» EXPERT ADVICE • BEST BUYS • TOP TIPS • HOT NEWS \
\ V V
W Pagmtrsam 2 enters the DTP fray - can it
provide anything new? page 39
• PROGRAMMING
$ Find out which is the best programming
JJJ language for you - we've tested out every
* angle one., page 85
I EDUCATION
m We recommend the
2 software that can
& help your pre-school
and infant children
IP get a head-start
in life page 82
ISSUE 2 • JUNI 1991 • THE MAGAZINE FOR AMIGA BUYERS
Essential sti
bulletin boards
guide to using
page 47
Get the full story on how PC emulation
can open up a whole new world of
business software for you.,.,.... page 67
VIDEO SHOW
Is Scala the best
presentation
software ever?
Our video expert
reveals the truth
for you... page 62
Whatever your problem with the
Amiga we will solve it - get in touch
With our panel of experts page 17
FULL REVIEWS PAGESTREAM 2 COLOURPIC
SEQUENCER ONE KCS POWERBOARD SCALA "|uiure
ZY-FI BROADCAST TITLER 2 THE THINKER —
'770961 "730001
I 1 Over 50^)00 have joined Special Reserve - the club which offers more for less with no obligation to buy
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1999 WAVYSEALS ......16 4&
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17.49 OPERATION STEALTH /l6.9fl
1899 OVERRUN |l MEG) (SSI) m&S
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1{J99 PHOTOHPAINT 6.49
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699 PLAYER MANAGER 13-49
1699 POLICE QUE ST 2 M MEG) (SIERRA) ..25.49
16 '10 POOL OF RADIANCE . 1 MEG: 1SSI1 19 99
19 99 POPUUOUS PROMISED LANDS . 9 49
19.99 POWER UP CHASE H 0. TUftRlCAN. XOUT
899 ALTERED BEAST flAiNBQWISLANOSl 1999
169^ POWERDRIFT ..599
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9 99 POWERMONGER DATA DISK 1 11.99
1 8 49 POWERWORKS (MAXtPlAN PLUS
9 49 SPREADSHEET KIND WORDS 2 &
1199 INFOFILE DATABASE. - 36 99
$99 PftEDATOR2 15.99
7.99 PRINCE OF PERSIA ..1. .1899
7.99 PRO TENNIS TOUR 2
I AMIGA A500 COMPUTER SCREEN GEMS
1 + TV MODULATOfl MOUSE . E5AC K TO THE FUTU RE 2.
I DAYS OF THUNDER. BEAST 2. DELUXE PAINT 2 &
I NIGHTBREED 349.99
I PHILIPS 6833 MK2 MONITOR
I COLOUR STEREO WITH AMIGA LEAD 269-99
I AMIGA ASD1 51 2K RAM UPGRADE
I.T01 MEG- GENUINE ITEM WITH CLOCK 44.9)9
I TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS AMIGA
I 51 2K RAM UPGRADE WITH CLOCK 34.99
IZYDEC AMIGA 51ZK
I RAM UPGRADE WJTH CLOCK 34.99
AMIGA A590 20 MEG HARD DRIVE
(AUTOBOOT WITH KICKSTART. SOCKETS
FOR 2 MEG OF RAM. SCSI INTERFACE) 209.99
CUMANA EXTERNAL DISK DRIVE
CAX354 3.5"8&OKFOR A50C OR A2000 79.9f9
ROCTEC SLIM DISK DRIVE
EXTERNAL AMIGA DISK DRIVE RF332C 59.99
I DUST COVER FOR AMIGA <CLEAR FVC, 3.99
I DUST COVEH FOR PHILIPS MOWtTOR 5.99
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a DELUXE MUSIC CONSTRUCTION SET i5.99 PROTEXT WORD PROCESSOR V4
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1999
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59 99
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DEMONIAK
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MEY ANIMATION STUDIO
iGOMWARS
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DHAKKHEN
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DUNGEON MASTER EDITOR S.99 R060C0P 2
DYNASTYWARS 6.49 ROCKET RANGER
EMOTION 6i9 RUBICON
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ELVIRA -MISPRESS OF DARKM MEG| 20.49 SHADOW OF HE BEAST
ENCHANTER fSUDGETj 9 49 SHADOW WARRIORS
EPIC ... '6 99 SHERMAN M4
ESCAPE FROM SINGE'S CASTLE 23.99 SIERRA IH i ! . r . I'AiK CCvONELS
E5WAT 1S99 BEOUEST. CONOUE&TS Of CAME LOT.
EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE.. 1&99 COOENAME TC EMANJ
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I Flfl FALCON MBSKM DISK 1 tl.gg SKYFOX JL
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F16 INTERCEPTOR 9.49 SPACE HARRIER 2
F19 STEALTH FIGHTER 19.99 SPACE QUEST 3 iSlERRAi
I F21RETALIATOR 10 49 SPEEDBALL .
FAST BREAK I BASKETBALL]. 5-OT SPEEDSAtL 2
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FEUDAL LORDS 16^ SPY WHO LOVED ME .. .
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FISTSOFFURY 19-99 SUPER CAHS 2
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tl 99 RICK DANGEROUS J,
1199 RICK DANGEROUS 2
iq.99 noeocop
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FLAMES OF FREEDOM (MIDWINTER 3i 21, M
SoHware Prices irclude UK or EEC Poslage-
WorkJ software ord&j"s please add £1 -DO par item.
For nan sOtlwarC .rem;. ;,i,.:h ,is ;2y£:i(SiS or blank nnM
ptease acW 10% EEC o* 25f& Wertd l^ r carnage.
Overseas order? mygt ba paid by credit card-
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G H EQ U E; P. ,'V I S A/AC C E S S/M AST ERC A R D/S WITCH
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HARPOON
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IVAN STEWARTS OFF ROAU RACER tfe 99
J NICKLAUSGOLF #749
J N1CKI AUS VOL I COURSES .10 I.!
J NICKLAUS VOL2 INT COLJRSES - .RlO.*
JAMES POND
JET (SUBLOGIC)
KHALAAN ..
SUPER MONACO GRAND PRIX 16 99
SUPERBASe PERSONAL 2 1 DATABASE)... 71 49
749 SUPERPLANM MEGl iSPREADSHEET), 7149
13 49 SUPREMACY . 19«
ISflfl SWITCHBLAOE2 ..
799 SWW
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1549 TEAMYANKEE ._X
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699 THEME PARK MYSTERY
5 49
THREE STOOGES JCINE MAWAfiEj. 5.99
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TRIAD VOI :l ;ii5 J EEDBALL. BLOOO
9 49 MONEV. ROCKET RANGER) 11-99
I TA°> lUfleO SILVER .GRAPHICS - MIMATIONt
" TURRICAN2
T ■-' SPORTS BASKETBALL
ULTIMA 5
ULTIMATERIDE
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699 WARLORDS (1MEOI
699 WHEELSOFFIRE
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.J99 WOLFPAC-KliMEGi
lfi-99 WONDERLANO 1 1 MEG. 4M SCROLLSl
1699 WORKBENCH 1.3
WRATH OF THE DEMON
KEHOMQflPH
XENON 3 MEGA&LAST
6.99 XIPHQ5
■499 Z-OUT
14 99 ZGRKaiBUDGFTi
Back row lefl to right
COMPETITION PHO EXTRA GLO GREEN 13.49
QUICKJOY JET FIGHTER JOYSTICK 13,93
QLHCKSHOT111A TURBO 2 JOYSTICK S.9B
OJICKSHOT130F PYTHON JOYSTfCK 9-99
TURBO BLASTER JOYSTICK 9.99
COMPETITION PRO EXTRA GLO RED 13.49 |
Frgnt raw lelt ED rightl
TURBO (RAPID FlP L E^JOYPAD 14 99 I
ROCTEC MOUSE FOR AMIGA 15 99 |
OUICKSHOT127 STARFfGHTER REMOTE
CONTROLLER + TWO INFA-RED JOYPAOS 29.99 I
OUICKSHOT138F MAVERICK 1 JOYSTICK 12L99 |
Other items not shown
COMPETITION PRO 5000 BLACK TQ.99 I
COMPETITION PRO 5000 MEAN GREEN 1 0.99 |
COMPETITION PRO &D00 RED/WHITE 9 ""
COMPETITION PRO 5fl00 WHJTE 10.G9 I
COMPETITION PRO EXTRA COMBAT , 12-99
COMPETITION PRO EXTRA CLEAR 13-49
CONTRIVER C820A ATARI ST MOUSE 23.99 1
FOUR PLAYER AiMlGJVATAfl I ST JOYSTICK
ADAPTOR (FOR KICK OFF ? ETC! 7.99 I
MOUSE MAT 3-99
NAKSHA MOUSE. BRACKET AND MAT (AM1GA:ST| .£i.99
POPULOUS.'FALCON LEAD \ NULL MODEM) 7.99 |
CITIZEN SWIFT 9 COLOUR: PRINTER
FRICTION S TRACTOR, 213 CP&'36 NLO, COLOUR.
2* MONTHS WARH.ANTY 199-99
CITIZEN SWFT COLOUR PRINTER RIBBON 14.99
PRINTER LEAD AM iGA OR ST 9.99
OLYMPUS 14" OPTIK LEAO GLASS
ANTI-RADIATION* REFLECTION FILTER 74.99
POWERWORKS SUITE INCLUDING
KINO WORDS? WORD
PROCESSOR.
MAXIPLAN PLUS
SPREADSHEET AND
INFOFILE DATABASE
WITH MAIL MERGE 36.49
KIND WORDS Z WORD
PROCESSOR
WITH SPELL-CHECKER.
THESAURUS
AND SUPER FONTS 19-99
CONTENTS
SHOPPING LIST
This is an alphabetically sorted,
quick-reference list to everything in
the issue. Just look for the relevant'
name of the software, hardware
or subject and it should be here.
Some things ore cross-referenced
under more than one heading for
ease of use.'
AmigaDOS. .79
AMOS 60
Answers ........;. 3 7
Assembly language ..85&91
Basic language 85
Broadcast Ti Her,... , 62
Bulettin boards 47
Business 67
C language 85
CofourPic... 54
Comms 47
Deluxe Paint IB 29
Deluxe Photolab 29
Desktop publishing...,; ..39
DtglpomfttL. ...29
Education .:..,......„....:, ...82
Express Paint, , .29
Floppy disk drives 107
Graphics .;. ..54
Hard disk drives 105
KCS Powerboard 67
Letters^ 12
logo..,.. „.... .85
Modulo 2,... 85
Mouse'...,:..., 77 .
Music ■ 70
MyPaini ;... 29
News; 5
Pagestream.. .39
Pa mt : programs. ....... ..,'.,... .29
Pascal .85
Photon Paint 2....... .,29
Programming languages. ........85 ; :
Public Domain 1 1 3
'Questionnaire' , 59 ;
Reader ads 99
Scab , 62
Sequencer One 70
^Subscriptions., ^....l 1 1
The Graphics Studio.. 29
Thinker,,, ,.:,.. 73
Truemouse ;... 77
US news,,.., '....8-
Video 62
Zy-R speakers <..... .77 ■■.
(%• CONTACTS
Bob Wade -Editor
30 MonmoulK Street, Bafti BA1 2BW
« 022S 442244
Advertising
Margaret Clarke - Advertising Manager
2nd Ftaor, Rayner House, 23 Higher
Hillgale, Stock port SKI 3ER
"061474 7333
Subscriptions
TtieOtd Bom, Somerfon, Somerset
TA1 1 7PY
» 0458 7401 1
IlfU H^Pltfj? llkl #MP^^l%g
FEATURES
Paint programs revealed in all their glory.
Art on Trial 21
2D paint programs go under the microscope.
Questionnaire 59
Help make this an even better magazine by telling
us exactly what you want from it.
Programming Languages 85
Find out which programming language is the one
For you and what they can do best.
REVIEWS
Pagestream 2 39
The latest contender in the DTP program wars.
CoiourPic 54
Get some gorgeous grabs with this digitiser.
Scala 62
Full review of this exciting new presentation program.
Broadcast Titler 62
Can you be without this for your video work?
KCS Powerboard 67
Get a taste of the world of PC compatibility.
Sequencer One 70
Time For this one to face the music - but will it dance?
Thinker 73
Find out what all this talk of hypertext is about.
Zy-Fi Speakers 77
Will your ears be deafened, delighted... or plugged?
Truemouse
Check out the latest rodent to join the scurrying race.
77
Whatever your problem with the Amiga we
will solve it - get in touch with our panel of
experts page 17
REGULARS
News 5
Special US report that keeps you right up to date with
all the new hardware and software launches.
Letters 12
You have your say and the Editor has his.
Desktop Publishing 39
Can Pagestream 2 take Professional Page 2's crown
as the top Amiga DTP program?
Comms 47
Find out exactly how to use bulletin boards,
Graphics 54
Get into grabbing with the CoiourPic video digitiser.
AMOS 60
More invaluable programming hints and tips.
Video 62
5ca/o and Broadcast Tiller 2 put through their paces.
Business 67
Find out how you can run all that PC business
software on your own little Amiga.
Music TO 7
Will Sequencer One be music to your ears?
Education 82
All the best software for pre-school and infant kids.
Reader Ads 99
Find a bargain or sell your own unwanted stuff.
Buyers' Guide 105
Crucial guide to which floppy or hard disk you need.
Buyers' Advice
Get our advice on buying stuff safely.
108
Subscriptions 1 1 1
Make sure you get your Amiga Shopper every month.
TUTORIALS
Assembly Language
77
AmigaDOS
81
PUBU5J$*A«
Everything you need to know about finding and
using free software can be found in our special
section starting on page 113.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •JUNE 1991
Choices to Keep you ■. * f
pellbound at TridyAJFmj^
^Wizard Priced t
/JfflBEtLDDaS "m? TTSffi]
HOLLYWOOD
COLLECTION
F19 STEALTH
FIGHTER
ROBOCOF II
DICK TRACY
All of iwrfwoniies ■" ™ KSnijodnd box, somelt™
for everm* mdoilns BATMAN, RQBOCOf I, CHOSTEffSftRS II
nut IHDMNA JONES *N D THE LAST CRU SADE.
Forget the resL.TrllS E THE FLIGHT OF FANTASY! Owt 409,100
square miles; over 3300 possible missions, iM, Mai or
CDrofcilionnrl war, 4 grades of Ofjcronerit, 4 world scenarios.
Follow up to ire highly successful 80000(1 ! This Him teat gome
has go) ill the otfon of its predecessor AND MORE!
comic detective plus Big Buy, Flattop, Fluneta and
5nn that i(
l*w Brow, All ih a comic coper
ichal
itiomttishorondcoat
and lit Itie slreels h seo'tfi at Big Boy (/nice and his gong,
SPIEDBAL I 2 ^ w&*A Speodboll \m become a clesstc.Try this am for size!
A lutice sport scenario where you hove In mister the technique
or scaling.. .or else!
DUCK TALES Vou've got to roce across the globe to Find your Fortune and became
1 The Behest Dock in roe Wortf' I A area! afvenhne dial requites all youi
sUt end courage.,, ARE you DIM ENOUGH I
MUTANT toioKlfo, Mdndongelo. Raphoel, leonordo and all the usual
Turtles deroctere. ..oh arte otlicm pocked gome !
tNM®& W$m ®5 "LTCGtl ®®°s \PBti3m
NOW THERE ARE TWOI
TtwIotoKy Mow 1Mb..
AMIGA CLASS OF THE 90's '
Amiga AS 00 Computer
A501 0.5Mb Upgrade
Pro-Write 2.5 (W.P)
Deluxe Paint II
Deluxe Print II
Infofile (Dboie) ,,, ,
Music Moust /"
Amiga Logo
Talking Turtles
NEW NEW
let's Spelt at Home
BBC Emulator
1 Commodore Disks R
Mouse Mot
Resource File
| Owl pf fiWallafi Tjihnatog i
£52C
Add a Sortejort Pock T(»(
MW NEWl
AMIGA
"CLASS OF THE 90's
Amiga A500 Computer.
ASOl 0.5Mb Upgrade,
Mid] Inrorfate,
BBC Emulator,
Dduxo Point It, Amiga Logo,
Suaercosc Personal,
mpKtplan, Publishers Choir.,
Dl T's Midi RoeoriUrig Studio,
1 Blank Disks, mouse Mai,
Diskette Wallet
! £529
Add d Sarcerors Pock Tool
NEW
HERO TUHTISS
TEAM SUZUKI
UMMINGS
MIQ29
A vector teeing game on bikes that really shift. And we realty ore
talking fast! Qvtee the riders, pick their skills and bam some rubber!
Oh no tbe cute Ernie Amines ore dropping into dongfli, only you
con save their cute little lives! Huge gome wish some lafaLSy
incredible action. Frustrating, amusing and addiclwel
THE FINAL WORD IN FLIGHT EJMILATM
One of oar best selling lidas I
£23"
IrrpE2M»
£23"
[rrpEB.WI
£19"
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£19"
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SUPEBIUE tyeitrptaonril^lLffi £29-"
miOupet Fonts fn-HidiTh i«./n^~merw.
£114"
NOME
«Htl KIT
C3ttio$£ on*? of our Qreut Value Sarrerora
Pacts to go with ytmr new Amiga....
©OOOG© ...
SORaRORS PACK I
MtMseMat
.taiga Ofrsl C
HftfA mi
Tf n ilank Bits u library Cos*
aNMUYtM
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rewc^faTiire'uws! JUKnonrjr.at'^i.itirflortp Wfm*fl
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Amigi A500 wirli Hudvluior, Mouse, 1 Mog Internal Disk
Drive, SV2K RAM, oil Catinortlng Lendi, Kkkstorl 1.1 GoiNn
S]]eeui Synthesis. 4D96 Cdaurs, Molli'Tuskioa Warkbenrh L3
System Disk and lull set of Amiga Manuals
ahd Including an asoi d.smi ham uporadei
FIVE GREAT
SOFTWARE TITLES -"
Back to Ihs Future II, , ?
Beast II, Days of i/- :
Thunder, Niohtbreeii, w«"
S Deluxe Point II L
3IG SHEEN 1 ILQCKBlllTLRV IROUCHf 10
■(011k AMIGA FOE SMALL SCREEH AatOH!
£369
Add a Sorcerers Pack Too!
COMMODORE 1084S £259
14" Stereo High Res, Stereo Colour
PHILIPS CM 8833/11 £249
1 4 M Stereo Med, Res. Stereo Colour with Green
Switch & 1 Jmortths. on site maintenance
PHILIPS CM 8833/11 ,**•*
As above but with 'designer' markings and a
kit lo apply to your keyboard lo match
ST AR LC 1 Mono Wi n ot Matrix MON
STAR LC 24/10 Mom 24Pin Dol Mat. MONO
STAR LC 200 Colour 9 Pin Dot Mai. COLOUR (XaU
STAR LC24/200 Mono 14 Pin Dot Moi. MONO £75 S
STAR LC24/200 Cokwir2ffin Dot Hoi. COLOUR ! Call
CITIZEN*!!
COMMODORE A590 2Q Mb. HARP IMSK DRIVE
HEW LOW PUKE H« 1HE UNT*0»nilAiTt>
£279
«9*
C_COMWODOBE 1011
"~ 3.5" SECOND DRIVE
. q'** Com model res OWN SKternal add on drivu
v AND FULLY COMPATIBLE with YOUR Amiga...
_i C"nmpD«l»l«i- with ALL Arnlgos &fi§fc"
i 500, 1 OCH}, 7L1DD, 4 3CHD0J A ^m g% » »
. \ aflOK Fornintled Capacity ■ ^^ M ^M '
■ Mr- nxlerrnal jjuwBr lequl rad ^Wta-W y
\
Pen Pal.u
PnibkiMy the best Word Processor •
I Jt!j "* birotind at tills price! Entegrnted
r\ i --. Graphics and Real Database wt
, Pen PsJ ahead of the rustl See
T&lM U Amifia Fonriat r s rave review!
Fl When.^'CHJ tjtftwv** dw bestE
f\ 'ft £79.95
L.' . %[^<K \rtiiriLi nirPt IMh rn i.ur
Merlin art now Aolhartsed filrzen Deolors
t, olraurie cmZEHS ! VIAR WAHttNIV
(rwani on even aono. e«k op for vool
CITIZEN 120D+-9 Pin Dal Matrix, MONO £13" I
CITIZEN 124D -24 Piin Dot Matrix. MONO C20S
CITIZEN SWIFT 9 -V Pin Dot Matrix, MONO
-9 Phi Dot Motrin, COLOUR C229
CITIZEN SWIFT 24 -24 Pin Dot Motrin, MONO — «*•
-24 Pin Dot Motrix, COLOU* - £31*
— i i i ajwwiHU i n
QUALITY COMMODORE BLANK DISKS
BOX OHO 19 15
BOX OF FIFTH 144.95
IX OF IUO and FRET LockobleStcnooe Box tS4 95
£39
(5+je Uslings), add
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— oAult lepcroiely Pka» odt lot pc««
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1 D Super Gomes IRRP £224.50).
S*J 1 -NEW software thle from oar Sorierons 'TOP TE N
SELECTION 1 (sMfistf-- -■-■
PHONE FOB LATEST PRICES ON ALL PRODUCTS.
H°CA
06KM
\ ALL MERtiNS PRICES INCLUDE VAT, (AND POSTAGE far smaller hems) UK Mainland only.
WHItel evetv eifort is mada to ensuira Dial the infai-matjDn sJhowji in ouradVciliMmEnt is correct, you should ALWAYS CDnlifm any Offers, Prices, Avaitorjility etc. prior to plKtag
your order. We endeavour to supply everything as shown aiid *« will ONLY change anything should it be forced upon us by manufacturers o< our suppliers. Because our
advertising is booked so far in aitvanct, Merlin Iherelore reserve me rloht lo alter equipment specifications, withdraw any prodi)-ci , 'ciisijf or updale prices (rind tnai can
be either up OR down), wittsoul prior nolice. PLEASE CHECK DETA3LS PRIOR TO ORDERING.
Me rli n ouafamee WEVER to supofy arryiTHng that has been subject to chauffe wllhovt you. the customer, uetng Inlormed ol and agreeing lo that change.
*0
2441
;1442
x Just phoas our 24 ho-ur order line using your Accgs$/Vita card, OR,
£ send a cHeque/poslal order with your requirement delails. (Cheques
i? neLrd clearance unless IesuclI ny Barnk.'Bullding Society tor you}
° Small hems will be despalchad by post FflEE to all UK Mainland
"ec. afiresses. Hardware Is despatched by courier service (up tu 25Kg| at
S .allows: NEXT WORKING DAT... adit £6 lo order, TWO WORKING DAYS
5 - add £Bir for SPECIAL SATURDAY DELIVERY,, ,adtf jilSl E1Z
a (Merlin will ALWAYS despatch day ol order unless otherwise discussed)
fc Hartware Ihrlprcm tnUlty within 3D d»yi will be ewhanuerJ lor HEW, *«bt 3D ttayt.
7= J within 12 rnrlli tram purch-nsu, lautls will bs fKllEled b, the- reletllH FTFantlncliaren:"
k rvpilr aiienl and ^turned Id yiiLE by coiir.Br.
* 'Sflttwari will ha eulringid toMhe SAME TITLE and mj will raFund pkiihvge should Hit
Had arise-. Other goodi carry virlouc warranties, plajie ask fp,T daljilt.
u Marflit Eqrren are prederniriintlya mail order company biri w* welcome cuilomen la
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MCRUt
EXPRESS
LIMIT
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STATION ROAD, ILKESTON, DERBYSHIRE. Df
TELEPHONE: 0602 441442 FAX: 0602 4
GREAT PRICES, GREAT D E A L S . . . T H AT ' s THE MAGIC OF HI E R L
ALL our currentlv advertised otters suwsede anv previously advertised offer(s) and goods are NOT supplied on a ti
AMIGA NEWS
User group news
by Janet Biekerstaff
Are you getting the most from
your Amiga? If not, why not
join a user group. There are
OUGs (Independent
Com muffore Products Users
Group) in many parts of the
country. One friendly crowd is
ICPUG South West, which
meets at the Queen's Arms
Hotel, Charmouth, near
Bridport, Dorset, on the second
Sunday of the month at 10 am.
Members take their own
machines along to the
meetings. All machines are
covered. The organiser, Pete
Miles, is the organiser for the
whole of the ICPUG Amiga PD
software library - around 800
disks in ail - which are free to
members. Being a member of o
user group is your chance for
individual help and advice, so
get in touch.
Peter Miles, ICPUG South West
» 0297 60339
RAM it home
by Cliff Romshaw
Amiga 500 owners now have
even more ways to increase their
computer's memory, with the
announcement by Supra of their
500RX RAM expansion unit.
It comes supplied with 2Mb
already installed, with the
capacity to take a further 6Mb
internally to bring the 500 up to
its full quota. The unit also takes
zero wait state, fast RAM with
hidden refresh.
With vital statistics of 9.5"
long by 2.5" high by 1" wide, it
should leave plenty of desk-space
free. It plugs into the Amiga's
expansion slot, but includes a
throughport - a major advantage
for A500 owners, since it means
further peripherals such as the
A590 hard drive can be added
afterwards. Also, any RAM in the
A590 can be used in conjunction
with the Supra 500RX RAM (up
to the Amiga's maximum of
8,5Mb). The Supra 500RX with
2Mb is £169 From WTS.
Supra » 010 1 503 967 9075
WIS "0582 491949
A HELLO TO ARMS
Robotics comes to the Amiga
with the Alfred Robot System
from Think. Alfred is a
miniaturised replica of the
irtdustri of robots bu i It by
HadenHill Systems - a
mechanical arm with five axes
of revolution - and is intended
primarily for educational use.
it is also reckoned to
provide some 'stimulating
activities of therapeutic value
for disabled people'.
Software is included that
displays motor positions, learns
and replays robot movements
and allows the student to relate
software instructions to robot
positions. The arm and
software costs £360.
Think « 021 384 4168
Digita get up
in the clouds
What masterpieces are about to
be composed on Digito's new
Wore/worth word processor?
With the look and feel of Workbench
2 ond the ability to use pictures, multiple
fonts and colours in the same document,
vVordworf/i is likely to raise the
standards in the Amiga's tired word
processor market. It comes with an
impressive list of features: headers and
footers, variable page sizes, extensive
editing tools, speech, and so on.
Output can be sent to arty
Preferences-based printer. As well as
reading and writing
ASCII and IFF format
files, Wordworth can
support formats used by
other word processors
such as Protext.
Also included is a
110,000-word English
dictionary and a
thesaurus, both by
Collins. The price is
£129.95 including VAT.
Digita International
tr 0395 270273
CGFfUfS FM9SMS
S2BS i i su fKi« tJ fm
Hera*
■"TtV
IK ■■$,'&?*
am
4 - Cit&i
1* Hi* -p#*«nttft- jfsw**i .
■ i n tli-e pa* JEW 3S>h . ia = jbft : ■ ■
C6twasd (Edit k*bb>""' : .'
th* infppn*tirjn- * antvURptt
Wax lyrical with a copy of the new Wordworth vioiti
processor, or should that be prose-setter?
Plug into the fast lane
by Cliff Romshaw
Shift your Amiga into overdrive with two new
accelerator boards From the American firm
Great Valley Computers.
Called the A3050, the first is a revamp of
their older 50MHz 68030 accelerator board.
If comes with 4Mb of RAM as standard, and is
expandable up to 32Mb. An optional extra is
either a 1 20Mb or half-height 340Mb Maxtor
hard drive unit. All of this can be fitted into the
A2000's CPU slot, leaving the expansion slots
free for Further goodies. The base model, with
4Mb, is available for £1995.
The second board, the A2000 Combo,
also uses a 68030, and is available in two
versions: with a clock speed of 22MHz and
1Mb of RAM, expandable to 13Mb; and a
clock speed of 44MHz with 4Mb of RAM
expandable to 16Mb.
Both versions of the accelerator boards
include GVP's Series II autobooting SCSI
controller and come with connectors for
attaching internal and external drives. An
optional hard drive is also available and has a
capacity of up to 340Mb. .
The 22MHz version starts at £799 and
the 33MHz version at £1495, but these prices
are provisional at present.
GVP«010 1 215 337 8770
Power Computing » 0234 843 388
Switching made safe
No more yanking mice
from their homes and
feverishly slamming
[oysticks into place
when playing a two-
player game (This is
when I'm out of the
office is it? - Ed),
With Josty UK's
new Ro bo shift
interface, both a
mouse and joystick can
share the same port.
Selection between the
two devices is achieved
by pressing either the
left mouse button or
the joystick fire button.
Josty UK
o 0642 769000
Both your mouse and joystick can comfortably share the same
hole with Josty UK's latest two-in to-one interface.
Cast your
net WIDl
Better international
communications are now a
possibility with the
introduction of The Direct
Connection. This allows
anyone with a modem
access to USENET News,
the world's largest on-line
conferencing network.
USENET is different
from ordinary bulletin
boards in that it is not based'
on a single computer that
users call up, but is instead
a system whereby messages
are passed across an
enormous network of
machines. It carries
information on many diverse
subsections (eg Amtgas,
sports, literature, jobs,
games) ond is supported by
many universities and
colleges, user groups and
government bodies.
Normally this
information is only available
to users of large computer
systems, but The Direct
Connection allows a home
user with a modem and
communications software to
get connected for £1 1 .75 a
month. A free on-line
demonstration is available
by dialling:
i*081 853 3965.
The Direct Connection
b 081 853 2283
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
AMIGA NEWS
Bars and Pipes
turns professional
by Jon Bates
The ever colourful and unique
Bars and Pipes now has a
business-like brother.
Bars and Pipes Professional, which
Amiga Shopper reported was at the
Frankfurt Music Show in a test version, is
Bars and Pipes is given a dose of bells and whistles
to help place it firmly in the professional mould.
now released in the UK. Along with
professional traits, such as proper
notation display, editing and print out, it
has many other improvements and a host
of new features.
The main screen now has movable
windows; the transport controls are re-
sizable and in o
movable window;
editing is also possible
with on event editor
display. The 'toolbox' of
goodies that processes
the data in a seeming
artificially intelligent
fashion has been
enlarged with Groove
designed quantize,
Tempo Tap, Pattern
looping and more new
tools are on the way -
the more usual tools and
add-ons are completely compatible.
Song Construction has been enhanced
graphically and there is an automated
mix-down window as standard.
For professional users it will line up
with video timing by using a Time-Line
facility that positions cues exactly in
SMPTE display. For 1 Mb owners there
are now four memory-saving features to
maximise the space availoble and the
program comes with some demonstration
titles from the MusicWare catalogue -
the brand name of the pre-arranged Midi
song disks that American authors. Blue
Ribbon Soundworks (formerly Blue
Ribbon Bakery] are now handling.
The UK price has yet to be fixed, but
should be available by our next issue -
on sale June 6 - which will also be
carrying a full review.
Blue Ribbon Soundworks
b 010 1 404 377 1514
Trade show
GETS SERIOUS
by Janet Bickerstaff
CDTV has been hailed as the
C64 of the 90s by Commodore
chief, Steve Franklin. Speaking
to dealers at the European
Computer Trade Show, London,
last April, he said: "Computers
don't turn me on. This is the first
product from a computer
company that really excites me/'
Dealer reaction was mixed, with
one heard to mutter, "Does he
know about the Amiga?"
Commodore sales manager
Kelly Sumner told dealers that
the marketing of CDTV must be
to dissociate the concept from
computers. He called for a four-
foot exclusion zone around in-
stare displays to ensure the
public perceived CDTV as o
non>technical, user-friendly unit.
At the show itself,
entertai n men! software
predominated. However,
educational software for the
Amiga showed an upturn as it is
now being marketed by several
companies - Alternative
Software, Genisofl and Soft Stuff
all had a good selection. Soft
Stuff will also be marketing Fun
School for CDTV.
Digita International, HiSoft
and Precision were all showing
new business software. HiSoft
previewed HiSoft Basic 2 and
Precision Software presented
Superoase Professional 4.
HiSoflw 0525 718181
Precision Software
*081 3307166
Make animation child's play
by Stan Hay ward
Chromacoiour has relaunched
Soffoons, a low-cost line-test
program, for the Amiga 500.
Though real animators don't
use computers, all professional
studios now use computer-based
linetest machines for checking the
timing and movement of a
sequence prior to shooting.
Such machines were typically
in the £15-20 thousand range, but
in 1989 Chromacoiour, an
animation equipment ond
materials supplier, launched a
line-test system at a cost of around
£9 thousand.
The response from the animation
industry was predictably bad, but
surprisingly there were numerous
enquiries from schools, hospitals,
and even prisons who saw the
machine as a low budget teaching
system. In response to this,
Chromacoiour has recently
repackaged and relaunched the
program to work on an A500 as
a personal - as against studio-
based - system.
The total system comprises
A500, 20MB hard disk, digitiser,
genlock, basic video equipment
for animation, and the So/toons
line-test program. For those who
Harlequin shows true colours
by Cliff Ramshaw
Users who are really serious about Amiga graphics mil be interested in the Harlequin 32-
bit graphics board from the Amiga Centre Scotland.
The board, which attracted much
attention at the CEBIT show in
Hanover during March, will enable
the creation of broadcast-quality full-
colour computer-generated images at
a greatly reduced cost compared to
rival systems with similar
specifications. Prices start at £1400.
The introduction of the Harlequin
board marks a change in attitude of
the Amiga Centre Scotland, which
sees itself as moving up-market.
From now on they intend to
concentrate on business and
educational applications, believing
that most people are unaware of the
Amiga's power in these fields.
Amiga Centre Scotland
it 031 557 4242
already have an A500, Soffoons
and digitiser can be added for
£750. A professional system with
9Mb of memory and necessary
video equipment comes in at
around £4,000.
Chromacoiour is developing
other programs specifically for the
schools and home animation
market and expects to launch a
very simple animation package
later this year that children can
learn very quickly.
Chromacoiour
irOSl 675 8422
• Stan Hayward is the creator of
the TV cartoon, Henry's Cat
Music to your
WALLET
by Mark Smiddy
Musicians wili be pleased to
hear mat a new music authoring
tool has been released by
AmigaNuts United OctoMED is
an eightchannel music
synthesizer, based on MED3,
Features include: Id-
channel MIDI, sound sampler
with editing facilities, and a
synthesizer. Priced at £ 1 0, users
get OdoMED, two demo tracks,
example samples and
instruments, plus a PD player.
AmigaNuts United
» 0703 785680
Look, up
in the sky!
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's
a database. Superbase
Professional 4, from Precision
Software, swoops into the Amiga
market. An update on the 1988
version 3, it offers enhanced form
design, database definition and
programming. Documentation
comes with a tutorial and
applications examples.
The program handles
graphics and sound somples, and
can save and load files in dBase,
Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel formats, it
costs £411.19- Supertase 3
users can upgrade for £88.13.
Precision Software
i 081 330 7166
Mouse takes off
Amiga owners are spctftfor
choice so far as replacement
mice ore concerned. Now
logitech, purveyor of mice to the
PC world, has launched its first
for the Amiga Called ifte
LoglMouse Pilot, it uses an opto-
mechanical technique for
determining its positions, comes
with a self cleaning roller ball
and costs £27.
logitech v 0753 37222
I
Hi-res Amiga art takes a new turn as Harlequin 32-
bit graphics board supplies a view with a room.
Zen and the art
of anti-aliasing
Fed up with jagged edges on
your fonts? Then Anli A from
Zen Computer Services could
be the answer to your
problems. This £40 piece of
software will anti-alias normal
Amiga fonts in nine scaled-
down versions using four
brightness levels to smooth out
those jaggies. Because they
are stored in ColorFont format
they can also be used by any
program that supports it.
It will run on Amigas using
VI .3 or V2, handles fonts up to
300 point (or 200 point on a
512K machine], but for the
larger point sizes a 68020/30
would speed things up.
Zen Computer Services
= 061 793 1931
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
Our performance
& superior quality...
:\
...RESTS ON OUR NAME!
When it comes to mice and scanners, Naksba clearly lead
the way. Naksba build mice and scanners with high precision
designs and the very best components.
The Naksba Upgrade Mouse is silky smooth, operating at a high
280dpi resolution. Supplied with Mouse Mat and Pocket. No Cables
— No Fuss. Simply plug in and go.
Naksba Scanners with a switchable resolution between 200 and
400dpi halftones and dual roller tracking, remain straight and true. Naksba
Scanners come supplied with interface, "express IT" software and either
Degas Elite* or Deluxe Paint II*.
The Naksba Mouse and Scanner are available for both the Commodore
Amiga and the Atari ST range of computers.
For further information call (0925) 56398 OR any of our distributors listed below for your nearest
dealer OR visit any Dixons, Harrods, Selfridges, Bentalls or Makro store.
Degas Elite supplied for Atari. Deluxe Paint II supplied for Amiga.
Naksha(U.K.) Limited, 29 The Wharf, Warrington WA1 2HT. Tel: 0925 56398 Fax: 0925 574375
GEM (0279 442842)IBD (021 625 3302>SDL {081 300 3399>ZCL (0543 4l4817)-IAZER (0404 466601
HB MARKETING (0753 686000) GARWOOD (0245 46077) -LEISURESOFT (0604 768711)
UBERTY (0753 586805) COLUMBUS (0457 86O30O)*AV MARKETING (0279 452733)GENESIS (051 648 5402)
Trade marks and Registered Trade Marks are acknowledged
z
=1
O
i
<
<
AMIGA NEWS
New York goes
Amiga crazy
Our prolific American correspondent
Morton A Kevelson brings you a special report on
the US Amiga scene, visiting two recent New York
shows held within a month of each other which
were jam-packed with launches and exciting news
The horrendously expensive
world of pop video
production could soon be
within reach of Joe Public, it
was revealed at this year's New York
Amiga World Expo.
Using an Amiga-based video
system, musician and producer Todd
Rundgren has shown how telephone
number-sized budgets can be slashed
with artistry, imagination and toast.
Mr Rundgren, of Utopia and
Mearloaf's Bat Out Of Hell Fame,
provided the highlight of the show
with his new video, put together with
the aid of NewTek's Video Toaster.
Jaded hacks were wowed during
o NewTek press conference at the
New York Hilton venue with the
7,200-frame offering.
All change please
The Change Myself video, released in
conjunction with Todd's latest album,
2nd Wind, on the Warner Brothers
label was produced entirely by Todd
in his own home using the Video
Toaster and the Lightwave 3D
modelling and animation software
included in the package. The entire
video was completed in less than
three months. By comparison, it would
have taken six months at a cost of $2
million using conventional techniques
and an independent producer.
Some off-the-cuff remarks by Erick
Moody, president of Interactive Video
Systems, illustrate the feelings
generated by the first samples of what
could be done with the Video Toaster.
"I can see what he (Mr. Rundgren]
is doing and how he is doing it, and I
can see myself using the same
equipment, but there is no way that I
can come up with the kind of images
that he has in this video."
That is what makes Todd
Rundgren an artist. He can take these
products and make them do things
that we could never dream of, in spite
of our understanding of how these
tools work. I expect that we will be
Continuous live
demonstrations of the
Video Toaster by the
lithe and lovely Kiki
Stockhammer, left.
NewTek has clearly
demonstrated that
good low- level
support will catch the
public's eye.
The Amiga 500 below
contains the
following ICD
products: Novia 20i,
Flicker Free Video
adapter, AdRAM 500
with 6 Mb RAM,
AdSpeed 14.3 MHz
accelerator.
seeing more examples of unique
artistic expression (and an awful lot of
revolting acid house demos - Ed) as
the low cost of the Video Toaster puts
the means of video production into the
hands of the original artist.
Can't vid by toast alone
The Video Toaster and an Amiga do
not represent a complete video studio.
As well as the mandatory video
recorder and display monitor, several
additional sophisticated electronic
devices are required. A key
component is the time base corrector
(TBC) which stabilizes the signal
produced by a video tape recorder.
Without a TBC, multiple generation
video tape copies would be
impossible. Several TBCs could be
found at the show at price in line with
an Amiga-based video studio. These
Video on view
Here's what AmigaWorld Expo had to offer
with regard to video-related products, Bear
in mind thai most of these items, including
the Video Tooster/j are for use with the
American NTSC video standard. In view of
where Ehe Amiga market h located, I expect
developers will be offering European PAL
versions as soon as they possibly can.
Active Circuits was offering Roslerllflk,
Formerly ImageLink, for $ 1 99,95.
Raster! ink, which does not originate on an
island in the Caribbean, is a powerful
image conversion and imaging system that
is both Flexible and expandable, RasterLink
can convert images between a variety of
graphic file formats an the Amiga, PC and
Macintosh computers. TG All nk is a
$299.95 expansion module for Postedink
which allows direct control of Truevision
TARGA and AT Vista frame buffers using an
Amiga equipped with an XT or AT
Bridgeboard. GneLink is a $299,95
expansion module which can output directly
to high-resolution, 4000-line, 24-bir, digital
film recorders from Lasergraphtcs and
Presentation Technologies. Magnum/650 is
a $4995 removable media., erasable,
optical SCSI disk drive. Also in the Active
Circuits booth was the NEC PC-VCR which
can be controlled from the Amiga via the
RS-232 port. Last, but not least. Active
Circuits was demonstrating its CD-ROM File
system software on an NEC CD-ROM player
which was installed in the 5.25-inch drive
bay of an Amiga 2500.
Active Circuits, 19B5 Highway 34 A-4,
Wall, NJ07719
• 010 1 908 974 1616.
ASDG in conjunction with its continuing
effort to provide all of the solutions for the
Amiga's image processing needs,
announced new driver modules to be
included with the $240 Art Department
Professional K0.3, Registered owners of
prior releases will receive the upgrade at no
charge, ADPro 1.0,3 will provide direct
control of the Impulse FireCracker 24
display board and the PP&S FrarneGrobber
video digitizer. Image loader modules For
files stored in MacPaint and HAM-E formats
will be included as well. This brings to 21
the total number of drivers which will be
included with ADPro, ASDG also
announced ADPro support for a number of
high end imaging peripherals. The $200
Epson ES-300C driver (Summer 19911 will
let ADPro control this $1999, colour,
flatbed, A4-size [8,5 by 1 1,5 inches), 600-
dpi scanner. A $450 driver will also be
available (Summer T 99 1 ) for the $4500
Kodak SV6510 dye sublimation printer.
Available now is the $250 driver for the
Polaroid CI-3000 Digital Film Recorder.
ASDG, 925 Stewart Street, Madison, Wl
53713 ■ 010 1 608 273 6535.
Black Belt Systems was selling HAM£,
an RGB port display device which adds two
imaging modes to those already available
with the Amiga, NOTE - Ham-E is PAL
compatible. The first mode will display up to
256 colours out of a palette of 1 6,772,216
that is based on 24 bit-planes. The second
mode supports the simultaneous display of
262,144 colours based on 18 bits per
pixel, HAM-E offers o resolution of 384-
colour or luminance changes per scan line
by 482 lines in NTSC made and 570 lines
in PAL mode white outpufting standard RGB
video. Block Belt Systems is now offering an
improved version oF HAM-E. The Anti-Alias
Engine Is a real-time, special-purpose, maths
processing unit that doubles the number of
pixels that HAM-E sends to the monitor. This
does not increase the resolution of the
resulting Image, however, although the Anli-
8
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
AMIGA NEWS
Alios Engine does apply real-time smoothing
oF the image. HAM-E with the Anti-Alias
Engine will sell for $299.95. If you bought
HAM-E after February 1 5th, you con
upgrade if with the Anti-Alias Engine for
$149,95. If you acquired HAM-E before this
date you will receive a discount an the
upgrade Fee. The $299.95 HAM-E package
includes /mage Professional, a fully featured
2-4-bit paint and image processing program.
Black Beit Systems, 398 Johnson, Glasgow,
MT 59230
it 01 1 405 397 5599
Digital Creations was showing DCTV, a
$495, 24-bit, composite video display
adapter For the Amiga. DCTV includes a
built in slow scan video digitizer and video
pa i rising software. Digital Creations also
offers DCTV Animation and DCTV-RGB
converter, SuperGen, o $749.95 genlock
and SuperGen2000, a $1995 genlock.
Digital Creations, 2865 Sunrise Blvd, Suite
1 03, fiancho Cordova, CA 95670
"010 I 916 344 4825.
InSync is targeting the semi-professional
and professional video market with
Transitions, a collection of disk-based
animated sequences for use in commercial
video productions, A variety oF subjects ore
available ranging in price From $25 to $80.
These are high quality animations suitable
for commercial use. InSync also offered
Vidzeen, A Videogropher's Guide to Deluxe
Paint 111 which consists of a tutorial video
tape and a companion two disk set.
InSync, 410 Maple Ave, Westbury, NY
11590 b 010 1 516 574 0225.
MAST was showing Colorburst, a $549,
24-bit high-performance video display card
for the Amiga. NOTE - Colorburst is PAL
compatible. Colorburst features 1 ,5Mb of
video RAM in a 48 bitplane architecture.
Colorbursfs display resolutions ronge from
384 to 768 pixels horizontally. Vertical
resolution is 580 lines in PAL mode or 480
lines in NTSC mode.
Memory and Storage Technology, 1895
Greg Street, Sparks, NV 89431
• 01 1 702 359 0444.
MicroSearch was showing one of the
hottest new products at the show.
ChromaKey ts a $395 device which puts
live video in front of Amiga graphics (NOTE
-it is not PAL compatible). Keep in mind that
Amiga genlocks do just the opposite. Now
you too can be a TV weatherman. Both an
Amiga and an external genlock are
required to use ChromaKey. (YVe v/ill keep
you posted on o PAl version - £d)
MicroSearch, 9896 Southwest Freeway,
Houston, TX 77074
*010 1 713988 2818.
Newtek, in a classic case of the lail
wagging the dog, stole the show with the
undisputed star, the Video Toaster. In
NewTek's massive display booth show
goers were able to view Penn & Tellers
example of a horrible home made music
video, Todd Rundgren's example of a
superb home made music video, and
continuous live demonstrations of the Video
Toaster by the lithe and lovely Ktki
Sfockhammer. NewTek has clearly
demonstrated that good low-level support
will catch the public's eye.
NewTek, 215 E. 8th Street, Topeko, KS
66603 «010 1 913 354 1146.
Spirit Technology announced Studio A,
a genlock, encoder, keyer and switcher for
(he Amiga. Both NTSC and PAL version will
be available.
Spirit Technology, 220 W. 2950 South' Soil
Lake City, UT 841 15
f 010 1 801 485 4233
range From $995 for
a unit that installs in a
vacant PC slot in the
Amiga 2000 to
$1 ,295 and jp for a
selection of stand
alone units. These
prices are a fraction
of what these devices
were selling for less
than a year ago.
Check on the
immediate
availability af any
product mentioned in
this article. Release
dates ranged From
"two weeks" to "this summer", which
means you could be in for a wait if
you order blindly.
Quality not quantity
As for the rest of the proceedings,
with little more than 50 exhibitors and
11,421 visitors, what this show
lacked in quantity it more than made
up for in quality. The majority of
exhibitors were either developers of
original Amiga products or system
integrators, offering fully configured
Amiga packages for specific
applications. Many of these original
hardware and software developers
AMIGA WORLD EXPO, ICD's Novia 201, a complete,
2 Mb IDE hard drive system for the Amiga 500.
also introduced new products or
announced the pending release of
soon-to-be-completed products. The
common thread of the exhibitor roster
was the absence of any game
developers.
Exhibits were split among two
halls on adjacent levels which were
readily accessible to each other via an
escalator. The lower level emphasized
hard drive interfaces and related
hardware, while the upper level, or
the Video Toaster area, consisted
mainly of video processing and
related technology.
The next AmigaWorld Expo is
scheduled for July 26-
28 in Orlando,
Florida. It will be held
in the Stouffer's
Orlando Resort at Sea
World. North
American Amiga
owners never cease to
astound me. They are
the only warm blooded
creatures that I know of
that fly South in the
Summer and go North
in the Winter. All that
Video Toast they have
for breakfast must be
responsible.
CI- Ram Board has got to be the worlds smallest
8Mb RAM board and IDE hard drive interface for
any Amiga running a 66000 microprocessor.
Expansion plans
There was no shortage of hardware
expansion devices. The new offerings at
this show ranged in size from the
miniature to the massive.
California Access, in a booth that was
reminiscent of a west-coast kitchen, was
finally shipping Bodega Bay, a multi-slot
expansion box for the A500. I have had
the opportunity to work with a preliminary
version and have found that it does work.
Shipping had been delayed until FCC
approval was obtained. California
Access was also demonstrating a
preliminary version of their CA-650 CD
ROM software driver. California Access,
130-A Knowles Dr., Los Gatos, CA
95030*010 1 408 378 0347
Cornputral Industries' Cl-Ram Board
has got to be the worlds smallest 8Mb
RAM board and IDE hard drive interface
for any Amiga with a 68000 CPU. This
auto-configuring miniature RAM board is
not much larger than the 68000 into
whose socket it resides. The displaced
68000 plugs right into the Cl-Ram. 4Mb
is squeezed under the CPU itself and
another 4Mb can be installed on the
back of the assembly. A single XILINX
programmable logic array handles both
the auto-configuring and IDE interfacing
functions. Preliminary pricing for the Cl-
Ram is $26° for a 2Mb version and
$399 for a 4Mb version. Computrol
Industries, 35-28 33rd Street, Astoria, NV
11106*0101 7186262400.
CSA announced a price reduction for
their Mega-Midget Racer, 68030-based
accelerator board, $599 for the 25 MHz
version and $699 for the $33 MHz
version. This was because it is using a
new version of the 68030 microprocessor
that lacks the hardware memory
management unit. CSA also announced
the CSA 40/4 Magnum Accelerator, a
68040 based accelerator for ihe Amiga.
Computer System Associates (CSA),
7564 Trade Street, Son Diego,
CA 92 121 "010 1 619 566 3911.
Grapevine Group is a distributor ol
computer parts and accessories, including
enough Commodore chips to build your
own Amiga. Hardware hackers will
probably want a copy of its catalogue.
Grapevine Group, 3 Chestnut Street,
Suffern. NY 1090
if 010 1 914 357 2424.
continued on poge 10
Audio Delights
As well as the video marvels
there were plenty of new
wonders for the ears too.
Oxxi/Aegis must surely
win the prize for the
developer with most product
introductions and
announcements. First off there
was Spectracolor from
Bozbosoft, the developers of
Pfioton Paint, which is Aegis'
entry in the HAM paint wars.
Present owners of Photon
Paint will be able to update
for $49.95 plus $5 shipping
($15 for overseas).
Spectracolor comes with a
massive manual which
includes over 75 pages of in-
depth tutorials.
Now comes the audio
part. Aegis was also selling
SoundMaster, a new 8-bit
stereo sound sampler which is
designed to make the most of
AudioMaster III. SoundMaster
can sample sound signals at
56,000 samples per second,
but you will need an
accelerated Amiga to do so.
The parallel port transfer
speed on the stock Amiga just
cannot handle 56,000
samples per second in stereo.
SoundMaster has a built-in
microphone, separate inputs
for a stereo microphone and
line level audio as well as a
manual gain control.
For word processing,
TurboText, which should be
shipping within a month, can
be customized to emulate
other text editors. TurboText is
expected to ship with more
than 15 emulations.
Oxxi also announced
ScanMaster, a 300-dpi, 24-
bit colour or 256-level grey-
scale flatbed scanner which
can handle documents up to
8.5 x 1 1 .7 inches. Its
accompanying ImageMaster
utility software wilf be able to j
generate CMY or CMYK
colour separations. The
package will cost $ 1 999.
Oxxi also announced P-
Slat, an interactive statistical
data analysis package for the
Amiga. P-5faf will offer more
than 50 numeric and
statistical functions, including
matrix manipulation. It will
display data in 25 different
graph formats, including
animated charts.
Aegis Visionary is a
game language and
development system with
support for 65,000 rooms, 4
billion text characters, 25 IFF
screens and digitized sounds,
10 animations and 10 fonts
in RAM all at the same time.
Visionary will sell for $99.95.
Oxxi/Aegis, 1339 E. 28th
Avenue, Long Beach,
CA 90806
= 0101 213427 1227.
Sunrize Industries was
showing preliminary versions
of AD1012 and AD1016,
1 2-bit and 1 6-bit stereo
sampling cards for the Amiga
2000. The AD1012 will
support sampling rates up to
100 KHz, the AD1016 will
sample up to 48 KHz. Both
boards have on-board digital
signal processors (DSP) for
real-time special effects.
Sunrize Industries, 2959 S.
Winchester Blvd, Suite 204,
Campbell, CA 95008
it 010 1 408 374 4962
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
AMIGA NEWS
continued from page ?
GVP introduced the Series II RAM
Expansion Board which comes with 2Mb
of factory installed RAM at $249 and is
expandable to 8Mb with the addition of
1Mb SIMMs. GVP announced that it is
the US distributor of Scale, the
presentation software package From
Digital Vision of Norway. Other GVP
products include: Impact Series II SCSI
interfaces with and without 8Mb of RAM;
A3001 Upgrade Kit with 50 MHz 68030
microprocessor; Series II A500-HD+ fiord
drive and RAM expansion for the A500;
600Mb magneto-optical removable hard
drive; Amiga LAN; and Streaming Tape.
The SII-R5500 is a Ricoh 50Mb
removable hard disk drive that mounts
internally in the A2000's 5.25-inch drive
bay or externally with GVP's Impact XC.
The SII-M09200E/600 mogneto-optica!
hard drive by Ricoh has □ Formatted
capacity of 600Mb per cartridge and is
rewritable. The Impact WT-150 is a
WangTek 1 50Mb streaming tape backup
system that comes with GVP's Tapestore
software. The firm's new FaaostROM
SCSI driver and software comes as a
standard with Series II SCSI controllers.
Great Volley Products, 600 Clark Ave,
King of Prussia, PA 1 9406
■ 010 1 215 337 8770
ICD introduced Novio 20i, a 20 Mb
hord disk drive system that fits inside an
A500. This package is bosed on ICD's
AdIDE interface, which fits into the
68000 microprocessor socket, ond a 2.5
inch format IDE disk drive. The interfoce
was first introduced las! December, but
the complete package, with a new name,
was introduced at this show. The
interface's active components are
squeezed into the spoce between the
68000's pins. ICD set up an A500 with a
Novia 20i, their Flicker Free Video
adapter, an AdRAM 500 with 6 Mb
RAM, and an AdSpeed 14.3 MHz
accelerator. The system worked, although
the height of the AdSpeed ond the AdIDE
in the 68000 socket meant that the
Amiga's case could not be closed.
ICD, 1220 Rock, Rockford, IL61 101
"010 ! 815 968 2228
Interactive Video Systems had an
impressive demonstration: a breath taking
segment from Bock to the Future III. The
high-resolution, full-colour video was
generated by a Digital Creations DCTV.
The video and 1 6-bit, two-channel audio,
were pulled off the hard drive at 1 . 7Mb
per second by IVS' new Grand Slom
card. This is a Trumpcard Professional
with two 50 pin SCSI connectors, room
for 8Mb of RAM and a parallel port on o
half length A2000 expansion card, IVS,
7245 Garden Grove, Blvd, Suite E,
Garden Grove, CA 92641
"010 1 714890 7040.
Memory Expansion Systems
fYowza! Home grown rodent - Ed) is
looking for a US distributor of its Cortex
line of memory expansion products.
Shown were an 8Mb RAM expansion for
the A1000/A500 and a 512K RAM
expansion for the A500.
Memory Expansion Systems, 46 Fenwick
Street, Liverpool L2 7ND
■ 091 236 0480.
Supra introduced SupraRAM 500RX, a
0.5 to 8Mb external RAM expansion unit
for the Amiga 500 with an exponsion bus
pass through. Supra also expanded its
modem line with the SupraModem 2400
Plus, 2400zi Plus ond 2400 MNP. The
Supra Drive floppy disk drive now features
track zero write inhibited virus protection.
Supra, 1133 Commercial Way, Albany,
OR 97321 « 010 1 503 967-907
World of Amiga
Is New York a
big enough
town to host
not one, but
two major
Amiga shows
less than a
month apart? And which show would
come out on top? The answer to the
first question is a qualified yes. The
answer to the second is a qualified
neither. Now that I hove that bit of
ambiguity out of the way, let's go on
with the show.
April showers
World of Amiga took place on April
5, 6 and 7 - less than three weeks
after the reasonably successful Amiga
World Expo. The similarities in the
show names were enough to confuse
the uninitiated as even I found myself
struggling through occasional tongue
fumbles. The Hunter Group, whose
World of Commodore shows reign
supreme in Toronto, has been less
than successful when they came up
against Am iExpo in the past.
This time they certainly managed
to hold their own. Going by the body
count, attendance for the first two
days exceeded the entire turnout for
the first show. Although the crowds on
the closing Sunday were a bit thin, all
of the exhibitors that I queried were
reasonably satisfied. The official
attendance figure is 17,256 -
obviously misguided souls who chose
to spend at least part of an 80 +
degree New York weekend indoors.
World of Amiga took place in the
New York Passenger Ship Terminal
which is located by the Hudson River
on Manhattan's West side. The
Terminal provides spacious show
accommodation, with all of the
exhibits and seminar rooms on a
single level. The placement of the
massive Commodore booth, along
with the lecture auditoriums, at the
rear of the exhibit helped ensure that
all of the attendees would pass at
least once down the twin aisles.
If I were to assign a single theme
to this World of Amiga it would have
to be Commodore Dynamic Total
Vision or CDTV. Someone must have
been up all night when they figured
out how to get CD from compact disc
and TV from television into the same
acronym without calling it either.
There is no doubt in my mind that the
public will end up calling this baby
compact disk television and I can't
imagine that Commodore will mind
one little bit.
More to CDTV
CDTV is no more an Amiga 500 in a
box with CD-ROM than an Amiga
2000 is an Amiga 500 in a box with
an expansion chassis. CDTV has 1Mb
Digital Micronics' DM1010, 1024x800-pixel 8-bit display board. Tasty.
RAM, 51 2K ROM with Kickslart 1.3.
Note that this is double the capacity of
the typical 1.3 ROM which indicates
that the extra 0.25Mb is responsible
for CD-ROM functions. Unlike the
A500, all CDTV's built-in memory is
chip RAM, ie useable for graphics.
I was looking forward to an early
afternoon interview with Nolan
Bushnell and Gail Wellington.
However, Mr Bushnell suddenly
developed a severe need to fly to
Tokyo. I trust that he recovers from this
affliction. Fortunately Ms Wellington
was available during a brief break
between CDTV demonstrations
Up for grabs
This World of Amiga show was the
first time that CDTV was offered for
sale to the public. With a list price ol
$999 and Commodore looking over
their shoulders, every dealer at the
show was selling the units at a
moderately discounted $895.
Several CDTV software titles were
available, including Merit Software's
Classic Board Games and All Dag<
Go to Heaven at $49.95 each, Tiger
Media's The Case of the Cautious
Condor at $49.95, Applied Optical
Media's World Vista Atlas at $79.95,
Xiphias' The American Heritage
Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary a\
$69,95, and CDTV Publishing's The
New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia
at $395. Overall, about 50 titles are
expected to become available during
the CDTV's introductory phase which
starts now and concludes this autumn.
The official CDTV Catalogue of Titles,
Volume 1 , lists 52 titles for release by
this autumn. The majority of the CDTV
software will cost somewhere
between $50 and $80.
The official word is that CDTV
"will be available at quality
audio/video retail chains in Los
Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco,
Best Of The Rest
Aetiva was showing a pre-release
version of Real3D 1 .3, which is a solid
modelling, ray tracing and animation
program for the Amiga. Activo plans
to offer three levels of Real3D: a
beginners version for $100-$150, a
professional version for $300-$400
and a turbo version for approximately
$500; although 1 suspect that prices
will be subject to change without
notice, (For comparison, the UK prices
for the same three versions are roughly
£115, £345 and £435, which is not
exactly Favourable when you consider
that it's a European-originated
program - Ed]
Acfiva International, Keienbergweg
95, 1 101 GE Amsterdam, Holland
*01031 20 97 00 35.
Hyper Media Concepts was not at
the show. However, I spotted a copy
of their Ered Fish Collection Volume
1.1 on CD-ROM, which covers disks
1-415, in the California Access
booth. This $69.95 collection
duplicates the original disk format of
the Fred Fish library. Updates are
expected to be issued every four
months at $29.95.
Hyper Media Concepts, P.O. Box
85303, Racine, Wl 53408
= 010 1 414632 3766.
Soft- Log ik was showing PageStream
2.1, PageStream Forms, a collection of
business form templates for $39.95,
and the PageStream Fonts collection
Soft-Logik also announced two new
products for shipment later this year.
Art Expression will be an easy-to-use
structured drawing program which wil
be able to import and modify Adobe
EPS, IFF DR2D and Aegis Drav>
structured graphic files. Hotlinks is a
proposed data sharing program which
will support the sharing of text and
graphic files between programs. BME
is a simple bit map editing program
and Pageliner is a fast text editor;
both were designed for use with
Hotlinks and PageStream.
Soft-Logik Publishing, 11131 F South
Towne Sq., St. Louis, MO 63123
*010 1 314894 8608
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
AMIGA NEWS
Prototype of
was spotted
the Interface
Sacramento and
Chicago on April 1 9
followed by New York,
Boston, Minneapolis,
Atlanta, Dallas and
Denver in May." (and
in the UK in May as
well I should add - Edj
In a related
development, Xetec
was showing their CD-
ROM drives for the
Amiga, IF you bought a
Xetec CD-ROM at the
show, the package
included Fish and
More volume 1 (Fish
disks 1 -370), Fish and More volume 2
(Fish disks 371-470), and Merit
Software's Classic Board Games and
All Dogs Go to Heaven which both
run on the Xetec CD-ROM. Xetec
conducted a bit of surreptitious over-
the-counter research at the show. In
addition to the above titles, it has
determined that The Case of the
Cautious Condor, World Vista Atlas
and the American Heritage
Encyclopedia will all run on their CD-
ROM reader. Since developers tend
to stay with a known format for their
products it is more than likely that
subsequent issues from the same
developers will work with the Xetec
CD-ROM reader as well.
Fish goes optical
HyperMedia Concepts, which was
right down the aisle from the Xetec
booth, was offering its 410 disk Fred
Fish Collection on CD ROM for
$69.95. Updates, whenever every 50
new disks are added to the collection,
will be available to registered users
for $29.95. HyperMedia was also
offering Canadian Prototype Replicas'
CDROM-FS, $49.95, a CD ROM File
system which lets you use a variety of
third party CD ROM readers with
your Amiga's SCSI host adapters.
Check with HyperMedia For the list of
currently supported CD ROM readers.
Is floppy storage inadequate for
you? Are you running out of space on
your hard drive? Take a look at what
an Amiga 500 version of the CDTV
in the Commodore booth. Note that
is via the expansion port.
Digital Micron ics, a newcomer to the
Amiga community, has to offer. Its 3.5
inch Floptical Magneto-Optica! disk
drive provides 20 Mb of data storage
on a Floppy disk. These
read/writeable floppy disks resemble
conventional 3.5 inch floppies, but the
storage media combines magnetic
and CD technology. The internal
version of the drive sells for $595, the
external version lists For $795. Blank
20 Mb disks are $20 each.
Digital Micronlcs was also
showing its high-resolution, plug-in
display cards for the Amiga
2000/3000 computers. The DM1020,
$1995, offers a 1280x1024 pixel,
24-bitplane display with over 16-
million. The DM1010, $1095, offers a
1 024x800-pixel, eight-bitplane
display with up to 256 colours out of
the same 16-million colour palette on-
screen at once. If you need a suitable
monitor on which to view all those
colours and pixels, the DMI19HI,
$2995, is a 19-inch, 1280x1024,
multi-sync colour monitor. There is
also the DMI13HI, $699, a 13-inch
1024x800 multi-sync colour monitor.
ReadySoft had a prototype A-Max
II Plus, the Macintosh emulator on an
Amiga plug-in-card. It will have a
built-in AppleTalk and MIDI port and
be able to use Macintosh-format disks
with Amiga drives.
I'm signing off from New York for
now. I'll be back with more exciting '
news from the States soon, fti
Now doesn't that look like a much more civilised and spacious setting
than most UK shows? Air conditioned too, of course.
Best of the rest
Beta Unlimited, which failed to appear at last year's show, promoted AudioLink, a
16-bit stereo sound sampler (or the Amiga. After trying for o software solution. Beta
Unlimited went back to the drawing board to devise a stand alone box that will be able to
do ail of the things via hardware thot could not be done with software. The boards are
complete; delivery of their all-metal enclosures is currently holding up shipment.
Beta Unlimited, 87 Summit Street, Brooklyn, NY 1 1231 » 010 I 718 852 8646
Concise Logic was demonstrating Scannery ! . ! , an Amiga software and hardware
interface package for the HP ScanJet family of fullpage flatbed scanners. Sconnery VI. 1
features 256 grey scale images, 12 to 1500 dpi resolutions and a fufi range of brightness
ond contrast settings. Concise Logic, 36 Tamarack Ave, Suite 315, Don bury, CT 0681 1
«*010 1 203 746 6739
Free Spirit was showing Ami.. Alignment System, Doctor Ami.. .Sterling Service BBS
and its line of children's programs. !t also previewed the CDTV version of Barney Bear
Goes to School and the new Barney Bear Goes Camping. Free Spirit Software, PO Box
128, 58 Noble St, Kutetown, PA 19530 * 010 1 215 683 5609.
interactive Video Systems again gathered crowds with its collection of demo
films on hard disk, including the breath taking segment from Back to the future II!. IVS,
7245 Garden Grove, Blvd, Suite E, Garden Grove, CA 92641 * 010 1 714 890 7040.
New Horizons was showing its PrcWrite and Quick Write word processors and a
pre-release version of DesignWorks, formerly Graphic Designer, a structured drawing
program for the Amiga.
New Horizons Software, 206 Wild basin Rd, Austin, TX 78746
*010 1 512 328 6650.
Octree was showing its line of Caligari programs, 3D conceptual design ond animation
software for the Amiga, Caligari Broadcast 2.0 wos announced at the show. Versions
range in price from $249 for the consumer version to $3,495 for Caligari Broadcast 2.0
Octree Software, 3 1 1 West 43rd St, Suite 904, New York, NY 10036
■ 0101 2122623116.
Pelican Press, the $99.95 "lighthearted publishing program" was selling at the show.
Pelican Press lets you create giant posters, colourful banners, cards, calendars and so on.
Pelican Software, 768 Farmington Avenue, farmington CT 06032
•oOlOl 203 674 8221.
American Software Distributors was showing Superbase Professional 4, the
high end relational database program. Superbase Professional 4, which has been
available for some time for the PC, is now available for the Amiga.
Precision Software, 8404 Sterling Street, Irving, TX 75063 » 010 1 214 929 4888.
ReadySoft announced the CDTV version of Wroth of the Demon. ReadySoft was also
showing a prototype of A-Max II Plus, the Macintosh emulator on a plug-in-card far ihe
Amiga 2000
ReadySoft, 30 Wertheim Ct #2, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada L4B 1 B9
irOlOl 416731 4175.
TTR Development was showing a wide variety of products including the 1 .3 Gb 'DAT'
SCSI Tape system, the Sapphire 68020/68881 accelerator, MRBackup Professional
which includes an ARexx interface as well as support for SCSI streaming tape devices,
and Workbench Management System which lets you launch applications with the click of
o button. New products from TTR included RXTools, a complete development system for
Arexx and the Amiga with emphasis on an object oriented user interface builder; and
Teachers Toolkit, c complete lesson planner and gradebook system.
TTR Development, 6701, Seboid Rd, Suite 220, Madison, Wi 53719
Very Vivid S booth was a real show stopper with its video wall display and the
Mandala Virtual Reality System. The high end, fully integrated Mandola system seils for
$20,000. Very Vivid announced the commercial version of the Mondah Virtual World
Authoring System, a $495 software package which lets you create your own Mandala
applications. You have to supply your own hardware.
Very Vivid, PO Box 127, Station B, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 2T3
»010 1 416 686 7850
Vortex was showing ATonce, the PC-AT emulator for the Amiga 500 ($300] and
Amiga 2000 ($500) computers. The Amiga 500 version, which can also be used in the
2000, plugs directly into the 68000 microprocessor socket and contains its own 68000
and 80286 CPUs. The Amiga 2000 version is a plug-in-card which fits into one of the
expansion slats. The latest release runs as a tosk on the Amiga and emulates VGA
monochrome as well as EGA colour graphics. (We will be looking at the ATonce board
in the Business pages next issue - Edj Vortex Computer Systems GmbH, Folterstrabe 51-
53, D-7101 Flein bei Heilbronn, 071 3 1/5972-0
Xetec was showing its CDx-650 CD-ROM system, $599 internal, $699 externa!, the
MOx-600, re-writable 600 Mb, Ricoh Magneto-Optical drive, $3600, and its series of
FastTrok SCSI host adapters for the A500/ 1000/2000 computers. Purchasers of the CDx-
650 can also buy □ SCSI host adapter for the A500/1000 for only $100 or for the
A2000 for only $50. A FastCard Plus, which can accommodate up to 8Mb RAM is only
$129 with the purchase of a CDx-650. Hard drive is not included. Xetec was olso
offering Fish & More Volume II which includes Fred Fish disks 371 through 470 in both
compressed and fib sorted format. A file index listing is included with the collection.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
LETTERS
TALKING SHOP
Hex education
Please ask Jeff Walker not to
proliferate the idea that machine
code and assembler are the same
thing, as he did in the article ABC of
programming. As I'm sure he must be
aware they are definitely NOT the
same thing. As one who spent 25
years in the computer industry at the
hardware level, I can assure you that
machine code which, as Jeff says, is
the lowest level, is entirely in Binary
or Hex code. You can program at
this level but it requires a very
intimate knowledge of the processor
used, and is difficult to alter when
required - it is only practical For a
few instructions. The next level up is
assembler which uses mnemonics for
the hex codes and labels so that you
can jump about easily. After all, if
they were the same thing you
wouldn't need the assembler
program at all for the assembler
language, as indeed you don't for
machine code.
R Warrington
Heme I Hempstead
Herts
A mere slip of the keys by Jeff
who is of course well aware of
the difference - as should
everyone else be after reading
our piece on programming
languages on page 85.
Killer on the loose
Although there are numerous virus
killers available both commercially
and on the Public Domain, it is often
the newcomers to the computer field
who only realise they have obtained
o virus when it is too late and half
their disk collection is mysteriously
wiped.
These people aren't ignorant,
they just do not know how to prevent
a virus due to lack of experience and
the fact that some believe "I'll be
Paying scant regard to his own safety, Bob Wade
dives head first into the huge pile of mail lurking
menacingly in the corner of the office and emerges
triumphant with the following missives which earn
their scribes £5. If you want to join them on these
pages then write something excruciatingly
interesting and send it to: Talking Shop, Amiga
Shopper, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA 1 2BW
careful, I'll never get one". The sad
fact is thot viruses are so numerous
with 16-bit computers that almost
everyone has - or will - unwittingly
collect one on an affected disk.
In an effort to at least combat the
fools who create these viruses, I think
hardware and software
manufacturers should do more to aid
the consumer.
One way is to include a virus
killer freely with all new Amiga
computers sold. If Commodore can
do this with 1 Mb expansions, why
can't they do the same with a virus
killer?
5 N Hardy
Sheffield
An excellent idea which all
hardware manufacturers,
including those who make
peripherals, should consider.
The only problem with it is
that because viruses are
constantly updated the killers
have to be as well. If they are
bundled with things it might
lure the user into a false sense
of security. So, yes it should be
done, but along with a
registration form so that users
get continuous updates of the
killer concerned.
Never too old
There must be many readers like me
'of a certain age' whose maths
education finished a very long time
ago and who have struggled with
their 'friendly' Amiga, We get a
tremendous amount of pleasure from
our efforts but, because of our lack of
background experience with
computers, frequently experience
difficulties. Whilst I do not suggest
that you should have an Old
Codgers page (we have our pride)
will you try to keep the language as
simple as possible please. It is
generally accepted that Manuals are
written far those that don't need
them, so I do hope that any tutorials
etc that you might run will be kept as
simple as possible.
D W Joslin
Bridgwater
Somerset
It has been pointed out that
despite the beginner's and
jargon busting boxes that we
are a bit too techie at times, so
Environ mental
disaster
Having just received the preview copy
of your new magazine with the April
Amiga Format I am delighted to say I
have spotted the deliberate mistake on
the covert (A cup of coffee near the
A500 - ed) I wonder, can I claim the
: prize? Quote Amiga Format issue 1 8,
page 239 under heading 'Avoiding
Disaster' NEVER eat or drink near your
computer] II Will you be including a
mistake every month?!!
R V French
Chichester
West Sussex
I am non too happy about the
connection of the A590 - I am looking
at one as I write this and 1 am sure that
it is closer and more parallel to the
I CPU,
A Irving
South Croydon
Surrey
It's a fair cop guv. The A590
was not actually plugged in or
turned on. No real reason why,
it was just easier for Hie photo
shoot to have it unplugged. No
excuses for the coffee, but it
was damn fine coffee until it
got cold because the photo
shoot took three hours.
we will try to be more aware
of it in the future. However,
we will continue to try to cater
for experts as well as new
users, so expect there to be
some articles that you won't
understand - it's unavoidable
when covering this many
topics in the mag. We will try
to write them all in English
though.
Death by A1 000 cuts
As a long-time Al 000 owner, may I
suggest a regular section on the
venerable beast? Would it be
viable? I see ads for rejuvenator
boards and so on in US magazines,
but nothing at all in the rags this side
of the pond. Is US hardware
compatible with UK gear? And so
on. Maybe there's a lot of us proud
but forgotten AlOOO-ites out here -
and after all (sound of violins rising
in background) we were committed
to things Amiga before ail these
spotty Herberts with their poxy
A500s rant rave... .foams at
mouth. ...collapses in gibbering heap
as men in white coats arrive etcetera.
Tony Barnes
Director, Fairwater Films Ltd
Cardiff, Wales
/ don't want to have an A 1000
section because it's basically
compatible with all the other
Amigas and therefore many
things in AS should be of
relevance. However, I do want
to cover things that are specific
to the Al 000, because there
are still some around (no idea
how many though). In fact a
review of a rejuvenator board
is on its way in the next
couple of issues.
A load of Toshiba
Having just read your excellent
review of hard-drives for the Amiga, I
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 99 1
LETTERS
am shocked to find that my
2090A/2094 40Mb Toshiba
MK134 FA hard-disk is the slowest
drive available, scoring a mere
36/100.
I was not aware of this when I
purchased my B2000 in March '90, I
simply asked for a 40Mb hard-disk to
be fitted.
However, after the initial shock, I
checked your figure for loading
DPaint III, (9 sees], my copy loads in
3 sees.
As you point out, the disk comes pre-
configured:
Small Boot partition 0.89Mb
OHO: (standard file system].
Workbench partition 2.6Mb
FH0: (FFS).
Work partition 39.9Mb
FH1: (FFS),
The extra storage being due to the
FFS,
I agree that the documentation is
confusing, consisting of a 2090
manual and a small "additions"
manual. So confusing that when
booting the system, the configuration
details (preferences), are taken from
Devs: system-con figuration file on the
Boot partition, the startup sequence
then proceeds to re-assign everything
to the Workbench partition.
Subsequent changes to preferences
will NOT be used when re-boolingi
The simplest answer is not to re-
assign Devs: in the startup-sequence,
keeping only the minimum
requirements in the Boot version, ie.
GB keymap, current printer driver,
necessary device drivers and config
file.
I should also like to point out that
the current card/drive combination is
2091/2094, which will autoboot
from a FFS partition. The advert on
the facing page of your final
summary indicates this and also
shows the price to be £499, not
£1209.80p as you quote.
NB: The 2090A card will support
two internal drives ST506/SCSI and
up to seven SCSI drives in total.
B E Matthews
Walsall
West Midlands
Over to tech ed Cliff for an
explanation...
I must say I was shocked
myself at the Commodore
drive's speed after testing it.
No doubt it performs better in
everyday use, with most files
being kept in one of the Fast
File System partitions. I
presume that's where you
keep your copy of Deluxe
Paint, and why it loaded in
three seconds instead of nine
as it did for me.
The decision to carry out all
the tests on a boot partition
was taken before I had looked
at the Commodore drive -
principally because
Commodore failed to supply
one in time for the review, so I
was left to find what I could.
Unfortunately, mis turned out
to be the older 2090A/2094.
As far as the price goes, that
was the price quoted by
Commodore.
Bab adds... it has been
brought to our attention that
this was not the mast up to
date version of Commodore's
internal hard drive.
Commodore was unable to
supply us with one in time for
the review, and still haven't,
making testing it rather
difficult. We will cover it just
as soon as they supply us with
one.
Are ads bad?
Even though your magazine's called
Amiga Shopper, I think you use too
many ads instead of using more
advice, reviews etc. If you are from
the makers of Amiga Format, or the
buyer/ reader buys other magazines,
then surely all your ads will also be
in the other magazines. I don't mean
to sound rude, but I think too many
ads are/will be a disadvantage to
you.
L Stairs
Hen don
London
There are three crucial points
to bear in mind here
1) The revenue received from
the ads is a major contributing
factor to being able to price
the magazine as lowly as we
do.
2) The ads provide a very
important service to people
looking for bargains and the
best hardware and software
to buy - we would be doing
you a disservice by not having
them.
3) Having more ads does not
mean having less editorial
pages. The reality is thai the
more ads we have the more
editorial we can afford to run.
Those are the facts of life in
publishing - so enjoy those
ads, they're actually doing
you a favour.
Amiga with the blues
Why is it that the Atari ST, (ST stands
for Single Tasking) is so extremely
popular with music, especially with
MIDI users, while there's such a great
machine on the market that beats the
ST on all fronts? Better said, why is it
that the software companies are so
indolent on converting, or better,
rewriting the good software
packages that exist on the ST.
Look at Cubase, which is a great
program, or C-Lab's programs, those
are the packages we need on the Big
A. I don't get if, it just can't be
possible, that I'm the only one having
this MIDI nightmare? Wouldn't it be
good for the market if the Amiga
could compete with the so-named
number one for MIDI (I wash my
mouth after saying this) .
Think of what you could da with
Cubase 2.0 on the multitasking
machine, which even has an
incredibly good soundchip built in.
So what if the ST has a built-in MIDI
interface, for a few pounds you're the
proud owner of an interface for the
Amiga. And be honest, Music-X
alone is not enough, certainly not
when you think of how little the offer
of different protocols for this package
is. I hoped this would turn the other
way round, with the release of
Steinberg's Pro-24, which is a good
step in the right direction, but it's still
very quiet in the Amiga MIDI market.
But not only the software-market is
mainly based on the ST. What about
the Studio-audio market, that is only
producing equipment for the ST and
the Mac? This all could change, if
only the software houses would
consider the Amiga worth
programming onl
Can you tell me, what's the bottle-
neck, and are there going to be any
changes on this front, and do you
know if there's □ plan to convert
Cubase to the machine which 1 totally
support, namely the big Amiga. Try
to wake people out of their MIDI
nightmare with some good news.
Rob Swart
Letystad
Holland
This same subject comes up on
the Answers pages and I'm
afraid there is no easy
answer. The ST and Mac have
a strong foothold in the
studios and with so many
musicians that for the Amiga
to claw its way back into
contention it either needs a
corporate push by Commodore
into the music scene or a
creeping invasion via the
graphic side of things where
musicians start using the
Amiga for video work and
then get drawn into using it
for MIDI work as well. One of
the best ways is just to keep
telling everyone how good the
Amiga is for music -
eventually people will start to
get the message.
Question time
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your magazine but there ore a few points I
wauid 1 i ke to ask obo ut ,
I '. Will you be puiting a coverdisk on your magazine?
2. Will you be reviewing any games?
3. Why not advertise some PO companies?
4. Why not review more PD software?
5. Will you be starting a C or Basic tutorial or course for beginners?
Michael Autort and Peter
Reay
Whickham
N ewca stte upon Tyne
1) No, H would put the
price up too much.
2) Na, nyetfOein, nan,
absolutely not. Have I
made myself clear? If it's
games you want men
check out our sister
magazines Amiga Format
and Amiga Power,
they've got lots of them -
this is a games exclusion
zone.
3) We do - have a look
at the back of the mag.
4) Hew much is moret
How tohg is a piece of
string? Seriously, we will
have of least five pages
of PD every month.
5} We witl be doing
tutorials for all levels of
knowledge, but we can't
do them all at once. Stay
with us and you will be
catered for.
THOG PLAV5
'MANIC MAMMOTH'
These are the only type of games we
play in the Amiga Shopper office.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 v9 1
PRICES INCLUDE DELIVERY
AND VAT @ 17.5%
Express Courier Delivery £5,00 Extra
BUY WITH CONFIDENCE from one of the longest
established companies In their field, with a
reputation (or good service and prices. We have
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enables us to carry out almost eny repair on our
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HOW TO ORDER
Call us now on
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i£o
Lines open Monday -Saturday,
9.00am - 5.30pm
Send Cheque, Postal Order or
ACCESS/ VISA card details to :
Evesham Micros Ltd
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Evesham, Wo res
WR11 6XJ
0»
ACCESS /VISA
Cards Welcome
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Same day despatch whenever possible
Express Courier delivery E 5.00 extra
Please note that 5 working days must be allowed
tor personal cheque clearance.
Mail Order Fax: 0386-765354 I
RETAIL SHOWROOMS
All our Showroom outlets hold large stocks ot most items and also
supply from a tar wider product range than advertised. Please do
not hesitate to ring any of our showrooms and discuss your
requirements with a member ol our highly trained staff
Unit 9 St Richards Road, Evesham
Worcestershire WR1 1 6XJ
"S 0386 765180
IOX : 0386 765354
Open Mon-Sat.. 9.00 • 5.30
Corporate Soles Dept.
5 Glisson Rd, Cambridge CB1 2 HA
© 0223 323898
ton : 0B23 32ZB83
Open Mon-Fn. 9.30 - 6.00
and Sat.. 9,00 - 5.30
Corporate Sales Dept. • IBM dealer
1762 Pershore Road, Cottetidge
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S 021 458 4564
to*: 021 1133 3825
Open Mon-Sat, . 9.00 - 5.30
▼ TECHNICAL SUPPORT ▼
■B" 0386-40303
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12 MONTHS WARRANTY
ON ALL PRODUCTS
Alt details correct at time of press
All goods subject to availability, E. & OB.
Please note; Prices that include On- Site Maintenance
(On- Site Warranty) are UK Mainland Only.
37 2 " EXTERNAL FLOPPY DRIVES
•Up.
AMAZING LOW PRICE !
£54.95
including VAT & delivery
Very quiet %»
Slimline design
Suits any Amiga
Cooling Vents
Sleek, high quality metal casing
Quality Citizen Drive Mechanism
On / Off switch on rear of drive
Full 880K Formatted Capacity
Long reach connection cable
^
Also available:
5.25" External Drive
40/80 Track Switchable
Only £99.00 inc. VATVdelivery
AMIGA A500 SOLDERLESS RAM UPGRADES
RAM/CLOCK
UPGRADE
512K
ONLY £32.95
including VAT and delivery
512K
RAM/CLOCK
EXPANSION
FEATURES :
.V Direct replacement for the A501 expansion
A Convenient On I Off Memory Switch
A Auto-recharging battery backed Real-Time Clock
■V Compact Unit Size : Ultra-neat design
't Only 4 low power consumption FASTRAMs
512K RAM Expansion
also available without
clock for only
£27.95
1 .5MB RAM BOARD
ft Fully populated board increases total RAM in A500 to 2MB I
i Plugs into the trapdoor expansion, and connects to GARY chip
ft Includes Auto-recharging battery-backed Real-Time Clock
A Socketed FASTRAM ICs for accommodating up to 1.5MB RAM
Unpopulated RAM board with dock E 39.95
RAM Board as above, with 51 2K FASTRAM installed .... £ 59.95
RAM Board as above, with 1 MB FASTRAM installed £ 74.95
RAM Board as above, with 1 ,5Mb FASTRAM installed .. £ 89.95
: The expansion board requires Kickstart t 3 to operate - Kickstan 1 .3
upgrade available from us for £29.95
COMMODORE A590 HARD DISK
Good' quality Commodore Hard Disk unit, including: its own PSU and built-in cooling fan.
