Hs, Petr tel QD 11-17 December 1986 Vol 5 No 50 MikroGen sells out to Se Sparks Full story - p4 NEWS DESK Ocean in transatlantic link with Mindscape? Atari beefs up software support service Problems with Plus 2 screen editor THIS WEEK’ eee Microdeal’s Karate Kid II (above) - martial arts on the Atari ST Star Glider on Amstrad CPCs Gremlin’s Footballer of the Year Atari returns to its roots: the 7800 games console (right)GET YOUR HANDS ON THE NEW SINCLAIR [28K +2. BEFORE EVERYBODY ELSE DOES. The new 128K ZX Spectrum +2 is more than just a monster memory. It's the ultimate family computer. With a built-in datacorder for easier loading, superb graphics capability, two joystick ports, a proper typewriter keyboard and more games available than you can shake a joystick at (well over 1000 software titles, in fact). Better get your hands on the new 128K ZX Spectrum +2 soon. Before they do. ORY: MONSTER VALUE [ | | | Dixons Electric Supreme, Laskys, John Lewis, John Menzies, Power City, Rumbelows, Utimate, WH Smith, Wigfalls, and good independent stores, We recommend Sinclair Quality Control Software. SinclairSTIMULATION FROM THE WORLDS LARGEST ST PUBLISHERS apare x Th 9p Baer CONPUTERGAME ate gare Ths gare ft in ih nya ts agenatee mespowel Shanes. Thetis eer Chaesthanel nw ccesttng Sfoncct whereyou us demersal cram 01 ak eit a veh ret cae ak sty! brshandh sx, aero pire, diel ass cee casige The oy Became tT furl car fee Wha you so? AVALAGLE CATE NOVEWGER-=fo4SS"conuty STUPENDOUS sun STAGGERING Ante Shute isi exgerance tom yos era aha [Sth oa saagarewiner Shute cannot tom ay Lota bernie lore he you text ‘Shite Career er Fates nebo! eh Contr {acc uch and ecg pastors ngs, en ke fhesentoighiconreaner 94.321 ah it now ae Suelo obieading ne eerna ts, ‘owt te Stat ha meee neva an youre pack ringitackiothe cago bay Now ace State Vow, {ing oagh an sn —canyou soy Stel turenguy? noanicr Mo te amare ise ey sewn sree ry anpesitvew Canjoulzs satel whoa pugrng 20 Ftetconr ne te runsay Dosyoa Scr getyou tna Faogsesonect he worisbes Srl re gaanon by Hagng dens Saciangane She AYNIRBLENOVEMBER=£21 85" aureny Prwsac Fac PINEAL comets with nw cae pane. PINBALL has eer oe teat osx ate. Pete set he Pata “tae an ey ly ares ar eae bucgrosn craps tscos cous tha bal wo bownon oe mewehcentuepes meting Coen ta 1S Navtoa egonecrdcan he ater erro shy eye ate he te acne cyst dengeaem qe st {atpsBerencodestibepon em Mievhed yet set esc yy. ge aay egy Bee PR be fll of owen teu org Heats ain mastgns is he tgs Nonereeo ane Girone Sek Wr raat hee WAEELENGW "Ee 5-coowrony. STUNNING LectRowe poo STRIKING Alig clara Vie Foe em ie he cade version. fet atch sam be, fer Spey opus we elate Seangoecs ps agrmémusc-eaespes aU sune Sci youreeton tn eye ce al estat actonisso flsi ou dt tred tale oer onan atte bot feanetcnanfoncansdaes inter antigen tena ne tres ia sender Unt each AUALAGLENOM “£19 85" mone oc " JaViR CHALLENGE STUPEFYING Herre etiy400 ong ness aging rom ne Ba {piteedusatenalon teabotl Spon Tears. Fop Mosk cat nny ned rode. Te cana ht beet assqnag aon eres he sures gen bry pare sihinn iene ats ngatcaty or Tovcete Butlayourowe qutceonsandaswers Hare's you chan Enjoy eurschvdres ceo reiapensrd want fleet TEVA GHALLENGE~n ara nic ows you {ob canesant garter quran an wak say ‘tore stan AVAILABLE Ow £19 95° monn sour ...GO ON STIMULATE YOUR ST TODAY Are sit BOx-sa ST AUSTELL CREDIT CARD ORDERS BY PHONE CORNWALL 0726 68020 THLECTRONIC PUBLISHING PL25 4¥BHARDWAREP> 15 Atari 7800 First of Atari's new launches to appear next year will be the re-~ RSW ae UTC) vamped games console, the 7800. In our preview, we look at its capa: bilities and some of the software available for it HELVETICA MEDIUM ITALIC] sate sno SnAssD MOBOGRANMY FELVETICA | (LARGE) BODONI (LARGE) 17 PCW Fonts Dissatisfied with the look of PCW printouts? David Wallin. compares 18 Adventure Corner 19 Adventure Help 20 Arcade Action Lots of help with Strike Force Cobra, plus this week's Top Twenty. 23 Karate Kid Il Is this the game of the film or the film itself? Difficult to tell with the superb graphics in Microdeal’s new ST game. See for yourselves in full colour. 24 Reviews Wargaming with Rainbird's Tracker, a game of two halves with Gremlins Footballer of the Yeer, bouncing in space with Orbix the Terrorball from Domark ~ a varied selection to get your teeth into this week 6 News Desk Atari bids to expand software support 12 Letters, Chess 40 Communications of electronic mail over the conven- tional post. 43 Chess Martin Bryant's computer chess up- date discusses the advanced fea David Wallin looks at the advantages tures of today's chess programs. 45 Soundcheck More musical offerings for the ST, plus EMS from Gremlin Graphics for the Amstrad, 51 New Releases 54 Ziggurat, Hackers Eck, Chau Ean New or Jo Liz Fastin elif Cok Tete! ety Ouncn Fas, Proution at: Wits neta evo Supple denne Bara oe Prerotions manager Sim Llmgaton Asafa advisement manager Oo vertosinant enscatves Son Soc oar Woediy Casated exoutve Sa ft taeeatee ugetm eg sae one = stain, London SW, Tel OVA BET toler 26608 Xeon fie Veer ee @ Sunshine enone 1d 1808, BSN Popular Computing Weekly. Tel: 01-437 4343. Arg wach re submited fox pct shoud tbe mete thn 2000 words og. Teac, 4 ay Ea ete eee en eee them ore” 2 pace do ot be tp We emo! peste ‘pogrom so pee yor eee ersten eC ee eee ene How to submit articios 11-17 DECEMBER 1906 POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY’MikroGen is sold distrib MIKROGEN has been bought out by Creative Sparks Distri- bution for a sum which, ak though undisclosed, is sub- stantial enough to. make MikroGen managing director Mike Meek “very happy”. Tho Bracknoll-based soft- ware house was one of the longest serving independent labels in the business, but is known to have bean looking at ways to expand for the past year or so. The first ‘option floated was a budget label, which didn’t get off the ground, but Meek reveals that he’s more recently been look- ing at tie-ins with other companies, “We've got an operation that'll be very much better if we go with other people in the market." He claims that neither company made the first move, but that the deal arose from “various discus- to utor sions’ about other matters he'd held with CSD managing director Henry Kitchen. Meek also concedes that he'd been talking to other companies “although they ‘weren't in this country,”” and he says that there was no Urgency in the company get- ting more backing MikroGen will continue under the sama management, the main change, according to ‘Meck, being that it should be able’ to produce more products, The takeover of MikroGen is just the latest ina series of ‘expansion moves CSD has ‘made since it was the subject ‘of a management buyout last year. Tho company now has 3 presence in book publishing, serious software, training and support, distribution and games software. PC: Passed its exams PC passes Poly test AMSTRAD is claiming furthor evidence of its PC's reliability after 16 of tho machinos sur- vived @ month at Leicester Poly in what Amstrad do- scribes as one of the PC's ‘toughest assignments yet” The machines are claimed to have boon running 12 hours a day, five days a week, both individually and networked, with no serious problems. if they continue to be so reliable and the price remains roughly the same, we'll cor- tainly be buying more,” said 2 Polytechnic spokesman, Fraud over games SOFTWARE buyers have een victims of snothar be- gus mail order company, Johnson Enterprises, oper- ating from an address. in Stoke-on-Trent, is now the subject of a fraud inquiry by Stoke CID, ‘ACID spokesman said that it appeared that there had been no software for salo. The company had simply tak- en customers’ money with no intention of fulfilling the orders, The premises in Stoke were an accommodation ad: ress, and the person respon- 1¢ could be from anywhere in the country, the spokes: man said. ‘Anyone who has lost mon: ey through dealing with John. ‘Son Enterprises should report the matter to their local police station and ask them to con- tact the investigating officer at the County Police Otfice, Sutherland Road, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. @ Popular Computing Weekly ‘would ike to point out that there is no connection between Johnson Enter- prises and Maros Computers Lid of Market Street, Long- ton, Stoke-on-Trent. Maros Computers has been very helpful in bringing to light the true state of affairs at Johnson Enterprises, Atari bids for business ATARI is aiming 10 break into the business market with ts ST rango, and has just signod op Merseyside IEM dealer Date Exchange as part of its campaign for next year ‘The systems Atan plans to ail into business are the two and four megabyte STs, hard dise and the IBM co-proces: ‘or which, according to Atari general manager Bob Glea- dow, require “a new broed of dealer,” and it appears that Atari will be trying to differen- tiote betwoen this hardware (which will now be available “early next year”) and the current ST range “We plan to market them. very aggressively and conse- quently need strong dealer support from companies like Data Exchange who are used to dealing with large corpora- tions,” says Glesdow. Ocean in US tie-up? ‘THE success of British com- panies like Mastertronic and Firebird in selling budget soft- ‘ware in the US has prompted US publisher Mindscape to join them with its Thunder Mountain range. The range will consist mainly of pro- grams that have previously been published in the US and Europe, with the first rolease being Ocean's Rambo. Jon Woods of Qcaan de. scribes this as a “one-off deal," concedes that Ocean is talking to Mindscape, but won't say what these talks are about, “I don't talk until the ink is dry," he says. Ocean is’ however well placed for # tie-up with Mindscape. The British com: pany has a substantial back. list of products that haven't so far been released in the US, and Mindscape intends to feature “strong character ences", something of a spe- iality of Ocean's in the new range. 