Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/text/products/volume_8

Text File | 1995-08-02 | 263KB | 4,636 lines

•  200Mb Syquest removables − Syquest have released a new 200Mb 5¼“
removable hard disc. The new drive can read and write the old 44Mb and
88Mb format cartridges as well as its own 200Mb format, and offers a
speed and size advantage over the older drive types while maintaining
backward compatibility. The drive comes with one free cartridge and, as
with all removable drives, it has an effectively infinite storage
capacity by simply replacing the cartridge. The external SCSI version
which can be used on any Acorn machine with a SCSI interface costs £570
through Archive, the internal version (which is only really of interest
to Risc PC owners) is £490. Each comes with one cartridge and extra
cartridges cost £90 through Archive.
8.1
•  Acorn Enthusiasts’ Scheme − We stated in Archive last month that
Acorn were going to allow “Enthusiasts”, who are not actually ordering a
Risc PC to register as such. However, they have decided that this scheme
will be launched properly at Acorn World 94.
8.1
• Alpha Tracks − Silicon Vision have released a new Electronics Teaching
Course based on the ArcPCB design software, combined with the Unilab/
Testbed Alpha System modules. Designed by teachers, the system allows
students to explore electronics prototyping and computer aided design of
the PCB on any RISC OS machine. The design can be output to Artwork for
PCB production or directly onto copper clad boards with a plotter using
spirit-based pens for direct etching in Ferric Chloride solution. The
course has been designed for use with students or teacher training from
Key Stage 3 (age 13+), and includes notes and assignment sheets intended
to minimise teacher participation. The price is £75 +VAT from Silicon
Vision.
8.1
•  Archiboard − Supreme Software have officially launched Archiboard, a
‘network Email and conferencing system’. The system has been developed
over the last four years and is aimed at educational users. By means of
client software (provided), users can log on to the central server, and
there leave mail messages for each other, contribute to conferences and
use the server as a means of transferring files. The system is quick to
set up in its default state, and is highly configurable by means of text
files and a script language − plug-in modules can be used to add to
functionality. Working across Ethernet and Econet (without the need of a
file server), Archiboard also provides for connection to FidoNet™ and
Internet to extend Email facilities world wide. The Network version of
Archiboard is available from Supreme Software fo £89 (£79 to educational
establishments) + £2 U.K. postage. Supreme Software Ltd. can be
contacted at [phone].
8.1
•  ArcPCB range expands − Silicon Vision have expanded their range of
electronic design automation tools. ArcPCB version 1.9, for digital PCB
layout, is now priced at £99.95. ArcPCB professional version 3.3 at £195
is aimed at both analogue and video PCB layout. ArcPCB Schematics
version 5.2, at £275, is for combined Schematic and PCB layout.
PowerRouter v1.6 at £59.95 provides full 100% rip-up retry routing.
GerberPLOT v2.1 for Photoplotting and ExcellonDRILL v2.1 for NC
drilling, both at £39.95, are also available from Silicon Vision. All
these prices exclude VAT.
8.1
•  “Autumn windfall on A3020s” − Acorn are doing a special promotion on
A3020s during September and October. For every A3020 that schools buy
from Authorised Education Dealers, Acorn will give the school (or
college) a £50 cash-back. Buy the computer(s), fill in the form(s), send
them to Acorn before 30th November and, within 28 days, Acorn will send
you your £50 cash-back(s).
8.1
•  CD-Net − Cumana have taken over the CD-Net software from PEP
Associates, reviewed in the June issue of Archive. The system provides
fast access to a number of CDs across an AUN or SJ Nexus network, using
a two-stage cache (utilising both RAM and hard disc) to allow multiple
users access to a number of CD-ROMs, often faster than if the drive were
local to the machine. CD-Net is now priced at £150 +VAT & delivery from
Cumana.
8.1
•  CD-ROM networking − To complement their CD-Net software, Cumana have
launched a tower of six Panasonic SCSI CD-drives. Multi-session, double
speed and PhotoCD compatible, the tower is priced at £1499 +VAT. Cumana
feels that single drive units with automatic disc changing are not
suitable for large network use where several users may wish to access
different CD-ROMs, and this tower is their solution.
8.1
•  CD-ROMs − From our survey of “who is selling what for RISC OS
computers?”, the following CD-ROM titles have come to light: “Art in the
National Curriculum (KS 1 & 2)” (AVP) − resources related to topics and
artists in the N.C., aimed to contain a number of images not readily
available in the home or classroom environment. “The Horizon Report”
(Hampshire Microtechnology Centre) − resources from the combined efforts
of over forty Hampshire schools and colleges investigating the uses of
multimedia for sharing and presenting information, covering topics such
as ‘IT in the high street’, ‘Rainforests’ and ‘Hitler’. With the
“Karaoke Macbeth” (Animated Pixels Publishing Ltd − available from
Cumana) you can choose your favourite part or parts from the Scottish
play and read them yourself or with your friends, with the other parts
read for you; other plays will follow. “Kingfisher Children’s
Micropedia” (ESM) − reference resource for Primary children, containing
1,300 entries accessed alphabetically or by topic, and the package comes
with curriculum activity ideas. “Land and Air: Environmental Series”
(Interactive Learning Productions and Academy Television) − an analysis
of environmental issues using data from governmental sources.
“Picturebase − Victorian Britain” (AVP) − materials relating to
Victorian times and their relation to the present day. “Semerc Treasure
Chest” (NW Semerc) − huge library of resources for key stages 1, 2 and
3. “Oxford Reading Tree” and “Sherston Naughty Stories” (Sherston) −
both popular RISC OS talking books are available on CD-ROM. “Woodland
Birds” (APA Multimedia Ltd) is a subset of the Woodland CD, and contains
details of approx. 50 birds and their calls.
8.1
•  Colour printing bonanza − For those who want high quality colour
printing, there are two new ink jet printers on the market. Integrex,
who have provided colour printers to the Acorn market for years, have
released the Colourjet 600, capable of 300×600dpi and of emulating the
HP Deskjet 500C. The printer comes with suitable RISC OS 3.1 printer
drivers and costs £239 +VAT from Integrex. The second new printer is an
offering by Epson − the new Stylus Color (sic). This printer is capable
of 720×720dpi on suitable coated paper, offering a substantially
improved picture when compared to most ink-jet printers which have only
half the resolution. It can also produce 360dpi on normal paper.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing there is no RISC OS printer driver
for it which can produce more than 360dpi, although one is being worked
on. The Stylus Color has an r.r.p. of £639 +VAT and is available through
Archive for £590 inclusive.
8.1
•  DiskCat update − Oregan Developments have released a new version of
their automated disc cataloguing system. The new version has many
enhanced features and is compatible with the Risc PC. The package is now
£19.95 inc VAT from Oregan. Existing users can upgrade for £5 with the
return of their original discs to Oregan.
8.1
•  Duplex − Mijas Software have produced a shareware application
designed to enable full duplex printing of a wide range of DTP documents
on a Hewlett Packard (or equivalent PCL emulation) Laserjet printer that
has a full duplex option. The program is on the monthly program disc but
for a registered copy plus manual, send £10 (cheque or PO) to Mijas
Software.
8.1
•  Earth Warp − This is a program from Longman Logotron based on the
BBC’s Look and Read, Earth Warp series for 7-9 year olds. It costs £24
(+VAT +p&p) from Longman Logotron or £27 through Archive.
8.1
•  EPROM programming and emulation − Octopus Systems of Ipswich have
launched new control software to enable the Dataman Softy S3 and S4
EPROM programmers to be controlled from the RISC OS desktop via the
serial port. Files can be programmed into an EPROM or the system can be
used as an emulator with a flying header plugged into an EPROM socket.
This aids software development as it enables new software to be
downloaded and used immediately, without programming a new EPROM every
time. The control software and lead costs £39 +VAT from Octopus Systems
who also offer a fast EPROM programming service from Acorn format discs.
8.1
•  Game On! − The ARM Club have released a new application for the Risc
PC to help all those users whose games do not work on the new machine.
Game On! allows games such as Chuck Rock, Saloon Cars Deluxe, Chocks
Away, Gods, Lemmings and SWIV to work on the new machine, together with
applications such as FasterPC, Tracker, Coconizer and Digital Symphony.
A database is included showing which products have been tested for
compatibility with and without Game On! The price is just £10 fully
inclusive from The ARM Club.
8.1
•  Idek Iiyama have a new 21“ monitor which will be in full production
by the end of September. The MT-9121 uses a Diatron tube (Trinitron
look-alike) with a 0.30mm dot pitch and handles line rates of between
23.5 and 92kHz, with frame rates between 50 and 160Hz. The monitor can
support a 200MHz dot clock, allowing displays of up to 1600×1200 at 72Hz
or 1280×1024 at 80Hz with better convergence, distortion and contrast
than the other Idek Iiyama 21” monitors. The controls are available from
an on-screen menu using a remote control! The idea is that you sit back
in your usual operator position when making adjustments rather than
being forced to be within arm’s reach of the front of the monitor. The
MT-9121 has the usual range of controls, and also features auto power
down and a motorised tilt-and-turn stand. It is priced at £1649 +VAT
from Idek or £1884 through Archive.
8.1
• Idek Vision Master17 − We have been able to improve the price of the
Idek Iiyama 17“ monitor. It is now available through Archive at £694 inc
VAT and carriage or £400 extra if bought on the Acorn Enthusiasts’
Scheme with a Risc PC.
8.1
•  Letraset fonts − The Datafile have announced a reduction in the price
of their packs of Letraset and URW fonts. Their Pick ‘n’ Mix service now
charges £5 for the first weight and all others £3 each plus £1.50 p&p
inc VAT, with a minimum order of £20. This offer does not apply to their
ITC fonts (which are still £7.50 for the first weight and £5 for others
+VAT). The Datafile aim to release a new font pack each month now that
they have access to more fonts from other companies.
8.1
•  Longman Logotron CD-ROMs − Longman Logotron are now distributors of
software by the American multimedia company 7th Level and sole
distributors of the UK-based Software Toolworks. New packages include
Photobase Decades, which contains around 2,500 images per CD-ROM, each
illustrating historical events and everyday life of one decade from 1920
to 1960; the discs can be bought separately or as a set in Acorn and PC
formats. The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia is now available on a
single CD-ROM capturing all 21 volumes, and containing 33,000 articles.
The Multimedia World Atlas, designed for both home and school, features
350 maps and 1000 high resolution colour photographs, including video
and audio clips for selected countries and 300 topics of information for
every country. Prehistoria spans 500 million years of dinosaurs and
other prehistoric animals. Finally, TuneLand is an ‘interactive musical
cartoon’ for children of 3 years and up, enabling the children to direct
the action in eight screens and with 60 animated cartoon characters and
objects; the CD-ROM can also be used as a normal audio CD, with 43 well-
known nursery rhymes and tunes. Educational users ordering from
Longman’s catalogue before Christmas are offered a free CD-ROM worth
£49.
8.1
•  Look! Hear! − Sherston Software have recently announced their first
series of talking topics aimed at infants. The series uses digitised
human speech and animations to bring the information to life, and the
first volume covers Land Transport, Dinosaurs, The Seaside, Pets, Homes
and The Body. Each pack includes two discs, a guide for parent or
teachers and worksheets for use at home and at school. Each pack is
£11.95 +VAT from Sherston Software, or all of Volume One (six packs) may
be purchased at £59.75 +VAT. The six pack is available through Archive
for £65.
8.1
• Morph − A new morphing packing is now available for Acorn machines.
Mycroft Software have released Morph which can work in single or multi-
tasking mode, handles from 16 greys up to 24-bit colour images, supports
OLE, allows colour and movement control during morphing, has manual or
automatic mesh creation and allows output of single frames or groups of
frames. Morph costs £15 all-inclusive from Mycroft Software.
8.1
•  OakPCB II − Oak Solutions have updated their design processor
package. New features include improvement of the user interface, options
to align tracks at 45 degree intervals, and improved facilities for
attaching tracks to pads. PCBDrill, a utility which allows automatic
creation of circuit boards on Roland CAMM2 and CAMM3 and on Boxford
milling machines, is included. The user interface is still based on Draw
for ease of use. The package can handle boards of up to four layers, and
comes with extendible libraries for PCB and schematic work. OakPCB II
costs £70 +VAT from Oak Solutions (or £76 inc VAT through Archive), and
upgrades cost £35 +VAT inc p&p from Oak Solutions only.
8.1
•  Paper Saver − is a new product from PTW Software for network use. The
package works with any network shared printer driver, allocating page
quotas to individuals, groups or classes and limiting the amount of
printing which they can do. Transparent in operation, the software will
help reduce the problem of individuals printing unauthorised output
which may make running costs for the printer excessive. The package
costs £17.95 inclusive from PTW Software.
8.1
•  Pocket Book II − If the Pocket Book was a cut-down Psion Series 3,
the Pocket Book II is a Psion 3a plus some!!! The details are on page 11
but basically, there are two versions: 256Kb for £269.95 and 512Kb for
£329.95 inc VAT. (£270 and £330 through Archive including carriage!)
8.1
•  Product UNavailable − Basic WIMP Programming by Dabs Press which had
such a good review last month is sadly now out of print! Has anyone got
a copy they DON’T want that they would be prepared to send us for the
charity sales? (You could put it in the Small Ads if you can’t afford to
give it away − the second hand value has probably risen!)
8.1
•  Professional colour scanning − Computer Concepts have a new
‘Professional Colour Scanner Pack’ consisting of a Canon colour flatbed
scanner with drivers and PhotoDesk by Spacetech, which CC considers to
be the application best matched to the scanner. The scanner itself, the
IX-4015, is an A4 24-bit device capable of 800dpi, or 1200dpi in
monochrome, and is noted by CC as being particularly fast, and can be
connected to all fully Acorn compatible SCSI cards. The drivers are
specially customised for it and include full Twain support. The package,
including SCSI cable, is available from Computer Concepts for £749 + £10
p&p + VAT.
8.1
•  Risc Developments Ltd − The publisher of Risc User, Acorn Action and
Beebug magazine (which ceased publication in April this year) and
developers of Acorn hardware and software, ceased trading on 8th August
1994 and went into voluntary liquidation. The reason for the liquidation
was stated to be “losses associated with the production of our Beebug
magazine”. Adrian Calcraft, director of Risc Developments said, “We are
very sorry to have to take this action which has been brought about by
the high costs of finishing the Beebug magazine.”
8.1
The Acorn dealership company, Beebug Ltd, under its directors Sheridan
Williams and Adrian Calcraft is continuing to trade. Adrian Calcraft
added, “Beebug Ltd are not greatly affected by the closure and will take
over the products from Risc Developments, including the Risc User
magazine. Customers will be supplied and supported as previously” Risc
Developments’ press release also stated that, “Beebug will be at the
Acorn World exhibition in force and will be demonstrating some new
products and enhancements to existing software.”
8.1
We have not yet been able to find out whether Acorn Action is to
continue but Beebug said they were going to honour the £100,000+ worth
of pre-paid Risc User subscriptions, so existing Risc User subscribers
should not lose out.
8.1
•  Sibelius 6 and 7 − Sibelius Software now have site licence prices
available. The basic single-user prices are Sibelius 6 at £159 +VAT
(£175 through Archive), Sibelius 7 (for amateurs, schools, etc) £499
+VAT (£545 through Archive), and Sibelius 7 (for professional users)
£795 +VAT (£865 through Archive). If you need a site licence, there is
one for Sibelius 6 at £636 +VAT (£691 through Archive) with a special
price for primary schools of £318 +VAT (£345 through Archive). There is
also a site licence on Sibelius 6 which includes a single copy of
Sibelius 7 (good thinking!!). This costs £999 +VAT or £1085 through
Archive.
8.1
•  Tabby graphics tablet − The Tabby graphics tablet (previously only
available on PC and Atari machines) has now been made available for RISC
OS 3 Acorn machines, and plugs into the serial port. The price is £68.08
+VAT +delivery from First Computer Centre, with special prices available
to Schools and Colleges.
8.1
•  Teletext adapters − Octopus Systems, the new Acorn dealer in Ipswich,
is selling Ground Control adapters with enhanced control software. These
external adapters can be used with any Acorn desktop computer including
the A3010, A3020 and A4000, but not the A4. The new software supports
page cacheing and automatic keyword searching of pages, as they are
received. Only a few of these adapters are available, and the adapter
with software costs £130 +VAT from Octopus Systems.
8.1
•  The Times Table − Hazelnut Specialist Educational Software have
produced some multimedia software aimed at providing a fun way to learn
your tables − from ×2 to ×12. Six discs and an explanatory leaflet will
cost you £30 + £2.50 p&p (no VAT) from Hazelnut Software.
8.1
•  Trellis − a new adventure interpreter from Soft Rock Software, using
the TScript adventure description language designed for text-based
adventures and intended to provide an easy way for people to write their
own adventure games. Trellis costs £7.99 inclusive from Soft Rock
Software.
8.1
•  Windows 3.1 − If you need Windows 3.1, we can supply it for £110 inc
VAT or, if you don’t mind an OEM version, we have one for £70.
8.1

•  16-bit audio card − Expressive Software Projects have launched the
first stage of their 16-bit Minnie audio card for the Risc PC. Priced at
£69.95 +VAT, the card provides output via the internal speaker or the
headphone socket on the Risc PC. The software provided with the package
can handle playback from a number of sources. Later this year, the
second half of the package, providing MIDI synthesizer and MPC support
for the PC Card will be available, at £39.95 +VAT.
8.2
•  A4 colour scanner − Irlam Instruments have now added the Canon IX4015
A4 flatbed colour scanner to their range of scanners using their Proi-
Mage software. This is a 400 dpi scanner that interpolates to 1200 dpi
in greyscale, taking only 20 seconds for full colour A4 scan. This high
speed is possible because it uses a SCSI interface. The scanner and
software costs £699 +VAT including the software and leads (£765 through
Archive). If you don’t already have a SCSI interface, that would be
extra, e.g. a Morley uncached card at £160 through Archive.
8.2
•  Acorn Advantage − This isn’t a product as such but Acorn’s latest
marketing campaign. Never-the-less, it provides opportunities that
Archive subscribers might want to take up. It is a membership scheme,
designed to build a mutually beneficial partnership between Acorn,
school teachers and parents. The teachers start the process by
registering with Acorn as Advantage agents (although I’m sure they won’t
call them “agents”!). This won’t cost them anything but simply means
that whenever they buy Acorn equipment for their school, they clock up
“points” for the school. Parents can also help in this because if they
buy an Acorn computer (from a participating Acorn dealer such as NCS!),
they will be given points that they can allocate to a school of their
choice. The school can amass these points (a bit like the Tesco scheme)
and use them to “buy” equipment from an educational resources catalogue
which Acorn provide to the school.
8.2
Once teachers are registered on this scheme, they can ask Acorn to send
them as many “concerned parent” packs as they want and give them to all
the pupils to take home, thus encouraging parents to buy Acorn computers
and earn points for the school. If you are a teacher and want to join,
just ring the Advantage Helpline on 0181-673-5455 and ask for a teacher
pack. Teachers registered on the scheme also get personal benefits
including discounts on national events, training and conferences,
regular free reports on educational and IT issues, magazine
subscriptions and educational directories.
8.2
Basically, it seems to be a “no-lose” situation. Teachers gain by
getting free perks and free information, parents who buy Acorn computers
get a system that will allow their children to do educationally valid
tasks at home and, at the same time, help the school with points, so
they don’t lose anything, and schools gain by getting free educational
resources. Oh, and Acorn don’t lose either because people buy their
computers!
8.2
•  Acorn Desktop Guide is aimed to fill the niche between tutorials and
manuals. The Norfolk Information Technology Team have produced this
booklet as a reference for new users first learning their way around the
desktop. 28 ring-bound cards cover basic use of the desktop, icons,
mouse, keyboard, discs and printing. The guide is available from Norfolk
Educational Press at £6.95 all-inclusive (cheques made payable to
Norfolk County Council).
8.2
•  Acorn Early Years pack − Acorn have launched a new computer pack for
the A3010 aimed at parents with primary age children. The Early Years
Pack consists of a 2Mb A3010 with no monitor so you can use whatever
screen you like − you can even use your existing TV for the absolute
minimum budget version. There is a range of software available with it
and the total price is £499 inc VAT.
8.2
The software packs are:
8.2
Talking Start-Write (Icon Technology) − a fully-featured, although
simple to use, word-processing package. It uses outline fonts and allows
the incorporation of pictures into the text. It can also talk the words
as they are typed, providing reassurance that they have been typed
correctly.
8.2
Explore with Flossy the Frog (4Mation) − a graphical adventure where the
user is in control of what actually happens. The delightful pictures
encourage questions, and the different objects in the pictures all have
different effects and actions.
8.2
Mouse in Holland (4Mation) − In a similar vein to Flossy the Frog, it
allows the user to explore the life of Martin Mouse, who lives in a
windmill. With many scenes including the Dutch countryside, canalside
Amsterdam and an art gallery, as well as inside the windmill, the
graphics encourage the user in terms of an overall goal of finding
fruit, cheese and moles!
8.2
Doris the Dotty Dog (Sherston) − This is a talking story with still
pictures and animations. It can be used by a parent with a child who is
not yet reading or by a child on their own to develop their reading and
vocabulary − individual words may be spoken if they are not known.
8.2
Gemini (Cambridgeshire Software House) − This is a computer version of
pelmanism with many different card sets making it suitable either for
very young children who can recognise shapes with only a few cards, or
for older children who can identify more complex pictures.
8.2
Amazing Maths (Cambridgeshire Software House) − In this package you have
to find your way through a maze while being asked arithmetic problems by
the computer. The parent can set the difficulty of the questions asked,
both in terms of the numbers used and the operations (add, subtract,
multiply and divide) that are available. This can then be used to
reinforce mathematical skills from simple addition (as one stage on from
counting) to providing the whole range of numerical operations.
8.2
Paint Pot (Emerald Publishing) − By dipping into the paint pot, you can
learn how to use the !Paint program. The book (and accompanying disc) is
written so that it can either be used by a parent encouraging their
child, or by an older child who can read themselves. Simple examples of
many of the facilities of paint are given as drawings of real objects.
There is also a library of animals and sea creatures that can be used to
build a jungle scene or an undersea picture. Ideas for projects using
Paint are also provided − and this keeps children fascinated for hours,
with no risk of spilling poster paint on the settee!
8.2
•  Acorn Publisher is a new subscription magazine for the Acorn world.
It will cover all aspects of publishing on Acorn computer systems,
including electronic publishing and multimedia. The aim will be to
promote the Acorn platform as a high quality professional system capable
of addressing a large proportion of the needs of professional publishers
and designers, as well as catering for a more popular user base. A
second aim will be to raise the standard of publishing based on Acorn
systems.
8.2
The new magazine will be A4 in size, printed on quality paper with full
colour cover and mixed colour/mono contents. The magazine is entirely
edited and produced on an Acorn Risc PC, and aims to be an example of
all that is possible on an Acorn system.
8.2
The magazine will be published every other month with the first issue
scheduled for publication on 10th October this year. Subscriptions are
£24.95 in the UK, £28.95 in Europe and £32.95 elsewhere.
8.2
For further information contact Mike Williams at Akalat Publishing on
01582-881614.
8.2
•  Advanced file server − Datathorn are launching a Motorola-based
“Super Server”. This high speed network system allows a number of
platforms, especially RISC OS, Apple Macintosh and PCs, to use the same
server, and a server can support up to 200 computers. Further
information and demonstrations are available from Datathorn.
8.2
•  Autograph is a teaching package designed to help in the understanding
and illustration of many aspects of mathematics seen at both GCSE and A-
level, covering a very wide range of topics. Autograph costs £90
inclusive (no VAT) from Eastmond Publishing. A site licence costs £180.
(It was reviewed in Archive 7.12 p77.)
8.2
•  CartridgeMate − How would you like to have an inkjet cartridge
refilling system that just involves putting the cartridge in a box and
pressing a button − no plastic gloves, no ink spilt on the table, etc?
Well, if you have a printer that takes Hewlett-Packard 51626A high
capacity cartridges, you can − more or less. I haven’t tried the system
yet but it looks extremely simple and easy-to-use. The system plus two
38ml ink tanks costs £36 through Archive and the extra 38ml tanks are
£22 for a box of two.
8.2
•  Clicker is a new piece of software from Crick Computing. It provides
an on-screen overlay keyboard, with facilities for speech in software.
The program displays a grid of configurable size on screen, in which can
be placed words. Clicking on a cell can then enter the contents into a
word processor, for example, or provide a link to other grids for a
hierarchical structure. Cells can also contain function and editing
keys. Switch Clicker is a special access version of Clicker for users
who are unable to use a mouse, allowing switch users access to the RISC
OS desktop, and providing all the facilities of Clicker together with
the special facilities. Clicker costs £35 +VAT, including a site licence
for up to five machines, and Switch Clicker is £75 +VAT, from Crick
Computing.