Features sockets for up to 2Mb of cn-board FASTRAM expansion (see below). 60ms
Access time. with up to 2.4Mbfeec. transfer rate. Auloboots wtten used with Kickstart 1.3.
Commodore A590 Hard Drive ( 20Mb Hard Disk ) E 279.00
A590 RAM
UPGRADES
A590 RAM Upgrades are fitted Iree 5,2K upgrade ... 1 31,95
of cn a , ge wher, bought HI. an ASM. £g ^ fl a d a « ;;;; $ gg
We currently support specially upgraded versions of the A590
incorporating NEC high capacily, fully autoparking SCSI drives
(25rns access time). SCSI interlaced hard drives offer a
substantial performance increase over conventional units.
Wb are also offering the NEC mechanisms separately, either cased tor
those who wish to 'chain on' an additional hard disk to their A590, or on
their own for internally replacing their existing A59Q 20Mb mechanism
A590 upgraded with fast 40Mb NEC SCSI Disk E 479.00
A590 upgraded with last 100Mb NEC SCSI Disk £669.00
A590 with 40Mb NEC SCSI Disk,
PLUS 2MB RAM FASTRAM fitted £ 559.00
NEC 40Mb SCSI Drive cased with PSU
to directly add-on to the Commodore A590 £ 349.00
NEC Drive cased with PSU as above, 100Mb version E 549.00
NEC 40Mb SCSI Drive mechanism on its own E 249.00
NEC 100Mb SCSI Drive mechanism on its own £449.00
AMIGA 1 500/2000
UPGRADES
HAR D DRIV E/ RAM
UPGRADE BOARD KIT
Kits comprise of full size hard disk controller
cards incorporating unpopulated SIMMS
RAM expansion sockets for accommodating
up to 8Mb RAM: PLUS high speed, fast
access NEC SCSI hard disks.
40MB HARD DRIVE
& INTERFACE /RAM CARD ...£399.00
100MB HARD DRIVE
& INTEHFACE / RAM CARD .... E 599.00
PLEASE NOTE:. These are unpopulated RAM sockets
■ AddE 1 19.00 per 2Mb of RAM required.
8MB RAM EXPANSIOrs"
CARD WITH 2MB FITTFn
Offering maximum flexibility on RAM
upgrade, this card is supplied with 2Mb
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4Mb, &Mb and 6Mb - quickly and easily
usinq llWbit DRAM chips.
ONLY £149.95
ACCESSORIES
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Enjoy quality stereo sound reproduction to the full
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Dim&nsions 248x93Kl2Smrr} (HxWxD)
ONLY £39.95
INCLUDING VAT
AND DELIVERY
VIDI-AMIGA
VIDI-AMIGA
Widely regarded as ihe best in ils
category, VIDI 'Amiga video dryfliser
enahleg you to -
* Have perfect freeze frame from
any video, in up to 16 shades
* Grab real time 3-D images
* Store & replay aclbon sequences
* Generate digitised -colour imagag
*■ plui mush, mtjch more ...
VJOl-Amiga is compatible iwiih all
video standards, eg-eolour, 6AV
VMS. Beta. PAL. NTSC ale
V1DI-CHKOME AMIGA
GtAaw frame grabbing upgrade
enablirig production of Pled, G/esn
and Blue elements wh&n using e
black/while camera, by use ol fillers.
(Colour cameraf video recorder
users ■ see below).
VIDI-RGB
Aulamaticaf^ separates Red, Green
and Blue colour signal from video
recorder or camera, enabling easy
production ol colour piclures.
VIDI Amiga Including
VIDI-chrome , £ 1 1 ODD
VJDI Chrome „,. £ 1G,S5
VIDI RGB „„ £e4,S5
MINIGEN Genlock Adapter £ 95.00
TRUEMOUSE
WE GUARANTEE Wat this is the
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JL I / . 33 GUARANTEED
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excellent travel & accuracy assured £ 37.95
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Outstanding quality, excellent value tor money - this
package includes a i iXMQGdpi scanner with dither oplions.
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includes viewing window & backlight tor accurate
scans every lime. Scan eillwr tine-art or gray
images up to 4DDjrfpl. Many image
enhancement & special effects available
Irom within Touch-Up. A sensible
investment for Desktop Publishing wtwk.
£179.00
INCLUDING VAT
AND DELIVERY
PHILIPS 15" TV/MONITOR
With its dedicated monitor input, this
model combines the advantages of a high
quality medium resolution colour monitor
with the convenience ol remote control
Teletext TV - at an excellent low price ]
£269.00 lncludin9VAT
delivery & cable
Philips CIW8833 Mk.fl including cable £ 249,00
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SPECIAL DEALS I
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AMIGA 500 BASE PACKAGE
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A500 PACK AS ABOVE, WITH
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N.B. Does NOT inciude exits software
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AMIGA 500 SCREEN GEMS PACK
includes Amiga 500 with 1Mb RAM. plus 1Mb Drive. TV modulator. 'Night Breed',
"Tho Beast 2\ 'Back lo the Fuluro 2". "Days of Thunder'. 'Deluxe Paint II'.
A500 1MB SCREEN GEMS PACKAGE... £ 369.99
A500 Screen Gems Package PLUS 37?" External Drive .... E 419.99
AMIGA 500 CLASS OF THE 90'S PACK
Pack leatures A500 compuler plus A501 5T.2K RAM Upgrade, TV Modulator.
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CLASS OF THE 9CTs Package £ 549.00
Class of the 90s Pack p/us 3'/Y' Drive £ 600.00
AMIGA 1500 STARTER PACK
Includes A15CJO tompular (1Mb RAM. 2 x 3'/*" Drives, 8 expansion slots).
Commodore Hi- Resolution Colour Monitor, plus Software including: 'Deluxe
Paint Id". 'Battle Chess'. 'Sim City' and 'The Works" (business software).
A150O STARTER PACKAGE £ 949.00
NEW! VIRUS PROTECTOR
BANISH VIRUS PROBLEMS!
Our compact Virus Protector fits easily to the Port of the
last disk drive in your Amiga system, protecting all internal
and external drives from boot block viruses. Incorporates a
switch to enable or
disable the protection
facility. Top v&iuc J
ONLY £9.95
REPLACEMENT A500 PSU
Genuine Commodore Amiga A500
type replacement Power Supply
Unit. Good quality 'switch mode'
type. Super low price !
ONLY £39.95
MIDI INTERFACE
GET CONNECTED !
Our fully compatible, high qualily MIDI interlace connects direcHy wilii lile Amiga
serial port and provides IN,. OUT & THRU ports lor good flexibility. Features LED
Indicators on each pod for
diagnosis purposes,
compact dEsign
Superb
ONLY £19.95
STEREO SOUND SAMPLER
S-S-S-SAMPLE THIS !
Offering lull compaH>ilily with .almost any Amiga audio diaitiser package, our
Sound Sampler features excellent circuitry, yielding professional resuils, The
main A/D converter gives a digitising resofulion ol up to 50KHi. with a fail slew
rate. Two phono sockets are provided for stereo line input . plus an option for
microphone- Adjustable gain is achieved with built-in conrlrol knob. Complete
wllh public domain disk
containing sound sampling
applicators /utilities.
ONLY £29.95
NEWS TRACKBALL
Excellent new high performance trackball .
directly compatible lo any Amiga dt Alar*
ST. Operates Irom the mouse or joystick
pod, Super-smooth, accurate and
versatile - you probabry won't want lo
use a mouse again after using this
Trackball f Total one-handed
conlrol. Top quality constrLKlion
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ddfn/eftng high speed and accuracy every
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AT-One* Hardware PC Emulate* featuring CCA and
Hercuias emulation, supporl for hard disks and extended
memory. No soldering needed fw instaHatlon
KCS Powerbonrd Hardware PC Emulator with its own
1Mb of RAM on- board. 512K useable in Amiga mode
Ktekitart 1 .3 Upgrade
Amiga 500 Du«t Cover
. £ 179.00
. !■: Z29.TO
.. £ 29.85
.. £ fl.HS
SOFTWARE
Kind Wurds2 £37.50
Prolexl V5 £ 119.95
Oigila Home Accounts £23.95
DeluKePalnta £59.95
Deluxe Video 3 £59.95
Muac-Xl.1: £110.00
AMOS £ 37.50
HiSoft Lattice C £179.00
GFA BASIC V3 £39,95
GFA BASIC Compiler E 34.95
Dflvpac2.15 £44.95
Disney Animation Studio . . £ E9.95
Roger Rabbit . L . E 9.95
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Pass-through port for connecting additional drives... £89. 95.
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SupraRAM™ 500RX 1/2, 1, 2, 4 or smb of fast ram for
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Dealer enquiries welcome
SupraRAM™ 2000 2, 4, 6 & 8MB of FAST RAM for the
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Allows transmissions up to 9600 bps. £199.95
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AMIGA ANSWERS
Send your questions to: Amiga Answers, Amiga
Shopper, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW
NMMHHHH
Dead drive blues
My problem is this: when
accessing df 1 : you can hear it
drop the disk, so to speak.
That's to say it's as though the
drive has stopped and started
again within a split second
and occasionally a requester
appears saying you MUST
replace volume whatever in
unit one. Occasionally it has
destroyed the validator on a
disk. Now a friend of mine
says that the darn thing 'aint
indexing correctly. Any ideas?
Is it worth having it repaired
or would the money be better
spent on investing in a new
drive (thus giving me a fresh
warranty - mine's history by
the way}? A rough guide to
the cost of repair would be
much appreciated.
Dave Brand wood
Oldham
Lanes
If I understand your problem
correctly, (he drive peg has probably
worn out - it's a little spring-loaded
pin which engages in a slot in the
disk hub to drive it. However, it could
be any one of a number of other
things. Drives are very rarely
repaired - the best option is to
replace them. See the Amiga
Shopper sneak preview, available
with back issue no 2 1 of Amiga
Format (copies of which are £3.85 -
see the back issue order form on
page 1 1 1 ] For my review of suitable
models. MS
Compatibility city
I recently had a problem of
incompatibility. The Puggs in
Space PD demo wouldn't run
on my Amiga but did so
happily on others. Someone
suggested that my machine
may be of German
construction and therefore
may contain some 'new' chips
'which Puggs doesn't like.
Can you shed any more
light on incompatibility
problems, of which I'm sure
there are many, and am I to
be plagued for ever with this?
If the worst that happens is
that I may not be able to run
the odd demo, then I can live
with it. However, if it might
mean that should I splash out
for some fancy commercial
business software only to find
it crashes, well then I'm very
concerned.
H Alan Bowen
Loan head
Midlothian
The Amiga is one of the most
compatible machines I know of.
However, since its design is in
constant flux, it is quite possible you
have any one of a number of
variations. For instance, I came
□cross one recently that apparently
had a Farter Agnus fitted to on older
issue board. In effect, the extra
0.5Mb RAM was mapped as
conventional FAST RAM - not CHIP
as you might expect. This effects
demo programmers worst because
they 'hit the metal' directly and have
less access to loads of different
machine variations. A single byte
wrong can make all the difference
between a demo that works and one
that doesn't. MS
-—— Q-
Double buffered
When I am using Deluxe Paint
III I have to wait until the
printer is finished before I am
able to start drawing again.
Apart from buying a printer
buffer, the cheapest of which I
have found is £75, is there
any way I can set aside an
area of memory and send the
printer information there
before it goes to the printer so
that I can carry on using
Deluxe Paint, or is there some
We Ve assembled the best panel
of Amiga experts in the land and
every month they'll be getting
together to help solve your
problems. Trivial or techie, Amiga
Shopper has got the answers
PD software that I can use? I
have an A500 and an AS90
hard drive with a total of 2Mb
and an Epson LX800 printer.
Also I have Platinum Works!
and although it runs fine
without the hard drive
connected, I have followed the
manual for installing it on HD,
but as soon as I try to run it
with the hard drive or from
hard drive it ends up crashing
the system.
D Armstrong
Gosforth
Northumberland
I doubt a printer bufFer would be
much use because of the way DPainf
and the Amiga work. When I tested
it, even o simple picture - dumped
through a 9-pin printer driver -
resulted in almost 1 00K of
information being sent. This varies
dramatically with the number of
colours in use. Not to mention your
printer setup for density, scaling and
so on. There are two possible
answers to this:
The first is to use a program
called CMD supplied with
Workbench which allows you to
buffer printer output to a file. CMD is
not that easy to use so I have written
a couple of short AmigaDOS
programs (scripts) to get the best from
it. They should start filtering into the
Public Domain libraries soon.
The second option is easier, but
requires more memory. You already
have 2Mb, so you should be able to
run two copies of DPaint in the
machine at once - multi-tasking them.
Then proceed as follows:
• Create your drawing.
• Use the screen's depth gadgets to
push the first DPaint out of the way.
Find the other copy of DPaint and
click in its screen - as if by magic,
the drawing appears!
• Select Print to print the picture.
• While the second copy of DPaint is
busily printing away you can return
to the first one and carry on drawing.
• This feature only works with DPaint
II. With DPaint III, you have to save
the picture in one copy of DPaint III,
load it into the second one and then
start printing.
The problem with Platinum
Works/ is not quite as easy to
fathom. It could be the Install
program does not install everything.
Have you tried booting from the hard
drive and running the Works! from
floppy disk? If this works, then the
most likely cause is Platinum Works!
is not installing itself correctly. If this
technique fails, then the fault is
endemic with Works! MS
Cold-boot shy
My Amiga with A 590 attached
is sometimes reluctant to
autoboot from cold. The
system request 'Not a DOS
disk in Unit 0' appears. The
solution is then to boot from a
WorkBench floppy which
negates one of the advantages
of owning an A590. This is an
intermittent fault, and only
happens sometimes on the
first boat- up from cold.
Commodore advised me to
low-level format the disk,
which, needless to say, had no
effect whatsoever. The unit
has also been returned to
Commodore under warranty.
Again this has made no
difference. Can you help?
Peter Whiting
High Wycombe
Bucks
This problem can manifest itself in a
number of ways and the A590 may
not necessarily be the culprit.
Intermittent faults like this one are the
scourge oF repairmen too, which is
probably why they checked it and
sent it back working (assuming that's
what happened). Oddly enough, this
problem can be caused by □ Faulty
external drive which is overloading
the electronics controlling dfO: and
foxing the Amiga into thinking it
contains a disk. IF you have any
external drives try switching off,
disconnecting them and switching on
again. It may help.
The other possibility is that the
continued on page 1 8
AMIGA SHOPPER* ISSUE 2 »JUNE 1991
AMIGA ANSWERS
WHATEVER YOUR PROBLEM WITH THE
AMIGA, WE ARE HERE TO SOLVE IT
That's the task we have set ourselves in giving you the best possible support for
your Amiga. We are confident that our experts can cope with anything you
can throw at them. If they don't already know the answer to your problem, they
will find it out. Read on for some of the typical, and obscure, problems you
may encounter when trying to get the most out of your Amiga.
CONSULT AMIGA SHOPPER'S EXPERT PANEL
We are prepared to deal with any problem you have with the Amiga, from
general enquiries about AmigaDOS or workbench, through questions about
specific pieces of software and hardware, to advice on what you need to buy
to do a particular task. If it's to do with the Amiga, we will help out. What we
cannot do is offer this service over the telephone - do not phone us with your
enquiries, but write or fox us at the address and number below.
We also cannot enter into persona! correspondence ~ all enquiries will be
dealt with in the pages of the magazine. This does mean a delay in solving
your problem, but we will come up with an answer for you. You'll just have to
be a little patient and wait for it to appear in print,
Send your questions to Amiga Answers, Amiga Shopper, 30 Monmouth
Street, Bath BA1 2BW. Fax: 0225 446019.
The Amiga Answers panel consists of all three consultant editors -Jeff
Walker, Mark Smiddy and Phil South - and of course resident technical editor
Cliff Ramshaw. We will olso be calling on the services of ail our other
contributors, so you won't be able to catch us napping on ony subject. Each
panelist will be dealing with queries in their own specialist area and it would
help us greatly if, when writing, you label youf query envelope with the name
of the expert who can solve your particular problem. Below is a list of their
areas of expertise. It's a list (hot we will add to and update every month so you
will know who to write to about any subjects not mentioned here.
Gary Whiteley - Video.
Stuart Russell - Comms, CAD.
Paul Overaa - programming, music.
Mkk Draycott- hardware, programming, MIDI.
Jeff Walker - desktop publishing, programming.
Mark Smiddy- AmigaDOS, business, CDTV, hardware projects, drives.
Phil South - public domain, graphics, AMOS.
Bob Wade - American football.
ClifF Ram show - anything else.
If you think you have been ignored...
Don't panic, there could be several reasons why your question has not
appeared this month:
• II did not reach us in time to be included this issue.
• The answer to your question is given as part of the answer to another
published this month.
• You hove not given us sufficient information to answer your question fully.
continued from page 1 7
drive is not validating correctly when
it is switched on. I have never
managed to nail a good reason for
this but there are two main cures for
this symptom.
• Always PARK the hard drive
before switching off and get into the
habit. The PARK utility should have
been supplied with your system.
9 Shut down safely, That is to say,
before switching off, moke sure all
disk activity hos stopped. Watch the
green busy light. When it goes out,
wait at least a second, run PARK and
switch off at the Amiga's PSU
immediately. MS
Fancy words
I have a Centronics GLP II
printer which copes admirably
with normal draft or NLQ
output. I would like to use
some of the enhanced features
such as underlining, bold, etc,
as well as other fonts.
Can you advise me if this is
possible with the Centronics
and if so, what are the correct
DIP switch settings? Also can
you suggest a good PD WP?
R Meacham
Tam worth
Staffs
Any word processor worth its salt
should support 'enhanced' features.
This is the whole idea of having o
printer driver - the software uses o
standard code for underlining, bold
ond so on, ond the driver sends the
correct code to the printer. The
cheapest WP available came free
with your system - NotePad.
Two word processors available from
public domain libraries spring to
mind. TextPlus has received mixed
reviews, from good to awful. So I
suppose it's down to who you
believe. The other is called Word
Wright- my copy is dated 1 986, but
it came free with a commercial
package. Although it lacks a spelling
checker, it has some sophisticated
options, such as outlining, and is well
worth trying out. You can get a copy
from AmigaNuts on (0703) 785680,
disk number 272. MS
Of pins and PCBs
I own an AS00 and would like
to use an A2000 expansion
card. On close examination of
a picture of Hie A2000 with
the top removed I found that
the progression from 86 pins
to 100 pins (on the expansion
slots) is made via half a dozen
IC's and their associated
discrete components. Could
you possibly supply me with a
schematic/circuit diagram of
this section with a component
list, enabling me to make a
small extender PCB whereby I
can attach the one and only
A2000 card I require.
Another bit of information
that would be appreciated is a
pin out diagram of the 1 00-pin
slot and also can you tell me
how to read the pinout
diagram of the 86-pin bus as
given in appendix F, page 9 in
the back of the A500 user
manual, ie which is pin 1 as I
look into the Amiga end on.
Also, is PI A the top row of
connections or the bottom?
Saquib Ghani
Middlesbrough
Cleveland
This sort of thing is best left for
experts to sort out. It is not just a
simple matter of extending the bus.
Then there is the other consideration
of powering the card. Expansion
cards for the 2000 are designed for
that environment and will expect to
be able to draw the extra power
available. Several suppliers offer
solutions to this problem, already pre-
built and ready to go. Bytes and
Pieces have an external expansion
box for this purpose, but a better
alternative might be either Bodega
Bay or the A 1 500 expansion box -
not the 'new' Amiga. MS
'want to print graphics from
my Amiga on my IBM 5201 -2
(QuietWriter II) printer.
By messing about with
Preferences and the IBM's dip-
switches I've managed to get
graphics, but it leaves a nasty
white bar in between each
line. Any help you could give
me 'would be appreciated.
Mat Simpson
South Woodford
London
Banding is a problem inherent to
almost every printer this side of
£2,000 and is usually due to slight
inaccuracies in the paper feed
mechanism. The best solution is to
select 'Single sheet' from Preferences
and use manual feed paper in your
machine. This tip applies to most
printers, not just the IBM. MS
Learner driver
I have an AS 00 with a
Seikosha SL-80AI 24-pin
printer. I use the EpsonQ
driver from preferences which
works fine for NLQ printing,
but can produce ill-
proportioned output from
packages such as PageSetter
and ProWrite. Can you tell me
where I can get a custom
driver for this printer?
Alternatively, can you direct
me to the definitive manual on
writing printer drivers?
Roy Bell
New Maiden
Surrey
Thin white line
How do I go about making up
a personal Printer Driver? I
Writing a printer driver is very
complex and there are three options.
If you really want to write your own,
the definitive guide is the Addison-
Wesley ROM Kernel Reference
Manual, ISBN: 0-201-181 817-8. The
second is to obtoin a copy of Printer
Driver Generator - 1 7 Bit software's
disk 173 has a version.
Or you could try contacting:
Wolf Faust, Am Dorfgarten 1 0, W-
6000 Frankfurt 50, Germany. Wolf
has been developing printer drivers
for some time now - he has
developed one for the EpsonQ
series. Wolf does charge a small fee,
so send him a disk and some cash to
cover his expenses. MS
Red rag to a bull
I have a six-month-old AS00
with 0.5Mb upgrade, external
drive and Epson LX80 printer.
continued on page 2 1
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •JUNE 1991
M'J llucord
FWA
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County: Mitliltosni
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Applications like Superbase 4 Amiga.
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Unique features like the VCR panel mean browsing
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Superbase's WYSIWYG Form Designer lets you
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and use.
And, with its own comprehensive Database
Management Language, you can develop professional
applications.
You can share data with
users of IBM-compatible PCs,
while developers can make
sophisticated database solutions
available on both Amiga and
Microsoft Windows platforms.
All trademarks acknowledged. Screen shot taken on an IBM PC.
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dBase, Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel files.
So, for your future's
sake, clip the coupon, send
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Superbase 4 Amiga. After
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AMIGA ASOO 1MB ASTRA PACK Amiga A500 corrputer, 512K Ram expansion with clock and battery back-up,
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AMIGA ASOO "1SOO" PACK Amiga A500 computer. 512K Ram expansion with dock and battery back-up. mouse,
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Battle Chess and Their Finest Hour
AMIGA A1SOO BASE PACK AISOO 1Mb RAM (expandable to 9Mb) computer with 2 x 3.5" 860k disk drives built in.
and a mouse. The A1500 base pack is supplied without software.
AMIGA AISOO PACK A15Q0 1Mb RAM (expandable to 9Mb) computer with 2 x 3,5" 880k dak drives built ia mouse and
the following software : Platinum Works Deluxe Paint 3. Populous Simm City. Battle Chess Their Finest Hour (Battle of Britain) and 2
books : The A-Z of Computer Jargon" and "Getting the most from your Amiga"
£209.00
£325.00
£325.00
£350.00
£399.00
£599.00
£655.00
All of our blank disks atse guaranteed and supplied with labels.
All of our 3.5* unbianded and branded disks are of the highest
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QUANTITY 10 20 30 50 100
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ASTRA PACK
Datastorm, Dungeon Quest,
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Slam, Kid Gloves,
Powerplay, RVF Honda,
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and Tower Of BabeL
All 10 of the above games are
available together in the ASTRA
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AMIGA ACCESSORIES
512K Ram Upgrade • clock £29.99
A590 20Mb Hard Disk drive £284.95
Stereo Hi Fi Speakers £37.50
Astra Pack software £29.95
Roctec external risk drive £65.00
Golden Image Handy Scanner £199.00
Amiga Stereo Scart Lead E12.99
Amiga Stereo Lead Mkll 8833 E12.99
Amiga A500 Dust Cover £6.99
PKIps 8833 Dust Cover £7.99
VDI Amiga Video Digitiser £99.99
Master Sound 1 £36,95
AMIGA 1500
SOFTWARE
PACK
FOR A LMITED PERIOD WE
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Platinum Works, Deluxe
Paint 3, Populous, Sim
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ATARI LYNX
Atari Lynx Hand Held Games Machine
fwtUi tee CaHornta Gemea ranrHgel
Atari Lynx Hand Held Games Machine
twttti m> Tree software caltfdge)
Carry Case £14.99
Sun Visor E6.99
Car Adaptor £9.50
Blue Lightning £19.99
Ch / Chalenge E20.50
Electrocop £19.99
GOZendocon £19.99
Xenophobe £19.99
Robo Squash £21.00
£ 117.50
£ 95.00
Ms Pacman
£19.99
Shanghai
£19.99
Zarlor Mercenary
£21.00
Gauntlet 3
£23.00
Rygar
SCme World
£21.00
£19.99
Klax
£19.99
Paperboy
£20.50
Road Blasters
£19.99
Rampage
£21.00
titeur
mum
Rmember.we only
seff genuine UK
stock machines.
Panasonic
PRINTERS
Al of or priMsn; us UK spec Al ol or printers
come wiri n tree cable and ram a tut 1 year
WBfraify.
Star LCX) Mono (9-cm> £15500
Star LCZOO Colour (9-pin» £22500
Star LC24-K) Mono
(24-pin) £21500
Star LC24-I5 Mono 15"
(24-pii) €399.00
Star LC24-200 Mono £26500
Star LC24-200 Colour £29500
Panasonic KXP1124i
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Panasortc KXP1B24
15" carriage (24-pin) £389.00
Utizan Swift 24 [24-pin) £299.00
H / Packard DeskJet 500 £469 00
Canon BJ10E Bubble Jet £349.00
PHILIPS 8833 MKII
The 8833 Mkll is the perfect colour monitor
for all ST and Amiga owners. With its high
quality picture and stereo sound it really
makes the STE or Amiga perform to it's full.
AD 8833 Mkll come with 1 cable free of
charge (options are Atari STFM, Atari STE
or Amiga ASOO)
Price Includes VAT,
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AMIGA ANSWERS
continued from page 18
When I first switch the
computer on, the screen cycles
through its normal shades of
grey during self-test. After a
couple of hours use, if 1 turn
the computer off and then on
again to re-boot (waiting 5
seconds in between as
advised) the screen flashes red
before the normal grey shades
and then loads and operates
as normal. If I reboot using the
keys, I don't get this red flash.
If the computer is switched off
for a minute, then switched
back on, everything is back to
normal with no red flash.
What causes the red flash?
Does this mean I have a
problem, or need I only worry
if the screen stays red? As the
computer is still under
warranty should I get it
checked out?
Rob Fowler
Southend On Sea
Essex
If the screen comes up red, this
indicates a hardware problem during
the self-test. Since this clears itself, the
problem is probably due to some
charge remaining on the capacitors,
either in the PSU or in the machine.
Try leaving the machine off for at
least 30 seconds and see if that
clears it. If not, get the whole thing
checked (PSU included] by a
Commodore repair centre. MS
Drive away
When my A500 is in use by
my son, game playing for
great lengths of time, it would
be nice to disable the A590
drive. Unplugging it will
eventually cause wear and
tear on the slide-in contacts, so
I would like to be able to fit
switeh/s to disable the drive
and fan mechanism and yet
retain any extra RAM fitted in
the drive.
I need to know which leads
or contacts need to be
switched. I could either extend
the wires out of the drive or
possibly fit an interface
between computer and drive
with switch/s on top. Who
knows, it may even be
possible to have a thru socket
so I can buy an Action Replay.
I have, to a lesser extent,
eased the problem by
extending the autobooting dip
switch to an external switch
(warranty now void) but it
would be better to have
silence. Anyway, hopefully
you can understand my
request and I look forward to
your reply in the form of a
tested solution.
TN Wells
Kesgrave
Ipswich
One of the reasons for having the fan
is to cool the chips - RAM, controller,
etc - so, although possible, it would
not be wise to disable it. A better
solution came from my colleague
Jolyon Ralph. He suggests replacing
the hard drive with a 40Mb low-
power consumption model and
removing the fan altogether. Suitable
units are available from Almathero
Systems on 081-683 6418. MS
Remember the PC?
I was thinking of buying a PC
emulator, preferably the KCS
board. I understand it comes
with 1.5Mb in total, with 1Mb
for the Amiga and around
704Kb in PC mode. If I buy the
Cortex 8Mb expansion, does it
mean I also get more memory
PC Powerboard compatibility poser
l have just purchased a KCS PC Powerboard, 1 was wondering if
your new mag couid print a list of PC programs that will be
compatible with the Powerboard, and also to update it monthly
to help Amiga owners with MSOOS compatibility problems.
Graham Sumner
Huntingdon
Cambs
What a good idea We intend to review some PC products on the Powerboard
ond in the meantime you. might tike to read Mark Smiddy's review of it in
Down to owiness on page 67.
A good idea would be For any readers with Powerboards (or AT-Once
cards) to send us details of any software that does or does not run on their
system. Write to Mark Smiddy, PC Emulation Update, Amiga Shopper, 30
Monmouth Street, BATH BAT 2BW: MS
available in PC mode?
Anoop Sharma
Thornton Heath
Croydon
The Powerboard is limited by MS-
DOS which can only access 640K.
However, drivers are included for LIM
EMS (Lotus-Intel-Microsoft Extended
Memory System] and these should
allow some programs to access the
extra memory. This only applies to
external, auto-configuring cards fixed
to the Amiga 500's expansion port.
And, as with my previous answer,
check out Mark Smiddy's Down to
business column on page 67 for a
review of the Powerboard. MS
Back to boot
I've seen an article on
converting an executable
module into a bootblock, but
none on doing the opposite, ie
converting a bootblock to a CLI
command. It seems logical
enough to assume that it is
possible. The reason for this is
that there are some useful
virus detectors I would like to
convert into CLI commands and
put in the startup-sequence of
my hard drive.
My internal floppy drive
has packed up. Will any old
3.5" drive do (without case &
power supply) as long as the
stepping rate is correct and the
power consumption is low?
(And ideally what should they
be for the Amiga?). If this isn't
the case could you recommend
a firm that sells replacement
internal drives for the Amiga?
Jason Brown
You can convert the bootblock into
code using a little program called
XBoot. However, it is highly unlikely
such programs would work from the
CLI because they are designed to
operate before the machine actually
'wakes up'.
Several suppliers can sell you a
replacement internal drive. Power
Computing (0234) 273000 will kit
you out for under 50 quid. It is not
possible to use 'any old' 3.5" drive
because the eject button and casing
are designed differently. MS
Fat, bad Agnus
I have recently had the Fatter
Agnus chip installed in my
Revision 5 A500. 1 also have
an A590 hard drive with the
Amiga Tips
Here's a useful tip from Steve
Clark of Fareham, Hants:
Anyone with 1 Mb of Chip
Ram who uses the
Recoverable RAM Drive may
have noticed, as I did, that it
no longer retains data after a
warm boot. Looking through
the Enhancer Software
manual for the explanation
of all the commands in the
startup-sequence, I couldn't
believe my eyes when I read
that Krckstart 1 .3 was
designed to work with 5 1 2k
of Chip Ram. So, to retain
data after a warm boot,
simply add an 'R' after the
SETPATCH command in the
startup-sequence, thus:
C: SETPATCH >NIL: R
I hope there is someone who
can find use for this tip.
Thanks, Steve, I'm sure there
is. Even as you read this, a
fiver should be winging its
way towards you.
full 2Mb installed. Since the
fatter Agnus was installed I
have noticed a strange
behaviour of the mouse
pointer. As I drag the mouse
into the lower portion of the
screen - the PAL area - the
pointer splits into two separate
pointers. The faster the mouse
is dragged into this area, the
further the pointers separate.
Also, if the mouse pointer
changes into another sprite,
say me 'ZZ' cloud, the
duplicate pointer remains
fixed on the screen until the
moveable 'ZZ' cloud
disappears. The problem only
occurs with the Work Bench
pointer, not with software that
uses its own custom pointer,
such as DPaint III. Also, the
problem only occurs when the
A590 is attached to the
computer. Perhaps you have a
solution or know of an
upgraded Setpatch command
or PD software to cure it?
Steve Clarke
Fareham
Hants
This particular bug, which occurs as
soon as you start installing fast
memory, is something that
Commodore is very well oware of.
tontinued an page 23
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 99 1
21
<
<
adbroke
imputing
International
^
E
K
A
j
lv
u
t^gnuw^A^H
SUrLC-200
8t»rLC2«-200
7 Colour printer
Cotour * mono rbbon suppfed
225 cpe
5 Resident NLG fonts
Bottom feed
Pieh or pJ tractor feed
Paper parking
StarLC24/10
StarLC-10
Citizen Swift 24 pin
Citizen 120D*
Atari SLM605 Laaer printer
24Pinprriter
222 cpe
5 FtaakfentLQ fonts
Accepts font cartrideas
Bottcmfeed
Push or jx* tractor feed
Paper parking
M»LC24-2QO
^" 24P¥ipriitBr
222 cpE
5 Resident LQ foils
Accspta font cartridges
Bottom feed
Pish or pul Iractor feed
PBper parking
tWearetiekx&estes&tifstied Atari dealer in tie UK.We have developed an extensive j
I customer service pofcy whfcb means tial we test at Hardvare/Sofhvare prior to
I despatch to ertst#E that goods arrive i] »nrf»ia order Altiough or prices are not
I afways fie cheapest we do endeavor to offer consistenly good service and backip.
tints isn't just our opinion, we were voted 'Best Dealer 1989" by tie readers of ST Vtortdi,
'^magazine, not tor 'the number of ficwes shtted~. but tor quality service.
I Ch Site Warranty; Wfe nave recently extended our backup programme by dlertig on sitei|
iwarranty as an optkri on at ST s.Y/e already otter ths service on. At Star prwitersand
\ Philips monitors fsted
i AM prices are correct at copy date 6/04/91 and are subject to change witiout prior
J notice. At prices are accurate whte stocks last Phone tor up to date prices At prices :
1 ndude \AT there are no hidden extras (WYSIWYQ. Delivery [n MarJand UK) is tree, on ;
larders over £O0 (add £10 lor next day courier detvery At prices abatable on Mai
| Order Shop prices may dffer
J
£209.99 AJ Star Printers carry 12 months on ate
cirqoq warrantyManiBrdLKi.AlprhtersiriekJbB
™, HWCentrorkBcaitoFftOnefo-iiiborH.
paper and printer stands.
ESBflB
Btan
S12K Board
With dock
1.5Mb Upgrade with 512K installed
1.5Mb Upgrade with Mb installed
1.5Mb Upgrade with 1.5Mb installed
£26.99
£29.99
£55.99
£72.99
£88.99
£139.99 64K buffer 3 rout switch
£1099.99 2S8K buffer 3 input swiWi
The Zydec 15Mb upgrade board requires a connection to the Garry chip and
rQckatart 13 instated, ticludes dock.
Phone for details of Star FR and XB ranges.
\B0^m
l^WUJU
Quantity
Bulk Sonv or Kao
Loose Boxed
TDK Brand
Boxed in 10's
10
£ 5."
4" f\ ™RjfcntMu*
£ 9. 49
40
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100
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Jw *J / * likcboi
£ 84."
150
£ 66."
£ Q1 W^™
30 OJ. »«*»*
due box
£ 125."
iflr Dafa enable/disable switch
it Daisy chain "through' connector
it Low power consumption
Only £59.99
Ptoaa* add €3 PAP
All disks carry an unconditional lifetime guarantee. Please add
80p P&P for each 10 disks or Ea00 for 100 and above.
* 200 DPI scanner, thermal printer,
and photocopier
it Upto 16 grey scales or B/W mode.
it Compatible with Amiga and ST.
Only £449.99
Use your ST or Amiga to send faxes.
Fury featured modem accesses
btMetn boards/commercial systems.
Q Biy Hayes compatible.
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approved
£224.99
mmTilmiiinmt
Philips 8833 MK II Colour. Stereo monitor £
Cmdr 1084S Colour monitor * limited offer * £
Philips 15" FST TV £
A500 computer £299.99
A500 Screen Gems Pack
£354.99
1Mb A500 Screen Gems
Pack £369.99
Any of above packs * Tenstar games,
joystick, mouse mat add £30
kidudes injection moulded stySng. Internal RAM expansion to 8Mb via SMtf
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Game switch and mini slot for future expansion.
52Mb 11ms £529.99 105Mb 11ms £649.99
Phone for latest prices
AI system ndude IS Mirhs
on arte marten are
DOS 401
1* RAM suppled, upgradeable to 4Mx 8028?" Co-Processor socket
4CMi 24ms Hart rJwe. 2x AT ard 1x XT free expansion slots. Mouse.
GBrf a tel Word choce of 1x 525" floppy cr tx 35' tinppy
Mono VGA £734.99
Colour VGA £839.99
Colour S-VGAE 839.99
249.99
269.99
269.99
^ivtjFtAMsupfi^ipcriteir^toaMuaosa/sxCo-f^rxBs^
socket 40MS 2*ns Hard drive 4x AT and tx XT free expansion sbls.
Maae, choce oj * 525" floppy or tc 35' floppy.
The phitps 15" FST Tv includes: remote control. Scart input 60 tuner
presets, sleep timer and Fastext. AI displays include Scart cable.
Deduct EK> from Monitors only, if bought with computer. The Ph»ps
8833 comes with full 12 months on site warranty.
Phone for other cables and Switch boxes etc
2M> FWM suppSed, upg/adeable to tJM). 80387 Cto^Processor
socket 401* 24ms Hard drve. 4x AT and 1x XT free expansai slots.
Mouse, tx 525 - Boppy and tt 3B toppy
4Mb RAM supplied, upg;a*«lile to KMj. 32K ftast cache RAM
80387 Q>-Processor scckel 40M) 24ms Hard drfcie, 4x AT and 1x
XT free expansbn stots, Mouse, tt 525' fbppy and tx 3.S [loppy.
Mono VGA £1049.99
Colour VGA £1159.99
Colour S-VGA£t259.99
Mono VGA £1259.99
Colour VGA E136&99
Colour S-VGAE1469.99
Mono VGA £1789.99
Colour VGA £188999
Colour S VGA£t999,99
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WernatonB7garrar^rpnB«ieoftterloniMhr»6grgiJr»l^
22
AMIGA ANSWERS
continued from page 21
As far as fixes are concerned I've got
some good news and some bad
news. The good news is that this
particular 'nasty' has been eliminated
with WorkBench 2. The bad news is
that there is no current official
WorkBench 1.3 fix from
Commodore, nor is there likely to be.
If there is a PD fix (and I doubt very
much if there is) I haven't heard of it.
My advice? Hang on in there
because WorkBench 2 is only just
around the corner! PAO
Composing poser
I am a semi-professional
musician and am looking for a
piece of MIDI software (similar
to CB Lab's Notator for the ST)
to enable me to
arrange /com pose music for
the various bands and
ensembles that I play in, I was
thinking of buying Pro 24
Amiga or Bars & Pipes
Professional. Could you tell me
if one of these would be
suitable, or is there a more
suitable piece of software?
C B Willard
St Leonards On Sea
East Sussex
If you are looking to build a C-Lab-
quality Creator/Nofafor-type
sequencing and score producing
package on the Amiga, then forget it.
At the moment there isn't anything
that even comes close. The Amiga
MIDI scene, despite everything you'll
read elsewhere, still has a long way
to go before it catches up with the
Atari ST. This has nothing to do with
one machine being better than the
other (because we all know that the
Amiga is the better machine) it's
simply that there is far more good
MIDI software available for the ST
than there is for the Amiga.
As far as your two choices go,
Steinberg's Pro 24 Amiga is a good
enough sequencer, but it only offers
limited score display and there are
no score editing facilities at all. Blue
Ribbon Soundwork's new Bars &
Pipes Professional is another very
capable sequencer, but I'm afraid
that its notation/score handling
capabilities bear no comparison with
the C-Lab's integrated offerings. To
my mind at least, Bars and Pipes
Professional is best regarded as a
creative compositional sequencer, not
a combined work-horse
sequencer/notator package.
The most sophisticated Amiga
notation package comes from Dr T
and is called Copyist Professional.
This can certainly handle the notation
side of your work, but be warned -
you will not get the
notation/sequencing integration
benefits that are possible with the
Macintosh/Atari-ST alternatives.
If you go for the Copyist you'll
still need a sequencer package and,
to be honest, I'd stick with something
like Dr T's KCS - it has stood the test
of time, is well supported, and it's
also probably the best Amiga
sequencer for using live on stage Its
song mode options allow you to load
and save sets of songs (up to 1 6 at a
time) and select them in any order
instantaneously PAO
Well, you've covered it pretty well so
far yourself!
The amount of RAM you need
will depend upon the titling program
you wish to run, and it will also
govern the size of animation files you
can play back directly from the
Amiga. If you are looking at buying
a second-hand A500, make sure that
it has 1 Mb of chip RAM (Fatter
Agnus Chip) on board, and that it is
actually enabled (Commodore
shipped some machines with the chip
in, but not fully enabled]. This can be
checked with the AVAIL command
from the CLI.
If you buy a new machine, you
will not have this problem as they are
all fitted with the new chip. 1Mb of
chip RAM is necessary to run
programmes such as Scala. I would
recommend that you look at adding
at least 2Mb of fast RAM to the
Amiga, as then you'll be able to load
background images behind text,
playback animations (which can
require large amounts of RAM to
play smoothly) and so on, RAM
prices are now much less than they
used to be. A second disk drive
would also be extremely handy.
With regard to genlocks, you
have a wide choice at an even wider
variety of prices. Since I don't know
your requirements for features and
Imposing problem
I am interested in video titling
and require the super- impose
facility. I have been tofd that
the Amiga is the machine for
this purpose. I also know that
I need a Genlock to be able to
superimpose and added
memory for the A500 and
obviously a titling program. I
need advice on anything else
that may be necessary that
otherwise will not come to
light until after I have started,
so I can estimate the expense
and consider other options.
G L Thornton
Horsham
West Sussex
output quality, I would advise that
you try a few out before you buy.
And you don't always get what you
pay for, so be careful. You might
consider a Genlock that allows you
to fade between the Amiga and
video signals, so that you can fade
graphics on and off the video.
On the software side, you'll need
a good titling package (or two, since
you may find that there isn't one that
does all you need). Look for qualify
before features - video titling often
doesn't require you to do much more
than scroll a set of words up the
screen - but if it looks jumpy you'll
wonder why you bothered. As with
most things Amigan nowadays, there
are plenty of choices - read reviews
and ask a reputable Amigd dealer.
You'll also want some additional
software, especially a paint package
such as Deluxe Paint III, which would
be very useful for making logos,
artwork and two-dimensional
animations, and a good collection of
fonts [of which there are many
available- both in the Public Domain
and commercially), A font editing
package, such as Calligrapher, will
come in handy if you ever need to
design your own fonts.
I think that's certainly more than
enough to get you started and
running for a good while before
you'd need to consider buying
anything else. Happy titling. GW
Fed up
I know that FD files on the
EXTRAS disk can be converted
to .BMAP files to be used as
libraries in Basic, but what can
the FD files be used for as they
TV or not TV?
Using IV Text on an A500, can
it be made to scroll? Can pages
be saved to be edited at a later
date? Jf so, how?
T A Carrick
Newquay
Cornwall
JV Text is one half of a pair of
programs, the other half being TV
Show. TV T&xt is used to create the
pages of text, shadows and
backgrounds etc, which are then
animated using TV Show. So the
answer to the scrolling part is no, it
can't. Pages con be saved to be
edited at a later dote - refer to your
manual for full instructions. If you want
to do scrolling text, why not look at
buying a dedicated package such as
Big Alternative Scro/fer? GW
originally come on the EXTRAS
disk? And what does FD stand
for anyway?
L A Schorah
Liverpool
Mersey side
FD stands for Function Description
and that, incidentally, is exactly what
these files provide. In short they
provide details of the library
functions and the 68000 processor
registers which must be used to hold
the arguments (parameters) passed to
the function. If, for example, you look
inside the graphicsjib.fd file you'll
see this sort of thing:
LoadRGB4 (viewport, colors, coun
t> (AO/A1.D0)
InitRastPort (rastPort) (Al)
InitVPort (viewport ) { AG )
MrgCop(view) (Al)
MakeVPort (view, viewport ) ( AO /A
i)
LoadV'iew(view) (Al)
In this case, LoadRGBIJ, InitRastPortf)
etc, are graphics library function
names and the AO, Al and DO are
the address and data registers in
which the library routines expect to
find their parameters.
FD Files are not converted to
.BMAP files and then used as
libraries. The .BMAP file is just a
modified 'function description' file - it
is used to provide the above interface
details in a form which allows Basic's
LIBRARY statement to access the
Amiga's system libraries.
FD files do have other uses. C
programmers, for instance, can use
them to create #pragma statements
for generating in-line subroutine calls
to external libraries. PAO
Amiga v
I have a lot of 35mm 'colour
transparencies, up to 33 years
old, taken with Agfa Colour
film, some of them very faded.
I wish to import these slides
into a computer using Tamron
Fotovix and there upgrade the
colours to something like the
original, and then output them
on to video tape mixed with
text and music.
Can you help please?
T H Connell
Whitstable
Kent
^Y:i
As I understand it, the Tamron
Fotovix is a £500+ dedicated device
for transferring 35 mm transparencies
or negatives onto video, with the
ability to provide a degree of colour
continued on pnge 24
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
23
AMIGA ANSWERS
continued (ram page 23
correction by using □ joystick to
adjust the relative levels of red, green
and blue in the resulting video signal.
So it would appear that you'll
already be some (if not all) of the
way there without going near a
computer. If the Tamron's video
output is to your liking then you
should be able to link it up to a
computer such as the Amiga, via a
Genlock unit, and use a paint or
titling package to overlay the text you
require before recording the whole
lot on to tape. Take care that you use
the highest picture resolution (hi-res
640 x 51 2) in order to get the
crispesl looking text. Try to avoid
HAM mode for text.
But if the transparencies are in
need of a serious colouring job, then
you'll have to electronically process
them. Unfortunately, this will lead to
further complications and you'll
experience some loss of quality (as
video and computers such as the
Amiga cannot fully reproduce the
fine grain of film).
To carry out the processing, you
first need to digitise (electronically
grab) the image in HAM mode
(4096 colours) by taking the video
output from the Folovix ond passing it
through a digitiser such as Digiview
Gold and a colour splitter to convert
the video signal into the red, green
and blue signals required by
Digiview. This image can then be
saved and manipulated by a
processing program such as Pixmate.
This work will take time and needs a
serious amount of experimentation
and patience to achieve the results
you require, especially if you make
different adjustments to each slide.
Once the images are processed,
you'll need to output them from the
Amiga to video tape and then bring
the taped images back through a
Genlock to caption them (and lose a
generation of quality on the way) -
this is because putting text onto HAM
images will often cause messy-
looking artifacts to appear.
Once you've finally edited your
transparencies onto video [and I'm
presuming that if you're going to all
this trouble you'll be using good
quality equipment) then all you have
to do then is to add your soundtrack.
I wish you the best of luck. GW
Compugraphk fonts
Does a word processor exist
that uses Com pug rap hie Fonts?
Carl Beech
Stoke On Trent
Staffs
calculate and display, and they take
up an awful lot of memory,
particularly at large point sizes.
Although Workbench 2, and
therefore every program that runs
under it, will support CG fonts
(whoops, that's supposed to be a
secret), which means word
processors will be able to display
them, these WPs won't be able to
output CG fonts because they have
been written either to output bitmap
fonts or to use the printer's own built-
in character sets.
Your best bet is to first buy
yourself a fast, dedicated word
processor - I mean one thot doesn't
support graphics in any way -
something like Pretext 5, and then
buy PageSetter II, a cheap but very
powerful black-and-white DTP
program which supports CG fonts. If
you shop around, these two together
will set you back less than £150 and
in my opinion this combination is a
vastly superior package to any of the
newfangled 'word publishers', such
as ProWrite or Excellence!. JW
\-.y.-:. ^^m :::/.:.■
No. Even with a 68030 processor,
Compugraphic fonts take time to
Going for it
I have an A500 with a 0.5Mb
RAM upgrade and extra
floppy drive, and o daisy-
wheel printer. My wife used to
do DTP work on a Mac and is
now contemplating going
freelance. Do we upgrade my
Amiga system - get a hard
drive, Mac emulator, decent
monitor and a laser printer -
perhaps even going as far as
getting a 1 500 or 2000; or do
we leave the system alone
and buy a Mac and laser
printer entirely dedicated to
my wife's needs? Either way
requires a substantial
investment and we naturally
want to be sure thot we are
buying the most effective
system for our money.
The only Mac emulator I've
seen advertised is A-Max. Is it
any good - does it turn your
Amiga into an exact replica of
a Mac? Will the disks and data
from it be able to be used on a
real Mac? What exactly is the
difference between the A-Max
and A-Max with 1 28K ROMs
at nearly twice the price?
What do I need to do to the
Amiga to get the speed of
operation up to that of a Mac
when working with large
volumes of data stored on a
hard disk?
To what extent is hard disk
capacity and RAM capacity
going to affect speed, or do 1
need to start mucking about
with faster processors, 'which
I'd rather avoid if it means I'm
going to have to get my hands
dirty wielding a soldering iron
and risk destroying the
computer by making a clumsy
error?
Gareth Looker
South borough
Kent
You sound like you are serious about
desktop publishing, so I won't mess
about telling you the cheapest way to
do things. As you soy, it requires a
substantial investment,
The Amiga to go for is probably
the 1 500, which is extremely good
value at £999 including monitor,
second floppy drive and a valuable
software package. But you'll need a
hard drive for storing all that DTP
data, the larger the better. The
beauty of the Amiga 1500 is that
you can buy a hard drive on a card
(a hard card) which fits into one of
the slots inside the case. You'll need
a hard drive controller as well. Most
hard cards come with a controller on
board, Talk to Almathera Systems
about this (081 683 641 8). The
company carries a large range of
hard drives and controllers and are
very knowledgeable on this subject.
Faster processors, such as the
A2630 (68030/68882 with 4Mb of
32 bit ram on board), can also be
fitted into the 1 500 with no wiring or
soldering. You simply open up the
case (five screws) and push the card
into into an easily accessible slot.
It may be worth contacting Calco
Software, which supplies complete
Amiga systems, and save yourself the
bother of collecting and fitting the
various bits yourself.
As for A-Max, yes, it is very good
and does turn your Amiga into an
exact replica of a Mac. You will be
able to swap data disks between the
Amiga and the M,ac at will, although
swapping program disks between the
two machines may infringe the
copyright of the program in question,
I strongly suggest you see a
demonstration of A-Max in action
before deciding; there's bound to be
someone displaying it at the 1 6-Bit
Fair at Novotel, Hammersmith, in
July. Or try Power Computing (0234
2701 33), which is in Bedford. The
version you want is A-Max II Plus, the
one on a card that fits inside the
Amiga 1 500/2000.
A-Max is distributed in the UK by
Entertainment International (0268
541126). JW
increase its gomes playing
power. I also intend to utilise
the A500 by purchasing a PC
Emulator and have looked at
two: the KCS Powerboard and
ATonce board. The ATonce
board is cheaper and I won't
have to remove the extra
512k expansion, but is it as
good as the KCS system? Will
you be reviewing PC
emulators in the near future?
KD Green
Thornaby
Cleveland
You must have read our minds! Turn
to page 67 for a review of the KCS
Powerboard; a review of the ATonce
will follow in next month's issue. CR
:,;';-;-;/:;; ;!;
Power poser
I purchased an Amiga 500 last
year for my son and have
installed a 512k expansion
unit in the computer to
Q
Round in circles
I am unable to load the printer
driver for the EpsonQ (or any
other for that matter) using the
Extras 1 .3 disk. Using the
Install Printer command in the
Utilities drawer and following
the screen prompts, I end up
with the message 'Now
copying your printer choice to
devs/printers'. The machine
seems to go into an endless
loop of prompting 'Please
replace Workebench 1 .3' then
'Please replace Extras 1.3'. If
you use the cancel selection it
presents either 'Error during
continued an page 26
I SEE NO TIPS
Don't need our help? Reckon
you can do a better job of
giving advice and tips on a
subject? Well, do iti As well
as asking for advice, we
want you to give it too. If
you have discovered a useful
tip or two for any program,
hardware, language etc, then
send it to us and if it's any
good we will use it on the
Amiga Answers page and
bung you £5 in return. If you
think we have got an answer
wrong, or have failed to give
the full picture, then give us
what you think is the right
answer - we might even
cough up some cash for that
too. So don't just sit there,
get tipping and help out your
fellow Amiga owners. Send
them to: Amiga Tips, Amiga
Shopper, 30 Monmouth
Street, Bath BA1 2BW.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 »JUNE 1991
Distinctly Digita
Cleverly written and always favourably reviewed in the press,
Digita produces a range of powerful, low cost software for the home
and business user.
DGCALC
The fastest snd most powerf ui spreadsheet avai libit in this
price bracket, with 512 raws by 52 columns, giving you u p to
26624 cells. As -with all Digita products, the operation of the
program ig clearly thought out Being either menu, mouse or
command driven you'll be able lo start using i\ within minutes
-even if you've never used a apresdsheet before. Some of
the features which make i! such good value are the exporting
of ASCII files For integration with other programs, adjustable
column widih and text overflow, proc^ammatile function keys
(macros), and a unique window ng lacil ity . so mat you can
look al different parts oi a sheet al the same time.-** QC
MAILSHOT
II you ever need to send oul mailings or print labels, you
know how fiddly and time-consuming it can be making sure
all (he labels are printed correctly. Well now all that's a thing
of the past. Because MaNshol actually shows, you the labels
on screen, you can type names and addresses in exactly the
correct place. But more than that the labels are animated on
screen as a continuous sheet, allowing you to stroll
backwards and forwards, to search for particular keywords or
to edit entries with the minimum of fuss. Facilities include
searching, detection of duplicate labels, sorting: [even
surname!) 9 labels across, 999 copies of any label. This has
to be the simplest and most effective method of creel i ng a
mailshol available.
£24.95
FINAL ACCOUNTS
The program wilt take information prepared by Cashbook
Controller and produce a complete set of accounts i ncludi ng:
1 Trial Balance ' Trading and Profit and Loss Account
' Balance Sheet ' Notes to the Accounts
' Full Accounting ratios.
All reports may be produced at any time, with
comparative/budget figures il required. The facility lo
produce these documents quickly, accurately, and regularly
is of enormous help In rurmincj any business, large cr small,
since one shows the true prolitabilrty achieved, and Hie other
the exact strength of the business in terms of assets and
liabilities. — -.-
£29.95
E-TYPE ■■■kiiiiiiiMnk^H CLASSIC INVADERS
MAILSHOT PLUS
Do you ever have to print names and addresses at awkward
places on envelopes, or do you ever need to fill in tricky
forms or invoices where the text has to be in exactly the right
place? Usually you have to do it by hand, or get your trusty
old typewriter out of the cupboard and dust it off. Welt not
anymore. The Emulated TYPEwriler transforms your
computer and printer into a fully fledged typewriter,
supporting bold, underline, italic and other type-styles.
Because it can display and print taxi INSTANTLY you can I ine
up your form, press Return and Space a few times to move to
the correct place, and then start typing. Alternatively you can
switch lo line-by-l ins mode, which otters word-wrap,
justification and proportional spacing, so that you can edit
each linebelore it's printed. ■*_,»
£39.95
PERSONAL TAX PLANNER
Are you absolutely sure you/taxman is doing his job
correctly? Plan your own tax with ease, Ihis menu-driven
program will calculate your income tax liability {4 lax years
i ncluded) and provide pertinent facts about your tax position.
You can perform 'what-itT calculation to discover ways to
minimise your tax liability. In fact, the program will advise
you on things such as, H you are a married man, whether it
woirid be advantageous to have your wile's income taxed
separately or not. At this price who knows, you will probably
find that FTP wil I pay lor itaelf in tax savings the f i ret time you
use it!
■ STOP PRESS "
July '89 - PTP user receives, tax refund of over £2,0001!
Advanced version ol Mailshol for the business user with the
loliowing extra facilities:
* integration with other software fusing ASCII hies)
* columni'iabulated summary (edeal for telephone lists, etc)
* 4 extra memo tines per label (with defaults) ' system for
coding, dating and addmg messages to each label
* different layouts available tor horizontal and vertical
m ' m '*'- £49.95
CASHBOOK COMBO
Money saving combination pack f&afuring both Cashbook
Controller and Final Aewuns - Saw £10.00. _„
£69.96
Escape from executive stress with the classic space invader
£14.95
£39.95
DAY-BY-DAY
An excellent way to get organised. With it you'll be rami nded
of birthdays and other anniversaries, meetings and
appointments, phone calls to make and so on. As with all
Digita products, inputting information Is simplicity itself and,
once enlered, you can search lor keywords or lor particular
events such as birthdays to see when one is comlngi up.
I ncl udes month/weeki'day planner, automatic rami riders for
overdue appointments, month and week summary al a
glance. For less than £30 this is the ideal way to make sure
you never miss that important occasion again! a#w* nc
i.jty . "o j
Available to the trade from:
Digita, GEM, Greyhound,
HB Marketing, Lazer,
Leisuresoft, R & R, SDL.
^tcco!
'^&^
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"Serious software at a sensible price
rr
\\\ software written in the UK. Prices include VAT & P & P (add E2.00 for export)
• HOW TO ORI
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c
in
<
a
<
25
AMIGA ANSWERS
continued from page 24
copy. Do you wont to try
again?' or 'Now choose this
printer using preferences'.
Whatever the result, when I go
to preferences the printer is
not available as a choice.
Similarly, if I use CLI and
input 'COPY "Extras
1 ,3:devs/printers/EpsonQ" to
devs; printers' by following the
screen prompts, it ends up
again in a loop using the two
messages as before, if I cancel
this time the message 'Error
while Reading' followed by
'Destination file
"devs/printers/EpsonQ"
removed.
Mark Burch
thetford
Norfolk
I'm afraid you will just have to be
more patient, It takes something like
fourteen disk swaps to install the
EsponG printer driver. You can
speed it up a bit by using the CLI -
you weren't too far off yourself - but
by copying the file onto the RAM:
disk before putting it onto the
Workbench. To do this, type:
COPY "Extras
1.3 : devs /print ers/EsporiQ" to
ram:
When this is done, put your
Workbench disk into the drive (it
must be write-enabled, of course) and
type the following:
COPY ram:EpsonQ to
devs : printers
Now you can go into the printer
selection of Preferences and choose
the EpsonG driver. CR
To do this, you have to make use of
AmigaBasic's facilities for calling
system libraries. The interfaces to
these libraries are stored on the
extras disk in the FD1 ,3 directory. In
this case, the necessary file is
'dosjib.fd', because this contains the
'Execute' Function which allows
AmigaDOS commands to be called.
This must be converted into a '.bmap'
file for use by Basic. This is done by
running the 'ConvertFD' program in
the BasicDemos directory. The
resulting File, 'dos.bmap' should be
placed in the libs directory oFyour
System disk. Thus a Basic program to
use the 'Execute' function is:
DECLARE FUNCTION Execute!
LIBRARY
LIBRARY "dos. library"
x=Execute& ( SADD ( "dir " +CHR$ ( )
), 0, 0)
LIBRARY CLOSE
The function 'SADD' returns the
address of the string (which holds the
required AmigaDOS command] for
use by the Execute Function. The lost
character in the string must have an
ASCII code of (a null terminator) to
comply with the C string conventions
that AmigaDOS expects. The last two
zeros in the call refer to the input and
ouptul channels to be used by the
call: in this case the standard input
and output channels.
This program will only work from
the CLI or shell, not from Workbench.
To do this, open the shell and type
"extras 1 ,3:AmigaBasie" (the quotes
are necessary because of the space),
then proceed as normal. Note that
any output produced from the
AmigaDOS command will not
appear on Basic's output window,
but in the shell window.
With the PLAY command this
should not be a problem, Replace
'dir' in the above string with 'play'
and any arguments that it needs. CR
When I'm calling you
When using AmigaBasic I can't
call a file or command from
disk. Could you please print
an example of calling up the
'PLAY' command from 'within
the C directory.
K Cousins
Leeds
West Yorks
No, it works fine. Make sure to use
the correct character for the vertical
bar (it is the shifted character to the
right of the equals key) and leave a
space between 'ed' and 'ram:', CR
Typing trouble
Could anyone tell me if the
command on page 1 13 of Get
The Most Out Of Your Amiga
by Damien Noonan in the
section 'Stand alone Notepad'
is printed correctly? It says:
COPY
| c : copy I makedi r I instal 1 1 ed
I ram:
I But when I type this in I get a
'Bad arguments' error. Is this
a misprint as I hove met other
people with the same error?
E Hitchen
St Helens
Mersey side
from USA to GB in Pen-Pai.
On attempting to go in to
the SetMap on Pen-Pai, there
is a message displayed: 'No
KeyMap specified in icons
TOOLTYPES eg enter
KEYMAPsusa, in info menu.'
What do I need to do so
that the keyboard can be
altered to display the pound
instead of the dollar sign.
Fred Orders
Mid-Glamorgan
South Wales
Bored with the USA
I would be very much obliged
if you could help me 'with to
change the key configuration
Having dusted down my copy of Pen-
Pai , it turns out that the procedure
you require is really rather simple.
What you have to do is click once on
the SetMap icon. Then, with the right
mouse button depressed, move to the
top left of the Workbench screen and
a menu should appear. Move the
pointer down it until the word 'Info' is
selected, then release the button,
A window with several boxes
inside it will be displayed. Click
inside the box marked 'TOOL
TYPES', and then just type the
following line:
KEYMAP =gb
(It is important to put the word
'KEYMAP' in capitals.) Then press
RETURN and click on the save
gadget. Now, double clicking on the
SetMap icon will configure your
keyboard as a GB one. CR
Wild at cards
t have found a file on a PD
disk hidden in a sub-directory.
I would like to view the file
but cannot as I can't type the
file name; it has a strange
apostrophe in it which is
different to the one above the
TAB key on the Amiga. Is there
a way I can use a wildcard to
edit (ED) the file?
Stephen Taylor
Welwyn
Herts
No, Your best bet is to make a copy
of the file first. To do this using
wildcards you must copy it onto a File
that already exists. Make a
temporary file on the RAM: disk with:
ECHO >RAM:tmp "hello"
Then copy the file (substituting the ?
wildcard for the untypable
character). Eg:
COPY dfO : £red?bloggs RAM:tmp
Now you can copy the 'tmp' file to
wherever you want, giving it a more
sensible name. CR t;Vt
Amiga Tips
Daniel Moore, of Ipswich,
Suffolk, sent in this handy
little fix for users of Deluxe
Paint Ik
If your Amiga crashes when
you load a picture and then
try to edit the palette in
Deluxe Paint II, don't panic:
help is at hand. The problem
seems to be caused by a
known bug in Kicks tart 1 .2
and 1 .3. It can be fixed by
the Setpatch command, in
the c directory of the
Workbench disk. It is
executed automatically
when Workbench loads, but
not when booting from
Deluxe Paint.
To copy it, preferably on
to a back-up of the Deluxe
Paint disk, load Workbench
and double click on the CLI
or Shell. Then type the
following (pressing RETURN
after every line):
■
COPY c/copy to ram:
COPY e/setpatch to ram:
COPY c/ed to ram:
Then insert the DPaint II disk
and type:
KAM:COPY ram: setpatch to
Now to get the startup
sequence to run the fix, it
must first be edited. Type:
RAM;ed dfO:s/ startup-
After a few moments of disk
activity, the DPaint II
startup- sequence will
appear. Type:
SETPATCH >N1L:
The NIL: part of it takes the
message that SetPatch
normally prints and gets rid
of it - many commands in
the startup-sequence use
this to prevent lots of
pointless text appearing.
To use the new startup
sequence, press Esc,
followed by X and then
RETURN. Next time you boot
with the DPaint disk, the
bug will hove been well and
truly patched.
Cheers muchly for the tip
Daniel. There is a fiver on its
way to you.
26
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 OJUNE 1991
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JCL-Colourpix £359-99
Disney Educational .£16.99 each
Golden linage replacement mouse
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KCS Powerboard £21999
Control centre with disk drive house
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Commodore A590 hard drive £279.99
Mb upgrade with clock £37.99
Sony branded disks with sony box (20} .£19.99
Full range of joysticks from .£4.99
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CONVENIENCE - A DODDLE (For a plain plug 'n' go pc
emulator with no installation hassle there is
no competition - Computer Shopper Feb/91)
MEMORY - AMIGA 1MB RAM + 51 2K RAM disk,
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DISK SUPPORT - Floppy 3.5, 5.25, H-D A590, (other hard
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TOTAL
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£80.00
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£64.00
£35.99
£234.99
"So what's the point in having a 'wizzo processor if it's no faster"
(Amiga Computing Jan/91) - and invalidates your guarantee
Compatibility is excellent but no-one can guarantee every single
program available, therefore if your purchase depends on a partic-
ular program, please ask us first or send in a copy of the program.
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T O U R BRANCHES
ART ON TRIAL
Graphics guru Phil South ventures
bravely into the shooting gallery
to discover which 2D paint
program is best for your needs
BEGINNERS
Wading through all the paint
packages mentioned in this
month's test, you may be
forgiven for being a little bit
baffled as to which one is really
right for your needs. So here is a
quick roundup of the best of the
bunch, and the reasons why one
is better than another for your
requirements - from a kid who
can't read this paragraph to a
pro user with complex needs.
Tops for tots
Kids love colour, and there's
more than enough colour in an
Amiga for anyone, large or
small. Just about any program
will do for small children, with
adult supervision, but the best
piece of software would be
Centaur's My Paint, a sort of
simple colouring book program.
The simplicity of My Paint means
that a child can colour and re-
colour the same thing over and
over again without making a
mess with crayons and paints. Of
course, children like to make a
mess and its foolish to expect
otherwise, but for a break from
prising crushed wax crayons out
of the Axmins ter, My Paint is
welcome alternative.
Other programs of interest
would be a HAM package for just
splurging huge areas of colour all
over the place, although memory
constraints mean this is best done
on a machine with I Mb of chip
RAM, So if you have a late model
continued on page 30
There was a time when all art
was done using things you
could grasp, like paint,
wood, clay, stone and
artist's models, (Oops.) Anyway, in
this new electronic age, the computer
has rapidly become the favourite
creative tool of choice and, although
it is less obvious as a creative outlet
for your abstract creative urges, the
Amiga is well equipped to satisfy
your needs, whatever they might be.
A lot of you might not even have
considered the Amiga as a creative
tool and, though you may hove the
odd drawing package around, you
might not have a real use for it.
Getting more out of your computer is
what we're here for, so here is the
Amiga Shopper roundup of what's
what in the 2D graphics stakes.
Why paint?
Why should you need a graphics
package? What if you can't draw, or
you don't feel you have the skill to
even pick it up? Well, the whole
point about computers is that they
amplify the skills we have, and that
goes for every computing task. So in
the same way that music sequencers
expand the amount of instruments we
can play at one time without falling
over or prelzeling our fingers,
graphics packages amplify our
artistic skill in many directions.
The thing is that you might not
even know that you like drawing on
a computer until you try it. Drawing
using computers is so different from
using paper and media like pencils
and inks that the two are almost
incomparable. If you don't use a
graphics package then pick one up
using our handy tables as o guide.
You may find you've got a new
hobby you thought was completely
beyond your scope. As David
Hockney put it, when given a
Quantel Paintbox to play with: "The
one thing I can compare it to is
stained glass, as you have light
coming through gloss at you. It's like
painting with light."
There are two kinds of graphics
on the Amiga: structured and bitmap.
Bitmap graphics in the standard
"A multitude of 2D paint programs is
available for the Amiga - the
Ml j
computer for high-quality, affordable
graphics applications. Each software
house will tell you theirs is best, so I'm
here to give you my unbiased opinion
W^iW?^
on which is the best buy for whatever
■^ 1 ^T' jfe ^
purpose you have in mind/'
W \ f\ f m
Phil South
Interchange File Format (IFF) are the
most popular as they use the screen
itself as the drawing medium,
splashing colour and light across the
screen and giving you access to all
the Amiga's 4096 colours to create
artwork that can just be shown on-
screen or even printed out. Bitmaps
ore very quick, comparatively small
on the screen ot any size and printed
out on a printer in superb, |aggie-
free, smooth lines and tones. The
trade off for all this superb quality is
memory, as the instructions to redraw
the picture take up a lot of memory
and memory is at a premium in most
systems. Just as points mean prizes,
memory means money. For the
Out-of-th is- world art is easy on your Amiga, and you don't have to pay
astronomical prices to get off the ground. (Sack that caption writer -Ed.)
in memory and colourful. But they ore
really limited to being shown on the
screen, or printed out quite small to
conceal their jagged bitmap edges.
Big equipment
Structured drawings are more
serious, and require a great deal
more equipment to get the best from.
Instead of merely drawing to the
screen, the program takes notice of
how you drew the picture on the
screen. Instead of fust storing a
bitmap image of the picture, the
outlines and fill colours you used are
stored, so the picture can be drawn
purposes of this piece I'll be ignoring
structured programs, but be sure I'll
be looking at them another time.
There are many different ways
you can get graphics into your
machine in the first place. Obviously,
the best way to originate your
graphics is to draw them by hand
using the mouse. But unless you are
either skilled at using a mouse or a
good artist to start with, this can be a
bit of a problem. So digitising is the
first and most obvious way of getting
around this.
Devices exist that can take an
continued on page 30
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 991
ART ON TRIAL
continued (ram page 29
image from □ video recorder or
camera (see this month's Graphics
column on page 54 for more details
on that) and store it as an IFF file.
Digitising is good for colour work,
and, by using up-to-date digitisers,
you can even get pure, almost
photographic quality images. These
can be treated with colour or moved
about and altered in some other
way, and the output can be printed
off to a colour printer to give very
sophisticated results.
More often than not, however,
digitised graphics will form the basis
of a greater artwork. Which brings
me to the second very interesting way
of getting graphics in, and that is by
drawing or tracing an image onto
paper and using a hand scanner to
turn it into an IFF file. This is good
because you are effectively sketching
"Many 2D paint
programs feature
animation among
their list of tools"
the image using a pen, but colouring
and shading with the computer. A lot
of artists who find the mouse a bit
hard to cope with tend to find this
process easier to handle, and the
materials you need amount to about
£1 50, plus whatever your graphics
package costs.
Other methods for getting
graphics in, and out, of your
computer include using a graphics
tablet with a stylus - a favourite
amongst artists more used to using a
pen. The one big trouble with these is
that, in the main, they are only
available in the USA, although
exchange rates being what they are,
this is usually a good deal even with
import duty etc. The pen-like stylus is
employed on the blank surface of the
tablet and the lines appear on-
screen. It is feasible to place artwork
on the pad and just trace it - that
being a sort of manual digitising
technique - but usually the idea is
that you just draw on the pad and it
comes out on-screen.
2D or not 2D
So what are these packages really
like. The only way to tell is to try them
all, so I did. Of course, the features
you might want from a paint
package depend on the purpose you
have in mind for it. I've tried to
identify the particular strengths and
weaknesses of each so hopefully
you'll get a good idea of which
package is the right one for you.
My Paint
You can sanitise the splodgy mess that kids love to make with My Paint
Centaur
A nice, simple, brightly coloured
package for kids, more like a big
electronic colouring book than a real
painting package. Having said that
though, it does do this one simple job
very well and as a first computer tool
and an educational package it does
have enormous benefits over the more
complex art packages in its simplicity
and colour.
In use
The program is deliberately
constructed with noisy icons and other
sorts of stuff that would irritate adult
users and delight your average kid.
The tools ore as much 'earcons' as
icons, a concept that will (if it hasn't
already) spill over into professional
packages very soon. 'Earcons' is an
idea by the same Xerox Palo Alto
scientists that brought you the icon
and WIMP environments.
The icons are animated as well as
sonically surprising, so will keep
kiddies amused for hours, even if they
aren't producing much in the way of
drawings. The program features a
palette of just 12 colours, although
why this is isn't made clear. What
happened to the other four colours?
Conclusion
My Paint is a nice bright intra to
computer art, and I don't know a kid
who wouldn't love it. It's mainly for
quite young kids I would say, as after
about eight I think they'd benefit from
DPaint or something more serious.
Checkout
My Paint
Ease Of Use 14/15
Very easy to use, and it has to be,
particularly in view ol its target usership.
Nice friendly icons and very little to
confuse even the dullest child.
Speed 6/10
Not as fast as its pro counterparts, but the
users aren't going to be that fussy about
how quickly the thing moves along. It
doesn't handle any of the crazy memory-
intensive graphics modes anyway, so no
real speed problems as such.
Output 4/ 1
Print options on My Paint are a little
spartan, giving you straight preferences
printer support and naff all else. No re-
sizing ond no aspect control. But then the
child would probably eat it if it was there,
so its no great loss.
Graphics Handling 2/10
IFF or wot? Well if you want 24-bit files
and HAM forget it. II you just want to save
little Timmy's daubs for posterity, then you
can, so where's the problem. Oh yes and
My Painf is NTSC only, so you can forget
using the bottom of the screen tool
flfuWfff
Colour 5/ 1
1 2 colours, all of them very bright to suit
the younger set. You do have eight palettes
to choose From however, so you con swap
them around a littte bit. Not as good as
choosing your own colours, but let's keep if
simple for the poor lad or lassie.
Text Editing 0/5
Look the kid can't even read properly yet,
and you want text editing in his electronic
colouring book?
Tools 6/10
Not a big range of tools, but they are very
easy to use and fun too, what with the
noises and stuff.
Documentation 4/ 1
Just enough so you can tell nipper how to
use the thing, but frankly you'd have to
have your brain installed backwards it you
couldn't work out how the package works
within 10 seconds.
Price Value 1 8/20
Good value fun tor kiddies everywhere,
and on excellent introduction to the Amiga
computer for those sticky little fingers. (Urg.
Maybe educational software is not such a
good idea after oil.)
59/100
A great little program which, although light on features, is really heavy on tun. It's no
great shakes in most other departments, but then it costs much less than other programs
and Is intended as an extremely basic package for children.
k continued from page 29
adapted A500 or
even a 2000, and
your child is
responsible enough not to batter
your keyboard to death, then
you can leave them to it.
Painting with light
There are two different types of
users who want paint packages:
those who want to draw and
those who want to paint.
Drawing is cleaner and much
more lifelike. Painting, just like
canvas and brushes, is more fluid
and needs a larger palette so you
can mix colours.
HAM mode is the best tool for
paintings and NewTek's Di'gi-
Patnf 3 is my own tool of choice
for this purpose, because of its
speed and ease of use. The tools
are very advanced and some
astonishing special effects ore
possible with the minimum of
fuss. Shadows and the ability to
map your images onto theoretical
shapes make this the tops for FX,
and the 'rub-thru' effect isn't
easily done anywhere else.
For more accurate colour
drawings, for printout, DTP and
especially on-screen graphics, the
only choice must be DPaint III
from Electronic Arts. DPaint is the
classic Amiga graphics package,
and although it's gone through
three revisions since its original
release, a user who used the first
one could use the last without
changing a thing. DPaint is still
the only package I have
permanently mounted on my
hard disk, because I use it so
much. I think the old chestnut
about 'if it didn't exist someone
would have to invent it' applies.
Jag-free zone
For jaggie-free illustrations there
is only one choice, and that is
Professional Draw 2.0 by Gold
Disk. Other structured drawing
packages may turn up
eventually, but Pro Draw got in
first and if s so advanced now
that it's hard to imagine how any
other newer package could
compete. The Pro Draw 'clip'
(ontinited on page 32
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 »JUNE 1991
ART ON TRIAL
PostScript
A couple of the programs
we looked at handle
PostScript, a special page
definition language written
by Adobe Systems,
designed to produce high
quality half-toned output.
The language sends what
amount to programs - a
stream of text instructions -
to the printer, which
interprets the commands
and draws the picture on
the printer at very high
resolution. Express Paint
handles PostScript, and so
does Professional Draw,
although you can actually
add PostScript to any paint
program by using public
domain software.
Ctax and IFF2PS are
two such programs
(available on the Fish disks
or through bulletin boards}.
They take an IFF file and
turn mem into PostScript
bitmap images. These files
can then be sent to a
PostScript printer, either by
connecting a PS printer
directly to the Amiga, or by
converting the file to Apple
Macintosh or PC format and
sending it to a DTP Bureau.
Display
Categories
There are four types of
graphics display on the
Amiga. 32-colour is the
usual low-res screen format,
and this assumes high-res
16-colour and interlaced
formats too. Some packages
also feature 64 'halfbrife'
mode, which is the same
32-colour palette with
another 32 of the same
palette, but this time half as
bright. (Stands to reason
really.) HAM stands for Hold
And Modify, and is a
hardware trick in the Amiga
that squeezes the whole
4096 colours available on
the Amiga onto the same
screen. This is done by
basing the colour of any
one pixel on the one before
it, which explains the
woolly effect you get with
it. 24-bit is the new
standard and needs extra
hardware. This gives you
1 6 million colours, almost
as many as you can see
with your eye!
Accolade
A very basic package, without the
kind of fluidity of control you expect
and get with the likes of DPainl III. The
tools are a little clumsy and the
program leaves much to be desired in
the features department. The program
is very basic, and would suit someone
who wants to try out art on the
computer but can't afford to lash out
the cash for a pro program. Novices
would do well to look at this program,
but try before you buy as you may
find it lacking in the kind of whizz-
bang graphics you bought your
Amiga for.
In use
The program: is very light on features,
almost to an annoying degree, and is
almost like a big brother to My Paint,
with a similar degree of simplicity.
This is perhaps a good package For
beginners, or even older children, as
the tools are less basic than My Paint,
and quite complex pictures can be
built up with very little effort.
The sample pictures were drawn
by experts to make the package look
good, so don't expect to reach that
standard right away. One good
feature is its magnify window which,
of the cheaper packages, is one of the
best. Its a half-screen window, giving
you ample room to move around and
draw minute details. And there are
three levels of magnification, so you
can adjust the amount of the picture
you can see
The program allows you to draw
in either low-res or high-res, but no
interlace or HAM is supported,
meaning this is a low-memory
program usable in 512K machines.
32 colours are available - less than in
many other packages - so the limited
palette and screen resolution options
place it in the beginners' bracket.
Conclusion
A cheap graphics program, written
with the beginner in mind. But not so
simple that you feel cheated. It is good
value, but not to be confused with
programs like DPaint or Digi-View.
continued on page 32
The Graphics Studio
Wild and groovy results that would please any novice hippy are possible
with The Graphics Studio, provided techno-fear can be overcome, man.
Checkout
The Graphics Studio
Ease of use .9/15
Not particularly intuitive, but a belter bet
For the new user than something tike Pro
Draw or DPaint. Nice and simple, but if
you work at it you can produce some very
nice work indeed.
Speed 5/10
No Speedy Gonzales, but at this level,
speed is not the issue. Providing graphics
at the right price for (he tentative computer
artist is.
Output 4/1
Just like My Paint, this program only
supports whatever printer you've got
attached to the printer preferences
program. You con"! dibble around with it
either, just bang ouf a Ml frame and like it,
Graphics handling 5/10
IFFs or nothing it seems, but then again this
won'f bother the new user, as he probably
wouldn't know a brush or palette file if if
bit him on rhe nose.
^JrrtWfff
Colour 7/10
Only 32 colours, but it does have more
ranges to set for colour cycling, 32 more,
in fact, than any other program tested.
Text editing 3/5
You plonk the text cursor down and type,
and you can actually edit the line before
you type return or take ihe text mode off,
so it's sufficient to do text. But that's it.
Tools 6/10
Three levefs of magnification is better thon
both Express Paint and Digi-Painl.
Documentation 6/ 1
A 60-page ring bound manual takes you
through the program and, although it's
fairly comprehensive, I found it a bit hard
to read. It does hove a index though for
when you get stuck and all the information
you want is in there if you can find it.
Price value,. 16/20
Same price as My Paint in most places I've
seen. This is good value too, for the extra
features you get for your money.
61/100
A very good beginners' program, and one which has a little niche all to itself in the
market. Novices will do well to start here.
Memories are made of chips
One thing that often holds you back in using
graphics applications is a lack of chip memory.
This is the base level of memory installed
in the machine when you buy it. The reason
that chip memory is crucial is that this memory
is used by the custom chips in the Amiga,
including those that govern graphics. So if
there isn't enough memory added to the
system (expansion memory is called 'fast
memory') then the computer simply can't
handle the graphics. If the chip memory is
doing all the work (that is, if you have no real
fast memory to speak of) then the program
either won't work properly, or in the cose of
Pro Draw 2.0, will crash spectacularly. The
only solution to this problem is to either:
1 ) get a lot of fast memory to give the
program a bit of headroom.
2} get a fatter Agnus chip, which enables you
to have more chip memory.
3) get a fatter Agnus chips AND a tot of fast
memory. Whichever way you slice it, you can't
do ail possible graphics tasks on an
unexpended Amiga without some risk of il
falling over in o big heap. Sorry about that,
but them's the breaks (screeech).
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
31
ART ON TRIAL
DeluxePaint III
Deluxe Paint shows science aping art at its most effective. Possibly the
best art package available for the Amiga and certainly very impressive.
continued from page 11
Electronic Arts
The undisputed king of the 2D
programs, and now in its third
incarnation, Deluxe Paint III is
becoming something of a standard
animation engine too. The only real
drawback to this program is its lack of
a HAM mode, meaning that you can't
read or edit HAM mode pictures. You
can, however, create pictures in all
other Amiga resolutions from low-res
two-colour pictures up to high-res and
even 64 halfbrite-colour mode.
In use
The tools are very intuitive and a lot
can be done using tool tricks, which
augment your drawing talents beyond
their usual limits. You can magnify the
drawing and scroll around it in
magnify mode, enabling you to draw
very small and detailed drawings very
easily, and indeed edit existing
drawings with pixel -perfect precision,
The great benefit of DPaint is that
the page size can be altered to any
size you like, and the image can be
scrolled around at will. This means
that big maps for games can be
drawn and then fitted together, which
has proved a boon for developers
and home programmers alike.
The magnify mode is the best on
any graphics package I can think of,
with 22 levels of magnification to
choose from, allowing you to draw
freehand or just pick out individual
pixels at any size you want.
Although just a 64-colour
program, the animation, plus all the
superb still graphic effects, put it head
and shoulders above even the HAM
programs. The animation side is well
thought out, though a lot of the
features are so well buried in the
massive manual they might as well be
undocumented. I recommend going
through the docs with a fine-tooth
comb if you want the best from it.
Conclusion
It's the best. Nobody has ever
reviewed a graphics package without
comparing it to DPaint. And no user I
know is disappointed. You never here
them say, "I wish it would da this".
If you think you need a bit of
muscle in your package, then buy
DPaint III or you'll regret it.
continued on page 36
JARGON BUSTING
BITPLANE /BITMAP: A bitplane is an orea of memory where every binary digit
(or'bif) corresponds to a pixel on the screen. One bitplane represents
a monochrome image, several can be overlayed (a bitmap] to
represent a colour image,
IFF: Interchange File Format is a means by which data from different
graphics or sound sampling programs are saved in a compatible way.
interleaved Bit map is the IFF sub-format in which graphics are stored.
