PersonalComputerNews107-20Apr1985.pdf

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I•
Has
our
dapper
ltttle thief overstepped
the
mark
this
ti11"19
cen
hetruly
outcon
the
beat
conmercha
or
ms
In
the
bu9tness.
Dazzled
by the
bright lights,
stunned
by
the
stars
,,
8lagger
has
decided
his
w.r,
IC>fameandlortuneislnthemovies
-
he'softto
nick
the
nelct megadrama
to
hit
the
big screen.
Guide
.him
through
t2
loony film sets as
he
gathers
the
ob;eC:ts
thatwiH
open
room 13.
Arcade
fanatics
and Ad\lentu
re
buffs
alike,
BGTH
has
something
!Qr
all
-
oriy
Skill at the
joystick
$nd determined brainpow«
In
the
unique use of
the
movi8
props,wiflSOlvethis
,ntricatepuute
lor
you.
In
classic
movie
traditionsimulated
andbig
sound
,
30
soundtrack
with4
wayscrolling
action
ENU
COVER
STORY
Print
Power
ONITOR
·
26
What
to
look
for whe
n b
uyi
ng
a
pr
inter;
th
e
p
ros
and
cons of
dot
matrix,
daisywheel and
ther-
Micronet sweetens
price rise pill
Micronet
users face
a
price
rise
thi
s sum mer
-
but Mieronet
hru,
softened
the
blow
some-
what
with a coupl e
of new
featu
res.
Tb
esweetnersonoffe
r
should
widen
the appeal
of
the
system
and may
bring
in some new
subscr ibers.
The
firs
t
is
a new
serv ice called Ga
l1ery
which
wiJJ
allow
any subscr
iber
to
become
a
n
Information
Pro-.
vider.
Ga
llery will
allow a member
6
1:t_
y~~:::
'b:
months.
Editing
charges will
be
4p
per frame. Technical mana·
ger
Mike
Brown says: 'Gallery
is
all about ta
k
ing
pa
rt-it'san
opportu
ni
ty
for members
to
:::t.f
heir
own
ar
ea
of
Mic-
ma l;
value
for money
-
al1
thi
s
and more in
our
buyer'
s
guide
to
hard
copy output.
OUTPUT
Amstradactlon
10
A golden
oldie
from
the
days
of
area dia
-
Centipede
in
colour
with sou nd.
Spedrumsprites
15
0
P2
[;:n;r;
~f
~:
=====----
More info on
usin
g spr
ite
graphics with your
Sincla
ir
.
-----
------
16
- ~a-
t
y_o_u_
Wh
n-'eed
'---to-,ta-rt-a-n""'d-w"'"h-y w
a n to i n-t,---
fi=-,,..-,-p
-yo-u"'"
_ _t_ _ c-
he
'd
_
,--
-
""'Ia-
c
-e.
Commsforbeginners
Surya
leads in to our new weekly
commun ications
colu mn.
Com
.;.
m
_
ore_conv_.....,_.
.;.;.._
_od
_•______
~--
-cc~-.,.
2
_1
Moving programs from disk to tape can be a chore. Th
is utilit
y
will take some of the pain away.
(It
also
works
on
PETs
!)
Last,
but by
no
means
lea
st ,
Micronet
has
commissioned
a
new communi cations
protocol
::~~~\7li~:;:~e
~c:O::!:
64
owners.
64 users
who
had
bought Commodore's own Com-
punet
modem could
not down-
load
Micronet
software.
The
new
protocol
will
a
llow
those
owners
more
use of the
syste
m
andne wdownloadersoftware
is
available
on Micronet free of
char ge.
e
Viewdata
services
continu e
to
pro
I
ifera te- the latest
news
comes
from
Acorn which
is
setting
up it.aown
system.
Acorn's
Viewdata service
will
hold
1,000 pages of product
information
and will
be
on-line
24
hours
a
day,
seven
days
a
wcek
.
Anyone
wit
h
a
m
icro
and
Prestel-com
pat
ibl
e
(1200n5
baud) modem can
use
the sys·
tern to
get information on
new
products,
software, upgrades
and
th
e
name of
your
local
dealer .
