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Full text of "Acorn User 1992 Magazine"

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SEPTEMBER 1992 


Is Eureka 

I the ultimate 
% spreadsheet? 


ISSN DSba-VMSb 


9 770263 745024 


ARCHIMEDES 


MASTER 


A3000 • A5000 





PRODUCTS 


£399.00 

£479.00 

£889.00 

£329.00 

£429.00 


£199.00 □ 


£45.00 

£49.00 

£129.00 

£149.00 


£19.00 

£44.00 

£33.00 

£39.00 

£24.00 

£69.00 

£49.00 

£79.00 

£30.00 


A3000 

Hard Disc Drives 

45Mb External 
100Mb External 
200Mb External 
HardCard45 
HardCardlOO 
30Mb IDE Internal 
with User Port 
Memory Upgrades 
1Mb RAM 
1Mb Expandable 
2Mb to 4Mb for above 
4Mb RAM 

Interface Products (Internal) 

Serial Upgrade 
User/Analogue Podule 
User Port 

TV-Modulator Podule 
Second Drive Interface 
Get Control Pack 
Mono Vision Digitiser 
Colour Vision Digitiser 
"Vision Colour Upgrade 
Interface Products (External) 

Econet Upgrade 
Podule Case 
Mono Vision Digitiser 
Colour Vision Digitiser 
••Vision Colour Upgrade 

A300/A400/A5000 

Hard Disc Drives 

45Mb External 
100Mb External 
200Mb External 
45Mb Internal 
100Mb Internal 
200Mb Internal 
Memory Upgrades 
1Mb RAM for A400 
2Mb RAM for A5000 
Interface Products (Internal) 

‘Second Drive Interface 
Econet Upgrade 
Mono Archimedes Vision 
Colour Archimedes Vision 
“Vision Colour Upgrade 

•Not for use with A5000 or A300 
“Please supply Vision Digitiser board 
serial number when ordering 
Book (no VAT) 

'Control On The Archimedes' £9.95 □ 

Please send a free HCCS 

Product Guide □ 


£35.00 

£15.00 

£62.00 

£92.00 

£30.00 


£399.00 

£479.00 

£889.00 

£289.00 

£369.00 

£779.00 


£45.00 

£89.00 


£24.00 

£35.00 

£49.00 

£79.00 

£30.00 


SUBTOTAL 
VAT. (17.5%) 

TOTAL 

NAME: 


ADDRESS: 



POST CODE 






VISA or ACCESS WELCOME 











EXPIRY DATE m/m 

Please photocopy this order form 
if desired 


HCCS products available from 
all good Dealers 


All prices excluding VAT. 
Postage and Packaging free. 
E&OE 


Quality Reliability Performance Qual 
bility Performance Quality Reliability 


Save $ 
(fit Adjust 
XZ™ Grab frane 
s Continuous 
Dill Process 
Colourl 



bility 


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Quaiiiyh eiiability 


P erf or man™ 1 'ability Perf 

Quality Re A /I xlf jMfflncc Qua 

bility Perfo \\ t iser 

Perf or man y. ww... . Mobility Perf 


Qu ality Reliability Performance Qu a 


bill 

Per 

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Qm 

bill 

Per 

« 

Qm 

bill 

Per 

Qu 


bill 

Per 


£ 




The Vision Colour Digitiser Is 
Now Available 


Working in real time and while maintaining the functions of 
the Mono Vision Digitiser, it also has the ability to provide 
impressive, high quality images in full colour. The Vision 
Colour Digitiser takes a signal from any PAL video source, 
such as a CamCorder, Video Cassette Recorder or Canon 
Ion, and processes it to provide a high quality image. It 
then provides the user with two colour processing options; 
one lasting about one minute and forty seconds and the 
other, high quality option, taking just six minutes. Both 
options provide the user with a simple and effective way to 
enhance DTP documents. The sophisticated image 
processing software generates images which compare with 
those from digitisers costing up to £1000. The digitised 
image above demonstrates clearly the high definition and 
clarity that can be easily achieved when using this product. 
Mono Vision Digitisers are easily upgraded to colour, by the 
user, with a Vision Colour Upgrade. 

• Uses ETT (Error Transfer Technique) 

• Image size of 250 lines by 640 pixels 

• Risc_OS compliant 

• On screen controls 

• Produces a standard sprite format 

Vision Colour Digitiser £79 

For specific prices see strip for details 


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TTJ Alt/l liK/ S/C/1 JC l/ I J unri '§ t-i' it Sr C' ^ 

HCCS ASSOCIATES LIMITED, 

575-583 DURHAM ROAD, LOW FELL, GATESHEAD, 

TYNE AND WEAR. NE9 5JJ. Tel: (091) 4870760 Fax: (091) 4910431 




lit} 

nft 

uai 

lity 

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Magenta 


Yellow 


Key Black 


iKlt 




blacks! 


S.-:- ■" l|l| ' § 

i\- : mm i 


fTaJflwS 


lour from a monochrome BJ-10 or DeskJet 




Or almost any other printer which can take coloured inks or ribbons. 
Two-pass printing for best results on a DeskJet 500C. No more soggy brown 


Results comparable in quality with print from a £2000 colour printer. 

CMYK colour separation ‘on the fly’ using normal files (Draw, Impression etc) 
and standard RISC OS printer drivers. ColourSep should work with 
Computer Concepts’ TurboDrivers - we’ll check as soon as they appear. 

Screen preview of colour separations. Fine tuning and non-linearity 
compensation to suit different inks. . ( 


/ 
Me 
/ 
/ 


Discover the excitement of colour printing for 
the first time, or improve the quality of your 
current work. 


!ColourSep Ink Setup Chart 

Cynn 


Single user copy £25. Site Licence £60. 

We can also supply complete kits including coloured inks, cartridges and paper. 
Order from ICS or ask your dealer. 

Prices exclude VAT. Carriage is free on UK prepaid orders. 




ICS (Ian Copestake Software) 

Dept B34, 1 Kington road, West Kirby, WIRRAL, Merseyside, L48 5ET 

Tel: 051 -625 1 006 Fax: 051 -625 1 007 







pipedreamH! 


!5 Septi-Kibct 1<«I 


i Deal Mn. Caiuiidy 

15 T would like to thank you ami yom 

16 move u» our new jircmiscis. As a 

17 ahead of schedule and the UiMupo 
9 to an absolute minimum. II mil* 

kis simple’ 


di ng out for parncu E 


Imagine a flexible word processor in 
which you can use fonts and pictures to 
give stunning presentation to your 
letters and reports. And a 93,000 word 
spelling checker and user dictionaries 
for letter-perfect writing. 

Imagine the most powerful spread- 
sheet package on the Archimedes. 
Background recalculation so you carry 
on working while it computes. 160 
built-in functions, plus a programming 
language for your own custom func- 
tions. Arrays within slots for easy 
manipulation of structured data. 

Imagine dynamic charts straight from 
your data. Multiple scales to compare 
trends. Personalised Penguin Graphics 
with bars filled by your ow r n draw' files to 
dazzle your friends and colleagues. 

COLTON software 

■ ■ ■ ^ 


Coltonsoft Limited 
2 Signet Court 
Swanns Road 
Cambridge 
CB5 8LA 

Tel: (0223) 311881 
Fax: (0223) 312010 


Imagine a fast and compact database 
package with full sorting, searching and 
selection criteria. With links straight to 
the word processor for printing mail- 
shots and labels. 

Imagine user-friendly features such as 
configurable menus, template files to 
start new documents from, and auto- 
matic fitting of column w idths to the 
data. 

PipeDream 4 
the works 

Free your imagination. 

RRP £196+ VAT. Call for education prices 
and site licences. PipeDream 4 is ideal for any 
Archimedes, A3000 or A5000 with 2MB 
RAM or more. 


For a free rs brochure, complete and 
return this coupon. 

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Postcode 



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SEPTEMBER 1992 
ISSUE 122 


COVER ILLUSTRATION 


Danny Jenkins 


Editor Barry Monk 
Assistant Editor Karen Donaghay 
Promotions Executive: Jane McCann 
Technical Editor Paul James 
Art Editor Tony Judge 
News Editor Ian Burley 
Editorial Assistant Sarah Burns 
Advertisement Manager 
Duncan Pringle 

Deputy Advertisement Manager 

Richard Power 

Sales Executive Areef Vohra 
Ad Production Fiona Andrews 
Production Manager Jennifer Jeffrey 
Publisher Seamus Geoghegan 
Publishing Director Michael Potter 
Editorial Director Christopher Ward 


Published by Redwood Publishing, 
a BBC Enterprises Company, 101 
Bayham Street, London NW1 
OAG.Tel: 071-331 8000. Fax: 

071 331 8001. Bureau setting 
and ad typesetting by Bold Gray 
Design, 52 Rosebery Avenue, London, 

EC 1 R 4RP. Colour by Trumps Studio, 
Ware, Herts. Printed by Cradley Print Ltd, 
West Midlands. Distributed by BBC 
Frontline, Park House, 1 1 7 Park Road, 
Peterborough. © Redwood Publishing 
1992. All rights reserved. Acorn is a 
registered trademark of Acorn 
Computers Ltd. 


ABC 


Redwood Publishing is a 


Member df ihc Audi) registered data user. ISSN 

Bureau ofClrculacion Q253 7456 


PRODUCED ON 
THE ARCHIMEDES 

All the editorial pages in 
BBC Acorn User are 
produced on a DTP 
system using Acorn 
Archimedes 440/1 and 
A540 computers, Com- 
puter Concepts' 
Impression 2 with Laser 
Direct printers and 
Taxan monitors 


NEWS 

7 

GRAPHICS COLUMN 

15 

COMMS COLUMN 

16 

ENTER EUREKA 

Have Arc spreadsheets come of age? 

20 

MODERN ART 

Can computer art become respectable? Peter Worrall thinks so 

27 

NEXT MONTH 

32 

FREE ADS 

The easy way to buy or sell your hardware and software 

47 

WORD POWER 

Decorative text in a jiffy with Midnight Express 

51 

BAU PROGRAM SECTION 

55 

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS 

If you've never typed a line of Basic in your life - here's the place to start 

59 

WIRED UP FOR SOUND 

The last in our popular series on Arc sound features a complete synthesizer 

61 

♦INFO 

An excursion into chaos, and a high-powered scientific calculator 

67 

ASSEMBLY LINE 

More help with the byzantine workings of the Arm chip 

76 

PIECES OF EIGHT 

Not one, but two vast and wonderful games for the BBC micro 

78 

YELLOW PAGES 

A bumper crop of quality-tested programs for you to key in 

81 

SUBSCRIPTIONS 

89 

MOVING ON 

A day out at the multimedia zoo with the Dictionary of the Living World 

91 

SHORT SHARP SCSI 

The Small Computer Systems Interface turns up everywhere, but what is it? 

95 

PRIMETIME 

How to make teaching maths less of a chore 

101 

ARM LTD 

Acorn's chipmakers go from strength, and now they're taking on the world 

103 

NET GAINS 

108 

The first in a new series that sheds light on the mystery of computer networks 

GAME SHOW 

112 

At last, Populous on the Arc, plus reviews of Revelation and Saloon Cars Deluxe 

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

Technical conundrums unscrambled while you wait 

115 

LETTERS 

Over to you: your views on the Acorn world 

120 


20 

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French 

tnjjtiil) 

Mali 

~4~ 

Fred 


87 

91 

' 96 

'5* 

Jim 


92 

94 

97 

6 

Sheila 


96 

95 

92 

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Graham 


82 

87 

88 

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Barry 


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MODERN ART 



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ARC SOUND 



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BEEB CLASSICS 


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BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 3 










21 JULY 1 992 FANCY 24-BIT COLOUR FROM YOUR BJ-10/ DJ-500? > 


1st Word Plus 

Acom 

£62 

- extra copy of manual 

Acom 

V0 £10 

3d Construction Kit 

Domark 

£35* 

A3000 Technical Reference 


Manual 

Acom 

vo £30 

A4 Technical Reference ManuaUcomVO £65* 

A5000 Technical Reference 



Manual 

Acom 

vo £65 

A540 Technical Guide 

Acorn 

vo £65 

Adventure Playground, age 5+ stom 

i £16 

Aggressor 

Atomic 

£16 

Air Supremacy 

Suporior 

£17 

Alerion 

Dabs 

£13 

Alien Invasion 

Dabs 

£13 

All-In Boxing 

Dabs 

£13 

Alpha-Base 

Clares 

£34 

ALPS Adventure Language 



Programming System 

Alpine 

£28 

Amazing Ollie, age 4+ 

Storm 

£14 

Ancestry 

Minerva 

£59 

ANSI C Release 3 

Acom 

£124 

- extra copy of manual 

Acorn 

vo£19 

Arcade 3 Compilation 

Clares 

£12 

ArcComm 2 

Longman 

£33 

ArcDFS 

Dabs 

£22 

Arcendium 

Dabs 

£13 

Archimedes Assembly Language Dabs vo£15 

- with disc 


£22 

Archimedes First Steps 

Dabs 

vo£10 

Archimedes Game Maker’s Manual 



Sigma 

vo £13* 

Archway 2 

Simtron 

£78 

ArcLight 

Ace 

£40 

ArcMonitor 

CIS 

£24 

Amounts Manager 

Visionscan £295 

ARC-PCB 

Silicon 

£138 

- Professional 

Silicon 

£269 

- Schematics 

Silicon 

£475 

ArcSpell 1 

Xavier 

£29 

ArcSpell 2 

Xavier 

£29 

Arete rm 7 

Serial Port £54 

ARCticulate 

Fourth Dim £21 

ARCtist 

Fourth Dim £21 

ArcTrivia 

Moray 

£21 

Armadeus 

Clares 

£59 

Artisan II 

Clares 

£43 

Artworks -istsept? 

” cc £1 49* 

Astro 

Topoiogika £29 

Atelier 

Minerva 

£63 

Autosketch CAD 

Autodesk 

£65 

Avon 

Topoiogika £16 

Ballarena 

Etoma 

£14 

Bambuzle 

Arxe 

£16 

BASIC V Guide 

Dabs 

V0 £10 

Battletank 

Minerva 

£8 

BBC Basic Guide 

Acom 

V0 £19 

Beginner’s Guide to Wimp Programming 

on the Archimedes 

Sigma 

vo£13* 

Black Angel 

Fourth Dim £28* 

Blaston 

Etema 

£14 

Blitz 

Arxe 

£17 

HOW TC 


BlowPipe 

Leading Edge £ 1 4 

Bobby Blockhead vs 



The Dark Planet 

Atomic 

£16 

Bookstore, age 7-16 

ESM 

£39 

Break 147 & Superpool 

Fourth Dim 

£26 

Broadcast Loader 

Acom 

£63 

Bubble Fair 

Etema 

£14 

Bug Hunter / MoonDash 

Minerva 

£10 

Bug Hunter in Space 

Minerva 

£10 

Business Accounts 

Minen/a 

£298 

CableNews 

Lingenuity 

£165 

Cadet 

Minerva 

£139 

Cartoon Collection 

Micro Studio £16 

Cartoon Line 

Etema 

£17 

Casino 

Minerva 

£11 

Castle of Dreams 

Storm 

£17 

Cataclysm 

Fourth Dim 

£21 

Caverns 

Minorva 

£10 

C: A Dabhand Guide 

Dabs V0 £14 

- with disc 


£22 

C Development System 

RISC 

£77 

Chameleon (new version) 

4mation 

£34 

Charts & Graphs Computer Tutorial 

£17 

ChartWell 

RISC 

£25 

Chequered Flag 

CIS 

£17 

- Extra Circuits 

CIS 

£16 

Chess 3D (not OS 3) 

Micro Power £14 

Children’s Graphics 

Micro Studio £16 

Chocks Away 

Fourth Dim 

£21 

- Compendium 

Fourth Dim 

£32 

- Extra Missions 

Fourth Dim 

£15 

Chopper Force 

Fourth Dim£ POA 

Chuck Rock 

Krisaiis 

£19 

Clip Art 

Graphics Factory 


VAT: UK customers please add 17.5% to the total price, except for the zero-rated items 
marked VO. Our VAT number is 595 7258 84. 

CARRIAGE IS FREE WITHIN MAINLAND UK IF YOU PA Y ON ORDERING. 

Overseas carriage: If you are paying by credit card we will add airmail and insurance 
at cost. Otherwise please add £6 (Europe) or at least £12 (elsewhere) for each software 
item and send a pounds sterling bank draft payable in England, or Eurocheques for not 
more than £100 each. 

Credit cards are welcome. We do not charge your account until your order has been 
fulfilled. The name and address for delivery of goods should be as known to the credit 
card company. If you are leaving an order on our answering machine please include 
your telephone number, the expiry date of your card, and your calculation of the total 
payment due. 

Official orders are welcome. Payment is due in 14 days. Invoices are subject to 
carriage and late payment charges. 

Site licences are available for most products. Please check our prices. 

All products, prices and specifications are offered in good faith and are subject to 
change without notice. We process all orders immediately, but suppliers sometimes 
keep us waiting. Goods are guaranteed but we do not supply them on approval. 


DrawBender 
- site licence 
Draw Print & Plot 
Dread Dragon Droom 
Dreamwave 
Drop Ship 


ICS 

Oak 

Resource 

EMR 

Fourth Dim 


£15 

£50 

£37 

£21 

£34 

£16 


DTP Graphics 1 Mono, sprites Micro studio £1 5 
DTP Graphics 2 Colour Micro studio £1 7 

DTP Graphics combined Micro studio £25 

DTP Seeds 4mation vo £8 

DTP Theme Packs, age 5-16 esm 

- Christmas £35 

- Editor’s £29 

- Maths £29 

Easiword Plus Minerva £55 

EasiWriter icon £115 

- Dictionaries: Danish / French / 

German / Italian / Norwegian / 

Spanish / Swedish / Welsh each £30 


- Vol 2 (General) / Vol 3 (Animals) / Vol 
4 (Sport) / Vol 5 (Characters) each £25 


Clip Art Set 1 , drawfiles 

Midnight 

£29 

Clip Art Set 2, drawfiles 

Midnight 

£29 

Coffee, age 9+ 

Storm 

£27* 

Colour Screen»Mac 

Human 

£90 

- Arc/Mac Cable 

Human 

£24 

ColourSep 

ICS 

£25. 

- site licence 


£60- 

Compression 

CC 

£35 

Concept Designer 

Longman 

£22 

Conqueror 

Suporior 

£17 

Control Logo 

Longman 

£22 

Control Panel 

Lingenuity 

- £14 

Converta-Key 

Triple R 

£15 

Cops 

Alpine 

£15 

Corruption 

Magnetic 

£21 

Craftshop 1 

4mation 

£27 

Craftshop 2 

4mation 

£27 

Creator 

Alpine 

£31 

Crisis 

CIS 

£12 

Cross-32 Meta-Assembler 

Baildon 

£175 

- manual for evaluation 

Baildon 

vo£15 

Cyber Chess Fourth Dim 

£39 

DataVision 

Silicon 

£110 

DataWord 

Triple R 

£15 

Decorated Alphabet, sprites 

Micro Studio £17 

Designer V.3 

TechSoft 

£193 

Designer Intro 

Tech Soft 

£75 

Designer's Graphics, draw/sprites 



Micro Studio £16 

DeskEdit 

RISC 

£21 

Desktop Assembler Release 2 Acom 

£119 

Desktop C Release 4 

Acom 

£185 

Desktop Folio, new 1992 edition esm £87 

Desktop Office 

Minen/a 

£69 

Desktop Publisher 

Acom 

£108 

- extra copy of manual 

Acom 

V0 £10 

Desktop Publishing on the Archimedes 


Sigma ' 

vo £13* 

Desktop Thesaurus 

RISC 

£19 

Detect-a-Pet, age 5-1 1 

ESM 

£49 

DFS Reader 

RISC 

£9 

Disc Tree 

Mitre 

£38 


Einstein Ace 

Elite Hybrid 

EluciData (OCR) iriam 

- bought with Iriam Scanner 

Enter the Realm Fourth Dim 

Equasor CC 

Ethnic Borders 4mation 

E-Type Compendium Fourth Dim 

Euclid Ace 

Eureka Longman 

Express Midnight 

Family Favourites (not OS 3) Minerva 
Farmer Giles Computer Tutorial 

Farmer Giles II 
Film-Maker 
Financial Accountant 
Fine Racer 
Fireball II Xtra 
First Impression 
First Words and Pictures Chaiksoft 
Flexifile Minerva 

Flight Path, age 9+ Storm 

Flight Sim Toolkit Shnls 

Flying Start II Mitre 

Fontasy ICS 

Fontasy / DrawBender / Placard 
site licence 
FontFX Data Store 

- site licence 

Font Pack - Newhall, Starter, Symbol 

- each pack Acorn 

Font Pack 1 - Paladin, Swiss B, 

Symbol B, Vogue Rise 

Font Pack - Avant Garde, Bookman 
Pembroke - each pack cc 


£106 
£33 
£155 
£79 
£21 
£38 
£10 
£21 
£50 
£109 
£49 

£11 
£16 

Computor Tutorial £ 1 6 
Silicon £70 

Silicon £199 

Etoma £14 

CIS £12 

Word Processing V0 £28 

£19 
£79 
£27- 
£31* 
£86 
£25 

£80 
£9 
£70 

£35 

£47 

£26 




Have you 
joined yet? 


Fortran 77 Release 2 

Acom 

£75 

Freddy’s Folly (not OS 3) 

Minon/a 

£8 

Freddy Teddy 

Topoiogika 

£18 

- Balloons / The Zoo 

Topoiogika 

£27 

- The Playground 

Topoiogika 

£27 

- The Puddle / The Wardrobe 



Topoiogika 

£27 

Freddy Teddy’s Adventure 

Topoiogika 

£17 

Fun School 2 

Database 


- age -6, age 6-8, age 8+ 

each 

£15 

Fun School 3 

Database 


- age -5, age 5-7, ago 8+ 

each 

£18 

Fun School 4 

Database 


- age -5, age 5-7, ago 8+ 

each 

£20 

Gammaplot 

Minerva 

£36 

Gate Array Design / Teaching Silicon 

£114 

Genesis 1 

Oak 

£40 

Genesis II 

Oak 

£99 

Genesis Plus 

Oak 

£69 

GerberPlot 

Silicon 

£89 

Giant Killer, age 104- 

Topoiogika 

£16 

Giant Killer Support Disc 

Topoiogika 

£14 

Gods 

Krisaiis 

£19 

Good Impression Word Processing V0 £27 

GraphBox 

Minerva 

£55 

GraphBox Professional 

Minerva 

£105 

Graphic Writer 

Clares 

£24 

Greetings Graphics, draw/sprites 



Micro Studio £16 

Gribbly’s Day Out 

CoinAge 

£21- 

GridIT 

Widgit 

£30 

Grievous Bodily ’ARM 

Fourth Dim 

£21 

Hard Disc Companion release 2 Rise 

£45 

Hearsay II 

RISC 

£70 

History Costume, sprites 

Micro Studio £16 

Holed Out 

Fourth Dim 

£16 

- Compendium 

Fourth Dim 

£21 

Home Accounts 

Minerva 

£34 

Hostages 

Superior 

£14 

HotLink Presenter 

Lingenuity 

£29 

House of Numbers 

Chaiksoft 

£20 

Hoverbod (not OS 3) 

Minen/a 

£8 

Hyperbook Electronic Library 


(including Reader) 

Longman 

£109 

Hyperbook Reader 

Longman 

£47 


Ibix the Viking (not OS 3) Minen/a £1 1 

PCSWI Baildon £15 

- bought with Oddule £5 

Illusionist Clares £76 

Illustrators' Graphics, draw/sprites 

Micro Studio £16 

Image Animator iota £68 

Image OCR lota £POA 

Image Outliner iota £72 

Imagine Topoiogika £39 

Impression cc £125 

FREE DRAWBENDER worth £15 
when you buy IMPRESSION! 
Offer expires 31st August 

- network version £650 

- site licence £545 

- extra hardware key for sites only £15 

- extra manual for sites only vo £8 

Impression Borders cc £19 

Impression Business Supplement cc £39 

Impression Junior cc £59 

- site licence £435 

- extra manual for sites only vo £7 

Insight Longman £68 

Instigator Dabs £39 

Interdictor 2 Clares £25 

Investigator 2 (not OS 3) Leading Edge £22 
IronLord UBiSott £14 

Jahangir Khan World 

Championship Squash Krisaks £19 

James Pond Krisaiis £20 

Jet Fighter Minerva £8 

Jiglet 4mation £25 

Jigsaw 4mation £27 

Junior Database iota £45 

Junior PinPoint Longman £23 

Karma Periscope £21 

Kerbang Etema £12 

Keyboard Player Chaiksoft £17 

Knowledge Organiser Clares £42 

Landmarks - Egypt / Rain Forest / 

Second World War / Victorians 
-each Longman £19 

Last Days of Doom Topoiogika £17 

Last Ninja Superior £19* 

Legend of the Lost Temple Eterna £19 

Lemmings Krisaiis £19 

Letters and Pictures Chaiksoft £17 

Level 4 Fileserver Acom £185 

LISP Acorn £145 

Little Red Riding Hood, age 5-8 Selective £15 
Logistix Acorn £77 

Logo Longman £55 

LogoPlotter Longman £19 

Maddingly Hall Minerva £8 

Mad Professor Mariarti Krisaiis £15 

Magpie Longman £45 

Mah-Jong European - The Game cis £19 
Mah-Jong Patience cis £15 

Mailshot Minerva £27 

Manchester United Europe Krisaiis £19 

Manchester United Football Club Knsaiis £19 
Maps and Landscapes 1 Chaiksoft £19 

Maps and Landscapes 2 
Mark Master 


Master Break 
Masterfile II 
Mazes, drawfiles 
Memory Magic 
Mental Maths 
MicroDrive Golf 

- Extra Courses 

- World Edition 
Micro T rader Accounts 
MiG-29 Superfulcrum 
Military History, sprites 
Minotaur 

Missile Control 
Mogul 

Money Matters 
Movaword 
Mr Doo 
MultiFS 

Multistore version II 


Chaiksoft 

Chaiksoft 

Superior 

RISC 


£19 

£67 

£14 

£19 


Micro Studio £16 


CIS 

CIS 

CIS 

CIS 

CIS 

PRES 

Domark 


£12 

£15 

£14 

£11 

£23 

£199 

£29* 


Micro Studio £16 
Minerva £8 
Minerva 
Ace 
Triple R 
Chaiksoft 
CIS 
Arxo 
Minerva 


£8 

£20 

£15 

£17 

£16 

£27 

£179 


Nature Graphics, draw/sphtes 

Micro Studio £16 
Krisaiis £19* 
Fourth Dim £16 
Fourth Dim £ 21 * 
Longman £18 
Arcana 
Minerva 


Nebulus 

Nevryon 

Nevryon 2 - Technodream 

Newton 

No Excuses 

Nominal Ledger 

Notate 

Note Invaders 
Numbers and Pictures 
Numerator 
Numerator Chaos 

Office Tools 
Ollie Octopus’ Sketchpad 
Order Processing/Invoicing 
Orion 


£21 
£78 

Longman £49* 
Chaiksoft 
Chaiksoft 
Longman 
Longman 


£20 

£20 

£60 

£19 


Silicon £276 

Storm £14 

Minerva £78 

Minerva £8 









< BANISH MONOTONY WITH “COLOURSEP” FROM ICS. 


Orrery 

Spacetech 

£93 

Ovation 

RISC 

£85 

Overload 

Clares 

£13 

Pacmania 

Domark 

£16 

Padlock 

ICS 

£10 

- site licence 


£30 

Pandora’s Box 

Fourth Dim 

£21 

Paradroid Arc 

Coin-Age 

£21* 

PC Access 

Minerva 

£19 

PC Emulator 1 .8 

Acorn 

£85 

Pendown 

Longman 

£47 

Pendown Etoile 

Longman 

£POA 

Pendown Outline Fonts 

Longman 

£19 

Pendown Plus 

Longman 

£68 

Personal Accounts 

Apricote 

£29 

Pesky Muskrats 

Coin-Age 

£21 

Phases#2 Northwest SEMERC £15 

Picture Book 

Triple R 

£15 

PinPoint 

Longman 

£69 

- site licence 


£390 

PipeDream 3 

Colton 

£105 

PipeDream 4 

Colton 

£148- 

PipeDriver Dot 1 

ICS 

£10 

Pipe Mania 

Empire 

£18 

PIPP1 Primary Integrated Project Planner 


CIS 

£36 

PIPP2 Professional Integrated 


Project Planner 



- 5-14 Programme 

CIS 

£85 

- Middle 

CIS 

£52 

- Primary 

CIS 

£44 

- Primary: Homes 

CIS 

£12 

- Resource Centre 

CIS 

£129 

- Secondary 

CIS 

£69 

Pirate, age 8-14 

Chaiksoft 

£19 

Placard 

ICS 

£10 

- site licence 


£30 

Plague Planet 

Alpine 

£13 

Poizone 

Etema 

£14 

Poster 

4mation 

£75 

Powerband 

Fourth Dim 

£21 

Prehistoric Animals, sprites 

Micro Studio £16 

Premier 

Circle 

£71 

- DataBase 

Circle 

£25 

- WordProc 

Circle 

£25 

Presentation System 

Silicon 

£61 

Presenter GTi 

Lingonuity 

£65 

PrimeArt 

Minerva 

£49 

PrimeWord 

Minerva 

£55 

Printer Driver, RISC OS 



- BJIOex TurboDriver + Cable cc 

£42 

- BJC800 TurboDriver + Cable cc 

£98 

-CA (Canon PW1080A) 

Ace 

£15 

- CC (ColourCel) 

Ace 

£15 

- Deskjet 500C TurboDriver + Cable 


CC 

£POA 

- Deskjet 500C 

RISC 

£15 

- Epson, Star colour 

RISC 

£15 

- HP (HP Colour) 

Ace 

£15 

- JX (Epson, Star and Citizen colour) 


Ace 

£15 

Pro Artisan 

Clares 

£70 

ProCAD 

Minerva ! 

£POA 

Programming in ANSI Standard C 


on the Archimedes 

Sigma V0 £13- 

Prophet (requires 2 Mb) 

Apricote 

£134 

Prophet Demo 

Apricote 

£10 

Protext 

Amor 

£114 

Provocator Computer Tutorial 

£15 

Puncman 1 and 2 

Chaiksoft 

£16 

Puncman 3 and 4 

Chaiksoft 

£16 

Puncman 5 to 7 

Chaiksoft 

£17 

Punctuate 

Xavier 

£31 

Purchase Ledger 

Minerva 

£78 

Quest for Gold 

Krisalis 

£21 

QuicKey 

ICS 

£15 

- site licence 


£45 

Realtime Solids Modeller 

Silicon 

£136 

Real McCoy 

Fourth Dim 

£24 

Real McCoy 2 

Fourth Dim 

£24 

Real McCoy 3 

Fourth Dim 

£26 

Redshift 

Minerva 

£11 

Render Bender 1 

Clares 

£55 

Render Bender II 

Clares 

£85 

Reporter 

Minerva 

£29 

Repton 3 

Superior 

£14 

Revelation 1 

Longman 

£54 

Revelation 2 

Longman 

£95 

- CD Rom 

Longman 

£123 

Reversals 

Chaiksoft 

£17 

Rhapsody 2 

Clares 

£45 

RiscBASIC 

Silicon 

£112 


RiscForth Compiler 

Silicon 

£110 

Rise OS Companion Vol 1 

Oak 

V0 £49 

Rise OS Extras 1992 

Acorn 

£9 

Rise OS Programmer’s 



Reference Manual 

Acorn 

V0 £79 

Rise OS Style Guide 

Acorn 

vo £1 1 

RoboLogo 

Silicon 

£69 

Rockfall 

Etema 

£16 

Rotor 

Arcana 

£19 

Sales Ledger 

Minerva 

£78 

Saloon OarS Fourth Dim 

£15 

Saloon Cars Deluxe 

Fourth Dim £28 

- Deluxe Extra Courses 

Fourth Dim £16 

Schema 

Clares 

£89 

School Administrator 

Minerva 

£65 

Science, drawfiles 

Micro Studio £25 

Score Draw 

Clares 

£45 

Scorewriter 

EMR 


- PMS Dot matrix, Version 1 

£127 

- PMS Dot matrix, Version 2 

£147 

- PMS PostScript 


£422 

ScreenPlay 

Widgit 

£35 

Screen Turtle 

Topologika £37 

Search and Rescue, age 9+ 

Storm 

£27* 

Seashore Guide, drawfiles 

Micro Studio £16 

Sesame Street 

Electric Crayon 

- Letters for You 


£16 

- Numbers Count 


£16 

SFXM 

CIS 

£32 

ShapeFX 

Data Store 

£10 

ShareHolder 

Silicon 

£135 

ShowPage 

CC 

£109 

Shylock Gnomes, age 10-15 

Selective 

£19 

SkyHunter 

Longman 

£23 

smArt 

4mation 

£50 


smArt Aliens / Animals / Dinosaurs / Faces / 
Faces (French) / Faces (German) / 
Fashion / Heraldry / Homes / Homes 
(French) / Homes (German) / Leisure / 
Leisure (French) / Leisure (German) / 
Look Smart / Smartoons / Trees and 


Gardens - each 

4mation 

£15 

smArtFiler 

4mation 

£32 

smArt Modern Languages 

4mation 

£19 

Snippet 

4mation 

£26 

Soapbox 

Xavior 

£34 

SolidCAD 

Silicon 

£115 

SolidsRender 

Silicon 

£115 

SolidTools 

Silicon 

£269 

SparkFS DavidPHIing £20* 

Sparkle 

Morloy 

£59 

Special 

ICS 

£10 

- site licence 


£30 

Speech! 

Superior 

£14 

Spelling week-by-week 

Chaiksoft 

£22 

Splice 

Ace 

£29 

Sporting Triangles 

CDS 

£20 

Sports Day 

Selective 

£22 

Square Route < 

Computer Eyes 

£16 

Stock Management 

Minerva 

£78 

Studio24Plus Version 2, age 11+ emr 

£149 

Studio24Plus Version 3, age 12+ emr 

£210 

Super-Dump 

Silicon 

£20 

Superior Golf 

Superior 

£14 

Super-Plot 

Silicon 

£28 

Supersounds 

CIS 

£15 

Supersounds 2 

CIS 

£12 

Swiv 

Krisalis 

£19 

System Delta Plus II 

Minerva 

£50 

- Reference Guide 

Minerva V0 £25 

Tabs 

ExpLAN 

£95 

Tactic 

Etema 

£15 

Talisman 

Minerva 

£8 

Target Maths 

Triple R 

£15 

TechWriter 

Icon 

£245 

Thesaurus 

CC 

£38 

Thinklink 

Xavier 

£29 

Thundermonk 

Minerva 

£8 

Timetabler 

Minerva 

£549 

TimeWatch 

Mitre 

£24 

Tiny Logo + Tiny Draw 

Topologika 

£27 

Titler 

Clares 

£120 

Toolkit Plus 

Claros 

£35 

Tools Graphics, drawfiles 

Micro Studio £23 

Top Banana 

Hex 

£19 

Touch Type 

lota 

£39 

Tower of Babel 

Cygnus 

£17 

Trace 

David Pilling £5 

Tracer 

Midnight 

£46 

Tracker 

Loading Edgo £37 

Transport, drawfiles 

Micro Studio £25 

Trivial Pursuit 

Domark 

£22 


Turbo Type 

Tween 

Twin 

Twin World 


C/S £20 

/tee £26 

Acom £24 

UBI Soft £14 


TWO (Task and Window Organiser) ics £15 

- site licence £60 

TypeStudio Rise £43 

Utility Disc 1 Data Store £8 

Utility Disc 2 Data Store £13 

utility Disc 3 Data Store £7 

Utility Collection Data store £21 

Vector 4mation £75. 

View»Mac 3 Human £65 

- Arc/Mac Cable Human £24 

Vox Box Clares £47 

Waterloo Turcan £23 

Wimp Game Fourth Dim £16 

Wonderland Virgin £24 

Words and Pictures Chaiksoft £17 

World Championship Boxing Manager 

Krisalis £20 

World Geography Maps, drawMicro studio £23 
World Map Study, age 7-16 esm £42 

Leading Edge £16* 
Micro Studio £16 

Oak £14 

Oak £83 

Fourth Dim £21 

Dabs VO £1 5 

Dabs VO £15 

Superior £14 

Micro Power £18 


Worldscape 
World Wildlife, sprites 
Worra Battle 
WorraCAD 

X-Fire 

Z88: A Dabhand Guide 
Z88 PipeDream Guide 
Zarch 

Zelanites (not OS 3) 



A4 COMPUTERS 

Mark your order AO PRIORITY LIST' 
Education discounts available 


2 Mb 

Acom 

£1399 

4/60 Mb (60 Mb Hard Disc) 

with free PC Emulator 1 .8 Acorn 

£1699 

4/80 Mb (80 Mb Hard Disc) 

Acorn 

£POA 

A4 Extra Battery Pack 

Acom 

£50 

A4 Shoulder Bag 

Acorn 

£35 


A5000 COMPUTERS 


2Mb Hard Disc Colour System Acorn £1499 

- as above + Learning Curve £1530 
(Finance & special schemes available) 

MEMORY 

Fitting extra unless otherwise stated 
t Fitting easy t Fitting needs expertise 

A3000 2 Mb Non-upgradable t ifel £55 
A3000 2 Mb Upgradable f ifel £63 
A3000 4 Mb f Atomwide/IFEL £140 

A310 2 Mb Upgradable soldered X ifel £99 

- as above + MEMCla £149 

- as above + MEMCla + fitting £200 
A310 4 Mb soldered + MEMCla X ifelZ 225 

- as above + fitting £277 

- as above + fitting + OS3 carriers £298 

A5000 2-4 Mb Non-upgradable t 

Atomwido £85 
A5000 2-4 Mb Upgradable t Atomwide £109 
A5000 2-8 Mb including fitting Atomwide £500 
A5000 4-8 Mb including fitting Atomwide £391 
A540 4 Mb t Atomwide £238* 

ideA’92 generation I 

Please see separate price list 


MISCELLANEOUS 


386C PC Expansion Card 

Aleph One 


- 1 Mb 


£463 

-4 Mb 


£579 

4-slot 4-layer Backplane 

IFEL 

£59 

9060S Monitor 

Eizo 

£450 

A300/400 Fan kit 

ICS 

£15 

A310 RISC OS Carrier Board X ifel 
A5000 Fitting Kit for second hard disc 

£25 


ICS 

£15 


Arckey Function KeyStrip Holder ics vo £3 
-pack of 4 vo £10 



ARM3 t Aloph One £189* 

Clares Micro Mouse Clares £26 

Dongle Dangle with screw fittings ics £6 
Fan filters (pack of 10) (not A5000) ics £6 


FaxPack 

CC 

£289 

Floppy Discs, 10 x y/ 2 * High Density 

£10« 

Monitor Stand for A3000 

ICS 

£21 

Podule Case for A3000 


£16 

Seal 'n Type spill-proof Keyboard Covers 

- Archimedes / A5000 

Kador 

£14 

- A3000 

Kador 

£14 

TouchWindow 

Lindis 

£234 

Whisper Fan Quietener 



(for A300/A400 series only) ics 

£15 

PRINTERS 



ArcLaser 300-6 

Calhgraph 

£895 

ArcSen/er 300-8 

Calligraph 

£985 

Bubble Jet BJ-IOex 

Canon 

£205 

Bubble Jet BJIOex + TurboDriver 



Canon/CC £234* 

Bubble Jet BJ-300 

Canon 

£360 

Bubble Jet BJ-330 

Canon 

£405 

Bubble Jet BJC-800 


+ TurboDriver canoncc £1499 

Laser Direct HiRes4 with 50-sheet tray 



CC 

£849 

- 250-sheet Paper Cassette 

£99 

Laser Direct HiRes8 

CC £1280 

Laser Direct LBP-4 Card 

CC 

£325 

LBP-4 

Canon 

£659 


Refill toner cartridge for Canon EPS £50 
New toner cartridge for Canon LBP-4 £59 


SCANNERS, DIGITISERS 


ArcScanner including Epson GT-4000 



Clares 

£1660 

FaxScan 

Spacetech 

£94 

Hawk V9 

Wild Vision £199 

- A3000 version 

Wild Vision 

i £278 

iMage (Sharp JX-100) 

Irlam 


- for A5000 


£490 

- for other computers 


£589 

Image Scanner 

lota 

£383 

- Colour upgrade 

lota 

£148 

- Fast parallel card 

lota 

£98 

- Lighting unit 

lota 

£91 

i-Scan 200 

Irlam 

£539 

i-Scan 400 

Irlam 

£589 

Pineapple Colour Video Digitiser 



Pineapple 

£195 

- A3000 boxed 

Pineapple 

£230 

Prolmage (Epson GT6000) 

Irlam 


- for A5000 


£989 

- for other computers 


£1089 

Scan-Light A4 

CC 

£277 

- with Sheet Feeder 

CC 

£360 

Scan-Light Junior 256 

CC 

£190 

- A3000 internal 

CC 

£190 

Scan-Light Professional 

CC 

£565* 

- as above + SCSI interface cc 

£699* 

Snapshot Colour Video Digitiser 



Lingenuity 

£195 

- A3000 version 

Lingonuity 

£275 

Spectra 

RISC 

£545 

- A3000 Internal 

RISC 

£545 

- A3000 External 

RISC 

£565 

Vision Digitiser 

HCCS 

£49 

- A3000 Internal 

HCCS 

£49 

- A3000 External 

HCCS 

£62 


RC PRODUCTS 

AnDi Oddule BaikJon £30 

l 2 C Adaptor (needed unless you 

already have an l 2 C socket) Baiidon £10 
PC SWI (enhanced IIC .Control) Baiidon £15 
- bought with Oddule £5 



AUTHORISED ACORN DEALER 


ICS (Ian Copestake Software) 

Dept B34, 1 Kington road, West Kirby, WIRRAL, Merseyside, L48 5ET 

Tel: 051-625 1006 Fax:051-625 1007 


E&OE D61 92JL21 


LICENSED CREDIT BROKER 









uilt for speed. The new generation of IDE interface cards 
from ICS leaves the competition standing. 



With background mode operation, our new 8-bit internal 
interface for the A3000 is already producing speeds in excess of 
800 kb/sec with certain hard discs. 1 .6 Mb/sec is possible with 
our 16-bit interfaces. And we haven’t finished tweaking yet! 

Not one, not two, but three levels of password protection 
provide the security your data really deserve. 


Hard discs can have so they appear as separate 

drives, with different protection levels if required. 

Almost nitless expansion is possible via the I 2 C port 
which our cards have always included as standard. 


A3000 Internal 2%" ideA’92 


or A300/400/500 2 1 / 2 " ‘Hard Card’ 

20 Mb 

£212 


60 Mb 

£349 


80 Mb 

£449 

A300/400/500 3%' Internal 

40 Mb 

£210 


80 Mb 

£275 


100 Mb 

£305 


200 Mb 

£499 


340 Mb 

£775 


It took us some time to understand IDE, but then we started two years ago. If you’ve had problems 
with products from less experienced suppliers we’ll do our best to help you pick up the pieces. 

We don’t advertise what we can’t supply. All the above are available as this goes to press. 

Prices are for complete upgrade kits and exclude VAT. Carriage is free on UK prepaid orders. 
External options are also available. Not all interfaces yet include all of the ideA '92 features - please 
check. 


ICS (Ian Copestake Software) 

Dept B34, 1 Kington road, West Kirby, WIRRAL, Merseyside, L48 5ET 

Tel: 051 -625 1 006 Fax: 051 -625 1 007 


NEWS 


ACORN LEADS EUROPEAN PROJECT 


ACORN IS to be the leading 
member of an EC-funded pro- 
ject to develop an advanced 
portable computer for the 
European education market. It 
will be Arm processor-based 
and offer high-tech features 
like speech recognition and 
versatile comms links at an 
affordable price. 

The Power (Portable Work- 
station for Education in 
Europe) Project, as it is 
modestly called, includes 
Acorn and Arm Ltd from the 
UK. Opsis and Idate, both of 
whom have expertise in micro- 
electronics display and wire- 
less communications technol- 
ogy, join the project from 
France. Portugal's contribution 
comes from Pluricom, a tele- 
comms and IT consultancy. 

Other contributing com- 
panies include Italian software 
developer Etnoteam, Lernout 
& Hauspie Speech Products 
from Belgium and the Por- 
tuguese University of Aveiro. 

Funding comes from Esprit 
(European Strategic Pro- 
gramme for Research into IT). 
The project is set to last for 36 



Arm chips get into Europe 

months. Firstly, research will 
be carried out to identify mar- 
ket trends and requirements, 
then actual products will be 
developed. Although edu- 
cation is the priority market, 
the project members expect 
there will be an overlap with 
other areas. Looking even fur- 
ther forward, the project aims 
to produce computers based on 
next-generation Arm chips, 
with another Esprit project in 
mind, the Open Microproces- 
sor systems Initiative (OMI). 

Acorn’s technical director, 
Malcolm Bird commented: 
‘Many elements of the ena- 


bling technology for this pro- 
ject already exist in Europe 
and in many cases Power will 
concentrate on developing and 
integrating this technology 
into the production of a port- 
able product.’ 

He added: ‘We are currently 
witnessing a rapid growth in 
the installed base of portable 
computers. Education has 
always sought the freedom that 
portability offers and in the 
schools of tomorrow all 
children are likely to have 
their own personal computers.’ 

On the face of it the Power 
Project looks great for Acorn. 
As project leader it should 
have the greatest influence and 
its Arm-chip experience will 
be invaluable. However, it 
remains to be seen if Rise OS 
will form part of the project. 

This isn’t the first Euro-pro- 
ject Acorn has been involved 
in, but this is the first time that 
Acorn will actually lead. 
Acorn could be on the verge of 
gaining a big slice of the 
European education market, 
which is many times the size 
of its market here in the UK. 


CUMANA'S CD-ROM PORTFOLIO 



CD-Roms galore from Cumana 


THE LATEST CD-Rom Port- 
folio for Education has been 
published by CD-Rom special- 
ist Cumana. The publication is 
a no-nonsense concise guide to 
educational CD-Rom publi- 
cations and their hardware 
requirements, including the 
growing range of discs now 
being developed for the Rise 
OS desktop. The portfolio con- 
tains over 40 titles, mostly 
developed in the UK, costing 
between £20 and £495 suitable 
for pupils between the ages of 
nine to 18. 

Cumana’s managing direc- 
tor John Simnett commented: 
‘By building the range on two 
themes, titles that have edu- 
cational merit and titles 
published in the UK, Cumana 
hopes to encourage the growth 
of home produced educational 
software relevant to the 
National Curriculum.’ 

• SCSI users might like to 
note that Cumana has pro- 


duced a user-friendly manage- 
ment program, SCSI Manage- 
ment, which lets the user 
partition SCSI hard discs and 
password protect sections con- 
taining confidential data. Read 
or write-only privileges can 
also be assigned to the same 
sections. The program was 


developed specifically with IT 
advisors in mind. 

The program can also be 
used in conjunction with 
Cumana’s EasyShare network- 
ing firmware to section shared 
SCSI peripherals on the net- 
work. Contact Cumana on 
(0483)503121. 


JOINING 
THE CLUB 


SONAMARA means ‘sound 
of the sea’ in Gaelic and it’s 
the name of a new company 
formed by ex-Acorn area sales 
manager, Peter Turnbull, 
which aims to unite 
Archimedes-using individuals 
and channel their collective 
influence to extract the best 
from the Acorn market. 

Turnbull has been develop- 
ing his idea for several years 
and, last Christmas, he finally 
started to make that dream 
real. The object is to register, 
free of charge and with no 
obligation, potential Acorn 
product customers in what 
Turnbull describes as a club. 
Unlike existing Acorn user 
groups which tend to cater for 
the technically oriented, 
Sonamara is aimed at users 
who aren’t necessarily boffins. 

Sonamara will differ from 
traditional marketing clubs of 
the book and record variety by 
offering a much more personal 
relationship with members. 
One of Sonamara’ s key aims is 
to persuade third-party 
developers to tailor or develop 
new products according to 
specifications drawn up by the 
club members. Turnbull has 
already been in contact with a 
number of well-known indus- 
try names which he will be 
revealing later in the year. 

For further details, write to 
Sonamara, PO Box 151, Dun- 
nington, York, Y01 5YT. 


MORE MIDI 
MUSIC 

AN ESTABLISHED player in 
RM Nimbus music education, 
Impac Resources Ltd, has 
turned its attention to the Arc 
and converted three of its 
popular Midi packages, Tune- 
maker , Rhythm Kit and 
Melody Train. All cover 
aspects of the music curricu- 
lum from Key Stage 1 to Key 
Stage 4 and offer the choice of 
Midi output or Arc-generated 
sound. Impac Resources Ltd is 
on (0751)77456. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 7 







Ovation 1.30 

Announcing a major new release of the highly 
acclaimed desktop publisher 


Ovation is the easy-to-use desktop publisher 
used on thousands of sites 
in education and business 
across the country. Now, in 
response to customer 
feedback, it has l^een 

enhanced with many new features, setting 
even higher standards of quality and value. 

Ovation is packed with professional 
features, yet remains easy-to-leam and 
instinctive to use. It provides a complete 
solution for all document generation; from 
simple single page letters to entire books with 
diagrams and scanned images. 


For the users convenience, Ovation is 
NOT copy protected. 


Upgrade to version 1.30 

Upgrade to version 1.30 for just £ 5 + VAT + 
£1 carriage (£6.88 inclusive). Please return 
your original program disc to the address 
below. A site licence upgrade is available 
casting £15 (£18.63 inclusive). 


New features include 

□ Mail merge — Ovation documents may be 
merged with CSV files generated by 
databases and other applications 

□ Pamphlet printing — scaled and rotated 
printout for printing booklets with 
correctly ordered pages 

□ Rotated pictures— <iraw files may be 
rotated to any angle (also Sprites if you 
have RISC OS 3.0) 

O 1st Word Plus import — 1st Word Plus files 
may be imported with style information 
directly into Ovation 

□ Thesaurus hodink — automatic transfer of 
words l^etween Ovation and latest 
Desktop 'I’hesaurus (version 1.10) 

O Draft printing — fast draft printing via RISC 
OS printer drivers 

□ System font — easy-to-read non anti- 
aliased system font in four weights 
(medium, bold, italic and bold italic) 

O RISC OS 3.00 compatibility — rotated text 
in Draw files, 256 grey-level sprites and 
the desktop boot facility 


TypeStudio 

The flexible text effects package 


TypeStudio is a complete text manipulation 
package ideal for producing professional 
quality adverts, posters, banners, logos, 
letterheads etc. 

Drawing tools allow lines and curves to 
be drawn to create almost any shape, along 
which text can be flowed. 
Pairs of lines may be 
linked to create shapes 
into which text and Draw 
files may be moulded. 

A range of special effects are available, 
including: shadow, slant, 3D and mirror. 


• Flow text along straight and curved paths 

• Mould text and Draw files to shapes 

• Wall floor and graduated shadows 

• 3-D, mirror, slant and plinth effects 

• Save in internal and Draw file format 

• Print using RISC OS printer drivers 

• Grid and zoom facilities 

• Copy, rotate and magnify 

• Import Draw files as moulds 

The package includes 7 fonts and a 64-page 
user guide containing many worked 
examples. 



‘Of the three (packages), TypeStudio is the most comprehensive. All the tools you are likely to need 
are included and there is no need to use any other application with it. ’ ACORN USER May 92 


Desktop Thesaurus 

New, bigger thesaurus with hotlink to Ovation 




Desktop Thesauais now contains over 
13,750 keywords and 

flggfSjSSLM nearly 135,000 synonyms. 

1 11 IS ^ or c * evc ^°P in 8 

language skills in the office, 
in school or at home. 

Ideal for use with Ovation, Impression, 
Pipedream, Edit, 1st Word Plus and other 
desktop publishers and word processors. 


• Synonyms are grouped by noun, verb etc. 

• Single click to browse through synonyms 

• Data compressed to save disc space 

• Chosen synonyms may be transferred 
instandy to other applicadons 

Upgrade to version 1.10 

Upgrade to version 1.10 for just £2 + VAT + £1 
carriage (£3.35 inclusive). Please return your 
original disc to the address below. 


'...works both speedily and painlessly. This one is recommended. ’ ARCHIMEDES WORIJ) Jul 92 



RISC Developments Limited, 117 Hatfield Road, St. Albans, Herts. All 4JS. To order, or for more information, call (0727) 40303 

All software is suitable for Archimedes, A5000 and A3000 systems with 1Mb RAM and RISC OS 2.00 or 3.00. 

Please add VAT to all prices and carriage of £3.10 for Ovation and £2 for other products. 

All prices are for single user versions — site licence prices available on request. 



NEWS 


NEW VERSATILE OVERLAY KEYS 



Universal icons from Mikrodaisy 


MIKRODAISY International 
claims its new Universal Icon 
Board is the most versatile 
overlay keyboard on the mar- 
ket. The new A3-sized 
pressure-sensitive device has 
an angled working surface and 
has either 128 or 256 keys. 
Overlay sheets are located 
firmly by a a retaining slot. 

The board can be connected 
to an Archimedes, or even a 
PC or Apple Macintosh, sim- 
ply by changing a connector. 
Either the User Port or serial 
interface can be used and no 
external power supply is 
required. 

Mikrodaisy says the new 
board is compatible with most 
existing software, and soon 
Mikrodaisy’s Intercept Family 
standard will offer a simplified 


software platform for users 
wishing to develop their own 
new applications. 

A Universal Icon Board for 
the Archimedes is priced at 


£159, the Intercept software 
costs £39 and the two together 
are discounted to £177. 
Mikrodaisy can be contacted 
on: (0703) 455004. 


PORTABLE ETHERNET 


CD-ROM 

MANUALS 

CAMBRIDGE-BASED Emer- 
ald Publishing is to publish a 
set of Acorn technical docu- 
mentation on CD-Rom. The 
disc is aimed at Rise OS 
developers and will contain 
programmers reference 

manuals (PRMs), DDE/C/ 
Assembler manuals plus 
guides to BBC Basic, Rise OS 
2 and 3 User and Applications 
and more. 

The advantage of CD-Rom 
presentation is in powerful 
searching, a note-taking facil- 
ity, user-definable book-marks 
and the facility to view more 
than one page from different 
sections at the same time. 
Emerald expects to have the 
CD-Rom available in time for 
October’s BA U show. 

• Also from Emerald Publish- 
ing is Draw Book, described as 
a cheap alternative to Archi- 
medes DTP software. It 
arranges Draw images into 
sequences of pages with user- 
edited headers, footers and 
page numbers. The whole 
sequence can be printed as a 
single multi-page document 
with a single command. Draw- 
Book costs £17.62, including 
VAT, and there is a free site 
licence for schools. 

Emerald Publishing can be 
contacted on (0223) 840138. 


ATOMWIDE has produced 
the Acorn A4’s first dedicated 
hardware peripheral, an 
Ethernet adapter. It is a 
pocket-sized device which gets 
around the A4\s lack of a 
podule expansion bus by con- 
necting to its parallel printer 
port. Connection to the net- 
work is over thin Ethernet 
cabling (10Base-2). TCP/IP 
protocol software is included 
and the interface will be com- 
patible with Acorn’s AUN 
(Acorn Universal Network) 
system which will be officially 
unveiled later this year. 


‘Ethernet and AUN are the 
way forward for networking 
with Acorn computers. By 
supporting Acorn’s own soft- 
ware and industry standards 
we can guarantee our cus- 
tomers complete compatibility 
with Acorn’s networking stra- 
tegy, which we fully support,’ 
said Atomwide’s managing 
director, Martin Coulson. 

Atomwide intends to release 
the A4 Ethernet adapter in 
October, priced at £234 inc 
VAT. Education discounts will 
be offered. Atomwide is avail- 
able on (0689) 838852 



NEWS IN BRIEF 


• IN A DEAL worth £250,000, 
Greyhound marketing is to mar- 
ket Arc products produced by The 
Vertical Twist (TVT), the company 
which was formed by Andrew 
Foyle after he and The Serial 
Port's Hugo Fiennes decided to 
go their separate ways last year. 

TVT produces about 20 differ- 
ent Arc add-ons and software 
packages from joystick interfaces 
and Midi samplers to programs 
like Worldscape, Tracker and 
Investigator. 

The deal means that TVT pro- 
ducts will be marketed under the 
new brand name Leading Edge. 
TVT can be contacted on (0243) 
531194. Greyhound is available 
on (0532) 621111. 

• RemoteFS, a remote filing 
system for Archimedes, is the 
second new product from Atom- 
wide this month. The package 
enables a user of one Archimedes 
to access directories and files on 

a remote Archimedes. A multi- 
tasking Rise OS desktop front end 
is provided and copies of 
RemoteFS must be resident in 
both computers. 

The connection could be via 
the serial port, or even the paral- 
lel port, if you have an A5000 or 
A4 computer with a bidirectional 
parallel port. Ethernet and 
modem to modem support will 
be added later. File transfers are 
error corrected but actual trans- 
fer speeds are dependent on the 
type of physical connection used, 
parallel or Ethernet being faster 
than serial. RemoteFS will cost 
approximately £60 inc VAT, and 
should be available from the BAU 
show in October. 

For further information, con- 
tact Alex von Someren at Capri- 
corn Consulting on 0223 300 781. 

• ONE of the cheapest-yet CD- 
Roms for the Arc which uses the 
Rise OS user interface could be 
The Really Useful CD-Rom 
Volume 1 from APA Multimedia. 
The disc contains several mega- 
bytes of sprite and Draw format 
clip art as well as a selection of 
sound samples. 

Also provided are some digit- 
ised images to be featured on the 
company's forthcoming Wildlife 
on CD-Rom series, which is to be 
released at the BETT show next 
January. If you want more infor- 
mation, APA Multimedia can be 
contacted on (0634) 295 222. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 9 



NEWS 


PLAY IT AGAIN ON THE ARC 



PLAYBACK, a program that 
records mouse movements and 
key-presses and lets them be 
replayed automatically has 
been produced by Rise 
Developments. When a session 
is replayed the computer will 
behave as if somebody is phy- 
sically using it. 

Possible uses include the 
creation of automatic displays 
and presentations as well as 
tutorials. Synchronised text 
commentary can also be added 
recordings, which can also be 
exported as Ascii text files for 
editing and fine tuning. 

Play Back recordings can be 
up to an hour long and there is 


PlayBack records your every keypress 

a public domain version of the 
program which doesn’t record, 
but lets anyone view pre- 
recorded PlayBack files in 
action. PlayBack runs on all 


Archimedes including the 
A 3 000 and A5000. Price: £22 
inc VAT. For more informa- 
tion, contact Rise Develop- 
ments on (0727) 40303. 


ACORN DISTRIBUTION GOES DIRECT 


TWO of Acorn’s three official 
distributors, AB Eltec and 
Bonsai, have ceased to supply 
Acorn dealers. This leaves the 
road clear for Acorn to 
increase its direct distribution. 

Hugh Symons Distribution 
Group remains as the sole 
independent distributor of 
computers to Acorn’s 300 or 
so official dealers. AB will 
instead concentrate on the edu- 
cational market as a value 
added-reseller while Bonsai 
looks set to leave the Acorn 
market altogether. 

Acorn’s marketing director. 
Mike O’Riordan, stressed that 
all dealers who formerly 
obtained supplies through AB 
and Bonsai would now be 
accommodated by either Hugh 
Symons or directly by Acorn. 
Tt makes a lot of sense for 


Acorn to get closer to its edu- 
cation dealers and its large 
consumer dealers and thereby 
aim for a higher market pene- 
tration and improve customer 
satisfaction,’ said O'Riordan. 

Acorn will step up its direct 
distribution to large education 
customers, high street multi- 
ples, superstores and value- 
added resellers. This ties in 
with recent enthusiasm for 
Acorn’s future prospects 
expressed by Dixons’ Alan 
Dickinson and the managing 
director of the PC World 
Super Store, Jan Murray. 

With direct marketing com- 
puter manufacturers like Dell 
and Elonex going great guns in 
the PC world, despite the 
recession, it’s only logical that 
Acorn should seek to emulate 
that success by reducing the 


middle-man factor on its distri- 
bution costs. The increased 
margins that should result 
could be converted to 
increased sales through 
reduced pricing or increased 
presence in important high 
street outlets like Dixons. 

However, the passing of 
Bonsai and AB is lamented by 
some. One Acorn dealer we 
spoke to had worked hard over 
recent months to build up a 
good relationship with AB 
after switching from Bonsai 
and was very disappointed 
with the news. 

Meanwhile, Bonsai sup- 
ported the distribution of third- 
party products, which meant 
convenient one-stop ordering 
of a complete range of Acorn- 
related goods for smaller 
dealers. It’s unlikely that Hugh 
Symons will carry such a com- 
prehensive catalogue. 

Acorn’s press-release con- 
tained friendly quotes from 
both AB and Bonsai, but feed- 
back from the grapevine 
indicates that there has been 
some anxiety among AB and 
Bonsai sales staff for several 
months with regard to their 
future dealings with Acorn 
customers. 

In recent years Acorn has 
failed to gain a firm foothold 
in the high-street, concentrat- 
ing on their official dealers. 
These latest changes could 
spearhead Acorn’s most force- 
ful attempt yet to establish a 
high street foothold once and 
for all. 



Acorn could gain a greater high street presence in stores such as Dixons 


NEWS IN BRIEF 


• Mijas Software's new simula- 
tor package, ArcSimp, targets 
Archimedes users who need to 
produce models of anything from 
everyday systems like the inter- 
nal combustion engine to the 
laws of thermodynamics. Arc- 
Simp uses graphical building 
blocks to construct functioning 
simulations which obey basic 
mathematical and geometric 
rules. Mijas says ArcSimp could 
be used to illustrate the laws of 
dynamics, thermodynamics, con- 
trol systems or robotics. Resulting 
models could then be studied, 
modified and tested by students 
on the desktop rather than on a 
physical model. 

New ArcSimp building blocks 
can be created and added by 
users who have access to the 
Acorn C language development 
system and FormEd. Mijas has 
produced an ArcSimp demon- 
stration disc, which is available 
for £5, - the first 20 applicants 
get one free. A demo disc can be 
exchanged for a fiver off the full 
package, which costs £59 inc VAT. 
Contact Mijas Software on (0962) 
89352. 

• Several volumes of classic 
award-winning clip-art have been 
ported from the Apple Mac and 
IBM PC to the Archimedes. The 
art work comes from the Cana- 
dian firm Image Club Graphics Inc 
and will be distributed for Arc 
users by Peterborough-based 
firm Matt Black. A welcome 
bonus is that Arc users will only 
have to pay about £30 per 
volume compared with the 
£79.95 Mac and PC users have to 
fork out. Images are supplied on 
Arc discs in Draw file format. The 
collection comprises 23 volumes 
ranging from general business 
graphics to specialist areas like 
agriculture and map making. 

An Image Club catalogue is 
available from Matt Black, cost- 
ing £7.95, with a fiver refunded 
on your first order. Matt Black is 
on (0733) 315439. 

• Broad Oak Computers has cut 
the fees for its Archimedes soft- 
ware training courses to £59 inc 
VAT per day. The courses cover a 
wide range of packages including 
Impression, Squirrel, Schema, 
Prophet, First Word Plus, Artisan, 
Pendown and the PC Emulator. 
Soon to be introduced are 
courses on BBC Basic V, C and Rise 
OS programming. Broad Oak is 
on (0279) 718767. 


10 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 







If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many 
more words is a movie with sound worth? 


Magpie is an easy-to-use 'Multimedia' program for Acorn 
Archimedes. Magpie lets you put words, pictures and 
sounds together on the same page. The pictures can be 
drawings, photographs, and now moving video too. 


* Simple page design and DTP 
Reports and projects 

* Delivering graphics resources to users 

* Branching stories 

* Presentations and rolling demonstrations 
Complex information systems 

* CD ROM publishing. 

}( CD Audio 

But that’s not all! Magpie supports CD Audio too. Now you 
can play any section or track of an ordinary audio compact 
disc at the press of a button. Combined with the ability to 
automatically turn pages, you can bring sounds and images 
together in ever more imaginative ways. 

Acorn Replay 



Acorn Replay is a brand new facility which allows moving 
video (most commonly from a CD ROM) to be played 
through an Archimedes computer. 

You can now place a Replay movie on a Magpie page. 
Children will find the simple 'cassette recorder' type control 
icons easy to use. Imagine a project about space. Now you 
can make Magpie pages with text, drawings, scanned 
images, sound effects — and a colour film of the space 
shuttle taking off, complete with sound! 



MAGPIE 


Single user £59 

Primary Site Licence £190 

Secondary Site Licence £330 

Magpie's new features are 
available free of charge to 
registered users upon request. 


Information By 



L ongmaN 
LogotroN 






Design 


124 Science Park 
Milton Road 
Cambridge CB4 4ZS 
Tel (0223) 425558 
Fax (0223) 425349 




LOWEST ADVERTISED PRICES 


A5000 Learning Curve 
Multisync System 

ONLY £1299 

optional 

Ink-Jet Printer £199 



Also available without Learning Curve 


UNIX 

We have a few R140 
machines to clear out at 
ONLY £999 plus Acorn's 
On-Site Support for 1 year 
at £175. 

Monitor extra. 


— 

*Mail Order Only* 

Education orders welcome. 
VAT extra on all prices. i 
Access and Visa welcome. 
Carriage £8 

Next day supplement £5 


MICRO DISCOUNT phone 041 3531999 
205 Buchanan Street, Glasgow, G1 2JZ. 


SUMMER CLEARANCE... 


FLOATEX CARD 


Phone or write for 

Acorn's maths co-processor 
. board for A400 series 


complete list 

! ONLY £129 (RRP £599) 


*LIMITED STOCKS* 


A5000 Tech. Ref. Manual 

£40 

EOIS Filestore Unit 

£200 Karaokc-Elvis 2 

£5 

A3000 Tech. Ref. Manual 

£10 

E40SHD Filestore Unit 

£200 Karaoke-Beat les 

£5 

Genesis 2 

£65 

Logistix 

£10 

Karaoke-80's Hits 

£5 

PRES System Housing 

£35 

Software Developers 

£10 

Fourier Analysis 

£15 

(A3000) 


Toolbox 


0.5 Mb RAM (A 305) 

£15 

Logistix 1 BOOK 

£5 

Fortran 77 

£10 

3.5" Drive (internal) 

£50 

Logistix 2 BOOK 

£5 

Twin 

£10 

A VP Pixel Perfect 

£6 

InterWord (Emulation) 

£12 

OAK ArcSign 

£25 

Dual 3.5" Drives (Cased) 

£60 

Lemmings (No Packaging) 

£5 

ViewStore (Emulation) 

£10 

Ext. Drive Interface 

£10 

ST506 HD Card + Podule 

£100 

Rom Expansion Podule 

£15 

20 Mb SCSI HardDrive 

£150 

Casing (A3000) 


(Arch) 


TV Modulator (A3000) 

£20 

Serial Upgrade (A3000) 

£15 

Flying Start Concept 

£5 

'Get Control' Pack 

£29 

PRES 20 Mb HardDrive 

£150 

Keyboard Overlays 


HCCS Colour Digitiser 

£75 

ST506 (A3000) 


PRES 3.5" Floppy Drive 

£60 

WE Mono Digitiser 

£50 

20Mb HardDrive ST506 

£100 

(Arch) 


A488-A Sound Sampler 

£29 

Assembler Software<SKL64) 

£15 

Floating Point Podule 

£129 

' Apec Card & ROM v 1 .3 

£10 

PRES Monitor Stand 

£12 

(A400/R140) 


A 3000 SCSI/Face 

£35 

(A3000) 


Midi/User Port (A3000) 

£40 

PRES Podule Expansion 

£30 

Midi Add-on for I/O Pod. 

£10 

Analogue/Usr Port 

£35 

Econet Broadcast Loader £35 

(A3/400) 


(A3000) 


software 


PRES Disk l/Facc 

£10 

Desktop Assembler 

£79 

Revelation (Art Package) £40 

5.25" Floppy Drive 

£60 

Acorn DTP 

£29 

Revelation 2 

£60 

IIF423 Dual Serial Pott 

£60 

Acorn TCP/IP 

£139 System Della Business 

£80 

Podule (A3/400) 


Risc-Os 2 User Guide 

£10 

Pack (5 titles) 


I/O Podule (Arch) 

£20 

(Arch) 


Chocks Xtra Missions 

£9 

IEEE I/Face Podule 

£60 

Render Bender (Arch) 

£15 

PrimeArt 

£40 

OAK 20Mb HardDrive 

£189 

Newhall Font (DTP) 

£20 

Schema 

£65 

(A3000) 


ViewSheet (Emulation) 

£10 

Art Machine (Designer) 

£10 

OAK 40Mb HardDrive 

£229 

Viewlndcx (Emulation) 

£10 

Hearsay 

£35 

(A3000) 

OAK 50Mb HardDrive 

£229 

ViewSpell (Emulation) 

£10 

Pipedream 3 

£90 


Carriage on software £2.50 per order 
Carriage on peripherals £4.00 per order 



RISC Developments 


• Technical help with all RISC Developments' products 
and publications 

• RISC Developments' own range of high quality 
hardware and software with special discounts for 
magazine subscribers 

• Showroom with friendly professional staff, where 
you can try out the latest software and hardware 
• Retail catalogue, mailed free to magazine 
subscribers, with regular updates on new 
products 

• Tele-sales operation, where you can get 
technical guidance about your software or 
hardware requirements 
• Speedy mail-order service 
• Trade-in service to upgrade your 
equipment 

• Workshop repairs by qualified staff 


117 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4JS. Tel. 0727 40303 Fax 0727 860263 


RISC User is a high quality magazine devoted totally to the 
Archimedes range of computers. It is published by RISC 
Developments, formed last year from BEEBUG, which has been 
established for over ten years as one of the foremost companies 
in the Acorn market. 


RISC User is produced by a dedicated and enthusiastic 
professional team which benefits from 10 years of experience 
gained in publishing the popular BEEBUG magazine for the 
BBC micro and the Master 128. 


RISC User can also call upon BEEBUG's (now RISC 
Development's) considerable expertise as a major software 
and hardware developer for the Archimedes range. 


With a RISC User subscription you will receive not 
only 10 magazines a year (delivered free to your 
home), but you will benefit from all the help and 
support a professional organisation can provide: 





NEWS 


UPDATE TO EASIWORD PACKAGE 

MINERVA Software has now 
released its completely revised 
Easiword entry-level word 
processor. Easiword is a 
Wysiwyg word processor 
which is now Rise OS compli- 
ant and uses Rise OS printer 
drivers. A 50,000 word inte- 
gral spelling checker is 
standard. At £70 inc VAT, 

Easiword challenges First 
Word Plus. 

The other way to obtain 
Easiword will be as part of 
Minerva's revamped inte- 
grated office package. Desk- 
top Office 2 at £116 inc VAT. 

In fact customers will get both 
versions of* Easiword supplied 
with Desktop Office 2. Contact 
Minerva on (0392) 42 1 762. 



Now Easiword could be easier than ever 


POLISHED PUBLISHING 


THIS month we received a 
very smart newsletter pro- 
duced by the Polish Associa- 
tion of Mathematics Teachers 


using an Acorn A540 DTP 
system and Impression 2 soft- 
ware. Help from the EC 
Tempus programme enabled 
the association to be set up. 
The Electronic Font Foundry 
(EFF) supplied 200 Polish 
character fonts for the project 
and the EFF itself has so far 
supplied half a dozen other 
Acorn DTP systems to Poland. 

If any Polish readers can 
translate the caption in the 
newsletter’s cartoon we would 
all be very interested. 



NEW ARC ENTERPRISES 


FORMER Rise User technical 
editor Alan Wrigley has re- 
surfaced to set up a new soft- 
ware house, Rheingold Enter- 
prises. Several software 
releases are promised over the 
next few months, the first of 
which. Text A id, should be 
available now. This program 
lets the user set up versatile 
text macros which can be 
inserted into documents at the 
click of a mouse. TextAid can 
also grab text from text icons 
and window title bars plus 
convert between CSV and 
TSV file formats. TextAid 
costs £9.95. 

Next on the schedule is 
Time Lord , a time management 
package, and then Archetype , 
which is an enhanced version 
of LabelMaster Plus, orig- 
inally published under the 


Labehvise banner. Contact 
Rheingold on (0484)846126. 
• Desktop Computers Ltd is 
another new company offering 
Arc-based systems for special- 
ist requirements. It was set up 
by the people behind Silicon 
Vision Ltd. 

Although Silicon Vision is 
already an Acorn dealer, Desk- 
top Computers will focus on 
hardware, selling ready-made 
hardware and software solu- 
tions for electronics design, 
desktop publishing, education, 
computer aided design (CAD) 
and programming. The 
systems will be based around 
Silicon Vision software such 
as Rise Basic and SolidCAD , 
as well as applications from 
other companies. Contact 
Desktop Computers on 08 1 - 
861 2173. 


ACORN 

THINKING 

LAST month’s launch of the 
Acorn A4 portable computer 
was regarded by some as long 
overdue. First knowledge of 
the portable Archimedes pro- 
ject was revealed by Acorn 
over 1 8 months ago and a pro- 
totype was shown in January 
at the BETT Show. However, 
if Acorn's recent investment in 
the services of two external 
consultancies is successful we 
could see future Acorn compu- 
ters taking less time to go from 
conception to production. 

The two Cambridge-based 
firms are In wood Ryan Ltd 
and Management Dynamics. 
The former specialises in the 
integration of product develop- 
ment while Management 
Dynamics is described as a 
firm of organisational psychol- 
ogists. Both have been taken 
on to establish a fresh appro- 
ach within Acorn. 

New practices Acorn will be 
experimenting with include 
concurrent engineering techni- 
ques and total quality manage- 
ment (TQM). Inwood Ryan 
and Management Dynamics 
were recently retained by 
Acorn for a 15-month period 
after a series of successful 
training courses. 

Wc could be seeing some 
fruits of these efforts at the 
BBC Acorn User Show in 
October this year. 


NEWS IN BRIEF 


• Advanced Rise Machines Ltd 
(Arm Ltd) has gained EC funding 
for a project to investigate the 
use of the Arm Rise processor 
macrocell in deeply-embedded 
processor applications, where the 
Arm processor forms part of a 
much larger chip developed to do 
a specific task. Arm Ltd's partners 
in the project are GEC Plessey 
Semiconductors, the communi- 
cations division of the Dutch 
electronic group Philips and IRIS, 
an Italian organisation which 
develops custom chips for music 
applications. 

• Intel has invested US$50 mil- 
lion in VLSI Technology, the 
minority shareholder in Arm Ltd, 
and original manufacturer of Arm 
chips for Acorn. According to an 
Arm Ltd spokesman, Intel's move 
-which nets the leading supplier 
of PC microprocessors about 20 
percent of VLSI - is unrelated to 
Arm Ltd activities. However, the 
word is that Intel is keen to 
develop a 386SL-based integrated 
chip for use in so-called palm-top 
devices like the Arm 610-driven 
Apple Newton. 

• Fresh from confirmation of its 
position as Acorn's exclusive dis- 
tributor (see other news this 
month) Hugh Symons Group PLC 
has announced it has purchased 
the Concept Keyboard Company. 
Hugh Symons says it intends to 
build on the Concept Keyboard's 
success in UK schools by develop- 
ing overseas markets and indus- 
trial applications. The Concept 
Keyboard Company can be con- 
tacted on (0962) 843322. 

• Oldham-based education 
specialists, Northwest SEMERC 
has produced My TownA/illage, 
the latest Archimedes resource 
disc to go with the My World 
Framework package from Derby- 
shire Descit. The package is 
designed for 5-11 year olds (Key 
Stages 1 & 2) and works to 
stimulate language development, 
discussion and problem solving 
using examples from a local com- 
munity like houses, bungalows, 
flats, churches, and so on. 

These can be represented in 
two or three dimensions and 
used by both children and 
teachers for matching pictures 
and text and building sentences 
using a mouse or a tracker ball. 
My TownA/illage costs £8.80 inc 
VAT. For more information con- 
tact Northwest Semerc on 061- 
627 4469. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 13 






DESKTOP 


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GRAPHICS 



REDIFFUSION TAKES FLIGHT 



It's not a bird, it's not a UFO, it's Commander 


REDIFFUSION, one of the 

world leaders in flight simula- 
tor technology, has turned to 
the power of the Arm3 for its 
latest creation. The Com- 
mander is an advanced video 
arcade machine, capable of 
running games that require 
real-time sound and graphics. 

The system will allow any 
vehicle, real or imaginary, to 
be simulated. The unit is 
designed to seat two people, 
both of whom have control of 
the craft using their joysticks. 

A single 26in high-resolu- 
tion colour screen is used to 
provide a forward view, while 
a smaller I2in monochrome 
screen simulates necessary 
read-outs such as altimeters. 
Graphics on each screen are 
controlled by a separate Arm 3 
processor. 

Sound is in full stereo with 
‘CD’ quality. Another Arm3 is 
used to send signals to a Midi 
port to generate all the 
required ‘bangs and whistles’. 
Sound effects are relayed to 
the players through two 
speakers. 

Using experience gleaned 
from developing simulators. 


IRLAM instruments, well 
known for its scanner upgrades 
for the Archimedes, is working 
in conjunction with Acorn to 
develop a multimedia worksta- 
tion, called Multiworks. 

The machine will be built 
around the existing A5000 and 
will include a number of 
expansion cards that go to 
make up the system. Irlam 
Instruments’ recently released 
Moving I-mage expansion 
card will form the basis of the 
multimedia ‘engine’. 

