PersonalComputerNews074-18Aug1984.pdf

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A maxim which eloc1uently
describesthe Brother RS-232C
interface,the
HR-5 is compatible with
BBC,
Spectrum,
Orie,
Dragon,
Atari
and most other
home
l-lR-5.
Lessthan a footam,ss,it's nonethelessloadedwith
comp
uters
and popularsoftware
Perfectl
portable,the battery or
mains
operated
y
features.
I
IR-5
weighs less than
4
lbs,
and
has
a s~-uting
price
The
littl
e
11rinter that's
low
on
decibels.
of only
.£159.95(inc.
VAT}
There's
one
thing the HR-5 won't give
you.
Which is
reall something to shout about
y
Earache.
For the annoying
'clickety clack' many
printers
I
l'l
l
.\',l
\l'l)\tl
\
IORI
DIT\
ll
',Olllll
RI\I\RkABLLBROfll
~
produce is mercifullyabsent from the HR-5.
~~\~i"Rl'•Tllt
Quietly
efficient
it delivershigh
definition
I
I
I
dot
matrixtext
over 80 columns
at
30 charactersper
I
\
l)l)RJ,,
second (maximum}
Text
or
g!:lJP.h with
case.
ics
The HR-5
also
has
something
of an artistic
bent
l=__
__
lll'O
___
_
_
=-.J
Beingcapableof producing uni-<lircctional
A
,\11
J" FRO\t B(XlT\, RY\\A'.'\').
1UJ"GS.Srt SRIIX: 1
~
A:'\DAU
\
.ABI
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graphicsand
chartimagestogether
with
bi-directional
GOOD
CO\
\Plm-R
1
Qll
ll'
\l
l
'TSTOC1(]STS.
tc:xtWhat's more it
will
hone down
charactersinto
a
condensed
face,or
extend
them
for
added
emphasis.
At ho
me with
ho me
co
m11uters.
lnco11,orating
either
a
Ccntronicsparallelor
I-
I
I
I
REGULARS
Monitor
2
Dragon
reign
transferred to
Spain.
page
2; Atari 600XL
price
slashed.
page
3;
Teachers
get
a
lectu re
on
schools
micros.
page
4;
and
the handy
Gavilan
arrives
,n
the
UK.
page
5.
August 18
1984
MENU
No74
'
PERIPHERALS
Spoken
for
28
This
speec
h
box gives
the popular
home
computers
the
power
of
speec
h.
PCNCharls
Random
Access
6
9
Express
points
A
significant
increase in
the
1
541
Com
modore
disk drive's
speed
is the
promise
of
the Express
Cartr
idge.
Britain's
only
weekly
chart shows
the
ups
and downs
of the popular games.
or
makes
your blood boil, share
it
with
us.
Problems
solved
here.
PCN's
pane
l
of
experts sheds
a
little
light
on your
darkest
problems.
\Vhethcr
it
bringsa
smileto your face
Routine
Inquiries 10
Clubnet
Microwaves
Readout
14
15
COVER
STORY
One club's
interest
in the nuts
and
SOFTWARE
bolts of computi
ng
put
them
on the
right
track
.
Apple
all-in
I
35
Practicorp
low·cos integra
pack--
's
t
ted
Reade rs'
hints
and
tips
for
the
Spec-
trum.
Orie
and
Beeb.
(We
pay
'em
a
fiver
each
too).
aJle
for
the
Apple
gets
a
comprehe
n-
siveexam1na on.
t1
White
16
Th
is
flash
Lightning
graph
ics
developer
36
reaches
GAMEPLAY
parts
other packages
cannot
reach.
h
offers
almost
a
new
programming
BBC
Commodore
64
38
39
SoftwarePre-View
32
What the
futur
e
holds
-
a
surv~ of
:~~
i:;:.;r_ackages that arrived at
CN
language.
and
its
high
quality and
low
costmake
it
great value
for
money.
Carefree capers
with
the
Mr Men
,
or
manicmoveswith
somehairyhorrors
.
Billboard
Quit
SPECIALS
45
48
HARDWARE
We
give
four
Commod
crackersa
ore
run for their money.
Turn to this page for the
equip
ment
you can
afford- thisweekyou
canput
your
ad
in for
free.
PROGRAMS
Last but not
least.
enjoy
a glimpse of
the lightersideof
microcompu11n
g.
