Document sans nom$ 3.50 CAN. $ 4.50 NOVEMBER 1988 HARD DRIVING GN.Y6UR AMIGA THE BIG NEWS IN MASS STORAGE-NEW SCSI CARDS AND SOFTWARE LICENSED TO PLAY THE "0FFICI4L" TREND IN AMIGA ENTERTAINMENT ‘ ACCESS 64-USE It’s Time To See How Your Word Processor Stacks Up To ProWrite 2.0 Now You Can Trade Up To ProWrite And Save $ 50 New Horizons Sec for yourself trade in your current word processing software, and get S30 off when you order ProWrite, the only multi-font color graphics word processor for the Amiga”! ProWrite 2.0 has a number of powerful new features. A spelling checker with a 95,000- word dictionary. Mail merge. The ability to read hold-and-modify (11AM) pictures, and to resize pictures as well. In addition, ProWrite has the Workbench 1.3 printer drivers, for much faster and higher quality graphics printing. All this, plus ProWrite’s flexibility and ease-of-use combine to make ProWrite the best word processor for the Amiga. Here’s the offer: just send us the master disk of the word processor you're using now, and get ProWrite. Version 2.0. tor only S75! That's a savings of 40% which makes this a perfect time to reconsider your word processor. Because now, when you compare ProWrite and die competition, it really pays! CALL FOR A FREE BROCHURE ON PROWRITE AND FLOW, THE IDEA PROCESSOR FOR AMIGA. First In Persona! Productivity And Creativity. P. O. Box 43167 Austin. Texas "8745 (5121 328-6650 I’roWme is
a trademark of New Horizons Siftwarc, Inc. Amiga is a
registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga. Inc. I’M READY TO
MOVE UP TO PROWRITE 2.0! Here’s my word processor master disk and a check or money order for S75 payable to New Horizons Software, Inc. Send me the new ProVi'ritc 2.0! (Texas residents please add 56 sales tax). ADDRESS OTV: STATE zF" ------- Burst the two-dimensional straightjocket that imprisons your video graphics. Enter the fujjdepth, full-color world of X-Specs 30. The third dimensional stereoscopic world of human vision. How does it work? The X-Specs advanced high-speed liquid crystal shutters allow play games with more realism than ever imaginable. Easy installation involves plugging interface into joystick port and running software included. Look for the variety of new programs supporting the X-Specs' Real Eyes vision. Ask your local dealer for a demonstration. If he doesn't have X-Specs yet, call or write us. We'll moke sure you get a chance to see the new world of C-64 and VCR interface coming soon. Dealer & distributor inquiries invited. J Arnica version list M,.3 ¦ if price: i124.95 haitsx HAITEX RESOURCES, INC. 208 Carrollton Park • Suite 1207 * Carrollton, Texos 75006 • (214) 241-8030 X-Specs 30 and Real Eyes a-e trademarks o (HaBea Resources, lac. Amiga Is a regisered traderoart o! CommcdcreJ, mrga inc. Pkdure sieve is NOT a cocnousr-oeneraal ire, your computer to control what each eye sees independently (at 30 frames per second). The results are breathtaking. Objects step out of your computer's display and into the room with lifelike reality. You can add new life to presentations, CAD, molecular and solids modeling. You can now the world was AlioyJs f*-1 Y»i&ils T CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS View from the Bridge
..... 6 Ahoyl’s Amiga
User goes monthly. What’s next delivered to your door daily? Scuttlebutt 9 Twelve pages of coming products, many of them from June’s AmiEXPO, Entertainment Software Section 24 A look at the new wave in software licensing, plus individual game reviews. Reviews ... 48 We kick the tires and check under the hoods of the most current releases. Art Gallery ... 64 Some head shots from the head Amiga artists in our readership. Flotsam ... 75 Our mailbox continues to overflow with comments on a range of subjects. COLUMNS Exec File by Ted Salamone ... 71 Make your Amiga your business partner with us as your monthly consultant. Amiga Toolbox by Michael R. Davila 77 No old saws here we've put some versatile computing tools in your hands. Eye on CLI by Richard Herring .... 78 The mystery of the missing CLIs, and a batch of other information. President Michael Schneider Publisher David Allikas Executive Editor Michael R. Davila Art and Production Director Laura Palmeri Senior Editor Richard Curcio Technical Editors David Barron Bob Llorel Consulting Editors Morton Kevelson Tim Moriarty Dale Rupert Entertainment Editor Arnie Katz Art Production Christopher W. Carter Circulation Director W. Charles Squires Director of Promotion Mark Hammerer Promotion
Art Director Stacy Miller Controller Dan Tunick Advertising
Representative JE Publishers’ Representative 6855 Santa Monica
Blvd. Suite 200 Los Angeles, CA 90038 (213) 467-2266 Boston (617) 437-7628 Dallas (214) 660-2253 New
York (212) 724-7767 Chicago (312) 445-2489 Denver (303)
595-4331 San Francisco (415) 864-3252 FEATURES Hard Driving
on your Amiga by Morton Kevelson ... 38 New
SCSI controllers and backup software that promise to have
mass appeal. ABM by John Haubrich 66 Detente, schmetante. Get a Star Wars defense system running on your Amiga. Cover photography by Dana Domintak Ahoy! Access Club members pay less for selected products and services advertised in Ahoyl’s Amiga User. Turn to page 79 to find out how you can become a member. ISSUE NO. 3 NOVEMBER 1988 Ahoyt's Amiga User is published monthly by Ion International Inc., 45 W. 341li St., Suite 500, New York, NY 10001. Subscript inn rale: 12 issues for $ 27.95, 24 issues lor $ 48.95 (Canada ami elsewhere $ 3695 and $ 63.95 respectively). Application tn mail at second class postage rates is pending al New York, NY 10001 and additional mailing offices. 35 1988 by Ion International Inc. All rights reserved., J under Universal International and Rut American Copyright conventions. Reproduction of editorial or pictorial content in any manner is prohibited. No responsibility can lie accepted for unsolicited maferial. Postmaster, send address changes to Ahoy.’s Amiga User, 45 YV. 34th Street, Suite 500, New York, NY 10001, Direct all address changes or matters concerning vnur subscription to Altov.1'r AmigaUser. P. O. Bos 341, Mt. Morris, II. 61054 (phone: 815- 734-4151). All
editorial inquiries and products for review shuuld he sent to
Ahoyt’s AmigaUser, 45 YV. 34th St., Suite 500. New York, NY 10001. Hole-In-One Miniature Golf combines digitized sound, quality graphics and superior playability with realistic ball plat’ to give you the best miniature golf game made! Utilizing the mouse (point and click) interface, DigiTek Software has created a game that will challenge adults yet is so simple to play that children can play as easily as adults from the very first game. This game supports up to 4 players making it one of the few games that the entire family really can enjoy together. DigiTek? Software 10a West Seneca, Suite 4 Tampa, Florida 33612 (813) 933-8023 (Programmers wanted write us!) Hole-In-One Miniature Golf is 72 Holes of pure fun in 4 separate courses that give you classic miniature golf as well as hilarious fantasy' holes. The digitized sounds of the crowds, the ball, and special effects all add to the fun and realism. Another revolutionary game from the company that brought you Vampire's Empire, Amegas, and Hollywood Poker DigiTek Software! If we had any doubts about increasing to monthly publication after only two issues, they were put to rest by Junes AmiEXPO in Chicago. The excitement level there was like nothing we’ve observed since covering the Commodore 64 at its peak several years ago. Users and manufacturers alike were so gushing in their enthusiasm for the Amiga that we had a hard time navigating the crowded aisles without slipping. Despite our tight schedules we still publish Ahoy! For Commodore 64 128 users as well we felt that we had to grow with this growing segment of the
industry. VIISW l=l? OM 71-11= IJRIIDGIE Publishing four times a year, and even eight times a year, a great deal of information had to fall between the cracks. Monthly publication will allow us to cover more products in a more timely fashion-and in greater detail than ever before. In addition, we’ll keep offering you features that you can find only here. One such feature is the Ahoy! Access Club Clipper. Bound into all subscription copies, this month’s Clipper offers special discounts on merchandise from Discovery, Creative Computers, Pioneer, and other Amiga vendors advertising in this issue exclusive deals not offered in their display | DeluxeHelp Is Available For DiglPaint $ 34-95* Photon Paint DeluxePaint i $ 34-95* $ 34-95* $ 44-95* “...I see DeluxeHelp as a concept that could be adopted by all software developers as standard operating procedure. The interactive tutorial's day has come!,." INFO Magazine, 22 $ epf Oct'88, p59 "... live demonstrations,
with interactive practice, can greatly speed up the learning
curve... Our experience with DeluxeHelp tends to confirm that
theory..." Computer Shopper Magazine, January 1988, p318 Coming Soon
For: AmigaDOS 1.3 PLUS MANY MORE! RGB VIDEO CREATIONS 3944 Florida Blvd, Suite 102 Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33410 407-621-0138 AmlgaLlnk BBS: 407-622-7049 * Add $ 3 US Shipping ($ 6 FOREIGN Shipping) FL Residents Add 6%
state tax Goes Monthly! Ads! There’s also a list of retail outlets where you can show your Ahoy! Access Club Card to receive in-person discounts. Turn to page 79 to find out how to receive a free membership. Morton Kevelson’s obsession with taking things apart, and his ability to translate his findings into useful terms, has earned him a reputation as one of computer journalism’s leading hardware dissectionists. In this issue he inspects two new SCSI controllers and some backup software practically all you need to do some Hard Driving on Your Amiga. (Turn to page 40.) Want to add to your knowledge of Amiga BASIC and your software library at the same time? Type in ABM, an action game in the Missile Comtnand mode by John Haubrich. (Turn to page 66.) We had some catching up to do in this month’s Scuttlebutt section. Though it took 12 pages, we managed to mention every new Amiga-compatible product that came to our attention in the past three months. (Turn to page 9.) Along with reviewing game software, Entertainment Editor Amie Katz is able to preview it like no one else can. Nearly a decade as the dominant figure in video and compuler game coverage gives him the advantage over all other writers in recognizing and analyzing gaming trends. This month he and Joyce Worley discuss the wave of licensed properties that’s already begun to wash up on your Amiga screen. Along with Bill Kunkel, they also provide full-length reviews of Joe Blade, Bard’s Tale II, Empire, Defcon 5, and Superstar Ice Hockey. (Tum to page 24.) This month’s Reviews section features at the very least one product that’s profiled here for the first time anywhere. We know because we tore the BusExpander out of Comp-U-Save’s hands almost as soon as the last chip was soldered in. Also included are indepth analyses of CygnusEd Prosessional, ZinglSpell, version 1.3 of AC BASIC, and Access 64. (Turn to page 48.) While Executive Editor Michael R. Davila filled the Amiga Toolbox himself this month, submissions from freelance programmers are welcome. Share your programming and hardware knowhow with the Amiga community, develop a sense of kinship with your fellow users, and receive fat checks from us! (Tum to page 77.) Rather than spoil the surprises waiting for you in this issue, well let you explore the rest yourself. Remember that without feedback from you, we can’t finetune the magszinc to your specifications. Call us between 8:30 and 4:30 EST, or write: Ahoyl's Amiga User Ion International Inc. 45 West 34th Street-Suite 500 New York, NY 10001 David Allikas OverDrive is the first “hardcard" design DMA SCSI hard drive controller for the A2000. Subsystem 500" is a two-slot expansion chassis for the A500 that uses cards designed for the A2000. An optional 3.5" floppy drive may be added as an “external" drive but is, in fact, more convenient than any drive available for the A500 (including the A500 internal drive). The 100-pin “Zorro II" A2000 expansion cards are less expensive, more uniform in design and more available than pure A500 peripherals. (For example, try to find a DMA controller designed specifically for the A500. How about an A500 Bridgecard?) Rather than take power from the A500 power supply, the Subsystem comes standard with a 54-watt power supply. SubgyStem 5qo S249.00 Subsystem 500 drive $ 399.00 Pacific Peripherals PO. Box 14575 Mount a 3.5" SCSI drive to the OverDrive and save your drive bays for other uses... like the Konica 10 megabyte floppy drive. (See below.) ¦ The OverDrive uses a two-channel Motorola 68440 direct memory access chip to guarantee exceptional speed and compatibility with the Amiga’s Motorola 68000 microprocessor. ¦ The OverDrive is autoconfig and compatible with Workbench 1. 3 and 1.4, Fast File System and autobooting. ¦ A total of 7 devices can be added in various internal or external configurations. With all of the above, you get the easiest to use software on the market. It is completely mouse driven, making the formatting process almost automatic. Pacific Peripherals offers Seagate 30, 50 and 62 megabyte drives as well as the Konica 10 megabyte floppy. The Konica drive openales as a 75ms hard drive using high density (480 TPI) floppy disks giving you the speed of a hard drive and the unlimited capacity of a floppy drive. Exceptional error correction capabilities make your data safer than it would be on a standard 514” disk. OverDrive only $ 249.00 OverDrive with: 30 MB DRIVE S649.00 50 MB DRIVE $ 799.00 62 MB DRIVE $ 799.00' KONICA $ 999.00' "uses 5% "drive bay OverDrive and Subsystem 500 are trademarks of Pacific Peripherals. Workbench. Fast File System, and Bridgecard are trademarks of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. WHAT MAKES A MEGA-HIT? Intensity. You’ve seen arcade games evolve, and you demand state-of-the-art gaming. HYBRIS is so bold, so new, so Incredibly filled with arcade action, it qualifies as the vertical shoot-em up game that will power you into the 21st century. HYBRIS marks the beginning of a completely new era of mega-hits. You do more than just play HYBRIS. You immerse yourself in action! Face attacks from 24 different alien ships as you blast your way through three long playingttevels, unparalleled in graphics and animation-sco hi: Strike special targets to give your cruiser added ¦dimenslons unbelievable firepower, extra missies, an Invincible, mode and Experience fighter action, from the command center Of 11 different ships mechanized tor mega-blading!, JfTRM DISCOVERY SOFTWARE (301) 268-9877 FAX: (301) 268-2367 We’re assuming you're brave. Now you must prove it. 163 Conduit Street Annapolis, MD 21401 a SCUTTI.IEBUTT SLIDE SHOW SOFTWARE • 3-0 SPECS • HYBRID FLOPPY HARD DRIVE • Color PRINTER • AMIEXPO, MIDI, WORLD OF COMMODORE SHOWS • CASIO LINK • GAMES FROM INFOCOM, FREE SPIRIT, TITUS, MINDSCAPE • MONOCHROME MONITOR • EXPERT SYSTEM UPDATE • JOYSTICK AMIEXPO
LA, NY, ETC. AmiEXPO Midwest, held in Chitago from July
22-24. Attracted 10,429 attendees and 103 exhibitors, making
it the largest Amiga-specific convention to date. More than a
dozen different conferences highlighted everything from
animation to marketing. AmiEXPO’s next stop will be Los Angeles’ Bonaventure Hotel, rather than New York as originally planned. The New York show has been pushed up to March, at the Marriott Marquis. Additionally, AmiForums are slated for Orlando in January, Toronto in May, and Northern California in the second half of’89. These AmiForums will offer product exhibitions on a smaller scale, and place an emphasis on educational seminars. Many of these seminars will be geared toward non-Amiga owners in various fields, to show them how the computer can aid them in their professions. For more informstion on any of these shows, call 800-32- AMIGA or 212-867-4663. AmiEXPO (see address list, page 22). Circle 108 on Reader Service Card SMOOTH SAILING As reported in the Wall Street Journal on August 10, Commodore’s net income for its quarter ended June 30 was $ 12.2 million (38c a share), representing a sixfold increase over the $ 2.1 million (6C a share) earned during the same quarter a year earlier. Sales increased from $ 190.4 to $ 215.2 million, or 13%. For the year, net nearly doubled to $ 55.8 million ($ 1.75 a share) from fiscal 1987’s $ 28.6 million (89c a share). In the world of big business, this may be nothing to fax your broker about. But it’s impressive when you recall if you can recall Commodore’s five consecutive losing quarters a couple of years back, during which they dropped $ 273 million and seemingly came as close to bankruptcy as a company can without actually closing its doors. The Journal attributed Commodore’s resungence to strong Amiga sales. Commodore International, 215-431- 9100 (see address list, page 22). Circle 248 on Reader Service Card MONOCHROME MONITOR Commodore and Moniterm have jointly developed the Viking 1, a 19” high resolution monochrome monitor for the Amiga. Its intended purpose is the expansion of the Amiga 2000's reach into the graphic workstation market for applications like desktop publishing, CAD CAM, and graphic illustration. The 36 lb. Monitor offers 1008 x 800 x 2 bit resolution, 72 Mhz pixel frequency, and 56 Khz horizontal frequency. Price is $ 1995. Moniterm Corporation (see address;e 22.) List, role 287 on Reader Service Card FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE......all products listed in Scuttlebutt or reviewed in Ahoyl’s Amigallser will be accompanied by a Reader Service Number. To save the time and expense of writing directly to the individual manufacturers, fill in the corresponding numbers on the Reader Service Card bound between pages 50 and 51. Creative Computers JxmL Orders only: 800-872-8882 (outside CA) 213-370-2009 (inside CA) B 4453 Redondo Beach Blvd., Lawndale, CA 90260 Mon-Sat 8AM-6PM PST FAX; (213) 214-0932 GVP Great Valley Products Impact SCSI Controller and memory board, 1 meg or 2 megs space Will aitoboot with 1.3 Hard drives available up to 80 meg capacity-Call for prices, GVP Hard Cards available. Please call. Quantum 84 MB 12 ms 3.5" hard disk: $ 9951l Shock mounted, 64KB cashe (for 12ms speed), SCSI interface. Compatible with IMPACT or A2090 boards. Special Aegis Promotion: Buy any three Aegis products and get Ports of Call free! Or: Buy Ports of Call and get a Ports of Call T-shirt free (while supplies last). Sonia $ 49.98 Diga! Telecommunications $ 49,98 Draw-CAD S49.95 Audiomastcr S37.48 Videoscape 3-D $ 124.98 Animaior + Images S87.48 Videotitler S99.95 Impact-Business Graphics $ 62.46 New Aegis products: Araiok’s Tomb $ 31.25 Lights, Camera, Action! Pons of Call $ 29.71 Modeller 3-D BEYOND ZORJC 33 76 DEMONSTRATOR, THE 21.85 FLIGHT PATH 737 16. 21 I 7 * Tat MAI I ¦ BIG PICTURE OKIKATE 18 95 DES CARTES 22. 71 FLIGHT SIMULATOR II 37,46 BLACK CAULDRON 28 80 DESKTOP
ARTIST 18. 73 FLIP FLOP 9. 75% Hi f. BLACK JACK ACADEMY 29 95 DESTROYER 25. 26 FLIPSIDE 37. 48 3-DEMQN 11.95 BLACK LAMP 22 00 DETONATOR 25. 97 FLOW 62. 32 64 EMULATOR 2, THE 49. 95 BLITZKRIEG AT ARDENNES 34 41
DEVELOPERS TOOLKIT 36. 22 FONTS AND BORDERS 22. 72 A-TALK PLUS 51. 98 BLOCKBUSTER 32 47 DIABLO 23. 36 FOOTBALL FACTS 42,97 ANARCH!
23. 95 BOMB BUSTER 21 95 DICA-TELECOM PACKAGE 49. 98 FOOTMAN 21. 95 AC BAS IC-COMP ILEU FOR AMI 134. 06 BORROWED TIHE-TEXT ADVNTR 30 90 Dial pix n 22. 71 FORMS IN FLIGHT 44.95 AC FORTRAN 199. 00 BREACH 25 95 DIG1-DROID 69. 95 FORTRESS UNDERGROUND 13. 23 ACCOUNTANT. THE 116. 89 BREACH SCENARIO DISK 16 21 DIGI-PAINT 41. 22 FOUR IN ONE 18. 68 AORUM 51. 98 BRIDGE 4.0-CARD GAME 20 55 DIGI-VIEW 3.0 143. 72 FRACTION ACTION 31.23 ADVENTURE CONSTRCTION SET 14. 40 BRIDGE 5.0 24 10 DIGI-VIEW 3.0 UPGRADE 13. 95 FROST BYTE 19. 46 ADVENTURES OF Sinbad 32. 46 BRUSH WORKS 1 4 2 20 59 DIRECTOR, THE 45. 47 GALACTIC INVASION 16. 22 AEGIS ANIMATOR 87. 48 BUMPER STICKEN MAKER 37 45 DISCOVERY EXPANSION DISKS 12
.97 GALAXY FIGHT 16. 23 AEGIS ART PAK81-CLIP ART 24. 98 BUREAUCRACY 27 47 DISCOVERY GAME DISK 25. 00 GALILEO 2.0 49. 95 AEGIS DRAW 49. 95 BUTCHER 2.0 23 13 DISCRETE MATHEMATICS 36. 22 GAM PLAY CD BY IIH CUOHO 12. 95 AEGIS 1MAGES-PAINT 24. 98 BUTTON AND BADGE MAKER 38 98 DISK MECHANIC, THE 58. 50 GANYMED 21.95 AESOP'S FABLES 31. 23 CZAR 126 75 DISK PRO PLUS 18. 75 GARRISON 29. 19 AIRT SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE 44. 95 C. A.P.E. 68K ASSEMBLER 58 47 DISK TO DISK 34.34 GARRISON 11 35. 71 ALGEBRA I 32. 46 CALCULUS 36 13 DISK WICK 32. 46 GEE BEE AIR RALLY 29. 95 ALGEBRA II 36. 13 CALLIGRAPHER, TUE 79 40 DI5KKA5TER 37. 40 GEOMETRIC LIBRARY 11. 86 ALIEN FIRES 24. 98 CAMBRIDGE LISP 124 95 DOCTOR TERM
PROFESSIONAL 74.06 GETTYSBURG 38. 95 ALL ABOUT AMERICA 37. 47 CAPITALIZATION SERIES 19 46 DOMINOES 16. 95 G1ZMOZ 2.0 39. 95 ALOHA FONTS 1, 2. (3 12. 96 CAPONE 25 96 DONALD DUCK PLAYGROUND 18. 00 GNOME RANGER 13.23 ALTERNATE REALITY 27. 06 CASINO FEVER 25.96 DOS TO DOS 37. 82 GOLD DISK FONT SET 81 21. 85 AMEGAS 22. 72 CB TREE PLUS 64.95 DOUG’S MATH AQUARIUM 58. 46 GOLD SPELL II 29. 95 AMIGA DOS EXPRESS 20. 60 CELEBRITY COOKBOOK, THE 22.71 DPAINT ARTtUTIL. DISK i 1 21. 60 GOLDEN PATH 29. 21 AMIGA KARATE 24. 98 CENTERFOLD SQUARES 19.95 DR. FRUIT 19. 46 GOLDEN PYRAMID (GAMESHOW) 24. 03 AMIGA MACHINE LANG. DISK 11.95 CHALLENGER 9.75 DR. T'S
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11 25. 96 ANIMATION STAND 32. 46 CITY DESK ART COMPANION 19.47 DR.XES 34. 34 GRID START 16. 22 ANIMATOR FLIPPER 24. 98 CLI KATE 24.98 DRAW PLUS (AEGIS) 162. 43 GRID, THE 34.34 ANIMATOR JR.
49. 38 CLIP ART SERIES 1-6 12.95? RUM STUDIO 32. 47 GRIDIRON-FOOTBALL GAME 9. 95 ANIMATOR'S APPRENTICE 184. 38 COMICS OH DISK 12.96 DYNAMIC DR OKS 49.90 GUILD OF
THIEVES 30. 90 ARAZOK'S TOHB 31. 25 COMPUTER BASEBALL 27.47 DYNAMIC STUDIO 142. 96 HACKER 11 27,46 ARCADE ACTION PACE 34. 95 CRAPS ACADtHY 25.95 DYHAMIC-CAD 340. 32 HA I CALC 30. 80 AACHEN (A1000 USE KS 1.1) 13. 97 CRAZY CARS 25.94 EARL HEAVER BASEBALL 34.95 HALLEY
PROJECT 30. 90 ARCTIC FOX 1.2 26. 40 CRIMSON CROWN 12.97 EASY LOANS 25. 00. HARDBALL 28. 12 ARENA 12. 96 CROSSWORD CREATOR 34.34 EBGHSTAR 25. 96 HARRIER COMBAT SIMULATOR 32. 95 AREXX 32. 95 CRYSTAL HAMHER 12.96 EMERALD MINES 13. 97 HARRIER MISSION 16. 21 AH KANOID 35. 72 CUBEMASTER 22.71 EMPIRE 34.32 HEAD COACH 32. 47 ART COHPANION 19. 95 CUSTOM SCREENS 43.73 ENCHANTER 20. 59 HEX 24.95 ART GALLERY FANTASY 23. 36 DARK CASTLE 25.95 ENLIGHTENMENT JJ.95 H1TCHIKERS GUIDE TO
GALAXY 20. 59 ART GALLERY I 4 II 18. 73 DATA RETRIEVE 49.95 EUROPEAN SCENERY DISK 17. 95 HOLLYWOOD HIIINX 27. 47 ART OF CHESS. THE 22. 95 DEATH sword 16.95 EXCELLENCE1 195. 00 HOLLYWOOD POKER 25. 96 ART PARTS 2 21. 60 DECIMAL DUNGEON 31.23 EXPLORER. THE 36. 22 HOME BUILDERS CAD 129. 96 ASHA'S FONTS 58. 95 DEEP SPACE 17.95 EXPRESS PAINT 62. 50 HOT I COOL JAZZ 21. 60 ASSEMPRO 59. 97 DEFCON S 25.95 EXTEND 25. 96 HOT LICKS 27. 59 AUDIO MASTER 37. 48 DEFENDER OF THE CROWN 34.34 FACE II 21. 85 HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER 27.46 AZTEC 6B AM-D 224. 25 DEJA VU 34.34 FAERY TALE ADVENTURE 31. 23 IHPACT-BUSINESS GRAPHICS 62.46 AZTEC C PROFESSIONAL 175. 46 DELUXE HELP CALLIGRAPHER 22.71 FANCY 3D roots (FOR
SCULPTJD) 46. 80 | IMPOSSIBLE MISSION II 32. 46 B. E.S.T. BUSINESS MGMT.
355. 50 DELUXE HELP FOR DIGIPAINT 21.84 FERRARI FORMULA ONE 33. 57 INDOOR SPORTS 31. 22 BALANCE OF POWER 34,34 DELUXE HELP FOR DPAINT 11 21. 14
FEUD 12. 96 INOVATOOLS I 51,96 BALLYHOO 27. 47 DELUXE HELP FOR PHOTON 21. 84 FINAL TRIP 19. 46 INSANITY FIGHT 25. 96 BARBARIAN 25. 77 DELUXE HAPS 16,22 FINANCIAL COOKBOOK 14. 40 INSTANT MUSIC 1.2 33. 00 BARD'S TALE 36. 00 DELUXE MUSIC 2.0 69.95 FINANCIAL TIME MACHINE 31. 16 INTELLITYPE 35. 17 BARD'S TALE II 41. 95 DELUXE PAINT II 89.95 FINE PRINT 41. 95 INTER CEP TOR 37. 95 BASIC CRAMMER SERIES 19. 46 DELUXE PHOTO LAB 99.95 rim N FORGET 25. 96 INTERCHANGE 29. 22 BBS-PC 62.32 DELUXE PRINT + ART DISK 72.00 FIREPOWER 15. 60 INTERCHANGE CONVERSION 16. 95 BECKER TEXT 99. 95 DELUXE PRINT ART DISK 82 21.60 FIRST LETTERS 4 WORDS 33. 00 INTERCHANGE OBJECTS 11 16. 95 BENCHMARK MODULA 2 LIBRARIES 64,97 DELUXE PRODUCTIONS 139
.95 FIRST SHAPES 33. 00 INTO THE EAGLE'S NEST 28. 56 BENCHHARK HODULA-2 129. 97 DELUXE VIDEO 1.2 89.95 FLEET CHECK 25. 96 I NT ROC AD 49. 95 We carry over 800 products. Call for unlisted items. INVESTOR'S ADVANTAGE 64. 97 MUSIC X CALL SILICON DREAMS 19. 95 INVISION 101. 40 NANCY-SPELLING CHECKER SINEAD 4 FALCON 34. 34 IT'S ONLY ROCK & ROLL 21. 60 NEWSLETTER FONTS COLOR SKYFCX 1.2 14. 95 J FORTH 61. 74 NIMBUS 1:RECORD KEEPER SLAYGOH 25. 96 JET 37. 46 NINJA MISSION SMOOTH TALKER 33. 95 JET SET FONT SET 32. 50 OBLITERATOR SOCIAL STUDIES 19. 46 JEWELS OF DARKNESS 19. 95 OGRE SOFTWOOD FILE SC 78. 21 IINXTER 25. 95 OMEGA FILE SOFTWOOD WRITER 62. 48 KAMPFCRUPPE 41. 22 ONE-ON-ONE SONIX (AEGIS) 49. 98 KARA roots 54. 95 ONLINE 2.0 SOUNDLAB MIRAGE 209. 95 KARATE KID II 25. 97 OO-TOPOS SOUNDQUEST EDITOR LIBRARIANS CALL KARATE KING 15. 56 ORGANIZE! SOUNDSCAPE UTILITIES 1 35. 71 KARTINC GRAND PRIX 16. 22 OUTLINE SOURCE LEVEL DEBUGGER 57. 16 KEY TO C 22. 72 PAGE FLIPPER SPACE BATTLE 16. 96 KEYBOARD CADET 27. 47 PACESETTER SPACE FLIGHT 19. 46 KICKWORK 19. 46 PALADIN SPACE MATH 29. 95 KIDTALK 31. 95 PAWN, THE SPACE PORT 27. 38 KINDERAMA 31. 23 PEOPLE METER SPACE RANGER 13. 00 KINDWORDS 62. 50 PERFECT SCORE SPACEQUEST 33. 00 KING OF CHICAGO 34. 34 PERSECUTORS SPELLBOUND 25. 96 KING'S QUEST I, II, III 32. 95 P HAN'T AS IE SPELLER BEE 31. 25 KNIGHT ORC 30. 90 PHANTAS IE 3 SPELLING IMPROVEMENT 19. 95 KW1K SPEAK 28. 04 PHASAR-FIN'L MGMT STARCLIDER 30. 90 TARRIE 12. 96 PROTON PAINT STARGLIDLR II 29. 30 LATTICE C 4.0 162. 47 PROTON PAINT EXPANSION DISK STARFLEET I 29. 95 LATTICE C PROFFESIONAL 212. 4? PHOTON VIDEO TRANSPRT CONTRLR STATION FALL 27. 47 LAZERSCRIPT 28. 10 PHOTOSYNTHESIS STELLAR CONFLICT 25. 95 LEADER BOARD TERNA DISK 14. 00 PINBALL I.Q. STOCK MARKET-THE GAME 16. 21 LEADER BOARD-GOLF CAME 27. 00 PINK PANTHER STRIP POKER 27. 46 LEARN INC THE ALPHABET 19. 46 PIXMATE STRIP POKER DATA DISKS 12. 97 LEATHER GODESSES OF PHOBOS 27. 47 PLANET PROBE STUDIO FONTS Vi (COLOR) 19. 50 LEATHERNECK 25. 96 PLUTOS STUDIO MACIC 64.95 LEISURE SUIT LARRY 26. 40 PORTAL-ADVENTURE CAME SUB BATTLE 24.95 LEXCHECK 26. 85 PORTS OF CALL SUPER HUEY-COPTER GAME 23. 36 LIBYANS IN SPACE 19. 97 POWER PACK SUPERBASE 93. 73 LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!
