IISSUE 22 • FEBRUARY 1993,» £1.50^ YOUR DKFIMtnVM AMIOA GUIDE ^ I I I I I I 1 I ±q_ 9 770961 C 730025 1 TDlure 1 PVBLISHING m h Your guarantee of value Actual screen. Not simulated .■-..-.1-...U./ ifini<i?ix^ii. .1|F r.^i ^,^. ^ >, I „ . , ,^.i , ■ ,j ,. , J„ it riH i^f. fL 4 b>' VM J— yj- iiii-^ - i- ---^ "r " ■'■■ " *■ t'-^ 3 fel: Diaita Wordwortli 11. I C If you wani lo take a closer look at the new Wordworlh coll 0395 270273, or wrile to Diglto, FREEP05T, Exmouth EXa 2VZ EtsiGLAND Actually, you're looking at Ihe r>ew Digita® Wordworth® version 2. It's the revolutionary IntelliFont® rechnobgy which produces orv-screen fonts ot sizes from 3 to 800 points! Wordwofth comes v^ith 17 genuine Agfa® CompugrophTC fonts, which ore just obout the best quolity oround. Best of oil, Wordworlh prints silky smooth fonts at the highest possible resolution of your printer. Which means, in humon terms, unbeatable print quolity. Just ciick the icon or> the tool bar ond in seconds you'll be printing jogged-free letters and graphics. But, there's more to new Digita Wordworth than just pretty fonts.,. New features JncJude • columns • tool bor • indexing • table of contents • endnotes • improved matlmerge ond RIe support • bookmarks • text sorting • improved seorcS ond replace • hoHinks- In foct, ihefe's over ]00 r>ew features ond improvements. So, if you want to print tf>e sharpest possible letters around, trode up now from ony Amiga word processor fof jus) £59. But hurry, this is For a limited period only. Digita Wordworth, whot you see is what you get — the power to present. DIGITA INTERNATIONAL DIgifo InternoHonal Limited Black Horse House Exmouth EX8 IJL England Telephone 0395 270273 Focsimile 0395 268893 ^ h mfffibpr pf r(u Dtgra groop - tmciamark ot MiIh Inc DtBlhi HdUk^ Ud titkhiH^lHi^ hal oil ^hMrfdaFid othftr t^odvnv^ uHd m th4laiMo^frli«^rt atv th^p^cfporttHc^hfrr mpKtr^ CVrvofM*^ Wh4g tnvy «rt hoi bwt hsWi b v^hn*iotih*uJDrm{^vi pt^ldtd in ihfi ody*ft li occur^tv, Digib hloUingi Lid caniot be held Labia fof any eni>i of QfntuiDm iho* prcry hcn« occu^sd SgU lubffJ Id tipndcyd cff^rirfhJH ol wW E ond 06. WELCOME AT A GLANCE OUIDE T9 help you find what you want quickly and easily, this is a cross- rgrgrgncQCI Net of all the products and subjects covered in this month's Amiga Shopper The subjects covered in Amiga Answers are detailed on page 32; the many PD programs covered on page 139 are listed there. The page numbers given ar^ for the first page of the article in which the subject is mentioned. AlphaScan P us hand scanner 70 AMOS 82 AMOS Answers 82 ARgaa 67 Arguments 67 Assemb er 56 Back issues 106 Beginners' advice 24 Buying guide 152 C programming 126 Clip art 75 Colourpic Plus 57 Command parsing 67. 82 Communications 102 Competition 154 Daatscan hand scanner 70 Dot matrix printers 14 Fonts 57 Hypertext 89 Inkjet printers 14 Internet 102 Laser pr nters 14 Letters 12 Listings 56, 67. 78, 82, 89, 126 Mail order offers 121 Mandelbrot set 78 Music 113 News 7 Next month 154 Price changes 7 Printers 14 Product locator 148 Public domain 139 Puzzle games 75 Reader ads 81 Sampes 113 Shareware 139 Spreadsheets 95 Subscriptions 106 Talking Shop 12 US News 11 User groups 133 Vidi Amiga-12 57 Workbench 3 89 World Of Commodore Show 7, 11 Are there any products or subjects you'd like us to take a look at? Well, just drop a line to: Amiga Shopper, 30, Monmouth Street, Bath BAl 2BW. ower is a wonderful thing. Take me - I've finally beconne the editor of Amiga Shopper. At last, it's mine, all mine, I'm the boss, top dog, I have complete control... (snip - Prod Ed.) Take the new A1200 for instance - a helluva powerful machine at a superb price. If you've just got one of these - and according to Commodore there are plenty of you out there who have - then your mind must be boggling with the possibilities. That's where we come in: we show just what you can do with your machine, and how to do it. If you /lai/ejust got your first Amiga, then you Should turn to page 24. Our special Beginners' Guide will put you in the picture. You'll be surprised at how versatile the Amiga actually is. But our main feature this month is a complete guide to buying a printer, starting on page 14. We've put no less than 20 printers through their paces. Different people require different things from their printers, so we've made sure we've covered all the categories - dot matrix, Inkjet and laser - and the comprehensive feature chart at the end of the article will ensure that you buy the w^iBftM"" YOU SHALL HAVE A FISHY There are thousands of Amiga programs which are available for little more than the price of a disk. And many more which allow you to try the software free before you buy. Each month in Public Domain World we examine the best of these programs and explain how to get hold of them. r r This month we focus on the latest batch of utilities in the Fred Fish collection, and take a look at a program that could improve your computer r drawing skills. Public Domain World or + If wishes were fishes... as we call it this month, starts on page 139 printer you need to do the job you want, at the price you can afford. With Commodore's flurry of launching activity at the end of last year, and talk of even more new machines, 1993 looks set to be a good year. Peripherals are already on the cards for the A1200 - expect a flood of developments in the very near future. You can be sure that we'll be keeping you up to date. We're committed to ensuring you get the best out of your Amiga, whether it was built in 1984 or last week. Enjoy the issue! /^A^cp Editor 15 PAGES DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS Every month in Amiga Answers our panel, comprised of experts from each of the fields of Amiga computing, answers more genuine reader questions than any other Amiga magazine. And from this month they'll endeavour to correct the errors In any programs you send In as well! We answer questions every month on Workbench • The CLI • Comms • Programming • DTP • Video • Business software • And more! THE ANSWERS START ON PAGE 31 FOR A FULL LIST OF CONTENTS, TURN THE PAGE This magazine comes from Future Publishing, a company founded just seven years ago, but which now sells more computer magazines than any other publisher in Britain. We offer: Better advice. Our titles are packed with tips, suggestions and explanatory features, written by the best in the business. Stronger reviews. We have a cast-iron policy of editorial independence, and our reviews give clear buying recommendations. Clearer design. You need solid information, and you need it fast. So our designers highlight key elements in the articles by using charts, Your guarantee of value diagrams, summary boxes, annotated - photographs and so on. Greater relevance. At Future, editors operate under two golden rules: • Understand your readers' needs. • Satisfy them. More reader interaction. We draw strongly on readers' contributions, resulting in the liveliest letters pages and the best reader tips. Buying one of our magazines is like joining a nationwide user group. Better value for money. More pages, better quality: magazines you can trust. uiure PUBLISHING The home of Britain's finest computer magazines: Amiga Shopper • Amiga Format • Amiga Power • Commodore Format •PCW Plus -PC Plus ST Format • Your Sinclair • Sega Power Amstrad Action • PC Answers • PC Format Total! • Super Play • Mega • Gamesmaster - and masses more coming at ya in 93 too t AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 • FEBRUARY 1993 ^ '*■■ ..■rri' ^^ I Fi- i" ■^- \ ^ t -r*r; if"-^ - i« ■.* ^^"^i??!^!™*^ V ^ n1 N. ''SiV y ./■ .-•'£ ■^ ^J» WICKED ■ Our A1200's are, also availabli internal IDE hard disk drives.'* EizG of the disk drive that yd "A z9Lhm DBOYS with fully prepared and formatted eas^ add&he following prices for the reqy^e :-->*' >" \ \^ISA *] Ji r 40Mb 120Mb 240Mb 330Mb 480M PHONE FOR PRICES OF PCMCIA CARDS A £110 £179 £449 £879 I OTHER HARDWARE FOR PHONE/FAX ORDER SERV CE OR ENQUIRIES lir Tel. (0736) 331039 FOR MAIL ORDER SERVICE:- TAa SOFTWARE DEMON LTD. P.O. BOX 90 PENZANCE, CORNWALL, TR18 2SP Please add £6.00 for postage & packaging Please make all cheques/P.O.s payable to SOFTWARE DEMON LTD., if appi cab e please inc ude your credit card NQ and expiry date. C:^aJta!^tNl1WS *AMIGA SHOPPERS * l5$Uie^22 February 1993 ; ; -; l1-.. . . ■• Alt Miton Diana TaylorJ'^' .Prodj^jCtlon Editon.D&ve Green ;: i^CoffP^ftant mors: Jeff JfVglker, :Mark Smiddy, Ian Wrigley^ :, Contrfb^^ors:Jasp.n Holtj^rp, Pajjij Overaa, Gary Whiteley,.£!9ye ' i : -^ ■in — ' _^^- " " V - Gladwin, Conrad Bessant^ Toby : Simpson, )(KiltR%e^;.4plym p^.li^h . M^,/Wanairef>IVIargaret Cjarki^, |Davld.Eckettx>..;,^.^^:, ^ Producfipmrnchati^ ■i ■V--.W. ■■„.-■ ^i-M^-f '. Produttion Technicians:^ :,k Simon Windsor/Chris Stocker ; Circulation^ Director: Sue Hartley ^ '' \ PuMlsher: Stuart Ari^erto Grou()Mul^is^ingDire<^orr-^}^^ ZU -Greg, Ingham.^ ,: -..i ^^^^^:?v!-^r_;/,?" , ABp audited circul^iojc^^r v ^January-June 199g: ^ ^; J48J99 cc^ple^/mcinth j; ^Printed byRjedwood fire?s^?\*'^-^ ■W.'L ".m<igci£in9 may be reproduced without ^written' Contributions for publication but regret-^' 1 ,that,we.cann.ot:return any^ubmi^sions.,^ 'Any correspondence will be considered *; otherwise. 30lMonmouthStreet;,Bath.BAX2BW#^ Tel: 022^ 442244 :.Fax:J)2;25^^019|: — '■*/ Advertising , ^Rgp^^House, ^|cHighei;J;H!l^^ ; . 5 ; ;stockpprtSK13ER:^J^;. Bl.r . ■■>i7-^- ^■/l ;The Old Barn, SpmertonJjVUJ'^X-^.;^:> .Tel:(M?8 74plX; ;/ "^^^ *^ . Who fancies a year's frae-SMbscriptIoKtTiis^/-^|^ ^ month7,Wf,^« getting all literary .this tlmeJ^^^-^^ .What kind, of, confectionery was it that created - an Intense moment of remembrance for the f protagonifit in Proust's ALa Rochorche Du .. \ j^ Tfpip^^^rtlil7rYou^^^ G<^f tJipn juat jot -\^'.. >[ilvJiffihr.K*^W<l(0«lf^T<ll4[iM4iT^»]fn Frenchr^actually'y Amiga Shopper, 30, Monj^Si**** St^ Bath, BA1.2BVy..fi^t ^orrep.t :^; ^answer out of-the bag wins 12fi9e:lssues. VVe. ^ haven|thad theright answer to last month'j^ ^u^stiQijuSiS^^Jso kes^i'^n^ News 7 Price rises across the Amiga range PLUS a report from the World Of Commodore show in Toronto Talking Shop 12 The liveliest computer engenders the liveliest debate Printer Round-up 14 Dot matrix. Inkjet or laser- we rate them all. 20 printers are tested to the full to_ enable you to make the best printer purchasing decision 1' , '^yy r C.^- If you've just got one of- these, or one of Its friends, *■.- H then this is the place to-:^-:^.-:: jQpk,,yw:e.e)^plain ajl youiS|;: :need Jo;knQW to gegnjg:^' '*» ■ ^=^:: ».tt^»*. ^-^: and Stay with hassle-free^ > -' — .-"yi Amiga Answers 31 14 pages of Amiga problems solved PLUS the all-new Code Clinic, in which your programs are debugged Video Two video digitisers at opposite ends of the price spectrum come under close scrutiny 57 ARexx Get to grips with the Amiga's bundled multitasking programming language. This month: passing arguments 67 70 Desktop Publishing The scanner war hots up with the latest incarnations of the DaataScan and Alfascan Plus hand-held units. We compare them and discover which is best for you Education 75 Spruce up your presentations with some high quality clip art PLUS a look at some educational puzzles Cliaos 78 An exploration of the fascinating world of fractals, this month focusing on variations of the Mandelbrot set Reader Ads 81 This is the place to look if you're buying or selling second hand Amiga kit AMOS 82 How to create text adventure games PLUS solutions to all your AMOS problems AmigaDOS 89 A look at some of the flash new features of AmigaDOS 3, Including a powerful hypertext utility Business 95 Set up a spreadsheet to predict your electricity and gas bills - no more unpleasant stiocks! Communications 102 Discover what you can get from the limitless zone of electronic communications with our look at the Internet - a vast network of computers from around the world Amiga Music 113 Samples from all over the world in Walkabout Music's collection PLUS sample storage techniques explained Public Domain World 139 All the latest in the PD and shareware scene. This month there's a round up of the latest shoal of Fred Rsh disks, and a program that teaches computer graphic design with Deluxe Paint C Programming 126 Rise from the humble beginnings of a novice to the heights of proficiency with the language of the pros User Groups 133 You're an Amiga user; you want to join a group; so turn to the User groups pages Product Locator 148 Your at-a-glance guide to the best In Amiga hardware Win a Fax Modem 154 There's over £400 worth of Supra modems up for grabs. All you have to do is answer the three simple questions AMIGA SHOPPER KRBIIflBY 1 003 lUeServB of Hampshire Established 7 years Amiga Workstation /Expansion System Mnnimr tiipriH with nhflH fof rinweft etc Strong irvAial construction made from 14SWG ateel epoxy coated. No Csblea Of nimnH afH incliiiiKi Special thrice £27 .50 New Citizens Swift 240 24p!n Colour* AdvBnceO 24Din pimlei. iSwilt 24E '□pliorui coioui Prtce AitD ubW & (Upef 240 Mono £245 24QC Colour £265 Swift 200 24pfn Colour^ Enhanced 74[>ii prifTier (Sw^h 224 ^optional cdour Price v^^lh cabte & paper 200 Mono £195 200C Colour £219 Citizen's Print Manager These advanced ptirrei driven irjni^O'rri coiouF priniDut'4 To lAie* tVEv quality Voraioii I (224 & 24E) £5 Verston 2 [Swift wnes 2J flO Dnvers 1 /2 pricv if haugtit Mvilh a printer Printer Drivers Canoi^ BJ lOe/BK fB Deslqei 500 Colour £10 Citizen 120D + wjih cable p- /nq & paper I- I UiJ All Citizen printers have 2 year warranty Citizen Swift 9 miifi CBbie Mono £155 ^°^^^' Colour £179 Panasonic KXP1123 Probabtv the best 24c»n mono prinief 3va<laUe. Wiih cable & paper £169 Panasonic/Epson KXPn70 9pin 134 KXP^^24^ 24pin 215 KXP2180 9pin Colour .... 189 KXP2123 24p<n Colour... 229 Epson LX400 9pin 119 Epson LQ570 24pin 265 Prices include VAT cable & pap«r Naksha Scanner with loiicti up r 1 r\Ck software *- > ^^ Midi Interface 4 channel Midi Iniflftace tor Arniga l> Tfi Midi Muat S/w jASOO onlv not Plus) £19 C4.95 Deskjet 500 HP SOOdp- Inkjet pnnier. Laser Qualnv 01 dot matrix price. 3 year wafTflniv- n n nir WrtfiLdttcik paper LoZO Deskjet Colour SOOdfn colou' mkjet pmtw. Cobur \asw qualnv at V 1 of ihfl Ost. 1A^ c^ble & paper L41 9 /Vew New Naksha Mouse £21.50 for Atan ST & Ainifla with house & mat Squik Mouse for Aiari ST ft AmiQa £1 3.90 HP Deskjet 550C SOOdpi colour tpkpn pnnter. Colour las^ qualitv. with cdour and Uack caevtbgea nvdtni. 3 yuar warrairrv P^OQ Wiih caWe & paper U^J^O Printer Packs Al pnnTfKl are sutvMd with a ortntef pack consisting o1 pnntH paper and a cormecnar "* Free of charge A siarxl IS f6.00 evira Iwith a pnnlflr} Printer Dust Covers most lypea in stock from £4.70 Canon BJ-IOex 3 60 dpi Inkjet printer With cable St paper £199 Star SJ-48 360dpi Inkjet primer with cab^e & paper £199 Star LCI 00 Spin colour with cable & paper £159 Star LC20 Mono 9p<n 119 LC200 Colour 9pin 175 LC2420 Mono 24pin 185 LC24100 Mono 24pin .,,.175 LC24200 Colour 24pin .. 249 Prices include VAT cable & paper Kickstart Upgrades Commodore 2.04 toll upgrade 79. 00 Kickstart ROM onlv v2.0A .... 41.50 Kickstart ROM only vl. 3 29,00 Phoenix rom sharer 24.35 Kevb'd operated rom sharer 24.95 VXL30 25MHz Accelarator ..239.00 Fatter Angus custom chip ,,..37.50 True Mouse for Atari ST & Amiga £15, 90 Happy Mouse forAtanST& Amifla £1 4,90 New New Prices GVP Series 2 for A 500 ^^'"^ ^^^^ 80Mb Hard Disc £379 120Mb Hard Disc £419 240Mb Hafd Disc £689 SOMb A530 Combo £649 1 20Mb A530 Combo £749 240Mb A530 Combo £989 for A1 500 SOMb Hard Disk £339 120Mb Hard Disk €399 240Mb Hard Disk £629 GVP ram £41 per 1Mb Ram Upgrades A500 iMram +ck>ck £24.90 A500 IMram no clock £19.90 A500+ IMram * dock £39.90 A600 iMra-n *ciock £49.90 Citizen ProCM 14" Super High res. Multisync Colour monitor, dot pilch 0,2SiTvn, suitable for A 3000 or A4000 Roppy Drives Cumana CAX354 £49.90 1M &MDFT>al Commodore AlOn IMnwtarnol pAQ Whito ttockB last *-^" Roctec/Zappo New AJIAm.aaaAGOOAlSOO lU flxtonml dmrfl £49, 90 Amiga A1200 5itfaMw. WofkOencli V J. i^M ram Cusiom graphici 256K cok)ur5 from l6.7nilion. £359 Amiga A4000 Wb 3. 25MH2 t20Mb Hd £2099 with cable £349 Philips CM8833 MK2 Rebadged as AKFl 7 14" Stereo Colour Monitor, Dot pitch 0.42mm. Medium Res. £165 with cable £169 without cable Commodore 1 084SD 14' Stereo Colour Monitor. Dot pitch 0.42mm- Medium Rea. Amiga A600 Stfliiffafd A600 single floppy £265 witfioul software Amiga 600SD (D.Pantlll, Grand Pnn, Pvitty, Pushover) Wild Weird ^^^^ & Wicked ^"^^^ £179 £175 with cable without cable Price valid for current stock only Philips CM8833mk2 UK. 240V £219 vrthcaWe ^game £215 v^^thout cable If game not required reduce above pnces by £5.00 Price valid for current stock orily Accessories 3M Joyst'ck/Mouse lead .— 3.75 A500 Primer cable , 7.95 Modulator /Disk Extension 10^95 23way Plug or aockei 2.96 A 500 Dust Cover 4.70 Mouse Mat ithick soft tvpe) .. 4.95 Mouse House -,..., 2.9S 1M internai 3.5' drive 49.00 A500 ffiplacement PSU 39.00 A590 replacement PSU 49.00 Rocgen Plus - Genlock + .- 129.00 Disc Wallet for 32 d^ska 7.95 Amiga 600HD (Trivial Pursuit, Epic, Rome, Pushover! Epic Pack £435 SONY DISKETTES SONY branded ifffafime warranty f 1100% certifieO error it9Q\ 10» 3.5' DSXJD t35tpi 7.50 50k 3.5' DSOT) 13Stp. 32.30 tOO>i3.5" OS.'DD 135TC. 59.93 250x3.5" DS/DD nstp. 141.00 Ikx 3b'DSOD135tpi 540.50 DISKETTES SONY/DYSAN bulk ftifetimt warranty) (100% certified error free) lOx 3.5' DS/DD 135lpi 5,95 50* 3,5'DS/OD135lpi 21.86 100x3.5" OS/DO I35lpi 39.60 250x3.5- DS/DD 135tjii 94 88 Ikx 3.5"DS.'OD 135tpi, 379,53 40 k 3.5" DisV bon vwrth lock 5,49 100 X 3.5' Disk box witti kick.,,, 7,50 Carnage on 50+ disks f3.53 Phone for oor 60 p9ge cfitalogue EDUCATIONAL AND GOVERNMENT ORDERS WELCOME All products have a 30 day money back & 12 month warranty, prices are subject to variation without prior noti'icaiion- Plftflfif^ Dhone for express clearance of cheques. EslflbllBhad 7 yesrs. 3 rnir^utes f^om M27 Junction 1 1. Free parking Open 9 to 5. 30 Monday to Fnday & 9 to 5 Saturdav Postage 94p or E3.53 Secuncor £6.46 (E5.50 +VATJ CD UleServe Larger nems delivered bv Secuncor Amiga /Shopper Dept. 40-42 We at Street Porto heetef Hants P016 9UW Tel: 0705 647000 ->J 0705 647000 New Telephone Number 0705 647000 E WS PERSONNEL CHANGES Dave Green, a serious- looking soul, takes over as Production Edftor of the magazine that's serjous about your Amiga Ttwre's been a couple of personnel offices this foonth. The first is ihat Alison Harper, our erstwhile Production Editor, has left to work on another magazine. She is being replaced by the lean, mean (but perhaps not as preltyl form of Dave Green. Dave says: "While all our contributors are of course infallible, sometimes bad people sneak into our computers and plant extra characters In our files to make us look silly. It's my job to root out these so-called "typos', thus making the reading of the magazine a pleasant and patnless expenence for aH of you.' The second is that Dave has left to 'Test in a special hospftal" ,.,no. only kidding, the second is that Andy Storer, who has left to edit a brand new magazine, has been replaced as Editor by Cliff Ramshaw. CHEAP HARD DRIVES Software Demon is selijng what It claims to be the cheapest hard drives around for the A1200, The pnces for the different sizes of IDE drives are as follows: 20Mb for £110. 40Mb for £180. 120Mb for £260 and 240Mb for £450, The reason for the low cost of the drives is that they are the more common 3.5- inch drives. Software Demon has developed its own cabling and fitting procedure to connect these to an A1200, As a consequence, the drives cannot be user-fitted. They may be Ijoughl pre-fitted in an A1200< or alternatively you can send your A 1200 to the company and, for a fee of £19. Software Demon will fit a dnve for you. All drives have an access time of 14ms or less, and are supplied with software to fnstafi Worlibench 3. Software Demon w 0736 331039, Hellcs Software has released Chiidsplay. a word processor aimed at children aged between 2 and 12, The idea of the program Is to make learning as creative and fun as possible. To this end, it is highly graphical rn nature. Chjfdren can manipulate pre-defined graphic blocks as i' they were letters, creating a multi-layered effect with words on top of graphics. The pre- OetineO graphics may be altered or added to with blocks from any standard iff picture. As children type words into this educational program, it will say them out loud in one of three voices: male, female or robot. There is also a facility for the program to speak each letter in a word, or to recite a whole passage of text. As well as providing the facility for chiWron to type In words, ChtMspiay a\sa comes with a preset WORD PRO FOR KIDS list of words, any of which may be selected VI o ihc mouse and added to the mam text. In this way children are able to improve their vocabulary. A number ot pu7zTes can 3lgo be creared by an adult in Criildspiay. A bloc k-onenled Jigsaw is one eiiiample; but more sophisticated puzzles such ac; pattern- matching games can be implemented with the system's iwalayer graphics and te;^t approach. ChiWspWx costs £24,95 from HQltos Software « 0623 554828. ffllBJIB Bright, colourful graphics ami computer^generatfid speech add educational appear to Helios Software's Childsplay A600, A 1 200 and A4000 offkially described as 'consumer' machines More new Amig The recent World of Commodore Show in Toronto proved the spawning ground for rumours concerning yet another new batch of Amigas. A Commodore official was apparently heard descnbing the A600. A1200 and A4000 as 'consumer' Amigas, implying that a number of professional' level models are to be introduced with specifications hrgher than that of the A4000. It seems likely that these machines will be the host of the enhanced AGA chip set discussed in last months news pages. New facilities are aojd to inclutfo o 32 bit bllttcr, 24-bit true colour display and buiH-in trame grabbing, it's likely that such moGliinu^j will hdrc CDROM drives ruled di ^Idnddro. A Digital Signal Processor TDSP) is also expected to make an appearancCn givfng much improved CD-quality sound with real-time special effects. Announcements were also made concerning an add-on DSP for the A4000, as well as a SCSI-ll controller and new variations on the A4000. See the US News on page 11 for the full story. Speculation is still nfe concerning a mid-range machine, popularly referred to as the A2200. with The A4QQ0 IS a hot machine, everyone agrees, but could Commodore be launching a whole range of machines with even higher specifications? specifications similar to the A1200 but with greater expansion possibilities and a separate keyboard- Commodore UK's KeHy Sumner has strenuously denied the existence of a machine called the A2200. Then again, in Amiga Shopper Issue 17 he denied all knowledge of a machine called the A800, just before the A1200 (with a very similar spec to that rumoured for the A800} appeared. POWER BOOST FOR A 1200 Microbotics has launched a maths co-processor upgrade board for the A 1200 computer. The board, called the MBX1200, includes a 68881 maths co-processor clocked at 14.3MHz. which provides up to a 55-times speed increase on floating-point operations. On average, an A1200 with the board installed will return a result eight times faster than an unexpanded A1200 using the AIBB benchmark, A 68882 CO processor, clocked at 25MHz, may be used instead of the 68881. The board also has a SIMM socket for up to 8Mb of 32bit RAM. This additional memory a utocon figures as Fast RAM, considerably increastng the A1200'S performance. The MBX1200 fits the A1200 internally, plugging directly into the 150-pin edge connector. Speed-hungry A1200 owners will also be pleased to hear that the board is fully compatible with AmigaOOS 3. ntted with a 14MHz 68881 and no extra memory, the MBX1200 IS expected to be in the region of £120, while the version with a 25MHz 68882 should sel.l for £180. Shop around for the best prices. The MBX1200 is dislhbuted in the OK by Taurus. It is avarJabie from Calculus w 0543 414939 and other dealers, including the First Computer Centre, who can be reached on tr 0532 319444. AMIGA SHOPPEft • JSSUf 23 • HBftUARY 1993 E.W S. .1" ^ V^"^^ HARD DRIVES READY FOR NEW AMIGAS Tnlogic has cinnounct^d iug arrival of a range of IDE hard drives suitable for use with Itie A600 and A1200. The Urrvca dte all 2.5 IncHea Tn size, and fit internally. They come fearty lormaned and with a connecting cable, making ihem ready to use as soon 05 they have been fitted. The drives are available m the follfiwiAg ^iiA^: 20Mb for £119.9Q. 40Mb fo^ £1139-99. 60Mb for £199.99, 80Mb for £24999 ar>cl 120Mb for £349.99. TMlogiC can be reached on n 0274 691115. And don't forgel to look out for next month's Amiga Shopper, wvhich will be carrying an in-depth article describing exactly how to choose, fit and use just such a drive in ytxjr A1200orA600. VISUAL COMMUNICATION Crys^a^ Concepts has announced the availability of a help video for would-be comms users. Called How To Operate A Modem, the video explains how to set up communications software, log on to bulletin boards and download files- Advice is also given on the use of the numerous file archiving programs currently available. Packaged with the video is a directory of 150 bulletin board numbers, the comms program NComm 2. the directory utility SlD and two archivers: PKAnpar\6 LHArc. Buyers of the package will also Oe eligible to a free three-month subscnption to a UK bulletin board. The package costs £26.95 plus £2.00 p&p from Crystal Concepts -a 0942 523387. Fraiify of sterling brings price iaaeases across complete Amiga range HELP FOR VDU Prices are set to rise across the entire Amiga range, it has been confirmed by Commodore, The move comes as a result ot the Tailing value of the pound in the international market. An increase of £30 will be added to the stand-alone A600, the two A600 bundles - the Wild. Weird & Wicked pack and the Epic pack " and the stand-alone A1200. Other products, such as hard drives and CD-ROM drives, wilt be subject to a price increase, but the amount is not yet finalised. The move is scheduled for the beg^nnl^g of January. Commodore is reluctant to make it: "It may yet not happen," said Commodore's Andrew Ball. When asked if the prices would be reduced once the pound regained its strength, he replied: "as soon as we can." Obviously the move will affect sales, but coming as it aoes in Uit irddUlondlly blach po5l-Cnrisimas period. Ehe upheaval should not be too great. The recession hits the Amiga, with price increases of £30 on bundles and stand-alone models ORM Um IMF Question: What have a penguin and a 01-6500 colour scanner got In common? Answer: They both appear In an Epson pubHclty shot A super-charged version of Epson's A4-sized flatbed colour scanner has been released. The GT-6500 offers a number of advantages over its predecessor, the GT-6000. Both are full colour (up to 24 bits per pixel) scanners, capable of dealing with images up to A4 in size. The GT-6500, however, has a much improved mawmum resolution of 1200 dots per inch in line-art mode. Also- scanning operations themselves are now much faster. The GT-6500 is available with a SCSI or parallel port interface, although the Amiga driver software currently only supports the parallel port version. This software is actually a loader module for ASDGs acclaimed Art Department Professional image processing package, though it will also be available as a stand-alone package. Two extras are currently available for the GT-6500. The first is a transparency adaptor, which contains a second scan head and enables the device to take scans of slides, transparencies and reflective materials. The second is an automatic document feeder^ which is interided pnman^y for bulk optica! character recognition work. The GT-6500 is distributed in the UK by HB Marketing -a 0753 686000 and retails at £938.83. Epson UK can be contacted on ' 0442 61144. OPERATORS ^e Health And Safety Executive has released a book explaining the steps necessary to comply with the European Community Directive on display screens. The Directive comes into force on 1 January 1993. It is designed to ensure the health of people whose employment regularly brings them in contact with computer monitors. The main points are that employers will be required to assess workstations and reduce any risks found; employers must ensure workstations meet a set of minimum requirements: that screen work must be planned to provide breaks: and to give eyesight tests to employees who request them. The book, Display Screer) Equipment Work: Guidance On Regulations, is available for £5 from Her Majesty's Stationery Office. THE SCAPED CRUSADER MegageM has anrxmnood vsrslon 3 of Its ScapeMaher program. The utility wilt take an IFF format image and convert it to DEM format for 3D rendering with programs like VistaPro and Scenery Amma for. ScapeMaker 3 is compatible wtth a\\ versions of Workbench, It will process 258 by 258 and 514 by 514 point DEM files, and wiM display two DEM buffers in 16 shades of grey. Control is achieved by a push-button interfacen keyboard shortcuts, menus, and ARexK or AmigaDOS scnpts. ScapeMaker 3 costs $64.95 plus postage from MegageM -^ 0101 805 349 1104. AMIGA ^HOPPFff * I^SUE 77 m FEfiRUARY 1 >. Home AccounVft^ An ad', .. oMioi. o\ Horntr Accounrv whith l^ limitM only by Ih^ f*ip^»'tiy t>J your computrr. S<>phi?ticatcd rrpjrTing v»ith (ST jr>*i Ami^i) £54,09 ^h r' *--» «- Hfo ^ ^ HoriM AccQuntt itltfai tt;f humi' jht* who wjnt a fimpl^ fid^oti-i £29.99 DOCoU wfndov^mg lAi^^Iity. ^o rK^t you Ciin lixA 4( hmc £39.99 MoJIthol P(v» ir you ever nrcd Ifi send uut mailin^\ or piiiAj bbck lli»^ prti^fjm IS k)f you Anfm^ilf d L»ScL% j[>war 4>n-%crc4-n :ty a .'^( jll<m'ir.}; you Vo vroJI r 1 ■ . ' .1 ■ ^ Yixi cJn *rJftK sort ^ '!< rfin» ;ui^by *tdc _ uChmuK- £49.99 ff you Yr Tookirtft 'or h*l ^ir^-t to cuilamiW reports Ihcr \hn '--^ I'i. - 1' dflUbwiOof youiST^ £49.99 Doy-Sy-Doy be reminded of bj^hiJayi, imcrjrift* -ind iippointmrnr^ It ini')iu.V« montbi'Hei-l^'iJdy e\vnU £29.99 Pertonal Ton Planner nijn yi»ur own ti<> ia jrh f^sp ! hi*. pfo^Mm wili ijKoljk- your mtome ta» Iwbiiity, alli'wihft you to pcrlofin i^Man^ "whfll il ijjiidahori^ jnd pr iniu* r prrhnenl (mIs -ihovil your U^y pn^itiori. A pi^ rut vi-i^jon [1 jlio 4^ ior jf aiunUntt jnd fuunttj] jdvricr* £49.99 4 tfm Mvpe Tr^jpnuijn your lomputcr mto a lyp*^- writfT [iccAuse loiil Lfi pnntod insUnlty, you ijn Imp up yoLir fnmi, pre^ K'hirr and ip^^r ,1 ffw times to mttve fn the correcl pbcc and 'cnvviofKi. £39,99 Sy^lem 3 AauiK'ofpfo^Mfn* wh«Kpt(fi>fih jII tltc b.i^t luncficm* for J '.m^^ll hu*mri.s They mny he used independent E; or nMf>;rjled jnd irftludr Cfl^Kllriw C_oni;ojicf. Stoek Cohlrol jnd Invoicing ar nerh £59.99 Syttem 3* I ik^ Sy«ern .V bul wilh rxlendpa ipIim. it;, fo/ (unlomer account* And siotJ; ittmr. £79.99 CflihlKtok ContTotl«r -d'^i; til* fcl.'Uil^^r:; ksut ot hni ■ as rtmprogTjm will rcpUvt- vtnir ^j^^k jnJ j^'^ly ^jdi bui»k\ in ddJiliun lorrti^idnij; Ois^i. Iwnk and VAT Iran^ction^ youi4n enlcr tn-ilil talcs jnd purchases, and tor all the^e mine', the pro^um will .lulornolit^ilty ^Tompk-k' doublr i-ntrv ri'uhi>ev to emufc your Trvord*. At^ alw«y« in I'.ildnct: £59.99 AccounK i^r thi* 4ikft>nnj[K>ri ^'L'ated v*^\h CajihKviki t_->ri(r<>|]ef thi* program vnH produte a tomplcrir ^H of hV tounls. uidudio^ T;i-il R-iUna- Fr^diri); »md Proht jndUm Account, BaiafiLe Shtv^ a^ welf a^ n^r*til dkXOuntinK ratios £39,99 Cathbook Combo A money 'vavmgtombmalt^in paik conUmmfc; C'a*''' - rontrollvrandhinal Afcounis. £79.99 Wordwofth"^ i 'n' j4iaphKa[ nature of Wordwortb mflkes proJoiing dot'ummb Li^U'r and easier. tVith the vnhan^t'd prmtm^ tonl*. C'o^ljns ,cl[iii)i Vhakvt dnd Tlu-iJufu^. no other wwd protetiiof comes cloie ^Afitigj £1 29.99 ^■1 The Drgjta range is available for Commodore Amiga, Alari ST and IBM PC unless slated olherwist-, and every program comes with a seven day money-back guarantee. The only way lo really appreciate Digita software is to use il Phone 0}'9? 2702"3 for more infomijhon, or write to Djgita. FREEPOST, Exmouth EX8 lY?.. All pnces include VAT postage and packaging. ® DIGITA INTERNATIONAL software (hcUs right^ [.,< . %\\A ranges available to lhelrfl.1*. ,,,sau>thC\ ^ .^ --. i^tii HB MaAetinfi. IBD, Lm-f , LeisufeH>*t. Pteawon and SUL , ,fa Iniemalional L: fjck Horse House VX9- IJI. - FNCKAND Trl 0,W5 270273 Fax 0395 20^*^93 ■ t^HiniL^s'i^kl: tot E W S NEED SOME EDUCATION? A f>ew fOFige of 7 year-olds Is due to arrive from Luroprcsa Softwaren a company that prides itself on tts educational reieases. ThP ADI Junior range initially consists Junior Residing and ADt Junior Counting. costing L25.99 each. TFl(J Two n^(^)<H^^5 AvtAr^A ihfi ctin^nf AOI range, which deals with Maths. English and French Two enthusiastic youngsters get to grips with the ADI Junior range for 11-15 year olds. All programs comply with the requirements of the National Curriculum. There are 15 puzzles in ADt Junior Reading, geared towards teaching the child how to match pictures la words, how to distinguish between true and false statements, and how to recognise symbols and plurals. Three levels of difficulty can be seiectea for each puzzle, ADI Junior Counting also features 15 puzzles. Using bright colours and sound, each of these endeavours to teach the topics of addition, subtraction, variances, painting by numbers and the matching of figures lo numbers. Europress can be contacted on ■a 0625 859333. Major US manufacturer GVP is set lo support the A1200 with a number of new peripherals. Although fluctuations of the pound have prevented any prices from being fmalfsed. development is well under way, with the products slated for release within the next month or so. First up is a an accelerator card to fit In the A1200's trapdoor ejtpansion slot. It will come with 00030EC piULcabui clucKcU m 40MMz and space for an additional maihs co-pfuceb^or. Up to 32MD oT 32-bit RAM can be added onboard using 4Mb SiMMs, The board should deliver a performance comparable to that of GVP's A530 combined hard drive and accelerator. The price is expected to be in the region of £399, Another trapdoor product - meaning that fitting will not void A1200 owners' warranties - is a combined RAM expansion and SCSI hard disk controller card. The card will be populated with 4Mb of 32-bit RAM, and have a slot for a maths co- processor. The SCSI controller should Quell the fears of many who felt that Commodore had made a mistake by opting for the slower^ less flexible IDE hard disk interface. The price is again expected to be in the region of £399. Also from GVP is an internally fitting JDE hard drive, which shouid be available by the time you read this. With a capacity of 85Mb it will fit either an A600 or an A1200, GVP's Faaastprep software wiii be included in the price of £399. GVP are on* 0101 215 647 6147. Its products are disinbuted m the UK by Silica « 081 309 1111. MORE ART SNIPPETS Update to C compiler Artworks has released three new disks of original clip art. The disks, costing £6,99 each or £18 for all three, are Marriages are made in heaven but marriage clip art is made in South Humberside titled as follows; Prehistoric Life. Weddings & FamHy Occasions, and Signs & Symbols 2. A poster is included with each disk so that the user may see at a glance what images are available. All the images have been hand drawn, scanned and then cleaned up using painting software to provide high quality results. Artworks can be contacted on n 0469 588138. I DIDN'T SEE A MOUSE A Uansparent mouse, sure to merge unobtrusively into the surroundings of a cluttered desk, has arrived from Spectravideo. The Datalux mouse has a vanable resolution of 100-200 dots per Inch, and costs £22.99. Contact Spectravideo on v 081 902 2211. An update has been released lo the SAS C Compiler. It wiH take version 6 of the package up to version 6.1. The update comes in the form of a freely-dfstriPuiable archive, available from t>ulletin boards around the world. Users need to already have version 6 to make use of the archive, which fines a number of bugs in the previous version and adds some minor enhancements such as support for public screens. SAS can be contacted on v 0101 919 677 8000. Its products are soTd in the UK by HiSofl< who can be reached on « 0525 718181. G-FORCE SPEED BOOST GVP has announced a method by which owners of its G-Force040 accelerator can increase the performance of the board, Mt that is required is a simple adjustment of the startup-sequence (it seems fashionable these days to descnbe hug fixes as 'added features' - Ed). The firve reading GvpCpuCtrl >t\\\ FastROM should be changed to read GvpCpuCtrl >nn:FastROM MoveSSP. GVP are on ff 0101215 647 6147. ANOTHER PD CD ROM Almathera Systems has released the second disc in its collection of public domain CDs. CDPD II is compatible with the CDTV and A570 CD-ROM drive. On it are the contents of Fred Fish disks 661-760, the Scope library, JAM disks and AB-20 archives. The addition of an automatic copier brings the disk's size up to nearly 600Mb. Last but not least are copies of both Workbench 1.3 and Workbench 2,04, CDPD 11 costs £19.95 from Almathera Systems. Phone them on fl 081 683 6418. MINE OF INFORMATION Information seekers will be interested to learn of the release of the seventh edition of the Directory Of Information Sources. Aslib's directory lists almost 7000 sources of information. 8oth organisations which give information freely and those which charge for it are listed. At £250, the book will mainly interest the dedicated researcher. Aslib are on * 071 253 4488. CORRECTION Contrary to our claims In last month s magazine, Dr Is fun music program Soom Box \n fact costs just £39.95. It's available from Zone Distribution on f 071 738 5444. I A AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 23 • FEBRUARY T 993 u s E WS ee^hawT It's your Amiga Cowboy, temporarily giving up the flatlands of the USA for the windswept and snow-covered urban tundra of Cfiniidfi. Thf [at^iit Wurld ot Commodore Amiga Show opened to on cnthu^Jo^tic crowd uf Atniga rans damouring for a look at the latest hardware and aoftwaro goodies. OF THE FUTURE P^rhapc; the most news *as gleaned twm fty^ri^^flfing a conversation between Commodore officials. According to my spy (take Uila 06 gospel folks, &ut you know my epy ItUea hie rum and coke), the Zorro III SCSI II controller and documentatmn sre nnw romplete. It snouia Uc dvdiidDie in January, with a transfer rate of .*^^^^^^« lOMD per !^etont] when connected to a SCSMI drive. That should que" a few of the criticisms the A4000 has been receiving on this side of the Atlantic. what shoufd also help is the arrival of a Digital Signal Processmg chip, which is apparently scheduled for release \r\ late spring, alor^g wjth corresponding 3.1 device support, II is a 32-bit AT&T chip offering potential for items such as 16'bit CD- quality sound, vojce recognition, and titgh-speed modem support. "a 32-bif AT&T chip offering potential for... 16-bit CD- quality sound" jonalTage ^ ■ u I ^ " 1 ' hW^ .r. . • ' ■ ■ "1 Ii| Traitor vi"' I rt>n 1 41- r»|t|«(i. L*n 4 kbbil Ij In<r Inl< ^•fi(fL Professlonat Page 3 may have only Just arrived, but It^s soon due to be superseded by version 4 The next three months will also see the release of three further configurations of the A4000. As you know, its processor plugs in on a card, so Commodore producing versions with different processors has always been a likely possibHity- Expect to see an EC030-based A4000, 35 well as one based on the standard 68030. A lower model is also on the cards - the words 'A4000T' and 'February' were mentioned in the same sentence. My spy also reports overhearing a Commodore official describing the A600, A1200 and A4000 as members of a consumer' Ime-up. He went on to say that a second series of machines would t>e released to become Commodore's professional Amigas. Quite what these new machines will contain is anybody's guess, but the rumoured enhanced AGA chip set seems like a good guesSn and perhaps Motorola's forthcoming 68060 will make an appearance. How'd you like to be a third party hardware developer lry;ng to cope with all ^^^^^^^^ this massive Hood of information? There was lots more to see at Toronto. Gold Disk \r\c announced Professional Page 4.0^ AX the lop o( a long Irst of new features is support for the Advanced Graphics Architecture chipset. Bitmapped images can be displayed on screen using up to 256 colours, giving users the benefit of true "What You See iG What You Get' viewing and more exact on-screen proofing. DTP GRAPHICS BOOSTED other outstanding new additions to this popular program include an Improved hot linked graphics editor, enhanced graphic handling with new graphtcs import fillers and improved text handling. These improvements to an already popular and apuHi powerful program ^ further promote the versatility of the Amiga to a North Amenca at present largely dominated by Mac and IBM PC page layout systems. Among the more unusual uses tor the Amiga on display at the show was Sign Engine, a desktop sign shop based on the Amiga, Parallel Motion Graphics Is the name of the company that offers this useful and unique product. Sign Engine vid^ designed and engineered for professional sign shop use. so it should find itself right at home in places tike vehicle^letailing shops, retail stores' display departments. TV stations, exhibit builders and just about anywhere else that sign making might be required. SIGN OF THE TIMES The program operates on any Amiga with 3Mb of RAM, a floppy drive, a hard drive and a vinyl cutting plotter such as those made by Amencan ■\i 7n on T/h? ^^J^"^-' ■^■^^'r:^ '-**' '^XJ - ^ . ifc ^rtp- ****i 4 t- r^t UA '*-, J'j. -- + ■^-■"-^v::y^" "^"^\ ,'^er^^''— -r. ^JS^A-.-k: ■"■■■■" 'Amiga Covi^boy' Bob Liddil takes a trip to Toronto for the World of Commodore sfiovy; and tracks dov/n the hottest nev^s around Graphtec. loline, Roland, and Houston Instruments- I saw this one m action and it was positively neat - signs were typeset m Pagestream and carved out of sheet vinyl with sharp cutting blades taking the place of pencils on the plotter. In less time than it takes to rope a calf I had the words ^AMIGA COWBOY' to put on my saddle so I d know which horse was mine in the parking lot. At $559 this vertical application is priced well. Just ^^^^^^^^^ add Amiga and plotter /cutter and blammo, you're In the ^\gn business. Contact Jeffrey Ginn at Parallel Motion Graphics, 10 Stewart Court, Orangeville, Ontario, L9W 3Z9. Dang clever folks, those Canadians! No North American show would be complete without 3D graphics programs and Toronto saw its share. Pixel 3D Professional {PixPro for shorl) is said by its producer. Axiom Software, to be "the most powerful 3D object utility program available." PixPro can be used to convert bitmap pictures and shapes to 3D objects "with unrivalled quality," This is one of those logt^tweakmg prt^rams for the art and video professional that can take the word Cowboy" and turn it every which way but loose in a dazzling display of manipulation. I saw a demonstration of the program in action and rf I could get my branding iron to do that kind of work. "the most powerful 3D object utility program available" I'd have a seriously cool logo on my cows. How about 'AMIGA' in an upscale font with curves and shadows, and 'COWBOY' in a macho block style, all done up in contrasting shades of pastel turquoise and raw hide 'J Yes! For those craving information, the staff ot Ama;;n^ CompuUng Magazine released this year's AC'S Guide to the Commodore Amiga. This invaluable 287-page publication is a useful tool for ^^^^^^^^ anyone who needs a comprehensive listing of Amiga goods and services. It features guides to graphic artSn desktop video, word processing, desktop publishing, music, ^^^^^^^ programming, utilities, and entertainment software, as well as a wide variety of hardware, including accelerators. Video Toasters, drives and memory expansion. I thoroughly recommend this for anyone who needs to know what's being offered for his Amiga. Tt's top notch. If anything can be said about this year's Wodd of Commodore in Toronto, it's that it was very very cold, but that was just the outside temperature- Inside the iniernational centren the Amiga was hot. hot, hot. Here's your Amiga Cowboy. mak<ng ■ tracks for the border, shouting "Whoopie-ty-yi-yea" and hoping a ain't snowin' in Texas, 'cause me and my Amiga are heading south for thewir>ter! CD AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 21 • FEBRUARY W93 1 1 ;k:E.T'T E R S rLT r * H'' S ^■'-^- *. pages! - the ^lA6><m^r^ you get the chance to -speak your fhih'd. So join your host, the editor. Cliff Romshaw for sofrte niOi% no-holds barred l«intfcHi%;^iitf i^Mbfer; rfy^ have to do to W jiiduded is sM your i^Usivy fo: 'Talking ^Jd^'^Mm^^liOpfmiS^, Mo^ .., J^.FV - ^-^^ OFFICIAL COMPLAINT We recently purchased Mini Office as a result of reading your review. So faf we have only really Investigated the word processor. but we have already found a couple of annoying problems. The first, though minor. Is that the program does not aLlow for double spacing, which seems to be a fairly standard facility on most other word processors^ The second problem ts more annoying: if the capltd Iw^h b u^ed H does not just affect the letters. It \s Impossible to enter any nufnber, comma or even a full stop without releasing the capital lock- My son wishes to use the word- processor for school projects and frequently uses capital letters so this second problem Is the source of great frustration. When we contacted the supplier we were told that we should have read the reviews. We did read yours but it didn't point out these problems. So It looks as though we shall have to battle on and try not to take out our frustrations on the machine. Anonymous 01 si Ingham, Suffolk Son7 to hear you're not happy with the program. A solutior^n Though not entirely satisfactory, to your" first pomt is simply to press [Return] twice at the end of every line. We try to make our reviews as complete as possible, but are rwvBftheiess dealing with a limited amount of space. There are no doubt other aspects of Mini Office that were not mentioned In the review. Our reviewer chose to meition those points he felt were most salient. Unfortunately, he didn't bother mentioning the two points thai are Important to you, because be judged F«*« dispatched today and you will get It tomorrow" (eight days ago); "I will get someone to call you back" (still waiting): and "you will have to ring ouf other number to complain". t have written and still received no reply or computer. The company was obviously making promises It could not keep. My message to your readers is "cheapest Is not always best". Make sure a company has what you want in stock before ordering Gary Reld Redcar, Cleveland A sad but not entirely unique tale, Gary, and your advice to others is certainly worth heeding. Incidentally, we're starting a new column, Amiga Advocate, in which we seek the advice of a solicitor to sort out the hassles some people have had with manufacturers and retainers. THAT COVER DISK I have purchased every issue of Amiga Shopper \o date, and In my opinion It Is one of the best Amiga mags for Information, and certainly the best value for money. You have just ruined the latter case! I foad with dismay that you intend to supply a cover disk with future Issues, which in my opinion Is the worst possible thing you could do. If I wanted to buy PD I would choose my own disks; I don't want to be forced to buy PD of someone else's choice. If you want to enter the PD market, why don't you advertise it and let people make up theJr own minds? AW Thackray Dunstable '/Uf •H*.*l'4.lari t< k : n i ni_Vrf i(t/lii«4n' I - iTflJ Mtmt [i^riAiH* P»<uiLv tumt^itf* TkP imi> tfii rkfJ iitJI ipiiiiliiipv in n r*ii ■ '•v "m vr fivmiir lull tt cK«L«r fi»r in* *II4 II '••4' VlU *aLt 1^ fl' 'LDk* •M^nimmli* Birr iHi.iitt ivJ tivai-uHriH^ro*! irlS JllJ lliit II 1** iiiHitlV il kp<ti>l ilicHKlrl iTJ'ri I* jIL ««tt**t ar *im\Hfnr ^iii- St 1 fuiiln <nl '"j'r ilhf fi4lj« bijtfiti II ihri< *t'i¥i Mini Office found favour with our reviewer, but has at least one unsatisfied customer to Its name them to be irrelevant to the needs of most potential Mini Office users. MAIL ORDER HASSLE I purchased your magazine to look for the best deal for an Amiga 600 with 1Mb and no software, I found it: £254.95 plus delivery^ I placed the order, but my goods have still not arrived. The company's ^hot line' rings unanswered or engaged most of the time. So much for "newt day express service". On the three occasions I have spoken to someone at the company 1 have been told: "It will be but on the other hand... It is good that you have r:^^SSai»:t added a cover disk to the magajtine. making Amiga I Shopper even better value : for money. I was particularly pleased to see that you maximised the contents of the disk by archiving, and did not waste space by making the disk auto-boot^ng as most other magazines do. However, I do feel that you could have made the process of urvarchiving the dish more user-frlendly. The actual content of the first disk was excellent, and I will certainly look forward to future disks If you are able to maintain that sort of standard. Please stick to complete PD or shareware programs, rather than demos of commercial products. A good collection of programs on a single disk saves having to buy several normar PD disks. Gareth Kitchener Shefford, Beds So. opinion is divided on the matter. Interestingly, MrThackray's ietter arrived before publication of the cover dish issue, whereas Gareth clearly decided to wart and see it t>efore commenting. The point about ease of un^rchiving has been noted. I think the cover disk is a good thing, and if enough readers agree, then we'll continue providing them. The aim, as always, is to produce the best possible magazine. I'm certain that next months dJsk will convince the sceptics among you. Without giving too much away, it's going lo he tied very strongly to our editorial content in a way no other magazine has tried^ essentially emending the magazine's medium. As well as PD and shareware utilities, there'll be loads of source code listings to save you typing, and a special set of files linked to an article explaining Assembler For Beginners. THE HORROR I was horrified to read Kelly Sumner's comments on the Amiga In Issue 17. and, after visiting the Future Entertainment Show. I felt that I must write- Surely Ketly should not be promoting PCs for use in business Instead of the Amiga. Many manufacturers make PCs. so the chance of someone buying a Commodore PC Is slim, whereas someone who wants an Amiga has to buy It from Commodore, Kelly's statement Just shows the lack of commitment of Commodore to the Amiga. What topped It off was seeing the two Commodore stands at the Future Entertainment Show - a games stand containing A600s and 1200s (showing Just games) and a business stand containing Commodore PCs. A walk round the other stands (HKh as GVP and Digit a) showed Amigas with genlocks, word processors, 24'blt graphics and so on. with PC owners watching In disbelief. I was also disgusted to read Kelly joking about the A3000's price drop - 1 certainly wouldn't be laughing if I had Just paid £3000. then watched as the price fell to £1200. Commodore just doesn't care about Its customers - this and the price drop of the A600 prove it. Paul r^arkham Stone. Staffordshire If Commodore wants to succeed in the business market, then it has to manufacture PCs. Most large corporations would never buy Amigas, no matter how powerful or cheap they mjght be. The PC is an established business standard - it's as simple as that. I II AMinA <:H(^PPFt» A ISSUE 11 lARY 1003 L E TTmtR'S Commodore's commitment to the Amiga is very strong - recent events have proved this, o^^'Cularly in the multimedia arena. As for the A.^000 pncp drop, It e v^ry much a iwo-fidgfid Gword: some people beoeft, some don't, I think Kelly ju^^nfied the price changes Odoauately. and surely you'll allow Jilin i(j crack s take? TH£ CHOICE IS YOURS FDllowinc your review of the SupraFQAModcma. your rcadcra majr llhc to know th^t Out? la tiprfrritan and the fact that there are many Ffrst Choice re1<iller« scattered throughout the land, The First GhuiQc Computer Centre (Leeds) is now trading as The First Computer Centre (Leeds). Brian Cotiley The First Computer Centre (Leeds) Thanks for putting us right. Brian. SOUND ADVICC It'fl ttme l6r Commodore to release a 16-blt 16-channei sound chip with froqucnckes up to 56 KH£> A 40 MHz DSP 56002 (rather than a DSP 56001) and IG-bit internal D/A and 16-bit internal A/D converters would be suitable, AJI these should uwilJy nt in an A4000 or A1200. In 1987 the Amiga, with its fimaving internal sound capabHIties, was taking over the music market from Atari, fiovt W Is over seven years since the Amiga was the best music computer, which is now the Atari Falcon. Where wMI Commodore go from here? I hope Commodore wlW show the real power of the Amiga in the music market again, by including in future machines the sound facilities I hAv6 daacribed above - H9lge Kaulholm Norway There's certairtly no argument about the supenority of the Falcon in the sound department. Talk at the Toronto World Of Commodore show about a DSP chip (made by AT&T, not rvlotorola) suggests that Commodore intends to redress the balance. It's a shame such a chip couldn't have been fitted as standard on the A1200, but \ think Commodore was Heen to keep the price down to give it as wide an appeal as possible. CASH FOR COMPUSERVE Whilst finding your Xomms' article both interesting ar>d useful I felt that I had to come to the defence of CompuServe, which you described as "very expensive". Under the standard pricing plan. you pay onJy $7,95 per month for unlimited access to a large range of facilities. Including electronic mall, fax-sending, airline bookings. maH' order shopping, news and financial information services. The cheapest way to access it Is vfa Mercury to either the London or Reading nodes, avoiding P5S surcharges, and with the option of 9600 baud at a cost of only 4-6 pence per minute cheap rate. There is no communication surcharge in non-prime time (7pm to 6am and weekends). In addition an 0800 number is provided for free assistance. Overall, it compares very favourably with BBSs such as Prestel and CiX which have much higher subscription fees and monthly minimums. Although It has a very strong American bias, particularly for shopping (though many companies deliver to Europe), it Is widening its range of UK-oriented information. A larger UK base would no doubt attract more UK businesses and information providers. Roger Houghton Selsley. Gloucestershire OK, how about if we describe it as "fairiy expensive"? THE WAY AHEAD? I've owned the same Amiga for over five years now (the same one), a good old 1.2 A 500 with which t^ve t>een extremeJy pleased despite a few minor niggles. Now Tm looking to upgrade, but the choice isn't as easy now as It was way back then. Commodore's new A 1200 Is, I admit, a very capable machine at an attractive price, but is it a real advance in Amiga technology? Recently the Amiga magazines A« 1 1 Er' k 1 1 PT Tlie Amiga Shopper Shareware Cottection Votume t was the cause of some controversy seem to have been defending the Amiga against the PC-console- Falcon threat by quoting the saying that you buy a machine to run the software that you want- But if that was true the Amiga would never have "beaten" the Atari ST. When i bought my Amiga It was 200 quid more than the ST and the software wos Just ported directly from the ST with no advantage taken of the Amiga's better graphics or sound. Not only that but It quite often cost more for the same software which was released a few months after the equivalent 51 release. So why did I and so many other people buy the Amiga? In one word, potential. We read the machine specs and saw a better machine irrespective of software av a liability. And look what^s happened: the ST confined to the museum and the Amiga out on top. So what I am saying is that raw potential (In other words, machine specs) are Important. What do you see when you compare the A1200 to the Atari Falcon? A ^ow-density drive, same old sound. \D£ hard drive Interface, 68020 and no DSP. This is compared to, on the Falcon side, a high-density floppy, 66030. enhanced sound. DSP, network port, SCSI 2/IDE expansbn ports, and a slot on the mothertjoard lor a maths co-processor. As for graphics, it seems the Amiga has better static graphics iHit the Falcon is better able to manipulate its enhanced graphics modes. Also processor-intensive tasks like ray tracing will inevitably be faster due to the 68030- So graphics superiority Is more or less a matter of opinion. From what I have read the DSP Is also a very powerful piece of hardware, capable of acting as a sound sampler, graphics digit iser and modem using the right software. While these 'emulations' may not be up to the professional quality add-ons available for the Amiga, how many of us would like to dabble with these features but can^t Justify the expense of extra equipment? And in answer to your question of "Who Is developing for the Falcon?", there are currently over 100 developers beavering away wlth.-^ er... developments! So I ask, Is the A1200 a worthy successor to the A 500/ 600? Is it the machine to take the Amiga into the next generation? Is it as good as the Falcon? I don t think so. I've t)een disappointed with Commodore's handling of the Amiga since release. Commodore with its Initial advantage could have confined Atari to the PC clone market. But now Atari has a second chance. A few good titles on the Falcon will start the ball rolling as it did with the Amiga a few years ago. Now I wouldn't go so far as to say Atari will win the '32-bit war' - as we all know better specs don't always win out " but they do have a better starter on the l^ocks, Adam Thomson Fyvie, Aberdeenshire Some interesting and val»d points. Adam. The A1200 may not be completely state-of-the-art, but it still represents a significant advance in Amiga technology. icanMrf iAfeOUTltiNOW from tite trials 'ahd toftur&s of H experience, or overcome some mlnd- boggtlng problem through incredible 'ingeriuity or even sheer tuck? Then Jet us know and win yourself a fiver -into'ihe tia^aln. fiiat'hffnd yotUr post- ''embarrassed tomes io 't can tarf ,'a6out It ndW\ Amiga Shopper. 