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October 1987

The independent Dragon magazine

Contents

Letters

A composer at Ossett 1 8

George and Jonathan Cartwright offer a

personal view of the Ossett show, and some

helpful hints for Dragon Composer

Expensive so f t wa re f r o m A me ric a

graphics hint w h y no DragonDOS book?

Tandy DMP105 superseded w h e r e is

Peter Whittaker? S t y lo g ra p h suggestion

Tally mod v i d e o upgrade d i r e c t o r y

directive w h e r e are the birds?

Editorial

Winners and losers 1 9

Gordon Lee looks at some of the entries to

the May competition, and has a few (three

letter) words to say about it

IT'S apologies month again this month.

Everything will be resolved, of course, by

the t ime you read th is, b u t I wo u ld ju st

like yo u to kn o w th a t my ﬁ rst th o u g h t,

when I w a s t o l d t h a t Dra g o n U s e r

wo u ld n 't b e m a i l e d t i l l t h e 7 t h

September, w a s " Th e y ' ll ly n c h m e i n

Rochdale!".

What I can't tell you just yet is whether

they d id lyn ch me in Rochdale. I ca n 't

even plead with 'e m not to. It's too e a rly

for t'one and too late for Vother. All !can

say is that, well, we were a teeny bit late to

the p rin te rs. No t two wh o le weeks late,

but, we ll, late is late, isn 't it?

Trouble is, if you leave the o fﬁ ce for a

week. your hardworking friends and col-

leagues ca n d o o n e o f t wo th in g s: a )

something o r b ) n o th in g . B ) n o rma lly

causes fe we r p ro b le ms. No rma lly. Fo r-

tunately, the ghost o f the mu ch misse d

Barbora, wh o hid a few spare days in the

timetable, and the long suffering Artext

''send u s your d iscs and we 'll sh o w you

what you can do with'em" made sure that

we we re st u ck d o wn a n d p a rce lle d u p

rather less late than we would o th e rwise

have been,

By the way. it's a little known fact that

designers o f co mp u t e r ma g s g ra d u a lly

go insane. There are only so many things

you ca n do. visu a lly th a t is. wit h lit t le

black boxes. Editors don't, of course (,..

burble ...)

How to submit articles

The quality of the material we can publis h in

Dragon User each month will, to a very great ex-

tent depend on the quality of the discoveries that

you c an make wit h your Dragon. The Dragon

computer was launched on to the market with a

powerful version of Basic, but wit h very poor

documentation.

Articles which are submitted to Dragon User

for publication should not be more than 3000

words long. All submissions should be typed.

Please leave wide margins and a double space

between each line. Programs should, whenever

possible, b e c bmput er printed on plain whit e

paper and be accompanied by a tape of the

program.

We cannot guarantee to return every submit-

ted article or program. so please keep a copy. If

you want to have your program returned you must

include a stamped addressed envelope.

News

Dragon User back issues s o f t w a r e from

The Solver M a g b a s e pricelist d i s c s

from TDK e d i t o r sounds off again.

Expert's Arcade Arena 20

Introducing the famous Hacking Sheet, by

Paul Burgin.

Dragon Soft

Write: ADVENTURE 2 2

Is there something following you? If riot,

Pete Gerrard tells you how to obtain one,

and what to do with it.

Crazy N o l a from Computape G a l a c t i c

Gus from Cuickbeam P C Convert from

Compusense... Kararkazy from Preston...

Biorhythms from Occult.., and a retro.

Adventure Trail

Auto boot

Julian Osb o u rn e p u ts th e boot in — to

DragonDOS.

Mike G e rra rd t a ckle s Tangiewood a n d

Trekboer, while singlehandedly beating off

a wasp.

Two extra commands 1 0

R. G. Whittaker adds commands to invert

and scroll to Dragon Basic.

Competition

The Answer

How many angles in a triangle? Are you

sure? Ask Gordon Lee

Gordon L e e s o wn solution t o t h e Ju ly

competition.

STOP PRESS+ STOP PRESS+ STOP PRESS

John Penn Software are organising a 6809

Show in London at the Great Hall, the Con-

naught Ro o ms, A ld wych o n S a tu rd a y

December 5th. More news next month.