The
service is
based
on
three
BBC
Micros
l
inked
by Econet to
a
h
ard disk
un
it.
Th
e
number
to
ca11 Camb
r
idge 0223-243642.
is
HARDWARE
32
It
started
with
big
business
systems
then t
he
BBC Micro
grew
one;
now
you can get one for your64 . lt'sa mouse, the trendy way
to
contro
l
your computer.
We exam
ine
the
latest
.
64Moose
ew dot and daisy printers
-more sisters for Brother
Brot
her
has furt
her
extended
its
already considerab
le
range
of
pri
nters with two
new
pro-
ducts
.
Th
e fin1t
is
a new daisy-
wheel at a
bargain
pr
ice of
£285
1
n¥~:
1
~Yt!~ints
at
aro
und
Twinr
iter
5
features both dot
matr
ix
and daisywheel opera.
tion
in the same
unit
.
Even
bet ter
is
t
he
fact that
you
can
use both
in
the
same documen t
raisi
ng
the attractive possibi l-
ity
oflette
r qual ity
prin
t
side
by
side with matrix grap
hics.
The
catch is price
-
a
hefty
£1
,295
excluding VAT. Start
s.avingnow
...
Both
models are av
ailable
from
Tham
e System s
on
084421-54
71.
SOFTWARE
esc
-,--.-----
""
won1
=
---
--------,-
;-;;
46
Wordwisequicklyesta
bli
shed itselfaso
neoftheBeeb'sbestword
processors
.
How
does
it.s
successor
,
Word wise Plus,
shape
up?
COMPETITION
WI
~
p
-
_
__
_
_n_•
S~ect
rum
,,.---,-,,--,-,--
--
-:-::,--:--,,---,-=
Another great bundle of
freebies
,
courtesy of Sinclair and
PCN.
This
week
we're offering
two
Sinclai
r
Plusses
wit
h
expansi on
packs with runners.up
pri
zes ofsoft
ware.
And
winn
ing
itcould
n't
be
eas
ier
.
Check it out
.
12cps, comes
with
a
2K buffer
and your
choice of
interface
from
Centro
nics,
RS232
or
Commodore.
The second seems more
like
a
choice
for
the compute
r
user
44
who
has
eve
t
h
in
.
The
:-:-
The
Einstein is hig
h
ly re-
will
launch
a
new
machine
th
is
May
are
wildly
off-beam, spected as a micro
,
but ha
sn't
accordi
ng
to
Tatu
ng's
Tony
~fse~ou~~ni~a~=:~~~
h
Aad,amdesc'·
Recer,·L.
r:"'oo
-.1nta
~
comvaecr arou
nd
14,000;
while
th
is is
n't
h•,
n
ee
.
g
ua.i
with
a
40
colu mn
display
(ex- totally disastrous
it's
a world
panda
ble
to
80 column
),
built- away from the
company's
ori-
expectat
ions .
Last
in
dis
k
drive,
Logo
and
a
choice ginal
September Tatung was predict-
frighteners on
US.
Sottw
_ _
-VI
__
_ __
•
re
Pre
_ew
~
__ 3_
6
ing
it
would
make
200,000
PCN
Charts
An
adva
nce
look at
new
soft
- ica
lly denies
that the
compa ny
machines
t
his
year.
Tatung has
also rece
ntl
y
de-
RandomAccess
ware
t
itles.
will
lau
nch
a
machine
.
clared
70
redunda
ncies,
follow-
Billboard
47
in!
~! n~~;~~!io~~:~:fy
Youropportunitytosoundoff-
ing the
merger
of
its computer
let
it
al
l
rip here and you could
Th
e first choice for bargain closetothatofTat
ung'scurrent
and television divisions.
De-
pick up
£15
for your
t
rouble.
hunters
-
and
the most
econo-
homelbusiness
machi
ne,
the
spite th
is
the company
st
ill
employs arou
nd
800 people
in
Microwaves
6
mica
l
place to sell
because
it's
Ei
nste in .
This
has
recently
h
ad
Telford.
