NEWS 2 ers

Sizzling coin-op batch up for grabs

* Shinobi: Hot property

A job lot of "top notch" coin-op licences are currently up for grabs for the soft- ware house willing to spend an esti- mated £500,000.

French software publisher FIL last month went into receivership with the rights to eight Japanese coin-ops in its possession. Its UK agent The Sales Curve is currently negotiating with various software houses one of which is believed to be Virgin/Mastertronic.

Heading the arcade games is beat- em-up Shinobi as well as driving game Continental Circus and Ninja Warrior.

One envious software publisher described the floating games as "bloody good stuff".

The games were to appear under the Rebel label. Indeed, it is thought that if a company such as Virgin/Mastertronic were to buy the games it would be adding a whole new label to its stable.

Virgin/Mastertronic though is deny- ing any interest in the titles. "We're not Chasing them," said a spokesman. "We're very selective about the the coin-ops we publish, such as Double Dragon."

Whatever the outcome of the negoti-

An extraordinary sequence of events and misunderstandings has meant that gamers can expect not one, but two Liverpool computer games this year - as well as a fur- ther two featuring Liverpool play- ers.

Grandslam announced that it had secured the official Liverpool licence late last year and that a game would be appearing "some time in '89". However, a small company called Video Images last week claimed that it had secured the Liv- erpool licence and that a budget game would be appearing by East- er

It would appear though that Liver- pool has managed to secure licence fees for two games: Grand Slam has the rights on the team whilst Video Images has the whole football club.

Liverpool foul up baffles publishers

To confuse matters further Liver- pool manager Kenny Dalglish — who personally endorsed Grand Slam's game recently — is already featured on a game by Newcastle based Zep- pelin. And Kop hero Peter Beardsley is also featured in a game - by Grandslam.

"When I saw that Grandslam had the licence I was really worried because we already had approval," said Video Images Dave Colley. "But weve got the club but not the team." In effect this means that Video Images can't use the players to promote the game in the same way that Grandslam can.

Speaking from Las Vegas, Grand- slam's boss Stephen Hall told Express: "Theres obviously been some confusion but I have to stress that theres no animosity at all. I

* Dalglish: Three game confusion

hope that we can settle this in a mature fashion. Im certainly not going crazy and spitting blood."

Two new Amiga games packs due this month

THANKS A BUNDLE

COMMODORE!

Commodore will be selling the

Amiga 500 bundled with free

games from the end of this month. In effect, it will mean that Com-

Better Dead than Alien (both Entertainment Inter- national), International Soccer (Microdeal), Winter

ations, gamers can look forward to the first titles arriving within the next few months. Despite FIL's difficulties, pro- gramming and development has gone on undisturbed. "We'll still have three games out in the first quarter of this year," explained The Sales Curve's boss Jane Cavanagh. "And then there'll be another two to follow in the spring."

modore has at last responded to the | extraordinary success Atari has had

with bundling games for its own 16- | bit machine, the ST.

Two separate offers are involved. The first includes nine free games as | well as the standard modulator at | the normal Amiga price of £399. The titles are Bubble Ghost (Infogrames), Hellbent (Novagen), Quadralian and Stargoose (both Logotron), Atak and

The day Nintendo came to town.

This week's Consumer Elec- tronics Show in Las Vegas only went to prove what we already know — that Ninten- do stil wields absolute power in the big money US leisure market.

seemed subdued, as if that firm had realised that any attempts to emulate Ninten- do would necessarily fall Short. "Theres a real buzz with Nintendo, it's absolute- ly huge,” offered one ani-

All this rather overshad- owed the CES debut of Epyx, MicroProse, Media genic, Taito and UK hopeful Elite.

But all can take heart that the stand fees and flight

The firms enormous mated observer. ‘Sega's costs and hotel bills will stand dominated the stand is dwarfed and really have been well spent. Busi- | packed hal with grateful fairly quiet." nessmen from every corner

In the bars and casinos talk was mainly of Ninten- dos forthcoming clash with Atari Games. Should the lat ter win, everybody agreed, the lucrative console scene will be changed forever.

licensees snuggling up to the Japanese giant. They occupied their own few yards of the Nintendo vil- lage and jealously paraded their newest games.

In contrast, Sega's stand

of the US and from every country on earth descended on Las Vegas for the event, which is vastly bigger than the PC show. The town has 276 hotels. Last weekend there wasn't a vacant room.

Olympiad (Tynesoft) and Spitting Image (Domark). The second is more likely to appeal to experienced computer users. Costing £550 it features an Amiga 500 upgraded to one 1Mb with a copy of the six disk epic game Dragon's Lair. The upgrade would nor- mally cost £150 so effec- tively buyers are getting Dragon's Lair for free. That can only be played on an upgraded Amiga and would normally cost £50 anyway. Commodore will be the only company offi- cially allowed to sell the game in this country for the next three months. Those who opt for the the second bundle will also be able to play the increas- ing number of 1Mg games which are being imported from the US, including the likes of Dungeon Master. Although this

* Amiga: Two bundles due

A2000 next for bundle

treatment?

Behind all the excitement

A500, favouring a special A2000 assault which will include an impressive bundle of business soft- ware coupled with a price rise. Top brass at Com- modore are known to believe the machine to be underpriced at its pre-

represents modore's first foray into games bun-

sent tag of £1,495. One insider — told | Express: "Corporate buy-

ers are reluctant to believe that the A2000 is a worthwhile machine and better than those which which are two or three times the price, Once the doors have been opened though they say that it's phenomenal. There is a school of thought which says that the price should go up with extra software added.”

Com- distributor SDL (Express 8). Commodore is preferring not to

dles with the Amiga it is not the only | comment on the matter although an

one on offer. Dealers are already sell-

ing a ten game pack put together by | the week.

announcement is expected within

2+ NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS « 14 JANUARY 1989

* Operation Wolf: 1988's winner Ocean's Operation Wolf has landed

the gaming industry's biggest prize: the Christmas number one. The company all but dominated 1988's most important chart by also taking the second spot with Robo cop as well as having six other titles placed in the Top Twenty. Robocop might well have surprised everybody

Japanese console giant Nintendo has tumed its legal artillery on Atari Games following the lat- ters $100 million lawsuit

unfairly, Its own

pleased. of three (Express 8).

Nintendo's games con- sole has established itself as the leading toy in the US but Nintendo has alway kept a tight grip on software written for the machine. Licensees have to pay to produce games.

Atari Games rebelled against this at the end of last year and launched a legal attack on the Japanese, along with accusations of Nintendo monopolising the market

weeks ago

tract, unfair

nizations Act.

The firm say information tendo, Nintei

ining Tengen’ see if they

Tengen has produced its version of games. Nintendo is not

Nintendo is accusing Tengen of breach of con-

and activities which vio- late the Racketeer Influ- enced and Corrupt Orga-

officially terminated the original licensing deal.

gen has received vital whilst working with Nin-

neers are currently exam-

and taken the prize itself, had it been released on the ST and Amiga. According to Gallup it has been out- selling Op Wolf on all the 8-bit for- mats

This is the first time in three years that US Gold hasn't been in the top slot. In 1986 it won with Gauntlet and again last year with Out Run. This time, the company had to make do with fifth place with Thun- derblade.

"It's nice to win the top spot and it makes all the overtime worthwhile,” said Ocean's Tracey Crook. “But we didn't get any personal satisfaction out of kicking US Gold off the top."

The other hot tip - Activision's Afterburner - came in fourth place with Melbourne House's Double Dragon proving to be the dark horse of the race with a creditable third

subsidiary patents or copyrights. The firm is also promis- ing to put up a fight against Atari Games’ original lawsuit.

“Having obtained the benefits of the licensing arrangements Tengen has announced that it will begin to independently manufacture and dis- tribute games for the Nin- tendo which it previously sold under license with Nintendo," said the firm's US senior vice president Howard Lincoln. Atari Games' original suit, he said was an "obvious ploy to divert attention from Tengen's plan to violate the licence agreement."

the

competition

. It has also

ys that Ten- and help ndos engi-

's games to violate any

ranking in the Gallup listings.

As always compilations featured well with five in the Top Twenty - Giants (US Gold), In Crowd (Ocean), | Taito Coin-ops (Ocean), Game, Set and Match 2 (Ocean) and Supreme | Challenge (Beau Jolly),

Activision bags Roger Rabbi

* Roger Rabbit: All formats deal

Stunning graphic extravaganza Who Framed Roger Rabbit has been scooped up by Activision and should be appear- ing on most major formats.

The game - developed by Walt Dis- ney's software arm Buena Vista and based on the blockbusting movie - has already appeared here on the Amiga via supplier Gainstar. Activision stress- es that it has the "official rights".

It should be launching the Amiga version later this month at £24.95 with | | other versions set to follow later in the year.

GAMES T

12 13

| ST gallery

IB Atari ST specialist Electric Distribution is to I] launch a pair of clip-art packages - pictures

which can be ported onto documents. |

ScanArt costs £40 and features 100 "pro- fessionally drawn and useful” pictures. DrawArt is £10 more expensive and sports 150 pictures. This, says the firm, has more unusual illustrations.

Not for the first time industry pundits have heralded the end of the damaging D-Ram chip drought which has beset the world's hardware manufacturers for more than a year.

Leading analysts Dataquest and Barclays de Zoete Wedd (BZW) were last week forecasting cheaper chips and more of them for 1989. The possibility of PC prices coming down as a result has been aired, although this seems unlikely.

* D-Ram: Rosier future predicted

Chip drought: end in sight

The chip drought was blamed mainly on Japanese microchip man- ufacturers concentrating on the more profitable 1 Megabyte chips at the expense of the popular 256 Kilobyte versions. This occurred in the wake of US/Japanese trade ruc- tions. This has caused companies such as Amstrad and Atari to raise prices or announce shipment delays in the past.

A readjustment to the new tech- nology and reorganisation on the part of the Japanese has given rise to the latest optimism. American companies are desperately trying to regain a footing in the chip mar- ket but are still lagging behind.

The drought is nothing new to the market. For the past 30 years companies have jolted from severe shortages and high prices to great numbers of cheap chips. Optimists

havent ruled out a continuation ot this trend but signs of a smoothing out are being cited.

Dataquest's chip expert Jim Bev- eridge said in his 1989 forecast that there would be "some correction to the old syndrome" because chip makers and computer companies are becoming more organised with their inventories.

"The Japanese moving up the technical spectrum has caused a shortage,” said a BZW spokesman to Express. "But there is now a bet- ter yield on popular chips. The problem is that the market is tech- nology driven and you have to move on to new projects very quickly" Stability would be the result of a settling of the 1 Megabyte craze, he said.

He predicted that whilst it was possible that an easing of the chip crisis might mean PC prices slip- ping there were other factors which might prompt such a trend.

ES TOP TEN

Operation Wolf Spee, 064, CPC, ST Amiga

Robocop Spectum, 054, CPC

oem

MELBOURNE HOUSE

Double Dragon Spectrum, 064, ST, Amiga

‘Afterburner Spectrum, 064, CPC, ST

Thunder Blade Spectrum, C64, CPC, ST, Amiga

ACTION oao

Giants Spec. 064, CPC

Falcon ST Amiga

R-Type Spectrum, C64, CPC, ST

Football Manager 2 Spectum, C64, CPC, ST Amiga, PC,

uso

MERORSOFT

ELECTRC OREMUS

mocme

In Crowd

oc Spectrum, C64, CPC

Batman Occ Spectum, 064, CPC, ST Amiga

Tailo Coin-ops XN Spectrum, C64, CPC.

Game Set and Match 2 oew Spectrum, C64, CPC

Last Ninja 2 SYSTEMS Spectum, C84, CPC

Heroes of the Lance [50] Spectrum, C64, CPC, ST, Amga

Pacmania GO SUM Spec. 064, CPC, ST Amiga, MSX

Return Of The Jedi ow Spectrum, 064, CPC, ST, Amga

Rambo 3 (CON Spec, C64, CPC, ST

Supreme Challenge. ewou Spectrum, 64, CPC

Daley Thompson's Olym. Chall. — ocow

Spee, 064, CPC, ST, Amiga BUDGET Joe Blade 2 PERS Spectrum, Có4, CPC, ST, BBC, C16 Electron

Ghostbusters Spectrum, C64, CPC, Atari &-bit, MSX

Bomb Jack Spectrum, 054, CPC, ST Amiga, C16

Through the Trap Door Spectrum, C64, CPC

Back to Skool

Spec

Commando

Spectum, 064, CPC, BBC, C16, Electron

Footballer Of The Year w Spec, C64, CPC, Elec, BBC, Atari bi, C16, MSX

Skooldaze Spectrum, C64

End zone Spectrum, C64, CPC

Yabba Dabba Doo Spectum, C64, CPC

MISTERTRONC

ENCORE

ATERWINE

TERMINE

NORE

ATENTE

ATENE

NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 14 JANUARY 1989 © 3

B CLIK CHRISTMAS PACK 1 . .£395.00 G [ l] te AMIGA SPECIALISTS CLIK CHRISTMAS PACK II . .£410.00

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VOUCHERS

THIS WEEK

NEWS

|» Polar Expedition: Real life computer-controlled pictures

expedition to the North Pole.

World famous handheld computer company Psion is working on plans for a laptop machine designed to operate for longer on a set of batter- ies than any rival.

The firm is saying nothing about the project but it emerged last week that the machine is planned for launch in the autumn — around the time of the PC Show. And given the company's track record the price is

Q. Who's famous

for shouting Eureka? Archimedes users are often fondly regard. ed as the boffins of the computer users world - so Moray Micro has come up with a program to test their mettle. Arctrivia contains more than 7,500 ques: tions and costs £24.95. " imple enough to use but the questions can be difficult," said Moray director Dennis Scott. More info on 05427 377

Computing:

fessor at London University, says boys dominate com-

puters in schools with girls being left behind. In the

The first interactive videodisc released by Virgin offers students the chance to take part in a uniquely-realistic simulation of an

North Polar Expedition runs on the BBC Domesday laser disk system which is installed in more than 2,000 UK schools and consists of a laser disk drive hooked up to a BBC micro and

monitor (MS-DOS and RMLL versions are to follow). The pack- age allows five users operating as a team to follow in the foot- steps of Arctic explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

The students are offered puzzles and questions as they travel

"It is difficult to avoid the disturbing conclusion that girls are learning less than boys about computers," she

dition.

PSION PLANS LONGER

likely to be within reach of the mass market.

Although the machine has been under development for a year now it stil has not been given a name Psion engineers and technicians are still only calling it "the laptop".

But an informed source told Express the laptop will probably utilise data storage technology simi- lar to the Psion Organiser handheld that of insertible EPROM cartridges as opposed to floppy disks.

There is already a base of such software ranging in price from £12 to £100 depending on storage capacity and applications

The ability for the laptop to be able to communicate with PCs is also being given a high priority.

Just before Christmas Psion bought up Milton Keynes-based modem company Dacom for ‘an initial con- sideration’ of £4.5 million. 'I think it's fair to assume that Psion is very interested in the communications market," said the source

Girls are losing out when it book she says boys are says. Recommendations games with a boy at the

comes to learning on com- more likely to opt for com- include using computers for keyboard, talking to his

puters, according toa book puters as a subject in itself all subjects rather than just dad. As long as this male

published this week. (being more likely to have for computing. orientated approach exists Celia Hoyle, a maths pro- computers at home). Also in the book Lynda girls will be put off."