6/POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY 11-417 DECEMBER 1936Plus 2 hits problems with screen editor PROBLEMS with the screen character you type in you'll editor on Amstrad’s new find the machine loses most Spoctrum Plus 2 are becom- of your input. ing apparent. The editor The editor is basically a ‘works fine with most listings, patch added on to Spectrum butthe longer the listing inthe Basic when Sinclair launched computer's memory the more the 128K Spectrum, so it’s the editor slows down, still possible to adit 48K list Effectively this means that ings by using the Plus 2 in Basic listings over around 48K mode (although you'll 300 lines are difficult to alter, have to remember where the as the editor appears to have keywords are} to refer to the entire listing As Popular went to press each time you enter a Amstrad said it was unaware character. of the problem, but said it So unless you wait two or would look at it if notified three seconds between each of it. DR predicts Gem on a chip DIGITAL Research is hailing sor as well as a dynamic the arrival of the Intel $2786 video Ram memory con- hip next spring as the saving troller. DR is launching Gam of the PC standard, The IBM 786 to take partial advantage Machine has traditionally of the new chip by running fared badly against the likes Gem faster, but the company of the Apple Macintosh be- predicts that graphic systems cause of its poor graphics like Gem will be bull into handling, but the mew chip, the new chip in the near which DR says will initially be future, available 8s an upgrade card This plus the new chip will for PCs and compatibles, is allow PCs to run graphics sys: set to change that tems faster, and to use far ‘The 82786 contains an in- higher resolution monitors for ternal graphic processor sub- the likes of design and desk- system and a display proces- top publishing applications, Video on Amiga COMMODORE is now selling its Amiga Pal Genvock systen which allows the Amiga's graphics to be mixed with external Pal video sources. This allows subtitles to be added to videos, or computer graphics 10 be used against a background of a video image. Genfock now showing The device retails for £430. ST ee Lat Do you remember that digi tised dalliance Samantha Fox s Strip Poker? Sily, wasn't it~ but strange enough, there are still people out there who think there is money to be made out of pouting pixels, i is only to point out the absur- ity of the thing that we feo! forced to mention a couple of programs by Brilliant Soft- ‘ware which bring an entirely ew meaning to the category utility. One is selection of digitised pictures named Miss Al Nude America, the other 8 similar classic named Gils They Want To Have Fun. Any argument about the ethics of such software is largely irrelevant hare, but as @ consumer magazine we fool obliged to point out that if anyone wants to look at pic- tures of naked women. or men, full colour, high resol tion photographic images can bbe easily obtained from any Newsagent at considerably Jess cost than the £9.60 the tape will set you back. Sex and computing do not mix — be warned ~ many have the ‘scars to prove it. | think I feel an apology ‘coming on ~ attention please. Last week I exclusively re- vealed the existence of LAlfaire Simon from Into- grames, the first computer game ever 10 open with a man Setting his head shot off. Now: ‘we can exclusively reveal... that it isn't called L“Affaire Simon at all, rather LAffoire Indoor Sports Siiney. So if you see anyone, tell them, will you? News from the Argus stable, Firstly, Bug Byte will soon be re-relvasing two old Virgin classics, Falcon Patrol J and Svangeloon — both great value at £2.99 on Spec- trum and Commodore, Also, Quicksitva has made a late ‘entry in tho coin-op conver- tion stakes with Elevator Ac- tion, Licensed from Taito, it involves guiding Agent Otte all the way from the top of an ‘apartment building to his waiting getaway car ~ all a flimsy excuse for plenty of gratuitous violence. Vastly Popular in the arcades, sur- prisingly there has only been ‘one true home computer clone — Mission Elevator on ‘Amstrad CPC — so it's some- thing to look forward too in January, In fact, the New Year is ‘going to be busy — the list of post-Christmas réleases ever ‘grows; Shockway Rider and Heroquest to name but 1wo, You can also add. indoor Sports from Advanee to the deluge ~ licensed from ‘Mindscape in the US (in turn programmed by DesignStar People ~ who are ex- GameStar personnel). This compilation willbe selling for £8.95 on Spectrum and Com- modore 64, £9.95 on Am- strad CPC. Spectrum and Amstrad versions will have four sports; 10-pin bowlin: darts, air hockey and table tennis — alas Commodore ‘owners will hava to be con- ‘tent without the latter, as it's already been released full price on its own by US Gold. Funny old world, isn’t it? John Cook 11-17 DECEMBER 1986 POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY)?Discovery rights on sale THE Opus Discovery, de facto ly more interested in selling to disc standard for the Spec- an overseas company. trum, appears to be up for Hughes sells a considerable sale, with at least two com- amount of software for the panies bidding to buy it. No- Discovery, so, falling actually ‘one at Opus was available for buying the rights to the de- ‘comment as Popular went to vice, he’s interested in mak press, but the company is ing sure that the drives are ow putting a great deal of still available from someone. ‘weight behind its PC compati- The original deal involved ble, and the opportunities Opus selling Transform a sup- there are likely to be greater ply of } inch drives along with than in the home market. the rights to the product, but, Colin Hughes of Sinclair failing this, Hughes says he software and add-on supplior can get drivas of his own, and Transform has been trying to doesn’t rule aut producing his buy the rights to the Discov- own drive if he can’t gat the ‘ary, but last week the deal Discovery. seamed to have fallen He still, however, has through, with Opus reported- hopes that Opus will do busi- Discovery: The bidding opens ‘ness with him, and feels there aren't too many other serious contenders in the frame, They offeredit toa couple of people, but | heard that no- body was interested. As far as I know I'm the only one ‘wrth money on the table Transform specialises in serious uses for Sinclair ma chines, and sees the Discov- ery as an industry standard. Miracle’s WS4000 Miracle launches modem for the PCW MIRACLE Technology has facilities. Miracle can also produced a version of its supply it with bundled Chit WS4000 modem forthe Am- Chet communications soft- strad PCW. The WS4000 is ware for £298, Hayes compatible and fea- ‘The WS4000 is Miracle's tures V21/V23 and speeds top-of-the-range modem, is from 300 to 1200/75 baud totally software controlled as standard. It can be up- and features auto-dial and graded to V22/\/22 bis and auto-answer. 