- -in
_,_
-
an
_h
n-dy_
o_
ti-ne-,
H
_ta
ti_ps
_d _a_
r
u-
_
=
u lif;!~·t
~d
t~!
~
And
new
machines?
There
52
for the popular computers.
-----
--
---
company
would lau
nch
a are a number of UI18pecified
Myster ious happening
s
in Por· machinethatcompetessoclose-
projects
in the
pipeline,
but
~
u_ng~ean-
D
-,------,----,---
23
tuga
l
lead our off-beat view
of ly with
the
Einste
in
wh
ich,
these aren't liable
to
see the
,....
'J'wo new adventures for the
64
the computing
indu
stry.
according
to
Mr
Adams,
is light
of
day
before aut
umn.
one worth seeking out;
the
other
worth avoiding.
2
4
_
Spri
ng
growth for Enterpr
ise;
W.......,
nc
h
__
__
_ ______
Drag
on
breat
hes
aga
in
at
6809
Show; nat ional
E
lite
cham
-
A
printers' extr a - buil
d
a
pionsh
ips;
disa
bled
youngsters centron
ics
inte rface for your
and computers;
IBM
puts the Commodore 64.
Monitor
-
;L-0
REGULARS
Tatung denies spring
launch for new machine
Stories suggestin g
t
hat
Tat
ung
selling 'quite happily',
~~!:!~t
.
~:d~!i:;~;~
~:\:!
~-n
-
- ---
---
-~
:.:t1gh
l:
PCN APRIL201985
ENTERPRISE
GO
FOR
CENTURY
Enterprise
owners -
both
actual and prospective
-
may
be
forgiven for thinkin
g
the
machine
had
fallen on
barren
ground at
the
start
of the year.
Butaccordingtothecompan
y
the winter growth
has
been
taking place beneath
the
Sur·
face and the machi
ne is
poised
to blossom
.
A
littl
e
green
shoot appeared.
this week
with
the annou
nce-
mentof 14 software titles rang
-
ing from
adventure and arcade
games
to educational
prog-
rams. Leading the
nam
es
are
Level 9's Coloasal Adventure,
Heathrow
ATC from Hewson
,
and educational software from
Bourne
Educat
ional.
In the longer term negotia-
t
ions
are under way
with
US
Gold, Ocean and
Firebird,
INBRIEF
C128 highlights
Com
modore
show
among others, and Enterprise
has
vowed to produce
new titles
::nr:ti~;~~
I
::~
1
t~~rn::ia~~
;
t~f
y~:~:/!f
~~tr::~
r
-
QDocto
by
says
the
companyisdoing'a tremendous
amount of work' in
gain
ing
software
support
and the
cur-
rent
jewel in the crown looks
like a
new
title
from Domark
based
on the
latest
Jrunes Bond
movie
View
to
a
Ki ll. The
game
willberelea.sedtocoincidewith
the British
film pre
miere
in
June
.
Sales
of
the
machin
e
are
Advance
notice -
so
you
've
no
excuse
-o
f
the
6th
Commodore
Computer Show. The time
is
June
7, 8
and
9 and the place is
the London Novotel hotel in
Hammersmith.
Highl
ight.sof the
show will
be
proceeding at a rate of'several the launch
of the 128, and
thousand a month' says
Mr Internation
al
Tennis which
Shirley
althoug
h
the company promise
s
to do
for
tenni
s
wha
t
is
not
yet
up
to
full
scale
International
Soccer
did for
product
ion.
'We've
made
sub- football
simulations.
Ji~:!iaShirtey
!::re':!!~~~r.d
we've done
On
the question
of
peripher-
als
like memory
expansion
boards and
disk
drives the
company is le&Sforthcomin
g,
declining
to discuss
the situa·
tion in any detail
.
Mr
Shirley would only say
tha
t
exciting developments
wouldbeannouncedin
'thenext
few weeks'.
We've heard
that
before
but
watch this
space
.
BBC and a
monitor
is added
take
One
utilityand rest
>--------------------------------l
Lasky's
deal
be
a
Billed as the
'ultimate
Microd-
rive utility
'
QDoctor from
Adder Publishing
vows to
take
the
pain
out
of
Microdrive use
.