A lot of definitions have 
been put forward for ‘multi- 
media’. It is, for those still 
unsure, the use of graphics 
(still and moving), text and 
sound together as a teaching or 
pesentation tool. 

Imagine an encyclopaedia 
that you can not only read and 
look at, but watch and listen 
too as well. Such a product 
already exists and this is only 


Rediffusion has made the 
Commander as realistic as 
possible by using the Arm’s 
speed to provide real-time 
monitoring for calculations. 
Every move of the joysticks is 
recorded and used to compute 
the position, location, and so 
on, of the simulated vehicle. 

Although Arm technology is 
used for the ‘more complicat- 
ed’ areas, the program con- 
trolling the simulator (ie. the 
game itself) runs on a rather 
ordinary 286 PC. This unfor- 


the start of what promises to 
be an extremely exciting area 
of computing. 

Compact discs arc used to 
store the vast amount of data 
required for moving pictures 
and sound. Creating such CDs 
has in the past been expensive 
and time-consuming. 

Pictures must be grabbed 
one at a time and then com- 
pressed to take up as little 
storage as possible. An 
adapted version of the Moving 
I-mage card will digitise a 
continuous stream of pictures 
at 25 frames per second, com- 
press each one as it does so, 
and save the output to a hard 
disc. This is made possible by 
using hardware picture com- 
pression to convert images into 
JPEG files. 

Sound as well as graphics is 
an important part of multi- 
media, and Irlam Instruments 
has also developed a 16-bit 


tunately means that ports from 
the Commander to the Arc are 
extremely unlikely. 

The machine is certainly a 
lot cheaper than the average 
commercial Right simulator; 
it’s a snip, really, at £45,000, 
affordable for most arcades. 
So if you really want to drive 
the ultimate games machine, 
contact: Rediffusion Simula- 
tions Ltd, Bournemouth 
International Airport, Building 
332, Christchurch, Dorset, 
BH23 6SE. 


sound sampler to capture high- 
quality audio. The card uses an 
on-board microprocessor to 
control the digitiser which 
means that complex sound 
processing can be carried out 
in real-time. 

Given the necessary soft- 
ware, the card could be used as 
a guitar effects ‘box’ or a 
sound ‘shaping’ unit similar to 
those produced by Yamaha. 
Like the graphics, sound can 
and should be compressed to 
save space, and Irlam instru- 
ments are also working on this. 

The whole project is being 
aimed for a launch some time 
in the late summer and looks 
to be an important step 
forward. 

Further information can be 
obtained from: Irlam Instru- 
ments Ltd, Brunei Institute for 
Bioengineering, Brunei Uni- 
versity, Uxbridge, Middlesex, 
UBS 3PH. Tel. (0895) 811401. 


NEWS IN BRIEF 


• Revelation 2, widely regarded 
as the definitive Rise OS painting 
package, is to undergo another 
revision. Even after major impro- 
vements over the original 
program, Revelation 2 is still lack- 
ing in a number of areas. A 
decent grid and the implementa- 
tion of 'hot keys' are the first 
things that spring to mind. 

Revelation 3 is still being 
developed and details are still 
being kept under wraps. A launch 
date close to the BBC Acorn User 
show is expected. Longman 
Logotron has promised to spill 
the beans soon, so watch this 
space. 

• Banner, a new program from 
Kudlian Soft, allows you to say it 
with very large letters on your 
printer. Making full use of outline 
fonts and Rise OS printer drivers, 
Banner will produce 'banners' 
either sideways on fanfold paper 
or on single sheets (for example, 
on a laser printer) that can be 
joined together. 

Many effects can be imple- 
mented including drop-shadow- 
ing and different colours and 
styles of borders. Banner is priced 
at £17.60 (inc. VAT) and is avail- 
able from Kudlian Soft, 39 
Dalehouse Lane, Kenilworth, 
Warwickshire, CV8 2HW. Tel: 
(0926) 55538. 

• Atomwide has added a 14in 
flat-screen grey-scale multisync 
monitor to its range. It's capable 
of supporting horizontal scan 
frequencies of between 15Khz to 
36KHz, which means it will sup- 
port all Acorn monitor type 1 
modes, without affecting soft- 
ware that runs in other modes 
(for example, games). 

Used in combination with 
Atomwide's VIDC Enhancer soft- 
ware, the monitor will operate at 
a resolution of up to 1088xxx448 
pixels, making it ideal for DTP 
use. The monitor is excellent 
value at £175.00 (including VAT & 
delivery). Atomwide can be con- 
tacted at: 23 The Greenway, 
Orpington, Kent. BR5 2AY. Tel. 
(0689) 838852. 

• Any news, comments, ques- 
tions or moans would be greatly 
received on the graphics page. 
Please send your stuff to Rob 
Miller, The Graphics Page, BBC 
Acorn User, 101 Bayham Street, 
London. NW1 OAG. 


A SHARPER IMAGE FOR IRLAM 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 15 





COM 1\/1S 


GOING ONLINE DOWN UNDER 


IF YOU fancy communicating 
with the antipodes, try 
Ozworld BBS in Australia. 
Run by an enthusiastic user 
group called Ozbeeb, it has 
been running since March 
1990. Ozworld has many local 
message and file areas, as well 
as an Acorn Support area and, 
via FidoNet, it carries the 
specialist Acorn and Archi- 
medes Echomail from the UK. 

If you want to try it out, set 
your modem to 8-N-l, with as 
high a line speed as you can 
manage (up to 19,200) and dial 
010 61 2 891 1886. Ozworld 
can also be contacted (much 
more cheaply) through the Arc 
Echo on UK bulletin boards. 



I sna p I 2488/2488 8H1 1 


Australians don't give a V24bis for anything else 


Sponsored by ttes 


OZBEEB MICROCOMPUTER USERS 
GROUP IKC. ‘ 
and 

T, SMITH MICROCOMPUTER 
REPAIRS ft SERVICE P/L 




IS 42 THE ANSWER? NODE JOB 


BULLETIN board users spend 
much of their time on down- 
loading files, and on-line time 
costs money. To download the 
most data in the least time you 
need file compression. 

Most BBS operators store 
their files already compressed 
and allow message downloads 
to be pre-compressed. The 
question is - can you save 
even more time and money by 
using a modem compression 
standard as well? 

The two common standards 
are MNP5 and V42bis. MNP5 
uses a real-time adaptive algo- 
rithm that can give an increase 
of up to 50 percent in through- 
put on text data, but feeding it 
compressed files can cause it 
to waste time on trying more, 
pointless, compression. 

V42bis gives about 35 per- 
cent better compression than 
MNP5 and only compresses 
data that needs it by analysing 
each block first. 

To check which is belter, I 
created two files containing 
the same data. One was a mes- 
sage scratchpad containing 
about 62k of Ascii text and the 
other a 16-bit compressed 
Spark archive of the same 
data, reducing it to 30K. 

One point shows up 
immediately. Modem com- 
pression only works if the 
DTE speed (the data rate 
between the computer and 


modem) is higher than the line 
speed (the data rate between 
the two modems at each end of 
the line). 

When using both DTE and a 
line speed of 2400 baud, no 
time is saved at all by either 
method. As soon as the DTE 
speed is increased to 9600 (at 
the Arcade end it rises to 
38,400 if error-correcting 
modes are detected) immediate 
gains are achieved, and the 
V42bis standard easily comes 
out on top. 

The 16-bit compressed file 
was received by V42bis in the 
fastest time, even with the 
overhead of time that was 
taken to compress it in the first 
place. A good second place is 
taken by the text file com- 
pressed on-the-fly by V42bis. 
So it seems that the answer to 
life, the universe and every- 
thing online is V42bis. 


File Type ASCII Text 16-bit Archive 

Size (bytes) 63,922 

30,751 

Assembly time 12sec 12sec 
Compress time — 9sec 


Throughput in cps excludes the above 

preparation times 



TEXT 

ARCHIVE 

DTE/Line/Compr Time Cps 

Time 

Cps 

2400/V22b/None 283 236 

158 

223 

2400/V22b/MNP5282 237 

156 

226 

2400/V22b/V42b 282 237 

159 

223 

9600/V22b/MNP5185 369 

153 

232 

9600/V22b/V42b 149 466 

136 

267 


ONCE a working bulletin 
board system has been estab- 
lished, and the hardware and 
software of the system have 
proved stable, the sysop can 
think about giving the BBS 
users the benefits of FidoNet 
membership. 

The first step to becoming a 
FidoNet BBS is to find out the 
name of the host of a local 
FidoNet “Net” area. A 
FidoNet net Host is respon- 
sible for the correct running of 
all BBS nodes in that net and 
for checking that exisiting and 
prospective BBSs operate 
according to the rules of 
FidoNet. 

The usual way to contact a 
Host is to log on to a BBS that 
is already on Fidonet and ask 
the sysop there for the name 
and number of the nearest 
Host system. The prospective 
sysop should then log on to 
that Host BBS and ask to be 
given a test node number. This 
temporary number is used to 
configure the BBS, and the 
sysop sends the Host a test 
Netmail message giving the 
telephone number of the BBS, 
which demonstrates the correct 
operation of the system. The 
Host will usually call the BBS 
back to confirm that every- 
thing is working properly, and 
then allocate a permanent node 
number, and send the sysop a 
copy of the FidoNet rules. 


NEWS IN BRIEF 


• Miracom, the UK arm of US 
Robotics, is shortly to announce a 
28.8kbps V.Fast modem. 

Although the V.Fast recommen- 
dation has yet to be ratified 
Miracom says that its new 
modem, a smaller unit than the 
Courier range, will feature a new 
HST2 standard that will be 
upgradable to V.Fast when it is 
agreed early in 1993. Unfor- 
tunately, existing V32bis UK- 
sourced Couriers and Courier 
Dual-Standards cannot be 
upgraded as the internal architec- 
ture cannot handle the higher 
speeds required. 

• ISDN - The good news! BT has 
reduced connection fees for its 
ISDN service. The bad news? The 
reduction only applies to corpor- 
ate users who install a minimum 
of 30 lines, which costs £3052. 
Competitor Mercury Communi- 
cations offers companies a 
minimum of 15 lines, costing 
£1380, and claim that their ser- 
vice is 9 percent cheaper than 
that offered by BT. 

• Campus 2000 subscribers now 
have local call access to the 
French Teletel system. In France, 
the service has many charge 
bands, but Campus Teletel has a 
single charge rate. 

School subscriptions to 
Campus 2000 start at £134, and 
the additional subscription for 
Teletel is £15 per quarter and 12p 
per minute online connection (all 
prices are exclusive of VAT). 

• Portable Port - Will the new 
Acorn A4 portable be the first 
Acorn computer product with a 
serial port that really works? 
Rumour has it the A4 has a new 
bug-free version of the serial chip 
that caused problems in the orig- 
inal A5000. Only time will tell. 

• Lee Archer and Michael Davis 
are running a new RiscBBS 
system based in Yorkshire called 
Northern Arc BBS. The BBS runs 
on an A3000, and is online from 
9pm until 8am. Call between 
those times +44 (0) 709 587341 at 
8-N-l v21/v22/v22bis - ANSI. 

• YOU can contact me with any 
news or information you'd like to 
be included by writing to: David 
Dade, BBC Acorn User, 101 Bay- 
ham Street, Camden Town, 

London NW1 0AG, or by modem 
on Arcade BBS, User #2 081 654 
2212 or 081 655 4412. 


16 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 







Following the destruction of the alien menace, many years of peace reigned 
throughout the galaxy. However it was a fragile peace and the people of Ncvryon 
knew that the day would come when they would be at war yet again. 

In preparation for this Titanium was stored in reserve for military construction and 
new weapons and armaments were secretly developed. The fighter fleets were 
modernised and the ageing V5 fighter taken out of service. A new organisation, the 
Terran Defense Agency (T.D.A.) was created to monitor the ever present threat and 
make sure the planet was ready for siege once more. 

The alien force meanwhile had a different strategy. The assault would not be directed 
at the mother planet, but to cause a blockade by invading the neighbouring planets and 
moons of the star Kirius which Ncvryon orbited. 

This move, not being anticipated by the T.D.A. , was wholcly successful and Ncvryon 
was cut off from the universe at large with ever dwindling supplies. On the bright side 
though there were lots of nice big guns and quite stylish new space ships ready to go 
and cause some mindless destruction among the aliens out there. Ncvryon might die 
but it was going to have a lot of fun first. Anyway, victory might be ours... 

The Game 

Ncvryon 2 Tcchnodrcam is the sequel to the much praised best-seller Nevryon. 
Combining all the best features of Ncvryon with a vast array of new additions, 
Ncvryon 2 keeps Acorn's 32-bit machines at the forefront of computer game design. 
The main enhancement to the game is the two player mode. Two players on screen 
simultaneously to defeat the alien hoards. This adds a whole new dimension to the 
game taking it into the 90s! Of course there is also a one player option. 

The playing area on screen is also much enlarged by allowing vertical scrolling in 
addition to horizontal scrolling. As you may expect the game is complemented by 
megabytes of arcade quality graphics, sound and music. 

Specification 

Two player simultaneous action. Vertical scrolling as well as horizontal. 

Over 2 megs of arcade quality 256 colour graphics. Massive animated sprites. 
Digitised stereo sound effects. Music by Peter Gillett. 

25 frames/sec scrolling and animation. Parallax scrolling. 

Control by keyboard or RTFM joystick. 


1 Arcade Action for 1 or 2 Players 


cm i ph 


SELECT P1L0 


lliaiyflHHMlBBBBI 


FOLLOW 


inFopiTie non FI 


to PUSH LEFT OR RIOHT, THEM FIRE TO SELECT li 


i ononnn 


POLDER 




t>*WiV — 


ocra* 


PRIWRV tCRPONS AND SHIELDS 


SHIELD ORBS 


LASER BEAM 


REAR SHOT 


ROCKET 


LASER 


For All Acorn 32-bit RISC Machines Price £25.95 

Including A3000, A5000 and all Archimedes 
The Fourth Dimension, 1 Percy Street, Sheffield, S3 8AU. 

Tel. (0742) 700661 or 769950 


C0rt*)N OECOHDARV LCAPONS 


MINES 


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PRODUCED by The Fourth Dimension .... THE 32-bit Acorn Games SPECIALISTS 















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NEW " Saloon Cars DELUXE " 
Upgrade V 2 Price ONLY £17.50 


Simply return the whole original Saloon Cars directly to us plus payment. 
We'll send you the newly packaged / enhanced 3 disc DELUXE version on release. 




THE FOURTH DIMENSION GUARANTEE 


We now individually load and playtest EVERY product 
IMMEDIATELY prior to despatch and all orders are normally 
despatched within 24 hours, ALL by 1st Class Post. 


Black Angel €34.95 (Hopefully July) 
Can be installed onto Hard Disc 


Chucks Away £25.95 Cataclysm £25.95 

Extra Missions £19.95 Compendium £39.95 Can now be installed onto Hard Disc 

For the VERY Latest Full Details of All 
Our Software Ring (0742) 769950 / 700661 

We'll send you FREE our large 16 page full colour catalogue PLUS 
our very latest product information immediately by 1st Class Post. 


Nevryon £19.95 


met* 


OULTON 

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rrrroTra 




Saloon Cars Extra Courses £19.95 (Hopefully 
June) Compatible only with DELUXE version 


Break 147 & Superpool £34.95 
Can now be installed onto Hard Disc 


Enter The Realm £25.95 


POWER 




Chopper Force £29.95 (Hopefully June/July) 
Can be installed onto Hard Disc 


The Fourth Dimension , 1 Percy Street, Sheffield, S3 8AU. 
Telephone: (0742) 769950 or 700661. 


Saloon Cars DELUXE £34.95 (Upgrade £17.50) 
Can be installed onto Hard Disc (Hopefully May) 


fee® 1 


r ra • fir/YJ r — i T — t v ~h 

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g wBBl 

: - . ■JMV* ,$S® SrT. WSs M 

Pandora's Box £25.95 

ARCtist £25.95 

Can be installed onto Hard Disc 

The Real M c Coy 2 £29.95 

Apocalypse, Holed Out, 'l'he Olympics & Inertia 

X-Fire £25.95 








0000 


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for 32-bit RISC Machines 


5HS9 

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-a. // <? ^ 1 oz&rtn m ^ / // I £? rt s i o / * 

THE 32-bit Acorn Games SPECIALISTS 

The following Acorn software is compatible with the A3000, A5000, ALL Archimedes & ALL future 32-bit RISC Machines 


The Real M'Coy 2 £29.95 
Apocalypse, Holed Out, The Olympics & Incrti 


Cataclysm £25.95 
Can now be installed onto Hard Disc 


Cyber Chess £49.95 
Can be installed onto Hard Disc 


Pandora’s Box £25.95 


For the Latest Full Details of All 
Our Software Please Ring 
(0742) 769950 / 700661 


ISS828S 


We’ll send you FREE our large 16 page full colour catalogue PLUS 
our very latest product information immediately by 1st Class Post. 


SCORE IO232SS0 HUES 1,1 T T1 


Grievous bodily ’ARM £25.95 
Can now be installed onto Hard Disc 


Saloon Cars DELUXE £34.95 (Upgrade £17.50) 
Can be installed onto Hard Disc 

nnnnnn ? 

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The Real M'Coy 3 £29.95 
Powcrhund, Nevryon, Drop Ship & Wimp Game 


The Fourth Dimension, 1 Percy Street, Sheffield, S3 8AU. 
Telephone: (0742) 769950 or 700661. 


Black Angel £34.95 (Hopefully July/August) 
Can be installed onto Hard Disc 


Chopper Force £29.95 (Hopefully Aug/Sept) 
Can be installed onto Hard Disc 


oomao 




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OULTON 

PARK 


Chocks Away £25.95 

Extra Missions £19.95 Compendium £39.95 


Break 147 & Superpool £34.95 
Can now be installed onto Hard Disc 


Saloon Cars Extra Courses £19.95 (Hopefully 
July) Compatible only with DELUXE version 


Enter The Realm £25.95 



1 o-tl u ii 

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1 4. M il* 

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COTtK 1 rilY»:<y U 7 > |a-U «i.U 41-41 <7-42 tH 

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C>H> |(M<« l» i) 1 I 












SPREADSHEETS 


ENTER EUREKA 

Longman Logotron's Eureka promises to take Arc spreadsheeting up to Mac or PC 
standards. Graham Bell previews it and looks forward to the real thing 


O ne of the major software 
attractions at this year’s 
Acorn User Show will 
be a spreadsheet: Long- 
man Logotron's long-awaited 
Excel clone, Eureka. 

There's little doubt that 
Microsoft Excel is the spread- 
sheet of choice in both the 
Mac and Windows worlds. It is 
estimated to have captured 
nine-tenths of the Mac spread- 
sheet market, though Bor- 
land’s Quattro and, of course, 
the non -Windows versions of 
Lotus 1-2-3 provide strong 
competition on the PC. But the 
decision to base Eureka upon 
Excel seems sensible - 
anything else would be swim- 
ming uphill. 

FILLING A GAP 

Hitherto the Archimedes has 
lacked a real spreadsheet in 
this class. Pipedream from 
Colton Software remains a 
quirky integrated application, 
attracting a committed follow- 
ing but remaining an uneasy 
mix of spreadsheet, graphic 
application and wordproces- 
sor, and is still at heart based 
on characters. Clares’ Schema 


showed some early promise 
and gained some good 
reviews, but it remains unreli- 
able, and Clares and CRM, the 
author, have failed to develop 
it as promised. Can Eureka 
make it third time lucky for the 
Archimedes? 

Double-clicking on Eureka 
installs it on the icon bar and 
opens up a new blank work- 
sheet ready for use. In fact, it 
opens two windows, one 
showing the sheet itself, 
conventional looking and 
divided into cells, the second a 
‘fomula window’ for typing in 
and editing the contents of 
cells. One cell is ‘active’, 
marked by a black outline, and 
the mouse pointer shows as a 
plus sign. Anyone who is fam- 
iliar with Excel will instantly 
feel at home. 

Typing text into the formula 
window is straightforward - 
anything you type simply 
becomes text or, if it can be 
construed as a number, it 
becomes number data. This is 
a quite intelligent part of the 
program - it recognises dates 
and times as well as plain 
numbers. 


51X1 Eureka - Sheet7 ♦ 

torMl i| ;J”XJ ;>J ii.nl Ready 

[French 



Eureka's top icon bar lets you centre cells easily 


m 


Hornal 


Eureka - Sheet? * 

W Ready 


=flUERRGE(B6:D6) 



— — 

— 

1 — — ~ 

Sheet 7 « 


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» i 

B 

L c 

L o J; E 

EE 

G 

■ 

A 

a-L 

3 

Second Tern Exan Scores 





Student 

French 

English 

Maths 

Total 

Average 


i 4 

Fred 

87 

91 

96 

274 

91.33333 


1 5 

Jin 

92 

94 

97 

283 

94.33333 


6 

Sheila 

96 

95 

92 

283 

194.333331 


7 

Grahan 

82 

87 

88 

257 

85.6666# 


yj 8 

Barry 

81 

88 

85 

254 

84.66667 


II * 

Paul 

76 

79 

72 

227 

75.66667 


J ! is 








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12 








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Eureka has all the standard spreadsheet functions 


If you want to type in a block 
of data, then you can select a 
block by dragging across it 
with the mouse, or using 
Select then Adjust in the usual 
Rise OS way. 

But A4 portable users have 
also been catered for: the 
active cell can easily be moved 
with the cursor keys, and 
selections made and extended 
with the F8 function key. Once 
a block is selected, it’s marked 
in black. Each time you add a 
number, pressing RETURN will 
now move the cursor on to the 
next cell, but keeping with the 
selected block. 

One innovation is that the 
size of the spreadsheet isn't 
fixed. Although the scroll bars 
can only be dragged so far 
down the sheet (initially to 
row 55), extra rows can be 
created at will by using the 
scroll arrows. This saves hav- 
ing to create extra rows and 
columns explicitly. 

The toolbar at the top of the 
formula window can be used 
for a number of shortcuts: 
selecting a block and pressing 
the Centre button alters the 
alignment of the text and num- 


bers in the selected cells. The 
other alignment buttons work 
similarly, and the Autosum 
button automatically adds up 
all the cells in a range - this is 
probably the most used spread- 
sheet function of all. 

Another clever timesaver is 
the Autofill function, which 
will continue with the rest of 
the series if you type in the 
first term in a series like: 
Monday, January or even I. 

IT ALL ADDS UP 

Formulae are prefixed with an 
equals sign - much easier than 
having separate text and for- 
mula modes, as with Schema 
and Pipedream, for example. 
Eureka supports well over 100 
functions, including financial 
(present value, future value, 
depreciation and so on), stat- 
istical (standard deviation, sum 
of squares, regression and so 
on), string and time functions 
as well as the usual maths and 
trigonometry. 

Array arithmetic is possible 
too, and the syntax of all the 
functions follows the well- 
known Excel syntax - in the 
absence of a Eureka manual, 


20 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 





spreadsheets 


pi*! 

Average 


Jiii 


Eureka - Sheet7 ♦ 
llhl Ready 


ionna 

Currency 

lornal 

Percent 


I Average 

— 


■■■ 

fy. /‘v; 

tit! IlSfll 



Sheet7 * 


-A 

B 1 C. | 

fi ! § 

1 F p G [ 



Term Exam Scores 


an Excel manual suffices. One 
deviation from Excel is that 
cell references can not be 
included in formulae by click- 
ing the mouse on the relevant 
cell - they have to be typed in. 

Editing the sheet is quirky, 
if you compare it with the 
usual Archimedes style, but it 
reflects the best practice on 
other machines. Cut doesn’t 
delete a selected block of data 
from the sheet - it merely 
marks it with an outline, ready 
for clearing, copying or past- 
ing somewhere else. Of 
course, the package supports 
multiple spreadsheets in 
memory, and you can cut, 
copy and paste between these 
sheets as well. 

SHOWING SOME STYLE 

The styling possibilities in 
Eureka are very strong - there 
is good control over number 
formatting, in particular, and 
the style editor is particularly 
simple to understand and use. 
It makes it very easy to present 
your data, whether textual or 
numeric, in an attractive and 
eye-catching way. 

The formatting of data on 
the worksheet is in many ways 
similar to that in Impression - 


first in the differentiation of 
global styles and local effects, 
and second, in the layering of 
styles. Eureka can make full 
use of outline fonts, and is the 
first application that can make 
any use of the kerning data 
stored in the fonts in the Rise 
OS 3 Roms. (Kerning is the 
typographical technique 

whereby letters such as 
‘WAV’ or ‘Ta’ are moved 
closer together to eliminate the 
overlarge gaps between the 
characters.) 

The style editor is based 
around a single dialogue box, 
which controls details of the 
outline font used, the way that 
numbers or dates are formatted 
(including the number of deci- 
mal places, currency symbols, 
red or brackets for negative 
numbers and so on), the back- 
ground colours and borders 
around cells. A ‘Normal’ style 
applies right across the sheet - 
the direct equivalent of 
Impression's BaseStyle - and 
can be set up to use an outline 
font, set the main text size and 
all the other default functions. 

Other styles, a few of which 
are pre-defined, need only 
affect one or a few of the 
attributes - say font or align- 


2 


3 

Student 

French 

English 

Maths 

4 

Fred 

87 

91 

% 

5 

Jim 

92 

94 

97 

G 

Slroila 

% 

95 

92 

7 

Graham 

82 

87 

88 

8 

Barry 

81 

88 

85 

9 

10 

11 

12 

Paul 

76 

79 

72 




ment - but nothing else. Unde- 
fined attributes are inherited 
from the underlying Normal 
style. However, only one style 
at a time can be lain over the 
basic Normal one - their 
effects aren’t cumulative, as 
they are in Impression. 

Each of the attributes of a 
style can also be changed 
locally like an Impression 
effect, so a range of cells can 
be given a grey background 


Total 

1 Average 

274 

91.33 

283 . 

94.33 

283 

94.33 

257 

85.67 

254 

84.67 

227 

75.67 


without having to define a 
complete style for it. But if 
you want to, the Merge Style 
command creates a new style 
automatically from whatever 
selection of effects you have 
applied to a cell. You can drag 
the mouse to select a range of 
cells to apply a style or effect: 
by CTRL-dragging, you can 
select several areas of the 
sheet at the same time before 
applying a common process to 
all of them. 

The other main area of 
strength in Eureka is the ease 
of window handling. The main 
window can be divided into 
two or four (but no more), 
with ‘splitters’ that you can 
drag out of the corners of the 
scroll bars: the pairs of sub- 
windows (panes) scroll 
together as you would expect. 
The split windows allow you 
to keep a ‘results’ section of a 
model in view, while you are 
also working on the data part 
of the sheet. 

The widths and depths of 
individual rows and columns 
can be adjusted by just 
dragging the edges of the row 
and column labels, and a 
double-click automatically sets 
a column to the width of the 
widest item in the column. 
This all makes laying out the 
worksheet terribly easy. 

Like all the other main ele- 
ments of Eureka , the macros 
are based upon those of Excel. 
Macros come in two types - 
function macros, which are 
programs to compute 
something not covered by the 
built-in functions, and com- 
mand macros, which are 


RISC OS STYLE 


One of the first things you notice 
on firing up Eureka is the new 
window layout. It replaces parts 
of the normal scroll bars and 
icons with gadgets of its own. 

They work the same as the 
Acorn's, but many of them have 
a good-looking three-dimen- 
sional appearance - buttons 
really push when you click on 
them with the mouse. If you 
have a high-resolution monitor, 
and use a VGA mode or better, 
there are high-resolution versions 
of all the gadgets, and this, 
combined with the careful shad- 
ing of many parts of the dialogue 
boxes gives a very fine and classy 
overall look. 

But there are oddities: in order 
to allow the splitting of a win- 
dow, Eureka has to implement its own scroll bars. The Rise OS originals are are replaced by plain square 
'thumbs', looking like Mac or Windows gadgets, which don't vary in size at all to show the proportion of the 
worksheet in view. And the whole scroll bar is narrower than usual. 

Within dialogue boxes like the style editor (see picture, above), pop-up menus are denoted by a down-arrow 
icon - for example the colour selector. But these and other menu options that are 'definable', like the list of 
styles or the typefaces in your system, are presented in scrolling lists, rather than a normal menu with a moving 
highlight bar. These can grate a bit at first, but they work, and they do prevent the menus building up to 
unwieldy lengths. 

Eureka’s behaviour can be decidedly non-Risc OS - clicking on Eureka on the icon bar does not create a new 
sheet, you have to choose New worksheet from the menu. And more seriously, a click on the close box of the 
main window gets rid of that worksheet. But the close box of the formula window quits Eureka entirely! 



li 

Grahan 


:0 Rpps ROM Econet 


nr • wrtat 


Sheets can be made to look really good with the style editor 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 21 







Grand Opening of Watford Electronics 
New Headquarters in Luton 

To Celebrate the occasion Watford Electronics and Acorn Computers will be holding 
an Open Day on Sunday, the 6th September 1992 from 10.00am to 5.00pm 


Acorn $ 


Acorn Computers will be using the event to showcase their new RISC based computer 

Also on demonstration, along with the complete range of Acorn Computers will be the A4 Notebook 
Computer benefiting from the power of an ARM 3 processor and RISC OS 3 operating system. Staff 
from Acorn will be on hand to answer your questions on the new products and everything Archimedes. 

Third party software and hardware companies will be well represented, some of the events and guest 
companies include: 


• Acorn Computers • 

• Aries PC Computers • 

• The Micro User Magazine (Joint sponsors) • 

• BBC Acorn User Magazine (Joint sponsors) • 


Sales 

Technical Advice 
Education Specialists 
Finance Available 


Watford Electronics’ own technical and sales support staff will be avilable to offer advice and 
assistance on the extensive range of products available through Watford Electronics. Come and see 
our revolutionary new “village” areas in our showroom; dedicated areas featuring products from the 
leading manufacturers. Educational seminars will be held in the conference suite and theatre. 

Some of the many products on show and available for purchase on the day include: 


• Printers 

• Hewlett Packard Range 

• ARM 3 Upgrades 

• Multiscan Monitors 


IDE Hard Drives 
Scanners 
Video Digitisers 
Laser Direct Printers 


• Cordless Mouse 

• Joysticks 

• Archi DTP 

• Ultimum 


Direction to Jessa House from the Ml Motorway: 

Exit off junction 1 1 of the Ml - If coming from south, turn right at the roundabout (under the motorway) or from 
the north, turn immediate left - Across 3 sets of traffic lights - At the roundabout turn right - Pass the “Do-lt-AH” 
store on your left - Over a bridge, across another roundabout - You are now into Dallow Road - After half a 
mile, you will pass Bestways Cash & Carry on your left - Finway is the first turning on the left after Bestways. 

Watford Electronics 

Jessa House, Finway (Off Dallow Road), Luton, Beds. LU1 1TR 
Tel: (0582) 487777 Fax: 0582 488588 



SPREADSHEETS 


sequences of commonly rep- 
eated commands. 

Typically, you ‘record’ 
command macros, and replay 
them by pressing a single key. 
However, due to technical dif- 
ficulties in recording macros in 
this way with Rise OS, a com- 
mand macro recorder will not 
be included in the initial 
Eureka release (this will, be 
added later). However, you 
can specify the macros by sim- 
ply typing them in without 
executing them, then replay 
them later. 

Function macros will be 
entered on separate macro 
sheets: these look exactly like 
normal worksheets, but the 
sequence of steps for a func- 
tion calculation are entered in 
a single column, like the lines 
of a program. And there is a 
full programming language 
available to play with. 

The charting capabilities of 
Eureka were not quite in place 
for this preview, but it will 
allow you to drag out an area 
on the worksheet and embed 
one of four types of chart - 
unlike early versions of Excel 
where charts floated in win- 
dows that were quite separate 
from the worksheet. Simple 
line, bar, scatter and area 
charts will be possible: the 
range of styles is similar to 
Schema's selection. 

Unlike the mainstream 
spreadsheets like Excel, Quat- 
tro and Lotus 1-2-3 , there’s no 
fancy 3D graphics, though 
these may appear in a later 
version of Eureka. There will 
still be a place for the fancier 
charting packages like Miner- 
va’s Graph box. 


r x 


Eureka - Sheet? * 


tornal 


Hurt 


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6 X 





Sheet? 

* 







A 

B 


! c 1 

D 

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i t 


1 

G ! 

H 

1 

Second Term Exam 

Scores 







2 












3 

Student 



French 

English Maths 




Total 

Avera< 

4 

Fred 



87 

91 

96 




274 

91 3. 

5 

Jim 



92 

94 

97 




283 

94 3: 

6 

Sheila 



96 

95 

92 




283 

94 3: 

7 

Graham 



82 

87 

88 




257 

85 6: 

8 

Barry 



81 

88 

85 




254 

84 e: 

9 

Paul 



76 

79 

72 j 




227 

75 6; 

10 












11 

I 

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12 












13 












14 












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Another stage in the process: shading picks out the lines 


Another limitation is that 
Excel ' s annotation layer that 
allows you to add arrows and 
notes to charts (and indeed to 
the rest of the worksheet) will 
not be a part of Eureka tit first. 
Eureka ' s charts will of course 
be saveable as Draw files. 

Integration with the rest of 
the Rise OS 3 system was not 
yet complete in the preview 
copy. Printing support was 
rudimentary, though the sheet 
I set up printed out when I 
pressed the print key. 

But you will be able to con- 
trol all the usual features - 


mi 

“Tureka ’ adf sTTCFahan. $ . Sheet? ♦ ‘ 


Hornal ij : 

— r_ r 

1 1 iMIul Ready 

HUH 





W 


adfs: : Grahan, $. Sheet 7 * 




B 

C 

' i » 

0 

H 


1 

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2 







3 


French English 

total 

Average 


4 


87 ')i 

274 

91 n 


5 


92 94 

283 

94 33 


6 


96 95 

283 

94 33 


7 

8 


82 8? 

257 

85 67 



Eureka 

WJ 

254 

84 6 7 


9 


Tile : 

mm 

79 

227 

■ ■ 


10 

11 






1 VS. 


For •> 





13 


Fornula 

1 




! 14 


Data 

$ 





LULL - 

Options ') 

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A Eureka spreadsheet window can be split into up to four sub-windows 


whether the grid or the column 
and row headings print, 
whether to print the whole or 
just part of the sheet and so on 
via a Print dialogue. Plus there 
will be a useful ‘print to fit’ 
option, which sizes the print- 
out to fit on whatever size of 
paper you have. 

Saving is currently limited 
to Eureka ' s own file format, 
but the release version will 
write text and CSV, as well as 
DIF and Lotus 1-2-3 files, 
which all major spreadsheets 
support. This will allow the 
user to transfer data and the 
majority of formulae from 
other major spreadsheets, but 
full macro compatibility is not 
really possible. 

THE BOTTOM LINE 

There is no doubt that the 
release version of Eureka will 
immediately become my first 
choice of spreadsheet: it will 
be a tool I use every day. 

The preview copy remained 
remarkably stable: it crashed 
only when I tried operations I 
had been warned would crash, 
and these known bugs are 
being removed. It will not 
work on a 1Mb machine, but 
2Mb will be adequate. Cer- 
tainly, Eureka looks better 
under Rise OS 3 on a high- 
resolution monitor, but it is 


perfectly useable on a mode 12 
screen too. 

It’s an intriguing mix of 
styles, obviously drawing 
heavily on Excel for the Mac 
but also taking stylistic ideas 
from Windows. On first sight, 
it may seen more familiar to 
Mac and PC users than to 
Archimedes enthusiasts. 

Longman Logotron has 
ambitious plans for Eureka : 
this autumn’s release will be 
only the first step but accord- 
ing to Longman Logotron’s 
Julian Pixton, is aimed at 
being ‘better than anything 
that’s available’. 

Free incremental upgrades 
will add new minor functions, 
and a major upgrade is already 
planned for next year - much 
the same policy as has been 
followed with Revelation 2. At 
an initial price of around £140, 
Eureka looks like good value, 
and is certainly one of the two 
most exciting Rise OS soft- 
ware releases so far this year. 


Product: Eureka 

Supplier: Longman Logotron, 124 
Cambridge Science Park, Cam- 
bridge, CB4 4ZS 
Tel: (0223) 425558 
Machine: Archimedes 
Price: £139.82 inc VAT 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 23 






A rtworks is a completely new 
graphics design and illustration 
tool for the Archimedes. An object 
orientated drawing program, with 
ten man-years of development effort 
behind it, Artworks is more than a 
simple evolution of !Draw included 
with the machine. It can be used to 
create illustrations from simple line 
drawings and cartoons to more com- 
plex technical illustrations, to fully 
coloured and shaded works of art. 
And it can do this faster, more easily 
and more efficiently than any other 
program of its type. 

Apple Macintosh users have bene- 
fited from programs such as Adobe 
Illustrator and Aldus Freehand for 
some years and one of the most 
popular programs on PCs is the 
widely acclaimed CorelDraw. Art- 
Works acknowledges these industry 
standards (it can interchange files 
with them) and we believe offers a 
superior alternative on the Archi- 
medes platform. 


Scde otjects by 

1 

F Lines 

*1 

ddd 

_i Dal 

3 

Aspect ratio X:Y 

100% 

F Lock 

xl 

jjd 

I Foreground 

n*i 


control the number of steps 
recorded, and by even 
allowing the undo record to 
be saved along with the 
drawing. 


FREEHAND DRAWING 

Artworks offers a freehand drawing facility so 
you can draw with the mouse exactly as you 
would with a pen or pencil. It doesn't matter if 
the line is uneven since ArtWorks will draw a 
smooth bezier curve along the line, following 
your movements as closely as you wish. 
Combine this with the automatic shape filling 
(ArtWorks can automatically detect when a 
shape is closed and fill it with any colour) and the 
simple and powerful set of curve editing facilities 
and you have a really simple, fast and intuitive 
set of drawing tools. 


SPEED 

Just 
about 

the most important 
aspect of any illus- 
tration tool is the 
speed at which it can display images. ArtWorks 
is typically 2 to 3 times faster than other drawing 
programs on the Archimedes. It is up to 10 times 
faster than the fastest available 486-50 PC with 
graphics accelerator card. 


COLOURS AND SHADING 

ArtWorks supports 24-bit colour so it can handle 
more colours than the eye can see. For the 
advanced user it offers 3 colour models HSV, 
CMYK and RGB and three colour types - full 
process colour, spot colours and tints of colours. 
On-screen colour dithering is used to simulate a 
large number of colour shades - over 4000 in 16 
colour modes and over 100,000 shades in 256 
colour modes. This colour dithering system 
works on all machines even with RISC OS 2. 


ANTI-ALIASING 

Archimedes owners are used to 
the advantages of anti-aliased 
font display, especially in high 
resolution screen modes. Using 
our unique variable WYSIWYG 
control you can vary the screen 
image from simple and ultra- 
fast outline only mode, to a fully 
coloured and shaded display. 

At the maximum setting Art- 
Works anti-aliases all drawings 
practically removing on screen "jaggies". The 
effect is similar to having a screen display of 
several times the actual resolution. 


3 


A a 


?y 

\ 

% 

% 


a 

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□ 

o 

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Some special features include: 



UNDO 

This single feature is enough to set ArtWorks 
apart from other drawing programs, because it 
allows you to experiment without risk. This 
aspect, more than any other, enables you to 
exploit the artist in you because it means you can 
try something, or even a whole series of opera- 
tions, and if you don't like the result, then all 
previous steps can be undone. ArtWorks goes 
further by allowing just about every operation to 
be undone (and re-done), by allowing you to 


Two other colour filling tools provide the fastest 
and easiest possible methods of producing 
graduated colour fills. Select either the straight 
or radial graduated fill tool, then just click-drag- 
release. This single operation lets you set the 
position of the start colour, the direction and 
extent of the graduation and the position of the 
end colour. ArtWorks instantly displays the 
objects filled with a smooth graduated colour 
change, and of course you can easily set the 
start and end colour to be any you wish. 









practically no memory and b) you can edit the 
shapes that make up the blend and Artworks will 
instantly re-blend using the new shapes. 

PERSPECTIVE 

The perspective tool can take any part of the 
drawing, or the whole drawing, and create an 
accurate and very realistic three dimensional 
projection. It shows the two vanishing points and 


around the screen to alter the perspective. 


★* 




BLENDING 


Artworks takes this concept much further 
than any other graphics program by allowing 
you to blend between shapes with different 
numbers of points. You can blend from one 
shape to another to another etc, to create 
really subtle highlights and colour shading 
effects. On top of this the blends are dynamic, 
calculated and drawn on-the-fly. Dynamic blends 
offer two great advantages: a) blends require 


Feat ures 

• Anti-aliased display 

• On screen dithering 

• Super fast display and edit 

• Multi-level undo and redo 

• Import/export files with industry 
standards 

• Spot & process colour separations 
to any printer 

• RGB, HSV and CMYK colour models 

• Graduated shading, linear or radial 

• PostScript printer and file support 

• Multiple drawing layers 

• Interactive tool operations 

• Freehand drawing tool 

• Envelope & perspective object 
distortion 

• Advanced dynamic blends 

• Background redraw 

• Comprehensive outline text support 

• Fully RISC OS2&3 compatible 





Compatibility 

Artworks is a fully compatible RISC OS 
multi-tasking application. It can import and 
export Archimedes Draw and Sprite files as 
well as files from the leading illustration 
packages on other machines. 


There is not room here to cover many of the 
other unique aspects of this software. A 
more detailed brochure and specification is 
available for the asking. 


This advert was created solely with Impression and ArtWorks 


Price and availability 

Estimated price under £200 +VAT 
Available from September 1992 

All trademarks are acknowledged 


d 

Computer Concepts Ltd 
GADDESDEN PLACE 
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD HERTS HP2 6EX 
TEL: 0442 63933 
FAX: 0442 231632 
BARCLAYCARD & ACCESS ACCEPTED 



The Complete Upgrade Solution 


Qualified 

Dealer 


8Mb Memory 


- Uses only eight RAM devices 

- Suitable for A440, A400/1 & R140 

- Fully RISC OS compatible 

- Four layer printed circuit boards 

- Courier collection & fitting included 

8 Mb upgrade - £499 


410/1 Memory 


- 400 series RAM upgrade kits 

- Supplied with full fitting instructions 
-410/1 to 420/1 requires 1Mb 

- 420/1 to 440/1 requires 2Mb 
-410/1 to 440/1 requires 3Mb 

1 Mb - £35 2Mb - £64 3Mb - £98 


A3 10 Memory 


- Four layer printed circuit boards 

- Free MEMCla with 4Mb upgrade 

- Courier collection & fitting included 

2nd Mb- £99 4th Mb -£199 
2nd to 4th Mb upgrade - £1 15 


A3000 Memory 


- Uses only eight RAM devices 
- User upgradeable from 1 to 4 Mb 

- Four layer printed circuit board 

- Low power consumption 

- Available without RAM devices 

Bare card - £35 

2nd Mb Card - £56 4th Mb Card - £145 


A540 Memory Cards 


- Uses only eight RAM devices 

- Four layer printed circuit board 

- Three cards may be fitted giving 

a total of 16Mb of memory 

A540 4Mb upgrade - £245 
Two memory cards - £485 
Three memory cards - £710 


ARM3 Upgrades 


- 3 to 4 times performance increase 

- Suitable for all ARM2 based machines 

- Does not invalidate warranty when 

fitted to an A3000 

25MHz ARM 3 upgrade - £199 
Collection delivery and installation on 
all machines - £18 


A5000 Memory & Drives 


- Increases A5000 memory to 4Mb 
- Upgradeable and non upgradeable versions 
- 4Mb to 8Mb price includes installation 
- High quality Four layer circuit board 

A5000 4Mb RAM non-expandable £89 
A5000 4Mb RAM - £1 10 4Mb to 8Mb RAM - £399 
A5000 2nd 105Mb IDE drive - £299 


Aleph One 386 PC podule 


- Provides full compatibility with PC software 

- 10 to 20 times speed increase over emulator 
- Single width podule suitable for all machines 
- Multi-tasks in RISCOS window 

- Upgradeable with Floating Point processor 

386 podule with 1Mb RAM - £495 with 4Mb RAM - £575 


Syquest removable disc systems 


- Including one cartridge, drive unit and all cables 
- 42Mb removable cartridges 
- High-flow fan fitted for improved cooling 

Atomwide Syquest drive unit - £425 
Drive unit with Oak SCSI card - £524 
Spare 42Mb disks - £55 


Quantum SCSI Hard discs 


- Including drive, metalwork and all cables 
- Fast 16ms access 64K cache 
- Phone for prices on IDE drives and interface cards 
- Available as internal or external units 

52Mb internal - £1 99 1 05Mb internal - £299 
245Mb internal - £599 425Mb internal - £949 
Oak 16bit card - £99 External unit add - £75 


DTP & Monitors 


- Impression II DTP package £130 

- Impression junior DTP package £70 
- LBP4 printer including sheet feeder £999 
Eizo 9060 £399 - Eizo F550i £749 - Eizo T560i £1025 

- Taxan 795 £490 - Taxan 875 £775 

All monitors come with a free VIDC enhancer 
Carriage on all monitors is £7 


Acorn Machines 


A5000 & A5000LC - Free 4Mb upgrade 
A540 - Free 4Mb ram card giving 8Mb 
A3000 & A3000LC - Free 2nd Mb RAM 

A5000 - £1499 A5000LC - £1531 
With Eizo 9060 monitor A5000 - £1699 A5000LC £1731 
A3000 - £599 A3000LC - £642 A540 - £2495 



- All products are cross-compatible 

- Combination deals available on all products 

- Dealer enquires welcome 

- Phone for full details on all products 

All prices exclude VAT at 17.5% but include delivery with the exception of monitors 



A T O 


| 

\N 1 

1 1 

3 

E 


23 The Greenway Orpington Kent BR5 2AY Tel 0689 838852 Fax 0689 896088 
























Pete Worrall is a fine artist. His influences lie with the impressionists but his medium is 
the A3000. He talked to Karen Donaghay and Tony Judge about his work 


M ention fine art to most 
people and they con- 
jure up an image of 
the eccentric artist, 
immersed in the the smell of 
oil paints, living in a separate 
and rarefied world. Yet art, 
like many other creative fields, 
is changing and Peter Worrall, 
as a ‘computer’ artist, is just 
one exponent of the change. 

‘The art establishment will 
have to recognise the medium 
of screen-based work as a 
valid skill,’ he told us. ‘The 
excitement of this new 
medium lies in speed and cre- 
ativity. I have produced more 
screens in three years than 
could be produced in a lifetime 
of painting.’ 

These days, Peter works 
almost exclusively on the 
A3000, and a recent exhibition 
of his work at the Wednes- 
bury gallery in the West 
Midlands was a showcase for 
various art packages. Most of 
the works are produced using 
not one but several products 
and Peter maintains that this is 
crucial to his approach. 

it’s the interchange that is 
important. For instance, Rev2 
has a very good textile- 
designer panel. It's nice to 
pick up part of an Arcol image 
and then do a multi-print using 
Rev2. Or Artelier has an excel- 
lent outlining option, so I 
might outline part of the image 
and put it into Pro Artisan. 
Peter does, of course, have his 



Peter Worral with his creative medium, the A3000 


own personal favourites and 
one of these is Arcol. 

‘I see Arcol as an experi- 
mental fine art package. Arcol 
is rather old-fashioned com- 
pared to Rcv2 . but it has some 
special effects that are second 
to none. One. called anneal, is 
like an enamel effect, it floats 
over the surface and cycles 
through all the colours. Arcol 
can also bleach out parts of the 
picture using shade, or eat into 
an image - all with very unex- 
pected results.’ 

Another favourite is ProAr- 
tisan. ‘It’s the speed of colour 
change that I like. Plus a clini- 
cal ability to draw grids.’ 

But of course the Archi- 
medes is not the only 
‘creative’ machine in the 
world. Peter described a com- 
puter art conference where he 
was one of the guest speakers: 

‘They were all on Macs and 
I, of course, was using the Arc. 
So they had all been talking 
about pixels, saying that the 
state of the art is to get rid of 
pixels and have smooth photo- 
graphic quality. 

‘When my turn came, I held 
up an image and said that I 
really liked pixels. Why bother 
to create something on the 
Mac that’s exactly like an 
etching? You might as well do 
an etching. 

‘They were really amazed at 
the power and speed of the 
Arc. It makes the Arc an 
incredibly creative tool.’ 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 27 


ROSS VINCENT 





GRAPHICS 


THE MAKING OF KALEIDOSCOPE 


We've all seen kaleidoscopes before - they are one toy that never goes out of fashion. But to Pete Worral, a kaleidoscope is more than a toy: it is a 
creative optical object, capable of stimulating the artistic imagination. 'As a computer artist, the kaleidoscope theme is analogous with a computer 
screen. In other words, both offer a special kind of vision, which can be manipulated, controlled and viewed in different ways by the user. ' Below 
Pete explores this theme and explains the creation of one image, using an A3000 computer, a colour laser copier and two popular graphics packages: 
ProArtisan and Arcol. His objective was to, 'create a dynamic, exciting image', using most of the 256 colours available on the average. 

For those who wish to produce similar effects on the Archimedes, ProArtisan is available from Clares on (0606) 48511, price £89.36 plus VAT. The 
lastest version of Arcol is called Arcol Desktop and is available from ExPLAN UK on (0822) 613868 for £50 plus VAT. 



STEP ONE 


PROARTISAN GRID 

My initial planning was based 
on pencil and paper drawings 
for grids or frameworks into 
which experimental colour- 
fills could be placed using the 
I’ro Artisan and Arcol pro- 
grams. The final choice was 
based on a geometric design 
using a 1950s kaleidoscope 
as a model. 

I chose ProArtisan for the 
grid because of the clear and 
logical Banding menu giving 
measured lines, and the Cut 
and Paste menu for easy mir- 
ror imaging. To begin with, 
select the Banding menu in 
Outline shape mode and using 
the Pop-up gridlock window 
(setting four), draw the five 
circles as shown. 

Next, select the square- 
banded shape to quarter the 
image, this will help to draw 
the star, (diagonal lines are 
also helpful in the construc- 
tion). Turn off the Pop-up 
grid-lock window and draw 
the star shape. Careful aligning 
of points is required here. 

One important point to note 
is that you only need to work 


on one corner of the image 
because the Cut and paste 
menu can easily mirror- 
image your creation, using 
Left/Right and Up/Down 
Hips. The small semi-circle 


requires some work including 
Pixel Edit using ProArtisan' s 
excellent Zoom function, 
situated on the Draw menu. 
Remember to save all the 
stages onto disc as you pro- 


gress. Altogether this grid 
took me an hour to produce. 

This method can be adapted 
to create many different varia- 
tions of this theme and it is 
worth experimenting . . . 


STEP TWO 


ARCOL EFFECTS 

One of my favorite art pack- 
ages is Arcol because of the 
experimental ‘fine art’ Effect 
and Sprite menus. So, with a 
blank disc at hand, and Arcol 
loaded, 1 decided to explore 
colour and pattern effects. 

First of all select Tools and 
Sketch and draw a few free- 
hand lines in different colours. 
Next select Sprites and 
Autocut and cut out a small 
area of the screen. Now select 
Effect. You want to find 
Anneal. This creates an 
enamel effect, with beautiful 
moving colour changes: Select 



or Adjust on the mouse button 
will cycle different ranges of 
colours. Shade is also worth 
trying, because it will bleach 
out selected parts of drawings 
(interesting on digitised 
images). The extensive Sprite 
effects available also produces 
excellent results. Save these 
small ‘col I aged’ cutouts on to 
a disc (at least fifteen of them) 
and transfer the ProArtisan 
grid on to the same disc. The 
next stage involves loading the 
kaleidoscope grid: the one I 
prepared earlier! 

Now you can try out colour 
fills, using Sprite fill. It is 
important to experiment, using 
your artistic license plus the 
Cut and Paste menu to mirror 
image the fills. 


28 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 



<3 RAPHICS 


STEP THREE 


PROARTISAN EFFECTS 

The finishing touches are very 
important for contrast and 
balance. I also wanted to make 
Kaleidoscope look as lively as 
possible. Using the Draw 
menu, select a plain colour fill 
for the star, and use the Pop up 
Key Colour window to mask 
the surrounding areas. 

Then apply the Spraygun 
lightly, by dragging the bar to 
alter the setting, in this case in 
yellow and red. Remember to 
switch off the pop-up key 
colour window after use, 
selecting X. 



Finally the mini-spheres are 
created using the Circular 
graduated fills on setting one, 
with colour sets two to seven. 
There are 24 colour sets avail- 
able and the last four enable 
the artist to design their own 
colour sets (and save them on 
to disc. It is important to 
change the colour set on each 
application for this function to 
work properly. 

A unique feature available 
on ProArtisan is the Rainbow, 
multi-coloured brush or spray- 
can, accessed by using Adjust 
on draw and spray functions. It 
is well worth spending time 
with this function, because it 
combines the methods I have 
described above. 


STEP FOUR 


KALEIDOSCOPE 

After a certain amount of trial 
and error, the artwork is com- 
plete. The final result contains 


223 colours and satisfies my 
objectives as a vibrant unique 
image, using some of the best' 
aspects of two extremely cre- 
ative art programs. 

There are infinite possibili- 
ties for producing art on the 
Archimedes through combin- 


ing processes and using dif- 
ferent software. 

The next stage is to photo- 
graph the screen and enlarge 
the result through a colour 
laser copier, choosing A4 to 
A1 in size depending on the 
image. This gives an accurate 


depiction of the screen. Then 
all that is left is to find a frame 
and some exhibition space. 
But that’s another story . . . 

Next month in BBC Acorn 
User , Peter Worrall takes a 
creative look at video art. 



BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 29 



IS If it's got to work... 




...it's got to be one of ours 


The new Worra CD ROM drive offers a low cost entry into the 
world of multimedia with performance comparable to similar 
drives. The High Speed CD ROM drive offers the highest 
possible performance and is better able to cope with more 
demanding applications, such as Acorn 'Replay' sequences, 
than cheaper drives. 

Each hard disc comes complete with the following FREE 
software: 

Genesis, Euclid, Disc Tree, RISC OS Companion, Worra Battle 

Oak Solutions Ltd. Suite 25 Robin Enterprise Centre 
Leeds Road Idle West Riding of Yorkshire HD 10 9TE 
Tel: 0274 620423 Fax: 0274 620419 


16-bit SCSI Interfaces 


A3000 

£98.00 

A300/400/500/5000 

£98.00 

CDFS Upgrade 

£45.00 

Worra Winnie Internal Hard Discs 


A300/400/500/5000 


50 Mb 

£299.00 

100 Mb 

£449.00 

200 Mb 

£735.00 

Worra Winnie External Hard Discs 


A3000/ A300/400/500/5000 


50 Mb 

£345.00 

100 Mb 

£495.00 

200 Mb 

£780.00 

High Speed Internal Hard Discs 


A300/400/500/5000 


50 Mb 

£339.00 

100 Mb 

£489.00 

200 Mb 

£775.00 

High Speed External Hard Discs 


A3000/300/400/500/5000 


50 Mb 

£389.00 

100 Mb 

£539.00 

200 Mb 

£825.00 

Elite External Hard Discs 


A3000/300/400/500/ 5000 


50 Mb 

£489.00 

100 Mb 

£639.00 

200 Mb 

£925.00 

300 Mb 

£1345.00 

680 Mb 

£1795.00 

Worra Tape Streamer 


605ft) 

£595.00 

150 Mb 

£795.00 

High Speed Tape Streamer 


60 Mb 

£765.00 

150 Mb 

£895.00 

Elite Tape Streamer (DAT) 


1 Gb • 

£1750.00 

Magneto Optical R/W Drive 


560 Mb 

£3650.00 

CD ROM Drives 


Worm CD 

£299.00 

High Speed CD 

£399.00 


Prices shown include SCSI interface (except 
CDROMs which require SCSI card and CDES 
upgrade). 

Always state computer tyjx.* when ordering 

Prices exclude £10.00 p&p 
and VAT 




Telephone for 
Education Prices 

(and we’ll knock off the cost of your call!) 


QUALITY 


RELIABILITY 





















Oak PCB 


£99.95 


Oak PCB is a brand new RISC OS compliant PCB and schematic design package. A multi-tasking desktop user 
interface based on '.Draw ensures that users can quickly exploit the powerful draughting features, and create 
complex multi-layer circuit boards or schematics. Output is to RISC OS printer drivers, or the plotter driver supplied. 
Features Draw-file import/export, associative editing, drilling data, solder resist etc. etc. Supplied with 
comprehensive PCB and Schematic libraries. 



WorraCAD 


£99.95 


WorraCAD is the de-facto standard RISC OS 2D CAD package. Working to 18 significant figures precision, 
WorraCAD provides all the tools required to produce superb accurate technical drawings. Outputs to plotters and 
RISC OS printer drivers. Features tangents, nonnals. intersections, parallels, automatic associative dimensions, grid. 
Drawfile export, linestyles, 16 layers, hatching, mirroring and stretching, CNC link available to Boxford Lathes. 
Libraries available seperately. 



Draw Print & Plot 


£39.95 


Draw Print &. Plot supercedes our earlier plotter drivers for Drawfiles (WorraPlot and ArcSign - upgrades available). 
DrawPlot accepts drawfiles and creates output on UPGL compatible plotters. Features outline fonts, sprites, filled 
areas, line thickness and depth sorting to avoid colours overlapping. DrawPrint accepts drawfiles and allows them to 
lx* printed to RISC OS printer drivers at a different scale - for example to create huge posters (cropmarks are created 
automatically). 



KiddiCAD 


£69,95 


KiddiCAD is an exciting 3D building block package designed for younger users. 3D models may be created, using 
the library of building bricks supplied, and rotated in real time. The high speed of operation and the live 3D view’ 
allows users to quickly gain an understanding of work in 3D. Models may lx output as Spritefiles in colour or 
wireframe mode, and can then lx imported into painting packages, DTP, Genesis etc. 



Leaders in CAD for the Archimedes 

prices exclude P&P (£1.50) and VAT 



SOLUTIONS 


COMPATIBILITY 


PERFORMANCE 





WILL ACORN LAUNCH 
AN AUTUMN OFFENSIVE? 

The Autumn period is usually a busy time for the 
Acorn marketplace, with many new products 
launched in time for the BBC Acorn User show. 
Last year it was the A5000, what will it be this year? 

We give you up-to-the-minute 
details in our next issue. 

THE EXCLUSIVE SHOW PREVIEW 

This year, the BBC Acorn User show 
at Wembley will be bigger than ever. 
The Acorn market will be out in force, 
with over 70 companies displaying their wares. 
But what new releases can you expect to see? 
We reveal all in our stand-by-stand show preview. 

EDUCATION SPECIAL 

Big changes are afoot in the education sector, 
but what will Acorn do to respond 
to the new challenges? 
We go behind the scenes 
at Acorn to find out. 


PLUS 


BROKEN BEEBS 

The BBC micro is renowned as a sturdy machine, 
but things can go wrong. We look at some common 
faults and tell you how to fix them. 

VIDEO WALKTHROUGH 

Take a roomful of school children, an A3000 and a 
camcorder and see what stunning results appear. 
Don’t miss our in-depth video workshop. 


TECHWRITER REVIEW 

The company who produced Easiwriter have now 
released a new type of package. Techwriter has all 
the features of a normal word processor, but can also 
cope with mathematical formulae. 

Is this the package that scientists have 
been waiting for? We put it to the test. 


REGULARS 

• All the latest news and views 
from the world of Acorn 

• *INFO - helpful advice and 
ideas covering the BBC A3000, 
Archimedes, A5000, BBC B and Master 

• Your letters and problems 

• Programs galore on the yellow pages 
and much more 


To be sure of 
your copy, 
please fill in 
the coupon 
below and 
hand it to your 
newsagent. Or 
why not take 
out a subscrip- 
tion, which 
includes a free 
monthly disc? 
See page 89 for 
details 


DON’T MISS 

the October issue of 
BAU, on sale Thursday 
September 10 


DEAR NEWSAGENT, PLEASE ORDER MY REGULAR COPY OF BBC ACORN USER 

YOUR NAME 

ADDRESS 

BBC Acorn User is published by Redwood Publishing, 101 Bayham Street, London NW1 OAG. 
Distributed by BBC Frontline, Park House, 117 Park Road, Peterborough 


32 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 










The Micro Power Group has now taken over the manufac- 
ture and marketing of all current VERTICAL TWIST 
products, under tne brand name of Leading Edge. This 
arrangement will now enable Vertical Twist to apply their 
outstanding technical expertise on new designs for the 
Archimedes and to enhance the existing range. 


Other Leading Edge Products 
* A5000 RAM Upgrades 

High quality four layer PCB, easy to fit - slots vertically - no need to 
remove backplane or hard drive; uses fast DRAM to match your A5000 


- 2Mb Upgrade (to give you 4Mb in total) £ I I 2.00 

* Graphics Enhancer (300/400 series).... £225.52 

Adds 24 bit palette and much more! (A3000 £235.74) 

* Investigator 2 £23.79 


The best selling disc utility package - runs from desktop, installs on hard 
drive, improved disc editing facilities, more powerful backup features 
with greater compression and detailed 40 page manual. (Not A5000) 


* Tracker £42.5 1 

T racker provides 8- track sound sequencing facilities, using the Archimedes sound 
capabilities to the full. It has many advanced features including:- pitch bend, 
arpeggio, stereo panning, volume slide, track swapping and mixing. 

* Tracker Tunes (2-17 each) £5.00 

Great tunes even if you haven't got Tracker! - Full list available! 

* Sound Sampler/MIDI Card £79.99 

Sounds can be sampled from HI-FI's, or CD players. The card is 
installed instead of the Econet network card 

* MIDI Tracker £16.17 

Allows Tracker tune modules to be played out of a MIDI interface. 
Even inexpensive keyboards have the ability to create excellent sounds 
beyond even the sound quality of the Archimedes. 


Northwood House, North Street, LEEDS LS7 2AA 
Tel 0532 458800 Fax 0532 423289 


* Carriage contribution £2.50, UK mainland only, excluding Scottish Highlands 
Other areas, including overseas, carriage charged at cost. 

* Please add VAT at I7i>% to all prices, including carriage 

* Please make cheques/P.O^ payable to Leading Edge 

* Access or Visa cards welcome 

* Official education orders accepted; (minimum order value £30.00 for 

invoicing, otherwise cheque with order). _ , _ „ 

6 ^ ' (Prices correct, E & OE) 


Joystick Interface V2.4 


JOYSTICK INTERFACE V2.4 

This new version hardware/software package conforms fully to the 
required Acorn standards, allows one or two standard digital joysticks to 
be used and is now fully A5000 compatible! No internal fitting, expansion 
box or backplane is necessary! Compatible with most games on the market! 

Hardware/software A5000 UPGRADES from the original are avail- 
able, for £7.99, inc VAT and P&P. Please return both interface and disc 
to us at the address below with your name, address and remittance. 

NowA5000 compatible! Only £34.00! 


joystick Interface EXTENSION CABLE available - Only £6.50 


High Quality SCSI CARDS g 

Internal/ External podule for all machines (but not A5000) 

* 8-bit budget card £93.60 ^ 

* 16-bit High performance card £128.50 

A3000 Internal Cards ^ 

* 8-bit budget card £93.60 

* 8-bit turbo card £128.50 ^ 

NEW LOW PRICE! 


Coming Soon! 


Schools! 

8 Bit SCSI User Port for A3000! 

This is an internal 8 bit SCSI card & User Port; so 
now you can use our MIDI Interface or our MIDI 
Sampler card, leaving the Econet socket free! 

Price £131.87 


All products designed and developed by Vertical Twist 

Distribution exclusive to Greyhound Marketing. Dealer enquiries 0532 621111 


Watford Electronics 

Acorn' 



(A member of the Jessa group of Companies - Established 1972) 

Jessa House, 250 Lower High Street, Watford WD1 2AN, England 

Tel: Watford (0923) 237774 Tlx: 8956095 Fax: (0923) 233642 


The sign of 
Quality 


Shop Hours: 9am to 6pm (Mon.-Sat.) Thursday 9am to 8pm. FREE customer car park. 

All prices exclusive of VAT; subject to change without notice & available on request. 


The choice 
of Experience 


rchimedes 


micro 


System Basic Mono Colour Multiscan 
A3000 £599 £665 £759 £924 

A3000L/C £642 £708 £802 £967 

A5000H/D - £1499 

A5000L/C - £1531 


When you purchase an Archimedes 
Micro from Watford, look what you get 


FREE with it 

Micro 

Free Offer 

A3000 

2Mb RAM; Monitor plinth and Acorn's 
A3000 Shoulder Bag (carrying case) 

A5000 

Upgraded to 4Mb RAM & Panasonic 
KX-P1170 Printer 


Archi A4 Notebooks 


A4 Notebook with 2Mb RAM £1 399 

A4 Notebook 4M RAM/60M HD £1 699 


A5000 Hard Disc Drives 


A5000 - 1 00Mb 1 8mS Hard Disc Upgrade £269 
A5000 - 210Mb 18mS Hard Disc Upgrade £459 


Archi Accessories 


• 3.5” 800K 2nd Floppy Drive (305/310) 

• 5.25” 800K external Floppy Drive 

• I/O Podule (Analogue/User/1 MHz bus) 

• I/O Podule (Analogue/User) 

• MEMO 1 A Upgrade 

• MIDI add-on to I/O Podule 

• MIDI Expansion Card 

• Econet Network Board 

• Archimedes IEEE Interface Adaptor 

• Dual RS232 Podule 

• 16 bit parallel I/O Card 

• Archi replacement mouse - New design 

• PC Emulator vl. 8 

• Software Developers Toolbox 

• Floating Point Unit 

• SCSI Adaptor Expansion Card 

• Keyboard Extension Lead 

• 2 Podule Backplane 

• 4 Podule Backplane 

• Fan for above backplanes 

• Rise Os Extras Software Disc 

• Ethernet Card 

• SCSI Card 8 bit 

• A5000 - 2 to 4Mb RAM Upgrade 

n#u 1 1 1 1 1 m i a 

• 3.5" External Drive £95 • Monitor Stand 

• Technical Manual £39 • Serial Upgrade 

• A3000 Dust Cover £5 

• A3000 plus Monitor Dust Cover 

• A3000 User Port/Midi Upgrade Card 

• A3000 User/Analogue/1 1C I/O Card 

• A3000 External Podule Case 


Archimedes Hard Disc 


Watford's ST506 Hard disc drives for A310 & A410 
series fit internally into the space provided. 

P.S. A310 upgrades require a backplane and a fan. 

£99 
£195 
£285 
£359 
£69 
£195 
£260 
£279 
£379 


• 3HDP - Hard Disc Podule only 

• 3HD20 - 20Meg H’ Disc + Podule for 310 

• 3HD40 - 40Meg H' Disc + Podule for 310 

• 3HD50 - 53Meg H’ Disc + Podule for 310 

• 4HD20 - 20Meg Hard Disc for 410 

• 4HD40 - 40Meg Hard Disc for 410 

• 4HD50 - 53Meg Hard Disc for 410 

• A3000 20Meg Hard Disc + Podule 

• A3000 40Meg Hard Disc + Podule 


Archimedes A3000 
Desk Top Publishing 
(DTP) Sale Offer 


A3000 BBC Archimedes Micro with 3.5" 
Floppy Disc Drive and a mouse, upgraded 
to 2Mb RAM, COLOUR Monitor + Lead, 
20Mb fast IDE Hard Disc Drive, 
'Compression' Utility to increase the Hard 
Drive capacity to Typically 40Mb, The 
highly acclaimed Computer Concept's 
Impression Junior DTP software package. 

RRP: £1299 

Sale Offer Price: £875 

Above Package plus Acorn’s 
Learning Curve £918 

. DTP Package as above but with a 
r .30Mb fast IDE Drive, (with 
Compression utility, the capacity is 
increased to typically 60Mb) £899 

Above package with Acorn's 
Learning Curve £942 


Special Education discounts 
available on above package, micros, 
RAM upgrades, ARM 3 Turbo Card, 
etc. Please write in or telephone: 

(0923) 237774/250335 


Archimedes RAM Upgrade 


All our memory upgrades are simple to fit. No 
soldering required. Fitting instructions supplied. 

• R300-4 Layer RAM upgrade board (Bare). £ 

• R302-A3000 - to 2MB RAM Upgrade £ 

• R303-A3000 - to 2MB RAM Upgrade 

(expandable to 4MB) £ 

• R304-A3000 - to 4MB RAM Upgrade £1 

• R31 1 -A305 - to 1 MB RAM Upgrade £ 

• R31 2-A305/31 0 - to 2MB RAM Upgrade £ 

• R314-A305/310 - to 4MB RAM Upgrade £1 

• R412-A410/1 - to 2MB RAM Upgrade £ 

• R413-A420/1 - to 4MB RAM Upgrade £ 

• R414-A410/1 - to 4MB RAM Upgrade £ 

• R810-A410/1 - to 8MB RAM Upgrade £5 

• R820-A420/1 - to 8MB RAM Upgrade £5 

• R840-A440/1 - to 8MB RAM Upgrade £4 

• R814-R140 — to 8MB RAM Upgrade £4 

• A5000 - to 2MB additional RAM Upgrade £ 


Lease Purchase facility now 
available. Please telephone or 
write in for details. 


Desk Top Publishers 

Acorn’s Archi DTP Package £79 

• Equasor £39; • Expression-PS £19 

Impression 2 DTP Pack £123 

Impression Junior £69 

Impression Business Supplement £39 

Impression II Borders Disc £19 

Tempest DTP Package £90 


Archi Wordprocessors 


Pendown Archi 

£48 

Archie Spell Master £25 

Pendown Outline 

PD Spellchecker 

£40 

Fonts 

£18 

Graphic Writer 

£19 

Image Writer 

£25 

EasiWord 

£18 

1st Word Plus- 

2 £63 



I 

Databases 


AlphaBase 

£36 

Magpie 

£40 

Flexifile 

£79 

Multistore v2.01 

£176 

Knowledge Organiser£42 

Pinpoint 

£65 


Spreadsheets 


Intersheet Disc 


£24 Schema 


Business Graphics 


GammaPlot 
Interchart Disc 


£39 Sigmaplot 
£17 


Integrated Packages 


£89 


£39 


£149 


• Pipedream 4 

• Desktop Office - Database, Graphs & 

Charts, Wordprocessor Spreadsheet, 
Communications £98 

• Desktop Folio - Wordprocessor, Desktop 

& Interactive Publishing. Ideal for school £75 


A3000 I/O Card 
(User, Analogue & IIC) 


This NEW versatile I/O Card from Watford, fits inside 
the A3000 and includes an Analog to Digital Converter, 
a User Port, and an InterIC (IIC) connector. 

The card allows many of the peripherals developed for 
the BBC to be used with the Archimedes A3000. The 
ADC and User Port have the same pin out and 
connectors as the BBC computers. 

Extensive RISC OS software is supplied to provide BBC 
OSBYTE calls for support of the ADC and User Ports, 
including the BASIC keyword ADVAL. The software 
provides extended RISC OS support for separate 
interrupts from both the ADC and User Ports, permitting 
easy interrupt driven operation. 

The card is provided with all the software in ROM and is 
automatically loaded when the machine is turned on. 

Peripherals connected to the ports can obtain up to 
500mA of power at +5V. A fuse is fitted to the card to 
protect the A3000 from damage arising from accidental 
short circuit of the power output. 

The card is provided with an extensive manual 
explaining installation, all software commands, 
connector pin outs, hardware addresses and example 
programs. 

Features 

• An 8 bit User Port with a standard 20 way IDC 
connector, compatible with the User Port on the BBC 
computers and the Archimedes I/O Podule. 

• A 1 0 bit Analog to Digital Converter with a standard 
15 way D type connector, compatible with the ADC 
on the BBC range of computers and the Archimedes 
I/O podule. 

• An InterIC (IIC) Port with a 5 pin DIN socket to 
connect the A3000 to external IIC devices. 


More Archimedes Products 
See Pages 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 


CREDIT CARD 24 HOUR 
Ansaphone Hot Lines 
(0923) 250234 or 233383 








Hi-Speed, Low Cost 
Archi Hard Disc Drive 


Watford's advanced interface allows IDE drives to 
work on any Archimedes machine, speeds in 
excess of SCSI devices can be obtained at a 
fraction of the cost of a SCSI drive. 

Up to four drives are supported by the IDE filing 
system IDEFS, up to two drives can be attached to 
each expansion card, up to four cards can be 
installed in a machine. An optional 20Mb or 40Mb 
hard disc can be supplied on the podule expansion 
card itself, with its fast transfer rate and power 
saving modes the drive is ideal for storing 
commonly used software such as the IFonts 
application. 

A powerful security feature has been provided with 
the two unique commands 'IDELock and 
‘IDEUnlock, ideal for educational establishments 
where hacking or tempering may be prevalent that 
may lead to loss of data. Once locked, the 
configuration can not be changed until a secret 
password is used. The MDEForm Write Protect 
option is particularly useful in conjunction with 
‘IDELock as it will prevent any unauthorised 
deletion of data. 

By an innovative use of on-board memory, the card 
will remember its configuration, even if moved to 
another slot or even a different machine, this also 
includes the unique security features. 

Hardware 

• Single width EuroCard 

• Supports proposed ANSI ATA (IDE) specification 

• Fast 16 bit MEMO interface interrupt driven to 
support background disc operations 

• 5 Mbytes per second peak transfer rate 

• Built in Non Volatile RAM to hold configuration 

• LED activity indicator 

• 37 way D type socket for external drives 

• Optional on-card 20Mb or 40Mb hard disc 

• Up to two drives (master and slave) per card 

• Multiple cards per machine (up to four) 

Software 

• Conforms fully to the Acorn IDE Specification 

• All software supplied in ROM 

• Filing system 'IDEFS' 

• Desktop filer with drive ready detection and disc 
name under icon 

• MDEForm, WIMP based configuration and 
formatting software 

• Drives can be individually write protected 

• Up to four drives over multiple cards 

• Power saving standby modes supported with 
configurable timeout 

• Drives can be used without translation in native 
mode for minimum overhead 

• IIDEFSDisk, creates PC emulator hard discs 

Prices 


Part No. 

Capacity 

Access Speed 

Price 

ADA 0520 

44Mb 

28mS 

£215 

ADA 0530 

100Mb 

16mS 

£295 

ADA 0570 

200Mb 

15mS 

£479 

ADA 0580 

330Mb 

15mS 

£849 


All the above 3.5" hard drives are supplied 
complete with Controller Card, cable & Software on 
ROM. (Internal fitting). For use with 
A300/A400/A500 series machines. 

For A3000 users an additional external Case and 
PSU will be required. 

AAA 0300 External Case & PSU for A3000 £85 


Internal Hard Disc Drives 
for A3000 


State of the art, 4 layer internal IDE Hard Cards for 
the A3000. Software supplied in, On-board ROM. 


ADA 0700 

21Mb 

23mS 

£185 

ADA 0770 

30Mb 

19mS 

£285 

ADA 0720 

44Mb 

19mS 

£349 

ADA 0750 

60MB 

18MS 

£399 

ADA 0730 

89Mb 

18mS 

£619 


Supplied ready assembled. No soldering required. 
Simply plug into the allotted space. 


Archi IDE Hard Cards 


"Simply plug 
and play" 



Watford’s easy to instal, low cost, high 
performance, revolutionary IDE Hard Cards 
for the A300 & A400 series Archimedes. 


ADA 0650 

21Mb 

23mS 

£199 

ADA 0800 

30Mb 

19mS 

£295 

ADA 0660 

44Mb 

28mS 

£359 

ADA 0810 

60Mb 

18mS 

£409 

ADA 0670 

89Mb 

18mS 

£629 


(Can be used as a Removable Hard Drive) 
NFW ^ 


Archimedes A300/A400 
SCSI Hard Disc Offer 

(while stocks last) 


100MB Hard Disc Upgrade 
complete with Controller card, 
Cables, Formatter and Manuals 

RRP: £799 

Offer Price: £325 


Syquest Removable 
Disc Units 


These Hard Drive units are supplied complete with 
a cartridge 42Mb removable, cables and a high 
flow fan for cooling. 

• Syquest Drive Unit pack £399 

• As above + SCSI Card £415 

• Spare 42Mb Disc £55 


Archi to BBC Serial Link Mk 2 


Using this simple data link, it is possible to solve all 
your BBC to Archimedes data transfer problems. 
The kit is supplied with a disk, and the necessary 
cable to connect the two computers. 

New RISC OS Version also available (please 
specify) 

• For A3000 £15 •ForA5000 £16 

For A3000 Serial Upgrade (£19) required 


BBC MASTER 


MASTER 128K Micro incl. Acorn’s 
View, Viewsheet, ADFS, BASIC Editor 
& TERMINAL plus FREE OFFER 
(see below) £399 


FREE with every BBC Master purchased 
from us during August 

A 5.25" Double Sided, 40/80 track 
switchable 400K Disc Drive 
complete with cables and a Utilities 
disc incl. 2 games, plus 

Gemini's OFFICE MATE & OFFICE MASTER 


Add-Ons & Accessories 


Econet Module for the Master £42 

Twin ROM Cartridge for Master £9 

Quad ROM Cartridge for Master £14 

Master Reference Manual I (No VAT) £14 

Master Reference Manual II (No VAT) £14 

Master Advance Ref Manual (No VAT) £14 

64K Upgrade Kit for B+ £32 

Acorn 1772 DFS Kit complete £49 

ECONET Upgrade Kit for BBC B £42 

ALL ECONET UPGRADES Available 
ARIES’ IEEE Interface for BBC B & Master £238 
Morley Teletext Adaptor with ATS Rom £99 

Ecolink £270 


Minerva's Archimedes Software 


EasyWord £18 TimeTabler £549 

Home Accounts £35 System Delta £59 
System Delta Program Reference Manual £29 

Stand alone Business Accounts Packages 

Sales; Purchase; Order Processing and Invoicing; 
Nominal; Stock management 
£79 per module 

or Complete Business Package £325 


■ 


ARM 3 Turbo Card Mkll 


Simply The Best 

%"// /////A 

ft 







Here it is at last - the all new Mark 2 version 
of Watford's highly acclaimed ARM 3 
processor board for the Archimedes and now 
also the A3000 series computers. Using the 
latest surface mount technology on a high 
quality four layer circuit board we have 
reduced the overall size to a mere 53mm x 
45mm, and the cost to only £169. Mk II 
upgrade will increase the speed of your micro 
by a factor of 3 to 6. 