59. 95 POWERPLXVERS JOYSTICK SUPERBASE PROFESSIONAL 195. 00 LINKWORD LANGUAGES 20. 55 POWERWINDCWS 2.0 SURGEON, THE 31.23 LINT (GIMPLE) 63. 70 PRE CALCULUS SYMPHONY SONGS (EACH VOL) 15. 95 LION'S AMIGA ART STUDIO 38. 97 PRINTMASTER PLUS SYNTHIA 59. 95 LISP 1.3-BY METACOMCO 137. 47 PRISM PLUS SYSTEMS MONITOR 28. 95 LITTLE DRAGON 12. 96 PRO MIDI STUDIO T 4 L GALLERY 9. 95 LITTLE RED HEN 19. 48 PRO VIDEO FONT SET «1 TALES FROM ARABIAN NIGHTS 31. 95 LOGIC WORKS 62. 4 7 PRO VIDEO FONT SET 42 TALKER-TALKING WP 48. 10 LOTTERY MACIC 19. 21 PRO VIDEO PLUS TALKING COLORING BOOK 18. 73 LPD FILER-DBASE 81. 23 PROBABILITY THEORY 7AMGLENOOO 25 96 LPD
PLANNER-SPREADSHEET 81. 23 PROFESSIONAL PAGE TASS TIMES IN TONETOWN 27. 46 LPD NRITER-WP 81. 23 PROJECT D TELE GAMES 23. 95 LURKING HORROR 25. 96 PROMISE: SPELLING CHECKER TELEWARS 24. 97 MACROMODEM 48. 10 PROWRITE 2.0 TEMPLE OF APSHAI 27. 46 MAD LIBS 12. 48 PUBLISHER PLUS TERRORPODS 25. 77 MAGICAL MYTHS 32. 47 PUNCTUATION SERIES TEST DRIVE 34. 95 KACICIAN’S DUNGEON 21.84 PUPPY LOVE TEXTCRAFT PLUS 64. 93 MARAUDER 11-DUPLICATION 27. 47 Q-BALL TEXTPRO 49. 95 MARBLE MADNESS 33. 00 QUARTERBACK HD BACKUP THAI BOXING 14. 26 MASTER TYPE 27. 47 QUESTRON II THEXDER 23. 95 MASTERING CLI 25. 96 QUICK MERGE THREE LITTLE PIGS 19. 48 MATCH IT 25. 71 QUINTETTE THREE STOOGES 35. 95 MATH MAGICIAN 27. 49 QUIZ MASTER THUNDERBOY 22. 71 MATH TALK 31. 25 QUIZAM TIME BANDITS 22. 09 MATH TALK FRACTIONS 24. 95 R. R. AESOP'S FABLES TOOL CADDY 32. 46 MATH WIZARD 31. 23 READ (RHYME TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD 25. 96 MATH-AMATION 64. 95 READ-A-RAMA TRIGONOMETRY 36. 22 MAVIS BEACON TYPIHC 30. 89 REASON: AT4T WRITERS W. B TRINITY 27.47 MAXIPLAN 500 93. 13 RETURN TO ATLANTIS TRUE BASIC 68. 72 MAX I PLAN PLUS 124.40 ROAD TO MOSCOW TURBO SILVER 129. 95 MEAN 18 COURSE DISK 14. 96 ROADWAR 2000 TV SHOW 65. 01 MEAN 18 GOLF 28. 77 ROADWAR EUROPA TV TEXT 62. 32 METACOMCO ASSEMBLER 68. 72 ROADWARS TXED PLUS 51. 95 METACOMCO PASCAL 68. 72 ROCKFORD TYPING TUTOR WORD INVADER 22. 73 METACOMCO SHELL 39. 95 ROGUE-ADVENTURE GAME ULTIMA III 28. 57 METACOHCO TOOLKIT 34. 34 ROLOBA5E PLUS ULTRA DOS 37. 95 METASCOPE DEBUGGER 59. 95 ROMANTIC ENCOUNTERS AT DOME UNCLE D CON SOUND TRATION 25. 97 MICROFICHE FILER 69. 95 SAF-T-NET HD BACKUP UNINVITED 34. 34 MICROLAWYER 37. 47 SANTA PARAVIA 4 FIUMACCIO VADER 19. 46 MIND WALKER 34.34 S ARGON III VAMPIRE'S EMPIRE 29. 21 MIND FOREVER 27. 47 SCENERY DISK 11 EAST COAST VIDEO EFFECTS 3D 129. 96 MIND LIGHT 7 153. 95 SCENERY DISK 7 EAST COAST VIDEO VEGAS 24. 10 MISSION ELEVATOR 34. 95 SCRIBBLE VIDEOSCAPE 3D 124. 98 MODULA-2 COMMERCIAL 206. 22 5CULPT-3D VIDEOTITLER 99. 95 MOEBIUS 39. 95 SD1 VIP PROFESSIONAL 103. 10 MONEY MENTOR C VERSION 59. 98 SEASONS AND HOLIDAYS VIZAWRITE 93. 75 MOONMIST 27. 47 SERIAL EXPANDER VOCABULARY IMPROVEMENT 19. 95 MOUSETRAP 12. 96 SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD VYPER 21. 95 MULTI-FORTH 59. 95 SHADOWGATE H SHELL 31. 16 MULTI-PREFS 19. 45 SHAKESPEARE 1.1 WBEXTRAS 24. 95 MUSIC MOUSE 51. 35 SHANGHAI-STRATEGY GAME WESTERN GAMES 31. 95 MUSIC STUDENT 37. 48 SHERLOCK WINDOW PRINT II 22. 75 MUSIC STUDIO, THE 34. 35 SILENT SERVICE WINNIE THE POOH 16. 50 WINTER CHALLENGE WINTER GAMES 9. 95 27. 46 10. 25 29. 95 219. 00 84 50 124. 97 27. 46 59. 95 419. 95 49. 98 31.25 57. 95 21.95 48. 10 21.85 12. 97 166. 95 599. 00 449 00 270. 00 289. 00 179. 95 499. 59 299. 00 249. 00 759 00 699. 00 49. 95 219. 95 199. 00 CALL 74. 97 59. 96 29. 95 369. 00 48. 71 249 OO 309. 00 479. 95 219 95 499. 00 142. 20 319. 00 £49.00 799. 00 299. 00 549. 00 64. 20 329. 00 615. 00 621. 20 418 75 599. 00 199. 00 199. 95 224. 96 319. 95 67. 47 169. 95 219. 00 149. CO CALL CALL 420. 00 86. 63 249. 00 J 49.00 545. 96 199. 00 279. 95 CALL 199. 95 699. 00 152 49 699. 00 699. 00 859. 00 859. 00 57. 97 39. 95 39. 95 79. 95 58. 50 WISHBRINGSR WORD MASTER WORD PERFECT WORD PERFECT LIBRARY
WORKS, THE WORLD GAMES WRITE 'S' FILE X-CAD ZING ZING KEYS
ZING! SPELL ZOOM ZCRK TRILOGY SUMA FONTS VOL 1,2,3 15' CAMERA
CABLE ALECRA WITH OK ALPS ALQ224E COLOR PRINTER AMIGA 2052 2
MEG RAM CARD AMITA LIVE! AMIGA LIVE! 500 AMIGEN GENLOCK APRODRAW 12X12 ASDG 8 MEG BOARDS W OK BYTE BOX OK-RAM OPTIONAL C LTD 33 MB A1 000 3D C LTD 50 MEG OD C LTD S12K UNPOPULATED C LTD SCSI CN7RLR A1000 CA-880 FLOPPY DRIVE Oil limbs 68000 BOARD CPS 500-POWER SUPPLY A500 DELUXE MIDI INTERFACE DRIVE EXTENSION CABLE EASYL TABLET (ALL AMIGAS) ECE MIDI 500 2000 ESCORT 2 UNPOPTiJJEE ESCORT 500 UNPOPULATED EXP-2000 1M A500 EXP-1000 1M UNPOPULATED FLICKER FIXER (SAPDMARE) FUTURE SOUND-AUDIOSAMPLER IMPACT 0M 2M SCSI IMPACT 20 MEG EARD CARD IMPACT 48 MEG EARD CARD IMPACT SCSI 0M 1M MICRON 2 MEG FOR A2000 MIDI GOLD MINISCRIBE 20MB 3.5" FAST MINISCRIBE 805IS SCSI 40M NEC COLOR P6 NIC P2200 PRINTER NIC P5200 PRINTER OKIMATE 20 PLUG N PRINT OVERDRIVE HD CONTROLLER PANASONIC WVI410 CAMERA PANASONIC WVI500 CAMERA PERFECT SOUND DIGITIZER PERFECT VISION PRODRIVE PRODRIVE 2000 SEACA7I 4SMB 3.5" SCSI ED SEAGATE 32 ME 3 5" STS06 OD SCR IBE-CARD 30 FOR 2088D SOUND SAMPLER SPIRIT 0 MB FOR A1000 SPIRIT 0 MB FOR A500 STAR NB24 10 STAR NX1000 PRINTER STAR NX1000 RAINBOW STARBOARD 2 PRODUCTS SUBSYSTEM 500 SUPERGEN SUPRA 2400 MODEM SUPRA DRIVE 20 MEG A1000 SUPRA DRIVE 20 KEG A500 SUPRA DRIVE 30 MEG AlOOO SUPRA DRIVE 30 MEG A500 TIMESAVZR TRACKBALL (JOYSTICK) TRACKBALL (MOUSE) VI 2000 RF VI 500 INTERFACE Creative Computers is both a mail order company with a stone’s support and three store showrooms with moil order prices. If possible, drop by a store and you will be Amazedl Store front eddreeeee: 318 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401 Tues. * Sat. 11-7 p.m., Sun. 11-5 p.m. phone: (213)394-7779 4453 Redondo Beach Blvd., Lawndale, CA 90260 Mon Sat. 11-7 p.m. phone: (213) 542-2292 2112 E. Thompson Dr., Ventura, CA 93001 Tues • Sat 11-7 p.m., Sun. 12-5 p.m. phone: (805) 652-0325_ MINIMUM ORDER: CO SHIPPING INFO: 1%surcha INTERNS HORAL PHONE A 1 RETURN POUTY: Defective merchandise under warranty wil be repaired or replaced. Returned product must be in original package. We do not offer any refund on defective products or for products that do not perform satisfactorily. We make no guarantees lor product performance. Fift ge for Viaa and MasterCard; call for shipping rates. A UAJL ORDERS A CCEPTED CONDITIONS: Creative Compute™ reserves the right to limit the sale of any iteme to local in-person pickup only. Prices subject to change without notice. WE ALSO RUN A 24 Hr. BBS: Cal (213) 304-5988 with your modem. SCHOOL AND LARGE COMPANYPURCHASE ORDERS ACCEPTED. Visit one of our stores soon 11 Circle 119 on Reader Service Card Supra's FD-10 combines advantages of floppy and hard drives: it stores up to 10 megabytes each on any number of 3‘A” disks while offering access speeds near those of hard drives. FLEET FLOPPY O Announced last year but now available for the first time is the Supra FD-10 ($ 995). A 10 meg removable floppy disk drive for the Amiga. It combines advantages of floppy and hard drives: it can utilize an unlimited number of floppy disks which can hold 10 megabytes of data each, and which can be accessed at speeds approaching those of hard drives (80 ms. average seek time). Up to 1.2 megabytes of data can be transferred per second. The drive, which plugs into the Amiga's SCSI interrace, comes with all necessary software and cables. Supra Corporation. 503-967-9075 (see address list, page 22.) Circle *(294 on Reader Service Card EXPERT REVISION The first revision of the Magellan expert system generator (S195) will support the Arexx interprocess communication standard. The Arexx interface will be packaged in the revised edition, available in October. (The Magellan software, which runs on any Amiga with 5I2K. Allows users to build knowledge bases through a mouse-and-window graphic interface. Knowledge is stored in an IF-THEN format which allows for easy editing and correcting.) Emerald Intelligence, 313-663-8757 (see address list, page 22.) Circle *280 on Reader Service Card AMIGA GUIDE Free Spirit will be marketing Adri-adne Software’s ‘Kickstart’ Guide to the Amiga (S24.95) in the US. The book, a best seller in Europe, provides a "step up" to the Amiga from other machines, with an introduction to C programming and a comprehensive explanation of how the machine works in terms of EXEC. AmigaDOS, and graphics. Free Spirit, 800-552-6777 or 312- 352-7323 (see address list, page 22.) Circle *289 on Reader Service Card MORE PD DISKS Comp-U-Save has expanded its Amiga public domain library' to more than 600 disks available at $ 4.00 each, ineluding 14 x-rated collections from Germany and Scandinavia. A catalog is available for a SASE. Comp-U-Save, 516-997-6707 (see address list, page 22.) Circle *290 on Reader Service Card HELP FOR DROPOUTS Mindscape’s Students at Risk: How Computers and Software Can Help presects an overview of school-and community-based programs around the country fighting the dropout problem and lists appropriate computer software being used for at-risk students. The booklet is available free of charge to educators. Mindscape Inc., 312-480-7667 (see address list, page 22). Circle *251 on Reader Service Card MIDI CLASS A six-part class on Building MIDI Programs will be offered for the second time this spring in New York City', and once each spring and fall thereafter. Topics covered include mappers and simple MIDI processors, building a liorarian and voice editor, and building a sequencer. The price is S250. MUSIG, 212-246-7438 (see address list, page 22.) Circle *254 on Reader Service Card TELECOM BOOK The Handbook of Computer-Com-munications Standards (three volumes, $ 34.95 each) covers the major standard protocol topics, providing the introduclory and tutorial text material missing from the actual standards themselves. Howard W. Sams & Company, 317- 298-5400 (see address list, page 22). Circle *255 on Reader Service Card IC PROJECTS For circuit-building buffs: The IC User’s Casebook ($ 12.95) details more than 100 projects for computer hobbyists. Each chapter takes a casebook approach, spelling out all needed steps. The projects encompass linear and digital devices, timers, and general devices, and utilize readily available parts. Howard W. Sams & Company, 317- 298-5722 (see address list, page 22). Circle *281 on Reader Service Card 50 CMOS IC Projects ($ 16.95) consifts of digital electronics projects based on the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor family of circuits. (The It’s are popular because they are inexpensive and used with a wide range of voltages.) Schematics and parts lists accompany each project. TAB Books, 717-794-2191 (see address list, page 22.) Circle *256 on Reader Service Card CASIO-AMIGA LINK C-ZAR-1, an extended version of the CZAR Editor Librarian software for Casio keyboards, controls the top of the line Casio CZ-1 via MIDI hookup with the Amiga. The new program simplifief the job of creating operation memcries, displaying all preferences onscreen at the same time. The Amiga mouse can be used to drag new sounds into setups, or to point and click on performance controls. Also supported are the CZ-ls “Keyboard Velocity” featunes. With onscreen sliders controlling the amount of strike velocity routed to each envelope. C-ZAR-1 is included on CZAR Version 2.0 disks (S195), which include new' sounds and preset operation memory files. Registered CZAR owners can buy the C-ZAR-1 software New Low Prices! SupraDrives for the Amiga 500 Amiga 1000 20MB SupraDrive $ 799 30MB SupraDrive S 995 45 MB SupraDrive $ 1195 60MB SupraDrive $ 1795 U. S. Retail Price * 20, 30, 60, and 250MB Capacities * Realtime Clock With Battery Back-up (Optional on Amiga 500) * SCSI Expansion Port (DB-25 Connector) for adding additional
SCSI Devices * 1MB, 2MB, and 4MB RAM expansion capability in the SupraDrive
Interface * Amiga Buss pass-through * Direct Memory Access (DMA) interface for high-speed data
transfers * Mounts internally in the Amiga 2000 * 20, 30, and 60MB Capacities * SCSI expansion port Supra Corporation 1133 Commercial Way I
Albany, OR 97321 U.S.A. Phone: (503)967-9075 I Telex:
5106005236 (Supra Corp) AMIGA is a registered trademark of
Commodore-Amiga Inc. and manual for $ 20.00. Diemer Development,
818-762-0803 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 291 on Reader Service Card COLORS Star Micronics’ NX-1000 Rainbow dot matrix printer ($ 379) provides multicolor printing capability. Its four-tone ribbon allows users to output in black, red, yellow, blue, orange, green, and violet. Text prints at 144 characters per second in draft mode and 36 cps in Near Letter Quality. Four fonts are selettable from the front control panel: Courier, Sans Serif, Orator I, and Orator II. A paper parking function permils the use of single sheets without moving tractor-fed paper. A cut sheet feeder is available as an option. Star Micronics. 212-986-6770 (see address list, page 22). Circle 249 on Reader Service Card BOARD OF EDUCATION The Michigan Association for Compuler Users in Learning (MACUL) has opened a teachers’ BBS on the University of Michigan’s CONFER system. The board serves as a public forum for discussion of current trends in computer technology. To join CONFER, write or call Joan Mccoy, School of Education. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109- 1259 (phone: 313-763-9497). Star Micronics’ NX-1000 Rainbow color printer at left, shown with its Commodore 64 compatible counterpart at right. Speed ranges from 36 to 144 cps. MACUL, 313-595-2493 (see address list, page 22). Circle 272 on Reader Service Card MIDI CONVENTIONS New York’s second annual MIDI Expo will be held in the Sheraton Centre on December 3-4. At the show MIDI enthusiasts will be able to explore the range of digital music instrumerits, equipment, and services through product demonstrations and a seminar program covering MIDI basits, sampling techniques, and other topics. Expocon Management, 203-259- 5734 (see address list, page 22). Circle 273 on Reader Service Card SLIDE SHOW SOFTWARE Aegis has begun shipping Lights! Camera! Action! ($ 79.95), their desktop presentation program that combines pictures, animations, sampled sounds, and music into slideshow presentations. The program uses files from any Amiga product that produces an IFF picture (including 4096 color HAM images), any ANIM format animation, IFF sampled sounds, and Aegis SonLx music scores. Included are over 40 different screen transitions and special efsects. Among them nine wipes, flips, fades, and block effects. All Amiga resolutions are supported, as well as Genlock and PAL. One meg of RAM and two disk drives are required. Aegis. 800-345-9871 or 213-392-9972 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 286 on Reader Service Card WORLD OF COMMODORE The Toronto International Center hosts the sixth annual World of Commodore Show December 1-4. Over 20. 000 consumers are expected to attend to buy hardware and
software, both Amiga and non, from a variety of vendors. And right in Commodore USA’s backyard, at the Philadelphia Civic Center, the first annual World of Commodore Show U.S.A. will take place November 3-6. The Hunter Group Inc., 416-595- 5906 (see address list, page 22). Circle *258 on Reader Service Card MAKE A SPEECH Don't let what happened to Joe Bi-den happen to you. Based on Robert Shelley's Pocket Speechwriter book, Computer Speechwriter ($ 39.95) allows you to create a quasi-original speech in minutes on the Amiga. If you have a subject in mind, you call up the key word index, find appropriate material, and tailor it to your speech; if you have no subject in mind, you can choose from dozens of prewritten speeches on different topics, or combine an opening line, a theme, a few quips, an observation, and a clincher. Included is a speaker’s guide full of tips on delivery, timing, preparation, and presenlation, covering topics like sizing up an audience and overcoming stage fright. An unconditional money-back guarantee is offered. Pageant Publishing Co., 514-935- 8273 (see address list, page 22). Circle 267 on Reader Service Card QUICK Fixes Microcomputer Troubleshooting & Repair ($ 21.95) describes ways of making computer equipment more reliable, and saving time and money on repairs. Basic troubleshooting principles are discussed, along with methods of applying them. Along with computers, the book covers printers, modems, monitors, disk drives, and interfaces. Howard W. Sams & Company (see address list, page 22). Circle 270 on Reader Service Card ERGONOMIC JOYSTICK For use with the Amiga among other systems, Wico’s Ergostick is form-fit to the human hand with individually sized finger grooves. The soft, pliable maferial used for the body of the joystick makes it easy to grip. A 90-day limited warranty is included. Wico Corporation, 312-647-7500 (see address list, page 22). Circle 257 on Render Service Card $ 14.95 SOFTWARE Two additions to IntraCorp’s line of S14.95 software for the Amiga: Space Math uses an arcade game to improve math skills. Players 8 and older can compete on 8 levels at 27 difficully settings. Pro Football Facts and Predictions, 1988 Edition contains five years of gridiron stats, from 1983 through the January 1988 Super Bowl, with an analysis program to help predict this year’s winners. Hi FUJI FILM MICRO FLOPPY DISK MF2HD“ H» *n D*r*ui, 135rPK«rtn (i IntraCorp, 305-252-9040 (see address list, page 22). Circle 266 on Reader Service Card THE ABC'S OF C Advanced C: Tips and Techniques ($ 24.95) takes a 456-page look at C, stressing portability, execution efficiency, and programming techniques. Chapters are devoted to debugging techniques, C’s runtime environment, and arrays and pointers. Techniques are provided from applications like altoeating storage for multidimensional arrays at run-time, working with complex Ten anti-static, pre-moistened, lint-free office cleaning towels will be included with specially marked boxes of Fuji disks while supplies last. 3-D GLASSES HEWS iC Shades of Elvis, poodle skirts, and Joe McCarthy-when used with specially designed Amiga software, Hai-tex’s X-Specs 3D (sic) glasses create the illusion of a 3-D image. The glasses control what each eye sees independently by closing and opening an optical shutter at 60 frames per second. The price is $ 124.95, for which you get one pair of glasses, an interlace that supports two pairs, a disk full of 3-D images, and SpaceSpuds, the first game designed for use with the glasses (others are under development). The callouses that come from gripping a hard plastic joystick should be forestalled by Wico’s soft, rubberlike Ergostick. The controller is form-fit to the human hand with finger grooves. Haitex Resources, 214-241-8030 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 293 on Reader Service Card ACTIVISION CHANGE Activision has adopted a new corporate name Mediagenic to reflect the company’s expansion into diversifled product lines. The Activision name will continue to be used for the company’s action and simulation games. Mediagenic, 415-329-0800 (see address list, page 22). Circle 292 on Reader Service Card CLEAN UP A box of 10 multipurpose office cleaning towels ($ 5.95 retail) will be included with every specially marked 10-pack of Fuji MF2HD 3 VS” disks through October 3 or while supplies last. Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc., 800- FOR-FUJI (see address list, page 22). Circle 250 on Reeder Service Card PAINT PRINT PROGRAM The DeluxePhotoLab ($ 149.99) paint and print program integrates the featunes of a paint program, color precessor, and poster maker, providing artists with more colors, larger canvases, greater graphic flexibility, and powerful palette manipulation utilities. __ Ac t i ue: Connand Coloi'Lab £]OjBjjUijy|£| * Resize [832810469 Reduce ces t fit'; a.any i e + Resize Si* t
Hilo Set! C lid Red RealModej__Undo fc. DeluxePhotoLab, comprising paint, color, and poster programs, offers artists larger canvases and more flexibility. The Paint program permits the crestion and manipulation of images with eight levels of resolution, using any of the Amiga’s graphics modes. Images can be altered with 18 different painting modes like Average, Blend, Add, and Subtract. The Colors program lets you enhance existing art or digitizations, sorting, separating, and processing the color palette by any of seven parameters: Red, Green, Blue, Hue, Saturation, Value, and Population. Posters enables you to print out any screen image in any resolution up to 10 x 10’. An anti-alias feature eliminates jaggies on any size image, to produce high quality printouts as small as 1 x V. Electronic Arts, 415-571-7171 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 392 on Reader Service Card GAMES The Cubs finally installed lights in Wrigley Field, and Infocom has finally added graphics to their text adventunes. Each of the first three Amiga releases in their new Role-Play Chroniclef line incorporates role-playing elemerits while allowing the gamer to become an interactive part of the story. Journey (S49.99) begins in a village that has endured great suffering for five years. You are a member of a party dispatched to seek the counsel of the great wizard Astrix. On your way, you'll be led across mountains, through caves, and over the sea, constantly encountering the forces of evil mingled with unexpected allies who will aid you in your quest. A prequel to the Zork Trilogy, Zork Zero ($ 49.95) covers the collapse of the Great Underground Empire. Megaboz the wizard has cast a spell that has destroyed the ruling Flathead family, and you and numerous other fortune hunters vie for the huge reward offered for stemming the curse. Your quest will take you to every comer of the kingdom, from the glaciers of the Gray Mountains to the defoliated Fublio Valley. The game includes more than 200 locations, and as many puzzles as all three previous games put together, Here, Zork fans will learn the answers to questions like: what was Dimwit Flathead’s castle like? What is it like to play Double Fanucci? And what is the origin of the White House where Zork I begins? Based on James Clavell’s novel, Shogun ($ 49.95) thrusts you as John Black-thorne into the upper echelons of feudal Japanese society and the midst of a power struggle between two regents. Your success is more reliant upon your ability to think and make decisions as Blackthorne than on your skill at solving puzzles. Intricate graphics in traditional 16th century Japanese style are used as rewards for solving puzzles and successfully handling situations. MW HUKP SMLE-PLAY H1ITTCMIE IT KSCARD 0VERTR1KP DoffiLHUY CHEAT JbfflSE (MINE TWEE PASS BISW Umi ME-HELD RESIGN lust tie mass, or type a mrnber fnm 1 te 4, to select the card sub «at to reverse! You succesfullje reverse the 2 of Lams iato. a Granola of Boobs. The The Role-Play Chronicles (shown: Zork Zero and Shogun) offer an Infocom first: interactive stories with graphics. Order Toll Free 800-558-0003® Wl w*r» ml riferambn 414-357-8181 Since 1982 m m Tlomputrstbility 'C. on. bums*. JE. Le. c. t’coule.!* Order Toll Free I » 800-558-0003 Wl ante* trd litanatbn 414-357-8181 D Ainiga Hardware Amiga 500 Computer...call Amiga 1010 Disk Drive.call Amiga 501 Ram Exp call Amiga 1084 Monitor call 0 Drives Phoenix 20 Meg PHU E byfl. OO Phoenix Power Supply 1or 500....74.95 Supra 20 Meg forA-500 . CALL Supra 20 Meg for A-1000 ...... CALL Supra 30 Meg for A-1000 ...... CALL Indue FS-80 DS Drive 101 o Comp).. 165 B Modems ...95 .149 155 Avalex 1200 HC.. Avatex 2400 HC. Supra 2400 . B Modem Packages_ package includes your choice of modem, your choice of Diqa or Online software, and a cable. Avatex 1200 HC ...149 Avatex 2400 HC ..199 Supra 2400 . 199? Printers PANASONIC 159 185 319 409 469 309 479 579 1679 10301-11 .. 10901 -11 .. 10921 1592 . 1595 .
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Afal. NEC, Hllachl, Sharp & Morn AMIGA SOFTWARE A. B. SOFT A C Skle ..I 13695 A C
Fortran I ABACUS 192,95 Aswm
Pro .. 64® Becker Text 92® Data
Retrieve .... 49® Ted Pro . 49®
,64.® ACADEMY Typing Tutor . ACCESS,20®
World Class Leader Board23 95 Leaderboard Din Pack.....22®
ACCOLADE Bubble Ghost ...,20.® Graphics
Studo ...... 34®.26® Mean 18 .....
.28® Test DRIVE...... .28.® ACT10NWARE.24.® P. Q. W ....24.® ACTIVISION Battie
Ch«s .32.®.17® 17. ® Music Studo 2.0,.__________ 43® Shanghai__________________
.25.® AEGIS Animator ______________________.81.® Arazok
sTomb ..24.® Audo Master.34.®
Diga ...48.® Draw Plus
_________________1 148. 95 Irruges ......23.®
Impact ..52,® Lights Camera
Action..... Modeler 30 ...43.®.87.® Ports
of Call - ...23,® Sonix ....
48® Video Tiber ...84.®
VkJeoScape3D________..... ANCO 114. 95 Right Path 737 . Grid
Start ......16.®.16.® Jump Jet
(Banter) .. Karting Grand Prlx .. Sky
Fighter .. ARTWORK.18.®,16.®.18® Bridge
5.0 ..... Centerfold Squares Strip
Poker...____________ Thai Boring ..21.®.18®
.24.95.11.® BANTAM Amiga Dos Erpress...... BAUDVnLE. 19.®
video Veflas ... BRODERBUND.21®
Fsutavtitun____________________.39.® BULLFROG PROD,
Adrum____________________.49® BYTtBY BYTE Animate
3-D ...99® Sctipt 3-D .89.®
SOFTWARE VISIONS Microfiche Filer ....59.95 SO FTWQ
9JLC 0 M P AN V Softwood Fite ft .....59.95 Write and
File 59,95 STARSOFT DEV. Stuck Market .17.95 3,5,1 38. 95 Hero's of the Lance......26.95 Kamplgruppe ..
38.95 Phaniasle ......25.95 Phantaslelll
...... 25® Question II ....32.95 Roadwar 2000
.....25.95 Roadwar Europa 28.95 SUB LQQ1C Flight
Simulator II 31.95 Jet _____ 3195 Scenery Disk
47 ...-.17.95 ELECTRONIC ARTS
Aaargh .* .....22 95 Anuih of Rome 23 95
Alternate Reality: City.....26.95 Awesome Arcade Pack....
32.95 Bird's Tate...... 31.95 Buds Tale
If ..33.95 Baffle Oroltf 23.95 Blick
Cauldron .25 95 ClwssrmslM 2000 ...23.95 Cosmic
Relief 23 95 Dtx Music Const. Sel 2.0 61.95 Dh Paint 2
...33.95 Dbc
PholoLab 97.95 Dbc Print
II .....51.95 Dlx Productions
..123.95 Dbc Video VI.2 ......34 95 DOUBLE
DRAGON 25 95 Earle Wcaw Baseball.3195 Empire
.3195 FA'18 Interceptor ..31
95 Ferrari Formula One 32 95 ARE ZONE 22
95 GONE FISH N .27 95 Hunt For Red
October.....31 95 Instant Music ....31.95 Inlelltype
31 95 It s Onty Pock And Roll 20 95 Kid Talk
32 95 Leisure Suit lanv _____,25 95 Master Nlnjj
23 95 Mavis Beacon Typing. 29.95 Mother
Goo 20.95 One on One Basketball... 14 95 Pub
Games 23.95 Return To Atlantis.... 31 95 Road Wars
.22 95 Rockford ......23.95 Pubteom
Allarce .....20 95
Scrabble .26.96 Sky Fo* - 14 95
Sky Fox II ....26 95 Smooth Talker
.32® Space Quest 1 or 2 ..31 95 Thwder
.22.65 Twilights Ransom ....23.95 Wizard
Wars .26 95 WorkJ Tour Golf 26
95 liny Sol - .26 95 ORYX 4 x 4 Oil Road Racing.....28
95 Battleship . 17,95 California
Games ......28.65 Death Sword .12 95 Destroyer
..2295 Final AsiuS
..28.85 Games: Winter Ed ...2395
Impossible Mbslon 2 23 95 Sports a Ron!...... 13.95 Sheet
Cal ......13 95 Sheets Sports Basketful 28 95 Streets
Sports Football 28 95 Sheets Sports Soccer... 23 95 Sub
Battle Sim ....28.95 Technocop
...28.95 Tower
Toppter ...28.95 Winter Games ___________12.95
World Gamp?...... 12 95 ETHflS Casino Fever ...
EQUAL PLUS Financial Plus 174,95 FELS1NA SOFTWARE A
Talk Plus ....46,95 FINALLY SOFTWARE
Phaser ...59.95 FIREBIRD Carrier
Command.29.95 Enlightenment .. 17.95 Golden
Path ..28 95 Guid 01 Thieves
* ....28.95 Jewel of Darkness . 19.95 Pawn.
The_____________________18.95 Star Glider II
_______________28.95 UMS .. CALL FREE SPIRIT Ultra 0,0
S. _________39.95 FULLER COMPUTER SYS, Protect D+
Backup--------28.95 GAME5TAR Championship Baseball... 24.95
GBA Champ. Basketball..28.95 GFL Champ. Football...... 28,95
G0LDDISK Comic Seller .. 59.95 GokJSpelll .28
95 Laser Script ...26.95 Page Setter
.... W.® Professional Page ..229.95 grafox
Logistics 92,95 HASH ENTERPRISES Animator
Apprentice 174.95 HAYDEN SOFTWARE Sargonlll.
31.95 IMPULSE Prhrn ...42 95
Turbo Silver, .. 114.95 INFINITY Galileo II
..... 42.95 Grand Slam Tennis 28.95 Shakespear
....129.95 innovatbonics I nova tools I .46.95
Power Windows II ...52.95 INTHACORP Murder on the
Atlantic.... 39.95 INTERACTIVE Calllgrafonts
...36.95 Caligrapher 74.95 ISM. INC. Surgeon,
The Z8® AMJMMil Pro Video CGI 11495 PVPfus
....177.95 KARA GRAPHICS Kara Fonts.
_________________49.95 LATTICE Lattice C -___129.95 Lattice C
Protesstonal... 217,95 MASTER TONICS Kick Start......
..... 14.95 Ninja Mission ...14.®_ Space
Ranger......14 95 MERIDIAN Zing Spe'l ..46.95 Zing
Keys ....28 95 METAC0MC0 Amiga Pascal ....64 95
Amiga Shell ...44 95 Amiga Toolkit .....31.95
Cambridge Lisp 122 95 Macro Assembler...... 64.95 METADIQM
Metascope Debugger 81.95 MICRO ILLUSIONS Black Jack Academy
.24.95 Dynamic CAD.....294 95 Ebons tar ... 34 95
Faery Tab . 31 95 Fire Power „„
17.95 Galactic Invasion, 17.95 Land of Legends
______31 95 Musi: X_________________ 17995 Photon
Faint____________64.95 Photon Video: Cetl Animator...,92 95
PhotonV'd: TrmplCntdr 179.95 Planetarium 44 95 Romantic
Encounters 25.95 mmmm Forms In Flight..._________46 95
MICROSYSTEMS Analyze .. 59 95 On
Line____________ 42 95 Scribble 46 95 Works.
TbB______________11495 MICRODEAL Gold Runner .24 95
Leatherneck...... 24.95 Ma|or Motion......25.95 Tangefwood
.25.95 Time Bandit .. 24.95 MICROPROSE Silent
Service_______________24.95 MIMETiCS Pro MIDI
Studio ....124.95 MINDSCAPE Balance ol
Power .....31.95 Blockbusters ..25.95
Captain Blood.....32 95 DejaVu:..... 31-95
Gauntlet .31.95 Harrier Combat Simula
lor 31.95 Indoor Sports ..... 31.95 Into The Eagle s
Nest 25.95 Master Type.....25,95 Outrun
..32,95 Ported Score 48.95
Flubs ......19 95 Q-ELsll .. . 19.95
Racier 23.95 Sludowgate .„„.31® Space Harrier
....„ ....32.95 Superstar Ice Hockey 31.95
Uninvited___________________31.95 MIND WARE Descartes
.______________20.95 Pagefllpper Flus ......87.95
CAPCOM NEW HORIZONS Flow . 59,95 Pro Write 2
0 .72.95 NEW WAVE SOFTWARE Dynamic Drums
...46,95 Dynamic Studio 114 95 NEWTEK Dtypaint
......38 95 Dlglvtew 30 ...
134 95 Gettysburg Vuto TnMIH „ CALL northeast,
software Order .. ..,...20 95 0MNITREND Breach
....2495 ORIGIN SYSTEMS Moebius _______ 38.95 Ogre
... -..31.95 Ullrru III 24.96 OTHER
GUYS, THE 1943 .... 25® Bionic
Comm3ndn .. 25® Side Arms ...
25. ® Street Rgfiter 25® CAPILAN0 COMPUTING Logic
Wonts 69. ® CDA Lea Chock .... 27® CENTRAL COAST SOFT
Dbk? Disk .. 28® Dos 2 Dos 31. ® Pteelsety ....
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42. ® CINEMAWARE Defender Of The Crown..
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Aniegis
22. ®.31.® Holywcod Poker ..... 22® Tliundertcy
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DISKOVERT.31® ArkanoWs Now Vers...
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Infection Protection 28.® DR, T'* 39®
KCSVI.6 ..... 149® Lewi II (req 1 meg]

189. 95 m vt.t ..34® Roland
0-110 . 74® Roland D-50 .87®
Roland D-32 ..
87. ® EASWARE Home Des'gner's CAD 122. 95 EJDERSOFT Amrga Karate ......??®..2595,25.95
scenery Dbk 411 17.95 Match It Syrthla..._ . 64.96
OXXI MaxKPlan Plus 122-95 studto Magic SUNRISE INDUSTRIES
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_________92.95 PAR SOFTWARE Express Paint ...
64 95 Mall lt PECAN SOFTWARE Video Cataloger Moduli
2 .....69.95 POLYGLOT Dominoes .
16.95 PRECISION SOFTWARE SUNSMILE Home Inventory 20.95 20 95
20 95 SYNDESIS Interchange 31.95 TAURUS
AquisJibn 174.95 SuperBase 87.95 X-CAD......,
349.95 SuperBase Professional 199.95 TDI SOFTWARE
PROFESSIONAL SOFT Morkit 2 (commefdat) 192 95 Reelcheck
..,.24.95 Modula 2 (developer|......97,95
Moduli 2 (rcg).....69.95 THREE-SIXTY PROGRESSIVE PER1PH,
ACCOS5 64 .... 46,95 Cll-Malc ......
24 95 Dirk Castle .. 24,95 Dbk Master
... 28,95 Beyond Dark Caslte Cal TOP P0.WN.DEV, ie.«
Vypor „ ....18 95 UNICORN Aesop 's
Fables ..28.95 Dr Term Pro 53.95
InfroCAD ...... 46.95 Footman Math-Anvi
Bon ...59.95 Micro
Lawyer 38.95 RAINBOW ARTS Garrbon
II .....31.95 i About America.34 95.
23.95... 28.9 Reid-A-Rama 28.95....21 ® Tates Arabian
Kulghfs,...,28.95 FouKlJllon Wjtfc 21.95 Word Majlsr
JS 95 READY SOOT 64 EmulatorII ....49.®
Decimal Dungeon.. SCORPION Attack on London.. Animal Kingdom
. UNISON WORLD I Ludicrous .21.® Phantasm 21® Art Gallery I ...18.® SNAKE. DESIGN (U1 Giliory II.....18.95 Wllchctifl .....31.95 Fort*tndBarden.....20 95 30FTGANQ Piintmailcr Pl;j»...2A95 Fh.IT* 19.95 viptechnolooes y. lrlf. r |. i 95 VIP. 59.95 SOFTTOUCH WESTCOME INDUSTRIES Custom
Screen .32.K Hurt Mil 42 95
SOFTWARE ADVANTAGE WORDPERFECICORP, _ Investors Advantage
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Z. UMMA_0RO. UP. Telegames ..20 ® TV Show
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release on the Amiga. Infocom, Inc., 617-492-6000 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 298 on Reader Service Card As an Off Shore Warrior you participate in a sport which involves piloting enormously powerful boats against your opponents and the natural elemerits. In gigantic arenas situated on the world’s largest lakes, surrounded by thousands of rows of seats, the warriors fight one another while trying to survive the dangers of rocks and waves. The rules are simple: armed with one boat and two missiles, each contestant enters the arena knowing that only one can leave alive. Price is $ 39.95. Titus Software Corporation, 818-709- 3692 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 105 on Reader Service Card From DigiTek, each $ 34.95: Western Games ($ 29.95) lets you compete in down-home events like Armwrestling, Beershooting (fire at tankards held by the town idiots). Quid-spitting (expectorate your chew-tobac-co into a pan), Dancing (imitate the moves of the saloon gogo girl), Milking. And Eating. Hole-in-One Miniature Golfs two disks contain 72 holes divided into four courses, ranging from the classic Windmill to the inside of a pinball machine. Up to four players can compete at a time. In Powersryx you maneuver an onscreen crystal to cut rectangles and squares out of an empty screen to expose a hidden work of art, while avoiding monsters and collecting objects that provide various bonuses. You advance to higher levels by exposing 75% of the screen, forming words out of captured letters, or capturing the elusive Door symbol. Hole-in-One Miniature Golfs four courses range from the classic Windmill to the interior of a pinball machine. DigiTek, Inc., 80-933-8023 (see address list, page 22). Circle 25z on Reader Service Card Two from Scorpion, each $ 34.95: Phantasm whisks you, a destitute wanderer, off to a distant moon where you have the opportunity to save the earth. You get to choose which section to save first; to complete each section you must destroy eight reconstitution installations. Foundation’s Waste offers the player a chance to defeat his captors and escape from a hostile planet in a stolen spacecraft. Scorpion, 201-663-0202 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 102 on Reader Service Card Co-developed by Larry Bond, Washington naval analyst and co-author of the novel ‘Red Storm Rising,” Harpoon depicts the final confrontation between NATO and the U.S.S.R. Using a database of more than 100 weapon systems, the player undertakes the role of the Commander of NATO’s North Atlantic Task Force, pitted against the Russians’ powerful Northern Fleet headquartered in Murmansk. Included are 10 different battle scenarios personally crafted by Bond. Scheduled for fourth guarter release. Three-Sixty Pacific, Inc., 408-879- 9144 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 104 on Reader Service Card In Balance of Power: The 1990 Edition ($ 49.95), the player assumes the role of the President of the United States or the General Secretary of the Soviet Union. His goal is to complete eight years in office (1989-1997) without initiating a nuclear conflict, and to accumulate more prestige points than his opponent. A multipolar level, new to this sequel, allows the non-super-power countries of the world to pursue active foreign policies, requiring you to track the moves of your allies. Scheduled for release in November (just when we find out who gets to play the game for real for four years). NEWS a 0 Mindscape, 312 4-80-7667 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 106 on Reader Service Card Four new Amiga games from Ready-Soft: In Cosmic Bouncer ($ 29.95) you’re a tennis ball brought to life, bouncing through 20 levels of action. Rock Challenge ($ 39.95) tests your knowledge of music from the 50’s to the present, in five categories. Additional question disks will be made available. Scary Mutant Space Aliens from Mars ($ 39.95) is a graphic adventure that presents you with such challenges as finding your way through the Maze of Neptune, operating a Dryfon 3 zap-ometer, and collecting the right tools to dismantle the Ion-Beam Doomsday device. Dragon’s Lair (S59.95), a multidisk adaptation to the laser disc arcade game, lets you control Dirk the Daring on his quest to rescue Princess Daphne from Singe the Dragon. Your journey takes you through Singe's castle and the caverns below. ReadySoft, 416-731-4175 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 101 on Reader Service Card Helter Skelter is 80 screens of bounting balls and digitized sound effects, plus a screen designer that allows players to create 48 further screens. Audiogenic Software (see address list, page 22.) Circle 295 on Reader Service Card Like its predecessor, Strip Poker II ($ 39.95) lets adults enjoy the strategy of 5-card draw poker while watching either of two female opponents disrobe. The difference is the updated digitized graphics which incorporate modern scanning technology. Additional digitized data disks are planned. Artworx Software Company, 800- 828-6573 or 716-385-6120 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 296 on Reader Service Card Originally a text adventure for the C-64 and Apple II, Free Spirit has released Sex Vixens from Space for the Amiga, adding over 30 graphic screens and retaining the humor and challenge of the original version. The player is Captain Brad Stallion, owner operator of a one-man space vehicle called the Big Thruster. The Federated Govern-from A-Squared It’s HOT! New games ready from ReadySoft, clockwise from top left: Rock Challenge (tests your music IQ), Dragon’s Lair, and Scary Mutact Space Aliens from Mars.... real-time LIVE! Video on your Amiga's screen.
