROMs, 
such  as  multimedia  ency- 
clopedias? If  so,  you  need 
double  speed.  If  your  use 
will  be  exclusively  for 
searching  text  bases  and 
other  nonmultimedia  tasks, 
a  slower  drive  will  suffice. 

2.  Determine  if  you  need 
the  new  specs,  including 
XA  and  Photo  CD  muttises- 
sion  capability.  Basically,  if 
you  need  double  speed, 
you  might  as  well  get  the 
rest  of  it.  (It's  hard  to  find  a 
fast  drive  that  doesn't  meet 


I 


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MULTIMEDIA  PC 


these  specs.) 

3.  Determine  which  bus 
to  use.  This  one's  easy:  Use 
the  SCSI-2  bus  unless  you 
have  or  plan  to  buy  a 
Sound  Blaster  sound  card. 

4.  Determine  the  physi- 
cal setup  you  need.  To 
keep  the  drive's  innards 
clean,  choose  an  internal 
drive  if  possible — preferably 
one  that  uses  a  caddy. 

Now  that  you  know  the 
specs  you  need,  the  choice 
boils  down  to  fine  distinc- 
tions between  drives— such 
as  exact  speed  figures — 
and  price.  You  also  need  to 
determine  if  you  want  to 
buy  the  drive  as  part  of  a 
multimedia  upgrade  kit-  If 
you  don't  have  a  sound 
card  yet,  give  serious  con- 
sideration to  the  upgrade 
kits,  which  give  you  a  CD- 
ROM  drive,  a  sound  card, 
and  usually  an  attractive 
bundle  of  CD-ROM  titles.  (If 
you're  opting  for  a  kit,  it*s 
not  unreasonable  to  make 
your  choice  based  on  the 
CD-ROM  titles  that  come 
with  the  kit.) 

The  Drives 

In  spite  of  the  prediction 
that  we'll  be  buying  18  mil- 
lion CD-ROM  drives  in 
1994,  there  aren't  many 
vendors  manufacturing 
drives.  As  you  read  the 
ads,  look  at  the  multimedia 
kits  and  multimedia-ready 
computers.  You'll  see  the 
same  basic  dozen  or  so 
drive  manufacturers, 
Here's  a  summary  of  the 
product  lines  of  several  of 
the  major  CD-ROM  drive 
manufacturers. 

Toshiba  XM-3401  se- 
ries. Available  as  internal 
drives  (XM-3401B.  $695), 
external  drives  {TXM- 
3401 E,  $895),  or  portable 
drives  operating  with  sup- 

90      COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


plied  parallel  port  adapters 
(TXM-3401P.  $925),  these 
fine  double-speed  drives 
show  up  in  many  kits  and 
multimedia  systems.  Toshi- 
ba (714-583-3000)  touts 
them  as  the  fastest  on  the 
market,  based  on  their 
unmatched  200ms  average 
access  time.  They  also 
achieve  a  330-KBps  sus- 
tained transfer  rate,  which 
is  the  second  fastest  on 


the  market.  All  three  use 
the  SCSI-2  interface  and 
are  XA  ready  and  Photo 
CD  multisession  capable, 

NEC  MultiSpin  family. 
NEC  (800-NEC-INFO  or 
708-860-9500)  introduced 
the  very  first  double-speed 
drive,  calling  the  technolo- 
gy MultiSpin.  Both  the  inter- 
nal drive  (MultiSpin  84, 
$630)  and  the  external  drive 
(MultiSpin  74,  $695)  require 
a  disc  caddy  and  utilize  a 
double-door  system  on  the 
drive  to  ensure  dust  protec- 
tion. Both  deliver  a  300- 
KBps  sustained  transfer 
rate  with  a  280-ms  average 
access  time.  They're  XA 
ready  and  Photo  CD  multi- 
session  capable,  and  they 


offer  a  switchable  setting  to 
either  a  SCSM  or  a  SCSI-2 
bus.  The  MultiSpin  38 
($560)  is  a  parallel-port 
portable  drive,  which  bads 
the  disc  through  a  top  door. 
The  first  double-speed 
portable  drive,  the  MultiSpin 
38  maintains  a  300-KBps 
sustained  transfer  rate  but 
has  a  slower  400-ms  aver- 
age access  time.  It  can 
operate  with  an  optional 
battery  pack.  NEC  offers  an 
upgrade  plan  for 
owners  of  its 
earlier  mod- 
els who 
trade  in 
working 
models  of  the 
C  D  R  -  3  7 
portable  ($179), 
CDR-74  external 
.  ($249),  and  CDR-84  inter- 
-  nal  ($229), 

Plexstor  Double- 
Speed  Plus  drives. 
Plexstor  (408-980- 
1838),  formerly  called 
TexeL  also  claims  its 
drives  are  the  fastest  on  the 
market,  based  on  its  335- 
KBps  sustained  transfer 
rate  with  a  240-ms  average 
access  time.  Both  the  inter- 
nal DM-3G28  ($499)  and  the 
external  DM-5028  ($599) 
use  a  caddy  system  and 
have  drive  doors  for  dust 
protection.  (The  doors 
make  using  the  drives  a  lit- 
tle difficult  until  you  learn 
how  to  gently  pull  the  door 
down  with  the  lip  of  the 
caddy,  once  again  making 
disc  loading  a  one-handed 
task.)  The  drives  are  SCSI-2 
compliant,  XA  ready,  and 
Photo  CD  multisession 
capable.  Plexstor  drives  are 
also  available  in  a  variety  of 
bundles  that  include  soft- 
ware, Media  Vision's  Pro 
AudioSpectrum  sound 
cards,  and  speakers. 


PhiHps  LMS  drives.  Phil- 
ips LMS  (719-593-7900), 
formerly  Laser  Magnetic 
Storage  International,  is  the 
only  major  CD-ROM  drive 
manufacturer  based  in  the 
United  States.  Its  CM206 
internal  drive  ($499)  is  a 
double-speed  drive  that 
delivers  a  300-KBps  sus- 
tained transfer  rate  and  a 
350-ms  average  access 
time.  The  CM206  uses  the 
16-bit  PC/AT  bus  directly 
rather  than  a  SCSI  adapter, 
which  LMS  says  is  (aster. 
The  drive  uses  a  motorized 
tray  that  comes  out  of  the 
drive  to  accept  a  disc, 
rather  than  a  caddy.  An 
unusual  feature  allows  play- 
ing audio  CDs  with  a  simple 
button  push — without  any 
special  software. 

MicroSolutJons  Back- 
pack 160550.  MicroSolu- 
tions  (815-756-3411)  makes 
a  series  of  Backpack  por- 
table peripherals,  including 
a  portable  CD-ROM  drive 
($499).  The  drive  plugs 
directly  into  the  parallel  port 
of  any  computer.  It's  a  sin- 
gle-speed drive,  delivering  a 
150-KBps  sustained  transfer 
rate  and  a  350-ms  average 
access  time.  It's  XA  and 
Photo  CD  multisession  com- 
patible and  uses  a  top-load- 
ing, no-caddy  system.  Be- 
cause of  its  slower  speed, 
its  not  appropriate  for  the 
more  demanding  multimedia 
applications,  such  as  those 
using  Video  for  Windows.  If 
your  road  work,  however, 
requires  access  to  textual 
information  and  simple 
graphics,  this  could  be  a 
good  choice. 

Editor's  note:  Just  as  we 
were  going  to  press,  NEC 
announced  its  new  Multi- 
Spin  3X  and  MultiSpin  4X 
readers.  The  3X  readers  are 
triple-speed  CD-ROM  dri- 


FIRST  WE  MADE 

WINDOWS. 

NDW  IT'S  TIME 

TO  TALK. 


With  the  new  Microsoft 
Windows"  Sound  System,  just  tell 
}^our  computer  what  you  want  it 
to  do.  You  can  customize  your  sys- 
tem to  respond  to  your  personal 
spoken  commands.  Even  our  new 
directional  microphone  knows 
exactly  who  you  are. 

This  full  set  of  audio  software 
has  lots  of  options,  too.  Spice  up 
presentations  with  music  or  quotes. 


Or  proofread  numbers  as  the  com- 
puter reads  them  back. 

All  for  the  price  of  a  game. 

You  can  also  get  this  software 
with  the  sound  board  included.  So 
go  visit  your  nearest  reseller  to  see 
what's  creating  all  die  conversation. 


KIBcntsoft 

Making  it  easier 


©  1993  Mkrosoft  CoTpotgtidn,  AJI  righis  resen  ctl,  MiCTLTsoft  is  a  re^srercd  uatknurk  and  WindciwTJ  and  die  WindtTA-s  hp>  are  trademarks  of 
ii  MiCTOSoftCorpcmtton. 


MULTIMEDIA  PC 


How  to  Cache  Your  CD-ROM  Drive 


To  see  the  value  of  a  disk 
cache,  try  starting  up  Win- 
dows with  your  cache  dis- 
abled.  On  my  fast  486 
DX2/66,  !t  takes  just  over 
two  minutes  to  foad  Win- 
dows without  a  cache.  With 
SMARTDRV,  the  relatively 
poky  Microsoft  cache  utility 
supplied  with  Windows  and 
DOS,  the  same  task  takes 
only  37  seconds. 

The  slowest  drive  on 
your  system  is  the  CD- 
ROM  drive;  caching  it 
should  accelerate  it  to 
warp  speed.  Unfortunately, 
SMARTDRV  doesn't  cache 
CD-ROM  drives;  you  need 
a  third-party  program  for 


that.  I  looked  briefly  at 
three  of  them. 

Super  PC-Kwik  (includ- 
ed in  WinMaster  1,5  from 
PC-Kwik,  800-*274-5945  or 
503-644-5644,  $129.95)  is 
the  slowest  because  it's 
the  most  conservative  with 
your  data.  It  doesn't  de- 
fault to  delayed  disk  writes 
and  request  sorting,  as  the 
others  do.  It's  also  difficult 
to  install  requiring  you  to 
somehow  get  its  driver 
loaded  physically  within 
64K  of  the  CD-ROM  driver. 
On  one  system,  I  couldn't 
get  it  to  work  at  all;  on 
another,  it  took  a  half- 
dozen  tries  before  I  got  it 


loaded  properly. 

Lightning  CD  (Lucid, 
800-925-8243  or  214-994- 
8100,  $79.95)  is  faster  but 
also  suffers  from  a  difficult 
installation.  The  manual 
says  in  one  place  that  the 
program  will  disable 
SMARTDRV,  but  it  doesn't. 
Its  driver  must  install  after 
the  CD-ROM  device  driver, 
but  the  installation  pro- 
gram doesn't  necessarily 
put  it  there.  It  took  three 
tries  to  get  this  one  run- 
ning, but  when  it  runs,  it 
earns  its  name.  Lightning 
CD  comes  with  keyboard 
and  video  speed  enhan- 
cers and  a  directory 


tree  deletion  too!. 

Norton  Speedrive  4,0 
(Symantec,  800-441-7234 
or  408-252-3570,  $99)  is 
similarly  fast.  Its  installation 
was  the  simplest,  but  it 
also  required  a  manual 
tweak  to  the  AUTO- 
EXEC.BAT file  that  wasn't 
obvious  until  my  hard  drive 
started  locking  up  occa- 
sionally. It  adds  a  couple 
of  handy  Windows  applets 
to  monitor  and  test  cache 
performance.  Because  of 
its  safer  installation  routine, 
I  would  recommend  Norton 
Speedrive  for  those  who 
dislike  having  to  fuss  with 
the  system  files. 


ves  (internal,  $500;  exter- 
nal, $600;  portable,  $455), 
while  the  4X  reader  is  a 
quadruple-speed  CD-ROM 
drive  (external,  $995), 

Multimedia  Upgrode 
Kits 

At  press  time,  only  Media 
Vision  and  Creative  Labs 
were  offering  Level  2  MPC 
upgrade  kits. 

Media  Vision  kits. 
Media  Vision  (800-348-71 16 
or  510-770-8600)  is  the 
manufacturer  of  the  market- 
leading  Pro  AudioSpectrum 
16  sound  card  and  related 
products. 

The  Pro  16  Multimedia 
System  II  ($1,199)  is  the 
high-end  kit,  featuring  a 
double-speed  NEC  84JD-1 
dhve  with  a  300-KBps  sus- 
tained transfer  rate  and  a 
quick  250-ms  average  ac- 
cess time.  It  includes  the 
Pro  AudioSpectrum  16 
sound  card  and  the  follow- 
ing titles;  Compton's  Inter- 
active Encyclopedia  for 

92     COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Windows,  Battle  Chess 
Enhanced,  Mantis,  Civiliza- 
tion, Macromedia  Action!, 
Mayo  Clinic  Family  Health 
Book,  PC  Karaoke,  and 
Where  in  the  World  Is 
Carmen  Sandiego?  Deluxe. 

The  Fusion  Double  CD- 
16  (external,  $799;  internal, 
$699)  features  the  double- 
speed  NEC  55J  drive  with  a 
300-KBps  sustained  trans- 
fer rate  and  a  350-ms  aver- 
age seek  time.  It's  fully 
MPC-2  compatible.  The  kit 
includes  a  Pro  Audio- 
Spectrum 16  sound  card 
and  four  CD-ROM  titles: 
Compton's  Interactive  En- 
cyclopedia for  Windows, 
Battle  Chess,  Arthur's 
Teacher  Trouble,  and  The 
7th  Guest. 

Creative  Labs  kits.  Of 
course,  Creative  Labs 
makes  the  famous  Sound 
Blaster  series  of  sound 
boards.  It  also  sells  a  series 
of  multimedia  upgrade  kits 
featuring  Sound  Blaster 
sound  card  products.  Note 


that  the  CD-ROM  drives  in 
these  kits  are  not  SCSI-bus 
compatible. 

The  Sound  Blaster  Dig- 
italEdge  CD  kit  ($999)  fea- 
tures  a  double-speed,  MPC- 
2-compatible  drive  with  a 
300-KBps  sustained  transfer 
rate  and  a  350-ms  average 
access  time.  The  drive  uses 
a  front-loading  tray.  The 
sound  card  is  the  new  Sound 
Blaster  Pro  16  with  Ad- 
vanced Signal  Processing,  a 
real  powerhouse.  The  bun- 
dled software  titles  include 
VoiceAssist  (voice  recogni- 
tion software),  Aldus  Photo- 
Styler  SE  Photo  CD  software. 
The  Software  Toolworks 
Multimedia  Encyclopedia. 
Microsoft  Works  for  Win- 
dows, Microsoft  Bookshelf, 
Macromedia  Action!,  and 
AuthorWare  Star. 

The  Sound  Blaster  Edu- 
tainment CD  16  kit  ($750)  is 
built  around  a  double- 
speed,  MPC-2-compatibie 
drive  with  a  300-KBps  sus- 
tained transfer  rate  and  a 


320-ms  average  access 
time.  The  sound  card  is  the 
Sound  Blaster  16.  Creative 
Labs  went  all  out  in  bundling 
software  for  this  kit.  The 
package  includes  Aldus 
PhotoStyler  SE,  The  Soft- 
ware Toolworks  Multimedia 
Encyclopedia.  Sherlock 
Holmes  Consulting  Detec- 
tive, Lemmings,  Secret 
Weapons  of  the  Luftwaffe, 
Loom,  The  Secret  of  Monkey 
Island,  and  Indianapolis 
500.  the  Simulation, 

The  Final  Exam: 
Parting  Words 

Buying  a  CD-ROM  drive  to 
bring  your  computer  into 
the  era  of  faster  multimedia 
applications  isn't  as  difficult 
as  it  seems.  A  little  educa- 
tion cuts  through  the  smoke 
screen  of  letters,  numbers, 
speeds,  and  compatibili- 
ties. With  a  little  research, 
you'll  be  ready  to  choose 
one  of  those  18  million  CD- 
ROM  drives  waiting  to  be 
bought  in  1994.  □ 


THIS  IS  YOUR  BRAIN. 


THIS  IS  YOUR  BRAIN 
NEUROjACKED  INTO  CYBERNET  IN  SPECTRE  VR: 


FUli  MOTION  ViDiC 

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iiMAALLSAStco.;-;,         ;:'. 
AOD  POOLS  wiL  "■:".:,■, -.r;...:-;ArK 

TO  SCAHER  SHOTS  CAN  HELFUNTRAPKOU. 


AMY   nilF^TION^l   GO  AHEAD.  |Aa  INTO  A  WHOLE  OTHER  WORLD.  4|^  THAT  IS,  IF  TOUTHINnOUf  READY  TO  HANDLE  NAUOSECOND  ASSURE  FWH 

SMART-WEAPON  ENEMIB  Inm  ^.  fOyR  M  HOVE  THB^  STaU  FROH  ANY  DIREQION.  M  THE  aSERWORLD  HAS  mi  BEEN  SO  FWGHTEMNGLY  REAL  BUT  THERE'S 

HOPE;  AT  LEAST  YOUIL  HAVE  AN  ARSENALTHAT'SjUST  AS  SMART  AND  POWERFUL  AS  THAT  OF  YOUR  OfPONENTSj  THE  QUESTION;  CAN  YOU  NAVIGATE  THE  MATRIX 

AS  QUOLY  AS  YOUR  BFAIN  PROCESSES  THE  STIMULATION  ON  YOUR  SCREEN!  A\  THE  ANSWER  FIND  OUT  AS  YOU  HOVER  ABOVE  THE  CYBERARENA  OR  SUBMERGE 

INTO  NEGATIVE  CYBERSPACE,  -^J^YOU  CAN  EVEN  ALTER  THE  lANDSCAPE,  YOUR  OPPONENTS  AND  YOUR  WEAPONS  WITH  VRCHITECT'    A 

^  SO,  |ACK  INTO  SPECTRE  VR  WITH  ONE  PLAYER  A  NETWORK  OF  UP  TO  EIGHT,  OR  EVEN  MODEM  'LAY  ON  THE  PC  AND  GET  READY  FOR  A  WHITE 


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HOT  ELECTRONIC  ADRENALINE  RUSH.  BUT  BE  FOREWARNED;  REAUH  WILL  NEVER  BE  QUITE  THE  SAME  AGAIN. 


■i^^-Z-Ocr/T-v^* 


Circle  Reader  Service  l^umber  180 


eaiaoomuiSirri 


HEY,  YOU  WITH  THE  CPU;  GET  A  CYBERLIFE.  GET  SPECTRE  VR", 

TO  OSDEl  SEE  YOUR  LOCAL  RETAILER,  OR  CALL  l-SOO-VLOCIK 


'  :;.-.»wc»3r:-.  ■ 


NEW  MULTIMEDIA  PRODUCTS 


Edited  By  Polly  Cillpam 


Reading  Can  Be  Fun 

Digital  Theater  has  an- 
nounced a  series  of  edu- 
tainment CD-ROMs,  called 
The  Learning  Carnival.  The 
first  entry  in  the  series,  The 
Reading  CarnivaK  ts  de- 
signed to  get  children  ages 
6-10  actively  involved  in 
reading^and  keep  them 
entertained  while  they  learn. 
Children  can  enjoy  a  variety 
of  activities  while  they 
explore  sections  on  Animals 
Facts,  Superhero  Stories, 
and  Fascinating  Facts, 

The  Reading  Carnival 
features  150  separate 
screens,  six  stories,  a  630- 
word  pronunciation  glos- 
sary, eight  spelling  games 
and  reading  quizzes,  18 
creative  problem-solving 
games,  60  screens  of  natur- 
.  al  animal  photography,  and 
a  20-screen  interactive  col- 
oring book. 

Digital  Theater 

(404)446-1332 

$49.95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  530 

Culture  at  Your  PC 

Here's  your  chance  to  sit 
back  and  be  entertained — 
and  learn  about  fine  art  at 
the  same  time.  Having 
Cameron's  Fine  Art  Poster 
Catalog  on  CD-ROM  is  like 
owning  a  museum  full  of 
masterpieces.  There  are 
550  bitmap  works  of  art, 
100  WAV-format  stereo 
music  files,  and  over  30 
AVI-format  video  files  of 
sculptures. 

The  art  is  categorized 
into  several  different  seg- 
ments. Pictures  at  an 
Exhibition  is  a  tour  of  100 
replicas  of  the  world's  most 
famous  artists,  including 
Old  Masters,  Impression- 
ists, Post  Impressionists, 
and  Contemporary  painters. 
94      COMPUTE  JANUARY   1994 


w 

r" 

Get  cultured  with  Cameron's  Fine  Art  Poster  Catalog  on  CD-ROM, 


Each  one  comes  with  a 
short  history  of  the  painting 
and  painter  (including  the 
museum  currently  display- 
ing the  work  of  art).  While 
viewing  the  art,  you're 
entertained  by  a  classical 
music  clip,  which  includes 
a  notation  of  the  musical 
title  and  composer. 

Sculptures  on  Video  dis- 
plays historical  facts  on 
pieces  ranging  from  the 
T'ang  Dynasty  to  Rodin;  it 
plays  a  video  clip  of  the 
sculpture  rotating  with 
accompanying  music. 

Cameron  Enterprises 

(800)  765-1 -ART 

$49 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  531 

Little  Critters  on 
CD-ROM 

Explore  the  world  of  baby 
animals  with  Kid's  Zoo,  an 
adventure  for  prereaders 
and  early  readers  on  either 
disk  or  CD-ROM.  Children 
as  young  as  3  can  learn 
about  the  anima!  kingdom 
and  its  young.  The  program 
includes  an  interactive 
encyclopedia  that  lets  chil- 
dren explore  mammals, 
birds,  fish,  reptiles,  amphib- 
ians, and  invertebrates 
through  a  variety  of 
avenues— animal  type,  size, 
lifespan,  speed,  and  even 
footprints.  They  can  also 
learn  through  a  series  of 
games  that  assess  their 
understanding  of  animal 
names,  appearances,  habi- 


tats, and  sounds.  Some  of 
the  activities  involve  match- 
ing an  animal  to  the  sound 
it  makes  or  matching  an 
animal  to  its  geographical 
habitat. 

Using  the  program's 
paw  pointer,  cfiildren  can 
learn  about  baby  animals 
through  eight  activities, 
including  a  talking  story- 
book. Baby  Animal  Movie 
Theater,  and  five  multilevel 
games  that  encourage  chil- 
dren to  learn  and  explore 
as  they're  challenged  by 
the  various  levels  of  the  dif- 
ferent activities.  Upon  com- 
pletion of  each  game,  chil- 
dren are  rewarded  with 
congratulations,  applause, 
and  a  computer-rendered 
movie  created  with  the  pro- 
gram's interactive  movie 
technology. 

Knowledge  Adventure 
(818)542-4200 
$79,95  (CD-ROM  version) 
$59.95  (disk  version) 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  532 

More  for  Your  Money 

The  Sound  Galaxy  PRO  16 
Multimedia  Upgrade  Kit  is 
quite  a  bargain.  The  kit 
costs  hundreds  of  dollars 
less  than  the  separate  com- 
ponents, and  you  get  five 
popular  CD-ROM  titles.  The 
package  includes  Aztech 
Labs'  new  NX  PRO  16 
sound  card,  a  Mitsumi  AT- 
bus  CD-ROM  drive,  head- 
phones, and  a  microphone, 
Aztech  Labs  claims  the 


NX  PRO  16  is  the  most 
compatible  sound  card  on 
the  market;  it  supports  the 
Sound  Blaster  Pro,  Micro- 
soft Windows  Sound 
System,  Ad  Lib.  Disney 
Sound  Source,  and  COVOX 
Speech  Thing. 

The  bundled  CD-ROM  titles 
include  Microsoft  Works, 
Macromedia  Action!  2.0,  Battle 
Chess  CD-ROM  Enhanced, 
Toolworks  Encyclopedia,  and 
Tooh-vorks  Atlas. 

Aztech  Labs 

(510)623-8988 

$639 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  533 

High^ech  Show 
ami  Tell 

Ask  Me  Multimedia  Center 
has  recently  introduced  a 
new  multimedia  software 
package,  called  SUPER 
Show  &  Tell.  It's  Windows 
based,  it  allows  the  user  to 


Create  multimedia  presentations 

create  interactive  multime- 
dia presentations  in  a  free- 
form  environment,  it's  user- 
friendly,  and  it  supports  all 
popular  graphics,  anima- 
tion, sound,  and  digital 
video  formats. 

The  program's  key 
attraction  is  its  universal 
appeal.  For  example,  it's* 


Around  here  nice  guys  don't  finish  last  -  they  don't  even  finish.  Better  know 
how  to  drive  or  Catfish  Louie  and  company  will  take  turns  making  your 
Backroad  Racer  a  pile  of  twisted,  burning  wreckage.  Then  taunt  you  as  you 
watch  instant  replays  of  your  wipeouts.  Video  clips  give  hints  and  make 
threats  while  you  try  to  outrun  cops  and  race  on  four  different  tracks.  Use  3-D 
animated  instructions  to  build  a  model  of  your  car  so  it's  easier  to  identify  the 
torched  remain^^^Wor  IBM  on  CD-ROM. 


•■^ 


5dl 


Video  clips  just  like  this  one  make  the  game  extra  bad.  But  in  a  good  way. 


Cirele  Reader  Semoe  Number  13^ 


NEW  MULTIMEDIA  PRODUCTS 


appropriate  for  business 
and  liome  office  users 
(including  sales  and  mar- 
keting), home  PC  hobby- 
ists, and  teachers, 

Businesspeople  can  use 
the  program's  colorful 
charts,  stili-frame  pictures, 
and  text  with  sound  and 
motion  to  make  their  pre- 
sentations more  effective. 
Hobbyists  can  use  it  to  cre- 
ate interactive  resumes  or 
home  photo  albums. 
Teachers  can  use  it  to 
make  their  own  interactive 
educational  tools. 

Ask  Me  Multimedia  Center 

(612)531-0603 

$149 

Circte  Reader  Service  Number  534 

Take  the  Plunge 

Wish  you  could  explore  the 
world's  oceans?  Oceans 
Below,  from  The 
Software    Tool- 
works, has  just 
the  journey  for 
you.  and  you 
won't  even  get 
wet.  Choose  your 
favorite     ocean, 
prepare  for  the  trip, 
and  learn  all  about  the 
undersea  world  from  the 
floor  up. 

Select  from  over  200 
topics  of  information,  as 
well  as  over  45  minutes  of 
video  clips,  synchronized 
sound,  photographs,  and 
original  music.  Learn  about 
local  sea  life,  explore  ship- 
wrecks, and  feed  or  ride 
any  of  the  fish  in  the  habitat 
you've  selected.  It's  like 
going  to  the  aquarium  with- 
out leaving  the  comfort  of 
your  own  home. 

The  Software  Toolworks 

(415)883-3000 

S49-95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  535    i 
96     COMPUTE    JANUARY   1994 


Using  Technology  to 
Humanize  History 

Few  museums  are  as  emo- 
tionally moving  as  the 
Museum  of  Tolerance  in 
Los  Angeles,  and  multime- 
dia plays  a  large  part  in 
communicating  that  emo- 
tion. This  is  an  interactive 
museum  focused  on  World 
War  II  and  general  issues  of 
intolerance.  Its  goal  is  to 
provide  in-depth  informa- 
tion for  a  wide  audience. 

The  main  floor  is  filled 
with  exhibits,  while  the  sec- 
ond floor  allows  visitors  to 
interact  with  30  different 
computer  workstations.  The 
workstations  free  visitors  to 
research  what  they're  inter- 
ested in  via  user-friendly 
touchscreens. 

Visitors  can  view  video 
footage  with  first-person 

accounts  and  testimonies 
of  Holocaust  sur- 
vivors and  lib- 
e  r  a  to  r  s  . 


MUSEUM  OF  TOLERANCE 
COMPUTER  LEARNING  CENTER 


The  Museum  of  Tolerance  features  30  multimedia  workstations. 

Eight  main  topics  include 
5000  different  subjects.  The 
database  contains  39  voi- 


umes  of  Time/Life  Books, 
r\/lacf^illan's  Encyclopedia 
of  the  Holocaust,  and  En- 
cyclopedia Judaica,  as  well 
as  hundreds  of  specialty 
articles  not  available  any- 
where else  in  the  world. 
There  are  also  57,000 
archival  photographs,  docu- 
ments, and  maps.  You  can 
work  your  way  down 
through  a  learning  tree  to 
the  topic  of  your  choice,  or 
you  can  pick  a  particular 
element  of  that  topic  and 
swim  laterally  through  the 
database  for  a  more 
focused  look  at  a  subject  of 
particular  interest. 

Museum  of  Tolerance 
(310)553-9036 

Admission     prices     va^v 


Explore  undersea  life  with  Ocean's  Below. 


according  to  age  and  group 
size.  School  groups  are 
admitted  free. 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  536 


Multimedia  Bonanza 

Trying  to  build  your  own 
MPC  system?  Aris  Enter- 
tainment may  have  the  solu- 
tion for  you.  and  it  costs 
only  S14.95.  The  company 
has  begun  shipping  MPC 
Wizard  2.0,  which  gives 
CD-ROM  and  Windows  3.1 
users  the  most  up-to-date 
VGA  and  sound  drivers  for 
their  multimedia  systems. 

Like  its  predecessor, 
MPC  Wizard  1.0,  MPC 
Wizard  2.0  contains  the 
largest  collection  of  VGA 
and  sound  drivers  for 
Windows  3,1  on  a  single 
CD-ROM.  This  latest  version 
adds  nine  Microsoft  Video 
for  Windows  runtime  videos, 
20MB  of  additional  drivers, 
60  color  photographic 
images,  and  60  audio 
tracks. You  also  get  Aris's 
standard  Media-Clips  inter- 
face to  view  the  pictures, 
hear  the  sound  tracks,  and 
watch  the  Video  for 
Windows  live-action  videos. 
All  the  videos,  sound  clips, 
and  images  may  be  used 
royalty-free  in  any  presenta- 
tion, as  long  as  credit  is 
given  to  Aris. 

Aris  Entertainment 
(310)821-0234 
SI  4.95 

circle  Reader  Service  Number  537 


Over  200,000  mystery 

enthusiasts  have  been 

captivated  by  the  inscrutable 

Alone  in  the  Dark  1  virtual 

adventure*  Brace  yourself  for 

ALONE  IN  THE  DARK  2! 

Featuring: 

•50  hours  of  gameplay 

•70  enigmatic  characters 

•15  perplexing  and 

challenging  levels 

•Hundreds  of  detailed 

3-D  objects 

•Frightfully  eerie  soundtrack 

Delve  into  a  chilling  mystery  as 

Edward  Carnby,  embarking  on  his 

second  nerve-iwi sting  adventure! 

The  realm  of  the  macabre  has  never 

gripped  tighter  as  you  put  your 

sleuthing  skills  to  the  test  and  piece 

together  the  mysteries  of 

ALONE  IN  THE  DARK  2! 


Free  Mysfery  Examiner  Offer 

Find  yourself  lost  in  another  time  with 
Volume  Two  of  the  1 924  Mysfery 

Examiner,  a  replica  period 

newspaper  detailing  the  events  that 

shape  the  ALONE  IN  THE  DARK 

series.  Send  a  self  addressed, 

stamped,  business-size  envelope  to: 

l-MOTION 

Mysfery  Examiner  Newsletter  Offer 

1 341  Ocean  Avenue,  Box  41 7 

Santa  Monica,  CA  90401 


MULTIMEDIA  SPOTLIGITF 


By  David  English 


SOUND  BLASTER 
DIGITALEDGE  CD 

Why  do  so  many  people 
buy  Creative  Labs'  multime- 
dia upgrade  kits?  Because 
Creative  Labs  virtually 
invented  the  standard  PC 
sound  card. 

Today,  the  Sound 
Blaster  is  the  standard  for 
DOS  games.  Almost  every 
other  sound  card  either 
claims  to  be  Sound  Blaster 
compatible  or  will  soon  be 
offering  Sound  Blaster  com- 
patibility. Technically,  only 
cards  from  Creative  Labs 
and  Media  Vision  (which 
bought  the  compatibility 
rights  in  a  court  settlement) 
can  claim  100-percent 
compatibility.  With  Win- 
dows, compatibility  is  less 
of  an  issue,  as  any  card 
that  meets  the  MPC  stan- 
dard should  work  with  any 
Windows  program  that  sup- 
ports sound. 

If  you  haven't  already 
bought  a  multimedia  PC  or 
upgraded  your  PC  with  a 
multimedia  upgrade  kit,  you 
should  consider  only  MPC 
Level  2  upgrade  kits.  The 
Level  2  kits  include  a  sound 
card  with  16-bit  sampling 
and  a  double-speed  CD- 
ROM  drive.  The  16-bit 
sound  card  will  simply 
improve  the  quality  of  your 
sound,  but  the  double- 
speed  drive  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  handle  today's 
more  demanding  CD-ROM 
titles.  Just  weeks  after  the 
MPC  Marketing  Council 
introduced  the  Level  2 
specifications,  Creative 
Labs  announced  its  first 
Level  2  package,  called  the 
Sound  Blaster  DigitalEdge 
CD. 

The  DigitalEdge  CD 
package  includes  Creative 
Labs'  top-of-ttie-line  sound 

98       COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


card,  the  Sound  Blaster  16 
with  Advanced  Signal 
Processing  (ASP),  The  ASP 
chip  functions  as  a 
coprocessor  and  will  allow 
you.  in  the  future,  to  add 
QSound  and  other  special 
audio  features.  In  keeping 
with  the  Level  2  specs,  the 
Sound  Blaster  16  ASP 
offers  16-bit  sampling, 
which  gives  you  sound 
that's  theoretically  as  good 
as  an  audio  CD  (theoretical- 
ly, because  interference 
from  the  motherboard  and 


CD  into  a  standard  CD 
player.  Another  nice  feature 
is  the  embedded  cleaning 
brush,  which  removes  the 
dust  from  the  drive's  lens 
each  time  you  load  a  disc 
into  the  drive.  On  the  down- 
side, the  DigitalEdge  CD 
drive  isn't  a  standard  SCSI 
drive,  unlike  most  other  CD- 
ROM  drives.  That  means 
your  choices  will  be  limited 
later  if  you  decide  to 
upgrade  your  CD-ROM 
drive  or  switch  to  a  sound 
card  from  a  company  other 


Creative  Lab's  Sound  Blaster  DigitalEdge  CD 


adjacent  cards  can  de- 
grade the  sound).  Along 
with  the  usual  CD-ROM, 
joystick,  MIDI,  audio-in,  and 
audio-out  connectors,  the 
Sound  Blaster  16  ASP 
includes  an  add-in  connec- 
tor for  the  Wave  Blaster,  a 
General  MIDI  daughter- 
board that  costs  a  very  rea- 
sonable $249. 

Also  in  keeping  with  the 
MPC  Level  2  specs,  the 
CD-ROM  drive  is  a  double- 
speed  drive  (300K-per-sec- 
ond  throughput)  with  an 
access  time  of  350  ms  (the 
specs  require  a  rate  of  400 
ms  or  faster)  and  is  multi- 
session  Photo  CD  compati- 
ble. Despite  its  speed,  the 
CD-ROM  drive  doesn't 
require  a  caddy — you  place 
the  CD-ROM  directly  into 
the  motorized  tray,  just  as 
you  would  place  an  audio 


than  Creative  Labs. 

These  days,  just  about 
every  multimedia  upgrade 
kit  comes  with  a  bundle  of 
CD-ROM-based  and  disk- 
based  applications.  The 
DigitalEdge  CD's  bundle 
includes  Microsoft  Works 
for  Windows,  Microsoft 
Bookshelf.  The  Software 
Toolworks  Multimedia 
Encyclopedia,  Macromedia 
Action,  Authorware  Star, 
Aldus  PhotoStyler  SE  Photo- 
CD  access  and  imaging 
software,  a  microphone, 
and  speakers.  As  far  as 
bundles  go,  this  one  is 
above  average.  Microsoft 
Works  is  especially  useful 
for  someone  just  starting 
out,  Bookshelf  is  a  terrific 
CD-ROM  reference,  Action 
and  Authorware  are  power- 
ful multimedia  presentation 
and  authoring  programs, 


and  few  upgrade  kits 
include  a  microphone  and 
speakers. 

The  audio  utilities  in  the 
package  are  especially 
strong.  The  most  interesting 
utility  is  VoiceAssist,  a 
Windows-based  speech 
recognition  program  that 
lets  you  use  voice  com- 
mands to  launch  and  con- 
trol just  about  any  Windows 
application.  Unlike  the 
speech  recognition  pro- 
gram that  ships  with  the 
Media  Vision  sound  cards, 
VoiceAssist  lets  you  add 
your  own  application-spe- 
cific commands. 

You  also  get  SBTALKER 
for  DOS  and  Monologue  for 
Windows,  two  text-to- 
speech  programs;  Wave- 
Studio,  a  Windows-based 
application  that  lets  you 
record,  play,  and  edit  8-bit 
and  16-bit  WAV  files; 
Creative  Soundo'LE,  a 
Windows-based  application 
that  lets  you  record  and 
play  back  WAV  files  in  other 
applications  using  OLE 
(Object  Linking  and 
Embedding);  Windows 
Mixer,  an  onscreen  mixer 
that  controls  the  levels  of 
your  audio  sources;  and 
much  more. 

Many  factors  go  into 
choosing  the  best  multime- 
dia upgrade  kit.  If  you're 
looking  for  an  MPC  Level  2 
package  at  an  excellent 
price,  take  a  good  look  at 
the  Sound  Blaster  Digital- 
Edge  CD.  The  ability  to 
upgrade  the  sound  card  to 
General  MIDI,  the  caddy- 
less  CD-ROM  drive,  and  the 
strong  audio  utilities  make  it 
a  terrific  package, 

Creative  Labs 
(408)  428-6600 
$999 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  550 


\tr.^l2Cr'  ^ 


IJilflffill 


Avatar",  you're  not  in 
Britannia  anymore! 

Foiled  by  your  defense  of  Briiamtia,  the  e\il  Guardian 
transports  you  to  a  world  already  under  his  dominion, 
Nowfyou  must  confront  alien  realms  andpoweifitl  new 
enemies  in  a  battle  vdthoiit  allies.  But  wait!  Perhaps 
more  has  changed  than  just  the  battlefield  ,  .  ,  ? 

•  Incredibly  smooth  and  lifelike  animation  —  400  frames 
of  art  per  character  (1200  frames  for  the  Avatar)  and 
10  times  the  art  of  any  previous  Ultima! 

•  A  new,  more  natural  perspective. 

•  Compatibility  with  EMS,  XMS  and  all  other  common 
memory  management  systems. 

•  Tvidce  as  many  frames  per  second,  producing  a  richer, 
faster  story  in  this  luxuriously  detailed  world! 


IMn^^ 


/U-UU[ 


ji.Li^^ 


I  screens  may  vary. 


Look  for  the  new  Pagan  Clue  Book! 


An  Electronic  Arfs  ■  Company 

P.O.  BOX  16T750  AUSTIN,  TX  78716 


Pagan  and  Avatar  are  trademarks  of  ORIGIN  Systems,  Inc.  Ultima,  ongin,  and  We  aeaic  worlds  are  registered  trademarks  of  ORIGIN  Systems,  loc. 
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Available  at  a  software  retailer  near  you,  or  call  1  -800-245-4525  for  MC/Visa/Discover  orders. 
Circle  Reader  Service  Number  160 


PRODUCTIVITY  CHOICE 


This  flexible  spreadsheet 

package  offers  a  new,  more  efficient 

way  of  organizing  information. 

Stephen  Levy 


IMPROV  FOR 
WINDOWS  2.1 

You  may  never  have  thought 
it  possible,  but  there's  a 
whole  new  way  of  working 
with  spreadsheets.  With  Im- 
prov  for  Windows,  the  new  su- 
perstar from  Lotus,  gone  are 
the  traditional  spreadsheet 
rows,  columns,  and  cells.  In 
their  place  you'll  find  items 
and  groups — and  a  more  effi- 
cient way  of  using  and  look- 
ing at  data. 

Improv  offers  a  tremen- 
dous advantage  to  those  who 
need  more  than  an  electronic 
version  of  a  paper  worksheet. 
Because  of  the  way  it  organ- 
izes data,  Improv  is  perfect 
for  those  who  need  to  organ- 
ize the  same  information  in  a 
variety  of  ways.  It's  also  appro- 
priate for  people  who  need  to 
make  presentations.  By  using 
Improv  to  create  different 
views  of  the  same  data  and 
to  place  charts  created  from 
the  data  as  views,  users  can 
actually  create  a  sort  of  slide 
show  with  their  data. 