The jagged edges seen on diagonal lines, caused by the use of small,
but finite rectangular pixels to make up a picture.
National Television Standards Committee. Name for the TV colour
coding system used in the USA. It has 525 horizontal lines, so
programs running in NTSC mode leave the bottom portion of the
screen blank, PAL is the British system. It has 625 fines.
A picture element - one of the thousands of tiny rectangles that make
up a computer screen.
24-BIT GRAPHICS: Normally, the Amiga uses between one and five bits (each in a
bitplane] to store the colour of each pixel of a display. This means that
between two and 32 colours can be displayed.
ILBM:
JAGGIES:
NTSC:
PIXEL:
Checkout
DeluxePaint Ml
Ease of use 15/ IS
A piece of cake. There is a sort of learning
curve to it, where you struggle a bit to
I earn oil the functions, but most of the
learning is so pleasurable you hardly
notice it. And before you know where you
are, you're a DPaint artist. Take lime to
learn the shortcut key presses, as these
make you fly along I
Speed 8/10
It's fast, but only if you are in low-res.
Interlace and high-res pictures take much
more time to do things, especially when
you're transforming something. Get 1Mb
of chip ram: or you'll only be able to see
eight colours in high-res most of the time.
Output 9/10
First class output, with a big requester
giving you control over the output. You
can scale it, shrink it, rotate it, in fact
anything you like.
Graphics Handling 8/10
It doesn't handle PostScript or anything
like that, but it does load and save IFF,
ANIM, animbrush, and brush files, which
mokes the importing and editing of all
your animations and still pictures very
easy indeed.
Colour 9/ 1
Good colour control, with six cycle
ranges, 32 or 64-colour palettes, and
various tricky stencil and perspective tools.
More colour control thon you can shake a
paintbrush at.
Text Editing 4/5
Very cool text editing and full font
requester, enabling you to use any fonts in
the fonts directory. Being a requester and
not a menu, it doesn't Freak out completely
when you have 20-30 fonts like I've got
on my hard disk.
Tools 9/10
Some useful tool 5 r some brilliant tools, and
some really crazy ones. My favourite is
the mirror and tile tools, which enable you
to draw huge colourful kaleidoscopic
patterns all over the screen with one brush
reflected eight ways.
Documentation 8/ 1
Huge manual, and very well written too.
Takes you through a tutorial and feeds you
all the right information right when you
need it. It has the best manual of the
bunch, but then Electronic Arts always was
good at manuals.
Price Value 20/20
A massive program with a small price.
This program is a real life, honest to
goodness bargain guv' nor, and no penny
was better spent.
^^USi
90/100
A top-flight stonker of an Amiga program
and although very old, as the interface is
the same as the original program sofd to
A 1000 users way back in the Dark
Ages, it is still as fresh and crispy as the
day it was first coded. I think every home
should have one.
conrinued from page 31
format is so widely
supported by other
packages that it has
become something of a standard,
merely by being the only such
package around for a long time.
Fortunately, unlike so many lone
programs in any particular field,
Pro Draw is in fact an excellent
program and doesn't need any
competition to make it any
better. But I'll discuss structured
drawings another time, as Pro
Draw is in a class of it's own.
Animated conversation
And finally there's the animation
question. Many 2D programs
these days feature animation
among their range of tools, and
this just means they are able to
store a series of frames and play
them back at varying speeds.
Most feature the ability to save
these frames as ANIM-format
files usable in a variety of
playback utilities, particularly in
the multimedia and professional
video quarters.
Of the programs around, I'd
still rate Electronic Art's DPaint III
as my favourite animation
machine, although Disney's
Animation Studio comes a close
second. The professional
animation tools in Disney's
offering make it a firm favourite
among animators more used to
conventional animation
techniques. But for memory-
efficient storage and playback of
your animations, DPafnfwins
every time.
And back to the studio
By the way, I've left out Disney's
Animation Studio from this
roundup for two reasons: first,
I've looked at it in great depth in
issue 1 of Amiga Shopper, and
second, it doesn't shape up much
as a graphics creation tool, as its
forte really is in animation.
If you are intrigued, however
and you've been and gone and
missed the review in issue 1 , you
can order your awn copy by
sending £1.50 (this covers post
and packing) to our back-issues
address (see page 111).
32
AMIGA SHOPPER* ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
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packi AMIGA PERIPHERAL PACKS pack 2
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Box of 10 branded TDK 3.5" DS/DD £7.99
Box of 50 3.5" DS/DD with labels £18.99
Box of 100 3.5" DS/DD with labels £35.99
Box of 250 3.5" DS/DD with labels £79.99
3.5" disk drive cleaning kit £3.99
Disk Boxes
3.5" 10 capacity Ryford box £1.49
3.5" 40 capacity lockabie box £4.95
3.5" 80 capacity lockabie box £6.95
3.5" 80 capacity Van 3 [slim design) £7.95
Mouse
8mm high qualify mousepad £3.99
Mouse/joystick extension leads £5.99
Naksha powermouse ST/Amiga £16.99
Dustcovers
PVC quality covers for computer/printer ...£6.99
High quality solid Perspex dustover £9,99
I COMMODORE A501 SCOOP PURCHASE !
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ART ON TRIAL
Deluxe PhotoLab
Checkout
Versatility is the name of the game with Photolab's. image manipulation.
continued {torn page 32
Electronic Arts
PhotoLab is the only program to cover
all resolutions available on the Amiga,
and the only program (actually a suite
of programs] to give you access to
both HAM, 64 and 32-colour images,
right down to two-colour pictures.
The suite comprises of Paint,
Colors and Posters. Paint is a paint
program, most unlike DPaint in
operation, but good enough to allow
the creation of graphics without too
much wrestling. Colors is an image
processor, allowing you to change the
resolution and colouration of any IFF
format image, and also provides a
range of unique special effects.
In use
Although Paint is a little bit odd at
first, it is actually a very good little
paint program. Most of the palette
info is on another screen, which you
can get to by selecting the back and
front gadgets on the paint screen, or
by the Amiga-N and Amiga-M shortcut
key presses. Although not as intuitive
and easy to dive into as DPaint,
PhotoLab Paint is a powerful tool - at
the very least enabling you to edit
everything from a digitised HAM
image to a two-colour scan.
Colors is very much the
centrepiece of the suite, covering a
range of very useful utilities such as
the ability to render a picture up in
monochrome from any format. This is
good for creating mono illustrations
for DTP work, especially if you're not
sure how they'll turn out. Finally
Posters allows you to print out pictures
Deluxe Photolab
Ease of use 10/15
Easy to use and very powerful. Everything
is done with on-screen buttons. There are
advanced functions on the menu bar.
Speed 7/10
No* much waiting around, although I'd
recommend a fast processor for anyone
intending to crunch a lot of big files.
Output 9/1
Output is very good, especially the Posters
program, which employs special
algorithms to smooth out the pixelated
quality of really big enlargements.
Graphics handling 8/10
Accepts all Amiga IFF formats, and no
messing. Also allows you to convert these
to any other format too, so is the ideal
partner For DPaint III.
Colour 9/ 1
More colours than there actually are. Well
actually as HAM mode covers 4096
colours, you're looking at that many. Very
intelligent routines allow you to cut colours
without losing the sense of the picture.
Text editing..... 3/5
No real text editing to speak of, but as this
is mostly usefuf as a treatment program for
Files created eEse where this isn't a problem.
Tools 9/10
More tools than a plumber's van, and all of
them easy to get at. Just bang the on
screen buttons ond bob's your uncle. I like
to use PhotoLab to chop Files around, and
although t prefer the quality you get with
ASDG's The Art Department, PL chops files
around very intelligently.
Documentation 9/10
Another nice big book from Electronic Arts,
ond welf up to its usual standard.
Everything is where it should be and
there's not a word out of place.
Price value.. 19/20
Three excellent programs for the prioe of
one, and that's a pretty good deal in
anyone's language.
Another greot and very so] id product from Electronic Arts, with features bristling from
every orifice. It's a bit shy on the image creation front, but very good at making medium-
strength graphics look very hard indeed.
in big sizes, and it does this by
dividing the picture into A4 sheets and
lets you stick them together.
Conclusion
Although not as good as Electronic
Arts' Deluxe Point III package, as for
as creation of great graphics is
concerned, Deluxe Photolab is chief
among the tools I would employ to
treat graphics that have been created
in another medium.
PAINT PACKAGE FEATURE CHECK • PAINT PACKAGE FEATURE CHECK • PAINT PACKAGE FEATURE CHECK •
My Palnl
Toolbox toggle
The Graphics j DeiuxePaint 111
Studio
Deluxe
Photolab
. . . • ..
Express Paint j Digi-Paint 3
Photon Paint 2.0
Clear screen •
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ 6 £
• • •
Spore page
■« • • • ;'■
law m
•
High res
Interlace
64 half brite
HAM
m
overscan
■ : : - '.-.■■
Airbrush •
Airbrush fixe
Freehand dotted
■;§;;■■;
Freehand continuous
• •'.
line
•
Curves {heifer)
e
Rectangle
• •
Circle
• •
mi
•
Brush fill
• e
Perspective till
Brush teals
«
■ • .
Freehand brush
•
Brush rotate •
. •
Remap brush colour
•
Wrap en 2D
•
wrap en 3D
Perspective brush
•
Smoothing
•
e
Antialiasing
j • , • ,, , • m
e.
•
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 e JUNE 1991
ART ON TRIAL
Checkout
Express Paint
Express Paint
Ease of use 6/15
Not the easiest of interfaces to get to grips
with. Has more in common with a novice
program like Graphics Studio than what I'd
expect from a professional program.
Speed 7/10
Speed is okay, although you do get tired
of seeing the word 'Thinking' when the
program is working on something.
Output 9/10
Nice output, especially from PostScript.
This needn't be a closed avenue to you if
you haven't got a PostScript printer. See if
your local DTP bureau can handle
PostScript output, and you could even use
one of the PostScript Interpreters available
for the Amiga.
Graphics handling 6/10
The formats handled by ExP are IFF ILBM
screens, brushes, PostScript format files
and colour palettes. PostScript pictures
cannot be imported, just printed out. Neat
way of converting ILBMs to Postscript,
although Professional Draw does a belter
job on that score.
**"MWII*
Colour 5/ 1
It handles all the colours all right, up to 64
of the little devils. The colourising functions
are better than DPaint, so it scores points
there, but how many times a day will you
want to colour black and white pictures?
Text editing 3/5
Text editing is okay too, with support for
ColorFonts, and even o little text editing
and formatting too. Another score over
lesser programs, but once again DPaint
does it better.
Tools 4/ 1
Lots of tools and they work OK too, but the
layout is confusing and you can't get rid of
the damn things.
Documentation 5/10
I thought the manual was a bit woolly and
not very well laid out, but the information is
there if you delve a little bit. There's too
much trumpet blowing for my taste though.
Price value 8/20
Express Paint is not a product I'd be that
happy with, especially as it's only o little
bit cheaper than DPaint which is so much
more useful.
53/100
A glowing example of the adage that specification sheets and feotures don't make a
brilliant product. The feel of the thing has been neglected and this spoils the enjoyment
of the features for me. Not nearly slick enough yet, but give it a few more revisions and
it should eventually knock DPaint into a cocked hat.
BS>UJ£»*T?i1-h4VL i
Tools in profusion, which have a marked reluctance to disappear on cue.
Oxxi
Express Paint used to be a freely
distributable program. It has now
gone commercial (it was on Fish Disk
1 1 7), and to be brutally honest it
shows. ExP is written by veteran
Amiga PD author Stephen Vermeulen,
famous For all manner of tricky
graphics programs of varying sorts in
the Fish library for one. The program
allows you to paint in 32-colour and
64-halfbrite, but not HAM. The tools
are run along the bottom of the
screen, and access to the areas
covered by the tools and menu bars is
via a quartet of arrows in the corner
of the screen.
The program changes the sidebar
of fools depending on which icon you
click on at the bottom of the screen,
and then the tools at the side are
clickable to actually create and edit
the picture on the screen.
In use
Unlike some of the other front-runners,
it is unable fo wrap brushes on 2D or
3D surfaces, which this limits the
number of special effects available. It
doesn't have any animation facilities
either, so in straight contest with
DPaint, it falls short of the mark.
Obviously, a program written by a
single programmer isn't going to be
as rich in features as a product which
has been honed by a large software
house for years, but be warned that
ExP might no! be all you are looking
for in a graphics program.
There ore some unique features
however. You can save palettes out
for use by other pictures; you can type
text to the screen from a ASCII file; its
undo levels are limited only by
memory; you can print brushes to your
prefs printer. And one thing you can
do with ExP that you can't with DPaint
is print out to PostScript, which is of
limited value to your average Joe.
Although the program has most of
the features associated with a
standard Amiga paint program, in use
it doesn't feel right.
Conclusion
I know Express has o mass of devoted
followers, but it doesn't do much for
me. The interfoce seems a bit clunky
and I feel like I'm not really in control
on-screen. The features look good on
paper, but they are a bit 'hackish' -
more appealing to the programmer
than the end user. None of the
features really enhance the process of
creation of graphics, and so are not
very useful.
The one feature which boosts this
program's otherwise risible score is
the inclusion of a PostScript output
facility. This exists on no other bitmap
graphics program as far as I know.
continued on page 38
PAINT PACKAGE FEATURE CHECK • PAINT PACKAGE FEATURE CHECK • PAINT PACKAGE FEATURE CHECK •
Colours (max)
My Paint
12
The Graphics DelttxePaini III Deluxe
Studio Photolab
32 64 4096
Express Paint Digi-Paint 3 Photon Paint 2.0
64 4096 4096
Colour cycling
•
• •
•
Print using profs
•
•
•
•
Print with aspect
oiler ratio
. •
•
Print in colour
•
•
Print in postscript
•
Page flip animation
ANIM animation
■■- 1 h- ■ — f— — — p _
. •
Anim brushes
Set brash path
— ■■■{ : * ■■-— i _
— — — — — — _r
Files: IFF •
• •
e
•
• •
ANIM
•
Anlmbrvsti
Brush
t • • e
•
Postscript
■
•
Grid
• •
•
Magnify
• 1. •
•
•
■ •
•
ARexx interface
"i — -
•
• •
•
•
Text
• •
• • •
•
flexible feat directory
• • .
• •
text shadows
•
Colour-font;
•
•
•
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 99 1
ART ON TRIAL
Digi-Paint 3
If looks could hill, Digi-Paint could well become the ultimate weapon.
accessible. My favourite is the
graduation tool which moves a point
of light around a filled object,
allowing you to put highlights onto
your objects easily, Digi-Paint is one of
the few programs that lets you do 3D
(ontirtued from page 37
NewTelc
HAM paint packages were ail the
rage a few years ago, but recently
they seem to have fallen from favour.
Digi-Paint was one of the first and
remains in my opinion one of the best
In use
Digi-Paint is good because it feels very
slick in use except that there are o lot
of wait balloons, HAM is a memory-
intensive format, so every time you
draw a line on the screen or activate
an effect, the screen redraws itself.
This takes time, i wouldn't want to
give you impression that Digi is slow,
because considering the amount of
graphics data the program is chewing
at most times, it's flying along.
The tools are good too, with all
manner of nice effects easily
effects in a 2D program with ease.
Conclusion
Like DPaint, Digi is on its third revision
but still looking good. The tools make
it one of the most flexible image
creation programs on the market.
HAM is too big for some people's
computers, as it needs a minimum of 1
Mb of RAM to work, and it's helpful of
course if that 1 Mb is chip RAM. The
one thing Digi doesn't do is
animation, but then I've always been
dubious of HAM animation programs,
as they need massive memories to
work almost at oil, which rather limits
the demand for them.
Photon Paint 2.0
-■■■-■ :K -MHBBBB
Soon to be upgraded, Photon Paint has become something of a dinosaur.
Microlllusions
Photon Paint is another veteran of the
HAM wars, and its final gambit
before being revamped as
Spectracolor (I'll review that when I
get a copy) was to add animation to
the thing.
In Use
The program is very slow, but this is
only to be expected due to advanced
features like mapping brushes on 3D
objects etc. There are some very
advanced features like light source
shading and, though this con allow
you to do some cute things with the
program, such features eat memory.
Shadows are automatically set by the
direction of light and intensity, but as
objects aren't 3D, results can be
erratic. There are some very good
features, like a 'video' mode which
hides all menus and pointers for
laying frames down to video.
Conclusion
HAM artists are divided between Digi-
Paint and Photon Paint, so it remains
to be seen what happens when
Spectracolor, comes out. Bui for the
time being Photon Paint is a huge
program. Not for the tight of pocket
either, as you will need more memory
and a fatter Agnus chip.
Checkout
Digi-Paint 3
Ease of use. 14/15
Just point to whal you want arid click it. Of
course you have to draw too.
Speed ..6/ 1
Slow at first, bul once used lo how long it
takes to do things, it isn't too bothersome.
Output 7/ 1
HAM pictures always look good on the
printer, as the blurry tones of the HAM
image blur any lack of resolution.
Graphics Handling 4/10
Handles IFF screens and brushes, but that's
all. You can's save a HAM palette anyway.
Colour 9/10
Loads of colour, and very good control
over where the colours actually go.
Text Editing 5/5
Digi has the some kind of text handling that
DPaint does, but having access to all 4096
colours in the Amiga's palette, Dig* can
anti-alias its text lor smoother lines.
Tools. 8/10
3 like the tools in Digi and there ore a lot of
very neat special FX built in. Tinting and
shading are very easy to do.
Documentation 7/ 1
Good docs. It's o readable manual, and
very well laid out too.
Price Value 19/20
Cheaper than its only competitor and
makes a unique image creation tool and
treatment suite.
AMJftA
79/100
More HAW than a butcher's shop. This is
the best value package in the HAM
market, even without the animation
facility. But then that's not what HAM is
about in my view.
ooooooooo
Shopping List
MyPamt £19.99
by Centaur 4451-B Redendo Beach Blvd,
Lawndale, California 90260 USA
=■0101 213 5422226
Distributed in UK by:
HB Marketing Ltcf Unit 3. Po/le 14,
Newlcmds Drive, Colrtbrook, Berkshire
SL3 ODX it 0753 686 000
Deluxe Paial III £79.99
Detoxe Photolah £1 29.99
IPhololoh now discontinued, but still in slock
at some stores}
by Electronic Arts 1 1/49 Station Road,
Langley, Berks SL3 8YM w 0753 49442
Photon Point 2 ....£89.95
by Mkroiliusions.
PO Box 3475, Granada Hills, California
91 394 USA * 01 01 818 785 7345
Distributed in UK by:
The Software Business
flrooklonds, New Road, St Ives, Huntingdon,
Combs PE17 4BG a 0480 496497
Digi-Paint 3 £79.95
by NewTek fnc 21 5 SE 8th Street, Topeko.
Kansos 66603 USA* 010 19133541146
Distributed in UK by:
HB Marketing and Silica Shop
1-4 The Mews, Holherley Road, Sidcup, Kent
DA144DXw081 3091111
Express Paint $1 39.95 [dittontinued)
by Oxxl Aegis PO Sox 90309, Long Beach,
California 90809-0309 USA
» 010 1 2134271227
The Graphia Stodio $49.95 [ETBA]
by Accolade Europe Ltd 50 Lombard Road,
London SW113SU* 071 738 1391
Some of tbe packages reviewed
are discontinued, but still uvoilabli
from certain dealers. Don't forget,
shop around for the best prices
Checkout
Photon Paint 2,0
Ease Of Use 10/15
Not the easiest pro-gram to get to grips
with, though it has similarities to DPaint.
Speed 3/10
The program takes a long time to calculate
things, and mapping onto objects takes
quite a while.
Output 6/ 1
HAM pics always look nice on the printer,
but these take forever lo print out.
Graphics Handling 5/10
IFF HAM pics and HAM ANIMs. This is the
only HAM on i motion package I can think
of, and it deserves a boost for that.
Colour 8/10
One of the few things il can do that really
impressed me was a spread of colours in
HAM, something hard to find in other HAM
****!ff6Tr4t
packages. Il allows you to use 64 colours
from this paletle at one lime.
Text Editing 3/5
Supports ColorFonts and a little bit of lext
editing. No anti-aliasing to speak of.
Tools .7/ 1
The program has more tools than Digi-Paint,
but they don't seem appropriate to a HAM
package. Airbrushing is a waste where
one pixel affects the one next \o It, throwing
all airbrushed pixels into relief.
Documentation.* 4/10
Mot my favourite manual, and set in a
strange typeface which makes it hord on
the eye, Not enough reference material and
though there are copious tutorials and
appendices., there is no index.
Price Value. 9/20
Should be closer to the price of Digi-Paint I
think, then it would be value for money.
55/100
Not my favourite graphics package, mainly because I feel I'm wrestling with il all the
time, and needs too much of o huge overpowered Amiga to get the full use out of it.
38
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 99 i
DESKTOP PUBLISHING
Streaming headlines
For £200, no matter wfictf the
application, reliability and high
performance are essential, Jeff
Walker checks out PageStream 2
to see if it has enough under its
bonnet to keep up with the leaders
The full-colour, four-page
brochure Soft-Logik hands
out to advertise PageStream
2 is an impressive document
to look at. Produced entirely with
PageStream, it shows exactly what
the program is capable of, and the
words describe at some length many
of the features PageStream has which
its 'closest competitor' [PPage] hasn't.
PogeStream's font support is
possibly its strongest hand. It comes
with no less than 1 8 different outline
fonts, 1 of which are
Compugraphic, the rest being Soft-
Logik's own format. On top of this,
PageStream supports Adobe Type 1
PostScript fonts, the kind used by
Moc and PC desktop publishers. All
of these can be output to ANY kind
of printer. [Yes, that's right,
PageStream con output PostScript
fonts to dot-matrix printers.)
As well as Normal, there are 1 2
further text styles to choose from:
Backslant and Italic, Bold and Light,
Underline and Double Underline,
"Despite numerous
improvements,
PageStream 2.1's
lack of speed is
still a millstone
around its neck"
Mirror and Upside-down, Outline,
Shadow, Strike Through and Reverse
(white on black).
Where Font sizes are concerned,
Soft-Log ik has gone o bit potty. They
can be anything from about
l/7200thofaninch (0.01 pf] to
about 100ft (183,000pt], adjustable
in 0.01 pt increments. These are silly
figures. For a start, the best Linolron
typesetting machine can't handle
anything less than 1 /2540th of an
inch, but more to the point (little pun
there) is the fact that the human eye
can't define a 0. 1 pt difference, let
alone 0.01 pi. As for the 1 83,000pt
maximum, I'd be willing to stake my
BLITS
Commenting on new technology
in newspaper design, former
Sunday Times editor Harold Evans
once said: "To be able to print a
32.5pt headline in purple in the
shape of o bishop's mitre will not
in itself be a notable advance in
journalism, " I dunno though . . .
BOBS
teddy bear that nobody has ever
actually printed a letter that tall. (IF
you know differently, please send it
to me, c/o Amiga Shopper. Enclose
a stamped, self-addressed juggernaut
if you want it back.]
I've experimented a lot with large
point sizes, and the good old Guru
knows a lot more about whether they
work or not than I do.
Stick to sensible sizes and
PageStream works just fine, as you
would expect, so I suppose there's
little point in knocking a potty Feature
if it actually does no harm. Provided
you avoid using it, of course. But then
if a feature is to all intents and
purposes useless, and Gurus the
machine when you try it, it's not
really a feature, is it?
Game for a pasting
PageStream allows you to paste text
on to the page in two different ways.
First there's the norma! technique of
importing text into a number of linked
boxes or columns, each of which can
afterwards be moved or adjusted
horizontally or vertically, and the text
then re-Formats itself to Fit,
The second way is unique to
PageStream. Any text typed directly
on to the page gets treated as a
graphic, or what PageStream calls
an 'object'. This means you can
manipulate it in ways usually
"1 use the Amiga to publish my own
% Jt
magazine, so 1 know what features of a
m ^\\
DTP program are the business and the
\k, $m
kind of performance necessary for high-
J^NfL
quality, professional results. Thus 1 can
/M^
give you no-nonsense buying advice."
Jeff Walker
reserved for pictures. You
can stretch it both ways, for
instance, which effectively
creates a bastard point size
- one that is not the same
point size wide as it is
high. Handy for fitting
headings into holes. You
can rotate, slant and twist it
as well.
All the text formatting
Features you would expect
from a professional desktop
publisher are there - things
like spell checking,
hyphenation, kerning,
paragraph indents and
outdents. PageStream is
without a doubt perfectly
competent in the text and
fonts department.
Streaming cold
Where it begins to Fall
down is with the speed of
its screen refresh rate. Or
rather, the lack of it.
To begin with,
PageStream will refresh the
screen if you sneeze too
hard - it really is quite
annoying how often it does
it - and because each
refresh can take anything
between 1 and 30
seconds, you tend to spend
an awful lot of time tutting
and drumming your fingers.
Speed is a topic Soft-Logik
left out of the PageStream
(Milhtued an page 40
You can create any colour using the five
colour systems and a dithered patch will
show the approximate shade. But on-screen
this patch is replaced by the closest of the
16 solid screen colours.
The selection of 40 pre-defined fill patterns
is one of PageStream's strong points, the
icing on the cake being the editable one.
'J.
* ********
_hi
':—!=;■
rT-
A fairly complex PDraw
structured drawing of the
Stars and Stripes (above)
loads in almost perfectly;
but close inspection
reveals that the red
stripes are poking out
behind the black border
on the right. Things start
to go really wrong after the drawing has been twisted (left). PageStream
has made a complete pig's ear of things. Our only option now is to re-
load it and try again. Sometimes it works, mostly it doesn't.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 99 1
DESKTOP PUBLISHING
Colonbia
CS CDUfj#r
Cptttivt
Garanond Antiqua
LtrGOttl
<>] L ienUl
Saturn
CS Svnljol
CS Tins;
TonHud
| Hanaaer 1
The fonts requester is uncomplicated and
easy to use. Compugraphic fonts are
displayed with CS before their names. The
font manager allows you to designate several
different directories to look for fonts In, after
which they all appear in this one requester. If
the font size you require isn't in the list, you
can type it into the string gadget above.
This is the display PageStream gives you of
the famous DPaint King Tut screen. Although
you can make out where King Tut is, I need
much more: I know he is on a dark blue
background and that there is a thick black
border left and right that I want to crop out,
but the border cannot be seen in this screen
representation, so I'll have to do the
cropping in DPaint.
Fase Size
JM Siie - IWm x Ulnn
DM Silt - 21Srai x !9Im
IAS Size - I49rai x 218im
3B4 Size - 256m x 3G4hm
ZB5 Size - IB2MH X 257ml
□ Letter - B,3" * 11"
□ Legal - 8,5" x 14"
□ Manual - 5,5" x 6.5"
D Tabloid - 11" x 17"
□ Index Carl - 5" X 3"
. □ Business Card - 3,5" x 2"
ingle Sided Document
cubit Sided Document
ortrait ( vertical)
andseape (Ji or iz until*
9 User - M pc x 66 pel
a
Gl
Page Orientation B
01
| Cancel |
hk
o
:-. i._
A large selection of p re-set page sizes is
available, which was good thinking on Soft-
Logik's part because even experienced
publishers sometimes have trouble
remembering the exact dimensions of
standard paper sizes. If you want a non-
standard size, you can type it into the string
gadgets using any of the many measurement
units PageStream supports.
continued from page 39
brochure, so the company
must know it is a problem,
yet there is no facility for
interrupting a screen
refresh. The only help is
adjustable greeking, where
text under a certain on-
screen point size gets
displayed quickly as a
fuzzy pattern.
Even with o 25MHz
68030 and 68882 maths
co-processor inside the
Amiga, the waits get
tedious if For no other
reason than it appears to
be impossible to work for
more than one minute
without doing something
that causes PageStream to
refresh the screen.
While the refresh is
happening you can do
nothing, not even move the
mouse pointer. To a
programmer this is a dead
give-away that a program is
not properly using the multi-
tasking capabilities of the
Amiga. If you listen
carefully you might even be
able hear the phrase 'ST
port' being muttered.
Piccy plethora
PageStream is almost as
well-endowed in the
graphics department as it is
in the text department. The
number of different
graphics formats it can
import is incredible - all IFF
ILBMs [which includes
HAM, SHAM, dynamic hi-
res, dynamic lo-res and 24-
bit), TIFF, PDraw, Mac and
IBM EPS, EPSF, GEM
Metafile, IMG, Aegis Draw, DR2D,
Degas, MacPaint and Neochrome. If
you don't actually recognise some of
those names it's because they are
□ lien formats from various other
machines.
Ail of these graphics formats can
be displayed on-screen and output to
"PageStream has its
own dutch of
structured drawing
tools for creating
lines, curves, etc "
any printer, except for Encapsulated
PostScript Format (EPSF), which can't
be displayed and can only be output
to a PostScript device.
Bitmaps are loaded in one of two
ways. Either load the entire graphic
as an object directly on to the page,
or load it into a separate Picture
Window, from which you can snip
out the part you are interested in and
then paste that on to the page.
Loading times differ, depending
on what type of graphic it is you are
importing, but a wait of two minutes
while a HAM picture loads directly
on to the page is not unusual. Single
bitpiane (black and white) IFFs take
around 20 or 30 seconds.
No matter which mode you run
PageStream i n - 2 , 4, 8 or 1 6
colours - all bitmap graphics are
displayed on-screen in just two
colours: black and white. No
dithering is employed to try to get a
better representation, so any bitmap
that has more than two colours
stands a 50-50 chance of looking so
bad on-screen that precise cropping
becomes almost impossible. Ok, this
isn't a disaster; most IFFs you can
crop in DPaint or something, but for
the non-Amiga graphics formats,
multi-coloured TIFFs for example, it's
going to be a bit hit-and-miss.
To help speed things along,
bitmaps can be replaced on-screen
with a crossed-out box once they
have been pasted into their final
positions, But you can't choose which
to X-oul and which to display. It's
either all the bitmaps in the
document, or none.
Twisted picture
Once on the page, any graphic can
be re-scaled, rotated, slanted and
twisted, although my experiments
with PDraw structured drawings have
revealed that twisting them is
disastrous; you end up with o
BLITS
The late Cyril Connolly, journalist
and essayist, once observed: "As
repressed sadists are supposed to
become policemen or butchers, so
those with an irrational fear of
life become publishers." Urn ...
_ & BOBS
cluttered mess.
The re-scaling of IFFs is not
accurate enough to be of use to a
professional desktop publisher.
Graphics can be loaded in at what is
supposed to be the original aspect
ratio, but they are always slightly too
long. Adjusting them, to the correct
ratio, which is a perfectly valid thing
continued on page 45
Rotating IFF pics can get jolly jaggy
Below is PageStream's attempt at
rendering diagonal lines on IFF
rotation and, oh dear, it hasn't
really done all that well has it? It
would probably be best to leave
IFFs and use structured drawings.
Rotating an IFF in Professional
Page gives art acceptable output,
shown above, with diagonal tines
rendered with minimum
jagged ness. They may look Jagged
on-screen, but the print out is OK.
40
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
"1
I
COMMODORE
1084S STEREO
MONITOR
Including FREE lead
ONLY £229.00 1
r 1
tv-
l"v
i
('■•■■'
I
1
L,.
r— -■ — ---- — i
| PHILIPS 8833 MKD J
i STEREO MONITOR i
| including Free Lead
[ONLY £229.00
NAKSHA
[ UPGRADE MOUSE
MAT PLUS
HOLDER
ONLY £26.50
i__
r-
.J
m
Open Monday to
Saturday 9 am - 6pm
Callers and Mail Order welcome
i ALL-IN-ONE SOFTWARE
I Music, Paint + Word Processor
[ 3 Games + Tutorial Video
r ONLY £119.00
AMIGA PACKS
■ SCREEN GEMS PACK, inc. Shadow / Beast E, Back/Future 0, MgMbreed, Days of Thunder, Dpaintn , £359.00
■ STARTER PACK, inc. 5 Commercial games plus Joystick .£359.00
I CLASS OF THE 90'S FIRST STEPS, inc. Extra 512X, Pi-Write, Info File, Dpaint + Dprint E etc EE1E.O0
I CLASS OF THE 90'S, inc. Extra 512K, Publishers Choice, MaxiPlan, BBC Emulator, Midi Int. etc £515.00
■ AMIGA CREATIVITY PACK, with Word Processor. Music & Paint packages, 3 games + Tutorial Video £419.00
All Amiga ASOO's supplied with mouse, modulator, manuals, workbench. Basic + Tutorial
AMIGA ASOO FUN PACK — >
AMIGA Asoo MAX PACK
Amiga A500, Mouse, Modulator, Manuals, Basic, Workbench, Tutorial, Joystick, Disk Box, .
10 Blank Disks, Dust Cover, Dpaint n, PLUS 14 GREAT GAMES Shadow of the Beast B, ■
Back to the Future E, Nightbreed, Days of Thunder, Star Wars, Toohin, Barbarian B, I
Licence to Kill - James Bond Game, Running Man - With Schwarzenegger, APB, Xybots, i
Dragon Spirit, Hard Drivin, Voyager
STILL ONLY £399.00 1 Meg version £429.00
Amiga ASOO, Mouse, Modulator, Manuals, Basic, Workbench, Tutorial, Joystick, Disk
Box, 10 Blank Disks, Dust Cover, Dpaint II, PLUS 10 GREAT GAMES Star Wars, Toobin,
Barbarian U, Licence to Kill • James Bond Game, Running Man ■ With Schwarzenegger,
APB, Xybots, Dragon Spirit, Hard Drivin, Voyager
ONLY £359.00 1 MEG VERSION £389.00
SOFTWARE AND DISKS — i
HARDWARE
3D PROFESSIONAL £209.00 PIXEL 3D £49.00
AMOS + EXTRAS DISK £32.00 PRO VIDEO POST £159.00
BROADCAST TITLER £159.00 PRO-WRITE V3.1 £85.00
CAN DO Authoring Software £79.00 SCULPT ANIMATE 4D £225.00
DIGIVIEW GOLD V4 £95.00 TITLE PAGE £109.00
LATTICE CV5.1 £149.00 PROFESSIONAL PAGE 049,00
PAGESETTER V2, DTP £47.00 VIDEO EFFECTS 3D £109.00
PAGESTHEAM, New Version 2.1 .£139.00 X-CAD DESIGNER (1 Meg) £69.00
PAGESTREAM FONTS £22.00 X-CAD PROFESSIONAL £229.00
CROSS-DOS, Multi-format file transfer £23.00
PANASONIC 1410/4 VIDEO CAMERA. Ideal for DigiView £149.00
PEN PAL, Excellent Word Processor (1 Meg) £69.00
IMAGINE 3D Animation & Rendering software £179.00
DIGI-PALMT HI. Full featured HAM package .49.00
ALL IN ONE. Art package, Word Pro + Music package £119.00
TV SHOW, Video wipes, titung package £55.00
PHOTON PAINT H, HAM Art + Animation £25.00
SONYDD/DS Disks. Box often inc. labels £9.49
THE WORKS PLATINUM, Integrated package £62.00
AMIGA VISION. Authoring software £89.00
TV TEXT PROFESSIONAL £79.00
DOS 2 DOS Multi-format file transfer ,£33,00
WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIO (1 Meg) £69.00
X-CAD DESIGNER (1 Meg) £33,00
X-COPY PROFESSIONAL inc. Hardware £34.00
I I
: COMMODORE A590 20MB Hard Disk. Unpopulated £275.00
1 COMMODORE A590 20mb Hard Disk + 2m RAM £339.00
I COMMODORE 10S4S Colour Stereo Monitor £229.00
1 RINDALE 8602 Genlock, A500/B2O0O £185.00
■ SUPRA 2400 External Modem £119.00
J SOPHUS S5 Professional Stereo Sampler £79.00
' KCS POWERBOARD, PC Emulation (ASOO) with AM DOS... £220.00
I AMIGA compatible external disk drive, switch plus thru port £57.60
I AT ONCE PC Emulation £175.00
| GVP48 MEG SCSI Drive plus 8 Meg Ramboard for 1500/200 £419.00
■ GOLDEN IMAGE HAND SCANNER with software plus Photon Paint £195.00 j
JNAKSHA CLONE MOUSE £19.95 !
AMIGA A500, Mouse, Modulator, Workbench, Basic £335.00
PRINTERS
STAR LC-10 MONO PRINTER inc. Lead £159.00
STAR LC-200 COLOUR PRINTER inc. Lead £209.00
STARLC-24/200 MONO PRINTER inc. Lead £249.00
STAR LC-24/200 COLOUR PRINTER inc. Lead.... , £297.00
CITIZEN SWIFT 24 MONO inc. Lead £279.00
CITIZEN SWIFT 24 COLOUR inc. Lead £309.00
CITIZEN 124D 24 Pin Mono inc. Lead £199.00
CITIZEN 120D Plus, 9 Pin Mono inc. Lead £139.00
CITIZEN SWIFT 9 COLOUR £225.00
I . 1
AMIGA AlSOO
AMIGA MEMORY
j The NEW A1500 inc. Stereo Monitor, Twin Drive, DpaintS, The Works [
Plat., +4 Games, ONLY £889.00
I ASOO Upgrade Available - please phone I
I I
I B2000 Microbotics 8M Ram Board + 2 Meg RAM £199.00 |
I Extra 2 Meg Ram for above board £75,00 j
I ASOO BaseBoaid, Populated to 4 Meg £249.00 1
I A500 TARGET 512K Ram, With Clock + Switch £36.00 I
I -_ I
SUPRA/BAUD BANDIT 2400 MODEM
Hayes Compat. Auto-dial/answer, V21, 22, 22bis £119.00
As above but includes MNP5 error correction £159.00. New Supia 9600 Modem £399.00 Supra 2400 Plus, MNP5 + V42 Bis £189.00
HOW TO ORDER:
Either call our number
below with your credit
cord details, or send a
eheque/PO or credit
card number and
expiry date to our
address. Hake cheques
payable to
THE 16 BIT CENTRE
Prices subject to ebauf e without
notifies, tlan.
All prices include VAT + Courier Service
16 BIT CENTRE
Units 15-17*
Lancashire Fittings Science Village
Claro Road, Harrogate HGi 4AF
Tel (04Z3) 531822/526322
EXTENDED WARRANTY
AND MAINTENANCE
CONTRACTS AVAILABLE
ON ALL ITEMS. PLEASE
CALL FOR FURTHER
DETAILS
C33E1
ES
yore gl/g$T foe gpggp SlfiRK *fggg
ACCELERATORS UNLIMITED
TURBO 68000 7/15NHZ SWITCHING
for 500/1500/2000 plug-in pcb and software at £45
HARMS 68020 cards
7/14/20 mhz 68861 from 1 6 to 30 mhz up to 4 meg ram
68000 fall back mode and they start at only £150
C.S.0. 68030 MEQfl MIDGET RIICER
20/ 25/ 33 mhz 68030, 20 to 50 mhz 68882
SRAM for Wckstart in 32 bit memory and true 32 bit memory from 1 to 8 megs
Prices start at £350 lor 500/1 500/2000
SAVE £50 on a CSA system (Call and see how)
A 25 mhz board with 51 2K SRAM ana 2 meg 32 bit ram would be £674 r.r.p. £724
66030 25mhz with 1 meg £576 68030 33 mhz wfth 51 2K SRAM 6 4 megs £946
What the press said. ....4 MIGA FORMAT The CSA RACER took 96 seconds beating the A3000
by about 36%' AMIGA WORLD 'I was impressed with the sight of a mare A500 running
as fast as an A3000 or a Macintosh lid. Going back is tough indeed' AMIGA USER INT
The only major problem was that I had to give it back' AMAZING COMPUTING 'It offers all
the features that users want at an unheard of low price' INFO MAGAZINE 'It delivers big
performance at a relatively small price...maximum bang for a buck. '
They att had one thing in common-THEY PRAISED IT.
HARMS 68030 cards
for the 2000/1 500 Amigas running the 030 chip at 28 mhz
with a 68882 co-pro and 4 meg ram £1099 (expandable to 16 meg)
G.V.P.3001 68030 Systems
for the 2000/1500 Amiga A3001 28 mhz 68030/68882 with 4 meg ram £1345
A3001 50 mhz 68030/68882 with 4 meg ram expandable to 32 meg £2099
BRAND NEW SERIES 2 ACCELERATORS Call for latest prices
look at these features though 22 mhz 33 mhz or 50 mhz with co-processor
with 1 meg 32 bit ram Installed (60 nanosecond speed) with the 22 or 33 expandable
to 13 meg and the 50 to 32 meg. The 22 and 33 have a built in SCSI interface with the
030, memory and SCSI all on one cardl The 50 has the AT hard drive Interface and ail
boards have a 68000 fall-back mode. Hard drives are DMA transfer for extra speed and
the Bridgeboards work without the 6 meg limitation. By the time you read this we will have
the best prices so call for them. We have a range of SCSI drives so ask about them.
C.S.A. 68040 CARD the *040 MAGNUM*
This is the latest and the best. If you want performance then this is the one.
Ffor the 2000/1 500 only and features 4 meg 32 bit installed memory expandable
to 64 meg. The 040 chip has the MMU and FPU built-in and has the power
and speed to perform animations and graphics in real lima.
Call for launch price and be one of the first in the UK with this POWERI
WE ARE THE UK's SPECIALIST IN AMIGA TURBOCARDS, FASTER PROCESSORS,
68030 AND 68040 CARDS. NOW YOU KNOW WHERE TO COME FOR THE RIGHT
PRODUCT AND SERVICE. TECHNICAL SUPPORT HOT-LINE
MOST WEEKDA YS 7PM TO 9PM CHRIS on 0860444816 or BOB on 0925763946
AS THE OFFICIAL CSA SPIRIT * HARMS DISTRIBUTOR FOR THE U.K., WE
GUARANTEE PRODUCTS BOUGHT ONLY THROUGH US OR OMEGA PROJECTS
PRODUCTS NOT A VAILABLE ELSEWHERE OR AT THESE PRICES.
c.s.fi. &mn <*•?.
G.V.P. SERIES 2
GVP A500 IMPACT Series 2 - probably the best hard drive for the A500
SPECIAL OFFER of 42 meg drives £479 zero K can expand to 8 megs using SIMMS
or a 52 meg zero K £525
SERIES 2 1 500/2000 8 meg memory cards with 2 meg Installed at a ridiculous £189
SERIES 2 IMPACT SCSI Interface and zero K £1 79.00 expands to 8 megs
SERIES 2 IMPACT hard drive with 17 milllsec 80 meg Maxtor drive £524
As above with 8 milllsec 105 meg Quantum drive £645 or 52 meg Quantum £469
SIMMS modules to expand the GVP range 2 megs £75
MEGflCHIP 2000
This is the expansion the 1 500/2000 owner has been waiting for. No need to buy a 3000
now when with this board you get the 3000 Agnus chip plus 1 meg of extra chip memory.
We take back your old Agnus and supply you with the new Agnus installed and 1 meg extra
chip memory. Compatible with K/S 2.0 and the ECS your hard drive, existing memory and
more. THIS IS THE UPGRADE COMMODORE NEVER WANTED TO SEE and only £250
SPIRIT -THE 'Ultimate 1 INNATE
For the 500/1 500/2000 an internal 8 meg card (uses ZIP chips) 1 meg to 8 meg pathway of
true fast memory with facilities to instal a 20 mhz co-processor and with a super fast SCSI
Interface built on the board. This is the 'all you ever wanted' on one board. Uses low power
CMOS technology. Even the 68000 Is CMOS and square. We can supply hard drive cases
with PSU, cables and super fast SCSI drives. Call for sizes and prices 45 meg to 200 meg
Zero K board now an amazing £1 99 Co-Pro £55 2 meg ram uses A3000 ZIPS £99
SPIRIT - STUDIO ft Broadcast Genlock
Now a professional amkja genlock/encoder/switcher/keyer built to studio specification.
Key-Mix; program cut; fade to black; mix and disolve 100%; key-in 0-100% £645
Optional RGB upgrade module composite decoded to RGB and RGB splitter £199
Y-C Component (S-VHS and HI8) video transcoding composite to Y-C and back £330
Computer control upgrade plug-In daughterboard for software control of all functions £99
Flicker fixer for flicker-free video full overscan and does not use up the video slot for all
500/1000/1500/2000 machines. £250
AdRAM 540 fit up to 4 meg in the 500 trap door Zero K £89 2 meg £1 55 4 megs £220
AdRAM 5600 is the extra 2 meg module to plug onto the AdRAM540 to give 6 megs £145
512K with clock £24.95 No clock £21.95
A590 CONVERSIONS TO LARGER DRIVES CALL FOR OPTIONS AND PRICES.
BYTFN'BflCK V3.0 fastest «v«r Irani disk back-tip £19.95
For all versions of Kickstart, Workbench or Amiga's.
AM theee product! and more so caM tor prices and free braohutefrcm one of tto tearing Amiga tpeciaHsli
MORE TO0ST FOR LESS BREAD from
Bytes & Pieces (Europe) Ltd,
37 Cecil Street, Lytham, Lanes, FY8 5NN
Tel 0253-734218 Fax 0253-736035
Egg
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intment
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44
YOU'RE ALWAYS
BETTER OFF
BUYING
DIRECT
FROM
JRILOGIC
THE DATAFLIEKS
UNBEATABLE YA1UE FOR MONEY
THEDATAFLrERjOCRAIIGE
ALL PRICES INCLUDE WT - NO HIDDEN EXTRAS
C:: lew coft Ha* p««*e*fii*iQi SCSI vmatttw & hvd
Hi. VC (rtl iji v* .t\,1 AfMo* MM rt || pQV.il £.71113.
iAtBUI * SCS flrv* *tu<H. QpiicnN nwrs [M«|
W*ptV *4*ifalt hul riffly ftK*UV¥ i> our
I TTH buft*i SCSI uitiriH (,iH , 5 Fjh,
SCSI INTER* ACE & HARD MeM HOUSING
ONLY- -- - naa
optional mains power supnr am
WTH 49™? 2Bnu SCS otiui hrunj ... MX f3»B
WITH SOnwp iiTii SrSl *irt 'flDd DULY [41999
Wn _ HiJ™g2*T,i3£Sl*iLfl*'MHi . [MT [459»
WITH f-iwflT^ni SCSI diw 4 esu H*V £S99.»
0fivMiKHto17JnHflMfl»til PO*. PteMwMHur
i*c*m; Di[itl>ir ailln. Ufmong .w hrd dnvt
I
THE MTARTER 2000 RANGE
Uses 1(w Mm* SCSI rtia-fta cud ii uHd «h
DUiHvw MO. bid tin rriainoJv. Mousing hs*t
a-.lKHwrvsirS.!,' SCSI *™w. Avas*bls- «* SCSI
luri &HM lirrf is bund beta*. An ** Adloboosho,.
isa*i us: aceAH :^i Inmi r-juLrtj An
stxlllindd A udldv ibsk lor lonrnslinj A pAflsjAAilV)
IhenmnsWri UuH*5 5CS c*.,bs sslv, tfl
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1s*»sKHd Mk *AJ --. A.-riif en
SCSlHrlHfrtbyiMiiNDaau Bstr E79.R
SCS Udt h*uJl ASnwp Jfcra SCSI *M«IT £321.93
SCSI donl hrtl. Hni !EV*f SCSI M»WX (JFS.M
SCSicB.[lwlh63n»aJ4m ( SC5l*-r^D-tT HliH
SCSIopsd *nh i.imAp is™ sea ArtttGNLf r 44999
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I^MMWAfrigj ASODise mtbti kiv«. IncArfrq
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FOR ASOOrZMnfJOOO
AMP1 AMIGA .:■ pfr-it p "w
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QUtCKJOT SIJftRCHJUWElL
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dlrwn, i. * FjtKri ynaV t»H mo-TBPC iV mwnuj« L)ffi«
C^bif-kid tHfl
.MONITOR PLHTH MOUSE JOYSTICK
EXTWSfflH LEAD KIT PER PWR [?.«
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HOTLINE
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HOW TO ORDER
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CARRIAGE
Minimum order £10.00 Carrier free on all
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next working day.
[UK mainland, axe. Scottish Highlands).
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W ORDERS OVER £500 ^
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(send cash by registered post).
L»SEBOARDA500MEMOHr UPGRADE
The BASEBOAPfi q ■ wy MtwU hi* i»*tftY
mtniCTY uponm cm- *uf tw Am-fl* SB H u
;■:- :.r y t wHh IJ11.) romt. | r« t r«nr
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■■2 m*j lEtpf hwn 0»l m*ql 4 «u4a ccnTipAinu u
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ri-.-Ewai, r.i*rfs*uttn/tii&t. tic-^j disjc4t
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DESKTOP PUBLISHING
The above pictures show the difference that screen frequency makes. On
the left we have output resolution screen frequency (360 lines per inch),
which creates a stark image, while on the right the screen frequency has
been adjusted to 45 Ipi, Which particular frequency you use will depend
on the nature of the graphic you have In mind, although 60 Ipi is a good
place to start, and is what PageStream appears to use as its default value.
continued from page 40
for a professional user to want to do,
is a time-consuming, fiddly and very
much hit-and-miss job.
IFF rotation is worse. While it is
impossible to get on accurate
representation of a rotated bitmap at
screen resolution (about 70x70 dpi),
there is no earthly reason why the
final output should not be almost
every bit as accurate as if you did
the rotation by hand using traditional
cut-and-paste methods. There are
bound to be some small inaccuracies
rotating IFFs, which are
comparatively low resolution
graphics, but see the rotation
diagram on page 40 for an example
of what PageStream produces in
comparison to output from a program
which does it properly.
Of course, these re-scaling and
rotation problems totally disappear if
you use structured drawings created
with programs such as Professional
Draw and Aegis Draw, or, to a
limited extent PageStream itself,
instead of bitmaps. >
cuts
The Amiga is crucial in ihe
production of Amiga Shopper.
Many of ihe screen shots you see
are grabbed direct from the
Amiga and ihe words you read
are produced, in the main, on
Amiga-based word processors.
St BOBS
Structured drawings are displayed in
up to 16 colours, depending on
which mode you start PageStream up
in. These may not be the actual
colours the drawings were painted
with - in fact they almost certainly
won't be. They are 'screen' colours
which PageStream uses to represent
1 6 of the literally millions of colours
available. There is no on-screen
colour dithering, so creating multi-
coloured documents can be a little
tricky. Structured drawings are great
for adding graphics to your work
because no matter how much you
mess around with them, you never
get any jaggies.
"k wait of two
minutes while a
HAM picture loads
is not unusual"
But the more complicated a structured
drawing gets, the longer it takes to
draw on-screen. So you need some
way of speeding the rendering up,
either by forcing drawings to appear
with only the outlines on-screen
(wireframe], or by X-ing them out
completely once they are finished
and in position. PageStream has
neither of these options, so if your
page has a couple of detailed
structured drawings on it, when
control is stolen from you while the
screen gets refreshed, it can be a
minute or more before you can get
working again.
As well as import facilities,
PageSfream has its own clutch of
structured drawing tools for
creating lines, curves, boxes,
ellipses and polygons. The lines
can be any colour or thickness you
desire, as can enclosed areas, plus
you have 40 fill patterns to choose
from for both lines and areas. If the
pattern you want isn't among the 40
on offer, then you can simply create
your own.
On the page
PageStream is one of those programs
that uses its own custom printer
drivers. (The Protext word processor
is another example of the breed.]
Currently, 57 drivers are distributed
with the program, one of which is
called Preferences. Printer, which
means you can use your normal
Preferences printer driver if you like.
For monochrome output,
PageStream has built-in dither
patterns to approximate colours, but
there is only the one dithering mode,
which appears to be halftone. All
colours, including those in bitmaps,
use this dither pattern for
monochrome output.
PageStream handles grey
shading (which is different from
colouring something a shade of grey)
by using 'screens' which, when they
get output to the printer, are 1 6x 1 6
arrays of small round dots - basically
they are a special kind of fill pattern.
Adventures of tinting
Seven different screens are provided,
which approximate 10%, 25%, 40%,
50%, 65%, 80% and 90% tints of
grey. However, there Is an editable
pattern if the screen you require is
not in the list.
This screens technique is a much
better way of handling monochrome
grey shading than using dither
patterns, and editable
structured fill
patterns
is one area where PageStream walks
all over its rivals.
A feature closely related to this is
screen frequency (aka density),
something normally only available
via PostScript output. PageStream,
however, can throw a user-definable
screen over individual graphics and
output it at that frequency to dot-
matrix printers.
Normally, coloured graphics sent
to monochrome dot-matrix printers
will need screening at the
reproduction stage - at the printers in
other words - to prevent all the little
black dots running into each other
when the ink spreads on the paper.
With PageStream, you can do this
yourself. So, using a non-PostScript
monochrome laser printer say, you
could output all the text and
structured fine drawings at 300x300
dpi, but have the coloured graphics
on the same page output at 60 ipi
(lines per inch, which is
continued on poge 46
One of
PageSt ream's
strongest selling points is
its ability to run text around
irregularly shaped (ie non-square) structured
drawings. However, it is important to realise that it
cannot do the same with bitmapped graphics. In PageStream,
they can never be anything else taut square or rectangular objects.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 ©JUNE 1991
DESKTOP PUBLISHING
continued from page 45
basically the same thing as saying
60x60 dpi). Colour graphics output
as monochrome grey shades will
reproduce much better at 60 Ipi
because there is more white space
between the dots, so when the ink
spreads there is less chance of those
dots joining up to create large black
areas where there should really be
"Structured
drawings are great
for adding graphics
as you never get
any \aggies"
some subtle shades of grey.
Although PageStream' s in-
program colour support is poor,
output to quality colour printers, like
the QMS ColourScript 1 00 For
example, is good. You have to bear
in mind thot with printers like this all
the different colours are made up of
dither patterns - a simple example is
the colour orange, which will be an
area oF solid yellow overlaid with a
clearly visible pattern of red dots. For
this reason, HAM graphics, which
have 4,096 colours, and 24-bit,
which have 16.7 million, are not
going to print as clearly as you
would like them to unless expensive
high resolution PostScript equipment
is employed.
If you need PostScript output,
there is a custom printer driver for
just thot purpose. Output can,
naturally, be sent to disk, but
PageSfream's PostScript features offer
the absolute bare minimum and are
not at all user-friendly.
Soft-Log ik claims that PageStream
is "the easiest, most intuitive DTP
program, for the Amiga". Now, if
you've never used a professional-
standard desktop publishing program
before - something on the Mac or PC
I mean, or even (dare I say it)
Professional Page on the Amiga -
then you'll have no problems getting
to know PageStream, But it does a lot
of things its own way, not the way
professionals are used to, and more
than one experienced DTP person
has described using PageStream to
me as a nightmare. From a personal
point of view you can group me in
with the experienced bunch.
Not so speedy
Despite the numerous enhancements,
PageStream 2.1 's lack of speed is
still a millstone around its neck, and
the package cannot begin to be
taken seriously as a really
JARGON BUSTING
ASCENDER: The part of the letter that rises above the main body, as in the letter b.
BASELINE: The imaginary line upon which the bases of all letters without
descenders sit.
BLEED: To extend type or illustrations outside the normal text area into the
margins or to the very edge of the paper.
BODY TEXT: The main text of the document, excluding headlines.
FONT: The group of letters, numbers and special characters that comprise on
variation of typeface, eg: 12pt Times, 12pt Times Bold, 12pt Times
Itu lie. Sometimes (mistakenly) used in desktop publishing to refer to a
type family.
B I TPLANf/ BITMAP: A bitplane is an area of memory where every binary bit
corresponds to a pixel on the screen. One bitplane represents a
monochrome image, several can be overlayed (a bitmap) to represent
a colour image.
COCK -UP: Initial letter set in a larger type than the body text and rising above
the surrounding letters. Also known a& a raised capital.
COLUMN RULE: Line used to separate columns of text, usually a hairline.
CROPPING: Cutting out the part of a picture that you are interested in.
GUTTER: Originally the page margins next to the binding of a publication - the
white space that separates the left-hand page from the right-hand
page - the term is now used almost exclusively in desktop publishing
to refer to the white space between columns on a page.
DITHERING: The juxtaposition in varying densities of black and white [or coloured)
dots to create a grey scale (or more colours).
HAM: Hold And Modify is an Amiga graphic mode allowing all 4096 colours
to be displayed at once, with certain restrictions.
HALFTONE: Any picture reproduced as a series of tones, such as a photograph, as
opposed to graphics which ore strictly black-and-white.
The jagged edges seen on diagonal lines, caused by the use of small,
but nonetheless finite, rectangular pixels to make up a picture.
The design for the arrangement of text and graphics on a page.
A standard unit of typesetting measurement equal to I/I2th of a pica,
precisely 1 /72nd of an inch in desktop publishing (approximately in
conventional printing). The height of a font - the distance from the top
of the highest ascender to the bottom of the lowest descender - is
normally expressed in points.
POSTSCRIPT: A powerful mathematical language used to describe graphics and
text images to compatible printers. Because it does not rely on a pixel
system, objects so described can be scaled and rotated without
distortion or loss of detail.
24- BIT GRAPHICS: Normally, the Amiga uses between one and five bits (binary
digits) to store the colour of each pixel (picture element) of a display.
This means that between two and 32 colours can be displayed.
Hardware add-ons are now becoming available which use 24 bits per
pixel, giving a possible 16-7 million colours.
JAGGIES:
LAYOUT
POINT:
professional DTP program until if is
given comprehensive colour and
PostScript support.
I would suggest that PageStream
2. 1 is the ideal Amiga package for
the amateur or hobbyist desktop
publisher, except for the fact that it
costs £200. I have seen it discounted
to £1 40 in some places, but even at
that price it is twice as much as
PageSetterU which, although it
doesn't support colour or PostScript,
is more like the price a hobbyist
would want to pay. fr Tt
ooooooocc
Shopping List
PageStream 2.1 £199.95
by Soft-Logik Publishing Carp,
11131 STowne Square,
Suite F, St Louis, MO 631 23
USA * 0101 314 8918608
or
Five Chancery Lane,
Clifford's Inn,
London EC4A1BU
Checkout
Pagestream 2, 1
Ease of use 10/15
For a few months at least, the manual will
be a constant companion;. The menus are
lengthy and clultered and, although some
Amiga-key shortcuts are available, only a
few operations hove been assigned to
them, the rest being selected by Esc-key-
key sequences, a feature which gives
away the program's ST roots. Not one of
the many requesters allows you to double-
click an entry to select it, you always have
to select OK. Bah!
jpecu •«•■•«•••*•***•*«*•* Mti IU
Everything you want it to do qufekiy,
PageStream does slowly, which cripples
ihe creative juices. Jn 16-coJour mode me
speed of its user-interface is a constant
frustration: pull-down menus grind on la
me screen and you can see requesters
building themselves. In two-colour mode it
is a lot quicker, but nowhere near fast
enough for professional use, even with a
63030/68 882 (eg the Amiga 3000)
calling the shots.
Output 7/10
Dot-matrix text output From the
Com pug rapt-iie and Soft-Logik outline
fonts is excellent, struclured drawings and
PostScript likewise. Rotated and re-scaled
bitmap output is appalling by
professional standards, although if you
stick to upright bitmaps and scale them
down a lot, you'll probably get by.
Graphics handling ,.6/10
Clunky and inaccurate, made up far by
the (act that PageStream can import,
display and output a large range of
graphics formats. Trying to view an IFF at
1 500% magnification always sends my
7Mb B2000 (1Mb chip| to sleep. Ok, so
it's a silly thing to want lo do, but if the
option is available, it should work.
Text editing 4/5
I can'l imagine anyone actually using
PageSfreom's built-in text editor and
spelling checker for preparing text - il
will be o lot faster to use a dedicated
word processor and import the text in a
finished state. But it's there if you want it,
and it works, although the spell checker
has Gurued on me once or twice.
Colour 2/10
Full Amiga 4,096 RGB palette, 1 00
million YMCK palette, but only 16
colours can be represented on-screen.
Three or Four-colour separation is
available, but the output density and dot
angle of the yellow, magenta, cyan and
black colour components cannot be
adjusted individually, which could cause
some problems with interference patterns
in documents that Feature HAM and 24-
bit graphics.
Tools 9/10
Soft-Logik has taken great pains lo
include every single feature you could
ever wish For, and it's Fair to say that
PogeSfreom has one or two tools that
some top-line professional DTP programs
on the PC and Mac could also do with.
But alas, the handful of extremely
powerful tools only work for half of the
time; in the main they tend to produce
unreliable results or Gurus. 8ul the vast
majority of the tools at your disposal
work very well.
Documentation 7/10
As well os the user manual there is a
GuickStarl manual for beginners. Both
are clearly written and well presented,
though unfortunately the user manual
lacks a chapter on typography and page
design and does not include nearly
enough technical information about
PostScript and colour.
Price value. 11/20
IF PageStream was truly a professional
DTP program, then £200 (discounted to
£140 in places) would be a really good
bargain. But it is just not up to
professional standards and therefore its
value for money is poor when it is
compared to other hobbyist DTP
programs, such PageSetter II.
AWJJW&ft
58/1 00
Most of my criticisms of PageS/ream 2.1 are based on professional considerations,
which may seem like nit-picking to a hobbyist. I can name umpteen people who have
told me they prefer PogeSfreom 2.1 to Professional Page 2, but not one of them is
experienced in desktop publishing. This only serves to confirm my conclusion that
PageStream is by no means proFessional-stondard program. However, non-
professionals may find it much easier to learn and understand.
AMIGA SHOPPER* ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
COM MS
King
"As a professional COMMS user,
I've clocked up more than 300
hours on loads of bulletin boards.
I'll show you how to get value for
money and maximum fun from the
exciting world of COMMS/'
Stewart C Russell
Stewart C Russell describes the joy
of having your machine shriek at
another over a telephone line and
just how to go about setting it up
Gelling hooked up lo
bulletin board opens up a
new world of Fun and
games. You can interact
with other computer users the country
over, swapping messages, software
and all kinds of useful information.
However, many folks tend to go 'I' at
the mention of a modem and '?'
when baud, bis and British Telecom
are broached.
So, without further ado, here's
the Amiga Shopper guide to getting
into, about and out of this exciting
realm of computer chatter.
First off, you'll need a computer. I 'd
recommend a Commodore Amiga.
But then you knew that, didn't you?
In the mode
Another damn useful piece of kit is a
modem. It turns your data into
something the phone lines can
handle. There ore two types of
modem - manual and automatic.
Manual modems are cheap (pay no
more than about £50), very slow
(300 bps, or 30 cps) and require a
telephone alongside to do the
continued on page 48
JARGON BUSTING
BBS: Bulletin Board System. The name comes from the American college bulletin
board (rhe cork and drawing pins type) which rs a traditional meeting and
trading place.
BPS: Bits per Second. The number of data bits sent down a line in arte second.
CPS: Characters per Second. Since there are usually 10 bits per character in
asynchronous comms, the cps figure is usually one-tenth the bps figure.
With data compressing modems (those with MNP level 5 or greater) the
bps/cps ratio is often higher, as more data is packed into the same number
of bits.
DOWNLOADING: Receiving data from a bulletin board.
ECHO: A Fidonet public message area. Queries, comments, complaints, statements
and plain trash from your area just waiting to be read and replied to.
FIDONET: A network of bulletin boards spanning the globe. The day's Echo
messages from one bulletin board are bundled together and sent to other
boards late at night.
HAYES: A company that devised the standard command set for automatic
modems and makes solid but pricey modems to this day, Hayes commands
are sometimes called AT commands, as every command is preceded with
the letters J AT'
LINE NOISE: Random bursts of spurious characters caused by natural happenings
in the phone line. Virtually unknown at low data transfer rates.
MNP: Microcom Network Protection is the mast common error correction system
for modems, MNP level 2 corrects errors by re-transmitting bad data
blocks, levels 3 and 4 try to regain the speed lost by MNP 2 by
reorganising the data, and levels 5 to 10 compress and repackage the data
for maximum throughput.
OFF-LINE MESSAGE READER: A program that allows you to quote from, reply to
and compose messages once you've disconnected from the board and
don't have phone charges to worry about. The next time you log on, you
can upload all your messages in one go. Not for neophyte comms people,
ONLINE TIME: The amount of rime per day that you can use the board*
Unregistered users have limited online time but registering often gives
unlimited online time and downloads.
TROUGHING: The nasty practice of always downloading and never uploading. A
very bad habit.
SCROLLING BBS; Uses 80x25 screen format, which scrolls as data is received.
Simplest form uses no special control codes. ANSI graphics give 8-colour
line and block graphics. The most common type of BBS.
SYSOP: System Operator of a bulletin board. Generally a 'salt of the Earth'
character who provides a BBS as a hobby, and not for profft. Hug a Sysop
today (well, metaphorically, at least).
UPLOADING: sending data to a bulletin board
VIEWDATA BBS; Uses 40x25 paged Teletext format. Not very common on the
Amiga scene since the traditional Viewdata (v23, 1200/75 bps] baud rate
is not easily supported by the Amiga. A peculiarly European phenomenon.
Keep it COMMing
Scottish Opus is my local bulletin board. Even though it's net an
Amiga board, you have to go through pretty much the same
sequence to start off on any BBS.
I logged on under an assumed name (a bad thing to do, but I
did have the sysop's permission) to demonstrate just what a new
user can expect to see.
1 Dialling - NComm's telling
the modem (o dial the number,
and wait For an answering
carrier tone. Here I'm running
1 200 bps, 8 bits per character,
no parity checking, and one
stop bit per character; a
reliable setting to try any new
board. If your comms package
supports it, enable ANSI (or
IBM) characters if you want some slightly more interesting displays.
2 Connected - Straight on, first time; if you pick your time right (like 4. 1 9pm
on a Saturday), you'll walk right in. The wrong time (say 9.30pm on a
weekday) and you might
Hliallins Scottish Opus,, .AttttmW»
Nunter: 889 7863
Speed; 1286
Courier) t; Local
Script: (none)
Retries: 8
Next: Scottish Opus 2
Esc/Abort iSpace/Nexti Dsl/Renove
OPUS-CBCS nl. 14
/? r
// /
i/ /
D I
/
/
\
/ .
/_/\
D /
~~7
/
c.
n — s\
w.
w
\\ // ctmsi
// w
// //
// //
w // PUS
spend half an hour
trying. Connecting is the
most difficult part; once
you're in, the worst you'll
be asked is a few
questions. Some boards
require you to press [Esc]
twice; if you know you
are connected but aren't
getting anywhere, tap [Enter] a couple of times to wake the board up. The
'CAP' at the bottom of the screen shows that I've started to spool the session to
disk. Text at 1 200 bps is just at the edge of comfortable reading, any faster
and it becomes virtually impossible. Don't worry, all boards page the screen so
you will have time to read what is going by.
LINE tt 1
Mhat is vn it FIRST naiw: 5'ru.n
Khar is your LAST naMe: Renal dsao
Srruan Renal deal* (V,nl? <■
Which Language would van like to use*
:'. ! ! ! ! ! Kuril
3 Sinensis
< Italians
5 Dutch
Select: 1
to select your secret password,
A password Hust lie a single ittnl (NO SPACES). It cm he as long
as 15 characters ajid cao include letters, nouuers, or punctuation
Ihere is NO difference uetween uppercase and lowercase letters,
■ you will need it to Los on again in the
Type the password you plan to use
on this ..'.'v. 1
3 New User - Everyone
gets asked their name before
being given access to the
boord, Scottish Opus doesn't
know of a 'Struan Ronaldsay',
so starts asking questions
Choose a password (make
sure it's a different one for
every board you use). And I'm
in, this time for real.
4 Policies - After being asked
a few more questions about
IBM/ANSI characters, you get
the bulletin board's policy
statement. The sysop expects
good behaviour and general
abiding of laws. You would be
wise to respect these policies;
many a law-abiding sysop has
shut down in disgust at the
conduct of a few entirely
inconsiderate users.
continued on page 48
En moo see 1 or 2 stars inside the q,unte Marts? 11,21
Use the OTed full -screen editor [V,n,?;he]pl? <i
Use UN -PC characters K,i>,?=)telp]? y
Scottish Opus CSCS
SlfSTEH POLICIES
If you have leased on under in alias or suite other silly naite,
please log off and re- log under your PROPER nane. There are NO
HACKING areas en this Be so there s no point in using an alias.
Dubious nanes are DELETES within 24hrs. Nultiple entries under
different nanes kill NOT he tolerated.
All callers to Scottish Opus have full read/vrite access to all
the Message and file areas, there are no hidden area:.
This BBS is non Machine specific, I will accept projrans Tor any
Machine for tne download areas, ALL software is PUBLIC MHADI or
SHAREWARE. All uploads are verified as beinsr non conMerct.al
hefore he ins Made auailahle for downloading.
AMIGA 5HOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
COMMS
continued from poge 47
hlietii 23:13:11
Gwioo Sifcson lias vlcadEe m Alar i persien or 0* Crr
H»sta»r eeisVr. It's tailed XTKSI2H aid tin t; found in n
~ fill! —
ss eft Hip
S".!;- W«"SHjaS"HiSBVi» , Sfifi either « this
II frail 0» ■(■ Cftmi ibnii m gr u. aw etier D thai swirls
it. Htm area til lis fWMO [rwi Ilitk Swwreille ,
t SS.iS' Sg." l «iSf* )"»» Viti* if tlr Tietwos in aroa la, thw
w iMGim, inn, em i hi mi.
*™ **}.»« j i*j rue ciiici mhwh »d «i 121 ks tk ijttst Die
mmn hi ri 1*211 fit h>»! hs wi.im awi in »,. Br.
John hi] Ins uploaded ia Achireees pnuran called. Id in area IIS.
lnuli
WIS
Message
Ispistw
List Users
re section
File Sect inn
Veil for SjsOp
li;j-:^ S:,i^
•til let io
Cjiajisp setup
■Ft 1st K
StlSistics
Hills Nee
fiocdhue (Losr,golf)
5 Main Menu - After the
Quote of the Day and the
day's news bulletin, we get
to the Main Menu. I could
Register, gaining longer
online time in exchange for
my name, address and
telephone number. The bold
character set is a trick that
ANSI graphics con perform.
6 Message
areas - M is For
Message Section.
So many different
Fidonet areas, but
the one I'm after is
area 32 on this
board - the Amiga
Europe echo.
[11 Genera] [4] Sfsdp / Persona] E£l Matrix Hail
ECHO- N
Ell] Scottish Chit
It 11 Penpal
[12] Cohmh Bonn
[13] Internal] una] Kail
1141 Sales < Hints
111] Kusic
lit,] CD Music
[171 Astronoeiv
[IS] 5F I Fantasy
[[91 Files, video etc
12K1 Hotorias
121] Ask Cogs
[22! Satellite
12]] Green Issues
[HI Star Trek
[251 En AstrtKiMi
I I Kit SklE
[311 IHf PC
1311 Atari ST
[32] jheiu
[321 ArcliiHfes
I Ml BBC
[351 Art trad
[311 FSIOH
[371 Apple MAC
[391 HDI
[Ml Gen. Hard, are
HI] LAM
[42] Electronics
H3I >ari inks
[44] 1ST Mndpns
AREAS
t5l] Coups
[511 Opus Xprpss
tS2 1 Bis Hew / Alls
(Ml Radin HAM
151] Haderis
(SSI SesiViH
(371 HirJok
[51] J.r.P,
in I Vims
1611 FligM Sin.
I(U Canluj
1(21 C Prcwanh
Ten. Proar.
1631 Gen.
ifflftr-Sir"
Hi tor Be If
veils "wans"
it the right
(SPACEXBETUHO creates i blast
' lines
t narfi
autenaticallo - na need tn press KETDtl
n. Press Hi™ (nice ti <niit the editor,
'me hetieen paragraphs.
Press DUES la continue
I'- 1 peclm Hcai'dlp
FROM Strua.it Ronaldsay
$IMCT,..!le: JH-C0MH 1.12
1: So then, if JR-cotM 1,12 the conns progran w
2: or .ill d.pil- in -the "tool NCin people still I
3: it?
Slue
lei line
Select: ■
Edit
JsubJecl
we all hem waiting fir
an eacuse Knot* to use
Ins line
'Help
7 A Typical
Message - Here's a
reply to someone's
memory problems.
The sender has used
an off-line message
reader to quote from
the original and build
up a reply. The
Origin line shows
where it came from -
Declan's BBS in
Dublin, Eire.
8 Take a Message
There was some
debate over the merits
of newest version of
JR-Comm, so I wanted
the truth. Should 1 stay
with NComm and its
little quirks, or go to
JR-Comm and get
thoroughly confused?
Tron: BmIjo Kcardle
Subject: Re: JYfc-si]
B-.S 1144, ZHIar-n 13; 21:
lei lie mote your nessage of (22 Hit 91 li:«2:5t>
about (Be: RArl-SMuWOR ■ ■ ■ ! > , nhere nou urite:
JM> Why do van need ttewr* It $211111? Tn run XiekStart 2.1?
Because ueu aV
;-) pen tan.
— WCed e3,5c / Trapdoor
# Oriflin: Anlpa, i*|i coHprohtse? IipcBBK + 353-1-882454 12:253/198)
ECHO area 32
A.»pj Clianae
Biter Message
ShUW"
e Anisi H
Hexl (Ppail Hsa:
Replv
List (brief)
I (lCJp5ff>
Price nss
=read nen-step
{ei« Ew Hill
Kill Hpssase
L -p "i ■ i
• I-,,
Yljh It IS possiblp but Hie driME ffDES upsidE dflwnttt
As EDr tinins Prrnrs niLntpil li^ cnnnodD]'P and nt]ipr UiDtfjFdsFablE ppflp]f
eli .i I llau Liy true but it wgrks -;, i.;.i.-,ii
» Orisin: « SE.ern Side Its w Gloucester [«-(B>452-(113421 I2:2S8/4!81
rrcii:
Subject:
Strum Ronaldsap
letl j. Hurdle
Re: JR CO* 1.42
Msf 1152. 3IHUP-91 It: 31
Se then, is JR-CUPH 1.82 the cqiihi progriH lie hiue ill been Ml tins lor or
will dyed-in-tbe-vcol NConh people still hive in excuse enotr. tc use it?
— v-us-CBCS 1.14
« vrijin: Scottish Opus, Olisse* Ilinel, Ml SIS 7BS3] (2:259/2.1)
hh This is 1 reply te 1147.
[1321 Highest: 152
KIT) apei 32 .
Area Change
Tnttr nessaso
* Anijia n
Heat (Dead Hsi)
leplp
list Ibl'iEfl
(lnsod)
Prim' nsa
?ead non-st&p
Scan for Hail
1111 Message
Current nsp
'read original
Inquire
' KELP
ii".,i
' in
the last one, as observant folks will notice From the clock
I've gone to the File section, then changed to the Amiga
9 There's an Echo
in here - And there's
my message, as it will
be seen by the
thousands of Amiga
people in Europe
within a few days. All
this for just the price of
a phone call. More
Files than you could
shake a stick at
This was a
different session from
From the Main Menu,
specific section
2[.9S4 85-12-98 Supers Anisao graphics deno
25515 82-82-91 Amga Conns package
23149 S5-S1-89 Asteroids for the Amga
.43915 22-12-98 Crusaders pntrp for the 1
48523 lo-82-91 Core Liars, including source
H3915 22-12-98 Crusaders pntru fur the Tabasco cohpetitien
?«!4 11-11-18 3D rotating o___
125124 12-12-98 Husic Bptw (nr Amga
13312 31-18-89 Bis! copiir
18171 2MT3-89 Kanipu]itp tire load addrpss nf file 1
7378 84-83-98 Graph its. dp no
1 File List - Scottish
Opus has a
reasonable Amiga file
section; Amiga based
boards have more.
Files are archived for
safekeeping and faster
downloading; each
different archiving
program gives a different filename extension - Arc gives *.ARC, Zoo, not
surprisingly, *.ZOO, and the newer Lharc generates *.LZH archives. You'll
need the right archive program for the job - they are not intercompatible.
(0KA.L.H
COrM.LZH
EOSHCAK
(RIMER. LZH
CRHR184B.LZH
CIBtr.AK
CTCIE.LIB
CtUOHE.ARC
DATAHUHJI.ARC
IA2211.RB
■was
HHO-IILMK
DIHO-DHZ.HHC
HUGHS. ARC
M5J5A1V.ARC
IB. LSI
MOUSE, AM
MOUJt.MIC
211712 85-11-88 Hore Ql-aphics/Husic 8e»W5
"IOC graphics/Music del»
ndp]ete anil recover corrupted disfcs
127744 tJ-ll-t_
17531 M-ll-lt
7517 14-13-91 foul
13448 lt-82-B9 ^runhen luuse, lias a strange el
185JB 25-82-19 Home utility, rp perse of Bit-7r» Hr SI"
on poge 53
continued from i
e 47
dialling. You dial up a BBS, wait for
the carrier tone, hit the Connect
button, put the phone back on the
hook and you should be connected.
They are reliable, but no use for
downloading or uploading software
due to extreme lack of speed.
Automatic modems range from
around £ 1 00 for the very slowest to
well over £1000 for top line
machines. These machines will dial
for you and can be set up through
software, not by pushing buttons on
the modem. They mostly use the
Hayes command set to talk to the
computer and most comms software
is preset to use these commands.
You pays yer money
The more you pay, the faster a
modem you get, and the less you'll
have to pay BT to receive the same
amount of data, A v22 modem
(1 200 bps) is fine for calling local
boards for mail and small
uploads/downloads. 2400 bps
(v22bis] modems bring more
flexibility, but suffer from line noise
unless precautions are taken. Expect
to pay over £200 for a v22bis
modem, which will include the v21
(300 bps) and v22 standards.
The 9600 bps scene is a bit
more confused; there are two
incompatible standards, HST and
v32, and either machine will set you
back over £500. You have to be
pretty serious to throw that sort of
money about, but then an extra
£200 on top will get you a modem
capable of both standards.
Error-correcting modems are a
subset of the automatic market. These
use special protocols at both ends of
the telephone line to reduce the
effects of line noise. More advanced
error correcting modems con
compress the data by up to 50%
before sending. Expect to pay
around £300 for a data-
compressing, error-correcting v22bis
MNP 5 modem - capable of putting
text down a good phone line at
around 480 cps.
BT Approval might add a lot to
the price of a modem, but it also
removes the slight possibility of
falling out with a company that in no
way monopolises the market; it's just
that you can't make local calls
without them unless you live in Hull.
Unless you've got a Bridgeboard,
you'll need an external modem;
internal devices go inside PCs. You'll
probably get a modem that can do
v23 (1200/75 bps} along with other
speeds. Amigas and PCs aren't good
at 1 200/75 split baud rate, so
unless you get deeply into Viewdata
BBSs, you'll probably never use it.
You'll also need a cable: o small
thing, but much angst can be saved
by ensuring thai all the lines you
need are connected between the
Attack of The Tomato-
Flavoured BBS
A sysop of a small BBS called me
up and virtually demanded a
mention. When I say a small
BBS, I mean it - it runs on a twin
floppy A500. It's colourful (ANSI
graphics everywhere), and nicely
presented. It's called The Tomato
Flavoured BBS, if s on '- 081 560
6251, and supports up to v22bis.
The only drawback is that
TFBBS is only on-line from
10.30pm - 5.30pm; the sysop
uses the phone for other things in
the evening (oh yus?). Give it a
call if if 5 local, but don't you
dare call outside the
recommended times, okay?
computer and modem. Don't use a
cable where all 25 lines are
connected straight through either; a
weirdness in the wiring of the
Amiga's serial port means that you
could damage your computer with
such a cable.
If you don't want to build your
own cables, wander along to a
reputable supplier and say you want
a cable to connect an Amiga (state
model] to a Hayes-compatible
modem. If they don't know what
you're talking about, they don't
deserve your custom.
Going soft-
As for any task involving your
computer, you'll need the
appropriate software. Comms
software is a very personal thing,
and the only way to find one you like
is by trying them all. This isn't as
expensive as it sounds, as all the best
comms software is shareware.
Here are the features to look For:
• ASCII Capture/Send - ASCII
Capture allows you to browse
through your BBS session once
you've logged off, and possibly
compose replies for the next time you
log on. ASCII Send tips a prepared
text file down the line so your
messages are spelled properly.
• Online timer - It tells you how long
you've been on the phone. Clever
software keeps a log of all calls, and
the really clever stuff estimates the
phone bill from your call log.
• Phonebook - Stores the names,
telephone numbers and baud rotes of
all your favourite bulletin boards and
dials them at a mouse click. Of
absolutely no use whatsoever to
manual modem users.
• XModem and ZModem File
Transfer Protocols - You can't just
continued on poge 53
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 99 1
Supra Modems
Modems from £55
Supra 2400 (V22bis) £125
Supra Plus (V22bis + MNP5 + V42bis)
9600 baud £220
Supra MNP (V22bis + MNP5) 4800 baud £175
Ideal for Ataris, Amigas & PCs
Supra modems are guaranteed for four
years and are auto-dial, auto-answer, and
fully Hayes compatible.
Supra Approved Distributor
Open till 8pm
081-566-3639
Open till 8pm
SUPPLY SOLUTIONS, PO BOX 2136,
LONDON, W1 3 8QJ
SWITCHBOARD
75 Kirkmuir Drive, Stewarton, Ayrshire, KA3 3HP.
TEL: (0560)85296 FAX: Voice Request
HEWLETT PACKARD
PRINTERS/PLOTTERS
£349
£399
Deskjet 500
3 year warranty
PaintJet
Colour Deskjet
1 year warranty
HP7440A Color-Pro
8-pen Plotter £369
1 year warranty
Prices exclude VAT
ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS
ACCEPTED
COMMODORE
HARDWARE
AS0O Options torn 32499
A500 1 Meg Screen Gems ..,.384. 99
A500 Class of 90's 544.99
A500 Hist Steps 544,99
A150Q 6S4.99
A15003Mb5£Mb HD 1199.99
A3000 16MH2 + 40Mb HD .2159.99
A3000 25MHz + 40Mb HD .2554.99
A3O00 25MHz +
105Mb HD 3074.99
A1084S Colour Monitor 254.99
A1950 Multisync 439.99
A59020MbHD 289.99
AS90 SOMb HD + 2Mb Ram, .379.99
A1011 1Mb 3.5" Drive 79.99
A501 Ram Expansion/Clock 57.99
A5B0 TV Modulator 24,99
Philips 8833 MM 544.99
Citizen 120D + 134,99
Cit«en1S4D ...199.99
Citizen Swift 9 194.99
Citizen Swift 24 289,99
Swift 9/24 Colour Kit 34,99
StarLC-10 159.99
Star LC24-10 ...209 99
StarLC-200 , 214 99
StafLC24-S00 , 254,99
Star LC24-SO0 Colour 299.99
Cumana 1Mb 3.5" Drive... . 64.99
M501s Ram ExpansionClock 34.99
AT Once 179.99
Hitachi Camera A Lens 224.99
Digiview 89,99
Vidi Amiga 95.99
Golden Image Scanner 199.99
Type 10 Handy Scanner 135,99
Minigen 102.99
Genlock + Home Titter 139.99
Designer Modem , 109.99
Linnet Modem. „ 161.99
AMAS 71.99
Audio Engineer Plus 169.99
Mastersound .29.99
Perfect Sound ,49.99
Naksha Mouse 19.99
Contriver Trackball 29.99
Marconi Trackball 47.99
Universal Printer Stand 6,99
Centronics Printer Cable 4.99
CS232 Cable 7.99
Scan Cable 8.99
3.S' 40 Capacity Box 4.99
3.5" 80 Capacity Box 6.99
10 x Sony Bulk 3.5" 5.99
50 x Sony Bulk 3.5" 24.99
100 x Sony Bulk 3.5" 44.99
10 x Sony MFD2DD 3.5" 9.99
10 X TDK MFSDD 3.5" 9,99
LANGUAGES
COMPILERS ETC.
