WIN Computers or 200 prizes of Somes Outback a new ayers? game from Paramount ;; games playing machine* This is the so must be won conclusion in a report b people about their km Software of, and altitude* to. computers. reviews for: It predicts thai an oil Spectrum, BBC Dragon, SordMS and Texas Ttic studj was drawn u| Market, ng Direction, conjunction with Gall . Graham Tillotson. managing ' director of Market' ' Direction, said: "We ! found lime and imu- .n],nn Black box hits pirates Three fun li forthespect. t PLUS: .alt piracy. 1 Microdcal, the Cornwall-based programs to type PWaTEHDVEWW" inforthe Commodore 6d, Oric and Dragon Symes said the bos.. COM unmarked chip-, rlnjiit AND Ihc Dragon's jowick po dc encrypted the game. U.S. Scene, your letters, software charts for six computers... days on it anil then told •Forger it.'" Mr Symes said Nan h era Software Consultants hid been working on the key I August and the design cost into five figures. Microdcfll's games us cost about 18, but [iuuard will be priced ar £9.95. 1 then, said Mr Symes, Microdcal was losing money compared wilh ils other products. He said: '"The industry » die wiihoui something like th Only the other day we had Continued on page 6 April 17-Aprll 23, 19B4 MO. 58 REGULARS Type in our Easier Special for (he BBC micro and fun. II s Classified ads start on . SOFTWARE REVIEWS PROGRAMS HOME COMPUTING (effects for your own WKRT ir memory in this wrtl game? bHlflTB EOTSI HOME COMPUTING WEEKLY 11 CAN YOU HANDLE THE ULTIMATE? FEATURE PACKED. 100% MACHINE CODE. THE MOST AMAZING PROGRAMMES, THE SMOOTHEST AND PURE ADDICTION. ACTION, THE HIGHEST RESOLUTION GRAPHICS? SO WHICH WILL BLOW FIRST - YOUR COMPUTER OR ALL ULTIMATE GAMES ARE ARCADE STANDARD. YOUR MIND? ;;.',/: ONLY EC-50 EACH SSr- 1 ' i"lt'"''"""EHi"l,cr Bib." 1 i. _ _C«fc Lts.'r'"' "' P5S AshbydeloZouih, UjMVpjr '^TTTT^ i iV*\ eH0530)dlU85.DeQ After success with hi-fi equipment, Amstrad has launched a range of competitively- priced home computers. Paul Liptrot brings you the first full report Amstrad's new micros: all the details Amstrad CPC 464 BASIC keywords lake 200.000 of AmsLrad 's new all-in-one home computer— ihe RETURN llJKjT developed the four-model c nd '' isp,,,, '" * ^^" ND * ™* "Bm,K . - IOv" k «9 RU\ 'SmsTfnv'™' UNEINPIJT SPEEI?lBI!Sr'ttr« cSt"""" *»"»•*»' LoSera ™™. ,„.„„ ,„ lii"'" :md a crapin.s unidois can he used Sound: Ihe C»C4M uses a soun ' from GREALcgnnKMBeti MEMORY SYMBOL r(,!,li.i«i atM Gem MERGE SYMBOL AI-T1.R i.un-.ht, ,.: AY8" 10 family, it si AX litr" Sgcr MUtf—«*• §™„ jll^on,™-^ ps mpu SSlllSUB clncrcdto [iambe],, us. Cornel. Div n.and Boots intiicijjs'.wcckot'jnnc !m'- SEInoiSt""' r!dr,rodLiclior«oi|k:ri.eL.O(l.ui>Ha ^nnwwtetc™. ISf^^Ufil, Mrd<ib<«< vmw^gmVOpoa i.wil.tnralii.lcolK.l.vrWrk-Myear mwIim for K<i Belt. S.Jnini socket liir h'liiy suflsvare pacs.n,:cs .v.iald he ^ power supply. """Vl"' EXP"'" E°" " KFtHIwta ~, ofwncr ,.. .1 ', RANDOMIZE „„ !-re! ended Snake. pearc and l:inslein and i Raid. Arclii- qniie happy to stand licad to head wide. 10mm high and 170mm deep with them." William l\icl. chairman, JAms.,11. S> stems.I and 4 in Ihe ranee will have omputer makers said iXKollhcf.dkolRAM was use- able !v, iheindustrs standard BASK". SfuslnJ'ihe'&s'x 5; :;.ia:.: .:;'-i!::iCL! and Loco. Ihe educational laricuaec. coi!,:,allbl,fhel and extension* lor graphics and built in. as well as a single .'in dise ked ah.. LI liiis. sound. A version of HiSolYs Pascal drive, claimed to hold about 1S0K on Mr Sugar said: "In was available, alone with an as J to eel a look ill. eiriKer disassembler and machine Monitors: both ihe green screen code monitor. model(GT 64) and the colour model I a tt Peripherals u ouidincludcapairot XS« ' ™ aT'SS^ ' ROMs and a modulator to allow the The keyboard unit and monitors are He contrasted Ihe success of Sin- uscol'lelevisions instead oiAimlrad's made ink rci ll i in I i mm and power suppk -n.idulat.ir is made computers with tho c From Japan. The CPC 464 has three display TWO MEN'S VIEW Game "" players? ""If, ii fact, e of tl telling the wholi From from page then the level of understanding out there is much worse ihan settle Idle-class paren why the figures show." i of people mi Lasl year 1.7m computers — "They total cost £300m were sold at an for BASIC? average price of £170. because ihcy believe thai ii will Markeiuiii Direction's study «ive dicir L-liildrcn an advantage is called the OB Markei for in life. Home Computers, General ig used BASIC. Pascal. Forth. Lugo and