Any competent A300 or A400/1 series micro 
owner can fit the upgrade himself, as we 
provide full fitting instructions and a special 
ARM chip extraction tool. However for A3000 
micros and those not wishing to perform the 
upgrade themselves, we will collect, upgrade 
and return your micro by courier service, at an 
additional cost of £18. 

(A300 and old A440 series owners please note 
- you will need to upgrade to MEMC1 A for 
ARM3 to work.) 

RRP £249 

Offer Price £169 

Acorn have satisfactorily evaluated Watford’s 
ARM 3 upgrade and the A3000 upgrades are 
fitted by Acorn approved surface mount 
technology centre, therefore its fitment will not 
invalidate Acorn's warranty on the micro. 


Z88 Portable Micro 



• Z88 Portable Micro £179 

• 32K RAM Pack or 32K EPROM Pack £1 6 

• 1 28K RAM Pack or 1 28K EPROM Pack £32 

• 512K RAM Pack £86 

• 256K Eprom Pack £55 

• Z88 Eprom Eraser Unit £38 

• Z88 Carrying Case £8 

• AA Nicad Rechargeable Battery £1.50 

• Battery Charger Compact & Fast £6 

• Z88 Serial Printer Cable £8 

• Z88 Parallel Printer Cable £18 

• Z88 to Archi Link £15 

• Z88 to BBC Link £8 • Z BASE £56 

• Z88 to PC Link II £27 • Z88 to Macintosh £32 

• Z88 Mains Adaptor £9 • Z88 Modem £114 


Continued- 











“ The image quality which this little beauty can produce is quite 
stunning. ” 

Archimedes World - July 1992 

"Other Arch image grabbers have been irritating or just plain 
useless...” 

“Loads of well written, easy-to-follow and in-depth help, all 
glued together in a very handsomely designed manual.” 

Computer Shopper - July 1992 


Original after applying an enhancement filter 


Original after edge filter applied 


The only sensible scanning 
and image processing solution 
for the Acorn Archimedes. Just 
compare the features, there 
can only be one choice... 


Original Image, 16 Grey Levels 


Watford proudly introduces its innovative new 
256 grey-level hand scanner, Scan256, for the 
Archimedes range of micro computers. It offers 
up to 256 grey levels at a maximum of 400 dpi, 
and comes complete with the most advanced 
and sophisticated 256 grey scale scanner 
software currently available for the Archimedes. 

Features 

^ Multiple copies of the image in memory at once 

Allows multiple consecutive operations without having to save the original 
image to disk. 

^ Instant re-draw of all 4 image buffers 

No re-calculations needed unlike other packages that use on the fly 
screen-dithering. 

^ Highly advanced dithering and image size reduction 

Available via industry standard ChangeFSI package for maximum image 
quality. An invaluable aid to reduce the size of the image whilst 
maintaining maximum image quality. 

^ Advanced in-built image processing options 

Convolution digital filtering fully implemented with over 100 filters covering 
edge detection, image enhancement and image smoothing. Enables high 
quality images to be obtained from poor quality scans. 

^ A unique L.E.D. indicator on the scanner 

Shows you when the scanner is being moved at close to the maximum 
scanning speed, not just when it is too late and a scan line has been 
missed by moving the scanner too fast. 

^ Fully adjustable scale and size of image preview when scanning 

Image preview window can even be behind other windows and preview is 
shown in real-time with maximum number of grey scales available. 

► Support for ‘The Serial Port’ Graphics Enhancer 

Allows up to 256 simultaneous grey scales on screen at once. 

► True brightness, contrast and gamma correction 

All can be specified by a value to exactly match monitor/printer. No 
guessing with shapes of curves and correction is mathematically correct. 

^ RISC OS 3 features 

Include rotation and shearing. Scans normally are scanned at a slant 
rather than being rotated, shearing enables the scan to be corrected 
better than rotation. 

► Fast RISC OS printing 

Multiple options such as scale to page, centre, sideways, selected area, 
and any scale. 

^ Scanner scans at an amazing 3ms per line 

A post card at 400dpi takes only 7.3 seconds to scan, creating over 3Mb 
of data. 

► Selectable scanning modes 

256 grey-scale, 256 grey-scale half width, 16 grey-scale and monochrome 
scanning modes. Half width mode enables longer 256 grey-scale scans to 
be achieved. 

^ Save image in foreign formats 

Save as industry standard TIFF for exporting to other systems, AIM for 
further processing, or RISC OS Sprite format. 

^ Single width, high quality podule using surface mount technology 

Scan256 Scanner, Interface Card, 
Software and Manual 

Only £185 



BBC Educational Software 

i 

1 

Archimedes Software 


■aaiiiii- 


Maths with a Story 1 (Disc). 4 primary level 
maths programs £20.00 

Maths with a Story 2 (Disc). 4 further 
maths programs. £20.00 

Picture Craft (Disc) 6-14 age group. Pack 
consists of flexible geometrical design & 
colouring programs. £17.00 

Computers at Work - Primary £1 7.35 

Espana Viva - 3 Discs £1 9.95 

WHITE KNIGHT Chess game £1 6.00 

A Vous La France £29.00 

Six French Games - Aimed at pupils in their 
first year of French, but also useful as revision 
for more advanced students 1 1 years+ £26 

More French Games - Another 6 games 
12years+ £26 

Au Restaurant and Accident de Route 
12years+ £26 

Boulogne and Oh-Les - 2 programs for 
beginners £26 

Letters to French Penpals - 1 1 years* £26 

French Programs with Henri Beret - The 
programs in this series present vocabulary, 
grammar and role-play phrases in the form of 
animated games. 11-16 £22 

Six German Games - Aimed at pupils in their 
first year, but useful as revision for more 
advanced student of German. 12 years+ £22 

More German Games - Aimed at pupils in their 
2nd year of learning German. 12 years* £22 
Computer Control - This is a package of 3 
programs simulating control of a greenhouse, a 
robotic arm & a chemical plant. 14-16 years £26 
PUNCMAN Learning punctuation 
Puncman 1 & 2 for 7 - 13 years £1 5 

Puncman 3 & 4 for 8 - 14 years £1 5 

Puncman 5, 6 & 7 for 8 - 15 years £1 5 

Yes Chancellor - A chance to take over number 
11 at Downing Street. 12 years* £18 

Letters & Pictures - Introduces phonic skills to 
Infants 6-8 years £15 

Numbers & Pictures - Early number learning 
is a great fun (4-6 years) £1 5 

Note Invaders - Budding musicians can learn 
the notes on the Clef with this elegant game 3 
programs (7 to Adults) £15 

Maps & landscapes No. 1 (9-14 years) £18 
Help Your Child learn Basic Map work No. 2 
(9-14 years) £18 

Spelling Week by Week (6-14 years) £1 8 


Archi Educational Software 


Animated Alphabet 


£21 


(3-6 yrs) 

Arcventure 
(8-12 yrs) 

Bookbinder 
Bumper Disc 
Bumper Disc 2 
Craftshop 1 
Craftshop 2 
Converta-Key 
Data Word 
Desktop Stories 
DigiSim 
Dream Time 
(5-7 yrs) 

Farm (5-7 yrs) 

Fleet Street Phantom 
(9-13 yrs) £25 
Fun School 3 Red 
(up to 6 years) £17 
Fun School 3 Green 
(6-8 years) £17 
Fun School 3 Blue (8 
years*) £17 

Gate Array Teaching 
System £68 


£29 

£43 

£14 

£14 

£26 

£26 

£16 

£16 

£35 

£35 

£23 

£19 


£8 

£42 

£28 

£24 

£24 

£16 


Glimpse Clip Art 
Utility (7-16 yrs) 
Highlighter 
(6-16 yrs) 

Jigsaw 
Mapventure 
(9-13 yrs) 

Microbugs 
Money Matters 
Nature Park Adven- 
ture (7-9 yrs) £27 
Numerator £60 
Picture Book £16 
Recall (6-13 yrs) £39 
Sellardore Tales £24 
Snippet £26 

Space Mission 
Mada (9-13 yrs) 

Sting of the Dump 
(9-13 yrs) £22 

Target Maths £16 
Viewpoints 
(9-12 yrs) £33 

Wizard's Revenge 
(7-10 yrs) £17 

Worst Witch 
(7-10 yrs) £25 


GRAPHICS 


Pipe Mania 

£17 

3D Construction Kit 

£39 

Power Band 

£14 

Arc Light 

£46 

Puncman 1 & 2 

£16 

ARCtist 

£19 

Puncman 3 & 4 

£16 

ARCticulate 

£19 

Pysanki 

£14 

Atelier 

£65 

Quazer 

£10 

Artisan II 

£45 

Real McCoy 

£22 

Artisan Gallery 

£16 

Real McCoy 2 

£23 

Autosketch II 

£65 

Redshift 

£14 

Craftshop 1 & 2 

£28 

Return to Doom 

£16 

Euclid 2 

£50 

Repton 3 

£14 

Graph Box 

£59 

Saloon Cars Deluxe 

£27 

Graphbox Professional 

£107 

Spitfire Fury 

£22 

HotLink Presenter 

£40 

Splice 

£25 

Illusionist 

£69 

Sporting Triangles 

£24 

Kermit 

£46 

Superior Golf 

£14 

Mogul 

£17 

Superpool + Break 147£19 

Poster 

£79 

Swin 

£22 

Pro Artisan 

£70 

Talisman 

£12 

Prime Art 

£69 

Timewatch 

£24 

Render Bender 2 

£95 

Trivial Pursuit 

£22 

Revelation 2 

£80 

Twin World 

£15 

Snippet 

£21 

U.I.M. 

£23 

Titler 

£119 

White Magic 2 

£15 

Tween 

£29 

Wimp Game 

£13 



Worldscape 

£16 

GAMES 


XFire 

£19 

Air Supremacy 

£17 

Zelanites 

£23 

Apocalypse 

£14 



Arcade Soccer 

£14 

Miscellaneous 

Avante Garde Fonts 

£23 

Ancestry 

£59 

Boogie Buggy 

£14 

Arccomm 2 

£38 

Break 147 + Supa Pool£19 

Arcterm 7 

£64 

Bughunter in Space 

£13 

Armadeus Sound 

£60 

Cataclysm 

£19 

BBC DFS Reader 

£6 

Chess 3D 

£14 

Broadcaster Loader 

£65 

Chocks Away 2 

£14 

Compression (CC) 

£38 

Chocks Away Extra 

£14 

Equasor 

£38 

Conqueror 

£15 

FlexiFile 

£97 

Corruption 

£18 

Genesis Plus 

£68 

Cyber Chess 

£38 

Genesis 2 

£99 

Elite 

£33 

Investigator 2 

£22 

Enter the Realms 

£19 

JX Archi Colour Printer 

E-Type Compendium £20 

Driver for Citizen & 


E-Type Designer 

£13 

Star Printers 

£15 

Family Favourites 

£13 

Magpie 2 

£42 

Grievous Bodily Arm £19 

Notate 

£42 

Holed Out Designer 

£13 

Numerator 

£66 

Holed Out Golf Comp £20 

Pin Point 

£65 

Hostages 

£14 

Presenter 2 

£29 

Inter Dictor 2 

£26 

Presenter Story 

£145 

Iron Lord 

£15 

Rainforest 

£17 

Jigsaw 

£27 

Revelation 2 

£95 

Lemmings 

£20 

Rhapsody in Blue 2 

£45 

Lost Temple 

POA 

Score Draw 

£46 

Mad Prof Mariarti 

£17 

Show Page 

£127 

Masterbreak 

£16 

Speech! 

£15 

Man at Arms 

£14 

SWIV 

£19 

Mahjong Patience 

£15 

The Victorian 

£17 

Manchester United 


Time Tabler 

£549 

Europe 

£19 

Toolkit (Clares) 

£35 

Mig 29 

£24 

Touchtype 

£40 

Nebullus 

£21 

Tracker 

£39 

Nevryon 

£14 

Turbo Driver BJ10E 

£42 

Olympics 

£14 

Vox Box 

£46 

Pandoras Box 

£18 

WorldScape 

£17 


LANGUAGES (Archimedes) 


ISO-PASCAL; FORTRAN 77 £77 each 

Assembler; LISP; Prolog X £149 each 

ANSI C Rel. 3 £125 Logotron Logo £45 

Macro Assembler £40 Rise Basic £120 

RoboLogo £69 Rise FORTH £110 

BASIC Compiler £77 Cambridge Pascal £95 


Archimedes External Disc 
Drive Interface 


With this interface it is possible to connect almost 
any 5.2573.5” disc drive with its own power supply 
to the Archimedes. Upto 4 disc drives can be 
connected. Fully Buffered Board. NO SOLDERING 
is involved. Supplied complete with necessary lead. 

Price £21 


Now supplied with NEW RISC OS Version 
Software 

Watfords' Archimedes Video Digitiser is the most 
sophisticated digitiser ever designed for a micro. It 
provides a fast and flexible means of capturing 
images from a video camera or recorder for display 
and manipulation on the Archimedes range of 
Micros. Off-air televison signals may also be 
digitised via a video recorder or TV tuner. Please 
write for further details. 

Price £119 

A Set of Colour Filters for colour image grabbing 
using a video camera £1 6 


Archi Graphic Tablet 


The Archi Graphic Tablet offers performance and 
accuracy comparable to other tablets priced at well 
over £400, and has the useful addition of a liftable 
cover, which can hold tracing material or menu 
templates securely. The package is supplied 
complete with sophisticated Archi software. (Now, 
fully LinCAD compatible. Recommended by Linear 
Graphic for use in Education). 

(FREE this month, PC Mouse Drivers 
& Art package) 

Special Price £199 

(Price includes Tablet, Leads, Software & Puck) 
Stylus Optional Extra £20 
Archi Graphic Tablet Junior. Working 
area 9" x 6". Price includes Stylus £125 


Surge Protector Plu 


Fitted in place of your normal mains plug, this 
device protects your equipment (and data from 
corruption), against mains high voltage transient 
spikes/surges caused by lightning or thermostats 
switching. 

Protection for only £8.50 



4 way top quality mains trailing sockets. 

Supplied wired up with mains plug ready for use. 
Can be screwed to floor or wall if required. 

Very useful for tidying up all the mains leads from 
your peripherals. 

£9.50 


Aries Spike Cleaner Unit 


A 4 way mains distribution unit as above with a 
built-in Surge Arrester, providing protection for your 
complete Computer/Hi-Fi System 

£16 


8 Way DIP Switch 


Increase the speed of your Disc Drives by 
soldering this switch to your BBC B or B+ keyboard 


• A300/400 


Back Plate Extension 
£15; • A300 


Only £1.00 


£14 


Continued- 







FREE 

Connecting 
lead with 
every monitor 
purchased 
from us. 
Please specify 
type required. 


Microvitec Monitors 


• 1 431 - Standard Resolution Monitor £1 69 

• 1451 - Medium Resolution Monitor £209 

• Cub3000 Medium Res for A3000 £189 

• Dust Cover for Microvitecs £5.50 

• Touchtec 501 Touch Screen £239 

Now 3 years Parts & Labour warranty on all 
Microvitec Monitors 


Multiscan Colour 


• Eizo 9060S 

£389 

• Taxan 770LR 

£362 





• Eizo F550i 

£719 

• Taxan 775 

£362 

KX-P1123 

£126 

KX-P2180C 

£156 

• Eizo T560i 

£995 

• Taxan 787 

£249 

KX-P1 124i 

£170 

KX-P2123C 

£198 

• NEC 3FG 

£370 

• Taxan 795 

£397 

KX-P1170 

£99 

KX-P2180M 

£159 

• NEC 4FG 

£465 

• Taxan 875 

£679 

KX-P1624 

£270 

KX-P2123M 

£176 

• NEC 5FG 

£850 

• VIDC Enhancer 

£25 

KX-P1654 

*£332 

Colour Kit for 


• NEC 6FG 

£1525 



KX-P1695 

£270 

P2180M/2123M 

£- 





KX-P2624 

*£270 




Aries AiphaScan Monitor 


Pound for Pound, the AiphaScan VGA Multiscan 
monitor provides the maximum performance and 
greatest flexibility of any 14" colour monitor for the 
Archimedes micro. 

Its multiscan circuitry provides automatic 
adjustment for frequencies between 30 and 60KHz 
horizontal, and 50 and 90Hz vertical. Its 0.28mm 
dot pitch high resolution tube provides super sharp 
text graphics, while a high speed (70/72Hz) refresh 
rate provides a flicker-free display easing the eye 
strain. The Multivideo VIDC Adaptor supplied (free) 
with the monitor allows high resolution operation in 
all screen modes. 

£325 


Philips Monitors 


VIDC Enhancer 


This unique VIDC add- j 
on board for the 
Archimedes, caters for 
all types of Multiscan 
and VGA monitor and 
mode requirements. 

There are 2 versions to 
suit all requirements. The 
multimode software supplied, provides all the new 
modes for the selected monitor type, including the 
now standard Computer Concepts modes. With 
VGA monitor, you are no longer restricted to a few 
modes. A Desk Top application supplied on disc, 
allows new modes to be designed and existing 
modes to be modified for particular monitors. 

Super VGA VIDC Card: Its unique design allows 
the horizontal and vertical sync to be buffered and 
have the polarity changed under software 
control £45 


MultiVideo VIDC Card: As above but for 
MultiScan monitors only. 


Panasonic Printers 


£25 


£69 

£129 


* Price includes 12 months On-site warranty 

Cut Sheet Feeders 

P36 - 1 1 24/24i £79 P37 - 1 1 23/70/80 

P38- PI 624/95; P2624 

Buffers 

P12 4K Buffer Board for KX-P1081 
PI 4 32K Buffer P1 123/24/70/80 

PI 540/92/95; PI 624/54/95 

Serial Interfaces 

P19 for P1 1 23/24/24i/70/80/1 624/54/95/2624 

Original Panasonic Ribbons 

Guaranteed to last 3 million characters 
P110 for KX-P1081, 1592 & 1595 £6 

P115 for KX-P1 180 £7 P145 forKX-P1124 £7 
PI 40 forKX-P1540 £8 P155 for KX-P1624 £8 
Colour Ribbons forKX-P1081, 1592 & 1595 
Brown, Blue or Red £9 each 

PI 50C Colour for P21 23/2 180 £15 


£49 




Citizen Printers 


• 120D Plus 

£95 

• Swift 24E# 

£225 

• 224 

£174 

• Swift 24X 

£299 

• PN-48 

£199 

• 24X Colour Opt 

£32 

• Swift 9 

£145 

• PN48 Ribbon 

£4 

• AH29804 Manual Cut Sheet Feeder for Swift 

9/24/124. Holds 50 Sheets 

£29 


Integrex ink Jet Printers 


# FREE Colour Option with Swift 24E 
+ FREE 2 years Parts and Labour warranty on all 
Citizen Printers 


• Swift 9 Colour Option £1 9 

• Swift 24 Colour Option £29 

• Swift 24 Ribbons Black £4 Colour £13 

• Swift 24X Ribbons Black £8 Colour £1 6 

• Citizen/Archimedes Colour Printer Driver £1 5 


• BM7502 12” Hi-res Green Monitor 

• CM8833 14” Med. Res Colour Monitor 

• Dust Cover for Philips Monitors 


£67 

£172 

£6 


STAR BUY 

Aries A2000 Colour Monitor 

This attractively finished, etched screen medium 
res monitor is supplied complete with built-in 
speaker, volume control and video input. All 
controls are located on the front panel for ease of 
use. Ideal for BBC, BBC Master, Archimedes 
and Amiga. 

Only £159 


Spare Monitor Leads 


BNC Lead for Zenith or Philips £3 

Skart Monitor Lead £5 

RGB lead for TAXAN Monitors £3 

Archimedes Colour Monitor Lead £7.50 


Roland Plotters 


• DXY1100 £490 • DXY1200 £620 

• DXY1300 £825 • DXY2500 £2345 

• Sketchmate A3 £499 • Sketchmate A4 £308 

• Roland plotter Pens, Fibre tip £7.50 


• Colour Jet 1 32 Printer £449 

• Paper Roll £6.50 

• BBC Screen Dump Software £1 0 

• Colour Cartridge £21 

• Black Cartridge £1 2.40 

• 1 00 A4 OHP transparencies £55 

• 8K Serial Interface Optional £1 23 

• Colour Jet 2000 £POA 

• Betajet Ink Jet Printer £275 


ES I CREDIT CARD 24 HOUR 
hh Ansaphone Hot Lines 
|A| (0923) 250234 or 233383 


Star Printers 

LC15 

£178 

SJ48 Inkjet 

£172 

LC20 

£105 

XB24-200 Colour 

*£295 

LC24-15 

£245 

XB24-250 Colour 

*£355 

LC24-20 

£158 

XB24 Colour kit 

£29 

LC24-200 

£170 

ZA200 Colour 

*£244 

LC24-200 Colour 

£205 

ZA250 

*£310 

LC200 Colour 

£143 



• Star/Archimedes 

Colour Printer Driver 

£15 

* Includes 12 months On-site warranty 


Cut Sheet Feeder 


LC1 0/200/24-10 

£65 

LC15/LC24-15 

£125 

XB24-10 

£80 

XB24-15 

£139 


Serial Interfaces 

8K Ser LC-200; LC24-200; FRIO; FR15; 


XB24-10; XB24-15 

£52 

Buffers 

32K Ram Card for LC/XB24-10; 15; LC200 £55 

Ribbons 

LC10; LC10-II; LC15 Black £4; 

LC-200; LC24-200 Black £5; 

XB24-10; XB24-15 Black £5; 

Colour £6 
Colour £12 
Colour £12 


Laser Printers 


All Laser Printers include 12 months 
On-site maintenance 


Brother HL-4 

4ppm 

£575 

Brother HL4-V 

4ppm 

£640 

Brother HL4-PS Postscript 

4ppm 

£1040 

Brother HL8-V 

8ppm 

£990 

Canon LBP4 LITE 

4ppm 

£495 

Canon LBP4+1.5M RAM 

4ppm 

£639 

Canon LBP-8III Plus 

8ppm 

£960 

Epson EPL4300 

4ppm 

£635 

Epson EPL4000 

6ppm 

£485 

Epson EPL7500 

6ppm 

£1145 

Epson EPL8100 

lOppm 

£960 

HP Laserjet IIP+ 

4ppm 

£525 

HP Laserjet III 

8ppm 

£1010 

HP Laserjet HID 

8ppm 

£1495 

HP Laserjet IIIP 

4ppm 

£685 

HP Laserjet lllsi 

16ppm 

£2515 

NEC Silentwriter S62P P/script 

6ppm 

£1070 

NEC Silentwriter 266 

8ppm 

£670 

NEC Silentwriter 290P P/script 

8ppm 

£1389 

Panasonic KX-P4420 

8ppm* 

£618 

Panasonic KX-P4450i* 

11 ppm* 

£915 

Panasonic KX-P4451 


£1240 

Panasonic KX-4455 Postscript 

11 ppm* 

£1450 

Panasonic KX-P4430 Satin Print* 

' 5ppm* 

£627 

Panasonic KX-P4410 

5ppm* 

£- 

Star LP-8III2 

8ppm 

£1249 

Star LP-8 III 

8ppm 

£905 

Star LP-8 Star(post)script 

8ppm 

£1135 

Star LP-4 

4ppm 

£565 

Star LP-4 Mk 3 

4ppm 

£649 

Star LP-4PS Postscript 

4ppm 

£775 


* Now with 2 years On-site warranty 


Laser Toners 


Canon 2, 3 & 4 

£46 

Star LP4/LP8 

£56 

Epson GQ 

£13 

KX-P4420/50 

£19 

EPL4100 

£59 

Laserjet HP IIP & IIIP £42 

EPL71 00/7500/ 


Laserjet ll/D, Ill/D 

£48 

8100 

£125 

Qume Crystal (3) 

£58 

Laser RAM 

Upgrades 


IIP; Ill/P 1Mb 

£51 

EPL7100 256K 

£39 

HP; lll/P 2Mb 

£88 

GQ5000 51 2K 

£42 

IIP; Ill/P 4Mb 

£135 

KX4420/50 1 M 

£75 

II & IID 1Mb 

£64 

KX4420/50 2M 

£115 

II & IID 2Mb 

£99 

KX4420/50 4M 

£195 

II & IID 4Mb 

£146 

Star LP8 1M 

£139 

Canon LBP4 1M 
Canon LBP8 2M 

£105 

£125 

Star LP8 2M 

£275 

Laser 

Drum & Developer 


• Epson Drum 

GQ5000 

£93 EPL7100 

£129 

• Panasonic 4420 

Drum 

£60 Developer 

£59 

• Panasonic 4450 

Drum 

£93 Developer 

£80 

• Qume Drum 


£76 Developer 

£56 


Jetpage Postscript Cartridge 


• HP IIP/III £225 IID & HID 

£227 

Various Add-Ons 


• Laserjet Appletalk Interface 

£135 

• HP Adobe Postscript 

£399 

• Pacific Page Postscript 

£259 

• HP Premier Font Collection 

£28 

• Laserjet various Font cartridges 

from £45 





Hewlett-Packard Printers 


• Desk Jet 500 £272 ‘Paintjet XL 300 £1785 

Desk Jet 500 Col. £399 ‘Quiet Jet Plus £382 

‘Paint Jet Colour £518 *HP Think Jet £265 

•Paintjet XL £1196 

• 3 years extended Parts & Labour warranty £49 

• Price includes 12 months on-site warranty 

• DeskJet 500 Cart. Black £15; Colour £27 

• Paintjet Cartridges Black £19; Colour £23 

• Desk Jet 500 256K RAM cartridge £69 

• HP Epson FX Emulation Cartridge for Desk Jet £59 

• DJ 500 High Capacity Black Cartridge £21 

• DJ 500 Colour Archi Printer Driver £1 5 

Plug In Font Cartridges for DJ 500 

• 22706B - Prestige, Elite, Line Draw fonts £55 

• 22706C Letter Gothic & HP Line Draw fonts £56 

• 22707P- Proprint Emulation Cartridge £57 

• Desk Jet Unlimited (Book No VAT) £19.75 



• Special High Res Card 600 DPI for Canon 

LPB 4 & LPB 8 Laser Printers £315 

• LPB 4 Printer plus High Res Card £875 

• LPB 8111 Printer plus High Res Card £1275 

• LPB 4 Optional Paper Tray £79 

. [V j i i ^ 'i i it mi 

B-100 £205 DL1 100 Col £267 

B-200 £270 DL1200 £363 

DL-900 £181 DL3600 £508 

DL1100 £217 VM800 £1036 

Ribbons 

DL900/1 100/1 200 Mono £5 Col. £11 

DL3600 Mono £6 Col. £12 

B-1 00/200 Ink Cartridge £15 


Canon Bubblejet Printers 


BJ10EX 

Printer 

£174 

CSF 

£43 

D'ble 

Bin 

Ink 

Cart 

£16 

BJ20 

£254 

- 

- 

- 

BJ300* 

£284 

£88 

£65 

£12 

BJ330* 

£380 

£110 

£79 

£12 

BJC800C £1411 

- 

- 

- 


* Includes 12 months On-site warranty 

• Spare Battery pack for BJ 1 0E £33 

• BJ10EX - Archi Turbo Driver £42 


Special Offer: 

Canon BJ10EX Printer + CC’s Turbo Driver £222 


NEC Pinwriter Printers 


• P20 £178 • P70 £396 

• P30 £237 • P90 £605 

• P60 £322 

• P60/70 Colour Option Kit £59 

• Ribbons Black for P20/30 £6 for P60/70/90 £7 

• Ribbons for P60/70/90 Black £9 Colour £13.50 

Cut Sheet Feeders 


Concept Keyboards 


Standard A3 Keyboard with BBC Software £138 

Standard A4 Keyboard with BBC Software £109 

Archi A3 Keyboard £139 

Archi A4 Keyboard £110 


Listing Paper (Perforated) 


• 1 ,000 Sheets 9.5” x 1 1" Fanfold Paper £7 

• 2,000 Sheets 9.5" x 1 1” Fanfold Paper £1 1 

• 1 ,000 Sheets 9.5" x 1 1 " NCR 2 Part Fanfold £21 

• 1 ,000 Sheets 1 5" x 1 1" Fanfold Paper £9 

• 2,000 Sheets 1 5" x 1 1" Fanfold Paper £1 6 

• 1 ,000 Sheets true A4 Fanfold Paper 70gms £1 1 

• 2,000 Sheets true A4 Fanfold Paper 70gms £21 

• Teleprinter Roll (Econo paper) £4 

(All our Fanfold paper is Micro perforated leaving a 
smooth clean edge when the tractor feed strips are 
detached). 

Carriage 1 K Sheets £2.50, 2K Sheets £3.00 



Universal 

Printer Sharers/Changer 


Connect up to 5 Micros to 1 printer or 5 printers to 
1 Micro with our combined, Sharer/Changer switch 
boxes. 


Standard Low Cost Type 

Connects 

Serial 

Parallel 

• 2to1 

£10 

£11 

• 3 to 1 

£13 

£14 

• 4 to 1 

£16 

Professional Type 

£17 

Connects 

Serial 

Parallel 

• 2 to 1 

£17 

£18 

• 3 to 1 

£22 

£25 

• 5 to 1 

£34 

Cables extra at £6 each 

£38 


2 Way Compact Switch 


A handy 2 way printer switch can be attached to 
the micro or monitor for ease of use. 

• Centronics £1 8; • Serial £1 7 

(Cables extra at £6 each) 


Auto Printer Sharer Switch 


Cross Over Manual Switch 


2 ln/2 Out Parallel 

£29 

2 ln/2 Out Serial 

£28 

3 ln/2 Out Serial 

£36 


256k Multi Spooler 


These Auto Parallel Printer Sharers have built-in 
256K of Printer Buffers. They can be used as Auto 
Sharers, Printer Buffers or both. 

• 2 ln/2 out £135 • 4 ln/2 out £169 

• 8 ln/1 out £199 


Compact Converter Units 


Serial to Parallel E36 Parallel to Serial £37 


P20 £59; 

P30 £85; 

P60 £89; P70/90 £80 

Epson Printers 

DFX5000 

£1075 

LQ1070 

£310 

DFX8000 

£1940 

LQ1170 

£432 

FX850 

£258 

LQ2550+ 

£675 

FX1050 

£327 

LX400 

£100 

LQ100 

£147 

LX850+ 

£138 

LQ200 

£161 

LX1050 

£206 

LQ570 

£201 

SQ870 

£POA 

LQ860 Colour £440 

SQ11 70 

£565 

LQ870 

£357 

SQ2550 

£625 

LQ1 060 Colour £585 




Cut Sheet Feeders for 


LQ570, LQ870 


£47 

LX400/850/LQ200/400/450/500/550 



LQ1 01 0/1 070/1 170 

£72 

LX 1050 

£115 

FX850/LQ860 

£128 

FX1 050/LQ1 060/SQ850 

£155 

LQ2550 

£299 

SQ2550 

£210 


Tractor Feed for 



LQ800 £44; LQ850/FX850 £69; LQ1050/ 
FX1050 £85; LQ2500 £90; LQ2550 £90. 


Accessories 

• EX800/1 000 Colour Option £45 

• EX800/1 000 Colour Ribbon £1 4 

• LQ2500 Colour Option £65 

• Multifont Card for LQ550/850/1 050 £95 

Epson Printer Interfaces 

RS232 £28 RS232 + 2K Buffer £52 


Printer Leads 


BBC Centronics 4’ long £5 

BBC Centronics 6’ extra long £7 

Compact’s Special Centronics Lead £7 

Nimbus Centronics Lead £6 

IBM/Archimedes Parallel Lead 6’ £5 

IBM/Archimedes Parallel Lead 5 metres £10 

IBM/Archimedes Parallel Lead 10 metres £15 

Double Ended 36 way Centronics Lead 4’ £7 

Double Ended 36 way Centronics Lead 6’ £9 

RS232 Leads (Various) P.O.A. 


(On continuous fanfold backing sheet) 


1 ,000 off, 90 x 36mm (Single Row) £6.00 

1 ,000 off, 90 x 36mm (Twin Row) £6.25 

1 ,000 off, 90 x 49mm (Twin Row) £7.50 

1 ,000 off, 102 x 36mm (Twin Row) £6.75 

Laser Printer Labels on A4 Sheets 

3750 off, 70 x 29mm (3 Rows) £15.50 

2400 off, 70 x 37mm (3 Rows) £15.25 

2625 off, 70 x 42mm (3 Rows) £15.00 


Printer Ribbons & 
Various Dust Covers 


Type 

Ribbons 

Dust Covers 

BBC Micro 

- 

£3.50 

BBC Master 

- 

£4.00 

Archimedes Micro pair 

- 

£9.00 

Citizen 120D 

£2.75 

£4.50 

DMP2000 

£2.75 

£4.75 

DMP4000 

£3.75 

£4.85 

EX800/1000 

£3.50 

£5.00 

RX/FX80/85/800/MX80 

£2.95 

- 

FX/MX/RX1 00/1 000 

£3.95 

- 

Kaga/Taxan KP810/815 

£3.25 

£5.00 

LQ400/500/550/800/850 

£3.25 

£6.00 

LQ1050/LQ2500 

£4.00 

- 

LX80/86 

£2.75 

£4.50 

LX400/800/850 

£3.50 

£5.00 

M1009/GLP 

£2.95 

£3.75 

NEC P2200 

£4.50 

£5.00 

Panasonic KX1 080/81 

£6.00 

£5.00 

Panasonic KX-P1124 

£7.00 

£5.00 

Star LC24-10 

£2.95 

£6.00 


Professional Printer Stand 



The professional 
printer stand takes 
hardly more space 
than your printer. Due 
to the positioning of 
the paper feed and 
re-fold compartments 
ie. one above the 
other, the desk space 
required for your 
printer functions is 
effectively halved. Its ergonomic design ensures 
smooth paper flow and automatic refolding. 




Plinths for the BBC B, 
BBC Master & A3000 


Protect your computer from the heat of your VDU. 
Our micro plinths have slots for maximum 
ventilation. The single plinth is suitable for a BBC 
and VDU, whilst the double height version provides 
enough room for our stacked disc drive and other 
peripherals like, Eprom programmer, music unit or 
simply discs & stationery. The computer slides 
neatly in the lower section allowing easy access to 
remove the lid. Colour: Matching BBC Beige. 

• Single BBC Plinth 420 x 310 x 105mm £13 

• Double BBC Plinth 420 x 310 x 210mm £24 

• Single Master Plinth 490 x 310 x 105mm £14 

• Double Master Plinth 490 x310 x210mm £26 

• A3000 Single Plinth (very sturdy & precision 

made), has a slot on the left for the switch & cut 
out on the right for 3.5" Disc Drive £15 


Give your Computer System a touch of Class with 
our elegant, smoke finished Perspex Printer stand. 

80 Column version £16 (carr £3) 

136 Column version £20 (carr £4) 


Perspex Printer Stand 


80 Column version £24 (carr. £3) 
132 Column version £29(carr. £4) 


Continued-* 











• Quest Mouse III & Quest Paint £59 

• Quest Mouse III, Quest Paint, AMX 

Stop Press & Pagefont £89 

• Quest Mouse III only £30 

• Quest Paint Software only £34 

• Quest Font Disc (22 Text Fonts) £1 5 

• Quest Mouse Mat (Red or Blue or 

Green please specify) £3 

• Quest Colour Dump Disc - This new 

software allows you to print direct from 
Quest Paint to your Integrex Colour 
Printer £18 

(P.S. Quest Paint is not compatible 

with BBC Compact) 


Quest Paint is the winner of the BBC Acorn User 
1990 Award for the Best Art/Graphics software 


\ Archi Mouse Port Splitter 


Our handy little splitter unit eliminates the risk of 
damaging your micro due to constant plugging and 
unplugging of the mouse by allowing you to 
connect both, a joystick and a mouse 
simultaneously to your Archimedes. £1 5 


Mklll AMX MOUSE 


• AMX Mouse plus Super Art £54 

(Ploase specify for BBC, Master or Compact) 


• AMX MOUSE ONLY £29 

• AMX SUPERART Package £29 

• AMX STOP PRESS - A Desktop 

publishing software. Works with 
Keyboard, Joystick or a mouse £25 

• PAGE-FONTS - Over 20 Fonts for 

use with AMX Pagemaker £13 

• AMX DESIGN (ROM) £29 

• AMX EXTRA EXTRA £16 

• MOUSE MAT £3 



Quest combined with ConQuest and Acornsoft 
GXR ROM make up THE MOST POWERFUL 
drawing packages available for the BBC range. 
Quest Paint is able to take advantage of almost 
any additions to your machine, such as Shadow or 
Sideways RAM. ConQuest takes this principal even 
further, by utilising the otherwise normally 
incompatible Sideways RAM facility by holding 
pictures in them. 

ConQuest ROM Package £30 

(Price includes software in ROM and a 
comprehensive Manual). 

(Not Compatible with BBC Compact) 

(P.S. Conquest is a Quest Paint extension ROM). 


\ Quest - Tracer ball 


An attractively finished, extremely reliable, mouse 
replacement, input device. Requires very little desk 
space. Connects directly to your BBC B, BBC 
Master or Archimedes Micro. 



QT-10 BBC/Master Version £25 
QT-20 Archimedes Version £26 


\ Mouse Cleaning Kit 


To obtain trouble free operation and prolong 
the life of your mouse, the high tech rodent 
requires regular cleaning. Our deluxe mouse 
cleaning kit is ideal for the purpose £3 



CREDIT CARD 24 HOUR 
Ansaphone Hot Lines 
(0923) 250234 or 233383 


\ WE Mouse House 



Treat your mouse to a cosy Mouse House. This 
handy little gadget solves the problem of where to 
store your mouse when it is having a rest. Made of 
sturdy plastic, the WE Mouse House attaches to 
the side of your computer, monitor, disc drive etc. 

Only £3 



Features 

• Infra Red Signal Transmission 

• High Resolution 200 DPI 

• High Tracking Speed of 600mm/s up 

• Anti-static Silicon Rubber Coated Ball 

• Low Friction Teflon Footpads 

• Power - by two AAA size batteries (not 
included) 

• Automatic Standby Mode after 5 seconds 
inactive 

• Auto Power Shut-Down after 20 seconds 
inactive 







BEEB 

VIDEO DIGITISER 


C Beeb Hand Scanner 


Watford Beeb HandScan is a compact unit which 
will allow photographs, diagrams, or any other 
documents to be digitised quickly and easily, to 
then be used in a desk top publishing package, art 
program, or even in your own Basic programs! 

The HandScan plugs directly into the 1MHz bus on 
the BBC while a comprehensive set of utilities 
provided by the sophisticated ROM firmware. The 
scanner has a resolution of either 100 DPI or 200 
DPI when accuracy is essential. Pictures as wide 
as 4” may be scanned in mode 0 and various types 
of dithering may be selected to simulate the grey 
levels of a scanned picture. 

All necessary software has been included in the 
firmware to allow the scanner to read images 
directly into our Wapping Editor with little more than 
the click of the mouse. The digitised picture may 
then be incorporated into your magazine, 
newsletter, report or any other document. 


Hand-held Scanner 
for the BBC Micro 


‘Test Bureau Approved for 
Use in Education” 


Using any source of composite video (colour or 
monochrome) and the Watford Beeb Video 
Digitiser, you can convert an image from your 
camera into a graphics screen on the BBC Micro. 
This uses the full graphics capacity of the BBC 
micro in modes 0, 1 or 2. The video source may be 
a camera, video recorder or television, and is 
connected via the video output socket. The 
software supplied includes a sophisticated, fast 
screen dump routine. 

Images produced can be compressed, stored to 
disc, printed on an Epson compatible printer, 
directly used to generate graphics, analysed for 
scientific and educational use or converted to other 
formats e.g. Slow Scan TV or receiving a picture 
from a remote camera using a modem. The output 
from the digitiser exactly matches the graphics 
capability in each mode, with up to 8 levels of grey 
in mode 2. The unit connects into the User Port 
and automatically scans a complete picture in 1 .6 
seconds. 


£99 


(BBC B+ and Master compatible, except Master 
with Econet) 

fPrice includes) Digitiser Unit, Software 
Comprehensive Manual) 


Price £39 


Beeb HandScan & Firmware 


£99 












Winner of the BBC Acorn User 1990 
Award for the Best DTP/Word Processor 

The Wapping Editor 

The Wapping Editor from Watford Electronics 
represents a breakthrough in Desktop Publishing 
for the Beeb. The package includes a 64K ROM 
containing ALL the software needed to get into 
print fast; a very sophisticated graphics module, 
professional quality typesetting software, a word 
processor, a comprehensive font editor for 
designing your own typefaces, and a variety of 
printer dumps. This mouse-driven system is 
designed for the BBC B, the B+ and Master 
computers and will take full advantage of any 
Sideways and Shadow RAM that may be fitted. It 
will run under DFS, ADFS and Network filing 
systems and requires as a minimum just a single 
40 track drive. 

Included with the system is a utility disc containing 
several high quality fonts, various utilities and a 
ROM image of a Support ROM. A comprehensive 
100 page manual completes the package. The 
Support ROM contains routines to allow an area to 
be rotated to any angle or distorted to any four- 
sided shape. Also included are facilities to draw 
ellipses at any angle and sectors, segments and 
arcs (in Master or BBC B with Acorn GXR). 

Another of the features of the Support ROM is a 
Turbo DFS’ which gives DFS access times 
comparable with those of ADFS. 

Page Layout Section 

The Wapping Editor may be used to create pages 
of any size from an A6 to a full A3 page. If none of 
the eight default page types suit your purpose, the 
stand-alone page creation program may be used to 
create pages to your own requirements. By using 
proportionally spaced fonts and genuine 
microspacing it is possible to print over 150 
characters across an A4 page. A unique feature of 
the Wapping Editor is the ‘A5 x 2’ page size 
allowing two A5 pages to be printed side by side 
onto a single A4 sheet. 

The graphics module incorporates the facilities like: 
pencil, brush, airbrush, polygon, circle, eclipse, fill, 
cut & paste, etc. 

Text may be typeset, either justified or unjustified, 
in any font anywhere on the page. Simply select 
which font and text document you wish to use, and 
pull out a rectangle on the page where you want 
the text to be - it’s as simple as that! Multiple 
columns may be printed just as easily and a special 
‘expand’ feature may be used to expand the 
microspacing so that the document exactly fits the 
space defined. 

Word-Processor 

The integral word processor is the ideal tool for 
producing your text documents, although text can 
of course be read in from any of the other popular 
word processors such as View, Wordwise etc. 

The Font Editor 

The font editor module will allow you to design your 
own typefaces or to modify the ones provided on 
the utility disc. This sophisticated editor has 
numerous functions designed to take the tedium 
and frustration out of producing good looking, well 
balanced fonts. Each character may be individully 
proportionally spaced and characters of any size 
up to 16 x 16 pixels may be defined. 

Pictures may also be ‘grabbed’ from a video 
source by using the Watford BEEB Video Digitiser. 

Wapping Editor Software Pack £59 

Wapping Editor plus Mouse £79 

(Wapping Editor only works with Master Compact if 
a Mertec Expansion box is fitted) 


i/Vapping Art Disc 


Over 250K of clip art to cut and paste into your 
Wapping Editor pages. Pictures include maps, 
transport, people, media, sport, games etc. 

Two ‘ratio’ screens for use with hi-res and rotated 
A5 pages to ensure images are not distorted when 
printed out. 

Music writing symbols in the form of pattern and 
brush for quick production of manuscripts are 
included together with staves. 

There are two prepared hi-res pages laid out for 
printing labels, both single and double width. 

Ready made label designs are included but these 
can be easily replaced with your own designs. 

A Mode 0 screen dump routine is also included. To 
pack such a large amount of data onto the discs 
the screens have been compressed and routines to 
compress and expand Mode 0 screens are 
included on both discs. Using the packing routine 
you can archive large numbers of screens onto a 
single disc. 

£15 


Wapping Font Disc 1 


Sixteen additional fonts, including smaller version 
of Oberon and Daisy and two new sizes of the 
standard font for the Wapping editor. 

Also included are three Mode 0 screens containing 
giant ‘headline’ fonts to cut and paste to create 
extra smooth headlines. 

Supplied complete with instructions. - 


Wapping Font Disc 2 


This new addition to our Wapping range of DTP 
software provides you with additional 23 fonts for 
the Wapping Editor DTP pack. (80 track discs 
only). £13 



This most advanced Archi A4 image scanner is 
supplied complete with ROM based podule 
software. Features provided include facilities for 
zooming in on an image and inverting the image in 
X and Y directions, saving and printing of the sprite 
created. Interactive help is supplied using the 
.'HELP application on the Acorn applications discs. 
The 216mm scanning width can cope with both 
desktop scanning of single sheets, photographs, 
diagrams, etc., with its fast ten page automatic 
document feeder, but it can also detach from the 
feeder to become a convenient hand-held full page 
scanner for larger documents or pictures. 

Scanned image control can be freely adjusted in 
increments of 10 dots per inch from 100 up to 400 
dpi resolution with 64 levels of grey scaling. A built 
in shading controller and manual brightness control 
achieve optimum image clarity. 

Unlike some scanners, which use a red light 
source, the Watford scanner uses a yellow/green 
source which vastly improves the light/dark 
contrast, thus eliminating the effect where any red- 
based colours are faded down to white and so do 
not show up in the scanned image. 

All these features and facilities combine to make 
the Archi Page Scanner the fast and convenient 
way in which to add that extra impact, interest and 
clarity to documents, reports, instruction sheets, 
manuals, news letters, etc., from your Archimedes 
DTP package. 

New Low Prices: 

Archi A4 Scanner £269 

Sheet Feeder for above £75 

Scanner + Sheet Feeder £359 


Archi Mk II 
Hand Scanner 



Watford Electronics is now able to offer a complete 
hand held scanning package, possibly the most 
essential addition to any desk top publishing 
system, for only £119. The package includes the 
most comprehensive utility software available for 
the Archimedes, a high quality hand held scanner, 
and all necessary documentation to get you going 
straight away. 

SCANNER 

The scanner is capable of scanning up to an 
amazing 400 dots per inch (DPI)! The scanning 
area is 4" wide, and the height is only limited by the 
maximum amount of memory available. The dot 
resolution may be switched to 100, 200, 300 or the 
maximum 400 dpi. One of four operating modes 
may be selected offering either pure monochrome 
scanning, or one of three grey level modes. The 
grey level modes use different size dither patterns 
to represent up to 16 shades of grey. There is also 
a dial to allow the "brightness" to be adjusted over 
a wide range, in order to optimise the quality for 
any specific image. The scanner interface is a 
standard, single width, expansion card (podule) 
which plugs into the Archimedes' backplane. The 
socket on the rear panel connects the scanner by 
1 .8 metres of cable. 

SCANNER SOFTWARE 

Full use is made of the windowing and the multi- 
tasking facilities of RiscOS. The software is sup- 
plied in a 64Kbyte ROM located on the interface 
board. The scanner appears as a small icon on the 
desktop icon bar, and the software is retrieved from 
the ROM simply by clicking on that icon. As you 
scan a page, the image appears in the scanning 
window on the screen, scrolling up in real time. The 
other facilities included in the software are. 
Cropping and scaling to any size including stretch- 
ing and squashing in X and Y direction separately. 

Colour tinting. 

X and Y flip. 

Edge detection which turns solid objects into 
outlines. 

Selective directional copying which allows features 
(i.e. lines or text) to be made thicker or thinner. 
Scanned images may be saved as sprite files or 
transferred directly into other RiscOS applications 
(DTP, Draw, Paint) simply by dragging the sprite 
file into the application's window. Sprites may also 
be generated using anti-aliasing. This greatly 
improves picture quality and is particularly effective 
when scanning material with a range of grey tones, 
such as photographs. Images can be printed on 
any printer that is supported by a RiscOS printer 
driver, with optional settings for portrait or 
landscape modes, image scale and positioning. 
Images are printed using the full resolution of the 
printer and are not limited to the screen resolution. 

On-screen help is provided via the RiscOS 
interactive help facility. Calls are also provided in 
the ROM for users wishing to write their own 
software, incorporating the use of the scanner. 

AHS-4 Archi 300/400 Version £1 1 9 

AHS-3 Archi A3000 Version £129 


Continued-* -*-*-*-*-*-♦-»-* 







32K Shadow RAM/Printer 
uffer Card Expansion Board 


A MUST FOR WORD PROCESSING 

Simply plug the ribbon cable plug into the 6502 
socket and gain a massive 32K of extra RAM. 

• “VIEW” Wordprocessor users can now type in 
letters in 80 columns and have up to 28K bytes free 
- 5 times as much as normal. 

• In WORDWISE (or WORDWISE-PLUS), 
preview in 80 columns with the full 24k of text in 
memory. This product is recommended as an ideal 
complement by Computer Concepts. 

• Use the full 32k or the bottom 12K of the 
expansion RAM as a printer Buffer. (P.S. Only 12K 
printer buffer can be used with Wordwise & WW+, 
due to the way they are written). 

• Unique facility to turn ROMs off and on again. 


Only £54 


ARIES B-32 Shadow RAM Card £55 


Commander Joystick 


m 

A 


Features: 

• Direct connection to BBC Analogue input port - 
no interface needed. 

• Fully compatible with all BBC Joystick controlled 
games programmes. 

• Switchable springs allow selection of floating or 
centring operation. 

• Trim adjusters for both X and Y axes for fine 
centre adjustment. 

• Convenient stick mounted fire button with 
additional base buttons. 

Price: £15 


Voltmace Joysticks 


Delta 3B Single Joystick 

£10 

Delta 3B Twin Joysticks 

£15 

Delta 3C Joystick for Compact 

£10 

Delta 14B Single Joystick 

£11 

Delta 14B/1 Adaptor Module 

£12 

Transfer Software Disc-Tape 

£7 

Delta-Cat A mouse eliminator Joystick 
for the Archimedes 

£24 

Analogue aircraft style yoke Joystick 
to run in the analogue port of the 

BBC B & Master 128 

£25 


ROM/RAM Card 


• NO SOLDERING required to fit the board. 

• Fully buffered for peace of mind. 

• Compatible with BBC micros (not BBC+ or 
Master). 

• Total number of ROMs increased from 4 to 8. 

• Up to 8 banks of sideways RAM (dynamic). 

• Option for 16k of battery backed CMOS RAM 
(CMOS RAM needs one ROM socket). 

• Software Write protect for ALL RAM. 

• Read protect for CMOS RAM. 

• Separate RAM write register (&FF30 to &FF3F). 

• Automatic write to currently selected RAM 
socket for convenience. 

• FREE utilities disc packed with software. 

• Large printer buffer. 

• UNIQUE fully implemented RAM FILING 
SYSTEM (similar to the popular Watford DFS). 

• ROM to RAM load and save facilities. 

The SFS (Silicon Filing System) can utilise up to 
the full 128k of RAM (with the SFS in any paged 
RAM) as a SILICON DISC. This behaves as a disc 
drive, with all the normal Watford DFS features 
(including OSWORD &7F for ROMSPELL, etc.) to 
provide an environment that looks like a disc but 
loads and saves MUCH faster. 

PRICES: 

• ROM/RAM card with 32k DRAM £42 

• ROM/RAM card with 64k DRAM £54 

• ROM/RAM card with 128k DRAM £89 

OPTIONAL EXTRAS: 

• 16k plug-in Static RAM kit £8 

• 16k DRAM for Upgrade £13 

• Battery backup £3 

• Read and Write protect switches £2 each 

Complete ROM-RAM card with all options 
fitted £109 


Sideways ROM 
ZIF Socket System 


Allows you to change your ROMs quickly and 
efficiently, without having to open the lid. The ZIF 
socket is located into the ROM Cartridge's position. 
It is very simple to install. No soldering required. 
Also included in the price is a plastic see through 
storage case with antistatic lining, which allows you 
to store 12 ROMs. £^g 


ROM Cartridges for the 
BBC Master 

Will accept the larger Piggy Back ROMs 
like Interword, Quest, etc. 

• Twin £8; • Quad £13 


Soiderless Sideways ROM 
Socket Board 


• Increases your BBC Micro's ROM capacity from 
4 to 16. 

• No soldering required. 

• Socket 14 takes two 6264 RAM chips. 

• Read protect to make RAM “Vanish" allows 
recovery from ROM crashes. 

• Battery backup option for RAM chips. 

• Supplied ready to fit with comprehensive 
instructions. 

Price: Only £35 
Battery Backup fitted £39 
Battery Backup only £3 
1 6K Sideways RAM £8 

• Sideways RAM Utilities Disc for Solderless ROM 
Board. Includes the options to load and save 
ROM Images and the facility to use Sideways 
RAM as Printer Buffer. 

Only: £8 


Connecting Leads 


(All ready made and tested) 
CASSETTE LEADS 7 pin DIN Plug 
to 3 pin DIN Plug + 1 Jack Plug £2.50 

to 7 pin DIN Plug £3.00 

to 3 Jack Plugs £2.50 

6 pin DIN to 6 pin DIN Plug (RGB) £3.00 


Disc Drive Power Leads 


Supply from BBC power supply to standard Disc 
Drive Connection: Single £3.00; Dual £3.75 


Disc Drive interface Leads 


BBC to Disc Drives Ribbon Cable 
Single £4 Twin £6 


Miscellaneous Connectors 



Plugs 

Sockets 

RGB (6 PIN DIN) 

50p 

75p 

RS423 (5 pin Domino) 

70p 

80p 

Cassette (7 pin DIN) 

40p 

95p 

ECONET (5 pin DIN) 

35p 

50p 

Paddles (15 pin ‘D’) 

150p 

250p 

Disc Drive Plug 4 way 

lOOp 

- 

6 way Power Connector 

120p 

150p 


Watford DATA DUCK 


Convert two single Disc Drives into one Dual Drive 
with this simple external unit (Suitable for Disc 
Drives with PSU. For Disc Drives without PSU, you 
will also require Watford Power Duck, see below). 

£14 

Watford POWER DUCK £8 






Antistatic Lockable Disc 
Storage Units 


• M35 - holds up to 50 5.25" discs 

• M85 - holds up to 95 5.25” discs 

• M25* - holds up to 25 3.5” discs 

• M50 - holds 50 3.5" discs 

• Ml 00 - holds 100 3.5” discs 

• Ml 0 - holds 8 of No. 1 0 Data Cartridges £1 5 

* Not lockable 


£4.95 

£6.95 

£4.95 

£6.50 

£6.99 


When using ones micro, 
there is a tendency to have 
more than one Disc on the 
desk. This exposes them to 
the hazards of fingerprints, 
scratches, dust, coffee and 
an untidy desk. Why not protect your valuable data 
from all these hazards with the help of our 
extremely handy and low cost DISC PLONKER 
RACK. Holds up to eight 5.25” discs. 

Protection at Only: £2 


3M - Diskettes 


Lifetime warranty on 3M Discs 

• 10x5.25" S/S D/D 40T (744) 

• 10 x 5.25 " D/S D/D 40T (745) 

• 10 x 5.25" S/S D/D 80 Track (746) i 

• 10 x 5.25 " D/S D/D 80 Track (747) J 

• 10 x 5.25" 1.6M D/S D/D High Density for IBM 

XT and AT i 

• 10 x 3.5" S/S D/D 40/80 Track 

• 10 x 3.5" D/S D/D 40/80 Track 

• 10 x 3.5 ” Double Sided High Density £ 


Top Quality Diskettes 


Watford’s life time guaranteed disc are supplied 
complete with self stick labels & plastic library 
case. 

• 10 x M3 3.5" D/S D/D 80 Track 

• 10 x M9 3.5" D/S High Density £ 

• 10 xM4 5.25" S/S D/D 40 Track 

• 10 x M5 5.25" D/S D/D 40 Track 

• 10 xM7 5.25" D/S D/D 80 Track 

• 10 xM8 5.25" D/S H/D Hi-Density 

• M2 3" Double Sided £2.50 ea 


Special Bulk Offer 
Discs 


Supplied packed in Anti-Static lockable 
Disc Storage Unit in lots of 100. 
(Lifetime warranty on Discs) 


BULK PACK DISCS in 

lots of 

100 


s/s 

D/S 

D/s 

Type 

40T 

40T 

80T 

• Without Sleeves 5.25" 

£28 

£33 

£38 

• With Sleeves 5.25" 

£31 

£36 

£41 

• 3.5" D/S D/D £27 for 50 

£49 for 100 


3.5" Disc Drive 


These top quality 3.5" Double sided, 80 track, are at- 
tractively finished in BBC beige. They are supplied 
complete with all cables and a Utilities Disc. 


Type 


Description 

Disc Drive without PSU 

Single Disc Drive, 400K 
Twin Disc Drives, 800K 
Disc Drive with PSU 
Single Disc Drive, 400K 
Twin Disc Drives, 800K 
(P.S. CS35 is supplied in a twin case with a 
blanking plate to enable easy expansion to a dual 
drive at a later stage) 


Disc Drives in Monitor Stand 


• CLS35: 

• CLD35: 

• CS35: 

• CD35: 


£59 

£109 

£82 

£126 


• CDPM 800S- Twin 5.25", 800K Double 
sided 40-80 track switchable disc drives mounted 
in an attractively finished Beige colour plinth for the 
BBC B & Master 128K micros. Supplied complete 
with integral power supply, cables and Utilities disc. 
The mains switch with neon On/Off light indicator, 
and the two 40/80 track switches are mounted on 
the front panel for ease of use. 

£165 

• DP35 800- Same as above except, one disc 
drive is a 5.25" and the other is 3.5". 

£154 


Plastic 

Library Cases 



DLC1 - Holds 5 x 3.5” Discs. 

DLC2 - Holds 10 x 3.5" Discs. 

DLC3 - Holds 5 x 5.25” Discs. 

DLC4 - Holds 10 x 5.25” Discs. 

£1.50 

£1.90 

£1.60 

£2.00 

Disc Albums 

Attractively finished in leather-look PVC Vinyl 

DW1 - Holds 6 x 3.5" Discs 

£2.50 

DW2 - Holds 6 x 5.25” Discs 

£3.00 

DW3 - Holds 20 x 5.25" Discs 

£3.50 

DW4 - Holds 40 x 3.5" Discs or 


5.25" Discs 

£4.50 


Floppy Head Cleaner Kit 


The heads in floppy drives are precision made and 
very sensitive to dirt. The use of Cleaner Kit is a 
sensible precaution against losing valuable data. It 
is recommended to clean the drive head once a 
week, it is very simple to use. Available in 3.5” & 
5.25”, please specify. 

Price £4 


Acorn & Watford DFSs 

• Watford sophisticated DFS ROM 

£16.00 

• Watford DFS Kit complete 

£49.00 

• DFS Manual (comprehensive) 

£6.95 

• Acorn DNFS ROM 

£17.00 

• Acorn ADFS ROM only 

£25.00 

• Acorn 1772 DFS ROM Kit 

£49.00 

• Acorn DFS Kit complete 

£48 


Watford's Mkll 1772 


Single/Double Density DFS 

Many of our customers have wanted to use our 
superior DDFS and Acorn ADFS together. Now our 
Mk II DDFS Board with its 1772 Disc Controller, 
has been adapted to allow the use of Acorn ADFS 
as well. It also has all the commands of the Acorn’s 
1772 DFS, plus many more added features. 

• Complete Kit Special Price £44 

• DDFS Manual (No VAT) £6.95 

• We will exchange your existing DFS Kit for our 

sophisticated DDFS for only £26 


Quality Disc Drives from 
Watford 


All our Disc Drives are Double Sided and will 
operate in both Single and Double Density modes. 
All 5.25" Disc Drives are 40/80 track switchable. 
For ease of use, the switches are front mounted. 
Follow the trend with a Watford plinth. (Turn to the 
6th page of our advert for the Plinths). 

P.S. All our 5.25" Disc Drives with PSU are 
compatible with the Compact Micro. All you require 
is our special Compact Disc Drive cables designed 
by us. 

“Test Bureau Approved for Use in 
Education” 




Our Disc Drives conform to BS415 


Type 

• CLS400S: 

• CLD800S: 

• CS400S: 

• CD800S: 


Description 

Disc Drive without PSU 

Single, 40/80 track 400K 
Double sided Drive £70 

Twin, 40/80 track, 800K 
Double sided Drives £138 

Disc Drive with PSU 

Single, 40/80 track, 400K 
Double sided Drive £80 

Twin, 40/80 track, 800K 
Double sided Drives £149 


Special Cable to connect both 3.5” and 5.25” 
Disc Drives simultaneously to the BBC 
Compact £13 


Continued-* 







Computer Concept's 
ROMS 


Disc Doctor 

£18 

Inter BASE 

£49 

Inter CHART 

£25 

Inter SHEET 

£37 

Inter WORD 

£36 

Mega-3 ROM 

£76 

Spell Master 

£42 


Wordwise plus 


£40 

We are giving away absolutely 
FREE, the superb Word-Aid 
ROM worth £24, with every 
WORDWISE PLUS package 
bought from us. 


Word-ftid 


This advance utilities ROM extends the 
power of your Wordwise plus ROM. 

• Alphabetical sorting of names and 
addresses. 

• Text transfer options. 

• Chapter marker. 

• Epson printer codes function key 
option. 

• Search and display in preview mode. 

• Embedded command removal. 

• Print Multiple copies of a document. 

• Multiple file options for print and 
preview. 

• Address finder. 

• Label printer. 

• Mail-merger. 

• Number/delete/renumber. 

• Clear test-segment area. 

• BBC B, B+ and Master compatible. 

Only £24 

(N.B. Word Aid requires a Disc 
interface in your Micro) 


Acorn ROMS 


View 3.0 ROM £45 

Viewsheet (Acornsoft) £36 

Viewstore £36 

Viewspell - 80T disc £25 

View-Index £12 


View Printer Driver 
ROM 



View is a powerful word processor, but 
it seriously lacks in terms of printer 
driver support. With the View Printer 
Driver ROM, the View users will find 
themselves in the realms of advanced 
word processing. 

Price: Only £29 


Mini Office 2 - Disc 


for BBC B & B+ £12 

for BBC Master £14 

for BBC Compact £16 

(When ordering please specify for 
which Micro & 40 or 80T Disc) 



ACORN ADFS £25 

ACORN BASIC 2 plus User Guide £22 
Acom BCPL £42 

ACORN DNFS £17 

Acorn FORTH £32 

Acorn OS B+ £25 

Acorn OS 1.2 £14 

Beebmon £22 

Dump Out 3 £25 

Graphics Extension Rom 
GXR-B £21 

GXR-B+ £22 

Logotron LOGO £43 

MASTER OS ROM £38 

Master ULA (47) £15 

Master ULA (60) £10 

Numerator - Archi £69 

Numerator - BBC £39 

Pendown ROM £32 

Rom Manager £20 

SERIAL ULA £13 

TED £35 

Termulator Master £32 

Video ULA £14 

1Mb OS ROM £39 


CHIP SHOP 


Acorn Speech Synthesizer 
package complete, for the 
BBC B Microcomputer 

Special Offer £14 


User Port Splitter Unit 



Gone are the days when you had to 
plug and unplug devices from the User 
Port. This extremely useful little device 
allows two units to be connected to the 
User Port simultaneously, and select 
between them simply by toggling a 
switch. This device is particularly 
useful for those people using Quest 
Mouse and the Watford Video Digitiser 
or any similar combination 


TEX EPROM ERASERS 


EPROMs need careful treatment if 
they are to survive their expected 
lifetime. Over erasure of EPROMs very 
rapidly turns them into ROMs! 

The TEX erasers operate following the 
manufacturers specifications to give 
the maximum possible working life by 
not erasing too fast. 

• ERASER EB - Standard version 

erases up to 16 chips. £34 

• ERASER GT - Deluxe version 

erases up to 18 chips. Has 
automatic safety cut-off to switch off 
the UV lamp when opened. £36 

• Spare UV tubes. £12 


ROM Extraction Tool 


This extremely useful tool allows you 
trouble free chip insertion and removal 
from your computer by distributing the 
removal force over the whole 
body of any 24 or 28 pin chip. £2 

Metal Chip Extractor £3 


Servisol Foam Cleaner 


This king size multipurpose foam 
cleaner spray is ideal for cleaning 
Keyboard, Monitor, Disc Drive & 


1 MB-10 DIL D-RAM 

£4.50 

1 MB ZIF D-RAM 

£4.00 

256K x 4-8 DIP 

£4.75 

256K x 4-8 ZIF 

£4.00 

SIMs and SIPs 


256 x 9-8 

£11 

1Mb x 9-10 

£26 

1Mb x 9-8 

£39 

DS3691 

£4.50 

DS88LS120 

£5.25 

LM324 

£0.45 

SN76489 

£5.50 

SAA5050 

£8.75 

UPD7002 

£6.00 

2764-250nS 

£3.00 

27128A-250n (12V5) 

£2.50 

27128-250nS (21V) 

£4.00 

27256-2 

£3.00 

27512-2 

£4.50 

27C101G (1 Meg) 

£7.00 

4013 

75p 

4020 

£1.00 

4164-10 

£1.55 

4464-10 

£3.50 

4816 RAM 

£2.00 

41256-8 

£2.00 

41256-10 

£1.50 

6264LP-8K 

£4.00 

6502A CPU 

£5.00 

65C02 3M 

£9.75 

65C12 

£9.00 

651 2A 

£10.00 

6522 

£4.00 

6522A 

£5.00 

62256ALS-15 

£10.00 

62256P-12 

£8.50 

6818 

£4.00 

6845SP 

£6.00 

68B50 

£2.95 

68B54 

£7.50 

7438 

50p 

74LS00 

50p 

74LS04 

50p 

74LS10 

50p 

74LS123 

£1.00 

74LS163 

£1.00 

74LS244 

£1.00 

74LS245 

£1.00 

74ALS245 

£2.75 

74LS373 

£1.00 

74LS393 

£1.00 

75453 

£1.00 

75159 

£3.00 

8271 

£39 

9637 

£2.00 

ICL7673PA 

£3.00 


Excellent Value at £22 



Whether you want to type in your 
latest program or the draft of a new 
trilogy, Watford’s manuscript holders 
are superb for holding your paper at 
the ideal height and angle to allow you 
to read and type in ease and comfort. 

Available in 2 full A4 versions, desk 
resting and shelf clamping. Paper is 
held firmly by means of a plastic 
retaining ruler and a clip grip. 

Desk Top £8 
Angle poise £12 


Copy holders as 
above but with a 
-battery operated, 
remote controlled 
cursor/ruler. (By 
hand or foot pedal.) (Batteries 2 x AA 
not included.) 



Desk Top £15 
Angle poise £20 



CREDIT CARD 
24 HOUR 

Ansaphone Hot Lines 
(0923) 50234 or 33383 


Computer furniture surfaces. 

£2.50 


Antistatic Aerosol Spray 


Ideal for cleaning and preventing static 
build-up on TV/Monitor Screens. 

£2.50 


Aerosoi Dust Spray 


Ideal for removing dust & dirt from 
Keyboard & similar inaccessible 
spaces. £3 


OFFICE MASTER 


• CASHBOOK • FINAL ACCOUNTS 

• MAILIST • EASILEDGER - 

• INVOICES & STATEMENT 

All this for only £21 (Disc) 


OFFICE MATE 


• DATABASE • SPREADSHEET 
• BEEBPLOT 

Only £10 (Disc) 


Spares for BBC Micro 


UHF Modulator £4 

Speaker £3; Speaker Grill £1 
Keyswitches £1 

16MHz Crystal £2 

17.734 MHz Crystal £2 

32.768MHz Crystal £2 

Replacement 17 way Flexible 
Keyboard Connector £4 

BBC Master Power Supply £59 

BBC Master Keyboard £62 

BBC Master Casing £49 

Refurbished BBC B Spares 
BBC B Casing £19 

BBC B Keyboard £35 

BBC B Power Supply £39 











BOOKS 

L. (No VAT on Books) 

15 Hr Wordprocessing BBC/View 

£6.95 

15 Hr Wordprocessing BBC/WW & WW+ 

£6.95 

30 Hour BASIC (BBC Micro) 

£12.95 

1st Word Plus- Mastering 

£13.95 

1st Word Plus Rel. 2 Manual 

£10.00 

A3000 Technical Reference Manual 

£29.00 

Acorn DTP A Guide fo 

£17.00 

Advanced User Guide for BBC 

£10.95 

Archimedes 1st Step - Beginners Guide 

£9.95 

Archimedes Assembly Language 

£14.95 

Archimedes Basic V Guide 

£9.95 

Archimedes BBC Basic Guide 

£20 

Archimedes DTP Manual 

£10.00 

Archimedes Operating System 
Archimedes Risc-Os Programmers 

£14.95 

Reference Manual 

£79.00 

Assembly Language Quick Ref. 

£21.95 

BASIC 2 - User Guide 

£2 

BBC Micro -Within the 

£11.95 

BBC B Micro User Guide 

£15 

BCPL User Guide 

£9 

Budget DTP on the Archimedes 

£12.95 

C Big Red Book of 

£8.95 

C - A Dabhand Guide (Archi) 

£14.95 

C-ADabhand Guide to 

£14.95 

C Programming Lang. 2nd Edition 

£24.95 

COMAL -Introduction to 

£9.50 

Deutsch Direkt! (Book only) 

DISC FILING SYSTEM (DFS) 

£5.95 

Operating Manual for BBC 

£6.95 

FORTH on the BBC Micro 

£9.95 

ISO-PASCAL Reference Manual 

£9.95 

Master 512 Guide - Dabs Press 

£9.95 

Master Operating System 

£12.95 

Master Reference Manual Part 1 

£14 

Master Reference Manual Part 2 

£14 

Master Reference Manual - Advanced 

£14 

MINI OFFICE II -A Dabhand Guide 
Mouse User Guide to BBC Micro - 

£9.95 

the Complete 

£5.95 

Example Programs on Disc for above 

£4.95 

PASCAL Programming 

£10.95 

Rise OS Style Guide 

£9.95 

RISC Technical Manual 260 pg 
Understanding Interword - 

£14.95 

A Beginners Guide 

£4.95 

View 3.0 User Guide 

£10 

View Guide (View 2.1) 

£5.00 

View, Viewsheet & Viewstore - Mastering £12.95 

VIEW Dabhand Guide 

£12.95 

Viewsheet User Guide 

£10 

Viewstore User Guide 

£10 

Z88 - A Dabhand Guide 

£14.95 

Z88 Computing 

£9.95 

Z88 Magic 

£14.95 

BOOKS for IBM 


L PC & Compatibles 


8086/8088 Ass. Language Quick Ref £8.45 

8086/8088 Programming the £1 7.95 

Accountancy software in Business - Using £14.95 
Agenda- Using £21.95 

Aldus PageMaker - Using £21 .45 

Amstrad 951 2 - Using the £1 0.95 

Amstrad Basic 2 User Guide £9.95 

Assembly Language 3e - Using £27.45 

Autocad 4th Ed - Mastering £31 .50 

AutoCAD - Inside 10 & 1 1 Spec Ed £32.45 
AutoCAD - Mastering Rel. II 4e £31 .50 

Autocad - Mastering Through Rel. 10 £28.95 

BASIC - Do it yourself Visual £18.50 

Build Your own 386/386SX & Save £1 5.50 

Build Your own 80486 IBM Computer £12.95 
C Programming Language 2nd Ed £26.95 

C - Waite Group Turbo C Bible £27.95 

C++ Borland C++ 3 Handbook 2e £24.95 
Clipper 5 Developers Guide £1 9.95 

Clipper 5.01 3e - Using £27.45 

Computer Users Dictionary £9.95 

Corel Draw 2.1 3e - Inside + Disc £32.45 
Corel Draw 2 3e - Mastering £26.95 

Corel Draw Quick Ref Thro VI .2 £7.95 

Corel Draw 2.0 Made Easy £1 9.95 

Corel Draw v2 Quick Ref £8.45 

Corel Draw Quick Ref vl .2 £8.45 

Corel Draw 2 Visual Quick Start incl. Disc £21.35 
dBase 3/4 Complete Ref £27.45 

dBase III Plus - Complete Reference £1 9.95 
dBase III Plus Handbook 2nd Edition £22.95 
dBase Instant Reference (III & 111+) £10.95 

Desk Jet Unlimited £19.95 

DOS Complete Reference 3e £23.95 

DOS for Dummies Through v5.0 £1 5.45 

DOS- Easy (to ver 5) £18.45 

DOS Instant Ref. £9.75 

DOS Instant Reference (up to 3.3) £6.95 

DOS - Programmers Ref. Manual 2nd Ed £27.45 
DR DOS 6 Quick Reference £8.95 

DR DOS 6.0 Stepping up to £1 3.95 


DTP Looking Good in Print 2e £21 .95 

EGA & VGA Cards Prog. Guide to £27.95 
Excel 4 Windows - A Quick Course £1 0.95 

Excel 4 for Windows Quickstart £20.45 

Excel 4.0 Windows Made Easy 3e £1 6.50 

Excel 4 for Windows Learn Fast £16.50 

Excel 4 for Windows 2e - Using £27.95 

Fax - Management with £7.95 

FAX - Managing with £12.95 

Foxpro 2 Made Easy Revised Ed £20.95 
Foxpro 2- Using £27.45 

Foxpro 2- Mastering 2ed £26.95 

Framework III - Mastering £24.50 

GW Basic Users Guide & Ref £1 7.95 

Hard Disc Instant Ref £10.95 

Hard Disc management - Quick 
Reference Guide to £4.95 

Hard Disc - Using Your £27.45 

IBM PC & PS/2 - Inside the 3rd Ed £21.70 
IBM PCs 386 486 Power User Guide £1 7.95 

IBM PC Crash Course & Survival 3e £17.95 

LAN-Understanding Local Area Networks £23.50 
Locoscript PC vl.5 - Using £14.95 

Lotus 1 -2*3 for Windows £27.45 

Lotus 1 -2-3 Rel. 2.4 Special Ed - Using £27.45 
Microsoft GW BASIC £17.95 

MS-DOS 5 -10 Minute Guide to £8.95 

MS-DOS Batch Files Quick Ref £5.95 

MS-DOS First Book £15.50 

MS DOS for Beginners £17.45 

MS-DOS Quick Ref Guide 5 £8.95 

MS-DOS - Running 4th edition £1 9.95 

MS-DOS - Supercharging 2nd Edition £17.95 
MS-DOS Users Guide 3rd Edition £27.95 

MS-DOS 5 - Quick Start £18.45 

MS-DOS 5 User Hand Book £1 9.95 

MS-GW BASIC User Guide & Ref £17.95 
MS Visual BASIC Workshop incl. Disc £28.30 
Netware Users Guide 2.2 & 3. 1 1 £22.95 

Novell Netware 386 Comp Ref £29.95 

Novell Netware 2e - Using £27.45 

Novell Network - Mastering £27.95 

Novell Network - Using £27.45 

Pagemaker 4 IBM - Use incl. Disc £1 9.95 
Pagemaker 4 for Windows - Using £27.45 
PageMaker on IBM PC - Using £22.95 

Pagemaker- Using £22.95 

PCs & Compatible Computers for 
Beginners £17.95 

PC Crash Course 2.0 2nd Edition £1 9.95 

PC Configuration Handbook 2e £26.99 

PC - Fix your own £22.50 

PC - Upgrade & Maintain - Complete £25.50 
PCs - Upgrading & Repairing 2e £32.45 
Programming Guide to EGA & VGA Cards £25.95 
Quattro Pro 4.0 Made Easy £1 6.50 

Quattro Pro 4 Special Ed - Using £25.95 

Smart -Using £21.45 

Smartware II - Mastering £22.95 

Smartware II - Using £27.45 

Supercalc 5 - Mastering £24.50 

Supercalc 5 2ed - Using £27.45 

Timeworks Publ. 2 - Practical Guide £1 6.95 

Timeworks Publisher Comp. v2.0 £1 2.95 

Turbo C Bible £27.95 

Turbo C++ £22.95 

Turbo Pascal 5 - Using £22.95 

Turbo Pascal Using £27.45 

Unix- Using £27.45 

Upgrading & Repairing PC’s £27.45 

Ventura Publisher - Using £22.95 

Ventura Tips & Tricks 3e £21 .95 

Ventura - 3rd Edition £24.95 

Windows 3. 1 1 0 Minutes Guide to £9.95 

Windows 3.1 Program Ref Vol 4 £19.95 

Windows 3. 1 A Quick Course in £1 0.95 

Windows 3.1 Mastering 2e £25.50 

Windows 3.0 3.1 Using Special Ed £25.95 

Windows 3. 1 Complete Ref 2e £23.95 

Windows 3.1 Program Ref Vol 1 £26.95 

Windows 3.1 Program Ref Vol 2 £35.95 

Windows 3. 1 Prog Ref Vol 3 £26.95 

Windows 3.1 Quick Reference £8.95 

Windows 3.1 Secrets 2e + Disc £36.95 

Window Programming 2nd Ed £27.95 

Word for Windows made easy £1 5.95 

WORD for Windows - Using £22.95 

WordPerfect - Quick Reference V5 £8.45 

WordPerfect 5.1 - ABC’s of £18.95 

WordPerfect 5.1 - 1st Book of £15.95 

WordPerfect 5.1 - Mastering £24.95 

WordPerfect 5.1 Quick Start £18.45 

WordPerfect 5.1 - Using Special Ed £25.95 

WordPerfect for Beginners £17.45 

Wordstar & CPM Made Easy £15.75 

Wordstar 6.0 Made Easy £1 5.95 

WORD FOR WINDOW 

1 0 Minute Guide Word 2 Windows £9.50 
DTP with Word 2 for Window £20.45 

MS WORD 2 Windows Made Easy £1 6.95 

Master MS WORD 2 for Windows 2e £24.50 

Quick Course Word 2 Windows £10.95 

Running WORD 2 for Windows £29.95 

Using WORD 2 for Windows 2e £25.95 

Carriage on Books vary between £2 to 
£4.00, depending on their weight 


BBSs 

Stop the Confusion! 