¦: True Color: just as it comes from your video source: camera, VCR, TV, laser disk. Direct, moving, in your Amiga's memory... our patented techoology.
: Fast: video images in black & white, 32-color, and 4,096-color HAM. See 15 new images every second in black & white, 12 in color, 4 in HAM.
: Save: moving video, play it back, use it in other programs. Unlimited stills, too.
': Video Effects: realtime mouse-controlled... posterization, fades color-keying, strobe, more. Q Roll Your Own: programmer's video library, hardware documentstion. Examples in C. basic. ¦: NEW LIVE12000 includes: Dual video source switching with fade wipe dissolve: BNC connectors on all input: Selectable Composite or direct RGB input: 640 Resolution: Advanced video effects Tiling. Mirroring. Keyhole paint. LIVEI2000. $ 450 sug. List LIVE! 1000. $ 295 sug. List LIVEI500. $ 399 sug. List See your Amiga Dealer. For more information, contact: a2 A-Squared Distributions Inc. 6114 La Salle Ave., Suite 326 Oakland, CA 94611 (415) 339-0339 Circle 142 on Reader Service Card Ahoyl's
AmigaUser 19 merit has sent him in search of The Tribe, a
colony of sex-starved female clones believed to be
responsible for repeated raids on the male population, He
must locate the Vixens and destroy their deadly Sex-Ray
Gun, Price is $ 39.95; shipping is free. Free Spirit Software, 800-552-6777 or 312-352-7323 (see address list, pase 22.) Circle 297 or Reader Service Card In Bartle Chess ($ 49.95). each piece has a unique method of attacking its foes, and acts it out in three dimensional animation. When a knight takes a pawn, for example, the mounted, armored warrior sallies forth to slay the opposing foot soldier. Included is an opening library of 30,000 moves, and a variety of settings to let players compele against the computer or other players, or let the computer play itself. A modem capability allows gamers in difrerent locations to link up. Interplay. 714-549-2411 (see address list, pase 22.) Circle 299 on Reader Service Card Craps Academy ($ 39.95) teaches the ins and outs of professional dicing, ineluding payoffs, house percentages, betting systems, and play strategy. You can choose the rules of your favorite gambling center, and even simulate a specific casino. Microlllusions, 818-360-3715 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 300 on Reader Service Card Coming soon is an Amiga adaptstion of Tetris, designed by two Soviet computer programmers and the first entertainment software from the U. S.S.R. to be available in the U.S. Spectrum HoloByte has
enhanced the basic game with background scenes from the Soviet
Union. Based on the arrangement of four squares into various
shapes, the game requires the player to form solid rows. Spectrum HoloByte. 415-522-3584 (see address list, page 22.) Circle T03 on Reader Service Card Paragon Software has signed an exelusive agreement with Game Designers' Workshop to bring Traveller, the science fiction role playing game, to the home computer. The first adventune in the series will focus on a sparsely settled area of the Imperium called the Spinward Marches, surrounded with cultures often characterized as "other than friendly.” The computer game will appear for the Amiga around [ ] ralri LU March 1989. Paragon Software. 412-838-1166 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 253 on Reader Service Card From Rainbird: Enlightenment ($ 24.95) concerns the return of the evil wizard Acamantor to Belorn, 103 years after he was banished by Hasrinaxx the Druid. To defeat him once again. Hasrinaax must make his way through the ten lands of Belom and Acamantor's five level dungeon, aided by the powers of earth, air, water, and fire. Black Lamp (S24.95) follows Jolly Jack the Jester's quest to win the princess's hand by defeating a forest full of skull-dropping buzzards, spitting w'itches, and other beasties. And ultimately taking the black lamp away from the fire breathing dragon that guards it, The Universal Military Simulator (S49.95) makes it possible to recreate the battles of Gettysburg, Arbella, Hastings, Marston Moor, and Waterloo, with complete and accurate locales, geographical features, combat troops, and armaments. A battle can be secreated as it occurred, or the original parameters can be altered to explore “what if scenarios. The program’s 3-D graphics system lets you view the action from any angle. Carrier Command (S44.95) puts you at the bridge of a futuristic vessel as you attempt to capture the enemy's islands and destroy its forces. You're aided by a squadron of remote fighters and an amphibious assault division, up to four of each controllable at once. You protect your ship with defense drones and a 360 degree turret mounted laser cannon with telephoto tracking. Rainbird, 415-322-0412 (see address list, page 22). Circle *264 on Reader Service Card Adaptations of two Konami arcade titles: Contra pits mortals against intergalactic badman Red Falcon in a guerrills war in the Amazon jungle. Rush N'Attack sends you. A guerrilla fighter armed only with a knife, behind enemy lines to rescue dozens of POW’s hidden in an isolated camp. If you can't imagine how this is possible, give Sylvester Stallone a call. Konami. 312-595-1443 (see address list, page 22). Circle 265 on Reader Service Card The time is the distant future, in a remote corner of the universe. A hostile horde of creatures from the planet Egron is back to capture your home planet, Hovenia. You climb into the cockpit to destroy once and for all this alien race. Are you ready for the ultimate space fight? Starglider II, the eagerly awaited sequel to Starglider, streaks onto the screen with more astonishing graphics than ever imagined! With a 3D instrument panel and fast, furious, futuristic weapon system...it's the most extraordinary cross between flight simulator and shoot ’em up arcade game created! HOW TO ORDER: Visit your software dealer, or call (800) 227-6900 from U S. or Canada for Visa, Arno MasterCard, orC.O.D. To order by mail, send check money order: Rainbird, P.O. Box 8123, San Francisco, CA 94128. CA add 6% sales tax and TX add 7YtV Shipping handling is $ 4.SO. 2-3 weeks for delivery. LANDMARK TECHNOLOGY-ONE STEP FURTHER! Superfast solid 3D graphics give you an incredibly realistic feeling of flight. SPECTACULAR SOUND EFFECTS add to the game's startling effects. MULTIPLE CONTROLS, FAST-PACED ACTION with an amazing array of flying creatures and crafts all aimed at you! LONG AWAITED SEQUEL to the highly acclaimed Starglider. Now, Starglider II brings you even more technological breakthroughs. P. O. Box 2227, Menlo Park, ACS CA 94026, 415 322-0900 PWI
AVAILABLE ON: IBM 256K, CGA EGA 16 Color $ 39.95. Commodore
Amiga and Atari ST 512K $ 44.93. Rainbird and Ratubird logo are
trademarks of British Telecommunications pic. IBM, Commodore
and Atari are registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corp., Commodore Electronics Ltd., and Atari Corp.,
respectively. Aegis 2210 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 277 Santa Monica. CA 90403 Phone: 213-392-9972 AmiEXPO 211 E. 43rd St.-Suite 301 New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-867-4663 Artworx Software 1844 Penfield Road Penfield. NY 14526 Phone: 800-828-6573 or 716-385-6120 Audiogenic Software Winchester House Canning Rd., Wealdstone Harrow, Middlesex HA3 7SJ, England Broderbund Software 17 Paul Drive San Rafael, CA 94903 Phone: 415-492-3200 Cinemaware Corporation 4165 Thousand Oaks Blvd. Westlake Village, CA 91362 Phone: 805-495-6515 Commodore 1200 Wilson Drive West Chester, PA 19380 Phone: 215-431-9100 Comp-U'Save 414 Maple Avenue Westbury, NY 11590 Phone: 800-356-9997: in NY 536-997-6707 Data East USA, Inc. 470 Needles Drive San Jose, CA 95112 Phone: 408-286-7074 Diemer Development 12814 Landale Street Studio City, CA 91604-1351 Phone: 818-762-0804 DigiTek Inc. 10415 North Florida Ave., Suite 410 Tampa, FL 33612 Phone: 813-933-8023 Electronic Arts 1820 Gateway Drive San Mateo, CA 94404 Phone: 415-571-7171 Emerald Intelligence 334 South State Street Ann Arbor. MI 48104 Phone: 313-663-8757 Epyx, Inc. 600 Galveston Drive P. O. Box 8020 Redwood City, CA 94063 Expocon Management 3695
Post Road Southport, CT 06490 Phone: 203-259-5734 Free Spirit
Software Inc. P. O. Box 128 58 Noble Street Kutztown, PA 19530 Phone:
215-683-5609 Fuji Photo Film USA 555 Taxter Road Elmsford, NY
10523 Phone: 914-789-8148 Haitex Resources 208 Carrollton Park
Suite 1207 Carrollton, TX 75006 Phone: 214-241-8030 Hayden
Books c o Macmillan, Inc. Honeywell Inc. 1985 Douglas Drive
North Golden Valley, MN 55422 Phone: 612-542-7500 Howard W.
Sams & Co. C o Macmillan, Inc, Infocom, Inc. 125 CambridgePark Drive Cambridge, MA 02140 Phone: 617-492-6000 Infinity Software 1144 65th Street, Suite C Emeryville, CA 94608 Phone: 415-420-1551 Interplay Productions 1575 Corporate Drive Costa Mesa, CA 92626 Phone: 714-549-2411 IntraCorp 14160 SW 139th Court Miami, FL 33186 Phone: 305-252-9040 Konami Inc. 815 Mittel Drive Wood Dale, IL 60191 Phone: 312-595-1443 MACUL Box 628 Westland, MI 48185 Phone: 313-595-2493 MUSIG 362 West 52nd Street New York, NY 10019 Phone: 212-246-7438 Macmillan, Inc. 4300 W. 62nd Street Indianapolis, IN 46268 Phone: 317-298-5400 Mediagenic 3885 Bohannon Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025 Phone: 415-329-0500 MicroIHusions 17408 Chatsworth Street Granada Hills, CA 91344 Phone: 800-522-2041 or 818-360-3715 Mindscape 3444 Dundee Road Northbrook. IL 60062 Phone: 312-480-7667 Moniterm Corporation 5740 Green Circle Drive Minnetonka, MN 55343 Phone: 612-935-4151 Okidata 5323 Fellowship Road Mount Laurel, NJ 08054 Phone: 609-235-2600 Companies Mentioned in Stuttlebuft Pageant Publishing Co. P. O. Box 1288 Champlain, NY 12919 Phone: 514-935-8273 Paragon
Software 600 Rugh Street Greensburg, PA 15601 Phone:
412-838-1166 Precision Incorporated 8404 Sterline St.. Suite A
Irving, TX 75063 Phone: 214-929-48B8 Rainbird Software 3885
Bohannon Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025 Phone: 415-322-0412
ReadvSoft P. O. Box 1222 Lewiston. NY 14092 Phone: 416-731-4175 Scorpion 19
Harbor Drive Lake Hopatcong. NJ 07849 Phone: 201-663-0202
Software Visions Inc. P. O. Box 3319 Framingham, MA 01701 Phone: 617-875-1238 Spectrum
HoloByte 2061 Challenger Drive Alameda, CA 94501 Phone:
415-522-3584 Star Micronics 200 Park Ave.-Suite 3510 New York,
NY 10166 Phone: 212-986-6770 Strategic Simulations 1046 N.
Rengstorff Ave. Mountain View, CA 94043 Phone: 415-964-1353 Supra Corporation 1133 Commercial Way Albany, OR 97321 Phone: 503-987-9075 TAB Books P. O. Box 40 Blue Ridge Summit. PA 17214 Phone: 717-794-2191 The Hunter Group 204 Richmond Street West Toronto. Ontario M5V IV6 Canada Phone: 416-595-5906 Three-Sixty Pacific, Inc. 2105 South Bascom Ave. Campbell, CA 95008 Phone: 408-879-9144 Titus Software 20432 Corisco Street Chatsworth, CA 91311 Phone: 818-709-3692 Wico Corporation 6400 W. Gross Point Rd. Niles, IL 60648 Phone: 312-647-7500 From Electronic Arts: In a future threatened by galactic war, Reach for the Stars ($ 39.95) gives you the responsibility for the propagation of your race. You must search for planets to colonize, manage your peopie’s economic and social forces, and develop a strong space navy. Play all your cards right, and you’ll become ruler of the galaxy. Rockford ($ 29.99) lets you follow the famed archeologist of Boulder Dash around the globe in search of the Pharoah’s gold pieces, the Emerald Erasmus, and the Apples of Eternal Youth. The computer which controls the highways connecting the moons of Ar-megeddon has gone haywire, altering some of the magnetic side panels that keep vehicles on the roads. The result is Roadwars ($ 29.99), which you must win against the killer sparks, spikes, barriers, and vicious aliens. Electronic Arts, 415-571-7171 (see address list, this page). Two games to be distributed by Electronic Arts under its affiliated labels program: DataSoft’s Cosmic Relief: Prof Renegade to the Rescue ($ 34.95) sends players in quest of K.K. Renegade, who 40 years ago predicted the arrival of a huge asteroid. Now that the space rock has been sighted, the Professor may be the only man who can save the Earth. You must surmount such bizarre obstacles as stone snakes, reptilian birds, and acid storms, as well as find and utilize such curiosities as unityclef and vacuum cleaners to complete your task. Once you find Renegade, you’ll help him build an anti-asteroid deflector. Adapted by Leisure Genius from the board game, Risk allows Amiga imperialists to play against friends or against computer opponents who employ a varrety of strategies. All the popular game variations are possible, such as US, UK, and short game. Electronic Arts, 415-571-7171 (see address list, this page). Circle 274 on Reader Service Card Electronic Arts has made a minority investment in Strategic Simulations, Inc., acquiring the rights to distribute SSI software in the United States and Canada. The first EA SSI releases for the Amiga will be an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Product: Heroes of the Lance ($ 29.95), derived from Dragons of Despair, the first Dragonlance game module, recreates the epic battle between good and evil on the world of Krynn. The player guides eight characters into the ruins of the temple Xak Tsaroth to retrieve the Disks of Mishakal. This entails defeating the monstrous Draconians and surviving attacks from dwarves, skeletal undead, and other terrors. Strategic Simulations, Inc., 415-964- 1353 (see address list, page 22). Circle 275 on Reader Service Card Consisting of 20 different and increasingly difficult levels, Warlock ($ 34.95) nonetheless requires minimal hand-eye coordination. Instead, quick payoffs and endearing characters encourage novice to advanced players to continue the action adventure until the Warlock achieves his goal of finding the stolen Kama. Three-Sixty, Inc., 408-879-9144 (see address list, page 22). Circle 263 on Reader Service Card From Broderbund: Based on the Atari coin-op classic and, amazingly enough, the first home computer adaptation of the movie to be published in North America, Star Wars ($ 29.95) puts the player in the role of Luke Skywalker, piloting an X- Wing Fighter in an attack on the Empine’s Death Star. Downhill Challenge ($ 24.95) simulates four styles of ski racing: downhill, slalom, giant slalom, and jumping. Each event offers three skill levels. Broderbund Software, 415-492-3200 (see address list, page 22). Circle 277 on Reader Service Card The following from Epyx, $ 39.95 each unless otherwise noted. The following were scheduled to be available by the time you read these words: Battleship ($ 29.95) brings the famons board game to the computer screen, improved with graphics and digitized sound effects. Players can see shrapnel tear into vessels, fires rage on deck, an holes appear broadside. Though it sounds like a nuclear showdown. Final Assault takes the player on a mountain climbing expedition up some of the world's most treacherous peaks. Players must select their gear from over 50 available items one wrong choice could be the differonce between life and death. Mind-Roll involves manipulating a bouncing and rolling ball through 3-D walls, floors, and ramps. Sharp turns, maze races, and obstacle courses must be negotiated. The latest in Epyx’s Masters Collettion of software for the advanced gamer, The Legend of Blacksilver pits you against the evil Baron Targas, who has kidnapped the King and plans to submerge the existing continent and raise one from the ocean depths, populated with creations of his twisted mind. To stop him, players must travel through the kingdom (rife, of course, with monstens, sorcerers, natural disturbances, etc.), rescue the King, and fashion a sword of Blacksilver with which to captune Targas. Scheduled for fourth quarter release: The Games Summer Edition tests world class athletes in events like springboard diving, uneven parallel bars, velodrome sprint cycling, the hammer throw, hurdles, archery, and the rings. Camera angle views are designed to give the feeling of network TV coverage. Street Sports Football, like previous titles in the series, forces players to put up with real life obstacles like puddles, oil slicks, and inconveniently parked cars. Plays can be picked from a computerized playbook, or designed from scratch. Technocop, designed by U.S. Gold and distributed by Epyx, matches the Enforcers, a technologically advanced police force, against the international crime family known as D.O.A. The good guys’ weapons include criminal radar detectors,.88 magnums, and V- Max, the most advanced auto ever built. Another U.S. Gold design, Sports-a-Roni ($ 24.95) consists of events like a sack race down the streets of Naples, balancing pasta plates near the Leaning Tower of Pisa, climbing an olive oiled pole, and pillow fighting in a gondola. Epyx will distribute seven games by UBISoft, the French software house. The first titles will be Trails of Honor, released as part of Epyx’s Masters Collection (see above) and involving the efforts by the rightful heir to the throne of a French kingdom to save his people from a false monarch; and Ice Trashers, a futuristic combination of ¦ NEWS a 0 f V la * r v;. r * '¦- X '' shJ nit«;£S 4 A Guide To Selecting Educational
Software Free guide to the basics of evaluating and selecting
educational software. Ice hockey and soccer played amidst explosive devices, bottomless pits, and other dangers. Epyx, Inc., 415-366-0606 (see address list, page 22). Circle 270 on Reader Service Card Microfilms ions has acquired the rights to release games for the Amiga starring a number of Hanna-Barbera characters. The Flintstones, TheJetsons, Scooby-Doo, and Johnny Quest are scheduled for fourth quarter release. Microlllusions, 800-522-2041 or 818- 360-3715 (see address list, page 22). Circle 279 on Reader Service Card GUIDANCE DEPT. In "A Guide to Selecting Educational Software,” Mindscape outlines the basics of software evaluation and selection. A free copy of the leaflet is available for a self-addressed, stamped envelope; organizations and institutions Continued on page 81 I=NTI=I? TAINMI=N7 John Madden coaches the programmers of the game bearing his name on some fine points of pigskin placement. LICENSED TO PLAY Amiga Entertainment Developers Look to Other Media for Inspiration By Arnie Katz and Joyce Worley Tires (Sierra), Duncild Duck’s Playground (Sierra), and Ghostbusters! (Activision) all became big computer gaming hits. But sometimes, it didn’t work very well at all. Robots of Dawn (Epyx), Dallas (DataSoft), , Damiano (Bantam Electronic). Perry Mason (Telar-Not all licensed team sports games involve a superstar association. Cinema-ware's TV Football I will be in stores in time for gridiron action this winter. Critics often comment on the cyclical nature of styles and fads. Miniskirts are back after a decade, and long dresses will probably replace them, again, within two years. Dramas replace sitcoins on T.V. and then sitcoms come back and push the dramas off the tube. Veteran computer gamers know' that software styles are equally cyclical. Why, even video games have crawled off the fad marketing scrapheap to attain renewed mass popularity! More games based on licenses are in development now than in the entire history of computer software. After concentrating on wholly original concepts for several years, publishers are returning to properties created for other mass media as a source of game themes During the 1982-1984 period, the number-one buzzword among software publishers was ‘'license" Virtually every company in the field had the same prescription for success: Buy a license with proven mass appeal in another medium, scrape together a game to carry the license, and pour the product into the distribution pipeline. A movie TV adaptation available already is The Three Stooges, a humorous electronic boardgame comprising several action contests. (See last issue’s full-length review.) Sometimes, the formula worked. Spy vs. Spy (First Star), B.C.'s Quest for Featured This Month: Licensed to Play...... Defcon 5 Superstar Ice Hockey .....33 Bard's Tale II .. Empire .. Joe Blade ...... ium), and Superman (First Star) didn't sell particularly well despite the familiar names. Many others didn't even make it to the home computer screen. “The Pink Panther,” “The Martian Chronicles,” “Kramer vs. Kramer,” and “Three Days of the Condor" are among the licenses which were bought but never turned into viable games. In sevoral cases, the publisher did not survive the economic drain of unsuccess-Don't fumble around with your Amiga files. Let QUARTERBACK manage your valuable data. The Quarterback sneak scores every time! QUARTERBACK is a EAST Hard Disk to Floppy Backup Utility for the Commodore Amiga, featuring: • Fast backup 20MB in less than 40 minutes • Uses two floppy drives for
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nervous executive think twice about laying out huge sums of
money on speculation. • The Video Game Crash. The tremendous unit sales potential of
a hit video game cartridge figured prominently in many
publishers’ calculations. Removing that income source slashed the amount software makers could afford to pay for a license. • Licensors made unrealistic demanas. As the publishers’
ability and willingness to pay diminished, ligensons raised
the ante. Sellers pegged asking prices to video game sales
without understanding that the computer field draws from a
much smaller consumer base. • Deemphasis of Games. Following the video game crash,
retailers and distributors cooled on entertainment software.
Companies could not justify paying big fees for licenses when
the market for funware appeared soft. A few companies continued to produce licensed games. Datasoft scored well with Bruce Lee, Infocom had a hit with The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and Simon & Schuster generated six-digit unit sales with Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative. Activision (now Mediagenic) also bucked the 1985-1987 trend with licensed computer games based on ‘Alien,” “Labyrinth,” and “The Transfermess." Labyrinth, a fine design, sufMa’s catchef Gary Carter, one of the most marketable sports figuses in the endorsemerit game, examines The Sporting News Baseball along with Epyx executives. Fered from the film’s box office failure, and Transformers lost the market crested by the cartoons and comic books because it did not express the concept very well. Alien accurately mirrored the smash movie, but it never caught on the way Mediagenic hoped. It may have simply reflected the general downturn in computer game sales at that time. From Arcade to Home The first source of licensing that made a comeback was the coin-op industry. In the mid-1980s, the age difference between the typical computer-ist and the average arcade-goer stretched to almost 20 years! Most publishers felt that games for one group wouldn’t appeal to the other. The late 1987 Video Game Renaissauce radically changed the situation. Suddenly, action and action-strategy games were back in vogue. The sales of cartridges based on arcade hits impressed computer software companies, so they tried a few coin-op translations, partly to counter encroachment from video games. Last year, Marble Madness (Electronic Arts) and Gauntlet (Mindscape) led a parade of coin-op winners straight from the neighborhood arcade to the software best seller list. Technology is especially favorable for converting play-for-pay machines into disks for the Amiga. Many companics use hardware based on Amiga technology for their coin-op machines, so coding the home edition is a surprisingly straightforward process. Arcadia is one of the leaders in bringing coin-op designs to the Amiga market. It recently published the first three in a series of titles derived from its arcade line. Perhaps the most unusual entry is Rockford, which was a license derived from the 1983 hit Boulder Dash (First Star). Other available Arcadia programs for the Amiga are Rmdwars and Aaargh! The former is a head-to-head race to clear objects off a high-tech, scrolling highway, while the latter casts the player as a monster who ravages the countryside and terrorizes the populace. Mindscape has also announced ambitious plans. The company, which already has a deal to bring Atari coinops to home gamers, has inked a similar agreement with Sega. According to company president Roger Buoy, Mindscape will publish quite a few programs based on coin-op licenses in the next year. Superstars of Sports The sports software field has two types of licenses. In the first category are authorizations which permit the publisher to use logos of authentic teams and or the names of actual athletes in the product. The other is a superstar endorsement placed on a sports product as a symbol of its excellence. MicroLeague Baseball (MLSA), NBA (Avalon Hill), Pure-Stat Baseball (Software Simulations), and Full Count Baseball (Lance Haffner Games) are some of the many games which have certification from the leagues and unions of big time sports. APBA Major League Players Baseball (Random House) has these licenses, plus one based on the non-electronic statistical sports simulation, APBA Baseball Master Game, published by the APBA Company. Earl Weaver Baseball may not have been the first sports game with an endorsement license, but Electronic Arts’ success seems to have opened the floodgates. Now many products are based on both authorization and an endorsement licenses. Recent sports games with endorsemerit licenses include Shirley Mul-downey’s Top Fuel Eliminator (Cosmi) and John Elway's Quarterback (Melbourne House). Neither is available for the Amiga at this writing, but both could make their debut on the system during 1989 if demand warrants. A pair of licensed baseball games are THE BEST THERE IS ON THE AMIGA! Every monthly issue of Ahoyl’s AmigaUser is a blue-ribbon package of features on all aspects of Amiga computing, the latest news and reviews, type-in programs, educational columns, and much more. As a subscriber, you’ll save money, receive your issues earlier, and enjoy the discounts and other benefits of the Ahoy! Access Club (see page 79). Use the postpaid card bound between pages 50 and 51 to order your subscription today! Back so soon-and empty handed? Some other Amiga owner who knows a good deal when he sees one must have beaten you to the reply card. So just fill in, clip, and mail this coupon. Enter my subscription to Ahoyl’s AmigaUser.? One year (12 issues) for $ 27.95 ($ 36.95 Canada and elsewhere)? Two years (24 issues) for $ 48.95 ($ 63.95 Canada and elsewhere) Payment enclosed: $ _? Please bill me.? MasterCard? VISA Card _Expiration date_ Signature__ Address__ City_State_Zip_ 0 fNTERTR NHENT m C coming from major publishers this winter. Sporting News Baseball (Epyx) should be out just in time for Christmas. Mediagenic has not yet published the Amiga version of Pete Rose Pencant Fe er (under the Gamestar label), but first-half 1989 looks feasible. The one-or two-player Sporting News Baseball mixes arcade-style action with statistics. The onscreen athletes hit, field, run, and pitch according to their 1987 real-life statistics. Split screen visuals, designed to resemble the camera angles of televised baseball, make Sporting News Baseball less static and, therefore, more involving than games which show the entire field from an unvarying perspective. Pete Rose Pennant Fever, designed by Scott Orr and the Gamestar team, is the latest in the series of action-strategy baseball programs which began with Starleague Baseball and continned with 1987’s Giampionship Baseball. Besides a full complement of visual trimmings and tons of onfield realism, Pete Rose Pennant Fever includes a General Manager mode in which the challenge is to build an expansion franchise into a pennant winner. John Madden Football (Electronic Arts), due for the Amiga in the 4th quarter, is a spiritual cousin of Earl Arcadia For further information on any of the games mentioned in this article, contact the appropriate companies: 711 West 17th Street Mesa Business Center Unit 9G Costa Mesa, CA 92627 Phone: 714-631-1001 Epyx, Inc. 600
Galveston Drive P. O. Box 8020 Redwood City, CA 94063 Gamestar 3885 Bohannon
Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025 Phone: 415-329-0500 Infocom, Inc.
