The best-selling Acorn magazine in the world
CHECKED « VIRUS CHECKED • VIRUS CHECKED 4 VIRUS CHECKED t VIRUS CHj
January 1996 Issue 164 £3.25 01>
770263V45062 :
THE CLEAR LEADER he ScanLight 256 scanner The ScanLight software offers: IN SCANNING SOFTWARE offers a maximum resolution of FOR THE ARCHIMEDES Q1 400 dpi true 256 grey-levels at full 1 05mm width. In addition tfiere is support for Instant image rotation by any angle.
monochrome. 16 grey level and 256 grey-level scanning at
Support for the RISC OS 3 true 256 grey-level sprite format. 100, 200, 300 and 400 dpi. The latest scanner model offers a
convenient one-touch scanning button and a unique overscan Only one copy of the image in memory at once, buzzer v^hich gives an audio warning when you are scanning
too fast. A handy ruler is also supplied to ensure perfectly On the fly screen dithering lor maximum image qualrty.
straight scans. The ScanLight software offers several unique
A selection of sampling sizes from 2x2 to 8x8. facilities that make It the leader in its field - e.g. the ability to
provide all picture processing and enhancement functions with Image enhancement facilities such as sharpening, edge detect etc. only the one original copy of the image in memory - vital since scanned pictures require a great deal of memory. Simple brightness and contrast controls.
Spline curve control over grey-map for additional control,
The perfect way to capture high quality pictures for ScanLight 256 scanner, guide ruler, interiice board, rrtanual ar\d software For the mmmOO & Rise PC: £129.00 1 VAT m.57 inci inclusion in or DTP practically any other RISC OS For the 30X0 anrf4000 interna/ card: £139.00 1 Wf ff163.32 incI
Specify rr\achir\e type wher\ orijering. fiequires A/o carriage is charged. application. IMBytes. You C3r\ purchase a secoi\ii card for any Acorn model for just £39.00+ VAT l£4S.82incS- no need to move the e board when you mnt to use ScanLight on a second machine. Computer Concepts Ltd GADDESDEN PLACE HEMEL HEMPSTEAD HERTS HP2 6EX TELEPHONE 01442 351000 FAX 01442 351010 1 Education provides the knowledge
' to understand technology...
Technology in Education BETTER NATIONAL HALL, OLYMPIA. LONDON
JANUARY 10-13 1 996
- Wed 10 January 1 0.00am 6.00pm
- Thurl I January lO.OOam 6.00pm
- Fri 12 January 1 0.00am 6 00pm
Sat 13 January lO.OOam - 4.30pm
BET emonstrates
BETTgH* iMihiARS asing influe .SORED BY AC The comprehensive pr€>gramme of BETT Seminars provide Learning to recognise their potential is vital support and training for teachers and lecturers at every Knowing how to realise that potential is critical. Ab.^ level of education. Covering all the main curriculum and part of your own education, ensure you are at the management areas, they deal vtrith the key issues and cutting edge of this fast moving technology. latest developments relating to IT for education.
BETT'96 is your opportunity to meet the experts, GUARANTEE A SEAT BY PRE-BOOKING attend your choice of over 55 seminars and gain To ensure you can attend the session[s) of your choice and valuable FREE advice from over 320 leading avoid lengthy queues, pre-book your seats nowl
suppliers of educational IT. Simply dial the Seminor Fax Line on 0336 423440" from your fax
machine. Press the starf or send/receive button when instructed Vou will Surf the Internet in the "Net @ SETT", explore receive full detoils of the seminars, reservation fees and o booking form Software Publishing into the and Centre, look the Fully complete and return ihe booking form with the correct fee, and you
future at Class Act '96 and evaluate all the latest will receive your personalised entry badge and reserved seminor tickets.
products and services available in the market. NO CHILDREN OR UNDER 18'S ADMIHED Whatever your role within education, take time to I C K E T S E M I N A fece the facts - head on! O T L I N E FAX LIN Call the Ticket Hotline or dial the Seminar Fax 0181-984 7711 0336 423440' Line for further information and FREE tickets or return the coupon. Calls will be (barged al 39p per minule (heap rale and 49p per minute ol all olber ilnwf
Please send FREE tickets and further information to:
Mr/Mrs/Miss Initial Surname
British Job Title sponsored by Educallonal EdUCatiOHal Suppliers Esloblishfflent Association - COMPl/TING&TECHNaOGY Addresi
In association with THf IIMKS Klirt'\ I t4)N\l. SI CI-I.KMKNT
EDUCATIONAL Postcode TetephoBo UXHIBITIONS LIMITED Please send my colleague FREE tickets and further information.
Mr/Mrs/Mi» Initial Surname Organised by part of Job Title HiiRn EMAP Computing Ltd. EDUCATION Return to: BEn'96, EMAP Education, PO Box 24, Barking , Essex, IGI ) OPA AU- 28/12/95 CONTENTS
Editor's letter ^ECULARS iHA^D^^^^ With the new CHRP standard being announced, hybrid multi-platform News Run the RISC order of the machines seem to be the Acorn's NetSurfer project 73 Fun and games with a joypad day and in this issue we consider a Graphics C Tutorial number of ways of achieving this, both Mm Fractal drawing with Montage 77 rvlore about the W!MP with PC cards and with readers for for-
eign disc formats. PD Questions and Answers Hints anri t^'< '..^in.i. Mark Moxon - gone but not forgotten 19 Two pages of PD news 78
J 1 - gives us his report from Australia on iirl klnttmiK.AHHilA'ruiB^- ' 1 gnniiM., "'' using his Pocket Book and 3Fax to phone i ~ home. We also have a BETT preview; if you're coming to BETT do pop over to
the stand and say hello. It's a long show
u ' .en dull at times. HI and can get awfully B' see H^H 9^^H David Matthewman I FCC HNSromst .IMI_ .Einiri corral 9~tf f^H ^^^^^^^^^SKT'i- Managing Editor Pam Turnbull .j^l
Editor David Matthewman 0 Cr» Bici ' ^a l™ n,/« ^^l Production Editor Alan McLachlan Art Editor Alan Capper Customer Hotline Editorial Assistant Karen Peach 81 The fast track to Acorn Contributing Editors Comms «INFO Ian Burley {News) Steve Mumford (Games) 23 Arcade becomes a WWW site Dave and Dave and Jan and Jan Jack Kreindler (Graphics) David Dade 83 (Comms) Paul Wheatley (Public Domain) Network stop scrapfile proliferation Geoff Preston (Education) 24 Advertisement Manager Emma Barr Cover disc and CD-ROM Assistant Ad Manager Lisa-Jo Oliver 26 Details of the TopModel demo Ad Production Helen Weaver Ad Typesetting Eddie Burke ''""' Marketing Manager Claire Mawdsley 60 What you, our readers, think Production Manager Sandra Childs Commercial Director Denise Wright Circulation Director David Wren Distribution COMAG (01895) 44405S Subscriptions & Back Issues :
Database Direct 0151-357 1275 ,'i; Email: [email protected]
Managing Director Ian Bloomfield At Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation Acorn User is an independent publication and Acorn is not responsible for any of the articles in this issue or for any of the BETT again opinions expressed. 40 The stands to watch out for issues Back Editorial 92 Catch up on any you've missed £^ #IDG Wi3 RISC OS just resting? ^^ M E D I A ^1^^ Subscribers' page CP CD-ROM round-up Published by IDG Media Ltd, Media House, Special deals for subscribers 03 Three pages of the latest CD-ROMs Adiington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP J I.- J AVP F\3LjraBl(«9 I LIT ^ I e-mail davidm@idg,co.uk ^f\£^ The Regan Files jininft*'! * £*• nrc <- 1^ " HJH- tai-^-Mjaiv IKOI- http://www.idg.co.uk/acornuser/ l^#W Jim Daniels of Pineapple .«^.H>j|»-uJ.>*q-«o,^i* l>u^rh» '^ ^^^^^^^^^^^H ! 1 Tel: (01625) 878888 Fax: (01625) 850652 Printed by Duncan Web Offset, Maidstone FiiVM'Iriiii «4 *^ 4iii#t -v^ab« k "•d '•4«rr ^^M 13 issue subscription rate: £37.99 (UK). 1 £53.99 (EU), £68.99 (World) ©1995 IDG Media Ltd. wB ^^0P^ No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission, While every care is taken, the publishers cannot be held legally responsible for any errors in Smudging the results articles, listings or advertisements 75 Science with a spaniel 4 Acorn User January 1996 w January 1996 26 PC-U-Like 35 Thp f^'-.tpr 486 rard from Aleph One Acorn Superb of demo the idum 4 Srrvkes CAUIogu Spring t «9« new 3D modelling package TopModel plus H(ii«itiidlii ^"1 [mi a free CD-ROM containing Acorn's Products eesox and Services catalogue and ^irx"^ over 60 commercial demos taking up over 350Mb of disc space. ^£ Reading PC CDs Microsoft and DK CD-ROMs on RISC OS In brief 37 ImageFS' and the PC Survival Guide 32 Sounding boards 49 Mixer boards for the Rise PC We look at the Games reviews solutions available 53 Cobalt Seed, Command Ship, for FistLore, Rick Dangerous and running PC Land, Sea and Air software on your Acorn. CD-ROM deal 29 25% off an Eesox CD-ROM drive Mark Moxon, ex-editor 9^ Hybrid machines of Acorn User, shows Mixing PCs and Acorns in one case how you can use a Plains, Trains and Pocket Books 42 Mark Moxon reports from Australia Pocket Book to communicate from Jift Vii^ual design Futuristic design on your Arc the Antipodes Next month in Acorn User Clan issue Acorn's Clan enthusiast scheme has been running for over a year now. We talk to Chris Cox about the scheme, and to some Clan members to find out what they've got from it. We'll have advice for existing members, and reasons to join for others. Over Christmas, Sibelius 7 gained kudos by playing the theme to little Red Riding Hood on the BBC, We talk to the composer of that piece, Paul Patterson, Professor of Music at the CA Online Media Royal Academy about using Sibelius 7. NEXT ^\^ What can this technology do? We've also got a feature introducing the Internet for ISSUE jF Get Zynetted anyone baffled by the terms and etiquette, as well as a A ..t; Free Web space for schools round up of word processors and DTP packages. Don't ON SALE 25 JANUARY miss it. rOG Books offer 90 Stock up your library January 1996 Acorn User 1 1 ! 5 ! 1 1 1 '95 Freddy Teddy, usi £14] Selected prices 6th December Freddy's Adventure, oi ropoiog £l4l Frontier 2000, KS2-* OnanSot £49 Full Phase SfMEK £381 £48 AfcFS 2 vr no _^ Full Phase * 2 SEMBK School -5 funvnss £18 Arcliimedes OpersUng System (not OS 3) tBffi '*0 I Fun 3, age ArchrTech Aipa. £157 S Fun School 3, age 5-7 £18 SWo" £99 3 Fun School 3, age 8+ furoprao £18 B £28 School -5 CurDprea £18 Arciurji I S, Fun 4, age t 10-1 Sftprsftm Fun School 4, age 5-7 furcvines f1B Arcuenliire I The Romans, age jj( Fun School 4, age 7-1 fvrDpr?Q £18 Arcvenii.ie II The Egyplia'is, j9e8-9 Genesis Professional EM £112 lArcvenluiB III . The Vfkings, sS! Sfvrnon £47 Arcvenfure iV The Arglo Sanons. igj7-r Wemw Genesis Project EM Geordie Racer, ks^ lon^nan £24 I Aries Giant Killer, «5;.i ropotoij £14 Around the World i ) Days, ages-i? Swrsrofl ArtWorlis "^/ Global Effect fcWse £27 AiiWo'ks Made Easy Rise PC) KriiHa £9 Gods (not I ArlWorlis nelworfc licence Gothic a Medieval Fonts and Decoration Pack ladtiini^£30 E Astro, tsj,j TopoJog Gothic a Medieval Fonts and Decoration Pack2oarjjae£33 F AudioWorks CC Granny's Garden, nsr i jMjbwi £23 1 Hvtson Aztecs, ags J- Graphics Loaders CC £36 Badger Trails, tsi Graphics on the ARM Machines oas "£7 Bargains Balloons, Meuniw £39 , CD rom software Break 147 & SuperpOQl Inol Rise PC) ImageFS 2 Image Master PrWrjg £24 lOQ Beautiful Urifl^cspes ipiKe^v^ 11« Break 147 SSupetpool for Rise PC Impression (Dabs) DOS ™£7 100 Classic Cari iaxeiKl^ £19 Budget DTP I Impression Publisher ce: £123 Art in th? National Curriculum, KU,3 Al/F £74 Bum 'Out Impression Publisher Plus or £259 ArlWorlu CD CC f179 C Version 2 Impression Publisher Resource Disc OKjlATA £11 Bitlolic 6 CD [ongrfan i/y C Version 3 Bitfolio 7 CD [ongman tba C++ Style £75 •I Impression CADet, itsa.fl Breakaway Maths, a9e7-!3 WTM iW Impression Style Resource Disc DEC.OaM Britain from the Air, £34 I Meteoiat Collection Photo CD aKBem Composition mist PC only) Gtan» £129 JMacFS CC Mvsteries o' Nature fl"?** POA Compression CC £29 1 MacFS Light CC of 1 Cfwrrve Naughty Stones Vnlumes 1 and ! (set J) CD, Conjugue? £2^ OeaPw j Magic Malhs Sfiera&jn li Aipme £46 _- age S-7 'S Creator I Magnetoids Ongan *nsirs special offer until irStmsicn £17 IV Nelson and His fJavy, ksz.3 1 Crystal Ma?e, 31 1.96. age Con^TUfi j Magpie PDCD-1 Issue 2 OatsfHe ^Crystal Forest, K5J ShenttH £36 Ram JManchesterUnited (not Rise PCI Hiatus PDCD-2 Oaafils £27 [» Cyber Ape IHi £17 (i Manchester United Europe (not Rise PC) Krma PDCD-3 Osaws £25 I Cyber Chess fiuirrft £72 ^ Masterfile 3 BeeOug Photobase Decades The 1960s lonjnwi iDarkwood editat £27 I Mattiematics Through WinLogo, «a Longman Decades Tiie Victorians mrgmin Photobase MathMania, ksi-i ropcvog ilDariyl the Dragon, /.s^.2 3 Photobase Science Longman 1 Maths Card Oeari^B PicturePOint CD, lUl,; lonsman JDaiaPower Maths Circus, ksi-j 4MaIfon 'Demon's Lair FOurtFi Romans I Angtit Maths Odyssey CoTTp /UF shareware CD /»M DeskEdit 4 Berb\jg Merp/ Mirror rSA £17 1 Desktop ScreenTurtle, KSi-s Image Simon the Sorcerer CD SameiH' »ge7-ii jDesKtoo Thesaurus -Mission' Control -Crystal Rain Forest 2, Understanding Energy, KSa Aftglig Jhsnun £43 : Desktop Tracker Undejstanding the Bod/, tt3 Ansin | in Holland, kSi.i JUtomn £28 Digital Symphony Ovgan Mouse | Up and Away, age^-U Shemon Music Boi, KSi.; 'opoKg £32 I Digital Symphony * CD Rom Orvgan Vikings I (Anglial, is! •WsAi Dinosaur Discovery, MJ JMflfJDn i^gr^ ^j_ World 0* Robert Bums Csmdj Soft Music Studio 32 £82 Disc Rescue LOOK ^?11? jfMfflc £38 3 World's Weather, irsJ ^V" My World 2 Print Plot - Draw ft of 5-7 shMiuo £44 World War II On the Hoti? front, y,! 3 flrKj/a Jfl Naughty Stories Volume I (set 6), age DrawSender '"£14 9 Naughty Stories Volume 1 Books, i^e i-7 ShasOn ORAW_Changef v2 Naughty Stories Volume 2 (set of 6), age 5-7 snerston £44 Oune II Other software Navigator, CJ-a Tcfoiog £34 (not Sisc PC) Dungeon Nebulus [not Rise PC) "»**« £" Dungeon for Rise PC Night Cmh £61 10 out of 10 Dinosaurs, limited offer J0r?O £10 Sky E-Type Rise 2 (not PCI Playtime (not Rise PC) Jumpmg £17 10 out of 10 Driving Test, limited offer 'O/io f 10 Noddy's E-Type for Rise PC 2 Noot, fl-i2 AVaiiot £41 10 out of 10 Early Essentials, limited offer, *)e3-7ioiio£10 3 *^ E-Type Compendium (on^TSi £54 10 out of ID English (Foreign Language), limited offer SI Notate, IU2-4. S' Farthwarp, ksj tongnan £24 tmio £10 3 'SNumbertime, KSt sEasyC jSoakPCBII 0« £66 10 out of 10 English Easy C++ IB Occasion figLAN £58 iS Oh No' More Lemmings (requires lemming5)Krrwfc £15 limrteit offer, agt6-i6 'WIO £6 ^SlEasyClip I Orrery Stacwec'i £59 10 Essential Maths, lirmled offer, igr ^i; J 10 out of '' Eclipse Collection fdjiie iwro ' Ovation Pro Eieecug£163 Replon 4 lOoul of 10 French, limited offer, agel-is 'oris Ego' Jubb™ Ovation Resource Disc D£C_tM7"* £B CC £157 10 out of 10 German, limited offer, ages-ie 'am Eidoscope Oeford Reading Tree Stage 2 More Talking Stones A, limiieif offer, ageS-ii Elf Tales, ajfJ-T stmsron £32 10 out of 10 Junior Essentials, J Ve„ aye S-7 S/iP3lO" £35 Eureka 3, tea Itxrgman £91 lOIIO *(e, Oifotd Reading Tree Stage 2 Story Books, iige 5-' Euenl tffiWN £21 "•""i^ Sftwnnn 10 out of 10 Maths Number for Spelling, «i,J HM £31 Eye Oxford Reading Tree Stage 2 Talking Stones, age 57 crin?i £16 limited offer, ages-is lono Eeruour inot n>K PC) £35 limited offer, -9 offer Oxford Reading Tree Stage 3 More Talking Stories A, 1 out of 1 Struflured SpetRnq. igi Fire & Ice spedal nHi.i^£10 5-7 Siiwjrofi firework; fata' £88 age Oxford Reading Tree Stage 3 Story Books, age S-7 2067 BC Owsari Fireworfci Pro Cunw £139 Shemon ABC Version 3 Oik First Logo, kSl.! [onsmjn £21 Oxford Talking Infant Atlas, KSi shmTDfi Acceii+ for Rise PC *com First Page, eSJ-a [ongmon £42 ' Acorn Companion m^nc Party, Wedding a Anniversary Collection Dfc.dofa First Words with Smudge, e9s4+ Siom £20 i Acorn Companion 2 for Rise PC and A7OO05EMtBc " PC «86 Software Acom M>flBv£25| Across Kudos FistLore PenOown, i(Si-3 longrnif Advance Atwn FiashDack, I 6Mbdisc usQoW PenDown Etoiles, KS3,« lanamen Flashback. BOO liB discs us 6m Plus, Plol Cifts £63 Term lie Inlemc-I Podd, i5w fS« t^H Textease Version 2 Populous rraaNI f23 Time Detectives The Victorians, ksj Prehistoric Animals MtjnS f16 Time Math me Primary Teachera Clip An Slarler Set mcjMW fl3 Time Traveller- Bntain Sirce 1930. KS7 PnmeSolver Full version, KiH Mtnerva fly Time Traveller - Hie Victonans, Pniie. 5CSI Amntwitl^ POA m Time Traveller - Tudor ard Stuart Times, ksj ProAniMr24(Biv:PConly) CIOTH £125 TinyDfaw/Tinylogo, (Si.i P'dCAD, "W WfliervB £45D Topographer Prophet 2 -sp^tofe £143 Touch Type iott Publish Art Ctelease 2. AHworlu forrnat ifWil i^y Trace fiSmg PublishAn Release 2, Draw format jmarr UH Tran^ort Mcms £25 Puddle, K^i T'vw'fvj £14 I'l Treclia tsa £17 Quest ior Gold ft'rrHfts £19 rurboDrrver Caooo Cc £39 QuicKey (Ci E10 TurhoDriver tpson Stylus 800 Cc £39 Painbow, KSi.; Icngtr'sti £3 a TurboDriver HP K £39 Record? Colfon £93 Twain Canon IX ind Scan-ijght Professional ftUmg £16 RemoleFS Paiallel Port Aaufwide £49 Twain Epscn GTflOOO, 6SD0 £16 Repon Writer. KSt j ("mniie 545 Tivain HP Scanjet II. lit, to £16 y Acorn Rise Cn'fnfi PC Resjitz t^b TWO (Task and Window tganiser) £10 R.SCPC600 5MHD210 At.a"\ tl 145 Revelation ImagePro 24 bit TypeSturtio £23 RISCPC700 10MHDS50 14" Monitor Acrvn £1689 Vector, agt 9.- iJMdDiyi £58 limited offer, «i;j [^ny.™;. £39 RiscPC700 10MHD850l7"fVlonitoi acom £1969 VersaTile (.ongman £33 Sound for the Rise PC Rise PC 700 lOM HDS50CD 14" Monitor Ai^om £1799 Virtual Revolver >^^£12 GoK !aunh ill • PiM PC Sound Cnrd Rise PC70O1DMHDS50CD 17- Monitor acwn E2079 Rfiapsody 2 ClJi-v £^B Vox Bon Clara £40 • Rise PC700 5M HD42S 14" Monitor Aram £1359 Mull.merl.a Spe^«ei Systmi Voyage ot I>acovery, age mi Shtmcm £31 9 Rliapsody 3 Otn: f J4 B 14" Rise PC700 5M HD425CO Monitor *i-iVfi £1469 Upgrade A3010 (4Mb) £239 }^ RliVthm-Betl o**. £3B Wardrotie, KSl ToeoBg £14 p • - Rick Dangerous m^£13 Watch - Magic Grandad 90 Years Ago tongrridn £26 1 4 Mb Memory Upgrade i What Do You Know' C^nttB Soft £14 CX 5x86-100 PC card timri £545 • ao Mb IDt Internal Hard Disc Kil • RISC OS 3 Fina Sfepi Oitu "£7 WinLogo, ksi J ti>T567wn £68 ii Case Mid Uograde for Rise PC 600 2M and SM .i.o'" £ 105 11 RISC OS 3 Programmer's Reference Manual vol 1-4 WoUenslein 3D £23— 1^1HI Ergo Keyboard for Rise PC Casife £36 actpm™£10S World Geography Maps «3 3 Hard Disc Fining Kit for Rise PC S'A' Bay ics £20 CD rom upgrades RISC OS 3 Programmer's fielerence Manual vol b Wildlile World MonS £16 ail IDE Internal In lerface for Rise PC la £50 Atom **£35 WorraCad IDE fierrravable Hard Disc Kit for Rise PC, 270 Mb la £359 Our IDE interfaces can now be RtSC |j 0S3 1 DocLmentanoi ilaini €ie Worst Witch, agnJ-tO SHenton 5%" Removable Hard Disc Fitting Kit for Rise PC bay supplied with our own CD filing - Rosle and Jim Zig ?ag Vrtings ICS no 'opofrit^ RiscPC2MbVRAM yimm £19Sj system. One interface can control Ouck loses his Quack, s^e 3-« Shenmr: £l Rrsc PC Sound Card Acnm £581 two hard discs or two CD drives, or Rosie andlim' Jim gets Itie Sneeies, agt Sdmsion j 3-t RscPC>85Ca'dS{DX;!-66) Aann f248[ I of Round the World Yacht Race, ages- Sttum ICS Hard Disc Kits .,Ri5cPC.B6CardS(DX4-IOO) 4o)m £2931 one each. Two interfaces can be RTF and WordPerfea I oaders and Sauers Cc I i\ SIMM16Mb32blt £345[ fitted in some computers. IDE internal Hard Disc Kit lor Senes S-Base 2 Devefoper A3D00 ! SIMM4Mb32bit fliofl If S-Ba5B2 Perioral aOMb ICS (149 ^ SIWV8Wb32 Uit(lFEL) ffi £1961 you already own one of our Sally and Wally 120 Mb IC3 £185 interfaces you can upgrade it to add Saloon Cars Deliixe {not Rise PC) 170 Mb IC3 £199 Saloon Cars Delude Eitra Courses 240 Mb ICS £229 a CD drive. I Acorn Portables Saloon for Internal Interface only res £75 Cars DeluKe Rise PC At last there is a cost-effective way 9 Schema 2 Pocket Book II 1MB Jtijni 1^84 for thousands of owners Science iOE filing system A3000 to I The best Pocket Book II 256K 4cEvn Utii I Score Draw A-lin't for Pocket Book 410171 £44 add a CD! ! Scrabble is now available with a 5 Flash Disc S I2K for Po6:« Book Acorn t/y 151-3 Contact us for more details. iScreenTurlle, - for only extra Mams Adaptor far Pocket Boot a.-om fifi Sea Rescue, ags 7-9 USER PORT £5 Parallel Link tor Pocl,et Book Scam £38 • Search and Rescue, aifs 9. • Password ptolaEtron • Disc partitioning Sea^HHe Guide •NolllrniiedtQ512Mb« 1 HOW TO ORDER I Seelirks - Ourselves, Ml, Please Epacily OS 2 or OS 3 for all kits and interfaces ' SerBnade Other Computers ' ShapefX IDE Internal Hard Disc Kit - User Pon for A 3000 Series Carriage is free witliin mainland A4OO0 HD210 High-Res SVijA Muiliwm System Sibelius fi 80 Mb « £154 UK if you pay on ordering. Sibelius 7 120 Mb ICS £190 A7O00 4M H5425CD 170 Mb la £204 I Cheques should be made payable to 240 Mb res £234 Ian Copestake Limited Internal Interface + User Port only iCi £79 | Other hardware You may also pay by credit card, IDE Internal Hard Disc Kit for AfChiitiedes rar>ge Ig debit card or Switch. We normally ;a AB05/310'440 RISC 05 3 Garner Board 170 Mb £149 make no charge for this, and take i Backplane, 4-ilot 4'layer with (an ?40 Mb ( 3 £199 ' ColDrlvlobile Dned Scanner for Windows no payment until goods are 540 Mb I :s £275 ColoiMobile Office Scanner (or Winckiws despatched. We need your address as 1000 Mb y 3 £375 ColourCaib Gold the Internal Interlace ony i 3 £60 Ml 30 known to card issuer. DM1 50 S If you leave an order on our Hard Disc Cradle Kit for Archimedes fa £15 Dongte Dangle please Hard Disc fitting Kit for A3000 Id £7| Eagle M2 answering machine include Ergo Hard Disc Fitting Kit for A3020 H3 £7| Keyboard your telephone number, your card fan Kil tor A300 / A400 Series Hard Disc Form Factor Converter 2'i" to number and its expiry date (and issue IS Guides when you buy •a GamesPad Dual SjrnehV !™GamesPad Pro Dual number if any), anid your calculation of only £7 one of these Micro Mouse aim the total payment due. ArtWorlo Made Easy Artworks ICS IDE Hard Discs h Midi Man a- Movie Magic Official orders are welcome from Big Picture • PD Canridge, Rewritable Paraamr Budgel DTP C++ I0E2111" Hard Disc. BO Mb £S9l 650 UD UK educational and government insti- Powei Pad (Dual) ermine C Guide C-1-+ IDE 2'.i" Hard Disc, 120 Mb £1251 Easy C Easy Power Switch GornertV tutions (invoices are due for payment IDE 2ia" Hard Disc, 170 Mb £139 Graphics on the Impression Slyle PowerWAVE 50XG A„aa Within 14 are subject to carri- 10E2M" Hard Disc, 240 Mb £169^ days and Printer Port Sampler vri Machines 1' ARM Impression ]0E3',3" Hard Disc, 170 Mb £99 age and late payment charges). RISC OS 3 1 ID Set fiom Pack arwri Impression Publisher IDE 3!;' Hard Disc, 540 Mb £225 (Plus) RISC OS 3 1 3 Set Rom Pai:k acok VAT is not included Zero-rated 3^1" Disc, IDE Hard 1000 Mb £325 RISC OS 3 1 Software Upgrade with docynwntaiion RiscOSSFirslSteps Pendown items are marked customers Second Hard Disc Fitting Kit for A5000 £15, Ararn £67 VO UK Archimedes Photo desk Second Hard Disc.V Power Lead £?l RISC OS 3.1 Software Upgrade wiihout documentation please add WM/o to all other prices. Operating icorn £39l System ProArtisan 2 or 24 EC customers outside the UK please do Scanlight 256 «' £)2Bj or claim one Textease Scaniighi 256 for A3000y301 0/302 D/A4000 cc £138| the same unless you are VAT-regis- Removable discs Sea nUghl Video 256 CC £1 tered, in which case quote your FREE Rise OS 3,1 upgrades ScanLighi Video 256 A3000/A4000 CC £1 international VAT number Ours is IDF Removable Hard Disc Kit for ASOOO, ;70 Mb la £359 Sound Force 1 Multimedia PC Speaker System I GB 595 7258 84 Sim City I IDE 3Vj" Removable Hard Disc Cartndge, 105 Mb auociftof £34 Tele-Cani £153 Sim City for SyOixl £52 KOB 2000 A5000 if are Tele-Card + Telete«l-Turba XOB £298 Overseas carriage: you pay- Sim City 2000 for Rise PC llDESh" Removable Hard Disc Cartndge, 270 Mb TV Tuner with Teleleit cc £157 ing by credit card we will add airmail Simon the Sorcerer fJritiBW I SjCJuHi £S5| User Port/ MIDI Upgrade for A3D00 Acain £51 P Removable Hard Disc Fitting Kit for A5000 ICS £25| and insurance at cost. Otherwise please Sleuth 2 Vision 34 A300a/301CV3020/4000 internal WCCI smArl, ioe?-. JMflfjori Vision 24 A5000/4oa300misc PC nCCS 67ia add £6 (Europe) or at least £12 (else- smArt faces' English Vision 24 S08 line A3000/30 10/3020/4000 internal where) for each software item and smAn fantasy HCCS £911 -S Jwarfon Printers send a pounds sterling bank draft pay- smAn fashion JMiilun Vision 24 508 line A5000/40D/300/Risc PC was £91 Whisper Fan (for Series lylra able at a London clearing bank, or * smArt Homes English AfjiBiloiy Bubble Jet Bi-30 Quielener A30Q/A400 on £15 WimtS for ASOOO JCS £39 SsmArtfiiet, agr 7. Bubble Jet Bj-2D0eii Etjrocheques for not more than £100 _ Smudge the Scientist, e^i. STprm Bubble Jet EJC-70 Canon each. ^ Smudge the Spaniel, s^ t. Bubble Jet BJC-EOOE Cancm ^ Somerset Talking Computer Project Lea/n ng Materials Bubble Jet BJC-600 Ink Cartridge, Black High Capacity All products, prices and specifications "'£29 iatigirw Cawn £12 are offered in good faith and are sub- Space City, ags?-* J/wmon f2S Bubble Jet BIC'60D Ink Cartridge, Cyan Cwai ject to availabifity and change without SrarkFS PjPmg £20 Bubble Jer BJC-60D Ink Cartridge, Magenta Canon notice. Special offers apply only while Special la £10 Bubble Jel B)C-60D Ink Cartridge. Veilow Canon Speech! 2 Suoenor £24 Rubble Jel aJC-40D0 stocks last. We process all orders Speech' 2 + German 3[jpprnir £29 |3 Bubble Jet BJC-4000 ink Cartridge immediately, but suppliers do some- Speedball II Kilsih £18 Bubble Jet BIC-4000 ink Cartndge, Black times keep us waiting. Goods are Spelling week-by-week 0»«»ft f.2U Bubble Jet Ink Slack ejC-4000 Tank, guaranteed but we do not supply them Span- Foil version Aipea tHM BubOle Jet BJC-4000 Ink Tank, Colour Spe»+ HDrr)e version Aspa £33 DeskJet 340 on approval Returns and cancellations DeskJet too can only be accepted by prior agree- Spobbleoid Fantasy famh £28 DeskJet 560C there charge Slai- Fighter 3000 FtaHer f2-i ment and may be a to DeskJet 850C St^'SpPlI Plus 'Isfwi £19 cover the costs involved. [P-l Tone' Canrdge fo' LBP-4 SljrlWnU' rccm £55 EP-S II Toner Cartridge lor lBP-8 Stereoworld raurVi £28 Stylus Colour II fp^ Authorised Acorn Dealer and Developer Strg of Ihe Dump, ti^.l Sh&^ton f24 Stiidio24 + S[u[fio24Pro ftnsdppJe £174 Cheques payable to Ian Copestake Limited please Stunt Racer 2000 (not Rise PC) fairtp £24 Stunt Racer 2000 Estra Tracks Jourfn £16 Memory Dept U24, 1 Kington road Stunt Racer 2000 for Rise PC rourtfi £24 Swivlnot Rise PC) KmaUS £9 |A305/310/4401-4Mb West Kirby, TabfeMale 3 Dslftsiia £71 WIRRAL - TABS AWAI £95 I A3000 1 2 Mb, Upgradable |A300D 1 -4 Mb talking Clocks, ksij Topalag £32 MerseysJde, England, L48 SET Talking PenOown, KSi-3 Landman £53 |a3010 1 -2Mb |a3010 1 -4Mb Talking RhytnK Pack 1 , kSi TQpoto^* £24 Talking Textease SO^TPdK £64 lA3QlD2-4Mb TechWrirer £144 |A3O20/A4O002-4Mb TechWnier Professional iron fill |A500D2-4Mb Teleteit-Turbo xaa £168 ElOc im«CE»^ termite Basic Dog^ £49 WACOM PRESSURE SENSITIVE • GRAPHICS TABLETS t's time to get sensitive about the way you create ^P>ur graphics Many computer viscrs feel that a graphics tablet is more mnur:)! to use ilian a mouse and without Joubt il gives a nuicli faster, snioorhcr and higher resolution response. The mouse remains (unctional and can be used at the same time as the pen — however the pen has such a naniral and precise feel, ynu will probably prefer it I'or many operations such as movmg windows, drag and drop, region selection etc. The new (approximately Ah) ArtPad tablet offers a superb specification, even hy Wacom standards; resolution cordless exccediny 2011(1 dpi, 200 samples per second and 256 levels of pressure. All Wacom tablets include a pen for added ease of use and flexibility. realistic effects such The tablets are pressure sensitive, so in combmation with suitable applications they can produce (Photidlcsk). as variable width (the Eesox ArtWorLs pressure sensitive tool) or variable density airbrush paiminn The Computer Concept's drivers will be compatible with these and other software that can take advantaf;e i>f the pressure information, such as Studio 24 and DA Picture. Computer Concepts can supply the tablets with either Photodesk or the Eesox Pressure Tool at special prices. offers a wide range of advanced inuifie PHOTODESK is a photo retouching package from Spacetcch, which manipulation features; for example an airbrush, paintbrush and magic wand, full 24 bit colour support, the use of masking, motion virtual memorv, OLE with Impression, complete undo, effects such as colouring, tonmg and blurring, cloning and smudge and smear. The package contains the Wacom tablet (A6 ArtPad, kS or A4) and manual, a cordless pen. Computer Concepts and driver software suitable for all models of Acorn RISC computer (A.^000 must have serial port upgrade) PC drivers. Requires IMbyte or more. (£468.82 inci.) Price: A6 ArtPad & drivers: £169 + VAT (£19S.57 incl.) A5 tablet & drivers: £399 + VAT A4 tablet &: drivers: £.549 + VAT (£645.07 incl.) Artworks Pressure Tool with tablet: add £10 + V.AT (£1 1.75 incl.) PhotoDesk with lablci: add £125 + VAl (£146.87 incl.) ArtWorki Pressure Tool: £19 + VAT (£45.82 inci.) PhotoDesk: £169 + VAT (£198.57 incl.) Computer Concepts Ltd • • [email protected] GADDESDEN PLACE • HEMEL HEMPSTEAD • HERTS • HP2 6EX • TEL. 01442 351000 FAX 01442 231632 Email; News No Acorn PC at BETT? ONE expt'elud Acorn Education initiative may miss BliTT- the new realised it cannot hope to support a range of I'C products with the Acorn Pd-compatible. It's possible that a prototype will be there, degree of expertise and experience it has with RIS(; OS platform but Acorn is unlikely to have finahsed its model line up or pricing computers and associated components like networking and soft- at that time. Indeed, after the initial enthusiasm for at last being ware. allowed to add i'C:-tompalibles to the Acorn catalogue and Acorn's The very fact that Acorn will have a P(' on its price list will excitement at the prospect of getting into previously no-go markets, satisfy the requirements of many wavering Acorn education the signs art that IK" rtalism has dawned on the company. customers and even potentially new customers. Acorn won't stop a The official line is that Acorn will, as previously stated, introduce school ordering a hatch of Acorn Pt.s for the classroom, but don't a PC-conipatihle during 1996, but its market positioning will be expect Acorn to be able to back up the sale with in-depth network- that of a product for administration use in schools, not a classroom ing and software support for classroom applications. product, in other words, RISC OS remains Acorn's classroom flag- Even in the long term, it's not clear Acorn wants to create and ship. grow a PC arm to rival its RISC OS business. The current thinking is So has the RISC OS faction within Ac{)rn squashed the hopes of that Acorn doesn't really want to increase its head-count to ser\'e a the P(' brigade? That's unlikely - instead it seems that Acorn has thin-margin market. Princess sees Sibelius in action THE hottest news in November was Princess Diana's candid revelations on line TV's I'antirtima programme. However, she failed to mention her 20- minute dalliance with an Acorn Rise PC running Sibelius Software's now- legendary Siheliiis 7 music software during a product demonstration at the Royal Academy of Music. One half of the sibling duo responsible for Sibfliiii 7. Jonathan finn, was on hand to show the princess how the soft- ware worked. Professor of (Composition at the Academy, Paul Patterson, apparently told Princess Diana - who was surrounded by Rise P("s loaded with Sibi'liiis 7. that the software has now become an essential part of composition studies there. As we went to press, Buckingham Palace would not comment on the news of the princess's musical interlude. Sibelius SofU\are Tel: (01223) 302765 Fax: (01223) 351947 Princess Diana meets Jonathan Finn at the Royal Academy of Music. Caption, anyone? E-mail: eleani)r("^sihelius.demon.co.uk Acorn confirnns interest in PowerPC alliance ART'S Peter Bondar has detailed .Acorn's was unveiled at Comdex last November. to endow a CHRP machine with RISC OS stance towards adoption of the Power P(; CHRP is a P(CI-bus hardware platform compatibility. If Acorn marketed such a platform being developed jointly by IBM. based around the Power PC processor that system, it would almost certainly also Apple and Motorola, Bondar says Acorn will features very advanced system memory include a future version of the Apple Power keep a close eye on the emerging technology performance. One attraction of the plat- Mac operating system, as this is specified as and is very interested in the Common form to Acorn is that it is theoretically the standard Desktop operating system by Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) which possible to build an ARM-based plug-in card CHRP. January 1996 Acorn User _.a-rttheiNiewJ«!;ear f^C t^?;^ -^tion-Dnlv maaazine ff#l Internet Survival Guide PC Survival Guide You really need the PC Survival Guide Isn 't time you got connected ? about DOS, Do you want access to the Read PCSutvivalGDide infomation Superhighway? Windows. Partitions, Are you curious about the DRAM, Sound Cards, File Compatibility etc. Internet, what is it. and what can it do for you, then tutorials on how the Internet Survival Guide Contains your system, will provide the answers. to set up including installing video | drivers. CD-ROM drivers I The Internet Sur\iTal Guide helps you with questions such as: and expansion cards. • • • queslions do I ask a Whal is the Iiilerncr.' Whiil do I need lo get siaded'? WhiU prospective Imemel Service Provider'.' • Whm software is available? Chapters on: Whatever your Acorn computer, if you applications !TCP/IP. Freeiiel and lliier associated public domain/freeware want PC compatibility this is the book for Software: Doggysoft's Termite, Ant's internet Suite & Acorn's InterTalk you. PCs are a different world and there is Email - what it can do for you a great deal you should know before Usenet - what it is and how you see it making a decision that could cost you Anonymous FTP - software and data for free dearly later. World Wide Weh - how you can surf the Internet The Beebug PC sun/ival Guide covers in I'lus: details the wide range of options available A full glossary to help you understand the jargon for running PC software and Hardware on Infomalion on service providers from all over the UK. your Acorn computer. Survival Guide £5.95 + £ 1.70 carriage Code: BKPIb Internet Survival Guide £6.95 + £1.70 carriage Code: BKP2b PC ALl 4JS BEEBUG Ltd. 1 17 Hatfield Road, St. Albans. Herts BEEBUG Ltd, 117 Hatfield Road. St. Albans. Herts ALl 4JS ( , Fax; (11727 860263 Email: sa]es@beebug. Tel: 01727 840303 Fax: 01727 860263 Email: [email protected] h Tel: 01727 840303 IE BiBOJE Cumana rescued Cumana's period of administrative Acorn model range receivership has now ended. It has been bought by Economatics and the core staff remains, albeit tweaked now with only five from the original Cumana. In 1996. we finally say goodbye to the A3020 and OmniOient is in the pipeline, which adds the IP Naturally, Cumana is eager to A4000 models, neither of which comply with (Internet) protocol to Microsoft NetBEUI featured in fulfil all orders placed during its stringent new EC CE electrical and electronic the original OmniClient release. The third remaining period of receivership - since 1 regulations. These models will continue on sale into network protocol in widespread use on PC networks November, Priority is being given 1996 but all stocks will have been manufactured in is Novell IPX and we can expect an announcement to Oscar CD-ROM drives bought in 1995. This means the A7000 becomes the entry-level regarding this later in the year too. an Acorn special offer, Cumana is Acorn desktop computer and revised pricing can be Phileas, the Web browser for InterTalk is expected re-opening accounts with its expected. to ship at long last on 1 February. Phileas has been suppliers, including Panasonic, Acorn is promising progressively faster versions of developed specifically for the school and classroom and hopes to clear its backlog of the A7000 during 1997, which will enable the use of scenario and makes extensive use of pre-cached Web orders for proTeus drives by the greater resolution 32,000 colour screen modes. A pages accessible over an Acorn network. end of January. new 17in monitor will soon replace the trusty Rise A remote access client is under development, there Economatics did not take on PC's AKF85. The new AKF90 will be similar in will be improvements to SchoolServer and a cheaper any of Cumana's liabilities, so specification to the AKF85, but will be technically intermediate departmental server machine is on the people with unfulfilled but paid different. Acorn is currently sourcing a new, higher way, Acorn has also revealed that it is working on for orders from before Cumana specification, top-of-the-range 17in monitor with an Replay 3, which will be compatible with an increased called in the Receiver have no 83KHZ line rate for 7SHz screen refresh at 1280x1024 range of foreign movie standards and which will be guarantee will their display resolutions, able to multi-task using video-style time coding. they get They should contact We can expect more additions, both cheaper and Building on the simple videophone system goods. Cumana as soon as possible. dearer, to the highly successful Pocket Book range in demonstrated at Acorn World, better performance Also, no warranties the next two years. To be announced at BETT will be and the addition of colour will be delivered during Cumana from thi^ period are valid, a Pocket Book solution package called Pocket Lab, the year. A surprise is that Acorn is working on a which not only include the hardware, but training, T.120 standards-based application sharing add-on for although the company will try to curriculum support packs and other added value the videophone to create video conferencing system. honour these where possible. items like data loggers. We'll have a full report of Acorn's BETT Cumana Over on the networking front, a new version of announcements next month. Tel: (01483) 503121 Fax: (01483) 451371 Alternative input Peripheral design and manufac- SEMERC's motivating Claude & Maud turing specialist Penny and Giles Computer Products Ltd will show the latest version of its award COURTESY of SEMERC associate. Brilliant generated for the teacher's use. Claud and Maud winning Hereward computer Computing, enter Claude ami Maud, an educa- is priced £36 + VAT for a single-user and a site input device at BETT '96 for the tional program designed to motivate children to licence costs £72 + VAT. The practise letter formation. They can freehand copy SEMERC first time. Dorset-based or trace letter* using either a mouse or other suit- Tei: 0161-627 4469 company has been producing the able input device like SEMERC^'s infrared Touch Fax: 0161-627 23H1 original Hereward device for four IT touch screen. years. It was developed with Maud is an owl and special needs in mind and has a Claude is a rat. One or the highly ergonomic design. other animal character The Mark 2 version is smaller will tell users how well and requires less hand movement they are doing. A speech effort to access buttons and is option lets the program speak the letters on the less fatiguing to use. Its more screen. compact dimensions mean it can A teacher can choose a be located closer to the particular basic Style of keyboard, thus reducing the letter writing by selecting angle with which a user has to where the starting point turn from the keyboard to the of a letter should be and device. It's also easier to fit to whether to use guide lines wheelchairs than before. and points. While Claude and Maud Penny & Giles Computer indicate how well letters Products Ltd are being drawn, a Tel: (01202) 481751 progress log can also be C/audeand Maud from Brilliant Computing. Fax: (01202) 499279 January 1996 Acorn User 11 BEE8UG is Acorn's largest deale $ is an Acorn Centre of Technold The Rise PC is tlie ultimate system for the home user and enthusiast, and it is now faster and better priced than ever before. Support From Beebug We exclusively supply Acorn systems, and our support staff are second to none Trade In Your Existing System Attractive trade in discounts for your existing Acorn system, call for details. Your data and upgrades will be transferred to your new system at no charge Call for details Choose from either: Ovation DTP (RRP £69) Rise PC600 4Mb HD425, with AKF60 monitor £1148.00 Of Rise PC700 5Mb HD425, with AKF6Q monitor £1360.00 12 months Rise PC700 10Mb HD850, with AKF60 monitor £1692.00 RISC User 12 months on-site warranty included. 17" Acorn AKF85 Monitor - Add £278.00 Magazine & Acorn Double Speed CD Drive - Add £111.00 Disc Subscription 0% APR credit is available over 20 months. Please call (RRP £69.90) for written details. - The A3010 Computer Brand New ASOOO Computer NOWjUSt£H0(oripaNy£424) Starting From £480 BEEBUG ltd 117 Hatfield Road St Albans Herts Atl 4JS Tel 01727 840303 Telesales Hotline 01727 840305 Fax 01727 860263 \m e-mail [email protected] UK delivery £8.00. Atl prices are exclusive of VAT Acorn share price soars on NetSurfer rumours AT the beginning of December, Acom's share price rocketed past low-cost ARM processor and high-performance graphics - could the £2 level in response to some press speculation that the theoretically build an Internet terminal in a relatively short time company was to become a player in the topical area of low-cost and for a lot less than other potential players. Internet terminal hardware. Enthusiastic noises about ARM from At the time of writing, Bontiar has Indicated that there are no Oracle, which is to license Newton technology from Apple, culmi- signed and sealed plans to develop a commercial Internet termi- nated in a story published in the New York Times, which was then nal product, though some prototypes based on existing Acorn carried by the Daily Express. Even a project or product name of hardware had been lashed up for evaluation purposes. 'NetSurfer' was mentioned. One excellent piece of news is that out of the Internet terminal Peter Bondar, who heads up the new ART (Applied Rise consideration, Acorn has definitely decided to port Sun Technologies) division within Acorn, admitted that there had Microsystems' Java language, which looks like being a standard been some thoughts about Internet terminal products for several for Internet browser plug-in distributed apphcations, endowing months and there had been discussions with unnamed third browsers with multimedia and other attributes as they are parties. After all, Acorn - with its ROM-based operating system. required during an on-line session, Topologika goes Irlam low-cost colour scanner for gold IRLAM Instruments has joined forces with Primax, the Taiwanese peripheral manufacturer, Topoljgika's Marshal Anderson to develop a colour scanner package for the won't forget BETT '95 in a Acorn market. The hill-width 300dpi hand-held Primax ColourMobilc scanner can sense up to 24- hurry - after all, he won a bit colour depths or 256 grey levels and is Gold Award for the company's designed to glide, motor-driven, across the Music Box title. Hopes for a surface of the sheet being scanned. repeat performance lie with a Irlam usually has a hand in designing hard- new package called Maths ware, but this time the company's job was to port 600ft, which is designed to its RIS(; OS image acquisition software to the help children practise addition Primax scanner unit It interfaces via a bi-direc- and subtraction. tional parallel port, which is featured on Acorn Topologika, who will be on machines from the A3020, A3010, .\4000, A5000 stand 406 at BETT, will also be and later. The best news of all is that the price is just £199 + £5 p&pand VAT, making it one of the showing the latest of eight most affordable 24-bit colour scanners on the Freddy Teddy titles for infants. market, The latest release, which Irlam Instruments gained its first public showing Tel/fax: (01895) 811401 Acorn World, stimulates at E-mail: sak's&Hrlani.co.uk irlam's low-cost Primax scanner glides over the page. youngsters' sense of direction. Another new title from Topologika to be given a BETT Acorn User diary airing will be MIDIBox, an add- If you have an event you'd like including, send it to Acorn User Diary at the editorial address or on to Music Box which e-mail [email protected]. provides IVIIDl instrument Date Event Ventie Contact capability given the necessary 10 -13 Jan BEn'96 National Hall, Olympia Ticket hotline: 0181-984 7711 hardware. It will also give 27 Jan ARM Club open day Belmont School, Mill Hill, The ARM Club: 0171-624 9918 non-MIDI applications the abil- North London ity to play via MIDI. 7-9 Mar The Education Show Halls11&12, NEC Ticket hotline: 0181-984 7711 Topologika's Brian Kerslake says he is also hoping to show new Acorn versions of Punctuate, DataGraph, Canon upgrades the BJC600 Navigator. Talldng Rhymes. ABOUT three years ago, Canon improvement in the new model is printer can deliver near photo- plus some demos of other launched the first really high- the implementation of true graphic quality output. (Canon's Acorn titles scheduled for quality, three-colour plus black 720x720dpi, answering the chal- recommended price for the release later in 1996. inkjet printer - the BJC600. A year lenge from Epson's excellent BJC61Uist449 + VAr. Topologil(a ago the 600 was face-lifted to the Stylus product. Sample prints on Caituii (VK) Ltd Tel/Fax: (01326) 377771 BJC600e and now conies its latest special coated paper support Tel: 0181-773 3173 makeover, the BJC610. The main Canon's claims that the new Feu: 0181-773 2182 January 1996 Acorn User 13 ARM satellite chip ARM processing power is at the New Rise PC 486/586 cards heart of a new chip for satellite and terrestrial broadcast network FIRST shown publicly at The top-of-the-range 5x86 are supplied with PC DOS 7.0. clock-tripled 95 does with communications, The chip was .Acorn World, Acorn's second- card, a lOOMHz Windows work generation 486 Rise PC device with a large on-chip the new cards, but Acorn says developed in collaboration with co-processor cards are now primary cache and advanced it is not yet in a position to SAIT Systems, a Belgium telecom available. The new cards instruction pipelining, delivers support Windows 95 and the company, and the European Space employ the Mark 2 custom near enough Pentium 7.S level graphics drivers are not Agency by a company called ASIC designed in conjunction performance according to Windows 95-specific. A signifi- IMEC. The Advanced Spread spec- with Aieph One and Future benchmarks, despite making cant change is that processors Transceiver is trum ASIC (ASTRA) Technologies. Three models do with a 32-bit 486 bus rather and second-level cache RAM is a high-speed, low-power chip are listed, all using IBM Blue than a real Pentium's generous socketed so owners can used in a Programmable Mobile Lightning chips, including the 64-bit bus. upgrade the specification of Communications Modem (PMCM) Pentium-class 5x86. The new The new processor cards their card if required. Aleph re-engi- with a new version of the can advise on upgrade -whatever that isl custom ASIC has been come One neered to support higher PCx86 card software which strategies and provide the Lindis touching deal specification x86 processors adds 16-bit sound support, necessary service procedure. and to optimise performance revised configuration and Pricing (inc. VAT): SimpleTouch is what Lindis by making use of a writeback installation utilities, and 5x86 lOOMHz, £586.33 International has called its new cache. enhanced Windows 3.x drivers 486 DX4-100, £351.33 budget-priced resistive touch Unlike the original Texas for faster graphics perfor- 486 DX2-66, £292.58 screen. A SimpleTouch can be Instruments 486SX/40 card, mance. There is also additional Acorn will discount fitted to most standard computer which operated more like a CD-ROM support for Kodak purchases by £100 to existing monitors and Lindis expects both 16MHz part - even though it Photo CDs. The new software is owners of first-generation schools and personal users will was clocked at 33MHz - all the also available as an upgrade cards, buy it The touch screen technol- new card variants appear to option for owners of the first PCx86 software upgrade, Rise (for Rise ogy actually comes from perform much more closely to generation of PC 486 Card. £9.95 existing PC 486 their expected target ranges. The new Rise PC x86 Cards Card owners) MicroTouch, the largest manufac- turer of touch screens in the world. A SimpleTouch kit Includes software, cables and a fitting kit ARM 7100 core and is suitable for either 14 or Zynet 1 Sin monitor sizes. The price Is £225 + VAT. targets markets aunches into Lindis International ARM Ltd has revealed plans for a high integration Tel: (01986) 785476 micTtKontroller, the ARM7100, which will be used Fax: (01986) 785460 in PDAs (personal digital assistants like the Apple education Newton, for example), mobile communications ARM Club CD-ROM and office automation. The ARM7100 contains aU Minerva has announced that its Internet The club launched its very ARM the functionality system designers need in a low- business, Zynet, has been officially launched CD-ROM at Acorn World. In own cost, low-power consumption, yet powerful, for the education market. Zynet has actually case you didn't see it there, the single-chip solution. been up and running since 1994 and education CD contains the best of the club's Based on the ARM710 microprocessor, the 7100 services have always figured In the planning, to Public Domain and Shareware integrates complex peripherals which tend make but now, with a points of presence (POP) competing solutions more expensive. Supported software and is priced £19.50 peripherals include LCD screen, direct DRAM inter- expansion of 60 nodes, Zynet is gunning for Inclusive. face, PLL clock multiplier, serial ports, Infra-Red schools all over the UK. On another note, the ARM Club IrDA (Infra-red Data Association) SIR protocol Minerva is banking on its 10 years of has discovered a hacked version support, timers, codec (compressor/decompressor) educational software experience to enable it of the GameOn! program on a interface and real-time clock. to provide tailored Internet connection third-party public domain CD. ARM says the 7100 will form the hardware base solutions to schools via Zynet. This includes Apparently the software was of an open architecture serving personal electron- the provision of access systems which can be 'modified' to make it look like a ics. Support software in the areas of device drivers, conveniently controlled - keeping young Public Domain offering, which it operating systems, communication support, desk- for inquisitive minds away from the less most certainly isn't. If you bought top interfaces and application software the are all under development. Robin Saxby, salubrious aspects of the Internet, for a CD at the show which contains a ARM71(X) CEO and Managing Director of ARM, commented: example. Dial-up modem and ISDN connection 'public domain' version of 'Design engineers already thought ARM offered the GameOn! - beware, you won't be packages are available and the tariff starts at best solutions for high performance personal elec- eligible for a discounted upgrade £10 a month (but see the special offer In this tronics like PDAs and digital mobile phones. Whh to version 2.0 of GameOn!, which issue). the ARM7100, we integrated the most critical was released at Acorn World. Zynet components into one low-cost device, which is Tel: (01392) 426160 The ARM Club really helping designers speed product develop- E-mail: ment time and extend battery life.' Cirrus Logic Fax: (01392) 421762 armdub@nucleus. demon, co.uk wiU be the first the first ARM semiconductor part- E-mail: [email protected] Tel: 0973 656523 ner to make the ARM7100. 14 January 1996 Acorn User A Special Offer from Acorn tnpttte A bb CASTLE TECHNOLOGY - Acom User Best Dealer Award 1 995 Runner-up ofware Available now while stocks last! Call 01728 621222 Connect our amazing special offer to your •conn coiiJUR TV, or use it with our Upgrade Kits to make a complete high quality computer system: Hard Drive System: 60Mb hard drive. 14" MPRII 0.28mm monitor. Only £265 extra. 'I"*'ll.'l.'jr*' m CD ROM System: extra 2Mb RAM. 2-speed CD ROM drive. 200Mb hard drive. SCSI Interface. 