Do you have to use both Acorn 
computers and PC’s? Would you like 
to use your Archimedes or A3000 in 
PC-emulation mode but are unsure of 
the new commands? 

Although Acorn machines (such as the 
BBC B, the Master, the Archimedes) 
are mainly used in education, most 
commercial computers use other 
operating systems, particularly MS- 
DOS. As a result school computer 
users are at a disadvantage when 
moving into 'business' computing. PCs 
and other commercial computers use 
MS-DOS as the operating system, so 
commands for formatting, copying, 
backing up, printing and the modem 
are not the same. Even file names are 
written differently! And did you know 
that there is one Acorn command 
which, if used in MS-DOS, wipes 
everything in the current directory? 

'ACORN TO PC' enables you to 
change over painlessly. It shows 
clearly and quickly how, why and 
where the two systems (Acorn and 
MS-DOS) differ. As with a foreign 
language dictionary, you can use the 
book to transfer either way - from 
Acorn to MS-DOS, or from MS-DOS to 
Acorn. 

Price: £9.95 (No VAT) 



If you own a BBC B, B+, Electron, 
Master 128 or Master Compact, or 
Archimedes, then this is the book for 
you. It shows how to get the best from 
your machine, and how to make it 
work for you. 

Only: £9.95 (No VAT) 


Beeb PC (BASIC) 


Designed for program authors to 
convert BBC programs to run on IBM 

PCs Price: £38 

(Now reads Archimedes Discs) 

Beeb DOS is a collection of utilities 
which run on the PCs and enable it to 
read and write information on BBC 


Discs. 


Price: £39 


Mouse 
User Guide to 
BBC Micro 


This manual has been written to reveal 
the secrets of the mouse. It explains all 
the principles required by the hardware 
and associated software, and also 
example listings for inclusion into 
custom programs. The manual first 
details the basic principles of the 
mouse and a simple program which 
uses these principles. This information 
should be adequate for most 
applications. However, it is possible to 
improve the performance of the mouse 
by expanding on the principles already 
used in the software. This is again fully 
explained and an example program 
given. 

It is possible to gain a full 
understanding of the mouse from this 
manual. For those not interested in 
exactly how the mouse functions, 
complete example programs are also 
included. 

Price £5.95 (No VAT) 
Example programs on Disc £4.95 



Watford 


250 Lower High Street, Watford WD1 2AN, England 
Tel: 0923 237774/240588 Fax: (0923) 233642 Telex: 8956095 

Prices subject to change without notice and available on request. ALL OFFERS subject to 
availability. Mail Order and RETAIL SHOP. Trade and Export inquiries welcome. Government 
and Educational Establishments' OFFICIAL ORDERS Accepted. Shop Hours: 9.00am to 6.00pm, 
Monday to Saturday. Thursdays 9am to 8pm. (Free Customer's Car Park). VAT: UK customers 
ploaso add 17.5% VAT to cost incl. Carriage. CARRIAGE: Unless stated otherwise, minimum £3 
on all orders. £4 on Larger items. On bulkier items, £7 Securicor charge applies (UK mainland 
only). Overseas orders, carriage is charged at cost. Specifications of all products are given in 
good faith but are subject to change without notice. Some items vary in their availability. 
Watford Electronics Terms and Conditions are available upon request. Please ring for latest 
delivery situation. 


So you bought yourself a new printer, 
because the salesman in the shop 
showed you how clever it is and 
impressed you with all sorts of 
printouts to show its capabilities - he 
may even have offered you a special 
price. 

However, now that you have got it 
home and connected it to your BBC 
microcomputer, you are wondering 
how to make it perform these magical 
tasks. The manual seems to give no 
clues, and when you type in the 
example programs, the computer 
throws the LPRINT statements back in 
your face. 

Now what do you do, when this £400 
piece of high technology refuses even 
to move its head, and you have stayed 
up until 2 in the morning with copious 
supplies of coffee, desperately trying to 
print something out? Once again, 
Watford Electronics comes to your 
help with our new book entitled THE 
EPSON FX-KAGA PRINTER 
COMMANDS REVEALED'. 

This book describes in plain, easy to 
understand English, how to use and 
make the most of your KP810, 
PW1080A or any other Epson FX80 
compatible printers like Panasonic KX- 
P1 080/1, etc., with the BBC Micro, 
both from Basic and Wordwise. 

£4.95 (No VAT) 




Acorn Portable Computer 

Archive magazine published full technical details of the newly-launched 
Acorn Portable Computer in its July issue. If you missed out on that by not 
being a subscriber to our magazine, we would be happy to send you a 
reprint of the article. 

Please send me a free reprint of the article 
about Acorn’s new portable. 

Name 

Address 

Norwich Computer Services 

96a Vauxhall Street, Norwich NR2 2SD. 

Phone 0603-766592, Fax 0603-76401 1 Postcode AU 


GENEALOGY 

(See review in Feb 87 and Aug 89) 

FAMILY HISTORY SYSTEM The most popular program ever written for us Enables 

you to produce a full family tree and many other genealogical listings. £20.9 

BBC/Moster/Compact version £20.95 - Archimedes version £25.95 £25.9 

PAYROLL 

EXTENDED PAYROLL Now in ils tenth year The only BBC ptogromfo^gii*^^^^ 
tax and Nationol Insurance for up to 400 employeesa^i^^^^^ _ 

Four weekly and Monthly pay whethercorw^^^^T^| 0 £f 
of data per employee m 

employee informg’^i^^^7^ c ^CC®^^^^^^>cceptab l e 

A of pay from hourly 

^^^^^^^ersonol pension deductions Sick pay SSP. SMP 
^^^^^^reand post »ax adjustments and even no pay. Three 

different types of payslip printout and an optional coin analysts An 
annual contract keep you up to dote with the budget changes. Send for demo disc £59.9 

BOOKKEEPING 

(see review March '89 Acorn User) 

1 ) CASHBOOK Double entry bookkeeping for home or club use. All data kept m 
memory Three character analysis code enables you to know where the money 
comes from and where it goes 48 transactions per A4 page Analysis summary up 

to 30 catergories. £14.9 

2) CASHBOOK D As 1 1 + random occess giving 2000 items. CASH/BANK or VAT/BANK 
heodings Password control. Stung or numeric searches. For schools, dubs & non credit 

business £23.9 

3) ACCOUNT As 2) + Credit facility and statements For small businesses working 

with credit £35.9 

4) ACCOUNT-PLUS As 3) + Invoicing Orders Quotations etc Full sorting of data by 

5 options Automated statements, mailing labels Multiple automatic nominal ledgers 

For independent schools and VA1 businesses who wish to cut the effort £59.9 

5) TAXMAN This new program which has been under developement for three years 
allows you to enter all your transactions and to printout end of year results with 
balance sheet and even calculate tax due. The Inland Revenue love it and so do we 
Results can be taken from our other accounting programs and entered into TAXMAN 

moking a superb combination £59.9 

6) Micro-Trader is a full accountancy package with features right through to final 

balance sheet Slock Control at £75 00 extra For shops/firms, accountants wanting £235 

full accounting facilities Payroll con bo integrated. £ 88 . 1 

MAILING 

2 1 8 oddresses in memory or up to 1 875 on random occess disc. Multiple selected £ 14 9 

and repeat bbles, mail merge, lull sorts. Ideal lor subscript lists, promotions, any 

lund of mailing. £35.9 

Ask For detailed brochure for more software and other items 
Demo discs available for £2.50 each. Micro Trader £25. Prices include VAI add 8 1 p p/p 
PLEASE NOTE OUR MOVE & CHANGE OF ADDRESS FROM CORNWALL 


(FAX AVAILABLE) 

Kildenan Courtyard, Barrhill, S. Ayrshire 
Scotland. KA26 OPS. Tel: 0465 82288 


TMJ Computer Software 

15 Harborough Road, Desborough, Northants NNI4 2QX 
Telephone: 0536 7627 1 3 
Online BBS Darkhaven: 0604 413716 <24lirs) 


What You See Is What You Pay 


micro 


3D Construction Kit 

45.00 

MIG 29 Super Fulcrum 

32.00 

Educational 


Arcticulate 

22.00 

Nevryon 

18.00 

Fun School 2 (All Ages) 

1 7.00 

Bambu/lc 

17.00 

NEBUL.US (NEW) 

22.(X) 

l-'un School 3 (All Ages) 

22.00 

Blitz 

20.00 

PC Emulator 

114.00 

Fun School 4 (All Ages) 

22.00 

Break 147 & Superpool 

30.00 

Pacmania 

17.00 

Let's Spell at Home 

21.00 

Chocks Away 

22.00 

Pandora's Box 

22.00 

Let's Spell at the Shops 

21.00 

Chocks Away Extra 

18.00 

Repton 3 

17.00 

Hardware 


Chocks Away Comp. 

34.50 

Speech 

1 7.00 

Arc/A3000 Game Contrl 

37.50 

Chess 3D 

17.00 

Schema 

1 14.00 

Serial Port Interface 

27.00 

Compression 

50.00 

Superior Golf 

17.00 

A5(XX) Jostick Interface 

38.00 

Chopper Force 

25.50 

SALOON CARS DELUX 

30.00 

3.5 inch disc boxes 


Cataclysm 

22.00 

SALOON CARS Courses 

17.50 

80 Capacity 

8.<H> 

Chuck Rock 

22.00 

Die Real McCoy 

26.00 

100 Capacity 

10.00 

CYBER CHESS (NEW) 

43.50 

The Real McCoy 2 

26(H) 

Printer Ribbons 


Dreadnoughts 

34.00 

Top Banana 

21.99 

KXPI080.I08I.&I 180 

4.50 

Add on 

15.00 

Waterloo 

22.CX) 

STAR NL 10/NX 10 

5.00 

ELITE 

38.(X) 

Zelanitcs 

20.(X) 

STAR LCI0&NXI000 

4.50 

Enter The Realm 

22.<X) 

X-Fire 

22. (X) 

STAR LCI0 Colour 

6.50 

Flight Simulator Tool Kit 

39.00 

Music Packages 


STAR LC200 Mono 

4.50 

Grevious Bodily 'ARM 

22.00 

Armadcus 

68. (X) 

Colour 

13.75 

Home Accounts 

40.00 

Rhapsody 2 

53.00 

Citizen I20D /Swift 24/24E 

4.50 

Hostages 

17.00 

Art Packages 


Citizen Colour 9/24/24e 224 

14.00 

Interdictor 2 

30.00 

Atelier 

90.00 

Epson LQ 4/500/550/850 

4.50 

James Pond 

22.<X> 

Render Bender 2 

1 13.00 

Epson LX80 

1.50 

LEMMINGS 

22.(X) 

Tracer 

55.00 

H/P 500 Double Caps. Cart. 

22.CX) 

Legend of the Lost Temple 

22.00 

Clip Art 1 or 2 

30.00 

Dust Covers 


KARMA 

22.00 

Euclid RISC-OS 

59.00 

A3(XX) (Keyboard only) 

7.00 

Manchester United Football 

22.00 

Aretist 

22(H) 

A 3000 & Monitor 

l().(X) 

Manchester United in Europe 

22.00 

Illusionist 

90,(X) 

Archimedes 2pc 

KMX) 

Microdrive Extra Courses 

13.00 

DTP 


Odds and Ends 


Microdrive World Edition 

26.00 

Impression II 

161.00 

Mouse mats 

3.00 

Master Break 

17.00 

Impression Junior 

88.(X) 

3.5in Disc Head Cleaners 

3.50 

SPECIAL OFFER BOX 

Universal Printer Stands £8.00 

Discs! 

3.5 inch 13 for £6.00 

Chocks Away Compendium £34.50 

Holed Out Compendium £22.00 

QUEST lor GOLD (New Release) £22.00 


Last NINJA (Latest release 

) £22.00 

All prices include VAT and P&P 

GODS ( Latest Release) 

£22.00 

Access and Visa Accepted 

Ooen Mon-Fri 9.30am- 12.30 


1.30pm - 6.30 
9.30am - 12.30 


46 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 



FREE ADS 



• GCSE Technology student 

urgently needs Z88 portable or 
similar for next-to-nothing, 
undertaking pioneering 

robotics project, would be 
very grateful. Contact Mr M 
Gresham, Somerset. Tel: 
(0749)812530 

• Archimedes A420/1, 4Mb 
Ram, Acorn colour monitor, 
Taxan Kaga KP 810 printer, 
all boxed with manuals - £1 10 
ono. Contact Mr R Stanford, 
Leics. Tel: (0455) 632066 

• Twin 40/80 5.25 drives in 
Plinth, hardly used - £100. 
Contact Mr M Burrell, 
Andover. Tel: (0264)710130 

• Designer V21/V23 modem 

- £50. Contact Mr S Nash, 
Essex. Tel: 081-505 5348 

• A3000 Club (South Wales 
area). Anyone interested in 
forming a regular weekly/ 
monthly meet? Please contact 
Mr D Rowlands, Caerpuilly. 
Tel: (0222) 868635 

• 512 Board, Gem software - 
£60, Acorn teletext adaptor, 
ATS Rom - £35, RB2 Tracker 
ball, Pointer Rom - £25, 
Wordwise-f - £15, Printmaster 

- £10, games - £5 each. Con- 
tact C Slater, Derbyshire. Tel: 
(0629) 822197 

• Wanted: Archimedes com- 
puter also memory upgrade kit 
for Epsom GQ3500 laser 
printer. Contact A Bryan, 
Wolverhampton. Tel: (0902) 
338089 

• BBC B, 40/80T drive, 
DDFS and ADFS, Mini Office 
II, Pixel Perfect DTP and 
much more software, manuals, 
all leads. Bargain - £120 ono. 
Contact Mr M Johnson, Dor- 
set. Tel: (0202) 883918 

• Master 128, Microvitec Cub 
monitor, disc drive, manuals, 
Spell master Rom Overview - 
£300 ono. Beautiful condition. 
Upgrade makes this homeless. 
Contact Mr M O’ Toole, 
Bucks. Tel: (0494) 7714017 

• Wanted: Printer and disc 
drive for Acorn Electron. Con- 
tact Mr G Sturge, Exeter. Tel: 
(0392) 214556 


• Midi 4 Interface, Studio 
24+, System Delta Plus 2, SDP 
reporter and mailshot, 2nd 
floppy and Facia for 310, Mig- 
29 - Sensible offers. Contact 
Mr D Crofts, Bury St 
Edmunds. Tel: (0284) 761801 

• Electron software 50p - 
£2.50. For details send SAE to 
C. Fox, 30 Farndon Road, 
Woodford Halse, Daventry, 
Northants NN1 1 6TT. 

• BBC B Issue 7, 40/80 drive, 
Watford Rom board, Watford 
hand scanner, Amx Stop Press, 
View, software, leads, 
manuals, excellent condition - 
£275. Contact R Copperth- 
waite, Leeds. Tel: (0532) 
564384 eve 

• Acorn desktop C rel 4, 
brand new, hardly used and 
Dabs Press guide - £250, rea- 
sonable offers considered. 
Contact Mr J Verrall, East 
Sussex. Tel: (0273) 400028 
eve 

• A3 10 with 4Mb Ram and 
40M hard disc, four slot back 
plane and Arm3 processor, 
manuals and software - £750. 
Contact Mr R Dawson, Mid- 
dlesex. Tel: 081-864 7208 

• BBC software, 5.25 in disc. 
Elite - £3, revs and four tracks 
- £3, Superior Speech - £2.50, 
Exmon II Rom - £5. Contact 
Mr A Smith, Worcs. Tel: 
(0562) 65975 

• Archimedes 310, 2 Mb, 
Memcia, lots of software 
(games and serious) - £599 
ono. Contact Mr L Deane, Liv- 
erpool. Tel: 051-546 1543 


• Wants for A3 10: External 
hard disc. Scanner and DTP 
extras, programmers OS2, ref- 
erence manuals. Contact L 
Hurst, Bournemouth. Tel: 
(0202) 529787 

• Acorn Electron games for 
sale, all games in mint condi- 
tion (cassette only). Contact 
Alex Honarth, Little Langford, 
Bow, Devon EXI7 6HZ. 

• 5.25in drive for Archimedes 
or BBC. Contact Sunil, Houn- 
slow. Tel: 08 1-572 2789 

• BBC B, two Cumana disc 
drives, joystick, four pen 
colour graphic printer - £80. 
Contact Mrs J Heaney, Herts. 
Tel: (0582) 832791 

• A3000, Acorn colour moni- 
tor and stand, original manuals 
and application discs, perfect 
condition - £650 ono. Contact 
Mr K Sharman, Oxford. Tel: 
(0865)862143 

• Games (Archimedes), orig- 
inal boxed. Chuck Rock, 
Freddy’s Folly, Minertaur, 
Iron Lord, Man United - £10 
each, E Type, Designer - £15. 
Contact Mr T Stensen, East- 
bourne. Tel: (0323) 27330 

• BBC B, Rom board, 
joysticks, AMX desktop etc. 
Contact Mr P Edmonds, Sur- 
rey. Tel: (0372) 278147 

• Master 1 28k, dual 40/80 DS 

drives, software including 
Interword - £295, colour 

monitor - £70, Taxan KPS 10 
printer - £50, teletext adaptor 
- £50. Contact Mr P Golder, 
London. Tel: 08 1-874 5457 


• BBC B with disc drive, 9 
pin printer, software, UV Rom 
eraser and Rom programmer - 
£120. Contact Mr D Hutchin- 
son, Sheffield. Tel: (0742) 
483534 

• Archimedes add-ons: Hawk 
V9 video colour digitiser (plus 
extra software) - £100, Acorn 
AKA 10 input/output card - 
£20, two-slot backplane (310) 
- £10. Contact William, Essex. 
Tel: (0279) 424139 

• 1st Word Plus release 2, 
unregistered, excellent condi- 
tion - £50. Contact Geraint, 
Cardiff. Tel: (0222) 227687 

• BBC A3000, 2Mb colour 
monitor, learning curve - 
£500, internal SCSI card for 
A3000 and 80Mb hard disc - 
£400. Contact Tanus, London. 
08 1 -445 823 1 or 08 1 -446 6037 

• Wanted: R140 for student 
project, reasonable price. Con- 
tact Mr P Skelly, Aberdeen. 
Tel: (0224) 855706 

• Arc Comm 2 - £20, Hearsay 
1 - £10, Pace Nightingale 
Modem with Master and 
Archimedes leads - £10. Con- 
tact Mr E Cobbold, Norfolk. 
Tel: (0493) 740557 

• Wanted: Printer and disc 
drive for Acorn Electron. Con- 
tact Mr G Sturge, Exeter. Tel: 
(0392)214556 

• Electron including Plus One, 
Voltmace, joysticks, manuals, 
numerous games - £65 ono. 
Contact Mr J Grayson, 
Immingham. Tel (0469) 
574416 


BAU FREE READER ADS COUPON 

Why not take advantage of our free reader ad service? Fill in the details below and send this coupon (or a 
photocopy of it) to: Free Ads, BBC Acorn User, Redwood Publishing, 101 Bayham Street, London NW1 OAG. 

Your Name Tel: 

Address 

Please write your Free Ads details here (in block capitals please). Maximum 25 words. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 47 



FREE ADS 


• BBC Master Compact, 
3.25in disc drive, original 
packaging, Welcome disc and 
hook, software includes View, 
Wordwise, Logo, Elite, Ninja 

- £125. Contact S Wanstall, 
Plymouth. Tel: (0752) 892166 

• BBC B, ATPL, 16K, Wat- 
ford shadow Ram, View 3, 
VicwSheet, View Store, 
guides, dual 40/80 double 
sided disc, drive PSU, plus 
extras, excellent condition. 
Contact A Garbett, London. 
Tel: 071-494 1365 

• Canon BJ-lOex Bubble Jet 
printer with sheet feeder - 
£200, Beebug floppy disc 
interface for A3000 - £20, 
sheet feeder for Star LC24- 1 0 
printer - £20. Contact R 
Smith, London. Tel: 081-882 
3552 

• Archimedes games for sale 
including Break 147 - £13, 
Iron Lord 1 - £9, Blowpipe - 
£8. Send SAE to S. Sutton, 
274 Northfield Avenue, Lon- 
don W5 4NB. 

• Archimedes 410, OS2, 
4Meg memory, Rom podule 
with Roms, hand scanner. 
Multi sync monitor - £1100. 
Contact Mr R Edwards, South 
Humberside. Tel: (0472) 
602429 

• Unopened pack of five 
Kores printer ribbons for 
Qume IV, Sprint 7/9, sample 
Daisystep. Contact R New- 
mark, Sunderland. Tel: 09 1 - 
536 2066 

• A3000, 4Mb and 40Mb 
SCSI, PC Emulator, colour 
digitiser, 5.25in, C develop- 
ment, Archway, 100+Mb s/w 
(call for list) - £1500. Contact 
Dave, London. Tel: 071-387 
7050 x351 1 day 

•All Archimedes users are 
invited to join our Archimedes 
Users club. Write to J Michal- 
ski, 6 Furzeland House, 
Sheephouse Way, New Mal- 
den, Surrey KT3 5 PH, for 
more details. 

• BBC Acorn User mags, 1st 
issue Jul/Aug 1982 to Aug 
1987 Micro User, Vol 1 Mar 
1983 to Aug 1987 minus two 

- offers. Contact Mr W Bar- 
rett, Surrey. Tel: (0883) 
743783 


•A3000, 2Mb Ram, Acorn 
colour monitor, software, 
magazines, manuals, boxed, 
immaculate condition - £650. 
Contact Mr D Farrah, Surrey. 
Tel: 081-647 1653 

• BBC B, tape player, 
joysticks, manuals - £150 ono. 
Contact Miss S Steggall, Wilt- 
shire. Tel: (0672) 515487 

• Master 512K with 40/80 
double drives, orange screen 
monitor and Acorn teletext 
adapter, includes Gem, Gem- 
Paint, Gem write, Beebug, 
Masterom, Spellcheck III - 
£550 ono. Contact I Gilmore, 
Herts. Tel: (0438) 814059 

• Communitel software pack, 
unused, GEC Datachat 
modem, Acorn Electron - any 
offers for lot or scpcrate. Con- 
tact W Good, East Sussex. Tel: 
(0273)481190 

• Panasonic KPX 1 124 mint - 
£145, software boxed, Lem- 
mings, Chocks, Exra, E-Type, 
Mig 29, Chess 3D, Atelier, 
Proart, Tracer, Arcol, 
minimum half price. Contact 
Chris, Maidenhead. Tel: 
(0628) 777363 

• BBC M512, Akehter 40/80 
DSDD 5.25in, Z80 second 
processor, Microline printer, 
Gem mouse, Rom cartridge, 
loads of mags, manuals and 
discs - £425. Contact Mr M 
Smith, Lines. Tel: (0427) 
615074 

• BBC B Issue 7 with Inter- 
word and Pendown - £180, 
Watford 40/80 drives - £1 10, 
Philips 80 monitor - £45, 
Brother printer - £45. Contact 
Mr M Basford, Tunbridge 
Wells. Tel: (0892) 546493 

• A3000, colour, 2Mb, 105Mb 
SCSI, 5.25in drive, software 
including Acorn DTP, 1st 
Word+, Schema, Genisis, 
Graphbox, PC Emulator, Lotus 
1-2-3, games, all manuals - 
£949. Contact Mr Jones, 
Clwyd. Tel: (0492)516285 

• Multipod - £80, VidiRGB - 

£46, 2Wb plane - £15, Elite - 
£20, Saloon cars - £16, Tween 
- £15, Font FX - £8, Draw- 
Bender - £8, Inertia, Bal- 
larena. Slideshow - £9. 

Contact Elliot, Essex. Tel: 
081-508 7648 eve 


• BBC B with disc drive, 
Rom board Interword, Spell- 
master, Addcomm, Stop Press 
DTP - £100. Contact Mr R 
Paddle, Kent. Tel: 081-460 
2116 

• Games: GBA, Catallysm, 
Break 147, Ncvryon, Chocks 
Away extra missions, Enter 
the Realm, Pacmania, Lem- 
mings - from £5 to £10. 
Contact Mr A Reeves, Derby- 
shire. Tel: (0283) 552761 

• Wanted: Archimedes A3000 
computer, will consider A3 10/ 
A410 series, cash waiting. 
Contact A Allen, Derby. Tel: 
(0332)281540 

• Master 128, 3.5in disc drive, 
Panasonic Kxp-1081 printer, 
paper, Logo and Wordwise 
Roms, manuals, magazines, 
software - £375 ono. Contact 
Mr J Hay, Edinburgh. Tel 
(031)662 4760 

•Help! Beginner! Archimedes 
contacts wanted to exchange 
ideas and PD, 100% reply. 
Contact Audi Wall, 98 Head- 
stone Lane, North Harrow, 
Middlesex HA2 6JN 

• BBC B, twin disc drive, 
Ml 28 upgrade, Roms include 
Interword, View sheet. Dump- 
master 3, ADFS, 8271 chip, 
joystick, books, mags and 
cooling fan - £300. Contact 
Mr G Hough, Northwich. Tel: 
(0606) 76535 

• Wanted for Archimedes 
A3 10: Hard drive with control- 
ler (80Mb to 120Mb) and 4Mb 
Ram. Cash waiting. Contact 
Mr H Thind, Slough. Tel: 
(0753) 820526 

• SCSI tape streamer 60Mb, 
sealed box, backup software, 
cables and tape - £300 ono. 
Contact Mr R Stedman, Cam- 
bridge. Tel: (0223) 213746 

• A300, 4Mb Ram, serial 
upgrade, Philips colour moni- 
tor, Scanlight Junior scanner, 
Vide enhancer, dust cover, 
manuals, software, monitor 
stand - £800. Contact Mr B 
Howat, Merseyside. Tel: 
(0704) 63344 

• Bargain: Archimedes 310, 
Acorn colour monitor, - £450 
ono. Contact Mr I Bell, Glas- 
gow. Tel: 041-883 3351 


• A3000, upgraded (2Meg), 
colour monitor, 2nd floppy 
drive, serial port, stand, 
manuals, usual software, extra 
fonts/artwork etc, Acorn DTP, 
excellent condition - £725. 
Contact Mrs L Dobson, Dyfed. 
Tel: (0269) 861256 

• Archimedes software: 
Genesis - £35, PC Emulator - 
£40, Wonderland - £20, Here- 
with the Clues - £12, Dabhand 
basic V guide - £6, Pres moni- 
tor Plinth - £13. Contact Mr N 
Metcalfe, Surrey. Tel: (0372) 
274162 

• A3 1 0 and PC Emulator 
(VI.7), Acorn DTP, games, 
disc drive, software - £400, 
Philips CM8833 Monitor - 
£100, Brainsoft video digitiser 

- £70, 20Mb hard disc and 
Podule - £110. Contact Rob, 
Cheshire. Tel: (0270) 875069 

• BBC B - £300, Master 

Turbo - £450, too much equip- 
ment to list here, also Archi- 
medes Gcnitiser - £100. 

Contact B Adlington, Rother- 
hithe. Tel: 071- 231 6730 

• 2 Mb colour A3000, 
manuals, discs, PC Emulator, 
software and games, to good 
home - £650. Contact Ewen, 
Leicestershire. Tel: (0533) 
864910. 

• Archimedes A3000, Acorn 
colour monitor, 2 Meg Ram, 
Lemmings, Zarch, 1st word, 
PC Emulator etc, bargain - 
£650. Contact A Sawson, 
Derby, Tel (0332) 664962 

• Wanted: BBC Master 128 
plus monitor, disc drive and 
printer if you have one. Con- 
tact Phil, St Aubens. Tel: 
(0727) 861961 

• Master 128 Mos V3.5, 
Eproms Masterrom, ADI 
Comustar, Dumpmaster, Help, 
Viewstore, Zoom and Smart 
Cart, complete set of manuals 

- £300. Contact Mr P Der- 
went, Twickenham. Tel: 08 1 - 
892 9278 

• Attention teachers! Three 
quality educational programs, 
ArcArt - simple art program, 
Infant maths - counting game, 
Snap - computer version. All 
for only £2. Contact Nicholas 
Marriott, 160A Drum Road, 
Cookstown BT80 9DW 


48 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 


ARCterm 7 1 .40 


Our popular comms package now supports Minitel emulation 
and includes an Econet modem server. Recommended by 
Hampshire LEA. Existing users return both disks and SAE 


for upgrade. £68 

A5000 IDE drives 

These fit internally, and work as second drives to the 40Mb. 

A5000 internal 120Mb Conner £289 

A5000 internal 240Mb Quantum £489 

IDE 

Complete systems. MEMC 1 a/backplane required. 

A300/400 internal 20Mb Conner £139 

A300/400 internal 40Mb cached Seagate £2 1 9 

A300/400 internal 100Mb cached Seagate £299 

SCSI 


We supply Morley SCSI cards. Transfer rates are lOOOk/s for 
Quantums and 2150k/s for Fujitsu. Add £50 for a cached 
SCSI card if you require one. A300/400/500 internal prices 
shown, add £60 for A3000/5000 external systems. 


Quantum 52Mb (2yr gtee) + Morley SCSI £3 1 9 

Quantum 105Mb (2yr gtee) + Morley SCSI £429 

Quantum 240Mb (2yr gtee) + Morley SCSI £699 

Fujitsu 520Mb (5yr gtee) + Morley SCSI £ 1 1 99 


20Mb 3.5" Floptical Drive 

External drive works with most SCSI cards eg Oak, Acorn, 
Vertical Twist (or add £100 for a Morley card). Both systems 
include 1 floptical floppy (usually £20). 

External £399 

Internal A5000 including controller £359 

120Mb 3.5" Magneto-Optical Drive 

Externally boxed rewritable optical drive. Works with most 
SCSI systems and stores 120Mb on each £50 disk. It's quick 
and the media is very secure - it uses a combination of laser 
heating and a magnetic field to store the data. Drive comes 
with one disk and cables. £ 1 099 

IBM Keyboard/Mouse Interface 

This plugs into the keyboard socket and allows connection of 
a PC keyboard, serial/bus/Archimedes mouse and 4 joysticks. 
Imminent, call for information! £89 

Coming Soon 

- 8-port serial card for RISC OS/RISCiX use. 

- 64kBit synchronous ISDN adapter card. 

- Apple Localtalk interface card. 

- A4 link program to access another machine's hard disk. 

All disk systems come tested and formatted with all cables. 
Delivery on hardware £10+VAT. Education is entitled to a 
5 % discount on all products. 

Please add VAT at 17.5% to all prices. Plastic welcome. 


THE SERIAL PORT 



The Serial Port 
Burcott Manor, Wells, 
Somerset, BA5 1NH 

Telephone (0749) 670058 

Fax (0749) 670809 

Modem (0749) 670030 

ISDN (0749) 670883 





THE DRIVING FORCE 

* * The first full colour printer drivers 



available for the Archimedes. 

The colour TurboDrivers in 
conjunction with the BJC800 inkjet 
printer are ideal for colour proofing 
work or for anyone wanting a small 
number of high quality colour prints. 

Key features: 

.> 360 dpi inkjet 

p> A4 and A3 paper sizes 

^ Plain paper capability although for 
best results Canon inkjet paper is 
highly recommended. Printer 
supplied with 20 sheets of A4 sample 
inkjet paper. 

k > Four colour, cyan, magenta, yellow 
and black ink for full spectrum colour 
and high quality blacks. 

^ Individually replaceable ink 
cartridges. 

'> The fist true 24-bit colour RISC OS 
printer drivers. (All existing printer 
drivers based on Acorn code are 
only 8-bit or 256 colours maximum.) 
The colour TurboDrivers can 
produce millions of colour shades on 
the BJC800 from programs such as 
Impression, IDraw and Artworks. 
Acorn sprites are currently limited 
to 256 colours. 

j/ Disc spooling allows background 
operation once the page has been 
rendered. This means control is 
returned as soon as possible and that 
the computer is not occupied when 
printing multiple copies. 

|J> FastText rendering for maximum 
speed text printing. 

^ Advanced under colour removal and 
grey component replacement for 
best quality colour reproduction. 

^ Print times for A4 colour page 
approx 4 minutes, 8 minutes for A3. 


Compatible with all Archimedes models and operating systems. 4Mbyte RAM minimum recommended. 

RRP for Colour TurboDrivers and printer lead for BJC800 £99.00 + VAT (£1 16.32) 

RRP for Canon BJC800 printer and drivers £1895.00 + VAT (£2226.62) 

ACCESS & VISA WELCOME 



Gaddesden Place Hemel Hempstead Herts HP2 6EX 
Tel: 0442 63933 Fax: 0442 231632 


DISPLAY GRAPHICS 


T o score a visual hit and, at the same time 
get your message across, is not always 
easy. Text bending can distort words, and 
make them unreadable, so it is good to be 
able to experiment. A new release from called 
Midnight Express from Dabhand Computing 
aims to help you do exactly that. 

Several applications presently let you bend 
words, such as Rise Developments’ Typestiulio 
and ICS’s Fantasy , so how does Midnight 
Express compare to existing applications, and 
where docs it fall short? 

The pre-release version does not yet have a 
manual, but who needs one when people write 
packages as friendly as this? I immediately got 
down to creating some pretty words. First you 
enter your chosen word, or words. Then you set 
up all of your parameters, such as shadows and 
curves and then use the star-shaped Create tool 
to dump your text on the page. 

However, we took a more rough and ready 
method, that no doubt everyone else will take as 
well. This is to simply dump the untouched text 
on a page in default format, and stretch and 
squish it at leisure. Luckily, Midnight Express 
operates in such a way that each individual 
component of the text (fonts, spelling and so on) 
can be altered at any stage, no matter what has 
happened to it in the meantime. 

The first thing I did to my text was change its 
colour. This is achieved by selecting the text, 
going into the Fill sub-menu, and picking your 
favourite colour. The effects of colour change 
are immediate (no clicking on OK boxes as with 
Draw). This was encouraging: I want things to 
happen as I do them, and in Midnight Express 
they generally do. 

Another option in the Fill menu is a sprite fill, 
one of the most impressive features. Move away 
from the Sprite Fill submenu and a dialogue box 



Could have used a bit of kerning - but still . . . 

pops up with a pattern inside it. Clicking on this 
pattern fills the inside of the text. The lovely 
thing is that there is a large range of ready-made 
patterns to choose from, all accessible by click- 
ing on the arrows in the box. Just look at some 
of the examples in this feature. You can of 
course add your own sprites - digitised pieces of 
wood or stone look particularly impressive. 

When a sprite fill is created, there is a small 
gap between the edge of the sprite and the 
outline of the text. To solve this we made the 
outline of the text thicker. This overlaps the 
jagged edge of the sprite, which you can set up 
as a default by clicking on the Save Status 
option on the icon bar menu. 


WORD 

POWER 

There are many ways to distort text decoratively 
on the Archimedes and now another contender 
is in the running. Paul James examines the 
virtues of Midnight Express 



With Midnight Express, variety is the spice of life 

The fill itself is made up of the chosen sprite, 
tiled and/or scaled to fit the text. A mask is used 
so that the sprite appears to be cut out to fit 
inside the text. One small problem is that to fill a 
large area of empty text with a sprite takes up a 
lot of memory. Midnight Express complains 
about this, and it is up to you to adjust the 
amount of memory given to the application. I 
hope this will be changed in the final version 
Once the text is filled (or left unfilled) you 
can begin to bend it around. To do this. Mid- 
night Express supplies a shape sub-menu. 
Moving over this gives you an envelope sub- 
menu. From here you can pick your envelope, in 
the same way as you pick your sprite fill. The 
text is then recalculated and squashed to lit. 
Again the effect is virtually immediate, so you 
can quickly flick through a selection of 
envelopes and apply them to your text. 


MISSING PARTS 


One thing we were looking for in 
this package was kerning. Kerning 
means moving characters closer 
together or further apart, or even 
off the straight line (up and down). 
But it was nowhere to be found - a 
serious omission. 

When you put text into prede- 
fined shapes, the lack of kerning 
becomes obvious. Have a look at 
the screen on the left with the 
word 'WORMS' in it. As you can 
see, the W looks too far away from 
the 0. With kerning it could be 
moved in closer, and would look a 
lot better. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 51 




DISPLAY GRAPHICS 



Making a distortion envelope 

There are many envelopes to choose from, but if 
you do want to make your own, then clicking on 
the second tool down in the window lets you 
tweak the four bezier points, as shown above. 
The points of the envelope can be made to move 
independently or you can link them together. 
This saves time when you need to move two 
points, as they move together, rather than you 
having to drag each one. Unfortunately, Dab- 
hand seems to have shyed away from letting you 
curve all four sides of the text, but this is pro- 
bably because the designers wanted to make 
everything instant. 

Scaling the artwork is easy, and Dabhand 
seems to have taken inspiration from Computer 
Concepts' Artworks package here. The scaling 
takes place around a point, which can be placed 
anywhere on the page by clicking with Adjust. 
Dragging the mouse around with Select held 
down redraws the text in outline (without added 
shadows), so you can see what your final scaled 
version will look like. 

This is unlike Draw , where you just scale a 
rectangle around the object, the object itself 
disappears. This way of scaling objects takes 



The effect of scaling is shown using grey outlines 
some getting used to and requires accurate use 
of the mouse, but it is far superior to the Draw 
method in the end. 

Rotation of your text also takes place around a 
central point that can be changed by clicking 
Adjust elsewhere on the page. Then holding 
Select and moving the mouse up or down rotates 
the wireframe version of your text, while letting 
go of Select replaces it with the fully rendered 
version. It's good to be able to see things hap- 
pening as you do them. 

If you want to scale your view of the screen, 
then two small arrows are provided on the 
toolbox. There is also a standard Rise OS type 
zoomer in the main menu. The arrows are great 
though, and they make things much quicker. 




ME AND MY SHADOW 


If you really want to make 
your text stand out, then 
adding a good shadow can 
do wonders. Midnight 
Express supplies several 
types. Again, adding a 
shadow to your text is a 
one-dick-of-the-mouse 
affair and it happens 
straight away. 

A standard shadow just 
repeats the text at an offset. 

These shadows look best in 
a light grey, although any 
colour can be chosen. Dab- 
hand has supplied a neat 
way of specifying where the light is coming from. In the Shadow dialogue box you simply 
drag a box representing the position of the shadow behind a box representing the text, and 
the shadow on the real text is redrawn immediately in the new position. 

Our favourite was the zoom shadow. This again is selected by a single click and the 
shadow appears to zoom off into the distance, as shown above. The vanishing point is 

specified in the same way, 
by dragging round a box 
inside the Zoom Shadow 
dialogue box. In this box 
you can also specify how 
many copies of the text are 
used between your main 
text and the vanishing 
point. The more copies the 
better it looks, but it takes 
longer to redraw. 

Start and end colours can 
also be chosen so your 
shadow can have a graded 
effect, and this is very 
effective. 

A 3D shadow is much the same as a zoom shadow, except the copies of the text aren't scaled 
at all, just repeated backwards. One omission from the Shadows gallery is a block shadow. 
This is a shadow that is solid, rather than made up of copies of the main text. 

Plinths are also provided, on which you can place your text, and these, too, can be given 
their own shadows. You can create star-shaped plinths, or polygons, and the number of sides 
can be adjusted using the dialogue box. A simple distorted rectangular plinth is shown in the 
shot above. 


Fill 


S prite 


Standard 

usanm 


Oof 1 in*- 
Inline 
Shadow 
Shape 


/ hied 
Scaled 


Select 


Resourcec 


electric 


UU laiiit'l 


The grid loses all the complexity of its Draw 
counterpart, but still remains useful. From the 
Grid sub-menu you can turn it on or off, and 
decide how big it is. The grid is shown as light 
blue squares and is very simple, clean and 
effective. 

Overall, Midnight Express is an exemplary 
example of what can be achieved with a well- 
written Rise OS package. It's neat and tidy, with 
no sprawling menus or large dialogue boxes. It’s 
also well planned, intuitive and, quite simply, 
good fun to play with. And the results are 
always good. The lack of kerning is annoying, 
and does spoils things a bit. but for anyone into 
text manipulation this is a certainly a good 
package to add to your repertoire. 


PRODUCT DETAILS 


Product: Midnight Express 

Supplier: Dabhand Computing, 5 Victoria Lane, 

Whitefield, Manchester M25 6AL 

Tel: 061-766 8423 

Price: £59.95 inc VAT 


52 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 



QUALITY AND RELIABILITY WITH FRIENDLY SERVICE 


Acorn Products 

A4 Laptop 60Mb HD System 1699.00 


A4 Laptop Floppy Disk 

System 1 399.00 

A3000 2Mb RAM 599.00 

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Monitor 4Mb RAM 1 499.00 

A5000 Superbundle 2Mb 1 499.00 

A5000 Learning Curve 

4Mb RAM 1531.06 

A5000 Learning Curve 

With Printer 4Mb 1765.96 

A540 4Mb RAM 120Mb 

Hard Disk 1899.00 

Acorn PC Emulator Ver 1 .8 99.00 

A3000 Upgrades 

2Mb RAM Upgrade 45.00 

4Mb RAM Upgrade 149.00 

20Mb Internal Hard Disk 195.00 

42Mb Internal Hard Disk 399.00 

User/Analogue Podule 45.00 

User/Midi Podule 49.00 

Ethernet Expansion Card 220.00 


Dust Cover (Complete System) 12.50 

A5000 Upgrades 

2Mb RAM Upgrade for A5000 90.00 
Ethernet Expansion Card 220.00 
Dust Cover (Complete System) 12.50 

Archimedes Accessories 

386 PC Expansion Card 1 Mb 485.00 
386 PC Expansion Card 4Mb 585.00 


ARM 3 Upgrade 199.00 

Clares Micro Mouse 25.00 

Scan-Light Junior 256 1 95.00 

Scan Light Professional 595.00 

Econet Module 45.00 

I/O Expansion Podule 75.00 

A3000 Bridge Plinth (Metal) 1 5.00 

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Digital Services Products 

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Jetsream Tape Streamer 

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Digistore Tape Streamer 

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Level 3 Digistore Software 50.00 

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Philips CM8833 II Stereo 

199.00 

Microvitec 14M325 Colour 

189.00 

Acorn Colour Monitor AKF17 

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429.00 

Taxan Multiscan Monitor 775 

429.00 

Dot Matrix Printers 

Epson LX400 

109.00 

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158.00 

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232.00 

Epson FX850 

295.00 

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Hannington Hall, P0 Box 50, Cosham, 
Portsmouth P06 3BQ Telephone 0705 327591 


Morley SCSI Hard Disks 

The following include SCSI podule: 


52Mb External 343.00 

52Mb External Cached 380.00 

100Mb External 417.00 

100Mb External Cached 453.00 

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100Mb Internal 375.00 

100Mb Internal Cached 412.00 

SCSI Card 131.00 

SCSI Card Cached 170.00 

Major Software Titles 

Arclight 43.00 

Arcol 46.00 

Artisan 2 45.00 

CableNews 139.00 

Chameleon 32.00 

Compression 35.00 

EasiWriter 115.00 

Equaser 36.00 

Euclid 40.00 

Eureka POA 

Genesis 86.00 

Genesis Plus 69.00 

Graphbox 2 69.00 

Graphbox Professional 109.00 

Illusionist 79.00 

Impression 2 125.00 

Impression Business Sup 39.00 

Impression Junior 69.00 

Jigsaw 29.00 

Magpie 45.00 

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Notate 49.00 

Pendown 54.00 

Pipedream 4 149.00 

Poster 75.00 

Presenter GTI 65.00 

Pro Artisan 70.00 

Render Bender 2 70.00 

Revalation 2 99.00 

Rhapsody 2 45.00 

Schema 90.00 

smArt 50.00 

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Snapshot (A3000) 269.00 

Snapshot (Archimedes) 189.00 

Splice 26.00 

Squirrel Database 129.00 

Tabs 85.00 

TechWriter 235.00 

Titler 99.00 

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Waiter Menu System 35.00 


All prices shown are ex-VAT, which is 
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Most goods are dispatched within 24 
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Purchase orders accepted from public 
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Carriage in UK mainland £5.00 small 
items, £7.50 larger items (plus VAT). 
Overseas Carriage at cost. 





From the authors of "Artisan", "Artisan 2" and "Pro-Artisan" ( VM Clares) 

Express was written by graphic designers for graphic designers of all ages. Easy to use yet incredibly powerful, 
Express will help you create stunning graphics with little effort and allow you to change the shape, colours and 
other effects with a click of a mouse button. 

"Express is the package that makes new rules.", "This program will find application anywhere where graphics 
are needed from the school room to the art studio. It is superb." Micro User July 1992 
Express is RISC OS 2 and RISC OS 3 compatible and will run on the full range of Acorn 32 bit computers. 
Features include : 

• Built in library of Shapes, Stars, Polygons and Arcs all selectable from easily accessed dialogue boxes. 

• Built in library of Colours, Fills and Shadows, all selectable from easily accessed dialogue boxes. 

• Over 800 industry standard 24 bit colours instantly available. 

• Use any of your outline fonts to produce text that can be interactively curved, stretched and twisted in 
an infinite number of ways, whilst still remaining editable. 

• Prints with standard RISCOS printer drivers and offers tiled printout over multiple pages for poster size 
designs. 

• Exports in drawfile format to DTP and design software or can be saved in compacted form. 

• Imports standard spritefiles to use as blends and effects. 

• 1 2%-800% zoom views 

• Quick Keys for advanced users. 

inc. VAT 


VICTORIA LANE»WHITEFIELD 
E R • M 2 5 6 A L 

3 • F a x . 061 766 8425 


Price £59.95 


MIDNIGHT GRAPHICS*5 
MANCHEST 
Tel. 061 766 842 





PROGRAMS 


The section that is packed full of programs for you to use 


Jo6:; ’BBfljfr WBj 

I T — . 





pftsgjj 



CONTENTS 

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS 

A simple games program laid bare, line-by-line, 
for your delight and edification 

59 

WIRED UP FOR SOUND 

A resounding cadenza to our popular series 
on computer-aided noisemaking 

61 

♦INFO 

Crammed full of programs, hints and ideas, 
from waves to strange attractors 

67 

ASSEMBLY LINE 

Continue your trip into the heart of the Arc 

75 

PIECES OF EIGHT 

A touch of magic - two all-time classic 
games that run on eight or 32-bit micros 

78 

YELLOW PAGES 

Page after page of meticulously selected 
listings for you to type in 

81 


W hat could he better 
while on holiday than 
to immerse yourself 
in the two best ever 
type-in games published in 
BBC Acorn User. A Pieces of 
Eight games special on page 
55 revives these classics. 

Wizalon is such a simple 
game, you wonder why it’s so 
addictive. Two wizards have 
to escape a dungeon by burst- 
ing ballons with their pointy 
hats. To do this you have to 
control their magic see-saw 
and launch each wizard into 
the air in turn, by making sure 
that the descending wizard 
comes down on the empty end 
of the see-saw. 

If you get it right, the other 
wizard will shoot straight into 
a balloon. Accompanied by 
clever never-ending music (it's 
always different), Wizalon will 
have you bursting to get to the 
next screen, and to get onto the 
high score table! 

Rune Maker: Codename 
Druid puts you in control of a 
caped druid on a crusade to 
assemble an ancient 
Runestone. Shoot your druidic 
spells at the inchworms and 
guards to stop them sapping 
your energy and climb on the 
stone monoliths to reach the 
scattered pieces of the Rune. 
It's a multi-screen adventure 
so you'll have to spend some 
time searching the detailed 
landscape, all the time watch- 
ing for the lightning bolts. 

Both games run on eight-bit 
machines but we've modified 
them to run on 32-bit 
machines as well, you'll find 
both games on the 3.5in and 
the 5.25in subscribers disc this 
month. 

For those of you new to the 
computing world, Sarah Burns 
takes a simple game and 
explains how it all works. 
Read Sarah’s article and find 
out what really happens inside 
your computer. 


David Radford’s sound article 
concludes on page 61, and it 
goes out with a big BANG!! 
This month David gives you 
one application that will do it 
all. and more. Harmsynth is a 
desktop application that will 


have your Arc making all sorts 
of realistic noises using the 
techniques covered in the last 
three articles. Vibrato and 
tremelo can be added, allow- 
ing even more varied sounds. 
You can play your sounds via 


the computer keyboard, or 
even a Midi keyboard if you 
have one. Unfortunately 
Harmsynth is so big it would 
not fit on the yellow pages, so 
if you don't get a monthly disc 
then do something about it by 
turning to page 89. 

♦INFO 

Our regular programming hot- 
pot, *INFO is on page 67. 
This month BAU programming 
gurus Dave Lawrence and 
Dave Acton feature a program- 
mable scientific calculator, a 
mind reader, a demonstration 
of smooth curves and much 
more besides. 

Here at the BAU office 
everybody’s favourite this 
month is the Lorenzian Water- 
wheel, and we are sure it will 
be yours too. It demonstrates 
chaos theory, and is great fun 
to watch. 

Waves have been popular in 
the last few *INFOs, and this 
month is no exception. The 
Daves have a full screen ver- 
sion of last month's Waves 
program for 32-bit users, and 
eight-bit owners have a care- 
fully tuned machine code 
routine to wobble points on 
their screen and create the 
same sort of effect. 

Finally, win £25 with a new 
feature to *INFO which we 
hope to repeat in future, the 
♦INFO challenge. This will 
test your programming skills 
against those of other readers. 
This month the Daves ask you 
to write some routines that will 
solve a maze in the quickest 
time possible. Send in your 
solutions! 

Arc Assembly on page 75 
this month tells you how to 
mix Basic with machine code. 

Finally in the BAU program- 
ming section comes the yellow 
pages, where you'll find list- 
ings from associated articles to 
type in and play with. See you 
next month, program pickers. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 55 





WEMBLEY EXHIBITION CENTRE 

OCTOBER 1 6TH TO 1 8TH 1 992 

OPENING TIMES: 

FRIDAY 1 6TH OCTOBER - 10AM TO 6.00PM 
SATURDAY 1 7TH OCTOBER - 1 0AM TO 6.00PM 
SUNDAY 1 8TH OCTOBER - 1 0AM TO 5.00PM 



IT'S A 



COME AND SEE A 


AND SOFTWAR 




Your chance to play this exciting 
athletics simulation in a special 
presentation at the show, with 
on-the-spot 'coaching' from 
world-class athletes who have 
contributed their skills to the game 


Star athletes 
appearing will 
include: 

Linford Christie 
Fatima Whitbread 
Colin Jackson 
Dalton Grant % * 
John Regis 
Steve Brackley 
Sally Gunnel and 
Yvonne Murray 




V EDUCATION AND 
IUNDLE OF FUN 


'/HOLE WORLD OF ACORN COMPUTING - THE LATEST HARDWARE 
FOR SCHOOL, HOME AND BUSINESS - ALL UNDER ONE ROOF 



EDUCATIONAL 

ADVICE 

A special section for 
teachers and concerned 
parents who are looking 
for helpful advice on all 
aspects of using Acorn 
computers in the 
classroom 


NEW ACORN 
MACHINES 

Visitors to the show will 
be able to view Acorn's 
new portable computer, 
the A4. And with 
rumours of additional 
new products from 
Acorn, the show could 
be your first chance to 
see them 


MULTIMEDIA 

APPLICATIONS 

With the development of 
CD-ROM and Acorn 
Replay, there will be 
opportunities to view the 
latest multimedia 
applications for 
educational and other 
uses 


NEW 

SOFTWARE 

Education, games, home 
accounts, business, DTP, 
graphics.... whatever your 
interests, there is a host of 
new software packages 
on show to see and try 


GAMES 

GALORE 

As well as Quest for 
Gold, there will be a host 
of new and exciting 
games for you to try at the 
show. Don't miss your 
chance to play the latest 
'shoot 'em ups' and 
adventures 


WHO'S AT THE SHOW? 

• Acorn Computers 

• Colton Software 

• 4Mation 

• Clares 

• Computer Concepts 

• Rise Developments 

• Aleph One 

• Watford Electronics 

• Longman Logotron 

• The Fourth Dimension 

• Minerva Software 

and over 60 other exhibitors 


r 


ADVANCE 

T 

1 C K E 1 

r 

A P P L 1 

C A 

T 1 O N 

Please send this 

Please rush me : 


| Under 1 6 £4 

1 (£4.50 at door) 


Family Tickets £1 5 

1 (£17 at door) 

application form to: 


1 Adult £5 

1 (£6 at door) 




SAFESELL EXHIBITIONS LTD, 
MARKET HOUSE, 
CROSS ROAD, TADWORTH, 
SURREY, KT20 5SR 

Visa & Mastercard holders can phone 

0737 814713 

for ticket orders 


I enclose a cheque/postal order for £ 


made out to 


SAFESELL EXHIBITIONS LTD or please debit my Mastercard or VISA Card no. 


Expiry Date I 


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T | he HiRes8 is our top of 
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It's never been 
easier! The new- 
comers guide to 
programming by 
Sarah Burns 



BEGINNERS 


T his month we further 
your training as a com- 
puter genius and explain 
how to structure a simple 
game program. 

Turn to the yellow pages 
and carefully copy the pro- 
gram Bomber. Type RUN when 
you’ve finished. It is long but 
don’t give in! If, after press- 
ing RETURN, you find a 
mistake, it’s never too late to 
correct it. Using the cursor 
keys (not delete or copy) place 
the cursor at the beginning of 
the incorrect line. Hold down 
the COPY key and move it 
along so the line is copied 
underneath. Stop when you 
reach the mistake and type in 
the correction. Use the COPY 
key to copy the rest of the line. 
The corrected version will 
override the incorrect line. 

Don't be put off by the mes- 
sages that the computer 
screams at you, it’s only point- 
ing out a mistake. If you’re 
stuck, find the August issue of 
BAU for a clearer explanation. 

As you can see, the progams 
on the yellow pages begin with 
REM, short for remark. This is 
an easy way of labelling a pro- 
gram. BAU ' s style is to name 
the program, who wrote it, 
which machines it will run on 
and the month it was featured. 

These REMs do not affect 
the working of the program. 
The computer knows REM is 
irrelevant and moves on to the 
next line. The colon is read as 
a blank line - its purpose is to 
separate sections and keep the 
program neat. Again, the com- 
puter will ignore a colon. 

Each component of the 
game is in different sections. 
The buildings, plane, the bomb 
dropping from the plane, all 
have their set of orders that 
determine their look and what 
they do. After PROC, which is 
short for procedure, is a 
description of part of the pro- 
gram. You will see at line 90 
the command setup followed at 
line 100 by PROCdrawbuildings. 



V> 

Bomber: it’s not Lemmings exactly, but all game programmers start somewhere 


The computer reads these 
orders and draws the buildings 
and the plane. To prevent con- 
fusion, the command that 
creates each component is 
listed further on in the pro- 
gram, making it easier to read. 
If you look at line 510, DEF 
PROCsetup, this is a command 
to define the procedure 
‘setup’. So every time the 
computer reads PROC. it jumps 
to find the task further on. 

In Bomber PROCsetup is the 
command that draws the 
images. The numbers define 
characters which look like the 
bomb and plane. CLS clears the 
screen and VDU 23 turns off the 
cursor, otherwise the plane and 
bomb would be followed by a 
Hashing black lump. Again the 
REMs have nothing to do with 
the running of the program. 
From line 530 to 580 they 
identify which image each line 
represents. Each image is also 
given a number (the number 
that follows VDU 23). The 
bomb is identified as 224, the 
plane tail as 226. 


The plane and bomb are 
printed at lines 350-390. The 
computer is ordered to print 
the characters (CHR) 226, 227 
and 228. These define parts of 
the plane. 

The main loop of the pro- 
gram is at lines 120 to 260. 
These move the plane across 
35 units and down 22 units of 
the screen. It jumps to the pro- 
cedures that print the plane 
dropping the bomb, orders the 
plane to drop a bomb when the 
space bar is pressed and when 
the plane hits a building. If the 
plane lands, the screen clears 
(line 240) and a message is 
printed. 

If you find the plane moves 
too fast, to cheat find line 730. 
Line 150 is connected with 
this command. They order the 
plane to wait 1 0/1 00th of a 
second before moving. So to 
slow the plane down change 
line 150 to a suitable delay. A 
value of 30 would make the 
game easier. 

The buildings are drawn at 
line 630. Like a graph the y 


axis is vertical and x is horizo- 
ntal. We have already seen that 
35 horizontal units of the 
screen are used. The buildings 
begin at 4 and finish at 35 (line 
650). RND means random and, 
in line 660, the y axis is 
defined as beginning at 0 and 
the buildings have a random 
height of anything up to 15. 

To prevent the image of the 
plane remaining on the screen 
as it moves, the computer is 
ordered to delete it, at lines 
410-420 by the space between 
the inverted commas. The 
computer reads this space and 
follows the plane with it. The 
same applies for the bomb at 
line 430. 

The bomb, too, has a set 
of instructions. At line 280- 
330, it is given a sound effect 
and an order to reduce the 
height of the building when it 
has been hit. To prevent the 
image of the bomb remaining 
on screen when it reaches the 
bottom a space is printed 
when the bomb hits the build- 
ing or the axis. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 59 


CITIZEN 


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Phillips 8833 mk2 monitor £229.00 

Citizen Swift 24e (inc. colour kit) £289.00 

A3000 Imb upgrade £57.95 

A3000 3mb upgrade £175.95 

A300020mb internal IDE drive £229.00 

A3000 20mb drive with Amounts Manager (installed) £399.00 

A3000 Joystick interface £34.95 

Olivetti JP-150 ink jet (Same as Acorn branded) £339.00 

A31 0/400 series IDE interface £92.00 

40mb hard disk for above (64k cache) £163.33 

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Oki 405p laser printer (26 fonts, LJ2 comp.) £619.00 

Archimedes colour digitizer £99.95 

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CHARLES HUNTER 



SOUND 


This month, David 
Radford presents a 
complete desktop 
sound generator 


^ ^ SOUND 


T his month we have something special in 
store for you. To mark the end of this 
series, David Radford has written a com- 
plete sound editor. Not only does it run on 
the desktop, but it allows you to mix different 
types of waves and add tremolo and vibrato. 

HarmSynth is fully multi-tasking and can be 
found on the monthly subscribers' disc. Extra 
instructions are included for programmers in the 
Help file inside the application directory. 

But first, let's recap the lessons of the past 
few months. So far, we've seen that sound can 
be represented by a series of numbers and that 
by inventing our own numbers we can create 
new sounds. We looked at a couple of simple 
sound effects, namely echo and fuzz, with 
programs to illustrate them. Later, we went on to 
consider amplitude and pitch. 

We examined how envelopes can be used to 
alter the characteristics of a sound over a period 
of time to produce more realistic sounds and 
introduced our first working synthesizer, 
WaveGenl , which relied upon the harmonics of 
a basic waveform to produce its sound. 


Last month, we looked at sample periods and 
how to change them, to allow the transfer of 
samples from one program to another. Our 
example program lets you turn a sample into a 
module, complete with voice generator, so it can 
be used in other programs such as Maestro. We 
finished with a quick look at real-time synthesis 
as an alternative to samples. And to demonstrate 
this, we provided a module which would gener- 
ate sound effects. 

This month our sound program is an accumu- 
lation of all these concepts: a fully multi-tasking 
program. To see it in action, double-click on its 
icon. Click Select over the icon which appears 
on the icon bar. A window will appear in the top 
left corner of the screen. This is the main win- 
dow. The large, dark grey box in the top left of 
the window is the wave display, which shows 
the current waveform graphically. At the 
moment, as you haven’t yet created a sound, it 
just shows a horizontal white line. 

Down the left hand edge of the window arc a 
row of icons. Using these, you can access all the 
other parts o\"HarmSynth. For now, just click on 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 61 



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62 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 








SOUND 


the first icon. A window will appear entitled 
Sine Wave. This window allows you to alter the 
harmonic content of a sound. Down the left you 
will see the names of the first ten harmonics: 
1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on. Next to each of these is 
a value showing the percentage of that harmonic 
which appears in the sound. At the moment, 
they're all set to zero, so none of the harmonics 
appear in the sound. 

Hold down Select somewhere to the right of 
the value for the first harmonic. A red slider bar 
should appear, similar to the type used by the 
task manager. Dragging this bar left and right 
will alter the value for that harmonic. At the 
same time, the waveform display in the main 
window will be updated. When you’re happy 
with it, release Select. The other nine harmonics 
can be adjusted in the same way. 

When you’ve had a little play, try selecting 
the Hear option in the main window. Once 
switched on, you will be able to hear the sound 
you arc creating. If it begins to get on your 
nerves, try adjusting the volume or pitch sliders 
in the main window. (These controls arc only for 
monitoring and have no effect on the final 
sound). When you’re happy, switch the sound 
off by clicking on the Hear icon again. 

If all this seems familiar, that is because 
WaveGen2 from our second article let you do 
exactly the same thing. However, HarmSynth is 
much more powerful than WaveGcul. If you go 
back to the icons down the side of the main 
window, you’ll see that the first icon, the one 
you clicked on, shows a picture of a sine wave. 
Clicking on it opened up a window letting you 
adjust the harmonics of a sine wave. In fact, 
HarmSynth has three other basic waves to 
choose from: triangle wave, saw-tooth wave, 
and square wave. These are what the next three 
icons represent. Clicking on any of these will 
open up a window similar to the sine wave 
window, but for their respective wave. 

If you think back, WaveGen2 also had a 
choice of four different waves, but only Harm- 
Synth can use the harmonics of all four at once. 
Therefore, in total, you have 40 different har- 
monics to work with. As there are so many, 
there are four buttons in the main window under 
the Hear option which allow you to turn off all 
the harmonics belonging to a particular wave. 
This can be useful when you’re experimenting. 

Moving on, the fifth icon down shows a piano 
keyboard and leads on to the Play sound win- 
dow. Using this window you can play back your 
creation musically through the computer's keys 
or a Midi keyboard (if you have one). The Play 
button switches playback on or off and the other 
four buttons control the number of notes that can 
be played at once. 

The sixth icon in the main window opens the 
Envelope window. In this you should see two 
large dark grey boxes, which are the envelope 
displays. You should remember something 
similar from WaveGen2. HarmSynth works in a 
slightly different way though. Instead of draw- 
ing the lines freehand, you place several points 
which are then joined up with straight lines to 
make the envelope. These points are the little 
blue rectangles in the envelope displays. 

To add a point, click Select in one of the 
boxes. Use Menu to delete a point and Adjust to 


HARMSYNTH IN MOTION 



move it. The end two points can never be 
deleted and can only be moved up or down. If 
the computer beeps at you, you’ve either tried to 
delete a point that isn’t there or create too many 
points. If you left the playback option switched 
on, you can hear the effects of the changes 
straight away, by holding down a key on the 
keyboard, say Q. 

HarmSynth also provides vibrato and tremolo 
effects, which can be found in the Extras win- 
dow, accessed through the last icon in the main 
window. At the bottom are four sliders controll- 
ing the speed and depth of tremolo and vibrato. 
For the best effect keep the speeds fairly high, 
the vibrato depth fairly small, and the tremolo 
depth very high. Setting the speed to maximum 
or depth to zero will disable an effect. 

Vibrato and tremolo are only applied to the 
sound between two markers, known as the 
vibrato/tremolo limits, and these can be found at 
the very bottom of the Envelope window. Drag 
the two small blue rectangles to alter the area 
affected by vibrato and tremolo, shown in the 
envelope displays as a light grey background. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 63 




SOUND 


STEREO SOUND 


Stereo is a very useful effect. In games it can add extra realism, with sounds coming from the 
same direction as the objects on the screen. In music, stereo can help to separate the 
individual parts, as if they really were being played by different people. Since it's so useful, 
the Archimedes was designed with built-in stereo. Basic provides a command to control this 
for us: STEREO <channel number>,<stereo position> 

This tells Rise OS that from now on, all sounds produced on that channel will appear to the 
listener to come from the given position. The stereo position is a value from -127 to 127, with 
the centre at zero. Unfortunately, while Rise OS will allow any of the 255 positions to be set, 
the current hardware only supports seven, so this range is divided up into seven groups as 
follows: 

-127 to -80 full left 
-79 to -48 left (2/3 left) 

-47 to -16 centre left (1/3 left) 

-15 to +15 centre 

+16 to +47 centre right (1/3 right) 

+48 to +79 right (2/3 right) 

+80 to +127 full right 

However, with a bit of ingenuity we can get round this restriction. As you probably know, to 
hear a sound in stereo you need two separate speakers. The same sound is sent to each of 
these speakers, but at different volumes. The difference in the two volumes fools our brain 
into thinking that the sound is more over to one side than the other, hence we hear the 
sound in stereo. 

SETTING THE CONTROLS 

If we want to take over control of stereo, we need to be able to control the amount of the 
sound that is sent to each of the two speakers. We can do this by using two sound channels 
instead of one. The first we set to stereo position -127 (full left) and the other to +127 (full 
right). Now, any sound played on the first channel will only go to the left speaker, and 
sounds on the second channel will go only to the right speaker. By playing the same sound 
simultaneously on both channels, but at different volumes, we can have full control over the 
stereo position of that sound. 

Our first listing, Stereol, demonstrates that principle by sweeping a sound left and right 
across what is known as the 'sound stage'. First you will be presented with a list of all the 
currently available voices for you to choose from. Type in the name of your chosen sound 
exactly as shown - Rise OS is very fussy about this. 

Don't bother trying to use the built-in voices as they don't allow you to alter the volume 
of a sound once it has been started. You can still use this technique on them, but only for 
stationary sounds. 

The volumes of the two channels are controlled in PROCfakestereo, which takes four 
parameters: the numbers of the left and right channels, the pitch of the sound and the stereo 
position. The volumes are altered using the SOUND command with volumes in the range 
8(180 to &1 FF, although these volumes are logarithmic, so a lookup table is needed to find 
the right value. 

ECHO 

Now that we know how to produce stereo sound, it may be worth taking a look at how 
other special effects can be modified to include stereo. As an example, let's take a peek at 
stereo echo. 

You may remember from the very first article, a program to add echo to a sample. To 
recap, echo occurs when a sound bounces off objects in a room to reach the listener. As these 
reflections are not coming directly from the loudspeaker (or whatever) they arrive some time 
after the main sound, causing an echo. 

The main differences between the normal echo and the stereo echo are that the stereo 
version takes into account the direction of the echoes and produces two samples: one for 
each ear. Unfortunately, this also makes it much more complicated. 

For each channel, the input is mixed with a certain amount of the signal coming out of the 
delay buffer and fed to the output. Some of this output is then fed back into the delay 
buffer, as in the original echo program. However, before it reaches the buffer it is first mixed 
with some of the output from the opposite channel. The main reason for this is to allow 
interaction between the two sound channels, just as there would be in real life. But not all of 
this mixed signal is fed into the delay buffer. The previous contents must first be mixed with 
it to cater for multiple echoes of the sound. 

All this is done by our second listing, Stereo2. First you will be asked for input and output 
filenames for the samples. Actually, two output samples are created: one is given the suffix L 
and the other R. For the data, try using the following values to get you started: 4, 5, 50, 50, 

40, 50, 40, 60. Both samples must be played back together with opposing stereo positions for 
the full effect. Try turning them into modules and playing them through Maestro. 

Dave Lawrence 


Immediately above this is another control affect- 
ing the position of what is known as the repeat 
marker, shown in the envelope displays as a 
vertical orange line. At the moment the repeat 
marker has no effect as it has not been enabled. 
To switch it on, click over the Repeat forever 
button at the top of the Extras window. Now, 
when any sound you play reaches the repeat 
marker it will wait there until the key is 
released. This has the effect of freezing the pitch 
and amplitude envelopes. 

You can also specify a maximum length of 
time for the sound to wait for by clicking select 
over the Repeat for button in the Extras window, 
then using the two arrows underneath it to alter 
the time displayed in the box. 

Finally, I'll leave you with a few sample 
guidelines. First, make use of the Armadeus 
format, meaning one byte gives the sample 
period in microseconds, followed immediately 
by the sample data in linear signed format. This 
will improve compatibility with other programs. 
The file type for Armadeus files is &D3C. 

Second, try to restrict yourself to the three 
main sample periods: 24ps (high quality), 48ps 
(medium quality) and 96jus (low quality). In 
particular, try to use 48ps where possible, as this 
is the default for the sound system, and therefore 
the most likely of the three to be compatible 
with other programs. 

If you’ve found these articles of use in writing 
your own programs, why not send them in to us 
at BAU1 Who knows, it could be your programs 
we’ll be seeing here in future! 

SPEAK UP! 

No matter how good your sounds are. you need 
to be able to hear them. A300, A400 and, 
indeed. A5000 owners may have noticed that 
they only possess one weedy little speaker, 
A3()()()s are slightly better off and at least have 
the requisite two for stereo sound. Either way, 
sound output is decidedly naff. 

You may have noticed a jack plug hidden 
away on the back of the machine that you can 
connect to headphones or your hi-fi. Well at 
least you get some volume, but what about the 
treble? Why does it sound as though your 
speakers are submerged in a vat of treacle? 

Well, this is all down to Acorn’s filtering 
circuit, which is not particularly wonderful. 
Help is at hand though, in the form of Ray 
Maidstone’s all singing, all dancing hi-fi adap- 
tor. This little board fits inside your machine and 
dangles two phone connectors out of the case. If 
you connect these to your hi-fi, I think you will 
be suitably impressed. 

The board simply plugs into 300s, 400s and 
5000s, requiring three flying leads to be con- 
nected internally, A540s need a touch of 
soldering. A3000s involve quite a bit of 
‘surgery’ and Ray recommends that you send 
your machine in to be upgraded, although he is 
working on a more ‘user friendly’ version. 


PRODUCT DETAILS 


Product: Mark III hi-fi board 
Supplier: Ray Maidstone, 421 Sprowston Road, 
Norwich, NR3 4EH. Tel: (0603) 400477 
Price: £24.80 inc VAT 


64 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 





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SCSI Floptical Disk Drives 

Floptical diskette can hold 20Mb of 
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and data etc. L±J = 20Mb 
Transfer 

rates are typically 65ms/1 OOk/sec 
and like standard floppies are 
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hard discs. All units are externally 
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A3000/A5000/Archi Ext Floptical 
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with SCSI card £499 

A5000 Internal Floptical kit £359 

Floptical floppies (20Mb) £20 


Tiler £1 0+VAT QuickSnd£1 0+VAT 

A printing utility I QuickS(ou)nd allows you — _ 

which allows / to load, play, convert & 

you to print \ \ A resave existing samples, r y-, 

Draw or Sprite via Hf Armadeus, Tracker, raw KnAtik' 

files at anv size M M Mmm data and Sound Synth V/ 


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B A printing utility 

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QuickS(ou)nd allows you — 
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samples are supported. 1 

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— 


Hardware, Software & Books (fill prices exclude VflT) 


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A5000 (with free 2Mb RAM u/g) 
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4Mb RAM, 40Mb HD, MultiScan Mon 

A5000 2MHDLC £1529 

LEARNING CURVE SYSTEM with 
Multi Scan Monitor. Acorn DTP. 1st 
Word+, Genesis+, PC Emulator. 
Pacmania, audio training tape etc. 

A3000 (wilh free 2Mb RAM u/g) 
BBC A3000 £599 

As above with Monitor £789 
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LEARNING CURVE with 1st Word+, 
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As above with Monitor £829 
BBC A3000 £679 

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As above with Monitor £869 

RAM Upgrades 

A3000 Up to 2/4Mb RAM £45/£1 29 
A5000 Up to 4Mb RAM £89 

A400 RAM £35 per Mb 

A540 4/8/1 2Mb RAM £245/£485/£710 

Hardware Upgrades 

5.25" Disc Buffer £39 

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ARM3 £185 

Canon BJ TurboDrivers (CC) £48 
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Joystick Interface (Inc Joystick) £35 
Midi Expansion Card £65 

PRES Monitor Stand £29 

Scanlight Junior 256 £199 

ScanLight A4/A4+Feedor £289/£389 
ScanLight Professional New £595 
Serial Upgrade (A3000) £19 

VIDC Enhancer £27 

Vision Digitiser Archi £49 

Vision Digitiser A3000 Int £49/Ext £62 


Monitors 

Acorn Colour £199 

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Hard Discs 

The following are complete hard disc 
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W* 


CALCULATOR 

Progrum: SciCalc 
Description: Desktop scienti- 
fic calculator 
Author: Steve Douglas 
Machine: 32-bit 
Listings: 570, 190 lines Basic 
This desktop calculator should 
cater for most needs, whether 
you are a student, teacher, 
mathematician or simply want 
to work out your miles-per- 
gallon when you fill up in 
litres. First create an appli- 
cation directory called 
ISciCalc. Then enter and save 
!R un Image in this directory. 
Finally, enter Make Dal and 
run this inside ISciCalc to cre- 
ate the files IRun, ! Sprites and 
four menu files. If you like, 
you can leave out the data for 
the sprite file (Make Dal lines 
1570 to I860). 

Finally, double-click on Sci- 
Calc to use the program. You 
are presented with a standard 
calculator display. Just click 


Dave Lawrence and Dave Acton 
present their monthly mix of 
programs, for all Acorn users 



The desktop calculator has a host of useful functions, from standard memory recall to logic functions 


□ 

Hi] 

R 

| 


on the buttons as you would 
with a normal calculator. 

On the left are the numerals, 
zero to nine, the sign change 
button, +/-, and the decimal 
point. To the right of these are 
the basic arithmetic functions. 
There are coloured green to 
show that they expect two 
operands. All two-operand 
functions are green (2+2, 4*5, 
4 FOR 8) and all unary opera- 
tors are light blue (SIN 4.5, 4 


in-cm). The calculator has a 
memory and the four light blue 
keys provide clear, store, recall 
and add to memory functions. 
At the top of the calculator are 
bracket keys (you may use up 
to nine levels of brackets 
within calculations). Next to 
these is the HEX button which 
toggles the display between 
decimal and hexadecimal. On 
the far right is the CLR button 
which clears the current result 


or cancels an operation. It also 
clears any error. To the left of 
this is D/R which toggles 
between degrees and radians. 

SciCalc has one special but- 
tons, Menu, that brings up a 
menu of other keypads. Cur- 
rently you have a choice of 
Math (general mathematical 
functions), Prog (programming 
and logic functions) and Conv 
(conversions). The whole 
block of 25 keys under Menu 


HOWTO PROGRAM SCICALC 


You can reprogram any of the 25 keys on any of the 25 available 
keypads - 625 programmable keys in total. To add a new menu, or 
change the name of one, click on Menu with Select. Then click on one of 
the orange menu keys with Adjust. Enter the new legend in the box 
provided then click on = to set or CLR to cancel. 

To add or reprogram a function key, first bring up the desired keypad 
using Menu. Then click on the key to be reprogrammed with Adjust. 

The legend, number of parameters (zero to two) and expression for that 
button are shown. Click on these and enter as appropriate. Then click on 
= to set or CLR to cancel. The number beside p determines the type of 
the function: p=0 means the value is a constant. An example is the &F 
key on the PROG keypad. 

p=1 means the function is monadic and should be expressed in terms 
of a single operand x. An example is x"2, whose expression is simply 
x*x. p=2 means the function is dyadic and should be expressed in terms 
of two operands x and t. An example is AND on the PROG keypad. Its 


expression is t AND x. The hex digits A to F are not provided on the 
main calculator but you may want to include them as extra keys on a 
keypad (as PROG does). Simply name them A to F and enter A to F as 
the p value. Their expression slots should be blank. 

Or you may want certain keys to invoke Basic functions. This can be 
done and x! is an example. Simply add your Basic function to the end of 
Runlmage (like FNfact) and then include it in the expression slot. The 
expression for x! is FNfact(x). 