various i "Bui we also know thai what Altitude Study, which is carried tages, we fail to see why people settle for BASIC, whic actually happens is thai ihe out each year. The company complicated. child — usually a boy — ends feel is one of the most also has a more frequent study are easier Ic. 3 using ii solely for playing Pascal and Forth, for example, much Personal Computer called the because nf proper programming structure* which removi and Video Games Users Survey. need for complicated jumping. It is much easier to understand Marketing Direction, 6 High WHILE hungry, EAT than 10 IF hungry THEN eat: GOTO It Street, Thames Dillon, Surrey KT7 0RY One version of BASIC which comes very close to being structured is BBC BASIC However, it totally misses theft Black Box What is the point in having procedures, functions From front page constructs like FOR... NEXT and REPEAT UNTIL wher. over procedure (with GOTO) lo stop il I He said: 'Tor ihc firs: lii letter from a boy who said he still has to jump a we have a large installed li was paying a pound lo a group inadvertently executed? Also the commands GOTO and — in f home computers in for copies of games." GOSUB — the defame •tits ol structured programming - are Mierodeal had placed an the language when they should reads he redundant. initial order of 25,000 of [he Normally there is no provision in BASIC for named procedures or subroutines, so programs begin to get totally applied for. unreadable when there are /um/h and subroutine calls to Mr Symes said: "We will We And BASIC has no data type declaration facilities like Pascal hopefully, be ordering more and Forth. Programs tend to use variables of a very limited type. variants variables to lu- ethew Hint' nu> iic i in the and hope to bring [he price Admittedly, some BASIC can predefine wall lor nome computers, down." string, real, integer or double precision. But with most popular The survey also showed lhal It would also be offered lo home evmpuwrs. such us the Atari. Commodore 64, VIC-20, only half of Ihe people oiher software companies. And Spectrum and BBC. ihis is impossible. single said it would be questioned could name a Mr Symes For mosl tasks integer arithmetic will suffice, and is usually home computer brand, despite priced to Ihcm al a figure which much faster than real arithmetic. Bui the BBC requires a per an est i ma led 07m spent last would recoup Microdeal's cent sign after variables lo denote integers, so making programs even more unreadable, with ihe.se per cent signs scattered al' He said: "After all, while even have integer Sinclair and Commodore people are playing other over the place. The Spectrum doesn't were, as expected, at the top companies' ripped ofr games with BBC. Aiari and Apple they aie not buying ours." Another thing that adds to imreuda'mliiv is the us nest. Brands like Lynx and Oi;. Anil he said that Hu//ard numbers to represent commands, as in 'FX, VDU. PLOT and were virtually unknown. Bait had been chosen for the ENVELOPE on ihe BBC and the confusing use of POKE tc Atari • test because it was the best of When prompted, control Ihe graphics on unexpandea i imtmudorc computers. name shot ahead of Sinclair's - the 4] being released. The What is wrong with .simple English commands? people's minds. The theory Is otheis, which include a small For Acorn to encourage the use of BBC BASIC in schools although the company is totally naive, it is senseless lo promote a language which is the Commodore r>». Atari, non-standard. Why not teach Logo or P m.l-11 k nfor Dragon. Aquarius. Spectrum, both BASIC and instead? What is this fascination with BASIC? Why don't its games pi aye i Unc, Electron, BBC. Tandy Mr Tillotson said: "There is Colour and ViC-20. people see Ihe light? Still a tremendous ignorance We own Epson HX-20s and Jupiter Aces and for the A about home computers. we have Pascal, Forth and the excellent assembler from "Spontaneous awareness of Transum. To be honesi, we have hardly used BASIC for brands is low. brand images months. have barely formed and demand was [here. As ii used Our suggestion to you is to think very carefully about people's awareness and know- [lie joystick port, it would only buying a decent language tor whatever computer you own. ledge of even quiie commonly work on some if Ihcy had a really is easy to use proper ianguuges provided you have an o) used jargon is at a low level." joystick interface. Respondents were shown a He explained thai the key, packed wiih ihe cassette in a friendly".