14" MPRII 0.28mm monitor. iSPt^ *lJ^B.lH>B Only £5 1 5 extra. SOFTWARE OPTIONS: Other configurations also available including the complete range of Castle Technology Oi'Tios I Discovery Bundle. OKDI-R 10 - GET 1 FREE! upgrades for the A30I0. spreadsheet, Advance. Integrated database, Order 10 of the above Hard THE A30I0 word processor and graphing package. Drive or CD ROM systems and COMPUTER The A30I0 is ideal for schools, small businesses and. Magpie. Multimedia authoring package. we will supply one of our Special of course, in the home. The A30 1 shares the same The Crystal Rain Forest. Environmental Offer 2Mb A30I0 computers processor and main electronics as the A3020 & adventure software incl. an introduction to Logo. FREE! A4000 computers. It has one internal expansion Mouse mat & I year on-site warranty. slot, serial port, two parallel Order by telephone on 01728 621222 a joysticic ports and a princer porL Oi'Tm-2 - Home Office Bundle. or Fax on 01728 621179. MONITORS Easiwriter. Word processing made easy. Deliver)' i9 per compuier. Prices exclude VAT. The ABO 10 supports a wide range of monicors. Datapower. The acclaimed database software. Cheques*, dehil cards (Swiich & Delia), Our MPRII monitors are suitable for most software, credit cards! 2% charge mayappiy), and Pipedream 4. The powerful spreadsheet, data- including the above (some older software may not cducaliona] orders accepted. and wordprocessor. run correctly). Castle Technology can also supply base All tradeniariis ackiiowledjied. Acorn AKF50 or AKFS2 monitors. Mouse mat & I year on-site warranty. *(lhei!iies: allow 5 working days lo clear. The Castle Technology Product Range UPGRADE TO SCSI! | We think SCSI is best - and here are some great offers to prove it! Colour flatbed SCSI scanners Fit all Acorn computers with SCSI interface ImageMaster software included Fast scanning speed - 3.6ms per line HARD DRIVE UPGRADES Twain compliant lOOMb £79 S40Mb £149 200Mb £99 IGb £199 Supplied with Acorn Driver X)cs9' Choice of SCSI or IDE interface Castle Technology hard drive upgrades fit Free headphones, Photoview & Audioplayer inside Castle's COMBO enclosures. Compatible with Kodak Photo CD Internally or externally housed Fitting kits for all other Acorn computers also available. 2.5" or 3.5" sizes Fast access of up to 8ms 20Mb to 2Gb capacity SCSI Formatted and soak-cested A SCSI interface is the most cost-effective Interface may be required way to future-proof your computer, SCSI peripherals benefit from all these features: Suitable for all Acorn computers Scanflat Fast data transfer. Up to 4.5Mb/sec Menu & select buttons on pen SCSI II INTERFACES Instant response time transfer rate {many times faster than the A30x0/4000 £89 Three colour aluminium or plastic casing speed of a parallel port). National Curriculum "input device" Other Acorn computers £99 Industry standard • a wide range of addi- tional products is always available (scanners/ Built in wrist support FREE* i 00Mb Drive PD drives/CD ROMs/SyQuest Drives etc). Tested to 30 million operations *Offer oniy applies if you purchase a SCSI Quiet, tactile and curved low profile keys Expandable connect up to 7 devices to Full two year guarantee interface & CD ROM drive at the same time. just one SCSI interface. International versions available Your present interface must be returned to Castle Technology within 2 weeks of your 3.5" 105/270 Mb capacity 5.2S" 200Mb capacity CD drive purchase or you will be charged SCSI or IDE interfaces the full cost of £79, Call for further details. Programmable power saving modes Offer applies while stocks last. Internal or externally housed Ergo Keyboard Suitable for all Acorn computers Another unbeatable offer from Easy to use and manage Share CD ROMs, scanners and printers Casde Technology - one of the UK's The fastest disk sharing system leading suppliers of Acorn peripherals Plug-in and go installation All prices exclude VAT and delivery (for details, see above) E&OE Designers of interfaces since 1988 Connect your computer to hard drives etc Up to seven devices per interface (SCSI) Castle Technology Ore Trading tsiaie Woodbridjie Road Framlingham Suffolk IP13 9LL Available for all Acorn computers Transfer rates of up to 4.SMb/sec Telephone; oiyzs 621222 Fa.\: (U'lH (121179 e-mail: [email protected] i-^ataiuyutj iviainHmj !kijP) di ^j Features I'liM ViiiLial Meinorj' For professional painting * Random muuilcd lexlure generation Slinlio24 was hailed as one of and photo-retouching on the * Texture Filler brush the best 24 bit paitiling Undo biTJb-li. and complete range ojAcorn 32 programs. A completely new * Over 40 prc-deJmed tillers including Spin bit computers, Studio24Fro program, Sludio24Pro is now Million hlur. Lighting eic. elf. is the new race leader. set (a lead the field in painting * PhotoCD and Scanner input & photo-retouching * Merging of Spriles. Jpegs. Tiffs & Draw Hit * Built in Draw file creation * RGB. CMYK or Indexed channel modes * Up to I f), S bit masi< channels * Filter preview window (shown above) arL HGH LOW fy Mutate texture [7 tAi\at6 colouf niap Virus Protection Scheme The Pineapple Software Virus Protection Scheme A Brand new product from Pineapple is this VHS provides the most comprehensive protection Video Tutorial covering ihe use of Art Works. available against computer viruses. IKiller together Waiter Briggs is the tutor for this 1 hour video whicB with VProtect will detect and remove all of the shows how to use all the ArtWorks tools and then goes Waller his currently known 72 families of virus (over 100 on to show how produced famous Tiger head picture. Walter also draws an impressive viruses in total). Because new viruses are being landscape picture which can be copied by those with discovered all the time our Virus Protection Scheme no artistic talent at all! will provide you with 3-4 updates of the software each year. We can also offer immediate advice by Artworks VHS Video Tutorial £19.99 inc vat 'phone. !Killer can scan any filing system or device including floppies, harddiscs. networks, even A4 Colour Scanners CDRoms. All types of New from Pineapple the superb IX-4015 A4 flatbed Cano compressed file can also be colour scanner. Supplied with Imagemaster and Twain scanned. All infected files are software this scanner makes the perfect companion for fully restored without having to our Studio24 re-touching software. With a basic reload from master discs or resolution of 400 x dpi this scanner is I 800 backups. unbeatable value. Don 't wait until you discover 1X4015 with Imagemaster & Twain £675.00 you have a virus! Use the As above + Studio24Pro £769.00 SCSI interface + cable 'phone software that Acorn themselves use to check for Epson Colour Scanners viruses. Also supplied with ImageMaster and Twain software these model A years subscription costs just can work on either SCSI systems or via the Parallel Port. Basic resolution of GT8500 is 400dpi and the GT9000 is 600dpi £28.20 inc vat Low cost school and county licences available GT-8500 £599.00 GT-9000 £733.00 Pineapple Software Terms:- AH prices include Fur demonstrations of mo.st of our advertised products why not come Suites 13 & 14 17.5% vat. Carriage FREE to and visit us in our new offices (easy South Park Business Centre mainland U.K. Phone for quote parking) where you can see most of 310 Green Lane, llford outside U,K, Official orders, the Acorn ran^e of computers and Essex IG1 1XT cheques and all major credit other hardware in action. Tel 0181 599 1476 Fax 0181 598 2343 cards accepted. Money back guarantee on all products. Monday - Friday 0900 - 1730 email:- [email protected] Graphics - Stuclio24 Pro - bug The full Montage fixes and more Work on Studio24 is progressing faster than 1 can write about it. painting with fractals The latest version (2.04) sees significant improvement over fatal error control and has QUITE a way back I wrote about a program called Montage. At the time it had not been offi- removed most of the major and cially released but the current state of play is very many of the minor reported bugs. different as this curious piece of design software Extra features include on/off tutor- has a well-designed manual, a stcp-by-slep control of virtual memory, file ial that oven the liices of can understand, and me deletion from disc on closure, a pretty tolder-typc thing in which all the bits dragging of cutouts between and bobs happily live together. windows, cut and paste pipe- 'Montage,' as the author puts it, is a creative lining to supporting packages fractal art package that enables the creation of and much more. very interesting and extremely complex imagery from the most basic of design primitives using In a couple of months we will the wonders of Iterated Function Systems (IFS).' have a complete round-up of the Whoosh, yes, that went straight over my head bitmap packages available: too, so for those who are not as mathematically 5tud;o 24 Pro. Photodesk 2. The is 1 imagine that the minded as Beniot Mandelbrot, this is essentially a really picking nits, but Big Picture and the re-vamped where you draw shapes, juggle them younger viewers would possibly find the unusual program DA's Picture, as well as the exist- around a bit, and with a bit of fractal wizardry feel of the program a little disheartening. ing packages. Watch out for the the package creates pictures for you. Staying on the subject of education. Montage is graphics issue of Acorn User. Seeing as much of the natural world appears to an extremely useful learning tool for understand- Pineapple Software be guided bv the principles of fractal geometry, ing and applying the inherently complex nature Tel: 0181-399 1476 so the best kind of images you can create with of fractal science. This package not only creates are very much the kind of thing you imagery which would otherwise be impossible or Montage Hands-free colour might see in nature. Corals, trees, leaves, moun- else extremely time consuming to create, but it tains, clouds, crystals, sand dunes, and generally also teaches about the principles thought to lie scanning all scenic postcards tend to include. behind much of the inspiring creation artists go things that One of the problems that is magic of the lies in the about slapping on their canvasses. But the real program usually associated with budget, simplicity of the initial objects which the It is good value at £49 and will be of interest to handheld scanners, is that it program uses to create the marvellously complex anyone from maths phobic artists to those who requires a fair degree of concen- end results. Just a few simple bezier shapes and a can program chaos simulators with their eyes tration to keep the moment later you have a perfectly formed fern shut. I haven't yet got to grips with the strange scanner tracking slowly and leaf. Fantastic. way things move about on the screen, but the to your One gripe however is the rather unintuitive program has already revealed new avenues of accurately enough stop tool box which the author, Michael Rozdoba, creative possibility and design. scan from looking like it's been seems to have forgotten should be totally idiot The Really Gooil Software Company skewed through some strange proof and also as similar to other .Acorn packages Tel: (01582) 761 395 contortion filter in Photoshop. of this nature can be. It e-mail: rgsc&>tumhull.compiiTink.coMk in feel as a program Irlam's new hand scanner is a full-colour 400dpi device that does away with human help and moves on its own, forgoing the Pic of the month need for manual effort and scanning at an ideal speed. The RARELY do we sec pic of the month entries only problem that I could imagine which use vector graphics to new effect. But is scanning near the edge of your this month's winner, Daryl Farmer, has desk as there Is no forward achieved Picassoesque imagery using information regarding the Artworks. £20 makes its way to fJaryl and scanner's resistance to three perhaps to you one day if you are brave enough to send your image in for the tough- foot drops. est, most gruelling contest in which computer Irlam Instruments generated artwork could possibly fight. Tel: (01895) 811401 Remember that the prize includes a free slide e-mail: [email protected] ^ recording of your image courtesy of the Digital Darkroom (tel: OlSl-.ill 2(H)l'). Contacting me My thanks and apologies to all those who You can contact the Graphics w^rW^^^^^^^^^' have sent in pictures for the CD-ROM. ^^^^^^^^H/\| page by writing to me, Jack Unfortunately, the CD-ROM's sponsors did Kreindler, at ^corn User, IDG not leave any room for the promised portfo- Media, Media House, Adilngton lio but we plan a future Ct)-ROM which Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP, or hopefully will include all your pictures, so keep them coming. by e-mail to: [email protected]. January 1996 Acorn User 17 11 ) 1 1 Showroom open Mon-Sat 10-18.00 hrs (All prices exclude VAT) Carriage included except where indicated nqic i: -"i-;.ii- it.L'iing appro*. 5D higd quality drawlormat clip art images, CD-ROM Hard Discs eacr, jr. a siriijlii suLitci Gomes wrth mora reference stieei 30 sutitects are rt available now Please specjfy when ordering. Site lichees are E16-i-vAT per disc, "i. . TopicA Hawing CD-ROM's are IDE Bare Drives SCSI Bare Drives please nng tor further details. ['il' ai--55ion. PtoloCD, CD-DA, 63e.Ml:i 12ms CISO 540Mb 12ms £145 v'/'iiti: tjoak compaTJbie ^ include New CD-ROM!" a cibie S driver tor CDFS 2.20 850Mb 12ms ECall 730Mb 11ms £190 j Internal Drives 1Gb ECall 1.08Gb 12ms E280 Afjove are 3^?" bare drives only add Ihe reiaveni I e34+VAT 4x Speed ATARI (IDE) (Tray) E130 \ Contains over 2000 Above reujircs RiscPC/flTOOO will: f1iscOS3,5 or laler. I ClipArl files, each in 4x Speed SCSI (Tray) xim-ssoi £200 Syquest Removable SCSI Drives Ttie flboue CD-ROM driue can be used in tower mode! Internal Drives External Drives Draw, Artworks & EPS 4.4x (Tray)oH-ui24xE240 EZ135Mb SyquesI CCall EZl35MbSyquesl£189 I Speed SCSI I formats + other demos. PCW Vsrdicl 'lis extremely quick, and a bargain.' (Above includes carlr (Above includes carlr.) External CD-ROM Drives 105Mb SyquesI £150 105Mb SyquesI C210 Floppy discs 2x Speed SCSI (Tray)z75mB E180 270Mb Syquesi £259 270Mb SyquesI £329 Syquest Cartridges £8 + VAT each 4x SCSI (Tray) isoma £240 Speed EZ135Mb Carltidge E20I 105Mb Carlndge £43 Single Floppy disc subiBCls available 270Mb Cartridge E49 (one disc per subject) 4.4x Speed SCSI (Tray) isoms £280 1 General 11 Tools SCSI cards Hard Disc Interfaces/Accessories 2 Transport 12 AnimalsGB 50-50C SCSI Cable E10 25-50 SCSI Cable EID 3 Coslumes 13 Chem Signs Mortey uncached SCSI card £1 30 .1 Enlertarnmenl 1 A Fire/Emerg Sn SCSI 11-50 Cable £25 SCSI Terminator £10 Morley cached SCSI card £169 5 Bugs 2 Slugs 15 Hazard Signs 5t.i-3'.5 open adapt £10 5y^-3^2 HD adaptor £12 5 Hoafl S^tis 16 Safety Signs Inteilaces 17 Cumana SCSI II card El 65 IDE Accessories SCSI 7 Spons Equip Xmast IDE interlarja £79 Morley UnCached £130 S Sports Figures IB XmasZ Powerlec SCSI II card £170 2nd HatdDnveKil £15 Moiley Cached £169 9 Dinosaurs 19 XmasS .'. ,! A, II A'(OKMr Mail Order - 0161-474 0778 (All prices exclude VAT) Carriage Included except where indicated RiscOS 3.1 Upgrades Hard Cards/Mum-Pods CD-ROM's Applies tcontd^ |Qames mm .j"iyii: Roni sei (fming msir ^'no diai,:ij j j- A301D HCC5 Hard Disc Multi-Podule CD (CO £130 Rscordz (Colton) E97 '•-\ 3 Rgjii sels (fittEng ins'r./no discs) i. i.iOMti • User Port + 2 Slots Micropedia CD £95 Results ICollon) £75 James Pond 2 Robofiod E20 10 Rum sels (liTlina Insfr./no discs) l':.H-i • (i)MLi 1- User Pi>r1 . 2 Slols r3(CC)£19each Rhapsody (Clares) v3 £74 KtisaliG Collection £22 OorirniPnlpfinn iGijile A Discs) '0°^ VAT) LZS IBDt^ti + User Port + 3 Slols ^....i . .L^ljpse) ESS S-Base2 Personal (Long) £48 -Includes, Mad Prof, Pipe'm, '95 - Cr^'-i.pr tii.a'i-j lor jVIOO ^'I'IQ £22 A3D00 Inlemal IDE Hardcarda Ericaria for l/Vindows ECall S'Base 2 Developer £98 Terramex & Reveiahon ; ortable Computers 8QMb 1- User Port E1S6 Granny'sGardenCD £28 S-Base 2 Devaloper-i- £147 Lemmings (Knsalis) £1^ Learning Curve Artvancp S PCSoll £42 130Uh + Ui!BiPort £219 Hulchinsons Encyc loped' £40 Serenade (Clares) £75 Lemmings (or Riscf^ £3 Early Yeats Talking SladWnls, Paini Pot E42 flnjin A4 PiJiDble triDMb . Uspf Pod £279 Replay Sfaitet Kil (Acom)£37 ShapeFX (Dataslo'e) £10 Lemmings 2 Tnbes 2Mb £22 l-iij...v ihe Frog, Mouse in Holland, etc, Pi.cl.i'IB(Hikll(256k) See top Dt paqe for other hard dtscs. RiscDIsc Vol 1 CD £17 Sibelius 6 £149 Lotus Turbo Chall2 (Kris) £19 Home Office £65 Pr«M,i-tB'-.i-ihll(51Zk) nnter RiscDlsc Vol 2 CD £17 Sibelius 7 E7B9 Magic Pockels (Heneg) E2D. b.i~iW!iler2, DamPower, Pioedrii'am4. PCSoli Pu-l.tlBaol,ll|tMt>l Consumables Simon the Sorcerer CD £36 Sleulh (Beebug) £50 Magneloids (Oiegan) £22 The abovB packs are ONLV available with a P5ion 3a (256k) bi 10 Ink <.,anna9i^ [bC-OII TopicAd CD-ROM E34 Slei)ih2 (Bfiebug) £93 Man UnilBd Europe (Kris) £10 lem, (not including Ihe A301D Psion 3a |512k) L-.':DOInkCadn09e(BC-021 E17| Snippet i4Malionl £32 Oh No More Lemmings E18 11* Psion 3a (1Mb) L ' .00 lfikCadndge(adl-642) E15 Spark FS (Pilling) £21 Panctora'B 9o« (40) £1J Psion 3a (2IWbl b.. rjoo Black Carmdge (BJI-201bk HiCap) E10 Advance 2Mb (Acorn) £99 Speech 2' (Superior) £22 Playitagain Sam 1/2/3 £l9ea. nc 1*5X33 Card [Vitien purch with RPC) E99 I A- Link £4; PCUnk BJ 1)00 Colour Cartndge(BJI-201) EB| lAdvantage (Longman) £46 SIudio24 (Pineapple) £120 Populous (Knsalis) £22 ='.'i-i>.0X2-66Caicl Link i:249| Parallel E2( Mams Adaptor BJ:: lOOO Black Cartndge (6Ci-21Bi<] I AMT Inlemel SuilB (ANT) £99 Touch Type (IOTA) £38 Real McCoy 2/3/4 £24ea. "0-iB':^DX4-iOUCard JOOO £299 12akRAMS5t} £4; 5t2k RAM SSD 6JC Colour Cartridge (BCt-21C| £17 I I AicFai (David Pillmg) £28 TurboDnver BJ (CC) £42 Repton 3/4 (Superior) £19ea, '96 Micrnsoft Windows (CD-ROM] E70 25811 Flasll SSD E4; 512K Rash Saj BJC-4000 Fap Black Cartndge (BC-20) £25 |AreTertn7 (Serial Port! £58 TurboDnver HP (CC) £42 Sally a Watly (Oregan) £20 16 bit (ESP) i Black Cartndge tBJI-643) TurboDnver £42 (4D) Sound Card £60 |PB/Ps3Gamea ECa« PBIW^3a GaiTws BJ-BOO £16 [ lArtWorka(CCl £120 Epson (CC) Saloon Cars Deluxe £23 2nri Slice Case Uoutade iCarr £BiVATl EM I BJ-800 Colour Cartridge (BJI-643) £20 lAudioWorHslCC) £45 Tween (Ace) Scrabble (US Gold) £21 lemory Upgrades OeskJelSOO Mono/Colour Cartridge E20/E23 !C/C+-IAeom)(E7CEn-|E213 TypeStudici (Beebug) Sim Cny (Knsalis) £23 4i18 Multimedia Card (512kb Iramesi EP-L Tonar (t.BP-4iHP LJIII] E59 ICADel (Minerva) £99 Vectof (4Ma(ion) Sim Cily 2000 (RiscPC) £30 please lo coriliri I Multimedia RiscPC Memory, nng pnces I 24ilS Card (1 Mb irameslore) E3B5 Epson Stylus Colour Black Eie/Cotour £30 Card Shop (Claras) £19 WprdWorks (CC) Sim City 2000 (ASOOO) £30 I JMhSlMM £85latUll)SWM £16S 4a6ss25MHz Bare PC Card £299 HP 92274A Toner (HP LJ4L) £59 Chameleon 2 (4Mafion) £33 Wordz (Colton) Simon Ihe Sorcerer 2Mb £31 i6Mti SIMIvl SaSSLCSOMHiBarePCCarfl JP-150 Ink Cartridge (Acornj Small (Virgo) E31D 32Mb SIMM £65D £349 £22 I Compl. Animalor (iOTA) £79 £19 1M;i £100 RelBr Sviiifl24 VRAM |2Mb VRAM E16CI to RiscPC memory lo add lo PC cards. Mono/Colour Ribbon E7/C15 I Compression (CC) £29 Speedball 2 (Kriaalis) £20 1 ..'Mr VRAM tJpgrade {ejichange) £100 FPA Upgrade lor ARM3 £59 DataPowet (IOTA) £123 Supremacy (Sup) Spheres ol Chaos (Man) £17 I A30M Memory Colour l^rd Gold (CO E135 Desktop Thesaunis (BB) £10 Alone in the Dark (Krte) Spobbleoids £2D 1 -?Mn RAM £55 l2-4tylb £90 Eagle MuHimsdia CanS (CC) carr. Slarfighter (Fednal) HAM M2 £319 I Digi. Symphony (Oregao) E48 ArcluruK (Oteoan) £20 3000 £2J 1-4Un RAM Et29| ITVTV Tunsr Telole-l card (Irlaml AcofTi 5th covering 5 £29.95 I Racer (4D) 8 £169 PRM RiscOS3 I Disc Rescue (Look) E2S Alls (TBA) £20 Slum 2000 £2l A30t0 Memory Joystick Interlace (all n-t'c's) £2a Acorn SBC Basic VI Guide £19.95 l£BsyC+>(6eebug) E93 BauleChes£(Knsalis) £22 Slunt Racer Xira Tracks £17 l-2Mh (Krlsalis) HAM Logitech Mouse (Acorn) RiscPC Tech Ref Guiite Add £7 carr, £29.95 I Eureka v3 (Longman) £93 Birds of War (40) 3Mb £23 SWIV Elfl i-4Mb RAM Midi Ma> Cana (CC) ArtWnrtts Made Easy (Dabs) E10.00 iFiraWortizlCoHon) EB9 Black Angel (4D) £23 Time Machine (4D) Elfl A302CI/A4000 Memory Movie Magic (GC| £249 DTP on Ihe Arctiimedes (Sigma) £12.96 [FitBWori(zPni(ColtDn) £139 Blood Sport (Matt Black) £12 Virtual Goll (40) 2Mb E23 2-JMbRAM £891 Powerpad (dual) (Gamesware) £33 First sleps in prog RacOS (Sigma) £14.95 iFontDIi (Look) £28 Break 1 47/SuperpoDl £23 Virtual GotlAuguslaCse £13 ASOOO Memory Scan 9pin Monito'/RGBTV cattle £12 Game Maker's Manual (Sigmai £14.95 Font FX (DalaSlore) £10 Burn Out (Oregan) £20 Wavelenglh (GA»/) £18 Scflil - 1 Spin cable RiscOS 3 First Steps (Dabsi £10.00 Wollenslein (Powers) £23 ;^-lMbRAM EBB14-flMeRAM Monitor/RGBTV £12 | I Glimpse (Sherslon) £10 Cannon Fodder (Krisalrs) £20 3D A3 00/4 00 Series Serial for (Acorn) £2 Carr io (£4 lor Upgrade A30OO Add above Acorn books) I Graph kra Loaders (CC) £42 Carnage Inc (4D) £18 i-BMURAM £199 Stereo Speakers 25W (mams powered) £35 Educational Terms Hard Disc Comp (BB) £42 Champions (Knsalis) £22 Stpir-o Speakers BOW (mams poworedi (4Mation| lonitors I Halchback £32 'Includes Man Utd, J Khan TV Tuner witd TaloTeil (CGI rr.^idenls add lo all pnces - EC 17,5% VAT I Hearsay fl (BeeliuQ) E76 Sauaah, Wid Class -Early Essentials (over 7) £1S Acorn T4" MulfiScan «>i.ewl books. Carnage tree in UK (excluding - Leadertird -English (6 AKF53 0.39dp £250 lodems I Homo Accnunls (Mmerv) £26 * Boimg Mngr -leyrs) A-vt-rr AKF50 14" 2edp MulliScan £3IS remote areas) (except books), elsewhere al HTML Edit £25 ChDcksCompendium £23 -French (B-16yrs) tia A.:;t AKFEO 14" 02Bdp MultiScar £325 cost. Orders MUST be accompanied bf a Illusionist (Clares) £40 Chopper Force (4D) £22 -JuniDrEssentials(5-11) £18 lUvFT-.a MF-B617E 17" 0^25dp IWScan £549 Sportster Modem Bundles phone number. Pnces and spec's suBiect lo Image Outline' (IOTA) £46 Chuck Rock (KrIsaliG) £10 -Maths (Number) (6-16) £18 17" £S3y change *ilhoul notlticalion. Goods subjeol lo llyiuiij MT-90)7E 025Gtripe M/Bcar Mudem bundles include a Sportsler modem, ImprBEsion Publisher £120 Crystal Maze (Sher) £17 -Maths (Algebra) (6-16) £19 ulU?f will require adaptor availability. Goods not oflered on irial basis. computers an £i; i:able, ptiorie splitter, ArcTormT & ArcFAX Impression Publishert- £259 Cyber Chess (4D) £23 -Maths (Slatistics) (6-16) E19 Restocking lee on non-fautty returns. Otticial Impression Style ICC) £79 Collection £20 -Spelling (over 1Jk4Vi Spo d 31 B r FaiUMoOem Bundle £2130 Cygnus 9] EIJ rinters \U\-: .n.' '"..able) outers welcnmp Irorn educational institutes, Tlie above also has voice facility InlerTalk (Acorn) £78 - Incl Twin Wortd, Iron Lord & -Onving Test £10 modem --'.--- --1.- chnwi-h ^IC ESOE - Canon BJ-200e« (3e0dpi) £1f 2ek8 Spoistei Fai.'Modem Bundle £255 MacFS (CC) E76 Tower ol Babel -Dinosaurs (all ages) £l(t Lite Canon BJ-230 (360dpi) £265 I V.34-1- Coutier Fai/Modem a cable only i-"l'i MacFS (CC) £45 Diggers (Millenium) E22 Cryslal Ram Forest (Sh) £40 Canon BJC-eOOe Colour (360dpi) £330 Sportster Modems Magpie (Longman) E50 Dreadnoughts IT u roan) E26 Darryl the Dragon (4M1 EIB (--.rvr BJC-610 Colour (720dpi) £360 Mnrpheus (Oregan) £32 Dune II (Eclipse) E27 Fun School 3 EIT 14k4Vi Sportster Fax/Modem S cattle oniyiii; - • BJC-4000 Colour (360dpi) £240 Nighl Sky (Clares) £63 Dungeon (4D) 2Mb E23 (a^ec age group .<5, 5-7, >7J The above modem also has voice teoiliiy I -.ilylUE (720dpl) ECall Nolate (Longman) £54 Enter the Realm 2Mb £13 Fun Schoor4 £17; Colour Pnnlet ( 28k8 Sportster Fa)i/Modem S cable only f 1 90 I ion 5-7. I- i'prJel5L4pprtHe00dpi)r4ewl £410 Ova (Beebug) £79 E-Type Compend (40) EIB (Spec age group . lei: 0161-474 0778 Authorised Acorn Dealer. Fax: 0161 474 0781. Email: intot^'desktopp. demon, co.nk Unit 2A. Heapriding Business Park, Ford St. STOCKPORT, Cheshire. SK3 OBT JAN 96 Public Domain New column TranspGour I'm pleased to announce that after a minor restructuring of the ^corn User editorial pages, we'll A SMALL graphical treat for Rise be featuring two full pages of PD P(; owners appeared anonymously software every issue. I'm aiming on tfie net recently and, although to maintain the regular look at short, is worth a look. The code produces a rather nice transparent new software on the scene, as vector object that spins round over well as looking back at some clas- a 3D starfleld and Rise PC back- sic programs from the past. I also ground picture. It's quite nice to hope to introduce some new fea- look at, hut frankly gets horing tures and one-off specials. I'm after a few seconds. After spending kicking off this new trend with a getting nice rou- time the graphics visual feast of programs for this tines working, what's the point in graphics special. failing to use them in something If you'd like me to cover any- interesting to look at? There's thing in particular or want to much more to producing demos comment on the column in than knocking up the main code general, please get in touch at routines. Still, a good first effort; one of the addresses below. let's hope that some more are forthcoming. Nem's PD TranspGour is on disk Demol46 The anonymous demo TranspGour, which features clever from The Datafile - alternatively, Check out a good range of PD graphics routines but could be a bit more interesting. ftp the program from Stuttgart. software available from a new library run by Paul Solecki. Nem's PD stocks all kinds of PD software including a massive range of tracker modules, graphics files Mercenary and demos. Everything in the library is available on a pic 'n' mix MERCENARY is what author very promising program. than explore the virtual basis, and a comprehensive cata- Michel (irimminck describes After traversing through a world and loose off bullets logue program allows you to as 'a half finished game', and few introductory menus, the and missiles at passing tanks, select the files you want, with 1 must agree it is somewhat game gives you control of a it does demonstrate the ease. 800K disks are £1 per disk ragged around the edges. But tank which you can drive potential of this sort of only. Contact; Paul Solecki, 9 for graphics fans its still over the undulating polygon simulation. Rosedale Ave. Chesterfield, worth a look. Let's hope landscape created by the Mercenary can be found on Derbyshire, S40 2UY. Michel can find the time to game system. Although the The Datafile's disk Game79, finish what is obviously a game offers little to do other and the Stuttgart ftp server. Demo vote The PD page will soon be featur- ing the results of a net-wide vote on the best Acorn demo available. Proposal The vote is being run in conjunc- tion with Frederic Elisei's Acorn demo pages. Anyone can take ALTHOUGH new PD games seem to have been several alien spaceships. part by surfing to http://droopy fairly thin on the ground in recent months. The feel is very reminiscent of Elite, with Proposal by South African coder Peter E. four directional controls and an accelerate and .imag.fr/~elisei on the web. Ottermann (mentioned in last month's Game brake key, Overall speed is very good, and the Show) is here to fill the gap. It is by far the best controls respond well. Combat is quite tricky as Eventshell update PD game I've seen since way back in the times the enemy ships require quite a large number Eventshell has been updated with when Tom Cooper used to write them. of hits before they go up in flames. It's also not several bug fixes after a new Proposal gives you control of a spaceship in all that clear whether your bullets are hitting release at the show. Version 2.02 our own solar system. The local planets and the the ship you're shooting at; a few larger explo- is on disk UT279 from The sun are represented well by scaled sprites, with sions or £/([c-styIe flying splinters would help Datafile. the enemy spaceships which you have to in this respect, although you certainly know destroy shown as texture-mapped 3D vectors. about it when the alien finally blows up com- Contacting me Add to this a nice two-layer starfield of local pletely. You can contact the PD page by debris and distant stars, and you have a quite a Despite these niggles, 1 have to admit that writing to me, Paul Wheatley, at realistic and convincing view from your ship. the difficulty level is set about right, making Acorn User, IDG Media, Media Peter plans to add space stations and a whole the game a nice challenge. Notwithstanding House, Adiington Park, range of ships to interact with. the lack of sound, it's a great PD offering Peter says that Proposal is just a small part of which is well worth getting hold of. Watch this Macclesfield, SK10 4NP. Or prefer- what will be a large space game, made up of space for further information on its progress. ably, by e-mail to three distinctly different sections. As it stands, Proposal is on GA79 from the Datafile and quantum@digibank,demon.co.uk all you have to do is fly round and shoot down from hensa on the Net. or online on the Arcade BBS. January 1996 Acorn User 19 Public Domain Xtreme THIS is a colossal 4Mb demo everything from texture map- routines present. Frederic suring regularity. The best of created by a collaboration ping and liquids modelling to Elisei of Arm's Tech has con- these must be the incredible between some of the best complex light-sourced mod- tributed some of his amazing metallic-looking hot air groups on the scene. els. In fact the entire demo light-sourced objects rou- balloon. Although produced and put takes nearly 20 minutes to tines, including spinning By far the most interesting together by liASS, it features watch, and that's without dragons, a spookily lit routine in the demo is the contributions from Arm's any scrollers or overly long Beethoven and rotating, tex- lengthy voxel landscape rou- Tech, Excelsior and Eddie sections to sit through. ture-mapped head. tine by Gil. The section (sic). As you can probably tell There are way too many Jan and Gil who both code begins by flying across a from the massive data size of effects to describe them all in for BASS wrote most of the misty textured landscape this production, it has a large detail, but I must give some shaded vector objects which before approaching a tastle number of parts featuring mention to the fantastic 3D spin into the demo with reas- along a raised road; very dramatic and nicely coded. As you tan probably tell from my descriptions, there's a lot in this demo 1 like, but unfortunately 1 must moan about the lack of links between effects. Most of the code routines use separate music and make the demo appear very disjointed. This, combined with the use of some very dated and rather cheesy effects spoils the overall effect. Having said that, the qual- ity of most routines is much better, making this a valuable addition to anyone's demo collection. Some effects are Rise PC only, so don't be dis- appointed if you run it on an old machine. Xtreme requires a special order of three HD and one DD or seven DD discs from the Datafile. Alternatively it can be downloaded from the BASS and Arm's Tech web pages at: http://droopy.imag.fr/~elisei. Just one small part of the Xtreme demo. Lunatic AS promised last month, here's impressed. It's always difficult nicely-produced routines, tach production though. I'm fre- a full review of Archiologics' to comment objectively on a part has been designed well, quently annoyed by the lack of new demo intro released at demo written for the ARM250 and moves on to the next sec- proper design input and cohe- Acorn World. Unfortunately, when you've just seen a Rise PC tion fairly rapidly. You don't sion in Acorn demos, but the production was written on demo, but I was pleasantly sur- get bored with this demo. Lunatic passed through my pre-Risc PC machines and uses prised by the speed and Among the best effects are perfectionist gaze intact. To direct hardware accessing tech- quality. an optimised magnifier with sum up, a great intro from a niques for speed. This crashes Ibe production is actuaUy a glass balls moving over a pic- cool team - I'm awaiting their VIDC20-based machines (for 64K intro and yet still manages ture, a very fast ARM250-based next release with bated breath. instance, the Rise PC), but run- to cram in loads of effects. voxel landscape and a fast, if Lunatic can be ordered as part ning the demo on an A3010 After a brief text loader, the rather chunky, fractal zoom. of a pic 'n' mix disc from (cheers Phil) I was very demo launches into an array of No complaints about this Nem's PD. 20 Acorn User January 1996 ' iTV is a complete television reception system with TV tuner. ^ 24i1 6 combines an |^ Teletext S. NICAM stereo audio decoder on a single card. advanced 24 bit video digitiser with a 16 bit iTV is simple to use with channel and teletext page selection all sound sampler. As well as carried out from a single RISC OS application. brilliant still images 24116 captures superb Replay As well as generating stereo audio & video, ITV can also switch in movies and hi-fi audio. an external source so that you don't have to mess about swapping 24116 can grab a - . leads- A composite video output is provided to drive digitisers with complete TV frame at a integral support for the 24i16 mult/media system. resolution of 768 pixels by 576 lines from S-Video or • Teletext & NICAM support as standard including all software. composite sources. • Crystal controlled full-band tuner receives VHF/UHF from aerials, cable or VCRs etc. Replay movies (including sound) can also be captured at up to 25 images per second. Image size and rate are adjustable and limited only by disc - ImageBanIc £31.14 inclusive and system bandwidth. Sophisticated software is provided which is both With .-\ copy of ImageBanh you can flexible and easy to use. Features include: squeeze ten megabytes of 24 bit scans onto a single floppy disc, and catalogue • Hardware scaling & anti-aliasing. them tool • Contrast, hue, brightness and saturation control in real-time. • Built-jn ADPCM audio compression. ImageBank compresses pictures • Mixing and high quality filtering of built-in Acorn sound system. automatically, creating 'thumbnail' • SWIs and examples are available to allow easy use from your programs. versions so that you can browse • Optional waveform monitor and veaorscope utilities. through them quickly and easily. Double clicking on the thumbnail rapidly decompresses the image to 'The image quality possible from 24116 is the best obtainable, . Replay " - its full size. Acclaimed in reviews as an invaluable utility. quality is superior to anything else . Archimedes World Multimedia & Scanning; The BIG Picture ® 24 Bit COLOUR Hand Scanner Epson Colour Fiat-Bed Scanners The First and Only Colour Epson scanners are reliable, hand scanner for RISC OS fast and produce consistently machines. Supplied complete high quality scans, with a specially designed expansion card and application They can be driven directly software for A400, A5000 and from the printer port of A30 1 0, Rise PC. From monochrome or I A3020, A4000. A4. A5000 and 256 grey scales up to full 24 bit Rise PCs Ian interface card is ^^^ scans this scanner does them all available for A400s etc). They V ^^^H brilliantly. But don'tjust take also work via most major SCSI our word for it: interface cards including Acorn, Alsysiems, Cumana. & Moriey. "Irlam has led the way in bringing high quality colour scanners to the Arc. The first affordable 24-blt colour scanner. Irlam has obviously put a lot of effort into getting the best possible images from GT8S00. 400dpi (optical) resolution and interpolates to 1600dpi. the scanner, and the images that Prol-IWage generates are excellent GT9000. Scans at 600dpi [optical) and interpolates up to Z400dpl! ...an excellent product at a very reasonable price..." - RISC User Both scanners digitise internally to 30 bits which ensures that detail is faithfully reproduced even in dark areas. Built-in parallel and SCSI ports, 1 was most impressed by the quality achieved by this handy unit. . .The entire package works very well and produces stunning Tk'ansparency Adaptor. This optional unit fits any Epson scanner and results.,."- Archimedes World allows slides and black and white negatives to be scanned up to full A4. Unlike many hand scanners this package is easy to use, scans straight - Colour Scanning Software and produces brilliant results. Features include: Prol-Mage Prol-Mage scanning software has been under continuous • 24 bit scan head providing 16.7 million colour & 256 grey levels. development for several years. It is proven, easy to use. • Real-time high-«|uality preview whilst scanning direct-to-disc. produces high quality images and supports a wide range of Resolution up to 400 dpi. • image formats including industry standard TIFF and compressed • Powerful colour map controls allowing RGB components to be JPEG files. We can supply complete packages {Interface cards 6. adjusted individually and effects previewed in real-time. leads etc) or just software. Features include: • 32 bit sprite format & takes advantage of new Rise PC modes, • 24 bit Clear & industry standard compressed TIFF and JPEG files. • Multi-tasking scanning with images building up on-screen. 9 Brightness, Gamma correction and Sharpness controls. • Fast previews and scanning direct-to-disc for large images. • Visual and audible warning if scanning speed is too fast • Superb 256 colour sprites pltis True Colour for Rise PC • Images can be rotated and cropped after scanning. Low-cost 1 6 bit Audio Sampler irlam instruments Ltd, Lambdaf 6 is a very high quality 16 bit sound sampling system Brunei Institute for Bioengineering, for RISC OS computers. A wide range of sampling rates is supported from 5KHz up to 48KHz (including CD and DAT frequencies), Lanibda16 Brunei University, Uxbridge, ^ records direct to hard disc, rather than memory, so samples can be as 3PH. Access Middlesex, UBS long as your hard disc capacity will allow. Features include. Tel/Fax 01895 811401. samples stereo high quality 16 bit sound direct-to-disc. Email [email protected] f • • uses 1 6 bit audio output for very high quality playback. All products come with 1 year The sound quality from Lambda16 is excellent, -J couldn't really fault . - full guarantee. E&OE. this produa. , " Archimedes World 4 ARCH / PC Access SERVER BH3fla01 Z File Options Help PCFAei- 420Meg | | UDNeg | |±| « ^]c: [KCS SERVER] ± QiBoot li 2048 Directory BcA di 1 font Eplus / 2048 Directory GlPlinceis /I 2048 Directory tjAjJps t/r 2048 Directory rcshare CUaUBry / 2048 Directory Acorn to PC Networking Software QDiveriions /I 2048 Directory Q fonts / 2040 Directory Qlusges /C 204S Directory QlKptetJlon / 2046 Directory Q&ags / 2046 Directory aicihaiB.Bm D;tilci:«ain / 2048 Directory edriiharcHe &PC / 2048 Ditectory dPcimiBg /t 2048 Directory leathie III utiliUed.inii Its finally happened. A company has come up with a simple Oprivat* / 2048 Directory Oaound /r 2048 Directory Qteap /VI 2048 Directory and inexpensive solution to an age old problem. Dlutorlals II 2048 Directory Dutllltiei /r 2048 Directory Qvideo fi 2048 Directory * Getting access to files stored on a PC has always been a Qdete HkDii 1 | | Refieth | Q.BMe Hslredi [ problem for Acorn computer owners. There has always been Floppy Disk transfers, but these are slow and limited to 1.44Mb. There has been several attempts to "Network" the two computers together but most attempts have been problematic and needed a great deal of extra hardware. Arcshare Client v1 .4 Arcshare is the latest program from KCS which allows any Acorn computer with an Access Allows file transfers between network card to talk to any PC with a network card & Windows. Acorn and PC Computers. * No Fileslze Limitation. Arcshare needs no extra hardware other than cheap network cards. Arcshare is very easy to use through its graphical Interface and is, on average 40 times quicker than using a floppy * Automatic Filetyping when the Acorn receives a file so that the disk, but with no file size limitation. Arcshare can even use CD Rom drives from a different file is ready to be loaded into an machine. ] application straight away. Copying 51G08a.tif to Arch * Automatic File Extensions added Available Now. 1317 kbytes when a file is transferred from the Acorn to the PC so that the file can be loaded into a program straight away. In the Main screen on Arcshare Client, ' Easy both the Acorn and the PC directories are visible. Files can either be copied, or deleted, even to Use Graphic Interface. new directories can be created on the Acorn from the PC. Arcshare has the advantage, that it ' No "Dedicated Server" Computer can be run directly from the Windows Filemanager so that file manipulation is simple. required, Arcshare can run under a Windows for Workgroups network in conjunction with other PC's on Connects directly Acorn the same network. There is no limit as to the amount of Acorns that can be seen from the PC to Access Network. Very easy to on the Access network. setup and install. On the Acorn, the PC directories are designed to look just like any other Acorn directory. In Works with Windows 3.1, 3.11, Windows 95 & Windows NT fact, Arcshare makes the PC behave as if it were part of an Access network. Files can be copied from the PC directories to acorn directories in the normal manner. Files can even be Arcshare Server v1.4 copied from one PC to another PC via the Acorn. It's time to join the PC and the Acorn on the same network. Call KCS now to find out more Has ALL the Functions of about Arcshare and networking Acorns to PC's. Arcshare Client v1 .4 but with the following additional extras. Allows transfers of files from the Acorn. ~Aich Files' nn ShBfB::486SX-25.$ J3 When a Window is open r 420Meg ^A displaying a PC directory, all the ARTWORKS CD SWITCH EIWELOPE ACORN AVERYLGO files are fiietyped even though CD Roms. Hard Drives they are stored on the PC! & other Acorn INIGUARD 386 ARC PIG Computers can be seen Files can even be copied from & used by the PC. from iSTs- PC to PC the Acorn. TEXTFILE Any Acorn on the Network can The PC Directory lool £79.00 a, vai 3- Files can be loaded into Wf Arcshare Server v1 .4 # applications directly from the PC. :0 420Meg :0 486SX-25 486DX4-100 Apps ImageFS LsJet £99.00 A Val Available Irom: Kimberley Computer Services. 73 Chapel Street, Leigh, Lancashire, WN7 2DA. Tel - 01942 677777. Fax 01942 672300. email - [email protected] & otiier reputable Acom Dealers f Comms hH Thunderbolt to Coming soon to a strike Toby Mackenzie's Thunderbolt BBS is soon to join the London browser near you area BBS scene. It will run on an A3010 with a SupraFax 14400bps modem and will be online 24 I'M in a bit of a dilemma. possible to reach Arcade BBS cost the BBS £3 + VAT for five hours. Thunderbolt will have, says While keen to encourage all from the Internet itself, so hours, which is not prohibi- Toby, some exclusive features, comms user^ to discover for maybe there is hope yet. A per- tive. such as a Noticeboard, Recipe of themselves the wonders of the manent connection would be Watch out for announce- the month, For Sale section and wide world of the Internet, I prohibitively expensive for any ments that this interesting Good BBS pages. It should be also want them to continue hobbyist sysop, but a compro- experiment is up and running. online by February, calling and using dial-up mise is now possible with You can try this on your so watch out bulletin boards. The media Freeware and PD software own Acorn machine locally for further details. hype would have us believe recently available. Tom using the Freenet starter pack that everything you could pos- Hughes' FreeNet software pro- and the servers mentioned Mossoft gets rolling sibly want is out there ject has spawned several above, which can be FTPd Mike Mostowyj tells me of his somewhere on the Web. That TCP/IP programs that can give from the following places; new Mossoft BBS running may be true if you server • know what WWW and ftp server The Freenet starter pack: ArmBBS on a A5000. Mike thinks you want, but you can be very capabilities to Acorn .12-hit ftp://csnb.ecs. soton. it's time that Peterborough in much on your own typing in machines having a full-access ac.uk/pub/ Acorn/freenet/p. Cambridgeshire had its own BBS that first URL. Internet account. temple just for Acorn computer owners Bulletin boards can offer By running Chris Poole's • DeltaMi't: ftp://csIib.ccs.soto n and aims to make it useful and callers an exclusive selection of Shareware DeltaNet server on .ac.uk/pub/Acorn/freenet/ helpful for other users. Mossoft information as well as a special the BBS Rise PC, I can now c.poole BBS is online 24 hours a day and club atmosphere. You can allow Internet users to reach • HttpServr: ftp://cslib,ecs, communicate directly and the .Arcade filebase via http soton.ac.uk/pub/Acom/freenet the filebase is expanding all the immediately with others who and ftp from a set of specially /s.brodie time specialising in graphics Draw have had similar experiences, created Web pages to point the So how about my dilemma? files. Speeds up to 14400bps are problems, solutions and ideas way. Stewart Brodie's Freeware Well, when more than a cou- supported and Mike can be con- as well as being able to debate HTTPservr can also do the job ple of users at once try the tacted by e-mail as well as on the and discuss differences of and even offers imagemap Web pages over our 2880()bps BBS. opinion. BBS is an all-in-one operation, so A some really modem link to Demon, I think Mossoft BBS site that has all this and the whizzy graphic Web pages they'll realise direct- that Tel: (01733) 701501 latest PD and Freeware pro- should be possible. To set up dialling is much quicker and at [email protected] gramming and resources too, the link, a local call on a weekends not much dearer, Now I'm being asked if it's weekend at V34 to Demon will and we'll welcome them back. InNet challenges James Pullan of Neural Net Design fha AicadB BBS Homa^Pf^ie _^ has tipped me off about the http L'/arcade.demon.co .i*.'in dei "iFiaenn CaBArcadi Imminent release of a new PO/Shareware communications ma ! i:am Unr CDtlms suite called tnNet. Key features The Arcade BBS World Wide Web Site include a special Usenet news manager written by Graham 'FreeNBt iFr«aUjHr Allan, ITFN - a fully featured news reader, its WWW browser and lArcWeb lOMaNM TCP/IP stack to replace the KA9Q application - with 'point and click' ftp transfer, and a Telnet termi- The Bulletin Board for Rise PC and Archimedes Users nal. Sounds too good to be Shareware? A review copy is on " Arcade BBS is a bullrtte board run on a Rise PC. k uhi <.^. If you already know the answers to these questions. Contacting me You can contact the Comms page <* At last! You can access the Arcade BBS fiteliase from right by writing to David Dade, Acorn •* User, Media House, '< around Arcade. Adlington Park, Macclesfield, SK10 4NP, or bye-mail to: 1 & II f.w ^"> aiyiiucntiabfHt Aa page.plei -| [email protected], or = |IHIIII_ I H'tixi iDeiscS H— mail #2 on Arcade BBS 01S1-654 - Arcade BBS now available on the Net, but only at weekends. 2212. January 1996 Acorn User 23 Networks DataPower for the network NetScrap Those who have used a database over a network will know that it OF all the mail I receive about networks, one area if one does not already exist and points all uncertain. pro- is. at best, These question which continuously pops up concerns the users of Scrap to this dummy directory. If the invariably generated grams huge the famous Scrap application. If using Level4 file- client deletes this directory, NetScrap will auto- of traffic over the net amounts ser\'er software, each user should have a copy of matically recreate it the next time it is seen. The and if more than a handful of Scrap in their user area. memory overheads are non-existent, although users are on the network, it will As Hill Lamin pointed out in the October issue I'm told that files are occasionally left behind in begin to slow down and any more of Acorn User, with use, these 'grow' and can the dummy scrap directory, apparently due to an It alto- users will cause to stop consume enormous amounts of disc space. Bill error with the application using Scrap. gether, outlined one way around this problem and here There is one small hug in the system however: Of them all, DataPower Is about is another offering courtesy of Alien Keeley the first time the dummy Scrap directory is cre- the best database to run across a (with the help of Darrell Taylor of Room 20 ated an error message 'Expression is a String' is network, but there are limits to Software). generated. If the user clicks on Cancel everything what you can ask even this pro- NetScrap is placed in the root of the appUca- then works fine. Perhaps there is someone out gram to do. In fact, unless you tion server. When a client logs on, it creates a there who could fix that problem. specifically need its networking dummy Scrap directory in the user's network NetScrap is on the cover disc. features, my advice has always been to create a RAM disc and drop a copy of Scrap and the data file you're using into it and run it Mac networks from there. Steve Holroyd of HMTC actually wrote a program ACORNS and Macs do not sit well on networks AppleTalk. The only problem with this approach called RAMScrap which will set up together. The AppleTalk network protocol which is that the Mac ftp client we have installed on a RAM disc with a copy of Scrap Macs use to talk to one another is not understood our machine gives - you guessed it - non-stan- inside and set WimpSScrap to the by any of the Acorn networking software, although dard replies, which the Aitt Internet Suite copy of Scrap inside the RAM disc. an AppleTalk version of OiiiwClienl is promised. currently doesn't understand. lota has recognised that there is One partial solution - the one implemented on This leaves you doing command-line ftp or scope for improving DataPower the network at IDG - is to set up one of the Macs even resorting to using Netscape on a PC card. and are working on a new version as a TCP/IP file server. Acorn machines (and PCs Ant is working on the problem, though clearly which should be available by the for that matter) can ftp to this machine using non-standard protocols can only be supported time you read this. TCP/IP, and Macs can attach to it using when they are encountered. lota Tel: (01223) 566789 T Adaptors Tip for the month If you are running a 106ase2 net- work, (sometimes called thin SOME programs still save files as applications - each in separate directory folders, the second is Ethernet), each computer requires as several files within a directory prefixed with a temporarily to rename the files by removing the a BNC T adaptor, unless you're plingl!). Opening a user area with more than two pling and the third is to open the directory hold- using a SaferTap cabling system. or three files of this type can take ages. ing down the Ctrl key, although this last method As a couple of you pointed out, There are a couple of solutions to this prob- only works if you know in advance that the the cost of these seem to range lein. The first is to plate two or three of the files directory contains a lot of files of this nature. from just under £1 up to an aston- ishing £3.99. There seems to be little or no difference between them in terms of quality, although I was once supplied some that appeared to be coated with an insulating material which didn't make them very effective. I buy all my networking odd- ments (including drop leads) from Lindy who has a comprehensive catalogue, is competitively priced and provides quality products. Lindy Tel: (01642) 76527S Fax: (01642) 765274 Contacting me You can contact the Network page by writing to me, Geoff Pre- ston at Acorn User. Media House, Adiington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP or by e-mail to: [email protected]. _ Renaming files without the pltng will considerably speed directory access. 24 Acorn User January 1996 , IW COST FONTS / \FontPack4' DsmffaDD IpiBtiiniTAL NEWVBBK tf4iyg** fllETHOPOLIfl Rjor^AV \Fout Pack! OftfciW .'!\iJLl!COLOR Km Off S1AAP50N5 . m Ml mmom TAX USA" >ifiet BiAceflDorfH Uamptvi Font Pack 1 7" ».tiM fiicKSflWi GR£epil le^. BONES; Eesox Parallel Port CD-ROM drives inlormal DmalinE •DouUe qieedy £l«936 C£li»9 iiic VAT) ArCrLtBCt I'liap '^^inKe MAIN liliiail snmii rnduf Mxa UP niXDU lilifflil I ^ybna Windsor PoNCHO ./., / • <|uad speed below £146! SPLODGC i>iihi..| .BUBBLE S^y^i/l^ TRBE Science Cain -.Six sp%ed below £ 200. Mardl Flktos lALICRI 8' 50LI \ New d sw€ft HPHeoesI Font Pack Eesox CD-ROM Enhancement Software liEB Gordon lEISiKJ ^ 'tDFasr^peect up utilltx £25 <£20'wttli driVe) RoVfn George f^flOt lOiinalbufn Strcnshahi 7«i"W' M:** -']<"> Font Pack? rf 'Ncsl^bM^ speed up utility £ 1 30 (£99 with tdwer) ^OP /A// llllllli Eesox CD-ROM ^i^eiiiii BrkCanMr TOWERS iFontPack6\ JPIJIVI QuatfSpeed Six Speed .,:...: '-^.5v'>, fjif^.