To display angles in degrees or radians and functions that act on 
angles need to take account of this. The function FNcvtr(x) returns its 
argument in radians. If the calculator is set to radian mode x is left 
unchanged, otherwise it is converted from degrees to radians. Examples 
are SIN and COS. Inverse trigonometrical functions need to perform the 
opposite conversion and FNcvfr(x) is provided. This takes an angle in 
radians and converts it (if necessary) into degrees. ASN and ACS are 
examples. After reprogramming, an altered keypad will be saved within 
the SciCalc directory. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 67 




STAR INFO 


SCICALC FUNCTIONS 


There are three additional keypads for MATH, PROG or CONV functions. 
Below we describe each key available 


MATHEMATICAL FUNCTIONS 


SIN 

SIN(FNcvtr(x)) 

Sine x 

COS 

COS(FNcvtr(x)) 

Cosine x 

TAN 

TAN(FNcvtrfx)) 

Tangent x 

LOG 

LOG(x) 

Log x (base 10) 

LN 

LN(x) 

Log x (base e) 

ASN 

FNcvfr(ASN(x)) 

Arc-sine x 

ACS 

FNcvfr(ACS(x)) 

Arc-cosine x 

ATN 

FNcvfr(ATN(x)) 

Arc-tangent x 

10 x 

10‘x 

Antilog x (base 10) 

ex 

2.71 8281 828‘x 

Antilog x (base e) 

xRTy 

10'(LOG(t)/x) 

yth root of x 

SQRT 

SQR(x) 

Square root x 

xl 

FNFact(x) 

x factorial 

Ixl 

ABS(x) 

Absolute x 

yx 

t"x 

y to the xth power 

x‘2 

x*x 

x squared 

1/x 

1/x 

1 over x 

e 

2.7182818282 

Constant 

PI 

PI 

Constant 

PROGRAMMING FUNCTIONS 


A 


HEX entry key 

B 


HEX entry key 

SLL 

t«x 

x shift left logical y 

AND 

t AND x 

x bitwise AND y 

&F 

&F 

Constant 

C 


HEX entry key 

D 


HEX entry key 

SRL 

t»>x 

x shift right logical y 

OR 

t OR x 

x bitwise OR y 

&FF 

&FF 

Constant 

E 


HEX entry key 

F 


HEX entry key 

SRA 

t»x 

x shift right y keep sign 

EOR 

t EOR x 

x bitwise exclusive OR y 

&FFFF 

&FFFF 

Constant 

NOT 

NOT x 

Invert all bits 

SBIT 

t OR 1«x 

Set bit x in y 

MOD 

t MOD x 

Remainder after y/x 

BIT 

1«x 

Value of bitx of y 

INT 

INT(x) 

Chop off decimals 

CBIT 

t AND NOT(1«x) 

Clear bitx of y 

DIV 

t DIV x 

Integer divide 

CONVERSION FUNCTIONS 


in-cm 

x*2.54 

Inches to centimetres 

M-km 

x*1 .61 

Miles to kilometres 

oz-g 

x*28.3 

Ounces to grams 

Ib-kg 

x*0.454 

Pounds to kilograms 

gal-l 

x*4.55 

Gallons to litres 

cm-in 

x/2.54 

Centimetres to inches 

km-M 

x/1.61 

Kilometres to miles 

g-oz 

x/28.3 

Grams to ounces 

kg-lb 

x/0.454 

Kilograms to pounds 

l-gal 

x/4.55 

Litres to gallons 

F-C 

5/9*(x-32) 

Fahrenheit to Celsius 

hp*kw 

x*0.746 

Horsepower to kilowatts 

Ibf-N 

x*4.45 

Pound-force to Newtons 

Bt-kJ 

x*1.06 

BTU to kilojoules 

ps-kP 

x*6.89 

PSI to kilopascals 

C-F 

9/5*x+32 

Celsius to Fahrenheit 

kw-hp 

x/0.746 

Kilowatts to horsepower 

N-lbf 

x/4.45 

Newtons to pound-force 

kJ-Bt 

x/1.06 

Kilojoules to BTU 

kP-ps 

x/6.89 

Kilopascals to PSI 



is redefined according to the 
selection you make. You can 
use keys instead of clicking on 
the buttons. First give SciCalc 
the input focus by clicking on 
the numeric display. The title 
bar will change to yellow and 
you may now use the key 
short-cuts shown in the figure 
below. On the left is a list of 
all the functions that come 
with SciCalc. 


KEY SHORTCUTS FOR SCICalc 

Key 

Button equivalent 

0-9 

0-9 

+ -*/ 

+ -*/ 

= Ret Ent 

= 

Home 

CLR 

Delete 

CM 

Copy 

SM 

Up 

RM 

Down 

M+ 

# 

HEX 

\ 

+/- 


MIND READER 

Program: MindRead 
Description: A telepathic 
program 

Author: Robin Owens 
Machine: All 
Listing: 30 lines Basic 
Mind reading isn't that hard. In 
fact, even your Beeb can do it! 
When you enter and run Mind- 
Read, you should press 0 and 1 
in as random a fashion as you 
can manage. The computer 
will try and guess your next 
key press each time. 

After each guess, two 
figures are shown. The first is 
the percentage it guessed cor- 
rectly. The computer also 
makes a random choice of its 
own and the other figure is the 
percentage of these it got right. 
The disturbing thing is, 
however random you think 


you are being, it always seems 
to score well over 50 percent. 

BEZIER JOINING 

Program: Smooth 
Description: Allows smooth 
joins between Bezier curves 
Author: David Walters 
Machine: 32-bit 
Listing: 100 lines Basic 
More and more people are see- 
ing the benefits of object- 
based drawing packages such 
as Draw. And one of the main 
parts of any such program is 
the Bezier curve. Over the 
months, we have shown a 
number of different ways to 
plot Bezier curves and David 
does not receive the prize for 
yet another plotting method, 
but instead for demonstrating 
how Bezier curves can be 
joined together and edited in a 
way that allows smooth joins 
between the curves. 

To operate David’s program 
use the Select button to plot a 
series of points on the screen 
then press Menu to plot the 
last point and draw a smooth 
curve through them all. The 
curve can then be altered by 
dragging it with Select. The 
program will keep the curve 
smooth no matter where you 
drag the points and is far better 
than Draw. 

The figure above explains 
the principle used by David’s 
program. The trick is to keep 
the same tangent for the ends 
of adjacent curves and this can 
be performed with a just a 
handful of trigonometrical 
equations. 

Interestingly, Draw3, in 
Rise OS 3, does go a little way 
towards a remedy. The Edit 
path menu contains an extra 
option. Flatten Join, which 


68 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 



STAR INFO 



does just that and dragging a 
control point with SHIFT held 
down will drag the attached 
control point as well, keeping 
the curve smooth. Artworks , 
meanwhile goes ihe whole hog 
and moves control points as 
you drag points on the curve. 

CONTRAST CONTROL 

Program: Contrast 
Description: Nine-pin, dot 
matrix printer aid 
Author: P Drinkwater 
Machine: 32-hit 
Requirements: Install and 
set up printer driver before 
using the program 
Listing: 210 lines Basic 
Any grey scales used in Draw 
files arc likely to be printed 
out too dark on nine-pin 
printers, as Mr Drinkwater 
points out. His short utility 
allows you to adjust the bright- 
ness and contrast of Draw files 
prior to printing. 

Before running Contrast 
enter the desktop and install 
and set up a suitable printer 
driver, such as PrinterDM. Mr 
Drinkwater’s program requires 
the module PDriver to be 
present since a PDriver SWI 
call is used to find out the cur- 
rent resolution for printing. 

Run Contrast and give it a 
source and destination name. 
The source should be a Draw 
file. Then enter values for con- 
trast and brightness. These are 
in the range -100 to 100 
depending on whether you 
want to turn them up or down. 
These controls are similar to 
those on a television. 

The source file is then pro- 
cessed and an adjusted copy is 
made. The destination file can 
now be printed. One limitation 
is that 256 colour sprites are 
not supported. Also, all sprites 
present in a Draw file should 
have a palette. However one 
can easily be added with Paint 
if necessary. 

Program: BandC 
Description: Palette changes 
Author: Mark Brundale 
Machine: 32-hit 
Listing: 30 lines Basic 
Continuing the theme, have 
you ever wondered exactly 
what the brightness and con- 
trast controls on your TV 
actually do? No, we haven't 
either, but apparently Mark 
Brundale has! This short little 
ditty demonstrates them by use 
of a small Basic routine. The 


program BandC expects a 
screen to be saved in a file 
called Screen. 

You could either use the 
*ScreenSave command or take a 
snapshot of the desktop with 
Paint. Once loaded, the mouse 
can be used to vary the bright- 
ness and contrast of the 
colours. 

Moving the mouse left and 
right will alter the brightness 
and oddly enough vertical 
movement will adjust the con- 
trast. If some odd colours start 
to appear then you are pro- 
bably trying to play with a 256 


colour picture. Sorry, only 16 
colour modes are allowed. 

Mark has not included a 
colour control. Can anyone 
add this missing TV adjust- 
ment. or perhaps provide icon 
bar knobs to change these 
effects? Of course, it would 
also be very nice if our Con- 
trast program were adapted to 
sit on the icon bar and work 
within the desktop. 

If any reader wants to try 
these additions we would be 
delighted to see the results. 
See *Quil on p67 for details 
on how to submit a program. 


WHEEL MEET AGAIN 

Program: WaterWheel 
Description: Graphical 
demonstration of the theory 
of chaos 

Author: Bryan Creer 
Machine: 32-hit 
Listing: 280 lines Basic 
The Lorenzian Waterwheel is 
a classic example of a chaotic 
system. Given a surprisingly 
simple model - a waterwheel - 
it is impossible to predict the 
state of the wheel at any given 
time. If this sounds complex, 
don’t worry! Even if you. like 
us, don’t understand chaos 
theory, you can still sit back 
and watch the program. 

As Brian explained, the pro- 
gram works as follows. It 
simulates a waterwheel with 
only a slight bending of New- 
ton's laws. The wheel consists 
of a set of leaking buckets 
which are filled by a constant 
How of water from the lop of 
the screen. The weight of the 
water accelerates the wheel 
and a small frictional force 
tends to slow it down. 

Using low values for the 
rate of flow (less than two) the 
buckets empty by leakage 
before they reach the bottom 
and the wheel turns slowly and 
steadily. At a rate of around 
four, the behaviour is chaotic. 
When the wheel is moving 
quickly, the buckets don’t 
have time to fill as they pass 
under the flow, so there is 
some imbalance and the wheel 
slows down under friction. At 
slow speeds, the buckets have 


BEGINNER'S BIT 


Last month we took a look at the logical operators 
AND, OR and EOR. They crop up all over the place and 
this month we're looking at one example - using them 
with the GCOL statement. 

The command GCOL is used to specify the colour in 
which subsequent plots (using DRAW or PLOT for 
example) are made. It takes two parameters - the 
second is the logical colour; the first describes the way 
the colour is to be applied. 

Normally zero is used for the first value and this 
means 'just plot using the colour specified'. In mode 
one a GCOL 0,1 sets the colour to red (the value one is 
'red') so all plots will be in red. On the Arc you can 
miss out the first value , in which case it is assumed to 
be zero. (The command GCOL 1 on the Arc is exactly 
the same as GCOL 0,1.) 

On the other hand, GCOL 1,1 will still specify colour 
one (red), but the code one means logical OR the 
colour on to the screen. In other words take the value 
for the background colour and OR it with the colour 
value given and then use the result. Similarly GCOL 2,1 
means AND the colour on to the screen, and GCOL 3,1 


means EOR the colour. To demonstrate this, we have 
provided two listings called Gcol8 and Gcol32. They 
are for eight and 32-bit machines repectively. For each 
GCOL code (zero to three) a set of rectangles are 
displayed (in mode one) and shapes are plotted on top 
of them in the way specified by the GCOL. The num- 
bers across the top show the colour of the base 
rectangles (zero to three). The numbers down the side 
show the colour of the shapes applied on top. For 
GCOL 0,X the results are as expected. 

Press a key to see GCOL 1,X. Here each shape is 
ORed on to the rectangle. So when a red shape is 
ORed onto a yellow rectangle, the resulting colour is 
red OR yellow = 1 OR 2 = 3 = white. On the next 
screen you can see red ANDed with yellow which 
produces 1 AND 2 = 0 = black. The final screen shows 
exclusive ORs (EORs). Here you'll notice that EORing 
with white produce the 'opposite' colour. 

More often than not, you'll only need to use GCOL 
0,X but the other codes can come in useful sometimes. 
For example, if you use GCOL 3,X and plot a shape, 
repeating the process will 'unplot' it. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 69 




-4H’/ m mmr 

















PROGRAMS TO BRING MUSIC TO 

YOUR EARS 


Rhapsody II £61.95 


Piano 


Elec Bass 




i \ x 

bmI 






Clares bring you a range of music software that is fast becoming the 
standard on the Archimedes. 

Rhapsody 11 is a music notation package that allows you to write and 
modify musical scores. It is to music what a word processor is to words. 

The notes can be entered by hand or, using a Midi keyboard, they can be 
captured in real time or step time. Once the music has been captured 
you can edit it, transcribe it, add lyrics, repeats, trills, slurs etc. You can 
transpose the score or just parts of it, you can play it back through Midi, 
you can even use it as an unpaid accompanist to your practice sessions. 
Most importantly you can print your finished score using any printer 
and RISC OS printer drivers. Quite simply. Rhapsody II lets you get 
back to the music AND gives you time to enjoy it. Many users wonder 
how they ever managed without it! Ask us for a demonstration version 
today. 


Vox Box is a supporting package for Rhapsody II and consists of four 
programs. The first. Perform, allows you to play Rhapsody II scores, 
Armadeus samples and Midi files. You can have a continuous 
performance of your compositions. 

VoxBeat is an application to turn sampled percussion sounds into a 
useful voice module that provides realistic percussion accompaniment 
to your scores. 

VoxSample converts sound samples into usable Archimedes voices. You 
control which part of the sample is used to create the voice and you can 
also define the sound's envelope. The resulting voice module is much 
smaller than the original sample and sounds much better. 


Vox Box £61.95 


to. U I ft ! f oU 





Modi: freq. [V level 0 rjjp 
Mod2: freq. Q] level [Fj ! 


4 \ 




ScoreDraw £61.95 


VoxSynth is a more complex application that enables you to digitally 
synthesise voices for use in the Archimedes. Voices are produced by 

drawing waveforms or harmonics. You even have a form of FM synthesis available. VoxSynth is also useful in the 
science laboratory as it deals with waveforms, harmonics, FFT and FM synthesis. 

ScoreDraw is another support program for Rhapsody II. It produces 
high quality printout of music scores. Together Rhapsody 11 and 
ScoreDraw form the heart of a complete Archimedes based music 
publishing package. ScoreDraw takes a score from Rhapsody //, or the 
original Rhapsody , and converts it into a series of Draw files. The results 
are of true professional publishing quality - especially when printed on 
a laser printer. 

ScoreDraw has its own library of music symbols and it uses these to 
construct a high quality score. Any text within the score is converted 
into user selectable outline fonts, if they are available. An additional 
user library is also supplied which provides items such as hairpins and 
grace notes. 


Waltz Op. 64'No. 1 


F. Osorio 




In addition to improved print quality ScoreDraw also concentrates more 
on the formatting of the score. Because the score is handled differently 
and ScoreDraw is not required to 'play' the score it can spend more time on good presentation. 

And there's more... Look out for two more music packages coming from the Clares stable soon. And don't forget our 
Armadeus Sound sampling board if what you are interested in is recording and manipulating sound rather than 


music. 


REQUEST YOUR FACT PACK TODAY! 



98 Middlewich Road, Rudheafh, Northwich, CHESHIRE CW9 7DA. Telephone: 0606 48511 Fax No: 0606 48512 










STAR INFO 




rather than the slower 
(indirect) Y. It also means that 
you end up with quite a lot of 
program. However, because 
the code for each group is very 
similar, a loop is used in the 
listing to produce the four sec- 
tions of machine code. 

One corner is waggled up 
and down sinusoidally and the 
ripples move out across the 
grid. Eventually a pattern 
emerges that is similar to the 
one produced by Wave 32. 
Mode four is used, mainly 


time to fill and accelerate the 
wheel. The speed increases, 
decreases and reverses in a 
chaotic manner. At flows 
between two and three, 
behaviour is chaotic for a 
while and then settles down to 
a steady state. 

If you press ESCAPE while 
the wheel is spinning, it will 
display a graph of angular 
velocity against time and 
another press will give a phase 
diagram. This plots the angular 
velocity against angular accel- 
eration. A point on the dia- 
gram represents one state of 
the wheel. There are two 
attractors present: constant 
speed clockwise and constant 
speed anticlockwise. At low 
rates of flow, the wheel will 
move quickly to one of them. 
At higher rates it will circle 
first one then the other, either 
indefinitely or until it finally 
settles into one of them. Only 
about three minutes worth of 
data is stored, so if you run for 
longer than this, it overwrites 
the earlier data. 

Pressing ESCAPE again gives 
the option to continue where 
you left off or stop the simula- 
tion. Now, all we are looking 
for is a one line version and an 
eight bit version. Any offers? 


MORE WAVES 

Programs: Wave8, Wave32 
Description: Graphical 
demonstrations 
Author: Dave Acton 
Machine: Wave8: all eight- 
hit machines, Wave32: 32-hit 
Listings: WaveS: 260 lines 
Basic and machine code, 
Wave32: 180 lines Basic and 
machine code 

Much inspired by Michel 
Grimminck’s excellent Waves 
program last month, we have 
been optimising and generally 
fiddling to see if any more 
speed could be squeezed out of 
your Arc. And the net result is 
Wave 32. 

Wave32 uses exactly the 
same formula as Michel’s 
original, applying it to a 128 
by 128 pixel grid. The display 
is now doubled up (each pixel 
is a two by two square) so it 
fills the screen. Simply run and 
watch. You can adjust the 
scale with the + and - keys. 

Two wave sources are 
located at opposite corners and 
these produce an interesting 
oscillating pattern after a 
while. Of course you could 


Wave32 gives a screenful of waves on your Arc 


easily alter the source by 
changing a couple of lines of 
Basic. The program runs at 
quite a respectable speed by 
making full use of multiple 
LOAD and STORE commands. 

There are two main loops. 
The first (at .add) adds the 
velocities to the heights of the 
points and plots them at the 
same time. They are dealt with 
four at a time for speed. The 
other main loop (at .loop) cal- 
culates the new velocity for 
each point using Michel’s for- 
mula. There are just enough 
Arm registers to permit, this to 
for two points at a time! 

We thought it was a bit of a 
shame that eight-bit users 
couldn't have fun with waves, 
so after many hours of code- 
crunching we are happy to 
present them with Wave8. 
Again the formula used is 
Michel’s, but 16-bit values are 
used throughout (or your poor 
Beeb would probably give up 
the ghost altogether). Even so, 
with a 32x32 three-dimen- 
sional grid of points we think 


you’ll enjoy the result. Wave8 
achieves its speed by careful 
assembly. There are 1024 
points (32x32) which means 
1024 low and 1024 high bytes 
for the height and velocity of 
each point. The 6502 is always 
happiest dealing with 256 byte 
tables though, so the array of 
points is really treated as four 
256 groups. 

Separate code is assembled 
to deal with each group and 
this allows the absolute, X 
addressing mode to be used 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 71 



STAR INFO 


MEET THE CHALLENGE! 


We know how much *INFO readers like a program- 
ming challenge, so we thought we'd give you 
something to puzzle about. Test out your program- 
ming skills, solve this classic problem and you could 
earn yourself £25. 

Imagine a man standing in the centre of a maze. 
There are no lights and he has to feel around to find 
the walls. Somewhere at the edge of the maze an 
amulet is hidden. Your task to guide the man to the 
amulet using the shortest route you can. 

The program Challenge creates ten such mazes, 
each 15 by 15 squares in size. The man is placed at 
the centre and the amulet at a randomly chosen 
point on the perimeter. You must guide the man by 
providing intelligent procedures and these may be 
appended to Challenge. 

As an example, we have provided Follow. Append 
this to Challenge and then Run. This solution simply 
follows the left hand wall until the amulet is found. 

It is not particularly quick and to make things trickier, 
about half the mazes will have islands in them so 
Follow might well take him round in circles! 

After 10 mazes, the number of mazes solved and 
the number of moves this took is displayed. Any 
route taking more than 1000 steps is abandoned. 

And now for the rules, which are as follows: 

1. You must supply three Basic procedures and 
functions: PROCsolve_setup, PROCsolve.newmaze 
and FNwhichway. PROCsolve.setup will be called 
once at the start of the program and any DIM state- 
ments and so on should go here. 

PROCsolve_newmaze will be called once, just after 
each maze is created, and you can use it to initialise 
any array before solving takes place. FNwhichway is 
then repeatedly called, until either you guide the 
man to the amulet or 1000 moves have taken place. 

If the latter is the case, the search is abandoned. 
FNwhichway should return a direction: 0 (right), 1 
(down), 2 (left) or 3 (up). The man will move in that 
direction if possible. 

2. You are not allowed to peek at areas of the maze 
you have not visited. Nor are you allowed to peek at 
where the amulet is hidden. The only variables you 
may use, apart from those you define yourself, are 
manx% and many% which hold the man's position 
in the maze. You may assume each maze is 15 by 15 
squares with the man starting at (7,7). The only 
function or procedure you may use, aside from those 
you define yourself, is FNwall(dir%) which returns 
TRUE or FALSE depending on whether there is a wall 
on the current square in direction dir%. You can call 
this as many times as you like per move. 

3. You may not alter Challenge in any way. Just send 
us your set of procedures. They must at the very 
least provide the three essential functions outlined in 
rule one. 

4. You may write your solution on an eight-bit or 32- 
bit machine. Your solution will be tested on a 
standard 32-bit Arm2 machine, or if not 32-bit com- 
patible, on a Master 128. 


Maze : 1 

Moves=287 



5. If your solution takes more than 20 minutes for 
any maze, it will be disqualified. It will also be 
disqualified if any errors occur while running. 

6. During judging, the value of seed% will be set to a 
randomly selected value so that all solutions will be 
tested on the same ten unseen mazes. This value has 
been printed and sealed in an envelope to be opened 
after the closing date. No one has seen it. 

7. The winner will be the solution that solves the 
most mazes. If there is a tie, the winner will be the 
solution that takes the fewest total moves. If there is 
still a tie, the winner will be picked from a hat! 

We would prefer you to send your entries on disc. 
Please enclose an SAE. Any discs received will be 
returned as quickly as possible. We will take copies 
of the programs and use these for judging. Printed 
entries will only be accepted if they are fifteen Basic 
lines or less in length. 

And now to the possible strategies. You could try 
building a map as you go along. Create an array in 
PROCsolve_setup, initialise it in PROCsolve_newmaze 
and each time FNwhichway is called, call FNwall for 
each direction and record the results in the array. To 
avoid going round in circles, keep a record of which 
way you went at a crossroad, so you don't make the 
same mistake twice. 

The amulet will always be at the edge of the 
maze, so paths towards the edge might be better 
than those towards the centre. There are doubtless 
many other clever tricks and we look toward to 
seeing them. 

The closing date for entries is September 30th 
1992. The winning entry will be published in the 
December 1992 issue. Any interesting solutions will 
also be credited and published if there is space. 

Happy maze-solving! 


because memory is needed for 
the height and velocity tables 
as well as the code. 

VOWEL PLEASE, CAROL 

Program: CDwords 
Description: Cheat your way 
through Countdown 
Author: Tony Dibble 
Machine: Eight-bit 
Requirements: SpellMaster 
Rom 

Listing: 80 lines Basic, 100 
lines machine code 

Tony’s program allows you to 
play along with the Channel 4 
Countdown game show, and 
possibly even beat some of the 
long words that the guests 
come up with. 

For some reason. Count- 
down, the popular TV quiz 
show seems to be high in the 
minds of Acorn users this year. 
In the March and June issues 
we carried programs that cal- 
culated solutions to the 
‘numbers’ part of the show. 
This month, we complete the 
computer cheating with Tony 
Dibble’s word game solver. 

For those of you unfamiliar 
with the show, the two con- 
testants pick nine letters from 
two piles. One is all conso- 
nants, the other vowels. Carol 
Vorderman places these letters 
on a rack, scrabble style, and 
the contestants have 30 sec- 
onds to find the longest word 
made up from the letters 
picked. Invariably, no matter 
how well they do, the guest 
Gyles Brandreth of the week 
manages to come up with 
some eight letter Victorian 
gardening implement. Of 
course, the contestants still get 
their points, but do we really 
believe the guest worked it out 
by themselves? No! We just 
want to know how they man- 
aged to smuggle Tony’s 
program in! 

The program CDwords is 
based on the routines in my 
word games article in the 
January 90 issue. In that article 
I showed how a couple of Rom 
calls could gain access to the 
dictionary stored in the Spell- 
Mi aster Rom. 

Tony almost gave up writing 
this program until he noticed 
that the entry points published 
in that issue were not correct 
for his version of the Rom (he 
had 1.67, we had 1.69). He 
has, as a result, supplied a sec- 
ond program FindSM to track 
down the entry points for any 


version of Rom. It will also 
find out which Rom socket 
your SpellMaster is in. This 
value must be set in the main 
program. If you already know 
where your Rom is, you can 
simply change line 160 as 
appropriate. Using the pro- 


gram could not be easier. 
Simply enter the nine letters as 
they are picked and then press 
RETURN. The program finds 
all the subwords, and lists 
them starting with the longest. 
It should only take about 30 
seconds to find them all. 


*QUIT 

As always, your contributions 
shoud be sent to *INFO. BBC 
Acorn User, Redwood Pub- 
lishing, 101 Bayham Street, 
London NW 1 OAG. 

Daves Lawrence & Acton 


72 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 




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or in industry. Wild Vision offer a range of hardware 
expansions perfect for every DTV need, including: 

Video Digitising — the Hawk V9 is the longest established 
real-time colour digitiser on the Acorn market. Easy for 
those ‘in the know’ to see why it remains so popular. 

Video genlocking — overlay computer graphics on live 
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PAL encoding — record your computer's output on video 
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Multiple display of your computer screen. 

• Image processing — a range of video 
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# Data acquisition using Wild Vision's 
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Wild Vision are working from a platform 
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BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 23 


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A MAJOR NEW DEVELOPMENT 


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The Mathematics National Curriculum is split 
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S o far in our Arm programming series, all 
examples have been ‘processor' based. 
Occasionally we've printed a star or two and 
once or twice we've passed values back to 
Basic by using the USR function. But. in the 
main, we have concentrated on functions pro- 
vided by the Arm chip on its internal registers. 
I'm going to start this month by showing you 
how to pass parameters to sections of code from 
Basic before moving on to the important concept 
of memory access. 

PARAMETER PASSING 

We have already seen how a single 32-bit value 
(the contents of register RO) can be returned to 
the calling Basic program with the USR function 
of Basic. Although RND and TIME are both 
functions that can return an output value from 
no input, they are rare. Most functions need such 
an input value, so we need a way to able to 
present data to machine code routines. Luckily 
there is a handy feature of Basic that does this 
quickly and simply. 

When Basic calls a chunk of machine code 
(with either CALL or USR) the contents of the 
integer variables A% to 11% are transferred to the 
Arm registers RO to R7. So RO is set to the value 
of A%, R1 to B% and so on. Registers RS to R12 
are also given ‘useful' values, but not, as yet, 
useful to us. 

The first example program. Arm I, gives a 
very trivial demonstration of this facility. Of 
course you can adapt the principle for your own 
purposes. Arm2 shows how a machine code 
routine can calculate the factorial of a number 
and is a direct translation of the following Basic 
function: 

DEF FNfact(num) 

IF num = 0 THEN =num 
fact = I 
REPEAT 
fact = fact * num 
num = num - I 
UNTIL num = 0 
= fact 

Note the conditional branch at the beginning to 
trap 0. Can you see what would happen if we let 
0 through to the main loop? Also note the use of 
SUBS to save us a compare at the equivalent of 
the UNTIL. There is no error trapping for nega- 
tive numbers. Try -1 at your peril, but make sure 
that you have half an hour to spare! Numbers 
that are too large can also cause problems; 12 is 
the largest number whose factorial will fit into 
32 bits. 

As as exercise, try digging out an A-level stats 
text book and code up the formulae for permu- 
tations (nPr) and combinations (nCr). You 
should be able to make use of my factorial code 
in your work. 

ACCESSING MEMORY 

Now let’s look at accessing the computer’s 
memory. Once we can do this, we can mess 
around with arrays, buffers and stacks. This then 
moves us on to subroutines, local variables, 
recursion and eventually to direct screen access 
for fast graphics and sprite routines. But first, 
you need to know about ST and LD. These are 
the Arm instructions that store and load data 
from memory. 



ASSEMBLY 



More Arm machine 
coding from Dave 
Lawrence 


Three variations are used to control the exact 
amount of data that is transferred. It is possible 
to store (or load) one byte (eight bits), one 
register (32 bits) or a whole block of registers, 
merely by changing the suffix of the ST or LD. 
We will look at the first two to start with. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 75 



PROGRAMMING 


SIMPLE TRANSFERS 

Have a look at our program Arm3 in the yellow 
pages. At line 160. we define a label call 
memory, and store a hexadecimal constant 
& 123456. EQUD is short for equate double and 
assembles a 32-bit constant into memory. Line 
180 prints the contents of this address in hex. C 
means in hex, ! means the 32 bit value stored at 
the following address). Line 190 prints the 
contents of R0 (in hex) after calling the short 
piece of assembled code. 

If you run the program, you will see that the 
same number is printed twice. We can therefore 
deduce that the Arm code loads register R0 with 
a value from memory, and line 130 is where it 
does the deed. You should notice that the LD 
instruction has had an R added to it. which 
instructs the Arm to load a whole register (32 
bits). R0 is the destination of the load and, as 
expected, the source of the load is the label 
memory. To load just a single byte (eight bits) 
from an address, add an extra B after the R. Try 
changing line 130 to: LDRB RO.memory and re- 
run the program. 

The first printed number (from Basic) should 
give the full 32-bit value stored at memory, 
whereas the value returned by USR contains only 
the low eight-bits of the value (&56 in this 
case). LDRB, or load register with byte, does just 
that. Note that the rest of the register is cleared 
to zeros. 

The instructions STR and STRB work in 
exactly the same way. but transfer data from a 
register to memory. Program Ann4 is yet 
another rather contrived example but shows both 
LDR and STR in action. The address total holds a 
running total, the Basic REPEAT loop asks for a 
score, passes it to the code in RO (via A %). This 
loads the current total into Rl. adds RO to it and 
stores it back in total. The contents of total are 
displayed within the REPEAT loop. 

PC RELATIVE 

No, my uncle is not in the police force! PC 
relative is rather a frightening technical term that 
describes the sort of memory accessing we have 
done so far. But notice that we don't seem to 
have done anything horribly technical - merely 
supplied a register number and an address. This 
is because the assembler has taken care of the 
dirty work for us. 

Remember, we are always insisting that Arm 
instructions take up 32 bits. Well, nothing has 
changed since moving over to LDR and STR. But, 
as with numerical constants the problem is how 
to fit all the data into 32 bits. With data transfer 
instructions, four bits stand for the condition 
code, two bits mark the instruction as a data 
transfer and four bits are needed for the destina- 
tion register for a load (or source for a store). 
One bit flags a load or a store and five further 
bits are needed for a number of extended fea- 
tures which I will explain later. So this only 
leaves 16 bits to specify the memory address - 
not very many. 

If we encode an address using merely these 
bits, it would give a range of 0 to & 1 0000, 
which is barely more than Basic's normal PAGE 
setting. Instead, we use four bits as a register 
number and the remaining twelve as an offset. 
This means that a second register is used to hold 



the address in memory that we need to access. 
As an Arm register can hold any 32-bit value, 
we therefore have an unlimited addressing range 
available. 

Those 12 offset bits work in a similar (but not 
identical) way to immediate constants. They can 
either hold a register number and a shift or a 
value between -4095 and +4095. Take note, this 
is not an ‘Acorn format' eight-bit value and 
four-bit shift. What use is including an offset, 
since we can access any address using the first 
register? Well, it is actually of immense use, 
especially when those ‘other' bits come into 
play. For now you only need to take note of one 
particular application. 

But first, take a look at Arm5. This program is 
a little naughty as it accesses an address that it 
shouldn't really! Fear not, though, nothing will 
go wrong and I need to illustrate a point without 
complicating the issue even further. 

A random number is stored at address & 10000, 
which is then printed out from Basic and via the 
piece of code. Rl is loaded with the address 
& 10000 (where the random number was stored) 
at line 130. Line 140 uses Rl indirectly: R0 is 
loaded from the address contained in RL This 
indirection is specified by enclosing the register 
in square brackets [j. RO is therefore loaded with 
the value stored at address & 10000 - our ran- 
dom number. 

It would get rather laborious if we had to use 
this method each time we wanted a value from 
memory, but remember that Arm3 didn't. Hang 
on one minute and I'll explain. First try chang- 
ing the following lines in Ann5 : 

140 LDR R0,|RI.#41 

185 !&10004=RND( 10000) 

190 PRINT !& 1 0000, !& 10004, 

USR(load) 

Now two random numbers are stored in conse- 
cutive words - which one does the USR(load) 
print? The one stored at & 10004, of course. We 
are now making use of the offset. Line 140 now 
reads as ‘load RO from the address four bytes on 
from the value stored in Rl\ in other words 
& 10000+4 or & 10004 - the second random 
number. 

POSITION INDEPENDENCE 

Now back to Arm3. Because any Arm register 
can be used as an operand, why not use R15, the 
program counter! The PC keeps track of where 
we are in the machine code, so using this in 
conjunction with an offset value, we can ‘reach' 
memory within 4K (4*1024=4096) in either 
direction of the current address. This means that 
constants are often stored fairly close to the 
routines that use them and the assembler auto- 
matically detects lines such as: LDR R0,mcmory 
and actually assembles something along the 
lines of: LDR R0,[PC,#12) 

Since accesses are performed in relation to the 
program counter, this sort of operation is called 
PC relative. And this has an important outcome. 
No memory addresses are ‘burnt' into the code 
(as in Ann5). Instead this merely contains an 
offset from where the access takes place, so the 
same piece of code will work no matter where it 
is run in memory. In other words, the code is 
position independent - which is a highly desir- 
able feature. 


76 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 


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GAMES UP ! 

Dave Lawrence presents some classic entertainment for BBC gamesters 


T his month in Pieces of Eight, we feature 
two of the most popular type-in games 
ever to appear in BBC Acorn User. First, 
we have a special request from our very 
own techie, Paul James. Wizcilon is a game of 
balloons, wizards and a seesaw and was first 
feaured almost five years ago. Secondly we have 
Rune maker: Codename Druid, probably the best 
type-in game ever. 

Because of the sheer size of these games, it 
was not possible to print the listings on the 
yellow pages. Fully working and ready-to-play 
copies can be found on the monthly subscribers' 
disc. 

WIZALON 

Once upon a time, there were two good wizards, 
Nino Qunty and Brahel Gelm. They lived in the 
White Castle of Nur Eracos and did good deeds 
for the local residents. They controlled the 
weather, fended off the evil hordes and some- 
times even managed to get the barbecue going. 
One day the evil sorcerer Jefcl Droot tricked 
Nino and Brahel into entering his lair, the Black 
Citadel. Here he incarcerated them in his foul 
balloon-filled dungeon. 

The only possible escape for our heroes lies in 
bursting these deadly red party accessories. 
Jefel’s evil presence has almost totally cloaked 
Brahel and Nino's magic and, in a final all-or- 
nothing attempt at conjuring, they managed to 
summon Brahel’ s nephew’s magical see-saw. 
Now it’s up to you to try and save the goodies 
from the baddy! 



Top wizards - outstanding! 

That’s quite enough silly scenarios - in prac- 
tice, you have control over the see-saw at the 
bottom of the screen. The Z key moves it left, X 
moves it right and RETURN flips it round, 
whereas P pauses and unpauses the game. 

In the beginning, one wizard appears on the 
see-saw, the other in the air. The idea is to keep 
the wizards bouncing in the air, bursting the 


balloons. When the airborne wizard lands on the 
upward end of the see-saw, the other wizard will 
take off. Landing on different parts of the 
seesaw gives different effects. To increase 
bounce height, try to make the incoming wizard 
land nearer the pivot than the stationary wizard; 
further away and you lose height. 

Different launch positions can also alter the 
sideway movements of the two wizards. One 
particular combination of wizard positions will 
have a dramatic effect - remember the see-saw 
is magic! If you miss the see-saw entirely, 
nothing appalling happens, you just lose some 
height and the trident on the right descends 
slightly. The balloon on the right rises with time. 
When it meets the trident, your game is over. 
The balloons to the left of the play area are not 
part of the game, they merely represent Jefel’s 
stockpile. 

When in flight, the wizards also bounce off 
the sides of the screen and the balloons. If they 
manage to spike the underside of a balloon with 
their pointy hats, it bursts. Balloons also burst 
when the wizards land on top of them six times, 
but this scores fewer points than simply skewer- 
ing them. 

If you manage to burst every balloon, the 
wizards are whisked away to the next balloon- 
filled dungeon. You receive a bonus for the 
amount of time left and, if you’re lucky, Nino 
may summon enough magic to raise the trident a 
little. The game features a high score table, and 
if you have accrued enough points at the end of 
your game, you'll be invited to enter your name 
among the anagrams of Hexadecimal! 

RUNEMAKER 

Stepping a little further back in time, thousands 
of years before the dawn of history, to be prec- 
ise, we find the setting for our second game. In 
those early days of mankind, it was a common 
sight to see Evil Hordes pillaging your village 
and carrying off your favourite ox. 

After many years of this harassment, someone 
rang Dial-a-Druid, or perhaps it was Spells-R- 
Us, to see if anything could be done. The druids 
offered to construct a magical charm from the 
mystic Seven Runes of Brationst and they asked 
but a small fee for performing this task (£7.50 
was a lot of cash in those days). The Cumentexis 
of Fire was duly assembled and verily were the 
hideous hordes banished to whence they came. 

All went well until last Tuesday evening when 
the thing just sort-of-went-critical and exploded, 
or whatever it is mystic runecharm thingies do. 
This of course, opens the way for all those nasty 
hordes again and just think how angry they'll be 
after all this time - it won’t just be your ox 



78 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 







<3 A IVIES 



they’re after! The only hope is for you to go 
back in time to the days when the great Cumen- 
texis was constructed and. by using the 
combined knowledge of all the leading brains of 
the 20th century and a large lube of Araldite, 
make a new one! 

Here in Time Control Headquarters, you have 
been equipped with the very latest in flowing 
cape technology, disguised by a sinister pointy 
hat (all the rage in man’s early existence). You 
are also armed with a rather natty little druidic 
spell. The temporal vortex has only just finished 
doing something quite disgustingly biological to 
your atoms and already you've materialised in 
the pre-dawn of time (about 7.30am) on a rather 
damp and squalid looking Wednesday morning. 
There are some ‘ancient’ monuments just over 
the next rise, it's just started to rain and the 
future of man is in the balance - better go get 
dem runes! 

GET IN THERE, MY SON! 

You control the druid with Z and X for left and 
right. The : key jumps and RETURN casts a spell. 
You can only land on certain surfaces in the 
game - you should soon be able to find out 
which ones will support the weight of a druid. 
Other keys include S and Q for turning the sound 
on and off and COPY and DELETE to pause and 
unpause. 

The main object of the each round is to collect 
the seven runes and take them to the altar stone 
where the Cumentexis is to be constructed. On 
your quest, you have to neutralise or avoid three 
sorts of baddie. First are the LEOs (Law 
Enforcement Officers). They patrol the ground 
level of each screen. Then there are the ELIs 
(Extra Large Inchworms), these fall from the 
sky, often landing on you. Having achieved this 
feat, they crawl along flat surfaces, but will fall 
off anything if they can. 

Finally, and least predictable, is the GBW or 
Great British Weather. At the start of the game, 
the weather is quite calm, but later it may 



Come on, Leo Briefcase is rubbish 


become stormy, with bolts of lightning 
unleashed from the clouds. 

If you collide with any of these enemies or 
fall too far, you lose energy. Your current level 
is indicated by the bar at the top of the screen. If 
this bar reaches zero, you lose one of your three 
lives. If you lose all three lives or the candle on 
the right flickers out, the game is over. Casting a 
spell costs one unit of energy, but is powerful 
enough to knock out an ELI or LEO. It's amaz- 
ing what those bods at T.C.H.Q. can do! 


A lightning strike can also dispose of them, but 
don’t forget it can have a nasty effect on you as 
well. Sadly, those same bods at T.C.H.Q. were 
not able to give you any protection from the 
G.B.W. You can regain energy with the magical 
energy pills that look strangely similar to 
hamburgers. 

Runes and energy pills are dotted randomly 
about the landscape. Some are quite tricky to 
reach and collecting them may involve jumping 
from screen to screen. The arrows below the 
energy bar point in the direction of the nearest 
collectable item. If they both point inwards, 
there is something on the current screen to 
collect. Points are awarded for collecting runes 
and ridding the world of LEOs and ELIs. A 
bonus is awarded for unused time. 

Once you have found all seven runes, stand on 
the middle of the altar stone. Constructing a 
Cumentexis is not a trivial task, so you'll have 
to stand there for a while and you may have to 
avoid an onslaught of ELIs. As you stand on the 
altar, the runes will begin to flash. 

Once the entire charm is pulsating with ether- 
eal light you proceed to the next, more difficult, 
level. As the game progresses, you'll get more 
lightning, more enemies, fewer energy pills, less 
time to complete the level and later, invisible 
runes that will only show up during lightning 
flashes. So those directional arrows will come in 
very handy indeed. 

Due to lack of memory, there is only space for 
one high score name, so you are asked to enter 
your name as soon as you beat Leo Briefcase's 
rather pathetic score . . . 


HOW TO PLAY 


These two classic eight-bit programs are only avail- 
able on the BAU monthly disc. A monthly 
subscription, which will assure you delivery of the 
magazine, plus the disc free, costs as little as £22.95. 
More subscription details are available on page 89. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 79 






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Shadow Archimedes/ 

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B+ 

128 

128 

Compact 


Turbo 



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Absolute Beginners 

59 

♦ 

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♦ 

♦ 

♦ 

♦ 

♦ 

♦ 

♦ 

♦ 

Wired for Sound 

61 







♦ 

♦ 


♦ 

* 

♦INFO 

67 












MakeDat 








♦ 

♦ 


♦ 

♦ 

IRunimage 








♦ 

♦ 


♦ 

♦ 

Mindread 


♦ 

♦ 

♦ 

♦ 

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♦ 

♦ 

Smooth 








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Wave8 


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Arm Programming 

75 








♦ 


♦ 

♦ 


Typing in listings from the yellow pages. 

The yellow pages are subdivided into article headings. Each article heading corresponds with its article in the magazine. 

So for instance to find listing three of *INFO in the yellow pages (MindRead) look for the *INFO heading, then follow the listings through until you get to listing three. 

At the beginning of the program are a few lines that tell you what machines it works on. This information can also be derived from the table above. 

For Archimedes owners it may not be immediately obvious how to actually type in the listings. By pressing Function key 12 you can access the command line. From here 
type BASIC and the Archimedes will enter the Basic language. You may like to type MODE 12, which will turn the screen to white on black. 

Then simply copy each line of the program in turn after the V prompt, pressing RETURN when finished. Save the program onto disc by typing SAVE M <filename>\ It can 
then be run by typing RUN. You will probably need to debug it as you may have made some typing errors. 

When you have finished debugging save the program one last time. Then it can either be double-clicked upon from the desktop, or loaded using LOAD"<filename>\ 

A more detailed description of how to type in listings from the yellow pages appear in BBC Acorn User, August 1992. 


Absolute Beginners 


Listing 1 - Bomber 

10 REM Bomber 
20 REM by Paul Janes 
30 REM for all machines 
40 REM (c) BAU Sep 1992 
50 : 

60 MODE 1 
70 VDO 19,0, 6;0; 

80 VDO 19, 3,0; 0; 

90 PROCsetup 
100 PROCdrawbui ldings 
110 : 

120 FOR down*=l TO 22 
130 FOR acroas*=0 TO 35 
140 PROCprintplaneandbonb 
150 PROCdelay(lO) 

160 key*=FALSE 

170 IF bombgoing*=FALSE THEN key*=FNsp 
ace 

180 IF key*=TRUE THEN bombgoing*=TRUE: 
bonbx*=across*+l : bomby*=down* 

190 IF bombgoing*=TRUE THEN PROCbomb 


200 IP 23-height*(acroas*+3)=down* THE 
N PROChitbuilding 

210 PROCrubplaneandbomb 
220 NEXT across* 

230 NEXT down* 

240 CLS 

250 PRINT "A SAFE LANDING 1 " 

260 END 
270 : 

280 DEF PROCbomb 

290 IF botnby*<23 THEN bomby** booby* *1 
300 SOUND 1,-1, 100-bonby*,2 
310 height* (bombx*) =0 
320 IF bomby*=23 THEN borabgoing*=FALSE 
:PRINTTAB(bcmbx*,bonby*-l) ;" " 

330 ENDPROC 
340 : 

350 DEF PROCprintplaneandbonb 
360 COLOUR 3 

370 PRINT TAB (across*, down*) ;CHR$ 226; 
CHR$ 227; CHR$ 228; 

380 IF bombgoing*=TRUE THEN PRINTTAB(b 
ombx*,bomby*) ;CHR$ 224 


390 ENDPROC 
400 : 

410 DEF PROCrubplaneandbomb 
420 PRINT TAB<across*-l,down*);" 

430 IF bombgoing*»TRUE THEN PRINTTAB(b 
ombx*,bomby*-l) ;" " 

440 ENDPROC 
450 : 

460 DEF PROChitbuilding 
470 SOUND 0,-15,100,10 
480 PRINT TAB(0, 0) "You are deadl" 

490 END 
500 : 

510 DEF PROCsetup 
520 CLS 

530 VDU 23;8202;0;O;0; 

540 VDU 23,224,126,60,126,122,253,253, 
251,126 :REM Bomb 

550 VDU 23,225,255,129,129,129,129,255 
,255,255 :REM Window 

560 VDU 23,226,192,224,240,31,255,255, 
127,0 :REM Plane Tail 

570 VDU 23,227,0,3,63,255,240,0,255,0 
:REM Plano Middle 


580 VDU 23,228.240,204,242,255,63.126, 
248,0 :REH Plane Nose 

590 DIM height*(40) 

600 bombgoing*=PALSE 
610 ENDPROC 
620 : 

630 DEF PROCdrawbui ldings 

640 COLOUR 1 

650 FOR x*=4 TO 35 

660 FOR y*»0 TO RND(RND( 15) ) 

670 PRINT TAB(x*,22-y*);CHR$ 225 
680 NEXT y* 

690 height* (x*)=y* 

700 NEXT x* 

710 ENDPROC 
720 : 

730 DEF PROCde lay (delay*) 

740 now**TIME 

750 REPEAT UNTIL TIME-now*>delay* 

760 ENDPROC 
770 : 

780 DEF FNspace 

790 IF INKEY ( -99 )=TRUE THEN =TRUE ELSE 
sFALSE 

Wired for Sound 


Listing 1 - StereoDemo 

210 IF 8tereo*mereoinc*>range* OR st 
ereo*+8tereoinc*< -range* THEN sterooinc* 

410 WAIT 

420 UNTIL TIME>300 

s-stereoinc* 

430 SOUND 1,0,100,0 

10 REM > StereoDemo (Soundl) 

220 stereo*t=stereoinc* 

440 SOUND 2,0,100,0 

20 REM by David Radford 

230 STEREO 1, stereo*:WAIT 

450 END 

30 REM for Arc only 

240 UNTIL TIME> 300 

460 : 

40 REM (c) BAU September 1992 

250 SOUND 1,0,100,0 

470 DEF PROCfakoatereo(chl*,chr*,p*,s* 

) 

50 : 

260 : 

60 ‘VOICES 

270 PRINT"Using custom stereo position 

480 LOCAL a*,b*,d* 

70 INPUT '"Enter name: "n$ 

8!" 

490 a*es*+127 

80 VOICES 2 

280 G=GET 

500 b*sstereotable*? (255-a*) 

90 VOICE l,n$ 

290 stereoV-range*: stereoinc*aspeed* 

510 a*=storeotable*?a* 

100 VOICE 2,n$ 

300 STEREO 1,-127 

520 SYS "Sound ReadControlBlock",chl*, 

110 range*=70 

310 STEREO 2,127 

12 TO, ,d* 

120 speed*=5 

320 PROCinitstereo 

530 SOUND chl*,&180+a*,p*,d*/5 

130 : 

330 BEATS4: TEMPO &B00 

540 SOUND chr*,&180+b*,p*,d*/5 

140 PRINT"U8ing STEREO command:" 

340 SOUND 1,-15,100,255,1 

550 ENDPROC 

150 G=GET 

350 SOUND 2,-15,100,255,-1 

560 : 

160 stereo*=-range*: stereoinc*=speed* 

360 TIME=0 

570 DEF PROCinitstereo 

170 STEREO 1, stereo* 

370 REPEAT 

580 LOCAL a*,b*,c*,d* 

180 SOUND 1,-10,100,255 

380 IF steroo*+storeoinc*> range* OR st 

590 DIM Bterootable* 255 

190 TIME=0 

ereo*+stereoinc%< -range* THEN stereoinc* 

600 SYS "Sound„Volume",127 TO a* 

200 REPEAT 

s-stereoinc* 

610 FOR b*=0 TO 255 


390 stereo*+=stereoinc* 

620 SYS "Sound SoundLog", (127-INT(b*/2 


400 PROCf akestereo (1,2, 100, stereo*) 

♦0.5)) « 24 TO c* 


630 stereotable*?b*=c* >> 1 
640 NEXT 

650 SYS "Sound_Volume",a* 

660 ENDPROC 

Listing 2 - StereoEcho 

10 REM > StereoEcho (Sound2) 

20 REM by David Radford 
30 REM for Arc only 
40 REM (c) BAU September 1992 
50 : 

60 PROCassem 
70 : 

80 INPUT"Enter filename of source fil 

90 SYS "03_File", 5, f $ TO a*, ,,,Jfilel 
ength 

100 IF a*=0 THEN PRINT"File not found" 
:END 

110 IF a*=2 THEN PRINT"That's a direct 
ory ! " : END 
120 : 

130 INPUT"Enter destination filename: 
"d$ 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 81 



140 

dl$=d$+"L":d2$=d$*"R" 

520 PRINT' "LEFT - ";a$;:INPUT ": "a 

950 STRB R6, [R0.R10] l 

150 


530 PRINT"RIGHT - ";a$;: INPUT ": "a$ 

960 STRB R7 , [R0,#-1024] 

160 

PRINT' "Now enter the valueB that d 

540 IF a$=— THEN b=a ELSE b=VAL{a$) 

970 ADD R1O.R10, #1 

efine 

the echo." 

550 IF f* THEN 

980 CMP RIO, #1024 

170 

PRINT"For any 'right channel' valu 

560 a=a/10O*128:b=b/100*128 

990 BLT dontwrite 

e, you may press RETURN" 

570 ENDIF 

1000 MOV R10, #0 

180 PRINT'to make it the same as the 1 

580 ENDPROC 

1010 HOV R3, #1024 

eft channel." 

590 : 

1020 BL writebuffers 

190 


600 DEF FNr(i*):P*+=i*:*— 

1030 BL readbuffer 

200 PROCinput( "Delay buffer size {in k 

610 : 

1040 .dontwrite 

ilobytes)",delayl,delay2, FALSE) 

620 DEF PROCassem 

1050 SUBS Rll, Rll, #1 

210 DIM tempbuffl* delayl*4*1024 

630 DIM code* 8192 

1060 BNE echoloop 

220 DIH tempbuf f2* delay2*4*1024 

640 FOR PASS*0 TO 2 STEP 2 

1070 MOVS R3,R10 

230 FOR T*=0 TO delayl»4*1024-4 STEP 4 

650 P*=code* 

1080 BLNE writebuffers 

: t empbuf f 1* ! T**0 : NEXT 

660 [OPT PASS 

1090 LDHFD R135, {PC} 

240 

FOR 7**0 TO delay2*4* 1024-4 STEP 4 

670 : 

1100 : 

: tempbuf £2*!T*=0:NEXT 

680 .echo 

1110 .filelength EQUD 0 

250 PROCinputt "Percentage of echo in o 

690 STMFD R13! , (R14) 

1120 .delaybufferl EQUD 0 

utput' 

', loutmixl, !cutmix2, TRUE) 

700 LDR R8,delayllen 

1130 .delaybuffer2 EQUD 0 

260 PROCinput ( "Percentage of output fe 

710 LDR R9,delay21en 

1140 .delayllen EQUD 0 

d back", [feedback 1, !feedback2,TRUE) 

720 MOV R10, #0 

1150 .delay21en EQUD 0 

270 PROCinput ("Percentage of feedback 

730 LDR Rll, filelength 

1160 .outnixl EQUD 0 

iB from other channel", [crosBedoverl, !cr 

740 BL readbuffer 

1170 .outmix2 EQUD 0 

ossedover2,TRUE) 

750 .echoloop 

1180 .f eedbackl EQUD 0 

280 


760 ADR R0, inbuff 

1190 . feedback2 EQUD 0 

290 

inf ile*=OPEHIN(£$) 

770 LDRB R0, [R0.R10] 

1200 .crossedoverl EQUD 0 

300 

outfilel**OPENOUT(dl$) 

780 \ convert to 32 bit signed 

1210 .crossedover2 EQUD 0 

310 

outf ile2**0PEN0UT (d2$ ) 

790 MOV R0.R0.LSL #24 

1220 : 

320 

REM copy Bample period 

800 MOV R0.R0.ASR #24 

1230 .readbuffer 

330 

a*=BGET# infile* 

810 \ do processing 

1240 MOV R0, #4 

340 

BPUT #out£ilel*,a* 

820 FNprepareoutput(delaybuf£erl,outmi 

1250 LDR Rl.infilehandle 

350 

BPUT #outfile2*,a* 

xl, 6, 8) 

1260 ADR R2, inbuff 

360 

REM set up machine code 

830 FNprepareoutput(dolaybuffer2,outmi 

1270 CMP Rll, #1024 

370 

1 inf ilehandle=inf ile* 

x2,7,9) 

1280 MOVLT R3, Rll 

380 

Joutfilelhandle=outfilel* 

840 FNcrossover(4,crossedoverl, 6,7) 

1290 MOVGE R3, #1024 

390 

loutfile2handle=outfile2* 

850 FNcrossover(5,crossedover2,7,6) 

1300 SWI "OS.GBPB" 

400 

ldelaybufferl=tempbuffl* 

860 FNf eedback ( 4 , f eedbackl , delaybuf f er 

1310 MOV PC.R14 

410 

Idelaybuffer2=tempbuff2* 

1,8) 

1320 : 

420 

!delayllen=delayl*4*1024-4 

870 FNf eedback ( 5 , f eedback2 , delaybuf f er 

1330 .inbuff FNr(1024) 

430 

!delay21en=delay2M*1024-4 

2,9) 

1340 : 

440 

REM process echo 

880 SUBS R8,R8, #4 

1350 .writebuffers 

450 

CALLecho 

890 LDRMI R8,dolayllen 

1360 MOV R0, #2 

460 

CLOSE#inf ile* 

900 SUBS R9, R9, #4 

1370 LDR Rl, outf ilelhandle 

470 

CLOSE#out£ilel* 

910 ^iDRMI R9,delay21on 

1380 LDR R2,outfile2handle 

480 

CLOSEttoutf ile2* 

920 .write 

1390 STMFD R131, (RO,R2,R3) 

490 

END 

930 ADD R0, PC, #( (outbuff 1-PV8) AND&00F 

1400 ADR R2, outbuff 1 

500 

: 

F) 

1410 Sl« "0S_GBPB" 

510 

DEF PROCinput (a$, RETURN a, RETURN b 

940 ADD R0,R0,#( (outbuff l-P*-8)ANDtFF0 

1420 LDMFD R13 ! , [R0, R1,R3} 

,£*) 


0) 

1430 ADR R2, outbuff 2 

1440 SWI "0S_GBPB" 


♦INFO 


1450 MOV PC.R14 
1460 : 

1470 .outbuf£2 FNr(1024) 

1480 .outbuff 1 FNr(1024) 

1490 : 

1500 . infilehandle EQUD 0 
1510 .outf ilelhandle EQUD 0 
1520 .outfile2handle EQUD 0 
1530 JNEXT 
1540 ENDPROC 
1550 : 

1560 DEF FNprepareoutput(dp*,op*,dr*,do 
*) 

1570 [OPT PASS 
1580 \ r0 = source data 
1590 LDR Rl,dp*:\ pointer to delay buff 
er 

1600 LDR R2,op*:\ fraction of echo in o 
utput 

1610 RSB R3,R2,#128 

1620 MUL R4,R0,R3:\ scaled amount of so 
urce * 128 
1630 LDR R3, [Rl,do*] 

1640 MLA dr*,R3,R2,R4 
1650 MOV dr*,dr*,ASR #7 
1660 ]:="" 

1670 : 

1680 DEF FNcrosBover(dest*,mixptr*, this 
chan*,oppchan*) 

1690 [OPT PASS 
1700 LDR RO.mixptr* 

1710 RSB Rl,R0,#128 
1720 MUL R2,thischan*,Rl 
1730 MLA dest*,oppchan*,R0,R2 
1740 ]:*"" 

1750 : 

1760 DEF FNfeedback( feedback*, fbptr*,de 
lptr*,delof£*) 

1770 [OPT PASS 
1780 LDR R0, fbptr* 

1790 MUL feedback*, R0, feedback* 

1800 MOV feedback*, feedback*, ASR #7 
1810 LDR Rl.delptr* 

1820 LDR R2, [Rl,delof£*] 

1830 RSB R0,R0, #128 

1840 MLA R2,R0,R2, feedback* 

1850 MOV R2,R2,ASR #7 
1860 STR R2, [Rl,delo£f*] 

1870 


Listing 1 - MakeDat 

10 REM >MakeDat (Infol) 

20 REM !Run, Menu and [Sprite files 
30 REM Application by Steve Douglas 
40 REM for 32-bit machines 
50 REM (c) BAU September 1992 
60 : 

70 free** (HIMEM-END-&8000) AND &FFFFF 

000 

80 DIM w* free* 

90 REPEAT 
100 READ file$ 

110 IF £ile$<>"*" THEN 
120 READ type* 

130 PRINT"Creating file —"file?""- (t 
ype {("{“type*;")" 

140 IP type*=&FFP OR type*=&FEB THEN 
150 out**0PEN0UT ( f i le$ ) 

160 REPEAT 
170 READ line$ 

180 IF line$<> — BPUTiout*, line$ 

190 UNTIL line$*"*" 

200 CLOSEtout* 

210 ELSE 
220 READ olen* 

230 p*=0 
240 d$»— 

250 dl*=l 

260 WHILE p*<olen* 

270 b**FNb 

280 IP b*=130:p*?w**PNb:p*+=l 

290 IF b*>=131 AND b*<*162 THEN 

300 n*=b*-128 

310 f*=p*-FNb 

320 FOR i*=0 TO n*-l 

330 ? (w*+p*+i*) a? (w*+f*+i*) 

340 NEXT 
350 p*+=n* 

360 ENDIF 

370 IF b*<130 OR b*>162 THEN p*?W*«b*: 
p*+al 

380 ENDWHILE 

390 SYS "OS_File",0, f ile$, , ,w*,w*+p* 
400 ENDIF 

410 SYS "0S_File", 18, file$, type* 

420 ENDIF 

430 UNTIL £ile$="*" 

440 PRINT' "All files created okay" 

450 END 
460 : 

470 DEF FHb 

480 LOCAL b*,cl*,c2*,i* 

490 IF d$a"" THEN 
500 READ d$,cl* 

510 c2*=0 

520 FOR i*»l TO LEN(d$)/2 

530 c2*+=EVAL("&"+MID$(d$,2*i*-l,2)) 

540 NEXT 

550 IF cl*<> (c2* MOD 100) PRINT"Error 
in DATA line ";dl*:END 
560 dl**=l 
570 ENDIF 

580 b*=EVAL("&"+LEFT$(d$,2) ) 


590 d$aMID$(d$,3) 

600 ab* 

610 : 

620 DATA " I Run", & FEB 
630 DATA "I ISciCalc" 

640 DATA "Set SciCalc$Dir <0bey$DIR>" 
650 DATA "WimpSlot -min 32k -max 32k" 
660 DATA "Run <0bey$Dir> . IRunlmage” 

670 DATA • 

680 DATA "Mcnu07",&FFF 
690 DATA "59", "29", "58", "29","" 
700 DATA "","57", "29", "56", "29" 
710 DATA "55", "29", "49" 

720 DATA "29", "48", "29",—,*" 

730 DATA "47", "29", "46", "29","" 
740 DATA "","45", "29", "39", "29" 
750 DATA -38", "29", "37" 

760 DATA "29", "36", "29","","" 

770 DATA "35", "29", "29", "29","" 
780 DATA —,"28", "29", "27", "29" 
790 DATA — ,"", "26", "29", "25" 

800 DATA "29", "", "", "19", "29", "CONV", " 

810 DATA "18", "29", "17", "29",— 
820 DATA "" ,"16", "29", "PROG","" ,"15" 
830 DATA "29", "HATH", — 

840 DATA • 

850 DATA "Menul5" , 4FFF 

860 DATA "59", "-1", "PI", "PI", "58", "-1" 

870 DATA "e", "2.718281828", "57", "-1"," 

880 DATA — ,"56","-l-,"",— ,-55","-2- 
890 DATA "1/x", "1/X", "49", "-2", "X* 2" 
900 DATA "x*x","48","-3","y‘x","t*x" 
910 DATA "47", "-1",—, — ,"46", "-2" 

920 DATA " |x|", "ABS(x) ", "45", "-2", "x!" 
930 DATA "FNfact(x)", "39", "-2", "SQRT" 
940 DATA "SQR(x)", "38","-3", "xRTy" 

950 DATA "10“(LOG(t)/x)","37*,"-l",— 
960 DATA "" ,"36", "-1", "35", "-1" 
970 DATA — ,"","29","-2","e*x" 

980 DATA "2 .718281828*x", "28", "-2" 

990 DATA "10*x", "10*x", "27", "-2", "ATN" 
1000 DATA "FNcvfr (ATN(x) )","26","-2" 
1010 DATA "ACS", "PNcvfr(ACS(x) ) ", "25" 
1020 DATA "-2", "ASN", "FNcvfr (ASN(x) )" 
1030 DATA "19", "-2", "LN", "LN(x) ", "18" 
1040 DATA "-2", "LOG", "LOO (x)", "17", "-2" 
1050 DATA "TAN", "TAN(FNcvtr (x) ) ", "16" 
1060 DATA "-2", "COS", "COS(FNcvtr(x) )" 
1070 DATA "15", "-2", "SIN- 
1080 DATA "SIN(FNcvtr(x) )" 

1090 DATA * 

1100 DATA "Menul6",4FFF 

1110 DATA "59", "-1", "58", "-3" 

1120 DATA "DIV'V't DIV x","57","-3" 

1130 DATA "CBIT","t AND N0T(l«x) ", "56" 
1140 DATA "-2" , "INT", "INT(x) ", "55", "-2" 
1150 DATA "BIT", "1<<X", "49", "-1", 

1160 DATA "48", "-3", "MOD", "t MOD x","47 

1170 DATA "-3", "SBIT", "t OR l«x","46" 
1180 DATA "-1", "45", "-1", "NOT" 
1190 DATA "NOT X", "39", "-1", "iFFFF" 

1200 DATA "&FFFF", "38", "-3", "EOR" 


1210 DATA "t EOR x","37","-3","SRA" 

1220 DATA "t»x", "36", "15", "F", "", "35" 
1230 DATA "14" , "E", "", "29", "-1" , "&FF" 
1240 DATA "fcFF", "28", "-3", "OR", "t OR X" 
1250 DATA "27", "-3", "SRL", "t»>x", "26" 
1260 DATA "13", "D","", "25", "12", "C","" 
1270 DATA "19", "-1", "&F", "&F", "18", "-3" 
1280 DATA "AND", "t AND x","17","-3" 

1290 DATA "SLL", "t«x", "16", "11", "B", "" 
1300 DATA "15", "10", "A"."" 

1310 DATA * 

1320 DATA "Menul9",&FFF 
1330 DATA "59","-l","" ,"","58","-l", "" 
1340 DATA —, "57", "-1", "56", "-1" 
1350 DATA "55", "-1", "49" 

1360 DATA *-2", "kP-ps", "x/6.89", "48" 
1370 DATA "-2", "kJ-Bt", "x/1.06", "47" 
1380 DATA "-2", "N-lbf", "x/4.45", "46" 
1390 DATA "-2", "kw-hp", "x/0.746","45" 
1400 DATA "-2", "C-P", "9/5 # x+32", "39" 
1410 DATA "-2","ps-kP","x*6.89","38" 
1420 DATA "-2" , "Bt-kJ", "x*1.06", "37" 
1430 DATA "-2", *lbf-N", "x*4 .45", "36" 
1440 DATA "-2", "hp-kw", "x*0.746", "35* 
1450 DATA "-2", "F-C", "5/9* (x-32) ", "29" 
1460 DATA "-2", "1-gal", "x/4. 55", "28" 
1470 DATA "-2", "kg- lb", "x/0. 454", "27" 
1480 DATA "-2", "g- 02 ", "x/28.3", "26", "-2 

1490 DATA "km-M", "x/1.61", "25", "-2" 

1500 DATA "cm- in", "x/2 .54", "19", "-2" 
1510 DATA "gal-1", "x»4. 55", "18", "-2" 
1520 DATA "lb-kg", "x*0.454", "17","-2" 
1530 DATA "oz-g","x*28.3","16","-2" 

1540 DATA "M-km", "x* 1.61", "15", "-2" 

1550 DATA "in-cm", "x*2.54" 

1560 DATA • 

1570 DATA " [Sprites", &FF9 
1580 DATA &2D8 

1590 DATA 01000000108304 DC020O00, 74 
1600 DATA CC83042173636963616C63, 94 
1610 DATA 83170O03871C84OC178328, 58 
1620 DATA AC832CBC83310C8434F0F0, 91 
1630 DATA F08304FO10D0D0D08304D0, 98 
1640 DATA 10B0B0B08304B010829082,75 
1650 DATA 9082908304829010707070,79 
1660 DATA 8304701050505083045010,34 
1670 DATA 303030830430846C847010, 27 
1680 DATA 0040829O8304829010E0E0, 11 
1690 DATA 0083048384C083888304D0.0 
1700 DATA 839083048318B0831CB010, 92 
1710 DATA 50800083048370BO837483, 40 
1720 DATA 0400B0F08304F0BBBBBBBB, 43 
1730 DATA 83048607BBBB008P108F10, 68 
1740 DATA 9A203233BB338C404B6733, 58 
1750 DATA B38D5073678E603376BS86, 40 
1760 DATA 70424554832A42B35257B2,96 
1770 DATA 84805B771251852B879074, 40 
1780 DATA 67336377844B87A0756783,25 
1790 DATA 278BB0727725BB3B8CC074, 18 
1800 DATA 776725A2D098F000000063, 52 
1810 DATA 048607830DFF8F118F109A, 17 
1820 DATA 20FFFF853C8940F0FFFF0F, 1 
1830 DATA 8D5083218F1O8720FF852A, 41 
1840 DATA FF0F86078439862B879084, 88 


1850 DATA 0F854B8910890D882000F0, 34 
1860 DATA 8CC08F40A2E08CF3FF , 63 
1870 DATA * 

Listing 2 - IRunlmage 

10 REH >!RunImage (Info2) 

20 REM Scientific calculator 
30 REM by Steve Douglas 
40 REM for 32-bit machines 
50 REM (c) BAU September 1992 
60 : 

70 PROCinit 
80 PROCwimp_init 
90 PROCcreate_sys_keys 
100 PR0Ccreate_user_key8 
110 PROCcreate_display 
120 PROCput_display 
130 cb*!0=windhandle* 

140 SYS "Wimp_OpenWindow",0,cb* 

150 DIM mb* 256 
160 ON ERROR PROCerr 
170 REPEAT 

180 SYS "Wimp_Poll",&1831,mb* TO code* 
,msg* 

190 CASE code* OF 

200 WHEN 2: SYS "Wimp_0penWindow",0,msg 

* 

210 WHEN 6:PROCclick(msg*!16,msg*!8) 
220 WHEN 8:PROCkey_push(msg*!24) 

230 WHEN 17, 18: IF csg*!16=0 SYS "Wimp_ 
CloseDown" , taskhandle*, S4B534154 
240 ENDCASE 
250 UNTIL code** 3 
260 SYS "Wimp_CloseWindow",0,msg* 

270 SYS "Wimp_DeleteWindow",0,msg* 

280 SYS "Wimp_CloseDown", taskhandle *, t 
4B534154 
290 END 
300 : 

310 DEF PROCerr 

320 IF errlock*=TRUE ENDPROC 

330 errlock**TRUE 

340 errtxt$=REPORT$ 

350 errnum*=ERR 
360 IF LEN(errtxt$) >20 THEN 
370 IF errnum*a6 THEN errtxt$="Type m 
i snatch" 

380 IF errnum*=20 THEN errtxt$*"Number 
too big" 

390 IF errnum*=23 THEN errtxt$="Accura 
cy lost" 

400 errtxt$=LEFT$ (errtxt$, 20) 

410 ENDIF 

420 PROCput_display 
430 PROCredraw_display 
440 ENDPROC 
450 : 

460 DEF PROCinit 

470 cancel*=TRUE 

480 degrees*=TRUE:hexint*=FALSE 

490 sx*=250:sy*a300 

500 kc w*a 1 6 : kw*a 8 4 : kh*= 4 4 : kgap** 4 

510 ktw*=kw*+kgap*:kth*=kh*+kgap* 

520 kcol*al0:krow*a6 


82 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 


530 klast*=kcol**krow*-l 
540 border*=8 

550 ww*=border* 4 2+ (kw*+kgap*) 4 kcol*-kg 
ap* 

560 wh*=border* 4 2+ (kh*+kgap*) 4 krow*-kg 
ap* 

570 pref ix$="<SciCalc$Dir> .Menu" 

580 cmems*=15:ccler*=ll 
590 ccons*=3:ckeyp*=3 
600 cmono*=8:cdyad*=13 
610 cmaps*=14 

620 DIM icb* 36, ih*(6) ,wsb* 36, carets 
24 

630 DIM fleg* klaet* 4 6+6, fbut*(klast*) 
640 DIM ftok*(klast*),fexp$(klast*) 

650 DIM khandle*(klast*) 

660 FOR i*=0 TO klast* 

670 khandle*(i*)=-l 
680 NEXT 

690 DIM display* 20,radann* 4,memann* 

4 

700 DIM brkann* 4,errann\ 4 
710 DIM legtxt* 8,partxt* 3,parval* 9, 
exptxt* 2,newleg* 8 
720 $legtxt*="Legend" 

730 $partxt*="p=" 

740 $parval*="A0-2/A-F" 

750 $exptxt*="=" 

760 DIM part 2, exp* 33 

770 DIM stackop$ ( 9 ) , stackt ( 9 ) 

780 panel*=-l 

790 disp*=0 

800 PR0Cinit_8ys..keys 

810 PR0Cinit„user_keya(15) 

820 nop$="x" 

830 PROCclr 
840 m=0 
850 ENDPROC 
860 : 

870 DEF PROCwiinp_init 
880 SYS “Wimp Initialise", 200, &4B53415 
4,"SciCalc" TO vers*, taskhandle* 

890 DIM cb* 100 

900 wcb*=cb*+4 

910 wcb*!0=sx*:wcb*!4=sy* 

920 web*! 8=sx*+ww*-l :wcb*! 12=sy*+wh*-l 
930 web*! 16=0 : web*! 20=0: web*! 24 =-l 
940 web*! 28=687001052 
950 wcb*?32=7 :wcb*?33=2 :wcb*?34=7 :wcb* 
?35=5 

960 wcb*?36=3:wcb*?37=l:wcb*?38=12:wcb 
*?39=0 

970 web* ! 40=0 : web* ! 44= -wh* : web* ! 4 8=ww* 
:wcb*! 52=0 
980 vcb*!56=*111101 
990 wcb*!60=60000B000 
1000 web*! 64=1 :wcb*! 68=0 
1010 $ (wcb*+72) ="SeiCalc"+CHR$0 
1020 web*! 84=0 

1030 SYS "Wimp_CreateWindow",0,web* TO 
windhandle* 

1040 ENDPROC 
1050 : 

1060 DEF PROCclick( icon*, buttons*) 

1070 LOCAL i*,k*,tok* 

1080 IF icon*<0 ENDPROC 
1090 IF icon*=ih*(0) SYS "Wimp_SetCaret 
Position", windhandle*, -1, , , 1<<25: ENDPROC 
1100 k*=-l 
1110 i*=0 
1120 REPEAT 

1130 IF khandle* ( i*) =icon* k*=i* 

1140 i*+=l 

1150 UNTIL i*>klaat* OR k*>-l 
1160 IF k*<0 ENDPROC 
1170 tok*=ftok*(k*) 

1180 IF errlock* AND tok*<>23 ENDPROC 
1190 IF panel*>-l AND tok*<>23 AND tok* 
<>17 ENDPROC 
1200 cancel*=tok*=23 
1210 IF buttons*=l THEN 
1220 IF (k* HOD kcol*)>4 AND (k* DIV kc 
ol*)>0 THEN 

1230 PROCcreate_panel(k*) 

1240 PROCredraw_diaplay 
1250 ELSE 

1260 PROCcreate_display 
1270 ENDIF 
1280 ELSE 

1290 PR0Ccreate_di8play 

1300 IF tok*<0 AND £exp$(k*)="" ENDPROC 

1310 IF buttons** 4 THEN 

1320 IF tok*=28 OR tok%=29 THEN 

1330 PROCmenu(k*) 

1340 ELSE 

1350 PROCdo_key(k%) 

1360 PR0Cput_di8play 

1370 PROCredraw_diaplay 

1380 ENDIF 

1390 ENDIF 

1400 ENDIF 

1410 ENDPROC 

1420 : 

1430 DEF PROCkey_push(keycode*) 

1440 LOCAL k* 

1450 k*=-l 

1460 wsb*!0=windhandle* 

1470 SYS "Wimp_GetWindowState", ,wsb* 

1480 IF (W8b*!32 AND 4000120000 ) 00 AND 

panel*=-l THEN 

1490 CASE keycode* OF 

1500 WHEN ASC("#") :k%=6 

1510 WHEN ASC ( " ( " ) :k*=4 

1520 WHEN ASC(" [") :k*=4 

1530 WHEN ASC(") ") :k*=5 

1540 WHEN ASC ( " ] " ) :k*=5 

1550 WHEN ASC("/") :k*=23 

1560 WHEN ASC("*") :k*=33 

1570 WHEN ASC<"-") :k*=43 


1580 WHEN ASC("+") :k*=53 
1590 WHEN ASC ( " . " ) :k*=52 
1600 WHEN ASC("0") :k*=50 
1610 WHEN ASC("1") :k*=40 
1620 WHEN ASC ("2") :k*=41 
1630 WHEN ASC("3") :k*=42 
1640 WHEN ASC ("4") :k*=30 
1650 WHEN ASC("5") :k*=31 
1660 WHEN ASC ("6") :k*=32 
1670 WHEN ASC ("7") :k*=20 
1680 WHEN ASC("8") :k*=21 
1690 WHEN ASC ("9") :k*=22 
1700 WHEN ASC("»") :k*=54 
1710 WHEN 13:k*=54 
1720 WHEN ASC("\") :k*=51 
1730 WHEN 30:k*=9 
1740 WHEN 399 :k*=34 
1750 WHEN 398 :k*=44 
1760 WHEN 395:k*=24 
1770 WHEN 127:k*=14 
1780 OTHERWISE k*=-l 
1790 ENDCASE 
1800 ENDIP 
1810 IF k*<0 THEN 

1820 SYS "Wimp ProceasKey", keycode* 
1830 ELSE 

1840 PROCdo_key(k*) 

1850 PROCput^diaplay 
1860 PROCredrawdiaplay 
1870 ENDIF 
1880 ENDPROC 
1890 : 

1900 DEP PROQnenulk*) 

1910 LOCAL i* 

1920 IP £leg*?(k**6)=0 OR fleg*? (k* 4 6)= 
13 ENDPROC 

1930 PROCinit_uaer_keya(k*) 

1940 PR0Cput_U8er_keys 
1950 ENDPROC 
1960 : 

1970 DEP PROCsave_user_keyo{k*) 

1980 LOCAL r*,i*,g* 

1990 name$=prefix$+CHR$(48+(k* DIV 10)) 
♦CHR$ (48+ {k* MOD 10)) 

2000 fn*=OPENOOT(name$) 

2010 FOR r*=50 TO 10 STEP -10 
2020 FOR i*=r*+9 TO r*+5 STEP -1 
2030 BPUT#fn*,STR$(i*) 

2040 BPUT#fn*,STR$(£tok*(i*)) 

2050 g*=£leg*+i* 4 6:s$="" 

2060 WHILE ?g*<>0 AND ?g*<>13 
2070 s$+=CHR$ (?g*) 

2080 g*+=l 
2090 ENDWHILE 
2100 BPOT#fn*, 8$ 

2110 BPUTttfn*, f exp$ ( i*) 

2120 NEXT 
2130 NEXT 
2140 CLOSE# fn* 

2150 ENDPROC 
2160 : 

2170 DEF PROCinit uaer_keys{k*) 

2180 LOCAL r*. i*,tok*,c* 

2190 IP k*=7 THEN 
2200 tok*=29 
2210 but*=4E000313D 
2220 ELSE 
2230 tok*=-l 

2240 but*=ckeyp*<<28 OR 4313D 
2250 ENDIF 

2260 FOR r*=50 TO 10 STEP -10 
2270 FOR i*=r*+9 TO rt+5 STEP -1 
2280 ftok*(i*)=tok* 

2290 f leg*? (i* 4 6) =0 
2300 fexp$(i*)="" 

2310 fbut*(i*)=but* 

2320 NEXT 
2330 NEXT 
2340 keypad** k* 

2350 name$=prefix$+CHR$(48+(k* DIV 10)) 
♦CHR$ (48+ (k* MOD 10)) 

2360 fn*=OPENIN(name$) 

2370 IF fn*=0 ENDPROC 
2380 WHILE EOF#fn*=FALSE 
2390 s$=GET$#£n* 

2400 IF EOF# fn*= FALSE THEN 
2410 i*«VAL(s$) 

2420 8$=GET$#fn* 

2430 £ tok* ( i* ) = VAL ( a $ ) 