30 ^Monmouth St. Bath BAl 2BW. # ■ ------- — ---_j ., 'TV's horizontal hold: Piaying'g^e^' ori'my Amiga was no problem, but, when it came to using DPaint I -^ !couldn't see the far right column and the bottom three coloiJrs on the . palette^ and hail to g^As where rny ^bloureweTO.<>; fj^r' .- , V :, "..^A-''- j - ■ -- Vai-'"' ~-^'"S* -■,■■■ ■ 'v ■- . One day. wrth scrfewdrfver IrU; ^ ■ ^ /liahd; I attempted to resblvft tbtf-- >-'i niggle once and for all. "After turning nearly every boanMwunted pot I ^could And. 1 switciied the TV back . , . ,^ ^on.ltWdn't work, fto (decided to ^^ ^tahe it round to the TV repair man, ■ 'Who lives just Touhti the cdrner.^ .While carryir^ my TV t^ him, I ^dropped it- Embarrassed, I picked up >the pi'ecesand c^r^ed them home ^ ;ageii^.Yb5ught'a'rdlflR'ely cheap ; ,- /(Mrtable colour TV as a repFacttment. ' /-T/^'^ About' a month or"twd later \ was 'fiddling with DPalnt. trying out all . ; .the keys to help me paint fa'ster,, i ' ' ^when I came upon a combination ^ {that cWu well havS'sliVecf my old TV; ^-ff you press "stilff'aritf the Cursor 'keys, you can move'the icohs and ''palette to a more visible position^ -. . - ' The comparjson with the Falcon has certainly caused controversy, but I think we can safefy feave the subject alone until some of these new Atans are actually on sale. i agree that the Amiga took off because of people adminng its technical excellence, but its real popularity came once there was software running on it that people wanted - mostly games, of course. I thmh The market has changed: any computer launched now will stand or fall on the software available for it - witness at the success of the PC, despite its inferior architecture. This isn't to say that we shouldn't be interested m tech specs, of course, but that we should perhaps treat them as one more consideration alongside 'Will it do what I want it TO?" when making buying decisions. I 6 Could J Doig. P McKeown and H Owens please write to the address at the top of the previous page? We'd like to send you some money, but we've Lost your addresses! AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 • FEMUAflf 19^3 ■ H PRINTERS ven If you own nottilng mor« than a basic A600. you'd ne surprised iust liow far you can expand your mdcnmcf. Above and Deyond itie uflual OMifflfl flueh ftfi RAM isipanstona. onUa dbh drives and hard dfUes, the Amiif'i i% Cjtp^ble of handling aM manrier of different add< vr>9. Ttioac can ran^v from 24 bit display cards, networking systema. polaroid palette Interfaces and even robot Hrm*. Out after all Is said and donv, undoubtedly thp most us«fu( add-on you could over buy Is the humble printer. Howevef, choosing a printer can be contusing. Not only do you have to chooee which maUe and model of printer you'd like, but you've also got to decide which tyoc of orinter best ftuit"^ yfluf indMfiuAl npprift With mkjot and ift&Gt pnoters now aroopine in price to such a ooint mm they're now within the reach of the avcrugu usor, choosing a dot matrix may no longer Oe the best bet. This. then, is the aim of this feature. We've combed tho marketplace in search ot the undisputed market leaders - the printers that have proved most popular amongst Amiga users. How well do they perform and how suitable are they for specific applications? All these questions - and more - will now be answered. PRINTER TYPES As mentioned aOove, popular printers come in three main flavours: dot mairi>[ pnnters (9- and 24pln). Inkjets {including bubblejets) and. for the ultimate m orinting technology, laser pnnters. All three of these printers have their pros and cons, so don't Think that spending thousands of pounds on a laser printer will give vuu ^ gtinit^t [fidi cdri ridnUle anything. Yo^ should always start by assessing your pnnting reauifements and then choose the type ot printer that best suits them. DOT MATRIX PRINTERS The n>ost common type of printer is the humble dot matrix. This type of printer continues to outsell the rest by a very large margin indeed^ Dot matnv printers work hy stamping a pattern (a matrix) of dots onto the paper using a print head (the part of the printer that forms the characters). This contains a vertical stnp of fine wires (or 'pins' as they are technically referred to). The characters are marked onto the paper, not by the impact of the pins with the paper, but by placing an inked ribbon between the pins and the paper. When a pm strikes the paper through the inked riDDon, a very small amount of ink is deposited- Characters are built up by combining these patterns of dots to form recognisable shapes. However, the shape of these characters is not controlled by the Amiga - all it does is to send the pfintor s message telling tt that a particular letter is required. The printer then forms this character from the matrix pattern stored in its Internal memory. Pros: These days, a fairty capable 9- pin dot matrix with a fair selection of NLQ fonts can be picked up for as little as £100- Dot matrix pnnters are also very cheap to run, especially when compared to an inkjet. For heavy duty tasks, a dot matnx is the only affordable option. Cons: The Impact between the printer's pins and the paper does produce a fair amount of noise. Older models are panicutarly bad, but manufacturers have sunk a lot of funds into reducing this problem as much as possible. The result Is the development of a new range of quiet' dot matnx printers which - while still nowhere near as quiet as a laser or inkjet - are considerably quieter than the ear-bashers that users have endured in the past, INKJETS Inkjets have been around for many years now, but they're only just startrng to make an lmpress^on (If you'll pardon the pun) due to recent price reductions and ttie need amongst users for much higher quality printouts. Often rivalling laser printers in terms of print quality and quietness, the rnkjet works by literally spraying ink onto the page in minute amounts and under very precise control- Inkjets are very similar to dot matnx printers. However Instead of striking the paper with a set of wire pins, the image is built up on me page by spraying tiny dots of ink onto the page to form characters. The inkjet replaces the wire pins of the dot matnx with a set of tiny nozzles. As the paper is passed in front of the pnnt head, tiny pumps force the ink out of the nozzles at high speed, producing patterns of dots. Trying to decide befween an inkjet, dot matrix or laser printer? Jason Holborn puts twenty top models to the test A more recent deveiopment rn the inkjet field is the bubblejet printer. This works in a very similar way, but instead of pumping out the ink^ tiny heaters within the nozzles heat it up. The air bubbles produced then displace the Ink. forcing it out of the nozzle. Bubblejet pnnters can use even smaller nozzles than an inkjet, therefore producing even better results. Pros; Inkjets have dropped in price substantially, so they are now a serious threat to 24-pln and even some more expensive 9-pln dot matrix pnnters. Because an Inkjet is a non-impact pnnter. it is atso veiy quiet. Quality is also very good indeed (certainly a lot better than a dot matrix) and is very close to a laser when printing text. Inkjets are usually also a lot faster than a dot matnx running m NLQ mode. Confli Inkjets are quite expensive to run. The ink cartridges that they use can be used up very quickly indeed when pnnting full page graphic printouts. Replacement ink cartridges can be quite expensive too - especially if you're using a colour JARGON BUSTING • JARGON BUSTING * Buffer - Because the Amiga is capable of sending infonnation to a printer a lot faster than it can actually pnnt that infonnation, a printer buffer acts as a temporary store for unpnnted information, A print buffer allows the Amiga to work at full speed without having to wait *or the printer to catch up with It. In general, the larger the print buffer, the better. Most dot matrix pnnters have a print butter of approximately 8K in size which is capable of holding over 8000 different characters- CPS - CPS [Characters Per Second) is a method of indicating the speed of a printer. In general, the larger the CPS rating, the faster the printer. Most printer manufacturers usually quote two CPS ratings - one for NLQ mode and one for Draft mode. Centronics - Most printers use what is known as a Centronics' connector to mate the printer together with the computer that Is to drive it. The Centronics connector is really nothing more than a glorified parallel port, but you should be aware that a special centronrcs printer lead is required to conr>ect a Centronics printer to the Amiga's parallel port. These are commonly available for about a tenner. DPI - DPI (Dots Per Inch) is a measurerrwnt of the resolution (sharpfiess) of a printer. DPI ratings don't really make a lot of difference to text printing, but they are very important for printing from desktop publishfng programs because a printer with a high DPI rating will produce ciearter and sharper results- Draft - Draft Is a special high speed - pnntrng mode available on dot matrix and Inkjet printers. It works by sacrificing pnnt quality Jn favour of raw printing speed. Although draft pnntouts are no I M AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 77 m FEBRUARY 1993 PRINTERS inkjet< for which four cartridges are required (red. green, blue and black). Fresh Inkjet printouts must also be handled carefully because the ink often taKos several seconds to dry. LASERS For the ultimate in print quality, you need a laser pnnter. Designed specjfically for DTP applications, the laser produces printed documents which are second to none. Contrary to popular belief, lasers don't work by burning the image onto the page. Instead, the image is transferred to the page using charged mk particles. Before the image can he pnnted, the entire JARGON BUSTING • JARGON BUSTING • JARGON BUSTING good for iQttorflf they're more than adequate tor things like prc^ofn tistlngs ond plain text. Emulation - Because most printers are designed to work on many different makes of computer. printer manufacturers build in what are known as printer emulatrons'- To make tne task of controlling printers simpler, pnnter emulations allow many different makes and models of pnnter to be controlled using the same protocol [or printer "language"). If a pnnter uses a common emulation, then finding a printer driver to drive that printer from your computer is considerably easier. Fonts - A font defines the shape and appearance of printed text. All pnnter^ come with at leasi one font built in, When you print a character on a prmtern the computer needs only tell the printer what the character is. It then prints the character using the font in its built-in memory. Friction feeder - This pulls paper through a printer using two rubber rollers that grip the paper and force it past the print head. Friction feeders allow you to use any type of paper in a printer. NLQ - NLQ (Near Letter Quattty) is a special mode available on dot matrix and Inkjet printers. It's slower than draft printing, but produces much higher quality printouts. Recently, LQ (Letter QuatilyS printers have appeared that offer even better quality. Ptinter driver - A special piece of software that allows the Amiga to communicate with a pnnter. It acts as an interpreter that converts the Amiga's commands into commands that the printer will understand. Serial - Another method of connecting o pnnter to the Amiga IS via the senal port - this Is not recommended simply because of the amount of work required to get the two devices talking. If you have the choice, always choose a Centronics pnnter instead. Sheet feeder - A sheet feeder enables a printer to load single sheets o1 paper automatically, without havtng to rely on the user to load each one manually. Sheet feeders are usually about £80, but they're worth every penny if you have to print out the same document many times. Tractor feeder - An inferior paper feeding system, this device handles the task of feeding the paper past the printer's print head. Tractor feeders require special paper that has evenly spaced holes on either side. These are used to puU the paper through the printer. page is transferred to the printer's memory as a massive graphics image. When the entire page has been transferred, a laser beam then fires at a photosensitive drumn producing a liny charge where each dot is to appear. The drum is then passed through a bath of black toner particles. The charged areas on the dnim attract the toner particles, which in turn are transferred from the drum to the page. The page then passes through a fuser which heats il to fix the particles to the paper Pros: Lasers aren't cheap compared to a dot matrin, but they are good value if you need the print quality. Black areas that can Jook rather washed out and banded' on inkjets and dot matrix printers, are smooth and purer than driven snow (well, black snow anyway). Apart from an integral cooling fan, lasers are also very quiet. Cons: Possibly the most annoying aspect of any laser is the fact that they can only print whole A4 pages {even if you only want one line of text). With the price of paper nowadays, you can soon run up quite a bill if you use the printer a great deal. Toner cartridges are also very . expensive - expect to pay around £75 for a new one! Thankfully they do last quite a long time, providing that you don't continuously pnnt massive areas of biack. AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 32 • FEBRUARY 1993 1 E PR^IVNW^EtRS The newesf arrivals on the printer scene offer high quality, low noise printing at a price you'll like. We find out if inkjets are more than just little squirts FUJITSU B- 100 £340 Fujitsu Ltd 9 081-573 4444 CANONBJ-IOEX £299 Canon ^ 081 773 3173 rf*-W^J. Fujftsu has launched two new ^nkJet printers - the B-lOO (reviewed here} and the upmarket B-200. Considering tne sterling joD Fujitsu has done m the (lot matfn market, you'd be right tO expect great things of the company's new range of Breeze' inKjets, The B-lOO IS a dinky little printer that looks very basic, but produces sofiit very impressive printouts. Boasting 300 dpi resolution driven by me printer's bullHn HP DeskJet emulation mode (wTiicn is supported by Workbench), the B-lOO offers three Although inkjets have been available for years noWn H was Canon's development of bubblejet pnnting technology that finally brought the Inkjet to the masses. Following on from the successful BJ-130 and BJ-10 bubblejets. Canon's latest (and greatest) budget bubbiejet offering is the BJlOex. which is basicaJJy a BJ-IO with Epson printer emulation. Thanks to Canon's bubblejet technology, the BJ lOex is capable of printing graphics at a maximum pnnt resolution of 360 dpi. Canon has NLQ typefaces - Couher. Tinr^s Nordic and Letter Gothic - fn a number of different si^es arW styles. Pnnt auatily IS very good indeed, especially fn^m a desktop publishing program. With its SK print buffer, the &100 is capable of ctiuming out text ai speeds of 160 CDS in Draa aod 80 cos m NLQ mode. One uni<ji>e feature of the B-lOO is rts setup method. Instead of Dftching for a complex control panel. Fujitsu's pnnter has a massive array of switches that have to be set to select fonts and character sets and wisely produced drivers to allow Amiga applications to take advantage of this impressive resolution, so installation is no problem. Pont speed is good too - 83 cps in NLQ mode although the BJ-lOex doesn't offer a high speed draft mode (this is definitely one area where the Fujitsu scores over the Canon). Print tiuffer size is very good though - a massive 20K pnnt buffer is fitted as standard. The range of fonts IS quite good too (lour NLQ fontsi. but the full range of fonts is not available in either of the two emulation modes. such like, Atthough it sourwJs flaunting, these switches are surprisingly easy to use. In all. FujHsu Ooes It again - the B-lOO is a smashing litOe inkjet that deserves to RATINGS • RATINGS Features ft 66 6 Print Quality 606 6 ; Speed 6 6 6 6^ Value 666^0 Coverall 6666 » In all. the Canon BJ-lOe* is a great little printer, but the competition has become a little sliffer these days. If you can cope with the mtnimal loss in resolution, then the Fujttsu is a better bet. RATINGS • RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value C Overall KODAKDICONIX 701 £399 Kodak n 0442 61122 £499 Fujitsu -B 081 573 4444 Kodak isn't exactly renowned for having made a big impact on the Amiga pnnters market, but the new Diconix 701 inkjet is well worth considenng. Positioned in the same mari^ets as Fujitsu's B-lOO and Canon's BJ-lOex, the Diconix is an budget inkjet aimed at desktop publishers and indeed anyone who needs the quality of an inkjet without the price. The Diconix is a rather plain- looking machine that fofds down into a very compact unit that is actually The big brother of the B-lOO is Fujitsu's B'200. a bubblejet printer aimed fairly and squarely at the Pro Jets and BJ-300s of this world- Boasting a much faster print speed and more comprehensive controls than Its little brother, the B-200 is an inhiet with attitude. With its top-loading sheet feeder and front-mounted sheet collector, the B-200 IS very simifar in appearance to both the Pro Jet and the BJ'300. Its control panel is nicely laid out. but smaller than Carbon's space-savir^ BJ-lOex, which itself w\t fit quite happily into a sturdy brief casfi. But despite its small size, the DiconU is actually cap^ie of great things- For starters, its print speed is pretty impressive for such a small printer - tJOasting 200 cps in draft mode and 120 cps m NLQ mode, the DfConix is the pnnter equivalent of a turtx>-charged hot hatchback. The range of fonts is rather disappointing though - with just one draft and two NLQ fonts to choose from, you'll somewhat confusing - you'H definitely need to read the manual to get this baby workingl Print Speeds are pretty impressive - 180 cps in draft mode and a very impressive 120 cps in NLQ mode- The 8-200 offers just three NLQ fonts - Counef. Letter Gothic and Times rtordic - although these are well handled- Extra fonts can easily be added using font cards. Although te^t pnnt mg is quite rapid, there's a noticeable delay between the lime it takes the &200 to probabfy feel rather held back, TT>e pnntcf can be driven using either an HP DeskJet Of \BM ProPrinter printer dnver. The lack of Epson support is surpnsing, but rx> great loss. [ RATINGS » RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value 66600 66600 6666 _ 666^'^ £Overall 666^ ^ load a sheet of paper and the time when printing commences. This delay can go on for as long as ten seconds, reducing ihe overall speed of the B-200 considerably. RATINGS « RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value 6666 6660 666 606 Coverall 666 j^ ifi AMIGA SHOPPER 6 ISSUE 22 • FEBRUARY 1 993 V9V jmrnf New Horizon Computers A6©0 A1200 Drive The ESSENTIAL add on for oil SERIOUS Amiga users. upgrade your A600 or A1200 with a brand new internal IDE Hard Drive. All our Special Installation Kits come confiplete with tulty formatted IDE Hard Drive, cable, mounting kit and detoiled fitting instructions. All New Horizon Hard Drives are sourced from Brand Name suppliers and have been fully tested for 100% compatibility with the Amiga A600 and A1200 Computers. UNBEATABLE PRICES Inclusive of 17.5% VAT and overnight delivery ir 20 MEG • 40 MEG if 60 MEG i^ 80 MEG ir 1 20 MEG £1 20.00 £1 80.00 £200.00 £250.00 £330.00 AAOOHD Owners - upgrade to o bigger (Hvft. Phone for mora detois. Mew Horizon will collect your machine, fft ttte drive of your choice and return your machine by overnight carrier to any mainland UK oddress for only £38.50 inc VAT. Offer lasts till Jon 20th 1993 only. Phone our sales hotline for further details. I Hord Drives fittdd by us are delhraml fonnottod and porHtioned Into System and Work partitions and will auto boot from the Hord Dnve. InstolLing a Hard Drive will involidote your Commodore Warranty iO oil Computers fitted wfth o Now Moriion Drive ore covered by our own Full 12 Month Warranty from dote of purchase. 3 3 P 1^ - _-^; 1. By Phone FREE next working day delivery on all items shown and for Credit Card orders ploced before 3pm (UK Mainland only). Saturday delivery add £10.00. 2. By Post Send a cheque or Ixinlcers draft made payable to "New Horizon Computers" and post with your order to : New Horizon Computers, High Hope, Lea, Ross on Wye, Herefordshire HR9 7LN. Remember, whtn you buy from New Horizon Computers you receive : ■*■ Lowest Prices •k Quality Products ir Full Technical Support ^ Full After Sales Service ir Free Next Day Delivery ^'!y>\ . CREDIT CARDS WELCOME New Horizon Computers^ High Hope, Lea, Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, HR9 7LN Tet : 0989 750260 Fox : 0989 750337 SALES HOTLINE Telephone 0989 750260 Fox 0989 750337 PRINTERS CANON BJ-300 £495Cdniin 061773 3173 Canon's BJ'300 may not look that Spectacular, but luh^ing under the bonnet is a bubblejet printing engine that can chum out text at a phenomenal rate. Boasting print speeds of 150 cps m NLQ mode and a whopping great 300 cps in draft mode, the Canon BJ-300 is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Available m both A3 and A4 versions- the BJ-300 is designed for heavy-duty tasks. Its styling is a cut atHive [he rest tc». With a very simple front pane! and the convenierKe of a buiTt-ln cut sheet feeder, the BJ-300 is a comfortable and really quite enjoyable printer to work with. It boasts three built-in MLQ fonts and a further 12 fonts can be added via optional font cards, giving a total of 15 readily-available fonts. Emulation options are extensive too with no fewer than three popular modes on offer - IBM ProPrinter. Canon BJ-lOex and EpsonLQ, The BJ'300 may be slightly slower than Citizen's PfoJet in draft mode, but it still manages to accelerate past the competition when printing in letter quality rnode. Combine this with the printer's higher resolution, and the B> 300 proves itself to be a very capable pnnter indeed. RATINGS • RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed ValtM o Q Overall y CITIZEN PROJET 1496 Citizen u 0753 584111 EPSON SQ-870 £659 Epson it 0442 61144 Citizen's weapon in the war of the high performance inKjets ts the ProJet, a very capable Inkjet that runs rings around most of the competition in terms of printing Speed. Featuring the same styling as the Fujitsu B-200, the ProJet even uses the same ink cartridges as its rival - it's not unknown for pnnter manufacturers to license pnnl engines from others. The ProJet comes as standard with just one emulation mode - HP DeskJet - although extra emulations are available on opuonai cartridges. Unlike the rest of the competition, the SCJSTO is the only Inkjet on test that doesn't use a disposable pnnt head built into the ink cartridge. The SQ-870 uses a pump that sucks the ink from a sealed container that slots into the printer's front panel. This helps the printer to hold a much larger supply of ink than the competition, therefore incfeasing the life of each cartridge. The most noticeable thing about the SQ-870 is its extensive range of typefaces- Whereas the competition are content to include little more than From a specification point of view, the ProJet's greatest selling point is undoubtediy its speed. As Citizen is very keen to point out< the ProJet is clearly one of the fastest inkjets on the market, especially when printing in its 360 cps high speed draft mode. Text printing does slow down a bit jn NLQ mode - at just 120cps, the ProJet IS actuary slower than the BJ- 300 when printing letters- The range of fonts on offer is pretty standard too - the ProJet offers three NLQ fonts. Orvce again, extra three or four fonts, Epson has really gone to town. The SQ-870 comes with no fewer than eight typefaces, all of which are very usable. It chunters along at a fair old rate too - how does 550 cps in draft mode and 200 cps in NLQ mode grab you? No other printer even comes closef Someone should inform the people at Citizen - who seem to think that the<r ProJet is the fastest on the market. Not any more! In operation, the SQ-870 performs as expected. One nice feature is the way the pnnt head automatically fonts can be added via plug-in cartridges. In all. the Citizen ProJet is a very capable ink^et that produces some very professional, almost laser- quality results. RATINGS • RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value Q Overall :^ cJeans itserf every few lines to prevent smudging. Quality is exceptional, speed IS out of this world and to top it all, the SQ'S70 happens to look pretty good too. In all. the SQ'870 is the ultimate inkjet. RATINGS • RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value C Overall ••ooo I 9-pin or 24-pin, draft or NLQ - for all-round flexibility, you can't beat a good old dot matrix. Read on to discover w/iicfi makes the best impression STAR IC24- 100 £239 Star UK v 0494 4711U. Star is certainly putting a lot of marketing muscle behind its latest pnnter, the LC24-100, It's not surpnsing either - in return for your £239 [or so) you get an attractive- looking 24-pin with the kind of specification that you'd normally expect to pay over £300 for. The LC24 100 uses Star s new 'Electronic DIP Switches" (EDS) so it's also very easy to set up. with none of that fiddly biro-wieiding needed by normal DiPs. Specification- wise, the LC24'100 is certainly a giant-k*t*er. it con>es complete with one Dfaft font and five NLQ fonts including Roman, Sanserif. Couner. Prestige and Scnpt. These fonts are selected from a very easy-to- use torn panel which, while it may not be the most high-tech feature that has ever appeared on a pfinter. gets the job done elegantly. The LC24-100 is provided with a quite substantial 16K print buffer and is capable of pfintmg at a maximum speed of 240 cps in condensed draft m0(*e. However, in normal operation this slows down to a (still very respectablel 160 cps in draft and 53 cps in NLQ mode at 10 characters per inch. Emulations on offer are EpsonQ and NEC 24 modes. In ail. the LC24 100 is a great little printer at a great pnce. RATINGS • RATINGS Features Print Quality S|>eed Value ^Overall ^ 10 AMIGA SMOPPCft ttrSSUE 22 • FEBRUARY 1993 PRINTERS STARK- 100 c:2]«4STarUK ir 0494 471111 The S-pin version of the LC24-100 is the LC-lOO, Stars latest printer aimed at Amiga users wno have shallow pockets but big expectations. Possibly the LC-lOO's greatest asset is therefore its ability to print in full colour as standard. Star supplies two ribbons with the printer - one in colour and one in black (fof texi-only or other black-and- white printing). Swapping between them can be a pain, but it's highly recommenOed to save on colour nu>00 life. Like its big brother (reviewed on the facmg page), the LC-lOO has a pretty impressive specification to match its pfice. With a maximum resolution of 240 by 216 dpi. the LC- lOO offers printing speeds of 150 cps in Draft Mode arxj a pretty respect^le (for a 9-p»n) 37,5 cps in NLQ mode with a choice of one Draft font and four NLO typefaces. However, on the down' stde. it has to be sawS that two of those NLQ typefaces are simply sli^tly different versions of the same typeface. Considering the limitations of 9-pin pnnters, the print quality of the LC- lOO is surpnsingly good. Pnnting from DPaint. colour printouts are fuil of colour although slight colour bleeding can be seen r RATINGS • RATINGS I Features Print Quality Speed Value [overall u # # .^ J*' -^ " EPSON LX-lOO £1S9 Epson TT 0442 61144 EPSON IQ- 1 00 £245 Epson -a 0442 61144 FUJITSU Dl-l 150 £395 Fujrtsu tr 081 573 4444 CITIZEN SWIFT 240C £359 CllUen " 0753 584111 I have to admit that, before this review, 1 was not a great fan of Epson dot matrix printers, but the LX-lOO came as bit of a shock. Epson has never really excelled <n the design department, preferring instead to churn out the same box-liKe printers^ but the LXlOO is far removed ffom those early Epson s- The design of the LK-lOO Is perhops it5 most striking feature - put simply, the LX-lOO doesn't even look Hke a primer. As a matter of fact. It doesn't look like anything I've ever Epson's 24-pin offering Is the LQ-lOO, The big brother of the LX-lOO reviewed aOove, Once agam. Epson has gone for the <Tnnimali5l styling that looks like the sort of thing that Apple might come up vtfith. When I first saw the LQ- 100 I wasn't that impressed, but its styling certainly grows on you. Like the LX-lOO. the LQ-lOO comes complete with that very handy built-in sheet feeder, which I absolutely love. One of the main criticisms levelled at the LX'lOO was its lack of decent fonts, but this certainly can't be said Having already had the opportunity to play wild Fujitsu's DL-llOO. I have to ijdmit that I expected great things from the DL-1150. Fujdsu's latest 24- pm venture. And. I'm pleased to say. ihe DL 1150 didn't disappoint. Fujitsu can't be accused of producing bonng printers. The DL 1150 is a strange-looking beast, but its design makes it very pleasant and easy to use. Its control panel is well laid out and easpty accessible. Paper loading is easy too. thanks to good design and high quality manufacture. I've never been a huge fan of Citizen printers, but the Swift 240C has changed all that. Having already used a 240C for a couple of weeks when the printer was first released, having the opportunity to use one again is like meeting an old friend^ With its impressive specification, blindingly- obvious ease of use and brilliant output, the Swift 240C suil holds the 24-pin printer crown. It's no wonder that the 240C has been doing so well in the market, r^ot only does it come as standard with full seen before^ This really is a pnntei for those of you that like your printers Simple - even the LX-lOO's front panel has no more than two buttons on it. The LX'lOO IS a 9-pin pnnter (the 'U" bit in its name tells you this). Offenng pfint speeds of 200 cps in Draft and 40 cps in WLQ mode- With one Dfatt font and two NLO fonts, the LX-lOO runs fast but is rather lacking in fonts^ One feature of the LX-lOO which IS worth noUcing is its built-in sheet feeder, which Epson supplies as standard. Although it can only handle of the LQ-lOO- It comes compfete wiUi a fairly decent selection of five fonts - Roman, Sanserif, Couner, Prestige and &cnpt- Roman and Sanserif are scalable fonts, so you can enlarge them to a maximum of 32 point without loss of quality. Print speed is pretty good too - 167 cps in Draft and a very respectable 60 cps in NLQ. Add this to the LQ-lOO's llK pnm buffer and yoo've got a printer that will perform well in most situations. Although it's not the best 24-pln In the world, I have to adrr^it that I quite Specificmion wise, the DL 1150 leave most of the competition standing. Noi only does it offer the widest range of different typefaces of all the dot matnx printers on test, but its pnni speed is pretty impressive too. Offering a maximum print speed of 200 cps in high speed draft mode, the DL1150 can also chum out 60 cps NLQ mode with a choice of three draft and seven NLQ fonts. But possitjiy Its greatest asset is that the E>l-1150 comes as standard with coioiJf pnnting capatnlities. Colour Gdouf- but pnnting graphics on the 240C consistently produces the best colour pnniouts you're ever likely to get from a dot matrix. Colours are vibrant, clean and full of detail, even on images with lots of different shades. Text printing isn't bad either - with nine NLQ fonts and two scalable NLQ fonts, you'll never find yourself cufsing the 240C because it doesn't have enough fonts. Its scalable fonts can t>e enlarged up to 40 points. The 240C certainly doesn't hang around either - boasting a maximum a maximum of 50 sheets, this sort of feature really does score highly in my book. If you can live without the fonts, the LX-lOO IS one of the most complete prrnters available. I RATINGS • RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value •^ 00 Q Overall :^ like the LQ-100. That built-in cut sheet feeder certainly helps, but the fast speed and quite extensive fange of fonts also make the LQ 100 a very ntce printer indeed. It looks rather weird, but then at least it's not ugly. RATINGS • RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value 00 Q Overall '^ pnnting isn't wasted either - printing from ProPage. the DI-1150 produces some very acceptable results. In all, the DL-1150 is one hell of a good printer. Highly recommended. RATINGS • RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value Q Overall ^ print speed of 200 cps in Draft mode and a Fujitsu-beaiing B6 cps in NLQ mode, the 240C is no slouch. Nothing even comes close to the 240C, It may be expensive, but you get what you pay for. r RATINGS • RATINGS Features Prtrtt Quality Speed Value Q Overall ^ AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 • FEBRUARY 1993 |fl worldwide The World's PC Emulator Spoiialhts PC-Compatibility by Mail Order You get German products directly, from the manufacturer You get all prices included VAT. You gel all deliveries within I week by TNT worldwide express You get a 12 month guarantee You get free software updates and lardware upgrades ^1 a reduced price^ Manufacturer's Tech Support You get technical support directly from the manufacturer by fax, leiler or CompuServe # I000i5.3?0 Contact the vortex developers and technicians in Germany (please keep yourSN ready at hand). Fax +49-7131-597231 Customer and Order Servace TeI+49-7S3S-5972I3 Monday - Friday 8.00- 11.00 am 12.00- 15.00 pm as +49-7131-597210 Golden Gate 486SLC 25MH2 4S0SLC PC/AT emulator for Amiga 2000/300 4000, As a bridge-slot-board it connects the Ami zorro slots with the PC/AT (ISA) slots, Onbo^c 2MB RAM (max. 16MB and up to 4MB f Amiga). Includes POAT IDE hard di interface and optional HD flop disk controller (2. 88MBI. ^ C n Gate 6SX Norton SI45 £699 8MB RAM onb £899 Monitor Master External box connecting an ECAA^GA graphics card and the Amiga video output with one Multisync monitor £79^ Update B £ |c^ AJonce-Plus in exchange for a receipt forATonce or ATonce-classic Update A P ,cq Golden Gate 386SX in ^ ^^^ exchange for any PC/AT emulator Update D 486SLC-2MB £ 679 Update E 486SLC-8MB £ 359 Golden Gate 486SLC in exchange for any PC/AT emulator A Graphics Cards AC^rd. ^I2KB. Trident SVGA Card, 1MB. ET4000 RAM-Kits 2xlMB/60ns/IMBitxQSIMMs 2x4MB/60ns/4MBitx9SIMMs Arithmelic Coprocessors m)C287SX'l2 forATonce-Plus 80C387SX-25 for Golden Gale Floppy Controller Kh Controller chip with cable set 25MHz 386SX At emulator for ^ -^Wjto^ffTga 2000/3000/4000, ^■v^ ^^^12KB RAM onboard. '^ pISrton SI 23. Identical with 6SLC board £399 nce-classlc C/ATemulalor, for Amiga 500/500-Plus q qq hce-Plus Hz 286 PC/AT emulator, 512KB RAM onboard, Amiga 500/500-PIUS/2000 £ | 99 £59 £99 £79 £248 £89 £99 £49 AT Bus 3.5" Hard Disks Conner 30104, 120MB, IQms Conner 30204, 212MB, 12ms 256KB hard disk cache Floppies Floppy mternal 3 5". 2,88MB Floppy internal 3 5", I 44MB Floppy internal 5 25", 1 2MB 3. 5' mounting kit for "i.lT bay HD Disks 10x3 5, 2 88MB Floppy external 3 V. 720KB Floppy external 5 25". 1.2MB £279 £479 £99 £55 £ 55 £ 7 £ 59 £49 £99 YES. I would like to order Qiy Produa Name Price Plus s flip ping costs £ 20 Tnfal tint) INFO- AND ORDER FORM Method ol Payment Name O Wire transler to Naiional Westminster Bank PLC. London, account ^71 17412. sort code 500000 Address a EC-cheque enclosed (max £ 100) (no PO. Boxl PrIcH Include VAT In lh# UK Bud jn oh!) valid In lh« UK A*t IcH pTicr^ (Ulier ihdTk UJ. OetftTivepii'duci richanBe^ onJy All reiurn«rfl]uirodn RMA> Ple«e tall « lii for -in RVAf brfmiEf Teiurmng dn^ihing All refUTn^iviihL'^ijL RUA' wilJ be rtfusfd Ad prices sub|«t TnchHin£tUflthout iioTK£ G AM EX Card Owner Credit Card # Expiration Dale Signature of Card Owner Telephone Signature I Would lihv roTHiniv mqarp informdU'. ~\ ATonc . l.i^MC 'ATonce-Plus 3 GtildcPi Odttf iBaSX T Golden Gale 4MSLC Mall Of (u Ihlmrdrr (orm To yorten vartcK Computersysteme GmbH, FalterstraPe 51-53, D-7101 Fiein. Tel +49-7131-59720. Fax +49-7131-55063 P;Rtl>N T E R S -Sk — CITIZEN SWIFT 9 £239 CJtIien TT 07S3 584111 _^^ Citizen's main contender in the 9-pin printer market is the Swift 9. which has been available for a fair old time now, but continues to seff well- Available in both standard and wide carfiafie versions, the Swift 9 range Is still very popular amongst Amiga users. It's not surprising either - although the Swift 9 *s technically nothing to write home about, print quality <s very good indeed. TTie Swift 9s design is starting to show Us age a bit these days. WitTi LCD displays r^ow virtually the de facto standard for printer operation, Ihe Swift's rather crude LED-based front panei lets it down a tad. That saidn no-one could possibly argue that the Swift is anything but easy to use. The range of fonts on offer is nothmg to get excited about either - wrth fusi one Draft and three NLQ fonts, the Swift 9 Is hardly going to win any awards, Pnnimg speed is quite impressive though - with a maximum print speed of 213 cps in high speed draft mode and 40 cps in NLQ mode, the Swift 9 certainly lives up to its name- All things consideredn the Swift 9 may be showing its age, but it's certainly not going to lie down and die for a few years yet- RATINGS » RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value 9 • • • Q ©••OO mmmno (overall ouj CITIZEN.PN-4!r ■fV.'* 1 k^ , _ -J"-. £325 Citizen v 0753 5S4111 For computer users on the move, Citizen has the answer to your portable printing needs in the shape of the PN-45 NoteDook pnnter. Despite the fact that the PN-48 Is small enough to fit into a briefcase, it pacKs a pretty mean purKh in the specirtcation stakes. Offering 24'pin resolution and a very reasonable pnnt speed, the PN-4S is actually worth considering for home use too. Print quality is exceptionally good thanks to the use of a film ribbon, rather than the fabric ones used by other printers. Although film ribbons don't last anywhere near as long as a fabric fibdon (Citt^en quotes 25 pages!), ihey give xi^e best quality results by far. The PN-48 can t>e used "on the n^ove" thanks to a buift- in rethargdijie battery pack that is capable or churning out 30 pages of NLQ tent before it needs recharging. For homo use. Citizen aJso include an external power supply. Regarding its specifications, the PN-48 IS impressive considering its small Size, it doesn't actually have a draft printing mode, but its two NLQ fonts print at a very acceplabte 53 cps. The PN-48 is a great pnnter, with all the advantages of portability, even if it is expensive to run. RATINGS o RATINGS Features Print QuaHty Speed VaJue I (overaH • ••oo O^ They^re almost completely silent, print at very high quality, and are getting cheaper all the time^ A brand new^ laser is sure to amaze yerl £1175 Canon ^ 081 773 3173 - -/j OKIOl'400 £449 Ohi ^ 0800 525 585 1Y\^ LBP-4 Plus Is a printer that looks good and performs well. Although rather functional in appearance, the LBP-4 is a very attractive- loo king creature. To coin a phrase, less is more and that's certainly true of the L8P-4. The front panel ^s uncluttered and very easy to use, aiiowmg you to get the most from the printer without even having to resort to the manual. The LBP-4 offers a range of emulation modes including EpsonQ, IBM ProPrJnter, Diablo and Canon's own CaPSL, a page descnption Oki's OL-400 IS an LED pnnter that includes an impressive specification with an even more impressive phce tag. LED printers work slightly differently from conventJonal laser printers, but the results are exactly the same. However, because the OL-400 doesn't have a great big bulky toner cartridge and laser electronics, it's half the height of all the other lasers on test. Emulation is well catered for with IBM PfoPnnter. Diablo 630 and HP LaserJet 2 modes on offer. The range language similar to HP's LaserJet languagG. Canon supplies an Amiga Workbench pnnter driver, so getting up and running is very simple indeed- The printer comes with two bitmapped typefaces (Elite and Courier) and 4 scalable typefaces. Although the LBP'4 offers a standard resolution of 300 dpi. Canons AIR (Aulornatic Image Refinement) technology helps to increase print quality above that of a normal laser. In alL the LBP-4 is a very well- designed laser that, while not of typefaces available is a little limited, but those that are on offer are very usable. These include Swiss (Helvetica). Dutch (Times). LinePnnter (a condensed non-proportional font) and of course Courier, Print quality is generally very good, although some eady printouts did show signs of print purity problems (large areas of the same colour would be lighter in places) which were probably caused by an unequal covering of toner on the printer's drum. In all though, the OL-400 is an particularly astounding in the specification department, desen/es an overait high score simply on account of its ease of use and attract! vety- designed casing. RATINGS « RATINGS Features Print QuaNty Speed VaJue • ••• « • • • . Overall » • • • j ^ except ionally^iced pnnter that, whilst not being the best Taser on the market, certainly delivers the best value for money. If you need a laser but your budget is tight, then go for the OL-400. RATINGS « RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value C Overall ao ^ AMIGA SHOPPER m ISSUE 22 O FEBRUARY 1993 21 PRINTERS RICOH IP) 200 £830 SiMCa ^ 081 309 llll Ricoh's LP1200 laser printer has been causing quite a stir in the Amiga marketplace over the last few months. This is hardly surprising when you consider that the LP1200 comes with 2Mb of RAM as standard, has a maximum pnmmg resoluiion of 400 dpi ithat's 100 dpi more than your average laser] and includes an eiiensiv/e set of lypefsces. Although standard printer dhvers cannot handle the LP1200's 400 dpi print resolution. Silica does supply a printer driver that is man enough for the job. Printing from ProPage. the LP1200 consislentfy produces results that are noticeabiy better than the other lasers on test. Typefaces on offer include the usual Couner Prestige and Line Printer, plus Gothic, CGTimes and Universe, The only real downer of the LP1200 is the fact that it cannot be upgraded to PostScript, although Silica claims that a software- based upgrade may be made available at a later date. Another advantage of the LP1200 is its Flash ROM faciiity which allows the laser's operating system to be easiiy upgraded, therefore ensuring that the LP1200 stays current. With all these features on offer, the LP1200 IS without doubt the best laser avaHable to Amiga users. RATINGS • RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value (overall 5J EPSON EPL-4000 £799 £pftOn u 0442 6U44 STAR LASERPRINTER 4 £1J.73 Star UK n 0494 471111 Thinh printers and most people think Epson, {t s a well known fact that Epson is generally regarded as 'the' printer manufacturer. The reasons for this reputation really have nothing to do with Epson's products, but more their acceptance withm British schools. Epson doesn't just produce dot matrix pnnters though, as the EPL- 4000 proves. The basic EPL-4000 COmeS with 512K of RAM, although to be perfectly honest, the first thing you should do is to spend the extra £164 on a 2Mb Regular readers of Amiga Shopper wW prohabiy remember the LaserPnnter 4 very well indeed - we reviewed it a coupie of months back. Although it performs very well, it is rather expensive - especially when compared to Ricoh's equally well-endowed iaser, the LP1200 (reviewed above). Like the Epson EPL-4000. the Star LaserPrmter 4 is available with PostScript emulation for an extra £500- This adds no fewer than 35 extra fonts to the EPL-4000"s existing four typefaces, plus faster pnnting via MjQl M JlH Jason Holborn explains fiov\^ choosing the right printer software and driver can enl your printouts considerably Getting the Amiga to communicate wKh a printer can be most fruatrattng- You see. the Amiga doesn't actually know how to Gommunlcale with a printer. Ttie dever bit of the Amiga's operating vystem that g on verts the gonerlc printer codes that the Amiga produces is called a 'printer driver*. The printer driver acts as a sort of language interpreter and mediator between the Amiga and your printer^ The pnnter driver is a clever tiit of software. When the Arrnga attempts to send a message to a printer, the pnnter driver steps m^ grabs the message, analyses it and then converts it into a form that the printer can understand. It's a bit like those strange people that you see on TV when two world leaders meet - it's the interpreter's job to make sure that both parties understand what the other is going on about. RAM expansion. Although 512K is fine for text printing, you'll need ttie extra RAM for full page graphic printouts. Regarding emulations, there's the usual HP LaserJet, EpsonX, IBM ProPrinter and optional PostScript, The EPL 4000 Operates at the same rapid 6 ppm as the LP1200, but the range of typefaces on offer is a little limited. Although the manuai claims that the EPL'4000 has 14 fonts, these are simply based around two typefaces in a variety of different styles. Print quality is excellent with the PostScript page description language. PostScript needs lots of RAM though, so youii need to upgrade the basic 1Mb LaserPnnter 4 to at least 2Mb using Star's own RAM card. If. on the other hand, you don't need PostScnpt. the LaserPnnter 4 can be driven using either HP LaserJet or HPGL/2 emulations. The LaserPnnter 4's performance is generally very good, although il is rather slow at just 4 ppm. The range of typefaces ts very good indeed arxi the 1Mb of memory as standard very good print purity and the EPL- 4000 IS very easy to use, thanks to a well-designed front panel, m all, the EPl.'4000 is a great pnnter. but it realty needs to be cheaper. RATINGS • RATINGS n Features Print Quality Speed Value X Overall )j makes the Star laser a more attractive proposition. If you think you'll need PostScnpt at a later date, then this is the laser to buy. For the rest of you, go for the LP1200. RATINGS • RATINGS Features Print Quality Speed Value Q Overall )j Commodore very kindly supplies a drivers aren't exactly renowned for range of printer drivers with every Amiga sold. Depending upon the version of Workbench that you're using, you'it find a range of printer drivers designed to handle a iarge number of different printers somewhere on your system disks liht tf Ip'I t* _tJ— ! iMHWfc^ J If you buy a Citizen printer, make sure you get the Print Manager tool (refer to your Workbench manual to find out their exact locationl. While these drivers will handle most common pnnter emulations, it's inevitable that there are some printers available that aren't supported. What's more, the Workbench printer being particularly good at their job. In an attempt to keep Amiga users happy, several pnnter manufacturers have specially developed pnnter drivers designed specifically for their range of printers. The fifst to realise the need for printer drivers was Citizen (manufacturer of the 240C. Swift 9k< and ProJet), who released Pnnj Manager, a cut down version of IrseeSoft's TurboPhnt Professional. Although Commodore's own EpsonX and EpsonQ drivers will handle many Citizen printers, the Prirft Manager drivers are faster, more flexible and generally produce much better results. Citizen is selling this program to Amiga users for just £15. CANON'S ABLAZIN' Following Citizen's lead, several other printer manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon. First up was Canon, who launched a wliole range of printer drivers for their BJ-lOex. BJ-20, BJ- 44 AMIGA SHOPPER •ISSUE 22 •FEBRUARY 1993 PRINTERS PRINTER PEAWMS . CHART f*Jlc- Priwo ahonn oic tcconimeniJcd rclail' w list' ptltoa, wfikJi do no! indudG VAT. HowevBr. ii 4& very common tor dealcfa to offef sunsiantiai cftatoi^na an inis pncB^ often of up to £100 or mom. Sftop afounol [ DOI JUIIII HLMTUS . _ - - - - - - - - ■ . lUodW SuppAv Pife# DL1160 Fx^tftii £39& 9>Tm£^^ GitUcn UQ3 Swrrrg Citinn £:2^9 PN-4S Clll/flfl £325 LClOO star £319 U12A 100 Gtv £239 IQ-lOO Epson £245 LK-100 Epson £189 24 24 a 34 ft 24 34 360 300 240 360 240 aao 360 240 Ctihar VM Opdon No Option Ho norr Sorra rannes oe UMeri Mien pnniinft ai 10 (;fiaraci£f b pef inch, fflwnrawTiRS ' ni4tor qpitom SpHtffAtQr Sp0MfOr*n) 5M«#r FMd» Z4M aoBfi.rNLQ 60 300 Opihonal aK 1 Dran. 11 NLQ 66 200 OpUorul 8K 2 Draflp 3 NLQ 40 160 Opltonal 4K 2NLQ 63 - r«o 3M lDralt.4raq 37.5 150 Opuonol 16H iDrsfUSNlQ 03 ISO OpUonBl UK lOroft 5NLQ 60 167 v« 4K 10ran.2NLQ 40 200 ^ M«W SuppMirr Bi-IOAX Canan BJ-300 Canon ProJvl Cnuen Bi^aro Epson Dk»niii70l Kodak B-lOO Fujitsu 8^200 FuK^ £3Ba £495 £399 £349 £499 WfUjMfl 64 64 ftO 50 50 50 360 360 300 300 300 300 300 aoK 24K leK 24K lDran,4NljQ lDTon.3NLQ 2 Oran. 3 NLQ 1 Oiafl. a NLQ 1 OFBft. 2 NLQ 3NLQ 2 Draft, 3 NLQ d3 150 120 200 120 80 120 83 300 360 550 200 160 lao Stte9tF49d9r Optional Optiorml TOT Optional No QpUomi Yea LASFR/LEDPItlKTrRS MoObI Sirppftor Rk^ohLPl^OO Silica EPL4000 Epson LaserPTlnter 4 Slaf LBPJPiuft Canon OL400 Prtet £820 £799 £1173 £1175 £449 Hflamory 2Mb 512K IMO ftl2K 512K fvpwKfffd 4Mb 5.5Mb 2.5Mb 2,0Mi DPi 40Qdpt 300dpi aooopi 3ooapi aooofn Spemtrt Gppin 6ppm 4o(K" 4ppm Typ«/fC9s ErmMtloam 6 HP Lasflrjei, HPCL/2. EpeonX, IBM 2 HP USHJAI. EpumX 4 HP LaurJAl. HPGL/2 5 EpsonX. I8M, DialW>. Cawn 4 HP LMOtiM. J5M. &atAi Note: Bocaow laser printers dan Only pwJuce iiii*x>le pages at a «me rseo pag« 15)- th»* *p«d Is measured by the numBw of pages tnat tn«y can output in or« mirHil*. fWher ifian the CharacTefs Pet Second uvrd tof dol malni and inhjet machTics- The uriirs oT lBK«r speed are tneieforF r^tened lo as PPM iPages Per Minute), 1- 1 l' 1 , IJJJJJJ JJI «.*««- 1 ,m'' ^^^ J*K'l-i tizttiki\ killtlLl _E££=iLl Canon's rage of printer drivers will enable you to print at full resolution on any of its Inkjet^, giving a maximum of 360 by 360 dpJ output 300 and LBP range of bubbiejet and laser prinlers. The drivers also include a couple of extra utilities thai enable you to fine-tune the printing process and even download standard Amiga bitmapped fonts to certain printers. Star also claims to have produced Amiga printer drivers^ although I must admit that I atill haven't seen them (despite badgering Star lor monthsl). If you buy a Star printer, you should therefore hassle your supplier or coniacl Star directly to make sure that you gel the right one. Star clairt^s to have sent these drivers to major distributors, so getting hold of them shouldn't be that to ugh - One of the worst Wofkbench printer drivers was the old and faithful HP LaserJet driver. After years o1 user moaning, Commodore has addressed this problem w+th a brand spanking nev^ driver which is now bundled with Workbench 3.0 on the A1200 and 4000 machines. Hopefully the rest of us should see this when Wort\Dench 2,1 is finally released (where is it. Commodore?). If you can't wait that long. Silica Systems has stepped ^nto the foray by announcing the impending release of a new HP LaserJet 3 driver written by IrseeSoft (The company behind Citizen's Print Manager). Written specifically for the Ricoh LP12G0 laser printer Silica claims that the new driver supports the Ricoh's maximun* 400 dpi prinCing mode. However, it should also be usable on other HP LaserJet lasers^ i ENHANCE YOUR PRINTER Third-party software vendors have been quick to iump on the printer bandwagon with the release of several very good printing utllttles- Deslgnad to Improve and even extend the printing ablMties of the Workbench printer drivers, these products are well worth considering H you want to gel the very be«t from your printef. TURBOPRINT PRO £49.99 H8 Marketing u (0753) 686000 German developer IrseeSoft has decided that the best way to improve upon the Workbench printer software is to scrap it altogether. TuitoPhnt Profession^ includes not only its own range of printer drivers, but a^so a tirand new 'printer. device' (the operating system device that handles pnnters). The result fS a program that not only works faster than the Workbench drivers, but is capable of producing considerably better results. TuftoPrint Professionat gives you extensive contrcil over the printing process. You are even given the power to change the dither pattern used when printing pictures. TRUEPRINT/24 £54.95 Silica Systems « (081) 309 1111 ASDG's answer to the problem of printing 24-bit pictures on a printer Is TfuePrint/2d. a stand-alone version of the Save To Preferences' Saver module from Art Departfnent Pro 2.1. TfijePfint/24 enables you to print 24- bit images with considerably more shading than would normally be possible if the image was converted to HAM and printed from within a HAM paint program. For 24*it fans who don't already own AdPro 2.1, 7njePrtnt/24 is a must. AMIGA SHOPPER # ISSOt 22 • FEBRUARY 1993 ^^ B E G I E RS If you were lucky enough to find an Amiga lurMng at the bottom of yoifr Christmas stocking and you're aleo new t« thle mngnilne, we'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the fascinating and very rewarding worki of Amiga c«nputlng- Vou're low the proud owner of wlini 1*1 unOtJuLiiPiily Uie niosr powerful and most sophisticated nome corripLiier ever devised. onenng the mo si gorgeous graphics. 3Cl nil Noting aound and moutn- woicFlnK music taliT- £cJJ, (Ts easy to see why the Amiga coritinues to bo the most popular home computer over produced- Whot'5 more, you're nun ujic of Uic elite - you're an Amiga user. The computer that you own is just one of a whole family of personal computers produced by Commodore bearing the Amiga name. Rorigmg fTom the 'home' Amigas [the A600 ar\d A1200) rigm up to the workstaiiornlike A4000. the Amiga range offers unparalleled power for very Tittle cash. Since the release of The ofigmai Amiga AlOOO back in 1984, the Amiga has continued to dominate the UK computer scene. It's no wonder either - no other home computer offers the speed and power that the Amiga delivers in such a compact unit. Others have tried to match it, but few have even come close. If you were responsible for choosing the Amiga you now own, then pat THE AMIGA KEYBOARD Attfiou^ many operations can be performed using the Amiga's n>ouse controller, it's inevrtable that you'll eventually have to brush up on your typing skills. The Amiga uses a standard OWERTV formal which is the same KeytJoara layout used on all computers and typewnters. However, you may well have noticed a couple of extra features thai you won't find on a typewriter. Here's a rough gutde to what those extras do: 1. 'Amiga' keys. These two special keys are used Tn conjunction with other keys on the Amiga keyboard for seiecting operations using hot key' combinations. For example, pressing the left 'A' key and 'H' wilt send the current front screen to the back. 2. Disk LED. Both tfie A600 and the A1200 are capabie of be^ng ntted whh an Internal IDE hard drive. Providing your machine is equipped with such a drive* this LEO wiil be tit when the Amiga Is accessing the hard drive. 3- Floppy LED. When the Amiga accesses a disk In Its Internal drive, this L£D wilt iigfit up. Never remove a disk when this or the disk LED are lit. TMs couM damage the disk, therefore losing the Information that the disk holds. 4. Power LED. When your Amiga it turned on, this LED will remain permanently lit to Indicate that the machine is powered up. 5. Help. By Itself, ttie Help^ key doesn't actually do a great deal. However, some programs will display helpful information when this key is pressed. B. Function koys. Like the Help key, function keys won't actually do a great deal unless the program that you're running makes use of tiMin. programs use them to provide an easy method of selecting common operations without having to remember complex commands. yourself on the back for making such a Wise choice - you've earned it. Over the next sti pages, we'll show you all that you need to know to get started with your new acqutsition. We also hope to open your eyes to the possibilities that the Amiga delivers - although the Amiga plays a pretty mean game {don't worry, even the lechies enjoy a game of Rainbow Islands occasionally!), using the Amiga tor nothing more than games is like driving a car in first gear. But we're not going to patronise you by assuming that you don't already know this - after all, you wouldn't have bought Amiga Stopper (the magazine that's serious about your Amiga) \f you ' weren't already aware of what the Amiga is capable of. Desktop publishing, video titling, solid modelling, ray tracing, word processing, programming. Computer Aided Design - all these applications and more are now within your grasp. BUT ON THE SIDE What makes the Amiga so wonderful is its advanced custom circuitry, as designed by Commodore specifically for the range. At the heart of the machine are three "custom' chips that wor1< together to produce the amazing graphics and sound that have made tlie Amiga famous. The most famous of these three is Agnus, the chip responsible for the Amiga's impressive graphics. Possibly the most infamous aspect of Agnus is the blitter, a device designed to allow the Amiga to move large chunks of graphic from one place to another, and to draw lines and filled polygons faster than even the fastest processor. Blitter stands for 'Block Image Transfer', but the Amiga's blftter is capable of so much more than just copying graphics from one place to another. As Commodore is keen to point out, the Amiga's bfitter should technically be renamed a 'Blimmer' (Block Image Manipulator) because of its powerful image manipulation facilities. The Amiga's blitter offers 256 Image manipulation functions which allow the blitter to transform graphic data virtually In real time. Add to this the blitter's ability to draw lines and polygons aT a rate of thousands per second and you've got a machine that is ideal for 3D modelling - or indeed any application that requires the high speed transfer of graphic information. Agnus IS backed up by two other very specialised custom chips - Denise and Paula. Dentse is responsible for handling the Amiga's screen display. Working in conjunction with Agnus. Denise is capable of not only changing the colour palette of a screen at any point, but also its resolution. This Agnus - Agnus is the Amiga's graphics chip, a custom processor that can run independentiy of the mam one. I Blitter - This is the key to the Amiga's high speed graphics capabiiitiesn a special piece of circuitry inside Agnus that allows the Amiga to copy areas of the screen and draw lines and polygons at a frighteningiy fast rate. The blitter allows the Amiga to produce stunnrng animation and lightning-fast 3D graphics. Copper - A co-processor built into Denise that can changing certain aspects of the Amiga's screen display ^colour palette, or resolution, for instance) at any point on the screen. Custom chips - What separates the Amiga from the competition are Its powerful custom chips. These chips (which the facility is used extens^vely by the Amiga's operating system and WorKt>ench environment to allow multiple screens to be opened and even displayed simultaneously. Combine this with its powerful multitasking operating system, and it's easy to see why the Amiga stili offers the best multitasking capabilities on any machine. A MULTTTUDE OF SKILLS If you've never used a machine that offers multitasking capabilities, then you're in for bit ot a shock. Unlike a traditional computer that is only capable of running one program at any one time, the Amiga can run many different programs simultarieously, each of which can have their own screens and windows. With the development of ARexx, the Amiga's powerful multiprocess communications language, you can even have programs from different manufacturers shanng information and working together. Imagine the possibilities of running a word 4A AMIGA SHOPPED • ISSUE 22 • FEBRUARY 1993 BiErOrlvN^N E R S i^^k ri ^^& ^ ^K ^H ^^k ■ ^K ^^M^^^^M ^k A } ^^h - * ^ ~ - ^^^ ■* ■ : ■'"■ ^i!