Scopy for SuperDOS 1 2

Stuck with a single disc drive? Martyn Ar-

mitage devises a routine to copy from disc

to disc under SuperDOS without tears.

Down in the Dumps 1 6

Just one this month. for the Tandy DMP 110

dot matrix printer.

Telephone n u mb e r

(All departments)

437-4343

Editor

HELEN ARMSTRONG

Production Editors

DAVID PRIVETT/LINDA SLOMAN

Editorial Secretary

CAROL FRITH

Advertisement Manager

ATHENA PEERMAN

Ad min istra tio n

ANNE MARIE ALLEN

Marketing Manager

HELEN PERRY

Brian Cadge is on holiday.

Managing Editor

PETER WOR LOCK

Publishing Dire cto r

JENNY IRELAND

UK £14 for 12 issues

Overseas (surface) E20 for 12 issues

ISSN 0265177: Telex: 296275

Dragon User, 12113 Little Newport Street.

London WC2H 7PP

US address: cto Business Press International,

205 East 42nd St, New York, NY 10017

Published by Scot Press Ltd.

Scot Press 1987

Typesetting and Production by Artext Limited,

London NW1.

Printed by Headley Brothers Ltd. Ashford, Kent

Registered at the Post Ofﬁce as a newspaper.

Dragon and its logo are trademarks of

Eurohard Ltd

Subscriptions

L e t t e r s

T h i s

WHILE re a d in g D U A u g u st

1986 I ca me across an ite m

called Graphics by J,H.Plester

in Dragon Answers. So here is

something f o r Mr. Plester to

add to it:

10 PMODE 2.1:SCREEN 1.0

20 POKE 8,1-IFF22,(PEEK

(8,1-IFF22)AND 6)

15 DATA 121.12,12,12,12,12,

12.12,12,1133

30 GOTO 10

20 POKE &FIFF22.(PEEK

(8,1-IFF23)AN D

20 POKE &FIFF22,(PEEK

(&FIFF20)AN D 7)

20 POKE 8,1-IFF22.(PEEK

(841-IFF.19)AND 8)

20 POKE &FIFF22,(PEEK

(&FIFF18)AND 9)

20 POKE 8,1-IFF22,(PEEK

(8,1-IFF15)AND 2)

there's any complaints about

the above, please contact o r

phone me . A n d co u ld J . H.

Plester. and Simon of Crawley

—

Hill Fa rm wh o wa n te d h e lp

with S y z y g y g e t i n t o u ch .

Sorry. Simon.

Paul lasikiewicz

40, Sidlay Avenue

Parr St. Helens

Merseyside

WA9 2B0

(St.

Helens) 611827 (between

4 and 4.30pm).

COMMERCIAL support for the

Dragon is not very good to put

mild ly, although so me in -

teresting n e w n a m e s a n d

items have appeared of late.

One t h in g I h a v e n o t ice d

though i s i f so me o n e s a y s

there i s a sp e cia l n e e d f o r

some p a rticu la r p ro g ra m o r

item, especially in your pages,

seems to spark somewhere

"I can produce that!" from

somewhere.

So what's the point of this?

Well I have spotted a market

and I want someone to ﬁll

gap

T h e books-on-anything-

it.

computer phase ended as the

DRAGONDOS appeared o n

the scene, a n d t h e ma n u a l

2 Dragon User October 1987

Mystery

draw

Every month we will be shelling out a game or two,

courtesy of Microdeal, to the reader/s

who send the most interesting or

entertaining letters. So send

us your hints and your opinions,

send us your hi-scores and

suggestions. Send us your

best Dragon stories. What

d"you think we are,

mind readers?!

There's gold in them

thar bills!

AS new software is now almost extinct I would like to pass on

my experience of obtaining software direct from Canada and

America. Payment can easily be arranged on any of the major

credit cards.

I ordered Gantelet and Paper Route from Canada by phone

at about 9pm in the UK. Due to the time difference it was early

afternoon in Canada. The games took about 1 month to arrive.

They both ran without conversion on a Dragon 64 except if you

use the keyboard mode instead of using the joystick as the

keyboard scan is different. although this can be overcome by

using different keys.