Akin
to
ma
ny
renowned disk
doctoTS
QDoctor
allows
you
to
,
examine Microdrive
.cartridges
either in hex
or
ASCH
format,
savecorruptedsectorsa
nd
even
recover deleted files.
At £17.19 QDoctor
is ava
il-
able frorn Adderat PO
Box
148,'
drivebyTorchoornputersinthe
high street.' La.sky's computer
sing
but when the cost of the Cambridge
CBI
2EQ.
for
Acorn might still
Torch
While
buyer
Phillip
Halton recipro- there
are a number of equally
systemfo
r
theBBCMicro.
•ManyBBCownersarelook-
ing
to
move
into
business
corn-
puting
and the
Torch
Graduate
is a cost effective solution,
'
he
said.
The Graduate gives your
Beeb
IBM
compat
ibility,
run-
ning
many of the
top t
itles
like
dBase
ill,
Lotus
1-2-3, Multi·
plan
and Doodle.
At £1,150 the
Graduate
rep-
resents
good value
in terms
of
IBM
disk ha
ndling
and proces-
~':.ted.:.:~~~tt:i~c:':i;~d~
::~::::i"t~t~~:.;:r:i:i.;:
Macintosh
arywefoundthespeedofscreen
A
couple
of new
handling to be so slow
as
to
handicap
the entire
system.
In
our opinion t
he
best bus i-
ness
upgrade
for
t
he
Beeb
remains
Torch's
own ZEP
di
sk
pack wh
ich
adds a seeond
pro-
cessorand CP/M compati
bility
,
giving access to most
of
the
bus
inesssoftwareasmall-scale
operation would need.
A visit to Lasky's,
however
,
should give you a hands-on
demo.
products,
both availab
le
from
P&P,
have
been
ann ounced.
The
first
allows
you
to
hook up
the
Mac to a plotter
for
the
princely
sum
of £99 ex
VAT.
The second
allows you
to
confi·
gure
part
of
your
512K
system
as
a
RAM disk with claimed
increa
sesinspeedofoperation
.
It
costs
£34 ex VAT.
More
detai
ls
on Macplot and
MacMemory Disk from P&Pon
0700.217744
or 0
1·677
7631.
P&Pplots
speed
y
Macintos
add-ons
h
littleshakyafterit.ebrushwith
disasterearlierthisyear
,
Torch
continues
unabashed
with
a
promotion for its Graduate -
billed as 'the ultimate upgrade'
for t
he
BBC
Micro.
The latest
move
means
Graduate fanciers
should
be
able to
get
hold of one
with
&
great deal more ease
si
nce
Lasky
'shaasignedaretaildeal.
Torch
sales
director Peter
Ha
rris
dubs the move
'a
major
l"
N--E-·c---D--ES----KT---·o---P----·
p•i•
e br-
•k ·
.-
T·h-
,·peed
,
,
c
- ·
ac
•et
ia-
--4
Brewste booster
r
onthe Spectnim
Micromega
's
late
st
wheeze The
Derek Brewster
Collection
will
l:l~t~:;;.
choice
for
:te:ni;a~f~~~~~!
1
the machine an
ideal
SHUNS
IBM
IBM
compat
ibility
has
long
been
the
in·thing with business
system
manufacturers.
NEC,
however,
has moved
away from
t
he
herd with
its new APC
III
computer. The
new high
speed,
16-bit desktop computer
de-
the
computer
aided
design
m~~~well
known
software
packages are already available
on
the machine but
NEC
is
giving away its
own Founda-
tionPackagewit
h
t
hecomputer
tomakesureyoucangetstarted
immediate
ly.
The
package
in
-
eludes
communications, text
editor
,
typewriter
emulator
,
:~'!!,i~~r!a~;:ti;:-e::~t~~
name MAT,
Kent illa
and Jas-
per
-
no end, and ma
y
be
good
new
s
for
Spectrum
owner who
wan
t
all
hi
stitlesfor£9.95.
The
rest of you will have to
be
content with having got in
on
Brewster when he was a no-
body.
a~:~i~~~~~~e
pends on
MSDOS and
high
resolution graphics in.stead.