It's a man's man's world

Carr comments: "Comput- ers are still promoted for men. Even at Christmas we saw adverts for computer

Computer users head for the icy wastes

across the polar ice. And from time to time they come up against perils generated at random such as polar bears and crevices. According to the progress they make the monitor dis- plays ‘extraordinary’ film and slide footage of the original expe-

Despite its sophistication, at £199 North Polar Expedition should be affordable for most schools. "It will help teach people Geography, which education has had some trouble with," said Virgin's William Beckett. "It also offers people the ability to use inter-personal skills."

* Organiser: Laptop sister by autumn

He added: '"Psions engineering strengths are in the ability to offer little power consumption with a large amount of storage.”

He said the laptop will use six bat- teries and that whereas most laptops exhausted a set of batteries within about four hours, the new machine would offer up to a week of continu ous use.

Girls and Computers costs £5.50 from the Institute of Education. 20, Bedford Way, London, WC1H OA1

War breaks out

over war game

Highly regarded strategy war game UMS (Universal Military Simulator) has become the focal point for yet another inter-company battle.

The game is sourced from Iowa-based Intergalactic Development but is pub- lished by Rainbird. However, the follow up, UMS II, is to be sold around the world by Birmingham-based US Gold.

Intergalactic says that Rainbird han- dled the original UMS poorly. Rainbird has retorted that the American firm is sore because it rejected the sequel.

"We decided that we just couldn't afford to do business with Rainbird any more ~ it was costing us so much in lawyers and accountants to get them to pay bills," said Intergalactic president Esra Sidran. "They did a good job but at what cost? They do very bad business."

Rainbird swiftly responded to the harsh criticism: "I'm surprised he's said this about us because he's always been such a nice guy," said the firm's Julia

=) we rejected the game. It's not up to the

Coombes. "Perhaps he's just upset that

standard of something we'd want to publish."

Either way, US Gold will be launching the game in the summer on ST, Amiga, PC, C64 and Mac. Prices have not been confirmed.

UMS

"THE UNIVERSA] MILITARY SIMULATOR

* UMS: Battleground

Midget with more muscle

Fledgling PC manufacturer ACPM has upgraded its 'Micro Midget machine to include a 20Mb hard disk drive,

The new Micro Midget XX will cost £1,099 as opposed to the original XT which still retails at £595. ACPM is also offering a £449 disk drive upgrade kit for the 1,000 or so existing users. A 40Mb version is also planned for later this winter.

The Micro Midget is so called because of its small desktop footprint: 10" by 10". This, claims the firm, is a factor more and more companies are taking into account.

NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS © 14 JANUARY 1989 * 5

> }

foem

Ocean Software has puled off a remarkable coup in snatching the top two spots in the lucrative Christmas games software chart.

And although many in the leisure computing industry are green with envy, the majority would admit the Manchester crowd - recently voted software house of the year - fully deserve its Gallup victory.

US Gold's massive victory the previ- ous year with dubious versions of Out Run was widely seen as a triumph of marketing clout over program quality.

So it's something of a relief that this time the top spots went to titles worthy of the honour. Operation Wolf the num- ber 1 is a fine arcade conversion, and tunner up Robocop is not far short of brilliant.

Evidently Ocean meant what it said a year ago when it proclaimed a new commitment to program quality.

Well done, boys. You delivered.

OUR OPINION

Football mad D&H changes tactics

Soccer crazy games firm D&H is plan- ning to field yet another line up of footie titles - but it admits that it may soon have to change its game plan.

With the range of possible untried football games fast running out, the firm is planning to bring on a new line-up of strategy games from other sports such as horse racing, motor racing, cricket, snooker and boxing.

D&H has built itself on the Football Director series plus titles like Inter- national Manager and Two Player Super League. New titles in the tun- nel include a budget trio of Soccer Q, Cup Football and Euro Super Cup.

"I suppose we'll run out of football ideas in the end," said joint boss Tony Huggard. "But for the moment we're planning another Football Director with graphic players which respond to their own special skills."

New games such as The National, Grand Prix Manager, Snooker Manag- er, Boxing Manager II and Cricket Captain should be arriving over the next few months on all formats.

Worlock + News corto Colin Campbell + Reviews EDITOR Andy Storer + STAFF WRITER Rik Haynes « PRO- DUCTION EDITOR Rod Lawton + ARr EDITOR Julia O'Shea ant Assistant Harriet Athay » ADVERTISE: MENT MANAGER Mark Salmon + 10 executives Jennie. Evans, Andy Smith * ao TyPeseTTING Terry Tumer * PUBLISHER Greg Ingham

PC monitors going cheapie]

Growing competition in the market for high-resolution PC graphics has led to aggressive price cutting from one of the big players.

Citizen Europe has lowered the price of its CCM-104 high end colour monitor from £795 to £640 making it "approximately half the price of

the comparable IBM monitor". The unit is capable of an enhanced VGA resolution of 1024 x 768.

It is expected to appeal particularly to PS/2 system users, although to make full use of the monitor's resolution they will require IBM's optional 8514/A board.

Owners of other PCs can obtain the same resolution by buying Citi- zen's PCG 1000 graphics display board. The price on this has been cut to £380.

MICROPROSE CHASES UK SOFTWARE RICHES

Ambitious MicroProse

us has

software house, swooped into

The simulation specialist intends taking shoot-em-ups and strategy games back across the Atlantic. A deal has been signed with Oxford- shire based Hewson — and talks are also under way with French publisher Loriciel and another unnamed UK software house.

Publishers who strike a deal with Micro- Prose will have their products sold under a new label in the US called Medallist. Hew- sons first three games to go Stateside

Europe to sign up "the very best" arcade games for the ever hungry American market.

will be Eliminator, Netherworld and | Exelon.

"We're real excited about this, enthused MicroProse president | Bill ^ Stealey — to| Express. "Weve done | a big survey here (in America) and the hard core simulation people only account for about 25 per cent of gamers. We want | B to get to the hard core

arcade people as well. |

* Stealey: Euro swoop

Battle of th

Ive already said that we being a $100 million company."

Hewsons boss Andrew Hewson told Express: "If the world suddenly didn't want to play simulations then A MicroProse would have a problem. I was looking for an American partner and they are ideal."

SHOWTIME FREEBIES

High profile business software publisher Ashton-Tate is going to be doling out £12,000 worth of free software at the Which Computer? show next month.

A prize draw will be held at the end of each day of the exhibition held at the NEC in Birmingham. Winners will be going home with the likes of dBase IV, FullWrite Professional and Framework Ill. Which? will be held from 21st to 24th February.

intend

MICRO-BOOM Between 1983 and 1987 the pro- portion of manufacturing compa nies using computers rose from 42 to 72 per cent according to a gov- ernment report on Britain published last week.

EDITOR Rob Ainsley + CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Peler

has brought out the £64.95 GFA Basic which was for- merly on the ST; and HiSoft has dealt out its own Hisoft Basic priced at £79.95.

Not surprisingly both firms

claim their package is the better. Microdeal is citing its success with the ST version with claimed sales of 70,000. HiSoft is pointing out that its package is a compiler rather than an interpreter and is compatible with AmigaBa- sic. Indeed the first 1,000 copies are being bundled with a free programming guide to AmigaBasic.

"Despite problems in the past Basic is still the best language to learn on and you can use that experience with other languages," said HiSofts Andy Pennell.

"Now that the Amiga mar- ket has grown so much I dont see any reason why GFA shouldnt do as well as it did on the ST," was the Microdeal line.

dition

Special united

1 = [—— a * HiSoft Basic: Sparring with GFA

HOSH

6 + NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS © 14 JANUARY 1989

EXCEPTIONAL GRAPHICS * Gameplay

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AMIGA PONDERER

Lown a Commodore 64 and have some money in the bank. Before buying this great mag, | was planning to buy a disk drive but | saw that the Amiga was a good buy. Do you think | should buy the disk drive or save a bit more for the Amiga?

Matthew Davies, Glynneath, West Glamorgan

"M It depends on your precise needs, but you're probably better off saving for an Amiga. Disk drives for the 64 are notori- ously slow and there are some good deals going now on the Amiga (see news pages).

BRING OUT SKELETONS

| purchased a Commodore PC1 from Lan Computer Systems Ltd, Romford. The unit failed on the day of delivery, and although | tried to get a replacement by phoning and writing it took the Fair Trading Office and myself to get an agreement from Lan to refund my money, but they refused to pay me any out of pocket expenses.

In the final outcome | had to sue them in the County Court and a County Court judge ment was granted against Lan Computer Sys- tems Ltd on 12th December 1988. This should be available to view in the Public Records Office from mid-January. | now have my money back and all my expenses and compensation — thanks, Lan.

| will not recommend Lan or the Com- modore PC1 to anybody.

This brings an idea to mind. Just how many dealers, suppliers and software houses have judgements against them? We could then avoid using these people. It would make a nice article, which is the motto of public records — getting the skeletons out of the cupboards.

Ken Hardacre, Bridlington, East Yorks

Xt sounds like a useful idea, but ulti- mately it's not that fair. Just because a company has a county court judgement against it in one case doesn't mean that all its dealings are suspect. After all, it could well be that many Express readers have found Lan to be fine in the past.

SIZE ISN'T EVERYTHING I have to agree with Bryan Morton (Issue 5) that Express should cover the more serious

"4 Couldn't agree more. When rent-a-quote Tory MPs and Mary Whitehouse start making a fuss, things have a habit of swiftly slipping from absurd imaginings to legislated reality. These are strange days..

Meantime, for the most cogent letter to Express to date, you win a prize. We'll send you the most violent ST game we can find - that's if we don't fight over which one we should choose, that is.

side of computing on the Spectrum and was pleased to hear that attention is to be given to this.

1am also in agreement with Express when you say long program listings can only justify the space they take up if they are extra spe- cial. Long listings are not really suitable any- way because of the tedium of typing them in coupled with having no real worth until the hard work is done. These longer home pro- duced programs are so much more suited to a disk based magazine as they can then be simply loaded. Chezron Software of 605. Loughborough Rd., Leicester, produce such a compilation every month on Opus, Disciple, Plus D, Microdrive as well as on tape.

Short listings, however, are worth their weight in gold if they present some new idea or useful application so | hope you might include the occasional "short".

Again, like Bryan, | like the idea of the most popular computers having their own columns, May | suggest one extra column headed : "OTHERS to vary each week as you Bet different material?

Brian Cavers, Manor Park, London E12

Xu that would happen is that we'd get the one Comx user insisting that he was worth more than just two sentences a month. Then of course, there'd be the in 8-bitters...You just see if we're not right.

PLEEEEEEASE!

Pleeeeeease start including an Atari 8-bit cot umn. No disrespect to MSX owners, but there are probably more Atari 400, 800, 600XL, 800XL, 2600, VCS, 65XE and 130XE owners who'd like such a column. The local Dixons sold out of 65XEs.

RL Thomas, White City, Gloucester

Wwe WERE right. PLAY IT AGAIN AGAIN

We are writing regarding the review of The Munsters on our label Again Again in Express issue 78.

It would appear from the review that reviewer has not progressed into the depths of the game and has only reviewed the first section in which you play the character Lily. There is much more to the game than this, ie you play the other characters of “The Mun- ster" family. There are tunnelling scenes,

Dear Reader

We've extended this section to THREE packed pages this week in an attempt to do justice to our ever growing post bag. If YOU write to us we might even drop in a fourth! Send to: Express Mail, 4 Queen Street, Bath, Avon BA1 1EJ PS. Sorry, NO personal replies, even if you include an SAE. Just make your query interesting and we'll publish the answer here.

graveyard scenes, and then a situation where- by you have to drive the family hearse in order to rescue Marilyn from the evil grasp of "Old Nick’,

So perhaps we could ask you to rereview this game, bearing in mind these further options and should your reviewer, Andy Smith, need any assistance in getting to these fur- ther levels then please tell him not to hesitate to contact us.

The game, incidentally, was programmed by Teque, who have recently had many hits, including Pacmania etc Roger D Hulley, Managing Director, Tiger Developments

x Given that the review was favourable ("Again Again has done a nice job of cap- turing the feel of the cult series...It hits just the right level between frustration and addiction"), you haven't really got that much to complain about. Doubtless Andy Smith is not hesitating to contact you at this very minute.

Diy we WANTED Welcome, to your new magazine. My likes are practical articles, hardware reports, business: type software and Public Domain programs.

My dislikes are anything to do with com- puter games! | would like to see an article on monitors, in regard to fitting higher resolution monitors to home computers, And a series of articles, dealing with programming modules would be great. For example, Word Process- ing would require Save and Load (from prog.), Word Wrap, Char-width, Margins, etc — all could be dealt with in module form, and the final result might well be a DIY WP program, plus a disk-full of useful modules to use as required

A module a week would keep the clients buying! Keep up the good work! G.H. Heppel, Horncastle, Lincs

"4 One of the mysteries of the modern world is just what will appear in Express next. Sometimes, we even astound our- selves. (A lawyer adds: This is not in any- way meant to intimate that Mr Heppel's wishes will be fulfilled at any stage.)

CONSOLING THOUGHTS lam writing to congratulate you on your mag, especially the articles on the Nintendo and Sega machines, and you give more informa- tion than other mags about the new &bit machines.

Please, for us console users, can we have à page of our own? Mark Ford, Nechells, Birmingham

x With very few software releases, the

console market does not easily lend itself to a regular spot. We prefer to cover it for the time being via one-off specials (new Sega machine issue 4) or in the news pages.

MEGA PROBLEMS

For many months | have been eagerly antici- pating the issue of the Amiga version of Dun- geon Master. Then, in late December, adver- tisements for this game began to state '1 Meg’. A phone call to a mail order company confirms this. Oh horrors! My machine has only 512K of RAM!

Then perhaps a glimmer of hope as | noticed in the combined issue 7/8 of your excellent magazine that you are send- ing a copy of Dungeon Master to one of your correspondents, a Mr Eliot who presumably ‘owns a standard A500.

What is going on? Or am | doomed never to enjoy the delights of one of this past year's best games on my machine?

BJ Hughes, Worcester

"A Dungeon Master does indeed run only on one meg Amigas. Unfortunately, unless Mirrorsoft can work wonders, it looks as though the vast majority of Amiga owners will indeed be denied the pleasure of the game. It's almost enough to make you wish you'd bought an ST...

TRAINSPOTTERS' CORNER Probably by the time you get this the whole world and his dog will have pointed the fact out, but | will do it anyway. Do you realise that the recently produced picture of an Amstrad Speccy (issue 6) was printed back to front? No? Oh well, better luck next time, | suppose. Keep up the good work. | enjoy reading all the mag, even the bits about computers | don't own (I have an early MK1 Speccy which has never ever broken down, and an ST) Robert Morgan, Rhonnda, Mid-Glamorgan

2sdrawkcab sgniht gnitnirp htiw gnorw s'tahW /

THE REAL PIRATES

Over the years | have read more twaddle about software pirates than just about any other subject | can think of.

In my opinion, the biggest pirates are the software houses themselves, who continuous- ly turn out over-priced garbage games pro- grams with only one thought in their greedy lit- tle minds, and that is to con money out of chil- dren,

1 wonder how many of these people have ever seen the disappointment on a ten year olds’ face, who, after saving their pocket money and buying the latest slick-packaged

NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS » 14 JANUARY 1989 » 11

EXPRESS MAIL

YOUR LETTERS

offering from ‘rip-off software find they have bought a load of boring rubbish.

If people can get pleasure out of cracking this junk | say best of luck to them, because they will get very little pleasure out of playing 95 per cent of them.

Also in my experience, the majority of copied games are in the hands of children who would not have bought the original any- way because they can't afford to. | recently visited a friend who had just purchased an Atari, When | arrived at his house he was play- ing a game called Starglider. | watched him for a while and it all looked very familiar, and | realised that | used to have the same game for a ZX81- I think it was called Defender.