2440 $ (f leg*+i**6) =GET$#£n* 

2450 £exp$(i*)=GET$#fn* 

2460 c*=ckeyp* 

2470 IF ftok*(i*)=-3 c*=cdyad* 

2480 IP ftok*(i*)=-2 c*=cnono* 

2490 IF £tok*(i*)=-l c*=ccone* 

2500 IP ftok*(i*)=29 c*=cmaps* 

2510 £but*(i*)=c*<<28 OR 4313D 
2520 ENDIF 
2530 ENDWHILE 
2540 CLOSE#fn* 

2550 ENDPROC 
2560 : 

2570 DEF PROCinit_sya_keys 
2580 PROCinit key (4, 18, ckeyp*, "(","") 
2590 PROCinit key (5, 19, ckeyp*, -)","") 
2600 PROCini t.key (6,27, ckeyp*, "HEX” , "" ) 
2610 PROCinit Jcey (7,28, craaps*, "MENU" , "K 
eypad Menu") 

2620 PROCinit key(8, 24, ckeyp*, "D/R","") 
2630 PROCinit key (9, 23, ccler*, "CLR", "") 
2640 PROCini t^key (14,25, enema*, "CM" , " " ) 
2650 PROCinit Jcey (20,7, ckeyp*, "7" , "" ) 
2660 PROCinitJcey (21,8, ckeyp*, "8" , "" ) 
2670 PROCinit Jcey (22, 9, ckeyp*, "9", "") 
2680 PROCinit. key (23,-3, cdyad*, "/" , "t/x 
“) 

2690 PROCinit_key{24, 21, enema*, "SM", "") 
2700 PROCinit_key(30,4,ckeyp*, "4", "") 
2710 PROCinit_key (31,5, ckeyp*, "5" , "" ) 


2720 PROCinit Jcey (32, 6, ckeyp*, "6", "") 
2730 PROCinit_key(33,-3,cdyad*,"*","t*x 
") 

2740 PROCinit_key (34,22, cmenn*, "RM" , "" ) 
2 7 50 PROC i n i t _key ( 4 0 , 1 , ckeyp* , " 1 " , " " ) 
2760 PR0Cinit_key(41, 2,ckeyp*, "2", "") 
2770 PROCinit_key(42,3,ckeyp*,"3","") 
2780 PROCinit_key (43, -3, cdyad*, "t-x 
") 

2790 PROCini t_key( 44, 20, cmema*, "M+", "") 
2800 PROCinit_key ( 50, 0, ckeyp*, "0" , "" ) 
2810 PROCinitJcey (51, 26, ckeyp*, 

) 

2820 PROCinit Jcey (52, 16, ckeyp*, ".","") 
2830 PROCinit_koy (53, -3, cdyad*, "t+x 
") 

2840 PROCinit key(54, 17, ckeyp*, "=", -") 
2850 ENDPROC 
2660 : 

2870 DEF PROCinit..key(k*, tok*,clr*, leg$ 
,exp$) 

2880 £tok*(k*)=tok* 

2890 $(£leg*+k**6)=leg$+CHR$(0) 

2900 fexp$(k*)=exp$ 

2910 £but*(k*)=t313D OR (clr*«28) 

2920 ENDPROC 
2930 : 

2940 DEF PROCcreate_uaer keys 
2950 LOCAL r*,i* 

2960 FOR r*=10 TO 50 STEP 10 
2970 FOR i*=rt+5 TO rt+9 
2980 PROCcreate_key ( i*) 

2990 NEXT 
3000 NEXT 
3010 ENDPROC 
3020 : 

3030 DEF PROCcreatc sya keys 
3040 LOCAL r*, i* 

3050 FOR i*=4 TO 9 
3060 PROCcreate Jcey ( i*) 

3070 NEXT 

3080 PROCcreate Jcey ( 14 ) 

3090 FOR r*=20 TO 50 ST8P 10 
3100 FOR i*»r* TO r*+4 
3110 PROCcreateJcey(i*) 

3120 NEXT 
3130 NEXT 
3140 ENDPROC 
3150 : 

3160 DEP PROCcreate _key(k*) 

3170 LOCAL x*,y* 

3180 x*=(k* HOD kcol*)*ktw* 

3190 y*=(k* DIV kcol*) *kth*+kh* 

3200 khandle*(k*)=FNcr_icon(x*,y*,kw*,k 
h*. fbut*(k*) , fleg*+k**6,0, 5) 

3210 ENDPROC 
3220 : 

3230 DEF PROCcreate_display 
3240 PROCdelete_panel 
3250 IF diap*>0 ENDPROC 
3260 ih*(0)=FNcr_icon(0,kth*+kh*,ktw**3 
♦kw*,kh*, 450003131, display*, 0,20) 

3270 ih* ( 1 ) =FNcr_icon ( 0, kh*. ktw*, kh*, 45 
3000131, radann*, 0,3) 

3280 ih*(2)=FNcr_icon(ktw*,kh*,ktw*,kh* 
,45F000131,memann*,0, 3) 

3290 ih* ( 3 ) =FNcr_icon ( 2»ktw*, kh*, ktw*, k 
h*, 453000131, brkann*, 0,3) 

3300 ih* ( 4 ) =FNcr_icon(3*ktw*, kh*, ktw*, k 
h*, 45B000131,errann*,O,3) 

3310 diap*»l 
3320 ENDPROC 
3330 : 

3340 DEF PROCdolete_display 
3350 LOCAL i* 

3360 IF diap*=0 ENDPROC 
3370 FOR i*=4 TO 0 STEP -1 
3380 PROCde icon(ih*(i*) ) 

3390 NEXT 
3400 diap*=0 
3410 ENDPROC 
3420 : 

3430 DEF PROCcreate_panel (k*) 

3440 LOCAL i*,tok* 

3450 PROCdelete. display 
3460 PROCdelete panel 
3470 $exp*=£exp$(k*) 

3480 FOR i*=0 TO 5 

3490 i*?newleg*=i*?(£log*+6*k*) 

3500 NEXT 

3510 ih*(O)=FNcr_icon(0,kh*,8+kcw**7,kh 
*, 450000131, legtxt*, 0,7) 

3520 ih*( 1 ) =PNcr_icon(kcw**7 , kh*. kw*, kh 
*,45000F13D,newleg*,0,6) 

3530 FOR i*=2 TO 5 
3540 ih*(i*)=-l 
3550 NEXT 

3560 tok*=ftok*(k*) 

3570 IF tok*<0 OR (tok*>9 AND tok*<16) 
THEN 

3580 IF tok*<0 THEN $par*=CHR$ (47-tok*) 
ELSE $par*=CHR$ ( ASC ( "A" ) + tok*- 10 ) 

3590 ih* ( 2 ) =FNcr_icon ( kew** 14 , kh*, 8 +kcw 
V2,kh*, 450000131, partxt*, 0,2) 

3600 ih*(3)=FNcr_ icon(kcw**16,kh*. 16+kc 
w*, kh*, 45000F131, par*, parval*, 2) 

3610 ih*(4) =FNcr.Jcon(0,kth*+kh*, 8+kcw* 
* 1 , kh*, 450000131 , exptxt* , 0 , 2 ) 

3620 ih* ( 5 ) =FNcr_icon (kcw**2 , kth*+kh*, 8 
+kcw*»17,kh*,45000F131, exp*, 0,32) 

3630 ENDIF 
3640 panel*=k* 

3650 ENDPROC 
3660 : 

3670 DEP PROCredraw„dioplay 
3680 SYS "Wimp_ForceRedraw",windhandle* 
,0, -kth**2,ktw*«4,0 
3690 ENDPROC 
3700 : 


3710 DEF PROCdelete_panel 
3720 LOCAL i*,c* 

3730 IF panel*<0 ENDPROC 

3740 IF NOT cancel* THEN 

3750 IF £tok*(panel*)<0 THEN 

3760 IF par*?0=13 par*?0=48 

3770 IF par*?0>=ASC("A") THEN 

3780 £ tok* (panel*) =par*?0-ASC ( "A" ) +10 

3790 c*=ckeyp* 

3800 ELSE 

3810 £tok*(panol*)=-(par*?0-48+l) 

3820 IF ftok*(panel*)=-3 c*=cdyad* 

3830 IF £tok*(panel*)=-2 c*=cmono* 

3840 IF ftok*(panel*)=-l c*=ccona* 

3850 £but*(panel*)=c*<<28 OR 4313D 
3860 ENDIF 
3870 ENDIF 

3880 £exp$ (panel*) ="" 

3890 i*=0 

3900 WHILE exp*?i*<>13 

3910 £exp$ (panel*) +=CHR$ (exp*?i*) 

3920 i*+=l 

3930 ENDWHILE 

3940 FOR i*=0 TO 5 

3950 i*? ( £leg*+6*panel*) =i*?newleg* 

3960 NEXT 
3970 ENDIF 

3980 FOR i*=5 TO 0 STEP -1 
3990 IF ih*(i*)>-l PROCde_icon(ih*(i*) ) 
4O0O NEXT 
4010 panel*=-l 
4020 PROCput_uaer_keya 
4030 IF NOT cancel* PROCsave_user_keya( 
keypad*) 

4040 ENDPROC 
4050 : 

4060 DEF PR0Cput_U8er_key8 
4070 LOCAL i* 

4080 icb*!0=windhandle* 

4090 icb*!12=4FFPPPFFF 
4100 FOR i*«0 TO klast* 

4110 icb*!4=khandle*(i*) 

4120 icb*l8=fbut*(i*) 

4130 SYS "Winp_SetIconState",0,icb* 
4140 NEXT 
4150 ENDPROC 
4160 : 

4170 DEF FNcr_icon(x*,y*,w*,h*, flags*, d 
a*,va*, lng*) 

4180 LOCAL handle* 

4190 icb*!0=windhandlc* 

4200 icb*!4=border*+x* 

4210 icb*!8=-(border*+y*) 

4220 icb*!12=icb*!4+w* 

4230 icb*!16=icb*!8+h* 

4240 icb*!20=£lags* 

4250 icb*!24=da* 

4260 icb*!28=va* 

4270 icb*!32»lng* 

4280 SYS "Winp_CreateIcon",0,icb* TO ha 
ndle* 

4290 -handle* 

4300 ; 

4310 DEF PROCde_icon ( ih*) 

4320 icb* ! Oswindhandle* 

4330 icb*!4«ih* 

4340 SYS "Winp_DeleteIcon".0,icb* 

4350 ENDPROC 
4360 : 

4370 DEF PROCput_di splay 
4380 IF m=0 THEN $memann*="" ELSE $mema 
nn*="Mem" 

4390 IF degrees* THEN $radann*="Deg" EL 
SE $radann*="Rad" 

4400 IF nest*=0 THEN $brkann*«-" ELSE $ 
brkann*=" ("+CHR$(48+nest*) ♦")" 

4410 IF errlock*=TRUE THEN 
4420 $errann*»"Err" 

4430 $display*=errtxt$ 

4440 ELSE 
4450 $errann*="" 

4460 IP hexint* THEN $diaplay*="HEX "+S 
TR$" (d) ELSE $diaplay*»STR$(d) 

4470 ENDIF 
4480 ENDPROC 
4490 : 

4500 DEF PROCdo_key(k*) 

4510 LOCAL token* 

4520 token*=ftok*(k*) 

4530 IP token*>-l AND token*<17 THEN 
4540 PROCenter( token*) 

4550 ELSE 

4560 CASE token* OF 

4570 WHEN 18:PR0Clbra 

4580 WHEN 19:PR0Crbra 

4590 WHEN 20:PROCaddm 

4600 WHEN 21:PR0CBetm 

4610 WHEN 22:PR0Crecm 

4620 WHEN 23: PROCclr 

4630 WHEN 24 : PROCdegrad 

4640 WHEN 25 :PROCclrm 

4650 WHEN 26:PROCflip 

4660 WHEN 27:PROChex 

4670 OTHERWISE :PROCopor_key(k*) 

4680 ENDCASE 
4690 ENDIF 
4700 ENDPROC 
4710 : 

4720 DEF PROCclr 
4730 errlock*=FALSE 
4740 t=0:x=0:d=0 
4750 newent*=TRUE 
4760 op$=nop$ 

4770 noat*=0 
4780 ENDPROC 
4790 : 

4800 DEF PROCflip 
4810 d=-d 
4820 x=d 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 8 3 


84 



4830 ENDPROC 

130 corr%=0 

880 ENDPROC 

970 TYA 

4840 : 

140 corrg’saO 

890 : 

980 CLC 

4850 DEF PROCaddm 

150 CLS 

900 DEF FNdeg(a,b,x,y) 

990 ADC ytablo’s+j’s-l.X 

4860 m+=x 

160 try^al 

910 =90-DEG(ATN(((y(y)-y(b))/(x(x)-x(a 

1000 TAY 

4870 newent%=TRUE 

170 REPEAT 

)- (x(x)=x(a) ) *.01) ) /l) )-180* (x{a) >x(x) ) 

1010 PLA 

4880 ENDPROC 

180 IF comb_o’s(prev’s)<comb_z’s(prev’s) T 

920 : 

1020 ADC ytabhi%4j%-l,X 

4890 : 

HEN one%=0 ELSE one^al 

930 DEF FNdi8t(a,b,x,y) 

1030 PHA 

4900 DEF PROCrecm 

190 g$aGET$ 

940 =SQR( (x(a) -x(x) ) *24 (y(b) -y(y) ) *2) 

1040 TYA 

4910 x=m 

200 IF g$a"i« THEN comb_o’s(prev%) =comb 

950 : 

1050 CLC 

4920 d=x 

_o%(prev%)+l 

960 DEF PROCmouse (RETURN x, RETURN y, RE 

1060 ADC ytablo%4j%4l,X 

4930 newent%=TRUE 

210 IF g$a«0" THEN comb_z%(prev%)=conb 

TURN b) 

1070 TAY 

4940 ENDPROC 

_z%(prev%)+l 

970 REPEAT 

1080 PLA 

4950 : 

220 preV%=prev%*2 

980 MOUSE x,y,b 

1090 ADC ytabhi%4j%4l,X 

4960 DEF PROCsetra 

230 prev’saprev’s AND 15 

990 UNTIL b=0 

1100 STA tot4l 

4970 m=x 

240 IF g$a"l« THEN preWprev%+l 

1000 REPEAT 

1110 TYA 

4980 newent%=TRUE 

250 ge%=INT(RND(2) )-l 

1010 MOUSE x,y,b 

1120 SEC 

4990 ENDPROC 

260 IF geVone% THEN corrg’s=corrg’s+ 1 

1020 UNTIL b 

1130 SBC temp 

5000 : 

270 PRINT try’s; " ", (corr’s/try’s) *100; " 

1030 ENDPROC 

1140 STA tot 

5010 DEF PROCclrm 

5020 m=0 

", (corrgV try’s) *100 

280 IF (g$="l" AND one%=l) OR (g$a"0" 

Listing 5 - Wave8 

1150 LDA tot4l 

1160 SBC temp4l 

5030 newenfs=TRUE 

AND one%a0) THEN corr’sacorr’s+1 

1170 STA tot4l 

5040 ENDPROC 

290 try’satry’s+l 

10 REM > Wave 8 (Info5) 

1180 LDA #0 

5050 : 

300 UNTIL FALSE 

20 REM by DCA, based on a program 

1190 ASL tot 

5060 DEF PROCdegrad 

310 END 

30 REM by Michel Grimminck 

1200 ROL tot4l 

5070 degrees%=NOT degrees^ 

5080 ENDPROC 

Listing 4 - Smooth 

40 REM for 8-bit only 

50 REM (c) BAU September 1992 

1210 BCC P%+4 

1220 LDA #255 

5090 : 

60 : 

1230 ROL A 

5100 DEF PROChex 

10 REM > Smooth (Info4) 

70 MODE 4 

1240 ASL tot 

5110 hexint%=NOT hexint% 

20 REM by David Walters 

80 HIMEMa&3300 

1250 ROL tot4l 

5120 ENDPROC 

30 REM for 32 bit machines only 

90 band8%=4 

1260 ROL A 

5130 : 

40 REM (C) BAU September 1992 

100 n=32 

1270 STA tot \ high byte! 

5140 DEF PROClbra 

50 : 

110 yoff=128-48 

1280 LDY vytabhi’S+j’s,X 

5150 IF nest%>9 ENDPROC 

60 m=100 

120 tabsize%an*n*2 

1290 LDA vytablo%4j%,X 

5160 nest%+=l 

70 : 

130 DIM code% &4C0, loop (3) , preloop (3) , 

1300 SEC 

5170 stackop$ (nest’s) =op$ 

80 MODE 12 

plot (3) 

1310 SBC div41o\,Y 

5180 8tackt(nest%)rt 

90 OFF 

140 scrlo%=&3300 

1320 STA temp 

5190 newent%aTROE 

100 MOUSE ON 

150 scrhi%=&3400 

1330 TYA 

5200 t=0:xs0:da0:op$=nop$ 

110 DIM x(m) ,y(m) 

160 div41o%=&3500 

1340 SBC div4hi%,Y 

5210 ENDPROC 

120 p=l 

170 div4hi%=&3600 

1350 TAY 

5220 : 

130 GCOL0, 1 

180 bit%=£c3700 

1360 LDA temp 

5230 DBF P ROC r bra 

140 REPEAT 

190 xpos%=&3800 

1370 CLC 

5240 IF nestVl ENDPROC 

150 p+=l 

200 ypos%a&3C00 

1380 ADC tot4l 

5250 IF op$onop$ XaEVAL(op$) 

160 PROCmouse(x{p) ,y(p) ,b) 

210 ytablo%=&4000 

1390 STA vytablo%4j%,X 

5260 op$=stackop$(nest%) 

170 IF p>2 LINE x(p-l),y(p-l),x(p),y(p 

220 ytabhi%=&4400 

1400 TYA 

5270 t=stackt (nest’s) 

) 

230 vytablo’s=&4800 

1410 ADC tot 

5280 d=x 

180 CIRCLE x(p) , y (p) , 10 

240 vytabhi’s=&4C00 

1420 STA vytabhi%+j%,X 

5290 newent%aTRUE 

190 UNTIL ba2 OR p=<m-2) 

250 oldlo’s=&5000 

1430 DEX 

5300 nestV=l 

200 CLS 

260 oldhi%a&5400 

1440 TXA 

5310 ENDPROC 

210 PROCsmooth(2,p) 

270 terop=&70 

1450 AND #31 

5320 s 

220 dr ag%= FALSE 

280 ro=&72 

1460 BNE loop(k%) 

5330 DEF PROCenter(tok%) 

230 REPEAT 

290 ro2a&74 

1470 CPX #0 

5340 IF newent% THEN 

240 IF drag’s THEN 

300 tot=&76 

1480 BNE preloop(k%) 

5350 d=0 

250 PROCsmooth( drag’s- 2, drag^l) 

310 last=&78 

1490 ) 

5360 dpent%=0 

260 MOUSE x (drag’s) ^(drag’s) , but 

320 tab=680 

1500 NEXT k% 

5370 newenfs=FALSE 

270 PROCBmooth(dragV2,drag%+l) 

330 FOR pass%=0 TO 2 STEP 2 

1510 FOR k%=0 TO bandBVl 

5380 ENDIF 

280 IF buta0 drag%=FALSE 

340 P’sacode’s 

1520 j%=kV256 

5390 IF hexint% THEN 

290 ELSE 

350 (OPT pa 8 8% 

1530 [OPT pass% 

5400 IF tok%>15 ENDPROC 

300 PROCmouse(x(m) ,y(m) ,b) 

360 .wave 

1540 .plot(k%) 

5410 d=d*16+tok% 

310 FOR i=2 TO p 

370 LDX #n-l 

1550 LDA oldlo%+j%,X 

5420 ELSE 

320 IF FNdist(i,i,m,m)<10 drag%=i 

380 .copytandb 

1560 STA last 

5430 IF tok%>9 AND totti<>16 ENDPROC 

330 NEXT 

390 LDA ytablo’s+n,X 

1570 LDA oldhiV*- j%, X 

5440 IF tok%=16 THEN 

340 ENDIF 

400 STA ytablo%,X 

1580 STA laet+1 

5450 IF dpent%>0 ENDPROC 

350 UNTIL FALSE 

410 LDA ytabhi%4n,X 

1590 LDA ytablo%+j%,X 

5460 dpentfs=l 

360 END 

420 STA ytabhi%,X 

1600 CLC 

5470 ELSE 

370 : 

430 LDA ytablo%+n*(n-2),X 

1610 ADC vytablo%+j%,X 

5480 IF dpent%>0 THEN d+=(tokV10‘dpent 

380 DEFPROCsmooth ( 8 , q ) 

440 STA ytablo%4n*(n-l),X 

1620 STA ytablo%*j%,X 

%) :dpent%+=l ELSE d=d*10*tok% 

390 IF s<2 s=2 

450 LDA ytabhiVn* (n-2) ,X 

1630 LDA ytabhi%+j%,X 

5490 ENDIF 

400 IF q>p qap 

460 STA ytabhiVn*(n-l),X 

1640 ADC vytabhi%+j%,X 

5500 ENDIF 

410 x(l)=x(2) 

470 DEX 

1650 STA ytabhi%+j%,X 

5510 ENDIF 

420 y(l)=y(2) 

480 BPL copytandb 

1660 TAY 

5520 x=d 

430 X (p+1 ) =x (p) 

490 : 

1670 LDA div41o%, Y 

5530 ENDPROC 

440 y(p+l)=y(p) 

500 LDX #0 

1680 CLC 

5540 s 

450 FOR n=s-l TO q 

510 .copylandr 

1690 ADC ypos%+j%,X 

5550 DEF PROCoper key(k%) 

460 GCOL3.1 

520 ] 

1700 TAY 

5560 LOCAL tokens 

470 CIRCLE x(n) ,y (n) , 10 

530 FOR k%=0 TO bands’s- 1 

1710 LDA xpos%+j%,X 

5570 token%=ftok’s(k%) 

480 IF n=B-l PROCbcde:n*=l 

540 j%=kV256 

1720 CLC 

5580 IF token%=17 THEN 

490 a=FNa*SGN(d) 

550 [OPT pass’s 

1730 ADC scrlo%,Y 

5590 t=EVAL(op$) :x=t :dat:op$=nop$ 

500 cplx=SINRAD(c-a)*e+x(n) 

560 LDA ytablo’s+j’s+l.X 

1740 STA temp 

5600 ELSE 

510 cplyaCOSRAD(c-a) *e+y(n) 

570 STA ytabloUj%,X 

1750 STA oldlo%+j%,X 

5610 IF token%<>-3 THEN 

520 PROCbcde 

580 LDA ytablo’s+j’s+n-2,X 

1760 LDA scrhi%, Y 

5620 x=EVAL(fexp$(k%)):d=x 

530 a=FNa*SGN(e) 

590 STA ytablo’s+j’s*n-l,X 

1770 ADC #0 

5630 ELSE 

540 cp2x=SINRAD(b+a) *d+x(n+l) 

600 LDA ytabhi’s+j’s+l,X 

1780 STA temp+1 

5640 t=EVAL(op$) :d=t:op$=fexp$(k%) 

550 cp2y=COSRAD(b+a)*d+y(n+l) 

610 STA ytabhi’s+j’s,X 

1790 STA oldhi%+j%,X 

5650 ENDIF 

560 PROCcurve(x(n) ,y(n) ,cplx,cply,cp2x 

620 LDA ytabhi%4j%4n-2,X 

1800 LDA bit%,X 

5660 ENDIF 

,cp2y,x(n+l) ,y(n*l) ) 

630 STA ytabhiVj%4n-l,X 

1810 LDY #0 

5670 newenfs=TRUE 

570 NEXT 

640 ] 

1820 EOR (temp) ,Y 

5680 ENDPROC 

580 ENDPROC 

650 NEXT k% 

1830 STA (temp) , Y 

5690 : 

590 : 

660 [OPT pass% 

1840 LDA bit^, X 

5700 DEF FNcvtr{ angle) 

600 DEF FNa 

670 TXA 

1850 EOR (last) , Y 

5710 IF degrees’^ THEN =RAD{angle) ELSE 

610 a=b-c 

680 CLC 

1860 STA (last) , Y 

=angle 

620 IF a>180 a=-(360-ABS(a))*SGN(a) 

690 ADC #n 

1870 I NX 

5720 : 

630 =(90-ABS(a)/2)*SGN(a) 

700 TAX 

1880 BNE plot(k%) 

5730 DEF FNcvfr(rad) 

640 : 

710 BNE copylandr 

1890 ] 

5740 IF degrees’s THEN =DEG(rad) ELSE =r 

650 DEF PROCbcde 

720 ] 

1900 NEXT k% 

ad 

660 baFNdeg(n+l,n+l,n,n) 

730 FOR k\=0 TO bands%-l 

1910 [OPT pass’s 

5750 : 

670 caFNdeg(n+l,n+l,n+2,n+2) 

740 j%=kV256 

1920 RTS 

5760 DEF FNfact(v) 

680 d=FNdist(n,n,n*l,n*l) 

750 IF k%=0 OR k\=3 THEN [OPT passes LD 

1930 : 

5770 LOCAL x,v% 

690 e=FNdist(n+l,n+l,n+2,n+2) 

X #256-n: ] ELSE [OPT pass’siLDX #0:] 

1940 .cycle 

5780 v%=INT(v) 

700 ENDPROC 

760 IF k%=0 j’saj’s+n 

1950 LDX #63 

5790 x=l 

710 s 

770 [OPT pas s% 

1960 .cycleloop 

5800 IF rtov OR vVl ERROR expositive 

720 DEF PROCcurve(x0,y0,xl,yl,x2,y2,x3 

780 .preloop(k%) 

1970 LDA sinlo%,X 

int needed" 

,y3) 

790 DEX 

1980 STA ytablo%+n+l 

5810 WHILE vVl:x=x*v%:vVal:ENDWHILE 

730 LOCAL x,y,n,t,tl 

800 DEX 

1990 LDA sinhi%,X 

5820 =x 

740 GC0L3 , 2 

810 .loop(k%) 

2000 STA ytabhi%+n+l 

Listing 3 - MindRead 

750 nal0 

760 HOVE X0,y0 

820 LDA ytablo’s+j’s,X 

830 STA temp 

2010 LDA #0 

2020 STA vytablo%+n+l 

770 xl=xl+2*x0 

840 LDA ytabhiVj».,X 

2030 STA vytabhi%+n+l 

10 REM >MindRead (Info3) 

780 ylayl+2*y0 

850 ASL temp 

2040 TXA 

20 REM by Robin Owens 

790 x2=x2+2*x3 

860 ROL A 

2050 PHA 

30 REM for all machines 

800 y2=y2+2*y3 

870 ASL temp 

2060 JSR wave 

40 REM (c) BAD September 1992 

810 FOR 1=0 TO n 

880 ROL A 

2070 PLA 

50 : 

820 t=I/n 

890 STA temp4l 

2080 TAX 

60 MODE 0 

830 tl=l-t 

900 LDA ytablo%4jVn,X 

2090 DEX 

70 DIM comb_o%{255) ,comb_z’s(255) 

840 x=x0*tl A 3+xl*t*tl"2+x2«tl*t' , 24x3*t 

910 CLC 

2100 BPL cycleloop 

80 FOR x%=0 TO 255 

*3 

920 ADC ytablo’s+j’s+n.X 

2110 BIT &FF 

90 corab_o’s(x’s)=l 

850 y=y0*tl“3+yl*t*tl“2+y2*tl*t'2+y3*t 

930 TAY 

2120 BPL cycle 

100 comb z%(x’s)=l 

“3 

940 LDA ytabhi’s+jVn.X 

2130 RTS 

110 NEXT 

860 DRAW x,y 

950 ADC ytabhi’s*j’s+n,X 

2140 ] 

120 prev%=0 

870 NEXT 

960 PHA 

2150 sinloW%:P%=P%+64 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 


2160 sinhi*=P*:P*=P*+64 
2170 NEXT pass* 

2160 !tab=&10204080 
2190 tab! 4=&01020408 
2200 PRINT"Please wait..." 

2210 FOR i*=0 TO n*n-l STEP 4 

2220 i*!ytablo*=0 

2230 i*!ytabhi*=0 

2240 i*! vytablo*=0 

2250 i*!vytabhi*=0 

2260 i*!oldlo*=0 

2270 i*!oldhi*=&58585858 

2280 NEXT 

2290 FOR i*=0 TO 63 
2300 a*=&4000*SIN(i**PI/32) 

2310 Binlo*?i*=a* HOD 256 
2320 sinhi*?i*=a* DIV 256 
2330 NEXT 

2340 FOR i*=0 TO 255 

2350 a*=&5800+48+320* (i% DIV 8)+(i* AND 

7) 

2360 scrlo*?i*=a* HOD 256 

2370 scrhi*?i*=a* DIV 256 

2380 v*=i* DIV 4 

2390 IF v*>31 v*=v*-64 

2400 div41o*?i*=v* AND &FF 

2410 div4hi*?i*=(v* AND &FF00) DIV 256 

2420 NEXT 

2430 FOR i*=0 TO n-1 
2440 FOR j%=0 TO n-1 
2450 xpos*? (i*+n* j*) = (4*i%+3* j%) AND 24 

8 

2460 ypos*?(i*+n*j*)=yoff+3*j% 

2470 NEXT 

2480 FOR j*=0 TO n/4-1 
2490 bit*?(i*+n*j%)=tab?((4*iV3*j%) AN 
D 7) 

2500 NEXT 
2510 NEXT 
2520 CLS 

2530 VDU 23;8202;0;0;0; 

2540 CALL cycle 
2550 END 

Listing 6 - Wave32 

10 REM >Wave32 (Info6) 

20 REM by DCA, base on a program 
30 REM by Michel Grimminck 
40 REM for 32-bit only 
50 REM (c) BAU September 1992 
60 : 

70 MODE 13 
80 OFF 
90 PROCass 

100 PRINT "Please wait..." 

110 FOR i*=0 TO aide*side-l 
120 height! (4*i*)=0 
130 velocity! (4*i*)=0 
140 NEXT 

150 ORIGIN 640,512 
160 !ecale=ll 
170 DIM x(l),y(l) 

180 x(0)=side DIV 4 
190 x(l)=3* (side DIV 4) 

200 y(0)=side DIV 4 
210 y(l)=3* (side DIV 4) 

220 t*=0 
230 ang*=0 

240 PRINTTAB(33,0)"+ and -"TAB(34, 1) "c 
hange"TAB (34,2) "scale" 

250 REPEAT 
260 CALL wave 
270 FOR i%=0 TO 1 

280 height! (4*(x(i*)+side*y(i*) ) )=(2‘1 
8) *COSRAD(ang*) 

290 velocity! (4*(x(i*)+side*y(i*) ) )=0 

300 NEXT 

310 ang*+=2 

320 CASE INKEY$ (0) OF 

330 WHEN !scale-=l 

340 WHEN : ! scale +=1 

350 ENDCASE 

360 UNTIL FALSE 

370 : 

380 DEF PROCass 

390 log2side=7 

400 side=2*log2side 

410 DIM code* &1000+8* (side*side) 

420 friction=10 
430 tension=4 
440 sp=13:link=14:pc=15 
450 FOR pass%=0 TO 2 STEP 2 
460 P*=code* 

470 WHILE P* MOD 16<>8 
480 P*+=4 
490 ENDWHILE 
500 (OPT pass* 

510 .wave STMFD (sp) ! , {r0-rl2, link 


710 MOV 

r2, r2, LSL r8 

720 MOV 

r3,r3,LSL r8 

730 ADR 

r4,colourtab 

740 LDRB 

r0, [r4, r0,LSR #25] 

750 LDRB 

rl, (r4, rl, LSR #25] 

760 LDRB 

r2, [r4,r2,LSR #25] 

770 LDRB 

r3, [r4, r3, LSR #25] 

780 ORR 

r0, r0, r0, LSL #8 

790 ORR 

rl,rl,rl,LSL #8 

800 ORR 

r0,r0,rl,LSL #16 

810 ORR 

r2,r2,r2,LSL #8 

820 ORR 

r3,r3,r3,LSL #8 

830 ORR 

rl,r2,r3,LSL #16 

840 ADD 

r2,r9,#320 

850 STMIA 

(2) , {r0-rlj 

860 STMIA 

(9) ! , (r0-rl) 

870 SUBS 

rl4 , rl4, #4 

880 BNE 

add 2 

890 ADD 

r9, r9, #(320-2 *side) +320 

900 CMP 

rl0, rl2 

910 BLT 

add 

920 ADR 

r0, height 

930 ADD 

rl, r0, #side*4 

940 ADD 

r2, r0, #side* (side-1) *4 

950 SUB 

r3, r2, #side*4 

960 MOV 

rl4, #8ide 

970 .copyl 

LDMIA (1) !,{r4-rll) 

980 STMIA 

(0)!,{r4-rll) 

990 LDMIA 

(3) !,{r4-rll) 

1000 STMIA 

(2)!,{r4-rll) 

1010 SUBS 

rl4,rl4,#8 

1020 BNE 

copyl 

1030 ADR 

r3, height 

1040 ADD 

r4,r3,#(side-l)*4 

1050 MOV 

r2,#side 

1060 .copy2 

LDR r8,[r3,#4J 

1070 STR 

r8, (r3 ] ,#side*4 

1080 LDR 

r8, (r4, #-4] 

1090 STR 

r8, [r4] , #side*4 

1100 SUBS 

r2,r2,#l 

1110 BNE 

copy2 

1120 MOV 

rl, #side-2 

1130 ADR 

r3, height 

1140 ADD 

r3,r3,#side*4 

1150 ADD 

r4 , r3 , #velocity-height 

1160 .loop 

STMFD (sp) 1, {rl) 

1170 LDMIA 

(3) ! , (r9-rl2) 

1180 ADD 

r4, r4, #4 

1190 MOV 

r2,#side-2 

1200 SUB 

rl4,r3,#side*4+12 

1210 . loop2 

ADD r0,rl4,#2*side*4 

1220 LDMIA 

(0),{r7,r8) 

1230 LDMIA 

(14)!,{r5,r6) 

1240 LDMIA 

(4),{r0-rl) 

1250 SUB 

r0, r0, r0, ASR #friction 

1260 ADD 

r0, r0, r9, ASR #tension 

1270 ADD 

r0,r0,rll,ASR Stension 

1280 ADD 

r0,r0,r5,ASR Stension 

1290 ADD 

r0,r0,r7,ASR #tension 

1300 SUB 

r0, r0, rl0, ASR #tension-2 

1310 SUB 

rl, rl,rl,ASR #friction 

1320 ADD 

rl,rl,rl0,ASR #tension 

1330 ADD 

rl, rl, rl2, ASR fttension 

1340 ADD 

rl,rl,r6,ASR #tension 

1350 ADD 

rl,rl,r8,ASR #tension 

1360 SUB 

rl, rl, rll,ASR #tension-2 

1370 STMIA 

(4)!,{r0-rl) 

1380 MOV 

r9, rll 

1390 MOV 

rl0, rl2 

1400 LDMIA 

(3) ! , (rll,rl2) 

1410 SUBS 

r2, r2, #2 

1420 BNE 

loop2 

1430 LDMFD 

(sp) !, (rl) 

1440 SUB 

r3, r3, #8 

1450 ADD 

r4, r4, #4 

1460 SUBS 

rl,rl,#l 

1470 BNE 

loop 

1480 LDMFD 

(sp) !, (r0-rl2,pc) 

1490 : 


1500 .scale 

EQUD 0 

1510 .vlist 

EQUD 148 

1520 EQUD 

-1 

1530 . 8crst 

EQUD 0 


1540 ] 

1550 colourtab=P*:P*+=128 
1560 WHILE P* MOD 16<>4 
1570 P%+=4 
1580 ENDWHILE 

1590 height=P*:P*+=4*side*aide 
1600 velocity=P*:P*+=4*side*side 
1610 NEXT pas s% 

1620 FOR q=0 TO 127 STEP 32 

1630 8=0 

1640 READ a$,ch 

1650 FOR t=0 TO 31 

1660 a=EVAL("&"+MID$ (a$,t*2+l,2)) 

1670 colourtab?(q+t)=a 

1680 a+=a 

1690 NEXT 


520 ADR 

r0, vlist 

530 ADR 

rl.scret 

540 SWI 

"XOSJTeadVduVariables' 

550 LDR 

r8, scale 

560 RSB 

r8, r8,#25 

570 LDR 

r9, 8crst 

580 ADR 

rl0, height 

590 ADD 

rll,rl0,#side*side*4 

600 MOV 

r 12, rll 

610 .add 

MOV rl4, #side 

620 .add2 

LDMIA (10),{r0-r3) 

630 LDMIA 

(Il)!,{r4-r7) 

640 ADD 

r0, r0, r4 

650 ADD 

rl, rl,r5 

660 ADD 

r2,r2,r6 

670 ADD 

r3,r3,r7 

680 STHIA 

(10)!,{r0-r3] 

690 MOV 

r0,r0,LSL r8 

700 MOV 

rl,rl,LSL r8 


1700 IF soch THEN PRINT '"Checksum erro 
r at DATA line ";q/32*l 
1710 NEXT 
1720 ENDPROC 
1730 : 

1740 DATA FPDFDEDDDCB3B2B1B00F0E0D0C0D0 
E0F98999ABABBBAB9B88786858491919293, 4451 
1750 DATA BCBDBEBFB7B6B5B41B1A1918191A1 
B94B4B5B6B73F3E3D3C1312111014151617, 2940 
1760 DATA 163D3E3F3FD6D7D6D5D43B3A39380 
7060504303132335C5D5E5D5556577C7475, 2776 
1770 DATA 76777FF7F6F5F45B5A59582726252 
4 202 10000010203 2C2D2ED0D1D2D3FCFDFE, 3657 

Listing 7 - Contrast 

10 REM >Contrast (Info7) 

20 REM Drawfile 'contrast control' 

30 REM by P Drinkwater 
40 REM for 32-bit machines 


50 REM (c) BAU September 1992 
60 : 

70 ON ERROR PRINT""; REPORTS; " AT LINE 
"; ERL: END 

80 PROCsetvariables 
90 outputfile$=FNenterfilespecificati 
ons 

100 PROCtranslatefile(outputfile$) 

110 END 
120 : 

130 DEF PROCtranslatefile(outputfile$) 
140 channel=OPENUP(outputfile$) 

150 filepointer=40 

160 PTR#channel=filepointer 

170 REPEAT 

180 type=FNreadtypeof object 
190 size=FNreadsizeofobject 
200 CASE type OF 

210 WHEN 0:endoffile=FNmi8Sobject(size 

) 

220 WHEN l:endoffile=FNfoundtext(size) 
230 WHEN 2:endoffile=FNfoundpath(size) 
240 WHEN 3:endoffile=FNmissobject(size 

) 

250 WHEN 4:endoffile=FNmissobject(size 

) 

260 WHEN 5:endoffile=FNfoundsprite(siz 
e> 

270 WHEN 6:endoffile=FNfoundgroup 
280 WHEN 7:endof f ile=FNmissobject (size 

) 

290 WHEN 8:endof file=FNmiBsobject (size 

) 

300 WHEN 9:endoffile=FNtaissobject(size 

) 

310 ENDCASE 
320 UNTIL endoffile 
330 CLOSEttchannel 
340 END 
350 : 

360 DEF PROCsetvariables 
370 DIM colour 4,sprname 12 
380 red=37/ (100/3) 

390 green=43/ (100/3) 

400 blue=20/( 100/3) 

410 CLOSEH0 

420 PROCresetvariables 
430 ENDPROC 
440 : 

450 DEF PROCresetvariables 

460 contshift*=0 

470 ahift*=0 

480 endoffile=FALSE 

490 ENDPROC 

500 : 

510 DEF FNenterfilespecifications 
520 PROCresetvariables 
530 INPUT"Please enter the source file 
name : "inputfile$ 

540 INPUT"Please enter the destination 
file name : "output file$ 

550 OSCLI"REMOVE "+outputf ile$ 

560 OSCLI"COPY "+inputfile$+" "+output 
file$+" “C“F~V" 

570 SYS "PDriver_Info" TO ,x,y 
580 startvalforprinter*=-l 
590 IF x=240 AND y=216 THEN startvalfo 
rprinter*=110 

600 IF x=240 AND y=144 THEN startvalfo 
rprinter*=90 

610 IF x=120 AND y=144 THEN startvalfo 
rprinter*=40 

620 IF x=90 AND y=72 THEN startvalforp 
rinter*=0 

630 IF x=60 AND y=72 THEN startvalforp 
rinter%=0 

640 IF startvalforprinter*=-l THEN PRI 
NT '"Sorry. Cannot match printer resoluti 
on to one recognised.": END 

650 PRINT' "With contrast value , a pos 
itive value will make the greys more dis 
aipated (contrast up). Values between -1 
00 and 100 are acceptable" 

660 INPUT"Please enter the contrast va 
lue : "contrast* 

670 IF contrast*<>0 THEN 
680 oldstartvalforprinter*=startvalfor 
printer* 

690 contrast*+=100 

700 startvalforprinter*=256- ( (256-star 
tvalforprinter*) * (contrast*/100) ) 

710 ELSE 

720 oldstartvalforprinter*=startvalfor 
printer* 

730 ENDIF 

740 IP startvalforprinter*>256 THEN at 
artvalforprinter*=256 
750 midgrey= (256-startvalforprinter*) / 
2+startvalforprinter* 

760 contshift*sFNcalcgreyforcontshift ( 
128) -midgrey 

770 PRINT "'With shift value (BRIGHTNES 
S), positive values gives a lighter imag 
e (brightness up) . Values between -100 a 
nd 100 are acceptable" 

780 INPUT"Plea8e enter the shift value 
: "shift* 

790 shift*=shift**2.56 
800 soutputfile$ 

810 : 

820 DEF FNreadtypeofobject 
830 type=FNreadwordat_fp 
840 filepointer+=4 
850 PTR#channel=filepointer 
860 =type 
870 : 

880 DEF FNreadsizeofobject 
890 size=FNreadwordat_fp 
900 filepointer+=4+16 


910 PTR#channel=filepointer 
920 seize 
930 : 

940 DEF FNfoundgroup 
950 filepointer+=12 

960 IF EXT#channel<=filepointer THEN e 
ndoffilesTRUE ELSE PTR#channel=filepoint 
er 

970 sendoffile 
980 : 

990 DEF FNtaissobject(size) 

1000 filepointer+=size-24 
1010 IF EXT#channel<=filepointer THEN e 
ndoffilesTRUE ELSE PTR#channel=f ilepoint 
er 

1020 sendoffile 
1030 : 

1040 DEF FNfoundsprite(size) 

1050 PROCholdvalueof_fp 
1060 PTR#channel=filepointer+32 
1070 offsetsFNreadwordat_fp 
1080 PTR#channel=filepointer+4 
1090 sname$sFNreadcurr8prite8name 
1100 filepointer+s40 
1110 PTR#channel=filepointer 
1120 mode=BGET#channel 
1130 SYS "OS_ReadModeVariable",mode, 9 T 
0 , , bpp 

1140 IF bpp=0 THEN change=4 
1150 IF bpp si THEN change=8 
1160 IF bpp=2 THEN change=32 
1170 IF bpp =3 THEN PRINT "'This program 
cannot handle 3 bpp sprites": END 
1180 IF 44+(4*change)=offset THEN 
1190 filepointer+=4 
1200 PTR#channel=filepointer 
1210 FOR count =1 TO change 
1220 PROCchangecolofnextbyte 
1230 NEXT 
1240 ELSE 

1250 PRINT"Found a sprite without a pal 
ette (named '";sname$;"') . Ignoring" 

1260 ENDIF 

1270 endoffilesFNrecalloldvalueof_fp(si 
ze) 

1280 sendoffile 
1290 : 

1300 DEF FNfoundtext(size) 

1310 PROCholdvalueof_fp 
1320 PROCchangecolofnextbyte 
1330 PROCchangecolofnextbyte 
1340 endoff ilesFNrecalloldvalueof_fp(8i 
ze) 

1350 sendoffile 
1360 : 

1370 DEF FNfoundpath(size) 

1380 PROCholdvalueof_fp 
1390 PROCchangecolofnextbyte 
1400 PROCchangecolofnextbyte 
1410 endoffile=FNrecalloldvalueof_fp(8i 
ze) 

1420 sendoffile 
1430 : 

1440 DEF PROCchangecolofnextbyte 

1450 posfilepointersfilepointer 

1460 col=FNreadwordat_fp 

1470 Icolourscol 

1480 PROCBtorenewgreyvalue 

1490 PTR#channel=posfilepointer 

1500 PROCwritewordat_fp 

1510 filepointer+s4 

1520 PTR#channel=filepointer 

1530 ENDPROC 

1540 : 

1550 DEF PROCholdvalueof_fp 
1560 oldf ilepointersfilepointer 
1570 ENDPROC 
1580 : 

1590 DEF FNrecalloldvalueof_fp(size) 

1600 filepointersoldfilepointer+size-24 
1610 IF EXT#channel<sfilepointer THEN e 
ndoffilesTRUE ELSE PTR#channel=f ilepoint 
er 

1620 sendoffile 
1630 : 

1640 DEF PROCstorenewgreyvalue 
1650 rscolour?l 
1660 gscolour?2 
1670 bscolour?3 

1680 IF NOT((r=255 AND g=255 AND b=255) 

OR (r=0 AND g=0 AND bs0) ) THEN 

1690 rscolour?l*red 

1700 g=colour?2*green 

1710 bscolour?3*blue 

1720 greys (r+g+b)/3 

1730 PROCstoregreyvalue ( FNcalculatenewg 
reyvalue(grey) ) 

1740 ELSE 

1750 PROCstoregreyvalue (r) 

1760 ENDIF 
1770 ENDPROC 
1780 : 

1790 DEF FNcalculatenewgreyvalue(oldcol 

) 

1800 IF oldcol=0 THEN =0 
1810 IF oldcol=255 THEN =255 
1820 = ( ( (255-startvalforprinter*) /16) * ( 
oldcol/16) ) -2+startvalforprinter*+8hift* 
+contshift% 

1830 : 

1840 DEF PROCstoregreyvalue (col) 

1850 IF col<0 THEN col=0 

1860 IF Col>255 THEN col=255 

1870 colour?l=col 

1880 colour?2scol 

1890 colour?3=col 

1900 ENDPROC 

1910 : 

1920 DEF FNreadwordat_fp 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 85 


“* 1930 = (BGET#channel)MBGET#channel<<8) + 

( BGET#channe 1 < < 1 6 ) + ( BGETftchannel < < 2 4 ) 

1940 : 

1950 DEF PROCwritewordatJp 
1960 BPUTttchannel, colour?© 

1970 BPUT#channel,colour?l 
1980 BPUT#channel, colour? 2 
1990 BPUTSchannel, colour? 3 
2000 ENDPROC 
2010 : 

2020 DEF FHcalcgreyforcont8hift(oldcol) 
2030 = ( ( (255-oldBtartvalforprinter%)/16 
) * (oldcol/16) ) -2+oldstartvalforprinter% 
2040 : 

2050 DEF FNreadcurrspritesname 
2060 FOR count=0 TO 11 
2070 sprname?count=BGET#channel 
2080 NEXT 

2090 sprnane?12=13 
2100 =$sprname 

Listing 8 - BandC 

10 REM > BandC (ln£o8) 

20 REM By Mark Brundale 
30 REM For 32 bit only 
40 REM (C) BAD September 1992 
50 : 

60 ‘ScreenLoad Screen 
70 DIM cols (15, 2) 

80 FOR col=0 TO 15 

90 SYS "OS_ReadPalette" , col , 16 TO ,,r 
gb 

100 cols(col,0)=(rgb>>8) AND &FF 
110 cols (col, l) = (rgb»16) AND &FP 
120 cols(col,2) = (rgb»24) AND &FF 
130 NEXT 

140 MOUSE RECTANGLE -256,0,512,512 
150 HOUSE TO 256,0 
160 REPEAT 

170 MOUSE bright, contrast, z 
180 WAIT 

190 FOR col=0 TO 15 

200 COLOUR col,FNc(Col,0),FNc(col,l),F 
Nc(col,2) 

210 NEXT 
220 UNTIL 0 
230 : 

240 DEF FNc(c,n) 

250 v=contrast* (cols (c,n) ‘bright) DIV 
256 

260 IF v<0 THEN =0 
270 IF v>255 THEN *255 
280 =v 

Listing 9 - WaterWheel 

10 REM >WaterWheel (In£o9) 

20 REH by Bryan Creer 
30 REM for 32 bit only 
40 REM (C) BAU September 1992 
50 : 

60 PROCinitial 
70 m=o 
80 R%=0 

90 ON ERROR PROCreport 
100 T%=TIME 
110 REPEAT 

120 PRINT TAB (0,31); “Rate of flow - *> 
inflow; 

130 t%=TT%+(TIHE-T%) 

140 M%=t%/6000 

150 S%=(t%/100)HOD60 

160 PRINT TAB(34,31);K%;-:";S%; 

170 PROCscreen 
180 PROCf ill 
190 PROCdrawwheel 
200 PROCrecording 
210 R%+=1 

220 IF R% > 3199 THEN 

230 cycleind%=TRUE 

240 R%=0 

250 ENDIF 

260 UNTIL FALSE 

270 END 

280 : 

290 DEF PROCinitial 
300 MODE 9 

310 COLOUR 0,240,240,240 
320 COLOUR 1,0, 0,0 
330 COLOUR 2,0,0,240 
340 COLOUR 7,240,0,0 
350 ORIGIN 640,576 

360 INPUT TAB (12, 15); "Rate of flow"; in 
flow 
370 OFF 

380 friction = 0.03 
390 omega = 0 
400 extreoeW=0 
410 extremeA=0 
420 drops%=0 
430 cycleind%=FALSE 
440 s%=l 
450 B%=0 

460 DIM point0(2) , water (7) 

470 point0(2) = 1 
480 DIM matrixR(2,2) 

490 DIM pointX{7) ,pointY(7) 

500 DIM recordW(3199) 

510 DIM recordA(3199) 

520 FOR N%=0 TO 7 
530 READ X, Y 

540 pointX(N%) = X * 320 
550 pointY(N%) = Y • 320 
560 NEXT 

570 PROCrotate(0. 15) 

580 ENDPROC 
590 : 

600 DEF PROCscreen 



610 WAIT 

620 SYS "OS_Byte w , 113,8% 

630 0%=B% EOR 3 

640 SYS "OS_Byte", 112,8% 

650 CLS 
660 GCOL 1 
670 ENDPROC 
680 : 

690 DEF PROCfill 
700 GCOL 2 
710 MOVE -4,448 
720 DRAW -4,192 
730 MOVE 0,448 
740 DRAW 0,192 
750 MOVE 4,448 
760 DRAW 4,192 

770 IF ABS(pointX(B%)) < 60 THEN 

780 water (B%) ♦= inflow 

790 IF water (B%) > 132 THEN 

600 water(B%) * 132 

810 ENDIF 

820 ELSE 

830 IF ABS(pointX( (B%*1)M0D8) ) < 60 TH 

840 B% * (B%*1) HOD 8 
850 water(B%) ♦» inflow 
860 IF water (B%) > 132 THEN 
870 water (B%) = 132 
880 ENDIF 
890 ELSE 

900 IP ABS(pointX{ (B%+7)HOD8) ) < 60 TH 

910 B% = (B%+7 ) HOD 8 
920 water(B%) ♦= inflow 
930 IF water (B%) > 132 THEN 
940 water(B%) = 132 
950 ENDIF 
960 ELSE 

970 PR0Cpour(-4, 320) 

980 PROCpour (0,288) 

990 PROCpour (4, 320) 

1000 ENDIF 

1010 ENDIF 

1020 ENDIF 

1030 moment =0 

1040 FOR N%=0 TO 7 

1050 moment -= water (N%) ‘pointX (N%) 

1060 IF water(N%) > 0 THEN 
1070 water (N\) -= 0.25 
1080 ENDIF 
1090 NEXT 

1100 accel * moment / 4000000 - omega • 
friction 

1110 omega ♦ * accel 
1120 ENDIF 

1130 PROCrotate (omega) 

1140 ENDPROC 
1150 : 

1160 DEF PROCdrawwheel 
1170 HOVE pointX(7) ,pointY(7) 

1180 FOR N%=0 TO 7 
1190 GCOL 1 

1200 DRAW pointX(N%) ,pointY(N%) 

1210 DRAW 0,0 

1220 CIRCLE PILL pointX(N%) ,pointY(N%) , 

6 

1230 MOVE BY -72,-128 
1240 GCOL 2 

1250 PLOT 661,128, water (N%) 

1260 IF water (N%) > 128 THEN 
1270 PROCpour (pointX(N%) -68, pointY (NV)* 
4) 

1280 PROCpour (pointX (N%) +68 , pointY (N\) ♦ 
4) 

1290 ENDIF 

1300 IF water (N%) > 0 THEN 
1310 MOVE pointX (N%), pointY (N%) -128 
1320 PROCtrickle 
1330 ENDIF 

1340 HOVE pointX(N%) ,pointY(N%) 

1350 GCOL 1 
1360 DRAW BY -64,0 
1370 DRAW BY 0,-128 
1380 DRAW BY 128,0 
1390 DRAW BY 0,128 
1400 DRAW BY -64,0 

1410 CIRCLE FILL pointX (N%) , pointY (N%) , 

8 

1420 MOVE pointX(N%) ,pointY(N%) 

1430 NEXT 
1440 ENDPROC 
1450 ; 

1460 DEF PROCpour (X%,y\) 

1470 MOVE x%,y% 

1480 DRAW BY 0,-240 - drops% 

1490 PROCtrickle 
1500 ENDPROC 
1510 : 

1520 DEF PROCtrickle 
1530 MOVE BY 0,drops%‘-16 
1540 DRAW BY 0,-16 
1550 HOVE BY 0,drops%*-32 
1560 DRAW BY 0,-16 
1570 MOVE BY 0,drops%*-48 
1580 DRAW BY 0,-16 
1590 MOVE BY 0,drops%*-64 
1600 DRAW BY 0,-16 
1610 drops%+=l 
1620 drops%*dropo% MOD 17 
1630 ENDPROC 
1640 : 

1650 DEF PROCrotate (angle) 

1660 PROCsetmatrix(matrixR() .angle) 

1670 FOR N%*0 TO 7 

1680 point0(0)=pointX(N%) 

1690 pointO ( 1 ) = pointY (N%) 

1700 pointOO = pointOO . matrixRO 
1710 pointX (N%)=point0(0) 

1720 pointY (N%)=point0(l) 


1730 NEXT 
1740 ENDPROC 
1750 s 

1760 DEF PROCsetmatrix( RETURN matrix<), 
angle) 

1770 matrix(0,0) = COS(angle) 

1780 matrix(0, 1) = SIN(angle) 

1790 matrix(l,0) * -SIN(angle) 

1800 matrix(l,l) * COS(angle) 

1810 matrix(2,2) * 1 
1820 ENDPROC 
1830 : 

1840 DEF PROCrecording 

1850 recordW(R%)=omega 

1860 recordA(R%)*accel 

1870 IF ABS (omega) > extremeW THEN 

1880 extremeW » ABS (omega) 

1890 ENDIF 

1900 IF ABS(accel) > extremeA THEN 
1910 extremeA * ABS (accel) 

1920 ENDIF 
1930 ENDPROC 
1940 : 

1950 DEF PROCreport 
1960 m*TTVTIHE-T% 

1970 WAIT 

1980 SYS -OS_Byto", 113,8% 

1990 PROCgraph 

2000 ON ERROR GOTO 2020 

2010 G$=GBT$ 

2020 PROClorentz 
2030 ON ERROR GOTO 2050 
2040 G$»GET$ 

2050 ON ERROR OFF 
2060 REPEAT 
2070 CLS 

2080 INPUT TAB (16, 15) ; "Continue" ;cont$ 
2090 IF cont$*"Y" OR cont$="N" OR cont$ 
*-y" OR cont$*"n" THEN 
2100 cont%=TRUE 
2110 ELSE 
2120 cont%=FALSE 
2130 ENDIF 
2140 UNTIL cont% 

2150 IF cont$*-Y- OR cont$=-y" THEN 
2160 ORIGIN 640,576 
2170 GOTO 90 
2180 ELSE 
2190 CLS: ON: END 
2200 ENDIF 
2210 ENDPROC 
2220 : 

2230 DEF PROCgraph 
2240 CLS 

2250 ORIGIN 0,512 
2260 GCOL 1 
2270 MOVE 1276,0 
2280 DRAW 0,0 
2290 GCOL 7 

2300 Beale = 500 / extremeW 
2310 IF cycleind% THEN 
2320 FOR r%s0 TO 319 

2330 DRAW r%‘4,recordW( ( (R%d)+rV10)HO 
D3200) ‘scale 
2340 NEXT 
2350 ELSE 

2360 FOR r%*0 TO 319 

2370 DRAW r%‘4,recordW((R%d)‘r\/320)‘s 
cale 

2380 NEXT 
2390 ENDIF 

2400 PRINT TAB(0, 31) ; inflow; 

2410 ENDPROC 
2420 : 

2430 DEF PROClorentz 
2440 CLS 

2450 ORIGIN 640,512 
2460 GCOL 1 
2470 MOVE 0,512 
2480 DRAW 0,-512 
2490 MOVE -640,0 
2500 DRAW 640,0 
2510 GCOL 7 

2520 scaleW * 600 / extremeW 
2530 scaleA = 500 / extremeA 
2540 IF cycleind% THEN 
2550 MOVE recordW(R%) ‘scaleW, recordA(R% 
) ‘scaleA 

2560 FOR r%-l TO 3199 
2570 subs%«(R%+r%) MOD 3200 
2580 DRAW recordW(subB%) ‘scaleW, recordA 
(subs%) ‘scaleA 
2590 NEXT 
2600 ELSE 
2610 MOVE 0,0 
2620 FOR r%*l TO R%-1 
2630 DRAW recordW(r%) ‘scaleW, recordA(r% 
) ‘scaleA 
2640 NEXT 
2650 ENDIF 

2660 PRINT TAB(0, 31); inflow; 

2670 ENDPROC 
2680 : 

2690 DATA 0,1 

2700 DATA 0.7071,0.7071 

2710 DATA 1,0 

2720 DATA 0.7071,-0.7071 

2730 DATA 0,-1 

2740 DATA -0.7071,-0.7071 

2750 DATA -1,0 

2760 DATA -0.7071,0.7071 

Listing 10 - GC0L8 

10 REM >GC0L8 (InfolO) 

20 REM by Dave Acton 
30 REM for all machines 
40 REM (c) BAU September 1992 
50 : 


60 MODE 1 

70 FOR code%=0 TO 3 
80 CLS 

90 READ type$ 

100 PRINT-GCOL ";code%; ",X ("type$")" 
110 FOR i%*0 TO 3 
120 FOR j%»0 TO 3 
130 PRINTTAB(12+5*i%, 4) ; i% 

140 PRINTTAB(8,8+5* j%) ; j% 

150 x%»640*160‘(i%-1.5) 

160 y%=512+160‘(1.5-j%) 

170 GCOL 0,i% 

180 HOVE x%-50,y%-50 
190 PLOT 0,100,0 
200 PLOT 81,-100,100 
210 PLOT 81,100,0 
220 GCOL code%, j% 

230 MOVE x%-30,y%-30 

240 PLOT 0,60,0 

250 PLOT 81,-30,60 

260 NEXT 

270 NEXT 

280 key=GET 

290 NEXT 

300 END 

310 : 

320 DATA Set, OR, AND, EOR 

Listing 11 - GCOL32 

10 REM >GCOL32 (Infoll) 

20 REM by Dave Acton 
30 REM for 32-bit only 
40 REM (c) BAU September 1992 
50 : 

60 MODE 1 

70 FOR code%*0 TO 3 
80 CLS 

90 READ typeS 

100 PRINT-GCOL -;code%;-,X ("type$")" 
110 FOR i%=0 TO 3 
120 FOR j%*0 TO 3 
130 PRINTTAB(12+5‘i%,4) ;i% 

140 PRINTTAB(8, 8>5‘j%) ; j% 

150 x%*640*160‘ ( i%- 1.5) 

160 y\=512d60‘(1.5-j\) 

170 GCOL i% 

180 RECTANGLE FILL X%-50,y%-50, 100, 100 
190 GCOL code%, j% 

200 CIRCLE FILL X%,y%,30 

210 NEXT 

220 NEXT 

230 key=GET 

240 NEXT 

250 END 

260 : 

270 DATA Set, OR, AND, EOR 

Listing 12 - CDWords 

10 REM >CDvords (Infol2) 

20 REM by Tony Dibble 
30 REM for 8-bit machines ♦ SpellMast 
er 

40 REM (C) BAU September 1992 
50 : 

60 MODE 3 
70 PROCinit 
80 PROCcode 
90 REPEAT 
100 PROCgetletters 
110 PROCsearch 
120 UNTIL FALSE 
130 END 
140 : 

150 DEF PROCinit 
160 smslot=7 
170 REM issue 1.67 
180 sminit=i928C:smnext=69862 
190 REM issue 1.69 
200 sminit*&9273:smnext=&98AC 
210 ENDPROC 
220 : 

230 DEF PROCgetletters 
240 VDU 26,12 

250 PRINT-Enter nine letters : "; 

260 1$b— 

270 REPEAT 
280 C$*GET$ 

290 IF c$>»"a" AND c$<»“z- c$=CHR$ (ASC 
c$-32) 

300 IF c$>*-A" AND C$<="Z- AND LENl$<9 
1 $b1$+c$:PRINT c$; 

310 IF c$*CHR$127 VDU 127:1$=LEFT$(1$, 
LEN1S-1) 

320 UNTIL c$*CHR$13 AND LENl$»9 
330 ENDPROC 
340 : 

350 DEF PROCsearch 
360 xposaO 

370 FOR letters=9 TO 3 STEP -1 

380 VDU 28,xpos,24,79,2 

390 PRINT; letters 

400 VDU 28,xpos,24,79,3 

410 ?len=letters-2 

420 FOR i=l TO 9 

430 FOR j*l TO 9 

440 IF FNdifferentd, j) PROCpickU, j) 
450 NEXT 
460 NEXT 

470 xpoasxpoBdattera+6 

480 NEXT 

490 *FX15, 0 

500 IFGET 

510 ENDPROC 

520 : 

530 DEF FNdifforent(a.b) 

540 IF a=b THEN *FALSE 
550 aS=MID$(l$,a,l) 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 


560 b$=MID$<l$,b,l) 

570 a2=INSTR(l$,a$) 

580 b2=INSTR(l$,b$) 

590 = { (a=a2) AND (b=b2)) 

600 : 

610 DEF PROCpick(a,b) 

620 a$=MID$(l$,a, 1) 

630 b$=MID$(l$,b, 1) 

640 m$=a$+b$ 

650 FOR 1=1 TO 9 

660 IF loa AND lob m$=m$+MID$ <1$, 1, 1 

) 

670 NEXT 
680 $word*m$ 

690 CALL pick 
700 ENDPROC 
710 : 

720 DEF PROCcode 

730 OBwrch=6FFEE 

740 osnewl=6FFE7 

750 DIM code 500 

760 FOR pass=0 TO 2 STEP 2 

770 PX=code 

780 {OPT pass 

790 .pick 

800 JSR setup 

810 JSR init 

820 BCS pend 

830 .pickloop 

840 JSR smnext 

850 BCS pend 

860 LDA 666 

870 CHP len 

880 BNE pickloop 

890 LDY #7 

900 .cbloop 

910 LDA word+2,Y 

920 STA cb,Y 

930 DEY 

940 BPL cbloop 
950 INY 
960 .nextloop 
970 LDX #0 
980 .nosatch 
990 LDA 6632, Y 
1000 CMP cb,X 
1010 BEQ natch 
1020 I NX 
1030 CPX #8 
1040 BEQ pickloop 
1050 BNE nosatch 
1060 .pend 
1070 JSR setdown 
1080 RTS 
1090 : 

1100 .natch 
1110 LDA #0 
1120 STA cb,X 
1130 INY 
1140 CPY 566 
1150 BNE nextloop 
1160 LDA word 
1170 JSR oswrch 
1180 LDA word+1 
1190 JSR oswrch 
1200 LDY #0 
1210 .printword 
1220 LDA 5632, Y 
1230 JSR oswrch 
1240 INY 
1250 CPY 566 
1260 BNE printword 
1270 JSR osnewl 
1280 JMP pickloop 
1290 : 

1300 .setup 
1310 LDA 5F4 
1320 STA rom 
1330 LDA ttsmslot 
1340 STA 5F4 
1350 STA 5FE30 
1360 LDX #526 


1370 .savezero 
1380 LDA 560, X 
1390 STA sixty, X 
1400 DEX 

1410 BPL savezero 
1420 LDA 5BFE0 
1430 LDA word 
1440 STA 569 
1450 LDA word+1 
1460 STA S6A 
1470 RTS 
1480 : 

1490 .setdown 
1500 LDX #526 
1510 .loadzero 
1520 LDA sixty, X 
1530 STA 560, X 
1540 DEX 

1550 BPL loadzero 
1560 LDA rom 
1570 STA 5F4 
1580 STA 5FE30 
1590 RTS 
1600 : 

1610 .init 
1620 LDA #520 
1630 STA 563 
1640 LDA #6 
1650 STA 564 
1660 LDA #0 
1670 STA 568 
1680 JMP sninit 
1690 : 

1700 .rom 
1710 BRK 
1720 .sixty 

1730 EQUS STRINGS (40," •) 

1740 .word 

1750 EQUS STRINGS (10," ") 

1760 .cb 

1770 EQUS STRINGS (10,- -) 

1780 .len 
1790 NOP 
1800 ] :NEXT 
1810 ENDPROC 

Listing 13 - Challenge 

10 REH > Challenge (In£ol3) 

20 REM Maze challenge 
30 REM by DCA 
40 REM for all nachines 
50 REM (c) BAU September 1992 
60 : 

70 seed%=-123 
80 xor%*61D872B41 

90 IF HIMEM>510O00 THEN MODE l;sqV32 
ELSE MODE 5:sq%=64 
100 size%=15 
110 raid%=(size%-l)/2 
120 DIM b%(7),maze%{size%-l,eize%-l),s 
earch%(size%-l, sizeX-l) ,dx%(3) ,dy%(3) 

130 FOR i%=0 TO 3 

140 READ dx\(i\) ,dy%(i%) 

150 NEXT 

160 PROCmake_chars 
170 nax_noves%=l00O 
180 PROCsolve_setup 
190 total_solved%=0 
200 total. moves%=0 
210 FOR maze%*l TO 10 
220 CLS 

230 PRINT"Maze: ";naze\ 

240 PR0Cbuildmaze(maze%,FNrnd(2)«l) 

250 PROCsolve_newmaze 
260 noves%=0 
270 manx%=mid\ 

280 many\=mid% 

290 amuletx%=FNrnd(size%)-l 

300 amulety%=(size%-l) * (FNrnd(2) -1) 

310 IF FNrnd(2) =1 temp%=arauletxX:amule 
tx%=amulety%jamulety%=temp% 


Listing 1 

10 REM >ARM1 
20 REM By Dave Lawrence 
30 REM For 32 bit machines 
40 REH (C) BAU September 1992 
50 : 

60 DIM code 100 
70 link=14 
80 pc=15 

90 FOR pass=0 TO 2 STEP 2 
100 PX=code 
110 [OPT pass 

120 .add ADD R0,R0,R1 

130 MOV pc, link 

140 JNEXT 
150 REPEAT 

160 INPUT "Please enter two numbers ( 
x,y) : "x,y 

170 PRINT "x+y=";x+y;" (from Basic)" 
180 AVx:B%sy 

190 PRINT "x+y=";USR(add) ; " (from ARM 
)"• 

200 

210 UNTIL FALSE 

Listing 2 

10 REM >ARM2 
20 REM By Dave Lawrence 
30 RBM For 32 bit machines 
40 REM (C) BAU September 1992 


50 : 

60 DIM code 100 
70 link=14 
80 pc=15 

90 FOR pass=0 TO 2 STEP 2 
100 PX=code 
110 [OPT pass 
120 .factorial 
130 CMP 

140 BEQ 

150 MOV 

160 .£act_loop 
170 MUL 

180 SUBS 

190 BNE 

200 

210 MOV 

220 .fact_done 
230 MOV 

240 JNEXT 
250 REPEAT 
260 INPUT "Please enter a number : "x 
270 AW 

280 PRINTx;"! = "jUSR(factorial) 

290 UNTIL FALSE 

Listing 3 

10 REM >ARM3 
20 REM By Dave Lawrence 
30 REM For 32 bit machines 
40 REM (C) BAU September 1992 
50 i 


R0, #0 
fact_done 
Rl, #1 

R1,R0,R1 
RO, R0, #1 
fact^loop 

R0,R1 

pc, link 


320 PROCshow(arauletx%,araulety%, 1) 

330 PR0Cshow(manxX,many%,2) 

340 TIME=0 
350 REPEAT 

360 PR I NTTAB (0,2)" Move s * " ; mo ve s% 

370 moves%=moves%+l 
380 oldx%=manx% 

390 oldy%=many% 

400 move_dir%=FNwhichway 
410 IF NOT FNwall (move_dir%) THEN manx 
%*manx%+dx%(move_dir%) :many%*many%+dy%(m 
ove.dirX) 

420 PROCshow(oldxX,oldy%,0) 

430 PROCshow(manxX,many%, 2) 

440 UNTIL raovesXamax movesX OR (manxXa 
amuletxX AND manyXaamuletyX) 

450 IF TIME> 120000 PRINTTAB(0, 25) "Time 
up": STOP 

460 IF manx%*amuletx% AND manyVamulet 
y% THEN total_oolved%stotal BolvedX+1 :to 
taljnovesXatotal movesX+moves’o 
470 NEXT 

480 PRINTTAB(0, 25) "Mazes solved*"; tota 
l_solved% 

490 PRINT-Total moves*" ;total_moves% 
500 END 
510 : 

520 DEF PROCmake_chars 
530 FOR i%=0 TO 15 
540 FOR j%*0 TO 7 
550 b%( j%)=0 
560 NEXT 

570 IF (i% AND 1) THEN FOR j%=0 TO 7:b 
\(j%)*l:NEXT 

580 IF <i% AND 2) THEN b%(7)=255 
590 IF (1% AND 4) THEN FOR j%=0 TO 7:b 
%( j%)=b%( j%) OR 128: NEXT 

600 IF (i% AND 8) THEN b\(0)»255 
610 VDU 23,224+1% 

620 FOR j\*0 TO 7 
630 VDU b%( j%) 

640 NEXT 
650 NEXT 

660 VDU 23,255,0,24,60,126,126,60,24,0 
670 ENDPROC 
680 : 

690 DEF PROCshow(x%.y%,c%) 

700 VDU 5 
710 GCOL 0,c% 

720 HOVE sq%»x%, 1020-32* (y%+5) 

730 VDU 255,4 
740 ENDPROC 
750 : 

760 DEF PROCbuildmaze(maze\,open%) 

770 FOR x%=0 TO size\-l 
780 FOR y%*0 TO sizeX-l 
790 maze%(x%,y%)*15 
8C0 NEXT 
810 NEXT 

820 left_to_do\*size%*size% 

830 PROCdoor (mid%, mid%, FNrnd ( 4 ) -1 ) 

840 xx%=FNrnd(size%)-l 
850 yy%*FNrnd(size%)-l 
860 REPEAT 
870 REPEAT 

880 xxV>(xx%+l) MOD size% 

890 IF xx%*0 yy%»(yy%+l) MOD size% 

900 UNTIL maze%(xxX,yyX)<>15 AND maze\ 
(xx%,yy%) <>0 AND (FNok(xx%+l,yy%) OR FNo 
k(xx%-l,yy%) OR FNok(xx%,yyVl) OR FNok( 
xx%,yy%+l)) 

910 x%=xx% 

920 y%*yy% 

930 REPEAT 

940 try%*0 

950 REPEAT 

960 try%=try%+l 

970 REPEAT 

980 dir%=FNrnd(4)-l 

990 UNTIL maze%(x%,y%) AND (2“dir%) 


60 

DIM code 100 


70 

link»14 


80 

pc=15 


90 

FOR passnO TO 2 

STEP 2 

100 

P\»code 


110 

[OPT pass 


120 

. loaddemo 


130 

LDR 

RO, memory 

140 

MOV 

pc, link 

150 



160 

.memory EQUD 

6123456 

170 

JNEXT 


180 

PRINT ” (memory 


190 

PRINT 'USR( loaddemo) 

Listing 4 


10 

REM >ARM4 


20 

REM By Dave Lawrence 

30 

REM For 32 bit machines 

40 

REM (C) BAU September 1992 

50 



60 

DIM code 100 


70 

link*14 


80 

pc*15 


90 

FOR paso*0 TO 2 

STEP 2 

100 

PX=codc 


110 

[OPT pass 


120 

.storedemo 


130 

LDR 

Rl, total 

140 

ADD 

Rl , Rl, R0 

150 

STR 

Rl, total 

160 




1000 nx%=x%+dx%(dir%) 

1010 ny%=y%+dy%(dir%) 

1020 ok%=nx%>»0 AND nx%<size% AND ny%>* 
0 AND ny%<size% 

1030 IF ok% THEN ok%*maze%(nx%,ny%)*15 

1040 UNTIL ok% OR try%*4 

1050 IF ok% PROCdoor (x%,y%,dir%) 

1060 x%*nx% 

1070 y\*ny% 

1080 UNTIL NOT ok% 

1090 UNTIL left_to_do%=0 
1100 IF NOT open’s ENDPROC 
1110 FOR i%»l TO 25 

1120 PROCdoor (FNrnd (8ize%-2) , FNrnd (size 
X-2) , FNrnd(4) -1) 

1130 NEXT 
1140 ENDPROC 
1150 : 

1160 DEF FNok(x%,y%) 

1170 IF x%=-l OR x%=size% OR y%«-l OR y 
\»Bize% THEN sFALSE 
1180 =maze%(x%,y%)*15 
1190 : 

1200 DEP PROCdoor (x\,y%, dirt) 

1210 PROCknock (x%, y%, dir%) 

1220 PROCknock(x%+dx%(dir%) ,y%+dy%(dir% 
) ,dir% EOR 2) 

1230 ENDPROC 
1240 : 

1250 DEF PROCknock(x%,y%,dir%) 

1260 IF maze%(xX,y%)=15 left_to_do%=lef 
t_to_do%-l 

1270 maze%(x%,y%)*maze%(x%,y%) AND NOT 
(2*dir%) 

1280 PROCshowcell(x%,y%) 

1290 ENDPROC 
1300 : 

1310 DEF PROCshowcell (x%,y%) 

1320 VDU 31,x\, 5+y%, 224+maze%(x%,y%) 
1330 ENDPROC 
1340 : 

1350 DEF FNwall (dirt) = (maze\(manx%, many 
\) AND (2*dir%))>0 
1360 : 

1370 DEP FNrnd (range%) 

1380 LOCAL i%,r% 

1390 r%=range% 

1400 REPEAT 

1410 IF seedX AND 1 THEN seed%= (seed%/2 
) EOR xort ELSE seed%*seed%/2 
1420 rt*rt/2 
1430 UNTIL r\*0 

1440 =l+(seed% AND 6FFFF) HOD rangeX 
1450 s 

1460 DATA 1,0, 0,1, -1,0, 0,-1 
1470 : 

1480 REM Append "Follow", or your own 
routines here... 

Listing 14 - Follow 

10 REM > Follow Inf 014 
20 : 

30 DEF PROCsolve_setup 
40 ENDPROC 
50 s 

60 DEF PROCsolve_newmaze 
70 mdir%*RND(4)-l 
80 ENDPROC 
90 : 

100 DEF FNwhichway 
110 LOCAL d% 

120 dX=mdirX-2 
130 REPEAT 

140 d%= (dX+1) AND 3 

150 UNTIL NOT FNwall(dX) 

160 mdirXsdX 
170 =mdirt 


Arm Programming 


170 

MOV 

pc, link 

180 



190 

.total EQUD 

0 

200 JNEXT 


210 

REPEAT 


220 

PRINT' "Total * 

! total 

230 

INPUT "Score : 

"score 

240 

AXsscore 


250 

CALL storedemo 


260 UNTIL FALSE 



Listing 5 


10 REM >ARM5 
20 REM By Dave Lawrence 
30 REM For 32 bit machines 
40 REM (C) BAU September 1992 
50 : 

60 DIM code 100 
70 link=14 
80 pc=15 

90 FOR pass*0 TO 2 STEP 2 
100 PX=code 
110 [OPT pass 
120 .load 

130 MOV Rl, #610000 

140 LDR R0, (Rl) 

150 

160 MOV pc, link 

170 JNEXT 

180 ! 6 10000*RND ( 10000) 

190 PRINT 1 610000, USR( load) 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 87 


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90 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 









LIVING WORLD 


MOVING ON 

Is MDI's CD-Rom, Dictionary of the Living World, the product that will unleash the 
potential of multimedia on the Arc? Fin Fahey goes for a stroll around the zoo cages 



T he Dictionary of the Liv- 
ing World from Media 
Design Interactive, is the 
first of its kind. It is, at 
root, a dictionary of biological 
terms, but what makes it dif- 
ferent is the inclusion of full- 
motion video clips, still shots 
and sound samples. 

DOLW is a single CD-Rom 
and it comes in some very 
pretty packaging. You can tell 
straight away that it's intended 
to be easy to use, since it has 
the tiniest user manual I've 
seen in a long time - four A5 
sides. This contains just 
enough information to get you 
started: the package also sup- 
ports Acorn Interactive Help. 
There should be no great need 
for it though, since the system 
is largely self-explanatory and 
contains its own help screens. 

The place to go. and to cen- 
tre on. once the main options 
screen has loaded is the Main 
Index. This is a simple scroll- 
ing listing of all the terms 
included in the dictionary with 
an optional sub-title (for exam- 
ple a Latin name) and icons 
showing the presence of a pic- 
ture, map. sound or movie. 