With  Improv,  you  have  to  be- 
gin thinking  in  terms  of  items 
and  groups.  An  item  consists 
of  a  name  and  all  the  ceils  as- 
sociated with  that  name,  Im- 
prov uses  the  term  item  to  de- 
scribe both  rows  and  col- 
umns for  the  location  of  data. 
If  youYe  accustomed  to  the  tra- 
ditional spreadsheet  struc- 
ture, this  can  be  a  bit  confus- 
ing until  you  realize  that  an 
item  and  all  of  its  related 
ceils  are  not  fixed  in  any  row 
or  column. 

You  also  have  to  be  con- 
cerned with  the  concept  of  dy- 
namic placement  of  data.  In 
traditional  spreadsheets,  the 
data  can  be  dynamic,  but  the 
structure  of  the  worksheet  is 
static.  With  Improv,  the  data 


and  the  placement  are  both 
dynamic;  that  is,  you  can  eas- 
ily present  the  information  in 
different  ways  without  rebuild- 
ing the  entire  worksheet.  And 
you  can  save  each  of  your 
views  within  the  same  work- 
sheet. 

This  dynamic  views  func- 
tion is  a  powerful  tool  and  is 
surprisingly  simple  to  use. 
Imagine  a  worksheet  that  lists 
income,  expenses,  and  prof- 
its for  a  company  by  regions. 
These  figures  are  listed  by 
month  for  each  region,  so 
this  worksheet  would  show 
you  the  profit  per  region  per 
month.  With  Improv,  you  can 
easily  and  quickly  create  a 
second  view  that  groups  the 
regions  together  by  month,  al- 
lowing you  a  quick  compari- 
son of  the  regions'  income,  ex- 
penses, and  profit.  The  data 
for  each  of  the  items  stays  to- 
gether in  each  view.  No  mat- 
ter how  you  move  the  catego- 
ries around,  each  item's  data 
always  remains  together.  And 
charting  this  same  information 
is  as  simple  as  selecting  the 
Create  Chart  option  from  the 


menu.  Being  able  to  manipu- 
late the  data  in  a  worksheet  is 
very  handy  should  you  need 
to  present  information  one 
way  for  the  sales  and  market- 
ing department  and  another 
way  for  the  accountants. 

Improv's  paging  feature  of- 
fers another  unique  way  of  or- 
ganizing data.  It  allows  you  to 
highlight  specific  data  and 
still  have  other  information  at 
your  disposal.  In  our  example 
above,  we  could  easily  move 
the  Income/Expense/Profit  cat- 
egory into  the  paging  posi- 
tion. This  would  mean  that  on- 
ly one  of  the  three  items  (in- 
come, expenses,  or  profits) 
for  each  of  the  regions  would 
be  displayed  at  a  time.  To 
see  any  of  the  other  items, 
you'd  just  click  on  the  page  ar- 
row. Thus,  the  paging  feature 
allows  you  to  isolate  the  data 
you  want  to  emphasize  and 
still  be  able  to  page  through 
other  information  if  necessary. 
You  could  likewise  isolate  the 
months,  paging  through  the 
data  one  month  at  a  time.  Im- 
prov's paging  feature  is  not 
just  interesting;  it's  also  an  in- 


100        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


^am 


valuable  timesaver  if  you 
need  to  make  a  presentation 
that  requires  specific  data  to 
be  highlighted  for  one  group 
and  other  data  to  be  highlight- 
ed for  another.  Ail  the  while, 
you'll  still  have  other  data 
handy  if  you  need  it  when  you 
explain  ideas  or  when  your  lis- 
teners request  further  details. 

Items  can  also  be  given 
style  attributes.  And  when 
you  change  the  layout  of  the 
worksheet  by  moving  a  cate- 
gory, the  styles  stay  with  the 
items,  regardless  of  how  the 
worksheet  is  organized.  A  full 
complement  of  formatting  op- 
tions is  available,  so  you  can 
change  the  text  color,  size, 
style,  shading,  and  so  forth. 

To  make  your  work  even 
easier,  Lotus  has  included  a 
feature  called  Quick  Menus. 
These  menus  give  you  easy 
access  to  common  editing 
commands  and  other  perti- 
nent commands.  You  invoke 
Quick  Menus  by  pressing  the 
right  mouse  button;  a  stan- 
dard pull-down  menu  ap- 
pears at  the  mouse  pointer — 
right  where  you're  currently 
working.  This  helpful  and  con- 
venient feature  further  illus- 
trates the  effort  Lotus  made  to 
make  Improv  both  innovative 
and  easy  to  use. 

And  the  package  doesn't 
stop  there.  It  offers  another 
unique  feature— dynamic  gen- 
eral formulas.  Unlike  formulas 
in  other  spreadsheets,  formu- 
las in  Improv  are  easy  to  un- 
derstand. They  are  expressed 
in  words,  not  in  cell  address 
notation.  A  formula  such  as 
Prof it=  Income-Expenses  is 
much  easier  to  understand 
{and  remember)  than 
+E4-F4.  Formulas  can  apply 
to  a  range  automatically,  so 
copying  them  over  and  over 
again  isnl  necessary 

Improv  is  also  self-docu- 


menting: The  formulas  are 
placed  in  another  pane  on 
the  screen  in  words.  When 
you  highlight  any  cell  or  item 
that  is  the  result  of  a  formula, 
that  formula  is  also  highlight- 
ed. This  allows  you  to  see 
how  the  result  was  derived. 

Creating  formulas  is  quick 
and  intuitive.  There  are  a  num- 
ber of  ways  to  begin  creating 
a  formula,  as  Lotus  has  tried 
to  accommodate  the  different 
ways  users  work  with  spread- 
sheets. You  can  use  the  men- 
us and  choose  Create  Formu- 
la, or  if  youVe  a  traditionalist, 
you  can  press  the  =  or  +  key 
to  start  writing  a  formula.  Im- 
prov will  supply  the  beginning 
of  the  formula,  such  as  Prol- 
tt=.  Then  all  you  need  to  do  is 
click  on  the  appropriate  items 
and  the  Formula  Bar. 

Improv  also  includes  all  the 
charting  tools  that  spread- 
sheet users  have  come  to  ex- 
pect. You  have  20  different 
types  of  charts  to  pick  from;  9 
bar  charts,  3  line  charts,  2  pie 
charts,  3  area  charts,  and  3 
mixed  charts.  Among  the  as- 
sortment are  both  two-  and 
three-dimensional  options.  Ad- 
ditionally, all  of  Improv's 
charts  are  dynamic,  changing 
as  the  data  in  the  worksheet 
changes.  It's  easy  to  create  a 
chart,  too:  You  need  only  se- 
lect the  data  you  want  chart- 
ed and  choose  Create  Chart, 
and  it's  done. 

Improv  doesn't  neglect  the 
powerful,  advanced  features 
experienced  spreadsheet  us- 
ers will  want.  For  instance,  it  in- 
cludes LotusScripts,  a  tool  for 
building  applications  based 
on  Improv  or  extending  Im- 
prov's functionality. 

Of  course,  an  important  con- 
sideration when  you  look  at 
any  new  spreadsheet  is  how 
well  it  imports  data  from  other 
spreadsheets.  Improv  imports 


data  easily  from  other  Lotus 
spreadsheets  and  from  Excel. 
To  import  from  Quattro  Pro  for 
Windows,  however,  you'll 
have  to  save  the  Quattro  Pro 
file  in  a  format  that  Improv 
can  understand,  such  as  1-2- 
3.  You  can  also  import  ASCII 
text  files,  although  the  import- 
ed text  might  need  some 
work.  Imported  spreadsheets 
help  the  user  of  traditional 
spreadsheets  feel  right  at 
home  by  using  row  and  col- 
umn numbers  and  letters  as 
item  names, 

Lotus  Improv  for  Windows 
2.1  provides  the  software  mar- 


IBM  PC  or 
compatibfe  (20- 
MHz  80386SX  or 
faster),  4MB  RAM 
(6MB 

recommended), 
VGA,  Winctowsa.l, 
tiard  drive  with 
t2MBtree/mou$e 
recommended— 


ket  with  a  unique  set  of  capa- 
bilities for  building,  viewing, 
and  analyzing  data.  It  offers  ex~ 
ceptional  flexibility  for  display- 
ing data.  Spreadsheet  users 
might  find  in  Improv  a  new 
tool  that  will  make  their  tasks 
quicker  and  easier.  Those 
who  often  have  to  make  data 
presentations  will  find  Improv 
meets  their  needs.  Lotus  is  to 
be  commended  for  moving 
spreadsheets  a  big  step  for- 
ward. Improv's  new,  easy, 
and  intuitive  approach  to  da- 
ta is  long  overdue.  H 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  391 


LOTUS 

55  Cambridge 

Pkwy. 

Cambridge,  MA 

021 42 

(BOO)  Zl^mn 


JANUARY  1994     COMPUTE        101 


PERSONAL  PRODUCTIVITY 


Bradley  M.  Small 


Third-party  support 

and  compatiliility  are 

major  concerns  of 

users  considering  OS/2. 

The  industiv  is 

responding  with  ports 

and  originaE 

programming  that 

mal<e  this 

operating  system  even 

more  attractive. 


THE  SUPPORT 
FOR  OS/2  2.1 

Last  month,  we  took  a  close 
look  at  the  power  of  OS/2. 
This  month,  we'll  look  at  some- 
thing equally  important:  third- 
party  support  for  OS/2. 

As  we  showed  last  month, 
OS/2  is  highly  compatible 
with  Windows  3.1.  The  million- 
dollar  question  is  how  long 
OS/2  will  be  able  to  maintain 
Windows  compatibility.  IBM 
and  Microsoft  had  a  contract 
that  involved  each  company's 
having  access  to  the  other's 
source  code.  This  contract  ex- 
pired in  September  1993,  IBM 
will  continue  to  be  able  to  use 
the  technology  of  16-bit  Win- 
dows (Windows  3.0  and  3-1) 
forever  but  will  not  have  ac- 
cess to  32-bit  Windows  code 
(Windows  NT)  or  any  future  ver- 
sion of  Windows  unless  IBM 
and  Microsoft  renegotiate. 

On  the  software  side,  OS/2 
provides  potential  for  growth. 
To  start  with,  over  1700  OS/2 
applications  exist,  both  com- 
mercial and  shareware.  IBM 
will  provide  a  list  on  request. 

Will  software  continue  to  be 
written  for  OS/2?  Peter  Cohen, 
spreadsheet  PR  manager  of  Lo- 
tus Development,  told  me  that 
Lotus  is  committed  to  develop- 
ing for  OS/2.  "We've  demon- 
strated this  commitment  with 
the  [OS/2]  products  that  we've 
delivered  over  the  last  few 
months,"  Lotus  has  released 
32-bit  OS/2  versions  of  cc:Mail, 
Lotus  1-2-3  2.0,  Freelance 
Graphics,  and  Lotus  Notes. 
And  by  the  time  this  column 
goes  to  press,  Lotus  will  have 
released  Ami  Pro  for  OS/2,  mak- 
ing it  the  first  company  to 
have  a  full  suite  of  OS/2  desk- 
top applications. 

WordPerfect  has  released 
and  is  shipping  WordPerfect 
5.2  for  OS/2.  It  supports  all  of 
the  features  of  the  current 
DOS  and  Windows  versions, 
and  it  comes  with  a  32-bit  ver- 


sion of  Grammalik  for  OS/2. 

In  the  OS/2  version,  Word- 
Perfect adds  the  document 
summary  to  the  file's  detail 
view.  There  are  other  impor- 
tant features  like  drag-and- 
drop  printing  and  document 
registration  that  give  it  advan- 
tages over  other  versions  of 
the  product. 

WordPerfect  for  OS/2  is  a 
Mirrors  port  of  the  Windows  ver- 
sion. Mirrors  is  a  library  used 
for  porting  existing  Windows 
apps  to  16-bit  OS/2.  Since  the 
port  is  16-bit  rather  than  32- 
bit,  there  is  a  performance  hit. 
However,  this  product  is  intend- 
ed as  an  interim  solution  until 
the  full  32-bit  6.0  version  is  de- 
veloped sometime  in  1994. 

Another  important  OS/2  de- 
veloper is  Describe,  maker  of 
the  OS/2  word  processor  of 
the  same  name,  Describe  is  a 
32-bil  product  boasting  many 
of  the  same  features  as  the 
high-end  DOS  and  Windows 
word  processors  and  a  few 
special  features  all  its  own.  De- 
Scribe  has  been  available  for 
OS/2  since  version  1.1. 

Hilgraeve  has  the  top-sell- 
ing communications  product 
for  OS/2,  Hyper  Access  5  3.1. 
II  boasts  network  support  (giv- 
ing you  the  ability  to  use 
shared  modems  over  a  LAN), 
all  of  the  popular  download  pro- 
tocols, scripting  with  script 
learning,  and  many  other  fea- 
tures. Using  host  mode,  you 
can  control  the  host  computer 
and  even  run  DOS  and  OS/2 
text-mode  applications  over 
the  telephone  lines  from  a  re- 
mote computer. 

Stac  Electronics,  the  crea- 
tor of  Stacker,  has  released  ver- 
sion 3. 1  for  OS/2  FAT  systems. 
It  provides  on-the-fly  file  com- 
pression. It  comes  with  both 
OS/2  and  DOS  drivers.  Current- 
ly, OS/2  can't  read  PC-DOS  or 
DOS  6  compressed  volumes. 
Stac  Electronics  offers  a  spe- 
cial package  for  owners  of 
DOS  6  that  includes  a  conver- 
sion utility  to  convert  Dou- 


bleSpace volumes  to  Stacker 
volumes  which  are  readable  un- 
der both  DOS  and  OS/2. 

Soft  Touch  Systems  makes 
a  set  of  file-  and  disk-related 
tools  called  the  GamaTech 
Tools.  This  is  an  essential  pack- 
age for  OS/2.  It  handles  both 
HPFS  (the  optional  High  Per- 
formance File  System  for 
OS/2)  and  FAT  (the  standard 
DOS  file  system).  These  utili- 
ties optimize,  repair,  and  pro- 
vide general  maintenance  for 
files  and  disks.  They  also  pro- 
vide file  locking,  system  pro- 
tection against  boot-sector 
modification,  and  more. 

Of  course,  Borland  interna- 
tional has  released  an  excel- 
lent OS/2  2.0  C/C++  compiler 
(a  COMPUTE  Choice  Award  fi- 
nalist). Borland  is  currently 
working  on  an  upgrade  for  the 
added  functionality  of  OS/2 
2.1.  With  the  popularity  of 
Borland  development  tools, 
more  applications  should 
soon  appear  as  a  result  of 
Borland's  interest  in  the  oper- 
ating system. 

An  indispensable  book  on 
getting  the  most  out  of  OS/2  is 
0SI2  2. 1  Unleashed  by  David 
Moskowitz.  David  Kerr,  and  oth- 
ers {published  by  Sams. 
11711  North  College.  Carmel, 
Indiana  46032), 

The  major  drav/backs  of 
OS/2  are  the  question  of  future 
Windows  compatibility  and 
the  hardware  demands.  With 
Windows-to-OS/2  ports  be- 
coming commonplace,  per- 
haps compatibility  isn't  so 
much  of  an  issue  anymore. 

On  the  hardware  front, 
OS/2  requires  at  least  a  386 
and  4MB  of  RAM  as  well  as 
15MB  to  40MB  of  disk  space 
for  installation.  This  is  the  min- 
imum that  will  provide  you 
with  all  of  OS/2's  capabilities. 
As  you  add  more  memory, 
you'll  see  more  speed  and 
efficiency.  When  you  consider 
the  requirements  for  Windows 
NT,  OS/2's  requirements  are 
modest  by  comparison,       H 


102      COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


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ARTWORKS 


Robert  Bixby 


Image 

cataioging  adds 

anoftier  [eve[ 

of  convenience  to 

Goflage 

Complete. 


IN  CAPTIVITY 

There  are  a  number  of  options 
for  capturing  a  screen  either  in 
Windows  or  in  DOS.  The  quick- 
est and  easiest  way  to  save  a 
Windows  screen  is  to  press 
PrintScreen  in  Windows.  That 
saves  the  entire  Windows 
screen  to  the  Clipboard.  You 
can  then  save  it  as  a  CLP  file 
or  paste  it  into  Windows  Paint- 
brush {the  technique  for  this  is 
covered  in  ^'Buiit-in  Windows 
Power  Toois"  in  the  November 
1993  COMPUTE),  edit  it,  and 
then  save  it  as  a  BMP  or  a 
PCX  file.  You  can  save  only 


104 


the  active  window  by  pressing 
Alt-PrintScreen. 

Clif  Karnes  has  written  a  pro- 
gram called  Clip-In  (which  he 
may  soon  release  as  share- 
ware) that  will  capture  to  the 
Clipboard  individual  elements 
of  the  Windows  screen,  such 
as  a  scroll  bar  a  dialog  box, 
an  icon  bar.  or  an  area  you  de- 
fine yourself. 

With  so  many  alternatives 
available,  commercial  publish- 
ers have  to  go  a  long  way  to 
earn  your  dollar. 

Collage  Complete  (Inner  Me- 
dia, 60  Plain  Road,  Mollis,  New 
Hampshire  03049;  603-465- 
3216;  $199)  is  the  successor 
to  the  fast  and  flexible  Collage 
Plus.  My  only  complaint  about 
Collage  Plus:  It  was  difficuft  to 
get  a  loo}<  at  the  pictures  cap- 
tured. Collage  Complete  elim- 
inates that  problem  by  provid- 

COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


ing  not  only  a  viewer  and  edi- 
tor but  also  an  image  catalog 
that  displays  thumbnails  of 
images.  You  can  also  capture 
from  DOS,  edit  pictures,  and 
convert  images  individually  or 
as  a  batch.  Collage  Complete 
comes  with  a  two-disk  sample 
clip  art  collection. 

Collage  Complete  for  Vi/in- 
dows  has  two  separate  icons; 
one  for  the  capture  program 
and  one  for  the  image-editing 
and  -cataloging  program.  You 
have  the  option  of  capturing 
the  active  menu,  title  bar, 
menu  bar,  client,  or  window, 
the  whole  screen,  custom  co- 
ordinates, mul- 
tiple selec- 
tions, or  last  co- 
ordinates. You 
can  set  the 
timer  from  Q  to 
300  seconds. 
You  can  cap- 
ture images  to 
any  of  ten  for- 
mats (includ- 
ing TIF.  PCX, 
BMP,  and  GIF) 
in  any  of  the 
following  color 
levels;  16  gray 
scale,  256  gray  scale,  16  col- 
ors, 256  colors,  16  million  col- 
ors, or  monochrome.  It  sup- 
ports TWAIN,  so  you  can  use 
your  TWAIN-compliant  scan- 
ner to  scan  images  directly  in- 
to Collage  Complete. 

Pizazz  Plus  4.0  (Application 
Techniques.  10  Lomar  Park 
Drive,  Pepperell,  Massachu- 
setts 01463;  508-433-5201; 
$149)  has  the  simplest  collec- 
tion of  tools  under  Windows  of 
the  three,  but  it  can  save  to  an 
incredible  range  of  formats, 
most  identified  by  applica- 
tions, for  which  the  image  is 
custom  formatted.  It  also  has 
a  recorder  that  remembers  the 
transformations  you  perform 
on  a  graphic  and  can  repro- 
duce them  on  another  graph- 
ic. The  macro  (called  a  recipe) 
can  then  be  saved  to  disk. 
Pizazz's  DOS  capture  and 


manipulation  program  is  the 
most  complete,  but  its  inter- 
face is  a  little  overwhelming. 

Graphics  Tools  (Delta  Point. 
2  Harris  Court,  Suite  B-1 .  Mon- 
terey, California  93940;  408- 
648-4000;  $99.00)  offers  a 
slightly  expanded  features  list 
including  autotrace  and  a  bo- 
nus CD-ROM  that  contains 
700  pieces  of  clip  art,  100 
photographs,  and  demonstra- 
tion versions  of  other  Delta 
Point  programs.  Delta  Point  is 
known  for  its  charting  pro- 
gram, Delta  Graph  and  Freeze- 
Frame  ($69.95),  another  im- 
age-capture and  file-conver- 
sion application. 

Graphics  Tools  will  capture 
and  convert  among  more  for- 
mats than  Collage  Compiete, 
but  it  gives  less  control  over 
the  image  as  it  is  captured. 
The  image  is  captured  as  a 
TIF  file,  for  example,  but  you 
cannot  tell  it  to  capture  in  mono- 
chrome or  16  million  colors. 
You  can  capture  freehand,  a 
window,  specified  coordi- 
nates, an  area,  or  full  screen. 
If  you  elect  to  capture  a  win- 
dow, you  can  refine  the  cap- 
ture to  a  menu,  an  icon,  or  a 
dialog  box  by  clicking  on  the 
object  you  want  to  capture. 
The  only  way  to  capture  a 
DOS  screen  with  Graphics 
Works  is  from  within  Windows. 

Whatever  you  choose, 
you'll  find  that  graphics  manip- 
ulation has  entered  an  era  of 
extreme  interoperability. 

Have  a  DTP  tip  you'd  like  to 
share?  Let  me  know  about  it 
by  calling  (900)  884-8681 ,  ex- 
tension 7010203  (sponsored 
by  Pure  Entertainment,  P.O. 
Box  186,  Hollywood,  California 
90078).  The  call  costs  95 
cents  per  minute,  you  must  be 
18  or  older,  and  you  must  use 
a  touch-tone  phone.  Or  write 
to  "Art  Works"  in  care  of  this 
magazine.  And  if  you  don"t 
have  a  tip,  call  to  let  me  know 
what  you're  up  to,  what  soft- 
ware youYe  using,  and  how  I 
can  be  of  assistance.  a 


til*?     tall     Map     p.at.T     Route     UlJitles     Window     deip 


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I  I  ttom     szj*      m  hM 

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QrfJmci  I»  n«^  <tn  f  IMp.  SHUtl 


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DISCOVERY  CHOICE 


Dazzling  graphics,  full-motion  animation,  and  crystal-clear 

sound  effects  bring  dinosaurs  to  life  as  you 

learn  the  facts  about  these  fascinating  ancient  creatures, 

Scott  A.  May 


MICROSOFT 
DINOSAURS 

They  say  everything  old  even- 
tually becomes  new  again.  It 
must  be  true,  because  you 
can't  get  much  older,  yet 
more  in  fashion,  than  dino- 
saurs. From  children's  playful 
TV  pals  to  big-screen  terrors, 
these  ancient  creatures  seem 
to  fascinate  us  more  than  ev- 
er. Despite  the  renewed  inter- 
est, however,  myths  and  mis- 
conceptions persist.  Microsoft 
helps  bridge  the  gap  be- 
tween paleontology  and  pop 
culture  with  Dinosaurs,  a  bril- 
liant interactive  journey  that 
takes  you  back  in  time. 

True  to  its  larger-than-life 
subject  matter,  this  multime- 
dia Windows  CD-ROM  packs 
a  huge  amount  of  informa- 
tion—nearly 400MB,  including 
full-motion  video,  fantastic  au- 
dio,  and  a  gallery  of  beautiful- 
ly scanned  artwork.  The  main 
program  weighs  in  at  over 
200MB,  featuring  a  dazzling 
display  of  more  than  1000  illus- 
trations, 200  hypertext  arti- 
cles, and  800  pop-up  win- 
dows. For  dinosaur  lovers, 
about  the  only  thing  better 
than  this  would  be  living  next 
door  to  New  York's  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History. 

Big  numbers  are  impres- 
sive, but  they  don't  guarantee 
a  good  program.  Atop  this 
mass  of  megabytes  sits  a  fab- 
ulous interface  that  allows  the 
curious  to  explore  in  four 
ways:  Atlas,  Timeline,  Fami- 
lies, and  Index.  For'the  timid, 
there's  also  Guided  Tour, 
which  is  hosted  by  "Dino" 
Don  Lessem,  founder  of  The 
Dinosaur  Society  and  editor 
of  the  Dino  Times.  His  soft,  folk- 
sy style  uses  humor  to  hook 
our  curiosity  and  expert  knowl- 
edge to  keep  us  following  his 


lead  on  16  different  tours. 
You  can  abandon  a  tour  at 
any  time  if  you  find  a  subject 
that  piques  your  interest.  Un- 
fortunately, there  are  no  video 
bookmarks,  which  would  al- 
low you  to  quickly  return  to 
specific  points  of  interest. 

Atlas  takes  you  where  dino- 
saurs roamed,  areas  divided 
into  six  geographic  regions: 
North  America,  South  Ameri- 
ca. Europe,  Africa,  Asia,  and 
Australia.  Learn  how  each  spe- 
cies adapted  to  its  particular 
climate  and  social  order.  A  fas- 
cinating sidebar.  The  Shifting 
Earth,  offers  a  crash  course  in 
plate  tectonics.  Here  you'll 
see  how  land  movement  cre- 
ated new  continents,  restrict- 
ing animal  migration  and  pos- 
sibly dooming  some  species 
to  early  extinction. 

In  addition  to  the  interest- 
ing sidebars  that  offer  explor- 
ers more  information,  most  of 
the  program's  screens  sport 
special  hot  spots — hypertext 
links  to  additional  information. 
Click  next  to  Dimetrodon's 
sail  to  learn  how  this  "reptile  ra- 
diator" helped  regulate  the  gi- 
ant lizard's  body  temperature. 
Branch  off  yet  again  to  discov- 


er creatures  with  similar  radi- 
ator sails,  such  as  the  warm- 
blooded Spinosaurus.  Like 
any  good  reference,  these 
hot  spots  allow  your  imagina- 
tion to  wander.  There  are  no 
wrong  moves  or  dead  ends, 
and  to  backtrack,  you  simply 
click  on  the  back  icon. 

Timeline  begins  with  a 
graphic  representation  of  the 
earth's  history,  divided  into 
four  major  eras:  Precambrian, 
Paleozoic,  Mesozoic,  and  Ce- 
nozoic.  Each  era  is  then  bro- 
ken into  small  chunks  of  time, 
called  periods.  You'll  learn 
that  all  dinosaurs  lived  during 
the  Mesozoic  era— divided  in- 
to the  Triassic,  Jurassic,  and 
Cretaceous  periods— roughly 
160  million  years,  yet  merely 
a  drop  in  the  cosmic  buckeL 
When  viewing  such  a  grand 
scale,  you  can't  help  but  be 
humbled  by  man's  meager 
stake  on  terra  firma  The  Mes- 
ozoic era  holds  many  hy- 
pertext links  to  the  Atlas  sec- 
tion, particularly  the  Creta- 
ceous period,  when  dramatic 
plate  movement  and  rising 
seas  helped  isolate  many  spe- 
cies. The  end  of  this  era  saw 
the  end  of  the  dinosaurs.  The 


106        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


program  offers  several  dramat- 
ic theories  to  explain  the 
cause  of  their  extinction,  as 
well  as  clues  to  some  species 
that  may  have  survived. 

The  section  on  families 
proves  especially  interesting 
for  fledgling  dinosaur  explor- 
ers. It  teaches  the  difference 
between  the  two  main  orders 
of  dinosaurs — saurischians 
and  ornithischians — designat- 
ed, remarkably,  by  hip  struc- 
ture. You'll  also  discover  that 
some  creatures  often  mistak- 
en for  dinosaurs  were  actual- 
ly reptiles,  such  as  the  flying 
Pterodactylus  and  Quetzal- 
coatlus.  The  who's  who  of  di- 
nosaurs is  in  this  section,  in- 
cluding the  meanest  (Tyranno- 
saurus  Rex,  of  course),  big- 
gest (the  piant-eating  Sauro- 
pods),  and  snnallest  (the  chick- 
en-sized Compsognathus), 
among  others. 

Are  you  tongue-tied  by 
these  strange,  multisyllabic 
names?  You're  not  alone, 
That's  why  the  designers  in- 
cluded spoken  pronuncia- 
tions, one  of  the  program's 
best  features.  Click  on  the 
speaker  icon  next  to  particu- 
lar words  or  phrases,  and 
you'll  hear  them  pronounced  in 
crystal  clarity.  Cindy  Shrieve 
provides  the  voice;  she  also 
speaks  the  introductions  to  side- 
bar stories. 

The  fourth  navigational  op- 
tion,  Index,  allows  speedy  ac- 
cess to  every  major  article 
and  species.  Entries  are  both 
alphabetized  and  graphically 
displayed.  Browsing  through 
Index  is  also  an  excellent  way 
to  find  articles  on  subjects 
you  might  otherwise  miss, 
such  as  the  fascinating  art  of 
skeletal  reconstruction. 

The  program's  multimedia 
highlight—six  full-motion  mini- 
movies — was  added  almost 
as  an  afterthought  just  prior  to 


release.  Culled  from  the  PBS 
series  "The  Dinosaurs,"  most 
feature  quality  animated  water- 
colors,  sound  effects,  and  nar- 
ration. The  centerpiece  film, 
The  Hunt,  was  taken  from 
Phil  Tippett's  1984  work.  Pre- 
historic Beasts.  Filmed  with 
stop-motion  models,  intricate 
backgrounds,  and  horrific 
sound  effects,  this  exquisite 
animation  depicts  a  deadly  en- 
counter between  a  Tricera- 
tops  and  a  T  rex. 

The  program  detects  your 
current  Windows  graphics 
mode^either  16-  or  256-color 
VGA— and  loads  the  appropri- 
ate version.  As  you'd  expect, 
the  256-color  VGA  graphics 
are  stunning,  from  the  stone- 
textured  icons  to  the 
scanned  artwork  and  digit- 
ized photos.  The  big  surprise 
is  the  outstanding  quality  of 
the  16-color  VGA  version: 
Apart  from  only  a  slight  loss 
of  detail  due  to  the  dithering 
process,  the  graphics  are 
just  as  attractive  using  a  16- 
color  palette.  This  is  especial- 
ly good  news  for  users  with 
unaccelerated  video  cards, 
as  well  as  those  who  simply 
don't  want  to  switch  video 
modes  to  run  the  program. 
Somewhat  of  a  system  hog, 
the  program  task-swaps  well 
but  prefers  your  system's  un- 
divided attention.  Running  re- 
source-heavy applications  in 
the  background  will  slow  Dino- 
saurs to  a  crawl. 

fvlicrosoft  forgoes  a  printed 
manual  in  favor  of  online 
graphic  help  screens.  Over- 
view Movie  is  a  special  fea- 
ture that  helps  new  users;  a 
talking  tour  of  the  program's 
main  functions,  it's  delivered 
in  the  humorous  style  of  a 
vaudeville  revue.  Another  help- 
ful option  is  the  ability  to  print 
virtually  any  screen  or  active 
window,  in  either  gray  scale 


or  full  color.  The  overall  quali- 
ty is  excellent,  but  because 
these  are  screen  dumps, 
graphics  will  print  better 
when  they're  displayed  in  256- 
coior  mode. 

Believe  it  or  not,  there's 
more;  Attached  to  each  dino- 
saur profile  is  a  Fact  Card,  a 
printable  index  card  contain- 
ing a  full-color  picture,  an  in- 
formation chart,  an  interesting 
fact,  and  a  scale  drawing. 
And  there's  the  dinosaur  art 


IBM  PC  or 
Gompatibte 
(80386SX 
compatible),  4IV1B 
BAM,  16-01256^ 
color  VGA,  hard 
drive  witn  2.5MB 
free,  MPC^ 
compllam  CD-ROM 
drive,  mouse,  MPC- 


gallery,  complete  with  50  high- 
quality  pictures  that  can  be  ex- 
ported via  the  Clipboard  or 
turned  into  wallpaper  for  a  Win- 
dows background.  There  are 
even  two  built-in  screen  sav- 
ers, your  choice  of  stonnping 
dinosaur  feet  or  dinosaur 
heads.  Finally,  a  slide-show  op- 
tion displays  randomly  select- 
ed program  screens  for 
those  who  simply  can't  de- 
cide where  to  begin. 

Both  highly  entertaining 
and  educational,  Microsoft  Di- 
nosaurs is  a  wonderful  blast 
from  the  past.  The  next  time 
you're  asked  what  the  stor- 
age capacity  of  a  CD-ROM  is. 
just  smile  and  say,  "About 
160  million  years."  Q 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  392 


compatible  sound 
card,  Windows  3.T 
or  nigher— $79.95 

MICROSOFT 

One  Microsoft  Way 

Redmond,  WA  98052- 

6399 

(800)  323-3577 


JANUARY  1994    COMPUTE        107 


GAME  INSIDER 


Shay  Addams 


MicroProsG 

returns  to  its  roots 

wrih  F^i4 

Fleet  Detantfer. 


THE  YEAR 
OF  THE  SIM 

MicroProse,  acquired  recently 
by  Spectrum  HoloByte,  has  qui- 
etly killed  its  animated  adven- 
ture game  department.  In  ear- 
ly fall  it  shipped  Bloodnet,  a 
role-playing  game  from  the  Par- 
agon design  team,  but  Dragon- 
sphere  will  be  the  last  such 
quest,  and  the  company  is  al- 
so dubious  about  a  follow-up 
to  Darklands. 

MicroProse  will  return  to  pro- 
ducing the  kind  of  games  that 
made  it  famous:  simulations 
such  as  F-14  Fleet  Defender, 
which  should  be  on  the 
shelves  now,  and  strategy 
games  like  Sid  Meier's  Civiliza- 
tion. The  Civil  War  sim  Meier 
was  working  on  has  been  put 
on  hold  until  at  least  the  fall  of 
1994  while  he  finishes  CPU 
Bach  for  the  3D0-  And  he  may 
decide  to  do  an  add- en  for  Civ- 
ilization (or  even  a  brand-new 
version)  first — maybe  some- 
thing like  Civilization  in 
Space.  MicroProse's  new 
Coaches  Club  Football  simula- 
tion and  a  space  strategy 
game  called  Masters  of  Orion 
should  already  be  in  the 
stores. 

More  sims.  Simulations  con- 
tinue to  multiply  perhaps  be- 
cause so  many  kinds  of 
games— planes,  tanks,  city 
builders— fall  into  this  catego- 
ry One  of  the  most  unique  is 
Detroit,  Impressions'  ultimate 
automobile  simulation.  Detroit 
re-creates  various  aspects  of 
the  automobile  industry  by  pro- 
viding the  tools  for  designing 
and  mass-productng  your 
own  car.  Marketing  plays  an  im- 
portant role  in  this  resource- 
management  challenge. 

Interplay  is  doing  CD-ROM 
versions  of  Maxis's  SimCity. 
SimEarth.  and  SimAnt.  The 
company  is  revamping  each 
game  extensively  and  adding 
digitized  video.  A  40-person 
film  crew  is  currently  shooting 


footage  for  the  CD-ROM  ver- 
sion of  SimCity  which  is  due 
out  in  the  spring.  The  SimAnt 
CD-ROM  should  be  on  the 
shelves  now.  Interplay  also  re- 
leased a  CD-ROM  version  of 
Alone  in  the  Dark  recently, 
and  at  press  time  the  compa- 
ny was  saying  that  it  hoped  to 
ship  an  Interplay  tenth-anni- 
versary CD-ROM  with  Waste- 
land and  nine  more  of  its  big- 
gest hits  by  Christmas.  Sto- 
nekeep.  Interplay  s  landmark 
role-playing  game,  is  now  set 
for  a  spring  release. 

Not  a  simulation.  The  com- 
puter game  industry  is  a  bi- 
zarre one.  You'd  expect  the  hot- 
test title  from  a  company 
called  Strategic  Simulations  to 
be  a  simulation,  or  at  least  a 
strategy  game.  But  it^s  actual- 
ly the  latest  release  in  the 
AD&D  role-playing  series,  an 
all-new  world  set  in  the  time  of 
The  Arabian  Nights.  Al  Qadim 
is  the  name  of  the  fantasy 
world,  and  Genie's  Curse  is 
the  first  role-playing  game 
that  takes  you  there.  Unlike 
most  AD &D  games,  it's  a  one- 
character  quest,  Your  charac- 
ter is  pregenerated,  allowing 
you  to  jump  right  into  the 
action. 

You  can  get  a  batch  of  ad- 
ventures in  Legend  Entertain- 
merit's  Spellcasting  Party  Pak, 
which  contains  al!  three  of  Ste- 
ve Meretzky's  wacko  Spell- 
casting  games.  Two  recent 
Legend  adventures,  Eric  the 
Unready  and  Gateway  2, 
have  been  released  on  CD- 
ROM.  For  something  new 
from  Legend,  try  Companions 
of  Xanth.  which  sports  a  new, 
easier-to-use  interface.  Leg- 
end s  Bob  Bates  calls  the  ad- 
venture, based  on  the  works 
of  popular  fantasy  writer  Piers 
Anthony,  the  company's 
"most  beautiful"  adventure. 

Better  late  than  never?  You 
may  have  noticed  that  a  few  of 
the  games  I  reported  on  in  re- 
cent columns  have  inexplica- 
bly missed  their  ship  dates — 


not  an  unheard-of  event  in  the 
world  of  computer  games,  cer- 
tainly, but  that's  no  excuse  for 
less-than-accurate  coverage 
by  a  game  insider  such  as  my- 
self. Sir-Tech  has  rescheduled 
Jagged  Alliance  from  last  fall 
to  this  spring,  for  instance. 
The  second  title  in  its  Realms 
of  Arkania  series,  Star  Trail,  is 
now  planned  for  January  or 
February.  LucasArts'  The  Dig, 
Brian  Moriarty's  graphic  adven- 
ture, is  now  set  to  hit  the 
shelves  in  late  spring.  (I  did 
learn  that  the  mysterious  Hol- 
lywood type  involved  in  the  pro- 
ject is  none  other  than  Juras- 
sic Park  producer  Steven 
Spielberg.  After  deciding  that 
a  story  he  wanted  to  produce 
for  the  screen  might  work  bet- 
ter and  cost  less  as  a  comput- 
er game,  he  teamed  up  with 
Moriarty  at  Lucas  Arts.)  Howev- 
er, last  month,  when  i  said  TIE 
Fighter  would  dock  in  time  for 
Christmas,  that  was  my  mis- 
take^l  confused  it  with  B- 
Wing,  the  X-Wing  mission 
disk.  TIE  Fighter  is  a  spring 
product. 

Buttoned  down  for  a  dog- 
fight. The  most  effective  flight 
peripheral  I've  seen  in  years  is 
the  new  CM  Flightstick  Pro, 
Based  on  the  classic  CM  Flight- 
stick,  it's  armed  with  three  ex- 
tra buttons  atop  the  stick  and 
a  coolie  hat  that  serves  as  a 
four-way  switch.  All  the  ad- 
vanced flight  Sims  support  the 
new  buttons  for  game-specif- 
ic functions  such  as  dropping 
bombs  or  switching  guns. 
Most  of  them  use  the  coolie 
hat  to  shift  between  views 
from  the  cockpit.  I've  seen  sim- 
ilar features  on  more  expen- 
sive joysticks  that  weren't  as 
well  engineered,  and  I  highly 
recomimend  the  Flightstick 
Pro.  {The  extra  buttons  require 
a  two-stick  game  card:  many 
inexpensive  multifunction 
cards  only  support  one  stick.) 
!f  this  stick  doesn't  improve 
your  scores,  you  may  as  well 
go  back  to  Pong,  □ 


108        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


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ENTERTAINMENT  CHOICE 


Lead  fleets  of  starships  in  interstellar  battles 
as  you  fight  to  save  the  Federated  Worlds  in  this 
realistic  space-opera  simulation. 

Keith  Ferrell 


RULES  OF 
ENGAGEMENT? 


Can  software  re-create  sci- 
ence-fiction experiences? 
This  is  a  question  that's  been 
addressed  by  most  of  the  ma- 
jor entertainment  software  pub- 
lishers at  one  time  or  another. 
For  some  publishers,  it's  the 
question,  Omnitrend,  for  exam- 
ple, has  devoted  most  of  its  en- 
ergies over  the  past  decade 
to  creating  interactive  interpre- 
tations of  a  particular  type  of 
science  fiction,  the  space  op- 
era. Its  latest  game.  Rules  of 
Engagement  2,  may  well  be 
the  finest  science-fiction  sim- 
ulation ever  developed. 

Space  opera  is  one  of  the 
grand  traditions  of  literary  sci- 
ence fiction.  Like  its  antece- 
dent, the  horse  opera,  space 
opera  works  from  several  giv- 
ens.  Fleets  of  mighty  star- 
ships  substitute  for  the  cav- 
alry and  the  bad  guys.  Space 
operas  often  are  set  along  fron- 
tiers, with  colony  worlds  serv- 
ing the  roles  played  by  prairie 
towns.  Climactic  battles  are 
preceded  by  smaller  confron- 
tations, the  stakes  rising  with 
each  new  conflict. 

