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1995-02-16
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• Tiny Logo is a new implementation of Logo from Topologika and is aimed
at young children. Some of the facilities can be disabled if required to
make it less confusing for younger users. The pack includes Tiny Draw, a
mouse/icon controlled painting package for infants and lower juniors.
The price is £29.95 or £28 through Archive.
4.1
• 5.25“ disc drive interface − Digital Services produce a podule floppy
disc drive interface which provides a rather more easily fitted
interface than any that we’ve seen so far. £35 +VAT or £38 through
Archive.
4.1
• 600 d.p.i. 8 page per minute laser printer for only £1399 + VAT (£1490
inclusive through Archive). Computer Concepts have released their new
600 d.p.i. version of the Laser Direct. It is a modified LBP8 laser
printer engine with a board which fits into the Archimedes, just like
the 300 d.p.i. Qume version. This printer, because it is modified
specifically for the Archimedes, cannot be used on other computers. If
you want to have a printer than can be used on both the Archimedes and
other computers, you can get an LBP4 (which is, admittedly, half the
printing speed of the LBP8) and use CC’s interface board and software
which can be bought separately for £350 + VAT (£370 through Archive).
4.1
• A3000 ram prices down again − The 4M Atomwide and Computerware ram
upgrades have dropped in price to £320. These are the ones which adhere
to Acorn’s guidelines about the numbers of memory chips in an A3000 ram
board.
4.1
• Acorn price drops − Certain of the Acorn podules have dropped in
price: Ethernet card is now £250, the floating point podule is £500 and
the SCSI card is £250 (+VAT in each case).
4.1
• Archimedes Annual Service Kit − Acorn recommend that you change the
batteries on your Archimedes (this does not apply to A3000’s) once a
year. That may be a bit over cautious but if your computer is two years
old, I would definitely change the batteries since spurious configura
tion changes can occur which you may not notice and which could cause
you all sorts of hassle. Also, having had a few A310’s back for memory
upgrades and having seen the state of the fan filters, I would also
recommend changing the filter every so often. The trouble is, alkaline
batteries come in packs of four and you only need two and have you tried
asking your local dealer for a replacement fan filter recently?! What we
have put together is an Archive Service Kit − two batteries plus a fan
filter for £2.
4.1
• Archimedes Learning Curve Launched − For the same price as an A420
(new price £1299 + VAT) you can now get an Archimedes Learning Curve
pack. This is not to be confused (some hope!) with “The Learning Curve”
hereinafter called “the A3000 Learning Curve”. The software that comes
with the Archimedes Learning Curve is the same as with the A3000
Learning Curve (DR DOS, PC emulator, Genesis and First Word Plus) but
with the addition of Acorn DTP. Also included in the new pack are the
introductory video and a copy of “Your Child and the National
Curriculum” again as included in the A3000 Learning Curve pack. Please
note that neither Learning Curve includes a monitor. This has to be
purchased separately. All the software is carefully laid out on the 20M
drive.
4.1
• Archimedes Price drops − The prices of the A420 and A440 have dropped
to £1299 and £1699 +VAT respectively (£1493.85 and £1953.85). Also, the
new Archimedes Learning Curve which has recently been launched adds to
the complication since it sells at the same price as the straight 420!
If you want a 420, it is best to buy the Archimedes Learning Curve from
us at £1490 and get the Learning Curve software free as well as a £100
Archive software voucher. If you want a more powerful machine, we can
swap the 20M drive for a 40M or a 47M drive for £210 or £290 respec
tively and we can upgrade the memory to 4M for £120. If you want the 20M
drive replaced with a SCSI drive instead of an ST506 drive we can allow
you £120 off the price of the SCSI drive. So, for example, you could
have it with a 45M SCSI by adding £405 or an 80M by adding £630.
4.1
So, if you want a Learning Curve 440 equivalent, it will cost you £1490
+ 290 (drive upgrade) + 120 (memory upgrade) = £1900 which works out
cheaper than Acorn’s own A440 price without the extra software. If you
really don’t want the software then you can buy an upgraded A410 from us
for £1260 + £180 (3M ram) + £390 (47M drive) = £1830 and so you save
yourself £70. If you are thinking of buying an Archimedes Learning Curve
or an upgraded A440 Learning Curve, note that the software is supplied
on the hard disc, not on separate floppies, so I don’t know how you
stand legally if you are thinking of selling the software on to someone
else. I suspect that it may be a breach of the licencing agreement under
which Acorn sell you the software.