8.2
•  DEC_dATA are increasing the prices of their Primary Education
Services products to £11.16 inc VAT for single disc collections, and
£22.32 inc VAT for double disc collections. New collections of clipart
from PES are Soccer, Beowulf, Farming Then and Farming Now. DEC_dATA are
also providing a resource disc for Impression Publisher, including a
number of backgrounds, borders, motifs, forms, graphic borders,
helpfiles and masks. The Impression Publisher Resource Disc is £12.95
inc VAT. Other new products include a collection of over 50 cartoons in
drawfile format for £9.34 inc VAT, and for Acorn World 94, The Normans −
a set of pictures relating to the Norman invasion and Norman life in
Britain.
8.2
•  Digital Phenomena have a number of titles available. LabelBase is a
professional database aimed specifically at printing labels simply,
priced at £49.95, or £199.95 for a site licence. WordSearch is a utility
for generating word searches, taking the required words, arranging them
randomly and filling in the gaps with random letters. WordSearch costs
£9.95. Disc Commander, at £29.95, offers a disc sector editor and
recovery utility, backup, search facilities, archive reading, disc
protection, network use and advanced virus protection; a shareware
version offering only the virus protection facilities is available for
£5. Rune Seeker, at £4.99, is a fantasy puzzle game. ESP, at £14.95,
generates ‘Zener’ cards to test your psychic skills, and will analyse
the results for you. Finally, !Gematria is a numerology package which
will produce a four-page analysis of a personality based on an
individual’s name and date of birth, intended both for entertainment and
for serious research. !Gematria is £9.95 from Digital Phenomena. (All
prices are inclusive.)
8.2
•  Dis-le − the computerized speaking French tutor has now been updated
to version 3.0. The upgrade is available from Mike Smith (used to be
Bits ‘N’ Bytes).
8.2
•  DTP clipart − G.A.Herdman Educational, have increased their range of
DTP clipart to 20 discs. Also, Map_Chem, a resource of spider diagrams
and reaction pathways in draw format, is now available at £69.99 +p&p
for all four discs. Digital Thermometers is a plug-in system for the
analogue port (so the I/O interface is required), and is available for
£39.99 for a two-probe system or £32.99 for a single probe. A range of
educational games, assessment packages and products aimed at various
parts of the Physics and Chemistry courses up to A-level standard are
also available. (VAT not applicable.)
8.2
•  Education 2000 − Matt Black has a new pack of clipart consisting of
2,000 drawfile images on 8 discs with a user guide and visual index, a
quick reference card and a copy of Hugh Eagle’s PickAPic imagefinder
program. The cost is £65 +£2 p&p (inc VAT) from Matt Black.
8.2
•  Evacuation is an educational compilation from Northern Micromedia
designed to teach today’s primary children about the evacuation which
took place during the second world war. It covers the evacuation itself,
food and rationing, and includes a package which produces fax-style
print-outs of chronological events to which the children must respond. A
full catalogue of their educational software is available from Northern
Micromedia.
8.2
•  Impression upgrades − There has been some confusion over the cost of
upgrade paths between the various versions of Impression. We said in
this magazine (7.6 p9) that owners of Impression II could upgrade to
Style for £29 +VAT through Computer Concepts. This is correct. Then we
reported that “when Impression Publisher is released, Impression Style
owners and Impression II owners will be able to upgrade for £29 +VAT.”
However, that meant that owners of Impression Style who had previously
owned Impression II could upgrade at that price. New purchasers of
Impression Style wanting to upgrade to Impression Publisher will have to
pay CC £70 +VAT. In fact, the £29 upgrade was an introductory offer and
it now costs £49 +VAT to upgrade from II to Publisher. (There is also a
p&p charge of £3.53 to add.)
8.2
(As a now very satisfied user of Impression Publisher, I can say that I
think it is worth every penny of the upgrade price − see page 18 for
details. Ed.)
8.2
(Editor then dons sales hat and says... We have found three copies of
Impression II in our stock room so if anyone wants Publisher on the
cheap, they can buy Impression II at a special price of £60 and then get
it upgraded by CC. The total cost is then just over £130 − a real
bargain! Ed.)
8.2
•  InTouch is a concept keyboard program aimed at the early stages of
children’s cognitive development. The package was designed originally
for children with severe learning difficulties and there are many
aspects that are appropriate to other phases of mainstream education.
InTouch offers opportunities for activities such as picture/symbol/
colour/object/number recognition, matching and sequencing as well as a
scanning communication aid (using one or two switches) all of which can
be enhanced with sound samples. InTouch costs £40 +VAT from Hampshire
Microtechnology Centre.
8.2
•  L’Ensouleiado Software have a number of languages programs, including
new versions of French Verb, Spanish Verb and German Verb, packages
which allow practice of tenses as far as the A-level standard, for the
Acorn and BBC machines, at £20 +VAT each. Voyage! takes students through
an interactive sequence for holiday-booking and letter-writing, aimed at
those with a few years’ experience in French. Gute Reise! is a follow-up
to German Holiday, and is a companion to Vivent les Vacances! and ¡Viva
España!, aimed at GCSE level. Allons!, ¡Vamos! and Komm Mit! are three
suites of programs aimed at the early stages of language learning. A
full catalogue of over 20 language programs is available from
L’Ensouleiado Software.
8.2
•  Micro languages − LCL’s range of home educational software has now
expanded to include new versions of Micro French, Micro German and Micro
English which will follow the approach used in their Micro Spanish
program and have interactive speech on disc. They also have a range of
maths courses available.
8.2
•  Micro Librarian Systems are now up to release 4.2 of Micro Librarian
Professional, a librarian assistant package. To complement the package,
they also have Magicat − a pre-entered catalogue of 150,000 common
school books, an ‘acquisitions and budget control module’, Photocheck −
a system which allows storage of digitized pictures of borrowers as a
security check, a self-service utility and a barcode reader. In
addition, search facilities can be made available from other machines
(including PCs and BBC Masters) linked by the serial port to the Acorn
machine on which the librarian software is run; this is in addition to
the search facilities offered by the package running directly on the
host machine. There is also a Junior Librarian package aimed at primary
schools, packaged with a barcode reader, and there is a corresponding
junior version of Magicat containing 40,000 books common to libraries of
schools for the ages of 5-13. MLP4 is £495, Magicat is £180 and the
barcode reader is £375; Junior Librarian is £395 +£5 carriage and its
version of Magicat £90, from Micro Librarian Systems. These prices do
not include VAT.
8.2
•  A Mouse In Holland − 4Mation have released A Mouse In Holland, a
piece of interactive fiction full of animations and sound effects. The
software contains over 3000 words of text, but the ability to read is
not a requirement. A Mouse In Holland costs £29.50 +VAT or £33 through
Archive for a single user or £59 +VAT or £65 through Archive for a site
licence version.
8.2
Betsi, A Mouse in Holland and Explore with Flossy the Frog are also now
available in high resolution versions (mode 28) on newer 2Mb machines,
either at the time of purchase or at £4.99 inc VAT as an upgrade from
4Mation.
8.2
•  Mouse in Holland − 4Mation’s latest program for the young ones is
part of Acorn’s Early Years Pack (details above) but is available
separately for
8.2
•  Oak Recorder 3 − Solent Computer Products have announced the latest
incarnation of their Oak Recorder, a sound sampler which plugs into the
bi-directional parallel port on the later Acorn machines (A5000 and
later). Sampling at 8-bit accuracy and from 7kHz up to 32kHz on a Risc
PC with VRAM, the hardware includes a uni-directional microphone. The
updated software now allows output to a number of file formats,
conversion and manipulation of the sample, and filtering, all under
button-bar control. Oak Recorder 2 is still available for users of
machine without the bi-directional parallel port. Oak Recorder 3 is
priced at £44.95 +£3 carriage +VAT from Solent, with educational
discounts and upgrade paths available.
8.2
•  Optical Professional from Neurotron Software, provides optical
character recognition, including features such as reading of text out
loud (with a speech synthesizer), a multi-column mode, automatic spell-
checking, and multitasking operation, the package is said to be twice as
fast (300 wpm on a 25MHz ARM3) as other leading OCR packages. Optical
Professional can cope with italic and kerned text, and foreign
characters, and can learn outline fonts in under 10 seconds. Accuracy is
claimed to be between 98% and 100%. Optical Professional is available at
£119 +£2 carriage +VAT from Neurotron Software, or £59 +£2 for the
standard version of Optical. Site licences are also available.
8.2
•  Personalised CD-ROMs − Eesox are offering to produce a CD-ROM for
only £60 +VAT, as a special offer lasting until 31st October. The
company have also announced a special network version of their CDFAST
package, which uses cacheing to radically speed up the access of CD ROMs
over networks, available for £130 +VAT.
8.2
•  PLink − This is a RISC OS compliant application to allow users of
Amstrad NC100s to transfer text to any Acorn RISC OS machine. PLink
costs £32 +VAT for a single user (including a lead) and £64 +VAT for a
site licence (including four leads) from Hampshire Microtechnology
Centre.
8.2
•  Softcrete is a new application from the Really Good Software Company
which allows users to encrypt their software to protect it from piracy.
The encryption system allows the software to be tied to a specific
machine using the unique machine ids on later systems, to a password
held in CMOS RAM, or to a password which the user must type in each time
the program is to be used. The package is aimed at programmers and
teachers who may wish to limit the machines on which a package may be
run. Softcrete is £24.95 inc VAT from the Really Good Software Company.
8.2
•  SoftTeach have two new educational products for Acorn machines.
MakeIT allows art drawn by students to be made into cards, stamps and
envelopes, aimed at the Christmas market, and costs £35 for a school
site licence. Class Lists is a class management utility for teachers,
and costs £15. SoftTeach have a number of other educational titles.
8.2
•  Stika Designer − Techsoft now sell CAD design software with a driver
for the Roland Stika vinyl cutter giving output that can be used for
signs, labels, screen-printing etc. The CAD package can cope with both
sprites and drawfiles because the Stika can work in two modes − bit
image cutting and vector cutting. The software on its own costs £75 +VAT
and, as a limited offer, Techsoft are selling the cutter and software
together for £165 +VAT − mention Archive when ordering.
8.2
•  Studio 24 − Pineapple Software have joined the ranks of 24-bit paint
packages with Studio 24. The package will continue to be developed, with
the promise that future upgrades will be free to registered users.
Studio 24 is £125 +VAT from Pineapple − demo discs are also available
for £5. (This should not be confused with Studio 24 Plus from EMR which
is a music sequencer package!)
8.2
•  Supersound Expansion System for A3/4000 − Audio Dynamics have
released a new member of their Supersound Expansion System range, this
one being for the A3000/4000 series. The SSES1700mc has the same
features as the SSES1600, except that the output box will be optional.
The card has a stereo 3.5mm jack and a MIDI interface, and an interface
for a sampler upgrade. A user port has also been included. The
SSES1700mc is £199 +VAT from Audio Dynamics.
8.2
•  Swimming 2.0 − CD Sports Ltd have an interactive multimedia package
intended to teach swimming, water safety and survival skills by means of
animations and games. The package costs £25.52 +VAT with site licences
available.
8.2
•  Starspell Plus is a package aimed at primary and junior school,
incorporating 134 letter patterns and over 1600 common words (which can
be changed) to take an integrated approach to language and spelling. It
has been recommended by the British Dyslexia Association and also by
Educational Psychologists and Advisory Teachers, the package is
available for a number of platforms at £19 +VAT from Fisher-Marriott,
with site licences available.
8.2
•  TableMate 2 − Dalriada Data Technology have released the updated
version of their table creation application. Additional features over
the version that is bundled with Impression Style & Publisher include:
full colour handling, wordwrapping, drawfiles inside cells, insertion
and deletion of multiple rows or columns, cut and paste editing,
variable rule-off widths and a multiple document editor. Tablemate 2
costs £32.50 inclusive, a primary licence costs £40 and a secondary one
is £70, all inclusive.
8.2
•  Talking Stories − Wyddfa Software have four new talking stories about
Gwen, the lovable, mischievous bear, Gwen’s Nose, Gwen’s Tummy, Gwen
goes to School and Gwen at the Fair. These are £20 each inclusive or £50
for all four.
8.2
•  Twain Drivers − David Pilling is releasing Twain scanner drivers for
the Nikon Coolscan, a 2700dpi 35mm slide/colour negative SCSI bus
scanner, and for the Mustek Paragon and Microtek Scanmaker II A4 3-pass
colour flat bed SCSI bus scanners. The drivers are £20 each, or £35 with
ImageMaster, including VAT and carriage from David Pilling.
8.2
•  UK School Internet Primer is a new book aimed at explaining the truth
behind all the recent hype about the internet. Aimed especially at
school and teachers, the book is also good reading for the general
enthusiast. The book is available for £8.50 from Koeksuster
Publications.
8.2
•  Vision 24 − HCCS have launched a 24-bit real-time video digitizer,
the Vision 24, capable of 254 lines by 720 pixels and priced at £99
+VAT, or an extra £40 +VAT for a version capable of 508 lines. A 254
line digitizer can be upgraded later, and discounts are available on
earlier Vision products. A3000/3010/3020/4000 internal, A300/400/5000/
Risc PC internal and MicroPodule versions are available, with the
external A3000 version £20 more expensive. A JPEG compression/
decompression utility is supplied with the package.
8.2
•  Words and Music have expanded their range of Midi files for the
Archimedes. These include three more ‘Classic Collection’ volumes, and
‘Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier’. These collections are available for
£10.95 +£1 p&p each from Words and Music.
8.2
•  XOB upgrades − XOB have announced an upgrade to their SuperMon
software to allow the network managing software, previously limited to
Econet, to be used on other AUN networks. They have also announced
TimeCord, a product intended to ease the recording of time spent on
tasks in professions where charging of fees is based on time spent, when
that time may be fragmented, and in situations where work-load is being
monitored. Finally, Adventurers’ Computer Kingdom is a multi-user
network adventure game, and an upgrade has now been released to allow
this to run on AUN networks rather than just Econet.
8.2
Products (still) Available
8.2
In our trawl through Acorn’s list of “companies that produce things for
Acorn machines” we have brought to light various products that we didn’t
know about. Some of them have been out for a while so they are not
necessarily new products available.
8.2
•  Avanti is a training authoring system from Westland Systems
Assessment, which helps structure and create multimedia interactive
training presentations. The program outputs Basic V code, which can then
be hand-tailored if features beyond the capabilities of the original are
required.
8.2
•  Computer Tutorial Services has a number of educational and
specialised programs available for the Acorn range. For more
information, please contact CTS.
8.2
•  Contex Computing have a number of Acorn packages, including
educational reading tutors, a typing tutor, and Bank Manager financial
software. Contex Bank Manager is £25, typing tutor £19 and Easy Reader
and Madlibs (a grammatical game) are £12.50 each − p&p extra. (Slight
snag − their phone number is ‘unobtainable’ so I can’t check if these
are inc or ex VAT. Ed.)
8.2
•  Dixon & Dixon, the business software manufacturers, have a package
called Flyprint costings £40 inc VAT, aimed at easy production of
leaflets in any size or quantity. The company also has a keyboard
emulator, which provides a window containing a view of the keyboard;
clicking on keys is equivalent to the key being pressed on the keyboard.
Control, shift and caps keys can be toggled on or off to allow full
keyboard flexibility. The keyboard emulator is £12 inc VAT from Dixon &
Dixon.
8.2
•  G-TABS Time and Billing System − Gartside Neville Ltd. have a package
for the Psion series 3a (and Pocket Book II, presumably) which provides
a system for recording time and expense data. The system allows for
reviewing, summarizing, back-up and printing, as well as data transfer
via the serial link.
8.2
•  Hampshire Microtechnology Centre produce a huge range of educational
materials for use with Acorn computers. Guides include: Using Hard Discs
in the Primary Classroom, PipeDream user notes, Impression II and
Junior, RISC OS 3, Draw, Paint & Edit, ArcTerm7, Intro to A3000, A5000,
Parents’ Support Pack. Curriculum resource materials include: PipeDream
cooking recipe datafiles, Nature pack (KS1&2), Introduction to !Sparkle
(control software), Planning and tracking IT in the Curriculum, English
11 − 18, Geography KS2&3, Food Technology KS3, Datacapture work cards,
Control Technology at KS1&2, Control Technology at KS3, Art & Design.
8.2
Also available from HMTC are: Linguatext, a text manipulation package
for modern language teachers; Granville, a French holiday simulation;
Move it!, mechanical movement at KS2&3; Ezekiel, a draw-based DIY
skeleton; Con-Text, a program to create concept keyboard overlays; Con-
Verse, a program to put sound on concept keyboard overlays; Nutrients, a
diet analysis package; Bridges, a technology-led package (KS2&3)
supporting a cross-curricular approach to learning; Knowledge Station,
an application that allows you to explore knowledge in a carefully
structured way and Writing for a Purpose which uses Knowledge Station as
a means of studying different genres of writing.
8.2
•  In House Publishing are providing key stage science assessment and
homework packs in both reproduction master form and in Impression form
so that materials can be modified ‘in house’ if necessary. Assessment
reproduction masters (printed in 600dpi monochrome) are £25.50 each,
with homework packs for key stage 3 £20.50 each for the masters. The
corresponding colour Impression DTP files are £38.50 and £35.50 each.
8.2
•  Micro Studio have a range of clipart on different topics. Ones we
haven’t mentioned before include: Transport Graphics Library (£29.95),
Designer’s Graphics Pack (£19.95), Drawfile Mazes (£19.95), Seashore
Guide (£19.95), Science Graphics Pack (£29.95), Illustrator Graphics
Pack (£19.95), Greetings Pack (£19.95), Decorated Alphabet (£19.95),
Nature Graphics Pack (£19.95), DTP Library Pack (£29.95) and Military
History (£19.95) − all prices are inclusive of VAT.
8.2
•  Primrose Publishing have a range of language programs under the Tick-
Tack title. These cover topics such as beginners language, general use,
business use, travel and tourism and job-hunting. By use of control
codes, the packages provide common phrases, and cover up to 30 languages
(in the case of the business pack). Training and multi-lingual e-mail
packages are also available. Prices from Primrose Publishing.
8.2
•  Reduce − Codemist Ltd are now on release 3.5 of the Archimedes
version of Reduce, the interactive algebraic manipulation package, aimed
at mathematicians, scientists and engineers. The package is based on
Codemist’s own LISP, and is a standard on other platforms, coming with a
number of additional utilities. Reduce itself is capable of ‘expansion
and ordering of polynomial and rational functions, substitutions and
pattern matching in a wide variety of forms, automatic and user
controlled simplification of expressions, calculations with symbolic
matrices, arbitrary precision integer and real arithmetic, facilities
for defining new functions and extending program syntax, analytic
differentiation and integration, factorisation of polynomials,
facilities for the solution of a variety of algebraic equations,
facilities for the output of expressions in a variety of formats,
facilities for generating optimised numerical programs from symbolic
input, and dirac matrix calculations of interest to high energy
physicists.’
8.2
•  Selective Software have a range of educational software: Little Red
Riding Hood is a two-part problem-solving adventure for children aged 5
to 8 (£15); Number Zoo is a first number program for ages 3 to 6 (£14);
Cinderella is a “magical adventure” for 4 to 7 year olds based on the
well-known fairy tale (£17); Shylock Gnomes is a mathematical adventure
for ages 10 to 15 (£17); Don the Professor is a four-disc set of
mathematical software for Key Stages 2 & 3 covering number, algebra,
shape and space, and data-handling (£19 single user, £49 site licence);
SportsDay & SportsPeople are two separate programs at £22.50 each that
help with administration of a school sports’ day, the first deals with
teams competing against one another and the second is for named athletes
competing as individuals. Add £2 p&p +VAT to all the prices.
8.2
•  Special Access Systems have a range of keyguards aimed to help users
with hand tremor. They are available for Acorn machines previous to the
A3010 for £36 +VAT +p&p, and also for PC keyboards. They also sell
expanded programmable keyboards for the earlier Acorn machines and AT
compatibles, at £475 +VAT +p&p. Discounts are available for bulk
purchase.
8.2
Products Unavailable
8.2
•  ISO Pascal Extensions − Due to the discontinuation of Acorn’s ISO
Pascal, Smith & Wiggins have ceased to provide this product.
8.2
•  PD-CD Nº1 not available − not from NCS. We have discovered that the
first PD-CD from the Datafile contains some ‘soft-porn’ JPEG images. We
were not aware of this when we said they would be available through
Archive. Dave McCartney of the Datafile said he hadn’t really registered
the nature of the JPEG images and would not be including any such images
on future PD-CD discs.
8.2

•  10 out of 10 Driving Test − Learn, revise or test your knowledge of
the essential facts of driving with this program from 4th Dimension.
There are six categories of trivia questions about road signs and
driving knowledge or you can try the thousands of questions in the suite
without using the games. 10 out of 10 Driving Test costs £25.95
inclusive from 4th Dimension or £24 through Archive.
8.3
•  24-Bit Digitiser − Irlam instruments have produced a very high
quality multimedia capture tool − the 24i16 offers 24-bit image capture
and 16-bit sound sampling. The board is available for £359 +VAT with a
512Kb framestore or £399 +VAT with a full 1Mb framestore.
8.3
•  105Mb SCSI SyQuest removable drives − One of our suppliers is
currently over-stocked on these drives and the cartridges and is selling
them off until his stock levels are somewhat reduced. We can sell the
105Mb SCSI internals for £290 (normally £370), the external 105Mb drives
for £350 (normally £450) and the spare cartridges are currently £55 each
(normally £70). This applies while his stocks last, so please ring if
you are interested in one. All prices are inclusive of VAT, carriage and
fitting kit (where necessary) and each drive includes one cartridge.
8.3
•  270Mb SCSI SyQuest removable drives − We have just found a new
supplier of 270Mb SyQuest drives who is giving us better prices. We can
now sell the 270Mb SCSI internals for £420 (was £490) including one
cartridge, the external 270Mb drives for £490 (was £550) and the spare
cartridges are currently £70 each (was £90). All prices are inclusive of
VAT, carriage and fitting kit (where necessary) and each drive includes
one cartridge.
8.3
•  ABC of Art is a set of clipart drawn using Artworks and available in
Artworks or Draw format. The series has reached H, i.e. there are eight
so far and there will be new discs released roughly every two months.
The price of each disc is £6 inclusive from ABC Art.
8.3
•  ACB15/25 second slices − Owners of single slice Risc PCs will be
pleased to hear that we have second case slices available from stock at
£116 each. As well as the actual case slice, you get the extra length
fitting pins, a four-way backplane and a brand new power supply to
increase the loading capacity of your computer. This means that you will
then be able to fit up to four expansion cards, an extra 5¼“ storage
unit − such as a CD-ROM drive − and an extra 3½” storage unit such as a
105 Mb or 270 Mb removable drive unit. (The 105Mb SCSI internals are on
special offer at the moment at £290 including one cartridge, and the
spare cartridges are currently £55 each − see above.)
8.3
•  Apple FS from Oregan allows Apple Macintosh floppy discs to be read
from and written to on an Acorn computer. Both high and low density
floppy formats are supported although not the original variable-speed
floppy format and not, as yet, SCSI hard drives. AppleFS costs £59.95
inc VAT from Oregan Developments.
8.3
•  Aries – a new games compendium from Gamesware, including Hamsters
(arcade adventure), Quizmaster (quiz!), Blowpipe (arcade/shoot ’em up)
and Square Route (puzzle), giving a range of game types. The price is
£29.95 from Gamesware or £28 through Archive.
8.3
•  Archive mousemat − The new mousemats are here! I hope that some of
you will have been able to pick one up at Acorn World 94 but, if not,
they are available from NCS for £5 each. They have antistatic plastic
tops with non-slip rubber base. The actual design of the mat is shown
overleaf.
8.3
Reports from the thousands of Archive subscribers who got a new one are
generally good. Some say it makes their mouse go faster although I can’t
quite see how that can be. Some, however, say that their mouse slips on
these mats so, be warned, if your mouse is one of those with a
plasticised (cream-coloured) ball, these mats are not for you!
(Alternatively, you could buy one and use it with one of the new Acorn
mice that we still have in stock at £18 each!)
8.3
•  Artworks Clip-Art CD 2 Computer concepts have released the second
clipart collection containing the best entries from their Artworks
competition. In addition to Artworks files, there are some 24-bit
sprites and TIFF images. The Clip-Art CD 2 costs £19 +VAT from CC.
8.3
•  Back trouble? − Anyone who has back trouble and is doing a reasonable
amount of computer work should consider buying a decent chair. For over
six years now, I have been using a Stokke Wing chair (see below) − two,
in fact − one in the office and one at home. I’m always singing their
praises to people who visit me. If I ever have to use a conventional
office chair for any length of time, I get back-ache whereas I can (and
do) sit on my Wings (so to speak!) for hours on end without tiring.