64tallstories
with
this
progra
m.
18
Commodore 64 characters
walk
tall
Genie
extra
Add three new
commands-
CLOSE
20
MER
GE,
and
KEY
BLEEP
-
with
Keith
Your
homeor
small
business
safein
is
the hands
of
the
Radion
icsCNS.
It has
the facility
built
in to
control a variety
of
devices.
If the
viability of
micro·
computin g
really
does depend
on its
being practical this
comput er could be
a
tas
of the
future.
te
Intothe
ringwith
your64.
to facesome
life-like
sprite graphics and Spa
nish
music.
Hook's
easy
10
use
progra
m.
London
crawling 22
Take
the
shortest route
across Lon·
don,
from Windsor
to
Whitechape
l
or
laughing
all
the way
to
Bank, on
the
Epso
n
HX-20.
PCN AUGUST2S1984
Spanishsnap Dragon
There arc
more
familiar faces
invol\'Cd in the 1h1rdpiece
or
the
jigsawcompleted
last "'cck.
Touch·
master.
a
new
company
risingfrom
the
ashes of
Dragon Data,
has asi1s
future
support
,s
assured.
managing director Brian Moore
A Spanish company.
Eurohard
SA
of
Caceres.
has
bought
all
the
and
as
its
commcmal director
assets of Dragon
Data
and
plans
10
Richard Wadman,
both of
',l,·hom
held
corresponding positions at
start manufac:cunng Spain 'at
the
in
earlies
I
possible
momcnf. This. Dragon.
TouchmaMc role
1n 1hc new
r's
released
according 10
a
s1a1cmcn1
help
l.
last week.
could
be
as early as
EuroDragon is
oen1ra
h
w,11
Eurohard
get
producttOn
rolling
Scplcmbcr. but Spanish sources
were
doubtful
that Eurohard
rould and
will
also be responsible for
certain
aspccu-so
faruMpccificd
organise i1.sclfthatquickly.
The
company.
in
which the public
-
of
customer
suppor1
and
soft·
sector
has
a
maJorityshareholding. ware
sales
in the
UK.
Ultimately
the main purpOSC
of
and
will
be
building
Dragon
32s
6-ts
and
fu1urcDragon
products.
It
will Touchmastcr will
be
todc,·clop
and
also conlrol
the
distribution
of
manufacture tllc
Touchmastcr
pad
Dragon products
around
the "'orld. pressure
scns111\·e and graphics
undertake this workat
Since
February. Dragon's
UK
iablct
.
lt
""111
Dragon's Kcnfig plant 1n
South
49)
dislributor
has
been
GEC
(i.ssuc
and
this
arrangcmcn1willcon11nuc.
Wales. wi1h1hcfinancialsupport
of
UK
users
can
also
look to the Dragon's
shareholders,
Pru1cc.
"'ealthy
GEC
for
con1mucd sup- Touchmas1cr
is
now
a
wholly·
.
owned subsidiary of
Pru1cc
pon
.
Dragon users
can breathe again.
After
a strange game of musical
chairs
amid the
ruins
of
Dragon
Data,
the
micro has
been sa,·cd and
'\C
J
32
IBM
is
expected
to
announce
a
successor
to 1hc PC
at
the third
birthday
party
of
the world's most
machine
could also
have
a
role
a1
the hub of
a
network of
PCs
and
XTs.
MADIIOUSCAIMl--,-..i-
-
1,
llu-ant.H•
......_ Tllo
ModvlM
...,...,..
Do,ip
IMAl>-11
D,202 -
,
ot
-MSOOS,
H 80186
proeeuot
,
12
ill
UltNd
..+NI
monitor
Nd
detKuWe
keytloard.
tb
,
-,.111281(RAM-two360K-UK-MBSdal!Mtlul
..
Belying its reputation as
a
nig-
PCjrislBM'sfirstmulti-uscrmiero.
llowcomc?Thc answcrhcs
in
its
gardly
host,
IBM has
invited
I
,SOO
guests to
the
PC's party.
and
one
new keyboard (issue
73). US
PCjr
commcmcd:
·1r
something doesn't
users
will
get
!he
new keyboard
n
ade
jump
out or
the
cake,
all
be
free, they won·1C\'C ha\·e to 1r
in the
old 'chiclet'
model
-
IBM
surprised.'