125 CambridgePark Drive Cambridge, MA 02140 Phone:
617-492-6000 Lance Haffner Games P. O. Box 100594 Nashville, TN 37210 Phone: 615-242-2617
Melbourne House 711 West 17th Street, Unit G9 Costa Mesa, CA
92627 Phone: 714-631-1001 Avalon Hill 4517 Hanford Road
Baltimore, MD 21214 Phone: 301-254-9200 Cinemaware Corporation
4165 Thousand Oaks Blvd. Wesdake Village, CA 91362 Phone: 805A95-6515 Cosmi 415 North Figueroa Street Wilmington, CA 90744 Phone: 714-240-8985 Data East USA, Inc. 470 Needles Drive San Jose, CA 95112 Phone: 408-286-7074 Electronic Arts 1820 Gateway Drive San Mateo, CA 94404 Phone: 415-571-7171 Weaver Baseball. This action-strategy program allows coaches to direct squads of NFL players, whose performantes reflect their statistics in the previous season. John Madden is also on hand to dispense sage counsel to gamers who don’t know whether it’s time for a long pass or a triple reverse. Not all the forthcoming licensed team sports games involve a superstar association. Pure-Stat Football (Software Simulations) and TV Football (Cinemaware) will both be in stores in time for forming leagues and running replays this winter. Pure-Stat Football is the latest statistical simulation by the reknowned Ed Daniels, who created Pure-Stat Baseball (Software Simulations) and Super-bowl Sunday (Avalon Hill). It features the most extensive statistic base ever employed to create a pigskin program, plus outstanding graphics by the same artist who did the visuals on MLSA’s MicroLeague Baseball II. Designer producer John Cutter applies the Cinemaware magic to the gridiron with spectacular results in TV Football. All the colorful trimmings and visual excitement of National Football League telecasts can be enjoyed on the Amiga gaming screen with this ground-breaking product. MicroLeague Sports Association 2201 Drummond Plaza Newark, DE 19711-5711 Phone: 302-368-9990 Mindscape 3444 Dundee Road Northbrook, IL 60062 Phone: 312-480-7667 Random House 201 East 50th Street New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-872-8032 Software Simulations 959 Main Street Stratford, CT 06497 Phone: 203-377-4339 Strategic Simulations 1046 N. Rengstorff Ave. Mountain View, CA 94043 Phone: 415-964-1353 Boardgames Go Computer The king of the family social boardgames is coming to the Amiga. Through an affiliated label agreement with England’s Virgin Games, Electronic Arts is distributing Monopoly in the United States. The Amiga edition features animated tokens and an unusual pseudo-3-D view of the board. Scrabble, Risk, and Scruples, also developed by Virgin in Great Britain, will be released in this country for the Amiga early next year. Scrabble, playable against human or computerized opponents, includes a 24,000-word dictionary. It even has such unexpected frills as the ability to juggle the tiles on the rack to make it easier to visualize words. Computer opponents in Scruples have unique personality profiles which can be studied prior to actual play. All the original questions from the nonelectronic game are incorporated into this lively game for one or more. Risk is based on the classic Parker Brothers game of international conquest. The Amiga edition includes all the major rules variations developed for the boardgame, plus a module to concoot totally new ones. Several companies have produced software based on “Dungeons & Dragens.” The TSR, Inc. product, the most significant game invented in the midtwentieth century, has thus far resisted computerization. Strategic Simulations is the latest to purchase this potentially priceless license. The company is pulling out all the stops to develop a complete line of games based on “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.” The first two products, due in time for the holiday season, are Heroes of the Lance and Pool of Radiance. The former is an action-adventure set in TSR’s “Dragon Lance" fantasy world, while the latter is a roleplaying fantasy quest designed in cooperation with the creators of “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ” SSI is also developing a program which assists the dungeon master in creating random encounters during the course of an otherwise nonelectronic game of “Advanced Dungoons & Dragons." Playing Movies & Television Ttie extensive use of cinematic tech-Other Products from The Other Guys REASON a professional proofreading system used by universities and writers around the world to analyze and improve writing. (Has helped raise students grades when used faithfully.) $ 395.00 OMEGA FILE a REAL data base & mail merge $ 7”9 PROMISE the BEST high speed spell checker. (Evenbetterthan Zing Spell) $ 49.99 KEEP-Trak GL general ledger for home or business $ 49.99 $ 39.99 $ 39.99 $ 39.99 AMT amortization program MATCH-IT teaches shapes & colors (preschool) MATH-A-MAGICIAN add, subtract, multiply & divide Call or write for more Information. SYNTHIA High Performance Digital Synthesizer A slate of the art music tool which will: Create digital IFF Instruments for use with nearly all music programs! Modifying existing III’’ Instruments. Use SYNTHIA on digitized samples to add reverb, wow, and other enhancements. SOMETHING TOR EVERYONE; Additive Synthesis a traditional method which can create almost any type of instrument. Plucked String Synthesis ¦ simulates plucked strings... Right down to the 'pluck'. Interpolative Synthesis a method which introduces the natural imperfections found in instruments. Rtf (Instruments such as brass, woodwinds, pianos, etc.) Percussion build your own drum set... Create any drum you desire. Subtractive Synthesis a simple method of creating instruments. Special Effects includes filtering, amplification, phasing, waveshaping, amplitude modulation, real reverb, and. IFF Music Player powerful and compact. Now you can enjoy those songs that needed a memory expansion beforel 32 tracks and 32 IFF Instruments! Supports chords, tics, etc. Up to IS IT LIVE... OR IS IT SYNTHIA? Syulhia uses the latest technology to generate realistic sounding instruments and even the new families of instruments sound real. A real synthesizer on a real computer! Why buy digitized instruments when you can SYNTIIIAsize them? (JjQQ QQ Requires AMIGA 512K • EJCJ Copyright© 1987, THE OTHER GUYS Software • AMIGA is a registered trademark of Commodore Amiga THE OTHER GUYS 55 North Main Street Suite 301-D PO Box H Logan Utah Q4321 [BB1) 753-7620 (BOO) 342-9402 niques in modem computer games, perfected by Cinemaware, makes the movies a natural source of license-worthy properties. RoboCop and Platoon (both Data East) are joystick-driven adventure games based on their movie namesakes. Both feature excellent multiscreen graphics which thrust the com-puterist into the thick of intense action. Already in the stores is The Three Stooges (Cinemaware), a highly humorons “electronic boardgame.” The computerist must master a collection of entertaining action contests to help the slaphappy trio earn enough money to save the orphanage. First Row Software is readying titles based on two television series, “Twilight Zone” and “The Honeymooners.” Twilight Zone is the unifying label for a series of adventures that embedies the same adult approach to fantasy and the supernatural which made Rod Serling’s show a video classic. Mike Breggar is the designer of the first Twilight Zone disk, scheduled for release by the time this issue reaches you. The Honeymooners, also by Breggar, is an anthology of arcade contests derived from the sitcom’s characters and incidents. First Row is hoping to have this available by Christmas, but the release date could slip back to first guarter of 1989. Shogun (Infocom) is based on the T. V. miniseries and the novel which inspired it. The solitaire
player becomes James Clavell’s hero, John Blackthome, in 16th
century' Japan. Microlllusions has licensed four carloon television series from Hanna-Bar-bera. Games based on “The Flint-stones,” “Scooby-Doo,” “Johnny Quest,” and “The Jetsons” will be ready for play on the Amiga by the end of 1989. Younger computerists are probably the main target audience for these games. Comics on the Computer The most frequently licensed char-DEFCON 5 Cosmi AMIGA with 512K Disk; $ 39.95 Call it “Strategic Defense Initiative” or “Star Wars,” the satellite-based detense network is the most controversial government proposal since the persoral income tax. Defcon 5 (“Defense Condition 5,” the military term for peace), offers an “inside” look at how such a system might operate if the US deployed it early in the next decade. This action-strategy game is Cosmi’s latest “computer-computer” game, following The President is Missing and Chernobyl. This series turns a necessity into a virtue by making a game out of the player interlace. It’s a thought-provoking concept. The biggest barrier to fostering intense persoral involvement in computer strafegy games is the computer itself. The player must manipulate the compuler interface to make anything happen. Many gamers find it hard to become totally involved with a fantasy quest or a boxing match while worry-HhENTERTHIHHENT 10 actor in electronic gaming, Superman, is coming back for another try. Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster’s Man of Steel previously starred in an Atari 2600 cartriage and a First Star home computer game (as well as a coin-op and a pinball machine). Now Great Britain's Tynsoft is trying DC Comics’ flagship hero again. Its interactive computer comic book is called Superman: Black Monday. Created by the American Subway Software design team, the action-strategy game will be programmed in England for release this month. Rumors persist that Batman will soon swing across the computer screen. Ing about controller or keyboard commana control. The required procedures of most gamers bear little relation to swinging a sword or throwing a right cross. Defcon 5, however, transforms the player’s computer into the terminal which orchestrates the many compocents of the US Ballistic Missile Detense (BMD) System as it might be deployed in the mid-1990s. Defcon 5’s routine of play is very similar to ordinary computer operation. It is surprisingly easy to peer at the multicolored satellite maps and feel the vicarious excitement of directing the intricate defense network. The B.M.D. System is a high-tech gauntlet. Each subsystem stops an attack at a different point between Defcon 5, the initial alert, to moments before missiles hit US soil. The main weapons are a combination of ground-based chemical lasers and orbiting laser reflectors, free-elec-tron lasers, neutral particle beams, electromagnetic launchers which fire ultrahigh velocity “smart bullets,” and the nuclear pulsed xray laser launcher. The xray system, only activated in the ultimate extremity known as Defcon 1, blankets United States air space with enough x-rays to neutralize any enemy missiles. The computer must also guard against anti-satellite mines, which can be removed by a remote controlled robot. The Control Screen reports the current status of important elements of the B. M.D. System. The data section at the top of the screen
monitors such things as the status of the station, the loca
tion of the currently transmitting sta-A game featuring the
Darknight Detective previously appeared in Europe, but it
was not brought to the US. The rumored project will probably
relate to the forthcoming film with Michael Keaton and Jack
Nicholson as much as to the four-color adventures. Another likely source of comics-in-spired games is Disney software. The Walt Disney division has announced no specific publication schedule, but it plans to develop a full line based on its myriad of company-owned licenses. Coming Attractions The games discussed in this article are only the first ripples of what could tion, the readiness of the station to receive and send data, the progress of any missiles toward the US, the number of ICBMs detected, and the status of visual reconnaissance satellites. Four buttons, two on each side of the Station CRT on the Control Screen, lead to the rest of the game’s screens. “PWR” turns the Station on and off, “Info” displays a menu of available schedules, “Map” calls up the Operation Map menu, and “Help” summarizes commands and instructions. The player moves the cursor to an onscreen button with the mouse and clicks the left controller button. Other commands, such as recognition codes, are entered through the keyboard. Defcon 5 starts slowly, but it quickly builds momentum. This is fortunate, because it gives the computerist time to learn the control scheme. Things get hectic during a full-scale attack, so that’s no time to forget a command routine. Defcon 5 strikes a pleasing balance between strategy and action, though quick wits are far more important than quick reflexes. With any luck, this absorbing simulation is as close as the world will ever have to come to seeing this massive defense network do its stuff. Cosmi deserves credit for publishing an entertainment product at the same time fun and instructive. Cosmi, 431 N. Figueroa St., Wilmington, CA 90744 (phone: 213-835- 9687). -Arnie Katz & Bill Kunkel Circle 110 on Reader Service
Card Reviewed Next Month: • F-18 Interceptor • Phantasm • Questron II become a tidal wave. Software comparies have
bought dozens of potentially valuable properties which will not
even begin development until late in 1989. Understandably, these companies don’t want to tip their hand to potertial publishers of nonlicensed “me, too” programs. That’s why it is tough to talk about specific licensed games beyond March, 1989. What can be said, however, is that the licensed game category will keep expanding at least through the end of 1989. So it probably won't be long until you see your favorite
book, movie, comic book, boardgame, or celebrity
spotlighted in a computer game.? SUPERSTAR ICE HOCKEY Mindscape Amiga with 512K Disk; $ 49.95 It is almost as much of a pleasure to review Superstar Ice Hockey as it is to play it. That is high praise in view of the unalloyed excellence of Ed Ring-ler’s latest action-strategy sports title. The critic’s joy at seeing a program which advances the art of sports simulation could only be exceeded by the puck partisan’s joy over this thorough and knowledgeable treatment of major league hockey. The game’s flexible structure lets computerists play a single game or a full schedule with equal ease, but the greatest appeal of Superstar Ice Hockey is its capacity for extended play. A letter from the office of the commissioner of the SportTime Hockey League (SHL) opens the Game Manual. It approves the player’s application for an expansion franchise in Division 2 of the Western Conference. Using joystick-activated onscreen menus, the player can pick a name for the fledgling franchise, move it to one of the three other divisions, and select uniform colors. In the full tournament version of Superstar Ice Hockey, the gamer, as genoral manager, has nine seasons to turn the expansion team into a SportTime Cup winner. It won’t be easy, because some of the existing 16 clubs have carved out dynasties during the nine years prior to the creation of your team. The gamer spends “trading points” to send his squad to training camp, recruit a rookie, or trade for an established Shier. An expansion team starts? LENTERTfl NMENT a 0 blockbuster deals are appropriately rare. With 250 trading points and earns more based on its place in the final standings at the end of each season. Finishing last earns 1000 trading points, but winning it all yields just 50, Since a player transaction costs 150 points, the game automatically curbs any propensity toward going overboard in the trading mart. A deal can fill a crucial gap for a team on the brink, but When the focus shifts to the rink, the game allows the player to assume the role of coach. When there’s a lull in the action, a screen appears which allows the player to send in new lines and defensive tandems and pick a general style of play for each unit. Those who don’t want to watch from the sidelines can take direct control of their team’s center and or goalie. The joystick plugged into Port 2 is the default control option, but simple menus allow the computerist to change the configuration. This makes it possible for two gamers to play for the same team against a computer-led squad. Ice fens who don’t want to do everything at once can use the option menu to assign one or more functions to the computer. The gamer can elect to just Superstar Ice Hockey lets the gamer exporience the sport from the ice to the Gin’s office. You can take the nine years allotted to win the Cup, or simply play games. PENALTY OFFENSE: ln: s tp: 7* DEFENSE: Foi Lni tp: 51 1 Jj V ep: 69? Ep: 33 04! ER » 4: os n L. A. IQD Ub PENALTY t * j_ o: no SETUP SOFFENSE 104: ep 115: tpb: ln PROTECT: defense 102: ep 113: tp i: i_n 1 -1 coach, participate only as a player, or put everything hut general managing on automatic. The Main Menu screen shows the current standings for all four divisions in the SHL. It also gives access to information screens and utilities. The player can look up the cumulative won-lost record on any team or the whole league, change the composition of on-ice lines, reset the league to its original starting point, perform team improvenient functions, or proceed to play the team’s next game. Besides team colors and order entry mode, the Game Set-Up Screen also customizes the number of players on a side and the length of each skating period. The computerist can even choose to dispense with the offsides rule or make the following game an exhibition. Ed Jingler continues to design some of the most outstanding action sports simulations on the market. Superstar Ice Hockey is his finest creation yet. Mindscape, 3444 Dundee Rd., Northbrook. IL 60060 (phone: 312- 480-7667). -Amie Katz Circle 111 on Reader Service Card BARD'S TALE II Electronic Arts Amiga with 512K Disk; $ 59.95 The little town of Skara Brae needed saving in Michael Cranford and Brian Fargo’s Bard’s Tale, the all-time classic fantasy roleplaying game. In Bard’s Tale II: The Destiny Knight, ultimate evil threatens the entire Realm. Sara-don the Archmage calls on the player, who supposedly defeated Mangar in the earlier game, to confront this new, even greater threat. An invasion party from neighboring Lestradae, led by the evil Archmage Logoth Zanta, have invaded the Realm's capital city of Tangramayne. Even worse, they have broken the fabulous Destiny Wand, which previously protected the Realm with its power, and hidden the pieces in seven different locations. Logoth Zanta has ringed each segment with a web of brain-testing traps. In game terms, the player must retrieve the seven sections of the Destiny Wand, forge them into a sceptre, and defeat the villainous archmage. Achieving these objectives restores prosper-MODIFY • RECALL, ENERGIZE. ORGANIZE. TEXT AND 5 fcAPHlOS And Have A Ball! So, you have your word processing and painting programs... Microfiche Filer Plus™ is ideal for organizing: BUT... You're tired of searching through stacks of disks. You've had i1 with sorting those lists by hand. You've typed that mailing label for the umpteenth time. What a mess! And More... Now, take il easy... The designers of Microfiche Filer, the most highly regarded database in Amiga history, bring you Microfiche Filer Plus™ the easiest, the fastest, the most powerful, and the most enjoyable (yes. Enjoyable) productivity software you'll ever use! Files Hobbies Billing Pictures Store Text & Pictures Simultaneously Print in Any Format Store 4000 Color HAM Pictures Collections Mailing Lists Inventories Video Storyboards Sort & Search Instantly! Perform Calculations Write Database Programs Using Arexx* Visit your Amiga dealer today for an eye-opening, revealing, and exciting demonstration! For your nearest dealer call 1-800-527-7014. In MA call (508) 875-1238 miGROFIGHE • ARexx sold separately Suggested Retail ‘179. Plu; Switch Today: Send us you' old database program and aet s75 off Microfiche Filer PlusTW Call for details =F |yOfTUJflR£ vuiorv Inc. P.O. Box 3319, Framingham, MA 01701 Combat is the heart of Bard’s Tale II. During a fight, the player entens an order to each member
with single keystroke commands. The program then reports the outcome. Bine the talents of several specialists. For example, Rogues excel at picking locks and hiding in shadows, Bards sing magical songs, and Monks are martial arts masters who are deadly in hand-to-hand combat. Spellcasting plays a major role in Bard’s Tale II, as it did in its predecessor. There are five types in the new game, including the newly invented Archmage classification. Conjurers create objects like fireballs out of thin air and heal wounds, Magicians can give unexpected powers to ordinary items, Sorcerers are masters of illusion, Wizards summon and control supernalural beings, and the Archmage is a master of at least three of the foregoing disciplines. Gons," the player creates characters and forms them into six-member parties. Each character class has unique powers, so most adventuring groups comExperience gained during travels through cities, dungeons, and the treacherous wilderness of the Realm enabies characters to rise in level and gain greater mastery over their specialty. For example, the Archmage can temporarily halt a hostile party with a first-level spell, but can smash a whole group of attackers with one casting of the seventh-level Mangar’s Mallet. As awesome as these talents may seem to the uninitiated, the player needs every bit of this might to keep fledgling characters alive during the first few missions. The manual advises that characters below 14th level do not have a long life expectancy in the game. There are several ways to obtain the needed high-level party. The easiest is to transfer it from the original Bard’s Tale using the utility included on the game disk. Those without Bard’s Tale experience should stick close to the dungeon beneath the Adventurers Guild. This labyrinth is geared to first-level characters. Military skill is not the only requirement for victory in Empire. The effectiveness of even the most brilliant commander is limited by the forces he controls. Once the computerist develops a strong group, he can explore six cities, 25 dungeon levels, and a huge wilderness. More than 100 animated monsters provide plenty of opposition. Combat is the heart of the game. During a fight, the player enters an order to each member with single-keystroke commands. The program then reports the outcome of that round of the engagement. When a character or monster suffers more damage than he can absorb, he dies. Bard’s Tale II is a completely wor-? LENTERTH HHEHT B O thy successor to the 1986 award-win-ner. It is at least as good as the first title in the series, except where it is even better. And what fantasy adventune fan could ask for anything more? Electronic Arts, 1820 Gateway Dr., San Mateo, CA 94404 (phone: 415- 571-7171). -Amie Katz & Joyce Worley Circle 112 on Reader Service Card EMPIRE Interstef Amiga with SI2K Disk; $ 49,95 Lovers of complex, demanding strategy games need look no further than Empire. This authorized revision of Walter Bright’s 1977 “Wargame of the Century” should satisfy anyone’s graving for detailed and challenging games. Version 2.03 of this strategic-level military simulation is coauthored by Walter Bright and Mark Baldwin. The computerist commands land, sea, and air units across the surface of an entire planet against up to two opponents. The program can administer two completely independent computer-controlled rivals. They are as likely to combine to defeat the human player as to square off against each other in a three-cornered fight. The first few pages of the 70-page rulebook attempt to connect Empire to the “Star Fleet” universe with commendable cleverness, if not complete success. It is unlikely that a simulation based on World War D-era weaponry can ever fit comfortably into a landscape of star-spanning Armadas, tele-portation beams, and phasers. Trevor Forensen’s Star Fleet I and Star Fleet II (both Interstel) concern a war between the United Galactic Alliante (U.G.A.) and the Krellan Empire. Both emphasize battle action in outer space more than on the surface of the planets which are the ultimate prizes of the conflict. The rulebook outlines a new Krellan strategy for conquering the greatest number of U.G.A. worlds with the smallest expenditure of resources and manpower. In “Operation Big Brother,” the Krellans land strategy and production teams at the largest city on the target planet. The teams establish a local general as a puppet ruler and provide him technical assistance. With this edge, the tame general can expand from his base until he conquers the whole planet. The unified and subjugated world then becomes a docile cog in the Krellan Empire. To disrupt this insidious procedure, the U.G.A. has embraced the doctrine of counterinsurgency. The Alliance sends advisors to the beleaguered planet, where they rally opposition in minor cities. When these dissidents grow powerful enough, they overcome the Krellan-backed regime and establish a democratic planetary government. The background story’s logical flaws, though numerous, should be ignored. If ever a computer game needed no such window dressing, it is Empire. Military skill is not the only requiremerit for victory in Empire. The effectiveness of even the most brilliant field commander is limited by the size of the force he controls. A carefully construeted production plan which delivers the right mix of units is as important as a well-executed attack. Players direct eight kinds of forces: armies, fighter planes, troop transports, submarines, destroyers, cruisers, aircraft carriers, and battleships. Special rules provide for naval bombardments, patrols, sentries, hidden movement, and sea-based air power. The program rates each unit for oftense, defense, and movement speed. The player explores the planet and captunes cities, which are the sources of new weapons production. There is no diplomacy or any similar distraction; Empire is war to the finish with no quarter given. And when one war is over, there are other worlds in need of help against the Krellans. Empire includes several additional planets on the game disk, as well as a system for generating up to one million battlefields. An impressive array of onscreen maps and charts help the player momtor every aspect of play. The graphics are good, and plentiful, by wargaming standards, though some of the color combinations make copy hard to read. Players employ either keystroke order entry or a system of pulldown menus to control military and industrial activity. The manual exhaustively explains the control system, and Interstel also includes a four-page command reference card in the package. There are so many options and strategic alternatives to consider that novices, especially those who don’t often play wargames, might want to try a few practice turns and view Interstel’s demonstration disk. Empire is a long game. The first hundred turns are just a warm-up during which players explore the surrounding territory and get production underway. The feet that it takes 60 turns to crank out a combatant’s first battleship accurately reflects the game’s ability to gobble up hours. The “save” and “load” features are necessities, not frills, for this game. Empire is not for the casual gamer or joystick jock. For those who relish total immersion in a stimulating strategic environment, however, this fascinating wargame is a perfect choice, Interstel, P.O. Box 57825, Webster, TX 77598 (phone: 713-486-4163). Amie Katz Circle 113 on Reader Service Card JOE BLADE DigiTek Amiga with 512K Disk; $ 29.95 It’s tough to keep the computer Keep Your Collection Looking Shipshape with 7 migaUser Binders Don’t be caught at sea the next time you need valuable infermation from a back issue of Ahoyl's Amiga User. Our official binders tum your collection of Ahoyl's ArnigaUser into a textbook on Amiga computing! These quality-constructed binders use metal rods to hold each magazine individually, allowing easy referonce to any issue without removal. Sporting a rich red casing with a silver logo imprinted on the spine, these binders will be the pride of your computer bookshelf. To order, send $ 12.45 (US funds) for each binder desired to: Ahoyl's ArnigaUser Binders 45 West 34th Street-Suite 500 New York, NY 10001 (Outside Continental US add $ 2.50 per binder. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.) Aegis Draw 2000 provides state-of-the-art design functionality without having to take out a second mortgage on your home... Lights! Camera! Action! Links pictures, animations and sound together for the desktop presentation event you've always wanted your Amiga to perform... RAPHICS IN MOTION For information on the dealer nearest you, calf 1 800-345-9871 or 213-392-9972. ¦ tNTERffl HHENT a c gaming universe free of power-hungry dictators. If all the villains from this year’s games got together for a convention, it would take an electronic Madison Square Garden to hold all those militant madmen. The latest compu-soldier to enlist in the titantic struggle against international evil is a moustachio’d freedom fighter named Joe Blade. Armed with his trusty machine gun, Joe must penetrate the heavily defended fortress of Crax Bloodfin-ger and rescue six important world leaders. While aiding die half-dozen dignitaries, Joe Blade must also find six booby-trapped explosive devices and reset them to blow Blood finger’s hideout off the face of the Earth. The joystick moves Joe Blade, a stocky fellow in green fatigues, left and right on the horizontally scrolling playfields. Blade also jumps when the player pushes the stick forward and ducks when the player pulls it back. To go through a door or a hole in a wall, the computerist positions the character in front of the opening and pulls the joystick into the 6 o’clock position. As in many other games of this general type, Joe must constantly search for important items while he attempts to carry out his mission of mercy. His gun needs a constant supply of ammunition, and Joe himself must find caches of food and drink to keep his energy level, measured by a meter below the active display, high enough to remain functional. The guards won’t hesitate to attack Joe Blade unless he finds an enemy uniform. If he does, Bloodfinger’s livery automatically replaces Blade’s distinctive green garb. The explosive devices are actually timed puzzles. When the player stumoles on one of these huge devices, a special screen replaces the normal playfields. It shows a row of five lettens, A-E, in scrambled order. The only way to defuse the booby trap is to place the letters in their proper alphabetical order within 20 seconds. The computerist lights pairs of squares with the joystick. The button switches the positions of the lettens in the current lit squares. The graphic design fosters the illusion of visual depth where none exists. All onscreen movement is left and right. Joe only goes in another direction to get through a door. The careful placement of exits affords Joe Blade easy access from screen to screen and masks this limitation. It may be hidden, but it is present. The main defect of Joe Blade is that it gives the player very few choices, Joe Blade can’t do much except walk back and forth and blast everything in his way. The explosive traps add excitement and mental stimulation, but additional complications would have improved the action game. Joe Blade is an exceptionally well programmed product. Its animated illustrations and jaunty soundtrack give it an edge over numerous other “storm-the-fortress” epics. DigiTek, Inc., 10415 N. Florida Ave, Suite 410, Tampa, FL 33612 (phone: 813-933-8023). Amie Katz & Joyce Worley Circle 114 on Reader Service Card GEN ONE”: Professional Quality Gen-locking For All Amiga Computers Specially designed for compatibility with the Amiga® line of computers, GEN ONE is the premier geniocking encoder. If you’re serious about your video graphics, this interactive desktop accessory is a rto-nonsense component. And to back our commitment to quality and customer support, we give the best warranty in the business, GEM ONE from CSI... Quality. With the commitment to match. sm Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. GEN ONE is a trademark of Communications Specialties Inc. GEN ONE’s Advanced Features Include: USER CONTROL • Separate RGB and Video Gain ¦ H, V, Subcarrier Timing • Computer or Video Sync Source Selection ¦ Separate Y C and
Video Gain • 3 Modes of Operation SPECIAL FEATURES • Super-VHS Compatible Y C Output • Comb Filtering In Luminance Channel • Separate Power Supply • Convenient RGB ComputerOutput $ 895.00 with 1 year warranty Call
For More Information And A Free Brochure (516) 499-0907 [g] Communications vl [[Specialties, Inc. 6090
Jericho Turnpike Commack, NY 11725 There are two things the
Amiga can never have enough of: memory and disk storage.
Depending on your budget and needs, you will probably as
sign different priorities to each of these items. Disk
drives can be floppy or hard and the harder they are, the
more hard cash you need to start with. In spite of an
initially high installation cost, a hard drive still comes
in as the lowest cost per kilobyte of online storage.
Some users feel that a second floppy disk drive should be
the first peripheral. Other users find that a hard drive
eliminates the need for the second floppy drive entirely.
If you have an Amiga 2000, you can choose all of the above
and still have room for more. Hard drives also serve to illustrate one of the less obvious advantages of the Amiga 2000-that is, peripherals for the Amiga 2000 cost less than similar devices for the Amiga 1000 or the Amiga 500. The reason for the lower cost is that the manufacturer does not need to supply a power supply, an interrace card, and a shielded enclosure with his device. In fact, nearly all the expansion products being made today are designed for the Amiga 2000 with optional expansion boxes for use with the Amiga 1000 or the Amiga 500. For peripherals which cost less than $ 1000, the expansion box can be as much as 25% of the total cost. HARD DRIVING ON YOUR AMIGA Move up to Mass Storage with Two New SCSI Controllers and Backup Software Text and Photos by Morton Kevelson si The Amiga 2000 has also encouraged more peripheral makers to enter the market. The availability of the Amiga 2000’s expansion chassis, which can accommodate industry standard devices, makes it easy for a manufacturer to design a new product. Hard drives in particular reflect this new flexibility. Unlike the ones made for the Amiga 1000, the hard drive interfaces for the Amiga 2000 have built-in flexibility. Their driving software has been designed to accommodate a wide variety of hard drives from different manufacturers. With this report we begin our covenage of hard drives for the Amiga 2000. We started this project by investigating a low cost SCSI
interface card, the OverDrive from Pacific Peripherals.
As we were going to press we found a 20 megabyte SupraDrive
on our doorstep, and with some mildly heroic efforts we
were able to include it as well. The increased storage ca
pacify of the hard drive places greater demands on data
security and the importance of maintaining proper back
ups. The accompanying review of Quarterback should provide
some needed insight in this regard. Although both of the interfaces reviewed are designed for the Amiga 2000, they may be used on the A500 or 1000 with a suitable adaptor or expansion chassis. Both manufacturers offer adaptors to allow their products to run on either machine; or you can use a third party expansion chassis which will accommodate Amiga 2000 style cards. SUPRADRIVE Supra Corporation Amiga 2000 Price: $ 799 (20 meg) Supra Corporation has been in the Amiga market since its introduction. Their SupraDrive for the Amiga 1000 was one of the first hard drives on the market. Supra is now-putting their experience to good use by expanding into the Amiga 2000 peripheral market. I* drive or as a complete hard disk system. The Supra interface card is a DMA SCSI controller based on the Flexibility is the word for the SupraDrive. You can buy their product just as an Interface Kit without the hard Above: the SupraDrive interface card. The empty sockets will be used for hard drive autoboot Roms under Workbench 1.3 or later releases. Left: the Supra-Format working screen shows four partitions on this 20 meg hard drive. Adult graphic adventure game for the Amiga™ and IBM™ computers. You have been assigned to a high priority mission by the Federated Governmerit. In order to save the galaxy, you must locate and destroy a deadly weapon. See your dealer or call 1-800-552-6777. In Illinois call 312-352-7323. Software Inc, Suggested retail price $ 39.95 dual channel Motorola 68440 chip. It is built on a standard Amiga 2000 card with both 50 pin and 25 pin SCSI ports. The 50 pin port is located at the top rear for use with an internally mounted drive. The 25 pin port projects out the back for use with an external, Macintosh style SCSI drive. To provide for future support of booting from the hard drive under AmigaDOS 1.3 or higher, the interface card was equipped with a pair of 28 pin sockets for ROM chip installation. Note that to achieve hard drive booting you will also have to replace a ROM inside the computer. The interface card we received was apparently not the final version, as we found some last minute changes in the form of jumper wires on both the front and back of the board. The circuit board itself is a two layer design with gold plated edge contacts. We received our unit as a 20 megabyte system complete with a Miniscribe 8425 3Vi” hard drive. When you buy the complete system you specify its capacify; Supra then chooses the hard drive. If the hard drive does not have an integrated SCSI controller, the system will be supplied with a suitable SCSI to ST-506 adapter, most likely one of the Omti devices. The controller piggybacks at the rear of the Supra interface card. Our system also came with enough mounting hardware to allow us to install the hard drive into eithen the 5 *4” or 3 Vi” drive bays in the Amiga 2000. As with any other Amiga 2000 internal peripheral, installation requires that you open the computer and get into the hardware. The degree of involvemerit depends on whether you are using the 5 Vi” or 3 V5s” drive bay. Supra provides a photographically illustrated manual which clearly shows what is involved. The only problem we had was identifying the number 1 pin on the 50 pin SCSI connector. Apparently, the positioning of the J2 designation for this connector was also meant to indicafe the location of pin number 1. The hard drive came with a stick-on Supra label which clearly marked the position of pin number 1. II ¦ ¦¦ I The hard drive itself was slightly modified by Supra to allow for the conrection of the Amiga 2000’s hard drive LED wires. These wires hang loose inside the computer as supplied by Commodore. The ability to hook up the LED wires lets you install the hard drive inside the computer’s case without regard to its external visibility. Set Up and Software The Supra Drives are preformatted at the factory with a copy of the Workbench disk already installed. The Su-praDrive boot disk automatically starts the system and reassigns all the appropriate devices to the hard drive. The 20 megabyte drive which was supplied with our system was set up with four partitions of 2, 5.1, 5.1, and 7.9 megabytes. The use of partitions speeds up the operation of the drive and encourages better file organization. If you are supplying your own hard drive, or if you wish to rearrange the structure of the one you have, you will use the SupraFormat utility which is found in the System drawer of the Su-praDrive boot disk. SupraFormat is an easy to use mouse-and keyboard-driven utility which lets you adjust the number and size of the hard drive’s partitions. It also includes gadgets which let you format, map, or zero the hard drive. The format function is the standard AmigaDOS command. The map tunction marks all defective sectors, making them inaccessible. The zero tunction effectively erases or reformats the hard drive by deleting all of the disk’s directory information. Executing the zero function is a lot faster than refermatting or erasing all the original files. The Format command which will be supplied with AmigaDOS 1.3 will indude the equivalent of a zero option. The format function also gives you the option of setting up a partition to accommodate the new AmigaDOS fast file system. SupraFormat does not seem to use the Amiga Mount commana and its associated Mountlist file. Instead, the hard drive configuration data seems to be stored in the Supra-Mount command file itself. Wm» Also supplied on the SupraDrive utility disk is a copy of CLImate from Progressive Peripherals. We presented a detailed review of CLImate in the June 1987 issue of Ahoy! CLImate is one of the easiest to use mouse-operated file management utilities we have seen for the Amiga. Our only problem with CLImate was its reliance on its. fastdir files for disk contents when the disk was write protected. This has been fixed by the inclusion of a gadget which lets you toggle the use of the. Fastdir files. However, CLImate still insists on creating the. fastdir files if the disk is write enabled. We would like to see the option for placing the. fastdir files in RAM rather than on the disk. Conclusion As can be seen from the accompanying chart, the SupraDrive exhibited a slight advantage in operating speed. The supplied software was well thought out and easy to use. The SupraDrive system is well worth considering for your Amiga hard drive needs. Supra Corporation, 1133 Tommercial Way, Albany, OR 97321 (phone: 503-967-9081). Circle 121 on Reader Service Card OVERDRIVE Pacific Peripherals Amiga 2000 Price: $ 249 Inasmuch as a hard drive is an expensive peripheral, it should be bought only after careful consideration. Oddly enough, this is just what we didn’t do. It was at the Santa Clara Commodose convention in May that we spied Lee Adams promoting his OverDrive SCSI host adaptor for the Amiga 2000. Perhaps it was a desire not to return empty handed after traveling more than 3000 miles, or perhaps we just couldn’t resist the reviewer’s discount that Mr. Adams offered us. In any event, when we left the show we found ourselves the somewhat apprehensive owner of an OverDrive controller card sans hard drive. Upon our return to New York we immediately set out upon a search for a suitable SCSI hard drive to hook up to our OverDrive. After a while we got the distinct impression that SCSI drives could be a scarce commodity at times. Once again we invoked our privilege of the press, and called upon our friends at C Ltd. About one month later we had in our possession a 47 megabyte, Seagate ST-157N hard disk drive along with a C Ltd SCSI Controller card. Thus, nearly two months after we got back from the west coast, we ended up with twice as much hard drive as we started out to get, with twice as many controller cards as we needed, and with twice as much money spent as we had expected. Some things never change. ¦ B H • --------- Since C Ltd formats and stuffs every hard drive
they sell with 7 or 8 megabytes of public domain, shareware,
and demo programs, we decided to start out tests with the C Ltd
controller. After some sporadic operation, during which time
we did manage to print out about 70 pages of C Ltd’s SCSI
manual, the C Ltd controller ceased to function. This was
something of a disappointment, as the C Ltd SCSI system looks
like it has some really nice features which we would have liked
to try out. Fortunately, we still had the OverDrive which we proceeded to install and which did perform flawlessly. As of now we will tell you about OverDrive. Hopefully in the next issue we will be able to discuss the C Ltd SCSI controller with some greater authority. The OverDrive is a Direct Memory Access (DMA) SCSI host adaptor for the Amiga 2000. For the Amiga 500, Pacific Peripherals offers their Subsystem 500 ($ 249), a two slot expansion chassis with separate power supply. For the Amiga 1000, they offer the Subsystem 1000 ($ 299), a three slot expansion chassis with separate power supply. Both of these products accept Amiga 2000 style Zorro cards. The Sub-System 500 has space for a 3 Vi floppy drive, while the Subsystem 1000 can accept a 3 Vi" hard drive. We have not tested either of these products. DISK PERFORMANCE Over-SupraDrive Drive DF1: RAM: Total Test Time in Seconds 471 330 1300 182 File Creations per Second 5 7 0 5 File Deletions per Second 14 15 1 10 Directory Scan (Entries per Second) 52 43 36 5 Seek+Read per Second 63 65 17 49 Read Speed Bytes per Second 512 Byte Buffer 23616 30481 11599 187245 4096 Byte Buffer 23831 36921 12423655360 8192 Byte Buffer 23831 37449 12365655360 32768 Byte Buffer 23831 12365 873813 Write Speed Bytes per Second 512 Byte Buffer 12725 17832 4993 131072 4096 Byte Buffer 12787 21140 5110 238312 8192 Byte Buffer 12725 20971 5150 262144 32768 Byte Buffer 12663 5150 291271 The OverDrive is built around a Motorola 68440 two channel DMA controller. The OverDrive software only uses one of these channels. If you have The Performance Test The speed at which the disk drives transfer data is important in a disk-based operating system. In this regard AmigaDOS’ floppy disk activity has not earned a reputation for high speed. The use of a hard drive does improve matters substantially. We ran several tests to measure the relative performance of the OverDrive as compared to other systems. The first series of tests consifted of copying the “C” directory from both hard and soft disks to RAM: and back again. In our case the “C” directory contained 51 files and occupied 417 disk blocks. The results are summarized in tine following table: FILE COPY PERFORMANCE (in seconds) Copy DH0: C To RAM: All Copy RAM: To DHOTemp All Copy DF0: C To RAM: All Copy RAM: To DFLTemp All Delete DHOTemp ? All Delete DFUemp ? All All tests were done with the default number of disk buffers. The test of DH0: was done with about 7 megabytes of data on the disk. The test of DF1: was with a frostily formatted disk. Perhaps the most significant result of these tests is contained in the first line of the table, which shows the total time required for the complete series of tests on • b B • each device. Direct comparison of these test results with similar data published for other drives should be done with caution. Disk drive speed benchmarks are affected by a variety of system parameters including the hard drive in use (in this case a Seagate ST-157N with the OverDrive and a Miniscribe 8425 with the SupraDrive), buffer size, disk contents, the time of day, and the state of mind of the system operator. In general, speed tests should be viewed as a measure of the relative performance of similar systems. For the above tests the OverDrive had about 7 megabytes of data before we started. The SupraDrive was run from an empty partition DH2: The source floppy (DF0:) was a typical Workbench disk and the destination floppy (DF1:) was empty. The default number of disk buffers was used. We also ran the widely used disk performance test by Rick Spanbau-er found on Fred Fish disk number 48. The results of our tests were as follows: the time and the
talent, you can probably come up with a use for the sec
ond channel. The OverDrive is installed in one of the Amiga
2000s 100 pin expansion slots, Connection to a SCSI device is
via a SCSI standard 50 pin connector which is located on the
side of the board inside the computer. A 25 pin Macintosh style SCSI conhector is positioned at the end of the board so that it is accessible from the back of the computer. The board itself has four holes toward the rear which can be used to mount a 3’A” hard drive. This can effectively turn the OverDrive into a hard card for the Amiga 2000. You can buy the OverDrive with or without a hard drive. If you elect to supply your own drive you will also have to provide your own connecting cable. We installed our hard drive in the Amiga’s 5'A” drive bay so that we could watch its little green light flash. While it may not seem like much, that blinking green light lets us know that something is going on when everything else seems to hang up. The question on everyone’s mind with regard to hard drive controllers is just how they will accommodate booting from the hard drive under Am-igaDOS 3.0 when it is finally released. Pacific Peripherals intends to supply a piggyback adaptor board which will install in one of the chip sockets on the OverDrive. The Adaptor board will contain the necessary autoboot code in ROM. Pricing and schedule for the adaptor board were not available at press time. The OverDrive supports a variety of SCSI hard drives as well as ST-506 drives if used with a 4000 series Adaptec adaptor card. The software, which is supplied with the OverDrive, is designed to simplify the installation process. The OD UTILITIES program automatically queries the disk drive to determine which type it is. If for some reason the drive fails to respond, you can still identify the drive manually. We received our OverDrive software with parameters for 16 different SCSI devices. Since then several more have been added. If your hard drive is not on the list, contact Pacific Peripherals for instructions on how to update the installation file. The next release of the system software will most likely indude your drive’s parameters as well. The installation software is menu-driven. Menu selections take you through a low level format of the drive which is followed by a certification which allocates any bad blocks. Another menu selection is used to update the mountlist on the Workbench disk. When you quit the system the OD UTILITIES automatically performs an Amiga format of the hard drive and it is ready for use. The final step is to copy the overdrive.device driver file to the devs directory on your Workbench disk. OverDrive is supplied with a preliminary manual which as of this writing has not been finalized. Pacific Peri-CoRSinds apply to:.lies, iso files, ofa. OB 1 ROOT f fFfiRBiTl Legend: trams excluded CatdoQ for: DHSiqb suurce _ i (Subdirectory) 14736 21-JAN-88 14:55 W ffl-JsHir16:53 *- 4028?8-3flN-88 16:524; Left: Quarterback’s Backup Options selection screen. Note that only two out of four floppies may be active at any Right: Quarterback’s file and archive selection capability lets you save files and directories. ¦ pherals may be waiting for Commodose to issue AmigaDOS 1.3 before they commit themselves to a final manual. The documentation was adequate for setting up and installing the OverDrive. The most notable shortcoming was a regrettable lack of examples on how to modify your startup-sequence file transfer control over to the hard drive on booting. Overall, OverDrive is a competent performer which deserves to be added to the ever-growing list of peripherals for the Amiga 2000 computer. Pacific Peripherals, 1080 Hiawatha Court, P.O. Box 14575, Fremont, CA 94539 (phone: 415-651-1905).