AMOS.. 35,95
ARexx , 33.95
Devpac2 41.95
GFA Basic V3.5 Compiler 23.95
QFA Baste V3.5 Interpreter. 39.95
Hisoft Basic 54.95
Hisoft Extend 14,95
K-Seka Assembler 35.95
SAS (Lattice) CV5.01 174.95
ACCOUNTS
Cashbcck Combo 47.95
Cashbook Controller 35.95
Final Accounts 22.95
Home Accounts 20.95
Personal Fin Manager £2,95
Small Bus Ace Cash 57,95
Small Bus Ace Xtra 81.95
Systems 35.95
UTILITIES
SAD 31.95
Cross COS 21.95
Diskmaster 39,95
GB Route 27.95
Power Windows V2.5 54.95
Quarterback ...39.95
X-Copy Professional,. .35.95
TITLING/EFFECTS/
PRESENTATION
Broadcast Titler 2 189.95
Elan Performer 2 51.95
Home Titler 34.95
Hyperbook , 54.95
Pro Titler .1 56.95
Pro Video Post 212.95
Scab ...189,95
Title Page 1 34.95
TV Show V2 56.95
TV Text Professional 94.95
Video Effects 3D 134.95
Video Titler 3D 84.95
Primary Maths 3-12yrs 20.95
Prof Looks at "Words 19.95
Pro! Makes Sentences 1 9.95
Prof Plays a New Game 19.95
Spell flock 4-9 14.95
The Three Bears 19.95
Things to do with Numbers ..£1 4.95
Things to do with Wbrri 14.95
CAD/3D/GRAPHICS/ I WORD PROCESSORS
ANIMATION
3D Professional. 234,95
Amiga Vision .95,95
Deluxe Paint III 59.95
Deluxe Print II 35.95
Deluxe Video 111 74.95
Disney Animation Studio 84.95
Imagine 189.95
IntrctAD Plus 94.95
Photon Paint 2 ..29.95
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Better Maths 12-16 yrs 19.95
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Fun School 2 6-8 14.95
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Fun School 3 Under 5 17.95
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lets Spell at Home 14.95
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Maths Mania 8-1 2 yrs 1 9.95
M Beacon Teaches Typing 22.95
Mega Maths A-Lerel 20.95
Micro English GCSE 20.95
Micro French GCSE 20.95
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Excellence 2,...,-,,, 84.95
Kindwords 2 ., 35.95
Penpal 85.95
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Pro "Write V3.1 102.95
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Transwrite 31.95
WordPerfect 192.95
DATABASES
K-Data , 35.95
Prodata 55.95
Superbase Personal ...,26.95
Superbase Personal 2 64.95
Superbase Professional 164.95
Superbase Professional 4 259.95
SPREADSHEETS
Advantage 75.95
DGCafc .^7,95
K-Spread2 43.95
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Gold Disk Type each 31 .95
Outline Fonts , 99.95
Pagesetterll 46.95
Pagestresm V2.1 144.95
Prodips .21.95
Professional PageV2 18995
Structured Clip Art 31.95
Templates. 34.95
Advanced Amiga Basic 18.95
Adv. Sys. Prog. Gde * 32.45
* 3D Graphics Prog 18.45
Amiga Applications 16.95
Amiga Ass. Lang. Prog 14.45
Amiga Basic In/Out 18.95
Amiga C Adv. Prog .32.45
* C for Beginners 18.45
Amiga DOS 14.95
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Amiga' Desktop Video 18.45
* Desktop Video Gde 18,45
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* Graphics In/Out 32.45
* Hardware-Ref. Man 21.95
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* Prog Handbook Vol 1 ..£4.95
* Prog Handbook Vol 2 23.95
Compute* Prog Gde 17.45
Weber ♦ Prog Gde. 20.45
" ROM Kernel Man Auto. 28.95
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Secomming an * .Artist 18.45
Beginners Gde to * 16.95
Computes 1st Book" 16,95
Computes 2nd Book * 16.95
Elementary * Basic 14.95
Inside * Graphics 16.95
Kids & the Amiga ....15.95
Mapping the Amiga 20.95
Maters Amiga DOS 2 17.95
Prog Gde. Id Amiga 23.95
* Indicates Amiga in title
68000 Assem Lang Prog 51.95
68000 User Guide 8.95
Programming the 68000..,,. 53.95
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40 Great Flight Sims 13.95
40 More Great Flights 14.95
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COMMUNICATIONS
'Please make cheques/postal orders payable to SOFTMACHINE, All items subject to availability
Alt prices include V.A.T & UK Delivery. All prices subject to change without notice E SO E
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ra
F19 Stealth Air Combat 14.95
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learn to Fly Flight Sim 14.95
Sub Commander. 12 95
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BBS PC 91.95
GPTerm 47,95
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Audiomaster 111 .47,95
Bars S Pipes 172.95
DrTs Copyist App 76.95
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Gunship 17.99
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UM5II 21,50
Z
Z3
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x
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49
torpqwety^
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AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •"JNE 1991
51
The New 1 Meg Amiga From Digicom
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C O M M S
continued from page 48
send a binary file down o telephone
line and expect it to come out the
other end unscathed. Some method
of error checking has to be used so
you can re-transmit the corrupted bits.
One of the oldest protocols is
XModem; it sends checkup data
every 1 28 bytes. It's quite slow, but
there isn't o BBS in the universe that
doesn't support it. The current
protocol of choice is ZModem. Data
is initially sent in 1 K packets, but if
errors occur, the packet size is
halved [down to a limit of 64 bytes)
until a successful transmission is
made. Zmodem con even restart from
where an aborted transmission left
off; it's a very flexible and fast
protocol which is nearly universally
accepted these days.
• ANSI Graphics - 8 colour
character graphics, originally used
by DEC and IBM. Simple pictures
and animations can be built up by
sending long strings of control codes.
It's pretty, but tends to be rather slow
at 1 200 bps or less.
If you're stuck for what to buy,
here's a selection of nifty comms
programs that should get you started.
AZComm 1.0
(Fish Disk 171)
This little public domain package is
really old and primitive looking; it
doesn't support ANSI graphics, it has
UK BULLETIN BOARDS
While by no means an exhaustive list, here
are a few BBSs to get you started;
England
North East - Grimsby
Code-o-molic n 0472 3603 1 1
North West - Carlisle
Scorpion's Nest n 0228 26478
Midlands - Birmingham
ThePlug-Ole »021 472 0256
South East - Cheam
Cheam Amiga BBS • 081 644 8714
South West - Gloucester
Severn Side BBS n 0452 611342
Severn Side isn't Amiga specific, but is a well
established board and consequently a good
source of information about local boards.
Scotland
Scottish Opus, Glasgow - 041-880 7863
Although Scottish Opus runs on a PC, it's a
big and busy board with a quite reasonable
Amiga tile section and good connections to
almost everywhere else.
Wales
Public House BBS, Cardiff n 0222 221 168
Public House runs a subscription scheme at
£10 a year which gives users longer access
times and £2 oF 'free' Fidonet moil credits.
Northern Ireland
No luck here, all the numbers thad were out
of dote. You could try giving DecBBS a beF!
across the border to find out what's going
down in your locale.
Eire
DecBBS, Dublin ir 010 353 1 882454
A seriously neat board. The sysop Declan
McArdle is a mine of useful information on all
things Amiga in the Emerald Isle.
no online limer and it doesn't take
advantage of a PAL screen. But what
it does have is the minimum
acceptable number of Features in the
smallest possible space. It has ASCII
Capture/Send, reliable XModem and
ZModem file transfer protocols, and
a simple phone book.
JR-Comm 1.01
If JRComm doesn't support it, it
doesn't exist. Every single nuance of
every possible feature has been
thought of, to the extreme detriment
of ease of use. This piece of
shareware is well supported and
widely used. The distributable version
has delay screens built in; the
registered version does not (costs
around US $40).
NComm 1.9
(Fish Disk 356)
Sharing the same roots as AZComm,
NComm 1 .9 has all the features you
could ever wish for, is reasonably
easy to use, but is only passably
reliable. It's my terminal of choice,
and is being upgraded at this very
moment. This one is giftware - you
send the authors a gift of whof you
think the program is worth to you.
Finally, and fairly importantly, you'll
need a telephone line. !f you are on
a big budget, get one installed just
for your modem. This saves temper
tantrums when some innocent picks
up the phone when you are 99 per
cent through a 300K download. {JQ
ooocxxxxx)
Shopping List
Modems come in many shapes and
sizes. Expect the following prices:
Manual: 300 bps ©150
Automatic: 1200 bps ©I 100
2400 bps £200 and up
9600 ftps £500 and up
Look out for a major comparison test
feature in Amiga Shopper issue 6, on
sole September 5.
Hayes-compatible cable @£10
Software:
There's plenty available in PD land.
See 'Going soft' for some good starters.
Good connections:
British Telecom offers the biggest
telephone network, but Mercury is about
20-25 per cent cheaper and has better
line quality. However, you can't moke
local calls with Mercury and you need a
tone-dialling phone with at least one
permanent number memory.
For up-to-date call charges, contact:
Telecom - *r 100 and ask for
Customer Services
Mercury -it 0800 4241 93 \
Above al), for all the
above, shop around.
Tilt area I 13
Airea Ckange
P :■ n i.-n I n : '
?) tor
SeIfcE
FMle
Dh
(SLCw)
■!>■/:
z>iwdr
X'oJ...
Ylsranlr
HIjJpiiJ
SHihii
Tltlink
Alscii
8JQUI7
3 2 no fc t, torn L s*d , VVttnmVttUttYttttttttttWWttttV 14
File nan*; conn.li/i
Status: Receiving binary file,*.
Blocks: 2
Bytes; im fill sizs: 25515
Elapsed: fiti :*«:!£ ExFtcttri.; M WK
Errors: rJ Tiheouts: 8
Last err: (ion?)
Ww vitt: 113
Directory; ncoiH^dounloads
Select: I
What do you uant to receive' COeM-LEH
File: i-hi:.:?!'
Size: 25515 s'
Tine: znodsn::
tes [28! s-blhi
:32 ■nodwtrliitettf sea I ink*: 14
Begin receiving nan or send several C«inWL-X J s tn cancel.
continued f rem page 48
1 1 Downloading - I
decided to go for
COMM.LZH, the original
and basic Amiga cornms
package (the ancestor of
both AZComm and
NComm). Considering I'm
only logged on at 1 200
bps (giving a theoretical
transfer rate of 1 20 cps) the
ZModem protocol is giving
me a respectable 1 1 3 cps
error-free transmission.
T 2 An Upload a day
keeps the Sysop at
bay - Not quite, but
uploads keep a BBS fresh
and usable. I've got a
little program archived
and waiting in RAM: to
be ZModem ed down the
line. 1 know the board
doesn't have it, because I
wrote the program.
Alseii
■5 J'SUZT
(cancel the transfer)
Select: 2
What do you want to
File: Cowi.lzh
Size: 25515 bytes <
Tint: moderns: 32 x
Hode: Snoden
Begin receiving
i .1 isfe* c-onpFile
A)rea Change F)i.
IDavnlDad Hon
?) for HUP
Select: u
2)hoden
JOnotlen
WxmcWlk
Klodtitf
sip*] ink
Delink
U Is Id ill
Gloodnyt
File: Cnim.lili
Size: 25515 tales (ill .Hilkii
Tlw: Enaden;3:32 xi»deit/teiink::n:42 seatinM:!*
Beam pi
ransfer
Alrea Chi
DlouttLna
?> for
Select
«P I "d.HHHIHHWiHHHHlViiHHHHHIH »TB
hie nam: NPBZ1.L2H
Status: Sending binary file,,.
El«c>:s: 1
Bytes: HH File size; 55«
Elapsed: n;M:il Expected: lt:tt:S4
Ewers: t Ti mollis: I
Last are: tnone)
<fw rate: 183
Directory: PAN:
ZJnatlfM
XI "
Ylxnode
N)DD>h7
ripiink
Alseii
yJOBir (cancel the transfer)
13 Uploading in
progress - do not
disturb - It's going down
the line at a reasonable
rate, and as the archive is
a smidgen over 5K long,
the process will all be
over in under a minute.
14 Describe the
Upload to me, Sir -
It's precis time - describe
your upload accurately in
under forty characters.
My little archive does
only one specific thing
(resets the machine if the
old PAL/NTSC Reset bug
occurs] so describing it is
relatively easy.
Begin receiving new or send seuetal CDWIfOL-X's tD cancel
ransfer eoit>File_area ■ "
, 13
F)il! List
Onntents
A)rea Change
[DDiffllaid
J) For HELP
Select: u
ZlHodOH
X)iwdeH
Wmrtmnv
Hloden;
S)ealink
Delink
Alseii
COQtltt (cancel the transfer)
Ready tc receive ZsBden
Begin sending nou Dr send COHtfLyL-X twice to cancel.
* Coniwdore Aniga *
L locate File tlwpe fsheu) Unload
Statistics Minn hrnii Ghodeye
Leave i note tc Donald Uhantiel] [y,N,?=help
Thanlcyou for calling Scottish Opus, Strcan,
Your call duration teas 12 Hinutrs.
Your Uyload/Dnmload ratio is 1:1.
n / —
// /
1/ /
n I
/
i /
\
/ .
/ A
ScdttLsl
□
□u
a
Line tl
Line t!
941 - til - 7163 V31, 22, 13, mis
" n, litis, HST
HI - til - 7345 V£l.
1 5 Logoff - Struan's
seen all he wants to see,
and hits Goodbye at the
menu. He doesn't want to
say anything to Donald
the sysop (though a "Hi,
Nice board" wouldn't go
amiss) so the board goes
through its IBM character
set goodbye sequence. A
few characters of line
noise squeeze their way
through before the
modem has a chance to say NO CARRIER, in the inimitable way that only
Hayes compatible modems can. The phone line has been dropped, and can
now be used by other people.
So long, and thanks for all the files
The two sessions shown above took seven units of telephone lime at a cost of
about 36p. That included a great deal of time spent grabbing screens, so it
shows that calling a local board is not at all expensive.
Many thanks are extended to Donald Whannell of Scottish Opus BBS for
his kind cooperation in compiling this article.
Lncal tiw is now 16:36:23 en 3d Kar 91,
NO CAPPJEP
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •JUNE 1991
GRAPHICS
"The Amiga quite rightly has
the reputation of being the
computer for low-cost graphics
applications. I'll show you how
to get the best from all the hard
and software in this fast-
growing field of activity."
Phil South
One of the great top-of-the-
range digitisers,
ColourPic byJCL Business
Systems, has fust come
down in price, so it seems like a
good opportunity to do a Full review
of this very sophisticated and
powerful piece of hardware.
What is it?
ColourPic is o real-time colour
digitiser. What that means is that you
can watch a TV picture through it
and when you bang a key on the
Amiga keyboard the picture freezes
and can be captured in the Amiga's
IFF picture format in any resolution.
(Note: a special memory upgrade
must be fitted to the basic unit to
allow interlace mode to be used.]
Once you've grabbed the image it
can be saved to floppy or hard disk
For later use in multimedia, graphics
or DTP programs.
ColourPic is fixed up by
Take your
ColourPic
In this month's graphics column Phil South explains
the ins and outs of video digitising and reviews the
recently down-in-price ColourPic digitiser from JCL
ColorPic is housed in a plain, light artillery-proof metal box - more than
tough enough to withstand the slings and arrows of an outraged Snouty,
though he calmed down quite a lot when he found out how good it was.
connecting the lead to the parallel
port, then putting a lead from the
video out on your video to the video
line in on the ColourPic. You can also
connect another monitor or TV set to
the back of the ColourPic to see
which frame you've grabbed. This
isn't absolutely necessary, although
K5K
This fine, if congested, example of an
ColourPic demonstrates the pressing
image grabbed from video with
need for people to use buses.
it's so simple to rig I can't see why
you wouldn't do it. The device comes
with a disk containing the driver
software - a simple menu driven
interface allowing you view, grab
and select resolutions.
The basic process involves
freezing a picture in the frame-store
part of the machine, then setting the
digitiser part off which scans the
picture into memory as separate RGB
components and assembles them
together as an IFF file which it
displays on screen. You can then
save the grabbed picture to disk, or
grab it again if the image isn't quite
what is required.
Big lump of HAM
The machine works with a minimum
of 1 Mb of RAM, which isn't
surprising considering that HAM
pictures take up so much space.
You begin by making a copy of
the master disk and then running the
system from the copy. There were no
instructions on how to install the
software on hard disk in the manual,
though this shouldn't be a problem to
a user of reasonable intelligence.
Simply create a directory with the
some name as the disk, copy all the
files into it, then assign the directory
to the same name as the disk. (Note:
BEGINNERS
The Amiga is a very special
computer, No other machine has
the same creative edge, and no
other has the same possibilities
for creative graphics processing.
So one of Hie most entertaining
things to do with graphics on the
Amiga is digitising. This means
you take a real-world graphic,
such as a photo or artwork, and
digitise it, which means turning it
into digits in the computer's
memory. Once in memory, it can
be displayed on screen in
whatever graphics standard the
computer employs. The picture is
scanned in one line at a time and
the colours or shades of the
original are turned into bits on
the screen, so what you have is
a bitmapped version of the
original thing. It's just electronic
photocopying really.
Once you have the screen in
the memory of your computer, it
can be saved to disk, or loaded
back into a painting program for
touching up or adjustment.
Finally, it can be pasted into a
DTP document, or just printed
out. Digitised graphics can also
form the basis of your artwork
by giving you very clear outlines
to draw from.
So how can you buy a
digitiser and how can you get
the best from it? See the Good
digitising guide opposite.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 99 1
GRAPHICS
this process works For almost all
programs unless the programmer
does something really silly, such as
making reference to something that
isn't on the system, like DH2:,
WORK: or even DF I : - particularly
annoying if you use an A-Max II
Emulator like I do.
Once you have connected a
nonitor or TV to the ColourPic the
aicture that is going through it can be
adjusted with the Brightness,
Contrast, Saturation and Hue knobs
on the Front of the unit. These enable
/ou to get the best image possible,
given the lighting conditions of your
ramera or the video you are
grabbing from. Once you have the
sicture set up, the picture can be
rozen by pressing the Z key on the
keyboard. Once frozen in the
nemory of the ColourPic, the picture
:an be imported to an IFF format by
Good digitising guide
Is a top-flight video digitiser,
lolourPic's high performance is
able to plonk you on cloud nine.
iressing the I key. And that's it.
iimple as taking a picture, but with
nore equipment between you and
ne original image, that's for sure.
iott and beslotted
Vithin the software there is the
opacity to store up to four images in
lemory locations, called slots A, 8,
" and D. The software allows you to
efer to these slots at any time and
ven move the pictures around from
lot to slot. Fetch - the F key - gets a
iicture From a slot and Return - or
le R key - sends the currently
isplayed pic to the slots. The reason
3r these slots is to allow you to work
>n a picture with the tools and then
ave it part way along to achieve
ifferent results.
The tools are Contrast,
rightness, Clip, Threshold, Quantise,
list Equol, Report, Reset, Sharpness
nd Edge. Contrast adjusts the
slalive intensities of the pixels in the
icture, which allows you to make
le best of some dodgy lighting when
robbing from video. (You have no
antral over the intensity of the video
ghting after all). The range car be
Continued on paje 56
The first thing you'll need is a digitiser. This is a
piece of hardware that plugs into your parallel
port and gives you the ability to port pictures
into your Amiga. Which one you choose is up
to you, although here are o few rough
guidelines to be going on with;
• The one you'll hear mention of more often
than not is Digi-View. This is a little white box
that sits at the back of your computer and
accepts input from a black-and-white or colour
video camera or video. If you use a colour
camera or video you'll need a RGB splitter box.
Why? Well, Digi-View wos designed for use
with b&w cameras, so in order to get a colour
image out you have to either hold up a red,
green and blue filter in front of the lens, or you
hove to intercept the red, green and blue bits of
the picture electronically; hence the splitter.
• There is another way you can go, and this is
__—-_______, a ' so down at the low end
of the spectrum, with the
VI Dl Amiga. Whereas the
Digi-View is a straight
digitiser by which the
image grabbed has to be
a still frame on a video or
H a still picture from a
camera, the VIDI is a
frame grabber. This
means that the machine
grabs the frame you want
to digitise on the hop,
white the video or camera
has a moving image on it.
The picture is sampled
every so often, and so
quickly that when you press the grab key on
the keyboard, the last 1 5 frames con be
viewed or saved. The device stores oil the
monochrome images so you can either save
them all or just pick the best of the bunch. You
can use an optional extra RGB splitter box to
get colour images, and in this way get full
colour images similar to those grabbed with
Digi-View.
• At the top end there's the likes of ColourPic
or SuperPic {see full review) frame stores,
which are more like the kind of things you get
in TV studios. They allow you to freeze perfect
frames from a normal video source. Once the
frame has been stored in the memory of the
ColourPic, you can take your time to grab the
RGB components from the stored pic.
• Right at the bottom of the scale there are
hand digitisers (ike Datel's Handy Scanner.
They are like miniature fox machines. Roll one
across the image and it scans the picture into
the computer tts a black-and-white image. The
image can be grey scaled using a dithering
pattern, but this isn't to be recommended.
On a scale of picture quality I'd rate the
ColourPic first, Digi-View second, then the VIDI,
with the hand scanners coming last. Cheap
frame grabbers always give you a slightly
degraded image, but for the price you have to
admire the quality you do get from the VIDI.
And the hand scanners quality will depend an
the quality of the image you scan from, plus
your dexterity in handling the device.
As to which one you need, first work out
what it is you are going to be digitising and
from what. There ore three categories:
O From Video
If you need to get colour images from video
tape, then the ColourPic is the ideal thing. If
you just need fairly rough working images
from video then the VIDI is just the ticket. VIDI
also comes out tops if you are working to a
very strict budget [aren't we all?). Digi-View
works okay with a video splitter, but really use
with a camera is its true forte.
© Using A Camera
Digi-View is good quality and works in all
resolutions from two-colour low-res up to
4096-colour dynamic HAM. If your images are
flat, like photographs or artwork, you'll like as
not need to look at the Digi-View device and a
cheap mono camera. You can take pictures of
real life using Digi-View, but the scene has to
be completely static to scan in properly. You'd
be far better off taking a picture first and then
pointing Digi at it.
© Scanning
As well as the hand scanners that do poor
grade black-and-white, there are some very
good flat-bed and tabletop scanners,
particularly those mode by Sharp, such as the
JX-100. They scan flat images in colour and are
capable of providing extremely good quality
images - scanning in 24-bit images for DTP
purposes, for example. So If your needs are for
high quality and DTP, then you will be needing
to spend o bit on a proper scanner.
DigiTips
finally some tips about how to get the best out
of digitisers. You will always lose quality when
grabbing pictures on the fly with all but the
most expensive units, and VIDI is only mono.
But you can improve your pictures no end with
any digitiser, even a home made one, if you
follow these handy tips:
• Always use plenty of EVEN light, light is
important as this increases the contrast in the
finished picture. It's a common mistake to try
and take a picture m semi-darkness. Video
cameras are not very sensitive to light, so
drown the thing with illumination.
• Always use steady camera mount. A copy
stand is useful, one on which you can mount
the camera pointing down at a baseboard and
angle two lights for the best coverage,
• When using cheaper digitisers, use a mono
camera and filters as this gives a better result.
It cuts down on the kind of herringbone
patterns my video columnist friend Gary
Whiteley is always complaining about.
• If you intend using o high quality full-colour
frame grabber and want to do overscan
interlace pictures in HAM, make sure you have
a fatter Agnus chip, as 512K of chip memory
just won't be enough.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •JUNE 1991
ss
GRAPHICS
Continued from page SS
adjusted all the way; in other words,
if you press the down contrast button
a lot you'll eventually end up with a
black frame. What Contrast is
actually doing is halving or doubling
the intensity of the contrast between
the darker and lighter pixels.
Brightness works in a similar
way, except that it lightens or
darkens all the pixels in the picture at
Quantise trims the amount of
bitplanes used in the picture - for
bitplanes read colours. If you want to
reduce the number of colours in a
picture, Quantise it. The resulting
picture is recalculated to include as
much detail from the original pic.
Hist Equal is a Histogram
Equalisation tool. The 'histogram' is a
sort of bar graph representing the
distribution of colours or shades in a
This shot was taken
from an altitude of about three feet - the height of Snouty's test bench.
Desktop video beats the chore of gathering one's own video footage.
once. Like Contrast, it should only be
used sparingly or your pictures will
start to look a little bit odd. Okay if
that's what you want, but if you want
a more lifelike effect then it's much
better to go steady.
Clipped tones
Clip is a more subtle treatment, and
this allows you to reduce the intensity
of a range of tones in the picture. For
example the glare in a highlight can
be reduced by clipping it slightly,
making the whole effect more subtle
while not affecting the lower tones in
the grey scale.
Threshold is a similar effect to
Clip, but this one changes colours
above a certain mark to white, and
those below to black, giving a very
good high-contrast image instantly.
This is very good for black and white
DTP programs that cannot handle
greys too efficiently.
Down by the river, digitising gets
lively with some fast-moving
action for grabbing on the fly.
picture. Hist Equal tries to even out
the distribution of shades to make the
picture a little more even.
Report displays the histogram I
just mentioned and counts pixels at
each of the 64 shades that Colour Pic
"ColourPk has
more features
than a man with
three heads"
can handle. This may or may not be
important, but it's a jolly nice little
bell and whistle.
Sharpness scans the picture and
sharpens up the boundaries between
the shades, making them better
defined and having the effect of
sharpening the entire picture up. If
you do this more than once the
image can look a bit cheap and
synthetic. A lot of the subtlety in
digitised pictures is created by their
very fuzziness, as the eye makes up
for any detail it doesn't see. So this
effect should be used sparingly,
unless you really want to make your
pics look weird.
Close to the edge
And finally there's Edge, which does
a very sophisticated trace of your
picture and produces an image
which is a good starting point for line
drawings of the image. The
boundaries of each shade are
followed to see where they go, then
the colours either side of the line are
removed, leaving a very strange line-
strewn contour map-style image. You
can clean it up in a paint package
and use it to produce line drawings
using the basic shapes that the
digitised image provided you with.
As a safety measure, you can get
the picture back the way it was
before you started messing with it by
pressing F for Fetch to get the picture
back from it's slot.
Another effect at your disposal is
MultiCapture. This automatically
drives the freeze button and Import
button to grab a sequence of images.
The reasons this would be employed
, are for Noise Reduction or for
I special effects. The effects are just
I those you can get by re-capturing the
same image over and over, but while
moving something in the frame. An
odd effect, but some people like it.
The noise reduction angle is for use
with certain cameras that produce
extra picture 'noise' in low light.
MultiCapture solves this problem by
capturing the same pic over and over
to average between them, thereby
evening out the problems.
Ooh yummy
ColourPic is the most enjoyable
digitiser I've ever used, and its
quality is astonishing.
My one criticism is that it's hard
to get animations from video without
using the still frame a lot, and even
on my expensive machine [Poser -
Ed] the quality is worse from still
frame than it is from moving video.
Why this is I can't really tell without
getting Gary to run an oscilloscope
over the signal. (Even then I suspect,
knowing us, we'd get all excited
about the patterns on the scope and
forget what it was we were actually
looking for]. But this minor winge
aside, I have to say that the pics we
got out, even with my scratty old
video tapes, were the best quality
I've had out of □ digitiser. With a still
camera, the quality is even better
and nothing shows this off more than
the demo pictures that are supplied
with the program disk.
There is another version of
ColourPic called SuperPic, which
incorporates a genlock - an extra
oooooooo^
Shopping List
ColourPic £399.00
SuperPk £499.00
Prices include VAT & courier delivery.
JCL Business Systems
Knowle Farm Clock House,
Wadhurst Rood,
Front, E Sussex
TN3 9FJ
= 089275791
device for overlaying Amiga
graphics on video pictures,
Obviously this is more expensive ond
only any use if you intend doing a lot
of desktop video.
In short, ColourPic is a cracking
piece of kit and will find a good
home with anyone who needs to
grab images from video sources. ff'Vl
Checkout
ColourPic
Construction 9/10
The unit is housed in a very sturdy metal
box and nothing short ol a direct hit with
an anti-tank weapon will even dent it. 1
haven't tried this as my anti-tank weapon
is at the menders.
Flexibility .8/ 1
Colourpic is very flexible, though I
wouldn't like to try and Fold it into a 9 w x4"
envelope. The unit offers many ways ol
grabbing the very best quality images
from a variety of dodgy sources and
features some very powerful tools to make
the best of what you have to work with.
Features 10/15
ColourPic has more features thon a man
with three heads. The range of tools
makes it a very powerful machine and the
inclusion of hard-wired knobs on the front
of the casing means you don't have to be
a contortionist to moke it work, unlike
some units I could mention.
Ease of use 15/1 5
Using the thing couldn't be easier. As a
wise man once sold: "If I could use it ond
be up and running within five minutes,
then so could you."
Speed 9/15
The speed is good, but in the field of high-
quality digitising, it is never desirable to
rush things too much, A foster processor in
your Amiga would be o boon.
Documentation 8/ 1
Not a lush and wefl-produced manual, but
concise and informative nonetheless, I
managed to figure out how the thing
worked without it, so it's not really
necessary, but a good fall-bock for some
of the more advanced features.
Price 21/2S
A bit rich for most people's blood, but
putting it into perspective, it is a digitiser
ond splitter in one neat box. You would
have to pay about £200 extra for the
nearest equivalent" of the same quality.
80/100
While too expensive for casuol use, the
unit is a very high quality and reliable
solution. If you need quality and a
professional spec, then you can't really go
far wrong with this box. It may not be up
fo broadcast standards,, but ColourPic is
easily the highest quality enthusiasts or
desktop video-style digitiser. If you run a
small TV studio, are o multimedia author
or fust a hardened finkerer with £400
burning a hole in your pocket, this could
well be the unit for you.
56
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 991
AMIGA 500 MAMMOTH
7: MEG UPGRADE
LATEST DESIGN INCORPORATES 'CHIPMEN' OPTION AT NO EXTRA COST!
lrrrna r )C'j computer memory frorr normal / megabyte
to 1 megabyte
• Includes disable switch/incorporates high quality silver
coated pin connector
® 1 6 bit technology
$ Fit in minutes
• Direc! replacement of Commodore A501 expansion
§ Includes "CHIPMEM OPTION" - Phone for details
5 1 2 month warranty ,
C In stock now!
$»•*
Price includes VAT and post
and packing
Tel: 0582 491949
unmi.H maof.
Send order with payment to:
WTS ELECTRONICS LTD, Chad End Lane, Luton, Beds LU4 8EZ
AMIGA REPAIRS
JUST £44.95 inc.
* Commodore registered repair centre
* Over 10 years experience with Commodore computers
* 20 qualified technician engineers at your disposal
* We will undertake to repair your Amiga 500 computer for just £44.95 including
parts, labour, VAT and post & packing
* Most computers should be repaired within 24 hours of booking in.
* Prices include full service check, overhaul, soak-test and replacement of power
supply unit if necessary
* Repairs to keyboard and disk drive also included (£25 extra if these units are
unrepairable and require complete replacements)
* All repairs covered by a 90 day warranty
Upgrade your Amiga from 51 2K to 1Mb of memory for just £25.00
SPECIAL EXCLUSIVE OFFER:
Jf you submit your computer to ourselves for repair, enclosing
this advert along with Just an additional £25, we will supply andfit
a 51 2K memory expansion at no extra cost.
z
3
How to take advantage of this exceptional offer: simply send or hand
deliver your machine to the workshop address detailed right, enclosing
payment and this advert and we wit! do the rest. (If possible please
include a daytime telephone number and fault description).
* If you require 24 hour courier to your door, please add £5 else your
computer will be sent back by contract parcel post.
WTS ELECTRONICS LTD
STUDIO MASTER HOUSE
CHAUL END LANE
LUTON, BEDS, LU4 8EZ
Telephone (0582) 491949 - (4 lines)
WTS reserve the right to refuse machines that in our opinion are tampered with 4 to an extent
beyond reasonable repair
O
i
<
57
DISCOUNT SOFTWARE
For the Commodore Amiga
AMIGA A1500 ■ E679.95
Package includes A1500 computer with 1Mb
Ram, 2 drives, Deluxe Paint III, Works
Platinum and 4 great games.
Price includes VAT and courier delivery
A1500 plus 1084s colour monitor £919.95
AMIGA SCREEN GEMS
Includes Deluxe Paint II and 4 Top games
+ Free '/2 Meg memory expansion
MX PRICE £384.95
with Cumana 2nd drive add £60.00
COMMODORE A590
HARD DRIVE
20Mb Auto boots from WB 1 .3
MJC PRICE £284.95
with extra lMeg fitted £319.95
with extra 2Meg fitted £349.95
NAKSHA UPGRADE MOUSE
280 DPI with FREE Mouse House + Mat
MJC PRICE £21.95
AMOS - The Creator - V1.2
MJC PRICE £33.95
Personal Finance Manager
Best selling Home accounting package
MJC PRICE £22.95
CUMANA CAX 354
DISK DRIVE
Quality Brand name 3,5" second drive
includes thru port, disable switch and No
Hassle 1 year guarantee.
INCLUDES FREE VIRUS-X UTILITY
MJC PRICE £61.95
DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIO
great new animation package
MJC PRICE £74.95
PHILIPS 8833 MK2 MONITOR
Including cable and delivery
MJC PRICE £249.95
MEMORY EXPANSIONS
l /2 Meg internal expansion for Amiga 500
Battery backed clock and disable switch uses
latest 4 chip technology - will not invalidate
your warranty.
MJC PRICE £31.95
PROTEXT Version 5
A very fast command based package now with
1 10,000 word Collins Dictionary Mail Merge and up
to 36 files open plus much more - call for details.
(1 Meg)
MJC PRICE £99.95
PROTEXT V 4.3 £64.95
PRODATA AMIGA £55.95
VIDI COLOUR SOLUTION
Vidi Colour package - including Vidi Digitiser,
Vidichrome and Photon Paint
MJC PRICE £95.00
RGB SPLITTER ■ for use with
Vidichrome or Digiview. [includes PSU)
MJC PRICE £64.95
COMPLETE COLOUR SOLUTION
Package includes Vidi Amiga, Vidichrome and
the RGB Splitter for a complete colour digitising
outfit. NOTE: For best colour pictures you
require a video camera or perfect still frame
VCR
MJC PRICE £145.00
ZVP VIDEO STUDIO
Great Video Production package - call for details
(requires 1 Meg + 2 drives)
MJC PRICE £89.95
RENDALE 8802 GENLOCK
Great value Genlock offering both Foreground
and Background modes.
MJC PRICE £159.95
8802 MODE SWITCH BOX - £31.95
MASTERSOUND AMIGA
great value mono sampler £29.95
QUARTET AMIGA
Synthesiser + 4 track sequencer £35.95
AMIGA EDUCATIONAL
FUN SCHOOL 2 \
Education a I ly ba sed ga mes - \
8 programs per disk:
Fun School 2 for 2$ year olds 12.95
Fun School 2 for 6-8 year olds 12.95
Fun School 2 for 8-12 year olds 12.95
FUN SCHOOL 3
5 educational games with great graphics:
Fun School 3 for 2-5 year olds 15.95
Fun School 3 for 5-7 year olds 15.95
Fun School 3 for 7-12 year oids 15,95
Learn to Read with Prof: - builds a complete reading
course for 4-9 year olds
PT 1. Prof Plays a New Game ■ includes
audio tape & 5 booklets 19.95
PT 2. Prof Looks at Words 19.95
MAVIS BEACON TYPING TUTOR
The tun way to learn typing with games, rhymes and
custom facilities. (12+)
MJC PRICE £19.95
KOSMOS SOFTWARE
Answerback Junior Quiz - is a quiz based game
containing 750 general knowledge questions for 6-11
years 14.95
Fact File Spelling - extra 500 questions pack for use
with Answerback Quiz 7.95
Fact File Arithmetic 7.95
Answerback Senior Quiz - is again a general
knowledge quiz for 12+ years 14.95
Kosmos Language Tutors - useful as an aid to
learning a language. Vocabulary of some 2500 words
split in to 20 specific groups.
French Mistress (12+ years) 14.95
German Master (12+ years) 14.95
Spanish Tutor [12+ years) 14.95
Italian Tutor (12+ years) 14.95
Sesame Street - Letters For You featuring Digitised
Sesame Street voices - fun way to learn the alphabet.
(3-6) 15.95
DISNEY EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE - yes software
from the world famous Disney Studios - with great
sound and of course great graphics.
Mickey's Runaway Zoo - for 2-5 year olds -
for identifying and learning numbers 19.95
Donald's Alphabet Chase - for 2-5 year olds
for discovering the alphabet ..19.95
Goofy 's Railway Express - for 2-5 year olds
for learning colours and shapes 19.95
LCL Educational Software - a well presented step
by step method - developed by practising teachers.
Features up to 35 programs per pack.
Primary Maths Course (3-12 years) 19.95
Micro Maths (up to GCSE level) 19.95
Micro English (up to GCSE level) 19.95
Micro French (up to GCSE level) 19.95
Sesame Street - Numbers Count - digitised sound
and a colouring book - for learning numbers.
(36 years). 15.95
la
PRICES INCLUDE VAT AND POSTAGE TO THE U.K.
Education, Local Authority and Government orders welcomed.
Overseas customers also welcome, please call or write for quotations.
Ail goods subject to availability, alt prices subject to change without notice. E&OE.
CALLERS WELCOME 9.30 TO 5.00 (6 days)
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buy? Please give each a rating out af 1 0.
Amiga Shopper /10
/10
/10
/io
/10
/10
1 4. Give a rating out of 1 for the
features in this issue.
News , /10
Amiga Answers. /10
Letters /10
Paint programs guide /10
DTP column /10
Comms column /10
Graphics column /10
AMOS column /10
Video column /I
Business column /TO
Music column /10
Thinker review..... /10
Speaker/mouse reviews /10
AmigaDOS column /10
Education column /10
Programming language guide /TO
Assembly programming /1
Reader ads /10
Buyers' guides /10
PD world /10
1 5. Have you become interested in a
subject because of AS, if so, which one?
16. What software do you (a) own or (b)
intend to buy this year?
Word processor a J. bQ
Database aQ bQ
Spreadsheet aQ bQ
Graphics aQ b _l
Video titling a Q b Q
Desktop publishing o Q b Q.
Communications a Q b Q
Assembler a Q b J
Accounts.. aQ bQ
CAD aQ bQ
Programming language a Q b J
Music a U b J
Sound sampling a Q b Q
Video digitising a Q b Q:
Educational a Q b □
1 7. What hardware do you (a) own or (b)
intend to buy this year?
Second disk drive a Q b Q
Hard disk..... aQ bQ
Joystick , aQ bQ
MIDI interface a Q b Q
Modem a Q b Q
Memory upgrade a □ b Q
Printer aQ bQ
Monitor aQ bQ
Freezer cartridge a Q b Q
Sound sampler a Q b Q
Genlock.. aQ bQ
Video digitiser a Q bQ
Macintosh or PC Emulator a Q b Q
Accelerator card a Q b Q
Hand scanner a Q '.. b Q
T 8. How much do you intend to spend on
the hardware and software you want to
buy over the next year?
Under £250 Q
£25!-£500 , Q
£501-£1,000 t Q
£1,001-£2,000 Q
£2,001 -£5,000 J
Over £5,000 Q
1 9. Give a rating out of ! for the
following aspects of Amiga Shopper^
The reliability of the reviews /1
The usefulness of its tips and advice /10
Its value as a good read /10
Its up-to-dateness of information /I
Itsjayout and design /I
20. Please use this space to comment on
how Amiga Shopper can be improved or
attach a separate sheet with them on.
Thankyou for your time and trouble. ©
AMIGA SHOPPER t ISSUE 2* JUNE 1W1
AMOS
AMOS
Action
"There are all kinds of programs
available written in the terrifically
powerful AMOS programming
language. Each month I'll be
taking a selection apart to see
how they tick, so you con learn
how to become as famous with
AMOS as the experts."
Phil South
This month Phil South exposes the
innards of various utilities, demos
and games written in AMOS Basic
Welcome again to the
AMOS column, the
place where every
month you can find
tutorials and lots of hints and tips For
use with Mandarin Software's AMOS
Basic interpreter.
Free game zone
As the PD and AMOS editor on AS,
I'm the only person allowed to
mention the 'G' word in these pages.
But that's okay, as I'm always
looking at the technical side of
games programming using AMOS.
Two games caught my eye this
month, and even though both are
made using AMOS, and no other
form of programming, they wouldn't
look out of place on a disk you
would pay through the snout for.
Syntex are pretty mean dudes on
the old music tront. Just listen to
that beautiful music score ... what?
You can't hear it? Well turn up the
volume on your magazine then.
Fortunately both games are available
from the AMOS PD Library, so you
can hang on to your hard-earned.
The first is Wooden Ball
(APDI 30] by Petri k Holmslremi of
Sweden; a sort of Speedbatl clone.
The quality of this game is suc-i that
it's quite hard to think how it could
have been done in AMOS. But I
guess that is just another example of
how mega-stonkingly good AMOS
really is as a development language.
The graphics are really top notch,
and that is the clincher really. But
apart from the GFX, the code itself is
impressive and well worth a LIST.
The other game is Balloonacy
(APDI 15) by certified nutter Delboy
Dodson, a hilarious variation on the
old Bomber Run Basic game, in
which you fly by a row of
skyscrapers and bomb the Hell out of
them so you don't fly into them.
Balloonacy is very funny and, in
it's own way, very addictive. I've
decided to show you one of the
routines just to demonstrate the
author's skill. It governs whether the
lights in the buildings are on or off
depending on if the building has
been bombed or not. As you beat the
buildings down with your bombs, this
routine checks to see if the power for
the lights is still on.
Procedure BUIU>INe_LIGm'S
If B01LD__HIT>-(BniLD_TOT/2}
and LIGHTSOUT=FalBe
If Rnd(3)sl
LIGHTS
Else
Snouty roots for tips
Every month I will be printing
hints and tips on AMOS from my
own sources and from you, the
readers. If you hove any hints and
tips (preferably accompanied by
mini listings) you want to send
me, whack them on paper or a
disk and send them to: Phil South,
AMOS Column, Amiga Shopper,
30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1
2BW. Or you can e-mail me on
CIX (snouty@cix), Micronet/Prestel
(219997854) or Telecom Gold
(74:MIK2077).
Amend Alert
On page 1 7 of the AMOS manual
it says you can test the ALERT box
by typing in the following:
ALERT [50,
"Exterminate" , "Stephen" , "Yep ! " "
Hope!", 13]
In fact the proper command is:
ALERT [50,
"Exterminate" , "Stephen" , "Yep i ""
Nope ! " , 1, 3]
with an extra comma between the
1 and the 3.
Slide it in
You can make yourself a nice little
slideshow program in AMOS by
using the following formula:
Music 1 : Hide : Curs Off
Screen Open 0, 640, 256.2, Hires
MAIN:
Load Iff "df0:picture 1",0
wait Key
Load Iff "d£0: picture 2",0
wait Key
(and etc... until:)
Load Iff "dfO: picture 10",
Wait Key
Fade 5 : Wait 75
Music Off
End
Load the <music>.abk file before
you run it and hide the mouse
pointer and cursor to keep the
screen clear for your pictures. The
fade must have a wait after it as
the program will just proceed
unless you hold it up. The formula
for how much waiting you have
to do is to multiply the fade
speed, in this case 5, by 1 5. So
this fade is quite a fast one and
you only need wait 75 clicks
before going on. If this is a demo
of your graphics ability, then why
not float some sprites at the same
time. And how about a nice
scrolly message too?
If Rnd(15)=l
Plash Off
Colour 13,$FFB
Flash 31, Fj
End If
End If
End If
If
BOILD_HIT> ( (BUTLD_TOT/4) *3 ) and
LIGHTSODT=False
LIGHTS
Flash Off
Colour 13,5996
Flash 31, F$
LIGHTSOUTuTrue
End if
End Proc
The really surprising thing about
AMOS is the number of demo crews
that are emerging using the thing. I
would have thought that the average
demo type wouldn't touch any kind
of Basic with a six yard cattle prod,
but you'd be surprised at how adept
some of these guys are. The best
demos I've seen just recently are by a
guy calling himself Benson and a
crew called Syntex,
JJJuddery demos
Up to now a lot of the scrolly demos
I've waded through are a bit juddery,
but both these demo makers seem to
have cracked this nut for good.
Smooth scrolls and very entertaining
music is all over the shop, most of
which is original, I hasten to add. Try
out disks APD 99, 125, 129, and
131 for samples of what these guys
are up to,
AMOS PD disk LPD9 contains
I AMOS Assembler, for those of you
JARGON BUSTING
.ABK: This is AWlOS's way of storing graphics and sound data. As it uses a different
data format to the standard Amiga one (IFF), conversion programs must be
used on sprites, pictures and music created with non-AMOS utilities before
their Inclusion In your AMOS program.
COPPER: The Amiga's graphics CO-P Processor. It can be instructed to change the
parameters of the display as It Is drawn on the screen, so allowing screens ot
different modes to be visible et once, or rainbow effects whereby many more
colours can be seen than normally permissible in a given screen mode.
INTERLACE: Interlace is a method used to double the apparent vertical resolution of the
monitor by alternately refreshing the screen at a slight vertical offset, thus
squeezing an extra tine between each of the lines of a non-interlaced screen.
NTSC: National Television Standards Committee. This is the name for the TV colour-
coding system used In the USA and other countries. It has 525 lines, running
at 60 fields and 30 frames/second. It is often, and perhaps unfairly, japed at
as Never Twice the Same Coiour by PAL standard users.
PAL: The other main TV colour coding system (with the exception of France's
SECAM system), which is in use around the world and was developed by
Britain. PAL refers to Phase Alteration Line. In fact, there are several hybrid
PAL systems in use, all ot which are slightly different.
RAMOS: The AMOS runtime system, which enables your AMOS programs to run
independently ot the full AMOS package. It acts as interpreter for AMOS code.
AMIGA SHOPPER* ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
AMOS
AMOS News
I got AMOS version 1 .23
through and it improves some
features from 1.21. AMOS
now works properly on NTSC
screens. The =NTSC function
returns true if AMOS is
running in NTSC; false if in
PAL. Interlace is covered and
is used by adding tlaced to
the screen resolution when
opening a screen, ie:
Screen Open
0,320, 512, 16, lowres+ laced
Input and Sequential File bugs
are now fixed, though I never
found any problems. Other
details of AMOS 1 .23 and
news of further updates will
be covered in the AMOS Club
Newsletter.
May be available
Also new are the AMOS
Compiler and AMOS 3D.
These are being finished as I
write and should be available
in May, The initial version of
the compiler was moderned to
Mandarin Software on March
24 and, after testing with as
many PD programs as can be
found, Mandarin will be
releasing it.
It is a stand-alone
program at the moment and
not linked to part of the
AMOS system like the STOS
Compiler was. AMOS 3D is
coming along, manual and
object editor-wise, but still
needs tickling.
Another newie is AMOS
TOME - a map editor for
games - by Aaron Fothergill.
Andrew Bray brook used the
STOS version of TOME to
make the maps for Rainbow
Islands, which shows what a
powerful utility it is. You don't
have to make maps for AMOS
programs, just create them
using the editor and save
them to create the rest of the
program in C or assembler.
Simple really. So keep your
eyes peeled for AMOS TOME,
or call Mandarin on 051 357
1275 for details.
out there who are not just a pretty
face but a pretty mean coder too.
The tricky thing about AMOS
Assembler is that you just embed the
machine code you want to run in
your program, as in the panel to the
right. All the lines are read in as C$,
then the assembler is activated and
oil thel code you typed in is
assembled and run.
The demo programs are short
and, to be really honest, I can't tell
how it works, but you can take it
from me that it's totally brilliant. The
basic program to get you going is
included, plus a bunch of example
programmes to demonstrate the
Fastness of the thing.
The results are nothing less than
gobsmacking, especially the fast
Mandelbrot program. (Okay, so
fractals are boring, but not this fast
they're not.) If you like assembler,
then this is the PD disk for you mate.
One thing 1 would like to see is a C
compiler written in AMOS, Now that
really would open a can o' worms.
Over the rainbow
Ever wondered how the experts
construct those amazing rainbow
copper patterns in their programs?
They are very clever, but now you
can very clever too.
One of the most interesting
pieces of software to come out of the
AMOS PD Library lately is the
Rainbow Warrior program (APD 76]
by Spadge (ako Marlyn Brown). This
program lets you construct and save
rainbow copper patterns for use in
your programs and it uses the mouse
to let you draw them on screen. After
drawing the rainbow of your choice,
it can be saved to disk in a variety of
useful formats, such as AMOS
program code, K-Seka and Devpac
assembly language, raw code - in
fact, anything useful.
The program is written in AMOS,
and to run it you could either load
Machine code embedded wilh AMOS Assembler
AMOS Assembler can
make your listings run
as fast as my nose after
a particularly hot chilli.
C$=C$+"Chaos_Curla : *
C$-C$+"msTe.l a3,iS;"
CS»C$+»add.l #4*4, S3;"
C$^C$+"mave.l (a3}+,d0?move.l (a3)+,a.6j*
c$=c$+"irove.l #4, d6 i"
C$=C$+"3.ea plane_0,a0i"
c$»C$+"lea plane l,al?"
CS-C$+"lea plane_2 , a2 j "
C$*c$+"lea plaae_3,a3;"
c$=c$+ rt lea plane_4 , a4 ; "
CS*c$+»iB(jve.l #J19,dljmov«.l #255, d2j"
C$=C$+"loop:"
C$=C$+"moveni. 1 ai/d2 r - (sp) s"
CS*C$+"bts't #6,$b£e001?bn,e.b no„a^iit "movent. 1 < spj+, 31/32 ;rts;"
C $ =C$+ Fr no_qui t : **
C$=C$+"add.l 4£a5),dl ; add.l (a5),d2;"
C$=C$+"move.l dl,d3;muls d3,d3,*ler.l d0,d3j"
C$=CS+"move.l d2,d4;muls d4, dollar. 1 do, d4;"
c$.c$+"nove,l #0,d7j"
AMOS and load the program, or bolt
RAMOS to it and run it from an icon.
The program saves its AMOS code in
ASCII format so to use the code it
saves just Merge ASCII.
The resulting code looks a lot like
that in the panel below. In fact, just
tap this in to see what happens. To
adjust the code so it doesn't print a
duff screen over the bars, open a
screen before you go into the bars
routine, using:
Screen Open 0,320,256, 2, Lowres
and maybe even a Wait Key before
the RDATA label, and you'll see the
difference. Or you could change the
Colour Back command For Cls For
the same effect.
Accursed cursor
One criticism is that the cursor in the
program prints lines on the screen
□bout a centimetre above itself rather
than actually on the cursor. This is a
bit of a fag, but presumably it will be
fixed in later versions.
This is only version 1,01 and
Marlyn says In the docs that it is a
wee bit buggy, so keep up with the
new updates.
It seems to work OK though and
many of the disks I've been getting in
the AMOS PD Library have used this
utility to create their copper bars.
That's all we have time for this issue.
Write in and show me what you've
been doing with AMOS. Better still,
send in a disk and I'll tell the world
how skiilo you are. Many thanks must
go to Sandra Sharkey for her help
with the programs she sent me.
Sandra does more to further the
cause of AMOS than just about
anyone I know, and she's doing a
brilliant job up there in Wigan. Big
hand for Sandra ... (yayyyyl) Triffic.
See you next time, f VI
ocxxxJoooo
Shopping List
All APD discs £2.50
All LPD (license ware) £3.50
from AMOS PD Library
25 Park Road, Wigan WN6 7AA
« 0942 495261
Amos - The Creator £49.99
by Mandarin Software
Database Direct, FREEPOST,
Ellesmere Part,
SauthWirral L6 3EB
= 0513571275
Rainbow Warrior's merged ASCII
Rem
Rem * Created with RAINBOW warrior - Amos Copper
Generator *
Rem * Yup, you can blame good ol' Spadge for this
one ... *
Rem
Set Rainbow D, 0,280, ","",*"
Rainbow 0,0. H 280
Colour Back Q
Res Core RDATA
For C=0 To 279 : Read CVA : RainIO ,C| =CVA
Next C : View
RDATA:
Data $0,$O,$0,50,S0,SD,$O,$O
Data $0,$0,$0,50,SO,$0,$O r $0
Data $O,$O,$O,S0,$O.$O,$0,$0
Data SO, SO, $0, SO, $0, SO, SO, SO
Data $o,$o,So,so,$o,$0,$o,50
Data $O,$0,50,$D,$D,$O,$0,$0
Data $0, $0,50, SO, SO, $0, $200, $300
Data $4O0,$500,$600,$7 00,$B00,$9O0,$A00,5D0O
Data $CO0,SB00,$A0O,$90D,$800,$700,$6O0,$50Q
Data $40D,$0,$0,$0,$0,$0,$Q,$0
Data $0,$n0, $220, $330, $440, $5 50, £660, $770
Data $8a0,S9 90,$AAO,$BB0,$CC0,SDDO,$EE0,$FF0
Data $FF0 , SEEO , SDDO , $CC0 , $BB0 , SAAC ,$990, $880
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Rem
Rem
Rem
Rem
Rem
$770, $660, $550,
$0,$0,$0,$0,$0,
50,SD,$0,$0,SO,
S0,SD,$O,$0,$0,
SO, $0, $3, $4, $5,
$9,SA,$B,SC,$D,
SE,$D,$C,SB,$A,
$6, $5, $4, S3, SO,
$O,$0,$0,$0,$0,
SO,$C,$0,$0,$0,
$0,$C,$0,$D,$0,
$0,$0,50,SD,SD,
$0, $0,50, SO, $0,
$0,$0,$0,$0,$0,
$0,$0,$0,$0,$0,
$0,$0,$0,$0,$0,
$0,$0,$0,$0,$0,
$o,$o,$o,$o,$o,
SO, S0,S0,$O,$0,
$0,$0,$0,$0,$0,
$o,so,$o,$o,$o,
S0,S0,$0,$0, $0,
$0,50,$0,$0,$0,
5440,5330, $220, $0,$0
$0,$0,$0
$0,$0,$0
$0,$0,$0
$6, $7, $8
$E,$F, $F
$9.$9,$7
$0,$0,$0
$0,50, So
$0,$0,50
$o,$o,so
$o,$o,so
$0,S0,S0
$0,5 0,50
$0,50,50
$0,$0,$0
SO, SO, SO
$0,$0,$0
$D,$0,$0
$0,$O,$O
so, so, so
$Q,$0,$0
so,$o,$o
* Alter the values ill the RAINBOW and SET RAINBOW*
* to position and control the rainbows . see the *
* manual to check or; Y positioning. Length and *
* which colour It is to efiect.. Have fori) *
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 99 1
61
VIDEO
Image conscious
"As a professional video
producer, I know what features
software needs to be really
useful. My aim is to cut through
marketing hype and reveal the
full facts to help you choose
what is best for you/'
Gary Whiteley
Broadcast Titler 2
Broadcast Tiller 2 comes on a single
disk which carries the main program
and a utility to convert standard
Amiga bitmapped fonts into the
compressed formatrequired.
Loading is simple - boot with the
disk, select the Fl key and, after a
message telling you how many pages
you have available (according to the
amount of fast RAM available in your
machine - I get 400 with 3.5Mb,
200 with 2Mb), the main program is
quickly up and running. Hard disk
users double-click on the EST icon.
One at a time
In order to use the Amiga's
capabilities to the full, Broadcast
Titler 2 takes over the machine,
precluding multitasking. But this won't
bother folks who are reasonably
organised and who have prepared
their backgrounds and other items in
advance anyway. Incidentally, you
don't need to reboot the machine to
exit. 5imply hit CTRL and ESC
together to return to the Workbench
screen if that's where you ran the
program from.
Expo systems expert Gary Whiteley rates the
performance of two video presentation programs
that aim to help you smarten up your image
When you've spent a lot of time using
your Amiga for video production,
you'll know how important it is that
your presentations or titles look
good. Because if they don't, they won't get their
message across - and if that happens, they've
failed to do their job.
This month I'm taking a look at two software
packages that that set out to help you get your
presentations right. They're both full of useful
features, but where Broadcast Titler 2, by
Innovision Technology, pronounces itself a
'Broadcast Quality Character Generator', Digital
Vision's Scala 'wishes to be known as a
'Professional Presentation Package'. In many
respects each package crosses over into the
territory of the other, though it is their individual
specialisation that separates them.
Broadcast Titler 2 claims to 'combine the
high-end functionality of dedicated video
production equipment with the flexibility and
cost- effectiveness of Amiga Desktop Video
Systems'. It features anti-aliased fonts, a host of
special effects and text editing and layout
functions that set out to help you work both
quickly and creatively.
Scala is a similar kettle of fish, with many of
the functions of Broadcast Titler 2, plus some
new ones of its own, such as Layouts, Symbols,
printer output {including Postscript), interactive
playback and the ability to incorporate
animations into a presentation. According to the
manual, Scala was developed 'to create an
easier to use, more powerful and more complete
presentation and desktop video system for the
Amiga computer. We want normal people to be
able to present their thoughts and ideas in a
quick and elegant manner'.
Other common features include both mouse
and keyboard operation, the loading of pre-
p re pa red ASCII and IFF files, multiple colours and
text effects such as outlines and shadows. Hard-
disk users can install the programs for faster
access. Each program has its own strengths and
weaknesses. So, in strictly alphabetical order
only, let's get to work.
Broadcast Titler 2 will work on any
Amiga including the A3000, and
with Workbench 2.0, but a minimum
of 1 .5Mb RAM is needed in order to
load pictures. Any further RAM will
be utilised to allow more pages, fonts
or pictures to be loaded, as these are
all kept in RAM for faster access. If
running on an A3000, it can. also
support Super High Res Mode [for
extra quality).
Once the program has loaded,
This Review Of
ih# IS A '^0 M'"' *j$k IMP* M^" M"'ik **#' lit
Brought to
you by
AMIGA
<^ji*l ^/« •* -w£«*«J
Images like this tasteful and apt screen are quite simple to put together
and are just the ticket for introducing an impressive presentation.
the main text editing screen appears,
which has a small menu across the
lower part of the screen. Most of the
controls can be accessed through this
and subsequent menus, allowing far
the loading of fonts, scripts, pictures
and ASCII files, font selection, colour
palettes, effects, layout parameters
and so on.
Taking each of these controls in
turn, from left to right we have:
FONT, LINE, PAGE, PLAY and FILE,
followed by five buttons that allow
you to move back and forth between
your created pages. The buttons are
activated by clicking on them.
Taking control
FONT opens a menu from which you
make selections of typeface,
shadowing type (solid or cast) and
direction, outline size, face colour,
anti-aliasing and pattern fill - a great
feature by which the face of a font is
remapped by an IFF brush. This lets
you use all kinds of pretty effects, like
polka-dots, air brushing or indeed
whatever you like. Changes to the
parameters are shown on □ letter 'A'
which represents your chosen font on
the screen. As with all the Broadcast
Titler2 menus, clicking the right
mouse button or pressing [ESC] will
exit you back to the main menu
screen. Now, when you type onto the
main screen you will be typing with
your selected font and style.
LINE: Within this menu are four sub-
menus called EFFECT, PALETTE,
PICTURE and PATTERN. The EFFECT
menu allows you to control what
happens to each or any line of text
when it is played back as part of a
sequence. So you could make the
first line slide in from the left, then the
next line fade up from the
background colour and so on. There
are 1 6 of these line transitions to
"You can also use
Broadcast Titter 2's
demo disk to make
your very own
auto-booting
presentations/'
choose from. They work in
conjunction with page transitions, so
you may have a page that slides up
from the bottom of the screen and
then the lines appear on it according
to their own transitions. The PALETTE
menu is where you make colour
changes to either lines or pages and
these happen live on the screen. You
can have 16 colours per line and up
62
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 ©JUNE 1991
VIDEO
to 320 colours per page. The
PICTURE sub-menu is where the
placement on-screen of previously
imported pictures (16 colour, hi-
resolution overscan) is carried out. By
adjusting the position of the top left
corner of your picture, you can
determine where it appears on-
screen. This is useful for positioning
an image smaller than the screen
size. Finally, the PATTERN sub-menu
gives you the option of placing
"There are infinite
combinations of
line and page
transitions that can
be made,"
various different preset patterns
behind text, such as shaded Fills,
boxes and so on.
Menu master
PAGE is the largest of the menus,
listing all your current pages. From
this menu you access sub-menus for
EFFECT, LAYOUT, PALETTE and
PRESTO PAGE. You can also copy,
paste, insert, delete and append
pages here. The EFFECT sub-menu is
probably the most important menu,
for it is where you gain access to
more than 70 page transitions (some,
such as weave, sail and flip are
really neat, but much too difficult to
describe) which you then assign to
your chosen pages, along with
parameters for the speed of the
transition and the amount of time to
wait before the next transition takes
place. Selection is very easy; just
click on a button, set your times and
exit. If you wish to repeat the same
effect over a series of pages, this is
easily accomplished too, LAYOUT
sets the text justification, defines the
horizontal position for crawling text,
sets tabs and various screen and
crop margins. PALETTE has already
been described, so that leaves
PRESTO PAGE, which simply marks
the selected page as a Presto Page.
Playtime
PLAY provides options for playing
back sequences in various ways.
These include playing from the
current page or from the first page,
looping, playing pages at random or
waiting for a key to be pressed
before the next page shows. There is
also □ GPI (General Purpose
Interface) button which can be be set
to cause a sequence to be triggered
either From an external device or by
the mouse. This means that a
sequence will start immediately it is
triggered - ideal for video editing
applications. Function keys can also
be used direct from the main screen
to initiate the various forms of
playback. The PLAY menu also
contains the DRAW PRESTO PAGE
option, in which Presto Pages are
JARGON BUSTING
ASCII: American Standard Cede for Information Interchange. It is the
data storage method commonly used when we type text files and
enables data to be exchanged between different computers.
A method of storing animation frames, developed by Sparta film,
whereby only the changes between successive frames are stored,
thus saving significant amounts of space.
ANIM:
HAM:
IFF:
Hold and Modify is on Amiga graphic mode allowing all 4096
colours to be displayed at once, with certain restrictions.
Interchange File Formal is a means by which data from different
graphics or sound sampling programs is saved in a compatible way.
CHARACTER GENERATOR: A video device used to generate text and transitions for
transfer to tape.
INTERACTIVE: A method whereby the user can make on-screen choices as to what
happens next during the playback of audio or visual information.
FAST RAM: Any extra memory which is not chip RAM. The custom chips cannot
access it, and because such accesses to chip RAM can block out the
central processor and slow down its accesses, fast RAM is faster.
GPI: General Purpose Interface - a device used to convert the output of
one system to an input acceptable to another. For instance, using a
suitable GPI, you could cause a video edit controller to trigger the
Amiga to play back a picture sequence.
TELETYPE: A method of making text appear on a line by adding it a character
at a time from the left until the line is complete.
TRANSITIONS: Are used to change from one image to another by employing such
effects as wipes, fades, cuts, teletypes and so on. In video,
transitions are normally carried out using a vision mixer or Special
Effects Generator (SEG).
WRAP AROUND: This is what happens if you are typing text and you reach the
end of a line during a word. The whole of this last word will be
moved to the start of the next line. If there is no wrap around, text
entry continues to the end of the line and continues on the next,
regardless of any split words it creates.
Take any 8 Color IFF Brush
and Place it over any Font Style
*L# M M m, ~Jf jtm Jk JL*P Mm. K*~J %^ M. M.+
INE OF EX
The process of rendering your corporate message illegible is made
supremely simple with Broadcast Titter's pattern-tilled text facility.
particular page as an IFF picture file.
generated before display, and a
button for access to a SCREEN
OPTIONS menu whereby the screen
display position con be set and a
status bar turned on or off so that a
user can be prompted while calling
up pages randomly. This status bar
will not be output via a Genlock,
giving Broadcast Titler 2 the
possibility of live TV-style output via
visual cueing.
File under F
Finally, there's the FILE button, which
is used to load, save and clear
sequences, load other fonts and
pictures For use in Broadcast Titter 2
and load ASCII files to be read
directly as text. Loading and saving
is done through directory lists, which
can be a little slow at times. From this
menu you can also save any
Broadcast Titter 2 is actually
pretty simple to use. I made up
several pages and ran as many of
the various line and text transitions
on them as I could. The rolls are
smooth and can be set to varying
speeds - or, if you only have a fixed
amount of time for a roll sequence,
the whole lot can be made to fit that
time. Crawling is also smooth and
placing the crawl line on the page is
straightforward. There are almost
infinite combinations of line and
page transitions that can be made.
For example, you could have your
background slide in from the right
and then all the text teletype onto the
page, line by line, from the left. Or
you could display page after page
using different transitions for each.
Continued on page 64
* PAGE EFFECTS *
* Credit Roll & Crawl Effects
* Spirals, Sail, Checker, Paint,
Pyshes, Flips, Wipes, Builds
* 32 Level Cycle & Flash
* Pause Page during Playback
* LINE EFFECTS *
Everything from double vision to sea sickness can be induced in potential
clients with Titter's plethora of picture shifting functions.
AMIGA SHOPPER •ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
63
VIDEO
SWISS 100
SUHiC^O (PST7 MINERVA ti
fwIOO C## MINERVA 25
SWISS SO . MINERVA 37
swiss 37 M IN ERVA 50
ST" MINERVA 67
HOLIDAY 35
smamrs 29
HOLIDAY 20
SPORTS BO
SmUStB MKto .tuft jb» warn** £•£. a******, . .maa*.... j ii m ^HHtb Stt ae omsut .^£&
IJHIDiiIeII #" mJmm m *M
mf mm wm mm wm mmmr mT^mt mm mm Hr *W ^MPT Hm W Mi . dP 1
Four fonts come as standard with Broadcast Titter. If you want more,
extra gadgetry is supplied to help you phrase things more dynamically.
Continued (ram page 63
Text entry is reasonably easy,
although you hove to access the font
menu from time to time if you require
different fonts or attributes. The
program does not incorporate wrap-
around for text, so if a word is too
"You can mix
fonts on lines, in
different colours
and sizes with
different shadows"
long for o line it will be broken up
from one line to the next. This is
particularly annoying when importing
ASCII files, as they end up as a right
mess if you haven't thought about
their format first. You can mix fonts
on lines, in different colours and
sizes and with different shadows and
outlines. One Font can simply be
replaced by another if you wish. Text
can be justified left, centre or right,
but cannot be italicised or set bold. If
you need sloping or bold text then
the font you use will already have to
be like that. Text is kerned
automatically, but you are able to
space the letters of your text out
more, or tuck them closer together.
First fonts
Four fonts (in various sizes) come
with Broadcast Titler 2. If you require
other fonts, you will hove to convert
them to the compressed .bif format
used by the program. This is easily, if
somewhat slowly, done using either
the Font Converter program supplied
or the optional Font Enhancement
software.
The converter program will
convert any Amiga or Color Fonts as
they are. The Enhancement program
will additionally allow you to
.flffiwBP^ Mm Wtk. ^BE^ JB»nsB &RBmW^ ^(Rf aFtK <SSW > Mm Jin ■* mm mmmw mmmM mm ^B.
2 IS KEYBOARD OR
MOUSE DRIVEN
mm m mf ^mmW ^mmW WmW SMm mmmr mmwk mm mW mmmm ^r ^ff K
mZwmKiW I ffIHfJ r WW
NEED KS MGHT 0Jf
vfiiF <y IMMMtf
m mmm ^mmmmmmmmmr I « • • #
The great thing about developing presentation software is that you have
an in-built opportunity for advertising yourself. Innovision knows this.
accurately resize any font to your
requirements and also provide it with
anti-aliasing. Once converted, the
Font takes up much less space than it
originally did, but it will only work
with Broadcast Titter 2
If you want to see the program in
action at a dealer near you, ask them
to play the included demo disk - it
really is eyecatching. If you can do
this sort of thing with Broadcast Titter
2 then you're on to a winner.
If you go as far as buying it, you
can also use the demo to moke your
own auto-booting presentations, so
it's not simply a disk which you look
at, say "Aaah!" and erase.
In all then, a pretty effective
package that is capable of giving
impressive results. Though it can be a
little tricky to work with as far as
getting your deathless prose into the
program, the quality of the Final
image should certainly help put a
little vim into your character.
Checkout
Broadcast Titler 2
Documentation 9/ 1
Comprehensive A4 manual with helpful
Mortals end easy-to-understand English.
Ease of use 7/10
Text entry is not always as simple as I'd
like, but most of the menus work efficiently
and quickly. The keyboard shortcuts are a
great bonus, likewise the use of cursor
keys to scroll through selection button lists
and direct number entry to modify
numerical parameters. Easier italic, bold,
underline and text movement would be
helpful though.
Speed 12/15
Playback is generally Fast and smooth,
and the Presto Page function helps if there
are problems. Time intervals can be set
dawn to tractions of seconds if necessary.
Features 15/20
As a Character Generator it has a lot of
useful extra features and good roll, crawl
and teletype transitions into the bargain.
Quality 16/20
High quality, especially with anli-aliased
fonts and the use of Color Fonts. High
resolution, PAt overscan graphics are
used throughout.
Price 20/25
Broadcast Titter 2 certainly represents
reasonable value for money (as
'professional' software goes], especially in
terms of video costs generally and the
high quality of its output.
Wlil*JJmt-
Broadcast Titler 2 works well, with smooth
transitions. It can be a little awkward
when you're mixing fonts and pictures
together on a page - especially if you are
also using Color fonts, since the polette
requirements can take some mastering.
Text entry could be improved. Transitions
and anti-oliased fonts ore good and
overall the program gives excellent results.
79/100
SCALA
Scab arrives in a biggish box,
enclosing a ring-bound A5 manual
which contains 8(1) disks. But don't
panic just yet. There's the program
disk, of course, and then a disk of
typefaces, scripts, symbols, layouts
and palettes, another disk of
typefaces, and five disks of beautiful
quality background images.
Drive it hard
If you have a hard-disk you can
install the whole lot (if you wont). If
you don't, then Scata will run from
disk perfectly well. But you do need
1 Mb of chip RAM (another one in the
eye for Al 000 users) to fully use all
the program's capabilities. You'll
also need at least 1 Mb of fast RAM,
but the more you've got, the merrier
as Scata can play back animation
files (in the ANIM format] and can
work In many current display modes
(including HAM].
Since Scata is more specifically a
presentation package, it has features
BUTS
A scala b a lodder-like structure,
as found to the canals of the
cochlea, which makes it an odd
name for a presentation package,
and an even odder name for a
Madrid opera house.
BOBS
that aren't found in Broadcast Titter
2, such as Interactive Buttons, ANIM
loading and its own language,
VISUAL, for writing presentation
scripts directly if you wish. It is also
intuitive to use, provided you have
some intuition yourself. I did get
confused occasionally early on, since
there are menu ideas here that I
haven't seen before - and that's one
Hell of □ surprise after five years as
an Amiga user.
Although there are enough
backgrounds to keep you happy for
a good while, you'll want to use a
paint program to make new
backgrounds and brushes (known in
Scala os Symbols) to add to your
work. And if you require more fonts,
these can be loaded from disk.
Unlike Broadcast Titter 2, Scaia uses
ordinary Amiga fonts.
Well, enough of this preamble -
let's dive right into the package and
have □ look around.
Scala in proportion
On loading, a grey screen appears
with a lot of blank spaces on it. This
is the Main Menu. At the bottom are
eight buttons: four used for page
functions (New, See, Change and
64
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 ejUNE 1991
VIDEO
~~
liU.,i J ,iUii*iiaj,iU
Scala helps you produce neat backgrounds over which all kinds of
images can be laid, including, for the adventurous, your own animations.
Delete), two for loading and saving
scripts (Load Script, Save Script), one
to run sequences (Run!] and the last
to enter the System Menu [System],
More on these later.
In the top left there's a slanting
exclamation mark (the Scala symbol).
Click on this to exit the program or
clear the current script (but be careful
- if you have no pages made you
will be dumped straight out without
warning). The rest of the blank space
is a grid waiting to be filled up with
pages. To start filling it, click New
and we're into another Menu - a
Requester Menu this time, with a row
of buttons on the right-hand side and
lists of available drives on the left.
"Using ScalaPrint,
Scala is able to give
you hard copy of
your script as
\icsortext"
graph\
From here you can select o
background for your page, or simply
click on OK to set up a blank page. If
you load a picture, it will be
displayed in its original format (if
Scala can accept it). If that format is
HAM, a warning is given that text is
not recommended on HAM images
(because it actually doesn't look very
good due to inherent problems with
HAM overlays]. You could also elect
to load an animation. You will then
be asked to set the playback speed
(up to 50 frames a second] and the
number of times the sequence should
repeat (1 to infinity).
Once you've selected your
picture, text can be added to it
[although if you load an ANIM you
can only add text to either its first or
last frame). The Text Menu will then
be loaded automatically, and you
can see the background image with
a set of buttons taking up the lower
third of the screen.
Text and symbols
Text is entered simply by placing the
text cursor anywhere on the screen
and typing. At any time you can
change the typeface, any of its
attributes, such as colours, outline,
shadows and 3D effect, bold, italic
or underlined. Symbols (multi-
coloured brushes] ore equally easy to
use and they can have many of
Sco/a's text attributes added to them.
They can even be re-coloured if they
are single colour. Text and symbols
can be easily moved, once they are
on screen, simply by selecting move,
clicking on the item you wish to move
and dragging it to a new position.
A grid (called Net in Scala] can
be set to help placing. Multiple items
can be moved by first dragging out a
box around them and then moving as
above. Changing colours of text or
attributes is as easy as selecting your
required colour from the palette bar,
then clicking in the coloured square
on the chosen attribute button.
Keyboard shortcuts are available for
many functions.
From the text menu you can also
access other menus, such as Layout,
Load and Palette. In the Layout menu
are the settings for attribute
parameters, such as shadow size,
italic slope, underline size, character
spacing and so on. These can all be
changed and will affect only the text
line that you have selected. Changes
take place in real time, on screen, so
you can see what you ore affecting
and how. Any layouts generated con
be saved far future recall, so if you
want to make a page with a certain
layout it's easy to do. An IFF picture
file of the current page can also be
saved from here.
The Load menu enables you to
select items such as text files, other
backgrounds, symbols and layouts
for the current page. As it suggests,
the Palette menu is where adjustments
can be made to the current colour
palette. You can load and save other
palettes, set colour spreads and
toggle colour cycling here too.
There are two other important buttons
on the Text menu - Buttons ond List.
The former is for setting up the
interactive features of Scala. For
instance, if you had a page that you
wanted to use as an index for an
illustrated catalogue, you could drag
out a box around a word (let's say
Computers) and use it to tell Scala
that when the user clicks on the
Computer word, the display will jump
to a specified section of the
catalogue and display further
information related to computers.
BLITS
Minerva, the popular serif type-
face, sham its monicker with the
Roman Goddess of wisdom,
identified with the Greek Athena,
But a more Mills and Soon origin
can be found bock in 1 800, when
London-based Minerva Press
made a mint publishing
sentimental novels.
BOBS
Adding Buttons is best done when
you've made the pages you wish to
jump between, as this will make
testing much easier. Up to ten
interactive buttons can be placed on
ony page you like.
The List menu shows a list of oil
the items on the current page so line
transitions con be set for them. For
instance, you may want a line of text
to slide in from the left. This is where
you do that. Click on the Wipe
button to the right of the List label,
and you'll be presented with a
pictorial menu of 49 Line transitions.
Click on one to choose it. Each item
on a page can have a different effect
added to it, including Symbols. The
speed of the effect can also be set,
along with the amount of delay that
happens before the next effect tokes
place. These effects become port of
the current page and can be viewed
before saving.
When you're satisfied with the
page, it is saved and its name (or the
first words on the page if you didn't
rename it) is disployed in the Main
Menu from where we started. Now
we've got a page we can set a Page
Effect on it, in an identical manner to
setting a Line Effect.
Click on the Wipe button to the
right of the Page label ond a pictorial
menu appears - this time with Page
transitions. As with Line effects, all
you need to do is just point and click
to choose. Speed and delay can be
set for Page effects as well.
If you have a sequence of pages
(or lines on a page) where you wish
the same effect to apply, there is a To
End button which will make all the
effects to the end of the sequence (or
page] the same as the current one.
Playing your masterpiece
When you've put a few pages
together, they can be played back by
pressing Run on the Main menu. If
you haven't changed anything in the
System menu, the sequence will
change every time you click on a
mouse button (left for backwards in
the sequence, right for forwards) and
a small counter will show what page
you are on. [ESC] will stop playback
Continued on page 66
17 TYPEFACEST
49 LINE EFFI
51 JPA
There are a fair few facilities to be had within Digital Vision's Scala, and
the demo sequence is in no way afraid of blowing its own trumpet.
AMIGA SHOPPER* ISSUE 2 • JUNE J 991
65
VIDEO
But what's it all for?
Broadcast Titter 2 or Scala can be us&d to dynamically
display advertising, news, messages, poetry, weather
maps and other types of information, in ways that are
eyecatching and interesting, in both text and pictures.
And of course you could always transfer your
presentations on to video, on their own or, better still,
combined with other video images and sound. Scala can
also be used interactively by incorporating Buttons into
each or any page, allowing the user to make selections
and then be branched off to pre-determined pages for
further information.
Outstanding features
Broadcast- Tifler 2
• Anfi-aliased fonts - no jaggy edges.
• Scrolling, crawling and teletype effects for text.
• Can use Color Fonts or any other Amiga font (after
conversion).
• Needs only 5 12k of chip RAM.
• Full overscan in 16-eolour hi- resolution.
• Fonts, pictures and pages in RAM for fast access.
• Up to 320 colours per page.
• Automatic patterned text fill with IFF images.
• Over 80 transitions for screens and text.
• Optional Font Enhancement software for creating
anti-aiiased fonts from 1 2 to 200 lines in sire.
Scala
• Uses any bitmapped font (except ColorFonts).
• 3D extrusion effects on fonts.
• 1 7 quality typefaces included.
• Interactive functions.
• Printer output (including Postscript),
• 59 high quality art backgrounds included.
• 1MB CHIP RAM required.
• Works in all graphics modes, including HAM and
overscan.
• Easy styling of text text and symbols.
• Loads and plays ANIM files in presentations.
• Over 70 transitions for screens, objects and text.
• Easy text and object manipulation.
Keys and functions
Many of the option buttons in Broadcast Titler 2 can be
used in conjunction with keyboard shortcuts, such as
using the cursor keys to scroll up and down lists, or
directly entering numerical values for parameters. For
example, once you've highlighted the font selection
button, using the up and down cursor keys will move
you through the list of available fonts showing each one
on the screen as it is listed.
Presto pages
Pages defined as Presto Pages can be pre -generated to
remove problems such as more complex pages
rendering too slowly and causing delays in the
playback of a sequence.
And so to work...
A typical session with Broadcast Titfer 2 or Scala would
involve creating one or more pages, defining how these
pages will be sequentially or otherwise displayed,
saving a script for the new sequence, and finally testing,
refining and using the result.
Continued (ram page 65
at any time, [f you have interactive
Buttons, you will need to activate
them first by entering the System
menu and selecting Buttons, (which
will be marked with o tick if it is on)
and either Mouse or Joystick as the
trigger method. Buttons will now be
active during playback.
From within the System menu the
counter can be repositioned (or
toggled on or off), or you can toggle
the pointer, toggle loop play [and set
the number of loops) or set the whole
sequence to only appear line-by-fine.
And if you feel like changing the
menu colours there are preset
palettes for this. The Workbench
Screen can be toggled on or off or
information about the disks and
memory currently installed in your
computer can be addressed.
Using ScalaPrint, 5ca/a is able to
give you hard copy of your script as
graphics or text. It supports
Preferences or Postscript printers.
Stretching Scala
So Far, the program seemed to be
doing far too well for decency's
sake, so as a final test, I thought I'd
try to push Scata beyond it's limit.
I set up a sequence of two ht-res,
1 6-colour pages with backgrounds, a
la-res ANIM of 1 5 black-and-white
digitised images, two HAM screens
(one interlaced) and an interlaced,
four-colour ANIM file. If this didn't
give the thing a headache then
nothing would.
Everything played back in order,
ocJoocxxJoo
Shopping List
Scab £249
by Digital Vision
Distributed by
Silica Distribution Ltd,
1 -4 The Mews, fatherly Road.
Sidtup, Kent, DA144DX
■a OBI 3091111
Requirements: Any Amiga with at least
1MB of thie RAM and at least 1MB of fast
RAM - hut as math as possible. A hard disk
will help, as would a second disk drive if you
don't have a hard disk. Scab supports faster
processors such as the 63020 and 68030,
which will increase animation speed.
Broadcast Titler 1 £234
(£199+VAT)
by Innavision Technology
Distributed by
Amiga Centre Scotland,
4Hart Street Lane, Edinburgh EH13RN
«■ 031 557 4242
Requirements: Any Amiga,
with at least 1.5MB RAM.
Additional RAM and a second
disk drive are recommended.
on time, and with the transitions I
had set. I must confess, I hadn't got
the Amiga multitasking at the time,
but even so, Scala put up an
absolutely ripping performance. Nice
one Digital Vision, f ^jt
Checkout
Scala
Documentation 7/ 1
My main quibble here is a lock of
contents index. Otherwise, the manual is
OK, if at times a little vague, II you run
Scab from disk you may be left Feeling
confused at times. Fortunately, ASSIGN
commands from the CLI are there to get
one around most problems, More details
for disk users would be helpful. The
tutorials are fine though.
lose of use 9/10
Once you've got used to if. Scab is
supremely easy to use. Menu access is
straightforward and logical and most of
Scab can be mastered very quickly.
Speed.. .....13/15
Playback is smooth, although Scab is
necessarily memory hungry, especially in
hi-resolution. If you wanf fo run large
sequences without glitches then you'll
need lots of RAM. Interactive response is
extremely good and ANIM fifes play
without any problems.
Features 1 6/20
It is a shame that Scab does not handle
text scrolling and crawling. The print
feature is OK, but it only seemed Co print
out background images for me, with none
of the overlaid text, However, the facility
to use mixed display resolutions is more
than welcome.
Quality 17/20
Scab scores higher than Broadens f Titief
2 because of the great background art.
But os with all software, you get out what
you put in.
Price 20/25
Scab casts, a little more than Broadcast
Tithr 2, but then you get all the extra fonts
and backgrounds. I wonder what it would
cost if you just wanted the basic
programs, without the art work and extra
fonts? JF you were a DIY fan, this would
be a great bargain.
Tim
82/100
Everything in 5ca/o is easy to operate and
great results can be obtained very quickly.
Obviously, the harder you push it, the
more memory you will need (I must admit I
did crash Scab several times, but I was
multi-tasking it quite heavily with only
2MB of fast RAM on board). The quality,
especially in hi-resolution, is very good, its
interactive features work Fine and many of
the typefaces are great. As a presentation
package I think this one certainly has a
bright future. It needs a few more features
(such as scrolling and crawling, and
smaller time increments) if it is to be a
truly all-round presentation and video
package, but no doubt if enough of you
want these features, Scab will odd them. I
personally liked it a lot.
AMIGA SHOPPER * ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
BUSINESS
BEGINNERS
The term PC is a generic
abbreviation for personal
computer usually associated with
the IBM PC. The Dictionary of
Computing and New Information
Technology defines the term as:
"a synonym for microcomputer,
generally used to suggest that the
computer is suitable for use in the
home." Confessions of a
Computer Journalist defines the
term as: "PC - personal computer.