NEC
claims
the
decision
not
to
have IBM
compatibility was
taken because it would have
:e~f~er1i:1i~~u~t~
degree of
IBM compatib
ilit
y
has
been maintained,
however
,
as
the
APC III will read
IBM
format disks,
so
you can
trans·
fer files between
the two.
The
APC
Il
l
is based on an
ioou~ro~~~~i':u::
·front
end
Hig11-
powered
plus
for 1·2·3 use
rs
Fanatical loya1ist.sofl-2-3
(iti s
reli
gion
with some) will no
doubtbeoverthemoontolearn
of Opt
ionword+
,
a £100 pack-
age
that replaces the word
processing
functions
of 1·2-3
with a hig
h
-powered version.
Italsoaddsgraphics,acalen
·
darand
a
teleph
onedirectoryto
the
suite.
PCN
APRIL201985
<t~~
requires an
additional
128K
to
run.
GW Basic and MSDOS
2.11
are
also
included in
t
he
price
.
Prices for
the
machine start
APClll--tou
.-.
at £
1,499
for
a
basic
system
NEC-manufactured
8086-2
with
dual
disk drives and 128K
compatible
processor running
RAM, and £2,399 for a
128K
at SMHz and
is
far
faste
r
than model with
a
lOMb
hard
disk.
othe
r machines
in the same
Monitors
CO$t
extra.
}
THORN
AHEAD
1
t~tf!:t:u'1n;!~:h:h~~
ability
i:u:~:
intervi
ew
app
lica nts
for
;}a·~;~ns
randqtv~~}e
wit
~0!!1li:~~
!:i~
launc
hed
last year
is
start
ing
monstrate logical
.
and
0
IN JOBS
PLAN
established
at
last
year's
Brit-
to
bear
fruit.
Leading the way
The project
is
launched
in
is Thorn EMI
Computer
Soft..
cor\junct
ion
with
COMET
ware
which
has announced a
(Concerned
Micros in
Employ
-
new employment project for ment and Training
)
which was
the project. The
succes.sful ap-
plicant
will be
announced
at
this year'
s
BMA
ceremony
on
June 12.
IIIIIOYtion
takes
a
• back
seat
now
April, as
t
he
&aying
goes,
is
the crueBeet month. The bard
who came up with this win-
ning pbraae
ha
d the weather
and the
state
of the
human
psyche
in
m
ind.
Al,
far
aa the
mi
cro industry
the
disabled.
Applicants should contact
The National
Bureau
for
Handicapped
Students,
40
Brunswick
Square,
London
WClN lAZ. Closing
date
for
receiving
all app
l
ications
is
The scheme
will
provide ish Microcomputing Awards
sponsorship
for
a trainee
prog-
sponsored
by
VNU
-
pub-
rammer
withi
n
the
company's
lishers
of
PCN
and
Personal
Altergo
Products Division
.
E
n-
Comput.er
World
-
The
Sun-
try
will be open to disabled
day
Times
and Thames Televi
-
l--
o
ung• oo
~
who
•h o
~
h-
.
•~ •-io
~~~~~~~~~
y
• ~ . .
'"
• • ~ . •u•ld
•v
•n•.
A ri•
~
·~~~~~~--t
·p•
l24
:OC::~~.:ii4:nAJ:~ilJ~~t!,i::
be
paid.
The
gTaS8hoppe,.
among
r:n
icro
and
software
manufacturers
will
have
ploughed. their reaourcee
into
massive
advertisi
ng
cam-
paigns
over Christmas
and
the
fact
that
until
good
old Joe
Public
starts
throwing his
money around
again in
the
autumn
things can
only get
worse
is ecant com
fort
to
the
Look back three year,i
w
the
et.art of the
micro
boom and
you1l aee that the market was
a lot more open. At that time
it
was poseible for a whizz
kid
in
a back room
to
come up with a
design for a new micro and
aga
inst
all
th
e
odds
sell it and
make money. Theee
days
the
wbizz kid can still come
u
p
with
th
e
idea,
bu
t
the money
probably
won't
be
there.