4.1
• Arclight − an extremely fast multitasking ray tracing package for
Euclid users. It is now available for £50 inclusive from Ace Computing
(£46 through Archive.
4.1
• ARM3 upgrade − Aleph One have improved their ARM3 upgrade and reduced
the price again. It is now on a board just 50mm x 60mm and stands only
about 6mm above the ARM 2 chip socket so that there should be no more
problems of incompatibility with anything. They have achieved this
amazingly small size by using surface mount components throughout. The
price hasn’t shrunk in quite the same proportion as the size(!) but it
is down to £449 +VAT or £460 through Archive. (See Comment Column on
page 13.) It also means that if you can find someone who owns a surface
mount rework station, you could, in theory, replace the ARM2 on an A3000
with an 84 way socket and then put in an ARM3 upgrade.
4.1
• ARM3 upgrade − CJE Micros are now also selling ARM3 upgrades for the
A300/400 computers. The upgrade has two extra features to make it stand
out from the opposition. Firstly, the ARM3 is in a sub assembly so that
it can be replaced when other ARM chips and/or floating point units
become available and secondly, though the chip is run at 30MHz, you can
buy a “Super Booster” which will increase the speed to “34, 36, 38, 40É
MHz”. (See Comment Column on page 14.) The prices are £500 (inc VAT) for
the upgrade and £34.50 for each Super Booster. The ARM3 itself will be
available through Archive for £465 but the Super Boosters are only
available through CJE Micros.
4.1
• Ballarena − the first game from the French Archimedes software house,
Eterna. At £19.95, it is an all action arcade type game with some
excellent background music.
4.1
• Business Accounts from Minerva − For £99.95 (inc VAT) each, you can
buy modules for Minerva’s new business accounts system: Stock manage
ment, Order processing and invoicing, Sales ledger, Purchase ledger and
Nominal ledger. If you want all five modules, they can be bought for
£399.95 (inc VAT). (Archive prices are £90 and £350 respectively.)
Although these are revamped programs, they are not, I gather,
multitasking.
4.1
• Careware Disc 9 − Fast Julia and Mandelbrot generator, desktop
fractals, 3D ray traced Julia and Mandelbrot sets.
4.1
• Computerware A310 memory upgrades are still available through Archive
despite Computerware’s demise. We have a few in stock at the moment.
4.1
• Datavision is Silicon Vision’s relational database management system
consisting of label printing, reporting, wordprocessing and mailmerging
facilities in one integrated environment. It costs £149.95 from Silicon
Vision or £130 through Archive.
4.1
• Dust − Educational software house, Resource have produced a new
mathematics program called, Dust. It is designed for upper junior and
lower secondary age children. On an “eyecatching journey through the
solar system” you are faced with various mathematical puzzles. It is set
up as 10 chapters with supplementary activities and a teacher’s guide.
The price is £30.50 +VAT (or £22.50 if you buy 10+) or £32 inclusive
from Archive.
4.1
• EdScheme Lisp Compiler − Lambda Publications have produced a Lisp
incremental compiler for the Archimedes for just £37.50. It has been
recommended to us by Mr A Angus of Blyth, Northumberland as a good
selfstudy course in computer science when combined with Abelson &
Sussman’s “Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs”.
4.1
• Financial Accountant from Silicon Vision provides order processing,
invoicing, sales ledger, purchase ledger, nominal ledger, cash book,
stock management, reporting, VAT analysis, trial balances and profit
analysis all in one package. It costs £275 from Silicon Vision or £245
through Archive.
4.1
• Flexifile − Minerva’s latest offering in the database area is now
available at £149.95 inclusive (or £130 through Archive). It is a
“simple to use, multitasking, relational database”.
4.1
• Gate Array Design & Teaching system provides an introductory course
for teaching silicon chip design including array design, cell design and
a tutorial on IC design. The price is £149.95 from Silicon Vision or
£130 through Archive.
4.1
• !Help − The Teacher’s Guide to the Archimedes from Sherston Software
reviewed last month (page 40) has gone up in price from £4.95 to £7.95.
4.1
• Impression II − should be available by the time you read this. The
price is £169 + VAT or £175 through Archive. It will take some time to
clear the backlog of orders, so please be patient.
4.1
• Interdictor II is now available from Clares Micros at £34.95 (£32
through Archive). When compared to Interdictor I, it has better
landscaping, the flight simulator is much improved, there is a new game
scenario, a greater variety of enemy targets and a computer analysis of
the state of the plane in flight. It is not an upgrade of Interdictor I
but is a completely new product with, sadly, no upgrade path.