8.3
“If they are so good, why don’t you sell them?” someone said to me a
year or so ago. Why indeed?! I have made an arrangement with an importer
(they are Scandinavian chairs as you might guess!) and I can sell them
for £320 inclusive. They have a five-caster base so you can move around
easily and a gas-lift mechanism so that you can adjust the height for
the best position relative to your monitor and keyboard. The chairs are
extremely robust and the material with which they are covered is very
good quality. The one I use in the office is just beginning to wear a
bit thin on one side of the knee-pad after over four years of constant
use.
8.3
I’m so confident that you will be pleased with them that I will give you
a full refund if you buy one and find you don’t like it. You may feel
that £320 is a lot of money for a chair but, as far as I am concerned,
it is a kind of insurance policy − keeping my back in good condition −
and I’m prepared to pay for that. From personal experience, I can say
that they are very long-lasting but in any case, they come with a five-
year guarantee (although this does not apply to the covering material).
8.3
The chairs have been improved since the pictures opposite were taken.
They now have an adjustment of the knee-pad to allow for different leg
lengths!
8.3
The Wing chairs come in natural beech, rosewood or black and the covers
are available in black, navy blue, red, beige, wine, brown, charcoal or
dark grey.
8.3
(The money-back guarantee is a genuine offer. In fact, I have one that
has come back! It’s rosewood with beige covers and, if anyone is
interested, I can offer it at £290 as I cannot now say that it is brand
new. Ring the NCS office if you are interested.)
8.3
•  Blinds − Quantum Software have released their pinboard-type
application, Blinds, which allows users to group applications, files,
directories etc in a convenient way on blinds of any size, which can be
brought up at the click of a mouse button. The blinds can also be set to
appear whenever an application is run, and the icons on the blinds can
be given long names rather than just file names. Blinds costs £19.95 (no
VAT) from Quantum or £20 inclusive through Archive.
8.3
•  Bubble Help − David Pilling has an alternative to Acorn’s interactive
help application, !Help. Bubble Help 2 provides help actually at the
mouse pointer rather than in a window somewhere on the screen (if you
can remember where you put it!) and uses outline fonts to make it easier
to read. What is more, it only costs £5 inclusive, direct from David
Pilling.
8.3
•  Caxton Press from Newman College is a newspaper simulation for
primary children. It is designed to be bright, colourful and enjoyable
to use and yet simple enough for young children to understand quickly.
It allows them to lay out and edit single A4 pages of material in
newspaper format. Caxton Press is a RISC OS compatible application
costing £30 +VAT from Newman Software Ltd and this includes full site
and network licence, i.e. it can be used anywhere on a single school
site.
8.3
•  CD-ROM Drives from Cumana − In a single stroke, Cumana have extended,
renamed and simplified the choice of their CD-ROM drive products. The
comprehensive range now consists of the following (all prices are ex
VAT):
8.3
Oscar − Parallel port driven dual-speed, drawer-loading drive for
computers with a bi-directional parallel port. Cumana supply these for
£229.
8.3
Bravo − Dual-speed, drawer-loading available with either parallel port
or SLCD (podule or mini-podule) interface and providing audio mixing
with the computer’s sound. £299.
8.3
Victor − High performance SCSI drives, with a choice of drives from
dual-speed drawer-loading (£299) through caddie-loading (£399) up to
magazine-loading, quad-speed autochangers (£499 to £1995) and 6 drive
units (£1499 to £1999).
8.3
Indigo − The 300iA drive which is driven by the Risc PCs built-in IDE
interface and offers audio mixing with the Risc PC’s sound. (£249 or
£199 without audio mixing)
8.3
NCS stock the Indigo audio drive for £290 inclusive and a selection of
the other drives. See the price list for details.
8.3
•  EasyFont 3 is Fabis Computing’s improved font management system. New
features include a new user interface, a font filing system and font
compression (up to 40%). Easy Font 3 costs £35 inc VAT (£34 through
Archive) or £10 inc VAT to owners of Easy Font 2 from Fabis.
8.3
•  Educational CD-ROM software − Academy Television have produced
“Science II: Materials”, “Environment II: Land & Air” and “World War II:
Global Conflict” on CD-ROM. Each is £130 +VAT from Academy Television.
8.3
•  Education CD-ROM titles − Nelson Multimedia, a new division of school
book publishers Thomas Nelson, have launched a range of CD-ROM learning
and resource titles covering a wide cross-section of the curriculum. The
Science titles include Elements, Materials, The Environment, Inventors
and British Birds. Humanities CDs include Aspects of Religion, The
Physical World, World War II. French and Spanish language packs are
available and there are primary resources including a reading scheme and
an introduction to history. Packs vary in price from £99 +VAT to £150
+VAT with some resource CDs at £35 +VAT. Full details and prices from
Nelson Multimedia.
8.3
•  E-Type2 – For the racers among you, Fourth Dimension have released a
sequel to the original E-Type, which now features better graphics and a
two-player option. You now have to contend with police speed traps and
bad weather to complete your race. For those of you who get bored with
driving all day, you can at least switch to the pursuit track, arming
your car(s) with lasers and oil spills. When you get bored with the six
tracks provided, you can use the included track generator to add your
own courses. The game costs £34.95 from Fourth Dimension or £33 through
Archive.
8.3
•  Formula Two Thousand (FTT) is a high speed 3D futuristic racing game
new from TBA software. The speed is quite terrifying and this is their
first game to show off their TAG 3D game engine. FTT costs £24.99 inc
VAT from TBA or £24 through Archive.
8.3
•  Formulix is Computer Concepts’ successor to Equasor. It allows simple
construction and editing of complex formulae for use within documents in
Impression or other word processing/DTP programs. Formulix supports OLE,
so an embedded formula can be edited within Style, Publisher or other
OLE compliant software. Formulix costs £49 +VAT from CC or £55 through
Archive.
8.3
•  Grasshopper is a RISC OS compliant “introductory” spreadsheet from
Newman College. Although it is described as introductory, it never-the-
less looks quite sophisticated − for instance, it has 20 mathematical
functions and allows multiple selections of areas. Grasshopper costs £30
+VAT from Newman Software Ltd and this includes full site and network
licence, i.e. it can be used anywhere on a single school site.
8.3
•  IGLib Fortran graphics libraries for Intelligent Interfaces’ Fortran
77 users. The libraries provide access to the extra graphics
capabilities of the Risc PC. IGLib is available from Intelligent
Interfaces and costs £30 inc VAT +£4 p&p.
8.3
•  Impression Publisher Plus − Computer Concepts have released an
extended version of Publisher providing extra features which may be
needed by people involved in professional use of the Acorn computers for
publishing. These features include support for named colours (which can
be imported from Artworks) and the OPI standard, allowing documents
containing graphics to be kept to more practical sizes whilst retaining
the quality at the image setting stage. Publisher Plus also supports
Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) and Desktop Colour Separation (DCS) file
formats. It costs £299 +VAT (£330 through Archive) or £130 +VAT for
registered Publisher users from CC.
8.3
•  Language programs − Primrose Publishing have a clever system for use
with foreign languages. The idea is that you have a database of
sentences provided for you that are written correctly in whatever
language or languages the pack uses (over 30 languages are covered to
varying degrees). You select your sentence, it is typed automatically
into your WP or DTP application and you can then edit it in whatever way
you wish. The Tick-Tack range includes programs for beginners (Junior
Pen-Friend), for general use (Pen-Friend), for business use and for
travel and tourism. There is even one for job-hunting called “Tick-Tack
CV”! Prices start at £75 +VAT for Junior Pen-Friend in a single language
plus English to £401 +VAT for Travel/Tourism Tick-Tack in a combined
pack with English/French/German/Spanish & Italian. Site licences are
double the single-user prices.
8.3
(I would like to get a couple of reviews done as these sound very
interesting. I therefore need a language teacher to assess them from an
educational standpoint and a “keen beginner” who has perhaps done a bit
of language learning and wants to take it further. The review could then
include the views of the two people. Any offers, anyone? Ed.)
8.3
•  Lemmings/Oh No! More Lemmings – Not really a new game, but the Risc
PC version is now available for £29.95 direct from Krisalis, or £29
through Archive. It contains both games in one pack, and allows you to
play them on the RISC OS desktop, both at the same time if you find them
too easy individually!
8.3
•  Look! Hear! Talking Topics for Infants, Volume One is from Sherston
Software who have built upon their Talking Stories series with this
collection of non-fiction titles. The topics include The Body,
Dinosaurs, Homes, Land Transport, Pets and The Seashore. Each topic has
animated illustrations with sound effects and talking text that responds
to the children’s actions. Activity cards are provided for each topic.
The complete Volume One of the Look! Hear! Talking Topics is available
from Sherston for £59.75 +VAT (£67 through Archive) or £11.95 +VAT for
individual topics from Sherston.
8.3
•  Map Importer – This allows the conversion of Ordnance Survey Digital
Map Data into Drawfiles ready for use in a large number of RISC OS
applications. During conversion, alterations can be made, to remove
railways, for example. The program is only available to educational
establishments, and is priced at £29.95 for a single user copy, £45 for
a primary site licence, or £120 for a secondary site licence. Prices
exclude VAT and p&p.
8.3
A copyright licence is required for schools who are not covered by the
Local Authority Service Level Agreement. Ordinance Survey Digital Map
Data can be obtained under licence from their Digital Sales Department
(01703-792773).
8.3
•  Movie Magic − This MPEG decompression card has been developed by Wild
Vision as part of the Online Media Set-Top Box project. The card gives
the facility for decompression very high quality video images (much
better than VHS cassette technology) from CD-ROM in real time. The
number of film titles currently available on CD-ROM format is currently
small and is limited to the obvious money-makers, but this should
increase. Movie Magic costs £249 +VAT from Computer Concepts or £285
through Archive.
8.3
•  Network Solutions is a new company that has been established to take
over Oak Solutions’ networking products and services. Network Solutions
will develop Oak’s ClassNet software and provide a support service for
Oak’s existing network customers. Network Solutions are at 2 The
Borough, Aldreth, Haddenham, Ely, Cambs CB6 3PJ. Phone or fax 01954-
212083.
8.3
•  News Bulletin from Newman College is a RISC OS compatible application
which allows you to produce electronic ‘magazines’ consisting of sets of
pages of text which can be displayed in sequence or called up as
required. News Bulletin costs £25 +VAT from Newman Software Ltd and this
includes full site and network licence i.e. it can be used anywhere on a
single school site.
8.3
•  Oxford Reading Tree − Stage 3 Talking Stories − Sherston Software
have extended their Oxford Reading Tree Stories to Stage 3. The pack
contains six new stories using the Talking Stories format successfully
used by Sherston in their Naughty Stories and Stage 2 Oxford Reading
Tree products. Stage 3 Talking Stories costs £39.95 +VAT for a single
user version or £45 through Archive.
8.3
•  PaperSoft is a new software house providing a range of templates for
pre-printed stationary. Each template has a predefined page with frames
set up for common business forms and documents. Templates are also
available for fun/personal documents. Each pack includes a set of pre-
printed papers and the templates in Impression or Artworks format.
Ovation and First Page/Pendown formats will follow. The business papers
pack costs £29.95 inc VAT. Fun and label packs are available at between
£5.95 and £14.95 from PaperSoft.
8.3
•  Playdays – Based on the popular BBC TV series, it includes 13
educational games, involving counting, spelling, reading, logic, memory,
coordination, and reasoning. It features the favourite characters from
the series and comes with a teachers/parents pack. The cost is £25.99
from Skillsware/Gamesware or £25 through Archive.
8.3
•  Picture Builder from Newman College is an art package for primary
children − from reception upwards. It allows them to create pictures
using shapes that can be coloured, stretched, rotated, reflected, etc.
The program is not RISC OS compatible, i.e. there is no exit to the
desktop. Picture Builder costs £20 +VAT from Newman Software Ltd and
this includes full site and network licence i.e. it can be used anywhere
on a single school site.
8.3
•  PIMS – Longman Logotron’s popular Primary Information Management
System is now available as a stand-alone package − previously it has
only been possible to purchase it with the required hardware. It is an
integrated package, running on a single Acorn Computer, to handle pupil
and staff records, budgeting and accounts, maintenance, insurance and
inventory. An Evaluation Pack is available, directly from Longman
Logotron, for £20 +VAT, which is redeemable against the full version.
The full version costs £399 +VAT and, if purchased before BETT ’95, will
include free maintenance until January 1996. Minimum requirements are
RISC OS 3, 4Mb, and a hard drive.
8.3
•  RiscBasic, the Basic compiler from Silicon Vision has been upgraded
to version 3.15. New features include the FPA instruction set, on-line
hints & tips and better optimisation all round. RiscBasic costs £79.95
+£3 p&p +VAT or £92 through Archive. Upgrades for existing users are
available from Silicon Vision.
8.3
•  RISC OS PRM Volume 5 − For Risc PC owners or others interested in the
inner workings of RISC OS 3.5, Acorn have now released the extra
information as a fifth volume of the PRMs. Volume 5 costs £29.95 or £30
through Archive including p&p.
8.3
•  SimCity 2000 – The follow up game to SimCity offers many more
features, and improved graphics. You now get a isometric 3D view rather
than a plan view and there are far more building types. As well as
electricity you have to keep water supplies connected and maintain
underground connections. In stead of just counting your votes, you also
receive reports from your officials and can even read the local papers.
Unlike the earlier game, you can no longer build a nuclear power plant
in 1930, but have to wait until 1957 and its ‘invention’, adding more to
the game. The Risc PC version is available now at £39.95 from Krisalis,
or £38 through Archive. The version for earlier machines costs £33
through Archive.
8.3
•  Simon the Sorcerer – This is a new (8Mb!) graphical adventure game
from Gamesware, (released last year on the PC platform), and it is
something that has been missing from the Acorn games market. Rather than
being an arcade adventure, this game uses a simple point and click
interface to explore rooms, pick up items and so on. There is a distinct
humour throughout the game − various nursery rhymes crop up in
unexpected, and subtly different ways, and talking with the other
characters is always entertaining. The price is £39.95 from Gamesware,
or £38 through Archive.
8.3
•  SmartCD+ – The SmartCD package has now been released by the ARM Club.
It interfaces with CDFS to offer full control over your Audio CDs. It
will remember the title and tracks on each CD, automatically detecting
which one is in the drive, and your preferred playlist. It can also
split tracks across a cassette for use in the car or personal stereo,
and will even generate the cassette inlays. The price is £10, fully
inclusive, from the ARM Club.
8.3
•  StarFighter 3000 from FedNet Software is an up-to-date “Chocks Away”
type program providing you with 108 missions to fly, weapons to buy and
credits to win. Starfighter 3000 costs £29.95 from Fednet Software or
£29 through Archive. (See the review on page 25.)
8.3
•  TalkWrite − This is described by its supplier, Resource, as “the
friendly wordprocessor”. It has been designed for ease of use and is
usable from reception class up to year 9 as well as for special needs
use. It is fully RISC OS compliant, has a toolbar, a 50,000 word
dictionary and a wordlist from which users can select words to put into
their text. As the name implies, it also has the ability to speak as you
type or speak letters, words or sentences. TalkWrite costs £59.95 +VAT
from Resource for a single user (£67 through Archive), £149.95 +VAT for
a primary licence and £240 +VAT for a secondary licence.
8.3
•  TV Tuner is a podule from Wild Vision/Computer Concepts allowing TV
signals to be received. With the use of a digitiser card, TV pictures
can be received and displayed on the desktop. The TV Tuner is available
with Teletext software which provides the ability to capture and store
the data displayed across several pages. The TV Tuner is £89 +VAT or
£159 +VAT with the Teletext software from Computer Concepts.
8.3
•  TypeTutor – This is a new typing tutor from the ARM Club, which
includes support for the Risc PC keyboard as well as the standard
Archimedes layout. Windows showing the keyboard, next key to press,
which fingers to use, and a scoreboard can each be optionally displayed
on screen. The manual includes elementary exercises, and exercise files
are also included. The price is £10, fully inclusive from the ARM Club.
8.3
•  Utility Discs – The ARM Club’s utility discs have been updated to
make them fully compatible with the Risc PC. Each disc costs £5, or if
you need an upgrade send back your original disc, without packaging or
manual together with 50p for postage. Desktop Utilities 1: Command
control for desktop use of command line utilities, and workspace for
four independent desktop areas, each with its own mode and palette.
Desktop Utilities 2: GraphTask for task windows with graphical support,
FreeMap for analysing the free space on a disc, WindOpen for
demonstrating desktop applications, and PrintCtrl for flexible printer
control. Graphical Utilities: Broadcast display images at Broadcast
resolution for a TV or CGA monitor, and interlaces on multiscan
monitors. CTEnhance provides better dithering and Mirror is an aid for
drawing symmetrical drawing. Finally, Programmers’ Utilities: CPU load
monitor, SWI statistics application, along with a collection of useful
modules and utilities.
8.3
•  Versatile is a 2D pattern generator allowing the construction of a
wide variety of patterns and tessellations based on mathematical
principles. Versatile costs £45 +VAT or £180 +VAT for a site licence
from Oak Solutions.
8.3
•  Voyage of Discovery − Sherston Software have produced a science
adventure program for 9 to 13 year-olds. The year is 2055 and the
mission is to deliver a package from earth to the captain of the
Spaceship Discovery within three days somewhere out in deep space. (Next
day delivery is only guaranteed this side of Jupiter apparently, so
three days is quite normal!) Children taking on the challenge will meet
various problems and puzzles in which they will have to deal with many
aspects of electricity and magnetism including magnets, compasses,
simple circuits, fuses, circuit diagrams, electromagnets and motors.
Voyage of Discovery is by Mark Vanstone, of ArcVenture fame and costs
£31.95 +VAT from Sherston Software or £36 through Archive.
8.3
•  VTX2000 Sound Card − VTI (previously known as Vertical Twist) have
launched a high quality sound card containing the Kurtzweil chip set as
used in Kurtzweil’s keyboard instruments. These chips provide 700 voices
providing a versatile sound module inside your Acorn. The card also
provides an Acorn compliant Midi interface and is General Midi
compatible. The Kurzweil chips are 32 voice polyphonic and include DSP
for effects and post-processing. The sound is 16-bit, 44.1kHz, and
output in high quality stereo. The card costs £399 +VAT from VTI.
8.3
•  WimpGEN − Silicon Vision’s application-authoring package has reached
version 2.06. The new version has a range of new features but the price
remains at £79.95 + £3 p&p +VAT from Silicon Vision or £93 through
Archive.
8.3
•  Wolfenstein 3D – This new game from Powerslave Software was the
forerunner of Doom/Doom II which have taken the PC games world by storm.
Fast texture-mapped graphics and lots of atmosphere as you explore a
Nazi castle, collecting enough firepower to start your own Guns ’r’ Us
by the end – be warned it is not a game for the squeamish! The price is
£29.95 from Powerslave or £29 through Archive.
8.3

•  World War II (disc 1 and disc 2) (ILP and Academy Television) − Disc
1 (Global Conflict) gives an overview of causes and significant events
of the War using archive film footage from the National Archives of
America, an index, glossary and hypertext links. Disc 2 (Sources and
Analysis) contains source material resources, archive photos, newsreel
and film footage personal diaries, pamphlets and case studies. RRP £130
+VAT each disc, Archive price £147 each disc.  A
8.4
•  10/10 Driving Test – Six games designed to make learning and revising
the essential facts of driving fun. You can choose which areas you wish
to work on, and progress at your own speed. You can also use the
questions from the games outside of the game environment if you just
want to test your knowledge. The price is £25.95, from Ten out of Ten,
or £24 from through Archive.
8.4
•  Acorn Desktop C and Assembler − The copies of Acorn’s C and Assembler
packages we had on special offer last month all went very quickly. Those
who were disappointed may be interested to know that Acorn have now
dropped the standard prices of these items. They are now: Desktop C
£149.95 inc VAT (or £138 through Archive) and Desktop Assembler £99.95
inc VAT (or £92 through Archive).
8.4
(As a special offer up to 31st December only, those who tried to get the
really cheap offer copies can order them at £120 and £80 respectively.
Ed.)
8.4
•  Acorn Risc PC PC486 Cards (almost!) − The latest news on the PC card
is that the first 500 will be built as evaluation cards in Q1 1995. The
first cards will be shipped to press, key dealers, educationalists and
customers starting in January. (Does Anyone know what defines a ‘key’
customer?) Acorn has committed to produce 10,000 cards and anticipates
any order backlog will be fulfilled by the end of Q1 1995. The cards
will use the TI 486 SXL chip running at 33MHz. (Watch out for the flags
flying over 96a Vauxhall Street! Ed.)
8.4
• APDL Clipart CD Number 1 − This contains nearly 500Mb of sprites,
Artworks files and drawfiles. Most is black and white clipart of
reasonable size to give clear printout for DTP purposes. These are
placed in directories divided by subject, and there are directories on
Animals, Cartoons, History, People, DTP (borders, corners, decorations,
etc), Places, Religion and Transport. There are also over 580 256-colour
sprites covering a variety of subjects. The CD also contains CC’s
Artworks Viewer and the Earthmap application. The price is £28 inclusive
(no VAT) from APDL or £28 including VAT from Archive.
8.4
Introductory special offer − £25 from APDL or Archive on orders received
up to 31st December 1994.
8.4
•  Archiboard IAP – The Supreme Software Systems’ BBS Software
Archiboard (which we use to run Archive BBS) now has Internet support.
The range of packages has been increased, starting from the entry level
version at £50, giving full BBS functionality. A network version which,
in addition, allows access to the BBS from another machine over an AUN
network is £89. These can be purchased with the Internet Access Package
(IAP) which includes a year’s access to the Internet via Demon Internet
Ltd. The Entry level version is £200, and the network version is £240.
Postage is £2 within the mainland UK, £5 elsewhere. Full details and
site licence details are available from Supreme Software Systems. (VAT
not applicable.)
8.4
•  Archive indexes? − Several readers have asked recently whether we
produce annual indexes to the Archive magazine. The answer is that we
used to do so but felt that, for the huge amount of work involved, they
were not really worthwhile, especially as there are electronic
alternatives.
8.4
I personally have to refer to old articles very frequently and find the
ArcScan database and the Archive words discs invaluable...
8.4
•  ArcScan Data − For many, many years Eric Ayers has faithfully
generated the ArcScan data month by month and this is available on
Archive Utilities Disc Nº 3 for £2. When there is space on the monthly
disc, we put on an update to this data. ArcScan itself costs £14 through
Archive.
8.4
•  Archive Words Discs − For those of you with 4Mb+ machines, the Words
Discs form an alternative and very effective way of searching for that
elusive reference that you are sure you have read somewhere in Archive.
Just load up the appropriate file into Edit and search for the relevant
word or words. Each disc is £2 and contains the words from four
magazines. (There is so much information that you can’t fit five
magazines on an 800Kb disc even though it is just the text and no
diagrams!) If you have a machine with a fair amount of memory, you can
join these text files together and search two or three volumes at a time
− which is very helpful, I find. (What would make my life complete would
be if someone would write a search routine that had two words as input
and looked for occurrences of one word appearing within x-number of
bytes of an occurrence of the other word. Any offers, anyone?)
8.4
•  Archive Utility Disc 8 – This is the RISC OS 3.1 Upgrade Disc. There
are new versions of !Alarm (2.61), !Calc (0.53), !ChangeFSI (0.95),
!Chars (1.17), !PrintEdit (0.38), !T1ToFont (1.26) and a couple of
utilities to select and deselect the 3D desktop. All applications now
check the 3D bit in CMOS ram and load the 3D templates if appropriate.
Previously, this was done via !NewLook. Unfortunately, they cannot be
installed into the Apps icon on the iconbar, but will need to be loaded
from disc. This disc is available from Archive for £2.
8.4
•  Bitfolio Clipart − LOOKsystems have two more packs each with 100
drawfile cartoons. The first “More Cartoons” is a general selection and
the second “Xmas Collection” is more specifically festive − holly,
reindeers, Santas, penguins, turkeys, TV, presents, booze, etc. These
cost £20 each from LOOKsystems or £20 through Archive.
8.4
(The Xmas Collection also contains a strange cartoon of a baby
surrounded by some men in fancy dress − has anyone got any idea what
that has got to do with Xmas? Ed.)
8.4
•  Chess II − David Pilling’s popular Chess program has been updated
with a choice of 2D or 3D boards, save game as sprite, drawfile or text,
rotate board, show hint, easy play-level setting, replay last move, show
history in continuously updated window, display possible moves for
pieces, improved game play, RISC OS printer driver support. Chess II is
£16 either from David Pilling or through Archive. Upgrade from Chess I
by sending old disc plus £10 to DP (not to NCS).