Of  course,  horse  operas 
are  pretty  much  restricted  to  ri- 
fles, pistols,  and  the  occasion- 
al Gatling  gun,  while  the 
space  opera  at  its  most  ambi- 
tious can  hurl  whole  solar  sys- 
tems into  different  continua. 
Crashing  Suns,  for  instance, 
is  the  title  of  one  of  the  earli- 
est space  operas. 

At  its  best,  space  opera  is 
more  than  just  adventure  fic- 
tion. Good  space  opera 
should  be  good  science  fic- 
tion as  vyell,  taking  place  in  a 
carefully  designed  and  delin- 
eated universe  that  is  self-con- 
sistent within  the  bounds  of 
the  story  that  contains  it. 

110        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Space  opera — or  what  pass- 
es for  it— has  played  a  large 
part  in  the  interactive  entertain- 
ment explosion.  And  that's 
not  surprising,  as  space  op- 
era has  played  perhaps  the 
dominant  role  in  all  electronic 
media  forms  of  science  fic- 
tion. "Star  Trek"  is  essentially 
a  space  opera,  and  the  Star 
Wars  saga  is  little  more  than 
that.  Interactive  space  opera 
has  tended  to  follow  the  Star 
Wars  pattern:  lots  of  arcade 
action,  speed,  bells  and  whis- 
tles,, and  little  attention  to  or  re- 
flection upon  what  actual  inter- 
stellar combat  might  be  like. 

That  sort  of  reflection  and  at- 
tention is  exactly  what  Omni- 
trend  has  brought  to  its  sci- 
ence-fiction simulations.  Its 
simulations  follow  three  sepa- 
rate, though  interlocked, 
tracks,  all  set  within  the  same 
universe.  One  of  the  Omni- 
trend  series,  Universe,  deals 
with  interstellar  exploration, 
trade,  and  settlement.  Then 
there's  the  Breach  series, 
which  focuses  on  ground-com- 
bat troops.  And  third  is  the 
Rules  of  Engagement  group, 
which  puts  players  in  charge 
of  fleets  of  military  starships. 

All    of    the    games    take 


place  in  the  same  self-consis- 
tent universe,  and  a  very 
strange  and  dangerous 
place  that  is.  Like  most  good 
science-fiction  universes,  this 
one  has  a  history.  According 
to  the  Omnitrend  scenario, 
over  the  next  century  the 
human  race  develops  faster- 
than-light  travel  and  begins 
the  colonization  of  planets  In 
our  local  galactic  area. 
Humans  being  a  fractious  spe- 
cies, factional  differences  de- 
velop, and  humanity  splits  in- 
to two  groups:  the  Federated 
Worlds  (you)  and  the  United 
Democratic  Planets  (them). 

There  are  also  aliens  of  var- 
ious levels  of  malevolence 
and  competence.  And,  in  the 
best  science-fiction  tradition, 
there  are  remnants  of  an  an- 
cient and  very  advanced  spe- 
cies. This  is  a  remarkably 
well  thought  out  universe,  full 
of  details  that  lend  just 
enough  credibility  to  suspend 
disbelief.  As  illusions  go,  the 
Omnitrend  universe  is  quite 
convincing. 

Of  the  games  set  in  this  uni- 
verse. Rules  of  Engagement 
2  is  by  far  the  most  ambitious. 
It's  a  campaign-oriented 
game:  You  start  out  as  a  ca- 


det  and  v/ork  your  way  up  the 
ranks,  facing  larger  challeng- 
es and  commanding  more 
powerful  forces  with  each  ad- 
vancennent.  A  beginner  cam- 
paign is  included,  but  you'll 
quickly  find  yourself  facing 
large  combat  and  command 
challenges. 

Command,  not  incidentally, 
figures  largely  in  the  game.  In 
the  more  advanced  scenari- 
os, you'll  find  yourself  with 
whole  fleets  of  ships  at  your 
disposal.  It's  your  responsibil- 
ity to  select  individual  ship 
commanders  from  the  roster 
of  those  available.  All  the  char- 
acters have  their  own  traits, 
competencies,  and  vulnerabil- 
ities— any  one  of  which  can  af- 
fect how  they  respond  to 
your  orders. 

Once  you  embark  upon  a 
campaign,  you're  in  the  cen- 
ter seat  of  the  flagship,  which 
can  be  a  lowly  transport  trav- 
eling solo  or  a  mighty  dread- 
nought leading  a  fleet,  de- 
pending upon  the  mission  con- 
figuration. {Actual  ship  selec- 
tion is  up  to  you,  but  each  sce- 
nario gives  you  only  a  certain 
number  of  configuration 
points  to  spend,  which 
means  that  you  can't  get  the 
best  ship  every  time.) 

The  command  interface  is 
a  marvel:  Not  only  is  it  effec- 
tive and  sensible,  but  it  also 
has  a  design  that  sen/es  to  en- 
hance the  game's  illusion. 
This  thing  feels  like  a  starship 
command  center. 

You're  presented  with  a  va- 
riety of  ship  systems;  tactical, 
navigational,  communica- 
tions, damage  control,  and 
docking.  Within  each  system 
are  subsystems  specific  to 
tasks  at  hand,  such  as  select- 
ing missiles  for  combat  or  load- 
ing and  unloading  cargo. 
Your  monitor  screen  can  be  di- 
vided into  command  quad- 


rants, with  the  quadrants  dis- 
playing different  systems  or 
subsystems  within  a  larger 
group.  Tactical  command,  for 
example,  gives  you  access  to 
fire  control,  defensive 
shields,  positioning  relative  to 
the  enemy,  and  more.  Includ- 
ed in  communications  are 
both  transmission  and  recep- 
tion. Navigation  houses  the 
helm,  maps,  and  iong-range 
sensors.  You1l  learn  quickly 
which  arrangements  work 
best  in  different  situations. 

You'll  also  learn — with 
luck,  rapidly— to  coordinate 
the  systems  during  combat. 
Often,  your  enemies  are  bet- 
ter armed  and  equipped  than 
you.  The  simulation  gives  you 
the  tools  necessary  to  crack 
each  scenario,  but  it  requires 
you  to  learn  as  you  go;  of 
course,  that  further  enhances 
the  game's  career  advance- 
ment motif. 

If  you  also  play  Omni- 
trend's  Breach  series,  you 
can  interlock  the  games,  mov- 
ing from  Rules  of  Engage- 
ment 2's  starship  command 
to  Breach's  ground-force  com- 
mand as  you  board  and  seek 
to  capture  enemy  installa- 
tions. The  next  release  of  Uni- 
verse will  also  interlock  with 
Rules  of  Engagement  and 
Breach. 

Documentation  is  exten- 
sive, thorough,  and  refreshing- 
ly well  written.  You'll  want  to 
pay  attention  to  the  break- 
down charts  of  ship  and  sys- 
tem capabilities;  there's  infor- 
mation there  that  will  affect 
your  weapons  selection  and 
possibly  turn  the  tide  of  des- 
perate battles. 

And  the  battles  do  get  des- 
perate. Systems  can  be  dam- 
aged or  knocked  out;  capabil- 
ities can  be  diminished.  Allies 
respond  in  realtime,  and  the 
clock  is  always  running.  You 


may  need  full  power  in  three 
minutes,  to  borrow  a  cliche 
from  another  space  opera, 
but  if  the  simulation  runs  six 
minutes  before  full  power  is 
available,  you  may  be  out  of 
luck.  There  are  no  TV  space- 
opera  miracle  workers  here. 

Rules  of  Engagement  2  is 
a  high-level  simulation  that  de- 
mands good  equipment.  It 
will  run  on  a  slow  80386,  but 
a  faster  machine  makes  it 
sing.  (Actually,  it  talks,  if  you 
have  sound  support.) 

Scenario  design  has  be- 
come an  important  pastime 


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033 


for  Omnitrend  fans,  and  with 
Rules  of  Engagement  2,  the 
company  has  gone  so  far  as 
to  prepare  a  special  develop- 
er's kit,  which  you  can  pur- 
chase directly  from  Omni- 
trend. Additional  scenarios  for 
the  game  are  already  pop- 
ping up  on  bulletin  boards 
and  online  services. 

Rules  of  Engagement  2  is 
a  serious  simulation  and  a 
masterpiece  of  interactive  sci- 
ence fiction.  Software  space 
opera  doesn't  get  any  better 
than  this.  It^s  a  game— and  a 
vision  of  the  space-operatic  fu- 
ture—that would  do  Poul  An- 
derson, Jack  Williamson,  or 
E.  E.  Smith  proud.  a 

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JANUARY  1994     COMPUTE         111 


GAMEPLAY 


Denny  Atkin 


COASTERS  AND 
RUBE  GOLDBERG 

And  now  for  something  com- 
pletely different!  Only  comput- 
er gamers  could  find  them- 
selves in  a  rut  because 
they've  spent  too  much  time  ex- 
ploring dark  dungeons,  flying 
F-16s,  and  playing  profession- 
al football-  If  you  want  to  try 
something  really  different, 
both  Disney  and  Sierra/Dy- 
namix  offer  breaks  from  the  or- 
dinary. And  amazingly,  in  to- 
day's world  of  20MB  games, 
each  of  these  games  ships  on 


The  Even  More 

Incredible 

Machine  presents  von 

with  160  Rube 

Goldberg-esqiie 

challenges. 


a  single  high-density  floppy. 

Coasting  along.  Disney's 
Coaster  takes  you  off  the 
flight  line  and  into  an  amuse- 
ment park,  but  at  the  speeds 
and  altitudes  you'll  reach 
here,  you  may  forget  you're 
not  still  flying  a  jet  fighter.  This 
program,  originally  an- 
nounced last  year,  is  a  con- 
struction set  that  lets  you 
build,  test,  and  ride  your  own 
roller  coasters. 

You'll  start  out  in  the  Coast- 
er Design  section,  where  you 
can  create  your  ride  from 
scratch  or  modify  one  of  a  num- 
ber of  existing  designs  on  a 
640  X  480  VGA  screen. 
You've  got  straight  track, 
curves,  loop-the-loops,  and 
corkscrews  to  choose  from. 
Sections  can  be  different 
lengths,  they  can  climb  or 
plunge  at  angles  up  to  60  de- 
grees, and  they  can  twist  up 
to  50  degrees  in  curves.  Sec- 
tions of  track  can  be  lifters  or 
accelerators,  or  they  can  be 
equipped  with  brakes.  You1l 

112        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


need  a  mouse  for  this  section 
of  the  program,  which  has  to 
be  one  of  the  easiest-to-use 
construction  sets  I've  ever  en- 
countered. 

Track  design  is  fun,  but 
you've  got  to  be  careful.  One 
of  the  most  difficult  aspects  is 
making  sure  that  the  final  sec- 
tion of  track  can  actually  wrap 
around  and  meet  the  platform 
again.  If  you  ever  created 
your  own  track  layouts  with 
model  trains  or  electric  race- 
cars  when  you  were  a  kid, 
you'll  recognize  this  difficulty— 
you  create  what  would  have 
been  the  perfect  layout,  ex- 
cept there's  no  way  to  get  the 
track  back  to  where  you  start- 
ed building  it. 

Once  your  track  is  laid  out, 
it's  off  to  the  Ride  screen.  Just 
select  Ride  from  the  pull- 
down menu,  and  youVe  in  the 
coaster  car.  Note  that  if  you  ha- 
ven't installed  the  upstops, 
which  keep  the  car  from  flying 
off  the  track,  or  if  your  track 
ends  in  midair,  you  won't  be 
able  to  get  anyone  to  board 
your  coaster,  Click  the  mouse 
button  to  launch,  and  you're  in 
for  a  wild  ride.  Fast  graphics 
and  realistic  sound  effects 
make  the  ride  a  fun  experi- 
ence, but  it's  not  very  interac- 
tive. You  do  have  buttons  to  ac- 
celerate or  brake  if  you  find 
that  you  haven't  quite 
planned  the  proper  amount  of 
momentum  in  your  coaster  de- 
sign, but  that's  the  limit  of  in- 
teractivity here.  Most  of  the 
game  is  in  the  designing,  not 
the  riding.  After  the  ride's  fin- 
ished, you  can  get  opinions 
on  your  coaster  from  a  panel 
of  evaluators.  These  will 
range  from  "Well,  lasso  me  to 
a  bronco!  That  was  one  of  the 
best  trips  I've  ever  had!"  to 
'Tve  seen  better  speed 
bumps  at  the  post  office."  The 
Signature  screen  lets  you  ex- 
amine a  graph  that  shows  the 
lateral  and  vertical  g's 
achieved,  maximum  speed, 
longest  drop,  and  other  stats. 


Once  you've  perfected 
your  design  techniques  on 
Earth,  you  can  try  again  with 
moon  or  Jupiter  gravity,  which 
can  make  for  some  interesting 
design  problems. 

Coaster  is  a  winner  in  many 
respects.  The  only  problem  is 
that  the  graphic  updates  are 
too  fast  on  a  speedy  PC,  mak- 
ing loops  nothing  more  than  a 
blur.  If  you're  the  type  who  en- 
joys building  for  building's 
sake^f  your  fondest  child- 
hood memories  involve  Legos 
and  Tinkertoys— you'll  love 
this  little  game.  It's  a  bargain 
at  only  S24.95. 

Tir\/l's  back.  From  Jeff  Tun- 
nell  Productions  comes  Sierra/ 
Dynamix's  latest  puzzler,  The 
Even  More  Incredible  Ma- 
chine. If  you  played  The  Incred- 
ible Machine,  you  know  what 
to  expect,  as  TEMIM  offers 
1 60  new  levels  with  everything 
that  made  the  first  game  fun. 
If  you  Ye  not  familiar  with  the  se- 
nes.  TIM  and  TEMIM  essential- 
ly put  you  in  the  role  of  Rube 
Goldberg.  You  have  to  create 
complex,  interconnected  con- 
traptions to  accomplish  goals 
that  range  from  popping  bal- 
loons to  saving  a  little  white 
mouse  from  a  hungry  cat.  You 
connect  pulleys,  motors,  jack- 
in-the-boxes,  ropes,  balloons, 
and  many  other  parts  to  try  to 
set  off  reactions  that  v/ill  accom- 
plish your  goal.  The  puzzles 
range  from  really  easy  to,  at 
the  end,  well,  really  puzzling. 
My  favorite  aspect,  though,  is 
that  the  game  is  smart  enough 
to  let  you  win  even  if  you  pick 
a  solution  that  may  not  have 
been  what  the  programmers 
intended.  Many  times.  I've 
solved  the  puzzles  and  had 
parts  left  over.  TEMIM  is  ex- 
tremely easy  to  learn,  and 
both  young  kids  and  adults 
will  find  hours  of  enjoyment 
here.  I  know  !  did— I  installed 
TEMIM  at  9  p.m.  and  didn't 
get  to  bed  until  after  3  a.m., 
and  many,  many  levels  of  play 
had  passed.  0 


THE  SOUL  OF  YOUR  MACHINE  IS  IN  MORTAL  DANGER! 


B    R^'A    M 


675  Massachusetts  Ave. 

Cambridge,  MA  02 139 

(617)497-7794 

Bfom  Stoker's  Drocula^"  is  a  Trademafk  of  Coiumblo  Pictures  industries.  Inc.  ©  1992  ColumbiO  Prciures  irndusfrl©s  inc.  At[  righTs  reserved, 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  241 


»^^ 


dTRAVEL  TO  EXOTIC  LANDS 


J-J-U  iJjjJ'JJ  'J'JJ^jJ  J-JJj-Vi 


YouVe  always  considered  youisell  a  soldier  of  fortune 
with  a  knack  for  survival  and  a  thirst  for  green.  Your 
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The  stakes  ore  a  little  bit  greater  and  the  danger  is  all 
too  real.  You  and  your  team  are  on  a  desolate  moon, 
surrounded  by  less  than  friendlies,  with  only  one  goal 
besides  the  mission  itself:  stay  alive  long  enough  to 
enjoy  your  newfound  wealth. 


Hired  Guns  is  on  adventure  that  can  accommodate  up 
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the  1 .7  million  cubic  meters  of  ploy  area.  Choose  from 
1 2  different  richly  developed  characters  to  suit  youi 
needs  for  the  mission  at  hand.  Journey  through  this 
desolate  land,  all  the  while  testing  your  survival  skills. 
And  remember:  TAKE  NO  PRISONERS! 


p^^C?1S?"*W: 

uml 

.-,,raQa-a^ 

n 

;  ^S] 

'  ^H^^fe 

11 

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Psygnosis 

675  Vlassachusetts  Ave. 

Cambridge,  MA  02139 

(617)497-7794 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  226 


There's 

no  application 

tiiat's  more 

demanding  on 

your  PC 

tlian  a  good 

game — 

here's  how  to 

make  sure  your 

machine  has 

what  it  taices  to 

perform. 


I 
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ARTICLE  BY  PAUL  C.  SCHUYTEMA 


Vour  face  is  washed  in  green  from 
the  infrared  sensors;  all  around  it's 
dark,  silent  except  for  the  rhythmic 
whooshing  of  your  rotor  blades.  Your 
left  hand  pulls  back  on  the  collective, 
increasing  the  lift  of  your  Comanche 
helicopter.  Your  right  hand  thumbs 
your  view  left,  then  right;  and  the 
chopper  lifts  slightly,  maintaining  a 
steady  hover  in  the  South  American 
night.  Your  feet,  secured  in  control 
pedals,  shift  slightly,  altering  the 
speed  of  your  tail  rotor,  twisting  your 
craft  starboard.  A  valley  lies  ahead- 
low  passage  into  enemy  radar  territo- 
ry. You  push  your  joystick  forward, 
cycling  through  your  weapons  sys- 
tems with  a  thumb  button.  Only  feet 
above  the  shallow  river,  airspeed 
nearly  200  miles  per  hour,  you  swoop 
in  for  battle. 

A  scene  from  the  latest  action 
movie?  A  training  simulator  for  the 
new  army?  No.  it's  only  a  home  com- 
puter resting  on  a  desk  in  a  small 
Midwestern  town,  and  you're  just  play- 
ing  a  game. 

What  parents  jokingly  (and  fearful- 
ly) called  an  obsession  for  their  chil- 
dren—mindless, countless  hours 
glued  to  a  television  set.  Nintendo 
controller  in  hand — has  evolved  into  a 
sophisticated,  intelligent  adult  hobby. 
With  the  continued  evolution  of  the  PC 
and  the  savvy  marketing  strategies  of 
the  game-publishing  industry,  the  PC 
game  nnarket  has  blossomed. 
Entertainment  marketing  leaders  real- 
ized years  ago  that  we  adults,  admit- 
tedly or  not,  want  to  play,  and  that  we 
want  more  than  just  jumping,  shoot- 
ing, and  collecting  power  pills:  We 
want  a  complete  experience. 

But  why  is  it  that  on  your  machine 
the  latest,  superhyped  game  is  a  dud? 
Your  system  probably  doesn't  have  the 
power  to  entertain.  PC  games  have 
evolved  to  a  level  of  sophistication  not 
even  dreamed  of  a  few  years  ago.  It 
has  only  been  in  the  past  three  years 
or  so  that  PC  games  have  begun  to 
eclipse  the  playability  of  the  Sega 
Genesis  or  the  Super  Nintendo  sys- 
tems. Even  as  late  as  a  year  ago.  if  you 
really  wanted  to  play  a  great,  fluidiy 
animated  football  game,  you  had  to 
look  to  cartridge  systems.  Now,  thank- 
fully, ail  manner  of  simulations  and 
adventures  abound  on  the  PC,  provid- 
ing enough  depth  to  entertain  intelli- 
gent  adults  for  months  on  end. 

The  Price  of  Power 

Of  course,  the  cutting  edge  of  enter- 
tainment software  comes  at  a  price. 
Nowhere  in  the  PC  software  industry 
does  a  group  of  products  ask  more 
from  its  hardware.  Atypical  flight  sim- 
ulator will  push  your  computer  to  its 

116      COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


limit,  making  it  breathe  a  sigh  of  relief 
when  it  merely  has  to  calculate  the 
sales  statistics  for  a  company  of  500 
employees.  The  games  hitting  the 
market  now  require  the  most  powerful 
processors,  hefty  chunks  of  RAM,  and 
large  tracts  of  hard  disk  real  estate. 

In  addition  to  the  hardware  require- 
ments, the  PC  game  market  is  rich 
with  support  systems,  from  peripher- 
als such  as  sound  cards  or  voice 
recognition  systems  to  advanced, 
programmable  flight  controllers  and 
even  entire  cockpit  systems. 

So  what  is  a  person  to  do?  What  is 
the     ultimate     PC 
game  system?  If 
you're  a  serious 


The  CH  Fiightstick  puts  pO'.ver  ji  your 
hands  and  delivers  ultimate  controi. 

hobbyist  looking  to  set  up  a  solid, 
long-lasting  computer  system,  there 
are  a  few  guideposts  that  will  help  you 
on  your  way.  Follow  these  steps  to 
build  the  ultimate  game  machine;  then 
sit  back  and  enjoy  gaming  as  it  was 
meant  to  be. 

Get  a  Solid  Foundation 

First,  you'll  want  a  solid  base  on  which 
to  build.  Your  CPU  and  memory  capa- 
bilities are  of  utmost  importance.  Look 
into  a  486DX2/66  computer  system. 
Currently,  the  Pentium  chip  is  still  too 
new  to  be  an  absolute  safe  bet,  but  a 
486  will  provide  you  with  enough  com- 
puting muscle  to  handle  even  the 
most  demanding  game  programs. 

To  support  your  CPtJ,  you'll  need 
RAM  and  hard  disk  space—and  the 
more  of  it.  the  better.  Don't  even  con- 
sider settling  for  anything  less  than 
4MB  of  RAM.  Ideally,  you'll  need  a 
system  with  8MB~16MB.  You  can 
have  more  than  16MB,  but  if  you  do, 
you  run  the  risk  of  running  into 
addressing  problems  and  the  poten- 
tial for  program  crashes.  So  think 
twice  before  heading  off  to  buy  32MB. 

Your  hard  disk  is  probably  your 
most  vital  asset,  so  choose  a  brand- 
name  drive  such  as  Quantum.  Maxtor, 
Western  Digital,  or  Seagate.  As 
opposed  to  RAM,  where  too  much 


might  not  be  a  good  thing,  hard  drive 
space  is  never,  ever  a  hindrance.  Buy 
as  large  a  drive  as  you  can  afford. 
Consider  a  200MB  hard  dnve  as  the 
smallest  to  accept,  with  400MB  or 
more  and  a  fast  access  time  (less 
than  18  ms)  as  your  best  bet,  unless 
you  can  afford  better. 

Budget  for  the  Best  View 

After  storage,  your  monitor  system  is 
the  most  crucial  component  of  your 
game  system.  Seek  out  the  best  non- 
interlaced monitor  you  can  afford. 
One  that^s  15-17  inches  is  best,  and 
make  sure  that  it  supports  VESA  stan- 
dard modes.  You1l  also  need  a  video 
card  to  control  your  monitor;  there  are 
plenty  of  good  choices  here.  To  shoot 
for  the  best,  get  a  local-bus  mother- 
board that  supports  the  VL-Bus  (see 
the  November  issue  of  COMPUTE  for 
an  overview  of  the  various  PC  bus 
standards).  This  will  allow  your  VL- 
compatible  video  card  to  operate  at 
33  MHz  on  an  80486/66  system  (con- 
siderably faster  than  the  8-MHz  ISA 
plain-vanilla  video  system  used  on 
most  computers). 

All  computers  come  with  a  floppy 
drive,  and  a  single  3^2-inch  drive  is 
becoming  the  standard.  Because  of 
this,  a  5''4-inch  drive  is  no  longer  a 
necessity.  You  will,  however,  want  a 
CD-ROM  drive  to  sit  in  that  vacant 
drive  bay.  Many  systems  now  come 
bundled  with  CD-ROM  drives  at  very 
reasonable  prices,  but  be  sure  you  get 
one  that  has  a  fast  access  time  (under 
300  ms)  and  is  Photo  CD  compatible. 

Currently.  CD-ROM  drives  offer 
three  different  methods  of  getting  the 
disc  into  the  drive.  First  is  the  remov- 
able  case:  Much  like  the  CD-ROM's 
own  jewel  box,  it  consists  of  a  plastic 
housing  with  a  metal  shutter  into 
which  you  place  the  disc;  you  slide 
the  entire  unit  into  the  drive.  The  sec- 
ond method  features  a  lightv/eight  tray 
that  slides  out  from  the  drive  on  which 
you  place  the  disc,  much  as  you  do 
With  audio  CD  players.  The  third 
allows  the  entire  drive  to  slide  out.  flip- 
ping open  its  lid  so  you  can  insert  the 
CD-ROM.  While  the  first  method  can 
be  annoying,  it's  a  good  choice  if 
you'll  have  children  using  your  sys- 
tem. A  youngster  is  likely  to  force  and 
break  one  of  the  integrated  trays, 
necessitating  a  costly  repair.  The  cad- 
dies are  only  a  few  dollars  each,  and 
you  can  buy  several  in  which  to  store 
your  most-used  CD-ROMs  or  your 
children's  CD-ROMs. 

Softwore  Tricks  Expand  Your 
System 

!n  addition  to  getting  the  right  hard- 
ware, youll  need  some  software  tools 


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Each  month,  the  technology  enve- 
lope is  expanded,  and  gannes  are 
able  to  do  more  to  bring  us  a  com- 
plete experience.  Below  is  a  list  of 
essential  games— some  of  the  best 
software  out  there  just  waiting  to 
feed  off  the  power  of  your  ultimate 
game  system. 


Betroyal  ofKrondor 


A  fantasy  game  set  within  the  fiction- 
al world  of  Raymond  Feist's  Riftwar 
saga,  this  game  uses  Dynamix's 
3Space  system  (borrowed  from  the 
company's  flight  simulator  pro- 
grams), and  the  rotoscoped  anima- 
tion gives  combat  a  hauntingly  realis- 
tic feel  The  game  is  played  in  chap- 
ters, and  the  depth  of  the  characters 
and  subplots  is  amazing.  An 
80486/66  allows  you  to  set  the  move- 
ment increments  to  the  smallest  set- 
ting, creating  the  illusion  that  you're 
truly  walking  in  this  alien  world. 

Dynamix 

Distributed  by  Sierra  On-Line 

(800)  326-6654 

$69.95 

ComonctieMoxnOverl 

This  near-future  helicopter  simulator, 
which  utilizes  fractal  mathematics  to 
generate  incredibly  realistic  terrain, 
has  recently  been  improved  by  the 
addition  of  a  mission  disk.  Now  you 
can  fly  over  icy  streams  and  hot 
desert  canyons,  battling  more  tena- 
cious opponents  than  before. 
Playing  Maximum  Overkill  on  an 
80486/66  with  the  full  array  of 
Thrustmaster  controls  is  an  experi- 
ence that  shouldn't  be  missed. 

Nova  Logic 

(818)774-0600 

$69.95 

Mission  Disk  One— $39.95 

Front  Page  5por[s:Foo[t]oll  Pro 

For  years,  the  animation  required  to 
make  an  entire  football  team  look 
realistic  was  beyond  the  power  of 
the  PC;  hence,  we  had  years  of  pro- 
grams with  blocky  running  backs  or 
simply  numbers  floating  above  the 
field.  FPS;  Football  Pro  and  high- 
powered  PCs  have  changed  that. 
Now  you  can  view  rotoscoped  play- 
ers in  realistic  detail.  FPS:  Football 
Pro  is  an  armchair  quarterback's 
dream  come  true,  with  complete 
playbook  editing,  allowing  you  to 
create  any  type  of  offense  or 
defense  imaginable.  With  the  ulti- 


Coche  Of  UltHe  Gomes 

mate  game  setup,  the  play  is 
smooth  and  fluid,  and  you  rarely 
have  to  wait  for  the  program  to 
access  the  hard  disk, 

Dynamix 

Distributed  by  Sierra  On-Line 

(800)  326-6654 

$79.95 

Linlis3a6Pro 

This  photorealist  golf  game  is 
starved  for  computer  power,  but  an 
80486/66  is  more  than  enough  to 
satisfy  it.  Teeing  off  at  Banff  Springs, 
one  of  Access's  latest  courses,  you 
have  a  breathtaking  view  of  snow- 
capped mountains.  Birds  chirp  in 
the  background  as  your  ball  lands  in 
the  fairway,  chipping  distance  from 
the  green.  As  the  view  changes,  the 
screen  redraws  in  under  five  sec- 
onds on  even  the  most  realistic 
detail  levels. 

Access 

(801)359-2900 

$69,95 

Banff  Springs  course — $29.95 

Tl]e7[[i  Guest 

This  is  a  milestone  of  computer 
technology,  coming  on  two  compact 
discs.  The  game  places  you  inside 
an  exquisitely  rendered  Victorian 
mansion.  You  must  solve  dozens  of 
puzzles  based  on  old  Victorian  par- 
lor games  and  follow  the  adventures 
of  six  ghosts  as  they  try  to  find  the 
secret  of  the  seventh  guest.  A  fast 
computer  is  a  must  for  this  game, 
along  with  a  fast  CD-ROM  drive  and 
an  advanced  video  card. 

Virgin  Games 
(800)  874-4607 
$79.95 

StfiheCofUfiianiler 

Origin's  latest  cinematic  endeavor  is 
a  visually  stunning  F-16  flight  simu- 
lator set  in  an  interactive  story  in 
which  you  fly  with  a  band  of  near- 
future  mercenaries  for  hire.  This 
game  asks  more  from  your  comput- 
er than  any  other  game  released  to 
date,  but  it  rewards  you  with  gor- 
geous graphics,  a  unique  panning 
view  made  just  for  the  Thrustmaster 
flight  control  system,  and  gameplay 
that  will  provide  hundreds  of  hours  of 
bogy-chasing  enjoyment.  With  an 
80486/66,  you  can  perform  quick, 
intuitive  snap  roils  and  Immelmanns 
without  bogging  down  the  processor. 


Origin 

Distributed  by  Electronic  Arts 

(800)  245-4525 

$79.95 

VisfflProIO 

While  not  a  game,  VistaPro  is  a  fas- 
cinating product  that  allows  you  to 
render  landscapes  based  on  actual 
U.S.  Geological  Survey  data.  Using 
fractal  technology  and  a  wide 
assortment  of  options  and  controls, 
such  as  tree  lines,  haze  altitudes, 
and  cioud  patterns,  you  can  create 
superrealistic  vistas  of  natural  beau- 
ty. VistaPro  allows  you  to  create  ani- 
mations that  take  you  on  a  journey 
through  a  virtual  world.  Rendering  a 
scene  at  the  highest  detail  levels 
takes  just  five  minutes  on  an 
80486/66. 

Virtual  Reality  Laboratories 
(800)  829-VRLI 
$129.95 

Morld  Circuit 

Get  ready  for  a  feeling  of  speed  so 
mesmerizing  that  after  playing,  your 
real  car  will  seem  like  a  hopelessly 
underpowered  slug.  World  Circuit  is 
a  Formula  One  driving  simulation 
and  easily  the  most  advanced  dri- 
ving game  yet  produced.  You  can 
drive  the  complete  international  cir- 
cuit of  races,  with  each  course 
painstakingly  re-created,  and  you 
can  adjust  your  gearing  ratios  and 
tire  type  for  various  race  and  weath- 
er conditions.  World  Circuit  even 
allows  you  to  control  the  frame  rate 
of  the  animation  behind  the  wheel. 

MicroProse 

(410)771-0440 

$59.95 

X-Wing 

Fly  the  same  type  of  star  fighter  that 
Luke  Skywalker  flew  to  save  the 
rebellion.  This  game  is  more  of  an 
advanced  space-flight  simulator 
than  an  action  game,  allowing  you 
to  tweak  and  adjust  power  configu- 
rations for  maximum  speed,  protec- 
tion, or  firepower.  All  of  the  familiar 
sounds  from  Star  Wars,  from  the 
plasma  burp  of  the  X-wing  cannons 
to  the  banshee  wail  of  a  passing  TIE 
fighter,  truly  throw  you  into  the  fic- 
tion of  the  game. 

LucasArts 
(800)  STAR-WAR 
$69.95 


118      COMPUTE    JANUARY   1994 


Arfivlng  50on< 


Tower  cab  simulatoi 


.  _      i|Dyts  you  in  the  controller's  chair  high 
atop  tIgBk  cab  of  a  majl|B|^rt  to  choreo- 
graph t^^^ement  of  the  in^Wl^  and  outgoing 
air  traffic. 

^,^^  -^,_^^i  runway  activity,  ground  crews  and 
,hal  traffic  through  a  360' scrollable  oul^the- 
wJndow  view  with  your  keyboard  or  mouse.  Local 
radar  displays  and  easy-access  information  displays 
give  you  crash  reports,  news  stories  and  more.  You 
can  also  link,  via  modem,  with  Microsoft's"^  Flight 
Simulator^  and  Mallard's  Air  Traffic  Controller '" 

^Character-style  game  play  allows  you  to  work 
__jp  way  up  the  'corporate  ladder'  of  each  airport 
gaining  perks,  acquiring  passwords  to  new  levels 
^pnd  getting  promoted  accordingly.  Points  ore 
scored  depending  on  varying  levels  of  traffic  at 
different  airports,  types  of  pilots,  time  of  day,  weather 
'editions  and  the  problems  and  emergencies  that 
^*^  Gontroller  on  the  job  every  day. 


-rea/isf  fc  graphics 
features  tike  a         j 


and  easy  access  in\ 
maflon  displays  pt| 
you  nghf  sn  the  mld^ 
of  alt  of  the  ^ 


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So  if  you  think  you're  up  to  the  challenge  of 
directing  traffic  of  a  'big  league'  international  airport, 
get  to  your  local  software  retailer  for  the  arrival  of 
Tov/er!  From  the  publisher  of  today's  hottest  flight 
simulation  enhancement  products.  Mallard  Software, 
Who  else? 


4 

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See  your  software  retailer  or,  for  ordering  in  for  ma  Hon,  coll 

1-800- WEB-FEET 


1 993  Molfard  Software,  Inc- 
1 993  Aviotfof)  Simulofions,  Inc. 


Ctrde  Reader  Service  Number  1 8S 


to  build  a  solid  game  platform.  First  on 
the  list  is  Microsoft's  DOS  6.  This 
recent  update  of  the  ubiquitous  oper- 
ating system  implements  two  features 
essential  for  serious  gaming:  memory 
management  and  the  ability  to  set  up 
single  CONFIG.SYS  and  AUTOEX- 
EC.BAT files  to  handle  multiple  config- 
urations. Today's  top  game  software 
products  are  notorious  memory  hogs, 
and  they  need  as  much  conventional 
memory  (below  640K)  as  possible. 
DOS  6's  MemMaker  utility  will  opti- 
mize your  startup  files  and  give  you 
the  most  memory  possible.  Also, 
many  games  require  you  to  create  a 
boot  disk  to  provide  enough  memory 
for  the  game  to  run,  DOS  6's  ability  to 
create  multiple  configurations,  selec- 
table by  a  menu  at  startup,  is  a  true 
PC  godsend.  You  may  configure  a 
default  work  setup,  a  game  setup  that 
uses  EMS  and  one  that  doesn't,  and 
so  on. 

If  you're  a  power  user  who  wants  to 
play  with  the  monster  games,  then 
MemMaker  probably  won't  free 
enough  memory.  You'll  need 
Quarterdeck's  QEMM  7  memory  man- 
ager utility,  which  not  only  will  free  up 
more  than  enough  memory  but  will 
even  optimize  parts  of  your  multiply 
configured  system. 

Finishing  Touciies 

While  the  system  I've  been  describing 
would  make  a  great  business  system 
(yes.  a  game  computer  can  also  dou- 
ble as  a  true  power  user's  workaday 
system),  it's  missing  some  of  the 
essential  components  needed  to 
transform  it  into  an  engine  capable  of 
simulating  anything  from  jet  flight  to 
medieval  sword  combat.  Without 
these  finishing  touches,  your  game 
machine  will  leave  you  cold. 

Foremost  of  the  trimmings  are  a 
sound  card  and  a  pair  of  quality 
speakers.  For  sound,  consider  a  16- 
bit  card  which  features  full  Sound 
Blaster  compatibility  (still  the  standard 
for  digitized  effects  and  samples). 
Your  best  bets  are  either  of  the  two 
16-bit  Sound  Blaster  cards  or  Media 
Vision's  Pro  AudioSpectrum  16-bit 
card,  (f  you  want  even  better  sound, 
consider  purchasing  a  Roland  LAPC- 
1  or  SCC-1  sound  module  to  work  in 
conjunction  with  your  sound  card.  The 
result  is  unbelievable  sound  quality. 

To  get  the  most  out  of  your  sound 
system,  you'll  need  seff-powered 
speakers.  Several  companies  now 
offer  three-speaker  systems  (a  sub- 
woofer  and  two  satellite  speakers)  spe- 
cially designed  for  PC  use,  and  Roland 
manufactures  the  MA-12  speaker  sys- 
tem, which  will  put  more  punch  on  your 
desktop  than  is  heard  in  most  home 

120      COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Tips 


•*  If  you're  going  to  set  up  your 
system  with  a  hard  disk  compres- 
sion program,  be  sure  to  leave  a 
healthy  allotment  of  uncompressed 
megabytes  for  gameplay.  Many 
games  don't  take  kindly  to  com- 
pression utilities, 

•  With  DOS  6's  multiple  configura- 
tion option  and  the  ability  to  create 
menus  in  your  startup  files,  you  can 
create  a  layered  menu  system  to 
access  your  library  of  games,  thus 
bypassing  DOS's  somewhat  cryp- 
tic commands. 

•  If  you're  putting  together  your 
system  a  piece  at  a  time,  pay  close 
attention  to  the  IRQs  and  DMA 
specifications  of  CD-ROM  con- 
trollers, game  cards,  and  sound 
cards.  Write  the  information  on  an 
index  card  and  tape  the  card  to  the 
side  of  your  monitor,  since  some 
installation  programs  require  you  to 
provide  that  information  as  part  of 
the  installation  process. 

•  If  you're  a  true  game  junkie,  con- 
sider adding  a  removable  hard 
drive  to  your  ultimate  system.  You 
can  back  up  your  game  directories 
on  the  disk  and  easily  copy  them 
back  to  your  hard  drive  if  you  ever 
need  to  reinstall  them. 

•  Buy  the  best  joystick  you  can 
afford;  a  cheap  one  is  just  that — 
cheap.  If  you  can,  try  several  out 
before  you  buy.  Life  is  too  short  to 
play  with  inferior  equipment. 

•  Purchase  a  small  light  for  your 
desk.  Playing  games  by  the  moni- 
tor's light  is  great  for  effect,  but 
fumbling  for  copy  protection  key- 
words or  a  certain  key  on  the  key- 
board requires  just  a  touch  more 
illumination. 

®  Consider  purchasing  a  joystick 
platform,  either  for  your  desk  chair 
or  desktop.  Control  will  be  much 
more  ergonomic,  and  hence  your 
gaming  will  be  more  fun. 

•  Also  consider  a  truly  comfortable 
chair  (you  don't  want  to  feel  like 
you're  at  the  office,  do  you?).  I  use 
a  canvas  sling  lawn  chair;  it  may 
look  odd.  but  it  feels  just  right. 


audio  systems.  Another  good  source  of 
powered  speakers  is  your  local  music 
shop.  There,  ask  for  help  with  self-pow- 
ered studio  monitors. 

Finally,  your  system  will  need  some 
form  of  input  device  other  than  your 
keyboard.  Most  systems  now  include 
a  mouse,  which  is  good  for  menu 


selection  but  not  for  serious  game- 
play.  You'll  need  a  joystick  for  that.  If 
you're  running  a  high-powered  80486 
system,  you'll  be  best  served  by  a 
dedicated  joystick  controller  card, 
such  as  the  ones  offered  by  CH 
Products  or  Thrustmaster,  While  many 
systems,  as  well  as  many  sound 
cards,  are  supplied  with  integrated 
game  ports,  the  ports  are  just  not  fast 
enough  for  smooth  control  on  a 
speedy  PC  system. 

For  a  basic  joystick,  none  is  better 
than  the  CH  Fiightstick.  The  quality 
and  control  will  make  you  glad  you 
spent  the  few  extra  dollars.  For  more 
advanced  control  options,  especially 
if  you  enjoy  flight  or  space  simulators, 
you  can  choose  from  a  wide  array  of 
options,  such  as  the  CH  Fiightstick 
Pro.  CH  Products  also  offers  the 
Virtual  Pilot,  a  smooth,  hefty  flight  yoke 
(such  as  those  found  in  Cessnas  and 
other  private  planes)  with  a  throttle 
control.  The  yoke  is  also  excellent  for 
driving  games,  but  it's  a  little  slow  for 
fast-paced  games  such  as  X-Wing  or 
the  Wing  Commander  games. 