Is this producing innovative software? Inci- dentally, when | talk about pirates | am not referring to commercial pirates.

J Haley, Castleford, West Yorks

Vs Sure there's a load of junk around, but that's where the magazines come in. Too

mary eycophanie reviews have done arm to games - even if they have helped boost

ing revenues in the short term. Rely on knowledgeable, critical reviewers and avoid the dross.

MEMOTECHNICALITIES

| must join the ranks of those writing to you and start by praising your efforts. A great mag, and the first | have bought regularly in ages, | am a long suffering Memotech owner, but we won't go into that just yet.

My reason for writing is twofold; firstly, please find attached photocopies of an advert from several years back, for a speech recog- nition unit. A couple of months ago | wrote to another computer magazine to enquire if the company and/or product still existed. also

included an SAE but have had no reply! | am repeating the exercise with a far more rep- utable mag.

My second point is that there seems to be a glitch in one of your adverts. It has in fact. occurred in several editions, but | refer to the Christmas issue on page 15. It is a Silica/Amiga effort. In the software section, the Terrorpods screen and the Thundercats screen seem to be identical - is that right? | look forward to hearing from you soon, Neil Duran, Basingstoke, Hants

o/ Mtr canted, the company you refer to (William Stuart Systems) is no longer in existence. Possibly that's because there isn't a terrific demand for peed Wee pa eoho ys. If anyone is in possession of such a product as a "Big Ears" (we kid you not) and wishes to sell it, then perhaps they could contact us.

money was taken away (surprise, sur- But this was not the end of my sorry

As for the Silica advert, you're abso- lutely spot on. Fo ', Such errors have nothing to do with us, Quite clear Silica was so excited at the prospect o! appearing in Express once more that it suffered a peculiar repetition. It can hap- pen to anyone. It can happen to anyone.

ACE LETTER

I started to read Express because after pur- chasing an Amstrad PC1640, | found it an extremely good magazine which combines the latest news in the world of computing, enter- tainment and sections for the serious users of a computer, as well as "gamesters’ or both, like me!

1 found Express through ACE which | stopped buying for various reasons namely because the free gift in the next issue was not going to be my format (I wonder how many ex ACE readers feel the same way?) and have not missed an issue since.

such suckers for tales of woe that we've decided to award you a Mys- Prize. EN D ed at o Yn ~~ should you ever

Kashif Quraishi, Hayes, Middlesex

x That's a bit harsh on ACE, matey. Truly in the great scheme of things it is a won- drous publication, regardless of whether or not its freebies run on your machine, That's why it's just won Magazine of the Year from the whole games indusi | again, it only won because Express jadn't been around long enough...)

SOME OCEAN NOTIONS

| was interested to read your article on Mr Ward of Ocean Software regarding "new soft- ware for the more mature games user’. | most certainly will not purchase any as | have found their customer relations nonexistent,

I returned on the 26th September 1988 an Amiga Wizball disk which failed to load cor- rectly, but no disk was returned.

| wrote again on the 3rd November 1988; no reply.

HARNESS THE CRACKERS Re Gamebusters, Express issue 6. Having read this arti- cle through a couple of times, my reactions are as follows.

There is a lot of truth in what the guy said. Firstly, he is à cracker and not a hacker or pirate. There's a world of difference. He is not out to make any profit from someone else's hard work; nor is he out to make any mischief, but is merely responding to a challenge. Most of us respond to one type of challenge or another almost every day of our lives. It is what makes life interesting for the majority of people. OK, so his preferred challenges are cracking software protection. A lot better than cracking heads, safes etc.

Secondly, as the guy said, "most of it is crap’. | think you will agree that one hell of a lot of games are just that — crap, and may possibly hold the attention of some adoles- cents for two or even three run-throughs. The crap in no way justifies the price asked and paid, | would suggest, by unknowledgeable aunts, uncles, parents or whatever, buy- ing for birthdays, Christmas etc. These well meaning, unsuspecting people should be protected from parting with hard-earned cash for some of the software bilge on the market today.

Thirdly, the guy also said in answer to your question "Why should friends give them to you if they spent money buying them’ - "Because they get better versions of the game back in exchange, especially with games that are hard to play.” Software houses could learn something from that remark, such as different levels of play. It's just a thought - maybe they already do, but judging from the remark, they don't.

Surely software houses would benefit from supplying the cracker with a new game and letting him crack it and alter it, if only to see what came back. They could have a protection contract with the cracker. That way, both par- ties could be satisfied — the cracker's need for that type of challenge, and the software house having the crackers report: difficulty to crack, levels of play etc. Surely to goodness it must be an avenue worth investigating, and beneficial on both sides of the fence?

There must also be more to be gained than | have writ-

@ THE SOFTWARE BUSTING DEBATE

ten about. Let's face it: software houses are not going to stop the cracker legally or otherwise. So for goodness sake, they should get their acts together and have the cracker join the team, even if only on a pay for results basis. Better surely above ground and working for them with all the benefits it must bring than underground having to spend money and time trying to beat him which can't be done. I'm sure you are following my drift. Eliminate the cracker by using him and his skills to your advantage, thus freeing time and money to catch the real villains, the pirates. The hackers can be left to the government. Anyway, this is the view of a 55 year old Amiga owner, who, after a year of struggle with my machine, still can't access its ‘libraries’. Oh, for a cracker's assistance at this location! C Williams, Headington, Oxford

Asome software houses already use crackers in various Wi PC ERN parier. But it's really not a predia, We suspect most crackers much prefer their own semi-ilicit battles with software...

JUST CRACKERS

For the first time | bought your magazine on Dec 17th 1988, and I'm writing about your article on hackers and piracy. Your so called Hacker (Mr X) is not a hacker (he couldn't hack his way out of a paper bag).

Incidentally, is Mr X real? If so, he must be English! Also , | think you made this article up. | have hacked most disk software on most 6502 machines. All| use is a disk sec- tion editor and a machine code monitor. Your Mr X used final cartridge or something similar.

Also, what was the point in deleting pieces of informa- tion when the average user of the final cartridge could just do a disk search for Thunderblade to find out what track the relevant addresses were on. | was selling hacked ver- sions of Thunderblade before you got your copy.

Compunet has nothing to do with hackers, but private bulletin boards do in fact have a lot to do with them. If you don't believe me, go onto Mininet and the number should be on Prestel or Gnome at Home. Or go into Limelight and

page the sysop and ask for some phone numbers.

Here is a list of some games that | have hacked: Hypersports BBC Disk; Thunderblade C64 Disk; Moon Buggy C64 Disk; and Operation Wolf C64 Disk.

| can hack most Novaloads. You should have given your hacker a challenge — ask him to transfer Exploding Fist. from cassette to disk plus be invincible. If your Mr X can do this, then he is not a bad hacker because | can't. By the way if you want any software by the Virus Man, then go around some of the bulletin boards.

My favourite hacked game is FRAK (BBC version). It's on Mininet.

The Virus Man, Scotland PS News! Check Larry (PC version) out for a virus (ha hal)

f What a remarkable missive. No wonder you' m ‘re stay-

is... Whatever, Mr X is indeed both real and English. le censored some salient details in the original because we didn't want to encourage any other hackers or crackers or pirates. In a similar way, we' litted. your simply splendid spelling errors and linguistical oddi- ties, since we don't want our readers to think that all crackers are, er, crackers. PS Your "news" about Leisure Suit Larry isn't news at all to Express readers who read all about it back in issue 5.

IT's A FAIR COP?

| would like my opinion heard in the great Piracy Debate. | often receive copies of games from friends/colleagues, for instance Dungeon Master.

I had a copy of Pacmania. If | had bought the game for &20 - £25 | would have been very disappointed (VERY disap- pointed) so | wiped the disk.

Dave Palmer, Jarrow, South Tyneside

x. Sounds suspiciously like an exercise in conscience- cleansing. Do you really mean to say you go out and buy EVERY pirated game you think is decent?

12+ NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS » 14 JANUARY 1989

EXPRESS MAIL

YOUR LETTERS

All| wished to know, had my disk been received or had it been returned but lost on the way - still no reply.

| have on the 30th Nov 1988 written to the managing director; still no reply.

1 have now informed all my friends and cok leagues as to Ocean Software s very poor customer relations, also possibly poor quality disks and advised them, like me, to purchase other producer's software.

Keep up the good quality of your magazine which makes very good reading at a very rea- sonable price.

Brian J Odam, Sheringham, Norfolk

x This matter is being checked through with Ocean even as you read this. It has to be said, however, that your difficulties come as something of a surprise since Ocean is quite possibly the smartest of all software houses when it comes to such matters. Certainly, if it happened regular- ly, David Ward's crew would long ago sur- rendered its position as the number one games publisher.

Having raised the topic, doubtless we'll now be deluged with tales of difficulties.

MaiL TALES

1am saddened to see yet another Mail Order Company (MOC) go to the wall. Not because they are out of business, but once again it is the customers who lose out.

So, where does the blame lie? Well, obvi- ously with the MOC concerned, but also | think with the magazines that publish their adverts. | can usually spot a MOC who may run into difficulties: they run single and double page adverts, sometimes in spot colour, in several magazines, and they sell their goods at ridiculous discounts.

On average it costs £500.00 to run a sin- gle advert in one magazine per week (more if itis a monthly). In order to cover the cost of the advert alone (let alone all the other over- heads) they need to sell approximately £5,000.00 worth of goods. If you multiply this over say two weekly magazines and three monthlies, their monthly turnover has to be £60,000++. | reckon that's impossible.

So how can you spot a possible liability? Well, choose the company you wish to pur- chase from, and then pop down to WH Smiths and thumb through all the computer mags. If they are prominent in all the mags with double page spreads in glorious colour — forget it

So why are the magazines responsible? Well, they are so concerned about competing with each other and filing up their pages with adverts that they are blind to good business sense. If | buy stock from a suppliers and don't pay for it within a reasonable time, they suspend further supplies to me. Do maga- zines do this? Of course not, they just print more adverts. Not until the MOC is dead and buried do they show concern for you,

So is a magazine liable for your losses? Not directly, but morally, most definitely yes, and maybe legally yes. They have a responsi- bility to you as their customers. If it can be shown that they acted neglectfully and there- fore contributing to the problem, you may just have a case.

I hope that those of you who have lost money (and l'm sure there will be many) suc- ceed in recovering your losses, but sadly | fear that it is money lost forever. But then there's something called Mail Order Protection Scheme...

Steve Bonnici, Managing Director, Future- place Computers

x Though your comments are doubtless meant well, it really is taking matters a lit- tle too far to blame the magazines. Obvi- ously, we're bound to say that. But we have a commercial interest in making sure that those companies who book ads with us will indeed pay for them. And we cer- tainly don't want our readers to be ripped

Express: COMPLACENT, BLASE

| have owned a PCW for two years now, and have been very satisfied with the high quality of Future Publishing s publications in that time. | therefore started to purchase New Computer Express, which, not sur- prisingly, is quite excellent, and certainly well worth 48p.

However, | was sorry, surprised and saddened to read your response to H Twiddle's letter (Issue 7&8) regarding his problems when purchasing computer goods. The simple fact is that he has a justified complaint, and nothing can justify - despite your weak excuses - what he has suffered. To say his prob- ‘real complaint” sim- ply because "at least you got a game that worked" is really appalling. You seem to think that customers should actually be grateful if they receive what they have ordered !

If you go in to a shop and buy something, you expect it to be as advertised/described, working and complete. In my experience, when ordering computer items, this is the exception rather than the rule. It seems that it is just fine if a retailer doesn't comply with his/her side of the deal (in law, a contract) so does this ludicrous sit- uation apply to the customer? For example, if a retailer was given counterfeit money after handing over goods, | am sure you wouldn't take this calm, blase, forgiving attitude; in reality, all hell would break

lem is really an irritant rather than

loose.

However, some retailers - and apparently you also - see litle wrong in customers being conned into paying over their money, but not receiving the delivery/goods/service as agreed - and then hav- ing to engage in a virtual battle to get what they were promised and have paid for in good faith. The simple fact is that this is not only all

too common, but becoming increasingly so.

We are supposed to be living in times of a ‘buoyant economy’ and "market forces’, but to me, | interpret this as really meaning "Cus- tomer beware - you are about to be ripped off” simply because so many don't seem to give a damn about reliability, contract compli- ance and integrity these days, and so many, such as yourselves, are

so tolerant of this.

To say as you did that a lack of goods that are advertised is because of the failure of the supplier is pathetic. If someone advertis- es, they should be efficient enough to at least ensure they have the goods or not advertise them! Not too difficult to comprehend, is it!! In the upshot, if everyone behaved in this sloppy, unbusinesslike, care- free (and, I feel, arrogant and dishonest) fashion, pure anarchy would prevail and no one could be trusted, but this is what you seem to

off when companies go bust without sup- plying goods that have been paid for.

Occasionally, the odd outfit will slip through the net. When you're working on trust, that happens, But Express is espe- cially vigilant: we'd be bonkers to be other- wise.

PRIZE GUY Your magazine is excellent, brilliant and super- dooper. All the people that work at New Com- puter Express must be really talented and brainy.

1 have compiled a list (how original) of why | should be the mystery prize winner this week

to behave like this ?

une

practices

Mr Twiddle.

nation.

1. | lied a little in the first paragraph.

2. All home computers are brilliant (I wrote this so as not to offend people).

3. | would not die for your magazine (It's good, but not that good).

4. | got nothing for Christmas.

5. | know somebody called Nigel.

6. Bros are all women.

7. Blackburn Rovers are the best football team in the world.

8, The only game | have ever won is bingo when | was younger, (Well, I'm not going to be older, am 1?)

9. | own an Atari ST.

10. My Mum and Dad are older than me. Paul Livesey, Stockport, Cheshire

* "Yet another mail order company goes to the wall"

endorse Why should manufacturers and retailers have a unique right

In a society which is becoming increasingly divided, it is all too easy to forget how this type of "irritan income computer users. For example, there are a great number of people not earning because of say, severe disability, who spend most of their lives in front of a computer and £20 or so is a lot of money which they may have saved up for many months. OK, it might not be much to New Computer Express or even less to retailers, but it is a fortune to some people who find it very distressing to save up and forego something to do this, and then encounter this type of problem. You (conveniently) seem to have forgotten this. | appreciate that caring about and considering other people is well out of fashion these days, but some stil believe this is a better virtue than just amassing mountains of money from dubious

In sum, itis this complacent attitude such as yours that can only lead to this type of behaviour increasing.

Apart from the ethical question and the simple fact that surely you should get what you pay for as promised without this inane pan- tomime of fighting with a retailer/manufacturer to supply what was originally promised, New Computer Express should spend a little time thinking about its negative attitude - presumably indicated by its response to H Twiddle - and also consider how this looks to its read- ers who, after all, are in the same situation as the writer.

David J Nicholls, Bellingham, London SE6

Harsh words indeed, and many of your points are taken. But we are really not blase or complacent about the matter: we did after all help draw attention to SDC's failure to supply full goods and we have sorted the problem out for

It has also to be borne in mind that the complaint was about not receiving the instructions for - in this instance - a straightforward game. Our response would've been differ- ent had it concerned a complex adventure being supplied without instructions, or had the game itself not been sent. So please don't yoke us in to the moral decline of the

It's doubtless very crass of us, but we're going to award you a prize for placing moral matters on the agenda. We'll send you a wee PCW package. With instructions...

(your word!) affects low-

PS Some of the above facts are not true.

i Congratulations, you've won our very special esl prize of one million pounds. (This may or may not be a true statement.)