The main drawback is that the games cost about E30 each

including shipping. Custom duties and charges add another

E5 when they enter this country.

I hopethe above information may prove useful to anyone think-

ing of ordering direct from an American or Canadian source.

R.K. Osborne

18A Northdown Avenue

Cliftonville

Kent

CT9 2NW

AND who has recently inherited their aunty's estates

well, that should stop folk complaining about the cost of

new software here for a bit.

Anyone who is this dedicated deserves one tree tape, I

reckon, but we would be interested to hear from anyone

who has a (legitimate) method of getting compatible soft-

ware from the USA without having to pay E35 a shot!

supporting i t i s a b ysma l. I

would like a good book on this

peripheral, starting with sim-

ple use and programming, ful-

ly covering ﬁle handling in an

easy t o fo llo w ma n n e r wit h

plenty o f short example pro-

grams. a n d g o i n g o n t o

memory maps etc. I a m sure

there is more than one person

out there with the knowledge

and skill to write such a book.

and a market for it once writ-

ten. P e rh a p s Su n sh in e w i l l

take you up and do the actual

publishing??? If not I see no

reason wh y it needn't b e in

printed, p h o t o c o p ie d . o r

duplicated f o rm. Y o u mig h t

even make a bit of money!

Philip Beed

27 Findon Road

Elson

Gosport

Hants P012 4EP

I mig h t se e th e DMP 1 0 6 a t

work, t o wh ic h h e re p lie d ,

'Sorry! T h a t m o d e l w a s

discontinued a t Ch rist ma s. '

The printer has been replaced

by the DMP106, but the price

has increased considerably to

El 69.95.

The re vie w n o w se e me d

rather pointless a n d a s yo u

can i m a g i n e I a m v e r y

disappointed.

Now a f t e r t h e co mp la in t:

please can you give any infor-

mation as to where I ma y ob-

tain Buzzard Bait by Tom Mix?

The o n ly co p y I h a ve se e n

locally is at Tandy's and that

was for the CoCo and wo u ld

not even load into the Dragon.

As th is is one o f the games

recently u n d e r r e v i e w b y

Dragon User, I wondered if you

can supply a source?

Dennis Wright

37 Moor Drive

Alvaston

Derby DE2 ODO

NOW, dang my eyes, but I'll

be da rne d i f I c a n ﬁ nd a

review o f Bu z z ard B a i t

around t h e o l d pla c e j us t

now. T h e r e 's o n e i n m y

brown paper bag p e r h a p s

we'll run it. But the word is

that Microdeal. who used to

sell it, no longer do so, s o

unless you can beg, borrow

or steal one , it's no longer

available.

Help with old

WP?

I H A V E re ce n t ly b e e n e x -

perimenting with Coding the

Words, P e t e r Wh i t t a k e r' s

Word P r o c e s s o r i n t h e

September 1 9 8 5 i s s u e o f

Dragon User. I think it is an ex-

cellent p ro g ra m and if mo re

software lik e t h is h a d b e e n

available commercially earlier

on, the Dragon would still be

selling in its thousands today.

However, I h a ve t wo p ro -

blems and would be grateful if

Peter o r o n e o f yo u r o t h e r

readers could assist. Firstly, I

am not a very good touch typist

and would like to increase the

auto repeat delay so that I do

not repeeeeeeated le e e e e t-

ters; is there some location I

can POKE with a longer delay?

The second problem is more

difﬁcult, when I save to disc.

after entering the 8 character

WELL, money is something

Write-a-DOS?

there isn't a lot of about. as

we all know, but you never

know, d o you? Just out of

idle c ur i os i ty . I s t h e r e

anyone Out the re w ho ha s

the onions to write a book

like this?

Out of print

HAVING re a d w i t h in te re st

your review Take Ten Printers

in the Ju ly edition o f Dragon

User. I wa s ve ry impressed

with the report on the Tandy

DMP105 b y Ia n Ma rtin . H e

suggested t h a t t h e c o m -

petitive price is M O . but has

since been reduced to 0 9 .9 5 .