Morton Kevelson Circle 122 on Reader Service Card QUARTERBACK
Central Coast Software Amiga with hard disk drive Price: $ 69.95
Once you have your hard disk up and running, you may find
yourself beset by a new form of anxiety-the specter of hard
disk failure. Although hard disk failure does not bear the
social stigma associated with some personal iradequacies, it
is nonetheless a traumatic experience. In fact we have found
that the magnitude of the trauma is genesally proportional to
the square of the capacity of the hard drive. Now, you may feel
that your hard drive is infallible and not likely give up the
ghost. Furthermore, you intend to replace it with a new one every two years, whethen you need to or not. Before you let yourself sink into the false security of smug self satisfaction, keep in mind that hard drives do not have write protect tabs! Thus, there is nothing to prevent some natural or person-made disaster from trashing all of your files while the functionality of your hard drive remains intact. After all, we do live in the age of the virus. Chances are that you did not need the above bit of advice to convince you of the wisdom of data backup. However, when you are dealing with 10. 20, 30 megabytes or more, backing up files can be an everlasting tedium or at the very least a time consuming task. The AmigaDOS file COPY command is not the fastest way to transfer data between devices. On top of it all there is the formidable task of keeping track of which files need backing up and where to find them once they are backed up. You might say that a large portion of your hard drive contains software which was transferred from floppies in the first place. Therefore, you already have an original copy, and possibly a duplicate, from which to restore in the event of disaster. As a result, only your data files really need to be backed up. While this may be true, consider for a moment how' much time you have spent installing all that software on your hard drive. Now ask yourself if you really want to go through all that again. Comp-U-Save Amiga Hard Drives 500 -1000 2000? SPECIAL? 20Meg-$ 599-99 32Meg-$ 699.99 48Meg-$ 799-99 Amiga Dual Drive 500 1000 2000 With Own Power Supply $ 399.00 Amiga External Drive $ 169.99 Only Uses Half the Power of 1010 with Pass Thru Disk Drive & Monitor Extension Cables 30" $ 19.99 Panasonic WVI410 Video Cameras For Digitizers $ 204.99 16MM Lens $ 29-99 Special 2400 Baud Modem $ 154.00 AMIGA PUBLIC DOMAIN Over 600 Disks! Largest Amiga PD Library in the World also C 64 & C 128 Write for Free Catalogue Amiga PD $ 4.00 ea. Amiga Products from Amiga Users! Circle 107 on Reader Service Card Trackball .. *45.00 Plastic Diskbank (Holds 120 ¦ 3-5 in. Disks). *16.99 Copy Arm (Heavy Duly) *29.99 Mouse Mat (Fabric) .... *5.00 Mouse Mai (Teflon) ..... *1 1.00 Gender Changers All Types ... Call Static Mat (23.5 x 25.5 in.) .. *24.00 Rapid Fire Joysticks ..... * 12.00 Printer Buffer (32K-512K)_____________ Call RF Modulator *14.99 Adi Switch (Scr.)___________ ____ * 13 99 A B Switch (Par.) ..... * 14.99 A B D E Switch .. *29.99 Crossover Box *39.99 Cables 500 1000 2000 ______ Call Teak Diskbank (holds 150 3 51n disks) *39.99 Teak Diskbank (holds 200 5.251n disks)... *39 99 The Library (holds HO 3.51n disks) .. *19.99 Floppy Wallets (Many Sizes) ... Call 3. 5 in. DS DD Disks (Bulk) ...... *1.10 ea. 5 25 in. DSD!) (Bulk) .. S 39 ea. Books All Titles 15% Off .. Call Memory 512K ¦ 4 Megs . Call Call for Details Come See Dr. Oxide in Our Booth At All AmiExpos! Cotnp-U-Save 410 Maple Avenue Westbury, STY 11590 In NY State (.516) 997-6707 (Tech Support) Outside NY State (800) 356-9997 (Orders Only) fir • n as; i .. Having firmly established the need for an
organized backup when dealing with large amounts of data, we
present Quarterback as a possible solution to the backup woes.
Quarterback provides a working environment which makes backing
up the contents of your hard drive a virtually foolproof task.
It practically takes care of all the bookkeeping which is
needed to organize your backups. It can also double as a high
performance file management utility when it is not backing up
hard drives. Just how fast is Quarterback? According to Central Coast Software, they were able to back up 20 megabytes in under 40 minutes using a C Ltd hard disk. We were not able to confirm this, as we could not get our C Ltd SCSI controller working in time for this review, However, with our Pacific Peripherals OverDrive, which is a DMA SCSI controller, we were able to back up about 7 megabytes, in 1001 files, in about 11 minutes, to eight floppy disks. This works out to well under a minute and a half per floppy, which is faster than the AmigaDOS Diskcopy commana. Extrapolating to 20 megabytes, we git a bit over 30 minutes. Not bad at all. Quarterback is easy to use. All options are selected from a series of screens which prompt you through the proper sequence. When making a backup you have a variety of ways to choose which files are to be copied. Files may be selected manually, by date, or by the status of the AmigaDOS archive bit. AmigaDOS resets the archive bit whenever a file is changed. Since Quarterback gives you the option of setting a files archive bit on all of the files which it copies, it can easily identify which files were changed since the last backup. The manual presents two schemes for backing up your hard drive. The first involves a periodic full backup, say once a month, setting the archive bit of all the files. In between the full backup intervals, perform an incremental backup without setting the archive bits. The advantage of this scheme is that it needs only two sets of backup disks; however, the size of the incremental backup set tends to grow'. If a restoration is required you will only have to go through two sets of disks to archive a complete retrieval. Note that you have to go through all of the sets of backup disks in chronological order, until the last full backup, with Quarterback. The second scheme also involves a full backup, with the archive bits set, once a month. The incremental backups also set the archive bits. The difference is that each incremental backup must be done to a new set of disks. The advantage is that the incremental backups take less time than in the first scheme. Of course if a restoration is required, you will have to go through more than two sets of backup disks to complete the job. Ahoy! Access Club members note: This month’s Clipper (bound into all subscription copies) includes special offers on both Quarterback and an OverDrive-equipped hard disk drive. Quarterback uses its own disk format for its backup floppies. The Quarterback disks can be copied with the AmigaDOS diskcopy command; however, AmigaDOS cannot access any of the files. Incremental backups must be performed to a new set of disks, or to a set of disks which may be overwritten. Quarterback cannot add files to an existing set of backup disks. When Quarterback performs a backup it stores a complete index of the backed-up files on the first floppy in the backup set. You have the option of sending a copy of the backup report to disk or printer immediately after Quaiierback completes a backup. You should take advantage of this option, as the backup file index cannot be accessed and printed out at another time. Quarterback also gives you the option of sending a restoration report to the printer or disk after a restoration is complete. We mentioned that Quarterback can double as a file management utility. Quarterback gives you the option of seletting the device to which it will restore. This choice is of course essential if your hard drive has become a non-drive or is otherwise deceased. Quarterback also has a very good catslog display and file selection facility. As a result it is perfectly feasible to extract selected portions of a complete hard drive backup for restoration to floppies, RAM: or other AmigaDOS file storage devices. However, be certain to pay attention to the total size of the files to be restored, as shown on the Quarterback display screen, so as not to exceed the capacity of the restonation device. When doing a backup, Quarterback lets you choose two and only two of the four possible Amiga floppy drives. If you are backing up two floppy drives, Quarterback automatically keeps track of the drives’ status and prompts you for all disk swaps. If you are reasonably adept at flinging floppies, you should have no trouble at all keeping Quarterback properly fed. In this case. Quarterback will be able to automatitally switch to a fresh disk when it finishes with the current one. The backup display and prompt screen positions the dfl: prompt requestor to the left and the dffi: prompt requestor to the right. This is the opposite of the physical positioning of the disk drives that you are likely to have on the Amiga 2000. Which could lead to some confusion during the heat of backup. Of course it is possible to change the hardware disk drive devices on the computer, but having the option in the program would be simpler. When doing a restore from floppy, Quarterback lets you use only one of the four possible disk drives at a time. Central Coast feels that the pressure of a forced restore should not be augmented by the user’s need to choose disk drives. We feel that Amiga users are a sturdy lot who can be depended on to react properly under stress. The choice should be left to the end user. Overall, Quarterback looks like a well-designed, dependable product which should do the job when the chips are down. We reviewed version 1.4 of the program, which has remained unchanged for over four months as of this writing. At this time Central Coast Software appears to have squashed all the bugs which tend to show up in a new product. At the present time the company is contemplating revisions based only on feature changes and not problem correction. Central Coast Software, 268 Bowie Drive. Los Osos, CA 93402 (phone: 805-528-4906). Morton Kevelson Circle 123 on Reader Service Card • am b • mm tact* Punt tfjiph-Chu-t I Acne Stint by Quarter I
14*10 13» M* J 2MW umt i ittmj 9* ** 3 si m 7***» 3 &»•»* j
5*8** -jl 48**8 3 38*88 j I 28*88 3] 18*80 j I JH Sales I 1
Expense ¦f Taxes £%? Prof i t • H treh • Instruct a data entry person with spoken or written prompts • Recite'' your data entries when checking data accuracy against
source documents • Export Charts via IFF file format to any Amiga paint program
The MaxiPlan Spreadsheet features: • 512 columns by 32.760 rows • Function key commands • Ranges or cells reference by "Name" or cell address • Written or spoken cell notes • Password protection • 11 Chart styles including: 3-D Bar 3-D Pie. Stacked Bar. X-Y
scatter. Step. Hi-Lo. Area, l.ine. Bar. Pie and Exploding Pie • Up to 8 Charts per spreadsheet • Lotus 1-2-3 import capability • Over 70 built-in functions such as Financial (IRR. NPV. FV.
PMTl Database lindex. Find LookupI Presentation Icolor.
Style. Speech) The original MaxiPlan"1 was named the Best Amiga Spreadsheet of 1986 by a poll of Amiga User Groups conducted by F.A.U.G. Now in 1988. MaxiPlan has received Amiga User International's Oskar in
the Spreadsheet Category. MaxiPlan Plus incorporates many timesaving innovations including a Macro Language facility similar to Microsoft Excel's™ allowing automation of complicated spreadsheet analysis or data input. With MaxiPlan Plus and your Amiga you can: • Open multiple spreadsheets and charts • Link data from any number of spreadsheets • Create a self-running demo or interactive multiple choice quiz,
incorporating files from word processors and paint programs • Automatically create reports such as invoices and purchase
orders UAXIPtMl tuum Oxx imt P. O. Box 90309 Long Beach. CA 90809 0309 12131 427 1227 MaxiPlan
Named Best Amiga Spreadsheet of I 986 and recipient of Amiga
User International s I QMS Oskar in the Spreadsheet Category
for its Highly flexible and comprehenfive spreadsheet
facilities right across the Amiga range With the MaxiPlan Plus
Database MaxiPlan Plus7' you can: List Price $ 199.00 • Simultaneously Son on any Available at your local Amiga number
of Fields in any order Software Dealer • Maintain up to 63 Databases per spreadsheet • Create merge files for labels and i form letters ----- I • "Find" or Lookup any specific I record or records f ««¦•¦
11 era r »*rn I I With MaxiPlan Plus Macros you can: • Define up to 64 macros per Macrosheet • Automatically generate macros under Record Mode • Use over 95 different macro commands • Create templates for data entry • Incorporate speech to instruct, remind, or inform user • Adapt sample Macros for your own applications A MICA is a
registered trademark of Commodorc-AMIGA. Inc. Excel is a
trademark of Microsoft Corp.. BUSEXPANDER Comp-U-Save Amiga 500 1000 Price: $ 495 So you were the first kid on your block to buy an Amiga 1000 and you found it was fantastic and you soon discovered that to really make it fly you would need more memory and more disk drives and a hard drive and other neat gadgets and you really believed Commodore when they said they would support you ail the way and then along came the Amiga 2000 with all that expansion space and everyone seems to be making expansion cards Left: The BusExpander motherboard in all its glory. At the top we have six IBM XT style conhectors with circuit traces for two more. Across the center are four IBM AT extension connectors with traces for four more. Across the bottom are the six 100 pin, Amiga 2000 type connectors. The dual row headers, adjacent to the Amiga slots, are for the terminator board and the conrection cables. The power supply conhector is at the upper right. Below: Left to right are driver board, connection cables, and terminator board. Featured This Month: BusExpander ....48 Zing! Spell 54 AC BASIC v. 1.3 ...55 Access-64 ......57 CygnusEd Professional 60 for it and nobody is making the old Amiga 1000 Zorro cards anymore and now'you’re feeling left out in the cold. Is that what’s troubling you. Friend? Or maybe you waited and bought an Amiga 500 figuring you would try it out and see what all the shouting was about and now you’re hooked and you can’t live without it and you need more memory and maybe a hard drive or a video digitizer board and you’re wondering if you shouldn’t have bought that Amiga 2000 in the first place. Is that what’s bothering you, bud? Well, don’t despair now, as help is on the way. If you don’t mind hacking some hardware, then the BusExpander, made by Bill’s Boards and distributed by Comp-U-Save, may be just what you’ve been looking for. In a nutshell, the BusExpander is an expansion board with no fewer than six Amiga 2000 style expansion slots and six IBM style expansion slots which is designed to interface with the Amiga 1000 or the Amiga 500. Two of the IBM slots are eight bit XT types, while the rest are 16 bit AT types. The sockets are arranged to give you a total of nine expansion slots. By comparison the Amiga 2000 only has five Amiga slots and only four IBM slots, arranged to give you a total of seven expansion slots. The total number of usable slot positions is less than the sum of the Amiga and the IBM slots, since three of the Amiga IBM slots overlap in the BusExpander and two overlap in the Amiga 2000. This overlap is to accommodate the Bridgeboard, which spans one set of the combination Amiga 2000 IBM XT slots. In the process, the Bridgeboard activales the IBM style expansion slots and provides a full-featured IBM XT compuler which functions under the Amiga’s multitasking operating system. To complete our comparison with the Amiga 2000 we note that the Bus-IF YOUR DIALER DOESN'T CARRY TITUS PRODUCTS THEN HAVE HIM ORDER IT FOR YOU OR ORDER DIRECT BY CALLING: (818) 709-3693 L s W-' innaMn Hi in - ¦- i • r V cdrviole-q FREE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION! Our research shows that our readers are discrimihating buyers. The majority of you are intermediate to advanced users, who seldom purchase a printer, a modem, or even a space shoot-em-up on impulse. But purchase you do after making an intelligent choice based on all the information you have. So why not make sure you have all the informstion there is to have for the cost of a single stamp? Most of the companies listed at right are eager to send you free promotional materials relating to their products or services. All you have to do is detach the Reader Service Card ineluded here, circle the numbers that correspond to the items you’re interested in, and stamp and mail the card prior to the date shown. READER SERVICE INDEX Page Company Number Page Company Number 75 ASDG, Inc. 145 54 Meridian Software 129 55 Absofl 130 20 Microlllusions 300 75 Absoft 146 23 Microlllusions 279 14 Aegis Development Inc. 286 12 Mindscapc 251 38 Aegis Development Inc. 136 18 Mindscape 106 9 AmiEXPO 108 23 Mindscapc 268 19 Artworx Software Co. 296 33 Mindscape 111 19 A-Squared 142 81 Mindscapc 269 19 Audiogenic Software Ltd. 295 9 Moniterm Corporation 287 23 Broderbund Software 277 12 MUSIG 254 25 Central Coast Software 243 C-2 New Horizons Software 125 45 Central Coast Software 123 63 New Wave Software 134 C-4 Cinemaware Corporation 244 82 Okidata 271 9 Commodore International 248 47 Oxxi, Inc. 284 39 Communications Specialties 109 7 Pacific Peripherals 280 12 Comp-U-Save 290 42 Pacific Peripherals 122 45 Comp-U-Save 107 14 Pageant Publishing Co. 267 82 Comp-C-Save 118 20 Paragon Software 253 17 Computability 285 59 Phoenix Electronics, Inc. 131 26,27 Computer Direct 135 75 Pioneer 140 76 Computer System Assocs. 144 81 Precision Incorporated 115 32 Cos mi 110 57 Progressive Peripherals 122 10,11 Creative Computers 119 6 RGB Video Creations 143 12 Diemer Developcment 291 20 Rainbird 264 5 DigiTek, Inc. 138 21 Rainbird 283 18 DigiTek, Inc. 252 19 ReadySoft 101 37 DigiTek, Inc. 114 18 Scorpion 102 8 Discovery Software 124 54 Soft-Byle 126 15 Electronic Arts 292 35 Software Visions, Inc. 137 22 Electronic Arts 274 81 Software Visions, Inc. 116 34 Electronic Arts 112 20 Spectrum HoloByte 103 12 Emerald Intelligence 288 14 Star Micronics 249 23 Epyx, Inc. 278 22 Strategic Simulations, Inc. 275 14 Expocon Management 273 C-3 SunRize Industries 247 12 Fvee Spirit Software 289 12 Supra Corporation 294 19 Free Spirit Software 197 13 Supra Corporation 242 41 Free Spirit Software 246 40 Supra Corporation 121 15 Fuji Photo Kim USA 250 12 TAB Books 256 3 Haitex Resources 139 14 The Hunter Group 258 15 Haitex Resources 293 31 The Other Guys 141 15 Hayden Books 259 18 Three-Sixty Pacific, Inc. 104 81 Honeywell, Inc. 260 23 Three-Sixty Pacific, Inc. 263 81 Honeywell, Inc. 261 18 Titus Software Corporation 105 12 Howard W. Sams & Co. 255 49 Titus Software Corporation 239 12 Howard W. Sams & Co, 281 51 Titus Software Corporation 240 14 Howard W. Sams & Co. 270 53 Titus Software Corporation 241 81 Infinity Software, Inc. 117 55 Wedgwood Rental 127 16 20 Infocom, Inc. Interplay Productions 298 15 WTCO Corporation 257 299 AmigaUser Subscription 37 Interstel 113 28 15 IntraCorp 266 37 AmigaUser Binders 20 Konami 265 74 AmigaUser Back Issues 61 LightSpeed Distribution 245 79 AmigaUser Access Club U _ 56 52 Lionheart Lynn’s Luna 128 120 47 AmigaUser Access Club ft2 14 MACUL 273 62 Magnetic Images Co. 133 The publisher cannot assume responsibility 15 Mediagenic 282 for errors in the above listing. AMIGA VERSION IBM AND COMPATIBLES VERSION ATARI ST VERSION 4«ymrsTM___ 20432 CORISCO STREET, CHATSWORTH CA 91311 PHONE: (818) 709-3693 FAX: (818) 709-6537 R rzr: 11 EVEUJS a G RAM Tools WBExtras Open jWBExectJt SeePicture LoadPicture UnloadPiclure Close Load Unload Isn't it time you got the most from your Amiga? Now, "WBExtras" is here and is specifically designed to enhance operation of the Amiga by the"New User" as well as the "Seasoned Programmer". WBExfras Provides... * New Menus for Workbench Access to Tools and Programs in RAM
Disk. ¦ 14 "New" Workbench Tools and 13 Program Source Files * Complete System Control through Workbench Icons and Menus ¦
Full Inter-Program Communication with "Parameter Passing." ’ Menu Access to Multiple Icon Selection. * Reduced Multitasking Memory Usage. " User Selectable Audio Response. ¦ Indexed Interactive Multi-Level Tutorial Screens. ¦ Full Documentation. Examples, Customizing Suggestions and Glossary Indeed, WBExtras is an essential for every Amiga User and a necessity (or anyone with a Hard Disk System! * 3995 Plus S3.00 for Shipping Colorado Res Add Salas Tax PO, 80*
1308 Canon City, CO 81212 719 275-5858 Amiga & AmlgaBaiic
Workbench TM of Commodore Amiga, Inc. "Dealer Inquiries
Invited" Expander does not have the 86 pin coprocessor slot
or the internal video slot. The Amiga 2000's coprocessor slot lets you soup up performance by installing a full 32 bit 68020 microprocessor. The video slot is for use with video peripherals such as a professional quality Genlock. The BusExpander is supplied as a semi-kit which leaves much of the installation and assembly for the end user. The BusExpander consists of a nine slot motherboard, a terminator board, a driver board, and a pair of specially constructed flat ribbon cables. The terminator board carries a resistor network which is installed in a pair of sockets on the motherboard. The driver board installs in the 86 pin expansion slot on the Amiga 1000 or the Amiga 500 and buffers all of the signal lines coming from the computer. To finish up the BusExpander, the end user has to also provide a Baby AT style computer case and a 200 watt IBM style power supply. The power supply powers only the BusExpander and its cards; it does not substitute for the associated computer’s original power supply. The typical Baby AT case has accommodations for eight expansion slots, the power supply, and up to three half height 5 W” disk drives. This Workbench WBEXJRA5 by Peter Dunlap means that the ninth slot on the moth
erboard will not have a corresponding opening at the back of
the case. We checked the prices of the Baby AT cases and
power supply and found it ranged between $ 100 and $ 200. If you
shop around you may be able to do even better. To complete the installation you have to cut a hole in the bottom of the case through which to pass the ribbon cables. These 18” cables are teflon insulated and are designed to have uniform signal transmission properties. The power supply is then installed and the motherboard is mounted on insulated posts. For the Amiga 1000 the ribbon cable has to be folded and routed in a specific fashion. The preliminary manual provided an excellent step by step procedure with nearly a dozen detailed drawings to illustrate each step. The Amiga 1000 installation ends up with the BusExpander sitting to the right of the computer. With a little ingenuity and a willingness to place the AT case front to back, it should be possible to stack the BusExpander on top of the Amiga 1000. Conversely, the AT case can be set upside down and the Amiga should fit on top of it. The latter arrangement may require the interchange of the termination board and the connection caoles. Although the manual did not indicate this could be done, a spokesman for Bill’s Boards gave the arrangement his blessings. The Amiga 500 installation ends up with the compuler sitting on top of the AT case. This may be a bit awkward, as it will elevate the keyboard about six inches above the table. It should be possible to stand the AT case on its side alongside the Amiga 500, resuiting in an expansion tower to the left with the keyboard on the table where it belongs. We tried out the BusExpander on both the Amiga 1000 and an Amiga 500 using the expansion cards we had on hand. The electrical slot order in the BusExpander is opposite the arrangement used in the Amiga 2000. In the BusExpander, the first Amiga 2000 slot is to the left. This is important, as some peripherals, such as the Commodose A2090 DMA controller, should be installed in the first Amiga 2000 slot. With the Amiga 1000 we installed a Bridgeboard in slot number 1 followed by a Pacific Peripherals OverDrive DMA hard disk controller and a Commodore 2 megabyte RAM card. We tried moving the OverDrive card to the higher numbered slots but were unable to get it to work there. This arrangemerit left us with three usable IBM expansion slots, one of the AT style and two of the XT style. According to Bill’s Boards, we could have placed the Bridgeboard in any overlapping slot and we still would have been able to install Amiga 2000 boards on either side of it. This could have let us put the OverDrive in slot 1 and the Bridgeboard in slot 3, leaving up to four slots open for IBM peripherals and up to four slots for additional Amiga 2000 peripherals. We then substituted a Supra DMA hard disk controller card for the OverDrive card and found that it would work in any of the expansion slots. As a final test we installed a C Ltd aMe-ga 1 megabyte RAM expander with pass through between the Amiga 1000 and the BusExpander, but we were unable to get this arrangement to tunction properly. With the Amiga 500 everything functioned properly when we used the same initial setup consisting of Bridgeboard, OverDrive, and 2 megabyte card. We were unable to get the Supra DMA hard disk controller to work in the BusExpander with the Amiga 500. The BusExpander appeared well-made. The motherboard withstood some pretty rough handling during the installation and testing as we tried the various cards in different slots. When powering up the system, the BusExpander should be turned on first, followed by the computer. Since reversing VIOLENCE ON THE HIGH SEAS, THE ULTIMATE TEST OF MANHOOD AMIGA VERSION these steps could damage the equipmerit, we would like to see some form of interlock to insure the proper power up sequence. We also noted that the AT case had no fewer than four LED indicating lights on the front panel. It would have been nice if the motherboard had some place to connect at least one of these to indicate that it had been turned on. The BusExpander is obviously not the solution for everyone. However, it does give you more slots per dollar than any other expansion box we have seen. If you can handle the installation, the BusExpander may be just what you have been looking for. One Final word of advice to users of any Amiga expansion card (this includes the Amiga 2000): always look for a try before you buy policy. As more
manufacturers get into the Amiga peripheral market, the
likelihood is that compatibility problenis will increase. Comp-U-Save, 414 Maple Ave., Westbury, NY 11590 (phone: 516-997- 6707, 800-356-9997). Morton Kevelson Circle 11B on Reader Service Card WIN THE LOTTO WITH YOUR HOME COMPUTER! Use your home computer and Soft-Byte's amazing new "Lotto Program” to get more winning tickets. In just seconds this software analyzes past winners and produces a powerful probability study on easy-to-read charts. With a single press of a key, you'll see trends, patterns, odds evens, sum totals, number frequencies, and much more. It also includes automatic number wheeling, instant updating, and a built-in tutorial. Ask your software dealer. AMIGA ALL MODELS...$ 29.95 IBM, C64, APPLE $ 24.95 Add $ 2.00 shipping and handling. Credit card orders approved by phone and shipped same day. Make checks payable lo S0FTBYTE and mail lo: P. O. Box 556 Forest Park Dayton, Ohio 45405 513' Soft-2781110
Circle 126 on Reader Service Card ZINGISPELL Meridian
Software, Inc. Amiga with 512K Disk; $ 79.95 Long, long ago,
during the time when VCRs were becoming valid and dubious
electronic accessories for them-many with LEDs and LEDs were
proliferating, I coined the term UED: Useless Electronic
Device. Later I became involved with computers, spending my
first year typing in programs from various magazines. This
led me to the creation of the term UCR Useless Computer
Routine. What does all this have to do with ZinglSpell? Well you might ask. Purportedly, ZinglSpell is an online spelling checker that will work with virtually any word processor, even the original version of Textcraft, a program notorious for its inability to multitask. So far as I can tell, Textcraft remains notorious and ZinglSpell never shows up to challenge it. Allegedly, ZinglSpell offers spelling help. The kind of help offered is at best spurious and at worst infuriating. Rather than check strings of the first three or four letters, as do most other programs of its type, ZinglSpell checks the first consonant but treats the others as wild cards. Vowels are checked so that if you misspell a word like Peterson it will check for words similar to “Pe* e*A)*”: instead of getting a list of suggestions such as pet, petrified, and so on, you’re more likely to see words such as peritonitis, pediatrist, or almost anything else. The manual lays claim to hot keys for the program, whereby one keystroke can invoke one of the powerful features of ZinglSpell. This is rather nice, but only if you like your powerful features randomized. FI is said to activate deactivate the main window; my conclusion is that it only activates whatever is already active (in other words, no change). F2 is supposed to move the main window to back or front of screen; in my experience it calls up the disk directory of the word precessor. F3 is said to suspend or resume ZinglSpell; my feeling is that ZinglSpell is always suspended, so why bother? Other hot keys hold other not-so-hot surprises. These gaps between what is real and what is alleged are mere quibbles compared to the one factor that earns Zing! Spell the UCR designation: I can’t make it work. Oh. It puts on a good show. Click on the icon and it goes through all the business of loading dictionaries and indexes and such, and presumably putting them into a RAMdisk. And a small window opens, showing a one-line message as to the next step to be taken by clicking on one of several buttons. Click on the suggested one OP’ and another window opens and you are told to click on the ‘AC’
button in that window and then further directed to open your
word processor. That’s it. Your word processor opens, you can type from now till doomsday and make any spelling error you want, and ZinglSpell is never heard from again. Sure, you can swap screens, sending the word processor into temporary limbo and bringing up Workbench with the ZinglSpell window in place. But until you click on it, the ZinglSpell window is inactive, and having been inactive it hasn’t done anything while you were away-rather like a brother-in-law taking a nap. Now, Til admit that some of the failings I attribute to ZinglSpell may be my own failings. Perhaps I’m not using it correctly, and if that is the case I’ll blame it on the documentation-the worst I’ve ever seen. Not only does it miss several points I would consider crucial such as how to load the word processor and what word processors may be used-but it is such a poor printing that prolonged reading may be hazardous to your health. The document was printed on a dotmatrix printer with screen dumps to provide the illustrations, was apparently subjected to a poor photocopy machine and then printed and stuffed into a package for which you paid $ 79.95. Even hackers deserve better. To be fair, there is one part of Zing! Spell that does work, else I’d not have been able to see how the suggested spelling feature works. Whereas Zing! Spell is meant to be an online, realtime checker that will sound an alarm at the end of a word, sentence, paragraph, or during a carriage return, ZSBATCH on the same disk will check an entire manuscript for errors. Boot up ZSBATCH and open a file previously created with your word processor, and it can be checked in its entinety. At a misspelling, the program will pause and offer you a chance to correct the spelling, ignore the occurrecce, ignore all occurrences, add to dictionary, or exchange. Exchange is a rather nice feature, and it is akin to what most of us call search and replace. Type “par” during the writing of your manuscript and later change all occurrences to “paragraph-or to any other string of up to 120 characters. ZSRATCH will also, if you like, trap common errors of punctuation such as questioning whether a space should occur following a period, whether a partitular word should be capitalized, and so on. ZSBATCH is the part of the program that will work not with Textcraft but with Textcraft files. It will also work with files made with ProWrite, and is said to work with files from Scribble! Drawbacks are that you’ll never see more than four or five lines of your document with ZSBATCH and that the “suggested spelling” feature works as described above. Still, if you are locked into using Textcraft, ProWrite or Scribble! 1.0, ZSBATCH might be a worthwhile investment-but only if you can buy half of Zing'Spell for half price, Meridian also offers a free thesaurus add-on in return for registering your purchase. If you go for this, insist that they also throw in some coherent documentation. RENTING SOFTWARE ISN’T HARD! It's as easy as picking up the phone and giving your order. If you have a credit card, it's even easier. The hardest part may be waiting for the mail to come! We're having a special sale, with up to 80% off selected software. Call now for a complote list. Meridian Software, Inc., 9361 W. Brittany Ave., Littleton, CO 80123. Ervin Bobo Circle 129 on Reader Service Card AC BASIC v. 1.3 Absoft Amiga with 512K Disk; $ 195 The BASIC programming language is quite simple and easy to learn, but has consistently been looked down upon by programming pros for two reasons: it is not very powerful, and programs written in BASIC are very slow. The Amiga computer using Microsoft’s Amiga BASIC ameliorates the problenis to a great extent. First, the Amiga itself is a relatively fast computer, and second, Amiga BASIC is an enhanced version of BASIC which utilizes almost all of the Amiga’s graphics and sound capabilities. It even permits access to the lower level operating system routines. But compared to programming languages like C and assembly, BASIC is still quite slow and unsuitable for applications which require speed (such as graphic animations and heavy duty calculations). Why? Because BASIC is an interpretive langunge. This means that every time a BASIC program is run, the computer checks each program line for errors and then translates it to machine language (instructions the computer can understand) before the line is actually exeouted. And this takes a lot of time, partitularly in long FOR-NEXT loops. Call toll-free outside Texas: 1-800-433-2938 InsideTexas call: 81 7-292-7396 WEDGWOOD RENTAL Q61 5316
Woodway Drive Fort Worth, Texas 76133 Circle 127 on Reader
Service Card [7 = REVIEWS B C The AC BASIC compiler from Ab
soft is an easy to use program that essentially does all the
checking and translating ahead of time. It converts your BASIC
program into a stand-alone machine language module, and, de
pending on the application, increases the execution time up to
5000%. It also includes some programming features which are
missing ffom Amiga BASIC. Now for the good news and the bad news. The good news is that the compiler is 100% compatible with Amiga BASIC. In most cases, it can take a program written in Amiga BASIC and compile it without any changes whatsoever. The bad news is also that it is 100% compatible with Amiga BASIC. Since Amiga BASIC has numerous bugs and idiosyncracies, as well as some animation routines which do not work properly, these shortcomings were not fixed but were in fact preserved by Absoft in order to maintain compatibilify. The compiler can be used in both the CLI and Workbench environments, but you must always start out with an Amiga BASIC program contained in an ASCII text file. If you used Amiga BASIC itself to write the program, it must be saved in the ASCII and not the default format. Moreover, all of your Subprograms must appear at the end of your program. Absoft has thoughtfully provided a short program to automatically rearrange your BASIC program to meet this requirement. For purposes of explanation, let’s assume that we want to compile a program titied “BasicProgram”. From CLI, simply type “ac-basic BasicProgram” and you’re off and running. From the Workbench environment, select the menu item designated as Load and type in “BasicProgram". In either case, the Command Screen will appear shortly. For most applications, you need do no more than click on the “Start” button. But as will be discussed below, Absoft has provided a number of advanced options to produce an even fester running program. The compiler will make several passes through your program, and if all goes well you’ll end up with a compiled version saved to your source disk. But as we know, all never goes well, and the compiler is quite likely to find some error in your BASIC program (such as a FOR loop without a NEXT). There are several ways errors are handled. The default mode lists the errors on your screen with a portion of the program line where the error occurred. This is fine for only a tew errors, but if you have many, there is option to save them in a text file for printout. The best but most time consuming option adds line numbers to your program and saves both the numbered program and errors (referenced to the line) for easy cross reference. You are also shown statistics about your compiled program, including its size and required stack size (which is important only if your program is being run from the CLI). As an added touch, you are told how long it took to compile, and the number of lines processed per minute. I should mention that the compilation time appears to be quite rapid, There are several other options which will make your compiled program run even fester. Certain commanas in Amiga BASIC (such as checking the mouse) utilize even trapping, which slows down your program. If you don’t use this feature, you may turn it off. Another drag on the system is constant checks to ascertain whether array variables and numbers are within valid limits. These too can be turned off if you’re certain your program won’t encounter any problems. Absoft has also provided Static Arrays. Technical discussions aside, suffice to say that this type of array will significantly speed up your program. One valuable addition to BASIC is the Selett Case structure. Similar to the ON... GOSUB command, it easily and efficiently executes a block of statemerits based upon the result of a string or numeric expression. LIONHEART BUSINESS & STATISTICAL SOFTWARE Explanatory books with professional compiled software: the new standard for statistical use. The influential Seyboid Report on Professional Computing has this to say about Lionheart "...our sentimental favorite because of its pragmatic approach to the basic statistical concepts... The thinking is that the computer merely facilitates the calculations: the important thing is to be able to formulate a problem correctly and to determine what type of analysis will be most valuable. Let Lionheart help you get ahead of the competition! EXPERIMENTAL STATISTICS $ 145 BUSINESS STATISTICS 145 MARKETING STATISTICS .. 145 QUALITY CONTROL .. 145 BIOMETRICS . 145 ECONOMETRICS ..... 145 FORECASTING AND TIME-SERIES . 145 SALES AND MARKET FORECASTING...... 145 PROJECT PLANNING ... 145 DECISION ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES 145 OPTIMIZATION .... -y 145 LINEAR & NONLINEAR PROGRAMMING... 95 MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS .. 125 REGRESSION 95 SEND FOR FREE BROCHURE_ P. O. BOX 379, ALBURG, VT 05440 (514) 933-4918 Perhaps the most important option is the ability
to link the compiler’s run time library directly to your
program. A run time library is, in essence, a supporting program which the compiled program constandy uses during execution. If your compiled program is logated on a disk containing the appropriate library (which is located in the L: directory), there is no problem. But in most cases, you will be using or distributing your program on its own disk which may not contain that library. By invoking the Link Run Time option, the compiler will attach the library to your program. The only drawback is that the library consumes an addition 40K of memory and disk space, and it may not be advantageous to link it to each of many small compiled programs you have on a disk. By the way, you may freely distribute the run time library with your compiled program by simply returning a license agreement which comes with AC BASIC to Absoft. The compiler also supports the use of four “met-acommands” which are simply command lines inserted in your BASIC program that tell the compiler what to do during compilation. Using metacommands, you can turn compiler options on and off at selected points in your program, as well as instruct the compiler to ignose blocks of your program. Most important, however, is the metacommand “Include”, which inserts subprograms into your program by reference. For example, assume you have a subroutine named “Sort”. To include it in your BASIC program named “Database”, simply insert the line ‘SInclude “Sort” ’ in your program. When the compiler reaches that statement, it will look for the program “Sort” on your disk and process it as part of your main program. Needless to say, this powerful command makes compiling a complex BASIC program with external subroutines quite easy. All of these capabilities sound great, but the real question is how well and fest does the compiler actually work. I can only judge in an absolute sense since there is no competing product on the market for comparison. But Absoft has taken significant steps in Release 1. 3 to correct the bugs and increase the efficiency of the
compiler, and that work has paid off. I wrote a short BASIC
program which generated random numbers between 1 and 1000,
discarded those over 200, and then placed 500 in an array
which was then graphed. The program took 19 seconds to run,
but when compiled only took 6 a 68% reduction in time! In Ami
ga BASIC, the Amiga counted to one million in 6 minutes and 12
seconds. The same task took only 2 minutes and 18 seconds in compiled BASIC. Although I didn’t time it, text generation and display appears significantly fester. Several other short programs I wrote also exhibited a significant increase in speed. The only real problenis I encountered were with animation routines (moving objects and collision detection), but Amiga BASIC itself has problems in this area. The manual is a several hundred page softbound book. Since the compiler is so simple to use, relatively little of the manual is dedicated to its openation. The largest sections describe and illustrate BASIC language commanas and usage, and often clear up some of the ambiguities found in the Amiga BASIC manual itself. There are many examples, some of which are good short subroutines, and Absoft was thoughtful enough to include all the examples on the program diskette. There are even routines to interface BASIC with machine language programs and to create and display HAM graphics! The disk, which is not copy protected, also contains a nice spreadsheet program written in compiled BASIC, and EvEd, a program to modify and customize the run time library. My only wish is that Absoft would market an enhanced version of AC BASIC which not only “fixed” Amiga BASIC problenis, but also added additional features found in Macintosh BASIC (such as the Button command). As long as there is no other product on the market competitive to Absoft’s compiler, it is impossible to tell whethen it could be better or faster. But in comparison to Amiga BASIC, there is no question that it significantly increases the speed of your program while at the same time preserving the compatibility and features of Amiga BASIC. While compiled BASIC may never be able to compete with programs written in assembly langauge or C, there are many applications which just don’t require the speed of those languages. The power and ease of programming in Amiga BASIC, in conjunction with use of the compiler, now makes BASIC a viable programming alternative on the Amiga. In feet, with only machine-specific changes, your BASIC program can be processed with Absoft’s compiler for the Macintosh or IBM PC! For serious BASIC programmers who aren’t trying to write arcade games, the Absoft has taken significant steps in v. a = REV ElUS B O 1. 3 of AC BASIC to correct some known bugs and to increase the
compiler’s efficiency, and that work has paid off. AC BASIC compiler is an invaluable tool, and a necessity for BASIC programs that are intended for commercial applications. Absoft, 2781 Bond Street, Auburn Hills, Ml 48057 (phone: 313-853- 0050). Steve King ACCESS-64 Progressive Peripherals & Software
Amiga 1000 with 512K Disk and hardware: $ 79.95 Access-64 is
a combination of hardware and software that allows your
Amiga to use C-64 128 peripherals-1541, 1571, and 1581
(15xx) disk drives and serial printers like the 1525 or MPS 801. With Access-64 installed, your Amiga can read, write, and
format 15xx disks in C-64 128 format. It can also use those
drives as Amiga peripherals, with access both from Work
bench and the CLI. Access-64 comes on a non-copv-protected Amiga disk. Its 25-page manual walks you through the basics, but leaves several things unexplained. Most of the software is written in assembly language to squeeze in as much efficiency' as possible. What It Can Do for You Access-64 can be a valuable tool in a number of situations. You may have many disks full of C-64 128 word processing files that you want to keep as archive copies. Every now and then you’ll want to use one of those old files, but on the Amiga. Access-64, along with a 15 xx drive, will give you ready access to individual files. Or, you may still consider people who use C-64s 128s to be friends-occasionally swapping computer files and other lies. Whether they are word processing files, certain data files, text downloaded from your favorite BBS or information service, assembler listings, or untokenized BASIC listings, Access-64 will let you exchange files with your Commodore compatriots. One of the most likely scenarios is that buying a new Amiga 500 and a monitor tapped you out. It would be nice to have more memory, a second drive, and a laser printer, but they’ll just have to wait. Access-64 lets you use your 15xx drives as Amiga drives, and it lets you daisy-chain on that Commodose serial printer. These won’t be the fastest peripherals, but if you already own them, they’re free. And you still have your C-64 128 system available when some great old game beckons or when your home has more computer users than computers. Finally, you may want a cheap way to store Amiga files. With plenty of 5 V4" disks lying around the house, your 15 xx drive can give you a way to keep backups, utilities you never use but can’t bring yourself to delete, and other low-access files. FILE COPY TIMES (1) Fife From dfO: From! 15xx From dfO: From dfO: Size To 15xx To dfO: To dfl: To dfO: (2) (using 15xx in i C-64 128 format) 6K 10 sec 14 sec 3K 25 sec 36 sec 93K A 9. 7 min 17. 5 min ¦ • (using 15xx in Amiga format),6K 8 sec 6 sec 9
sec 1. 1 min 3K 12 sec 15 sec 9 sec 1. 1 min 93K 4. 5 min 3. 3 min 31 sec 1. 3 min TIMES TO LOAD DOS COMMANDS (1) Load from 15xx Load from
Command in Amiga format Amiga's dfO: DIR 15 sec 2 sec LIST 17
sec 3 sec WHY 5 sec 2 sec TYPE a 93K file 5 min 2.2 min (1) Times for different 15xx drives, which performed within 10-15
percent of each other, are averaged. (2) includes 6 disk swaps. TIMES TO FORMAT A DISK (using 15xx in C-64 128) format) Drive type: 1541 2.4 min 1571 1.6 min (using 15xx in Amiga format with verify) 1541 13 min 1571 23 min (using Qformat on a previously formatted 15xx disk) 1541 16 sec 1571 16 sec The Ware That's Hard The Access-64 hardware is a two-inch-square interface with a 25-pin parallel port connector on one side and a 6-pin Commodore serial DIN plug on the other. Because the plastic is molded on, this is not a unit you can have serviced locally. To this interface, you can daisy-chain up to two 15xx drives and one Commodore serial printer. (That’s according to the manual. I used three drives and a printer with no problem, but PP&S says this may draw too much power for some Amigas so they only guarantee two drives. By comparison, the C-64 bus allows five drives and one printer.) The model reviewed here was for an Amiga 1000. It is not compatible, using a gender changer, with an Amiga 500 or 2000. New models designed...and What It Can't There are several things that Access-64 does not purport to be and is not. Access-64 is not a C-64 emulator. Unlike Software Insight Systems’ GO64! Or Ready Sort’s The 64 Emulator, it does not claim to run C-64 software on an Amiga. And unlike Central Coast's Disk-2-Disk, which only transfess files and requires an Amiga 1020 drive, Access-64 will not flag differences between C-64 BASIC and Amiga BASIC or handle REL and USR files. Access-64 also will not read MS-DOS disks on your 15xx drive. Even using the Transformer software, those drives just are not compatible with the MS-DOS format. Finally, Access-64 does not let you use a 170! Or 1702 monitor with your Amiga. (That’s a job for C Ltd’s C-View.) Specifically for the 500 2000 are due out soon. The Access-64 hardware for the 1000 draws too much amperage from the +5V pin of the Amiga 500 2000 printer port. Connected with a gender changer, it could blow out the CIA chip....and Soft Access-64 utilities allow you to use either the CLI or Workbench to access your C-64 128 files. The files you would most commonly transfer would be word processor or data files. Whethen you are transferring from a Commodore disk to the Amiga or the other way around, you need to start with clean files, By clean, I mean that word processing files should have been saved as “text only” or in ASCII format. That will rid them of embedded formatting codes used only by the particular word processor they were created with. The main file transfer tool for users who prefer Workbench is a program called BusUtil. Without using any pulldown menus, BusUtil displays its options on a single screen. Gadgets allow you to select which 15xx drive you want, to format or get a directory of a disk, and to transfer individual files between 15xx and Amiga drives. BusUtil can automatically create icon files as it transfers files to the Amiga. You also dick gadgets to tell BusUtil whethen the file type is SEQ or PRG and whether you want an ASCII filter. The ASCII filter is critical to successful file transfers between the Commodore and Amiga formats, While the Amiga uses standard ASCII codes to represent alphanumeric characters, your C-64 128 uses a dialect called PET ASCII. BusUtil’s ASCII filter will convert files between these two versions of ASCII. Without filtering, you could see some strange results of file transfers, with upper case letters turned into graphics and lower case turned into upper. BusUtil does have a couple of shortcomings. First, it will not give you a directory of the dfl): or dfl: Amiga drives. Second, it gives you no way to abort a copy. If you begin to copy a 90K file and then realize that the disk you are copying to has only 80K free, your choices are to reboot or to wait 10 minutes until you get a prompt that the copy has failed because the disk is?1= REVIEIUSlHO full. Last, although it displays a “working” message during file transfers, it gives you no indication of its progress. For users who like the CLI better than Workbench, Access-64 comes with the commands DSDir, DSFormat, DSCopy, and DSFilter. These let you work with C-64 128 disks in a 15xx drive. The functions of the first three commands are obvious. The fourth, DSFilter, converts PET ASCII to plain ASCII. Unlike BusUtil, it cannot convert in the other direction. Since DSFilter works with files that have already been transferred, it does not destroy the original file, but creates a new file with a.fit extension. The format of the DSCopy commana is different from AmigaDOS’ Copy: DSCopy 8: C64FileName, SEQ TO DFO: AmigaFileName The 15xx drive is referred to with a number only and you must specify the type of file after the C-64 128 file name. Finally, you must type the “TO" filename. DSCopy will not assume that it is the same as the “FROM” file name. This makes sense because the C-64 128 and Amiga impose different maximums on file name lengths and restrict different characters from file names. A POWER SUPPLY THAT WORKS AND WORKS AND WORKS Installation Access-64 software is supplied on a Workbench 1.2 disk that you can boot from. If you already have a customized boot disk or hard disk, it can be modified easily to accommodate the necessary Access-64 commands. You’ll need to modify two files and copy up to a dozen others onto your boot disk. The first file you need to modify is Startup-Sequence. It must run three Access-64 programs, that eat up less than 4K of RAM, to set up the serial port adapter. Then it has to MOUNT and do a DiskChange for each of the new drives (df8: df9: and dflO:). The second file to modify is MountList in the DEVS directory. Each 15xx drive must be described for DOS. Both files are easy to edit using models on the Access-64 disk. CPS-500 ....$ 99.95 The standard by which all others are measured. PHOENIX ELECTRONICS, INC. P. O. Box 156,314 Court Clay Center, KS 67432 PHONE:
(913)632-2159 The files you need to copy from the Access-64
disk to your boot disk indude two device files that go into
the DEVS directory and a dozen files for the C directory.