HELP SPRINGS ETERNAL

In reply to Mr Matthews’ letter in Express issue 6, | have copies of both Yahtzee and Cribbage for the Spectrum in Basic that we use quite a lot, in fact my wife plays Crib- bage almost every day of the week. (Now | knew there was a reason for me buying this PC!)

Unfortunately my Spectrum is the 16K Issue 2 model which | upgraded with a plus keyboard and 32K RAM upgrade chips, so therefore | only have copies on tape. But if Mr Matthews would like to contact me, | should be able to give him the listings for both games.

Both games are very good considering that they are written in Basic.

Yahtzee can be adapted for numerous players, and unlike PC type games | have used, you play the full six games. There are two screens, the playing screen and the score sheet, which can be accessed at any time in the game.

Cribbage is a game for one player versus the computer, and is set to normal crib rules but it does allow for mixed runs when laying cards, you cannot win on the turn of a Jack, and the computer plays a mean game. Robert J Waller, 39 Quarley Way, London SE15 6)G

v It fair warms the cockles of your heart when one reader helps out another. In fact, we're such sentimentalists that we're sending the helpful Robert a prize. To. whit: R-Type on the Spectrum.

NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS © 14 JANUARY 1989 © 13

SAMDALE COMPUTERS LTD

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| COVER FEATURE

How to be a smart

The world of PC software is endlessly baffling in its variety. Vast arrays of products all claim- ing to be the very best thing jostle for attention, each with different tech specs, prices and recommen- dations. But which ones are the truly essen- tial purchases? For word pro- cessing, general business, graphics, entertainment, music, utilities and communi- cations, which packages will best fit your requirements without leaving you bankrupt? In the first in a series of defini- tive sector sur- veys, Express guides you through the mine- field of choosing PC software

NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 14 JANUARY 1989 » 15

ESSENTIALS

COVER FEATURE

ince its introduction the IBM PC has

endured a reputation as a hard-core busi-

ness machine - the suits' computer. Howev-

er, in the US it quickly became established as a home computer too.

And once it had penetrated the American household, the PC was subverted from its "strictly business" demeanour — programming languages appeared, then graphics software, and games, and low-cost applications like word processing and database.

In the UK, the PC hung on to its businesslike reputation much longer. Not until Alan Sugar launched the PC1512 did the PC begin to follow its American counterparts into the home. Now the UK market also supports a wide range of soft- ware, at prices from the sublimely cheap to the tidiculously expensive.

However, the industry continues to behave as though there were three completely different sets of PC users, with no overlap between these groups: the business user, the programmer, and the home user. If you're a typical PC owner, this makes it difficult to get information on all the dif- ferent aspects of the PC because the business dealers won't talk about games and music, and the average games dealer doesnt know about PC applications like databases and spreadsheets.

To solve this problem, here is the Express guide to PC Essentials - the software packages that merit a place in everyones program library. Unless youre after computerising your yak-herd- ing operation, or robotic control over shortwave radio, you should find this collection of classic software sufficient to equip you for every eventu- ality.

Woro processina

Just about everyone processes words ('writing", as the activity used to be known). But the PC boasts more WP programs than any other comput- er, and picking your way through the maze can be difficult.

Recommending word processors is also difficult because, like shirts and woolly jumpers, theyre largely a matter of personal choice. However ...

For those on a tight budget or with limited word processing needs, the first choice should be Tas- word (£30, Tasman Software, 0542 438301). Although it does have some limitations, it pro- vides all the basics for creating, editing and print- ing text which, after all, is what it's all about.

Further up the scale in performance as well as price is Protext (£60, Arnor, 0733 239011). Protext is fast and powerful, and adds extra features, including a good spell checker, macro language and mail merge.

(Mail merge, if you were wondering, is a method of being obnoxiously familiar with people you've never met. It is how Reader's Digest manage to send you letters that say things like, "Imagine, Mr Smith, how a new Porsche 911 would look outside 123 Acacia Avenue' What the author actually wrote was "Imagine, [field1], how a new Porsche 911 would look outside [field2]", and the mail merge utility inserts the appropriate names and addresses.)

Finally, for users needing compatibility with a "professional" word processor, Multiwriter 2 (£100, Newstar, 0245 265017) provides file conver- sion from the most popular business WP pack- ages, as well as offering macros, spell checking, and the ability to edit multiple documents. To make handling this power easier, Multiwriter 2 provides on-line help. There's a pop-up calculator, too.

Business

The best buys for small-scale business applica- tions on the PC are definitely the integrated pack- ages — single programs that provide multiple applications.

Easily the best value must be Mini Office Per- sonal (£30, Database Software, 0625 878888). It provides modules for word processor, database,

spreadsheet, and communications, and while few of these are especially brilliant they do allow you to swap data between the various parts, and there are one or two surprisingly good features like Prestel support in the comms modules. Mini Office is a good choice for anyone who thinks they might need businesslike software on their home computer. At least, at the price, you won't get your fingers burned if it turns out you don't need it after all.

More professional and rather more powerful is Microsoft's excellent Works (£145, Microsoft, 0734 500741). It gives you much the same collection of applications — WP, database, spreadsheet, comms and business graphics — but its main plus is the excellent on-screen help facility and series of interactive tutorial sessions.

Each of the modules is good enough to stand against much of the dedicated competition, and swapping facts and figures from spreadsheet to database to word processor is as easy as you could want.

Also worth a mention in this category is Ability (£99, Migent, 01 493 2655). A similar collection of utilities to the others, if a little slow at times, but very popular because it was bundled free with the Amstrad 1512 for a while.

Graphics

The PC has a reputation as a poor graphics sys- tem. On the most common CGA-equipped PCs you have only four colours in 320x200 resolution, or 640x200 resolution in black and white only — nothing to get the average ST or Amiga owner excited. For this reason, PC graphics software tends to be overlooked.

obvious lines, circles, various brushes and fills, these include the ability to grab sections of the Screen and use these as brushes, and various psuedo-3D effects like distorting images for per- spective.

Unfortunately, cheaper programs that provide a reasonable degree of usefulness are thin on the ground. Salvation is at hand, however, in the form of public domain software (see the accompanying box for possibilities).

ENTERTAINMENT

If the PC was considered poor for graphics it was long reckoned to be laughable for games. Which is odd when you look at what's available because although the PC may not have as many games as other computers, it has as many great games as its rivals.

The classic PC game isn't really a game at all, although it is definitely first-class entertainment. Flight Simulator (£50, Microsoft, 0734 500741) is now in version 3 and although many simulators make the same claim, FS3 is the one that really is "the nearest thing to being there’. With superb instrumentation, dazzling graphics and fabulous scenery, as well as add-on scenery disks that cover most of the US, Japan and Western Europe, FS3 provides limitless fun.

If you prefer something more destructive, Fal- con AT (£35, Mirrorsoft, 01 377 4644) delivers. It is graphically excellent and offers various outlets for your aggression including ground target bombing missions and dogfighting with MiGs.

Adventure fans are well served with the com- plete collection of Infocom titles (£25 to £35, Medi- agenic, 0734 311666), and the Magnetic Scrolls

PD and shareware for the real bargains

One of the great attractions of the PC is the enormous range of public domain and shareware software avail- able.

Public domain, or PD, programs are free and you pay only for the disk, and the costs of copying, documenta- tion and postage incurred by the library you buy it from,

Shareware is sold in similar fashion but you acquire only the right to evaluate the software. If you decide to keep and use the programs you must pay a registration fee which is usually much less than the price of a com- parable commercial program and which entitles you to receive upgrades and usually printed documentation and technical support.

Cynics might assume that anything free is worth what you pay for it — nothing. But there are gems in most PD libraries, often as good as anything available commer- cially. Furthermore, PD libraries are good sources for ae Programs that simply aren't available else-

re.

Finally, free or cheap PD programs can be a good way of trying out new kinds of software. For example, if you're not sure whether you could make use of a spreadsheet, a PD program will let you try before you hand over your cash for a, possibly expensive, com- mercial product like Supercalc or Lotus 1-2-3.

Among the best and bestknown PD software are: Galaxy: A fullfeatured word processor which works like Wordstar Professional but includes pull-down

However, with the increasing use of EGA graph- ics adaptors — providing 640x350 resolution in 16 colours from a palette of 64 - the PC is beginning to look a much better bet for graphics applica- tions. (VGA, the forthcoming graphics standard, goes even further and puts the Amiga to shame.)

The outstanding buy in this category is Deluxe Paint II (£100, Electronic Arts, 0753 49442). It sup- ports all types of graphic adaptor — so you don't have to worry about compatibility, although it obviously looks best in EGA or VGA - and it pro- vides features more commonly found on the better graphic machines like the Amiga. Apart from the

menus for ease of use, and a spelling checker.

: A database system that produces dBase I+ files (much cheaper than Ashton-Tate's £500 mon- ster), including report generation. It even supports net- works.

Procomm: One of the best communications programs available, including commercial products costing up to £100.

Hack: A mammoth role-playing game, similar to the Ultima series but using character graphics. Kill trolls, slay wizards, acquire hernia-inducing amounts of gold.

Among the kinds of programs you can find in PD libraries that are difficult to acquire commercially are: Composer: Music composition system that allows you to compose, play and print out your works of art.

PC Key-draw: A feature-packed graphics editor, good for creating technical drawings and diagrams. Features mouse support, but also usable from the keyboard.

Useful addresses: Vasstec, 4 Royal Terrace, Glasgow, G3 7NT, tel: 041 954 6853; 11 Uxbridge Street, Kensington, London W8 7TQ, tel: 01 266 3218

, 56 Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL50 7HJ, tel: 0242 224340 PD Software Library, Winscombe House, Beacon RO porn) E. Sussex, TN6 1UL, tel: 0892

library (£25, Rainbird, 01 240 8838). While for role- playing gamers, Ultima V (£30, Microprose, 0666 54326) is the one to go for — a massive four-disk universe with hundreds of characters, dozens of towns and dungeons and a million ways to die.

One area in which the PC continues to be weak (largely because of its graphic limitations) is the traditional computer arcade game. However, two products worthy of a place in your collection are Impossible Mission (£20, US Gold, 021 356 3388), a classic platforms & ladders romp, and Tetris (£20, Mirrorsoft, 01 377 4644), a game that almost defies classification.

16 « NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS » 14 JANUARY 1989

ESSENTIALS

COVER FEATURE

Tetris is a fast-moving puzzle game, totally addictive and you can install it as a memory-resi- dent program (so it's always available) for those rare moments when serious work loses its appeal. (Most companies ban Tetris very soon after its appearance in the office.)

Finally, breaking new ground in the PC games field is the Freescape range — Driller, Dark Side and Total Eclipse — (£20, Incentive, 07356 77288) which combine aspects of adventure and simula- tion with a gripping plot and superb solid 3D graphics.

Music

Unlike the perceived problem areas like graphics and games, PC music is a genuine desert, With an ultra primitive sound chip and a tinny built-in speaker the PC qualifies as the worst equipped computer for sound and music.

However, if you're determined, there are a few public domain programs around, See the PD Soft- ware box.

U TILITIES

Utilities are those programs that make using your PC easier and/or safer. And top of your list in this category should be PC Tools Deluxe (£50, Eve- sham Micros, 0386 765500), a collection of useful tools that allow you to recover accidentally delet. ed files, and even to get all your data back even if you format a disk

The very first time you absent-mindedly delete a file representing several hours work, you'll consid- er it £50 well spent.

But PC Tools isn't just for the bad things. It also provides a disk cache for speeding up disk usage, facilities to optimise and backup your hard disk, and an easy-to-use DOS shell. Since PC Tools can also be loaded memory-resident it is particularly useful, and especially so for beginners.

One of the classic PC utility packages was Bor- land's Sidekick but this has since been replaced by Sidekick Plus which, although an excellent product, is bigger and more expensive and not "an essential" by any means.

An alternative is PC Deskmate (Shareware, most PD libaries) which provides a calculator, cal: endar, limited notepad and DOS shell in pop-up form. Evaluation copies are available for a couple of pounds, but the shareware registration fee is $25. A similar product is Homebase (£59, Brown Bag Software, 01 874 1106) which provides a database, text editor, calculator, calendar and comms program,

Communications

PC communicators have a problem in the UK: the fact that most comms software originates in the US where they don't use our peculiar 1200/75 bps viewdata system which is obligatory for joining Prestel/Micronet.

If you dont need viewdata you have a far greater choice, but as it happens one of the lead- ing comms packages — and among the best for value too — does support the Prestel format. Mir- ror II (£83, MDP Ltd, 0225 60491) is a powerful package with a macro language, the ability to run in the background (a sort of limited multitasking) and is easy to use for all its power.

(If you ! y Amstrad's new M2400 modem, you get a copy of Mirror II free, which is an excellent deal if you haven't yet bought a modem.) €

PRINTERS

Next week, the Express Essentials guide puts printers under the spotlight. Which models really stack up? In each of the various cate- gories, Express selects the very best. Don't miss it!

NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS 14 JANUARY 1980 © 17

‘CEPT

THE BEST REASON FOR BUYING AN ATARI ST

POOLS-SYSTEM!!™ VOUCHENS MAIL ORDER ONLY INCORPORATING (POOLSBUSTER & POOLSPLANNER) TRADE WELCOME

OTHERS CALL THEIR POOLS PROGRAMS ULTIMATE,WE CALL OURS "THE" POOLS PROGRAM pA—A————————————————————Mrár EES

There are still are a couple of pools programs for the Atari ST that guarantee to you performance better than chance (?) or promise to you power? to forecast the pools the way you want. Others are asking you for disk for free demos while weeks are going by and you are missing your chance for a dividend. Never- theless POOLS-SYSTEM still remains the only one in the market that delivers the goods. Lets have a look at some facts. Fact, user friendly and still the only one that does not require you to be some kind of a football expert or hot shot system analyser. Fact, POOLS-SYSTEMis the only one that performed even slightly during the difficult & unpredictable Australian season. Fact, 13/8/88. 4 aways out of the recommended first 6. 10 homes out of the recommended first 15. 20/ 8/88, start of the English season, the system trapped 9 out of the 14 score draws & all 4 no score draws. 27/8/88, 9 out of the 12 score draws & 3 out of the 6 no score draws. 4 homes out of the recommended first 6. 3/9/88,6 homes out of the recommended first 7,4 aways out of the recommended 6. 5 out of the 7 score draws & 2 out of the 3 no score draws. 40 correct results out of the 58 possible. Fact, all forecasted printouts available at any time for any checks. So ) do not waste your time with any other programs or systems. They are not going to entertain your hopes or wishes. And to top all the facts, we guarantee that f

performs better than any other pools program in the market on any computer, because we guarantee to you that using the POOLSBUSTER in cooperation with you are going to win the pools more than once a year. STOP PRESS!! what does the customer say: "| was very | impressed with the general standard of the programs & their ease of use. | had a look around the program & worked out how to input the data without the use | of the manual, which shows just how good the program structure is set out. To get to the point. The very first entry | did came up trumps with 2 lines of 211/ 2 points. It bought me a win of £11.80. Not bad for a first attempt. Thanks for an amazing program. Regards P.J.L.-Solihull. (Name & address with held for

obvious reasons.) OLS SYSTEM (POOLSBUSTER+POOLSPLANNER) COSTS £4 INCLUSIVE

APOLONIA SOFTWARE(TM) PRESENTS: COMPUSHOP!1 THE BEST PRICES FOR THE ATARI ST AND THE AMIGA HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE. JUST HAVE A LOOK AT SOME POST-XMAS PACKAGES:

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male MIC

ES ALAN SUGAR

The unsound and the fury

The Alan Sugar Story

Part VII: As the industry's dirty tricks made Amstrad | furious, so the firm's later machine launches made

the industry puzzled. William Poel proffers the penultimate episode in the Alan Sugar story Es

hen it comes to being incandescent with

rage, few can hold a candle to Alan |

Michael Sugar. He was at his most utterly

furious at the time of the infamous "PC | 1512s overheat" tale doing the rounds in autumn '86. The machines were said to be incapable of supporting certain types of power-hungry net- working cards.