Your electronic buddy; thought by
some to be one of the major
underlying factors in the UK
divorce rate."
PC on the premises
From this premise we can devise
that the PC is a computer for use
by one person - a desktop,
laptop, palmtop - even your brain
is a very powerful personal
computer. Nevertheless, the
original argument still holds. IBM
coined the phrase PC with their
original machines and it stuck.
Therefore, any type of machine
based on IBM's original design
specifications (or one that is
capable of emulating them) is a
PC or PC clone.
The original PC (some are still
around) was based on Intel's
8088 CPU; a fairly rudimentary
eight-bit design. It came in three
parts: Keyboard, base unit (with a
single, 5.25" 160k floppy drive)
and VDU. It was text only and
had no colour whatsoever. Even
in 1980, that was nothing to write
home about, but IBM's reputation
for producing solid machinery
assured them a place in what
proved to be a massive market,
Popular modular
The PC's modular design {a huge
success) soon meant everyone, his
uncle and probably auntie too,
was producing something for the
machine. Graphics were swiftly
added, as were hard disks and
colour displays. Later, when Intel
introduced the 80286, IBM came
up with a design based on that -
continued on page 68
Down to
business
When is an Amiga not an Amiga?
When it's a PC. Mark Smiddy
explains - aided and abetted by
the KCS Pov/erboard PC emulator
"Computers in business is
about increasing productivity
and, therefore, making money.
As the owner of a small
business, I know what gear
will do the business."
Mark Smiddy
When KCS First
introduced their
Power board it was
greeted with
rapturous applause. Now that the
beast has been around for some time
a contender for the crown has
arrived - but KCS has not been
standing still: adding support For the
A590 hard disk. It has also come
down in price to just over £233
(accounting for the new VAT rate).
I've got the power
There cannot be many people who
haven't heard of the Powerboard, but
for those new to the machine, here is
a quick round-up of the major
features. Primarily, Powerboard is an
IBM PC emulator based on an NEC
V30. In theory, that gives it 100 per
cent software compatibility with all
existing PC software.
In practice, there are a few elite
applications that refuse to run on
anything less than a 386 with a 387
doing their maths, but these are in
the minority, The vast majority of
software written for the PC will run
(up to a point) on the humble 8088;
and for simple jobs like word
processing these are generally all
that's required.
Designed for the 'trapdoor' RAM
slot on the A500, it comes with its
own processor, 1Mb of RAM and a
real-time clock. Running in Amiga
mode, Powerboard adds a 51 2k of
normal expansion memory ond 5 1 2k
private memory configured as a RAM
disk. In PC mode, it acts like a 1Mb
XT with 704k free memory and 1 92k
oF extended memory.
The snag is, Powerboard only
'runs' PC programs, all the I/O must
be handled by the Amiga hardware
and that is where the emulation part
comes in. Everything from the
keyboard to the screen has to be
emulated in software - and this is
one giant task.
Fortunately, it does mean all
upgrades are supplied in software
MMsdtWDOS
MwosoftM&DC&Shel
^imm^.
There's a goodly amount of documentary support supplied with the KCS
Powerboard. However, the emulator docs lag behind the hardware.
and don't involve having to crowbar
your machine open.
installation
Installing the Powerboard is a snap.
Just unplug your machine, remove the
"If you only ever
use an XT done,
like the bottom-end
Amstrad units, you
may be hard-
pressed to tell
the difference/'
trapdoor expansion cover, plug it in
and you're ready to go. It really is
that simple and takes about two
minutes - allowing enough time to
plug all those peripherals back in.
Once in place, starting first-time in
PC mode is a simple as booting a
disk - so anyone who can manage to
load Revenge of the Blasterons could
manage with this one. This first stage
only starts the board and hands
control over to it; from then on you
are left in the strange and totally icky
PC environment.
Powerboard is supplied with MS-
DOS 4.01 , so starting the 'PC is
simple - although you must replace
the Amiga boot disk with a PC boot
disk first. A dual-format Amiga/PC
disk would be nice but is almost
certainly impossible. (Yes, I know it
can be done with the ST but an MS-
DOS stores parts of its operating
system in the boot tracks.)
Getting kinda hectic
Software installation is a little more
tricky. Powerboard - like all
soft/hardware based emulators - has
a software interface between the
Amiga hardware and the PC BIOS.
This allows you to set up a variety of
different parameters in the PC
continued on page 68
AMIGA SHOPPER* ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
BUSINESS
continued from page 67
environment: the number of colours
you get in CGA mode, the disk
drives and so on.
This would be OK if the
installation software was a bit more
helpful, but the software is evolving
faster than the manuals. According to
the manual, holding down the left
mouse button brings up a language
menu. This technique proved so
unreliable I eventually had to run the
PC preferences program from CLI;
even then, the configuration refused
to work. Curiously enough, one of
the undocumented features was a
Turbo button. According to Bitcon
Devices, this increases the speed on
some machines from 8 to 1 IMhz,
even though the manual says this
cannot be done. Turbo is optional
because about one per cent of
Amigas refuse to run it.
Once running, the emulation's
configuration can be changed by a
simple hot-key combination not used
on the PC. This brings up a setup
screen allowing you to change
colours and so on.
PC or not PC?
Powerboard, as I see it, will have
two main users: those who buy it as
yet another expansion and those who
get it to run their PC software.
The PC crowd are likely to be in
the majority, so out came that classic
piece of PC Shareware, As-Easy-Ai
4. This is one of the best
spreadsheets on the PC, boasting a
high compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3 -
and more powerful into the bargain.
PC-style graphics turned out reasonably well. In fact, most programs ran
without any trouble whatsoever, but a few ended up crashing the PC.
JARGON BUSTING
386, 386SX, 386, 486: Increasingly powerful versions of the 303E chip found in the
original IBM PC and designed by Intel, The correct name (number) of
each of these should be prefixed with '80', but few people ever
bather. Intel even use me abbreviations as trademarks.
CGA:
EGA:
Hercules:
MDA:
MS-DOS:
PC Clone:
TSR:
VGA:
Colour Graphics Adaptor. Should be crummy graphics adaptor. Sick
bags at the ready, CGA gives four colours from two fixed palettes in
low-res, 320x200: cyan, white, magenta and black or red, green,
black-and-white. The higher resolution mode: 640 x 200 is black-
and-white only.
Enhanced Graphics Adaptor, Somewhere between CGA and VGA,
Offers a higher resolution and better range of colours than CGA.
Considered to be the minimum workable colour setup.
Monochrome graphics and text card - found in many cheap clones
but still quite workable.
Monochrome Display Adaptor, Just that. Text only with three states:
off, on and high-intensity. This mode will do for word processing or
data processing at a pinch and precious little else.
Microsoft Disk Operating System. It's a bit like AmigaDOS - only
many commands are internal. Shell editing is crude prior to Release 4.
IBM PC compatible computer based an one of the Intel B067 or
80xxx series CPUs, and with similar hard/software configuration.
Terminate and Stay Resident. The nearest thing to full multi-tasking
low-end PCs have to offer. It allows more than one program to reside
in memory at once and be recalled by a hot- key.
Video Graphics Array, High-resolution colour or monochrome
graphics system. 80 columns by 25 or 50 line text and a huge range
of colours - sometimes 256 (on screen) at o resolution of 1024 X 768.
As-fasy-As supports o variety of
screen modes, ranging from Hercules
to EGA. It storied in CGA (nothing
surprising there) but come to draw
graphics and none of the usual yukky
CGA colours. The CGA emulation is
interesting because of the way it has
been done. Replacing the diabolical
chunky characters normally
associated with CGA, was (what
appears to be) Topaz font.
Next, out came my Favourite
word processor - Amor's Protext 5.
The PC incarnation has some superb
features like support for EGA and
VGA 43/50 line modes and
graphics - so if anything could give
the Powerboard a pounding, it would
be this. Word processors like Protext
are a good test of screen update
because you will spend a lot of time
moving through the text.
As before, the Powerboard
proved surprisingly usable. Although
not quick, Protext behaved very much
like it used to on my old Commodore
PC-10. Not surprisingly perhaps, the
graphics mode was less than good.
However, it was interesting to note,
the 43-line mode was supported, but
only in graphics mode. This is a little
strange because Protext supports 43
lines in graphics and text modes, and
then only with EGA. Curiously, an
interlaced display was present, as if
Hercules was being used.
Although o good search of my
hard disk revealed nothing old
enough to only support MDA or
Hercules, it did give me the
opportunity to try out a number of
different Shareware and commercial
demonstration packages. Everything I
tried ran perfectly, including TSRs,
although a few crashed the PC.
Although this is a games-free
magazine, I had to try a few in the
interests of completeness (oh, sure -
Ed). Captain Cornk requires EGA
ond would not run, so that idea went
out of the window. Popcorn, a French
Arkanoid clone, worked beautifully in
the grotesque CGA colours, as did
GlohWar, a shareware Risk clone.
Insanity - a maze game -
demonstrated the staggering speed
with which the Powerboard's
software emulates the screen.
Fractious freeware
One final test of the screen support
was offered by a Freeware
application Fracttnt. Fractlnth
tailored to draw fractals like the
Mandlebrot and Julia sets, only it's
very fast and supports almost every
graphics card under the sun. This
confirmed that the board does
appear to be fully compatible with
IBM CGA.
The PC hos a modular design
lacking in the Amiga - certainly in
the A500. For instance, the PC
supports two printer ports and two
(sometimes four) serial ports; the
continued from page 67
now commonly called
the AT.
But the clone
makers were
already hot on Big Blue's heels
and just as soon as ISM came up
with a new design, the clone
makers had something better.
The clone war
As time progresses this becomes
more and more the norm: IBM
set a standard and everyone
else makes something better.
Even the 8088/86 CPUs used
in those early designs hove been
improved by one third-party.
NEC's V20/30 are pin-for-pin
compatible chips and use less
time to execute many of the
more common instructions. This,
in effect, speeds the whole
machine up a little.
Amiga only has one of each. A lot of
software makes use of these facilities.
For example, many third-party mice
plug into the one serial porl leaving
another for a modem. Also, internally
the machine can a large number of
expansion cards (my PC has a total
of eight slots).
The Powerboard gets round these
limitations in any way it can:
Disks: The PC supports a variety of
for mots, from the 40-track, 8 sectors,
BLITS
"Just to prove that there is more
to Australian soaps than Kylie,
Jason, Craig and Darmi," writes
Roy Startup, our antipodean
correspondent, "t have noticed,
after extensive research, that
Paul Robinson, head o! the
Robinson Corp (Neighbours) uses
an Amiga 500 to run the whole of
his multi-national conglomerate.
A damn good jab it does too. "
BOBS
single-sided, 1 60K dinosaur to the
latest 1.44Mb 3.5" floppies.
Powerboard will support everything
but the 1 44Mb (2Mb unformatted)
drives because the Amiga's drives
cannot run at half speed. Now 2Mb
drives are coming on the market for
the Amigo, it remains to be seen
whether or not KCS will upgrade the
software. In the meantime, it is, at
least possible to read 40 track disks
68
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 ©JUNE 1991
BUSINESS
in an 80-track drive thanks to the
double-stepping option.
Mouse: The Amiga's mouse port is
redundant for the PC side of things,
so the Powerboard simulates a
Mouse Systems serial mouse
addressable on COM1 or COM2.
"The PC is a
computer for use by
one person - even
your brain is a
very powerful
personal computer."
The mouse stays where it is and the
software handles the tricky bit. Two
caveats with this: a mouse driver is
not supplied For the PC mode - so
some programs will still be stuck with
the keyboard. Second, there is no
support for bus mice either. Bitcon
Devices say the mouse should be left
on COM2 where it will be
compatible with either the Naksha or
GMouse drivers.
Parallel and Serial: Only one
printer port is supported by the
Amiga's hardware, but the software
ensures this can be addresses as LPT
1 , 2 or 3. Similarly, there is only one
serial port. This can be accessed as
COM1 or COM2 at a maximum of
4800 baud; some metal-bashing PC
packages are actually capable of
31,250 baud.
Joystick: Yes, even the PC can use
joysticks. However, PC joysticks are
generally analogue - not switched
like most Amiga sticks. There is no
mention oF which type is supported
by the emulation and I have not been
able to Find out.
Other Hardware:
Those expansion slots are going to
be a problem. A large amount of PC
hardware comes in the form of
internal cards - hard disks, extra
serial and printer ports and so on.
There is no way to utilise these on an
A500 because the 500 does not
have the hardware - not even if you
slap a Bodega Bay on the side.
The most important internal
expansion is, of course, a hard disk.
Many PCs come with one fitted as
standard - usually about 20Mb these
days. KCS has recently remedied this
problem by adding support for the
A590. Basically, this involves having
to re-install the hard drive from
scratch - adding an extra partition or
reusing an old one.
Whichever way you look at it,
EMULATION SPEED CHECKS
A lot of wibble has been written about speed tests -
Landmark, Dry stone, Whetstone, Damprock,
Moistpebble and so on - and a lot more will, no doubt,
be written in the future. The fact is, no matter how fast
an emulation manages to achieve in pure execution
speed (with or without RAM access) what makes the
difference is the screen update. This is the deciding
factor: it doesn't matter if the thing runs 700 or 800 per
cent faster than the 4.77Mhz IBM PC, unless the screen
can be drawn quickly enough, few users will notice the
difference. This problem is inherent in any emulation -
whether it is hardware, software or a combination of
the two.
For those with a thirst for absurd figures, here are
the results:
Test
Powerboard
Powerboard
turbo
AT 8MHz
ATI6MH1
Norton Index
3.6
4.4
7.8
1S.6
V20 Timer
22MHx
29MHz
27MHz
57MHz
Relative PC
220%
240%
395%
805%
For comparison, I used my my bespoke 286 clone. The
tests prove how statistics can lie. The Norton Index
proves that the AT is a faster machine, but the V20
Timer also shows that, under certain circumstances, the
Powerboard is faster than an AT clone.
Note that the AT timings are not applicable to the
AT-Once, We'll be running that comparison next month.
*mtM^*mittmmi#mmi*im&tm*mt^immmMm
I§ thf feiieS Sii^sti ym m$ tmi$%& It %m&im &%*£% f
H*l! t*
)
Checkout
Classic PC Shareware, As-Easy-As looks much more fun on the Amiga,
with normally clunky characters rendered in the much sexier Topaz.
this means giving up some space for
MS-DOS to use - and 20Mb is not a
lot to go sharing around. However,
many applications will not run from
floppy, so this was an essential
upgrade. Hard drive support is very
hardware specific, but KCS is in the
process of adding new hard drives
all the lime...
Dodgy installation
There isTittle to Fault the KCS
Powerboard - with the exception of
the iffy installation software and
dubious instructions.
This is countered by the excellent
telephone support offered by the UK
distributor, Bitcon Devices. Once up
ond running, the Powerboard turns
"IBM sets a
standard and
then everyone
else makes
something better"
the Amiga into an adequate (if not
shattering) PC just by booting a disk.
This cavil only applies if you are used
to a Fast 286 or 386 and expect the
same kind of performance; don't. If
you only ever use an XT clone, such
as the bottom-end Amstrad units, you
may well be rather hard pressed to
tell the difference.
The Powerboard will never
replace a proper PC, because it uses
Amiga hardware, but if you need to
run PC applications, it is a cost-
effective and trouble-free upgrade.
Updates to EGA (and possibly VGA)
and support for other hard drives are
expected soon. As this is all done in
software, the fee is nominal to cover
replacement disks and postage. »*; T/i
KCS Powerboard
Features 7/ 1
Plenty of emulation options and complete
with MS-DOS 4.01.
Documentation 4/ 1
MS-DOS documentation is plentiful -
emulator documentation lags behind the
product.
Stability 20/20
Faultless operation in PC mode from day
ore - very beginner friendly.
Compatibility 1 7/20
Most legal applications should be OK.
Limited by Amiga hardware.
Speed 22/25
OK for applications intended for the PC/XT
- amazing screen update.
Price 12/15
The cheapest XT clone ever supported by
Amiga hardware.
Excellent - will take some beating.
ooooooooo
Shopping List
KCS Powerbourd .£1 99+VAT
{Includes MS-DOS 4.01 end GW
Basic)
by Kolff Computer Supplies B V
Kuipershaven 22,
3311 AL Dordrecht,
Holland
UK supplier;
Bitcon Devices Ltd
89 Bewick Rood, Gateshead,
Tytie-ortd-Weor,NEB]RS
^0914901919/1975
KCS Powerbourd is
distributed as XT Emulator
in the USA by Pulsar,
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 ejUNE 1991
69
"I'm a professional musician, I
know what gear is needed to
get the right sounds at the right
price and I'm here to pass my
experience on to you so you
know what the best buys are."
Jon Bates
Coming in at a shade under
£90, the main thrust of
Sequencer One is that it
should appeal to beginners
and, therefore it's cost should reflect
that. On the other hand it needs to
have enough facilities to appeal to
the slightly more aware.
It's always a tricky line to tread;
how much do we give the punter for
this price? Gajits seems to have the
balance about right as you will see.
Good news week
The good news about Sequencer
One is that it will run on the A500
and also supports internal voices.
Four channels of internal voicing plus
the 1 6 Midi channels makes up a
total of 20 channels, which you could
run simultaneously. However, for the
beginner starting out, maybe without
any Midi gear whatsoever, it is
possible to create music using just IFF
samples. A selection of IFF samples is
thrown in with the package to save
you the bother of hunting around and
there are sets of pre-written patterns
in lots of styles which you can pull in
to start creating music straight away.
More on this later.
After booting up and allocating
First in line
As previewed in last months Amiga Shopper, Jon
Bates gives the full run-down on the impressive
Sequencer One from UK software house Gajits
the size of the chip memory -
necessary if you want to run samples
as well - the main screen pops up.
This is split into three main areas:
transport, tracks and cue sheet.
Transport is laid out with the familiar
cassette recorder icons with song
position and time elapsed counter
displays. The tempo, like many other
numeric displays, is altered in two
ways. You either click once and enter
the value manually from the numeric
keys or you double-click and move
the cursor (now transformed into o
pointing finger) up and down the
screen. This is a Gajits trademark
which was used in their Roland voice
programming software and is a very
fast way of entering and changing
data when using the main screen
displays. A click on left-hand button
confirms the new value.
For the tempo setting there is a
third, and rather smart, option. From
the Options Menu you select Click
Tempo; this lets you hit the mouse
buttons at the speed you think the
music should go at and Sequencer
One works out the correct speed for
you. Two main modes of recording on
any track are supported. The
ordinary mode deletes any data that
was previously on the track whilst
Dub adds on top of it.
Although not immediately
obvious, you can get rid of the last
overdub by hitting Undo in the Track
Menu. Combined with the Loop
facility, which cycles between the
start and end positions chosen, this
makes for handy practise for putting
good solos, or any other part,
Sequencer One
@ Gajits 1991
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By sorting out the sounds to internal channels you can hear them and
play them if you have a Midi keyboard connected.
Pull the samples Irom the disk and give them Patch/program numbers.
together. The Auto button here is
actually auto-rewind; if no limits are
set, Stop takes you back to bar 0. I'm
still not convinced that not having a
"To make the most
of memory, mere's a
Strip/Thin operation
letting you specify
what data the track
doesn't need/'
count-in is a goad idea. Although
you can use any number of bars as
your count-in before you start playing
and it takes up no data space in the
memory, it does seem odd having to
always start at bar 3: it could also
mean some fiddling around if you
are trying to synchronise the Amiga
with another sequencer: you would
have to add two bars to the other
sequencer pattern or delete the first
two bars of each track after you have
finished building up the music.
To the right of the Transport
controls is what is termed the Midi
Activity Meter. This actually gives you
a visual representation of data either
passing through or being output from
the Amiga. It is set up on the 1 6 Midi
channels and the four internal
channels and does not correspond to
the track numbers.
The Track display is the left-hand
upper half of the screen. Although
you can only see 1 tracks at any
one time, there are in fact 32 tracks
to record on and these are accessed
by the scroll bar and arrows on the
left. Tracks are active if the triangle is
black and they are deselected by
clicking on the triangle. Up to 16
characters can be used to name a
track: double clicking on this area
pulls up a detailed information
window which shows exactly how
many notes are used, volume and
pan details and other sorts of data,
like pitch bend and modulation are
present. Midi or internal voice
channels are set on the main screen
and the figure after the track name is
the voice number - known in the
Midi code as the Program Change
(but you knew that 'cos you read last
month's article on Midi]. The circle
indicates the track that is currently
being recorded on and is active for
eaiting purposes.
Right on cue
The Cue Sheet, referred to in the
program as a Marker List, to the
right-hand side of the upper screen is
really a reminder note pad of where
each section occurs. One neat little
feature is that you can drag the bar
position from the transport section up
to this sheet by just double clicking
on the counter and then placing it in
70
AMIGA SHOPPER* ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1993
m
t
'J f i J n
t
?
MUSIC
the list. The reverse is also possible;
when your cue list is full of lots of
named sections you can jump to that
point in the song by double clicking
on the marker list counter.
One of the prime areas of
importance in any sequencer is the
Quantize option. Available from the
Track Menu, Quantize is kept fairly
straightforward here and is applied
to the track with the record icon
against it. From a basic set of note
values one selection can be chosen
to line yours up against, although it is
possible to use any quantization
interval by altering the number of
clock ticks. Only two options ore on
JARGON
BUSTING
QUANTIZE: The process of finely
altering the timing of
individual notes, perhaps
because they have been
inaccurately entered 'live',
to bring them in line with
the beat of the music.
MULTI-T1MBRAL: The ability of a synth
to ploy different notes using
different voices (or timbres]
at the same time; for
example,, arm thai could
play a drum sound, a bass
and a piano.
SEQUENCER: A piece of software on a
computer (or sometimes
built into a keyboard) which
stores musical scores and
transmits this information in
real time via MIDI to
synthesisers which will then
play it. Some sequencers
have the facility to receive
and memorise MIDI
information from a music
keyboard so that music can
be entered 'live' instead of
note by note.
PITCH BEND: The ability to vary the
pitch up or down of any
note by using either a
wheel or joy stick type of
control mounted on the
.synth, usually to the left
of the keyboard.
MODULATION: Often controlled by
either a second wheel or
side to side movement
of the joystick. This will
alter the sound according
to the way it has been
programmed; usually in the
form of a vibrato - the note
wavers in pitch and the
amount it dees is controlled
by the Modulation control.
PAN: Corresponds to the
Balance control on your
stereo system - moving
the sound from Jeft to
right. Midi is able to
control this and position
the instrument or move it
about provided that the
output from the synth or
module is stereo!
VOICING SOFTWARE: Software that
'talks' to the sound creating
section of a synthesizer or
tone moduls and creates
new sounds and multiple
patches (combinations of
sounds on different
channels), This is usually
combined with a library/
database form of sound
storage and graphic display
of waveforms; often with
automatic voice creation.
:S
ivi
80601:81
?.
i&9Hppy
offer; 'keep note length' or 'keep
note off time', which either move the
note completely or just the storting
point. It would have been nice to see
a 'quantize strength' option which
would mean that notes were not
exactly lined up but had o degree of
flexibility to keep them from being
over precise; this adds 'feel' to many
a track and I guess it's
an option Gajits should
bear in mind For a
future update.
The 'Undo' from the
same menu will
remove the last
quantize operation if
you didn't like it. From
this menu you can
transpose the whole
track, tidy up
unwonted notes, shift a
track forwards or back
in time - useful for
creating 'echo' effects
with a duplicated track
- scale the velocities
up or down so that the
sound has a greater or
lesser impact and even alter what is
called 'continuous data'. 'Continuous
data' is data output (and recorded)
from controls such as pitch bend,
after touch, modulation etc: all these
parameters can be altered.
Twin options
For all these alterations, Gajits has
chosen to give you two options. You
can either add a specific value to
each parameter as recorded or you
can have a 'scale' option which
multiplies the note/event/data by the
factor you define. In the case of
altering note timing (called 'event
time' in the menu) this can make one
section of music squeeze up or
expand to fit a specified time, and
with two decimal places of accuracy
you can be pretty specific I Quite
often there is Midi data superfluous
to requirements; say you have after
touch data recorded on a drum track
or velocity sensing on an organ both
of which are not used
with these specific
sounds.
To make the most
of the memory you
have a Strip/Thin
operation which lets
you specify what data
the track doesn't need
and within what areas
it can be dispensed
with. 'Strip' gets rid of
all the data whereas
'Thin' takes every other
occurrence of the data
which you might use to
economise on pitch
bend or velocity data.
From the menus there
are other options.
'Metronome' sets up
either an audible click or a user-
defined Midi note number and
channel. Midi data can be filtered as
it enters the Amiga and/or can be
redirected to other functions:
aftertouch could be reassigned to
another area under Midi control, for
example Pan,
Sequencer One is also well
load this common format, Some
synths don't always respond to the
'note off' Midi control and so there
are optional messages that the 'Stop'
control can send on individual
channels so you aren't left with notes
'hanging' when you stop playing or
recording. We have looked at most of
the features of this software but have
Sequence! 1 One
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Loading from Hit Kit there are literally hundreds of styles, phrases and
drum patterns for you to choose from.
equipped to synchronise with
external devices, such as other
sequencers or drum machines, by
either controlling them or becoming a
BUYS
The late Russian composer Igor
Stravinsky had some heartening
words for advocates of sound
sampling: "A good composer does
not imitate; he steak "
■ & BOBS
slave to their controls. It will also save
and import songs in Midi file format,
which enable it to be loaded up into
any other Amiga sequencer that will
excluded the most important; editing,
There is only one way of editing
actual notes. The graphic 'piano roll'
with keyboard turned through 90
degrees shows the notes as
blobs/oblongs scrolling from right to
left and an upright scroll bar shifts the
range of notes displayed to
accommodate the full ten octaves that
Midi allows.
Drag factor
Sadly you cannot drag them about
but have to click on each one and
alter it in the information window that
pops up and, unlike editing pages in
other sequencing software, you can't
hear the notes you are manipulating.
Not a quick way of editing but quite
secure nevertheless. Deletion of notes
is handled in much the same way:
continued on page 72
Sequencer One
ff: Gajits 1991
E3I
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Track: 10
■ Note On/Off.
□
Unnatched notes
□ Channel Aftertouch.
□
Poly Aftertouch
Controllers.
□
Pitch Bend.
Prosran Change.
Key nutiber:
Velocity:
Fron!
Fron:
To:
To:
127
127
Cancel
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The Block Edit screen. The one-bar pattern, loaded from the Hit Kit is now copied onto
tracks 6,7, and 8. You can see these just to the left of the Strip/Thin window which is
being used to weed out all those unwanted notes for the drums.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •JUNE 1991
71
MUSIC
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continued from page 71
engage the Delete function and click
the notes out of existence.
The grid size can be 'zoomed' for
close work and step entry is via an
overlayed screen keyboard but you
cannot hear what is actually played
as you enter it. You can flip from
track to track without returning to the
main screen though and play the
piece as a whole as the transport
screen is still visible although only the
started without too much trouble. In
doing this you will be able to see the
editing and block copying
manoeuvres first-hand. If you're
thinking of buying this program, keep
this copy of Amiga Shopper handy
when you start using it.
First of all, clear out any
superfluous bits of music by hitting
'New Song' ond then load a
selection of sampled sounds into
what is termed as the 'Sample
Sequencer One
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Editing the notes in each track: behind the note information window you
can see the grid with the notes represented in 'piano roll' style.
track number is displayed and not its
name, instrument and/or Midi
channel. Block editing is the means
of cutting, pasting and deleting
sections of the music in a macro
sense as it gives you an overall
picture of the tracks and how they
are filled; again you scroll to see all
the tracks. Maybe it would have
been on idea to somehow have the
cue sheet visible as you can get a bit
lost with this sort of editing when you
add new sections and copy or insert
other sections and it would have
been handy to see the names of the
individual tracks.
Dicing with data
Data is chopped, put into the
clipboard and copied either all
together or track by track and
individual blocks can be saved and
loaded, a feature that will come in
very handy as you will soon see.
Since Sequencer One can be used,
at a pinch, without any extra Midi
equipment, here's how you would get
Palette'; the size and number of
samples you can load in depends on
the memory space you have
allocated, size of each sample and
what memory you have available. It
is worth remembering that instruments
like drums usually take up less
memory than, say, the piano. Each
sample is allocated a program
number. Back on the track page
define which channels will be active.
The choice is either left or right and
then priority left or right. What each
track plays is determined by which
program number you choose.
Although you can't enter notes from
the QWERTY keys, unlike some
programs (another option for the
update, lads?], there is a free disk
called The Hit Kit that comes bundled
in with the software.
This has a whole host of phrases,
loops and sequences in lots of
different styles, Each file [The Style
File, anyone?) also has
characteristics such as style and type
in sub-files. The latter suggests what it
Sequencer One
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The main screen now full of Beethoven's funky third symphony!: the cue
sheet on the right lists the main sections.
should be used for: chord, bass etc.
They are not complete pieces of
music but make up a very flexible
version of the built-in
accompaniments found on the self-
accompanying variety of single
keyboards. The manual comes in a
text file and explains in detail how to
get the best out of if. The Hit Kit is
aimed really at the Midi user and is
actually set up for the Roland drum
kit, the same as the new General
Midi standard, but it is possible,
although fiddly, to adapt it for the
internal samples, tt would have been
an idea to have part of The Hit Kit set
up for the internal samples: some of
the demo tunes use the samples so
why not The Hit Kit?
Getting started
First of all, load up a few samples
and allocate them program numbers.
A good tip here is to Save Setup
on your copied program disk as if
will automatically boot these samples
up every time.
Next, dive into the track page
and name each instrument, allocating
a voice channel and correct program
number. Put The Hit Kit in the drive
and now select Block Load. Using a
spare track, load up just one bar of
drums - most of the patterns are only
one bar long anyway. This puts the
pattern into the Clipboard, ready for
Cut and Paste operations.
Moving to the Block Edit page,
which gives you an overview of all
the tracks and whether Midi data is
present on any of them. Paste the
Clipboard into bar 1 of tracks 6, 7
and 8.
The first problem to overcome is
that the drums are put together on
one track. We have to separate them
out into three tracks: bass drum,
snare drum and hi hat. The more
observant of you will see that 1 have
named the bass drum a 'kick' drum
on the screen. I got into this habit
some time back as it saves me
getting it confused with a bass guitar
or other bass instrument when
working away at full tilt. By jumping
to the Edit screen and clicking on the
notes displayed on the editing grid, I
can see that the bass drum is the note
BO. Diving into Strip/Thin delete all
notes above this number (CI
upwards). I am left with a track of
kick drum beats.
The same process is repeated for
the next two tracks so that I isolate
each individual drum; you have to do
this process twice to isolate the snare
drum. This is the most complex part
of the operation. Once you have
sorted out the drums for the internal
samples, and this may involve
altering and transposing the notes up
or down an octave to get the best
sound, you are on your way. Minor
corrections can be altered with the
editor and step editor functions. You
should then have a one-bar rhythm
pattern which can be copied and
repeated as much as you like using
block operations. Other patterns can
be assembled and strung together
using both note and block editing.
Summing up
Whereas Sequencer One is not the
omnipotent tool that has features
falling out of every menu, it has more
than enough for you to perform
everything you should need to do
and I found that there was nearly
always a way of getting around what
seemed to be a problem. So far as I
could tell, it will multi-task quite nicely
with voicing software although the
voice changes that you make are not
recorded by the sequencer.
All things considered, it has to be
the budget priced sequencing
software for the Amiga at the present
moment. And if you get completely
stuck when operating it, then Gajits
very kindly offers a helpline service
during office hours. Nice. ^■I'l
ocjoooooo"
Shopping List
Sequencer One
by Gajits Music Software
l-Mex House,
40 Princess St,
Manchester
M16DE
<r 061 2362515
Checkout
Sequencer One
Documentation 16/20
Well written and comprehensive and helps
the First rime buyer quite well with an
overview of sequencing and MIDI.
Functions 1 5/20
Has all the functions you could reasonable
expect without becoming exotic.
Speed 17/20
Editing a bit slow in operation but all
functions actually work so fast that old
'zzzt 1 hardly ever appears.
Ease of use,. 17/20
Nice simple layout means that it is easy to
get to grips with.
rlJw ********************** 1 O/ *V
Just about pips the competition in price
and offers the same if not better facilities.
**"ll^f|
83/100
With me support of internal voices, IFF
samples and The Hit Ktfthrown in, coupled
with it's clear presentation and approach,
Sequencer One deserves to be port of
every Amiga owner's music software.
72
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 ejUNE 1991
ON TRIAL
Think about it
MARK SMIDDY checks out Thinker
2 - Poor Person Software's own
vision of hypertext for the masses
.BEGINNERS
Hypertext is a really dreadful
buzz phrase, probably coined by
some pseudo- intellectual to
describe the computerised form
of a cross-reference, The idea is
not new - dictionaries and
reference manuals hove been
using the system for years, If
you arrived at this description by
reading the cross-reference in
the Jargon Busters glossary, you
made the manual equivalent of
a hyperjump!
In the same way, many of
you will have arrived at this
review by locating it on the
contents page - an outline of the
contents. So, you read the
outline, made a hyperjump to
the beginning of the review,
browsed through for the Jargon
Busters, and finally made
another hyperjump to the start
of this. Some of you will have
browsed through the magazine
and got here directly.
As you can see, any good
reference manual or well-
organised magazine, such as
this, consists of many outlines
and cross-references. In that
way, the reader can study the
things he or she needs to know
quickly and skim or ignore the
uninteresting or irrelevant to
them. Hypertext experts will
probably ignore this panel (or
glance at it out of curiosity).
So what, you may wonder,
is the point of all this hype about
hypertext? The best way to
explain this is by a graphic
demonstration. Go to the
continued on page 74
Thinker is a hypertext engine
so if you have never heard
of hypertext, nip to
Beginners Start Here for a
quick introduction. Hypertext, as we
all know, is a form of word
processing, by which documents can
be read by subject rather than
linearly. Moving through o hypertext
document is all about selecting
something that interests you and
letting the engine search out and
display the references.
So, beginners reading this review
on a hypertext word processor could
simply click Beginners Start Here and
the program would whizz them off to
on introduction on hypertext.
Hyper market
Hypertext processors, such as
Thinker, are aimed at two sorts of
people: users and creators. The idea
is that the creator uses the engine to
write a hypertext document, then the
user loads the document and uses it.
This has worked very well for similar
systems like HyperCard on the
Macintosh. The question is though,
can the less well-known Thinker get
the same foothold. One distributor
OUTLINE 1
(no clipping active)
Outlining
Clipping
What is clipping?
In on outlined section
<Seetion> the clipping level is
used to determine how much
information is displayed. If
clipping is set to one, only the
main headings wilt be shown.
Set to two and the headings
and their subordinate
headings will be available -
along with any subordinate
text at the same level.
How to use clipping
Organising your ideas
In this section you will
learn how to organise
your thoughts, ideas,
expectations and desires
for a better life.
What ideas?
That's a good ideal
Setting clipping levels
Printing
See Jargon Busting
^&^
"Claimed to be the most recent
V/ J5~^ Y^m
development in computing,
hypertext is set to revolutionise
interactive learning, but can it?
I'll be here to tell you what it is,
what it does and what it means
to you, and bringing you all the
latest news as it happens."
Mark Smiddy
described it as "belonging to a
limited market sector" though he
probably meont it won't sell.
As a word processor, Thinker
can only be described as being
slightly less than crude. Layout and
formatting options are not available,
buts
Pure hypertext can trace its roofs
hack to Doug Irtglebatl's work at
SRI's Augmentation Research
Laboratory - however the
quintessential idea has been
around almost as long as the
published word.
BOBS
although a word wrap is available
which makes it better than the editors
supplied with the system. A spelling
checker is supplied, but only has a
tiny dictionary of just 30,000 words
stored as a hash table.
This method is very compact but
it will occasionally miss a misspelt
word - about one divided by the
number of words in the dictionary, or
1/30000 - so that is unlikely to be a
real headache. Adding user words to
the dictionary is painful and Poor
Person Software recommends no
more than 1 0,000 words should be
added. If you have one, a good
word processor, Protext 5 for
example, would be better for
authoring the text.
Hypertext processing is where
Thinker really comes into its own
because this, after all, is what it's
designed to do. Links ore inserted in
the text by delimiting them with <
and > from then on the link is active.
However, a link is no goad without
something to link to - a statement.
Statements are introduced by
double-clicking the right mouse button
- which pulls up a quick menu -
deciding where the statement should
go and adding it. In theory at least,
continued on page 74
37
W|
< Jfttfedact lenHntroduct ion
If vou follwthe instruct tons carefully vou tton't get tost, Ym «as
always: use Junp Origin (select: Jimp Srigin froti the imp Semi) to set
fcask here* : . .
this tutorial illustrates softest the mtre important features of
Ttumier-. Far instance the word "statesent" is defined elsetihere in
this document. To see the definition of "state«ent" sinpjy put the
; egrseivesgr tijf wtrg statement and double click the left nouse button,
Select tfe« Kindow f reji the requester that peps up. The def intt'um
m staienent appears in a neu uindw. Close the new oindOM by
selecting the window close gadget in the tippet* left corner.
£6jrsp f Select the ttjwp gadget at the top of the »indott and then
PQSiUah trie^hapd^io :thai the poS titer Is over this s tat erieni and press
the I eft: f»euse out ton ...
CJunping) itev. tie trill mo e this ttindttu to the definition of "return",
r: After doing this tie «*tt uant to return to this statement to read ndre
! instructions in the tutorial, Juap Return is used to return to
i -weiMOMs places in the detu««Bti The instructions for Amp Return are
[:: found (n the definition of retitrn". Place the pointer, over the aerd
return anrl double click the l*ft nouse button, Selttt "This Hisdda"
: f reft the; cohfirnat ion requester, :
CJuttp-LtnltJ Me have now Jutiped [to _ labels within this document and
Thinker does not have the flashest on-screen display you could ever
wish for, but then it's not the most expensive piece of software either.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 991
ON TRIAL
JARGON BUSTING
Clipping: In an outlined section (see Outline) the clipping level is used to
determine how much information is displayed. If clipping is set to one,
only the main headings will be shown. Set to two ond the headings
and their subordinate headings will be available - along with any
subordinate text at the same level. The number of clipping levels and
their affect on the text are determined by individual applications*
Outlines 1 to 3 may give you a better idea.
Hyperlation: A run-time module created by a hypertext or hypermedia application
package.
Hyperjump: A direct jump to a hypertext reference. See Hypertext.
Hypermedia: Hypertext document with pictures, sound and even new applications
embedded within itself. This review is a form of hypermedia* The
illustrations on these pages are referenced by indices in the text.
Hypertext:
A text processor with hyperjump facilities *
for an in depth discussion.
see Beginners Start Hers
Hypertext engine: Software used to drive a hypertext application.
Label: The opening text at the start of a hypertext statement. Each entry in
this glossary can be thought of as starting with a Label. See Link.
Link: Embedded at any paint in the text, links are used as pointers to labels.
See Label, is a link to somewhere else in the glossary.
Outline: A group of subjects organised by type (usually). Each outline has a
heading describing its contents. For instance. Jargon Busters is an
outline for this glossary. Similarly, the contents page is a simple
outline of the articles in this magazine. Embedded in the contents, are
outline headings for articles by group: Features, Reviews, Tutorials,
Regulars. Open sections of outlines are usually indented to separate
them from the rest of the text. See Clipping and outlines 1 to 3.
Plex: A group of statements and any subordinate statements embedded
within them. It probably derives from plexus which is an intricate
arrangement or network. Plex also sounds like flex which is very
spooky and is the first syllable of the word plexor, which is probably
what the editor will use on this writer when he reads this.
Statement: Thinker term for a block of text - a paragraph. Statements are
preceded by a Label. See Label, Link.
continued from page 73
every word in a Thinker document
can be a link. However, the use of
angle brackets as link delimiters,
besides being ugly <see ugly>, <see
what I mean>, can be replaced by
highlighting in one of several styles
defined by the program. Many links
can point to the same statement, and
it is even possible to have statements
with the same link name. In this case
Thinker pops up a requester showing
a small section of text from each
Thinker2:exawpte
TTTF"
:: 3: ■
statement and asks you to choose the
one you want.
When you click on a link, Thinker
brings up another mini-menu, asking
where the statement should be
displayed: this window (the current
arte) other window (if one is already
open] and new window. Up to eight
windows can be opened af one time;
each showing a different statement.
This is (air enough, but Thinker
displays a window full of information
for every statement link it resolves.
Select "Revert" f.rtwv the Project Menu, Repeat the above'
instructions but select "Dour" at the coiiftrtiat tea. NOTE y
have to Jump tank "neve" to return to the noue instruct ions
Delete Mod if icat tons operat tan loses the anchor posit ion.
<eopy> Copying .: statements.
Repeat the "Hove" instruct ions but start with the Copy gads
You are now r-eadv to expeHnent utth Thinfeer with some confid
Tafce the tine, to becarte fan t liar with all the opt ions before
" : example ^^r _■ I EXIicbl ■
an outline. Use Insert
trie structure. : Then go feaci
pa find that sou want to
Branch" or rtoue "Group'
Thinker 2; example
ir~p .'J.! 83.1 SI
m
)..• :. -s - jj; " ;■."?„■■
:■.:»:■.■. t CUP: HI'. ■ M
*'.';", 1 i *' '"
i, Jap
i ■: 5 . HI . .■■■•ill
<weve> Moving statements
Select the HoVe gadget at
the top of the window.
Select the "Branch" option.
Select the "Hark" option.
Point the finger at the
statement that begins
"(move) Jfov ing statements"
EJ has suitor d i nat e stat ement s
™f examples of copying and
Quirks freely abound in the user interface, which is a wee bit daft
considering the easy-reference ethos fundamental to the idea of hypertext.
OUTLINE 2
(Level 3 clipping in operation)
Outlining
Clipping
What is clipping
In an outlined section
^Sections the clipping
level is used to
determine how much
information is displayed.
If clipping is set to one,
only the main headings
will be shown. Set to
two and the headings
and their subordinate
headings will be
available - along with
any subordinate text ot
the same level.
How to use clipping
Setting clipping levels
Printing
This is often rather confusing because
several statements, and therefore a
lot of needless information, can be
displayed at once.
Thinker links
In Thinker, links can point to more
than just other statements in the text.
IFF pictures can be displayed either
in a Thinker window - where it is
limited to four colours and the size of
the window or in a separate screen.
A Workbench tool or project can be
attached to a link, provided it has an
icon; this being a limitation of
BLITS
Thinker gets its name (and logo)
from Augoste Rodin's famous
sculpture, The Thinker, which he
created around 1905.
BOBS
Workbench, not Thinker. Links can
also be attached to an ARexx port or
a CLI window.
Assuming all this works as its
supposed to - and to be fair,
everything supplied with Thinker
worked fine - then the system can be
considered a true hypermedia sub-
system. I would hesitate to call it a
complete system because it lacks
several key features. For instance it
cannot play IFF animations, sound
samples (or music, assuming
someone wanted to), though it can
call external software to do that.
Also, there seems to be no way to
communicate a mouse position back
to the program, even using ARexx as
an intermediate port.
But why would you want to?
Well imagine you wrote a hypertext
document explaining the workings of
an internal combustion engine. That
is a typical ease in which diagrams
continued from pnge 73
contents page of
the magazine,
locate this feature
in the reviews section and turn to
its first page.
Welcome back. If you
followed those instructions, you
just lost your page, found it and
came back again. You probably
found this part of the Beginners
section by remembering where
you were. Now turn to the
AmigaDOS feature and read the
beginners section.
Back again? Still with it? As
you can see, as a publication
contains more and more cross-
references it becomes
increasingly difficult to keep
track of where you are, let alone
remember what you have just
read. Hypertext gets around this
problem by keeping track of
each reference and possibly
displaying more than one at a
time. Just as you would in a
book or magazine, you retain
full control over what you read
and what you ignore.
Real world media
A Chinese proverb states, "One
picture is ■worth a thousand
words". Whoever wrote that
must have devised the Chinese
alphabet, but the saying holds
nevertheless. Very frequently
authors punctuate their text with
graphics. 'See Figure 2.4.3' for
instance might belong to figure
3, in chapter 2, subsection 4.
When the text is written, that
figure probably sits on the same
page, but in the finished article it
could be almost anywhere!
Colour 'plates' are rarely
inserted on a page of text, more
likely they will be bunched
together somewhere else in the
volume. Now you have to go
scooting off to find the darned
thing - wouldn't it be better if
the picture was among the text it
related to? This is the sort of
thing hypertext engines are
good at. Just select the reference
and if is displayed.
In a well laid out book or
magazine, you would rarely
have to skip more than two or
74
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 99 1
ON TRIAL
three pages. But
wait. Let's imqgine
^ 'you're writing a
book on
ornithology. You could have
pictures of the birds, the
descriptions of habitat, mating
rituals etc. What if you wanted
to show how a bird flies?
A series of diagrams would
do - accompanied by a fairly
lucid description. However, an
animation would be much better.
It could be done in a book by
flipping pages quickly, but that is
not very effective. A hypertext
engine could play the animation
by calling an application to do
the job. This could allow
'readers' to study the flight in
detail, adjust the speed or even
play it backwards.
Now comes the crunch. How
do you describe the mating call
of a song thrush in words or
pictures? You could put a tape in
with the book, but hypertext
comes to the rescue again
because a reference could easily
be attached to a sound sample.
Who needs it?
Judging by that description you
might think hypertext is the best
thing since diced carrots, but not
everyone agrees. Although the
idea is an old one, realistic
implementations are only just
coming out, The first biggy was
the Macintosh application,
HyperCard. Since then there have
been a rash of similar things -
UltraCard, Thinker, DUNE and
Can Do to name four. Thinker is
the simplest and follows the idea
of hypertext more closely than
the others which are more
graphics oriented.
However, some are of the
opinion that computerised
hypertext is a bad idea. You
know where you are just by
looking at the page number of a
book. Thumbing it has a more
personal feel than skimming a
hypertext document. It can also
be argued that a book is more
portable. Although a massive
hypertext document can be fitted
on a single disk, it still needs a
computer to run on.
OUTLINE
3
(Level 1 clipping operating)
Ouriinina
Printing
are required. So you click on the
diagram link and up pops the
picture. Now let's assume joe Bloggs
wanted to know about valves. At the
very least Joe should be able to click
in a 'bounding box' on the picture
and get taken to the description of
valves. This might be possible with
Thinker if you used, say, AMOS or
GFA Basic, to handle picture and
getting the mouse reports. Then you
could use ARexx to pass the message
back to Thinker. Lost? Programmers
might be oble to follow that, but the
sort of users Thinker is aimed at are
unlikely to be able to.
On the good side, Poor Person
Software does supply an adequate
tutorial in the otherwise fairly short
(96-page) manual. They also give
away Tinydraw - a miniature
drawing package. Like Thinker, it's
anything but flash - but it does the
job of producing simple little
BLITS
Hypertext references are just an
electronic version of footnotes or
cross references.
& BOBS
sketches. Being object-oriented, it's
easier to use for multi-thumbed artists
like yours truly.
Best of all, they give away loads
of little demos showing how the
package works with examples of just
about everything from a miniature
database to a cookbook with some
interesting recipes (cordon bleu
Smiddy strikes again). Most
examples are contrived to illustrate a
point but are nevertheless very
welcome. It makes my blood boil to
receive a 300 quid package, with a
2000 page manual and no examples
whatsoever. For this, Poor Person
deserves a hearty pat on the back.
Well thunk out
Thinker is a great idea, or at least a
reasonable attempt at implementing
a good idea. The biggest fault with
the package lies in its most important
feature - the user interface. Although
the main display is easy enough to
use, the gadgets surrounding it ore
tricky to get to grips with as there are
just too many of them. The designers
could iearn a lot from simple text
viewers like PPMore. It works with
Workbench 2 (just) which is a bonus
A good feature is
the welter of demos
supplied with the
package, from a
mini database to a
cookbook.
Hypertext novices
should be able to
glean much useful
Instruction from the
way the demos are
organised, but will
have to think harder
when putting their
own tomes together
as the profusion of
gadgets that
surround the main
display could have
many going back
to their joysticks j
for a quick game /
of Braindeath J|
from Another p
World in shock. ^
mwr~
fiorair
UW\
^ajreitsirts:
. Pecaii fcit&r Sauce tSee <?ec3Bfeatter>r
Weaker* Siu-E* C5e$ *nfu&i*r*>)*
■• vim mx". ■ ■•
.. t. tjj„i*»ttn" ...
i m rleur tsse--stloBr>i ' "
. .fefl^tabte^s'U'for- friMr»g-{$H <9U>V
I tfc e aar*5* t? ctjftppM paeans £or? F&ast*6> -tor
b w stfiwItre-Nsssri fish fill
iffel? «a
|
SK
for those who
have it, but the
additional
window zooming
gadget still
appears on the
new system even
though it is
already present in
Intuition. Since it
is Workbench 2
compatible, the
file request needs
work too.
It is not
particularly fast,
but usable
provided you
create your text in
a proper word processor. Poor
Person Software recommends using
FACCII a (cache-based] disk
accelerator to help speed disk
access. I have not tried this, but even
using FFS on a floppy I did not notice
a great improvement, All this aside,
Thinker does a reasonable job of
hypertext without the frills. It is not an
absolute must-buy. More worth
thinking about really, QJ
ooooooooo
Shopping List
Thinker 2.1 $80
Poor Person Software
3721 Starr King Circle, Pola Alto, CA 94360
USA * 0101 4154937234
Not generally available in the UK, but
Creative Computing, of 4453 Redondo
Beach Blvd. Imvndnle, California 90260
(it 0101 213 214 000) charge an extra
S30 carriage to send a copy.
Otherwise, try:
HB Marketing
Unit 3, Poyle 14, Coin brook,
Berks, SL3 0DX
** 0753 6800363
<**«
■■••jf*,-
.*«*.:
£*tfT(£ .
:; r$e\t*ct' ":Revert" f r*» the ■ fro jtsciT WiJyi-. . ftepe
■■ instruct ions but s.<Mect "»««n": at the conftn
tjawe to Juijp tlftif "wove" t* retuwt to thV tie
:- j&#t^te Bodvf ie.at iotis operation ' los-es the anc
i COPV ? CQPVfXftB : &t at eights .:
Repeat the "*Mov«" instructions but start *Mt
You sp&- now ready t:o exp^ : il*enfc with Thinker w
Take the iirw to fcecone tarn Kar with at t the
Return Qriq in
Up
Free
Cm o v b ) ■■ M ow t Ft g s t at erten 1 s
«; an:«ut-t in
n* s*r*iet«r;
leu f « red t ha
Branch" o
at
Select the Howe gadget
the tap of the mndou.
Select the "Branch - * option.
Select. the "Hark' option.
Point the finger: at the
st at sweat: that: feegifts
' Cnowe? Moving stateriei»ts"
and: sete-et-t:he: : s-tat:e«e»t bv
».r/.ess..i.ttfl:::.:the:.- :.lef :t :. aeuse. „..■..■.::.■„.:
■
Qhas subordi
Tr examples
I
j, t ches locat
Checkout
Thinker 2
Ease of use 10/20
Quirky user interface hampers the whole
idea of hypertext.
Features 1 0/20
Nothing flash, but at least it supports
ARexx and Workbench 2.
Documentation .........7/1 5
Thin on the ground with no illustrations to
back it up.
Presentation 4/10
Looks cheap, because it is cheap.
Speed ....5/15
Slow from floppy disk - but usable if you
can wo if.
Value: 7/20
The user interface could really do with
more work to make it worth the money.
Mom
43/100
Still looks basic, still tricky to learn. Not
bad, but not brilliant.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •JUNE 1991
75
£t commodore
Prfcns Include VAT, cMlvi-ry K warranty.
Plnase i«M £15 tor overnight delivery.
All systems are tested before despatch.
On-site maintenance options available.
■ Amiga A30QQ/1O0, JJjMhz 6MB C2995
■ Am Iga A30OO/50 . 25Mhi 3MB £2795
■ Amiga A t SOT lalesl UK model £645
M Amiga A1500 33 above £699
plus D Paints, Works Platinum etc
■ Amiga A1500 with A2<MO PC-XT £849
Blidfja board 8 r >\" disk drive
H Amiga At 500 wilh 20MB £895
auto boot hard disk
| ■■■ B2Q00 + XT Bridge Board ♦ 20MB autoboot hard disk
£1195!
■ A253U r.nrd Z3MWFPU/4MB £ 1295
■ A22B6 PC-AT board 8 r,f' rjnvr. £675
■ A20B8 PC-XT board S 5}- dn"TO £225
■ C2B58 CMC Board, EMS in-.lallnrl £196
W rtAM tor above, por 2MB ,,, £72
■ A2232 Mlllti Pari Serial Caid £199
■ Quantum ProDrlve 10MB ttms £275
■ Quantum ProOrlvs lOOMB ttms £425
M Ouanlum ProDrlve 200MB 1 1ms £725
■ A209I card for ProOrivo, 2MB OK £189
■ RAM lor above, per MB (mm 2MB) £36
II External Drive unit lor Pro Drive £95
RAM lor AS90, per MB ... £36
SCRAM lor A30OO, per MB ... £72
KCS PC Power Board £229
Supra Modem 2400 Plus MNP £149
H Supra Modem 300-2400 baud £115
R Supra 2400il internal modom C99
II MLrlllScan monitor 14" 1024X76B £395
W A2320 Display Enhancer for above £249
■ HP DeskJet SOD Inkjet, 300 dpi £475
■ HP PaintJet colour inkjet 1BD dpi £875
M Rcndale 8802 Genlm* £169
■ Ben dale Pro Genlock £575
n FrameGrabber 2 all colour modes £49B
S overscan, up lo 6401(400 resolution
■ SuperPtc Gentock/Drgiliser £495
■ SkctchMaster 10x12 dvjg. tablet, £495
1 ooo lpi, with stylus & 4-bution cursor
B2000 + 40MB Quantum + A2630 4MB Accelerator
Why not enjoy tlie tree Teletext databases
with the MIcroText Teletext adaptor... Fully
prop/rammablB, with Fastexl facility, instant
access to last 16 pages, double page view,
telesoftware loader, auto -start/ background vj
operation. . Pages can spoken, prrnlod as ASCII or graphics, saved as ASCII or IFF files,..
And it lurns your 1081/1 004/BB33 monitor into a digital TV! Available now (or only £M41
■■■ Amslrad FX9600AT Fax +■ Printer t Copier + Scanner £115 off! I
wn
PRODUCTIVITY
■ SuperPlan
■ SuperBase Personal 2
■ " " Professional 3
■ " " Professional 4
9 Advantage V1.1
■ C64 Emulator v2
9 Doctor Ami
■ Disk Mechanic
■ Excellence 2
■ Page stream 2.1
■ Professional Page 2.0A
■ Professional Draw 2
■ CG Outline Fonts
■ Pen Pal v1 3 Rev 14
■ TransWrlte Gold Disk
■ Worksl Platinum Edition
I SAS/Lalltce C V5.10A £1 59.9s
I A/C Basic v1.3 109.gs
I A/C Fortran 179.95
■ APL 68000 Level II v7.M 299 is
I Dos-2-Dos 34.J5
■ Workbench 1,3 Enhancer lias
Pro spreadsheet with business graphic?, lime planner 39.95
Relational database power, without programming' Ml»
'The Rolls -Royco ot Amiga databases" (WCE) 144.95
Much enhanced and wilh many new features 349.oe
Fastest Amiga spreadsheet with WP & Co-Pro support 89.ss
Don't throw your C64 software away! 49.95
Guru stopper... disables bad disk blocks and RAM! 34 1;
Tune-up, backup, salvage, plus new CU commands M.ss
New improved version. . Word Perfect with graphics! 94.95
Many major new tcalures incl. Agfa/ Adobe fonts 139 95
Now wi Hi WP, 24 - bit & Pa nlo ne colours & mora 174 95
Improved version with auto-trace, curved text ft more... 89.95
35 Agfa CG fonts lor ProPage, ProDraw 2, PageSetlor 2 B9.s5
£67.95 ■ Pagesetter 2 49.95
34.9s ■ Professional Page Clip Art 34 51
S9.95 ■ Professional Page Templates 34.95
ALL PRICES INCLUDE DELIVERY AND 17i% VAT
/ r / '
WA
CREATIVITY
■ Intro cad Plus
■ Broadcast Tltler 2
■ Pro Video Post
■ Pro Video font snts
■ TV-Text Professional
■ TV-Show v2.0£
■ Video Effects 3D v ■ 2a
■ Th# Art Department
■ Art Department Professional
■ 30 Professional v2
I AmlgaVlsfon V1 .53G £73 hs
■ Dtglvlew Gold vA.Q M.n
I Turbo Sliver V3.0A S9.m
I De Luxe Parnt II 24J9
I De Luxe Paint III 51. as
1 SpectraColor 64.95
Powerful now version ol popular CAD program 69. 95
Real broadcast quality titling wilh 4-leveJ anti-aliasing I54.gs
The ultimate in video presenilation. .i1ling& erlccts 154.sk
Choice of 5 sets of A anli-atiased fonts, per sol... B9.95
Latest full-leature video tiller, includes Zuma fonts 74.95
Video presentation, special eflocls & transitions S4.«
Smooth playback, unfimilcd 3D effect combinatiorts 129.95
£54. gs ■ Dlg.pa.nt3 59 9S
139 .ii M De Luxe Video 3 S9.»
2*9. gs ■ Wall Disney Animation Studio B9.ss
IF YOU WANT IT TOMORROW... CAUL US TODAY! OH 0B1 -546-7256
Prices are POST FREE & include VAT.
Order by phorve wilh your credit card,
or send cheque/PO or vOLrr credit card
ntimbor. We welcome Official orders.
Software sent same-day by 1st Class
posl, bul please allow five days lor
hardwnro delivery, unfnss overnight,
Prices subject 10 n vail ability. R*r. a^b
LAKESIDE HOUSE, KfMGSTOH HILU SURREY, KT2 70T. TEL 081-546-7256
Tel:
0533 440041
Fax:
0533 440650
ISIS
ALTERNATIVE IMAGE
6 Lothair Road
Aylestone
Leicester
LE2 7QB
1 1 ALTERNATIVE SOfflffl
20 Fonts
Choose from a variety of typeface styles.
4 Defineable colours
Up to 4 colours (chosen from 4096) can be displayed on screen.
Drop shadow
BAS has the capacity to create .drop shadows in any font.
High resolution with full overscan
Crisp text right up to the screen edge.
Horizontal and Vertical scrolling
Your text can enter from right to left or scroll from bottom to top on your screer
9 Speeds
Change speeds instantly whilst scrolling text
Minimum requirements - a standard A500 with 1MB of RAM.
A VHS tape demonstrating the scroller genlocked over live video footage is
available at a cost of £5.00 - refundable on return ot tape or on purchase of...
THE BIG ALTERNATIVE SCROLLER
£50.00 (incl. VAT) plus £1.00 p+p
Bureau service
Have your own Amiga images outputted to 35mm slide.
All resolutions except overscan and halfbrile
- send tor disc with safe areas and examples.
Prices incl. VAT & 1st class
postage in U.K
{Glass mounts
30p extra per slide )
UNMOUNTED PRICE
1 £5.00
2-tO E4.00
11-20 £3.00
20+ £2.00
Please ring
to
discuss
requirements.
We also demonstrate and supply SIMPATICA hardware and software
- please enquire tor bureau service and purchase price.
ITS
ir -i ii Jli.O.U.
East Yorkshire/N. Humberside's leading Amiga mail order deal
ACCOUNTS.
Arena Accounts 123.95
Homo AccounlS 24.45
Personal Finance Mgr 24.A5
Systems 39.79
System^ Enhanced 59-95
BOOKS.
i_atg& range p ; F>asH phpne, e.g
Amiga Dos In+Otil (Abacus) 19.45
Amiga C tor Beginners \ Ab) 1 8.45
Arnica Desk Top Video (Ab) 16. OT
Amiga Basic Jn+Out (Ab) 1S.95
Amiga Machine Lang, j Ab) 1 4.95
Mapping Ihe Amiga (Compij) 32.95
Am«ga ftW Het Manual (AW) 21.G5
Amiga RKM (lib'dev. A/W] 29,95
Amtga. RKW (inc.: Autodoes'r 29.95
C Prog. Lang. Znd.ed, (KS.R) 22.97
CAD.
Aegis Draw 2000 160.95
Boardni aster 74.95
Dyna-CAD 650.00
Intra CAD 46.00
Professional Draw V2 \ 03.95
DATABASES * SPREADSHEETS
K-Dala 35 95
K-Spread 3 63.95
Prodala (Amory 56.35
MicroFicne Frier 59.60
D.TPiW.P.
PagestreamV2 145.68
PageseUerJi 49,49
PenPaJ 93.92
ProtextV4.3 69.50
ProtextV5 102.95
Scribble (Platinum, 41.80
Professional Page V2 1 70.79
Qiiiokwrite .38.95
Transwnrle 3596
WordPerfect 169-91
EDUCATIONAL
(This is just a small example of our
range).
Distant Suns 37-95
Fun School 3 (each) 19.99
Lets Spell ...16.49
Maths Mania 18.79
Primary Maths Course .....23.95
MUSIC « SOUND SAMPLERS
AMAS 78-81
Audio Engineer + 169.95
Audio Master 3 51-50
MasterSoundl 29.95
Music X Jnr 66.96
Music XV1.1
Dr.TKCSLertHI.V3
Dr. TTtgerCub
Pro 24 m , ,
Quartet _ ,.
Sequencer 1 ,
PROGRAMMING
AMOS
Arg. Assembler ,
Aztec C Professional
Aztec C Developers
Davpae Assemble* V3
Hs-Sofl Basic
Hi-Soft C Interpreter
SASAattice C ■
PROGRAMMING UTILITIES
AREXX Macro Larw {VI ,15) .,
Cygnus Ed Pro. V2
Hi-Sofl Inspiration
Powfr Windows 2.5
UTILITIES
BBC Emulator (New version) .
Cross DOS V4
Disk Master
DOS 2 DOS (New verskm}
Interchange
l.'Change Modules (each)
MAC 2 DOS
GRAPHICS & VIDEO
Amigia Vision
Anim. Studio (Disney} PAL
The Art Oepl
GIT Module for TAD
Comic Setter
GrSetler dip art (each)
Deluxe Paint 111
DeLuxe Video 111
DigiPaint 3
DigiViewGold
Director {The)
Director Toolkit
Forms in Flight V2
Movie Setter
Pixmate
Sculpt Animate 4D jnr
Spectra Colour
Turbo Silver
TV" Tent Professional ,
Vista (Pro.281 .95}
HARDWARE
W2. Mb+Clock (Microbotic)
10&4SD Monitor+Leads
A590H/Driv@
Amiga A500(1 meg pack}
...112.46
..224.99
73.65
...219.95
36-43
79.75
37.95
43.96
...103.95
...Phone
...Phone
5597
42.95
...167.98
33.95
49.97
...Phone
,,,,.52.95
34.74
24,95
3S.95
33.80
40,95
.....17.12
,. ..76,49
99.95
79.90
57.95
30.95
40 65
.....15.91
....59.86
.....72.96
59.90
...125.83
.....47.99
-...20.75
.....91.66
..,.42.45
39-95
84.95
...Phone
...102.95
...,99 80
49.96
.39.95
-.249-00
.278 50
...379.00
Amiga 1500 fine software) 66
Amiga 1500 jinc monilor} 91
Amiga 20003000 (inc. Unix} PI
(lull range of Amiga expansion car<
available eg,)
XT Br*fo.eooefd 19
52Mb Quantum H'Drivs 56
(inc Hardframo card}
Printers:-
CMwnSwtftQ 19
Citizen Swift 24 28
Slar LC20Q colour 20
Star LC24 -200 colour 29
{All Citizen printers have a 2 year
guarantee}
Large range ol Bu&bleje;.' rnttjej In
printers available.
Naksha Mouse 2
P.C. EMULATORS
AT-Once {AT Emulator) 18
KCS PC Powertward 22
{Large range of P. C. software
available}.
SOFTWARE BUNDLES
Gold Disk Orflce 10
Works Plalinum 6
TV Show + TV Tent. 9
ADV STRATEGY & FLIGHT SIMS
BAT 2
Betrayal 1
Chaos Strikes Sac* t
Damocles 1
Fi9$teaitnFtohier 2
Flight Sim II 2
Loom 21
Mig29 Fulcrum 2
Operation Combai 1 ■
Powermonger 2
Speedba)l2 I 1
UttmaV 2
UMSII 2
Waroame Const Motion Sel 2
Warlords 2:
Tin* s iusi a small example of our
AMIGA related range. (Modems,
Oendocks etc).
Fe-lnk: - Ribbon re-inking spray
available @ £11 .65 pet can. 31'
DS/DD untnanded disks £5.00 for
C22 50 lor 50 Mos1 items of Kttftt
have a 2D- 30% discount Off the RF
■ Gremlins 2 {only 2 left} .£1'
Mulant Nlnja Turtles (1 ofl) EH
Phone for prices of ICD products/ upgrades/ help & advice, in J act. anything to do with the A -nig;
Personal import service now available
merit, By phone: Quote your access'Visa no. & expiry date.
By post: Send Cheque/Postal Orders or Access/Visa details tr
Enchanter Software Design, 8 Dykes Close, Hessle
N. Humberside, HU13 OBW
Enquiries/Orders Tel: (0482) 644254 (9am to 7pm).
Terms; Postage. VAT inc. Most items normally dispatched within 24hrs.
EX PO RT.'B F PP.' E D UC ATI ON orders welcome. Prices, subject lo variation.
HARD WA R E
Rat race
Mark Smiddy checks out yet
another brand new hi-tec rodent
ice come in a variety
of types and there has
been a recent spate of
them since the success
of Naksha's. The Truemouse is aimed
at the budget end of the market.
Outside...
From the outside, Truemouse looks
very much like every other recent
design. Smooth curving lines make It
pleasing to the eye and comfortable
in the mit. The two buttons hinge
about two-thirds From the back of the
case and drop over the front where
they blend in nicely. The 1 .8-metre
cable leaves plenty to spare and is
terminated with a small cable grip.
Underneath, the unit is switchable For
both Amiga and ST, avoiding the
need For adaptor plugs. There are
Four little Teflon pads, allowing the
rodent to glide over almost any
surface. However, they could wear
out faster than the larger ones Found
on other designs.
The Truemouse achieved a
resolution of 200 DPI - adequate but
nothing special at the price. This
means a movement of 3.25" to move
the pointer across the screen.
Internally, some savings have
been made. The circuit is based on
low cost transistors instead of the
normal integrated circuit. The
choppers are standard enough, but
only one LED/LSD pair is used For
each direction, whereas the Naksha
uses two. This accounts For the
reduced resolution. Also the small
idler wheel was prone to slipping its
mounting when the unit was uncased.
A minor point? In normal use this is
unlikely to happen, but iF the unit was
dropped or bashed this could render
the entire mechanism useless.
The two buttons impact directly
with the microswitches instead of a
lever mounting, which suggests that
they are of low quality and prone to
wear, and that the plastic pins will
OOOOOOOOO
Shopping List
Truemouse...........
distributed by Zydec
1*038645999
available Iron most
major distributors
..£17.95
JARGON BUSTING
Chopper: (Also known as on interrupter). A small spoked or slotted wheel which
interrupts the light from the LID. As the chopper disk rotates (caused by
moving the mouse) it makes the LSD pulse. Count the pulses and you
can work out how far the mouse has travelled! (Direction coding is a
little more complex.)
LED: Light Emitting Diode. Small semiconductor device which emits light
when a current is passed through if one direction only.
LSD: Light Sensitive Diode. Like an LED, only this one only allows current to
pass when light is shone on its surface, LSDs are sensitive to light of
different wavelengths and are usually matched to similar LEDs. They
work just like a very fast, light-sensitive switch.
^H\
A mouse that goes cheap? What on
Earth is the world coming to.
wear away in time and give rise to
the same thing. Finally, the cord grip
at the end of the case looked a little
flimsy, so I was tempted to give it
some stress testing. But that can wait
For the complete rodent round up.
The Truemouse has its faults, like
anything else, Economies have been
made here and there, but these have
been passed to the consumer.
It is not a cheap product hiding
under an expensive cose. It is most
definitely a budget mouse in an
attractive one - and For those on a
tight budget, it's worth it. CQ
Checkout
Truemouse
Ergonomics 18/20
Very comfortable with a nice glide.
Style 4/5
The ST/ Amiga switch gives it the single-
lead edge over, say, the Naksha.
Accessories 0/ 1 5
Just a mouse sans accoutrements.
Buttons 20/25
The oversized selection button is a nice
innovative idea - but a little spongy.
Resolution 4/10
At 200 DPI it is on the poor side.
Value 22/25
It performs well For the money.
BEE
An attractive budget mouse that should 60
well os a replacement for the old mode.,
69/100
Sounding off
Mark Smiddy gets down to some
serious eardrum bashing with the
ZyFi amplified speaker system
Few Amiga owners could hove
failed to notice the phono
plugs located by the joystick
ports on their computer.
Usually these are connected to o
stereo monitor or hi-fi. Now several
manufacturers have come up with
amplifiers and extra speakers.
Ear, wot's all this
So, enter the new ZyFi offerings. At
90* 1 25*250 mms, they seem just the
ticket for anyone who takes their
sound seriously. The smart, midi-sized,
trendy black boxes hold three drivers
mounted in a bass reflex arrangement.
The main lead taken from the
Amiga to the combined amplifier/left
speaker is under a metre long; not
enough for wall mounting. Similarly,
the lead from the left to right-hand
speakers is 900mms long and very
thin. It is not meant to take more than
a few hundred mAmps at best.
A quick check on the PSU ratings
confirmed this. The maximum rated
output is 9 volts @ 800mA - or 7.2
watts - by the time that reaches the
ooooooooo
Shopping List
speakers I'll be surprised if it's one
third of that. It does take batteries too, I
which might improve things, but that is
an expensive and short-term option.
Inside, the design is crude and
cheap - barely enough to work.
But what do they sound like?
Perhaps the ZyFi sounds better than
the design suggests ... well, no. There
Is no bass to speak of, the mid-range
is nothing to write home about and the
upper reaches are tinny. Power? Don't
expect your teeth to rattle.
The ZyFi is o good looking attempt
to improve the Amiga's sound. It looks
ZyFi Stereo Speakers
distributed by Zydec
= 0384 45999
available from most
major distributors
£39.95
They look good, smell good and, by
golly, they sound naff. Oh well.
excellent, but where sound is
concerned it is less than average.
Even if the output was increased to 10
watts per channel I doubt it would
sound much better. If stereo is your
thing, there are several other units
around that are worth inspecting. I' J.-I
Checkout
ZyFi
Style 18/20
Look very high-tec.
Sound 6/20
Reasonable mid-range and top end, but
little bass despite the bass-reflex design.
Power 2/20
Not so you would notice.
Design & build 15/20
Sturdy construction,, but poor design.
Value 5/20
Look great, sound dreadful but at least
they give away a PSU.
IrftrWfJf
46/100
In principle, a great idea but rather poorly
carried out.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 ejUNE 1991
r
HlnCppiin o f Hampshire
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Printer prices inc. cable & paper
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A M I G A D O S
BEGINNERS
In this month's Cracking
the Shell I have made
several references to
command 'templates', so it
is time to explain what
these are. Templates are
used to break down what
you enter into manageable
chunks. Think of them as
filters, in which each
'argument' or option only
fits one part of the
template. Most commands
can be forced to give their
templates by entering the
command followed by a
query. Try this:
Returning to the adventure
game analogy, consider
this command:
INVENTORY
This is a standard
command found in many
adventure games, usually
abbreviated to INV, which
lists the objects held by the
player. This is similar to
DIR (directory) in
AmigaDOS which lists the
contents of the current
directory. Now consider
the verb ATTACK, which
must have an object to
work with - in AmigaDOS,
a required argument. Take
this for instance:
ATTACK DWARF
We are giving a command
to attack something.
ATTACK is the command
(verb) and DWARF is the
argument (noun). Many
games allow you to specify
which object to use. In this
case you could supply an
optional noun such as:
ATTACK DWARF WITH SWORD
In AmigaDOS, command
arguments given in this
way are called keywords,
rhe command remains the
continued on page 80
Cracking
the Shell
Mark Smiddy gives a neat and tidy
account of disk housekeeping with
AmigaDOS and reveals hov/ such
terribly organised behaviour relates to Workbench
"AmigaDOS is looked upon
with trepidation by some, so I'll
show you the quickest and best
ways to find your way around
the Amiga's operating system,"
Mark Smiddy
Isk housekeeping on any
computer is one of the
most important and time
consuming tasks of all. It
tends to be tedious in the extreme,
yet still has to be done from time to
time. Sometimes, when a disk starts
showing signs of wear, you simply
do not get a lot of choice.
As with most things, there is a
right and a wrong woy to go about
it, so here's some advice on how to
get speedy and organised results
from your housekeeping (sounds like
an ad for a vacuum cleaner].
So, first things first, before you
can start writing data to a disk, if
must be formatted (initialised). You
can do this quite easily from
Workbench using the Initialise
command, but the Shell allows
access to several more options.
Correct format
Format in version 1 .3 has the
following synopsis:
FORMAT DRIVE «3rive> NAME
<narae> [NOICONS] [QDICK]
[FFSINOFFFS]
A typical command line, fust to get
things started, looks like this:
1>F0RMAT DRIVE df : NAME
MyDisk
And the computer would then
respond with:
'Insert disk to be
initialised in drive dfO: and
press RETURN'
It can readily be seen that this is a
rather long-winded way of going
□bout things, especially since it is
necessary to type DRIVE
<drivenome> and NAME
<diskname>, However, it does avoid
you having to rename the disk
afterwards as you would have to do
in Workbench.
Because FORMAT is not
connected to Workbench, it is easy
to accidentally format a disk that is
currently in use by another process
(application) - be sure to watch out
for this as it can be pretty damn
annoying when it happens.
The other options - usually called
switches - will be new if you have
previously only ever formatted disks
from Workbench, It's a simple
procedure to use a switch, as all you
BLITS
DMCOPY can format a blank
disk during the copy operation for
you - this happens automatically.
St BOBS
need to do is add its name to the end
of the command line:
1>F0RMAT DRIVE df : NAME
MyDisk NOICONS QUICK
Here's a quick rundown of what the
various switches do:
• NOICONS: This tends to be
slightly confusing because it gives the
impression (hot the disk will be
iconless. !n fact, this option speeds
up the formatting process slightly by
not creating a Trashcan directory and
by copying the trashcan dot-info file
from the Workbench disk.
• QUICK: This option is a fast way
of cleaning an old disk. It just formats
and initialises the boot track (track
zero) and the root directory (track
39). Formatting, for those of you not
in the know, is the process of laying
down the timing marks and sectors;
initialising is the process of placing
AmigaDOS specific information.
The QUICK switch is only meant
for disks that have been previously
formatted. If your disk is unfortunate
enough to have come down with a
really nasty case of read/ write
errors, then, of course, it must be
completely reformatted.
• FFS: This forces FORMAT to
prepare a disk for use with Fast Filing
System. FFS is not available for
floppies prior to AmigaDOS 2 and
will cause the machine to crash, It
can be used for hard disks, but most
installation software supplied with
hard disks will do this for you.
• NOFFS: This is, in fact, a bug.
FORMAT defaults to formatting with
OFS (Old Filing System) anyway.
This option was removed in
AmigaDOS 1.3.2 - the version that
is now being shipped out with most
new machines.
Users lucky enough to have
Workbench 2 may have noticed
Tip of the month
Here's a quickie for those
who despise the long
winded format of the
FORMAT command. Called
QF - Quick Format - it
takes a single parameter
and formats a disk called
Empty. The trashcan can be
suppressed by adding
NOICONS.
ALIAS QF FORMAT DRIVE []
NAME Empty
Usage: QF <drive>
[NOICONS] [FFS] [QUICK]
QUICK ond FFS are available
directly from Workbench.
The other main "complete disk"
function available from the Shell is
not strictly for housekeeping, but if is
continued on page 30
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
79
AMIGADOS
continued from pap 79
very useful to know. DISKCOPY is
used to copy an entire disk. Like
FORMAT, this function is also used
by Workbench - Duplicate to be
more precise. [Have a go at opening
the info box For a Workbench disk
icon and you will be able to see that
SYS:System/Diskcopy is actually the
default tool.)
The power of the shell becomes
apparent once more. DISKCOPY has
the following synopsis:
DISKCOPY [FROM] <drive>: TO
<drive>: [NAME]
The words in brackets [] are optional,
therefore a typical dual drive copy
might look like this:
1>DISKC0PY dfO: TO dfl:
the same follows if you only have a
single drive:
1>DISKC0PY dfO; TO dfO:
The command prompts you to insert
the source and destination disks
before storting in either case. This
feature can be overridden, but such
potentially dangerous techniques can
wait until you are much better
acquainted with the system.
You may also note that
DISKCOPY only takes drive names as
parameters - volume names
(Extrasl .3:, MyDisk:] will not work.
Also, it is not possible to duplicate
disks of different types or sizes. For
instance, see what happens iF you try
to execute the following line:
1>DISKC0PY RAM: TO DFO:
Un oeuf 's enough
But enough of all that stuff. Most of it
can be attempted from Workbench
anyway, but from the Shell you can
name the destination disk.
Workbench normally does this by
naming a disk 'Copy of XXXXX'
which is actually rather irritating.
When used from the Shell,
DISKCOPY copies the old name on
the new disk.
Even so, although both disks
appear identical, the use of
AmigoDOS ensures that they are
unique. [This may seem irrelevant -
but if you have a legal DOS copier
like TurboBackup, make a copy of a
Workbench disk and try mounting
both disks at once ...)
If you want to give a disk a
different name after copying It, here's
how. The NAME option is a keyword
and takes the name of the destination
disk as a parameter. This example
copies the disk in drive zero onto the
1>DISKC0PY dfO: TO dfl:
Work
NAME
Before we move on, it's time for a
quick word or several about
AmigaDOS naming conventions.
For historical reasons.
Workbench and AmigaDOS both
support spaces in object names - that
is: disk (volume), file or directory
names. This is generally OK at
Workbench level, but when it comes
to AmigaDOS, spaces are an
absolute nightmare. This is because
AmigaDOS uses spaces to delimit
command arguments. That is to say,
every argument must be separated
from the command and other
arguments by at least one space.
Imagine you have a disk called
'Copy of Workbench 1 .3'. Now to
obtain a directory of that disk [by
BUTS
DISKDOCIQR is a much
misunderstood rescue program
that can even restore a partially
formatted disk.
BOBS
disk in drive one; and names the
destination disk 'Work'.
volume name) you might type the
following line:
1>DIR Copy of Workbench 1.3:
to which AmigaDOS responds with:
'bad arguments'.
DIR has assumed the disk is
called 'Copy' and taken the rest of
the line as other switches. Since these
switches are not present, it
complains. The correct version is:
1>DIR "Copy of Workbenchl . 3 : "
This line will work because the
volume name is enclosed in quotes
and the spaces are taken as part of
the name.
Workbench allows spaces in
filenames because it does not have to
interpret instructions in the same way.
In either case, make sure you avoid
spaces whenever possible.
In version 1 .3.2 the following
options were added:
• MULTI: This switch tells Amiga-
DOS to make more than one copy of
the source disk. If a bug appears, it
can cause this feature to fail.
• NOVERIFY: This switches off
verification of any unformatted
destination disks. It speeds up the
process slightly, but is not
recommended because the integrity
of the data might be at risk.
• The FORMAT and DISKCOPY
commands do not belong to
AmigaDOS - they live in the System
directory. Mind you, for most
purposes this will not matter.
It's OK, I'm a doctor
Almost every old-timer will have
experienced those heart-stopping
messages: 'Error validating disk' and
'Disk structure corrupt, use
DISKDOCTOR to correct it' at some
time. Quite a lot has been said
against DISKDOCTOR, but it does a
IDDY'S RED HOT TIP
Here's a lime tip for beginners and experts
alike who cannot remember how each
command behoves, tt uses LIST to create a
special alias for all commands so they always
present their command line templates:
ls-IilST >RAM: KELPME C:#? LFORMAT * ; %S*nALIAS
i>EXEafflE RAM : HELPKS
The first fine creates a script file in RAM: called
'hefpme' formatted tike this for every file in the
Cs assignment;
ALIAS <command> <path and ccffnmand> ?
For instance if C: contained just CD and DIR,
'heipme' would look like this:
} Workbenchl . 3 : G
ALIAS DIR WorWxsncia.SsevmR ?
;Worktoe&c&L.3:C
ALIAS CD Workbenchl. 3 :C/CD? ■
although, in real terms, the list will be much
longer - two lines for every command in C;.
When mis file is executed, it is no longer
necessary (or possible) to supply arguments to
each command. Instead you just give the
command without parameters and it presents
the list of parameters it requires:
1>BIR .
t»HE,OPT/K,ALL/S,BIRS/S, JOTBR/S, FIUES/S:
AH you have to do is enter the parameters as
usual and press Return to activate the
command. This is useful if you Only have a
single disk drive because transient commands
are pre-loaded so, you cart swap disks without
having the hassle of getting the wrong
directory etc.
same, but we add
a keyword
modifier WITH
and its argument,
SWORD. As a final
modifier, let's specify
exactly how we want to
kill the dwarf:
ATTACK DWARF VICIOUSLY
WITH SWORD
VICIOUSLY acts like a
switch - it tells ATTACK to
act in a certain way. If
ATTACK was written with
an AmigaDOS command
template it would be:
ATTACK ?
NAME/a, WITH/k, VICIOUSLY/ S :
It is broken down thus:
NAME/a: Object or
creature the command
will act on (required).
WITH/k: Object used for
the operation (optional).
VICIOUSLY/s: How the
arrack is to be carried out
(optional).
Notice how the switch
(VICIOUSLY) can appear
at any point after the
command - the position is
not important. Now let's
re -w rite the line:
ATTACK DWARF VICIOUSLY
SWORD
This does not make any
sense because the
preposition WITH is
missing. The parser
doesn't know what was
used to hit the dwarf.
Applying this to
AmigaDOS is simple. Call
up the command template
for DIR like this:
NAME , OPT/K , ALL/ S , DIRS/ S , I
NTER/S,FILES/S:
DIR has six possible
arguments in version 1 .3,
though none are needed
to get going. They are:
• NAME: The name of the
directory, path, device or
assignment that DIR will
search. If NAME isn't
given, DIR mil default to
80
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •JUNE 1991
AMIGADOS
searching the
, current directory.
• OPT/K:
Keyword retained
for compatibility with 1.2
version. Takes character
argument: A, D, I, Al.
• DIRS/S: Forces DIR to list
directories only. (Equal to
OPT D.) Mutually exclusive
to FILES/S
• ALL/S: Search down
through the hierarchy from
the current directory and
all its sub-directories.
(Equivalent to OPT A.)
• INTER/S: Enter
interactive mode. Leave if
for now, I'll cover it soon.
(Equivalent to OPT I.)
• FILES/S: List files only -
this option is mutually
exclusive to DIRS/S.
Try these command lines:
1>DIR
1>DIR OPT A
1>DIR ALL
1>DIR DIRS
1>DIR PII£S
1>DIR DFO: FILES ALL
1>DIR Extrasl.3: FILES ALL
Summary
/a: Required argument.
Something must be
supplied in this position for
the command to work.
/k: Keyword. Optional
arguments, which take
arguments themselves -
usually filenames.