Thrustmaster  offers  a  complete 
system  centered  on  its  new  Mark  II 
weapons  control  system.  The  Mark  II 
is  a  throttle  control  built  for  the  left 
hand;  it  features  seven  customizable 
buttons.  It's  essentially  a  self-con- 
tained computer;  you  can  write  simple 
programs  to  completely  configure  the 
joystick/throttle  system  to  the  specific 
game  you're  playing.  Thrustmaster 
also  offers  a  flight  control  system  in  a 
military-style  joystick  featuring  four 
buttons  and  a  coolie  hat  at  the  top, 
enabling  a  flight  sim  jock  to  change 
the  view  with  a  simple  flip  of  the 
thumb.  For  the  ultimate  in  realism,  you 
can  get  one  of  the  company's  rudder 
pedals  for  foot  control  of  an  airplane's 
rudder,  enabling  you  to  make  such 
moves  as  supertight  turns,  slips,  and 
precise  targeting. 

The  ultimate  game  system  is  more 
than  just  a  cutting-edge  game 
machine;  it's  also  an  extremely  power- 
ful utilitarian  computer,  one  which  will 
give  you  years  of  use  for  under 
$3,000.  Shop  carefully,  and  if  you're 
purchasing  components  separately, 
check  with  the  manufacturers  to 
assure  compatibility, 

A  solid,  high-performance  PC  sys- 
tem is  the  cornerstone  of  the  exciting 
hobby  of  PC  game  playing,  and  it's  a 
hobby  that  offers  escape,  excitement, 
challenge,  and  nearly  endless  variety. 
If  you  want  to  have  serious  fun.  you 
need  to  have  a  serious  system.  Budget 
for  these  minimum  ultimate  game 
machine  system  requirements,  and 
your  personal  computer  will  have  the 
power  to  entertain.  □ 


Fof  more  informalion  or  to  order  call 

l-80aWEB^EET 


©1993Matlard5ofh. 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  199 


ADVKR'nsKMI-Nr 


TECHNOLOGY  UPDATE 


900  MHz  breakthrough! 


New  technology  launches 
wireless  speaker  revolution. . . 

Recoton  develops  breakthrough  technology  which  tnujsniits 
stereo  sound  through  walls,  ceihngs  and  floors  up  to  ISO  feet. 


By  Qiarles  Anton 

If  you  had  to  name  just 
one  nev\'  product  "the 
most  innovative  of  the 
year/'  what  would  you 
choose?  Well,  at  the  recent  hitcnuithfiai 
Omaumir  Ekct ranks  Show,  critics  ga\'e  Recoton's 
new  wireless  stereo  speaker  system  the  Design 
and  Engineering  Aicani 
for  being  the  "most  in- 
novative and  outstand- 
ing new  product/' 

Recoton  was  able  to 
introduce  this  whole 
new  generation  of 
powerful  wireless 
speakers  due  to  the  ad- 
vent of  900  MHz  tech- 
nology. This  newly 
approved  breakthrough 
enables  Reco ton's  wire- 
less speakers  to  ri\^al  tlie 
sound  of  expensive 
wired  speakers. 

Recently  approved 
technology.  In  June 
of  1989,  the  Federal 
Commuuications  Com- 
mission allocated  a 
band  of  radio  frequen- 
cies stretching  from  902 
to  928  MMz  for  wireless, 
in-home  product  ap- 
plications. Recoton,  one 
of  the  world's  leading  wireless  speaker  man- 
ufacturers, took  advantage  of  the  FCC  ruling 
by  creating  and  introducing  a  new  speaker 
system  that  utilizes  the  rcnrently  approved  fre- 
quency band  to  transmit  clearer,  stronger 
sta'eo  signals  throughout  your  home. 


f  50  foot  range  through  walls! 

Recoton  gives  you  ttie  freedom  to  lis- 
ten to  music  wherever  you  want.  Your 
music  is  no  longer  limited  to  ttie  room  your 
stereo  is  Jn.  Witti  the  wireless  headphones 
you  can  Jislen  to  your  TV,  stereo  or  CD 
player  while  you  move  freely  between 
rooms,  exercise  or  do  other  activities.  And 
unlike  infrared  headphones,  you  don't  have 
to  be  in  a  line-of-sight  with  the  transmit- 
ter, giving  you  a  full  150  foot  range. 

The  headphones  and  speakers  have 
their  own  built-in  receiver,  so  no  wires  are 
needed  between  you  and  your  stereo.  One 
transmitter  operates  an  unlimited  number 
of  speakers  and  headphones. 


is^J^Q^,.         ^ 

RiWioii'n  tntUiimittiT iiohih  music  tlirau^j^h  ud//s 
to  ^^'i^t'/^s^  <<paikryi  ovtrn  75J}i}0  aqunrc  fiwi  ami 


Crisp  sound  throughout  your 
home.  Just  imagine  being  able  to 
isten  to  your  stereo,  TV,  \'CK  or  CD 
player  in  any  rootn  of  your  home  with- 
out having  to  run  miles  of  speaker  wire. 
Plus,  you'll  never  have  to  worry  about  range 
because  the  new  90n  MHz  technology  allows 
stereo  signals  to  travel 
iwer  distances  of  150  feet 
or  more  through  walls, 
ceilings  and  floors  with- 
out losing  sound  qua  lit  v. 
One  trartsmitler,  un- 
limited receivers.  The 
powerful  transmitter 
plugs  into  a  headphone, 
audio-out  or  tape-out  jack 
on  your  stereo  or  TV  com- 
ponent, transtnitting  mu- 
sic wirelessly  to  your 
speakers  or  headphones. 
The  speakers  phig  into  an 
outlet.  The  one  transmit- 
ter can  broadcast  to  an  un- 
limited number  of  stereo 
speakers  atid  headphones. 
And  since  each  speaker 
contains  its  own  built  in 
receiver /amplifier,  there 
are  no  wires  runriing  from 
the  stereo  to  the  speakers. 
Full  dynamic  range. 
The  speaker,  mounted  in 
a  bookshelf-sized  acoustically  constructed  cab- 
inet, provides  a  two-way  bass  reflex  design 
for  individual  bass  bcxist  control.  Full  dynamic 
range  is  achieved  by  the  use  of  a  2"  tweeter 
and  4"  woofer.  Plus,  automatic  digital  lock-in 


AWARD   WINNING   WIRELESS   SPEAKER 


Built-m  receiver 
mtd  ampHften 

Vie  tvireles!^ 
speaker  and 
headpftoncs 
both  coniaw 
a  built-in  ' 

r^divratui 
amfdifwr. 
Signals  art 
pkktdupauu 
transmitted 
as  far  asr  15i) 
feetatitiy 
Ihrottgh  wath 
witltoiit  tlie 
[t^ofuires. 


hrdividimf  left,  right 

&  trtom  switch  and 

l»dit>iii\iai  Ivtss  h^>^i 

cotiiml  fi)M  htik.) 


Stzi>:  9-H  X  6-W  X  5.5'L 
-I'^ml'tiyitpi^  ratur. 
Otanttet  Stpftmtkm:  30  dB 
TE(v-uwy  ba>s  reflex  design 
10  iMttslchafiml  RMS  amps' 
Fretjuency  Response: 
50iHi-15KHz 


Don't  take  our  word  lor  it.  Try  it  yourself. 
We're  so  suro  you  It  love  the  new  award-winning 
F^ecoton  wireless  speaker  system  that  Ae  offer 
you  the  Dare  to  Compare  Speaker  Challenge, 
Compare  Recoton's  rich  sound  quatity  to  that  of 
any  S2Q0  wired  speaker.  If  you're  not  completely 
convinced  that  these  wireless  speakers  offer  the 
same  outstanding 
sound  quality  as  wired 
speakers,  simply  retu- 
them  within  90 days  i./ 
a  fuil  "No  Questions 
Asked'  refund, 

Rccotivi's  Dcsiij^n  >i 
Ettgineermg  AuHim 


Breakthrotigh  wireless  speaker  design 
bttnikcts  your  hiyme  with  musk, 

tuning  guarantees  optimum  reception  and 
eliminates  drift.  The  new  technology  provides 
static- free,  interference- free  sound  in  virtual- 
ly any  environment.  These  speakers  are  also 
self-amplified;  they  can't  be  blown  out  no  mat- 
ter what  your  stereo's  wattage. 

Stereo  or  hi-fi,  you  decide.  These  speak- 
ers have  the  option  of  either  stereo  or  hi-fi 
sound.  You  can  use  two  speakers,  one  set  on 
right  channel  and  the  other  on  left,  for  full 
stereo  separation.  Or,  if  you  just  want  an  ex- 
tra speaker  in  another  room,  set  it  on  mono  and 
listen  to  both  channels 
on  otie  speaker.  Mono 
combines  both  left  and 
right  channels  for  hi-fi 
sound.  This  option  lets 
you  put  a  pair  of  speak- 
ers in  the  den  and  get 
full  stereo  separation  or 
put  otie  speaker  in  the  jj,,,,  ,^,,,,/^.,,  ,f,,,^^ 
kitchen  and  get  com-  hmijihimc^  iuin' a 
p lote  h i - f i  sou nd .  ''"?'/' " ?  rrcehvr. 

Factory  direct  savings.  Because  of  our  ram- 
mi  t  men  t  to  quality  and  our  factor)^  direct  pric- 
ing, we  sell  more  wireless  speakers  than 
anyone!  For  this  reason,  you  can  get  these 
speakers  far  below  retail  with  our  90  dav  "Dnrv 
to  Coinpnrc"  monev-back  guarantee  and  full 
manufacturer's  warranty.  Through  this  limit- 
ed time  offer,  the  Recoton  transtiiitter  is  only 
S69.  It  will  operate  an  unlimited  number  of 
wireless  speakers  priced  at  onlv  5S9  and  wire- 
less headphones  at  SB"-)  each.  So  take  advan- 
tage of  this  special  offer  to  fill  your  home  with 
music,  ^'our  order  will  be  processed  in  72  hours, 

Recoton  Transmitter $69  S4S&H 

Wireless  products  compatible  with  the  Recoton  trans rnitter: 

Recoton  Wireless  Speaker S89  S6  s&H 

Recoton  Wireless  Headphones.  .  $59  S4  s&h 
['lease  nientitm  prunuitional  code  1 61 -CU11 13. 
For  fastest  service  call  toll-free  24  hours  a  day 

800-992-2966 

[^M|A|      MMhl      ^S^       5SeS!5B| 

To  orJiT  hv  mail  send  check  or  nuuii y  urtkr  for  the  total 
iimoutil  including  S&H  A'A  re^^idents  add  A3%  salt's  lux). 
Or  charge  it  lo  your  cn.\iit  c.ird  hy  enclu^ins;'  your  account 
number  and  c\p.  date.  Send  to; 


INDUSTRIES 

2820  Waterford  Lake  Drive  Suite  106 
Midlothian,  Virginia  23113 


Ai)\i:Rii.s]:vii:M 


VS  Passive,  Tfw  HTS-J  is  passive,  meaning  it 
r.  I  requires  no  AC  curreut.  It  actually  sounds 
better  titan  active  decoders,  producing  more 
ciarit}/,  more  detail  no  noise,  a  greater  sense  of  space 
and  zero  distortion.  This  superior  s\/stem  is  a  hreak- 
tJirough  unique  to  Chase. 

^  -  I  Active.  All  Dolby  Pro-ljogic  decoders  (even 
ll^  the  built-in  units)  are  active,  meaning  they 
decode  and  amplify  the  signal  electronical- 
ly. This  can  induce  noise  and  distortion,  hindering 
tite  home  theater  experience.  Tliis  is  an  example 
wiiere  "more  is  less"  Spending  thousands  of  dol- 
lars on  an  active  system  will  not  give  you  the  per- 
fonnance  of  tiie  HTS-1  decoder.  Try  it  for  yourself. 


How  to  get  surround  sound 
without  buying  the  theater. . 

An  amazing  neia  surround  sound  decoder  turns  your  existing 
stereo  system  into  a  multi-channel  home  theater. 


By  Charles  Anton 

As  much  as  I  iove  renting  videos,  it's  just 
not  the  same  as  seeing  n  movie  in  a  the- 
L  atcr.  I  remember  the  first  time  I  saw  Top 
Gufi,  I  nearly  jumped  out  of  my  seat  when  the 
planes  flew  overhead.  One  of  the  reasoiis 
movies  seem  so  real  is  because  surrou  nd  sound 
makes  it  seem  like  you're  actually  there.  Now 
there's  an  incredible  new  device  that  lets  you 
use  a  stereo  receiver  to 
get  that  same  surround 
sound  in  your  home. 

It  takes  more  than  just 
four  speakers  to  get  sur- 
round sound;  there  needs 
to  be  some  way  of  sepa- 
rating the  signals.  The 
new  Chase  Technologies 
HTS-1  decoder  does  just 
that,  and  in  a  revolution- 
ary way  that  rivals  the 
best  Dolby  Pro- Logic  and 
THX  systems  available. 
Wins  over  critics.  Gary 
Reber,  editor  and  pub- 
lisher of  the  most  author- 
itative magazine  on  home 
theater  systems.  Wide- 
screen  R  eview,  stated, 
"...passive  matrix  de- 
coders such  as  the  new 
Chase  HTS-1  work  great 
as  Dolby  Surround^^' 
extractors,  and  sound  ex- 
ceptionally natural  when 
used  for  motion  picture 
soundtracks  and  music," 
Passive  circuit,  hi 
1972,  legendary  audio 
pioneer  David  1-iafler  in- 
vented a  passive  circuit  to 
extract  the  "L  minus  R" 
difference    signals    in 


Surround  sound/home  theater  has  be- 
come the  rage  of  the  90's  because  it  adds 
depth  and  realism  to  stereo  sound,  giv- 
ing you  ttie  home  theater  experience.  It 
makes  you  feel  like  you're  actually  at  a 
concert  or  movie  theater.  To  "fill  a  room" 
with  surround  sound,  you  need  nx>re  than 
two  channels.  That's  the  beauty  of  the 
HTS-1 ;  it  provides  four  channels  of  sound 
from  any  two-channel  stereo  source. 

Free  center  channel*  By  connecting 
your  VCR  or  laserdisc  player  to  your  TV, 
you  get  sound  from  your  TV  speaker;  this 
acts  as  the  fifth  or  "center  channel." 
Adjusting  your  TV's  volume  gsves  you  as 
much  or  as  little  "center  channel"  local- 
ization as  you  desire,  without  extra  speak- 
ers or  amps.  There  are  also  no  extra 
costs  with  the  "fifth"  channef.  y^hen  used 
with  the  HTS-1 ,  you  'II  have  a  true  state-, 
of-the-art  five-channel  system. 


stereo  soundtracks.  Because  the  circuit  was 
patented,  it  was  only  available  on  expensive 
Hafler  products.  Now  that  the  patent  has  ex- 
pired. Chase  can  make  this  amazing  decoding 
system  available  at  a  fraction  of  the  cost! 
Breaktiirough  technology.  The  UTS  1  is  able 
to  decode  the  Dolby  Surround'^'  signal  in  a 
videotape  or  laserdisc  because  the  spatial  and 
depth  cues  have  been 
matrixed  into  the  "L 
minus  R"  portion  of 
the  two-channel  stereo 
Si^iundtrack.  By  decoding 
passively,  the  HTS-1 
av^oids  costly  and  noisy 
signal  processing.  Plus 
you  don't  need  any  ad- 
ditional amps!  just  con- 
nect the  1  lTS-1  to  your 
existing  stereo  system, 
add  two  speakers  for  the 
rear,  and  you'll  experi- 
ence the  magic  of  home 
theater  at  a  fraction  of 
the  cost  of  t>ther  systems. 
Concert  sound.  The 
HTS-1  also  decodes  the 
ambience  found  in  all 
music  recordings.  This 
sense  t>f  space,  or  "con- 
cert hall  acoustics/'  is 
present  in  all  CDs  and 
cassettes,  especially  hve 
recordings.  John  Sunier, 
t  h  e  I  ea  d  i  n  g  a  u  t  h  o  ri  ty  on 
surround  sound  and 
producer  of  Audiophilc 
Audition,  a  nationally 
syndicated  radio  pro- 
gram for  audio  enthusi- 
asts, says,  ''...the  new^ 
Chase  HTS-1,  when  used 


to  decode  the 
hidden  ambi- 
ence in  ail  mu- 
sical record- 
ings, definitely 
outperforms  aU 
the  Dolby  and 
THX  processors 
which  could 
cost  you  up  to 
53,000...  1  am 
impressed!'' 


The  HTS-1  decoder  makes  your 
rt^ovles  come  to  lifia,  bringing  the 
ttteater  experience  tiome. 


Easy  installation.  Hooking  up  the  HTS-l  is 
easy.  Simply  connect  the  speaker  outputs  of 
your  receiver  or  amp  to  the  HTS-1,  then  connect 
speaker  wire  to  the  front  and  rear  speakers.  The 
rear  channel  speakers  don't  have  to  be  big.  In 
fact,  we  recommend  the  Chase  ELF-1  in  either 
black  or  wiiite  finish  to  match  your  decor.  They 
can  be  mounted  with  enclosed  color- matched 
mounting  brackets  or  can  be  flush  mounted  on 
the  wall.  They 
are  also  water 
and  weather- 
proof, so  they 
can  be  used 
indoors  or  out. 

Risk-free 
home  trial. 

Let's  face  it — 
the  best  way  to 
evaluate  sur- 
round sound  is  in  your  home,  not  in  a  show- 
room. Tiiat's  why  we're  offering  this  risk- free 
home  trial.  We're  so  sure  you'll  be  delighted 
with  the  quality  of  these  products  and  the  sur- 
round sound  experience  that  we  are  giving 
you  30  days  to  iry  them  for  yourself.  If  they're 
not  ever}?^thing  we  say,  return  them  for  a  com- 
plete "No  Questions  Asked"  refund, 

HTS-1  Home  Theater  Decoder ...$79  $6S&H 

Speakers  designed  hy  Chase  for  the  HTS-1: 

ELF-1   Rear  Channel  Speakers .$99  pr  $6  S&H 

Please  mention  promotional  code  1 13-CU1 1 1 2. 
For  fastest  service  call  toll-free  24  hours  a  day 

800-992-2966 


The  ELF-1  rear  channel  speakers 
inlegrato  perfectly  with  the  HTS-1. 


To  order  by  mail,  send  check  or  money  order  for  the 
total  amount  including  S&H  (VA  residents  add  4.5% 
sales  tax.)  Or  charge  it  to  your  credit  card,  enclosing 
your  account  number  and  expiration  date. 


INDUSTRIES 

2820  Waterford  Lake  Drive  Suite  106 
Midlothian,  Virginia  23113 


eiEws 


MICROSOFT 
PUBLISHER  2.0 

A  blank  page  can  be  an  in- 
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the  Shape  tool  lets  you 
draw  36  different  shapes, 
which  you  can  manipulate 
in  size  and  proportion  to  ex- 
actly fit  your  designs. 

Even  some  of  Publisher's 
help  features  are  automatic. 
First-time  help  prompts  you 
with  help  screens  when  you 
first  use  tools  or  features, 
and  Print  Troubleshooter 
tracks  each  print  job  and 
suggests  problem  reme- 
dies. Publisher  is  by  far  the 
most  "helpfur'  program  I've 
seen,  offering  eight  varia- 
tions of  online  assistance. 

The  program  comes  with 
20  TrueType  display  fonts 
and  more  clip  art  and  deco- 
rative borders  than  I  care  to 
count.  All  of  this  conven- 
ience is  nice,  but  it  pro- 
motes an  if-l-can-do-it-l- 
should-use-it  mentality.  Micro- 
soft realizes  the  potential  for 
clutter  and  advocates  re- 
straint in  the  user's  guide, 

If  the  PageWizard  tem- 
plates could  eliminate  exces- 
sive design,  they  would  be 

124         COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


truly  magical.  But  Publisher 
does  the  next  best  thing  by 
starting  you  off  with  profes- 
sional designs,  including  in- 
structions and  tips  for  tailor- 
ing the  publication  to  your 
needs.  Normally,  design 
should  follow  content  (form 
follows  function),  but  you 
can  get  good  results  with 


run  multiple  copies  of  Pub- 
lisher, however,  which  is  al- 
most as  good. 

Lining  up  objects  accu- 
rately in  Publisher  can  be  dif- 
ficult because  you  see  only 
their  outlines  when  you  pick 
them  up,  This  is  fine  for  sim- 
ple shapes,  but  text  and  pic- 
tures   often    need    to    be 


I.  Ik    >tf"_Pg<ie     Li  yum     F-trnnH     Iflblr     Ijulu     nH(i 


m 


N 


■^frii[ii'i^h!iiiirh[ii.rr!.k^ij:ijii.Ehi.iLiii=]^<[?iamit;.L]>ii.iiji[!il[iifih^ 


<iT>^^^r^  »i  ^?^55^rT^^:3Jr*:  r; 


ittnir^  rt*ia-itviv.  P»jg^*fe»'d  tkiyn  tismwittiMt 


Ji *ii*t*r,       S 


Microsoft  Pubiisher  2.0  includes  a  set  of  improved  PageWizards 
wliict}  can  automate  tfie  creation  of  documents. 


these  templates  as  long  as 
you  realize  that  you  can't  sim- 
ply dump  your  text  and  pic- 
tures in  and  get  automatic 
quality. 

Much  of  the  power  of  Pub- 
lisher is  hidden  behind  its 
easy-to-use  interface.  The 
program  offers  many  fea- 
tures that  high-end  applica- 
tions such  as  PageMaker 
have  only  recentfy  included, 
such  as  drag-and-drop  text 
editing,  object  embedding 
and  linking,  grouping  and  un- 
grouping  capability,  and  in- 
cremental nudging  of  ele- 
ments. Irregular-shape  text- 
wrapping  and"  the  Shape 
tool  are  features  PageMaker 
5.0  doesnl  even  offer. 

Yet,  Publisher  does  have 
its  limitations.  It  can't  open 
more  than  one  document  at 
a  time,  which  seems  odd  for 
such  an  othenA/ise  powerful 
Windows  program.  You  can 


aligned  by  details  within 
their  frames.  Judging  align- 
ment by  their  outlines  is  dif- 
ficult guesswork. 

You  can  rotate  text  in 
WordArt  2,0,  an  OLE  pro- 
gram that's  included  with 
Publisher.  Pictures  must  be 
rotated  in  other  applications, 
such  as  Microsoft  Draw,  an- 
other OLE  program.  Publish- 
er itself  can  only  rotate  line 
objects  made  with  its  draw- 
ing tools.  WordArt  can  han- 
dle most  of  your  text  rota- 
tion, since  it  now  supports 
TrueType  fonts.  But  the  small- 
est text  that  it  can  use  is  12 
points,  so  you  can't  place 
photo  credits  or  other  small 
text  vertically. 

Although  Publisher  can 
display  and  print  24-bit  imag- 
es (with  proper  hardware), 
its  palette  for  line  and  fill 
characteristics  is  limited  to 
16  uneditable  colors.  High- 


quality  color  output  is  pos- 
sible in  spite  of  Publisher's 
limited  color,  but  if  you 
need  specific  spot  colors  or 
do  four-color  publishing  on 
a  regular  basis,  you  might 
be  better  served  by  a  high- 
end  program  with  full-color 
capability.  If  you  don't  need 
color  or  if  your  final  output 
will  come  from  a  color  ink- 
jet  or  laser  printer  the  pro- 
gram's range  of  hues  may 
be  adequate.  How  often  you 
use  color,  to  what  degree, 
and  who  does  your  printing 
should  all  be  criteria  in  con- 
sidering Publisher  versus  oth- 
er programs. 

Publisher  works  well  as  a 
design-for-dummies  pubiish- 
ing  program,  but  it  would  be 
a  mistake  to  discount  it  as 
strictly  an  amateur's  applica- 
tion. Its  quite  capable  of  pro- 
ducing professional  results, 
with  or  without  using  autopi- 
lot. Just  be  sure  that  when 
you  switch  to  manual,  you 
don't  overdo  it. 

PHILLIP  MORGAN 

Microsoft 

(800)  426-9400 

SI  99 

Circle  Reader  Service  Nomber  434 

BALLPOINT 
MOUSE  2.0 

Notebook  computers  are 
amazing.  It's  hard  to  believe 
that  you  can  cram  a  486 
motherboard  with  16MB  of 
memory  and  a  200MB  hard 
disk  into  such  a  tiny  pack- 
age. In  fact,  notebook  de- 
signers have  been  able  to 
miniaturize  everything  ex- 
cept the  person  using  the 
computer.  It's  the  user  inter- 
face that  presents  the  big- 
gest challenges  in  these  tiny 
PCs, 

The  screen,  keyboard, 
and  pointing  device  on  note- 
books all  must  be  large 
enough  to  be  usable  but 
small  enough  to  be  porta- 


From  Those 

Wonderful  Folks 

Who  Gave  You 

Gridlock,  Blackouts 

and  Runaway  Taxes, 

Comes  Raw  Sewage, 

Yellow  Journalism 

and  the  Subway 

at  3  a.m. 


REVEWS 


b!e.  Screens  have  made 
great  strides  in  the  last  few 
years;  keyboards  haven't  im- 
proved much  and  probably 
won't.  Pointing  devices  are 
where  the  current  action  is. 
and  with  Windows  running 
on  nearly  60  percent  of  all 
notebooks,  a  good,  solid 
pointing  device  is  a  must. 

Most  people  would  agree 
that,  for  a  notebook  comput- 
er, the  trackball  is  the  porta- 
ble pointing  device  of 
choice.  It  comes  closest  to 
the  mouse  in  terms  of  accu- 
racy and  control  and  it  oc- 
cupies very  little  space. 

Microsoft  has  just  intro- 
duced its  newest  entry  into 
the  trackball  fray:  the  Ball- 
point Mouse  2.0.  It's  smaller 
and  sleeker  than  its  version 
1 .0  big  brother,  and  the  track- 
ball itself  is  much  improved. 
In  fact,  with  its  silky  smooth 
action  and  skid  control,  it  ri- 
vals desktop  trackballs.  It's 
easily  the  best  trackball  I've 
ever  used. 

Right  out  of  the  box,  you 
can  tell  the  Ballpoint  is  differ- 
ent. Its  new  design  fits  your 
hand  the  way  a  pointing  de- 
vice  should.  The  edges  are 
smooth,  and  the  underside 
sports  a  nonslip  runner 
grip.  The  buttons  are  larger 
than  they  were  with  the  TO 
Ballpoint,  and  their  position 
is  different.  Instead  of  the 
left  and  right  buttons  being 
on  top  of  each  other  on  one 
side  of  the  mouse,  the  left 
button  is  on  the  far  side  and 
the  right  button  is  on  top. 
There's  a  third  button  oppo- 
site the  left  button  that  be- 
comes the  main  button  for 
southpaws.  (It  can  be  recon- 
figured as  the  right  button  if 
you  prefer.) 

Like  most  other  laptop 
trackballs,  this  device  clips 
on  the  side  of  your  note- 
book. It  has  small  hangers 
that  will  fit  most  notebooks 
and  allow  you  to  close  the 
case  with  it  attached.  The 

126        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Ballpoint  uses  a  PS/2  connec- 
tor and  there's  also  a  Quick- 
Port  version  that  simply 
snaps  into  any  QuickPort- 
equipped  computer.  No  se- 
rial-port version  is  available, 
however. 

The  Ballpoint  also  comes 
with  a  new  release  of  the  Mi- 
crosoft Mouse  Driver,  ver- 


key  to  move  the  pointer  to 
the  middle  of  the  screen.  Al- 
though Screen  Wrap  seems 
more  like  something  you'd 
want  to  use  as  a  practical 
joke,  the  other  features  are 
all  useful,  especially  on  a 
notebook.  It's  worth  noting 
that  you  can  use  this  version 
of    the    driver    with    your 


Microsoft's  new  Ballpoint  Mouse  2.0  sports  larger,  more 
conveniently  placed  buttons  and  includes  an  improved  driver. 


sion  9.01.  With  this  new  driv- 
er, you  can  not  only  adjust 
the  buttons,  as  discussed 
above,  but  also  control  the 
size  of  the  cursor;  add 
mouse  trails;  make  the  point- 
er grow  when  you  move  the 
mouse;  and  adjust  what  Mi- 
crosoft calls  color,  which  in 
this  case  means  choosing 
black,  white,  or  reversed  for 
the  mouse  pointer. 

In  addition  to  these  fea- 
tures there  are  some  other  in- 
teresting options  in  the  new 
driver.  With  Magnify,  you 
can  use  a  hot  key  to  enlarge 
the  area  under  the  mouse 
pointer.  With  Snap-To,  the 
mouse  pointer  automatically 
moves  to  the  default  button 
in  a  dialog  box.  Set  Screen 
Wrap  to  on,  and  the  pointer 
will  move  off  one  edge  of 
your  display  and  appear  at 
the  beginning  of  the  oppo- 
site edge.  Locate  uses  a  hot 


mouse,  too,  if  you  want  to 
take  advantage  of  the  latest 
enhancements. 

Many  notebooks  these 
days  come  standard  with 
pointing  devices,  but  if 
yours  doesn't,  this  well-de- 
signed, smooth,  and  sure- 
footed trackball  may  be 
your  best  pointer  bet, 

CLIFTON  KARNES 

Microsoft 

(206)  882-8080 

S125 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  435 

DISCOVER  SPACE 

The  heavens  have  been  an 
endless  source  of  fascina- 
tion throughout  human  histo- 
ry. But  the  hard  science 
that  underlies  our  under- 
standing of  the  cosmos  is  of- 
ten daunting.  Many  of  the 
concepts  of  astronomy  are 


more  easily  understood  if 
learned  visually — a  task  for 
which  computers  are  perfect- 
ly suited.  Broderbund's  Dis- 
cover Space  lets  your  com- 
puter show  you  the  sun, 
moon,  planets,  and  stars,  as 
well  as  the  ships  we've 
used  to  explore  them.  Its 
text  and  many  pictures,  illus- 
trations, and  animations  put 
astronomical  concepts  into 
context  and  explain  them 
with  abundant  use  of  com- 
parison and  analogy. 

But  what  sets  Discover 
Space  apart  from  so  many 
educational  programs  is  its 
usefulness  even  after  you've 
seen  all  its  images  and  ani- 
mations. The  program's  Sky- 
line feature  can  plot  7000 
stars,  110  deep  space  ob- 
jects, 90  constellations,  and 
the  nine  planets,  all  posi- 
tioned as  they  would  be 
seen  from  any  point  on 
earth.  Not  only  that,  but  the 
plot  can  be  made  at  any 
time,  on  any  day  in  the 
past,  present,  or  future.  Dis- 
cover Space  can  animate 
the  stars  to  show  how  they 
appear  to  travel  across  the 
heavens  and  print  a  time- 
and  location-specific  star 
map,  so  you'll  know  exactly 
where  to  find  what  you're 
looking  for  in  the  night  sky. 

Discover  Space  can  also 
show  you  the  phase  of  the 
moon  for  virtually  any  date, 
trace  the  path  of  33  past 
and  future  solar  eclipses, 
and  calculate  the  damage 
caused  by  an  asteroid  strik- 
ing the  Earth.  You  determine 
the  asteroid's  size  and  veloc- 
ity, and  the  program  will  su- 
perimpose the  resulting  cra- 
ter over  one  of  several  U.S. 
sites  to  give  you  an  idea  of 
the  destruction  such  a  catas- 
trophe would  cause. 

You  can  run  Discover 
Space  in  VGA  or  256-color 
SVGA  mode,  but  the  latter  re- 
quires a  VESA  driver.  Run- 
ning in  SVGA  not  only  gives 


Now  Entering  SimCity  2000 

Beneath  the  polished  facade  realer.  In  it,  you  get  multiple 
lies  a  seething  cauldron  of  viewing  angles.  You  get  to 
angry  taxpayers,  broken  water       import  your  old  SimCities.  You 

get  to  terraform  your 


mains  and  other  chal- 

MoY(!  Sml ^ily Jla ro y—kss  &a(t, 
Ue  dcsalwizatioit  plant  pumps    leUgCS  that  wiU  take 
fri^sh  water  into  pipes  you  lay  in 
the  new  underground  level.       yoU    UptOWn,    doWH- 

town,  even  underground.  Noav  entering 
SimCity  2000 — the  ultimate  city  simulator. 


m 


0 

:i:ti« 

l# 

ii^^9P' 

This  long-awaited 
follow-up  to  our  software  land- 
mark, SimCity.'  makes  siniulat 
ed  real  estate,  in  a  word 


Sinp  the  presses' 20(X}  amies 
complete  with  a  daily  paper 
that  may  have  yon  wanting  to 
repeal  the  first  amendment. 


Take  a  byte  out  off  rime, 
landscape.    You    get       BuHd  SimFmom— along 

with  Sim  Hospitals.  SimSchools 
total  control  of  a  sub-      and  other  city  SimSeruices. 

terranean  web  of  water  pipes  and  sub- 
ways. And  you  get  it  all  in  gripping, 

eye-imploding  3-D. 


So  pack  up  those  old  programs  and  move  to  SimCit}^ 
2000.  Everything  that  started  the  SimCity  revolu- 
tion, hi  a  vivid  new  evolution. 


The  Ultimate  City  Simulator. 


M^    X  I   S 


Available  for  IBM  PC  <&  compatibles  and  Maoiniosh.  &  1993  Sim-Business.  All  rights  resen'ed.  SimCin'  2(XXi  is  a  trademark  of  Sim-Business.  Maxis  and  SimGty 
art'  rt.'gislered  trddenrarks  of  Sim-Business.  For  product  or  ordering  infom^ation,  contact  your  local  retailer  or  call  1-800-33 -MAXIS. 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  isa 


REVIEWS 


better  color  representation 
but  also  allows  for  more  and 
better  animation.  Although 
some  animations  were  notice- 
ably faster  on  a  486=  Discov- 
er Space  ran  well  on  a  33- 
MHz  386DX  machine  with 
4MB  of  memory.  Running  in 
SVGA  slowed  operation 
slightly,  but  the  loss  of 
speed  was  well  worth  the 
gain  in  image  quality. 

While  sound  isn't  essen- 
tial, the  program  supports 
several  popular  sound 
cards,  and  the  music  and 
background  noises  make  it 
considerably  more  impres- 
sive. Viewing  skylines  in 
SVGA  mode  with  outdoor 
sounds  is  almost  tike  looking 
out  an  open  window. 

Neither  the  program's  op- 
eration nor  its  content  is  dif- 
ficult to  grasp,  yet  it's  by  no 
means  just  a  children's  pro- 
gram. Whether  you're  inter- 
ested in  astronomy,  space 
travel,  or  science  fiction  or 
just  like  looking  at  the  stars. 
Discover  Space  offers  an 
abundance  of  stellar  informa- 
tion and  entertainment. 

PHILLIP  MORGAN 

Brederbund  Softv/are 

(800)521-6263 

(415)382-4400 

$50-$60  suggested  price  range 
Circle  Reader  Service  Number  436 

THE  HOME 
SERIES,  RELEASE  2 

T-squares  and  architect's 
scales  begonel  Autodesk's 
The  Home  Series,  Release 
2.  lets  you  create  architec- 
tural drawings  on  your 
home  computer,  view  them 
in  3-D,  and  quickly  and  eas- 
ily make  as  many  changes 
as  you  like. 

The  series  consists  of 
four  programs:  Home,  Kitch- 
en &  Bath,  Deck,  and  Land- 
scape. They're  stripped- 
down  versions  of  Auto- 
desks  Generic  CADD  6.0 

128         COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Brederbund's  Discover  Space  uses  animation  and  SVGA  graphics 
to  teach  about  astronomy  and  the  planets. 


Autodesk's  Home  Series  lets  you  design  or  modify  elements  of 
your  home  using  specialized  CADD  programs. 


and  use  built-in  macros  to 
eliminate  much  of  the  full  pro- 
gram's complexity.  The  pro- 
grams use  the  same  basic  in- 
terface, but  each  includes 
special  commands  and  sym- 
bols.  Kitchen  &  Bath,  for  ex- 
ample, has  a  much  wider  va- 
riety of  cabinet  and  appli- 
ance symbols  than  does 
Home. 

The  programs  also  differ 
in  how  their  output  can  be 
used.  Deck  is  probably  the 
most  useful  for  true  do-it-your- 
selfers who  intend  to  handle 
everything  from  designing  to 


building.  While  all  of  the  pro- 
grams render  very  accurate 
plan  and  elevation  draw- 
ings. Deck  produces  more 
detailed  drawings  and  al- 
lows you  to  selectively  view 
and  print  their  layers.  The  oth- 
er three  programs  seem 
best  suited  for  drawing  ba- 
sic spatial  plans,  which  pro- 
fessionals can  import  direct- 
ly into  their  high-end  CADD 
(Computer  Aided  Drafting 
and  Design)  applications 
and  use  to  develop  com- 
plete sets  of  drawings  and 
specifications. 


Even  as  only  initial  plan- 
ning tools.  The  Home  Series 
programs  can  be  tremen- 
dously useful.  They  scale 
your  drawings  for  you,  so 
miscalculations  won't  throw 
off  your  plans  (unless,  of 
course,  you  use  incorrect 
measurements).  The  many 
symbols  included  in  the  se- 
ries are  automatically 
scaled  to  your  drawings 
when  you  place  them.  It's 
much  easier  to  get  a  sense 
of  proportion  if  you  can  look 
at  a  drawing  of  a  house  full 
of  furniture  and  fixtures  or  a 
kitchen  complete  with  cabi- 
nets and  appliances, 

The  Home  Series  won't 
make  you  an  architect,  A  ba- 
sic knowledge  of  home  de- 
sign and  familiarity  with  archi- 
tectural drafting  is  neces- 
sary. The  programs*  docu- 
mentation repeatedly  warns 
that  you  need  to  consult  ar- 
chitects, builders,  and  in- 
spectors to  be  sure  your  de- 
signs are  safe,  v.'orkable, 
and  up  to  local  building 
codes.  Nevertheless.  Auto- 
desk tries  to  give  you 
enough  basic  information  to 
get  started. 

The  manuals  list  common 
building  materials  and  stan- 
dard dimensions  and  offer 
advice  on  functionality  and 
aesthetics.  Landscape's  in- 
structions discuss  balance, 
order,  unity,  proportion,  vari- 
ety, and  seclusion  as  consid- 
erations in  creating  your 
backyard  environment. 

If  you  have  much  drafting 
experience,  you'll  notice 
that  the  programs  don't  strict- 
ly follow  architectural  conven- 
tions. If,  for  example,  you're 
using  interior  measurements 
in  your  drawing  but  your  ar- 
chitect or  builder  assumes 
you've  specified  convention- 
al exterior  dimensions  ac- 
counting for  wall  thickness, 
you  could  have  some  seri- 
ous problems. 

The  best  reason  for  using 


•  •  • 


Bring  Heme  The  Magic  Of  Children's^ 
Musical  f  heatre"  With  Dr.  T*s  Sing-A-Long! 


**Click". 

to  repeat  songs  and 
turn  lyrics  on  and  off. 

Large,  Colorful 

Buttons 

give  the  smallest 

hands  big  control  over 

the  music. 

Lyrics  &  Notes 
scroll  to  the  music. 

Dancing  Icon 

helps  the  singer  follow 

along  and  read  the 

words  and  music! 


Brilliant  Animation 
brings  each  song  to  life! 


"Actors*' 

talk  to  the  audience. 


Dr*  T's  Sing-A-Long  Is  Musical  Software  That 
Puts  Your  Child  In  The  Middle  Of  The  Music 
The  Lyrics#..The  Aiiimation«..The  Funt 

The  songs  and  lyrics  are  directed  right  at  the  computer  while 
your  child  sfngs  along  to  over  25  Classic  Children's  songs. 

Each  one  is  an  engaging  story  with  its  own  actors  and  animation. 

Itsy  Bltsy  Spider,  Old  Mac  Donald,  Yankee  Doodle,  Mary  and  her  Little 
Lamk  and  all  the  other  characters  provide  hours  of  entertainment  while 
involving  your  child  with  basic  learning  skills. 