What is expected 10ju
mp
ou1 or
just docsn'I
wan1them.
So
they'll
all
the
cake
is
a
mulli-u.ser
system
that
end
up
with two kcybo.lrds.each
of
has
gone
by
the
codename of
whichcan
function
without
a cable.
Popcorn
for
the
las
1
year.
The
T"'·o
users will thus
be
able
to
sit
in
machine
shou
ld
use the
I
ntcl80286.
different
corners of
1hcroom
corn·
big brother
10 the
increasing
ly
pc1ing
for
the
PCjr's
allcntion
popular 80186, and
besides its
1hrough1h ffl)'Stcrious
medium
of
e
infra-red.
pos.sib1h11cs as
a
sund-alonc
imi1a1cdmicro
next
week.
But
the
C\'Cr
so
humble
.,,,c·u
IM
Mocl-lmlao....,._,,
_.....
....
d_ll
,
lolusl
·2·3
andS..-3
nn1
two
Nd • W
times
fut.er
Ulan
on
tM
IBM
Nd
XT M8S
is
on
07535
PC
.
68171.
Gamessnatchedto safety
The transfer has
been Judged
10
l
maginc's ·mcgagamcs·
-
Psyc· have
been
illegaland
1he
games arc
lapse and Bandcrsna1ch
-
may
now
1nMr
Chambers'
hands.
after
all sec
1hclight
of
day
dcsp11e
It
is
likely.
however, thal
only
the
collapse
o(
the
company
(Issue
one of
the
games
-
Bandcrsnatch.
70).
for
thcSpcclrum
-will actually
go
Jmaginc's liquidator. Mr Cham·
on sale.
Uulc
dc,·elopmcnt is said
bcrsof accountants Arthur Young, to
ha\'C
1akcnplace
on Psydapsc.
Mr
Chambers
denied 1hat 1his
McClclland. Moores
and
Co.
said
Spcc1rum users
starved
of
storage
greater speed
wi1hlufl
,·eri(ica1t0n
last week that he was negotiating was the
case.
·o
ne
of
the
games
is
W11h
a
number
of prospective
virtually
complete
and
the 01hcr
is
have
been 1hro\ltna
sizeable
sprat on
C\'CrySA
VE.
by
a
newcomer to 1hc disk dn\'C
l'hc
disk
dmc
is
only available buyers for
1hc
games.
·1
ha\'C
no
not so complc1c.·he said.
Bo1h
games
involve the
use
of
direct from
Thurnall
at
1he
mo-
doubt
a sale
willtake place.· hesaid.
sccne.
Thurnall
Electronics
has re- ment. and unlil
September
JO
all
The
games
represent
a
substan-
hardware
enhancements for
1hc
kascd a
Jin
disk dm•c
for
1hc
dri\es ordered come with
a
second
tial part
of
lmaginc's assc1sand
the
target machines.
Th
e
'dongles'
Spectrum at a
price
of £199. giving free disk.
An addi1t0nal dri\'e is
Offtcial
Re~ivc
r
had 10obtain
an
provide
securi1y
against piracy
as
150K
storage capacity
wilh
no
loss
availableal
£189.and 1hcdiskscos1
order
from the
High
Court
10
get
well
as
improving1hccapabilities
of
the
games
back from
Finchspced.
of
RAM
space
£4.69.
the micros.
Finchspccd
was the
company sc1
Thesys1emcan
be
uscdwi1 both
A meetingoflmaginc
'sc
rcdi1ors
h
Thurnall
is hoping 10
get
its
was
1
that
1hccstimalcd debts
o{
old
16K
and 48K Spcctrums and
is
product m10
1he
shops
later
this up
by
three Imagine directors
-
Mark
Buller,
Da,id Lawson
and
the
company
were
around £1
mil-
auached
simply
by
plugging it into
year.
'The
dri,·cs arc
available from Ian Hetherington
-
"'"hlthbought
lion.
Mr Chambers
said
that 1twill
ng
the back and sw11chi on.
All the
associated
be
ano1hcr weekbefore he
can gi,·c
disk
rommands arc very similar
10 Thumall Electronics Frcepost. 1hcrigh1sandcquipmcn1
nt
thoseused with1hcSincla1rM
icrod·
Cadishcad.
Manchester.