The storyette reached the rumour mongers, hav- | ing been initiated by one of Amstrad's competi- tors (which was never actually named, but is probably the reason for the cracks in the M25 as it passes by Brentwood). Some of the regular PC press who had taken a dislike to the abrupt man- ner of Amstrad leapt gleefully on this story, with their usual macabre lust for bad news and scare stories. Mr S duly went through the roof.

A feature in the Sunday Times was quickly com- pounded by a leader in PC Business World...which | was shortly afterwards the recipient of legal com- | munications from an outraged Amstrad.

Proven lawyers For by now, Amstrad had decided that it should expand its staff base, and before hiring anything approaching a PR officer and department, it had chosen to put a lawyer or two on the books. And | jolly zealous chaps they are too. If journalists and competitors dont manage to get "confronted" by Amstrad's legal department, they aren't trying. When Epson claimed proprietary use of the term LQ (letter quality), the fur began to fly, as Amstrad decided to apply this to its range of printers. It was fun at the time, but the action fiz- zled out when Epson climbed down. But the real irony of all this is the fact that the term PCW was lifted (from Minolta, which had earlier launched the PCW1 computer wordprocessor). And the cute OA (office automation) logo on the PCW badge | appears to have been originated by Panasonic, |

With fans like that..

Along with the realisation that stakes in the business game attracted dirtier tactics on the part of competi- tors (who were generally not as comatose as those he had confronted in the world of home computers), came Alan Sugar's famous remarks on the subject of giving the customer what he wanted, and if that meant fans and pink spots, then so be it. The stuffy old City regarded this remark as unduly flippant from a man who was locked in mortal combat with the epitome of everything the City adores (IBM), and it has been quoted frequently when share analysts feel like haunting Amstrad when it is in the throes of one of its "downratings". Coupled with the notion of sell- ing "personal nuclear weapons’, Mr S. was widely deemed a rum old cove.

and since Amstrad is a large customer of Pana- sonics, I guess an expedient blind eye was prof- fered.

| Now, if anyone had tried to do the same with | any Amstrad branding device, or even something

remotely and tenuously linkable with same, then

stand by for writ to be nailed to the mast. This is | commercially sound and thoroughly aggressive |

posturing, but typifies the "one rule for them but we can do what we like" approach that soured relations Amstrad and the rest of the trade during this phase of Amstrad's inexorable progress.

But the underlying lesson had been learned at Amstrad. The gloves were off. Now that it was in the big league for real, an air of secrecy descend- ed on Amstrad Towers with a vengeance.

4 * Sugar: Public profile rising, but problems mounting

At the time, the money was on Amstrad to have a 286 AT ready to go, and there was consternation when only the 8086-based 1640 appeared in 1987 All talk of RAM shortages making it impractical was bluff: RAM could be diverted from the lower ticket value items, if necessary.

Quite how and why Amstrad failed to produce a

286-based system at such a vital moment is still a |

mystery to me (and most others). It was unques- tionably an error of judgement. I can only imagine that its great cloak of secrecy effectively prevent- ed the man who needed to know about market trends from knowing that a 286 was a must for a Serious presence in the business marketplace.

Just look at the succour and encouragement Amstrad's lack of a 286 system has provided the cloners and importers. Walters, NTS, Opus etc all heaved a huge sigh of relief when it was apparent that Amstrad had utterly missed its marketplace.

Meantime, other battles were being fought. The PPC portables launched in early 1988 were met by a mixture of astonishment (the price including a 2400 bis modem was not then much more than a

| modem alone) and hilarity at the indifference of

the flip-up display. The LCD display was and is truly lifeless when compared to decent backlit offerings, and although as ever Amstrad excuses itself on the grounds of cost, I would wager that most PPC owners would pay an extra £50 for a serious LCD.

This impossibility of an internal hard disk and | the rather "modest" battery life both took the prod- | uct out of the running for serious corporate users, |

but there seem to have been more customers will- ing to make do than these observers (including me) would have thought at the outset.

between the increasingly bully-boy |

Other end of the spectrum

Elsewhere, the Sinclair arm of the operation was continuing to defy gravity and sell significant numbers of virtually unchanged Spectrum machines. They were sporting a version with the (surprise) 3" disk that managed effectively to blend the Amstrad 6128 and traditional Sinclair styles. Prior to the +2A, the basic Spectrum remained largely untouched, ensuring no prob- lems with compatibility. Thus the +3 was a tempt- ing opportunity for owners of earlier ‘Speccies to | simply obtain a classier lump of hardware without any software obsolescence.

| Its a pity that the ST and Amiga challenge has (thus far) been declined. Both MEJ and Locomo- tive have the talent to give those markets a run for their money, and Amstrad has the money to | give them the runs...so to speak. Maybe it will yet | emerge in the form of an add-in card for the PCs? | Now that would be a creative solution.

So when 1988's launch fever began to build, the marketplace anticipated efforts to catch up and overhaul the problems created by the missing 286. There was much speculation about PS/2 com- patibility, Micro Channel Architecture and the rest.

But when the launch arrived, Amstrad broke its rules about pre-announcing, and showed a gener- ally lacklustre range in the new PC200 series. It seems that as the quality of Amstrad brochures | has gradually drifted towards the industry stan- dard for gloss and panache, so the products have

Sugar bags airtime

When Alan Sugar appeared on the Wogan Show, there was speculation that his PR adviser had man- aged to wire electric shock apparatus to delicate parts of the Sugarian anatomy (his wallet). The aim would've been to prevent him rollercoastering into a typical Sugar tirade against the establishment, there- by adding to the already substantial shock to the Share price caused by the Stock Market crash. What- ever, Sugar's performance was far from vintage stuff, with his restrained performance replacing the cus- tomary incisive wit and perception.

Since then, the great man has appeared on the bóx endorsing the Department of Trade & Industry's 1992 campaign, and is well on the way to becoming a minor celebrity. Sir Robin Day's Question Time surely beckons...

lost their cutting edge.

The Sinclair PC200 also appeared last Autumn. This was received in the wake of the dull perfor- mance of the Olivetti PC1 — an almost identical | concept and presentation.

In view of the strenuous efforts made by Alan Sugar at the launch to explain problems due to RAM shortage, it seemed as if diverting RAM to the curious PC200 was an act of some contradic- tion, if, as he claimed, this was the reason for the late arrival of the sorely-needed 286 and 386 sys- tems. @

NEXT WEEK:

NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 14 JANUARY 1989 » 19.

PREVIEWS a a eT ED

Mighty quinte eams In on cue

Andy Storer ventures into the future and takes to the skies to go

off-world for a spot of strategy, billiards, and assorted carnage

BILLIARDS SIMULATOR INFOGRAMES

Out on the ST later this month is the first Billiards sim we know of, from French graphic genii Infogrames. Catering for either one or two players, it offers a choice of three cue types, differing values of cushion and table friction, rebound and spin effects.

The multi-viewpoint game also allows you to choose strength of shot, angle and ball placement. As it's French billiards you won't be surprised to learn there are no pockets — this game's all about scoring points from cannons.

ARCHIPELAGOS LOGOTRON

In what sounds like an interesting fusion of Sentinel and Virus, you are floating above a 100.island world attempting to build bridges and find an Obelisk you must destroy. Your enemies are trees, eggs and a Beachcomber — a wanderer who turns land to

sand and sand to water. Featuring fabulous 3D landscapes, Archipelagos looks to provide a unique combination of strategy, indepth gameplay and alternate reality. Due out in a universe near you on ST, Amiga and PC in spring

F-16 COMBAT PILOT DIGITAL INTEGRATION

areas - air to air interception, counter-air operations,

Riding the slipstream of Mirrorsoft’s Falcon, comes interdictor strike, battlefield ground support and

the latest sim off the General Dynamics production

line. Due out on ST, PC, Amiga and C64, Combat Pilot takes you from the crewroom to the hangar through pre-flight training to the cockpit of the "latest hitech version’ of the F-16. There are five training

reconnaissance — which need to be mastered before you can tackle operational status with one of eight squadrons. Work your way through the sorties and it's onto a multi-nission war game, Operation Conquest

(ake RT E TI B

da d

| | GUARDIAN MOONS MICRODEAL

A varied five-stage multidirectional blaster featuring parallax scrolling and interstage animated graphic sequences that include 40 on-screen colours at any one time, Guardian Moons certainly sounds superi or. With an additional level called Ridiculax - a com: plex demo of animated horizontal scrolling — you can bet itll look very good too. The aim? Save the | Earth by taking out eight psychokillers by becoming one yourself.

CUSTODIAN HEWSON

From the same team of Hinsley and Brownjohn that will one day bring you the long overdue Verminator, comes this little beauty — a superior shoot-em-up set in a tomb you must protect. You're up against waves of aliens and gain points by collecting energy-absorbing pods and destroying end-of-evel guardians. To help you in this mis: sion are shells and demolition rockets, electro bolts, fire- balls, multiplasmas, laser turrets, homing missiles and Megaclear smart bombs.

20 ° NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS e 14 JANUARY 1989

It's best to buy NOT one game BUT two games or more from | the club that gives you TWO for less than the price of ONE

[| TWOlor he pce cl ONE . TWOlorihe prica ol ONE ce “TWO lor he price cf ONE | — ONE | TWOtorthe pce dl ONE TWO or tho price oi ONE E AMIGA | TV Sp Football (USA) | Starglider 2 j {GFL Ch Football (USA) | Skychase not 54.94 aut 24.98 | nor 44.94 sur 22.47 | nor

momen Prices include U.K. post and packing. All products are |

selected for quality, individually boxed and new. We only |

| Purple Satum Day |sell software to members of Special Reserve. If you are not |

eee atin Blood already a member please include £4.00 membership fee. It's |

ZZ] well worth joining as members receive our expertly written |

Í Wormer one (Buyers Guide three times each year, catalogue list, our |

, Ẹ J 5 | AMIGA special folder and membership card as well as the: j

1 jopportunity to choose from over 600 products which we sell. |

Jindividually at amazing prices. We're miles cheaper than | 6 ‘elsewhere, if you don't believe us (many don't) please send a

i j Wares ame none . Sci aparece neice for our full price list and detai

AMIGA, ST or IBM | AMIGA or ST

Universal Mil Sim | Fed. of Free Traders | Captain Blood ^ | Defender of the Crown

|| TWOlerhepked ONE | TWOlorhepiked ONE | TWOleriheprced ONE | TWO lor fe pce d ONE

|. TWO lor the price of ONE ‘TWO tor the price of ONE : TWO ior the price of ONE. ‘TWO tor the price of ONE |

DEus CREDIT CARD NO. STOS Batman Batman Track Suit Manager | | Star Werk Champ Baseball | GFL Ch Footbal (USA)! Cheque, Postal Order, Visa, Access or AMEX. E UR eee) send your order by post or phone 0279 600204. | j TWO ke «ved ONE | TWO tor ihe price of ONE $ We add 50p surcharge per game for telephoned orders. `] d. Mia ATARI ST IBN. MAC, MAGNETIC SCROLLS Only | EBC ardere £5.00 mem bership, add "0p per game: credit rds ny]

|| C64, ATARI 000, SPECTRUM, Lombard RAC Rally | Roger Rabbit (IMEG) | from OFFICIAL SECRETS... Special Reserve, P.O. Box 847, HARLOW, CM21 9PH | AMSTRAD CPC & PCW Captain Blood ‘Three Stooges’ THE CLUB FOR PEOPLE | Special Reserve is a trading name of Inter-Mediates Ltd || || SEND S.AE FORFULL LIST papyro yT sur 28. WHO WANT MORE All offers are subject to availability 1

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ATARI ST & AMIGA OWNERS WHY PAY TOP PRICES ALL GAMES SOFTWARE AT 3096 DISCOUNT

EXAMPLE PRICES

NIRE eS DOUBLE SIDED DISKS Discount Boe pai j 1/2 DOUBLE DENSITY E OUR PRICE i Doube Dragon E 135 TPI

Super Hang On

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Pacmania

Hostage...

Spaceracer.

Falcon .... E Eliminator ...14.00

Atari Mouse Extender . Atari Super Pack ........349.00 | Atari Two Seat Leod

Amiga 500 + Modulator .....................369.00 Amiga Cumana Drive...

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Philips CM8833 Colour Monitor ........235.00 a IDA Saturday 9am - 6pm

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ENTERTAINMENT

PLAYING TIPS

So. You were given a stack of

new computer games for

Christmas and have got

bogged down on all of them.

Here's the perfect antidote:

the season's best-selling

expert playing tips on five of - ^

titles. Time to dust off that

wrapping paper...

€ AFTERBURNER

The quickest way of reaching the later lev- els of Activision's con- version of Afterburn - er is to cheat! Start the game as normal, pause the action and type in 'AGES' (which Se LF) is sega backwards) and then press the '>' key to advance to the next stage.

€ THUNDERBLADE

{ US Gold's conversion A i of Sega's helicopter

B] gunship shoot-em-up has a builtin cheat f| mode to enable lev- els to be skipped. My This is only available on the ST, Amiga and Spectrum. C64 owners will have to rely on skill and patience to complete their ver- sions.

On the Amiga and ST, wait until the game has finished loading and the high score table has come on. When the digitised helicopter picture appears, type in 'CRASH'. The screen then flashes to signify that the cheat mode is active. To skip straight to the next level, press the 'HELP' key on the Amiga, and the 'UNDO' key on the ST.

Spectrum owners have to press '2' for the joy- Stick and keyboard option, then press 'G' and 'O' together. Again, the screen flashes to show that the cheat mode is active, and accessing the next stage is achieved by pressing the 'ENTER' key.

€ OPERATION WOLF

in, save it (just in case) and then RUN it.

DATA 104,173,32,208,96,169,12 DATA 86,245,162,32,160,0,142, DATA 85,3,96,72,169,173, DATA 165,141,136,136,141,169,14

3 40 50 60 70 80 "ERROR IN DATA" Spectrum owners wanting to take a shot at the last level of Op Wolf can do so by loading the 128K version in 48K mode. Strangely, the program runs — and starts on level six!

22° NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 14 JANUARY 1989

To make the C64 version of Operation Wolf a touch less difficult, the list- ing below provides infinite bullets, grenades and energy. Simply type it

€ R-TYPE

Irem's amazing shoot-em-up from Activision is pretty tricky at the best of times. However, ST owners are treated to a useful listing below, which makes the game considerably easier. Enter the program in ST Basic and save it out for future use. Place R-Type disk A in the drive and RUN the program.

Lines 60 to 80 provide the following effects: 60 gives infinite credit; 70 installs infinite lives; and 80 retains collected weapons after the ship has been destroyed. By including any or all of these lines, the difficulty level of the game can be varied to suit.

SuperGame SuperTips

GENERAL TIPS (Spectrum version) 1) Reflective lasers are the most useful. The cir- cular lasers are more powerful, but merely fire ahead and really only as effective as bullets.

2) On the fourth and fifth levels, it's best to stay near the middle of the screen, since aliens attack from all sides.

3) Homing missiles only home in on objects in front of the ship, so if a target cannot be hit, move to the left of it.