Parents  and  educators  agree  —  Dr,  T's  Sing- A- Long  is  the 
innovative  way  to  teach  reading  words  and  music.  Lyrics  scroll  in 
time  with  the  music  so  learning  is  fun.  You  can  print  the  music  and  lyrics 
on  virtually  any  printer.  ^^ 

Dr.  T's  Sing- A- Long 
grows  with  your  child. 
Start  your  small  one  in 
Little  Kids  Mode.  Ih^ 
simplified  interface 
develops  singing,  reading, 
and  mouse  skills,  while  it 
protects  Windows  from  a 
child's  curiosity.  As 
abilities  progress,  use 
Normal  Mode, 

Included 

Simple  instructions  for  adding  a  microphone  to  record  performances.  Any 
grandparent  would  treasure  a  recording!  Software  support.s  ail  popular  sound 
cards  and  CD  ROM  drives. 

Full-color  Dr.  T's  5ing-A-Long  Song  Boole  The  songs,  with  words  and  sheet  music, 
are  beautifully  illustrated  with  animated  screen  characters. 


Dr.  T's  Sing-A-Long 

Make  It  Your  Child's  First  Software,.. 

It's  Never  Too  Early  To  Sing! 

Call  1-800-282-1366 

For  fastest  ordering.  Or  Fax  1-716-873-0906 

Make  Your  Child  A  "Star"  This 
Holiday  Season!  Only  $29.95 

Free  Delivery  Included 

Requirements:  Windows  3 J  •  IBM  ,'1%  or  compitiiblc  compuler  *  CD-ROM  drive  or  3,5" 
floppy  drive  *  VGA  display  •  4  MU  ufOAM  und'JMH  free  hard  disk  driiv  •  Sound  card. 

I      I  YES !    f'lease  MKid  me  Dr.  T's  Stng-A-Long.  D  3.5"  disk  n  CD  ROM  disk 
Name   (please  print  dearly) 


City 

n  VISA 


n  MasterCard 


State 
Q  Amerkart  Eitpress 


Zip 


Credit  Card  Number 


Expiration  Date 


Phone  Number 


Signature 

Or  make  check  payable  in  US  Funds  and  maiJ  to;  Dr,  Vi  Musk  Software 

PQ  Box  119,  Euffab,  NY  14207 

Dr  T's  Music  Software,  Inc.  Al:  Righu  Rjeserved, 

NY.  KA,  CA  residents:  Please  add  applicable  sales  tax. 


COM  194 


REVIEWS 


The  Home  Series  is  to  get 
an  accurate  spatial  impres- 
sion of  your  new  or  remod- 
eled home  or  yard.  If  you 
can't  get  that  from  the  pro- 
grams' two-dimensional 
plan  views,  you  can  render 
them  as  3-D  eye-level  or  over- 
view drawings.  By  changing 
your  point  of  view,  you  can 
"enter"  any  room  or  area 
you  like  using  the  3-D  Plan 
module.  It's  possible  to 
move  around  the  room  us- 
ing the  eye-level  view,  but  3- 
D  Plan  is  a  memory-  and 
processor-intensive  subpro- 
gram and  may  run  quite  slow- 
ly on  some  systems.  You 
may  also  have  to  play  with 
your  configuration  and  elimi- 
nate some  TSRs  to  get  it  to 
run  properly. 

CADD  experience  isn't 
necessary  to  effectively  use 
The  Home  Series.  In  fact,  if 
you've  worked  with  full- 
blown CADD  programs, 
you'll  probably  be  frustrated 
by  limitations  built  into 
these  four  programs  for  the 
sake  of  easy  use.  Still,  you 
should  plan  to  spend  some 
time  with  the  manuals;  their 
tutorials  are  quite  helpful.  It'll 
probably  take  you  longer 
than  Autodesk's  estimated 
30  minutes  to  figure  out  a 
Home  Series  program,  but 
once  you  do,  it  won't  take 
half  that  long  to  decide  you 
never  want  to  go  back  to 
the  drawing  board. 

PHILLIP  MORGAN 

Autodesk 

(800)  228-3601  (U.S.  and  Canada) 

(206)  487-2233 

$69.95  each 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  437 


OMNICD 


Why  are  CD-ROM  discs  so 
great?  They  hold  tons  of  da- 
ta. 'Why  are  they  so  bad? 
They're  s.,J,,,o,..w.  And  I 
mean  ready  slow.  The  aver- 
age CD-ROM  drive  has  an 
access    time    of    350    ms 

130        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


while  the  average  IDE  hard 
disk  has  an  access  time  of 
about  15  ms.  When  it 
comes  to  throughput,  the  av- 
erage CD-ROM  drive 
moves  data  at  about  150K 
per  second,  while  most  mod- 
em hard  disks  pump  info  at 
1MB  or  more  per  second. 
How  do  you  make  a  CD- 


comes  with  its  own  dedicat- 
ed interface  card.  It's  worth 
mentioning  that  Creative 
Lab's  CD  uses  a  proprietary 
interface  rather  than  the  in- 
dustry-standard SCSI 

There  are  several  good- 
ies packaged  with  the  Om- 
niCD.  First,  the  drive  is  Pho- 
to CD  compatible.  Included 


The  Creative  Labs  OmniCD  double-speed  CD-ROM  drive  is 
available  in  a  variety  of  bundles,  including  one  with  PfiotoStyler 


ROM  drive  faster?  The  best 
way  is  to  double  its  speed, 
and  that's  just  what  Creative 
Labs  has  done  with  the  Om- 
niCD. Instead  of  moving  da- 
ta at  the  150K  rate  of  single- 
speed  drives,  it  double- 
times  data  at  300K  per  sec- 
ond. The  OmniCD  isn't  the 
only  double-speed  drive 
available,  but  it*s  one  of  the 
least  expensive.  And  it's  com- 
pletely compatible  with  The 
Multimedia  PC  Marketing 
Council's  recently  released 
Level  2  Specification,  which 
calls  for  a  16-bil  sound  card 
and  a  double-speed  drive. 

Installing  the  OmniCD  is 
painless.  If  you  have  a 
Sound  Blaster  Pro  or  ASP 
16,  the  CD  interface  is  al- 
ready built  into  your  sound 
card.  So  you  just  plug  the 
drive's  control  and  audio  ca- 
bles into  the  card,  plug  a 
power  connector  into  the 
drive,  and  install  the  CD  driv- 
ers, and  you're  in  business. 

If  you  have  another 
brand  of  sound  card  or  no 
sound  card,  the  OmniCD 


in  the  package  is  a  special 
version  of  Aldus  PhotoStyler, 
one  of  the  best  bitmap  graph- 
ics editors  around.  You'll  al- 
so find  several  utilities,  includ- 
ing CD  Pfayen  which  makes 
playing  audio  CDs  easy. 

After  installing  the  Om- 
niCD, the  first  thing  you're 
likely  to  notice  is  that  it 
doesn't  use  a  standard  CD 
caddy.  Caddies  are  a  pain, 
and  I'm  glad  that  the  Om- 
niCD and  several  other  sec- 
ond-generation CD  drives 
are  opting  for  the  caddyless 
design. 

"AH  this  is  great,"  I  hear 
you  say,  "but  how  fast  is  it?" 
Well,  as  you'd  expect,  it's 
about  twice  as  fast  as  a  reg- 
ular drive  but  feels  even  fast- 
er. The  difference  between 
using  the  OmniCD  and  a  sin- 
gle-speed drive  is  dramatic. 
With  the  OmniCD,  images 
snap  onto  the  screen,  full- 
motion  video  sequences  are 
suddenly  fluid,  and  search- 
es are  quicker  Everything  is 
easier  and  more  enjoyable. 

After  using  the  OmniCD 


for  about  a  month,  !  can't 
find  a  single  thing  to  com- 
plain about.  In  fact,  the  only 
negative  is  that  it  doesn't 
use  a  SCSI  interface.  But 
even  that's  something  of  a  vir- 
tue, because  its  proprietary 
interface  makes  it  compati- 
ble with  the  zillions  of 
Sound  Blaster  Pro  and  ASP 
cards  already  out  there.  At 
$299,  this  is  a  deal  that's 
hard  to  beat. 

CLIFTON  KARNES 

Creative  Labs 

(408)  428-6600 

$299 

CircJe  Reader  Service  Number  433 

THE  LOST  VIKINGS 

Arcade  fans  suffering  from 
game-console  envy  can  final- 
ly find  relief  in  The  Lost  Vi- 
kings, a  superb  platform- 
style  action  game  that  sur- 
vives the  voyage  to  the  PC 
completely  intact. 

You  control  a  trio  of  bick- 
ering Viking  warriors,  dis- 
placed in  time  and  space 
by  an  evil  alien  zookeeper. 
Your  goal  is  to  guide  them 
home,  through  37  levels  of  in- 
creasingly weird  worlds^ 
blocked  by  puzzles  and 
deadly  adversaries.  Each  Vi- 
king has  his  own  unique  abil- 
ity to  jump,  attack,  or  de- 
fend. Because  you  can  con- 
trol only  one  Viking  at  a 
time,  success  requires 
switching  between  charac- 
ters, combining  their 
strengths  to  survive. 

Gameplay,  while  not  terri- 
bly original,  is  instantly  en- 
gaging and  constantly  chal- 
lenging. Background  graph- 
ics are  colorful  and  varied, 
highlighted  by  expressive 
character  animation  and 
huge  multiscreen  playfields. 
The  trio's  subtle  comic  inter- 
play also  adds  delightful  per- 
sonality to  the  action.  Con- 
trols are  equally  responsive 
for   keyboard   or  joystick, 


'^ 


CHOICE 
NOMINEE 


2  GREAT  MEDICAL  PROGRAMS 

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JAL  ADVISOR 

Fast  Answers 

The  ONLY  program  of  its  kind  to  ana- 
lyze symptoms  and  provide  actual 
diagnoses 

Easy  To  Understand 

No  confusing"medical  jargon" 

The  Largest  Drug  Database 

Plus  extensive  info  on  diseases, 
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10460  So,  Tropical  Trail  Merntt  Island,  FL  32952 

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Ask  about  our  new  CD  ROM  Pro  version! 


1-800-788-2099 


UR  MEDICAL  RECORDS 

E!omplete  Medical  Histories 

^Keeps  and  prints  YOUR  important 
medical  records  in  two  different  formats 

Medical-Legal  Documents 

s  custom  documents  like  the  "Living 
pnd  "Durable  Power  of  Attorney" 

lyzes  Over  2,400  Substances 

iriteRact,  provides  a  complete  analysis 
^6f  250,000  possible  drug  interactions 


See  vour  Software  Dealer  or. .  ,CaII  Us  Today 

"Ad  Trademarks  are  property  of  their  respective  owners 


~    I  eg  I    m 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  207 


REVEWS 


with  excellent  support  for 
the  four-button  Gravis  PC  Ga- 
nriepad  controller. 

The  best  compliments 
paid  to  The  Lost  Vikings  are 
that  it  looks  as  good  and 
ptays  as  well  as  the  Amiga 
and  SuperNintendo  ver- 
sions. That's  high  praise  in- 
deed and  an  encouraging 
sign  for  the  future  of  arcade 
games  on  the  PC. 

scon  A,  MAY 

Interplay 

(800)  969-4263 

$49.95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  439 


READY,  AIM,  FILE! 

Ready.  Aim,  FILE!  2.5b  is  a 
Windows  file  and  program 
manager  that  allows  you  to 
use  256-character  file- 
names. With  its  system  of 
file  cabinets  and  folders, 
you  can  organize  ftles  by 
subject  rather  than  by  disk  di- 
rectory structure.  You  have 

132        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


If  you're  looking  for  a  Nintendo-esque  platform  game  for  your  PC, 
Interplay's  The  Lost  Vikings  fits  the  bill. 


six  cabinets,  and  within 
each  cabinet  you  may  have 
as  many  folders  as  you 
wish,  but  you  may  view  only 
three  at  a  time. 

RAF  displays  onscreen 
buttons  for  performing  com- 
mon operations  you  would 
otherwise  do  in  Program 
Manager  and  File  Manag- 


er— launching  programs, 
moving,  copying,  deleting, 
searching,  and  so  forth. 
RAF  can't  actually  replace 
Program  Manager  as  a 
shell;  instead,  it  runs  on  top 
of  it. 

While  RAF  allows  256-char- 
acter filenames,  it  still  must 
create  its  own  DOS  names 


(like  307277.DOC).  The  man- 
ual warns  against  using 
DOS  or  Windows  to  change 
these  filenames,  since  the 
program  could  get  con- 
fused (and  so  could  you).  A 
smarter  program  would  pro- 
tect you  from  accidentally  or 
illegally  changing  these  file- 
names outside  the  program. 
If  you  use  RAF  at  all,  you 
probably  should  use  it  when- 
ever you're  using  Windows. 

Within  Windows  applica- 
tions. Open,  Save  As,  and 
import  can  use  the  long  file- 
names, RAF  is  preset  to  inter- 
cept these  commands  with 
over  a  dozen  programs.  How- 
ever, in  my  experience, 
Open  didn't  always  work 
properly  with  Word  for  Win- 
dows, one  of  the  preset  pro- 
grams. You  must  do  some 
setup  to  make  the  intercept 
feature  work  with  other  Win- 
dows programs,  and  this 
isnT  a  task  for  novices. 

RAF  has  some  nice  ide- 
as, like  Version  Control 
(which  lets  you  track  chang- 
es in  a  file  by  saving  without 
replacing).   But  it's  rough 


SUPER 

WINDOWS 

APPS 


ALL-NEW! 

COMPUTE'S  ULTIMATE 
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WAV  EDITOR 


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-CD  nf 

QTZUX 

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SPACE  VIEWER 


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THIS  ALL-NEW  MUST-HAVE  COLLECTION  OF  DYNAMITE  WINDOWS 
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•WIN  AT  HEARTS 


•  MASTER  MAH  JONGG 

•  PREVIEW  FONTS 

•  ADD  GROUPS  TO  YOUR  SYSTEM  MENU 

•  EDIT  WAV  FILES 

•  SEE  YOUR  MODEM  STATUS  ONSCREEN 


All  programs  on  this  disk  are  the  highest  quality  shareware  and  freeware  and  have  been  tested  and  virus-scanned  by 
COMPUTE'S  editors.  And  for  a  limited  time,  the  disk  is  yours  free.*  Order  now! 


[  ]  YES!  Rush  me  my  free'  COMPUTERS  Ultrmate  Windows  Disk, 
I  pay  only  for  postage  and  handling. 


NAME:. 


ADDRESS:, 


5  1/4"HDdisk(s). 


.3  1/2"HDdisk(s) 


CITY: 


_STATE/PR0V1NCE:_ 


Total  disks  x  $3.95  postage  and  handling  each 

Sales  tax  {Residents  of  NC  and  NY.  please  add 
appropriate  sales  tax  for  your  area,  Canadian 
orders,  add  7%  goods  and  services  tax) 

Foreign  orders  outside  U.S.  and  Canada,  add 
$10.00  additional  postage  and  handling. 

Priority  2-day  delivery  (U.S.  only),  add  $5.00  addi- 
tional postage  and  handling. 

Total  Enciosed 


ZIP/POSTAL  CODE:. 


_Check/Money  Order . 


.Mastercard . 


_V!SA 


Credit  card  no. 


Expiration  date:. 
Signature: 


Daytime  phone  no.: 


(required) 


ALL  ORDERS  MUST  BE  PAID  FOR  IN  U.S.  FUNDS  BY  CHECK 
DRAWN  ON  A  U.S.  BANK  OR  BY  MONEY  ORDER.  MasterCard 
or  ViSA  accepted  only  for  orders  over  $200.00. 

Windows  is  a  trademark  of  Microsoft  Corporation. 


Send  your  order  to  COMPUTE'S  Ultimate  Windows  Disk,  324  West 
Wendover  Ave..  Ste.200,  Greensboro  NC  27408.  Please  allow  4  to  6 
weeks  for  delivery, 

PRIORITY  ORDERS:  Address  to  COMPUTE's  Ultimate  Windows  Disk, 
Dept.  WX.  324  West  Wendover  Ave..  Ste.  200.  Greensboro.  NC 
27408. 

'Postage  and  handling  for  standard  delivery  (4-6  weeks)  is  $3,95 
per  disk.  Additional  charges  apply  for  express  delivery  and  foreign 
orders.  Offer  expires  March  31,1994. 


L _.__-. --„-^ ... J 


9> 


EMs  IR  Alive 


...  and  well,  witli  24  other  artists 
in  the  hottest,  least  expensive,  most 
professional  sounding,  MIDI  Karaoke 
on  the  market  today! 

Customize  each  song  to  fit  your  voice 
perfectlv  ^vith  our  pitch  and  speed 
controls.  Use  any  of  our  25  song  selection  —  from 
Broadway  greatsto  todays  biggest  hits  —  or  create 
your  own  iiits  ...  it's  easy  since  MIDI  Karaoke  uses 
standard  ME)1  files. 

But  wait,  there's  more  .„  Turtle  Beach  MIDI 
Karaoke  is  the  only  Karaoke  application  wiUi  Uic 
bouncing  ball.  Yes,  from  word  to  word,  our  lx)uncing 
ball  guides  you  perfectly  tlirough  the  song  so  you  sing 
the  right  words  at  the  right  time. 


AND... most,  most,  most  importantiy. 
it's  the  only  Karaoke  application  that 
allows  you  to  record  your  own  voice 
directly  to  the  hard  dme  while  you're  singing 
and  Uien  play  back  the  entire  file  —  music  and 
^      voice  together!! 

^^|.  So  don't  get  all  shook  up.  Get  all 

^^^^^    this  and  more  for  onfy  $49! 
l^^i^^         See  vour  favorite  dealer,  or 
^lUJr  call  80IMWfr5B40  and  order  your 
^Ttirtle  Beach  MIDI  Karaoke  today. 

WORKS  WITH  ANY  SOUND  CARD! 

lURllE  BEACH  SYSli^ivi^ 

P.O.  Box  5074  •  Yofk.  Pennsylvcnta  •  17405  •  717'a43-69l6  •  FAXi  717-854-8319 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  193 


leiEWS 


around  the  edges  and  weak 
in  areas:  incomplete  screen 
redraws,  help  text  wider 
than  its  window,  and  a  file 
viewer  that  displays  only 
text  files. 

To  its  credit,  RAF  has  an 
uninstall  feature.  Unfortunate- 
ly, it  doesn't  go  through 
your  256-character  file- 
nannes  prompting  you  to  re- 
nanne  them  to  DOS  names, 
so  if  you  don't  rename  them 
before  uninstalling.  you're 
left  with  the  strange,  indeci- 
pherable filenames. 

While  RAF  seems  to  be 
aimed  at  novices,  inexperi- 
enced users  are  likely  to  get 
in  trouble  with  it.  VSoft  offers 
a  30-day  money-back  guar- 
antee, so  you  might  want  to 
give  it  a  try  and  see  if  it  fits 
your  needs. 

J,  BLAKE  LAMBERT 

VSoft 

(800)  845-4843 

$99.95 

Clrcte  Reader  Service  Number  440 

134        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Ready,  Aim,  FiLEI 


B«e    £tfit     System     DesJs 


aefp 


ThurtcJay  9-23-53  6  40  pm 


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iftc^ilig^SHIt'^ 

:^^  j,«l 

Th«Fe  era  3  folders  «n  9ii«  ^btnei 
DsibtftSlta  Music  Pttrtormonoe 


□□ 


Ready,  Aim,.  File!  replaces  long  lists  of  obscure  DOS  filertames 
with  folders  and  256-character  filenames. 


AMERICANS  IN 
SPACE 

{f  you're  a  manned  space 
flight  enthusiast.  Americans 
in  Space  is  a  must-have 
package  for  your  multime- 
dia PC.  This  comprehensive 
CD-ROfvt  stylishly  chronicles 
the  U.S.  manned  space  pro- 


gram from  its  beginnings  to 
the  present  day  space  shut- 
tle and  the  upcoming  space 
station.  Watching  and  listen- 
ing to  a  riveting  blend  of  still 
pictures,  animation,  and  nar- 
ration, you  can  either  follow 
the  progress  of  America's 
manned  space  projects 
across  the  historical  time 
line  or  zoom  directly  in  on  a 


particular  subject  of  interest. 

tjpon  launching  the  soft- 
ware, you  have  three  op- 
tions. Beginners  can  consult 
the  Pilot's  Manual  for  usage 
information.  Once  you've 
been  briefed  on  piloting  the 
program,  you  can  travel  to 
Mission  Control  for  access 
to  over  500  photographs 
and  over  an  hour  of  video 
and  narration.  Finally  the  Ex- 
press Tours  selection  offers 
overviews  entitled  The  Race 
to  the  Moon,  Turning  Points, 
Disasters,  Living  in  Space, 
and  Cruising  the  Planet. 

The  Americans  in  Space 
user  interface  makes  naviga- 
tion a  breeze.  In  both  Ex- 
press Tours  and  Mission  Con- 
trol, you  choose  options 
from  a  simulated  control  pan- 
el using  the  mouse. 

There  are  eight  selections 
in  Mission  Control:  Prologue. 
Mercury,  Gemini,  Apollo,  Sky- 
lab,  Apollo-Soyuz,  Space 
Shuttle,  and  Space  Station. 
If  you  click  on  Apollo- 
Soyuz,  you're  given  only 
one  selection,  since  the  pro- 
gram had  only  a  single  mis- 


-"-i. 


Oh  no!  The  Trash  Alien  has  captured  Spot  and 
left  behind  a  traii  of  litter.  In  Trash  Zapper, 
your  merUal  math  skills  are  needed  to  help 
clean  up%e  mess. 

r 

^  V 

^.-^ 

1 

* 

f^l 

\i     "'-'—• 

1          .          1          .          •      UtH^^^^Mk^ 

r 

«r-                                     SI    1 

The  Number  Recycler  can  convert  trash  into 
fuel  t]ut  Blasternaut  needs  your  problem- 
solving  abilttiesto  make  it  work.  Recycle  all 
the  trash  and  you're  ready  to  go! 


You've  tracked  the  Trash  Alien  to  his  home 
planet.  But  you  haven't  saved  Spot  yet!  Use  your 
mental  math  skills  to  help  Blasternaut  calculate 
his  way  through  the  Cave  Banner  qame. 


Finally,  Blasternaut  and  the  Trash  Alien  are 
face  to  face  in  the  /Watfr  fi/asfer  game.  It's  a 
battle  of  the  numbers  and  Spot's  fate  is  in  your 
bands — good  luck! 


Over  1.5  million 
Math  Blaster's  sold! 
The  world's  best- 
selling  math 
program  just 
got  better! 


Boldly  Go 
Where  No 
Math  Program 
Has  Gone  Before! 


M 


ath  Blaster:  In  Search  of  Spot  launches  the 
worlds  best-selling  math  program  to  a  whole  new 
level  of  learning  and  fun!  Kids  will  join  Blasternaut 
on  an  all-new  action -packed  adventure  to  rescue 
his  robot  pal  Spot  As  they  search  the  universe, 
they'll  boost  their  mental  math  and  problem- 
solving  skills  into  the  stratosphere! 

America's  favorite  math  software  for  ten  years  running 
now  gives  parents  and  ktds  even  more  to  love... 

More  math  content  than  any  other  program! 

Novy  with  over  50,000  different  problems  available  in  nine 
key  subject  areas:  Addition  *  Subtraction  •  Multiplication 
*  Division  •  Fractions  •  Decimals  •  Percents— 
Plus  two  new  topics:  Estimation  and  Number  Patterns. 

More  fun  than  ever  before! 

Exciting  new  learning  games,  out-of-this-world  VGA 
graphics,  digitized  speech,  sound  effects  and  music  will 
keep  kids  so  dazzled  they'll  never  want  to  come  down  to 
Earth!  And  for  even  more  variety,  there  are  now  two  ways 
to  play:  focus  on  a  single  activity  or  take  off  on  a  mission 
that  combines  all  four  into  one  awesome  learning  adventure! 


Order  Toll  Free 

(800)  545-7677  or  (3101 793-0600 

Suggested  retail  price: 

S59.95  MS-DOS 

Available  at  Babbage's,  Bost  Buy,  CompUSA, 
Egghead  Software,  Electronics  Boutique, 
Software  Etc.  and  other  line  retailers. 


IBM,  Tandy  and  PC  Compatibles 
Windows  version  available  Nov.  93 

Ages  6  to  12 

"Kids  have  always  loved  Math 
Blaster,  and  Math  Blaster:  In 
Search  of  Spot  is  no 
exception.  It's  even  better 
than  its  predecessors-more 
fun  and  more  educational," 

Rob  Bixby 
Compute  Magazine 


Davidson. 

Teaching  Tools  From  Teachers 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  151 


REVIEWS 


sion.  But  if  you  choose  Gem- 
ini, you're  then  able  to  se- 
lect from  any  of  the  ten  Gem- 
ini nnissions,  as  well  as  from 
a  project  overview.  The  over- 
view summarizes  the  pur- 
pose and  history  of  the  se- 
iected  program  and  can  be 
printed  for  future  reference. 
You  can  choose  to  watch  a 
slide  show  or  movie  about 
the  program.  There  are 
three  Gemini  movies:  The 
Gemini  Launch  Sequence, 
Gemini-Agena  Rendezvous 
Test,  and  Gemini  Reentry 
and  Splashdown.  The  high- 
resolution  images  are  beau- 
tiful and  finely  detailed 
throughout  the  program. 

When  you  select  an  indi- 
vidual mission,  the  mission 
patch  is  displayed  along 
with  descriptive  text,  and  sev- 
eral options  are  presented 
which  let  you  view  mission 
statistics,  astronaut  profiles, 
or  a  slide  show  of  the  mis- 
sion. All  relevant  facts  such 
as  mission  dates  are  present- 
ed  on  the  control  panel. 

The  Express  Tours  selec- 
tion presents  narrated  slide- 
show  histories  of  various  as- 
pects of  the  space  pro- 
gram. You  can  view  a  full- 
screen slide  show,  but 
there's  no  provision  to  stop 
and  start  the  show  when  us- 
ing this  option.  With  the  sim- 
ple slide  show,  you  view 
smaller  pictures  on  the  con- 
trol panel  at  your  own  pace, 
and  you  can  blow  up  pic- 
tures you're  particularly  inter- 
ested in  to  full-screen  size. 

The  Americans  in  Space 
package  includes  versions 
for  both  MFCs  and  Macin- 
toshes. With  over  an  hour  of 
full-motion  video,  more  than 
500  images,  and  narration 
to  accompany  it  all,  this  is  a 
fascinating  multimedia  pres- 
entation. We  can  highly 
recommend  this  wonderful 
space  program. 

BRUCE  M.  BOWDEN  and 
MARGARET  A,  BOWDEN 
136        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


Multicom 

{800)  245-4525 

$59.95 

Circte  Reader  Service  Numter  44t 

FREDDY 
PHARKAS, 
FRONTIER 
PHARMACIST 

If  you  drop  everything  to 
catch  Blazing  Saddles  on 
the  late  show— for  the  10th 
or  12th  time-=then  Freddy 
Pharkas,  Frontier  Pharma- 
cist is  the  game  for  you.  Al 
Lowe,  creator  of  the  meg- 
abit Leisure  Suit  Larry  se- 
ries, straps  on  his  spurs  to 
give  the  Wild  West  a  sharp 
and  painfully  funny  poke  in 
the  ribs.  Depending  on  your 
tastes  and  social  sensibili- 
ties, this  could  be  one  of  Si- 
erra On-Line's  most  enjoya- 
ble graphic  adventures  yeL 

Like  Mel  Brooks's  classic 
western  parody,  Lowe's  cre- 
ation allows  no  saddlesore 
stereotypes  to  go  un- 
scathed. True  to  form,  Lowe 
also  manages  to  slap,  tickle, 
and  goose  just  about  every 
ethnic,  religious,  and  sexual 
persuasion  on  both  sides  of 
the  Rockies.  Although  not 
as  entirely  adult  themed  as 
the  Leisure  Suit  Larry 
games,  there  are  many  innu- 
endos  that  may  make  you  cr- 
inge applied  to  both  man 
and  beast.  Authentic  west- 
ern outhouse  humor  also 
plays  a  role,  showcasing 
Lowe's  perennial  sixth- 
grade  disposition.  Its  all  in 
great  fun,  and  a  solid  new  di- 
rection for  this  talented  com- 
edy writer. 

The  game  gets  off  to  a  hi- 
larious start  with  the  sing- 
along  "Ballad  of  Freddy  Phar- 
kas," describing  how  our 
hero  gave  up  a  career  as  a 
gunslinger  for  his  first  true 
love:  pharmacy.  Freddy 
sets  up  shop  in  a  friendly, 


but  very  weird,  gold-rush 
town,  where  he  catches 
wind  of  a  plot  to  destroy  the 
tiny  mudhole.  To  save  the 
day,  you  must  solve  a  se- 
quence of  puzzles  involving 
everything  from  stampedes 
(of  snails,  no  less)  to  out- 
breaks of  terminal  flatu- 
lence. Most  solutions  are  ob- 
ject-oriented, merely  requir- 
ing you  to  collect  and  com- 
bine various  graphic  ele- 
ments. The  fun  isn't  just  in 
solving  the  puzzles  but  in 
jumping  through  increasing- 
ly outrageous  hoops  along 
the  way. 

The  game's  best  challeng- 
es unfold  in  Freddy's  back- 
room laboratory.  Armed 
with  the  superbly  written  Mod- 
em-Day Book  of  Health  and 
Hygiene,  you  must  diag- 
nose various  maladies  and 
correctly  mix  the  prescribed 
remedy.  It's  a  fun  break 
from  the  action,  and  by  hap- 
py coincidence,  it  also  dou- 
bles as  the  game's  copy  pro- 
tection. Other  diversions  in- 
clude realtime  gun  duels, 
sly  card  sharks,  cantanker- 
ous tinhorns,  and  a  border- 
line-tasteless interlude  with 
a  sheep.  What  little  free 
time  you  do  have  is  spent 
courting  the  shy,  lovely 
school  marm. 

Fashioned  with  Sierra's 
new  graphic  interface,  game- 
play  flows  smoothly  You  nav- 
igate the  game  with  a  series 
of  western-related  icons:  cow- 
boy boots  (walk),  wire- 
rimmed  spectacles  (look),  a 
gloved  hand  (touch— or 
grope,  as  the  case  may  be), 
and  a  saddlebag  (invento- 
ry). Graphics  are  good,  ren- 
dered with  suitable  cow- 
poke  panache,  slightly  ham- 
pered by  the  use  of  low-res- 
olution VGA.  Ambient  sound 
effects  help  accent  the  hu- 
mor, but  it  would  be  nice  to 
see  (and  hear)  an  all-talkie 
CD-ROM  version. 

Are  you  tired  and  run- 


down from  the  usual  graph- 
ic adventures?  Slinging 
sight  gags  and  one-liners, 
Freddy  Pharkas,  Frontier 
Pharmacist  delivers  the 
cure  for  what  ails  you. 

scon  A,  MAY 

Sierra  On-Line 

(800)  326-6654 

$69,95 

Circle  Reader  Servfce  Number  442 

COACTIVI 
CONNECTORS 

The  Coactive  Connector 
box  promises  that  the  net- 
work device  is  "so  easy,  you 
can  install  each  computer  in 
five  minutes.  By  yourself."  If 
you've  ever  tried  to  network 
computers  before,  you'll 
greet  that  claim  with  skepti- 
cism. But  it's  absolutely 
true. 

The  Coactive  Connector 
for  DOS  and  the  Coactive 
Connector  for  Windows  are 
networking  products  for 
small  offices.  Any  combina- 
tion of  up  to  32  DOS  and 
Windows  personal  comput- 
ers is  possible.  There  is  also 
a  Coactive  Connector  for 
Macintosh  which  ties  Macin- 
tosh computers  and  Apple 
LaserWriter  printers  into 
your  DOS/Windows  net- 
work—a handy  way  to  get  in- 
expensive cross-platform 
connectivity. 

Physically,  the  Coactive 
Connectors  for  DOS  and  Win- 
dows are  small  units  that 
plug  into  the  parallel  ports 
of  your  computers.  The  port 
can  still  host  a  printer.  The 
advantages  of  the  Coactive 
Connectors  are  ease  of  instal- 
lation, simple  setup  and  ad- 
ministration of  the  network, 
and  low  cost  per  computer 
networked.  Low  cos/ trans- 
lates to  $149.95  per  DOS 
computer  and  $29.95  per 
Mac  added  to  the  network. 

We  extensively  tested  a 
three-computer    Coactive 


.w 


?r( 


The  year  Is  2022  and  global  warming  is  threatening  the 
very  existence  of  mankind.  Scientists  put  "Operation 
Blind"  into  effect  to  reverse  the  process,  but  something 
goes  seriously  wrong!  The  Earth  is  plunged  into  a  nuclear 
winter  and  the  sun  becomes 
permanently  eclipsed. 

Centuries  after  the  disaster,  a  new 
worid  order  has  been  established  and 
the  Viking  Union  hold  the  power.  They 
dominate  the  rail  network  and  the 
only  source  of  money  -  coal  -  and 
aren't  going  to  easily  give  up  their 
monopoly. 

You  command  a  gigantic  steam 
powered  train  and  use  it  to  journey  to 
towns  to  trade  in  supplies,  slaves  and 
mammoths.  Your  raw  instincts  will  help 
you  pull  your  survival  plan  together 
from  the  information  you  obtain  along 
the  way.  Your  mission  is  vital:  free 
the  planet  from  perpetual  winter 
and  economic  slavery. 


''•Miai^'V- 


Your  quest  for  the  sun  is  one 
of  danger  and 
excitement...  become 
the  Arctic  Baron...  free 
your  people! 


L*  4,iLi  i. 


m^ 


^wn-. 


^ 

t L"   yt 

^^^^-3S 

L_    \ 

^iiigfeiji^^ 

ReadySoft  Incorporated 

30WerlheimCourt,Suite2 

Richmond  Hill.  Ontario,  Canatta  L4B  1B9 

Tel:  (905)  731-41 75    Fax:  (905)  764-S867 


Silmtirik 


circle  R&ader  Sofvlce  Nuinbei  i\\i 


^:1^T;!t^S?iiv^:^i'  ■  .^, 


i||^^   >     .11    ni>iJ»tfll^«*^|ri^i^^ 


'.''-►""^•\:r-''  ^;^*i™«7t.^;^)ir.f ■*irV,:;r_<{M'',, :J.^':■ 


.  1992  Sirrrtarils  -  All  rights  reserved.    Oislributec*  by  ReadySoft  fucorporated. 


REVIEWS 


Connector  network  here,  run- 
ning two  machines  with  Win- 
dows and  one  machine  us- 
ing just  MS-DOS.  The  only 
difference  between  the  Coac- 
tive  Connector  for  DOS  and 
Coactive  Connector  for  Win- 
dows is  the  software. 

Installation  is  easy.  The 
manuals,  entitled  How  to 
Hook  This  Stuff  Up,  are  full 
of  clear  drawings  showing 
step-by-step  hookup.  We 
transferred  files  from  ma- 
chine to  machine,  printed 
files  from  all  computers  on 
the  network  using  a  printer  at- 
tached to  just  one  comput- 
er, and  ran  programs  in- 
stalled on  one  computer 
from  alt  the  others  on  the  net- 
work. No  problems  were  en- 
countered. 

The  Coactive  Connectors 
are  an  excellent  selection 
for  a  small  office's  first  net- 
work. Larger  networks  cost 
hundreds  of  dollars  more 
and  require  technicians  to  in- 
stall Some  also  need  an  ad- 
ditional computer  to  act  as  a 
file  server,  which  is  a  comput- 
er dedicated  to  storage  of 
programs  and  files  available 
to  everyone  on  the  network. 
The  Coactive  Connectors 
eliminate  the  file  server  by 
sharing  the  resources  of 
your  present  computers. 

The  major  disadvantage 
is  relatively  stow  speed. 
This  is  true  of  any  peer-to- 
peer  network  which  is  shar- 
ing resources  instead  of  us- 
ing a  separate  file  server  If 
your  network  usage  calls  for 
many  users  transferring 
vast  amounts  of  data,  go  to 
a  full-fledged.  Novell-type 
network,  Otherwise,  the 
Coactive  Connectors  will 
have  you  networking  literally 
in  minutes. 

RALPH  ROBERTS 

Coactive  Computing 
(415)802-1080 
$149  95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  443 

138        COMPUTE     JANUARY  1994 


SPACE  HULK 

The  Space  Marines  are  look- 
ing for  a  few  good  men.  So 
are  the  Genestealers, 
though  admittedly  not  for 
the  same  purpose.  Wel- 
come to  the  dark,  feral 
world  of  Space  Hulk,  a  fast- 
paced,  ultraviolent  adapta- 


scenarios,  and  the  exhaust- 
ing 22-mission  Deathwing 
Campaign.  Mission  objec- 
tives vary  but  usually  require 
securing  specific  areas;  re- 
trieving artifacts;  and,  most 
importantly,  getting  them  be- 
fore they  get  you. 

Your  role  is  to  direct  the 
action  from  two  distinct  van- 


Electronic  Arts'  Space  Hulk  is  an  ultraviolent  biast-fest  thats 
reminiscent  of  the  action  in  the  Alien  fiims. 


tion  of  the  Games  Work- 
shop's popular  tabtetop 
game.  Fans  of  the  movie  Ali- 
en will  quickly  identify  the  ac- 
tion as  a  bug-hunt  supreme, 
playing  space  tag  against 
the  deadliest  of  prey.  The 
winners  move  on  to  greater 
glory;  losers  decorate  the 
walls  with  red. 

The  manual  sets  up  the 
savage  story  line  about  a 
race  of  superbeings  bent  on 
universal  domination.  Hid- 
den in  huge,  abandoned 
ships  known  as  Space 
Hulks,  the  Genestealers 
spread  their  mutated  seed 
throughout  the  galaxies.  Sum- 
moned by  the  Emperor,  you 
play  an  Imperial  Captain, 
charged  with  leading 
squads  of  elite  Terminators 
on  ship-to-ship  missions  to 
"cleanse  and  burn," 

There's  plenty  here  to 
keep  you  busy:  five  basic 
and  nine  advanced  tutorials, 
16  single  and  multisquad 


tage  points:  first-person  tac- 
tical and  top-down  strategic 
views.  The  first  offers  the 
standard  3-D  look  down 
dark,  uninviting  corridors  of 
doom.  You  control  one  ma- 
rine at  a  time  but  supervise 
or  switch  control  between 
nine  others  via  small  closed- 
circuit  monitors.  Realistic 
lighting  effects  limit  your  for- 
ward vision,  forcing  you  to  re- 
ly on  sometimes  unreliable  lo- 
cal-area scanners.  Your 
best  clues  are  often  based 
on  sounds:  creaks  and  rat- 
tles, hissing  steam,  low 
throaty  growls,  and  distant 
screams,  all  crisply  digitized 
for  maximum  goosebump 
quotient.  Sometimes  you 
see  the  attacks  coming, 
while  often  these  fleet,  multi- 
clawed  creatures  seem  to 
jump  right  out  of  the  bulk- 
head and  into  your  face.  As 
expected,  you  have  outra- 
geous short-  and  long- 
range   weaponry   at   your 


side,  with  names  like  Light- 
ning Claws,  Heavy  Flamer, 
and  Storm  Bolter.  Victims  ex- 
plode with  a  sickly  satisfying 
belch  of  blood  and  body 
parts  that  don't  magically  dis- 
appear but  pile  up  like  last 
week's  garbage.  It's  dement- 
ed, to  be  sure,  yet  irresisti- 
bly exhilarating  when  the  ac- 
tion erupts  in  nonstop,  heart- 
pounding  carnage. 

The  realtime  strategic  plan- 
ning screen  offers  an  overall 
view  of  each  mission.  Here 
you  can  program  movement 
and  firing  commands  for 
each  Terminator  in  your  as- 
signed squads.  This  multi- 
tasking feature  is  not  only  a 
tremendous  boon  to  your  mis- 
sion success  but  also 
cranks  up  the  intensity  sev- 
eral notches.  The  Freeze 
Time  tool  momentarily  sus- 
pends the  action,  allowing 
you  to  dry  your  palms  and 
gather  what's  left  of  your 
wits. 

Armed  with  a  stick,  stream- 
lined interface  and  wondrous- 
ly  deranged  special  effects, 
Space  Hulk  is  a  bug  blas- 
ter's nightmare  come  true. 

SCOTT  A.  MAY 

Electronic  Arts 
(800)  245-4525 
$59.95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  444 

ECCO  Professional 

ECCO  Professional  is  a  Win- 
dows Personal  Information 
Manager  (PIM)  that's  also  a 
database.  Happily,  though, 
it  doesn't  feel  like  a  data- 
base most  of  the  time, 

ECCO  is  intuitive  through- 
out, with  three  basic  views: 
PhoneBook,  Calendar,  and 
Outline.  To  create  an  appoint- 
ment or  action  item  with 
someone  in  your  Phone- 
Book,  simply  drag  that  per- 
son's name  from  the  Phone- 
Book  to  the  Calendar  or  To- 
Do  list.  ECCO  notes  the  ap- 


Purple  Car  Lands  on  Moon! 