MlO
with
the
games
in
the dyingdays of an
exact
picture
or the
cx1e of
Imagine.
lmaginc's debts.
rive
system, but
they
offer
much
6DX.
tcl061·n5
7922.
Thurnall slips
Sinclair a disk
11)'--
PCN AUGUST181984
Ataristo clear
The writing is on the wall
for
the
Atari 600XL.
which
is
selling
for
less than
£100
barely
a
year after
its
UK
launch
.
Greens
at
Ocbcnhams in
London
has hacked
£S0
orf
the 600XL's
pr
ioc,
adding
10 Atari's woes
as
the
company adJusts
to life under Jack
Tra micl
(issue
71). But the
sih·er
lining
for bargain hun1ers lies in the
chanccofpicki
ngupthe
16K
colo
ur
machine for £99.99
.
The
spec of
the
600XL.
launched
Ba.sic. four
sound
\'Oiccs and no
fewe
r
than
11
grap
hics
modes
.
Also listed in
Green'
s
bargain
bascmcn t
is the
CGL
MS.
bu
ilt
by
Sord
and
handled
by
it
and
CGL in
t
he UK.
tem
is
on
offer for
Th
is
S)'S
£49.95. a
price that puts i1 in10 the
sa
me
br acket
as
the Aquarius I
and
that
pushes the
ZX8
1
and
the
Jupiter Ace
(issue 73).
Competition
results
1imc
10
put
many
of you ou
t
of you
r
misery
and
announcethe
winnersof
The machine
comes
with 20
K
of
las1
)'Cir to replace the ageing
400
RAM.
sophis
tica1ed
sprite
and
800
micros. includes Atari
gra
ph
ics. six octa,·e sou
nd.
and
four
prog
rammable
sound chan
nels.
A
spokesman
from
Greens said:
'
We're
sel
ling
off
thc$c machines
because
we're
discontinuing them.
Oth er
changes are also
goi
ng
to take
plaoc sinoc
Q
uccnsway has ta
ken
o,,er
-
mainly the
introduct ion
of
ot
her
models. And
Prism
will no
k>nger
be
supplying
us with
soft·
ware.·
two
PCN
compet
itions.
De
lving back
into
the
mists
or
time.
you
may recall
a
Lynx
compclittOn.
Name the
96K
Lynx,
we
said.
and
we'll
give you
a
machinc-fivcofthcm,
in
fae1.The
96K
model was 10 fi
l
between
the
home machine.namedthe Leisure,
and
the bus
iness
machine.
named
the
La
ureate.
the
Jn
the
circumstances,
favour
ite
was
the Link
(no
'
missinJ
Link'
jokes
necessary).
Eightof
you
came
up
with
this
name
and
the first
five
out
of the hat
-.·ere:
Peter
Rowley,
of Cro)·don,
Surrey; San
-
dra Oaybu
rn.
of
Nonholt. M
id-
dlesex:
T
M Wildey,
of
Bexley.
Kent: Roy
Powell.
of Cowdcn-
bca 1h.
Fife:
and
Mar k
Pu
lland.
of
Orccnford,
Middlesex.
Gi,·cn the
si1ua1ion Camputcrs
at
Lynx.which
called in
the
receiver
in
June.
the
planned
prizesarc going
to
be
a problem.
If
lhc
abo,
·e
winners would like 1ocontaC1us. we
can
discus.s
altcmal
i\'c prizes.
And in
a gcslure of
unprc·
cedented generosity.
we'll be send·
ing
consola
1ion
prizes
to
C
Mall h·
cws. of Newton Aycliffe.
Co
Dur
ham; R
A Perrett. of
Yeovil.
Somerse
t;
and
Duncan Waddi ng·
ion
. of
Blackpoo
l
. Lanes.
who
also
came
up with
the
Link.
More
rece
ntly. we
offered
an
Amst
rad
CPC464
with
colour
mon
itor
to 1 se
nde r
of
the co
rrect
he
answers
to four qucs1ions. The
r
e
""as
a massh·c response
to
this
one
- an
indicator
of
the potentia
l
success of
the Ams
1rad
- and
the
first
name
out of
the
metap
horica
l
hat
was
Keith
Hart.
of
Hanwcll.