/s: Switch. Optional
argument telling command
to act a certain way,
The following only appear
in AmigaDOS 2:
/n: Numeric. The
parameter needs a
numeric argument.
/m: Multiple. One or more
parameters can be
specified, up to the max
length of the command
line. Replaces the ",,,„,"
construct in older versions.
/f: Final. This argument
MUST be the last one on
the command line -
everything present on the
line is read up to the
carriage return.
reasonable job at salvaging disks.
The best way to see
DISKDOCTOR in operation is simply
to try it out for yourself. For this
example it would be very wise to
make another copy of your
Workbench disk. Now have a go at
buts «
With AmigaDOS you can copy
files io almost anywhere - thai
includes the screen, punter or
even the speech system.
BOBS
Formatting the copy using the
following command:
1>F0RMAT DRIVE dfO: N2VME
Blast QUICK
However, don't Forget to specify the
QUICK switch or the example just
will not work.
And now you're ready to start
DISKDOCTOR. It only takes one
parameter - that is the name of the
drive you want it to work on:
1>DI3KD0CT0R dfO:
As you watch, DISKDOCTOR will
reconstruct most of the disk before
your very eyes. This does take a
while, but it is surprising how much
information can be retrieved.
It is" all thanks to the way
AmigaDOS arranges information on
the disk, so at least something good
came out of it.
DISKDOCTOR is not capable of
retrieving data that has been lost in
bad areas of the disk - these show
up os HARD ERROR @ Track X
Surface Y. IF DISKDOCTOR
encounters a File belonging to a
directory that has been lost, that File
is placed in the roof directory.
Nevertheless, unless the disk is very
badly damaged, it is usually possible
to reformat and re-use it.
The command can present you
with over 25 errors and messages so
there is not nearly enough room for
them here. IF enough people write in,
then I'll run them as a series complete
with explanations, ftt
AmigaDOS master class
This is where you propellerheads
can get stuck in to some nasty little
problems. Since these are intended
for experts, I will keep explanations
to a minimum. This potboiler started
life on CfX late one evening -
someone wanted COPY to act like a
PC. That is: if a source directory is
not specified, COPY duplicates the
file in the current directory, ie:
1>CD RAM;
1>C0PY S:SPAT
This is not possible because COPY
requires two arguments.
Either argument can be
replaced with "", but this is messy.
The solution therefore is to use an
alias. I've called this one CCOPY -
Current Copy; the name is not
important. It is defined as Follows:
ALIAS CCOPY COPY [] ""
Add this to your Shell-startup script
so it will be available at any time;
all the normal COPY options ore
available too. Usage: CCOPY
<file> [options].
This is all very well, but you
have to remember which version of
COPY to use depending on the
situation. To get around this, it is
necessary to write a small script to
make COPY intelligent. If a
destination is supplied it works like
AmigoDOS; if not it behaves like
MS-DOS. The script is defined thus:
.key
FROM/A, TO, ALL/S , QUIET I s , BUF/K,
CLONE/ s, DWES/S , NOPRO/S, CCM/S
.bra {
. ke: |
.def BUF 200
.def TO NOTHING
IF {TO} EQ "NOTHING"
ECHO "Copying from: {FROM} TO
* NOLINE
CD
COPY (FROM} " (ALL/s}
{QUIET/s} {CLONE/s} {DATES/s}
{NOPRO/s} {CQM/s} BUF={BUF)
ELSE
ECHO "Copying from: {FROM} TO
{TO}"
COPY {FROM} {TO} {ALL/s}
{QUIET, s} {CLONE/s} {DATES/s}
{NOPRO/S } {COM/s} BUF={BUF}
ENDIF
This script mirrors the original COPY
command very closely although a
few embellishments have been
added - displaying the source and
destination directories for instance.
Also, the destination is no longer a
required argument. To use this,
simply type it into your favourite
editor and save it in S:. Now set the
"S" protection flag and it works like
the real thing. It relies on an
undocumented feature of
AmigaDOS 1 .3 in that switch (/s)
arguments are supported. This may
not apply in AmigaDOS 2 or ARP.
Most scripts, and this is no
exception, work best from hard
disks or when the script commands
- IF, ELSE, ENDIF, ECHO and
EXECUTE are resident.
JARGON
BUSTING
AMIGADOS 1 .2 \ Now generally out of
dale, but stijf used
occasionally,
AMIGADOS 1 .3: The most common
revision of AmigaDOS in
general use,
AMIGADOS 1,3.2! SlighHy updated,
enhanced and partially
debugged version of 1.3.
AMIGADOS 2: The latest and greatest
version so far. Only
available for the Amiga
3000 series at present.
ARP; AmigoDOS Replacement
Project. The MicroSmith's
version of AmigaDOS -
thought by many to be
better than AmigaDOS,
and certainly more
friendly in many respects.
FFS: Fast Filing System.
Improved version of the
file structure which is
Faster, although slightly
more prone to errors.
OFS: Old Filing System.
SCRIPT: Meta- AmigaDOS
command built from other
AmigaDOS commands.
More usually referred to
as a hatch file on other
systems.
WHITE SPACE: Any printing character
which does not display
something on the screen.
A space is a typical
example.
Got a Problem John?
If you are completely
bogged down with any
aspect of AmigaDOS
whatsoever, drop me a
line detailing the nature
of your conundrum. Send
it to: Mark Smiddy,
Amiga Shopper, 30
Monmouth St, Bath BA1
2BW. I'll do my level
best to lose it on my
desk - er, figure out an
answer that is.
Sorry but no personal
correspondence can be
entered into, no matter
how huge the bribe with
which you may try to
tempt me. Well, within
reason. Desperate
persons, with no regard
for telephone bills, can
EMail me on CIX
"SMIDOID" or find me
lurking in the Amiga
Shopper conference.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
EDUCATION
Child's play
"As the mother of two livery
kids I have tested out software
in the toughest manner - on the
children themselves,"
Pat Winstanley
Pat Winstanley delves in to the
untapped wealth of Amiga
educational software currently
available for the little ones
This month I will be taking a look af
Amiga software available for the under
eights. In case you missed issue one I will
repeat the point that age categories
should not be taken too rigidly. My six and
eight-year-olds still have a great deal of fun with
software intended for toddlers as well as the
more advanced packages aimed at top juniors.
Despite the apparent dearth of educational
software around, there is in fact a wide range
available - if you know where to look. The
following packages include the best I have seen;
in particular those the young testers have had to
be bodily yanked away from. Many of them
also have me pleading "Isn't it my turn yet?",
since that's the only way I can play with my
beloved machine when they are home from
school - like the recent two weeks of holiday.
READING
Learn To Read With Prof
Intended to take non-readers from
First steps to a reading/
comprehension age of around early
junior, this set of four packages is
something of an enigma.
Perhaps my local testers are
becoming a little blase, but none of
them were 'grabbed' by the
packages to the extent of asking for
them again. While a solid reading
scheme, the presentation smacks af
'school' and forgets that when using
I hesitate to mention the name, but
suggesting to the local school that
copies are purchased for the
Archimedes would probably be an
excellent (and wiser) step than
spending out for home Amiga
versions. If you do want copies for
the home, the most suitable children
are those with little computer
experience and reading difficulties.
The Three Bears
The adventure format is surprisingly
under used for children's software
which is a shame as it offers reading,
spelling and understanding topics
Architectural appreciation reaches new heights In The Three Bears.
Perhaps Prince Charles should get a copy for William and Harry?
educational software, children like
some spice to reward their efforts.
However, the series has been
very successful in schools -
presumably with non-computer-literate
children and those who are put off by
the pen and paper approach.
simply by its structure.
The Three Bears is a very simple
adventure based an the fairy tale of
the same name and sets the child the
task of rescuing baby bear who has
been spirited away by the evil witch.
Using a very simple on-screen
map the child wanders around the
playing area, meeting wolves,
wizards and other assorted nasties.
Most inputs required are restricted to
one or two letters in response to an
either/or question. In addition some
spelling questions are asked. For
example "What letters are missing
from this word ( _pplj?"
A nice touch is that answering
'No' when the child is asked to help
elicits responses from the program
such as 'Don't be unkind.' and then
takes the child on to the next step
anyway. This raised several smiles
among the testers.
Donald's Alphabet Case
For children just beginning to
recognise different letters, this is a
worthwhile offering. Based on the
Disney character and using cartoon-
standard graphics, the game has the
child watching out for all the
disguised letters that have invaded
Donald's house.
As a letter appears on the screen
Donald tries to catch it, but only if the
relevant key is pressed to alert him to
its presence will he be able to find it.
If no action is token (or the wrong
key is pressed] Donald continues to
wander around the room searching
away while the letter uses its
camouflage to hide and performs
cheeky actions such os sticking its
tongue out behind his back.
Intended for pre-school children,
my own older brood found this game
delightful and they enjoyed working
their way through the alphabet to see
what sort of comical situation would
appear next.
The one reservation I have is that
all of the letters are upper case,
which could be extremely confusing
for a beginner-reader struggling to
come to terms with the upper and
lower case alphabet.
'RUING
Let's Spell
Aimed at the younger child, let's
Spell gives a good grounding for
those learning letter sounds for the
first time. Two versions are available,
eoch taking a familiar area and the
objects found there. The idea is that
clicking on an object in the main
picture brings that object up on an
alphabet screen.
The aim of the game is for the
child to spell the name of the object
by clicking on the correct letters. As a
letter is selected, the sound of the
letter is spoken using clear sampled
speech. Since the letters are
enunciated as 'ah', 'buh', 'cuh' and
so on, the child is helped in the
difficult task of stringing sounds
together to make words as well as
that of linking sounds to letter shapes.
The two areas are 'At home' and
'At the shops', and versions are also
available in French. Nicely self-
contained, very little parental help is
needed - in fact adults are advised
to retire to another room to avoid the
sampled speech as soon as possible.
Things To Do With Words
Having picked up the basics of
reading, the child's next step is to
master spelling and this is where
TTDWW comes in. The package is
split into three games - anagrams,
jumbled sentences and word hunt.
Anagrams simply presents a
jumbled word on screen and asks the
child to type in the un-jumbled form.
jumbled sentences does the same
with words rather than letters. Word
hunt is rather different, involving
finding words made up of some or all
of the letters of another word.
I found that children needed a
good deal of help with this package
- not the fault of the programs but
simply the inherent difficulty of the
games. With word hunt in particular,
playing became a family effort; the
children finding simpler and more
obvious words with the adults
searching out more obscure spellings.
Aimed at school age children,
this package is great for reinforcing
spelling and word building skills.
Kidstype
Having cracked spelling (or at least
when the child is confident enough to
string letters together in a rough
approximation of a word) it is time to
encourage composition. Regardless
of spelling accuracy, most children
love to write their own stories and
Kidstype is an excellent vehicle to
help get them started.
Based around a simple word
processing program, Kidstype
combines typing with pattern design.
Around the screen are various icons
on which the child can click to select.
M
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 991
EDUCATION
The complete alphabet is available,
each letter embedded in a picture of
an object beginning with that letter.
When selected, the whole letter-
picture appears at the cursor point.
Alternatively, letters can be typed
from the keyboard, in which case
they appear in large, lower case
letters on screen. The two styles can
be mixed at will giving very
interesting effects .
Also included is a game in which
the child chooses a picture letter then
tries to spell the object pictured. The
words and pictures supplied with
Kidstype may be modified simply by
accessing the lists on disc, which
serves to make this an entertaining
and versatile package.
RITHMETIC
Mickey's Runaway Zoo
Another game aimed at toddlers and
based on Disney characters, the plot
involves recapturing all the animals.
For each species, a different number
of escapees must be found by
selecting the correct number on the
keyboard to match that shown on
screen. Once the number is typed,
that quantity of animals march one-
by-one to the collecting cage, thus
setting the context of the magnitude
of different numbers.
As with the other Disney games,
there is very little for the child to
actually do but an awful lot of
delightful animation to watch.
Although parental help is not
STICKY LABELS
Young children begin learning
the alphabet using lower case
letters, progressing to upper
case in the later infant school
stage. Because of this, the
keyboard with its upper case
letters can be pretty confusing
and can often get in the child's
way when something needs to
be typed in.
To get around the
problem, simply cut some self-
adhesive labels into small
squares, write a lower case
letter on each, then stick the
pieces over the corresponding
keys. Unless you are a touch-
typist, you'll find this pretty
weird but it really does help
the children.
Eventually the letters wear
out and the children grow up.
Then it's the work of a
moment to remove the sticky
bits and restore your precious
keyboard to its original state.
Henrietta bravely climbs a rope, with help from accurate addition by the
child, in order to prevent a ducking in custard in Hooray for Henrietta.
required for most children, the
greatest benefit will come from sitting
with the child, counting oloud and
talking about what the child can see.
While smaller children will need
some help with this game, those
beginning to recognise written
numbers will manage the keypad on
their own. Or the child could be
encouraged to shout a number for
Mum to press on the keyboard.
Game Set And Match
Along with numbers, children spend
a much early learning time matching
shapes and colours. This package
consists of a variety of matching tasks
ranging through simple colours or
shapes to numbers and coins.
The format is similar for each
game. Along the top is a range of
possible colours, shapes or numbers
while a box below contains the
match. A highlight square moves
along the choice range and the child
must stop the square on the correct
choice. Alternatively the top row cart
contain a sequence of shapes with
the lower box displaying a changing
range one-by-one for the child to stop
when a match is made.
Tucked in as extras are a
reaction timer and a higher/lower
game. The latter is not guesswork like
the TV game, but a comparison task
- is the last number shown higher or
lower than the previous one?
Given that this pock is aimed at
young children, I feel too much
emphasis has been put on program
reaction rather than the child driving
the the game. My six year old
became frustrated with the package
as even on the lowest speed, by the
time he had decided on an answer,
the game had moved past him.
Magic Maths
For the infant school child, coming to
grips with addition and subtraction
Magic Maths offers a range of five
activities designed to practise and
reinforce lots of new skills.
Each of the activities is presented
in a simple manner. Thus 'Driver'
shows a picture of o school bus and
a sum. each time the sum is
answered correctly, a child appears
inside the bus, which then drives off
to a new screen. Once the bus is full
the computer congratulates the child
with speech and a flashing screen.
Other tasks include the use of scales
where the child counts the objects
weighing down one side of the scale
then supplies the appropriate number
to balance them. Alternatively, a sum
can be the weight, the answer to be
calculated for balance.
The beauty of this package is that
animation and speech are used in a
non-distracting yet satisfying way so
that the child can concentrate on the
'work' while enjoying the computing
environment at the same time as an
unobtrusive background.
Hooray For Henrietta
Taking animation o little further, this
game uses arithmetic questions os
obstacles to progress. The plot
involves Henrietta rescuing her
appaling prospective bridegroom
and rescuing his wedding clothes.
For each of the four disciplines
■Lies t ion 1
Score : - i™
Henrietta is presented with a task to
perform. Thus the addition section
sees her climbing a rope (against the
clock) to reach a lever. Once pulled
the lever allows Henry to escape a
ducking in custard.
Although reactions are needed to
avoid the count-down, a generous
time limit is given so the child is not
too rushed. The main drawback of
the game is simply the game aspect.
Since failure sees Henry drenched in
custord the child is sorely tempted to
deliberately give wrong answers.
Scetlander presents its range as
gomes with an educational content
rather than educational software,
and Hooray for Henrietta is certainly
the former. For children who shy
away from the more formal
presentation this is a good
compromise between fun and work.
LUCKY DIP
Fun School 3 (under 5)
Database certainly picked a winner
when it developed the Fun School
range of games. Now in its third
incarnation covering three different
age ranges each time, the series has
become the yardstick [should that be
metre-stick these days?) by which all
other education software for popular
machines is measured.
The pack contains six different
games, all simply but beautifully
onimated with sparse but apt sound
effects Presentation is outstanding,
with a simple visual menu system
which even the youngest child con
master without help from an adult
after an initial introduction.
The games cover counting
objects, matching letters, matching
shapes and colours, matching words
to pictures, matching words to
actions and painting luridly coloured
farmyard scenes. In each case, skill
levels can be adjusted by the
child/parent or automatically
handled by the computer.
Tots rapidly become hooked by
continued on page 84
How nany?
Magic Maths uses a set of scales to make some addition problems,
whereby the child has to work out how to make them balance.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •JUNE 1991
EDUCATION
continued Iron) page 83
the package (and so does a certain
twelve year old of my acquaintance
together with a variety of quite
fascinated adults).
Fun School 3 (5 - 7)
As with the under 5's pack, this disk
too offers the same high standard of
presentation and ease of use, only
the activities changing to reflect the
higher age group.
In this selection are: a shop in
which the child practices pocket
money economy, a simple time tutor,
a retrieval-only database with
fascinating subjects such as
dinosaurs; a frog who does anagram
sums; a route finder in Logo style;
and an opportunity for the child to
learn about electrical circuits.
The fascination of this pack is just
as great as the younger version, with
all ages keen for 'just one more go'.
Both packs are highly recommended.
Puzzle Book
Whereas the Fun School series offers
a range of games with fairly obvious
application to the three 'R's, the
Puzzle book range presents tasks
with rather more obscure topics.
As the title implies, the range is
more along the lines of logic
problems than straight
arithmetic/spelling and in this respect
it works very well indeed.
The disk contains six games
covering Dungeon Mosfer-style
mazes, clock patience, a modern
version of the classic game of Mm, a
word hunt (use the letters of a word
to make as many new ones as you
can), a reaction timer on the lines of
Snap, and Magic Squares in which a
grid must be filled with numbers to
make row, column and
diagonal totals equal.
Starting age for the
pack would be about late
infant school level, but
there is plenty of
challenge for adults too.
An excellent choice for the
whole family.
Sesame Street
For the youngest children
who are not yet ready for
formal education, but
want to join in on the
computer, have a look at
the Electric Crayon range.
Taking characters
from popular children's
shows such as Sesame
Street and those dreaded
turtles, the packs each
consist of around thirty
screens of line drawings
for the child to colour. For
instance, letters for You
has a screen for each
letter of the alphabet with
a picture of one of the
"Ah, ha, haaa, three rabbits in hats" counts the Count and waits to be
coloured in, in the simple Sesame Street painting program.
Sesame Street characters and the
letter that needs colouring in.
With simple icon-driven controls
and the ability to rub out mistakes,
children will be absorbed for hours.
These packs are a simple, fun way
for small children to learn mouse
control and familiarise themselves
with the computer.
Play It Safe
Education is also about learning how
to survive safely in the everyday
world. And it's not only children who
need educating about safety - most
accidents to small children take place
in the home where parents have
carelessly left things lying around.
This game aims to educate
children about the hazards to be
found in their everyday environment
and does so extremely well. The plot
is that loads of nasty creatures have
invaded your house and left
dangerous situations all around. By
controlling a teddy, you must enter
each room and identify the hazards.
Each room has a random selection of
hazards and, when one is found, a
jigsaw piece of the monster
responsible is collected. When the
jigsaw is complete the, room is safe.
This game is well presented and
the best and most original offering I
have seen for some time.
Considering that it is Licenseware
and costs only £3.50 it's a must for
any child.
Pick A Puzzle
By the some author as Ptay it Safe,
but PO this time, is a jigsaw
generator with a selection of puzzles
and several levels of difficulty.
At its simplest level a picture
stored on the game disk is cut into
pieces which can be selected and
placed by mouse clicks. Go up the
levels and you'll be presented with
flipped and rotated pieces - with no
jigsaw grid lines as guides.
The pictures are perhaps a little
hard, but with some thought it should
be possible to create your own
pictures using a paint package for
incorporation in the game. fTfr
Checkout
Software Education Ease Flexibility Addiction
Overall
value of use factor
Learn To Read 25 18 8. 10
61
Three Bears 15 ,20 5 15
55
Donald's Alphabet 15 20 2 25
62
Let's Spell 25 25 5 ,20
75
Things To Do 25 20... 5 15
65
Kidstype 25 25 5 20
75
Mickey's Zoo 15 20 2 25
62
Game Set & Match ...20 15 5 15
55
Magic Maths 25 20 5 15
65
Fun School 3 25 25 8 25
83
Puzzle Book 1 20 .....25 8 . 20
73
Sesame Street 15 20 5 25
65
Play It Safe 25 20 5... 25
...75
Pick A Puzzle 15 20 5 25
65
1
Hooray For Henrietta 20 20 5 20
65
J\ jmifw A And those of you with less than
fllvPrflr 50/ 1 00 ton see me after class.
ooooooooo
Shopping List
Sesame Street ■■■■■,■■,-,
by Merit Software,
1 3635 Gamma Rood,
Dallas, Texas 75244, USA
-=■ 0101 214 385 2353
fun school .-—..,
£15.95 each
..£24.99 each
„£24.99
Database Direct
Freepost, Ellesmere Port,
Soulh Wirrof, L65 3£B
tr 051 357 1275
Hooray Far Henrietta .
Sketlander Software
74 Victoria Crescent Road
Glasgow, G128BR
=041 -357 1659
Donald's Alphabet Cose £24.99
Mickey's Runaway Zoo £24.99
by Wait Disney Computer Software
500, 5th Eueao Vista St,
Burhank, California 91521
= 0101818 567 5360
Distributed in UK by
Entertainments International
4 The Stunners,
laindon North Trade Centre,
Basildon, Essex, SSI 5 6DJ
^0268 541212
Learn To Read With Prof ..
Prisma Software
29 St James Ave
Upton Heath, Chester
Cheshire, CH2 1NB
■ 0244 326244
Let's Spell
£24.99
..£19.95
Things To Do With Words .
Puzzle Book 1 ..................
..£19.95
..£19.95
fay Saftsluff
19 Quarry Hill Road,
Tonbrtdge. Kent, TN9 2RN
= 0732351234
Ploy It Safe .£3.50
Pick A Puzzle .£2.50
AMOS PD Library ,25 Park Road
Wigan, Lanes
= 0942495261
Kidstype „ £25.50
Game Set And Match £20.39
by Genisoft
Unit 3 r Poyle 1 4,
Newlands Drive,
Colnbrook, Berks, 5L30DX
= 0753680363
Magic Maths..
The Three Bears ........
School Software
Tait Business Centre,
Dominic Street,
Limerick, Ireland.
b 01 0353 61 45399
For all the above, try
your local computer
software store.And don't
forge! to Shop Around!
..£22.95
„£22.95
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
PROGRAMMING
Breaking the
language barrier
Which is the best programming
language for you? Multi-lingual
Cliff Ramshaw assembles an
exhaustive survey to find out
espife the profusion of
languages available, you
might be surprised to learn
that Arnigas 'understand'
only one: 68000 machine code. In
fact, machine code is all that any
computer understands, but the exact
dialect depends on the particular
central processing unit - that is, the
chip in your computer that does the
computing and controls oil the other
chips, hence it being colled 'central'.
Machine code is stored as a
"What is binary?
It alt goes back
to the time of
ancient Athens."
series of consecutive numbers in the
computer's memory. Memory chips, it
should be borne in mind, are
different from the processor, which
fetches information from memory
using an address system of
numbers - one number per
location in memory.
A device called a memory
bus handles interactions
between the processor and
memory. The bus transfers data
to and from the memory
according to the addresses that
the processor specifies.
The processor does have a
certain amount of memory
inside it, divided up into what
are called registers. Some of
these registers can be used by
a machine cade program
(there are 1 6 of these in the
68000], and can be accessed
much faster than ordinary
memory as the processor
doesn't have to use the memory
bus. Other registers ore private
to the processor. An example
of this is the Program Counter (PC]
register, which holds the memory
address of the next instruction to be
executed. Eh? Well, when o program
is running, a number is read in, or
'fetched', from the area of memory
that the PC points to. Then the PC is
moved on one, so that it now points
to the next instruction in the machine
code, and the number already
fetched is executed as an instruction
by the central processor. This done,
the processor fetches the new
instruction pointed to by the PC, and
the whole thing is repeated.
"Learning how to program can
seem a daunting task to the novice.
But once a few simple principles are
understood, things fall easily into
place. Having written a host of
commercial programs, I can help
you through the language barrier so
you and your routines will be up
and running in no time."
Cliff Ramshow
Balancing registers
These instructions ore typically very
simple, perhaps adding the contents
of two registers together (and, of
course, storing the result in one of the
two registers) or putting a particular
value held by a register into a
specific area of memory.
You can probably see that, as
well as holding instructions for the
processor to execute, memory is also
used to hold the results of
ffUlMUBS.b,
calculations arrived at by the
instructions. These results are termed
'data'. As far as memory is
concerned, there is absolutely no
distinction between instructions and
data. If the PC should point to an
area of memory holding data rather
than instructions, the processor would
assume that it was dealing with a
sequence of instructions and
probably comeoffand hurt itself.
Suffice to say, the results would
certainly be unpredictable.
And that, basically, is that.
Advanced processors, such as the
68000, have quite large instruction
sets, including instructions that can
carry out such clever things as
multiplications and divisions. Even
so, it is obvious that machine code
works on a very simple level. To
create a program of any complexity
requires an awful lot of machine
code instructions.
Computers work exclusively with
numbers. Not just any old
Y"\ numbers, but binary
£j numbers. Why
d binary?
What
is binary? It all goes back to the time
of ancient Athens. Aristotle
developed a system of logic,
whereby a statement (termed a
'predicate') can be either true or
false. For example, take the statement
'it is raining'. Sometimes it is true,
sometimes it is false.
Much later this was developed
into an algebra (simply a means of
manipulating such statements) by
George Boole, Called Boolean
Algebra, it supplies a number of
simple 'operators' that can be
applied to logical predicates, again
giving values that are either true or
false. If we have two predicates - 'it
is raining' : 'I am outside' - then the
predicate T am getting wet' is true if,
and only if, the first and the second
predicate is true. 'And' is known as a
logical operator.
Logical/ Captain
Two-state logic, as it is sometimes
called, lends itself particularly well to
electronics, where the value 'true'
can be represented, say, by a signal
of 5v, and 'false' by 0v. Logic circuits
are built taking one or two input
signals and supplying one output
signal. So on AND logic gate will
output a signal of 5v if both
of its inputs are set to 5v;
otherwise it will output Ov. In
this way, very complex
circuits can be built up,
using nothing but the
concepts of truth and falsity.
Which is where binary
comes in. In maths circles,
the number system we
normally use is termed 'base
10' or 'denary', because we
represent values between
zero and nine with a single
continued an page 86
AMIGA SHOPPER* ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
PROGRAMMING
continued from page 85
digit. Values over this require two
digits, with the left of the two digits
representing the number of 10s. This
might sound obvious, but it doesn't
actually stop there. It is possible to
use systems with different number
bases. Binary uses base rwo,
meaning that a single digit can
represent either a zero or a one. (A
binary digit is colled a bit.) In the
cose of a two-digit number, the left-
most digit represents the number of
twos in the value. For three digits, the
left-most represents the number of
fours (equivalent to 100s for a
denary number), the middle
represents the number of twos
(equivalent to the 1 0s) and the right-
most is the units - either one or zero.
So the binary number 101 is
equivalent to the denary number 5.
A direct correspondence con be
drawn between two-state logic and
binary - a one can be used to
represent truth, a zero for Falsity.
Using a number of simple logic gates
(the AND gate, Far example), circuits
can be built to perform such Functions
as addition or subtraction. Take this
a stage or two further, and you have
a central processing unit. For
memory, all we need is a circuit that
will always output either a 1 or a
until an input signal comes along to
tell it to change (either to a or a 1).
Again, this can be accomplished
using a small arrangement of logic
gates. Memory is normally organised
in groups of eight bits, known
collectively as a byte, holding
numbers between zero and 255 (the
binary number 11111111 - that is,
eight ones, or bits - equals the
denary number 255).
High numbers
IF this is the case, how then can
computers handle numbers greater
than 255? Well, in the case of the
68000, memory can be viewed in
groups of 1 6 or 32 digits, as well as
eight, giving rise to ranges of zero to
65,536 and zero to
4,294,967,296. Even so, what
about decimal numbers and words?
These are implemented through
software. Alphabetical characters,
among others, are represented by a
code known as ASCII (American
Standard Code for Information
Interchange], by which each
character has a corresponding
number [in a range of to 255} that
is translated when the text is
displayed. Decimal numbers are
represented in what is known as
floating point Format, the specifics of
which can vary depending on the
system used.
Obviously, writing machine code
as a sequence of 1 s and 0s would
be a real pain. For this reason,
numbers are usually written in
hexadecimal instead of binary.
Hexadecimal is a number system
using base 1 6, where eoch digit has
□ value between and 15. To avoid
confusion (or possibly to create it,
depending on your point of view]
digits above nine are represented by
the letters A to F. So the hexadecimal
number AF is equivalent to the
denary number 1 75.
In-the bad old days, people used
to enter machine code in
hexadecimal form. This is an
extremely error-prone business.
Nowadays, people use assemblers.
With an assembler, instructions are
entered in a text file as a series oF
short words known as operators.
Some of these operators are followed
by operands - that which the
operator operates on. Most operands
are memory addresses, ie: □ number
The number bases
Denary
Hexadecimal
Binary
O
1
1
1
2
2
10
3
3
11
4
4
100
5
5
101
6
6
110
7
7
111
8
8
1000
9
9
1001
10
A
1010
11
B
1011
12
C
1100
13
D
1101
14
E
1110
15
F
1111
16
10
10000
corresponding to a particular
memory location, as distinct from the
value (or 'data'] actually held in that
memory location. A typical instruction
might be to take the contents of a
location in memory and store it in a
processor register, It might look
something like this:
MOVE.L My Screen, AO
MOVE.L is the operator, or
instruction; it moves data from one
place to another. AO is one of the
processor registers, MyScreen is an
assembler label - another of the
advantages assemblers give over
programming in hexadecimal or
binary. It means the same thing as a
memory address, but is easier For us
to understand. The memory address it I
corresponds to must be defined as a
number by the programmer at the
beginning of the program.
Once the program has been
written (using an editor or possibly a
word processor) the assembler goes
through it line by line and converts it
all into machine code instructions -
numbers. With older assemblers, the
resultant code, called 'object code',
is incomplete at this stage - it still has
to be 'linked' with any external
routines or libraries that it might use.
Object code is pretty much the same
as machine code, but with certain
gaps in it. These gaps occur
whenever the compiled program uses
parts of another program.
Pick 'n mix
In practice just about every program
uses bits From other programs. Even
the simplest operation, such as
outputting characters to the screen, is
done by calling a prewritten routine
(a routine being a program, or part
of a program, written to perform a
specific task). This routine is left out
when the user's program is compiled
and has to be linked with it
afterwards. For this, surprisingly
enough, a linker is used,
A linker joins together the various
pieces of object code and sorts out
all the references they make to each
other that had been left as gaps at
compilation time. The result is
executable machine code.
Even with an assembler, writing
machine code can be more hassle
than it is worth. Because the
instruction set is small, the
programmer must string a lot of
instructions together to achieve the
simplest effects. A really large
program can be immensely difficult to
write: not only does the programmer
have to worry about the intricacies of
where data is stored, etc, but he or
she must also keep an overall view of
the problem in mind. It is not difficult
to make errors. Furthermore, if the
program is required to run on a
machine with a different processor,
the whole lot has to be re-written.
Various programming languages
have been designed to help alleviate
these difficulties. Languages such as
Fortran, one of the First 'high-level'
languages, allow the programmer to
forget about the Fiddly details and
concentrate on the overall structure of
the program. The basic building
blocks of o high-level language are
usually composed of many low-level
or machine-code concepts. An
advantage of this is that, in theory at
least, a Fortran program written on
one machine should work on any
machine supporting Fortran.
Programs are written as text files,
adhering to the particular language's
rules of syntax (the 'form' of the
program, as opposed to a program's
semantics or 'meaning', which, of
course, is decided by the
programmer). These text files are
completely unintelligible to the
computer, which understands nothing
but numbers. For this reason, some
sort of translation is required.
There are two established
methods of translation: compilation
and interpretation. Both have their
advantages and, not surprisingly,
both have their disadvantages.
The simplest of the translation
methods to use and understand is
probably that of the interpreter. The
classic interpreted language is Basic.
An interpreter is a program in
itself, a piece of machine code
executed by the processor. It works
on a program written as a text file
and goes through it statement by
statement, (A statement is simply an
instruction in the language in
question, but more powerful than a
single machine code instruction.) The
interpreter has a set of rules for what
makes a valid statement, and checks
each statement in turn against these.
Assuming the statement is valid, the
interpreter will then execute a piece
of machine code corresponding to
the 'meaning' of that statement.
Typically, a single Basic statement is
equivalent to a great many lines of
machine code.
Interpreted languages usually
come with their own editors, so that
typing in a program and executing it
are straightforward operations. If the
programmer wants to make an
alteration, this can be done directly
to the text and the program can be
re-executed there and then. This
makes interpreted languages
excellent for beginners and for
development work where a lot of
program tweaking is necessary.
Non comprend parse
UnFortunately, a program written in
such a language can only be used
with the interpreter; it is meaningless
by itself. An interpreter is a large
program, since it must be able to
deal with all of the possibilities as
defined in the language, so a Basic
program and a Basic interpreter
together make up a large and mostly
redundant piece of code.
Furthermore, the program has to
be re-translated every time it is
executed, which slows if down
considerably. For a simple Basic
program like:
10 PRINT "Hello World"
20 GOTO 10
The First line is interpreted and a
piece of machine code is executed to
output the characters 'Hello World'
to the screen. Then the second line is
interpreted, and the interpreter
realises it has to jump to a line
labelled '10'. It then has to search
through the program (mercifully short
in this case] to find the line labelled
'10' and continue from there. By now
it has completely forgotten what line
1 meant, so it has to re-interpret if
before it can perform the output
again. Stopping the program and
running it again would mean that the
whole lot has to be translated once
more. Clearly not an ideal situation.
While on the subject of
interpreters, it is probably as well to
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 t JUNE 1991
PROGRAMMING
mention scripts. Scripts are simply a
collection of operating system
commands contained in a File. This
file is executed by typing EXECUTE
filename, where filename is the name
of the file containing the script.
EXECUTE is itself an operating system
command. Such commands are used
from the CU or shell (a text-based
method of interacting with the
Amiga, as opposed to the graphic
interface of the Workbench], Each
time a command is typed, the
operating system searches through
the disk and if it can find a file with
that name, it loads it and attempts to
execute it. At the simplest level, a
script saves typing the same
sequence of commands over and
over again. Once a script is
executed, each of the commands it
contains is executed in turn as if they
had been typed at the keyboard.
An example script might be:
cd sys:mysource/c
dir
which would set the current directory
to 'sys:mysource/c' and then give a
listing of the files located there.
Because AmigaDOS is a
relatively sophisticated operating
system, more impressive things can
be accomplished. AmigaDOS scripts
have a limited understanding of the
idea of variables (places where
values can be remembered and
subsequently changed).
Scripts can accept parameters (in
much the same way that the
command 'cd' in the above example
took the parameter
'sys;mysource/c'j. They also allow
simple control structures to be
created, giving the programmer the
opportunity to control the flow of
execution in a program in a similar
manner to that of Basic or C.
However, programs written in
AmigaDOS are difficult to read, and
because of the limited number of
error messages AmigaDOS supplies,
they can be murder to debug.
Compile a pile
Compilers, on the other hand,
translate a program wholesale. Like
interpreters, they work on programs
in the form of text files (known as
'source code') but they don't execute
them. Instead, like assemblers, they
produce object code which then must
be linked to create an executable
machine code file.
Once a program has been
compiled, it stays compiled. It can be
run as many times as you like,
continued on page 88
BREAKDOWN OF AN ITERATIVE PROGRAM IN BASIC AND ASSEMBLER
Comments
Basic
Assembler
First define our variables; .T and '}' [or 45 and d6J ate
the iteration counts, n \d7) is; the value of the factorial. In
Basic, variables generally don't have to be declared
unless you want to specify a particular size .and; type, In
assembler, it's easiest to use the processor registers • if
more variables ore needed, you have to start allocating
memory -for fhem . a5. holds' the address of- the siring '. . ;
where all the results are written before -output inlf»
assembler version
. DEFIMT l,j
DSFLMG n ■
to
* now do -'our factorials
Set op the externa! loop using i os the count. Basic
allows this to be done with the 'FOR:,. NEXT' construct -
with assembler it has to be done stage by stage;
OS i=l TO
Set the answer to .1, initially
Set up the internal loop using j os the count.
n becomes equal to its old. value : multiplied by j
end the internal loop
EEEXT.'.jj
print i and its factorial, n
end Hie externa! loop
The examples
Each of the programs shown prints out a table of factorials for values between I and 8. ■ .
After 8, the factor Eats begin to' get very big very quickly. '
Tablet:
Factorial - the iterative way
The idea here is to have two bops, one inside the other. The outer one' uses :-a variable m
a counter, starting at one and having' one added 16 it 'each time the loop executes.: After; ■
the counter has exceeded eight, the loop finishes. The inner one is used to compute the .
factorial for each of the Counter values given by the outer one.
Baste
Basic, standing for Beginners' All Purpose Symbolic instruction Code, was originally
designed as a language to teach people to prog nam before they learn! enough- to go; on
to bigger and better languages. It's largely because of the home computer boom thot
Basic has survived as well as it has. Onihe way it has improved enormously and taken
on many of the features of so-called better languages.
AmigaSasic, along with most oiher variants, is interpreted, which means it is slow.
Also it won't olfow recursion; The two biggest alternatives, H'iSaft Basic and GfA ftasrc.
■#0,d5
'#1,37
rroveq.
/adder, b
move . b-
addi.b
;' HKJVe , b
#i',d6
n : ,m
*p, ae
do, Ia5
increment i
turn i- to
ASCII and put
in output;'.
. IttUiU'
n=n*]
im.
adclci.b
bra ■'
d5,d6
done
#l,d6
■nextj
does. t=j
yes? finished
no? 3=3+1
do it again
;B;:
addouf put .37 (the
; result) onto
■; ■ output
#8,d5
■ nexti
does i=a
if not, go
; back for
'j next
both will jcmd compilers ate aval table for bom). AMOS is another interpreted Basic,
although a compiler is due in the near future, but currently it will not support recursion.
■Btlfz Basic, :by; Memory And Storage technology, is a new addition to the scene,
similar :"m many ways to AMOS, but compiled. Also available is Cursor (FF 347}, a
public .domain compiler for AmigaSasic, but it wiH hot handle some of AmigaFJasic's
mare advanced features,
:■ ISre.chosen AmigaBasieto show theiterative method, since it is the one language
that everybody has access to.
Assembler
A' recursive assembler solution could' have been written, but it would have just been a lot
more difficult to do. Because the multiplication was done using the 68000 MULU
instruction, which takes two 16bitn umbers : {te, with a maximum size of 65535), the
.routine won't, work tor arguments bigger than nine.
"Hie program was written and assembled with HiSoft's Devpcc 2, An alternative
: package is; Argonaut Software's AraAsm package.'.
■ The segments of the code needed to open and close ihe DOS library and to output
■ the results held in dTate not included -they would .have trebled the length of the listing.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 991
PROGRAMMING
continued from page 87
without ever having to be translated
again. And whereas an interpreter
carries with it code to handle every
eventuality the language might throw
up, compiled code is task specific. If
the program never makes output to
the screen, then the linker won't
bother including the code to print to
the screen. (This rather depends on
the intelligence of the linker,
however. Some of the older ones can
be quite inefficient,]
Although compilers produce
machine code, this code tends to run
slightly slower and takes up more
memory than the equivalent program
written directly in assembler. Such is
the nature of compilers: they are
programs designed to cater for all
the language's possibilities.
Programmers can spend all the time
they like trying to find the best
possible set of machine code
instructions to perform a task.
However, it is much easier to write a
long program in a high-level
language, and the speed
disadvantage is negligible unless the
program needs to be very fast.
One of the main disadvantages
of a compiler is the so-called
development cycle. To create a
program, the programmer first of all
has to load an editor and type the
statements in as text. Having done
this, the whole lot must be saved as a
text or source file. Then the compiler
is loaded; and it sets to work
producing an object file. After that,
the linker has to be loaded and
made to produce an executable file.
This file is then loaded and executed.
If the program has a mistake in it, the
editor has to be loaded and the
original source file checked through
and modified. Then compilation and
linking has to be done all over again.
It con be an infuriating business.
The best solution is to have both
an interpreter ond a compiler for the
same language. When a program is
still being written and tested it can be
done with an interpreter; once the
programmer is hoppy with it he or
she can compile and link it to create
a finished product.
In fact, not all compilers produce
machine code. Some produce
assembly language code which then
has to be translated by an assembler
into machine code. Others produce
an intermediate code which is then
executed by an interpreter. An
example of this was the p-code
created by early Pascal compilers. P-
code is similar to machine code, but
is not processor specific, so a small
interpreter has to be present
whenever the program is executed to
make the line-by-line conversion into
machine code.
BREAKDOWN OF A TYPICAL RECURSIVE PROGRAM TO CONTRAST
Comments
c
PASCAL
Program titles - only required by Pascal and Modulo 2
Program ' Factor ial ;
include necessary libraries for input and output - in the
case of Modula-2, these have to be linked in.
:ftinc.
.ude' <;stdio.h>
{51 "cthl :pcct/lnclude/scrinql.ib.i*} '■
Definition of function to compute factorial, taking an
integer j as a parameter. For AmigaDOS this must be
saved as a file called 'factor'.
fact ( i J
1 .Kjn^tion Fact!j : Integer) : Integer ,-
if j is. 1 , then return the answer 1
■if ij==l)
return ( 1 ) ,-
if j = l then
Fact:'=l.
Otherwise, the answer returned is [ multiplied by the
' factorial of (j - 1 j. In AmigaDOS, several temporary files
have ta be used for recursion to take place.
else
return ( j * fact £ j - 1 1 ) ;
else
FacCts ( j*Fact ( j-1 j j ;
[ artel ;
■Main harness segment which loops between 1 and 8.
for logo, it is defined as a function which must be called
' with 'Factorial t'. The AmigaDOS version must be saved
as a file colled 'factorial'.
main£ )
r
Declare E as an integer variable For our loop
jnsi gned int i ;
var i: integer;
, begin
Set up the'loop
for i:=l to 8 ao begi
print out i and the the factorial of i, by calling the
function 'tact' with i as an argument
L'.rj.nti £*%d
•d\n"
fact ( i i
Write (i) ;
Write C" "j;
WriteLr. IFact (
End of the iterative loop. In both toga and AmigaDOS
this is done by calling the main function again- with the
count variable i as a parameter.
end;
and.
Factorial - the recursive Way
In this case we have two separate segments of code. The first Is a loop which counts from
one to eight, as in the iterative examples. Each time through the loop, the second
segment of code is called as a function. The function - in this cose the bit that actually
computes the factorial - is executed and, once it has finished, it passes control back to
the statement immediately following the one that called it. [The computer keeps a track of
where each function is called from, so the factorial Function could be called several times
from several different places in a large program, and control would always be returned
ta the correct place on completion of the function.}
C is almost certainly the most commonly used language on the Amiga, ft is a- compiled
language and therefore pretty damn fast (probably the fastest next to assembler].
Because it allows easy access to the low-level facilities of the machine (as does
assembler), but combines this with the structured elements of a high-level language, it is
on excellent choice for interfacing with or, indeed, writing an operating system.
The program above was written in SAS C 5.10. However, it should work equally
welt with Manx's Aztec C. There is quite a large number of public domain compilers
available far the Amiga, including North C (PDOM 211) and PDC (Fred Fish disk 351).
See the shopping list on page 90 for a list of all the compilers, assemblers and
interpreters mentioned in this article.
Pascal
Pascal, another complied language, was originally designed by Niklaus Wirth as a
tutoring language. As with Basic, it achieved much more success than was expected, and
has been enhanced by the many libraries written far it since its inception. Many
commercial programs are written in Pascal. .
The program was compiled with PDQ, the public domain Pascal compiler an Fred
Fish disk 339. There are no commercial Pascal compilers available for the Amiga as yet,
although HiSoft plan to release one. in the near future.
88
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •JUNE 1991
PROGRAMMING
Most languages you are likely to
come across are what are known as
procedural languages. Programs
written in such a language carry out
one procedure or activity after
another in an ordered sequence
determined by the programmer.
However, there is another type of
language - on the surface of it,
completely different from the
procedural variety - and that is the
Functional language.
Programs operate on data. They
take data as input, do something with
it and produce data as output. This is
analogous to a mathematical
function. For example, the multiply
function takes two numbers as input
and returns the product of these
numbers as output. It gives a
'mapping' between one set of
numbers and another. Two numbers
in one set always yield the same
number in the second set.
Def your func thong
Functional programs are made up of,
surprisingly enough, function
definitions. Low-level functions, such
as multiplication, addition and so on,
are predefined in the language.
Other functions can be created by
combining these together;
combination of the resulting functions
can create even more powerful
functions. The net result is one top-
level function. When called with
some input data, this Function will
return the required output. No
ordering is specified by the
programmer; there are no possible
operations other than function
definitions.
One of the advantages of
programming in this way is that
functions are amenable to
mathematical reasoning. It is possible
to look at a program and prove that
it will give a certain output for a
certain input. It is common
knowledge that there is no such thing
as an error-free program, and finding
all the errors in a procedural
program is largely af matter of trial
and error (as it were).
Functional languages are nearly all
interpreted. They are still almost
exclusively the preserve of the
academics. The most common
functional language is Lisp (from List
Processing, a list being a method of
storing data], which is used for
research into artificial intelligence.
Looked at from another way, one
program is pretty much the same as
another. You would expect a
program to multiply two numbers
together to give the same output for
the same input whether written in C,
assembly language or Lisp, All
programs can be viewed as
continued mi page 90
THE WAYS IN WHICH IT IS EXPRESSED IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES
MkODULA 2
Logo
Dos
MODULE factorial;
FROM XnOut IMPORT
Wr i t eCar &> Wr it eLn , Wr i t eS t r irsg ;
?R0CE;
act!i: CARDINAL) ; CARDINAL;
TO Fac
IF (jal] THEN
RETURN tj*fact(j~l)! ;
OUTPUT <:j*Fact : j-l)
2C;
END fact (
ENI
TO Factoric
if val »-{j};" EQ "1»-
echo "(result) '
else.
eval {j}-l to t:j ifcrmat
eval (result }*J{j}-l) to t:£act
lformat.".k i*il,bra <*n.ket ) *nEX£CUTE
«t:j Mill: factor result=%n ?*n»
execute f: fact
end if
.key i
.bra {
.ket. }
~SRDIt$&,;
BBGIM
FOR i;=l TO 8 DO
feit«Cardii,'l) ; ■
WrireStiingf *
WricaCard ( fact ( i) ,
5'i'riteLnU ;
PRIK
Fact :i]
END;
EKD
Modula-2
This tithe successor to Pascal, written by the same person, but with many of the features
that C oFfers. It is a compiled language. Programs in Modula-2 are written as a collection
of modules which may be compiled and tested separately, according to the design
philosophy of breaking problems into small, manageable segments.
C also allows this approach, but in Modula-2 the permissible interactions between
modules may be defined very closely by the programmer, so the compiler con easily spot
the erroneous use of any particular module.
The compiler used was ' A+L's M2 Amiga. Modula-2, a public domain compiler, is
also available on PDOM cjO.
Logo is an unusual one. Most of its commands are concerned with moving an imaginary
turtle around the screen and letting it leave a trail behind it, the idea being that young
children can learn programming by seeing immediate graphical results from the
Factorial ;;.-"
Jef i '1
echo "'{i}: " noline
execute factor {i}
echo >env:tmp{$$} {i}
eval >nil: <env:tiap{$$) to=env:i{$$j
valae2kL op=+ ?
if .val $i{$$> not G" 8
execute <env : i { $$ } >nd 1 :
factorial ?
endif
programs they write. Although interpreted, it allows recursion and the creation of
sophisticated functions by the inclusion of smaller, simpler ones.
Despite its humble aims, it is stil! powerful enough to handle our Factorial function.
It is not recommended for speed intensive applications, however!
The version used was Afogo, a public domain interpreter available on APDC 25.
AmtgaDOS 1.3
Just to show it-can be done, here is a version of factorial written in AmigaDOS script
language. The two sections have fo be written and saved separately; the controlling
program as 'factorial', the program that actually computes the factorial as 'Factor'
Note that the controlling program uses recursion to implement an iterative loop.
Normally this wouldn't be necessary, but there seems fa be a bug when skipping back to
a label if another script has been executed in the meantime.
Recursion is one way around this, bul unfortunately, the code is not exactly easy to
read, and it runs very, very slowly.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 »JUNE 1991
89
PROGRAMMING
continued from page 89
functions; as black boxes (of which
the insides are unimportant) that give
certain outputs for certain inputs. So
what is the difference between each
of the languages? Some are
designed with certain tasks in mind,
so those particular tasks are simpler
to perform in such languages. For
instance, Basic is designed to allow
string handling (a string is a list of
characters - a word, For example, is
a string of letters] and so has specific
commands to create strings, add
them together, remove chunks From
them, and so on. Modula-2, on the
other hand, has none of these
facilities as standard; they can either
be called from a Modula-2 library or
written by the programmer using
simpler elements of the language.
Sometimes, a language will be
particularly specialised towards a
certain task, such as Lisp towards
Languages - a quick guide:
• AmigaDOS - best used for
those simple utilities that make
a programmer's life easier.
• Assembler - can be used for
anything, but is only used for
large programs if speed and
compactness are important.
• Basic - primarily for
beginners, but can be used for
text and numerical processing.
It's good for simple games too.
• C - ideal for accessing low-
level system functions, writing
operating systems and games.
Almost as fast as assembler.
• Logo - a graphics-oriented
educational language, best
used for producing fractal and .
spirograph-style drawings.
• Modula 2 - an educational
language. Reasonably fast.
• Pascal - predecessor to
Modula-2. Similar capabilities.
Other languages available in
the public domain include:
• Forth (APDC 25) - a low-level
language used for systems
programming.
• Lisp (FF 1 8 1 } - a functional
language used for artificial
intelligence applications
• Prolog (FF 140+141) - used
for expressing logical
formulations and artificial
intelligence research.
• Smalltalk (FF 37) - a slow
general purpose language
based on the idea that data,
rather than, program t ,. t . . ^
statements; are the important
objects in a program.
artificial intelligence. Although any
Lisp program could be re-written in
assembly language, it would not be
sensible to do so if the program was
of any length.
Certain applications demand
certain languages. In the factorial
comparison tables on pages 87 to
89, you will see several versions of
the classic factorial program, each
written in a different language,
pointing out syntactical differences.
Factorial is a mathematical
function much used in statistics. The
factorial of a number n is written as
nl, and is defined as:
n! = r.*(n-l)*(n-2)*(n-j) *3*2*1
which is to say that the factorial of a
number is the result of multiplying all
numbers together between one and
the number in question. Defined as
such, it is only applicable to positive
BUYS
A compiler is a program which
takes another program as its
input. Is this program a program
or is it data? If the compiler is
written in a high-level language,
and made to compile itself, is the
compiler a program or data?
» 8t BOBS
whole numbers.
There are two quite different
approaches to produce a factorial
program. The first, known as an
'iterative' method, can be done in
any language. It is called 'iterative'
because the program goes through a
series of iterations before the result is
produced. Three variables are
required to do this. Variables are
rather like the letters used in algebra;
they are words (or single characters)
that represent numbers. Whenever
such a word is seen within a
program, it is understood to be
referring to the number that it
represents.
In Basic, a value is assigned to
the variable 'Fred' by typing:
Fred
10
Then if the statement 'PRINT Fred' is
typed, the number '10' will be
output. Variable names can be
substituted for numbers in
mathematical expressions, so that
typing 'PRINT 12+Fred-4' would
output the result '1 8',
In the case of the factorial
program, the first variable we need
has to hold the value of the number
whose factorial we want to find.
We'll call this variable 'I',
We also need a variable that will
hold the result of the program. This
variable, n, has an initial value of 1 .
We want to multiply n by every
number between 1 and i, according
to the definition of factorial. To do
this we use a third variable, j. This
begins with a value of 1 . We
multiply n by j, then increase j by one
and repeat the process. This goes on
until j exceeds the value of i, by
which time n holds the factorial of i.
The second method uses a
technique called 'recursion'. A
recursive function, put simply, is one
that makes reference to itself in its
definition. With the factorial, the
function definition is:
The factorial of a number n = n *
the factorial of (n-1)
n is known as the parameter of the
function. Substituting 4 for n and
working through this, it expands to:
The factorial of 4=4*3*2*1*
* -1
What we actually we want is the
factorial of 4 = 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 . To do
this we have to modify our definition
by including a 'base case'. This is a
termination point, a part of the
definition which does not make
reference to itself. What we want is:
The factorial of n =
1, if n is 1
n * the factorial of (ri-
ll , otherwise.
If you imagine the computer working
through this, with n=4, it will try and
multiply 4 and factorial of 3 together.
This means that the factorial function
has to be called once more, but with
n=3. And so on until n-1, at which
point the function actually produces a
result. Then the function that called
this bottom-level function can also
produce a result, and the function
that called that one, and so on.
Eventually, the function called with
n=4 returns the final result. Each time
the function is called, the variable n
refers to a separate value from that
which it referred to in the calling
function. The variable is known as a
'value' parameter. This is because,
when the function is called with a
variable as an argument, this
variable's value is copied into the
parameter n. But although n and the
argument have the same value, they
are not the same variable. If n is
modified within the function, this will
not effect the value of the variable
used as an argument. Not ail
languages allow the use of value
parameters, so not all languages
allow recursion.
Finally
Hopefully you now have a better
idea of which programming
language would suit you. Next month
I'll be testing each of the compilers
available to see which produces the
fastest, most compact code. > H
ooooooooo
Shopping List
Bask
HiSoft Bask (compiler) £49.95
from HiSoft
The Old School, Greenfield
Bedford, MK45 5DE
-=■ 525 718181
GFA Bask (interpreter) £50
from Gf A Data Media
(compiler, interpreter required £30)
Box 121, Woklnghom
Berkshire. RGl 1 1 FA
a 0734 794941
AMOS [interpreter) £49.99
from Mandarin Software
Freepost, Eilesmere Port
South Wirral, L65 3EB
a 051 3571275
Bliti Bask [compiler) £69.99
from Siren Software
84-86 Princess Street
Manchester, Ml 6WG
a 061 228 1831
Cursor [ff 347) [compiler) £3
from (among others)
Public Do mi not or
PO Box 801, Bishop's Stanford
Herts, CM233TZ
"0279757692
Assembler
Devpart £59.95
from HiSoft
AtgAsm £59.95
from Argonaut Software
66b The Broadway, Mill Hill
London, NW73TF
« 081 906 4253
c
545 C 5.1 £229
from HiSoft
Manx's Alter ( Professional ..,£129.95
from Precision Software
Developer's £229.95
6 Park Terrace, Worcester Park
Surrey, KT4 7JZ
* 081 330 714
MwriC{FD0M211) .£3
from Public Dominator
PDC(FF351) .£3
from Public Dominator
Pascal
PCfl(FF339) £3
from Public Dominator
Modula-2
A+t'smAmiga £125
from Real Time Associates
Conning House
59 Canning Road, Croydon
Surrey, CR0 6QF
b fill 656 7333
Modula-2 [PD0M 60) £3
from Public Dominator
Logo
JlloplAPDCZS] £3
from Public Dominator
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
ASSEMBLER
PROGRAMMING
Vector Check
In last month's Amiga Shopper Jolyon Ralph gave you the first half of
fits VectorCheck program. As promised, here is the rest of the code
that you v/ill need to complete the program and get it up and running
STRUCTURES
These are the complete structures
for EXECBASE, GFXBASE and
INTUITIONBASE. VectorCheck
reports on a selection of these
system variables, there's nothing
to stop you enhancing the
program to report on the others.
Execbase
BYTE NAME
TYPE
LibNode
Structure
34 SoftVer
UWORD
36 LowMemChkSurrt WORD
38 ChkBase
ULONG
42 ColdCapture
APTR
46 CoolCapture
APTR
50 WarmCapfure
APTR
54 SysStkUpper
APTR
58 SysStk Lower
APTR
62 MaxLacMem
ULONG
66 Debug Entry
APTR
70 DebugData
APTR
74 AlertData
APTR
78 MaxExtMem
APTR
82 ChkSum
WORD
84 IntVects
Structure
276 ThisTask
APTR
280 IdleCount
ULONG
284 DispCount
ULONG
288 Quantum
UWORD
290 Elapsed
UWORD
292 SysFlags
UWORD
300 ResModules
APTR
304 TaskTrapCode
APTR
308 TaskExceptCode
APTR
312 TaskExitCode
APTR
316 TaskSlgnalAlloc
ULONG
320 TaskTrapAltoc
UWORD
322 MemList
Structure
336 ResourceList
Structure
350 DevkeList
Structure
364 intrList
Structure
378 LibList
Structure
392 PortList
Structure
406 TaskReady
Structure
420 TaskWait
Structure
continued on page 92
This month I'll start by
explaining what VectorCheck
does, and how useful it is.
Basically it is a program that
keeps track of a lot of the Amiga's
important internal system addresses,
things that most of the time you
would never have to touch. It can tell
you some interesting things about the
way your system is set up.
For example, VectorCheck gives
you the current address of Four
important system libraries. You will
Find that these addresses vary from
machine to machine, and even on
the same machine they will
sometimes be in different places,
depending on what software you
have run.
Moving experience
This demonstrates the most important
aspect of programming on the Amiga
- something most people who come
to the Amiga from another home
computer don't realise - that hardly
anything in memory is at a fixed
location. Things tend to move about
all over the place.
For example, on your machine
the Exec library location will
probably be either $676 or
$c00676. On my Amiga 3000 it is
at $7c007cc, though if I boot up
again it might be somewhere else.
It's very easy to think that just
because your machine always comes
up with one value, that it's the only
value For all machines. The Amiga
doesn't work that way. You have to
assume that everything can (and very
likely will) change. The only
exception to this is EXECBASE, which
we talked about last week - a pointer
to EXECBASE is always stored at
location $00000004.
Last month I talked briefly about
the structure of a library. It consists of
a table of J MP $xxxxxx commands
extending backwards in memory
from the library base address. As I
mentioned in that article, there is also
code after the base address in
memory. It's important to remember
that the library's so-called base
address actually points to somewhere
in the middle of the library structure
in memory.
The rest of the code and data
that sits in the library is made up of
two components. First, libraries
loaded from disk (info. library,
diskfont. library, for example) have
the code for the actual library
//
Hardly anything in
memory is at a
fixed location.
Things move all
over the place"
routines following in memory. ROM-
based libraries don't; the routines for
these are stored in ROM.
The data that immediately follows
the library base address is called the
library base structure. This contains
all sorts of useful information that the
library can tell you, and that you can'
tell the library in return.
The most important of these is the
EXECBASE structure. It is 588 bytes
long and consists of lots of system
variables. It can tell you what
processor your program is running
on, whether it is a PAL or a NTSC
machine, what tasks are running,
and plenty of other useful things.
My VectorCheck program
displays some of the following values
for you: ColdCapture, CoolCapture,
WarmCapture: these are all usually
set to zero. They are addresses for
programs that are run only when the
Amiga has been reset. Some
recoverable RAM disks will use these,
but it's also the favourite hiding place
of viruses.
A virus. killer will usually only
check memory for certain types of
continued cm page H
JARGON BUSTING
APTR: Amiga PoinTeR, a 32 bit address pointing to something in memory.
BIT:
A binary digit, with a possible value of zero or one.
COPPER LIST: A series of instructions (i.e. a program) for the Amiga's display
co-processor. This is responsible for performing all the clever changes
that allow {for example) the top of the display to be in la-res and the
bottom to be in med-res, both with different sets of colours.
INCLUDE FILES: supplied by Commodore, provide all the offsets needed to access
system library routines, and the formats for all system structures.
NTSC: National Television Systems Committee, the North American television and
video standard.
PAL Phase Alternate Linescan, the television and video standard used in the
UK and most of Europe.
SIGNED/UNSIGNED: Normally, binary numbers are treated as always positive
(unsigned). If negative numbers are required, then a system known as
'two's-complement' is used, whereby the most significant bit is set to zero
if the number is positive, one if it is negative. The value of such a negative
number tan be found by subtracting from it the number one greater than
the maximum possible for the given number of bits* So for eight-bit two's-
complement, 255 represents the number minus one (found by subtracting
256 from 255).
STRUCTURE: A collection of longwards, words, pointers, bytes and/or other
Structures defined in a particular order in the include files.
TASK: A program running in memory. Under multi-tasking, each task appears to
have its own 68000 processor, without having to worry much about other
tasks interrupting it.
UBYTE: An unsigned byte, consisting of eight bits, capable of holding a value
between Oand 255.
ULONG: An unsigned longword, consisting of 32 bits, capable of holding a value
between and 4294967296.
UWORD: An unsigned ward, consisting of 16 bits, capable of holding a value
between and 65536.
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
ASSEMBLE
PROGRAMMING
continued (ram page 91
virus, but if you make sure that these
three vectors and the KickMemPtr and
KickTagPtr are all clear, you are safe
from almost every virus threat.
Note that the VectorCheck
automatically updates every second. If
you think a program of yours might
contain a virus, run VectorCheck,
check the values, run the program that
you think might by dodgy, and look at
the VectorCheck screen. If these values
have altered, then you've probably
got yourself a virus.
Structures & stuff
And now, here are some explanations
of information to be found after the
base addresses of the three common
libraries listed in the Structures column,
starting on page 91.
SysStkUpper,SysStk Lower:
This shows whereabouts in memory
the system stack is. Fiddle with these
at your peril!
MaxLocMem:
Gives the size of chip memory In your
system. This will either be $80000 for
5 1 2k chip machi nes, $ 1 00000 for
1Mb chip machines, or $200000 for
machines with 2Mb chip memory
[only the Amiga 3000 at the moment).
MaxExtMem:
Points to the end of extended memory
(slow memory). This is the memory
which lives outside the Amiga's 8Mb
fast memory map ($200000 to
$9fffff). It's called slow memory
because it doesn't have any of the
speed advantages of fast memory, but
it isn't chip memory because the
custom chips can't access it. The
memory in the A501 5 12k card for
the Amiga is slow memory, as are
most of the 1 .5Mb cards for the
A500 MaxExtMem will be set to $0 if
you have no slow memory, to
$c80000 for most people with an
A501 , and possibly to $d00000 or
$d80000 if you have a trap-door card
with more than 5 1 2k on it.
Debug Entry:
This is a pointer to the built-in
debugger in the ROM, called
ROMWack. When the machine
crashes you have an option to run the
built-in debugger rather than Guruing.
Most people don't know this, but if
you press the right mouse button
instead of the left button when the
Amiga crashes, the debugger is
automatically loaded.
The downside of this is you need
another computer, or terminal,
connected to your serial port to use it,
but by altering the DebugEntry value
you can set your own debugger to be
used instead. Most other debuggers
use the serial port as well, but a friend
of mine is writing a monitor that
displays everything on the Amiga.
Sometimes you can recover from a
guru very easily using o debugger and
return to multi-tasking.
The other libraries have base
structures too, and I've also given
some information from the Graphics
library and the Intuition library.
AetiveView:
Displays a pointer to the current active
view. A view is a structure that
contains information about the current
display. Intuition has its own view,
and all screens and windows are
displayed an the same view. Some
programs bypass Intuition and create
their own view.
Coplnit, Long Frame, Short Frame:
These are the pointers to three system
copper lists. The first is the small initial
copper list that jumps to either the
LongFrame or the ShortFrame list. The
ShortFrame list is only used when there
are interlaced screens being
displayed, at which time the
LongFrame and ShortFrame lists are
called alternately.
BlitOwner;
Points to the task that has control of
the blitter. If you want to use the blitter
directly, you must use the OwnBlitj)
and DisownBlitj) commands to make
sure no one else is trying to use the
blitter at the same time. This tells you
exactly which task is currently owning
the blitter. Most of the time it should
be zero.
Acti veWi ndow:
Tells you which window is currently
active, if you had not already
guessed. All input is directed to the
IDCMP connected to this window,
ActiveScreen:
Tells you the screen containing the
active window.
FirstScreen:
Tells you the address of the top screen
in the Intuition view. If you want to
check to see if your screen is at the
front, this is where you look.
Copper lists
Finally, as I promised last month, a bit
on user copper lists. If you read the
Hardware Reference Manual, it
explains how to set up copper lists by
direct register poking. If you read the
ROM Kernel Reference Manual it
explains briefly about setting up o user
copper list structure, but not very well.
The example code given in the book is
wrong, and it's only relevant for C
because it uses macros which are not
available in assembler. All the
commands below are found in the
Graphics library.
To set up o user copper list you
first have to allocate some memory for
a UCopList structure. (It doesn't need
to be chip.) Once you've done this,
you have to call the (undocumented)
UCopperListlnit command. The format
for this command is:
UCopperListlnit ( UCopl i st ,
' NumberCommands )
continued from page 91
154
SpriteReserved
BYTE
434 SofHnts
Structure
155
bytereserved
BYTE
514 Last Alert
Structure
156
Flags
WORD
530 VBIankFrequency
158
BlitLock
WORD
UBYTE
160
BlitNest
WORD
531 Power Supply Frequency
162
BlitWaitO
Structure
UBYTE
184
BlitOwner
APTR
532 SemaphoreList
Structure
188
TOFWaitQ
Structure
546 KickMemPtr
APTR
210
DisplayFlags
WORD
550 KickTagPtr
APTR
212
SimpleSprites
APTR
554 KickCheckSum
APTR
216
MaxDisplayRow
558 ExecBaseReserved
WORD
Structure
218
MaxDisplayColumn
568 ExecBaseNew Reserved
WORD
Structure
220
NormalDisp lay Rows
WORD
Gfxbase
222
Norma ID isp layCol u mns
BYTE NAME
TYPE
WORD
LibNode
Structure
224
NormalDPMX
WORD
32 AetfView
APTR
226
NormalDPMY
WORD
36 copinit
40 cia
APTR
APTR
228
LasfChanceMemory
APTR
44 blitter
APTR
232
LCMptr
APTR
48 LOFlist
APTR
236
MicrosPerLine
WORD
52 SHFlist
APTR
238
MinDispl ay Column
56 blthd
APTR
WORD
60 blttl
APTR
240
reserved
Structure
64 bsblthd
APTR
Intuitionbase
68 bsblttl
APTR
BYTE NAME
TYPE
72 vbsrv
Structure
■
LibNode
Structure
94 timsrv
Structure
106 bltsrv
Structure
32
ViewLord
Structure
128 TexrFonts
Structure
50
ActiveWindow
APTR
142 DefaultFont
APTR
54
ActiveScreen
APTR
146 Modes
UWORD
58
FirstScreen
APTR
148 VBIank
Byte
62
Flags
ULONG
149 Debug
f
Byte
66
MouseY
WORD
1 50 BeamSync
UWORD
68
MouseX
WORD
1 52 system bplconO
WORD
70
Seconds
ULONG
74
Micros
ULONG
commands you will need. Remember
that each MOVE and WAIT you issue
are one command each. CBump is not
a copper command, so it doesn't
count.
Once this is done you can add
your copper commands by the
following:
CMove (UCopList , Register ,
Value)
-372 Al
DO. Dl
DO is the hardware register to poke
(the full address, $dffl80 for
example), Dl is the word length value
to poke into it ($0000 for example).
CWait {UCopList, Y , X)
-378 Al DO Dl
-594 A0 DO
■ This will add a WAIT instruction to
It's safe to over-estimate the number of I your copper list.
CBump [UCopList }
'-366 Al
You MUST issue a CBump command
after each CWait and CMove
command. This moves the copper
pointer along, otherwise each new
command would end up overwriting
the last one.
Once you have finished adding
commands, you must do a CWait for
an impossible position (10000,255 is
the standard wait) which will tell the
copper list where to end.
After that you must disable multi-
tasking with Forbidfl and set the
vpJJCoplns pointer in your Viewport
structure to point to your UCopList.
Then enable multi-tasking with Permit]),
call the Intuition RethinkDisploy]), and
your copper list should be running.
Now go to page 97 for the
second part of VectorCheck. CD
92
AMIGA SHOPPER* ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
EDUCATIONAL
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THE NEW - "BEGINNER'S GUIDE 10 AMIGADOS"
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leave you with a wealth of knowledge and expertise ■ £13*95
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package are two pairs of 3D specs Normal price £13.95 Ihif month ally El 1,95
EXTRA VAIUE!
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Cheques / P.O. 's to: WlZUFCl SoftWOte pep!. AMS1)
20, Hadrian Drive, Redhifls, Exeter, Devon. EX4 1SR
ASSEMBLER
PROGRAMMING
continued from page 92
VECTORCHECK LISTING PART II • VECTORCHECK LISTING PART II • VECTORCHECK
LABEL INSTRUCT
OPCODE COMMENT
LABEL
INSTRUCT
OPCODE COMMENT
* Second half of Vector check program.
CALLGRAF
Text
* Type this in after last month's code.
rts
hex2text
; converts dO into
section
subrout ines , code
ascii hex string at <a0)
Updatevecs move „w
»S18,VPos
moveq
#7,dl
move . 1
#50, HPos
-Ipl
rol.l
#4,d0
move . 1
#Title68k.msg,line2pri.nt
move . 1
d0,d2
bsr
print
and.b
#15, dD
add + w
l9,VPos
cmp.b
ble. s
#9,30
.lesslO
lea
vec69000,a5
addq.b
#7,d0
-.^H
vec68000.msg ,a4
.lesslO
add.b
#530, do
moveq
#16, 36
move.b
do, (aO)*
. lp move . 1
(a5J+,aO
move.l
da.dO
move. 1
faOl.dO
dbra
dl, .Ipl
roove.l
a4, line2print
rts
bsr
printstring
lea
31(a4l,a4
section
vecdata,data
dbra
di , . lp
vecSBOOO
del
0,B, 12, 16, 20, 32, 36, 40, 44, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116
add.w
#14, VPos
del
120,124,126
move.l
flLib . msg , line2print
libs
del
4 , _Gf xBase , _IntuitionBase,_DD5Base
bsr
print
execvec
del
ColdCapture,CoolCapture,WaoiCapture,SysSckUpper
add.w
tB,VPos
del
Sys5tkLower,MaxLocMem, MaxExtMem, Debug Entry
lea
libs, a 5
del
Ki ckMemFt r , K i GkTagPt r
gfxvec
del
gb_Actiview,gb_copinit,gb_LOFlist
lea
libs, msg, a4
del
gb_SHF list, gb_El i t owner
moveq
»3,d6
intvecs
del
ib_Activewindow, ib_Activescreen, ib_Firstscreen
. Ip2 move . I
(a5)t,s0
move , 1
(aO) ,d0
HPos
del
move . 1
a4, ldne2print
VPos
dew
bsr
printstring
line2print
del
lea
31 <aa) ad
dbra
d6 , . Ip2
colourtable
dew
$0eb, $0dc , $0cd, $0be , $0af , $19 f , $28f
dew
$37f,$46£,$55f,$64£,$73£,$82f,$91£,$a0£
move.w
#$lB,VPoe
dew
$b0e, $cOd,$d0c, $eOb,$f0a,$£lS,$f28,$f37
move. 1
#37 0, HPos
dew
$£46,$f55,$£64,$f73,$£e2,$f91,$faO,$ebD
move. 1
ttSxecbase.msg, line2print
dew
$dcO,$cdD,$beO,$afO,$9fl,$8f2,$7f3,$6f4
bsr
print
dew
$5f5,$4f6,S3f7,$2fB,$lf9,$0fa,$0
adcLw
#8, VPos
MyCmap
dew
0,$E££,$888,$444,0,0,0,0 ; colour map
lea
execvec, a 5
for screen
lea
execvec . msg , a4
dew
0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
moveg
#9,36
dew
O,$88B,Saaa,$ccc,O,0, 0,0
. lp3 move . 1
(a5l+,d0
dew
0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
move- 1
4,w,a6
move. 1
ta6,d0),d0
Title6Bk.msg
:;,-.:.
'68000 Processor vector values '
,0
move. 1
a4,line2print
vec68000.msg
dc.b
'Reset SSp ($0) soooooooo ■
,0
bsr
printstring
deb
'Bus Error $00000000
,0
lea
31 (a4) ,a4
dc.b
'Address Error $00000000 '
,0
dbra
dS, ,lp3
dc.b
'Illegal Instr $00000000 '
,0
dc.b
'Div by Zero $00000000
,0
add.w
#10, VPos
deb
'Priv, violation $00000000 '
,0
move.l
ttGfxbase.msg, line2print
deb
"Trace $00000000 '
,0
bsr
print
deb
'Axxx emulation $00000000 '
,0
add.w
#8, VPOS
dc.b
'Fxxx emulation $00000000
,0
Lea
gfxvecaS
dc.b
•Level 1 Int $D00OD0OO '
,0
Lea
gf xvec , msg , a4
dc.b
'Level 2 Int $00000000 '
,0
moveq
#4, as
dc.b
'Level 3 Int $00000000 '
,0
. Ip4 move . 1
(a5l+,d0
dc.b
'Level 4 Int $O0O000OD '
,0
move. 1
_G£xBase, a6
deb
'Level 5 Int $00000000 '
,0
move.l
(a6,dOI ,d0
dc.b
'Level 6 Int $00000000
,0
move.l
a4, line2print
dc.b
'Level 7 Int $00000000 '
,0
bsr
printstring
dc.b
'Trap #0 $00000000 '
,0
lea
31la4) ,a4
Lib. msg
dc.b
' Current library locations '
,0
dbra
d6, .lp4
libs .msg
deb
'Exec. library $00000000 '
,0
deb
'Graphics. library $00000000 '
,0
add.w
#10, VPos
dc.b
'Intuition. library $00000000 '
,0
move. 1
#Intbase.msg, line2print
deb
'DOS. library $00000000 '
,0
bsr
print
Execbase.msg
dc.b
Execbase structure info
,0
add.w
#a,VPos
execvec .msg
dc.b
'ColdCapture S0OD00O00
,
lea
i[itvecs,a5
dc.b
'CoolCapture $00000000
,0
lea
intvecs.meg,a4
dc.b
'WarmCapture $00000000 '
,0
moveg
#2,d6
deb
'SysStkUpper $00000000 '
,0
. Ip5 move.l
Ia5)+,d0
deb
'SysStkLower $00000000 '
,0
move. 1
_IntuitionBase,a6
deb
'MaxLocMem $00000000 '
,0
move. 1
laE.dD) ,d0
deb
'MaxExtHem $00000000 '
,0
move, 1
a4 , line2print
deb
'Debug Entry $00000000
,0
bsr
printstring
deb
'KickMemPtr $00000000 '
,0
lea
31(a4),a4
deb
'KickTagPtr $00000000 '
,0
dbra
d6, .lp5
G£xbase.msg
deb
' Gfxbase structure info '
,0
rts
gfxvec. msg
deb
'Active view $0'0000000 '
,0
dc.b
'Copinit address $00000000 '
,0
print string trove. 1
line2print, aO
dc.b
'Long frame cllst $00000000 -
,0
lea
$14(a0) ,a0
deb
'Short frame clist $OD00O00O '
,0
bsr. s
hex2text
deb
'Biit Owner $00000000 '
,0
print move.l
HPos , do
Intbase.msg
deb
' Intuit ionbase structure info '
,0
moveq
#0,dl
intvecs. msg
deb
'Active Window $00000000 '
,0
move . W
VPos , dl
deb
'Active Screen $00000000 '
,0
move. 1
MyRastPort , al
deb
'First Screen $00000000 '
,0
CALLGRAF
Move
add.w
#8, VPOS
DOSName
deb
*dos , 1 ibrary * ,
move.l
MyRastForC , al
GfxName
deb
"graph ic s . 1 i brary " ,
move. 1
Iine2print,a0
intName
dc.b
"intuition , 1 ibrary " ,
moveq
*$ld,dO
MvTitle
deb
"Vector checker by Jolyon salph. (CI iL'fligs shopper 1991. ",fl
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 991
93
CUMBRIA'S LEADING P.D. SUPPLIER
AT LAST NEW AMOS DISKS JUST ARRIVED AND ABOUT TIME TOO!
3-5" DISKS ONLY £3.00 FOR PKT 10
INCLUDING LABELS + £1.15 carriage per 10
D45 Punk Crac Megademo
D42 Puggs In Space
D69 Photomontage III
D70 Batman Trie Mouie
Demo
D6S Showbiz Animation
D59 Mike Tyson Animation
D49 Monty Python Demo
078 Bat- Dance Demo
D79 Walker Demo
(2 Disk. 2 Meg)
D62 Acid Force Compilation
AMOS LICENCEWARE
(£3.50 EACH)
ZL1 Colouring Book
ZL2 Arc Angels Math 5
ZL4 Thingrmajig
ZL5 Jungle Bungle [1 Meg i
ZL8 Worki Play (1 Meg)
ZL9 Amos Assembler req
Amos
ZLtO The Word Factory
ZLl 1 Go Getter Game 1 1 Meg)
ZL12 Hypnotic Lands
ADULT GAMES
AVAILABLE
OVER 18s ONLY
NEWS
IRAQ Iraq us USA Demo Disk
UTILITIES
U28 Soundlracker V4.0
U2t N.B.S. Speedbeneh
U32 Clight
U34 Amiga M.CAD V1 .2.5
1129 Prolrackei
U24 New Amiga Sample Player
U23 MEDV2.01 • Music Edit
U 1 1 NASA backup disk
U18 F- Copy 3
U26 Midi utility dish
U39 New 8 track snundlracher
U37 Soundmoise'Startra
(2 disks)
U27 Video progs (2 disks)
U31 Copiers t
U40 NoisetrackerVLU
U22 Visicalc - Spreadsheet
AMOS PD. GAMES (£1.99
each)
ZI02 Chain Saw Dealh
Z103 Pick Up A Puzzle (1 Meg)
21 10 Cross Fire (1 Megl
Z130 The Wodem Ball -(1 Meg)
ZI15 Balloonachy (1 Megl
2 1 37 Tile Tfite H 1 Meg)
AM05PD, DEMOS (C1 99
EACH)
Z124 Bob's Manic's Demo
11 Meg)
Z129 Music Demo 1
Z13! Armageddon Demo
ART
A30 Fantasy VI
A29 Disney 1 (Pictures &
Musicj
A15 Destination Doclands
A 1 4 Police Car Animation
GAMES
G1 Amoebi. Asteroids.
Cosmor
G5 Lingo. Bally. Nightworks
Q6 Packman 87
GB Startrek 3 1 Meg (2 disks)
G10 Start rek 2 1 Meg (3 disks)
G12 Breakout con kit
G14 Emerald Mine 3
G21 Paranoid
(Arkanoid Clone)
G22 Puzzle pro & puzzle make
G23 Train set
WOHD PROCESSING
W1 Word Wright
W3 Uedit with Amigaspell
SUPPLIES
3.5" disks Pkt 10 £3.00 +1.15
Deluxe Paints £51.97+3.45
Deluxe Print 2 E33.47+3.45
3.5" Second drive. . £59.95+3.45
51 2K Ram expansion
£39.50+3.45
Kind words V2
R.R.P. £49.95
Special C32.47+E3.45
SUPERBASE 2 PERSONAL
WITH FREE
SUPERPLANil MEG)
WHILE STOCKS LAST
WORKBENCH SPECIAL
E94.ap>E5.75
MASTERSOUND HARDWARE & SOFTWARE ONLY £26.67-^3.45
SEND 3 x 22P STAMPS FOR A DISK WITH CATA LOGUE & W.P. PROG
ALL DISKS
99 p
CARRIAGE FOR
EVERY 1 -10
DISKS £1.15
i.e. 7 = £1.15
20 = £2.30
FRED FISH 300 TO 350 AVAILABLE
WE STOCK THE COMPLETE STOCK
OF AMOS P.D. & LICENCEWARE
WORKBENCH P.D. DEPT AS9105
IBuccluech Street
Barrow-in-Furness
Cumbria LA1 4 1SR
Tel (0229) 473609
We can only take
phone calls
after 7.30pm
BBS after hours
- 30D 1200 2J0O ftps -
Price subject to change wilhoul notice 1
Otters while stocks last!
All prices include VAT
All sales subject to our Irade terms at trading
a II a n a n AiiAnAnAnAnAHAHAn
AUTHORISED DEALER FOR * AMIGA * STAR *
I AMIGA (UK MODELS ONLY)
| Amiga BOO: B2000 + 10S4SD +- Twin Floppies + The Works! Plat .£938.00 1
DPaint 3ffiattle Chess/Sim City/Popu [us/Their Finest House
I As above without monitor £679 00 1
I WHY NOT ENHANCE YOUR A1500 WITH ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWINC:-
I Supra 4SY80Mb Autoboot Drive Card , ,£319/399 I
SUPRA DRIVES INCLUDE EXPRESS COPY BACKUP & CLIMATE S/W
J XT Bridgeboard + 5,25" Drive + MSDOS 4.01 .£199,00 1
| AT Bridgeboard + 5.25" Drive + MSDOS 4.01 .£639.00 1
Supra 8Mb RAM Board Pop 2Mb , „ XI 79 00
Supra 8Mb RAM Board Pop4/b78Mb i27W379/479
Hi-Res Video Card (Flicker Fitter) , jE219 00
A500 SCRKEN GEMS Pack INCLUDING 512K RAM/CLOCK £379.00
A500 Base Pack „ X)ig 00
Commodore 64C NIGHT MOVES Pack .£149 95
PRINTERS
Citizen 120D+ .£135.00
Star LC-10 £159.00
Star LC-200 Colour £209.00
Star LC24-10 £209.00
Star LC24-200 .£259.00
Star LC24-200 Colour ,£299.00
Star XB24-10 24 pin
I NC COLOUR OPTION .£399 . 00
Okimate 20 Ribbons/Heads/Paper PHONE
MONITORS
Commodore 1084S Stereo , ,£259.00
Philips 8833-11 Stereo Colour .£249.00
Interquad Hi-Res Multi Scan 0.28mm Super VGA .,.£329 09
DISK DRIVES
A590 Autoboot 20Mb ._. £289.00
A2000 Internal 3.5; p & p £2 £69.95
A500 Replacement Internal 3.5" p & p£2 £69.95
Roctec Super Slim Amiga Ext 3.5" Metal Cased „ p & p £2 .£59.95
MISCELLANEOUS
KCS PC Board for A500 inc MSDOS 4.01 p & p£2 .£219 00
A500 RAM/Clock 512Kb with Disable Sw.... free p & p ..,..£39.00
RAM Chips for A590/2091 per 512Kb ■ ......£22.50
A500 Compatible Power Supply ■ , , £49 00
Kickstart V1.3 ROM for A500/2000 ..„." .£29 00
1Mb Fat Angus S372A " £75.00
C IA Chip 852 „ .,..' £ 1 6 .00
Vidi-Amiga PAL Frame Crabber inc filters " il29,00|
RGB Composite Video Splitter " £69.95 1
Surge Protector 4- Way Block/13A Plug ...p S p £2.^16.95/12.951
All Prices prtclude 17 5% VAT Carriage £5 lecnress £] fli Price* suhiect tn c hand? wilhfti it nntire FXFnl
i
1
a T>dta Pc Softtvane £td £
luswarp Lan
TEL/FAX:
a n An a n aii a n a 11 a iia n a n a n a n a
EI^S£2z Upgrade your Amiga 500
512K extension with clock
* Top-quality PCB and connector for total reliability
* Latest 1 meg D RAMs for low power consumption
* Auto-recharging battery-backed real-time clock
* Memory enable/disable
* Compact design
* Easily fitted in seconds. No risk to your warranty
No frills or gimmicks. Just a quality
product at the best price you'll find.