^im: £379 . £P.OJk Font Pack 5\ ^rnvjet iiniiNtit £ 679 £ P.OA DINOIAUR STAfiBUR£T niiMlflim Pn-.r,v ©IM[2 ' InkyType £979 £P.OA Mirjsch ^'ti'3 ir^kEF -'. [S^-fi feM --j; MAKE YOUR OWN audio CD or CD-ROM :'.»iJ>Slji*C iiimjA; mrxj K^lv„i Ai.,.j. ;]a(|(|eit a.ooLi.;D2j >'\-:i iirei:;).^ smal Audio CD |e40,CD-n6»l£60 ; Azword Ifn'rQtin'? Mtuawm >A'j''i"-,>"! ftiKHII Pixie EMGRAVER ';'';' *; Serif t ^ II n ":i!'l;*.S;JJ tUSIflfilE Bodftv Sans ICrauWiti a*m»t M Con»6eric 25W speakers £3$ (£30 wHth a drive) ml Scsica ii »»ffr SOWspeakers £49 (£44 with a drive) ?i;o:-T-,w Dot M.1 !(! Oli%'pr Sspnitine jGDUHr llllll Brock! CROrrUACK Pilif?. GenoH KciihI I O99O0 Rntjhlon Lrnx mm mtm 't.'lt'A i-'.l-l Wistirnl' mm NtfrJic Frcb -TrRLlNC. WBSim: Hom^ !il>HAYi;» Storage Devices Prelli Ia>4im>C VimiD DingDong FLAVI FELTPEN FdtMarkerl Please call>or latest Z.^RflCrW HPLIEF It SCSI Hard Discs Oi'Pi- 7200 (;:k)/(0' oiiilhw fouls ; fif,W(/ AKC 05 ItUMI .^;;dl FiCTrD I -..I...... Ill tlamnglcDi I ' arc (luitliiHi' in packs of 50 families. On ciilti-r 540MB £139, IGB £189, 2GB tijS Cracked Big Town m)k f> lfillOkj)m»utdi\cs. | 4CB £850, 9GB^i I750 Cjmoj mil Arrllc iFontPackWi . Wh\' I'liy iiiiire. when imr ihmdimi fonis wtit FostDisc Cachlna For FIoddv And Hard Discs ;^!i(wA well Willi ALL applicuiiims. iiicliitlinii Speeds up copyihg and deleting,. £35 - -^ ^hapjvssion. PutidoH'h Dniw unil Oviiiiim. Font Pack 9 lire tor UK it Eurape [fur the rexi ISH*««*^ Leigh GT Clffli: S,>r»yOii Graphics Tablets . 1 pOS! i.i ihiiiyed m cnsi). Offinul MQQUAl IMFIIIIIII Sismm vcryFat Systew X v;-STEHIIE HUnttn HIZTJM: Cover disc Acorn User CD-ROM WELL, we said that we were going to do another one, and here il Product title Link to screenshot Category is. Actually, this is more like version 1 .5; it was sponsored by Acorn Education and was done by us for them, There'll be another Acorn HyperSbtto: MUSIC - Card User (]D-ROM a little later in the year, but this one will serve per- UL Rhythm Bad fectly well to whet your appetite. With over 60 interactive demos of Acorn software and the up-to-date ftp site on the disc, there's «hy«m Bad -CUns (7TS4 I MtDliiblnimcn. l>cn.-ieii selection of commercial demos in DEMOS. ,>nlci nipiKvidc a tirmpklc batking be pia>'Ki dLrecti}. cr tran^nrd The Acorn Directory iKUians. such A^ Rtupuid> or Acorn has provided its Products and Ser\'ices catalogue in a series of hypertext stacks in the ACORN directory on the disc. To run these from the start, double-click on the !HO\tE stack, which will Next take you to the title page, then move to the contents page. You'll frfmffiWiaJn. 01223 2S4114. CuaHmurcmr: 91 page need a 2Mb machine to run the stack player HSPlayer. but the stacks themselves are compact and should all run on a 2Mb Product text Previous page Contents machine. When you become more familiar with the layout of the stacks A typical product card in the catalogue. you will be able to find the subject that you are after simply by running the appropriate stack: .'TRAfiVI.VG for information on Acorn's training courses, say or SOFTWARE.'.DTP for information before there's a wealth on information on there, ranging from highly technical application notes to the text of the Customer Hotline columns from past Acorn Users. A number of the diagrams are in PostScript format - these may be printed out on any PostScript printer. Usually they will be on the disc in other formats as well. Commercial demos The part of the disc that takes up by far the most room, the DEMOS directory is packed with demos of many of the packages in the products and services directory; over 60 of them. The demos have links from their respective pages in the hypertext form of the catalogue, but can easily be found in this directory anyway. Some highlights are: • The Anglia presentation. This takes over 200Mb of the disc and demonstrates 10 of Anglia's CD-ROM titles. • AVP's PictureBase demonstration. Once this is installed on your hard drive, it gives an excellent idea of the range and quality of the PictureBase resources. • Talking Textease demo. This demonstrates both the latest version - Seashore Life one of the demos in Anglia's presentation. of the software from Softease and Jon Duddington's excellent on DTP packages. Speak module. The stacks have links to screenshots and pictures to illustrate • Composition and Virtuulise from Clares. The demo version of many of the products; these can also be viewed by opening the Compo on this CD-ROM comes with a special cut-down version of appropriate directory. The hardware shots are in SHOTS, while the yvmamr software screenshots are in SOFTWARE.SCREEKS, indexed by com- ADFS:.KflidOiBe<.t Artid»s 1996 01Jan96 Copy .Ciw«iaise.M*7HS pany then by product. Some screenshots are TIFFs or deep sprites. These can be viewed on older machines by using ChangeFSI to convert them to 256- or even 16-colour sprites. CluitifieFSl is provided in the root directory of the CD-ROM. The DOCS directory contains useful documents such as price lists, dealer lists and so on. If (and only if) you are an education customer, the prices shown in DOCS.EDVCATE apply and you can buy direct from Acorn Education at those prices. However, if you are not an education customer, the prices shown in the DOCS.OTHERS directory apply - these are given for Acorn products only. For other prices and for ordering, consult your local dealer. The Acorn ftp site The FTP directory contains the Acorn ftp site as it was on 1 December 1995. Among the recent updates are a new version of Printers, new printer definition files, and the latest DCI4 drivers Icon Technology's TechWriter doubles up as a demo for £as/Wnfer which and TCP/IP stack. For those who have never encountered the site has a near-Identical user Interface. 26 Acorn User January 1996 Acorn Education Virtualise which will provide a virtual memory system for Compo only (note that this only rans on a Rise PC). Questions about the CD-ROM • Impression fiinior. The full version of Junior is on this disc by way ot being a demonstration for Style. Style has many more features Q: Why is some of the CD-ROM archived, but not all of it? and is more powerful: if you want to upgrade to Style you can do A: Sometimes it was necessary to archive applications containing so before the end of January for the bargain price of £49 + VAT. files with names which would have been illegal under the Just contact Computer Concepts confirming that you have the copy of junior from the cover CD-ROM. standard for CD-ROMs. However, it is generally preferable to • Robert Bums files. These aren't a demo as such, but are actually a allow applications to run directly from the CD-ROM rather set of trail files for the Robert Bums CD-ROM from Cambridgeshire than putting them in Archives, as you then don't need 4rcFS Software House ~ a bonus for anyone who's already got the pro- loaded to run them. gram or an instant resource for anyone who buys it. • Breakaway Maths demo. This is a non-interactive demo showing Q: Some of the files on the ftp site have been filetyped as data YlTM's latest title, set at the Alton Towers theme park. files but they're actually archives. Why, and what can I do Resources about it? This directory contains the collected modules, fonts and resources A: The ISO formatter removes the file types from files with a needed for some of the demos on the disc. AnnMavie is supplied DOS extension, as many on the site have. If you drag the because at least one demo contains Replay files, you archives to ArcFS it should be able to load them can merge the fonts and the modules in _ '.System with your own if you wish, but correctly. Alternatively, copy them to they can be used in situ. another disc and change the file Don't try this with '.Scrap. If you type. If you are having trouble don't already have a '.Scrap folder, you must copy the one Acorn opening some of the Spark on the CD-ROM to your archives on the disc hard disc or to a write- ED VCR TIO N using krcfS then enabled floppy and then Products & Services Catalogue copying run the copy. If you them to don't do this, applica- Spring 1996 your hard drive tions will be unable first may help. to create temporary Q: Where can I get files and may crash further copies as a result. Nor- , mally, though, Created using I of the CD- you will have a Produced in HyperStudio from ROM? '.Scrap folder and jassociation with I A: Customer care will have 'seen' it i before you. start iCUliNUSER \ at Acorn the CD-ROM, so (01474) 357350 Education - you won't need to take any action. (01223)254222- will be happy to Credits send out extra discs This disc was sponsored if you need them; by Acorn Education, and I'd like to thank John they will also be avail- Gold disc by Copyright 1996 O'Neill, Maureen Wilman able at the BETT show. and Moira Woodward for Q: Wasn't some of this stuff on checking the content and provid- ^IDG (01954) 212263 E n I A ing the copy and information. The the first CD-ROM? demos mostly arrived thanks to pestering A: Yes, several of the demos were, the by Karen Peach, editorial assistant on the mag- ^ reason that they're repeated on this disc is azine, but also because of the hard work of a number that the disc has to stand on its as a product, of programmers, especially those at AVP, Anglia, YITM and Xavier. own TAG Developments very kindly gave me a beta release of rather than relying to references to and earlier disc. HyperStudio to do the hypertext stacks on which was more stable Q: I'm not in education - does this disc have anything for me? than I had any right to expect, so Dave Miller deserves a round of A: Yes; many of the products in the catalogue have much wider applause. Neil Critchell and Mark Watson at Eesox displayed end- less stoicism in the face of shifting deadlines, as indeed did Alan appeal, though obviously a large number btq aimed at educa- Capper, Pam Turnbull and Sandra Childs at back IDG. tion. Also you should ignore the pricing and ordering in the Finally, whichever god decided to throw a blizzard at me when i DOCS.fDL/G^rf directory -that is for education only, and you was driving through Huntingdon to get the gold disc cut deserves won't be able to buy at those prices. You my thanks for making life even more interesting just when it may find the odd seemed that nothing else could go wrong. useful thing on the ftp site as well. David Matthewman January 1996 Acorn User 27 Top Model demo by Sincronia Soluzioni TOPMODEL is a high-end graphics pack- The first thing to do age designed to take advantage i>f the is to load one of the power and Video RAM in a llisc PC, l)ut it pre-defined models in wili also run at respectable speed on older the Objects directory, machines, TopMiHlfl wili run in 2Mb - AcornVscr and Binl are 4Mb is recommended - and clearly the the largest files, and more powerful tlie machine, the faster it you may want to load will run. one of the smaller Important note: on machines with a ver- ones to get the hang of sion of RISC OS below 3.5 (pre-Risc PC TMViewer. When you machines) TMVicwi'r corrupts the system load an object into the sprite area, which will crash SpurkFS and viewer, a window Memphis as well as anything eke that uses opens with two very the area, so quit these before running daunting tool bars - TMiiewei: Vou have been warned. don't worry, when you TMViewer is a display-only version of move the pointer over TopMoilel, although it also allows you lo one of the tools, a create shapes to a limited extent using pre- description of the tool The TopModet window with its two daunting tool bars. defined primitives. It should run straight is displayed in the hot- from the archive on disc, but in order to tom tool bar. Also, because this is only a As to creating objects from scratch, the free up as much memory as possible you demo, most of the tools on the bottom tool only way you can do this in TMViewer is might want to copy the programs out of bar don't do anything anyway, although using the program's library of objects. To the archive on to your hard disc and quit you can see what they woutti do in the full access these, first click on the ( reate tool ArtFS before running them. version by moving the pointer over them. (at the bottom left of the bottom tool bar) The tools on the left- then on the Library tool (bottom right of TopModel's viewer memory setup hand tool bar all the group of ID), A scrollable window con- concern the display of taining some objects is displayed; these Free memory available 17712 Kbytes the objects loaded - can be dragged lo the main window to be Free memory needed 9599 Kbytes you can zoom, pan, placed. alter the lighting and Further details on TopModet and 86497 Points Ibmhi so on. The bottom TMViewer can be found in the !Help files on Poly 62172 icons open up a second, inside TMViewer. For more information smaller tool bar which TopMoiiei, including prices and availabil- Screen 3078 K allows you to chose ity, contact Sincronia Soluzi Regular items Various authors YOU know what's in this area if you're a regular reader of the to make tesscllating shapes. magazine, but in case you're new I'll e.Kplain that this archive • The RiiiiTiieRlSC directory contains programs to go with Mike contains programs and files which tie in with regular sections of Cook's hardware article on joypads. the magazine. • The Starhifo archive contains the programs from the *rNFO • fho Etlumtinii directory contains the l^etHcrap application section of the magazine. These are arranged by author's surname detailed on the Network page, three Dniw files acc Disc information Various authors THE software on this disc has been com- If your disc is faulty, then you should test pressed using ArcFS 2 from VTi. Unlike on whether it will verify by clicking with Menu previous discs, these are straightforward on the floppy drive icon and choosing 'Verify' archives which are opened by running a copy from the menu. You should then either return of ArcFS and double-clicking on the archive it to Tlli, Tin House, 11 Edward Street. to open il. There is a copy of ArcTS on the Bradford. Yorkshire Bl)4 7BH (if it does not disc. verify or is damaged) or to the editorial office Most software will run straight from the at Acorn User (if it verifies). archive, but some programs may need to be The Acorn User cover disc has been checked copied out of the archive before being run, for viruses using KHIer version 2.101 from uncompressing them in the process. Pineapple Software. 28 Acorn User January 1995 CD-ROM offer J ^^^^f / - CD-ROM / \ drive deal RRP: Take advantage of our CD-ROM £199incVAT Offer price: drive offer, with a highly £149lncVAT individual drive. Sawo f^fJ, over 25% of the e^^oix If you're starting to get a little concerned about The drive has the following specification: these funny reflective discs that have started • Double speed drive (306Kps transfer rate) appearing on the covers of Acorn magazines with • Fast access time: 180ms increasing frequency, and are looking for • SCSI 2 interface (will work with SCS1 1 cards) something to play them on, then you need to • Parallel port interface (needs bi-directional take advantage of our reader offer on this highly printer port, so this will not work on A300 individual CD-ROIVI drive from Eesox. series, A400 series, A540 or A3000). Not only does the drive double up both as a • Photo CD multi-session compatible parallel port and a SCSI drive, but you can also • Video CD White Book compatible power it from batteries and use it as a portable • includes carrying case and stereo headphones - CD player it would also make the perfect CD- Eesox sells SCSI cards if you do not already ROM drive for an A4 for this reason. When you're have one - phone (01954) 212263 for details, or if not carrying it around it plugs into the mains to you are unsure whether your card will work with save on battery life. The standard Audio CD the drive. Note that if you choose the parallel port controls are all included on a panel, so you don't drive you will need a parallel port splitter if you have to connect it to your computer to play audio want to operate a printer and/or dongle on the CDs. same port. Order Forinf I would like to order: Name:..., Eesox CD-ROM drives £149 inc VATeacfi Address: Extra P&P may be chargeable tor overseas orders - please enquire before buying. I will be conrecting to Da parallel port Da SCSI card, .Postcode:. L^ I will need a SCSI card - please send information and prices. Daytime phone number: I enclose a total payment of: ^^_ I wish to pay by: U Please tick here if you do not want to receive promotional material D Cheque/Postal order (made payable to Eesox] from other companies ,i n Credit card (VISA/Access/Barclaycard) Send your completed order form to: Acorn User Eesox offer. Expiry date: I / I Media House, Adiington Park. Macclesfield, SK104NP. Please allow 28 days for delivery from when we receive your I 1 I I I I I I I I I I I I I Card no: I I order. To qualify, orders must be received by the end of (Official orders from educational establishments are welcome) February. E&OE. January 1996 Acorn User 29 1 1111 TEACHERS CLAN Locl'Bble S Ol KGS have always offered great 50 Capacrtv 20 Capacity Flip Top Smoke Cijk ii. diECOunls 10 Ihe Educalion eeclor MEMBERS 1 Novolly S Capacilv Step Cube 1 2 Capacily Flip Top Cleat Litre n II ofter suDstanlial dlscounls Wa have a nasi range ol proOucIs We c y 10 Capacily 'Trendy' FHip Top (Blacl- oi'i'lnl) possible 1 Top auailable, please ask lor our "Teacher 10 all Clan members. II Is nol lo Capacity Flip Claar our DSDD 3.5" DisKetles Pack', which includes uarious lisl all the special prices here, ask lor DSDD 3 5' Diakellas 'Clan price lis!* available on disk. discounts fo' leachers and Schools. DSDD 3.5' Diskettes 5' 1 Htlia 1-50 DSHD 3 DiSietles AvailaOle as FORMATTED Dept ACU. 73 Chapel Street. LEIGH. DSHD 3.5~ Diskettes 1 UMb 51-100 PC DOS 1 44Mb il Pequned. 2.5" DSHD 3 5" Diskatles 1 44Mb 101-200 Lancashire. WN7 2DA. 170Mb IDE Hard Drive cpsr/ Please Slate 5" at no eufca the DSHD 3 Diskeltos 1 .MMb Suitable for A30 1 0/3Q20/A4 01942 677777..™ El 20 SVat (inc Cable) SPEAKERS El Va Inc l/al ZVPI Amplified 8 IWalts RMS. Ideal (or Acoin or PC £30.00 It E3S.25 Fax 01942 672300 1 s vai with A301 0/3000 Interface 32 C 89 SOUNDWave. 240W SheikieO Amplilied Speakers for Ai;om t tSB.OO -I ES9 email H(tti Plug C4.2S h E4 99 Sales^kcsprem.demon.co.uk MICROPHONE, 3 5mm Jack I Mllirophone with 3.5mm Jack Plug £5.90 I £6 53 FLATBED SCANNERS PRINTERS Clip On tt Vll HE Val Clliion ABC 24 Pin Colour tlJ5 00 lEisees DATA SWITCH BOXES HP DBSkJsl PortaBle E 1 20.00 1E141 00 2 Pdnlera - 1 Computer CenlrDnca to Cenlronics HP Deskiel 320;ASFiColour Ki £275.00 EPOJsa 2 Computers - 1 Primer Cenlroncs to Cwilronics HP Deakjei S40C C : 1 S 00 ' £:i2.S3 . 4 PrlnleiE 1 CompuTer Canlronica lo Cenlromcs 'i 95 :inieti HP Deafcfel 6G0C rjis.DD . E381 Ba Computers . 1 Printer Canlronica to Canlromcs CIG i. 1 8 7J Canon BJCSQC C31S.DQ E40S 3a 4 I 4Compuleis - 1 fi*onitor VQAilS Pin HD (F)) i KB (6 PirDW £21 15 Canon B.IC40IM d3i oa rt^^b^2 Computers - 1 Monitor EI3A (B Pin D (Ft) B, KB (5 Pin| £17 00 till H7 Canon BJ2DDG1 EI9S.00 "EJ29 13 E t, 2 - 1 Way Serial 25 Pin Type Female to 25 Pin D Type Famalo t1D.7S £12 ri' Canon BJZaOen tPOA EPOA 241)0 dpi FlglbM Colour A4 »4S DO < £410 07 4 - 1 Way Serial 25 Pin D Typo Female Ic 25 Pin D Type FHrnflle 1 1 4 95 1i S' 1 7 f Canon BJ10» El MOO I£l8£e3 liDD dpi Finibva Colour A4 E^IWIOO E35:>60 2 Scarl - 1 Scart TV Standard Euioscan lo Euroscart £11 75 h EI3B Epsoit Slylus SDOr CIBS.DO i iiti OP Education >'?J6 75 Transpsrenc; AOaploi C2I0.00' Epson SX'/ha Coknit cifis.oa .E4Za88 5:99U« ifnii33 SCSI InlHriace I stale Machinal HP Lasenel 4L caes.DO t E4SJ.3B Full OLOU Flatbed Scannacs at Low Cos!. Ml:^nntpir, Si'tt''""' *''" Ifi-Jdi- Specialists Specialist Laser Tomplalos lor TurOo Drivets HP taaoo > 144 65 Avary LaPelfi Inch Uplo 2400 DolK Pel Scaning capaWhty (PCI TurtKj Dnvers Canon ,00 :. E44 65 us & Inkjet Labels for Bolti available and 600 Opt usiTQ Acorn Saltware Adom 1 £44 Turtle Dntfprs Epson CIS. no 85 Impression Education & Health soltwam supplied and PC Scanning PnnlBJ DriverE F.O.C Acorn 1 3Bc tS.OU 01 Fie* Authority orders Sample scans availaOie Sena SAE S 0^^ T wiih 3 Packs o( AVERY" Labels INKJET REFILLS INKJET White air Vsl (rv IV. : fi^ jaieoM 83 51138 1mm (21 tiB,40Bhhi) Addresslng L.ibels ril.oo JBtStM 83 Sl46.8mm (IB ba, 40 stMsj Addressing Labels £11.00 <' t I,; melhod ol Inkjet Refills an economical I. are Addressing Labels £11,00 ti £1.^ JB1 e2M 99 1 .34mm ( 1 6 Ip6, 40 sMa) re-charging your ex ts ting prmi carl ridge, jai83M99 li.3B1mm(l4lps,40shls| Addressing Labels m.OO b £1i^ b EIS' JB165M99 1ll67 7mra(BlpB. 40ahtB) Parcelling Labels C11.D0 complsfo ranga or fru-.' \ Prpmier Inks procfuce A 5" £12' Ip5. 25shtS) 3 Disk, Face Only Cll.OO IJ • ja66BM 70»62mm (10 lesled refills thai are suilflble (or almosJ <-.• Mini AdPresssmg Lat^els £11.00 b E12' - J8fl51M3S l(2t2mm(6Sipa. 25shlsj inKjel printer on Ihe marhaT The Jel Black J'^i ' much aar>;er Ihan mosi original canndgoi n' FwtlJIOUBPrailmB' ofton dnOB lasior wiihi less oveispray. so Iho £8 99 INKJET IWhItll Smgle Refill Any Colour C5-95 d £21 autpul looks clearer \f\an bHtore Ja365 99.1167 7mm (alps, SB shB) Peicalling Labels £18.00 6 Twin Hstlll Any Colour CIl.OS .i£1299 J8363 9B.ll3S1mm|141ps. ZSshlal Adrlresslno LabelE £18,00 ti £?! Oiiad(Four) Hetin Black Only £19.51 (I E2; 99 £, TTia Refills me packed m cor>venienl ready to usa JB3B2 99.1l34mm (16 Ip5,a5 stlts) Addressing Labels £ia.0O 1> Tn^Cnloiji Refill OM&t Cir.oi „Eie.99 ytay and coma comoJelB with a P one syringes JB360 63 5138 imm (21 Ips, 25 shla) Addressing Labels £18.00 c:' Refill Any Colour C31.37 ^ E2".9B safety nozzle and FULL MBy lo use meljuclions Bu*. 12Sml KI £4^.99 CDvennfl 10 c*t ' partxrulsr reflUs can improve ihe 1 - caoes u&jng Ihasa LriB0M63 5]l3Blmm(21 Ips. 40shts) Addressing Labels EtI.OO U E 2 quality at prinL d L71B0E63.5I3B 1mm (21 IpE. 280 Bhtsf AddretKlng Labels £45.00 £52 88 L7161 63.5x46.Bmm(iaies. 10QsbtS| AdABSBlng Labels £20.60 h E24.09| Ll you are unsure abDul Lrsrng lnk|el Rafiris, call L716299.1ic34mm(16lpB IDObMsI AdPresslrvg Lebela £20.50 b £24.09 and speak lo cur slail who will tie happy to send L7162M99.lJl34mm(161ps. 40sfllB) Addressing Labels £11.00 D E12B3I you a s^impie ol iha pnni oui qualLty and a set ' lOOshls) Addressing Laliels £20.80 C £24.09 ineTnjclnjns so Ihat you can see the results and L716399 1»36 1mm(14lpE Addressing Latielc Ell DO b £12,931 huw easy rhey are to use. belore yoLi dei^ido ic L7ie3M99 usa 1mm(l41ps, 40shtsl premier Inlis Addressing Labels E8.00 ti £9.40 L7l63S99 1n3a Imm (14 Ips, 25 shts) Addressing Latjels £20.80 li £24.091 The Professional Choice" L7I64 83,5i72mm (12 Ips. 100 shts) L7166 99 11167 7mm [8 Ips, 100 Shis) Parcelling Labels E2O.50 h £24.09 El 1.00 b £12.931 L7185M99.1«B7 7mm (8 ips, 40 shtS) Parcelling Labels J L7166E99 l : Labels £11.00 n £12 931 Canon BJC4000 BCiai Colour Amslrad DMP4000 2426ftN £3.«« £4 30 L7171 200ll60mm (4 Ips. 25 shts) Lever Arch n I Labels £11.00 £t2 93| Canon J|.20c Integrsi Colour Aimlrad L05000 saaeDN £6.10 £7ie L7I72 I00»30mm(16lpa. 25Bhls) Ring Binder I £3 35 Canon JI-25B Inlegiei Black AmsliBd PCWa286/LO3S00 2^44 DM £3 85 £3,38 , £3 97 Canon BJ 300/330 Black AmBliBd PCWBSia S949FN LASER Mini-Sheets fid C3S0 i E4 5B 5" 11 St 009/1024/1 1 09/1209 Only ET.SO £8. Canon B.icai» Blach Bnjihar 1 2412FN L2186 699i56 8mm (4 Ips, 40 anis] 3 DlBkBtle Face Broni8rMt81B"fl24L'l924L 2905DN E4.es I fS?4 Parcelfmg LsIhIs £7,50 li £9 81 Canon BJCBOO CM or Y L2163 191 6i50emm (4 Ips, 40 shts) Cni;en120D/LSP10.'Sv(llt24/9 Ei.S^ . E3 3fi h 2939DN L2162 IQI BiSaSmm (8 Ips. 40sfltSI Addiessing Labels E7.50 EB.B1 1220/ ca.io . E5 39 Commotinra MPS 1230 2643RD L216a6B,Bii2S.4mm (BIps, 40 shts) Addressing Labels £7,50 B E9,ei . £7 CammodorflMPSlBOO/lSM 2863RDB C6 7S 93 ti EBBt L2164 50llt4mm(28 Ips, 40 Bhifl £7.50 DUST COVERS Epson LO 100 agSBRD £4.10 £4.82 Epson L> too 2il99BD £3.83 £4 50 Piece Cover LASER Cleei PC 2 Dust £3.46 £4 05 Epson LQ2OO/4O0/5OO/8O0/e50 2477DN Mini Addfeesing Transparent £15,00 b t17.a3l Tower Cover L765! 38 U21 2mm (65 Ips. asshlsl PC Mini Dual I'.l -I? 240watt Speakers! Epson LO1000/1OS0/1070/1 170 a47eDN £4.10 Addressing Transparent £25.00 b £29.381 PC 14" UnVersHllilDnlto' Cover L7562 99 1>i33 9mm(teips, SOshlsl Epson FKflJlX/RXSO/FX/lXaOC 2273 FN «9tt l';i .11 Amplified Mains Powered 2Sshla| Arid tossing Transparent £15.00 E EiT.eal 1 Couer L7562S99U33 9mm{16lDE. PC 02 Key UK Ksitwaid Epson FX/WX100/F)I/I^X1t)00 2320FN £3.3fi L7S63 99 usa lmm(14lDE. SOshtsj Addressing Transgarenl £25.00 rj £29 38 Acorn ASOOO All in One DusI Cover I 2*64Fr< E2 12 Epson LXBO/Be/90 Addressing Transparenl E15.00 n £17631 1 L75e3S 99 1 138 1 mm ( 1 4 Ips, 25 Shis) Acom A4OO0 All in One QitJ Cowir Fuiilsu DL330CI/3400, DX2200 2849DN E3.75 £4 41 L756S99 l<87 7mm(Bip8, 50shls) Parcelling Transparenl £25.00 ti £29 381 Acorn A30 10(3020 Dust Covw IBM 4207/4212 PFnprintBrX24 4e46FN E3 88 £4 58 .rt'iil-r- Parcelling Tianspaienl £15,00 b £1763| Dusi Sn L7575S 99 ll67 7mm (S Ips. 2Ssnt6) Bisc PC ( 1 Smcki Cover Mannesman Tally BO/flt 2698MS £3 90 £4 88 SmaB SO Column Prinler Cover NEC Pmwrilot PZ20/P2- 2844PD £3 03 £3 ir". Joystick Conlrollera ',' ButlnsBS Cards Lflrga 132 Column Printer (Dover Okl ML1S2i 183/182/1 9311 B5 2438RN C3-17 E.T foi A3020.'4000'500fl LASER Business Cards. HP DesKlol 9011/580/560 Cover Qki MLaaQraai/aacraoffsgt 2B74RD £3,32 £J'|i; "jnons va( LT413 90)i50 8mm(tU Ips. 25 sills) Mcro Pedorated Canon BJ10 IJusI Cover Panasonic KX-PH23/112*1 1-10 2904FtD C3.48 E4U7 Canon BJ200 Dust C 2B68DN £2 88 . £3 38 Canon LBP-8 IV Star LC24-1C1'2W00 StarND/ML/NR/NX10 N624-I0 2761 DN C3.B5 I £4.52 Canon LBP-B III TaianKBgaKP8t0/815/910'915 2223RN £3-14 i £3.89 Canon LBP-4U Citizen 224'240/Snlfi24,g 2964 DN C12.B1 i£18a5 HP lasena lltlllD PInpolntt Commodore MPS15O0/15SO 2eB3RDC £9.38 iElt.02 HPLaseiiatlllP/tlP DaTePase Sotwaje Pflnasoniq KX-P21 23/2 134,'2 ISO 29B5RD £10,63 I £12 49 HP Ldssiiel lltSI/4SI f3ijorjB I val Star LC 10/20/100 2869!=N tS 00 E7 08 HP Laserjet 4/4M/4MP'4P Star LC2D1) HP Lasenet iWMl All above, wMIe SlBrLC24.|U'.'U Li'-ll Oume Lii&or Direct 13 S&lsj slocits last- , 1 : CABLES & ADAPTORS iiK vai Schools & Networking Mains Pin Section IgaO 3 Moufded 5 ainp CC'ntpule' i?f Prlnler Powei Lead C3.70 ^ 1:4.35 ^ Main^ Lead EAlenaion M-F Cuwijulf}' III MitryitO' Powsi Lfldd a./o H £4 35 4 Gdng ErE^ntiChn / r/Ain5 Sockfji i:onvensd to 4. Fus^ [6.50 t e?64 Education Parallel Pnnier Cable 1 BU Hcimill Pnulci Cable PCAciim'Alan ale Q.55 E7 64 Specialists for Schools & Teachers Bi-DirectKinai Psrallel Prlnlsf Cable Fast Dais Tmnsler Cui'l^ EtI.OO s £12 93 Centronics - Cenlrcnics Cabia 2W SmIOi Bet CbIiIb £4.28 1 E5 03 CeriTrorics - Cflnl ranter Osi^e 3M Smien Soi C^DlB E6.50 '1 E7M T Netwofic Serial Cable 9M S5 Pin M-F AM Pins ConnecreUfPnnlfff Cable C4.ie --i ES03 Our PCS are buiH to very high and exacting Senal Cacia SB Pin M-P SM All Pms CotinBclatl/PnnlBr Cable ca.so D £9 99 standards ro take aduaniHge 0' lodays Multi LaplM Cable 1 ?M 25&9F-zgj,gF Oala Transter Catic Null Mpthm iX-Ovrtt) E&SO .5 ES99 MetHa applications. KCS fiave Oevelopfld the lor Midi Leads (Pair) 1 MULTI KCS NerSufver sysiem MuEic Dala Translei Cables 5 Pin Din CB.OD E9.40 enure school neiwofk managBmem Phorn) Leads (Pair) 23iPI}ono -I 11 Transfef.'^xlBUsion CatilB U.50 E4 KCS are offering any schtMl or laacher Ihal Pbone le Stereo Jack ConveilDr 3-5inm Slereo Jack to 2xPhona Plugs c3oa •' rasa warns to upgrade tram an old acorn TiTfl NelServer ultHsee [he advanced Nelworking and VGJfSVGA Uonltor Eiiension Cable « ZM WPlnHDM-F te.so ET64 compuler lo new Mulli the MEDIA a Media PC. aecuMly tesfures of Mlcrwoh Windows NT Keybcard txiensien Cable ^tA Curly Pm Slanaata re.ao b 5 Dm M-F PC Keyboard E7B4 chance to do so at unbelievably tow prces snvimnmeni ap>d Iha recenlly launched Arcshare, Keyboard Eilension Cable 2U PSZ J Curly PS2>Flisc PC M-F Keyiwan/ E>r £6.50 E7M We can lake one Acorn or an enlire network Acom (o PC nelwofkrng ^oltwdra Mouse Ejirei^srun Cable ?W BPinD Type U-F ExienOer C/ieie C6.S0 II £7 64 of Iham in Part EicMange As budgets gat Joystlcli -• EilBnsion Cable 2M PC IS Pm Type M-FExlender £5.50 E7 64 The h*etSeive[ will afJnw lalk |o D Cable smaller and resoiirces, tighter. The Mold Anorn i-'Ompulers to Joystick Spltiisr Allows IbB Use cl 2 Joysticks on a PC £8,50 a £9 99 PC compuLefG and Macintosh at IMb game [ima on Media PC's offer an excelleni way of utilising 100020/4000/5000 the ti^nio nclwork A30 -Scan Lead 1 SH ISPm HDD Type loEtiroscsnlNotSanyl EBSO 3 E9 99 Res and prfnter^ can be sha^d your [T budget 10 rnaiirnum eHset. A3O1O/302Oi*OOO/5ODO - CMS833 MK( IspinHDO Type-SPm EB.SD " eg 99 no matEer Wflru Ihey are on |he neTworfir Tlio hrgh perfofrtiance naiun? *iO 10/3020/4000/5000 CMBflSa MXII IS Pm UD D Type -SPinS Pftano Leads EB.50 i'9 99 at the Two mcdels of NeiServer All PC's for schools now come supplied with aru Ideal Inr IJesarving in Q^tahNfiTimenEs that requjre A3010'3020/400a'5000-AKF17 4AKF30 !5 P:r HD Type - 1 Pm EB,50 H £9 99 Iniguard Protect, which is a program that Q h^ levr^l of itBacibiliiy and miegnty SCSI 26 Pin D Cenltonics SCSI Interlace ro Etlemal Boi/CD or HD tlJ.OO t i't4 lU makes Windows a captive system This SCSI 50 Way IDC flibbm Cable 1M Inrainul SCSI CiDle ICan Be Custom marlB) CASK ^ CASK means that the transition Item Acorn in PC NetServer 1000 SCSI CenlroiTics 1o Conuonics tM EtlBrnsI Daisy Cnammg/Svucfi Box Cable £14 00 1' Lie 45 ^--lii^aa^aiTtt is as painless as possible. Iniguard Protect l^-jk IDE 40 Way Cable 15" tw 2 Ham Dnvas Inlemol Ic 2x3 S' IDE Hani Dnvas oi CDs a. DO '• C3.S3 lOOMhj ProcasMr. 34Mb RAM, iGb IDE Hard wiii slop any unauthorised aiSBss to Iha Dnva, IDE 40 Way Sub Miniature Cable InlBtnal Cable loi Z 5" IDE Hare Drue Eon ta^ti o rare Oucid Speed CD ROM, Windaws NT 3.5i.. compuler and ensure that the PC gives 1 44M0 Floppy PCI Graphics Card. MPR^ CnJour IDE 40 War Sub Miniature Cable Sborl As above Ixil only *rm long lA 1300. an:) £7.00 " E6.23 DX2-6a ^akCetfie X4-120-;561cCBcng PariasonK years ot trouble Tree performance. MonJior. iflOMbiT PCI Nstwoiii Card CO Ribbon Cable 40 Way IniBinat Cattle lor CD ROM 10 interlace £3.00 '1 E3 53 4Mb Ram eWbRam Panasonic AErdio Cable Haid Drivu EBOMli Hard CD £3.00 << E3.53 SeOMS Dnua Fm Instauatlon £2750.00 We are able to otter finance lor single VLB 1MB Orapnics Card Vt-arMbGruohlosCara Sony CD Ribbon Cable 34 Wa, Internal Cable tor CD POM lo Interlace £3.00 '1 £3 53 rnachines and leasing lor sever^tl machines, VLB EnbancM VO VLB Entwncfla tn3 Sony CD Auda Cable CD to Soundcard/lnteriace tor Audio CD's £3.00 " EJ53 NetServer 2000 1 14fcB Floppy t MUti Floppy we can even incorporate nelwork MJIsumi CD Ribbon Cable 40 Way Inlerruil lor ! the 14* CaBIa CD ROM JO Interlace £3.00 E3S3 SVGA ColOLir Moulo' I f SVGA Colour WonlBr IDOMhz processor, 32Mtt RAM, 2Gb SCSI Hard installation costs inio Ifie lease if you Wilsuml CD Audio Cable £3.00 i! E3 63 UK Keytward LIKKayboard Drive Stnpo Sflt. Quad Speed CD POM, WiikJo*s require. Uausfl Uouae SnEloppy Diali Dnve Ribbon Cable Inlamal Floppy Dis* Dnve Cable S.5-/S.25- £3.00 1 E3 5.1 NT3 5JI, 1.44M0Froppv, PClG'apfricsCaidiMPRE Tnin Spesd <• CD ROM Qued Speed IDO ROM Monitor, Power Cable SpliHar 5 25' or HD/CD l-^ Splitler 10 arid an Extra -t Pirt Pav/ei £3.25 E3fl2 Colom lODMhil PCI Network Card 2Gb DAT Lead 16 BB Stereo SouiWcaiO 15 Bit Stereo SotindcanJ Unii Power 2-1 -1 KCS, with a weallh ol enpenence in school Backup CaWe Splitter 3 S" As above but lor 3 5' Floppy DBJi Dnves £3-!S E3a2 Doa A Windows Dos 6 WindowB PS2 Keyboard Adaolor Converts E3.5IJ ^ F'l It networtts and MuHi Media machines are now Encans Sta 5 Pin Dm Ketboant la PS? 95 Encarra95 ffcw Instaliation £4250.00 PS2 to 5 Pin Keyboard Adaptor Canveils PSX «e|/Boflti) to Sid S Pin Dm C3.50 a E4 11 best placed to serve your needs, please call MlorosoB Wohis Microaotl ^orks U3ir>g Ihe PS2 Mouse Adaptor CoovBils Senal 9 Pin Mouse In PS2 asa a EJ 11 or fax your requirements and we'll show you NetServsr al Ihe hearr of a network SRP reoo SRP E965 enables flasy network niafiagemBrtl in one Oongle Dancjle 6om For use en /^^stnclad Access Compulgis Eg.oa >i ES JO how we can be enlremely competelive yel machine wilh accesE lo Macs. Acojns. PC'S, and even Urun show excellent support when you need tl Teacher £780 Teacher E925 " "" -"'""^'^S'f'^w'' -M'./^'. (iJi-.rv. .-.Ki' r.,T/ .-^T./J. ,.(r[i(r j]mr K,i ""ill^ll /.' v^^ sysiems Tha leat beauiy ahoul [his Bystem is (ha( most, in I.T School C770 Scfiool E900 the 'Clienr machines don'l nolice ^n^tiing dilFarem abeui Ihe networfi, as Arc&haie ai^d Windows NT - MULTI MEDIA KITS ACORN UPGRADES efforrlefisly blend together to give full conlrnl and file £t Vel Inc Val FlVfl! IncVai manJpuEalion. - Twin 4-8 MB Up (310,440,400/1) 1249 00 f?9S 5 Speed lOE CD ROM ISo.oo .i C5B 7= 4-8 MB Up (ASOOO'SOOO) E249.00 : C292 57 lot T«in Speed Ejdemal CO ROM E 1 (5.00 lI E^nS 63 An Bdd on the NelSen/er 2000 - Fndudes PrtEihng Arm3(A300O'400|SFPASoclietE114 1 133.95 FnfAmy Is the CD Tower ayglem which Quad Speed IDE CD ROM Cl 10 00 li EK-9 E5 rcshare Iwin Arm 3 As above wnh FPA. £179.00 : C210 32 comprises of 1 Ouad Speed CD speed SCSI CD ROM CIIOOO .1 Et2a25 Acom lo PC Nerwarking SorTware ArcShare FPAUp9faaeroiA5000/540 CT9.00 F93 82 ROM Drives. Thess can each be Quad Speed SCSI CD ROM E160.00 1.1 EIBB 00 A3010 t-2 MB Upgrade £45.00 b £52. B7 Aiosnare is an Acom to PC netwoiliing packages which uBsd eJmultarieouB^ over the enliie £>ternal CD Bon t. PSU £S5 00 c E76 3B WffW networK A3010 2-4 MB Upgrade CBS.OO : £104 57 makes I he PC bahaue as it a was ah Acom Access A301D 1-4 MB Upgrade i:i32 00 V £155 to system. This allows fast easy translers ol dala from or MONITORS A302O/4D00 2-4 MB upgrade [83.00 b £97 S3 10 either machine via a simple to control interface on the ASOOD 2-4 MB Upgrade [79 00 I £92 82 PC. The Acorn on the other hand needs no special El Vsi IivVbI A3000 1-2 MB Upgrade 052,00 fi £61 in software other than Access The Acom 15 then able 14' SVGA Monochrome lo A30CID 1-4 MB Upgrade £114,00 r £133.95 see all Ihe files on the PC just like any other nelwotked 14- SVQA 39 Colour A300D Senal Port Upgrade £19,00 b £21:32 dnve. whats more, ali the dies stored on the PC have 14- SVGA 36 MPR2 Colour A31D4MtJLJp9rHdo £137.00 r £160 97 the eorreei fiietype, so ihey can be loaded and used IS" SVGA 0.2B MPR2 Colour t2&U QCI '-"^i L Risc OS Canler Board (A310) £32 00 j, r?5 flS Elraighi away 17" S1/GA Jfl MPF12 Colour £400.00 f £575 75 MEMC lA Upgrade Kit £29.00 [ i:s-iri7 20" SVGA 31 MPR2 Colour £736.00 1 £663 63 A400/1 IMbUpgradepermeg £45.00 c. Available Now. no special haniware nqulrod. Acorn AKF53 Med Res Colou £235.00 : E27Q13 A rcshare Sender 1 4 £994 vai Rise OS 3 1 Up Rom Books E75.00 .i Esa 1,; AKF60 S Acorn Hi Rea Colour £295.00 -I E346 61 Midi Expansion Card E70.00 . £92.6.-] iOinAUFHS As Aboue, 17" £690.00 e i-B10 7^ CD ROW Dnves SCSI EPOA .1 IPOA CO ROM Drii-ea IDE EPOA t CPOA INKJET & LASER PAPER/OHP's Surplus Software Deals Scanihght Junior Handheld Cl 75.00 ,i £205 65 Ex Vbi Inc Vbi CD Indiiim Laser/lnhjal Paper lODgrm A4 SOO shts t&.OD J r7 ACCESSORIES VID I Archimedes CSSDOi E6J63 05 El WV Indium Laser/lrdiBt Hard Drives (Inl) A301(V302O Paper 100 gnu A3 500 shIs EH.OO d £16 4S CD Caddy Koldsr ,. i-5.00 Laser Plus Lnser/lnhial Paper 90 grrn Ad 5[>0sht8 A3010HO InEsitace £5900 o £81 07 ES.ID 'J £5 3& CD DiU Cleaner £2.95 b LdGsr Plus Inkgel Coaled Paper lor Colour Printing A4 16.00 A3010 HD Inl Face S User Pon £79 00 a £9^83 20QBh1s C ,t Elfl.&O CO Tray Flipper Holds 20 (2-55 b Premier Man Coaled Inkiel Paper tor Coloirr Prmting AJ BSMb Haid Dnve 2.5' IDE C85 00 .J E9S88 ^OOahu C14.00 d E164& EmoTy CD Jevret Cabb fn 50 .. PremiBr titatt Coaled Inkjat Paper tor Colour Pnnting A4 60 shli 12OMI1 Hard Drive 2.5" IDE C94.00 -i ElilS tS.OO b £5 BS CO Protettor R:nqt (P.ick of 51 L 1 50 ; HbwIhii PacltarOGlDBsy PaparS1fl3&J A4S0sht6 !. 170Mb Hard Dnve 2.5" IDE £100.00 .1 £1175 M1.00 £48 18 Promlor Gloss Inlqel Paper CoaleO lor High QuBlrty Colour Pnnllng SO stflB ! £4 1 2lOMbHardOnve2 5"IOE £13000 11 n-52 7 A4 tSS.OO 13 Pramier GIOS! lnK|8l Paper lor High Quality 340Mb Hard Onue 2.5" IDE tl6000] £1680 Coaled Colour Printing A4 20 3hIB C16.00 ri ElB.flO ACORN Software Canoo LC-tOI Coalea InlqelPapertor Colour Pnnlin^AflSOO OvVet Hard Dhvee (lnl| A4000/5000 shlB E1S.00 i £21 15 B Canon LC'IOI Coaled Inkpei Paper tor Colour Pnolinfj lOO 420Mb Hard Dnve 3.5" IDE £10^ IH> ;i.V3 A3 Shis E41.D0 i £4^18 •rjafe 10 I fig.er. 3 5" Epson ContBdlnl^ot?20 DPI For High Ouatily Colour Pnnling(Slylua) A4 200 sms CtB.OO 3 £2? 33 1 SI SSOMb Hard DnueS IDE ll^SUU ; iMnO. Word Plus [l'5n I »D £-S Epson CoaCBOIiiliiel DPI For Colour Prmiing i:i 5" ,; 360 on Stylus Colour A4 200 sftts £17,00 rl ElB.ge Arc CommP cas.oo I £41 520Mb Hard Dnve 3 SCSI 1 175.00 v-iQ^f- B Prermoi lnk|&l Transparencieslor OvarheaOProiBClorB A'l '.< Amyqrks CD Ver C 130.00 I £153 7^ lGbHar[IDnve3.5"SCSI £245 00 e C?!}- !( 50 Bhls £30.00 S!3B.2S Premier lnk|?t Trangparencies lor Ovarhaad ProjBdors ! Avei> Label TemplHtes £5.00 ^I ESB8 Hard Dflvsa (biI) ASOOO A4 20 Shis Et&.OD £t7.e3 HflwJBIl Biacli I Packard TransparenciBS Angel E2i.9a J £27lf0 lor CBS1 ,I etooo Borders Irripraesion 2 SM Laser Transparencies for Overtiead Proleclora 50 [i A3OD0 Hard Onve Case £65.00 d E76 38 A4 shlB MS.OO £29.38 71 Canon Fodder [IB. 46 £1I £21 Prem«r Laser Tranapflfoncies fur Overliead Pro|eclois A4 ' 210Mb Hard Dnve 3 5" IDE £85.00 d V°fl Sfl 50 sMs £25 M £29 Xe Crystal CS-I.OO 1 Maze -..aser Tr„r,^,i,v.?n[,i.; ir., Premier Ovoriii-=,.) p...,|c.;1c.(^ J.; ro ^iii^; i, i, f 14 420Mb Hard Drives S" IDE £105.00 ,J ':\li HI 69 Thp Crystal Rain Forest E35,50 1 £41 71 S60Mb Hard DrrveS.S' Cl 25.00 -l r!.lr,-,h Qdlaword E11 91 A E139? IDE Acorn Original Mouaa £35 00 r, £,;^' .i.^ Dune II C28£0 .1 C33 4y If you have access to email, ask tor a full catalogue via the Intofi KCS Replacemenl C12.00 r n-'i 1 Easlword y? E25.0a I £29 38 Mouse Email ue at info3kc&preiTi.dcmon.co.uk EasylDnt3 e;5 do I £29 38 Euclid 2 E25 0D .J E29 3S Midnigbl Graphics Express £15.00 .1 £17 63 RISC PC UPGRADES jurle CIB.OO .1 £21 15 6. Vol Inc I/a: l*fei'9r £7.00 I E8 23 1MB VRAM ETO.DO L £82 2S URgii: ^^ockets £19.50 d E2E91 Rise PC 2MB VRAM Etae.oo . £222 08 Mici.? Enqlisb EIB.DO ., £21 15 EISOO a E2I 15 Rise PC Extra SIh:b S PSU c9s.ao £11633 NoviKy Mouse MhIs RISC Eilra EISDO £12 15 f, j,a, IncVal CopvHolMii El Val Inc Val PC Slk:a |no PSU) £49.00 C57 SB Han*urgar .. -nn-lr.^n EloHes Cll 70 .1 r48(i9 i bf £4ia Paperclip - Monitor Arm £4,16 I! £SDD Rise PC Hea.y Duly KeyMaM £64.00 I F75 20 PpiKlDWl Pig Plus EfiS.OD j E7BS0 £3 56 £4 18 CopytrBuel - PodatW C4.J6 ! £5 00 Rise PC Keytioaid Enlensiori E6.60 l> rv.64 Pinpont £45.00 j E52t!e Clown t3 5« £4 1fl Copyplus Desktop EJ.so r Earn Rise PC Mouse Exiension ECiO |. £7 64 Pincoim 2 £65.00 -! r76 3fi LadiBB Top E3 5S M.ia Copyplus Solid Base EI2.00 ' £14 10 Rise PC Mouse Mai (Rare? E4 0a ' F4 70 Pipedream 4 £80.85 ^ £05 00 Male Torso £3,ss £4 18 Copyplus FleniWe RISC Kll EG .00 ! £7 Ami £12, ?! i £MOT PC 2na HD Fmng 05 Aries tis break ia7 £15 QjKrwrGold £12.00 , €14 10 Foolball E3.S« £4 18 Copyplua Rise E1D0.00 -. El 17 A3 Ems Kn EI DO ! £8 23 PC Memory 4Mb SO VirtuBlGoH E15 Lemmirasa E15 ^iiil.i "'e Sorcerer £26.00 i. £32 90 Cat Ei.M £4.18 ftiscPC Mamory BMb £196,00 - £229.13 Champions T-;.:!. Wriier 2 EU5.00 3 £146.08 £12,73 ^ousa E3.H £4 IS Various Acceaaorivs Rise PC Memorv ISMb £336.00 ^ £393. B3 1 o ZoQl (1 C14.0D M £16 45 Cosmic Rings Screen Saver SbI t9.00 £10 50 Ncvelly Cal Holder 44MB HD CMy) Mouse Black E2.S0 1 £294 RPC 486 Games CD Baltlesoape Screen Saver Set £9.00 £10 50 r^velly Cal Mouae Holder Grey U.SO I: £2 94 A eollBqt.nn ol Ivor I 60 ol Ihe ^ary heal PC Ailnbla caIII, hul - Wildlile Mouse Mat E4.00 £4 71.1 ' 4 PD games available all on one CD Wildlife Wiisl Real E»-50 t £K :?! iiRiDOOMS ApogeSlull CIS&Vat Dinosaur Mouae Mai E4 00 1 £4 7u Dinosaur WnsI Real £4.50 ' Cornbo Thick 7 INTERNET Pad Moubb Mat £S.25 ! B6 t MODEMS Keyboard Extends r5 £16,00 J ElB Kevt>aara Calculator C4.I6 < £5 001 al Inc Val Koytioara Station (PC) £15.90 : ]14,400«Ei1emal Fai/Modsm £75.00 '1 £SS13 Heard Hie latest 'Buzz" word from llie Eissa ' Wnsi Suppon Fabric a 00 ! rs 52 j 2B,800K Eilomal Fn/MoOam £145.00 tJ £170 38 Computer Wo rtd WnsI Support Plastic E4 90 I Arcfai Soltware £28.00 1, £32.90 Disk Poner Ring Birrdar 3 S" E<2« £5 no lArcComm SoBwanj E35 00 ^ £4i i:i Want 10 get connected the rest of the I in 5' I Modem Cable Ee so - £9 90 " Disk Clips (3) Ring Binder 3 £3.2S World tor too once ol e tocai phone call HOW To OnJer Disk Pockai LeatnerallB holds fl £8.00 Ij £7 06 - By Poet Send Pull aataSs of your order, logeihsr I Dfik Mailer holds 6 Rouseeble C3JO b E4 1 ' wilh paymenl delails. Include your Hama, Ai«lrBBs| Want yoj 1 EMAIL address Monitor Swivel Slarid 12-14- £14.00 -1 £1645; Opening Hours S Phone Number. Always Include your Poslcoite. UnivBTSal 2 Pee Pnnler Stand £3.00 ,- E3S2| By Phone - Our Staff will lake ali Ihe necassaryl As Abo^B with Printoui Tray 1 6-1 We'll show you iiow, and pravide all the tS.SO a Oelflils oyer the order 132 phone, Vour will usually I information Slflx Column Pnnler Stand (t3,00 i" £1S.?B| and soltware you need, be il foi int ths same day the Acom or Ihe PC. Call now and speak lo By Fax , As by PosI - Fax Noj 01943 E7Z300 our lechnjcal slaff yvho will be happy to By Email - Send full details to our sales addrasa at| advise on Ihe best lype of rrodem, wfio Ihe lop ol this advert wilh payment details. Or, pioirides the services and who rs the hesi you prefer, leave a number and well call you bach prced on the market Carriage Charges - A=£1, Brf2, C=£3 50, 0=£4.60, ErfB, F=£6 b-iC. H.cMD. r-rhcE. etc Call it Unsure. Jw*^.#*I-*r* *•*•**• ***-*r* •*•**• m'X" •f-*r* •r-*5 #*^:* • • PCs and Acorns in the same case So, you want a PC but don't want to go out and buy another machine? David Matthewman examines the options. The Tube is a connector attd software mterfiUi' wUkh permits ver}' liixihspeeil (vniiniiiikatiun between the BliC computer ami a second processor. The 'Secoml Processor' is another computer system in its own right, but one that uses the BBC computer for all its time-consumlnx input/output operations. The BBC Microcomputer User Guiile ( 19S2) Connecting other computer systems to your Acorn is not a new idea. The BBC Micro had this mysterious port on its underbelly called the Tube to which, according to legend, alt manner of excit- FasterPC which sacrificed some of the it is a lot more expensive. ing and alien boxes could be attached to frilh of PCSoft for much better graphics Cards currently in the Aleph One range boost the performiince of your machine. I performance and sound handling. For are the 80MHz 486I)X2/80 at £399 + V.Vf even had one myself - the Torch 780 older P(" games this was an excellent and the 40MHz 486DX-40 at £349 + VAT. which ran some hideous operating system choice, and Faster PC is still available Older cards are available at cheaper called ("P/M (whatever became of that?). from APDL, price £20. prices, but avoid the 2.SMHz cards if you The way it worked was basically to hijack want to run Windows - they're not really the BB(7s keyboard, speaker and monitor Podule cards up to it. when running, .-Vnything requiring a 386 or even a 486 to 386 and 486 cards were also manufac- This philosophy lay dormant in the nm was clearly going to require something tured for the A3020 and .44000 machines - Archimedes - although a partial solution more than a software emulation, though, these sat on mini-podules and had 25MHz existed in the I'odule slots - but re-sur- Aleph One therefore developed a number chips on them. Although slow by modem faced with a vengeance in the Rise I'C. of expansion cards which plugged into the P(; standards, they are the only cards This had, as an integral part of its design, a |)odule slot on the Archimedes and con- available for these machines. Until co-processor slot dedicated to running a tained bona fiile 386 and 486 chips. These recently they were being sold by Acorn - second processor in the machine. This have got progressively faster, and today if your local dealer doesn't have one you processor shares everything - memory, the range runs right up to a 4860X2/80 may be able to pick one up second hand. parallel and serial ports, hard disc, the lot clocked at 80M Hz. - and so avoids unnecessary duplication; Software compatibility problems with Co-processors it's also cheaper. these are much less than with the software That about covers the pre-Risc PC emulators. Any problems are limited to solutions. The Rise PC, as mentioned Software solutions interfacing with the Archimedes hardware above, introduced a novel and far When the Archimedes first appeared, it - sound and video being particular prob- better solution; the co-processor, was so hiindingly fast that the obvious lems. Don't expect these cards to run at This shared memory and other solution to PC compatibility was to write a full speed for this reason; the podule bus hardware with the ARM processor software emulator. This program, PCSoft on an Archimedes can't cope with the rate in the Rise PC making it not only by Acorn, emulated a 4MHz 640K «088 PC of data transfer needed by a 486DX2/80 a cheaper solution, but a faster with reasonable accuracy. Unfortunately, running SV(iA graphics at full speed. This one too. this quickly became obsolete in the PC is an insurmountable problem on the The first card to take advan- world and, although with an ARM3 the older machines - however fast the proces- tage of this - a 4()MHz Texas emulator could be pushed close to 8MHi, sor runs, it's always fighting against the Instruments 486SXL-40 actually and various upgrades gave CD-ROM com- relatively slow rate of data transfer clocked at 33MHz - broke the patibility, limited VGA graphics and between the Archimedes and the podule price barrier by being sold at £99 -i- extended memory sup|)ort, real-life P('s card. VAT with the Rise PC, or £199 + quickly outstripped this. The other problem with these cards is VAT if bought separately. This is still PCSoft'sonc big flaw was in graphics that they can't share memory with the available and offers reasonable bottoni- performance, which was very slow indeed. main computer. This does have its advan- of-the-range performance, Even playing Tetrts on it was an exercise tages as well; they don't rely on having an say about a 25MHz PC.. There ^ in boredom rather than a battle of hand- Archimedes with masses of memory are now faster alternatives eye co-ordination. Seeing this, Dave (16Mb Arcs are rare) and the processor from -Acorn: Lawrence (not he of *INl-0 fame, another doesn't have to communicate with the • DX2-66 card clocked at 66MHz for one) wrote an alternative emulator called memory across the podule bus. However, £249+VAl 32 Acorn User January 1996 . PCs and Acorns in the sanne case • D,\4-I00 card clocked at lOOMHz for £299 + VAT and the following from Aleph One: 7^ • DX2/80 card for £399 + VAT • Pentium-class C^yrex 586 chip for £549 + VAT. The DX2/80 from Aleph One has now 5 really been superseded by the Acorn DX4- 100 card, although the review this issue has been kept in because it provides a use- ful guide to the speeds being achieved by the cards now. Basically, the technolog)' is moving faster than we can review it at the moment - already there is a Blue Light- ning 586 chip from Acorn promised for release at BETT for £499 + VAT. P7S (though not yet 1*90} performance is being approached. None of the cards uses Intel processors and SoundBlaster emulation from DOS, your machine; the PC card shares the Eth- (hence '586' not the trademarked Pen- but there are still problems getting this to ernet card with RISC OS. tium'), so as far a processors are concerned work with the card. Similar products may Should you wish to connect your Acorn owners can claim a Pyrrhic victory work, but at the moment I'm not aware of Archimedes to a P( network you can do by keeping Intel Outside. one which completely solves the problem. so using Acorn's OniniClieul, (£249 + VAT) Owners of the original ;i3MHz card will SoundBlaster emulators for Rise PCs which allows RISC OS to have an Ethernet have an upgrade path to faster Acorn with 16-bit sound have been nmioured for connection to any LANManager, NIserver, cards. Although prices had not been fixed ages, but none has appeared yet. This is a Windows for Workgroups or NIS net- at the time of writing, Acorn is keen to huge blow to games players and users of works, as well as the standard RISC OS reward original purchasers of the card, so many multimedia titles which don't work solutions. expect discounts to generous. be It is also to their full potential without Sound- KCS's AnSlwri' approaches the problem possible that Acorn will be offering its Blaster support. from the other end. being a PC program faster cards at a discount when bought which allows a P(; on an Ethernet network with the Rise PC; it does not do PC hardware cards this at the to use the standard Acorn Access protocols, moment, but an announcement is What you'd like to do is to buy a Sound- this is certainly the preferred solution for promised for BET! Blaster card and plug that into the attaching a PC to an existing Acorn Access Early versions of the 4H6 emulator 1" soft- expansion slols. Obviously it won't fit, network and, being at £99 + VA consider- ware supplied with the cards had but there is a solution, or there soon will ably cheaper than OmuiClient, should palette problems with 256-colour be. certainly be considered even for modes - Jjj these have largely been Atomwide is about to release a useful larger PC networks. ^U fixed in the latest release of piece of hardware called the ISAdaptor. the software, now called .\86 This plugs into a standard podule slot and and into version 1.91 allows you to connect ISA-standard cards Contact details already. Another recent to your Archimedes. There are several ver- Acorn (various products) innovation is Acorn's sions - by far the neatest is an extra slice PCExchatigc I i 1 i Tel: (01223) 254222 for your nearest s^^*' fi u t y for your Rise PC which can support up to Acorn ^^ «=^. which allows drag-and- two cards, but there's also a stand-alone dealer. drop transfer of files box which takes up to seven. Aleph One (PC cards and network software) between the Acorn The extra-slice option costs £269 + VAT Desktop Tel: (01223) 811679 and the Win- and the stand-alone box £299 -h VAT so in Fax:(01223)712713 dows clipboard, with terms of initial outlay this is an expensive automatic conversion upgrade. However, the ISA cards them- E-mail: [email protected] nf common file types. selves are all much cheaper than their WWW: http://www.ant.co.uk/com/aleph1/ The biggest incom- Acorn equivalents and include many (like APDL (FasterPC) liatibility with the an internal modem) that have no Acorn Tel: 0181-778 2659 Ill-processor in the Rise equivalent. PC is that of sound. These cards can be accessed from the Atomwide (ISAdaptor) Windows sound is PC cards (both the co-processors in JTyWglf^ the Tel: (01689) 814500 "^ ^>^ tP available - allowing the Rise PC and the older podule cards) as Fax; (01689) 814501 machine to play WAV though they were accessing standard PC E-mail: [email protected] files - either by connect- hardware. Not only that, but with suitable WWW: http://www.ant.co.uk/com/atom- ing the sound pins on drivers they can he accessed from RISC wide/ the card to the connector OS. A SoundBlaster driver already exists, on the Rise PC mother- and others may follow. Desktop Laminations (AudioMan) board using drivers with Tel: 01179-979 9979 16-bit machines, or using Desk- Networking lop Laminations' AudioMan One reason for having a PC card in your Kimberley Computing Services (ArcShare) speaker and microphone which con- machine might be to connect to a PC net- Tet: (01942) 677777 nects to the parallel port. work. This is easily possible from the PC Fax; (01942) 682300 A considerably enhanced version of side of things using network drivers from E-mail: [email protected] AudioMan offers full 16-bit stereo sound Aleph One if you have an Ethernet card in January 1996 Acorn User 33 Jt'&a And(itop Ar-tWor'i^^ifee efane masieJmitk wtU(d ^e^ attaci'sAmr^ Ro^t J ditdCi/tte^. Opacity set to 50% / sif 'r-tpaitta uitlii Pf^dAft^^ cfo»e tos. / via Ol£^Pf^oCoco^ ei/^caiar Megdmasi u.Sed koi^se ma^lUdaxdSfn masi. crrnhdin Comps mdiimkeJiK Pr^sAfCisai! 