4.1
• Jetstream from Digital Services is a 30M tapestreamer at a very
reasonable price − £599 + VAT or £640 through Archive. It is not a SCSI
device but consists of a podule, to which the streamer is connected, and
front end software driven from an icon on the icon bar. It has the added
advantage that the podule can also be used as a 5.25“ external disc
drive interface. The streamer itself takes either 20M or 30M tapes and
can back up drives larger than the tape size by using multiple tapes. It
runs at 1.5Mbyte/minute, i.e. 13 minutes to back up a 20M drive or half
an hour to backup a 45M drive.
4.1
(This is a somewhat slower, but rather cheaper, alternative to the Oak
60M tapestreamer at £1100. However, if it is a SCSI drive you want to
backup, a 42M removable drive at £680 is a much better alternative as it
can be used as an ordinary drive as well as being used for backup
purposes.)
4.1
• Join the Jet Set! − ZCL Ltd are launching a package aimed very
aggressively at the games market. They are putting together an A3000 and
a high quality TV modulator with Interdictor, Superior Golf, Trivial
Pursuits and Euclid for £650 +VAT. (£710 through Archive.) A great idea
for a Christmas present!
4.1
• Joystick Interface − You can now use your favourite joysticks from
Amiga, Atari or whatever, on the Archimedes. This interface fits into
the Econet connectors on the Archimedes or A3000 and has special
software which allows you to use two joysticks to run applications that
were intended to be mouse or keyboard based. (Fitting such a joystick
interface will, of course, void your warranty.) These are available from
RTFM Software in Jersey for £34.99 inclusive.
4.1
• Laser Direct and ArcLaser supplies − We can now supply toner cartri
dges (£75) and replacement drum sets (£95) for the Laser Direct and
ArcLaser.
4.1
• MCP is a lighting and special effects management system designed for
discos, etc. It can handle up to 512 channels on a single core cable
with 1 to 5kW dimmers with an easytouse management system run from an
Archimedes. This system is available from S.P.E.M. in Torino, Italy.
4.1
• Mouse splitter from Voltmace − If you are fed up with having to unplug
the joystick and plug your mouse back in again after the kids have been
playing games on the computer, here is the answer! Voltmace have
produced a simple switch box into which both the mouse and the joystick
can be plugged. A toggle switch then selects which is active at any
time. This will save a lot of hassle and will remove the liklihood of a
broken mouse or joystick plug caused by continued plugging and
unplugging. For A3000 owners, this is particularly useful − I don’t
think Acorn could possibly have found a more awkward place to put the
mouse socket, do you?! The only problem for A3000 owners is that, at
least on the sample switch box I was sent, the cable is so thick that
the computer won’t sit properly on its feet! I have told Voltmace about
this and am hopeful that they will use a thinner cable in future. These
boxes are £19.95 inclusive (or £18 through Archive).
4.1
• Office Tools is a combination of Silicon Vision’s packages: Datavi
sion, ShareHolder, Financial Accountant and the Presentation System. It
costs £375 from Silicon Vision or £320 through Archive.
4.1
• !Orrery is Spacetech’s latest application. As I am sure you all
know(!), an orrery is a device (originally mechanical) for displaying
the solar system showing the orbitals of all the planets. This appli
cation allows you to view the solar system with an accurate backdrop of
stars and zoom in and out and to look at it from different places both
within and outside the solar system. £95 +VAT from Spacetech. (More
information on page 55.)
4.1
• PipeMania comes to the Archimedes − Entertainment International have
now transferred Pipemania, the well known Amiga/Atari/Spectrum etc game,
onto the Archimedes. You have to direct the pipework around the screen
before the slime reaches the last piece of pipe you have laid! £23
through Archive.
4.1
• Removable SCSI hard drives − we are now stocking MicroNet 42M
removable SCSI drives as well as the Oak ones. These drives are
considerably faster than the Cumana 20M removable drives and are about
the same speed as the standard Oak fixed SCSI drives. Indeed, in the
higher resolution modes, they are faster! The Archive price for a drive
without a podule, but including the cables and one 42M cartridge is £680
inc. VAT and the spare cartridges are £80 each. If you buy it with an
Oak SCSI card, it comes out at £870. More details in the SCSI Column on
page 47.
4.1
• Rhapsody is Clares’ new music notation package supporting Midi input
and output, editing and printing of musical scores. The price is £49.95
or £46 through Archive. See the comments on page 43.