--------------------------------l
Toshibato lead MSXinvasion
The
stunering
MSX invasion
could
be
unde
r
way
within
a
month
.
as
ratio
ns
at
reports
of stock conccn
1
Tos hiba
begin to leak
ou
t.
Tos
hiba
now looks the best
I
candidate to be the ~, SX
stan
dard
bea
rer
and
could
be the
on
ly
one
of
the
Japanese
suppliers
in
a
position
-------------------------------;
months-Miisubishistartedsclling
machi
nes
in Octobe
r last
)'Car.
The
invasio
n
of
the
UK
was due 10begin
10
sell systems
1n lhe
U
K
before in Sep
tember,
but
in
the
case of
Christmas.
But it
s1ill
refuses 10
put
MSX
ii
looks
as
thoug
h
the
ramous
a
date on its planned launch
.
Japanese talent for ma rl.cling has
MSX.
the
Microsofl·deviscd
taken
a
holiday
.
home
micro
standard
taken up by
Rumours that the whole idea has
most
of
the
major Japaneseclec1ro-
been
placed in
a
Sharp microwave
nics
outfi
ts.
has
been
available 10
o"cn so
that n doesn't
arrive
here
J
apanese
users for
almos
1
12 half-baked
can
be discounted.
London
.
U-Micro's
Teameffort
Despite
our
attempts 10 clarify 1he
meani
ng
of the term integrated
software (issue 72). confus
ion
still
re
igns.
U-
Microcompu ters has ju
sl re·
leased
The Team for the Apple
II
series.
Billed
as
the
company'
s
cn1ry into 1
integ
rat
ed
softwar
e
he
,package
market. The Team is
essentia
lly
a
very
cheap
database
with
line-o riented
text
ediling.
grap
hics
capabi
lities
and
a calcula-
tion facility
for rcpons. At
£
119
it's
conside
ra
bly cheape
r than
most
pro
fessiona l
softwar e for the
App
le.
Howeve
r
.
it's
not what
v.
e
v.·ould
·
call
an integ
rated
software
package
at all.
For e
xample,
on
the text
side
there·s
a
limit
of 200
lines
of 80
char
ac1ers
- about
3000 \li'Ords-
and
another limi
1
ation
1
the
(
act
s
th
at text ed
iting
is line oriented.
There's no
spreads
heet
as such -
ca
lculations
ctc arc basica
lly
data·
base manipulat
ions
.
POi
There's
integra
tion
and
intcgra·
tion.
Fully in1
egra1
software
in-
ed
cludes fully featured database.
spreadsheet,
grap
hics
and word·
processi
ng
- and
not
just
with
compatible data
files.
S1
and·a
lonc
progra
ms
which feature the
lane r
arc somewhat
further
down on
the
scale and
include
programs like
the
OL's
suite and
those from Prae1i-
corp.
while programs
like
The
Team
belo
ng
on
the
bono
m
rung
of
integratio
n.
Even
so,
The Team
shows
how
the prices
of
useful
software arc
falling. E\'Cn
gfrc
n
Practicorp
'slow
price
of
under
£100
per
package.
The
Team
represen
ts
good value
for money
as
a
nexible database
.
The
team
will
be available for
IB
M
PCs
runn
ing
the
J>-S)'Stc
in
m
September
.
U·Microcomputers
is
offeri
ng
a
red
uced
price of
£99
for
existing product
users
unt
il
the
end
of
Sep
tember
and
the
company can
be
contac1cd on 0925 S4117.
The
r
e
were
also
winners too
numerous
to ment
ion of
th
e ISO
runner
-up
prizes
of
games
cassettes
from
C
DS.
These
arc on
1heir way
now.
The answers were: the
original
code
name
of
the
CPC464
was
1
Arnold, 11uses
Locomoti\·e
Basic
and
a
6845
display
chip.
and
the
Colossus of ancient
history was
in
Rhodes
(hard
luck
1hc
kno
w-alls
who
mcnlioned 1hc
Colossus corn·
puter
of
Bletchlcy
Park
-
hard
ly
ancient
his1ory. \I.IS
i1?)
.
•
There's
st
ill
a
wee k in
which 10
en1cr our curre
nt
Co
mmodo re
64
competition
if
you
have issues
7
1
and
72.
You
won't ha,·c time
to
order
them
from
our back issues
depart
m
ent.
oc:------,
AUOUST1819&4

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