1200 and 2400 baud full ~ Sage's ChitChat is a sophis- api ing Woated communications ie modem comes with a package supporting a wide serial interface for the PCW rango of baud rates and in- built in, so you don't need to cluding a phone directory buy Amstrad’s and according facility to Miracle can be operated Details from Miracle Tech- with the Amstrad’s built in nology, St Peters Streat, Mail 232 software, which Ipswich IP1 1XB (0473 provides basic comms 216141) Lifeline thrown to Apricot users APRICOT users beached by ‘the company’s abandonment of its low-end machines are Row being offered a cheap support service. On-Line Support hes been formed as a partnership between add-on board manu facturer Infosoft Systems and software consultancy Viking Information, and offers a range of services. Bulletin board-based support (£29.95 a year) is cheapest, and various permutations of telephone support are offered, Details from Simon Tea (0905 778871) or Alan Flower (0272 858189) Cheetah claims the credi CHEETAH has pointed out that the joystick interface bundled with the Spectrum, Plus 2 by Boots (see last Week's issuo) is 3 Kompston- compatible Cheetah interface, and not a Kempston as pub- lished. The Cheetah pack also includes the Cheetah 125+ joystick, which ean plug into the interface or into the Plus 2 ‘itself, allowing both Sinclair ‘and Kempston protocols to be used. In the same issue the price of Choctah’s Mk5 Midi key- board was also inadvertently loft out of the roviow — it is in foct £99.95 8/POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY 11-17 DECEMBER 1986ah se tS Se 42 Market Street, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs. Tel: 0782 319144 % COMMODORE; SPECTRUM; AMSTRAD; MSX & ATARI HOME & BUSINESS SOFTWARE * + OWNERS OF COMPUTER WORLD RETAIL CHAIN * * 30% DISCOUNTS * e.g. £9.95 games will be £6.95 or £7.95 games will be £5.50 etc * ALL NEW GAMES COME STRAIGHT INTO STOCK * %* ANY ENQUIRIES PLEASE PHONE 0782 319144 * SEND S.A.E, FOR FULL LIST, STATING COMPUTER ye NEW RELEASES ... TITLES NOW IN STOCK! *% AMSTRAD ae oun price ‘commopoRE Rp oun price Ate 36 ie Some torer B5 355 1942 (cst 14981080 Specs Herre” sto 14381080 Acton Rely 338 Ba hat! Eoyons ton iggs 1089 Palos 335 895 Torna Hawke (ik) 14381080 Gra Eacens ase ee Comaa ths S36 pe Yoarkung Fu 8.98 635 Kinan's Coin-Op Hts 396 635 Sate Hater age 838 Sezaby bee a8 es reaxthr oe SPECTRUM RRP OUR PRICE ‘hey Sot a Nilion 336 638 Seat ae 385 iataoe 338 ese ‘etn repo as6 85 Somes 385 595 Fairighe Two 9.95 595 895 695 Sealoe 896 895 Word Gar 3.98 $98 ‘rasa 8 580 “Fhe Groat Escape 338 S38 Super Soceer 738 350 sx Scooby Doo 735 380 Biers 999 9 hey Sos Mion ase ee inttater 3.98 898 ATARI Bie 3 cames 338 835 Peinmahawk 9.96 6.96 Cobre 335 £58 The Geet Eacope 335 370 Bec ‘Avenger 5.98 685 Wee 895 62 * THIS MONTH ONLY! ... SPECIAL OFFERS! * our our our ‘COMMODORE C64 RRP PRICE SPECTRUM RRP PRICE AMSTRAD BRP PRICE Law of the West 3.95 1.88 World Cup Football 8.95 Aup Reng Fu Master i 13 pets ee ee Se tee Bodbwee an 88 28 Combat Leadut 1495 1.99 Zoro 795 4189 guste ee a furs te Sos 389 Kngms of tmeDeser "9.98199 evehion 998 1.89 Banoo brian sss 399 spon Car G98 199 Veco roa 798 1.39 Bal thompcon Super OP agon's Skul 6 Eureka 895 199 Test Poprboyenwteah 9986 G08 a Whe Dares Wins t 3338 tay Jones 9.06 gino A Cotte See zag Football Manager 295 596 ian 109K son Ses 188 A Vio 03 Ki 1095 350 Speman 985 380 Bucetee ase 188 Superman, $98 350 Kahn Love 86 3.99 Aram ee $28 288 Underworld 895 3.99 Drews 95 1.99 Ghost Buse $98 299 Tice 8 3.89 Fon Apocalypse gs 138 Peery $95 3.50 Dam Busters 1196 4ing Footbal Menage 595 585 ee $85 380 ImeratonalKarre 8984.99 MBX. és epenees Ghostbusters 995 5.50 ight 6 189 Sones Sas 350 Sreetaee 995 850 Aivecannidges «1888 10.88 Elite (disc) 14.95 6.60 Spy Hunter 8.06 beped HEAD CLEANERS 50p WITH ANY Theatre Europe (disc) 14.95. 5.95 The Arist 9.95 3.50 PURCHASE, WHILE STOCKS LAST Easy Senpt (disc) 74.95 9.50. Arcade Hall of Fame oe 5.50 ALL ORDERS RECEIVED BEFORE 17th Easy Spe (se) $3.98 9150 Beech Heed I 395 5.905 *bECR ABER WiLL Ge DELIVERED ‘hje Bred 385 G85 Alene 999 696 SEFOnE CHRISTMAS: 11-17 DECEMBER 1986 POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY/9Atari plans a push on software ATARI is planning @ major ing tiles, "if we foal there's 8 Push to increase the amount gap in the market of software available for its As far as the ST is con- machines in the New Year. cerned the bandwagon is l= According to Roland White- ready rolling, but the 8-bit house, recently appointed machines and the new 7800 marketing support manager are still at the discussion (sofware), at Atari, much phase. ""What we've got to ST: Bandwagon rolling Of the task will involve “see- dois convince people that the ing how we can stimulate B-bitrange and the VCS range (development) activity.”" are here to stay.” This will moan lisising with He claims that software developers and publicising houses are currently showing their products, but White- interest in both these, and house doesn't rule out Atari roveals thet Atari will be itself developing and publish- taking amore liberal approach to development on the 7800 than its rivals, Sega is main- taining strict control on who gets a licence to produce for its console and, through ‘Atiolasoft, on what gets pub- lished. Atari, on the other hand, will be allowing soft- ware houses to develop and market cartridges in the same way as standard computer software is produced — no licence and no publisher to veto product This should allow software houses to sell Atari cartridges: cheaper. and should speed development of software for the machine. Printer shows more Star quality STAR has lounched the NX- 1, a wide carriage replace. ment for ts SG-15. It includes tractor and friction food as standard along with an auto- matic single sheet feader. It uns at 120cps in draft mode and 30cps in NLO The new machine has a full featured front control panel that allows typestyle, draft or NLO, print pitch, form length ‘and paper control to be al- tered without recourse to the dip switches. Ituses cartridge interfaces, so can be reconf gured to work with differant computers. It costs £389 Details from Star Mieronics, Craven House, 40 Uxbridge Road, Ealing," London WS 2BS (01-840 1800), Mirage bites back MIRAGE Microcomputers, which was barred from the fast Amstrad Computor Show because its Imager could be Used for piracy, has reached an “amicable arrangement’ with Amstrad and the show ‘organiser Database Exhib- tions The new Mirage Imager Il will transfor tape software to, disc but serialises the result, 80 copied software can only be run if the original imager is present Rival company Romantic Robot modified its copier in the same way in order to gain admission to the previous ‘Amstrad show. According to Mirage direc- tor Derek Robinson the com- pany’ intention to sue Data base over its banning from that show was expressed in “a heated moment”, and the two have now resolved their differences. Mirage's imager il now has the approval of both Amstrad and the Amstrad User Club, and Robinson describes this as “part of the amicable ‘rrangemont,”* PRI Sonate cs fool ey ean stor ootnotes Meanwhile in the ‘Oh what a Whopper dopartnent TEN days after everyone in Commecine, Uk eaeemy the worl "brows, teas). Sroctor, Chis Raday, says Commodore mnounees tat “Orecl secrete cant shepre ofthe Arageietabo und succes c) a sore opt under £1,000 {E1170 change te form so my fershone felsh people who sawcolsto uy now,as thar hove to pay Val) or Decons_ te no guarantees as to ws bor” Gut wnat "doos i say wil Ropar uth he Sito here? The pes is bang kept Janare’ Sethe bi pre Seven "to ‘saaty the ssit carsret un Febreey ee sbi demand shown over he Overer Mose Bres amare iter woe Be) oer ti es Noval you sate Ie ovorycny eon of aan ae satiable” demand. fora feotfped, Ded hee bea Imahine by buldng more of won sary anes ts lens thom ate than eing the Ye ga you cn cath ou price. cout of couse bo vats ths shace’ says te thot me ‘poole have Been Yl Purge manual whe ineevabiy? demanding. that Youcan use Ws orm wants to make a cup of tea, And if the Dom Dom brothers want 10 dross up as Palmer- ston and Disraeli you can just ‘eset the machine They're so much more lib- erated about clothing in the Netherlands. Aackosoft’s la- test catalogue includes such gems as “Sexy Sue" dodging the flashers and Red Lights of Amsterdam, But the really risque title is ‘Star Wars, the entry for which begins “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away . ..”"No, Aacko- soft doesn’t havea licence for Star Wars and yes, Lucasfilm (which owns it) and Activi- sion (which wants to buy it) are waxing exceeding inter: ested in the Dutch outfit’s affairs Return of Victorian valets 10/POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY. 11-17 DECEMBER 1996Product News DIARY DATES DECEMBER Spectravideo’s joystick bundle SPECTRAVIDEO intends to corrupt hard-working PCW. ‘owners with a bundle of Quickshot 2 joystick, inter- face and Tomahawk heli- copter simulator for £29.95. ‘As Tomahawk on its own costs £19.95 this represents something of @ bargain, al- though very little PCW soft- ware uses a joystick Details from Spectravideo, 165 Garth Road, Morden, Surrey SM4 4LH (01-330 0101) 13 December 21st ZX Microfair Royal Horticlrt hal, Landon SW Detalls: Premier show fr the Sinlair communty,Adt-ons, software, bi 2 trae stalls Price: £2 at: Mike Johnston, 01-801 JANUARY Arnor launches wk 9-11 den BCPL for Amstrad 6th Oficial Amstrad ARNOR has released 2 ver- Computer Show Novotel, Hammersmith, Landon WS Dota: Th yor hicks off with he first ofan ever increasing wave of sion of its implementation of BCPL for the Amstrad CPC and PCW machines. The lan- {Guoge, which was used to measuring routines to it ai Anta shows Hard, sttwae Gita Amore Puta: comes Drewing Board program. tre BBC utility the wars or CPOs and POW, wath on'3 inch die m'botn CP/M fl routine alows marching. Rom revised esl sappet ota PC te enacted {and AMSDOS formats. and is shading, grding and ting of Prie: £3 abt 2 chien £1 siso available for the selected areas of drawing, BBC Telesoftware has added dszoun france baking ‘484/664 in Rom form withthe pattern boing selock. © Keyword search faciity to Orgnaaer:Oobase Ghtons, It compiles to Z8O machine ed from a suite of over 30 the Ceefax teletext service. 