2 smpie masiuHi wick aisH(Meet eJae. andantt-aiias mter-s asedCo dda e.dg>es drop skadow appiied drop skadou) addedhf empkasis f^fC^of^ impsrC masitdin Compo £169.95 inc VAT (P&P free) Special offer price of £85 for ProArtisan 24 owners Introductory offer - £99.95 for users of other art packages (]l A R i S MICRO SUPPLIES VISA 98 MIDDLEWICH ROAD, RUDHEATH, NORTHWICH, CHESHIRE CW9 7DA EXCLUSI^i TEL:0]6064851] FAX: 0160648512 email: [email protected] seems that there were two reactions to It Acom's original 4S6 processor card - you either loved it or hated it depending upon your expectations. I was unfortunately in the latter camp as 1 had been promised by Acorn when 1 went to Ibe pre release view of the Rise PC. that it would be indistin- guishable from a PC''s. Weil we now know that not to be the case, with lack of sup- port for sound or ail but the crudest graphics, specially under DOS, It's the lack of proper support for DOS graphics that is my main disappointment. That fortunately is starting to improve and the DX2/80 Second Processor card from Aleph One is another step towards PC com- This means it not only stores data from the thought giving only 3 times improvement patibility. To be fair Aleph One produced main memory but also allows the processor for the few 1 tried. However this was under the original Acorn design but they only to write into it. DOS and the screen drivers absorb most of worked to Acorn's specification which they This minimises the relatively slow access- the power here. admitted to me was rather poor. es to the main memory. Therefore, this Processing data from NASA's Ozone (^Ds processor should be faster at doing sums showed very little improvement as did a New kid on the blocks and also applications that access a small game of Sim Earth. I think Shu Earth has a ihe new package comes in two parts, the amount of memory a lot of times. However software timer to control the speed of the driving software VI. 9b and the hardware processes that have a lot of disc or CD simulation. All in all in these real world tests Iward itself. The software is a considerable access should see little or no improvement. the new card showed either no improve- improvement and can automatically detect 1 use the Magic Eye CD to generate some ment or quite dramatic improvement. Now between the DX2 chip and the original sterograms, it's a sort of multimedia appli- to the liench mark tests, there are basically Acorn design. It includes a power down cation with a virtual reality interface. Windows bench marks that take a random module that you can include in your boot There was no difference in the setup or the selection of calls to routines known to be file to save burning large amounts of ener- wandering around but the generation of used in various types of applications, as gy when you want to do only real (non PC) the sterograms were dramatically such they are quite artificial. work. improved. Here the bigger the number the better the It also contains palette support for While it took a painful 17 minutes 12 pnitessor. In order to give you a feel for real Windows as well as the ability to use any seconds on the original processor, on this PCs I have included the timing for a numl^r RISC OS screen mode under Windows new one it took a just acceptable 1 minute of other machines. The numbers are nor- (memory permitting). There is also support 6 seconds. That's a speed up of over 15 malised so that a standard 486 PC should for sharing the serial and parallel port times! There was also some CD access dur- give a value of 1. As you can see the DX2 between Windows and RISC OS, useful if ing that time to fetch the images in .so this holds its head up quite well except for the you have dongles installed. is underselling the raw speed increase. PC with the accelerated graphics display. While it does not officially support Next 1 went to the PD ray tracing pack- Note here the difference in timing Windows 95 it can be persuaded to run age POV, a simple, small, 100x100 scene Ijetween using the standard VGA windows with a few changes in the slower VGA took 1 minute 19 seconds on the old driver and the ARM driver. As has been mode with 16 coIours.Well, what about the processor and just 4 seconds on the new known for a long time Windows soaks up hardware? Not much to say here except one - a speed up of nearly 20 times. Fractal processor power in return for a Aj-r that it's faster. But how fast is faster? generation did not speed up as much as I graphics interface. /lU Lies and statistics Facts and figures There are all sorts of bench marks that are Thanks to John Nuttall at the Department of Maths & Physics, Manchester Metropolitan University available to give speed numbers to various for providing these figures. All tests were in a 16 bits/pixel mode. functions of a computer but these should be treated with caution. 1 know that it is Application SI S2 S3 S4 S5 56 57 relatively easy to devise a set of bench Word Processing 2.33 3.49 3.14 27.93 1.13/5.25 0.95/4.68 1.19/5.31 marks that show your system to advantage CAD 3.71 5.51 6.02 96,06 2.6/11.81 1.48/7.18 2.91/12.87 and a rivals to disadvantage. So before 1 Paint 3.73 6.10 6.92 52.82 1.44/10.68 1.05/7.43 1.5/10.93 embarked on testing 1 did a few real tasks Spreadsheet 3.29 4.75 4.15 26.37 0.68/12.81 0,62/9.93 0.69/13.00 armed with a stopwatch as computer tim- Overall 3.24 5.46 ing can cheat. 5.56 50.82 1.47/10.14 The nX2 processor has a built-in floating KEY point processor and a write-back cache. For Systems 55 to 57 XX/YY where XX is the speed with the Standard VGA driver and YY is the speed with the Arm Windows Driver. Bigger numbers mean faster operation. Product details 51 - System 1 - 486 DX33 8mb Standard VGA vessa local Bus 52 - System 2-486 DX2/66 8mb Standard VGA vessa local Bus Product: DX2/80 Second Processor card 53 - System 3-486 DX4/99 16mb Standard VGA PIC Bus Requirements: Rise PC 54 - System 4-486 DX4/99 16mb Accelerated cirrus logic display board Manufacturer: Aleph One 55 - Systems - Acorn R700 22mb DX2/66 Tel: (01223) 811679 56 - Systems - Acorn R700 22mb SX33 Price: £399 +VAT 57 - System? - Acorn R700 22mb DX2/80 - New card January 1996 Acorn User 35 Readers for PC CD-ROMs Contact details Innovative Media Solutions/CD Circle Tel; 01 17-979 9979 Welcome Dorling Kindersley Tel: 0171-753 3488 this is a super program which is guaran- Hel]» P.B. Bnir teed to enthral. PB Bear is a 'talking book' Hm^-o,^, The P. sMnds with pictures to replace some of the words. The text can be read out either a page or a [at pyjamtli htrouuMf hi to the phrase at a time. Click on one of the pic- urt his fuvfxirliE dothn. tures and the word it replaces is displayed B. li tor bed, beaiuse Ws after a short animation of the picture. Each of the 18 pages has a lai^e anima- his fuvourltti pk:< tion which can last as long as 30 seconds. If used with a low-spec Acom (for instance an A310 with ARM2) the large animation is rather jumpy, but the smaller ones are A talking book with pictures; PB Bear's Birthday acceptable. Also featured is an on-screen Party is a great program for under fives. help which gives a spoken guided tour of the program; each page also has a couple of simple games which feature the same PC digitised graphics and speech. PB Bear's Birthday Party with its those of you who regularly receive As PCTOAcorn reader costs £39 Inc VAl from CD-ROM catalogues will know. Acorn Geoff Preston looks at the Dorling Kindersley Family Library or does not usually feature very highly, if at some PC CD-ROMs which CD Circle. The prices for the other Dorling all. in the list of titles. What native RLSC Kindersley titles have yet to be decided. OS versions exist are generally highly rec- now run on Acorns. ommended, but there just isn't the range Microsoft available, nor do I expect there ever will At the time of writing, there were two be. The fact is, the Acorn market is too there should be four PCTOAcorn readers PCTOAcorn readers finished with two small to make 'Acorn only' CD-ROM ready, and a further seven in various more just about ready for release; another products economically viable. stages of development. five should become available during 1996. However, don't give up and buy a PC I received a review copy of PB Bear's The current list Is Musical Instruments, just yet: there are two ways around the Birthday Party and began by running it on Dinosaurs, Ancient Lands and Dangerous problem. The first is to make dual- a PC just to establish the standard. I then Creatures. Among the new releases will be platform CD-ROMs. Several companies ran it from a Rise PC via RISC OS and the the superb Encarta Encyclopedia 96 - have done this and a couple have even PCTOAcorn reader and frankly couldn't tell World English Edition and Encarta 96 produced triple-platform discs which is the difference - which is as it should be. World Atlas. really hedging their bets. The second There is a warning in the RcadMe file on Prices are £39 for Dinosaurs and £48 for option is to take a PC CD-ROM and write a the disc that the soimd may become broken the others so far released (discounts are PC to Acorn converter that translates the if used with a parallel port (printer port) available for CD Circle members.) As with PC data as It's read. Ihe majority of the CD-ROM drive; as I don't use one of these I the others, there is a slight decrease in early Acorn CDs were of this type, Includ- don't know if this really is a pmblem. speed when running via RISC OS and the ing Hutchinson's Encyclopedia, The For those with children under five and a PCTOAcorn reader, but it's not really Complete Works of Shakespeare and RISC OS computer with a CD-ROM drive, noticeable and all the fea- Sherlock Holmes on CD. Mcrosoft MuHimetfa CatalOflue tures work in exactly the Innovative Media Solutions (IMS) has same way as the PC started creating a series of PCTOAcorn versions. readers for two very popular series of CD- ^MTRUMem ROMs which will be familiar to PC users. Musical Infiiuinent^ lake^ Networking The first is from Dorling Kindersley and you inio one ot the iar^n Networking is not cur- the second is from none other than miuic studios m the worid. rently possible. The Microsoft. The advantage of this method is tilled with over 200 PCTOAcorn readers will that the end user gets a larger resource. mimiQicinsI Leain ^boui only look for a local CD- Multi-platform CD-ROMs generally have Atem all, heur ibett souikIs, evenpla)- iban! ROM drive and not a the same data stored two or three times - networked one principal- once for each format - which means that EniCf a new world ly because, at present, the overall size of the program can be only Tiikc tlilW ilK* d neither Microsoft or about one-third of the size of the disc. Hear the divereity Dorling Kindersley have Dorling Kindersley Jtnn n hand decided on licence terms. At the time of writing, The delightful books from Dorling 4 » Conttnts IMS was talking to both Kindersley include such titles as The Way parties about multi- . Things Work, The Ultimate Human Body IMS has got PCTOAcorn readers for four of Microsoft's CD-ROMs, user licences. and PB Bear. By the time you read this. with five more on the way. yJ[J 36 Acorn User January 1996 !r Image FS^ Ever since the first release, Alternative Publishing has tried to before directly keep InuigeFS the best-performing and best-looking image file into Paint or any filter on the Acorn platform. There is no doubt that it has managed other package to maintain the number one spot and also pull even further In that loads sprites front of the competition with latest version. and Imagi'FS' the -- - ' s- ! 1 1 1 The packaging is about the best you will find for any application converts the image without in its CD case with Mr Men book-sized manual. Installation is very -X©?B« fast and loading is virtually instant. Click on the icon once loaded you ever knowing and the preferences window offers a logical and nicely laid out set it. Alt-Drag on ImageFS' offers full control over file conversion. of options for the various features. saving and a There are three main features. The first is the invisible file import popup window gives instant export options of most of the above and export filter that has not been changed since the last version, file types. except that a few more sub-types are now supported of the PCX, The second part of the program is called Tiny View which BMP, Clear, PBMRaster, SunRaster, Targa, Tiff, Gif, MacPaint, IMG, enables you to view a 200x200 or 400x400 thumbnail of a disc AmigalFF, ColoiirRix image without having to load it into Pai?it or long-loading graphics ^ -I ^nd Pict2 main file packages like Photodesk, just for a quick peep. The window auto- Product details types. Anything sig- matically closes, Mac style, once you move the pointer away. nificant I have ever The last part of the package is Universal Image. It is an immobile Supplier: Alternative Publishing come across is sup- window that can repel other windows and sits on the right side of Tel: 0141-248 2322 ported, apart from the Desktop with a stack of image^troughs running down it. Drag Price: £39.95 + VAT JPE(i which can an image file on to it and a thumbnail appears which can be already be imported dragged directly into applications or application windows. This is a Pros: Transparent conversion of files into every serious superb feature for DT P and the planned improvements for the full • Thumbnail previews of files graphics package on version include OPl and DCS support. • Very fast the Acorn: Photoshop Near future versions of IniufieFS will include the first of the for- and is to come. eign vector file filters, a JPtG loader and image headers as icons a Cons: No JPEG conversion yet • Less DCS Just drag the fimny hi Photoshop. ImageFS' is now even better value and for people extensive Freevtrare file converters icons that you may dealing with outside platforms it is perfect. exist never have seen Jack Krcindier PC Survival Guide This slim volume (roughly the same size though other illustrations in the book are be a problem; the Rise PC section covers and weight as the RISC OS PRM index) clear and helpful. the old software well, and there haven't sets out to help Acorn users perplexed by When considering the quirks of been that many changes. the introduction on to their machine of Windows and DOS the guide has less to The bottom line is that if you've certain foreign and hostile personalities - say. It does go through the installation of already set up your PC card and have namely DOS and Windows. PC DOS, MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 in installed DOS and Windows but are hav- So as not to tread on ground already detail but doesn't address that burning ing problems running them, one of the covered by various books of the PCs for question 'How does the Windows File more general PC books is for you. Dummies ilk, the PC. Survival Guide con- Manager work?' for instance. In fact, However, if you're having problems get- fines itself to problems specific to Acorn towards the end the guide it starts gloss- ting everything to run in the first place, users: those problems associated with get- ing over subjects with very inadequate this could be just what you're looking for. ting the various emulators to run and the detail - the useful DOS commands appen- David Mattfaewman quirks of Windows and DOS that will take dix being an exception - that almost RISC OS users by surprise. looks as though the author suddenly ran out of room. It has a good deal more information on Product details the first point than on the second. It The glossary is a case in point: while describes the various options for PC emu- 'Program Manager: Windows' equivalent Supplier: Beebug lation from the software PCSoft and of the RISC OS icon bar' is a forgivable Tel: (01727) 840303 FasterPC solutions up to the Rise P(; co- simplification and describes it fairly well, Price: £5.95 {no VAT) + postage processor, along with a detailed step-by- 'MPC: Multimedia PC isn't really helpful step guide to setting them up. and 'MS-DOS: Operating System produced Pros: Comprehensive guide to setting up PC by Microsoft' could usefully elaborated The guide is pretty thorough, even be cards and software • Good tutorials describing how to make up a wire to get upon. The RISC OS user encountering PC for configuration * The only book of sound output from each of the cards to terminology needs a lot more hand-hold- its kind • Very cheap the audio input on every model of ing than this. - machine with the notable exception of The other problem with the guide is Cons: Some subjects glossed over • Once a the A3020 and A40nO solutions, about that it dates quickly. It doesn't have card is running you're on your ow/n which the guide is silent. The Rise PC dia- details of the latest software revisions or • Dates quickly gram is blatantly not to scale, by the way, DX4-I00 cards. However, this shouldn't January 1996 Acorn User 37 m " " Argo is the 'One Stop' you need - we supply everything IFREE technical support - if you have any questions once IFREE Web space - for all our subscribers. You can to gel you on-line - from the software to the modem to you are subscribing, our helpful staff can be reached by create your own area on the Internet for any the Net connection itself - we do it! e-mail or a FreeColl telephone support line • and they other Internet user to look at. Great for schools ore available 7 days a week. We know many of our to use in curriculum projects or for home users to And we make it qI! easy to use and understand - the users personally and pride ourselves on providing a tell the world ofaout themselves! Net has never been so easy! Your pack will reach you professionol ond friendly service. ready to just 'Plug in and Go!' - you'll be on-line in •Access to all of Argo's resources - including on- minutes. 'Ongoing upgrades - free upgrades to the software ore line information, defining which parts of the Net available for as long as you are a subscriber - no are best for particular uses. Together with our Argo is one of the fastest growing Internet access unexpected upgrade bills! educational advisers at LEAs around the country providers, and already has hundreds of satisfied we compile lists of the best sites for specified customers. Here are just a few of the mony favourable curriculum areas. Voyager can restrict access to comments they have mode about our service and the these sites only. friendly Voyager software:- ISpeclal offers - as part of the VTi ond Eclipse "/ wish all companies were as friendly, helpful and group, Argo has the buying power to offer other attentive to its are. customers as Argo products at special prices - these ore exclusive offers available only to our users! iFor schools we also provide a version of Voyoger that will work over your internal network - using only one line and modem, you can have multiple e-mail addresses and more than one user using Ihe service from Voyager ar}d ArgoNet has been different ports of the Net at the some time. excellent . I find it bard to believe from opening the modem packaging and software to being up and iPacks start from only £49 exc. VAT, including running in under 10 mins is truly amazing. The new configured Voyoger software, registration fees software version arrived yesterday and works and your first month's access. excellently." For further details and a FREE demo disk and 7 received today [via Voyager] an e-mail from information pack tall us FREE on 0500 585 586, picture Sydney with sound and attached, to and or write to us FREE at: Argo, FREEPOST PT795, speakers." d, Striae voices emerged from the Chichester, West Sussex P020 6yy, or fax us on 01243 531196 'Very impressed with the 'plug and play' approach. It runs like a dream. If you alreody have access to e-mail then you can of course e-moil us at; soles@or9onet,co.uk - I BENEFITS TO ARGO SUBSCRIBERS INCLUDE: we'll be pleased to answer any questions about the Net or Argo, We'll olso let you know about (Nationwide access to the Net at the cost of a local call the vorious locol events we ore planning oround (can be as low as Ipo minute). We already cover 90% the country - if there is one neor you, come of the population, and 100% coverage is on the way. olong ond hove a go on the Net for FREE! iSome of the quickest Internet links available. Our network connections in the UK and to the USA and Europe are extremely quick, ond we have lots of them! You won't waste time when you collect your e-mail, or wont to link into other computers around the world - o problem you may find with other providers. I Easy set up - we supply everything preconfigured, ready to 'Plug in and Go'! Powerful, user-friendly Voyager Internet software, which enables you to move easily around the Internet. Includes sophisticated filtering and configuration options which allow YOU to decide where users of the software can go. Preview of the BETT Show For the first time, BETT is encouraging parents and not just teachers to attend. For those who want to by-pass the rest and just see the best, follow Geoff Preston's whistle-stop tour. 4Mation (Stand 152) Several new products will be on display at ii^n view Of ChentonT There is aamaniing In Wie pictu'e tvliich tells IS yOu thai tni; a laler photogiaph . the show but top of my list will he the lat- est ottering from 4Mation. Normally noted Sepia for that traditional for material for the up-to-10 age range, the BETt look, as you discover the company has a new product aimtd at environs of the slightly older children. 1 talked to Mike River Itchen. Matson at Acorn World and he was enthusing about his current project - a talking hook for those who can read. 'There's a real gap in the market' he again said. Tk'i of talking books are available for pcopk who can't read or who are learning to read, but nothing for those who already can. I've written a book of books - frequently imi- HyperStudio; lest Card 1 about 35,0(X) words and this is on a CD- tated but seldom ROM with speech and graphics.' bettered. Not only does The user can select one of six degrees of the company produce difficulty and the book will be displayed talking book versions of in one of three modes: text and graphics; stories from the Oxford text, graphics and speech; or speech only. Reading Tree series, but Quiz Today! ax + by = c If a word is clicked on, the computer will also talking reference load the glossary and provide the meaning hooks like the Infant Reports due on Tuesday of the word. Click on a place name, and a Oxford Talking Atlas. a = 7 ! Turn in your disks by 3:30' map is displayed showing its whereabouts. Look out for the ("D- If successful, it will he the first of a series. ROM versions which are especially good value for Sherston (Stand 260} money. Sherston can always be relied upon to There's not a great come up with something special and this deal of software around year will be no disappointment. At the for the very young, but The latest multimedia tool from TAG features time of writing, Sherston is expecting to Sherston will be showing Elf World. These extreme ease of use and lots of special have its first multimedia CD-ROM, Up ami two enchanting adventures are for young effects to Include in you productions. Away, available for viewing, although children and are set in the world of elves probably not quite ready for release. where words are magic and maths is fun. Also on the stand will be its talking The Arcventure series has been very pop- m. ular for Key Stage 2 follows a similar outline to Sherston's pre- History, and fans vious Arcventtires: a simulation of an IT The Alps have will be pleased to archaeological dig where unearthed items the biggest hear that it has can be investigated to provide an insight mountains in returned for one into life at that time, Like the previous Europe. They more adventure. Arcventure packs. Anglo Saxons comes formed in Italy The latest incarna- with the usual printed resources to accom- and moved tion {Arcventiire IV) pany the program. As with all Sherston's into France is on the subject of software, self-motivation for pupils is sup- then into Anglo Saxons and plied at no extra charge. Austria and into SEMERC (Stand SN1) Switzerland. SEMERC's new primary graphic spread- Clear text, superb pictures, simple but sheet Maths Frames is not just new, it's effective layout different from anything I've seen before. It aimed at Key Stage 1 introduces spreadsheets in a most interest- ing and stimulating way. The main Alpine and 2. Alps offers lots of resources on window contains a selection shelf, a calcu- the disc. lator and a landing pad. Each file contains 40 Acorn user January 1996 I Preview of the BETT Show lEAPOtJTiJWBai* Executing CDFS ANGCD180.$ SHARED 'SEALIFE LOOKING AT JOB Mik-oiiieirt K-iih 'OK:, ilt-ihiii. Leapout is a clever introduaion to careers. Seashore Life offers more high quality multimedia from Anglia. can be used 'as is' or The Alps was created by Maureen Good- altered to suit your own ing and contains over 200 pictures and requirements. 100 pages of text. Chas Duckhouse's Seashore life brings the Itchen is a study of the geographical, world of the beach into social and historical features of the River the classroom. High qual- Itchen and Leapout is a careers database at MagicMaths is another clever piece of software from CCS which ity pictures coupled with coordinated by Bill Jones and aimed will prove fun as well as being educational. over 30 video clips from children from 8 to 14. All these presenta- the popular Survival TV tions will be of real use in school and will a number of pictures, all of which can series make a comprehensive guide to this also prove that high quality multimedia have up to five associated values. fascinating subject. There is a massive presentations are not just the preserve of For example, the theme could he shop- amount of information as well as some professionals. ping and then you'd have an assortment quizzes. AVP (Stand 355) of products on the selection shelf, like TAG Developments baked beans, cheese, apples and cakes. If you haven't seen Picturehase yet, now's You would select foods by dragging them (Stand 170) your opportunity. AVP will have its com- on to the landing pad which in this case Starting next month, Acorn User will be plete range on view, including the latest would be a shopping trolley. A spread- featuring a series on creating multimedia additions to this superb suite. Perspective sheet will total up whichever set of values productions. Central to this series is a Francoises and English Architecture. The are required - price, calories and so on - comparative evaluation of some of the former covers a variety of topics including and a graph can he drawn, again based on multimedia authoring packages including life in different places, plants, animals whichever values are chosen. Hot links the latest program from TAG - HyperStu- and changes which affect lifestyles. The between the three parts of the program - dio. This is a very easy program to use and latter looks at architecture through two picture, spreadsheet and graph - ensure includes some clever features which will strands: religious (beginning with Saxon constant updating. Brilliantly simple; make the production of professional look- churches) and secular (beginning with great idea. ing multimedia presentations very easy Norman castles). Both strands progress to the present day. Anglia Multimedia indeed. One of the special features is the differ- (Stand (Stand 357) ent ways it can clear the window between CCS 420) All the CD-ROMs reviewed on page 69 will page changes. Most other multimedia Creative Curriculum Software has pro- also be on show at BETT and it will be authoring tools just blank the current duced some super programs for both well worth a visit to their stands. Two page before rendering the next. HyperStu- primary and secondary schools. The CD- that didn't appear in the CD-ROM review dio can fade from one to the other, or ROM roundup features its latest CD-ROM, because they arrived a few days late are scroll, slide or open like doors. but CCS will also have its new mathemat- Vikings and Seashore Life, both by Anglia. ics program, Ma^fic Maths on sale. Vi*:(n^.v will be of special interest to Key HMTC (Stand 447) To finish, a program on a lighter note, Stage 2 History teachers as it includes just One of HyperStudio's main rivals is Oak but one from which youngsters will get a about everything needed to deliver this Solution's Genesis and Hampshire great deal of pleasure. Tiie Patience Addict topic in a stimulating and exciting way. It Microtechnology Centre has long been is, as the name implies, an addictive pro- was produced in association with the Jor- involved with this program. At the show gram featuring 20 versions of patience, or vic Centre in York and is a definitive will be The Hampshire CD-ROM. a disc solitaire as it is sometimes called. I guide presented in an interesting and containing three Genesis multimedia wouldn't want to use this in lesson time, stimulating way for Key Stage 2 pupils. It applications from primary and secondary but it would be an ideal program i,- even includes printable worksheets that teachers. for school computer clubs. /lU January 1996 Acorn User 41 Mark in Australia Planes, trains and... a long way to Australia. If you look in small, It's and but have you ever seen an mains using an optional mains adaptor. It the World application on the Pocket Internet package for it? There isn't one, ha.s a lead at one end which plugs into the Book, il says Sydney is I0,,SS5 miles from but there is a solution. expansion port on the left of the Pocket London - if you ignored the sea drove and Book - the same hole that the A-Link slots in a straight line for 12 hours a day at 3Fax into - and another lead which has an 70mph, then it would take you about 12 The Pocket Book II is based on the hugely English phone plug on the end. and a half days to get there. That's a long successful Psion .3a and anything that The 3Fax is aimed mainly at those who way. works with the Psion also works with the want to send faxes, hence The name. It's a perfect place to lose yourself. Being Pocket Book, from software to hardware to Plugging it in provides a new 'disc', called the world's sixth largest country and with leather carrying cases. One Psion product Disc <;, from which you can install four a population of just 17 million (more peo- that a lot of Pocket Book users don't know new applications: Fax, the main fax man- ple watch Neighbours in the than there is UK about the 3Fax, a fax modem. It works ager; FaxCover, which enables you to are Australians!), being out is of contact with the Pocket Book II (not the original design cover sheets for your faxes; Comms. easy, if that's what you want, but to those Pocket Book, nor the Psion 3), and needs which provides an interface to 3Fax's of us used to e-mail, faxes and the like, at least the 512K version: it won't work modem features; and Script, which is used backpacking in the outback is little short with the 256K Pocket Book. to create automated scripts for logging of self-imposed ostracism. At least, that's The 3Fax is a truly fantastic piece of kit. onto bulletin boards and the like. what most people think. It's not much bigger than a Mars bar, and If you've got an A-Link, you already runs off two Walkman-sized batteries (the have the last two: you can install then Keeping in contact same as the Pocket Book) or from the with Acorn-J from the Desktop, choosing Until recently, the idea of living out of a Disc C. Theoretically the A-Link can con- backpack ami having an e-mail address nect to a standard modem with a serial was ridiculous. It wasn't that long ago that input. Osborne Computers was selling portable Product The Fax manager is delightfully easy to PCs the size of suitcases, with details a weight to use, and contains so many features that match. Look at the adverts the early from Product; 3Fax most people will only use a third of them. '80s for the Osborne portable, it's only and Supplier: Psion Sending a fax consists of three main steps: the white knuckles and strained smile of Tel: 0171-262 5580 creating an optional cover sheet, the the model holding the machine that give Fax: 0171-258 7342 design of which is based on a template the game away. designed by the Price: £199 inc VAT FaxCover application; These days, portable computers are attaching documents to send after the everywhere. With an A4 and a modem, Product: TeleFast cover sheet, which is again optional; and you can keep in contact over the Internet Supplier: Teleadapt finally entering the fax address (a fax from any hotel room, and as long as you Tel; 0181-421 4444 number). can find a mains socket to recharge, and a Fax:0181-421 5308 The number of things you can do with phone point, you're away. But the A4, and faxes E-mail: teleadapt@delphi,com is mind-boggling. Faxes can be even the new IBM OS/2 solution, is Waqi queued, can be set up to be sent automati- Price; £129.99 + VAT far too heavy for a backpacker, and you cally at a certain time (the Pocket Book try finding a power point in the bush, let Product: TeleDaptors switches itself on automatically, just like it alone a phone point. Supplier: Teleadapt does when an alarm is set), can be Other manufacturers have solutions - Price; starting at £29.99 + VAT removed from the queue to be re-sent at a the Apple Newton is a brave attempt at later date, Product; internet connectlonz and so on. You can attach docu- portable in-touch - computing but they're ments from any Pocket Book application expensive and still suffer from short bat- Supplier: CompuServe that can print, like Write, Cards, Schedule tery life. The Pocket Book II has excellent Tel: 0800 289378 (freephone) and so on - al) you do is open up the Print battery life (a couple of Duracells give over Price: starting at £6.25 per month setup dialogue box and change the printer 35 hours of continuous use) and it's light to the newly available Fax'. When you 42 Acorn User January 1996 Mark Moxon made sure he packed his Pocket Book Mark in Australia when he headed for the Australian outback. Here's his advice on how to travel to the middle of nowhere, and still keep in contact. Internet. The theory of sending e-mail through the Internet is sound. For the cost of a local phone call to your Internet provider - such as Demon, CIX or Argonet in the UK - you can send a message to any- one in the world. There are two problems with these systems for travellers; Demon and the rest only have UK numbers, and secondly the Pocket Book doesn't have a TCP/iP stack, so it can't talk to the Internet provider anyway. The solution is to use Com[)userve. This American company is truly global - it has numbers in all the main cities of the Western world - and the charge is low No mains about 6.25 per month, though it is charged required: Pocket in US dollars, so it fluctuates a little. The Book II, 3Fax and best part, though, is that it acts like a bul- acoustic coupler letin board, so if you are accessing through a dumb ASCII terminal, you can still use prior, a special fax file is created which is Sending the tax is equally easy. All you most of the services. picked up by the Fax manager. need to do is plug your 3Fax into a phone CompuServe provides you with a unique Creatin},' cover sheets is a doddle with socket and type in the fax number to send number, like 101353,2442 for example, the cover sheet designer. FaxCover is based it to. The Fax manager tells you exactly when you register with them on-hne. This on the Write word processor, but you can what it is doing: 'Dialling', 'Connected to then forms your e-mail address: for the also include pictures, and special character fax machine', 'Sending fax' and so on and above, you would be; 101353.2442(o'com- codes that arc translated when the fax is there's a little speaker in the iVnx so you puserve.com. sent (so, for example, the sequence ^S is can hear exactly what's going on. There are plenty of other bandy features replaced by the sender's name when the The only thing you need to fax from on CompuServe too. If you want to send a fax is actually delivered). It's also useful to abroad is an adaptor for the phone plug: a fax, you can send the text as an e-mail to use the graphical characters in the Pocket comprehensive collection of 'Tck'Daptors' CompuServe, making sure to include the Book, a list of which is at the end of the is available from Teleadapt, whose contact fax number in the header, and Pocket Book manual. details are at the end of this article. CompuServe will fax it for you, using only Pictures aren't shown in tlie document a local phone call. itself, but you can view them in a little Internet global style There is a small charge for this service, window if need be. .Any standard .PIC file Faxing is great: It's fast, easy, and the qual- but it's much cheaper than faxing on an can be used, but .BMP files can also be ity of the 3Fax's output is better than international call rate. You don't have the - used - and translated on the Pocket Book normal scanned faxes, as all the characters control over cover sheets, and you can so if you want to design a logo on your are computer-generated rather than only fax straight text without any fancy Acorn, you'll need an application that can scanned from paper. The only problem - effects, but 'you payb your money and save .BMP or .PIC files. An upshot of using and a big one if you're on a backpacker's makes your choice'. .PIC files is that you can take screenshots income - is cost. A few pages of fax send to off the Pocket Book fusing Acorn-Control- the other side of the world can cost quite a Morphing fax to modem Shift-S) and include them in your fax, few quid, and a lot more if you're going The 3Fax provides you with a modem, handy if you want to include graphs from through a hotel switchboard. albeit a rather slow one of 2400 baud. Abacus or Plotter, for example. The chea[)est solution is to use the Compared to the fax side of the kit, the January 1996 Acorn User 43 Mark in Australia ^-iiMe-H-Well ^^4m^\ U L|Me^,^^ coinms software is primitive to say the for logging onto M(,I and (.IX, and these have lower-quality handsets). Handily, its least. You liave to talk to tlie modem tan easily be modified to other systems; I lead terminates in a US-style phone plug, directly using Hayes commands (ATD, have one which puts up a series of menus which plugs straight into the 3Fax if you ATX and so on) and only ASCI] is sup- so you can choose which Australian city remove the lead with the UK plug: there's ported, so no ANSI or VT terminal codes you are in, and it takes it from there. no need for endless chains of conversion are supported, (^omms enthusiasts from The fact that it is possible to have an e- adaptors or extra leads. the '80s will be thrilled by the prospect of mail system in a truly portable package Using an acoustic coupler is simplicity spendinj; nostalgia-filled nij-hts typing in that can be used globally for such a small itself. Take the phone handset - I've only - Hayes codes directly, but for those used to cost - local phone calls are 40 tents in Oz used payiJhones so far, and they work fine Hearsay you'll need to read the thoroughly for as long as you like [that's about 20p) - is position it over the little rubber cups and excellent manual provided. a testament to how far communications secure it with the vekro strap. Next, insert Scripts make things easier, though you has come. 2400 baud is more than adequate your money or phonecard, dial away, and have to understand programming to use for the text-based CompuServe, and other tyjw ATD in the Comms window to connect. them. A script is a little program that bulletin boards like Sydney's ARMaturc I! You can get the modem to dial automati- instructs the Comms application how to BBS, even if you are used to 14.4k or 28.8k cally, but experience shows that strange dial log onto a certain system; you might tell it back home; and it's easy to prepare your tones and low-quality pay phones can cause to ring a certain number and enter your mail off-line and send it all in one go. It problems. password when it receives the 'Password;' surprises nie that more people don't do it: The last word prompt, for example. Scripts are provided when I rang up ("ompuserve to join, they seemed quite amazed that I was using a The complete system is very light and com- palmtop, rather than a DOS-based portable. pact, It runs off five batteries that last for ages, costs much less than a laptop with No phone? No worries modem, and [irovides most of the services All the above is hunky dory if you've got a anyone will need (the main exception being phone line. But what do you do if you graphical Web browsing). A SSD is a good can't persuade someone to lend you their idea for your Pocket Book (which you can phone socket, or the phone in your room also fill with Public Domain games for those is hard-wired into the wall? The answer: long waits in airports), but system require- get an acoustic coupler. ments are low. Comms afficianados will remember The only word of warning is practical. If acoustic couplers as the preferred way of you are off travelling the woHd with your connecting your phone to your modem Pocket Book, be careful which public phones back in the early '80s. They have two cups you use. In the less salubrious comers of the into which your phone handset plugs, globe, someone may see you using a com- thus connecting your modem to the puter, and might want it for themselves. - phone. These days all self-respecting And do pack it in a plastic bag it i modems plug directly into the wall, but rains in Australia ttwi, you know, y^TJ not only is the acoustic coupler alive and well, but it's vastly improved. • This article was wn'ften and produced on Teleadapt's TeleFast adaptor is small, location overlooking Sydney harbour, and very light, runs on one 9-volt battery that was e-mailed to Acorn User from a pay will last for over 30 hours of connection phone 305m up Sydney Tower, the tallest time, and works at speeds of up to 24,000 man-made structure in the Southern bits per second over most phones, and Hemisphere. G'day, mate! 2400bps over carbon pay phones (which Acorn User January 1996 44 , 1111 Open Sunday LOW COST DELIVERY Telephone 1 ORDER 1 HOWTO Law Night Opening "^ am to 4pm^ 0113 2319444 Vednetday & Thursday Order by telephone quoting your • 2-4 Week Days £3.00 24 HR MAIL ORDER SERVICE FAX: 01 13 231-9191 credit card number. If paying by tlll7.30pii •Next Week Day £5.00 NEWl BBS Sales & Technical line TEL: I I 3 23 I - 1 422 cheque please make payable to: [email protected] •Saturday delivery £8.50 , PflOM "FIRST COMPUTER CENTRE". In any ««w.demon.co.uk/fIrstcon, EASY ACCESS Mi:, Ml Delivery sJbject to stock OV0.7obi(fty LEEDS correspondence please quote a FIRST Phone Number, Post Code & Dept. _'«IBItSTai. .n • All prices exclude VAT @ 1 7.5% AUTHORISED coMVrai CEtJIBE Allow 5 working days for cheque •Large showroom with parking CfN clearance. • Mulci-million pound company REPAIR CENTRE N SHOWROOM ADDRESS: •Overseas orders welcome BVOCtCl PflRKCOURT,STANN(NGL£y Ml CABfFTSj RD.LEEDS,LSI22AE. OPEN7DAYSA WEEK "F' Mtl/M61l " "-i Lombard Finance available COMPUTER CENTRE oln^rlDprou. nuvchHlr JOSH^PH^iMriMTiira?!:?! Hardware Software e n tertai n m e n c Software Educational Software Golf £19.00 [New!! . . 20/20 1 BU(k Angtl iI2.70 Badcer Traill IH.SO MSDOS6.22aV/indows (69.00 Alone in thi' Dark £22.00 Chrystal Rain Foi est £31.7 7 Windows for Workgroups (44.00 Acorn# FinanCB French Learning Series £16 60 gl tntere« Free Credit Cannon Fodder (19,50 WorksV3forWindows £23.00 Noddy's Playtime Crystal Maie L2S.0O £16.50 Reference Gilford R; Tree Sta]!e2 £3S.OO 20% Depoilt 20 Monthly P.iyii^.iHt Cyber Chess 112.70 ChambersDictionary (31.00 Oxford R/TreeMore £3S.OO Firo & Ice IIO.SO Complete Guide to Drugs (17.00 Rise PC's Oxford RTF reeStageJ £JS.OO Comp. Guide/Symptoms £1 7.00 !r FTT Formula 1000 tlO.OO fiosie& Jim (Sneezes) £10.00 Grolier Encyclopedia £18.00 Limited Special Offrr Glob.il Effect £27.S0 SMbHD«S&AKF60 £1355.00 HosieScJim (Duck) £ 1 0.00 MayoClinic £23.00 white stacks last LeoiminEs/Moi RistPC £22.81 TaikineAriim, Alphabet £26.00 Red Shift Astronomy II £26,00 SMbHD'lZSCD&AKFtO £1465.00 A600SMb + AKF60 Sally aniiWally £20.42 i 0/ 1 Oinosaurs £12.00 DorlingKindestey SMbHD42S&AKF8S SalonnCarsOeluie PrinterSwitchBox2way£l 1 .00 CITIZEN Printer Switch Box 3 way £ I S.30 Canon Printer Stands (Unjver5al)£6. 80 Compatible CD ROM drives CanonBJ30 £157.00 Citizen printers have a 2 year warranty 1.8 Metre printer cable £4,30 CDrnpici^Drubbemona prinnr, JO page ASF buih it\. Acorn from only £99.00 ABC Colour printer £124.00 3 printer £5.90 Canon Metre cable BJC70Coloi*r £247.00 irmplr (ae cair u ABC) louie 24 pinpnnler Comi^iiii 5 Metre printer cable £7.70 1 H^quallryPorcDblrcoLour-pTlniDr, JOpap ASF. :li 50 ihe«t AulD iheeE f««lH-. Goldstar R540B i 04.00 Mitsumi FX400 £99.00 CanonBJ200ex £177.00 rteeij apiiHjiij Pete Worral looks to the future in the final part of his Vidua design series. Design ~~' Let's exploit the sheer creative power of menu to applypply bubbly background effects l the Acorn computer. But. what is virtu- including Raindrop, Wax crayon and Star. ^ al design? Basically, this is using computers All that remains is to take your virtual to model and present design solutions in hairstyle printout to the hairdressers and exciting new ways. So how do we begin to impress. Taking this idea a step further, get our heads around this, read on. what about creating body accessories such as jewellery and headgear for clients in the Virtual hair design same way, a sort of personalised service if How about giving yourself a virtual hair- you like. style before visiting your local hair salon? In this case Mary offered to be the slightly Virtual animation design unwilling subject in front of the Canon Ion The advertising industry thrives on com- Vitleo Still Camera. The shot was digitised puter special effects to attract and transferred onto disc in spritefile for- prospective clients. Sequential digi- mat, ff you try this at home its good tised moving images can be grabbed from video tape and turned into a short film using lota's Complete Animator. In this case one of my students ran towards a video camera and a series of eight images were grabbed using (Computer (Concepts' Eagle Digitiser, saved as sprites, loaded into Complete Attimator and recorded in practice to take a profile lota format film. shot as well. The frames were The easiest way to edited by free- redesign your hair- hand drawing over style on the each frame on computer screen the figure, while is to load your- retaining the origi- self into any art nal background. package and The final Him was draw your new quite surreal. The style over the old one. In this case 1 used beauty of Complete Animator is that you the Longman Logotron's excellent Pix don't have the inconvenience of transfer- Picture to create a range of wigs. ring images into other software because it The Masking feature lets you outline a is an art and animation package, all in one. board so that you can record your work specific regular or irregular area of the for extreme animated design effects try onto video tape. screen for individual treatment, without using a morphing package such as Virtual design affecting the rest of the image. Using this Rephorm which is great if you want to mosaic method several wigs were easily created metamorphose yourself into an onion or Perhaps virtual design is most effective in using Mary's head as a template. dog. improving exterior or interior environ- Different wigs were cut out and saved [ think that this sort of time-based spe- ments. Artwork and sculpture can be for future use - useful if your client cial effect design is OK as long as your manipulated easily into a range of situa- changes their mind. In the final blond specific aims are clear and remember that tions using cut and paste techniques. Last Artist bombshell picture I used the new tools its even better if you possess a genlock year a Mosaic at Willingsworth High 46 Acorn User January 1996 ' Design using your Acorn tomised multimedia presentations. Multimedia really consists of sets of interlinked pages containing different Contact details forms of information and the designer Product: Big Picture must create these pages and link them Supplier: Longman Logotron together in different ways. For the Tel: (01223) 425S58 Acorn user Genesis Professional allows Price: £69 the you to create pages contain- ing pictures (sprite/ drawfiles Product; Complete Animator format), text, animation (Ace Supplier: lota format files), video and (Replay Tel: (01223) 566789 format files). Special 'click here' Price: £80 boxes can lie created, which can be linked to any other page Product: Black Country Museum Kodak within the multimedia struc- Photo CD ture. From a design point of Tel: 0121-544 2001 view, remember that you are Price: £20 trying to tell a story with pic- tures, text, sound, animation Product: Genesis Professional School created a large Mii-\tKLific mosaic and video. Supplier: Oak Solutions celebrating events in the history of the Tel: 0113-232 6992 school and community including the Multimedia design in the Price: £112 Tipton Slasher, factory chimneys and our Black Country Museum beautiful Spring daffodils. The Black Country Museum in partnership Twenty-one panels were constructed with Sandwell's Education and step was to draw a flow chart showing the using real glass tesserae. These were indi- Microlechnology Unit released a Kodak whole structure - using old fashioned pen- vidually digitised so that they could be put Photo CD disc containing 98 high-resolu- cil and paper. This is a really important together in different ways, like a jigsaw tion images based on the museum. Shortly exercise, as it helps to visualise the series of puzzle on the computer screen. A number afterwards seven postgraduate Art and screens you arc trying to design, of prospective sites around the school were Design students from the University of A guide to the General also digitised so that the mosaic could be Central England set about designing multi- scaled into position. Eventually this mag- media material based on the museum Stores nificent mosaic was installed in the foyer using the Kodak Photo CD disc and muse- This begins with a plan of the Black above the doors leading to the main hall. um site as starting points. Country Museum where with a mouse I'^MJ click you can zoom into the shop in three Virtual multimedia design ^H ^^^HiUiu^ screen stages. To explore the shop there Multimedia is the fusing of text, sound and 1^ m^K ^JUaaUJji are two options; the first one offers a video the ^M moving image within the confines of m clip showing the bacon slicer working or the computer screen and has two distinct alternatively you can browse through the . ^y'm strands. Firstly, the majority of us use mul- goods for sale. It is important that an addi- timedia applications in floppy disc or tional button that will return you to the CD-ROM for- ^^^> ' m i start. The zoom technique employed on mat to access 'jw^^^^H this particular stack was extremely effec- information Ei lis 1 tive. ^Hhi. L ». U ^ff n.l.ulB.R.