8.4
•  Clan Acorn ’94 − This is a club designed to bring the people who use
Acorn Computers together with those designing and making them. All
members will receive a membership card with a unique number offering
Clan members exclusive offers and information from Acorn.
8.4
The first offer will be the chance to take out an Acorn Visa credit
card. Then members will have the opportunity to obtain Acorn’s C++ and
the new developer toolkit at a special price. Third parties are also
working with Acorn to provide multiprocessor capabilities for Risc PC
computers and connectivity kits to allow users to access the Internet.
8.4
Members will also receive information about projects and technologies,
opportunities to acquire appropriate early releases and beta-releases,
discounts on current products and a chance for end users to give Acorn
input on new developments.
8.4
Life membership of the Clan is £15 which includes a promotional pack of
Acorn merchandise. To join Clan Acorn, contact Acorn Direct (Vector
Services) on 01933-279300 and ask for an application form to be sent to
you.
8.4
•  DrawWorks – a suite of five programs to increase the power of Acorn’s
standard Draw application. DrawExtra allows you to control the defaults
for Draw, increase the undo buffer size, and gives a new buttonbar with
features missing from the Draw toolbox, including Zoom, Save and Print.
DrawInfo gives details of the size, number of objects and so on of a
drawfile. DrawKern allows the kerning of font within drawfiles.
DrawMerge takes several objects and merges them to create a single path,
making interesting patterns, and some strange effects − some clipart is
included to demonstrate. DrawScrunch distorts draw files as if they had
been drawn on a “piece of scrunched up paper.” The price is £15
inclusive from iSV Products.
8.4
•  Eidoscope – The Eidos home video editing system is now available. To
use it, you will need a Risc PC (minimum 4Mb) fitted with an Eagle M2
card. Features include easy to use control panel; real time edits, mixes
and wipes; Full video/audio synchronisation; Imports sprite animations;
single frame export; 12.5 frames per second @ 160×120 pixels and 32,000
colours. Full screen playback is possible, and the files are fully
compatible with other Acorn packages. The package can be purchased for
£169 +VAT from Computer Concepts or £185 through Archive.
8.4
•  EMR products − Anyone wishing to get hold of any of EMR’s music
products should contact Le Computer in Chelmsford who will be handling
them in future.
8.4
•  Eureka 3 − Longman Logotron have released version three of their
spreadsheet package. Amongst the enhancements are: easy interchange with
Lotus and Excel, easy linking of spreadsheets with Impression, triple
toolbar, improved graphics support and background printing. Eureka 3
costs £99 +VAT or £110 through Archive. Site licences are available:
£240 +VAT for primary and £400 +VAT for secondary (£265 and £440 through
Archive). Upgrades are available through Longman Logotron: £29 +VAT for
single user and £99 +VAT for S/L.
8.4
•  Fonts − A new Acorn font company has been formed by Adrian Look of
LOOKsystems and Dave McCartney of The Datafile. The first two offerings
from The Font Company Ltd, as it is called, were Letraset Digital
Typefaces (29 typefaces for £35 inclusive), and URW Typeface Library (75
typefaces for £75 inclusive). These are highly professional font
conversions from well-established font companies, Letraset and URW.
These font packs are available through Archive for £34 and £72 inclusive
of p&p.
8.4
The very latest release is a huge range of Monotype Classic Fonts giving
you access to hundreds of top quality fonts at Acorn-level pricing −
rather less than PC or Mac users would have to pay! There are eight
packs of fonts, each with between 50 and 60 faces and each costing £60
inclusive from the Font Company or £58 through Archive. If you would
like a full listing of these eight Font Packs, so that you can select
the fonts you would like, give the Font Company a ring.
8.4
•  Heavy mouse balls – Weighing in at four times the weight of the
standard mouse ball, these fit neatly into the Acorn mouse, giving it a
more positive response. They are available from Oak Consultants for £3
including postage, packing and VAT.
8.4
(Message to Oak Consultants: Sorry but we have lost your address!
Anyway, that means you get two mentions in Archive because we’ll have to
put it in again next month and put your address in the Factfile. Ed.)
8.4
•  In Ancient Egypt Times – This is a range of materials in printed and
disc form for the study of Ancient Egypt. You will need a copy of
KeyNote or Key Plus data handling packages to use the disc information.
Topics include Gods and Pyramids, the Nile and Farming, Everyday Life,
and Modern Discovery. Text can be converted to Hieroglyphics, and the
text and graphics in the package can be exported for use in children’s
own projects. The price is £17 +£2.50p&p +VAT from Anglia Television.
8.4
•  iSV 100 outline fonts – A new pack of 100 RISC OS 3 format fonts, in
36 separate families has been launched by iSV Products. Both book and
display fonts are included in the pack and all fonts include the full
latin 1 character set, scaffold lines and automatic kerning data. The
price is £40 inclusive.
8.4
•  iSV Font Designers’ Toolkit 2.5 – This is made up of four
applications for designing fonts. Font Catalogue is used for creating
printed font catalogues, with on-screen WYSIWYG display of printed
results. FontKern allows you to edit the kerning information of RISC OS
3 fonts, and even convert RISC OS 2 fonts to RISC OS 3. FontTrix allows
the generation of font families from one master font. Oblique, Mirror
Semibold and many more weights can all be generated quickly, viewed, and
made available to other applications. Finally, iSVMetric allows editing
of a font’s metric data, to tighten character widths, for example. The
pack price (including a free copy of FontED, Acorn’s font editing
program) is £30 inclusive.
8.4
•  Ladakh – A geography information pack containing parallel datafiles
for families and life in the United Kingdom and Ladakh (Northern India).
Records of 200 children are provided, half from a Tibetan village, and
half from three schools in the UK. Accommodation, travel, eating habits,
pets and many other fields can be compared, and a print pack helps
teachers with ideas and worksheets. The price is £15 +£2.50p&p +VAT from
Anglia Television, and you will need a copy of KeyNote or Key Plus data
handling packages.
8.4
•  Laser printers − Computer Concepts are no longer able to supply any
direct drive laser printers because Canon have discontinued both the
LBP4 and the LBP8 and have not yet replaced either of them with anything
suitable. This leaves Acorn users with two alternatives...
8.4
− Calligraph direct drive lasers − If you want an A4 direct drive laser,
Calligraph do a 1200 dpi single bin Sharp printer at £999 +VAT (£1150
through Archive) and a dual bin version at £1149 +VAT (£1290 through
Archive). If you can afford to go to A3, they do a 1200 dpi Toshiba TQ-
1200 at £4995 +VAT or £5575 through Archive. These printers all do 8
pages/minute. Toner for the Sharp is £120 through Archive (estimated
15,000 pages), the drum kits are £135 through Archive (estimated 30,000
pages), and the toner and drum for the Toshiba are £85 (5,000 pages) and
£475 (20,000 pages) respectively through Archive.
8.4
− Standard laser printers − We have selected a couple of the best non-
direct-drive laser printers which can be driven from Acorn’s own printer
drivers or CC’s Turbo Drivers. The Panasonic KXP4410 is a 5 ppm, 300
dpi, 0.5Mb laser of proven pedigree which costs £570 (or £620 with a
Turbo Driver) through Archive and the Epson EPL5600 is the latest 6 ppm,
600 dpi laser which has 2Mb RAM as standard and yet only costs £820 (or
£870 with a Turbo Driver) through Archive. In between these two is the
Epson EPL5200 which is a 6 ppm, 300 dpi laser with 0.5Mb RAM
(expandable) and costs £650 (or £700 with a Turbo Driver) through
Archive. All three of these laser printers come with a 12-month on-site
warranty.
8.4
•  MacFS Light − Computer Concepts are now offering a floppy-only
version of MacFS at £49 +VAT (£55 through Archive). If you want to read
and write SCSI devices such as removable hard drives then you will need
the full version at £108 through Archive. MacFS Light needs an Acorn
machine with high density floppy drive (i.e. A5000 or later) and RISC OS
3.1 or later. (The price now compares favourably with AppleFS from
Oregan, which is also floppy-only, at £58 through Archive.)
8.4
•  PipeEd for PipeDream – A new teaching pack designed to help teach
first time users of PipeDream. The pack includes two sets of A4 cards –
teacher and student sets, written as a series of nine lessons, each
around ninety minutes, to introduce the ways in which PipeDream can be
used. The teaching notes are detailed, giving topics for discussion, and
describing the tasks to be completed. The Student pack briefly outlines
each of the tasks, and includes a disc containing all the tasks for the
lessons. It can also be used at home or in the office − it is not
limited to education. The packs are available for £25, extra teacher
packs may be purchased at £10, and student packs at £15.
8.4
•  Pocket Book II Programmer’s Guide − (No, don’t get too excited, it’s
not available yet − that was just to get you to read this paragraph!)
Until the proper PB II Programmer’s Guide is available, the best you can
do is to get a copy of the Psion 3a Programmer’s Guide which is
available by sending a cheque for £6 (made out to Psion UK Ltd, I
presume) to Customer Services, Psion UK Ltd, 85 Frampton Street, NW8 8NQ
or ring them on 0171-262-5580.
8.4
•  PrimeMover − Minerva’s new release is claimed to be “the first real-
time animation program for the Acorn platform”. It allows you to create
animation from sprites and, once the animation is created, it can easily
be changed by simply clicking and dragging with the mouse. It allows you
to trim and/or mask your sprites and to reverse them horizontally or
vertically. PrimeMover costs £69.95 inc VAT from Minerva or £66
inclusive through Archive and will run in 1Mb but 2Mb is recommended.
8.4
•  ProArtisan 24 − Clares have launched their 24-bit art package,
ProArtisan 24. It costs £169.95 inc VAT (or £155 through Archive) and
there is an upgrade through Clares of £49.95 from PA2 or from “ANY other
art package” for £85 inc VAT. Site licences are available at £499 +VAT
for primary and £699 +VAT for secondary.
8.4
•  Risc Disc CD – This is a new CD-ROM aimed at Risc PC owners. Contents
include utilities (programming, DTP, disc, desktop), Replay movies,
Photo CD images, JPEG images, Artworks files, drawfiles, PC animation
players (AVI, FLI and MPEG), MPEG movies, as well as demonstration
software from many Acorn software houses. The price is £19.95 from
Uniqueway Ltd, or £19 through Archive.
8.4
•  Rosie & Jim Talking Activity Packs − For young infants who are fans
of TV’s Rosie & Jim programme, Sherston Software have produced the first
two of their talking activity packs: “Duck loses his Quack” and “Jim
gets the Sneezes”. These allow early or non-readers to enjoy the company
of Jim & Rosie and all their friends. Click on the pictures and words
and hear the digitally-recorded voices of Rosie and Jim speak from the
computer. Each pack costs £10 +VAT from Sherston or £12 including p&p
through Archive.
8.4
•  Scrabble for the Archimedes/Risc PC − My favourite game is here at
last! US Gold have finally released Scrabble for Acorn computers and,
not surprisingly, it’s excellent. You can play against each other or
against the computer − or get the computer to play against itself,
although it’s so fast you could do with an ‘action replay’ facility. You
can set the level of vocabulary and ingenuity that the computer uses
when it is playing against you, so you can use it to build up your own
level of skill. In the practice mode, every time you play, if it thinks
it could have done better, it suggest dozens of alternatives that you
could have played and shows you how many more points you could have got
(but doesn’t allow you to go back and have your go again. Drat! The
manual (which I have had to photo-enlarge from A5 to A4 because the type
is so small) lists all the permissible two letter words (105 in all) and
the gameplay uses them all to very high-scoring effect, sometimes. The
trouble is that when you then play “real” Scrabble with your friends and
relations at Christmas, you won’t be too popular. You score 22 points
with “AYE” as in the illustration and they will challenge it. They won’t
be too impressed when you say that “NA” is the Scottish way of saying
“no” and that “AY” means “always” or, for that matter that “OO” is wool
(Scots), “DA” is a heavy Burmese knife and “AI” is a three-toed sloth!
They will probably refuse to play with you any more − still, at least
you’ll be able to play against the computer!
8.4
Scrabble costs £27.99 + p&p from US Gold or £27 through Archive.
8.4
•  SCSI II interfaces − The Cumana SCSI II interfaces are now available
at £199 +£7.50 carriage +VAT from Cumana or £235 inclusive through
Archive. A cable for connection to external drives is available through
Archive for £27. This has the new SCSI II connector on one end and an
Amphenol (Centronics) on the other end. For connection to internal
drives, a standard IDC cable is all that is needed.
8.4
•  Shoemaker-Levy CD-ROM – This is the Network Cybernetics Corporation’s
CD-ROM title SL9: Impact ’94. It contains hundreds of images, movie
sequences and technical information related to the July 1994 collision
of the periodic comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, and the planet Jupiter. Stills
are stored as JPEG, GIF and TIFF, video sequences as MPEG and FLI/FLC.
The technical information is stored as ASCII or PostScript.
Unfortunately, the viewer applications are all for PCs or Macs, but with
ChangeFSI and Edit, the stills and texts are accessible on RISC OS
machines, and there are PD MPEG and FLI/FLC players available. The price
is £25 including postage from Lambda Publications.
8.4
•  TextEase – This is a new presentation package for letters, posters,
notices and so on. Features include a button bar for the frequently used
functions, and dynamic text. The prices is £25 from Ivoryash limited,
and a demo disc is available for £2.
8.4
•  UK Schools Internet Primer − Koeksuster Publications have produced a
book to provide information, mainly aimed at schools, on how to use
Internet and what facilities are available through Internet. This costs
£9.95 + p&p from Koeksuster or £9 inc p&p through Archive. For more
details, see the review on page 24.
8.4

•  AI CD-ROM − Release 3 of this CD (reviewed in Archive 7.5 p42) is now
available from Lambda Publications. They offer an upgrade to existing
users who return the release 2 disc and so they now have a small number
of these release 2 discs available for £25 inclusive.
8.5
•  Basic AOF − This application from Oregan Developments allows the
built-in Basic assembler to export assembled code in a format suitable
for linking with object files from the Acorn C compiler, and anything
else supporting AOF. This costs £39.95 inclusive from Oregan or £38
through Archive.
8.5
•  Cannon Fodder − New from Krisalis Software, this is a conversion from
the Amiga game by Sensible Software. You control a group of infantry
running around various second world war battlefields shooting the enemy,
destroying supply depots and so on. The game has an ELSPA rating of 15+,
and so is not suitable for young children. The price is £25.99 or £24
through Archive.
8.5
•  CD Server from Digital Services allows CD-ROM drives to be shared
across a network − each client appears to have its own drive connected.
By cacheing data in memory, and on the host machines hard disc, high
performance is achieved allowing multiple replay or MPEG sessions on the
same network. IBM CDs are accessible as well as Acorn Format, even
through the PC Emulator or a PC Card. The software is licensed by
network, not station, but you will need to check that you are not
breaking copyright on the CDs that you are sharing. The software is
available for £199 +VAT, with 32-bit SCSI card and internal double speed
CD-ROM drive for £599 +VAT. If you need an external CD-ROM drive, the
price will be £699+VAT.
8.5
•  Complete Animator − A new animation package from Iota Software aimed
at all levels of experience, supplied with a 30 minute tutorial video as
well. The many features include, sound, text, stamps, ghosting,
rotoscoping, editing, backgrounds and flipbook printing are all built
in. The cost is £99 + £3 p&p, inc VAT from Iota software or £98 through
Archive.
8.5
•  Dune II − The Battle for Arrakis has speech, artificial intelligence,
9Mb of compressed graphics, 30 battle zones and over 20Mb of source
material compressed onto 7 floppies. It runs on RISC OS 2/3, is hard
drive installable and needs 2Mb RAM. Dune II costs £34.99 from Eclipse
or £33 through Archive.
8.5
•  Floopy − This is a 40-screen game from Soft Rock Software costing,
currently, £3.49, in which you must collect either ice creams, apples or
workmen’s helmets whilst avoiding various creatures. (A new version is
planned which will make it Risc PC-compatible.)
8.5
•  Formulix − Unfortunately, we got the price wrong for CC’s Formulix
package. What we gave you was the upgrade price from Equasor, i.e. £49
+VAT (only through CC). The full price is £69 +VAT from CC or £76
inclusive through Archive. (For those who bought Formulix from us at
£55, we wouldn’t ask for an extra payment as it was our own mistake but
perhaps you might feel moved to make a donation to your favourite
charity?)
8.5
•  Image Factory − This Australian Company has produced a wide range of
clipart in Artworks or Draw formats. Current collections are meadow
(bee, crow, frog, ladybird, lily, mouse, rabbit and sitting rabbit, the
Artworks version also includes the fox); Flight (Wright Brothers
“Flyer”, Sopwith Camel, Supermarine Spitfire, BAC VC10, Hawker Harrier,
Westland Lynx, Concord, Shuttle Columbia); Big Cats (Black Panther,
Cheetah, Leopard, Lion, Ocelot, Tiger); The Art of Walter Briggs
(Dolphin, Falcon, Leopard, Beetle, Train, Cyborg, Linford Christie).
They are available in the UK from Pineapple Software in Artworks format
£10 each, £11 for The Art of Walter Briggs, Flight and Meadow are also
available in draw format for £15 each. (All prices are inc VAT.)
8.5
•  Landmarks Microworlds: The War Years − Set in the small village of
Westerleigh, this educational package allows pupils to visit the village
at various times between 1938 and 1945. Building interiors and objects
can be examined and the inhabitants can be asked simple questions, so
pupils can experience life as it was lived then. As well as the
software, the package also includes a set of resources for use in the
classroom. The price is £25.50 +VAT for single user, or £75.00 + VAT for
a site licence from Longman Logotron.
8.5
•  Landmarks PinPoint Datafile: Looking at the World − Data sheets for
195 countries covering population and environmental information are
included in this data file. Birth rates and life expectancy statistics,
land area, average rainfall, temperature, daylight hours and other
climatic details are available. They are available from Longman Logotron
for £14 + VAT for single user, or £36 +VAT for a site licence, but note
that a copy of either PinPoint, or Junior Pinpoint is needed to use the
files.
8.5
•  MathsGen − Creative Curriculum Software have released an entry-level
program for generating maths worksheets. Ideal for parents and teachers
wishing to give children maths practice. Any number of worksheets and
answer sheets can be designed, covering addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division. Full presentation control is given, no
typing or computation is needed. The price is £12.95 + VAT, orders
placed at BETT ’95 or before the end of January 1995 will qualify for
the special launch price of £9.95 +VAT.
8.5
•  Maths Odyssey − A mathematical adventure set in ancient Greece. The
game involves finding mathematicians who will ask you mathematical
questions, giving you tokens if you are successful. If you complete the
adventure, you will be admitted to the brotherhood of mathematicians.
The cost is £42 +VAT from Computer Tutorial Services Ltd.
8.5
•  MultiGen − The high band Genlock adaptor from Sonamara Computer Video
has dropped in price to £399.95 including VAT. It supports resolutions
of up to 640×480 in up to 256,000 colours, with simultaneous RGB, S-
video and composite video outputs and S-video and composite video
inputs. Features of the external unit include under/overscan options,
freeze frame, fade, computer to video, genlock, overlay, mix and it
supports both PAL and NTSC. All leads are included for connections
between the unit, the computer, monitor and video. Until Easter ’95, the
MultiGen/Titler bundle will still be available at £428.87 inc. VAT from
Sonamara.
8.5
•  Musketeer Pack − A complete desktop solution, the Musketeer Pack
contains the full versions of the Schema 2 spreadsheet, Impression Style
WP/DTP package and the DataPower database package, all for £249 +VAT
from Iota Software, or £199 +VAT as an upgrade from Acorn Advance.
8.5
•  Nucleus − A high performance fileserver from Digital Services. Rather
than running over ADFS, the server has its own filing system which
provides better facilities for fileservers, allowing larger hard discs
(up to 16Gb) larger directories and larger files, as well as improved
space accounting. Additional file attributes allow files to have the
execute-only bit set so that applications can be run, but not copied,
deleted or moved. Shared writable areas are also possible so a file or
directory can be made available to any other group of users.
Workgrouping allows clients to establish shared areas without the need
for system manager interaction. Cacheing increases the speed (up to 6
times faster than Level 4), and the multi-threaded design means
simultaneous requests are handled quickly. Users details can be updated
individually or in batch mode to change space allocations, privileges
etc. Prices start from £199 + VAT for a 10 station licence from Digital
Services.
8.5
•  Otteryl − This is Cherisha’s Software’s statistics-based program for
the National Lottery. They offer “no guarantee that your success rate...
...will be increased” but they claim that it will lessen the likelihood
of picking numbers that are rarely or frequently chosen and avoid those
common patterns that hundreds of other people may also have chosen thus
lowering your winnings, should you win. Otteryl costs £3 inclusive from
Cherisha Software.
8.5
•  Pineapple Software − The Canon IX4015 24-bit scanner is now also
available from Pineapple Software. It comes complete with David
Pilling’s Twain and Imagemaster package. Support for the scanner will
also be built into Pineapple’s retouching software Studio 24. The pack
is £599 + VAT, or you can include Studio 24 for an additional £80 +VAT.
(You will require a SCSI card to use the scanner.)
8.5
•  Reptile − This is an application from Kudlian Soft, aimed at
education, that allows the user to create and manipulate tiles based on
either square, triangle or hexagon, using draw-objects to give high
quality printouts. It costs £30 +VAT from Kudlian Soft (including a
primary school site licence) or £60 +VAT for a secondary school licence.
(£33 and £66 through Archive.)
8.5
•  Revolution Quad Speed − a new version of the Morley Revolution Pro
Caddy CD-ROM systems has been released, with a quad speed drive
mechanism (around 600Kb/s), for connection to a SCSI card. The internal
Risc PC version is £349 +VAT +carriage, (£405 inclusive through Archive)
and the external version is £399 +VAT +carriage (£470 through Archive).
8.5
At the same time, they have reduced the price of the Revolution dual
speed drives to £189 +VAT + carriage. (£230 inclusive through Archive.)
8.5
•  Sleuth 2 OCR − a professional version of Sleuth OCR with improved
accuracy (over 99% with good quality images) and support for more
typefaces − normal, bold, italic and bold italic weights of virtually
all popular typefaces are supported. The converted text can be exported
as ASCII or Rich Text Format. Multi-column text and graphics are
handled, by converting the text in a sensible order and ignoring
graphics. Alternatively, the order of zones can be set manually. ‘Guided
editing’ highlights the likely mistakes in the converted text. The
images can be scanned directly from a Twain scanner. Upgrades from the
original version are available for £49 +VAT through Beebug, and the full
package is available for £99 +VAT (£110 through Archive). The original
version is still available for £59 +VAT (£65 through Archive). (The
pricing in the review last month was completely wrong. Sorry!)
8.5
•  Soft Rock Software − Currently, there are two special offers of Soft
Rock Software packages. Offer one contains the five budget games Escape
from Exeria, Guardians of the Lanyrinth, Drop Rock, Switch and Floopy
along with Trellis (the Adventure Interpreter) in a bundle for £19.99, a
saving of over £5. Offer two is for Risc PC owners and comprises the
above package squashed onto two discs, for £13.99. These offers are only
available directly from Soft Rock Software.
8.5
Review software received...
8.5
We have received review copies of the following: •BasicAOF (u), •Floopy
(g), •MouseTrap (u), •Otteryl (u/g?), •RepTile (e).
8.5
•  PaperOut enables EBs to be used on Acorn (RISC OS) compatible
computers. The package offers all the facilities that would normally be
available if the disc was used on a Discman, plus the exporting of text
and graphics to other applications such as word processors. RRP £49.95
+VAT, Archive price £57.
8.5
•  Adaptor ring for using EBs with a CD caddy. RRP £2.99 +VAT, Archive
price £4.
8.5
•  Concise Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus − Comprehensive guide to the
English language: most authoritative English dictionary combined with a
complete and systematic thesaurus, offering instant access with over
150,000 electronic cross-references. RRP £29.99 +VAT, Archive price £34.
8.5
•  Hutchinson Guide to the World − Contains over 5,500 entries and over
500 maps, providing geographic, economic and up-to-date political
information on places all over the world, accompanied by entertaining
and informative quotations about places from famous explorers, poets,
writers and scientists. RRP £29.99 +VAT, Archive price £34.
8.5
•  Chambers Science and Technology Library − Over 13,000 electronic
cross-references to three other Chambers reference books. 45,000
definitions and 650 articles. RRP £29.99 +VAT, Archive price £34.
8.5
•  The Earth Guide: An Environmental Handbook − Drawing on the database
of the World Resources Institute, this disc gives environmental
information from countries around the world, together with contacts for
organisations and guidance for ‘green’ business. RRP £29.99 +VAT,
Archive price £34. When purchased with PaperOut, RRP is £74.95 +VAT,
Archive price £86.
8.5
•  Listen and Read (Pocket Information) − simplified stories, to help
children learn to read. RRP for each volume £39.99 +VAT, Archive price
£45.