061-456 8835 code and programs produced held in memory at any one The program, which is avail- with it will therefore run inde- time. able free, will be broadcast pendently of the language. Patterns can be created in for downloading over the ‘Amor's BCPL is a full imple- sizes from 8 x 1 to 40 x 24 Christmas period. mentation with comprehen- pixels, the area measuring fa Details from BBC Enter- FEBRUARY sive 1/0 libraries, including lity canbe used to count the prises. Woodlands. 80 sound and graphics, and in- number of elements in a pat- Wood Lane, London W12 Sides wake eich ass lemusediofManaren Grcks OTT (01-748 B86s} 17-20 Febuary space invaders game and a used to fill a wall can be Which Computer? Show full-screen texteditor. costs estimated, for example. ‘NEC, Bitrningharn £39.95 ‘the 64 Drawing Board 'e Dt: Nery uses ers £34-0n disc, and will shorly Word search incudes Commodore, and low-cost PC Drawing Board & 2tsbi in carnage ver oe Board Sortcrive t28ac5700, for Ceefax feces Mahia orale from Colton Sales rosa: Caw Ehls, enhancements ii "3evicu. 32’ Meunt WORD Processing, the wor Ht st CULTON Sales and Services Street, Dorking, Surrey (0306 group/newsletter for the ser- has added pattern filland srea G85 138). ious user, has launched Pen Friend 2, a follow-up to its 28-28 Febwary Fen fiend utiity Rom for The Atari Computer Show Wordwise Pls. Novtel, London WE The new version allows all Details Fist chone fr Ata to routings. to be torminatod show athe exting new siatey is with Escape, which returns legal working on you to the text otoa, and Prie: att £2 chien, 1 includes an address finder. —fssount fr advance booking The format page option now — Organiser: Database Exhbtions, allows headers and ooters 10 0bi-436 8835 be contred or left or right justified, and an extre ster command allows you to go pe Straight to the dise directory [Pi dtes ond vanes oF swe Feady to edit a flo. It costs | Sam Yry, and you ae thereare £18.85, and older versions | stonaly ean be upgraded for £6. ‘show orgniser belo attending, Details from Word Pro- | Papier cessing, PO Box 67, Wolver- | Beat esponsbity for eny st hampton, West Midlands | sans (0902 788207) < 11-47 DECEMBER 1986 POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY/11Thanks to readers Ys, 2238 ave knocked me down with a feathor! In fact, you can knock me down with a pilo of lettors: “176, would you believe? All ‘these are replios to my re- ‘quest for help in comprehend- ing the workings of my nevi QL gonerousty presented to me by my son. (See Any hholpful OL readers? in Popurar 13. November a couple of issues ego). Hang on! | promise 10 write to every fone of you, but itl take me some weeks, so don’t go away, Edward G Ogilvie Bristol Vexed by hex n page 42_of Poputar, October 16, Dr Paul Mooney's Renumber pro- gram claims to “correctly Feassign all Goto. GoSub, Re- store and List statements, ‘even when referenee is made to lines which do not exist or are beyond the end of the program However, a bug in the Basic listing for the hex loader is caused by not resetting CS to 0 (should an error be made whilst typing in the hex codes), ie, whatever value. CS thas whon it reached lino 130, it remains. in CS when re- tured to lino 50, causing a continuous loop Uncharted waters olossus has now entered unknown ter- ritory in the Readers vs Colossus tournament, ac cording to Colassus. author Martin Bryant. In Game Two, Martin says that Cofossus played the first five moves from book open: ings but it has not taken non-recognised line of move. He thinks that this game is Row into a new area and that the Readers’ team will no longer be able to research the moves in chess literature, The latest moves in Game Two ate as follows: the Readers opted for 8 d6—d1, while Cofossus’s ‘non-recog: nised line’ in response was K 98-07 Game Orie is proceeding along more. straightforward lines. The Readers, playing Black, voted 8... h7-h6 as the best move. Colossus has followed with 9 K 95-3. Full details below Your next move Over to you again. Send in your suggested next moves: (one for each game) to either Inter Mediates (Popular Chess), Freepost. Saw- bridgeworth, Herts CM21 SYA (no stamp needed), or Popular Chess, Unit 2, The Maltings, Sawbridgeworth, Horts CM21 OPG (with 2 stamp). The move getting the most votes will be entored into the game. Closing date for entries is Wednesday January 7 — later than usual, but due to Popular publishing a double issue next week, and the vagaries of the Christmas post, the next moves in the Tournament will be published in the January 15 issue. Bear with ust Prizes A British Museum reproduc tion chess set will go to the person suggesting the most Game one 1 Ped-e4 Pot-e6 2 Nat Nbo-o6 3 Bet Ngee 4 Nays Paros 5 Prag Neos 8 Bedbe PePme8 7 Pasxo8 Porv08 @ deez Heche 8 Ng? selected moves in each game. Five copies of CDS's Colossus Chess will be awarded as run- ners-up prizes. It's not too late to start now, so why not send in your suggestions, Game two 1 Ped-e4 Po?-6 2 Nai N86 3 pa2da Pesade & Nisese Peres Naas Pa7—ad 6 No5-c6+ B'Bad5 7 Qaixd6” 08-16 B DG-c1 Nata? 9 Puzzle No. 237 My friend Arnold has just acquired a rather unusual stiking clock. | notiend it the other day during a visit 10 his house, Let me deseriveit fo you. Ata quarter past the hour it ‘90es ‘ping’; athalf past the hour it goes ‘ping, ping’: while at a quarter to the hour it goes ping, ping, ping’, On the hour itself it dows ing’ at sil but ‘bongs’ from one to twelve ‘umes doponding on the time, Duning this Visit the clock was striking just 2 Jatnivod, as indeed it was as | was leaving in fact, during my stay it chimed a combined {otal of 86 ‘pings’ and “bongs. If you knew ‘tho length of my vist you could work out my ‘umes of arrival and departure, but can you do ‘without this information? Solution to Puzzle No. 232 ‘Answer: Amold's number was 4718. My first guess, 6015, had only one digi ‘common, the 1, and this was eortoctly plac My second guess was 8174, which was 3456 too high Solution: The fast problem is to find pairs of numbers comprising of the same four digits iferently arranged, having a ditforenee. of 3456. This i= done in the fret FOR/NEXT loop. The subroutine at line 130 checks that the number consists of four aferant digits. ‘The differance of 3456 is then added to this umber, and the result is checked firstly t0 fnsiee thet this number contarns four differ tent digits, and secondly that they afe the saine four digits ss those in the original number. This is done in the subroutine at ne 200. Pairs of digits that satisfy these conditions are then pried out. Ths results in 37 pairs of rhumbers being displayed. However, from this list can be crossed off any numbars which contain moro than one digit in common with ‘ha first oss (6018), orda nor have any dignt in common. This leaves a shortlist of just seven pais of numbers, but only one of them (4718) contains the matching digit in its correct piace. Winner of Puzzle No. 232 ‘The winner this week is J R Hall of Farnbor- ‘ough, Hants who will be receiving £1 Rules Tho closing date for Puzzle 237 is December 29th. Answers on a postcard please. 12/POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY 11-17 DECEMBER 1986The problem was solved by inserting in line 30, (after line a$:) Let CS = 0: Go ta 50, Having succeeded in load ing the hex program, | tested its use. While the bulk of it worked correctly, the pro- gram failed to deal fully with GoSub and ‘Restore statements. Thave no doubt there is 3 simple solution somewhere, but as my knowledge of machine codeis very limited, | have little chance of solving it | would welcome any adviee. Graham Hitcheook Richmond WN Yorks Sounding off on Soundcheck would like to complain about a comment made in ‘Soundcheck, November 6 In his first paragraph, Mark Jenkins said, “It's good to See some of the simpler micros being supported by powerful music software”. ‘Simpler micros” refers to the Atari B-bit machines, and it totally disgusts mo that these computers can be ‘called “‘simple'', when you consider the Spectrum, which has only one sound channel, merging colours and a very limited resource of colours. Tons of people know this, but ‘they stil buy them. Why? Many a C84 owver has been taken aback by the Atari games | have shown them, but |, however, have not been. impressed by any C64 games. | was expecting to See something brillant from the so-called super C64, but ne. have owned an Atari for three years and during that time, Ihave been persecuted and teased no end of times by my friends for the machine | bought Not all times were bad though. Recently | showed a Spectrum owner Jnternational Karate. When he heard the four channel sound music, the brillant colour usage and multicolour_non-merging graphics he was amazed. This