Also available:
* 512K extension without clock
* Half meg card with clock (no RAMs)
* Half meg card (no RAMs or clock)
£25.99 * RAM chips per % meg set £16.65
£15.50 * V-h. meg extension with clock £79.95
£1 1 .50 * IV2 meg card with clock (no RAMs) £30.00
Credit card hotline
24 - hour service
0734 890588
Same day dispatch
12 - month guarantee
E3
Virgo Developments Ltd, Sapphire House, Fishponds Road,
Wokingham, Berkshire, RG11 2QJ.
VES*
READER ADS
WANTED
Wanted. Sculpt Animate 4D or Turbo
Silver for 2D oriist who's bored with o Hat
screen. Andy Turner, Apartment 1 r
Torbanl Guest House, Croegoch, Dyfed,
Wales SA62 5JN
Wonted: Zork Zero. New or second
hand. State your price. No pirates.
Rob Dales, 3 Dobson Grove, Beeston,
Leeds LSI 1 5PE. Tel (0532] 701 75B
Modem. An/ speed up to V22bis, Hayes
compatible, BT approved, cable, manual.
Preferable with MNP connection. Amiga
compatible only. Tel. Neil after 6 pm on
(074488} 2835.
I'm looking Far a KCS PC powerboard
and an action replay MKII cartridge.
Sensible prices only. Write to Mark, Sox
H, Esyllt, Plas Gwyn, LlandaFf, Cardiff
CF5 2YQand include phone number.
Please can some kind soul sell me their
copy of Shanghai by Acti vision? I'm
getting desperated Pnone Sara on (0603]
407060.
Colour monitor for Amiga A500,
condition nor important but must be cheap
and in working order. Phone Mick on
(0322) 5583B9 or (0060] 546650.
A59Q Hard disk drive wonted. Please
phone John on |08l) 462 2713 (home or
(081)681 2666 (work).
Wanted! Amiga artists for graphical
production of AMOS related projects,
100% reply. Send example stuff to Mark
Venn, 3 Britten Drive, Goodie ig-h Rise,
Barnstaple, North Devon EX32 8AQ.
Minigen Genlock or similar cheap
Genlock. Tel. Steav on (0782| 48287.
Want to swap DPpaint 2 marual for
Devpac 2 manual. Write to: Mick, 70
Lonsdale Street, Nelson, Lanes. 689 9HG.
No photocopies please. Hi to Sparkey
and Sonic.
Action Replay wonted new or old model.
Must work! Also some decent PD utils. Far
the Action Replay, I will pay £35 and for
the PD appro* 50p without disks. D.
Leadsom, 18 Scarisbriek New Road,
Southport, Merseyside PR8 6PV. Tel.
[0704) 532640 between 5pm - 8pm.
Second hand Citizen 120D or Star LC10
mono printer. Tel. Ian on {0493) 651669
after 5 pm any week-day.
Amiga H/D SCSI wanted lOOmb. Phone
Dennis on (0603) 250740.
Our group requires coders to join our two
other coders, we have two extremely
good graphic and sound artists, Tel.
Simon (081)398 6289 or Mark on (081}
398 6071.
BBC MOD B with disk drive and cass
player wanted. Please contact Egil
Lovang, Molzfeldts Gt. 7, Oslo 1, N-
0187"or lei. Norway 2-17-71-80.
Help! I would like Pacland for the Amiga.
Searched everywhere for it to no avail.
Please help me. Will pay Far it. Contact S
Johnson, 133 Guildford Street, Grimsby,
South Humberside DN32 7PW,
Postage stamps For charity. Also broken
A500 internal disk drive to mess about
with please. B. Beltan, 5 Nep Close,
HenField, Sussex BN5 9HB. Tel. (0273)
492885
Cheap Modem for Amiga A50Q. Will
pay up to £70. Software not required.
Also, for sale, Cumana external drive.
John Mullen, 62 Lonsdale Street,
Workington, Cumbrio CA14 2YD. Tel.
(0900)61574.
Demo group Goldfire seeks goad graphic
artist, ideally in South East, Tel. Tom on
(0462)457514.
Wanted: Diskdoctor Cbne and any good
P.D. music somple rippers. Have good
number of P.D. disks to swap in return.
JamBs Bell, 29 Westonbiry Court, Ebley
Close, London SE15 6BH.
Wanted Now! I need a 2nd hand colour
monitor or portable TV before the wife
kills me for hogging the telly. Save my
lirelll Tel S Crevillen on (051) 645 5922.
Wonted: Good condition second hand
disk drive and 0.5K ram. Will pay good
price. Also back issues of Amiga Format
1 to 1 5 wanted + disks. Andrew Monk,
Mendale, 22 The Strand, Mablelhorpe,
Lincolnshire LN 12 1BG. Tel. (0507}
477428.
Amigo 500 wanted desperately, in lull
working order, with documentation. Cash
awaits, will collect within 100 miles oF the
WatFard area, Tel Trevor on (08 1] 42B
0332 evenings-
Wanted: Hard drive for Amiga 1000. J.
Bryson, 37 Kingsdown Mobile Homes,
Kingsdown, Swindon SN2 6PG. Tel.
(0793) 827663.
Only £5 to sell your used hardware
and software in Amiga Shopper
Sell your excess hardware and software with Amiga Shopper Reader Adverts. Just fill in the form and send
it to us along with a cheque (made payable to Future Publishing) or postal order for £5. But BE
WARNED. This magazine is not a Forum for selling pirate software or other illegal goods. Software must
include all issue disks, manuals and a signed statement that all other copies have been destroyed. Please
advise us if you are offered pirate or copied software by advertisers, All ads are accepted in good
faith. The editor reserves the right to refuse or amend ads. We accept no responsibility for
typographical errors or losses allegedly arising from the use of this service.
Trade ads will not be accepted and this includes anyone wishing to advertise
the sale of PD software.
Issue 2
Name
Address
Post code Date.
Tel....
Tick one box to
show required
section heading
For sale..
□
Wanted ...
□
Personal .
□
Fanzines .
.□
Use one $paca for each word to o maximum of 30 word$ m black capitoh
Deadline; Unfortunately we cannot guarantee an insertion in a particular issue,
\ have read and understood the conditions For the inclusion of my ad.
Signature
Return to: Reader Ads, Amiga Shopper, 30 Anonrnourh Street, Bath, Avon BA1 2BW
1
The Pennine Amiga Club; requires
members For our free user group. For
more information contact Simon at 1 93B
Oakworlh Road, Keighley BD2 1 IRE.
Greets fly out to Paul at Ultimate P.D.
Free box of disks to the first person lo lend
me the manuals and disks For an Amiga
2000 XT Bridge Board. Tel. Stuart (0224|
323737.
Fellow Amiga owners - have you got
hidden away somewhere any J old'
computers you want to sell e.g. ZX81,
Electron. If so., lei. (061 ) 797 0*79. (I
collect computers).
Wanled: books, hardware, software,
chips r drams, boards, P.C., C.P.U., and
keyboard. Anything Amiga related. Send
details to FJ, Saunders, 23 North Street,
Burnley BB10 1QJ, Lanes.
"A590 Users Group" and Public Domain
swaps. Second hand "Nordic Power"
cartridge. Also, for sale; £30 o.n.o.
Contact Alex, 26 Milldown Ave,, Goring-
on-Thomes, Reading, Berks RGB 0A5.
Wanted: Predator for the Amiga. Will
swop Outrun, Bionic Commando, or Joe
Blade 1 and 2, Write to CJ. Slerland, 59
Tennis Court Drive, Leicester IE5 1AQ
A mail merge program that can work with
the word processing program "Scribble"
on an Amiga 500. Very important.
Contact jo meson (03671 240913.
Please does onyone out there have a disk
of U.S. Gold's J 'Side Arms" for sale or
swap. I just can't get one anywhere.
Please hdp I Stephen Keen, 34 Elizabeth
Place, Pewsham, Chippenham, Wilts.
SN15 3UP, TeJ. 10249 6603 B0 evenings.
Serious stuff. l J m currently compiling a
serious PD software collection. Fractals,
Utilities, Graphics, etc. for distribution.
Send lo D L Bainbridge, 16 George
Slreel, Ystrad Mynach, Hengoed, Mid-
Gbm CF8 7BJ. All disks returned.
FOR SALE
Disk boxes 40 cap £4, B0 cap £8. Also
Amiga games Narc £10, Street Hockey
£ 10 or exchange far other titles. Tel. John
on (0292) 284 862.
Commodore 64K with dolasafe, 2
joysticks +■ £400 worth of games
software. Leads and manuals included.
Sell for £275. Buyer must collect (Ipswich
area). Tel. Daniel on (0473] 681437
after 6 pm please.
Radio controlled cars Tomiya Hornet and
Supers hot. Many spares for each. Fully
balanced, manyexlra modifications, only
have one set of radio gear. Sell both for
£150 Tel. Phil on (0734} 474589
Poce V21 V23 intelligent modem, boxed,
with manud, no leads, £45. Video
sender WV05G with power supply, leads,
boxed, £25. Tel. Neil on (05 1) 426
0138after5pm.
Amiga A500, 10845 Monitor, Ext disk
drive, 51 2K ram exp, no inst manuals,
lots of magazines, disk box, mouse and
mat, several gomes £700 o.n.o. Tel.
Mark on (0689] 857673.
Printer acoustic cover with cooling fan,
£24. Tel. Tom on (0992) 4601 21 . Herts.
Datel ram-master II 1 .5 meg expansion
card. As new. £60 o.n.o, Tel. Richard on
(061)225 1663 after 6.30 pm.
For sale: Korg DW B000 synth - poly,
midi eompj digital, down loadable. £300
o.n.o. Tel. Andy on [0253) 724607.
Amiga 2000, two 3.5" and one 5 .25"
disk drivei PC/XT boord, eight original
boxed games, colour stereo monitor
mouse and mat, 2 joysticks. Action Replay
MKII, 20mb hard drive. £975. Jason
Pope, 66 Aylmer Road, East Finchley,
London N2 0PL Tel. (081)341 7541.
Epson FX 800 printer W.G.C. 9 pin
complete with manual. Good working
order, £60. P. Kraziecki, 1 1 2 Farmhold,
New Ash Green, Kent DA3 BGD. Tel.
(0474] 372140.
Amiga A500 Kickstart 1 .3 still as new,
boxed joystick and lots of games only
£3 1 5 or £350 with 1 meg memory. Tel,
Tim on [08 1 ) 203 8373 after 6.30 pm.
Reol 3D pro: new ray-tracing/animation
package. lmb+ complete with box,
manual, disks etc. RRP£343, sell for
£200 o.n.o. Tel, Chris an (071) 263
5006 (eveningsl.
Megadrive For sale (JAP/PAL] inc. mon-
itor/TV lead, two mega games: Shadow
Danger and Thunder Force III. Brand new
VGC £1 30 inc. P&P. No time wasters
please. Tel. Julian on (0742) 436542.
Amstrad PPC 5 1 2 portable, single drive.
As new. £300 + postage, with Wordstar
express thrown in!! Contact Emma Broxup
at Dalbeattie House, Oaky Balks,
Alnwick, Northumberland NE66 2QD.
Amiga 2000 J A' 1 1/2 meg with 1084
colour monitor and additional interval
Floppy drive £550. Easyl tablet 2000
£120Okimate 20 colour printer £75.
Phone Pete on Basildon (0268) 734507.
C64 Data cassette disk drive printer
mouse light sun games on disk and tape
£225. Operation Thunderbolt and
Rainbow Islands, Amiga games unused
boxed £25 the pair.
R.Jones, 12 Highfield, Socriston,
Durham, DH7 6HN Tel. (091)371 1781.
Pretext ver 5-04 as new. Also same
games. Best offer secures. Phone John on
(031)462 271 3 [home] or (031) 681
2666 (work].
Kindwords V2 to swop for copy of Cross
Dos, (Dos4a-Do5 not wanted). Phone Tony
on (051] 426 5989 -evenings.
Digi-View gold version 4.0 including Digi
paint. Hardly used. Best offer will be
taken. Phone Damian on [0253) 828308.
Oki Microline 84 XS 9 pin wide carriage
printer. Stand, manuals, no box, £150
o.n.o. Fairly heavy, must be collected. Tel
Crafts Hill (0954] 780856 after 7 pm.
Okimate 20 col printer, £110. Contact J.
Quintin, 7Cotterall Court, Bowthorpe,
Norwich NR5 9AZ. Tel. (0603) 746600.
Amiga games Drakkhen, Treble
Champions £6 each. Edition one
compilation £9. All boxed. Back issues
N.C.E,, Amiga Computing, Amiga User,
etc. 65p-£ 1.10 including postage. Tel. A
Foster on (0703) 676949 after 7 pm.
Modem WS4000 V21 723 Autodial
Autoansw, original packaging with PSU,
cable, and manual. Hardly used. £65.
\ Contact S Gibson, 19 Sutherland Street,
1 Seaham, Co. Durham SR7 0AX Tel. (091]
581 2021.
2.5Meg Amiga 500, Philips CM 8B33
monitor, external drive, video machine,
software, utils, and games. £1400 o.n.o.
Call Simon (06 1 ) 440 986 1 . No time
wasters please.
Pod scat graphic tablet with latest driver
software, great gear but I'm not a good
enough artist, so only £1 20. Tel.
Warrington (0942) 270417.
Star LCI (mono) printer, sheet-feeder
and dust cover included. Sorry, no cable.
Just over a year old, very good condition,
£100. Call Marc anytime on Luton
(0582) 429928,
Modem Supra 2400 V2 1 V22 V22bis
boxed as new with cable and PD comms
software £90. Tel Steve on 0782 48287.
For sole: RVF Honda £6. I would like to
buy a modem. Do you hove one for sale?
Tel. Kevin an (0453] 883481.
Amiga 500 complete with A590 hard
drive with 2 megs ram fitted. Extra floppy
continued on page 100
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
READER ADS
tonlinued from page 99
drive 1/2 meg Internal expan. £550 the
tat or will split. Tel. Milton Keynes (090S)
677176.
Linnet 1200 modem: V2l, V22, V23
(1200/1200, 1 200/75 r 3 00/300). As
new, still boxed. Co&r £230 r will sell For
£150. Sreve Mew, 42 Dove Court,
Coisfer-^n-Sea, Norfolk NR30 5UH. Tel
(0493( 377418.
Atari trok ball for sale. Works with Amigq
games eg. Out Run. £5 o.n.o. Tel, Sam
on (0323) 645347 anytime after 4 pm.
Amiga A500. Official A801 ram
expansion, cumcnc ex) drive. A590 hard
drive with 2 meg extra memory. Joystick,
movie r mot, disks etc. A5°0 still under
warranty. £300. Tel. (0629) 56772.
BBC B, Tape recorder, joys-tick, leads,
books, manuals, lots of games, mags, in
very good condirfon. Only £150 an. o,
Tel. (0734(576408,
laser primer HP lasersel II 1 .5 meg
memory, boxed OS new, serial or parallel
interface, excellent 1 quality £800 o.n.o.
Andy Spencer, 16 Margaref Close,
Whitley Wood, Reading RG2 BPU. Tel,
[0734 B763B3,
For sale: Seikosha 1 200 Al 9 pin printer
with all connech'ng leads, and manual
prints at 1 20 CP5 draft end 1 9 CPS NLQ.
Only £1 15 Tel. Gosport 522199 For
detajfs.
Pra.Sound designer sampler, sampling
rote up to 32KHZ and all the standard
editing Functions, complete package,
original software, hardware and manual.
Boxed as new, £35. Tel. Keza on (081)
946 1091.
Amiga games for sale, Rainbow Islands
for £10, Barbarian for £5. Amegas, An
of Chess, Insanity Fight, Mercenary,
Thundercals, Wizball - all £1 . Tel.
Anthony on (0727) 22 1 946.
Amiga s/ware. ZVP video studio £55 inc r
post. TV text £45 inc. post. 9 various
games £2 - £5 each. £35 the tat inc.
post. Tel. John on Salisbury (0722)
790776.
Amiga orig. games, lots of titles cheap!
Sae 13 Bournville Lane, Birmingham or
teL [021 1 459 7576. PO swap wanted!
Also 1/2 meg sale £28 fnc!
The works platinum edition word
processing database spreadsheet £45.
BBC emulator £20 x-nzopy professional
: £20, their finest hour £10. Tel Form by
(0704B) 77172 after 6 pm for further
details.
Sim City and Terrain Editor £10,
Populous and The Promised lands £10.
Td. Tormby (0704B| 77172 after 6 pm
for more info.
Loads and loads of games for sale or to
be traded, all boxed + instructions, all
new titles ond cheap prices. For more info
phone Steve on (081) 554 1119,
Back issues Zzapl 4,5,3,10-52. Sixty
issues £20, TGM 1 to 2 1 £15, Ace 1 - 2
£5, Cusor 30 issues £15, P&P extra. All
in fair condition. Tel. [061(560 6116.
Amiga games for sole. Like Fighter
Bomber, The Pawn, Dork Side, Imperium,
F-29 Retaliator, etc. All originals and in
good condition. Write for Full list - you
pay postage. MrT. Leng, 24A Highcroft
Avenue, Alperton, Wembley, Mjddx.
HA0 1TG.
C64' for sale. Data cassette leads, dust
cover, etc. Over £200 worth of games.
Perfect condition all boxed. Price £ 1 20
o.n.o. Tel. Chris on (0947) 601751.
Amos - The Creator, brand new VI ,2,
£25 or will swap for Powermonger/Lotus
Esprit or similar. Tel, Mick on (0604)
537946 {evenings}.
Printer 9 pin Panasonic 1 ISO with
manual, hardly used, great print, £100.
Tel. (081] 9045100.
Back to The Future II, Days oF Thunder,
rVioonwalker, Guardian Angelj all
packaged, as new, sell all for £25 or
swap for 2 latest games. Tef. Paul on
<0277] 65 650 B.
Amiga A500 2M6 Ram, A590 Hard disk,
external floppy, colour monitor, loads of
software, only £850. May split. Tel. Andy
on (0463] 782755.
VIDI Amiga video frame grabber. Only
£65. Tel. Andy on (0463, 782755.
A-Max Mac emulator inc. hardware and
Mac Roms, also system disks. Only £100.
Tel. Andy (0463) 782755.
Oki^Mote 20 colour printer, spare
ribbons, only £100. Tel. Andy on (0463)
782755,
X-Qut, Driv'n Force, F29 Relaliotor, Days
of Thunder, Batman, oil £12. Write to: M
Aitken, Denchworth Manor, Nr.
Wantage, Oxon, Also Chase HG, Indy 3
adven. £8 each. £14 both.
Amiga 500 expansion shell kit For sale.
Call Robert on {0B1 1 907 0042
Commodore 64 for sale with disk drrve
and printer, music maker, joysticks and
lots oF software on disk or tope. £250
o.n.o. Contact Harold Garvin, 26
Newmarket Street, Coleraine, Co.
Londonderry BT52 TEH.
Original Amiga games to sell From £4.50
eaen, plus loads of PD to swap on a one
to one basis. 1 00% reply, Please write For
printed lists of titles to: Stuort Hardy, 33
Fir Tree Drive, Wotes, Sheffield S3 1 8LZ.
Original A500 Power Pack £20 o.n.o.
Tel. R BanfroFr [06891 &S7527 (SE
Ion don Area).
Amtga 500 +A501 Ram Expansion
+ 1 08 1 monitor. All boxed, as new
complete with lots of games, mags, PD
and serious software. £550 o.n.o. Tel. Al
on (0272) 429357 (evenings).
Amstrad CPC61 28 ■+■ colour monitor
+DMP2000 printer, Protext disc, all
manuals included. Bargain at £300
on, o. Contact Roger King, 1 Outlack
Road, Armagh, N. Ireland 8T60 2AN or
Tel. Armagh 526324.
Look) Old model C64, 1541 disk drive,
C2N tape recorder, cartridges, joystick,
mags, 379 original games and other
software on tape and disk, only £250
o,n.o. Tel. Howard on (02406J 3273
(Bucks.)
Citizen sheet feeder bought for £80, will
sell for £30, Never used. Also printer
wanted E T 50 tops for Amiga 500.
Contact John on (0749] 679250 after 5
pm.
MIG29, Their Finest Hour, Populous, £10
each. Tel. Alan on [0860) 863083.
Publishers Choice includes all you need
for DTP. £65 ono. Tel. R. JeFfery on
Derby 8)0194 or Ripley 607490,
Pro Page O.T.P. offers or swap For outline
fonts or other D.T.P. or graphic Amiga
Modulator. Offers. Tel. P, Freeman on
(0947) 82000a.
2MB 256X4 Ram, £75 Inc. pAp 6M8.
Tel. Christopher on (0926) 334897
(evenings).
Printer, Amstrad Dmp 3160, 9-Pin dot
matrix, NLQ, Bald, Italic, etc. Full working
order. No lid. Tractor and friction Feed.
Comes with two ribbons ond instruction
manual. £100 o.n.o. Contact Richard
Rickwood, 86 Brooke Road,
Wallhamstow, London El 7 9HH artel.
[081)521 32l4after4pm.
Amiga Batpack, A5Q1 memory upgrade,
star LC 1 GC printer. Philips CM8833
colour monitor, external drive, Midi
interface, Music-X, leads, covers, s/ware,
books, boxes, for only £600! Phone Steve
on [071] 383 4562,
2 ZX Spectrum (48K), all leads supplied.
There is no disk drive. Both joystick
Interfaces are supplied. Also 1 original
game and 2 ZX Spectrum starter cassettes
(£50 per Speccy). Contact Eg, 59
I Grange Farm Cresc. Newton Weslkirby,
Wirral L48 9UD teL (051] 625 52B0-
' Star LC-200 colour printer £165 as new.
| Reason for sale - need colour inbet
printer. Any offers. Contact Alan Gordon.
21 Mt, Pleasant, Guiseley, Leeds, W.
Yorks. LS20 9EB. Tel (0943) 870070.
ICD AdSpeed Amiga 16 mHz 68000
Board, Brand new. Unopened unwanted
gift. Worth £200, Sell For £1 30 or swap
for 2mb Ram and Boord for 1 32000. Tel.
Nigel on (0462J6B2140.
Amiga games - new h"Nes, amazingly low
prices, external drive-ex. cond., slim size,
highly reliable, around £50. Anyone got
any Don/Sullivan Blulh games for sale?
Contact James on (0939] 260617.
Amiga gomes, near new: Shadow of ihe
Beast I!, Night breed, Bock to the Future
II, Days oF Thunder. £40 for the lot. Will
separate. Tel Y Wong on [0744] 2481 1 .
Spritz Gunship Photon Storm the Seven
Gates oFjambala, Skidz, Pyramax, Dark
Side, Weird dreoms. For sale £5 each or
all For £30. Contact K. Connaughton r 35
Nevendon Road, Wickford, Essex SS 1 2
0LN or tel. (0268)763135.
SCI, Rainbow Islands, Football Man. 2,
Battle Squadron, World Soccer, Italia
1990, Or Dooms Revenge, Captain
j Blood, Veclorball, worth £1 10, Will sell
for £50. Tel. Nick on (081 1 856 9333
after 4 pm.
A500 Batman Pack, 1 4" colour TV, text
printer, and over £200 of software
Worth £800, Will sell for £600 ono Tel. J
Carteron{021}770 0505 after 6 pm.
Serious Amiga software, Digifa Home
Accounts £15, super base personal Data
Base £15, Hi-soft Devpac £15 or all 3 For
£40. TeL M Byllard on (0752) 76742 1 .
Spirit 2MB mem. board for Amiga A500.
Fully populated. Still in box. As new; Tel.
Adrian anytime Runcorn [0928] 565504.
continued on page 102
VISA
DATAPLEX
COMPUTERS LTD.
129 Bath Road, 19 High Street
Slough, Swindon,
Berkshire. wi it B hire
SL1 3UW WlltsMre
Tel: 0753 35557 Tel: 0793 488448
SHOWROOM
Open:
Hon - Fri
9.30 . S.30
Saturday
9.30 - 4.30
MAILORDER
£1.50
Hardware
£8.00
Prices
excluding VAT
Add £3.65 P&P, add £4.00 for 3 day delivery, add £8.00 2day,£lOM
next day (from despatch) Cheques will be held for clearance
AMIGAS
Amiga 500 £3 1 5
Screen Gems 1Mb £373
ClsssoflhcWs £521
First Sleps £5 Z 1
Cumana dri ve . £65
jMcg ivo clock , .£31
i Meg + elect £35-50
ACCESSORIES
Mouse mm .£2.75
Zipslick £11.50
Jetrlghler £12.50
Cheetah 1 25+ £3
1000 labels £8
Printer lead .£8.50
Naksha mouse £28
Dusl cover .£5,50
ATARIS
Discovery Pack £249
For new 520STE bundles
call for low prices
Ext drive ,£72
Dust cover £5
lYnde/Govertimnrl/Sdrool orders
welcome
BCS LTD, 349 Ditchling Road, Brighton E.Sussex BN J 6,1,1
Tel 0273 506269 or 0831 279084
Trade/government/edueation orders welcome
AMIGA A500
HARDWARE
Amiga A500 Screen Gams +
1 Meg Pack £309
Amiga A500 Screen Gems Pack + free
disks + 10 extra games pack £345
Amiga A500 1 Meg Class of 90's £459
Amiga A500 1 Meg Class
of 90*s (First Steps) £459
Amiga A1 500 Computer £549
Amiga A1500 + 1084S monitor £759
Amiga A 1500 + Philips CM 8833 MKIIE725
SPECIAL OFFER
Amiga A5Q0, 51 2K, Flight of
Fantasy Pack... £279.00
While stocks last
Amiga A500 + TV Mod + Mouse +■
system disk + manuals only £269
ATARI COMPUTERS
Atari 520STFM discovery pack
includes 4 games... £240
Atari 520 STE Turbo Pack includes basic
STOS and 7 games +
Joystick £310
Atari 1040 STE extra pack includes ST
Words, ST Gale, ST Basic, ST Graphics,
Hyper-Paint, STOS, 1st Basic, Print
Game £399
AMIGA/ATARI DRIVES
1 Meg 3.5" internal £49
1 Meg 3.5" external £60
1 Meg 5.25" external £90
ACCESSORIES
512K Ram +■ clock ,.,..£39
Joystick £10
10 Blank disks in library box £8
Mouse Mat £3
Amiga/Atari Mouse £29
MONITORS
Philips CM8833 MK II Colour
Monitor + FREE Lead ..£189
Commodore 1 084S £199
SM 124 (Atari) £99
Star LC10 Mono £129
Star LC200 Colour (9 pin) £180
Star LC24 200 (24 pin) £210
Star LC24 200 Colour £245
Star LC24/10 £175
Panasonic KXP1 1 24i + lead ,....£239
Panasonic KXP 1123 £180
Panasonic KXP1 624 £329
Citizen 120D + £120
Citizen Swift 24 + Colour Upgrade ..£259
Citizen Swift 9 + Colour Upgrade ....£185
Epson LX400 £126
Epson LQ400 (24 pin) £199
LASER/INKJET
PRINTERS
PLEASE CALL FOR PRICES
PAZAZ!
THE ONE STOP AMIGA SHOP IN SCOTLAND
Everything for your Amiga at real sexy prices!
Midi/modems/video/scanners/printei-s/monitors/
disk drives/ram/software/books etc
Amiga
500, 1500/2000 &A3000
at very competitive prices.
We can supply the Amiga A590 Hard disk fitted
with up to 2Mb Ram for your A500
or
We can also supply and fit hard cards/disks to
your Amiga 1500/2000/3000
Ring us for the best prices on Ram boards and
chips for any Amiga configuration
Have a look at the first Amiga CD Rom Drive - Newly
imported from Xetec in Kansas. Supplied with a CD
containing over 500Mb of PD software.
Send a disk + 50p or £ 1 for our latest PD list.
Pazaz!, 14 Douglas Street, Dunfermline,
Fife, SCOTLAND KYI 2 7EB
TEL/FAX 0383 620102
MAKE YOUR
AMIGA
EARN!
Yes making money with your Amiga becomes incidental when you know how. Your
micro is, if only you knew it, a gold mine. The size and make is irrelevant. Make the
initial effort NOW by starting your own
HOME BASED BUSINESS
This may be the most important move you will ever make!
REMEMBER: You'll never get rich by digging someone else's "ditch". Anyone in the
country, including YOU, can become very rich in a relatively short period of time just by
doing a few basic things! It's more rewarding than playing games. The benefits are
many and varied. Full or part time. For FREE details send SAE. to:
31,PILTONPLACE(AS2)
KING AND QUEEN STREET,
WALWORTH, LONDON SE17 1DR
Af u s x
Af
Q t r'\ *
The Matrix is a source of data for the computer musician. Musicians can access texl, score,
coloured graphics, musical performance and NEW INSTRUMENTS for their SYNTH from thair
computer. NEW - from Hands On - Hit sequences lor the Amiga in Music-X and MFS format.
BAD THRILLER RELAX NIGHTBIHDS EVE OF THE WAR EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE WHATS
LOVE GOTTA DO WITH IT KNOCK ON WOOD Sequences cost £20.95 for ANY FOUR HITS.
Our catalogs are on disk, along with software for £2.00
NEW Korg Ml Data Disk - 500+ voices WITH software
that lets you transmit & receive AM. r>ATA from Ml to disk only £30.
ALSO Kawai Kl/r/m Data Disk - as above for £30. AMIGA or ST.
Amiga Matrix issues 1-4 are available now. Issue 1 has Korg Ml SAMPLES
in IFF format +8VST software. Issue 2 has 250+ voices for Roland D5/10/20.
Issue 3 has FB-01 Editor. From Issue 2 Music-X sequences and Oktalyzer
Songs are included.
The Matrix is available for the ST & AMIGA for £10 per issue.
Or you may buy ANY FOUR ISSUES for £35.
Prices include P&P costs WORLDWIDE Please specify computer when ordering
Music Matrix 1 * Main Street East Wemyss SCOTLAND KYI 4RU
VISA PHONE
ACCESS
AMIGA BOOKS
:< Visit us on Stand B1 8 &
& Computer Shopper Show >
Amiga for Beginners.. £12,95
Amiga Machine Language £14.95
Amgla System Prog. Guids £29.95
Amiga DOS Inside & Out £1 S.95
Amiga C for Beginners £1 6.95
Amiga Desktop Video Guide £16.95
More Tricks & Tips £14.95
Making Music on the Amiga £29.95(d)
Amiga Kernal ROM; Libs & Divs £29.95
Amiga Hardware Ref. Guide £21.95
Advanced Amiga BASIC... £16.95
Amiga DOS: A Dabh and Guide £14.95
Getting the Most from Amiga..... £9.95
First Book of Amiga .£14.95
Elementary Amiga BASIC £12.95
Amiga Desktop Video Workbook ....£29.95 (d)
Inside Amiga Graphics £14.95
Programming the 68000 (Sybe>:)....£22,95
Leisure Suit Larry Story £11 95
Jack Nicklaus Computer Golf £10.95
Official Book of Kings Quest .£9.95
(d) - includes disk. Send SAE
Amiga BASIC Inside & Out £18.95
Amiga 3D Graphics in BASIC £16.95
Advanced System Prog Guide .......£29.95
Amiga Disk Drives inside & Out £24.95
Amiga C for Advanced Prog £29.95
Amgia Graphics Inside & Out £29.95
Amiga Printers Inside & Out £29.95(d)
Best of Tricks & Tips £24.95(d)
Amiga Kernal ROM: Includes £28.95
Mapping the Amiga...... £1 9.95
Amiga Assembly Language Prog .,.£12.95
Amiga DOS Quick Reference .,.£8,95
Becoming an Amiga Artist £1 6.95
Second Book of Amiga......... £14.95
Kids S The Amiga £13.95
Amiga Companion £14.95
AmigaDOS 2 Companion £22.95
AmigaDOS Ref Guide 3rd Ed £18.95
F1 5 Strike Eagle Handbook .£10.95
Falcon Air Combat , £12,95
Gunship Academy £10.95
for our new descriptive catalogue
Free delivery in UK and Europe and surface mail worldwide.
Add 30% for airmail outside Europe. Access & Visa accepted
DTBS
18 Norwich Avenue, Rochdale, Lanes OL1 1 SJZ
Tel/Fax 0706-524304
PICTUREWARE©
©N.J.N. Williams 1991
Commodore Amiga IS TlERE 1 1;*- c
Unbelievable quality ^Ss n.
Amazing valueir o, ^Af
Incredible furrtl'P&j £ '
Available in
4096 Colour HAM
&
32 Colour IFF
Please specify
when ordering
FOR FULL DETAILS
PLEASE SEND SAE
i Stx+dtsks post free
Give your Paint Package a treat! A stunning photograph to work from!! Put
life into your DTPADTV: wonder at the quality, let your imagination run wild!!!
See before you buy!!! . Catalogue disk No.1 is 90p & 50p P&P and
forms part of our 3 disk demo set which is £3 post paid. Please specify
IFF or HAM demonstration disks. Single demo disks also 90p & 50p P&P.
On Picture ware© Catalogue Disk One Are>
People Disks 1&2 We can accept African Animals Disks 1 &2
ONL YA VAILABLE FROM
NIKWEUAMSl
BROADCAST!
COMPUTER
PICTURE
LIBRARY
0792 470503
I One disk £4,99
■ Two+dsks £4.50 each
I Up to five disks £1 P&P
Children Disks 1&2
African Famine Disks 1&2
The Nude Disks 1&2
Edwardian Photo's Disks 1&2
Art In Photography Disks 1&2
Sifverback Gorilla Disks 1&2
Views of Vietnam Disks 1 &2
African Pygmies Disks 1&2
Motorbikes Disks 1 &2
FtnQew On Location Disks 1&2
Cheques
Postal Orders
During Pictureware's© development we've .created pictures in all sizes and
formats. We're providing them for your fun and entertainment on SPECIALLY
PRE-FORMATTEB FLOPPIES. £9 for 10 disks, post free! No guarantees
on this exceptional offer, if you like the pictures use them, if not delete them
(much quicker than a disk format), and use the disks as blank floppies!!!
rnrr /"^CCiTO J II With every order of six Picture ware© disks
mCC UrrCn.'J.' we are giving away FIVE FREE SPECIALLY
PRE-FOTvlATTED FLOPPIES!!!! (Worth 90p each!!)
(Offer closes end of June 1991)
aBIBIBIBIBJBJBlrJIrJIrJIBBfr
'Y\,%^L'S
"YOUR GRAPHICS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!!!"
Orders by post to:- Nik Williams Broadcast, Aspect House,
21 Brynmill Crescent, Brynmill, Swansea, SA2 0AL.
Please allow 21- 28 days for delivery, 'phone for urgent orders
24Hr Credit Card Phone/FAX Hotline 0792 645946
(When ordering by telephone please wait for FAX tone to finish,
at which point you'll be connected to our telephone system.)
READER ADS
continued from page 100
Video Generic Master and Video Wipe
Master. Offers? DJosmin, Rascrea,
Church Rd. r Fiddinglon, Bridgwater TA5
UG or tel. (0278)732619,
1 4 genuine unused boxed games
unwanted gifts inc. Photon Point, F29
Retaliotor, Rainbow Islands, Cricket
Captain, all For only £50. Will sell
separately. Ring and rnoke an offer! Tel.
Keith weekends on (023] 024940.
LC10 colour printer as new, fully boxed
with cable and manual. £145, Tel
Ajinder on (0533) 703090.
Amiga games cheap boxed wilh manuals
(Xenon II, Residi, etc.] Also lots of
Spectrum H/ware, mags and s/ware
(multiface 150 games 150 mags] Phone
Colin Far offers/details on (0767)
600533 after 6 pm please.
Amiga origin of s/ware half price! Deluxe
Paint 3 £37.50, Amos £25, GFA Basic
[with compiler] £35, Deluxe Productions
£37.50. Tel. lain evenings or weekends
on (081)675 6419.
Amigct A500 hard drive. BoxBd r brand
new. Paid £399, will sell For £200. No
offers! Tel. G Perry on Camberley (0276}
35561.
Pro. Page 2,0 - unwonted upgrade £80.
Music-X VI. I, new, boxed, £50, 1MB Fatter
Agnus £50 (incl. Fitting if required]. Tel.
Richard on (08 1 ) 650 4696 after 6 pm.
Sinclair QL Micro cassettes R5232 lead
For printer and comms wore! pro Data
Base r spreadsheet, s/ware, Psion, Chess
mags, manuals. As new. best offer. Tel.
Dough on (0827) 71 2560,
Commodore 64C computer, one year old
V.G.C. -+ joystick, light gun and 40 top
games £100+ o.t.o. Also Speccy 48 with
games ond lopedeck. Will sell everything
separately. Tel. Steven on Knowle (0564)
772903 (evenings}.
For sale MPS 1 550C colour printer,
hardly used, with lead, £125 o.n.o., also
Midi interface + leads + software, worth
£100. Will sell for £50 o.n.o.
Christopher Price, 54 Burland Avenue,
Claregate, Wolverhampton, WV6 9jL.
Tel. (0902)741744.
Amiga 500 for sale, £250, A590 hard
drive with 2 meg ram, £275, external
drive £25, Philips CM8833 monitor,
£200, or £700 the lot. Tel. Richard on
Sevenoaks [0732} 459483.
CBM Pet 8096 5K system for sole,
includes double disk drive and printer.
Any offer considered. Tel. Azim on
(0533) 419964.
Sega Megadrive Fantastic condition. Two
months old, barely used. Plays
US/UK/Japan games. Two gomes; John
Madden Football, Super Monaco GP.
Joypad and joystick. Bargain £200. Tel.
Paul on |0923) 263511.
For sale 80 3.5 SonyDS DD Disks for
£60 inc. slickers, brand new. Plus Free
Amiga Turtles game. Tel. Lee on (081)
225 1157
Pro Page VI, 3 including transcript, £70,
advantage spreadsheet btesf VI , 1 , £50,
Turbo Silver, £50. Tel. Roger on (02 1 )
308 Bl 83 - Answer phone for messages.
Amstrad CPC61 28 with colour monitor
advanced art studio, mouse, mot, tape
recorder, 40 games etc. £300 o.n.o. Tel.
David on Coventry (0203) 416148.
Amstrad CPC 464 green screen
modulator for TV plus gomes. £90 o.n.o.
B. Pesticcio, 6 St. Martins Ave., Heaton
Norris, Stockport, SK4 2JF. Tel. (061)
432 29BQ.
Amiga 500, eight months old, exquisite
condition, BBC emulator, Star Wors,
Deluxe Paint II and many beautiful games,
plus two joysticks, mouse and more. Tel.
Philip on (051) 327 1638,
WS4000 Modem V21/V23 with PSU,
Manual, and can supply PD comms sox if
required. £40 plus p&p Far a cheap start
in comms, Tel, Dave on (08 1) 661 1057.
Amiga Stereo power amp + speakers
[50 W). Hear the difference I £35 inc p&p.
Cheque/PQ toJP Hammond, 7a Abyss-
inia Street^ Wavetree, Liverpool LI 5 0EX,
Checkmate 1500 plus hard drive fitted
internally. Also A 1010 drive 1 meg
memory 300+ disks. Great For serious
user or small business. £700 o.n.o. (See
to believe). 5teve Wood, 25 Nightingale
Lane, Wellingboro NN8 4TP, Please write
or call round,
CPC 464 mono, disk drive, T28K, stereo
lead, 100 gomes, 30 mags, 3 joysticks,
worth over £600, All in superb condition,
packed with manuals. £300o r n.o. Tel.
Quentln on (0233) 624904 evenings.
Twelve games in good condition. All
boxed with full instructions including
Shadow or the Beast 1 , Robocop 2,
Roger Rabbit, Fish, Nighlbreed, also,
Amos the Creator. From £5 each. P.
Holmes, 1 Byron Close, Dronfield,
Sheffield 518 6NG. Tel. (0246) 419123.
. Okimate 20 printer, brand new, never
used £55, Large, tractor feed Texas
instruments prinler £10. Tel Ruth [0766]
; 830157 between 6-9pm, N Wales.
Amstrad CPC464 with disc drive, extra
memory, midi interface, sampler, mouse,
WP packages, speech synth, various
gomes plus professional software
packages. Over £ 1 000 worth of stuff.
Will sell For £350 o.n.o. Paul Hollow, 1
Trimms Green, Sawbridgeworth, Herts
CM21 0LX. Tel. (0279)723843.
C.B.M. 64 working order, 100 games,
manuals, 1 joystick, good condition. Old
style case. Only £1 50 o.n.o. Tel. Gary on
(04B3) 571748 after 4 pm weekdays or
week ends.
Phanebox, stores over 200 names and
addresses. Very user friendly. Fully
documented. Price £4 p&p included. Sae
for details to Mr N Rutherford, 1 52 Prince
Avenue, Southend^on-Sea, Essex SS0
0NW
Amiga A500 VI .2 with 0.5 meg
expansion and exl drive. Complete with
original software and a couple of games.
Boxed ond in VGC. Yours for £280
o.n.o. Te. S Watkins on Swindon (0793)
764915.
Spectrum +2. 128K. £300. Software.
Original tides. Good condition. £90
o.n.o. Thomas Heath, 32 Bridgnorth
Road, Stourton, Stourbridge, W,
Midlands DY7 6RT. Tel. (0384) 872002.
Amiga 500, 3 years insurance worth
£57+, 6 months old,
Kick start/ Workbench 1.3, many new
titles, mouse mat, dust cover, everything
boxed withi all manuals, Canfocl Akhtar
on [081} 541 1319.
Amiga Trilogic Stereo sampler MKII, full
instructions, boxed complete with sampler
software and printer thru port. Worth
£54.99, Will sell for £25. Julian Smith,
45 Maplecroft Crescent, Sheffield S9
1DN. Tel. (0742)438542.
Adventures: Leather Goddess of Phobos,
Jinxter, Burocracy, Gnome Ranger, Ingrid
Back, Also some arcade games. Afislair
McBoin, 52 Fox Covert Ave., Edinburgh
EH12 6UH. Tel. [031)334 7201.
Amiga 500 +A501 Ram expansion,
+ 10B1 High res monitor, all boxed,
perfect, complete with manuals, mags,
loads of gomes and serious software, etc,
£490 o.n.o. Tel. A. Hubbard, Bristol
[0272} 429357 evenings.
Swap Korg DW 8000 Pro digital synth
(fully midi compt, fully programmable} for
CBM A590 hard drive. Inc's manual
leads, Amiga interface, £240 o.n.o. Tel.
Andy on (0253) 724607,
Amiga games - Karate Kid 2,
Goldrunner, Jupiter Probe and Slaygon.
All sealed as new -unwanted gifts. £10
Ihe lot. Tel. W. Jones on [0348} B72435.
USA Amiga mags back issues. Amazing
Computing, Amiga World, Transactor,
Journeyman and Apprentice. 1986
onwards. Scarce, rare, interesting. Need
the space! Only £1 .50 each. Post paid.
Tel. W, Donald an (0795) 475420 now.
To swap best Digitizer for next best.
Contact me! Digi view 4 For VIDI Amiga +■
VIDI Chrome, no snags. I just wont a real
time digiriser. Boxed as new I Chris
Caines, 13 Dial Lane, Down end, Bristol
8S16 5UK
Commodore 64 inc. disc drive, joystick,
mags, disc box, all leads, disc hole
puncher, too many games lo list. £200.
Tel. Florian on (0364) 72096.
Photon paint - unused original - with
manual -still shrink-wrapped! £6. Tel R.
Luxten on (067} 55 2180.
Amigo B2000, 3mb ex, 2 x 3 1/4 drives.
Extras (Genlock, Midi Interface, etc} and
programmes. £800. Fromegrabber V2.0
£300. All boxed and immaculate, Tel. R.
Yee on (0252} 71 2085 after office hours.
Amiga 2000 Workbench 1.3 Philips
stereo monitor XT Bridge board with Dus
4.01 AST Sixpak-f lus board 2 x 20mb
hdd lOmb partitioned For Amiga external
3 1 /2" FDD For XT/Amiga use also Amax
Mac emulator +Roms. Offers, Tel. Samuel
on (061} 677 0437.
Amiga 500 1 meg 2ND drive Star LC 10
colour printer, sampler Midi interface plus
aver £2000 worth of software including
Music-x, Publishers Choice,and many
games. Bargain £650. Tel. David on
(081)541 1032,
Rombo VIDI Amiga and VIDI chrome,
--eczc r, oTf: herd ware end software,
offers to Vincent on £0734} 701289 or
swap For printer or power twin disk drive
or internal.
Commodore Amigo Class of 90's 1MB
extra disc drive 10&4SD monitor ond
Deluxe Point III, Kick Off II and other
software, £650 o.n.o. Tel. Richard on
Wigan (0942) 34324,
Professional Page VI. .3, original,
unregistered, complete £100. Tel. Peter
on [031 ) 462 1 362 evenings. London SE.
Radio twin cassette with high dubbing.
Excellent condition. 2 months old.
Originally £79.99. Will sell for £50
o.n.o. Also, Spectrum games For sale. el.
Mark on (091) 252 2401.
Pholon paint 2.0 unused £25 or P.X
Against Flight Sim. Progs. F32 Scenery
disks, F16, Gunship, Mig 29 etc. Also,
blank Amstrad 3" disks. Five for £5. Tel,
Mick on [0322)558389.
Dacom Systems 2424 MNP Error
Correcting Modem + Ncomm Amiga
software. £1 80 o.n.o. Would rather part
exchange for Amiga hard disk (up to
£1 00+ modem for disk], Tel, John on
Hitchin (0462) 458742.
Amiga A500 expanded to 1MB plus 2nd
cumana disc drive, all leads and
workbench disks, loads of games sampler
etc. £400. Stuart Cope 60, Farmlodge
Grove, Malinslee, Telford, Shropshire TF 3
2HN. Tel. (0952)503110.
Seikosha mono 5P-1200 A19 pin printer
prints at 120/19cps comes with tractor
teed, owners manual and all connecting
leads For Amiga 500/2000, Qnly£l 15.
Tel. K. Hayward anytime between 8 am -
8 pm on (0705) 522199.
Master sound sampler with cartridge,
software. GFA basic interpreter, compiler
software with manuals. Hardly ever used
£70. Contact Dove Brooks, 7 Molly
Huggins Close, Weir Road, Balham,
London SW1 2 0LT.
Amstrad CPC 464, disc drive, mono
monitor, TV modulator, joystick, 100
games, IQO's magazines, word
processor, multiface, bargain only £200.
Tel, Gary on (0480) 61253.
Alegra 0.5mb memory exp. unit for
Amigo 1000. Can be upgraded to 2mb.
£ B0 o.n.o. Also dot matric and daisy
wheel printer for sale. Tel. P, Ducker on
(0305) 770453 after 6 pm.
Professional Page VI .3 new original
unregistered. Tel. Peter on (081) 462
1362 evenings.
Serious software prowrite 3.0 £40
DPAINTZ £10 swift animate 4DJR £30
Pageserter II £30 Analyse £20, Photon
Paint £10, Amiga Vision £50. No oFfers.
Tel. Howard on [071) 582 7421.
Various games for sale or exchange.
Twenty in total. Also synthesiser and
modem. No reasonable offer refused. Tel.
W, Wiedenheoft on (0767) 317B97.
Angus (8371} chip £20. Kick Startl.2
chip £ 1 5. STD mouse and holder £ 1
plus pip. FF I ond Roger Rabbit to sell or
swop. Tel. Viper on [0473] 713715
between 6-9 pm.
Amiga 500 1 meg second drive, some
software, colour TV, Fatter Agnus
Machine £350. Tel (0425) 654460.
A500 with LC-T0 colour printer. All leads
manuals etc. Supplied under warranty.
Colour monitor, loads of games etc. Will
sell separately but prefer to sell as whole
£700 o.n.o. Morcos Scriven,
Tangtewood, Half Noon Lone, Redgrave,
Suffolk. Tel (0379) B90306.
Unwanted gift Their Finest Hour,
BaHlehawks, F29 Retaliated Ail boxed
and complete. £10 each. G. Briggs, 63
Rievaulx Way, Guisborough, Cleveland
TS14 7AY. Tel. (0287} 633084
Amiga 1/2 meg memory upgrade with
battery backed clock, little used £20. Also
Psion Organiser xp model 32K rom ond
extra software, boxed with manuals
£100. Tel. M. Atkinson, (0532) 610662
1 Amstrad PPC512 Fully IBM compatible,
portable computer with twin 3 1 /2"
drives wilh printer, monitor and software.
£350 onoTel Fahim on (041) 339 2200.
Amiga System Programmers Guide
[Abacus) £17, CP80 printer Epson
compat., little used £50, Fun Scbool-3
Over-7s £10, Battlechess £10 or sensible
offers. Tel A. BraH on (0225} 873033
evenings.
Sinclair Z8B laptop computer with 1 28K
ram upgrade, serial to parallel printer
lead, RS232lead, power supply £180
o.n.o. or will exchange for Amiga
peripherals, Tel. D.Robertson Ley I and
(0772) 453470.
Panasonic KXP 1081 prinler with extra
ribbon. V.G.C. £100 o.n.o. Also source
codes and programming contacts wanted,
No swappers. Contact Darryl, 168
Furlong Road, Goldthorpe, Rotherham,
South Yorkshire or lei. [0709) 8&1257.
14 original games for sale including:
Lotus Esprit, Midwinter, Super Cars,
Xenon 2, Xybots. Each game is halF price
or less"! Tel. Trevor on (0934) B33736
after 6 pm For more details.
Protexfr 4.2 complete with 2 disks and
322 page manual, cost £99.95. Sell for
£35 plus p&p or exchange oF video tiller,
DTP etc. D Whittle, 18 Russet Close,
Worcester WR2 6EL Tel (0905) 424066.
Amiga games Drakkhen, Treble
Champions. £6 each. Edition One
compilation £9. All boxed. Back issues
N.C.E., Amiga Computing, Amiga User,
etc. 65p-£1.10 includes postage. Tel. A.
Foster on (0703) 676949 after 7 pm.
Amiga A500, Memory expansion, second
disk drive, loads of original games and
other soFrwore. Bargain at only £350. Tel.
Mike on (071) 249 2313 after 6 pm.
40M hard disk for A500 vortex model,
Autobool, £350. Star LC-10 colour printer
£130. Commodore 10845 colour
monitor £140. Also games! Tel. J.
Cameron on (0463 790340 for details.
Sharp JX-9500 laser printer, 3 months
old, cost £ 1029, hardly used, will accept
any offer around £875, has to be seen I
Tel. Michael on (08 1 \ 504 41 77.
Days of Thunder, Shadow oF the Beast II
£10 each o.n.o. Back to the Future £7
o.n.o. Tel. Stephen on (0745) 591432
after 5 pm.
Genlock NMO 8802 6V Video title
program: £230 o.n.o, Also, wanted:
Hard drive A590 with 2 m6 & new video
title program. Hemanl Mistry, 72 Leire St.,
off Melton Road, Leicester Lfc"4 6NT Tel.
[0533) 664682.
One Geniscan 4500 complete with
version III software. Very goad condition,
at only £1 1 inc p&p. Tel. Ray on
((092575} 5316.
Do you use the CU? CLI bench contains
more commands and other extras. Send
50p and blank disc to B. Vince, 5 1
Anglesey Ave,, Hoilsham, East Sussex
BN27 3BQ.
C64 For sale including mouse and paint
program. Lots of games, excellent
condition, all boxed. Only £100. Tel. R,
Roberts on (08 1 ) 960 088 1 after 5 pm.
PERSONAL
Amos contacts wanted. For hints, lips and
demos write to Paul Thompson, 1 2
Shadows Lane, Mossly, Ash ton under
Lyne. OL5 9BS
Interested in Virtual Reality? Wan! to
swop info/idea 5 on the Future? Write
now! Also Amigo PD, swop yours for
mine. Ian, 29 New England Rood,
Brighton, Sussex BNI 3TLJ.
Hit I'mo 15 year old fun lovin' mole
looking for a 14-15 year old female pen
pal. Write to; John, 52 Bramhall Lane,
Davenport, Stockport, Cheshire SK2 6HZ.
All Format 1 00 page colour magazine
including cheats, lips and great offers.
Send sae to Dave Clark, 3 Thornton
Terrace, Palmersville, Tyne & Wear NE1 2
9QH for details.
Help needed with C language. I know the
very basics but am finding it difficult.
Paul, 84 Beresford Road, Lowestoft,
Suffolk NR32 2NG.
Jez of Arena says Yo! To: Red Devil,
Mantra, Brick, Maxtor, Bilbo (where is my
video?], Adom-M*, Andy, Ian JCTC, Mole
and Dan of Anarchy!!!. Phone mesoonl J
Dutton(0704) 7B493.
FANZINES
Here Be Drogons,. New computer mag, all
formats, news, reviews, features, etc.
Only £ 1 .50 including P&P. Send cheque
payable lo; Here Be Dragons, 34 Paslon
Road, Mundesley, Norfolk NR1 1 8BW.
Quortz-new Amiga fanzine inc. games,
music, art, cheats, ufls, elc. Only £ 1 .50 ■
50p P&P. Send to Martin Turner, 3 Ellis
House, Shernhall Street, Walthamslow,
London E17 9JA.
Where To Camp in France. The best
computer fonzine ihe world has ever
sesn. Now Amiga owners can enjoy it
too!. 5end £l 50 now to Peter
Templeman, 1 7 Cornerstone Dr. Acklam,
Middlesbrough, Cleveland TS5 Bjj.
Great new Amiga fanzine' Amoeba
Quarterly. Send sae for details to David
Black, 369 Wanstead Park Road, llford,
Essex IG1 3TT.
DNA Disk based mag. Loadsa utils, lips,
PD, games and serious slufF reviews. £2
Ihe (oHICheques/PO payable to F. Res.
Contact: DNA, 3 Cypress Walk, Barrow
in Furness, Cumbria LA 13 0JY
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
(- \ f~\ f c\-\ i \r
(lV(A(
-i j .1
J Vi
TM
OFFICIAL
DISTRIBUTOR
OWD-MECMWHICAL
MICE
Atari ST
Commodore Amiga
ST/Amiga switchable
IBM Serial
IBM PS/2
Amstrad PC Bus
£19.95
£19.95
£24.95
£24.95
£19.95
£19.95
tfWjpSCflb&iERS
r
Commodore Amiga
Atari ST
£39.95
£39.95
IBM PC Serial
£39.95
v
J
ST with Touch-Up £199.95
Amiga with Touch-Up £199.95
IBM PC Multi-directional £199.95
COHVPI/ESS MICE
Atari ST
£39.95
Commodore Amiga
IBM PC Serial
v
£39.95
£39.95
( THE fy^SlStt
The brush is a new slim
mouse which is used
like a pen.
It's ideal for artists.
Amiga
ST
£39.95
£39.95
OPEN TO THE
PUBLIC
Prices include P&P
and VAT at 17.5%
Overnight courier service
available at extra cost
Please telephone
for availability
OPTICAL MICE
Atari ST
Commodore Amiga
ST/Amiga switchable
IBM PC serial
IBM PC with Dr. Halo
Amstrad PC bus
£35.95
£35.95
£39.95
£39.95
£49.95
£35.95
2Mb Amiga 500 expansion unpopulated £29.95
2Mb Amiga 500 expansion populated £129.95
512K Amiga 500 expansion with clock £29.95
2Mb Atari ST expansion unpopulated £29.95
2Mb Atari ST expansion populated £149.95
Golden Image (UK) Ltd,
Golden Image House,
Fairways Business Park,
Lammas Road, London, E10 7QT
Tel 081-518 7373 Fax 081-518 7585
Trade Enquiries Welcome
Credit card orders accepted by phone.
Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Amstrad and IBM are all registered
trademarks of their respective owners
WE MUST BE MAD
Due to massive bulk buying and low cost advertising
we can offer you high quality European manufactured
disks at these extremely low prices
» DSDD ^ J K INC VAT-
DISKS MISLABELS
250 + @29p each; 500 + @ 28p each; 1000 + @ 27p each
ALL DISKS CERTIFIED 100% ERROR FREE
SONY 3.5" 38p
3.5" DSHD...
5.25" DSDD.
5.25" DSHD.
New! High quality DSDD
Mitsubishi 3.5" bulk disks.
100% error free, with label.
3.5" DSDD, blue 30p each
Branded disks
3.5" Sony 68p each
3.5" 3M 73peach
Amiga Memory Upgrade
O.SMeg w/o clock £28.00
0.5Meg with clock £32.00
Disk Storage Boxes
3.5" 40 capacity, locks E3.5G
3.5" 80 capacity, locks £4.30
3.5" 100 capacity, locks £4.95
Accessories
Mouse Mats £1 .95
3.5" Disk cleaning kit £1.80
3.5" Disk labels £1.50/100
Amiga dust cover £2.95
Amiga 3.5" ext drive £58.00
DSDD BULK
Cheques/PO's to; Redlaw Resources, STF Offer
74 Durban Road, Patchway, Bristol B512 5HQ.
Please add £3.50 for P&P Tel: (0272) 760600
100 Capacity Disc Box.
Mouse Pockets..
Printer Stand
Posso Box
...3.75 50 Capacity Disk Box.
...1.50 Mouse Mat
,,.3.75 Amiga Dust Cover
,15.00 Atari Dust Cover
Amiga 512K RAM Expansion with clock.
Amiga/Atari External Drive
[THIS MONTHS 200 3.5" DSDD DISKS C£ QC
SPECIAL OFFER + 2x100 CAP BOXES
Please add £2.85 p&p/next day £6.50. Cheques/POs to
PLC COMPUTER SUPPLIES (Dept ASH)
11 Meakin Avenue, Clayton,
Newcastle, Staffs ST5 4EY.
[TELESALES HOTLINE
CLUB AMIGA
24 Hour Helpline
Make New Amiga Contacts
Access To The Cream of PD
Newsletters
A year's membership for £5!
All of the normal benefits of belonging to a nationwide
club, plus you can talk to our team of Amiga
experts at any time, day or night!
To receive your membership number plus the 24 hour
Telephone Helpline number - send your name, address
and a cheque/postal order for £5 payable to
CLUB AMIGA, 5 Bowes Lea, Shiney Row,
Tyne and Wear DH4 4PP.
Or send an S.A.E
for more info.
z
O
5
Amiga Hard Dislcs and Ram
Fujitsu 3.5" SCSI Hard Disks
43Mb, 25rns, I" high £199
90Mb, 19ms .£349
1 35Mb, 19ms £469
?80Mb, 19ms £520
All Fujitsu drives fully support synchronous SCSI transfer
(with Amiga 3000 and some Amiga 2000 controllers)
Plus 3.5" SCSI Hard dislcs (Quantum)
52Mb, I7ms, I" high £249
85Mb, f 7ms, 1" high £399
105Mb, 17ms, 1" high £439
120Mb, 15ms £499
170Mb, 15ms £689
210Mb, 1 5ms £749
All Plus hard disks have a 64kb inbuilt cache
which gives an 1 1ms read access time.
Quantum is a subsidiary of Plus Development
Ta pest reamers now available!
1 50Mb SCSI tapestreamers now available.
Prices start at £399. Please ring for details.
FREE PUBLIC DOMAIN
Buy any hard drive over 1 00Mb from us, and we will put
on as much free Public Domain software for the Amiga
as you want! Just say how much you want, you can list
specific Fish disks (1 to 410) in your order if you wish.
Seagate, WD, Toshiba, Maxtor
Far too many drives to list here, please ring for details
and prices. MFM, RLL, ESDI, SCSI and AT drives available.
Almathera Systems Ltd.
Tel (081| 683 6418 Fax (081) 689 8927
Challenge House, 616 Mltcham Rd,
Croydon, CR9 3AU.
All prices Include VAT and delivery.
Data cables and 5.25" mounting frames are extra. Free PD can only
be provided for controllers that support Commodore's Rigid Disk Block
standard [CBM A2091 &A590. GVP Series II. Microbotics Hardframe,
ICD etc). Please check your controller manual.
Ail prices are correct at time of going to press. E&OE. AH trademarks respected.
Amiga SCSI controllers
You will need a SCSI controller to use any of the hard
drives listed above. Please ring for the latest prices on
ICD, Microbotics and Commodore controller cards.
RAM Chips
256x4 80ns DRAM fforA590, A2091, A540, etc.) ...£38 per Mb
1 Mbxl 80ns DRAM |forA2058, 8-Up, etc) £40 per Mb
1 Mbx9 80ns SIMMS |for GVP Series II, etc) £42 each
4 Mbx9 80/70ns SIMMS £Call
BUYERS' GUIDE
BUYERS' GUIDE
Amiga Shopper £ quick-reference super-test summary for the
discerning buyer of hard and floppy disk drives for the Amiga
ft REVIEW # HARD DRIVE REVIEW • HARD DRIVE REVIEW • HARD DRIVE REVIE
ooooooooo
Shopping List
GVP Series II A500-HD+
(50Mb) £599
from Power Computing Ltd
GVP Series II A2000-HC+4
(173Mb) £849
from Power Computing Ltd
44a Stanley Street,
Bedford
MK41 7RW
» 0234 273000
Expansion Systems DataFlyer 500
(48Mb) £389.95
from Trilogic
Expansion Systems DataFlyer
2000148Mb) £349.99
from Trilogic Unit 1,
253 New Works Rood,
Bradford,
BD120QP
"0274691115
SupraDrive 500XP (40Mb),.£489
SupraDrive WordSync 2000
(52Mb) £449
from Surface UK
5 Rockware Avenue, Greeriford,
Middlesex,
UB60M
w 081 566 6677
and
WTS Electronics Ltd
Studio Master House,
Chaul End Lane,
Luton,
Beds LU4 8EZ
"0582491949
But try shopping around.
Amiga A590 (20Mb) £299
Amiga A2094 and A2090A
controller board
(40Mb) £1 09.80
from various suppliers.
Don't forget to
shoo arouad.
BEST BUY
• 500 • 500 • 500 • 500 • 500 • 500 • 500
(A500) GVP IMPACT 11+ 50MB (A500) COMMODORE AS90
Superb build, excellent aesthetics and
blinding speed make this the best A5O0
drive featured. And from what we saw, it
will take some beating. The only choice
For the power user with money to burn.
No, we have not gone totally potty. It's
slow and only offers 20Mb of storage,
but it's a good workhorse for under
£300 and guaranteed to be 1 00%
reliable with other Commodore kit.
si^OSSSSC
The GVP Impact II is the tops when it comes to A500 hard drives.
• 2000 • 2000 • 2000 • 2000 • 2000 • 2000
SUPRA WORDSYNC 2000
GVP SERIES II A2000 HC+8
It is the fastest drive we tested, comes with The review model had a 173Mb drive,
plenty of storage for the price, and it all
fits in a single expansion slot. It comes
with versatile, user-friendly software too.
What more could you ask?
but Power sells a 40Mb one for £399. It
performs almost as well as the Supra, is
supported by good software, and has
the capability to add RAM on board.
On the 2000, the Supra Wordsync comes out as the best of the bunch.
This buyers' guide is
compiled from the
comprehensive
floppy disk survey
conducted in the free sample
issue of Amiga Shopper,
given away with issue 21 of
Amiga Format, and the
exhaustive hard drive trial
published in AS issue 1 , We
have included as much
information as possible to
help you make your buying
decision.
For a fuller analysis you
should purchase the relevant
back-issues containing the
complete surveys. Amiga
Format issue 21 can be
bought for £3.85 and details
on getting hold of issue one
of Amiga Shopper can be
found on page 111.
Our buyers' guide pages
will be updated as often as
possible to ensure you get
the fuil Facts on all the top
hardware and software
available for your Amiga,
We take great care to
ensure the accuracy of our
advice, but if you are aware
of any inaccuracies or
omissions from the guides,
please notify us in writing so
that we can continue to give
you the most comprehensive
and up-to-date Amiga
information possible.
The guides will be run
on a rota basis as we
conduct more and more of
them, because in a few
months time there won't be
room to run all of them in
one issue.
If there is a comparison
we haven't done that you
are keen to see or there are
any rating categories we
have not included that would
help you to make your
buying decision, then let us
know about them. The
address for updates and
corrections is:
Buyer's Guide Update,
Amiga Shopper,
30 Monmouth Street,
Bath BA1 2BW
continued en page 1 06
AMIGA SHOPPER •ISSUE20JUNE 1991
;
10J
BUYERS' GU D I
continued from page 1 OS
Hard drive tests
Unlike floppy drives, the hard variety perform at
differing speeds depending on the disk controller
and the actual disk drive supplied with the unit.
See the figures for how the drives performed.
The first thing was to measure the time taken for a
low- level format. Normally, hard disks are
supplied already formatted, with Workbench and
Extras {and sometimes some manufacturer specific
tools) installed. But in some cases it might be
necessary to re-format: ie, if you need to change
the number or size of the partitions. The timings for
the format are given in seconds per 1 0Mb, since
larger drives obviously take longer to format.
The time taken to format and initialise a boot
partition of 10Mb - the partition where all
subsequent tests were performed - was also
measured.
Having done this we installed Workbench on
the partition (each of the models come with
software to do this) and measured the time taken
for a cold boot from the hard disk.
To simulate the performance of the drives in
everyday use, we used DiskSpeed 1 .0 by Michael
Sim of MKSoft Development. This creates 256 files
on the disk, scans the resulting directory list twice
and then deletes the files, taking timings for each
in terms of number of operations performed per
second. A seek and read test is then executed,
whereby a 256k file is created and sections of
data at the beginning, middle and end of this file
are sought and read 1 50 times each. It also tests
the speed at which the drive can write and read
raw data. Results are given in number of bytes
read/written per second.
Once these tests were done, we ran them
again but this time with a HAM picture at the front
of the screen. The reason for this is that the custom
chips have to do a lot of work to display a HAM
image, and there will be some contention between
them and the hard disk for access to memory.
Finally, we measured how long it took for a
typical program to load from each drive. For this
we chose Deluxe Paint III.
ID TESTS • HARD DRIVE SPEED TESTS • HARD DRIVE SPEED TESTS # HARD DRIVE SI
Amiga A2094
Dalaflyer 2000
GVP A2000-HC+8
Supra Drive 2000
A2000 speed
tests show
speed of file
handling and
directory
access, with
Oataflyer on a
flyer in seek
and read.
Amiga A2094
Dalaflyer 200C
GVP A2000.HC+8
Supra Drive 2000
The raw read
speed tests
show the
Supra Drive to
be streets
ahead of the
pack, with the
GVP snapping
at its heels.
4501
400 I
350 I
300 j
2501
200 1
1001
Normal : ^ |
With HAM
0.5k
4k
32k
0.5k
4k
32k
[ Amiga A2094
I Dalaffyor 2000
GVP A2000-HC+8
Supra Drive 2000
Again, the
Supra and
GVP lead the
field in the
raw write
stakes, but
Dataflyer runs
well with a
0.5k buffer.
2201
200
Normal 1
With HAM „
180
1
1 |
160
140
I
M
120
100
1 1
1
j li
■
SO
1 Hi
60
40
20
: J . 1
!
J 11
m&«i RS«S !K»* SB!
& «*&* &
* . **»
tjp
^ v *#
^
+*
Amiga AS 90
Dataflyer 500
GVPA500-HD+ '
SupraDrive 500 XP
There was little
in it as all A500
drives turned in
a fairly even
showing for the
file handling
and directory
access speed
shakedown.
Amiga A J 90
Dotoflyer 500
GVP A5Q0-HD+
SupraDrive 500 XP
The GVP left
the rest for
dead at higher
buffer sizes,
with the Supra
500 taking the
raw read speed
honours down
there at 0.5k.
32k 0.5k 4k
Amigo A590
DotoFlyer 500
GVP A500-HD+
SupraDrive 500 XP
I Again, the all-
singing GVP
did ail right at
raw write, with
the Data Flyer
I fading away
badly as the
buffer was
cranked up.
li
1.0
0.9
o.a
0.T
0.G
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
o
Raw Read
n
■
1 :
Raw Write
1 &
|
|
It
& ■ Sss
>SS
0.5k
4k
32k 0.5k
4k
32k
DF0: |OFS]
DfO: (FF5)
RAM: (OFS)
RAD: (OFS]
RAD: (FFS)
Now compare
how other
devices fared in
the raw read
and write tests.
Notice the
difference
between RAD
and RAM.
Hard drive speed test results
Sizing
UP
Drive Format 10Mb
Cold Boat
Load DPaml III
DIMENSIONS (mm)
Partition (sets)
(tecs)
(sees)
Length
Width
height
A2Q94 605
35
9
N/A
N/A
N/A
Dntof Iyer 2000 245
40
3
N/A
N/A
N/A
GVP 2000 110
40
2
N/A
N/A
N/A
SupraDrive 2000 N/A
45
3
N/A
N/A
N/A
AS»0 205
45
3
260
112
45
Dalaflyer SOD 240
35
2
377
145
62
GVP 500 520
23
1
330
135
62
SupraDrive 500XP N/A
58
2
285
107
60
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
BUYERS' GUIDE
Floppy disk drive suppliers
When you make your choice of disk drive, where
do you go? The first stop will probably be your
local dealer, but few dealers stock the floppy
drives listed here - at least, not under their own
names. Many distributors now value-add to third-
party disk drives by packing them in Fancy boxes
and giving things away with them. This is in
evidence with the Roctec units, which we believe
are badged as Qtec (from Tri logic on 0274
691 1 1 1 5) and Xetec. There's nothing at all wrong
with this, but it helps to know exactly what you are
buying. If in any doubt, get the dealer to open the
box and take a look for yourself.
Drives most commonly found at local specialist
dealers tend to be the ever-popular Cumana
models, whereas those sold by mail-order firms are
usually made by Power Computing. Again, if in
doubt, make sure to ask your dealer.
Roctec units are more difficult to find in their native
form. Anyone interested in getting one of the
slimline models can contact Roctec's importer,
Direct Disk Supplies.
The Commodore A101 1 is Freely available;
any Commodore appointed dealer will either stock
them or be able to order them. However, you
should not contact Commodore directly as
Commodore doesn't sell them directly.
tlVE TEST RESULTS • FLOPPY DRIVE TEST RESULTS • FLOPPY DRIVE TEST • FLOPP
Drive
CBM
Cumana
Power
Power
Golden
Roctec
Roctec
Roctec
A1011
CAX354
Single
Dual
Image
RF302
RF332
RF504
Internal PSU
No , .
.No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Throughport
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Compatibility
OK
OK
OK
OK
OK
OK
OK
OK
Disable switch
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
40/80 track
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Height (mm)
50
35
32
66
46
32
22
52
Width (mm)
135
116
107
107
143
103
115
148
Length (mm)
200
200
223
241
223
208
192
280
Weight (g)
1,000
700
1,000
2,010
1,000
940
880
2,000
Lead length (mm)
490
610
580
640
790
685
675
665
Plug type
Moulded
Shell
Shell
Moulded
Moulded
Shell
Shell
Shell
Anti click
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
Build
Good
Good
VGood
V Good
Good
VGood
VGood
VGood
Casing
Plastic
Plastic
Metal
Metal
Plastic
Metal
Metal
Metal
Fixing
Screws
Clips
Screws
Screws
Screws
Screws
Screws
Screws
External finish
VGood
VGood
Good
Good
VGood
VGood
VGood
Good
Repel solvent
AC
ABC
ABCD
ABCD
ABC
ABCD
ABCD
ABCD
Repel fire (30s)
No-1
No -10
Yes
Yes
No -15
Yes
Yes
Yes
Repel scratches
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Repel liquids
No
Yes
Yes
-
Yes
No
No
No
Repel dust
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Extreme stress
Pass
Fail
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pull b'away (g)
400
800
400
1 ,600
1,000
1,000
600
2,600
Pull running (g)
400
200
400
1,400
800
1,000
400
1,800
Mechanism
Int
Ext
Ext
Ext
Ext
Ext
Ext
Ext
Eject throw (mm)
7
2
2
7
7
2
6
-
Eject pressure (g)
600
700
700
600
800
700
800
Price
£99.99
£74.99
£65
£110
£84
£65*
£65*
£99*
* These prices may vary <
greatly depen
ding on the su
pplier and bac
ged name.
Summary of test criteria
THROUGHPORT: Throughport
compatibility test determined if drives from
different manufacturers could be connected
to each other
REPEL SOLVENT: Four different solvents
and bleaches commonly found in the
household environment were used,
ranging from 'A*: a mild bleaching agent
to 'D J : a powerful solvent. Five ml was
applied to the case and allowed to stand
for 20 minutes. The cases were then
cleaned, dried and inspected for damage.
A letter here indicates a pass.
REPEL FIRE: A yellow flame was ployed
on the casing for 30 seconds or until the
surface showed visible signs of damage. It
was known that the plastic cases would
not survive; the figure shows time recorded
before blemishing.
REPEL SCRATCHES: A sharp stylus was
scraped along the drive's casing until the
covering became perforated. All of the
drives reviewed performed equally,
REPEL LIQUIDS: 300 ml of damn fine
hot coffee was poured over the drive
casing. A pass indicates that although
liquid entered the case, it did not touch
any sensitive components. The test was not
conducted on Power Computing's dual
disc drive as it is mains powered and
would hove frazzled our reviewer. Don't
try this at home kids.
REPEL DUST: A known amount of fine
powder was sprayed directly at the drive
door under slight pressure. A fail indicates
that mare than 20 per cent of the powder
.entered the mechanism.
EXTREME STRESS: First, the drive was
swung pendulum-Fashion by its lead.
Second, a large man stood on the casing.
A pass indicates that the case did not
crack or come adrift from its lead.
PULL BREAKAWAY: The amount of
force [calculated as weight in grammes)
required to start the floppy drive moving
across an arbitrary surface when it is
lugged by its lead.
PULL RUNNING: The force required
(calculated as weight in grammes) to keep
a drive moving across an arbitrary surface
when pulled along by its lead.
EJECT THROW: The amount of eject
button protruding from the unit when a
disk has been inserted.
EJECT WEIGHT; The amount of force
required to eject a disk using the drive's
eject button.
AijJULfcl
BEST BUY
POWER DUAL DRIVE
Quite simply, the best all-rounder of
the lot. The internal PSU means no
strain on the A500's power unit. The
double-deck configuration is cost-
effective - cheaper than two single
drives. While not quite as attractive
as the Roctec or Cumana singles.
Power's dual drive still looks very
good on a desktop.
bct JllJrrZil
BUDGET BUYS
ROCTEC RF302, RF332
AND POWER SINGLE
All these can be picked up for £60
or so. Strong construction, good
design and durability oil serve to
make them the obvious choices - not
forgetting the Power drives' brilliant
anti-click feature.
ooooooooo
Shopping List
See test results for drive prices.
CUMANA:
Pines Trading Estate, Brood Street,
Guildford, Surrey
G3 3IH* 0483 503521
GOLDEN IMAGE
Golden Imoge House, Fairways Business
Pork, Lammas Road, London
El 7QT« 08 1518 7373
DIRECT DISK SUPPLIES
Unit 1 9, Teddington Business Pork, Station
Road, Teddington, Middlesex
TW1 1 9BQ n OBI 977 8777
POWER COMPUTING
44a Stanley Street, Bedford,
Beds MK41 7RW
« 0234 273000
AMIGA SHOPPER ©ISSUE 2 »JUNE 1991
SAFE SHOPPING
BUYING ADVICE FOR
AMIGA SHOPPERS
Whether buying over the phone from adverts in Amiga Shopper or at
a local computer store, here's our advice on how to avoid problems.
BUYING IN PERSON
• Where possible, always
test any software and
hardware in the shop, before
taking if home, to make sure
it works properly.
• Make sure you have all the
necessary leads, manuals or
other accessories you need.
• Don't forget to keep your
purchase receipt.
BUYING BY PHONE
• Be as clear as possible
when stating what you want
to buy. Make sure you
confirm all the technical
details of what you are
buying. Some things to bear
in mind are version numbers.
memory requirements, other
required hardware or
software and compatibility
with your particular model of
Amiga (that is, make sure you
know which version of
Kickstartyou have).
• Check the price to make
sure it's the same as the one
advertised.
• Check that what you're
ordering is actually in stock.
• Check when and how the
article will be delivered and
that any extra charges are as
stated on the advert.
• Make a note of the date
and time when you are
making the order.
PROBLEMS WITH AN ADVERTISER?
We want to ensure that buying mail order through Amiga Shopper is
a straightforward, hassle-free experience.
Taking the advice offered on this page will help make it so. But if,
despite this, you run into problems - for example, failure to deliver
goods within 28 doys, without reasonable explanation - we will do
our best to help sort things out.
Simply contact our Customer Liaison Officer,
Helen Kennedy at
Future Publishing Ltd,
30 Monmouth Street,
Bam BA1 2BW, or give
her a call on 0225
442244 ext 2 176
Be ready to supply her
with details of the
advertisement you
responded to, the goods
ordered and precise details
of the problem encountered.
She will then do her best to
solve your problem.
However, please bear in
mind that your first contact |n
any enquiry should be direct
tothecampartyyouhave
ordered from. In 99 coses
out of 1 00 they will be able
to resolve any difficulties.
Customer Liaison Officer, Helen
Kennedy, wilt try to sort out any major
problems with advertisers.
BUYING BY POST
As with buying by phone, you
should clearly state exactly
what it is you are buying, at
what price (refer to the
magazine, page and issue
number where it's advertised)
and give any relevant
information about your system
set-up where necessary. You
should also make sure you
keep copies of all
correspondence both to and
from the company concerned.
MAKING RETURNS
Whichever method you buy
by, you can return it if it fails
to meet any one of the
following three criteria:
• It must be of 'merchantable
quality'.
• It must be as described.
• It must be fit for the
purpose for which it was sold.
If it fails to satisfy any or all of
the criteria, then you are then
entitled to:
• Return it for a refund.
• Get compensation for part
of the value.
• Get a replacement or free
repair.
When returning anything,
ensure you have proof of
purchase and that you do it
as soon as possible after
receiving it. For this reason it
is important that you check
the hardware or software as
soon as it is delivered to
make sure everything you
ordered is there and works as
it is supposed to.
HOW TO PAY
Paying by credit card is the
most sensible way, whether
buying in person, by post or
on the phone, because you
may be able to claim the
money from the credit
company even if the firm you
ordered from has gone bust
or refuses to help sort out
your problem.
Otherwise, pay by crossed
cheque or postal order, but
never send coins or notes
through the mail.
GETTING REPAIRS
Always check, when buying
hardware, the conditions of
the guarantee, servicing and
replacement policy, so that
you know what level of
support to expect. Always fill
in and return warranty cards
as soon as possible and
make sure that you are aware
of all the conditions contained
in the guarantee.
BUYING PD
Even though buying PD
software is relatively
inexpensive, you should still
apply the same rules of
confirming all transactions as
clearly as possible and
making sure that you keep
accurate records of all
communications.
Shopping around is still
important when buying PD
because different houses
charge different prices for the
same disks. There is no set
pricing structure for disks, but
bear in mind that PD houses
are supposed to be non-profit
making operations. CD
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1 99 1
™™™*gggjgjT!g^jgjTgjTTgT^^
WJJ^WJ AV-. ■.■■■■.■■.■■■■■■■■.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■-■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■•■
U. i . i .WJJ.W.W.'.W.U. i . i . i .i. i . i . i . i . i . i . i . i . '
AMAZING OFFERS ON
3.5" DSDD DISKS
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50 DSDD 135 tpi 20.95
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ALL DISKS SUPPLIED WITH LABELS AND ARE 100% ERROR FREE 2 FOR 1 GUARANTEE
■
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50 39.95
100 57.95
(ALL DISKS 100% ERROR FREE
l INCLUDES LABELS)
DISK STORAGE BOXES
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ftftft OFFER ftftft
OEOUCTf 1.0© fftCtt THE
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[ALL DISKS 1 00% ERROR FHEE
INCLUDES ENVJLABELS)
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(ALL DISKS 100% ERROR FREE
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GENUINE SONY 3-5" DSDD BULK DISKETTES
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1 00 41 .95 1 000.... 339.95
(ALL DISKS 100% ERROR FREE WD ARE SUPPLIED WITH LABELS)
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(ALL DISKS 100% ERROR FREE AND ARE SUPPLIED WfTH ENVJLABELS)
GENERAL ACCESSORIES
QUALITY MOUSE MAT.. 2.50
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3-5" GLEANING KIT 1.95
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ATARI DUST COVER 3.95
AMIGA DUST COVER ,3.95
2 PIECE PRINTER STAND.... 5.95
MONITOR STAND -132.95
PE RiPHE n A Lo
CUMANA
EXTERNAL DRtVS
only 59.95
AMIGA 51 2K RAM
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WITH CLOCK
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JOYSTICKS
COMPETITION PRO Iu.55
COM& PRO EXTRA ... 12 55
2it»5T! FIRE 1. ir «5
PYTHON ONE ....9.95
VAJLABtfe
XCOPY PRO
{THE ULTIMATE BACKUP UTILITY}
34.95
^JTOmimm.^^
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OF FOR
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BY PHONE
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0782 281506
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D!SKETTB',OUR 3.5" DISKETTES
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SPECIALS
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3435 22.95
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CUMANA EXT.DRIVE
PLUS 51 2K RAM EXP.
WITH CLOCK
SfcSO 87.95
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PLUS XCOPY PRO
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ACCESORY PACK
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*50 7.99
2
3
<
ID
2
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m¥imm¥mmmm*.
109
SHAREWARE &
PUBLIC DOMAIN
AMIGA FROM THE USA
Qty of disks in brackets
Deskbench
Customize your W. Bench
Toolkit
Desktop: Icons: Print etc
Something For Nothing
Surpri se ! Surpri se !
Animation Set
The best animation demos
Graphic Goodies
Iconomania: Paint utils etc.
Video Tools
VPG: Slideshow: IFF etc.
Video Font
30 typefaces, various sizes.
Font Tools
Utils for Amiga fonts
Telecomms
All you need for Telecom
Jokebench
Demos: Pointers: Emulators
Icon Collection 1
Icons for all
Harv Laser Top 20
ARP: Iconmeister: Sound: Screen:
Newzap: Comm etc.
Fun
Fractals: Personality tests etc.
Dropcloth
4 dozen pictures for screen decoration
in W. Bench
Fontlib
Library of fonts selected by icons
Display
Pictures: Animation: Music:
A program to use with them all
Games
70 super games on 7 disks at
a Special price of £151
Free Catalogue with
every order
DISK PRICES
1-4 £3 each
5-10 £2.50 each
10+ £2.00 each
Plus £2.50 P&P with all orders
Credit cards accepted
VISA
\S/I-L-K Software
158 London Road South, Lowestoft,
Suffolk NR33 0BB
Tel: 0502 582618 Fax: 0502 517057
FREE DEMO DISK
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Then here's your chance to grab one of the last
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N.B. THIS OFFER CLOSES OK 30TH JUNE 1991
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MEGA BLITZ!
THE ONE STOP SHOP FOR AMIGA PD SOFTWARE
THIS IS JUST A SMALL SELECTION OF OUR VAST LIBRARY
UTILITIES
PDU ID Word Processing+Databasing
PDU 16 Air Tunnel Simulation
PDU 23 Fish#1 1 A68K Assembler
PDU24Fish#114CDocs
PDU 26 Fi sh#1 33 Console Handler
PDU 27 Fish* 136 Create own puzzles
PDU29Fish#140/141 SBProlog2disks
PDU 31 Fish#143 RIM Database
PDU 32 Fish#1 44 Analytic spreadsheet
PDU 38 Fish#1 85 Official CBM IFF disk
PDU 43 Fish#203 Assembler S C eg
PDU44Fish#215MandelvroomV2.0
PDU 45 Fi sh#2 1 D Scientific calculator
PDU 46 Fish#21 3 lcons(300 in 8 colors)
PDU 51 F sh#21 9 Astronomy program
POU 52 Fish#52 A-Z Text Editor
PDU60Fish#237CLIprint
PDU 70 Fish 1 93 Keymap Editor
PDU 72 SID VI -06 Tha ultimate disk util.