4) Keep collecting the reflective laser icons; the laser beams grow in length and are thus more useful.

5) The large robots on level six cannot be destroyed; they must be avoided.

END OF LEVEL GUARDIANS 1) Destroy the guardian's eyes, and then detach the force so that it lies against the head in the monsters stomach. It is this small creature which must be destroyed, and the concentrated firepower soon sees it off.

2) Hover directly above the middle of the

@ BATMAN

adventure which profits POKEing.

prompt, simply enter '1' or

Oceans Batman game is a tricky aracde

The following C64 listing should be typed in, saved for future use, and RUN. At the

mission, and make sure that the right game is loaded or the program crashes.

guardian with the force at the rear. As the eye appears it con- tacts the force not the ship. | Also, the snake cannot touch | the ship in this position, but keep firing to destroy the snake's segments.

3) Completely destroy the underside of the ship, and then stay near to the yellow block, close to the ground. This way the mothership passes overhead without crushing the R-9. At the far end of the vessel, blow up all the blue guns and wait for the ship to stop. Switch the force to the rear of the R-9 and despatch it along the top of the mothership, finally guiding it down to destroy the purple pis- ton.

4) Destroy all the pods before the guardian appears. Put the force on the rear of the R-9, then wait in the bottom right hand corner. As one section of the guardian drops down the left side, shoot the dome with reflective lasers or despatch the force when it is in line. When the first part has blown up, move quickly across to the left hand corner and deal with the second section in the same way. The third section is then easily dealt with.

5) The guardian approaches from below, so watch out. A series of white blobs appear, and these are best dealt with by despatching the force into the centre of them, dodging any that come near When all the blobs have been removed, a ship is revealed beneath. Simply hit. the flashing square to blow up the craft.

from a healthy

for the correct

THING FOR PART 1 OR

32, 86,245,169, 32,141,84, 1,141,86,3, 96,72, 77,80 125,104,173,32,208,96

AT £9.95 ERE REALLY TALKING!

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ENTERTAINMENT

price if you apply before March 31st —————————— teleconferencing, Micronet lets you

1989. Micronet is not just informative, it's do the talking.

also a lot of fun! As a member you'll

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T NENNT sea

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INFORMATION

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micros mean Micronet members are

Peewee ee ee Sy > a & & F h a eee X

ENTERTAINMENT

REVIEWS

€ This week we review six of the best titles cur- rently available for the PC.

Zak McKraken and Looking For Love (not for- getting California Games on the Amiga) go for an amusing approach, while Battle Chess and Strike Fleet offer more sedate challenges.

It looks like 1989's going to be a great year for PC owners!

After debuting on the Amiga, Battle Chess was met with great acclaim for its graphics and sound, tem- pered by an average gameplay verdict. So, given the vast gulf between PC and Amiga specs, is a purchase worth the risk?

€ GAMEPLAY

Featuring ten levels of difficulty and an opening library of 30,000 moves along with over three megabytes of 3D animation, Battle Chess sets out to beef up what might be termed the most active aspect of chess - namely the taking of pieces. Here, animated combat accompanies all captures and adds an element of humour to strategic seriousness.

As with most chess programs worth their salt, you can move by keyboard or mouse, reload and save games, set up positions for problem-solving, force, take back and suggest moves and replay whole games. In addition, you can also play games by modem, thus adding a new dimension to games by post or telephone.

Considering that on level 9 the computer takes over 21 minutes to make its move you can be assured of some strong competition.

@ GRAPHICS AND SOUND

We could only test Battle Chess on a CGA card but at the end of the day, graphics are not that important in Chess in any case. The pieces are nevertheless well defined and animation smooth enough, although once you've made a move you won't necessarily always want to sit through the sometimes painfully slow animated sequences

CGA graphics: just about adequate

Luckily there's a 2D view of the board too, which dis- poses of the more indulgent aspects of the game. Sound, which can be turned off and on, is not all that fantastic, and concentrates on supplying cartoon spot- effects to the animated action.

@ OTHER VERSIONS

The Amiga version does of course leave the PC one standing. In both graphics and sound there's a whole world of difference, but then you'd expect that wouldn't you?

€ EXPRESS VERDICT

Not bad for a souped chess prog for beginners. While the strength of play is relatively weak compared to, say, Colossus X on the ST, Chessmaster on the Amiga or Sargon on the PC (with its library of 67,000 moves), there's still enough here to impress.

ooo

Andy Storer

California Games is another in the long line of very successful Epyx sports sims, involving six Califor- nian-based sports events: Half Pipe Skateboarding, Foot Bag, Roller Skating, BMX Bike Racing, Flying Disk (frisbee to you and me) and the obligatory Californian pursuit - Surfing.

€ GAMEPLAY

California Games allows one to eight players to compete or practise in individual or all six events in a bid to achieve the accolade of Californian Champion and win loads 'a' trophies.

Each event involve differing tactics with the basic theme of joystickwaggling at the right time and the right place, with the skill factor being on how successful you are at making these decisions. The events are in true laid-back Californian style, with debonair and skillful manoeuvres helping you achieve far better scores and bonuses.

Half Pipe Skateboarding and Foot Bag place you on a Static screen, while the other events are played over a horizontally-scrolling backdrop. Each event contains many nice little touches, such as sharks making an appearance when you get wiped out on the Surfing event, which help to enliven the game and add to its overall interest.

W-w-wipeout ...

@ GRAPHICS AND SOUND Audio-visuals are best described as competent but not outstanding. They certainly don't exploit the Amiga's graphics and sound hardware to the full

The sprites and backdrops seem to be straight conver. sions from the C64 version, albeit with better resolution and colour. Surprisingly, the audio comprises non-sam- pled sound effects and tunes, making them sound clear er but a little simplistic when compared to the more con- ventional sound-sampling method. € OTHER VERSIONS The &bit versions can now be found on the compilation Giants by US Gold, which also includes Out Run, Gaunt- let Il, 720° and Rolling Thunder. € EXPRESS VERDICT California Games is quite an enjoyable game, but it has got problems — namely a lack of lasting interest (due to its limited number of events) and each event being rather too easy to complete. Therefore California Games is probably best suited to the younger Amiga gamester.

ooo

Rik Haynes

Hotball is a football simulation from a French soft- ware company called Satory, and includes its own

Computer controlled player about to score an own 77] four-player joystick adaptor (which doubles as an j-pirating device).

€ GAMEPLAY

Not much to say, except that the game is viewed in an overhead fashion on a vertically-scrolling pitch, with you playing against an opponent (either computer controlled or one of the possible three human players) in a timed match of football.

During play you have a range of possible moves such as kicking the ball at ground level, at 45* angles or into the air, which you have to master if you fancy your chances as footballer of the year.

Perhaps the worst feature of the game is the infuriat: ing wait before play continues after scoring a goal - you want to get straight back into the action, not witness a crowd cheering © GRAPHICS AND SOUND Audiovisuals are barely adequate, including jerkily.mov. ing sprites with only a few frames of animation and very simple sound spot-effects.

Of particular note is the annoying sampled sound-track which continually repeats a few bars of music and will either drive you mad or have you quickly reaching for the volume control. € OTHER VERSIONS Hotball is also available on the Amiga, but we haven't got our hands on a copy yet. € EXPRESS VERDICT Despite Hotball being supplied with its own four-player adaptor, it fails to provide an enjoyable game of footie and isn't blessed with state-of-the-art audio-visuals to compensate for this deficiency.

Overall we'd go for International Soccer by Microdeal which is a better football sim in gameplay and audio-visu als, is £5 cheaper, and also has a four-player option (the adaptor allowing this costs an extra £6).

Rik Haynes

Night Hunter allows you to take on the persona of a member of the living dead, i.e. a vampire, frantic search to seek out some holy medallions. These protect the general public from your blood- sucking exploitations. All this so that that old vam- pire, Count Dracula, can rule the world and live (die?) happily ever after.

€ GAMEPLAY

Unfortunately for you, Professor Van Helsing, ace vam- pire-hunter, has heard about your little adventure and has formed an army of vampirekillers and laid anti-vampire

Night Hunter can drive you batty at times!

24 « NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 14 JANUARY 1989

ENTERTAINMENT

um ——À—Ááe —-— REVIEWS.

traps which you'll have to negotiate in this platform exploration type game.

Luckily, as a vampire you can change shape into either à bat or a werewolf and back to a vamp again, depend- ing on what type of hazard you encounter in your travels. On your travels you pass through some Gothic-style buildings, looking like something out of a Hammer horror movie. € GRAPHICS AND SOUND The graphics aren't too bad and contain some nice back- drops and sprites, although the sprites are a little on the small side

The sampled sound spoteffects are simple but appro- priate. @ OTHER VERSIONS No details on the other versions are currently available. @ EXPRESS VERDICT Night Hunter is an agreeable release, which conjures up a good atmosphere with its audio-visuals and gameplay, and will appeal to the expert and novice explorer alike.

ooo

Rik Haynes

Phantom Fighter is another scrolling shoot-em-up, one which supports some great backdrop graphics backed up by tough gameplay. It's designed and programmed by a new Ireland-based software design team called Emerald Software.

Vertically-scrolling shooting mayhem in level one

€ GAMEPLAY You've been given the task of controlling a spacecraft, and must travel through sand storms, volcanoes and lunar surfaces wiping out any alien craft that you meet along the way.

Fortunately, some of these aliens yield collectable pods which'll give you more powerful weaponry; which you'll need if you've going to take out the wel-armed and armoured alien guardians at the end of every level. € GRAPHICS AND SOUND Visuals consist of very well designed backdrops, slightly marred by the average sprite designs that accompany them.

Audio supports the usual range of weapon and explo- Sion sound spot-effects. € OTHER VERSIONS Phantom Fighter makes a superior audio-visual outing on the Amiga (of course) but don't hold your breath for the ST version because Martech considers that "the ST can't handle the graphics'.

@ EXPRESS VERDICT

For a scrolling shoot-em-up, Phantom Fighter doesn't provide a fast enough response to your control move- ments, which can be very frustrating at times. Having said that, the backdrop graphics are very attractive and the game is a tough nut to crack.

At the end of the day Phantom Fighter's yet another shoot-em-up without any truly outstanding features. Noth- ing more, nothing less.

ooo

Rik Haynes

Given its full title, Leisure Suit Larry Goes Look- ing For Love (In Several Wrong Places), you'd expect the sequel to 1987's adventure fantasy of the year to be well worth a look-in.

Judging by the original's recent popularity in The City, where viruses made justifiable amends for the masses of pirated copies on the loose, this one's already got a guaranteed follow. ing. Which is, presum- ably, why it's appearing on the PC first.

€ GAMEPLAY For adult adults only Larry wears Grecian

2000 and a white suit with shirt open to the waist and a gold chain round his neck. He's the original blind date night mare, the most negligible bachelor of the year.

Your aim is to make Larry score and, appro- priately enough, you do this by using the joystick. Mouse, keypad or direc- tion keys will also move Larry from encounter to encounter, though, and ‘once in position (ho hum) you're able to enter com- mands in English to inter: act with other characters.

As with Infocom adven- tures, the parser is very smart and humorous, and once you've adopted the practice of looking and examining everything you come

across youre easily hooked. As the parser under stands Flirt, Give, Grip, Hold, Kiss, Lift, Play, Push,

Strike Fleet allows you to take on the role of a strike fleet commander in a naval wargame simu- lation involving various scenarios, each with its own tasks and objectives. Your ultimate goal is to become Fleet Admiral (picking up any awards along the way) should your strategic skills be suffi- cient.

During play you'll have complete control over your fleet, from choosing your flagship to deciding which missile you're going to use to take out an enemy vessel; all con- trolled by clearly displayed menu options and in-game screens.

Adaptability is the name of the game, though, because the enemy will throw attacks at you from the air, on and below the sea's surface, therefore forcing you to adopt differing tactics as the game progresses. © GRAPHICS AND SOUND Visuals are up to scratch with varied and attractive screens featuring a good use of definition and colour throughout (especially EGA graphics), although the view-

LOOKING FOR LOVE

A seedy and amusing reflection of life as a nerd in America

Smell, Swing, Taste and Touch, you can guess your main objective. And they're only some of the document- ed keywords!

You have to be outrageous to succeed in this game and, as the author states in the introduction, no-one ever caught a social disease from a keyboard, Using pulldown menus you can adjust Larry's speed or the volume of the accompanying music. Crucially, you can also adjust the Filth level. Seeing as how this will usual- ly default to the max, it's fortunate you can save games when you're exhausted. € GRAPHICS AND SOUND A 3D animated adven lure which takes you from jet airliners to TV dating shows to South Pacific Islands, Larry's graphics are above average for the machine and, even with the usual negligible sound effects of the PC, add an element of humour to the mass awaiting you in the parser.

@ OTHER VERSIONS There might be an Amiga version out later this year, but for the time being only an ST version is definite.

@ EXPRESS VERDICT Great fun even for those who've never touched a bottle of Grecian 2000 in their lives. Looking For Love is a stylishly pack- aged descent into the seedier realms — of Raunchville, USA. As the cover states, "In the War between the Sexes, don't be an unarmed innocent bystander"

0000

Andy Storer

port section of the screen is rather small.

Audio is of the usual low quality due to the limited sound hardware found on the PC standard. € OTHER VERSIONS Strike Fleet is also available on the C64, where it fares better in the audio department but is only available on disk. € EXPRESS VERDICT Strike Fleet offers PC owners the chance to play a slight- ly different scenario from the average simulation, with a realistic and compulsive representation of the myriad of tasks involved in being a strike fleet commander. It should keep the avid simulation fan occupied for quite some time.

0000 Rik Haynes

2 LAMPS + Horpoon REM

snm shens

* MKS

Getting set-up in the ship yard

NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 14 JANUARY 1989 « 25,

Lez

ENTERTAINMENT

SOFTWARE GUIDE

AMIGA 20000 Leagues Under The Sea. 18.95. Amiga Gold Hits 1... 24.99 Baal. T 19.95 Barbarian II 19.99 Batman 24.95 Billiards .............. ..19.95 California Games... 2499 Captain Fizz. 1495 Circus Games 2495 Cosmic Pirate....... 19.99 Crazy Cars II 2499 Dark Fusion. 1939 Deluxe Paint II & Deluxe Print „69.95 F-16 Falcon „29.99 Freedom 19.95 Galactic Conqueror 24.95 Galdregon's Domain. 19.99 Gary Lineker's Hotshots .....19.99 Gauntlet 11 1939 Hellbent «..19.95.. Hotball 2495 Incredible Shrinking Sphere. 2499 International Karate+ 2499 Kennedy Approach. 2495 Manhattan Dealers. 2495 Purple Saturn Day 2495 Super Hang-On.............2499 Superman - Man of Steel ...24.95 Technocop. 19.99 Teenage Queen 1995 The Munsters 19.99 Tiger Road 24.99 ‘Track Suit Manager. 19,99. TV Sports Football .... 29.99 Ult. Sound Tracker........... 39.95 Wanted. 18.95 War in Middle Earth. 24,99 Zero Gravity. 19.95 AMSTRAD CPC Afterburner. D....14.99 Afterburner. T. 59 Barbarian Il D...1439 Barbarian II T....9.99 Chuck Yeagers Adv Flight Trainer .....D ...14.95 Chuck Yeagers Adv Flight Trainer......T.....895 Crazy Cars II. D...14.99. Crazy Cars II. T......9.99. Dark Fusion D...1499 Dark Fusion T.....9.99. Galactic Conqueror......D....14.95 Galactic Conqueror ......T ......9.95 Gary Lineker's HotshotsD...14.99 Gary Lineker's HotshotsT.....9.99 Incredible Shrinking Sphere........D ...14.99 Incredible Shrinking Sphere... T 9.99 Mini Office 1. T...299 R-Type. D....14.99 Technocop ... D... 1499. Technocop sss. T. The Archon Collection. T. The Munsters. ~D. The Munsters. ou Tomcat Pon War in Middle Earth.....T .....9.99.. AMSTRAD PCW Fish! .... 04.99 ARCHIMEDES [er e sree 2499

IES

January 19.