friend now owns an Atari and has sold his Spectrum for buttons, as that’s all it is worth Keith Starr tuion Revival of The Living Dead take exception to your art cle The Living Dead in the supplement dated November 20, in which you referred to the MSX as dead. The MSX system was the best-selling system last Christmas. itis one of the top- soling systems in Europe and Japan, and it is the first sys- tem to interface with a camera, the Canon T90. It hag been bought by the Russians for use in the schools, even after compar- ing and considering many of the so-called ‘living’ micros. ‘You say the disc drive is expensive, and the true ones. are (Toshiba, JVC and Sony). However, Knights does a disc drive for £89 and the only thing it does not offer is random aecess filing. MSX 2 is now available in the UK, and it offers graphics and sound that a lot of home computers can't. match: 1 would say that MSX is far from dead. David Haslett Preston We did not mean to imply. that MSX - the concept was dead. The article was a guide to buying discontinued micros at a bargain price. The original MSX specification machines are no longer manufactured for sale ‘the UK (dead in that sense) and can be bought very cheaply; hence Inclusion in the articl The misery of the warranty jegarding your news item (November 13) that Ai strad is axing one of its wi ranties; | don'tregard this as 2 bad thing. Infact, I rather wish that |had had no warranty for my Amstrad, ‘When it broke down in Jan- wary | took it back to the dealer who accepted it quite happily, as it was still under warranty. | still haven’t got it back! For the first six months fF 80 | called in about once a month, but | have now given up, as | am resigned to never seeing my machine again (un- less | take legal action to retrieve it, which is obviously not worthwhile) HH there had been no war- ranty on the machine, | would have taken it to one of the repair firms which advertise in Har, ad would no doubt have had it back many ‘months ago. So I must commend Am strad for axing one of its ‘warranties, Bill Frankland London NW2 “Hello Ametrad? We've got a ‘tough new test for your Xen tape offer Tie vos for publishing my Xen Plus program for ‘Amstrad CPC micros. | would like to point out a few mis- ‘takes in the printed article: the commands are :HELP not HELP and :EMPHASIZE not ‘EMPHASISE | will supply the program on tape or disc for £3.00 and £6.50 respectively. The price includes comprehensive do- ‘cumentation and example programs. The disc version ‘contains separate versions of Xen and Xen Plus and also a ‘combined version of the two which can be loaded in one 90. ‘Simon T Goodwin From Spectrum to Qk ne of the facilities that those who graduated from Spectrum to QL find is the lack of a SGN function. It is an odd omission on a machine which includes so many other functions, includ- ing the ABS function; admit- tedly SGN can be emulated ~ ut so can many other funo- tions. Here is an extremely economical User Defined Function which tests the sign of any variable passed to it ‘and returns the appropriate value. 100 EF Funston sgnverabe) 110 RETurn (vans =O} (rata 120 END OtFine : MJ Edwards ‘Gwent Said it with flowers RR; Ausiovenicin Software Hotlines, page 5, 20-26 November 1986. I did say it with flowers, but it was too much too late Gary Portis Bedlington Northumberland PC-Write set right [[Link] Rowiana’s other wise excellent review of public domain software tor IBM-PC compatibles (Novem ber 8) there wera a couple of points which weren't really fair to PC-Write Although it isn’t exactly “what you see is what you get”, it's pretty close, ‘The review said there is no ‘on-screen display of fonts, ‘only a marker for each control ‘code indicating font change. In fact, fonts are normally set to be displayed in different colours (user customisable), 80 It's easy to seo on the ‘screen which fonts your final printed text will be in. Also, although page breaks fre net shown on screet normally, hitting ShiftFY dis- plays the prompt F2:repage, ‘and hitting 2 then has the effect of highlighting each line which will be on a page break when the file is printed, ‘This takes into account any page-tormatting “dat” com- mands in the file. Sure, headers and footers aren't ‘actually displayed on screen, but they are taken into ‘account. All the above comments apply to PC-Wnite version 2.4, the last version to be officially distributable in the UK 2s “freeware”, and the last to come with @ full (over 100- page) manual on disc. | thought I'd better write and put the record straight, just in Case anyone was put off by these littie “deficiencies noted in Marcus's review. John Rice Manchester 11-17 DECEMBER 1986 POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY/13eee COMMODORE TITLES os Ban Tia £5.95 EACH ee Heron ioe monn ¥ LESS & Se eee ee Se ene eran a A Ne, et Be sea Way UM MON, as att 3 REDENS BASIC OBC me an a a i reer ow Sena teeme Iidhno oes fevence zanint foster ese ues wea cee Maca a aie “ varseas £1.00 por tape, fens POT aT) Fasc 6 Midgate » Peterborough - Cambs & eens Ir Coe Aleve EIEN ONG Boo) hanmnenci vate EN ee ee Stcorek Won cu FTL, cL. no seve ane are aan —— fever teas Peace ets Seem SESS rrasons rome ERATOR oe ida a hac ani ae Sain 2 0 SOOM p&p 75p all orders Gime Aten atononnc Pea eae .00 per Unnecter ston bate sess £2.50 packs, £6.00 peripherals SSeS BRAT an EET SURES, Eamon Sao eel ee! sere 14/POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY 11-17 DECEMBER 1986Hardware Atari returns to its roots John Cook zaps away on the forthcoming Atari 7800 and reports on its performance games consoles of one sort or another — did you know, for example, that according to its own figures, an amazing 26 million 2600s (the old VCS that has been kicking around since the mid-seventies) has been sold to date — one million alone in 1985, 100,000 ‘of which came into the UK? Considering 1985 was well into the ‘computer revolution’, that's a lot of consoles. Now Avtari has come up with a follow-up machine to the long serving 2600 VCS; the imaginatively named 7800 ProSystem — because it’s three times better? The Popular ‘games droids were powered up and led to the console to find A: made its name in the home market place with out. Hardware What you get for your £69.99 is the console self ~ an imposing black box sightly smaller than its predecessor — {wo controllers (oysticks to you), tans. former, TV lead and Pole Position Mf on cartridge. The external controls are mit 83 0 8 power on/off, reset game, a ‘select option (to control difficulty levels) and a pause button, These are all situat- 0 along the top front of the machine, With the two joystick ports tucked un- Sorneath ts projectinglip. Two citicuty Switehes’ (@.hand-ma-down from the 2600 to ensure full compatibilty) are also to be found here ‘Opening up the box shows a relatively uncluttered eircut board with AK of Rom, nother 4K of Rom, a 8502 CPU running fat 1-79Hz (the 2600 had a cut-down \ersion of the same chip, the 6507) and two major graphies chips. Tia (again, a8 found in the 2600) and Maria (groan) which gives the 7800 more colours and higher screen resolution The cartridges. themselves are Rom only and ot the moment ara planned to come in predominantly 64K ‘and 128K Sizes which should retail at around £10 and £20 respectively, although no firm Prices have been fixed as yet. Se | rN The design of the cartridge slot and the supporting hardware has ensured compatibility with 2600 cartridges — ‘Atari claims that if it plays on the VCS, the ProSystem can handle it ‘The Rom supports a total of 64 sprites. [with a maximum of eight perne) but the Player Missile graphics collision detec tion of the XL/XE is not included. In- stead, the machine uses what is des: cribed as a ‘coop’ approach, with each line of the raster display being thought of as a bitmap, held as lineRam in memory. The controllers supplied with the machine are simple Atari-style joysticks with an oblong base that fits neatly into the hand and two independent fire but- tons, one on each side. Thoy worked ‘well enough, but had a suspect feel — ‘certainly not robust enough for extended use. The good news here is that your existing Atari-style joysticks (and that’s almost every single one on the market right now) will work well for most games = a significant advantage over the competition. Software Like most machines, ultimately the Pro- System is going to be judged by the quality, quantity and price of the soft ware produced for it. Sure, it can run all that 2600 stuff — but who wants to play two year old games? What the 7800 has got going for it is that Atari ara making avaliable a develop- ‘ment system which runs on the ST andit looks Ike third party authors will not have to pay any premium to produce games ~ unlike proposals for the other ‘competing systems, This shduld ensure a flood of software, if the thing sells The software cartridges we had avail able for test were three Namco licensed titles: Pole Position I! (bundiod with the machine], Galaga, and that