GETTING AROUND 

DOLW ' s entries cover a large 
range of life-science cate- 
gories, from biochemistry and 
botany to specific animals. 
Obviously sounds and images 
are associated mostly with the 
latter. Clicking on a text entry 
brings up the associated 
screen, with a scrollable win- 
dow of text, and a picture, if 
there is one. 

These screens can also be 
accessed from the main index 
using the Search Results 
Index. This compiles a sub-set 


of the main index which you 
can select on the basis of key- 
words in the entry. Up to three 
keywords can be entered, so 
you could, for example, pull 
out everything containing 


‘fish’ and ‘coral reef. You can 
also specify that you only want 
entries with pictures, movies, 
sound or maps. 

Besides access from the 
main index, there are video 


buttons on the entries them- 
selves. These allow you to go 
to the beginning or end of the 
main or search indexes, or 
look at the next or previous 
entry. There are also icons 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 91 



LIVING WORLD 





Elephant idae 

Elephants 


Family, Order 29 (Proboscideo) of class 
Mammalia (subclass 2 Theria). 


Elephants are mammals and only two speaes 
have survived the African elephant boxodonta 
afrtcana and the Indian elephant Elephas 
maxim us. 


The African elephant is larger, with tln> txjll 
standing 1 1ft or more at tho shoulder, and the 
largest elephant ever recorder measured 13ft at 
the shoulder Indian or asiatic elephants are 
smaller (10ft or less at the shouldor) and have 
much smaller ears 


| Inde)^T^^icMonarjj B 0f M TheJ i ivin^l4orld > 


Ufcdognaffia (Artneoraorph*) 

febiim. tabid 

bbrun 

Labyrinfxrionl 

Utyrintodonfa 

Latyrinfxiida 

iBcertttae 

bdeal 

Lactotedflaceae 
bdogenc 
j Lagonorptia 
I Lamardiwn 
bmefla 

I laneribranctta 
ibrmns 


Search DOLM 


(Picture 

(Map 

(Movie 

(Sound 


Cancel 


. s w 


flpps Econet 


The easy-to-use search facility is one of DOLW's best features 


Not so popular . . . 

which will, if not greyed out, 
display maps, movies or play 
sounds. It is possible to blow 
up a picture so that it covers 
the full screen by clicking on 
it. The help icon, available 
both on entries and on the 
index screens, shows a dia- 
gram of the current screen 
explaining exactly what each 
button does. 

Movies, when selected, have 
their own set of video buttons, 
which allow the user to pause, 
step through frame by frame, 
stop or turn the sound on/off 
(movies may have associated 
sound tracks different from the 
usual sound samples). 

The Menu button is also 
operational. On the icon bar it 
allows you to turn the main 
DOLW window on or off. or to 
change the sound volume. 
When clicked on a dictionary 
entry, it allows the user to 
export (extract) any of the 
information from an entry for 
their own use, right down to an 
individual movie frame, or a 
sound. 

THE SYSTEM 

That’s how it works, but what 
does DOLW offer the regular 
Arc user? It sounds attractive 
enough, and it certainly is easy 
to use, which should appeal to 
anyone interested in its edu- 
cational uses. However, in my 
opinion there is an certain 
shallowness to the package. 


\ 




. . . as this. The office favourite, featuring picture, sound and movie 


For a start, this is really a text- 
based system with a few 
graphics and sounds tagged on 
on top. Of the 2600 odd 
entries, only 256 of them have 
associated still pictures and a 
mere 100 have movies. 

The reason for this selectiv- 
ity is not lack of CD-Rom 
space. Of the whole 600+Mb 
on the CD-Rom, only some 
350Mb is actually taken up 
with data. Movies are 
memory-hungry. The existing 
movies take up 150Mb of this, 
but there’s no real shortage of 
space. If we forget movies, the 
situation looks worse - the 
pictures take up about 54Mb, 
the maps 39Mb, sound 97Mb 
and the text only 1Mb. 


Much of the film footage was clearly taken at the zoo 


Pictures are stored with no 
data compression, and the full- 
screen and small-screen ver- 
sions are both stored. The 
sound samples are stored in 
three different forms: relocat- 
able sound samples, raw 
samples and Acorn Replay 
files. Is this padding, or do the 
authors assume that a ‘power’ 
Arc user will not have any 
capacity to cross-convert? 

Each of the maps, which 
show the global distribution of 
species, displays a very attrac- 
tive full colour world chart, 
with the area of distribution of 
a species outlined in red. 
Rather than do the obvious and 
store one set of map graphics, 
with only the distribution data 
held for each species, DOLW 
stores the whole map every 
single time - at a rough esti- 


mate that 39Mb should only 
take up about 2Mb. 

All of this is understandable 
in the Mac or PC markets. 
MDI, or any other CD-Rom 
supplier, has every right to 
play fast and loose with the 
megabytes - CD-Roms arc B - 
I - G and offering graphics and 
like, wow, sound, means that 
PC users, in particular, will be 
suitably gobsmacked. But, in 
our market I feel the point is 
crucial, since it bears on the 
issue of what reason a 32-bit 
user may find for buying 
DOLW. 

There should be a good rea- 
son for shelling out nearly 
£200 on a CD-Rom - expen- 
sive, even by CD-Rom 
standards. Either: it offers such 
a comprehensive volume of 
data that the equivalent printed 


92 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 




LIVING WORLD 



An attractive map but . . . elephants in Morocco and the Sahara, and not in Burma or Thailand? 



Behind bars . . . natural habitats rarely feature here 


matter would be unwieldy (the 
Oxford English Dictionary 
comes into this category); or it 
uses the unique nature of the 
medium to present information 
in an interesting and creative 
way (for example, hypertext). 
Or, of course, both. 

DOLW offers nothing, bar a 
search facility, that wouldn’t 
be better covered by books and 
videos at a fifth of the price. 
True, it makes no claim to be 
comprehensive, which is for- 
tunate, because it isn’t. At the 


text level, besides the ‘wild- 
life movie’ aspect, it attempts 
to cover other aspects of the 
life sciences, such as genetics, 
physiology and biochemistry. 
It was in vain, however, that 1 
searched for entries on such 
common terms as 
‘immunoglobulin’, ‘T-cell’, 
‘oncogene’ or ‘intron’. 

Calling yourself a dictionary 
implies that you are both com- 
prehensive and authoritative. 
This is neither. I would under- 
stand, if the package had 


sacrificed text space (1Mb!) to 
graphics. But it hasn’t. Inci- 
dentally, in any sort of pic- 
torial dictionary, the use of 
diagrams would have helped, 
especially in ‘difficult’ areas 
like biochemistry. 

I was also puzzled by the 
strange selectivity of the 
images on the disc. The first 
thing everyone will turn to is 
the movie option. A swift poll 
in the BAU office revealed that 
the most popular creatures 
were dolphin, whales, 
elephants and sharks. Of these, 
only the elephant was avail- 
able in motion - the others 
didn’t even have still shots. 

Examining the images 
raised another suspicion. Has 
someone simply trundled 
down to the local zoo and 
grabbed video shots of 
whatever was lying around? 
For sheer spectacle, it's hard to 
match the movie of the aard- 
wolf - the animal is fast 
asleep, but you can tell this is a 
movie because the vegetation 
moves. The iguana is equally 
enthralling. After waiting sev- 
eral seconds, you are treated to 
an eyeblink. 

It’s clear that this package is 
not the CD-Rom equivalent of 
Life on Earth. Was it really 
necessary to blow disc space 
on a still picture of melopsit- 
tacus undulatus since, l think, 
we all know what a common 


budgie looks like? 

Neither can these shortcom- 
ings be justified by references 
to multimedia. Hypertext this 
isn’t. There is none of the rich 
interconnection of terms that 
can lead you around a hyper- 
text system, discovering more 
all the time. This is just like a 
printed book with a computer 
search facility. 

And why order information 
this way? Why are the primary 
entries for some species - for 
example, Impala and Mallard 

- their Latin names, whereas 
for others English comes first? 
Why didn’t the system use a 
heirarchic indexing based on 
taxonomy, which would have 
at least rooted the entries in a 
comon knowledge base. 

CONCLUSION 

In all fairness, the faults I have 
described are not uncommon 
in the Mac and PC market, at 
present - this package has 
received at least two awards 
when issued on these plat- 
forms. Unfortunately, we Arc 
users have to demand more, 
mostly because we’re already 
used to better graphics and 
sound than the average Mac or 
PC user. 

But I also feel that Arc 
users, many of them involved 
in education, will want more 
sustained value for their £175. 
It’s difficult to see where this 
package might fit into the edu- 
cational market. Primary 
school children will like some 
of the images, but there’s no 
way that teachers can base any 
project work on the system. 
Secondary schools will find its 
lack of comprehensiveness 
irritating. In the current cli- 
mate, there have to be better 
uses for the cash. Home users 

- say no more ! 

For the price of this CD- 
Rom, you can pop down to a 
bookshop and acquire a whole 
shelf of life science books. So 
the pictures don’t move and 
there’s no sound? Throw in a 
few of the BBC’s excellent 
Life on Earth videos - they 
have great sound tracks too. 


PRODUCT DETAILS 


Product: Dictionary of the Living 
World 

Supplier: Optech 
Tel: (0252) 714340 
Price: £175 exc VAT. 10% edu- 
cational discount 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 93 



A3000 systems & memory 

A3000 - £599 A3000 Learning curve - £642 
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A compact board measuring just 104mrh by 
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Hard disc upgrades 

A range of fast ( 17mS) SCSI hard discs with a 
two year warranty, in sizes from 52Mb upwards. 
Supplied with all metalwork and cables. 400/1 
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52Mb - £199 105Mb - £280 

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Free price list available upon request. 
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A complete fitting service is available for our RAM 
boards covering courier collection, installation and 
testing, MEMCla. return delivery and guarantee. 
This is normally a three-day service (eg, collected 
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Still not sure? Use our 14-day money-back 
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4-slot backplane with fan £57 


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Upgrade from 1Mb to 4Mb - £99 
Supplied with full instructions. 



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HOTLINE: 
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Microvitec Colour Monitors From 

£1 30 

Philips Colour Monitors From 

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Philips High Res Green Screen 

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| EDUCATIONAL ORDERS WELCOME | 







Weather Data 


Weather Satellite Systems Now available for the Acorn Archimedes A310 and A3000, This 
Meteosat systems comes complete Including everything from the Antenna to the software. 
Animation is standard allowing the dynamic progress of weather fronts to be monitored and 
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Other Timestep products include a fully featured LANDSAT Image Processor with 20 field study 
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Compose World €48 00 -€56.40 inc VAT< 
Compose World Files 1 €12.00 (£14.10 inc VAT 
Voice Pack 1 €l 5.00 • €l “ 63 inc VAT • 

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94 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 










SCSI 



When it comes down to it, what we all 
want is more megabytes. Richard 
Garrett looks at the the SCSI solution 


N owadays, it takes scar- 
cely a glance at the 
advertisements in this or 
any other microcomput- 
ing magazine to see that, once 
you’ve got a computer and, 
maybe, a printer, the next 
thing hardware companies 
want you to buy is extra stor- 
age. It’s official - what every- 
one wants is more megabytes! 

You can barely turn a page 
without being faced by arcane 
descriptions of hard discs, 
flopticals and so on, each one 
a maze of megabytes and mil- 
liseconds and strange 
abbreviations that, on first 
reading, leave hapless cus- 
tomers confused as to what 
they should spend their money 
on. We, here at BAU, like to 
help people spend their 
money, so the aim of this arti- 
cle is to clear up some of the 
jargon by looking at data 
access using SCSI, and at 
some the devices available. 

IT'S HISTORY 

In 1982, faced with an ever 
increasing variety of compu- 


ters and an even greater num- 
ber of disc drives, the Ameri- 
can National Standards 

Institute (ANSI) decided to 
develop a standard that would; 
‘facilitate the integration of 
physically small computers 
and intelligent peripheral 

devices, particularly storage 
devices, into computer 

systems’. What they came up 
with was the ANSI Small 
Computer Systems Interface 
(pronounced ‘scuzzy’). 

SCSI is a protocol by which 
computers communicate with 
other devices over moderate 
distances (up to 25m), at mod- 
erate speeds (up to 4Mb per 
second). SCSI is ‘device inde- 
pendent’, that is, the internal 
workings of each device (for 
example, the number of heads, 
cylinders, and sectors on a 
Winchester) are hidden from 
the interface. 

Hence the computer uses 
one ‘generic’ driver to send 
information to all devices of a 
given type rather than different 
software for every model on 
the market (as with printers). 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 95 


ROBERT HEESOM 



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i 



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LandBuild 


D.T.P. 

This is a di 


A new concept in fractal design, perfectly executed on the Archimedes, 
utilising its full power to bring the fascinating world of virtual 3D fractal 
landscapes to life! Landbuild operates from the Desktop, and has a wide 
range of options allowing you to alter the palette and 3D perspective with 
case. Stunning, high-rcsolution 256 colour landscapes can be created at 
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from all good PD libraries, or directly from us for only £1 . 

& Programmers' Utilities Disc 

disc crammed full of utilities and modules. There is 
no7 enough space to cjescribe the contents of this disc, but some items 
include: 

IBroadcast - A utility to display Draw / Sprite files at PAL Broadcast 
resolution on ANY monitor. This is invaluable for people who use 
Genlock systems, or for anyone who regularly uses draw or sprite files. 
IGraphTask - A task window which lets you run non-multitasking 
programs in a window on the desktop, WITH GRAPHICS! 

!CTEnhance - A utility to provide a superb representation of 24 bit 
colour on the Archimedes. It uses advance dithering techniques and is 
fully compatible with existing Archimedes software which uses 
ColourTrans, such as Impression 2, Paint and Draw. 


ifflF 

(sorry, no credit cards). Site licence for either product £30. Send an SAE 
for more details of the above products. 


96 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 






SCSI 


FLOPTICALS 


The factor that limits the capacity of conventional floppy discs is neither 
the density of the magnetic material nor the width of the read head. The 
number of tracks you can squeeze on the disc depends on the accuracy of 
the head motor. Current drives use 'dumb' technology which, when told 
to locate track 23, moves the head to wherever track 0 ought to be and 
then takes 23 'steps' across the disc to where track 23 should be. If the 
drive is misaligned or the disc less than circular, this may not be the same 
place that track 23 was in when you last looked. 

Floptical drives increase storage by introducing a feedback loop. Each 
floptical disc has concentric grooves ('servo tracks') stamped into it that 
run parallel to the magnetic tracks. The disc is illuminated in infra-red 
light, and a photodetector is used to spot changes in IR reflectivity as the 
head crosses a groove. By counting grooves, the head can locate a track 
accurately. Add a new barium ferrite coating for the diskette, and 
flopticals can hold more than ten times as much data as 2HD floppies. 



Although the original specifi- 
cation was for magnetic discs, 
it has grown to include other 
optional devices (tape, 
printers, processors optical 
discs and so on). 

Once defined, SCSI was 
particularly attractive to the 
makers of external hard drives 
because they could market 
products for numerous differ- 
ent computers without design- 
ing a variant for each one. 
Most microcomputer manufac- 
turers, however, felt that their 
customers didn’t need that 
much hard disc space, and 
made their own ‘machine- 
specific’ designs at reduced 
cost. Principal exceptions were 
suppliers of workstations, 
who knew their customers 
would require SCSI expand- 
ability, and Apple, who didn’t 
care what their computers cost. 
This state of affairs remained 
until recent explosions in net- 
working and CD-Rom use 
caused a boom demand for 
cheap, fast data transfer on a 
number of platforms, (see box 
below). 

WHAT IS IT? 

Physically, SCSI takes the 
form of a computer, called the 
‘initiator’, connected by 50- 
way cable to a maximum of 
seven ‘target’ devices (num- 
bered 0 to 6) in a ‘daisychain’ 
with a bunch of resistors at 


each end called ‘terminators’ 
(no relation to Arnold). Device 
number 7 is always a control- 
ler card in the main computer 
which translates instructions 
from the operating system into 
standard SCSI codes, and vice 
versa. If seven peripherals 
aren’t enough, there are 
optional ‘extended messages’ 
which allow up to 2048 peri- 
pherals on each target. 
However, although SCSI is 
fast, only two devices on a bus 
can communicate at one time 
so, when you run out of 
sockets, it’s more usual to buy 
a second controller. 

PICK A CARD 

The first thing you need to run 
SCSI on an Acorn computer is 
a controller card. There are 
several on the market and, 
from the user’s perspective, 
they all do much the same 
thing. Non-A3000 controllers 
come on single width expan- 
sion cards fitted with a 50-way 
‘internal’ I DC and an IDC or a 
Centronics socket for external 
devices (Centronics is the 
more common one of the two). 

On the A3000, most of these 
cards are available in boxes for 
use with the external podule 
socket, but there are also inter- 
nal versions (Vertical Twist, 
Serial Port); an eight-bit SCSI 
podule with a user port on it 
(Technomatic); and 45Mb and 


1 00Mb external ‘hard cards’ 
(HCCS). 

Each card comes with a 
ROM-based SCSI filing 
system. The ones we looked at 
all connected to the RiscOs 
FileCore to become almost 
indistinguishable from the rest 
of the operating system. In 
normal use, the only apparent 
difference is that disc 
filenames start with ‘scsi:’ 
instead of ‘adfs:’. FileCore 
supports up to four Winches- 
ters like this and these appear 
as scsi::4 to scsi::7. The 
remaining ‘slots’ on the SCSI 
bus can be used with other 
device types. 

Design differences between 
SCSI cards occur in the 
methods used to transfer data 
from card to processor. Some 
cards use additional elec- 
tronics to convert eight-bit 
bytes into 16-bit words before 
sending them to the Arm, 
thereby making transfer more 
efficient. Others feature 
‘cache’ memory that allows 
the card to store information 
from the disc and send it in 
large chunks (for example 2K 
at a go on the Morley card) 
rather than sending it a few 
bytes at a time. 


This is particularly effective if 
the card is designed only to 
interrupt the processor when it 
has chunks of data to send or 
receive. 

It is difficult to make 
absolute judgements when 
choosing SCSI cards. Different 
manufacturers quote ‘transfer 
speeds’, but there seems to be 
no well-defined way to ealeu-’ 
late them. Connecting two 
controllers ‘back to back', say, 
produces results which, while 
impressive, are irrelevant to 
hard disc users. Generally, the 
speeds at which drives transfer 
data are low in comparison to 
the bus specification (a 40Mb 
unit may average 700 Kbs) and 
quite within the range of most 
available cards. 

If you really want to know 
about transfer speeds, you 
should ask manufacturers how 
their cards perform with the 
particular devices you plan to 
use. Price differences arise 
largely from questions like ‘is 
this an eight or 16 bit card?’; 
‘does it have a cache?’ and 
‘does it support other devices 
as well as fixed discs?’. If cost 
is your concern, most cards are 
significantly cheaper when 
‘bundled’ with a device. 


SCSI AND THE BIG MAC 


Apple Computers took to SCSI very quickly and has been fitting ports on 
all its hard drive models for years. This, combined with Apple's strict 
pricing policy on the machines themselves and the Mac's popularity in 
areas that demand a lot of storage (for example, publishing and graphic 
design) has led to a very competitive market in SCSI peripherals. In Mac 
journals, you'll find internal and external Winchesters on offer that range 
in size from 30Mb to 2Gb (gigabytes) and in price from about £120 to 
£3500. Syquest drives are common, particularly among the digital music 
fraternity (88Mb means nine minutes of stereo samples). 

There are a large number of HyperCard CD-Rom discs available on the 
Mac and the price of drives is still dropping, but until some entrepreneur 
writes HyperCard interpreters for other platforms, most of the data will 
unfortunately be restricted to Macs. Other SCSI devices used in the Mac 
world are flopticals, magneto-opticals, WORMs, tape units, and scanners. 
You occasionally see a laser printer with SCSI, but it's more likely to be 
used for font storage on hard disc than as a 'super fast' printer cable. 

In the past , most IBM PC users made do with one internal hard drive, 
and the SCSI market remained small. A number of things have happened 
recently to change this. They include the arrival of much larger Windows 
3 programs; the development of 'single chip upgradable' PCs; a huge 
level of corporate interest in Novell networks; and the emergent 
multimedia standard (MPC). It seems that everybody now wants SCSI, 
whether for CD-Rom, for DAT backups, or just for more Winchesters on 
their network server. 

This is good news for Acorn users because, as long as your SCSI system 
supports the device type you want to use, Mac and PC devices should 
work as well as those sold by Acorn manufacturers. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 97 





Fixed magnetic hard discs are, 
by far, the most common SCSI 
peripherals and, because of the 
machines upon which SCSI 
has been popular to date, 
external drives (up to 2Gb) are 
probably more successful than 
internal. Now, let’s look at 
some of the other things you 
can do with a SCSI card. 

Probably the commonest 
SCSI devices after Winches- 
ters, CD-Rom drives are 
turning up everywhere: 
schools, libraries, offices, you 
name it, it’s there. There is a 
huge variety of information 
available on each of these 
shiny, read-only discs right up 
to the 20-volume Oxford Eng- 
lish Dictionary ; the entire 
United Kingdom phone direc- 
tory; pictorial encyclopaedias 
with colour video and digital 
sound and, coming soon, inter- 
active CD-I technology for 
those wicked shoot-em-up 
games. Multimedia is becom- 
ing the stuff of the nineties, 
and, because of the volume of 
data involved in implementing 
it, almost all systems involve 
SCSI. If you want to get on the 
bandwagon. Acorn suppliers 
of CD-Rom drives include 
Oak Solutions and Cumana. 

Removable hard discs, 
known as ‘Syquest’ drives, 
after their most successful 
manufacturer, come in two 
mutually incompatible sizes 


QUIDS PER MEGABYTE 


It's conventional to calculate stor- 
age costs like this: magneto-optical 
discs costs £49 and hold 128Mb, 
therefore divide 49 by 128 and you 
get a cost of 38 pence a megabyte 
- which is dead cheap. In fact, if 
you add £1100 into the calculation 
for the initial cost of the drive, you 
find that you need about 2Gb of 
storage before you even approach 
that price. The graph shows how 
the actual cost of storage is depen- 
dent upon the amount you want 
to store. This is not, of course, the 
only consideration when making a 
purchase. 


Comparative costs (£/Mb) for six mass storage media 


128Mb magneto-optical T 1 SCSI fixed 
(SCSI) 


88Mb Syquest 
(SCSI) 



□ IDE fixed 
| 2HD floppies 


400Mb 


1200Mb 


(44Mb and 88Mb) and consist 
of a drive unit that looks like 
an oversized car cassette 
player and cartridges contain- 
ing the magnetic medium. 
Syquest drives are popular, on 
several platforms, with users 
of ‘data- heavy’ applications 
who run fixed drives for pro- 
gram storage and cartridges for 
data. Syquests have yet to take 
off in the Acorn world, but 
44Mb versions are available 
from Watford Electronics and 
DT Software. 

21Mb floptical drives (Mor- 
ley, Serial Port) are also 
appearing on the horizon but 
it’s unclear yet whether they 
count as removable hard disc 
or as the ‘superfloppies' of the 
future, (see box on flopticals). 


THE IDE OPTION 


IDE (In full, IDE - ATA, which stands for Integrated Drive Electronics - AT 
Attachment) was developed as a 16-bit design standard for internal 
Winchesters on IBM PCs. The idea was to produce discs with controller 
and drive electronics integrated on a single small circuit board connected 
directly to the PCs motherboard. 

IDE is cheap to implement, particularly when it comes to adding 
'cache'; the direct connections mean that data transfer is quite fast, 
relative to disc size; and, with the demand for ever decreasing 
'footprints', many manufacturers now produce 'hardcards', that is, small 
drives mounted on the expansion cards that hold the electronics. Thus, 
where PC hard drives were once a complicated design problem, they are 
now an 'off the shelf' component. There are, as a result, a lot of IDE 
drives available and production costs have dropped through the floor. 
This has not escaped the makers of Archimedes peripherals. 

On the Archimedes, an IDE drive is much like its relative on the PC 
except that the card carries an IDE_FS Rom which, like SCSI.FS, connects 
to FileCore and is nearly 'transparent to the user'. IDE drives come as 
internal or external packages with an expansion card, or as hard cards. 
Capacities run from 20 to 400Mb and rising, with prices from £180 to 
£900. Since Acorn adopted IDE on the A5000, a second drive can be 
added to it without an additional card. IDE manufacturers for Acorn 
include Watford, ICS and Rise Developments. 

IDE is a powerful hard disc solution and, although it has been 
extended to include external drives, it is unlikely to be used with CDs, 
tape drives and so on, if only because of interference problems inherent 
in the use of long external cables connected to processor buses. IDE cards 
support two devices each. 


Larger removable drives exist 
in the form of magneto-opti- 
cals and Write Once Read 
Many (WORM) optical units. 
If ‘cartridge* sizes and access 
times are appropriate to your 
needs, and you use enough of 
it, removable storage can be 
very economical (see box: 
above). 

BACKUP DEVICES 

As the amount of disc space 
required by single users, let 
alone whole networks, 
increases, the idea of data loss 
from hard disc failure becomes 
more frightening and backing 
up on to floppies becomes 
more depressing. Demand has 
grown for devices capable of 
quickly copying whole hard 
discs and tape drive prices 
have fallen accordingly. SCSI 
transfer rates make it an ideal 
interface for the purpose. 

The most common SCSI 
devices are 60Mb and 150Mb 
tape streamers that cost £600 
to £900 and record 60Mb in 
about 20 minutes, but new 
technology is bursting out all 
over, and competitively priced 
1Gb DAT (Digital Audio 
Tape) machines are beginning 
to appear. Oak Solutions pack- 
ages SCSI tape software with 
its units which, among other 
things, does ‘midnight back- 
ups’ and error checking while 
you’re dancing the night away. 
Tape software also exists in 
the public domain ( TapeJFS 
and TAR) 

SCANNERS 

High resolution flatbed scan- 
ners can produce up to 8Mb of 
data from a single A4 page 
and, if you’re into that sort of 
quality, SCSI is a must (a 
16Mb A540 would help as 


well). The main Acorn sup- 
plier of SCSI scanners is 
Computer Concepts, whose 
latest model, the Scanlight 
Professional, is about to be 
released. It’s a 256 greyscale, 
300dpi device, which comes 
with Computer Concepts’ own 
drivers and works with all 
Acorn compatible SCSI 
boards. 

WHERE WILL IT END? 

The disc wars continue. The 
choice between IDE and SCSI 
depends very much on the 
needs of the user. IDE drives 
tend to be faster and cheaper 
than SCSI drives of same 
capacity, but the interface cur- 
rently lacks the expandability 
and range of SCSI (see box: 
lower left). The other big 
attraction of SCSI is that, 
should you exchange your 
computer for this year’s model 
from Acorn or - heaven for- 
fend! - another manufacturer, 
you can take your peripherals 
with you. 

There are many SCSI cards 
available for the Arc, and most 
work well with fixed discs. 
With more exotic devices, 
however, there are still a few 
problems, so it may be worth 
discussing your needs with the 
manufacturer of the peripheral 
that interests you. 

It’s dangerous to predict the 
future but here goes . . . SCSI 
is a powerful and versatile 
interface with a big following. 
The selection of devices avail- 
able increases as costs fall, yet 
the specification more than 
meets current speed require- 
ments. In the future, someone 
will probably develop an opti- 
cal bus standard to beat SCSI 
into a cocked hat, but it'll be 
around for a few years yet. 


8 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 





Offices: 22 Warwick St. Prestwich, Manchester M25 7HN. Tel: 061-773 8632. Fax: 061-773 8290. 

Proprietor: David Atherton. All prices Include VAT (0% on books), and UK postage. Access/Visa accepted. Foreign add £2.50 surface. £12 air. 


AUNT RCOKf.7 


—A Dabbuxl Cokte— ■ 
ALEX a NIC VAN SOMEREN 

ARCHIMEDES 

OPERATING SYSTEM 

A Umi'i Quid* 







|l 1 

1 

L r- 




\ step-by-step guide that takes you through all 
he features of 1st Word Plus on the 
Archimedes, from installation to mail-merge. 
Mastering 1st Word Plus is comprehensive, 
horough and easy to read. 

1 deludes : 

• How to use a word-processor 

• How to type, edit, style and layout text 

• Using graphics 

• Using 1st Mail 

• Using 1st Word Plus with other applications 


'using the bright & brash approach of 
Roger Amos' 

’ a book that any impoverished but enthusiastic Introductory book for the Arc, 

publisher, should not be without * covering the basic operations 

Jerry Glenwright - ACORN USER and use of !Edit - !0raw ’ etc - 

‘offers all the help you will need to get you 
producing DTP documents on a shoestring' 

‘For the paltry sum of £12.95 this book could 
well save you over £100' 

Paul Gaunt - ARCHIMEDES WORLD 


Useful summary of OS 
information with detailed 
examples. (£21.95) with disc. 


The only tutorial and 
reference on ARM assembler 
on the market, with many 
RISC OS examples. (£21.95 
with disc.) 


A practical guide to 
programming in BASIC V on 
the Acorn Archimedes, with a 
wealth of easy-to-follow 
examples. 


Hyperdriver 

The ultimate printer driver ROM. with 
over 80 commands, a built-in NLQ 
character set, WYSIWIG previewing, 
access from View, Wordwise, 
Interword or BASIC. 100 page 
manual. For B/B+/E/M/C. Price 
£29.95 ROM, £24.95 disc for 
SRAM. 


Minidriver 

As HyperDriver but for Mini Office II. 
Includes Viewdata terminal. £24.95 
ROM. SRAM version £19.95. 

Mos Plus 

Utility ROM for Master 128s only 
fixing EDIT and CLOSE#0 bugs, ADFS 
format, verify and backup in ROM, 
backup/compacting in SRAM, alarm 
clock and configurable startup facility 
and much more. Price £12.95 ROM, 
£7.95 SRAM. 

Sidewriter 

Pop-up notepad for SRAM users (any 
SRAM machine), works with any 
software. Price £7.95. 

Games Action from 


Assembler Bundle 

Two Bruce Smith books on 6502 
assembler with discs and Master 
Series update booklet. For 
B/B+/E/M/C/ RRP over £30, yours for 
£4.95! 

Fingerprint 

SRAM or main memory 6502 
machine code 

monitor/disassembler/memory 
editor. For B/B+/E/M/C/ Price £9.95. 

Conversion Kit 

Ready-made 6502 assembler 
routines, for learning or development. 
Price £7.95 


BBC BOOKS 


View Dabhand Guide 

Bruce Smith's comprehensive guide 
to View wordprocessor. "For those 
who want a complete thorough and 
readable guide to View, then Bruce 
Smith is your man" (Beebug). £12.95 
or £17.95 with disc. 


Master Operating System 

David Atherton's definitive reference 
work including the famous 
'differences between all eight-bit 
models’ section used by countless 
programmers to ensure compatibility 
across the full eight-bit range. £12.95 
or £17.95 with disc. 

Mini Office II Guide 

Detailed tutorial by Bruce Smith and 
Robin Burton for the BBC/Master 
versions of the software. Price £9.95 
or £14.95 with disc. 

Mastering Interpreters and 
Compilers 

Fascinating Bruce Smith title on 
creating high level languages. 

£14.95 with free disc. 

Master 512 User Guide 

Full instruction for using the 512 and 
DOS Plus, with tips on software 
compatibility. £9.95 or £14.95 with disc 

Master 512 Technical Guide 

The companion guide with full 
512 programming information and 
hardware expansion projects. Price 
£14.95 or £19.95 with disc. 


Master 512 Shareware 
Collections 

Two collections of PC shareware, all 
tried and tested on the 512. Includes 
WP’s, spreadsheets, databases, 
games etc. Five full 800k discs in 
each. Each collection normally 
£29.95, special offer £25 for both. 

Minn m i in -ny 

Instigator 

Utility system providing disc sector 
editor, memory editor, disassembler, 
command line archiving, and much 
more. Price £49.95 

Arc PC Emulator Shareware 

Similar to Master 512 Shareware but 
for the Arc PC Emulator. Two 
collections of five discs each. Normal 
Price £34.95. Now on special offer, 
both collections for £25. 

ARCDFS 

Very popular program to provide full 
DFS facilities on desktop or 
!65Host/!65Tube. (NotA5000 
compatible). Price £29.95 


ARCHIMEDES/BBC BOOKS 


Basic V Guide 

BASIC V guide covering differences 
between earlier BBC BASICS and the 
superior version for the Archimedes. 
£9.95 

C: A Dabhand Guide 

Massive 512-page complete guide to 
C programming. No previous 
experience required. Arc & BBC 
sections £14.95 or £21.95 with disc. 


OTHER BOOKS 


Z88: A Dabhand Guide 

Introduction to the Z88, by the 
designers of the machines own 
software. £14.95 

Z88 Pipedream Guide 

John Allen’s detailed work on all 
aspects of Z88 PipeDream. Good 
explanations of printing. Price £14.95 

Psion LZ OPL Guide 

Ian Sinclair's guide to OPL 
programming on the LZ series of 
Organiser machines. £12.95 



Cheque/POenclosed, 


Amount £ 


Access/Visa No. 


Address 


Alien Images 


Archimedes Action Game 


‘Harry and Dave manage the laundry firm, but things have been 
going wrong. They work all night but will they put things right?’ 
Multi level game, high quality graphics, simple key controls for 
easy movement of characters. Needs 1MB. RISC OS 
compatible. 

'a great deal of fun’ fiercely competitive' 

'to the accompaniment of decent music, effects and 
humourous speech * 

Duncan Evans - ARCHIMEDES WORLD 


’Aliped • wing footed like a bat is the spell that has been put on The date is 2143 A.D., the universe has started to contract, 
you by the evil step-mother of your fair princess Natasha'. causing the most inner galaxies' fine balance to be upset. 

Smooth multi-directional scrolling castle, stunning use of Their only chance is you in your humble rescue ship, 
stereo sound, high quality graphics. Needs 1MB. RISC OS Multi level game with high quality graphics. Needs 1MB. RISC 
compatible. OS compatible. 

’ Aliped Is a sidev/ays scrolling arcade adventure starring you 

as the bat-winged, red caped crusader . ’ ! Ml fo] \ j\ fr;' ! * I'i 

'Decent looking game 4 "Worth investigating' ALERION 

Duncan Evans - ARCHIMEDES WORLD cum*c shoor-»m-ug sootier MuJi VvH, ntsc os compact* Hoi prottciri 

£14.95 


To Dabs Press, FREEPOST (MR8400) 

Prestwich, Manchester M25 6LZ (Phone 061-773 8632) 


Please send me:_ 


ARCENDIUM OraugMs. Backgammon. Reversi and Gwdhn*. no* RISC OS compute £14 95. 
ALIEN INVASION Class* Soac« Invaders with editable invaders, waves etc. £14 95 
ALL-IN BOXING Realist* boxing game w.th cigtttsed soand etc. 1 or 2 player. £14 95 









ARCHIMEDES 


A3QG0..M4 b«Jo W...9— below...* — below 
A5000 2meg Colour £1349.10 
A5000 2mog Colour LC £1377.95 
A540 Colour system £2452.50 
A4 Laptop Floppy system £1259.10 
A4 Laptop HD system £1 529.1 0 


telephone super special 

A3000 Basic Model 
SUPER Price £499.00# 

OR ! 

A3000 Stereo Colour Model 
SUPER Price £695.00# 
OR! 

Place your order by 'phone 
for the NEWA4 laptop 


We are open ALL day Saturday 
Why not visit our showroom I 
We will try to better any other 

DEALER PRICE ... PLEASE TELEPHONE 


Basic £570.06 Colour £769.54 
A5000 Model 

Colour £1377.95 Col/Printer £1509.06 



Master 128 £359.10 

Cambridge Z88 Lap Top £189.95 

Panasonic KX P1081 £146.95 

Citizen Swift 9 £157.00 

Citizen Swift 24 £260.83 

Citizen Swift colour upgrade £34.20 
Star LC 10 £155.40 

Star LC10 Colour £294.35 

Philips 8833 Colour £195.00# 

Philips 7522 Amber Screen £69.52 

Philips 8832 Colour £19?.67 


Ahkter 40/80 400K Sgle no PSU £79.00 
Ahkter 40/80 800K Dual no PSU £199.00 
Ahkter 40/80 400K Sgle & PSU £11 4.53 
Ahkter 40/80 800K Dual & PSU £221 .70 

f We ARE LICENSED CREDIT BROKERS AND^S 
CAN OFFBl FINANCE ON COMPUTERS AND 
SOFTWARE. WE OPERATE THE Acorn 
TEACHER AND ACADEMIC SCHEMES FOR 
TRAINING AND FINANCE. 

V Please telephone I j 


ACORNSOFT 


DeskTop Publisher (A) 

£119.20 

Lisp (BMC) 

£16.10 

Loglsttx (A) 

£89.10 

Micros In Business (BMC) 

£34.75 

Twin (A) 

£26.10 

View 3.0 (B) 

£41.60 

View Index (BMC) 

£10.40 

View Plot (BMC) 

£20.83 

View Professional (BMC) 

£55.51 

View Sheet (BMC) 

£41.60 

COMPUTER CONCEPTS 

Business Suplement 

£44.10 

Compressln (A) 

£44.10 

Inter-Base (BMC) 

£48.00 

Inter-Chart (BMC) 

£25.60 

Inter-Sheet (BMC) 

£39.20 

Inter-Word (BMC) 

£39.20 

Inter-Sheet (A) 

£23.20 

Inter-Word (A) 

£23.20 

Laser Direct Laser Printer 

£949.05 

Spell Master (BMC) 

£41.03 

impression II (A) 

£152.09 

Impression Junior (A) 

£80.95 

CLARES MICRO SUPPLIES 

Alpha Base (A) 

£39.09 

Artisan 2 (A) 

£46.91 

Toolkit (A) 

£39.09 

Interdictor 2 (A) 

£27.35 

Knowledge Organiser (A) 

£46.91 

Fontwise package (BMC) 

£23.47 

IMPACT SOFTWARE 

Break 147 & Super Pool (A) 

£19.52 

The Real McCoy (A) Discs 

£23.44 

Man at Arms (A) 

£15.62 

Holed Out (A) 

£15.62 

Apocalypse (A) 

£23.44 

Nevyron (A) 

£15.62 

The Olympics (A) 

£15.62 

Pandoras Box (A) 

£19.11 

Cataclsm (A) 

£19.11 

Money Matters (BM) 

£12.72 

Data Word (BM) 

£12.72 

Picture Book (A) 

£16.98 

Converta Key (BM) 

£12.72 

PRES 


Adv. Control Panel (BMC) 

£27.90 

Adv. Disc Investigator (BMC) 

£23.52 

Adv. Disc Toolkit (BMC) 

£27.90 

Adv. File Manager (BMC) 

£22.51 


PRES Archl products all discounted H 


MINERVA SYSTEMS 


System Delta+Card Index (BM) £50.83 

System Delta Plus (A) 

£62.56 

Atelier (A) 

£78.22 

DABS PRESS 

Master Guide Book 

£11.66 

Views tore/Sheet Book 

£11.66 

Archimedes DFS Disc 

£23.44 

'C' A Dabhand Guide 

£13.45 

Z88 A Dabhand Guide 

£13.45 



Archimedes Beglners Guide £8.95 


MBS 

1 This advert contains 

1 just a few of the 


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Wo specialise In “Tracing In * and 
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\£ 1.00 for small, £245 for medium Items. I 
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Acorn 

BBC B 1770/8271 DFS Series 3/4 

170.00 

Acorn 

BBC 8 1770/8271 DFS Series 7 

200.00 

Acorn 

Master 126 

250.00 

Acorn 

Master Compact Entry System 

195.00 

Acorn 

Master Turbo Board 

70.00 

Mlsc. 

Z80 Second Processor 

90.00 

Mlcrovltec 

Colour monitor Mod Res 1451 

150.00 

Mlsc. 

Sanyo high res. green screen 

40.00 

Mlsc. 

Brother HR40 Daisy Wide Carr. 

346.96 

Mlsc. 

Monnemann Tally MT80 Dot Motn 

1 60.00 

Cunrtona 

D/D 5.25 40/60T with PSU 

150.00 

Cumana 

Single Drive 4GT no PSU 

40.00 

MISC. 

Duot Drive B0T no PSU 

120.07 

MiSC. 

Opus Challenger 2561c Drive 

60.00 

MISC. 

Ptotmate A4 Plotter (B) 

198.00 

Morloy 

Second Drive A3000 3.5 

95.00 

AMS 

AMX Mouse 

20.00 

AT P L 

Sidewise ROM/RAM Board BBC 

27.00 

Acorn 

Backplane tor A300 series 

15.00 

Acorn 

Data Recorder ALF03 

15.00 

Acorn 

I/O Podule Archimedes 

49.00 

Acorn 

Master ROM Cartridge 

6.00 

Acorn 

Prestel Adaptor (BM) 

40.00 

Acorn 

TWfn Joysticks (B) 

10.00 

MISC. 

6K SRAM Modulo 

12.00 

MISC. 

Chroma 250 Genlock wiid/vision 295.00 

MISC. 

Delta 1 4b Joystick (B) 

0.00 

MISC. 

Delta 1 40/ 1 intorface/Voltmace 

6.00 

MISC. 

Grafpad 

60.00 

MISC. 

Printer Sharer 6 Comps to 1 Pr 

160.00 

MISC. 

Prism Modem 2000 In Software 

60.00 

MISC. 

Terrel printer Sharer Box 

23.00 

MISC. 

Twin Joysticks 

8.00 

Mortey 

Care dual 2 x 16K cartridge 

8.00 

Morloy 

Eprom Programmer (BM) 

20.00 

Morloy 

Quod Cartridge 4 x 16k 

10.00 

Money 

Teletext Adapter with ATS 

60.00 

Nldd vail 

Dtglmouse 

20.00 

Poco 

Pace Nightingale Modem 

60.00 

PRES 

Avanced Rom adaptor MX 11 

6.00 

Vlglen 

Cartridge System tor BBC B 

13.00 

Vlgien 

Cartridge System Master 128 

10.00 

Vlglen 

PC Case tat for 88C 8 

30.00 

Vine 

Replay 1770 BBC B 

27.00 

vine 

Replay 1770 Opus Chalenger 

25.00 

vine 

Write Protect 9wftch (M) 

4.00 

warlord 

120k ROM /RAM Card Bat Bock 

59.00 

Watford 

4 Slot backplane A300 series 

19.00 

Watford 

Archl-BBC Serial Link 

10.00 

Watford 

Data Duck 

11.00 

Watford 

Quest Mouse 

20.00 

Watford 

Sideways ZIF Socket (B) 

BOOKS 

12.00 

Acorn 

Advanced User Guide BBC 

10.00 

Acornsoft 

1 st word Pius Guide 

6.00 

Acornsoft 

Usp on Tho BBC Micro 

8.00 

Acornsoft 

view Ret Manual 

6.00 

Acornsoft 

View sneel Guide 

6.00 

Acornsoft 

View Store Monuot 

6.00 

BBC Pubs 

Toolbox BBC FVbllcs 

5.00 

MISC. 

Advnd Grophlcs BBC/I O Angell 

6.00 

MISC. 

Avd Program BBC Joe Telford 

6.00 

Mlsc. 

Basic ROM user guide 

6.00 

MISC. 

BBC Ass. Lang Bruce Smith 

4.00 

MISC. 

BBC Revealed by J Ruston 

3.00 

MISC. 

BBC ROM Book by Bruce Smith 

8.50 

MISC. 

Beginners Guide to View 

3.00 

MISC. 

Complete W/wlse Plus Beveriey 

8.00 

MISC. 

Creative Graphics John Cownte 

4.00 

MiSC. 

Expert Guide to BBC M James 

3.00 

MISC. 

Forth on the BBC Micro 

5.00 

MISC. 

The Computer Book/BBC Publics 

3.00 

SERIOUS SOFTWARE 


AMS 

AMX Desk (BM) Disc 

12.00 

AMS 

AMX Super Art (M) Disc 

25.00 

AMS 

AMX Super Ait ROM (6) 

25.00 

AMS 

Extrct Extrai (BM) Disc 

12.00 

AMS 

Stop Press Discs (M) 

25.00 

AMS 

Utilities (BM) Disc 

7.00 

Acorn 

PC Emulator (A) Discs 

60.00 

Acornsoft 

1st Word Plus Rel 2 (A) Disc 

30.00 

Acornsoft 

Anst C Release 3 (A) Disc 

89.00 

Acornsoft 

Basic Editor (BMC) ROM 

15.00 

Acornsoft 

BCPl ROM (B) 

31.31 

Acornsoft 

Complete Cocktatl Maker (B) Dt 

6.00 

Acornsoft 

Forth (B) Disc 

6.00 

Acornsoft 

GXR Rom (B) ROM/Tcpe 

16.00 

Acornsoft 

HJ- View (B) DISC 

22.00 

Acornsoft 

Loglstlx (A) Disc 

60.00 

Acornsoft 

Moze (B) Disc 

5.00 

Acornsoft 

Printer Driver Gen. (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Acornsoft 

Software Devt Toolbox (A) Disc 

45.00 

Acornsoft 

View index (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Acornsoft 

view Plot (BM) Disc 

15.00 

Acornsoft 

View Spell (BM) ROM & Disc 

21.74 

Acornsoft 

view Store (BMC) ROM 

30.00 

BBC Pubs 

ArcComm (A) Disc 

20.00 

BBC Pubs 

Ultracolc (B) Disc 

15.00 

BBC Pubs 

vu-Type (B) Tope 

6.00 

Beebug 

C Develop Sysytem (A) Disc 

49.00 

Beebug 

C Stand Alone Gerator 

12.00 

Beebug 

Design (B) Disc 

10.00 

Beebug 

Filer (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Beebug 

Hearsay (A) Disc 

39.00 

Beebug 

Hershey Chars (B) Disc 

6.00 

Beebug 

Icon Master (BM) ROM 

15.00 

Beebug 

Master ROM (M) ROM 

20.00 

Beebug 

Masterfiie tl (B) Disc 

12.00 

Beebug 

Masterftte II (C) Disc 

12.00 

Beebug 

Paintbox (B) Disc 

8.00 

Beebug 

Prlntwlse (BM) Disc 

15.00 

Beebug 

Qulckcalc (B) Disc 

8.00 

Beebug 

Qulckcalc (C) Disc 

8.00 

Beebug 

Sleuth (B) ROM 

18.00 

Beebug 

Spellcheck (B) Disc 

12.00 

Beebug 

Spellcheck II (B) ROM/Dlsc 

15.00 

Beebug 

Spellcheck III (BM) ROM & Disc 

17.35 

Beebug 

Teletext (B) Tape 

3.50 

Beebug 

Teletext Pock (B) Disc 

7.00 

Beebug 

vocab Tester (B) Tape 

8.00 

Beebug 

Worctooso (B) ROMs 

12.00 

Clares 

A/froom (C) Disc 

15.00 

Clares 

Artroom (M) Disc 

15.00 

Clares 

Artroom (M) Disc 

12.00 

Clares 

Beta Base (B) Disc 

14.35 

Clares 

Beta Base Utils (B) Disc 

6.00 

Clares 

Brom Plus (BMC) ROM 

15.00 

Clares 

The Key (B) Disc 

5.00 

Comp Con 

Beeb Cate (B) ROM 

12.00 

Comp Con 

DISC Doctor (B) ROM 

15.00 

Comp Con 

Grophlcs (BM) ROM 

15.00 

Comp Con 

Gremlin (B) ROM 

15.00 

Comp Con 

Inter-Base (BMC) ROM 

35.00 

Comp Con 

inter-Chart (BMC) ROM 

18.00 

Comp Con 

inter-Sheet (BMC) ROM 

30.00 

Comp Con 

Inter-Word (BMC) ROM 

30.00 

Comp Con 

Prlntmaster (BMC) ROM 

15.00 

Comp Con 

Spell Master (BMC) ROM 

30.00 


Comp Con 

Wordwlse (BMC) ROM 

18.00 

Comp Con 

Wordwtse Plus (BM) ROM 

25.00 

Dabs Pres 

C Program Disc 

4.00 

Dabs Pres 

Rngerprtnt (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Dabs Pres 

Hyperdriver (C) Disc 

12.00 

Dabs Pres 

Master Emulation ROM (B) 

12.00 

Dabs Pres 

Shareware Coll Vd 2 (M) Disc 

12.00 

Database 

Mini Office II ROM (MC) 

30.00 

Impact 

ARCtlcalate (A) Disc 

12.00 

incentive 

Graphic Adv Creator (B) Tape 

10.00 

tsle log 

Music System (BM) Discs 

19.00 

Minerva 

Desktop Office (A) Disc 

49.00 

Minerva 

tnter/VIew Unk (C) Disc 

10.00 

Minerva 

Man Shot Application (C) Disc 

10.00 

Minerva 

Sales Ledger (BM) Disc 

26.04 

Minerva 

Stock Management (C) Disc 

26.04 

Mirror 

Fonts & Graphics (0) Disc 

10.00 

Mirror 

Psychic Powers PSt-Q (B) Disc 

6.00 

Mlsc. 

1st Word Study Guide (A) Disc 

10.00 

Mlsc. 

AIDS ll by Soft Smith 

8.65 

Mlsc. 

Archway (A) Disc 

60.00 

MiSC. 

Baste Compiler (8) ACK Data 

15.00 

Mlsc. 

BeebDOS (BM) Disc 

25.00 

Mlsc. 

Busicafc (BM) Dfsc/Supersoff 

6.65 

MSC. 

CaresDIsc Squirrel (BM) Oise 

9.00 

Mlsc. 

Computer Awareness Course (B) 

10.00 

MISC. 

Contex Spreadsheet (B) Disc 

6.00 

MISC. 

Creotion Discs (A) emr 6x0iscs 

26.04 

MISC. 

Diagram (B) Disc Pineapple 

21.70 

Mlsc. 

Easy Type Tutor 

12.00 

MISC. 

Edword Word Proc (B) ROM 

25.00 

MISC. 

FOntOtd (B) ROM & DISC CJE 

15.00 

MISC. 

French Folio Word/Pr (M) Disc 

15.00 

MISC. 

Gemini Combo Pack (B) Disc 

12.00 

MiSC. 

Genesis (A) Disc 

20.00 

MISC. 

Graph Builder (BM) Disc 

10.00 

MISC. 

Grophlcs Pock (B) Tape Salomon 

3.00 

MISC. 

Home Accountant (B) Disc 

6.00 

MfSC. 

Icon Art Master (BM) Disc 

12.00 

MISC. 

tnvolclng (B) Disc 

10.00 

MISC. 

Kansas Personal Finance (B) 01 

6.00 

MISC. 

Lite & Buss Organiser (B) Disc 

6.00 

MISC. 

Logo & Extension (B) ROM & DIs 

25.00 

MiSC. 

Machine Code Tutor (BM) Tape 

10.00 

MISC. 

Mcvid Graphics (BE) Disc 

6.00 

Msc. 

Merlin Ootabase/Scrlbe (B) ROM 

17.34 

Msc. 

Micro Maths GCSE (C) Disc 

15.00 

MISC. 

Micro Viewdata Prestel (B) 

12.00 

MISC. 

Midge Message Compr (B) Disc 

6.00 

Msc. 

Money Management (8) Disc 

10.00 

Mlsc. 

Music Collection (8) Disc 

0.00 

Mlsc. 

Pixel Perfect DTP (8M) Olscs 

26.04 

Mlsc. 

Pixel Perfect Maths Pack (B) 

10.00 

MISC. 

Print Utility (8) Disc 

5.00 

MISC. 

Science & Technology (B) Disc 

12.00 

MISC. 

Share Anal -Synergy (B) Disc 

26.04 

MISC. 

Slave ♦ ROM (B) 

20.00 

MISC. 

Spanish level B (BM) Disc 

10.00 

MISC. 

Spy (B) ROM 

12.00 

MISC. 

STARdataBASE (B) Disc 

10.00 

MiSC. 

Startrader (A) Disc 

10.00 

MISC. 

The Bank Manager (A) Disc 

15.00 

MISC. 

The Scythe (8) ROM Disc 

10.00 

MISC. 

U Connect (A) Disc 

15.00 

Mlsc. 

VAT & Cash Care (B) Disc 

10.00 

Mlsc. 

VI si tax-viewdata (B) ROM 

20.00 

MSC. 

Vu-Cdc (Psion) (B) Tape 

e.oo 

MISC. 

vu-flte (8) Tape 

10.00 

MtSC. 

Welcome FORTH (8) ROM HCCS 

10.00 

Mlsc. 

ZOOM Mach. Code Monitor (B) 

10.00 

Money 

ATS * Support ROM 

8.00 

Money 

Master copy (M) Disc 

7.00 

Nldd vail 

Chauffeur (B) 

8.00 

Nldd Votl 

Graf Ik (BM) Disc 

4.00 

Nldd Veil 

Illustrator DTP (BM) Disc 

20.00 

Nldd van 

illustrator Paintbox (C) Disc 

10.00 

PMS 

The Publisher (C) ROM 4- fonts 

29.95 

Pace 

Micronet Terminal (B) ROM 

8.00 

PRES 

Adv'd Disc Toolkit (BM) Rom 

20.00 

PRES 

Advon'd Rie Manager (BM) ROM 

15.00 

Superior 

Speech! (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Watford 

Beebmon (B) ROM 

20.00 

Watford 

Disassembler ROM (B) ROM 

15.00 

Watford 

Disc Database (8) Disc 

10.00 

Watford 

Dumpout 3 

12.00 

Watford 

NLQ Designer (8M) ROM 

12.00 

Watford 

Office Moster (B) Disc 

10.00 

Wofford 

Office Mato (B) Disc 

6.00 

Wofford 

Quest Paint (BM) ROM 

20.00 

Wolford 

ROM Spell (B) ROM 

12.00 

Watford 

Word-Aid (BM) ROM 

10.00 


OAKES 


Acornsoft 

Arcadlcns (B) Disc 

5.00 

Acornsoft 

Aviator (B) Disc 

7.00 

Acornsoft 

Bouncer (B) Disc 

5.00 

Acornsott 

Dronga(B) Disc 

5.00 

Acornsoft 

Firebug (8) Disc 

5.00 

Acornsoft 

Planetoid (B) Disc 

5.00 

Acornsoft 

Revs (BM) Disc 

8.00 

Acornsoft 

Rocket Raid (B) Disc 

5.00 

Acornsoft 

Super invaders (8) Disc 

5.00 

Clares 

Interdictor 2 (A) Disc 

20.00 

Dabs Pres 

All In Boxing (A) Disc 

9.00 

Domark 

Empire Strikes Bock (B) Disc 

4.00 

Domark 

Wax (B) Disc 

6.00 

Domark 

Star Wars (B) Disc 

4.00 

Impact 

Apocalypse (A) Disc 

10.00 

Impoct 

E Type (A) Disc 

8.00 

impact 

Powerband (A) Disc 

12.00 

impoct 

Quazar (A) Disc 

6.00 

impoct 

U.I.M. (A) DISC 

13.00 

Micro Row 

tailor Gorina (B) Disc 

6.00 

Minerva 

Hoverbod (A) Disc 

8.00 

Minerva 

Minotaur (A) Disc 

8.00 

Mac. 

Boxing Manager (A) Disc 

12.00 

Mlsc. 

Corruption (A) Disc 

15.00 

Mlsc. 

Fish (A) Disc 

15.00 

Mlsc. 

Lemmings (A) Disc 

15.00 

Mlsc. 

Manchester United (A) Disc 

12.00 

Superior 

Barbarian ll (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Superior 

Codename Droid (8M) Disc 

6.00 

Superior 

Conqueror (A) Disc 

14.00 

Superior 

Elixir (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Superior 

Exile (BM) Disc 

8.00 

Superior 

Lost Ninja (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Superior 

Ute of Repton (BM) Disc 

4.00 

Superior 

Ninja 2 (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Superior 

Predator (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Superior 

Ravenskult (BM) Disc 

4.00 

Superior 

Repton 3 (A) Disc 

12.00 

Superior 

Repton Infinity (BE) Disc 

6.00 

Superior 

Repton Thru Time (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Superior 

Ricochet (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Superior 

Sam 4 (C) Disc 

7.00 

Superior 

Spellbinder (BM) Disc 

4.00 

Superior 

Spycat (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Superior 

Superior Soccer (BM) Disc 

6.00 

Superior 

Zarcn (A) Disc 

0.00 


(BJBQCB (M) Mate 120 (C) Compact (A) Archimedes 






IX/I/VTI— IS 


M any great mathemati- 
cians have remarked 
that for them numbers 
i were not cold unfeeling 
cyphers, but individuals with 
their own quaint eccentricities 
and distinct personalities. 
Developing this keen apprecia- 
tion and seeing numbers as 
helpers, not enemies, must be 
one of the main aims of any 
maths curriculum. 

Maths Sieve , from Compu- 
ter Tutorial Services, seeks to 
achieve this. This program is 
aimed at children from eight 
years up to GCSE level and is 
contributory to National 
Attainment Target 5. 

The name derives from 
Erastothenes' Sieve, a method 
for extracting prime numbers 
from the main mass of integers 
which is among the earliest 
algorithms known. Fascination 
with prime numbers is at the 
heart of advanced modern 
maths, and barely a month 
goes by without someone 
announcing a new value for 
the highest prime known. 
Maths Sieve , effectively a 
teaching game, emphasises the 
spiky aloofness of the primes 
against the background of 
more ‘domesticated' integers. 

Maths Sieve is fully Rise Os 
compliant, and can be installed 
on the icon bar. Before starting 
on the program, a level from 
one to three can be selected, 
depending on the user’s age. 
The main display is a number 
grid, which can be configured 
to show up to 1000 integers. 
The default display shows a 
10x10 grid, up to 100, but this 
can be scrolled down. The 
emphasis on primes starts 
immediately, as the first eight 
prime numbers are highlighted 
in different colours. Clicking 
on the squares for any of these 
numbers will tag all the num- 
bers on the grid that are 
multiples of this prime with 
the appropriate colours. 

The Menu button brings up 
a number of options on the 
main grid. Width is used to 
configure the size of the table, 
and Times Tables tests the 
user on their times tables, with 
random questions. Calcula- 
tions is an informative option, 
only available on level three, 
which allows the user to enter 
a single number (for Powers) 
or two numbers (for lowest 
common multiple or highest 
common factor) and the pro- 


PRIME 

TIME 


Fin Fahey looks at Maths Sieve, 
an introduction to the discrete charm of 
the prime numbers 



.hTHI 




nrrnunber 

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■ 

0 

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1 


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4 

m 

6 

7 

8 

9 

ie 

A 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

in 

20 

Grid 





1 Width 

w 

Tines Table Testing 

■ Tines tablesH 










| Calculations [> 



Tell 

ne 8 tines 10 




\Eb 

41 

42 

j 

Hy answer is : 


88 

1 , 

* 



m 

nn 

51 

52 

53 

54 

55 

56 

57 

58 

59 

60 


M 

61 

62 

63 

64 

65 

66 

67 

68 

69 

70 


i 













71 

72 

73 

74 

75 

76 

77 

78 

79 

80 

qtt i 



81 

82 

83 

84 

85 

86 

87 

88 

89 

90 

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— 

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Times tables made easier with Maths Sieve 
numbers 


gram displays a 
fitting the criteria. 

By the side of the number 
grid, a toolbox provides other 
options. The first clears the 
grid of any coloured tags and 
is followed by five icons that 
will display the opening num- 
bers for a number of series: 
square, triangular, pentagonal 
and hexagonal numbers and 
the Fibonacci series. 

Square numbers are obvi- 
ously the squares of the 
integers: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 . . . The 
triangular series goes: 1, 3, 6, 
10, 15 ... , which is under- 
standable when 10 is regarded 
as 1 +2+3+4. The other options 
follow the same reasoning. 
The Fibonacci series is an 
invaluable concept to repro- 
duce, as it has become ubiqui- 
tous, popping up in such 
applications as speed sorting, 
and is also visible in many 


natural structures like plants or 
the wings of birds. 

At the bottom of the icon 
window is a number informa- 
tion box. This can be selected 
to obtain in-depth information 
on any given number, which 
depends on the level. The user 
enters the number, and the pro- 
gram displays a complete set 
of information about it - if it 
is odd or even, square or tri- 
angular, what its prime factors, 
factors and multiples are and 
so on. To make life easier, two 
arrows at the bottom allow the 
user to scroll through the ent- 
ire set of integers. 

More can be obtained from 
this window using the Menu 
button. This highlights one of 
Maths Sieve important features 
- the ability to save the num- 
ber information data. This lets 
the pupil save the data on any 
number, which allows 


individual databases to be built 
up as part of an ongoing pro- 
ject. Other information can be 
obtained: reciprocal, an 

unusual excursion into real 
numbers, displays the decimal 
reciprocal of the number. Sum 
of factors can be used to deter- 
mine whether a number is 
perfect - a perfect number is 
equal to the sum of its own 
factors (the first two are six 
and 28). Finally you can find 
out how many primes there are 
less than the current number. 

Possibly the most important 
part of the program is the 
multi-player number game. 
This provides a way for the 
children to test out their 
knowledge against each other. 
The game board displays the 
integers from one to 100, and 
allows the players to each 
select a cover. They can each 
then in turn roll a ‘die’ which 
gives them a random number 
depending on the level (level 
two, for example, shows 2, 3, 
5, 7, 11 or any prime number). 
The player must then click on 
any number on the grid that 
hasn’t already been selected 
that has that number as a fac- 
tor. The object of the game is 
to build a row, column or 
diagonal of four numbers, 
whereupon that player wins. 

Maths Sieve is an open- 
ended program, covering a 
number of topics on the 
National Curriculum. The 
review copy came with an ade- 
quate operating manual but 
most aspects of the program 
are self-explanatory and 
although the accompanying 
teachers’ notes were still under 
preparation, they look like 
they will be fairly extensive. 

As the standard of edu- 
cational software goes, this is a 
well designed, inexpensive and 
involving program. It doesn’t 
coyly seek to restrict pupils’ 
access to information in some 
game of educational hide-and- 
seek, but instead tries to draw 
them into an ever-expanding 
world of knowledge. Best of 
all, the game component 
should make it fun to use. 


PRODUCT DETAILS 


Product: Maths Sieve 
Supplier: Computer Tutorial Ser- 
vices, 4 Mill Hill Road, Cowes, 
IOW, P031 7EA Tel: (0983) 294333 
Machine: Archimedes 
Price: 19.95 inc VAT 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 101 







m AVP 

THE 

( From Britain’s largest Supplier of 

j Educational Software 

2 Comprehensive Guides to over 2500 
Educational Programs for the 
! J BBC, Archimedes, A3000, A5000, 

| RM Nimbus and IBM PC 

j All in Stock for Immediate Delivery 

1 For 5-11 age group 

2 11-Adult 

For Your Free Copy Contact 

AVP School Hill Centre 

1 Chepstow Gwent NP6 5PH 

j Telephone 0291 625439 

1 | Fax 0291 629671 

BIG 

BLACK 

CAT 

ALOGUE 


C.U. Electronics Ltd. 

Computers, Upgrade & Electronics 

65a Middle Hillgate, Stockport SKI 3EH 
Tfel: 061 476 0576. Fax: 061 477 2361 

SPECIAL OFFER 

While Stocks Last 

85 Mb Internal IDE Hard 
Drive Unit 
For A3000 

other 
capacities 
available, call 
for details 

061 476 0576 




SJ RESEARCH LIMITED 
J1 THE PADDOCKS 
347 CHERRY HINTON RD 
CAMBRIDGE CB l 4DH 

TEL. 0223416715 
FAX 0223416440 

RESEARCH 

SJ Research is a leading manufacturer of 
networking equipment for the educational market. 
We are looking for several enthusiastic, self- 
motivated people to augment our 

Sales and support team 

You will play an important role in safeguarding 
our reputation for the quality of our service, and 
will be expected to help customers to buy systems 
which suit their needs. A good working 
knowledge of Acorn systems would be useful. 
Your exact job specification will be determined by 
your skills and interests: certainly some posts will 
involve visiting customers and clients. Your salary 
will depend on experience, but is likely to be in the 
range £18,000 - £25,000. 

Apply in your own handwriting, enclosing a full 
curriculum vitae, to Neil Spence-Jones at 
SJ Research. No agencies please. 


102 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 



/\RIVI CHIPS 



As the Arm chip 
goes global, Ian 
Burley talks to 
its designers 


UP IN ARMS 


T hese days the Arm chip is 
firmly in the spotlight. 
Only recently Apple’s 
new Newton computer 
was launched amid much 
media attention. Known as the 
personal digital assistant, it has 
a powerful, efficient chip that 
consumes next to no power - 
the Arm processor. 

Naturally, all this attention 
is good news for Acorn. Arm 
chips are vital to Rise OS 
machines. And at the centre of 
all the fuss is Arm Ltd - 
Advanced Rise Machines - the 
Acorn spin-off, financially 
backed by Apple, and 
entrusted with the future of 
Arm technology. 

I recently visited Arm Ltd, 
which runs its operations from 
a converted 18-century barn in 
the village of Swaffham Bul- 


beck. There I found a small 
but highly motivated team who 
aim to put Arm technology 
back on top of the global Rise 
processor league. 

THE ARM STORY 

Arm Ltd was formed in 1990 
by surprise partners Apple and 
Acorn. At the time, Apple 
coyly declined to confirm its 
intentions. IBM and Apple had 
already announced a new 
Power PC platform and many 
onlookers were convinced that 
Arm was central to this. In 
reality, Apple’s separate PDA 
project, which eventually lead- 
ing to the Newton, was already 
under way. Apple chief John 
Sculley once predicted a world 
PDA market of $3 trillion and, 
if this is true, the Power PC 
project could prove to be small 


fry, compared to the potential 
of PDA effort. 

The story of Arm Ltd is fas- 
cinating for Acorn watchers. 
VLSI Technology, which 
made Arm chips for Acorn, 
conjured up enthusiasm at 
Apple as early as 1987, the 
same year Acorn launched the 
Archimedes. In fact, Apple 
almost launched some Arm- 
based products of its own. 

However, Apple was 
concerned that Acorn had 
direct control over the Arm 
chipset. Meanwhile, Acorn 
was unable to match the 
admiration its Arm technology 
was earning with hard third- 
party sales. The pioneering 
chip was falling behind as 
other companies started to pro- 
duce super-powerful Rise 
designs. Sanyo was signed up 


as a second source of Ann 
chips, but Sanyo’s Arms never 
reached production. 

By 1990, John Sculley was 
talking about advanced per- 
sonal computers, dubbed as 
PDAs. Larry Tesler, who was 
in charge of Apple’s research 
program, was an admirer of 
the Arm’s low power con- 
sumption and efficient design. 
He thought it ideal for battery- 
powered computing. Tesler 
was soon in charge of the PDA 
project and was determined to 
use Arm chips despite two 
problems. The first was techni- 
cal: the basic Arm design 
needed some changes. The 
second problem was the Acorn 
factor. 

Acorn’s managing director, 
Sam Wauchope. and technical 
director Malcolm Bird met 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 103 




/\RI\/1 CHIPS 



Larry Tesler in August 1990. 
Tesler was impressed by the 
enthusiasm with which 
Acorn’s in-house VLSI design 
team greeted his technical 
requirements. The message 
was: you want changes? No 
problem. The deal was sealed. 

Wauchope was brave 
enough to realise future 
development of Arm technol- 
ogy could be better served by 
an independent company - 
especially with Apple’s back- 
ing. This would be good for 
Acorn because investment in 
the very chips Acorn depended 
on was secure. By November, 
Arm Ltd was formed with 
Apple and Acorn, each hold- 
ing 46 per cent of the stakes 
while the remainder went to 
VLSI Technology. Most of 

Acorn’s VLSI design team 
relocated to Arm Ltd and 

Robin Saxby was hired as 

managing director. 

THE GOAL 

Arm Ltd was formed because 
Apple needed the chips for 

their PDA project. But the 
company wanted to promote 
the Arm chip in its own right. 


It wanted to see the Arm chip 
replacing older Cisc (complex 
instruction set) processors in 
portable products or embedded 
control applications. Arm Ltd 
is also committed to what arc 
described as ‘cost-sensitive 
performance’ uses like 3D 
colour graphics and home 
computers such as the 
Archimedes. 

Arm Ltd has only 30 staff, 
yet in 18 months it has pro- 
duced four new Arm6 family 
members and continues to 
develop the rest of the Arm 
chip set. Faster Arm700 and 
800 series chips are in the 
pipeline, loo. There’s also the 
FPA10 Boating-point accelera- 
tor chip - a sort of Rise maths 
chip as well as custom 
developments of earlier chips 
like Arm2. 

One of Arm Ltd’s key 
strengths is that it can custom- 
ise chips to a customer’s 
requirement very quickly. 
Robin Saxby, calls this chang- 
ing chip ‘flavours’. The 
Arm610 was developed from 
the Arm600 with Apple in 
mind and the whole process 
took just four months. It’s now 


being produced by Apple’s 
American partner, VLSI Tech- 
nology, and GEC-Plessey 
Semiconductors in the UK. 

Being close to the customer 
is a priority at Arm Ltd and 
last year an office in Los Gatos 
in Silicon Valley was opened 
to help customers develop 
their requirements, though all 
key VLSI design work remains 
at Swaffham. 

In June, Saxby went to 
Japan to promote Arm Ltd - 


he ended up staying two 
weeks. “We made the pages of 
three of Japan’s top newspa- 
pers; there’s considerable 
interest in our technology out 
there,’’ he enthused. “We were 
told our seminars were some 
of the best attended this year,” 
he added. Saxby is soon 
returning to Japan for another 
two to three weeks of lobbying 
and hopes to announce a 
Japanese joint project by the 
end of the year. 

If Arm Ltd can crack the 
Japanese market, we could 
soon find Arm chips in 
anything from computer game 
consoles to personal organisers 
to cellular telephones. 

Could Acorn’s original 
shoe-string band of Arm chip 
designers back in 1984 ever 
have thought their pioneering 
technology might be on the 
brink of ubiquity eight years 
hence? Similar optimism, 
based solely on the Arm’s 
merit five years ago, was 
short-lived. This time it’s dif- 
ferent; one senses the Arm will 
actually make it. 

WHAT'S IN IT FOR US? 

Of course, uppermost in BAU 
readers' minds is - how will 
Acorn benefit from Arm Ltd? 
Until Acorn publicly reveals 
its own plans, there’s no way 
Arm Ltd can be persuaded to 
discuss its customer’s require- 
ments in detail. 

It’s no secret that an 
enhanced video controller 
called VIDC20 is under 
development and this will pro- 
bably offer 24-bit colour for 
on-screen photo-realism in 
future Archimedes computers. 
But Arm Ltd is tight-lipped 
about even that. It’s the same 


THE NEXT GENERATION 


A lot of confusion has surrounded the burgeoning 
new Arm6 family. So, to clear matters up, here is an 
overview of the new chips. 

Acorn currently uses Arm2 and 3 generation chips 
pre-dating Arm Ltd. Apple uses the Arm610, a mem- 
ber of the new Arm6 family developed by Arm Ltd. 
Arm6 itself is a macrocell, not a chip. The Arm6 
macrocell is an enhanced Arm2 processor core design 
which can be easily pasted into new composite silicon 
designs using special CAD tools. 

Improvements include one-micron fabrication size 
and very low power consumption static CMOS con- 
struction. Arm6 occupies just a tiny 2.8mm square 
corner of the silicon in Arm600 and 610 chips, for 
example. An improved ALU (arithmetic logic unit) 
reduces clock cycles required to compute some 
instructions. Byte ordering is now switchable between 
little and big 'endian' for compatibility outside out- 
side the Acorn fold. The address bus width has been 
increased from 26 to 32 bits. In 32-bit mode an extra 
status register accommodates flags which used to 
reside in the first six bits of the program counter. 

Rise OS can't currently use the Arm6 32-bit mode, 
but switchable 26-bit compatibility is retained and the 
latest Rise OS 3.1 version is Arm6-aware. Arm6 is also 
better at dealing with virtual memory addressing. 

The simplest Arm6 family member is the Arm60, 
Arm6 in its own chip package - which now conforms 
to the industry standard JTAG boundary scan 
standard for chip testing. Arm61 is pin-compatible 
with the old Arm2, as used in all Archimedes compu- 
ters up to the Arm3-equipped A540, A5000 and the 
new A4. Arm600, like Arm3, has a 4K instruction cache 
to prevent the processor having to wait for external 


memory to keep up, but there the similarities end. 
Arm600's cache is more power efficient and there's 
also a two word write buffer. This further helps the 
processor retain full momentum and contributes 
heavily to Arm600's typical 40 per cent performance 
improvement over Arm3. 

Arm600 contains an on-chip MMU (memory man- 
agement unit) developed from MemC20, which was 
never produced. It's incompatible with the MEMCIa 
currently used by Acorn. The new MMU incorporates 
vital memory partitioning functions for an object- 
oriented operating system, as used in Apple's Newton. 
Arm600s can talk to other devices, floating-point 
accelerators or even other Arms, via a co-processor 
interface. 

Arm610 is a more compact Arm600 sans co-proces- 
sor interface. Arm610's advanced 144-pin Thin Quad 
Flat Pack (TQFP) chip is extremely small and consumes 
much less current than comparable chips. 

One of Arm Ltd's customers recently benchmarked 
the performance of a 20MHz Arm610, which Arm Ltd 
nominally rates at 15mips. The result was 25K dhry- 
stones per second. They concluded performance was 
comparable with a 35MHz Intel 486DX or a 40MHz 
Motorola 68040. The benchmark is simply a statistic 
but it's worth noting Apple's fastest Macintosh 
Quadra uses a 33MHz 68040. 

Rival chips consume several watts of power while 
the 610 is rated at 0.5w on a 5V system or 0.3w in a 3V 
system. No other commercially available microproces- 
sors approach Arm610's watt/mip ratio and Arm Ltd 
points out that Arm610 is cheaper to manufacture. 

VLSI Technology lists Arm610s as being available for 
from about US$20 each in quantity. 


104 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 




/\RI\/1 CHIPS 


SPOT THE ARM 


Up until about five years ago, Arms were the world's 
best selling Rise chips. And although most of them 
have ended up in Acorn products, other Arms have 
found their way into a diverse selection of products. 
Arms are fast and cheap, ideal for accelerating things. 
Perhaps the second most popular application for the 
Arm is as the centrepiece of the Arm3 upgrade board. 

Meanwhile, Radius in the US was an early third- 
party Arm chip customer. Radius uses 10MHz Arm2s 
in graphics accelerator cards for Apple Macs. The cards 
weren't the fastest but came out tops in value for 
money. Radius successfully ported Apple's key OS 
graphics driver code, QuickDraw, to the Arm. 

But, did you know Arm is an Oscar-winner? Jim 
Henson's Creature Shop is a high-tech puppet com- 
pany, founded by the inventor of The Muppets. It 
won an Oscar last year for its Henson Performance 
Control System that uses Arm-based controller cards 
supplied by Micro-robotics. 

Henpec's claim to fame comes from the second 
Mutant Ninja Turtles film. It produced those complex 
facial expressions. Previous Jim Henson creations 
required up to 50 hand-operated controls to perform 
similar tasks. Having tried eight-bit controllers the 
company decided to upgrade to 32-bit Arm power. 

David Housman of JHCS explained: "The Arm is 
low-cost, it has a good instruction set, and has very 
low power consumption, making it suitable for 
location shots. And the Arm processor has a superb C 
compiler that is streets ahead of anything available 
for PCs, especially in terms of code density." 

Another impressive example of the Arm at work is 
a Rediffusion simulator. Flight crew trainers are 
usually about $10 million, but the Arm version is much 
cheaper! Rediffusion produced Commander, a baby 
flight simulator with hydraulically operated cockpit. It 
costs £45,000 and is a coin-operated arcade simulator. 

Commander has a hybrid control system with a 286 
PC running the game program and sending high-level 
graphics and sound instructions to a pair of cards each 
sporting an Arm3 processor. Rediffusion claims 



Commander is the first arcade simulator to integrate 
four key elements: real-time control of the vehicle, 
motion, dual display screens featuring high-resolution 
graphics and Midi-controlled sound. 

Other applications worth mentioning include real- 
time data logging equipment, a PostScript controller 
system for Olivetti's ETV word processor workstation 
and PC background processor cards. 

Acorn co-founder Hermann Hauser had a special 
version of the Arm2 processor embedded in a custom 
chip which was to be the heart of his Advanced Book 
Computer. Hauser calls his chip Hercules, small but 
powerful. Ironically, the Advanced Book Computer 
does not seem to have a bright future, while Apple's 
remarkably similar Newton is currently in the limelight. 



for the long-awaited FPA10 
floating-point accelerator, 
which is even on some Acorn 
A540 brochures. 

So is Arm technology going 
to keep up with the recent 
spurt in performance shown by 
Intel in its 486 PC processors? 
Robin Saxby had a positive 
response: “I can’t answer for 
Acorn regarding what it 
intends to use its future pro- 
ducts for, but while it’s true 
we have stated that Arm is 
targeting portable, telecomms 
and other embedded controller 
applications, Arm processors 
will get faster with time.” 

Saxby told us that Arm was 
never designed to compete 
with the monolithic high-end 
Rise monsters, which Mips, 
Sun Microsystems and DEC 
currently produce, but he is 
unworried by today’s fast Intel 
486s and tomorrow’s 586s. 
“Arms are simpler, cheaper to 
make and more efficient,” he 
explained. The future Arm700 
and 800 series should keep 
Acorn in touch with the PCs of 
this world although, maybe, 
the large performance lead 
Arm2 and Arm3 once enjoyed 
over the PC chips will not 
return for a while. 