These will require about 70K of space on your boot disk. 15xx Amiga Drives Besides just transferring files back and forth between a C-64 128 and your Amiga, Access-64 lets you use your 15xx drives as Amiga disk drives, complote with Workbench icons, as df8: df9: and df 10: AmigaDOS will treat these just like regular Amiga drives except that the Amiga will not automatitally notice when you change disks in them, You will have to either type DiskChange df8: at the CLI prompt, or click on the SWAP8 icon in the Access-64 Workbench window. This does not make a 15xx drive identical to an Amiga drive, however. If you’re going to buy a new drive for your Amiga, it should definitely be an Amiga 1010 or equivalent. A 15xx drive will be slower (as we will see later) and will have a more limited storage capscity. On the other hand, 5 *4” diskettes are cheap and plentiful compared to 3’ r diskettes, so a 15xx drive can provide a cost-effective tool if you have lots of Amiga files to archive. CAPACITY OF 15xx DRIVES Drive type: 1541 1571 1581 Storage capacity: 170K 335K 800K Printers Any Commodore-compatible printer (with a 6-pin DIN plug) should work with Access-64. The current version of the software will not, unfortunately, support graphics on such printers. Asfuming that the printer device number is 4, Access-64 provides two printer drivers. If the default driver causes weird characters to print, you will have to settle for the alternate, which canses the Amiga to ignore mouse and keyboard input while each line prints. Speed Since 15 xx drives and Commodore printers rely on the serial interface, data transfer will be slower than on a system built solely with Amiga peripherals. To give you some idea of speed, on the facing page are some comparison times for copying files, running DOS commands, and formatting disks. You see that doing an Amiga format on a 15xx drive is slow. It is much fester to format the disks in C-64 128 format and then use the Access-64 Qfor-mat utility. Qformat converts a previously formatted C-64 128 diskette to a format usable by AmigaDOS in a 15xx drive. (1581 drive times will be slightly fester in many cases than the times shown. Formatting a 1581 disk in Amiga format will take less than an hour-but not much less. The 1581 drive cannot read an Amiga 1010 diskette.) Limitations Prospective purchasers of Access-64 should be aware of several limitations. On the hardware side, the manual recommends that you not use IEEE disk drives such as the Commodore 8050 and SFD 1001 due to differences in timing. Similarly, the manual recoinmends against using IEEE or Centronics interlace printers. What you'd be doing in either case is converting the Amiga parallel port into a C-64 128 serial port and then converting that to an IEEE (or Centronics) interface. If you have a parallel (Centronics interface) printer and a couple of 15xx drives, Access-64 will create compotitien for your Amiga’s parallel port. On the software side, there are some limitations on disk copies and file copies. When transferring files between C-64 128 and Amiga format, you may transfer only one file at a time -wildcards aren’t allowed. And during transfess with either BusUtil or DSCopy, if you try to type on your Amiga, you’re likely to lose characters. When using a 15xx drive as an Amiga drive, you cannot use the Workbench Duplicate command or the CLI DiskCopy command on a single 15xx drive. These commands are okay between two 15xx drives. Finally, you cannot directly copy a file from one 15xx drive, in C-64 128 format, to a second 15xx drive, in Amiga format. You must be an intermediate copy to a regular Amiga drive or RAM: disk. Access-64 is a cost-effective way of expanding your Amiga and maintaining ASCII file compatibility with a C-64 128. If you don’t have all the Amiga peripherals you need (and
you don’t want to sell your C-64 128 to get them), and if
you have more than a handful of files to share between your
Amiga and a C-64 128 (more than are practical for a
communications program and a null modem cable), you should
consider Access-64.? REVIEWS IB Progressive Peripherals & Software, 464 Kalamath Street, Denver, CO 80204 (phone: 303-825-4144). Richard Herring Circle 132 on Reader Service Card CYGNUSED PROFESSIONAL ASDG Inc. Amiga with 512K Disk; $ 99.95 CygnusEd Professional is a programmen’s text editor for any model Amiga with at least 512K RAM. It provides a fast and flexible means for entering anything from short batch (command sequence) files to assembly-or other language listings that may run many thousands of lines. What
CygnusEd Professional (called CED) is not, and for good reason,
is a full-featured word processor. It lacks things like fancy
print formatting, spell checking, and footnote generation. Speed v. WYSIWYG CED gains its speed in three ways: by using assembly language subroutines, by loading text files entirely in memory, and by not bothering to display on screen exactly how your documerit will look when printed. This is an appropriate approach for a text editer. Its concern should be. And is. With rapid text input and editing. While some programmers do use full-blown word processors to develop programs, they trade speed for features they'll never use like producing an index or insorting graphics. Since any file you load into CED resides completely in RAM. CED is able to move very quickly through your text, whether you are jumping to a particular line, doing a search and replace, or taking a leisurely scroll. As an example of CED’s speed, I loaded a 172K assembly language listing consisting of 9000 lines. Jumping from beginning to end was virtually instantaneous. Scrolling through the file a line at a time took only 2.5 minutes, a darn sight faster than I can skim, much less read. Imagine how surprised I was to cruise through a file in only 45 seconds by adjusting the scroll jump and scroll borders. A search (or search and replace) is just as impressive. When CED looked for a phrase that occurred near the end of my file, it took only 2 seconds to find it. CED doesn’t expect us all to read 172K in under a minute though. It provides various ways to control scrolling speed: by using the SHIFT or ALT keys with the arrow keys, by setting the scroll jump (or smoothness) from 1 to 8 pixels, and by scrolling faster the nearer the mouse pointer is to the edge of the screen. You will lose considerable speed if you run CED in a Workbench window rather than in its own (default) fullscreen display. Also, CED can keep up with most typists during text entry, but a speed demon can outpace it. If you are inserting lines of text at the beginring of a long document, however, it is not hard to get ahead of CED. The Ram's the Limit If CED has any limitation as a text editor, it's that text files must be loaded completely into RAM. I know, I just used that as a plus for speed. But the other side of the coin is that CED itself takes about 170K. After it is loaded, you can open up to 10 "views,” which are sort of limited windows. Each view-can show a different file, or you can use several views to see difrerent sections of the same file. It’s easy to toggle among different views, and there’s even an option to expand the current view as much as possible. (Each view always gets at least one line of text, and a status line showing the size of the file or its name and your position in it.) Since CED is fully multitasking, you can see that RAM, as usual, can get pretty scarce. By adding a single parameter when you load CED, you cause it to stay memory resident. You can quit CED, then reactivate it with a simple cornbinstion keypress. This is much preferable to storing the program in a RAM: disk, which loads just as last but requires two copies of the program while it is runring. One of CED’s many thoughtful features is that it detaches itself from the CLI that invoked it so you can close that CLI. Of course, CED also allows you to keep it attached to the CLI, as you might want to do for sequential execution in a batch file. I MU SIC mi I Dr Fs Copyist. DrTsESQapade j Dr r$ KCS vl.6. J Dynamic Studio.. ECE Midi Interface. Hypertec MIDI tnt.. Amiga is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga. Midi Gold (500)..... Music Mouse...... i Music X .... Perfect Sound) POLICIES: I Shipping Info: Software rates are $ 2.50 item (S5.00 max) via UPS ground. For UPS 2nd Day Air add S1.50. COD'S add S2.50. FedEx Next Day $ 15.00 or less (under j 5 pounds). Other carriers, hardware, and Foreign rates may be extra. K OCTOBER SPECIAL! F Other policies: No charge to Credit Card until shipping m dale. Exchanges for same item only. No refunds. We M, cannot guarantee product satisfaction. M „ S33S St at rut, Portland. OR 97266. (503) 777-1008. FAX’ (503) 777-1252 A Division el Dm s Systems, inc. CLIP ART For AMIGA" Over 100 high resolution IFF images on most disks. A NEWT Disk 7 Antiques Sea Life Gambling Nautical Knights NEW! Disk 8 Al! Christmas Graphics! JS19.95 per disk Disk 1: Computer, Office, Music, School, Travel, Trans. Disk 2: Business, Sports, Animals, Party, Religious Disk 3: Food, Borders, Medicine, Old West, Newsletter Disk 4: Hands, Seasons, Pirates, Tools, Personal, America Disk 5: Theater, Comers, Zoo, Menu, Outdoor Disk 6: Adman’s Special: Computer Products Magnetic Images Co. P. O. Box 17422, Phoenix, AZ 85011 (602) 265-7849 (Add S2.50 P &
H per order) When you first load CED, you can load up to 10
text files at the same time by specifying their names on the
commana line or by using extended select from Workbench.
Once CED is resident in memory, you can load multiple files
while you reactivate it with a little utility that passes
filenames to CED. Loading files into CED once it is active is a snap. The requester shows all available drives, logical assignments, and volume names. Click on one and its contents are displayed. If the direclory is lengthy, you don’t have to wait for the last file. As soon as the one you want appears, click and it will load, Saving text is also a treat. The status line at the top of each view will show asterisks if that file has been changed since it was last saved. If you have several views open, CED gives you a single command to save all changed files. Nice. And my favorite: You can tell CED to regularly pop up a requester giving you the option to save your file. Specify any period from five minutes to an hour and a half. This requester will even guilt trip you by noting how many changes you’ve made since the last save. A fully automatic save feature would be nice, but given the speed of floppy access, CED’s save option is fine. CED will even create an icon for your file as it is saved and will let you specify a default tool to run and load that file when it is selected. Another save feature, safe saves, is valuable when you save a file that already exists on the disk. Rather than overwriting the old file, the new version is saved under a temporary name. Only after a successful save is the old file deleted and the new one renamed. If you have the unreliable power that occasionally haunts my neighborhood, this could be a godsend. Electrical glitches are not the only phantoms our Amigas face. There is also the dreaded Guru. Although CED was quite well behaved in all my tests, its multitasking capability could subject your text to the poor manners of other programs. Once again, CED to the rescue. A utility program will search your RAM after a crash to find any CED files that were there before you rebooted. You select which ones to save. But use caution before you overwrite an existing file, The crash can corrupt your data. Or if you let Startup-Sequence load up memory on reboot, it can kill part of a CED file. (I lost 1500 lines of a program in one test.) Never Board by This Key That CED has pulldown menus is so common it isn’t worth mentinning. That there are keyboard alternatives for nearly every menu command is. Most menu features can be inyoked by holding either Amiga key and hitting one other key. Occasionally you will also have to hold down the shift key. Even better, most non-menu features can be controlled from the keyboard too. Such as? Such as answering Yes, No, Resume, or Quit to a requester and toggling gadgets in the Search Replace requester (case sensitive, search backward, etc.). A feature that can be critical to programmers is the ability to enter any ASCII character. The SetMap commana will control which 256 charactens the Amiga recognizes, but the keyboard certainly can’t reproduce them all. CED allows you to enter any charactor as its ASCII equivalent. There may be points in your text that you refer to. Or edit, regularly. CED lets you leave up to three markers and jump to any of them instantly. You can also jump back to the position the cursor occupied before the screen was last redrawn. Movement of the cursor is easily controlled by combination keystrokes (like Intuition uses in string gadgets) to jump to the beginning or end of a line. Or you can move by full screen, half screen, word, or character. Blocks can be marked, cut, copied, or saved. Cod's cut and paste (block) options let you move not only the horizontal, full-width blocks we are all familiar with, but also vertical, or columnar blocks. This gives you an easy way to handle comments in an assembly listing or to create multicolumn text. Once you create multiple columns, however, you can’t edit much because CED does not “see” the columns except when you move them. CED has six ways to delete text. The Delete and Backspace keys do a charactor at a time. Then come delete word, block, and line, and delete to end of line. Five delete buffers are paired with the various ways to delete text. (Delete line and delete to EOL share a buffer.) Undelete commands let you restore the text from any buffer. In the best of all possible worlds, I might like to have more than one deleted block buffer, but CED’s buffers do give you tremendous flexibility. Undelete a single character? Big deal you say? In other programs maybe, but to CED a single character may be much more. With CapsLock on, your Amiga's function keys become 40 different escape code sequences to control your? = REVIEWS m cl printer. If you don’t want these codes to display, CED can hide them under the next regular character, which will appear in reverse video as a reminder. Delete that character and you delete the hidden codes with it. Undelete it somewhere else and you have successfully moved them. So hidden codes don’t become a bugbear, CED automatically displays them during a search and replace operation. Unfortunately, when escape codes are visible they will screw up line lengths (with word wrap on) and paragraph reformatting. CED has full macro capability. Combinations or series of keystrokes can be assigned to represent a sequence of commands or a string of text. About the only limitation is that the normal alphanumeric keys cannot be reprogrammed, So A by itself can’t be a macro, though CTRL-A, ALT-A, or SHIFT-ATL-A can. Entering macros is interactive. As you enter commands, they actually take place so you know your macro will work, No obvious way exists to edit existing macros. Macros will not handle string requesters, like loading a new file. Since setting up a bunch of macros is work, CED lets you save and load macro files. You might want different macro files for C, assembler, and lettens home. The macro file S: CEDMac-ros will load automatically with CED. You can even set up a macro file to have CED emulate another editor or word processor. (CED comes with just such a file for MicroEmacs.) After using CED for awhile, you’ll get all its options set just like you want them. You can save this “environment" to a file so you will never have to reset the same options. Keep several environment files for different types of programming. Then when you load a Modula 2 listing with a filename ending in. M2 (for example), it will automatically load the environment called CEDdefeults. M2, Environments indude everything from screen size and colors to macros, tab settings, and the placement of the scroll bar. Odds and ends that deserve mention are rotate block (for networks like Use-Net), strip carriage return (for imperted files), convert between upper and lower case, wildcards in search strings, 1024 characters per line (maximum), auto indent, repeat a character or commana any number of times, non-break and visible spaces, paragraph reformatting, and find matching parentheses, brackets, and braces. Accessories and Accomplices CED is not a word processor. Yet for entering and revising text it’s wonderful. Does it have a place in the lives of people who write rather than program? Maybe. A qualified maybe. The manual suggests using CED to enter text and your regular word processor to format and print that text. Only in a multitasking environment is this reasonable for most writers. For programmers, CED’s print featunes are acceptable. Print to screen (Type or Copy) and you have nice clean text with no special format codes. Print to a printer and CED multitasks, letting you go back to editing right away, even editing the same file (though print spooling does prohibit you from exiting CED easily). You can print a file Continued on page 74 The internal sound capabilities of the Amiga are better than that of any other personal computer. These capabilities mean nothing though, without quality digital sounds, which up till now have been scarce. Sound Oasis gives Amiga owners access to a large library of studio-tested digital samples, by using the Amiga's built in disk drive to read disks made for the Mirage Digital Sampling Keyboard. Sounds can then be played from a MIDI keyboard, the computer keyboard, or saved as an IFF standard file. Mirage is a trademark of Ensoniq Inc. Transform your Amiga into a professional-quality drum machine with this software package. Easier to use than hardware-based drum machines because everything is displayed graphically on screen. Enter drum patterns quickly and easily in real time with visual feedback and editing. Create realistic drum tracks with any of the 100 drum and percussion samples that are included or use your own unique IFF one-shot samples. Dynamic Drums also has full MIDI implementation and even becomes velocity sensitive when triggered from a MIDI keyboard. A powerful MIDI sequencer that takes full advantage of the Amiga’s sound, graphics, and sophisticated user-interface. Dynamic Studio is perfect for professional applications due to its sophisticated editing capabilities and SMPTE support. It is also ideal for home studios, because in addition to sequencing MIDI instruments, Dynamic Studio has a built-in drum machine, and the ability to playback instruments translated with Sound Oasis. DYNAMIC TUDIO I hamm i SOFTWARE P. O. Box 430 St. Clair Shores. Ml 48080 (313) 771-4465 The Art
Gallery offers the opportunity for feme and fortune to
aspiring Commodore artists. Send your work on disk to Art
Gallery, Ion International Inc., 45 West 34th Street Suite
500, New York, NY 10001. Label each disk with the date of your
submission, your name and address, the number of images on the
disk, and the graphics or paint program used. Graphics produced on the Amiga are eligible for inclusion in Ahoyl’s ArnigaUser; C-64, €-128, and Plus 4 images are eligible for inclusion in Ahoy! If your image is published, you will receive a free one-year subscription. Current subscribers will have their subscription extended by one year. Note that the Art Gallery is not a contest. Published pictunes are selected in an arbitrary'and capricious feshion by the Art Director, based solely on their artistic merit. 64 Ahoyl's ArnigaUser Clockwise from top left, facing page: Does she look more like a spaced-out Sally Strothers or a down to earth Stevie Nicks? You decide about Nightbride by Aliss Uwden (State College, PA), a low-res image; finally on home video and in the Art Gallery years after his initial success, ET by Jonathan Joshi (Jamaica, NY); and Hat lady by Greg Wilcox (Mhmeapofis, MN), in low-res on Digi Faint. Top to bottom, this page: the famous Rembrandt self-portrait loses little in the translation tolhe Amiga screen by Terry Imre (Vancouver, BC), in hires on Deluxe Mat; Moe lorry Gurley by Roger McVey (Phoenix, AZ) in HAM mode on Photon Paint; and Old Man (have we got a girl for youl), also by Greg Wilcox on Digi-Paint.