Due  to  a  freak  accident  at  the  Fireworks  Factory,  Putt-Putt  is  blasted  to  the 


moon.  There  he  meets 
terrain  vehicle  left  behind 
Putt  and  Rover  ~ 


good  deeds  for 
meet  the  Man  in 
bound.  Putt-Put 
ffts  of  cooperatib 


Rover,  a  lonely  little  lunar        v^  ^^ 
by  the  astronauts.  Putt-        "^^  <S 
",  must  work  together  to        ^^  ^^> 
^    ,  and  accomplish  a  few       ^^^ 
/loon  People  before  they        ^^ 
Moon  and  are  homeward 
^oes  to  the  Moon  teaches  the  bene- 
and  the  lasting  value  of  friendship. 


Ages 
3-8 

iT 
.TALKSi; 


Wowl  You  were  here  with 
the  astronauts?!? 


Hello!  Fm  Governor 
Moonbeam.  And  you  must  b< 


Want  to  buy  our  rocket?  It's 
for  sale.  Only  10  glowing 
moon  ci-ystals. 


" 


Circte  Reader  Service  Number  1 1 1 


REVIEWS 


pointment  in  both  places,  in- 
serting a  note  with  the 
phone  number. 

Highlight  a  name  and 
click  on  a  Dialer  icon,  and 
an  autodial  window  pops 
up,  a  Logged  Call  entry  ap- 
pears below  the  name  in  the 
PhoneBook,  and  logging  be- 
gins when  you  dial. 

You  can  import  either  tab- 
separated  or  comma-separat- 
ed values  files  into  the  Phone- 
Book.  Just  show  ECCO 
which  fields  in  the  import 
file  match  preset  ones  in  the 
ECCO  file  and  give  names 
to  fields  that  don't  already  ex- 
ist in  ECCO.  (Sharp  Wizard 
and  HP  95LX  owners  can  or- 
der a  free  data-transfer  appli- 
cation; others  may  purchase 
a  file-conversion  program 
that  supports  numerous  da- 
ta formats.) 

You  can  export  your  Infor- 
mation for  use  in  a  mail 
merge  or  use  the  ECCO 
Shooter,  an  arrow  icon  that 
sticks  to  the  title  bar  of  the 
active  window.  The  Shooter 
lets  you  exchange  data  with 
another  Windows  program 
as  if  you'd  used  the  clip- 
board cut-and-paste  func- 
tions by  selecting  a  pro- 
gram from  a  pop-up  list. 
ECCO  also  supports  object 
linking  and  embedding. 

ECCO  makes  linking  infor- 
mation effortless.  When  you 
drag  an  item  (person,  ap- 
pointment, outline,  to-do) 
from  one  view  to  another,  a 
copy  remains  in  the  original 
location.  Edit  any  of  these 
copies,  and  the  others 
change,  too.  This  way  you 
can  have  several  methods 
of  accessing  the  information 
later. 

You  can  view  combina- 
tions of  a  personal-organizer 
page  and  a  spreadsheet, 
with  a  fixed  column  on  the 
left  and  scrolling  columns 
on  the  right  for  extra  informa- 
tion. You  can  navigate  quick- 
ly in  the  views,  and  you  can 

140        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


search,  sort,  and  filter  the 
items.  Items  in  any  view  can 
be  text  or  graphics. 

The  Calendar  View  pro- 
vides daily,  weekly,  and 
monthly  displays  and  also 
contains  the  Tickler  (to-do 
list).  You  can  also  set  simple 
or  custom  alarmis  and  cre- 
ate recurring  events. 


has  many  more  features 
than  could  be  covered 
here.  It  takes  a  while  to  get 
used  to  some  of  ECCO's  ad- 
vanced features,  but  it's  use- 
ful straight  out  of  the  box.  If 
youVe  just  looking  for  a  sim- 
ple day  book,  you  might 
find  Lotus  Organizer  or  the 
shareware  Time  and  Chaos 


FgC 


ECCB 


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BE 


s/j3mm75fu 


ECCO  Professionai  combines 
processors:  a  "lite"  version  is 


tiie  best  features  of  PlMs  and  outline 
now  available  as  well 


As  with  the  other  views. 
Outlines  can  display  col- 
umns of  dates,  names,  or  oth- 
er useful  information.  It's 
easy  to  change  the  color  or 
style  of  all  items  on  a  partic- 
ular level,  and  you  can  ex- 
pand and  collapse  the  Out- 
line as  you  work. 

Folders  let  you  organize 
items  that  you  want  to  keep 
together.  Standard  folders  in- 
clude the  PhoneBook  and 
Scheduling  folders,  but  you 
can  easily  create  your  own. 
ECCO  lets  you  drag  items  in- 
to a  folder  or  drag  folders  in- 
to or  out  of  outlines  (to  view 
or  remove  them). 

ECCO  includes  templates 
to  help  you  get  started  with 
specific  uses:  research, 
sales,  legalities,  and  project 
management.  It  handles  infor- 
mation and  ideas  well,  pro- 
duces nice  printouts  in 
handy  organizer  sizes,  and 


a  more  economical  choice. 
But  ECCO's  outline  and  da- 
tabase functions  make  it  far 
more  than  a  simple  PIM,  Ar- 
abesque is  so  sure  you'll 
like  it  that  the  company  pro- 
vides a  60-day  money-back 
guarantee  on  the  program. 

J  BLAKE  LAMBERT 


Arabesque 

(206)  869-9600 

$395 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  445 


GUINNESS 
MULTIMEDIA  DISC 
OF  RECORDS 

The  Guinness  Book  of  Re- 
cords, first  published  in 
1955,  is  the  world's  best-sell- 
ing copyrighted  book.  Now, 
with  flair  and  a  solid,  well- 
thought-out  design,  the  Guin- 
ness   Multimedia    Disc    of 


Records  brings  that  same 
popular  content  to  your  mul- 
timedia PC. 

Installation  is  easy.  The 
drivers  for  the  program  take 
up  about  4MB  of  storage  on 
your  hard  drive.  The  pro- 
gram is  completely  menu- 
and  button-driven,  and 
you're  given  many  choices 
on  how  to  navigate  through 
the  masses  of  information 
contained  on  the  disc. 

The  Browse  Records  but- 
ton lets  you  choose  any  re- 
cord from  "Acrobatics:  Long- 
est Inverted  Flight"  to  "Zoos; 
Oldest."  Many  of  the  3621  en- 
tries are  fairly  detailed. 
There's  also  the  traditional 
Guinness  inclusion  of  ob- 
scure knowledge  among 
the  more  common  facts.  For 
example,  in  the  "Words"  cat- 
egory, you'll  find  the  longest 
Icelandic  word,  Haecstaret- 
tarmalautningsmaour,  with 

29  Icelandic  letters  (translit- 
erating to  31  in  English  char- 
acters) and  meaning  "su- 
preme court  barrister." 

Using  the  Word  Search 
button,  you  can  find  records 
related  to  a  specific  subject. 
You  can  use  and,  or,  and 
not  operatives  to  narrow  the 
search.  For  example,  search- 
ing for  computer  brings  up 

30  matching  records.  These 
start  with  a  reference  to  "Pre- 
historic Reptiles:  Largest  ch- 
elonians,"  which  is  listed  be- 
cause of  a  mention  in  the 
article  of  computed  weight. 
In  this  case  you  could  nar- 
row the  search  by  looking 
for  computer  and  macfiine. 

You  can  search  by  catego- 
ry using  the  Topic  Index  but- 
ton, which  brings  up  a  list  of 
11  categories  ranging  from 
"Earth  and  Space"  to 
"Sports  and  Games,"  Each 
of  these  has  subcategories. 
"Science  and  Technology" 
provides  14  subcategories 
ranging  from  "Elements"  to 
"Space  Flight."  If  you 
choose  "Elements,"  you're 


RLVti  I  iiii  I  liii  iti  ii  iiiiii  i  1 1  i  i  liir  ii  ti  mh  tfi  Wmmw*  i^  u  i  iMili^iliJiii 


the  past  and  the  judgment  of  all  humanity  await  the 
L  crewoftheStarshipEntetpriiser' 

...  the  five  year  mission  continues. 


Join  Captain  James  T.  Kirk  and  the  crew  of  the  U.S.S.  Enterprise'^" 
in  all  new  episodes  that  place  i/o«  in  command.  Beam  down  to 
alien  worlds,  communicate  with  new  life  forms  and  take  the  helm 
as  you  join  the  legendary  crew  of  the  Starship  Enterprise'^'  in  their 
continuing  five  year  mission  to  explore  the  final  frontier. 


Software  ^'  1993  Interplay  Productions,  Inc.  AH  rights  resented.  Slar  Trek%®  and  ©  1993  Paramount  Rctitfes.  AU  rights  resen-ed- 
Star  Trek  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Paramount  Pictures,^    .,  -  .^.  -a 

^       Citcle  Roflder  Sorvfct  Number  253  ' 


17922  Fitch  Ave. 
Ir\^ine,  C  A  92714 

(714)553-6678 


REVIEWS 


given  three  topics:  "Matter." 
"Subnudear  Particles."  and 
"The  109  Elements  "  Each 
of  these  selections  provides 
more  information  than  you'd 
expect  from  a  database.  Un- 
der "The  109  Elements."  for 
example,  you  don't  simply 
get  a  periodic  table,  but  an 
actual  reference  to  such 
things  as  which  elements 
are  most  common,  which 
are  the  rarest,  which  have 
the  highest  toxicity,  and  so 
on. 

Half  of  the  fun  of  the  pa- 
per edition  is  just  flipping 
through  and  randomly  dis- 
covering information.  The 
Random  Record  Explorer  but- 
ton will  let  you  do  this  with 
the  disc  version.  There's  al- 
so a  Superlatives  Index  but- 
ton, which  lets  you  select  re> 
cords  by  superlatives  such 
as  best,  worst  oldest  young- 
est, windiest,  tioltest,  and 
widest. 

Select  the  Picture  Index 
button  to  start  with  the 
same  11  categories  as  the 
Topic  Index.  From  here  you 
can  access  the  1062  imag- 
es on  the  CD. 

The  Movie  Index  button 
gives  you  a  total  of  37  mov- 
ies. This  index,  to  our  dis- 
may, had  only  four  catego- 
ries; "Animals  and  the 
Earth,"  "Human  Beings," 
"'Technology  and  Space," 
and  "Transportation."  We 
found  that  most  of  these 
didn't  have  sound — not 
even  the  entry  for  the  howl- 
ing monkey!  We  did  like  the 
fact  that  movies  can  be  ad- 
vanced frame  by  frame,  for- 
ward or  backward,  to  exam- 
ine details,  but  we  didn't  like 
the  lack  of  sound  or  the  jerk- 
iness  of  the  animations  that 
did  have  sound. 

Although  a  help  refer- 
ence booklet  isn't  included 
with  the  packaging,  there's 
extensive  help  on  the  CD  it- 
self. In  most  cases,  though, 
you  won't  need  it;  the  pro- 

142        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


gram  ts  very  intuitively  de- 
signed. Most  of  the  informa- 
tion here  is  trivial,  but  it's 
often  educational  and  al- 
ways a  lot  of  fun. 

BRUCE  M.  BOWDEN  and 
MARGARET  A  BOWDEN 


Grolier  Electronic  Publishing 

(203)  797-3530 

S99 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  446 


dude  monochrome,  passive- 
matrix  color,  and  active-ma- 
trix color.  The  monochrome 
and  passive  matrix  dispiays 
can  be  upgraded  to  active 
matrix. 

The  review  unit  f  tested 
featured  active-matrix  LCD. 
an  80MB  hard  disk  (too 
small  for  a  machine  of  this 
caliber),  and  4MB  of  RAM. 

Looking  at  the  outside  of 


The  NCR  3150  sports  a  fast  25-MHz  486SX  processor,  available 
active-matrix  color,  and  a  front-mounted  trackbalL 


NCR  31 50 


Two  years  ago,  NCR  estab- 
lished itself  as  an  important 
player  in  the  notebook  mar- 
ket with  the  Safari  3170, 
This  year,  it's  introduced  an- 
other major  machine — the 
3150  notebook. 

The  3150  is  sleek,  light, 
and  fast.  It's  powered  by  a 
25-MHz  486SX  processor, 
and  has  a  9.5-inch  screen,  lo- 
cal-bus video,  PCMCIA 
Type  2  slot,  a  1.44MB  flop- 
py drive,  and  externa!  track- 
ball. The  3150  also  comes 
with  4MB  of  RAM  (upgradea- 
ble  to  20MB).  and  a  remov- 
able hard  disk  of  80-170MB 
capacity.  Video  options  in- 


the  3150  you'll  find  a  sturdy, 
attractive  case  that's  dark 
brown  with  putty  details. 
Open  the  case  and  you'll 
see  these  same  colors  re- 
peated with  turquoise  ac- 
cents on  important  keys.  Stat- 
us information  is  provided 
by  small  LEDs  directly  un- 
der the  display. 

The  3170's  keyboard  is 
very  good  for  a  notebook. 
The  layout  is  nearly  full- 
sized,  with  an  inverted  T  for 
cursor  keys.  There  are  also 
dedicated  Page  Up.  Page 
Down,  Home,  and  End 
keys,  all  of  which  are  a 
plus. 

As  I  mentioned  above, 
there's  a  trackball  which  you 


can  attach  to  the  front  of  the 
machine.  When  I  use  a  track- 
ball, I  prefer  it  to  be  on  the 
side  of  the  computer  and  I 
found  this  front  position  to 
be  awkward. 

If  you  don't  want  to  use 
the  trackball,  however,  you 
can  configure  the  cursor 
keys  to  do  double-duty  for 
mouse  movement.  I  found 
this  arrangement  to  work 
very  well  in  Windows,  but 
the  key  combination  you 
have  to  use  to  switch  back 
and  forth  between  cursor 
and  mouse  takes  some  get- 
ting used  to. 

The  3150's  active  matrix 
screen  is  excellent.  It's  one 
of  the  best  color  displays 
I've  seen  on  a  notelDOOk. 
The  colors  are  sharp  and  sat- 
urated, and  it's  a  joy  to  use. 

This  machine  was  built  to 
run  Windows  and  it  shows. 
With  the  486  processor  and 
local  bus  video,  Windows  re- 
ally moves.  If  you're  used  to 
laptops  being  sluggish  with 
Windows,  you'll  really  be  sur- 
prised with  the  3150. 

The  3150  can  use  either 
nickel  hydride  (NiMH)  or  nick- 
el cadmium  (NiCAD)  batter- 
ies. The  computer  senses 
which  type  of  battery  is  at- 
tached, and  batteries  can 
be  changed  while  the  com- 
puter is  on.  Power-saving  fea- 
tures are  everywhere  in  this 
machine,  but  battery  life  is 
still  about  two  hours  for  the 
color  model. 

The  cost  for  the  3150  var- 
ies according  to  the  screen 
and  hard  disk  options,  but 
prices  range  from  $1 ,995  for 
the  monochrome  model 
with  a  BOMB  hard  drive  to 
$3,805  for  an  active-matrix 
color  model  with  a  170MB 
hard  drive. 

The  3150  is  well-de- 
signed, well-built,  fast,  and 
stylish.  With  a  removable 
hard  drive,  PCMCIA  slot,  up- 
gradeable  video,  it's  also 
modular  and  easy  to  en- 


A   M   T   E   X 


mmm 


^bi»ih«fi ' 


AMTEX  proudly 
announces  their  latest^ 
release  in  the  Pinball 
Classic  series!  With  the 
same  award-winning  tech- 
nology that  brought  you 
Tristan'**  and  Eight  Ball 
Deluxe",  AMTEX  contin- 
ues to  reintroduce  some 
of  the  greatest  pinball 
games  in  history!  Also 
look  for  FunHouse"  and 
the  pinball  construction 
kit  soon  to  be  released. 
For  PC  and  Mac  systems. 


TRISTAN 


For  product  information,  send 
your  name  and  address  to: 
AMTEX  Software  Corporation, 
P.O.  Box  572,  Beltevilie,  Ontario, 
Canada  K8N5B2  or  call 
1  613  967-7900 
Fax:1  613  967-7902 


AH  trademarks  are  the  property  ol  the 
re^Mclive  companies, 


This  is  what  pinball  was  in  the  days  of  the  classics.  A  flipper^  a 
ball,  and  a  few  elusive  targets.  But  don't  be  fooled  by  simplicity. 
This  isn't  a  "luck  of  the  draw"  card  game.  When  you  have  to 
shoot  for  the  high  hand,  skill  and  strategy  are  the  rule.  Hit  the 
cards  out  of  order,  and  you're  back  where  you  started.  It's  a 
challenge  that  made  Royal  Flush  one  of  Gottlieb's  most  popular 
drop  target  games.  Now  AMTEX  takes  you  back  to  the  old 
pinball  arcade  with  the  authentic  sights,  sounds  and  flipper 
sensation  of  the  original.  Learn  to  maneuver  the  ball  through 
the  open  playing  field  for  the  ultimate  score  — 
"The  White  Joker".  Odds  are,  you  can  bet  on 
Royal  Flush  to  keep  you  challenged.  But 
don't  gamble  when  it  comes  to 
computer  pinball.  Choose  the 
proven  winner.  AMTEX. 

Gottlieb-  ^m^^  fi^^'h.mH' 


Conning  soon  at  a  suggested  retail  price  of  $49.95 
Circle  Reader  Service  l^ixmber  157 


You    can't    get    any    closer    than    this    i 


Mastering  Genesis'  Sports  Games 

Whether  you  play  football^  baseball,  golf,  or 
any  other  sports  games  on  your  Sega  Genesis, 
youHl  find  the  information  and  tips  you  need 
in  this  guide.  Tips  and  strategies  for  19  of  the 
most  popular  Genesis  sports  games. 

To  order  your  copy  send  $9.95  plus  $2,50  for  shipping  and  handiing  [U.S..  $4 
to  Canada  and  $6  other)  to  COMPUTE  Books,  c/o  CCC,  2500  McCleflan  Ave,, 
Pennsauken,  NJ  08109.  (Residents  of  NC,  NJ.  and  NY  please  add  appropri^ 
ate  tax:  Canadian  orders  add  7%  Good  and  Services  Tax.)  All  orders  must  be 
paid  in  U.S.  funds  drawn  on  a  U.S.  bank.  Mastercard  and  VISA  orders  accept- 
ed, please  include  full  card  number  and  expiration  date.  Orders  will  be 
shipped  via  UPS  Ground  Service.  Offer  good  while  supplies  last. 

Sega  and  Genesis  are  trademarks  of  SEGA. 


REVIEWS 


hance.  You  may  pay  more 
for  this  machine  than  a  mail- 
order clone,  but  it  might  just 
be  worth  the  investment 

CLIFTON  KARNES 

NCR 

(800)  225-5627 

$1995-$3805 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  447 

PRINCE  OF 
PERSIA  2 

Prince  of  Persia  2:  The  Shad- 
ow &  the  Flame  will  proba- 
bly be  called  an  action 
game  by  many  players. 
Then  why  do  I  feel  Tve 
been  on  such  a  splendid 
adventure? 

Choreographed  by  Jor- 
dan Mechner  (who  also  de- 
signed the  original),  this  se- 
quel has  everything  that 
Prince  of  Persia  offers  and 
much  more.  At  its  heart,  it's 
the  same  basic  game:  tradi- 
tional sword  fighting,  taking 
baby  steps  up  to  ledges 

144        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


and  giant  leaps  of  faith  be- 
yond them,  trap-evading, 
abyss-width  estimating, 
ledge-grabbing,  ledge-miss- 
ing (oops),  and  of  course 
the  inevitable  red-blotch- 
among-the-spikes-regard- 
sng.  You'li  be  doing  a  lot  of 
this  last  one  in  Prince  of  Per- 
sia 2. 

Not  to  mention  some 
head-scratching.  Puzzles  of 
timing  and  distance  were 
built  into  the  very  structure 
of  Prince  of  Persia,  but  puz- 
zles for  puzzles'  sake  seem 
to  be  more  conspicuous 
here.  For  instance,  it's  quite 
possible  to  ostensibly  com- 
plete a  segment  but  then  be 
utterly  bewildered  as  to  how 
to  progress  into  the  next  be- 
cause you  haven't  mastered 
a  given  mechanism  or  trick. 

That  said,  there's  a  real 
sense  of  progression  here; 
it's  not  just  a  series  of  caves 
with  attitude.  The  action 
picks  up  from  the  moment 
the  prince  leaps  through  the 
palace  window.  It  follows 
him  across  rooftops  and  as 
he  dives  for  the  stern  of  a  de- 


parting ship,  on  a  long  trek 
through  caves  (familiar  ter- 
rain from  the  original 
game),  and  on  into  a  ruined 
palace— a  place  of  disem- 
bodied heads  that  scream 
when  they  spot  you. 

The  lifelike  animation  in 
Prince  of  Persia  grabbed 
everyone's  attention.  Prince 
of  Persia  2  is  as  realistic  as 
ever  (though  maybe  just  a 
touch  less  fluid,  perhaps  on 
account  of  the  complexity  of 
the  sumptuous  VGA  graph- 
ics}, and  not  simply  when 
the  character  is  pulling  him- 
self up  a  iedge  or  long  jump- 
ing. Realistic  animation 
comes  into  play  even  as  the 
prince  plummets  to  his 
doom  or  raises  a  fiery,  black- 
ened hand  from  his  lava 
tomb. 

But  while  graphic  enough 
to  be  nasty  fun,  those  death 
scenes  are  never  really  gris- 
ly. Prince  of  Persia  2  has  an 
exquisite  sense  of  balance 
and  proportion  and  never 
goes  overboard.  There's  hon- 
estly not  much  in  Prince  of 
Persia  2  I'd  change,  save 


the  shrieks  the  prince  lets 
loose  when  he  falls  too  far 
(Die  like  a  hero,  you  bozo.) 
This  is  not  simply  a  worthy  se- 
quel but  also  a  wonderful  ad- 
venture in  its  own  right.  The 
old  Prince  of  Persia  has 
grown  up,  and  Prince  of  Per- 
sia 2  is  a  true  king. 

PETER  OLAFSOr^ 


BfGderbund 

(415)382-4400 

$44.95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  446 


FLASHBACK 

Action-adventure  games 
just  don't  get  much  hotter 
than  Flashback,  SSI's  daz- 
zling follow-up  to  last  year's 
breakthrough  hit,  Out  of 
This  World.  Far  bigger  and 
bolder  than  its  predecessor, 
the  title  melds  cinematic  tech- 
niques with  traditional  puz- 
zle-oriented, platform-style  ar- 
cade fare. 

The  story  unfolds  in  the 
year  2142,  cast  in  the  murky 
off-world  tones  of  a  novella 
by  Philip   K.   Dick  (whose 


f  111  III 


Artificial  Intelligence  now  a  reality! 

The  challenge  of  computer  bridge  will  never  be  the  same  with  the 
introduction  of  Positronic  Bridge,  the  first  artificial  intelligence  based 
bridge  game.  Whether  you  are  a  beginner  or  expert,  Positronic  Bridge 
with  its  cutting-edge  computing  technology  automatically  improves  its 
skill  level  as  you  improve  yours,  so  the  game  always  remains  a  challenge. 


Included  free  with  the  program  is  the  best-selling  book  *The  Basics 
of  Winning  Bridge"  that  will  have  you  playing  bridge  in  just  one  hour. 
You  can  then  improve  your  bridge  skills  using  the  practice  mode  and 
help  keys. 

Other  features  include:  **No  Cheat"  gameplay  (the  computer  doesn'^ 
look  at  your  cards  to  make  decisions),  rubber  or  duplicate  bridge, 
standard  bidding,  simple  signaling,  random  deals  or  preset  input. 
show/hide  opponents  cards. 


ReadySoft  Incorporated 

30  Werthelm  Court.Suite  2 
Richmond  HHI.  Ontario.  Canada  L4B  1B9 
Tel:  (416)  731-4175     Fax:  (416)  764-8867 
Circle  Reader  Service  Number  163 


Artificial  Intelligence 
Based 


i 

wmr. 

"\'-:\ 

v^BftiCMW                      HMIH 

■  i^f?n??«:iJ 

Plan  Screen 

MMi  Screen 
Endorsed  By  Bridge  Experts 


"You  can't  out  grow  Vm\{\mK  liridj^c. 

Two  thumbs  upr 

Mike  Lawrence.  Berla-li^v.  C.\.  l^SA 


Ironic  Bridgt*  inllghv  you  the  battle  of 
\okish,  Montreal,  Canada 


"The  game  you  can  teach  to  be  as  good  an  you  ai 
Tony  Forrester.  London.  Kn^land 


For  IBM  PC  and  Compatibles 


IS  THERE 


uu 


I'i 


W> 


IN  YOUR 


M 


Live  psychics  reveal  what  the 
future  holds  lor  your  love  life. 


\NB  Specializing  in 
questions  of  love 

1-900 


$5  first  min./$3  ea.  addl.  min. 


Use  the  wisdom  of 

psychic  forces  to 

guide  you  in  money, 

career  and  happiness 

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TALKTOAUVEPSYCHICI 


For  entertainment  purposes 
only.  If  you  are  under  18  years 

of  age,  please  get  parental 
permission.  Live  psychics  are 

available  24  hours  a  day. 
Sponsored  by  Pet  Inc.,  P.O.  Box 

166.  Hollywood,  CA  90078. 


REVIEWS 


work  also  inspired  the  films  Blade  Run- 
ner and  Total  Recall),  You  assume  the 
role  of  Conrad  Hart,  a  scientist  who 
awakes  in  the  synthetic  jungles  of  Ti- 
tan, Saturn's  newly  colonized  moon. 
Robbed  of  your  long-term  memory  and 
equipped  with  only  a  pistoL  a  Holo- 
cube,  and  the  instinct  for  survival,  you 
embark  on  a  violent,  wildly  convoluted 
quest  to  regain  your  identity  The  entire 
game  boasts  more  than  200  screens, 
divided  among  six  levels,  for  a  total  of 
50  to  100  hours  of  realtime  action.  It's 
a  demanding  assignment  that  only  the 
hardiest  arcade  gamers  will  survive. 

The  game's  standout  feature  is  un- 
doubtedly its  lifelike  character  anima- 
tion, rotoscoped  at  a  fluid,  film-quality 
rate  of  24  frames  per  second.  This  phe- 
nomenal technique,  similar  to  that 
used  in  Jordan  Mechner's  Prince  of  Per- 
sia series,  helps  break  the  action  free 
of  its  two-dimensional  boundaries.  It's 
so  remarkable,  in  fact,  that  you  might 
spend  your  first  few  sessions  simply 
admiring  the  lead  character's  extraor- 
dinary range  of  physical  movement:  run- 
ning, leaping,  falling,  tumbling,  shoot- 
ing, and  other  motions,  both  subtle 
and  exaggerated- 
Scattered  throughout  the  game  are 
more  than  75  cinematic  segues  and 
noninteractive  plot  enhancements,  de- 
signed to  pull  you  into  the  dark,  serpen- 
tine story  line.  The  game  successfully 
retains  the  free-form  nature  of  its  ar- 
cade roots,  fashioned  along  a  linear,  se- 
quentially structured  series  of  challeng- 
es. In  Titan  s  domed  city  of  Nev/  Wash- 
ington, for  example,  you  must  obtain  a 
work  permit  and  complete  a  series  of 
progressively  dangerous  jobs,  earning 
money  for  a  trip  back  to  Earth.  Other 
highlights  include  a  guest  appearance 
on  the  lethal  TV  game  show  "Death  Tow- 
er," a  capture  by  mutant  aliens,  and  an 
absolutely  riveting  final  showdown 
with  a  superhuman  power.  Pass 
codes  allow  you  to  restart  your  adven- 
ture at  the  beginning  of  the  last  level 
reached, 

Nice  touches  abound,  like  the  explo- 
sive report  and  subtle  recoil  of  your 
trusty  revolver  and  the  incredibly  de- 
tailed spot  animation  that  enlivens  al- 
most every  scene.  Controls  are  stream- 
fined  and  highly  responsive,  whether 
you  use  the  keyboard  or  joystick.  The 
game  has  excellent  support  for  the  four- 
button  Gravis  PC  GamePad,  Three 
skill  levels— increasing  both  the  num- 
ber and  tenacity  of  your  opponents — 
help  keep  the  challenge  fresh  and  the 
replay  value  high. 

One  of  several  recent  technology 
milestones  in  PC  arcade  entertainment, 


SSI's  Flashback  invites  and  deserves 
enthusiastic  praise. 

SCOTT  A.  MAY 


Strategfc  SimuJations 

Distributed  by  Electronic  Arts 

(800)  245-4525 

S49.95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  449 


LIGHTNING  CD 


Newcomers  to  the  world  of  multimedia 
computing  expect  to  be  dazzled,  and 
few  are  disappointed.  Experienced  us- 
ers, however,  know  not  to  expect  mir- 
acles from  a  CD-ROM  drive.  Although 
one  of  the  most  cost-effective  means 
of  data  retrieval,  with  drives  starting  as 
low  as  $150  and  discs  capable  of  hold- 
ing up  to  650MB  of  information,  CD- 
ROM  drives  are  no  speed  demons. 
Even  top-of-the-line  CD-ROM  drives 
find  and  transfer  data  at  a  speed 
about  15  times  slower  than  the  aver- 
age hard  drive. 

Before  you  get  discouraged,  take  a 
look  at  Lucid  Corporation's  excellent 
Lightning  CD,  a  data-caching  utility  de- 
signed specifically  for  CD-ROM 
drives.  The  company  claims  speed  in- 
creases of  more  than  1000  percent  in 
best-case  scenarios.  Realistically,  you 
can  expect  an  average,  consistent 
speed  increase  of  20-50  times.  For 
many  DOS  and  Windows/MPC  applica- 
tions, those  little  numbers  can  make  a 
huge  difference  in  the  performance  of 
your  programs. 

How  does  it  work?  Like  all  disk  cach- 
es, Lightning  CD  analyzes  and  stores 
frequently  used  information  in  RAM. 
When  a  program  asks  for  data  from 
hard  disk  or  CD,  the  computer  first 
looks  to  its  memory  cache,  and  if  the  da- 
ta is  there  it  rockets  this  information  to 
the  CPU  in  a  fraction  of  the  normal  ac- 
cess time.  Caching  won't  eliminate 
disc  access,  but  can  substantially  de- 
crease drive  activity  In  the  data-inten- 
sive world  of  CD-ROM,  your  computer 
needs  all  the  help  it  can  get. 

Unlike  some  CD-caching  products 
which  store  recently  accessed  data  on 
your  hard  drive,  Lightning  CD  caches 
directly  from  RAM.  Of  course,  the 
more  RAM  you  have,  the  more  informa- 
tion you  can  store,  which  determines 
the  overall  effectiveness  of  the  cache. 
If  you  can't  afford  at  least  a  2MB  RAM 
cache— culled  from  either  expanded  or 
extended  memory — you  won't  utilize 
the  program's  full  power. 

A  cache  works  only  with  frequently  re- 
peated disk  activities.  Although  Lucid 
clearly  markets  the  product  at  multime- 
dia game  players,  the  linear  structure 
of  most  CD-based  games — such  as 
role-playing  or  adventures— means  the 


Now, 


I'm  a  Penthouse  Photographer 


doesn't  have  to  be 
just  a  pick-up  line. 

Introducing  Penthouse  Interactive's  Virtual  Photographers  Studio* 

So  what  if  you  ve  never  held  a  camera.  Penthouse  Interactive's  Virtual  Photo  Shoot^^^  puts  you  in  control  of 
three  incredible  Penthouse  photo  shoots.   90  minutes  of  full-motion  (15  fps),  high  quality  video  images. 

With  it,  you  can  use  your  computer  controls  to  direct  three  gorgeous  Penthouse  Pets  to  a  variety  of  poses, 
v^hile  you  choose  from  multiple  camera  angles,  including  close-ups. 

Snap  pictures  of  your  favorite  pets  and  save  them  to  your  hard  disk.   Later»  you  can  "develop"  them  by 
printing  out  high-resolution  color  or  B&W  copies  (depending  on  your  printer). 

Wondering  if  you  could  really  cut  it  as  a  Penthouse  photographer?  During  the  session,  the  Pets'  comments 
will  let  you  know.  And  Bob  Guccione  himself  will  critique  your  finished  photos. 

No  matter  how  well  Mr.  Guccione  says  you're  doing,  you'll  want  to  practice  your  photography  skills 
diligently,  because  the  game  is  equipped  with  hidden  surprises  to  reward  your  dedication  and  curiosity. 

But  once  you've  exhausted  your  first  three  Pets,  you  can  stimulate  more  interest  with  low-cost  "Pet  Packs" 
featuring  new  models  that  keep  your  shoots  fresh  and  exciting. 

Of  course,  just  one  taste  of  the  allure  of  being  a  Penthouse  Photographer  is  enough  to  start  anyone 
thinking,  "People  get  paid  to  do  this?" 


PC/Windows*  Requirements;  At  least  a  3  3mHz  386  wiih  4m b  of  RAM  running  Windows  3,1, 
A  Video  card  that  supports  at  ieast  256  tolors  (8-bit  cotor).  iS-bit  color  is  prieferred.  A  sound 
card,  for  e)tamp!e  a  SoundBJascer/Piro  16  or  a  Pro  Audo  Spearum.'l6,  Many  modern  computers 
arc  already  equipped  with  sound  cards,  so  be  sure  lo  check  your  configuration  firsc  An  flPC- 
tompatibJe  CD'ROM  drive.  A  double  speed  drive  (300kb/sec)  is  preferred, 


Hacintosh''  Requirements:  Any  Macintosh'  computer  with  an  B  bit  (or  better)  color  or 
grayscale  display.  A  minimum  of  S  megabytes  of  RAh  running  system  6,0-7  or  B  megabytes  of 
RAM  running  system  7  0  or  higher  A  CD*ROM  drive.  A  douWe-speed  (}00  KByte)  drive  fs 
preferred.  Apple  system  software  6  0,7  or  higher.  QuickTime  1.6  and  HyperCard  2, 1  arc 
included  in  your  PHt  CD-ROM. 


Please  rush  me  the  Penthouse  Interactive  CD-ROM: 

$  1 29.95  +  $4.50  (shipping  &  handling)  X =$ Total  Orders  =$ 

Name  .__^_^  Address  _    

City State 


-Zip- 


J  Check  U  Money  Order  J  Visa  _J  Master  Card     Credit  card  holders  call  toiufree  I  -800-466-9435 
Card  Acc't  # Exp.  Daie  Signature 


I  certify  ihat  1  im  IS  years  or  older. 

CO401 
U.  S,  MAH  ORDER:  PENTHOUSE  VIDEO.  INC.,  P. O.  BOX  3 1 0 1 73.  NEWJNGTON.  CT,  06 1 3 1 


Ciieck  one:  J  PC/Windows   _l  Macintosh 

Payment  must  accompany  order.   Allow  4-6  weeks  for  delivery. 


I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 

I 
I 
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cannpuTE's 

ULTIMATE  POWER  DISK 

Don't  miss  the  dazzling,  ready-to-run  DOS  and  Windows 
programs  on  this  issue's  disk! 


ArrowSmith 

Banish  Windows' 

mouse  pointer  and 

hourglass  wait 

symbol  from  your 

system. 


Writ  Syrnbofa :__^.^_ 


peifh»nl  Clocfc,  Hcrc»«c  2.0  |*tom Etcphan* Ciocfc >>>] 


To  license,  senif  S7  in  Santirkand  Sonw«re. 

71 11  Wjndlait  Seheol  Hand,  f1 1 7. 

Phiienlx.  AZ  BH)33 


Optiani: 

'Ivpp  o(  niQvcs 

^  yif^fbk  moves 

O  tly?crsp4ce  Moves 


"Movementt 

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S'OMo  n 

O  Doflt  show  date 

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~Ertqfleocy 

OlfcGiiutes 

OlBfc 


Elephant  Clock 

Your  clock 
stays  on  top  but 
out  of  the 
way  with 
Elephant  Clock. 


ATBAT 

ATBAT  builds  batch 

files  that  execute  a 

repetitive  command 

against  a 

list  of  filenames. 


>iiif*'i!'fwlr**< 


Video  Effects 

Add  eye-popping 
EGAA/GA 
video  effects  to 
your  batch 
files  with  Video 
Effects. 


Subscribe  to  COMPUTE'S  PC  Disk,  and  every  other  month— six  times 

a  year — you'll  receive  a  disk  chock-full  of  great  DOS  and 

Windows  shareware  and  freeware  programs,  including  powerful 

applications,  sleek  utilities,  and  eye-popping  graphics. 


For  Single  Disks 

YESl  I  want  to  power  up  my  PC.  Send  me  this  issue's 
COMPUTE'S  PC  Disk.  I'll  pay  $9.95  for  each  5V*i-inch  or 
3V2-inch  disk  plus  $2.00  shipping  and  handling  per  disk. 

Please  indicate  how  many  disks  of  each  format  you'd  like: 
—  5V-inch  disk(s)  at  S9.95  each 

-^-^ 3V2-inch  disk(s)  at  $9.95  each 

'^*—       Subtotal 

- — Sales  Tax  (Residents  of  NC  and  NY.  please  add 

appropriate  sales  tax  for  your  area.  Canadian 
orders,  add  7%  goods  and  services  tax.) 

— Shipping  and  Handling  ($2.00  U.S.  and  Canada, 

$3.00  surface  mail,  $5.00  airmail  per  disk) 

__  Total  Enclosed 

Send  your  order  to  COMPUTE'S  PC  Disk 

324  W.  Wendover  Ave..  Ste.  200 
Greensboro,  NC  27408 

All  orders  must  be  paid  irr  U.S.  funds  by  check  drawn  on  a  U.S.  bank  Dr  by  money  order. 
MasterCard  or  VISA  accepted  for  orders  over  $20.  This  offer  will  be  filled  only  at  the 
above  address  and  Is  not  made  in  conjunction  with  any  other  magazine  or  disk  sub- 
scription offer.  Please  allow  4-6  weeks  for  delivery  of  single  issues  or  for  subscription  to 
begin.  Sorry,  but  telephone  orders  cannot  be  accepted. 
Disks  available  only  for  IBM  PC  and  compatible  computers. 
Offer  good  while  supplies  last  / 


For  Subscriptions 

YESl  I  want  to  save  even  morel  Start  my  one-year  maga- 
zine and  disk  subscription  to  COMPUTE  and  COMPUTE's 
PC  Disk  right  away. 

5V4-inch  $49.95  per  year 

—  3V2-inch  $49,95  "(^iB^  year 

For  delivery  outside  the  U.S.  or  Canada,  add  $10.00  for  postage 
and  handling. 

Name         ^ — 

Address .. ,  _ 

City 


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Total  Enclosed  — 


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MasterCard 


-VISA 


Credit  Card  No. 
Expiration  Date 
Signature 


Daytime  Telephone  No. . 