But a super-high perfor- 
mance Arm processor could be 
with us as early as next year, if 
only in experimental form. 
“We are involved in a couple 
of projects with Manchester 
University’s Professor Steve 
Furber, one of the Arm chip’s 
parents, which includes Amu- 
let, an asynchronous Arm. 

“A very high-speed bipolar 
version of this chip could run 
at lOOmips, but we won’t see 
that as a commercial product 
until after the Arm8 range is 
out of the way in several years 
time.” And to think the orig- 
inal Arm chip first “ran” as a 
simulation, written in Basic, 
on a humble Beeb with a sec- 
ond processor. 

With just 24 engineers, Arm 
Ltd is tiny, but it is already 
showing the semiconductor 
giants the way to go. There’s 
that inescapable David-and- 
Goliath feeling which first 
started back in 1985 when 
news of Acorn’s home-grown 
Rise first trickled out. The old 
adage that small is beautiful is 
perfectly borne out here. The 
pressure is on Saxby and his 
team; “It’s hard work,” he 
says, “but a lot of fun.” 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 105 






k «a 


Acorn 1 , 

The choice of experience 


0772 623000 


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See ue at t&e tAout 


OCTOBER 16-18 



ORION COMPUTERS IS UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT 

WE WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT ALL OUR EXISTING 
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Domark 

■■II 

Mig-29 Super Fulcrum 

£29 

3D Construction Set 

£35 

Eterna 

Ballarena 

£15 

Blaston 

£15 

Bubblefair 

£15 

Cartoon Line 

£19 

Fine Racer 

£15 

Kerbang 

£11 

Legend of the Lost Temple 

£21 

Poizone 

£15 

Rockfall 

£15 


Thing of Darkness £20 

Elite (Gold Edition) £31 


MicroPower 


Chess 3D 
Zelanites 


£14 

£19 


Krisalis 


Chuck Rock £19 

Gods £19 

James Pond £19 

Lemmings £19 

Mad Professor Mariarti £15 

Manchester Utd. Europe £19 

Nebulus £19 

World Champ. Boxing Manager £19 

World Champ. Squash £19 

Swiv £19 

Simls 

Flight Simulator Toolkit £31 

Superior Software 

Air Supremacy £19 Hostages £15 

Master Break £15 Speech £15 

Turcan 

DreadNoughts £26 Waterloo 

Virgin 


Magnetic Scrolls Collection 
Wonderland 

Please ring lor current prices on software 
NOT listed here 


RIBBONS 


£25 

£24 


Branded Ribbons 


Amstrad DMP2000/3160 

Citizen 120D 

Citizen Swift 24 Black 

Citizen Swift 24 Colour 

Epson LX80/86 

Epson FX80,MX80,LX800 

Epson LQ400.550 fabric 

Epson MX1 00.FX1 000.FX1 050 

Epson EX800/1 000 Black 

Panasonic KXP145, KXP115 

Panasonic KXP140 

Star LC10 

Star LC10 4 Colour 

Star LC200 Black 

Star LC200 Colour 

Star LC24/10/ LC24 200 Black 

Star LC24 200 Colour 


£5 

£3 

£4 

£14 

£4 

£5 

£6 

£6 

£7 

£7 

£10 

£4 

£6 

£5 

£11 

£8 

£13 


Printer Cartridges 


Canon LBP4 Toner Cartridge £55 

Canon LBP8 Toner Cartridge £62 

Canon BJ130 (BJI481) £10 

Canon BJlOe (BC01) £16 


Canon BJ300/330 (BJI642) £11 

C’jet 132/Canon PJ 1080 Black £9 

C'jet 132/Canon PJ1080 Colour £14 

HP PaintJet Black £20 

HP Paintjet Colour £23 

HP Deskjet + (Permanent Ink) £12 

HP Deskjet 500C Colour £22 

Qume Crystal Print Toner Set £66 

Qume Crystal Print Drum Set £88 

Compatible Ribbons 

Amstrad DMP2000 £3 

Amstrad LQ3500, PCW8256 £3 

Brother M2024 £5 

Brother M1009, Ml 109 £4 

Brother HR10, 15.20,25, 35 Fabric £4 

Brother HR10, 15, 20, 25,35 MS £4 

Canon PW1080A £4 

Citizen 120D/Swift 24 £3 

Epson LX80.86 £3 

Epson FX80,MX80,LX800,LX850 £3 

Epson FX1 050, LX1 000 £4 

Epson LQ500, LQ800.LQ850 £4 

Epson LQ1 000.LQ1 050.FX1 000 £6 

Epson LQ2500.LQ2550 £6 

Epson EX800 £6 

Panasonic KXP1 081/90, 1180/24 £4 

Seikosha GP100 £3 

Shanwa CP80 Multistrike £5 

Star LC10/LC20 £3 

Star LC10 4 Colour £5 

Star LC24/10, LC24/200 £4 

Star LC200 Black £3 

Discounts available on all ribbons for 
quantities of 3 or more. 


Please call for prices on any ribbons not listed here. 
We can supply almost any ribbon required and, 
dependent on quantity, any colour. 

Please Note - Quoting the CARMA Group Code 
speeds up our search for a ribbon compatible with 
your printer. 


High performance Hard Disc 
Sub-Systems for Archimedes & 
A3 000 computers 
Fast A.T. Bus Interface . Easy 
Installation. 

Fit 2 Drives internally (A3/4/500) . 
A3000 Compatible 

Interface, Manual and Cables £102.00 
Tested with: Seagate, Quantum, Maxtor, 
Conner & Others. 



A3000 

A300/400 

20Mb 

£246 

£170 

43Mb 

£314 

£237 

52Mb (Cached) 

£357 

£280 

105Mb (Cached) 

£441 

£365 

120Mb (Cached) 

£493 

£416 

200Mb 

£578 

£502 

210Mb (Cached) 

£612 

£536 

425Mb (Cached) 

£953 

£876 


120MB DRIVE FOR A5000 ONLY 365.00 
All prices EXCLUDE VAT. 

Prices quoted include Card, Cables, 
Manual and Drive 

A3000 Twin Podule Expansion System 

Connect two 400 Series cards to your 
A3000 at the same time. Both podules 
are available for use with no switching 
or extra software needed. Supplied in 
colour keyed case with full fitting 
instructions. No soldering required. 

£55.00 


BULK DISKETTES 


All our disks come complete with labels 
etc. and are 100% certified error free. In 
the event that a disk fails it will be 
replaced immediately. 



25 

50 

100 

250 

500 

1000 

DS/DD96tpi 5V4” 

n/a 

14 

26 

60 

115 

209 

MF/2DD 1 Meg 3^/2” 

10 

20 

33 

85 

162 

298 

Branded Bulk 3V2“ 

12 

25 

45 

105 

200 

379 

MF/2HD 2Mcg tffr" 

19 

37 

67 

163 

295 

530 


ORDERING INFORMA TION 


Minimum Older Value £10.00 
Minimum Educational Order Value £15.00 
ALL PRICES ARE EXCLUDING V.A.T. 


By Post 


Please send your orders including a 
signed cheque, postal order or credit 
card number & expiry date (NOT CASH) 
to: 

Orion Computers, 

250 Leyland Lane. 

Leyland, 

Preston. 

PR5 3HL. 

IMPORTANT: All cheques and bankers 
drafts to be made payable to 

Classeffect Ltd. 


I 


By Telephonk 


Telephone orders may be placed 
between 9.30am and 5.00pm. Please 
have your credit card number and expiry 
date ready. 

Tel:0772 623000 
Fax: 0772 622917 


In Person 


Callers most welcome. 

We are situated 3 miles from M6 J28. 

Open Mon-Fri 9.30am - 5pm. 


PLEASE REMEMBER 
WHEN COMPARING 
PRICES - WE DO NOT 
CHARGE CARRIAGE 

on standard delivery within 
mainland UK unless marked 
otherwise. Next day courier Service 
£6.00. Carriage on ex/iotl orders 
charged at cost. 

IBM COMPATIBLE PC's 
We now supply our own 
range of IBIVI compatible 
PC's. Please call for 
information and prices. 

[21.07.92] 













N etworking is one of those 
topics that’s usually seen 
as ‘not for me’. Leave it 
to the big schools and 
offices. But if you’ve got more 
than one Acorn computer, the 
attractions of linking them 
together are clear . . . and it 
isn’t difficult or that 
expensive. 

Networks allow you to do 
several things not possible on 
a roomful of ‘standalone’ com- 
puters. First, you can easily 
pass work from one computer 
to another. Several people can 
work on the same project at 
once (though usually not on 
the same file at the same time), 
and collect all their work 
together easily. Second, net- 
works allow you to share 
peripherals - you can have a 
single printer and a single hard 
disc shared by all the people 
on a network. 

BASICS 

Network argot is almost 
impenetrable, but there are 
three really important things to 
discern. One is the cabling 
standard. You can use twisted- 
pair cable (like telephone 
wire), or coaxial cable (like 
TV aerial cable). These both 
come in all sorts of different 
flavours - they differ in the 
number of wires in a cable, 
how thick the wires are, what 
voltages are used and so on. 
You can even use something 
exotic like microwaves or opti- 
cal fibre to transmit the 
signals. The second vital fea- 
ture is the protocol used - the 
‘language’ the network mes- 
sages are sent in. You could 
use one set of cables to run 
two ‘networks’ - each using 
different protocols. 

Thirdly, there’s the topology 
- the way you plug the net- 
work together. There are three 
main topologies - buses, rings 
and stars. A star is where each 
computer is linked directly to 
one central point, rather like 
telephones linked to the 
exchange. All communication 
on the network has to be 
mediated by the central 
machine. A ring is like a bus - 
there’s one big long piece of 
cable, onto which individual 
computers (or stations) hook. 
Rings loop back onto them- 
selves, whereas buses have 
ends like terminus stations on 
the railway. Here individual 
computers can ‘talk' directly 


NET GAINS 


Nick Wetherby points out that two computers are better than 
one, especially when they're linked up 



108 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 


DARREL REES 





NETWORKING 



Networks come in several flavours - stars, rings and buses: Econet is a bus (the large squares are fileservers) 



Econet architecture: terminators (T) suppress reflected signals, the clock ('C') synchronises all data transfer 


to each other as well as to the 
central machine - the ‘server’. 
Indeed there might not even be 
a server, as the network could 
be ‘peer-to-peer’. Or there 
could be several servers, all 
doing different jobs. 

So what is the server? A 
fileserver is a central storage 
point on a network. Instead of 
each individual computer hav- 
ing a hard disc (or its own 
floppy disc drive), you save 
files via the network. Every- 
body’s files are sent to the 
server and stored on a big hard 
disc. The server’s job is to 
keep track of which file 
belongs to which network 
user, and to send them back 
when users want to load them 
again. Ideally, a fileserver has 
a huge and fast hard disc for 
this central storage. This also 
makes it easy to keep data safe 
- because it’s stored centrally, 
it can be backed up centrally, 
perhaps using a tape streamer 
to back everything up at once. 

To keep track of the files’ 
owners, the network has 
‘users’. When you start to use 
the network, you ‘log on’, or 
tell the fileserver who you are. 
Each file has a user it belongs 
to, and only that user can read 
the file - unless the owner 
explicitly allows others to read 
the file. One user - the net- 
work manager - has access to 
everything, and can set up new 
users and tweak the fileserver 
software. Note that a user is 
not the same as a station: a 
user can log on from any com- 


puter on the net and see the 
right files, and some other user 
using ‘your’ computer will see 
only their own user’s files. 

By extension, just as you 
can have fileservers, you can 
have printservers which print 
whatever you send them; data- 
base servers which store data 
records for you and pass back 
only the bits you need; teletext 
servers which provide the tele- 
text pages you ask for; even 
‘compute servers’ which send 
back the answers to particu- 
larly difficult problems you 
send them. 

All the networks so far have 
been LANs (local area net- 
works). You can also connect 
them together, with repeaters, 
bridges or routers that pass 
traffic from one net to another. 
And networks can be 
expanded across a city or 
across the globe forming 
WANs (wide-area networks). 
Econet has been Acorn’s 


standard network since the 
beginning - the earliest Atoms 
could be connected to the 
latest A5000s. Econet defines 
all the parts of the network - 
cabling, topology and pro- 
tocols. It uses special five-wire 
cable in a bus topology. At 
each end of the cable there’s a 
‘terminator’, and somewhere 
in the middle you need a 
‘clock’. The computers attach 
to the main cable via an 
Econet module (a tiny inter- 
face board) and a short lead. 
The Econet filing system soft- 
ware necessary is built in to 
each Arc, and comes on Rom 
with the module for the Master 
series. Older BBC model Bs 
need a different type of 
interface. 

In fact, if you’ve got just a 
few computers in the same 
room, you can connect them 
up using an Econet Starter Kit 
plus an Econet Lead Set, 
which contain all you need - a 


ETHERNET 


clock, two terminators and 
enough little cables and T- 
pieces - plus an Econet 
module for each machine. You 
put the modules in the 
machines, and just plug every- 
thing together. There are even 
access boxes in the Starter kit 
that can be screwed to the wall 
and linked by Econet cable for 
a more permanent installation. 

Assuming at least one of 
your machines is an Archi- 
medes, the best way to set up a 
fully-functioning network is to 
use Acorn’s Level 4 Fileserver 
software. This allows all the 
computers - any mix of BBCs 
and Archimedes machines - to 
share part of the hard disc of 
the fileserver Archimedes. In 
essence, you create a number 
of directories on the hard disc, 
each of which belongs to one 
of the users on the network. 
The software keeps track of 
which file belongs to whom. 

Another way is to use Oak 
Solutions’ Sharer , a mini- 
server which allows you to set 
up a directory on your hard 
disc that can be shared by 
everyone else. Unlike the full 
server software, Sharer does- 
n’t keep track of users’ access 
rights - files are either shared 
or they aren’t. But this is a 
simpler and cheaper option, 
perhaps for home networks. 

So having built your net- 
work, how can you use it? A 
network encourages co-opera- 
tion and group working - 
small wonder that they are 
popular in schools. Redwood 
Publishing’s extensive net- 
work is vital to the production 
of BAU. All the Acorn 
machines used for writing, 
software testing, page layout 
and sub-editing are networked. 
Next month, we’ll take a more 
detailed look at what you can 
do with a network. 


While Econet is Acorn's own networking system, Ethernet is a well-established and internationally-agreed 
standard used by a wide range of computer systems. First developed by Xerox, it really comprises a set of three 
physical standards - generally known as 'thick' and 'thin' coaxial Ethernet and 'twisted pair' Ethernet. The 
protocols (the 'network language') used with Ethernet cabling vary: many are proprietary to individual 
companies, but one common standard widely used in the Unix world is known as TCP/IP. 

You can connect Archimedes computers to TCP/IP networks using an Ethernet interface podule and Acorn's 
TCP/IP software. But it's important to check your Ethernet cabling first - all the current podules cater for Thick 
and Thin Ethernet only. Connections to twisted pair cabling can be made, but only at additional cost. 

The major advantage of Ethernet is speed: it runs at a theoretical speed of 10Mb per second - about the same 
as a fast hard disc. Compare that with the maximum of 0.2Mb per second for a reasonably-sized Econet. Loading 
a large file could be 50 times faster. But Ethernet costs real money: budget on at least £200 per computer for the 
interface podule, plus the hefty cost of cabling. Econet is remarkably inexpensive, at about £40 per computer for 
the Econet module. 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 109 








061 766 8423 

Phone lines open :- 
Mon-Fri 09.00- 17.00 
Sat 10.00-17.00 

FAX: 061 766 8425 


Acorn Hardware 

Official Acorn Publishing Dealer 


A540 inc. 4Mb Ram, 120 Mb HD, 

Arm3, Taxan 775 £2495.00 

A5000 / 4Mb Ram, 40 Mb hd, 

Arm3, Acorn Multiscan Monitor £1 499.00 

A5000 / Learning Curve / 4Mb Ram 

as above c/w Audio Training Cassette. 

Guide to National Curriculum, Acorn 
Applications Suite. Pacmania, 

PC Emulator , Genesis, 1st word Plus, 

Acorn DTP £1531.06 

A5000 LC / Acorn Printer / 4Mb Ram 


as above c/w Acorn JP150 
Inkjet Printer 

A3000/ 4Mb Ram fitted 


£1765.96 

£599.00 


A3000 Learning Curve / 4Mb Ram 

as above c/w Audio Training Cassette, 

Guide to National Curriculum, Acorn 
Applications Suite, Pacmania, 

PC Emulator, Genesis, 1st Word Plus £642.29 
A3000 LC / Acorn Monitor / 4Mb Ram 

as above c/w Acorn Colour Monitor 

A3000 LC / Acorn Monitor / 

Acorn Printer / 4Mb Ram 

as above c/w Acorn JP150 
Inkjet Printer 


£855.05 


£1089.95 


Acorn Special Needs Centre 
A3000 Special Access 

Acorn Serial Upgrade. Morley User/Analogue 
Expansion Card, Acorn Software Suite, 

Utilities Disc, SEMERC & ACE Special 
Needs Handbook 

A3000 Special Access / Acorn 
Colour Monitor / Stand 

as above c/w Acorn Monitor and 
Pres Monitor Stand 

Master 128 

Acorn Quest for Gold 
Call for details 

We operate the 
Acorn Teachers and 
0% Finance Schemes 

Please call for free information pack 

A540 Upgrades 

4Mb Ram Upgrade £369.00 

Taxan 795 VIDC Modes Disc £7.50 

Technical Reference Manual £65.00 

A5000 Upgrades 


2Mb Ram Card 

£110.00 

Dust Cover (One piece) 

£12.95 

Technical Reference Manual 

£65.00 

A400 Upgrades 


1 Mb Ram 

£35.00 

2 Mb Ram 

£65.00 

3 Mb Ram 

£99.00 

5.25“ Ext. floppy disc int. 

£39.00 

Econet Module 

£46.00 

VIDC Enhancer 

£29.00 


A3000 Upgrades 


1 Mb Ram (2 Mb in total) 

£55.00 

4 Mb Ram 

£159.00 

20 Mb Int Hard Disc (IDE) 

£199.00 

5.25“ External f/disc buffer 

£39.00 

Serial Upgrade 

£19.00 

Serial Link Kit (BBC-Arc) 

£14.00 

User & Analogue Podule 

£46.00 

User & Midi Podule 

£46.00 


£679.00 


£899.00 

£399.00 


NEW 

THE ACORN A4 PORTABLE 

The Power of ARM 3 

The Flexibility of RISC OS 3 

The Portability of the ACORN A4 


A4 4/60 Mb HD Portable £1 699.00 
A4 2 Mb FD Portable £1 399.00 

A4 2 MB RAM Upgrade £110.00 

A4 60 MB HD Upgrade £350.00 

A4 Battery Pack £50.00 

A4 Econet Upgrade £50.00 

A4 Portable Handbook £7.50 

A4 Shoulder Bag (Free with every A4 purchased in August & September) £35.00 

A4 Technical Reference Manual £65.00 

A4 Welcome Guide £1 0.00 


Expansion Cards 


Econet Module £46.00 

Ethernet Expansion Card II £249.00 
Floating Point Expansion Card £449.00 
Hawk V9 Video Digitiser £1 99.00 
I/O Expansion Card £79.00 

Midi Upgrade to I/O Card £27.00 
Midi Expansion Card £65.00 

ROM Expansion Card £45.00 

SCSI Expansion Card (Acorn) £229.00 


New from Rombo 
Vidi-Archimedes 
Colour Digitiser 

Special Price 


A3000 inc. podule housing £72.30 

A400 series £72.30 

A5000 £72.30 


Aleph 1 

Arm 3 Upgrade £199.00 

386 PC Expansion Card 1 Mb £495.00 

386 PC Expansion Card 4Mb £595.00 

Standard Monitors 

Acom Colour £199.00 

Microvitec Cub 3000 £1 99.00 

Philips CM8833 II £199.00 

Philips Mono (Green) £85.00 

All monitors come with free lead. State type of 
computer when ordering. 

Multiscan Monitors 

Taxan 775 Multivision £389.00 

Taxan 795 Multivision £449.00 

Floppy Disc Drives 

5.25" Single 40/80 no psu £95.00 

5.25" Single 40/80 with psu £1 09.00 

5.25” Dual 40/80 no psu £1 85.00 

5.25" Dual 40/80 with psu £199.00 

3.5" Single with psu £85.00 

3.5" + 5.25" 40/80 with psu £209.00 

Printers 

Canon Bubblejet BJ-lOe £219.00 

Canon B J 1 0e inc. turbo driver £248.00 

Sheetfeeder for BJ-1 Oe £59.00 

Canon BJC800 (col.) inc. s/w £1895.00 

Citizen 120D+ £114.00 

Citizen Swift 9 £169.00 

Citizen Swift 24e £239.00 

Colour Kit for above £39.00 

Citizen Swift 224 £199.00 

Citizen Swift 224 Colour £229.00 

Star LC20 £130.00 

Star LC200 Colour (9 pin) £1 89.00 

Star LC24- 200 £219.00 

Star LC24 - 200 Colour £259.00 

Integrex Colourjet 132 £519.00 

HP DeskJet 500 £339.00 

HP DeskJet 500C £599.00 

HP Paintjet £599.00 

Laser Direct (LBP4 Hi Res.) £849.00 

Laser Direct (LBP8 Hi Res.) £1279.00 

RISC os 3 

RISC OS 3 Upgrade £TBA 


Econet 

Broadcast Loader £65.00 

Level 4 Software £199.00 

Scanners 

Flatbed A4 256 Grey SCSI (CC) £849.00 
Flatbed A4 with SCSI card £949.00 

Scan Junior Scanner 256 £1 99.00 

Scanlight Senior Scanner A4 £289.00 

Sheet Feeder for above A4 £1 35.00 

Fax 

Fax Pack (CC) £279.00 


Printer Drivers 


Midnight Graphics 
Citizen Swift 9 Sprite Dump £26.04 

Citizen Swift 24 Sprite Dump £26.04 

Epson 24 Sprite Dump £26.04 

HP Deskjet 500C Sprite Dump £26.04 

HP Paintjet Sprite Dump £26.04 

Integrex 1 32 Sprite Dump £26.04 

Integrex Colourcel Sprite Dump £26.04 

Juki 5520 Sprite Dump £26.04 

Star LC1 0 Sprite Dump £26.04 

Star XB24 Sprite Dump £26.04 

Star LC200 Sprite Dump £26.04 

Star LC24-200 Sprite Dump £26.04 

Ace Computing . 

Printer JX (Colour Dot Matrix) £1 4.00 

Printer DJ (Deskjet 500C) £14.00 

Printer PJ (Paintjet) £14.00 

Printer CA (Canon Colour) £1 4.00 

Beebug 

Deskjet 500C Driver £15.00 

Star/Epson/Citizen (Colour) £15.00 

Electronic Font Foundry 
BubbleJet - BJ10e/130e £10.00 

Cables 

Arc - Monitor - 8833 inc sound £8.65 

Arc -Monitor -8833 II inc sound £8.65 

Arc - Parallel Printer Cable £5.00 

Keyboard Extender 400/500 £7.50 

Mouse Extender £7.50 

Replacement Mk I Mouse Cable £6.50 

BBC Software 

Blob 1 £18.00 

Blob 2 £18.00 

Chick Chase (80 T rack Only) £1 5.00 

E-Type £13.00 

Master Break £10.39 

Mini Office II £17.35 

Modem Master £1 1 .26 

Play it Again Sam No's 1 - 1 6 ea. £1 1 .95 

Reversals (80 T rack Only) £20.00 

UIM £14.95 

Where's Blob £18.00 

White Knight £18.00 

Master Compact 

Play It Again Sam No's 1 - 16 ea. £13.00 

UIM £14.95 

Archimedes Software 

4 Mation 

Chameleon £25.00 

Craftshop 1 £29.00 


Craftshop 2 

£29.00 

Jiglet 

£25.00 

Jigsaw 

£27.00 

Poster 

£75.00 

SmArt 

£50.00 

SmArtFiler 

£32.00 

Snippet 

£26.00 

Vector 

£75.00 

Ace Computing 


ArcLight 

£43.00 

Euclid 

£40.00 

Mogul 

£17.00 

Splice 

£26.00 

Tween 

£26.00 

Acorn Computers 


1st Word Plus 

£65.00 

ANSI C (V 3) 

£125.00 

Acorn Desktop Publisher 

£109.00 

Desktop Assembler (V 2) 

£119.00 

Desktop C (V 4) 

£185.00 

Font Starter Pack 

£39.00 

Newhall Font Pack 

£39.00 

PC Emulator / Free Shareware 

£95.00 

TCP/IP Programers Pack 

£50.00 

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 

£199.00 

Arxe Systems 


MultiFS 

£27.00 

Beebug 


DeskEdit 

£21.00 

Desktop Thesaurus 

£19.00 

Hard Disc Companion 2 

£45.00 

Hearsay II 

£69.00 

Ovation 

£85.00 

Brilliant Computing 


Everyday Signs 

£20.00 

Joystick Games 

£20.00 

Streetwise 

£20.00 

Switch On 

£20.00 

Switch On Actions 

£20.00 

Teds Adventures 

£20.00 

Chalksoft 


First Words and Pictures 

£23.00 

House of Numbers 

£23.00 

Letters and Pictures 

£20.00 

Maps and Landscapes 1 

£23.00 

Maps and Landscapes 2 

£23.00 

Movaword 

£20.00 

Note Invaders 

£20.00 

Numbers and Pictures 

£20.00 

Pirate 

£23.00 

Puncman 1 and 2 

£20.00 

Puncman 3 and 4 

£20.00 

Puncman 5/6/7 

£20.00 

Reversals 

£20.00 

Spelling - week by week 

£23.00 






























Words and Pictures 

£23.00 

Yes Chancellor 2 

£23.00 

Clares Micro Supplies 

Artisan 2 

£45.00 

Illusionist 

£79.00 

Interdictor 

£10.00 

Interdictor II 

£23.00 

ProArtisan 

£70.00 

Render Bender 2 

£99.00 

Rhapsody 2 

£45.00 

Schema 

£90.00 

Colton Software 

Pipedream 3 

£105.00 

Pipedream 4 

£148.00 

Computer Concepts 

AvanteGarde Font Pack 

£24.00 

Artworks 

£TBA 

Bookman Font Pack 

£24.00 

Canon BJIOe/x Driver 

£47.00 

Canon BJC800 Driver 

£95.00 

Compression 

£35.00 

Equasor 

£37.00 

Impression II Borders Disc 

£12.00 

Impression Business Suppliment £39.00 

Impression II Free Drawfile Disc 

£124.00 

Impression Junior 

£69.00 

Inter-Word 

£29.00 

Show Page 

£109.00 

Cygnus Software 

Iron Lord 

£14.00 

Tower of Babel 

£14.00 

Twin World 

£14.00 

Dabs Press 

Arc DFS 

£22.00 

Database Software 

Fun School 2 6-8 year olds 

£14.95 

Fun School 2 over 8s 

£14.95 

Fun School 2 under 6s 

£14.95 

Fun School 3 under 5s 

£16.95 

Fun School 3 5-7 year olds 

£16.95 

Fun School 3 Over 7s 

£16.95 

Domark 

3D Construction Kit 

£35.00 

Mig29 Fulcrum 

£24.00 

Mig29 Super Fulcrum 

£29.00 

Trivial Pursuit 

£22.00 

Empire 

Pipemania 

£16.00 

Electromusic Reasearch 

Creations Discs 1-8 ea. 

£19.00 

MIDI Analyser 

£29.00 

Microstudio 

£78.00 

Music Player 

£35.00 

RhythmBox 

£29.00 

SoundSynth 

£39.00 

Studio 24 Plus 

£149.00 

ESM 

Desktop Folio 

£79.00 

Hybrid 

Elite 

£31.95 

Icon Technology 

EasiWriter 

£115.00 

Krisalis Software 

Chuck Rock 

£19.00 

Gods 

£19.00 

James Pond 

£19.00 

Lemmings 

£19.00 

Mad Professor Mariarti 

£14.00 

Manchester United Europe 

£19.00 

Nebulus 

£19.00 

Swiv 

£19.00 

World Champ. Boxing Manager 

£18.00 

World Championship Squash 

£18.00 

Leading Edge 

Investigator II 

£22.00 

Joystick Interface 

£23.00 

Joystick Interface A5000 

£32.00 

Tracker 

£37.00 

Lingenuity 

HotLink Presenter 

£29.00 

Presenter GTi 

£69.00 


Longman Logotron 


ArcComm 2 

£49.00 

Landmarks Aztec 

£19.00 

Landmarks Columbus 

£19.00 

Landmarks Egypt 

£19.00 

Landmarks Rainforest 

£19.00 

Landmarks Victorians 

£19.00 

Landmarks World War II 

£19.00 

Magpie 

£49.00 

Notate 

£49.00 

Numerator 

£60.00 

Numerator Chaos 

£18.00 

Pendown 

£54.00 

Pendown Outline Fonts 

£18.00 

Pinpoint 

£69.00 

Pinpoint Junior 

£23.00 

Revelation 2 

£95.00 

SkyHunter 

£24.00 

Magnetic Scrolls 


Collection 1 (3 Adventures) 

£25.00 

Wonderland 

£24.00 

MicroPower 


Chess 3D 

£14.00 

Zelanites 

£15.00 

Midnight Graphics 


ClipArt 1 over 480 images 

£29.95 

ClipArt 2 over 350 images 

£29.95 

Express 

£51.02 

Tracer 

£52.13 

Minerva Software 


Applications 


Ancestry 

£59.00 

Atelier 

£69.00 

Cadet 


Desktop Office 2 

£79.00 

Easiword 2 

£54.00 

Flexible 

£89.00 

Graphbox 

£55.00 

Graphbox Professional 

£105.00 

Home/Club Accounts 

£34.00 

Multistore II 

£179.00 

PCAccess 

£19.00 

PrimeArt 

£69.00 

Timetabler 

£599.00 

Leisure 


Bughunter in Space 

£11.00 

Bug Hunter /Moon Dash 

£11.00 

Casino 

£11.00 

Caverns 

£11.00 

Family Favorites 

£11.00 

Freddy's Folly 

£11.00 

Hoverbod 

£11.00 

Ibix the Viking 

£11.00 

Jet Fighter 

£11.00 

Maddingly Hall 

£11.00 

Orion 

£11.00 

Redshift 

£11.00 

Talisman 

£11.00 

Thundermonk 

£11.00 

Northwest SEMERC * 


Compose World 

£48.00 

Compose World Files 1 

£12.00 

Compose World Voice Pack 1 

£15.00 

Conform Keyboard Software 

£15.00 

Le Monde a Moi 

£15.00 

Meine Welt 

£15.00 

My World (Program) 

£15.00 

My World - Design 

£7.50 

My World - I'm Special 

£7.50 

My World - Nursery Disc 

£7.50 

My World - Maths 

£7.50 

My World - Patterns 

£7.50 

My World - Sampler 

£7.50 

My World - Skeletons 

£7.50 

My World - Village/Town 

£7.50 

Oldham Keyboard 

£125.00 

Phases 2 

£15.00 

Phases - Borders disc 

£7.50 

Phases - Christmas disc 

£7.50 

Phases - Clip Art 1 

£7.50 

Phases - Very Hungry Caterpillar £7.50 

* Please add £2.50 P&P to SEMERC Software 


Oak Solutions 


Disc Sharer 

£119.00 

Draw, Print and Plot 

£39.00 

Genesis 

£40.00 

Genesis Plus 

£69.00 

Genesis II 

£99.00 

Printer Spooler 

£65.00 

Remote Logon 

£34.00 

Worra Battle 

£14.00 

WorraCAD 

£74.00 

Sherston Software 

IDraw Help 

£15.95 

IHelp 

£7.95 

Animated Alphabet 

£19.00 

Arcventure 

£25.00 

Dreamtime 

£20.00 

Farm 

£19.00 

Fleet Street Phantom 

£23.00 

Glimpse 

£8.50 

Mapventure 

£23.00 

Microbugs 

£25.00 

Nature Park Adventure 

£24.50 

Selladore Tales 

£24.00 

Space Mission Mada 

£23.00 

Stig of the Dump 

£22.00 

Teachers Cupboard 

£24.50 

Teddy Bears Picnic 

£23.00 

Viewpoints 

£35.00 

Wizards Revenge 

£17.00 

Worst Witch 

£21.50 

SIMMIS 

Flight Sim Toolkit 

£31.00 

Storm Software 

Adventure Playground 

£17.00 

Coffee 

£27.00 

Flight Path 

£27.00 

Search and Rescue 

£27.00 

Superior Software 

Air Supremacy 

£14.00 

Conqueror 

£15.00 

Hostages 

£14.00 

Master Break 

£14.00 

Repton 3 

£14.00 

Speech! 

£14.00 

Superior Golf 

£14.00 

The Last Ninja 

£19.00 

Zarch 

£14.00 

The Data Store 

FontFX 

£9.95 

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£9.95 

The Fourth Dimension 

Apocalypse 

£14.00 

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£14.00 

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£14.00 

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£14.00 

Break 147 /Superpool 

£18.00 

Cataclysm 

£18.00 

Chocks Away 2 

£15.00 

Chocks Away Extra Missions 

£14.00 

Chocks Away 2 + Ext. Missions 

£27.00 

Drop Ship 

£13.00 

E-Type Compendium 

£18.00 

E-Type Designer 

£13.00 

Enter The Realm 

£18.00 

Grievous Bodily 'ARM 

£18.00 

Holed Out Compendium 

£18.00 

Inertia 

£14.00 

Nevryon 

£14.00 

Pandora's Box 

£18.00 

Powerband 

£14.00 

Pysanki 

£14.00 

Saloon Cars 

£18.00 

The Real McCoy 1 

£23.00 

The Real McCoy 2 

£23.00 

The Wimp Game 

£14.00 

X-Fire 

£18.00 

Triple R Education 

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£14.00 

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£14.00 

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£14.00 

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£14.00 

Target Maths 

£14.00 


Books (No VAT) 

Archimedes Assembly Language £14.95 
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The above books have accompanying discs add £5 
for 5.25“ , £7 for 3.5" 

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Assembler Release 2 £25.00 

BASIC V: A Dabhand Guide £9.95 

BBC Basic Guide (Acorn) £1 9.95 

Budget DTP (Draw & Edit) £1 2.95 

DTP Seeds (4Mation) £8.45 

Desktop C Release 4 £25.00 

Desktop Development UG £25.00 

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Programming in Ansi C £14.95 

RISCOS 3 PRM’s £TBA 


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GAME SHOW 



W ith this year’s BAU 
show on its way, 
things are hotting up 
on the games front. 
The Deluxe version of Saloon 
Cars has arrived, and there 
will be a set of extra tracks for 
it coming along soon. Also 
from 4D, Nevryon 2 and Cyber 
Chess should appear soon. 
Unfortunately it looks as 
though the mysterious Black 
Angel and the elusive Chopper 
Force will still be at the 
‘nearly finished, honest’ stage 
by the show. 

The big news is that Krisalis 
has a host of titles on the way, 
and next month we'll finally 
be having a look at the long- 
awaited Populous , as well as 
Lotus Espirit II and Oh No, 
More Lemmings. If Populous 
is as good on the Arc as it is 
on 16-bit machines, then we're 
all in for a treat. 

Arxe Systems has promised 
us at least a previewable copy 
of a multi-level parallax shoot 
’em up, Scorpius , and the 


company is also working on an 
early version of a ‘simple but 
fun’ Chuckie-Egg style plat- 
forms game. Also in the 
pipeline is a new Repton-i ype 
arcade adventure from Super- 
ior. For golf enthusiasts, CIS is 
about to release a new version 
of the golf game Microdrive , 
complete with course designer. 

Anyone who’s ever played 
an Infocom text adventure on a 
PC will know just how good 
they are. Well, Arc owners 
will now be able to take 
advantage of Infocom’s back 
catalogue, thanks to a new PD 
application which interprets 
the data files from these 
games, and allows them to run 
on an Arc. 

The application, written by 
Tim Gladding, is freely avail- 
able on most bulletin boards, 
but course you will still need 
an PC copy of each game to 
use it. Virgin Games still sells 
10 Infocom titles at a bargain 
£9.99 each, ranging from The 
Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The 


Populous: at last, you can play god 

Galaxy , to Leather Goddesses 
of Phobos. We may well fea- 
ture the application in the 
Freebies section of our 
monthly disc in the future if 
we have the space. 

Finally, Paul Jackson has 
written in to tell us that, in 
addition to the James Pond 


cheat published in July’s 
column, the number keys plus 
1 , 2 & 3 on the keypad can be 
used with the cheat to skip to 
levels 1 to 12 respectively, and 
to see the end screen. See you 
next month for Populous , and 
much more besides. 

Mathew Tizard 



THE KRYSALIS 
COMPILATION 

Krisalis 

Tel: (0709) 372290 
Rise OS machines 
£29.99 

This is as much fun as it is 
value for money. Mad Pro- 
fessor Mariarti, Pipemania 
and Terramex have been seen 
before but they are accom- 
panied here by a new release, 
Revelation. 

In Revelation you play a 
thief who has to tease open a 
sucession of safes to get at 
the goodies inside. In order to 
do this, you will have to get 
your brain around just how 
the cogs interact inside the 
mechanism of each lock. 
Each wheel has a series of 
coloured spots on its rim and, 
when you turn a tumbler, if 
two adjoining spots are of the 
same colour then the wheel 
turns clockwise to avoid this 


Crack the combination in Revelation 
clash. Sounds simple enough, 
but the colour clashes can lead 
to chain reactions which upset 
all your delicate safe-cracking, 
and trigger the burglar alarm! 

Various bonuses and other 
devices come into play: for 
example you have the ability 
to Mock' up to three of the 
cogs so that they can’t move 
out of your chosen orientation. 


All this fiddling with locks and 
tumblers is against the clock, 
and the pace becomes suffi- 
ciently frantic as you run out 
of time to assure you that the 
game is a good one. 

The sort of predictive skills 
you need remind me of the old 
Downfall board game. Inside 
the safes are nine deposit 
boxes, some full of loot, and 


some empty. Occasionally 
you find a bonus level inside, 
in which case you are given a 
single turn to solve another 
lock -system. 

For the impatient, there is 
the usual password system to 
enable you to skip levels 
you’ve already cracked. 
Graphically Revelation is 
fine, although the best puzzle 
games don't need fancy 
graphics to spice them up, 
and, as ever, the background 
music is excellent. 

The other games haven’t 
changed, apart from Ter- 
ramex. It has had a Rise OS 
facelift, now loading pain- 
lessly from the desktop and 
boasting a choice of two 
tunes. Mad Professor must be 
the nuttiest arcade adventure 
around for the Arc, and Pipe- 
mania is a modern classic. 
Krisalis has done it again; I 
reckon you get more than 
your money’s worth here. 

Josef Koestler 


112 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 




G/\ IVIES 



EXPLORER 

Dragonsoft 

PO Box 22, Whitchurch, 

Shropshire 

£25.99 

Eight-hit: Two 5.25in discs 
and 16K Rom 

Fresh eight-hit software seem 
to be very thin on the ground 
these days, so it’s good to see 
an independent publisher 
releasing a new Beeb title. 
You play the role of a boast- 
ful explorer who has been 
ostracised from his fellows’ 
company until he can provide 
some proof of his unlikely 
tales. So off you go to prove 
yourself by exploring the four 
corners of the world. 

Explorer is a commendably 
ambitious project which 
boasts 31 levels of mazes 
(each with 31 by 31 rooms) 
and a multiplicity of objects, 
monsters, foodstuffs and the 
like. In size and detail, as well 
as graphically, the game can- 
not be faulted. 

A split mode screen is used 
which to give a text area for 


the menus and an area fro 
graphics. These are used to 
manipulate objects and other- 
wise interact with the game, 
and the range of scanners, dis- 
plays and maps provided help 
you to keep track on your 
character’s health and wher- 
eabouts. The sound quality is 
right up at the top end of the 
Beeb’s repertoire. 

The enormous size and 
scope of the game has to be 
accommodated by installing 
an extra Rom. but this size has 
its costs in running speed: As 
you move about, some rooms 
can take a full three seconds to 
appear, which is a little bit 
irritating when all you want to 
do is take a stroll along an 
empty corridor. 

Indeed, more than half of all 
the rooms, beautifully drawn 
though they are, have 
absolutely nothing in them. 
There is simply not enough 
incentive for the player to 
keep on exploring the vast 
area - there are not enough 
puzzles or ways of interacting 
with the 45 different types of 
monster - and so the initial 


enthusiasm begins to sag, and 
you are left wondering just 
why you are playing. I suppose 
it all depends on the expecta- 
tion you have of an arcade- 
adventure. If you are patient 
and enjoy the good bits when 
they arrive, then this is the 
game for you. 

In my view, the game 
attempts to be all things to all 
people - arcade adventure, 
role-playing game, maze - but 


falls short of being completely 
successful in any of these 
Helds. Perhaps the impressive 
vision and imagination of the 
programmers would be better 
served by a revised 32-bit ver- 
sion of the game. 

This is the only instance I 
can recall of attention to detail 
being a game’s undoing: here 
we have ‘12 earring types’, 
but little gameplay. 

Mathew Tizard 



SALOON CARS 
DELUXE 

Fourth Dimension 
Tel: (0742) 769550 
£34.95 

I must start this review by 
saying that Saloon Cars Del- 
uxe is not a new game - it is 
really version two of the 
Fourth Dimension’s highly 
acclaimed Saloon Cars rac- 
ing game. If you’ve not seen 
Saloon Cars then so much 
the better, because the Del- 
uxe version is rather good. 

Aficionados of the game 
will appreciate the improve- 
ments but probably won’t be 
as impressed overall as 
somebody new to the game. 

The main area of improve- 
ment is in the display 
graphics - full advantage is 
taken of the extra memory 
which is over 1Mb, and the 
increased speed offered by an 
Arm3. The original version 
behaved very oddly with 
Arm3s switched on. You 
now get a proper rear view 
mirror which is a true reflec- 


tion of cars, road, scenery, 
bends and hills, though for 
some reason the horizon scen- 
ery is not included. All the 
other cars are vector drawn 
rather than being sprites. This 
allows them to be rotated, spun 
and crashed very realistically! 

The Arm3 version, intelli- 
gently, increases the frame-rate 
of the game (how often the 
screen is redrawn per second) 
without affecting its actual 


speed. This improves the 
smoothness of the game but 
keeps the ‘feel’ the same. 

Apart from these changes, 
many of the quirks of the old 
game have been fixed, and a 
few more mundane features 
added: You can now buy bet- 
ter brakes for your car, as well 
as gearbox and tyres and occa- 
sionally you get a rolling start 
for races. An easy test track 
has been added to get you into 


the game, a cheat function in 
the practice modes repositions 
your car after a nasty prang. 
Best of all. you can run the 
game from a hard disc, 
although you need to keep one 
of the floppies to hand for the 
software protection. 

Further courses will become 
available on discs for when 
you get bored with Brands 
Hatch and Silverstone and a 
Formula One version is prom- 
ised for later this year. The 
only feature I'd like to see 
included now would be the 
ability to look at the game 
from different viewpoints, 
with roadside cameras ready 
to record your most dramatic 
crashes! Oh, and perhaps a 
little work on the menus 
would have been handy. 

Saloon Cars was one of 
my favourite games when it 
first came out and ‘ Deluxe is a 
worthy successor. £35 is a lot 
of money for a game (£17.50 
if you want to upgrade from 
1.0), but it must be said that 
Saloon Cars is the best racing 
game available on the Archi- 
medes at the moment. 

Dave Lawrence 


BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 113 







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Albert 

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Digital 

fascy0K©ss 

7irmaipl 

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HotOog 

IcePick 

Interact 1 

Luban 


ABCabc 

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Matrix RBCabc 


mike 

QDldSnglish 


RBCabc 

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Roadside 

HCiFi 

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1 

1 

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4 

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2 
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£15.00 

£15.00 

£10.00 

£16.00 

£12.00 

£12.00 


£ 7.50 

£ 7.50 

£5.00 

£8.00 

£6.00 

£6.00 


£25.00 £ 12.50 
£10.00 £5.00 
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£35.00 £ 17.50 
£12.00 £6.00 


£11.00 

£10.00 

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£5.00 


Software 

Equasor 
Impression II 
Impression Junior 
Impression Bus Suplimenc 
Multi-FS 
Presenter II 
Render Bender 
Solid CAD 
Solid Render 
Solid Tools 


Normal SALE 

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f 


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£46.95 

£99.95 

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Hardware 

Acorn A440/1 LC 4MB 
A400 series 1MB RAM 
A3000 external drive i/f 
A3000 internal SCSI i/f 
3.5" external drive + PSU 
Beebug VIDC enhancer 
Canon LBP4 sheet feeder 
Canon LBP4 1MB Ram 

Books 

Good Impression 
DTP on the Archimedes 

Miscellaneous 

Mouse Mats 
Mouse Houses 


£1419.00 £ 993.30 
£69.00 £ 55.20 

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My employer runs a bul- 
. letin board on a 286 PC 
clone. If I buy a suitable 
modem, is it possible to down- 
load the information into my 
PC Emulator? If so, how do I 
load programs into the 
Emulator? 

K. J. Millard 

Slockbridge 


The wonderful thing 

about talking to other 

computers through the 
phone is most of the time it 
doesn’t matter what they 
are. You can be at your 
Archimedes talking to any 
other machine, as long you 
both use the same communi- 
cations standards. To com- 
municate with your 
employer’s bulletin board, 
you will need a terminal 
package such as Hearsay II 
and a modem that runs at an 
appropriate baud rate. The 
two machines must also 
share a download protocol 
like ZModem or Kermit. 
Once downloaded, PC pro- 
grams can he transferred to 
Dos using the Emulator. 


I have a 4Mb A3000 with 
an HCCS 45 Mb hardcard. 
My daughter often invites a 
number of her friends around 
to tea and they like to use the 
computer. 

However, for understand- 
able reasons, I would like to 
restrict use of the hard disc by 
some means without physi- 
cally disconnecting it. Do you 
know of any utility which 
would help? 

N.F.Halls 

Surrey 

71 1 HCCS has two upgrades 
"Jthat may be of use; one 
is already available and the 
company hopes to release the 
other in the autumn. The 
current version allows multi- 
ple partitions on the hard 
disc, which means you could 
format the disc with two par- 
titions and then hide one by 
altering the configuration of 
your A3000. The unreleased 
version (which supports 16- 
bit rather than eight-bit 
SCSI) will include multiple 
partitioning and passwords. 
For more information, call 
HCCS on 091-487 0760. 



QUESTIONS 


AND 


ANSWERS 



STAR QUESTION 


As part of a degree course, I plan to construct a steering wheel and 
. pedal control system to operate such driving simulations as E-Type 
from Fourth Dimension. I can build electronic hardware to simulate the 
controls, but would like advice on the cheapest effective way of interfacing 
the system with an A3000 or A310, perhaps using a joystick interface. 

Graham West 
Cambridgeshire 

A IThe people from The Fourth Dimension say that given the technical 

know-how, you probably could connect your hardware to E-Type 

with a joystick interface, but they've never seen it done. They suggest you 
consider their Saloon Cars program, as at least a dozen people up and 
down the country, including the original programmer, have successfully 
built steering wheel and pedal arrangements for it. There's even a couple 
of pages in the manual devoted to the topic. 


o 

I use a BBC 

B, and for 


n 

V 

the first time 1 

1 am unable 


A 


to boot a disc on which I have 
an awful lot of information I 
need. When I press SHIFT/ 
BREAK, all I get is the message 
“DISC FAULT 08 AT 00/00” and 
nothing I do will load it. 
Where might I gel some help 
in order to overcome this 
fault? I confess that I haven’t 
the slightest idea of the mean- 
ing of “08 at 00/00". 

K. E. Kemp-Turner 

Suffolk 


If you’ve had your BBC 
for a while and this a 
new problem, you must look 
after your discs very well! To 
explain the message: Infor- 
mation is stored on disc in a 
number of concentric rings 
called tracks, which are fur- 
ther divided radially into 
sectors - your disc has a 
fault (number eight) on track 
0 at sector 0. This means 
I)FS does not recognise the 
format of the current disc so, 
unless you’re reading an 80- 


track disc on a 40-track 
drive or vice versa, Pm 
afraid your disc has pro- 
bably been corrupted. 

Causes of this include dust 
or grease on the disc surface, 
heat, physical or electrical 
damages. Floppy discs are 
not reliable. You may be able 
to recover your work with 
Computer Concepts’ Disc 
Doctor , but since the fault is 
at the start of the disc, where 
the catalogue is stored, it 
may be totally unreadable. If 
this is the case, use your most 
recent backup disc. If you 
didn’t take a backup . . . 

I purchased a BBC Mas- 
ter about three years ago 
it has worked perfectly 
until recently. Now, when I 
load a program, 1 get prob- 
lems. When I press SHIFT and 
break, I get the message “Bad 
Searching”, and then the number 
five appears, runs slowly 
across the screen for five or six 
rows and then stops. After sev- 
eral attempts, I can get pro- 
grams in, but then they stop 
and the number five runs 
across the screen. 

K.Newell 

Birmingham 

w I You’ve got grot in your 
“J number five key. The 
key is getting stuck down 
and auto-repeating, filling 
the command line with fives. 
According to what else your 
computer is doing at the 
same time, this upsets the 
autoboot sequence and the 
machine attempts to start 
from tape, tries to fill the 
screen with fives, or crashes 
a program as soon as it looks 
for a keypress. To fix this, 
take the cap off the offending 
kejfbnd clean the switch with 
a mild solvent. Isopropyl 
alcohol (tape-head cleaner) 
from your local chemist will 
do the job. 


Q 1 would like to run a 
multi-user adventure 
game. I don’t yet have a 
modem but I’d like to know if 
I’ll need any extra hardware, 
and if Rise BBS by Bass is a 
suitable package - I under- 
stand it can be programmed. 

Ainsley Pereira 
Hampshire 




BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 115 











PROBLEMS 


FrftdUH: Record 



I As games go, it’s not 
J going to be very multi- 
user with just one modem. 
To start with, you need as 
many modems and telephone 
lines as you have 
simultaneous players. 

You will need a combina- 
tion of hardware and soft- 
ware to turn incoming data 
from the modems into a sin- 
gle stream of information 
which can be interpreted by 
your game program (most 
MUGs don’t use multipro- 
cessing, as the rate at which 
they receive data does not 
justify it). 

When it comes to writing 
the program that runs the 
games itself, I suggest you 
use a serious language like C. 
Multi-user games more often 
run bulletin boards inside 
their own ‘envelopes’ than 
the other way round. Don’t 
let this answer put you off, 
but I have to say that you are 
really attempting a big pro- 
ject here! 

II recently purchased a 

, copy of Impression to aid 

me in the development of an 
encyclopaedia about the uses 
of herbs in medicine. My ini- 
tial hope had been to incorpor- 
ate extensive textual 


Perhaps Genesis can get you started 

information and Draw file 
graphics tidily, within one ‘off 
the peg’ database, but friends 
tell me this option is not cur- 
rently available. 

I believe that Genesis has 
many of the features I require, 
but that it can’t match the 
printed output of a DTP appli- 
cation like Impression. Per- 
haps I should use a more 
elaborate database like Multi- 
store. Could you clarify the 
situation? 

Tony Halmarack 
Isle of Wight 


jr lYour choice of software 
depends on the form you 
expect the completed ency- 
clopaedia to take. If you are 
planning to end up with a 
printed book then I recom- 
mend that you use your 
Impression DTP package to 
assemble ‘camera ready 
copy’ from text and 
graphics. 

In this situation, you could 
use any reasonable Hat form 
database to order and index 
your work, and Multistore 
would be more than ade- 


quate. Alternatively, if you 
offer the information on 
screen, using Genesis to man- 
age files on hard disc or CD- 
Rom would be more appro- 
priate. Try reading The 
Genesis Script Language 
Book by David Tee of Oak 
Solutions (0274 620423). 

1 1 am an Acorn Electron 
. owner, and I was wonder- 
ing if you could give me 
information on any companies 
you know of from whom I 
could purchase add-ons such 
as joysticks, printers, disc 
drives etc. I would also like to 
know where I could buy Elec- 
tron software and books on 

programming. 

Joanne Nicholas 
London 

w lAcorn stopped produc- 
“Jing the Electron some 
time ago and I don’t think 
anybody still sells commer- 
cial software for it. However, 
as you can see from our free 
ads, there is a thriving sec- 
ond hand market. If you’d 
like to contact other 
enthusiasts, send an SAE to: 
Will Watts, The Electron 
User Group, 134 Great 
Knightleys, Basildon, Essex 
SS15 5HQ. 


CUSTOMER HOT LINE 




This month: part two of how to become a power user, with 
some speedy tips for you to try: 

• In a directory viewer, Select can be used to mark the first item you 
want to act upon, and Adjust can then be used to mark other items 
simultaneously. All the marked items will then be acted upon. Try 
dragging on the entire selection of files, or use a menu operation to 
move them all. 

• Double-clicking on Select runs a file, opens a directory, or loads up an 
application. If you use Adjust instead, the current window you clicked in 
will close as the new window is opened. This will help to keep the 
desktop tidy. 

• When you make a menu choice using Select, the menu disappears as 
the action is taken. But if you find it necessary to make several choices, 
or are experimenting with settings (such as choosing the colours for an 
Edit window) this becomes tedious. Try using the Adjust button instead 
of Select so that the menu wil stay open on the screen. Note: This is 
provided by the application concerned, so it may not work on every 
application. 

• To bring a window to the front, the usual method is to click Select on 
the title bar. However, you can click on the Adjust Size icon in the 
bottom right (when it is present), or use the Toggle Size icon in the top 
right of the screen. 


Recently, Acorn has reorganised the categories of filetype available on 
the Arc: 

There are 4096 filetypes, &000 to &FFF. Originally half of these were 
set aside for users, with the remainder shared between Acorn, AcornSoft 
and other developers. 

During the past year, the rate of allocation of filetypes has reached 
the level where some rearrangements are needed to avoid running out 
of filetypes in the future. 

The new distribution of filetypes is: 

&000-&0FF - End-users' personal, non-distributed usage 

&100-&3FF - End-users' distributed software such as PD/Shareware. 
Allocation by Acorn 

&400-&9FF - Commercial software. Allocation by Acorn. 

&A00-&AFF - Commercial software (was AcornSoft). Allocation by 
Acorn. 

&B00-&DFF - Commercial software. Allocation by Acorn. 

&E00-&FFF - Acorn use 

The highlights of the new distribution are that the user area is halved 
to 1024 filetypes and 75 percent of the user area is now allocatable by 
Acorn on behalf of PD/Shareware programs. There are more filetypes 
free for commercial software, plus some redundant areas are now open 
for general allocation 

Of course, many existing programs have filetypes from the area 
&100-&7FF. If you are the author of such a program, please inform us. 

We will record your usage of that filetype, so that a double allocation 
does not occur in the future. 

Please note though - this 'amnesty' applies only to existing programs. 
For new programs, you should contact Acorn to apply for a filetype. 
Write to: Customer Services (Filetypes), Acorn Computers Ltd., Fuibourn 
Road, Cherry Hinton, CB1 4JN. 


Every month in BAU, Peter Glover from the Acorn 
customer service department offers you Acorn's advice 
and support 



116 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 













SOFTWARE SHOWCASE 


EDUCATION 


SSERC SOFT 92 sSfTZZ. 

SSERC GRAPHICS LIBRARIES \f JtES."*-?*.. 

FOR DRAW, DTP, VECTOR. ARTWORKS, MAGPIE, GENESIS etc 
Still only £10 + vat per disc. Version 8.01 = 8 discs 
Version 8.01 - Chemistry, Interfacing, Technology, 
Electronics, Physics, Utilities, Circuit Boards (E&L and Alpha) 
2 new discs (£10 + vat each) - Update 1 & Cell Biology 
Buy 5 or more discs - free SITE LICENCES on all 
We can now supply versions of the LIBRARIES 
where all text is converted to paths. This means 
the text will rotate with the graphics. 

LIBRARIES available in WORRACAD & DXF formats 


SSERC DATA LIBRARIES - CHEMICALS, EQUIPMENT 
& CHEMICAL STOCK CONTROL DATABASES for 
CHEMISTS. All on 1 disc as PIPEDREAM files - 
ONLY £50 + vat which includes free SITE LICENCE 


SSERC !DRAW PRACTICAL GUIDES - Still £12 + vat 

100 pages, A4, loose leaf. Get the most out of DRAW 
for minimal cost. Includes 2 discs of exercises 


IN THE PIPELINE - INTERFACING DATA LIBRARIES 
MOLECULE LIBRARIES, MOLECULAR MODELLER 
BODY BITS, TOOLS & FIXINGS, more UTILITIES. 


DON'T RE-INVENT THE WHEEL, WRITE TO I.J.B. AT: 

SSERC, 24 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh EH8 9NX 
Tel. 031 668 4421 for more information 
or send stamped A4 self-addressed envelope. 


Educational Software 
A3000 / BBC / Acorn 

Send for our free catalogue of programs 
for all Acorn computers. Ages 5 to 15 

SELECTIVE SOFTWARE 
64 Brooks Road, 
STREET, Somerset, BA16 OPP 
Tel. (0458) 43079 





Pip Investigates Dinosaurs 

An all in one adventure and database .. 

A new and exciting way 
for handling data at Key Stage I 
Available for Nimbus and Archimedes 
£27.50 

(excludes delivery and VAT) 

„ NORICC 



Coach Lane Campus 
Newcastle upon Tyne 
NE7 7XA • 091 270 0424 


Banner ( K 



EDUCATION 




SOFTWARE FOR SPECIAL NEEDS 


for FREE catalogue write to:- 
Brilliant Computing, 
FREEPOST Box 142, 
Bradford. BD9 4BR 
NO STAMP REQUIRED 

or phone (0274) 497617/578239 



STATISTICS 


STATISTICS 

The ESTABLISHED system 

for the Acorn Archimedes is 

FIRST 

Write or telephone for details to 
SERIOUS STATISTICAL SOFTWARE 

Lynwood, Benty Heath Lane, Willaston 

South Wirral L64 1SD 

Tel: 051-327 4268 

NEW lower cost 

FIRST JR 

now available 


ACCOUNTANCY 


iidlian 
Soft 


Banner Is a RISC OS sign writing application for printing LARGE 
wldo banners quickly and easily. 

Uses Acorn's Outline Font Manager 

Drop shadow in four directions plus styles of border 

Full colour control of text, background, border & shadow 

The banner length is not limited by page size and may be set 

to print continuously. 

Banner is available from Kudlian Soft. 39 Dalebouse Lane. 

Kenilworth. Warwickshire. CV8 2HW Tel: 0926 - 55538 
Price: £1 5.00 + VAT (School site licences also available) 


Kendal Computer Centre 

68 Stramongate, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 4BD 

ARCOUNTS MANAGER 

THE ULTIMATE ACCOUNTS 

PACKAGE 

The most highly featured package on 
the market, fully supported, demo available 
call/write for details 

( 0539 ) 722559 


SPECIAL NEEDS 


CJ. COMPUTING 

SPECIAL NEEDS 

SALES • REPAIRS • SPECIAL NEEDS 

Please contact us for all vour Acorn computers 
(Hardware & Peripherals) 

We specialise in tailoring computer systems for 
special needs 

57 Westbury Hill, 
Westbury-on-Trym, 

Bristol 

Tel: (0272) 624553 


FONTS 


□KTLINL HINTS 

IMoraFonts than ever before! 

.A/ow tAlnstle has 6 ^amlty members, 
Katiyo has 6, CeLCIC has 4 
Mv CtUNESE has just 1 ! 

All for just £2.50 each including the famous 
IMoreFonts, so call for our free catalogue 

Design Concept 

30 Soulh Oswald Road PPSTI 
Edinburgh BH9 2HG 

® 03 1 668 45 1 8 El 





msmmzsmmt&Mmz 

7cj2)c^n ** 




T 


Low priced Archimedes outline fonts ; 
and a new concept in border design. 
For our first catalogue send S.A.E to 
Feral Design, 70 Blakelow Road, 
Macclesfield, Cheshire SKI 1 7ED. 

/ Catalogue 2 available August 24th} 


•#23 



GAMES 


✓✓✓✓ CHECK OUT THESE PRICES ✓✓✓✓ 


S.W.I.V. 

GB ARM 

Lemmings 

Cataclysm 

X-Fire' 

Wonderland 

Atelier 

UltraSonic 

Creator 


£ 22.00 

£ 22.00 

£ 22.00 

£ 22.00 

£ 22.00 

£30.00 

£84.00 

£30.00 

£38.95 


Joystick Place (Scr.Pon) £26.95 
QuickShot Joystick £12.50 
Enter the Realm £22.00 
Saloon Cars Deluxe £29.95 
Archivist (Database) £24.95 
ALPS £34.95 

Magpie £59.00 

Impression 2 £164.95 


Pita se phone foi a quote on any 
software or hardware not listed here. 


Please add P&P: UK £1.00. Europe £2.50, Outside Europe £4.50 


ALPINE SOFTWARE, Dept (BAU1) Tel: 0762 342510 

PO BOX 25. Portadown, CRAIGAVON, BT63 5UT 


Announcing a NEW ALPS text adventure: 


THE SURVIVOR 


Uncompromising SciFi-set beneath the 
ruins of a post-apocalyptic city 

ONLY 

£9.99 

P.O./Cheques to: Lynsoft, 23 Coral Street, 
Saltburn.Cleveland.TSI 2 1 DB. Tel: 0287-624843 
Please add P&P: UK £1. Europe £2.50. World £4.50 



BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 117 












SOFTWARE SHOWCASE 


PUBLIC DOMAIN 



Join us to 
celebrate 
our 3rd 
successful 
year of 
trading. 

Order the 
all new 
Arcaynia 



PD Demo 
Package 11, 

fora 

completely 
new way of 
buying PD. 
Send that 
£1 coin to 
us NOW! 


Arcayoia Public Donum 
PO Box 1927 : Sunon Coldfield 

874 3P6. 


j§ 




How would you like to be 
our 3000th new customer 
and win 50 free PD discs 

Your customer number will be of course: 

A3000 

If you arc the 3000th person to send for the 
catalogue disc, you will receive a voucher 
with your catalogue, entitling you to fifty 
free Public Domain Discs of your choice! 

For the latest pick ’n' mix catalogue, and a chance of 
being the 3000th new customer send a £1 to: 
Arch Angel PD, PO Box 41, Exeter, EX4 3EN. 


ARCHIMEDES PUBLIC DOMAIN 


L0WC0ST = THE BEST NAME IN PD 


SEND for LOWCOST PD't latest 
catalogue/demo disc. It contains full details of al 
our exciting £1 discs. YES, JUST £1 a <Hsc! 

Nothing but the BEST at LOWCOST PD! 

Please send a £1 coin or £1 cheque made payable to 
J. Michalski (or our catalogue/demo disc to: 

LOWCOST PO (LC PD), 6 FURZEUND HOUSE, 
SHEFPHOUSE WAY, NEW MALDEN, SURREY, KT3 5 PH. 


118 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1 992 


PUBLIC DOMAIN 




Skyfall present tho only truly interactive Public Domain 
Catalogue. Instead of screens of endless text like 
other catalogues, it simulatas RIscOs and creates a 
mock window showing the exact contents of any disc. 
You can then select full details by moving over and 
clicking the Icon you want to known more about. 


Cl ItollMtlOM 

fig 


IT 


Traulttor NoO*Com 

t * <*d 

HUOrw 

w-0 

C3I 

4+ 

0 

Dhmi 

on 

SowttH 

CluMfcw 


Skyfall offers a detailed 12 page catalogue, Same Day 
Despatch, Telephone Support, Exclusive Budgetware, 
Over 600 discs, a new A5000 range and a PD Club 
with its own unique disc magazine. 

Please send £1 for the Summer *92 Demo Disc to; 
Skyfall. PO Box 2220. Birmingham. B43 5RZ. 



QUICK! unite now , 
grab your introPAK for just £5.95! 


Tho Arc's first 

DISC BASED 
BULLETIN BOARD ! 

introPAK includes : 

FREE registration form 
Introduction & User guide 
5 compacted discs of PD 

.... all in a nice pin die box! 


GREAT 
MONTHLY 
PD FUN! 


East side Cottage, 
Hinwick Halt, 

Nr Wellingborough, 
Nortbants. 

NN9 7JD 


ARMistic Public Domain 
& 

Shareware Library 

Send £1 now for the latest catalogue disk 
which contains full details of all our software, 
commercial software reviews and lots more... 
Disk prices start as low as 50p and for all first 
orders you are entitled 30p off. 

Swapping of software is welcome 
(Please make cheques payable to: S.S.Lidder) 
136 Wellesley Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 4LJ 


PUBLIC DOMAIN 


/<rsr>\ 


IImDEKUTTeE a 


A new P.D. library offering by far the cheapest software. Wc can give 
you a better deal because unlike other Public Domain companies, we tlo 
noi nuke excessive profits from our software. 

So don't resist the temptation... send off for the catalogue today! Just send 
80 pence and we will send you u demo disc and a catalogue dciniling all 
the hundreds of P.D. sofware we can lay our hands on. Remember, each 
disc costs only 80 ponce including p&p! 

Please send your HOp to: The Unde nutter. 109 Ditrim Avenue. 
Shoeburyness. Essex. SS3 VUE. (Slake cheques payable to S.Donn) 


DTP 


For Acorn Software off the shelf! 

As Acorn onlt specialists, we can provide a first 
class range of software, computers and peripherals. 

Impression 11 DTP £198.00 

Ovation DTP £11633 

Impression Junior £105.69 


VAT 

Inclusive 


15% discount for cash or cheque payments 
July 1992 only Carriage costs £1.00 per order 
If it isn't in stock you can have it next working day! 

jusl a 

ECECT^JCJ^JICS^ MHHMI 

49, Carlton Road Gloucester GL1 5DZ Tel (0452) 311031 


/; 


Theme based IDRAWfiles for the 
ARCHIMEDES/A3000 computers 

Christmas. Religious & Secular. Diwali; Islam. Sikhism: 
Chinese New Year. Pond Life"; Pets; Farm Animals; Wild 
Cats; Birds of Prey I: The Vikings; Greeks; Romans; 
Victoriana: The Body, The Human Skeleton: The 

Circulatory System; Man in Space; Leicestershire* 
Discs marked * are two disc sets 

£5.00 each 

discounts for 4 or more 




PES 72 Kimberley Rd Leicester LE2 ILF 
TP 0533 733063 


POOLS PREDICTION 


© Min the Pools © 

Pools Pred i ct i on flpp 1 i cations 
RISC-OS 




Cheques to flinders Software 

28 Kendal Green, Kendal, Wria, L89 5PN 

Or Phone/Hrite for Inf oration Pack 

053 9-740193 


ASTRONOMY 


PLANRA 28G 
ASTRONOMY PROGRAM 

CALCULATES THE POSITION OF THE 
PLANETS 

ON 3 1/2" DISC FOR THE A3000 

Plot the progression of the planets on a colourful 
star chart. 

Save as a sprite or print out. 

£5.99 

PAUL BADHAM 26. Montville Drive. 
Castlehousc Gardens. STAFFORD. ST 1 7 9XJ 












r > 
Part Exchange 

your A3000 or Archimedes 400 
for a new 

Acorn A5000 

Typical Allowances: } 

A3000 - £500.00 
A410/1 - £600.00 
A440/1 - £700.00 


Please phone for an estimate of the balance to pay, 
and for a complete list of used equipment 
Second hand BBCs from £80.00 
Second hand Master 128s from £200.00 
All used equipment carries 3 months warranty 





Computers Ltd 

5 1 Heath Drive 
Chelmsford 
Essex CM3 9HE 
0245 345263 


J 


APOLOGIES TO ALL 
THOSE WHO DON'T 
LIVE NEAR BROMLEY 


You probably won't be able to pop in to our newly 
refurbished showroom, browse through our 250+ 
software titles for the Archimedes/A3000/A5000 (or 
100+ titles for the trusty old BBC Micro and Master 
Series), sit down and use one of our seven 
demonstration systems (including the new A5000), 
chat with our knowledgeable staff, make use of our 
high-quality repair workshop, or even just sit down for 
a cup of coffee! 


BUT 


• • • • 


at least you can use our speedy mail-order service, 
even for repairs, and we also accept telephone orders 
by Access/M asterCard and Visa, so all is not lost! 


THE DATA STORE 

6 CHATTF.RTON ROAD. BROMLEY, KENT, BR2 9QN 
Tel: 08 1 -460 899 1 Fax: 08 1 -3 1 3 0400 
(Closed Wednesdays) 


ACORN USER ADVERTISEMENT PAGES - SEPTEMBER 1992 


4-Mation 

66 

Desktop Projects Ltd 

65 

4th Dimension 17,18-19 

Digital Services Ltd 

77 

AJL 

118 



AJS 

119 

Electronic Font Foundry 

114 

Alpine Software 

118 

Explan 

73 

Alsystems 

62 

ESP 

94 

Arcaynia P.D. 

118 



Arch Angel 

117 

Fact Systems Ltd. 

88 

Atomwide Ltd. 

26 

Feral Design 

117 

AVP Computing 

102 

Ground Control 

96 

BBC Acorn User Show 

56-57 



Brilliant Computing 

117 

HCCS Associates 

IFC 

Chelsfield 

90 

ICS (Ian Copestake Software) 1 ,4-5,6 

CJ Computing 

118 

IFEL 

94 

Clares Micro Supplies 

70 

Intelligent Interfaces 

62 

Colton Software 

2 

Integrex 

80 

Computeck 

100 



Computer Concepts 24-25,50,58 

Kendal Computer Centre 

60 

CU Electronics 

102 

Kudlian Software 

118 

Dabhand Computing 54,1 1 0-1 1 1 

Leading Edge 

33 

Dabs Press 

99 

Longman Logotron 

11 

Datafile 

88 

Lynsoft 

118 

Dec Data 

75 



Design Concept 

118 

Michalski 

117 


Manor Court Supplies 

88 

Soft Sector 

88 

Minder 

118 

Software 42 

96 

Micro-Aid 

46 

Software Bargains 

48 

Micromania 

94 

Sonomara 

IBC 

Micro Discount 

12 

SSERC 

117 

Minerva Software 

14 

Superior Software 

OBC 

Mr Disk 

96 

Systems & Silicon 

53 

Northern Micromedia 

117 

T.M.J. Computer Software 46 

Norwich Computer Services 46 

Terrell Electronics 

114 



The Data Store 

119 

Oak Solutions 

30-31 

The Serial Port 

49 

Orion Computer 1 06-1 07 

Timestep Weather Systems 94 

Primary Education 

117 

Unique Way 

90 

Rise Developments 

8,12 

Watford Electronics 

22,34-45 



Wild Vision 

73 

Selective Software 

118 



Senlac Computing 

90 



Serious Statistical 

117 



Simon Dunn 

117 



Sinclair McLeod 

62 



SJ Research 

102 



Smart DTP 

73 



Software Bargains 

48 



Skyfall 

126 




BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 119 


LEXTERS 




They tried with all their might - and succeeded, with the help of the Arc 


£15 STAR LETTER 

Recently my school produced 
a book called With All Thy 
Might, detailing the history of 
our establishment. Since it 
could not have been produced 
without the Archimedes, I 
thought it might be of interest 
to other readers. 

It was produced on an 
Acorn A5000 using Impres- 
sion and output at 600dpi via a 
Canon LBP-4 printer with a 
LaserDirect interface. The 
photographs were scanned 
with Computer Concepts’ 
Scanlight Professional and at 
first I had intended to use this 
for final output. Unfortunately, 
many of the photographs were 
very old and in poor condition; 
also many had to be taken 
from an old school magazine 
that had been printed with a 
rather coarse screen. 

In the end we asked our 
printers to process the 
graphics, although we used the 
Scanlight to produce low- 
resolution scans to indicate 
cropping and scaling. We also 
used CC’s Business Supple- 
ment to help with the market- 
ing of the book. 

Thanks to the speed and 
ease of use of the hardware 
and software I was able to take 
the book from 100,000 words 
of First Word Plus files to 
75,000 words and 100 illustra- 
tions of camera-ready artwork 
in just a fortnight, while teach- 
ing a full timetable. 

I don’t know if the book will 
be of any use to you as promo- 
tional material for the Archi- 
medes as a fully professional 
DTP machine. What I can say 
is that it would have been far 
too expensive for us to use 
anything else. 

Alan Booth 

Head of IT 
St Martin’s School 
Northwood, Middx 

We agree. The Arc provides 
an excellent DTP platform. 
BBC Acorn User is also pro- 
duced each month using 
CC’s Impression package. 

BLINKERED 

First let me get one thing 
straight - I like the Archi- 
medes. However, working in 
the computer industry as I do, 


I get repeatedly exasperated by 
the blinkered and somewhat 
naive views and attitudes pre- 
valent in the Acorn market. As 
Graham Bell points out, PC 
386 portables are considerably 
cheaper than the proposed 
price of the undoubtedly excel- 
lent Acorn A4 machine. 

Who is Acorn trying to sell 
the A4 to? Schools? Not at that 
price in any quantity. Busi- 
nessmen? I can buy a PC- 
compatible, as Graham Bell 
says in his review, much 
cheaper. Home users? I cer- 
tainly could not justify £1700 
being spent on another home 
computer. 

As usual, by what it has left 
out, Acorn has produced an 
excellent piece of engineering 
but has restricted .the A4’s pot- 
ential market before the 
machine is even available. 

John Bates 
Ipswich, Suffolk 

FONT PLEA 

I wholeheartedly agree with 
last months’ letter from Elwyn 
Morris where he took issue 
with Ian Burley’s article on 
word processors (Word Wise, 
BAU July 92). 

Like me, he felt that Inter- 
word, despite all Computer 
Concepts’ hype about Impres- 
sion , is still the best profes- 
sional word processor 


available for the Archimedes. 
It even outshines some avail- 
able for PCs. 

I think one of the worst 
aspects of the Archimedes is 
its failure to enable the 90 
percent of users who have dot 
matrix printers to use their 
superb NLQ fonts. 

All software packages 
urporting to support word pro- 
cessing, including Impression 
and Pipedream, are nothing 
more than DTP applications 
and the word processing, when 
it comes to dot matrix printing, 
is pure trash. 

Here we are in 1992, ten 
years of BBC micros behind 
us, and we still have to revert 
to a word processor first 
brought out in 1986. So good 
was the application then, it has 
not had to be revised. 

Acorn is to blame with its 
over emphasis on outline fonts 
and yet more fonts, and the 
truth of the matter is that the 
current Archimedes has been 
designed around DTP and 
nothing else. 

I think a printer manufac- 
turer should come up with a 
word processor which can use 
its fonts to full advantage. 
Then I am sure the software 
houses in the Acorn market- 
place would start sweating. 

E A Allchin 
Bridgewater, Somerset 


VIEW DOWN-UNDER 

I feel that, although Acorn’s 
machines are superior in 
design to the PC standard, the 
company is losing the battle 
for the small business, home 
and school markets here. In 
order to retain and expand its 
market, Acorn needs to follow 
the example of its competitors. 

IBM, Microsoft and Apple 
are all trying to create operat- 
ing systems which are multi- 
platform. If Acorn ported Rise 
OS to other platforms, 
especially MS-Dos machines, 
it would be able to take advan- 
tage of the current confusion 
in the market between win- 
dows and OS/2. 

Victor Markwart 
Wanniassa, Australia 

Because Rise OS is very 
closely linked to the Arm 
chip set this makes such a 
development unlikely: it 
would be both an expensive 
and time-consuming project. 

VACANCIES 

In response to the article Situa- 
tions Vacant ( BAU August), 
though it is psychologically 
difficult to think users of other 
machines can manage better 
graphical output than the Arc, 
this must surely rank as one of 
its weak points. 

I am a teacher who uses a 
dot matrix printer and, while 
the output is very good quality, 
it is also very slow. I don’t 
know if it is feasible to speed 
up this process. 

I was, however, disap- 
pointed that the A5000 didn’t 
have a multi-tasking printer 
driver, which would at least 
free the machine while print- 
ing is going on. I was sur- 
prised also the printer driver 
was not included in Rom. 

As regards software, 1 
would like to appeal to all 
developers to store data in a 
standard format. 

Robert Seago 

Clacton-on-Sea, Essex 

Rise OS machines can per- 
form background printing. 
Simply print the document 
to file first: a far quicker 
process. Then drag the file 
on to the printer icon to 
print in the background. 


120 BBC ACORN USER SEPTEMBER 1992 




1 

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THE 'LAST MINI -\ ... THE STATE OF THE MARTIAL ARTS 


The secrets of the Ninfitsu way had been jealously guarded 
for centuries, only once every decade were the scrolls seen at 
the ritual of the White Ninja . 

None coveted these secrets more than the evil Shogun . 
Seizing the opportunity of the ritual he sprang a fiendish trap 
that destroyed the brotherhood, except for one ... You . 
The Last Ninja 


Your sworn oath is to recover the scrolls, you travel to the 
mystical lands of the Shogun. Already his guards are mastering 
the ways of the Ninfitsu. 

You must use swords, nunchakus and shlraken stars and solve 
many devious puzzles In over 140 action-packed screens. From 
dangerous wastelands and magnificent gardens, to the direst dungeons 
and the final confrontation ... You cannot fall. You are the Last Ninja. 


Compatible with the Acorn A3000, A5000 and 
Archimedes computers. Price £24.95 one vat> 

(Produced under licence from System 3 Software Ltd.) 


The Last Ninja is also available for the BBC Micro/Master, 
Compact and Electron computers. Please phone or write 
to the address below for details and prices, and/or our full 
list of BBC Micro/Electron or Acorn/Archimedes games. 


^SUPCMO^OFTUflRC 

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Dept. LH, P.O. Box 6, Brigg, S.Humberside DN20 9NH. Tel: (0652) 658585 


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