With this information in mind I

paid visit to my lo ca l Ta n d y

shop. I asked the salesman if

ﬁle name followed by E NTE R)

the disc motor starts. the busy

light comes on, the head moves

and i t sta ys like th is f o r 1 0

minutes or more until I pressthe

•:RESET) button; on checking

the directory, no ﬁle has been

written. If I try to load a ﬁle, any

ﬁle, the program crashes with

an FM e rro r. I presume that

Peter uses a different disc con-

troller and that he is making

calls to routines which reside in

different locations, I should be

most grateful fo r any help in

converting the program, even if

it is onlya list of the disc routine

calls used by Peter.

Mrs Bernice Hennessy

The Firs

8 Towcester Rd

Blisworth Northampton

NN7 3BL

UNFORTUNATELY, we have

lost touch with Peter after ef-

fo rts to locate h im. Perhaps

another reader can help.

disc (with the Debugger) in /DO

and the Stylo in /D1

DEBUG

S LOAD /clitornds/stylo

L stylo

+ 012E

- 8C

L stylo

+ 3F4F

. 12

• 12

= 12

- 12

SAVE Idlicmds/stylomod stylo

DEL /di kmds/stylo

VERIFY / c 1 1 / c m d s / s t y l o .

mod >/d1/cmds/stylo

DEL idlicmds/stylo. mod

ATTR /di /cmds/stylo e pe

The process for the Mail Merge

is the same with the addresses

+ 00F3 and + 191D.

I hope that this change will be

a deﬁnitive solution for this pro-

blem. Apologies for my English.

Thank you for you attention.

Pedro M. Pascual Uriguen

Santaines Kalea 6-8

20600 Eibar (Gipuzkoa)

Euskadi Spain

Better video?

SINCE the Dragon came out,

people are trying to upgrade it

to give it a better video perfor-

mance. The Tandy Coco has

managed it by having a raster

memory system by Motorola in-

stalled, the Dragon got stuck by

having a n o u t o f date video

system.

Co mp u se n se w i t h i t s

upgrade board had better used

the NEC7220 instead of an out

of date MC6845, then when all

is in RAM, one could modify the

Basic to use the 7220 to full

potential:

a) 128 columns x 72 lines, more

then A4 page (using an A4 or

double A4 monitor by ETAP,

Belgium)

b) High resolution of 768 x 576

pixels, better than Atari ST or

Amiga or IBM PS/2

c) U s i n g a n a l o g v i d e o ,

unlimited colours, CAD/CAM

possibilities.

d) 128K Video RAM used bythe

7220 only. not interfering with

the Dragon's own 64K, etc., or

having a complete new RAM

board.of 1Mb.

For quite a while a British ﬁrm

called Micro Concepts has had

another solution: Microbox II.

One can order it as a kit or as

a complete package, take your

pick, they can be reached at 2

St. Stephen Ro a d , Chelten-

ham, G lo u ce st e rsh ire G L 5

IAA, phone (0242) 510525.

Maarten 'AMJ Van Wamelen

is the minimum number of sec-

tors allocated to a ﬁle. See page

6-4 (4th paragraph)of the OS-9

S yste ms P r o g r a m m e r s

Manual. If the ﬁle is shorter that

8 sectors then when the ﬁle is

closed, these extra sectors are

de-allocated from the ﬁle. If you

have two or more ﬁles open for

writing simultaneously and you

have altered the device descrip-

tor as Mr Dalgleish suggest you

could get a 'Segment List Full'

error due to excessive fragmen-

tation of the ﬁles. This byte is

therefore best left as it is. The

p ro g ra m R e a d D D w o r k s

perfectly well anyway.

To check the cluster size, try

using the FREE command. This

d isp la ys t h e c l u s t e r s i z e

amongst its output.

P D Smith

University Hall

Birchwood Road

Pen ylan

Cardiff

CF2 5 YB

Double

spaced Stylo

I am a Spanish member of the

OS-9 Use r Group and su b s-

criptor of your good magazine.

I write you about the article of

David Rothery and the correc-

tion of the double space prin-

ting w i t h t h e S t ylo g ra p h

program.

Well, ma kin g t h e ch a n g e

that he proposes the printing is

correct wit h b o th S t ylo a n d

MM. Bu t if you try to use the

MM with the screen. it doesn't

work properly and in addition

both programs dfon't respond

to the Xmode set ups.