^^-. JT", -v,.*T ^- •^^i. 1 JMllIBi T'*'iFy""tT^WWWy?T'^M standard television, an RGB SON BUST NG^^ [iilx^ilii jJiMlMillfll'' KoHiwiliilW tochios called the 'PAD' chips) tfcfsions of the operating syslenn Opefotiri£ System - A program built have t)€en speci^caMv designed are released, all you have to do into eveiy Amiga that acts as a monitor provides considerably to handle trie Amiga's powertui Is to change this chip anO your mediator between the Amiga's better picture Quality both in graphics and sound copabi fties. Amiga remains right up to date. hardware and programs. The operating system is also tenns of detail and colour. Ognlco - A f^hip inc^idn Tho Amiga Vn^i Mouse - A small electronic device fGEponsibie for the Amiga's Simples - The Amiga's entire sound is responsible for forming used to control the movement of multitasking abilities and the low- capabilities are based on the complex screen displays. an orvscreen mouse pointer'- 11 level routines used by the theory of sampling. Sampling is a contains two 'buttons' (used for machine's powerful windowing process that converts an analog HAM * A special !^cr^(?n mode for selecting icons and such like) system. Workbench. sound signal into a OigHal format ai^pl^ying up 10 ^Oyb colours on and a small rubber-coated ball that can be stored, manipulated screen at once. whose movement is measured when the mouse is moved Paula - A chip inside the Amiga that ho3 dual role. It rs responsible and then played back. HAM-8 - A1200 and A4000 owners across a flat surface. for handling the Amiga's various WIMP - The Amiga's Workbench hdve access to a more advancea ports, and the Amiga's environment is what is known as version of HAM ttiat takes MultltasMng - A sophisticated part impressive 4-channel sound. a 'WIMP' system. WIMP stands advantage of the special 'AGA' of the Amiga's design that allows for Window, Icon. Menu, Pointer custom graphic chips inside it to run more than one program Procesaor - The heart of the Amiga and is a very simpte method of those machines. HAM^ is at any one time. You could, for rs its processor, a Motorola perfonriing complex tasks us^ng copobte of 01 s ploying o maximum e;iEample, run a paint package m 66000, which carries out all an on-screen mouse 'pointer'. of 263.000 different colours on one screen and a word processor catculations and keeps the rest mrPHH at oncy, giylrig almost in another, while a ray tracing Of the machine in check. The Workbench - The Workbench is a pltolugraphiG re&u ts- program generates a 3D scene. processor is best thought of as program that enables you to The Amiga is still the only the Amiga's brain'. carry out common operations Rlckfitart - The name ot the chip personal computer available on (such as running programs) and in^iue your Amiga That holds Its the market that offers this very RGB Monitor - Although the Amiga's general disk tasks by clicking on operating system. When new useful facility as standard. display can be viewed on a icons with the mouse pointer. If you found an Amiga in your Christmas stocking^ then don't panic! Kindly Jason Holborn is here to explain all the basics The Amiga's Workbench Is the latest In a Jong line of mouse- controlled WIMP systems processor in one screen, a paint package, a music composition program and the Workbench simulianeousty without having to rotvijJ uach eveiy ttmu you wish to use them. Once you've used multitasking, you'll never want to look back to the had old days' of only running one program at once. Last but not least we have Paula, the Amiga's much heralded sound chip. Aiihough others may have now surpassed it, Paula is still a pretty impressive slither of silicon which IS capable of playing up to four tracks of sampled audio simultaneously in full stereo sound- WORKING THE BENCH The computers that we have today are a far cry from the complen, room- filling beasts that were the order of the day little more than twenty years ago. These monolithic creatures were not only expensive, but were terribly complex to use. Each and every operation that you wanted to carry out had to be entered as a crypttc command via the computer's keyboard. This led to the evolution of a bizarre sub-culture of super- intelligent whizz-kids' who seemed to be the only humans capable of grasping this technology. However, thanks to some bright spark at Xerox's Research Laboralones, this sort of elitism was brought to an end with the development of the WIMP environment. Instead of typing Tn complex commands, computer users could control their machines by moving cin on-screen pointer around the screen using a mouse controller. By simply clicking the mouse button when the pointer was directly over a small pictorial representation (called an "icon') of what you were trying to do. the computer would perform the operation that was associated with that icon. The Amiga is only one of many machines that have embraced this wonderful method of controlling a computer. The Amiga's WIMP system IS called intuition and built upon this IS the Amiga Workbench. The Workbench will provide you with a quick and easy-to-learn method of controlling the Amiga, Simply by learning a few basic pnncipleSn you'll be able to perform all sorts of common computer operations such as running programs and copying, deleting and renaming files, Oon't feel intimidated by the Amiga's Workbench - after a little practrcen AMIGA SHQPPER«»IS5UE 22 # FEBRUARY 1993 4C B E G I E RS A butc Am^ is a orettv mean oerformer by anyone's standards, but its range of ports and interfaces will allow you to extend your machine still fv<V>cr. Horn's what all \hmv Qb^cure looking connectors do: 10 U 6 7 S 6> CofTip. Another form of video output Is the COfMP, port - the Amiga a video display In composite format. This can be fed Into any monitor, televLsJon or video that accepts a composite signal. 1, Disk drive. For some operations, a second d(3k drive is a definite must. This port will allow you to cor>nec1 up to three extra disk drives to the Amiga, making many ta«kfi considerably easier. 2> Serial. Conforming to the ubiquitous R5232 standard, the Amiga's serial port is used to connect devices such as modems and serial printers to your machine^ Developers liave also used this port extensively for MIDI Interfaces, touch tablets and even home electronics kits. 3. Parallel. By far the most useful connector on tlw Amiga Is tts parallel port. Although designed specifically for the connection of a parallel printer, the Amiga's parallel port can be used to connect a whole host of different add-ons. Including sound samplers. video digttisers, hand scanrwrs and even hard disk drives. 4. Audio connectors. If you want to really appreciate the Amiga's wondorfui sound oopobllitlos, th«n you should connect it to a hl-fl through these ports. Two sound channels are available on each port, giving true stereo sound. 5- Video. The Amiga's video port is used to connect an RGB monitor to your machine^ Because the screen display is transmitted In RGB form, the picture quality obtained from a monitor is considerably better than the r«suits that you'll get using the RF fModu later connector. 7. RF modulator. If you don't own an RGB monitor, tfwHi this connector provides a convenient method of displaying the output from your Amiga, The RF Modulator socket outputs a standard RF video signal which can be connected to the 'ariel In' socket on any television. 8. Power- Undoubtedly the most Important connector of all. your Amiga is pretty useless unless It's plugged in here. 9. PCMCIA. Most of the Amiga's connectors are pretty self explanatory, but this one Is probably not so obvious. PCMCiyw Is a fairly new development that allows the Amiga to use industry standard PCMCIA cards. These credit card-siied devices provide a method of expanding the Amiga. Not only can RAM expansions and memory cards (a memory card holds its contents even when the Amiga is turned off) be used, but third-party developers are already hard at work producing add-ons 9uch Bs modems, sound samplers, iiard drives and dlgltlsers that will connect to the Amiga via this port. 10. Mouse/ Joy stick. The Amiga Includes two standard Atari-style 9-pin joystick connectors, tlte first of which is also used to conrtect a mouse controller to your Amiga. 11. Joystick 2. If you enjoy the occasional game, then this port can be used to connect any standard Atarl^styie digital Joystick to your Amiga. you'll find it a very logical and straightforward method of controlling the Amiga's operation. BE SURE OF SHEU The Amiga's Workbench proi/ides all the power that most people rheed to ooerate their Amigas. Out there will inevitably come a lime when you start to feci hold bach by all those windows, icons and menus. That's when it's ttme to turn to the Shell. gateway to the Amiga's advanced disk operating system. Using the Sheft is just like using a conventional command line-based cofnpuler such as the early PCs. But don t let this put you off - although the Shell and its many commands may seem daunting at first, tt provides unparalleled control over 'hr ,Jtm .^sa 'Hi ^ -aw.. LEANER AND MEANER If you think the Amiga is already impressive^ you ain't seen nothin' yetl With a little bit of extra hardware, you can transform your Amiga into a real mean performef that wiH not only be more fun to use, but more productive too. Here's a brief run-down of the add-ons you may want lo consider: • Second Drive^ Ast< most Am*ga users what the first peripheral that they bought was and chances are they'll say a second dnve. For operations such as copying disks ar>d accessing the Amiga's powerful AmigaDOS Shell, a second drive isn't a luxury - It's an absolute necGSStty, You may find that some programs come on more than one disk too - with a second drive attached to your machine^ you'll find using that program considerably easier because you won't have to keep swapping disks ^™i'-« I while It's running. L J Compared to Workbench. AmigaDOS provides a far more direct method of performing many disk operations the Amtga's disk operating system. Virtually all of the tasks that you can achieve from the Workbench can be repeated with<n the Shell, simply by entering the appropriate Shell command. Although it's not quite as approachable as the Workbench, AmigaDOS provides a more direct method of carrvtng out common disk operations such as formatting disks, copying files, and more. Another very powerful aspect of the Shell is its ability to perform long lists of commands held within what IS known as a script' file. Although each command is a separate AmigaDOS command m its own right, the Shell executes the script as if it were running a program. Script files can be very usefui when you need to perform a disk operation involving many complen steps. By simply grouping I he so steps into a script file, the entire process can be achieved by typing just a single command in the Shell. Look out for Mark Smiddy's AmigaDOS column in every issue of Amiga Shopped (on pages 89-92 of this issue, for instance). Mark is generally regarded as one of the top AmigaDOS experts in this country, and every month he deives ever deeper into the mysteries of AmigaDOS. If you want to know how your Amiga's disk operating system ticks, then this is clearly the man to listen to. • RAM Expansion. If you've upgraded to the Amiga from an S-bit machinen 1Mb of RAM may sound if tliere's a particular aspect of the Amiga's Workbencii tiiat doesn't quite appeal to you. ttien you can ciiange it to suit your own personai preferences. Take the Worktkench coiour paiette, for example - Commodore knows that grey on biack, white and biue may not be everybody's cup of tea. so a paiette tool is provided that allows you to permanently change the screen paiette. (Well, until you decide to change It again > that is.) The key to this customising power is the Amiga Preferences system, a fieiection of rndividuai programs designed to allow you to fine tune and change certain aspects of the Amiga's operation to sua your own taste and computer setup. The Amrga Preferences aren't just restncted to cosmetic changes, though - they are also used to ten the Am^ga the type of screen n^KXie you would like the Worltbench to use, the type of printer connected lo your Amiga, and so on. If you'd like to add 'go faster' stripes and fancy chrome strips to your Amiga, then read on, • Input. The Input utility alfows you to fine lune the speed of certain system §kt AUir^A CUnODED A ICCIIC OO ACEBDIIADV 1001 B EGI E R S like a lot - but, believe me, it arn't. These days, a 1Mb machine is barely adequate for running anything other than the sifYiplest of applications, K you want TO geT Invfilvfjrl in any form ot serious grapfiics, video or DTP viroris, then ejitra RAM will definitelv be needed. How much you fit aepende entirely upon your own |ju(]£ei - if YOU con fiffoni ir [hough, a {qXqI of 4Mb of RAM i;^ generally regardea as comtonahle, • hard Drive. A hard drive 13 the next lugjco^ slcu up ffOfn the second drive thai we mentioned earlier. Due to its speed and very high storage capacity (even the smallest A600 hard drive can store up to twenty disks' worth of information!), a hard drive will give you almost instant access to all your programs and data tiles. Once you've used a hard disk- based Amiga, you'll never want to touch floppies againf Hara arives come in a divert range of different sizes. Don't automatically assume that a 20Mb hard drive will be suitable. Although It may seem large at tirsi, you'd be surpnsed just how quickly this can fill up with DPaint pictures, sound samples, application programs and the like. More than lOOMb is p99aibly «■ litllQ cj^trtavagonti biA you'd possibly live to regret buying anything smaller than 50Mb. • Printer If you'd like to keep a permanent record of your workn then a pnnler is a must. The printer is the sort of device that can find a use in virtually every application of the Amiga that you dare to mention. Whether you're a program mefn musician, artist or writer, a pnnter 15 bound to prove a godsend. TAKING CONTROL One ot the most fascmabng and rewarding aspects of owning a computer is programming it yourself. In the case of the Amiga, programming can be even more t nf rw If tin MWtt4t,H) o J^trr viLH TriEH aivi copitinu* .eeJ^'toiM • RGB Monitor. Whtle lunning an Amiga through a leJevision is fine for games, you really do need an RGB monitor rf you intend using your Amiga at all seriously. RGB monitors provide far belter picture quality than a conventional TV. enabling you to make out the smallest on-screen text with ease. • Acceterator. The Amiga's a pretty swifl cJ^aracter but it can be made much taster by fitting a processor accelerator. Processor accelerators come in a variety of different flavours ranging from basic 68020 cards, right up to processor cards based around the 5am e processor that you'll find in the AdOOO, the high- speed Moioroia 66040, 9j iHkinr fv ^TIT AMOS Professional - probably the most poweHuL Amiga programming language In the world? rewarding stmply because of the Amiga's impressive hardware and what that hardware makes posslOle. Ultra-fast scrolling, sprites and music are all within the reach of the would- be programmer, providing of course that you're equipped with the right programming tools. There's a whole range of different programming languages aval i able tor the Amiga, which are suitable for both new and advanced users. But by far the best introduction to Amiga programming is Easy AMOS (from Europress). a very powerful BASiC-iike language that will allow even the greenest of beginners to take advantage of the Amiga's powerful graphics and sound hardware within their own programs. The Easy AMOS manua' <s written in a tutorial format, so you don't even need to buy a book on programmmg to learn the language. When you feel comfortable with Easy AMOS programming, you can then move up to the more advanced version of AMOS. AMOS Professional. AMOS Pro uses the same easy-to-use English-like command set as its hrtle brother, but offers unrivalled programming power that will allow you to harness your Amiga's hardware. Ultra-fast scrolling, sprites and interrupt-d riven music are only a small selection of the facilities offered by this mould- breaking language. Every month we dedicate a whole section of the magazine to AMOS programming. Composed and compiled by my good self, the aptly- named AMOS Action column covers many different aspects ot pnDgramming, ranging from the fundamentals of programming to some quite advanced topics that will teach you all you need to know to write top-notch games in AMOS BASIC. I look torv/ard to seeing you there soon! events, such as how fast the mouse pointer moves across the screen, the maximum length of time between mouse clicks for a 'double click' eeleciion to 6© accoptod^ and the key repeat speed. • IControl- As we discussed eariier, some Workbench events can be performed without having to select them from a pull-down menu or icon using hot keys'. The IControl utility allows you to specify key combinations for screen swapping ar>d gadget selection. • Palette. II the Workbench's black, white and blue on grey colour palette doesn't inspire you< then change them to your own personal choice using this utility. All the colours can be selected from the Amiga's full 4096 or 16 J million (for A1200 owners) colour palette. • WBPattem. The WBPattem utility enables you to design a regular pattern which can be used as a backdrop on the Workbench screen behind ail the vanous disk icons and windows. The WBPattem tool provides a selection of default patterns, but you can also design your own using DPa^nMike drawing tools. ll^iA.^.1-: mii£Hl±A^Ml-- L J 4- r _Jt: _|r _J tm I • Font The Font utility is used to specify the font (in other words, the text Style) used for all of the text which appears on the Workbench. Any standard Amiga bitmapped font you can find may be used for the Workbench's pull down menus. wirvdow titles and icon text. • Pointer. Feeling artistic? As with the Workbench background pattern, you can use the Pointer utility to modify the appearance and colour palette of the mouse pointer graphic. • Screenmode. The Workbench can be opened in any one of a variety of different screen modes, which allows you a potential maximum of 16 colours. The ScreenMode utility allows you lo select the mode that you want and the number of colours to be used. 1 ttLvt ' 4an fti ■iLrttH fr rr^Um B fviilm Q ■vIhMaI Q Grtt hilt 1 1 ■ lachtt / It! P I Cmitr Ptdaft: I Tvh: li c bivfet i Uiv twml t ; - PrinterGFX gives you extensive control over the printing of graphic* Overscan. Overscanning is a technique which allows the Amiga to expand the area used to display text and graphics so that the visual 'border' around the screen is removed. The Overscan utility gives you the ability to stretch the Workbench in both the horizontal and vertical directions. • Printer. Not all printers are created equal, so you must install a suitable printer driver if you want the Amiga to communicate with your printer in its native tongue. The Printer utility Simply selects the printer driver to be used and sets various page definitions such as the size of the paper and type of paper which the printer will be using. • PrinterGFX. PrinterGFX is another utility which enables you to fine iune the way a printer works with your Amiga. This utility is ufeed to control different aspects of graphic pnntouls - the print density, colour correction, anti-aliasing and so on. • Serial, tf you intend to use a serial pnnter on your Amiga, then it is necessary to configure the Amiga's serial port so that the protocols used by the Amiga and your printer match. The Serial utility enables you to set the baud rale, stop bits and all the other serial type parameters that have made the serial port such a firm favourite amongst users. • Time. Although more recent Amigas don't come with a battery backed up clock as standard, every , Amiga has a system clock that ticks away whilst your Amiga is tumed on. If you want to keep your Amiga njnning on time, then use the Time utility to set both the lime and date. AMIGA SHOPPER •ISSUE 22 •FEBRUARY 1 993 HW B E G I N N^EWS In thesfl daye of Super Mario BrAthAK nnri hrlght h\up. hf^dgohog« called 5onic, the Amiga can «1il| hold its head up high with the gdm^ng eHte. Although you'll hardly ever see games mentioned at alJ \n Amiga Shopper, we don^t necessarily believe that playing games is a bad thmg - we Just think That there's far more to owning ar\ Amiga than wielding a joystlch. Don't forget Uim ii itie more serious aspects of the Amiga interest you, then Amiga Shopper l^ the magazine to re^d. No oiner magazine on the markei has The in- depth tutorials, reviews and features that we offer. What's more, you'll never find pages of game reviews cluttering up vitai pages of the magaztne. Amiga Shopper is 100% serious about your Amiga, GRAPHIC DESIGNS With such powerful graphics chips at your disposal, it's not surprising that the Amiga leads the field in computer graphics. However, computer graphics is a very broaO term - the Amiga's capabilities are so wide- ranging that you can use them for a whole host of graphic-related applications. These range from straight pixei painting in DPaint. to digftising, soffd modelling, ray Just because DPaint is free, doesn't mean that it isn't any good. DPaint is still generally regarded as the best Amiga paint program tracing, image processing and even Terminator 2-iike morphing effects. For most people though, thetr first experience of the wonders of computer graphics are with Electronic Arts' brilliant Deluxe Paint. which is now bundled with most Amigae flold. DPaint is a wonderful program That turns your Amiga screen into a sort of computerised easel. Using DPaint and your Amiga's mouse, you can paint pictures using the Amiga's full range of screen modes and colour palettes. DPaint provides a full range of Domark's Fantavision Is a tun little animation program which Is partlculariy suitable fof children painting tools which wiii aiiow you to unleash the artist trapped inside you. Airbrushes, stencils, perspective and gradient fills are only a smaif selection of the powerful painting tools that DPaint delivers. Amiga paint programs usually come in one of two flavours - low- re so tut ion paint [programs offennga maximum of 32 colours on screen at once (Chosen from the Amiga's 4096 colour palette) and HAfvl paint programs. These ijiter programs aren't quite as flexible, but they do allow the Amiga's entire range of colours to be displayed on screen at once. Amiga A1200 owners can also took fon^vard to a new version of DPaint. DPaint AA. which can use the new 256- colour and HAM 8 screen modes offered by the new 'AGA' chip set. GET ANIMATCD Thanks to the Amiga's ultra-fast blitter hardware which we were talking about earlier, you can use your Amiga to create animations that would have turned Disney animators green with envy iittle more than ten years ago. Just iike the more pedestnan conventional paint programs, Amiga animation programs are available in a variety of different flavours, indeed, the chances are thai you already own one of the most popular animation programs available - DGiuxe Paint. DPa/nf by itself can be used to create some fairly sophisticated animations, using a variety of different techniques- The most basic way to create an animation requires you to draw each frame individually - as you probably already appreciate, this can be a very time-consuming task. DPaint can make the process of producing an animation considerably easier though using its powerful 'Brush Animation' and morphing facilities- Bnjsh animation allows you to create some quite complex effects by rotating and moving brushes in 3 dimensions. This facility has been extensively used to create the sort of impressive animated logos you see on TV. Finally, you also have the facility to create morphed brushes which will trans'omi from one image to another. Many of the 3D modelling and ray tracing programs that we covef in ^e box in the middle of this page will also allow you to create animations. These programs are capable of producing animations of soiid objects moving in 3D space. What's more, most of the hard work is handled tor you- All you have to do is to specify where an object should move into 3D space and the number of frames required, then the 3D modelling program does the rest. Other animation programs worth checking out include Rombo's excellent rake-2 video sequencer and Domark's Fantavfsion (as shown in the picture above). Fantavision is a verv simple but very entertaining animation program that is particUariy suitable for children - perhaps in an educational environment. VIDEO NICETIES One of the Amiga s greatest selling points IS lis ability to overlay graphics onto live video footage. In other words, you can remove the background colour from the Amiga's screen display and replace it with video footage from a variety of different sources. The key to all this video Once you've mastered the art of 2D pixel painting, the next big step Is 3D modelling and ray tracing. 3D modelling is a process which allows you to visualise 3D scenes by building up the objects that inhabit those scenes from graphic 'primitives', such as cubes and spheres. Obviously the 2D screen of your Amiga monitor cannot display a true 3D image: modelling programs get around this limitation using a technique that Is generally accepted as the best available - the tri-vlew editor. As its name suggests, a trl- view editor gives you three views of your 3D scene - front, side and top. What's so impressive about 3D modelling programs is that the actual process of generating your 3D scene is handled automatically by your Amiga us'ng what the techies call 'rendering'. The most advanced form of 3D rendering is ray tracing, a technique that generates 3D scenes by calculating how the light produced by a power is an amazmg box of tricks called a genlock, Amiga genlocks can be bought for as iittie £100 these days, so you'd be surpnsed just how cheap it is to set up your own video studio using your Amiga. Once you're equipped with a genlock, a wide range of programs are available that will allow you to add fancy effects, scroll titles up, down and across the screen, or you can even edit video footage on your Amiga! Using Roctec's RocKey device, you can even superimpose live video on lop of the Amiga's graphics {the opposite effect to a genlock), enabling you to produce your own weather forecasts and weird rock videos- If you want to keep in touch with what's really happening in the world of Amiga video work, then Amiga Shopper is the magazine to read. Every month you'll find a column wrrtten by our resident video expert, Gary Whiteley. Gary has been involved in the video industiv for an almost embarrassing numtier of years, so you can be sure that he ftMiniL ^HOPPFB a K^IIF ii a FFHDUADY 100!l B E G I E RS knows d thing or two about genlocks and the plethora of other Amigs video products around. PUBUSH AND BE... If there is Dr>e aoplication that the arrival of low-cost high-performance personal rompiJlPr^i has defrvereO to the average user. )t must surely be deshroo piJtilKiiliig. A desktop publishing program allows you to The Amiga offers a very JmpressFve range of desktop publishing programs, but the b<g two are undoubtedly Gold Disf^'a Professional Page 3.0 and Soft- Logik^s PagGStream 2.2. Both these programs can output high-quality DTP documents to any pnnter supported by the Amiga including dot matrix, Inkjet and laser pnmers. Through the use of 'outline' fonts, text is pnnted ^it ■ 1 ■ J 1 J ^^^-i* ^'^^flvM 3 ±:u-_ji^^KH>'^^ - 1 - V TPTi} M ■»^Hf H^^^B ^flM r' - ■ , 1 n '1 ■ 1 . if Sir J iiics >..-t" '■M^.', - '^ '-^^^ ■ ■ liHa*:"^- .. ItiyDOthetlcai) llfiht source within your 3D scene would reflect off objects within the scene, Ray tracing a 3D scene produces images of almost pt4iolographic quJ^IJty, complete with reflections and shadows. Even if you've never played with & ray tracing program before, chances are that you've already Gesn what ray tracing [s capable of -films such as The Lawnmower Man and Terminator 2 use ray tracing extensively to produce the amazing computer graphics that have become a major acJiing point. A wide variety of ray tracing programs are available for the Amiga, but the two market leaders are Digitai Multimedia's /mag/ne2and Alternative Image's Real 3D. Another very fascinating graphic technique is mofphing'. the latest craze in computer graphics, Morphing IS a very powerful technique that allows you to transform one graphic into another, w)th the computer create brochures, fanzines, posters and evpn mogozinos, complete with high-quality text and illustrations. You're already looking at a fine example of what desktop publishing I ami kd Hp-M hdkr4 PAGE PLAYlii^ ^ ■ im ^11 ■ WIT 'mf^^a Jft«ofi Hottern ch«tbs out tri« prlnnnq option 6 avtiLat>lfr lo Ihe dvthlop pub1ith«i Oft 4 hghr W^mitml f • ,!• ■df >-• I f " b pi^ir^ ■■■■-*■ bn inV^ BIO-. II a* ■Oj ^IBrBdr ■■■■■■ dfk d fer piv ui 'vd ^^H*rii ■naaiB^aBpiAtV *>■! « 4a 1 IBB^ .•-r~-.-i. i«Lu ■. 'il4U4 Professional typeset documents are finally wittiln your reach wfth Gold Disk's Pmfesstonal Page 3.0 can do - all of Amiga Shopper is 'laid out' using our own (sadly not Amiga- basedi desktop publishing system, Quarh XPress. Explore the fascinating world of 3D graphics with Imagine 2 generating the images in between. While seen more and more in TV ads nowadays, possibly the best-known use of morphing is to be found in the film Terminator 2. Morphing was used to create the many scenes where the evil Terminator, the T-1000. moulds rtself into a variety of different shapes. Several Amiga morphing programs are already available including ASDGs MorphPlus and GVPsC/ne/Worph, at the highest resolution of your printer, so even the naffest of 9'pins is capable of some pretty impressive results. For the ultimate m quality, however, both programs aiso fully support the mighty PostScnpt language. For beginners. Gold Disk's PageSefrer^ls worth considering. Based around Gold Disk's own Protessional Page. PageSeiter 2 has been specifically designed with the beginner in nund. it uses the same outline font technology to give excellent and unrivalled print quality arxj is also able to support bitmapped pictures and structured *l!u3tTation5 withm documents. If you want to learn the subtle art of desktop publishingn then Amiga Shopper is the magazine to read. Every month we feature a desktop publishing column written by our resident DTP guru, Jeff Walker. Jeff produces a fanzine called JAM using an Amiga running Professional Page, so he's more than qualified to comment on the pros arwi cons of Amiga DTP in a working environment, BUSINESS MATTIRS De^^pitji iK ohvious tlair for the more creative and artistic applications, the Amjga is also a pretty capable tjusiness machine. Whether you want to keep your accounts in order, keep track of business associates and friends or wnte a avalfable, but if you wish to grab your own, you just need a sound sampler. A sound sampler is simply a device thai converts an audio signal from any CD player, tape deck or microphone into a digital fonnat that can be processed and then played back in real lime by your Amiga. Compared to the price of professional samplers, Amiga samplers are a steal - starting at around £20, you can sampie sounds without breaking the bank. Even il you're not particularly musical, samplers can also be a source of Ji^itrl Ln^ 1 7kf*dlhH Kir' ie;.' u found 'P /Ir nt rdVuT'c Ikil Ictlof to your friendly bank manager, you'll find the Amiga more than qualified for the job. The three mosi popular types of business software available are the word processor, the spreadsheet and the database, all of which are commonly available on the Amiga. The Amiga's powerful graphic capabilities have spawned a new generation of word processors that steal more than a couple of good idedb rmin desktop publishing systems- These new word publishers' (also known as 'document processors') offer the raw text editing power that has made word processors so popular combined with the son of page layout power that was previously restricted to desktop pubiishing systems. Not only can you use any 5iondard Amiga font within your documents, but nowadays word publisher programs even allow you to incorporate pictures into the bargain. Word processors can do a lot more than just process words. I' your spelling or vocabulary is not quite up to scratch, then the Amiga can even help with these. Word processors such as Amors excellent Protext 5.5 (which, incidentally, was used to wnte this feature) offer spell checking facilities and even a thesaurus, a handy utility which can suggest alternatives to a given word. THE SOUND OF MUSIC if there's a tune just waiting to burst out of you, then the Amiga is the machine to own. Thanks to its advanced sound hardware, you can write music on your Amiga that uses sounds sampled from the real world. A huge library of sampled sounds is Utf-i^rj D Vhi4r 41 AT V VM iCrMnh Ihtkt firtt shtt l-MTSUiri I h^ t4 ttLr tbii flpp«r4«P^^1f Ed utlEWtv <i4li| aI I hi ««4iM ^r*4 Hti*tk-u>ttfri^4 nv^it Irh^ - Ci>+ i4^ t*tv I* F^itif^tJ bHi#t'f ^wft, ^ff^'f* 4dw 4nf 4' t^-* r'-tt - v4^ 'f d^ ^v ICT. finLv 0^1 t* » whalf l*itl If you can't spell for toffee, then a good word processor i& a must many hours of enjoyment. Just tin ken ng around with samplers can be fun in its own right. By attaching an inexpenstve MIDI interface to your Amiga, you can even make musrc like the pros by using your Amiga as a MIDI sequencer to control external music hardware such S-S-S-Sample your own sounds with an Amiga sound sampler as synthesisers, drum machines and samplers, A wide range of MIDI software is availablen including some really quite powerful packages that wouldn't look out of place in a professional recording studio, Q) WRITE AWAY! Amiga Shopper has a regular section devoted to solving users' problems, and welcomes letters from Amiga beginners. If you get jnto a fix with your rtew machine then don't delay - send the form on page 32 to Amiga Answers, 4m)'ga Shopper. 30 Monmouth Street, 8ath. ^von BAl 2BW. AMJQA SHQFP£K » I55UE 23 ♦ FiBRUARY 1993 lA Couldyou have coded Wordivorth? DIgitG are seeking an experienced Amiga programmer to join (he in-house Amiga team For 1993 product development. You'll need to be thoroughly proficient in C and familiar with the Amiga. Send a full CV and a disk conroining some sample code in strictest confidence to: The Secretory, DigifQ Internationa! Ltd. FREEPOST, Exmouth EX8 2YZ HDIGITA ^W^ INTERNATIONAL AMERICA'S LARGEST SUPPLIER OF AMIGA CUSTOM CHIPS + UPGRADES 8?72A I Mfg A^nus int. ^hippuUn. i2y.50 «S2"A CIA r2M»f iGmi pnce ihJ^ Ul^ (AyXU/A«-1.2McsAftnu. fJAJS 6*7.M».l6 kryhc»rd cofUfolchip i6.SS ):^;^T^^.^^;^zz= A..,>......,P^,2.,vo,. _ ....:5 5719 Gwy £IOU0 A2*1IXI oriB'Ml W5. 320 viilii „„„„ j:W.25 • A5«l ?i: \IulherlMMrd-PAU pnrxilatnl & icMftI, (cw* kfw pntc) R<v, 3 £62 ^^ • AiulgMZHOItlVinpiiliT: inL-ludcs 1.3R0M. H372 Apnuv ^ll^vr ITcmttind ek^ kc^t^ArUn mou^r, osviKr^ niununl. Cornell wtih da)- t^arntmy. Tl}c>c utim Jirc icthNhlih^^fKcl .iiid v^crc ijs4!d ^^ Jt:l1h^>^^l^4E^^^^ Shipping cxira- Onct-m-n-lif^nmr oiler 22'*volivMALfi>nii4*i Mu-^i p^j VAT ^ lIhek ^ t-l?Mht URAPKVINL KXCl-USl VKS # lL173SiJptr Ik^nW I pHrodp *,*„„* ,.*„*,*h.*.,*.,,.,.,™.™»^™, „„,„*„ J 1^1 7^ # 2.04 ROM lizhip only - nQ numiiiil or diskcMu) *..* «,*.**.h*h,*.,,.™, , f? ^ "^^ 9 Advanced \nilEu \tialyHr^ Sr^phnucjirt] hut cjiiy lou^c fhnuJwiin: A s^ili^arc) Chfck^atiUfi of LillcLitj tj^i'iini^iims/sijh;iLil^,divhdmc.porl;t, bufTcr^'Inps, jliynnR-m mouse, rNe^k'nSi^Emot readMnlf crrt^r^ 441x1 iclK u h ji trhijn irr Uid Amusilorall individual ind rrpacr ^lu}p^ _„ £52.50 MICROCARD 601; FAST RAM MK MORV CARD FOR A6O0/I200 A credit card sized memory offers up lo 4 additional megs of dynamic (fast) RAM via the PCMCIA sloL Aulo-conllgures at boot lime, leaving inosl iiiiernal cliip RAM free for image processing. 2MB card/4MB card iCilO.OO/tlTO.OO MF^\rhJp2A00b^ DKB:UpgndcyoiirAmi^ilD2Megof^hipRAM IixIikIt^ 2 M?f Agnus. i.hippu)Lci& Hrj|T?<r~ Nl> ^Idmnp ic^^uiml Sunc K172B chipuol D A300l]__..Jl7330 Bu> iht Mr^AChip Itulli u^ Hid uc || pi\r >ou ihc i»e^ Super Oni'sc ft* .._._._„_.. ^.^MJit} SviLch'ltl: Anicnca's nxj^ {H>pula} ROM %uiitli ujiJi ^pnLci. Lf>^uudcnnt^)|lcd- [>lc^n(rt pvciiap ihc b^Wlt) „ £L*i.OO AdKAM54erur \500 b« K'D: Add upio 4 McBJ-ot^AM hith tolicfy bKki4}iDienH]l>' m >(M*T A5(X", 1 Mcg/J Mcgv Luivtall up lo4 Mcfi) nv.W/iW.W dcjnutfkar:-* Buying dirccily from ihc V S ujih >our iivilii i.aid utlci^ Mtu ilkc >aiiiL- pmi^oion 9^ i( does in [he V Kr ^kith Ihc pddcd hcncl'ii <^r snivinp li*is tif nnnK'y. DcjI dimil> ^ii\\ Nonh America's Ijif^f^l divlribulor of cuslom Ci'mintdnrc &. Anii|;a pans and chipv. The Grapevine Group his kr^Mi successfully Hrrvicin^ [he I'.K. and ihc ConiUKiit loi 12 yeori. All our pans and chips arc new und guaranteed fm ^1 days plus VAT and djEie^. ^^^ DKAiKR's-ivvnviJiRiKTrfkiiFAnFoHspFrnE prhtm; W5JI MIF CkAPKVINK (iROl P INC, ^^^ ' ^f-^ ^ ( hi-Mnul Sirw\. Sufffrn, Ni-h \mV IOWUI 1 S.\. mwmmm^ |^£fS ^uEcmaUonjI I -w \n\n-^nA-'^^l-U2-^\ ■pr^tf CusionwrOrdct I n^c oi(ii-^M4-.l^7 2^2-1 ^-^-^ Ittqihone Hours: Ipm 10 1 Ipin Mi>nFn. 2 - ftpm SjI. Hnmli imit l^eessuhjecl lu change. ImtrnuUunaJ OrdtT^: II yiuir <>idi:[ i'^omt t!-l4iMTu1 oTla\ inml 11I ^redJELJinl Air I'ap yl O MUEa: Al[<.hips IMIH KcylxwiriiA It Himid iiS.lXI. Kii - ilV^m. AnAnAnAnAriAnAnAnAnAnAnAnAnAriAnAnAnAnAnAnAn AUTHORISED DEALER FOR " AMIGA * STAR * AMIGA (UK MODELS ONLY) Arrbcial^WwiirirHA AAcn'pSBlA6B0£0CFiU ArHQa 1500 PLUG wilh KicKaun £We 2 A S-IAAHE ArriUja eOO Lemrrwifls Path ' DP*nt III AmrtaeOOW^k] rtond fi W-*w Pac*. -™™-™™. GDTV L>ynainic Total Vftion — ,„ CDTV Mul|liTi«kiL Pack ^ Frw &jrT*af> Pk* -——,-. GVP aMDHAM Board For JK2D00 Pop 2'4/ftaWb ..,_- .^ *6TOSmani*iJF>STRAUZ*«i . ,„—_-. ATaOOSk ?SUHt 3MS)t BndEAnwl LMW) PRIWTERS Seal tC ?D -,—— — , SarLC TOO Colour (NCWI s^ LC a» CokhM SUrLC?4?0 SlarLCJ* 100(NEWJ --— Sla- LC?* 200 Slw SlaiJflT &J-4« evbtHe J* ..__, MONITORS Pr- , - ---"'1 H ■ 04nv > IIOOW MvH COn'iwjaoiH lOsiS -ii-Tii CDi^">-MDie 1 "^ ■^'- 5vnc HI Hii ^, P HriHH.I-HHIrir DISK DRJVES Zann E^Mmol 3 ^' (NEW} uoov uooo inwntf 3.F DnvH, GVP A WO'JOOO HanJ OSii PPva .^ MISCELLANEOUS fiOU^haftff MOUSE CONTHOLLEO Conir-KrtQ"i A3^?a DisplJiy f nhanc« ,_ -„■■ ULS KLBOJialor flWiJ.ASUOH KC5 PC &lMcd lor A600 - „ I CHIPS I Kiclitlarl V? 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E ( 39. 1 9M5 1 <»7 £tH.|qq F A bP ' LTV , PHOWE Hh'+m-HHh"'- JUI pnnHfi inckiOi ■ Qu«hlvT AliUoniion Include ..p*pC£ — p4oa -l-H»Hh+h|+*'hH-FH-H-'JhtH-l-HHJ""tH-H-'JJ^PSP X+ -™.^»« Q&p n4«>fhhHn4.nhrhM4.ribbrhHlribh+M4q*FLhFI-H44FIFFhl 144 J"FLF4-l-Hqq>FH4qqq>FF'F4-tr ■ H-H44441hhH444Jhtthh'J-'4J"4"ttttt'JJ-'t ITBII pihp q.^qi^_iqiT«.p.r«Tnn....^m..^..fr&4 1™P ■ ■ 4rrhb+l'M.>Mn4J..>rrrr+i4n....rl-rH l.nnrWH PSiP .Iras ^p ,„ ,^...„— I ., hee p&p . fr?9 00 f 169 00 flWOO t'Bgoo f7t90a C219D0 CSaG33 £220 00 tin 00 C43500 C49 9S PHONE f?19 00 citm:it90o noaoo E3500 £25 00 . £30.00 CaSOO . £1200 .. £28.00 ,„- „„.,- ^-„„.lrw &SP 0500 ALL PRICES INCLUDE 1 Prices subiecl to change Amiga 600 Pack 1 Wlld> Weird & Wicked pack £339 Push Over + Grand Prix + Putty * DPaint 111 Space Ace ■» Kickoff 2 * Pipemania + Populous Carry Case + T-Shin Mou^e » TV ! ead * Workbench ^ Manuals Amiga 600 Pack 2 Wild. Weird & Wicked pack C349 Push Over * Grand Prrx + Putty * DPaint III Zoo! J- Sinker * Pinbaii Dreams Transwrite Word Processor wiih Spell Checker Mouse * TV Lead * Workbench * Manuals Amiga 600 Pack 3 Epic Pack with 20Mb Hard Drive £479 Epic * Rome • Myth - Trivial Pursuits Amiga Text * DPaint III Space Ace + KicKoff 2 + Pipemania + Populous Carrry Case + T-shirt Mouse + TV Lead + Workbench * Manual Amiga 600 Pack 4 Epic Pack with 20Mb Hard Drive £489 Epic + Rome + Myth + Tnvial Pursuits Amiga Text * DPaml III Zool + Striker • Pinball Dreams Transwnte Word Processor with Spell Checker Mouse + TV Lead + Workbench + Manuals (All A600 prices include Home Maintenance) 7.5% VAT. CARRIAGE £7 without notrce. E. S O. E. VISA 8 Ruswarp Lane, WHITBY, N- Yorks Y021 1 ND TEL/FAX: 0947 600065 {9am - 7pm) MostetConl HAnAnAnAnAnAnAnAn AnAnAjiAnAnAriAn An AnAOAiiAnA CONTENTS AT-A-GLANCE AlOOO 41 AeMleratorft 3G. 4B. 49 Accountlnfi piogiams 44 AGA 4S ACnuc .36, &3 Airily JD03 34, 40 AR«XA 46, 63 AiCII 3S Assembly IrtMguaEe 3fi BASIC 41 G 40 Chip RAM 35, 36, 49. 53 C ol orFo nt4 48 Colour prlntinfi 45 CompHore 40 Compu^apnic fonts 39, 36. 41 Copv « 41 Data bases 44 D«tfltift«rfi S3 EC5 43 Ed 40 Past RAM 3S, 49 Gonlock 49,52 Greek characters 35 Hand »c anners 36 Hard drives 34. 35. 36. 37, 40 High donilt^ floppiBfl 48 Interlace 52 Klchstart 34,37 Macros 44 MIDI 36, 46. 53 Music notation 48 Patch editofs 49 Paula 35 PC 35 Portable Amigas 48 PostScript 36 Pri nter d ri ve rs - 34 Printing graphics ,....37 RAM 35,45 Russian fonts 35 SCSI 49,52 Sequencers 44, 45 Spectrum emulator 37 St a rt u o-seq uence 34, 35 Tower systems 49 Viruses 40, 52 OUR EXPERTS TACKLE YOUR REAL-LIFE PROBLEMS > The stai How to ■ programs Sound advi Build the i BLITZ THOSE PROBLEMS! SO WHAT DO ALL THOSE ICONS MEAN? Begirtners: this icon will appear next to any Questions which are "basic' in content, Pnnters: this icon denotes a query about printers, printer drivers and so on, Wa ^ General: l/x I this icon is Ik __-! used for ^^^^^^ any genefal Amiga-related Queries. Technical: any quenes about programmirhg will have thjslcon next to them. Caution: be sure that you fully understand the answer before trying it out. Video: this icon relates to any quefy about using your Amiga with video hardware. Danger the answer to this quesbon could well invalidate your warranty - or you! Music: this icon is for questions about MIDI, sampling, synthesizers and so on. » Hardware: ^is 4Con IS used to denote questions relating to general hardware^ * Programs: any prc^ram- specific queries have this icon next to them- %1 ^^ Buying gA advice: we use thts icon if the question asks us for buying advice. Comms: Jf your qi^st»on relates to comms. this is the icon that'We'll use- oj awii WHATEVER YOUR PROBLEM WITH THE That's the task we have fiet ourselves in giving you tlie best posdiblo support for your Amiga. We are confident that our experts can cope with any technical questions you can throw at them. If they don^t already know the answer to your problem, they will find it out for you. Wo are prepared to deal wfth any problem you have with the AmJ^, horn general enquiriefi about AmigaDOS or Workbench, through questions about specific pieces of software and hardware, t9 advice on what you need to buy to do a particular task, tf it's to do with the Amiga, we wfri help out. What we cannot do is offer this service over the telephone - do not phone us with your enquiries, but write to us at the address below. We also cannot enter into personal correspondence - all enquiries will be dealt wtth in the pages of the magazine. This does mean a bit of a delay In solving your problem, but you'll )ust have to be d little patient and wait for it to appear in print. You won't get a persAit^l reply even if you enclose an SAE with your letter, so please don't bother. Send your question on the form below to: Amiga Answers, Amiga Shopper, Deauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BAl 2BW. The Amiga Answers pane! consists of our consultant editors AMIGA, WE ARE HERE TO SOLVE 9T Mark Smiddy and Jeff Walker - and, of course, our editor Cliff Ramshaw. We will also be calling on the services of all our other contributors, so you won't be able to catch us napping - whatever the subject of your query. Each paneitlst will be dealing with queries In their own specialist area(s) so it would help us greatly if, when writing, you label your query envelope with the name of the expert who can solve your particular problem. Below Is a list ot areas of expertise. It's a Hst that we will add to and update every month, so you will know who to write to about any subjects not mentioned here. Gary Whitefey - Paul Overaa - Toby Simpson - Jeff Waifier - Mark Smiddy - Jason Hoibom - Joiyon Raiph - Ctiff Ramshaw ■ Video Programming, music Programming, hardware Desktop publishing, programming AmigaDOS, business, CDTV, hardware projects, hard and floppy disk drives Public Domain. AMOS Programming, hardware, CDTV All the other bits and pieces ■i-e If you send in a question for the Amiga Answers experts, please fill in and include the form below (or a photocopy if you don't want to cut up your magazine). Ana please atso make sure thai you include all the relevant detatts - version numbers of software and so on - so that we have the best chance of helping you. Send your form and question to: Amiga Answers, Amiga Shopper. 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BAl 2BW. Sorry, but we cannot personally reply to any questions - even if you include an SAE. Hard disk: Mb as DH : Manufacturer Extra RAM fitted - type, size in Mb and manufacturer Details of any other hardware which could help us to answer your question: Name: Address; rfow, use this space to describe your problem. Including as much reievant information as possrbie. Please continue on a separate sheet if necessarv. Your maciiine: A500 □ A500 Plus □ A600 Q AlOOO :j A1200 ^ A1500 □ A2000 □ A3000 "^1 A4000 Q Approximate age of machine: Kichstart version (displayed at the Insert WoTltbench* prompt) 1.2 □ 1.3 □ 2,x □ Workljcnch reviaion (written on the Workbench disk) 1.2 □ 1.3 □ 1.3,2 □ 2,xQ 3.0 J PCB revision (if known)- Do not taite your machine apart Just to look for thisi Total memory fitted (see AVAiL in Shell for 1.3 Workbench) Chip memory available (see AVAiL in Sheii) Agnus chip (if known) Extra drive #1 (3.5V5.25") as DF_: Manufacturer Extra drive #2 (3.5V5.25") as DF__: Manufacturer AS 22 94 AMiGA SHOPPER iSSUE 22 « FEBRUARY 1993 what for Am I a Come and find out what's new and pick up show bargains at the same time. Music, Business, Education, Games Purchase your fast lane tickets OM py TE R PIfEMBLEY Sponsored by: February to save money and avoid the queues. Ticket prices on the door: £6 Uncier 10'5. StudeMs. OAPs and unemployed; £4 (identification required) 19, 20 & 21 February 1993 WembBey Conference and Exhibition Centre, Hall 1 Nearest Tube station - Wembley Park (Metropolitan and Jubilee Lines) 3000 car parking spaces Major feature areas including Virtual Reality, Electronic Music and The Home Office. Competitions^^A^j^jIgj^entres and terrific bargains. Also on show - products for PC, Acorn. Atari machine, and games consoles ^ ^EXHIBITION X«4!nulJ_l| K1I.V In advance: £S and Under 10's: £3 1 Toe bitemational Computer Show, POBoK6a 5tAu^teUPL2S4VB Please send me I enclose a cheque / P.O. / Credit card details for £ Ticket hotiJnerr^'"*- m,tm€S^ ^Address 0?26 I Fast Lane Tickets© £5- Under 10s Fast Lane Tickets £3 made payable to International Computer Show Postcode edit Card No, 680201'" lOff phone 0726 68020 to book whh credrt card Expiry date -VJ Westminster Exhibitions Limtted, Surrey House, 34 Eden St.. Kingston, Surrey KT1 lER All uaaemarksand iradafiaLinn are Ihe (TOpflrty 0* mo r&ap*ctw« rnanuEadurofs Welcome once more to Amiga Answers, the section or trre magazine where we endeavour to stralctitcn out your hduies with ttiet wonderful but Dccoslorullr atubtmrn machine, the Amlfa. Every month we devote more «pace and apply more resources than any other Amiga magazine to solving your probLema* We receive something like 100 queries a week, so the service b obviously appreciated^ It's my Job to co-ordinate the whole thing: •ortlnS through the questions and sending them off to the relevant chappies for the kind of In- depth answer* you've come to e it poet; ar>d compiling them Into the lovingly crafted pages which you see befofe you, I Gall on a variety of expertise to make sure you get the answers you need, which Is why Amiga Answers Is so successful. There's Mark Smiddy, Industry guru, Amiga DOS- tamer and business applications wliard^ Jeff Walker, probably the most knowledgeable Amiga desktop puJjIi slier there Is; and Jason Holbom. long-time AMOS expktrer and PD sampler, as well as good all-rour>der (or should that be all round good guy?J; artd Toby Simpson, lead programmer for Mlllennliim and accelerator e>ipert. If it 's a question about video. Til pass it on to Gary Whlteley. our professional videographer for whom the word 'genlock' means 'mixing Amiga graphics writh video for magical results' Br>d for whom the word snipwirral' means nothln£. Programming queries are dealt with by Paul Overaa, who's not afraid to code In any language, and who doubles as a MIDI maestro to solve your sequencing slipups. Our hardware guru Is Jolyon Ralph. This man knows Just about everything about disks, tkotti hard and floppy, and what he doesn't know about memory he's probably forgotten. Communication breakdowns are fixed-up by Dave Winder. All In all, a formidable team, supplemented by my own not Inconsiderable Amiga suss. Let's face it, If we can't answer your question, ft's probably one of the Mysteries of the Universe. This mortth sees the start of our Code Clinic section (page 56), In which professional programmer Toby Simpson enfleavoufs to iron out the bugs in your programs. He kicks the section off wKh a look at an assembly language program intended to open a vrindow and change the mouse pointer. Get those programs rolling In and. of course, a// of your Amiga problems. We'll sort eml Cheers, Ay^UiCP STARTUP-WHAH I hove hod my A500t for about three months now, but there Is one thing still puzzling me: the Startup^equence. What Is It? 1 know from the title that it is a series of events that happen when the Amiga is booted - but what are these events? What would I use It for? What sort of things go Into making up a Startup- sequence? I would be grateful If you could explain this or run an article for bogfnneFB Uko myteH. AIad, can you recommend a book suitable tor beginners like myself. K Sargeson Hull You are quite correct in assuming the Startup-sequence is a sel of events that happen when the Amiga is booted (switched on or reset). The file fs an AmIgaDOS pfogram - more correctly called a script. You can take a InoU at what il rtOPS by tyorog the following command from Shell (or Workbench's EXECUTE COMMAND): ED S: Start up -BOQuence These "scripts' vary widely in content from disk lo disk and wilh different Workbench revisions, so it would be Inappropriate for me to try and explain any particular one in detail at this atogo. I hove covorod Startup sequences in the regular AmigaDOS columnn but perhaps it is time I revisited them for newer readers. Look out for this in a future issue. There are quHe a few Oeginners" boohs around today. The cheapest is LiWe Blue Worf^bench 2 Booi< published by f^uma at £14.95. But four titles from the Bruce Smith Books fold might be more up your street; Mastering Amiga Beginners and Mastering Amiga Woriibench 2 cover the early days. Mastering ^m^gsDOS 2 Volumes 1 (tutorial) and 2 (reference) will lead you through the more complex stuff - including Startup-sequences. You can get in touch with Bruce Smith Books on v 0923 894355, MS DICONIX DRIVER I have a DiconU 150+ printer, but it did not come with a printer drtver. I rang Kodak, but was told the company could not supply one. Can you telf me where I can get hold of one? Colin Smith Brierfleld Lanca There isn't a proper one, but JAM {■B 0895 274449) has a 'hacked^ EpsonX driver on its Printer Drivers disk thai actually worths much better with the Dicontx 150 and 300 than EpsonX itself. JW LEGAL EAGLf r"~I ^ I plan to upgrade to :r\. Workbench 2.04 In the very near future. If 1 were to purchase iust the Klckstart ROM (Instead of the whole Enhancer pack), would It t>e legal to copy the Workbench disks from a friend or will 1 be infringing Commodore's copyright? JARGON BUSTING • JARGON BUSTING ASCII - American Standard Code for Information interchange. It is the data storage method commonly used when we type text files and enables data to be exchanged between different computers. Klckstart - the most basic and central part of We Amiga's operating system. These days it ts held in ROM, so that it \s immediately present when the machine is switched on. Printer driver - a program that sits inbetween any applications program producing output and the printer. It converts any codes descnbing text and graphics fonnat into a form suitable for a specific pnnter. Startup-sequence - a program which is executed every time the Amiga is switched on and after every reset, it sets up the system, and may be customised by those who have unusual hard or software requirements. Some adverts claim that the Workbench 2.04 pack Includes four disks - Workbench, Ewtras, Fonts and install- What exactly does the install disk contain? I also plan to buy a 52Mb GVP hard disk for my A500. If 1 upgrade to 2.04, will it still autoboot under both 1,3 and 2.04? (J intend to boy a ROM switcher too). Does the drive automatically know which version of Workbench to use or will I only be able to autoboot under a single version of Workbench? Tim Jelvea Countesthorpe Wcester Technically it is illegal to copy a friend's Workbench disks, although I doubt very much indeed that you'd receive a visit from the boys m blue. Although you may be tempted to Simply buy a ROM chip, i really would advise you to buy Ihe entire Enhancer pack yourself. The manual that comes wUh Workbench 2.04 is a vast improvement on the Workbench manuals of old, so it's worth spending the extra cash for this alone. Four disks? Not as far as I'm aware. My Amiga B2CX)0 only came with three Workbench 2.04 system disks - Workbenchn Extras and Fonts - so Tm not quite sure where they got the extra disk from. It could be that they're using Workbench 2,0 disks from an early A3000. Because these machines used pre-2,04 versions of the operating system, they came with an Install disk which 4^ AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 32 • FEBRUARY 1 993 u mmt allowed the new operating system files to be installed onto a hard dish dnve automatically. The GVP Impact Series 2 drive (and 1nrie**d any autoDoot-compatible hard drive) witt autoboot fine un(ier both Wort^bench 2,04 and Workbench 1,3, Unfortunately, getting a hard drive to boot up under the correct version of Wnrkbench requires a fair bit of messing about with Startup- sequences and re- flSBlfinments. I've got a ROM switcher inside my machine too and all Tvc dor« r^ to uouv A minimal amount of Workbench 1.3 system filea to a directory colled WBl.S'. When the Onvc boots up^ the system checks which Klckstart version is insUlled using the Version' command and the Startup-sequence then executes the appropriate script filG - there's one for 1.3 that re- assigns everything to the 13 Workbench fries and another one Which does the same for 2.04. M GREEKS BEARING GIRS How do I get my Amstiad D MP-3 160 printer and Protext $r52io print Greek characters, as used in engineering sdence end maths? I nan got thorn to appear on ttic screen, but for some reason they will not print out. Should I use another printer driver, or should I change the printer? PTodd Swindon The Greek characters are part of the IBM character set. so your DMP- 3160 should first be swdched to this mode - check your Tnanuai for DIP switch settings and the character set containing the Greek symbols, and set the switches accordingly. If tho DMP-3160 contains a StarWard IBM character set (which it probably does), then the Greek symbols wiH be charaaers 224 to 239 inclusive- The trouble is that the Amiga's character set isn't IBM, and the Amiga characters from 224 to 239 are mainly foreign letters. But using the DMP 3160 in IBM mode, and the IBM 9-pin Protext pnntet driver, if you use these foreign characters orv screen they will print the standard Greek symbols in the IBM character set. The a-grave character on screen, for example, will pnnt the Greek alpha symbol to the printer; a-acute will pnnt beta. The easiest way to get at these foreign characters is Via the Text/ Choose Character requester. The second froin bottom row contains the characters rn question. The far left symbol in that row fa- grave) is character 224, the far nght character {i-o miaul) is character 239. THE SOUND OF SILENCE HMy AlOOO's sound has died. I have checked for loose Integrated circuits. Ail appeared OK. Is It possltjie that the chip responsible for sound Is duff? If so, wfitch chip needs replacing? 