-o. l-t ifiiid for pleasure, > HI n 1. Plan out your multimedia design in flow chart format using an old fashioned pencil and paper own home pages for a world wide audi- before you begin. ence. So there is plenty of scope for our designers of the future. Watch this space 2. Remember that it is supposed to be interactive - always keep the user in mind. for more on this. 3. Don't clutter the screen with too many action buttons and information boxes - keep it dear To conclude, I have very much enjoyed and simple. sharing a few ideas with you on this guid- 4. Consider your use of colours carefully both for text and screen backdrops. ed tour to design and would welcome to 5. Try to include a few video and sound clips to enhance the presentation. bear from readers who use Acorn comput- 6. Evaluate effectiveness of the your design by trying it out with different groups of people, so ers to explore design solutions in unusual that you can refine the final version. ways. Hopefully we will be able to A publish the most original ideas. /i\j January 1996 Acorn User I 47 r ft , Sound mixer cards r ifr(^ Sounding Andrew Banner checks out the audio mixer market. Most people with a Rise PC are also likely to have a CD-ROM as these things are invaluable, especially if you use a PC card or like listening to music while you work. I don't know about you, but I that the volumes from each of the card's prefer not to listen to my music through inputs are equalised before being output. headphones and use my HiFi or active Wiring the cards in is a doddle, but only speakers instead. For if even better results I you can remember where you put your need to fit an audio mixer card, but which audio lead that was supplied with your one? CD-ROM. If you can't locate it, Yellow- stone will pop one in the post for you. If Eesox you've got a Minnie card, this connects First up, there's the Eesox mixer. This directly to the mixer and which plugs model allows you to mix the Rise PC's onto the mother board where the Minnie sound with that from a CD player. You came from. can also plug in a 16-bit audio card such as In terms of sound quality, the 16-bit the Minnie. There is a potential problem sound system of Mozart is hot. It in connecting a CD-ROM to a card such as employs a digital Digital to this as different drive manufacturers use Analogue Converter different connectors for the audio output. (IMC) with internal Eesox gets around this problem by sup- filters to smooth (he plying its mixer with a hard-wired lead sound and also with single pin connectors attached to the oversamplcs the end. Instead of having a multi-pin plug, analogue signals. you need to connect each one individual- Unlike the Minnie ly. The card docs not use separate grounds card, this unit automati- for each audio channel so there are only cally adjusts the filtering to three connections to the CD. the sample rates being put Product details Once it's all together, you might find through it for solid cut-off and a better Product: Audio Mixer that the CD is so loud that you can't easily quality sound. Supplier: Yellowstone Educational Systems hear the sound from the Acorn. You can Tel: (01582) 584828 adjust this in a number of ways via soft- Conclusion Price: £29 + VAT ware (reducing the system sound using the If you want a mixer sound card and a 16- Conftgure Pros: Inputs for two CD-ROMS • Automatic application, for instance) but bit sound system, Mozart is the only you may end up having to adjust the gain choice. The sound quality is better than level adjustment of the CD by twiddling with the tiny con- from Minnie and it's the same price. If the Cons: Audio lead for CD-ROMs not supplied trols on the mixer card. This is very much 16-bit sound is not an issue - perhaps with card a case of trial and error and the adjust- you've got a new Rise PC with 16-bit on Product: Mozart ment can only be made safely by board - both the Eesox and Yellowstone Supplier: Yellowstone removing the card from the machine and cards have something to offer, but the Educational Systems then replacing it. double input of the YF.S model could be an Tel: (01582) 584828 advantage if you wanted to mix in a l.-, Price: £59 + VAT Yellowstone third sound source. /ILl Pros; Good quality 16-bit audio sound Yellowstone provides two mixers to suit system • Inputs for two CD-ROMs • your needs. One is a standard mixer but Automatic level adjustment with two CD-ROM inputs and the other - Fixtures and fittings Cons: Audio lead for CD-ROMs not supplied which answers to the name of Mozart - with card Fitting audio mixer cards is very offers all this plus a rather snazzy 16-bit simple and no technical audio system, removing the need for a sep- knowledge is required. All you Product: Audio Mixer arate 16-bit card. need to do is ground yourself (to discharge Supplier: Eesox Apart from the 16-bit audio circuitry, any static you may be carrying), plug the Tel: (01954) 212263 both mixers work in the same way. They board onto the sound header on the main Price: £35 + VAT use a dynamic mixing system which circuit board, remove two links, connect two Pros: Connects to just about any CD-ROM doesn't require any level adjustment as wires and that's it. Cons: Manual level adjustment this is done automatically. This means January 1996 Acorn User 49 Tine way Ian Burley concludes our short series on Online Media, asking wliat can you do with this teclinology? ahead DOZENS of homes and ei^ht schools in are originally broadcast at various times of mode or jump immediately to a later or and around the Cambridge area are the day. Where the trial adds value is earlier part of the programme. currently participating in the Cambridge through its video-on-demand function. It's predicted that viewers of live broad- Triai, which is evaluating a scale model Let's say you were stuck in a traffic }am casts will be able to manually or digital interactive TV (DiTV) service using on the way home and you missed the automatically use a catch-up mode which Online Media STBs or BBCl 6pm news. No plays back pre-recorded material a few set top boxes. This problem, your On- minutes behind the live broadcast, but at a month we examine line Media STB can slightly faster rate so within a minute or what the trial partici- deliver a recording two you've caught up with real-time, witfi- pants are doing with of the programme out missing anything. You wouldn't even their OM STBs, when you want it, need to put up with squeaky speeded up what's coming real not just when it's voices as your STB would correct the audio soon now and what tonvenient for the pitch automatically. Online Media SLBs we all might be l)roadcasting sta- can't do this yet, but like a lot of other fea- doing with the tech- tion. You can even tures - they could one day. nology in just a few start watching a In practice and on short years. programme you're demand late for, from the beginning, even if it's Currently, only selected broadcast pro- ... In the beginning still being broadcast live. This adds a new grammes are regularly recorded to the PIM The Cambridge Trial was launched in dimension to the term time-shifting. server for video-on-demand. However, September 1994. Currently, the partners in To a degree, users will have intimate there is no reason - apart from the sheer - the trial are Advanced Telecommuni- control over what they are viewing - if the scale of media server hardware required cations Modules IJmited (ATM Ltd), phone rings, you can pause the pro- why users one day shouldn't be able to Cambridge Cable, ICL, SJ Research and gramme. watch most TV programmes, including Online Media. The trial uses Cambridge If you missed something, you can movies and audio broadcasts, when they Cable's digital network, ICL's Parallel rewind and start playback again. Just like prefer, on-demand. In fact, it's likely that Interactive Media (PIM) server, and net- a modern video recorder or Video (;d play- the whole broadcasting industry will even- work switches and small-scale servers from er, you will be able to use a slow motion tually have to gear itself to the ATM Ltd and SJ Research. Online video-on-demand phenomenon, Media supplies the Acorn-based though there will still be demand STBs, acts as the project's systems for real live broadcasts, especially integrator and also looks after lor news and sports. the 'Service Nursery' - a develop- Users of the Cambridge Trial can ment facility to enable an already select from a rotated exchange of knowledge and library of documentaries and experience among actual and other programming provided by potential content and service the BBC, Anglia TV and Yorkshire providers. TV. There is a firm bias towards Today, trial users enjoy an education programmes at present, interesting sub-set of what is but eventually a full spectrum of potentially possible in the medi- programmes will be featured by a um term. Service providers are commercial service. exploring uncharted territory - The material available need not everybody is still learning, The lie just digitised videos and films. main services are variations on Anglia LV and Yorkshire TV, for what is already available over example, are providing access to ordinary broadcast and cable TV. some of their popular education For example, ITN, the BBC and multimedia productions which Anglia TV all provide national are normally distributed on CD- and local news bulletins which ROM. All of a sudden, the 50 Acorn User January 1996 network becomes your own CD-ROM drive guaranteed to have the up with an almost unlimited numl>er of CDs to date interest rates. instantly available. The nitty-gritty of actual Online Media reports thai audio-on- on-line commercial transac- demand is proving to be popular. For tions, is not yet implemented example, the BBC is experimenting with on the system. However, Nat schools audio programming and the eight West is currently trialing e-cash - schools connected to the service apparent- pre-paid smart cards which could be ly use the service regularly in preference to used to pay for services via a future iter- the old distribution method which uses ation of Online Media's STB design. tapes and CDs. You no longer need to store Millions of households already use a com- these items, which can gel damaged or parable system in the form of satellite TV lost. The network becomes your virtual decoder smart cards. operator. As such, it will take time before audio and video repository. The supermarket chain, Tesco, an early some of the more fancy facilities and ser- recruit to the Cambridge vices predicted will Paying for soft access Trial, has not yet be tested. But just started a live service, partly because of the think what is theoretically possible. The same goes for software. Acorn has pro- lack of an on-line payment system at pre- Users could enjoy broadband connec- vided a selection of education software sent. However, Tesco is working a virtual tions into the Internet - no more making titles and games on the network. The cur- shopping system which will have degree cups of tea while your modem chugs away rent STB has 4MB of memory and the idea of smartness built in. Customers will be on the World Wide Web. Obvious features is that you need only download the soft- able to navigate electronic on-screen to come include video telephony, localised ware you require off the network as you supermarket aisles, selecting the groceries mini-servers operated by bureaux or busi- require it. In fact, STBs with local storage they require. The system will he primed nesses of various sizes. One day we'll be are a possibility, but there are plenty of with up to date special offer information buying houses with the help of interactive and it will even get know your favourite estate agencies and virtual views of proper- brands as part of a pattern your shopping ties on the market, all from the comfort of might take. It's interesting to note that ex- home. Acorn co-founder and managing director, Chris Curry, had much the same idea with Crystal ball gazing his failed Keyline tele-shopping proposi- Perhaps my favourite prediction is interac- tion a few years back. tive live viewing of events like, sports, for Even the Post Office is involved with example. Imagine you're watching the the Cambridge Trial. Its service is not live Wimbledon tennis final. Today we see yet, but it will contain information about what the director and the cameramen dic- local post offices, services and postage tate we see. One day, there could be rates. Larger post offices have retail stores fascinating fish-eye camera with an selling stationery and other goods, so it's extremely high-resolution imaging chip. likely you will be able to order such goods This could be placed where the audience on-line as well. sits, where it would have the same view as applications where this simply isn't need- Another organisation involved in the the cheering crowds. ed. Look at games software services, for trial is NOP (National Opinion Polls), who Through the magic of DiTV, the viewer example. Even the largest games will are involved in gauging user responses. at home could use their STB to have virtu- download in seconds. Cameplay could Some programmes have on-line question- al control over the picture being streamed have added dimension, with other people naires attached to them, for example, digitally to them from that camera. You on the network joining in and the game asking what the user thought of the pro- could pan left/right, look up and down itself could make extensive use of multi- gramme's content and presentation. and zoom in and out. The picture would media footage also stored on the server. be dynamically corrected in real time and Eventually, you will per pay play, or Securing the medium quality would match or exceed today's buy a week's unlimited play time or even In fact the whole Cambridge Trial system broadcasts. Of course you won't be alone - buy infinite access to selected games, but is tightly audited. All users, including indi- thousands and even millions of others the only time that game would actually vidual members of the family have could have their own personally i^ exist in your home, is in the volatile mem- personal PIN numbers which they have to controlled view of the Centre Court. iT,U ory of your STB. Software piracy could, at enter before using the system. The trial last, be defeated. operators then know who watches what, Commerce and when and how much. The PIN number security system commerciatisation will later be used as part of security-related facilities, like Besides interactive learning and leisure, parental viewing control, for the Cambridge trial already has semi-com- example. mercial services to offer. For example, the The purpose of the National Westminster Bank is providing Cambridge Trial is primarily access to its on-line banking service. Much to evaluate the requirements like other similar services usually available of a commercial DiTV net- down the ordinary telephone line, you tan work and to understand check your statements, pay bills, transfer the requirements of run- funds, set up regular payments and so on. ning such a service from Nat West has also set up an interactive the points of view of the financial services brochure. One feature of customer, the service this is a loan interest calculator, which is provider and the network I Seven Nighty Warriors stepped outoi le gloom £ into the legend of • Be any of 7 digitised warriors • 100 frames of animation 6 stunnAfl backdrops • per arallax 'em-ups this has^erything you require - ArchmtdtsWirM £19*99 inc VAT from Ian Copestake Limited '' Dept UFI, I Kington road WrRRAL. Merseyside, L48 SET .A1KIQ06 Fax^OlSI 6251007 nifulries welcome "^liiiil "FKrBL The best has just got better... f^ NEW VERSION LOADS, SAVES UMnUHPMIUlN AND PREVIEWS Alternative Publishing Ltd upgrades ovoilable from version 1 i— Pentogon House, Woshington St. a* Glasgow G3 8AZ, United Kingdom Tel: 0141 248 2322 Universo! • bitmap • file • converter Fax: 0141 248 3638 Emoil: [email protected]. See us at Call for FREE full colour brochure Ideal for PC card users... BETT96 '.^ stand 433 Operates on the entire range of Acorn computers. £39.95 version 2 £99.95 Site- licence/network version 2 Supports a very wide range of formats... Upgrades from version 1 to version 2 £49.95 Upgrade from site-licence vl n £20.00 Upgrade from single-user vl Works across Acorn/muiti-platform networks. Please odd VAT at Ihe curfeni role, P & P in UK mainlond Deoler enquiries and ovetseas orders welcome. Requires RiscOS 3.1 orobove. ^ Hord disc (or network) required. Provides professional quality image conversion... ©IWAhBinallycPiililiihinolId. tllRKlemoiksatkM«ts(l|)Bd. Hi Games, lies and videotape the STARTING new year ing up 'ghosts', small octag- you stand a good chance onal devices that float by of being run down in the your ship and mimic your rush of games all claiming fire. Of course, a shoot-em- the geld from your pocket. up wouldn't be complete without So more ado lets without a smart bomb, and get on with the good, the Cobalt Seed is no exception. bad and the pure ugly ... Here, they take the shape of a small missile Cobalt Seed that flies off into the distance - when Supplier: TBA it lands, the screen fills with Tel: 01761 470003 fire and any enemies present Price: £24,99 trundle off to meet their appropriate makers. Finally, If you've played TBA's 'race you can charge up a special in space' game Formula Two beam weapon that sends out Thousand, you will have a ball of energy, destroying already seen what their anything in its path. It does custom three dimensional take a few seconds to graphics engine. can TAG, recharge, so its important to do. Cobalt This should be a big enough boom for anyone. Seed makes get the timing right. You only heavy use of it once in more have one life in this game, a fast action shoot-em-up hard or drive RAM disc the screen, you scroll into it. and the only thing standing touted as being the best which makes things that little This gives you a limited between you and oblivion is looking game the on Acorn bit quicker. As the game amount of movement up, your shield's energy bar. platform'. Does it live up to starts, you're treated to a down, left and right, but This ticks down constantly this claim? Read on, and view of your final objective, you're stopped before you and plummets when you get discover all. the cobalt seed itself, as it can leave the playing area hit, and the only way to The aim of the game isn't spins nicely in 3D. Upon completely. recharge it is to make it to particularly complex. There starting the game itself, an Waves of enemy fighters the next vital hoop'. 1 would are five worlds to fly through impressive animation plays swarm towards you from the have preferred to see the before you reach goal, your as the jet fighter is trans- front and rear, and ground player have a number of lives the Cobalt Seed, and the ported from the hangars to installations are quite gener- as well - its somewhat number of objects you shoot the launch pad. ous with their laser fire. depressing to have to start between here and there After that, you're given Coupled with this, you have the level from scratch every bears a remarkable resem- control and explosions start to avoid buildings and rock time you die. blance to your score. Other blossoming from the bare formations that rush towards Cobalt Seed's graphics are than that, it's shoot to kill all ground. The gameplay is you as you speed on your adequate - the 3D represen- the way. pretty similar to some of the journey. AH this adds up for tation on the warehouses Cobalt Seed is supplied on scrolling shoot-em-ups a manic session of ducking and turrets is lovely, but 1 one low-density - disc it's around, with the exception and diving - made somewhat would have liked to see more possible to install it to your that instead of scrolling up harder by the unusual detail on the sprites. The perspective. The camera ground texture on the first sticks rigidly to the centre of level is a sort of mould-green the flight path meaning that speckle, which might be \i{ jm""^Jtotol when your ship veers to one quite nice if you like that sort in side order to take out an of thing, but I found it a trifle approaching jet. you're no repetitive after a while. All in longer looking down your all, Cobalt Seed is a fun line of fire and positioning game to play, but as a shoot- yourself correctly is a matter em-up it doesn't grab me in of intuition. the same way as something The craft's firepower is like Star Fighter 3000. impressive - starting off with The TAG engine is impres- a basic low-power cannon, sive, there's no doubt about M it's possible to I M upgrade by that, but feel that it's not yet catching the tokens hurled being used to its full poten- into the atmosphere by the tial. Still, it packs a punch larger installations when you and if you're desperate for destroy them. Once the some frantic blast-'em-away strength of your laser has action. Cobalt Seed could been enhanced, you can well fit your bill. The detail on many of is the structures excellent. multiply its strength by pick- Steve Mumford January 1996 Acorn User I 53 EXCITING NEW GAMES FROM ECLIPSE f q:«. rr • •. • mi »*r^' --"J 1 -- I'-'i ^ ._ 1 A COMPELLLNG NEW COMPUTER GAME THAT COULD CHANGE THE WORLD M.lki' llll' ili'ilMiin-. nl 4 «iirl.l IumJlT. .i-. ^ml mliUul illL' liLlllllicl.' Ill iiunia' Vl'rMl^ tiviii.s.iimn. l\wcr-vip .iiiJ i-xpjnd LittL-s to riviti (liuH- I't MiithiT tiirth, htit wiitth mr i'nr ulipkil w;iriiiinu, p nnn, I'lujniiithiiii; ili^scrt> anil Lk'triri'^tiJiiDn. Dl.st^lv dii: L'nany ili.it rtii's rn lihsi yoitt ^:i!il.^ uiul I'l n-on yniir pimjiT. lntrii.;irclv licriiik-J, 14 vci'iurins .m.l .i militiiry upnon in LntupL'tL- iiith j uiniipuriT ri\Ml. AvaUable for £14.99 dinti from ECLIPSE. it's spooky and It's fun! A s|>nik* iK-i* j;r.il'lui;;ll .iiiviTiTuri.- ^miiil'. txplnru ,i liii^'i' HI LiiiJstLii'c. "Ililk ni.)ihiTii)h.ibii,iiu»iit till- WitUI .iloni; yiuir w,iv ShiIvi- t!iv pLiE;k>i.'ciiiiipk-U- V'Tiir i|iii.-.i.'rniulLfti.Tmt .h.irattLT- with ililil-tviii .-kiii-. Iiulp ym m s;ivo iIk- JjvI It'i mi lijt; Hi' invJi'i) ti tluppu'-.! tVsliiic.l lo Iv .iimtliLT itiiyi- liim I'lippL-i liii - inithiir 111 Ixii'ii, C;>cli>ii!s. H.iiiistur.s. Wnvlciiutli .inJ nu'iL-'. Kmiv frmii l!i>ppv nr H:itil l'i^l; nn Ri-i. lis MO.. I hltrvMlli :! Mi' HAM ..r iin.n.-, Avaibbte for £24.99 direct from ECLIPSE. BATTLE FOR ARRAKIS Spi'1-i.li - Artificial intellij;t:iicf - 9Mb cnmpresscU Ktapliii.* - iO massive b.ittic rones - hascd on the cull hook hy Hnmk Herheri - Ovvt 10 Ml> of soiircL- iii:iri-ii.il ^qiiL-L-zi'J onto 7 floppies or t (.M>-ROM. KL-.lim^>s Rise; OS m iMtli 2 Mil RAM. Floppy vertiion £14.99 CD-ROM verMon £44-99 direct from ECLIPSE. For a fiiil colour brochure of all Eclipse, VTi and Argo products, please call us on (01243) 531194 or fax us on (01243) 531196. Alternatively, you can email us on [email protected] or see us on the web at http!//www.argonet.co.uky We look forward to hearing from you! ECLIPSE Games review seLGCT m r ss r onf .f^aHfrTTi mKipr« Supplier: TBA together and fling objects by a medium- ^ Tel: 01761 470003 about using a tractor beam. sized asteroid. Price: C24.99 With most games of this Those people nature, the controls are who were fans Sticking firmly with the straightforward - two keys of Lemmings space theme. Command to deal with rotation, and will immedi- Ship is TBAs second offer- one to thrust forwards. ately recall the ing this month. Ifs a hybrid Command Ship is a little frantic mouse- of several styles of games different in that the mouse is pushing that choose your mission. but it borrows most heavily used to point to a location necessitated from the Spheres of Chaos on the screen, then the the use of a good mouse asteroid approach they're - vein you take control of the Andromeda pivots round to mat. sucked into its vortex and deep space mining ship face that spot. The problem The first missions are spiral in to their doom, Once Andromeda, and it's your with using the mouse in this fairly simple and are you've collected enough to task to complete various way is that it's all too easy to intended to introduce you to make an ore sphere, a gelati- missions in order to open up get carried away with the the controls - all you have to nous blob oozes out of the new mining fields and keep movements and you end up do to complete your primary machinery in a most satisfy- the older ones active. This watching in dismay as the task is to shoot a path ing way. Although it's involves simple tasks such ship attempts to execute a through a group of asteroids possible for up to four as clearing asteroids from double back flip before and fly onto the recall pad. people to have their an area as well as some crashing into the nearest After that, they get progres- progress saved between more demanding assign- asteroid. The mouse buttons sively more involved until sessions while they re play- - ments there's one in which allow you to shoot and you're creating ore spheres ing, the game itself is you must protect a consign- thrust, and pressing the by refining shards of mete- one-player only and it isn't ment of ore from an alien space bar freezes your orite or kilting aliens by really suited for competitive which looks like a malignant movement and brings up a hurling metal projectiles at matches. jellybean. circular menu of icons them with the aid of the trac- Command Ship is an inter- Although anyone who has around your craft to allow tor beam. On most of these esting departure from a seen a will Meteors clone you to control the drone levels, there are no real familiar theme, and it works recognise the game, there's ships. However, the action clues as to how you're quite well - its full of innov- a whole host of twists and around the Andromeda supposed to tackle them, but ative ideas that make each extra features that add a new continues, and unless you're that adds to the fun as you mission different to the last. dimension to the gameplay. quick with the mouse it's try out various strategies. My only criticism is that the For a start, you're not easy to be caught unawares The later levels include time content of the levels is fixed expected - to tackle the normally culminating in a and ammunition limits, so it so once you've figured out - missions on your own on clip round the rocket booster pays to think carefully how to complete them, that's certain operations the before you attempt each pretty much it. However, the mining corporation provide problem. levels have a good spread of you with drone ships that The graphics are mostly difficulty and there's plenty respond to a range of raytraced and are of a high of variation in the missions commands. These allow you quality, from the detailed so if you're searching for a to shift the drones about command ship itself to the game with a balanced blend individually or force them to hunks of rock that traverse of strategy and action. copy the movements of the the playing area. I particu- Command Ship is worth a command ship. It's also larly liked the animation of look. possible to link craft ;^i?am^-:^ the ore funnel - as pieces of Steve Mumford January 1996 55 Atorii User ( Games reviews Supplier: The Hitmen Software, 1 Langtey Hill Close, Kings Langley,WD4 9HB. Price: £16.95 Ever heard the joke "How many ravers does it take to change a lightbulb?" Answer: 100 - 1 to change the bulb and 99 to say how much better the last one was. Well here we go again in a similar vein with this release of Rick Dangerous from the Hitmen, a very old game, a format. Makes you happy to Jones style to ... errr well ... strange enemies to kill. It has very very old Amiga game be alive and own such a kill things and run around a a very professional feel to it. shoved onto an Archimedes machine eh? I mean I've lot. You have a gun with but that's what you might been fighting off which shoots things, a stick expect with the name Core I the latest original of dynamite which blows Design attached to the cred- **.,,._, Archimedes things up and a stick with a its. They are famous for • '.' '-• '.• '*• *»' '*• V VV VVVVV v '. '!*'!*'! games, ask my sharp end. some pretty snappy Sega CD ^^ Mum. To move around is simple, titles if my memory serves So on with the left, right and up and down me. \ l^f \ flares and kipper when you get near ladders. That's it! The title is old. ') ties and it's back Diagonals make the charac- the gameplay is average and ^ in time to juggle ter jump and good old Rick I'm sure with little else on the the joypad. Rick can duck too. market at the moment it will * is the character The game is very respon- sell a few. Now I'm off to find you play and you sive in that old Amiga my old Spectrum to see if must guide him tradition and there are plenty there are any games worth through the Aztec of levels to get worked up converting there,.. temple in Indiana about with more and more Steve Atherton general professional feel. I know I might be a bit cruel comparing it in this way - it's also much cheaper - but you can't help it. On the plus side •JkT* I quite enjoyed myself, in a grown-up sort of way. It might take quite some time before you are confident in all areas so if longevity is what you look for you could do a lot worse. Air Atherton and Steve uppiier: uk sonware You have to achieve suitable Tel: 01703 474681 profit over 15 or 30 years by 1 1 Price: £19.95 starting various transport I businesses and taking goods ^ fU90,S50 I think we can say that this and commodities to the >^ game is not quite an original population areas. You can 'i) concept, in fact I'd be very begin with road then 7 tempted to compare it to progress to train and even 100000 The £)ailv Tim iS another game. Another game start your own airline. You ^1? ri3 I might add that has just have control over all aspects &ETEM HOME about conquered the world of the business like fares, IS fiTTCMPTinO TO EKPHtlD HIS RAI(.UAy rCTUORK and had all genres glued to timetables and so on. and their monitors. Yep. I'm talk- after a while - just like the PLERSE CLICK WWSE BUTTOn ing SIM. I'm talking Slf^ City. SIM series - it starts to make Ant, Earth so on and so sense and you actually might n forth. Got the idea? make a bit of money. Now here we have Land To be honest, this really Sea and Air. SIM Transport doesn't have the looks of the Ikm by what the box makes out. SIM series and it lacks the ...^« 56 Acorn Use' January 1996 I Games review Supplier: Ian Copestake Software Tel: 0151-625 1006 Price: £29.99 To date, the Acorn hasn't had many beat-'em-ups to boast of ~ it's a style of game that hasn't really made its mark on our platform yet. Hoping to change all this is a team known as Mystery Software, who have just released Fistlore through tan Copestake Software. It aims to cover all the standard features of the fighting more combinations possible games made popular on the while simplifying some of the various consoles on the straightforward attacks. - market including a selec- :-* Fistlore uses four direction I • y M > » i » tion of backdrops taken from keys and one fire button for around the world, oversized each player, so how does it sprites and, of course, a compare? Controlability is a collection of special moves key issue in this genre; since that remain secret until you the feeling of involvement stumble across them. relies on positive feedback, if style of game before, tue in the air when you want him idea is quite simple. Each to, or Cammy the Gymnast is character's strength is repre- a little sluggish performing sented by an energy bar. and her pirouette, the player once the fight begins you loses interest quickly. How have to use all your skill and does Fistlore fare? I felt that cunning, or barefaced luck, the movement was some- to make as many dents in it what 'clunky' and in some as possible. Each bout is places it was as if the fight- timed so if you haven't anni- ers were made of clockwork. Characters digitised from photographs and attractive hilated your opponent before Because of this, it was backdrops add to the look of the game. the clock runs out. the harder to get to grips with person with the highest time to pick one of the the control and although I while to commit them all to energy remaining is deemed seven characters available have a feeling that I managed memory. the winner. in the to release one or two special game, each one The learning curve is One of the factors that moves, they were particularly presented with a short life pretty steep; even on the made this style of game so hard work. history explaining why poor' level, the computer popular on the consoles was they're involved in first There are plenty of options the players are capable of inflict- the fact that the joypads place. available to customise the ing a severe bruising if you positively bristled with a gameplay - as well as the The sprites have been don't keep your wits about plethora of buttons, making obvious head-to-head mode digitised from actual you. in which you can duel pictures to try to add that As the authors suggest, extra feeling of against a friend, it's possible realism: it it's probably a good idea to appears that detail to alter the skill of the some has set the game to its two player Jilwnffi^P been lost in the process of Sv computer players and mode and practise on a BBG EB scaling them in —^ tailor the graphics down for use stationary target - even so, the game, is \ settings to match but the effect patience is most definitely a I flTV- the speed of still there. virtue here. your computer. The backdrops are varied Fistlore , is a good first True to certain and colourful, from Oriental attempt at an Acorn version courtyards to the depths of other games I of Streetfighter. but there's the rainforest - you even could men- get still a long way to go - all the flakes of snow falling gently tion, there ideas are in there, but it to the ground in of the is even a gore' one needs more polish before it's levels. // option - al- on the same par. Still, The full though it's not range of moves is congratulations should go to quite as brutal as catered for. from standing Mystery Software for >/ Hamsters, you might and crouching blocks to all attempting this undeniably want to turn this off if it manner of kicks and difficult task, and I hope punches. offends your sensibilities. They're made they're able to continue their accessible After you're satisfied via a list of key work in this field. with your choices, it's combinations, so it takes a Steve Mumford January 1996 Acorn User t 57 . Accounts Personal Accounts v3 43.00 Colour Scanning & Printing! Prophet 2 168.00 If you are thinking of buying a colour scanner or printer speak to us before Computing Art & Graphics you decide. We have some excellent prices on flatbed colour scanners and Artworks (onfloppy or CD) 145.00 on the fabulous new Epson Stylus Colour II printer. All scanners include a PO Box 304 PhotoDesk 180.00 suitable cable and TWAIN and ImageMaster software. The printer includes a cable and Acorn's latest v 1 .53 printer drivers. All prices inc VAT of course... Brighton Plot 74.00 Studio 24 128.00 BN1 1LE Epson GT5000 {paraikt SCSI add £90) £450.00 Communications Callers by appointment Epson GTS 500 (parallel and SCSI) £585.00 ArcFax 33.00 Epson GT9000 (parallel and SCSI) £720.00 Tel: (01273)208074 Courier v34 Fax (with cable) .... 325.00 Microtek Scanmaker II (SCSI only) £365.00 Fax: (01273)738258 Hearsay 2 76.95 Epson Stylus Colour II 720dpi Printer £355.00 Sportster . . e-mail: [email protected] v34 Fax (wuh cable) . 220.00 Send large SAE CompuServe: 100113.603 Consumables for sample 720dpi printout and Epson brocliures Inkjet Refills from 14.50 Scanning Print'n' Wear Packs /rom6.94 Star Fighter 3000 27.00 Music/Sound/Vision and TDKDS/HD3W' Discs 8.50 Wotfenstein 3D 27.00 Extra Discountfor Bundles - Ask FatarCMS6l Keyboard w/s . , . , 26O.0 Printing! UNCI 00 Owners!! DM130 (A3/4xxxMIDl i/f) 85.0 We seem to be Make the professional connection between your Acorn DMI50 (Dual MIDI i/J) 97.7 developing a bit of a specialism in Fagle M2 360.0 computer and Amstrad NCI 00 with N-ConneCt. Epson scanners and printers nt the MIDI Max 75.0 moment! Maybe it's something to do PowerWave 30 (incDMi50). . . . 208,0 (or /ust £30.95 lofth cable) with our excellent prices and the £24.95 PowerWave 50 (inc DM 50).... 229.0 unbeatable quality of the Epson kit. Contact us for details PowerWave 50 XG 285.0 Clieck the panel in the body of the Sibelius6 165.0 advert and don't wiss out on calling Databases Integrated Packages Sibelius 7 Student 540.0 US if you're considering a high ipiality scanner or a colour printer. Data Power 145.00 Fireworkz 103.00 Sibelius 7 875.0( Send a large (A4) SAEfor Epson S-Base 2 Personal Edition 140.00 Fireworia Pro 160.00 Yamaha MIO Speakers 65.01 brochures and a sample 720dpi Design printout. Merlin 3D CAD 115,00 Rise PC & A7000 Systems I make no apologies for plugging DTP/WP our leasing scheme again. Many at some of the best prices you will find Anagram Genius 1900 schools and businesses haiv used it ACM02 A7000 2Mb/HD425 1090.00 Easy Font 3 35.00 to obtain stale of tlic art si/stems for a ACM03 A7000 4Mb/HD425 1165.00 Impression Publisher 145.00 very affordable mordhly outlay. A With Acorn Dual Speed add 130.00 Impression Style 88.00 CD ROM rough guide is £35 per month per Quad Speed CD ROM adrf 150.00 £1000 order value, based on a three Games year contract. Please call forfurther Arctums 22.50 ACB60 Rise PC 600 4Mb/HD425 1335.00 details. Bum Out 22.50 ACB70 Rise PC 700 5Mb/HD425 1585.00 It 's impossible to list everything Cannon Fodder 21.50 ACB75 Rise PC 700 10Mb/HD850 1970.00 in an advert this size so you don't if Crystal Maze 36.50 1 7" Monitor {AKF85) add 315.00 see ivhat you want, please call. Cyber Ape 18,75 Acorn Dual Speed CD ROM add 130.00 Prices include VAT and UK Dariwood 34.00 Quad Speed CD ROM arfd 150.00 mainland delivery. Dreadnou^is 25.75 l>ine II 32.50 A7000 & Rise PCs include 1 year's free on-sKe Flashback 24.95 maintenance. Global Effea 32,00 Magnetoids 22.50 Schools/ Paying by Cash, Cheque, Sim City 2000 (RiscPC or A5000) . 35.00 Acorn Businesses Switch, Connect or Delta? ^Simon the Sorcerer (floppy) 35.95 Lease a Rise fC You may deduct an De<^SE/\/lACComi>,Lt,),^, PD Sox, 304, Sf^fkton, 8/Vff^£, from as little as fmisk te si^n^ tktst items^em^. fm^dtiet fdsn t It^i* te^^ My mor*^ mak^M^&Kpfffta^ £,40.70 [incVATj extra £3 5 discount syi^tiif^ ojtdtiat the.pr-t'oM^s ansU iire&elt I/AT. per month over 3 Item £ years. Call for from the VAT inclusive price of your details. Rise FCI! A selection of A7000/Rlsc PC bits 'n' pieces... . tepa». m» ncmt' am/asfs^'^f at^. . . tut/fcfMe . 8Mb SIMM 245.00 Q mitk tie tueiestja^a^t. 16Mb SIMM 405.00 S^A6tss/l/is Date.: , Zynet offer The Quality Internet Provider Acorn User has teamed up with Internet provider Zynet to Zynetted offer an Internet connection package tailored for schools. Zynet Ltd is the sister company of one aimed at schools and one aimed at world which are coming on-line in Minerva Software, who recently cele- teachers and parents, starting from just increasing numbers brated ten years as a supplier of £8 -t- VAT per month. This will enable The Internet offers exciting and educational software to the Acorn mar- you to: unique ways of working within the ket. Zynet has been an Internet provider • exchange e-mail with other schools National Curriculum across all key in the South West since 1994 and has across the world stages. With Zynet's experience, and recently expanded with 61 new POPs to • access an almost limitless pool of links with Minerva, it is well-placed to cover most of the UK; It is a provider in information offer schools the highest quality its own right and does not sit on the • keep up to date with the latest news Internet service. For more details, con- back of another provider such as Pipex. • 'visit' the world-famous buildings, tact Zynet on: (01392) 426160 or come Zynet has put together two packages; museums and art galleries across the to the Zynet stand at BETT. Schools' offer: ZySchool Teachers' and parents' offer: • Unlimited access time Zy-Base • 5Mb resource space on the Zynet Server • Unlimited Internet access • School e-mail address (domain name and • Personal e-mail address P0P3 mail available at extra cost - phone for details) • Internet technical support line (6 days a week) • Internet technical support line (6 days a week) • Discount vouchers for Termite Internet and the Ant Internet Suite • Termly payments if required software. • Restricted news group access and on-line time available if needed • Free Doggysoft Termite Internet Sampler software. • Discount vouchers for Termite Internet and the Ant tntemet Suite software. Registration + one year's access: £133.95 inc VAT • Free Doggysoft Termite Internet Sampler software. (normally £164.50 inc VAT) Registration and three months' access: £65.50 inc VAT Registration + six months' access: £86.95 inc VAT One year's access with free registration: £141.00 inc VAT {normally £101.05 inc VATl Order Form I would like to order: Name: Address: , , .ZySchool registration and three months' access £65.80 inc VAT . , .ZySchool one year's access with free registration £141.00 incVAT -Postcode:. ...Zy-Base registration and one year's subscription £133.95 inc VAT Daytime phone number: ...Zy-Base registration and six months' access £86.95 inc VAT lJ Please tick here if you want to receive inlormation from Zynet about I enclose a total payment of: modems, ISDN leased lines and Web Authoring services I wish 10 pay by: D Cheque/Postal order (made payable to Zynet) LJ Please tick here if you do not want to receive promotional material ^ n Credit card (VISA/Access/Barclaycard) from other companies Expiry date: [ / Senit yoar completed ortler form to: Acorn User Zynel offer. Media House. AdIinglon Park. Macclesfield, SK10 4NP. or hand It in at ttie Zynet stand at BBTT- I I I I I I I 1 I I I no: I I I 1 I Card L Please allow 28 days lor registration and delivery from when we receive your (Official orders from educational establishments are welcome) order. To qualify, orders must be received by the end ot February. C&OE. January 1996 Acorn User 59 Letters Marketing Acorn negative) to enable the In the lasl two issues we have message to get across. said goodhye to three highly Before anyone asks - no, 1 do influential figures in the Acorn not sell Acorn computen, but I market. Firstly, we had the used to be responsible for the untimely and tragic death of sales of babymilk to hospitals m - 1 in the South East of England. Mark Colton although am " 1 " "li > not a user of Colton Software's What has that got to do with -> 1^ • / < products I hope that its future computers, you may ask? Well, 1 is secure within the new organ- when did anyone last see a ^ isation as diversity of product consumer advert or TV offering is vital. Secondly, we commercial for a babymilk? VcnrnlS had the resignation of Sam The answer is, not for over 10 Wauchope - although the years in the UK; they are latest results from Acorn are banned by law. However, in disappointing, his enthusiasm my lime in office, a small for 'our preferred platform' British manufacturer in third was quite inspiring and I'm place in South East England sure that this will be missed hy became market leader. How? all at Acorn House; 1 hope that By developing partnerships it will be picked up and and sponsorship with health- expanded upon by his succes- care professionals - the middle sor David Lee. rinally, we say men or women in the health- goodbye and good luck to care market. Mark Moxon, the last remain- So, if this company with a ing member of the full-time turnover even smaller than The Acorn SchoolServer - Acorn's first PowerPC-based Acorn User staff from the Acorn's can move up using machine. Should we welcome it? Redwood publishing days. these techniques then, with the So, the real reson for Sam right attitude and commitment and the changes, let us all be able to sell re-badged PCs as Wauchope's resignation has I'm sure that Acorn can do positive about this and cheaply as the original come to light - the financial better. If anyone at Acorn continue to support a platform manufacturers, so the results were awful. Yet, House is reading this then cal! and a lot of excellent software motive for selling them isn't perhaps someone can explain me ~ 1 am a Clan member and I that, pound for pound, puts simply one of profit. It has to me why Acorn's shares are come cheap. most PCs to shame. If anyone a lot more to do with open- currently trading at 109p (just Yes, Acorn may change. It needs convincing further, look ing up new markets and Ip lower than its year high) may start selling re-badged PCs at the Moxon Interview with opportunities which would and the highest for some and Macs, it may not be the Martin Littler - '! think that in previously have been closed period of time. Not only that, same friendly organisation, hut two years' time we'll see the to Acorn because it didn't but as a result of the share with Peter Bondar heading up three platforms converging; offer the right machines. option there are many more ART 1 am sure that develop- you won't be able to sell a (DM - see Viewpoint) shares in circulation - probably ment of 'true' Acorn hardware machine unless it runs all three the most since the Olivetti and software will continue. forms of software. Times are Reference library take-over. Having spoken to Peter at changing.' 1 have been a loyal reader of By the way, remember the previous Acorn events 1 know a Think about it a little further your magazine for some time doom and gloom merchants of true fan and enthusiast when 1 - do PC or Mac manufacturers now. I read it for a wide range three years ago? When IBM meet one and Peter is all of have the ability or the desire to of topics, games, hardware, posted losses of $5 billion they that - more power to your achieve this at a competitive public domain and especially were written off - they made a elbow, Peter. price? I think not, but to programming. Within the last $2 billion loss the following Now, some Acorn fans will borrow AA's saying, 'I think I six months 1 have 'run into a year as well and were dead and be saying 'selling PCs and Macs know a company who does'. brick wall' with my program- buried - today they arc prof- is not what we stayed with Keith Parker ming; I am in grave need of the - itable. Who says they never Acorn for', but think about it Twickenham PRMs but on my budget come back? why not? If hy selling so-called cannot afford them, like so So, after all this trauma, docs industry-standard platforms Well, yes, if you don't have many other people, no doubt. Acorn have a future? I believe our company makes money the money to advertise, However, one thing that 1 caa it does and - given the right and enables the research and then a law preventing your afford is your magazine (otwi- marketing - a very good future. development os Rise PC hard- competitors from doing so ously), so that's when I <;ime By marketing, 1 do not lielieve ware and software technology too is bound to be to your up with the idea of an^therl that full-page colour advertise- then we should welcome it advantage. article for your magazinfcii- ments in the major computing with open arms. And if the How about it ASA? No You could, each month, magazines or TV advertising relationship between Acorn more of those Intel Inside publish a few pages out of the are the answer. They may be if and IBM develops then it must adverts with that annoying PRMs. Obviously you might you have pots of money but be totally to our advantage - it oriental-sounding jingle at run into copyright pBOblems, Acorn does not- No, the future, might even make PCs easy to the end? I don't think that it but thee is nothing to stop you I believe is in developing part- use and improve RISC OS by is very likely, which knocks re-wording evei nerships and co-operation with adding tools that we haven't the babymilk analogy on the However, there is oi dealers, developers and influ- got but desperately need, now. head somewhat, I feel. problem, and that is encers (both positive and No, despite all the bad news Acorn is never going to be (sic) quantity of the Pta^^pra 60 Acorn User January 1996 Write to Acorn User, Media House, Adiington Park, Macclesfield, SK10 4NP. E-mail: [email protected] rate of about five pages a we could fit all our other montl] to publish it all could problems into this problem Viewpoint take half a lifetime. and still have room for At the time of writing. Acorn's shares are standing at 215p, with every You could overcome this in Mongolia. expectation that they'll rise higher than this. Naturally editors of Acorn one of a number of ways. The Programmer's Refer- computing magazines don't have any Acorn shares, partly because the Firstly, you could cut down the ence Manuals are just that; opportunities for insider trading would be too great but mostly because size of each command descrip- works of reference. It is we don't earn enough to buy any. Nonetheless, we are very finally tion in places that are notoriously difficult to attuned to how the City views Acorn, and suddenly it can't buy shares in extemely complicated or just translate a reference work plainly too long. successfully to a series of it fast enough -why? Secondly, you don't have to articles in a magazine, even It's well known that the latest craze on the Stock Market is the publish every command, one that goes on over Internet and communications. Companies in these areas have seen their there are fair several years. meaning that a The key point shares trading at very respectable levels recently, as everyone has finally few calls that most people about the PRMs is that all accepted that the Internet is catching the public imagination and might would never use (and the the information you need is just be around long enough to outlast the Christmas rush. people that are techies enough there, in one place, not scat- As reported in the news, dice are rolling among the big names in the to use them probably have the tered through several PRMs anyway) so why publish magazine binders inter- computer industry, and some people in to are convinced that the 'Get them in the first place? spersed with reviews of out of Wintel free' card belongs to Acorn. What they are after is a Even if doing this still needlepoint software and network workstation which boots up from ROM, needs no floppy or proved too to print, you interviews with Martin much hard drive (or any moving parts at all, in fact) and downloads software could still tell people about it Coulson's cats. If you need and information at run-time over the network. Take the floppy drive out in advance and have them the PRMs then you need the of an A7000 NET and add a little Online Media set-top box technology request what areas or specific PRMs - the only possible and you have a ready-made solution. What's more, people outside Acorn calls to print. substitute is Alternative If this idea gets off the Publishing's PRMs on CD- have noticed. - ground, 1 think that it will ROM. This is big-league stuff. The rumoured NetSurfer box an all-in-one prove to be worthwhile as long Having said that, there's Internet box which plugs into your phone and your TV and lets you surf as there are enough program- definitely a place in the the net - is only one variable in the equation. Businesses will want an mers/beginners out there who magazine for programming Ethernet version which is designed for browsing accounts, project want to read the column. You tutorials. Many hints and reports and spreadsheets rather than the Web. Cable companies will can certainly count me as one. tips can be gleaned from the want one that handles video-on-demand. Schools will want an educa- Andrew Halliday *l\FO section, especially if Adelaide you look at how some of the tional version. If this takes off in the way that Acorn and its prospective BASIC programs are writ- partners hope that it will do, then there will be more of these boxes built Thelie quantifyquantity of the PRMs is ten, and from time to time than there were of the entire Acorn range. You can see why the Stock certainly In fact, will certainly a problem. we be going Market is interested. to quote f^race Under Fire, beyond that. (DM) There are certain dangers for Acorn here; it is a sparrow sharing a nest with condors. However loyal we may be to Acorn, it is an inescapable fact that a company like IBM could buy Olivetti's shares in Acorn on a whim, out of loose change. It might do it too, if it thought that this small a the com It iniKk I WTjrcihLf icon, tite Wimp nuTnnmkallv ppxtvta die UK company had the technology of the future. mV Iwyi lined twb», dnd tii>7i noc fcnc[3i« ait cvcul- This wouldn't necessarily be the end of Acorn, of course. In fact, given m E^mnblc tltimKCcn itc iMotcd mo [he ten. d rhcic it tnm, and the Icm L« mlrawtl :- ^W IMeU;, i JeJcie ihaiwcf r lo Icli of CBici ^at one of the reasons that Acorn technology is so attractive to these W CdpT dpIflF (Jutnctermn^lnlcAEei <- [UIVE kiL imtnliiiiHici people is the ROM-based RISC OS, anyone buying Acorn would have a '-I -> nuvr ntjhiHDiv liufacirr ? Shift CCfv delclfi »nrd Ihfwardt) keen interest in keeping RISC OS alive. There's no getting away from the Shifl<^ movEleh CtriCopt ilclni: kifMwdi to oiii u< Imc it value the input of a few enthusiasts Ctrt <- move i» M ml onou however much may thousand Clil-> muve [u nehi dm! tJ line now, it would simply not be able to do so to the same extent if it were "^iiued dbBttCKH,' an dyiw pnnoiblc iH^t whdr tixki if ul t]tc nuiea &20.