8.5
Volume 1 − John Wyndham, Jane Austen, Kipling and others
8.5
Volume 2 − John Buchan, Arthur Conan Doyle and Charlotte Bronte
8.5
Volume 3 − Bram Stoker, Jack London, Thomas Hardy
8.5
Volume 4 − John Wyndham and Jane Austen
8.5
Volume 5 − Charles Dickens and Raymond Chandler
8.5
•  Collins Gem Electronic Food File (Collins/SEPC) − from five Collins
Gem guides, it contains calorific and nutritional information on
thousands of foods, an encyclopaedic listing of natural and artificial
food additives, plus guides to freezing and microwaving food. RRP £29.99
+VAT, Archive price £34.
8.5
•  CIA World Fact Book (Quanta Press) − produced each year by the
Central Intelligence Agency, this world almanac contains detailed
social, economic, geographic and political units worldwide. RRP £29.99
+VAT, Archive price £34.
8.5
•  Hutchinson Gallup Info (Helicon) − With over 700,000 words, hundreds
of illustrations, charts and tables, this is a comprehensive collections
of facts in over forty topics in the following sections: technology,
business, arts, fashion, sport, famous people. RRP £29.99 +VAT, Archive
price £34.
8.5
CD-ROM Titles
8.5
Some CD-ROMs may require a site licence for use on a network for which
you may be charged extra.
8.5
•  19th Century Biographies (Anglia Television) − Over 250 biographies
of scientists, politicians, writers, artists and a few less reputable
characters from the 19th Century. Includes photographs from the world-
renowned Hulton Deutsch Collection. Requires KeyNote 2.0 software. RRP
£25 +VAT, Archive price £28.
8.5
•  Acorn Replay Videoclip: Collection One (Acorn Computers) − A
collection of Acorn Replay movies and seven classical audio sequences.
Contains an interactive introduction to RISC OS 3 and demonstrations of
other RISC OS software. RRP £10 +VAT, Archive price £11.
8.5
•  Art in the National Curriculum − KS 1 & 2 (AVP) − Reference
collection providing resources relating to topics and artists in the
National Curriculum. Particularly concentrates on images which are not
readily available in school or home environment. Topics include:
traditional costumes, animals and plants in different time and culture,
the human face painted by artists through the ages. RRP £75 +VAT,
Archive price £86.
8.5
•  ArtWorks CD (Computer Concepts) − Contains the ArtWorks software plus
all the clipart from the Clipart CD and all the ArtWorks fonts. RRP £169
+VAT, Archive price £180.
8.5
•  ArtWorks ClipArt CDs 1 & 2 (Computer Concepts) − Each ClipArt CD
(No.1 for 1993 and No.2 for 1994) contains an ArtWorks file viewer and
at least 650 ArtWorks example pictures and high quality 24bpp
photographs. ClipArt No.2 includes over 100 photos, taken by
professionals, of subjects such as abstract images, scenery, etc. RRP
£19 +VAT each, Archive price £21 each.
8.5
•  Aspects of Religion (Interactive Learning Productions) − Considers
the beliefs, forms of worship, scriptures, artefacts, festivals, people,
religious communities and places of worship of each religion. Section 1:
Contemporary Issues − core religious beliefs and ethics are described
and explained in the context of modern living and pressing global
events. Designed to encourage debate. Section 2: Personal View − brings
to life beliefs and practices of the world’s faith through a series of
interviews. A resource for Religious Education GCSE and A Level, General
Studies and Modern Studies. RRP £130 +VAT, Archive price £149.
8.5
•  Bitfolio 6 (Management Graphics Ltd) − 2,000 images in 25 categories
providing support for specific UK-related subject areas. Full colour
images are drawn rather than scanned so they can be ungrouped and edited
easily, and enlarged or reduced without pixelation. Clipart categories
include Anatomy, Borders and Backgrounds, Communications, Defence,
Education, Food and Drink, Maps and Flags of the World, Nature and
Transport. RRP £49.95 +VAT, Archive price £56.
8.5
•  British Birds (ILP and British Library) − Produced in association
with RSPB and British Library, contains hundreds of full colour images
of British birds. Includes motion video (Acorn Replay), bird calls and
songs, hypertext, a map facility for analysis of geographical factors, a
quiz to test your knowledge and materials relating to the National
Curriculum. RRP £150 +VAT, Archive price £173.
8.5
•  Cars − Maths in Motion (Cambridgeshire Software House) − Cross-
curricular simulations which can be used at Key Stages 2, 3 and 4.
Subjects covered include language, science, geography, design,
technology, maths, art and life skills. The program is accompanied by
resource files which include worksheets, crossword puzzles, word
searches, anagrams, track plans and teacher support material. There are
several features on the disc, one of which allows you to design and race
around a Grand Prix circuit. RRP £49.95 +VAT, Archive price £56.
8.5
•  Castles (Anglia Television) − Resource for history curriculum on both
primary and secondary education. Focusing mainly on medieval castles all
over Britain plus vector graphics, video clips and animations. This disc
is self-contained and does not require any Key product. 4Mb RAM
required. When used with the Key Plus database system (see entry below)
extra map facilities are accessible. RRP £40 +VAT, Archive price £45.
8.5
•  CD Français (ILP) − Self-contained resource of 60 activities using
spoken French, selected from Tricolore 4A and 4B. Disc is accompanied by
teacher’s notes and photocopiable worksheets. RRP £95 +VAT, Archive
price £109.
8.5
•  Changing Times (News Multimedia International) − 15,000 articles and
1,000 pictures taken from the Times newspaper over its 200 year history.
Original reports on major events in world history include the French
Revolution, American Civil War and World Wars 1 and 2. More general
themes such as Trade and Industry, Technology and Women’s Rights are
also covered. RRP £125 +VAT, Archive price £143.
8.5
•  Chemistry Set (New Media) − Interactive library and encyclopedia of
chemical experiments, molecular structures and information. Focuses on
KS 3 and 4 of New Attainment Target 3 and the bio-molecular aspects of
the NAT2. Access to over 350 video sequences of key chemical experiments
and processes; database of 500 compounds; over 400 full motion 3-D
molecular structure; 1,000 text items. RRP £149.95 +VAT, Archive price
£173.
8.5
•  Counties of the British Isles (Anglia TV) − Allows students to create
detailed maps, supplied by Bartholemew, of the counties and regions of
Britain. The level of detail shown on each map can be controlled by
students as individual features can be switched on or off. The results
of students’s work can be exported into their own work area on the
computers. Requires KeyNote 2.0 or some other Key product. RRP £40 +VAT,
Archive price £45.
8.5
•  Countries of the World (Anglia TV) − 74 interactive maps in Key Plus
map format which enables students to use the latest type of vector
mapping. Each map comes with a range of material and a legend which
allows map features to be turned on or off, e.g. road contours and
national boundaries. Maps can be printed out. Also contains a sample
file of over 70 photographs from all over the world. The information can
also be used in conjunction with Key Plus and Key Note datafiles.
Requires KeyNote 2.0 software or some other Key product. RRP £40 +VAT,
Archive price £45.
8.5
•  Creepy Crawlies (Media Design Interactive) − Spiders, beetles and
bugs can be studied using text, narrative, still photos and moving
images. Family trees and guided tours are also featured. Not Risc PC
compatible. RRP £49 +VAT, Archive price £56.
8.5
•  Dictionary of the Living World (MDI) − Database of life on Earth
containing around 3,000 text articles supplemented with over 1,000
colour and black and white pictures and 100 animal sounds animations
which illustrate various biological processes. Not Risc PC compatible.
RRP £49 inc VAT, Archive price £47.
8.5
•  Directions 2000: French (ILP and Academy Television) − Aimed at 11+
age group and includes more than 2 hours of spoken language supported by
thousands of coloured images and graphics. Curriculum notes and
worksheets are included to aid lesson preparation. For use at Language
Key Stages 3 and 4. RRP £140 +VAT, Archive £160.
8.5
•  ECCTIS (subscription) (ECCTIS 2000) − Information on about 100,000
education and training courses at universities and colleges of further
and higher education in the UK. Users answer a set of questions to
identify the type of course required and the database then displays
details of those courses which match the specifications. All necessary
details about each course are given, including entry requirements,
course structure and contact plus address and telephone number of the
establishment offering the course. RRP £180 +VAT, Archive price £207.
8.5
•  En Marcha: Spanish (ILP and Academy Television) − Details as for
Directions 2000: French (see above). For use at Language Key Stages 3
and 4. RRP £140 +VAT, Archive price £160.
8.5
•  En Route: French (ILP and Academy TV) − Designed to complement the
highly successful multimedia course Route Nationale, En Route, but can
be used alongside any beginners’ French material. Authentic materials
and wide choice of activities. Ten chapters, concentrating on topics
such as pets, food and mealtimes, town and directions, time, transport,
weather and holidays. Integrated assessment which includes video and
audio. RRP £140 +VAT, Archive price £160.
8.5
•  Environment Series 1: Water (ILP and Academy Television) − A highly
interactive CD-ROM guide to all aspects concerning the environment and
water. Includes 17 detailed case studies, 1,000 images with maps, audio,
text and extensive film footage supplied by Yorkshire TV. Students can
investigate water usage and its implications throughout history and look
at case studies of environmental issues such as dolphins, fishing and
Thames Barrier. RRP £130 +VAT, Archive price £149.
8.5
•  Environment Series 2: Land and Air (ILP and Academy Television) − In-
depth analysis of global environmental issues using information drawn
from experts in industry and government, and covering topics such as
natural disasters, climate change, air quality, food or famine,
depletion of natural resources, conservation, etc. RRP £130 +VAT,
Archive price £149.
8.5
•  Flying Boot CD-ROM: Max and the Machines (ILP) − Max and the Machines
is the first of a series based on Nelson’s Flying Boot reading scheme.
Supports early reading skills and provides an excellent introduction to
the IT skills necessary to use interactive media. Can be used
individually or with groups/whole class. For the primary age range. RRP
£70 +VAT, Archive price £80.
8.5
•  Frontier 2000 (Cambridgeshire Software House) − A computer-based
simulation covering the history of the Border region from 43AD to 1991.
Specific areas of study include Hadrian’s Wall, map reading, and the
Civil War. The disc contains text, maps, photographs, audio and Replay
sequences and is supported by a resource pack that includes a video, an
audio cassette, colour brochures, curriculum guide material and even a
genuine piece of Roman timber! CD version has many extras over the disc-
based software − timeline is 35,000 words long, several Replay files and
over 100 historic photographs, etc. RRP for CD, manual and resource pack
£109.95 +VAT, Archive price £126. RRP for CD and manual only £79.95
+VAT, Archive price £92.
8.5
•  Garden Wildlife (Anglia Television) − Resource for Primary science
education. Focusing on familiar creatures and locations, it makes the
link between the school field, garden local park and understanding the
creatures that live there, with close-up photography and video clips
from Anglia’s ‘Survival’ cameras. This disc is self-contained and does
not require any Key product. 4Mb RAM required. RRP £40 +VAT, Archive
price £45.
8.5
•  Goldilocks (Leeds EdIT Centre) − Bright and cheerful version of the
well-known children’s story and includes tasks and interactive
activities. Accompanied by graphics, text, sound and worksheets. RRP
£39.95 +VAT, Archive price £45.
8.5
•  Granny’s Garden (Cumana) − Produced by 4Mation, this old favourite is
now offered with Acorn Replay and all the magic of modern technology:
enhanced audio, animations and graphics. Interactive adventure for
children of varying ages. RRP £29.95 +VAT, Archive price £34. Resource
Pack RRP £15 +VAT, Archive price £16.
8.5
•  Horizon Project (Hampshire Microtechnology Centre) − These resources
are a result of a project involving over forty Hampshire schools and
colleges who examined the use of multimedia for sharing and presenting
information. Their findings were used to present their work to other
students and cover a range of topics, including “IT in the High Street”,
“Rainforests” and “Hitler”. The disc represents an example of children
being able to learn from other children and their experiences. RRP
£19.95 +VAT, Archive price £22.
8.5
•  Hutchinson Multimedia Encyclopedia 1992 (Attica Cybernetics) −
Updated multimedia version of the book, containing sound, pictures and
text. 27,000 text articles, 2,500 photos, illustrations and maps; over
8,000 hyperlinks and over 250 sound recordings. Users can browse through
the contents or select a particular subject from the index. A simpler
way of accessing a topic is to enter a keyword and the retrieval
software will do the search for you. RRP £49.95 +VAT, Archive price £56.
8.5
•  Illustrated Holy Bible (Animated Pixels) − Complete text of the King
James Bible together with over 100 illustrations. Facilities include
full word search, picture slide-show and bookmark options. RRP £23 +VAT,
Archive price £26.
8.5
•  Illustrated Works of Shakespeare (Animated Pixels) − All of
Shakespeare’s plays, poems and sonnets. Instant searches can be made on
the entire text using simple search facilities. Features include
illustrations for major scenes and a bookmark facility. RRP £23 +VAT,
Archive price £26.
8.5
•  Image Warehouse (Media Design Interactive) − Clipart disc of over 350
high-quality images, saved as RISC OS sprites. They are compatible with
most DTP packages. Not Risc PC compatible. RRP £39.99 inc VAT, Archive
price £38.
8.5
•  Introduction to the Environment (ILP) − Three packages introducing
specific environmental issues. Each is supported by a 28-page
photocopiable booklet that include practical activities, ideas for
project work and assessment sheets. RRP £35 +VAT each, Archive price £40
each:
8.5
Pack 1: Dwindling Resources − How key natural resources of water,
forests, oil and coal have been used over the last 200 years and the
effect this has had on the environment.
8.5
Pack 2: Climate Change − Explore the facts and theories of global
warming and climatic change.
8.5
Pack 3: Conservation − Case studies of world famous national parks, used
to illustrate the benefits and difficulties of conserving wilderness,
wild areas and threatened species.
8.5
•  Inventors and Inventions (ILP and Academy Television) − 2,000 still
and moving images helping you explore the history of inventors and
inventions from the earliest time to the present day. Includes colour
and mono images, animated drawings, audio commentary, video and sound
effect for pupils studying history, science and technology. RRP £150
+VAT, Archive price £173.
8.5
•  Journeys into History (ILP and Academy Television) − Covers a variety
of topics included in Key Stages 2 and 3 of National Curriculum
(History). Pupils explore Hadrian’s Wall, hear about St Cuthbert’s life,
meet a Victorian family and investigate aspects of the Industrial
Revolution. Features include notepad, interactive glossary, search save
and print facilities, ideas section. RRP £99.99 +VAT, Archive price
£114.
8.5
•  Karaoke Shakespeare (Animated Pixels) − Choose a role from the play
and whilst you read the lines from the screen, the other parts will be
read for you. It can be used by a single person reading one part or by a
number of people taking on each of the roles. RRP Macbeth and A
Midsummer Night’s Dream: £49 +VAT each, Archive price £56 each.
8.5
•  Key Plus (Anglia Television) − Software required for use of some of
Anglia TV’s CD-ROM titles. RRP £60 +VAT, Archive price £68.
8.5
•  Kingfisher Children’s Micropedia (ESM) − Reference resource for
primary-aged children. 1,300 entries which can be accessed via an A-Z
finder or through topic groupings. All pictures and data can be printed
out and the disc is accompanied by curriculum activity ideas. RRP £90
+VAT, Archive price £102.
8.5
•  Langdale Primary (Creative Curriculum Software) − A study of the
Langdale Valley area of the Lake District using OS maps, diagrams,
aerial and ground photographs, statistics, charts and sound. Not only
can users tread the paths and see the views, but they can also see
behind the scenes using the resources and applications provided. RRP £99
+VAT, Archive price £114.
8.5
•  Living Poetry (Animated Pixels) − Text of over 1,500 poems by 200
different poets, including Hardy, Keats, Milton and Wordsworth. 99 of
the poems are accompanied by versions read by actors. Illustrations of
the poems plus biographies of the poets are also included. RRP £49 +VAT,
Archive price £56.
8.5
•  Map Skills (Pebbleshore Information Services) − Complete pack to
support the teaching of the main elements of the Map Skills part of
National Curriculum Geography, Key Stages 1-3 and parts of the short
course in geography at Key Stage 4. Topics include grid references and
following a route on an OS map. As well as the disc, the package
includes two OS maps (Plymouth and Telford), students’s worksheet and
teachers’ notes. RRP £49.95 +VAT, Archive price £56.
8.5
•  Oxford Reading Tree Talking Stories (Sherston) − Six interactive
talking book stories from reading scheme for Key Stage 2 pupils. RRP
£39.95 +VAT, Archive price £45.
8.5
•  Photobase: Decades (5 discs) (Longman Logotron) − The 1960s, ’50s,
’40s, ’30s and ’20s. Each disc in the series contains almost 2,500
photographs from the famous Hulton Deutsch picture library. Databases
have powerful searching facilities, including keyword indexing and free
text searching. RRP £49 +VAT each, Archive price £55.
8.5
•  Photobase: Landscapes (Longman Logotron) − Database of over 2,000
high quality colour photographs and images illustrating aspect of the
natural and man-made environment. Topics include architecture, history,
geography, science, technology and nature, using images from around the
globe. RRP £49 +VAT, Archive price £55.
8.5
•  Photobase: Science (Longman Logotron) − Over 1,000 high-quality
photographic illustrations selected to cover important topics in the
National Curriculum for Science. Topics such as earth science, geology,
human biology and native plants are covered. RRP £49 +VAT, Archive price
£55.
8.5
•  Photobase: The Victorians (Longman Logotron) − Nearly 2,500
photographs and engravings taken from the famous Hulton Deutsch picture
library. Topics cover people’s lives: great reformers of the time such
as Lord Shaftesbury, events like The Great Exhibition, pictures of the
Royal Family and Victoria herself. There are also many images reflecting
the great industrial changes of the time, such as steam power and the
growth of the railways, agriculture and mass production in factories and
their impact on living and working conditions. RRP £49 +VAT, Archive
price £55.
8.5
•  PhotoLib (Matt Black) − A huge library of over 4,000 24-bit colour
photographs on one CD. RRP £299 +VAT, Archive price £345.
8.5
•  Physical World (ILP) − Understanding of the physical world, processes
that have formed it and the ways in which people interact with their
physical environment. Divided into three sections: Features and
Processes (biosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere), Natural Hazards,
People and their Environment. RRP £130 +VAT, Archive price £148.
8.5
•  ProArtisan 2 (Clares) − Advanced image processing package which
enables graphics to be altered or drawn from scratch (a library of
images is included). Allows display and manipulation of Photo CD images
and Cumana’s Photo Album Volume 1 Photo CD (collection of 82 images)
forms the second disc in this set. The pack also includes ProArtisan 2
on floppy disc for use independent of the CD drive. RRP £136 +VAT,
Archive price £155.
8.5
•  Really Useful CD-ROM Volume 2 (APA Multimedia Ltd) − Contains over
1,000 colour and mono images such as animals, cars, boats, landscapes
and scenery; high quality sound samples including a French revision
section; dozens of games, utilities and mini-films; special needs
facilities. (Supersedes the Really Useful CD-ROM volume 1). RRP £49
+VAT, Archive price £55.
8.5
•  Science Series 1: Elements (IPL and Academy Television) − Interactive
CD-ROM divided into two cross-referencable sections: the Periodic Tale
and Atomic Structure of the elements. An introduction to the periodic
table, atomic structure and radioactivity. Topics include the periodic
table, groups and divisions, atoms and atom building, radioactive decay
and isotopes. The disc uses video, animation and text in its
explanations, plus interactive features such as an atom-builder
(students construct their own atoms). Also includes a complete set of
workcards and curriculum notes. RRP £130 +VAT, Archive price £148.
8.5
•  Science Series 2: Materials (IPL and Academy Television) −
Interactive database of 150 materials as diverse as toothpaste, iron and
butter, giving insights into their occurrence, extraction, production,
history, applications and composition. Features experiments, quizzes,
colour images, audio, graphics and video clips. RRP £130 +VAT, Archive
price £148.
8.5
•  Semerc Treasure Chest (NW Semerc) − Includes thousands of pictures,
symbols, sound samples and speech files which can easily be accessed and
retrieved by learners (including special needs). Pictures and sound can
easily be extracted for use in other applications. The sixty topic areas
include vehicles, foods, animals, birds, Aztecs, Romans, Victorians and
dinosaurs. RRP £69 +VAT, Archive price £78.
8.5
•  Sherlock Holmes on a disc (Animated Pixels) − The complete text from
all sixty detective stories, together with full colour illustrations and
utilities, including a bookmark facility. RRP £23 +VAT, Archive price
£25.
8.5
•  Sherston Naughty Stories (Sherston) − Twelve stories, including Doris
the Dotty Dog, Terry’s Tricky Trainers, Bobby the Boastful Bird and Lucy
the little Liar, for Key Stage 1 and 2. Each story comprises clearly
displayed text which the user can choose to have read to them and
animated illustrations with optional sound effects. This includes the
individual story books that are supplied with each disc. RRP £79.95
+VAT, Archive price £91.
8.5
•  Space Encyclopedia (Animated Pixels) − RISC OS CD-ROM disc on space,
includes Acorn Replay. Fully indexed and easy retrieval. RRP £39 +VAT,
Archive price £44.
8.5
•  SSERC Graphics Collection (Scottish Schools Equipment Research
Centre) − Science and technology graphics, data, programs and
applications in abundance. 330Mb for use in chemistry, physics, biology,
technology, computing and information technology. Graphics of 227
molecules, each in up to 18 different model representations and
drawfiles of gears, sprockets, washers and tubes. File format includes
drawfile, sprite and DXF file and the price includes a site licence. RRP
£99 +VAT, Archive price £114.
8.5
•  Tekkie Disc (Emerald Publishing) − Acorn’s technical documentation on
CD-ROM. RRP £99 +VAT, Archive price £108.
8.5
•  Times and the Sunday Times (News Multimedia International) − Full
text from each final edition of two of the most famous newspapers in the
world. Articles are arranged in familiar sections such as home and
foreign news, business, sport, etc and access is easy via a keyword-
search facility. Information can be refined by setting a date range or
by marking a selection. RRP £175 +VAT, Archive price £200.
8.5
•  Times and the Sunday Times (News Multimedia International) −
Individual, abridged editions covering January to December for the
following years: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993. RRP £89 +VAT, Archive price
£100.
8.5
•  Times and the Sunday Times Sampler (News Multimedia International)
RRP £50 +VAT, Archive price £54.
8.5
•  Understanding the Body (Anglia Television) − Resource for secondary
science curriculum with over 500 pictures, 50 video clips, 150 graphics
and thousands of pages of text: Introducing humans, Cells and tissues;
Organs and organ systems, Reproduction and genetics. Worksheets for
teachers and students are available on the disc and can be printed out.
RRP £40 +VAT, Archive price £45.
8.5
•  Usborne’s Exploring Nature (Hampshire Microtechnology Centre) −
Contains many drawings of flora and fauna, natural life processes,
animal behaviour and key natural habitats. An activity-based exploration
which will help children towards a greater understanding and
appreciation of the plants and animals around them. A classroom and
library resource for all primary and middle schools. RRP £125 +VAT,
Archive price £142.
8.5
•  Woodland (APA Multimedia Ltd) − Multimedia exploration of British
woodland covering birds, trees, plants, animals, fungi and minibeasts.
Key Stage 2 and above. RRP £75 +VAT, Archive price £85.
8.5
•  World of Number Series (Cumana) − NCC approved CD-ROM series,
published by New Media, to meet Mathematics Key Stage 3 and 4. Contains
these four titles at RRP £79 +VAT each, Archive price £88 each:
8.5
Number Games − Seven puzzles which must be solved by groups of students
through discussion of calculation and reasoning. It tackles number
patterns, symbolisation and a broad range of strategic skills required
by the National Curriculum.
8.5
Perspectives − Four on-screen windows enable users to look at
information from different perspectives in video, graphics and data.
Curriculum support for graph sketching and interpretation by linking the
abstract to reality also included.
8.5
Picture Gallery − Collection of photographs together with simple
software drawing tools which support the curriculum areas of angle,
ratios, scale, percentages and estimation.
8.5
Who stole the decimal point? − Adventure game in which a series of
mathematical problems must be solved in order to complete the story.
This module supports a wide range of attainment.
8.5

•  Advance upgrade − Acorn Advance has been upgraded: It is no longer
copy-protected so that installation is quicker, the spreadsheet size has
been increased from 5,000 to 10,000 and it is now fully Risc PC-
compatible. The upgrade is done through Acorn Direct  and costs £29.95
(single user), £39.95 (primary site licence), £49.95 (secondary) − all
prices inc VAT. Send cheque or credit card information to Acorn Direct
along with proof of purchase. For the single user, this means sending
your program disc (not the data discs) and for site licence owners,
sending your licence agreement. The upgrade offer lasts only until 30th
June 1995.