1 don t think It b the monitor that Is a fault as It amplifies other Input sources adequately. With the volume control on the monitor turned full up, there Is barely an audible squeak from the computer. Any help and suggestions would be appreciatod- I also have a problem with my NEC P2200 printer. It is about 3.5 years old. Apart from the usual ribbons, and a new print head last year It hat given no problems. Howaver, over the last year or so I have noticed a distinct fading of print on the rl^t hand side of the page particularly on graphics. I suspect my printer requires service and mechanical alignment. What do you think? If so. do you know of any authorised NEC service centres or have you a phone or fax number for NEC themselves in the UK7 A Bradley » Washingborou^, Lincoln Tr>e Paula chip Is the one responsible for sound on the Amiga, but there are several other components the sound passes through on the way to the audio outputs, and any of these could have blown. Check out the Paula chip first. as it's easy to swap over. NEC UK can be contacted on tr OSl-993 8111 ^London). » 061-834 6824 (MaFKhester) or o 021-631 3468 (Birmingham). JR Match these up wrlh IBM characters 224-239 in your pnnter manual. Using ProreJtT'S SYMBOL command it is possible to redefine the bitmaps (character matrix) of these characters so that they dispiay the correct characters on screen as weii as 10 the pnmer. Pages 190 and 191 of the Protext manual deal with the SYMBOL command. Redefining character matrices is a bit of a "techie' process; you have to learn about binary and hexadecimal numbers to start with, and It would take at least one long article to teach you how to do it. Perhaps that's something we can do another month - in the meantime there's a chap in Cornwall who has been redefining character sets for Protext like there's no tomorrow. He's currently got Greek. Croatian. Goat. Cyrillic, Russian, Turt(ish» Yugoslavian and Hungahan, and he's working on a whoie bunch of others. His name is Graham Martin^ and you can contact him at: 21 Dracaena Avenue. Falmouth. Cornwall TRll 2ER '0326 317287. JW PC TO AMIGA F'^7" ^ My friend has got a Li^ I PC and we are l^^^^ii looking for a public I^^^^U domain program to transfer ASCII files so that we may exchange programs^ Can this be done? Tve heard of a program called MessyStD tl - could this be used? I live In Holland and I'm not sure how to order from UK PD libraries^ Can I use a Eurocheque? M Camporelll Sllvolde Holland MessySID will do exacUy what you want and there are a number of other PC/Amiga file transfer utilities available as well (including programs like MultiDOS, and early versions of CrossDOS, which have been given away on various magazine disks). All PD libraries carry these types Of ulilittes andn if you do chose to order from UK sources. Eurocheque payments will be fine. PAO DONT STOP NOW! a) I am currently customising my copy of Won^ bench. So tar I have set It up to display a DPaint screen using the itttplay utility and I want to get it to play an OctaAfed tune. \ can get It to play the tune after Display has closed, but is there any way I can get the two programs to run at the same time? b) If I bought a 2Mb F?AM expansion would I be able to make longer animations in DPaint 3? Would such an expansion be Chip or Fast RAM? Allstair Metcalfe Balerno Edinburgh a) This should be quite simple to hx, because the Amiga is capable of running many programs at once. You should just use the RUN command from AmigaOOS to start them - like this: RUN <HIL: >KIL: Display ... RUN <NIL: >inLr HEDPlayer ... (put your fTenames and options after the Display and MEDPIayer commandSn as usual). The additional <NIL: >NIL: will allow the initial SheH window to close when the Startup- sequence completes. This is not absolutely necessaty for every command but It won't do any harm. However, this sort of multitasking can cause problems as two commands try to load things from disk at the same time - you'll notice this as a lot of additional disk 'grinding. A better solution is to make WAIT resident early in the script and make AmigaDOS wail between commands: RESIEffiNT CiWAIT FUN <NIL! >HIL: Display ... WAIT 5 seca RUN <NIL; >NIL: HEDPlayer ... WAIT 5 aeCB You will have to experiment with the exact liming of these commands - but this will improve the efficiency of the boot sequence considerably. b} Yes - the more memory you have the better. A 2Mb RAM expansion on any A500 machine v^iii be Fast memory only. MS RUSSIAN OimiNES Is there a Russian font available In Compugraphic format which 1 can use with Professlonat Page 2.17 And Is there a higtt quality program that will convert bitmap fonts Into Compugraphic outline fonts? Lastly, Is the Font Manager program that comes with Professional Page 3 the same as the one that comes with Professionat Draw 3? Vlleyn Lul Brussels Belgium Not that I know of; not that I know of; and exactly the same, in that order. But there must be an Adobe Type 1 Russian typeface out there somewhere. If you can find it, you can use Font Manner to convert it to Compugraphic format. I recommend you contact dealers who sell Adobe Type 1 fonts and keep asking. JW MEMORY MATTERS HI own an A500 with 1Mb of memory which I purchased 6 months ago. The problem that I have concerns the memory. a) Is the 1Mb of memory that I have split Into half a megabyte of Chip RAM and half a megabyte of Fast RAM or Is It a\\ Chip RAM? b) If I purchase a GVP hard drive with 2Mb of RAM. what would the total amount of Chip and Fast RAM be In my machine? c) Is there a PD program available that will tell me what chip set I have inside my Amiga? I would rather buy a program than rip my machine apart. P Ashworth Fareham HanU AMIGA SHOPPER # ISSUE 32 • FEBRUARY 199^ 4B a} Having checked out the mformauon you supplied, it seems to me mat your macTime is equipped with half a megabyte of Chip RAM and a half megabyte of Fast RAM. b) If you purchase 3 GVP drive with 2Mb installed, you'll still have harr a megabyte of Criip RAM but 2.5Mt} of Fast RAM. tt seems likely, howewr. thai your macTiine is equipped with the ECS Agnus chip. If this is the case, then it would be P9rt&ciiy possioie to have the Ucdrd modirieo t)y a commodore-approved (^rvicd cvnut^ m ^wa d full iiieg.4byte of Chip RAM. c) There sure is! What you need Is a copy of Ihe PD program Systnfo wrillen hi NiC Wll50n. Systnfo will lell you everything you rw*eO lo know about the interr^als of your machine plua a lot more than you'N probably ever r»eed to know. It's available on Fr^d Fisfi di&l^ 642 whtch ciin bo obtained from just about Pvery PD Bupplier, and al&o appeared on last month's fi^migo Qtiopper Snufcware Coiiection cover disk. JH MIDI PLUS? I have had my A50D jVH^ for aeven months and have recently upgraded to an Al^o Plus, suite I've kept my old machine i wondered whether It would be possible to use It as a MIDI Instrument when my AISOO^ Is running programs like OctaMED? Simon Ouzman Upper Norwood London There are plenty of programs including OcfaMEDthat can play a sampled sound voice when they receive MIDI data. All you need to do ia lo irnK Iho two mochinc^ via two MTDI interfaces and arrange tor the A1500+ to send MIDI data to the A600 as well as playing its own internal sounc)s. PAO AS01 ANY GOOD? Krm thinking of upgrBdlng my A5D0 to about 3Mb. I already have a very old A 501 upgrade which la bound to be too slow lo use as Chip RAM. If I upgrade to a Fat Agnus would I be able to u&e the memory In the new expansion as more Chip RAM or would I have to change nry A501 to a more modem clone? Phil Poole Oownend Bristol Try it and see. Some older A501 clones don t work too well as Chip RAM, but I've not had problems with genuine CBM A501s, even old ones. Jf you have problems with the machine crashing after you have RANDOM RESETTING ^■V^^Vl My computer seems to reset ttself after baTng on for ^^^ ^^ anything from five minutes to four hours- i don't get any ^^ ^^H warning - the screen turns grey and It reboots- I have \^ ^^^ removed everything and checked my disks for viruses - but Ihey are ail clean. What now? Paul Chapman, Stanley. Co Durham Errm, It's broken. The most likely cause of this is a power glitch -if the machine is overheating the time would be more consistent and il would probably stay off until tt had cooled down, I will hazard a guess that Che fault IS a loose connecUon or cracked board where the PSU (Power Supply Unit) plug enters tr>e case - Tve repaired several ASOOs with similar faults. Try wobbling the PSU lead around a little and see if that causes the machine to reset. Also, try )eaving the machine on, but unattended for a couple of hours. If you boot a disk first, and remove it before you leave, you'll be able to see if the machine has reset. If all else fails, get the machir^ serviced by a Commodore accredited dealer. MS J configured for 1Mb chip ram, then buy a replacement card - they're very cheap now. JR SNATEDISH UST a) Why do Co mpu graphic fonts come out better on both Professional Page and PageStream using non- PostScript dot-matrix printers than standard PostScript fonts? t) How can J create a PostScript output file from a document making use of Compugraphlc fonts? c) Why Is the data transfer from the Amiga to any non-PostScript printer so terribly slow? It can be up to five minutes transfer time for an A4 page In PageStream, even with a 68030 processor. d) Is Power Computing's colour hand scanner any good? Per Swantesson Umea Sweden a) The hints' contained within the definition of Compugraphlc typefaces are used when output lo dot-matrix printers, whereas the hints for PostScript fonts are created by the PostScript device itself, so are not used when output to non-PostScript pfinters- This should only make a difference lo point sizes under at>out lOpi. though This wkii depend on the design of the typeface. b) In Pfofessfona/ Page's Output PostScript requester, click on Uie Downloadable Fonts button before 'pnmmg' your PoslScnpt file. For this to work the PostScnpt font definition for each font in the document (except those found in standard PostScript devices) needs to be in the CGFonls:PS directory. This '.psfonf file can be generated from the Compugraphlc data by the CreateFont program that is supplied with Gold Disk's Compugraphic fonts packs, or from the Adol>e Type 1 data by the Font Manager program supplied with Profess/o/ia/ Page 3 and ProDraw 3. c) Simply because it lakes the program that long to generate the bitmap that has to be sent to the printer, for the printer device to pass all that data to the printer, and the printer to actually print the data. A 68030 processor will only speed up the printing process significantly if you have some 32-bii memory as well, but olhen^ise the speed increase is negligible (only about 25- 30 percent quicker), d) I don't know. Every time I phone Power Computing and ask about it they say "Ready in two weeks". If and when it is ever released, we will review it. JW MAGAZINE MAYHEM r^I 1| I have an A500 Plus i/\. S with two drives and I write disk magazines containing articles and programs using Echos In the Startup-sequence and Aliases so that only a number has to be typed to load a program. I would like to make the whole thing more professional, and so I would appreciate your answers to the following quest ions - a) How can I display an IFF picture as a menu (preferably In DOS} and access the programs by pressing function keys ( In a similar manner to that ot the coverdlsks on the front of your sister magailnOt Amiga Powei)7 b) How do I create my own System-configuration containing a custom pointer and screen colours tor use on my own boot-disks? c) I am thinking of saving up for the Power Computing hand scanner and I would like to know how the level of light within a particular room will effect the quality of scans. Darren Kemp Leeds West Yorkshire a) All you need ^s a PD program called MagPages which is available on Fred Fish disk 684. tt allows you to create interactive multimedia- 1 ike front ernJs for disk magazines that combine graphics and lent within the same screen. b) tt you>e creating a disk magazine that can also be mn on a 1.3-based Amiga, then you really need to get your hands on a copy of the 1.3 Pfeterences program (you'll find this on a DPami program disk or similar). Simply set up the colours and pointer that you want, save the settings off to disk and then copy the file called System-configuration in the DEVS: directory across into the DEVS directory of your disk magazme. c) Hand scanners don't need external lighting to scan an image, so its perfectly possible to scan an image in complete darkness. Hand scanners produce their own high intensity hght which is directt^d at tha image being scanned. JH RETIRING BOOK i would like to program the Amiga In machine code for games and have been trying te get a copy of the Abacus Amiga Systems Programmers Guide lout It Is out of print. Any Ideas on where I can get a copy? Michael Addison Cannock Stafford No, I've tried quite a few of the larger book suppliers without success and the only other thing I can suggest is to try a classified advert, either in Amiga Shopper or one of the magazines that specialise in private user ads (such as Micro Computer Mart). PAO HARD DISK RECOVERY ^^^^^01 I useaDataflyerSCSI ^B ^^ Interface and 52Mb ^^ ^^^ Quantum Hard Drive k^^^^l on an Amiga 1500. In a distracted moment while trying tO initialise a disk on DFO:. L accidentalJy double clicked on the OHO: Icon and said yes to format and almost immediately stopped the Initialisation process by switching the power off. The screen message at the time was "verifying ...", This act seems to have erased some or all of the flies and the DHO: icon has disappeared from the screen. I have had to use a Mountllst and the Mount command to reHdentIfy the drive to the system as DHO: The cd dhO: and dir dhO: commands return the message "Not a DOS disk". On switching on I t>ave to wait while It attempts to boot from the hard drive and defaults to dfl: Can you please let me know of a suitable utility, preferably PD 04 AMIGA 5H0PPER t I55UE 22 • FEBRUARY 1 993 M^Mj and/or other means (or some code. C. or assembler) of recovering or unerasmg the filos. Harold Wicks Hemol Hempstead Herts UntortunaTely 1 think jt's too lale to get any tiles back from your DaiflTlyer. The Darafiypr ui^es a non- standard disk format which many disk repaif programs wont unOersiand. and your only option now 15 to reformat the drive. You may wanl ro try some public domain ulilities like DfskSaiv. or even the dreaded Commodore DiskDocior that is (was?) \r> your C directory. You hoven'l got much to lo5c if they don't wor»i. JR PRINTING GRAPHICS My printer, the Citizen &\Ai\H 9. prints word* perfectly, but I am [iu77led as to how to prFnt graphics, particularly from Deluxe P^'mt 1 have studied the manual to no avail. Can you please give nw a atep-tiy'atcp layman's guide to the printing of graphics? Mervyn Lee Calcot Berhs Load the picture into Deluxe Paint. Select Pnnt from the Picture menu- Click on the Print button. What could be simpler? If you are having a particular pnnting problem, Mervyn, then you'll have lo be a lot more specific about the problem, JW HARD PROBLfMS ^^f ^% My hard disk was ^^^ ^^ formatted using the ^^ ^^M Nexus software and W^L^^^^ p:irtltlonDd into system 2.0 (3.5Mb) and work (96 5Mb). The disk works correctly at boot up and programs can be run from It. However, when running HDToolbox from the 2.0 Install disk an error message "Driver not installed" Is displayed, how is it possible to use this software with my hard disk? MJL Enoch South port Merseyftlde Simple, Select HDToolbox. choose INFORMATION from the workbench menu, select NEW tool type, type (o: SCSI_DEVICE_EttME»NEXUS , DEVICE press retomn click on SAVE, ar^d then double-click HOToofbox lo run. Owners of other SCSI cards can use tho oxcollont Commodore software in exactly the same way by substituting their own device driver name for NEXUS.DEVICE in the line above, as follows; • A590/A2091/A3000 - No line is needed; it will work with these controllers automatically • All GVP controllers - SCSI .ISVlCE_flhME=<;vp8cai , device • Microbotics Hardframe - SCSI _DEVlCE_NAME=haj:d frame J • ICD 2000/2080 - SCSI_DEVTCE„NAME-icddi9k J -device V IVS Trumpcard ^ SCSI._DEVICE_NWffi=lvs_scsi J .fJevice • Supra - SCSI IEVTCE_KRME=supradirect J .device Owners of other coniroHers should look in their manuals to find the right device name, JR SPECTRUM UPGRADE ^ I am considering PT/ ^ buying an Amiga but L ^\^^U am having some difficulty in finding the basic Information I need written In simple English, I presently own a Spectrum +2. If I was to buy an Amiga with a PD Spectrum Emulator, will I stiJI be able to run all of my cassette-based Spectrum games? Also, where can I find an idiot s guide that will help my to decide which packages to buy? K Matthews Glen bum Paisley As far as Vm aware, the PO Spectrum emulator runs the vast majority of Spectrum games without problems. You wnll. however, have to buy a sound sampler if you wish to load games from cassette. Don't worry about the cost, though - sound samplers can be bought for little more than £20 these days (you could check out MicroDeai's new Rave Sampler, for exampie). As for the idiot's guide, why not check out Phi! Sooth's book Mastering Amiga Beginners which is available most good book stockists, it's packed with everything you need to know to get started with the Amiga and covers a wide variety of different applications including music, graphics, comms and programming. Another good read is Amiga Shopper of course - every month we bnng you possibly the most comprehensive (and certainly the most authoritative) coverage of what's going on jn the Amiga marketplace. JH OH, T .2 IS ME My Amiga system Is an all-in-one business pack purchased shortly after the A500 was introduced. It now consists of 1.2 Kickstart and Workbench, 1Mb RAM. monitor, printer, second disk drive and my most recent acquisition, a GVP HD84.. I use my Amiga mainly In my work as an insurance agent with Scribble and Superbase. Can you sort out the following for me: a) As I cannot boot from hard drive with Workbench 1.2 (most ads suggest 1.3} what do I need on my tioot floppy? t)) Is it worth upgrading to Workbench 1.3 or Workbench 27 I am happy and familiar with my existing system and I don't want to open the machine. It I do upgrade, do I Just need to change the Kickstart chip or will 1 have to change other chips too? It seems you have fo^otten that Worktiench 1.2 users still oMistl How soon will H be before you assume everyone has upgraded to Workbench 2? And what are the benefits of having Workbench 2. if any? C) Some of the letters In Amiga Answ&rs suggest that people have both 1.3 and 2.04 Workbench on their hard drive - 1 would like to know why this Is necessary. d) What Is the best printer driver for my Citizen LSPllO? e) I have all the Workbench 2 JARGON BUSTING • JARGON BUSTING Compugraphic fonts - rather than a simple bit mapped image of each character, which grows more jagged with magnification, a Compugraphic font represents the shape of each character within the font as a mathematical equation, so that as tfie magnrtude of the character Is vaned in printing the result always looks smooth. Chip RAM - the area of the Amiga's memory directly accessible hy the custom graphics and sound chips. The larger the quantity of Chip RAM available, the farger the sound samples that can be played, and the larger and smoother the animatTons and graphics screens that can be displayed- Currently the maximum possible Chip RAM is 2Mb. - MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface is a standard devised by electronic instalment manufacturers, allowing a number of synthesisers to be controlled by a sir^gle keytwanj or sequencer. disks supplied with the AGOO. Why doesn^t HDBackup wotkt Mr CP Parker Reading Berks a) The software suppTied with ttie GVP should have been able to perform this task for you. Although I have used a GVP, I have never encountered it on a Kickstart 1.2 machine, so I can be of little help to you \\ere. Basically^ since the hard drive will automount', all you need is a standard workbench floppy with a special Startup-seriuence and a properly-cofifigured hard disk. Sir^ce you are using Workbench 1.2. you'll need to 'activate' the CLI first using the Preferences program. Assuming your GVP mounts as DHO. copy the original Worktiench from floppy with this command: COPY SYS: EHO: all Now edit the St;%rTu[> sequence on a copy (yes, a copy) of your boot floppy, so it looks like this: ASSICM SYS: DHO: ASSIGN DEVS: SYSiDevs ASSIGN LIBS: SYS: Libs ASSICW L: SYSiL ASSK^J POtn'S: SYS: Fonts ASSIGN 5: SYS:S ASSIGN C: SYSiC EXECUTE S ! Start up -sequence You'll have to do this from the CLI using the following command: ED S : startup -a egtience Before you do that though, you should read through the answer to the next queslion. b) So many questions ^ so little room. The answer is progress - we don't naturally assume that everyone has upgraded to Workbench 2 or Workbench 1,3, but, to be fair, a lot of people have. Workbench 1,3 Is an entirely software-based upgrade, and makes a lot of improvements to the system as a whole - although you'll only notice some of these if you also upgrade to Kickstart 1.3 - and this will mean opening the machine and changing a ROM. However, the first thing you'll notice is the machine will instantly boot from hard disk[ The GVP IS very fast and your machine will become a lot more usable. The mam Workbench (the menus and screen colours and such) does not change with Kickstart 1.3 so you cou*d still use the Workbench 1.2 disk set- Upgrading to Kickstart 2-04 IS a much better option, although I suspect this will need some minor surgery on the board. You will not have to change any other (ftn1ffHf«(f on poge 40 AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 11 *ggnPiiADV T993 «K ^ I i ■" ^ UrOPRESS SOFTWARE EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE l:V # - FUN SCHOOL 4 FOf Uie unOer 5'S, FUN SCHOOL 4 Parents of the worid. rejoice. YOLjr child might soon by dashing home from school to reach not for the taiesi megakiller cornputer game, bul for their homework. It's no dream, thanks to Europress educational software. We heafd how worried you were to read what so many people are saying about falling standards in schools. And we saw just how much criildren loved computer gamtes at home. So we sat down and created the best ot a\\ possible worlds; an action- packed range of eOucalional software that's so compelling, homewofk will give even Ninja Turtles a run for their money. NaturaNy, every title (n Ihe range follows the guidelines of the National Curnculum to the letter, Cjut engages the im child to the fulL on of your rurj SCHOOL 4 For 7 io 11 year olds. Ouf Fun School range covers slacks of general topics, while the Fun School Special packs focus on subjects such as Maths and Spelling. ForGCSEchildren.ourADf range IB every bit as entertaining but has a more academK: approach - FUN SCHOOL SPECIALS Spelling Fdiir. For 7 10 13 year Olds. AD! ENGLISH For 11 u> l5>«arolcls. ADI FRENCH For 11 to ISyewoWs, ADI covers English, Maths and Le Frangais and helps children sail through iheir exams wiih the greatest of ease. And now ADI Junior gives tots as young as four the start they need to make reading and counlmfi as easy as 1, 2. 3- Europress. We've started a new trend m education. To learn more. FUN SCHOOL SPECIALS Paini and CTcaie. 5 year oJds end over. and about formats avaiiabTe, please contact us at the address below. UrOPRESS SOFTWARE CREATIVE EDUCATION AOI MATHS For 11 to 15 yew oliJs. FUN SCHOOI SPFCIALS Meri>r ^ Marhs For 7 lo 11 year olds> Eurocress SoTiwiiro Eurofin Hnuae. Adtngig" f*atk i^accies^^tp^a. SH10 A^P. TEL. Technfcel/Admin. 0625*59333. fAn. 0&2^Qt9W2. ADI JUNIOR COUNTING For 4 10 7 <fcat oldS- (ontinu«d frofli pug* 37 chips unless you really want to, although again, this is someining worth coiisfdeting if you are having ihe maGhifi9 oggngd uq In any case. Either way, ft is better to have these upgrades comoleled by a competent repair outfit - and maKe sure you «hecU th© QQsis first. With Kickfitart 2 and a comoleTe Workbench 2.1, your machine will nol only look but also feel different; and Kicketarr 2 hs notiteahly faster than 1,3, By the way, a lot of books strll cover AmigaDOS 1.2 and 1.3, Mastenng AmfgaDOS 2. for instance, covers all versions cA AmigaDOS from 1.2 currently up to 2.04 and will shortly be updated to AmigaDOS 3 The Liitie Red Workbench Book also covers specifically AmigaDOS 1.3 and Workbench 1.3, As far as inagaztnes are concerned, although I cannot speak for individual editors, I vvvuld fiuess that few people will assume 1.3 dead tor some lime yet - the majonty of ROM-based Amigas in the world are still running it. c) It rather depends on how the machine has been configured. Some people do this because they have a ROM sharer - that's a little gadget v^hich allows you to select which Kic^start to boot from. 1 he best compromise is 1,3 and 2.04 - both of which support the auto-booting facility of your GVP hard drive. You can gel one of these fitted to the machine while you have the other modifications made.,, d) No idea. Try EpsonXOId or EpsonX[CBM_MPS12501, Unless of course anyone out there has any better suggestions.., e) Probably because you don't have an A600 - which comes fitted wim JMCKsiaa 2. ma therefore, the ROM-based libraries HDBackup e^pects to find- To be frank, I have only had cause to use the program twice and on both those occasions I wish I hadn't. If you want a decent hard disk backup try AmiBack or Quarterback. By the way. copying those A600 disks infringes copyright - because they were not supplied with, or for, your machine, MS COMPILE TRIALS I tiav© recently bought Mastering Amiga C and am having trouble using the NorthC compiler to compile my programs. If, for example, I try to compile the following program: ttinclude <etdio.h> luainO I float area; area-circle_area ( 10 . 0) ? printf ("%B'&f\n"."aT'eH is J ",area); ) float clrcle_areaffloat J radiuB ) { float product; products 3 .14*radius*radiusj retam (product) ; > I get these sort of error messages: dfl:problem.G line 11 Error expect ) dfl:problem.c line 17 Error expect \ Please help because these function problems are becoming a pain! Richard Bagshaw Hucknall Nottingham Printed examples in Mastenng Amiga Care coded in ANSI C, which is the new style C supported by all major compilers. The Oifferences between this form and the older K&R style (that NofthC expects) are dealt with in the compiler' notes that are present on the disk which accompanies the book There was not enough space on the disk to put both K&R and ANSI C example forms, so users of K&R style compilers have to make some code alterations. These again are outlined in the compiler notes disk document. As far as your above example is concerned you need to alter the initial lines of the function definition. and then declare the function as returning a float value. This modified form will compile under NorthC without error: #include <etdio.h> roainO { float area; float circle_flrea() ; /• K&R style declaration */ area=clrcle. areaClO.O); printf ("96B^f\n"."area ia J '',area); > float clrcle_area(radius> float radius; /• old K&R style definition */ I float product; product^3 .14*radiuB'radiuB; return ( product ) ; } PAO PRIVILEGED USER I own an A500 Plus with 2Mb of Chip RAM and one internal drive. \ am considering the purchase of a 52Mb GVP Series 2 hard drive. All the members of my family use my machine in one way or another, so I was wondering whether there Is a piece of software available {PD or commercial) that will assign access JARGON BUSTING • JARGON BUSTING Basic - Beginners" Atl-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code is a high-level programming language^ much favoured by micro-computer users. It combines a fair amount of power with ease-of-use. C - a compiled language designed primari^ for systems programming. It was used to wnte much of the Amiga's operating system, and is used in the writing of many Amiga applications. Compiler - a means of translating a program to render \i understandable to the computer, A compiler translates the whole thing into machine code before It is run. The compiled program is generally much faster than its Interpreted counterpart. Font - the group of letters, numbers and special characters that comprise one variation of typeface, for example: 12pt Times. 12pt Times Bold, rigtits to Individual users. For example, only I would be allowed to delete flies. Without blowing my own trumpetf I am the only member of our family who understands how the machine works, so my mum or dad could quite easily delete something important without realising It. This kind of protection could easily be achieved using a user ID or a password. At college our PCs are running on a Novell network which gives users rights such as reading files, writing files, and altering software setups, by using ID codes, is this possible on ttie Amiga? David Wrl^t Preston Lancashire To be perfectly honest, this sort of thing isn't really possible simply because the Amiga is a personal computer and not a network file server. You can of course buy networking systems for the Amiga that will give you the same facilities as the Novell systems that you mention, but there's little point in doing so unless you want to run several Amigas from a single hard disk. The nearest that you'll get to such protection is to use the AmigaDOS Shell command Protect to protect certain files from deletion. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. JH CmZEN MSP TROUBL£ I have a Citizen M5P- lOo printer and no matter what I try \ can't get it to work. Ali I get is the message ' Checii printer and cabte". Please could you tell me the correct printer driver to use, and the DIP switch settings? J M P rite hard Gosport Hants The ivIPS-lOe emulates the Epson FX-80 or an IBM 'graphics' printer. For best results on the Amiga you need to have it in Epson mode, and you should use any of the EpsonX drivers (not EpsonQ). The DIP switch settings will t>e in your printer manual, if you don't have a manual or cannot understand how to set them, contact Citizen Technical Help on « 0753 584111. JW LOCKED OUT! r^I ^ I use my hard disk i/m. 1 drive for serious worii but I often need to use disks from other people's machines. I use the LOCK command In AmigaDOS to prevent anything writing to the hard tlisk, but this does not survive a soft reset. Is there any way around this? Jim Garden Kirklntilioch Glasgow Yes and no. Iirstlyn don't assume that if you have LOCKed a partition using AmtgaDOS. a virus will not be able to penetrate it: this is untrue. A clever file vinjs will see the lock and bypass AmigaDOS altogether. You could open the drive and splice a switch into the write line - but that's a bnjtal and highly inadvisable solution. The only solution I have seen in software is in Kickstart 2 where a boot menu makes it possible to dismount your automounied drives. Then c^am, a clever virus may just make some eiectfonic inquiries and still trash the hard disk. If you really must use other people's disks then remove the hard drive from the machine and forget about it. OK, it may sound a bit severe - but it works, MS BARE NECESSITIES i read about the C language but do not know how to start writing the listings. Do i have to use special software that handles C programs or can I Just use the ED program that comes with the Amiga? How do i save the programs, and how do I run them? Frank Bowman St Lucia Malta MA AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 # FEBRUARY 1993 The C programs that you see in the DOfica of magezines represent lisTings from ordinary tert flJes, in other words, files that are created with programs like ED or some other text editor. These flies rt{t- cfltfed soLirrti cnrly fii^t;' ^nd you oreate and save ihem in just the same way as you create any other type of text me Unfr>rTunat0iy, 3 number o! addftionai step^ are needed to convert these files into runnabie C nroarams. Firstly, a oiece ot ftottware called a c camQiler n^d^ to ne us^d to [runeiam The program lines mto low level machine code instructions which the Amiga <^an undelSti^nd- Second+y this latter obiect code' has to unut?fEn a process known as linKing which proOuces the tinal runnaOle program. There's a lot more to the storv but all Introductorv C boo^ls will oLJiline Ihp sIpjjs, and thvir purposes^ m 5omc deiQil^ PAO DUMPING FROM DMP I have an Amstrad DMP-31G0 printer and would like to use it with Deluxe Psint til, but as you can see from the enclosed printout, aii i get Is garbage. I bought the printer without a manual. Which printer driver ^huuld i ube? I am getting a coiour printer. Which 24-pin one gives the best output in the £200 price range? Also, how does Deluxe Paint III delete a Rle with no Trashcan? John Gasiteil Crosby UveriKwi The DMP'3160 Is an Epson compatible 9'pin printer, so you should use the EpsonX or EpsonXOId driver. Try both and 3CC which worhs best- The printer's DIP switches should be set to Epson mode. If you've no manual you will need to contact Amstrad f« 071836 6801) and ask the technical people there for ad vice - Currently you cannot buy a colour 24-pin printer for £200, they all cost Closer to £300. I don't understand your last question. If you mean "how come Deluxe Paint can delete a file when there isn't a Trashcan on the disk?", this is because dropping icons into the Trashcan doesnt actuarfy delete anything - the Trashcan is juSt a special type of directory that doesnl get "emptied" until you select Empty Trash from the Workbench Icons menu, at which point everything in the Trashcan gets deleted from the disk. Until then you can open the Trashcan (by double clicking on it) and retrieve stuff. When you select Delete from the Deluxe Paint Picture menu it doesn't put the selected file in the Trashcan. it deletes it from the disk. Just like using the AmigsDQS Delete command, the file will l>e gone for ever, so make sure you realiy want to delete it before saying Yes. JW A 1000 UPGRADES We have recently returned to this country, bringing with us an elderly AlOOO - one of the first to reach Papua New Guinea via Australia. It still works flne (despite the climate changel) but Is limited to running smaller/older programs because it only has 512K RAM. We would therefore like to upgrade the machine by adding some extra RAM and a bard drive. Would the cost be Justified now that the AlOOO \s slipping beJow the innovation line, eclipsed by the A600. 1500, 2000 and such like? Richard Dry den Dawlish Devon Beheve it or not, but the AlOOO" s bus connector (you'll find it hidden behind a plastic cover on the right hand side of the machine) is actually fuHy compatible with the bus A QUESTION OF ROYALTY 1 am going to write a program to sell commercially using ccimpil«d BaBlc. Do I have to pay royalties or acknowledge the use of HiSoft Basic or AMDS? If I make the distribution disk Into a self-booting disk Including WorkBench do I have to pay royalties or make acknowledgment to Commoikiro. DJP Relder. Whitehaven, Cumbria Both HIsoft and Europress Software have told me that there are no I ice nee /royalty fees required when writing compiled Basic/ AMOS programs for commercial saie. You should however include a suitable ocknowledgement- It may even be a good idea to let to let them see your product because, if it Is good, they may offer to buy and/or distribute it on your behdJf! Commodore licensing and acknowledgement conditions can vary. You should write to CATS (Commodore Amiga Technical Support) outlining ihe files you wish to use and they'll explain what must be done. PAO connector on the A500. You can therefore connect just about any hard drive or RAM expansion designed for the A 500 to the AlOOO through thih connector without any modifications. Up until recently, I owned an AlOOO myself (until someone burgied my house and siote the damned thing!) whfch was CKpondcd to 6,5Mb using a standard A500 RAM expansion. JH COPY? WHAT'S COPY? Having recognised the excellence of the Compugraphic typefaces that came with my PageSetter li I bought George Thorn peon Services' Compugraphie Type Fonts Volume 1 - three disks containing 37 typefaces In alL But on reading the Information for importing the typefaces into PageSetter II. I was baffled as to what to do- The directions reodi "Copy the Jib, .metric and .ate files for each font that you wish to Install Into your CGFonts directory. They will now be available tor use In your documents." As a novice with computers I am at a loss as to exactly how to copy these files into my font directory. I'm not even sure how to get into my font directory in the first place. It Is certainly not Immediately obvious from any of my Workbench or PageSefter manuals. Adrian Wood Loughborough Lelcs OK, you're working with two floppy disk dnves. so weMI set-up PageSetler It with this in mind. Rrst. boot from your copy of Woihljcncii ds normal (noi the original disk that came with the Amiga, always work from a backup copy!) and initialise (or 'format' as we more usually call it) a new floppy disk, giving It the name CGFONTS, Use your external drive to format Uie CGFONTS disk. I( you dont know how to do this. Chapter 4 of your Amiga 500 manual has a section which deals with Initialising and Renaming disks- The disk you have just formatted is the one on which you are gotng to keep your Compugraphie fonts. You may want to have a whole library of these CGFONTS disks, but for the moment we'll stick with one. Now remove the CGFONTS disk arKi put the GTS CG Type Fonts ftl disk in the drive (its actual name is CGFONTS^l). If you've read the Contents and Info files on this disk you'll know that there are several typefaces on it, each of which comprises several files stored in a directory that has the same name as the font. So, let's copy the Albatross typeface on to our CGFONTS disk. Open your Workbench disk window, or in other words double click on the Workbench disk icon. You should see an icon called Shell appear in that window. Double click the Shell icon and another window will open. This is a window into which we can type AmrgaOOS commands. Type the followjng command into the Shell window, not forgetting to press the |Returnj key at the end of the line: COPY CGFONTS liALBATRO J SS/ALBATROSS.ATC TO CGFONTS: Don't type the J" ^ this is to show where a command line has gone over the width of the magazine column. The character between S and 1 in CGFONTS.l is called an underscore, Vou type It by holding dowr^ the Shifi key and pressing the mtnus sign key (the one t>etween the number ?ero and the equals sign). Note also the colons after the disk names, or Volumes' as the Amiga calls them. The part of that command line that reads CGF0NTS_1: ALBATROSS /ALBATR05S.ATC is the name of the hie that is to be copied, preceded by the path' to the file - you can read it as "the file to be copied is on a disk called CGF0NTS_1 in a drawer (or directory, another name for the same thing) called ALBATROSS, and the name of the file is ALBATROSS.ATC The disk name (the volume) is always followed by a colon: directory names are followed by slashes (the one on the question mart^ key). The Workbench disk will whirr a bit white the Copy command is loaded, then the CGFONTS.l disk will whirr while the ALBATROSS.ATC file IS copied into memory. The Amiga wj|] next ask you to place the volume (the disk) called CGFONTS in any drive. So remove the CGF0NTS_1 disk from the extemal drive and put the CGFONTS disk that we prepared eadier into it. Don't worry about clicking the Continue button in the requester that has appeared, the Amiga will automatically notice that the correct disk is now in the drive, provided it is called CGFONTS. The CGFONTS dfSk will whirr for a while as the ALBATROSS.ATC file gets transferred from memory on to the CGFONTS disk. If the requester asking for CGFONTS remains on the screen after disk activity has finished, it means that you haven't named the disk CGFONTS - check for Jeading or trailing space characters, and delete them if you find any. it's either that or you've somehow typed the command mcorrectly- * AMir^A ^HHPPFP ATC^Iir ^^ a CCHDitadv 1001 4 4 4> I RMIL BLAZERS- WHAT'S 4><4'4 4' IN NOVEMBER 1892! 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Optical Mouse £29.99 Hia!>DtecisiDn pointing device Crystal Trackbatl -■ „■■■■■„ .^ES?. 99 Infraied-Cofdlass-MousB... ^^^^^^ £47.99 (Hechaigeable tOP selling innovaliori.l Optical Pen Mouta iMff £39-99 High Quality Smm mouse Mats £3.99 Powerful image processing leols for the oflice or Ihe home environment, POWER 'Features include: 100-400 dpi - 64- GrevscalesThrupoft to primer 'f REE Edrting P o wer S ca nne r v2.0 X34 . \j 3 Power Scanner Colour X234.99 GOLDEN IMAGE'Kand Scanner Series Fealures: 400 dpi" 256'GreyscaJe< Touch up and Merge il software. AlfaScan £124 99 AllaScan Plus £149.99 AlfaScan OCR One OCR Sofrivfffe),....£279,99 EPSON GT-GOOO FLAT BED FULL COLOUR SCANNER Plug [nto Amiga parallel pon, 600 d.p.i. resolution, up to 16 million colours fQQQ (\f\ PhoeniK Price XJOy^UU ASDG-SOmA/ARE Scanr^rng software comes in two forms, integrated into art deveJopmer^t as a new module or used as a stand-alone pEogramme, Ci HQ QQ Phoenix Price I- I UD-DJ Cofltfol Centre £34.99 heavv duty construction, rubber edging perfect colour match, makes an ideal workstation for the A500/A500' A GOO control centre now avaiiahle, DATA SWlTCHES-/25pn D rype} 3 way .£17.99 4 way il9.99 STORAGE: 90 Capacily BANX ill 99 150 Capacily POSSO i16.93 Disk Box 10 Cap £199 Disk Box 25 Cap i2 99 Disk Box 50 Cap X^ 59 Disk Box 100 Cap „ ^5.99 Disk Box IZO Cap X7.99 Top grade, heavy fluty tojaclion moulded boxes. Low cost, high qualrtv ACCE^IJ^IES -. Now Only.. £79.99 Phoenix price The papular upgrcide kit for 1 2 / 1 J owners from Convnodore is m stock and selling fssl! W0HU^•KlJtt5Slf*U/DT^' Kindwords3 £36 95 Final Copy 2 89 . £7312 ? £66 99 Professional Page 3 /WT^ £129.99 Saxon Publisher iHH? f 1B9.99 Pagestream tf 2 2 £12699 Pagestream Fonl pack 1 £44.99 Pen Pal ^.i _SSi2E^I7 £39.99 Prowrite v3.X £57.99 Quickwrile £36 99 Word worth j79 99 Hot Links £52-99 INTtCRATEO PACKAGES Gold Disc Omce £59 99 Mmi OHice £731^ £39.99 CAD & DRAWING Design Works „ „■„„„ £53.99 Professional Draw 3 MidiLll^UiiJ £79.99 Inun CAD Plus .„ £74 99 X CAD 2000 £99.99 UTILITIES Lattice C" v6 ™£H]a^ £214.» A-Talh 3 £44 « Cross OOS V5 imc. Cioss PC Emuigio,}. f 29 99 Diskmasier 2 E43.99 Dos 2 Dos ..-.....«».»..»«».»»..»....»,„. .-X29. 99 Dpus Direciorv X2d^99 Xcopy „ Jf 36.99 Qearler Back — „ f J5 99 Quarter Back Tools Va 5 .£49.99 DATAbASt Superbase Pro 4 .j l 64.99 Superbase Pers Z LW.THm £39,99 VIDEO PRQDUCTION/TITUNG SCALA 500 £79.9$ SCALA Professional £219.99 Big Alternative Scroller £35.^ Broadcast Titler 2 £179^91 Font Pack 1 for Broadcast Titler 2 .,,..£88.99 Font Enhancer lor Broadcast Tiller Z„X88.99 Pro Video Post il 58.99 TV Show Pro £51,99 TV Text Pro i84.99 1-RACTAL AND SPECIAL FX Race Trace /3C57 £93 99 Deluxe Paint 4 £63 99 Deluxe Video 3 .£71 99 Image Finder £44 99 Pixmate £43 99 Scenery Animator » » £62.99 Vista.... ^ £43.99 Pro Vista „.„...... £71,99 ANIMATIQF^ Image Master ,,t ..£129-99 3-D Images £36.99 Amos...„ £36,99 Amos Professional nj:^ £44,99 Amos Compiler ,£21.99 Amos 3D £25,99 Easy Amos £22,99 Deluxe Paint 4 ....u-.— .-..-£53,99 Director v2 £71 99 Imagine v2 ZECE^P £18999 Map master for Imagine £59t99 Presentation Master £169.99 Surface Master for Imagine £29.99 Show maker ...., ,.....„.„.....„........, .£ 1 42 . 99 Video Director £107.99 PRFSENTATION & SUDE SHOW Can Do vl.6 f^lA:T £7199 Art Department Pro v.l £143.99 An Departmeni Pro Conv. Kit £57,99 Can Dolt V.I.G. Hyper Book . ACCOUNTING Personal Finance Arena Accounts Home Accounts 2. .£94 99 £44 99 _^7?:ff£29» £83.99 £39.99 System 3 £43 99 Cashbook Combo »«». «£57.99 TT1 on Credit cani prderV bankers draft/ buildtHf sociely cheque/PDStftl oiderL E VTSA nrsHD PHOEWIX-MAIL ORQFR AT IT'S BFST! mirRw*iiF^ PHOENIX. UNIT 19. ARMLEY PARK COURT, STANNINGLEY ROAD, LEEDS LS12 ZAE Please moke cheque* piiiible to PHOENIX. Allow 5 working days for cheque clearance. BFPO welcome, NORMAL OPENING TIMES M on Sat 3 00am 6 00pm FAX- 0532 313061E&0 E. ACCELERATOR The incredible speed of ot»?_ ^?-Git technoiogv ^^ ** price e you can 3lloia only rroni ' 5 S.L. P^v ifscing an image ttiai [ah«s Z4'hrs on a standard Ami^^a takes jusi 1 hr 36 minr wiTh an A5000M HEE maths co-pro included Aith bolti A/Q5000 afrceler^lor ca'dv 1MB 16 67 Mhj £249.99 ZMB 16 67 Mhz £289.99 3MB 1667 Mhz £319.99 4MB 16.67 Mhz £349,99 1MB 25 00Mh7 £499,99 2MB 25 00 Mhi £669.99 3MB 25 00 Mfi2 1829.99 PRINTErtSf** A5000 AfiOOD A^OOD A5000 ssaoo HSCOO HSOOO ByK)0 + 1MB25D0Mh? + + + + + .£979-99 AMIGA 120d ProbftbW Iha hoina conaiUr of iha \n\iao y^ ^^ ' * ^ In CO rp oraTin q onewcnemJF kfrgmB ond many moro exciting and poweitIuI ^aafiirns, trun Fflflchina truly tnliAfi tho Amu larnilyimotTiqnaxtgonorniionlfMMIf! i BflOSO ProcDRiDf RirnnmQ nT 11 Uhi ■ 7Mb Chip Ifliptndshlfl tQ 1Q Mb u^lng 4Mh fasi memory PC MCTa « ardi >nd 4 Mb a? b.t HAM .» CPU :>lol) - Ntw dojble 'AA' QraDhics chip »1 - 356 coloufi on scresn Trom 3 itk B miJlJon coioirf paiene * Full AiTngs Kfv LiuarU jwirit AlpHfl nurnvriL; tLev Pfld) ' Cf U iDCdl fhoenii Price Qnly Lu/U.aU tb »-ik^EvV PACKS THt WILU, THE WEIflD ft THE W1C»(ED 1 Mb A eOD as standard and includes Ibe excelent vskie SolfeMra tOAC Hun Pant ill ' Fnmiul^ One Grand Pnx > Putty "PushtMir ^1in nm PhoenfK Price Only tJjD.b^! A 600 2Mb i'nci toovB scnwarwh £379,99 ^£PIC* LANGUAGE PACK' 1 Mb A eOO as slfindarcf and includes TOMB HARD DRIVE Itio oiicellenl value SnKwiire lilies: Delude Pflinl lll-Tni/tfll Pursuil* Epic ' MvTh-Rame PhoeniN Price Only £484.99! A6002Mb+20 Mb Hard Drive . £524 99 The stand-alone A SOO i» compacl, ^^^^^mj'i semi portable, ^■^i^^fc'/ fully featured and can ba purchased ^m&--: in the laJlawJng ^^Ci conrigurations: A600 £274.99 A6WHD mmmlAlS.^ A 600 2Mb £314.99 A 600 HD 2Mb £469.99 HARD DRIVES -GUP IMPACT SERIES II Hard Drives, Iha lasTest Hard Drive/Controller tor the Amtga. Feafiires Game SmitcFi, external SCSI purl. FAAASTPOM SCSI Driver, GVP's custom VLSI chip and pniarnal RAM expansion up to B meg! Unila USE tiFgb specification fast- a cr: ess QUANTUM Hard DnvDscnmtngMth 2yT, guBranlDfl. A500 HDfi* 42 Mb ^ZIS' £289-99 A500-HDB* ao Mb iHiff £379,99 A500-HDB+ 120 Mb £424.99 AWO-HOs* 200 Mb £689 99 RAM EXPANSION 4Hb KB ^,.|R aa Phoanix PA 601-popblatcd-tMb .£44.99 PhoaniK PA BOI-unpepulaiad-OMfa. .£24.99 PhooniM A SOO ROM Sharer £29.99 A ^*MIGA 4000 F«iitufflK Lncludr 68040 32 Bn Processor running at 2b MH; {upgradabJel - Uaw Double AA chipset with 16.8 million colours ■ high density I 44 Mb Hoppv'l^DNblOEharddrrve-NBwWnrkbencha AMIGA 4000 £2,229.00 A4QQ0wia«»{V4Z5MbHanJDr>w. £POA ST t AMIGA 1500 1 104 WorkliBnGh Includas. Deluxe Pami 3, Platinum Works, Home Accounts, Toh. Pu/?n»c, i Ell, Amiga Format tiook anfljflvsttcit i^rm\nn AMIGA 1500 32n tiiSj^Ki GVP PC 2B6 IGMHi £239.99 KCS Powerfaoard iwiiti DDs 40i) £199.99 KCS Pawarboard , . £ 184,99 ^KCS adaptor lor 1500/2000. i^TTH £59.99 '^r Vortex A Tonce Plus ^8 nniKzi £214.99 ROCTEC SALE OF THE CENTURY!! Phoenix in aaaociaiion with Roctec and Conner, continue lo achieve massive sale^ on this htgh specification, qualily product- Due in the buying power oi Phoeniic we are able to maintam these incredible prices- prices that have left the competition GREEN with envv-and the Amiga buying public licking their lips Stocks wiM only last until the end ol Movember. ROCTtC 40 MB £259,99 nOCTEC 85 MB ^ £299,99 ROCTEC 120 MB £364.99 Foaluring Connor drivBi-vsrv fasi access times- U^nts or beueii * expand up la fl Mb using I Mb Simms osiiy • 1 year guarantee * slimline design idealty coiour milctiBd Id the A500 * Own powej^ iupply. ROCTEC icomioRar Only) £164.99 Same spe&LficaEron as Ihe abovs but vilhoul the herd drive tittod so you can fit your ovirn PIsbsb lecity IDE or SCSI- EXTRA MEMORY Only £25 99 par Mb^ STAH LC-tOO Coiour £5SSW £1 59.99 9 PIN coJDur pnnler wvrth pafwr partimg, eighl Fonts and electronic DIP switches. LCI4-100 - » £7irriM9.93 24PINwitti compiassed data mixJe, IG K butter and ID lener qua^ny fonis.lwilh Star pEinier driver onlvl LC-M. ^ £129,99 LC-ZOO Colour £195,99 LC24-20 £199.99 LC24 300 Mrtno £219.99 1023-200 Colour £268.99 XB2a-200 Colour £379.99 SJ48 Bubblejet £2223^ £213.99 Star prmiers CQme wrth one year warranty. CITIZEN SwitI 240 Colour £«r£279.99 Swift 2« Mono OTTT* £259.99 Swifl 200 Colour _ /V?T^ £219.99 Swih 200 Mono fHHI^ nS^S^S swtft 9 Colour . '^:^ -: t , v,V 7 £1 79.99 Caizen printers come with 2 year warranty. HEWIEH PACKARD 300 ap4 la^er qudlicy auluui - shtro EriACliS an j L& rnillion tolouri AvBiiAQJft • sii bull) tn tvpa idc»-4 scaiacile ■ imcrotff 4 msctia harxHing > tavt't^ fttp«r %'7as ' FOUR TIMES f ASTCHTriarpteviDUB HP. Osikjerrai^. Deskjet BOO J^K?ES?I7 £329.99 Deskjet-500 Colour £449.93 HP prmters come with 3 vaar warranty. HP black ink cartridge £24,99 HP colour ink cartridge £23^99 fllJTfJ SHFFT FEEDERS STARLC20 £2C2CT7 £57,99 STAR LC200 £59.99 STAR IC24'200 £62,99 STAR IC24-20 £62,99 STARSJifl £49.99 UBBLE JET PHILIPS 8833Mh II ^i^£194.9!_ Colour SEereo Moniior noA including 'Lotus Turbo ChfiMBnga', and ! yc^rs on-s^Ee warraniy. COMMODORE 1085 SDI £216.99 COMMODORE 1084 SDI £199.99 Bf^ri iTKtnitora are suppltad vfilh a FflEE^ ^^g^^for connection 10 your Am»ga. ^ MONhUJt ACUc-OjOJiit^^- ir Dust covers £4,99 14- Till 6 Swivel stand £13,99 Anti-Glare tiltor screen £19,99 A4 Copy Holder ™ £12.99 "This is is the stctmd time [have dealt with \oii ami t'(nit time htivc hud excellent service tmd rapid delivery" Ptter U, Bt^jiiiminl^ Hiiridtrvflold Series II Hard DiiiiCwiiratlflr'HAM card .1114,99 Series II 42 Mb Hard Drak anb HAM card ..£269, 99 Sfln« II 80 Mb Hard Diik and RAM card. £339, 99 Senes II 12D Mb Hard Dnik and RAM canL £339.99 S«nei II 2«l Mb Hard Di^ dr^ RAM c«d ££39.99 EXTRA MEMORY Only £25.99 per Mb A lit^^oRs GVP CoMBB^nm AccaiRArofts & Hard Dms-TTke uhimaie expansion product tor the Amiga 5001 A5X Cr>mbi jIOMHj > ^2Mb Hard Driva £659. 99 A530 Comb] 40MH7 * :?DMb Hard Drive. £757.99 AB3D Combi 40MHv . 740Mb Hard Driva . .f979.99 A530 68SB7 Co-Prrjceisor £204.99 ACCELERATORS ■ 1500/2000 GVP G-Force (OO-TSMH/ t 1Mb £545,99 GVP G-FoftE [GO 40MMJ . 4Mb £784.99 GVP G-force EOD-iiOMHz t 4Mb £1099,99 ACCELERATOR RAM Modules 1Mb Simm-32 Bit 60 Nanosecorids £65 99 4Mb £unm-32 Ba GO Nanoseconds...,! 182.99 EMULATORSWItii 1 1 5D0/2000-3000/3000T Vortex GOLDEN GATE ■ £419,99 Thia amu^aiDr is ihs uliimaie bridge bftlwean PC^AT plalfoma and the Amiga, [f you thtnk this i& for you. cross lo page three kr specification doiails in this months Trail 8la7er£ lecriionf HESITi Oon'E confuse thusu iiifcjiiiy cii^k<^ with others CurrenUy avaifable 3 5~ 100% cBrtified ^rror Tree 70% clip. AJI disks includB FREE high qualitv Phgeniri labels. ID »...£4 99 200 £72.99 ». .^ ri2 99 50O. tW4 99 51 £22.99 750 £259.99 100 £39,99 IDOD,. £339.99 TDK Bfanded disks- High pprtofTnance iTtedia irom the experls-box 10 with labels. 10 £5 99 100 f52.M 50 - £26 .99 500 £2-1 9 99 1000 Phoenix Disk labels £9.99 nnm .IFi CANON BJ lOeX ^TTTT? £224,39 UpLjiiU^ni! version af BJlOfln the worlds biggest selling portable ink|et printer. CANON BJ 20 /TTT^ £319.99 Moce Fc43Uires than the BJIO. includes Ai;fD sheel feeder Tap selling- Highly Recommended CANON ej3O0 ^ iTny £374.99 80 column 1]Li[}blejet provides las at quality outpuv CANON BJ330 ^I7*:7r £499,99 136 column bubbleieL CANON Bubblejet cartridges £17.99 PHOENIX PRINTEft PACK Supplied vwilh ALL printers containing 1 8m std punier cable, pnnter nbbons/canridge arid 2SQ sheets ol paper absolutely FBEE. PHlNTFflArXESSORJES We bflVB a large range of high qeality printer accessories for all ftie prinlHrs we sell including dust cevari from £2,99 * Ink coriridgea from £13 99 ■ Mono rlfttons from f3 50 ■ Colour ribbons Ifom f ^ Jh ■ Pnnter iianda Prom f 7 99 AMIGA CUSTOM CHIPS Micknart ? 04 ROM f34 95 Nictatlfn UROM {27 99 VHtar A|im BSTZA. J^ 99 NEWSfeptr D*iii«0f?9 99 CIA lUVA. £3.9} MEMORY CHIPS 4 Mb 1 9 I 70) Si(wn..i9» 1 Mb i 4 [ MlZift .. '(34 39 1 Mb < 91-eOf Simm..,£Z7.99 Z5H >i4 IMf Zip„.-,-C29,99 25Gh > 9 (101 Siinin-i1Z99 1 Mb n 1 ORAM .£3 49 Z5GI(K«0RAM-_— 13.49 'TlmpnciittartMotlUM Thflsfl chips rovtr orfl^Ticf Hy avary papular mvinDrv e^pai^sion or Hard Driv? ^v^sm i>n rnt fiatket lot fhi AmipB >e. GVP, SUPRA. MICflQBDTlCS. COMMODORE "/ must write to coniiniritliitc you on tfw ejTiaeni-v of your imiil order staff, " KubiTt S. blair - Dcrimurk SUPRA 500RX the ultimate in Fast Rom e Mb pop to 1 Mb'.„ -£99.99 8 Mb pop to 2 Mb"* £124.99 a Mb pop to 2 Mb. "--«.-»-. — £1 49.99 8 Mb pop to 4 Mb. £209.99 3 Mb pop to 8 Mb ....»«..^^ £309. 99 LEADS & CABLES Mtdi^Midi Zm,...£3,9S Modulator »Kt..,.f9.99 Mtdi Mid^ 3m,. £4.99 Amiga-Scift .. .£9.99 Midi-Midi Bni £5 99 Amiga-B833Mkir.£9.99 Ditk Dfive ejtt....£9.99 Jov<l'cklongefL.t4.99 MDuaoMi>ysiir:k bhI £4.99 M Du s a / J nys r i cit s p I i He r £ 4 . 99 'SHrial/Modflm cables £9.99 'Amiga- Multisync. -..,.„.-.„..„.-,.„..„from£9, 99 ' Ami fl ■ Micro vJToo £ 9.99 •Amiga-CPC manitoi £9,99 *AmiBa-RGB/TV £999 'SCSI Cablfl various ....,......^....„^....k..£9.99 Printer l Bm £5,99 Primer 2.0m Ha.£7.99 'For full details ol these cables or intormalion regarding the right cable fof the job call 0537 3n6S4. Custom buiU leads are no problem Phoenix. PHOENI RAM Upararfk4Module« A PHOENIX RAM module can expand yauf chip ftAM up lo 2 Mb by using the irapdoor expansion port. EitrB RAM li ngcc&iarv lo unlaoih |he incrediQlB graphiEii c»pt' &ili|i9S a> VDU' AmkQa All our boards carry b lull 7 var no quibbi' rfpiflr?mtm guarifiTBp It's nevvr been cheaper to upgrade' 1 Mb Fully populairi r^OA f\i\ RAM board.,.. iSSESJP 1 04.^!^ 1 Mb unpopulated RAM board £16.99 If I |#dnf f&IEDIA Rombo ^ Vidi Amtgi 12 is [be replacemem for tbeir complete colour soluiion bringing you the world's fust mass markBl colour digiiiser tor under (100. VIDI'AMIGA 12 i^z:^ £79.99 Outstanding feaiuras and plenty of VFMI-f^tf/rjtf for rtTorfe^^/^Highly Recommended. ROCGEN Plus £129.99 Quality features and perform Bnce^Ftecommended. ROCKEY BY ROCTEC The new chroma key unit ■ used in coniunction with a Genlock - allows tan to superimpose live video over graphics or video -substitute the brightness portmn of a videci source MriTh a kgyed imggo- Embed live video in graphics I rf***r*/* r*** Phoenix Price » »±269.99 »J?A tPBtki «J fr«n po^r 41 Now you need to copy the ALBATROSS.LlBanO ALBATROSS.METRIC fiteS from the CGF0NTS_1 disk to the CGFONTS disk in exactly the same way. When all three files have been copied on to CGFONTS. that's the complete Albatross typeface copied . Now repeat The process for any other typefaces you want to use. You might also want to copy the typefaces from the PageSetter li Fonts & Utilities disk on to youf new CGFONTS diSH: COPY PSUTIL:CGFONTS/Tt7 J TO CQFONTS; The #7 is a wildcard sequence. That command will copy all files whose names begin with the letter T from PSUTIL;CGFONTS/ onto the CGFONTS disk, I dnobi v^ry much whether you'll gel niott; Uian about tigin Compugraphic typefaces on one floppy disk, so for this first CGFONTS dlsk< copy the ones that you definitely know you want to use now rather than the ones you thlnii you might want to use later. When PageSener U is mn it will looh for mimap ronis m d direaory called FOr^TS on whatever disk you booted from, and it'll look for Compugraphic typefaces in a "logical device' called CGFONTS: (with a coion on the end). Don't let the lenn 'logical device' spoo^ you - for the moment all you need to know js that the names of disks are treated the same way as logical device names. So our disk called CGFONTS, when placed in a drive, effectively becomes the CGFONTS: device. If it finda CQFONTS; PagcScllcr U looks to see what Compugraphic typefaces are available there, remembers Ihemn and then opens its own screen for you to start work. . Have you spotted the flaw in the system? Once PageSetter It has looked in CGFONTS; and remembered what typefaces are there, these are the only typefaces available during ih<s work session - or to put It another way, you cant stick another disk with more typefaces on it in a drive and use those. M\ the typefaces you want to use during your DTP session must be in CGFONTS: at the lime when you ojn PageSetier li With a hard drive you'd bung aU your CG typefaces in one massive directory and use the Assign command to make this directory the CGFONTS: logical device. No probtcmo - all the typefaces you own are available. But with floppies you need to build a collection of CG FONT disks that contain drfferent typefaces for different types of work. There's one rnore disk you need to prepare, called CGCACHE. This diflk will store bitmap representations of any CG characters you use so that they don't have to be calculated every time you type them. Working from floppies the time saved isn't so great, but it certainly cuts memory usage. So format a dJSk and call it CGCACHE. At certain times The Amiga may put a requester on the screen asking for this disk to be placed in any drive. Simply do as you are asked. And this is the way I would run PageSetter It on a dual floppy drive Amiga: Td boot from my working copy o( Workbench, not from the PageSetter II dish. Then Td remove Wort^bench and put the PageSetter fl disk in the internal drive, and my CGFONTS disk in the external drive, I'd run PageSetter II by double clicking on its icon, and when it had finished loading I would remove the PageSetter II disk and put my CGCACHE disk in that drive. No doubt the Amiga will ask me for the PageSetter If disk back at some time, and maybe even the Workbench disk. At which point I'd oblige. And rd have a few blank disks by my side, ready formatted, onto which I would save my PageSerfe^ '/documents. Eventually rd get sick of swapping disks and buy a third and perhaps a fourth floppy drive, or I'd start saving up for a hard dnve. Finally, Adrian. I recommend you buy yourself one or two books on using the Amiga. Unless you read and read and read, and then expenment with your computer, you are most likely destined to remain a novice for ever. JW MACRO MANIA I have recently brought Devpac 3 which Is bHIJIant but Tm trying to use the Abacus Amiga Machine Language book which uses three Assempro aaftflmUer-speciric macros: Tl-BgL Ass€tipro:liicludee/ainigB.l INIT. AMIGA EXIT^AMIGA I flon't know what these macros mean and would be grateful If you could print them in your mag. Gareth Stoyle Earls Barton Korthants I have never used the Asserripro assembler and although I've asked around not one Assempro user has been found- 1 suspect that somewhere in the book, or on the drsk which accompanies it. you will, however, find the necessary details. All I can say is that if anyone out MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS I am thinking of starting up my own business and naturally wish to u»e my Amiga for alJ my computing needs- fVlost business software reviewed In magazines tends to bo word proteasing, databau or spreadsheets. I would be grataful rt you could teH me of any other software avaMatHe. I need software to handle accounts such as cash books. VAT, plus stock control and Invoicing. I already know about the Diglta range (although I've never seem them reviewed), but I would be grateful If you could mention a few more. Scott Hu^eft, Toxtoth, Uverpo<^ What an admirable oursuil. Scott! If only more people thought like you there would be more on offer - unfortunately there isn't much and even less I can recommend. There used to be a couple of business and accounting programs but at least one has gone to the wall and I wouldn't dare mention the other. Digita's accounting stuff doesn't took up to much (being a port from &t)ii machines) but rt does the job. its later offerings such as System 3 and System 3e are tar better, although nothing hke as pleasant to use as Wordworrt) or Home Accounts 2. I'd like to see Digiia and others upgrade some of this software - but only time and a lot more people like you will encourage them to do it: such is suppFy and demand. Or, put another way, why supply something there is no demand for? MS there in Amiga Shopfterl^nd has already found this information III gladly pass it on through the power of these pages! PAD TROUBLED WALTERS ^^^'^H I've recently bought k ^^ a second-hand 9-pln K^ -^ril printer. It has no [.