Send  your  order  to  COMPUTE's  PC  Disk 
P.O.  Box  3244 
Harlan.  lA  51539-2424 


Advertisers'  Index 


Reader  Service  Number/Advertiser 


Page      Reader  Service  Number/Advertiser 


Page      Reader  Service  Number/Advertiser 


194    Abacus 25 

244  Access  Soltware • 66,67 

252    Access  Software 73.73 

Adam  &  Eve  ,,..,,.. 169 

Adventure  LearningWare 162 

229  Amish  Oullaw  Shareware  Co 15^ 

157    AMTEX  Sollware  Corporalion .143 

America  CnLine 69 

233    Amies  Answers 160 

137    Autom^p  Inc 105 

Bare  Bones  Software 164 

Best  Personalized  Books    .163 

173  Blue  Valley  Software 164 

Boomerang  Software 160 

121  BR.ROMS 169 

167    CH  Products 42 

174  Citizen  American  Corp. .9 

248  Colorado  Speclrum 43 

223    Colorado  Spectrum 45 

150  CompSult 168 

249  Comptons  NewMedia    89 

122  Compuquest 49 

155    Computer  Associates .15 

Computer  Book  Club 117 

Computer  Business  Services 162 

225    Computer  Friends 166 

204    Computer  Gallery 164 

ComputerWise  Video 169 

Comlrad 122,123 

125    Creative  Labs  .  . 3 

144    CyberDreams  ,     .  ,  .  , 131 

D  &  K  Enlerprises.  Inc 163 

247    DalaStorm  Technologies BC 

151  Davidson 37 

106    Davidson 135 

161    Delphi  Internet  Services 44 

131    DemoSource 161.169 

208    Disk-Count  Software 155 

Dr  Ts  Music  Sottware ,...,.  129 

176    Electronic  Arts 54.55 

184    Electronic  Arts ....,,..,..,  58.59 

230  Fairbrothers 164 

134    Fanlazia  concepts.  Inc 165 

Fitness  1+ .  169 

115    Free  Spiril  Software 151 

198    HealthMax    35 

117    Hollyware  Entertainment    109 

245  Home  Automation  Laboralortes  , 168 

111    Humongous  Entertainment ,  .  , , 139 

IBM    5.53 

183    Impressions 61 


253    [nierplay 141 

222    Interplay 97 

232    ISL  Software  Corporation 166 

186    Jack  Daniels .,..,... .  48 

231    Jackson  Marking  Products  Co.  Inc 162 

Kid  Secure  of  America 162 

178    LACE 167 

123    Logitech 13 

199    Mallard  Software 121 

188    Mallard  Software .  119 

206  MarkJe  Foundation.  The  .... 150 

158    Maxis 125,127 

113    MECC 33 

185    l^ediaVision 79 

249  Megatech 39 

119  MfcroProse    . 65 

Microsoft 91 

146    MicroTech 31 

191    l^eedham's  Eleclronics.  Inc 161 

177    New  World  Computing 153 

No-Frilis  Software 166 

NRl/McGraw  HitI 17i.133i 

141    Odyssey  Online 168 

160    Origin , 99 

156    Pacific  Microelectronics 165 

168    Parsons  Teclinobgy .19 

221    PC  Enterprises 164 

237    PC  Zone,  The 29 

250  PC-SIG 168 

235    Pendragon  Software  Library 166 

Penlhouse  Interactive  CD  ROM 147,157 

107    Penlhouse  Modem    . 165 

207  Pixel  Perfect 132 

224  Profit  Group.  The , 167 

243    Psygnosis 41 

241    Psygnosis 113 

225  Psygnosis 114 

227    Psygnosis 81 

Pure  Entertainmerit 146 

196    Quadra  Interactive , 47 

Rain  Forest.  The 168 

138    Ramco  Computer  Supplies 168 

251  ReadySoft  Inc  ... , 137 

163    Read/Soft  Inc. 145 

246    Read/Soft  [nc.  , 84 

135    ReveilCD ... 95 

212    SafeSoft  Systems  Inc 164 

School  of  Compulef  Training 162 

120  Serif  PagePlus 11 

116    SeXXy  Software 168 

Sierra  OnLine 57i 


261    Sierra  OnLine    159 

Sign  Up  .............. 162 

171  Sir  Tech  Software  , 51 

1D9    Smart  Luck  Sottware .166 

142    SMC/Software  of  the  Month  Club 160 

126  SoftShoppe  Inc .  166 

210    Software  Support  Inlernational    164 

Software  Toolworks  .  .  .  .  , IBC 

145    SOMICH  Enterprises 166 

201  Speclrum  Holobyte IFC,1 

154    Spirit  of  Discovery 23 

203    Star  Micronics 21 

130    Starware  Publishing 167 

Stonehenge  Viewpoint 169 

179  SubLogic -  -  82.83 

202  Thinking  Software  fnc 163 

147    Thrusfmaster 161 

Time  Warner 77i 

193    Turtle  Beach  Systems 134 

170    UMI'ROM 160 

112    U.S.  Robotics ....  27 

127  Value  Software  fnc , 164 

180  Velocity  Devefopment  Corp 93 

132    Virgin  Games    70.71 

195    Virgin  Games    62,63 

172  Wedgwood  Rentaf 166 

128  Windows  900 165 

Product  Mart 160,161,162.163.164.165,156,167,168,169 

ClassfiBds . 170.171 

Catafog  Corner   . 169 

104    COMPUTE  Books 77,144.154.158 


COMPUTE'S  Editor  900  Line 157 

COMPUTE  Free  disk    .133 

COMPUTE'S  SharePak  Disk  Subscription 103 

COMPUTE'S  Ultimate  PC  Power  Disk 146 

Kathy's  Exercise  Video  , 77 


CREDITS 

Cover:  Mark  Wagoner;  cover  screefi  shot: 
Computer  Support's  Arts  &  Letters;  page  6: 
E.  Salem  KriegerAThe  Image  Bank;  page  72: 
Molkenthin  StudioAThe  Stock  Market;  page 
73:  Ron  Chapple/FPG;  pages  81-82,  84,  86, 
88,  90,  92,  94:  Rob  Schuster;  page  100: 
Mark  Wagoner;  page  106:  Mark  Wagoner; 
page  110:  Mark  Wagoner;  page  115:  Javier 
Romero  Design/The  Image  Bank. 

i       IMPORTANT  NOTICE 

FOR 

COMPUTE  DISK 

SUBSCRIBERS 

COMPUTE  offers  two  different  disk  products  for 
PC  readers:  the  SharePak  disk  and  PC  Disk. 
SharePak  is  monthly  and  has  a  subscription 
price  of  $59.95  for  5V4-inch  disks  and  $64.95  for 
3V2Hnch  disks.  A  subscription  to  SharePak 
does  not  include  a  subscription  to  the  maga- 
zine. PC  Disk  appears  in  odd-numbered 
months  and  has  a  subscription  price  of  $49.95, 
which  includes  a  subscription  to  COMPUTE.  You 
can  subscribe  to  either  disk  or  to  both,  but  a 
subscription  to  one  does  not  include  a  subscrip- 
tion to  the  other. 

JANUARY  1994     COfVlPUTE        149 


COMPUTE 
UBRARY  CASES 


Store  your  issues  of  COMPUTE  fn  our 
new  Custom  Bound  Library  Cases  made 
of  blue  simulated  leather  embossed  with 

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in  mint  condition  indefinitely.  Each  case 
has  a  gold  transfer  for  recording  the  date. 
Send  your  check  or  money  order  {S8.95 

each,  3  for  S24.95,  6  for  S45.95) 

postpaid  USA  orders  only.  Foreign  orders 

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TO:  COMPUTE  Magazine 

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CREDIT  CARD  HOLDERS 

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Or  mail  your  order,  clearly  showing 

your  account  number  and  signature. 

PA.  residents  add  7%  sales  tax. 

SATISFACTION  GUARANTEED 


[^Hillary  not  inciuded  J 

SimHealth  gives  you  everything  you  need  to 
re-make  the  American  health  care  system— 
except  the  First  Lady. 

A  unique  new  simulation  sofu^'are  created  by 
Maxis  ^nd  brought  to  you  by  the  Markle 
Foundation,  SimHealth  elects  you  leader.  Now 
you  can  build  a  health  policy  in  tune  with  your 
values,  and  watch  it  in  aaion  on  a  virtual  "Main 
Street."  Will  you  be  re-elected?  You'll  certainly 
be  more  engaged,  entertained  and  educated 
about  our  national  debate  than  you  ever 
thought  possible.  So  why  not  give  us  a  call? 
Because  at  S29.95— that's  25%  off  retail^ 
SimHealth  is  just  what  the  doctor  ordered. 


C 


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*  HEALTH 


1-800-U-CHANGE 

1-800-824-2643 


^^^►The  Markle  Foundation 


MNl  X  I  : 


Mai!  ordeR:  SimHealth,  PC  Box  7m,  Woodinville,  WA  9B072-2096. 

Requif«  an  IBM  or  100%  cmnpailbie  with  DOS,  a  3B6 

rri0opfoc«sor  or  greater,  and  a  2S6'(olor  SVGA, 


150 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  206 
COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


REVIEWS 


cache  will  be  constantly  flushed  with 
new  information,  and  therefore  offer  lit- 
tle benefit.  Folks  who  use  CD-based  en- 
cyclopedias and  other  reference 
works,  Photo-CD  discs,  and  clip-art 
discs  will  see  a  more  dramatic  speed- 
up than  gamers.  A  game  might  seem 
a  little  snappier,  but  an  encylopedia 
search  may  go  from  10  seconds  to 
less  than  a  second  on  subsequent 
accesses. 

The  manual  does  a  good  job  of  ex- 
plaining the  program's  many  command 
line  parameters  and  configuration  nu- 
ances. Besides  speeding  CDs,  the  pro- 
gram can  also  cache  hard  disks  and 
floppy  drives.  Available  options  include 
a  handy  write-deiay  feature,  memory 
lending,  performance  reports,  write  pro- 
tection, and  the  ability  to  read  ahead  a 
user-defined  number  of  sectors.  This 
last  feature  is  particularly  useful  for  full- 
motion  video. 

The  program  performs  flawlessly  un- 
der both  DOS  and  Windows,  but 
doesn't  support  OS/2.  The  biggest  prob- 
lem most  veteran  users  will  encounter 
is  simply  finding  room  in  the  system  con- 
figuration for  another  TSR.  If  your  sys- 
tem has  room,  you  can  load  the  pro- 
gram entirely  into  upper  memory. 

No  disk-caching  program  will  magi- 
cally transform  a  slow  CD-ROM  drive  in- 
to a  speed  demon,  nor  will  it  perform 
similar  miracles  on  slow  video  cards 
and  ancient  CPUs.  For  those  with  rea- 
sonable expectations,  however,  Light- 
ning CD  offers  immediate  rewards. 

SCOTT  A  MAY 

LUCID 

(800)  967-5550 

$79.95 

Circle  Redder  Service  Number  450 

BASEBALL  FOR 
WINDOWS 

Don't  be  alarmed;  The  sound  of  break- 
ing glass  you  hear  is  merely  another 
barrier  broken  in  the  field  of  Windows- 
based  entertainment  software.  Miller  As- 
sociates' Baseball  for  Windows,  im- 
proved from  the  best-selling  DOS  ver- 
sion, is  stunning  in  its  scope  and  qual- 
ity of  presentation,  setting  a  new  stan- 
dard for  strategy  sports  games. 

The  program  incorporates  four  dis- 
tinct modules:  Baseball  (the  game  it- 
self), Advanced  Draft,  League  Manag- 
er, and  StatMaster,  The  action  is  purely 
statistical  yet  still  manages  to  stir  con- 
siderable excitement  with  optional  real- 
time play  management  and  press-box 
play-by-play.  Adding  to  the  overall  am- 
biance are  several  handsomely  ren- 


dered 16-  or  256-color  ballpark  back- 
ground graphics. 

Managerial,  coaching,  and  statistical 
reporting  features  are  overwhelming 
and  simply  too  numerous  to  mention. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  every  aspect  of  pro- 
fessional baseball,  no  matter  how 
large  or  smalL  is  here — from  spring  train- 
ing to  postseason.  The  program 
comes  with  three  Old  Timer  team  col- 


This  game  proves  Windows  is  good  for 
more  than  puzzle  and  card  games, 

lections  and  is  compatible  with  more 
than  50  season  disks  available  by  the 
publisher. 

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games  simultaneously  or  manage 
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is  a  bit  steep,  requiring  at  least  3MB 
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20  MHz  is  the  bare  minimum;  a  486  is 
great).  It's  power  well  spent,  however — 
for  hardcore  baseball  fans,  it  doesn't 
get  any  betler  than  this. 

SCOTT  A.  MAY 

fvliller  Associates 

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Ctrcle  Reader  Service  Number  451 


B.A.B.Y. 


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KB  The  Secrets  of  Monkey  Island  (5  Languages).  Sport's  Best(3  games,  4  languages), 
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Free  Spirrt  Software,  Inc.  -  PO  Box  158  - 109  W  Pearl  Street  -  Trafalgar,  IN  46181  Phone  (317)  878-5348 


Circle  Reader  Sei^ice  Number  115 


REVIEWS 


you'll  be  able  to  take  a  week- 
by-week  look  at  your  baby's 
development.  You  can  view 
animated  displays  of  the 
changes  your  body  will  go 
through,  and  you  can  read 
in  detail  how  your  baby  is 
developing,  how  much  it 
probably  weighs,  and  how 
large  it  is  in  inches. 

B.A.B.Y.  also  covers  diet, 
exercise,  and  childbirth  class- 
es. For  instance,  under  the 
Pregnancy  Menu,  the  Track- 
er option  graphs  your 
weight  gain/loss  for  you.  Sim- 
ply type  in  your  weight  each 
week.  The  software  calcu- 
lates what  your  caloric  in- 
take should  be  based  on 
your  prepregnancy  weight- 
Then  B.A.B.Y.  gives  dia- 
grams of  good  prenatal  exer- 
cises and  provides  a  calen- 
dar to  keep  track  of  your 
childbirth  classes. 

As  your  due  date  ap- 
proaches, you'll  want  to 
check  out  the  phases  of  la- 
bor and  the  animated  deliv- 
ery sequence.  You'll  learn 
what  you  might  experience 
in  recovery  and  what  tests 
your  newborn  will  undergo 
and  what  the  results  mean. 

Most  expectant  parents 
will  find  the  views  of  the  ba- 
by's stages  of  development 
fascinating.  Some  features 
are  more  useful  that  others, 
however  Discovering  your 
baby's  due  date  is  exciting 
and  fun,  but  attempting  to 
schedule  your  newborn's 
feeding  times  (is  there  such 
a  thing?)  may  be  impossi- 
ble. B.A.B.Y:  Birth  and  Ba- 
by Years  is  a  fun  and  informa- 
tive way  to  track  fertility  and 
pregnancy,  even  if  you're 
too  busy  after  the  baby  is 
born  to  take  advantage  of 
its  other  features. 

PAM  PLAUT 

Software  Marketing 
(602)  893-3377 
S59,95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  452 

152        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


ICON  MAKE-IT 

Thanks  to  the  efforts  of  third- 
party  software  makers,  the 
Windows  environment  is  slow- 
ly loosening  up  and  having 
fun.  Moon  Valley  Software's 
Icon  Make-It  is  a  perfect  ex- 
ample. The  program  puts 
you  in  the  director's  chair  of 


The  editor  interfaces  direct- 
ly with  the  animation  studio, 
where  you  script  your  mov- 
ies with  up  to  20  icon 
frames  using  VCR-style  con- 
trols, variable-speed  play- 
back, and  a  preview 
screen.  Choose  from  19  spe- 
cial visual  effects  such  as 
zoom,     dissolve,     shatter, 


Moon  Valleys  icon  i,}:}r..,--i:  ;.u:s  w^:;  ^n  the  director's  chat  of  a  full- 
featured  Wmdows  icon  animation  studio. 


a  full-featured  icon  anima- 
tion studio. 

Like  a  mini  movie  studio, 
the  program  is  divided  into 
several  modules,  each  spe- 
cializing in  various  stages  of 
production.  Visit  the  icon  ed- 
itor to  design  your  own  16- 
color  creations  on  a  32-  x 
32-pixel  grid,  or  import  1  of 
the  200  icons  from  the  built- 
in  clip  art  book.  You  can  cre- 
ate or  modify  icons  with  a 
full  set  of  standard  drawing 
tools  plus  effects  such  as  im- 
age shifting,  borders,  and 
frame  advance.  You  can  al- 
so create  animated  cursors, 
but  I  found  them  to  be  more 
annoying  than  entertaining. 


melt,  colorize,  rotate,  mirror, 
and  paint.  Still  want  more? 
Try  combining  two  movies — 
one  in  the  foreground  and 
another  in  the  background — 
for  a  complex,  multilayered 
effect. 

Once  assembled  and  re- 
corded, animated  icons  are 
easily  assigned  to  programs 
via  a  scaled-down  version 
of  Moon  Valleys  Icon  Hear- 
It,  which  allows  you  to  at- 
tach sound  samples  to  your 
icons.  Also  included  is  a 
handy  working  demo  of 
MCS  Stereo  Digital  Record- 
er, a  component-style  Win- 
dows WAV  sound  recorder, 
player,  and  editor  from  An- 


imotion  Development. 

Icon  Make-It's  greatest  lim- 
itation is  its  incompatibility 
with  shells  other  than  Win- 
dows' Program  Manager.  It 
has  limited  success  with  Nor- 
ton Desktop— animated 
icons  must  be  reloaded 
with  each  new  Windows  ses- 
sion—and it  doesn't  work  at 
all  with  such  proprietary 
shells  as  Vitesse's  Salvation. 
These  are  problems  Moon 
Valley  should  quickly  ad- 
dress, since  alternative  Win- 
dows shells  are  becoming 
more  popular. 

While  it  may  not  improve 
your  productivity.  Icon  Make- 
It  is  undeniably  fun  to  play 
with  and  adds  some  need- 
ed motion  to  a  static  Win- 
dows workplace. 

SCOTT  A,  WAY 

Moon  Valley  Software 

(800)  473-5509 

(602)  375-9502 

S69.95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  453 

WAYNE'S  WORLD 

Wayne's  World  is  excellent! 
NOT! 

Then  again,  it  didn't 
make  me  want  to  blow 
chunks,  either 

This  graphic  adventure 
from  Capstone  uses  an  up- 
dated version  of  the  game 
system  used  in  the  compa- 
ny's The  Dark  Half.  It  finds 
Wayne  and  Garth  setting  up 
a  pizzathon  to  raise  $50,000 
to  prevent  the  Community  Ac- 
cess Television  station 
which  airs  their  Mom's-base- 
menl  talk  show  from  going 
off  the  air. 

No  way!  As  if  anything 
built  on  the  same  engine  as 
The  Dark  Half  could  be 
good.  dude.  Way!  Wayne's 
World  really  is  not  all  that 
bad.  You  can  switch  be- 
tween these  two  dubious  cul- 
tural icons.  The  interface 
now  has  a  series  of  icons  fea- 


-4 


U  i\ 


I 


1 


MEW  W^ntB  BBMPUTMG,  IME' 


l'300'325'8898 


Circle  Reader  Service  Number  177 


THE  ULTIMATE 

GUIDE  TO 

ADVENTURE  GAMES 


Includes  thousands  of  hints  and 
tips  and  more  than  300  game 
snapshots,  digitized  images,  and 
maps,  500+  pages. 

Alone  in  the  Dark 

Amazon 

Conquests  of  the  Longbow 

The  Dagger  of  Amon  Ra 

Dork  Seed 

EcoQuest 

Eric  the  Unready 

Freddy  Pharkas 

Gobliins  2 
Heart  of  China 

Inco 

Indiana  Jones 

King's  Quest  V 

Ktnq's  Quest  VI 

Leather  Goddesses  of  Phobos  2 

The  Legend  of  Kyrandio 

Leisure  Suit  Larry  V 

Les  Manley  in:  Lost  in  L.A* 

The  Lost  Files  of  Sherlock  Holmes 

Lost  Secret  of  the  Rainforest 

Martian  Memorandum 

Mixed- Up  Fairy  Tales 

Monkey  Island  2 

Police  Quest  3 

The  Propehcy 

Quest  for  Glory  III 

Rex  Nebular 

Ringworld 

Rise  of  the  Dragon 

The  7th  Guest 

Space  Quest  IV 

Space  Quest  V 

Spellcasting  301 

Star  Trek 

Ultima  Underv^orld 

Ultima  Undenvorld  2 

Willy  Beamish 

To  order  your  copy  send  $2  ]  .95  plus  $2,50  for  ship- 
ping and  handling  (U.S.,  $4  to  Conoda  and  $6  oth- 
er) to  COMPUTE  Books,  c/o  CCC,  2500  McClellon 
Ave.  Pennsauken,  NJ  08109.  (Residents  of  NC,  Nj, 
and  NY  pleose  add  appropriate  tax;  Conadian  or- 
ders odd  7%  goods  and  services  Tax.)  All  orders 
must  be  paid  in  U.S.  funds  drown  on  a  U.S.  bank. 
Orders  will  be  shipped  vio  UPS  Ground  Service. 
Offer  good  while  supplies  lost, 


eiEws 


taring  their  goofy  faces.  You  can 
make  either  of  the  two  the  active  char- 
acter. Capstone  even  added  an  Ex- 
treme Closeup!  command.  The  map 
mechanism  is  a  delightful  computery 
thing.  The  game  sets  up  the  quests 
nicely  right  at  the  outset.  Samples 
from  the  movie,  such  as  "ex-squeeze 
me?"  surface  here  and  there. 

I  mean,  what  else  do  you  want? 
This  isn't  the  most  ambitious  game 
around.  The  graphics  aren't  too  fancy. 
The  Intro's  rather  crude.  There's  no  pre- 
tense here  of  doing  anything  but  hav- 
ing fun,  and  Wayne's  World  is  rather 
good  at  that. 

And.  happily,  Capstone  doesn't 
seem  to  have  sanitized  the  materia!  at 
all.  so  the  richly  stupid  humor  of  Way- 
ne and  Garth  comes  through  from  the 
get-go.  Anyone  who  saw  and  enjoyed 
the  movie  wilt  doubtlessly  get  some  fun 
out  of  this.  Everyone  else:  Just  party  on. 

PETER  OU^FSON 

Capstone 

(800)  468-7226 

$49,95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  454 

MEGA-LO-MANIA 

What  traits  are  most  important  in  a  com- 
puter-game god?  Good  judgment?  Per- 
haps unquestioning  benevolence?  No, 
a  powerful  cybernetic  deity  is  only  a  de- 
ity at  all  because  he  or  she  can  and 
will  conquer  unbelievers  by  mashing 
the  poor  pawns  into  submission.  If  a  de- 
ific  crunch-fest  is  what  you're  in  the 
mood  for,  Mega-io-Manla  might  pro- 
vide just  the  tonic  you  need. 

Set  against  a  backdrop  of  sweeping 
space,  a  young  planet  is  born,  populat- 
ed with  primitive  human  life  which  is  in 
serious  need  of  some  guidance.  Enter 
a  rough-and-tumble  bunch  of  deities, 
each  wanting  the  world  for  his  or  her 
own.  So  how  is  the  decision  made?  By 
war  of  course,  using  the  malleable  and 
gullible  humans  as  pawns. 

You  start  the  game  by  choosing  one 
of  four  nval  deities,  and  you  must  bat- 
tle through  27  islands  of  conflict,  until 
the  28th,  the  "mother  of  battles"  is 
reached.  If  you  emerge  victorious, 
you're  given  dominion  over  the  planet. 

The  islands  are  played  in  sets  of 
three,  with  each  set  representing  an  ep- 
och of  time.  You  start  piay  in  the  Stone 
Age  and  end  with  nuclear  and  spa- 
ceflight technology.  For  each  battle 
you're  allocated  a  pool  of  men  from  the 
bank,  100  per  epoch  {but  more  may- 
be accumulated  by  underpopulating 
the  lower  level  conflicts  and  bringing 


the  balance  forward).  Choose  a  home 
sector,  and  you're  ready  to  go  off  to 
fight  some  battles. 

Each  island  varies  in  size,  terrain 
type,  and  which  enemy  deities  must  be 
tackled.  To  win,  you  must  completely 
wipe  out  the  men  your  rival  diety  con- 
trols. You've  got  to  use  your  men,  the 
natural  resources  in  your  sector,  and 
your  tactical  acumen  to  design  and  im- 
plement successful  defensive  and  offen- 
sive capabilities. 

The  earliest  battles  are  fairly  easy; 
It's  easy  enough  to  research  the  rock 
weapon  and  set  up  an  all-offensive 
force  that  will  go  out  and  hur!  rocks  at 
your  opponent's  fortifications.  In  the  lat- 
er epochs,  resource  management  and 
defensive  posturing  become  important. 
But  you  shouldn't  forget  that  he  who 
throws  the  first  rock  usually  wins. 

fvlega-lo-Mania  is  an  attractive 
game  with  a  rather  obtuse  icon  inter- 
face. Once  you  master  the  icons  (with 
little  help  from  an  exceptionally  poor 
and  hard-to-read  manual),  the  game 
plays  very  smoothly. 

Unfortunately,  Mega-Io-Mania  isn't 
the  strategic  challenge  it  first  appears 
to  be.  Basically,  being  the  first  to  devel- 
op weapons  and  deploy  them  is  tanta- 
mount to  invincibility.  To  be  first,  you 
must  have  your  strategy  figured  out  be- 
fore the  play  for  a  given  island  begins. 
The  speed  of  weapon  development  is 
dictated  by  two  things:  manpower  and 
resources.  Manpower  is  under  direct 
player  control  but  the  resource-gener- 
ating ability  of  a  sector  is  only  discov- 
ered during  actual  play.  A  dry-run 
peek  at  a  sector  will  tell  at  a  glance 
whether  it  will  perform  well  or  not,  and 
if  not,  quitting  the  sector  and  moving 
on  isn't  a  bad  option. 

In  a  strange  quirk  of  blindness  dur- 
ing development,  Ubi  Soft  neglected  to 
factor  in  any  way  to  leave  the  game^ 
you  can't  quit  back  to  DOS!  Your  only 
option  is  to  reboot  the  computer  to  es- 
cape the  crazed  god-struggle  of  the 
nether  universe. 

While  Mega-Io-Mania  suffers  from  a 
lack  of  depth  and  sloppy  quality  con- 
trol, the  game  does  offer  an  interesting 
gaming  experience.  Perhaps  my  favor- 
ite aspect  of  the  game  is  the  varying 
tech  levels  which  can  be  present  at 
any  one  time:  You  can  make  a  biplane 
attack  on  a  castle  defended  with  arch- 
ers, and  you  may  be  forced  to  use  cat- 
apults to  fend  off  an  incoming  jet  fight- 
er. As  a  nonbenevolent,  no-brainer 
game,  Mega-Io-Mania  delivers. 

PAUL  SCHUYTEMA 


Ubi  Soft 
(415)332-5011 

$49.95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  455 


154        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


i^u>est  dela>er«d  prices  UJith  greal:  customer  sert^ice 

800-448-6658 


^M^^^^cw  flB 


DISK-COUNT 
SOFTWARE 


Aegis  Guardian  49'' 
Aesops  Fables  33 
Aladdin  Ump  33** 
Alone  in  the  Dark  45- 
Amer  Bus.  Phnbk.  39 
Arthur  Teacher  Trbl  41 
AulcxJesk  E)(p(orer119 
Barney  Bear  Goes 


Loom 

Lost  Treasure 
MacMillian  Child  Dict49 
Mad  Dog  McCree  32* 


HOURS:  M-F  9  AM' 8  PM  SAT  10  AM- 3  PM  EST 
PRODUCTiNF0& OTHER  BUSINESS:  908-396*8880 


CM 


26 
26 
34 
49 
59 


to  School 

into  Space 
Battlechess 
Beauty  &  Beast 
Beethoven  Ninth 
Berlitz  Think  &  Talk 
French  1 05 

Spanish  105 

Bloodnet  41*^ 

BJue  Force  39'° 

Buzz  Aldrin  Race  59 
CamienWortdDb(e65 
Cautious  Condor  45 
C  D  Game  Pack 
C  D  Speedway 
Chess  Maniac 
Christmas  Carol 
Clipart  Goliath 
Con  an  Cfmerion 
Creative  Kids 
Curse  of  Enchantla25"* 
Daric  Sun  49«* 

Dealhstar  Arcade  30 
Dictionaries  &  Lang  30 
Dracula  Unleashd  49*^ 
Dune  45** 

Education  Master  32 
Electronic  Cookbk  75 
Elect.  Home  libraiy  49 
Encarta  Encydpd249*^ 


Man  Enough 

Manhole 

Maniac  Mansion 

Mantis 

Mario  is  Missing 

Mavis  Beacon 

Mayo  Clink; 


45' 
49 
39» 

45« 

47** 

39 

49 


Mixed  Up  Moth  Gs  30 


Monarch  Notes 
Monkey  Island 
MM  Music:  Mozart 
MM  Musk::  VrvakJi 


55 
57 
34» 
33 
30 
36 


39'« 
43» 
39 
43« 
19« 
35« 


37** 
32 
62*^ 
42* 
25* 
35« 
39^ 


F-t5 
F-117A 
Family  Doctor 
Fatty  Bear 
G  Force 
Gateway  II 

Geekwad  Games  22" 
GettysburgiMM  Hist43 
Gofer  Winkles  Adv  33 
Golden  Immortal  28 
Gunship  2000 
Guy  Spy 
Hell  Cab 
Hi  Tech  Aircraft 
Humans 
Inca 

Indiana  Jones 
Inspector  Gadget  37" 
Interactive  Old  Test  52 
Intro  Games  Fr/Sp  79 
Iron  Hetix  59« 

Its  a  Wonderful  Life  48 
Jazz:Muttimedia  Htst69 
Jets  &  Props  55 

Jones  in  Fast  Lane  37 
Just  Grandma  &  Me36 
Jutland  44^ 

King  Quest  6  26" 
Und  Of  Lore  34" 
Languages  of  Worid99 
Leam  to  Speak  Spn59 
Leisure  Suit  Larry  37 
Ltbry  of  Art:Renaisn65 


SoundCards 


Our  Solar  System  29 
Penthouse  rnteract79" 
Pool  Shade  19" 

Prcision  Map  84" 
Protostar  39" 

Rebel  Assault  39" 
Reference  Library  59 
Return  of  Phantom37" 
Return  to  Zork  45" 
Rotor/AifbalJ/Time  25 
San  Diego  Zoo  49 
Science  Advntr  II  47^ 
Seaet  Weapons  59 
Seventh  Guest  59 
Sherlock  Holmes  39 
Shedock  Holmes  2  42 
Shedock  Holmes  3  49 
Sleeping  Beauty  37 
Sound  Works  35 
Space  Quest  4  37 
Space  Series-Apdlo49 
Space  Shultle  29" 
Spellcasting  Party  29" 
SpJril  of  Excalibur  37 
Star  Trek  Enhanced49 
Stellar  7  30 

Strange  Deadfellow  39 
Street  Atlas  89" 

Strike  Commandr  57** 
Talking  Classic  Tale75 
Talkng  Jungle  Safari75 
Time  Table  Sdence59 
Ultimate  Shareware  59 
USA  Wars:Civil  War49 
USA  Wars:Korea  49 
USA  Wars:Vietnam  49 
USA  Wars:  WW  II  49 
Voyage  Planet  ea  69 
Who  Kilkl  Sam  Rup  25 
Wilty  Beamish  37 
Win  CD  32 

Wing  Comm  &  Miss  45 
Wing  Com/Ultima  6  45 
Wing  Comm  2  57 
W  cfs^Ulti.  Undrwid  57 
Wolfpack  37" 

World  War  II  Pak  37« 
Adults  Qnjv- 21  Yrs. 
Animation  Fantasy  55 
PCPixVol1or2  65 
Porkware  65 

Private  Collection  65 
Priv.  Pictures  1  or  2  65 
Seedy  Vol! -7  ea.  65 
Storm  1  or  2  65 

Visual  Partasv £5. 


Caddies  7.95ea.  3/$  19 


ATiiitefeof /a       133 

SiereoF/X  CD  147« 
Covox  Voice  Bistr  w= 
Gravis  Ultra  Sound  129 

CD-ROM  Kit      298** 

Pro  Audio  16  179^^^ 
Pro  Au^io  Studio  209«* 
Pro  Movie  Audto  339** 
Logitech  Audk3portl34 
-?    -  132*3 

85 

59* 

259 

128" 


SB  Portblaster      149 

SB  Video  aiastef  349 

SB  Video  Spigot  41 9»* 

SB  Waveblaster  174« 

Roland  RAP-tO  459" 

SCC'IGS         375 

SC-7  315 

SC-55  549^* 

MA-12Cee        105 

Si^^tded  28 
CS*550  Shiefded  35 
'  w/3bandEquiiizer45 
CS-8O0  49** 

CS-1000  84** 

AttecLan$ina2O0  219 
ACS  300  299 


A  Train  39 

Constmction  Set  22 
Across  the  Rhine  47*^ 
Aces  Over  Europe  44" 
Aces  of  ttie  Pacrfic42" 
Mission  Disk  19" 
AD&O  Collect  2  42" 
AD&D  Starter  Kit  42» 
AD&D  Unlimited  37* 
AdIbouSJunior  #1  34» 
Aif  Bucks  34as 

Air  Bus  A320  45« 
Air  Duet  33« 

Air  Force  39*s 

Air  Warrior  SVGA  35« 
AJ  Worid  Oiscvry  299s 
AlgeBlaster  Plus  30 
Alone  in  The  Dark  359= 
Alphabet  Blocks  29« 
Amazon  38« 

Amazon  Trail  34« 
Ambush  379a 

Ancient  Art  War  Sky  3  5 
Andent  Empires  30 
Animal  Adventure  47" 
Animation  Studio  75 
Arcade  for  Wind 
Ashes  of  Empcre 
A.TAC. 
Auto  Insight 
Automap 
Automap  Wind 
Automap  Europe 
Aulowori<s 

B-17  Flying  Fortress  19 
Bailey's  Bookhouse29" 
Bane  Cosmic  Forge  36 
Batman  Returns  39" 
Battle  of  Destiny  35** 
Beat  the  House  29^* 
Betrayal  of  Krondor39" 
Betty  Crocker  Cook   Call 


29^ 
35*^ 
35 
49 
44 
59 
74 
39*^ 


37" 
35" 
39" 
47" 
42 


Btoodnel 

Blue  &  Gray 

Blueforce 

Body  Illustrated 

Bodyworks 

Bug  Bunny  Wd<Shp  31 

Buzz  Aldnn  39" 

Caesar  35" 

Car  and  Driver      27" 

Carrier  Stnke  39 

Expansion  Disk  19" 
Gamers  at  War  2  42" 
Cash  for  Kids  31 « 
Castie  2  35* 

Castle  of  Dr.  Brain  30 
Chaltnge  5  Realm  33** 
Champions  35** 

Chemistry  Works  38 
Chessmasler  29" 
ChiklrenWrit&Publ39 
City  Streets  59** 

Civilization  37 

Civilization  Deluxe 4 5" 
Civilization  Win  41*^ 
Clash  of  Steel 
Coaster 
Cobra  Mission 
Comanche 

Mission  Disk 

rnmnan  ni  Yar 


39" 
35" 
39« 
42** 
25" 

h   1^^ 


MIDI  Software 


^? 

69 

125 

95 

129** 
t69 


SoundiT^n 
Sound  Blastif 
Se  Midi  KJt 
SB  Pro  MCA 
SB  16  Basic 

11 15  MOD  ASP  1 89"  IJIpIDSIpBIP 
SB  16  SCSI  174"  ™f;.^  101  Serial  95  f 
SB16SCSIASP206"    ^^^  Midi  Card  79 

SB  OEscovery  16  I  459  ,  ^  Port  SE  .  149» 
SB  Edutanmni  16  549**  HellO  MuStC  277^^ 
SB  Omni  Drive    3t4«   Tlie  Mirade  325 


Ballade  Windows 
Band  in  a  Box 
Cadenza 
Cakewalk 
Cakewalk  Win 
Cakewalk  Pro 
Cakewalk  Wtn  Pro  240 
Encore  379 

Jammer  Pro  125 

User  Music  Proces79 
Master  Tracks  Pro  249 
MCS  Stereo  55 

Midiscan  269" 

Midisoft  Studio  1 59 
Music  Bytes  Vd  1  65 
Music  Mentor  79 

Muse  Printer  Plus  419 
Music  Time  169 

Piano  Works  99 

Quk^k  Score  De3uxe99 
Songwright  5  89" 
Trax  for  Windows    60 


Computer  Worths  45'^ 
Cohort  2  19^ 

Conquest  of  Japan 35** 
Contraption  Zak  25** 
Cmsader  Drk  Savnt39" 


3V 
34" 
37** 
39 
39" 
47" 


31 
45" 
39" 
40" 

36 
29" 

42 


Cuckoo  Zoo 
Cyber  Space 
Dartdands 
Dari^seed 
DartGide  of  Xeen 
Dark  Sun 

Daughter  of  SerpntSI 
De]aVu1&2  37" 
Design  your  Raiird,  35 
Detroit  35" 

Diet  Pro  DOS/Win25/36 
Dino  Park  35** 

Dino  Quest  31" 

Dinosaur  Advenlure34 
Discovering  Amer  35** 
Distant  Sun  39** 

Dog  Rght  37" 

Doom!  42" 

Dr  Floyd  Desktop  19" 
Or  Jam  Window  59** 
Dr.  Quandry 
Dragon  Kntght  III 
Dragon  Lair  3 
Dreadnoughts 
Dune  2 

Dungeon  Master 
Dynamix  Bundle 
Eagle  Eye  Mystery  31' 
Eco^est  1  Of  2  29" 
Eight  Ball  DeJx  35" 
ElTsh  35 

Empire  Deluxe  35" 
Scenario  Disk  19" 
Entnnt  Pak  Win  (ea.)28 
Eric  the  Unready  35** 
Etemam  35" 

Eye  Beholder  Trit  49** 
EZ  Cosmos  42 

Ez  Language  Series 

FnGrjF.Sp:Jp,Rs  31** 
F14  Fleet  Defend  44« 
F 15  111  44 

F1 17a  Stealth  29" 
Fateon  3.0  45 

Oper  Fight  Tiger     25 

Mig  29  Data  Disk  34" 
Family  Tree  Maker  42 
Fantasy  Empire  42" 
Fami  Creativity  Kn  18 
Fatty  Bear  Krtwiay31** 
Flashback  32** 

Flight  Simul  ATP  28** 
Flight  Simulator  5  43" 

AfTrfcCntrir        34" 

Arcfl/Scen  Dsgn      28 

Aircraft  Arfv  Fadiy  25 
#635  17 

#701  17 

Airport  Facty  Loc     1 7 

Calrfomia 

East  USA  Seen 

Great  Britian 

Hawaii 

Instant  Facit  Loc. 