PDU 74 C- Manual
PDU 78 File Arch iver
PDU 80 Fonts and Surfaces
PDU 81 Disksalve 1.3
PDU 82 Scale, Wordwrite
■ PDU 98 Celtics Demomaker
PDU 99 Ham Radio utils[5disks)
PDU 101 Menu-Maker
PDU 102 Label designer
PDU 103 Icon-Maker
PDU 104 Icon-Mania
PDU 105 Crossword Creator
PDU 118 Various CLIutils
PDU 1 46 Grocery + Video list maker
PDU 149 icon Fun
PDU 151 Fixdisk-disk repairer
PDU 164 Games Music Creator
PDU 1 68 Vaccine-Booster(Virus killer)
PDU 169 QuickBase- Database
PDU 171 Fish#3l 5 Draw-map
PDU 1 75 Fish#288 Piotdata 2D
PDU 185 ANC22 (Excellent utfls)
PDU186FalconBootblockCreator
PDU 1 89 Bootblock Copier
PDU 194 Pman Virus Killer
PDU 198 Synchro Packer V4.6
PDU 200 Virus Killer Pro V2.0
PDU 207 PerfectSound V1 ,93
PDU257Fish#349MED
PDU 262 MED Modules
DEMOS
PDD1 Anarchy Demo
POD 3 Cult Demo disk
PDD 4 Deathstar Megademo(2 disks)
PDD 7 Elvira Demo
PDD 14 RAF Megademo(2 disks)
PDD16RobocopDemo
PDD 1 7 SAE Demo#1 2
PDD18SAEDemo#19
PDD19SAEDemo#21
PDD20SAEDemo#25
PDD21SAEDemo#32
PDD 31 Anarchy-Ooh its obscene III"
PDD 51 Hacktrick#1 Arsewipe
PDD 52 Hacktrick#2Smashingdayout
PDD55Kefrens Megademo 8(2 disks)
PDD 60 NitroAC Demos#22
PDD 62 N o rth star Megad©mo#2
PDD 70 Rebels Megademo
PDD 71 Red Sector Demo
PDD 72 Red Sector Demodisk#4
PDD 73 SAE Demos#23
PDD 74 SAE Demos*36
PDD 75Scoopex Demos
PDD 76 Scoops x M egade mo
PDD 90 Trilogy Demos#4
PDD 91 Trilogy Megademo#1
PDD 93TWIDemo+Virus killer
PDD 94 Vortex Megademo
PDD 96 Magnetic Fields Demo#36
PDD 97 Predators Megademo(2 disks)
PDD 99 Semtex Megademo
PDD107Budbrainl(2disks)
PDD 1 15MagneticFieldsDemo#40
PDD 1 1 6 Magnetic Fields Demo#41
PDD 130 Chubby Brown
PDD 131 CrionicsDemo
PDD 1 32 Giants Megademo(2 disks)
PDD 134 Magnetic Fields Demo#45
PDD 138 Page One Demo#1
PDD 1 39 Page One Demo#2
PDD 1 40 Page One Demo#3
PDD 141 Page One Demo#4
PDD145SAEDemo#31
PDD 152 Flash "No Brain Wo Pain"(2)
PDD 1 53 Billy Conn ally Demo(2 disks)
PDD 1 60 Hacktrick-Rave-on"
PDD165SAEDemo#35
PDD166SAEDemo#39
PDD177Budbrainll
PDD 1 79 Crionics Total Destruction
PDD180DMOBVectordemo
PDD 186 Flash De mo s#2
PPD 209 Rutger Demodisk
PDD2l2SpacePack#32
ANIMATION
PDA 9 Knight Animation) 1 meg)
PDA 1 2 Agatron Star Trek Anims 2
PDA 1 3 Agatron Star Trek Anims 1 7
PDA 14 Puggs in Space
PDA 15 Moonwalker Demo
PDA 18 Miller Lite Advert
PDA 31 Nude Girls Anim
PDA 34 Basketball Anim
PDA 35BFPOSIideshow(18+)
PDA 36 BFPO Slideshow#2(18+)
PDA 37 Busy Bee Anim
PDA 41 DigiviewerSlidsshow
PDA 42 Dragons Lair Demo
PDA 44 French Hom[1 meg)
PDA 45 Monocyde & Sportscar(1 meg)
PDA 47 HolstenPils Advert
PDA 48 Magnum Jogger Anim
PDA 49 Mayfai r Vol . Z3 n 03 [ 1 8+ )
PDA 50 Mega Clean Show V1 .7
PDA 54 NASA Graphics
PDA 56 Newtek Demoree 11 (2)(1 meg)
PDA57NewtekDemoreel3(2)(1meg)
PDA 58 Paradise Slideshow
PDA61Sabrina
PDA 63 Space Anim s[1 meg)
PDA 65 Star Trek Anims
PDA 68 Walker Demot (1 meg)
PDA69WalkerDemol (2meg,2disks)
PDA 70 Walker Demo2[1 meg)
PDA 73 WestcoastCracker#4<18+)
PDA 74 Bodeans 8ordellQ#1(1B+)
PDA 75 Bodeans Bordello#4(1B+)
PDA 76 Playboyf 18+)
PDA 77 Sam Fox (18+)
PDA 78 Utopia#l(1S+)
PDA 79 The Final £cstecy#1 (18+)
PDA 80 Walker Demo 2(2 meg,2 disks)
PDA 8 1 Ray T race Art. D B W Rende r uti I
PDA86Utopia#4(18+)
PDA 89 Bodeans Bordello#9 (18+)
PDA 90 Bun sen Burner- Jet Fighter anim
PDA 92 D. Landers Sci - fi Show# 1
PDA 93 D.Landers Sci-fi Show#2
PDA 95 Magician/Jogger Anims
PDA 97 Mike Tyson Knockout disk
PDA 106 Back to the Future li anims
PDA 1 08 Adams Family
PDA 1 1 Bru ce Lee E nter th e Dragon
PDA 1 1 Bruce Lee Slideshow II
PDA 1 1 2 Dragons Lair II Demo
PDA114 Neighbours Slideshow
PDA116Terminator
MUSIC
PDM 2 Music Invasion I
PDM 3 Music Invasion II
PDM 4 Music Invasion 111(2 disks)
PDM 5 MFI'Electric CLI IV
PDM 6 Winkers song(2 disks)
PDM 9 Ride on ti me & Batdance
PDM 19 Bad-M.Jackson
PDM 20 Bat Dance
PDM 27DMOB Megamusic III
PDM 28 Enemies Music III
PDM 30 Digital Concert II
PDM 31 Digital Concert III
PDM 33 Halloween 'Follow !ho Sign '(?)
PDM 35Think were alone now-Tiffany
PDM 36 Land of Confusion -Genesis
PDM 3S Miami Vice Theme (4 disks)
PDM 40 MFI Vangelis Demo
PDM 65 Digital Concert IV
PDM71NoiseplayerV2.40
PDM 72 Popeye meets the Beach boys
PDM 80 Digital Concert VI
PDM 82 Freddy Kruger
PDM 83 Kefrens Jukebox
PDM 84 Madonna-Hanky panky
PDM 85 Miami Vice-Crockets Theme
PDM 87 RIP Eruption
PDM 88 Slab Music
PDM 91 100 Most Remembered C64 tunes
PDM 95 Hi-Fi Demo
PDM 1 04 BassX#5 Power Remix
PDM 105 BassX#6 Sydney Youngbtood
PDM106BettyBoo
PDM109DepecheMode
PDM110DMOBMusicl
POM '■• DMOB Music II
PDM 1 1 2 DMOB Music IV[2 disks)
PDM 1 17 Flash Gordan (2 disks)
PDM 118Hacktnck'Loadsamoney'
PDM 120 Laurel & Hardy (2 disks)
PDM 125 Mr Food (2 disks)
PDM128NASPV2.0
PDM 131 Petshop Boys Rem ix#1
PDM 132 Petshop Boys Remix#2
PDM 142 The Amiga Chart III
GAMES
PDG 1 Star Trek- Final Frontier^ disks)
PDG2Startrek (3 disks,2 drives)
PDG 5 Card & Board Games
PDG 16 Marble Slide
PDG 19 Destination Moonbase
PDG 21 Boing the Game (2 disks)
PDG 26 Treasure Search
PDG 31 Moria
PDG 32 Legend of Farghail
PDG33Arcadia(Breakoutstylegame)
PDG 34 Dynamite Dick
PDG 35 Pair It
PDG 36 Snakes & ladders'Reversi
PDG 37 Super Quiz
CLIP ART
There is a total of 10 disks in the clip
art range .All are in IFF Format & are
ideal for DTP.There are loads of
images to choose fro rn, ranging from
fancy borders to special occasions
& from people to animals etc etc.
WE ALSO STOCK
AMOS DISKS
Variousdemos/musicandgames
MAGAZINE DISKS
Amiga Format & Com puti ng
DOCUMENT DISKS
Game Hints/Solutions etc etc
•Ctft PACK1&&
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This 8 disk pack contain s:-
Spreadsheet
Woid Processor
Amiga Spell
Memo-pad
Inventory
Database eic etc
A must for home accounts!
110-00 incl. 10 cap. box.
&^PACK2&ft
Demo Pack (10 disk pack)
Budbrain 1(2 disks), S 2
Magnetic Fields #40
Magnetic Fields #41
Keferens Megademo(2 disks)
Puggs in Space
Fillet the Fish
Scoopex Megademo
A great starter pack
£11-00 incl. 10 cap box.
&& PACK 3**
Music Pack (10 disk pack)
Helloween (2 disks)
Cryptic Glidescope II
Beal masters III
J.M.Jarre
Noi sep layer V2.4 + Sample(2)
Freddy Kruger
Crockets Theme
100 C64 tunes
£11-00 incl. 10 cap box
^*PACK4A*
Adult pack (10 disk pack)
Sab.- ina, Sam Fox (2 disks)
Bodeans Bordello #2
Bodeans Bordello #3
Bodeans Bordello #10
Bodeans Movies
West Coast Cracker
BFPO#1,BFPO#2
Utopia #1
£11-00 ind."10capboK
DISK PRICES
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20+ £1.00
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pwiJIJmM
BEGINNERS
Public domain software is
free to anyone. That's right,
even you. The concept of
PD was borrowed from
early mainframe systems
where hackers, as the
original computer freaks
were called, produced
programs and distributed
them to their friends and
fellow hackers, asking for
no other payment than
eternal fame and glory.
A PD program is one
you can copy and use for
free, provided you credit
the author and pass on any
documentation is
distributed with it.
So, with all this free stuff
flying about, what can you
get? There is stacks of
handy software about,
including utilities,
applications, demos
(graphics, games and
music), disk magazines and
much, much more.
If you haven't got a
modem to download
software from a bulletin
board, you'll have to buy
some. But you thought PD
was for free. It is, but
disks, postage and the
wages of those who sit all
day at the copying machine
aren't, so be prepared to
pay between 99p and
£2.50 per disk.
The price you pay is up
to you, although some
people get a bit cross at
paying £2.50. It depends
on where the PD house
buy 5 its disks and the cost
of duplicating software. If
the supplier has built its PD
operation into an existing
business, that can help
bring overheads down.
Anyway, it's up to you.
Some 99 p houses are good,
others are terrible.
The only way to find out
for sure what is worth
having is to send off your
99p, suck it and see.
Or, even better, to make
sure you read Public
Domain World in Amiga
Shopper every month.
Software
for free
Phil South dons deerstalker and
elephant gun to hunt down more
bargain goodies lurking on the
wild savanna of the Public Domain
~*ssyj
"Every month I'll be
looking at all the very
best PD software and
reviewing a huge range
of PD interests."
Phil South
Welcome back to the
Public Domain, where
software is free, pigs
fly and sheep wear
peopleskin jackets. It's fun being able
to swap software willy nilly, although
you should make sure that the
software you are swapping really is
public domain. Do you read all the
docs on a disk before copying or
spreading it? You should, because
some could possibly be shareware,
or even licenseware.
Shareware means that although
you can copy the disk and give it to
people, both you and the person you
give a copy to must both pay the
shareware fee. Licenseware is
different. Although you get it through
a PD house, it is licensed to that PD
house by the author and he gets his
own cut of the sales.
Right, lecture over. Let's take a
look at what's on offer from this
month's selected suppliers. First off ...
1 7 Bit Software
Seventeen Bit Software has been
around for a while and boasts some
1000-odd disks in its catalogue. The
"Hey Blackie, do you get many floppies at One-Eyed Jacks?" Audrey
takes a Fenn-tastlc detour from Twin PeaksXo the Public Domain.
foundation of the 1 7 Bit name has
been graphics and demos, and this is
really what it specialises in.
Apart from the demos it is famous
for, the company also supplies the 17
Bit Update disk magazine (1 2-issue,
£9.95 plus 16-page paper mag) and
You may have seen fractals, but get your head around 17 Bit's Trial 'n'
Error Utilities disk on which global update acquires new meanings.
the excellent UGA Newsflash disk
mag (£2.99 for two disks). As well
as all that, the Firm has branched out
into commercial software with Team
1 7, The first game from this crew will
be out very soon; a half-megabyte
game (although most future releases
will be 1Mb only) priced at £9.95.
Team 17 is based around a
bunch of ultra-talented 1 7 Bit
regulars, such as Martyn 'Spadge'
Brown, Nico Francois, Allister
Brimble, and Tobias Richter, so the
quality of the coding and graphics
should be very good indeed.
When I told the folks all 7 Bit
about the PD column, they reacted
with typical gusto and sent me a
stack of disks that would choke an
elk. So here is the cream of the crop.
Trial' 1ST Error Utils
(disk 838)
A fun-packed disk, choc-full of very
interesting utilities. There are loads of
them so here is a selection:
Fractals is less yawn some than
some fractal programs I've seen. It
does a range of fracs you very rarely
Continued on page 1 1 S
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 eJUNE 1991
IF YOU'RE THINKING VIDEO
THEN SOONER OR LATER YOU WILL HAVE
TO THINK ABOUT COPYRIGHT FREE MOOD MUSIC.
CALL THE SIRIUS VIDEO COPYRIGHT
FREE MUSIC LINE ON
0898 343352
TO FIND OUT MORE.
(Max call times 6 mins)
Calls charged at 34p per min cheap rate, 45p per min all other times.
AMAZING PRICES - ONLY 85p PER DISK !!
DE0050 EVIL DEAD DEMO ■ DEOOSl BUDBRAIN II
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MUM) TITANIC5 MUSIC DISK DE0021 TOTAL RECALL
MU0027 ACID MUSIC DISK UT00Q7 POWER PACKER
HUNDREDS OP TrnJiS CATALOGUED
si;nd sai; i-ok rji.l list
MAKE CHEQUES/POSTAL ORDERS PAYABLE TO:
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33, SPRINOH1LL RISE WRIBBENHALL
BEWDLEV, WORCS. DY12 1EA
TEL: (0299) 402747/400490
POSTAGE: £1.50 UK / £2 SO OVERSEAS
* = 1 Meg / # - No. Of Disks
AMIGANUTS UNITED
169, DALE VAlLEy ROAD, HOLLYBROOK,
SOUTHAMPTON, SOI 6QX
Phone 0703 785680 Mon-Fri 10am-6pm
Official UK distributors of
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790:
in,
83!r
839:
SIB:
901:
906:
907:
910:
918;
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924:
933;
939;
946:
950;
962;
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944:
«»;
971:
70S;
876:
899;
973
990:
521 : ALL NEW STAR TfiEK, with authrj rsed Engli<h instructions
576: EDUCATION pacl-ed with piojjs fen the children
581: HO.V1.06. Find the CU a sIcg'Thenyou rased this prog
440; GAMES including the Tram Set. A must for the kids.
649; bljogkaIn Two disk megademo, (for adults only).
700i 0-COFVV1. Excellent copier program. Full insttucrjerri.
72S: UTFIS. The famous* Boot-Shop, Boot-Kit + others.
NorthC VI .3. Of special interest to users. {? disks)
STAttTRLKKER. Music util - disbnasterVSS other utils.
STAR TREK. LIS version. Requires 1 Meg min & 2 drives
TEX1PEU5 2.E0 This is an excellent PD*vordpro package
C-LIGHT. Ray (racing package, A must for the artist 1
r^FRENS. Excellent powerrnenu & font designers. A gced utility
AMI-FX issue 2 A must tor fractal fans. (3 disks, 1 fvteg)
DVWAMmE DICK Dig lot treasure, iKad the bats' Good
5n.^.'L'j fi LADDERS CAME. This is a must for all ages
RAIR-IT. An excellent educational game for the Puds.
THE Mi EMULATOR. Details oF hardware required, en disk
RAD BIRO. Amm by Dr. Gsrdalf (1 Meg -excellent)
GAMES. Gerr^'Boomerangi'Dominion/Shark/star Tre*
A-GEME. Genealogy. This is the new V3 (1 Meg mm)
FRAXIONS New megademo. "The Wall' It's geed!
ANMCr-r/ Demos collection. Plus a tiaid to pisy 3D game
THE EVIL DEAD Can you kill me Eomtses 7
BEEBLE Unusual pics wnh 7 music tracks By Desire
S.A E. AMAZING TUNES II Outstanding! (3 dote - 1 Meg)
BUMRAIN MEGADEMO II Anothet good 'n from Sudb'a^
FILLET THE fiSH. A fun anmatjcn for ail ages
NEW MASTEt VF8U5 KILLER VS. 1011s 105 oj the pests'
1017; CHAOS (SOCK A good fractals kalaidascope show (1 Meg)
T01B: H rv<A.i-FAD A v.,-- ■■ ii vM.r/- 1..- -a-- c ■>_.■: : : :.:< Jonel
1021; CCWOTE5. The latest COYOTE animation. (1 Meg)
...... THE u g T | NG gELCW is FROM OUR ItCEWCEU PBOGftAMS ♦**♦♦*
AMIBASE PSOfCSSIOmt ThE re a good database prog
CI Meg Amiorof II coming soon It's fantastic! Watch this space)
QUIZMAST ER Think you know it all? well now you can prove rt. With full save and re- load
facility (1-4 players) Good
1 ACROSS 9 DOWN Complete crossword program. {2 disks)
Data drsfc numbeis P and 3 available rcw for only £9 00 each
MATCH-WORDS Solve those crosswords/anagrams easrtyl
Into coding? - Oi want to leam? The Amiga Coders Club is for you
ACC 1-4: introductory rssue to the famous Amiga Coders Club
ACC disks are packed with sccrce, twits, tips from marry of the well known code/s
that are on the Amiga scene today. Wctth collecting! Issues 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, IS available,
f Disfcs are £3 00 per issue) IMPORTANT! The ACC Club is tor those usir-g Devoflfc etc.
MEDV3 is here! The very kites! music utility from Teijo.
Its oresertatior. is absolutely brilliant 1 Get this how*
MOD PROCESSOR VI .8 by Steve Marshall. Marry rew additions, execute modules and cr p»cs -
Adjustable picture heightwrdth will kHd crunched modules as vvell! An excellent utility
C manual V2ftcxn the Amiga c Club. Packed with help/advice samples of C code etc. Now
auto-booting, (en 4 disks)
IMPORTANT! The Amiga C Club is for those using 'C asseivt i:is
"■ EIGHT CHANNEL OCTAMED IS COMIMS 1 WATCH THIS SPACE FOR DETAILS "•
Free disks + free progs * hee membershio - a thousand detailed ptogs phis seme games to play on the mam catalogue disk £1 00
(PRICES INCLUDE RETURN POST AND PACKING)
The February update to our main catalogue is available for El .03 (Feb update contains only the latest additions to the library) ,
E4.W
02 (X
£-2 IK
£E<X
£3<X
£2.5(
02.5C
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Le.oc
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C.L.S
CANHAMS LEISURE SOFTWARE
The only PD company to employ artists musicians and
coders to write PD software
FREE
JOYSTICK WITH
ALL ORDERS
OVER £20
if FREE! PD disk of your choice with every order
• Spend over £1 (99p a disk)
• Fast & Reliable service
• SPECIAL OFFERS OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE
£1.50 a disk or over 10 99p each/all guaranteed/D1 = diskl/* = 1 meg only
ACCESSORIES
t Meg Upgrades £29.99
i Meg Upgrades with clock .£32.99
Mouse Mats £3.99
3i" Cleaning Kits £2.99
DISK BOX ES,
40 Capacity 3.5" ., £4.50
80 Capacity 3.5" £6.99
120 Capacity 3.5" £9,99
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10 Disks (boxed) £4.99
50 Disks {50+ disks incl
labels) £17.99
100 Disks £32.99
* BULK DISKS 29p EACH
PLEASE PHONE *
LATEST PD
560 Robocop 3 demo
627 Iron Maiden Slideshow
632 Scarecrow
634 Adam's Family demo*
596 Rebel's Candy Land 2
549 Rebel's Megablast
583 Slabby Music
582 Pink Floyd D1/D2
554 MC Hammer
574 Pet Shop Boys Maniacs
ANIMATION/SLIDESHOW
1 08 Heavy Metal
199 BATMAN animation
361 Betty Boo
465 Bruce Lee
501 Laurel and Hardy D1
279 Computer Films
502 Laurel and Hardy D2
497 Creepshow
459 Money For Nothing
494 Fillet Fish
508 Madonna Rescues Me
498 Ghost Pool *
517 Genesis Land of Confusion
289 INDIANA Jones *
521 Groove In The Heart
444 Madonna Animation
511 Pump Up The Jam
366 Porky Pig
509 Suicidal Blonde D1/D2
479 Ugiy Mug
534 Bartman Music with anim
495 Showbiz
D1/D2
360 Neighbours Slideshow
598 Time Travellers Music
350 Star Wars II*
546 Black Betty
180 Mike Tyson
291 New Music Volume 1
464 Roadrunner Cartoon
512 Hi-fi
B46 Iraq Demo
539 Black Box D1/D2
647 Turtles Slideshow Vol 2
547 Crusaders Sweet Music
561 Gulf Slideshow
179 Crusders Bacteria
533 Madonna + Friends Slideshow
368 Crusaders Freak Out
480 Stealthy Two
434 Crusaders Hot-wired
621 Garfield Slideshow
164 Crusaders Tunes
518 Joker Slideshow
315 Crusaders Audio-X
MUSIC DEMOS
449 Do the Bartman
337 Erasure Mix
336 Kylie Made in Heaven
338 Madonna Hanky Spankey
211 Freddy Kruger Rap
UTILITIES
362 57 Utilities
469 Action Movie Maker
359 C64 Emulator
532 Spectrum Emulator
506 ST Emulator
377 Graphics Management Vol 1
428 Midi Tool Kit
448 Reaper Copier
405 Sample Scanner
503 Disk Magazine Designer
576 Spreadsheet
559 Dope Intro Maker
578 Sid Workbench 1 .06
579 Label Designer
580 Quickbase/Mail Management
112 Soundtrackers Programme
443 Sound Workshop
68 Word Pro Plus
631 Electric Train Set
558 Tetra Copy
426 Pumpy Copier
277 Zero Virus Free
592 TV Graphics/Fonts
411 I.S.S Clip art
624 Cryptic Utilities 17
536 Jazz Bench
1 70 Perfect Sound
425 Drive Select
373 Sound Applications Vol 1
485 Database/Spreadsheet
462 Simple Accounts
537 Rotate 3D
599 Darts Side Utilities
GAMES/PRODUCT
DEMOS
452 Bart Simpson Game
001 Dungeon Master 3*
41 Kick Off 3
490 Break Out Construction Kit
492 Pacman
493 Quiz Master
649 Wheels of Fortune
647 CLS Games Vol 1
446 Middle East Mania
254 Monopoly/Cluedo and others
290 PsuedoCop
457 Star Trek US Version D1/D2
638 Xenons
615 Eat Mine
605 Frantic Freddy
604 Castle of Doom
602 Computer Conflict
601 Agatron Games
471 Werner
367 Weltrix Game
478 Tennis*
ADULT GAMES AVAILABLE
(STRICTLY OVER
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PLEASE CALL
Send SAE for full PD/Software list/STOP PRESS!! AMIGA SWAPPERS WANTED!!!
Please make cheques payable to: Mark Canham, PO Box 7, Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK2 3YL (Tel: 0908 640763 between aam and 7 P m).
POSTAGE: Free with every order over £6 otherwise please add £1.50 with every order)
PUBl|DpMAIN
Continued from page 1 13
see, as well as mapping 3D Fractals
onto a sphere, which I haven't seen
done anywhere else.
DIED is the Digital intelligence
EDitor, a text editor For programmers,
□nd it looks very nice. Don't confuse
text editors with word processors
though. Text editors are for preparing
source code and a little bit of
documentation. The facilities you get
in them reflect that kind of use.
PCopy is a copying program that
doesn't copy anything other than
AmigaDOS disks. This may sound
like no use at all, but it is a very user-
friendly program. IF you've ever been
stuck at a computer show duplicating
disks and answering questions at the
same time, this will impress you. The
program prompts you at every stage,
so you always know where you are.
Double Action is a file cruncher -
a bit like Powerpacker - written, in
this case, by Vince of Tristar. The
program compacts files so they can
still be run as normal, but take up
much less disk space.
Formatter is a new fast format
program that works on Workbench.
Start it by clicking the icon and a
little multitasking window appears on
the screen. Altering the buttons and
pressing GO formats a disk much
faster than in the usual stupid
AmigaDOS way. It does it better than
by the regular method of selecting
the disk, using the Initialise menu and
waiting till the cows come home
before you can do anything else with
the disk. The other neat thing about
Formatter is that it allows you to type
a name for the disk as you format it;
something more meaningful than
Empty or Blank. If you know what the
disk is to be called then you can
name it in the first place, which is
much more elegant.
And then there's PBor, a program
that lets you re-design the pattern on
the drag bar of your windows. Why?
Oh well, it's a bit of fun I suppose.
You design the bar, then save it to
disk. Not only does it give you an
icon to click and change the pattern,
but magically the icon has a little
drag bar on it with the pattern you
designed on it. Pretty impressive.
Some coders just make you want to
spit, don't they?
All the utils on this disk are, at
the very least, a bit on the interesting
side. At best they are extremely
useful. I can think of at least Four of
them I would install on my hard disk
right now as they'd really improve
my productivity. If I actually had any
productivity to start with, that is.
Value for money 9/ 1
Light Cycle Demo
(Disk 861)
This is a really stunning bit of
animation and destined to become a
classic. It's a shame the subject is so
old, but then Iron is a cult film so it
may be okay to still use it in modern
demos. This is a reet big animation,
□nd only works in 1Mb machines. It
goes on for ages, and I really don't
fully understand how the author
managed to cram all those graphics
and sounds into it. The samples, all
taken from the video cassette of the
film, I assume, are very long and
quite finely detailed considering the
length of them. A very fine balance
has been struck between sound and
action, and almost everything that
happens on-screen has a sound
effect. A tasty piece of work.
Value far money 10/10
Bags of sound and action is on offer in the Light Cycle Demo as Jeff
Bridges and his chums storm around the innards of your machine.
COMMAND.COM
(Disk 866)
This is a special command set for
single-drive users. It gives you a set
of DOS commands in RAM, which
means you can put disks in and out
of the drives and use them without
always having to put the WB disk
back in. The program installs itself,
and you can even apply it to other
disks [ust by typing INSTALL
COMMAND.COM.
Value for money 7/10
Share And Enjoy
Amazing Tunes II
(Disks 842-844}
A really great music demo, with
some very good graphics and
animation to accompany the huge
range of tunes from various crews.
The tunes are very skilfully
programmed, but it's a shame that
the SAE team supplies the disk in a
copyable but not Workbench-
readable disk. This means that
although the disks will boot, you
can't look at the tunes and take the
sequences or samples apart. Such a
facility would have been very
instructive, and it's a pity that SAE
was more interested in showing how
complex it can make a disk format
rather than thinking that someone
might learn something from the
music. An extremely good set of disks
though, and well worth a look.
Value for money 8/10
Continued on page 1 16
rr o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fisi
F
red Fish is one of the most prolific collectors
of PD software on the Amiga, and his
collection borders on 500 disks. The Fish
Disks are one of the most popular ranges of
PD software available for the Amiga, for their
mixture of games and utils. As you can see from
some of the listings, Fred chooses only the most
interesting stuff. So check your favourite PD library
for the Fish Disk, or take a look at this listing of
recent additions to the Fish List.
Disk 421
DMouse: A screen & mouse blanker, with auto
window activator, mouse accelerator, popCLI, pop
window to front, push window to back, etc.
EZAsm: Combines parts of the 'C language with
68000 assembly, giving it the 'feel' of a higher
level language.
NoVirus; An excellent anti-virus utility.
Zon: An arcade/ ad venture game mixing a unique
blend of puzzle solving and arcade adventure.
Disk 422
Gravity: A program that simulates movement of
astronomical objects under the influence of gravity.
Imploder Allows you to reduce the size of
executable files while they retain full functionality.
PopUpMenu: Enables you to use pop-up menus
with programs that use standard intuition menus.
SystemTracer: A tool to view and manipulate
various AmigaDOS 1 .2 and 1.3 system structures.
TrackDOS: A program that allows easy transfer of
data between DOS, memory and trackdisk. device,
TrekTrivia: Very nice mouse-driven trivia-type
program for Star Trek fans.
Disk 423
Hollywood: An easy-to-play trivia game with such
subjects as M*A*S*H, Star Trek (old and TNG),
Indiana Jones, general television trivia, and more.
LCDCalc: Probably the prettiest looking four-
function [with memory) calculator ever written.
Pogo: Another of Eric Schwarz's cute animations.
SetRamsey: A program that ollows you to test the
current settings of the RAMSEY ram controller chip
on an Amiga 3000 under Kickstart 1.3 or 2.0, and
change them if you wish.
Disk 424
AutoCLI: A 'PopCLI' type replacement that works
with WorkBench 2.0.
MED: A music editor much like SoundTracker.
TurboTitle: A program created for the purpose of
subtitling Japanese animation films and to create a
standard Amiga subtitle format.
Disk 425
A-Gene: Demo version of a shareware genealogy
database program.
Check Book A checkbook recording program to
be used as a companion to a checkbook register,
not as a replacement.
Downhill A skiing arcade game.
Head Games A shoot-em-up game using SEUCK
game constructor, with digitized heads as enemies.
Disk 426
Con man: Extremely useful replacement for the
standard console handler. It provides line editing
and command line histories
Metro: City planning game.
Rick Parks Art: A collection of artwork from Rick
Parks, one of the leading Amiga artists in the USA.
Disk 427
Blackjack: A program that can simulate nearly
any casino blackjack game in the world.
Continued on page 116
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 »JUNE 1991
115
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Continued from page 1 1 5
Fenn-Tastic Vol 1
(disk 830)
Sherilyn Fenn is the actress who
plays the sexy, and slightly bonkers,
Audrey Home in the cult TV show
Twin Peaks, and this is a slideshow
devoted to her.
There are no nudes here, if that's
what you're thinking, just video grabs
from the film Two Moon Junction,
Twin Peaks, and a television
interview of Sherilyn on The Word.
There ore two more disks of pics
For all you Sheriphiles: disk numbers
831 and 848.
Value for money 5/10
(8/10 if you like Ms Fenn)
Can Do PD Library
The CanDo PD Library has just been
set up to support Innovatronics's
CanDo Amiga authoring system, by
which a lot of very powerful
programs can be created.
The First three disks are brimming
with good ideas and, although most
have been made able to run so you
can't edit them with CanDo, some
are easily altered to your own ends.
IF you don't have a copy of CanDo,
then you really ought to try it.
The CanDo PD Library invites
contributions from CanDo users and
gives a free CanDo T-shirt for the best
bit of PD received every month. So
Galloping all-terrain hardware! What awesome weapon could have put the
willies up this AT- AT from NBSs well animated demo disk? See page 118.
get your CanDo applications off to
the library at the address given at the
end of this article.
CanDo
(disk 1)
The first disk contains a lot of utilities
and games. Some of the programs,
especially the stand-alone decks,
have been given new icons so you
wouldn't even know they were
CanDo applications if you weren't
getting them off the CanDo PD disk.
RexxBrowser is an ARexx comms
program that lets you operate ARexx
manually, sending data between
programs that have an ARexx port
Fitted to them. (If you don't know
what ARexx is, then I'll just say it's a
very useful system tool which enables
different programs to send data back
and Forth.) For example, I sent a
message to my copy of Transcript,
which was multitasking away behind
my workbench, and it opened a fresh
document. I could have passed some
text to the document too, but my
knowledge of ARexx is a little shaky.
Key2C is a resident C reference
manual that reminds you of all
manner of important C commands -
very handy for your average new C
author who is unsure of the basics.
Silmon is a version of the Simon
guessing game that was a very
popular plastic computer toy of the
late 1970s, as I recall.
Chameleon is a program that lets
you store all manner of different
colour schemes for your workbench.
Value for money 8/10
CanDo
(disk 2)
The second disk contains more
utilities and games. This time it
includes some very hard games to
program by any other means, such
as a Tetris clone called CanTrix.
VideoLib is a library for your video
cassettes, which can be added to so
you can catalogue your entire
collection in one easy-to-use
program. Senso is another Simon
game, but this time a bit more
complex. There are some nice
graphics and a bit of sampled music
by the Swiss band Yeilo. XtraTools is
a couple of bolt on modules for
CanDo which enable you to read
keys from the keyboard a bit more
readily There's also another ARexx
program that sets up two windows to
demo how ARexx communicates
between windows. Type into one
window and it is read by the other.
Value for money 5/10
CanDo
(disk 3)
The last disk contains a graphic front-
end for the Manx C compiler and a
bunch of programs by two guys
called Mike Ford and James Palmer,
James has a game called Duck hunt,
and you can probably guess how it
goes. It's quite hard and I didn't
really hit anything but two ducks. So
good luck on that one.
Mike Ford obviously has a more
technical bent as he supplied two
programs. Mm/bench and Mini ARC.
The first program allows you to find
and execute a program from your
hard disk without having to search
around on the disk for it. Good For
any programs you use regularly. And
the MiniARC program is a sort of
front-end for any archive programs
you might have, like ARC, tharc, zoo,
and zip. The program opens a
Continued on page 1 1 8
Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' I
Continued from page 115
Chemesthetics: A program that draws molecules
using the Calotte model.
Cyrillic: Russian 12-point font.
STV: Simple text viewer with mouse and keyboard
scrolling, text search and hooks to be launched on
to custom screens.
Disk 428
BCBMusic A set of three original songs written
and composed using the freely distributable MFD
2,1 music editor.
CyroUtils: Four handy animation utilities from
Cryogenic Software.
ShadowMaker: Demo version of an Intuition-
based font shadow generator.
Train: An electric train contruction set game.
WonderSound An additive hormonic instrument
design tool, with a separate envelope design
window and 16 relative harmonic strength and
phase angle controls.
Disk 429
ATCopy: A program fo copy files from the Amiga
side of a system equipped with a PC/AT
bridgeboard, to the PC side, using wildcards.
Climax: A command like NewCLi or NewShell,
except that it creates a borderless CLI or Shell
window on a custom screen
Dr: An alternative CLi directory lister command,
FixCLI: A tiny pure command which fixes problems
with Cll's not created by other CLI processes.
MoveSYS: Reassigns SYS:, C:, S:, L, LIBS:, DEVS:
and FONTS: to a new disk or directory in one step.
RunBack: A very compact version of the popular
utility for starting a CLI process in the background,
without preventing the CLI window from closing.
Scrub: A floppy drive cleaning program that
automatically detects which drive has a cleaner
diskette in it.
Timer: The timer device made easy!
Tripppin: A Workbench game based on an out-of-
print board game.
Uedit-Stuff: A variety of configuration material for
Uedit.
V: A front end for Commodore's More, or some
other text viewer that can be made resident.
Disk 430
Lotto: Small lotto number selector with C source.
Pointer: Enables you to use the SID sleepy pointer
in your own programs.
ScutprTools: Programs to create objects for use in
Sculpt 4D.
SmartFields: SmartFields is a replacement for
Intuition string gadgets.
Disk 441
Deksid: A disk and file hexadecimol editor.
DiskPrtnt: Prints labels for 3.5" disks, primarily for
PD library disks.
Dme: Version 1 .42 of Mart's text editor.
Disk 442
ToolManager: Use to add your own programs to
the tools menu of the 2,0 Workbench.
UUCP: An implementation oF uucp for the Amiga,
including mail and news.
Disk 443
DICE: Dillon's Integrated C Environment.
UUCP: An implementation of uucp for the Amiga,
including mail and news
Disk 444
ChinaChallenge: A Chinese tile game, similar to
Shanghai or Mahjong.
Continued on page 1 1 8
116
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 • JUNE 1991
P. D DISK PRICES DEMOS & ANIMATIONS
1 - 9 disks = £1 ,50 each
10 -19 disks = £1.25 each
20 or more = £1.00 each
PLEASE NOTE:
2 disk sets are charged as 2
single disks, 3 disk sets as 3
single disks, etc.
POSTAGE
is included in the price
if you live in the U.K.
Europe add £1 .50 to order
Rest of World add £2.50
TELEPHONE ORDERS
may be made using any
Visa, Access or Mastercard
on
(0709) 829286
A CATALOGUE DISK
is available free of charge. To
obtain yours, send us a
stamped addressed
envelope (9" x 6"), or ask for
one with your order.
ABBREVIATIONS USED
*= 1 meg needed
(X) = 16 and over only
{please state age)
Figures in brackets refer to
number of disks in set.
WE ALSO STOCK
FRED FISH DISKS
AMOS P.O. DISKS
&
T.B.A.G. DISKS.
ASK FOR THEM
BY NAME!
P. D, PACKS
8 disks for £1
A great way for new Amiga
owners to check out what p.d.
is all about Each pack
contains 8 disks and is just
£10 par pack!
GAMES PACK
37 Titles on 8 disks including
Asteroids, Tiles, Bally 2, Sya,
Pool, YachtC. Invaders,
H-Ball, Fruit Machine, Block
Oft, Shootout, Peter's
Quest and many morel
DEMOS PACK
Some of the most popular
demos in the library: Gome,
Wtld Copper, Cebrt 90, Elvira,
Mental Hangover, Rebels
Megademo 2, Pain Is Just The
Beginning, and Popeye Meets
The Beachboyst
SOUNDTRACKER SPECIAL
The great PD music maker,
plus instruments, songs,
modules, rippers and more!
Make music or just have fun I
HOME BUSINESS PACK
A suite of programmes tor
those who went to dabble in
the serious side: Nag, Bank'n,
Journal, QBase, Spread.
Wordwright AmigaSpell,
Inventory, MemoPad & morel
016 Space Ace Demo
085 Red Sector Megademo (2)
089 Gymnast Animation *
103 Wild Copper Demo
107 RAF Megademo (2)
127 NewTek Demo (2) *
157 Cool Cougar Animation *
161 Kylie Minogue Demo (2)
240 Puggs in Space Cartoon
261 Deathstar Megadamo (2)
280 Tree Frog Animation *
288 The AMOS Demo
298 Unicycle Animation *
399 NewTek Demo 3 (2) *
447 Mk:ro Mix Demo
483 Elvira Demo
499 Showbiz Animation *
568 Wings Animation
646 Predators Megademo (2)
711 Arcadia Megademo
744 Red Sector Cebit Demo
747 Popeye Meets Beachboys
762 The Run Animation *
771 Gongaman Animation *
773 Shark Animation*
821 Popeye Demo /Game
825 Bud brain Megademo (X)(2)
B53 Dragons Lair Demo *
854 Bread/Home & Away Demo
865 Coma Demo
881 Flash Megademo (2)
895 Trip To Mars
897 Sccopex Mental Hangover
903 Shadow of Beast 2 Demo
906 Madonna Cartoon *
944 Magnetic Fields CD Demo
946 Subway Clapping Hands
947 Mars Right Animation *
954 Teenage Turtles Demo
964 Operetion Varkl
GAMES DISKS
045 Golden Fleece Adventure
117 Monopoly
135 Classic Board/Card Games
172 Raschbiar Game
195 Electric Train Set
251 Blizzard
314 Breakout Construction Set
315 Return to Earth
496 Holy Grail Adventure *
496 Wanderer Game
648 Star Trek (USA) f2) *
680 Learn & Play (2)
689 Eat Mine
727 Star Trek (Ftchter) (2)
766 Treasure Hunt (Age 6-10)
823 Pseudo Cop Game
957 Pipeline
962 Dripl
987 Snakepit
991 Jeopard*
1004 Games Disk 9
1064 S.E.U.CK, Games
1113 Wet Beaver Games
1230 Dragon Cave
1245 Flings of Zon *
1283 Sub Culture
1408 APDS9: Super Quiz
1411 APD6 2: Arcadia
1434 APDB5: Reversi / Snakes
144S APD96: Pair-It
1509 APD102: Cheinsaw Death *
1510 Pick Up A Puzzle (2) *
1512 Picture It (2)*
1517 APD1 10: Crossfire*
152DAPD115:Balloonacy
152B APD130: Wooden Bell *
1531 Simon Says/Space Maths
1532 AP0137: Tile Trial *
1533 The Jar*
1539 Megeball *
UTILITIES DISKS
051 Visicalc Spreadsheet
081 UEditWord Processor
110 Disk Utilities
111 Grafix Uti lities 1
116 Grafix Utilities 2
119 Amiga MCAO
152 Virus Killers Disk
180 Pag esetter Clip Art
210 Icons!
259 Ultimate Boo tb lock Coll. (2)
343 Intromaker
346 TV Graphics (2)
348 APDC 25 (Programming)
353 ShoWiz 2.0
354 PowerPacker 2.2a
380 PO Spectacular
410 DPeirtt Cartoon Brushes
442 DPairtt Fonts Disks (4)
456 Chet Solace Extravaganza
458 HAM Radio Special (5)
495 ClickDOS (CU Helper)
516 A68k Assam bler/C Compiler
536 Red Devil Compacting Utils.
537 Red Devil Utilities Disks
546 Iconmanial
571 Jazzbench
580 Dope Intro Maker
591 Business Card Maker
595 Amateur Radio Disk
632 MessyDOS
633 Analytical
642 C Manual
643 SID v1 .06
661 Programming Disk
682 Sound Applications (2)
684 Video Applications (2)
697 Graphics Management (2)
901 THE Comma Disk
902 QED Text Editor
950 Mercenary Virus Killers Disk
A^-
NO PRICE INCREASE , A
at _ -JM&
CramrM*
DEPT. AS, 145 EFFINGHAM STREET, ROTHERHAM,
SOUTH YORKSHIRE S65 1BL
DEMOS & ANIMATIONS
966 Bloodsport 2
1001 Station at Khern ** (3)
1008APD22: Fun School 3 Demo
1033 At the Movies *»
1034 Stealthy 1 Animation *
1043 Razor 1911: Vertical Insanity
1 053 Not 9 O'Clock News 3 (2)
1088 Epic Demo *
1089 Not 9 O'Clock News 4 (2) *
1092 Pharaoh Animation *
1093 DPaint 3 Demo (2) *
1105 Crionics Neverwhere Demo
1110 Fractal Right
1188 Fillet The Fish
1190 Pussy : Innership
1200 Raiders of Lost Ark Anim *
1229 Bud brain 2
1231 Awesome Game Demo
1235 Kickboxer Demo
1238 Evil Deed Demo (X) *
1246 LSD: Comix Disk 1
1256 Killing Game Show Demo
1271 Legend of Billy The Kid *
1275 Penguin Animations
1280 Horizon: Sleeping Bag
1287 Wrath of the Demon Demo
1400 AF-D51; Weird Science
1453 More Aarotoons *
1474 System Violation Demo *
1477 Ecstasy Demos *
1607 APD100: AMOS Demo 2
1516 APD109: Weird Science 2
1518 Panthorus Megademo (2) *
1524 APD124: Bob Maniacs*
1525 APD1 25: Benson Demo 2 *
1629 Armageddon Damo *
1540 Amy .vs. Walker Anim. *
1541 Batman Animation *
SLIDESHOWS
078 Vallejo Fantasy Art (2)
082 Ray-traced Pictures
163 NASA Slid eshow
167 Digiview Slideshow
171 Patrick Nagel Pictures
185 Escher Slideshow
238 TV Sports Basketball
282 Forgotten Realms
617 Neighbours Slideshow
725 Diggy Piggys Slideshow (2)
742 Madonna Slideshow
767 Cinemaware Slideshow
768 Action!
614 Viz Slideshow
631 Utopia Cartoon Slideshow
863 Scream Queens (2)
878 Sun Connection: Slide 3
891 Creepshow
899 Madonna Slideshow 2 (2) *
942 Garfield Slideshow
968 Gorezone Slideshow (X)
1044 Desert Island Slideshow 2
1051 Total Recall Slideshow
1062 Golems Gate Slideshow
1073 Fraxion Fantasy Slideshow
1092 Annie Jones Slideshow
1085 Comic Slideshow (X)
1 1 03 Girls of Sports Illustrated
1210 Turtles Slideshow
1211 Fractal Fantasy
1232 Jmi Hendrix Slideshow
1242 Back to the Future
1272 Nemesis: Prologue
1277 Fraxion: Divine Visions (2) *
1279 Forgotten Realms '90
1475 Nemesis: Chapter 1 (2) *
1480 The Age of Sleek
1 623 APD1 21 : Nik Williams Demo
UTILITIES DISKS
1022 AMOS/RAMOS Update 1.21
1023 Future Composer
1058 Zero Virus V3.0
1071 NoiseplayerV&O
1078 Prophecy: Fractal Scape
1079 Prophecy: Coder Mag 1
1095 Catalogue Workshop (2)
1097 DTP Clip Art (2)
1099 Video Graphics (4)
1117 Geneaobgy*
1198 Sou nd tracker V4.0 (2)
1222 Picture Format Converters
1225 Hardware Projects Mag
1228 ST Emulator
1234 Tetra-Copy
1253 Red Devil Utilises 5
1265 Opti Utilities 1
1265 Cryptic Uti lit es 17
1269 SpectraPaint
1273 CLight
1274 Star Trekker 1.2 Music Prog.
1266 Mandlebrot Generator 1.85 *
1294 Chaos & Fractal Programs
1360 DKB Trace (Fish 397)
1366 Rx Disk (Fish 403)
1383 Menu Writer (FiBh 420)
1385 Art of Virus Killing
1432 APDB3: AMOS Paint
1450 New SuperKillers Disk
1451 EtactroCAD
1452 AmiBase
1473 ARP 1.3
1514 APO107:AMOS Progs. 6
1821 FS3 Sprites (needs AMOS) *
1534 MED V3.0
1535 Master Virus Killer V2.0
1536 North CV1.3 (packed)
1537 North CV1.3 (unpacked)(2)
MUSIC DISKS
022 Sound Atax
044 Batdance Remix
052 Awesome Sounds
061 J M Jarre - Definitive
166 Vang el i a *
187 Crusaders Audio X
237 Zee's Hip Hop Music Disk
336 Girls Need Love
398 Powerlords: Power Musix 1
407 CD Player*
409 Crusaders: Freakd Out!
424 Made in Heaven (2)
497 Amiga Chart 5
516 Bop us Polupus
534 Vision Music Masters
562 Music Invasion 3 (2)
654 Powerlords Power Musix 2
713 Flash! - Queen (2)
722 Beatmaster Club Mix
724 Technotronic Remix
746 Crusaders Bacteria
824 Digital Concert V
833 DJ Disco Leif 2
857 900 / Oxygerte Remix *
866 Pan III Music Disk
870 Bruno's Music Sox 2
910 Darkling Lords Music Disk
914 Special Brothers Music 2
922 Phalanx Beatbox
924 Game Boy Music Disk*
930 Rebellion
935 Madonna: Hanky Panky
941 Sound tracker Jukebox
959 Scorpions : Eargasm II
969 100 C64 Games Tunes
970 The Comic Strip Remix
976 Scoopex: Beast Son*
982 E & L: Get Upl
986 Amaze : Revolutions
993 PSA Music Qemodisk 1
1026 Digital Concert VI
1061 Captured imagination
1068 Exile Chipahop
1077 Superior Sounda V1.1
1107 Stop Right Now! *
1243 Chip Music Feetival
1248 LSD: Supreme Music 1
1284 Cave: Synthetic Power
1292 Crusaders Does Genesis
1505 APD98: Music 24
1508 APD1 01 : Auto Player VI, 1 b
1522 APD120: Music Player *
1527 APD129: Music Demo 1
ACCESSORIES
3,5" BLANK DISKS
10 FOR £4.99
WITH DISK BOX £5.99
50 FOR £22.50
WITH DISK BOX £26.50
100 FOR £39.99
WITH DISK BOX E44.99
DISK BOXES
FUP-TOP
10 capacity .... £1.49
LQCKABUE
40 capacity .... £4.99
50 capacity £6.98
80 capacity £7.99
100 capacity . . . £9.99
MISCELLANEOUS
Mouse Mat £2.99
Keyboard Cover £3.99
Monitor Cover £5.99
Printer Cover £4.99
Mouse House £1.99
Drive Cleaning Krt . . . £2.99
Printer Cable £6.99
Stereo Leads (2m) . . . £2.99
1,000 disk labels .... £12.50
VHS Library Cases
£6.99 for 10
"CRAZY JOE'S" LOGO
T-SHIRTS (M/L/XL)
White . . . £3,99
SWEAT SHIRTS (M / L /XL)
White , , . £8.99
(PLEASE STATE SIZE)
J MX
™mm™±
Aha! The squirrel strikes back with a standard E wok-issue can opener. I
get the impression there's a very strange imagination lurking at NBS.
Continued from pnge Mi
window on the workbench and lets
you archive any files you might have
in a very swift and interactive way.
So much better than all that fiddling
around with the CLI.
Value for money 7/10
So the efforts of CanDo library get a
great big heart/ slap on the back
from me. If the forthcoming disks are
anything like as good as the first
three, then CanDo could well
become one of the most
indispensable libraries around.
Best of the rest
Demos
There was a time when you really
had to scratch around for demos of
any real quality. Now they're all over
the place. Here's this month's batch.
Squirrel and AT-AT
(NBS)
A very amusing animation with o
sexy squirrel girl chasing an AT-AT,
just like in the Imaginetics demo of
the golden age. It's good to leave
running on the monitor when you
leave the computer for a while. You
should see people watching it to see
if anything else happens.
Value for money 5/10
Popeye Game
(Amiganuts United 1019)
A demo featuring a clone of one of
those tiny pocket-video game-watch
things. Very amusing and, although it
doesn't do much, it's very addictive.
Value for money 6/10
Fish Tank Simulator
(Comp-U-SaveX281)
A fine piece of concept art, but as a
program it bores after about ten
minutes. Nice for owners of big hard
disks and memories to try to patch it
in if you don't touch the mouse for a
longish while, ho ho ho. I fooled
somebody who came to see me the
other day. They actually thought J
had a fish tank in my office, Nice
digitised pics of fish, though it loses
points for the lack of animation. It
would be nice to see a real Full
Motion Video version of this idea for
CDTV. Now that's what I'd call a
piece of shareware.
Value for money 4/10
Utilities
Another nice trend at the moment is
the upsurge of the utility in the public
domain. There was a time when you
had to get a Fish disk if you wanted
any utils (although they are a good
source, as we'll see in a minute).
Now there are some houses that
specialise in utilities and utilities only.
And the quality has really gone up
too, but the price you pay for this
progress is shareware and
licenseware. But please, as I said
before, do make sure you pay for
these disks and don't just copy them
from a friend. Most of them are very
cheap, and your contributions keep
these guys going.
Red Sector Demo Maker
(Virus Free 1202)
This is a brilliant demo making
program from Red Sector which
allows you to make your own demos
with logos, music and vector
graphics, just like the pros do and
with the barest minimum of Fuss.
There isn't much in the way of docs
on the disk, so you will have to make
it up as you go along, but very good
it is. There are some default setups on
the disk to get you going, but after
that it turns into an uphill struggle.
Value for money 8/10
OctaMED
(Amiganuts pre-release)
An eight-channel version of MED
from the writer of MED 3.0.
This really is a startlingly good
product, and although it is only o
beta test version, I'm told that the
Finnish author is beavering away to
bring it to market ASAP. Fantastic
editing, just like MED 3.0, but with
eight channels to play with.
Value for money 10/10
C Programmers' Guide
(Amiganuts United 990)
A four-disk set with C source code
and docs plus compiled examples.
The guide takes you through
everything you ever wanted to know
about programming in C on the
Amiga. Copy these examples and
you'll be on the way to expertsville.
Value far money 7/10
G'night from Snouty
If you have any questions about PD
or some viewpoint you might like to
share with me, then why not drop me
line at PD, Amiga Shopper, 30
Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW.
Or why not email me on CIX
(snouty@cix), Prestel (219997854),
Telecom Gold (74:mik2077), or The
Direct Connection
(uadl 135@dircon.co.uk). f^j
Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o'
Continued from pnge 1 1 6
EliteBBS: An on-line message and file handling
system.
MissileCmd: A fast missile command game
written in assembly.
RegExpLib Shared library that implements
regular expression-pattern matching.
UltraF-4: Demo version of a super graphics-based
floppy format program that can format four floppy
disks at the same time and even format disks that
other programs give up on.
Disk 445
MWTape: A tape handler using scsi. device to
implement serial access to streaming tape devices.
OptMouse: A program that allows you to use a
Mouse Systems M3 serial mouse on the Amiga and
instructions that allow a serial mouse to be modified
to plug directly into the Amiga mouse port.
Tar: A port of a UNIX tor clone that can work with
the TAPE: handler (also on this disk) to read and
write UNIX tar compatible tapes.
TurboText: An almost fully operational
demonstration copy of a new sophisticated text
editor for the Amiga.
UUCP: A bug fix for UUCP 1 .08 released on disks
442 and 443, which had already been finalised at
the time this fix reached me so could not be
included there.
Disk 446
CanonBJ: A printer driver for the Canon BJ series
of printers.
GamePort: Toolkit with link time and shared
libraries allowing access to the GamePort device.
Input: A toolkit with link lime and shared libraries
that allow easy access to the Input device.
PointerLib: A disk-based shcred library which
provides programmers with easy access to custom
pointers and a consistent user-selected busy pointer.
Post: An excellent PostScript interpreter for the
Amiga which implements the full Adobe language.
Disk 447
AmiBack: Demo version of a new backup utility.
BackPac: Demo version of a new backup
program.
DFC: Disk Format and Copy program.
FlashBack: Demo version of a new backup utility.
SMan: A Mandelbrot generation program.
TCL: Port of Tool Command Language, a simple
textual language intended primarily for issuing
commands to interactive programs such as text
editors, debuggers, illustrators, shells, etc.
Disk 448
AmigaPet: Another screen hack by Patrick Evans.
FifoDev: FIFO; is like PIPE; but is based on
fib. library rather than its own implementation.
Mkid: A program identifier database package that
provides a logical extension to 'clogs'.
NightMare: A handy little program that uses
shock techniques to scare people.
OnTime Holds up a task until a given time and
then releases it to run,
PicToANSI: Converts a one-bitplane 320x200 IFF
picture to a file that displays the picture on any
ANSI compatible terminal.
SolitaireX: A solitaire game.
ST2 Amiga: Con vers Atari ST format relocatable
executables to Amiga format relocatable
executables, for subsequent loading into the
ReSource disassembler and conversion to Amiga.
Swish: A small simple screen hack that pushes the
screen around using the view port and simulates a
floating motion.
Continued on page 121
118
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •JUNE 1991
ALL PD NOW ON
BRANDED DISKS !
BUSINESS Tl 1 L ES
358 UEdil Absolutely Fabulous WordPro and SpellCheck
434 AMWASE FantasUcatly simple 8 Held Database
49$ HIM DATABASE Comprehensive Relational Dbase
496 ViSlCALC Powerful Spreadsheet program
5B9 JOURNAL Keeps records or ail your
590 CLERK Bank Clark program
591 QBASE Another Database program
592 WQRDWRIGHT/AMIGASPELL PD WordProeaasor
593 BAN KIN Keepftacords all your Bank Statements
GENERAL UTtLtTIES
127- 129 TV GRAPHICS DISK 1 Fonts, Backdrops etc.
340 JAZZBENCH Hew simpler workbench replacement
345 - 346 Vf DEO APPLICATIONS 1 Video Utilities/Fonts
354 SID DIRECTORY UTfL read and change your disks
355 F/SH 327 mtesslDos PC tile reading Systenm
377 NORTH C COMPILER Just updated lo Version 1.3 If
378 - 379 - 380 C MANUAL Learn yourself C with this
460 IC0NMAN1A including ICONMASTER adn more
464 SOZOBAN C COMPILER plus ZC and A68K Assembler
25 D-COPY Backup your PD with this great Copier
538 OlSKMASTER V3.0 Superb CLI replacement f
600 C - LIGHT Commercial ray tracing program now PD
601 ELECTROCAD DEMO Electronic Circuit hoard design
620 M-CAD Ray trace program tor the Amiga
622 CORSER BASIC COMPILER Speed up your basic 1
363 MASTER VtRUS KILLER Superb Virus Killer GET IT
670 A-GENE Geneology program for the Amiga
671 FFtANZ MEGAUTfLS DISK Font Ed and loads more
MUSIC AND SEQUENCERS
118N01SETFACKER 2.0 The Best Amiga Seqeuncer
453 JAMCRACKER Superb CHIP'SAMPLE sequencer
603 PROTRACKEP Amiga music Sequencer with MIDI
122 ST-90 Mega sounds 1
123ST-91 Lots more samples
604 ST-92 More Greatest Samples
605 ST-93 Big Mega Sampies disk
513 STARTREKKER 1.2 AM.FM Synth,MIDS,S Channels
A N I MS AND SLIDESHOWS
137- 138 SiLENTS FANTASY Arty Style pics
139 REAL 3D Fantastic Ray Traced Pictures
192 THE WALKER DEMO An old Classic - Brilliant'
393 FFIACTAL FLIGHT Incredibly fast Flight anim'
452 ENTERPRISE LEAVING DOCK Very Impressive'
453 EPIC PREVIEW Game coming soon irom Ocean"
456 STEALTHY ANIMATION Funny Car loon Style Anlm'
458 STAR TREK FLEET MANEUVERES Impressive ! *
623 BATMAN MOVIE As reviewed. Quite funny*
627 DEMONS SLIDES 3 Very good graphics slideshow
634 MINER ANIMATION Nice skulpt animation*
654 RELIANT ATTACKING Another Superb TR Anim'
655 HUEY 2 Helicopter Taking oft' Reviewed in AF20
666 STAR TREK FiNGPQNG FlyBy anlm by T.RIchter'
667 - B68 LIGHT CYCLES Animation from the film TRON "
GAMES AND PREVIEWS
296 RA GAME PREVIEW Egyptian type game
446 BtONlX Superb Arcade ShootEmUp
448 PACMAN The old classic game on your Amiga
472 ED-209 Great Shoot-out with turtles Etc.
509 LEARN AND PLAY 1 Education and Games
510 LEARN AND PLAY 2 for 4-9 Yrs
571 TREASURE ISLAND Find that treasure tile
594 MONQPOL Y The old Classic computerised
595 BOARD,CARD,ARCADE GAMES Lottsa stuff on this
596 COLOSSAL ADVENTURE Plus World adventure
593 BATTLE FORCE Good Strategy War Simulation
826 THE EVIL DEAD GAME Splat I tnose Dead People
638 TETRlS 3D You Thought Tetrls was Hard I
539 MOIRA GAME Adventure fun game
669 SUBCULTURE GAME DEMO Fast Movin^ ShootEmUp
672 CHIP Brilliant painter-type same Arcade Quality
MUSIC A ND DEMOS
133 CRUSADERS BACTERIA One Of the best Music disks
153 PUGGS IN SPACE Classic cartoon style demo
164 SCOOPEX MENTAL HANGOVER The BEST demo ever
223 DIGITAL CONCERT 3 Mega Music re-mix
225 DIGITAL CONCERT 5 The Power, Kaos, Touch Ma
227 JARRE DOCKLANDS Music from the Keyboard King
252 - 253 BUDBRAIN MEGADEMO Great Demo,may offend
424 SOUND OF SILENTS Incredible Music disk I
425 DIGITAL CONCERT 6 Another Mousey remix
532 CRUSADERS - A FEW TUNES Very well composed
546 FRAXION FUTURE VISIONS Space sfidesnow.Music
599 BUDBRAIN DEMO 2 Hilarious action from the Buds
607 IPAQ DEMO The disk they tried to stop 111
608 CRUSADERS GENESIS Very nice Genesis songs*
611 FARTS AND BELCHES No comment ....
62 i BANGING RAVES 2 Follow up to Banging Raves
628 AMIGADEUS CLASSIC MUSIC Mozart Amigatised If
645 SYSTEM VIOLATION DEMO Wicked demo by Anarchy
646 MADNESS II BY DAN/ANARCHY Its Insane til
647 HYSTERESIS Fabulous demo by Magnetic Fields
643 ZARCH MUSIC 3 Some more great musics
649 EQUAMANIA it Lots of House mixes and more
650 PHENOMENA MUSIC DREAMS Unbaielvabla Music I
672-873 SILENTS BLUES HOUSE Superb Music & Game
BUStneSSpQCk UedU Wordprocassor.Vtsicalc
and RIM Obese, a great set tor getting going 1
JUST <4 rilDS Learn and Play Disks 1 and 2 r Puggs
in Space- A superb set designed tor 5-10 Yrs
UTILITIES CqL L eCti N More Utilities, Including
essentials like Diskmasler,Dcopy,TextEd and more
UTILITY PACK t Packed with loads of utilitles,tnetuding
the ST-Emulator r and slacks more
Another great set consisting of
various utilities to keep you awake utu 3AM ISt
ti\J I HACrFS. Wanna gel the latest demos before
I hey even appear in the magazines ! Then this Is for you
Just like 11 says II!
DRIP !
f , f i * *H Just like j
(Vd^^tr^jOte I deluding
GAm s QsLOrE 2 Similar to the above pack with tots
more superb games to keep you going t
Each pack has been carefully selected from our huge
range of public domain software, ^o if you are new to the
Amiga why nol just grab a tew packs and soon you will
see what PD is all about for only ...
3.5" DS/DD BULK
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AS ABOVE PLUS fOUR GREAT GAMES AND A
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AS524 Up-front
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AS664IOOC64Tunes
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AS687 Kefrens The Wall'
AS696 Budbrains li
AS845 Spaced Out Vol, 1
AS846 Hysteresis
AS849 Stolen Data
AS85I Slipstream Demos
ART
AS20 C-Llght
AS346 Busy Bee (1 meg)
AS401 Fractals
AS629 Stealthy CI meg)
AS630 M-Cad
AS631 Fast Cars
AS705 Future Visions
AS729 DBW Render
AS847 Gorezone Horror
GAMES
AS104Pacman87
AS155 Blizzard
AS512Tetrlx
AS579 Drip
AS605 Bionix II
AS625 Autobahn 3001
AS626 Train Set
MUSIC
AS114GMC
AS609 MED V3
AS623 Soundtracker V4
AS841 Pro Tracker
AS842 Slaby's Music
AS843 Noise Player v2,4
AS848 Vision Music
AS850 Reflections II
BLANK 3.5"
KAO DISKS
10 DISKS £6.00
50 DISKS £24.50
100 DISKS £45.00
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AS15 68000Assem
AS1 12 PCQ Pascal
AS385 C & 68K Source
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AS545 AMOS Listings 1
AS560 AMOS Listings 2
AS664 AMOS VI .21 Update
UTILITIES
AS87 Wordwright
AS384 Bank N
AS459 Dope Intro Maker
AS534 Scoopex Utilities
AS578 Skunks Utilities
AS618 Rim Database
AS619Vislcalc
AS620 D-Copy
AS621 ESA Utilities I
AS632 A-Gene (1 meg)
AS701 File Crunchers
AS704 P-Copy III
ASB44 Giga Utilities
AS852 CL1 Utilities
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Official AMOS PD
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AMOS Licenceware
£3,50 a disk
DEMOS.
1365 Porky Pis Anim.
1339 Copper Demo 2
13 IS Sys Violation
130? Major Del eM
1306 Evolution 76
1305 Pfienomina
1300 Fart&Beteh
1297 Cloths Peg
1173 Panic
1180 Disaster
1167 Movie Demo
11 /2 Enforcements
1185 Thunder Child
AMAZING
TUNES 2
20 fantastic tunes
3 disks, 1 meg
843
JC64
IMC
1204
849
850
830
670
595
1209
832
531
530
509
1207
505
255
856
117
154
534
1179
1184
GAMES
Metagalactic Llamas
Lertrix (Great)
Master of Town
Wet Beaver Terwiis
The Holy GraH
Breakout Con Kit
Quiz Master
Moriopoty
Carve Runner
Wacko in
'■Voider I arc
Agatran Games
Blizzard
Pacman
Paradroid
Frantic Freddy
Drip
Flaschbier
Xenon 3 etc.
Moria RPG
Track Record 1 meg
Games disk 1
Chess etc.
Mastermind etc.
UTILITIES
659 Essenftal UtSs. 1
] 206 MancFebrot Makef
1208 Database Wizard
1078 Essential LMs. 2
1099 Pro Tracker 1.1
1202 RSIDemoMake;
1146 Icon Magic
1151 (Misfit
1156 Driver Generator
1368 Speccy Emulator
1310 MVK 2.1
MUSIC
1320 Slabys Music
1317 '19 1
130B Vogue Music Comp.
1303 imagination
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Mega fast shoot "em
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& speech multiple
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1322 Flashing Bytes
1319 OrWTRips 3
1323 Mat™ Music 3
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With any other purchase
1324 Bloodsuckers
1327 Triumph Music 11
1333 Amigadeus
1334 The Beatles hits
1338 Turn Up The Bass
1347 Classin 2
1353 The Best of RAF
1348 HotWired
1217 Equamania 2
1181 True Energy
Do the Bart man
A 3 disk version of
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Master Virus
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Can now detect
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PD GAMES EDITION 1 £4.95
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PUBU|liMAIN
mi o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fish • Fillet o' Fisi
Continued from page 1 1 8
Disk 449
Globulus: Demo version of o new arcade game
that is reminiscent of the old Q-hert game.
Handshake: A fully featured
VT52/VT1O0/VT102/VT22O terminal emulator.
lff2Ansi: Turns any two-colour low-res IFF picture
into ANSI text that can be displayed on any ANSI-
compatible terminal.
Shazam: A picture viewer for Dynamic Hi Res
images created with Macro Paint, the 4096 color
high-res paint program from Lake Forest Logic.
WonderSound Wondersound is an additive
harmonic instrument design tool with a separate
envelope design window and 1 6 relative harmonic
strength and phase angle controls.
Disk 450
Amy Vs Walker: Animation from Eric Schwartz.
MinRexx: A simple ARexx interface that can be
easily patched into almost any program.
Tabu: A useful quarter-inch cartridge (QIC) tape
backup utility.
UUCP: A bug fix for UUCP 1 .08 released on disks
442 and 443, which had already been finalised ot
the time this fix reached me, so could not be
included there.
Disk 45 1
'Liner: A shareware outliner that creates outlines
Far notes or exports to other programs.
Convert: Converts 39 different image formats into
CBM-sfandard 24-bit IFF files For display on devices
such as Black Belt Systems' HAM-E product.
ProDrivers: AmigaDOS 1 .3 printer drivers For the
IBM 4201 and 4202 series of printers.
RCS: The Revision Control System (RCS) manages
multiple revisions oF text files,
RRamDisk: Another recoverable RAM disk.
Snoop Dos Utility for monitoring AmigaDOS calls.
Disk 452
Budget: Program for managing personal finances.
FLODema: Fioorplan Construction Set demo.
ImageLob A program that performs image
processing on IFF pictures.
MondelPAUG: A version of MandFXP with
complete on-line help, a fully implemented
Mandelbrot and Julia set 'movie mode', and many
improvements in the user interface.
Disk 453
AmigaTration: A Concentration-like game for the
Amiga in which you locate matching tiles on a grid
that can range from 4x4 (easy) to 3 2x1 2 (difficult).
Lemmings: Demo a new game from Psygnosis.
ProjMot: A projectile motion plotter.
Quick: A utility program specifically targeted at
hard-drive users to eliminate the frustration of
launching programs an the Amiga.
Disk 454
Decigel A software fix For programs using
instructions that are privileged on the
68010/020/030.
Enforcer: Enforcer uses the MMU to build
protection over anything that's not legal memory.
Redaktu: A PostScript program that runs on
PixelScript to edit other PostScript programs.
StillStore: A program designed For freelance,
corporate, and broadcast television.
Vortex: A universal-accented character converter
for Amiga, IBM-PC, Macintosh, and C64 files
written in most west european languages (Danish,
Finnish, French, German, Italian and more).
Disk 455
AngusCopy: A disk copy program with intuition
user interface.
ConvMacF: Converts Macintosh type I Adobe
fonts to a format usable on the Amiga.
MemMon: A small memory monitor.
Vlt VLT is both a VT100 emulator and a Tektronix
(401 4 plus subset of 4105) emulator, currently in
use at SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center).
Disk 456
Cheatsheet: Compilation of cheats, hints,
backdoors, passwords, codes, solves, and
walkthroughs for more than 150 Amiga games,
CManual: Parts one and two of a complete C
manual for the Amiga which describes how to open
and work with Screens, Windows, Graphics,
Gadgets, Requesters, Alerts, Menus, IDCMP, etc.
Disk 457
CManual: Parts three and four of a complete C
manual for the Amiga. See Disk 456.
Line: A Shell written to enhance the bare-bones CLI
with features that many people find useful in the
UNIX csh, including history, aliases, etc.
QutckReq: An 'Ask utility' to replace the 'ask'
command From AmigaDOS.
Disk 458
ATCopy: A program to copy files from the Amiga
side of a system equipped with a PC/AT
bridgeboard, to the PC side, using wildcards,
Csh: Version 4.02a of a csh-like shell derived from
Matt Dillon's Shell, version 2.07.
GIFMachine: Converts CompuServe GIF image
files into IFF SHAM and 24-bit ILBMs.
TeXify: ARexx scripts for CygnvsEd users allowing
control of Amiga Tex from within CED.
Disk 459
AmiDock: An Amiga version of the NeXT's 'dock',
but more versatile and not as limited.
Conquest: Lore of Conquest is a war game similar
in concept to the board game Risk.
Rxgen: An ARexx library that allows you to call
any function of almost ony Amiga library from an
ARexx program.
XprZmodem: An Amiga shored library which
provides ZModem file transfer capability to any
XPR-compatible communications program.
Zoom: A fast and efficient floppy disk archiving
utility based on the data compression/
decompression algorithms used by Ih.library.
Disk 460
JMenu: This program allows an AmigaDOS script
to display a menu, wait for the user to make a
selection, either with the mouse or the keyboard,
and return the selection back to the script through
an environment variable.
NetHack: A screen-oriented fantasy game in
which your goal is to grab as much treasure as you
can, retrieve the Amulet of Vendor, and escape the
Mazes of Menace alive.
ShadowMaker: Demo version of an Intuition-
based font shodow generator.
(A
<A
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AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 tJUNE 1991
121
TILL NEXT TIME
NEXT MONTH
Issue three of Amiga Shopper is on
sale on June 6 and is packed with the
sort of stuff that has already mode AS
the number one mag for serious users
of the Amiga.
We will be speeding you up by
putting accelerator cards through
their paces in a comprehensive
survey and testing out all the
compilers we can get our hands on.
Then of course there will be all your
favourite columns and much more.
CORRECTIONS
A slight mix up caused the pictures of
the DAATAscan and Contriver mice
to be switched on page 47 of issue
one. (You just can't trust those mice,
scurrying ail over the place - Ea)
Apologies for an omission on the
order form on the hardware project
pages. We forgot to leave space for
you to put your name and address. If
perchance you have sent off for the
anti-click kit and forgot to include
your name and address, we suggest
you contact Power Computing on
0234 843388 and let them know
where to send it.
EDITORIAL
30 Monmouth Street,
Bath BA1 2BW
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Fax: 0225 446019
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Editor Bob Wade
Production Editor Karl Foster
Technical Editor Cliff Romshow
Art Editor Julie Stuckes
Art Assistant Jacquie Spanton
Consultant Editors Jeff Walker,
Mark Smiddy, Phil South
Contributors Stewart C Russell, Mick
Draycoft, Peter Jones, Jolyon Ralph, Jon
Bates, Pat Winstanley, Paul Andreas
Overaa, Gary Whiteley, Janet
Bickerstaff, Morton Kevelson
Ad Manager Margaret Clarke
Ad Sales Executive
Shaun Lancaster
GUARANTEE YOUR COPY OF
AMIGA SHOPPER BY RESERVING
IT AT YOUR NEWSAGENT
Don't miss out on issue three of AMIGA SHOPPER. Every serious Amiga user
in the country is trying to get their hands on this new magazine and you
don't want to miss out. Over 100,000 Amiga Format readers saw the
special preview issue and issue one sold out virtually instantly in many
places. So, to guarantee your copy, either;
• Make sure you remember to rush into your local newsagent and buy it on the
morning of Thursday June 1 st.
# Fill in this form and give it to your friendly, neighbourhood newsagent, and
they will make sure that it is reserved for you or even delivered to you. [Did
you know that WH Smith and John Menzies will also save a copy of
AMIGA SHOPPIR for you?)
Please reserve/deliver me a copy of Amiga Shopper
Name
Address
TO THE NEWSAGENT - Amiga Shopper goes on sale on every first Thursday in tko
month. It is published by Future Publishing and is available from your local
wholesaler. Please return this form to Kate Hodges, Future Publishing, 30
Monmouth St, Bath BA1 2BW, to enter our free prize draw.
ADVERTISING
Advertising Manager
Margaret Clarke,
2nd Floor, Rayner House,
23 Higher Hillgate,
Stockport SKI 3ER
| = 061474 7333
I FAX: 061476 3002
Ad Sales Executive
Shaun Lancaster,
30 Monmouth Street,
Bath BA1 2BW
■ 0225 442244
FAX: 0225 446019
SUBSCRIPTIONS
The Old Barn,
Somerton,
Somerset TA 11 7PY
• 0458 7401 1
FAX: 0458 74378
Production Deborah Cook
Publisher Greg Ingham
Publishing Assistant
Michele Harris
Ad Services Tamara Ward
Circulation Director Sue Hartley
Caricatures Jolyon Webb
Photography Ashton James
Illustration fan Ellery
Printers Thamesmouth Printing
News Trade Distribution -
UK newsstand only: Future Publishing
0225 442244
Worldwide: MMC Ltd 0483 21 1678
©FUTURE PUBLISHING 1991
'Your guarantee of value'
This magazine comes from Future Publishing, a
company founded just six years ago, but which
now sells more computer magazines than any
other publisher in Britain. We offer:
Better advice. Our titles are packed with tips,
suggestions and explanatory features, written by
the best in the business.
Stronger reviews. We have a cast-iron policy of
editorial independence, and our reviews give clear
buying recommendations.
Clearer design. You need solid information fast.
So our designers highlight key elements
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Greater relevance. At Future, editors operate
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* Understand your readers' needs.
• Satisfy them
More reader interaction. We draw strongly on
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ot our magazines is like joining a nationwide user
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Better value for money. More pages, better
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Home of Britain's finest computer magazines.
Amstrad Action • 8000 Plus • PC Plus Amiga
Format * ST Format
New Computer Express * Your Sinclair
Commodore Format • Sega Power
Amiga Power * Amiga Shopper
MacPublishing
ISSUE THREE
ON SALE
JUNE 6
ADVERTISERS
INDEX
1st Choice Leeds 33
16 Bit Centre..... 41
Almathera 1 04
Alt Image 76
Amiganuts 114
Axe Direct 27
BCS 100
Bitcon... 27
Bruce Smith .78
Bytes & Pieces 42, 43
Calco 76
Chris Longly .....1 04
CLS 114
Crazy Joes 117
CWM 96
Dataplex 100
Datel Electronics 50, 51
Delta Pi 98
Digicom ..52
Digita 25
Dowling 34,35
DTBS 101
ESD 76
Evesham 14, 15
Galaxy 78
Golden Image ....94
GPS 96
Hart Micros 27
Hi Soft IBC
Hobbyte 28
Home Based Business 101
Intermediates IFC
Kernow..... 114
Kosmos 96
Ladbroke ...22
M.D. Office Supplies 95
Media Direct 1 09
Media PD 112
Merlin Express 4
MJC Supplies 58
Music Matrix .101
Naksha 7
Nick Williams 101
Official Secrets IFC
Pazaz 101
PLC 104
Postal PD.... 120
Precision ...19
Redlaw , 104
Riverdene 120
Silk Software 110
Sims 78
Softmachine 49
Solid State OBC
Special Reserve IFC
Start 119
Supply Solutions 49
Surface -16
Switchboard 49
Triiogic 44
Turbosoft 93
Virgo 98
Virus Free PD 120
Wave 98
We Serve 78
West Midland PD 114
Wizard PD 96
WTS Electronics 57
AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 2 •JUNE lWl
HiSoft New
All the latest news
and product
Information.
ProFlight
takes off!
ProFlight. the extremely accurate and flyable
Tornado flight simulator from HiSoft, is due for
release on the Amiga by the end of May 199 1 .
First released on the Atari ST where it has won
a high degree of critical acclaim from reviewers
and users alike, ProFlight is not only one of the
most technically realistic simulators around but
it is also tremendous fun to fly.
You can fly peaceful reconnaissance missions or
roar into attack after carefully planning your
combat mission. ProFlight is supplied with a
comprehensive, ring-bound flight manual for an
all-inclusive price of £39.95.
Pascal at last!
{Q* (G* @
A brand-new
version of the
popular Pascal
— ^ language will be
IN uj S*' *} available soon for the
^" d Amiga (A500 - A3000).
Q^ V!^ *& Highspeed Pascal
originally comes from
Denmark, (the 'home' of Turbo Pascal), is
extremely fast and friendly to use and is very
closely compatible to the immensely popular
Turbo Pascal on the PC.
Compilation speed is roughly 20,000 lines per
minute on an A500 with excellent code
generation for all the Amiga computers.
HiSoft is developing the package along with the
original authors, D-House. Some of the features
of this exciting new compiler are:
• Compile to memory or disk
• Unit concept as in TP5 allowing modular
development and very fast compilation.
Many standard Amiga -specific and Turbo
Pascal compatible units are supplied
Stand-alone compiler supplied. Multi-
standard linker. Versatile Make facility
Source include to a depth of 7
Inline procedures. Source code control
using conditional compilation
The Highspeed Pascal Editor
• Integrated, multi-window editor with on-
line help and interactive enor detection
and correction
• Numerous examples and helpful manual
Highspeed Pascal should be available by the
end of May 1991 at an inclusive cost of £99.95.
SASC5
SAS Institute (the parent company of Lattice
Inc.) has taken over the development and sales
of the Lattice C 5 compiler for the Amiga and
released a new version, 5. 10a.
The improvements and enhancements in this
version establish SAS C5 as the ultimate Amiga
C compiler. Upgrades cost £34.95 {ver. 5. Ox),
£79 (ver. 4.xx) or £99 (ver. 3.xx).
More
and
more...
In addition to ProFlight and Highspeed Pascal
HiSoft is set to release a number of other new
products for the Amiga in early 1991, showing
our increasing committment to the Amiga range
of computers. To whet your appetite:
HiSoft C Interpreter
The ideal way to learn the difficult C language,
HiSoft C is an interpreter with a fully integrated
editor and debugger. Release is due by the end
of June 1991 at a price of £49.95.
Use this order form to obtain your HiSott Software directly from HiSoft and we wilt send you a Starter Pack consisting of a quality mouse
mat (printed with itie Amiga ASCI! set), an attractive disk wallet and 4 double-sided disks, totally tree of cnarge!
Please send me the following software.
HiSoft Inspiration
This exciting new product makes it simple to
design and use the Amiga's gadgets, requesters
etc. in your favourite programming language.
Release date is the end of March 1991.
Devpae and BASIC
HiSoft Devpae version 3 and HiSoft BASIC
version 2 are due out in the first half of 1991.
Both feature a brand new, multi -window editor,
much more speed and a great many new
features. Tick the box(es) below for details.
Meanwhile, we have some very special offers
on our existing products - use the order form
below (you can photocopy it if you wish).
Devpae 2 and BASIC 1.05 contain coupons
offering you the chance to upgrade to Devpae 3
or BASIC 2 for £35 and £45 respectively.
_i
HiSoft Devpae Amiga vor 2
£39.95
□
HiSoft BASIC ver 1.05
£49.95
□
HiSoft Extend Library
£19.95
□
HiSoft BASK & Extend
£59.95
□
SAS . Lattice C 5
£229.00
Please send me informal ■
j
HiSoft PrafligM simulator
U
HiSoft Inspiration
□
Highspeed Pascal
U
HiSoft C Interpreter
□
HiSoft BASIC 2
□
HiSott Devpae 3 i HiSoft Davpae 30
I wish to pay by: \J Cheque/PO Q Access □ Visa
Card No:
Expiry Date;
1 1
: "j Signature:
HiSoft Amiga News
HiSoft software is available from good computer
shops. In case of difficulty, you can order
directly from HiSoft, either by using the order
form opposite or by telephone. For export
terms or further details on any of our products,
please call or write to us. Prices are inclusive of
VAT and carriage within the UK.
HiSoft
High Quality Software
The Old School, Greenfield,
Bedford MK45 5DE UK.
Tel: +44 525 718181
Fax: +44 525 713716
ANNOUNCING
THE
A5000-B500Q
ASH THE POWER OF YOUR AM
▼ JUST ADD TO YOUR AMIGA FOR T
• BS000-25 Faster than the CBM A3000-2S
• 500-1000% Faster than your Amiga •
• Massive 4-32Mh of superfast memory •
• 100% Software compatibility •
Plug-in up to a 50 MHz Maths Co-Pro •
• B5000 has advanced 32-bit Paged-Mode design
• 32-bit Kickstart — five/ten times faster •
• Three models — A5000-16/B5000-25/B5000-40 <
• THE MACHINES •
A5000-1B: 16.' ; 7 MHz Asynchronous MC68020RC 2-3 MIPS (8 MIPS peak)
B500O-25: 2600 MHz Asynchronous MC*8030RP S-6 MIPS (12 MIPS peak)
85000-40. 40.00 MHz Asynchronous MC6C030RP 8-9 MIPS (1B MIPS poak)
FPU 12.5MHz-50N"f ilC or MC68B82RC
ASr JO-16 RAM 4 Meoasyies ot 32 -bit RAM 256 x 4 80ns DRAMs
S5O0O-25 BAM: 16 I 3-t)lt RAM 1024 x 4 80na DRAMs
BSOOO-40 RA K •_--: ol 32-bi: RAM 1024 x 4 8t>ns DRAMs
SHADOW ROM: Movg your Kickslart Into 32 oil SUPER-FAST-flAM
SOFTWARE: 68000 Fallback mo* tor 100% software compel :
HARDWARE: 100% Compatible with Amiga 500/2000 and add-on cards
INTERFACE 1: Plugs into 68000 processor socket inside your Amiga
INTERFACE 2: A/82000 Co-proces= I (for B5OO0-40 only)
A5OOO-10
(Price includes 1Mb RAM)
B ^000-25
'{Price (nciddes nib A' i lip
(AU prices inclusive of VAT)
B5OOO-40
(Price includes t Yth h' IM)
SOLID STATE LEISURE LIMITED
International: -+ 44
1