8.6
We have two copies of the current version of Advance in stock (drat!),
so if anyone wants to buy one, they are available at £50 each. If you
upgraded them through Acorn Direct, you would only pay a total of £79.95
instead of the normal Archive price of £105.
8.6
•  Aleph One PC podules – The PC cards for pre-Risc PC have benefited
from the price cuts in the PC market. A bare 50MHz card costs £399 +VAT
from Aleph One and a 25MHz version costs £339 +VAT. The cards then need
standard SIMM memory to be added.
8.6
•  All New Talking Animated Alphabet − Sherston’s BBC Micro product, The
Animated Alphabet, has been updated for the Archimedes and Risc PC.
Using the same speech technology as the Talking Stories, the pack
features three activities dealing with visual and aural letter
discrimination and letter recognition. Children can see a letter
changing into an object which starts with the same sound, whilst hearing
the letter’s sound. All New Talking Animated Alphabet costs £29.95 +VAT
from Sherston or £33 through Archive.
8.6
•  Arcturus – a new game from Oregan Software involving piloting a
spinning craft across numerous landscapes, avoiding nasties and
collecting goodies. The cost is £24.95 from Oregan or £24 through
Archive. See the review on page 49.
8.6
•  Canon BJC4000 – Computer Concepts have released the Canon BJC4000
colour inkjet printer, bundled with a special version of their latest
Version 4 TurboDriver software. Unlike the BJC600 the printer has two
cartridges, a high speed mono, approximately twice as fast as the BJ200,
and offers resolutions of up to 720dpi using interpolation. A colour
cartridge allows 360dpi colour output. The price is £445.32 inclusive
from CC.
8.6
•  CD-Net2 − Cumana have upgraded their CD-ROM server for Acorn
networks. New features include predefined settings for most CD-ROM
titles, which can be reconfigured if desired. Changes to the discs
loaded in the server will be reflected by the clients so the users know
which are available. PC discs for DOS and Windows are also now
supported, which can be run via the PC Emulator or PC second processor
card. The performance has improved since the original version and Acorn
AUN/Access, SJ Research Nexus, Oak ClassNet and TCP/IP are all
supported. CD-Net 2 costs £175 +VAT from Cumana, registered users of CD-
Net 1.50 or later qualify for the free upgrade path.
8.6
•  CD-ROM drives − Two new CD-ROM drives are now available from Eesox.
The Silver 2 is a 2.4 speed drive which, say Eesox, is in some tests
almost as fast as some quad speed drives (360Kb/s) because of the fast
(220ms) access time and the 256Kb internal cache. The main thing about
it is the very keen price − £195 inclusive through Archive for the
Risc PC internal version and £280 for the external version. If you want
a quad speed drive, their Gold drive (600Kb/s + 225ms access time) is a
caddy-loading drive at £360 for an internal (Risc PC) drive and £440 for
an external drive through Archive.
8.6
These are SCSI devices, so you need a computer with a SCSI interface.
(We suggest the Morley uncached card at £160, or the cached version at
£220 or the Cumana SCSI II at £235 plus £27 for a SCSI II cable if using
it with an external drive.)
8.6
•  Chair prices rising − If you are thinking of buying a Wing chair, now
is the time because, apparently, the prices are increasing in March. The
Stokke Wing chair (see Archive 8.3 p4) is currently £320 inc VAT and
carriage through Archive.
8.6
•  Clicker Plus − The updated version of Crick Computing’s Clicker
package can now handle colour graphics and symbols as well as sound and
text. An on-screen keyboard displays a number of cells. when a cell is
clicked, the word or picture is inserted into the word processor in use.
Speech can also be used so children can hear their choice. An upgrade
from Clicker is £20 +VAT, the full Clicker Plus package is £55 +VAT from
Crick Computing.
8.6
•  Concept Keyboard Support Pack − A collection of datafiles and
overlays for use with the Concept Keyboard, based on ideas from teachers
of Key Stages 1 and 2. Topics include Myself, Weather, Direction Giving,
Sequencing, Alphabet, Keyboard, Colours, Shapes, Sizes, Seed Growth,
Number Bonds and Coins. A number of blank A3 and A4 overlays are also
supplied. The price is £20 +VAT from Hampshire Micro Technology Centre.
8.6
•  Conjuguez − The Conjuguez package from Creative Curriculum Software
has been revised and there are now three versions. Conjuguez! comes with
800 verbs in seven levels from beginner to GCSE level and costs £16.98
+VAT. Conjuguez Plus covers from beginner to A-level with 3500 verbs and
costs £25.49 +VAT. Owners can upgrade from Conjuguez to Conjuguez Plus
at a later date. Conjuguez Education has all the features of Conjuguez
Plus, with an additional facility to add more verbs to those supplied,
allowing the student to progress beyond A-level. The price is £39 +VAT
for a single user version, or £89 +VAT for a site/network licence from
Creative Curriculum Software.
8.6
•  Easy C++ − Beebug have released Easy C++ the first native RISC OS C++
compiler. Using a similar interface to Easy C, the complexities of
compiling and linking are reduced, although there is a command line
interface if you need the additional control. The software is supplied
with the standard C and C++ (iostream) libraries. Easy C++ is £99 +VAT
(£110 through Archive), the upgrade from Easy C is £49 +VAT. Easy C is
still available for £59 +VAT (£67 through Archive).
8.6
•  HeartBeat − This is a package of heart monitoring hardware and
software produced by VTI and Health Care Technology as part of the
CardioSport range. A receiver plugs into the serial port and a
transmitter is strapped onto the chest. The software allows heart
information to be recorded and can analyse the calorific burn rate,
maximum and minimum heart rate and so on. Results can be displayed in
graph or table forms. The cost is £99 +VAT from VTI.
8.6
• Heavy mouse balls – Weighing in at four times heavier than the
standard mouse ball, these fit neatly into the Acorn mouse, giving it a
more positive response. They are available from Oak Consultants for £3
including postage, packing and VAT. (I have put this entry in again
because we now have the address of Oak Consultants. Ed.)
8.6
•  Holy Bible − ExpLAN are just finalising the licence agreements on
their Holy Bible software, a multimedia package using electronic texts
from around the world. High quality graphics, multiple versions, fast
searches, read-only commentaries, user-created notes, cross-referencing.
The base pack comprises Authorised Version and Strong’s Concordance at
£70 +VAT for the single user version, and £199 +VAT for a site licence.
Additional full modules are: NRSV with study notes (CUP), REB with
educational resources (CUP), Russian with Cryllic fonts (Licht in
Ostern). These are available for an additional £45 +VAT each and the NIV
Anglicised (Hodder) is an additional £25 +VAT. Carriage is also extra.
(Archive prices are £80, £225, £52 and £28 respectively through
Archive.)
8.6
•  Junior Insight – This is a new data-logging application from Longman
Logotron to assist in experiments for Key Stages 2 and 3. It is capable
of display and capture of analogue or digital data at a user-specified
sample rate. Results can be displayed as tables or graphs, and the
graphs may be overlaid so comparisons can be made. Analysis options can
calculate the gradient of a slope or the area under a curve. It is
compatible with interfaces such as Unilab, Sense and Control, LogIT,
SenseIT and the Philip Harris hardware. A single user version costs £29
+VAT.
8.6
•  Lots More Fun & Games − HS Software have produced a set of three
games aimed at 5 to 9 year olds. Dataday teaches the days of the week
and months of the year in sequence. Spot the Blot involves visual
perception and discrimination skills and Gwyn’s World involves shape
recognition and fractions. Lots More Fun & Games costs £22.95 from HS,
or £22 through Archive.
8.6
•  MathMania − In this educational game from Topologika Software,
children have to help the teacher escape from a maze, answering
questions on Number, Time, Measurement, Angles, Shape & Space. Questions
can be at four difficulty levels, the first two corresponding to Key
Stage 2, and levels 3 and 4 to Key Stages 3 and 4. There are also five
puzzles which occur at the end of a maze before the player can move on
to the next, more difficult, maze. The price is £25 +VAT (£28 through
Archive), site licences are an additional £25 for primary and £40 for
secondary (£28 and £45 through Archive).
8.6
•  Meteosat RISC consists of a CD-ROM and Acorn software to run it. The
CD is produced by the European Space Agency and contains 23000 images
from the geostationary Meteosat satellite. There is an infra red image
of the whole Earth taken each day from 1986 to 1991. In addition, there
is one image per month in visible light and assorted extra images of
water vapour and snow storms. The software supplied includes !Meteosat
to access the pictures in date order, !Palmake to edit the displayed
colours, and !SpMovie to create an animation showing weather
development. The package is available from Musbury Consultants for £30
inclusive. Note that you must specify if you are using a Risc PC because
an enhanced set of applications are supplied.
8.6
•  Non-Designer’s Design Book − This book by Robin Williams has
absolutely nothing to do with Acorn computers! However, it is really an
excellent guide showing how to make the best use of those DTP facilities
that most of us possess yet few of us (including me) have been trained
to handle. It explains the basic principles of page layout, using fonts,
etc, in such a way that (a) it is easy to understand and (b) it is
memorable. This means that you actually put into practice the things
that you have read. (See Mark Howe’s review, on page 23) The price is
£13 inc p&p.
8.6
•  Oak Recorder Update − Both versions of the Oak Recorder sound
sampler, supplied by Solent Computer Products, are now being shipped
with the latest version of the SoundLab software, which features a
button bar for ease of use, amplifying, fading, echo, filtering and can
convert between a number of different formats. Oak Recorder 2 for
earlier systems costs £39.95 + £3 p&p +VAT, Oak Recorder 3 for machines
with a bidirectional parallel port (i.e. A5000 or later) costs £44.95 +
£3 +VAT.
8.6
•  OMR Supplement − A new extension to the Iota DataPower database
allows the database to read Optical Mark Reader forms. It will read DRS
SOS files, which describe where to look on the OMR form for data, and
from it creates a DataPower database ready for use. The completed forms
can then be read directly from the completed forms into the Database
ready for analysis, assuming you have the necessary reader. Possible
uses include assessment, end of year reports, attendance reports and
multiple choice examinations. The supplement costs £99 +VAT from Iota
Software, and you will need a copy of DataPower if you do not already
have it. Optical Mark Readers start at £2000 from DRS.
8.6
•  Picture Point – This package, aimed at Key Stage 1 pupils, to
introduce them to data handling. Children can perform surveys with a
simple point-and-click interface. The survey can then be displayed
graphically as a bar chart, pie chart or a pictogram. When clicked on,
the graphs will actually speak to explain the relationship between the
numbers on the graph. The data can be exported into Junior pinpoint or
spreadsheets. The single user version costs £29 +VAT from Longman
Logotron or £32 through Archive.
8.6
•  Printer Port Sampler − VTI have released a new version of their
printer port sound sampler, capable of sampling simultaneously from line
as well as mic inputs for mixing sound sources. A microphone is supplied
with the package, along with the Sonor sample editing software. The
price is £44.95 +VAT.
8.6
•  PublishArt − Smart DTP have produced a clipart resource pack
featuring designs for use in DTP packages rather than drawings or
pictures. Included are QuickPapers, highlights, page layout, patters,
stencils symbols and backdrops. The price is £29.95 inclusive.
8.6
•  Rainbow Multimedia – This is a new picture-based multimedia package
from Longman Logotron. It is designed to assist development of a child’s
writing, language and object recognition skills and enables pictures,
animation, video, text, speech, music and sounds to be combined to
produce interactive books. Rainbow Multimedia costs £29 +VAT +p&p from
Longman Logotron or £33 through Archive.
8.6
•  Report Writer − After the review last month (8.5 p70), Creative
Curriculum Software’s report-writing software is proving particularly
popular amongst teachers and lecturers, so we have decided to stock it
at £56 inclusive.
8.6
•  ReSound − NW Semerc have produced a printer port sound sampler which
can sample from the supplied microphone or from other sources via the
line input. It is supplied with software to allow editing of the
captured samples. The price is £42 +VAT from NW Semerc.
8.6
•  RISC OS 3.1 Style Guide − This product has been available and then
not available... but now it is available again − £10 inc p&p through
Archive.
8.6
•  Speech II − Superior Software have upgraded their speech synthesizer.
It now has an extra 3,500 words, improved speech quality, improved word
editing facility for special words, interactive help support, is hard
disc installable, has accented characters, foreign language support – a
German extension is available − and the new Speech module can be used
directly with Talking PenDown and Full Phases to give much improved
speech. The upgrade from Speech costs £10 inclusive, £15 if you want
German Speech. Single user copies are £29.95 inc VAT or 34.95 for German
Speech and site licences are available from Superior Software.
8.6
•  Spelling Book − This is designed to assist pupils (aged 4+) with
their writing when using a word processor and to help them learn
spellings. The software allows words to be input into any multitasking
word processor or DTP package, dictionary maintenance is simple, and a
wide selection are supplied. These include basic words, and sets for the
common National Curriculum topic areas. A quiz section is also provided
which allows the dictionaries to be used in missing letter type games.
The price is £39 +VAT for a single user version, or £89 +VAT for a site
licence, from Creative Curriculum Software.
8.6
•  TableCalc − This spreadsheet, for RISC OS 3.1 or later, supports
interactive help, point and click expression definitions and full OLE
support for Impression Publisher. It can export Draw and CSV files,
supports 24-bit colour and multiple text styles. The price is £30 +
£1.50 from iSV Products.
8.6
•  Talking Clocks − Any user with RISC OS 2 or later can use this
package which encourages children to examine clocks, learning to read
and set them. Clocks can have hand or digital faces and speak the time
when clicked on. There are four parts ‘Say the time’ allows the player
to build up a sentence to speak the time shown on the clock, ‘Set the
Clock’ teaches children to set the clock to a time given in words,
‘Match the Clocks’ requires a clock to be set to the same time as a
second clock and for ‘How much Time?’, the child needs to calculate the
time difference between two clocks. The package records children’s work
which can then be printed out and most tools are configurable. It is
available from Topologika Software for £35 +VAT (or £39 through Archive)
for a single user licence. A primary site licence costs £60 +VAT or a
secondary licence costs £75 +VAT from Topologika.
8.6
•  Talking Stories − Sherston have released a third set of their Talking
Stories, based on popular stories from the Oxford University Press
‘Oxford Reading Tree’ scheme, as used in many schools. The stories, read
by actor Richard Briers, are Floppy’s Bath, The Baby-sitter, The Water
Fight, Kipper’s Balloon, Spots! and Kipper’s Birthday. The price is
£39.95 +VAT (£45 through Archive) for the single user version − site
licences are also available.
8.6
•  Treasure Chest − Thousands of pictures, symbols and sound effects in
!Draw, !Paint and Photo sequences for use in the National Curriculum.
Sections include food, history, languages, natural world, objects,
people, places and symbols. The price is £69 +VAT from Northwest SEMERC.
8.6
•  Trees − This CD-ROM resource contains pictures and descriptions of
the native trees of the British Isle. Produced with the assistance of
the British Tree Council, the disc also includes photographs, diagrams
of twigs, details of the ecology of trees, and the uses to which trees
are put. A single user version costs £40 +VAT from Hampshire Micro-
Technology Centre.
8.6
•  Trip − This admin package simplifies the organisation of school
trips, including the tracking of pupil payments. The price is £14.95
+VAT from Creative Curriculum Software.
8.6
•  Vision 24 − The Vision and HiVision colour digitisers from HCCS have
been replaced by the Vision 24 range of 24-bit digitisers. 254-line
version is £99 +VAT, the 508-line version is £139 +VAT and a later
upgrade from 254 to 508-lines is £49 +VAT.
8.6
•  Werewolf Utility Discs − Werewolf Software have produced two utility
discs for the Acorn range. Disc 1 contains ArmCache, CacheOff, CacheOn,
NewIcons, NewTools, ResetMem, ResetMode, ResetPal, ResetScr+, ResetSnd+,
ResetSysF, Runner+, UnRunner+, WWSHelp and costs £6. Disc 2 contains
Counter, MakeHelp, PasteUp, Rubbish, Shutter, SpriteUtils, STPlayer,
VATCalc, WWSHelp and costs £7. If you purchase both discs the price is
£12, or a compilation disc, featuring the best applications from both
discs costs £10, Prices include VAT, but postage is 50p extra.
8.6
•  Woodland Birds CD − This is a large reference database from Creative
Curriculum Software containing photographs, bird songs and calls, along
with text, maps and other data. Aimed at Key Stages 2, 3 and 4, it costs
£49 +VAT (single user) or £99 (site licence). It is a dual format CD and
can be used on RISC OS or a Windows-based machine.
8.6
Product not going to be available!
8.6
•  Ion Camera − Atomwide have asked us to point out that while they have
been using, and recommending a still video camera, contrary to popular
belief, they do not, and will not be, selling it as a product since it
is only compatible with NTSC television formats.
8.6

•  Acorn C/C++ − Acorn are planning to release their new C/C++
development environment in mid-March. In fact, the package allows
programming in C, Assembler, and C++ as well as having a number of
supporting tools. C++ support is provided by CFront version 3.0. Also
included is the Toolbox replacement to RISCOS_Lib, which allows simple
design and implementation of your application’s user interface. This can
be tested without needing to write any code. The cost is £249.95 inc VAT
or £230 through Archive. Owners of Desktop C or Desktop Assembler can
buy C/C++ for £205 including carriage from NCS. Send your original
Desktop C or Desktop Assembler discs with your order, please.
8.7
•  Acorn Risc PC Sound Card − The 16-bit Sound Card is designed to
exploit the digital audio capabilities of VIDC20. It enables the Risc PC
to generate near CD-quality sound output via the headphone socket.
Previous VIDC1a sound formats are supported in order to provide
backwards compatibility with existing RISC OS software, and there is
support for the new 16-bit linear and compressed ADPCM formats. The pack
includes: a stand alone sample player is provided to play back digital
samples; extensions to Replay are included to extend the capabilities of
the Replay system to include 16-bit linear ADPCM; a range of quality
samples designed to demonstrate the new audio system. The Sound Card
costs £59.95 +VAT or £68 through Archive.
8.7
•  Big Bang − From Psycore, the creators of Top Banana, comes this new
adventure into “the strange and beautiful”. The complete game comes on
either a single 1.6Mb disc or two 800Kb discs for £14.95 (inclusive).
Please state which type of disc you require and make cheques payable to
Psycore when ordering.
8.7
• Calligraph direct drive lasers − Calligraph have brought the price of
an A3 1200 dpi direct drive laser printers down to under £3,000 inc VAT.
They now do a cut-down version of the TQ-1200 called the A3-1200 which
only costs £2450 +VAT (£2,800 through Archive). The only things that the
TQ-1200 has extra to the A3-1200 are a paperfeed unit that takes odd
sizes of paper, a high temperature controller that enables the printer
to cope with plate-making and the PostScript RIP software (see below).
These printers do 8 pages/minute at A4 size and 4 ppm at A3.
8.7
• Calligraph PostScript RIP − In conjunction with Rapport Ltd,
Calligraph have produced a Level 2 PostScript compatible interpreter
which will allow any of their direct drive lasers to preview and print
PostScript files. If you have a Calligraph Qume or Taxan printer, you
can get a version of the software limited to 300 dpi and a new interface
card which has various extra features over your old one (which
presumably you just throw away). These new cards are also Risc PC
compatible. This costs £250 +VAT from Calligraph or £285 through
Archive.
8.7
The other Calligraph printers already use the more up-to-date card, so
all you need is the RIP software. This, however, has enhanced features
appropriate to these more versatile printers and is the same price as
the other version − £250 +VAT from Calligraph or £285 through Archive.
8.7
Technically, the software offers full implementation of RT halftone
screening and TLA screening, giving any combination of screen angle,
frequency and spot shape; any resolution supported by your printer
including non-square; preview in Draw format (256 grey & 24-bit RGB) and
sprite format (16 grey levels up to 150dpi); selectable paper sizes;
colour spaces − grey, RGB, CMYK and CIE based; font types 0 (composite),
1 (hinted) and 3 (user definable); JPEG, LZW and CCITTFAX image
compression filters and full support for PostScript Resource Management.
8.7
•  CDFast − Eesox have updated their CDFast and NetCDFast packages which
give performance increases on CD-ROM drives, stand-alone, and over a
network respectively. It has two modes of operation, minimum memory
requiring 8Kb to work for an 18-40% performance increase, or enhanced
mode requiring 36Kb for a 30-55% increase. The cost is £25 +£2 p&p +VAT
(£30 through Archive) for the stand-alone version, and £130 + £2 p&p
+VAT (£148 through Archive) for the network/site licence version.
8.7
•  Celtic Clipart Disc 3 − The third disc in Glyn Howells’ Clipart
collection is now available. The discs are £10.99 each, £18.99 for two,
or £24.99 for all three (cheques payable to Glyn Howells). All files are
in draw format and discs 1 and 3 also contain hints files.
8.7
•  Clips Round the Year − This is the name for the service offered by
our own Christopher Jarman who seeks to provide “high quality realistic
art, drawn by an artist who uses the computer, not just a computer buff
who does some art!” Christopher can do first-rate illustrations to
order, or any kind of DTP design back-up you want. If you want a new
magazine cover or a set of invoices with your own logo, give him your
requirements. He will also do outline fonts designed to order. Prices
are by negotiation, but he will often exchange for software. Send £5
(inc. p&p) for a sample disc containing 18 original Artworks files, plus
A/W viewer. Cheques payable to “C. Jarman”.
8.7
•  Colour Dye-sublimation − Spacetech have announced a new colour
printing system which has continuous tone output at 200dpi. This is not
as low as it might sound, especially when you consider that an 800 dpi
ink jet printer would only achieve 100dpi at 64 levels of greyscale. In
fact, the package, which uses Photodesk as a printer enhancer, gives a
virtual resolution of 800 dpi by anti-aliasing, which is only possible
on continuous tone printers. The package is currently reduced to £995
+VAT and includes a Primera printer, refill kit, Photodesk and the
printer drivers. After the Acorn User Spring show, the price will rise
to the normal £1215 +VAT. You can print from other packages, such as
Artworks, but you need to have Photodesk since it features as part of
the printer driver mechanism.
8.7
•  Ethernet Design and Installation Guide − This book is now available
from Acorn, it aims to assist with setting up an Ethernet network. The
price is £20 inclusive from Acorn or NCS.
8.7
•  Expandable SIMMs − It is now possible to buy two sizes of SIMM memory
cards (4Mb and 16Mb) which are upgradable to twice the size by adding
extra chips. The Archive prices are: 4Mb £155 (cf non-upgradable 4Mb at
£145), 4-8Mb upgrade pack £155, 16Mb £535 (cf non-upgradable 16Mb at
£490), 16-32Mb upgrade pack £535. There is no upgradable 8Mb SIMM, I
fear, and the standard 8Mb SIMM has gone up in price to £295.
8.7
(When the Risc PC first came out, we talked about the possibility of
taking SIMMs in part-exchange when people wanted to upgrade. We have
looked into this and regret that we don’t feel able to offer this
service. We are suggesting that people use our Small Ads column to sell
their smaller SIMMs.)
8.7
• Exploring Nature − (as recommended by Andrew Flowerdew in this month’s
CD-ROM Column) This CD contains many drawings of flora and fauna,
natural life processes, animal behaviour and key natural habitats. An
activity-based exploration which will help children towards a greater
understanding and appreciation of the plants and animals around them.
This is a classroom and library resource for all primary and middle
schools. The RRP was £125 +VAT but this has recently been reduced and it
is now available through Archive for £88.
8.7
•  Fireworkz Pro − Colton have now added Recordz, the database, to their
Fireworkz suite and have also added some improvements to the other parts
of the package. This is now called Fireworkz Pro. The package integrates
the Wordz wordprocessor, Resultz spreadsheet and Recordz, and allows
documents to contain ‘live’ spreadsheets and charts, which automatically
update when you change the data. The package requires RISC OS 3.1 or
later and at least 2Mb of RAM. As Fireworkz Pro and Recordz use Iota
Software’s DataPower engine, they can access DataPower files and use the
DataPower server on a network. Fireworkz (i.e. without Recordz) is still
available at £99 +£5 carriage +VAT from Colton (£110 through Archive)
and Fireworkz Pro costs £149 +£5 carriage +VAT from Colton (£165 through
Archive).
8.7
Upgradez: You can upgrade to Fireworkz Pro through Colton from: Wordz −
£89, Resultz − £69 PipeDream4 − £99 or PipeDream3 − £124, all plus £5
carriage +VAT.
8.7
•  Fly the Atlantic − This is the first activity pack designed to be
used with Topologika’s Navigator software and is written by a real
airline pilot. Children must follow the flight plan and instructions
from Air Traffic Control. The pack is accompanied by a comprehensive
booklet with details of bearings, distances and locations of points on
the route. There is a special introductory price of £15 +VAT +£2.50 p&p
(£19 through Archive), which includes a free site licence.