: V *: ' vy ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) By John M. Haubrich, Jr. 1800 Maine Street Quincy, IL 62301 This version is called MABM_Home" since it is free from MENU event trapping. This makes it easier to debug! MENU OFF TIMER OFF MOUSE OFF highscore = 0 GOSUB InitArrays GOSUB InitShapes DEF Fnlive (cityon (l) (6) -l) GOSUB InitScreen Restart: boraberflag = 0 CIS GOSUB
Initband GOSUB InitValues GOSUB HetnainMis GOSUB PloceCities
GOSUB StartScreen actbase = 2 main: ON MOUSE GOSUB HumanFire
MOUSE ON AnotherRound: bomberflag = 0 COLOR 5,0 CIS GOSUB
InitLand GOSUB PlaceCities GOSUB InitRound GOSUB RemainMis
COLOR 7,0: LOCATE 8, 16: PRINT USING "WAVE ”;wavenumber FOR
k*l TO 4: FOR j = 900 TO 600 STEP -40[SOUND j, l,255,0: NE*T j, k
FOR i 1 TO 1500: NEXT i COLOR 5,0: LOCATE 8,16: PRINT "
": C0L0R 5,5 GameLoop: GOSUB RemainMis chbase = VAL(INKEY$ ): IF
chbase 0 AND choose 4 THEN actbase = chbase IF score
highscore THEN highscore = score LOCATE 1,1 PRINT USING "
»9ft A SCORE HIGH score, highscore GOSUB FireMissiles
GOSUB UpdateMissiles IF (RND .9995-.005*wavenumber) AND
(boraberflag = 0) THEN GOSUB Bomber IF bomberflag 5 0 THEN
GOSUB EomberScroll IF misleft 0 THEN GameLoop FOR i 1 TO
1000: NEXT i GOSUB Bonus IF score ¦ bonusllmit THEN GOSUB
BonusCity IF Fnlive 0 THEN GameOver wavenumber » wavenumber
+ 1 level = level + 1: IF level 8 THEN level = 8 GOTO
AnotherRound END Caution! Don’t even think about entering
this program until you’ve read your Amiga BASIC manual and
familiarized yourself with your computer’s screen editor! Once you’ve done the necessary background work, we’ll be glad to assist you with any problems. Call 212-239-0855 (if busy or no answer after three rings, 212-239-0855), weekdays from 8:30-4:30 EST. InitScreen: SCREEN 2,320,200,3,1 WINDOW 3,", l, (0,0)-(311,185),0,2 WINDOW OUTPUT 3 PALETTE 0,0,0,0 PALETTE 1,.4,.6,1 ’blue PALETTE 2,1,.73,0 ’orange PALETTE 3,.93,.2,0 ‘red PALETTE 4,1,1,1 ’white PALETTE 5,0,0,1 'dark blue PALETTE 6,1,1,.13 ’yellow PALETTE 7,.33,.87.0 ’green EndinitScreen: RETURN InitLand: COLOR 5,0 LINE (311,157) f311,185),5 LINE -(0,185),5 LINE -(0,157),5 LINE -(19,157),5 LINE -(29,175),5 LINE -(140,175),5 LINE -(150,157),5 LINE -(160,157),5 LINE -(170,175),5 LINE -(281,175),5 LINE -(291,157),5. LINE -(311,157),5 You are in command of three powerful missilo bases guarding six helpless cities from a full-scale attack. Each wave of enemy missiles gets faster and new alien weapons are introduced as time progresses, During these vicious attacks, you alone are left to defend the remaining traces of your civilization with primitive anti-ballistic missiles (Amos). You will face bombers, laser bursts, and an overwhelming number of warheads in a fight to stay alive. Failure means death! ABM is an arcade game based on the classic Missile Command. It is written entirely in Amiga BASIC and runs under DOS 1.1 or 1.2 with 512K RAM. Since Missile Commana is still one of my favorite video games, I tried to implement the “real thing” as closely as possible. A few changes had to be made, however, to keep the program size down and the speed up to par. Just as in the original, you are in command of three missile bases: Alpha, Delta, and Omega. Each base has a stock of 10 ABMs. Surrounding the middle base are three cities to the left and three to the right. The bases are labeled underneath and the number of missiles remaining appears below the name. Enemy missiles fall from the top of the screen at different speeds as the game progresses. Play starts at Wave 1 with nine very slow incoming warheads. The number and speed of the missiles increase with each wave up to a maximum of 37 missiles with a velocity 8x normal. The game continues indefinitely at level 8 till all your cities have been By John Haubrich PAINT (5,180),5,5 COLOR 0,5: LOCATE 23,1: PRINT"ALPHA";TAB(18):"DELTA";TAB(35);"0ME&A"; EndinitLand: RETURN StartScreen: COLOR 7.0 LOCATE 1,26: PRINT USING "HIGH "jhighscore COLOR 3,0 LOCATE 3, 18: PRINT"A B M" COLOR 1,0 LOCATE 5,9: PRINT"By John M. Hauhrich, Jr." COLOR 6,0 LOCATE 8,7: PRINT"BONUS CITY EVERY 75000 POINTS" COLOR 0,1 LOCATE 17,7: PRINT"(C) 1987 John Gop Software" LOCATE 18,11: PRTNT"A11 Rights Reserved." COLOR 7,0 xsiin = 40: xmax = 280: ymin = 90: ymax = 110 LINE (xrain, ymin) (xniax, yinin),1 LINE -(xmax, pinax),4 LINE (xmin, yraax),4 LINE - xsiin, yiTiin), A LOCATE 13,8: PSINT"Press LEFT BUTTON to begin." WHILE MODS E(0)00: WEND CheckMouse: IF M0USE(0)=I THEN GOTO EndStartScreen ELSE GOTO CheckMouse END IF EndStartScreen: RETURN InitShapes: DIM city (112) RANDOMIZE TIMER LINE (0, Ll)-(28,11),2 LINE (0,12) 128,12),2 FOR j = 2 TO 26 STEP 2 h = RND*10-2 c = RND*2+1 LINE j,10)-(j, h), c LINE (j+1,10)-(j+l, h), c NEXT j GET (0,0) 28,12), city CLS DIM Lbombershape (112) COLOR 1,0 CLS AREA (1,5): AREA 2,5): AREA (6,9): ARF, A (8,9): AREA (2,3): AREA (3,3) AREA (11,9): AREA (1A,9): AREA (17,12): AREA (11,12): AREA (3,18): AREA (2,18) AREA (8,12): AREA (2,12): AREA (1,5) AREAFILL GET (0,0)-(18,19), Lborabershape DIM Rbombershape 112) CLS AREA (17,5): AREA (16,5): AREA (12,9): AREA (10,9): AREA (16,3): AREA (15,3) AREA (7,9): AREA (4,9): AREA (1,12);AREA (7,12): AREA (15,18): AREA (16,18) AREA (10,12): AREA (16,12): AREA (17,5) AREAFILL GET (0, G)-(18,19), Rborabershape CLS EndInitShapes: RETURN InitValues: FOR j = 1 TO 6 cityon (j)=l NEXT j level = 1 score = 0 score2 = 0 bonuslirait = 750005 bonusnaultiplier 750005 wavenumber = 1 EndinitValues: RETURN InitRound: actbase = 2 tabase (l,0) -= l: mbase (l, l) 10 nbase (2,0) = l: mbase (2.]) = 10 mbase (3,0) = l: mbase (3, l) = 10 eneroymissiles = 5+level*A nucrajissiles = enemymissiles oisleft = enemymissiles iniscluster = 0 GOSUB MissileSlopes EndinitRound: RETURN Placed ties: FOR j » 1 TO 6 IF cityon (j) = 1 THEN PUT (37*j-(j 3)'*29-4,163), c ity, OR END IF NEXT j EndPlaceCities: RETURN MisslleSiopes: targeted) = 15: target (1) = 47: target (2) « 84: target (3) = 121 target (4j «!55: target (5) = 187: target (6) = 224: target (7) * 261 target (8) = 295 FOR j = 1 TO enemymissiles xtop (j} = RND*300+10 mistargCj) =! NT(RND*8+.5) xbot (j) = target (mistarg (j)) m(j) *• 165 (xbot (j) xtop (j}) NEXT j EndMissileSlapes: RETURN InitArrays: DIM cityon (6) DIM m(40) DIM xtop (41j), xbot (40) DIM mx(40), iny(40) DIM rais (AO) ’migsile is active if 1 DIM rabase (3, l) '(x,0)=active if 1, (x, l)=nunber abms left in base X. DIM target (8) DIM mistarg (40) EndinitArrays: RETURN FireMissiles: IF enemymissiles 0 THEN IF miscluster 6 THEN miscluster = miscluster + 1 mis (eneoiyrnissiles) = 1 mx (enemymissiles) = xtop (enemymissiles) my (enemymissiles) 10 enemymissites = enemymissiles I END IF END IF EndFireMissiles: RETURN UpdateMissiies: FOR upj »¦ nummisslles TO enemymissiles STEP -1 IF misCupj) = 1 THEN newy * my(upj) + level IF m(upj) O 0 THEN newx = mx(upj) + (nevy-my (upj)) m (upj)]JNE (mx(upj), my (upj)) (newx, newy),7 mx (upj) = newx: my (upj) = newy IF my(upj) 175 THEN GOSUB CheckHit END IF NEXT upj EndUpdateMissiles;MOUSE OnrRETURN CheckHit: LINE (xtop (upj),10) (xboc (upj),175),0 LINE (xtop (upj), U) (xbot (upj),175),0 mis(upj) 0 xhit = mistarg (upj) CheckHit2: IF xhit « 0 THEN basenumber = 1: G0SUB DestroyBase IF xhit « 1 THEN deit l: GOSUB DestroyCity IF xhit » 2 THEN deit 2: GOSUB DestroyCity IF xhit = 3 THEN deit » 3: G0SUB DestroyCity IF xhit = 4 THEN basenumber = 2: G0SUB DestroyBase IF xhit = 5 THEN deit = 4: G0SUB DestroyCity IF xhit » 6 THEN deit = 5: G0SUB DestroyCity IF xhit » 7 THEN deit = 6: C0SUB DestroyCity IF xhit h 8 THEN basenumber = 3: G0SUB DestroyBase EndCheckHit: misleft = misleft I miscluster = miscluster 1 RETURN DestroyCity: cityon (delf) = Cl ctr ¦ target (dcit-(deit 3)) CIRCLE (ctr,168),15,3: PAINT (ctr,168),3 CIRCLE (ctr,168),15,0: PAINT (ctr,168),0 FOR jl-1 TO 3: FOR j2 150 TO 200 STEP 50: SOUND j2,1,255,0: NEXT J2, jl End Dest royCi ty: RETURN HumanFire: junk = H0USE(O): IF junk = 0 THEN EndHumanFire abmx = M0USE(5): aboy M0USE(6) IF abmy 10 OR abmy 145 THEN EndHumanFire IF abmx 10 OR abrax 301 THEN EndHumanFire IF mbase (actbase,0)= 0 THEN SOUND 14%,2,255, O: G0TO EndHumanFire IF mbase (actbase, 1)»0 THEN SOUND 14OD,2,255,0: GOT0 EndHumanFire destroyed. GAME CONTROLS The mouse arrow serves as your missile pointer. Simply roil the pointer to a location just ahead of the incoming missile and press the left button. One of your ABMs will zip to the target and burst into a white cloud 20 pixels in diameter. If you score a hit, the incoming missile will disintegrate with only a vapor trail left behind. The number of missiles remaining in your current base will be decremented by one. If you hear a tone when your ABM fires, your supply is getting low and “LOW" is printed under your base. When no more missilos are left, “OUT” will be displayed, accompanied by a high beep when the left button is pressed. Missiles will not fire on the extreme left or right edges of the screen, nor near the top of your bases or cities. To switch from one base to another, hit “1”, “2”, or “3” on the keyboard for each of your three bases. That is, “1” for Alpha, “2” for Delta, and “3" for Omega. (I find it easiest to use the keypad!) You can switch freely from base to base while the computer keeps track of your expenditures. Of course, if an enemy missile hits your base, the entire base, including its stock of ABMs, is completely destroyed during that wave. Once you have destroyed all incoming missiles, your bases are fully restocked with ABMs. Also, boruses are given for each remaining missile and city at the end of the wave. Cities are worth 100 points times the wave number (up to 8) and missiles are worth 5 points times the wave number. You are awarded a bonus city every 75,000 points. If you already have six cities (which is unlikely), your bonuses will be saved for the near future! (Hint, hint.) ENEMY ARSENALS There are only two types of enemy weapons, but this is two too many! The missiles are 100% accurate they never miss a target unless you stop them. After each-wave is successfully completed, four more missiles are added to the enemy’s arsenal for the next attack, up to a maximum of 37 missiles (there are nine on the first wave). “Now wait a minute, they’ve got 37 missiles but I’ve only got 30 ABMs,” you say? Right! That means you’ll either have to destroy two or more missiles with one shot or be selective about the warheads you knock out! After all, why protect empty missile bases or nonexistent cities? If that’s not enough to make you squirm, take a look at the Bomber. The Bomber makes frequent visits as you survive more attacks. He entens from either side of the screen accompanied by a high-pitched chirp, His speed increases with each wave. This special plane is equipped with a laser cannon powerful enough to obliterate an entire city! The laser burst cannot be stopped by ABMs, so the only detense against bombers is to get them before they get you! It’s not really worth mentioning, but after one shot, the Bomber’s energy is so depleted he can’t fire again (until the next visit, of course!) Two more phenomena you may (or may not) encounter during the game are the Betabomb and the Disruptor Cloud. The Betabomb looks no different from any other incoming missile. When the bomb explodes, it shakes the ground and messes up your screen. The conaition is not corrected until the end of the wave. The Disruptor Cloud is caused by a manufacturing error in your own missiles. Occasionally, when your ABM destroys an enemy missile, the white explosion cloud will remain on the screen. This will cause problems if you try to fire another ABM into the cloud. For example, if a missile is falling through the cloud toward one of your cities, you must wait until it is outside of the cloud. Otherwise, your ABM will be totally ineffective! A few last words before I give you some hints on survival. First, the program uses three bitplanes for a total of eight possible colors on each screen. Second, the PUT and ON acthase GOTO alphafire, deltafire, omegafire alphafire: LINE(15,156)-(abmx, abmy), 1 LINE(15,156Mabmx, abmy),0 GOTO explode deltafire: LTNE(115,156)-(abmx, abmy), 1 I. IN£(155,156) (abmx, abmy),0 GOTO explode omega fire:
LTNE(295,156) (abmx, abmy),1 LTNEC295,156) (abmx, abmy),0
explode: rebase (actbase,1) = mbase (act base, 1) 1 IP
mbase (aetbase,1) 4 THEN LOCATE 24, actbase*18-17:COLOR
6,5: PRTNT"LOW";: S0UND 400,5,2 55,0 IF mbase (actbase,1) = 0
THEN LOCATE 24, actbase*18-17:COLOR ft,5: PRINT"0in'"; CIRCLE
(abmx, abmy), 10,4: PAINT (abmx, abmy),4 FOR explj = i TO
numraissiles IF mis (explj) = 1 THEN IF
P0INT(mx (explj), my (explj)) = 4 THEN mis (explj) = 0 LINE
(xtop (explj),10) (mx (explj), my (explj)),0 misleft = misleft -
1 miscluster = miscluster 1 score = score + 10O*level FOR
j1=1000 TO 600 STEP -75: SOUND jl,1,255,0: NEXT jl END IF END IF
NF.XT explj IF (P0INT bx+8, bombery+9) = 4) AND (bomberflag
0) THEN bomberflag ¦ 0 score = score + 250*level CIRCLE
(bx+8, bombery+9),14, L PAINT (bx+8, bombery+9), i CIRCLE
(bx+8, bombery+9),14,0 PAINT (bx+8, bombery+9),0 FOR j1=1000 TO
600 STEP -75: SOUND jl, I,255,0: NEXT jl END IF CIRCLE
(abmx, abmv),10, O: PAINT (abmx, abmy),0 EndHuraan Fire: MOUSE"
OFF: RETURN GameOver: COLOR 2,0 CLS LOCATE ll,7: PRINT"GAME
OVER" LOCATE 13,7: PRINT"Hit LEFT BUTTON to replay" WHILE
MOUSE 0) -1: WEND EndGameOver;COTO Restart Bonus: COLOR 1,0
CLS cbcount = 1 LOCATE 11,14: PRINT"BONUS POINTS" COLOR 2,0
numebonus =
cityon (l)+cityon (2)+cityon (3)+cityon (4)+cityon (5)+cityon (6)
FOR j = 1 TO numebonus ebonus = ebonus + 100*level score =
score + 100*level IF score highscore THEN highscore = score
LOCATE 1,1:COLOR 0,2 PRINT USING " SCORE HIGH
score, highscore LXATE 14,4:COLOR 1,0: PRINT USING "iWrjebonus
PUT (4O+30*cbcount, i00), city SOUND 150,5,255,0 cbcount =
cbcount + 1 FOR i = 1 TO 1000: NEXT i NEXT j ebonus = 0?bonus
= mbase (L,0)*mbase 1,1)+mbase (
2,0)*mbase (2,1)+mbase (3,0)*mbase (3,1) IF mbonus 0 THEN
mbonuspts = 0 FOE j = 1 TO mbonus mbonuspts = mbonuspts +
5*level score = score + 5*level LOCATE 16,4;COLOR 1,0: PRINT
USING li .;mbonuspts LOCATE 16,9+ j:COLOR 3,0: PRINT"*";
SOUND 1500,1,255,0 IF score highscore THEN highscore = score
LOCATE 1,1:COLOR 0,2 PRINT USING " tmiM SCOFF, HIGH
score, highscore FOK i = 1 TO 25: NEXT i NEXT j END IF FOR i = 1
TO 5000: NEXT i ftudBonus: RETURN BonusCity: bonusllmit =
bonus! Imi t. + barmstnulbi ptier flag = 0 citybonus =
citybontis 4- 1 IF FN'live -6 THEN FOR j = 1 TO 6 IF
(cityon (j) = 0) AND (citybonus 0) THEN cityon (j) = I
citybonus = citybonus -1 flag = I END IF SENT j END IF IF flag
= 1 THEN flag = i LOCATE 10,16 COLOR 1,0: PR I NT" BONDS
CITY" FOR i = 1 TO 10 SOUND 960+RND*400,2,255,0 NEXT i FOR i
= 1 TO 1000: NEXT i END IF F. ndBonusCity: RETURN RemainMis: LOCATE 24,1 COLOR 6,5 'leave 15
and 16 spaces hetyeen the gaps in the next line, PRIST USING "
if §f ";mbase (1,1)*mbase (1,0), mbase (2,1)*m
base (2,0), mhase (3, I)*mbase (3,0); EndRemainMis: RETURN
DestroyBase: mbase (basenumber,0) = 0 COLOR 6,5 LOCATE
24, basenumber*18-17 PRINT"0UT"; ctr = basenuraberi‘140-125
CIRCLE (ctr,168),5,6: PAINT (ctr,168),6 CIRCLE
(ctr,168),10,6: PAINT (ctr,168),6 CIRCLE (ctr,168),15,6: PAINT
(ctr,168),6 CIRCLE (ctr.!68),15,0: PAINT (ctr,168),0 FOR jl=l
TO 3: FOR j2=150 TO 200 STEP 50: SOUND j2,1,255,0: NEXT j2, jl
EndDestrcyBase: RETURN Borebe r: botuherflag u INT(RND*2+*5)
bomberhurst = INT(RND*300)+10 + level*!) Bx = 0 (bonherflag = 2}4315 bomberv = RffllMO + 30 EndBomber: RETURN BomberScroll: ON bomberstag GOTO BomberLeft, BociberRight RETURN RomberLeft: COLOR 1,0 LINE (bx, bombery) (bx+19, bonnbery+20) , i1b£ bx = bx + 2* level SOUND 2000,2,255,1 IF hs boreberburst THEN bonberburst = 1000 brabtarg = INT(RND*8+.3) LINE (bx+9, bomberyF 19) targe t (bmbt arg), 1 75),7 LINE (hx+9, bombery+19) (target (bmbtarg),175),0 raisleft = mislett t 1 mlselnster = njiscluster + 1 xhit = bmbtarg GOStlB CheckHlt2 END IF IF bonberflag 0 THEN PUT (bx, bombery), Lbomhershape, OR IF bx 315 THEN boirberflag = 0 End BomberLe f t: RETURN • BomberRight: LINE (bx, bombery) (bx+20, boobery+19),0, bf bx = bx 2*level SOUND 2000,2,255,1 IF bx bomberburst THEN bomberburst = -1000 bmbtarg = INT(RND*8+.5) LINE (bx+9, borabery+19) (target (bmbtarg),175),7 LINE (bx+9, bombery+19) (target (bmbtarg),175),0 misleft = ujisleft + 1 toiscluster * miscluster + I xhit = bmbtarg GOSUB CheckHit2 END IF IF bomberflag 0 THEN PUT (bx. bombery), Rbombershape,0R IF bx “20 THEN bomberflag = 0 EndBomberRight: RETURN GET commands are used in place of animation with BOBs or Sprites since both have serious limitations (BOBs flicker like crazy in Amiga BASIC!). Finally, I added a genesous helping of sound effects since most people like to hear their enemy wailing in pain as well as see it. HELP! HELP! Now, a few words of advice. There are a maximum of six enemy warheads on the screen at one time. Every time you destroy a warhead another will take its place, unless there are none left. So if you notice there are only two or three missiles left, it means the wave is just about over (whew!). When attempting to hit a Bomber, switch to a base with more than one ABM so that if you miss the first time (the Bomber must be hit in the center), you’ll have enough backup Firepower to blow that turkey away! If there are only a few missiles left on the screen, however, it might be easier to take them out instead. Remember: When all the missiles are destroyed the wave ends-even if the Bomber is in the middle of a raid! The most important strategy is long term. Bonus cities are awarded from left to right. So any vacancies left of Delta Base will be filled before those on the right. You can use this to your advantage by coneentrating your protection over the left half of the screen. To make the game even easier, hit the “3” key before you start each wave so your ABMs will run out on the right side First. That way, after you run out of defenses at Omega Base, you don't have to pay attention to anything heading towards the right side of your screen! I’ve given you every hint I know and use. My high score so far is 589,765. It doesn’t take too long to get that far, either. If you think you’re doing bad, remember that I wrote the game and can’t master it! I’m quite pleased with the program, but I’m ready to move on to bigger and better things. If anyone has something they'd like to see, send me a letter care of Ahoyl’s Amiga-User and I’ll see what I can do.? IEXIEC 1=11.1= ¥!? 0 Software and Applications for the Small Businessman By Ted Salamene I’d like to thank everyone who’s corresponded with me concerning this column. Your feedback has been helpful; please keep it coming. Users who requested specific programs or applications, take heart though I cannot respond to individual inquiries, the information is passed along to appropriate developers and publishers. Send me tips, suggestions, and anything else relevant to the Amiga universe at Salamone & Associates, 42 Canterbury Road, Bridgeport, CT 06606. TIPS 'IT TRICKS This issue we start with the section on software selection criteria. (Readers joining us in the middle should pick up the August issue.) Section I of the selection criteria asks that you define the task required of the software, in general terms. It could be anything from word processing or typography to analog-digital measurement or computerized manufacturing. It shouldn’t be more than 15 words. The next step is to produce an outline of task details. This is the process which the software must be capable of handling or delivering (in case you do not have a predefined process). For word processing, a simple outline could be: a. import XYZ file format, b. allow macros to perform automatic reformatting, c. search and replace on font characteristics, d. accept XYZ graphic format, e. output to ABC printer. The outline starts to develop parameters for the software needed. Task specifics, which follow, refine the paramotens in a more quantitative manner. Average size of documerits produced, how often such documents are produced, and when they are needed (timing) are essential questions which must be answered. There will be others, based on the particular task you have in mind. Task performers must also be identified, so the software selected takes their level of experience into consideration. This item also identifies the need for, and extent of, training if the required software happens to be above current levels of expertise. Timespan and task complexity also provide useful infermation to the selection process. How long does it take to get the job done? Is the job simple (a level of 1), or is it complex (a 5)? The business impact needs to be weighed, too. Will the proper software increase revenue or efficiency by helping complete more jobs in the old timespan? Will the wrong software have a serious negative impact, and if so, just how serious? Though there are numerous variations on these overall business questions, you should only address the most pressing. It may also be that the software will not have a significant impact, regardless of its inferiority or superiority. In that case, the business impact question should be passed over entirely. Section II reminds you to take down the vital statistics of the candidates: name of the product, publisher, address, telephone, etc. It also has you classify the product, to help clarify the category of products you should be examining. For example, to edit text you would identify the Word Processor category. For a database you would check Database. Yet, you might need a database product with graphics and need to search both categories. This classification step just forces you to consider all the options, to cast your net wide enough. Other items covered here include a functional checklist. Which features do you absolutely need; which would be nice to have? Don’t forget to look 6 to 12 months down the road to see if there are items you will require. Get them into the functional checklist now! Minimum and recommended RAM requirements are touched upon, as are the user interface (menus, command lines, command keys, etc.), input methods (mouse, scanness, bar code readers, etc.), availability of help screens, copy protection, and security procedures. (The need for security is identified in Section I.) What has been the hislory of software upgrades; what software, also of potential interest, imports or exports data from the package under review? Hardware comes into play next, to identify the proper CPU and peripherals. Do you have the hardware (existing), or must it be purchased (proposed)? The need to add or upgrade existing hardware is quickly and succinctly ideotified by running down the checklist of storage needs (hard versus floppy, capacity), circuit cards (add-in on boards), printers (speed, carriage, size, color output, Postscript, etc.), monitor (s), and other peripherals. Next issue we will get into documentation and support issues. In the meantime, if you want the predesigned forms, send $ 9.95 in check or money order to Salamone & Associates at the address listed above. Mark SEC in the lower left comer of the envelope for immediate service. THUMBNAIL REVIEWS The early months of 1988 have allowed the time to explore a veritable host of products in my office. Here’s the skinny on many a topic, and why these programs provide Contact the following com___ _.. t c. ¦ % RGB Video Creations pames for further informa-3m Florida Blvd Suite m tion on products mentioned Palm Beach Gardens. FL 33410 in this column: phone: 305-622-0138 Discovery Software 163 Conduit Street Annapolis, MD 2140! Phone: 301-268-9877 Progressive Peripherals & Software 464 Kalamath Street Denver, CO 80204 Phone: 303-825 144 ASDG Inc. 925 Stewart Street Madison, WI 53713 Phone: 608-273-6585 Software Visions 26 Forest Road Framingham, MA 01701 Phone: 617-877-1266 particular value in a typical office environment whether that of a professional, manufacturer, distributor, or service industry. (Due to Ahoyl’s Amigallser’s instant success, and subsequent tripling of the number of issues per year, some of these programs are less than newborn. However, this does not detract from their value, as noted below. Subsequent columns will include newer releases, as always, viewed from real life use under normal office conditions.) Still the best, that’s how I describe Discovery Software’s Marauder II. I like the product so much that I've virtually stopped making copies with Workbench. While most of the work is done to produce single copies of unprotected software for review trials and tribulations, Mil's multicopy tunction is great for creating up to four disks of test data at a clip. Though not necessary most of the time, the ability to align track starting positions (index sync) and verify data make it much easier to copy finicky disks. Separate utilities add to the program’s value and cost effectiveness. For example, Decoder eliminates the need to send additional money to Electronic Arts for unprotected versions of Deluxe Paint, Deluxe Video, Deluxe Print, Instart Music, Financial Cookbook, and several entertainment titles. It creates unprotected versions of the source program, primarily so you can copy them to a hard drive. DiskErr reports on unreadable data. The last time we usejd it was to identify the faulty tracks on our initial copies of PixMale and VizaWrite Deluxe. (The originals had been damaged in transit, so we wound up testing them as well as our working copies.) Other routines enable you to erase previously initialized disks and to check floppy drive speed. The former tends to be superfluous, while the latter is a handy diagnostic for times when nothing seems to work right. Marauder II is effective and useful where archived data is essential -grandfather, father, son sets of data disks meant to protect against loss of business due to loss of data. Its multicopy function is ideal for these scenarios, provided you have the proper hardware setup. This feature also makes sense where data must be shared between multiple sites; and the protection removal capabilities translate into true hard disk luxury. (Just try running the copy protected version of Deluxe Paint II on a hard drive without gaining a few extra gray hairs.) While we’re talking utilities, there’s a great series of tutorial programs available from RGB Video Creations. These interactive advanced help routines load first, followed by the application they are designed to assist. Current availsbilify includes Deluxe Help for DigiPaint, Deluxe Paint II, and The Calligrapher. Topics in the works include Amiga-DOS, Photon Paint, and Pagesetter. Rod Molina and Bob Gilbert are working hard to extend the envelope of tutorial technology. Case in point: while DH for DPII needs only 512K RAM and a single floppy, advanced features, including truly useful speech synthesis, require one meg. Two floppies and a hard disk drive increase its functionality, just the way they do for almost any other program. For DigiPaint, the tutorial requires 1 meg of RAM; the same is true for The Calligrapher. Deluxe Help routines work with all Amigas, and naturally, the other program is needed. Deluxe Help does not include DigiPaint, The Calligrapher, or DPII. Working from a menu system and concise screen prompts, it takes but a few minutes to set up and load the entire system. It becomes a snap to switch between help and the actual program. Draw an arc, flip back for further instruction; back into the program and finish up. That’s all it takes. You can learn from prepared lessons or access the information to brush up on specific points. This flexibility makes Deluxe Help programs ideal for novices and advanced users alike. Though most of the programs supported by the Help series of tutorials are relatively easy to learn, anything which shortens the learning curve increases productivity; and that means increased profitability! Hence the raison d’etre for these silicon jewels. Last year, Progressive Peripherals brought us CLImate, a mouse driven DOS shell that intends to simplify DOS and command line interfacing. This was one utility that we had real doubts about. Once the software proved reliable it turned out to have a number of timesaving and housekeeping business applications. Primarily, CLImate helps soften the blow of learning the ins and outs of the command line interface. Mastering CLI is a process best left to technocrats, not people like you and me who view hardware and software as tools of the trade. This utility package also makes it easy for technophobes to quickly and easily become multitasking mavens controlling masses of megs and RAM drives. CLImate is the “no tears” shell for AmigaDOS. While there are other functions in CLImate, the most useful have proved to be batch file copying, deleting, moving, and printing. These alone improve productivity immensely, especially considering the high degree of print formatting allowed. The RAM disk is also beneficial, though it is not as easy to implement as it should be (for a point and click utility). The ability to support 3Vi" and 5VF drives is a blessing for Amiga 2000 owners, while support for three floppies and two hard drives potentially benefits any Amigaphile. Though there are ups and downs in this utility, disk formatting only works across some of the drives it supports. For example, it does provide solutions for types of users outlined above. Our last utility for this issue is Face II by ASDG, Inc. A floppy drive accelerator with an optional visible control panel, Face II improves disk access time through intelligent buffer caching. This ability lessens wear and tear on floppy drives, decreasing the potential need for expensive repair work and even more costly down time. More impertact, improved access time means faster throughput. For most computers, including the Amiga, disk drive access time is the slowest, most mechanical process in the entire system. Face II helps break the bonds. Improvements over Face I and typical public domain actolerators include the ability to address fast memory, to immediately alter the number of buffers allowed, and to remain device independent. That is, the buffers are not attached to a particular drive. Most first time users will do as I did: load Face II with the control panel to have easy feature control and performange reporting access. After a few sessions, however, it will not be necessary to “touch and feel”; you will have refined the parameters needed to get the most out of your system and be confident that Face II is working hard. For users of Face I, this program also retains the original elements. Changing horses is up to you. Technically minded users can go deeper, investigating the potential ties between Face II and their code. The manuals are delivered on disk, the least costly and least user friendly way to do so. However, due to the very low street cost of Face II, and its demonstrated ability to improve performance, this is a small price to pay. There is one other aspect which needs to be discussed: Face II takes advantage of additional RAM, up to the Amiga’s thenretical limits. Therefore, performance improvement improves with the amount of onboard RAM starting above 512K. UPDATE It’s always nice to see a publisher improve an already useful product. Gary Samaa of Software Visions has done so with Microfiche Filer 1.02. While this is not a revolutionary enhancement, it is an end user oriented, evolutionary upgrade to an already revolutionary product. We found the product still retains its ease of use, remarkable flexibility, and consumer oriented pricing. Also, Software Visions continues to do well on the support side of the coin, offering unlimited free technical help. Of foremost potential, SV has included their order entry and invoicing system on the distribution disk. It makes good use of the program’s capabilities and demonstrates the ease with which small business applications can be deliverect with MFE Users and developers should take this as a working example upon which to build new, even more diverse applications for business or professional use. In essence, Software Visions has demonstrated the vertical market potential of this package, something normally left to the likes of Superbase Professional. Other bonuses include full support for international charactor sets and the ability to import text. The former option is a convenience that becomes a necessity if international clients are a possibility, while the text import function makes mail merge or printed labels an easy reality. Businessmen and professionals can benefit immensely by adopting the order entry and invoicing system as theirs. Or with slight modification, they can have a custom system at one tenth (or less) of the cost of a traditionally produced custom system. Microfiche Filer Plus (see Scuttlebutt, page 81) promises to be another major step forward. Look for mention of it in a future column. NEXT TIME Now that we’ve identified a number of utilities which should make your everyday existence easier to deal with, the next installment will focus on core applications and complote the software selection guide. Until then, keep the lettens coming.? 44 Megabyte Removable Cartridge Disk Drive The PRD-44 Cartridge Hard Disk is an innovative design that incorporates reliable Winchester Technology in a removable media. You will never oul grow this Winchester as the PRD-44 offers you unlimited storage. With a low cost, mass storage and back-up capability gives you Irareporuble, rugged cartridge media, that offers many benefits. Al 44 megabytes per cartridge, individuals may maintain large amounts of data for individual or share system applications. The compact 5 1 4' cartridge permits data security as users may remove and secure sensitive data The drive has an a veragt access time of 25 milliseconds and a I; I interleave capability. Within 20 seconds after cartridge insertion, the PRD-44 has completed spin-up. Self-test diagnostics and is ready to use. PRD-44 PRD-44c TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OCR PACKAGE DEALS Disk Drive St Cartridge $ 1049.99 Disk Drive, Cartridge and SCSI Controller $ 1279.99 Disk Drive. Cartridge SCSI Controller and Case $ 1399.99 44 Megabyte Removable 44 Megabyte Cartridge Disk Drive Cartridge $ 999.99 $ 129.95 FEATURES: * Rct."«Nt CirtnSfc Mara * 44 MegibjSt (lormittcdl Stonfe Capaai'. v pn CiflnUfe * LI rhrriifj off law vu-ftfc * FwIIy IntCftiiAi SCSI Com Miff ¦ 15 Mi'. lemori 4 (riff Acer®
Time * SlirtUri HilMlrifht S 1 4' S « • 20,000 Hew MHO ¦ Dm Tuntlci Hun up to I IS M -gihi: o pci Sevond UK Did lliffri ¦ Hud' Write OprfMxvm with I I Iricrlutr * ECC *ivl AuMHNbC Rrtf * Iwopirent Drirct Mimpunil with Tr»: l tud Scon Sfarirp * Sdf-DtuncMio it ptwer L ¦ Ri-ffttJ Hard Dni Cvtudtes HARD CARD ForAMIGA 2000. ¦ 100% Amiga Compatible including Workbench 1.3. Fast-file System and Auto Bool when available. • Pre-Formatted and Tested.
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bus pass thru. ¦ SCSI bus pass thru. ¦ Auto Park. PHC-33 33 megabyte, 28ms Hard Card PHC-48 48 megabyte, 38ms Hard Card External Floppy Drive FLOPPY POWER BOOSTER Worry no longer about the power consumption of your (loppy drive. The new Pioneer FLOPPY POW’S. R BOOSTER eliminates all those worries. This simple device plugs in parallel lo your cucinal disk drive and supplies power lor your (loppy drive (up to 27 waits) PIONEER COMPUTING'S external Poppy drive comes complete with a 27 inch cable, fully enclosed metal case wtih shutter door covering the slot, a pass-thru for additional drives and a ninety day warranty. $ 169.95 $ 44.95 Pioneer HARD DRIVE is a complete system for your Amiga Computer. Complete with SCSI Hosl Controller, fan cooled power supply case, cabling, bus pass-thru (Amiga 500 and Amiga 1000), preformatted and tested ready for your use. Pioneer HARD DRIVE will provide you with the fastest, most reliable and fully featured Hard Drive System available for the Amiga 500, 1000 and 2000. 2Qmcg System S659.99, 40meg System $ 879.99, 65meg system 5949,99, 14Qmcg System $ 1799.99 We also carry a complete line of disk cases, power strips with surge protection, dust covers and cables to meet your AMIGA needs. Write or call for our Complete Catalog PIONEER COMPUTING 2469 East 7000 South 200 (801) 942-1174 ORDER DESK 1 800-999-3013 OUR GUARANTEE TO YOU All
our products arc lOOfr guaranteed. We will replace,
exchange or refund* any purchase lo your satisfaction. 'Refund must be made within lint IS Jj-s after receipt al product. REVIEWS Continued from page 63 or block, print to the disk or serial port, indent the document, and convert tabs to spaces or vice versa. (With two such conversions, you can change tabs to a different size.) To test CED as a simple word processor, I used it to write this review. Features I regularly use that CED supported were custom tabs, centered text, italics, underlining, and left and right margins (though I had to jury-rig the left margin by printing the document indented 12 spaces). Features I missed, that forced me back to a word precessor for final printing, were headers, footers, page numbering, double spating, spell checking, and printing selected pages. To offset its print limitations, CED includes the public domain program PROFF by Yigit and Tress, accompanied by its 1984 manual (34 pages) on disk. PROFF can accomplish most print formatting tasks, including build-BACK ISSUES The following back issues of Ahoyl's Amigallser are available at $ 4.50 each (outside US, add $ 1.00 per issue): FIRST ISSUE-MAY 1988 • Sounds Like... Amiga-a look at Amiga sound sampling, and five
products • The Essential Amiga Entertainment Library buyer’s guide to the
24 best games available • AmigallserTerm an Amiga terminal program, ready lo enter and
run • Matrix J ttern a fill pattern editor with automatic data file
creation, ready to enter and run SECOND ISSUE-AUGUST 1988 • Video Digitizers and Frame Grabbers-the optical options
available • Speech Set a voice synthesis program, ready to enter and run • Desktop Publishing: The Latest Editions-a look at the newest
DTP programs Send me _ copies of issue number. Enclosed find
my check or money order for S (outside the US add $ 1.00 per
copy). NAME_ A ELDRESS_ CITY_STATE_ZIP. Send to: Ahoyl's AmigaUser Back Issues Ion International Inc. 45 West 34th Street-Suite 500 New York, NY 10001 ing a table of contents. But it does so only after you imbed command lines in your text. To me, this approach is not only clumsy but also means that my assembler or compiler will choke on those imbedded commands unless I remove them.? = REVIEWS a c On a more positive note, CED does support Arexx, a separate $ 50 program from William Hawes. Arexx is an interpreted programming command sequence string processing script langunge that is capable of integrating separate programs if they support it. To my knowledge, the list of supporting programs includes CED and TxEd Plus (text editors), AmigaTex (typesetting), ZinglSpell, and CAPE68K (assembler), with Microfiche Filer and an Amiga Hypercard-type program coming soon. Arexx allows two supporting programs to send commands back and forth. CED can handle over 100 such commands. Supposedly, you can also write any function in Arexx that you feel is missing from CED. Arexx deserves its own review, but seems to have growing popularity in the programming community. As we consider other programs CED supports, let’s not forget all those AmigaDOS commands in your C: direclory, You can run any DOS command, including executing batch files, from within CED. CED only tells you it is executing your command. You’ll have to go to the CLI to see the results. Although this is a review of a single program, I can't help drawing some comparisons to TxEd Plus. Many of us have used TxEd since it first came out as an alternative to AmigaDOS’ ED. TxEd and CED are, not surprisingly, similar in many ways, although CED is the feature-laden member of the pair. (I won’t get into Lattice’s Screen Editer or Metadigm’s Metascribe here.) TxEd will load only a single file compared to CED’s 10. But at only 55K, TxEd can be loaded into memory several times to support multiple file editing. Both programs support Arexx, and TxEd Plus also requires the included ARP. library (part of the AmigaDOS Replacement Project). While TxEd Plus is quite speedy maybe as fast as you’ll need in most of my tests, CED still beat it. Nor does TxEd (without Arexx) provide adequate support for macros. On the other hand, TxEd has user-definable, pulldown menus, which most programmers will love. It comes with a 30-day, money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied. Finally, at $ 20 less than CED, it includes a utility to speed up disk access. CED recommends purchase of Face II ($ 35), a more powerful program also from ASDG. For this purpose. A Mouse that Roars Programs written by people who intend to, and do, use them are often works of love where the extra time necessary to get some little goodie just right doesn’t have to be justified to the marketing division. The number of special features and nice touches should tell you something about the care with which CED was crafted. Though not major program features, two more nice touches stand out. As soon as you hit any key, CED turns off the mouse pointer. Touch the mouse and it’s back. No more backhanding the mouse to move the pointer off a variable. And best, whenever a requester pops up, it appears under the mouse pointer, If possible, the cancel option will be directly under the pointer. With keypad alternatives for requesters, CED could easily have omitted this but it didn’t. CED’s 98-page manual covers all the program’s features well, but does not provide any kind of tutorial approach. Maybe ASDG thinks this isn’t necessary for programmers, but not all purchasers will have earned their wings. While the manual has a detailed table of contents, it lacks an index-inexcusable. Support is available from ASDG by phone or mail and on BIX, CompuServe, and Usenet. CED is not copy protected, but I wish there were some way to disable the copyright notice that covers the screen until you hit a key every time CED is loaded. Although I haven’t had enough time with CED yet to use it to develop a significant application, I have taken some old programs and edited revised them. CED has a pleasant mix of easy-to-ac-cess features that make me relish the next big job. Full macro capability, keyboard and mouse alternatives, print spooling, auto save, 10 views, and blinding speed have me sold. ASDG Inc., 925 Stewart Street, Madison, WI 53713 (phone: 608-273- 6585). Richard Herring? FLCTSAMD Send your comments pertaining
to Amiga computing, Dan Quayle’s military service record,
or any other topic to Flotsam, do Ahoyl’s AmigaUser, Ion
International Inc., 45 West 34th Street-Suite 500, New
York, NY 10001. We can’t print every letter, but we read
every one, and personally reply to as many as we can. I enjoyed your second issue. You are maintaining a good quality, informative style. I was interested to read the letter from Rick Jones (Amiga Friends, Orange, CA). I am enclosing my user group’s August newsletter in which the editorial addresses the same subject, namely, the need for A1000 owners to stand up and be counted on the issue of lmb chip RAM ungradability. If enough of the A1000 owners write Commodore we will get some action. Even if Commodore declines to make the adapter they may be moved to aid an outside hardware developer to provide it. I would like to urge your readers to support this effort. Invest in a stamp and write to one or all of the following I. Gould, M. Toy, P. Higginbottom, P. Baezor at Commodose
Business Machines, Inc., 1200 Wilson Drive, West Chester, PA
19380. Frank Turner, Secretary Scotts Valley Amiga Users
Group Santa Cruz, CA We at the Mississippi Amiga Support Group
have really enjoyed your first two issues of Ahoyl’s
AmigaUser. Product reviews have been so scarce from other
magazines, and the main thing we like to see are hardware
reviews. This is critical since so many low cost third party
vendors have hit the market. We do not have local access to a
dealer which will invest in such hardware, so we look to the
reviews in the magazines. Please keep up the good work and
give us more third party hardware reviews. At this time I would like to take issue with a practice by commercial vendors whose copy protection involves modifying the boot sectors. Eliminating this practice will enable all users to install newly received disks and elimirate the problem of the virus. Since this activity will cut into profits, this will never come to pass. One big complaint from my users group involves determining whether a disk contains a virus or has a modified boot block. There is a simple procedure which will give owners a quick answer to their problem. First, make a backup copy of a Workbench disk. Turn the power to your compuler off for at least one minute, to clear out any possibility of an existing virus. Next, insert the suspect disk and boot the computer. Take out the suspect disk and warm-reset the computer with the copy of the Workbench disk. It is best to have your virus checker on this copy of the Workbench disk. Run the virus checker and if it states there is a nonstandard boot block, your virus came from the suspect disk. We have used this procedure numerous times and it has successfully detected all viruses on commercial programs which contain nonstandard boot blocks. ASDG INCORPORATED * (608) 273-6585 925 STEWART STREET • MADISON, WISCONSIN • 53713 Mark W. Harvey, President Mississippi Amiga Support Group Biloxi, ME Circle 4145 on Reader Service Card Ahoyl's AmigaUser 75 AC BASIC™ VI.3 NEW Easy to use compiler is very fast with great, graphics. Plus, AC BASIC is the only BASIC compiler for Amiga that Is compatible with the AmigaBASIC interpreter so your existing programs can be compiled with no changes and run up to 50x faster. Easy to use documentation is indexed and includes over 200 examples on disk: plus a full spreadsheet written in AC BASIC and HAM graphics examples Extensions include: SELECT CASE, BLOCK IF, STATIC arrays. Recursive subprograms. Create stand-alone applications (no redistribution fee) NCPS195. AC FORTRAN1*' Mainframe quality, full feature ANSI FORTRAN 77 compiler includes: Debugger, Linker, Library Manager, Runtime Library, IEEE math, and C interface. Supports Complex numbers, Virtual arrays, Overlays and Linking. Not copy protected. S295. 68020 68881 version also available $ 495. Face II is the comprehensive floppy accellerator for al! Amigas.® With Face II, floppies can run two to six times faster than most hard disk drives currently available. Face II benefits all Amigas,® but delivers best results on machines with more than 512K. Ask your dealer for a demonstration, ASDG Inc. (608) 273-6585 For the second time this year. I have seen "macro"
expandect out. As if it were an acronym. I do not recall
the name of the publication in which I first found the term
expandect; this letter is in response to the review of The
Works! (Analyze! Portion) in your August 1988 issue. I feel the expansion of “macro” as “microcomputer automated commands, relative order” is greatly misleading. It ignores over twenty years of computing history, and only serves to perpetuate the impression that computer people form a society with its own cryptic and mysterious language. "Macro” is short for “macro-instruction." Just as the “micro” in “microcomputer" indicates a small computer, the “macro” in “macro-instruction” implies a large instruction. Or will someone argue that “micro” is short for “miniaturized, internal calculation, register oriented,” or some similar phrase? As an aside, the 1983 edition of "Webster’s New' Twentieth Century Dictionary, Unabridged” gives: “macro-, macr-, [from Gr. Makros, long] a combining form meaning long (in extent or duration), large, enlarged or elongated (in a specified part), as in macrocosm: opposed to micro-.” The earliest appearance of “macros” would be in assembly languages in the fifties: a time when invoking an I O operation may have required setting up several registers and or data regions, before calling a system subroutines. The advent of macro-assemblers allowed the programmer to treat the I O operation as just a large instruction, supplying the June, 1987 (Byte Magazine): “Although the (CSA) Turbo-Amiga upgrade is somewhat high priced for a microcompuler, its performance is in the range of a much more expensive mini-computer". February, 1988 (Amiga World) "In combination with 32 bit memory, the CSA 68020 board will let your Amiga burn rubber". September, 1988: CSA PRESENTS THE DragStrip AMIGA 2000 RAM ACCELERATOR Faster than you can imagine, at a price you won’t believe. The leader in hi-tech performance, and the least expensive way to accel. Parameters to the “macro.” A good system would even allow the detection of some types of errors (missing argumerits) during the assembly phase, rather than having the program abort at run time. A somewhat contrived example follows (in no specific language, though perhaps of Intel derivation): D0_READ PUSH AF PUSH BC PUSH DE MOV A, UNIT NUM MOV BC, COUNT_EXPECTED MOV DE, DATA_BUFFER CALL SYS READ MOV COUNT IN. BC POP DE POP 8C POP AF VERSUS DO READ M_READ UNIT, COUNT_ EXPECTED, DATA_BUFFER, COUNT IN My example (s) used an I O operation, but other common uses would include character string comparison and search, and extended precision arithmetic. I hope that this explanation will serve to demystify at least one aspect of computing, and supply a little history at the same time. In case some reader should desire justification of my statements, permit me to add that I hold a BS in Compuler Science, and have been a professional programmer for the last eight years, working on mainframes and super-minis. Dennis Lee Bieber Sunnyvale, CA A note to Amiga software and hardware developers: I have generally been dissatisfied with advertisements for Amiga products. Take a look at any of the ads for word processing, desktop publishing, CAD, or any other productivity software in MacWorld and PC World. They’re imaginative, easy to read, and pleasant to look at; not just a listing of features. Hardware advertisements show real people at computers using the light pens, digitizers, graphic taoles, and the like. Amiga users need to see two-page layouts with large typefaces, screen shots of a program’s interface, and actual, prosessional looking newsletters, memos, proposals, and reports, along with more creative documents that only the Amiga can do. I’d also like to see more shots with users at Amiga terminals using software and hardware that you, the developens, have put so much time and effort into creating. The Amiga community deserves better. P. S. You have created a great mag. Keep it up!