The problem of the double

space p rin tin g , i n b o th p ro -

grams, comes from the use of

a system calling. The charac-

ters are sent to the printer one

by one, with a ISWrite calling.

This calling doesn't allow line

editing, and to end a line it is

necessary to send a CR + LF

sequence. T h i s ca u se s t h e

double space printing ignoring

the Xmode set ups.

To avoid this dreaded pro-

blem I h a v e ch a n g e d t h e

ISWrite calling b y a ISWrilLn,

which allows line editing. and I

have nulliﬁed the LF sequence

with N O P instructions. Wit h

this change in both programs

the printing is correct on the

printer a n d t h e screen, a n d

always follows the Xmode set

up conditions.

This is the process to make

the changes with the systems

Quick Tally

mod

I WAS very interested to read

your article on printer and I myself

own the Mannesman Tally 80 +

and have found the variety of

print modes and character sets to

be very useful in writing technical

reports for my degree course at

the local polytechnic.

It can be found if the top ocver

is removed, that on the left under

the input card are two sockets

marked Ram 1 & Ram 2, the card

is held in place by two screws and

should be removed b y lifting it

directly upwards as it is plugged

into the board below. now if two

6116 memory chips are ﬁtted in

these sockets then the input buf-

fer will be increased to 4K (as op-

posed to only 112 bytes which is

the standard). The cost of the

chips is only about £4.50 and this

included the postage and putting

the chips into the sockets can be

done by all but the very clumsiest

of oafs_

I hope this information will be

of interest to your readers.

Thanks and a

favour...

FIRSTLY may I thank yourselves

for your backing and continual

support for Dragon owners. It is

organisations su ch a s yo u rs

that help keep o u r fa mily o f

together.

Next I would like to thank the

Hardware and Software Busi-

nesses f o r su p p lyin g t h e se

owners with their necessary fod-

der if you will excuse the term.

Finally I must congratulate all

the owners of Dragon and Tan-

dy (n e ve r fo rg e t t h e Ta n d y

owners) Machines for not discar-

ding their computers in pursuit of

poxy (forgive me if 'poxy' is a bit

strong) ma c h in e s s u c h a s

Sinclair — say no more, Atari

etc.. It is the owners themselves

whom deserve congratulating as

they keep a computer alive and

I am sure they will continue to

support their suppliers.

Could I please ask you to print

my name and address along with

this letter so I can get in touch

with other Dragon owners and

swap games_ tips, and for the

female contingent — telephone

numbers?

3 Lynmetestraat

Oedelem 8330

Belgium

Cluster

correction

THANK you for publishing the

article Into the Directory in the

May issue, and forthe program

ReadDO

However I feel I should point

Out t o P a u l Da lg le is h , a

misunderstanding he has. He

comments t h a t t h e d e v ic e

descriptors are set up for 8 sec-

torclusters and so Dragon discs

will not read directly. In fact the

0 5 -9 device descriptors do not

contain a n y reference to the

cluster size. This is chosen by

the format program and written

onto the identiﬁcation sector of

the disc. The byte Mr Dalgleish

speciﬁes t o ch a n g e sh o u ld

have n o effect a t a ll o n th e

operation of the program. The

byte referred to is called the

'Segment Allocation Size' and

C. Httchinson

2 Newington Rd

Beechwood

Middlesbrough

Cleveland TS4 3ED

Steve Clements

397 The Heathway

Shard End

Birmingham

B34 6QN

WHY's that, ay? Fink only the

birds have telephones do yer?

What about us chaps. then?

Ay? Ay?

October 1987 Dragon User 3

PSI bought thechips from Gran-

data Ltd. for E1.60p + VAT + 50p

postage. The address can be

found in Practical Electronics.

News desk

New disc set to

chart

THE la d y with a 3 inch d isc

clinging to her ear is part of a

new advertising campaign by

TDK, already we ll known fo r

their video and audio cassette

tapes.

TDK haven't made itclear yet

whether the new range will in-

clude 3.25in o r 5in discs, but

TDK magnetic tape is already a

byword for good quality, sothey

could become a major force in

the disc market in future.