4.1
• RoboLOGO is Silicon Vision’s own version of Logo providing 3D movement
of an onscreen robotic figure (no hardware turtle equivalent, I’m
afraid). This package costs £99.95 from Silicon Vision or £90 through
Archive.
4.1
• Schema − Clares have taken over Acorn’s multitasking spreadsheet,
Schema, and it is now available for £129.95 inclusive or £110 through
Archive. It sounds extremely powerful but we haven’t yet got a review
copy. As well as the normal spreadsheet functions, it also has some
graphical output − bar, line, area and pie.
4.1
• ShareHolder is Silicon Vision’s share management system for the small
investor which will allow you to automate your portfolio. It costs £195
from Silicon Vision or £160 through Archive.
4.1
• Shareware Disc 33 − is a music disc with twenty tunes for Maestro,
three utilities and seven tunes for soundtracker, a computerised
metronome and a midi monitor. The soundtracker utilities are: one which
separates samples and songs from soundtracker modules, one which plays a
soundtracker module and one which allows the user to control the way in
which the module is played.
4.1
• Shareware Disc 34 − contains !Draw+ (a much improved version of
!Draw), 38 lineart draw files, a converter to change outline fonts into
bitmap fonts, a screen mode info module, a converter from !Paint 256
colour numbers (0255) to RGB values, a PipeDream to Impression conver
ter, an update to !PrinterPS, a pound printer utility and PrintUtils for
FX80.
4.1
• Shareware Disc 35 − contains a desktop cassette inlay printer, a
packet radio program, a desktop front end for Wingpass Assembler, a
desktop dustbin, a desktop find file, a routine which converts BASIC
programs into application code, a desktop disassembler, a desktop front
end for Acorn’s Squeeze utility, an iconbar clock and some files
relating to a geothermal energy project (explained in the Help!!!
Section on page 16).
4.1
• Silicon Vision price rises. Unfortunately, Silicon Vision has felt the
need to increase the prices of much of their Archimedes software. The
new prices, including VAT, are as follows, the Archive prices being in
brackets after each one.
4.1
ArcPCB £195 (£160)
4.1
Realtime Solids Modeller £195
(£160)
4.1
Solid CAD £149.95 (£130)
4.1
FilmMaker £99.95 (£90)
4.1
Solids Render £149.95 (£130)
4.1
RoboLOGO £99.95 (£90)
4.1
Gate Array Design System £149.95
(£130)
4.1
Super Dump £29.95 (£28)
4.1
RiscBASIC Compiler £149.95
(£130)
4.1
RiscFORTH Compiler £149.95
(£130)
4.1
SuperPlot £39.95 (£37)
4.1
ShareHolder £195 (£160)
4.1
Datavision £149.95 (£130)
4.1
Financial Accountant £275
(£230)
4.1
Office Tools £375 (£320)
4.1
• Solids Render is Silicon Vision’s multitasking raytracing software
which works with their FilmMaker to produce animations. Can be used to
raytrace the output from SolidCAD and Realtime Solids Modeller. The
price is £149.95 from Silicon Vision or £130 through Archive.
4.1
• SuperDump is printer driver from Silicon Vision for use with Epson
compatible printers. Images can be scaled, positioned and previewed
before printing. This package costs £29.95 from Silicon Vision or £28
through Archive.
4.1
• SuperPlot is a plotter driver from Silicon Vision which supports HPGL,
Graphtec, Watanabe and Plotmate plotters amongst others. It is compat
ible with all of Silicon Vision’s graphics packages. It costs £39.95
from Silicon Vision or £37 through Archive.
4.1
• Taxan 14“ multisync monitors − new to the price list this month is
Taxan’s new 795 colour monitor with the flat screen Trinitron tube.
Anyone who saw it on display will agree that the quality is even better
than the Eizo 9060SZ (.28mm dot pitch). This is partly due to the closer
dit pitch (.26mm) and partly due to the new Trinitron technology tube.
The Archive price is £590 inc VAT and carriage. Note, however, that this
monitor, unlike the Eizo 9060SZ will not work in modes 17 and below
unless a VIDC enhancer (£34 through Archive) is fitted to the computer.
(See the Hardware Column on page 21 for further comments.)
4.1
• Taxan 20“ multisync monitors − also new to the price list this month
is Taxan’s 20” colour monitor, the Taxan Multivision 970. It is a BIG
monitor with .31mm dot pitch which, on a 20“ screen represents very high
resolution. The Archive price is £1690 inc VAT and carriage. The price
includes a free VIDC Enhancer.
4.1