old favourite Xevious, with that Wiliams’ oldie Robo: ‘von 2084 completing the set. All played ‘well, with graphics and speed up to a very good Commodore 64 standat somatimes beyond, certainly a. signif cant improvement on the 2600. Conclusion {At £70 (release date around: March/ Apri). the. ProSystem undercuts. the competition by €30 at last (Sega comes in at around £100, the basic Nintendo, £120) and its cartridges may also be cheaper. However, the software pres- ently available compares less favourably with that forthe other two. ‘At the moment it looks like @ classic case of paying the money and taking the choice ~ but for qualty blasting on the cheap, the 7800 may wellhave the edge 1-77 DECEMBER 1906 POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY/15pga a eae Navan that 8 Sr on (U6 & Furope plage, Please send MULTACE ONE 39.95 (] MULTFACETWO £4695 0] SELENE ZANACHRONISM © 9.95CI STEEPLEACK £495.) NEVERMIND... amis € 995K ordskverion — £14990 oe MUSIC TYPEWRITER © 7.950 WRIGGLER Spectrum £295 G| arb OVonnonnsn WRIGGLER Amatied tape £ 7.051 ordisk version 1198 0] TRANS-EXPRESS cartrdgeC] dish] waferZ] £995 68 77 Dyne Road London NW670R “Zep 24hrs FY TES 01-625 9463 OUAUTIC ROZOT UE Ly COMPUTER GRAPHICS UTD, FREELANCE PROGRAMMERS We are now looking for programmers to work on a variety of new and excit- ing projects on a freelance basis. Applicants should have previous ex- perience of Spectrum, Commodore 64 or Amstrad home computers, and preferably have at least one commercially marketed program to their name. Successful applicants will have the back-up of the best team of artists in the industry, and can expect to receive full technical support from our team of ‘in-house’ programmers, whose reputation is second to none. To arrange an informal interview, please write to the Software Development Manager at the address below, or telephone during working hours. ODIN COMPUTER GRAPHICS Mulberry House Canning Place LIVERPOOL Ll 8HN Telephone: 051-709 4462 {16/POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY 11-17 DECEMBER 1986Giving some style to your Amstrad Te print of the Amstrad PolyPrint will print out an (normal width ~ double width simply have to put the paper PCW8256 is a very Ascii fle in any of a massive can to too large to use at in again with the new type- good quality, but it is 25 different typefaces. Nine timesl). face selected, which is ob- limited to one style (though typefaces come with the pro- Tasman Software has two vious once you use the ot one size). There are cur gram and the other two sets packages containing different. program, ‘ently fou packages available of eight typefeces coat about fonts: Tasword” 8000 a's For the business user who for the 8256 to give it a £20 3 set. PolyPrin comes word procossor that prints in just wants 9 cifferont print eater range of sypetaces. with Pay Word a simple Asch three faces and. Tasprint syle, possibly changing Koc: All four ~ FontGem. PolyPrint, word processor to create files 8000. which gives you five casionaily, then FontGem is Tasword and Taspaint — have ta print with PalyPrint. Control typefaces for Tasword and easily the best. Tasword 8000 citferent pluses and minuses characters can be put in afile a(So a program to print out neede. the. other typefaces and workin differant ways. inthe format of (characte) at toatin ‘rect print mode’ to. realy to be any use (or the Foner is unique among the start of @ ling to go the printor inthe selocted purposes of tne antic), and te three packages in that it contol over double/notmel typelace. This mode lets you wath tem, itis a powerful all works with Lecoseapt auto- width, undorining, contig, select typeface and type ® round packago, with. the Matcaly files don'trave to. changing ofthe typeface, set: line of txt which then power of fol WP that can Be converted to Asci before ting tho lot margin and urn. dumped to the printer itis pant i different styles. Yas they can be printed out. It ing automatic justiication on sul for adding one or two wor! avery good package, works by patching on a type- or of. ines of text to 0 place of but you wil ove to learn the face to the CP/M or Locoseript LocoScript contro! char- paper at the last minute, but new word processor as well. “EMS fie ona disc. This actors in an Asch document that's about os far sit goes. _PoyPane from Now Star Sot Sounds complicated buts in Go net exist, so you have to Taspiarhasoight typefaces in fact very simple, 10 do and put these control characters total. Compacta,”"Oata-un wotks very wel In plain Eng InyeursellPolyPrin's notas (aigtal),LacuraLight. Mec Tasso ft MEDIAN Tish, what does Is 10 add e087 10.96 a8 might be, but an, Palace Script, Ranchero, 2 typofom to 9 EMS file wi alle pracice Vou can Breaker and Outi. All these n'a isc the “CHAS fle is soon be. priming out good typelaces can be added tom, thier [Link] or qualty leaflets on your hur- Tosword or used in avec TAS XOFT BREAKER Yigeeins ems ach Be Amend RS '[Link] ie fe ha makes One big problom wth Tasword comes with Lec the dae boot up). Once this sn is that each new type- wre Light and Medan yoo Tagmsoft COMPACTA Foiien = Rarass TRC _«Ceees, Dut con algopentin the poten oe ee normal Locoscript style. A : document created ‘on Tos pier FontGem - "Business 2° (Pitch: 10) wom e000 can coman spe- Tas-sott LECTURA Salseieelestmolesiee FontGee - Business 3’ (Pitch: 12) change the typeface, put the tetinabox ee Toe yor TAS*S0FT DATARUL face may be changed many FontGen - ‘Bustyess &° (PrrcH: 10) — timeson the one line. Being a Aifeaiicoaecer tan Re Prrungin diteen sites an Tasrsere QUTLINE added extra, the editing facil ties are very powerful : : HELVETICA MEDIUM ITALIC ee ee eee ee re SANS SERIF SHADED Stemi’ “(Pitch a HELVETICA LIGHT ITALIC ‘whenever the disc is face is loaded off the discand MICROGRAMMA EXTENDED sabe reneter dente rare ureters ent ICL VE TIGA (LARGE) en by working in Locoseript is able. this is a good selection category very well. Itcanbe Hyde Terrace, Leeds LS2 etc.) work properly. Any text Pitch 17 on Locoscript) and lem occurs if the changing of | Tasprint from Tasman, ad- uses the standard typeface. characters to one centimetre lines required. To dothis you & typefaces. Havia wal FontGem ~ ‘Vaudeville’ (Pitch: 12 11-17 DECEMBER 131 POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY/17Games: Adventure Corner Demos and monsters from Compass ompass Software has been a fav- urite software house of mine for some time now — producer of Project X Micro Man, its adventures are written with The Qui, but manage to convey a good atmosphere along with some interesting problems and unusual storylines. Much of the appeal of John Lemmon’s stories lies in the presenta- tion, with a neat screen display of well matched colours and carefully-crafted character set Those pictures that are present are simple but to the point, and Lemmon. makes a special point of an ancient but favourite device of mine, the litle charac ter-sized graphics to denote objects pre- sent and those held in the players inventory, These were once a well-used feature, boing common some years ago before the advent of The Mlustrator and the attendant crop of pictures 10 accompany the scene. In Demon, they are unneces- sary but welcome nevertheless. But what of the story? Well, it co coms the exploits of one Morrack (whose part you play in the adventure) and his wanderings through a mystic fantasy land ~ not only will you meet Giant Green Trolls. Sid the Rat and Heme, the Hunter of Hell, but also Ora- kon the Evil Lord and none other than Charon the Ferryman himself, who will gladly take your coin in exchange for trip across the River Styx to Hades. The 70 text-only locations (and 20 more with graphics) describe a very atmospheric fandscape in which all manner of inter ‘esting things are going to happen. The text is colourful with @ good character [Link] the pictures, 100, are particularly wolkdrawn. All in all, well-presented, ‘even though the obligatory spelling mis ‘takes are present: Ram save and load are supported along with all the usual Patch’d stfects. The puzzles aren't particularly hard, especially if you remember one of the golden rules of adventuring; Examine everything. Most objects under such ‘examination will yield up some interest ing information and you'll find that you won't finish the story without checking, ‘everything you come across, ‘Similarly, the descriptions of many locations hold their own clues, so read these thoroughly. If you follow this course of action progress should be Tony Bridge reviews the newest from the creators of Project X Micro Man “The puzzles aren‘t particularly hard, especially if you remember one of the golden rules of adventuring; | examine everything steady. John Lemmon tells me that he has used every flag in The Quilf to bring the characters to pseudosife, some of these characters are good, others not so ‘good. In keeping with the sense of magic about the proceedings, spelis are waiting for you 10 pick up and use — you'll find fone near the