But they are not likely to start

any t re n d s i n t h e e a rrin g

business.

Solver

Steps

Out

SIMON 'The Solver' Hargrave

would like t o announce t h e

release o f h is n e w range o f

adventure games.

'As I have the reputation of

The Solver' you will not expect

them to be easy!' writes Simon

The titles are as follows:

Starc rash — a space adven-

ture in which you are trapped on

a hostile planet with a sinisher

secret.

The King's Quest — 'an in-

direct continuation of Starcrash'.

You are trapped in a castle on

12th century Earth at the mercy

of a mad king.

The Quest for the Meaning

of Life Y o u have control over

four characters, and must use

them to ﬁnd the answer to the

meaning of life.

All the games will run on a

Dragon 32 or 64. Simon is cur-

rently working on Tandy conver-

sions. T h e g a me s a ll h a ve

mobile creatures and p la y in

real t ime , e xce p t Starcrash,

which u se s mo ck re a l time .

There are various little addi-

tions to the keyboard parset, in-

cluding a orange/green option

from the Break key, and a printer

history of your moves by using

SHIFT and the UP arrow. But

again, not on Starcrash.

The adventures cost £5 each

(including post and packing.

Allow 28 days for delivery) from

Simon Hargrave, Crawley Hill

Farm. Uley, Dursley, Glos. G ilt

5BH,

Simon a lso se lls so lu tio n

sheets f o r ma n y adventures.

They cost 20p each. Send an

SAE t o S i m o n f o r m o r e

in f o rma t io n .

Editor

adjusts

eyeshade

SINCE I have a couple of spare

column inches this looks like a

good time for me, your Editor. to

offer both an apology and an ap-

peal to DU's loyal and patient

subscribers, The subject of en-

quiries from beleaguered users

raised its head today in theform

of a mild g ru mb le fro m o n e

reader who had "sent in queries

with th e appropriate 'coupon'

but n e ith e r we re p rin te d o r

acknowledged". a n d another

from a hopeful who had enclos-

ed an Adventure Trail coupon

with a stamped self-addressed

envlope, asking for a reply.

Well, nothing makes me hap-

pierthan a readerwhocontacts

this ofﬁce with a heart fullof woe.

and goes away happy, as the

lucky ones will testify. If we get

a letter —or a call, but letters are

more likely to reach the right

person — and we can supply

the answer, then we jolly well do.

even if we have to sit on it for a

long time. And if none of the con-

tributors can supply an answer

directly, enquiries are re-routed

to Communications. Adventure

Helpline or the letters page

BUT

The D r a g o n i s a l i t t l e

magazine with a little staff (most

of those good people with their

names on the ﬂannel panel run

the company rather than the

magazine) and for this reason

we have never, ever, at least not

since w e l l b e fo re m y t ime ,

undertaken to reply personally

to letters, no matter how many

SAEs arrivewith'em. Nordo we

run any kind of coupon system

for replies. Everything which ar-

rives h e re o n a CO MMS o r

ADHELP coupon gets listed in

the n e xt available issu e o f

Dragon User, just like it says on

thecoupon. Afterthat, it'sin the

hands of you, gentle readers.

Likewise, Mr. Gerrard is the

only one of our contributors who

offers a readers' service, and

that only involves the adventure

help sheets. This is still strictly

at his discretion, because the

Mine Workers and Computer

Journalists Act of 1983 states

that we are not allowed to keep

workers in a deep dark hole and

make them slave for a pittance

Dragon User back issues

FOLLOWING t h e la u n ch o f

Pulser Software's database pro-

gram Magbase, with an optional

Dragon User index, this seems

like a good time to print a list of

DU back issue still available.

We h a ve sma ll quantities

(u n d e r 2 0 c o p i e s ) o f t h e

following:

August 1 9 8 3 , D e c e mb e r

1983. Fe b ru a ry 1984. Ma rch

1984, Ma y 1984, Ju n e 1984.

August 1984, September 1984,

October 1984, November 1984,

January 1985, February 1985,

Ma rch 1 9 8 5 , J u n e 1 9 8 5 ,

November 1985. January 1986,

February 1986. Ma rch 1986,

May 1986.