A,,
far as the UK is con·
cerned
t
he micro auccess story
of la.et year has
to
be
the
Amst.rad, but that machine'e
suceees. is
baaed
on
utute
packaging
of
th
e
features
ev-
ery think
ing
micro user is
goingtowant
fromamachine.
Meanwhile, t
he hottest
mic.
ronewsthismonth~the
new
AtariSTeerie1.Thiswillbave
DR'e Graphica Environmen
t
Manage built
in
and
will
uee
r
the 68000 proceMOr, But
Grid launchesnew
IBM compatible
Grid
,
whose
porta
ble
Compass
beloved
of
space shuttle
pilots and President Reagan,
bas
launched
a new range
of
computers.
Grid claims that
the range,
called the
GR
iD-
Case, is
u,ta
lly
IBM
PC com·
patib
le
as
well as being
port,.
ab
le.
Twenty differen
t models
of
the machi
ne
are
availa
ble,
the
major differences being the
type of
screen
and t
he
amount
of
memory availab
le
.
Three
memory configurations
offer
128K,
256K
and 512K. Each
will al
so
allow you
to have
up
red
on
black and gives exce
l-
the machine
together with a
to
5
12K
of
user ROM
inside lent
quali
t
y
but
at
a premium colour
monitor.
the mac
h
ine
which
you
can
price.
Prices
for a 128K
mode
l
of
Numerous
expansion facil
i·
the
80C85
-based
machine are
use
to
store
eith
er commercia
l
programs or
your
own
custom ties
are
available
including £2,975 for the LCD version
,
software.
3.5in
,
5.25in
and
bard disk £3,250 for the Enha
nced
LCD
The
screens available
are
a
drives,
in
add
ition
to
the 3.5in version and
£4,350 for the
standard
LCD type
on
the drive
supp
lied inside
the plasma display.
lowest
priced
machine, an En-
machine.
Options are avai
l-
Furt
her
information can
be
hanced.LCOi
nb
lueonyellow,
able so that a full
s
ize
IBM
obtained
from
Gr
id
on 07372
or
a
plasma
screen
which is keyboard can be plugged
into
41211.
1,.;;;.;.;;;;;;;;..;.;;.;.;.;;....,;.;;.;..;.
.....
~;;..;,;.;..;;;.;;.;;;.:.~ii,ii,iioiii,..,..;.;;.;.; .....
~~~~~~--t
i.g
casualties.
•
'
ELITISTS
CHANCE
IT
To BATTLE OUT
Hot
news
for Dang
eroua,
Deadly
and
Elite members of
society
- in
other words the
cult
followers of Acornsoft.'s
Elite
.
Next month'
s
Electron
and
BBC Micro User
show
will
feature the
nationa l
Elite
championi,hips
- a showdown
between
Britain's be
st
El
ite
players.
Fiv
e
thousand players have
aocept,ed
as
a
wonder
chip for
a
long
time
and
GEM
-
apart
from
being
pretty much an
BOft.
and
Fi
rebird
have
agreed
off-the-ehelf product -
is
already
entered
the contest
and six
finalist.a
will fight
it
a licens
ing
deal to put Elite
on
eue
ntial ly
a
variatio n
on a
out
to
win £1,000 worth of
Commodore
64,
Spectru
m,
theme introduced by Apple
Amstr ad and
MSX machines.
with
the
Liu two
years ago.
equipment
and software.
Firebird will
release the
64
The fact
that
thia
is
the
beet
Even
if
you'
re
still
Moatly
Harmless,
it
promises to be an version
firs
t
in mid-May.
Cur-
the
induatry
can
do
exciting event
.
May 9-12 are rent prices
stand at
£14.95
for
volumea
if
you're
looking
for
cusette and
£17.95 for disk. innovation. But it's not about
t
he
dates for
your
diary.
Meanwhile
,
good news
for
The
Z80 veraion
ia
still
under innovatio
n
any more.
lt'e
ab-
owners of
non-Acorn
mach
ines
deve
lopment
and won't
be
out aelling whether you
like
i
t
or not.
still awaiting vers
ions.
Acom- avai
lable
for
a while.
=~
~
bo~t?~:
spew
PCN APRIL201986

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