&;E«>d6>IW-aiFF. counting its sales of (hypothetical) NetSurfer boxes in the millions. before, but this time it really has no excuses. It has the right product at Ekipc iilB &LB &IB lk\& Prim (FD) 6iisa &IW &IAD &IEO time, and lot of influential people out there talking about it. FI-F9 a.llll-ie9 lilVI'IW &IAI lAV &1HI IB) the right a T-b S.1KA &I9A 5.IAA S.IBA Co<>i iuae &I9B &IAB MBB Acorn won't have to market, distribute or manufacture the product, as Miinio ^lUC &I9C iilAC MK: njhfum. SilBD (illlU S.1AD i.lBD others will do that for it; all it has to do is licence the technology. ilowninoo USE &I9E &1IAE ^IBL iipnTow l,\lif &1fF &IAF bliU- Of course, really this is just more Internet hype. The Internet is a fad, r l^di-sn 6il9E &IBE &IEE &IAE pi»F"r ^I9r &ISF ikiw fiiAF like Rubik's cube or console games and will, in the long run, be replaced KlU. FlI SllC^-ICX. &)11A IDC S.1EA-1EC S.IFA-4.IFC bwn &ICD &IIX> ^ifD iilfD by something designed to have a substantial population of the world 1 accessing it at once. In the short term though, Acorn is in an ideal posi- tion to cash in; in any case the product in question is not exclusively an H98 Tlie Window Managsi SWI Cats Internet device - it's got a lot more potential than that Here is your token PRM page for this issue - over 2000 We, and Acorn, live in interesting times, to go and that's not even counting volume five. David Matthewman January 1996 Acorn User 61 First the fastest IDE solutions - now there 's SCSI-3 Fast SCSI-3 Interface Fast ATA-2 Interface Audio Systems Fast Small Computer Systems Interface Enhanced Performance ATA-2 Interface i'®; £70.50 iDfffgSCSIl ^gp Improved 16 bit Digital Audio card and mixer with superb SCSI, SCSI-2, Fast SCSI-2 and SCSI-3 ATA-1 and ATA-2 (IDE) compatible reproduction and dynamics. compatible Rise Rise PC Interface. PC Interface. Incorporates an oversampling tracking digital filter for the best sound quality, 32 bit data transfer - with DMA access. 32 bit intelligent ATA-2 eontroller for independent of the sample rate. Active termination - software disable. IDE disc drives and ATAPI CD-ROMs. The 4 channel mixer section combines Sustained data rates of up to: Up to 400% improvement on Rise PC CD-ROM and multimedia audio. 7MB/S asynchronous motherboard controller. 8MB/S synchronous. Firmware in FLASH ROM. Peak data rate of 20MB/s on SCSI bus. Mixer £35.25 Up to four devices of any mix. Four channel Audio Mixer for Internal and external connectors. Sustained data rates of up to 8MB/s. combining existing sound with Firmware in FLASH ROM. CD-ROMs or multimedia audio. Peak data rate of 1 6MB/s on ATA bus. Price £199.75 inclusive. Price £145.70 inclusive. ATAPI CD-ROMs Dual speed 300KB/s £110.45 SCSI Disc Drives ATA (IDE) Disc Drives Quad speed 600KB/S £1 69.20 Quantum 850MB £239.70 Quantum Trailblazer 850MB £1 99.75 6x Quantum Fireball 1 080MB £298.45 Fujitsu 1080MB £251.45 ""'''' Quantum Saturn 2000MB £618.88 Quantum Fireball 1 280MB £274.95 CD-ROM Quantum Atlas II 2000MB £740.25 Western Digital 1 600MB £368.95 Six speed ATAPI CD-ROM drive. Quantum Grand Prix 4000MB £1003.45 Reads at an incredible 900KB/S. Micropolis 9000MB £1 884.70 Please call for latest stock and prices (6x only compatible with RaplDE) A MULTIMEDIA presentat on starring DESKTOP DIGITAL TELEVISION and featuring a TV TUNER with TELETEXT screen play in FULL MOTION Dont be left in the cold! sound in NICAM DIGITAL STEREO Yellowstone Educational Solutions Telephone: roi582J 584828 Bramineham Park Business Centre, Enterprise S^S. Way. Fax: f 1 582J 562255 Braminaham Park. Luton, LU3 4BU. aii prices include carriage and 17.5% VAT Education editorial RISC OS is dead? SOME people 1 have recently spoken to have indicated a degree of much of the negative opinion stemmed from the fact that several pessimism about the future of RISC OS. In light of the recent companies previously known for Acorn software are now diversify- changes at Acorn, this is perhaps understandable, but I feel it is a ing and producing software for Windows and Macintosh. Of mistaken view. I find it very encouraging that software houses are particular note, dual or even triple format CD-ROMs are now not showing quite the opposite view and are backing their optimism uncommon. But we don't often hear of companies producing pro- with the production of some sound products which exploit the grams for the Acorn platform who were previously known for Mac power of the platform; for instance the CD-ROMs reviewed in this software. This is simply good business .sense and not a wholesale issue. abandonment of the platform. These products represent a considerable investment for their The evidence is there - more and more Acorn native material is producers. Rather than reducing their output of RISC OS-compli- landing on my desk to be reviewed. RISC OS is dead? Don't you ant software, many seem to be stepping up production. I beiieve believe it. Hear Hear BASICALLY, there are two ways of generat- majority of words in common use. This is MW PhonEdit ing voices on a computer, The first is to partly because Jonathon has included a Hord bath replay digitally recorded speech. This pro- pronunciation exceptions editor enabling duces the clearest speech but at a price: the system to 'look up' the correct Old ha ±\ DEIJ storing every conceivable phrase required pronunciation of the words. Hew for a specific task consumes huge amounts Speak can be made to read a text file or of storage space. alternatively reside alongside a text editor Rdd Renove Save The alternative is to store all the differ- {Edit, Impression, Ovation or the like) and ent sounds that go to make up what we speak the words as they are typed. This sys- Like understand as speech and assemble the tem has been adopted by several parts in the required order to simulate companies for 'talking' versions of some of JJJ. speech. This system has the advantage that their products {Textease, Clicker, TalkWrite a: )ii hi an I QD virtually anything that a human can say, and Writhifi with Symbols). ail ei ai| ea la pa aia|ai»j 3 I ; I S the computer can say without using vast it still sounds a little robotic, but pro- quantities of storage. The downside of this duces very recognisable speech especially system is that the computer voice usually when output through decent speakers. I sounds like a Dalek undergoing some find it very useful for reading the obliga- hideous torture. tory ReadMe files which seem to be on Sounds can be tailored using the phonic Speak by Jonathan Duddington is about most discs these days, and for reading exception editor. the best speech synthesis program I've through my e-mail. Really. I download all come across on the Acorn platform. Con- my mail to a text file, strip out all the rub- something else while I'm being read to. sidering the 'poor design' of the English bish (control codes, headers and so on) and Speak costs £19.50 inc VAT from language, Speak does a pretty good job of let the system read to me. I can then take Jonathan Duddington, 6a Old Mill Avenue, applying reasonable pronunciation to the notes on my Pocket Book or get on with Coventry, CV4 7DY, tel: (0120.^) 415535. Contacting me You can contact the Education Tessellations revisited page by writing to me, Geoff I'M always delighted Preston at Acorn User, Media to receive letters from Southampton) wrote to me showing how they school children especially when they include use Draw to make irregular tessellating House, Adiington Park, shapes. some of their work. Following on from the Full instructions are on the cover disc; thank you Macclesfield SK10 4NP or by review about Versatile, Rinesh Patel and Chris Rinesh and Chris. You can see Versatile on Long- e-mail to: Neale {both aged 10 from Mansbridge School in man Logotron's stand No 261 at BEIT. [email protected] Internet for Schools? 1 CAN see great potential in the use of trying to make fireworks - there was some would doubtless fall to the teacher. As a Internet in school but still I'm uneasy suspicion that he had downloaded the Head of IT, 1 really don't need that addi- about opening it up to students to access instructions from the Internet, although tional headache. It is therefore vital that, as and when they like. The material to there are plenty of other sources for this when you connect to the Internet, you fil- which they will have access can often be sort of information. ter the access to newsgroups and web sites totally unregulated. Only recently there Had that information been downloaded for your students, and keep a close watch were reports of a boy losing a hand after in school, the burden of responsibility on what is actually being downloaded. January 1996 Acorn User 63 I All Prices Riscpc . upgr.de= k .,„^„ OtdcY ToU 01924 2 All Risat'-. A: A71KH)\ iih-IjUl- on-Mtt mill rile n.ince Exclude VAT U: TT, iCIarcs) £79.()Oaj I IDE CD Tray Quad Internal iRiSCPC 600(afm610)| Panasonic Quadpro EmS.OOc Topojnupher (Clares) £79.00a jnyiR;.. F;aJiis^*AI,^luM Gcldstai EI3S.D0c Touch Type llotal £39.0ffti James Pond IKrisalis) £R,.50a Tuihi' Dnver (fO £43 SCSI CO Tray Quad Internal (H* James Pond 2 RokCod (G/W) £ 19.50a RiScPC 700{arm710) Pioneer XmSfilB E2S8.00c James Pond running water 1.2s (HI., Ein/Ha>f25 1if"mDn. ei36D.QDe Toshiba DR-U 1 2>«X £279.00c Education Softiuare Krisalis Collection (Krisali.s) £22.00a llf"mon. elG92.0ne| I MDm/HOeSO SCSI CD Caddy Quad Internal l.£mmings (Krisalis) £l8,.50a '."I. lOoulof 10 lull R,iii,.'c I aili Fnr 17'RKFBS monilDi Hdd£27e.O0 Tostiiba Xn)-3e01B £2B9.00c Li-mmings Oh No More (Kns) £l5.CX)a I Dmiisaws, m-ivirif ]"l-m l-,jrl. l-,jLLiiL.,i.L[i^liih,| Fai CDrom DtlvB 2x RddC 1 11.001 Printer Pert CD Tray External Lemmings RistPC (Krisalis) £2l,(X)a I > f :irp,l, i,t t-iS I T . R« Malll'L. ViiiiLi- Far COroffl Drive Vx Rdd£139.0ol Tiuin Speed £1S9.00d Lemmings 2 Tribes (Krisalis) £2 1.00a Davyn Computer Services Jr.Essciiliali. Math Algtbra. Vlailica-ipnwin Mt C'"niit'ifrs uri fiuifl unit tr \1F'I itft'irr rlfipilh-trl l^tusTurbo2 (Krisalis) £ 1 8.00a Quad Speed £25lf.00d Mdihi Numba. Mnlli SialisliFt. Spelling. y,'\thliriiUr'Minil 'ttiiuuiie ywyltUM^I tw^UlUi'ii li'' Magic Pockets (Renagadel LTill'l.i + buy 2 iivt .Vd FREE re-imrrtl'ii 'Unufilitiitniil ' "\i Acorn^ Technology Centre Magneloids (Oragan) £19.tX)d Ailvcnlure Playground iSlorml £17.0()a I i»8B-SX-33 Upgrade €39.00c Man United Europe (Kns) £8.50a I PC memory Upgrades Ama/ingMalhs (CSHi £l700a Populus (Kri.salis) £22-OOa £l3.50u AmazingOllie (Slorml Manager £ 1 5,(Xla KBe-DX2-66 PC Upgrade E2V9.D0c Premier Arcventuicl Romans (Shcrl 02,l"l()a R3000 1-2nib ESG.DOb Raw Power (Soltware42! £ 1 9.00a koS-DXlt-lOO PC UpgradeE293.00c R3000 l- £2I.(X)a I /-Ji l4AKI-'ill'n,mil,; ,\,hl e37.aad[ Calligraph Granny's Garden t4Ma!l Virtual CKiir (4D| 2mb £24.00j Happy Life (CCS) £26.00c Virtual GoiriuKu-stjcdiirss (4D) £ 12.00a Rif APR 0% RlfOOO .e Floppy Oisc.2ITIb ram. 1200 Laser (black) £g79.0De [1 Happy Numbers (CCSl £36,00t Wavelength (G/W) £l5,0()a RKFS3 m/G (nonitor. 210 mb HD) 0\ffJrd Reading Tree Stage 2 James Pond running water £2S lN)j Xenon 2 (GAV) £ 19.00a Printer Inks £3(i,0nb Iziomb H/DiscSys £722.006] TalVine Slorics (Shcrl Landmarks full range(LL)each £24.00a Zool tMXl.l Ph(*iBa.se 19:0s.30s.40s,50s.60s UKik Here Talking Topics(Shl t.';2(K)h GamcsPad Iplayer (GAV) 1^1 <• Price EACH (LL) £46.00a I R70aO (1 .B Floppy DisE.2 or mb MulbsCircus (4MBt) £25-OOu // Ri^hDim: (Uniquewayl £12. .''Oa EKpar^dabte to ISOIDb cam. Arm 7600 ////////// Naughty Stories V I or 2 (Sher) £49.(X)b RiM.'|}isi- !! |[lniquc>>/ayl £20.l)()a HKF60 rrWB mon. "tSSmb HD. Inkjet Refills are an eccnamical may tfP OIlie Octopus Sk Pad (Stoiml £13.5031 [ Ham To Order IJ-iO.i ("nii.iLkLr iWir<-«i.l( S,.\:\ i Oxford Reading Tree Stage 2 (I 5ite 12 months luarranty) I or re-charging your existing cartridge Chequi's: shniikl be in.idc Stories £3S.00b I ufilh Talking (Sher) 2m/HD>»2S 1if"mon. £935.00e| I Rll inks come complete gloves. Softuiare Rpplication MathsMimia ^^ (Topo) L22ii()a syringe and easy lo use instructions. payable to Dav^pii Computers I tSher) ,,\,oril, More Talking Stones A £3B.0Oh ( Single 20ml Rny Colour £G.70a I'W.OUc | Credit 'ards: yi.)u may also pay \h:l nn,mn,nr .\,l.l LI! I tXI MusicBoi iTopol i:''{mii Tmin 2x20ml Rny Colour ElO.EOa Adianlage ll.L.) £46.(Kla byVisa, Delia, Euro, Switch. Number Tiles (Topo) ITI (K).i Anci'vu-y 11 1 Minerva 1 £75.00b Sofituare Packs: Tri-Colour C/m & Y ElG.GOa Oxford Reading Tree Stage 3 Electron, or Master Card. We Arcfa» iDavtd P) 28.5()a ujith Bulk 12&ml Rny Colour E20.00b if purchased nem computBij Stones (Sher) £3 8, f 10b I normally make no charge lor this, I AnWnrks lCCl£l3;^-nOc Talking Oxford Talking Infant Alius £l8,()0a and lake no payment until goods EarlLj Years £G3.B3d| 'Cartridgemate'Roeiuand Amiadcus (Clares) £a | Pinpoint Junior (LL) £2fi.()0a| (Tfllkjng fitvbunlc. Flossy ^e Fta^. Aiidu) Works (CO £43,50j are ready for dispatch, We need R iTtouse in Holland, Hans ttie Ootty Dog, PI.,ni'Ai>t ^ iSlitn i)2l»<.> the card holders addres.s and I Card Shop iCIares) £m.50a 4 BZing rriflths, GBrnim, Painlpot) £20,00b| ("L-k'brjiiii» lOurt^i t21l»h Podd (ESM) telephone number, card number Prime Solver (Mmerva) £68.fX)a Home Office £106.38d| Compleie Animator (lota) £79.50c and issue number it any and the I Rusie & Jim Duck (Sher) £IO-(X)a gr CompiiMl'on iCWeii £I2'>ll()L expiry date. Bcfl Oas e, Oaiinos) Rosie Jim Snce/e' , ISher) £lO,00a I PC Oimpreviion £27,S0a & (CO ("arriiific: charges are a.s lollnw SeicenTurtle (Topo) £29 (Hli, Learning Curve £63.83d | DalaPower (lolB) £ll9,0lfc (Sher) £26 .00a I £I.(.K) (RdwKii, PC BDfl / Ch B. Demos) Desktop Thcsaunjs (RtJcv) £17.50a Sea Rescue a Small Sclladorc Tales iSher) n2.50a Easv Font 3 (FabisI £26.50a b Medium £2.00 Smudge the Spaniel (Storm) £17.50a Portable Computers dW# Eiiio,stope(RisLPConlvl (CO £i46,(X)b " Smudge the Scientist (StormI £,l(i,(X)a I c Medium Recorded £4.00 Eureka 3 (1-Ll £89,{)0i: I easy lo use cartridge refill system foi Space City (Shcrl £26.0()a ImitmSOHardDisc E! ma.QOd HP 51G26Rhigh cap. cartridges Fonnulu (CO £fiO.OOa d Courier £9.00 I Splash (Sherl £19,()0a (I .e Fioppij iDisc.tmb Rpvn. flomti na.irxi Fonl FX (Dala.«orel £9,S()a R refill system luith no mess StigofilieDump (Sher) £22.50u e Courier Large £15.00 Emulalcr) |-r;.tiic-ll I ([J.tv)n)CiKh L5.WI: I Bcrcin. PC oi 2 Siarts £22.50a| Comprises: CarlridgefTlale Iriiiin's Story (Shcrl I l\iMislii-i iirvyulrtf Ollkial Orders: are welcome Packet Book 2(256k) EZOG-ODc Talking Clock ^(-iTopo) i?l (l<),i & 2 N ifOml Ink Tanks Graphics Loaders |CC) DT.OOa from UK education and pQckpl Back 2(imB] £2B5.0Dc Talking Animated Alphabet £27.00a I Cartridge not included £3 0.00b Ulusionisl {Clares) £39,(IOa government institutions {invoices I TalkingRhymcsl iTopo) 121 ii()j FH-ink £l»0.>t9b Ink Tank 2 x >tOml £ 1 7.00e Image An imaloi (lolii) £46flOa are due for payment wilhin 14 The Playground (Topo) t:i (I()m refill Image tirlam) £23.(X)a m-Link £G>>.eOb HPG 1 B2GR Tri-Colour CaHridge Bank days and are subject lii carriage The Puddle WardmbflTopo) £21 IXla Image Oullmer (lota) £4(i,(X)a & PC-Link * £GB.O0b kit 3 K 3 cclaur refills Comprises: and lale payment cbargcsl. Detectives tShcr) £42.00a| Impression Publisher tCC) £l35.f)Oi; Time PaiallelLink E2^.2Bb cm & y Inks. Cap Retaining Clip VAT is nol incliidfdi Zer ay.fOc TinyDraw/Logo (Topo) £21 txi.. Cartridge Cap Remover £30.00a Ijiiprcssion Slyle ICC) Pnuier Supply EI2.72b TinyPuz/le (Topo) 11 (.no.. rated items are marked vo. UK liii.Ti.ilk ^u iAm-mii £7'HK1> Flash SBD 512 £76.5Ea I customers please add 17.51*!; lo all I Teddy Bear's Picnic (Sher) £26.00a EP-L Toner for LBP-^ EGg.OOc Knowledge Organi.ser 2(Clare) £bl.50a Voyage of Discovery iSher) £32. 50a other prices including carriage. EP-B Toner for LBP-8 £69.000 N.nale ILL) £53.00b Hardiuare Upgrades Worst Wiidi (Sher) £26.(K)a Puiiilown Eloilcs (LL) £49.00c | Order \ddrcss: please send Pcnilown Plus (LLi £6y.00i- your orders ti:); Chroma Genlock E 1 •2.00c Printable Items I Personal Acciiunls :Aprieolel £37.00b [ Games Saftiuare Colour Card Odd E 1 B9.00c Dawn Computer Services Colour'n tUear |2 uihilE BHchall Caps * PhiiloDesk ISpaeeTech) £I.S7.0rn- Eagle m2 +'Cida5' £31fi.00c Alone in the I'j k ^v ). 1 ? 1X1.1 midi max EBB.ODc It trflnsfBr papvrs E1 I.GOb Aries 4f;jwii\ (GamesWare) Plol (Clares) £6l.50a WakcHeld, West Yorkshire, Rij: It.MU' il'.\..i.i>:i l.i:ril).i PC Card 386 {[ai sazarvOOQ) £<>9.0D[: Design & Print (Tlouse mat EE.OOe Pro Anisan2 (Clares) £IOfi.OOu BattleChcss iKrisalis) £2l..'i()B WFt 5NY Rise as Upgrade Chips ESO.OOc Design & Print Business Cards Pro Artisan 24 (Clares) £12S.()0c I lEOg PerlorBled Elt.GOa Black Angel I4D) £24.00a ()|X'ning Hours: Bcanlight 2&G 8b ii £139.a0c lOxSm PropheL 2 Accounts lApiicolel £i43.00c 1 t2(lll(!,l BumOui 1 Or,igaii Scanlight 2Be IGbit £1 29.00c Col InkJet matt photo uihite paper Render Bender v2 (Clares! £39.00a 3..'*0 I Monday 9.30- 25 sheMs > 12Dgm« EG.DOb Cannon Ftiddcr iKrisalis) £ 19,50a Bcanlight2BG Video Eigg.ooc Replay Sianer Kit lAcoml £34.50b 9.30- .30 Chopper Force I4D) £22.O0a Tuesday 5. monochrome InkJet brilliant uihite RevelaLion ImaeePro (LL) £1 19.00c SCSI Sbil £8 1.00c Wednesday 9.30- 5..30 paper 100 sheets x 90gms £2.G0b Chuck Rock IKrisalis) £8.50a I Rli^p-,ody3 (Clares) £79.00a SCSI lebit £8 1.00c Cobalt Seed (TBA) £19.5()a Thursday 9.30 - 7.30 RhylhmBed (Clares) £39.00a ^ 32bil Eiei.OOc SCSI 2 CD Boftuuare Cryst;il Ma^e (Sher) £2M.50a Friday 9.30- 7.30 TV Tuner ES&.OOc RiscCad Professional Cyber Ape (TBAl £ 15,00a Saturday 9.30- 5.30 TV Tunor Teletext EISI.OOc ArlWiHks K.rjl.l35.0l)c Cyber Chess (4Dl £24.00b I I (Davyn)t;i5y.(Hk.- lerni.s: All pniducls, prices and AriWorks Chpan I £17.00fl Ml Hunlmir,' fined)F, (CO Cvcloids (Soii42) £lS.00a specifications are otiered in good AnWorks riipari II (CC) £17.00a Score Draw {Clares) £47.50a "7f/( Ci'mfmli r !: Dune2 ( Eclipse 1 £27,00a £57.0*]a Serenade (Clares) £7y.lWa faith and are subject to change Being a Sciemisl (Anglial Dune2CD tfT* (Eclipse) £39.00a (Dalaslore) £'(..'vOa Process all Cars-Maihs m Motion (Camhs £S^.(K)a ShapcFX Dungeon (40) Jmb £24.(Hla without notice. We Data Storage £37.0lla Sibelius 6 |Slbe) £I44.50>.- but suppliers CasUcs fAnglial Enter The Realm {4D) 2mb £Ui.00a orders immediaily. Ouurdians of llie Greenwood £46.(Mla Sibelius? (Sibe)£719,00d do sometimes keep us waiting IDE 2.5" Fir.' .V k..- ^f £I')(XM Granny's Garden i4Ma[l OO.OOa Sibelius 7 Sludcnl iSibe) iWi.VOd guaranteed but are nol 270n)b lam E129.DDC Flashback ([IS Gold) n 1.00a Goods are Hulchmson M/Media £47.00a SmAn (4Mali(in) £49.(X)a skOmb lem £2>t9.00c F.TT (TBA) £l9.0()u supplied on approval, Relums imd I [nduslrial Rcvolutmn lAnglia> £«0.(X)ii SmArL Files (4Malion)each £14,50a 3.5" Gal ac Lie Dan (4D) £ 17,00a cancellalitms can only be accepted , IDE [riVL-mions lAnglia) £37.[)()a SmAn File Mi«l.Lang.(4MaLion)£I8.S0a |210mb Conner £89. 00c Global Effect 4K (Ellipse) £27.0()H by prior agreement and there may Kingfi,shcrChtldi«:nsMic.TOpt-dia£79.00li Snippet (4Mallnn) £.32 .00a 1.6 gb msxtor E2G9.00c Gi>ds IKrisalis! £8,50a be a festt>cking and admin islralion Liiriesdale (CrSl £W.riOb Sound FX Maker iClS) £34.(Kla 3.5" Haunted House |4D) 2mb £ 19.00a charge A full copy of our terms are I eCBI 2 MysitniTS of Nature (Anglia) TBA Split an Image tSherl tl6._'i0a Hcimdall (Krisalis)2mb £2 1 .OOa I GblOms Conner £2Sg.O0c available upon request. (Stier) £7*1 00b Termile Inlemcl^?oggySoftl L"''' '"-i NauahlySloncs Vl*2 Hero Quesi (Kri.salisi £21.00a I GblOms ISm E239.00C E.A.O.E 06-12-9.'^ CD-RON ro The latest Hot on the heals of Geoff Preston's CD-ROM roundup No 3, we already CD-ROMS have No 4. When I first started reviewing CD- bust, and now, just weelts later I'm ROMs about a year ago, I didn't writing this on a dreary, damp and envisage it would become a series. Once I cold morning. establislied it would be, 1 thought I would Perhaps this was the reason Anglia review al>out a half-a-dozen twice a year. produced this stand-alone disc which Just as the last review of \0 CD-ROMs went contains everything you ever wanted to press, 1 found there was enough to know about the weather in this material for another round-up. These repre- country and the rest of the world, i sent what I believe are the best of those I've can't imagine there is anything not seen. Humanities teachers will surely find covered. The disc is divided into four something here: of the nine discs covered, sections and topics include Processes four are for geography and two for history. in the atmosphere, Changing seasons. London from the Air is a well-produced CD Weather and climate and Life in different with plenty of good pictures. Britain since 1930 chmate zones. £25 + VAT from Anglia The disc contains Anglia's usual blend This disc contains data for Anglia's Key of high quality photos, draw^^, anima- data handling programs so unless you use tions and video sequences together with' Key, it won't be any use to you which is a simple informative text. Searching for the* great shame because it contains some ^v t.iequired information is simple and there is London from the Air excellent material. Britain siace 1930 is ilso the usual resources folder containing one of the History elements of the a numberof printable worksheets. £99.50 + VAT single user or £149.50 + National Curriculum and many teachers VAT for a network from E&MMA in British isles from the Air association with PhotoAir Software will be sorry they can't use it. The good £40 + VAT from Anglia The second aerial CD-ROM is on the sub- news is that Key is relatively cheap and it Aerial photographs appear to be the rage should be possible to split the cost ject of the capital rather than the whole this month with two offerings from two between the various Humanities depart- country. Although the photos in London sources. Geography teachers will love this ments thus enabling them to use the other from the Air appear to be slightly better Anglia Kf7 CD-ROMs. t one - over 230 aerial photographs taken quality than Anglia's disc, many have from around the country. been taken from quite an altitude so it's The World's Weather For the nostalgic, several were taken not always easy to pick out specific places. years ago it's really interesting £50 + VAT from Anglia some and The CD-ROM contains seven linked at places used to know The current state of the weather seems to looking you Genesis presentarions on Urban Regenera- progress came along, The disc be Britain's favourite topic of conversa- before tion, Urban (ireenspace. Urban Changes, begins with a map of Britain over which tion. It's hardly surprising when you Urban Transport, Urban Tourism, The are placed a number of dots, (ilick on Thames and Tunction Clustering - enough consider that during most of September 1 one of the dots and you get a photograph to whet the appetites of geographers up felt as though 1 would spontaneously com- and some accompanying ExcUInD -ANOCOlOa SHARED.WEATHER CDFS I text. Other information includes resources in the IhuoW'slortiis arM tha nmat local area. wirn up 10 ^000 DccurTing dfOunil You need to be very accu- me woria ai any unt nme Hiey 3in parhcuUtly trjinrnon in rate with the mouse when equBWnnl isginni. choosing a photograph and Tnay occur ac a 'Mull ol sirong atlas Q3nii«cH0'< In .1" un;:jW-i unless you have an by aL'Tiijjijriei^ your side or a very sound cumiioniriir... kill I up 10 12 . -- knowledge of the exact loca- i h thesfi thG oiAV.ir.r "iti.rii-i :>- rli? Jlr (.m learh 60 «[* tion of every city in the UK, selection can be a bit of a lot- tery. 1 had five attempts to get the picture of Cambridge, but 1 suppose that's all part of learning. A really good piece Superb aerial photographs with clear explanations of software and very well Everything you wanted to know about The World's make Britain from the Air a must for geographers and priced. Weather- a fascinating subject. for those with a sense of nostalgia. January 1996 Acorn User 65 SiMTEC ... the Quality Upgrade ELECTRONICS At only £199 plus VAT, breaking the 4Mb RAM barrier has never been as affordable as now, so expand your machine to 8Mb with one of these compact, plug-in upgrades. Designed using state-of-the-art assembly techniques and components, we believe our field proven boards are the neatest and most compact available and all come complete with two speed-matched MEMCs for long term reliability. 0, Oo 7 Oo .* Oo Oo 00 00 . Oo Oo : Oo I 00 . I They will fit with all popular makes of existing 4Mb memory, ARM3 upgrades and podule expansion boards, providing the MEMC socket is not obscured. The 300, 400 series and 33Mhz A5000 computers just plug in with no soldering required. The A3000 and older (25Mhz) A5000 require a surface mount MEMC socket fitting to the motherboard. Please ask if you require this service. Whatever your machine, if you need more memory choose Simtec, the quality upgrade. A full range always in stock. Available for the following machines: A300, 400, R140, A3000 and A5000 SiMTEC ELECTRONICS Avondaie Drive, Tarleton, Preston, Lanes PR4 6AX. Tel: 01772 812863 ^ CD-RON ro MK ThalHwapi^ ^ifli I Live la a Ixoixse of straw. A curious subject area, but gives fascinating information about people creating Animals in Art. and down the country. Each picture has a lengthy description written in an easy style which is never dull. This is a fine piece of work and is easily as good as Edu- Three Little Pigs is another talking story. A well-worn theme, cational and Multimedia Associates' but this one boasts lively presentation. previous CD-ROM: Langdale. One small grumble is that a couple of the subjects were not covered as well as they could have been. In particular, there with the choice of a male or female voice. now rate as being about the best value dic- is a section on underground stations The disc takes readers through the story of tionary available in any format (including which could have been really interesting the Three Little Pigs allowing them to read paper). but included less than a dozen pictures. I or hear the story. Cumana stocks several titles, but my no assume this is because the authors ran out Also included are nine activities (which means all. There are over 250 titles from of space on the disc. If this is the case, they the software refers to as games), dressing 10 countries with prices starting at £15. might have done better had they discarded one of the pigs, colouring and word Electronic Book Publishing produces a 78- the half dozen Replay files and included match. The graphics are bright and clear page catalogue called cheat which lists some stills of some other stations, but this and the presentation is lively and will them all under the headings Dictionaries, is a minor criticism. appeal to the^l^ree^ to five age range for Reference, Business & Professional, Science which it is intended. _i & Technology, Language ht Travel, Enter- Animals in Art ^^ lairunent in Sport, Leisure Lifestyle & and £>10 + VAT firom Anglia Electronic Books 'Literature. If you do decide to choose CDs Art is not a subject which has been very Prices from £30 + VAT from Cnmana from tl«fr«t(fflftalogue, avoid those in popular with Acorn CD-ROMs. Given that If you bought a proTeus drive tJirough the fapanese as the Acorn won't cope with the the Acorn platform can display graphics so Acorn User/Cumana offer, you will h»ve character set. well, this seems rather surprising. Animals received a copy of PaperOut and may be The First World War and Its in Art sums up the contents perfectly - it wondering what to do with it. PaperOut is contains information about every artist a program which enables your Acorn com- Consequences iz. who's ever drawn or painted anything puter to read Electronic Books which were t99 from AVP ^ ^' feathered, fowled or four-footed. Although originally for the Sony Data Discman. This isanother disc fi^m the highly suc- you would think this disc probably works These 8cm discs contain mainly text cessful PictureBiisk'SCv'ics. As with all best on a Rise PC, the images look very although there are some graphics on some PictureBase discs, the data is controlled by clear when viewed in 256 colours on a rea- pages. an application called PIcBase which is sup- sonable monitor. Apart from the pictures, The beauty of these discs is two-fold. plied with each disc and which must be there's a short piece of text about the artist First, because they don't contain lots of installed on to a hard drive (see the and each of the paintings. graphics, access is very fast. Second, November issue of Acorn Vser). they're very cheap: some titles cost as little The result is a program which can invis- Th« Three Little Pigs as £.30. There are some excellent titles ibly access any of the installed CD-ROM £25.49 + VAT inc licence from Tempest which will he of use both at home and discs and presents a common interface for Publishing school. In the April 1995 issue 1 mentioned all discs in the series. As the title implies, This is a 'talking story' disc with some The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus con- this data file relates to WWI and issues sur- additional games to add to the interest. taining 190,000 definitions, 275,000 rounding it. There's not really much more Every sentence seen on the screen can be synonyms and an amazing 150,000 cross- to say about it. The datafites are of a con- made to speak by clicking on the 'ear' references and said that for the cost of sistently high quality (both text and icon. Alternatively, individual words can PaperOut and the actual disc, this repre- graphics) and the fact that there is a com- be spoken by clicking on them. The sound sented very good value. If you got mon user interface makes it very easy to output is digitally recorded and very clear PaperOut free with your proTeus this must navigate through the material. If you want January 1996 Acorn User 67 These FUN EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE PACKAGES were compared by The Times Educational Supplement with systems costing over £1,500 and they concluded: 'Uf the National Council for Education and Technology's researchers ever got round to assessing the impact of a daily 15 minutes with W9«e«l fO they would surely discover real improvements in * Maths and Spelling. If you have children aged 6 to 1 6 take this opportunity to judge the real improvements for yourself. Buy either MATHS or ENGLISH (or both) at just £4.99 each. The RRP is £25.95 each - A SAVING OF OVER £40! These are brand new full versions, in attractive durable library boxes with colour manual and you are under no obligation to make any further purchases. Versions of Maths and English are available on 3.5" Disc for: PC & Compatibles, Acorn, Apple Mac and Commodore Amiga. CD's gauges varied learning trom are available for Compatibles. eaucat,ona,cMeng, Fast action also PC & EXCLUSIVE MAIL ORDER OFFER AS SEEN ON TV MATHS & ENGLISH JUST £4.99 EACH EssenUals Essanttals INumlW" (Slatislicsl Limited Period Only Essential 1-^ Eorlv jumor Nlaths Geiman MaOis WHAT THE PRESS SAYS: Top Of The League -«> flOM WW ,is rcKiind S'lf If HMIerill (Mil) 10 mC V 10 TrUy ReiMrluMe - »n^ UserWIwnfltouJ .111 Sulijliili; Ttlovj,iiiiri\ 10 attt to Inlerviewed of GTHSft Value F« Money - Amiga Cornputing Children's Channel hy Ordniiila TV The Seriously Useluf - PC Pius on 'Tkt Pwxriim' EiceiienI Value - re Home ChlMntn Cant Help Bui Learn - Acan CompuBni _ _ --J^J HOW TO ORDER Highly flecornmended - ArctikntiiBs Wane Tell us your name, address, type of computer & Historv Suuct. Spelling Essential Science T^cri Maths iwgeljral Englisli which triies you want on 3.5" DISC or on CD. mYMEMT Can Be Made: BY PHONE With ACCESS/VISA on 24hr answering servic ^ BY POST With cheques/PO's or ACCESS/VISA. BY FAX - available 24 hours. With ACCESSA/ISA /^ M/ '^ ^lueational Si/stems Maths (Geometry) 1 Pli"(*««'«' V Geogiapfiy On^ing Test Dinosaurs Essential ^^^^ ^^im BY FOOT Trofiiale Mills, Troydale lane. Podsajr, IS28, Eaglaml The ^0 to find out more about World War I, this is Pebbleshor^ is a Genesis presentation and, tlie place to tome. in my opi^wi, was tW? best new product on disf^af at Acorn Worid by a wide mar- Mechanisms gin^Tjlis disc is a credit to all those £69 + VAT single user or £99 + VAT -AfflTTU in its production - mainly teachr* network ' ;*" from CCS ers, I understand. _ This CD-ROM has been a long time com- Aimed at Key Stages 2 and 3, Mj.^^!s ^ z^^ ing, but is well worth the wait. Like other is in two parts. The first is a tutorial which CCS CD-ROMs, Mechanisms is dual format takes you through a series of sections (Acorn and PC) although you don't get the under the headings: MEGBS:BlMta12 video sequences on a PC. It's a Genesis What kind of map?, 3P application and is well put together What will we see?, »%f,39% although the presentation could have had Where are we?. Which ymam.mffamiua. I With ihc >l<^ '"11 i^en a little more time spent on it. It covers the way? and How far is it? I I boadk nuiko. o jnir (if cLippai ruuw eight common types of mechanism: cams, Each screen shows a pulleys, gears, levers, crank, chain and map, an accompanying sprocket, linkages and inclined planes. statement and some- Each is explained with relevant exam- times a photo. ples taken from home and industry, and There are video illustrated with line drawings, pho- sequences and the part I tographs and video clips. Scientific like best is the signpost formula and theory are also included in on which you click to the descriptions, making this CI) suitable take you from one place for physics as well as technology. Some to the next. The only historians covering the industrial revolu- thing missing is speech tion should also be able to make some use which would help some of the historical examples. The cost of the of the younger ones who Mechanisms disc includes a comprehensive resource have reading difficulties. has excellent content although the presentation is a little drab. pack. Look out for the next in the series - That aside, the work is Structures ~ which should be available well thought out, well later this year. presented and is very MK. AVP FSctuwBase 1 07 appealing to students W«KI War I - Al Sea and in ITie Air RAF Borinirtg SouaOrDn Ot*Bni»s Map Skills studying what for some, w*« unuf Die sii« or a lorga amy 0Vf l>a>0Aihey £49.99 + VAT from Cumana can be, a rather dry look up nwa ol Sw urioiDiian ttearvei'i cockpn hs fXmi rnuv inucA mom ^ hH aN J c«n nm^moa Is a If anyone thinks that producing a multi- topic (apologies to geog- cokxal nilify spaiti pap inlin HualainK ffMry >m« r« pnama me msK Kay you ga mis io(vy tkiB UN media CD-ROM with a generic authoring raphers). It is also very TMi HOI niniiii ^101* Bli ndwiotyaupsnliar* ana esv* a maFveuoLe eHflci wU neWdy tvar Kualiy tool is second best, you'd better think pleasing to see that the cBugnimibui licDuiahaM-iunwneealinynKiinBni again. Map Skills, published by cartoon characters used are not exclusively white males. The software is accompanied by several worksheets and two Useful contacts Ordnance Survey maps; mmm\E\ one of Plymouth and (BETT stand numbers Included) one of Telford. Sections fnu Wai\a Wk Air A«t« OtiHivan Otwr>B«on RAF of the tutorial refer to Anglla Multimedia (357) these maps although Tel: (01603) 615151 other areas are also Fax:(01603)622191 Apart from the high quality text and graphics, the great strength studied. of AVP's PictureBase series is consistency of interface. AVP (355) The second part of Tel: (01291) 625439 the software is a quiz Fax: (01291) 629671 and again the maps come in handy. Unlike Creative Curriculum Software (420) many quizzes, you get Tet: (01422) 340524 more than one chance Fax: (01422) 346388 to answer each ques- tion: if you're wrong Cumana (343) you get an explanation Tel: (01483) 503121 as to why and if you've Fax: (01483) 451371 got it correct, some information confirm- Electronic Book Publishing ing the fact. The Tel: 0171-916 8375 CD-ROM, maps and Fax: 0171-916 8376 worksheets are supplied PhotoAir(150) in an A4 binder and should be in every Tel: (01733) 241850 geography department Fax: (01733) 242964 in primary and 4jj Map Skills is well produced and well presented. This secondary schools. is a product by which all the others will be judged. January 1996 Acorn User 69 Smudge keeps a record of the ^ weather. Primary science software 501 aun Mon Tues Wed Th urs Fri ^":.' "^^ ^.^>*> %m w nil Smudgi '3 '''vWHfln^fffc JiJNeteT \^afA fi!e- jQu 1^ Colin Rouse meets Smudge the spaniel to investigate science. the results With exciting adventures and clear select a particular option. A function key bright screens, Smudge the Scientist, strip may be helpful here, so I've put one a new package from Storm Software, intro- on the cover disc, along with a couple of duces the world of science to primary other Smudge-related draw files. school children, hoping to capture their It was particularly interesting to see imaginations and spark an interest in how the different ages of children science from a young age. approached Smudge with both groups Smudge the spaniel with a little help gaining a lot from the package in different from his friend, Ceciley the cat, sets out to ways, The Year 1 children were fascinated discover various scientific facts on such by the visual effects and learned through topics as electricity, magnetism, floating experimenting on-screen while the Year 4 and sinking, seasons and weather, decay children, although happy to work through and living processes, having a lot of fun the on-screen experiments, made much along the way. Children arc helped to more use of the software's other features Can you help Smudge with his magnetic train? understand the scientific principles such as the notepad, the factfile and the behind the tasks being undertaken by magnifying glass. Ceciley, who is always asking questions of the how? why? and what will happen if? In the classroom. Conclusion variety. I have used this software package with Smudge the Scientist would prove a very both Year 1 (5 and 6-year-olds) and with useful addition to any school's science Getting started Year 4 pupils (8 and 9-year-olds) equally resources at both Key Stage 1 and 2. The Smudge the Scientist comes in an attrac- successfully. A high teacher input gave the package helps children foster an under- tive three-disc pack with accompanying best results with younger children while standing of basic scientific principles and notes for teachers and parents. Concise older children were able to use the pack- develop the skills necessary for scientific and well-written booklets guide the chil- age independently after an initial observation, such as the ability to observe, dren through the tasks and offer follow-up introduction to the program's main fea- record, present and discuss their findings. activities to reinforce the ideas and con- tures. It is easy to use and stimulates chil- cepts contained within the package. The opportunity to work at different dren's interest in science through its Children throughout the primary age- levels proved extremely useful and the original approach to the subject matter range would find the ideas contained in icons provided the children with facilities and the interesting ways in which this is these booklets useful starting points for that were particularly helpful. These presented. Both my pupils and 1 have further scientific investigation, although included a magnifying glass to provide a thoroughly enjoyed using Sntiutge the Sci- the younger ones would need help with closer view or to observe something that entist and we all look forward to the the reading. wasn't usually seen, a notebook to record next instalment. A\} As with any new software package, it observations and results, a factfile to select would be advisable for teachers or parents more information un a particular aspect of the work in hand and the weather symbol to work their way through it thoroughly Product details before using it with their children. It is to see a record of the weather conditions if well worth reading the booklets and man- relevant. Product: Smudge the Scientist There are also facilities to gain on-screen uals before using Smudge to familiarise Supplier: Storm Educational Software yourself the conventions used. help, especially useful if a group of chil- with Tel: (01935) 817699 The program is user friendly with dren are having difficulty with a Fax; (01935) 817699 options to start at easy entry points, if particular task. You can open a control Price: £45.99 for single user, double for needed. Another very useful option is the menu to select certain tasks and a print site/network licence ability to print the very good graphics and menu enabling the teacher or pupil to print screens as an aid to presenting their animations to enhance work away from Pros: Easy to use •Good graphics* Well work in an interesting way. the computer. Smudge does not attempt or thought out pretend to replace essential experimenta- The younger children were particularly tion but will fire the enthusiasm, reinforce stimulated by the superb graphics and by Cons: Younger children may need help with the theory and help when practical Smudge himself. They found it easier to the text experimentation is not possible. use the function keys than the mouse to 70 Acorn User January 199te -~- Best Graphics Software 1995 Acorn User Awards Complele the picture in your digital darkroom with FOTOFUN - Get any application on your Rise PC to print out true colour, glossy photographs with no mess and no chemicals. You will be stunned by the quality of the output, and what's more, YOU are in control, YOU can get your photographs exactly right before printing and YOU have all the FUN. This is top-quality dye-sublimation printing at a fraction of the cost. Please contact us for a sample print. Only £379 ex.VAT including Spacetech driver. Consumables (prints, postcards or mugs) from £39 ex.VAT. Contact us for bundle pricing. , IS your original PHOTODESK artwork together with an ij)n of how you did it, and/or any hints and tips you may have FUN! _^ig Photodesk and you could be the winner of a brand new FUN dye-sub primer with consumables and a free upgrade to P R I N T E H PH0T0DESK2. ;ipate producing a compilation of entries on CD-ROM, and a WM lection of entries will be placed on our WWWeb site. TRUE C^mUR PHOTOGRAPHIC QUALITY PRINTERS FROM SPACETECH 21 West Wools, Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EA, United Kingdom Tel 01305 822753 Fax 01305 860483 email [email protected] Bar Coding Systems Cotnputer Systems ^^^ ^ ^ ide supply a range of high CaH ro, d«.a/ls o. .he EaHy Yea-v Learning Curve * ^ We quality bar „,,, ,,^^ ,- ^ B Omt. and 0% finance OW.Ons '^ ' code readers from various manufacturers, ^„,.^, ^^^ , leque Of fmnncB f-owe-WA/ESOXG-tSfP(,«»rtMAi/F snxr, ty< integrated into the RISC OS 2 or 3 desktop. niscPC6M.iMr..fJM..HD«--, Ai^FCI - llSCfe';:, „ fliscpc700'ir^r..iuc HDJ2-y AKF60 - fi5=i.cj3 Hardware & softWi niacPC700SUt*JMr MDaw AKF60- ^' E1929i) ScarllcaO-£' Software processing ol the bar codes allows input Oplions when buying a Riic PC : Atom/Logitech Mouse - U ^ into any multitasking application. Uses include book AKF60 (1il") monilnr lo AKFSn (17"j - a*l £315 22 Eagle Wa - fSf IMbVRAUwZMnVRAM-auaCIOOOO Lsra - Ea; checking in libraries, product labelling and POS facilities, PCCaffl-''oni£1lS33 MID' Ma» - H 1 CD ROM dnves- from f86.K PocW Botjk A'Liii - £< r We also produce software to create numerous formats of bar Pocker Sficik Mac Li'il" - CJ A7000 2M0Ne!work, AKF60-E101T.53 Pwjksl B^ok PC Lir.k,- - £; codes yourself, enabling all kinds ot information to be stored A70M iUb MD*25, AKF60 - CIOM 03 RISC OS 3 PRM - and read back by a reader, A7rXKI M!) HD.525. AKF60- E1 163 03 RISC OS 3 PRM V.S - ES Spf,r^-,-rT .«'} 'a- "I'^fiT - r Music Setups ' Aa0002MDHD2tO AKFS2-E82353 Sc'-"-:".- ;«-"j'j '!j. --.rlE-T- I fl30aO2Mri AKF5S-E5810J Vamflha VST -MS speakers- . We supply a range of keyboards, A3CffiO 2>Jic HD80 AKF52 - ?.T2h 53 Yamaha VST-MIO speakers - synthesisers, sound expander modules, A3010 2UC.EV -If LC -£395.00 A3010 2Mt. Ak:F52 EY Of LC - ESBl .03 10, !0 Senes - MIDI interfaces and software to provide you I A4 4Mr.- Hi560 - £7309.W Alone (n the Dart - with a complete H^IDI setup, for example; Pocko1Bookl|i?56K!- L23J BO ArtFa. Pocket Book II (IMKl- S 325 58 A-CWfi.s- Btgsang-Ei Audio Dynamics PowerWAVE SOXG card. Yamaha i> Memory Upgrades '. Please caiibetofecrtjering to check onces Oileis available "_ . CBX-K1 XG MIDI master keyboard. Sibelius 6 rlric rs Version 3. Yamaha YST-M5 active speakers, power supplies and 2 metre MIDI cable - only £649.00 inclusive! "~ '^ZV.Z--V:^^ TheCrv^.M..: £, InterLink A3a20,Ai000 2.4MB- eM 80 'n^tu/^l- A5000 An easy to use file transfer and 'talk' 2-4Mh- M5.00 n™^" FlashSSD(128«J- £34.35 utility, linking any two RISC OS 3 FT ? FlasnSSD056«l- £54.95 w,niA\ri~- computers via serial and/or parallel cables. FlashSSD(512K,- C69.K c^TJk:^ F^snSSDnMb)-EnS.50 Frrlin^'' - Flas-n SSD 12Mb) E 192 00 r r?^ ' Serial; 2m - E29.95, 5m - E31,95, lOm C35.95 ™ Rash SSD Type II (4MK) - £325 95 rtrlt^^ia^ Parallel: 2m - £31 95, - E35.95. ftAMSS0,.28«)- £4,35 5m 10m E42,95 ,..^°t^.^^"=."^ RAM SSD i5t2Ki - £129 95 ,^ -=" -^ _ Both; 2m - E43,90, 5m - £49.90, 10m • £60.90 RAMSSDnMOI-£24=t)0 ' "-\ .„,,„,\ I""' - b, " RISC PC/A70OO SIHM« (C-.l lor cur^n. pr.ces): ^:;^^^S^ ,npcj : O^ra^hleSIMM.^. ^^^EC. Longer serial cables are available to order - call for details. ^^ '^ ^ We will attempt to match or beat any advertised price- BMB- £255.00 ^L\~\ I 16Mb- £3B«^ ^^Zl~^ FREEPOST EH2725, Kirkcaldy, Fife, KY2 5BR 64Mt;-Eln99[» sif»ii„.Kv» t - -| Tel/Fax: (01592) 592265 ^"'.^"^^.;:'°""??-?? S^bellwr'^demJl! u f';^^?"''^„'-:'''-fi Sibelius 7 V.3-E Bare Hard Drive Prices sin-ciysooo- ' - » Run by enthusiasts for Please call Be'ore oroe'int] lo tiieck pnirss S'rron Tre S^,rcErBr you I Oilier capacities, sizes ana filtingkrlsai-arlaoie Simon The SofCerar CD All prices INCLUDE VAT and carriage ' 420Mf, 3 5- IDE - £155 5Mf1bs' i - 5iOMD3,5'ID£-£159 SUr FtghlBf 3000- " Official orders and callers welcome This is 3 very small selection o) our prices. Call or write for furttier information or our ^Acorn Authorised Dealer products, or lor a tree catalogue which also contains many bargain items. Access. Visa. Mastetcard, Eurctard ynt: Del:^ c.Tas sr.repled 0'--. APR Fir.af-ce availatle Do you need hi^h qualityfonts? Do you have problems with typesetting? Do you needfriendly & expert advice on fonts? Are you lookingfor that specialfont nobody seems to know about? The new Electronic Font Foundry Font Book has examples of: • 1,000 EFF fonts for each of the European languages • Fonts from: Adobc'^'^, Monorype"^''^^ Linotype"^^, Bitstream""^, Mecanorma"^^ etc. • Cyrillic, Greek & Hebrew languages • Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Hindi and Tamil languages J^ ^/ • Braille- :•:::•:.:•'•• ""••:•:. ^^ .o ^ • Font Packs - i^ery cost effective *;/ • Educational fonts: join-writing, primary fonts... o [D)r^ Scientific fonts • International Phonetic Alphabet v • Modern fonts, OldfoshioncdfontS (V • Very lliiii lonis, Very wide fonts . ,%if/afrn^, ©lachlGttcr fonts -» CAM-YOU-ri-nH;<-OF-A\NY-OrH£K FONT... For afret Font Book & Price List apply to: The Electronic Font Foundry • Gibbs FiousE • Kennel Ride • Ascot • SL5 7NT Telephone: 01344 891355 — Facsimile: 01344 891366 — Email; efffonts.demon.co.uk The easiest database - or your money back! It's here, the long awaited successor to ImpactPro mpact Even easier to use, no jargon, just point and click.. 'fti L*t -G « V*ofc Stwie, IMT 'ML %»^ re Impact Database Tor Entry 20 TTsr ^MHHiJ^^^^aa Tl? JJUL P" Index Customers S^ Vkteos Label Printing Filter Borrowed Attach card J Multiple Labetj L71 62 (2 x 8 Address) ^ _j 3V| i of each label MM , _ ConcatenaCe with^ [items Summary !B|^ [• Table Qose Save WBM label to use / Ji -.^-•!. ",^ thaTi^cc" [IJ Merge Videos to Impression __; Singte fi Multiple Document Report Cancel Test : Clear Fat | J 2B ?Un lEi --^•: £95.00 Order with confidence - phone today. + VAT MasterCard, Access, Visa accepted Upgrades £29.00 01208 850790 PO Box 36, Bodmin, PL30 4YY The Eosy Choice + VAT Mike Cook's hardware series 'owarb IT sometimes appears in articles that projects have a smooth transition from concept to implementation, but this is not always the case. yos b' 6' 6* di Sometimes initial ideas prove to be very wrong. \ O' O' O' Q'/ While this can be quite frustrating at the time, laru lilt 1 with perseverance it can lead on to a greater understanding. Run It all started with a simple request: 'Dad can 1 use this on the Acorn?' This, turned out to be a Sega Joypad. Well it's simply a set of switches isn't it? So I said yes. Plugging it into a conven- tional joystick socket did work but only for some (Swrtj of the buttons. The four direction switches mim- Laakuiq *t iiM teak ar • v pm MH Aoeket icked the four switches of a conventional the Figure 1 joystick and one of the buttons acted as the fire button - but what about the others? Well if you count the total number of buttons on a joypad you will see there are 12. Count the number of pins on the pad and you will see there are only nine. Bearing in mind there has to be an earth you have to resort to some tricks to squeeze out all the signals. Tricky business A quick unscrewing of the back of this gadget RISC revealed a small black bump on the printed cir- cuit board - a surface-mounted carrierless stared at the oscilloscope in disbelief. As T integrated circuit. The presence of electrolytic changed the frequency, the positions of the decoupling capacitors gave me the power supply broad pulses stayed where they were and more pins and polarity, so I fired it up. narrow clock pulses appeared between them. All 1 could trace what all the pins did with my my carefully designed charts were quite useless. oscilloscope. This showed that all the pins except There was obviously much more going on here Mike Cook pin 7 were outputting something when a key than first met the eye. pressed. In fact, that something was a logic was goes in for a zero. So far so good, I thought, that extra pin Back to the drawing board must be a multiplexing input. Put a logic one on It seemed that the broad pulses were appearing bit of joypad - it and you get six pins outputting six switches every 20mS. Now this is a magic number - it cor- this checked out. Now put a logic zero on it and responds to 50Hz, the refresh rate of a TV unravelling. you will get the other six switches, so test that display. Maybe the joypad was only designed to and, well no you don't! be read every 20mS or less in the time when the What you do get is that two of the missing TV frame made its retrace. buttons appear but the other pins do rather So I thought it would make sense to try giving strange things when the original set of switches the joypad a few pulses every 20mS or so. Well are pressed. Something more complex must be that's not a job for a signal generator, so 1 tried a going on. double pulse generator. Even that failed, so I wired it up to the computer to act as a clock Discovering the ins and outs source. With my Rise PC reduced to the role of a So if the input will not respond to a simple logic triple pulse generator and looking at the output one and zero, 1 thought, how about feeding it on an oscilloscope 1 finally sussed it out. with a constant frequency clock? I dragged out What you need to do is to give three clock Figure 2 my signal generator and fed in a pulse train. pulses every 20mS then the signals on the lines Looking with my oscilloscope something will tell you which key is pressed. But it is not appeared to be happening to the signals on all quite as simple as that, as the joypad's signal the outputs when all the buttons were pressed. lines work in three different ways. Pairs of wires It appeared that every so often there was a work in the same manner so you can get three pulse that was broader than the clock pulse and different types of signal out of the joypad. These these changed shape when the buttons were are summarised in Figure 2. At this stage 1 was pressed. This meant 1 could chart which pairs of thinking: 'What sort of deranged mind would buttons appeared on which pins - the result is think up something as bizarre as this?' shown in Figure 1 - with the conventional joy- The next step was to go through these wave- stick pinout for comparison. forms and work out at what point in the triple 1 carefully charted the exact waveform for clock pulse 1 could tell the state of each button. each pin, counting how many clock pulses were At this point I saw what had probably happened between the broad pulses for each pin and for and why the system was so complex. each press. After quite a time I had them all My guess was that this .was the final product of down and, just as I was finishing, tweaked the the evolution of a design. Originally there were signal generator to see the lowest speed at which just six buttons and then someone wanted to add it would work. another two. When this was done there was a At that instant I was brought up short: and need to add another two but with total compati- January 1996 Acorn User 73 '«;'' ai^i Mike Cook's hardware series bility with the previous tor and insert our own routine to scan the joypad Figure 2c Signals Cor Pin 1 (2) design upgrade, so whenever the appropriate calls are made. In another clock pulse was order not to jam up the whole system, if this rou- -zj- added. Finally a third tine finds no joypad keys pressed it must then go Clock extra pair was added on to the normal scan routines. and another clock pulse The only problem with this is that the SWi needed. Ihis incremen- could be called at more that 20mS intervals, in -zf- tal approach to the which case the joypad would not respond prop- design finally resulted erly. The solution is to have another routine Ko Press in the monster we have executed every 20mS or so and put the results in today. I found you memory. Then the keyboard scan routine just -J-- could tell something reads the memory locations to see which keys are about some key on each pressed. Press Up (Down) part of the clock pulse. The regidar reading of the joypad can be done using the events system that has been present on Onward and .Acorn computers since the original BBC. With upward this you can get a routine executed every vertical Press z (Y> Time to wire it up to the sync pulse. With the Rise PC some scan modes ^t printer port - this is generate a vertical sync pulse more frequently, so shown in Figure S - and my routine only reads the joypad every other to some extent it is c|uite arbitrary. The wiring sync pulse. Finally there needs to be some way to was mainly chosen to be straightforward from an program which buttons on the joypad pretend to insulation displacement plug, and the clock be which keys on the keyboard. input taken from the strobe output. If you only have a older output-only printer The proof of the pudding port you need to use my bidirectional module All this is done in the joypad module on the described in the September 1995 issue oi Acom cover disc - both the source code and the module User. However, once you've chosen the wiring are shown. Writing a module is not the easiest of any software must take this into account. Note exercises as the slightest mistake usually crashes here that the joypad needs a S volt supply - I got the machine, especially when you are dealing this from the computer itself. On one of my pod- with redirecting vectors. ules - the MIDI interface I talked about last 1 find it useful to program the function keys to month - I have a 5 volt socket tapped off the load, install and test the module. I have left these backplane. in the source code which is written in BASIC. The To test out the system I wrote a program in source code also contains the default mappings of BASIC - it's on the cover disc. It generates the the keys so if you want a different set of defaults clock pulses, reads the printer port and builds up you can edit this. I have included copious com- a number where each bit corresponds to a differ- ments so hopefully you can tell what's going on. ent key. The results, if they are different from the The module provides one command - SegaSet. last time round the loop, are displayed in hex This is followed by two numbers: the first is the and binary. The •FX19 call gives a delay until the joypad key number and the second the internal next vertical sync pulse. key code it is supposed to mimic. The internal key codes are in the Programmers Reference Mixing and matching Manual but you can get the computer to tell you It's all very well being able to read the keypad in them. This routine is also on the cover disc as key BASIC but what is needed is the ability to incor- test. porate it into existing software. Due to the If you want a specific set of keys for a program different ways the keyboard can be read it is not the best bet is to put a sequence of SegiiSet com- possible to derive software to cater for all pro- mands in the !Rtm file. In that way the keys are grams. However, I thought that by intercepting automatically set. The joypad key numbers and the OS_Byte calls that scan the keyboard I the labels on them are shown in the panel, but ioypad key numbers should be able to cover a large range of software. make sure you don't assign the same internal and labels The basic idea is to intercept the OS_Byte vec- keycodes to different joypad keys as this could result in not recognising the sec- ioypad Number ond definition. *B Volts A Trying this out in anger pro- Start 1 I Supply (S) duced mixed results depending on Up 2 Control (1) Clock (7) what the programmer used to scan the keys. Unfortunately not Down 3 Eecth (25) Earth (8) all games tested 1 B 4 Date 6 (7) Up (1) worked and was Data 4 <6) Button B (6) especially puzzled to discover that C 5 Data 3 X 11 Figure 3 The wiring diagran of the Joypad printer port Interface ing from now on. i|T See you next month. 