We have substantial quan-

titie s (o v e r 5 0 c o p ie s ) o f

September 1985, De ce mb e r

1985, April 1986, August 1986,

September 1986, October 1986,

November 1986. De ce mb e r

1986 (which contains adverts

from virtually every supplierstill

in the Dragon market, including

one or two recent drop-outs, and

as su ch i s a useful wo rk o f

reference) and all 1987 issues.

We have a very small number

of September 1983. November

1983, January 1984, April 1984,

July 1984 and July 1986. Don't

order those d r o p the Editor a

line if you want copies, and we

will check with the warehouse

and let you know, after which we

will deal with any orderson aﬁrst

come ﬁrst serve basis. This will

help us to avoid losing track of

orders for issues which may or

may not be in stock.

Backnumbers o f Dra g o n

User cost £1.25 regardless of

quantity or rarity! Please send

anyorderstothe usual address,

making payments out to Scot

Press Ltd.

Magbase price list

HERE isa full list of pricesforthe

different versions of Pulser Soft-

ware's Magbase:

Tape version: £1.99; disc Ver-

sion: E2.99; tape version with

Dragon User ﬁles: E2.99; disc

version with Dragon User ﬁles:

E3.99; Dragon User hard copy

only: E1.99; tape version + DU

ﬁles + Du hard copy: E3.99; disc

version + DU ﬁles + hardcopy:

E4.99. Post and packing is 50p,

except forthe DU hard copy on-

ly, wh e re it is 25p. Overseas

4 Dragon User October 1987

postage is E1.25.

Cheques should be crossed

and ma d e payable to Pulser

Software a t 3 6 Foxhill, Hig h

Crompton, S h a w. O ld h a m,

Lanes OL2 7NO.

The d i s c v e r s i o n s a r e

available f o r D ra g o n D o s .

CumanaDos 2 . 0 a n d De lta

Dos. so specify which version

you want.

We understand thatthere are

also index ﬁ le s available fo r

Dragon Update.

Missing

person

WE RE still hoping Mr. John

Carmel will contact u s about

another reader who was trying

to get a letter to him.

If you have any new products for the Dragon — software or hardware —

ring the News Desk on 01-437 4343

until their ﬁngers drop off. We

do it anyway, but we have to

keep up appearances.

Gordon Lee isn't allowed to

discuss co mp e titio n re su lt s

with a n yo n e (wh ic h i s t h e

universal rule for competition

organisers), and although he

has been known to courteous-

ly a p o lo g ise f o r o u r typ o s.

these a re normally corrected

in subsequent issues.

The a p p e a ra n c e o f a

'Secretary' on o u r front page

leads a fe w hopeful souls to

picture m e , f e e t o n d e s k,

carelessly dictating missive s

to a fast-ﬁngered assistant.

Wrong. T h e f a st -ﬁ n g e re d

assistant is tied up typing out

this your regular magazine for

the typesetters, i n between

answering the phone and be-

ing shouted at by people who

want stationery. S h e is con-

cerned with nothing so humble

as typing letters. If I want a let-

ter typed. I type it myself. If the

W/P isn 't tie d u p o n ofﬁcial

business. Which is why those

of you who do get a reply usual-

with a s ma n y queries a s we

ly get a comp slip scribbled in

can. Please don't feel neglec-

what looks like red biro. (It's ac-

ted if you d o n 't hear from us

personally. And yes, it is worth

Wally blood ﬂowing from under

my careworn ﬁngernails. Jour-

chasing if you have something

nalists a lwa ys writ e in t h e ir

you a re concerned about, in

own blood, because its cheap,

case it has gone astray. Write,

reﬁllable, and doesn't need a

or call 'n' leave a message. Live

requisition.)

dangerously! B u t d o n 't a s k

So. we are sorry we can't of-

them where I am. Some things

fer a slicke r readers' service.

it is better for humankind not to

but it wa s .

know, and they usually don't_

Now if you'll excuse me . I

getting another assistant o r

must go and write a couple of

keeping c

c h o i t h e ma g a zin e o n ,

letters.