End Jan.

Out Now. Coktel Vision Out Now. US.Gold Early Jan. reat Jan/Feb. Mid Jan m Mid Jan. Ere/Infogrames Out Now.. Epyx/U.S.Gold Early Jan Psygnosis/Psyclapse Out Now dien lesoft. Jan/Feb Outlaw Imminent Titus February 7 Gremlin Out Now. Electronic Arts Out Now Mirrorsoft. Out Now. Coktel Vision Out Now. Titus Mid Jan Pandora February 14 Gremlin Out Now. US.Gold Out Now Novagen Out Now Satory End Jan........ Electric Dreams Mid Jan. System 3 January 17. Microprose Out Now. Silmarils Imminent s Exxos Imminent ... Electric Dreams Out Now Tynesoft Out Now. Gremlin January Infogrames Out Now... Again Again January 13 ...CapconvU.S.Gold Out Now.. Again Again Out Now. Cinemaware Out Now EAS. Out Now. Infogrames February....... Melbourne House Out Now EAS, Imminent... Activision Imminent Activision Jan/Feb, Palace Jan/Feb... Palace Early Feb. Electronic Arts Early Feb....... Electronic Arts Imminent Titus Imminent Titus February 7 Gremlin February 7 Gremlin Out Now...... „Titus Out Now. Titus February 14 Gremlin February 14 „Gremlin End Jan. Electric Dreams End Jan.........Electric Dreams Out Now .... Summit Out Now ..... Electric Dreams Out Now. „Gremlin Out Now.. -Gremlin Out Now. Electronic Arts Out Now. Again Again „Out Now......... Again Again Mid Jan, Players

Melbourne House

Rainbird

Out Now = Released within the last month

ATARI ST

20000 Lgs Undr The Sea.....19.95 . Out Now. Coktel Vision Barbarian II 19.99 . Imminent Palace Batman................ ....19.95 . Mid Jan...................Ocean Billiards ....... 19.95 . Mid Jan. Ere/Infogrames Bismark. 1-24.99 . Qut NOW ........... PSS Captain Fizz. 14.95 . Early Jan ierann Circus Games 24.95 .Out Now ... lesoft. Cosmic Pirate.. 19.99 . Jan/Feb Hioni Crazy Cars II 19.99 .Out Now... —] Dark Fusion........ 19.99 February 7. Gremlin F-16 Falcon. 24.99 .Out Now Mirrorsoft Freedom. 19.95 . Out Now..........Coktel Vision Galactic Conqueror 19.95 . Out Now. Titus Galdregon's Domain. „19.99 . Mid Jan. Pandora Game Over II....... 24.95 ..Out Now. Dinamic Gary Lineker's Hotshots .... 19.99 . February 14 Gremlin Hellbent ........... .19.95 ..Out Now. Novagen Hotball. 24.95 .Out Now Satory Incredible

‘Shrinking Sphere. 19.99 ..End Jan Electric Dreams Tron Lord 24.99 ..Late Jan... Ubi Soft Manhattan Dealers. 19.95 ..Out Now. Silmarils Night Hunter, 19.99 .Out Now. Ubi Soft Purple Saturn Day .........24.95 .Out Now .. Exxos Spitfire 40

& Strike Force Harrier........24.99 .Out Now. Mirrorsoft. Superman - Man of Steel ...24.95 . Out Now ‘Tynesoft ‘Technocop. 19.99 ..Out Now. „Gremlin Teenage Queen... 19.95 . January. Infogrames The Munsters 19.99 Out Now. Again Again Tiger Road 19.99 January 13... Capcon/U S Gold Track Suit Manager. 19.99 ..Out Now. Again Again Wanted 19.95 .Out Now... nfogrames War in Middle Earth... 24.99 . February...... Melbourne House Zany Golf. 24.95 .Late Jan. Electronic Arts Zero Gravity. 19.95 . Out Now. EAS. COMMODORE 64/128

Action Service. D....14.95. January ...... Cobra/Infogrames Action Service T sou -9.95 January ......Cobra/Infogrames. Circus Games. D.....14.95 .Out Now Tynesoft Circus Games ^T ...9.95..0ut Now. ... Tynesoft Dark Fusion D....14.99 February 7. Gremlin Dark Fusion T.....9.99.. February 7 Gremlin Exploding Fist + D.....12.99 ..Out Now. Firebird Exploding Fist + T.....9.99.. Out Now. Firebird Fish! D....19.99. End Jan......... Rainbird Gary Linekers HotshotsD...14.99 February 14 Gremlin Gary Lineker's HotshotsT......9.99 .. February 14 .,.........Gremlin Grand Prix Circuit.......D....14.95 .Late Jan. Accolade/EA Grand Prix Circuit ......T .....9.95. Late Jan. -Accolade/EA Hostages. D....14.95 ..Mid Jan. Infogrames Hostages T.....9.95 Mid Jan. Infogrames Incredible Shrinking

Sphere. D.....14.99 End Jan. Electric Dreams Incredible Shrinking

Sphere T.....9.99..End Jan. Electric Dreams Iron Lord. D....19.99 ..Late Jan. Ubi Soft Iron Lord sme T 082,99 . Late Jan......... Ubi Soft Jordan vs Bird:

One on OnelL...........D...14.95 .Out Now. Electronic Arts Mini Office 1 T 2.99 ..Out Now. Summit Project Firestart. D....14.95 . Early Feb......... Electronic Arts R-Type. D....14,99 .Out Now Electric Dreams Rocket Ranger. D...14.99 January Cinemaware. Serve and Volley. D....14.95 ..Out Now...........Accolade/EA. Serve and Volley.........T .....9.95 Out Now..........Accolade/EA StarRay.... D ...14.95 .Out Now.......... Logotron StarRay. T.......9.95 ..Out Now. Logotron Street Gang. T.....199. Mid Jan. Players Superman - Man of SteelD..14.95 .Out Now Tynesoft Superman - Man of SteelT ....9.95 Out Now c Tynesoft TKO, 2 14.95 .Out Now Accolade/EA TKO...... 9.95 ..Late Jan. Accolade/EA Tank Attack. D 14.99 ..Out Now............ CDS Tank Attack T....12.99 .Out Now. CDS Technocop....... D....1499 Out Now.............. Gremlin Technocop T .....9.99 ..Out Now. Gremlin The Double T.......2.99..Out Now n SUMMIT The Munsters.. D....14.99 .Out Now.. Again Again The Munsters... T......9.99 .Out Now. -—

Tomcat ........ T ...199 . Mid Jan. Players War in Middle Earth ..D .. 1999 February... Melbourne House War in Middle Earth.... T ....9.99 . February...... Melbourne House

i RELEASE SCHEDU

ES ISB RSS SPP EB -

BBC

Football Director D

Football Director.........T ....9.99 ..Out Now. Mini Office 1 T.....2.99.. Out Now ELECTRON

Mini Office 1 T.....299..Out Now. IBM & COMPATIBLES 20000 Leagues

Under The Sea 5.25....19.95..Out Now. Abrams

Battle Tank ......3.545.25....24.99.. Early Feb. Battlechess.... 35....24.96 ..Out Now .... Battlechess. 5.25 ....24.95 ..Out Now..... Billiards 5.25....19.95.. Mid Jan. Circus Games. 5.25 ....24.95 ..Out Now. Crazy Cars II..........5.25....24.99..Imminent F-16 Combat Pilot....5.25 ... 24.95... End Jan.. Fast Break. 5.25 ....24.95 . Late Jan. Freedom 5.25....19.95 Out Now........

Galactic Conqueror..5.25 Grand Prix Circuit.....35...

Grand Prix Circuit....5.25 ...24.95.. Out Now. Halls of Montezuma 5.25 ....24.95 , Early Jan Hostages 5.25 ...24.95 „Mid Jan. Manhattan Dealers 5.25 ....24.95 .Out Now. Rackem 5.25 ....24.95 .Out Now. Speedball 3.5+5.25 ....24.99 January. Star Goose........3.5+5.25 ....24.95 .Out Now... StarRay. 3.5*5.25....24.95 ..Out Now. Strikefleet. 35..24.95.. Out Now. Strikefleet. 525....24.95 . Out Now. The Bard's Tale II.....3.5....24.95 . Out Now. The Bard's Tale II....5.25 ...24.95 . Out Now. The Train. «5,25 ,..24.95 „Out Now. Times of Lore .........5.25 ....24.95 January 17. War in Middle Earth 5.25 ....24.99 February. Wasteland........3.5+6.26 ,...24.95 . Early Feb Zany Golf. 3.5+5.25 ....24.95 Out Now. MACINTOSH

Fish! 34.99 . End Jan MSX

The Munsters T.....9.99 .Out Now. SPECTRUM

Barbarian II. T.....9.99..Imminent Captain Blood. T......9.95 .Mid Jan. Circus Games T... 8.95 Out Now Dark Fusion. T......7.99 February 7 Exploding Fist +... T... 7.99 . Out Now. Gary Lineker's HotshotsT.....7.99 February 14 Incredible Shrinking

Sphere. T .....9.99 . End Jan. Mini Office 1 ... T.....2.99..Out Now Skateball .. T......8.99..Out Now. Street Gang..............T .....1.99 .Mid Jan. Superman - Man of SteelT..8.95 .Out Now Tank Attack... T.....12.99 Out Now. Technocop T......7.99 , Out Now, The Double T......299 Out Now. The Munsters T.....9.99..Out Now. War in Middle Earth.....T ....9.99 „January 19. SPECTRUM Pg

Barbarian Il in 14.99. Imminent Captain Blood. 2 44.95... Mid Jan. Dark Fusion. 3 12.99 . February 7 Fish!... 15.99. End Jan... Gary Lineker's Su 12.99 February 14 Mini-Putt. D....14.95..Late Jan Skateball...............D..1499.Imminent........... Technocop D.....12.99.. Out Now...... The Archon Collection.D ....14.95 .Out Now The Munsters D.....14.99 ..Out Now.

CRITE

New Computer Express

EXCLUSIVE

upplied by

12.99..Out Now

24,95 . Out Now. 24.95 Out Now.

CDS CDS Summit

„SUMMIT

Coktel Vision

Electronic Arts „Interplay/EA __dnterplay/EA. Ere/Infogrames Tynesoft.

n Titus

„Digital Integration

Accolade/EA Coktel Vision sons TUS Accolade/EA Accolade/EA SSG Infogrames Silmarils ..Accolade/EA Image Works ....Logotron Logotron

... Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Accolade/EA „Microprose Melbourne House „Electronic Arts Electronic Arts

Rainbird

Again Again

Gremlin

Electric Dreams Summit

+ Ubi Soft Players

Tynesoft

se CDS Gremlin

Summit

... Again Again Melbourne House

„Palace Exxos „Gremlin

.... Rainbird. „Gremlin „Accolade/EA «Ubi Soft ns GTEMIIN Electronic Arts Again Again

Imminent = Expected at time of publication

The Release Schedule is a reference guide to new and forthcoming products. Dates given are expected release dates and will be adjusted weekly. Please allow for slippage. Compiled by Software Information Services, a department of Inter-Mediates Ltd.

acc re a lll

Includes STFM with IMEG drive, 21 games with business software (worth over £450) & Joystick.

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Mega ST2 with mono monitor, 'MS-Write' and ‘VIP Pro." Mega ST4 with mono monitor, 'MS-Write' and ‘VIP Pro. SLM804 laser printer, great value at SM124/5 mono monitor Mega ST2 package - incl s 1 drive, SLM804 laser printer, ‘Microsoft Write’, 'VIP Professional’, ‘Fleet St. Publisher’ software and 90 days on site maintenance .. £ Atari DTP system - includes Mega ST4, mono monitor, SLM804 laser printer, 30Mb hard disk, ‘Fleet Street Publisher' software and 90 m on site maintenance. 5.25" External drive 40/80 track 3í '20K formatted capacity Pace Linnet Modem Pack inc.cable & software .. 'e 1022 14" TV/Monitor inc.full remote control, c/w ST or Amiga cable Philips CM8833 colour monitor c/w ST or Amiga cable Philips CM8852 as above, higher resolution Cameron Handy Mouse, high quality replacement ST mouse

A new Amiga 500 package Including the following: (extras worth over £270) * Amiga 500 computer X Photon Paint — X Demolition

* TV Modulator * Karate Kid 1% Atax

* Mouse & Mouse mat % Goldrunner x plus 5 disks of

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* Las Vegas * Grid Start.

Oceanic OC-118 647128 disk drive for 64/128 with free GEOS software Oceanic OC-118 as above with Freeze Machine

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EN REVIEWS

PC £24.99 dk Already out on C64, ST, Amiga

First of the 1989 outings from Lucasfilm, and bringing with it a whole range of cut-down Indus- trial Light and Magic for the small screen.

Along with Looking For Love, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, and all the recent Infocom adventures, this release just goes to prove that America takes its inter active entertainment seriously. That's not to say the subject matter can't be hilarious, just that it's light years ahead of the tired old D&D that passes for adven- ture over here.

Zak's a reporter with the National Inquisitor, a Sunday Sport type paper. Reporter is probably the wrong term, since most of the stories are fictional, and so when Zak discovers that aliens have built a stupidity machine designed to reduce human IQs, no-one will believe him. That is except for three other nutters who offer to help him solve the game's dozens of puzzles, unmask the aliens and destroy the machine.

You control Zak and command the other characters by constructing sentences with your mouse composed of the verbs and nouns on display. Movement of charac- ters is effected by clicking on Walk and pointing to where in the animation screen you want the character to move to. Punctuating the action are ‘cutscenes’ which provide clues and information about characters encountered

As with all adventures, it's very important to pay

CashCard phone bill

C64 Zak: not bad graphics and sound

attention to every location and object/char- acter you come across. Unlike most other adventures, though, there's no real way you & or any of your colleagues can get killed: your only worry is the amount of cash you have in your pocket.

The accent is firmly on exploring scenar ios and puzzles and enjoying the wacko humour. And wacko certainly is the word for the unfolding storyline. You only have to read the accompanying spoof newspaper to get the drift; Alien amusement parks found on Mars, two-headed squirrels, Bigfoots win ning records for non-stop kissing, microbus- es turning into space shuttles.

The screen is divided into a message line at the top where data and conversation is dis played, and a sentence line at the bottom where you construct sentences that tell all characters what to do. This bottom area also displays an inventory,

Between the two is the animation window, where a camera's eye view of proceedings is relayed. All action is punctuated by a great range of wipes, dissolves and pans, giving the whole game a filmic feel. Animation is fast and, even on a CGA card, sprite design and action hold up well

The C64 version has a good standard of audiovisuals — with the ST and Amiga versions promising substantial improvements in the audio departments and superior visuals (or course!)

Trouble in-store for our reporting hero as he confronts the Ed.

Are you good (bad) enough to be a Sunday Sport type hack?

It's great to see a company releasing product which advances the scope of interactive fiction. Although the action is let down a little by the graphics and the almost unmentionable sound of the PC, the game is very funny, highly original and worth a look. Once Lucasfilm begin to transfer its film skills to disk there's no knowing where it'll all end.

0000

Andy Storer

28 + NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 14 JANUARY 1989

TENSTAR PACK

WORTH OVER £229!