74 Acorn User January 1996 \^ -L^ Systems J-/J_-/ouble speed dC ^/ ^7 V^uad speed dO 1 H" W Prices Double Speed IDE CD Rom System £ 99 New Lower Exclude Quad Speed IDE CD Rom System £ 140 Price I VAT Double Speed SCSI CD Rom Drive £ 129 Quad Speed SCSI CD Rom Drive tray loading £ 165 Quad Speed SCSI CD Rom Drive caddy loading £ 249 6 SPEED SCSI CD Rom Drive caddy loading £ 300 Combined Quad speed CD ROM and 650MB Optical ReadAVrite Drive £ 530* 6 CD Autochanger Quad speed was £ 999 now £ 600 All drives include CDFS driver. Prices are for internal RiscPC versions. Please phone for details of other versions. SCSI Interfaces A30x0/A4000 £ 75 '0 on SCSI Interface for RiscPC/300/400/5000 £ 81 SCSI II Interface for RiscPC £ 162 RiscPC's CD Rom systems for A3/4/5000 available from £ 169 from £ 54 p.m. Cases for CD ROM drives from £ 40 Caddies from £ 4 20% deposit 20 Months to pay ^Optical drive is SCSI interfaced, no media provided. Optical discs £ 39 Phone for further details Acorn User CD £ 3.25 (only available with a CD Drive) RiscPC Ram FREE CD Drive 4MB £ 99 8MB £ 199 with ACB75 RiscPC systems £349 16MB (£20 ACB70/£30 ACB60) 32MB £ 720 Guaranteed Acorn compatible £50 CD Drive Microvitec 14" M/S (as AKF50) £ 250 Idek 8617 17" 0.26mm Monitor £ 500 with A7000 systems Idek9017E 17" 0.25mm Monitor £ 582 Prices above are for Double Speed. £60 extra for Quad Speed 210MB IDE Conner Drive £ 75 850MB IDE Conner Drive £ 160 1GB SCSI Drive £ 240 Syquest 270MB SCSI Drives £ 270 RiscPC's built to your specification Syquest 270MB Discs £ 50 ARM3 £ 130 Prices Exclude VAT US Robotics 1 4400 Modem £ 1 35 US R. or Motorola 28800 Modem £ 1 95 Post from £ 2.00 Courier from £7.00 RiscPC Technical Ref.Man. noVat £ 30 Credit Card & Official orders accepted. 78 Brighton Road, Worthing, West Sussex. BNl 1 2EN. Telephone 01903 523666 Fax 01903 523679 email: [email protected] (n.b. we log on about twice a week) FCi4 . Sampling and Mi\ini; (from £169.20 - Fully Inc.) r- * -r The Complete Works. As well as the synthesis expansion capability, •* the DMI offers a sampling and mixing "^^ >^ "^ upgrade opiion. ! CJO Hi TOl Why is the DMI/PowerWAVE the most Our IControl application allows you lo mix comprehensive music interface available .Vw-Whv the various possible sound sources within for Acorn computers? your computer, giving you one "main" output to connect to your headphones, hi-fi, or active speakers. Dual MIDI Inlerlace (£105.75 -Fully Inc.) In addition to the internal sound sources, H OultiKa external inputs from a microphone or line input The Dual MIDI Interface allows you lo conlrnl can be mixed into your computer and II "w any other device which boasis ;i MIDI iiUerlace DMI digitally recorded onto your harddisk. It fcaliircs two indepcndeiil ports which can receive atid send MIDI data IControl can playback sound samples simuhaneoiisly. giving access lo a total of 32 MIDI channels. direct from harddisk in a variety of i/HDno popular sample Formats. - vec Synthesiser!) (from £239.70 Fully Inc.) ...J With the PowerW AVE you have a choice of synthesiser. The low-cosi General MIDI ENSONIQ or ihe higher-specificalion YAMAHA XG. It's Up to you Either card can be connected directly onto the DMI as a daughter card, Whatever configuration of DMI you initially purchase, providing an extremely compact internal soiuiion. upgrading is easy due to tlic modular design. In addition to the current upgrades, this design allows future developments lo he compatible with your existing card. With a DMI yoU ch ^i* A Audio Dynamics ^^^^ Wliy fauxe ripples .... wUen you can make waves .'.'.' m\ (01706)868803 10 Diiniford Close, Norden. Rochdale, lMncs,0L!2 7RX. liNGIAND THE RISC DISC - VOLUME 2 Following on from the success oFThe Rise Disc Volume One, Uniqueway announces the launch of Volume 2, MAJor features include even Faster page display from CD and now over I 600MB oF data. Contents as before Include PD/Shareware. Commercial Demos, Resources files including n Artworks, AVI, MPEG, FLI. MIDI, Digital Symphony, Amiadeus, Replay, Sprites, Drawfiles, JPE.G, Electronic Books and many more. A special section of info and resources for Clan members and finally a complete interactive Virtual World Wide Web. Using the PD browsers and commercial Web browsers you can explore over 1 00MB of Web pages from around the world without having to actually own a modem. J^jB^^ ^ lfr^g ._^^Pll^ _Cg l pw> m •• .a HI n e H iM^^aam*^*^ i -^ • «- a g » H J^~,t >,« '\ •=^ § -^^ Uniqueway Ltd 42 Crwys Road, Canllff, CFZ 4NN Tel 01222-644611 Fax 01222-644622 E-mail sales®uiilqway.celtic.co.uk PLUS YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A RISC PCI £25.00 inc P&P and VAT on the CD are a number of clues. Be the Hidden £23.00 CLAN members first to find the clues and solve the puzzle and you could win a Rise PC absolutely FREE! CREDIT CARD ORDERS WELCOME ^i^ "ts^'o-^:^^ f - yourself Last month, we looked at the basic procedures passed an event code that indicates its nature - behind initialising a W[MP application, using this allows you to filter out particular events and the SWI calls Winip_ Initialise, Wimp_Poll and pass them on to the appropriate handler func- Wimp_CloseDown. I was hoping to move on to tions within your code, tach handler then takes look at huw these would fit into a C! application; a look at the information within the data block however, due to a few technical difficulties, I've and acts upon it accordingly. had to leave that for next month. Instead, I'll Each event returns a different pattern of data; Steve Mumford cover Wimp_Poll in a little more detail - due to for instance, the Redraw_Window_Request space restrictions, 1 was unable to describe it event simply returns a window handle at an takes a closer fully last time. offset of in the data block whereas WIMP applications communicate by two main Mouse_Click responds with the x and y coordi- look at events methods - using events and messages. Events nates of the mouse as well as its button state and generally cover occurrences arising from user the identities of the window and icon it was and messages. interaction such as requests for opening and clos- over at the time. The data block for a message is ing windows, key presses, menu selections and similar to that of an event, but a few extra mouse pointers moving in and out of windows, pieces of information are tacked on, including There's also a null event that's returned to the task handle of the application that sent the your application even though nothing has message and a couple of references to trace its happened - however, in the interests of speed it's history, best to mask this one out so that the WIMP There are in fact three types of message: doesn't waste time communicating with your " User_Message program when it's got nothing to say. This is " User_Message_Recorded and ' done by setting bit 1 of the mask passed in RO User_Message_Acknowledge. when Wimp_PoU is called. The format of the data blocks is the same in each Messages are a subset of events, and embrace a case, although they differ slightly in their ftmc- wider range of topics. As well as the rather tion - the first doesn't require the application to complex subject of data transfer protocol, other reply to it so if the message is ignored, no further messages that can be passed include action is taken. If you receive a Recorded Message_PreQiiit, informing your application message and you fail to reply to it for some that the WIMP is shutting down and allowing it reason, the originator is returned a copy with its to ask if you wish to save your data. type set to User_Message_Acknowlcdge so that Message_Quit on the other hand is an order it knows the first transmission was to clean up and cease execution immediately; by unsuccessful. this stage, you should have received a PrcQuit Finally, a quick word about Wimp^PoIUdle. message so there should be no reason for If you've written an application that needs to hanging on. make use of the null event code but you're The interactive help system created by Acorn performing a task that doesn't need to run at the is implemented by the use of messages - there's full speed of the WIMP, it's possible to let your one that's passed to the appropriate application program snooze for a period. It's only bothered in order to determine whether it possesses any by the WIMP again after a specified time, or if a help text on the subject. If so, the program particular event requires its attention. If your replies with another message, passing the help application can make use of this - for instance, text back along with it. you might have written a desktop clock which How are these communication systems imple- only needs to update once a second - it reduces mented? Last month, I mentioned that on the workload on the WIMP and avoids any other calling Wimp_Poll, you needed to supply a 256- active programs from being slowed down 4,- byte data block. On returning, the application is unnecessariiy. iJaJ January 1996 Acorn User I 77 Hints and tips QI have an Acorn A5000 with 4Mb IDE CD-ROM drives • New monitors on older RAM, RISC OS 3.11, an ARM3 proces- sor, a printer connected to my parallel machines • Template editors • PC scanners port and a 162Mb hard disc drive. I was thinking about upgrading to a duai-speed • SCSI and the PC card • The Pocket Book CD-ROM drive. Can I fit one internaliy to my spare IDE port, or do I have to have a parallel port or SCSI interface to connect a separate sync inputs; is this a problem found that one of the problems was the PC CD-ROM drive? which can be overcome? sound drivers 1 had bought; when these David Wilson At present my A3000 is being used with were removed the visual part of the CD- Leicestershire an old Microvitec Cub 1431 (in linear ROM ran OK but with no sound. mode but nevertheless somewhat lacking 1 then installed the PCx86 software Yon can't fit an internal IDE CD- in resolution and mode availability itself). update for the P(; card, which enabled the A ROM drive to an A5000, ba.^ically What new modes would be available to me sound OK, but when 1 tried using the because there isn't room in the case. with the AKF60? PCx86 software to set up my Syquest drive - - second hard drive, I I got When the A5000 was designed, the My or should I say, my family's prin- as a DOS found only IDE devices expected to be fitted ciple uses for the computers are for word an error message from the PC card soft- were hard drives. Unfortunately, IDE - processing (Impression), drawing {Draw+) ware: unlike SCSI - does not allow long and music (Rhapsody 3). HardDrive 1 (direct SCSI) could not cables for an external device S C Winsor enough be accessed to be fitted. Kenilworth Your two alternatives are, therefore Eventually ! found that by clicking OK to fit a SCSI interface or to fit a drive The AKF60 monitor should work then on Eject from the SCSI icon, then to the parallel port. Both Eesox - A with tbe A3000, although older resetting the disc, the PC card would boot (01954) 212263 - and Cumana - (01483) modes such as mode 12 will appear let- up, and 1 was able to access a DOS-format- S03121 - sell parallel port drives. The terboxed. Because the AKF60 is a ted Syquest disc, if there is no disc in the Cumana drive has a feed-through higher-performance monitor it will drive, the same procedure works and the printer port on the back of the drive; certainly be a good idea to buy a VIDC card boots up without the extra drive. if you buy the Eesox drive then you enhancer to increase tbe clock rate of If the MEU unit is switched off 1 get the will also need a parallel port splitter. tbe VIDC to 36MHz, allowing higher error message and the PC card will not On the other hand, the Eesox drive resolution screen modes to be dis- run. I hope that this information will be of performs slightly better, and Eesox played, although tbe monitor will some use to someone. also sells a quad-speed drive. work fine without one. Bill Cutler If you do go for the SC^I route, you The A3000 can output separate Battersea should certainly consider a quad-speed syncs, so this shouldn't be a problem. drive, rather than a double-speed one. Alt's never a particularly good idea It's becoming the standard for CD- Ql have a Rise PC 600 ABC45 with to run a SCSI chain with one part ROM drives, and gives very acceptable 18Mb of RAM, PC card, 16-bit sound switched off, but otherwise I've no performance. card, Cumana SCSI 11 interface, Irlam comment on this letter. Docs anyone 24116 card, also an Acorn MEU interface el.se have any similar experiences, or drive better solutions? QWhen I purchased my Rise PC 600, 1 with CD-ROM and Syquest 105Mb could only afford the 14in AKF60 removable hard disc drive. have reading Rise Develop- monitor. 1 am now considering upgrading At Acorn World 1 was given an update Ql been to a 17in monitor and would like to use to the firmware of the SCSI II card; this ments' book Wimp Programming for in the AKF60 on my A3000. 1 realise that the cured the problem I was having of it not all which was reviewed Acorn User a connectors are different, but would there recognising when the Syquest drive was while ago. The book describes the tem- be any other problems, for instance inabil- empty or the MEU was switched off when plate editor FormEd, which I had read ity to display certain screen modes? running under RISC OS. previously about in the magazine. On to a copy, however, 1 was I also notice that the pin connections on I had been having trouble running the attempting buy my A3000 suggest that it outputs compos- CD-ROMs given away with PCW magazine told that the application was in the Public ite syncs whereas the AKF60 seems to have using the original PC card software. I Domain, and it is not advertised by any of 78 Acorn User January 1996 Hints and tips the usual software dealers. Scanlight 256, and a greyscaie scanner for fixed hardware scanning resolution; 1 would much appreciate it if you could £69. however, the resolution can be point me in the direction of a copy, or tell Will the PC scanners work on my enhanced by software interpolation me of any alternatives. Acorn, and if they do, what programs will to an apparent resolution of up to Jonathan Rawle ! need to get them working? Also, it four times the hardware resolution. Kidderminster appears that PCs can get 2400dpi but Most Acorn software can do this too, Acorns only 600dpi from the same scan- though - it depends upon the scanner AformEd is sold by Acorn on tlie ner, why? driver. RISC OS support disc which One last thing; got any recommenda- As for a colour printer; Integrex, should be available from It is dealers. tions for a colour printer between £250 Hewlett Packard and Canon all do also part of the Acorn Desktop Devel- and £350? printers in the price range that you're opment Environment, although it has Nicholas Brett after. Probably the best of these is the been superseded by the Resource Edi- ChigweU Canon BJC-4000, if only because of tor in latest version, the and it is also Canon's practice of keeping the black, available in various collections of pro- PC scanners won't work with magenta, cyan and yellow ink car- gramming tools. A Acorns, because the interface is tridges separate. There are alternatives; an excellent completely different. Many 'Acorn Freeware utility by Dick Alstein called scanners' are actually PC scanners TemplEd is probably the best. This is with a specially designed interface, QI am interested in finding out about available from most PD libraries and which is more expensive because it portable Acorn computers and am Bulletin Boards and has a much easier sells in far fewer numbers. wondering if you could give me some to use interface than FormEd. What about the Atomwide ISAdap- advice about a fairly cheap pocket com- Another application, Glazier by Tim tor? Will this allow you to use PC puter that is compatible with an Acorn Browse, never got beyond beta release, scanners on the Acorn? Well, yes, up A4000. 1 don't really know anything but is still widely available from Bul- to a point. It will certainly be able to about Pocket Books or what the differ- letin Boards. Although it is still a physically plug into the machine, and ences are between the actual Acorn Pocket little bit buggy, it does have an intu- you will be able to use it using, say, a Book and the Psion equivalent, probably itive user interface and is well worth PC co-processor in a Rise PC. However, because I haven't seen an Acorn one and a look. Both Glazier and TemplEd are to access the scanner from RISC OS have only had about a thirty second go preferable to FormEd for designing will require specially-written driver with a Psion in John Lewis. templates. software, which doesn't as yet exist. I don't know whether it is worth buy- Nonetheless, scanner driver software ing either but it would be rather nice to have a A5000 QI 4Mb with a CD-ROM is probably one of the first things that be able to do work while out and about (AIWA ACD-3{KK)) and 1 need a scan- will be written for the ISAdaptor, and edit it/print it out on my A4000, ner for work (preferably colour). I have because there is a clear market. What 1 am really saying is please could been looking through a few magazines to Of course, the ISAdaptor itself costs you give me some details and prices of get the best deal and came across a PC a couple of hundred pounds, so to use pocket computers. mag. 1 found that decent scanner are half this just to attach a scanner docs not Alexis the price of the Acorn ones. You can get a itself make financial sense. via the Internet colour scanner for the same price as the Any particular scanner will have a The Acorn Pocket Book II is A pretty much a re-badged Psion 3a. .Some of the applications in ROM are irj| . ^lit.lntemet Apps.l^brcel Resources.UK.Terip(/L3D r_ different, and there are some cosmetic 1 Icon into changes to the ca.sing, but otherwise . Qproglnfo Q tiler filerPane ' Template sendm it's the same machine. Certainly, if it Q close Qsave Qtextview L icon 13 will run on the Psion 3a it will run on []tex^Pane QsendmPane QlextvFiles ] — the Pocket Book II - the processors n address [] addrPane ^ sendiTi !~ and operating system are identical. In order to transfer files between the Pocket Book and the A4000 you will need an A-Link - a cable which 1 Send mail connects the Pocket Book to the serial To port of your machine. Obviously the Sut^ect Pocket Book does not run the same ! software that the A4000 00 does, but it is possible to tran.sfer files in a common BCC format: plain text, RTF, CSV or Lotus FCC 123. If you arc going to be using the A-Link heavily then I would also rec- JNon-MIME fomiat Draft Edtorl Cancel Send ommend that you buy a mains 1 adaptor for the Pocket Book, as using the link can put quite a strain on the batteries. Prices are as follows: Pocket Book II 256K: £205 + VAT IjlHJ Pocket Book II 1Mb: £285 + VAT >r Har(S)t5o4 :0 Discs Apps Online S^ ^^i A-Link: £42.51 + VAT i The Freeware template editor TemplEd in action. Mains adaptor: £12.72 + VAT i^U January 1996 Acorn User 79 : Colour Printer Black Printer picture book 2 Ribbons & Reloads Ribbon Reloads uul Ihc liisl take Ihc hip iiri, Ukiz iml the M ribbon and reload U lusl l.ikc Ihc lop off, take old with i ntw ftne. Full instniirbiins supplied. nbtotiand tuload it with a new one FIVE high-quality programs to help Complete One Fivf Cilizer Si*ifl/ABC/nOD 5 blad ribbon wload a'liwd rclofliis X9.99 your child with Reuding, Spelling StiirLCl(l/!0/llK)5b!ackreloads£4.99 Citizi^n Swiff /ABC/224 £11 .W £bW £2^,95 Star l.C:4 Range 5 black reloads .,.£9.99 P,inasonicKXP2123/2l24/2l80 £9.99 £6.99 £29.f*5 and Counting: Se>kosha1900/240l)/SL95,') black r,,nasonic KXP2135 £9-99 t6,99 C29.9.S rel™ds £9.99 Star 9 £9,63 LCaK] pin (5m m.-)S Epsiin FXB0/LQ8ai Range 5 black £9,63 £6.99 SljrLC21-IO/20/2IX) a9.95 rt'lMdi £U.99 ^ • AlphaBook Seik.»haSL95 £14.95 £6.94 £29,95 StarLC24-30/La405blaek "" StarIC24-3l1/l,C:4(1 £899 £4.95 £1941 a'liud.* £11,99 • FlashCard Inkjet Refills T-Shiri Printing Ribbons ' • Fri\t 0\ Isov 0\ T-Siiiri ) r illl, 5wlC To V\TIK Count 'em . or DliKlLT 3(Xi, 511), 53li, ?IXH. . ^^iKT, FI-SCIN 5TVLUS Sllf), 100(1 CANON BUBBLLjbT PC 411, '^^^ 4 Colour Citizen Swift/ ABC/ liUllF/EX/SX, B012. ami li.|l™, Bj3(Xl, BD3(1. •Spell It 240 J19,94 oLivirrn jriso, 250, 3,w. cmzEN projet. 4ti)lourCiliz«i Swift t. Refill Ka l2Uml pure black £1(1,99 • (Reload] £9.« Snap I ANON BJC 60(1, B|C 4000 OO.'fS :i) Refill Kit 12()nil pure black £16,99 4 Colour Star LCin |f^cl^^|)gramcan tl'SON STYLUS tour refills 12l)ml pure black £16.99 4 Colour Star LC3009 Pin £1294 TRICOLOUR REFILI. KrfS FOR H.I'. DESKJET RANGE 4 Colour Star LQU) 9 Pin ii&e. tfee-same unique CANON BICfiOO, BIC40I10etc. 10 Ri-fills of Yellow, (Reload) .£7.^" IftOmI £24,99 Mafieuta & Cvan Colour Star LC2UU 24 Pin £19 tl files 4 Alphabet with FrSONSTYLU'STRICOLOURnsfill, 2 refills of 4 Collar Star 24 Pin [Reload) &.'<^ Velloiv, Magenta* Cyan miml £34.99 £9.9') professionally-drawn 1 Colour Star I.C10 I'rmt HtJJRetovery Fluid tor miblockir;; nozzles £5.95 1 Colour Star I.C20LI 9 Pin £9.'«< graphics plus sound effects (m('iiri,iiiJ' rliMse^tate lypf wheruitdenng. 1 Colour all Star 24 Pin £9.'fi and spoken words. I Colour Epson FXSO/ LQ400/ Special Re-Ink MXSO - £9.''/ -^ -i- i Colour Epson LXSU X'J.94 I i>r Panabunic lUtW/Sl, 1124, liSU, 212.3, 2135, Star 1.C2IX19 £35.00 1 Colour Panawinic KXF 1080 ...IH.ii A^EW/ Picture Book 2 [iii, Epson LQIOO, Oki 183/390, Black bottle will re-ink 100 WiJi- raii^e iifatluT ribhtm^ niwitaWt h ribbons £9,95 ( £5 iliscoiiiii on relum ofori,i;imil Triple H Pkiure Book cliicl £45.00 NEW! Montage All Pricfs incliidi' V.AT ami Carriage to ordi^r; Enclose cheques/PO made payable to NoticeBoard electronic display system £29.95 How CARE ELECTRONICS or use Access/Visa. Softcrete program protection £24.95 CARE ELECTRONICS Twilight versatile screensaver £14.95 Dept ACU, 15 Holland Gardens, Garston. Watford. Hetis, WD2 6JN. Notes easy-to-use computer sticky notes £9.95 Tel: 01923 894064 Fajc: 01923 672102 MultiLink Arc-Beeb draf>'n'drop file transfer . . .£24.95 i MultiLmk with Arc-Beeb cable £29.95 ZLink ZHH-RISC OS file transfer inc. cable .... £29.95 Keyword 10,000 word thesaurus £12.95 PREMIUM SVLK 3.5" DISKS The Really Good Software Company. 39 Carisbrooke Hd., Harpenden. Herts AL5 5QS. Cheques and PO payable to RGSC 05/00 OS/HO (Sorry no plastic). 50 12.49 All programs work with Acorn RISC OS 3 only. \5M WO 22A9 29.3& 200 44.49 56.40 250 54.99 64.63 Montage 500 W7.49 V7.50 WOO 199.75 225.25 Create All Disks are certified and come with our replacement or money back guarantee. easily M«>t]t in intenictiTe i with jfl^^ncing Pi'sk Labels are included with 50. \00, Montiii^t buHds ihe images sis you work. Tor ZOO and 250 (Quantities but are extra on quantities of 500 & WOO - Mandelbrot.s that lalutiuiurs to Droduct. M" , 500 Labels £3.55, WOO Labels £6.46 in seconds. t COMPUTER f ACCESSORIES .k Ideal for boLh SUPPLIES LTD SrxlOOPJskBox £3.99 subjects of Maths ai W 3)4" X 200 Disk Drawer £9.99 Sani|)le disc ii\ailable for t Mouse Mat £1.99 Mouse Holder £1.99 r ^^ainst full price if \ouJj Montage. 3// Disk Cleaner £1.99 HP/CanofiTmn Inkjet Refill £7.99 01703 All products are subject to availability. All prices include VAT. Pelivery charges;- days £3.95 4 , 457111 43 hours £4.50. 24 hours £5.00. E&OE SNAP COMPUTER SUPPLIES LTD. Fax: 01 703 457222 Unit 12, The Sidings. Hound Road, Netley Abbey, Southampton S031 5QA Help direct from Acorn Acorn A What is ESysMerge and ^ why shoufd I use it? ISysmerge is the appliLation which simpli- fies the Customer installation of new relocatahle modules in ISystem, and ensures that new modules supplied with applications are installed in the right directory; a look inside the 'System application, especially on a Rise PC, will verify the presence of hotline several Modules directories, each applica- ble to one or more versions of RISC OS. ISysMerge ensures that relevant versions of Berkeley socket layer, developed modules are plated and pathed correctly, for BSD UNIX; the DC12 version Essential information for and that datestamps are preserved. of the relevant C libraries are now available Sometimes, when merging ISystems without charge Acorn users, compiled from ftp.acorn.co.uk as by using ISysMerge, the merge does not work /pub/riscos /releases/networkiug/tcpip/sockets.arc correctly: as ISysMerge does not use the Dave Walker of Acorn Note that these libraries are for use only force option when updating files, this fail- by experienced network programmers, ure is often due to a file in the master !Sys- Customer Services and are released without support teiti having been manually updated since or war ranty. exclusively for the software containing the to-be-merged Acorn User. .'System was released. The solution to this Inside CDFS, Part 1 problem is to change the datestamps on ^ Probably the most popular the to-be-merged .'System to the current -^ program- ming query for the last few months date and time (either by loading into Ettit has involved a request and re-saving or by using 'STAMP) and for details of the SWI long. To construct a block, you must: interface to CDfS, particularly then using ISysMerge again. those SWIs 1. Allocate memory for the block. related to Red Book (CD audio) discs. All 2. Call CDFS^ConvertDrivetoDevicc lo CDFS audio SWIs conform to the RISC ^ What's this DCI business? OS convert that drive's logical number to a standard insofar as: DCI refers to the Driver Control Inter- physical drive number. • any registers not explicitly defined as face; this is the interface standard to (he 3. Copy the returned physical drive num- result parameters are preserved raw controller software which drives net- ber into the block as below. • the N, Z and C flags are preserved All work interface cards. The interface is used bits of the control block not men- • errors are indicated by setting by applications such as '.Internet and V and tioned above must be initialised to zero. returning with RO pointing at '.BootNet. an error The whole process can be done as: block. If the bit 17 clear version is called, The Incremental versions of the DCI sys- wordO = (drive_number AND 8) control passes to the error handler tem have been in use for some time; instead word! = fdrive_nuniber AND fcil8)>3 • the SWI cannot be called from the back- Acorn's Release 1 TCP/IP used the DCll word2 = (drive.number AND &E0)>5 ground unless specifically documented standard, Release 2 is DCI2 and the current word3 = (drive_number AND &FF00)>8 • all SWIs may be called from interrupt freely-distributable stack (downloadable as word4 = {drive_number AND and event routines ftp.acorn.co.uk;/pub/riscos/releases/net- &FFFF0000)>16 but: working/DC14/') Is DC14. You still need • No CDFSDriver SWIs preserve TCP/IP Release 2 to get the telnet client the inter- rupt state Latest free and either Release 2 or OinniClient to ,A software • No CDFSDriver SWIs are obtain NFS client capability. DCI3 was an re-entrant ^ updates Before you can access a internal development-only version, which CD-ROM using For those of you who have a CD-ROM any of the CDFSDriver SWIs, was never released. you need to drive, you'll find this software on this set up a CDFS control block. When you issue's The DCI2 and DCI4 stacks have an cover CD; for those without, it's on call any of the SWIs, you pass a pointer interface which is based strongly on the to ftp.acorn.co.uk and mirror sites: the block in R7. Internet 4,07: Latest version of the DCI4 A CDFS control block describes a physi- Hmernet, IBootnet and Ethernet card dri- cal device to the (:DFS_Driver module, so vers it can use the correct routines. Acorn Customer Services Conse- Printers 1.52 Release 3: Latest '.Printers. quently there must be one block for each now with more Printer Definition Files Acorn Computers Ltd CD ROM drive to be accessed. Once set up, (for HP DeskJet 340, Epson LX300 and the block remains valid Acorn House, Vision Parl(, until the next David Pilling's ArcFax; there are also CDFS initialisation. {;DFS may alter a improved drivers for many printers in the Histon, Cambridge CB4 4AE block's contents, but you must not do so Canon BJ range) yourself, nor must save E-mail: [email protected] you a block and New Application Notes on net- use it in another session. working theory and adding extra Each CDFS control block Is five words hard discs. Am January 1996 Acorn User 81 25, rOWNGATE. OSSETT, WAKEFIELD, WF5 9BL 01924 272511 01924272511 SOME OF THE CD'S AVAILABLE FROM OUR FAST GROWING RANGE cot lOOOt Adobe type t lonis II) 19.9S CD2 3300 pieces olcllpafi, 100 Adobe lontsi 1)12) 9.99 CDS 14000*BA W imag0a,(poar la good) S I3S0 co>our(3Uperb) Imeges In IFF SL8M lonnala all convenible with ITranslator - over 330MB just on these two tiles alone{2) 9.3Q CIX Over lOOOpliolos m GIF lormal covering Anlmals.Bslies,Cars,Fla}ii9ra,UngiiriB,ll4isc, Halurs.People,Plai:es.Planes,Shlps,Swmsisil.Troins i mora.l2) 6.98 MMf stwf Id |yp9 C09 Over 1 000 pieces ol cllpart & photos In GIF lormal l106UBf) covering many atil^eots * over 900 PC uills u ano areiKlng packages(2) 1439 Ha CD has (tj alongalde then Tl to Fenl Is needed to convert Version 2 It a CD has (2) alongsltie trien ITranalatrv or tChangeFSl Is needed £49 + VAT ( £57.58 } This highly praised word processor and DTP is ideal for THE FOLLOWING CDS NEED A PC CARD FITTED TO USE THEM home and education use. Use the screen like a sheet of paper, click anywhere and type. Text can be easily sized, cots Americans In Space: A history of US space eiplomUon wtlti loads ol text Hies, mission and crew facts, photos and video moved, coloured or the font changed just by clicking ttie clips 14.99 CD17 CJandy Dinosaurs, Orye lor the little ones, eernl educational wltlt alofias. gam^a and mouse. Pictures dropped Into rex!e»BK are also easily crafts, lots ol Bnimations 14.99 CD2! 50 games for windom from 3 Kesrs upwards 4.99 moved, sized and altered. Children love /te simplicity. CD23 1000's of Adventure. Cesino, Educational, and Tent Games 9,99 Adults find it versatile, sophisticated and professional. CD31 Cancer: A ray of hope . allthe Inlormalion you need to know about ttie Big C 6.99 CD3S DOS For lun.lncludes toll Blbie,8ustness.Comms,Cookbook,Dalabases,EducBtlon,Qames araphlca.Ualh/Science.Reterence.Spreadsheets.Takl EdItors.Word Processors.and much more. Over 3000 programmes A utiiilies 9.39 FREE Catalogue Discs to all schools requesting on headed paper. + VAT (£7638) ^ £65 Contains many examples of clipart. photos & working fonts. Dozens of text files, E.G. complete Bible, full works of Shakespeare. Canterbury This combines excellent speech, integrated thoughtfully Tales, many novels, German & Japanese surrender papers etc. 41 into lextta—. Children delight at hearing their stories read back. The word being spoken is coloured, making it very easy to follow the text on the screen. Also excellent for * * * * WINTER SPECIAL * * * * adults when proof reading work. ^H^H TDK EVB 300 K DISCS (UNTIL DEC 31ST) VISA 10 - 2.99 20 - 5.49 50 - 12.99 100 - 24.99 Softease Limited Tel 01332 204911 ^M Many new Clipart, Photo & Font files added since the last catalogue. Fax 01684 772922 saies@ softease.demon.co.uk New catalogue & clip/font examples for 4 X 1st class atamps.(lncludes CD catalogue) Tha Old Courthouse, St Peters Church Yard. Derby, DEI 1 NN P & P any order only E1.50 IHMMiB Cheques & Postal Orders made payable lo TOWNGATE TOYS" '; \/lQA will i g licence for education customers' Cheques under £10 attract a E1 fee to cover banit charges. 'i Prices Include primary site Requires Acorn RiSC 0S3 Produced on lexl-^c^^i^ Clipart,Photo & Font Floppies are only 1:50 DD & 2:00 HD Incoiporaling f\ r^rchlmedes For a catalogue please send £ I - ^ Public or loitr I SI class statnps tn A.RD.L 39 Knighton Park Road r\ J—lomain Sydet^ham London SE26 5RN f\ mm 77li2fi3" IMuibrary ricascspecilySlHIKor l.fiMfidists Public Domtiin. Shareware, and low cos! .software for the serious Archimedes user, including over 200 di.scs of clip art We also have a large range ofP.C. Siiareware and P.D. ai very low price APDL Clip Art CD-1 now only Z2^30 APDL Clip Art CD-2 all new £24.50 Each has about 500 mcRahyles. Ideal for education. Buy both Clip Art CDs for only £45 APDL PD CD-1 and PD CD-2 A huge collecl ion of PD and Shareware at a realistic price. only £19.50 each, both for just £35 Yes! tn 1996 FaSterPC the alternative PC emulator, only £20 TalfcWrite got even better with: Hard discs I Support for digitised sound - add real speech or soium/ New IDE drives and interfaces - prices include all fittings to your pictures for a true multimedia experience, -i^ We can also part exchange your existing drive for a larger one I Support for animated pictures - you can now ^WNMlMfi^ A310/A400 170 Mb - £150 spoon. see the dish running away with the ' SQ^MAR A310/A400 420 Mb - £225 ^"'^'^^^ I The ability to speak rebus symbols direcdy. A3000/3010 80 Mb ^ £145 A3000/3010 260 Mb - £225 I Add pictures or text direcUy from Clicker or Switch Clicker. And no increase in price! A3000/3010 8(K)Mb - £445 A310/400/50O0/RPC24()MbSCSI(includesCDFS) £210 RESOURCE, 5 1 lUgh Street, Kegworth, Derby DE74 2DA [Others available. All prices inclusive - nothing more to pay!) Tel: (01509) 672222 Fax: (01509) 672267 Rise PC RAM now available upgrades possible star info Start the New Year with a selection of the brightest and best from Dave Lawrence and Dave Acton, . . . unquote Quote Author: David Llewellyn-Jones This is very handy little module from accessed by Adjust-clicking on thC icon, or you can't remember exactly whether you David Llewellyn-Jones. It sits in the back- via the menu. If you do not make use of need Alt-144or Alt-145. ground and cunningly converts quote the front-end, you can use the commands Finally, the module only works in the characten typed into any application into 'Quotes On and 'Quotes Off to enable desktop - press F12 to reach the command their correctly sexed counterparts. and disable the conversion. line and the module will de-activate itself. To use the module, you can either use it As you might expect, the module cannot in conjunction with David's neat front-end always work out exactly which flavour of • In David's original help pie he said that or, if you'd like to use it all the time, you quote you meant, so occasionally you will he (oiihln't work out how to get the !Rnn file can copy the module SmartQuotes out of have to go back and correct them. For this atitoinatically to load the SmartQuotes the Quotes application into an appropriate the insertion window is particular useful if module. This is because It Is a module task place in your boot sequence. Iand therefore does not quit until the The desktop front-end has task quits and so the rest of the Obey the added feature of a small file is not executed. To get round this window showing the various problem, we loaded the module with a quotes and allowing these to call to WimpTask. This is executed be inserted into your text by when control returns to the desktop - clicking on them. This is effectively queuing the command. Just the beat Author: Barnaby Rowe Slime machine Author: Phil Norman This is not an advertising campaign on behalf of Tate and Lyle, but You must know us by now - Phil Norman certainly docs, as he's the second of our Digital Symphony tunes from Barnaby Rowe. sent us: "An ARM-coded demonstration of the flow of green slime This is a more techno-orientated piece of music, which, when down a slightly-inclined slope." How could we resist! GVC {expla- blasted through an external amplifier and a pair of Hotblack Desa- nations later) is a Rise PC-only program because of its use of an tio speakers, would not be out of place at one of these new tangled extended colour palette. No doubt someone will be so annoyed by so works in X480 Y3S2 G256 mode - the smallest, so it can run as fast as possible. Jellystarfish Author: Jan Vtietinck It is called GVC after the Grand Union There's not much wrong with a good Vibe every now and again, so t^anal which runs here are a couple of classic Jan-isms. Both simulate blobs of jelly. through Birmingham, Jelly is just a plain old circular blob, but fellyStar is a far more and what you see on interesting star shape. the screen is about the To see the jellyness of these shapes, \ust grab a point on the cir- same consistency as cumference with the mouse, drag it a short distance and release it. the canal. And no, we The shape will oscillate most satisfactorily. JellyStar is particularly don't want to see reminiscent of looking through slightly turbulent water at a rare a program called white-edged black starfish sitting on a black rock. Hudson. January 1996 Acorn User 83 impressive Bible programs 'A ofihoughl hax gone iiiM this pw^nim, I've seen wmc ihul HolyBihIe leai-cs slamling" in ni\ lime .. 'here are many Mac and PC pn>f;rams Archive Ma/es TableMate^ ...The table maker of choice. ^^F "Possibly an essential purchase" ' ^ a ^ k^ . us - TableMalc 2 Review. Archive May 95 Now TableMate 3.1 is available - and it's even better! • BuUiinbar • Simple spreadsheet facilities • Vertical joining of cells, vertical tabs ^ • Extended import & export ... and much more! Multimedia • Modular ' TableMale is simply the most comprehensive ^ tablemaking package available - nothing else comes close. • Rapid, Intuitive seofching Full price £34-50 inc p&p - upg. from Impression Style £19-50 • Inbuilt User-Notes editor • Aulo-trocking of Bible versions Upgrade from version 2 - £7-50 • Maps & Graphics BETT Stand C69 • High quality text display • Text export (IncI DDF) llieyiirt hlimiiriukrM'JJhi' hUntI D Amsrlcan Bible Soclaly 1ME See Review in CluisniiLis V5 Arom User C-/ Diagrams of all sorts - in a flash! UK Base Pack; inci KJV, Strongs, Englishmans concordance £70 • annotated diagrams New International Version, add-on module £25 Flowcharts, organisational charts, New Revised Standard with Cambridge Study Notes spider diagrams, process diagrams - and more! £45 Russian Synodol Text, IncI Cyrillic font eoch • Automatic connection of symbols using Artificial Intelligence Good News Bible. IncI Apocrypha & 100 Drowfile Illustrations • £50 inc. p&p: TableMate 2/3 users £45. (No VAT) Biblia Hebraico Stuttgartensia (Hebrew Old Testament) £25 • wrapping and graphic scaling Novum Testamentum Graece (Nestle Aland 27th) Greek NT £25 Full colour control, word £20 those Font packs; Ciassical Hebrew or Greek The fastest, easiest and most powerful way to create all £38 f I^esource Builder utility pack t chLvV Livmiabiiiiy Multimedia time-consuming structured diagrams - now improved! +VAT single-user price Site licences - Sose Pack £199, other modules oi twice riaid disc drive or network Requires RISC OS 3. t or later, ond GraphMate will be released at BETT'96 St Catherines House, Plymouth Road, Tavistock, Devon. PL19 8AY Dalriada Data Technology, 145 Albion Street, Kenilworth, (01822)613868 Fax 610868 Warwickshire. CVS 2FY. Phone (01926) 853901 / COMPUTERS LTD, Resource Discs /"" Impression Publisher Resource \ivst £12.95 Impression Style Resource Disc a £12.95 Ovation Resource Dfiic t^J'^ ) _t\0.52 ~"UeW £12.95 TextEase Resource Disc , Avery Label TemplatesforPubiisheristyieafidowation £9.34 Artworks Resource Disc £10.52 Draw Clip Art Collections Orawn in the uk 1sl provides UNEQUALLED statistical Party, Wedding & Anniversary^zdiacs £16.45 facilities- Drawfile graphics. Easy CSV Parisli Magazine Set 4disc» ^" £19.95 inlerface. Spreadsheet type data entry with extensive manipulation features. Automatic, Primary Teachers Clip Art Set zdiaps £16.45 context sensitive manual. Mouse driven, Set UK - Europe - World 3 discs ' £18.00 with optional keyboard shortcuts. Map Greeks & Romans wrin aeorvieyguide NEW £1 1 .75 Statistical content of IstJr and IstL is Anglo-Saxons &Vikingswittici8arvtew9"i* NEW £11.75 m relevant to educational requirements. Upgrades between versions and from single The Normans wimClearVlowgulcle - 2discs £18.80 to multiple licences available. World War One wilhCleatVIew guide 3dlsC6i £23.50 statistical /I ', £9-34 Our products cover requirements World Animals | \ at levels from GCSE to advanced research. ' £9.34 Sports Equipment \ \ Single use prices from £50 to £205 /| I depending on the version and type ol use, Hand Tools / ! ' £934 Rockets & Space Travel £934 Nevtr. unique features for Value Added Analysis in School Administration. Story of Flight £9-34 Musical Instruments £11.16 Loan copies, further info, available from: Applications Serious Statistical Software ClearVleW 2 hyperteKt/mum-media authoring system £39.00 Lynwood, Benty Heath Lane DRAW_ Changer Draw tne effects processor £25.85 Wi Hasten Send for the Free brochure of clip art and multi-media resources SWirral,L64 1SD All prices Include VAT. Add £1 postage to all orders Til: 0151 327 4268 Brochure at - http://www.zynet.co.uk/decdata/ SsIGS HotUnS 01392 221702 established statistical packages. DepAUlTPO Box 97, Exeter, EX4 4YA Phone/Fax The 344 for Australia KidsRam 241 Hawkesbury Road, Winmalee. 2777 NSW Phone 047 544 star info Secret surface Author: Jan Vlietinck Those of you who runiinaj;ed through the the fire extinction. The palette is cycled so relevant bits can be set. Then the pixel INFO directory of the IX'temlier '95 cover that the currently plotted object always has value has to be stored again. disc (detention for anyone who didn't) will the brightest colour. An important trick to 'For the 3D object two bitplanes are used. have encountered a secret demo -- iiDSiirf by avoid mistakenly deleting pixels is to The surface of the object consists of a check- Jan Vlietinck. Apologies are due to Jan for ensure that a pixel to be cleared has the hoard of triangles with two colours. The omitting the text but not the program. If it same value given by the drawing object N front triangles arc drawn in one bitplane, was merely our usual drivel, we would not instances ago. while the triangles at the back are drawn in bother you with such a trifling omission, 'Transluc shows what can be done with another. By rcprogramming the palette, the but since Jan offered some light on how his emulated bit-plane graphics. Unlike the Arc back and the front can be blended resulting splendid 3D antics worked, we must put some computers use a separate memory in a tnmsUicent object. matters right and print the missing text,., bank for each bit of a pixel, The video hard- 'Similarly the background is drawn as a 3DStirf is {well, was...) not one but three ware then overlays all those planes on to bi-colour checkboard now in a third bit- examples of 3D surface wizardry. Press the monitor. The benefit of such a system is plane. The object can be moved with the Escape to exit from each section, and move that is allows very easy for parallax and mouse and zooming is done with the left on to the next. transparent or translucent effects. and right buttons. 'FireBall shows a spinning ball, leaving a 'On the a Arc such system can be emu- 'Zeppelin is just a polygon sphere with trail of fire as it moves in :iD. The anima- lated by setting only a particular bit of a text on it bouncing around. The sphere is tion is achieved with two identical objects: pixel. For example, in Mode 13 each bit of illuminated with a simple frontal light one is the drawing object, the second fol- a pixel's byte corresponds to a particular source. Also the illumination varies with lows exactly the same path but trails N steps bit plane. To do this, more work has to be the depth of the object.' behind and clears pixels drawn by the first done than just setting the whole pixel to a By the way, you can change the text on object. The demo runs in a 16-colour mode particular colour. First the pixel value has the Zeppelin by altering the DATA in the with palette cycling Iwing used to simulate to be loaded and with an ORR operation program - it is just read in as a bitmap. Age-old problem Author: James Shepherd The problem in this case is to present the can delete or just clear the record. package to print out the list. Using commas reading ages of a group of children in the Click on ? to bring up a menu. From this to separate the values provides a way of clearest and most useful manner. The solu- you open may the Find window. This producing a more detailed CSV file for use tion comes in the form of ReadA^ie by allows you to search through the records with a spreadsheet. James Shepherd. Teachers everywhere for a particular name, or a record if you James' program, aside from being a use- should benefit from the program which know the number. C:ase is not important. ful tool for teachers, is also a good example aids the assessment of reading ages by pro- The .Sort window is also available from this of what can be done by using methods pio- ducing a drawfile containing a graph of menu. The records can be sorted in a num- neered in *1NI0 over the years. He credits reading age minus chronological age. ber of ways. Name (I) is surname and Tim Howard for icon dragging, (iraham ReadAge takes the names, dates of birth, Name (2) forename. RAI, R.\2 and Chr. Age Crow for sorting and Michael Atten- and two reading ages of up to 62 children put the records in order by the associated borough for Draw file creation. at a time. You can either type in the data age. These latter sorts put using the window provided, using the edit- the weakest pupils first. ing and sorting features available, or drag Data may be saved as a in a CSV file from another application. An CSV file, text or as a graph example is on the disc. in the form of a drawfile. After input, the data can be saved as a You can drag the save icon textfile, CSVfile, or a drawfile. The drawfile directly to IDraw for an has a graph showing whether each child is immediate graphical repre- ahead or behind with their reading. Click- sentation. Note that the ing on the ReudAne icon will open the graph may not necessarily main window, allowing data entry. One be immediately suitable for record is shown at a time. To move to printing out from '.Draw - another record click on < or >. scale and move as required. Clicking the 1 on R A or Test 1 icons dis- The 'save as text' option is plays the chronological age of the current best used in conjunction pupil at the time of the first test. The R A 2 with the sorting options to and Test 2 icons perform similar fimctions provide a class list. There arc for the second test. A simple menu is pro- icons to select what to vided. This includes a user-definable include in the textfile. Age auto-save facility, which will save your today uses the computer's data {suffixed with 'back') at regular inter- internal clock to calculate vals. Ihere is also a Wipe All option to clear the child's exact current all records. age. Records may be added before or after the The textfile can have tabs current one by using a pop-up menu from as separators, which gives the icon. - + t:iick on to delete a record. better results if you are Again, a pop-up menu is provided so you going to use a DTP or WP January 1996 Acorn User 85 CONTRARY TO WHAT YOU MAY Pari €Kchan3e lo HAVE READ.... THE DATA STORE is still fully committed to Acorn. Price* or neui RiscPC There has never been a better lime to invest in a new Acorn Rise PC600 and 700 computer, witb new models, lower prices and the following Tiipieal Trade In Rise PC700 5M £1360,00 special offers for either educational or home/business 4Mb RAM 4£5«b HO. 1Mb VRAM Ailouianccs purchasers: Rise PC700 lOM £1652.00 A3000 £ 125 8trb RAM S50Mb HD, 2Mb VRAM A440/I £225 A4000 £300 l7" monitor option add £ 275.00 SCHOOLS! 4KRI/(2/l7/40 £ 50 CDROM CVive add £ 111.00 in (Kent), WCF50 £150 If you are within 30 miles of our base Bromley 425 - 850Mb HD Upgrade £ 70.00 A5000 4/80/AKR8 £485 we provide FREE delivery and installation, plus 20/20 Scheme (0"^ Finance) available PC600 / AKF60 £700 on Part Exchange Transactions TWO HALF-DAY TRAINING SESSIONS FREE during the year Subject" To change delii/ery £30-00 following purchase of any Acorn computer system. CoUeclion and If you want the highest possible level of after-sales service and support, our reputation is unbeatable. AJS Computers St H«fffh Drill* Please phone for full details. Chmtrnfford Bss*x CMxqHE tel 0124S 3452A3 HOME USERS! fax 0IZ4S 34S*$S •Mail ajseompt.4emon.ct.uk Take advantage of Acorn's 20:20 FINANCE SCHEME. oil pin-i-\ phi.