baginning, but you must docide how best to use i. To start off the game, make sure that you examine the status in the opening location and read the inscription thereon; close by you will find Ashmeard’s body, and you must pay particular attention to ‘what lies within! The adventure is very good value at just £2.50 for the Spectrum now, with Amstrad and Commodore versions to follow “soon”. Oh, and chack out the logo, a wizened old wizard, by design or accident reminiscent of someone not entirely unadjacent to a certain elfish person! Particularly interesting (and a first?) are the painted lead miniatures of the characters within the adventure. Compass Software is at 36 Globe Place, Norwich NR2 2SQ. Elf Towors is undergoing major recon: struction and so for a few weeks the old fellow is perching on the dining-room table ~ the resultant upheaval has buried some tapes (though not, | trust forever) and brought others to light. One such is The Harmer of Grimold from River Soft- ware of Canterbury. Again, the story, Which concerns your efforts to recover the Hammer (an ancient dwarfish trea~ Sure) is Quill'd and Patch’d, though not Musirated. The adventure has the look of a 1982 program, with no re-designed character Set and fairly sparse location descrip- tions. Nevertheless, suspense is well maintained with hooded strangers glow- fering manacingly towards you in the ‘opening Inn and $0 on. Like Bemon from the Darkside, River's story repays examining with dividends Try moving dead bodies — the trap thus revealed may actually be of some help! This brings me to the Help facility; in ‘most adventures, type Help and all ‘you're likely to get is some smart com- ment or a suggestion to wnte off for a hint sheet. Some time ago, | mentioned Monsters of Murdac. a disc based story from Global Software. This featured & dynamic Help which pulled in specific answers from a database hold on disc Obviously this is difficult for @ cassette based game, but River makes a bravo ‘stab at it, and give the player several ‘coded cluss for difficult situations. This is the first time that | have seen this articular aid in a Quid adventuro, and it Is a welcome addition As | said, the location descriptions are sparse; no pretence, for example, at disguising the necessary maze (how hate theml) ~ it’s simply “Forest Maze" which | suppose has 2 certain simplicity and directness. At least you know what you're supposed to be doing! The com- mands roquirod can be vory finicky: at the start, for example, you must Sit Down in tho inn befors the necessary ‘Subsequent action takes place {and of course, Stand Up betore you can Progress). Atleast you are given some clue about this ("Here's a nice seat for you, sir’, says the Landlord), but later a piece of food may be Tasted to reveal a valuable clue, although Eating it will prove fatal ‘As one more example, to reveal the flint in the stones, you must Kick Stones ~ moving, searching or examining them reveal nothing. I'm sure that the author has good reasons for this sort of word-matching ‘game, but to meit just means frustration and annoyance. Some situations are a trifle belaboured; the gigantic ore just happens to give the master key to you for safe keeping. Siill, the game, although not as po! ished as Demon, has a numbor of good points ~| especially like the concept of a backpack which can hold more items than could otherwise be carried. k's 2 detail that is often seen, though not for some reason in Quif’d adventures. And the magie figure of £2.50 makes it reasonable value. Contact River Soft- ware at 44 Hyde Place, Aylesham, Can- torbury, Kent CT3 3AL. 18/POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY 11-17 DECEMBER 1986Adventure Helpline ‘Terrors of Trantoss on Spectrum. How do | open the gates of Garnath? What do the runes say on the staff? Mark, 3 Rawcliffe Landing, Shipton Road, York YO3 6XL. ‘Spellbound on C64. Fourth floor: can't get through the wall. Ground floor: can't get over the pit to Gimbal. Debbie Hunt, 28 Wolters Road, Hoo, near Rochester. Kent ME3 9SR. Terrors of Trantoss on Spectrum. How do you pass the lizard inside the gates of Gamath? Keith W Adam, 19 Navarre Street, Dundee DDS 2TW. Deadline on C64. Any help appreciat- ed. David Cates, Station House, Station Road, Queensbury, Bradford, W Yorks BDI13 IHR. Dungeon Adventure on C64. What is the packing case for? Can objects be carried in i? If 80, how do | get them in? David Oates, Station House, Station Road, Queensbury, Bradford, W Yorks 8013 THR. Borrowed Time on C64. What is the statue for? What use is Doris? David Oates, Station House, Station Road, Queensbury, Bradford, W Yorks BD13 THR. Zork 1 on C64. What is the pile of plastic for? David Oates, Station House, Station Road, Queensbury, Bradford, W Yorks 8013 THR. The Boggit on C64. How do | get into the small booth in part 1, and past the web in_part 3? David Gates, Station House, Station Road, Queensbury, Brad: ford, W Yorks BD13 THR, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on Atari B00XL. How do you get past the ‘screening doors, how do you get some tea, how do you open the glass case, and how do you charm the vogons? In The Payoff. once you're in the vault, must you find the vault number? Jasper Doviatt, 4 Eaton Crescent, Uplands, Swansea, West Glamorgan, SA1 40. Adventure Helpline Going bananas? if you are stuck in an Adventure with nowhere to turn do not despair —help is at hand. Fillin the counon, explaining your prob- Heroes of Karn on Spectrum. | can’t get past the serpent. Helen Norton, 34 Main Street, Branston, Burton on Trent, Staffs DE14 3EY, Seabase Delta on Spectrum. | have made the seesaw, but where dol go with 1? Also, can’t find the egg and what do| do when have it? Holon Norton, 34 Main Street, Branston, Burten on Trent, Staffs DE14 SEY, inbad and the Golden Ship on Spectrum. How do you control the {genie when out of the lamp, and how do you get past the oak door in the moun: tain in part 2? Peter Georgiou, 3 Shap Driva, Watndon, Worcostar, WR% SNY. fom, send it tous, and a follow adventurer ‘may be able to help. Remember — the system only works if those adventurers who have Solved the Dburales get in touch. Every weok is Save ‘An Adventurer Today (SAAT) wook! Get writing - get Popular opular Computing Weekly al- ways welcomes contribu- tions from its readers for arti cles, features, and program listings. Whether you want to write artcies, see your programming masterpiaces in print, pass on some words of wisom, or Simply lot off steam, there's space in the magazine for you. Ideas for feature articles, or com pleted articles, should be sent to Chris- tina Erskine, All aspects of home com puting are considered, but we cannot feasibly accept anything longer than 2,000 words, so brief is best, I's worth checking by phone or letter first that your article will be suitable. Payment is nor- mally £35 per published page Technical editor Duncan Evans looks after the program listings, and articles ‘on programming. We rely on you for our Programming section, so eam yourself a place in the Popular Hall of Fame (and £25 for each page we print) by having ‘your program published. Even if it's not 100s of K of pure machine code, but a short snappy routine, there may wellbe 3 place for it in Bytes and Pieces (£10 a shol). Articles on any aspect of program- ming are also welcome — with short listings included if relevant. Got something you feel neods saying loud and clear? Your opinions on any aspect of the computor industry are welcomed, 80 why not write in to the riggurat section? No more than 600 words, please. If published, we'll pay you £15 ‘So maybe it's not the money you're after, but you'd just like to have some ‘say in the magazine. For shorter comments, general obser- vations or queries, there is of course the Letters page, with the tempting offer of a year’s supply of Popular binders for the Star Letter each week Loft: the adventurous Tony Bridge. Right: the active Tony Kendle. For more specific points, our team of columnists are always willing to answer ‘questions, and koon to hear the latest information. Drop your lines to Tony Bridge (adventure hints always grateful ly received); Tony Kendle (who wants as many Arcade pokes, maps, solutions, etc, as possible); David Wallin (com ‘Munications); Kenn Garroch (program ‘ming problems); Mark Jenkins (music queries and sample tapes) and Martin Bryant (computer chess comments} All letters should be addressed to Popular Computing Weekly, 12~13 Little Newport Street, London WC2H 7PP. If you mark your letters with the depart ment you want, things get processed much more quickly, 11-17 DECEMBER 1986 POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY/19his week we are carrying on with the tips for the first level of Strike Force Cobra. The game strikes me as incredibly eifficult and | am sure you Will eed these tips. What happens after level one | hate to think ‘We lett you, in the November 13 issue, in controt of man number three, taking care not to enter a lift ‘Change now to man number