8.7
• Heavy mouse balls – Just to make it clear, these heavy-weight mouse
balls only fit Logitech mice. The Digitec mice used on A310/440 and some
of the A400/1 machines have slightly smaller balls, so check that you
have got a Logitech mouse before ordering your heavy ball. (The mice
that NCS sell at £22 are Logitech/big ball mice!) These mouseballs are
available from Oak Consultants for £3 including postage, packing and
VAT.
8.7
•  Hermes − Base5 Technical Graphics describe this as “a Desktop
Messenger & Interpreter”. It has facilities for text transfer & file
interpretation, graphic file loading, activity recorder, window capture,
desktop monitor, flexible event timer, automatic paragraph numbering,
and features over 300 commands. It is available direct from Base5 for
£25 (no VAT).
8.7
•  Impressive − Quantum Software have provided an enhanced button bar
for use with Computer Concepts Impression range. It is capable of doing
several actions from one mouse click, so that, for example, switching of
the text repel feature of a frame can be done with ease. If you are
learning to use Impression, you can make Impressive show you how it is
creating the desired effect. Example features include Fit to Frame, move
frame by any amount, rotate graphic, colour frame, border colour, colour
text and so on. The price is £9.95 inclusive from Quantum software or
£10 through Archive.
8.7
•  i-TV − This package from Irlam Instruments is a television tuner,
teletext decoder and NICAM stereo sound, all on a single width expansion
card. It features a crystal controlled, full band tuner, with channel
and teletext selection on the desktop. Composite video out is provided
for connecting to video digitisers, VCR’s etc. to allow single frames or
movies from the television signal. External video and stereo audio can
be fed in and switched (using software) to the output. Package of
hardware and software costs £199 +£3.50 p&p +VAT or £230 through
Archive.
8.7
•  Laser printers − We still don’t have any direct drive lasers for the
Acorn machines other than the Calligraph ones. However, we have added
the HP Laserjet 4L to our price list. It is a 300 dpi printer running at
4 pages a minute, has 1Mb RAM and costs £670 inclusive through Archive.
We recommend the use of an HP Turbo Driver at £53 to improve speed and
flexibility of the printout.
8.7
•  Maths Odyssey − Computer Tutorial Services Ltd have produced an
educational adventure which allows children to relate to the historical
roots of some of the theorems and ideas they have to learn within the
National Curriculum. Maths Odyssey costs £42 +VAT from Computer Tutorial
Services.
8.7
•  Mentor − This is a new educational package from Appian Way, and is
designed to bring a number of historical resources to the classroom,
including documents, photos, maps, cartoons and diagrams. Each title
includes more than 100 sources, both text and picture, with
comprehensive indexing facilities. Technical terms can be looked up in
the glossary, and each source’s background comments can be viewed.
Teachers and pupils can add their own sources and notes to personalise
the system, adding local sources, for example. The Mentor Edit program
can change and re-index existing resources, or create a completely new
one. Currently available resources are “The Third Reich”, “1914-18: The
Western Front” and “Medieval Realms” Each topic disc costs £39.50 +VAT
+p&p, and can be upgraded to a site licence for an additional £10 +VAT.
Until the end of March, the price is £35 +VAT +p&p. Mentor Edit costs
£49.50 for a single user and the site licence is an additional £35 +VAT.
8.7
•  OPL Manual for Pocket Book II − From February, the OPL programming
manual for the Pocket Book II will be available through Acorn Direct.
Send a cheque for £12.95 (including post and packaging) to Acorn Direct.
8.7
•  PD-CD 2 − The Datafile have produced a second CD of PD material for
RISC OS machines (including Risc PC). This costs £30 inclusive from The
Datafile or £29 through Archive.
8.7
•  Repair services − If you have Acorn equipment that needs repairing,
we have two companies here in Norwich that we can recommend. Avie
Electronics has been advertising fixed-price Acorn repairs for the last
few months. So, for example, if you have a dead A3000 then, whatever the
fault is, Avie will fix it for you for £39 inc VAT. (Return carriage is
£9.99 inc VAT.) See their advert on page 11 for details of the different
prices on offer. Avie do not repair printers. Repair Zone (alias Ray
Maidstone) will repair a wide range of computer and peripheral equipment
including “other” computers (I can’t bring myself to mention Amigas,
Ataris and such-like). They will give a quotation, if required, or work
on the basis of “we’ll give you a ring if it’s going to cost more than
(say) thirty quid to fix.”
8.7
•  Risc PC Extended Warranty − Acorn have released details of the
extended warranty scheme. For an extra 6% of the purchase price of your
machine you can extend the on-site warranty to 3 years. The warranty
only covers (and you only pay for) the Acorn segments of the system −
the base unit, Acorn monitor, mouse and keyboard. Any expansion cards,
printers, or non-Acorn monitor is not covered.
8.7
•  Scrabble price − On the last price list, Scrabble was priced at £33.
This was a mistake − the correct price was £27 as mentioned in the
magazine. If anyone purchased it at £33, please let us know − humble
apologies for that!
8.7
•  Special Needs Organiser − This is a PC package which has been ported
to the Acorn platform and enables the user to manage the special needs
in your school. You can keep track of pupils, provide updates and
reminders for staff, and keep your LEA up to date. The price is £64.95
+p&p +VAT for a primary licence, and £80 +p&p +VAT for a secondary
licence from PC Business Solutions Ltd.
8.7
•  Special Needs Trackerball − Northwest SEMERC have revised their
trackerballs and are adding versions for the PC and Apple Macintosh.
Acorn versions are now £89 +VAT, or £109 +VAT if you want the version
with a key guard.
8.7
•  Text To Braille − The Dorton IT Support Centre has released version 3
of its text to braille translation program. The program will accept any
ASCII text file (including those imported from CD-ROM and the PC) and
will output a fully contracted Grade 2 Braille file which can be
subsequently sent to a suitable braille embosser. The braille output can
be customised for grade changes for example, and French, German and
Spanish braille codes are also supported. The price is £30, and an
upgrade from version 2 costs £5.
8.7
•  Turbo Driver and Laser Direct Spoolers − This new package from
Computer Concepts allows network printing to take advantage of the Turbo
Driver or Laser Direct systems, and is compatible with any AUN network
including Econet. The package includes a printer cable, spooler
software, and a site licence for the printer driver software which may
be copied onto as many machines on the network as required. The system
works on all RISC OS 3.1 or later computers, although they need at least
2Mb of RAM (4Mb for 600 dpi laser direct printing). The price is £149
+VAT.
8.7
Review software received...
8.7
We have received review copies of the following: •Cannon Fodder (g),
•CDFast (u), •Hermes (u), •Talking Stories 2 (e).
8.7

Acorn Replay Starter Kit − Not really a new product, but new to Archive
is this package from Acorn. It includes a CD containing sample videos,
stills and examples of multimedia applications, plus AREncode which
allows you to compress your own films or add/change the accompanying
soundtracks. There are also two manuals: the user guide, which has
details of the software supplied, and ‘A Guide to Desktop Multimedia’
with advice on creating your own multimedia applications, shooting
video, locating material as well as tips on layout and style, etc.
8.8
Archive BBS closing − Sadly, we have decided that we cannot justify the
cost of keeping the Archive BBS running for the very few people who are
using it. If you want to send messages to us, leave articles, small ads,
etc, then please either use email ([e-mail]) or log
onto Arcade BBS (0181−654−2212 − user number 21) which Paul accesses a
couple of times a week or Archiboard Central (01603-744231) which, if
people use it, I will also check reasonably regularly. Keith Marlow has
also kindly agreed to put the Archive Monthly Disks on Archiboard
Central. So if you need anything in a hurry, give Archiboard a ring on
01603-744231.
8.8
AVP Picturebase CDs − This range of multimedia resources has been
enlarged to cover additional topics. Each disk, containing video, sound
images and text is controlled by database software, allowing the user to
customise their own encyclopedia. Grouped appropriately for National
Curriculum use, disks currently available are Britain Since 1930,
Victorian Britain, The Era of the Second World War, The First World War
and its Consequences, English Architecture, World Habitats, UK Habitats,
Expansion, Trade and Industry, Earth and Atmosphere which are all £99
+VAT for a single user copy (£115 through Archive). Also, there are two
art-based disks, Art in the National Curriculum and Impressionism up to
the Twentieth Century which are available at £75 +VAT for a single user
copy (£86 through Archive).
8.8
Buttons − A simple application launcher and hard disk protection system
for classroom use. It has a window which opens when the machine starts
up, before any other windows. Listed in the window are the applications
necessary; single clicking will load the task. Other actions can also be
linked, so the same click could, for example, also load the printer
driver and open a work directory. The hard drive is protected by either
removing the hard drive icon or limiting its use (for example, it could
open the work directory rather than the disk root). Other areas of the
hard disk are only accessible via Buttons, so that hidden applications
can be loaded. The price is £24.95 +VAT for a single user licence and
£75 +VAT for a site licence, from Lindis International.
8.8
CD-Circle − Last month we had a review of CD-Circle (p68) but we didn’t
give the address of the producers, Desktop Laminations. We have
corrected that in this month’s Factfile at the back of the magazine.
8.8
CD drivers − VTi have released four drivers for SCSI and IDE drives −
Sony CDU55-S and CDU-55E, Toshiba 3401, 5201 and 4101, NEC SCSI drives
and Wearnes CDD-120 series (IDE drives). The drivers cost £19 +VAT each
from VTi.
8.8
ClassRom upgrade − Oak Solutions’ ClassRom products are now supplied by
Network Solutions, who have announced the upgrade to version 1.28.
Additional features are CMOS RAM protection and restoration (also
prevents factory resets), optional machine protection via password, two
physical drives can now be seen as two ClassRom partitions, as well as
being able to partition single drives. Support for the Risc PC is now
also available. Existing ClassRom cards can be upgraded for £15 +VAT.
The upgrade consists of a new EPROM, updated ClassRom software and
manual. The upgrade is also available for Oak Ethernet cards (ClassNet).
8.8
Cross Stitch − iSV Products has launched XStitch, a cross stitch design
package for RISC OS. Any sprite can be used as input, to produce a full
cross stitch pattern, using up to 64 colours from 512 named industry-
standard thread colours. The design can be saved as a drawfile for
importing into DTP packages, as a colour or black and white design. A
wide variety of materials are supported, automatic conversion of sprite
colours to named colours, automatic calculation of finished design size,
definable background colour and over 10,000 stitches per pattern. The
price is £21.50 including p&p from iSV or £20 through Archive.
8.8
Cumana Bravo − This CD drive comes in two variants − the first connects
via the computer’s bi-directional parallel port and is therefore not
suitable for the A3xx/4xx/5xx or the A3000. The second uses an SLCD
interface available as a standard podule or an SLCD upgrade for an EMU
interface card. The drive is a double speed, draw loading device and has
a built-in audio mixer so that the computer and CD sound are combined,
so both are available through the same headphones or speakers without
needing to swap cables. Either type costs £254.47 +VAT + p&p or £300
through Archive. If you do not have an EMU card fitted to your machine,
the drive, EMU board and EMU upgrade will cost £297 +VAT + p&p or £350
through Archive.
8.8
Cumana Indigo − The Indigo CD drive is an internal drive for the Risc
PC. The 300iA is supplied with an IDE interface and therefore does not
need an additional interface. It is also supplied with an audio mixing
board to allow computer and CD sound to be merged. The cost is now
£211.91 +VAT + p&p or £250 through Archive.
8.8
(There is a problem here in that the board requires the same sound
connection on the pcb as the Acorn/ESP 16-bit sound upgrade. If you want
to use both, you will need a small adaptor board for which Cumana are
charging £10 +VAT, although, it is possible that they may be supplied
f.o.c. with the drive if you need it.)
8.8
Cumana Oscar − The Oscar CD drive is an external, double-speed device
which connects to the computer’s bi-directional parallel port (so it is
only suitable for use with the Risc PC, A5000, A3010, A3020, A4000 and
A4 models). A second CD drive or a printer can be daisy-chained via a
through-connector, so you do not lose use of the parallel port. The
price is £211.91 +VAT + p&p, or £250 through Archive.
8.8
Cumana Victor − These CD drives require a SCSI interface to work, and
there are a large number of options available. Stand-alone drives start
at £299 +VAT + p&p. Auto-changer drives are also available with double
and quad-speed 6-disk versions as well as an 18-disk quad-speed drive.
For situations where the time taken to change between disks is
unacceptable (for example, on a network) multi-drive units are available
with six separate mechanisms.
8.8
Cumana SCSI cards − The price of the Cumana SCSI cards has now dropped.
The SCSI II card is now £169.36 +VAT + p&p or £200 through Archive.
(Remember that you need the SCSI II cable if you wish to attach external
devices − £27 through Archive.) The original SCSI I podule is now £84.26
+VAT + p&p from Cumana.
8.8
Datasafe Tapestreamer − i³ have released a tapestreamer package, which
includes software for backing up over networks for both Acorn and PC
machines. The system needs a bi-directional parallel port, so you do not
need a SCSI card (although you will need a A3010, A3020, A4000, A5000,
A4 or a Risc PC). Software is supplied for both Acorn and PC compatible
systems so dual platform schools do not need to buy a backup system for
both machines. The price is £430 + p&p +VAT or £505 through Archive.
8.8
DMI / PowerWAVE − Audio Dynamics have a new range of audio cards. The
DMI (Dual MIDI Interface) card has two independent Midi interfaces (each
with an in and out connection) The PowerWAVE board is an upgrade to the
DMI cards and contains a 32 channel Ensoniq general Midi synthesizer
with 128 instrument and 49 percussion sounds, removing the need to have
external sound modules. The 30 range are for computers with a mini-
expansion card (A3000, A3010, A3020, A4000), the DMI 30 card is £74 +VAT
or £85 through Archive, the PowerWAVE 30 is £182.97 +VAT or £215 through
Archive. The 50 range will be for computers with a standard size podule,
and have the added benefit of an optional 16-bit sampler port on the
same card, and should be available shortly − prices will be announced.
Or, to save the complication(!) order them from Archive for £36, £40 and
£36 respectively.
8.8
Droom Trilogy − This set of educational adventure games from Resource
has been upgraded with music, enhanced graphics and easier to read text,
and all three titles will run on the Risc PC. The characters in the
games pose various problems for the pupils to solve, particular emphasis
being placed on developing skills in mathematics and logical thinking.
The games are Dragon Droom (£30), Dragon Droom’s Revenge (£34) and
StarDust (£30). Upgrades from an earlier version, £10 per package.
Primary and Secondary site licences are also available. To those prices,
add VAT and 4% of the order price for p&p − minimum £1.50.
8.8
Eesox Gold CD drive − Eesox can no longer get the style of CD drive they
were using as their Gold drive and have replaced it with a caddy-less
drive. This means that you cannot use it in the “tower” mode. However,
it is faster − 4.4 speed with an access time of 150ms compared with 4
speed and an access time of 225ms. The price is unchanged at £360
inclusive for an internal (Risc PC) drive and £440 for an external drive
through Archive.
8.8
Full-colour poster printing − Acorn have added an A0 colour poster
printer to its range of pre-press products − the NovaJET III large-
format inkjet printer. Acorn has combined its Risc PC-based Publishing
System with the NovaJET III to provide the Acorn Poster Publisher, a
complete poster creation and printing system for “under £11,000”.
8.8
The NovaJET uses European standard CMYK inks, operates at 300×300 dpi
and is suitable for producing everything from simple text and line art
to colour proofs, graphic design visuals as well as short-run, full-
colour posters up to A0. Acorn have specifically developed one of the
standard Risc PC printer drivers to increase the speed and enhance the
colour calibration for the NovaJET III.
8.8
The system will be targeted at large retailers, corporate publishers,
quick printers and commercial printers. In addition to marketing the
complete solution, Acorn will offer individual printers to existing
Acorn users. So, if you already have a Risc PC and would like a 14Mb
NovaJET III printer plus driver, we can sell you one through Archive.
The cost would be about £7,500 +VAT. Let me know if you are interested!
8.8
Acorn’s press release says that “initial tests with Risc PC have shown
significant improvements in both speed and quality compared to the
results achieved when the NovaJET is driven by a Mac or PC” and talks
about “photographic quality images”. Having seen the output, I would
agree and can say that it is nothing less than stunning. I’ll bet it
eats up the ink but that will be nothing compared to the cost of getting
posters printed commercially. To give an example of the speed, the
NovaJET can produce an A1-format, photographic quality poster in
approximately 20 minutes.
8.8
This is actually a very significant announcement because it is another
example of something you can do on Acorn machines that can’t be matched
on other platforms, i.e. it’s an example where someone would buy a
Risc PC in order to run the application.
8.8
If you want to run one of these printers to use with a Mac or a PC, you
would need to have a separate computer entirely dedicated to driving the
printer (probably a Pentium or a ‘Big Mac’ of some sort) so the cost of
that would probably be £15−16,000. Also, you would have to use
networking to throw PostScript at it from your separate design station.
This means that, to run it, you need (a) about twice as much money as
using an Acorn and (b) someone with networking expertise because the
task, even in networking terms, is not a simple one. With the Acorn
solution, the printer is (almost) just like any other printer attached
to your workstation computer − there’s no need to have someone with
specialist knowledge of networking and/or PostScript to run it.
8.8
I say “almost” because there is the issue of colour calibration. The
resultant colour does depend to a great extent on the type and quality
of paper used. Acorn provide preset calibration files for a number of
standard types of paper but if you choose to use different paper, you
will need to go through a calibration procedure.
8.8
For further information, please contact Simon Woodward, Publishing
Manager at Acorn Computers on 01223-254460.
8.8
Hazelnut CD − Hazelnut have released a CD which includes all three of
their multimedia learning packages. Times Tables: 12 disks covering 2×
to 12× tables, 132 different animations, text and sound (disk price
£30); Number Bonds, £15 − three disks covering addition and subtraction
bonds up to 10, plus two worksheets (disk price £15 for all three, or £5
each); and a new release, Tell Time with four disks covering hours,
half-past and quarters (disk price £20). Any of the above can be bought
as separate packages (add £2.50 p&p) or all three on one CD costs £50 +
£1.50 p&p. (No VAT as Hazelnut are not VAT registered.)
8.8
Lambda 16 − The Irlam 16-bit sound sampler/player on a standard
expansion card. The included software controls the settings for the
card, and sampling is via a simple-to-use tape recorder-style interface.
The card has stereo line-in phono connectors, 3.5mm Mic, 16-bit stereo
line-out (3.5mm jack), variable input gain and line-out volume. Stereo
and mono file formats are supported, in 16 or 8-bit, from a wide range
of sampling rates, from 5.51kHz to 48.0kHz. It integrates the standard
sound system, allowing the computer’s sound to be sampled or the 16-bit
and VIDC outputs to be mixed. The introductory price, including
expansion card and sampling software, lead and manual, is £99 + £3.50
p&p +VAT or £118 through Archive. Tsunami, the sound editing software,
is not yet ready, but when it is, a joint package will be available for
£159 + p&p +VAT (standard Tsunami price will be £99 + p&p +VAT). The
samples created can, however, be edited using other packages such as
!AudioWorks in the meantime.
8.8
Landmarks: PinPoint data file Ancient Civilisations − Information in
this datafile covers eleven civilisations, such as the Egyptians, Aztecs
and the Romans. A number of activity sheets are included, focusing on
historical and geographical aspects, covering river valleys, landmarks,
leaders, Egyptian writing and numbers, beliefs and customs, and also a
quiz. To use the data, you will need either Junior PinPoint or PinPoint.
This costs £14 +£3 p&p +VAT from Longman Logotron.
8.8
Landmarks: Victorian Era − New to Longman Logotron’s Landmarks series of
TV tie-in educational software, the Victorian Era allows children to
investigate English village life at various times between 1780 and 1880.
The effects of the agricultural and industrial revolutions, represented
by the arrival of a mill, canal and railway, can be seen, showing both
the impact on the people, and the changes to the village itself. A top-
down view of the village is used to discover information about the
scene. Worksheets are also included. This costs £25.50 +£3 p&p +VAT from
Longman Logotron.
8.8
Mechanisms CD − This graphical demonstration of mechanical theory and
practice is ideal for maths, technology and physics. Suitable for use on
either an Acorn Computer or a Windows machine, the price is £49 +VAT
(single user) and £99 +VAT (site licence) from Creative Curriculum
Software. (£57 and £115 through Archive respectively.)
8.8
PC card for Risc PC − Acorn say... “Initial stock is expected during
April with a steady ramp-up in production during the next few months. If
you have already purchased a Risc PC, you are entitled to buy a PC card
for £99 +VAT (£116.32) within the next three months. After that time,
the price will be £199 +VAT if purchased separately.” Presumably, it
will be £99 if actually with a Risc PC.
8.8
The problem which NCS now have is that there is no discount on the PC
cards − Acorn are charging us £99 +VAT which means that we are making a
loss on every PC card we sell, especially when you take into account the
admin and the cost of postage and packing. We’re not asking for sympathy
or any extra cash but just that you bear with us as we handle the huge
backlog of orders. In particular, may we ask you NOT to keep ringing us
up. We will send the cards out to you as soon as we possibly can, and we
will let you know in the magazine where we are up to by saying things
like “we have so far supplied all PC cards ordered before May 13th 1994”
or whatever. Also, we’ll put that information on the ansaphone so that
you can ring up out of office hours and find out what is happening.
8.8
One other problem is that some of you sent cheques which are now more
than six months old! They will have to come back to you to have the
dates changed. Thanks, in advance, for your cooperation.
8.8
Pocketbook leather cases − Network Solutions can now supply leather
carrying cases for the Acorn Pocketbook and Psion Series 3. The student
holster is a padded case with a belt loop, for £12.20. The Executive, a
wallet style case, holds the Pocketbook and up to two PCMCIA cards, and
costs £22.20. Finally, the storage card holds up to six PCMCIA cards
(but not the Pocketbook itself) for £17.00. Carriage at £1.50 per order
and VAT need to be added to the above prices.
8.8
Risc PC Acorn Access − The price has changed on the Acorn Access card
for the Risc PC. The new price is £140 through Archive. However, it
isn’t actually available yet as there are still various issues to be
resolved about Ethernet revisions, etc. In the meantime, we can get a
Risc PC Access look-alike from Atomwide which will cost £150 through
Archive.
8.8
Risc PC case expansion − If you want to expand your Risc PC to three or
four slices (i.e. to take six or eight expansion cards), they are now
available through Archive. To upgrade an ACB15/25 to two slices, as
previously, costs £116, to three slices costs £316 and to four slices
£352. If you already have a two-slice machine then to go to three slices
will cost £257 and to four slices £316.
8.8
SAS2 − Morley Electronics have updated their SAS backup software. It has
been completely rewritten for enhanced performance and offers a flexible
and easy-to-use system. Timed backups, either using a proprietary format
or the Unix standard TAR format can be configured and data can be
compressed using the RISC OS 3 !Squash application. A Log file is saved
to aid restoration, allowing individual or multiple files/directories to
be restored. Possible target devices include SCSI tape streamers, hard
drives, removable hard disks and floppy disk drives. The cost is £99
+VAT from Morley or £110 through Archive (or £49 +VAT for an upgrade
from version 1 from Morley).
8.8
TeleText Turbo − XOB have a new version of their TeleCard Network
software. The TeleText Turbo can capture and distribute eight live and
eight local services from each of up to six TeleCards. Data is cached at
the server, so access, even from a remote client, is regularly quicker
than a teletext television. The cache is updated automatically so each
page will, on average, be no more than a few seconds out of date or, if
desired, the client can request that pages are grabbed directly off air.
A viewdata editor is supplied to permit the setting up of local services
for departments, for example. The server can coexist with other servers,
such as level 4. The Card and software costs £299 from XOB. The standard
network version of the telecard is now available for £190. The Teletext
Turbo software costs £169.
8.8
Tesco scheme starts again − The Tesco Computers for Schools scheme
starts again on 24th April and runs up to 2nd July. Schools requiring
additional packs or with enquiries about the scheme can contact the
Schools’ Helpline on 0171-580-9370 or send an email to
‘[e-mail]’. With Tesco’s recent
acquisition of over fifty William Low stores, the scope of participation
is extended in Scotland.
8.8
VerbMaster-French − This is a multitasking verb management and learning
application, which supports a range of tenses and features automatic
conjugation of regular verbs, easy entering of irregular verbs, addition
of new tenses, and production of printed verb tests and verb tables. The
supplied version includes a help file and a selection of conjugated
verbs. The registered version has additional verb files, along with
text-only and Impression DDF format versions of the manual for printing.
Registration of VerbMaster costs £7.50 single-user, or £15 for a site
licence, and will offer a discount on VerbMaster-German when it is
available. Unregistered versions are available from APDL and other PD
libraries or direct from the author Nigel Caplan.