Japan  Scenery 

New  York 

Paris 


Rescue  Air  911  17 
San  Fransisco  29*^ 
Soefiery  St  A  or  B  37 
Scenery  Enhn  Ed  25 
Sound  &  Graphic  25 
Tahiti  19 

Washington  DC  29** 
West  USA  Scnry  39" 
West  Europe  19 
Freddy  Pharkas  39" 
Front  Page  Pro  45" 
Fun  SchooLFred  Frog 
SamSpyJeddy  Bf17 
G-Force  19" 

Gabriel  Knight  39" 
Gateway  II  35" 

Gearworks  29" 

Geekwad  Games  22  " 
Gobblinsi  0f2*  22 
Grand  Slam  Bridg  II  32 
Great  Naval  Admrl  48" 


20" 

30** 

29" 

24 

35 

17* 

34** 

37 

26 

42" 

35" 


Super  ShifK 
Great  Works 
Gunship  2000 

Scenario  Disk 
Hardball  3 

Data  Disk  (ea.) 
Hanier  Assault 
Headline  Many 
Health  &  Diet  Pro 
High  Command 
Hired  Guns 
Hong  Kong  Mahjong32 
Hoyres1,3or4  29" 
Humans  25 

Inca  34" 

Inca  2  39" 

lncredit)le  Machine  29** 
More  Inc  Mach  29** 
Indiana  Jones  4  37 
Inspector  Gadget  35" 
Island  of  Dr.  Brain  29" 
Isle  of  the  Dead  35" 
Jetfighter  2  39 

Adv  Mission  Disk  1 9 
John  Madden  2     31  " 
Johnny  Quest 
Jump  Jet 

MPE  Version 
Kye  Deluxe 
Kid  Cad 
Kid  Cuts 
Kid  Desk 
KklPkAjres 
KklPix 


29** 
38" 
48" 
30" 
29" 
35" 
25 
19" 
35" 


Lost  Treas  Infocbm  42 
Lost  Treasures  2  29" 
Lost  Vikings  29" 

Maelstom  39" 

Magic  Candle  3  37" 
Maniac  Mansion  1135" 
Mantis  39 

Speech  Disk  17 
Mario  is  Missing  35" 
Mario  Teach  Type  25 
Master  of  Orion  37** 
Math  Blaster  Rus  29" 
Mystery  29" 

Search  of  Spot  35" 
Math  Blaster  Wind  36 
Math  Rabbit  29" 

Mathology  29** 

Mavis  Beacon  29" 
Mechwaniof  II  45" 
Mental  Math  Games37 
Metal  &  Uce  29** 
Mk:hl  Jofdon  Hght  37** 
Micro  Cookbook  4  31 
MiCTOsoft  Gori  39 

Midnight  Rescue  35 
Mig  ^  (Stand  Alone)47 
Might&Magk;4  40 
Might  &  Mage  5  39" 
Millies  Math  House  31 
Mind  CastJe  35" 

Mixed-Up  Fairy  Ta!  30 
Mixed-Up  Mothef  Gs30 
Money/Clocks  Wrk  19 
Monkey  island  1/2  23 
Monopoly  Deluxe  34 
More  Vegas  Gamel  9** 
Mortal  Kombat  35" 
Mutanoid  Challenges  1 
Mystery  at  Museum35" 
NFL  Challenge  59 
NFL  Coaches  Club  33 
NHL  Hockey  42" 
Nigel's  Worid  31 

Omar  Shariff  Bridge  37 
Open  DialoQ  44^ 
Operation  Neptune  35 
Orbits  29" 

Oregon  Trail  Delx  34« 
Origin  FX  25 

Out  of  This  Worid     36 
Outnumbered 
Pacific  Wars 
PaJadin  2 
Patriot 
PC  Study  Bibte 


NO  SURCHARGE 

SHIPPING  IS  ONLY  $4.00 

PER  ORDER,  NOT  PER 

ITEM 

HARDWARE  INClUDEPm 

Putt  Putt  Fun  Pack  26 
Quarter  Pole  29" 
Quest  Glofy  3  or  4  39" 
Rags  to  Riches      35" 

35" 
35" 
35" 
29" 

36 

32 
29" 


30 
47 
35 
24" 
42 


Kid  Pix  Companion  25     Peppers  Adventure29" 


35** 
33" 
34" 

45 
38" 
34» 

39 


37 

39" 

37 

19 

19 

19" 

29" 

29** 


KkiWori^2 

Kids  Zoo 

Kings  Ransom 

King's  Quest  6 

Kronolog 

Land  Of  lore 

Legacy 

Legacy  Neaomncr19^ 

Legion's  of  Kre<la     37 

Lemminos  2 

Lethal  Weapon 

Links 

Unks  386  Pro 

Course  [3isk  ea 

386  Courses  ea 

Lord  of  Rings  2 


36 
29" 
38" 
30" 
39" 
19" 


35*= 
35^ 
25 
39 
16 
19" 
37 


Pibts  Pwer  Tools  24**     Lost  File  Sheriock  27" 


Perfect  General 
Pinball  Dreams 
Pirtate's  GokJ 
Playroom  2.0 
Polce  Quest  4 
Pool  Shark 

Prince  of  Persia  2  39" 
Print  Shop  Deluxe  45 
Graphic  ColL  (ea)  30 
Print  Shop,  New  35 
Graphics  (ea)  22 
Print  Shp  Compion  31 
Privateer  47" 

Speech  Disk      17" 
Prophecy  25** 

Protostar 
Putt  Putt  Parade 


39* 
32 


CD  DRIVES 


iToshiba 

3041  InternaJ  489** 
3041  External  594** 

Texel  America 
3021  Internal  349 
3028DblSpd  389 
3024  Business  679 
3024  Education  604 
3024  Home  569 
3024  Muffimeda844 
5024DySpd  495 
5024  Business  769 
5024  Educafion  729 
5024  Multimed  969 


Modem  &  Fax 


Vo  HODOiic  oporisier 
2400  Int.  99** 

14.4v.42bs        162** 
*    w/S/RFax    183** 
14.4  v.42bis  Ext  183" 
w/S/RFax    213" 


Multimedia 


CH  Flightstick       37^  Aitech; 

CH  Game  Card  3    31  Audk)  Show        369 

CH  Mach  3           28**  Pro  256              280 

CH  Virtual  Pilot       65  Pro  Color  Rus     529 

Eliminator  Card       26  ProVGA  TV        459 

Gravis  Analog  Pro  39  Pro  PC/TV  Plus  249" 

Gravis  Joystk*       32  Pro  VGA/TV  +     559 

Gravis  PC  GamePad21  VkieoSurge        659 

Kidz  Mouse          30"  VideoSurg  SVHS729 

Kraft  KC3  Joystick  28  Wave  Watcher    419 

Maxx  Right  Yoke  69  TV/GRX  TV  ^  269  . 
Maxx  Pedal  39  ■RfffffrVWRHf 
Quickshot  Game  Cdl  4  PBKiiiUtaACiltM 


Reach  for  Skies 
Reader  Rabbit 
Reader  Rabbit  2 
Ready  for  Letter 
Ready  Set  Read 
Reading  Adv  in  Oz 
Reading  Comp 
Ready  Set  Read 


Realms  of  Arcadia  35" 
Red  Baron  39 

Mission  Disk        17 
Red  Costal  35" 

Remind  Me  34"* 

Return  Of  Phantm  33" 
Rex  Nebular  37 

Ring  WorW  34** 

Robosports  Wind  25"_ 


Quk^hot  Wanior  18 
Suncom  Command19' 
Thmstmaster 


FCS  Pro 
Game  Card 
Weapons  2 
Rudder  Pedal 
UPROM  Chip 


69 
109 
29** 
95** 
109 
29" 


Dust  Covers  1 5 

Grounded  Wrist  Strp  9 
Keyboard  Skins  15 
Static  Pads 

Laroe*  System    1 5 
Wrist  Pads  8 

Stax  (Dust  Repeilentj5 
Statx  Complete 
Cleaning  System     15 


Strip  Poker  3  32 

Data  Disk  (ea)       17 
Stronghold  37" 

Studyware  fof  ACT 

GMATGRE.SAT   30 
Studyware  Biology, 
Calc.,Chem.,Econ., 
Physics,  Statistic   25 
Studyware  LSAT     37 
Syndicate  37" 

Take  a  break  X'Word2^ 
PtnbaJI  *  29" 

Task  Force  1942   37" 
Admiral  Edit       43**^ 
Terminatr  Rampage39* 
Tesserae  1 7" 

Trmntr  2  Cybrchess  35 
Tetris  Oassc  31 

Tie  Fighter  39" 

Time  Riders  Amef.  35 
Tony  LaRussa  Base.  17 


Rock  &  Bach  Studo35"  Tony  LaRussa  II    37** 
Rodney  Fun  Screen31      Expanston  Disk   19** 


Rome '  29" 

Rule  Engagmenl  239** 
Sam  &  Max  hit  Rd  35" 
Science  Adventure  42 
Scooter  Magic  Casl02 
Scrable  Delx  32 

Seal  Team  37" 

Sal  Weapn  Luftwf  29" 
Tour  of  Duty  ea.  20 
Seven  Cities  GoW  38 
Shadow  President  39" 
Shadowcaster  47" 
Shad  owl  and  s  29" 
Sierra  Adion  Pjve  25 
Sien-a  Award  Winner47 
Siena  Family  Fun  32 
Sim  Ant  29" 

Sim  Ant  French 


Top  Class  Series  ea  16 
Tornado  45** 

Treasure  Cove  35 
Treasur  Math  Storm  35 
Treasure  Mountain  35 


35 
29" 

30 
47" 

17 
19" 
47" 
37" 
47" 


Sin^  CHv  Classic 
^)00 


35 
25" 
39" 
29" 


200t 
Sim  Earth 

Sim  Life  Dos/Wind  39" 
Simon  the  Socefor29" 
Sing  a  Long  Wind  31" 
Snap  Dragon  32 

Snoopy  Game  Club  29 
Sditaire  Window    29" 


Sditaires  Journey 
>Borf 


Space  Ace  2; 
Space  Adventure 
Space  Hulk 
Space  Quest  5 
Spear  of  Destiny 
Special  Forces 
Spectre 
Speed  Racer 
Spellbound 
Spelteasting  301 
Spell-it  Plus 
Sports  Adventure 
Star  Control  2 
Star  Trek  25th  Aniv.  37 

Judgemnt  RM  35" 
StafTrek  Audk)Clip34" 

Next  Generation  38" 


35 

36 

42 

37" 

39" 

39* 

29 

35" 

35" 

31 

35 

30 

33 

35*" 


Treehouse 
Tristan  Pinball 
Turtx)  Sdence 
Ultima  7 

Forge  ol  Virtue 

Silver  Seed 
Ultima  7  Part  2 
Ultima  Trilogy 
Ufttma  Tritogy  2 
Ultima  Underworid  47" 

Part  2  47" 

UJtrabots  37" 

Uninvited  Window  37" 
Unnecassry  RouQh35** 
U.S.  Atlas  DOS  31 
Utopia  2?» 

V  for  Victory  (ea)  42" 
Victory  at  Sea 
Vista  Pro 
Vocabulary  Devi 
Wacky  Funsters 
War  in  Gulf 
War  in  Russia 
Warrior  of  Legend  1 9" 
Wayne  GreUky  3  35 
Waynes  World  29" 
What's  My  Angte  30 
When2Wortds  War35** 
Where  Cmin  SanDJegp 

America  Past     34" 

Europe 

Space 

Time 

USA 

USA  Deluxe 

Worid  Deluxe 
Wild  Sdence  Arcad35" 
Ween:  Prophecy  34** 
Wing  Comandr  2  47" 
Wing  Com  Acadm31" 


42** 
73" 
32 
19" 
29" 
45" 


30 

44" 

30 

30 

44" 

44" 


StarTrek  Screen  Sav37  Wizardry  Trilogy  II 35" 
Stickybr  Math  Tutor  30   Worid  Circuit         34** 


Stickybr  Pre-School  30 
Stickybr  Read  Tutor  30 
Stickybr  Spell  Tutor  30 
Storybook  Weaver29" 
Strike  Commander  45" 
Speech  Disk         17 


Worid  Tour  Tennis32" 
Worid  War  If  35** 
X  Wing  39" 

Mission  Disk  19" 
Yobi  Spelling  Trick29** 
Zoo  Keeper  36 


Store;    1060   Randolph  Ave.    Rohway   N.J. 


TERMS  AND  CONDITIONS 

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CIrcte  Reader  Service  Number  208 


REVIEWS 

DAUPHIN  DTR-1 

The  Dauphin  DTR-1  (Desktop  Repface- 
ment-l)  is  about  50  percent  PDA  and 
50  percent  laptop.  It  comes  with  Pen 
Windows  and  the  Ascend  personal 
information  manager  built  in,  along 
with  a  special  spreadsheet  optimized 
for  pen  use  and  a  group  of  demonstra- 
tion programs  to  show  how  the  system 
could  make  itself  indispensable  for  a 
doctor,  nurse,  or  public  safety  officer. 

The  system  boasts  a  25-MH2 
486SLC  CPU.  4MB  of  RAM  (expanda- 
ble to  6MB).  and  a  40MB  hard  disk  (ex- 
panded by  DoubleSpace  to  73MB). 
The  5-  X  9-inch  case  sports  a  pen- 
sensitive  backlit  passive-matrix  mono- 
chrome VGA  display  (640  x  480),  a  vid- 
eo output  port  (800  X  600  with  256- 
color  Super  VGA),  parallel  and  serial 
ports,  and  a  Hayes-compatible  modem 
(the  modem  and  serial  port  are  set  to 
the  same  interrupt,  so  they  can't  be 
used  simultaneously).  There's  also  an 
Ethernet  connector,  but  while  the  con- 
nector is  standard,  the  Ethernet  hard- 
ware is  not — it's  an  option  that  you 
have  to  order  separately  for  around 
$300.  The  keyboard  is  in  a  separate, 
similar-sized  unit  (bV2  x  9Y2  inches). 

Since  the  reviewed  computer  had 
no  floppy  drive  (an  external  floppy 
drive  is  available  from  Dauphin  for 
$199,  and  external  hard  disks  and  re- 
movable hard  disks  will  probably  be 
available  by  the  time  this  appears)  nor 
any  PCMCIA  slots,  all  programming 
and  documents  must  be  managed 
through  the  modem  or  through  Interlnk. 
The  machine  can  be  operated  without 
the  keyboard  through  the  use  of  a  spe- 
cial pen.  which  also  serves  as  a 
mouse  in  Windows.  Provided  applica- 
tions are  set  up  to  make  sense  of  pen 
input,  though  my  pen  input  was  trans- 
lated into  a  Doonesburian  gobbledy- 
gook  that  was  at  first  amusing,  then 
troublesome,  and  finally  infuriating.  Did 
I  once  say  that  I  would  carry  a  pen- 
based  computer  someday?  Is  it  too 
late  to  eat  my  words? 

Pen  input  can  be  made  simpler 
through  an  onscreen  keyboard,  but  us- 
ing this  keyboard  requires  phenomenal 
control  because,  on  the  tiny  screen, 
each  key  is  about  an  eighth  of  an  inch 
square.  So  to  write  this  review,  !  relied 
on  the  regular  keyboard.  Finding  it  diffi- 
cult to  type  on  the  keyboard  because 
of  its  size,  and  wanting  to  be  fair,  I 
asked  my  wife  to  give  it  a  try  because 
her  hands  are  about  half  the  size  of 
mine.  ^'Too  small,"  she  agreed.  Not  on- 
ly that,  but  it  feels  funny.  The  keys  are 
stiff  and  insensitive,  so  unless  you  re- 

156        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


ally  press,  driving  the  keys  all  the  way 
down,  your  typing  doesn't  register 

Even  more  troublesome  than  the  key- 
board is  the  unit's  tendency  to  crash. 
It  locked  up  on  me  three  times  while  1 
had  it,  each  time  when  I  was  using  the 
pen  as  a  mouse  in  Windows.  This 
might  be  a  software  problem  with  Pen 
Windows.  1  wasn't  able  to  figure  out 
what  was  causing  the  crashes. 

The  unit  folds  up  neatly  in  a  zip- 
pered  plastic  case.  One  might  think 
that  having  the  screen  and  keyboard 
separate  would  be  a  good  idea,  but  it 
isn't.  The  screen  flops  all  over  the 
place,  making  it  difficult  to  hold  on 
your  lap.  Even  on  a  desktop,  !  had  to 
prop  the  screen  up  against  something 
and  pull  the  keyboard  completely  out 
of  the  case  to  type  (the  zipper  gets  be- 
tween you  and  the  space  bar).  A  sort 
of  stand  is  built  into  the  screen  half  of 
the  case,  so  you  can  prop  the  screen 
up  if  the  unit  is  sitting  on  a  flat,  rigid  sur- 
face. The  keyboard  is  held  in  its  half  of 
the  case  by  Velcro, 

The  power  supply  is  about  the  size 
of  an  electric  shaver,  and  it's  very 
light— it  doesn't  get  in  the  v/ay  or 
weigh  you  down  like  a  lot  of  external 
power  supplies.  The  unit  will  run  for 
two  continuous  hours  on  a  battery 
charge  without  the  keyboard  attached. 
If  the  keyboard  is  attached,  it  will  run 
for  an  hour  and  a  half.  A  beeper 
warns  you  when  you're  down  to  about 
five  minutes  of  battery  power. 

The  stated  purpose  of  the  DTR-1  is 
to  replace  a  deskful  of  documents  and 
notebooks.  It's  enough  computer  to  do 
that,  and  it  represents  the  state  of  the 
art  of  pen-based  computing,  but  it 
needs  a  better  keyboard  and  a  way  to 
physically  attach  the  keyboard  to  the 
computer  The  pen  input  needs  to  get 
smarter  before  I  can  see  replacing  any- 
thing with  this  computer 

ROBERT  BIXBY 


Dauphin  Technology 

(708)971-3400 

$3,195 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  456 


WACKY  FUNSTERS 

What  could  be  more  fun  than  an  irrev- 
erent send-up  of  five  and  a  half  arcade 
favorites'?  The  real  things,  to  be  perfect- 
ly honest.  Tsunami^s  self-described 
"geekwad's  guide  to  gaming''  offers  a 
campy  collection  of  minigames,  spoof- 
ing such  standards  as  Asteroids, 
Pong,  and  Street  Fighter  Unfortunate- 
ly, the  designers  forgot  the  first  rule  of 
parody:  Be  as  good  as  the  subject 
you're  ridiculing.  These  caricatures  sim- 
ply can't  muster  the  addictive  quality  of 
the  original  games  they're  based  on. 


connpuTE 


\A/E  at  COMPUTE 

strive  to  provide  you  witli  tlie 

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The  COMPUTE  EDITOR  LINE 

offers  a  unique  opportunity  for 

you  to  voice  your  opinion  and  let 

our  editors  know  exactly  what  is 

on  your  mind.  The  COMPUTE 

EDITOR  LINE  is  our  way  of 
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your  informational  needs. 

We  hope  to  hear  from  you  soon. 

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FILH  ROLL 


PENTHOUSE  INTEBAeTI¥E    M^+o 


Ptidto  5«f  8 


Print  Photo 


"You  are  the  photographer  while  three 
Penthouse  Pets  cavort  and  pose  in  30  different  situations. 

No  question  about  it  -  it's  astounding." 

Forbes  F.Y.I. 

"Finally  something  that  you  may 
have  dreamed  about/' 

WCBC-TV 

"Users  can  ask  their  pets  to  take  off 
articles  of  clothing  and  perform  erotic  acts." 

Daily  News 

"What  will  they  think  of  next?'^ 

Dan  Rather,  CBS 


Find  out  what  the  critics  are  raving  about.  Experience  Penthouse  Interactive's  Virtual  Photo  Shoot™.  Ninety  minutes  of 
full-motion  (15  fps),  high  quality  video  images.  It's  so  simple.  Just  snap  pictures  of  your  favorite  pets  and  save  them  to  your 
hard  disk.  ''Develop"  them  by  printing  out  high-resolution  color  or  B&W  copies  (depending  on  your  printer).  Remember, 
the  sooner  you  order,  the  sooner  you  can  stop  dreaming  and  start  living  the  life  of  a  real  Penthouse  Photographer. 

NOW  AVAILABLE  IN  BOTH  PC/WINDOWS®  AND  MACINTOSH®  VERSIONS 


PC/WJndows'  Requirements;  At  least  3  33mHi  384  with  4nib  of  RAM  rMnnIng  Windows  3.1, 
A  Video  ard  thai  suppom  at  least  2S6  colors  (S-bit  color).  1 6- bit  color  Is  preferred,  A  sound 
card,  for  example  a  Sound Etaster/Pro  16  or  a  Pro  Audio  Spectrum/ 1 6.  Many  modem  computers 
are  already  equipped  vvith  lound  cards,  so  be  sure  to  check  your  confi^ration  first.  An  MPC- 
coinpaiibte  CD*ROM  dme.  A  douWe  speed  drive  (30Okb/scc)  is  preferred. 


Macintosh-  Requir^mentst  Any  Macintosh   computer  with  an  6  bit  (or  better)  color  or 
grayscale  display.  A  minimum  of  5  megabytes  of  RAM  running  system  6.07  or  8  megabytes 
of  fWi  running  system  7.0  or  higher.  A  CD-ROM  dnve.  A  double-speed  (300  KByte)  drwe 
(S  preferred.  Apple  systen^  software  6.0.7  or  higher.  QukkTime  U  and  HyperCard  1 1  are 
included  in  your  PHI  CD-ROM. 


Please  rush  me  the  Penthouse  Interactive  CD-ROM: 


.  Total  Orders  =$  . 


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U.S.  MAILORDER:  PENTHOUSE  VIDEO  JNC.  P.  O.  BOX  310173,  NEWINGTON,  CT.  06131 


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BUBSy  BOBCAT! 


Here's  the  official  guide  to 
both  the  Sega  and  SNES 
game  Bubsy  In:  Claws 
Encounters  of  the  Furred 
Kind,  \Vs  packed  with  all 
kinds  of  secret  stuff  you  can't  find  anywhere  else — like  how 
to  score  the  most  points  and  find  all  the  secret  locations, 
yarn  balls,  crates,  and  other  goodies. 

Ask  for  Bubsy  Bobcat's  Totally  Authorized  Answer  Book  at  your  favorite  bookstore 
or  computer  software  store  or  order  direct  from  COMPUTE  by  sending  S12.95  plus  $2.00 
for  shipping  and  handling  (U.S..  S4  to  Canada  and  $6  other)  to  COMPUTE  Books,  c/o  CCC, 
2500  McClellan  Ave..  Pennsauken.  NJ  08109.  (Residents  of  NC,  NJ,  and  NY  please  add 
appropriate  tax;  Canadian  orders  add  7%  goods  and  services  Tax.)  All  orders  must  be 
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The  Official  Guide 
to 

ROGER  WILCO 

SPACE 
ADVENTURES 

Second  Edition 

The  complete  guide  to  Space  Quests  l-V.  Includes 
maps,  screen  shots,  and  solutions  to  all  five  Space 
Quest  adventures. 

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other)  to  COMPUTE  Books,  c/o  CCC,  2500  McClellan  Ave.,  Pennsauken,  NJ  08109.  (Residents 
of  NC.  NJ,  and  NY  pfease  add  appropriate  tax;  Canadian  orders  add  7%  Goods  and  Services  Tax.) 
VISA  and  Mastercard  accepted:  be  sure  to  include  your  account  number,  expiration  date,  and  signa- 
ture. All  orders  must  be  paid  in  U.S.  funds  drawn  on  a  U.S.  bank.  Orders  will  be  shipped  via  UPS 
Ground  Service,  Offer  good  while  supplies  last. 


REVIEWS 


The  biggest  problem  is  the  games 
being  lampooned — most  are  far  too 
old  and  rudimentary  to  interest  today's 
audiences.  Add  to  this  below-par  graph- 
ics, crude  animation,  and  action  that 
stresses  gag  content  over  gameplay. 
The  program's  most  inspired  moments, 
including  a  hilarious  satire  on  software 
copy  protection,  actually  have  little  to 
do  with  the  games.  The  CD-ROM  ver- 
sion also  features  more  than  26  min- 
utes of  music  and  comedy  sketches. 

Clever  in  concept.  Wacky  Funsters 
takes  broad  aim  at  its  intended  targets 
but  completely  misses  the  mark. 

SCOTT  A.  MAY 


Tsunami 

Distributed  by  Accolade 

(800)  245-7744 

$29,95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Number  457 


BLOODSTONE:  AN  EPIC 
DWARVEN  TALE 

Role-playing  adventures  are  a  dime  a 
dozen  these  days.  (They  may  even  be 
down  to  a  nickel.)  So  what  distinguish- 
es Mindcraft's  Bloodstone;  An  Epic 
Dwarven  Tale  from  the  scores  of 
RPGs  crowding  software  shelves?  Unfor- 
tunately, very  little. 

Following  an  annoyingly  slow  instal- 
lation process.  Bloodstone  rewards 
with  fluid,  easy-to-learn,  mouse-driven 
gameplay.  But  an  efficient,  Ultima-like 
overhead  view  of  the  characters  is 
marred  by  the  game's  seemingly  low- 
resolution  graphics;  the  terrain  Is  crisp 
but  the  characters  themselves  appear 
as  small,  indistinguishable  color 
blobs. 

Still,  Bloodstone  is  not  without  its  pos- 
itives. Sound  effects  are  sparse  but  su- 
perb, and  the  game  engine  features  a 
diverse  collection  of  magical  objects 
and  spells.  Most  importantly,  combat  is 
challenging  and  lots  of  fun;  it'll  take 
more  than  a  little  hacking  and  slashing 
to  see  your  party  through  a  monster  am- 
bush. Fortunately,  Bloodstone  does  in- 
clude the  obligatory  save-game  feature 
so  you  can  try,  try  again. 

RPG  die-hards  will  enjoy  Blood- 
stone's expansive  landscape  and  excit- 
ing melees,  but  overall  this  well-done 
game  has  little  to  make  it  stand  out 
from  a  crowded  pack. 

RICK  BROiDA 


Mindcraft  Software 
(800)  525-4933 
$39  95 

Circle  Reader  Service  Mumber  458 


158        COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


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C{rde  Ftaader  Servtce  Humber  251 


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Circle  Reader  Service  Mumber  229 


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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  126 


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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  131 


CLASSIFIEDS 


BATTERIES 


CABLE  TV 


COMPUTER  BATTERiES  &  MORE 

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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  317 


BUSINESS  OPPORTUNITIES 


HOW  TO  MOONLIGHT  WITH  YOUR  COMPUTER 

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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  322 


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EXCELLENT  PRICES! 


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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  318 


CABLE  TV  CONVERTERS 

tVfty  Pay  A  High  Monthly  Fee'> 
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Free  Catalog  1800-542  9425 

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Circle  Reader  Service  [^lumber  323 


COMPUTER  REPAIR 


A I  1 1  lOK  1  /.ED  CO  M  PUTER  R  EPA  1 RS :  CM/ 1 2K. 
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Closing  date  for  February  classifieds 

is  November  15. 

CaH/Fax  your  ad  (516)  757-9562 


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IT-HI  JI.D  COMPITHH  KITS,  THE  RtCOGNIZEil)  Li:.ADKR 
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EVTEK 

[■\<>l\CLt  fi^chnologies  represents  proprietiin'  compuler  soft- 
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VOICE  CHANGER  TELEPHONE 


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DutchGuard,  Dept.  CP1,  P.O.  Box  41T587,  Kansas 

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Circle  Reader  Service  Number  324 


COMPUTE  Classified  is  a  low-cost  way  to  tell 
over  275,000  microcomputer  owners  about 
your  producl  or  service. 
Additional  Information.  Please  read  carefully. 

Rates:  $40  per  line,  fn:rirn^Lr:i  0^  foui-  iines.  Any  or  al'  o'  li^c 
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face (any  number  of  Imes.) 

Terms:  Prepayment  rs  required.  We  accept  checks,  mon^ 
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General  Information:  Advertisers  using  piKt  office  txw  num- 
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:  .:  1-  rtos  r^asure  aV^'wide  and  are  priced 
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HOW  TO  ORDEfi 

Cai!  Maria  Manaser:.  Classified  Manager.  COf*<PUTE.  1 
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CLASSIFIEDS 


POSITION  WANTED 


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SOFTWARE 


EDUCATION 


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Free  catalog.  Over  3000  programs. 
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Circle  Reader  Service  Mumber  325 

FREE  IBM  SHAREWARE  CATALOG!! 
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NEWS  BITS 


Jill  Champion  Booth 


A  Shortage 

of  parts,  a  distaff 

online  service, 

E-mail  to  the  chief, 

and  more 


Don't  Hold  Your  Breath 

President  Clinton  says  he 
hopes  to  be  able  to  answer 
electronic  mail  messages  indi- 
vidually within  a  year— this  in 
response  to  a  new  exhibit,  Let- 
ter to  the  White  House,  at  the 
Computer  Museum  of  Boston, 
Visitors  can  access  President 
Clinton  and  Vice  President 
Gore  efectronically  to  teli 
them  what  they  think  about, 
well,  everything.  The  exhibit  al- 
so allows  you  to  see  how 
your  message  is  routed 
through  the  Internet's  web  of 
machines.  Computer  anima- 
tion and  other  special  effects 
display  a  simulated  satellite 
view  of  the  message  as  it 
bounces  from  the  museum  to 
a  gateway  in  Boston  and 
then  through  cyberspace  to 
Washington  and  the  White 
House,  Once  your  message 
is  received,  you  get  a  printout 
with  Clinton's  and  Gore's  E- 
mail  addresses. 

Women  Get  Wired 

Women's  Information  Re- 
source Si  Exchange  (WIRE), 
the  first  international,  interac- 
tive computer  network  dedicat- 
ed to  women,  plans  to  open 
its  gateways  early  this  year. 
The  network  will  provide  an 
easily  accessed,  centralized 
source  of  women-oriented  in- 
formation and  conversation. 
Women  and  men  can  log  on 
to  WIRE  and  discuss  topics  of 
interest  with  each  other,  net- 
work to  solve  problems,  ac- 
cess information  instantly, 
keep  in  touch  with  family  and 
friends  via  E-mail,  and  partici- 
pate in  news  groups  and  mail- 
ing lists  from  other  systems 
on  the  Internet.  For  more  in- 
formation, contact  WIRE  at 
(415)  615-8989  or  send  E- 
mail  to  info@wire,net. 


Mobile  Companions 

Moving  swiftly  to  capture  the 
most  promising  market  for 
hand-held  computing  devic- 
es—the business  user  mar- 

172         COMPUTE    JANUARY  1994 


ket— VLSI  Technology,  Intel, 
Microsoft,  and  Compaq  will 
v^ork  together  to  deliver  the 
first  of  a  new  class  of  hand- 
held devices  known  as  mo- 
bile companions.  Designed 
by  Compaq,  the  mobile  com- 
panion is  a  true  extension  of 
your  main  desktop  or  note- 
book  PC.  You'll  be  able  to  car- 
ry it  wherever  you  go  and  use 
it  off  and  on  throughout  the 
v.'orkday  for  instant  access  to 
information,  whether  at  a  meet- 
ing down  the  hall  or  on  the  oth- 
er side  of  the  world.  Sched- 
uled to  be  on  the  market  this 
year,  mobile  companions  will 
be  powered  by  VLSFs  Polar 
chip  set,  which  is  based  on  In- 
tel  architecture,  and  will  use 
the  Microsoft  at  Work  operat- 
ing system  for  hand-held  de- 
vices. While  Compaq's  mo- 
bile companion  will  be  the 
first  of  its  kind,  other  compa- 
nies are  expected  to  build  sim- 
ilar devices  based  on  the 
same  technologies. 

Nike  Reaches  an  Apex 

Nike  may  have  tost  some  air 
from  its  pumps  when  Michael 
Jordan,  the  company's  most 
famous  endorser,  stepped 
out  of  his  Air  Jordans  and  off 
the  basketball  court  for  good, 
but  the  sportswear  company 
still  keeps  its  sales  force  mov- 
ing and  the  shoes  flying  with 
IBM  ThinkPad  portable  com- 
puters equipped  with  Apex  Da- 
ta modems. 

What  made  Nike  choose 
Apex  over  other  fax/data  mo- 
dems? High  speed,  for  one 
thing,  says  Ron  Edwards.  Ni- 
ke's director  of  sales  opera- 
tions, but  also  because  the 
Apex  modems  are  covered  un- 
der the  IBM  service  guaran- 
tee, 'We  have  reps  in  ob- 
scure parts  of  the  country, 
and  we  know  that  any  prob- 
lems with  Apex  products  will 
be  fixed  by  simply  calling 
IBM's  service  number"  Anoth- 
er plus:  The  fax/data  modems 
are     compatible     with     the 


ThinkPad's  "hibernate"  fea- 
ture, which  allows  you  to 
change  a  battery  on  the  fly. 
"The  fact  that  Apex  modems 
don't  interfere  with  this  is  im- 
portant," says  Edwards. 

It  Could  Be  a  Long  Woit 

That's  the  word  from  one 
OEM  based  in  Newark,  New 
York,  that  is  also  a  major  sup- 
plier of  component  parts  to 
the  PC  industry  (including 
Compaq,  Dell,  IBM,  and  Tan- 
dy). Roger  Main,  president  of 
lEC  Electronics,  says  consum- 
ers who  are  waiting  for  prices 
to  drop  before  they  buy  the 
newest  technologically  ad- 
vanced PCs  might  want  to 
think  again.  He  believes  that 
prices  of  computers  will  hold 
steady  for  a  while,  not  drop, 
because  of  a  massive  short- 
age of  integral  computer 
parts.  In  other  words,  newer 
models  using  the  most  ad- 
vanced technology  won't  be 
available  to  consumers  as 
quickly  as  usual.  What  is  the 
reason  for  the  delay?  In  the 
past,  parts  manufacturers 
rushed  to  keep  up  with  de- 
mand but  ended  up  over- 
stocked with  unsalable,  out-of- 
date  parts  due  to  fast-paced 
technology  advances.  Over- 
seas suppliers  refuse  to 
make  the  same  mistake 
again,  he  says,  and  that  has 
resulted  in  the  shortage. 

Not  For  Profit 

Second  Nature  Software  is  pro- 
viding an  extensive  collection 
of  high-quality  art  for  Win- 
dows users,  beginning  with 
30  screen-saver/wallpaper  col- 
lections of  professional  art 
and  photographic  images.  All 
profits  or  ten  percent  of 
sales,  whichever  is  greater, 
will  be  donated  to  nonprofit  or- 
ganizations. 

For  more  information,  con- 
tact the  company  at  812  South- 
west Washington  Street,  Suite 
1050.  Portland,  Oregon  97205; 
(503)  291-9500,  O 


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You  aet  up  and  perform  electronics 
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ililMlilHilllNliiihllilnliihllnnlliinlill 


A  AA  E  R^t^C  A 


If  you Ve  never  tried  America 
Online,  nows  the  time.  If  you  have  in 
the  past,  try  us  again  —  America 
Online  is  available  for 
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the  new  Windows        M^m^ 
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Microsoft 
Windows  3.1 
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multi-tasking,  flashbar  navigation,  and 
much  more.  But  donx  take  our  word 
for  it.  Give  us  a  tr)^  and  find  out  what 
you  can  accomplish  when  you  open  a 
few  of  our  windows. 

Complete  and  mail  the  card 
or  call  1-800-827-6364, 
Ext.  8455,  Today! 


Anotner  NRI  Training  Breakthrough!      '   " 

Be  a  Part  of  Today's  Fastest-Growing 

Computer  Field- 
Be  a  iVIunimedia  Specialist 


Multimedia.  It's  cutting  edge 
technology  that*s  being 
talked  about  everywhere  — 
in  magazines,  on  TV,  even  at 
your  office.  Perhaps  you've 
used  a  multimedia  applica- 
tion yourself  at  an  airport 
kiosk  or  in  a  retail  store. 
Now  you  can  be  a  part  of  this 
fascinating  new  technology 
that's  given  the  PC  voice, 
sound,  animation,  and  even 


full-motion  video! 

It's  a  fact:  Multi- 
media is  rapidly 


^^-jjll  changing  the  v/ay  we  learn, 
W"  '^__       communicate,  get 
information  —  even 
the  way  we  do 
business.  Only  NRI 
gives  you  exclusive,  hands-on  training 
with  the  latest  peripherals  that  turn 
your  present  computer  into  a  ^Multi- 
media PC"  and  turn  you  into  a 
Multimedia  Special- 
ist Only  NRI 
prepares  you  so  well 
to  take  advantage  of 
the  myriad  career 


w         E 


R 


n 


Opportunities  opening 
up  in  this  dynamic  new  field.  Whether 
you're  looking  to  create  programs  that 
educate,  inform,  entertain,  or  train, 
opportunities  to  move  up,  make  more 
money,  even  start  your  own  business 
are  virtually  unlimited. 

Your  NRI  training  starts  with  a 
review  of  computer  hardware.  Using 
your  own  386  or  higher  model 


Your  Multimedia  Training 

Includes  Everything 

You  Need  to  Create 

Multimedia  Applications 

With  Your  Own  Computer 


computer  widi  3.5  inch  drive 
and  Windows  3.1 ,  you  first  get 
hands-on  experience  evaluating 
your  equipment  for  a  better 
understanding  of  how  it  works, 
jfill    d  You  go  on  to  examine  how 
™  today's  most  sought-after 
peripherals  —  CD-ROM 
drive  and  sound 
card  —  work 
together  with 
multimedia 
software  to  give 
sensory  qualities  to 
your  PC.  What's  more,  you 
install,  train  with,  and  keep  a  Mitsumi  CD- 
ROM  drive,  16-bit  SoundBlaster®  Pro  II- 
compatible  sound  interface  card,  Autodesk 
Animator®  and  Asymetrix  Toolbook^ 
software  —  all  included  in  your  course. 

See  other  side  for  more  details  -* 


0 


SEND  TODAY  FOR  YOUR  FREE  CATALOG 


m 


^Schools 

McGraw-Hill  Continuing  Education  Center 

440 1  Cormecticut  Avenue,  m,  Washington,  DC  20008 

YES!  I'm  interested  in  learning  more  about  NRI's  training  in  0  check  one  only): 

Q  Multimedia  SpedaiUt      G  Database  Management 

I  understand  the  above  courses  require  that  1  have  access  to  or  own  a  386sx  or  higher  model  computer,  3;54nch 
drive,  and  Windows  3,1. 

□  I'm  Interested  in  NRI  training  in  another  field  that  includes  computer  equipment.  Please  send  me  information  about 
([^  check  one  only): 

Q  Computer  Programming         □  Programming  in  C++  With  Windows       □  Hccion/Nonfictlon  Writing 
Q  Microcomputer  Servicing        Q  PC  Applications  Specialist  □  Desktop  Publishing 

□  Distal  Technology  □  Bookkeeping  and  Accounting  □  Compuier'Aided  Drafting 


Name 


I  please  print  I 


kgi 


Address 


Ciry'/Siaie/Zlp 


Accredited  Member,  National  Home  Study  Council 


1915-0194 


Get  m  on  the  ground  floor  ot  today  s  most 
dynamic  computer  technology:  Multimedia 


Your  very  first  lesson  has  you  and  your  computer 
up  and  running  with  a  review  of  the  many 
opportuniutes  in  the  exciting  field  of  Multimedia, 
But  before  you  begin  to  design  your  own  i 

program,  you  first  learn  about  the  various  types  of  v 
multimedia  applications  and  CD-ROM  ^ 
titles  that  have  been  developed 
commercially.  With  a  full 
understanding  of  the 
elements  that  make  up  a 
successful  multimedia 
application,  you're  ready 
to  \rf  your  hand  at  your 
own  multimedia 
program.  Using 
your  own  computer 
and  the  exclusive  worksheets  and 
sample  reports  included  in  your 
hands-on  training  projects,  you 
prepare  an  Analysis  Report  and 
Preliminary  Design  Document  that  lay  the 
foundation  for  your  own  multimedia  program. 

With  your  NRl  insuuctor  available  to  guide 
you  every  step  of  the  way  you  m.ove  on  to  examine 
the  components  that  combine  to  make  your 
multimedia  program  visually  engaging:  text, 
graphics,  video,  and  animation.  You  install 
Autodesk  Animator  software  on  your  computer 
and  then  use  its  paintbrush  feature  to  create 
objects  that  move  across  the  screen,  rotate,  or 
change  perspective,  keeping  in  mind  the  creative 
approaches  you  will  use  later  in  your  multimedia 
program. 


Now  you're  ready  to  go  on  to 
explore  the  elements  of 
multimedia  that  make  it 
multisensory:  audio  and  video. 
Your  lessons  cover  the  break* 
through  technology  of  CD-ROM 
and  new  digital  data  storage 
devices  on  the  horizon.  Then  .^^ 

you  get  first-hand  experience  with      ^       ^ 
the  very  equipment  that  enables  your  computer 
to  speak,  play  music,  and  generate  a  host  of 
sound  effects  —  Mitsumi  CD-ROM  drive,  16-bit 


SEND  TODAY  FOR  FREE  NRl  CATALOG 


BUSINESS  REPLY  MAIL 

FIRST  CLASS  MAIL  PERMIT  NO,  10008  WASHINGTON,  D.C. 


NO  POSTAGE 

NECESSARY 

IF  MAItED 

IN  THE 

UNITED  STATES 


POSTAGE  WILL  BE  PAID  BY  ADDRESSEE 


^  Schools 

McGraw-Hill  Continuing  Education  Center 
4401  Connecticut  Avenue,   NW 
Washington,   DC   20078-3543 


li.lilll..illi.iln<ll.ilinllnlrl..li.l„ll.lnl,l 


SoundBlaster  Pro-Il-compatible  sound  card, 
speakers,  headphone,  microphone,  and  software 
—  al!  yours  to  u*ain  with  and  keep. 

Your  multimedia  program 
takes  shape  as  you  learn  about 
interactivity  and  principles  of 
interface  design.  You  put 
yourself  in  the  user's  shoes: 
-    What  will  make  your 

program  exciting  so  that 
people  will  want  to  use  it? 
What  will  your  interface 
buttons  look  like?  How  will 
they  work?  Refer  back  to 
your  Preliminary  Design 
Document,  and  you'll  find 
many  of  the  answers  you 
need  to  help  you  create 
detailed  flowcharts  and  storyboards  of  your 
program  design  on  paper.  Then,  using  the 

Flowchart  software  included  in  your 
course,  you  recreate  your  program 
design  on  your  own  computer. 

You're  now  ready  to  breathe  life 
into  your  program  using  professional 
quality  Asymetrix  ToolBook" 
software  included  in  your  next 
project.  With  its  object-oriented 
technology,  this  easy-to-use  authoring 
tool  has  you  quickly  entering 
text,  graphics,  animation,  and  CD  audio - 
all  provided  on  the  exclusive  NRl 
Multimedia  Resources  CD  -  to  create  a 
content-rich,  high-impact  multimedia 
program,  one  you  can  use  to  sell  your 
services  to  future  clients. 

What's  more,  NRFs  unique 
training  also  includes  lessons  that  ^^  ^ 

show  you  how  to  market  your  services    ^p  I 
and  manage  professional  projects.  By    1^^^ 
the  time  you  complete  your  course, 
you'll  have  the  technical  know-how,  business 
saw^^  and  total  confidence  to  take  advantage 
of  today's  opportunities  in  Multimedia. 

Send  Today  For  Your  Free  Catalog 

Send  for  your  free  full-color  catalog  that 
describes  ewr;  aspect  of  NRFs  breakthrough 
uaining  in  multimedia.  If  the  card  is  missing, 
write  to  NRl  Schools,  McGraw-Hill  Continu- 
ing Education  Center,  4401  Connecticut 
Ave.,  NW,  Washington,  DC  20008. 

CARD   152 


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