^_^^^^H manufacturer s name on the front, but it has SNnwa written Inside It and takes Shlnwa CP80 multlstrlke ribbons. On the back Is written Walters Microsystems International Model WMIOO. I was told on enquiring that this company has since gone into liquidation^ So 1 have no way to get a manual and don't know how to set the DIP switches. I have got It printing In graphics and text with tho EpsonXOId printer driver, but with no Italics. Could you please tell me wftere I can find some more information on this printer? CESaul Middlesbrough Cleveland 1 don't know, si^. the thrngs I do for you guys. And you didn't even bother to send me a Christmas card. I've boen on the trail of Walters for some months now. ever since I got a letter about help with a ^Walters 2000' printer. Rfst, the bad news is that the company did indeed go into liquidation, some two years ago now. The good news is that I've found somewhere where you can get manuals. The name of the firm Is P&B Computers and the phone numOer is » 0494 441288. They can supply you with mar^uals for the WM80. WMIOO and WM2000 nwdels, plus ribbons for those three and a few others, JW MEDDLESOME CRASH I'm running OctaMED \SMSi ^'° version 3.00 on a standard 1500 (WB1.3)andlthas crashed up to four times In one hour. I have the same problem with MEO on both my A500 and my A1500. Would having more Chip or Fast memory solve the problem? Chrys Richardson Bollngoy Cornwall It's happening on both machines so it does look as though OctaMED and MED. rather than your Amigas, are somehow to blame- Having said that I've not encountered any such problems nor heard of any other users having frequent crashes when using these programs. My guess is that your troubles are somehow related to what you are actually doing and you really do need to identify the cause of the probfem before doing anything rash (like going out and buying more memory}. Try a few experiments to see if the crashes occur only when you are working with many instruments, or with large samples or complex songs, I'd also suggest that you jot down the Guru med<tation numbers thai appear when the machines go down and send them to AmigaNuts United with details of exactly what you were doing at the time - that will almost certainly enatiie them to identify the cause of the problem and suggest a remedy! PAO THE BIG FIELD I am compiling a database for my video library but am unable to find a database with a suitable field length. One thre«^our video tape may contain as many as 500 short AA AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 77 • FEBRUARY 1P93 clips which I need to enter Into the field. Can you suggest a database which will fulfil my needs - I need one wh^ch supports a very large field length, I havo tried a lot of the PD and Shareware offefings, but non« 4e«m« alil» to fit the bill. Philip Nolan Sutton Coldfleld Wfli^t Midlands ■ I can jma^rw thol one created a few smirkg with dataDa^B experts. This proDiem Is not easy lo crack with tiat- V\\e ySaiatya^e^ - tliu type you ve neer\ using - because ot the way they work. What yot* need ■& not an unlimited length tiefd, but a database whicn can relate iwu Tilub. a reialtona! dalabdbe. One which contains a list of clips according to video and another which ha5 the video codes. I covered something similor in Amigo ShoppCf^55ue 13 tMay 1992) using Superbase Pereons/ which is so cheap they'll t>e Eiving it owey with cornflBhcs soon. You could probably adapt the model 10 Of aer 2. imSouXUHan)^ Software) too. M5 SHOT IN THE DARK Hw colour graphics quality on my Citizen Swift 9 printer, which I bought on the strength of the review in Issue 4 of Amiga Shopper, Is appaling. Overall the colours are too dark, but blue Is the worst. In Deluxe Paint iV. PageStfeam 2.2 and introCAD. royal blue (100 per cent blue, zero red and green) has too much red and black In lt> so K comes out ver^ dark purple, even at low densities. Using PageStream. where It shows the actual colour In tho coPQur palvtto, tho printed colour looks nothing like It, t us« the EpfionX driver tor PageStream. EpsonXjCBM MPS- 12501 With Detuxe Paint tV, and Epson-JXSO for tntroCAD. I put it down to a driver problem as none of these are specially written for the Citizen Swift 9. Is there a better driver, and where can I get it from? Colin Hayes St Helens Mttreeyslde Like mo&t of the current S-pin colour dot-matrix printers. Ihe Cilrzen Swift 9 emulates the Epson FX-850, The best Amiga preferences driver to use for this emulation is caHed Star9Plus (it was written for the Star LC-200) ar>d can t>e found on a printer driver disk supplied by Just Amiga Monthly (W 0895 274449}. However the solution isn't that simple. What you really need is the power to correct the colours. WorkCiench Printer Preferences has a very basic colour correction feature, but by selecting the R. G and B colour correction buttons you should enhance the output sirghhy. A better way would be to use something like Citiren Print Manager or Turbopnnt Protesstonai. which will give you greater contn^l over colour output. Neither of these programs works well with PageStream. but Ihey work fine with Deiiixe Pamt til and tv. I've not seen IntroCAD. but if it uses standard Amiga preferer>ces printer drivers then it should work with these two handy programs, JW TALKING DRUMS I am trying to use ^^gy| MusfcXto program In drum pattern sequences using my MIDI keyboard but Is there any way ot inputting the data in a graphical drum versus bar-position grid type format? I remember In your MIDI articles that you mentioned a way of niaking the notes snap Into the right place. Would this help? Steve 8alazy Henlow Beds It's not possible to use Music X to create drum patterns in the way that you descnbe but you can easily tidy up the timing of drum parts entered via your MIDI keyboard by quantising JARGON BUSTING • JARGON BUSTING Assembler - a program which converts an assembly language program vmtten in words (well, almost) into the machir>e code numbers that the Amiga's GSOOO processor understands. Wnting programs in assembly language ensures that the best possible speed and memory efficiency Is gained from the machine. Database - an program thai enables information to be stored and retrieved in a structured manner. Information can be grouped according lo a user's preference, and retrieved according to user-specified criteria. Sequencer - a piece of software that stores musical scores and transmits Uiia informoUon in real time via MIDf to synthesisers which will then play it. Some sequencers have the facility lo receive and memorise MIDI infomiaHon from a music keyboard so that music can be entered 'live' instead of note by note. the track data. Read the section about the quantise module in the Music X manual and all should become clear. PAO A F1L£ TOO BIG In my ignorance I crammed a disk full of data - about 300 typewritten paragraphs. When I try to edit my work I can only get a very short way before the machine locks. I realise this Is a low memory fault but la there any way 1 can split the tent Into three parts and then access those separately? P don t want to have to re-type all the text again. Bob Janes Newton Abbot Devon + First of all. you are not ignorant - we all make mistakes from time lo time and I've done worse things than that. Ii*ie unrecoverably formatting the wrong hard disk at low-level and losing 40Mb-odd of data and programs! Go on, have a good chortle about that - then well see if your problem can be remedied, OK. rirstott, Trans wrrfe (which you say you're using) is not meant fo' humungous blocks of text. If you want to write a large tome, write It In chapters or. better still, treat yourself to a word processor that can handle text from disk, ProtexT 5,5 is an eKcellenl example - and probably the only one comparable to Transwnte^ In the meantime the only solution I can offer is via AmigaDOS. (I'd prefer to handle a problem such as this with ARenx. but that's only supplied with Workbench 2,) Rrsl of all. make a copy of your text file and put the original somewhere sate. If you had the icons turned on you can do this from Workbench, otnenAftse jIs a bit more tricky. If you have a DOS utility like StO or Difectofy Opus use that and jump lo Step 7. if all else faiJs try the following batch of instructions: 1- Boot from your Workbench disk and open a ShelL 2. Format a blank disk (in your external drive). Any disk wiTf do. provided it's already blank, 3. Enter the following: RESIDENT CiCOPY RESIDEHT C:DIR RESIDENT C;CD 4. Now, put the disk with the file you want to recover in the external drive and enter this: DIR DFl: This will call up a list of the flies and directories on the disk. If your teja is in a drawer called TEXTS, this will be listed as: TEXTS (dir) 5. If you can see the file you want to recover, go to Step 6 now. If not enter this: CD DFl: CD TEXTS DIR If you can see the file now, proceed to Step 5, If not. and the file is stored in another directory, repeat the last two commands, for instance: CD Chaptera DIR Keep on like this until you find the file you want. 6. Put a btanh disk in the internal drive and enter the following command to copy your file onto it {replace the XXXX with the name of the file you're copying): COPY DFl: XXXX TO DFOiBIG 7. That completes the process. You should now have a copy of the original file on a blank disk. Make sure that disk is in DFO: and replace Workbench in the extern a I dr^ve. Open a Shell tif you haven't already done so}- Now is where things gets a little tricky... S. Enter the following command: EDIT DFO: BIG TO DFO j Parti fXJfTis a line editor which will prompt you with a colon {:). Enter the following list of commands carefully, pressing jReturn] al The end of each line, just as if you were still using normal AmrgaDOS: 200D Old; J Q That preserves the first 300 lines of your hie and stores them as a file called Parti which you should be abie to access with Transwrite^ 9. Enter EDIT again with a command ^fne like this: EDIT DFO:BIG TO DF0iPart2 The next step Is very similar to what we did before, but differs slightly because you need to delete the first 200 lines, keep the next 200 and finally delete the rest: 200d 4 200n r 0(dn Q w <o«natwd Ml poge 45 AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 • FEBRUARY 1993 JIB Award winning innovative products from M- \ A2000 Hard Cards GVP Series 2 HD •UploBMBSIMMRAMon-board ■ Supports externa! SCSI devices ■UMHzSCSIconUolter Bare £129 40QMB0MB £249 BOQMBOMB £349 4QQMB2MB £299 80QMB2MB £399 40QMB4MB £349 B0QMB4MB £449 4QQMB8MB £429 80QMB 8MB £539 Nexus Hard Card •UpioBMBRAMon-board Bare ^,.,.£129 40QMB0WB £249 80QMBOMB £349 40QMB2MB £299 SOQMB 2M8 £399 40QMB4MB £349 80QMB4MB £449 40QMBSMB £429 8DQMB 8MB £539 Bare SCSI Hard Drive 40 Quantum £179 80 Quantum £229 (Suitable tor GVP G Force. GVP HD or Nevus HCJ Other si^es ot HD available, please cati RAM Expansion •AnesA]500/A20D0RAM 2MB 4MB £129 6MB £209 £169 8MB_ £249 Macintosh Emulator "This realty is the best emuta- tor we've seen for the Amiga. It behaves just as if you reatty iA/ere using a Mac" Amiga Format Sep! 1992 r^ AMax-ll Plus •Amiga 15D0 and above •Runs Mac software •Runs System 7 • Full support lor atl SCSI Mac peripherals and the ability Fo read Mac disks in your drives ■ 68020/68030 compatible ■AppleTalk emulation ■Can use Amiga ECS ■Easy to msiall 24-Bit Colour Opa I V 1 3 1 o n 24-bit graohic card 16.8 JnilJion colours available Operates m all standard Amiga resoUitions VLSI Microcode graphics co-processor ' Double buflcrcd Z4-bil and 15-bit animaiion is available in all resolutions ' Palatte-mapped' design updates screen colours in real-time. Fade pictures in and out and change their palettes ' Equipped with 1 5MB o! display RAM 'Auto-configforNTSCorPAL 'Available lor all AiiiiLias Software included OpeiPaint • 24-bit painting and image processing OpalPresents ■Presentation program ■ Control OpalVision images, Amiga graphics and hve video " Includes fades, effects etc. 'Many more features King of Karate ■24-bit computer game ■ Exciting karate competition ■ Demonstrates OpalVision capabilities \ Optical Hard Drivef OpalVision .£699 AMax-ll Plus {Mac ROM r:hips reqLiiredl £229 More information available OpalVision roaster chfp available soon Auto ROM Sharar ■ Kick-oH is the latest Amiga add-on from Power ■ One of the most advanced kickstart ROM sharers available ■ A clever design on a small reliable board ■FitsA500,A500.,A1500 • Kickstart ROM can be selected from the keyboard ■ No messing about with switches ■No'CIAadaptoror other trailing wires • Jumper to select which ROM boots on switches ■ Compatible with old Amiga board revisions ■ Simple internal fitting* ThiEinivin^dlidAiD v"ur wAnantv ROM Share .£17.95 ROM Share inc. kickstan u2.04 £55 ROM Share inc kickstart vl.3 £39 ROM Share tor A600 £29 • Manufactured by Power Computing ■ 128MB on one optical disk ■ Read and write oplicaE disks •40ms running speed •Built-in power supply ■ High power cooling fan ■ 25-way and SO-way SCSI ports •Thru port built-in ■SCSI ID switch ■ Compatible with major SCSI controHers 128MB optical drive (Jnternall £729 128MB optical drive (External). . £999 128MB 3,5' optical disk £39 95 each SCSI controller card for A1 500 / A2000 £ 1 29 ICompaliblewilh Amiga, PC, andMac. ASCSI controller is required on The Amiga and PC) Commodore Ai$Od_ ■1MB of RAM •Two 3.5 internal disk drives • Fully expandable, accepting all A2000 peripherals ■Keyboard and mouse ■Software included The Works Platinum Edition De[u}( Paint III Home Accounts Puzznic game Toki game E[f game A1500 III tP ,,£599 Accelerator OVP G-Force ■ 68030 accelerator board ■ 68882 Maths co-processor ■ DMA SCSI controller on-board ■66000 fall-back mode ■Only CPU slot IS used • Internal and external SCSI connector ■ Convens to hard card with Hard Dnve mount kit ■32-hit RAM as standard 25MHz 1MB RAM £529 40MHz 4MB RAM £759 50MHz 4MB RAM ^^ £1249 Hard drive mount kit £35 . \i .--fcS'V ^'r. Distributor for Power CiTnipuling m ItnlVn D-R.R. SRL 00142, HomAr Via Ouccio Oi Buonms^gnn Tel |06) 5193461/462 Fax 504D6E^ Pduvar ComputlnO' Franca. 15 Bid Voltlara 75011. Pttrl4. France. T«l 11) 43386206 16 lines) Fhsc ID 433B0028 Power Computing Ltd " Tel 0234 843388 canners "If your in the market for a hand scanner then forget the rest and get Powcrscan" Amiga Format July 1992 • 100-40Q DPI scanning lesoiulions •54 grevscoles •Thru'pon for primer • Award winning editing, image manipu- lation & scanning software Power Scanner tf3.0 „., Power Scanner Colour .£99 .£239 Epson GT-GOOO 600 DPI Colour flatbed scanner 24-bll colout A4 reading area Software included Epson GT'GOOO f799 Epson GT-BOOO ■BOG DPI colour flatbed scanner •24-bH colour • A4feading area •Software included ■ Amazmg scan Qualtty Epson GT-BOOO £1 199 Upgrade Offers If you consider your scanner system to tie inferior to the Power Scanner, we will happily upgrade vour software and inter- faGO. (Power Scanner ts compatible with most scanning headsl v3.0 Upgrade {inc. inlorfDce) f 49.M \/2.U Software upgrade for PowerScanner users (send SAE) £15 Tne Amigd can onlv diflpUv t6 qievs^a\ti5 Floppy Drive* *This drive contains more gad- gets than Batman's utility belt" Amiga Computing Fetil992 PC880B Power Drive ■ Award winning drive manufactured by Power Computing "Super slim design ■Anti-cijck (Cures that annoymg click) •Virus blocker (Prevents tfirusesi ■Built-in backup hardware KLMSOB with Blitz Amiga , £60 PCB80B with Blitz & XCopy £75 PCS80B (Cyclone compatible)^ £65 PCB80B in black case £65 'Ttt'S df ive 'i aniv ivailable [a rggitierH owner i ol XCopy P'o^e^f-o'^al TDunius[p'ovkilflpf(folol|iwitii<(qorXCiW ^OEeitJlKlll Power Drives PC880E Economy drive £49.95 PC881 A500 Inlernai drive £40.00 PC882A20D0 Internal drive £45,00 Dual Drive ■ Two htgh quality disk drives built into one compact unit ■ Same features as PC8B0B Dual drive £125 Blitz Amiga • Backup disks at lightning speeds • Stops all external drives from clicking • Contains anti-virus from being written into the bootblocker BHtz Amiga £20 Floptical Disk Drive • Stores 20MB on one 3/" disk • Cost effective mass storage unit ■ Can be used as a 1.44MB floppy with Amiga DOS and AMAX ■ AMAX compatible with DMI Mac driver ■ Packs an entire bacl^^-up onto one floppy ■ Additional disks available ■ Internal version for A 1500/2000/3000 • External version lor A500 • SCSI InteHace required Interna! A2000 kit £289 Internal A3000 kit £289 External A500 kit £389 AM Expansions AGOO Memory CerUs IfVIB RAM with clock £39.95 1MB RAM without clock £34.95 PC501+ RAM Card Du* RAM board is designed especially for the A500t computer and comes with 1MB ol RAM on board to expand your memory to 2MB of chip RAM. Plug-in and go operation (fits mto the trapdoor) PC501*RAMcafd a^M &MB for any ABOO ■ Plugs into side s^ot. fully auto config, full tbru'porl. Expand 2MB-8MB 2MB £109 4MB £169 3MB £289 1 x4ZIP chips £14,95 2MB for any A500 • Economy 2MB RAM externally cased • 16-chip(l xl DIP) • Nothru'port 2MB RAM £79 l.aMB RAM Bourd ■ Fuily supports 1MB of chip RAM • Fully compatible with Faner Agnus iroui AnbB* nwKi LO be opened. Vtn Jiiav <'<«■ r^i mngnryl L5MB RAM board £75 1MB with Thru'port ■ Expand your A500"s memory up to a total of 2MB without disposing of your existing 512K upgrade • Works with 1MB of Chip RAM lbl?K fMA muEi M ' ttuQ rype a^ r^ni etCdriinQ 9cm 4ti terigt^t 1MB with thru'port £45 A500 RAM Card • 5t2K RAM expansion with clock & free sottware(A500+ compatible) 512K RAM (4 chip} f 29 51ZK RAM withoul clock £24 512K RAM il6 chip) with clock £24 512K RAM (16 chip) without clock ,,,,^19 Awnril Wiiiuiny Manufrtuluters pDwor producH came wMh tul I techn ica I support Qider furm ^ame Address Postcode Tel No. J Oescnplion Credit Card No. 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Expiry Date J Signature J I enclose cheque/PO tor £ Tel 0^34 843388 Fax 0234 840234 Power Computing Ltd Unit 3 Railton Road Woburn Road Ind. Es!a1« Kempston Bedford MK42 7PN Power Shop, 86 Walton Road. East Molosev- Surrey KT8 OOL. 081 941 9073 e^ablish^d '\9S5 llublKT to ttunga vvitP* q^ naUCfl AIMrndintim^ Ackno^tdg^ft. VATriHCiudid idHr dolivwy Q SO P#Ec4rpq^deL3^«rrCI mm. hvrt^nqv 45 10. Repeat Step 9 using 'Parl3' as the destination filename, and the follawing set oE commands: 400d 200n 0(d;l Note the value in the first line Increases by 200 each time. Keep on doing tttia until you have divided the original file into amall enough segments to work with. [f , ofter trying dl that you're still completely confused, drop me a copy of Ihe original ftte and rifi 3AE c/o Amiga S^iopperand I'll do it for you. as soon as I can. But please, do try It yourself first - that is the only way to learn. MS CmZEN MIFFED f2 ^ Having very (Hlle -rl technical hnowledgd, and having recently bought WoKtworth 1.1, \ was somewhat disappointed to ream that I could not print text In colour via a Citizen Swift 24 printer. Your excellent magdzlne reports on ttw new Workbench 2. wNch doo9 d^al with coloured text, and as I have the 1.3 version I thought upgrading would be the Ideal solution. Until I saw the price. All I really want are the new disks, and \ am assuming that the ROM and Chip RAM upgrade will not be necessary as I aiready have 2.5Mb- Can these disks be obtained without buying the whole deal? SW Waldron Newport Gwent There is absolutely no point in upgrading to Worl^tiench 2 without u[^rading to Kickstart 2 as well. Workbench 2 requires Kickstart 2. You can still get away w<th just 512k of Chip RAM, but 1Mb is better- But this is neither here nor there because your problem has nothing at all to do with versions of Workbench and Kickstart. Of course you can print lent \n colour from WonjwOfth 1.1. providing your Swift 24 has the colour kit fitted and you have the correct printer driver selected (read your Wordworth manual), I think you are getting confused with the fact That Workbench 2 has buiJt-Tn support for something called ColorFonts. which are many-coloured fonts instead of single coloured ones. But this has nothing to do with actually printing colours. JW CHORUS OF APPROVAL I am interested in [yHVI purchasing software to enable me to play In up to eight part choral music with piano accompaniment, to edit, add lyrics^ and produce a printed copy to raavontibly professional standards. I've seen an Atari running Sotafor software which seems to do what 1 want- Is there anything simiJar that I can use on my Amiga? SHall Burgess HIH West Sussex Although not as good as Noiator there IS a heavyweight dtp version of Dr T'5 Copyist program available which IS designed for this sort of work. Copyist dtp itself costs £229 but there are a couple of other cheaper versions of the program which might just suit your needs- The best thing to do is to see the programs in action and if you contact Zone Distnbution on « 07 1-7 38- 5444 to make suitable visiting arrangements, they've said that they II be able to show you the programs in action. PAO LCD SCREEN SCENE ^ I am considering the "^^ purchase of an A600 to enable me to operate and learn different types of software In my travels, rather than Just at home^ Before I purchase the A 600 though. JARGON BUSTING • JARGON BUSTING Acceierator board - a device which either includes a central processor like the Amiga's, or a more advanced one In the sanne range, but operating at a higher speed. An accelerator is useful for calculation-intensive applications, such os 3D rendering. Qenlock - a way of slaving one video source (usually that produced by an Amiga) to another (for example video tape or a camcorder) in order to syrichfonise their signals to allow stable wipes, mixes and other effects including overlay between the two sources- Sample - a Oigrtal - computerised - representation of a sound. A sample can be sent through a digital to analogue converter {the Amiga has four ot these) and be heard as sound. Different frequencies [or pitches) of Vie sound can be obtained by varying the speed at which Che sample is played back- I'd like to know whether Commodore plans to produce a version of the A600 with a full coiour fold down LCD screen In the very near future. At the moment* L would have to lug a portable television around wKh me if I bought the existing AGOO. R Anscombe Basingstoke HanU Colour LCD screens are still very expensive, Mr Anscombe, so it seems unlikely that an Amiga portable sporting a colour LCD screen will be appearing withtn the coming months. I'm sure Commodore do plan to launch a portable Amiga eventually- but both the timing and the machine's pricing have to be right. Commodore's move towards surface mounted technology and the new CMOS-based AGA' custom chips do seem to suggest thai the company is prepanng its technology for easy inclusion within a portable machine, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a portable will be launched. Like all things Commodore, we mere minions can only s\X back and wait with baited breath... JH INTERFACE THE FAaS MJ have decided to take the plunge and buy an A1200, but first I would like to clarify a few points. a) Although the CPU Is only a 6S020. the chances are I would like to upgrade. Would a new CPU simply fit in the socket, or would a card be required? Approximately how much would this cost? b) Is there any possibility of replacing the IDE Interface with a SCSI? How much faster is SCSI and would the Internal HD be able to work with It? c) How compatible is AmigaDos 3 and the new AGA chipset with the A500/600? d) When a high-denalty drive eventually filters through, will It Just t>e a matter of opening the case and swapping drives? Graeme Herd man Low Fell Gateshead a) You cannot simply replace the 68020 with another CPU. Most of the chips on the A 1200 motherboard are surface mounted, and not in sockets. The 68020 found in the A1200 Is a very compact version of the chip, about the size of a postage stamp, and more powerful chips such as the 68030 would not have the same pin connections and are unlikely even to be the same size^ Fortunately the trapdoor port on the bottom of the A1200 is especially designed to take processor expansion cards. These are planned by Commodore, although they, and the prices for them, are not yet available, I would guess that a 68030 would be not much more than £200. Third party manufacturers such as GVP will probably be extremely qutck off the mad^ as welL I wouldn't expect you'd have to wail longer than four months for The first cards to start appearing. b) No. You couldn't simply take one out and replace it with another. IDE dnve interfaces are not as advanced as SCSI, and are much cheaper to manufacture. The catch is that they require much more processor time in order to work, SCSI, on the other hand, is lightning quick if implemented properly and requires very little in the way of processor usage. The catch with SCSI IS that It. and Fhe drives, are more expensive than their sTower and less-advanced IDE counterparts. You could, however, add a SCSI interface to the A1200 at a later date and then fit external SCSI dnves If you wished to, c) Very compatible with everything except games. The vast majority of modem 11992 onwards) games for the Amiga will work with the new chipset and operating system- Older games are much less likely to work, Applications software, such as DTP, an. word-processing, utilities and so forth are afmost guaranteed to work. If you are unsure, take your most important software down to a dealer and try it out t>efore buying. d) Yes, when Commodore make the high density drives available separately then you will be able to swap them over. TS SMEAR CAMPAIGN I have a Commodore MPS-1270A Inkjet printer, with which I use the HP92261A Ink cartridges. When printing onto listing paper I have to wait up to 20 minutes for the Ink to dry. When 1 use photocopier paper it is dry almost instantly. Could you please tell me if there Is a quick drying ink cartridge for my printer? Also, can I use the same printer cable I use on the Amiga with my PC and the Commodore printer? M Barker Bransholme EYorks No. you can't buy a quick dryfog ink cartridge because individual models of Inkjet pnnters require certain types of ink to be used. But you can buy proper inkjel paper, which is covered in a fine layer of chalk so that the ink dnes jnstantLy upon M AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 • FEBRUARY 1993 contact with the paper. Any good stationers will be able to help you, but be prepared lo pay quite a lot more than for ordinary photocopier paper. And tantold mkjet paper (i«hat I think you mcon by 'li&ting' popcr) tenOs to cost twice the price of cut 5h@et Inkjet paper. in answer to your second Question, yes. JW FLYING HIGH I have been involved t^l In video production for a few yvcirv on n aem^ professional basis and have leceniLy mudo the decUion to upgrade substantially to a new - Industrial' 5-vri5 edit suite from Panasonic - A07750 and AG7650 machfnes with AGA800 edit controlier, MX50 production mixer and such like. in th« past I hnva Incorporated an AS[KJ Plus and G2 VCl genlock Into the system for captions and graphfca and 1 would like to continue using an Amiga in the iipfiraded envlmnment. Which raises the question How far do I wish to take the machine?" In essence I would like to have an Amiga which complements the capabilities of the new system, Thb obvioualy means InM^lling extra memory and a hard drive. Would the A530 from GVP be the obvious choice? In order to run such programs as Scafa MM200 in cor^junction with a 24-bit graphics card such as OpaiVisionp for Instance, how much memory - both Fast and Chip RAM ' would you recommend? Is the MegaChip 2000/SOO the wisest choice here? Is It true to say thai 'Productivity^ modo la the ideal mode for graphics-oriented work {as opposed to Hhres/Super HkRea)? If so, are the ECS chips that are required already Installed in the A500 Plus or would they need to be purchased separately? I aci dentally, I plan to use an NEC 4F1G monitor. As my intention Is to create as automated a system configuration as possible I would also like to utilise the Amitia for data storage and retrieval (in other words. Edit Decision Lists - EDL). Panasonic told me that auch applications only exist on MS-DOS systems- Is this true, or couid you recommend an application for the Amiga? The AGASDO edit controller has an RS232 25 pin sub-D connector. Finally, and perhaps most Importantly, will the A 500 Plus, wtth all the attendant upgrades and «Apfln9Eona, bo aufflciontiy woll specttied to take full advantage of the above-mentioned applications and software or will an Amiga 3000 be required from the outset? To sum up, can an A500 Plus be expanded to exceed the Amiga 3000 In spec or is there stIM an intrinsic difference between the two machines in terms of ultimate eAp<mdabUity? Nick Carter St Julian's Matta I think that you would be far better off constdenng one of the new A4000 machines. With (Is new paphics modes, hand drive, fast processor. 2Mb of chip memory, built-in flicker fixing and other features, you are in the perfect position of being able to take one |j|dnl leap forward and not have to worry ai all about what you are leaving behind in terms of incompatiDle peripherals. You could even hold off on the pelvis ion and use HAMS mode until the time was nghi. Scala MM200 works with the AA chip set. and a modified OqIuhg Pa/ni should be available as you read this. The only thing you migm consider adding immediately is more memory, though a standard A4000 ships with 2Mb Chip and 4Mb Fast RAM. so you might be happy with that anyway - I know OpalVision certainly vi/ill. though whether it works properly in a 4000 I have yet to hear. Put your A500 Plus aside for word processing, games and offline graphics - there really isn't much point spending money on it now that you can buy a new machine which seems so Trtted to your needs for less than it would cost to add alt the extras to your current A500 Plus - and then some. Even if the A4000 had not been released. I would have said that you should \oqK at an A3000 instead of trying to expand the A500 Plus - especiaJiy since the OpalVision has not yd been announced as an external version. By the way. Productivity mode only has four colours maximum, so I'd forget It for video work. As for EDL software. Panasonic are almost con-ect. Microillusions produced an Amiga program caiied EDLP (Edit Decision List Processor) which lets you set up your edit list (with one video and two audio channels) and then communicate with a suitable edit controller via the Amiga's serial port, I'm assured that it will work fine with the Panasonic AGA800 which you propose buying, EDLP is still available and can be obtajned from The Software Business. Cromwell Business Centre, New Road, St Tves, Huntingdon. Cambs PE17 4BG {in the UK) for £299.99 [which sounds rather expensive, but compare it to other systems and you'll reahse what a bargain it really is). GtV MYSTERY ILLNESS r A II I would be grateful for your advice. I bought my A1500 wFth /\ KickStart 2.04 six months ago with a PMIhps monitor as a package deaL With the monitor I got Fid Steatth righter. Unfortunately this does rwt work with my computer. The dteh li^ts stayed on for around seven seconds arid the screen went dead. After numerous disk exchanges, I still have had no luck. I have tried these disks on a 1.3 A1500 and they worked fine. Could my problem be that the KJckstart Is Incompatible with these disks? Is there a way to load from the Shell? Atoo, Is thore any truth In the 'Amiga Disease* In other words: if the monitor is placed over tfie Amiga, It can cause a similar problem? Mr A Burgon. Brecks. RotherlMm I'm afraid that your problem is Kickstart related, and the product is not working correctly under 2.04. As far as the Amiga Disease goes, this is definitely a new one! No. there Is no truth In tt. The only problem you could have Is by stacking disks next to tiie monitor speakers, in which case you will exj^rlence disk faufts and unreliability, re TOWER POWER Ml am trying to find out more information about a product produced by Inovatronics called the Hl-Q Tower, Do you know of any complaints from users concerning this product? Would I be able to merge an A500 with Progressive Peripherals' Zeus Accelerator or GVP s Combo 40 Accelerator boards? Peter Holdorf USS Carl Vinson USA The Hi-Q Tower is actually manufactured in this country by a company called (perhaps unsurpn Singly) Hi-Q Ltd. W's basically a replacement casing for the A500 that houses the A500's innards inside a very posh PC-like tower casing. Extra disk drives, hard drives and even Amiga 2000 expansion boards can be added internally, all of which are driven by a very high rated 200W power supply. In theory, there's no reason why 2000 processor cards won't work with The Hi-Q Tower, but you should check before handing over your hard earned cash for the product. I did have a chance to piay with the Hi'Q Tower about two years ago, but the Tower that the manufacturers demonstrated lo me was a very early pre production model. Since then, the company has been surprisingly quiet despite repeated requests for a review model. Who knows, perhaps Hi-Q will read this and finally send through a review model, therefore allowing us to rale it for ourselves. We certainly haven't received any complaints from other readers conceming the Hi-Q Tower, but It would still be nice to be able to see the thing 'in the flesh'. However, if you want to know more you can phone Hi-Q yourself on o 071-923 0658. JH MAKING NEW SOUNDS I have recently bought l^g^ a PSS 790 keyboard and although Tm pleased with the sounds I was wondering if there Is any way to alter the existing sounds or create new ones. I have heard of patch edKors for the more expensive Yamaha synths. is thero any PD or commercial editors available for my synth? Steve Bird Upper Mill Oldham The short answer is no because the PSS 790 uses preset sounds and these cannot be altered. Vour model does l-iowever allow new mixes of preset voices to be created [the manual calls this Vector Synthesfs) but this IS not the same as creating voices from scratch, I'm fairly certain that there Is no software around to r^eip with this and, because of the limited sysex facilities. I'm not even sure that a patch-mix type editor could even be wniten to help with PSS 790 votce mixing. PAO WRONG PAGE LENGTH I am using Professionai Page 3 to print various documents, posters and so on. But after switching on my DeskJet 500 the fir^t page always prints haif-arvinch higher than all subsequent pages. I am using A4 paper and have paper length set to 70 lines in Prefs. I have tHed altering Che DIP switches on the printer to no avail. Robin Dun way BUIerlcay Essex The DeskJet needs a bit of the top of the paper and a bit of the bottom of AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 • fmUM^y 1 993 AO THE FIRST COMPUTER CENTRE OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK OPEN MON - SAT ff.JOAH-S JflPM SUNDAY OPENING P LOO AM-}. 00PM THUR&DAyWC;HTLATt..V,J0AM-7^DPM AUTHORKFD DEALERS FOR STAR, CITIZEN, COMMODORE, ACOfiN. pnmA, noMBOy %UPhA d SLCA FREE DELIVERY! HOWTO ORDER Order by telephone quoting your credit card number. If paymg by cheque pledge nidht; p4jrdbk to Che *TIR5T COMPUTER CENTRE." In any correspondence please quote a phone number 4 post «ode. Allow S worfaing dayv for cheqii« clearance • All prices include VAT and Standard Delivery in the UK • All hardware/computers are genuine UK spec. • Free Fast Standard 4 to 7 day Delivery • Guaranteed 2 to 3 day Delivery only £2.50 •Guaranteed Next Day Delivery only £4.90 •Open seven days a week for your convenience • Overseas orders welcome SALES &TECHNICAL 24 HOUR MAIL ORDER SERVICE UJ[M£££^ 0532 319444 CUSTOMER CARE ONLY: 0532 637988 FAX: 0532 3I9I9I PLEASE ADDRESS ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO: DEPT.AS,UNtT3, ARtALEY PARK COURT, OFF CECiL STREET. STANNINGIBY ROACi, LEEDS, LSI2 2AL Prices are cub^ect to change without notice. FIRST COMPUTER CENTRE AMIGA 1 200 £379.99/.'.' LEEDS PRINTERS All our printers are UK spec. CITIZEN rriMPtniftt^wrfp*, Tht^ hu Mt lo b« Oh bnl *fTiitfaundvrC400.M«v«r pcodv f j Trv« il bit tBChmriD^ bntuj an tht MOlO Ht- Tht L200rrpf^wMiTh«fulmirf(na Antl^A tiff ^ C^Mnn With WorkUrhch ). AMIGA 500 Plus only £294.99 Cartoon Classics Pack *-.*■-. nn/^ ^y ft .^^. .i».A^ All our printers come wth ink ATilGA SOO C4f toon Cliiuti D*luir..anlv t IJV 9 f _ . . ^ ^ , , ^H^iHmmoM^^i^nt ^^ cartridges or (oner. All printers come Canon Panasonic 'AIM HEWLETT piL-.,^ ¥J PACKARD M^L AMIGA600BAtep*ck....^Xll9.n ^ ' ~ IGA 600 20HD The Epic pac4| I W(ch 10 Mb Hvd dH«, GpM. ftvM, Hrtfh. ft Tftwiil only £47S.99o»<o^i^KtfntHq * The MOOWild.W«ird&WKked iTK M«Fof row &ind ^rn. DvfUD fuiK J.^iiWr* only £327.99 -i^ A600Sfcty«fc™™™.oNLY £339.99 A600HD DiLUXi onlv £509,99 inc. AOH thiirtf with 1} A I.l» NOM't m^iEinj knfiwnfutJhJriir ' 'h^Fif of th« uii Th* AAlM HD t>Tl^i'T<vtitci*ii>i«BvltlHi 10 Mb Purd On** Ju^( Jidd 37.99 for a 2 Mb «C0 QglmgtL s;^ THE AMAZING J'^y ZOOLPACK.'.' i Complete with the best selling: #ZOOL {91% Amiga Computing. Nov 42) •STRIKER (94% CU Amiga, June 92), •PINBALL DREAMS 194% AUI.Sept92) , •TRANSWRITE word processor ' with 90k UK spell checkerfl only £ I 9.99 with any AMIGA!! or £29.99 without an AMIGA A600 & 1 200's available) paper & aJI cables.'/ A600 AI200 ..i429« £519.99 ..i499 99-„^M. —...004.99 .^29 99 <444.99 ..£559 99 £694 99 ,.£POA« M M £704 99 llOMt ComplMe wMt 1 3 month bttck to bttc t AM/GA 3000 RANGE IS Mht wjtft 51 Hb HO, 2Mb RAM- i I 299 99 2SMhi *nf\ 1 05 Mb HO „.__ ' " ' "^"^ AH JOM t (Witt wnih AnH|« Vi*Kin H^rtf jkw* AMIGA 4000 With ch* |Hnv*F or The M hir procwpr mm m 11 Ifhc lu|>p*rteJl)l*1, III* fww 4Mblt tkA fr^hm cMp iV4| only £2099.99 M<'CAI500*oory£4l5 99 AAUGA l50IHSWp4chon*r£44t.t AMIOA f500 Defuse onry C4T9.99 tfintli tlH Pnnu nOM thwf . I -Iftt-M KKkicvt clqp « Hard Drtve upgrade kits for 600 4 1 100 Availjible£POA • AM Amlfj ttanitwtlh Worlibfnch. «m>ii**ft UnvDAA wvrdnir Th«tlAi>il«f4AtOaVAlJ0«.*»MAA4OO0 cvmciHlh llrfktfiThi an ■■(■ ww-ranir All feOO'i alto CDTV MULTI MEDIA PACK AND A570 CD ROM Complctt wirtiCDTV, Keyboard, House .diK dnvc itworkbendiu oiily £469.99 COTVinc Welcome disk Only £149-99 CD ftom Amiga A5rO jmfy £12999 Ttfiin fotif AmiflA SM Ma4€OTV CDTVlrvvtoHrO. MONITORS All our monitors are UK spec All monitors come complete with a free Amiga lead WARN I NG : B efo rt you pu rthjie 4 monil or milte lure JI lut d full UK ^>Fcirici[wi, You mkghl Iw bi>r Lng whH roit think Ji a similar monllor at 1 lower pHcc but it ii hhely TO M 1 "GREY" import. Thpie momlori do nor comply with Bntiih «t«y lUndnxh and wr nM Co*eftd StarLC20 £I32.W IBO cfH dnfL IS <p% NLQ^ quitt iYwd« ntHJ multi fbiA^ push button Dp«rMiOfL StarLC200 colour..£l95.99 V pin cqIow-^ S fonti. f IS cp% OrikK 4S Cp% NLQ, 44 'faridK4p# printtni. Star LC24-20 £199.99 34 ptoqi^lity, 110 cp» ffrAft, 60 cpt LQ, l&K buffer -McparHllblt CO 4SK, lOfonCi and LCD kont driapfay. Star LC24-200 mono...£2l9.99 14 pin, 221 cpv drift, il <pt L0« »0 fant*. A4 landuape^ThbvlTvrcKpAndabletolfK Star LC24-200 colour.£269.99 Cokiurver&ion with JOK buffer «ii|Hndahl4- lu &7K Star XB24-200 colour....£379.99 Vror«uDn4l quality withOfV-4it*f¥t4in|cfi40CC-+ Vffy qtiwt Star SJ48 Bubble jet £209.99 LAU>rqu4^ttyp vltra qukt^EpiOr^cWnp^l^hlt- ft pof lAblc Star SJ48 Auto&heet feeder. £49.99 StarLaseriet4MK3 £739.99 4 pagr la«(^r. I yeui on >iiv nialntrnurK* Panasonic PrI ' Panasonic KX-P2 1 80 £ 1 69.99 ultra qut^E 9 pin colDur. 192 cpt draft, )icp« NLQ Panasonic KX-P 2 1 23. .£229.99 uttra quitt lApm £dlour^ ( 92 cpt draft, B4 cpi tQ, 1 1 cpv SIC Panasonic KX>P'14iOLaser„£609.99 i pigtr p«r mjouC?. 3 ytun on illr wnmnty/r '^itizen Prin^ — Ckiien ptinters have a 2 year guarantee Citizen Swift 9 Colour £179.99 Excvllvnc v^u«9 pin cotour, Htfbly rvconimrnded NEW!! Swift 240 Colour.„,£269.99 Z4pK240iipKdr4fCr IV'™tt>^quiMnmlc,240cpi^ NEW.'.' Swift 200 Colour.£2l 7.99 Samv QUI put u <hd40 but 'Mth ITH 'Hlhtin Automatic Sheet feeder. ...£79. 99 Canon BJIOex £219.99 L^i^r qu;i1]^ output- Larger buffrr than tb« StarSj4BOr\anjStar&tJbbJf>|f-t caf-trid(« £17.99 NEW.'.' Canon BJ200 £347.99 , 1 pa|t 1 mm t^^^vd. ItO dpi, wruH iDDtpnm A 10 ptp^hi t r ftt- d Lj Canon BJ300 £379.99 Defktop bubble jet wJth 1ai«r quality Canon BJ330 £519.99 Wide carriage venlon of the BJJOD BJIOex Autosheetfeeder...£S2.99 Hewlett Packard Printers HPSOOmono now £3 19.99 HP500Colour..now£4 19.99 HP 550 Coloun.now £554.99 4 times faster than the HPSOOO? HPSOO mono carcrJdfies....£ I 4.99 Double life SOD cartridgei....£24.99 All HP printers come with a 3 year warranty FIRST EXTRAS PACK With the FIRST EXTRAS P^ck y°*' ^i^" ■"'>'<' Hire you have every thing ynu nppd whpn buying ^n Amiga. AM thr p&sentialt required for ihc first time bu^cr & at a bargiln phteff Comprises: • Top quality microswitched Power pi ay Cruiser joystick • Mouse Mat • Dust Cover • lOhigh quality BTank Disks • Plus 3 games.'.' only £29.99 Stereo colour monitor KTMH btdity. un* now with Lotus Turbo Esprit'^ only £224.99 uKSpec. PHILIPS TV Tun«r for the 88 J3..£64 99 Commodore 1 084/5 SD I Stereo Colour monitor MMpi* si «At pitch rtuthiU^. A<t>t|« tfCdvxMlbAa. Svmt only £209.99 PHILIPS BRILLIANCE SVGA Colour monitor with ov encan ^cility V04 ISM VERSION £389.99 with Flicker Free VidM card ASOOVERSION £489,99 GOLDSTAR REMOTE control TV/monitor £169.99 COMMODORE I960 muimrnc only £436.99 SPECIAL OFFERS Ot4«CCCSSORIKSWMtN •OUCHT WlfHAnONlTOlUT flL-l A S^WIVEi STANOS ill M 'f HONITOK COVERS U.« SUPRA MODEMS The Supra-Fax Modem V.32 bis ( 1 4400 baud tO) Altawi fov tc^ vend 4Ad rv«^^M^ Iftm fi«»ft4Af#4 TKl»M-ir fflA^fh fmm SuprA tu4 ^iM I MOO h^Mtd ^mp^biktf ^(iHtMlMdnV libv^V ttV iJbim. Vll. va^MNPJ- ( V 42. V43b4», Clj«4 I » 2 <»fwuntf^ ««M'L4400 CroMp 1 f^i. li\^iMt^4 h#v ci>n^^it Hilhwt And mo- only£259.99H-' t Hcdvy duty PrimA power supply. recMnmended for utc with ch« VJ2 bii fu modem ortryilO.OO^itm vt^en bought with modern t Supra Fax Plus (upto9600BPS) WIfh ffw Abtlttj Co »nd lu«L^ Evm Intr^ rtun tfw «tWl4*rdl400frpmSUptAvmh-l4JT4>rttBlA AMl^rt^tflV« V«OObf»H^Tn<Amp- Vll. 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SuyporrsHAMnr-iyliicL MEGAMIX MASTER This 15 3 low con S bJL hifh sptKi Limpkf ih^it piu£s into yaur pnni Er poTT Spe^ul ollc rt^ inck^dGccho Lhst cJnbe addfdfn rG:iUimt FuHrniifltit^^l^ing.ind Snisy touM only £29.99 We recommend all ROMBO products PRfMA ROM SHARERS ^•cj^uie %amc oM^k^ Kf^rtv^^rf ^11 not run 0n Khckau^t Z fim Con^puccn launched the PRIMA l« ^vppliDd td PhoenTx) ftOM shni-crn Thit high quality ROM sh^rrr fcACurrk a flCH^hlt ribbon ^DffncctJQn ^0 thwT k C*n be positioned anywhci^ wjlhin rouf ASaO Plui or AAOO. FuM 2 year repldcemrnt wdrranty now only £19.99 or £27,99 for keybo ard switchable version GVP HARD DRIVES & ACCELERATORS ' AMIGA A500 HARD DRIVES G V P Sories 1 1 H Dfl t ^ 2Mb OR I y £289-99 GVP Series 11 HD84 BOMb only £379.99 GVPSr-ric^ifHDBtiiDMb only £41 9.99 GVP Series IIHO8*240Mb only £669.99 ASOO GVP Combo's ASIO Combo 40MHi/80Mb HO„only £679.99 AS30Combo40MHi;ilOMbHO,.on|y £759.99 ASl Cambo 40MH iSiiQ Mb HD ..only £989.99 6688 2 Co-PnicHsor Kit lor A & JO..only £20 9. 99 GVP memory RAM . anibRAHnnJAM1CAfSQOa«Qw<0i1infa-^nly£M9.99 3?bi1&0nilHb^lMMfDrAcrelerntDr..anly £64-99 32bit60in4MbSIMMfofA«eleralo'-..only £179.99 1 500/2000 Hard Drives lmpi« Series II HC8+ Conlrorcard-OnJy £ I 24.99 Impact Series h KCS* wirh42Mb HD.only £269.99 Impact Scries II HCSt with B0Mb HO-Only £349-99 Impact Series II HCa* with llOTlbHD..only£409.99 Impact SerivsllHCa* with 14QMbHD..oniy £639.99 ■ lmpattSerirtllHCe*with420MbHD..Only£l039.99 i 1 500/2QQ0G-PORCE ACCELERATORS ' G'ForccDJD'25nHiwlthlMbl2bitRAH.only£S49.99 C-Forte 010 4(>HH2 *lth 4Mb 3? bit RAM.only £7fl9.99 C-Forte OJO-SOMHi with <Mh JJ hit RAM.. .. only £ 1 1 09.99 CJ*rDrceO4G<UriHt«lLh?Mb3?bitRAnrbrAJOa0 only £1499.99 Sy^u^st 88Mb -»■ Cartridge & HC8<i- only £S 59.99 ' All GVP products come with a full 2 year warranty ROCHARD DRIVES ROCTEC A500 CONTROLLER CARD Vai-y (tmllar !n ttylr. ta fhtv CVP HOB* huT bnpiipul>tB4l and vfJtIiDut a hard drivC la vau can Hi jrtiur own. 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' only £19.99 GOLDEN IMAGE Brush touse with Deluxe painC 3 p cotM^Ht Irt fnl^v H«M In 4 i4mllir ^m^ 4d ■ pan only £24.99 Gulden Ima^ upircol inuuse* £19.99 Zvd« TrKkerball..^ £19.99 Zyd« TrKkerball..^ £19.99 CoMen Image Cryttsd Trackbill.f 14.99 DISK DRIVES ' COmpktcwicSb^iticry bached clock jndcpntolTiwTtth' PRIMA ASOO PLUS &A600 RAM ' Built for Firtt Computers ft supplied to ' PhocnU. (hete high quality modurci will lake your A500+ or the ri«w A600 (inc built in clock) up to 2 Mb ol chip RAM without invalidating your warranty A500P Aioa Unpopulited onty£l6-99...£23.99 ; Populated to 5 1 IK only £Z6.99.£32.99 1 Populated to I Mb onlr £33,99.£39,99 \2 Mb A600 PCM CIA RAM card,.nH.99 4 Hb A6aO PCM CIA RAM card..£Z04.f9 4*^*vii iv^L^^ I WW NfWTtC1iild«PlavCa>iingw(x^pr(K«w(,..£M.9« M.Wt}t Pach i.iinip«ndJijm with KJdi Trpr, WcAUksr WA[<her,C4lendrrQiH(. Wordi A Nuiritnv Cjinic 43,W £IS9Vf N£Wrciar*cY Uurtiprcr. ■»..,— ^i 1 05,»T D^JuHfiMioK CortfuctkjnSet,.™ „,-_.. .tH9,9t N£Wr/ DIGITAL SOUND STUDIO flY GVP ONLY£4S.«« MiiftcX;UNIOR ..onlyCn.ff NEW^rSUPERfAM £fW9 PROGRAMMING AftVA Creator X34-W Am« Cornpllef «».^«,.«-^,^^„,.£ai.W Amcw ProfeukHuL — -^, ^ £47.99 DE V PAC J-,,,^.,^,,.- 150.99 Ea*y AMO&.^-» ««..« — ,-«^„^W.*« GFABASIC151nten>«Ci»-._-.— -on|y£|9«4 GFABmcCump^kr. p , £POA ;T!T3 ir7aE)l>^ Xf*i-. Cumana3,5",*.« I nirv^vt#rTMlmivt. Thr bni nflrnr In i|i\f driirn now Prima Addup 3.5" i N»« illm Unw high quAliry drVrv rit m low Cdit DfmnvAdvd - only £49.99 OPALVISION .l(r4phk4C4^dA video tr It* mfuF th«l$00 <^flOOOUdOO lnclud«t 4oNw«rt bimdit DRAM & CUSTOM CHIPS Imb by 8^9 SIMMS (3 chip). .£29.99 p^r Mb 4Mbb/9Simmt £1 14.99 per 4 Mb I Mb by 4 DRAMS..» £42.99 per I Mb Utticc C SAS Vemon A.,. UTILITIES ,^20S.» 3S«by4DRAM(DIU)idcairorA590andottien 4+ (5 1 ZK) now only £3.49 B+(IMb)-. »».»«»...»....»..now only £3.29 1 6+ ( 2M b ) now only £ 3,09 Kick4tart2.04 „„ „„ £35.99 FanerAenei8372A „..„ 112.99 Super Denrse ...»....»h».,.^».»...»..»„^...£2 3.99 £S7 1 -03 36 Keyboard controll«r £9.99 CIA 8S20A I/O controller.„....„..„^.........£a-99 AMI-BACK Backup utibtT.-™. .09.99 AMIGA RELEASE 2 UPGRADE KIT Cnrnplfifs *»h. hukii««i lt3^ CHIP WoHibvnch 2.04, IniUll. Fonli ft Fm'Ai dlihi hjll manuAl Hrt oowonly iJ7.99 Nl WitCmsOm VS.->_-,^„>, ....»-OS-99 Opuf Di rectory .-m-..^.^-.«..«».».»«....,,-, £ 16.99 QUARTERBACK VS now only £12.99 iMMt ifwijDnartliii Ful ft FimouihjfddliL bHhupijlHH j. Quarterback Tod4l^ — -.->.■ ^,..JWw ofOy £37,99 XtQpy Pro rnc- hardwaf«..»...— «__-».»..,-£33-9t MISCELLANEOUS DiUani Suns new vcre^oft!!.. Nrw Low Pr*ctr} G B KouIe PIia.. GP FAX Sonware..__, q hvM-M^pih*4»«^ ..-.£39. •» ...£4S,99 .».£39.99 A Talk comm^ Software., ,-J«B>BlFriBII|IlIil £9.99 NEW!! ENLOCKS GVP Genlock only £349.99 features profewlonal SVMS ouipui Hfe Rocgen Plus only £ 1 34.99 tncludci dual control for overlay and heyhok effects, extra RGB pas* thru ^ROCGEN ROCKEY FarcreAllnf 4p4rul cFf^cti In v^dvo prpducrivhw^Fh ^vnltiCkl TlPFf^VJH*, EMULATORS I fLV|;iJiJHlAtm»turihrbnl*4>iiildUifioi^(hvmiifli«. ISOO/2000 ddd|Jtur..£S9.99 ■P MS-DOS 4 or S. £POA KCS Power board for A600 £167.99 Vort«K Gold«n Gar«^ 386. £389 99 ThK 11 ft rc tti-ltSX flrid|gbP M J mnrunt ar 11 FIKv TTiii ||« PC IM-mX BrU|*ba4-d ruiMUi>| ■( II MKi Vortex ATOnce«^286-„_,C2M.99 Tecno Plui Pro Hid! Inttrfac* with Sequencer I Plu) and 1 mid* cablet ,.. -. — only f 4 < .99 MouH-/Joyickttpontv']ichvt only £ I 3.99 Compu ler Video St an Swlic h... only ( 1 9,99 1 way Parallel port sharer bovine catilv....only £17.99 Ainr{4 &-itnd Enhtpccr Flu) \rf Omc|i PrD|KLi. Htir dit Amigi'iumd lllrp )iau\t nivir heird it beiartl ^ aniy £36.99 PRINT18FACE (ADOITIONAL PRINTER PORT FOR THt I ?nonOOO/]000> £1S,99 QUALITY MOUSE HATS .. ^-£3.99 10 CAPACITY DISK BOX £L99 40 CAP LOCKABLf DISK BOX £4.99 100 CAP LOCKABLE DISK BOX £*-99 '90 CAP STACK ABLE BANX BOX £H.99 *\50 CAP STACKABLE POSSO BOX £16.99 'ddd OM diJrn-rr pT pupf hunf (i»t otv Poua « iatix boL frtt dfUwy when purthJird *Kh Dlhrr prOdiKI nr wti«ti bufint J gr iMfh AMIGA ASOO DUST COVER. .^™.£3.99 AMIGA fiOO COVER _ ^Z99 M^' MONITOR DUSTCOVHR £6,99 II" MONITOR OUSTCOVEIt £5,99 AMIGA TO SCART CABLES £9.99 STD I.B METRE AHIGA PRINTER LEAD,.,. £4, 99 MODEM AND NULL MODEM CABLES, — £9-99 3 WAV ParaUcI port ihamr _ ..„_„_.,i I T.99 VIDEO AND GRAPHICS OICI- VIEW GOLD MEDIA SYSTEM Complim* yaphitt t imw i M ion pariuge CvnplMV wHIi Olti'Vkw OoM. iNlt-PairM 1 ft flviPMomw now only £ 1 19-99 37CorT»pugfap#iK lontiVol » tir2byGT__aoly£9 99 NEWT?Ador?tKe(cn»ti4«pecalvkdeoelTecti)^6J.99 Amiga Vaion— .-„.-__™«-„-_noworty £ \ 9 99 Art DepartmwitPr& 1 1 -, ...only £ > 29 ,99 Deluxe Piint 2.-.....v.^...«>. — ........now only £ 4 .99 N£wrr Deluxe Paint 4 AA_— ^««^ £POA EX PERT DRAW only £49.99 EXP ERT 4 D |ft only £3 7, 99 PlvJ<idiimp printer ultlrty.™^™__™^.^*_...£ J 1 .99 NeW10WPWCf/Mmagin*VI_.,^^ri9.99 Make Path for Vi^ia.-... .^. .^^.. £18.99 N£ W?J Morph Plus.^-^_„.^™ Pix Mare_^ ^..£149 99 £41-99 --_.£69.99 S< jia SOO... ,-^„-,-,,- „„., .,^X1^99 TURBO PRINT „.^.^^,«^ -^.^9.99 WWff VIDEO DIRECTOR £124.99 M£ WD VIDEO MASTER .^--.■^- £49.99 Vtea , £19,99 All JJ" diito aiT GUARANTEED FOR A LipETIMt 9^ 4re CEBTIfiED I04^ ERROR FREE Ouf DSOQ dL^faf irt high quAFityrridgneCic mHtift art «vtmiiv^u(dbrdtipUciEm{ QTY 30 100. 3.5" Bulk ,.£4,99 £14.29. £21,99, £39.99 immKl'. m SON f /TDK BRANDED £6,99 £17.99 , £28,99 ,.,£S4-99 Voca Pro 3 (I Mb required). £6^99 WORD PROCESSrNG/OTP FINALCOPYUKv«nJo/i2.'f..„onLy £65.99 f> f^ 4tfMf «v9vl* M tl^k.i impDrt r^ibBlT fIFF ^n4 HAH I UK ctwHuni^ipifcf Eh4!clRr A d«Ki«r . biendAiv, uhk, A pjfr numbir, icHt pipWt^ w Mff ih*h thy t"P*^^ miill^ NewTKtNDWORDSVl..>only £14,99 Vsty ■imiUr Id Wordworlh A nglhmi in ill with I he lerttbU KtndWDrdil, PENPAL 1,4 _.„.^...only09.99 Bni wmne fMUiK packed word puMhhvr nitth diotkue. VXL30 3SMhi ^^^^ - - VXL10 40 MhE » .£149.99 600^1 Co pro for ^bovc £79-99 CAA / 1 AO OQ /POA PvHvr«ilOTPpAclia(«lhAtifH>i*(nnintmd4nd(tH- .AAl""rJ;r«A ,r^. NEOTPAGESETTERJ £POA I 000. .£3 39. 99 £POA m^.h^u- Hot lJnki....„..„..„.....„, ' "^ " " ...... __^ ^^^ I x^duBi r-« «_- r«.- .k»^» /■ lo AQ Di<aiiucuui»K>^uiiit;iumuieiewiuiriiDKia rj^jpwwcr iu i r-..„ -.-.-,-.-,,^,-„_„„.-.,.il9.99 I 6 9 BO 2 Co pro for j|DOtfe„.L 1 1 v.99. n- ■ ■ ■. , vaa i ^^ «« b b « ■ «<* j-^vb *««.«* II hi. 3 Mh^^^^fB.. «K«w- tf inooo '^'^'^ Labels....500.„now only £6.99 p™ ^^e*^ p™f««oiud vi dtp ..now £99.99 il bit J nb rftvn for AbOve„.£IOV.VV -. , , t I lAAfl nnw nnlu /Q OQ Prot«-t4j Vl^JP — ^..nowooly£J9 99 11 bit 8 Mb RAM for abov<i,£J99 99 ^'^^ Labels,.! 000„.. now only £9.99 p,,^,..^,,- «^„„,wt4w Prote«TS.5WfP now only £}9 99 now onlv£ 74.99 ce«rjmp«l from po^e 49 the paper m order to feed the paper mto and out of the printer. When it reaches the physical bottom of the paper trie pr^r^ter feeds ine paper out, and the next sheet in, then orinla the bottom of Ihe previous pagti (whicn 19 In an prabability blank) on the new page before starting on the new page. Reduce your Professional Page page fti7© by one inch, and start work nght at the top of the on screen page, remembering that when prrnted there will be a printer-enforced top margin. JW THE FAST LANE HI would bo grntoful if you would ploaae answer three questions, as no one else I know can: m) I currently have an A15D0+ With a CSA-68030 33IVIIl/ card wJth 2Mb and 512K static Kickstart Shadow RAM, and a GVP Hard/RAM curd with 2Mb RAM and 180 Mb SCSI hArd dkk. The question la, would I ga^n any performance benefits If I was to purchase an A3000, repLacing the hard drive wKh my current oira? More specifically, I have read thai the A3000 has a faster SCSI transfer path from the Interface to Its memory, which is quicker than my setup. If it la faster, how much faster would It tie. or ia it irrelevant due to ttie average access time of the hard drive itself being the most predominant factor? Also, does the A3000 address Chip RAM faster than my accelerated system? b) Why won't my A150D print anything? If I use the V1.3 parallel device. It works without any problems. I have tried removing all the other devices in my syBtem, and I still experience the problem under WorhBench 2.04. I have tried my Kicks tart chip in a hiend's A20t>0 and it works, but on another friend's machine - this time an A1500, it does not work. c) Is the A3000 capable of accepting the new AG A chipset ae found In the A4000? Mr A Alam Old Trafford Manchester a) The A3000 IS an improvement over the A1500 because it is a full 32-bit machine, and this inciudes the Chip RAM. The result of this is that machine performance is generally much better than an equally accelerated {25Mhz 68030) A1500/A2000. The A3000s SCSI interface is particularly good as SCSIs go< and is very efficient and e^remeiy quick. It is also eKceptionally reliable: I have three 1200 GOOID €%y|g5TiOIS I have twen considering the purchase of an Amiga but ^^ recently the A500 Plus has been discontinued. 