Robert Dean New York, NY Computer System Associates Inc. 7564
TRADE STREET SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA 92121 TELEPHONE (6 19) 666 39
1 1 1 FLEX 333693 Amiga is the trademark of Commodore Business
Machines, inc. Circle 144 on Reader Service Card 76 Ahoyl's
AmigaUser See page 50 to find out how you can get free
information about products advertised in Ahoy Is AmigaUser. PAINT BRUSH e AMIGA TCCI.I2CX sc; By Michael R» Davila Send your short routines and programming or hardware hints to Amiga Toolbox, c o Ahoyl's AmigaUser, Ion International Inc, 45 West 34th Street-Suite 500, New York, NY 10001. Include the program and source code on a 3 V5" disk, along with documentation and a printout. If programming in a language other than Amiga BASIC, specify the compiler used and the manufacturer. Have you ever wondered how Deluxe Paint has the ability to create a custom paint brush out of any portion or section of a picture that is being displayed? Here is a routine written entirely in Amiga BASIC that will do the same. The program makes extensive use of the GET and PUT commands to extract and place bits from the image. After you’ve typed in and run the routine, it will prompt you to pick the top left position, You can choose any section of the screen. For your convenience, three circles are drawn so that you can use this as part of your paint brush. Click the left mouse button once and you will see a ghost border appear. This will indicate that you are creating a paint brush. By moving the mouse about you can select how large the paint brush will be. Once you have the desired size, click the left mouse button twice, and presto! You have a custom paint brush. To draw with it, simply move the brush to the desired screen location and press the left mouse button. Use the menu to exit the routine. Now you can paint to your heart’s content. 1 Paint Brush CLS: DIM ar% 10000) CIRCLE(225,80),50,11PAINT(225,80),1 CIRCLE 225,80),35,3: PAINT(225,80),3 CIRCLE 225,80),15,2:PAINT 2 25,80),2 PRINT"Point and click left mouse PRINT "button for top left position." Xl=l: y1=1 WHILE 1 m=M0USE(0) IF xl-1 AND y1=1 AND m THEN x1=M0USE(1): y1=M0USE(2) PRINT"Starting coordinates;xl, y1 PRINT"Point and double click for"; PRINT" bottom right corner." END IF IF xl 1 AND y1 1 THEN x2=M0USE(l):y2=M0USE 2) GET(xl, yl)-(x2, y2), ar% GOSUB Getit IF m -l THEN Fini GOSUB Putit PUT xl, yl), sr%, PSST END IF WEND Getit: LINE xl, y1) (x2, y1) LINE x2, yl)-(x2, y2) LINE(x2, y2)-(xl, y2) LINE(xl, y2)-(xl, yl) RETURN Putit: LINE xl, yl) x2, yl),0 LINE(x2, y1)-(x2, y 2),0 LINE(x2, y2)-(xl, y2),0 LINE xl, y2)-(xl, yl) J RETURN Fini: PRINT"Ending Coordinates:";x2, y2 GOSUB Putit WHILE 1 m-MOUSE(O) xloMOUSEU): yl=M0USE 2) IF ra 0 AND set=l THEN GOSUB Paintit PUT xl, yl), ar% PUT(xl, yl), ar% set=l WEND Paintit: PUT(xl, yl), ar%, OR RETURN OBJECT DATA CREATOR Commodore was nice enough to include a semi-functional BOB and sprite editor on the Amiga Extras disk that was supplied with your Amiga. However, the Object Editor program saves the shape as a data file, and in order to utilize the object it must be loaded off the disk from within your program. If you’re like most programmers and like to keep the sprite and BOB information within the main program, or if you’re thinking about sending your program off to Ahoyl’s AmigaUser for publication, you’ll need to convert this file into DATA statements. This short routine will generate a BASIC listing of DATA statements from a BOB or a sprite and then save it to disk. To use the program, enter the name of the object File that is in your current directory. The routine will then open a file with the same name as the prefix and attach the suffix “objdat” to it. Once the program finishes creating the DATA statements it will signal “Done! Load filename.objdat”. To utilize the data file use the MERGE command to incorporate the data into your own program. Once you've done this the next step is to read the data into a character string so that you may assign the shape to an object. The following lines will do this. FOR x = l TO N READ ob; 0bjS=0bj$ +CHR$ ob) NEXT x N is the number of data items that are going to be read. Replace the N with the file size number that is located in the first line of the data statements. ObjS is the string that contains the shape information that will be assigned to an object using the OBJECT.SHAPE command. Once this is done your program will be completely independent of all object files. 'Object Data Creator CLS: INPUT"Enter name of Object file:";nflmS OPEN cams FOR INPUT AS 1 obj$ =INPUT$ (LOF(I),1): CL0SE 1 nam$ =cams+". objdat" size=LEN(obis): ps=l OPEN cams FOR OUTPUT AS 1 PRINT !,"'file size ";size;" bytes." WHILE ps =size) PRINT 1,"DATA FOR i = 1 TO 6 PRINT 1, ASC(MIAS(obj$ , ps, l)); IF i«6 OR ps=si2e THEN PRINT 1, CHRS(13) ELSE PRINT 1,","; END IF ps=ps+l: IF psksize THEN Leave NEXT i Leave: WEND CLOSE 1: PRINT"Done! Load ";cams:"." B! I=VI= ON CM HC Understanding and Using the Command Line Interface A Batch of Answers By Richard Herring This month we will quickly clear up a problem reported by a few readers missing CLIs. Then we’ll begin a discussion that will take a few months, and some input front you, to finish batch files. Do you know where your CLI is? If so, skip the next five paragraphs. If not, turn on your computer now. WHERE OH WHERE Many of us have our Amigas set up to put us in the CLI when we boot up. But most Antigas are not delivered that way. You should find the CLI icon in the System drawer of your Workbench disk. To open a CLI, double click on the Workbench 1.2 icon. Then double click on the system drawer icon in the lower left of the Workbench window. Last, double click on the CLI icon in the upper right of the System window. This will open a CLI window, 8 lines high, in the middle of your screen. You can resize and drag it like any window. But to close it, you must type EndCLI at the prompt. The heinous problem reported by a few users is that the CLI icon isn’t there. Some enterprising souls have even searched in other drawers. Well, it is there-sort of. Each program to be selected from the Workbench screen must have an associated icon file that contains the information necessary to start the program. Some Amigas have been shipped, or set up by dealers, so that the CLI icon does not show. Lucky for us, turning it on is easy just follow these steps. Write enable a copy of your Workbench disk. (That means move the little black tab so you cannot see through the hole in the comer.) Double click on the Workbench 1.2 icon. Then double click on Preferences at the bottom center of the Workbench window. Next click the CLI "On” gadget at the left center of the Preferences window. Last, click the “Save” gadget in the lower right. Now reopen your System drawer and there’s the CLI icon. If this does not work, somebody has probably tampored with your CLI icon file. What Preferences does when it “turns on” the CLI is to rename the file CLI. noicon to CLI, icon. Although DOS is not case sensitive when it comes to matching file names, Preferences will be in this instance. If, for example, you rename CLI. noicon to cli. Noicon, Preferences will let you select CLI “On,” but you still won’t have access to the CLI in the System drawer because Preferences won’t find your lower case file name. Get a friend to help you fix your disk so that the system drawer contains a file named CLI.icon. BEGINNING BATCH From time to time you may feel that your computer is using you instead of the other way around. Maybe you can’t remember a particular series of commands or the syntax of one command. Maybe you have to do an unusual setup for a particular program. Amiga DOS provides a simple way for you to get back in the driver’s seat batch files. Although DOS gives you lots of control, it must take a very general approach to accommodate all its possible users. You can adapt it to your needs and create your own “commands” by combining individual DOS commands into batch files. A batch file may be nothing more than a sequence of DOS commands that you want to execute. Or it may be much more and give you control you hadn’t thought could be so easy. The batch file itself is just an ASCII file that contains a series of DOS commands, typically one to a line. EXECUTE this batch file and DOS will carry out the commands one at a time until it reaches the end or encounters an error. Whether you know it or not, you have been using batch files since the first time you turned on your Amiga. When the Amiga first boots up, it automatically looks for a special batch file named Startup-Sequence, found in the S directory of the Workbench disk, Although some dealers will fiddle with the Startup-Sequence batch file, a typical one will look like this: echo “A500 A2000 Workbench disk. Release 1.2 version 33.56*N” BindDrivers if EXISTS sys: system Path sys: system add endif if EXISTS sys: utilities Path sys: utilities add endif Dir RAM: Subscribing to Ahoy! And or Ahoyl's AmigaUser has always made sense-for you and for us. We get to keep more of your money when we cut out the middlemen (our distributor and your newsdealer), and we kick some of the savings back to you with a discount rate. GET ACCESS TO REAL BUYING POWER... WITH THE ljOv! ACCESS CLUB! And now you can save even more-in fact, you can save the cost of your subscription many times over! The Ahoy! Access Club, launched in January 1986, has been expanded to offer its members even more clout in the Commodore marketplace. And for a limited time, membership will be awarded free to subscribers! Here are some of the ways the Ahoy! Access Club can boost your buying power: • The Ahoy! Access Club Clipper, published 12 times a year,
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Club members only! If you are presently a subscriber to Ahoy! Or Ahoyl’s Amigallser; your membership has already been activated. You’ll receive the Ahoy! Access Club Clipper bound into each issue. If you’re not a subscriber, fill out and return the postpaid card bound between pages 50 and 51 today! Let everyone else pay list price. You don't have to... when you have Access! LOCK IN YOUR FREE MEMBERSHIP NOW! Ahoy! Access Club membership will be ineluded free with your paid subscription for a limited time only. You are guaranteed free membership for the duration of any subscription paid for prior to December 31,1988. After that date, a small additional charge may be levied. So why not lock in free membership for as many years as you wish by extending your subscription now? ANNOUNCING COMPUTER DIRECT A NEW DIVISION OP PROTECTO... PfWeta Emerprliea, on of to* i*kC*-* id to* CcdnpjlK diacoudt mailorder business. Proudly announce* to launch -J Computer Wract (new export C08ICSWJ » soivrvg you D R*f F*Trtyfl«r*e Mta lamJj-r-Hdagad. R-t comper * managenert induce* (our brptoer*, ffrnir sister ana spouses W. m the keeping a v g.|*nl eye on *1 phase* of the operation, tivug* conttn-ue running »mootoly Recently, the company haa been working on improving tervtco* Th» v installed a mlni-computer and upgraded tuns phone system, who* streamlining pp*r*iert* to serve you befler vpure prpoipfy npc «d the large number at Computer Direct page* ir each Apoy issue. Thar* because Compuler Direct will eon&iSteoHy Win your Pus nets wtft their excephenal supper and unusual guarar»w Trie*r IS DAY FREE TRIAL po* y on products including software rs among the best In the industry 3 clipper * i *i v noDm So give Proleeto's Computer Direct ¦ ir i know
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W«Th. Craator of PASCAL and Modula-2 language! Cornpkabon nf oensary pacied ZO gram* take* pace at an average speed o 1C000 lines per minute with burst speeds d up to 5CC03 I res per mmuia Ones ms program is ccme-ied, the ed-tor automatically pealor,» rtsell at the site of any errors, and displays an error message. The error can then • , riaad, and Ole editor repositioned at the nest error by Dressing a key Once ell parts d re program have been oompoedauc-tewuay, the tutac-epeeo usaer. Bu-R Into the EMACS-Jt * editor * ectmtad by praung another angle My. *M er «n the ec: cr The pregram s men u-iud into ¦ e oecutat-e Me The Sencstroar* tAMkrfe? SoRwa-e Construction Set has some terrific futunes, BewJes those draeoy mentioned Amiga hirdvrsrefsoffwo'e Support kbrar-US nduding Intuition, BOM Karnal, Amiga DOS, to name but a lew, Standard Modula-2 I Cranes, including Pile-System, inOui. Storage. Terminal, Maw-UbO. And more, demonstration program* show ng the usage of many of the Amiga lunciona, eueh 11 window* graph**. MukMutong marina. Gadgets and many others (»om d the demo pro-grim* maud* a freehand para program and a desktop calculator) ind pede* 1*3-ary written documamiton, cons*- njrfa user's guide and t v'trtvt Emerald ai*o has an escellert policy W?wr SATISFACTION IS GUARANTEED Now and for a limited time, wfien you tkiy th* FSD-2 IrC-m £merald Compocent International you may taka your £hCk Ot the Mlowing oftars 5j 10 FREE DISKETTES 2) Xto OFF tha Gucksftef il Joystick, ragyarty seHmg tar StS91, But ertth diKOunt only Stl 3) 33*= OFF Th Ahoy I Acces* Dipper r» putntn* ) pynonthfy ty Ahoy-mega in and **"(free Jo jweawC fuCic'Cera qI AhOyl Al cy « a monthly publeefor erf too IniemiMnar Inc The coil a * on*}**t jupfenwon d fZ300. Rwoywkl era 144 00 Vxyuwoi ragan - Ing tuiuc cioon i ro me mjga in sr-ourt p+ Wre** J B loft (hfemefKmeJ Inc, 4 Wmt 3Mfi Sheet. 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Whether you're looking (er a printer, a fliik STVt, or some other penpnergf, Montgomery Grant a definitely Cne O' the tuppt' 1'* you should conidti Tha-r prices are among Ihelijweet In Ih* country When you're ready to buy from Montgomery Grant, be aura lo clip the coupon on page 3 of the Oicc*’ because besides Mmisg tintuu prves wm every purchase Or*' Jtoo Montgomery Grant w-l add a FREE GAVE CARTRIDGE Read Snair ad n this mersh's issue of Ahdy-ter detail about oreenng.1 you w-.sn to place pout onser ay prone, just call 1-600-3*7359 or in New York, call i-2i2-59*-7i40 And don't target w ask tor your FREE GAME CARTRIDGE Tins oher eipue* August *5tfi. Sodont wait Order TDOATI SIS Whoieia'ers “a* wry good pnen porhap* th bait you ft frnd ary-whora on Ccmrrodsra and Commssoora-comjut&le hardware and Jcftwara Theyra iriwt tar you to consider buying hem them when you're n the market, so tne re making you mis exerting Offer: When you Cl ! The S * S Coopon on page 3 of th s Copper and send it along with your o-der of at leas; SKI pout racave t FR E piece of software1 ins A Si way of mobyatir a yoy fa con-VOO» the-! Good pnee* and emeeent Ser-mca Sea their ad n this north's issue OfAhOyM! Your* rhahuWy yOo rhly Call them i! 1 803 231*345 Of HI RortM call 1-306-636-136* But be sure to mention that you saw ins of*er tft the Ancy-Access Capper Sd -n*t yCu receive ycut FREE software Th offer e*p, re* on August IS. 1967. So mail your order RIGHT AWAY! War here we ere ejem n the haer of the mpentsry toms My escape from the h«al a to etortfer ffyttf w my tn-cof Oki‘« saxTy wdh my K*» xri*r Lift tvrrrv I cm. W tern* graa* pfogra.-s to nefp fim my fnerW* Pun.iess Fhrs summer who •r’Cerj' fO PHI Clipper. (Con krta some owe wbi-oe-'ur o rs a rempr you Tfrt newel f eifredVser feacurad o toj montoft Ctpper Montgomery Grant Even with rfrae great phew. When you spend S'OO or more they wt9 n-OvO* a FREE GAME CARTRIDGE AI CP rs a pan oTermg a FREE DISK HOKhER with (he purchase or two £»» * & c*i*s if you Ami *»e»d own a nctchat P* *ura lo lit* edvanrag* of rue cVnar Lyco Composer n reducing fhe prte of toe RanaaerVe WC* when you e so pevcAaw on appeceOM came or mmriace JIS i hoftJing ever tfmr top notch FREE SQFTYfARC OFFER, ana Emerald is esc «h with a jwef of a & a' astr And toara much mora. So bo aura »f**a put Copper cerataay See you in Se&amoor w to moro gmemea ckVra tar yCu' corspderobgn Adrurafy yctra. Jpt, J Joe Fargv ton SAVE ED ON A KNACKER JAX' PACKAGE FROM COMPUTER MART... boo* caw *¦*:* ! W*«: h com** with a eee «» 0 s*. And 23 beramet The reguia-t cos: et compratt This. kukbie to* sacrats of unprfotaci'k includes a tutorial wf»ch Ac rxampfes to lead you * n*w level of knowtad; prpfeCtiOn Computer Mart a sa h nily
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I wont so SAVE 30% on to Ovicliko-|i Enctawd is my aWtond poymert of 513. Plus 55 for shro-p -g and hording. 2 I wont my F! EE IOX OF DISKETTES? I wart ro SALE 30% on yo-r 300 Baud Modem. I-egiXorfy $ 30, Enclosed is my cdd *¦ sno' payment of $ 21, plus 55 tar shipping and hondLng.? I wo nr to save 30% on your 1 TDD Baud Modem, regulorfy 5*29 Eruloied r my additional peymert of $ 90,30. Piut 55 hr shipping ond handling. 25% on my ful provide FFEE? I want to SAVE 30% on your Simlin Cose, regularly 529.95. Enclosed it my addilronal payment of 571. Plus 55 for shipping and handling. For foster servee colt 1 -600 ¦433-8499. Or in Pacofl 1-717 63B-8432. YES. Floppy Hou sa t wan’ to SAVE 5% on your olraady oiscauf ted is toner*. Enclosed is my order far hwa or more programs Also, enclosed is 53 53 far shipping and handling, if my order u under $ 100. Thonkil Fer.ni vpnio resident! Pleoi* odd appro-pria'e taler toe, VISA and MailerCard accepted lot no esft-a charge). Aoi BOX * 000 ¦99-4710. D. STORAGE BOX. Yment for yauf ini'ucnan Set, |nj ojerol_ n Credit Cond_ Credit Card _ SAVE MORE THAN 40% ON COMMODOBE PC 1LLII SYSTEM FROM LYCO COMPUTER Mo l fc: L-rcn Comculer CQMMODOPE USERS hot hoy • ccess § 4=« MEMBERSHIP CARD Michael Schneider Proaidont Path RAM: add SetMap usal AddBuffers dfO: 20 LoadWb FailAt 30 SetClock nil: opt load Date EndCLI nil: To begin to get an idea what we can accomplish with batch files, let’s take a look at this one line-by-line. (If you want to see yours, at the CLI prompt type CD. S, then type TYPE Startup-Sequence. Hit the spacebar to pause scrolling and backspace to resume.) The first line reminds us what release and version of DOS we are booting. The echo command merely prints whatever follows it in quotes. If you ever have strange problems with your Amiga, it can be important to know these numbers. “BindDrivers” on the second line will find any device drivers in the Expansion directory of the Workbench disk. These drivers allow certain hardware you may add to your computer system to be recognized by DOS. In many systerns, the Expansion directory will be empty and this commana unnecessary. Next we see two if endif routines. These test whether the directories System and Utilities exist in the root direclory of the boot disk (sys:). If either of these directories EXISTS, it will be added to the path DOS searches when it looks for a program or command you want to run. DOS needs the system directory in its path to find the SetMap command a few lines down. The other DOS commands in this batch file are all found in the C directory-the only place other than the current directory where DOS will look by default. The next line (Dir RAM:) will create a RAM disk. Then we see another Path command to add the RAM disk to DOS’s search path. “SetMap usal” may seem an unusual command. The SetMap command tells the Amiga which country’s character set to use for the keyboard. Different keymaps accommodate unique characters used in different languages. At first this line doesn’t seem critical. Some people delete it to make their machines boot faster. After all, the Amiga defaults to a U.S. keyboard. Right? Sort of. Most keys will be fine without “usal.” But 5 keys on the numeric keypad will be ignored the left and right parentheses, slash, asterisk, and plus. The AddBuffers command grabs a little RAM (512 bytes for every buffer) and adds it to the cache for the drive. This will speed up disk access somewhat by temporarily storing disk sectors in RAM where they can be quickly retrieved. The next line (LoadWb) loads the Workbench screen. “FailAt 30” tells DOS to stop executing this batch file only on an error code of 30 or greater. The higher the code, the more serious the error. The default value is 10. This line establishes the level below which an error is not fatal. The SetClock command reads the time and date into the system clock from a battery backed-up clock, if one is installed. Otherwise the command has no effect. Routing the results of this command to the nil: device prevents it from displaying the date and time. Next, the Date command forces the display of the date and time on your computer screen. (This is Commodore’s batch file, not mine.) The final line in the Startup-Sequence batch file closes the CLI window in which all this activity has been taking place. Had the EndCLI command been given before the LoadWb command, DOS would have been terminated, leaving us with neither a command line nor a mouse-driven interface. Notice that the output of the EndCLI command is sent to the nil: device. By default, an EndCLI would print the message “CLI task 1 ending” as the CLI window disappears. But nil: takes this output and does absolutely nothing with it. We have seen a number of different DOS commands to be executed as part of this batch file. We’ve also seen a couple of other commands (echo and if endif) that are not available to us as normal DOS commands. In future columns we will look at these special batch commands in detail and see how we can use them as a mini programming language to customize our computers. As we learn to create more complex batch files, a few guidelines are in order: • Print messages on the screen to show what’s happening,
especially if the operation will take more than a few seconds.
This will reassure the user, even if it’s you. • Do not let distracting messages print. If you are copying a
series of files to a RAM disk, print a message saying so, but
don’t have each Copy command print. • Document your batch files internally. The purpose of a command
that’s obvious to you now may not be in a few months. The batch
file will have saved you from having to type that command over
and over and may also have allowed you to forget the command’s
purpose. • Use “echo” to create blank lines in the batch file to separate
groups of commands that are logically or functionally
related. • When you are testing a new batch file that has any destructive
potential, make sure to work only with backup disks. You know
how you want that Delete or Format commana in the batch file
to work, but until you test it.... • If you want to display a whole screen of text, consider
saving it as a separate file. Then “type” it from the batch
file. This separate file may be much easier to format or
revise, especially if you want to use borders or other graph
ics characters. • Leave things like you found them. This means deleting any
temporary files created by the batch file, restoring the path
if you changed it, etc. What are some potential uses for batch
files? You can use them to automate backup of data files when
you quit an application program. You can use them to control
printers and to reset paths for application programs that are
finicky about such things. And you can use batch files to
give instructions before an application is loaded or to give
reminders when the application is quit. A great batch file can really show your computer prowess. Send me your best (P.O. Box 1544, Tallahassee, FL 32302). If it’s as good as you think, you’ll not only get a free PD disk, but you’ll get the recognition you deserve, right in these pages.? SCUTTLEBUTT Continued from page 23 may order up to 99 leaflets for 15c each, 100-249 for 12C each, and 250+ for 10C each. Mindscape, 312-480-7667 (see address list, page 22). Circle 268 on Reader Service Card PHOTO CONTEST In conjunction with Computer Learning Month (which happens to be October), Mindscape is offering prizes of educational software for photographs that capture the experience of kids learning with technology. Awarded will be a grand prize of $ 500 worth of programs, two second prizes of $ 250 worth, three third prizes of $ 100 worth, and ten prizes of one program each. Photos, which become the property of Mindscape, must be submitted by October 31 to Mindscape, c o Educational Division Photo Contest. Mindscape, 312 -80-7667 (see address list, page 22). Circle 269 on Reeder Service Card IT'S A LOCK You can prevent unauthorized persons from getting access to your Amiga by locking Honeywell's new Power Lockout Control onto its cord. The device can also be used for preventing a child from playing with power tools, monitoring that same rotten kid’s TV or VCR viewing, and other uses with any tool or appliance up to 1650 watts. 6KV surge protector and a noise filter are built in. Honeywell Inc., 612-542-3339 (see address list, page 22). Circle 260 on Reader Service Card REMOTE POSSIBILITIES Also from Honeywell comes the Call-In Control ($ 79.95), making it possible to tum on or tum off your Amiga (or air conditioner, crock pot, entry light, etc.) from a remote location. You plug the Control into any outlet, and then plug the appliance you wish to operate and a touch tone phone into the Control. Then call home and let the phone ring 6, 9, or 12 times; when it stops ringing, the phone will beep twice if the appliance is on or once if it’s off. By using the buttons on your phone you can start, shut off, or monitor the appliance. Honeywell Inc., 612-542-3339 (see address list, page 22). Circle 261 on Reader Service Card SUPERBASE SHIFT Precision Software of London, England has taken over the North Americao distribution of Superbase Personal and Superbase Professional from Progressive Peripherals & Software, establishing a US office in Denver to do so. Precision will also take over the servicing and technical support of the products, Precision Incorporated, 214-929- 4888 (see address list, page 22.) Circle 115 on Reader Service Card FRESH FICHE With Microfiche Filer Plus, Software Visions has added features like automatic field calculations, HAM and oversoar graphics support, more sophisticated printing features, and optional macro programming using the AREXX language. Using AREXX’s interprocess communication facilities you can import and export data in any format and pass data directly between Microfiche Filer Plus and other AREXX compatible applications. Price is $ 179, while the original Microfiche Filer remains available at $ 99. Software Visions Inc., 617-875-1238 (see address list, page 22). Circle 116 on Reader Service Card SHAKESPEARE REVISED Shakespeare v, 1.1 ($ 225) improves upon the first release of Infinity’s desktop publishing program with improved memory management, auto column Okidata’s new Microlines permit downline-loading of up to 256 characters, providing a wide choice of typefaces. Shown are the 320 and wide-carriage 321. CALLING ALL COMPUTER RETAILERS! Would you like to: • Get free national advertising? • increase store traffic? • Acquire the most avid Commodore computer-ists in your area as
steady customers? Simply offer a 10% discount to members of the Ahoy! Access Club, comprised of all subscribers to Ahoy! And Ahoyl’s AmigaUser (see ad elsewhere in the magazine). We’ll list your store name, address, and phone number in the Clipper (our monthly newsletter) and on the Ahoy! Access Club BBS. Then, the next time a member in your town wants to make a purchase, he’ll pass your competitors by. (Unless, of course, your competitors are listed in which case you’d really better be!) If an across-the-board discount is not feasible for you, but you’d like to offer our members some other incentive to shop with you, write us. Space restrictions will prevent us from listing very many individualized offers, but if yours is significant enough to warrant the space, we’ll include it. The deadline for inclusion in the February ’89 edition of the Clipper is November 1. Write or call now! Ahoy! Access Club c o Ion International Inc. ho y f ceessm 45 West 34th Street-Suite 500 New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212-239-0855 creation, alignment guides, support for foreign key maps and alternate character sets, faster Postscript printing, support for 24 pin printers, 16 gray scale printing on black and white printers. Infinity Software, Inc., 415420-1551 (see address list, page 22). Circle 117 on Reader Service Card FOUR FROM OKIDATA Four new printers from Okidata: The ninepin Microline 320 ($ 499) and wide carriage 321 ($ 699) reach a speed of 300 cps in Draft mode. A 250 cps Utility mode and 63 cps NLQ mode are also available. Two resident NLQ fonts are included. The Microline 390 ($ 699) and wide-carriage 391 ($ 949) offer 24-pin printing. Speed is 270 cps in Utility mode and 90 cps in NLQ. All four printers feature bottom feed, which prevents paper jams by avoiding wrapping labels and heavy stock around the platen; front panel selection of speed, print quality, and pitch; a 23K buffer; and the ability to print on paper as wide as 9Vi" (on the 320 and 390) or 16” (on the 321 and 391). Okidata, 609-235-2600 (see address list, page 22). Circle 271 on Reader Service Card PERIPHERALS The following Amiga accessories are newly available from Comp-U-Save: External drive: $ 139.95. 22 meg unit for 500 or 1000 with pass-through: $ 580 (32 meg: $ 699; 48 meg: $ 799). Internal 2000 3'A” drive: $ 119.99. SCSI card controller with cable and case for 1000 or 500: $ 139.99. Heavy duty 500 power supply with surge protector, to support 2 to 3 external drives and added RAM: $ 74.00. Comp-U-Save, 516-997-6707 (see address list, page 22). Circle 118 on Reader Service Card The December issue of Ahoyl's AmigaUser goes on sale November 15 SUBSCRIBE TO Save more than r off the newsstand price I? One Year 12 issues) $ 27.95 (Outside US $ 36.95)? Two Years (24 issues) $ 48.95 (Outside US $ 63.95)? Please bill me.? Payment enclosed: $ _? MasterCard? VISA Card _ Signature_ Name_ Exp. Date. Address. City_. State.
Zip-U1188 November 1988 Ahoyi's AmigaUser Void After February
11, 1989 READER SERVICE CARD To request additional information
on any product in this issue of Ahoyi’s AmigaUser that is
accompanied by a reader service number, circle the
corresponding number below and mail this card. We will promptly
forward your request to the designated companies. D. From which of the following tourcee did you obtain your copy
of AftoyfS AmigallMW?
1.? Newsstand 2.? Subscription (mall) 3.? From a friend or family member 4.? Other. _ It not currently a subscriber, da you plan to
become one?
1.? Yes 2.? No A. Please check whether you ere... T.? Mite? Temalc B What Is your ege? T.? Under 16 2.? 18-24 3. G 25-34 4.? 35-44 5. Q 45-54 6.? 55-64 7.? 651 C. Education level completed 1. G elementary 2, O high ichool 3.? |urlor college 4. Q College graduate 5.? Metier's degree 6? PhD Name_ Address. State Zip City BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST CLASS PERMIT NO. 65 MT MORRIS. ILL. POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE NO postage NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES P. O. BOX 341 MT. MORRIS, IL 61054-9925 PLACE STAMP HERE P. O. BOX 8471 Boulder, CO 80329-8471 New from SunRize Industries
ELECTRONIC COLOR SPLITTER MAKES RGB WHEEL OBSOLETE Device
takes the place of RGB wheel to capture color video from
camera. Also gives you the ability to capture color video from
VCR. Unit has RGB selector switch (for Digi-View users).
With Perfect Vision, pictures are captured automatically in
1.5 seconds. Digi View takes 60 seconds and may not be com
patible with some VCRs. SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE: $ 99.95 PERFECT
VISION rV in "oll0 done endi* to qef? * °U " STUDIO MAGIC Capture pictures from a video camera or
VCR. Display in color or store as IFF for use in compatible programs. Real time B&W images (1 60 second). Color images require a bit more time. Unit includes its own power supply and fine tuning adjustments for contrast and brightness. Compatible with model 500, 1000 and 2000 Amigas. SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE: $ 249.95 A totally new idea in games-, write your own adventures in an easy to learn adventune language. You create the sequences and the consequences. Your finished games can be saved and run again or traded to a friend. Comes with two complete games ready to play, manual with examples and suggestions, starter set of IFF icons (weapons, creatures, backgrounds), digitized sounds, everything you need to become a master game maker. SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE: $ 59.95 d° V°U " ¦ell*e’Siead V vDoV-ve 11 ADVENTURE WORKSHOP The ultimate music and sound workshop with 12 digital effects including echo, delay, flanges, etc. Input sounds from stereo, VCR or microphone (with Perfect Sound interface) or a keyboard (with MIDI interface). Edit (cut, paste, overlay, etc.) digitized sounds using menu driven tools. Compatible with model 500, 1000 and 2000 Amigas. SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE: $ 99.95 SunRize Industries 3801 Old College Road Bryan, TX 77801 (409) 846-1311. AMIGA is the registered trademark of Commodore Amiga, Inc Studio Mac and Perfect Vision are registered trademarks of SunRize Industries Digi-View is the registered trademark of New Tek, Inc .THREt stool” SiMONEon oo1 From FOREciojure?! JwalW’1'92 1 Cinemaware Corporation, 4165 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Westlake Viage, Ca. 913627el: (805) 495-6515 Available for Amiga, Atari ST, Apple llgs, IBM PC and Commodore 64, which are trademarks respectively ol Commodore-Amiga, Atari Inc., Apple Computer, Inc., International Business Machines and Commodore Electronics. Ltd. Not all products are available lor all formats. 2 ctua1A™ga