The Amiga 500 is one of a new breed of technologically advanced computers, which are now emerging as the new standard for home computing, based around the new Motorola 68000 chip. The A500 has 512K RAM and a 1Mbyte double Sided disk drive built-in. It can be connected directly to a wide range of monitors, or to a domestic TV set through a TV modulator. Designed with the user in mind, the A500 features a user friendly WIMP environment and comes supplied with a free mouse. And, when you buy your Amiga from Silica Shop, the UK's Not Amiga specialists, you will experience an after sales Service that is second to none, including a technical support helpline and free newsletters and price lists. Return the coupon below for our current information pack, which will give details of the Silica service and the very latest Silica Amiga offers. E&OE

PHOTON PAINT PACK

A500 Computer coc EE Cae E ute TV Modulator E | You some spectacular free gifts: First of alliwe are now iheluding

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4 E. á YA SN p^ s f ] DELIVERY

B - V ammo RES

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Belore you decide when to buy your new Commodore Amiga com

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MANY companies who can offer you a computer, a few peripherals and ing les. There are FEWER companies who can offer a

Y products lor your compuler as wel as Kee and T TV modulator with every A500 stand alone keyboard, so you need. There is ONLY ONE company who «5» || Photon Paint REGEM | can plug your Amiga svaight into your TW at home (he ange ct Amga rated products n e Ur a aime ^n || Ton Star Pack £229.50 | | nosvat nor ncided win te ASQDATMS pack as N o

copy of Photon Paint, an advanced graphics package wilh an.

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and can now claim to meet our customers requirements with an accuracy and understanding which is second to none Here are just some of the things we can offer you

THE FULL STOCK RANGE: The largest range of Amiga

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i are giving away the TENSTAR Buggy Boy £24.95 PRICE MATCH PROMISE: We will normally match our Photon Paint £69.95 GAMES PACK worth nearly Ikari Warriors £24.95 Gompetitors offers on a 'same product same price basis TenStar Pack £229.50 | | £230. absolutely FREE with Insanity Fight £24.95

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FREE TECHNICAL HELPLINE: Full time team of Amiga technical experts to help you with your technical queries.

But don't just take our word for it. Complete and return the coupon below for our latest Amiga literature and begin to experience the Silica Shop specialist Amiga service

To: Sica Shop Lid, Dep NCE, 1-4 The Mews, Hatherley Road, Sidcup, Kent DA14 4DX

PLEASE SEND ME FREE LITERATURE ON THE AMIGA

Mr/Mrs/Ms: Initials: Surname

It you already own an Amiga computer and would like to be registered on our mailing list as an Amiga user, let us know. We will be pleased to send you copies ol our price lists and newsletters FREE OF CHARGE as they become available. Complete the coupon and return it Io our Sidcup branch and begin experiencing a specialist Amiga service that is second to none.

Address:

SIDCUP (& Mail Order) 01-309 1111 1-4 The Mews, Hatherley Road, Sidcup, Kent, DAT4 4DX OPEN: MON-SAT 9am -530pm LATE NIGHT: FRIDAY Sam - 7pm LONDON 01.580 4000 52 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1P OB, OPEN: MON SAT 9 Stam 600 pin LATE NIGHT. NONE PON LONDON 01-629 1234 ext 3914 bese

Selfridges ( 1st floor), Oxford Street, London, W1A 1AB Do you already own a computer OPEN: MON-SAT 9am -600pm LATE NIGHT: THURSDAY 9am - 8pm If so, which one do you own?

IEREREUESESLIIO as E | The place for your questions and suggestions

Memory problem I I have a Sanyo 555-2 machine, which | have used for some time. | have become used to it, and it has proved to be very satisfactory. It was origi- nally 128K and | have updated by adding the 16 further memory chips provided by the makers so that it is now 256K. | have also put in a video board so that is now more or less IBM-compatible.

| have recently started to learn C programming and would like more memory. At one time Sanyo had a video board which provided an extra 256K, and they also sold a hard disk drive. Unfortunately, neither of these is available now.

| would appreciate your comments (or those of fellow readers) on these or any other options that may be open to me: 1, Fit larger chips. | have read about 150ns chips. Would these fit in the same sockets as my present chips? Would they all have to be replaced? Where could | get them from? 2. The Zortech compiler manual says: "fit a larger RAM disk". Is this something | could do myself? Could you suggest a source for the disk and what sort of cost might be involved? DW Wilcock, Oxford * Unless I'm mistaken, the Sanyo was one of the earliest "PC-compatibles’ which — unfortunately — wasn't very compatible at all. However, it does run MS-DOS and offered pretty good value for money.

Unfortunately, being MS-DOS compati ble and PC-compatible are two entirely dif- ferent things, PC-compatibility means you can avail yourself of the enormous range of memory boards, video adaptors, hard disk drives, and other desirable peripher- als. As DW has discovered, the Sanyo doesn't qualify

Expanding memory may be more diffi- |

cult than you imagine, Fitting larger chips is a possibility, but you're obviously a little confused: the designation 150ns refers | to the speed of the chips, not their capac- ity.

The first thing to do is to carefully peruse your manuals and find out if the Sanyo is capable of addressing 512K. It ought to be but designers have done stranger things. Next, find out the speed of your existing memory chips.

You can do this by reading the legends printed on their tops. If you used 16 chips to add 128K of RAM, it sounds like you've got 64K-bit chips, eight of which provide | 64k-bytes, They'll probably carry a legend something like 4464-12 or 4164-12, or | 4164-15. The 64 part tells you they are | 64K-bit chips, and the 12 stands for 120 nanosecond, and 15 for 150 nanosec- | ond.

Although it's possible to use “faster | memory chips, you'll be safer using | replacements of similar speeds.

On most PC-compatibles you need not | only the obvious eight chips but also a ninth for parity checking, but from what you say the Sanyo apparently doesn't. | Make sure. You'll need 16 (or 18) of | these to provide 512K. |

These will cost about £8 or £9 each, depending on speed, and are available from most serious suppliers, but try Digi task on 0293 776688.

On your second point, RAM disks are not usually physical objects but part of your main memory set aside for use as a Very fast disk drive. So this is simply | another aspect of your memory expan- | Sion problems.

Finally, for practical as well as moral support, you probably ought to get in touch with the Sanyo MBC users group.

Here's a useful tip for PC owners. To make a file containing the names of all your files (ie, to make a catalogue of disks) make sure that each disk is labelled, both physicaly and under DOS.

Then, create the catalogue file by typ- ing DIR A: *.* > CATALOG.FIL. Then for your other disks, put each disk in turn into the B drive if you have one (or use DOS's disk-swapping facility if you have only one drive) and type DIR B:*.* >> CATALOG.FIL.

The catalogue file can then be searched using

ic filename and the disk it is on. Hugo Minney, Witton Gilbert, Durham

a word processor, or S4. DOS's TYPE command, to find a specif-

— ES

Write to MH Syed, Wistaria, 53 Acacia | Grove, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 | 3BP. |

TIP

| after a REM statement. For example: |

1 POKE 770,21:POKE — 771,8:REM | [SPACEIMICBM+ILIICBMS]ICBMM] Type as normal up to the REM statement, | then to enter the code: Press [SPACE] then [Y], next the Com- | modore key and the [S] key and then the | Commodore key and the [M] key. The line must be the first line of the program. Do not put any spaces in the line other than the one after the REM. When you list the line it will look very different to when you typed it in, so if you make a mistake

you can only change it before you list it.

The two pokes tell the computer where to go if the [STOP] key is pressed. ISPACEIMICBM+] = JSRSA659 - initialise Basic ILIICBMSIICBMM] = JMPSA7AE - run J. Raybould, Chesterfield

LR k.

Memory problem II

Many thanks for your wonderful mag- azine which has left the competition behind. | would be grateful if you could help me to understand some things about my computer.

| have a Pioneer PX-7 MSX which has 32K RAM. When I switch it on ! | get a message on screen saying "28751 bytes free", which changes to "24450 bytes free" when the disk drive is connected.

Why the difference, and why not "32000 bytes free"?

Another question is, when | use the 32K expansion RAM pack to make a total of 64K RAM, why do | get the same bytes free messages as above? A Munir, Thornton Heath, Surrey * To begin with, 32K is not 32000 bytes but 32,768 (each kilobyte equals 1024

| bytes). So your free memory at power on is little less than 4K short of that.

As to why, | don't know for sure in the case of the PX-7, but all computers pro- vide less free memory than they have total memory. The reason is simply that other things have to map into the memo- Ty space.

For example, your Basic interpreter, and the computer's operating system, use up some of your precious memory. Also, screen displays use up at least 1,000 bytes (40 x 25 characters), and more for higher resolution displays, or for colour screens.

So your shortfall in free memory is not at all unusual (Commodore Amiga owners are even worse off — their free memory is | usually more than 100K short of the theo- retical 512K).

Similarly, when you add a disk drive, | you lose roughly another 4K. Some of |

this is probably the disk operating sys- tem, some of it will be buffer space.

However, the situation with your expan- sion pack is more difficult to explain. The first question must be: are you sure it's working? If you have some software that you know for certain makes use of more than 32K of RAM then you can test it that way. Or you could write a Basic program to dimension a large array (200 x 200 ought to do it). If Basic runs this, again your RAM expansion is working.

The only other explanation may be that whoever wrote the PX-7 operating system didn't expect anyone to be using more than 32K of RAM, so the free memory messages don't reflect the true amount of memory in the system.

Win a sub!

We want to hear your problems, but we also want helpful hints and tips. As well as the eternal glory of helping out your fellow sufferers, you could even scoop the weekly best-tip prize of a free 26-issue subscription to this magazine!

And remember, there's no waiting around for monthly publication dates. The best tips, and solutions to your problems will be in print before you can say Alan Sugar (please don't send SAEs for replies, we can only answer

enquiries in print).

So whether it's help offered or needed, write to: Tech Tips, New Computer Express,

4 Queen Street,

ST freeze

ST owners whose favourite game doesn't have a pause mode may well be interest- ed in this handy little tip.

First make sure you haven't got a print- er connected, then press [ALTERNATE] and [HELP] at the same time. Your com puter will then freeze up for approximate- ly 20 seconds while it works out why it can't send any data to the printer.

This doesn't work with every program, but when it does it gives you that little bit of time to switch on the video, take the phone off the hook or rescue your leg from the jaws of your pet Doberman. Steve Baxter, Norwich

Budget DTP

Do you know of any good PD or shareware programs that would enable me to try out desktop publish- ing on a small scale without spending a fortune (| have an Amstrad PC1512)? lain Arnell, Portsmouth, Hants * DTP software is among the most com- plex you can buy: it needs to understand graphics and graphic actions like scaling and cropping; all about fonts and type- faces including proportional spacing; and it has to be easy to use, providing a com- prehensive array of command options including menus, key commands and mouse-control.

And it had better be written in some-

| thing fast - like pure machine code.

That means no-one is likely to write a DTP program unless they've got a reason- able chance of getting some reward for their efforts. In other words, don't hold your breath waiting for suitable software to reach the public domain.

30 ° NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS « 14 JANUARY 1989

TECH TIPS

HELP

Your cheapest option at the moment is Timeworks Lite, a slightly cut-down ver- sion of the highly-regarded Timeworks DTP package, which sells for £49.95. It runs under GEM and provides most of the facilities you'll need (no laser printer | ‘support, though).

{t's available from Electric Distribution (0954 61258).

Friendly Amiga

Ever fancied getting a nice, personal wel- | come from your Amiga every time you | boot it up? Here's how. |

When the Amiga starts up it automati- cally reads the STARTUP-SEQUENCE file in the S directory of the boot disk. This file contains a set of ordinary CLI com- mand lines like:

ECHO "Workbench 1.2"

This makes the Amiga echo the text in | quotes to the screen. | First, though, you'll need to make a copy of the Workbench disk, since the | original has no space for extra files. | Insert the copy, restart your Amiga, and |

get to the CLI prompt as described.

Now make some space by typing | DELETE UTILITIES ALL | DELETE DEMOS ALL

You can now modify the startup pro- cess. At the CLI prompt type:

ED S/STARTUP-SEQUENCE

You are now in the (undocumented!) text editor, and can use the cursor and delete keys to modify the text on the | screen.

Those of a jolly disposition can even make their Amiga talk to them. Simply press [RETURN] to open up a blank line at the start of the file, then type in the fol- lowing:

SYSTEM/SAY ‘Greetings Master. Your slightest wish is my command.” | Then save the file by pressing [ESC] and typing [X] for eXit and [RETURN]. You're then back at the 1> CLI prompt. |

* Amiga A500: Will it talk to you?

Wait for the disk drive light to go out, then reboot your Amiga and...it speaks to | you!

You can put any text you like inside the quotes of the SAY command and have any number of lines of SAY commands. Brian Templar, Sidmouth

Star driver Having just bought a Star LC-10 colour printer, | eagerly awaited the | reat colour print-outs that all the | reviews spoke so highly of. To my horror not an inkling (pun intended) of colour could | squeeze out of this impressive piece of equipment. Monochrome printouts using | Degas (not Elite) were excellent but |

was visualising Bugs Bunny in glori- ous Technicolor.

Can you suggest where I can find a printer driver for the wonderful LC- 10, or any art packages that would run the printer to it's full dumping facilities.

Justin Basini, Thames Ditton, Surrey

| * Another victim of the great printer driv-

er saga.

First, check your list of printer drivers in Degas. Although you're not likely to find the LC-10 (it's a recent printer and Degas is old software), you can try any driver for a colour printer. There's a rea- sonable chance that one of them will work (but it must be a colour printer driv- er).

Second, get in touch with any of the

| national ST user groups or public domain

libraries — these are the best source of non-commercial software like printer drivers.

Third, you could try the Cyber series from Antic (distributed by Electric Distri bution, tel 0954 61258). Part of the Series includes a library of printer drivers for a variety of printers including Star.

TIPS

| Amiga file handling

Ribbons rejuvenated

Here are some tips for the Amiga 500. As single-drive users know, to copy files from one disk to another you must first Copy them to RAM. For example

To copy all the files in the "C" directory to another disk

Copy C all ram

then

Copy ram: all mydisk:

But | have RAM included in the path, so | also have some commands in RAM which | use for accessing other disks without inserting Workbench all the time. So to copy files from RAM to a disk means that the commands are copied too, which | don't want. To avoid this | do

Makedir ram:store

Then | lock or protect store to prevent it being deleted

Lock ram:store

Then to disk

Copy ram:store all to mydisk:

The | delete the files in store so that | can use it again

Delete ram:store all

Store itself is not deleted as it is locked. Type delete ram: all

and it won't work as RAM is a device. Type delete ram:#? all and it will work.

In issue 6 there was a tip about printer ribbons. Well something similar can be done with the ribbons of an Okimate 20 printer, colour or black and white. When the ribbon is nearly finished, the used rib- bon is wound up on the left reel. It then pushes a lever and stops any further advance. To get that extra bit of ribbon, which can last quite a while, you must prise open the cartridge. It's quite easy — just insert a small screwdriver or some- thing into a hole in the side of the car- tridge and twist it a bit. When it's open, take the larger reel of ribbon off the plas- tic wheel and discard it. Tape the end of the remaining ribbon onto the wheel, wind it on a few turns, and that should do it.

| have lots of Fish and PD disks. If any- one wants a copy, just send a disk plus a Stamp for return postage.

P.S. Can anyone send me a printer driver for the NEC Pinwriter P2200. Ive tried lots of drivers and none are good enough for graphics as they're all for 9-pins. George Garven, Kilmarnock

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