1 am therefore now left pondering which machine I should buy. Until recently, the only option was the A600 but I see that Commodore have now launched the A1200. Can you please answer the toUowing questions: a) What machines is the A1200 compatible with? b) How many expansion ports does the A1200 have? C) What are the main advantages of the A1200 over the A&DO/A600? d) Is the A1200 just a games machine or a serious computer? e) What are the disadvantages of the A1200? * Deborah Waters, Tooting^ London a} The Amiga A1300 is software compatible with the entire range of Amiga computers. Due to the machine's advanced design, there are bound to be some software titles {mainly games) thai won't work on the A1200, but these are in the minority. b) The A1200 has exactly the same expansion ports as the A600 plus ar) exb-a CPU port which replaces the A600's limited trapdoor connector. C) There are several major advantages that the A1200 offers over the A600 and A500 machines. The most obvfous of these is speed - because the A1200 uses a 68020 processor backed up by full 32-bil architecture, it runs about three times faster than a standard Amiga. The other big advantage of the A1200 is its ^AGA' (also known as 'Double A') custom chip set. Ottering a colour patette of over 16 majion colours, the A1200 is capable of displaying a maximum of 262,CKX) colours on screen at once. Compare this to the A600"5 4096 colour palette and you'll soon start to appreciate why the A1200 is the future! d) The A1200 is both. When it's not being used as a serious computer for graphics^ animation, music, word processing. CAD, DTP, video or whatever, the A12O0 also plays a damned good game. e) None that I can think of! JH devices attached lo my A3000T and have had no probiems in the 18 months I have owned the machine. Whether or not it would be faster ^an your setup 1 am not sure, tt depends on the speed of your driven and the speed of the GVP hard^^ard. You should notice a general speed Increase of all operations by UF^ading to an A3000, which incidenlaUy represents encellenl value for money at the moment. b) The A1500 and the A2000 are actualiy identical boxes. The oniy difference is that the A1500 has two floppy drives, and the A2000 now ships with 52Mb hard disk and onty one floppy dnve, i doubt very much that it IS a fauit in the Kickstart chip, as that would cause the machine not to wori^ at all. It is more iikely to be either an incompatibitfly problem in the printer, or cable, which arises because of software changes under 2.04 or a fauU on your motherboard which does not affect the 1.3 parallel devKe. [ would suggest taking the entire machine to your dealer and tfying it out with several printers. c) The A3000 IS not capable of accepting the new AGA chips. The AGA chipset is a fuff 32-bit system, where as the ECS in the A3000 is 16-bit. There aren't the gaps on the mothertward to fit the AGA system. Having said that, I am sure this will not stop some enterprising company from at least havtng a go, but don't rely on It. TS COLD COMFORT In my WBStartup drawer I have VtrusChecker 6.X running. However, when I also run the Citizen Print Manager, a window pops up telling me that the 'Cold-Capture Vector' has been changed, and should it fix it. Up to now I have withstood my curiosity and have not done this. but I would like to know what this is, and what would happen if i altered It. Also, will I need WorkBench 2.1 to enable me to use high density disk drives? AC Tetley Lincoln The Cold-Capture vector points to programs which are run after your computer is reset. This is one of the ways in which viruses cause their damage: they install themselves on the Cold-Capture, and consequentiy can survive a soft feset (Control- Amiga-Amiga), Quite why the Print Manner <s writing to this is beyond me. and perhaps that is a question you ought lo pose to Citizen. In the meanwhile, I presume the Manager is also in your WBStartup drawer. If this IS the case, there is a nice easy way of slopping VirosCf^ecker from continually telling you about this vector. Open your WBStartup drawer, click once on VirusCtiecker ar\6 select Infomialjon from the Workt>ench menu. Now add a new tool-type of STARTPRl = -20, TNs will ensure that WrusCftecfter gets run last. Be carefuf about high density drives. Vou don't, theoretically, need Workbench 2,1 to use them. Workbench 2 has all the necessary support to handle them. The pn^blem is, that they are not standard high density drives. You cannot simply buy a PC one and plug it in - it is a special dual speed Amiga one, which IS not yet availabje separately. TS THAT'S THE SIZE OF IT Can you please tell me how to get my Amiga 500 to work in Interlace mode for video work without halving the height of my graphics fonts? If my Rendale 8802 genlock Is connected and fed with an extemal pulse signal (for example, from a video recorder or camcorder), the Amiga Immediately goes into Interlace without shrinking my fonts. However, it's not always convenient to use my camcorder or VCR for this purpose. Using DPaInt tit it is possible to go Into interlace and then stretch the fonts used In the program back to the original size - but 1 want to use programs other than DPatnf. Geoff Welch Applet on Cheshire Ah. this is a clear case of 'When is interiace not interlace"? And the answer is of course: when it's interface, that's when, I'd better explain. In tefevision terms interlace refers to the practice of making up a single frame of 625 line video Image from two 'fields" of 312.5 horizontal lines, each of which change every 501h of a second and give the appearance of a single coherent picture. Incidentally, it is this rapid alternation which can give rise to the dreaded screen flicker which some people find so distracting on their Amiga. But in Amiga terms the number of hofizontal and vertical lines which make up a screen are what affect the size of your fonts, whether a display is interiaced or not. The reason for this is that ail the fonts displayed on the Amiga's video screen are bitmapped fonts - which means that each letter is made up of a fixed pattern of dots which defines its shape and size. If we use a standard lo-res screen (320 by 256 pixels) as a reference and place a letter on u. it will appear to be 'normally' sized. But if we place the same 'etter on a hi-res screen (640 by 512 pixels) It will appear as exactly half its 'normal' size, because the relative size of the' pixels which make 5) AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 • FEBRUARY 1 993 up the screen are half that of a lores scTOon. H follows that on an Interlace' screen (320 by 512) the same ietter will be half-heighi but normal' width. Following this logic you might expect a lo-res overscan ^rppn OfiQ hy 2901 to distort me fonts in proportion to the extra size. Not so, as the pixels remain the same relative size so long as the screen resolution remains the same. As you mentioHn it is possible to resize trie letters in DPatnt. but this 1^ nui [he ultimate soluUon, since what 15 really r9quir9d is to re&iiB the whoie font. For instance, if you want B €0 point font {which really moana 60 pixels on the Amiga) to De the some size on a lores screen ds on on Interlace one then you would need to have two sizes for that font - 60 and 120 pixeL Resizing fonts cannot easily be done without using special programmes, and the only one which I can recommend is called Calligrapher. though I couldn't tell you whether or not it is still available, being quite an old program by now. To prove what I say is correct, find Q font which has a range of sizes and look at thek relative screen sizes in different resolutions. Then try using these fonts in different programs and decide how to go on from there. When the genlock 'interlaces' your Amiga image it does a TV interlace, not an Amiga interlace. If you see what I mean. This is why the fonts don't shhnk. whatever Amiga 3rreen mode you are in. So, if nect^<iary, you could safely disconnect the video input while you worV and suffer no iM-effects, because the genlock is not responsible for any Tont shhnk^e which occurs. GW MEMORY HEADACHES Hi have recently aeen advertised In your magazine Pro Agnus 2Mb (Obese Agnus with 2IVtb Chip RAM on board) by WTS Electronics for £139. This appears very reasonable, and la British made. I have also seen DKB's MegaCtilp 2000 at £170. Aro they similar? I haven't seen any reviews of the WTS Board. Would mtlng a 2Mb Chip RAM board cause compatibility probloma with my RAM expansion. I do not want to cut the tracks on the circuit board as I think this causes problems for large trapdoor expansions, i believe they have to be connected to the Qary chip - can more than one item be linked to the Gary chip or not? 1 Intend to eventually purchase a GVP hard drfve and accelerator: are there likely to be any problems with my setup as envisioned? JA Clague Ramsey While I have not used the WTS Pro Agnus board 1 have used the DKB boanj a lot, and It is a very good expansion. It is small and compact, small enough even to fit inside the casingof theCDTV- Unfortunaiely the DKB l>oard (and almost certainly the WTS board too} will need alterations to your revision 5 mothertjoard for them to work, and yes. this will cause major problems with your large trapdoor expansion, it is unfortunate that many trapdoor RAM expansion designers did not follow Commodore hardware guidelines and produced add-ons that are not compatible with irwtb or 2MD Chip RAM, Your best option is to get rid of your trapdoor card and add external memory in your GVP A530 accelerator/hard disk when you get it. JR AREXX ALONE I want to start using ARexx but I only have Workbench 1.3. As I do not intend upgrading to Workbench 2,04, 1 was wondering whether it Is possible to buy ARexx separately. How much does ARexx coat, where can 1 buy it from and is it compatible with AMOS Professional? Also. Is It possible to use a stand-alone version of ARexx with CanDo? Paul Clifton Swindon Wiltshire ARex* has been available s^nce 1987. dunng which time il has undergone continued development. The latest release, version 1.15, is available separately from Workbench 2,0 for around £40 from HB Marketing, who can be contacted on = 0753 686000. Thanks to Eufopress' decision to support ARexx. AMOS Pro IS fully compatible with ARexx. I'm afraid it's not possible to include a stand-alone version of ARexx with your CanDo decks. All the ARexx files are part of a commercial package, so including any part of ARexx with another program is an infringement of both Commodore's and William S Havres' copyright. JH AERIAL VIDI HELL I bought a Rombo VidhAmtga 12 (vl.072)formy A500 Plus but I cant get it to work properly. The first thing wrong was that the lead supplied with the system wouldn't fit onto the TV output of my Philips VCR. so I got an adaptor and managed to connect It up. When I tried to use VIdf to 'grab' something I got a message saying no Video Signar. So then I tried connecting the Vidi to the Amiga's black and white output (as it says Jn the troubleshooting part of the manual) and this time It all worked fine and I was able to grab a screenshot of the Vldt-Amlga program. So I thought I'd try connecting It up to the 5CART output of my VCR - but that didn't worh either. In a review of VIdt In Amiga Format. Jason Holbom had no problems using a Panasonic video recorder and camera. However, JARGON BUSTING • JARGON BUSTING Agnus chip - the custom chip dedicated to graphics. The first three versions - 8361. and the 8370 and S371 Fat Agnus - can access 0.5Wlb of Chip RAM. A later version. 8372a, can access llAb: white the ones used in A500 Pluses. A600S, A1200S and A3000s can access 2Mb. ARexx - an interpreted programming language that ts included as standard w^th Workt>ench 2 and above. U is used extensively to control other pr^^ams. and is a great aid to multitasking. Oigitiser - a device which takes the analogue information taken by a source such as a video camera and converts it to digital screen information for use by a computer. Fast RAM - any extra memory which is not Chip RAM, The custom chips cannot access it, and because such accesses to Chip RAM can block out the central processor and slow down its own accesses. Fast RAM is faster. Interlace - a method used to double the apparent vertical resolution of the monitor by alternately refreshing the screen at a slight vertical offset, thus squeezing an ext/a line between each of the lines of a non- interlaced screen. Virus - a small program that can lie hidden tn memory or on a disk, duplicating itself on to any disks inserted in tho machine, and generally causing havoc. There are many virus killers available in the public domain designed to deal with this menace. when i tried using a friend's Panasonic video with the V/dMhe 'No Video Signal' message appeared again. This also happened when I tried It with a video camera (the PMIi|>s Explorer). In a nnel desperate attempt to get Vidi to work I tried changing the frequency of the channel the video recorder outputs but to no avail. So I reckon It^s about time to ask the experts for the help that i need, i hope there is a solution to my problem as i would hate to be unable to use my VIdt. Do I need a signal converter for my video recorder or Is there something wrong with the video cartridge that I bought? Ray Hourlgan Umerick Ireland You're going to kick yourself when you read this Ray, but I think that your problem has an extremely straightforward cause - if I understand your letter correctly. It seems to me that you have been trying to use the AERIAL (or RF) outputs from all the various pieces of equipment which have frustrated your attempts to use the Vidi Amiga 12. with the obvious exception of the Amiga's composite output - which worked fine. Here lies your trouble- Only composite video or S-VHS signals will work with the Vidi-12. For technical reasons. RF signals are totally incompatible and. as you have discovered, will not work! I can understand how you Ijecame so confused though, because the connector on an aenal cable can easily fit into the phono- style sockets which are fitted to many Amiga video devices- Try using a composite video input and I am certain you will find the Vidi- Amiga X2 works perfectly. GW MUSIC FORMATS I have Music X and jNjgyi the DMCS music packages. DCMS will load and save SMU5 type files and Music X will convert 5MUS flies to Music X files but not Music X to MIDI or SMUS type, is there any program, PD or otherwise, that can? J Dabell Chiiwail Beeaton The AMFC program is supposed to do these types of conversions although I must admit I've not actualiy ined it. AMFC costs £5 and is available from AmigaNuts United, 169 Dale Valley Road, Hollybrook, Southampton SOI 6QX (Fax 0703 785680}. MO (oallMtd on pofa S6 AMIGA SHOPKR • ISSUl 22 • FEBRUARY 1 993 K^ § DUE TO CONTINUED DOLLAR/POUND EXCHANGE RATE PROBLEMS COMMODORE ARE TO INCREASE ALL PRODUG PRICES AS OF THE 01/01/93 AMIGA A600 THE WILD, THE WEIRD AND THE WICKED PACK DIRECT CUSTOMER CHARTER INDI Dlrvct Moll it original and vary •xcitingt bfora yov buy mall ordar yaw mtf »t firrt hm CPufidanf thof you will rvc^lwthapffvdurt yau'v«ordar*d and A moll ortlttr purctioftt freivi INDt It a lafa and iocura dacUlon, and horo'i INDI b o wholly ownod fubtidlory of o pwblk company now In Iti tonth yoor of fmding ana ipsclallilng In fh# fupply «f <«m|Mf*r products. With a rumovsr approaching €30 mlltlon B«r onnvm, wo havv rtio ay naf lonwklo and alwnyt ba ground ¥^«n you nood ui . SALES AND SUPPORT Tho INDI Milai room ho vo boan trolnod to tok« yovr ord«r with tho vtmott car* Once again Commodore have pyt together o winning theme pock fo comptemerU iKe olreody popi>lar Amiga A600. TheWilcJ, ihe Weird and rhe Wk^ed Pock it on idea] starter pack containing o considered mix ot software making the inostohhe Amiga's amazing capabilities. To moke this pock o perfect gift INDI have oddodo further Four award winning gomes ond o sloggermg li&l of valuoble extras at amazing prices. PACK A5 STANDARD CONTAINS • Amrgo A600 imgl* drive • Built in TV Modulator ^,_ . • iMbmemory \ '''*^Tf^ONt'=OS • Push Over •Silly Putty \ ^'-^^t wov on=f • Grond Prix • Deluxe Point III \ i?;„y P«0D^5! PHOHE DEUAl • Mouse ond Monuoli INDI VALUE ADDED • Micro Switch Joystick • Lockable Disk Box • Disk Wallet #10 Blank Disks • Kick off 2 Pipemania • Spoce Afe Populous • Zopsac Carry Cose 9 Zappa T-shirt WISH TOP^ [0 Panasonic Quiet pn'nun, oiKl •ftktttiKy. All ifock off«r*d for lols ll hald tn >toc' warfthoufo complox and 1> ovolloblo for noxt doy doAvory, diroct to your homo or builnoii* If at ony Hmo wo oro out of Btock your monoy will not bo bonkvd untif th* product Is ovollablo yh r«worch«d the colour printer market in graot depth to ^nd a colour printer good enough to cope with Amigo's powerful graphic output^ y«f or an offordable price. W» found the perfect printer m the Ponoionic KX>P2123 quiet printer Wb then considered tnot if you were going to buy o Ponoionic printer, you would probably need o quolity word proceiiing pockoge to use with it. We found that too, in 'Wordworrh', yet at O retoil price of £129,99 wo thought that might be O little too Panasonic kx-p2123 tomptod to purrh horo) Gonoral informoHon rogoriiing product It avollobla from our eoUi toom, howavor tochnlcol luppoft Im ohvoyt on hond should you nood aulftonco. Ail prkotquotodora incluilvo of VAT. INDI TELESALES Tel 0606 43860 Fax 0606 43825 ^ « DESPATCH INDI PRICE expensive on top of your printer purchasel So togelher with Ponoionic we decided to give o copy of 'Wordworth' free with every Ponoionic pfmter. How's thol for added volueV The new high parformonce Pnnoionic KX'P2123 24 pin. Quiet colour printer offers teoding edge quiet printing technology Ot on offordable price. • Fort Printfnfi Speed* 192 CPS draft, U CPS LQ and 32 CP SLQ, # Colour Printing 7 cotour palette (blue, red, green, yellow, violet, magenta and block) • QulelPrinting Super quiet 43.5-46kBA sound Ivvl [fnovt matrix printers ore typicolly in exceu of 60dBA) * 7 Reiideni Font* Over 152,000 type sTyies using Super LQ, Courier Prestige, BoJd PS, Roman, Script ond Sons SerW Fonts * 24 PIN Diamond Printheod High performance and high quality output • 1 Yeor Warranty for total peace of rnind. *WORDWORTH completely free! WITH PANASONIC QUin PRINTERS The whten choice. The ultimare word procosior for AMIGA coiriputert- NORMAL RRP £129.99 inc vot All order* rovolvod by 6pm Monday to FrMoy oro dot potchod ttiat day for noxt doy dollvory uf Ing our notlonol iorrior — SocuHcor. (UK Mainland only). Soturdoy doHvoriof oro ovolloblo ot o ■fftiaM turcharg*. If you oro out wfcon ym dollvor a cord will bo loft ot your hoiTio giving y**^ ^ contocf rolophono numbor to arning«a convonlont r^ dollvory. Dollvory quorlot con bo ro«olvod ImmodKitoly uilng our on<llno computor. All ordore oro doipotchod on O noxt wortctng doy dsllwry bailt. Ch«|u« ordort oro ootpotchod Immodiotoly on choQUOcloaronco, usuolly 5wDrl[lng doyi from focolpt^ A dollvory chargo of £5.00 If modo por Horn unl«A« othorwlio itotod . WE ALSO ACCEPT B.F.P.O. AMIGA A1 200 :»*^^^ The latest, the ultimate, the best home computer available. 16.8 million colours, superfast processor, superb stereo sound, lightning speed - the all new Amiqo 1200 hos them olL Morvet ot the ease with whicn the Amigo 1200 ond its amazing 32-bit processing power devours the most demanding sohware. At this price the A1200 has no equal - forget the rest, it's definitely the besti 1200 STANDARD FEATURES 660 20 Processor 2Mb Chip RAM AA Chipset Alpha-numeric keypad PCMCIA Slot 3.5" Internal Floppy Buih'in TV modulotor Free 12 Months At-Home Main1enon<6 INDI PRICE I o'o%'r''SP^y, INDI VALUE ADDED g 3 Superb Gomes • Internotionol Sports Chollenge • The Cool Cfoc • Porodroid 90 EVEN THOUGH INDI HOLD CONSIDERABLE STOCKS OF PRODUCTS IT IS INEVITABLE THAT OUR PRICES WILL EVENTUALLY BE AFFEGED. AMIGA CDTV THE MULTIMEDIA COMPUTER TOTAL HOME ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM Tho problem wirh ony otfw produd ij tho! \\ olwoyi lokoi tims tor ovoryon* to ivdJse \H full polflFitial. CDTV i^ no enception and m our opinion everything we have read does a pretty poor job of explaining juir whol CDTV con do and why it is lo exciting. THE INDI GUIDE TO CDTV 1 rrS A CD PLAYER ■ Yev <' will ploy all your Primal Scream, Pavarotf^ Pink Floyd and any othaf CD you core lo mention in tuperb hjgn quolify Jierep, with remole infra red control. IT'S AN AMIGA - Plug in rhe keyboard, iwitch on the external ditk dr»ve and the coloital range of inexpensive Amiga software can be uied on yaur CDTV. IT'S A MULTIMEDIA SYSTEM - Jutf imaging _ itereo iound, ivnagvi ond rext all on screen. It oiks a queition, you reipond, ^t roipondi ■ fruly interodivwl Eoch CD d'K holds hundreds of megobytes o' dota with instant opTital o«e«. The whole of Hutchinson's Encyclopedia fftsonfo \ d\%c. Thii interoctrve tyttam 11 o unique ay6 for Educotion, Businest or Leisure, The future ii hemi MCK CONTENTS AS STANDARD ^ Amiga CDTV Player « CDTV keyboard ♦ CDTV Un 3.5' Ditc Dnv* • CDTV Infro rad remote conlrofler ^ CDTV Wired moust ' CDTV Welcome Diic » MonuoTi " Fred Fish CDTV INDI VALUE ADOID • Lammingi CDTV {£3A.<?9) • Bluei Brothers (£12.99) • Pipemania, Populous, Kickoff 7. Space Ate (£122.57) CDTV CONNtCia DUtCIf TO 'OU" TV 5fT ] AMIGA CDTV EXTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE You've got the CDTY you've got the keyboard and floppy disk drive - for a total computer solulion all that's needed is an ultra-fast hard disk drive. The CDTV-HD unit boasts a mossive 65Mb of hard disk storage with lightning fost access times through its SCSI interface. The unit comes complete with Workbench 1.3 and alt necessary cables. ,1 If £ ACCESSORIES CDTV Stfirtef Pock- lnciud«CDTV. Rimoli Control H HulchJnioni, Umminai AVMcomflDitkCD'i A570 E Ktwrnol CD dri^ tor »h« AiOO & A500+ {jndifdai fra* HutcHin^oni Encydopovdio & Unimlngt) MEGACHIP- iMbChipRAM Upgroda for CDTV CDTVK«yboord(blockf CDTV3.5* External Floppy Drive ENCORE SCSr Confrollvr t InTtrnol Mount IC^t CDTV Intemol Genlock S^JPo.v f^^ONE «oaV CDTV Remow Movie SCART TVMmHot Leod [inc. fttreo phttno Ivod) DONT PROFESSIONAL AMIGA & PERIPHERALS Ponotonk Colour Ribbon 6 Pock for KXP2 160 &KKP2123RRP £119.99 INDI PRICE C89.99 Ponotonx Ribbon Pocli lor KX.P2IS0 SKX-P?123RRPC9Q99 INffI PRICE £69.99 PoiiaiDnic5K»tFHdarfDrKX-P2123 4KX-P?lflGpfintpri HRPCa9 99 INDI PRICE £79,99 KX-P:iaO/KX-P5133Delu« Accoiiory Pock Pack Conioins: • Autornoiic Sheer FeedflF • 2xBldck Ribbooi ^ 2>«CDloLrr Ribbons • 1 KDui'Covti- • 2 PtwB Printer INDI PRJCE £132.99 ZAPPO FLOPPY - eMlernal3.5' driw swiiublo for oH Amlgoi £44.99 ZAPPO 601NC - 5I2K Amiga COO RAM upgrade (n& clock] C29.99 ZAPPOdOK' lMbAmi9a600 RAM upgrade (with clock) £49.99 MULTISTART II ROM SHARER *1.3ROM-UHiboiM 34 2 04 Kicksiarf ROMs £44,99 POCTEC GENLOCK - Co»t eftso.ve video overlay for all Amaoi £69,99 SUPRA RX 2Mb - £xT0rnDl7Mb RAMgpqrade{orA500/500* Canbe intr«aifld up To 8Mb £1)9.99 3Mb SMAHTCARD - Cr«d,t cord iTylo RAM cord utili&mg A600^A12O0 PCMCIASIOT £129.99 4MbSMARTCARD - For A600/ A 1200, fnoximum RAM wilh o Jif«rimB guoranlael £199.99 RIPLACEMENT POWER SUPPLY - for tho Amiga A500/A600/A 1 200 £34.99 AMIGA 3000 - W.Th 2Mb RAM, 120Mb Hard Disk. PubliiSnnChoJca, Ami go Vi «ion £1 5 26 - 33 AMIGA4OO0 - V/;rK6MbRAM. 1 20Mb Hord Diik & Amkgo Vfiron £2348.82 COMMODORE ^U0 - U" H\Qh roioJuTiori rnonifor Joe uw witti A3000 S A4000 £369.99 OPAL VISION 24'BIT GRAPHIC SYSTEM - forTK.Amigo 1500/2000^ 3000MOOO £699.99 A150C (Amiga Vmon worth C99 00Fr«) £469.99 A1500 + 10845T^ PANASONIC KXP2113 PRINTER i^Am.qa VitoA & Wordworth wonh £228 99 Frw) £929,99 A1S004- 52Mb SCSI + 1084ST + KXP2l23|*ArT^.goVi«K>n& WordwoTh woth £226 99 Fm) £1159.99 o • DIRECT AFTER SALES AND SPECIALIST SERVICE All products arm 9uarant««d for 1 7 months- 5om« prodiict* corry o 13 month ot homo sorvkof r^polr [luorontoo (whorv Itvdkotod). rtHw unllkoly cvortt thot ony product purchosod from INDI orrivosot your homo faulty, wa will colloct f rom your homo and roploco tho product compJotoly fro* of chorgo. HyouownonAMlOA 1 500 or 3000 ond would liko to oxpand }xt hord disk or momory copoblllty or odd any othor poriphorol INDI con offor you a comploto door to door conf Igurotion sorvkofogothorwtthanodJittonol T2 moottis Bock to INDI wominty. Why irT:_T nni Products odvortlsod roprosont o smoll sompl* of our Instock rango. A comploto prico list Js a vol Jo bio on roquost. All products purtlwiod como with o comploto list of oil product! ovollobU from INDIwHhspoclolcustomor loyalty offors. AS PARTOF OUR POLICY OF CONTINUAL PSODUaDEVELOPMENTANDREFINUACNI, WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE SPECIFICATIONS OF PRODUCTS ADVERTlSEa PLEASE CONFIRM CURRENT SPECIFICATION AT THE TIME Of ORDERING. MldS ARE VAUDfOR MONTH Of ^tUCAT»ON ONLT HOW TO ORDER BY POST ^ simply fill In tho coupon bolow. BY PHONE — ring 0606 43S60 whoro your coll will bo onsworod by ono of our INDI solos toom. Aftor 6.00pm ooch day your coll will bo ans¥wr»d by onsworphono. H you would liko to »(oco on ordor tiavo oil dota lis at hond nciuding Crodit Cord. Ttio mossogo will gold* you through your ordor. AS 0193 SENDYOURORDERTO: INDI DIRECT MAIL FIRST FLOOR OFFICES, 85 WITTON STREET, NORTHWKH CHESHIRE CW9 5DW Ptoosa send , Price 4 Delivery I enclesa cheque/PO for £ or charge my Access/Visa No^ Expiry date S^nature Send to Noftie. Address / I TEL: 0606 43860 • FAX: 0606j43825 Daytime Tel, Postcode Program Name: set_a_pointer Language: 68000 Assembly Language Problem: The mouse pointer does not change when the user clicks in the opened window Author: RS Fosterf Strinesdale, Lanes or our first Issue of Code Clmlc^ wa have bugs in an aBsembly language program written to open a window on screen and then change the mouse pointer when the user clicks In It. The program m question had one comment in it. We'll ifinore it this time, hut please comment your Drugrarn& well. It fnahes debugging so much easier. There were several bugs In the program I was sent: 1, The routine op^nlnt should open ifie intuition uorafy. Well, it does. Dui ii does not checK itie return value. It is possible that the Exec will not be able to open it. You should check all return values from routines that might not work just in i^aae. If ir^tuition h^d net opened, in this case the program would crash. 2. The routine wLnopen should open the window. This routine also does not check to see if the window opened or not^ in the case of windows, in low memory conditions, or i1 you got your window information wrong, the window would not have opened and the pfogram would have crashed when it called SetPointer. 3. The routine custpolnter which sets up the custom window pointer sends the wrong information to the intuition routine SelPolnter - which is what is causing the program to fail. This fragment of code is the culprit: custpolnter t iDcrve,! movC-l wlndowtid , 90 ptr,al The line move. I ptr.al should he lea ptr,al. The Includes and autodocs for the intuition function SelPolnter dehne the register Ai as being a pointer to the data definition of a sprite". Consequently you must pass SetPolnter a pointer to this datan Instead, you were actually pointing it to the address $00000100, the first long word of data in your sphte. This is why the sprite went blank, as this memory probably contained zeroes. WHAITO.SEND US • •« Don't send reams and reams of listing paper with a prc^ram on it. Try and give some sort of clue as to what is not working, and where the error might be, and send a summary. If you must send in big programs, send them on disk, but note that we cannot return them unless you enclose an SAE. We can't do anything with messy or uncommented programs. The first rule of programming is to structure and comment your program welL Also, use Commodore's function names. This means using names like f OpenLlbrary, and OpenWIndow. (This is primarily an assembly language I piu^rrinimers problem.} Again, programs that use names like 'openiib' and I 'openwin' will be assigned to the round tiling cabinet on the floor (the bin). GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 1. The program was very difficult to follow, because you had not used the correct names for library functions. Vou should use the real names, like OldOpenUbrary and CloseLlbrary. Also, by defining the offsets to these routines yourself at the start of youf program you are increasing the likelihood of introducing errors. Always use the Commodore Include files, which come with DevPsc. 2, Vou are putting your entire program in Chip RAM using; section code, code c Only the Sprite data needs to be in Chip RAM. Put your program in Fast RAM if you can, I suggest that you have two sections: one of data_c for the sprite data and one of simpiy code for the program section. This way the program will get located in Fast RAM it it is available. 3. You have one comment in your program. You should document f ■- ■ "r^ LISTING: THE m all routines that you have and state the input and output values for them. 4. Waiting for the joystick is not good technique. This is what's called a 'busy wait'. It loads the multi- tasking operating system badly and slows everything down. Its best to have a close gadget on your window and wajt for it to be cifcked on. 5- Use macros for calling OS routines. This way you don't have to worry about messing up the library bases and A6 by accident. 6. Don't use OldO pen Library. This was present on Workbench 1.0 and 1,1. but was superseded tty OpenLlbrary which takes an additional parameter for minimum version. If you're not fussed about version, specify 0. 7. Your window structure shoutd reaJly use the intuition Include Mags rather than meaningless values such as Sf See the example program. A working (but not perfectl) version of this program is shown below, Happy coding! rs f^ "^m _^Wffrt^ PrDgraa to a^c • pcpusa polatar la % vindov *<tu 1 J DfBc librarr bflea. -indludvi" '■mc/ftmcdae.i- J *• Tdu nfly not J ttl I t Inodir LDCluda includa DHd ttila locluda Includ* Include t AY0I icro 1,1 :x4 .1 J" ■ndn ^iDCuit-lcm/ Intuit i«i« 1*" r CaII *jcw: .llbranr _LV0Ut4S> ; call incultlcpn. library ■OQtlon AfaL a .poiaLerri co^ia fttarti sovvq SYS ■ SODndD; Mot CuHftad about vaT-«to4 mtKasa^al Opam^ibrary dO^intbaaa j Bt^zm library baae. Ha intuition r — Opanad intuition OF, try and opan window ... iva TariL ttindcnfjaO IBT Op^ntrliulm iKrv«H^ dO.VlDdow__Handl* : Btora wlndcw J twj Ho Hlndov t I — Dpaned wiudciw OK, iflC our pointar^if nova,! Hin40¥ Handle, aO !«■ sprita^nata^al Dkovaq ISlOndQ aov*q •-7jd3 ; -Hot-ffpOt^ at -7,-7 Uff aatPolnt^t r Sat tbla painter. I — Nav Hlndov atructura t — How init until uaar cloaaa illodow ltalt.P<^r_CloBat ■ova^l OTS n1 Taat Hindowt Poaition dc.H Ocab da.l dew 50, SO r Hlndow StarC J ul vtDdcnr Handla^aO Hd^ UaarPort laO } , aO VAitPQTt ; Vatc for a vaaaaga. window. Ha&U*paO jODrlQO I window sli* Oil I Fana, IDCHF.CLOSBWINDON j Ha only want J ta know abOMt cloaa window dc,l J WrW3_CI^3EaADatr*Hri^_DRAOBAR*WFUI.flIMaAI^^ J nova. 1 wd UaarfortCaOt ,aO dc.l J tto gadgvtt SYS QvCHig J Get thq artaaag*. ^.1 Q I C^ckBATli iBAgAfy fflOVA. 1 dO^al da*l HlndowlffuiM 1 TiCI* d1 window. uva.l In ClasD{al]Hd7 i Fetch ^ii^eaage type dC.l ; dcr**n patdCer BTS RaplvH^O : n^ply to lAaaaAgt. dC.l cv>^w llDCMP.CLOSKWlNDOWHd? dc.w £4.£4,e40.aSfi J Hlo/Hui vlndow sin t»«,a H^t.PoTjCloae j Not for ua. dc.w MBKHCHSCnSIM j Oc«ii on vorkbcnch. 1 J -^ Cloaa down rout 1 nea . . . ■action Apr lt« ^ info H datft_e ■DTa.l Wliidow.HaDdlaHaO ' INT Cloaawlndow p cloae our window. 8prlt«^DaCA: dc.H Scioao.«OfiCD Ha Window] a»va. 1 intBaaa, al dc.v 80&C0,S0BAD SIS CloaaLibrary t Cl^mw Inculttcm J dc.w 8i»Ba.sa^4D library. dc.t- 30100. SD?90 1 dew foaoo.soioo J — Ouit to txta dc.o £0000,50000 Ho. Intuit ion I BOv^q tSOOpdO de-« $0000,50000 rta J nacum no error coda. dC.H »FrFF, $0000 1 dc-« (ODODH^ORhD f — Dur Variable i t^ta Section dO-H &0KJIO.ST.PF0 1 dc.v £0AA0H$lFrO aaction va r i oblaa ^ data dcH $QACQh $1FB0 1 dc.v SQAJlO.SIfVO IntBaaat dc-1 ; Spaca Cor library basa. dc.H $o£AO.$irro wlndcw_wendlet dCrl a J Apere for wlidow J do.« Sooao,souo handla. ac,H $0000,50000 IntHune: dc .b -Intuition . 1 Ibrary ■ , dc.H $0000,50000 HlndowHama: dc*b *Aalfla Shopper Code J de,w toaoonSOQao Clinic-, dc,w $DQOD,£OD0O cnop OiS J (Porcv even addreaa now) 1 * 1 EHD J End of progren. AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 • FEBRUARY 1993 VIDEO This month there are two exciting arrivals on the video digitising scene: Rombo's prIce-bustIng Vfdi- Amiga X2, and the RoM^-Royce of digltlsers, JCL's Coiourpic Plus. Both oH«r powerful new features te the Amiga vfdeo fan - though of course they t>elong In quite different price hracketcr Vtdt-Amlga 12 retahft at just under £100. ColourFic Plus at Ju«t under £700^ So. just in case anyone might get confu';ei1. Id likp tn make il clear that tfiis is not a comparative review, which ks why I've descnbeO each digitizer separately- Although they have many features in common they are ur^rikeiy to he direct comp^frtftre, Raint-r. tney represent !wo extremes of a specialised market. Right, e;i;ptariaLions over, now fedd on... ROMBO VIDI-AMIGA 12 Whars black, comes from Scotland, is a little larger than a packet of raE3, connects to your Amtgas flisk drive and parallel ports ar>d isn't made from girders? Rombo's new digitising box, the Vidi-Amiga 12, that's what. And Vtfhat exactly is a Vidi-Amiga 12? Easy. It's a hardware and software combination which lets you digitise video and turn it Into pictures that your Amiga can understand. And since It costs less than £100, a first for an integrated colour video grabt)Cf, it must surely be a bargain. So what's the difference Ijetween the Vidi-Amiga 12 and Rombo's previous digiTising package. The Complete Co/our So/^jf/on? That's another easy one: there Is no longer MUMMY, WHAT'S A DIGITISER? A di^ti»er provides the means of con vert J ng an analogue vltleo ■Ignal into dlgHaf data suitable for use by a computer. If a colour grab Is required the video signal must be divided into its constituent red, £reen and blue components and •ach part then digitJsed soparately - a step wtilch l« achieved tiy using either an electronic colour splitter when colour video Is being grabbed, or a set of coloured Wten when a blacli and white camera is uaed. After ttie Image has been &p1K and converted to digital data K is passed to the computer and the RGB data \s lecomblned by software to produce a colour image nie In a form which can de displayed by the computer. There are two kinds of digitiser - termed Fast and Slow Scan because of the relative speeds at which they can grab an image. Fast bean, as Its name suggests, scans an Image quicKiy because ii uses a frame store - a special hardware device designed to sample and hold ri video frame in memory. The advantage of such a system is that the captured image quality is usually very high and frames can be grabbed virtually Instantly from iiinuing vidgo with few protilems. Because the image is held in hardware memory it remains available for digitising until the buffer memory b cleared or rewritten. Fast Scan digitisers are generalTy more expensive than Slow Scan machines because they VIDEO BSYHS or INPUT I composite VI DtD/ RGB fonvcrler DIGITISER OUTPUT TO AMIGA Here we see the basic mecfianlcs of a digitiser - Just three stages between the video and the Amiga require more specialised hardware. Slow Scan digitisers are just that - slow. But take that advisedly, as some are slower than others! Newer generation digitisers like Vidh Amiga 12 and DigiJiger 2 are m fact verv nippy< taking only seconds to grab in full colour. NewTek's DigiView, still a popular digitising choice, IS showing its age in the speed stakes - it really is slow. Because such digitisers are slow they need to be fed perfect still images, since any movement dunng grabbing wkll either result in colour fnnging when the individual R. G and B files are recombined or motion blurring in black and white grabs. Mind you, some of these 'errors' can produce interesting special effects if you can work out how to control them. Whether you've £100 or £700 to spend, video digitisers are now available to suit every pocket, Gary Whiteley checks out whaf^ up for grabs Rombo's Vttii-Amiga 12 (here pictured on top of the ColourPic Ptus) is the firet Amiga digitiser for under £100. and offers great value for money and remarkably good quality. But the ColourPic Pfas (ImIow) has more connecters, more controls, and a much wider degree of flexibility any ne^d for a separate colour splitter as one is now integrated into the new unit; S-VHS as well as the usual composite video signal can be used: the software has been significantly retooled: the hardware noticeably improved: and the whole thing IS markedly cheaper than its predecessor. So, that s the introduciions out of the way - now let's get on to seeing what the Vidi- Amiga 12 cau aol GRAB THIS] As you might expect. VidhAmsga 12 can digJtise video m a range of formats - from NTSC to PAL and from 2 colours to 4096 (in lo- res interlaces Rus it can produce HAM-E renders in 262.000 colours (if you have one of Black Beit's now obsolete HAM-E display devices) Of in a 256<;olour mode called EREG. which is designed with the new AA chip set graphic modes in mind. Ncymal screen sizes range from fo- res (320 by 256 pixels) to hires overscan (704 by 566), but the digitising area can also be defined to cover any rectangular portior^ of the video image. A Io^oSh 16-colour S-VK5 grab taiien from a postcard AMIGA SHOPPER # ISSUE 32 • FEBRUARY 1992. VIDEO The VidiAmiga 12 software Is simple enough to use and I had no crashes at all during testing, which makes a refreshing change. In addition to the mam display window Uiere's a Grab menu for controlling the firabbrng functionSn and Mouthwatering scenes llk« this can be easily grabbed with a normal camcorder and vtOi^Amiga 12 Preference menus for setting up both the Grab and Display parametprs. Then there is the carousel menu wtiich is used to get an instant view of the images m the Amiga's memory and to p!ay back sequences: the Edit menu which contains picture procQssinfitoois: and, imaHy, a Load/Save requester. IN THE PICTURE At the heart of the V'^'-Amiga 12 is the Grab Control menu, where aii the main grabbing functions are laid out. A& weM as being able to grab a colour picture in one smooth continuous action. Vtili' Amiga 12 can also grab in black and white. It can also grab sequences of Images from tape or Irve action - though only »n monochrome and at a fairly slow rate of perhaps one or two frames per secondn depending upon the selected grab size. If you prefer to grab images manually, for instance with a black and white Video camera ana colour niter wh9el. each of the RGB components car^ be grabbed individually and then combined to produce a ruli-colour image. To make digitising easier a low- resolution black-and-wnite preview can be displayed, enabling framing and focusing without the need for a second monitor. Adjustments to the image quality can be made with slider controls for Colour. Contrast. Brightness and vertical position, and the whole im<$e cdn Ue flipped around both the X and Y ajies prior to grabbmg- Further brightness adjustment is possible by tweaking a screw on the side of the harriware. Once an Image has been grabbed and its colour components mixed together it can t>e viewed to ensure all is well. However, if there is a problem the image cannot be tweaked using the control sliders. You have to adjust the controls and do the grab again. Before storing the m^ge In memory you can readjust the mix by adding dithering which mixes existing colours together to give the appearance that there are more of them), optimising the palette for best results or evenaltenngthe grab format- If the grab is OK ^ then hilling the Store button will transfer it to the Carousel and memory buffer of the main screen. This means that the stored image, or last frame of a sequence Jf Continuous grabbing was in force, will be displayed in the window on the mam screen - cliching on it will cause it to be displayed full-screen. ROUND THE CAROUSEL Carousel is a film-stnp window where all the images which are currently in the memory - regardless of whether they are animation sequences or still frames - can be seen in miniature. The whole lot can be played back on screen as an animated slide show, or a single frame can be loaded into the main window for subsequent full- screen display. Edit manipulation A black and wnite pieview screen helps you decide when to grab and/or saving. Unwanted images can be deleted - either singly or all together - but there is no way of selecting several pictures and deleting them all at once< which I thought was a small omission. READY FOR EDIT Edit is for globally processing an image. A range of eleven effects is available to embosSn false colour, blur and generally mess about with an image. Previously digitised images (or other IFF files, for that matter) can be loaded in and processed in the same way as a freshly-digiiised one. The effects are certatnly interesting and, while I personally wouldn't have much use for them. I'm sure that many Vidi- Amiga 12 owners will love them, LOADING AND SAVING After grabbing to your heart's content you'd better save some of your creations. Since Vidi-Amiga 12 can grab either sttUs or animations it makes sense that it can save both as well. Anims and images are saved as IFF fonnat files which can be imported by other programs tor I t ■Tlitl real significance, and a call to Rombo soon put me siraighL LOOK AT THE QUAUTY Notwithstanding the slight problems mentioned above, the Vidi-Amiga 12 is a major performer, especjally when using an SVHS source. I tned a variety of video sources and was generally happy with them all. As you can see from the sample images rt Is possible to get excellent quality HAM images with Vtftt-Amiga 12 with any reasonable quality v^deo si^iaL Actually, I was very surpnsed at the quality which Vidi-Amiga 12 could deJjver - especially at such a relatively low cost. , Vidi-^if> \1 ifAl Pii* foAlrel V^ir^'^ lfu|t Cittril ir*iirn ~ c^«iT]ra» Simple layouts help you And your way around the software supplied wrth Virii-Amigsl2 further treatment or output. Previously saved images and animations can also be reloaded if you so require. SMAU TROUBUS Of course not everything was sweetness and light, but I only came across one major problem. No matter what I tried. I found it impossible to got Vidi Amiga 12 Xo save a hires image, even though all the settings indicated that was what would happen, instead I always got a lo-res interlaced save - which wasn't what I wanted. Actually, this isn't completely true because when i used an SVHS camera I managed to save some hi'fes overscan imageSn but I couldn't get the same results with a composite input. In fairness to Rombo I should say that at the lime of review a number of finishing touches were bejng made to the software - I am assured that this bug has since been trapped and hilled, as have several minor ones whtch I didn't spoti However, one addition I would be happy to see would be keyboard short-cuTs. which always make life easier for the user. I did try to do a few things that I shouldn't have, mainly because the documentation hadn't t)een fully completed when I was reviewing the product- Consequently I had a few smad problems, but nothing of any Vidi- Amiga 12's system requirements are as follows: it will ' fl run on any Amiga . fl computer with at least W^M 1Mb of memory. ^^M though more will W^ enable longer [^1 animation sequences to be grabbed. A15CX)/2000 owners will require a special mnector cable g I avail at) le separately). A video source with perfect freeze will also be required for static colour grabs- fooooooooo SHOPPING LIST VHihAmi9C]12 by Hombo, Baitd Rood, Uvingslon, Scotland EH54 7AZ « 0506 466601 £99.95 ECKOUT Vidi-Amiga 1 2 Documentation Unfair 10 coiTimGri as the version 1 had was iusi a photocopied preview. Features • • • • O EveryUung you rwed for good quality grab[>ing and more^ Quality • • • • • An excellent performet. grven a riaif-decent mput. S'VHS gives even nx>re impressive results. Speed • • • • ~ Grabs in colour very quic*ily. Though sjb^gjent processing does take a htUe while. Price • • Brilliant - worth twice the pnce. Overall rating Excellent resu^s at a great price. 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Telephone (0707) 390029 OPENING SOON MEGASTORES |,:0^ALDERSHOT WEMBLEY SUPERSTORES 4^ BARNET WALTHAMSTOW ALL FOR THE INCREDIBLE PRICE OF £59.95 NB Pergonal callen in to ono of our »torai may d*(kict £10 tfx>ni the above price- We reserve the nght to refuie compvten thol hov« boen fwnpered with or are beyond HOflOflnicd repoir. \d thij inslarKe o oominol ElO chorgt will be mode to cover carriage co*l>. EXnND TOUR WARRANTY TO A TOTAI OF 1 YEAR FOR ONLY AN ADDITIONAL 120.00 Ml PM€KS mtUBOM VAT 41 COVJIWJr 0gU¥KRY VIDEO rrcr» Uttirm Infi With a t>ack£round taken directly off-air, this shows the unobtrusive menu of the Cabaret Plus software clearly visible at the battoffi of th9ficreon CotourPic Plus is big. In tact K s the biggest digltlser I've seen tor the Amiga, measuring up at almost ten incneb siquate ny fwo inches deep. As the top of JCL's range of digitJsera it's also got the biggest price tag - nearly £700 - arid probably the widest range of fedtuies of any Amigd d^^ltlser. Based on JCL's own custom chip architecture the CotourPic Plus is a fast-scan digiliser with unsurpassed flexibility - and a few catches, as you'i! seeiaicr. PLUS HARDWARE Inputs for the CotouiPtc Pius aren't simply a matter of phono video sockets - a look at the back of the unit will show that It is studded with connectors. In addition to the humble i^ornposito vrdco input Eon a protessional quality Hf^C connecton Co}ourPic Pius also has inputs for S- VHS (Y-C) and RGB video sisals. It passes the Amiga UQB through to the monitor and has both composite and UHF video outputs. There are two specidi flutllu connectors for animation grabbing, ^nd the usual parallel port connector. The whole UiMig IS mdiTiSHXJwereU, so it doesn't put the least strain on your ftmiga. though oddly enough there is no on /off switch. The stove-enamelled meiol ceae is very sturdy and closely matches the Amiga's colouring. There ore tivo knobs which control the ColourPic Pius, but only foiir of them are needed for PAL Operations. On the front panel are controls for altenng Itie brightness, contrast colour and hue (which only works with NTSC systems) of the incoming video signal, while on the rear is a rotary knob for selecting Y- C. composite or RGB video inputs. As you'll appreciate, winng up a ColoorPic P'us IS a little more comploK than connocting your average digitrser, but no more aiTTlcull. Most of the necessary LdUiKh die pfuvicJed. inuu^n you'll need to rustle up your own composite video connections and get an optional RGB cable from JCL should you require one. Fir^dlng space for the CoiourPtc Pius may be another matter - but it does fit nicely under most monitors. SO all is not I losi. hurtnermoreH there s no need to ^ fiddle with cables once the Colourpic ^^ jBffmuiEftUJf^ An S-VHS grab of a [wstcard. using HAM colours on a io-re<^ screen 13 80t Up as II passes the RGB signal through regardless of whether or not it IS ponneotjsd to thf* parallel port. PLUS SOFTWARE Software- wise, the ColourPic Pius is supplied with two programs. Firstly tho etondard ColourPic digitising software, which I found acceptable though not amazing, and secondly the new Cabaret Ptus program - which is almost like chalk to CoiourPic's cheese. To save space ril skip mentioning the ColourPic program entirely^ as Cabaret Plus does virtually everything it does and plenty more besides. CABARET PLUS 1 was surprised at just how many functions the Cabaret Pius software contains^ In addition to the digitising controls, animation grabbing menus, polctte commands and load/save menus there is also a suite of graphics filters which let you do special effects on grabbed images. Upon loading the program the nrsi ttiing io do is leii Cabaret Plus the size you wish to digitise at. The choices are from a[[ the usual resuiuiiuns - lo-res. interlace, hires, overscan and combinations thereof* though ht-res interlace is only available when an extra RAM module A higher-reaolutJon 5-VHS grab taken from a postcard with HAM colours has been added to the ColourPic Pius Itself, Once the size is set there is no way to change it other than by ewting Uie software and restarting, so be sure that you've made the right choice, because attempting to load a different'Sized pre-saved image back into the system will result in a flat refusal. Thai said, once the software is [unning and video is ffowmg through the hardware then things become quite exciting. With a standard Amiga RGB monitor a Simple press on the space bar wUl flip back and fofth between a crisp video display and the Cabarer Plus screen. This on- screen playback avoids having an extra monitor dedicated to showing the video nnd also helps when grabbing sequences or specific frames from live action, however, if you prefer the Amiga monitor can t>e used separately and the frame Store output directed to either a composite or UHF (aerial socket) display. The video display itself is of a very high quality, and all the more impressive when you learn that what you are watching IS actually a converted video signal which is t)eing shown in l&bit (64.000 colours) in real timeT Grabbing is then just a matter of waiting for ihe right image to come along and hitting a hot-key to freeze the video signal passing through the CotourPic Pius 's framestore. Once held in the framestore the image remains available until a new freeze is made, so it can be recalled at any time if a subsequent change proves unsatisfactory. The grabbed image is then downloaded to the Amiga and displayed on screen in the selected number of colours, A grabbed single Image can be saved immediately in a range of formats. There are all the normal IFF file formats, including IFF24. plus RGB.TARGA, JCL'S own CP fomiat and the AIM (Another Image Manager) format which integrates with the AIM PD Image processing software (available separately). ColourPic Plus can load all the above formats, plus DigiView and Sculpt 24-bit files. USING THE FRAMESTORE Because most Amigas can only display 4096 colours there are times when a grabbed image doesn't look as good as it could. If you make video productions ColourPic Plus can Ije used as a still store to display much higher quality images and pass the output to video equipment for recording and display, in ColourPiC Ptus parlance this is termed uploading, since it Involves loading an image back into the framestore. Any image which can be loaded into ColourPic Plus can be uploaded - including 24-dh images. Sculp: files, Targa Tiles, and more - and shown in 64,000 colours on video. I tried upJoadmg a 24'bit Imagine render and. whilst not as smooth as when displayed in 16 million colours, the results were very acceptable. COLOUR CONTROLS After grabbing an image it can be spruced up quickly by selecting a new palette option to make it sharper or softer. The number of colours can also be selected, ranging from HAM to 2 colours, with an option to convert to 2'level black and white as well as 16-level greyscate. Any tweaks to the overall image can be made with palette controls for R. G, B, brightness and contrast, which can be used before or after grabbing. ANIMATION ColourPic Plus can grab sequences of frames direct from live video. It can also grab selected sequences X4 AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 77 m FEBRUARY 1993 VIDEO from video lape automatically, but a little preparatory work is necessary in this C35f However, there are Ijmjtatpons. based on the amount of memory tilted to the CotonrPic Pius. FOT example, with the standard 512*^ fitted, only two francs of full-screen video can be grabbed, while 11 frames of 1/4 screen, 28 frames of 1/9 aorccn or 50 frames of 1/lQ srrppn arP alBO possible. Note That tno smoUo'' screen sizes are not comprcaaed versions of the whole image* merely sections of it, though it is possible to produce 1/4 screen compression via software. Sequence grstJbing can be triggered manually, but ft can also be done oulom otic ally. This is where the audio ports on the back of the CofouiPic Plus come in. Jf you have 3 WR with audio dub caDability. you can set an audio marker where you wish to start grabbing fn^m on the lape. ColourPic Pius can tie triggered by this audio marker and will start grabbing at the specifred pofnt. But don't de&pair you can always add O Efioft< loud noise to a tape being recorded to get the same effect If you haven't got an audio dub facility. Extended animations can be made using this feature as the software can recognise where it is and make adjustments to start digitising at the next ungrabbed frame in the setiueriLe. Aaailionaily, it <5 possible to tell the software how many frames to skip after the audio marker before tt starts digitising. Grabbed sequences can be saved etther as IFF sequences for assembly with other software, such 99 Q<jl(jAG Paint IV, or saved as special 64,000 co»our files which can only be replayed with ColourPic Plus. Personally 1 found that the limited animation facility, while interesting, was little more than a novelty, but I'rn sure there ar© some Who will rmd rt indispensable. IMAGF PROCESSING If you've spent ages getting a pristine grab you're unlikely lo want to mess it up with image processing. But it IS entirely possible that you'll need to process an image to use as a background for another graphic, for instance. By using the processing fillers all hinds of operations can be done on an imagen including softening, averagingn gamma, negative, embossing and so on, A grand total ot 22 different effects are currenMy avaf[able. TRKKY THINGS ColourPtc Plus has more tricks up its sleeve- Grabbed images can be flipped around both their x and Y axes, or subdivided into four identical images, or magnified so that a portion of the Image is blown up to fuU acrcen size - w^th all the ANTI-A SUPER PACK An Instant grab from VHS tape attendant jeggies to boot- One half of an image can even be mirrored horizontally or verticaJly to produce spl it-sy mm et ry pictu res . WHAT'S THE CATCH? Now, I dont want to be a spoilsport, but surely for this sort of money it should tie possible to easily grab an Image in hi res interfaced overscan^ 704 by 566 pixels for example? Unfortunately thts isn't the case. Cabaret Pfus can t handle it without DATA SHARING 6om« r*ader« hav9 bwn concerned about problemfi that they have had using a paraUel data transfer switch with the Vldl-Amlga 12 and their printers. I tried using such a dvvlce with my AmlKii 2000 and had no problems at ail when switching between printer and digltlser. However, a data switcher isn't necessarily a good idea as the data transfer rates between the digitiser and the Amiga can be adversely affected, possitily causing lost or confused data - and hence bad grabs - and so JCL expressly points out that data switches should not be used with its digitisers. 1 thought you might like to know that Zen Computer Services has recently released a bundle for Amiga font buffs called the AntiA Super Pack, which comprises Z^n'l own AntiA font aliasing program plus 2S AGFA Coiiipugraphic loots In WorkBencti 2 Oullet format. Also Included are four pre-scaled and antl^allased versions of each font ready to use In any graphics application which con utilise Colorfents. Amiga owners with Workbench 2.04 or greater can use the Bullet fonts with any software capable of scaling them on the fly. or make them into Amiga bitmap fonts using the WB2 Fountain program- Because they are scalable they don't produce tiie tagged edges normally associated with scaling up bitmap fonts, though they will never appear perfectly smooth because of the size of the pixels which make up the Amiga's video display. For great looking displays they can be convened to Amiga Colorfents up to 180 lines high by using rhe AntiA program to produce smooth edged, antialiased Coiorfonts. The AntiA Super Pack costs £82,25 inclusive. Alternatively, if you already have AntiA you can buy the Bullet fonts alone (with no scaled and atiased versions), for £49.35 inclusive. Either way, if you're lookmg for high QualJty fonts suitable for a range of titling and graphics appTJ cat ions you should seriously consider these packs. I was using them recently with Scala 1.1 and MM200XO produce the graphics for the Future Publishing stand at the Future Entertainment Show just a couple ot months ago and I must say that I was very pleased with their range and quality. If you'd like to know more, or would like to get hold of the fonts for yoursert, both packs are available direct from Zen Computer Sen/ices, 2 Silver Birch Grave. Swinton. Manchester M27 IFS ff/Fax 061-793 1931. Note that Compugraphic fonts in Bullet format are not compatible with the CGFonts used by programs such as Professional Page and PageSetter as they use a different CG format. the addition of JCL's recently released £150 RAM card. and. though the older CoIourPic software can do n. the process may take several minutes. In its defence JCL points nut that grabbing moving images m hires interlace is pointless because of undesirable motion flickering problems - which is why Cabaret Ptus includes a de- interlacing routine. Fair enough, but why should quality be compromised when digitising a Still image from a video camera, for instance? A^ second gripe is about the lack of dithering routines available with ColourPtc Ptus. an omission which surpnsed me. By adding at least simple dithering to the image processing operations I reckon that tho display quality could be Immensely improved and smoother- looKing displays created. I have to conclude that ColourPic Plus certainly provides high quality grabs, and has plenty of flexibility in both its hardware and software. It is extremely fast, and generally quite simple to use, yet it is so highly priced rhat i doubt it it will sell in any significant quantity . CotourPic Ptus requires: an Amiga with at least 2Mb of RAM, rhough more would be handy for large images or grabbing animations. A hard disk would also be useful to cope with the large data files. ^D ooooooooo SHOPPING LIST ColourPic Plus « »., £699 by JCL Business Syslems Ltd, 71 Si Johns Rd, Tunbffdge W^b, Kern TN4 90 IT 0892 516181 CHECKOUT ColourPic Plus Documentation • • • • • Excel leni, nicely presented, well wnnen. and full Of useful infonrraiion. Features • • • • Ali^osi everything you mighr need for video digitismg. Quality •••• • Undout>tediy excellent. Speed Fast and clean- Price Value • ••OO Possibly overpriced, corisrdering the compeUTion, but I suppo» you riave To imi0l up the pros and cons. Overall rating o A very good digJtise:, afbeit expensive, which unfortunately suffers from a lack of hi-res irieriace grabbing m the basic model. AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 • FEBftUAAY 1993 A^ mx AMIGA 600 HILD, WEIRD & WICKED' £7?9.99 AMIGA 600HD 'EPIC PACK" £?79.99 [ WE WISH ALL OUR CUSTOMERS A HAPPY ^S_PROSPERqUS_NEW_IEAR^ SALES: 0274 - 691115 oFzn svm>XT ALL PRICES INCLUUl VAT > HMM > > > lUILT 1M DUVB 1-04 TV ALL eOCV HAVE FPEtiaiiio»m4s OH-vrt WAHfUHrv > EfCLink ruwt Add £42 S9 versions > > > > HOU» i,%~ DIIJI DHTVI Jl>BO BJUtD DIUVK HDUBOm l.H ■VILT-IV TT HCClAJlTOft TUVIAL mjUtJITfl JCT1C MXTM AMIGA 600 £277.99 > > > > > J,»^ wwcr PIH DUW PCI 1.01 mUILT-Ilf TV HDCrtJuaoft SrOP PRESS - HURRY - BEAT THE PRICE RISES COMMODORE ANNOUNCE PRICE INCREASES ON ALL AMIGA5 FROM 1-1-93 AHiaik too DILUIfl ^CfllTQA ■I-JlTIM / COrTICL CXFTIU C «« . M iLMTfUk 1300 OCLUlt lOnTCP ITJlTIOil / CONTMDL CEVTU flV.VV CoHprlaaa colour HAtohad it**! itflod for Bonttorytvj vhalE uddtr lor Piu * 4ivtaz~nAl drlT* vtc) >Udft« t J^Tfttl^li port ZOOL PACK,OWLy £19.99 With any Ajoica. " vgb rrp t29.*V > riMUUX mUH rrp 123.99 * ATtnV R» EJ5.99 « TUHnnjn trp £i9,9V ( KordprocAi lo r j mM. VALVm tlATiM VFGRADS YOUft 600. :it 7.1 UKHJICS E17.99 liMilir t4 Worhb4b4h 1 - babt ■^■^ f««tur' i iitllxti.*!