\ \iil uml ciirriiiKe Buy a new computer system and spread the cost over 20 months with NO INTEREST TO PAY. Again, please phone Hard Disk CHchansts for full details (written details on request). For A5000 and A4000, 40 or 80Mb to 210 Mb - £ 79.00 And we offer a huge range of ex-stock peripherals, add-ons and 40 or SOWb to 425 Mb - £ 12900 software for all Acorn computers which you can see in our CHchangcs Simm for A3020 comfortable showroom. 4Mb ro 8Mb - £11500 60Mb to 200 Mb - £109.00 DON'T DEAL IN THE DARK! COME AND SEE THE LIGHT AT 4Wb to 16Mb £275.00 for RistPC600 5MB to fGMb- £195.00 210Mb to 425Mb - £ 99£)0 THE DATA STORE 4Mb - £8500 for RiscPC700 6Mb - £185.00 *• 6 CHATTERTON ROAD, BROMLEY, KENT BR2 9QN *** 425Mb - 850Mb - £ 79.00 16Mb - £335.00 •** free. Tel: 0181-460 8991 Fax: 0181-313 0400 •* 32Mb - £645.00 Software Transferred Email: sales® datstore.demon.co.uk HIGH SPEED INTERNET ACCESS New Dual High Speed Senal Interface Expansion Card Provides two additional RS232 compatible serial interfaces Baud rotes from 50 to 230400 including 9600. 19200, 38400, 57600 and 1 15200 Voyager. Intemet Starter Software supplied includes Block Drivers for Hearsay II, ARCfax. AKCterm 7, Termite. Kit CSLIPdial and TCPIP), etc Modified version Can be fitted in A310, A440, A410/1, A420/1, A440/1, A540, A5000, A7000 and Rise PC available for fitting in extemctl expansion card connector of A3000. Requires RISC OS 3,1 or later Modem, cable, card and communication software bundles available details : Contact the Soles Office for further Other products include SCSI Interfaces, Discs. CD-ROM's and Tope Drives. IEEE488 Interface Cards. 8 ond 16 Bit complete Parallel I/O Interioce Cards, 12 Bit ADC Cards, STEbus Interface Cords, FORTRAN 77 CompUer, computer systems, etc InteUlgent Intertaces Ltd, P O Box 80. Eastleigh. Hants, S053 2YX I MTc O C Af^ C O Tel: 01703 261514 Fax; 01703 267904 INTcRrAOtO star info Ooops Peter Borcherds We would like to apologise tromagnetic. The reason for magnetic wave, and to his netic field strength. In SI, this for the late arrival of the 9.26 is this historical. In the early development of the theory of is measured in amperes per to Alpha Centauri. This was 19th century the pioneers electromagnetism. Indirectly meter, in the cgs system the due to a numerical error in who were developing electric- this observation underlies the emu is the oersted, which is '95 the Decemlier *INFO. If ity and magnetism defined a development of much of equal to 79.5= 77 A/m. This your particle accelerator blew system of electrical units, esu, modern science and technol- number is equal to 1000/(4 up, or your spacecraft went based upon electrostatic phe- ogy, such as radio. PI). The quantity (4 PI) arises astray by a light year or two nomena, and a system of 'In terms of SI units, the because the surface area of a as a result of using one of the magnetic units, emu, based esu unit of potential (the stat- sphere of radius R is 4 pi R'^2. dodgy values in our Constants upon permanent magnets. volt) is about 300 volts, and 'To explain how this is application, Peter Borcherds 'Later workers used the the emu unit (the abvolt) is 1 related to the two systems of of the School of Physics and same magnetic units when E-8 volts (exactly). The emu units would take more space Research at the Univer- Space working with electromagnets. of current (the abampi is 10 than would be justified here, sity of Birmingham In can shed each of these systems there amps (exactly). The values of but is covered in standard some light the problem. on were values for such quanti- other related units can be undergraduate texts on elec- 'The program gives the val- ties as electric current and found from these figures. In tromagnetism. ues in the standard SI units, electric potential (voltage). It particular, in esu, the value of 'A comprehensive list of and also in the older cgs units. was found that the ratio of the electronic charge is 4.803 the values of units and con- In many cases the values in the values of certain units, 2068 E-10 esu or stat- version factors is given in A the two systems differ by a few e.g. the units for electric coulomhs, not the value Physicists Desk reference, - powers of 10 e.g. 1 meter is charge, in the two systems shown in the illustration in published by the American I0''2 centimetres. However in was a velocity, approximately #INFO. The velocity of light Institute of Physics (ISBN the case of electrical (and equal to .i ElO cm/s. This was (in vacuo) is now defined as a 88318-610-1).' magnetic) units, the relation- recognised as being equal to fundamental constant, with • And thanks to Peter for giv- ship is more complicated. the velocity of light, the value 299 792 458 m/s. ing us the opportunity to 'In the cgs system of units 'This observation helped 'There is yet a further com- feature words like oersted and there were two sets of such James Clerk Maxwell to plication in the relationship statcouhmihs in these humble units, electrostatic and elec- realise that light is an electro- of a few units, such as mag- pases. Spinning Jenny Author: Jan Vlietinck Well, we're not sure what her name is, but the female star of Jan Vlietinck's lat- est demo is probably feeling a hit woozy after what she's been through. Jan says that 'This one is all about checkerboard bitmap zoom-rotation.' And he's right. In fact, five versions of the technique are demonstrated, each slightly faster than the last, with the inevitable trade- off between speed and accuracy. 'If you consider an N by N bitmap B(u,v),' says jan, 'for each pixel P (x,y) on the screen the following lookup opera- tion has to be performed; P(x,y)=coIour B((r*cos(h)*x-r*S!n(h)"y) mod N, (r*sin(h)*x+r'cos(h)*y) mod N) where h is the angle of rotation and r is the zoom factor. The art of course is doing this complex calculation in a fast manner. Courtesy to Frederic Elisei for some of his original ideas! 'The first version does a lookup for each pixel. The second does this only for alternating odd-even line fields (i.e. inter- lacing). The third and fourth versions respectively copy odd rows and columns from the previous row or column. The last version combines the last two, result- ing in 2x2 screen blocks, effectively reducing lookup to one fourth of the original.' January 1996 Acorn User 87 star info Maur than meets the eye Author: Roddy Graham Here is a submission to our sadly neglected one-line department. With the disappearance of the yellow pages and the arrival of the cover disc, the fact that a graphical doodle fits in 250-odd bytts of BASIC is rather lost. Oh well, at least people like Roddy Graham are perpetuating the legend ... 'Back in 19X8 the (iuardian Futures section published an article about a graphics hack called the Maurer Rose, after the person who discovered it. The article included an algorithm for generat- ing the Rose - you wouldn't get an algorithm in the Guardian these days. You young folks have it easy with yer Onl'mv and yer bloomin' Internet - 1 converted it into BASiC, doodled with it for a bit, and forgot about it for seven years. Now I've found it again, i thought you might like to see it.' How right you were Roddy. Plumb crazy Author: M. Simpson Track of tracks Author: Jim Redfarn Reader Jim Redfarn was surprised to hear that we were unable to play Mr .Adamson's recently featured MIDI composition. He |)oints out the splendid Rhapsody 3 can give a fine rendition of said pieces by altering the settings to play using internal voices. Many thanks to Jim for bringing this to our attention, and also for his own Rhapsody ver- sion of Honky Tonk "Irain Blues which you will find on the cover disc. Compatibility table Program RISC OS 2 RISC0S3.1 RISC OS 3.5/3.6 Maur Yes Yes Yes Quotes No Yes Yes GUC No No Yes ReadAge Yes Yes Yes Mr M. Simpson's small ditty Pipcworks, shows how a very simply idea can Pipeworks Yes Yes Yes produce a quite striking result. The program builds up a network of pipes Jelly Yes Yes Yes reminiscent of the outside of the Pompidou centre in Paris. After a while, Roto No Yes Yes the screen does become rather cluttered, but for a few seconds before that, the effect is remarkably effective. All your programs be they humble one-liners or somewhat heftier applications are very welcome, as are any hints and tips. Send to: ^ *INFO, Acorn User, IDG Media, Media House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP or e-mail us (including your real address please) at: You needn't include a letter but do please put your name, address and program title on every disc and include a text file containing at least your name, address, disc contents and pro- gram details. An SAE will ensure your discs are returned and any other instructions, diagrams, saved screens and so on will also be much appreciated by ourselves and other readers. 88 Acorn User January 1996 48 Afeiv Year Special Offers RiscPC Special Offer Acorn Software Acorn Software For a limited period we can offer Ihe RiscPC 600 syslems 4thDReal McCoy 2 Eio Minerva Atelier £23 at a never to be 4thD Real ' repealed price. Every system is supplied McCoy 3 £12 Minerva DataWord c : complete with 1d" monitor, addrlional VRAtvl 1Mb and a 4th0 Real McCoy 4 £15 Minerva Easiword Plus t.iv collection ol software lilies - both games and educalional. 4lhD Saloon Cars Deluxe Extra Tracks E14 Minerva GraphBox Professional £85 All systems are covered by a 1 year on-sile warranty. 4thD The Dungeon £16 Minerva Home Accounts £20 RiscPC 2M HD210- 1Mb VRAM £1085 4th D Time Machine £12 Minerva Linkword Spanish £25 RiscPC SM HD21I)- 2Mb VRAM £1195 4thD Virtual Golf £15 Minen/a Muliistore v2 £72 4thD Virtual Golf Augusta £12 Minen/a Order Processing/Invoicing £79 FREE Software & VRAM Upgrade 4lhD X-Fire £S Minerva PrimeWord £39 Ace Tween £28 Minerva System Delta* £10 Acorn 1st Word Plus R2 £5 Oak Genesis Plus £5 Apricote Prophet Accounts £120 Oak Repro £41 A3010 Special Offer ARC British Birds CD £130 Oregan Arcturus £ic Available for a limited period, the A3010 Computer System ARC Counties of Britain CD £35 Oregan Sally & Waily ciu is Ihe ideal entry level machine for home or education use. ARC Dictionary of the Living World CD £30 QueslforGold £io All systems ate supplied with mouse mat and carry case. ARC Granny's Garden CD £27 Renegade Magic Pockets £14 ARC Inventors & Inventions CD £138 Renegade Sensible Soccer £15 A3010 IM Action Pack Ei40 ARC Materials RiscPC Learn A301 D 2M Learning Curve C295 CD £97 & Play Software Pack £19 Number Serial A3ai0 2M Early Years C2S5 ARC Games CD £69 Port Investigator tl £5 14" AKF52 Monitor (when purchased wiih Asoio] E165 ARC Sherlock Holmes CD £1 Sherston ArcVenture 1 - Romans £20 Beebug Charlwell £i B Sherston Aztecs £25 FREE Mouse Mat & Carry Case Beebug DeskEdit 3 £19 Sherston Badger Trails £25 Beebug Easy C Compiler £40 Sherston Crystal Maze £21 Beebug Ovation DTP £53 Sherston Glimpse £7 Beebug Sleuth vl .5 Sherston Hilighter £10 Acorn Hardware Acorn £36 Hardware Beebug TypeStudio £23 Sherston Talking Stories - KS3 £26 CC Artworks Cliparl CD vl £14 Sherston Talking Topics - Homes £8 1 6bit Cached SCSI Card - A300/A400 £65 I/O Expansion Card (Acorn) £73 CC Artworks Clipart CD v2 £1 Sherston Talking Topics SIX Pack £38 16bit IDE Interlace - A300/A400 £35 I/O Expansion Card - A300/A400 £20 CC Equasor £20 Sherston Wizards Revenge £13 1 6bit SCSI Card - A300/A400 (Ungenuity) £45 1/0 Expansion Card - A3000/A4000 £15 CC Impression Business Sup. £28 Silicon ARC PCBvl.7 P62 - 170Mb Internal IDE Hard Impression II Dabhand Guide Drive C8 CC Show Page C50 Silicon Financial Controller £100 A3OOO/A3010 £179 MIDI Expansion Card (Acom) E59 CC SpeilMaster Disk £10 Silicon Power Router E4u 1 St Word Plus R2.0 Manual Mono Handscanner - A300/A400 £5 E89 CC WordWise Plus Disk £5 Silicon ProSheet £25 Mono Handscanner - 25MHZ ARM3 Turbo Card £95 A3000 External £30 Clares Armadeus £20 Silicon Robo Logo £15 2Mb RAM Upgrade - A3000 £49 Multiscan VIDC Enhancer £10 Clares Graphic Writer £10 Silicon ShareHolderv2 £50 PowerPad 3.5" / 5,25" Disc Interface - A300/A400 £5 Dual Joypad £29 Clares Plot £56 Silicon Vi/impGen £52 Single Superior 486 25MHz PC Card - A300/A400 £285 PowerPad Joypad £21 Clares ProArlisan v2 £85 E-Type Extra 100 fvliles £12 486 50MHz PC Card - A300/A400 £399 RISC OS 3 First Steps £10 Clares Rhapsody v2 £39 Superior Ego: Repton 4 El - Superior Masterbreak 486 PC Card - A3020/A4000 £200 RISC OS 3.1 Hardware Kit A300 £17 Clares Rhapsody v3 £65 £5 RISC 3.1 Clares Superior Play It Again Sam 1 4Mb RAM Upgrade - A3010 £129 OS Software Upgrade £74 Schema vl £15 £12 RISC Teclinical Data Clares Score Superior Play It Again Sam 3 £13 4Mb RAM Upgrade - A540/R260 £249 Manual £2 Draw £45 Superior Speech v2 RiscPC 1 6bit Sound Card Clares Topographer £15 8bit Inlemal IDE Interface - A3000/A3010 £45 C59 £53 RiscPC Clares Vox Box Superior Technodream £11 A3000 External Podule Case E8 1MB VRAf^ Upgrade £45 £20 Col ton Fireworkz Superior Zarch £13 A3000 Monitor Stand £12 RiscPC 2Mb VRAM Upgrade E110 £70 Colton Pipedream 4 £82 A3000 Power Supply £30 Scan256 Handscanner A300/A400 £85 Colton Scan256 Handscanner - Wordz £75 BBC Products A3000/A301 Carry Case £5 A3000 External £1 25 ESM Investigating f^flatbs ScanLigfit 256 - A3000 £25 A3000/A400 3,5' Floppy Drive £25 (CC) £199 - Single Master 1 ScanLight Video 256 Europress Fun School 3 5 to 7's £10 28 Monitor Stand £12 A4 Notebook Carry Case £35 (CC) £199 SuperVGA VIDC Europress Fun School 4 - Under 5's £10 BBC B/B+ Power Supply £25 A4 Notebook Mains Adapter £40 Enhancer £25 Gamesware Cycloids £10 Master 128 Advanced TCP/IP Pfolocol Suite R2.0 £399 Reference Manual£2 A4 Scanner - A300/A400 £99 Gamesware FRED £10 Complete BBC User Handbook Ultimate Expansion - A3000 (HCCS) £35 £2 A4 Scanner - A3000 External £99 Gamesware Games Wizard £10 Understanding Interword Ultimate Expansion - A3010 (HCCS) £35 Book £1 A4 Scanner Sheet Feeder £45 Gamesware Ixion eio Ullimate uPodu/e - Analogue (HCCS) £24 Advanced BBC B User Guide £2 A4000/A5000 3.5" Floppy Drive £20 Gamesware Xenon 2 £10 Acorn lo Ultimate uPodule - Digitiser (HCCS) £90 PC Book £7 A5000 Power Supply £69 Grandsiam Pacmania £5 Ultimate uPodule - HVision DgfiserlHCCS) £95 Master 128 Twin ROM Cartridge £2 Access P/P Network - A3000 £129 Hybrid Elite £28 User Port/MIDI Expansion Card - A3000 £42 Master 128 Quad ROM Cartridge £3 Access P/P Network - A5000 £145 Icon EasiWriter £109 Vision Colour Digtser-A30a'A400 (HCCS) E50 1772 DFSKit-BBCB £20 Access P/P Network - RiscPC £119 Icon TechWriler £142 Vision Colour Digitiser - A3000 (HCCS) £69 BBC Marconi Trackerball £15 Acorn CD Multimedia Expansion £250 lota Complete Animator £63 VWIMP Programming for All Book £5 AMX Mouse S. SuperArt - BBC Acorn DTP Manual £10 Krisalts Heimdall £13 Master 128 £49 Acom PhotoView £10 Krisalis HeroQuest £10 Krisalis Jahangtr Khan Squash AMX Mouse -BBC B/ Master 128 £10 ARC Keyboard Extension Lead £2 Acom Software £10 Krisalis Nebulus £14 BBC Ouest Tracerball £15 ARC Marconi Trackerball £15 10/10 Dinosaurs £12 Krisalis Oh No! More Lemmings £9 32k ROM/RAM Card £15 ARC MK4 Replacement Mouse £16 10/10 Driving Test C12 Krisalis Populous £10 128k ROM/RAM Card £25 ARC Quest Tracerball £20 10/10 English £12 Krisalis Sim City 2000 - £25 Speech Upgrade BBC B/B+ e i ARC to BBC Serial Link £1 1 0/1 D Essential Science £12 Lingenuity Presenter GTi £46 IEEE 488 Interface - BBC 8 Artworks Made Easy £8 £15 10/10 Maths -Algebra £12 Longman First Page DTP £37 BBC Master 1 28 Computer £1 99 Budget DTP on the Archimedes Book E7 10/10 Maths -Statistics £12 Longman Insight £50 64K RAM Upgrade - BBC B+ £35 Caliigraph A4-1 200 Laser Printer £899 10/10 Structured Spelling £12 Longman Landmarks - 1940 £19 BBC Quest Paint Control on the Archimedes Book ROM £10 £8 4Mation Craftshop 1 £5 Longman Landmarks - Aztecs £14 AMX SuperArt - Master 128 Dustcover - A300/A400 Craftshop £26 Keyboard £3 4Malion 2 £18 Longman Landmariis - Civil War £18 AMX Stop Press - Master 128 £5 Dustcover - A3000 & Monitor £4 4Ma(ion Poster £79 - Longman Landmarks Elizabeth I £19 Wapping Editor - 4thD Adventures ol RQM £10 Dustcover A5000 & Monitor £5 Sytvia Lane £12 Longman Landmarks - Rainforest £18 4thD Apocalypse Wapping Art Disk £2 Eagle M2 Multimedia Card (CC) £309 £10 Longman Landmarks - Victorians £20 4thDArcticulate Wapping Fonts Disk Econet Interface - A300/A400 £15 £10 Longman Logotron Logo £49 £2 4lhD Boogie Buggie BBC Office Mate ElherLAN602 Ethernet Card - RiscPC £89 £10 Longman Look & Read - Skyhunter El 5 C5 4th D Carnage Ire £12 InlerChart Ethernet Card (BNC) - A3020/A4000 £109 Longman Magpie £15 CC ROM £20 4thD Chocks Away Extra Missions £14 File Handling tor All Book £7 Longman Numerator £25 BBC Dumpoul 3 ROM £5 4thD E-Type 2 £15 First Impressions Book £28 Longman Pendown £35 Concept Kids £5 4lhD Enter the Realm £12 Longman Good Impressions Book £10 Pendown Etoile £40 4thD Galactic Dan £10 Longman Picture Point Carriage Charges 1st Add Graphics on the ARM Book £8 £22 4thD Grevious Bodily ARM £10 Longman Pinpoint £49 Hardware £6.00 £5.00 Hawk V9 MKII Digitiser (CC) £175 4thD Haunted House £15 Longman Revelation ImagePro £110 Software £6.00 £4.00 ' HiVisJonColoifl-Diglljser-A300/A400(HCCS) £95 4thD Holed Out Compendium £10 Longman SBase Personal £80 Lasers/Monitors £9.00 £5.00 HiVision Colour Digitiser - A3000 (HCCS) £95 4ihD Pandoras Box £10 Millenium Diggers £15 Small Items £6.00 £3.00 atlers and all ilerfw aiB subjecl lo avarlatality. Prices may YiRis \i diange (or reasons boyond our control. Specilicalions on all oroiuctE nte conea at time cl going lo p^ess and grvan in goofl lartti, tjui may riave to change without notice Please ctisck suitabilrty ol items beloie orOering tvJll Sirstums not be accBpted wilhoiii a hanrdinti cnarge Gooos are solu sub[Ect to our sraridfiril lema and cmditions gl sale and ate ai/ataWe on 'equesi Grjodsare nol sold on tnal B5Sis ESOE Wal^farcl Electronics L^d SALES HOTLINE Mail Order Showroom: 1 & Jessa House. Finway, Dallow Road, Luton LU1 1TR ?nc--. j Ol 582 745555 ipMf tatm^ £ VA' T The Dummies range of books has been a heard of an Acorn compouterbut if your look at the trials and tribulations of . phenomenal success in the USA and its interests stretch to other areas of being a parent, while providing a recent entry into the UK market has computing, these books are essential reference whether you have a newborn certainly made people take notice. Realising reading. The PCs and Wacs for Dummies baby or imminent teenager. that there is a huge number of people who titles w\\\ be especially useful for someone want to read about computers and who with both an Acorn and another computer With 19 million Dummies books already in can't take the in-depth academic works who is just discovering that not all print, this new style of manual tells you available in most book shops, IDG Books operating systems are as straightforward as what you want to know, whether you launched the Dummies series. RISC OS. want to read it from cover to cover or use it The style is fun, the layout easy to Not everything In life comes with a as an essential reference work. '. follow, and the information bursting at the manual. IDG Books has added a new non- My only question is; what will they cover - seams. Acorn l/serhas negotiated a special computer title to its portfolio : next Acorns for Dummies? price for its readers enabling them to save £4 or more on each book. Of course, being • Parenting for Dummies - Written by David Matthewman' American in origin, the books have never parents for parents, it too takes a fun Editor, Acorn Usi [the 3D VISUAL DICTIONARY INTERNET ^t VutMtuu 2nd Ed PARENTING ^ Vcmmiu ^ OF COMPUTING Learn to surf the Internet without From the most basic parenting skills, The new colourful dictionary of getting your feet wet. Leads you there are tips on spending the day travelling computer terms is written in through the trails of getting onto the with baby to dining out and doctor, jargon-free language and covers Net as well as being a vital with children, going to the discipline. al! the terms you are likely to reference that'll help you swap e- punishment, and Everything a parent needs to know come across, whether you want mail, software, news, conversation ^ «»-.-*^ to know about virtual memory, and much much more on the mother without overwhelming psycho- AVI or the Internet. A must for of all networks. babble. readers of all ages. Beginner/Intermediate Beginner 15^^/5.99 tlmwM^iUO 3-0 Visual Dictionary ARefcrenc mthe Rest of - Coitiputm: ,4Sro.chtoUarmns .OL K 2nd edition A Reference for the Rest of Us! ^ranCr^k* s%*W«i !xtV- # P IDG !^ •IWKS 55 , %. SEX (dft 'Dummia The very latest in PC hardware, ''fir. Finally! A hands-on, step-by-step From how to taik about it or how software and peripherals. Now ^^4^ tutorial for learning the essentials of to have it safely, Dr Ruth takes with a chapter on modems and SrdEd % programming in C. the reader on a journey through MACs/n VcmttUa the Internet, plug and play, the basics of human anatomy. Power PCs, Windows 95 all in Up-to-date information on 'Even if you've never Filled with helpful hims, tips and the same easygoing style. getting your Mac up and programmed before, get a copy.' techniques on everything from Beginner/Intermediate running, with common tasks Acorn User courting to contraception to explained in everyday language, 'S: softw/are and upgrades. Beglnner/tntermedlate ---tftp. ^e^i/f.9« %Mi(^ mice fori D^^ of Us! ' (I icefoi *eKestoft;$r IDC A Reference for the Rest of Us! i )«•"•«.«_ UK '«*•«.. »»?r*.!^ ««•*!' IDG Books wants to make you K«P«!-' an ojjer you cant refuse Please send me: Our Price Save Name.... The 3D Dictionary of Computing £11.99 £4.00 copies Internet for Dummies £13.99 £5.00 copies Address. Parenting for Dummies £11.99 £4.00 copies C for Dummies £13.30 £5.69 copies PCs for Dummies £11.99 £4.00 copies Sex for Dummies £11.99 £4.00 copies Macs for Dummies £13.99 £5.00 _ copies • Add £2.50 per order for postage and packinc • Overseas orders add £4,00 .Postcode • Cheques made payable to IDG Media I enclose a cheque for £ ^ Send to; IDG Book Offer. Acorn User, Media House. [ ^1 Adtrngton Park, Macclesfield SKIO 4NP. dl Please debit my credit card for £ _ JTT^ Telephone Claire Mawdsley on 01625 876888 for Card No £|_^fT more intormatton on the Oummies range I BOOKS n I ^° W *8rit to receive any further mathngs or pramoDonal inlormalion Expiry Date / Signature For Home and Business finance... P'dfi^uiiiil ^Vj[^uiiniiZJ J Running your personal finances on a computer may seem like overkiil, but until you try it you will never know the benefits. Keeping track of direct debits and standing orders is at best very fiddly and at worse expensive when you consider the charges most banks levy if you become overdrawn. Personal Accounts 3 takes the guesswork out of it. You will know exactly how much you have in each account and when it needs topping up. This however is only one of Personal Accounts many features. Telephone for a free brochure and demonstration disc to see what it can do for you. Personal Accounts has received top reviews in all the Acorn magazines. 1 Pro\jsi^i2 Software 1995 mkornUttfBHIBwhMi l-A I f a computer program could replace a manual system and not only give you more information but also save you time, it would be a worthwhile investment. If it could also automatically enter standing orders on time, send overdue statements to your customers, produce VAT returns, calculate Profit&Loss and balance sheet figures and cost less than £200 it would be an absolute bargain. Prophet does this and a lot more too. It is no wonder that readers of Acorn User have just voted it best business software 1995. In May this year we released version 2. We have had a record upgrade response from users' of version 1 and top reviews from all the best selling Acorn magazines (see the July '95 editions of Acorn User, Archimedes World and Rise User), Unlike other accounting software we provide free help, free upgrades between major versions and no annual sen/ice charges. Please telephone/fax or write for a brochure and demonstration disc. EJiJiJ/^^s; V Version 5 of our popular share portfolio program will make it's debut at the Acorn World show in October. There are a whole host of new features including log as well as linear graphs, point & figure graphs and probably the most important feature - capital gains tax calculations. Version 4 is still available and the basic upgrade to version 5 will be no more than the difference in price. Please send for the brochure and demonstration disc. Existing users will be notified direct. ...there is only one choice Apricote Studios rg Tel/Fax: 01354 680432 2 Purls Bridge Farm, Mariea, Cambs, PE15 OND & SOFTWARE SHOWCASE BUDGET GAMES EDUCATION MULTIMEDIA LOOK WTO WV FYF5 The Acorn RISC-OS CD-ROM User Group £ • Dyslexia YOU WIU BUY TW FOt-LOWIWG:- £32.50 Join oiler GIVES YOU ! Years subscription & MUt,. The Aih'enlure Interpreter: £7.99 Wide range of .^peeialist programs, available on PDCD-1 (issue2) with manual. approval. Digitised speech throughout. Escape from Exeria 2 (The Rewrite!!!):- 28 day Contains over BOO Megabytes Hisc PC Version: £7.99 Ordinary Verni<)n:£4.99 See review in Acorn User Dec.95 or see us ai of 'Archived' RISC-OS maietial. Educaibnal, Music, Classic Demo's BETT96 lstandSN33) Illusi rated catalogue: YOU WTLl. MAKP MAKf A CHfQU^ OR PO Graphics. 2000+CllpAn. Draw/Sprlta, re PAYABLE TO SOFT ROCK 50FTWAR5 AND Xavier Educational Softwa Ltd, Acorn Pocket Book. Lileraiure, Games SFNP IT TO THIS TRFEPOST ADPRFSS:- P.vycholngy Dept, University College of Wales. Many programines suitable for Schools SOFT ROCK SOFTWARE, Bangor. Gwynedd LL57 IDG The CO-ROM contains something lor everyone. 01248^382616 For Trial NewS'Catalogue Disk Send 2 First Ciass Stamps to:- FREEPOST{BS7978)Westbury.on.T7m,Bristol,BSI0 7flR. Tel: Fax:- 01248-382599 htlp://«nvw.psych.bangor.ac.uk/(leplpsych/xavier/ lAll prices include pOMLatJe. Please allow 'IH daya.t CD Circle PO Box 332 Bristol BS99 7XL GRAPHICS UTILITIES BUSINESS SOFTWARE Dixon & Uixon IMPRESSIVE i5 Rokcby Drivi-. KLrnUin Neweustlt upiin Tyni: NE3 4J¥ 1 he essential toolbar for Impression DSL SUPPLIES 0191 2853 042 North Basi Dealer Impressive is a tool bar lor use wilh Slyla, Publisher or Piiblistier Plus and makes them even easier to use. ToxtllQ Transffvr Papvr II allows you lo quickly and easily perform many of SPECIAL OFFERS! Impression's lunclions at the click o( an icon! Truly Remarkable and Revolutionary For example, create torms. embed graphics, alter rep*!, group or ungroup. make items coloured or transparent at fie click of an icon. 35% OFF /C/ - - AR Prtnt It Iron if Wear it Over fitly lunclions ate included wtth predefined me over 200 Cfi^YK colours to colour your frames (v^rilh Publisher]. Sai^ liiti Jet D«l Malrli La»fi PboloeDplen tin Criyuii Smfie iW £22.75 £l2.25i A4 30 ShMfl A4 Impressive costs only ei 4,95 plus El .00 P&P. No VAT. 4 Shutt 100 Shufi f0^ser£90.35 Sm€.£^.65.^ £8 £44 £140 Also arullable in A.* ALsn in 36" wide rolls i>F KOFI E.englli - KEYSTROKE V4 Children! Hofaby Kit includes 3 T-Shirts ond TemplaFei 10.99 Still tlie most powerful program ever written - 35%0FFSQCffFm/ MouieMsf Kit Your favourite Pin-Up to state at 5.99 Now going into its fourth year, the ultimate macro maker for Refill your Inkjet ^th UVLR ink the Acorn Pialform is now even more powerful that ever Sm^ie. Mser- £90.35 Sa^ £43.65/ before' No Fade Lllira Violfl Ligiil ResiJilanI ALL COLOURS 10 (/(s^ £36140 SatH. £194.60/ 1 Rl-I'iIIs (hO mi) fLir IK WI1 mt VAT & postage With over sinty functions Keystroke offers unrivalled icon SOLLITION mil based programming power to allow you to control your pro- FLUSH Iwliy uhangt vi L'ttnriUgc colour I All prices exclude post 8. packing Mush ™i Ihe old refill with new £5.00 i : VAT & postage gram and customise your desktop Ihe way you want. Keystroke makes programs work together in a controlled REFILLS FOR ALL INKJETS FROM 11.98 and interactive way so that they become more powerlui and Cartridges for JPlSO's £19.96 easier to use. t>SL SUPPLIES plypwht * You'll wonder how you ever managed wilhoul il * St Margaret's Lane DIUDCntT £ 39.00 Keystroke V4 costs only E34.95 plus E1 .00 P8P No VAT FAREHAM KIYDOURD IMOLIITOR £ 12.00 Hants P014 4BQ ALL THINGS ACORN Impressive & Keystroke require RISC OS 3 1 or better. Quantum Sottware at 35 Pinewood Park, Livingston, EH54 TeUFax 01329 841600 SquimI aNN. Scotland Tel/Fax. 01506411162 Joy.sticks. Includes Junior • 2Mb/4Mb RAM for A3010, ACORN USER FREE ADS SERVICE Impression. Diggers, James £.35. IDE 2.5in hard disk 80Mb, There are many more free aJs on the aner ilisL", in the Regulars archive. Pond. Zool. Lemmings, and £50. ARM 3 Processor £40. Tel: Please observe ihe reslrictions (irmie ad per reader ;uitl 25 words ma.vimum much more, wilh masses of cli- (01246)557946. per ad if ynu send a free ad in. Free ud.s should be sent lo: Acorn User tree parl and general applications. ads. irXi Meili;!. IVledia Hou.se. Adiington Park. Macciesfidd SKIO 4NP. £765 ovno. Tel: 0181-349 • Architnedes software for .sale. or ihcy inay be e-mailed lo tree ad [email protected]. 4877. Eureka spreadsheet £40, • Acorn AKF60 monitor :is sup- AKF18, soflwarc, joystick, maga- Hcimdall £7. Speedball £7. Mig ' plied with the Rise PC for sale. zines. £600.00. Calligraph • A5000. 4Mb RAM. 120Mb 29 £7, Champions £10, Quest for Brand new, unused. Surplu.s to 1200dpi Laser. £7(H).(Ht. Scanlighl HD, Acorn AKF50 high res;. Gold £7, Zelanties £7. Learning requircmenls. Acorn RRP i!3S(). 256 and Digitiser £t00.00. Fireworkz Pro. Pipedream 4. 16 Curve £50 plus many more. All Sule price £3(H). Can arrotige UK Publisher. i;70.00. Everything 4lli Dimension games. Games software still boxed. Tel: (01246) deliveiy. Tel: (()I25S) 45.178.'^ or £I4(H.).00. Tel: (01692) 580482 pad. Bound RISC Users Vols 2- 557946. (0973)718532 8. etc. All for £900. Tel: Watford • A3000. 4Mb. 60Mb HD, (01923) 2.39788. . A440 4Mb 2.50Mb HD ARM 3 A3(KK) 2MB, monitor. 80 MB ARM3. RISC OS .3.11, RISC OS 3.11 monitor. £500. tiard disc. Panasonic KX-PI080 Impression Style. Philips colour • Be.st of Both WoHds! A4000. Tel: (01491) 872186, printer, games & AU mag.s monitor, WLilford 'Scan 256". lots 80Mb HD, Multisync. Easiwriler galore, ANSI C £300 ono. Tel: of other software including PD 3, Desktop DB. Sim City. • Simon Ihe Soreeror (CD ver- 0181-997 7446 evngs or e-mail: and magazine discs. £450 ono. Populous and lots of other games sion). £20. Overlord (PC Flight - [email protected] Tct: 0151-526 6700 (evenings). PLUS 486 4Meg PC card with Sim). £30 or swap for CDs, eg, MS Works installed. Baby forces PD-CD 1. Tel: (01625) 432561 « Wanted. BBC Maslcr key- • A3000. 2Mb. monitor. Twenty sale- £900. Tel: (01258) 454662 after 5pm and ask for Andrew. board. 3.5" cxienuil lloppy drive 4lh Dimension games. DTP, (Dorset). Buyer collects. • for BBC Master, Manuals for Artisan tl & Alphaba.se. £550 BBC Model B with Acorn di.sc View, ViewSlorc. ViewSheet. ono. Tel: 0121^422 1052. • Graphics Tablet A4 size. interface and DNFS. View word- Call Paul: 0171-202 3309 Genius, boxed, complete, cables, processor, speech chips, Econet • A5000 with AKF50 monitor, stylus, puck, software, £90. North interface. Unused, £35. Tel: • A5000LC, 4Mb. 290Mb HD, 4Mb RAM. 2IOMhHD and London Tel: 0181-967 3048. (01428) 72.3387 (Hants). icORNUSER SURREY DERBYSHIRE OZ FINANCE SO-eiv^ Calancraft Ltd. ACORN ASSIST FINANCE SCHEMES THE COMPLETE ACORN DEALER COUDUR ». t*DNO PRINTING CD-ROM ORIVES HARD DtSC DRIVES - cams Showroom 9-00 six to open 5.30 days and 8.00 on Thursday. MEMORY UPGRADES Acorn range on display, and full demonstrations given. MODEMS Lots of programs, games and education software for you to try. PRACTICAL ADVICE - at Full service and repair facilities. PRINTERS Acorn Approved Education Agent. Network Dealer and REPAIRS Training Centre. SCANNERS 'Tc»y hctpful fit'cplc" SCANNiNO SERVICE ^^elective with a 12 year long reputation tor exceptiormt service and support. SaFT^A/ARE Acorn Approved Decdership Easy parking. SPARES Telephone 01332 690691 96 High Road. Byfleet. TumoN TO.EPHC»sE Facsimile 01332 690691 Surrey KT1 4 7QT HOT UNE Selective Compulet Services fl Old Gate Avenue - Woston on Trent - Darby • DE72 2BZ I Tel: (01932) 342137 Fax: (01932) 336435 WEST YORKSHIRE WEST MIDLANDS TOE CHOICE OF EXPERIENCE Por the h9^A service \n Torkshire CiM think} MAUDENS CALL D5!farA3«ia,A)ttl«, AdtfOO^TMM, RilcPC, A4 PortiibU & Poclicl Baak "MiUside", 133 High Street, Visit our SHoMotoom Wollaston, Stourbridge, Op«n 9.30 (« 5.30 MoR, Tims, W« ' / K/vN Aihiie X Afirr Sule\ Sfnitr 'filift?5!^ ,-*— MaU Order Master Card. Vaa. Switch Ring for Prices How to find US • Acorn Authorised Service Centre Sfniif Repair iimO d Etftiipment -7. Full Range i>/At II n Htiiihiiird Sn/hiu^f • Authorised Microsoft re-seller iWe ^eraU thr Acorn Finaact Schtmei) • PC Developers and Category 5 Networking Specialists Full Ranite of Ldutriuiiiuii Softv. uic with in Stixl. i on nemo • New Showrooms complete range of Acorn machines Tel. 01924 254800 • MAIL ORDER - It is our poHcy to match most prices on offer Fax. 01924 258036 Wifft 15 years ofservice you can't go wrong with Maudens Acin'ii Tel: Pockel Book Canon (01384) 444433 / 833300. Fax: (01384) 441655 EAST MTUCANDS CUMBRIA KE|Y30|ARD Acorn ^ Cumbria Software Systems ACORN Eclucali(Hi Dealer Education Agency Specialist Acorn Dealer ACORN Nelw ' \'isH our ShowftxMn jusi .; mile Iroiii Ethernet, Nexus ATM, Multi-platform networks VI 1 junctk>n24 (2rid nglil on A6 MHiih) Loughborough Keyboard Technology Ltd Semerc Authorised Dealer 5 1 High Street Kegworth DerbvDE74 2DA^ CSS Ltd,, Unit 3A, Townfoot Industrial Estate Open Mon lo Fri 9.00 - 6.0()nm Tel: 016977 3779 Tel 01509 672222 Saturday 9.00 - 5.0f)pm Braiiiplon Cumbria. CAS 1SW BIRMINGHAM ^SssJ^ofeyy of3D creat\OTv vJC^wnsL.'^ ^.^^gk^/e for all ages au^ -^^^oE^^s^I 459-465 Warwick Road, Tyseley, Birmingham Bl I ZJP A'CO'RN •AOTHORIS'ED TmMmLmm Programs available for all * special Needs* ages and abilities. • Business • Repairs • • For school and home use • • Networking cabling • PC and Acorn formats • throughout the UK • Send for our free catalogue. Fax M:o:i OJl',11 70:6> 4306; 4Matlon 4Mation Educational Resources Publishers of 14 Castle Park Road Barnstaple quality educational Devon software since EX32 SPA icORNUSER 1983. ^ (01271)25353 FIVE STAR cir:;islm^s ^M» m h*pfif Net* Yf~ ADVERTISERS INDEX >^i MAPETING Out 'NKW dcmo^'caUiogue tli^c for just £1 j«^ 10/IOSoftware 68 First Computer Centre 45 :^ EXCELLENT PACK OFFERS 4 Mation 95 I.C.S. (Ian Copstake Ltd) ...6, 7, 52 • Games Pack 1 • Gaines Pack 2 • Games Pack 3 5 Star Marketing 95 Intelligent Interfaces 86 • ^NEW* Games Pack 4 • Draw CUpart Pack 1 AJS Computers 86 Keyboard Technology 94 • ^NEW* Draw CUpart Pack 2 • Sound Sample Pack 1 Alternative Publishing 52 Kimberley Computer • SEW Sound Sample Pack 2 • Educational Pack • APDL 82 Supplies 22, 30, 31 UtUs Pack 1 • Utils Pack 2 • 'KEW UtUs Pack 3 Apricote Studios 92 Liquid Silicon 71 Si^ecial Cbifistmas P^Cfc Aspex 95 Mauden Sales 94 V*At amty £3J0, racA poe* haa thrmmfitUy arrhired diacm. Atomwide OBC Pineapple Software IBC. 16 Sorry, no credit card faeililima aotUlable. Beebug 10, 12 p4ivk ;ind get disc Quantum Software 93 Buy any our demo free. B.E.T.T."96 3 __ Buy any thrt-o pack.s and get a free myster>- Dixon and Dixon 93 The Really Good SA/V Co 80 ilcnw tli''C m: DSL Supplies 93 Uniqueway 76 Eclipse 54 VTI 38,39 Eesox 25 Watford Electronics 89 PO Box 2220 Electronic Font Factory 72 Xavier Educational SAV 93 Himiingkam B43 5RZ ExplanUKLtd 84 Yellowstone 62 CHOICE Tel:OI2h35S7078 Fantastic NEW FREE gifts ^ A when you subscribe to iCORNUSER Choose any one of these excellent free gifts or special offers when you subscribe to the most established, informative Acorn magazine in the world, each and every month. bnW Subscribing takes out the hassle of trekking down to the PIPEDREAM 4 newsagents each month as every issue is delivered to your door, postage free. You're also protected against SAVE £80 any cover price rises that may take place over the duration of your subscription. Includes a flexible word The best way to subscribe is by continuous quarterly processor and direct debit, where you can spread the cost with a small document payment each quarter, rather than paying one lump sum designer with integrated in advance. Plus - you can forget about the worry of spelling checker, a powerful spread- your subscription ever lapsing, as it runs until you are sheet with integral charts and a ready to cancel. compact database. 2Mb RAM needed. £50 HOLIDAY BINDER & Exclusive to Acorn User _.,.-^ ____ thisLMia binderuiiiuei will holdMuiu up toiw VOUCHER TWO rncc 13 issues of your favourite Acorn User gives you £50 off magazine. PLUS receive an MAGAZINESIVIAUAZ.INta your next holiday g^^^g ^^Q magazines abroad! absolutely FREE! .^^,^mm00ff^. J0^^ 41329 .mi — '" "" "' operators' most., ABfA tour oi^ ^° . minimum . ,„ f so reduct'on f^ 96 Acorn User January 1996 , , . , Priority subscriptions form Please enrol me for the following 13 issue ©BYES! subscription to Acorn User NOW! See section 2. "1 I 420) i UK £37.99 4202 EU £53.99 4203 World £68.99* FIGHTER To renew subscription please tick: 4225 UK £37.99 4224 EU £53.99 4225 \ World £68.99* Q ; 'Unfotlunately World subscribers are not tiigible to receive the free gift/special offer I would like to pay by; SAVE £29.95 Cheque/postal order made payable to IDG Media I I Credit card (Visa/Access/Bardaycard/Mastercard/Eurocard/Connect) Winner of our [ I reader's Expiry date / Best Game Card No. award. An Please enrol me as a subscriber to Acorn User. original and • I 4210 Q with payments of £9.49 by continuous quarterly direct debit thrilling space Address , Name of Account ART Your Account No Sort Code Date Signature(s). SAVE £25.00 Your instnjctiom to the bank/building society: any direct debit is paid which breaks the I instruct you to pay direct debits from my terms of the instruction, the bank/ building account at the request of IDG Media. The society will make a refund, 6ank/building The ultimate DTP amounts are variable and may be debited society may decline to accept instructions resource - 1500 on various dates. No acknowledgement to pay direct debit from some types of required. accounts. original designs, a I understand that IDG Media may FOR OFFICE US£ ONLY massive 13Mb of change the amounts and dates only after Originator's ID No. 851412 eye catching giving me prior notice. I will inform the bank/building society in writing if I wish to resources -for Ref No cancel this instruction. I understand that if perfect DTP Please send me the following FREE Gift/Special Offer (tick one): 4 DISC Four high density discs (low O density also available). Including a 4204 ^ Pipedream 4 Only £5 4207 Publish Art Only £10 collection of education resources, 4205 f~ Binder and two 4208 Acorn User Gift Pack FREE magazines FREE a multimedia presentation detail- 4209 £50 holiday voucher FREE ing the top 10 programs released 4206 Starfighter 3000 FREE this year and the best PD and For the gift pack please specify whether you require High or Low density Shareware available. discs (delete as appropriate) • Please remember to either add the appropriate amount when you write your cheque or if paying by direct debit, please send additional payment All subicription will commence with the next available issue. This offer can nol be used in (onjunction unl/i any of/ier subscription offer. o Name. Address Postcode .Tel. Subscription Hotline numbers ONow send your completed form and payment to Acorn User, Database Direct. FREEPOST, South Wirral L65 3EB. Tel: 0151-357 1275. Please state if credit card billing address is different from the Tel: 0151 357 1275 delivery address. Photocopies or handwritten versions of the above informa- tion are acceptable. Fax: 0151 357 2813 IDG Media offers you the chance to receive information about other organisations' goods and services, please tick the box if you prefer not to Email: ([email protected] take advantage of this. 1 January 1996 Acorn User 97 Jim Daniels Jim Daniels started Pineapple over ten years called ADFS Utilities - would you like to sell it?" aj;o. You can tell it's one of the older compa- Now, we used to get a reasonable number of kids nies because of its name - it hails from an age coming along with programs that they'd written, where the fashion was still to call your computer asking if we wanted to sell it, and 99 out of 100 company after a fniit; Apple, Apricot, Tangerine of these aren't any good. But we liked ADFS and so on. Like many Acorn companies, Utilities, and we marketed it and it sold a few like Pineapple is a family affair, run by Jim with his copies, but not too many because programs wife Barbara, and now his son Michael. that never do; they're only bought by program- The familiar pattern in family-run Acorn com- mers. But with this, and a few other programs, turnover.' panies is that of the parents providing financial Pineapple gradually increased its support and business acumen for whizz-kid sons, Then the Archimedes came out, and it sud- denly occurred to Jim that this would be an (i've always but Jim is a trained electronic engineer in his own right. He worked at the BBC, and was there excellent machine for video digitising. As an ed to keep the when Ceefax started: engineer at the BBC, Jim had designed a lot of in- first set- house BBC equipment, so building a video product range as 'One of the things 1 designed was the top box, which was the first commercially digitiser for the Arc wasn't much of a problem. then small as possible, available teletext decoder. This was before micro- Jim also ported Diaaram to what was writing the processors had been invented, really. Until 1 got Arthur, but admits that sofware on mainly because my first computer - a Commodore Pet - I'd Archimedes was harder than on the BBC Micro. you can provide always assumed that whatever you could do with 'The Arc's a much more complex machine, so microprocessors you could do better with hard- it's much more difficult for one person to write very good backup ware. Then when the BBC Micro came along, really big applications - it was still possible, but "1 tackled by pro- which was also a 6502 machine, I thought most of the big projects were for people. We like at Computer Concepts. wonder if 1 can make any money out of this?" gramming teams Micro Alan Glover contacted us to offer us some sold all the things 'The first program I wrote on the BB(~ Then was in fact a copy of an arcade game called Mtio« software he'd been putting together in-house at that we found for removing viruses. 1 was a little Cr['.v(fr. I used to get some very funny looks Acorn took photos of doubtful about whether we could market this - that we used when 1 went down the arcade and there weren't actually many viruses around at ^ the screen so that I could get the look right. - it. ourselves. Superior Software bought it, changed to Star the time on the .^rc but we decided to go for ^ in royalties.' We did the virus protection scheme as a subscrip- Striker, and that brought Jim's next project, which he'd been working tion service because the program would need on for some time, was a drawing program called constantly updating.' Diasram which could draw shapes larger than Pineapple's range of products has always been the screen, scrolling the whole picture. This pro- fairly eclectic but this tends to reflect what Jim gram was developed for doing big system himself finds useful. diagrams on, but none of the Acorn software 'We've always tried to keep the product range companies were interested in selling it. as small as possible, mainly because you can pro- 'Undeterred, and convinced that there was a vide very good backup for people. We sold all the market for the program, Jim decided to found things that we found that we used ourselves - we Pineapple Software to sell Diagram. Diagram sold started selling the colour scanners because we well, and eventually led to the Pc:B autorouting used one to produce our adverts and realised program which was very popular with schools what a brilliant device it was.' and soon became one of Pineapple Software's A company that concentrates on selling the best sellers. products that it finds useful; it's easy to see why 'We were then approached by this kid called Pineapple has lasted so well. i^ Alan Glover, who said "I've written this program David Matthewman /ix} 98 I Acorn User January 1996 "T R£MOt/ABC£ MAROOR/I^i SySTSM * TOTAL DATA SiCURfTY * £ASy DATA TRAf^SfiR SiTl^fe^ COMPUTiRS ^. -:^JSS-- ^^ ^fDiAL NARDDfSC BACKUP **' The removable hartldrive system Tils into a 5U" slot ^^^^*1^^^ drive in the RiscPC and harddrives are avaiiabJe in many sizes which can simply plug in and out of the slot as required. The drive may be locked in place to prevent unauthorized removal. For total security the drive may be removed and stored in a safe place to prevent unauthorized access to your data. Because the removable drives are available in any size {up to at least IGb) they are also ideal for use as backups for existing harddrives. and may be easily iransponed between different computers for rapid transfer t)f large datafiles. The system is available for use with both IDE and SCSI filing systems. External are boxes available to enable SCSI removable drives to be u.sed with older Acorn models. Please 'phone for details. IDE systems ^mm SCSI systems Mounting Kii for IDE systems £25.( Mm- Ku ft^MSHpBlffinHWiP Plug in IDE drives:- 425Mb £159.50 850Mb £216.00 Plug in SCSI drives:- 730Mb £24h.0O 1.0Gb £345.00 .2Gh £274.00 2Gb £679.00 PAC ri^ COOiRS Mobile Phones There arc now two coders in our range which cover all Acorn computer models The Orange and allow Computer output in virtually all screen modes to be converted to a system PAL TV signal suitable for recording to a video recorder or displaying on any provides TV with a Video input socket. vaiious tariffs Price £104.57 inc vat The PLC/3 is our stiuidard model which works in any of the 'standard TV from as little as] modes (eg modes 12 & 15) on all Acorn computer models. {Note that the £15.00 per month inc 15mins AKF60 & AKF85 monitors will not work in these modes, although the PLC/3 will still produce a TV output FREEcalb with the RiscPC). The PLC/3 has a 15 pin RGB output for the monitor, a BNC for video and an S-VHS socket for S-Video. £99.00 inc vat Connection charge £30 A new addition to the range - the AVK/3 will work with all computer models in all screen modes up to 8{K) x 600 resolution in 16 million colours. It has a remote control with facilities for zooming, freezing & panning the TV picture. aSpecialsa Ideal for lectures and demonstrations etc. The AVK/3 includes all connecting Epson Stylus Colour II cables including a SCART which gives TV frequency RGB 0/P for large E399.00 inc vat screen TV's, a phono socket for composite video and an S-VHS socket for S- Video. Epson Stylus Colour II Pro {A3 version) Note;-Older Acorn Computer models may have 9 pin monitor sockets. 9 to Price £399.00 inc vat £649.00 inc vat I Spin & 15 to 9 pin converters are available at £4.1 1 each. SPiCfAL OffiR - fR€€ MSMBiRSHfP Of THi Y/RUS PROTBCTiOfi/ SOMBMi A/f/D STUDf024PR0 AT JUST £49.00 l/YfTN AMY RfSCPC PURCHAS£ RiscPCeOO Computers 'Old' RiscPC 600's 3.5" Harddrives SCSI Cards NB Prices inc VAT & Delivery! NB Prices inc VAI" & Delivery! 4Mb HD425 +AKF60 £1325 5Mb HD210 +AKF60 £1173 425Mb £145.00 4Mb HD425CD +AKF60 £1450 5Mb HD210 +AKF85 £1499 850Mb £199.75 4MbHD425 +AKF85 £1650 9Mb HD420 +AKF60 £1667 1.2(;b £255.75 4Mb HD425Cn +AKF85 £1775 9Mb HD420 +AKF85 £1949 SCSSDrr.- "RiscPC700 A7000 Computers 730Mb £226.00 Computers l.OCh 2MbHD425 £325.00 5MbHD425 +AKI'60 £1550 +AKF60 £1099 2.0Gb £659.00 2Mb HD425CD £1219 5Mb HD425 +AKF85 £1875 +AKF60 5Mb HD425CD +AKF60 4Mb HD425 +AKF60 £1189 Printers £1699 4Mb HD425CD 5Mb HD425CD +AKF85 £1999 +AKF60 £1299 10Mb RiscPC upgrades:- HD850 +AKF60 £1949 E600F £419.00 Scanners 10Mb HD850 +AKF85 £2249 1Mb to 2Mb Vram £116.32 BJC4000 £289.00 10Mb HD850CD+AKF60 £2069 4Mb SIMM Ram £135.12 Epson Stylus 10Mb HD850CD+AKFS5 £2374 8Mb SIMM Ram £258.50 Colour 11 £399.00 Gr850« £599.00 486PC Card £116.32 16Mb SIMM Ram £405.37 Colour n S £369.00 GT9000 £733.00 (Only with HiscPC) Note: All RiscPC's come with one Colour II Pro Ml stiuiners litciude 20:20 Finance Available years on site warranty (A3) £649.00 Inuigemuster & IVvaiiL Pineapple Software Terms:- All prices include 1- or denionstralions of most ol our advertised products why not come Suites 13 & 14 17.5% vat. Carriage FREE to and visit us in our new offices (easy South Park Business Centre mainland U.K. Phone for quote parking) where you can see of 310 Green Lane, IIford outside U.K. Official orders, most the Acorn range of computers and Essex IGI 1XT cheques and all major credit other hardware in action. Tel 0181 599 1476 Fax 0181 598 2343 cards accepted. Money back email:- [email protected] guarantee on all products. Monday - Friday 0900 - 1730 + . Let AHT software connect you ... across youinetuioiks YOU use your Acorn computer for most of your Mount 'LAN Nlanaqer' server work. But at the next desk, or elsewhere on Name MTserver your local networks, are other types of Server name MTSERVER computers, storing files you need to use. How Directory path public can you easily get at these files? ANT OmniClient" gives internetworking a friendly User name guest and familiar face. Log on to all kinds of sen/ers, from Password Acorn Access to Windows for Workgroups, Windows M N NT, and AUN Level 4 and get files from standard Acorn ' Delete Carwel i ' Connect filer windows. Use network printers through Acorn IPrinters in the usual way. HardDisc4 Mirror rorriM Single-user copies of OmniClient are available only from ANT at £49 plus VAT. Site licences available .4 a Acorn at £249 plus VAT. from ANT and Access MTSERVER OmniClient ...or all the uiay around the world FfCTcc. fM jjmtBd hamft man YOU'RE ready to connect to the information superhighway. But how do you start? e m'.^ XI /j m. UHL hnp The ANT Internet Suite offers you an ANT - Acorn Networking Specialists easy way to access the World Wide Web, read 1^ IFK. •" WTM*. Fi.» and participate in newsgroups, send and Am' Ijraiam. POh™ ,*"> Cumhndic, CBl 2EO, Td I;J3 «.™>i receive electronic mail, transfer files to and from comput- What's new on ttie ANT With j^rwr ers around the world, and a host of other utilities to let K Pino network tesi you explore the world of the Internet. Remote host 194 159051 lOK. reply 30 sees The emphasis is on ease of use, with automatic Slatus Infurmation availabteon lhi» server setup for most UK service providers, drag and drop file OuK Ping fttVBI filfl l.tf Hm onpaoy & Uk' ttSI Ivmic pip?' • PnnhEi Btfnfifff mill, wkidiBt (hr (unhiimBiij ASI transfer, and hotlist access from all components. Suitable for use with commercial Internet service ANT Irrtemet Suite providers (using a 14.4k or faster modem) or with your FTP file transfer own direct connection, the ANT Internet Suite is the k% Receive (Binary; 3FS IDEDIso4$ presses easy way to access the electronic world. Configuration Etnail S News Web browser bytes 27% dcKie The ANT Internet Suite is available now at £99 bytes/S finish plus VAT for a single-user licence. Contact us to discuss % Pause site licence requirements. File transfer ANT terminal Tools Don't forget that ANT produces Cards are available to fit all our dealer network are able to offer one of the widest ranges of Acorn RISC computers and are advice on choosing the right cards Ethernet networking hardware for offered with a combination of and designing your network, a!>d an Acorn RISC computers. Our low-cost connector types including installation service is available. interfaces are installed at thousands 10Base2,10BaseT, and 10Base5. Contact Atomwide directly on of sites across the UK. Our distributor Atomwide and 01689 814500 for more details. 4 For further information on all ANT Phone: 01223 567808 products including price and availability, Fax: 01223 567801 iK 111! y^-i i^ni dealers, distributor and licensing Post: ANT Ltd, PO Box 300, Cambridge CBl 2EG III 11 Mi information, please contact ANT Ltd Email: [email protected] ^K^t using one of the following methods: WWW: http://www.ant.co.uk/ OmniClient® is a regisiered irailemark of ANT Ltd, Alt other trademarks acknowledged. E&OE. November 1995.