y'see...we will g o o n coping

b e t

w e e

New software for review should be sent to Dragon User

Dragonsoft

Program: Dragon/PC Convert

Supplier: Compusense

Price: E24.95

HOME computers have been

around long enough n o w for

everyone to have seen, played,

and usually lost interest in, most

forms of computer game. Hav-

ing exhausted the seemingly

endless supply of games, most

people sit down and begin to

wonder to what practical use

they can put their beloved micro

to. It is at this time that most peo-

ple realise that for any 'real' ap-

plication the Dragon has many

shortcomings su ch a s p o o r

communications ability, awful

screen display, slo w working

speed. lack of software etc., and

with the increasing number of

desk-top co mp u t e rs ﬁ n d in g

their way into ofﬁces, more and

more p e o p le a re b e co min g

aware of just what is possible

with a decent micro. It is due to

these and other reasons that

many home computer users are

either using their Dragons to

prop doors open and forgetting

computers completely o r are

going o u t a n d b u y i n g

something wit h a little mo re

Whoomph.

The popular choices at the

moment seem to be either the

Atari STs or the ubiquitous IBM-

PC or one of its many clones.

But there are asmall number of

people who still keep the old

Dragon handy simply because

they have so much software or

data for it. Having had to change

computers several times in the

past myself, !know that it can be

12-13 Little Newport Street, London WC2H 7PP.

A PC when you need

one

very frustrating when you face a

programming problem to which

you already have the solution on

an *old' ma ch in e . We ll n o w

thanks t o Compusense's P C

Convert packages it is a simple

matter for you to copy them over

to your new pride and joy(?).

There are currently two Con-

vert packages available, one will

tra n sfe r Dra g o n DO S ﬁ l e s

(either dBASic Or TeXT) to the

IBM PC or one of its many com-

patibles. The packages are so

easy to use that there is little to

say about them!

Usin g Co n v e rt p ro g ra m

couldn't be easier, you simply

boot the PC and run it. A menu

is displayed giving options that

allow you to select the target

path-name. target d isc d rive

number, show the source disc

d ire cto ry e t c . , m a k e y o u r

choices, p u t t h e Dra g o n -

DOS/FlexDOS disc in one PC

drive, aformatted PC disc in the

other d rive a n d ma k e yo u r

selection from the disc directory

displayed. The drives whirr, the

cursor blinks, and voila! your

precious ﬁle is now available as

a PC format text ﬁle.

For someone moving up (?) to

a PC these programs are simp-

ly essential. Those of you who

have decided to stay with your

Dragon will not be interested in

this review anyway (And I don't

care!). If you have bought a PC

then buy PC Convert!

Put your left arm

up...

Program: Crazy Foota

Supplier: Computape

Price: E2.99

Notes: Available on cassette

and Dragon DOS ffor Dragon 32

and 64. Requires two players.

IT was very appropriate that this

game should arrive on the day

that the English football season

kicks off. If there's anyone out

there who hasn't twigged yet.

then I'll tell you that Crazy Foote

is a football game, OK?

It is also an unusual football

game, in that it's not like Cham-

The object of the game is to

score as manygoals as you can

against your opponent within a

set time. To select a player, you

move an arrow on your side of

the screen using a joystick, then

lett/right to move the player. This

process takes a whileto master.

The ﬁre botton kick is the ball in

the direction which the joystick

is facing. This allows you to pass

the ball or shoot.

The g a m e i s p la y e d i n

PMODEtt, and becausethere is

nocolour it is hard to distinguish

between your own players and

the opposition. However_ if you

look closely one team has its

right hands up in the air. and the

other team has its left hands up,

which makes all the players look

as if they are about to do a

Highland Fling.

There are eleven players in

eachteam, wh ich me a n s 2 2

pions o r Football Manager,

where yo u decide the club's

moves and if all goes well and

the odds are on your side you'll

have a good chance of winning.

In Crazy Foote you control your

team and battle away with the

other team, controlling all the

players a n d sco rin g a ll t h e

goals.

SEC IPIE 5 0 0 0

S E E I P I E

0000 E L I D E I r ' t

1 E O M P 1 0 1 1 P F E

Fli E S E IMF S

A A

F L I

L I T I

'A tL F

Roy Coates

0 g IF PI g

lil

044*

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October 1987 Dragon User 5

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