- Ko Eu*d to op«A four AmIqa ■ iao* BO BiH roB obip to iaBiBlI* 1]«9 irrDUlAJ^ lAM CAU^f IP PTOCM iniMAL lAKD mXVE4 FIUH UK>n tl30 PRINTERS CITIJBH SHITT 3C0LOUR OWLI fie«.99 ■panel. Wm2i bulU-in £(VltBr ^TLfTti^W I Irac^or foBA. PflfB^^ CITIZBN SWlfT 2tOC COLOUR {^^89-^9 24 pin pTliiI*r vUh J^OflVA diAft. i 90 cpa Laitar ffiuilltT ptitil ■fH4tl. Nlrw l«Ltar tfiAlltv font-^r ? Bciiljihl* Ivttr cpj^Uty Kwv UrtlQ, me P70 4 ]W pnprtnur J4bb ^lutim. 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DUSTCOVEH rflW ^CONNECTING LEAD ti W > OR QOTH FOH Efl B9 GOLDSTAR TV MONITOR EI79.99 > 14' SCREEN > FULLT^EMOTECONTHDL > 5CAnT50CK£T|[gbiFC>ut >5UPenB PIC TURF > DUST COVER M» > CONNECTING LEAD Ci «« » OP BOTH FOR C« M &I-RCS 14' COLOUR MONITOR £329.99 k 14' ANnauVRE SCttEEN >J>Jflp»"i DOTPiTCM > ID24 1 7£a Pi:>IELS > ANALOGUE FKia 1MPUT r TILT rSW^EL BASE . FUCKER FWEH COM PATIBLE CBH 10a4S MONITOR SPECIAL OPPER OHLI C199,99 INC LEADS. TV TUNER fcr UB« vith CoaiBodtirfl ihon i - SuitBbl« PhilipB/ ■MILT !■ AHhfl 9? Dt EXTERNAL DISK DRIVES BOCLITE RF3e2aT 3,S''DRIVE WITH MTTIVlRLra ft UTI CLICK TEAtVUft. OUR PRICK tCT.M OR HITM WW ICOP* PW) t99.99 CUMMIA CAI154 3.^ DftIV? C5£,99 OA HITS NEW iCOPy PRO Ca9.99 MEMORY UPGRADES AH^OA ADD Pl-UA 1 yCO U^tfOR V ijfN^^qAEX Jidi P<0Q4 m t^OIOWfVing WdirAr^ty unafTvc^vd 1144 » AUQ. 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[ J9 , *9 mn* or flu ADAAJklDIII lA 4VKS- lA ATCPTA K AA] COMPUTER ^^ SUPPLIES Suppliers t^DttC€MtH Sttfluatv slttce 1984 EducalkmaK local Aufhorrty and government orders wckorrtc. EurOfMon orders picdse call or write for a f]iiJit.itinn AH ^tm6<> si^iect lo availabilily, prices subiect to change wrthoul notice, t&OE. Pr(c« Inclode VAT and delivenr by port. Courier dofivar> available on requeit. PIoaBG allow & d^iyB tor cheque clearance. TO ORDER: Credit card orders can be placed by callina the telephone number below - or ^eno a cheque/PO's made out to MJC Supplies to: MJC SUPPLIES (ASH) Unit 2 The Arches, Icknield Way, Utchwortti, Hertfi. SG6 lUJ. Tel: (0462) 481166 (6 lines) EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE AMIGA COMPUTERS NEW- AMIQA 1200 The very latest Ami^a computer- now offers twice the oroccssine speed at 14,9Mhz, 2 Mbyte of Chip Ram as standard, tne new AA enhanced chip set offering up to 16 million colours, a IjII 96 hcy^ wfth niimmc: keypads. Workbench 3,0 and 1 ? mnnlhs fln-^itp warrantv- MJC PRICE CALL (price inciucJtfS liee courier delivery) AMIGA 600 The "DorlablH kwiaa. features surface mount technology (or greater reliability and Wofkbench 2- Comei with 1? months warranty, MJC PRICE £271.00 (price mcludes free courier delivery) AMIGA 600 HD EPIC PACK Amiga 600 wilh a genuine Commodore 20 Mbyte hard drive fitted. The Epic pack comes complete with four games, Deluxe Paint 3 and an Amiga Easy Text Word Processor MJC PRICE t429.95 (price includes (roo couner delivery) PLEASE NOTE: All the above computers are genuine UK models with nothing taken out ot the packs. All come with 12 montns On-site warran- ty and free courier delivery. AMIGA STARTER PACK Inctudes - 1 di^l- ■ : apacity disk box, joy- stick, dust cover and Mouse mat. MJC PRICE CI 9.9S (Or fij*5f n^ 95 (t purcnar^ea with an AmiQa) AMIGA OOO CONTROL CENTRE Manufdctured by Premier Micros these are nidde of sticct Gtcel and epoxy coaled to exactly maich fhp bOtJ. They arc precision made to fit TO 600 dhd offer a perfect b3%G for a monitor and a shelf for your extra disk drive or peripherals, MJC PRfCE £34.95 iOr just E29 95 i( purchased with an Amtga GOO) A600 1 MEGABYTE EXPANSION Increase your memory lo 2 Mbyte, incbdcs Clock. MJC PRICE C44.95 (Or just C39 95 if purchased with an A600) THE FUN SCHOOL RANGE Probably the best selling educational software for the Amiga. Fun School 3 and 4 also conform to the National Curriculum Fun School 3 for Under 5 Fun School 3 for 5-7 years Fun Scfiooi 3 for over 7 Fun School 4 far Under 5 Fun School 4 for 5-7 years Fun School 4 for Over 7 £15.95 C15.95 El 5.95 £15,95 El 5.95 E15.95 FUN SCHOOL SPECIALS In response to consumer demand a range of FUN SCHOOL SPECIALS have been developed to help children wrtti specific areas of learning. MefTin's Maths Spelling Fair Paint and Create £17,95 £17.95 £17.95 LAUGH AND LEARN WITH ADI The M)\ series are aimed al being fun To use as well as being a senous educatronl tool Each package is specifrcaliy flesigned to follow the National CurrJculum tor a particular schoof year. ADI - English ADI - English ADI ■ Maths 1 ADI - Maths 1 ADI ■ French ADI ' French ADI - Maths 1 ADI ■ Maths 1 ADI - French ADi - French 11/12 years 1 2/1 3 years V1 2 years 2/1 3 years 11/12 years 12/13 years 3/1 4 years .4/15 years 13/14 years 14/15 years £17.95 £17.95 £17,95 £17,95 £17.95 £17.95 £17.95 £17,95 £17,95 £17.95 KOSMOS SOFTWARE Kosmos software produce a superb range of educahonal software including the Answerback QuiZ programs and four foreign language aids as well as the hugely popular Maths Adventure. Answerback Junror Quiz (6-11 years) £14.95 Answerback Senior Quiz (12 to Adult) £14.95 Factfile Spelling (requires Junior Quiz) £7.95 Factfile Arithmetic (requires Junior Quiz) £7.95 French Mistress £14.95 German Master £14.95 Spanish Tutor £14,95 Italian Tutor £14.95 Maths Adventure £1 7.95 LCL SOFTWARE Pnmary Malhs Course (3-12 years}£1 8.95 Micro Maths iGCSE LevelO £18.95 Micro French (GCSE Level) £18,95 Micro English (GCSE Level) £18,95 Micro German (GCSE Level) £18.95 Reading & Wnting Course [3 years +) £18.95 COOMBE VALLEY SOFTWARE This IS a range o1 excellent educational acJven ture games for various ages. Maths Dragons (5-12 years) £12.95 Cave Maze (8-13 years) £12.95 Reasoning With Trolls (5-12 years) £12.95 Fraction Goblins (8-13 years+) £12.95 Picture Fractions (7-10 years) £12.95 Tidy The House (5-9 years) £12,95 AMIGA SERIOUS SOFTWARE AMOS - THE CREATOR Easy Amos - Simple but powerful Amos vl.2 The original language Amos Compiler Amos 3-D 122.95 £31,95 £16.95 £21.95 NEW • AMOS PROFESSIONAL At enhianced version of the very popular Amos pro- gram. Contains over 200 new commands. 650 page brand new manual and many more new features. MJC PRICE £44.95 NEW - WORDWORTH 2 T^e latest version uE this very popular Word Processor, Now includes 1 7 Compugraphic fonts, il produces silky smooth orvscreen fonts at any size. Columns, New tool bar, Indexing, Table of contents. Lists, improved mail merge and many more new features, MJC PRICE C74.95 Protect V4, 3 Pen Pal VI, 4 Kindwords 3 £39.95 £37.95 £32.95 MINI OFFICE AMIGA Great new integrated package featuring a Word Processor. Database, Spreadhseet. Graphics and Disk Utilities. MJC PRICE £39.95 VIDI AMIGA 12 Vidi Amiga 12 is the latest low cost colour digitis er from Rombo. RGB Splrtter is buiH in and colour images can be captured in less than a second. Mono images are grabbed in real time Features mutti taskmg software, composite or S VHS Input, HAM, EHB and overscan. MJC PRICE £75.95 MISCELLANEOUS 1 Pro Midi Interface £19.95 Stereo Master £29.95 Rombo MegamiK Master £28.95 Rombo Take 2 £39,95 Pagesetter 2 (requires 1 Mbyte) £39,95 Hisott Devpac 3 £49.95 Hisoft Highspeed Pascal £69.95 Final Copy 2 £65,95 Deluxe PamtV4.1 £54.95 FINANCIAL Home Accounts 2 Personal Finance Manager Plus Ma XI pJ an 4 £36. 9b £29.95 £34 95 ZYDEC DISK DRIVE A superb value second disk drive for the Amiga. Includes tree Virus X disk. MJC PRICE £52,95 NAKSMA UPGRADE MOUSE 280 DPI quality replacement mouse - Pack includes Mouse house. Mat and Operation stealth game. MJC PRICE £22.95 ACTION REPLAY 3 MJC PRICE £54.95 ROBOSHIFT Auto sensing toy stick/mouse switch box. MJC PRICE £13.95 SQUICK REPLACEMENT MOUSE Greal value feplacement mouse. MJC PRICE £12.95 VISA Remember ^^ric m m. A R E X X Welcome bach to ARexx For Ail. Or, If you Juat happen to have found an Amiga In your Christmas stocking and this Is youf first tssue ot Amiga Shopper, welcome to ARexx ForAiL For tnote or you uvno might Do now to the column, this b\x of the magoilno b dodlcotcd to ARcam. the programming Isnyuage bundled ^^^^^^^^^ with ail Amigas- includlng the latest additions to the Amiga family, the A1200 and A4000. 5or wh*it is ARexx anyway? it you sturiiDitJci across (I ^^^^^^^^ on your Workbench aisk, AHgkx 15 a powerful and very versatile languagp To oul it in a nuishoM. It can be uaeO lo write compleie apDiications anO even ■script' files that control other appffcation programs. We haven't reaJly got the time or the space to back tracks through ihe last three months' wortn of ARexx For All. so it you are new to the 1 ''It can be used fo write complete applkations and even 'script' files.*. information that the scnpt needs to execute, but n would be a lot nicer If we could feed our ARexx scripts information from the command line. For example, say you were writing an ARexx sen pi that merged the information held within two files- This sort of script would be far more useful if you could feed it with the filenames of the two f*ies when you firs! run the script ^^^^^^^^" (just like an AmigaDOS command], therefore leaving you to gel on with something more productive, if the scnpt couid accept command line arguments, it would also be very useful for use within AmigaDOS scripts, indeed, you could use ARexx to extend AmigaD05 considerably, without having to resort to either C or Assembler coding. Not sufpnsinglyn ARe>[x does allow you to do just that. What s more, the process is actually ve^y simple indeed. When a script is executed, either using the RX // a I nil . el*d3.^frg,re** W-tnj c :ed3.0 db a Ijim,^hi ounJ toad RX HrgrpvK l^*#d Rnigd SNopptr Eucru Honth ) - Redd Rr^iga Shoppy Euerv Honth I - Read Chopper E =t |uord.3 = Mt)rd.4 * 3 4 5 6 □I Ed g.ae irgmtents >^ ■rg< 1 ) SHELL S^ELL Isn't flfieMK uonderful! uorflcount = uord^Cari Kj n-l tg wonJtutJiit uord.n = uOfd<3rgijnentS,r^l end to ri^l to worddwint b«i I >Hlt A vital ingredient for scrrpt-based languages: the ARexx function 3Tg() allows you to pass arguments to your ARexx scripts from the command line magazine and wish to learn more about ARexx. I'd strongly recommend that you spend that Christmas money you received ffom your Auntie Gertie on tjack copies of the last three iB«uee of Amige SflOppsf- But for the rest of you. let's get straight an with mis month s installment of ARexx coding... STOP ARGUINGl Up until now. the AReix scripts that we've been wriung have been preiTy useless to sav the least. As a demonstration of the fundamentais of ARexx coding they've served their purpose admirably, tjui an ARexx script (or indeed any program) is only really of use if you can feed it Informdiion in one form or another to process. Now. you could use the pull command that we covered in Issue 19 to prompt the user for any command from the Shell, or when it is called from another script, any arguments passed to it are automatically transferred to an internal ARexx function called ARG(), If the acnpi is executed from the Shell, the arg() function copies every argument into a single continuous stnng of characters. These can then be accessed by simply passing the stnng returned by calling arg(l) into a vanable. To do this, you just need to add The following to your scrtpt: arguments = argd) MULTIPLE ARGUMENTS Obviously this is a little limited. After 3ll» if you're passing two filenames to a scnpt. you need to be able to extract both filenames individually. ThanKfuiiy, once The stnng has been passed to a vanabie. you can then split It into individual words using the following snippet of ARexx code: wordcount = words {argument b J do n*l to wordcount by 1 word,ii = word{argumeni:a,n) end What this code does is to start by counting the number of complete words within the variable arguments (which was initialised earlier with the arguments = arg(l) call), using a function that we haven't seen before - WORDS(). WordsO IS a very simple function indeed. All is does it to count the number of words within a variable. In this casen we've passed it the van able arguments containing all our command line arguments. The value returned by the wordsO function is then placed into a variable called wordcount. LOOPING THE LOOP What follows is a loop that is performed once for every word within the variable, by counting from 1 up to the total number of words within the string I If There are 10 words within the string, the loop is therefore performed 10 times). On each pass, the vanabie n is incremented (in other words, 1 is added to it). This variable is very important indeed as it IS used as a son of word counter. When It equals 2, ARexx knows that we want to extract word 2. and so Need to give your commands further instructions? Jason Holborn sho\vs hovs^ to have an argument wiffi an ARexx script - and still finds time to go fishing for the latest PD ARexx software n LISTING 1 • LISTING 1 AryC 1 daxt Run 1 iay ' :bie script using RX Script name <argl> <arg2> etc -Argd) - - arg(l) argument a - artjli) vordcovnt ■ woidstarguinenta) do n: =1 to wordcount by 1 word ,n ■ «ord (arguir»ento,n) end do n- ■1 to wordcount by 1 say "word-'n" » " word.n end oxlt hA4^tk d-J^nnm ^IffllP ^^ ^ rrnm a m n\f A R E XX on. The task of extracting each individuai word is left to the WORD() function, another new function that we fi9v>&n I fie9n tjefore ARRAYED IN SPLENDOUR The wordf) function is a bit like the ScanJ() function in C. What it does it to extract word number n from a given string. For example, if n eflualiGd 7. the seventh word within the &lfing wguld De extracted. The Cj^troctod string is then placed into a siring array called word, Siungarraya ar& vpry (Simple in BASIC, vou don't have 10 tell ARe«( how mflny plemi^nts oro in tho array, AH you fidve 10 Oo i& to state the name of the atray followed by a full stop ('.'J and then the numt>er of the ©lomont within the array that you wish to access. For ej^ampie, word,2 would bo the ARexn equlvaiont Cyf wofdS^a^ In BASIC. Once ail the words have twen extracted, you can access each argument individually Simply by reading the value held within the particular array element that you're interested in. It you wanted to copy the second argument into a variable called varkabie2, you wouiO therefore issue the following line: varlableZ = word. 2 The flomonetration orasram givpn in Li&iing 1 shows tne use of t>oth the argO function and the word extraction code that 1 detailed above. Type il fn and play around with it. Don I Torgt^r to pass some argumems to the script when you execute it. If you don't, it won't actuaily do verv much! '\f .you don't have to tell ARexx how many elements are in the array. if PARSE THE PARCEL ARexx does provide a method of automaticairy extracting arguments from argd) using the PARSE command. We have looked at the parse command before, when it was used in conjunction with the puJI() function to stop pull() from converting the text that you entered irito upper case characters. In the case of the arg() function, parse can ^^^^^^^^^ also be used to split a string into individual words (therefore removing the need for the code we covered aDovei, but It does X\^\^ one annoying drawback; instead of treating the - - spaces between each argument as dividers, parse will treat spaces as part of a word. If you were to pass two arguments to a script, the second argument extracted by pars« would have a leading space that you'd \\?n% to remove before the word could be used. If you just used the output from parM as it stood as a filename for accessing a particular f^le, ARexx would be unable to find thai file therefore generating an error message. Listing 2 illustrates this process at work^ and^ because I'm a kind-hearted soul, also suggests a good way of getting round it. The main difference you'll notice between this program and Listing 1 <s that the line thai reads arguments = arg(l) has now been replaced with parse arg arti^umcntS, r^ext issue we'll be taking a look al how to write your own functions and procedures and how to pass arguments to these functions, 'n the meantime, have a play with the arg() function and I'll see you all, same time, same place, next month, © /* parse demo ■/ Daras ara pa^raml ftfli'arn2 paramS param4 those parameters.., note the space!" aay "Here ' s •ay- pCLX^uol oar param2 oay param3 say param4 /* SUciF vut apace... */ parBiii4 = space (paraiEHl) say "flow with no space.. 8 Ay parain4 oxit Tht; PD libraries aren't Just full of useless Mandelbrot generators and phone booh programs - they can also be an Invaluable source of ready- madci ARexx utlimas and code. Here are just two or three ARexx utilities you shouldn't be wKhout.., EXECREXX Fred Fish #463 Execftexx is a program that turns an ARexx script into an executable program that can be njn from the CLl or WorkSench. This could come in handy if you don't wish to distribute the source code for your ohginai scnpt. or want to make an ARexx script ihat is easffy run by a WorkBench user clicking on an icon for the executaoie. The resulting executable stJll requires the rexxsystib .library (thai ts. the ARexx server by Bill Hawes) as well as the Dissidents' rexxyib,/rbfao' (a PD ARexx function library on Fish disk 393 that allows programmers to easily add ARexx implementations). These must be m the LIBS: drawer of the users t>oot disk. The ARexx server should be started via RexxMast (by Bill Hawes), (t either of these libs is not present, the executable wiu post an appropnate message to the user. The resulting executable is fully re-entrant ar>d can be made resident for improved speed. Othewisen there is no speed difference between the executable and the original script. The added size to the executable is minimal due to the Dissidents' rexxtib.library. E\ecRexx isn't quite an ARexx compiler, but it's about as near as you're likely to get. If you're not overly keen on letting others sift through your ARexx code, it provides a very handy way of hiding your programming efforts, while still maintaining full ARexx compatibility. In all. ExecRexx is a must for the security conscious, RCXXVIEW Fred Fish #516 Written by talented PD programmer Martin Kees. this small utility can be a real help when your ARexx scripts don't work quite the way they should. RexxView is a smalt CUbased utility that monitors any messages sent to the REXX port and then generates a text file containing information on all the messages it encountered- This gives details of the task that sent the message, the action code, modifiers and the content of the arg(O) function (see the main body text tor more on this useful function!). RexxView is also ideal for anyone contemplating adding an ARexx port to their own programs. REXXRMF Fred Fish #629 If you've ever wanted to wnte your own database program in ARexx, then this function library is for you. The RexxRMF.Iibrary is a library which gives ARexx programs the ability to maintain "indexes' of small files for the purpose of providing fast search /sorting and retrieval of data records, The ReKxRMF.fibrary covisisXs of several low level' functions that are used to maintain a balanced binary tree (AVL-tree) to index your data files. Built on too of the AVL-tree routines are 'high lever functions to provide simple record management facilities. RexjcffMf allows you to specify up to five alternate indices. What this means is that you can have multiple keys for the same file. This allows you not only to read a file by surname, for example, but also to use the month in which a person was born as an alternate key index. So, you could use the database as a reminder to send the person a birthday card in l*me for their birthday. In addition to the pnmary and alternate indices. RexxRMF maintains an internal 'delete' index in order to locate and keep track of deleted records. In total, as many as seven indices could be present in memory at any one lime for a given file. Each node (record) will require about 76 keyiength bytes per record. Thus 2000 records coutd easily consume 150K. Data records, on the other hand, are loaded into memo^ when read or written and are immediately discarded aftenwards. Data records can have as many fields as you wrsh. as long as the total length of the record is less than 65K, In all. RexxRMF is an ideal addition to any budding application programmers toolbox, making the task of writing programs that need to handle complex data files very easy indeed » .d AO AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 • FEBftUARY 1993 DIRICT ■:Tjij DIRECT KXP-4410 LASER PRINTER KXP-4430 LASER PRINTER^ WORDWORTH COMPLETELY FREE! WIThf PANASOMC LASER PRINTERS The wniBfs choica The ufllmaiB ^ord pTQCBssor for AMIGA computers NORMAL RRP Cl29 99 inc VAT On» gggln Indl how joined logather wjih Ponotonk 10 oH«r a\l Amigo owf\ert rKe mo«r ouifTonding Lotar PrrnTer oftsr ever. We are no^ atilfl lo o^er high quolity, proffltiienal tat«r pnnlkng oT vary affordoblo pticei. 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FOR COURIER ADD £10 C80E0 ACCeLe^ATOIIS' SSL A5000. 1 6.7MHz 020 * 881 2Mb RAM (Exp. 4MB) £199 With Full 4Mb RAM £ 259 C8030 AcCcLci^ATOI^Sr SSL B5000. 25MHz 030 ■*■ 882 4Mb RAM (Exp. 16MB) £ 399 With 8Mb RAM GVP A530 Turbo 40MH2 68030 Accelerator And 1Mb 32-Brl RAM (Exp, 8Mb) & Hard Disk With 120Mb Drive £879 080^0 ACCELEHATOnS' SSL B5000, 33MH2 030 + 882 4Mb RAM (Exp. 16MB) £ 499 With 9Mb RAM £ 569 GVPG-Force030-«MHz 1 Mb 32-Blt RAM (Exp. 1 3Mb) With Onboard SCSI £ 499 GVP G-Force 030 -40MHz 4Mb32'BitRAM(Exp- 16Mb) With Onboaid SCSI £759 GVPG-Force030-50MH^ 4Mb 32-Bit RAM (Exp, 1 6Mb) WHh Onboard SCSI £1099 GVP G-Force 26MHz 68040 For A3000- 2Mb of 40ns RAM (Exp. 8Mb). 22Mips £1475 GVP G-Fofce 33MHz 68040 For A1 500/2000. 4Mb RAM £569 (Exp. 16Mb). Has SCSI And A Seriai & ParaW Pon. £1475 PP&S Mercury 28MHz 66040 For A3000. Upto 32Mb RAM Onboard. Runs at 22 Mips Mercury 0Mb RAM CALL PP&S 040/2000 28MH2 68040 For A150W2000. Exp. to 32Mb RAM . Fined with 4Mb £1299 0Mb RAM * 2SMHi 68862 E229 hARO DRIVES 03®® GVPHD8+80 £379 GVPHD8-^120 £42 GVPHD8+240 £69 rVS Trumpcard 500 AT 500AT with no drive £ 139 42Mb IDE Version £279 100Mb IDE Version £ 375 IVS Trumpcard 2000 £ 79 IVS GrandSlamI 2000. SCSI To 8Mb. Parallel Port £179 QVPHC8+ £125 GVP HC8* 80 £ 345 GVPHCe-^120 £409 GVP HC8+240 £ 649 GVP HC8+420 £1049 (3113®® Sfi>-S^afROKl PPAS ZEUS (A2000) CALL PP&S 040/500 (A500) CALL RCS FUSION FORTY 26MHz 6d040{A1500/2000)-4Mb £1175 0MB RAM * 14MHz 66881 C 149 Withi»ul KOM^ I'u-j -*, * With 2.(U KOM i-I^iy ' ' PO BOX 2395, WALTHAM CROSS, HERTS., ENS 7HQ, ENGLAND 25M M/. 68040 :f 6Mb RAM .M2i»jVlb - £2299 4Mb 32-Biit SIMM £159 '25MH/&2\lhRAM 52 Mb - £1149 105 Mb - £1299 4Mb SC ZIP RAM £189 Olhcr Configurations Available OPAUViSiON ViDEo 9AckUp s-Ys-ran BAokup Hftfd or Floppy Diak« To VWeo Tape Usiho A HomoVCR- T»ft &fG BANO aUdGCA BAR BB^ DESKTOP PUBLISHING Two photographs scanned and converted to 16 shades of grey by DaataScan and AlfaScan Plus. You can make up your own mind as to whkh looks better he goalposts have moved somewhat since our last round-up of hand scannorSr Dack In Amiga Shopper Iftiue 14. Th« conclusion of that article was that the AtfaScnn Plus was very powerful (but also very pricey) and refgned supreme for line £irt ccsnc. and that the Powor Scanner, at half the price of the AltffScan Phis, was the bee's knees for producing IG-greyscale scans. Just pipping the DaataScan on quality, performance and price. ThG AlfaScsn and DaataScan peoples, whu w^rt^ boih quite naturally a little shocked to leam that they weren't producing the best Amiga hend scanner, decided to Knuckle flown and do Eomething about it. The resuils of their iabours are new versions of the software for each scanner - Touch-Up 3.02 for the AlfaScan Plus and DaataScan Professionai 3.01 for the DaataScan. Prices have dropped as well, AifaScan down to £120^ DaataScan down IQ £90. The DaataScan software has had the most changes made to it, so we'ii kick off the contest with that. With the release of new and improved software, the battle for the title of top hand scanner is hotting up. Jeff Walker referees Lat's get the bad news out of the way first. On a basic Amiga machine the DaataScan still corrupts Images when scanning at 400 dots per inch (dpi). Short black and white lines 0ppftar all over the image, so many of them that It would take ages to cle^n th&m up by hand. For some reason, these corruptions only Any part of a DaataScan Image can be copied or cut to the clipboard, after which It can t>e rotated (in 90 degree steps), flipped and resized appear at 400 dpi: scans at all other resolutions are fine. On a faster Amiga - the 1200^ 3000- 4000 Of any machine with some kind of accelerator fitted - there are no corruption problems. While not a massive problem, because 200 and 300 dpi are probaDlyihe most usefui resolutions, this is something that ought to be fined; at the very least a 'cleanup' lealure should be provided, which is how the Power Scanner gets around the same pTOt)iem. The DaataScan developers say that a standard Amiga Is not fast enough to do a real- time scan - 10 draw the picture on screen as you are pulimg the scanner over the image - and handle the 400 dpi data transfer rate at the same time. Bui the AlfaScan Plus. which now does a real-time scan, doesnt suffer these con-uptions, which proves it can tte done. But that's enough of what hasn't been done - lets take a look at what's new. To star: with, the DaataScan Professional screen has been rearrangea slightly. The tool bar is DaafsScan's Greyscale Editor enables you to get In there and dean up any rough bits. You can even change the colour scheme to create pseudo-colour scans now on the ffghthanO side of the screen, and the Master Page no longer opens automaticaUy on startup. Thjs leaves you with an uncluttered screen comprising the tool bar and a single window that Shows part of the default A6 size scanning area (about 4 by 6 inches). At the foot of the tool bar is a '1234" icon that enables you to quickly choose a scanning resolution from 100 to 400 dpi. The page size can tw changed in the Settings requester. A4. A5 and A6 buttons are provided, or you can type exact measurements into Width and Height gadgets. The largest page size allowed IS 48 by 48 inches, which at 100 Opj requires almost 3Mb of memory. The reason you set a page size is so that you can scan many images -kq ^"ectly onto a single BQ :»dge, and subsequently iave or print the whole thing. Scanning at 300 dpi. an A4 page requires juslover 1Mb of free memory after the program has loaded. You may scan directly on to this page, in which case it will overwnle everything that is already or it. or you can scan to the Current Area, which is a rectangular portion of the page you have marked. PLUG IN AND GO In this way you can create exact size pages with images in exact positions on the page, if you are really, really, really careful, it's even possible to scan a wide image in two adjacent AMIAA <;UOPPED m ICCUF ?9 « FEBRUARY 1093 DESKTOP PUBLISHING halves, although thrs is only lor those with the patience of saints. Many users will want to slmofy bCdn dn inidge auU Lhen bdve it lor importing into onoJhef program - an art package, worO orocessof or DTP program perhdpc. In ihic case you tl simply rm the correct Ouiton lo set Ih^ r^^gotuUnn. ni^kp <;ure that tri9 Unobs on tho scannor unit are 5ot carrecily. define Ifit? wiuin and ienglti of your scrtn irt lli*- Setungs requester^ hit tho Scari to Page button, and away you go It must be said that DaataScan Professtonat's greatest strength is that it is very Simple {Q operate (nOeeo. Sometimes ^cans oppcar too dark or too light. DsataScan's Lighten and Darken options are a quick way 10 enhance xham Ttie Wide 51 image you can scan is 4.13 inches, which ia the wiOth of the scanning head. This might vary Slightly from one scanning head to another, but you can bank on a! least four inches width. Length can be anything from a quarter Of an inch 10 dfi inches. tioxi. I he DiEfier you aei the scanning area or page', and the higher the scanning resolution you Ghooae, the more memory will be required, ifyouoont nave enough ryiemory. DaataScan wdl let you choose only combinations for which you do t]3v9 enough. It you've got lots of memory, the buffer sue' can be set in the Preferences requester, wnicn is tne numo&r of Ktiufjvies you are aHowinR OdsiaScsn Prof&ssionat iQ use , OaataScan Proiesssonai wi\\ grab' this amount of memory anO not lei ir go (mainly for reasons of speed). So, If you want to multitosK, don'l set this buffer figure too high. SHADES OF GREY The big changes to ve'sion 3.01 of the software can be found in the Greyscale menu and an new icon in Uie luoi tjdr - EUit GitfybUdty- After converting a scan of a photograph or coloured illustration to 16 shades of grey, you are thrown directly into the new Greyscate Editor, As the bTack- and- white dither is converted to grey, the image in the Greyscaie Editor is Updated in reaJ time. This is a nice toucn because, depending on the si/e of the page, ii can take a while to complete, and watching the scrooo update is much more pleasant than staring at an hour glass, stopwatch or 'sleepy' pointer. The Greyscale Editor runs on its own screen. The tefthand portion of this screen contains your greyscale picture, while on the right is a tool bar that contains some simple drawing too is and a cofour selector. Further goodjes can be found *n the menus. The Edit menu has - Lighten and Darken pT options, I think you can guess what they [oB' do, and they do it. like the greyscale conversion, in reaf lime. The processes are destmctive. though. By that I mean that three consecutive Darkens after three consecutive Lightens do not result in the original image. There are three zoom levels - Normal, limes 4 and limes 8 - which come in handy for cleaning up any rough or dirty areas of your image. The really fun stuff is in the SetUngs menu. In here is the Change Paiette option, which puts up a small requester that enables you to change the 16 shades of grey to any 16 colours of your choosing. WUh the aid of the drawir^g tools and a liUle ttHiiUm~TfiT*iii^t\ II tf3.|1 (rmr'tTiT^TBr You can print your images direclly from the Greyscale Editor, A print size of 100% is the default, and there are buttons for 25%, 50%, 75% ar}(i 200%. A string gadget allows you to enter anything from 1% to 9909%. THE FINISHED PROOUa Pnntouls at 100% will always look a bit blurry because the image's screen resolution is a oaiiry 75-»sh dots per inch. While scaling lo 50% results in a smaller image, it will aJso be a sharper one. Pnniing is achieved via Workbench Pnnter Preferences, and the dither patterns provided by Workbench make as good ajotj of it as Ihey can. if you want to enhance your printed greyscales then you'll need to have TurboPrint Professional running in the background. Both the scanning and greyscate parts of D^f^i^Scan Professional run on a custom 640 by 256 screen. II cannot njn on the Workbench, and it cannot be opened on any other type of screen - not even an overscanned one. This was a conscious decision by the manufacturers because most of their customers have only a little memory- 1 can understand the logic Of this decision, but 640 by 256 is a hornWe resolutton to work wH^ for scans because everything appears elongateO on The screen. It might be an idea to givt Uioae who do have Uie hardware the opUon to use the software on a 640 by 512 screen. DaataScan Professional has come on in leaps and bounds since the first vcision and now forms the basis of a seriously professional piece of so It ware. The new Lighten and Darken features mean that the greyscales it produces are at least on a par, and someUmes better, than those produced with the Power Scanner, I hope the developers continue to develop it. with particular reference lo two areas: the new AA chipset, which means that images can now un theory) be converted and displayed in 64 shades of grey: and. of course, eradicating those annoying 400 dpi glitches, €D CHECKOUT DaataScan Ea^e of Use • • • • • Hard scanning CO jidn'l be Sirnpler, Click, click, scan. Features • • • ; If It had lots of sophisticated features it wouldn t be so fast, nor so easy to use. Speed • • • • : Prelly QutcK. but riot quick enougr> to read The 400 dpi data afxi update the screen at the same time on a standard Amiga, No probs at 300 dpi or be row though. Documentation •••00 I'd like to see a tJigger manual wirh lots Of en a moles and hints - with pafticular reference as to how to ftet the Oest pnniDuts and how to use scanned images Willi word processing and tiesMiop puOiishifig software. Price Value • • • • II s now the cfieapest Amiga hand scanner on ihe market. II does enough at the orice lo make it \efy good value. Overall rating AB5Dlutely perfect tor the non-techie user wiih a limited amount of memoiy. There's defmite room for Improvement here- The DaatBScan palette requester needs functions Hke Spread and Copy lime and paUence, it's quite easy (and great fun) to turn a boring' greyscale into a tairly pleasing colour picture, The drawing tools provided are Pencil [freehand). Line. Rectangle. Polygon and Ellipse - the shapes can be filled or unfilled. The Undo button in the tool bar comes in handy when you make gaffes, but It only reverses the last drawing function performed. No other Amiga hand scanner software has a Tejil tool, but this one does. Any font in your FONTS: directory can be selected and typed onto the image, in any colour. AitaScan Plus is the name of the completo hand scanner package - the software Is called Touch-Up. fVly two big gripes with earlier incarnations of Toucfi-Up were its poor greyscale conversions and the lack of a real-time scan. No real-ume scanning meant that ff you got the brightness wheel setting wrong you had 10 wait until you'd frnished the whole scan to find oul. Real time scanning means you can see what's commg out of ihe scanner - you can twiddle the brightness knob and see tlie results straight away. The problem with the greyscales was possiDly subjective - my opimonn in other words. Migraph, makers of Touch-Up, couldn't see much wrong with mem. But when you put them up against scans from nval scanners, the If you hit the Landscape button before scanning sideways. TaucthVp will a litem atlc ally rotate your scan by 90 degrees so it appears upright Touch Up scans always appeared dark and a bit blurry on screen. And the lack of specific Lighten and Darken options means that image processing has to be done by using patterned masks', a lechriiQue that most non- 'I* <n* ^ . AJI/^ A CLJ^^nncn ^ trriir ^^ ^ rrAh^iH m.^t « r^r\^ DESKTOP PUBXISHING techie users don't really understand and so cant really use properly. There was one other private gripe I heidn and That was that TouchVp didn't look or feel much like an Amiga program. It was more like using a mixture of an Alari ST and an AddIg Macintosh, and while There (S n^thinf^ particularly wrong with the wdy clUicr Of these computers works, I'm using an Amiga and I want it To The TQuGti-Up page ske can tw altered aX any time wUhout losing what's on the page. The DPI settings are dn aid to publishers, ensuring that the dimensions In the other gadgets are the correct sizes It the Image Is printed at that resoiutlan look like I'm using an Amiga. Vou know: 3D Outtons QnC snaers, proper Amiga menus, requesters and keyboard short-cuts, and all that sort of thing. I'm happy to say that this latest version of Touctt-Up. version 3.02. is one of the most eye pleasing pieces of Amiga software I have used. SPEED VS POWER Touch-Up will open on the Workbench screen or its own custom screer^. The custom screen can tie any size you like - so it can b€ an overscanned and interlaced one. for example - and you have the choice of running in two colours to save memory, or four colours if you want a pretty interface. If you specify Tool Types figures for Width and Height Lhet are greater than the screen's physical dimensior^s, then with Workbench vefsions 2 and above the 'autoscroN' feature comes into play. This means that moving the pointer to the edge of the physical screen quichly scrolls the actual screen in that direction. So It's possibfe. If you have sufficient memory, to create a 2.400 pixel Uy 3,300 pixel screen which con display an 8 by 11 inch area when scanning and printing at 300 dots per inch. If you open a regular-sized screen - say, 640 by 512 - then you can still have a larger page' size, but you will have to scroll around this page using the locater tool or the window's scroll bars. The first point to ma(<e about Touch-Up Is that it is extremely powerful. The second point is that it can be extremely slow. There is a good reason for This. I expiamed earlier how OaataScan Protessionat allows you to set a 'buffer size', which IS The amount of memory the program will grab for its own exclusive use. Touch-Up 6oeso'i 6q this. It does it The way Amiga programs should do it, dynamically - it looks for and grabs memory when it requires It, and gives memory back to the system when it is no longer using it. Most operations require a fair chunk of memory, and if you've not goT much, or if that memory has become fragmented by use, then Touch-Up has to grab b<ts and pieces where it can. and make the best use of them. This memory management, while friendlier to a multitasking environment, takes time. Tf you've got a large amount of memory then ro(Jch'{Jo works faster because it will be able to find a chunk of memory the size it wants much more quickly. The other reason Touch-Up can appear to be a slow program is memory then you might get fed up with how sluggish it feels. An accelerator board will change all this, of course. A SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE But then if you are the type of person who doesn't enjoy reading manuals, learning about hundreds of features and experimenting to see "what happens if I do this?", then you will probably hate TouctJ-Up. It's a highly professional tool with a lot of highly professional features which will probably be totally new concepts to 'r- Jlr, ~"T .1 Touch-Up's rotate function Is one of Its most powerful features. It takes a while to complete, but U extremely accurate because many of the operations it can perform are 'processor intensive' - or, in other words^ they take a long trme. This will Include operations like rotating an image to any angle, slanting an image, changing the page si^e while retaining me data on that page, or even an apparently simple Job like moving an image or 'clip" from one part of the page to another. All these operations require a lot of memory management and time d They are To be com Dieted accurately. Now There S not a single doubt in my mind That Touch-Up is by far and away the best hand scanning software for the Amiga. But if you've got only a couple of megabytes of Any stray black or white pixels In your scan can be eradicated with the Cleanup option you. All fairly mmd-expanding stuff. The large manual does a pretty good job of explaining everything, tDut it's definitely not written with the beginner in mind. Then again, if you are the type of person who is prepared to expenment and learn about dithers, grains, tiezier curves, masking and a plethora of other scanning and drawing paraphernalia, then you are probably going to learn an awful lot from Touch-Up. irrespective of whether your machine has a large amount of memory or not. GET SET, GO Another piece of good news Is That scanning with Touch-Up is not as complicated as it at first appears. Everything can be done Irom the tool bar. First you hit the Scanner icon, then the Scan Settings icon. From this requester you select your scan resolution, the length of your scan (up to a maximum of 14 inches), and whether you are scanning in Landscape (sideways) or Portrait (upright) orientation. If you are scanning sideways across an Image, by selecting the Landscape scan option Touch-L/p will automatically rotate the image by 90 degrees and display the image the right way up on the screen. Settings set, you hit The Scan button and pull away. Touch-Up now does a real-time scan, whrch can be switched off by a Tool Type if you don't like realtime scanning. To conserve memory and aid speed the program opens a two- colour 320 by 200 pixel screen for this real-time display. As stated previously. 400 dpi real-time scans on a standard Amiga do not get corrupted by the short black and white lines that mar the 400 dpi DaalaScan i mages - (Look, I'm not a programmer, so far be it for me to give advice in this area, but might the secret of gliichless 400 dpi real-time scans lie in that small low resolution screen? It might not display the full width of the scan, but it's more than good enough for seeing if you have the brightness set correctly and if you are scanning in a straight line, which is all you need it forj Like DaataScan Professional. Touch-Up will let you specify a page size and then scan images into a specified area^ or yog can scan directly to the page. Touch-Up has several ways of dealing with scanned data that is oven^vriTing something else on the page. Default IS Replace, which wipes out anything underneath (like DaataScan} but there's also Transparent, which places what you are scanning on top of what's underneath so thai the while areas of the scan are see- through'. Two other modes - XOR and Replace Transparent - could also come in useful. PICTURE PROCESSING For line art scans Touch-Up has some useful processing facilities. The Bold option enables you to automatically add black pixels to the black parts of the scan m the horizontal and/or vertical directions. Cleanup will remove isolated black pixels, white pixels, or both. The OutUne feature is fun - it removes the inside of black lines, hollowing them ouT so that they can be filled with a pattern. The other item in the Process menu is Mask. Like Bold. Cleanup and Outline, this works on the area of the scan you have dragged out as a clip' area (basically the same as the Current Area in DaataScan). which can be the whole image if you like. Mask takes the currently selected pattern - there are 36 to choose from in three resolutions, so 108 in all - and applies thaT pattern to everything m the clip area. Using one of the regular sTipple patTerns as a mask it is possible to lighten or darken a scan of a photograph. Now this masking technique is nowhere near as user- friendly as Simple Lighten and Aftlir^A CU/^nOED A ICCIIE tt a EEDDIIADV IOO^ D E S K T.OR^^U atJ S H I N G Darken menu items, and it may take a while to wrap your brain around the concepT. But I! is a more sophisticated techniQue than simply adjusting the 16 shades of the converted greyscate image up or down one value, which is what DaataScan does. LOOK AT IT THIS WAY Touch-Up can rotate clip areas to any angle in 01 degree steps, and it can also slant or "shear" clips horizontally and verticaLFy. As well as being able to flip clip areas horizontally and vertically, which any scanning software can do, Touctt-Up c^n mirror an irn;4gP tn rhfi loft, right, above or below the clip, **;hich makes it easy to create 'tiled* Images or fancy borders, for o>iQmpJe. There aro fotir levels of magnification: Normal, 4 times, S times and Full, the latter being a 'thumbnail' representation of the complete page that is similar to DaaraScan s Master Page feature. Clip areas in Touch-Up can be moveiJ by pointing infiido the area, holding down the left mrnjcP huttnn ;^nri dragging the mouse. If you hold down Shirt at trie same lime, whatever is in that clip ^rua get? moved. As well as scanning into clip areas, you can loac Into them, with the option to ktiep Ihg imaged aspect ralio. Of ignore it ond rescalc the Image to Tit the area. Any IFF'ILRM Image can he loaded UDto Extra-HalfBrite and HAM, hut not yet the new AA Chipset for mats. Coloured pictures gel converted into black-and-white dither patterns, IFF-ILBM. IMG, PCX, TIFF, MacPaj^f and Pr/nlMasfer images can be loaded as full pages, and you are given control over how coloured images arc converted to blatkand white dithors. This is another powerful feature of Touch-Up that norvtechie users may find confusing. Reading the manual, experimenting and remembering are the keys to unlocking this dOOr, 300 DPI IN THE SHADE Clips or whole pages can be saved in eieni formola. imLDM. IMG. PCX. TIFF. Degas. Q\r. MacPaint ar\6 PnntMastcr, These are in black and white only. Greyscates can be saved in three rormais: 15 colour iff-ilbm, 256- colour TIFF or 24-blt IFFILBM. Despite the Impression given by the adverts, the latter two formats contain only 64 shades of grey - because they have been scanned wtn a 64'greyscale hand scanner. These images can't be viewed on (dare I say it) an 'old' Amiga; Amiga 1200 or 4000 owners should be able to view the 24 bit IFF-ILBM images but I havent yet been able to test this. All three grey scale formats can be imported and printed by PageStream: Professional Page can handle the 24- bii and 16-cofour IFF-ILBMs; PageSer(er//and all of the graphics' word processors can take the 16- colourlFFILBMs, The quality of Touch-Up's 16- greyscale images is much improved. They look a little less sharp on screen, but when scaied flown to increase the output resolution, the printouts now almost always look better than the same picture scanned with rival scanners, especially with a printing package lihe TurtoPnni Professional. Touch- Why would you want lo work on images this size? Because Amiga bitmaps are low resolution [75 dpi) and print out at 100% scaie with jaggy edges on curves and diagonals. Touch-Up has 36 bullt-tn All or painting patterns In three sizes. If these aren't enough you can paint your own pattern, cut It out as a brush and paint with that Up has no direct printing facilitieSn so you must import your picture into another program that can print. The drawing facilittes in Touch-Up are superb, but designed specifically for working with large black-and-white im^es, Vou cant work on the greyscale image directly; this needs to be saved and imported into a dedicated colour painting package. Some consider this a weakness when in fact it is a strength; If you are a monochrome desktop publisher and you want lo work on massive 2- colour bitmaps - 4,000 by 5,000 pixels tor example - Touch-Up is the only Amiga program that can do the job. I must stress again, however, that you need the memory to work on pictures of this size. For working on black-and-white line art Touch-Up Is far more usefur than any Amiga painting package But create the image big and scale it down at pnntlng time to 25% of its original size, and each pixel becomes l/300th of an inch instead. The jagged steps are now so tiny that It Is hard for the eye to see them. PROFESSIONAL PRIDE Mjgraph has been working hard on Touch-Up. It has come a very long way since version 1,0, and if you have an earner version you should consider upgrading. In the Scan Setting requester there i3 now a 'Type; Hand' option, so flatbed scanner support may be ors the way. YOU may or may not be interested in this - J'm merely pointing out that further development is Still ver> much on the cards. Some early versions of Touch-Up have OuEs that cause crashes. I've used version 2.Q2 extensively (on a Workbench 2 machine) and it teels solid as a rock. It's a truly professional piece of work aimed at the professional or semi-professional user. But you do have to put your mind lo it - it's not so much that Touch'Vp IS difficult to use, it's simply that it can do so much that novices can feel a bit swamped by ihG technology. © ooooooooo SHOPPING LIST AlfaScon « £119.95 by Golden lmogeUKlt(I.Unitl2a, Milhead Business Ccnrre, Millmead Rd, LondonNIHQU "f 081-3651102 DaalaSian hv Pondaallnlemarionol Lid ^ PO Box 2820 London NW6 3RD 1^0713281717 £89.95 The really great thing about the DaataScan and AifaSean Plus scanners becoming so much t>etter and cheapor Is that K ha^ brought them at least level (-ish) with the Power Scanner in quality and price. And of course both DaataScan and AlfaScan have features that the Power Scanner currently lacks. Tfiis mear>s that Power Computing w\\ hopefully gel the hump and further enhance the Power Seamier software- which in turn should inspire Touch Up and DaataScan Professional to reach for greater heights. So whichever you decide to buy< do make sure that you register and therefore become eligible for software upgrades. FOR FUTURE PRESENTATION And It looks like Tve just go! enough space left to mention the colour hand scanner that Power Computing has been advertising for quite some time now. Power displayed the prototype at the recent Future Entertainment Show and there were a few small problems with the software, which the developers are currently in the process of ironing out - so beware of early reviews elsewhere. My guess is III be aOle to take a look at the proper finished release versfon for you in neJrt month's column. lyiLFAScAN Plus Ease of Use •••OO A bit ol a s;eeo learning curve, but well worth ihe effort. Features • • • • • No other Arriiga nana scanner software can currently match the features packed into Touch' Up, Speed • • • O O Gets faster The more memory you have. Documentation • • • • # Exceifeni manual, auriougri ii does pack a lot in and cracks along At $uch a fasr pace that the rontechie might teei a bit bemused by it alL Price Value • • • • Q As well A5 tne scanner head, mrerface an<j Touch Up sofT*are, >ou also get the Merge *t program, which enables you to fit two halves of a wiOe scan together to create one big in^age. Overall rating o If it had some greyscale image processing lOOfS like tinghtness. contrast and gamma controls, it would be near perfect. AA chipset support rnust now be a priority. AMir^A ^HOPPEft ai't^iiF -y^ aeerdmady looa ARTWORKS CLIP ART Eadi Oes* contains belweon 115 and 270 onginaL, highqualrty, images lor usewflh Am^gaAftand DTP programs - Dakiis PfliriT. Pflgewnar, Ptd Poob, P»QB«rBam. Wordwonh. Pwpal etc. V Pefa 2. CasMas, cottages and churches 3. Tre^s 4. Signs & symbols 5. Wild animaLs 6 Prehistoric lite 7. Signs S symbols II a. WeddmqsS family occasions t6.99each- Buy 3 or more rof only f 6 each - Over 1400 images lor onfy £43 Incusive ot ^s^ ctass P&P. •j AMIGA COMPUTING ■ 'Besi Buy' UUAMIGA^wifdfHl***** AMIGA FQflMAT SS % Roase make cifmQMsJPO't payabte to ARTWORKS |P-44<I|P(- AlJ-4;^S (DeptASJl)i PondVrew, Wootton, Uteeby, S.Mumberside 0N39 6SF »t>469 588136 7 GRAPHICS ASSEMBLY IIMITEP H^^M^VKST TERRACE LONDON £« 2BT. • SOO Dpi Scanning from our Scanner ■ We can accept tli\k\ to run out from all Maji Amiga Desktop Puhftshuig & Paint Programmes. • I}ortimpntK e^aji hi* oiitpUVat high rcKoUitiufi to Film or Dro/nitle/rom our Linoironic. Teh 071 27S713 DISCOUNT MAIL ORDER COMPUTER SUPPLIES THI9 15 ONLY A SMALL SELECTION OF OUR STOCK ■ SO IF YOU CANT FIND WHAT YOU WANT BELOW - PHONE Armga bOO/IUb^^ka Prjui JyUmningi ilVi B50W bS03Q/66ae2 ^JMhu^SMb 9MA £SS9 Am<«600/1Mb/ZOWbir^rB<ruUDf HudOrM .£439 GVPG^Forci6S03D€O6e8£225MHij1MbAAV . £539 5p*£aA«,KkhOrt?,Pt*M.n*Popi*M.„,..jLWnS WG^on:B6eQ30EC/«M2S0MHi;4Wb BAH . £77? ZoaJ,StrJiv^f>lntHlOwn«Tr«ni*nt« - Jkddfl^ GVP G f ott bflCJO^Aflftfl? S0UHl/4Ub HAM £1099 AmgsXOrbmiitVlffVionGaau lltfi GYP 0-foiu 09040 ^WHi/M fUM i1149 OJlWnnaFBrwUVtiriDQndil.JftHauA.. UW GVPA&i0Cafflba6B0iaC40MH;/in4N'S2MeHD.i&29 CDTVMuttimnUXnbOtfTVTDDrTiPdriV^ .. iKfl GvrA^30Qimbo6Sa30EC«3MH2/1Ub.BOMBHDi6*9 Aflwi13DarMh/tiMWAGAGnphci/ma £I7S C?.PA53OCon^A0OICC4OMHz/1MbJia)Me«1.-f72S i^ni4i1»CVlhfr'nB2/TT>iWGfh*1>fllvu1VnV FU»0f1 Aeo«V2Wn£/4Mf RA^t J1149 HcmAci9irtv^)t^ToM>^iiin>c W9 AJ&ZO 14Mlz/Wb«n2O{AlS0rV?OQOt i\fft Ain4i3000/25MHt/S2MfaHD/1htiUU lirs iu»nr*WK Ani^3(OVZS»ii/l«fcfcHD'lMbftAM ... flS75 ,,„,„^, .Vi^rTL^ Amii;400<VZ5MW*GA6-*(x«V40MbW.— ilW 2^'2!S5™^^','^.1ri??!!" ■JIJ' A.^4onv25MHz/AGA&ipho'i2(Mi»v oow Si;*!S^!"^''*;*"?:SS!!:! — "SJ AmAOOOTWHr^AGAGraplvi/MaMfart) (2i79 QVf **PAaSw«iHCat/80HbHwdDnii*___J325 fM«nYtfr«JMM«uJLom,gurMmiMtM G\^lMPAaS.n«2MC**mil*H-dCkh,__ifi25 WEODKXTt^tlf^jUOCtttVMZICIfTS HARD DENVER OpJ.;i:on2<Bflf«^anj4-M«wi^ GVP S*>« 2 HOB^/WMb H*d Ohvb IA50CII _._.Ce^ Op#r»i->h.mgjflMK,AKf*«Km«Wt .PMOt* GW S«* 2 K)l*/80Mb H-d Dnw [ASOO} _ _ El-i- SBT™"5'^"T_-,- ,.^ j:z:t-EIS2 G\*S««3HDB*MMMbH»dDnwiA5CO) . ii- gpafisiOfi^an*aTeConi*«^(De.intefl«lrt„ -WOW GVP5-'i«aHia./3i3MhH»dDn«iAS0O) it2-, QpalWWiJJuM ^^. prMJOOn qwirtlW _^.....PHOW q^^^^^^ l20Mb Hfd D™ iNo ConireM -i309 kalaPrMnWionwlfT^io'i^i™ f W MA)aOI>:i3MbHirtOn«(NoCo™«irJ £47^ S^^Al'?^^^%'n-X ^™ iCDAd&CS.Fr™(150lW000] £7S lla,lc«^|n M5 P34M«wbdjpMdjj^ nOCiEC fi„^^, ,^„^ H-rd [W i»» £BV p 'Jflf^^S;* 'S^.^Jf^iSl^*^-:?^ ^ *S'0 CD Pom D™ ___019 H.rl.qu,rTVP^l3?&fG'.pK«PKl«g, £729 ^APPO WMh H..iJ Dri^/DMb KAM .,-™ £279 "^"^l"^ JS '^™E^ ■"' — -■ j^ ZAPPO60WO H..d Dr..=/Of>L. ftAM _,i339 KarJeouifi jOM F:arp>«bjB*f __,„^-„^.„.^.£12W RAM EXPANSION BOARDS/SIMMS A<:CFLFBATOBS ^yp ^Ip^ j RAMfl/OMb PuyuJaled £?5 SOUDSTATE LEISURE |A5M/Al!iCO/A2000), GVP Sir In 2 RAMB/2Mb Popi>l(Hcl - — il39 AaOUOOfflJilVOBaSJlfiMHjylMbWflM £159 SlMM32'1Mi>60nifiAMupg'4de(AS30/GF-030f .. £&S A5UM 6SlJ?0Vfteefl 1 l?iMHi'2Wb RAM £IB9 &IMM ^J-JMbft&iiPAM sjpgrada'ai^BO.'GF'QSOf £169 aWO0MHO.'iilW0Z£:jMHfl'4MtrRAM £J59 SIMM ]2-lMb40nifiAM y;jqrad( (G-Foia CMOV fl49 B5000 68030/6388: 25MHi/8Mlj RAM. i499 SIMM 9 B-i/lfrfb flOni [HC8^/HDB^/RAMa}. -^ £45 0SOOl)4flO]O/68B82 33Mhj/4MhfiAM £445 SIMM 9&f4HbflClni(HOet|.,„™™,™ £t29 All prices include VAT and lull warranty. Postage £8 (up to 6 items), Credit/Debit Card Orders 081-546-4522. 93m - 8pm 7 days. Cheque/Postal Orders to; Millenium Micros, 30 Fernhill Gardens, KingMon, Surrey KT2 ^DL Fax; 071 273 75:(5 FOUR GREAT GAMES and a// th/s Ma.ths revision.,. Times Tables Addition Subtraction Multiplication Division Fractions Decimals Using calculators Shape & Space )b: MATHS ADVENTURE I CtfilajMi MUM iDf . i6-14 '^8a<» Money problems Measurements Number patterns CASIcTsOLAf CALCULATOR AMIGA MATHS ADVENTURE For ages 6-14 pnce £25.99 mc. v«- Wow available from your dealer or direct from Kosmos. Write or telepnone for our new FREE IG-paga colour brochure of Educational and Leisure software (Please state computer type) Kosmos Software Ltd. FREEPOST (no stamp needed) DUNSTABLE, Beds, LU5 6BR TeJephone 0525 873942 or 875406 Accn^ 111 m llf fonfSho P Master Card Good News for Amiga Desktop publishers Adobe Type 1 fonts RoostHoavy Orleans q^iack- Chancer Y Hot/hot For use With Pageslream (v2.1/v2.2) Pro.Page 3/Pro.Draw3 10 volumes -50 fonts each -£10.00 per volume Compugraphic fonts For Pro,P«g# 3 / Pro,Draw 3 / Workbench v2 / PageSelter 2 I Wordworth w2 I Prowr^e v3.3 4 Volumes- 50 toms each £12.00 per volume EPS Structured clipart 3 Volumes each vvith 6 full disks of 100 + clips For PageStream 2.0+ - El 5,00 per. volume fPro.PiBV inert requir* Postvcnpl output - HOT PHgeieller campalable!.} Cheques (with Bank card No. and Expiry Date on reverse) or Postal Ordeis. - Enquiries send S.A.E for printed Type examples Post UK' FREE, Europe £l,50/vol. Rest of World £2.50/Vol FonfShop Dept (AS) 22 Sincil Street, Lincoln, LN5 7ET Tel: 0526 398403 Fax:0522 5461 31 E D UC ATI O here's no denying that a well-chosen illustration can liven up the appearance of a document. By prov^ing an extra way of grabbing the reader k attention, as well as enhancing tha overall appearance, picture a can goin those ojitra mofhs that mohc □M the difference between an flufirage gr^fie and an 'A', However, we dor^'l all have the hme to scorch for suitable source maienai. ana on top ot tnat, there are problems of copyrlgm. The PD world does offer many possible aolulions. but the range 0/ images is rrot always at the highcai order. and> more imponanily. The DulK of me iKidges may De irrelevant to your partlcjliar needs. So, this month I would like to introduce you to tnrcc auitc dirtorent forms of professionally-produced clip- Sft, and show how you can Incoroorate them into your work. THE HOUSE THAT t BUILT Whether for architectural studies, or for developing images of buildings as part of a larger picture, HoubvUuiltief from Diskotech offers a huge assortment of various building designs, enabling you to construct a mansion to your own requiroments. All of Ure various components die lo the same tcale: roof and wall pattfirns are both co[our co orOlnated, and adjacently interlocking, so that continual rep(^[iiions of orusnes ao not show coritUcting jcints. Empioving Mo!JseOuiiaeneQii\re^ the user to have DPaifH ond sufficient memo7 to be able to toggle between two screens, As the different files on each section are loaded, you then just collect the appropriate but Id log companonte* and consirucr a building according to choice- The permutations are enorrt!uub, and, I imagine, should be adequate for anyone. DES RES FOR SALE Once the desired building has t«en constructed, then it can be imoorted into a different pacKage such as WiJ(dwonf} or Hnai Copy. There it can be incorporated into a Drochufc design to produce a very professionaMoohing result. Scaling c^n be achieved by increasing the oogc size, or using the brush facility to eniflfgo the finished product. Should you find that a particular style or design i!