four who Starts at location EO by a window. ‘Throw two EFG's through tho window to slow down the robot inside. Dive in and dive again to get past the robot and though the door. Continue past the patrol and stand near the two towers of blocks. Now change back to man number three, Follow man four to the towers above. Stand on his shoulders, dive over and turn right (what an acrobatic game this is!), Enter the door at FB, avoid the fireballs and dive over the laserbeams (they make it sound so easy). Dive through the window and immediately crouch. Shoot out the flying saucer and then activate the door comrol. This activates the door at BB, which thereby allows man number four to back track ‘and gain ontry later. Dive through the window at G7 and ‘umn round immediately to avoid landing ‘on the laser beams. Proceed through 10 G4, avoiding the robot at G5 of course. Enter the door at G3. and by careful timing dive across the sliding hazard. First aid is available in the small room at GO (you will nced it). The hostage at G2 ‘will give you part of the combination and also help you to gov back to G3 by jumping on his shoulders. Avoid or shoot the saucer at E5 and proceed to the lift at D4 Now change back to man number four Back track to location EO and then go left to 80 and crouch, You can earn yourself extra time by destroying the organic computer at D1 To do this you need to open the door using the lever at AO. Procoed to AG and enter the window to A7. The door at BB is now open, Take care when going past the two patrols here First aid is available at location D8, although it is hidden. You may wish to leave this here until you have rescued the hostage (see below), The first aid box is Diving in with the Cobra Tony Kendle brings you the real way to get through Strike Force Cobra “This is where it gets silly. Walk left. dive and turn left, one step back and walk right, dive and turn left, take one step back and walk left and dive (take your partner and dosey-do“* Inthe front right comer of DB and you will have to jump up to reach it. Mt man ‘number three is positioned at 07 you will se the layout Enter the door to your left at C6 and continue through to B5, Shooting the robot will slow it down but you risk hitting the hostage. With care you can dive past it. The hostage will give you ‘your Second combination number. Return to C6 {and back up to get the first aid if not already used). Enter C5 and by using the block in the corner dive over the stacks. If you haven't shot it already you must avoid the flying orb, ‘You have now got these two men in position and itis time for the others to do soma work Change to man number one who is at location 04, outside a locked door. Go round the perimeter of the building to the window at location JO. Throw an EFG at the saucer through the window and then enter. Stand on the pad to open the two liking doors. ‘Change to man number two who is at location 08. Mave left to location KB. Dive in through the window (turning beck 10 avoid the row of blocks). Crauch to avoid the gun. Dive across the two rows of blocks, timing the jump very carefully Kick the door at K6 twice to gain access to KS. Be very careful This is where it gets silly. Walk left, dive and turn left, one step back and walk right, dive and turn right, take one step back’ and walk left and dive (take your partner and dosey-do). Dive through and turn to J4. Crouch beneath the guns. Avoiding the guns and the robots go to JB. Enter J7 and then JB. Dive across the moving hazard and activate the lft for the use of men three and four at D4), Return to IS the way you ame, or try your luck in HB if you kel Dive across the lasers to 13, timing the jump carefully First aid is available at H1, use the window at H1 after shooting the saucer through the window. Do not use an EFG {as this may destroy tho first aid box! ‘Once in this room do not stand on the Strike Force Cobra map 20/POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY 14-17 DECEMBER 1986Arcade Action pressure pad. The door et K3 willbe epen. You may onatder swepping over to Man nurber one at thie singe ¥ man umber we Partculy mn oma Err to and flow sh scoot ina checkin sete: Enloe M3 abecting ea you go. Attempt to stop the seootet to | | TOP Twenty gain access to the door control lever. This unlocks both doors 04 and M7. 1 (20) Paperboy Elite Carefully enter N2_and turn and walk 2 (8) Trivial Pursuit Gomer lof. After a bullet passes walk out into See OMGR ESV NS bode Salty the cortidor and jump to evotd the next pls ee ere soos bullet (facing forwards whilst still in the air). Dive over the next bullet, take two or 5 (-) Scooby Deo Elite three steps forward, dive, turn right and 6 (5) Breakthru Data East/US Gold dive. 7 (4) 180 Mastertronic If you are still in one pieca stand by the. 8B (7) They Sold a Million (3) Hit Squad Hee an aon 9 (10) Infitrator Mindscape/US Gold the window to eation JO. Extra tina's | | 1 (8) Five Stor Gomes Beau Jolly dvalable by destroying theogenccom- | | 11 (6) Cobra Coean puter at location (2. 12 (18) Olle and Lisa Firebird Proceed round to the door at [Link] | | 43 (1) World Gomes cuye/ie asle Into location N4, Round the corridor to 44 (19) Ninja Mester Firebird [Link] | | 18 (13) The Groat Escape Ocean onthvee EFG's. 46 (-) Konom’s Goi imagine The robot willsiow down ong enough | | 17 (-) Repton 3 Superior for youto be able wo avoid it andrescue | | 48 (14) Avenger Grenier ceaphics tow ite bot down and gah entry te | | 12 () BUXSimulor (Cons Masters tholit at M7 20. (-) Head Coach Addictive foorakerwhchwelsaveyeuton Good | | Allfigures compiled by Galup/Microscore ue COMMODORE 64c CONNoISSEUR'S COLLECTION Tos Wii's ber sso econ oma i aro Hepa tbepor lary pechgraadaaeclarlyrcig ‘cin Pens yi hw FREE 30 OUDAY OUCH HP fea WAVE CDT” 0) HARDWARE Amstrad PEW 625 in. primer monitor AP wave nd eats £45885 £408.00 (o) Amstrad PCW 8512 in. printer monitor one 2atenaro £57388 £513.00) AMSTRAD CPC 61 (computer an colour moniter) £389 381) (BC Master 12 £498.00 £430.00 () DMP 2000 Printer ac fee cable for CPC. £168.00 £181.00 () 2X Spectrum pls 48K ne, foe 3/m — #98000 Fuku seo Eee e (@- MASSIVE DATABASE Yoon iss opurcaa Poot Truce 03 matioe oe jst Toe Sc pe fo Premiers fer nn SSO REDRAW ic ARATE = uae maar ret etn vase preicr min sabe stor wet Yeas hen rte “nvtopand et ro ora ace ee fan ¢ Ripoargniay “Alwennomwemce peut smptpeiea mince (@ DIGMICROORIVE COMPATIBLE "anes variant wih conrarson murutocs 1S Hraeremcurwont lms copy pau ote yostare spain: mas (ee ee FINGEN07 S=enasee eee FLIGENG60] esr ig ee ee Pabpeseineie ess eceaer Vey ena with FEXCEN 61650 or bot) ow Spectrum ioe EXPANSION PACK Conan: Intatce 1, erdkive, leds and demo eacridg, ARP £99.95, Excading we guide fa. 1 Incl wsar guide £4800 (0 Yonent reassures cs on “calyns ferme, oc une he prov f srola mode. Goumewaina V3 os Sectnegeed sine ia aetvaaten eaten tuner went gs oaset ta tchey treas et ‘A is inl VAT, Pose a coins indie a follows a) £.00 TRS eT aug cs RT (0) £4.00 (cl 3.00 (£2.00 £1.00 Sp Despatch by etre past oes pice es SRN loses 87 COUNCILLOR LANE, CHEADLE, CHESHIRE. # 061-428 7425, Aaya A Mery ene ear Pee anton reete cere at Cree ret me Or eek EeeJ ATARI SPECIAL CHRISTMAS OFFERS...... SILICON CENTRE 7 ANTIGUA EDINBURGH, STREET, EH1 3NH. PHONE 031-557 4546 SYSTEM 1.... 520STM + 1 Megabyte Double Sided Disk Drive SYSTEM 2... 520STM + 1 Megabyte Drive + High Res. Mono Monitor SYSTEM 3... 1040STF + High Res. Mono Monitor SYSTEM 4.... 1040STF + Stnd. Res. Colour Monitor SYSTEM §.... 1040STF + Medium Resolution Colour Monitor SYSTEM / PRINTER PACK 6. 520STM’+ 1 Meg. Drive + MP165 Graphics Printer (80 Col 185 Draft/75 NLQ.) +Free Cable SYSTEM / PRINTER z £639 520STM + 1 Meg. Drive + MP165 Graphics Printer (80 Gol 165 Draft/75 NLQ.)+ Mono Mon + Free Cable SYSTEM / PRINTER PACK 8. £769 4040 STF + MP185 Graphics Print 166 Draft / 75 NLQ. ) + Mono Mon. + Free Cable ‘SYSTEM / PRINTER PACK (80 Col, £999 1040 STF + MP165 Graphics Printer ( 80 Col. 166 Draft / 75 NLQ. ) + Med. Res. Colour Mon. + Free Cable A M Poin cea ee ISTMA’ 22/POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY £1149 |No more to pay than the price | shown. VAT. Included in price. Free Delivery. Free Gable with | printer. Simply send a list of your requirements to the above address — not forgetting your own delivery address - and Include your cheque for the system chosen. Or telephone 031 ~ 557 4546 with ACCESS/ VISA details Silicon Gantre ts a major Atar! Authorized Service Centre and all equipment carries a full 7 year guarentee. ‘An extended Two Year Warranty can be purchased for an additional £29.50 (5208T) or £39.50 (1040ST) Inc. VAT. Full Bange of Software - Books - Disks — Ribbons and alternative printers stocked please ask for aatalls. Our shop Is open Mon-Sat 9.30 - 5.30. Wed half. day. Callers are very welcome Prices correct at time of going to press but subject to change without prior notice. * ‘This_advert drawn on Atari ST using EasyDraw and printed on MP165 dot matrix printer 1-77 DECEMBER 1986