^ lacking, then the range of building components can also be extended, either by developing the GXisimg solutions, or designing your own from scratch. In tho example l have produccdn I wanted to represent a brochure from a small builder who is advertising a development of mews-type terraced accommodation. IN THF DERReST f*RRT Of THIilN Above: Hundreds of components are available to construct your own house design fright; Once I had completed the linal design of the terrace for my broctiure, I was able to add the wording to complete the finished graphic, all without leaving DPaint. The picture was then ready to be Installed into a brochure design Stuck for an illustration? Then look no further! Wilf Rees samples some novel developments in the field of clip-art. PLUS: New budget-priced programs reviev^ed You can see where ! have employed the various components to construct the ohgirrai- then duplicated the first to produce a ten-ace. From there, the completed Image is saved as an IFF file, then imported into my word processing package^ where the required text is flowed around it. The components can be used for more than constructing a finished building - they could be used as discrete elements in any graphic, even if related 10 a different topic. The easiest way I found to go about drawing my intended row of ten'aced houses was to work in DPaint and use the spare screen {you can toggle between the screens using the j' key). I used the main screen as my loading screen, then simply loaded the data off disk, grabbed the desired piece of clip-art as a brush, and moved over to the spare screen. Working this way- t gradually built up the des^red image, adding elements selected from the different directones of examoles. Once the individual image was completedn it was simply a case of grabbing the whole house as a brush, and duplicating the house to create a terrace. You could even flip the brush on the horirontal axis to create a mirror image, thus adding a bit of variety in the overall design. ON THE MOVE Also from Diskotech is a range of clip-art with a difference. Under the genera! banner of MowiecHo. you'll find a collection of disks which lake clip art further than the usual cut and paste. This range of dis^s contains a sencs of animated clips for loading into the Anim feature I experimented using the animations against a black background, and also tned superimposing them over a video recording of the Famborough Air Show. This latter effect was made iifaiiiiiiii&b of DPatiM or AMOS. First release titles cover a comprehensive range of modern and pertod transport [by land, sea, water and air). Each disk IS full to the bnm and. as well as the ready-made animations, there are also backgrounds against which the animations can be run. You can stage your own air show with the animations provided as part of the Movieciip series possible by using a genlock [a device for linking video signals to your Am^ga graphics). The result showed a picture of the main runway at Farnborough. with an an^matlon of a AWTGA SHQpp&R % ISSUE 12 % FEBRUARY 1993 TB E DUC A-TIO* helicopter taking off. hovering, and then flying away into the distance. Combining these two features pri^duGOS o rcijiiy strange effect, aionft ihc linos of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. You could Mlirhni ■wniibkanii An sxamplft of the quality of the clip- art on the two Human Biology disks from Think Ltd. ThiG beautifully- illustrated example of a human skull ie 3nntomiC£)lly correct In fine detail. and tho major Gkoletal par1« are I demised. All ot the clip-art \% In hkgh-r«. so the definition Is of the highest possible order, without makinj; your eyes bogf^lo lahe any of iiie transport cllp-ari images and animate the vehicle over ■i tikf 1*1 Vllballl the top of 3 video. Another change you could make is to customise the decals on the vehicle, m order to suit your particular assignment. In our example ot an animation created with MoviecUp. a Ranger helicopter is made to perform various aerobatic stunts. The process couldn't be simpler, as the t>ackdrop is supphed on the disk, and all of the stages m the movements are supplied as clip-art. All the user has to do is: 1, Working w(th DPaint. select the spare screen, 2, Load the desired background, 3, Set the number of frames which are to be used in the animation. 4. Return to the main screen and load the first file. 5. Select the chp as a brush, and swap screens (toggle with key j). 6< Plant the first image wherever you wish it to go, 7. Return to the main screen and select the second image as a brush. 8. Swap to the spare screen and place the brush over the first image, using the comer guides provided. ih -1 9. Record this as the second animation frame, using key '2'. 10. Continue to repeat this pattern of loading the image files, grabbing them as brushes, swapping screens, and then recording them as animation frames. When you are finished, simply press key '4" and watch the helicopter take off slowly, hover, and gradually move away. Remember. it is also possible to change the colour scheme on any of the clip-art, but i really advise you to save any modified matenai as separate files, and not on top of your original disk. DOCTOR'S ORDERS This months third collection of clip- art is from the same company as my review, which follows this section. Think Ltd produce a range of sophisticated clip-art aimed particularly at science rn education. Entitled Human Biofogy. the package comes as two disks of highly detailed black and white line drawings of human anatomy. These are an absolute must for anyone with an Amiga who is following Biology at GCSE Of A level. The same principle applies as for the other examples of clip-art: once youve identified the appropriate image, you simply incorporate it into an assignment. The two disks cover virtually every aspect of human biology you will ever cover, and just so you can customise them, here is a useful tip. The files come in two versions, one with Jabels and one without. Try and incorporate the file in such a way as to make <t appropnate to the particular topic you are coven ng. Don t include any label unless it is absoluteiy necessary, and if you have the benefit of a colour kit on your printer, import the ctip-art into your favourite paint package and add colour to the items you wish to emphasise. The secret of a good illustration is that it does e?iactly what it says, and no more. CS OOOOOOOUO SHOPPING LIST Housebuilder » £20 Movieclip « ElOearh byOtskolechn0591?242 Hman biology £24.9? JIgsow £ 9.99 Move II and Slide It! £ 9.99 by Think Lid ir021-34B416B Think Lid ia a Birmingham company which, amongst other things, has recently produced some interesting educational software. Some of you may romombor tho company's "Alfred Arm\ a very weii-Ouiit. aixJ extremely useful rotiot drm used fn sctnujs id teacn control and related topics. Think Ltd has since turned its attention to an assortment of other activities. The processor v^ich sat in the base of the Alfred Ann was developed Uy TnmK Ltd. and sold Dy the DuoKcUoad lo the inldud Waterways to help monitor pollution. However, as \ said earlier, Think Ltd haa abo come up with a rongc of products in the field of educational softwaro- Wi I will now do a mini round up of just two of these modestly priced, but clever packages, ILLUSTRATED EXAMPLES WorHing wiw P!CWres is a series of interactive picture-based puzzles and activities, suitable not only for use in schools, but also as a source of great amusement, (and frustration!) to any age group. An example of one of the pictures in the Move It and Stitte tt! program There are two similar packages under this label, called Move It and Slide fit and Mgsaw. Move It ana Slide tv is based on those annoying puzzles where you have the numbers 1 to 15 mixed in a random pattern around a 4 by 4 grid. By a process of sliding the elements around- you eventually get the numbers in the correct sequence. With this package, instead of numbers you have pictures, and they are in full colour. The user has the choice of deciding how complex the puzzle will be, by deterrnlning the size of the grid. It is then a funous race against time to try and complete the puzzle. An on-line heip facility allows you to view the completed picture, which believe me is a must if (like me) you have foolishly chosen a 5 by 5 grid. Digitised speech gives you the name of the file selected, and there is a facility for loading pictures of your choice. Jigsaw IS somewhat similar, the principal difference being that instead of sliding the pieces around the grid, they can be pointed at, clicked on, and moved to the desired location. Sounds CHECK out Move it and Slide it! Ease of Use • • • • • Very usertnendly. It's so selfHSiplanatory there's hardly any need for a manual. Features • • • • O Us furi to be able to import your own picture and build your own pu77le. Documentation ••000 A flimsy pholocopiea sheet, fortunately not needed as the program's 50 friendly. Price Value • • • • • EJice*leni value for money. Overall rating • • • \j A super little pac**age which would be great for first and middle schools. easy^ but when yoo choose an Image from the advanced category, things get rather harder, I went for a close-up digitised prcture ot a wasp, and this had 64 pieces, which do not appear on Xhe jigsaw itself, but are stacked randomly on the side. Not only that, but most of the pieces were rotated by vanous amounts, making the task even harder 1 don't know why but I found thfS package compulsrve! It took me 35 minutes to complete the puzzle, and believe me. that's about three times longer than most packages manage to hold my attention. ECKOUt Jigsaw Ease of Use • • • • • A ooddle to control. Generally very frierxjiy, and simple-to^se all round. Features • • • • O The facility to 'eonentaie the pieces to make the puzzies more difficult is a nice sbrig in the taii. Documentation • • O O O Very limited but once again unnecessary. Price Value • • • • • EJiCelienT value for money. Overall rating This product would aLso have a place Ln any high school. VJC AMIGA SHOPPER VLSSUE 22 •FEBRUARY 1993 m Tel KSi 779695 V ft Tel: 0626 779695 Day or evening tt„ Educational PB-ograms Written by experienced teachers. Format Gold in Amiga Format Autumn 92. Trade enquiries welcome Do you wanf to see you children use fh© computer for something otner than shooi-em-ups? Would you iil<e ifiem to use more than four keys and a |oystick? Do they get fed up with being killed off while trying to work out which button does what? Coombe Valloy Software may have what you are looking for Sond SAE for information or disk/50p for demos, state computer To C,V,$. 18 Nelson Close, Teignmouth, Devon TQ14 9NH EARN£POUNDS with your MICRO Financial Security - New car • Holiday YiiMi Miuru t:an g'we ynvi aW of this and MURIl, The make and power is. irrelevant - Anv micro will become a goldmine if you follow jusi a few simple instructions- Working for others will never get vou rich - but we will show how working Trnm home can open ihe door (o undreamed of richifSp You already possess ihe tools to guarantee vnur financial security - now lake the most important step of your life :ind send for uur FREE inlormalion pack detailing how to sc^ up your own HOME MICRO BASED BUSINESS NOTE - uullkr several olhcf iidveril^trs wp do NOT ofkr Ju5i a smoU flimay prlnLed biiokkt d( ]dfa?(, bul we DO olfri a ramplrlc ^(1 you slaried packhiir inclufUng tTDinlng/ref«r«iie« mat«rliL cut pricr Boureca. soflwart and backup For FREE details, send SAE to 'PW, ?. nrpavp*^ Way. Bi*^hnps Itciiinglon. Warks. CV33 OPY Reach the top with LCL Self-Tuition Courses ^k Wndd IpndctT # UfMit gr^iiPlP'T^nohcr Buthnrs # tn cdinrDitiuiaJ loh'^'itrr charts. # l£h(i.-licibi nwkwu (e.g'<Df/TniWva/;r5f F/iu«p»rJ^n^>-AMLCASHOPPER)*f:^»rriul]Uri}r2.£iaoni'rf %. INCRi'.niBLK VAIAIH: 24-PROGRAM COURSES WITH A BOOK & iVlANUAL FOR ONLY i:24 EACH tMlrfii Seiies have ouistuiiJifii-'l^ good graphics & music tor that level) Totally comprehensive courses with far ickj niiuiy feaiui^«i ^\ . 6[ topJLa Lu liM» bul ioiiic CAaiuplo arc: MILKU SCIENCE ift vciu> -GCSE} Physiit. & Chfmisiiy pjaciiial fxjxrt initnu* • Biolugv demon amnions • Gniphii's tidvcniure gnme iMfCHft MATHS ni yc^irs GCSE; | Al^L'bru • Gconicirv • Tngtintimcfrv • Staii^lics' Aii;i.i'i. .1.. MICRO FRENCH iBcg^iir^ra - qCSEi | GCSE CHdPTTOPPEH ST, F ki'nl ■.pH.t.'ch • Crophics odvcnluiL' gumc ■ Busini^is li'llcr gi-nernlor |\tl<'K<) t-lN<:iLISH (^^ s t^CS^) I Spelling • Punciuaiion • Giurnmar ■ LitcraLure i*RLMAK\ MATHS <ni RSI nij vca^^^ 1 I n ATAHI Fsm. C 1 NEW Enlarged Tahk■^ • + - X -^ • HTL • Lunie A shon multiplitatinn • FiaciJMns JKLAUINU WRITING CUIRSK '^ i:>v,i.^ AinhrtKot * I ^■fcnd^tT^T^nil • Cit'nli\'^^ vvKlin^ ■ Reading * Spelling ImKCiA maths f a ltfv<>l courstfi | Cnlciiliit • Alp^hra ■ CeAmetrv" • Full'-icreen graphs EVENAIJPU ' Miao 5c4anc« loo new Tor this servics r All ;ippnjpii{iic LCL Courv^ uir Nau^aml Curriculum compaubkA t tin cm mu&l umipuu^n. ) Setid chffqvJCv'PO s (h-Q^ P<bP] ut pUui]L- urdL^rb, or requr&l^ for free colour posiLM-Zcamlopvieii to: ICL rT>FPT AS>. TI1AUF>; HOI iSF. "^^ niAMJY ROA1>h IIENLfiV t>N THAMES, OXON RGy IQB or ring 0491 579345 (24 hrs) ACC**» Remember this ? EPSON won an Amiga press Gold Award for its GT6000 colour scanner - it became the first sub £1000 full A4 flat-bed scanner for the Amiga and . ottered scan rates of up to 300dpi in both 24bit ^^ colour and 256 grey scale monochrome. Now EPSON have done it again. They have launched the GT6500 and prices start at £799 then SCAN THIS !!! With glorious 24bil, 1 6-7million colour technology, the new Epson GT-6500 and GT-8000 flatbed scanners produce iiigh definition, professional colour images. Do you prefer him in colour or black & while? Yet they also handle line art and 256 greyscaie images {for mono DTP, optical character recognition and computer aided design) with equal clarity and verve. ^%sn't colour wonderful? rr Output resolutions of up to eOOdpj" are available on the GT6500 and 800dpi* on Ihe GT8000. Ttansparencles as well ! With the optional transparency adaptor and automatic document feeder, these scanners are almost too accommodating for words. • sub scan logic doubles the standard 300dpi/400dpi maximums and working in 200% zoom mode, in line mode can offer 1200dpi/1 600dpi when used in conjunction with certain software hardware configurations. Available from your local Epson scanner dealer (where you see this Epson Scanner sign) Distributed by: HB Marketing Ltd, Unit 3. Poyle 14, Newlands Drive, Colnbrook. Berks.. SL3 ODX. Toi- ^7^"^ fiflfinnri C^w- riTCO cor\'^An AOS aat month we loohed at th« process used to create the Mandelbrot set. and constructed an Amiga BASIC listing to produce the entire Mandelbrot set. Thia month we'll be Innkinti ^t altc^r»tlon« tf> thk program which allow us to zoom into sections of the set and men gan&raXG vorlotiona on the normal Mondolbrot fractal. In case you mislaid (or mi»aod) loat month's issue, TTw program - complete with colour contour generation -Is provided again hore, ac Listing 1, ZOOMING IN The Mandelbrot set is an incomprehensibly complex object: a single plot can never contain enough detail to show all its intricacies. So, the ability to '^oom' into the set can tie very useful- Let's assume that we warned to look closer at the section shown in Figure 1. Gy intelligent guesswork, or by measuring the diagram, il can be shown that the srea 4n question lies in the region where a ranges between 0.25 and 0.9 ana D mfiges bGiw^-en Q.b and 0.7&. This IS all *h(^ information we need to inaenifv ims section, and line. The relevant replacement for the hne is shown below. PSET (a-160D-240.2D0- J tb-800-100J> Running the program now will display the nght section at the relevant size, but the pixels are too spaced out. This IS because the STEPS of the FOR. ..NEXT loops were optimised for the full Rgure 1: The small square (arrowed] Is the area we would like to examine more closely gaps. The revised FOR,, .NEXT initialisation lines are shown below, FOfU &-0.25J TO 0,5J STEP 0,0^ 00625 FOR b-O.B.J TO 0.75J 3TBF 0.00125 Rgure 2 shows the kind of output that you can expect from the altered program. Further enlargeiTients can be created by altering Lfsling 1 in a way similar to that used to produce Figure 2. It is these kind of eniargement techniques that lie bebin<J all the public domain Mandelbrot 'explorer Note that when experimenting with I higher magnification factors, the iteration ceiling (in the WHILE line) will have to be ncreased from 32. because, at high magnincations. more contour lines become visible. More calculations must therefore Rgure 2: Ma^lfficdtlon of the original pattern reveals a self-similar Mandelbrot set lurking within be done to distinguish points on the contours from points which actually belong to the official" Mandelbrot set (in other words, the black bit in the middle). There is no sirr^ple formula for calculatir^g the 'magnified fo over 100,000,000,000, 000,000,000 times its original „ only three minor alterations need to DC mode to Listing i in order to Uo ii. Tht first 15 to mahe the program only test points in the selected region, rather than in the whole set. To do thia the two FOR...NE>a loop initiolisotion lines should be altered 10 rtjdc a& roiiows: FOP fl=0.25 To D.5 STEP O.Ql FOR boO.5 To 0.75 STEP 0,02 TtllE has the desired effect of only showing the relevant area. The pixels arc piOTioa in the same place as beiore. rather than tilling up the whole screen. The movement of the pixels fs done by editing the multiplication factors in the PSET The harder you look at the fractals in the Mandelbrot set, the more detail you'll see, Conrad Bessant shoy^s hoyv to v^ield a mathematical magnifying glass Mandelbrot set. Because the height and widrh of our section Is only one- Sixteenth the size of the total Mandelbrot the STEP sizes must be corroapondingly rcducod to fiU in the programs, where you use the mouse to select the section to enlarge. Such programs work out the step sizes and ranges of a and b simpiy from the position of the mouse. LISTING 1 • LISTING 1 » LISTING MISTING 1 REM Oc>en a 1€ colour window SCRFKN 1,640.200.4,3 WINDOW 2, "Colour Kandelbrot Set", (0, 0) - (617, 180) . IS, 1 FOR «>'2 TO 2 STEP .01 POP b— 3 TO 2 STBP ,02 RQI S*t initi&l vaIuab of varlabl«H p-0 q-O IlEU Degia Galculatioa loop WHILE tP'P^Q'a^l} AND [iteration<32) Dnew=t> *D '0*1+8 F-p»evr q-gnew i ter at ion= i t qea t ioat 1 WEND COUm iteration MOD 16 'Set the colour PSET(32O+a*100,l00-b''SO) 'Plot the point NEXT b NEXT a maximum number of iterations for a given part of the set, because the contours are of varying widths. As a role of thumb the iteration ceiling has been well chosen jf tfie border of the actual set is free of smooth Ifnes and the set appears on the screen as fast as possible, LOOKS FAMIUAR There is one other important point to make about magmfymg parts of any fractal, which is that the aspect ratio (the ratio of height to width) should always be preserved. This is the reason why the sets plotted by Usting 1 only take up the middle section of the screen. Extending it in order to fill the rest of the available space would cause it to be artificially elongated. Such tampenng with the aspect ratio causes inaccurate plots to be produced, making self-similarity hard to distinguish. The tiny Mandelbrot shape near the centre of Figure 2 clearly demonstrates self-similarity. The tiny replicas of the Mandelbrot shape are thought to be found even when the set IS infinitely magnified. At a lecture Professor Mandelbrot exhibited a picture showing a section yO AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 32 • FEBRUARY 1993 AO S Of the set megnHM to over 100.000,000.000,000,000,000 times its original size, and the onginal Mandelbrot image couTd still be seen! It's not worth trying such a large magnification on the Amiga - it would take several years to produce, and bosidoG, tho precision of Amiga BASIC'S maths routines would mean tnai itie resuiung imaee woufd De severely disterted. STfiANGE MUTATIONS Some variations on the Mandelbrot set can easily be generated by altering Listing 1 without any und&relandlng of how the changes refate to the ManilelbroT process. For ejiomple. try eliminating Ific pncw and qnow vanoblo5 by replacir^ the rour lines aner tfie WHiLE line with the following (If you've jusl altered the program for zooming make sure you put it biKh lo normal tiefore liying llMii\j: qa2*p*q+b Another 'quickie' can be perfom^ed by Changing tho Mandoibrol square Into 3 cifcle. by editmg the WHILE line ta read as follows (this can be used on Its own or to enhance the last variation): WHILK (p*p<4j and (q'q<d) J and (iteraCion<33} In general the results or these hjnd of trial and error alterations lend to be disappointing. 5d, It Is usually more advisnhip to rtfive B reoaoriob^c idco of what you fue trying to achieve before you start tinkering around With the program. INTERNAL EXAMINATION Traditionally the inside of the Mandelbrot set is always coloured black, but it i^ pQ:>t>i[>le lo colour the inside of the set with contours Similar to those lound out&ide. Although these imernal contours are derived Trom the Mandelbrot process, ihev riave little importance to trie study ot the set. and are simply included to add visual effect - [hey can ix gutie stunning when plotted in colour. You can uce Ju^t :4t»oui any meUiod yuu riKe to plot tne interna) contours, but a popular method involves the distance between the centre of the Mandelbrot circle and the position at which the test point ended up after exiting the circle (see last month for more details of the Mandelbrot process and Mandelbrot circle)- The best way to incorporate this facility into Listing I is to replace the line which sets the colour to read as follows: ^.Jnciuded fo add visual effect - they can be c^ulte stunning when plotted in colour. // IP iteratioo<32 THEN J 'If outside set:... COLOR iteration MOD 16 J 'select colour nonoaily ELSE J 'Otherwise. . . COLOR INT ( 5*ABS t LOJ G(p*p»-q*q>)) MOD 16 J 'use internal method HMD IF QUASI-MANDELBROTS Quasi Mandelbrot sets represent one of the largest areas for Mandelbrot expenmentation. Normally p and q arc both set to zero Ijefore the Mandelbrot process gets under way, but by using different initial values it's passible to create a quasi- Rgure 3; QuasI'Mandelbrat sets are often quicker to plot than theJr 'normal' counterparts. though Less immediately recognisable Mandelbrot set- Different values can be incorporated into the program by altering the lines in Listing 1 which set the initial values of p and q. so that these variables are something other than zero. For example, try changing the relevant lines lo read as follows: p-0.6 The output from the resultrng program is shown in Rgure 3. These sets are usually quicker to plot than the standard Mandelbrot set. There are a vast number of different Quasi- sets that can be created using this method, due lo the many possible combinations of p and q. However, an important thing to remember when expenmentmg in this way is that both vanables should always be in the range ot -2 to 2. TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE Another vanation on the set can be achieved by altering the Mandelbrot equations which, recalling last month's articfe, are as follows: pnew = p*p - q*q qnew a 2*p*q * b + a A two-headed Mandelbrot set can be produced by replacing these equations with the following pair pnew - p"p"p - 3"p"q'q -t a q^ow " 3*p*p*q - q*q*q * b These two equations are actuatly very closely related to the original ones, although the relationship is difficult to explain without reference to complex numt>ers, equations for pnew and qnew can easily be incorpo'ared Into 3 Mandelbrot program such as The one given in Listing 1, and wiir produce output simrfar lo that shown in Figure 4, If you've just diieied the program to produce quasi-Mandelbrot sets remember lo restore the relevant lines so that p and q are both zero Initially, oi you will end up with something very weird! All the mutations discussed hero can be ft manipulated and zoomed into using the some method as for the normal set. Although the more compficated calculations slow the program down, this is still an area worthy of expenmentation. It's worth attempting to convert the listing lo GFA BASIC or C if you can't stand waiting for Amtga BASIC . A TOUR OF CONTOURS So far we have restricted ourselves to ptolling the Mandeltjrot set in the standard two-dimensional way, with onJy the dddilion of coloured contours breaking the tradition of Mandelbrot's original plots. However, there are many other ways to Observe the set. The first of these Is to plot the contours in a more map- like style, using thin monochrome lines rather than wide bands of colour. This produces an illustration reminiscent of a slightly anaemic' Mar>delbrot set A set of this type can be created by altering Listing 1 so that instead of colouring points depending on the ease with which they left the Mandelbrot circle, lines are plotted to show the boundanes between these groups. By far the easiest way to do this IS to plot the Mandelbrot set in colour Tirst and then use a pair of FOR.. .NEXT loops to scan the completed image, applying Amiga BASIC'S POINT function to pick out each of the boundaries between the coloured contours. ANOTHER DIMENSION Using colours alone tX is difficult to ensure that each contour around the Mandelbrot set is a unique colour. So, it would be useful to have another way of representing these contours. A popular method for doing thjs IS to draw an so metric three- dimensional Mandelbrot, Known as a Mandelbrot landscape, where points are elevated from the plane by differing amounts depending on The ease Rgure 4: If the standard Mandeibrot shape is beginning to look a little familiar. Jt's easy enough to add another head' to It With which they left the circle. Unfortunately a knowledge of 3D graphics programming is required before you can attempt a Mandelbrot landscape program, and there isn't room to explain 3D techniques here. However, watch this space for more details when we cover fractal landscapes later in the senes. So far we've seen how the standard Mandelbrot set can be manipulated- Following on from this, next month we'lt be looking at the Julia setn the ultimate variation on the Mandelbrot set. More details on the Mandelbrot aet Bnd other fractals can t>e found In Conrad Bessant's forthcoming book. Chaos and Computers: Amiga Edition (iSBf^: 1-85058-2831), published by Sigma Press. 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Worth £865 ha^in at £350. Mint condition ready to run » 0282 613352 Am<Ei* 2000 3Mb RAM two disk dnues, 40Mb hard disk, monitor. Action Replay til, ECS chipset, Kicksian 2,04 anO 1.3 ROM switcher. Workbench 2,04 £699 » 081 845 8065 Amlgi 1 mttf Soxed: Naksha rnouse, joystick, good mix of ortglnals only software, disc boitH hard cover bargain £200 ProDraw 3 Hew. unused (welt meaning gift) £60 Peter Gibb Bunon 1^0283 38314 A500 Amiga [v 1.3) wit^ 1Mb. Original lead, mouse and manuals, Encellent condition, only 18 months old £200 ono P Coxon, 72 Station Rd, South Gos forth Newcastle-upon-Tyne A50C+ 2Mb chip v 2,04, GVP HD&* &2Mb4Mb. fast. All leads, manuals, modulator and boned. Games and software £586. » 0742 737698 afier 6pm ask for Richard Cortex external RAM etponaion (2 meg) tor A500. -H (expandable to 8 meg). Through port. Irwludes tiox. manuals, power supply, software. 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Postal service £15 « 0837 810590 for details It's only £5 to sell your used hardware and software In Amiga Shopper Sell your excess hardware and software with Amiga Shopper Reader Adverts. Just fill in the form and send il to us along with a cheque (niarifl fiayabie to Future Pubiishingj or postal onder for £5. But BE WARNED. This magazine is not a forum for selling pFrate software or Other illegal goods- Software must include aiJ issue disks, manuals and a signed statement that all other copies have been destroyed. Please jiduis? us if you are offered pirate or copied software by advertisers. All ads aie accepted in good faith. The editor reserves the right to refuse or amend adS. We accept no responsibility for typographical errors or losses ansing from the use Oi this service. Trade ads will not be accepted, Including anyone advertising the sale of PD software. r Name Address (not Tor publication) Postcode Date Tel hck one Oot ro sfwrt 'eqvirco For sale G Wonted U Personal 1 Fanzines.,., Q Use one space for each word, Onty the words /n this section wxli be p^.'^- ■ — 1 1 1 1 Return with your cheque to: Reader Ads, Amiga Shopper, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, Avon BAl 2BW Unfortunatety we cannot guarantee insertion in a particuiar issue. i have read and understood the conditions for the inclusion of my ad- Signature AMIGA SHOPPER e ISSUE 12 • FEBRUARY 1993 81 AMOS Stuffed wifh Christmas turkey and generally the ^^orse for vs^ear, Jason Holhorn enters 1993 wifh a bang. If you got a copy of AMOS for Christmas, then join the ^in crov/d' wif/i AMOS Action! ghf Christmas corner but once a year and how glacf I am that it's aJI over. Having downed more wine, turkey and Christmas pudding than is generally regarded as safe, the old stomach Js bulging and my head atMl hasn't stopped spinning. But despite all this over-indulgence (perhaps better known as 'gluttony'), my Amiga hasn't been Ignored. Even on Christmas day. AMOS Pro was up and running. So, let's put AMOS Action straight into top gear (without breaking the speed Limit, of course!) and move smoothly into the New Yeaf. 1993 realty stiould prove to be a wonderful year tor AMOS. With AMOS Pro riding high in ^^^^^^^^ the popularity stakes, more and more Amiga converts are sure 10 enter the foid. This year we can also look fon^vard to some extremely enciting new releases for AMOS _ programmers. Now that the Amiga 1200 and - for the posers amongst you - the Amiga 4000 have delivered the new "AA" chip set to the Amiga community, it's only a matter of lime before a new version of AMOS Pro arnves that boasts full support for those wondrous new screen modes. As enclusively reported m last monih's AMOS Action. AMOS programmer Francois Lionet is also hard at work on the new release. n993 really should prove to be a wonderful year hr AMOS" February should also see the release of the new AMOS Pro CompHer. a very sexy piece of software thai i'm personaiiy iooking forward to. Having already coded loads of programs that take advantage of AMOS Pro's entfa facilities, it'll be nice to be able to run those programs without having to load AMOS Pro every time. Oon't hold your breath for the compiler though - my guess is that it'll probably take a little longer to arrive than Europress is actually letting on. Let's hope that I'm proved wrong. SOUD ADVANCES Although Europress won't spill the Oeans. I'm quite sure thai we'll also ^^^^^^^^^ see a new version of >^MOS 30 too. As bemused AMOS Pro programmers will already know, Voodoo's e;<cellent 3D extension doesn't quite work under AMOS Pro. Europress it}eing i^- the caring sharing company it is) is sure to do the decent thing and upgrade AMOS 3D m double quick time. It would ceftamly be a great shame if this doesn't happen - \ still think that AMOS 3D is one of the most underrated Amiga packages ever reieaseai Dont be surpr+sed either If you see AMOS eventually ending up in a Commodore bundle. I've t)een saying it for months now and I still think that Commodore will see the light We've cDvorod quite a few different types of games in the AMOS Action section ovef the last few months. Having already diacussed shoot 'em iip6, ma2o games and Dungeott Master cFones, we move on this month to that old falthfuL the adv«nture gante. Adventure gamee havQ heen very popolar for more ye^r* Ihflri \ dare to meinii>n. thinks mainly to pioneers such as Intocom and iviuunetic scrolls. Several adventure game construction kits appeared on the 8-t>Jt machines a couple of years back, but they failed to materlahae on the Amiga despite a quick foray Into tii« ST markets Tii*^ iitMftsi thai Ainl^d users have to programs such as Incentive's Graphic Adventure Creator [GAC] and QuLifSofts Professional Adventure Writer {PAWi ^s Aegis' Visionary, a language designed specifically for adventure game programming. Unfortunate iy it never quite achieved what its designers had aimed for, mainly due lo the rather long-winded approach it took towards programming. But fear not: writing adventure games with AMOSis actually very straightforward indeed. Wnai s more- you can even include graphics, sound Bftects and animations fif you're lucky enough lo own AMOS Pro) within your adventure gan>es - Vy doing that w^h GAC [KPlnt sat infD thf tt'^t itmrtfMH vu f<ntf vaytttf m 1h( Uri\o% trv>, |L«-uKt, Ibf kvdim 4rii Kcni dv»r|f4h Tt 11* k«r|Jk It 4 tL'ti Ittrrii&tar it'i tvtilUt tiLnlMrt iktMiti m It* Mmli^. lU. 11,1, rN You too can write adventure games - this one was knocked up in a dayl CLASSY ACT The heart of every adventure game is a routine called a parser". The parser's Job is to interpret the commands thai the player enters at the Whai now?' prompt and then act accordingly. Now, computers can't understand English as we do, so it's the parser's job to bring some form of intelligence to the machine. AUhough Its a far cry from true artificial inteiligence. the parser gives the machine the ability to act upon a Jimited range of English sentences. The parser works by assuming that each and every sentence that you enter will have a strict formal- It's a hit like writing a programming language - because every command has Its own unique forniat that the programmer is expected lo slick to. The parser also imposes this limitation. For example, if the parser were to be passed a senience starting with the word 'Attack', rt knows thai it should also be passed three other parameters - the name of the object or person being attacked, the word "with' and finally the object lo be used for the attack. Here s a valid example sentence: What now? AHack elf with sword 04 AMIGA SHOPPER 9 ISSUE ^7 m FEBRUARY 1993 AMOS and will snap up AMOS for an An^iga bundle. Hordes of Amiga users have been moaning at Commodore since tho long overdue demise of AiTiignRA^ilC {RIP), so Commodofe would be well advised to provide new users with a language that will allow them to get the very most fiom their new machine. And what betrer a language than AMOS^ Mark my words, it wiH happen. Of course the most encitmg asi>ect of 1993 has to be the twelve Issues of AMOS Action that await you over the coming months (one of which you're reading now). If you want to know what s hot, what's while hot and what's not so hot ttry saying that after a few beers!), then stick wLth us. TOTALLY RAD! if Santa dropped a copy of AMOS Pro in your stor:king. then no doubt you'll t>e tnifsiy 'or as much AMOS knowledge as your brain can absorb- One of the best sources of 4M0S related news, features, programming tips oiiO programs (dpdri from AMOS Acuon, of gourse) is Len Tucker's Totally AMOS, the latest issue of which IS now out and about. Issue 7 otters the same mu of AMOS source code, luiofials and other bits and pieces, all of which arc wntten by some of the most knowledgeable chaps and chapesses in the AMOS world. The latest issue also has source code for a complete maze game, based around my article in I39U6 20 ot Amiga Snopp&f. If youTe SUM a litUe puzzled atK>ul the rather techie subjects thai we covered in that issuen then the source code in TotaftyAMOS 7 will hopefully make things a little clearer. TotaltyAMOS is available from the Tucker partners (alias Len and Anne) who can be contacted at 1 Penmynydd Road, Penlann Swansea, West Glamorgan SA5 7 EH. 1993 will be a big year for AMOS and the Amiga - look out for a new version of AtiAOS Pro that supports the AA chip set GOING UNDERGROUND With the threatened closures of many of Britain's coal mines hitting the mining industry, four miners in South Wales have opened up their own colliery using the redundancy pay awarded to them by British Coal. In an attempt to keep costs down, they ve abandoned modem technology m favour of a pilpony called Amos' that is used to bring the coal to the surface. WelL all this just goes to prove that AMOS can be used for anything! YOUR PAGE NEEDS YOU So you lot out there tn Amiga-land think you're pretty smart huh? Well, now's your chance to prove It, Every month I'll be running a little competition within these pages that will give you the chance to prove just what talented programmers you really are. There are no prices jnvolved. but at least you'll have the satisfaction of seeing your code and - even better - your name featured within these pages. Just Uimk: massive prestige and programming fame could be yoursi The basic idea is to pick one of the two programming projects detailed below and then code an AMOS procedure that will do the job <rt must be a procedure so that readers can easily incorporate it into their own programs). Don't forget that your procedures must be both readable and as small as possible - anything more than 30 lines of code IS way too big! It's no good relying on external files or banks either ^ the code that you write must run perfectly when typed in straight trom the magazine. (However, I will allow calls to bank or picture files on the AMOS disks.) Once you're totally happy with the results, pop them on a disk to: Jason Holborn. Amiga Shopper. 30 Monmouth Street. Bath BAl 2BW. Here's this month's procedures for you to choose from: 1. Star Held: 'he Star Reld procedure must Ije very smooth, use hardware sprites (so that bobs can be pasted over the top of the star field), should run on any screen {so don't open up the screen from within "massive prestige and programming fame could be yoursi" the procedure) and should have stars scrolling by (from right to left) at different speeds, giving a sort of 'parallax' effect, 2. Infinite Bobs: Quite a few readers have noticed that AMOS can slow considerably when more than a couple of bobs are moved around the screen, AMOS Demo programmers have managed to beat this though, so I'd like to see a procedure that demonstrates how to move lots of tiohs around the screen (at least 50!j smoothly and at high speed. The parser would start by breaking the sentence down into a series of single words held within a dtiTK^riblofidi an^v- ^^ ^<^ case, the OJToy would contain four words; attack, elf. with, sword. Once the sentence had been tiroken down ;nto these constituents, the parser would men Check the first woru m the sentence to see what the player is tryine to do. in an average adventure game, there might be as many os fifty or more commands, but you could probably ^ct by with a fairly minimal selection to start off with - go. ejsaming. attach, gel- drop, use and other such essentials. Tho pareer would then check the ^rst word within the dimensional an-av against the list of commands supported by the parser. If it tailed to find a command that matched the first wura the user enieredn a message reading something like 'You What?' or tor the cultured among us - 1 do not undersiand would be displayed and the parser would return to stage one with the usual 'What now?' prompt. RECOGNISE THE EXERCISE Howevern once it had recognised the first word. The parser would then jump to a toutine dedicated to handling that particular command. \r\ the case of the example above^ you'd have a procedure that handled the ■Attack' command. The next stage would be to check the second word in the dimensional array against a list of characters, which would include all the various people and monsters depicted in the adventure. This array would contain two sets of information - the name of the character and its location within the game. If the parser managed to find a character tnat matched the description given by the user, it would then check to see whether that character was in the same location as the player. If It wasn't, then the parser would display a message that informs the player that the character they've just tried to attack isn't in the current location. Once the parser has managed to recognise and accept the character that's being attacked, it would then skip to the fourth word to see what the player is trying to attack the character with {you can usually take it for eranied that the third word is "with"). The object would then be compared agamst a list Of Objects held by the player (the player's inventory). If the player doesn't have that object- then an error message would be produced- If the player does have that object, then fierce combat would commence, UNTO THE BREACH The combat routine used by an adventure game doesn't have lo be particularly complicated. All you need *or this procedure are three sets of variables that determine the abilities of the player and the character which the player is trying to attack. These abilities could be hit points (the number of lives the player or character has before they kick the proverbial bucket); strength {how much damage the player or character will infict if they manage to hit their opponent successfully); and an agility rating (how quickly the player or character can move out of the way of incoming blows). Combat would start by calculating the probability of the player or character managing to hit their opponent. Let's presume- for the sake of example, that the player has a 3 In 10 chance of landing a successful blow. You would then start by generating a random number between 1 and 10. If the result was higher than 3, then the player's attack was unsuccessful. But if it was 3 or less, the combat routine would then deduct the player's strength rating from the number of hit points that their foe has. If the character being attacked has a hit point rating of or less, then they are dead. If they still have hit points ihough, you could then perform the same operation in reverse - the character attacking the player. Once both the player and the character have attacked each other once, combat would cease until the player decided to attack the character again, ^f you were feeling really adventurous, you could ejttend the combat routine so that it takes some form of bravery rating into consideration - if the character was a \ AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 22 • FEBRUARY 1993 83 AMOS Jason Holborn, our resident AMOS doctor, hacks his v^ay through your AMOS probiems in the largest Ansysrers section ever! BACK ON TRACK I nm prfifidntly writing a shoot '«m up gauK in AMQ5 Dut I'm having some difficulty with the sound. I want to be able to have sound effects and music playing ■Imultaneouflly by splitting the four channels - channels 1,2 and 3 for music and channel 4 for the sound effects. I have already written a selection of tunes using ProTracker 2.2 using )iist the first three Channels, Howevof, when I attempt to load up the tune Into AMOS and then play a sound sample as well, all I get Is distortion ^nd cracKle&. Here's my code: TiacJi lioad "Wod-GroovySona", 6 Track Play 6 voice %0001 Wait 50 i Bcom Gvon when lifting Amos Pro {which Anyone feel up to the lob of writing a routine that will allow AMOS to read data from a sound sampler? Is brlHIant), the same thing happens I every time. Do I need a new Sound Tfdcker program? Is AMOS actually capable of playing both music and sound eftects simultaneously? I understand that there are also several 8-channel Sound Trackers available {OctaMED. for example), WIIJ I be able to get the 8-channel modules from these programs to work with AMOS Pro? David Shattu Chlswick. London There's a simple explanation for the problem thai you re having. David, AMOS Pro [and indeed AMOS version 1.34) provides two melhods of incorporating sounij tracks into your programs: the old and faithful MUSIC and the new TRACK commandSn both of which are designed to piay 'tracker modules. Unfortunately, the standard MUSIC command doesn't support Sound Tracker Module fomiat (the industry standard for modules), so Europress enhanced the sound system by inc^uding direct support for Sound Tracker (and hence Prolracker) modules via the TRACK commands. TJie TRACK commands are veiy easy to use, Dut they have one major limiiaiion - they take over the Amiga's sound hardware. You cannot therefore pfay sound samples and a module simultaneously it you decide to play the module using the TRACK PLAY command. What you need to do is to conven your modules to AMOS Music Bank fomiat using the utility on your AMOS program disk and then play it using the MUSIC command. Vou will then be able to play a music score and sound samples simultaneousfy. Unfortunately, the current releases of both AMOS and AMOS Pro do not support achannel Sound Tracks and it is unlikely that they will unless a third-party developer brings out an extension. Playing 8-channel modules is a big drain on processor time, so ^t would be virtually impossible to play a nxxlule of this type and keep your game or demo running at full speed. Just watch The decrease in speed when OctaMED Pro switches to Schannelsl FREAKY, MAN I want to write a Sound To Light' routine in AMOS. I've written the code to display the Mights', but I can't get AMOS to read the sound from a sampler connected via the parallel port. I am ualng a Trllogie Stemo Sampler Mk 2, Hit?! coMhMdwpogiBt AH0L80RN Evei^^onth our very .own AMOS s youVTflUflSl^lSted problematic prose withiri these very pages. If th&ib'i^an aspect of AMOS that is troubling you, then sendjrour letters to Jason •Shop^r, Future ,;30 Monrhouth Street; BallTl'^dn BAl 2BW^ •-^:a ^W •f GAME MAP [D® awa MDVEMENEDIflECTtQNAHKAT Uettiiin North South East West Up Down 1 I -1 -1 z -1 I -1 -1 a" " g [ -1- ~ fl -1 -J -1 ^ [ -1 \ -\ I -1 f 3 [ -1 J "X RANODM ACCESS nit l0UMn1 LDcanonText Locttion tsvt. Location text... location to >a. Locit^onZ Location texl LDcatron tsKt... Locatioo tsKt... iDcailflr tBKt Liudaiia LaC3llDnt9XL iDMtlun text... LflCfttontex! By aaalgntrtg a number to each map location, movement can be controlled ■Imply by Interrogating the sttrlbutoc associated wKh each location. The location number could also be used as ar> index number for extracting the location text from a random access file held on disk toiai coward, vou could grve il The option of running owoy from the player. However. If it were a brave warrior^ it would charge in whth axes flailing. In this case, the mighty combat would not cease until either the piayer or tlie character were dead, irrespective of whether the player had chosen to engage in battle or not. ON LOCATION Taking a lew steps backwanjs. lei's take a look at how the adventure game locations are stored and how movement around those locations is handled- The best way to store them is to have a dimensional array that acts as an index for a random access file containing the descriptive text for the locations. Each entry within the dimensional array vinuuld contain information on a single location within the game. In turn, each location would contain six different attributes assocfated with it, one for each direction of movement (north, south, east, west, up and down). Each of these attributes would contain a number representing the location that the player will move to ^f a partfcular direction is selected. Say. for example, you were in location 10 and you wanted to move east- The program would start by checking the attribute for the current location that contained the number of the location for an eastward movement. If it contained anything other than -1 (which would denote that moverVient was not possible \x\ that direction), then this value would become the new current location, the text for that location would be pulled in fnjm the random access file and the whole process would start again. SET PARSER TO STUN Anyway, enough of the theory - let's get stuck into some code. The first routine we need hefore we can start coding the parser is a routine that analyses the text entered t>y the user and then spiits it up into individual words. Many programming languages offer such a facility as standard, but r>ot AMOS. We must therefore code our own. The routine which you'll find on the following page is called SCAfiF and is actually one I wrote years ago for just this task. It's very heavily geared towards adventure games, so it s not really designed as a gen era I purpose routine Uke its namesake vcanff) in the C language. In fact, the oniy reason why I decided to call It SCANF is because, having spent years workjng on Unix systems. C has become my second programming language. 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Hesse add £3.50p+p for disks and boxes. E&OE. SNAP COMPUTER SUPPUES LTD Fax: 0703 457222 Unit 16. The Sidinos. Hound Rd, Netley Abbey. Southampton S03 5QA m AMOS io(i|inuedlnHn|)Qge€4 Tve managed to op«n 1l» port with tho Op«n Port l/'PAR-" commi*nH which yuarkh OK. However, when I read from the port using a command such as Input M,S, nothing hnpp«n&. How can I read the u^luee sent down the porallcr port by my aampkr? • 5lmon £<i»ti>p Pwnbrohoohlre, Wole^ UmT w ^B r J I nl to lor It l« possible to run external profLrams such as DPaint from within jrour AMOS programs I'm afraid ft's oot possible to read data trom a sounfl samolcr via AMOS unless you're prepared to get involved in some pretty heavy hardware based programming. I'm prepared to Oe proved wrong mough - so if any of you talented AMOS programmers Out there faocy writing a procedure that will do the job, then id love to see it. Ill even send a mystery pnze to the lucky programmer that gets thetr code printed in the magazine! MENU MADNESS I am writing a menu program In compiled AMOS which 1 would llite to Install Into the startup- sequence Of my hard drtve, enabling me to delect and run any of the programs stored on my drive. The program works tine for other compiled AMOS programs hut when I attempt to run *!'» other programs fi (OPaMf. for example), the program crashes. I am using the standard Run "ProgramName'' ^^m^ command to * wM' execute the Wt relevant programs- ''^^flL 1 would also like B g to return back to — the menu once the Ml««tMl program has been quitted^ Can you please help? Mr M Martin Moreson. Swindon The Run command isn't designed to handle programs other than those produced by AMOS. Technically it shouldn't therefore handle compiled AMOS programs, but my gueSS iS that you're not oompiling them as Workbench programs, but as compiled AMOS code. The Run command is used simply to 'chain' together AMOS programs when memory becomes a httle tight. What you need is the Exec command which IS available in version 1,34 of AMOS and AMOS Pro. For example: Exec "DHO:DPaint- ,"CON:0/0 J /200/ 100 /Running DPaint.. ." would run DPatnt (you'll have to alter the pathname if DPaint has been installed somewhere else). To run your menu in the background, use the AMOS TO BACK and AMOS TO FRONT commands to switch screens. Running both the menu and the 'launched' program will eat up lots of RAM. especially if your AMOS menu program uses a lot of graphics. QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE 1 am currently writing an adventure game In AMOS with thousands of locations. I was thinking of doing this by painting the map with Deluxe Paint using different colours to represent the different map features - or>e colour for the woods, another for castles, and so on. AMOS would then check the colour of the pixel representing the player's present rocatlon to ascertain the setting they are standing In. How do I read the colour of a pixel on a hidden 64- colour Extra HalfBrite screen? Alsop do you know of a public domain samples disk which Is not dedicated to contemporary music? I'm especially interested in lute and lyre sounds. Phillip L Henry Earls Court, London You're making rife very complicated for yourseft. Phillip. Instead of using up valuable Chip RAM by holding a 64-colour image in memory, t^y a 2- dimensional array like in issue 20 of AMOS Action. It woufd then Oe considerably easier to extract the infonnation you required and it would also eat up considerably less RAM. You could fill in the map data simply by writing different values into the array £1 for woods, and so on), A classical samples disk, eh? I must admit that I haven't seeo one in the PD libraries, but they are available commercially. However, your best bet would be to sample the instruments yourself from classical music recordings. Try MicroDeal's new Rave Sampler - which costs just £19.95 and is availalsie direct from Mjcrodeai on « 0726 68020. NEXT MONTH • NEXT MONTH • NEXT MONTH Next month we'll be continuing our look at adventure games by adding the code that controls movement within the map. Beginners can also look forward to the return of our ever popular AMOS For Begir}ners section. It's all just one month away, AMOS fans - can you bear the wait? Uhat Now? Go North UORD 9 ^ GO WORD 1 : NORTH Hhat Now? Attack J»on with Mouse MORD « - ATTACK - JASON T UlTH UOPD ^ T. HOUSE Uh^t Now? Not very eKoitin^ is it UORD I = NOT HOW I - VERY UORD 2 - EXCITING WORD 3 = IS UORD 2 - MORD 3 = HORD ' Uhat Now? we^t UEST Mhat Noi*? Drop ^word UORD 9 ^ DROP WM> i - SHOW Uhat How? _ OK, 3o ira not very exciting, ijut the SCANF procAdure L& a very important part of an adventure game par««r ontnuvdriwipooifli All you do is define a dimensional array that can hold the words that the SCANF procedure exlrocta. This must be defined at the very stort of your program and then dpfinf^n a^ a glotial array, rh^r^Tore dtioniiig diiy [iroceauit? to dcctfss itie words stored within it. The procedure expects to be passed the string containing the user's Input- It then searches through the string for spaces and characters. If a Character is found, then it appends It onto the end of a variable called WORDS. However, If a space is foundn the routine assumes that the word is complete and therefore writes It into the dimensional array. The WORDS variable IS then cleared anO'lhe whole process continues until every character contained within the string has been anaiysed. AI1 the code contained with the Do.. .Loop structure can be ignored. I've included this loop simply to provide a quick and easy way of testing that the SCANF procedure is successfutiy stripping down the string and passing the words back correctly. Type it m if you want, but dont expect anything particularly riveting - the exciting stuff will be covered next month! f^ kiW^M l;Mliil!ll Dim CCMMS{5> 5Etfr$ -Uppers ( CKD$ } Global CCHHSO Ttat COtJNT-1 To Len(SENTS) ro If HldS(SEWr$, COUNT, !>-" " Input "What ttOv7 '';CHDS If woRrx:ouNT<5 _SCANT' [CUD^l COMH$ IWORDCOUVT) ^HOKD$ COUNTBparam Inc VIORDCOUNT For A-0 To COtJNT Sod If Print "Hord ";A;" = J End If '■;CCMM5tG0UWTJ If MldStSENTS,COlMT,l}<>" " VmxL h nORDS-VOmS+HidS(SEHTS. J LoCf) COUNT, 1) End If IE C0ONT=Len(SENTS) and J ' •»• SCANF - Stripe & J W0RDCOUNT<5 string down CC»IHS (WORDCOUNT) iWORD$ ' '■• into single words End If Hext COUWr Procodure _SCANF[CKDSI If W0RDCOUWT=5 Then Doc J vjohdS-"" WJRDCOUNT WORDCOtJNTfcO End Proc fWORDCOUNTJ AX AMTGA SHOPPER • TSSUE 23 • FEBRUARY T993 MAKE YOUR AMIGA EARN! Yfs, making njonex yiith your AMIGA heiomes ifuidenlal whefj yon know fww! Your AMIGA is, if only you knew ii. a gold mine. 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S209 96 DONT FORGET »^> ALL OUR PRINTERS COME COMPLETE WITH CONNECTING CABLE, DRIVERS DISK AND A TAILORED DUST COVE*? ■•.^^MRDDR/Vn GVP IMPACT SERIES II HARD DRIVES ii'. fA^ltii i-t/wDLPi^E^Cv'i. ■ _■!■■ 'Hf AMIGA FEATURES 'NCLUUL oAMLLWirCH FXTfRNAfc SCSI PORT.fAAASTROM SCSI DRIVER, CVP'S CUSTOM VLSr CHIP AND INTERNAL RAM J EXPANSION UPTO BMB UNITS USE *AST ACCESS] QUANTUM HAI^D DRIVES ALl GVP DRIVES COME WITH A 2 YEAR WARRANTY SUITABLE FOR ^H^ AMIGA ASOO AND A500-- 52 MB DRIVE 0MB RAM 5^MB DRIVE 2MB RAM ^MB DRIVE 4MB RAM ^2MBDRIVt SMBRAM 120M8DRrvE 0MB RAW £XPA/ffS/M AMIGA A&OO 0.5 MB RAM EXPANSION FITS INTO loU- AMIijA :G HJv^l.'tASi l-ib TOTAL MEMORY CAPAClTv TO 1MB MANUFACTURED BV 7Y0EC RBDODJ S22.95 AMIGA A500+ I MB RAM EXPANSION FITS INTO YOUR AMIGA lO INCREASE THt TOlAJ MEMOPV CAPftCiT/ r0 2MB CHiF ::am IWIANUMCTURED BV ZYDEC RBO0I3 £39 95 AMVGA A600 I MS RAM EXPAMSlOh FITS INTO vCivjR AMiG" TG lNC,:J£A5£ THE TOWt MEMOPV C APACITV TO 2MB MANUFACTURED BY H'DEC RBD0T4 SA^ 9S AMIGA 6 MB EXTERNAL RAM EXMNSION PLUGS INTO THf EXPANSION PORT AT THE 5iDE OF THE AMfGAT0GiVEUPT0 3MBOFFiTTVA MEMORY IMt UNITI£COMPATlQL£ WiTl-lTHE AMlGAASOOANDASOQf IT USES 1MB' JZIPS MANUFACTURED BY ZYDEC BBD006'0 UNPOPULATED MO0UL£. £ *9 9S RBDOW 2 POPULATfDT02MB £11295 RBDOOft/^ POPULATfDT04MB ...,il69.9& RBD006re POPULATED10BMB. .. £2«9.9& P£R/PHERAa \ AMIGA 3 5' EXTERNAL DISK DRIVE THI'^DRiVb \% iHt i-b£^hbCI J-Af^TNE!? TO YOUR AMIGA rl S FEATURES INCLUDE ON/OFF SWITCH LONG CONNECTING CABLE . VEIW QUIH SLIM DESrGN ASWELL AS A IHROUGHPORT COMPfl"1lF Wrrn AMIGft ^500 A=OCK A600 MANUFACTURED BY ZYDEC EXTD02 U9.9S REPLACEMENT INTERNAL DISK DRIVE '--- ' -''-J i-tcD TORtPlA',; r :,'Ui'' AV:GA '^5CO.'A500» rNTERNAL DRIVE COMES COMPLETE WITH ALi FIXINGS AND tNSlRUCTlONS THIS ponniKi^ll! iNVAHnftTf vnUT^WAPRANrv MANUfACTUflED BY ZYDEC INTDOI,.. .£U,95 A5OO/A500+ POWER SUPPIY UNIT If -OUI^ t*.iiiiNG PuWtIv iUl'PL' HA^ FAILED VOU THEN THIS IS WHAT VOU NEED MAN BYZYDiC POW00T.,«9 95 ZYFI STEREO SPEAKERS U5TEN TO rOUK aMh:.A AS iTSHOLaD BE HEARD WITH THESE SUPtW STEREO SPEA^RS ^lEYCOMF COMPVETt WITH EVETW HING VQU NECD JUST PLUG THEM IN TURN THEM ON AND AWAY YOU GO SPK001 .U4 9S ACTION REPLAY Ul ■ BY DATEL FEATURES INCLUDE fREE7EFRAME SOOT SELECTOR Vlf^S DETECTION AND MUCHMUCHMORE ALL AJ A SUPER R^ICE A50D/A5O0* AREP01 .£56.95 AlSOO/A20tX) ARfPOl ..£6695 MIDIMASTER MtDl INTERFACE - 8Y DATEL MlD^lN-3lL^' ' DUGH COMPATIBLE VkniK ALL Llalj:nG MIDI PACKAGES COMf 5 WITH 7 FIVES MID' CABLES ASOO VERSION MIOWI .£1«.95 AMIGA GREY SCALE SCANNER WUH lib OElJUlNf 4r.0.J[ji SCAN RESOLUTION THIS FAST. HIGH QUALITY SCANNER PRODUCES FAITHFU MONOCHROMt IMAGES FROM molOtjRAPMlC OM UT^t ART ORIGINALS ir COMPAIlBLf WIIM ALL MAJOR Df ^KTOP PUaUSMlNG AND f'AfNT PAC>tAGE5 COMES COMPLETt WITH OAJASCAN PROFESSIONAL SOFTWftRt ANOFfliSCANSE SAVED IN itt FORMAT MANUFACTURfD BV IVDEC SCN001.....£99.9fi ^ AMIGA SQUIK MOUSE ALOWCO:^l HiLsM UAI ALI TY REPLACEMENT M-^ii^rrnDTHr AM:r,A MSEOO« AMIGA SQUIK MOUSE .£12.95 3.5- DSDD SULK DISKETTES 100% CERTIFIED ERROR FREE COMPLETE WITH LABELS DSlfO0l/2525<3.&'DSDD135lVl .-. £ 1Z« DSlt(X)l/50 50x3 5-D5DO 135101. £ 32 95 OSKO0l/l0OTaOK35'O5DDli5lcH .. £399S DSKOOl/200^00- J6 050D l36lpl.,.,„.A 76.9S DS*;001,500 ^00 ■ 3 5' DSDO 1 J5tQl .£174 95 3,5" DSDD TDK BRANDED DISKS 1007o CERTIFIED ERROR FREE COMPLETE WITH LABELS OWftRI/1010j.35DSOD>35lpi £ 425 OSKBRI/50Wk3S DSD0l3&tD< £ 39 95 DSKBR]/IOO IDaK35 DSDDISSltri £ 57. 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HDD 100 HDD102 HDDI04 HDD10A HDD200 HOD 20 2 HDD 304 HUD 205 HDD300 SI MO0 1 li!OMSDRlVE l20MflDRfVt I^OMBCWtVE ;;40MB DRrVE 3Mfl RAM 4Mfi RAM SM6 RAM 0MB RAM £147 95 U9I95 £4^95 £5aj95 &4A2 95 £506 95 £550 95 £«3e95 *23.95 :jne ;:; EASIIV achieved with the i MB SIMMS FOR ABOVE £ 24.95 AMGA TRACKBALL KANITI . _ TVDI ' .'(BAIL ITS TOP QUALITY OPTO MtCI'.ANICAL DL5fGN f NSUJVES ACCURACY WITHOUT CON'P^^CMlSiNG SPEED OF OPERATION TKB001 £27.95 ff TEL: 0782 818189 PHONEFOROURFREECATALOGUE PYTHON TMMiGiJOSWifCHEO JOYSTICK WITH AUTOFIRE JST004 £9,95 MAVERICK IMarcADE STYLE M ■" ■-■. 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