8.8
VZap − The shareware virus killing software from Digital Phenomena has
just been updated, although the price remains at £5. New features
include redesigned windows (using NewLook), and suspicious !Boot files
are no longer deleted, but suspicious lines are commented out for later
inspection. Automatic virus elimination is available and there are, if
required, free upgrades and support for registered users. It can scan
all known filing systems with a single click, and it prevents known
viruses from loading.
8.8
World War II on the Home Front Another in the set of Anglia Television’s
Key datafiles, this CD contains a number of resources. A large selection
of photographs from the Hulton Deutsch Collection which illustrate the
period between 1938 and 1947 are included, along with their own
historical text, with captions often written by the photographers and
additional comments from today’s perspective. The price is £40 +VAT or
£45 through Archive.
8.8
Review software received...
8.8
We have received review copies of the following: •CDFast (for Networks)
(u), •Garden Wildlife CD (e), •More Stage 2 Talking Stories (e),
•PicturePoint (e), •Rainbow Multimedia (e), •PIMS (Primary Management
System) (e), •TableCalc (u), •Talking Animated Alphabet (e), •VerbMaster
(French) (e).

Products Available
8.9
Acorn price reductions − Acorn have dropped the prices of some of their
computers and peripherals as follows:
8.9
  A4 portable £1996 −−> £1521
8.9
  A3020 Floppy (2Mb) £843 −−> £703
8.9
  A3020 HD80 (2Mb) £1019 −−> £880
8.9
  Risc PC 2/210Mb + 17“ monitor £1938 −−> £1761
8.9
  Risc PC 5/210Mb + 17“ monitor £2114 −−> £1937
8.9
  Risc PC 9/420Mb + 17“ monitor £2466 −−> £2290
8.9
  OPL Editor £65 −−> £46
8.9
  Schedule £19 −−> £15
8.9
  Plotter £34 −−> £24
8.9
  Floating Point Accelerator £116 −−> £57
8.9
Acorn Replay Starter Kit − This includes a CD containing sample videos,
stills and examples of multimedia applications, plus AREncode which
allows you to compress your own films or add/change the accompanying
soundtracks. There are also two manuals: the user guide, which has
details of the software supplied, and ‘A Guide to Desktop Multimedia’,
with advice on creating your own multimedia applications, shooting
video, locating material, as well as tips on layout and style, etc. This
costs £41 inclusive through Archive. (Repeat entry because we forgot the
price last month!)
8.9
Almost Logo − The Advisory Unit have updated their popular turtle
graphics program. The suggestions for changes have come from teachers
throughout the UK who have been using the program in schools. New
features include easier creation of new procedures and teacher control
of step sizes to adjust the amount the turtle moves for a single unit.
The package will drive both Valiant and Jessop floor turtles, and all
commands can be supplied using a concept keyboard. Single user price is
£25 +VAT, site licence £75 +VAT, from the Advisory Unit.
8.9
Application compression − Partis Logistics offer a service for software
developers enabling approximately 100% more data to be stored on a
floppy for distribution. If required, copy protection systems can also
be added. Prices start from £250 per master disc.
8.9
ArcShare − ArcShare is an application for Microsoft Windows which allows
a PC to connect to an Acorn Access network, and requires only a standard
PC network card to operate. Fast Ethernet transfers are supported and it
offers automatic file-typing of data. Files of any size can be
transferred, and a simple FileManager style front end makes it easy to
understand. Arcshare can be called up from the file manager.
8.9
Files and directories can be created or deleted on the Acorn, from the
PC. Files can be copied from any position on the Acorn to any position
on the PC. CD-ROM, floppy drives, IDE and SCSI drives on the Acorn can
be accessed directly. The price is £79 +VAT from KCS Premier.
8.9
Brother laser printer − Following a good report from one of our
subscribers, Steve Godfrey, we have added a new laser printer to our
price list. The Brother HL660 is a 600×600 dpi printer with 2Mb RAM and
it runs at 6 pages per minute. Steve says that it works very well with
the Laserjet4 definition file on !Printers 1.28 and he is very pleased
with it. The Brother HL660 is available through Archive for £650 inc VAT
and carriage.
8.9
Budget games − If you enjoyed Space Invaders and Rocket Raid on the
Beeb, you’ll enjoy two budget games from Generation Design. RoboCatch is
Space Invaders with scenery. You don’t get 3D graphics or a CD’s worth
of sound, but this is a budget game... it only costs £7.99 (no VAT −
they’re not registered) and it comes on two discs! You get nine zones,
with five sub-levels, to complete. To gain points, you blow-up the
aliens, then catch their cargo. Along the way, you can get ‘power-ups’
which increase your score and status. Overall, this isn’t a game to last
you a lifetime, but the bombs do blow you up... and you do actually get
annoyed when you fail to beat your last high score.
8.9
In Caves of Confusion, you control a rocket flying horizontally through
a cave. In your path are obstacles which have to be avoided or blown up.
There are four increasingly harder levels. There’s lots of fun,
explosions and frustration, and all for £6.99 from Generation Design.
8.9
BurnOut − Oregan Developments have just released a new race game called
BurnOut − a racing game like no other. Driving on tracks that have more
in common with roller coaster rides than conventional race tracks, you
must pit your skill and reflexes against five other dune-buggy drivers.
You have twenty drivers to choose from, and ten different dune buggies.
Racing takes place on an island split into ten areas with different
scenery, such as woodland, beach, desert, canyon, town, mountains and
coastal port. Each area has a number of tracks, three on the first area,
rising to ten on the hardest. To qualify for the next race, you must
finish in either 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. Tracks are constructed not only
on the ground, but also on scaffold, logs, over or through canyons, and
through water. BurnOut features arcade-style intro sequences with stereo
music and sound effects playing simultaneously during gameplay. BurnOut
costs £24.95 inc VAT from Oregan Developments or £23 through Archive.
8.9
CineWorks CD − The new CineWorks video editing package from Oregan is
supplied with a sample CD. The CD is available separately, as a
demonstration of the product’s capabilities. The price is £19.95, which
is refundable against a purchase of CineWorks, when it is available.
8.9
Digital Symphony CD-ROM − Oregan have produced a CD-ROM containing 500Mb
of Digital Symphony tunes, as well as hundreds of samples for use in
creating your own music. The RRP is £29.95 from Oregan, or £28 through
Archive.
8.9
Digital Symphony upgrade − Oregan have upgraded Digital Symphony to
ensure compatibility with the Risc PC.
8.9
EasyFont 3 upgrade − Easy Font 3 from Fabis Computing has been upgraded
to accept fonts automatically from Zenta Multimedia’s new Font Emporium
CD and the new iSV font pack. Anyone wishing to upgrade should return
their original disc to Fabis with two first class stamps.
8.9
Ethernet Design and Installation Guide − This guide book from Acorn aims
to help you through the stages necessary to set up an Ethernet network
using Acorn equipment by giving you the information you need to discuss
your plans with network specialists so that they can design and build
the network you require. It is for network managers intending to install
an Ethernet network, either a new network, replacing a slower system, or
extending an existing network. It does not teach you how to design or
install the network yourself. The price is £20 through Archive.
8.9
Fast IDE Interface − RapIDE Risc PC, 32-bit DMA-based Interface for the
Risc PC. The Interface provides vastly increased throughput over the
Risc PC motherboard. Using alternative drives it is possible to achieve
reading speeds in excess of 8Mb per second using 32-bit direct memory
access. It provides two IDE ports, allowing up to four devices to be
connected, including IDE CD-ROMs. RapIDE Risc PC Interface costs £99
+VAT +£5 p&p, from Yellowstone Educational Solutions.
8.9
Faster Risc PC 486 cards − Aleph One have limited supplies of their
variants of the PC processor card for the Risc PC. Currently Cyrix
486DX2/66 or DX40 processors are available. The cards co-exist with
ARM610, 700 and 710 processors and, like the Acorn PC card, share the
Risc PC memory and peripherals. The DX2/66 costs £399 +VAT and the DX40
costs £349 +VAT from Aleph One.
8.9
Geordian protection systems − Geordian Systems have two products to
protect developers from computer piracy. Geordian Lock allows developers
to protect their own software using a keydisc system. Geordian Installer
offers the ability to protect software which has been installed to a
hard disc by ensuring that it will only run off the hard disc to which
it has been installed (although the software can be freely moved on that
hard disc). If the user needs to move the software to a different
medium, the software can be uninstalled and reinstalled to a different
drive. Contact Geordian Systems for details.
8.9
Insight 95 − Acorn are putting on a residential conference for head
teachers, department heads, IT coordinators and anyone involved in
planning or implementing educational IT strategies. The conference
includes two days of training; four 90 minute sessions on the first day,
and three on the second day. Topics include, planning and implementing
IT strategies, training in the use of Acorn RISC OS computers, software
and network systems, and use of popular RISC OS packages from third
parties. There are almost 100 sessions to choose from, covering a wide
range of packages at different levels.
8.9
The conference is being held at the Hinckley Island Hotel on Friday 14th
and Saturday 15th July. The cost is £499, but bookings received before
26th May 1995 qualify for a reduced price of £249 +VAT (£292.58
inclusive). The price includes all meals plus accommodation for the
night of the 14th July.
8.9
For those unable to attend, Acorn offer a range of courses at their
training centre in Cambridge.
8.9
Details can be obtained from The Insight 95 Administrator at Acorn.
8.9
MacroLife − Macrolife is a desktop version of the famous game of life,
invented by the British mathematician John Conway in 1970. It displays a
scrollable window onto a Life plane, or grid, onto which you can place
patterns of cells and watch how they evolve. ‘Life’ is a fascinating
game in which patterns of cells on a two-dimensional plane evolve,
according to a simple rule. Despite its simplicity, Life patterns can
behave like living organisms, moving, growing and even − theoretically,
at least − reproducing and evolving.
8.9
A copy of the full program can be obtained by sending a cheque for £8 to
Chris Taylor, 7 Prideaux Place, London WC1X 9PP. If you are on the net,
he can email you a copy (without the printed manual) for £7. Chris will
then donate four pounds to Motivation, a charity which designs
inexpensive wheelchairs and organises their production using local
materials in countries which cannot afford commercial models.
8.9
Money Manager − This is a new accounts package from Wynded Software,
designed for home or business use where there is the need to store all
financial transactions in an orderly way. Often only a simple mouse
selection is needed, although keyboard shortcuts are available as you
grow more accustomed to using the package. Capable of storing up to 500
transactions in each month (6,000 in a 12 month data file). Easy-to-use
reporting facilities are included, allowing the specification of which
accounts should be used. Reports can then be exported to almost any
wordprocessor or DTP package.
8.9
NetReader − NetReader, from Digital Phenomena, is an off-line reader for
Usenet messages downloaded from Internet Conferences. The package is
shareware (£10 registration fee). Private and newsgroup messages are
supported; message files should be in “#! rnews” format. Facilities
include auto expiry of messages, and automatic signatures.
8.9
NoticeBoard − A new version has just been released by The Really Good
Software Company. Notice Board is the electronic display system which
enables sequences of poster-like displays to be run on unattended
monitors. The advanced version of NoticeBoard has an improved front-end
for easier page setup, and an option to use fades between pages whilst
the program is running. Current users can obtain an upgrade by returning
their existing disc to RGSC. The new version is £35 inclusive.
8.9
NStore 4D − H.S. Software have updated their National Curriculum record-
keeping package. Automated report writing has been added, and the
package includes the latest (1995) level descriptions in all the
subjects, for both primary and secondary. NStore 4D costs £44.95
inclusive, and includes a manual and two program discs, sufficient for
six classes of 36 children. Additional program discs for use in the same
school are available for £3 each.
8.9
Upgrades are available for existing users (£4.70 from version 4.0,
£16.95 from version 3.0 − you need to return your program disc, or quote
your disc registration number when ordering).
8.9
Outline fonts from iSV − iSV aim to produce a new item each month. Among
some of their latest releases are two outline fonts packs (277 and 298).
The fonts are mostly PD versions from the USA. iSV have converted them,
added scaffold lines and kerning data, and packaged them for the Acorn
market. Many of the letters have been re-drawn and missing ones
included. In pack 298, there are 39 families, each with Regular,
Oblique, Condensed, Condensed Oblique, Extended, Extended Oblique (about
273 fonts). Pack 277 contains 14 families with about 120 fonts. The
packs cost £25 each, or £45 for the two, from iSV Products − p&p £1.50.
8.9
Plantwise − Those who have seen the quality of Sherston’s Bodywise
software will be pleased that their next offering, Plantwise, is now
available. “Plantwise allows pupils to explore all aspects of plant life
in highly intuitive and informative ways.” It covers the major part of
the National Curriculum requirements for green plants as organisms at
both KS2 and KS3, and can be tailored to present easier or harder text
as required. The pack includes search cards, experiment sheet, user’s
manual and a guide to using the software in the classroom. Plantwise
costs £44.95 +VAT from Sherston or £50 through Archive.
8.9
Rocket for your Pocket − ExpLAN have created a set of spreadsheet
datafiles for the Acorn Pocket Book and Psion 3/3a computers, for use in
Science, Maths and Technology. When used in conjunction with a Payloader
rocket, it enables pupils to track the rocket’s flight using a hand-held
protractor device, and calculate the height with the Pocket Book. The
datafiles contain formulae to calculate the average height from multiple
readings, filter out erroneous measurements, calculate the burn-time for
a given engine and calculate the thrust and acceleration. The payload
carried can be varied, and a graph of mass against height can then be
plotted. Further details from ExpLAN.
8.9
Spelling Book − Spelling Book, from Creative Curriculum Software, is
aimed at users from 4 years old and upwards, provided they need help
with their spelling! It integrates with any word processor on every
Acorn 32-bit computer and is easy to configure and use.
8.9
It is not a spell checker, but rather, a computerised spelling book.
When activated, dictionaries are instantly integrated in alphabetical
order. Dictionaries responding to curriculum needs can be simply and
quickly created, and a number of preset dictionaries are supplied with
Spelling Book. Also included on the disc are three spelling games:
Wordsearch, Fireworks and Art Gallery. Single user £39 +VAT; site
licence £89 +VAT.
8.9
Textease templates − PaperSoft Ltd have just produced a selection of
templates for use with Textease. The first two selections contain 100+
templates for Paper Direct Business Papers and 40+ templates for Paper
Direct Fun/Theme Papers (they cost £24.95 and £14.95 inclusive,
respectively). For label printing, there are templates for Avery laser,
and Avery b&w and colour inkjet labels (the laser label templates cost
£14.95, the inkjet labels cost £7.95). Finally, there are templates for
Avery’s indexing system. The template disc includes precision software
for each of the IndexMaker and ReadyIndex sheets, and for each number of
divisions (5, 6, 10 and 12). Label and Index discs also contain a small
clipart library of useful label and indexing icons.
8.9
Trip − This package from Creative Curriculum Software has been designed
to provide assistance with the organising of school visits at home and
abroad. It is a purpose-designed database application for the trip
organiser, which can also be used to illustrate, for educational
purposes, the practical use of a database. Trip handles all the accounts
relating to a school visit − deposits, staged payments, special prices,
payment for optional activities, etc. It also stores all personal
details required − emergency addresses, dates-of-birth − and records
items received, (passport, medical information, etc). It costs £14.95
+VAT from CCS.
8.9
VersaTile − VersaTile, from Dial Solutions, is a tiling program designed
to encourage students of any age to explore geometry. The aim of the
software is to allow investigation of 2D shapes with the minimum of
restrictions, yet to utilise the computer’s power to provide a dramatic
increase in accuracy and productivity over conventional paper, pencil
and scissor techniques. It is a flexible tool that allows tiles to be
drawn easily and manipulated in a similar way to moving shapes around on
a table. VersaTile comes on two discs, and includes Oak Solutions’
!DrawPlot and !DrawPrint, plus a disc of examples.
8.9
VersaTile costs £45 +VAT for a single user, £100 +VAT for a primary
school licence and £200 +VAT for a secondary licence from CCS.
8.9
VideoTrak − This new release from the Really Good Software Company
should be welcomed by video enthusiasts keen to get their video
collection organised. Once details have been entered into VideoTrak, you
can browse through the catalogues and easily locate any film by title,
actor, director, etc. With all categories fully cross-referenced, just
selecting, for example, an actor’s name will provide a list of all his
or her films, with instant access to detailed information on individual
films and which tape they are on. VideoTrak costs £15 inclusive from
RGSC.
8.9
Wing chair pricing − The kneeling chairs that we have been recommending
(see Archive 8.3 p4) are going up in price to £340. However, I have one
in stock (black base with grey upholstery) at £290. Give us a ring if
you are interested − first come, first served.
8.9
Review software received...
8.9
We have received review copies of the following: •CDFast (for Networks)
(u), •Macrolife (e), •Money Manager (u), •More Talking Stories (e),
•NoticeBoard (m), •Outline fonts from iSV (u), •Spelling Book (e), •Trip
(e), •Textease Templates (u), •VersaTile (e), •VideoTrak (u) •Vzap (u).
8.9
e=Education, b=Business, bk=Book, c=Comms, g=Game, h=Hardware,
l=Language, m=Multimedia, u=Utility, a=Art.

Acorn PC cards − Acorn say that they have now distributed all of the
first 10,000 Risc PC 486 PCcards and that there won’t be any more
available now until August. If you are still waiting for one, the only
option we can offer is to supply an Aleph One version at cost. The DX40
is £406 and the DX2-66 is £466 (i.e. £290 and £350 respectively if you
have already paid for your Acorn card), but this does NOT include a copy
of DOS. (N.B. We can only sell at this price to those already on the
waiting list.)
8.10
Ancestry II − Minerva have updated Ancestry, based on feedback from
users. Features of particular interest are import and export of GedCom
data, variable field lengths and linking of text files. Ancestry II is
also fully multitasking. The price is £99.95 inc VAT or £95 through
Archive. Registered users of Ancestry should have received details of a
special upgrade offer.
8.10
Bell-ringing simulator − John Harrison has developed a program called
Strike which is designed to help develop bell-ringing listening skills −
basically a self-teaching aid for bell ringers presented in the form of
a game. This costs £15 inclusive from John, and £10 of that goes to
restoration work. You’ve heard of shareware, freeware and careware,
well, this is belfryware! Send cheques to John at 2 Murdoch Road,
Wokingham, RG40 2DA.
8.10
CD-ROM Mastering − Eesox are continuing to offer a CD-ROM mastering
service, costing £60 +VAT. Data can be submitted on 650Mb magneto-
optical disc, or SCSI or IDE hard disc. Most jobs can be turned around
within 24 hours. As an added incentive, anyone purchasing an Eesox CD-
ROM drive will receive a voucher giving a 50% discount on the production
of a CD-ROM.
8.10
Celebration − A collection from Clares Micro Supplies of four
applications on the theme of celebrations. Banner can be used to create
both horizontal and vertical display banners using outline fonts, draw
and sprite files. Calendar is designed for monthly or yearly calendars −
a number of formats and languages can be used. Certify will produce
personalised certificates with the names being entered individually or
from a text file for multiple names. Giftwrap allows the creation of
wrapping paper, as well as other pattern creation and textile design.
A single user version costs £34.95 including VAT. A site-licence,
covering an unlimited number of machines within the named site is
available for £82.25 inclusive.
8.10
Cine Works − Oregan Developments have produced a sophisticated 32-track
video mixing and editing studio, combined with 16-track audio
capabilities. Video clips may be mixed together using a variety of
transitions which are typically found in professional video editing
environments. Transitions range from standard wipes and fades, to more
adventurous central zooms and mosaic cuts. Full vision correction
controls are provided so that Replay and MPEG clips may have their
brightness, colour and contrast adjusted at any time after they have
been captured, and even varied throughout the clip. The price from
Oregan Developments is £159.95 inclusive or £152 through Archive.
8.10
Composition − This is a new art package for the Risc PC which enables
object-based operations to be carried out on bit map images. Each image
is treated as an object and effects applied appropriately. Features
include image processing options, tints, shadowing, gamma and colour
curve correction, sprite trimming, mask editing, rescaling and
distortion, OLE of sprites to other applications, fully adaptive anti-
aliasing of text using outline fonts, import of sprites, clear, JPEG,
TIFF, TGA, PCX, PBM, BMP, PhotoCD, Draw and Artworks files, export of
Composition format (retaining effects and features) or sprite, JPEG,
Clear, TGA or PBM formats. The price from Clares is £169.95 including
VAT (or £158 through Archive) and special offers are available for users
of ProArt24, and other art packages − contact Clares for details.
8.10
Digital Darkroom − A new company, based in Kent, the Digital Darkroom
offers a conversion service for Acorn Computers. Colour slides or
negatives can be produced from sprites and drawfiles images − especially
useful for presentations. A single slide costs £7.50, but orders for
larger quantities will be considerably lower (20 or more will cost no
more than £3.50 per slide). Regular users will also be offered a
preferential rate. Documents, film and video taped images can also be
transferred to Acorn format files. Quality of such images will be
dependent upon the source quality.
8.10
Digital Symphony Masterpieces
8.10
Collection − We mentioned this CD-ROM last month but, unfortunately, got
the price wrong. It costs £24.95 inclusive from Oregan Developments or
£24 through Archive.
8.10
DTP book − Following the success of Robin Williams’ book on DTP design
(“The Non-Designer’s Design Book”) we got hold of a copy of “The Mac is
not a Typewriter” to which she refers several times in NDDB. Although,
as the title suggest, the book is aimed at the Mac market, there is very
little that is different on the Acorn machines, and I have prepared a
supplement sheet to go with it so that it can be used for those using
Acorn machines for DTP. Here’s what the official blurb about it says...
8.10
“The Mac is not a Typewriter” by Robin Williams is one of the most
popular Mac books ever sold (over 300,000 now in print). It covers the
top twenty things you need to know to make your documents look clean and
professional: em dashes, curly quotes, spaces and indents, white spaces,
etc. It’s a primer that novices can pick up quickly, and that pro’s can
keep going back to. It is the winner of the 1991 Benjamin Franklin
Award, Computer Book Category.
8.10
My view, for what it is worth, is that it’s another excellent book by
Robin Williams. I have to admit that it it can’t compare with NDDB in
terms of value for money (£10 including p&p through Archive cf £13 for
NDDB) but, to be fair, NDDB is exceptional. So I would still say that
The Mac is not a Typewriter is well worth the cost and, to support my
claim, I will again make the same offer of a complete money-back
guarantee if it is returned within 14 days. I know I’m on a winner there
because, out of the hundreds of copies of NDDB we have sold, we haven’t
had a single one returned.
8.10
Graphing and Charting − As mentioned in last month’s !Help column, Chris
Johnson has released his collection of graph and function plotting
applications. The applications are Graphdraw, ChartDraw, Multiplot,
FnPlotter, Surface, 3DFnEdit and Text>Draw. The price is £4 inclusive,
direct from Chris Johnson, 7 Lovedale Grove, Balerno, Edinburgh, EH14
7DR.
8.10
iSV Product Guide − iSV have produced issue 3 of their product guide,
containing details and samples of nearly 600 RISC OS 3 fonts, along with
information regarding their software products. The product guide is free
and a demo disc is available for £2, both direct from iSV.
8.10
NetMail − An extension to Archiboard, this package offers a consistent
WIMP front end to email and news groups within a school. It is designed
to operate over any AUN compliant network, allowing email and conference
articles to be retrieved from the Archiboard server. Due to the
consistent interface, information can be retrieved from Internet,
FidoNet or the local system in the same way, so staff and pupils do not
need to learn separate systems. MIME support is also included, which
allows files to be attached to messages for sending via any of the
networks, although the recipient will need MIME support to extract the
message. (MIME clients are available for most platforms including Mac,
PC and Unix workstations.) Prices start from £80 +VAT + p&p from Supreme
Software Solutions.
8.10
Network Cybernetics VR
8.10
CD-ROM − Lambda Publications can now supply this CD-ROM which holds a
collection of virtual reality, telepresence and computer simulation
development tools. Included are virtual reality development tools and
sources, VR hardware interfacing source code and documentation, VR &
simulation research papers and conference reports, simulation packages
for many different fields of science, simulation development tools and
sources, 3-D modelling utilities, development tools and sources, and a
collection of 3-D object data in several file formats. The CD costs £65
including p&p and is supplied on 30 days evaluation. Existing customers
and Archive readers can purchase it for £45.50.
8.10
Oxford Talking Infant Atlas − Sherston Software have released an updated
version of their Oxford Infant Atlas, aimed at Key Stage 1 Geography.
The software features optional labels for country, places and other
geographical features, quiz questions to ask children to identify
geographic features, sampled human speech for all sentences, place names
and labels, along with animations and sound effects. The price is £20
+VAT for a single user version (or £22 through Archive) and an
accompanying paperback atlas is available from Sherston for £2.80.
8.10
Patience Addict − Creative Curriculum Software have released a
collection of twenty patience games, including one and two pack games,
of varying levels of difficulty and complexity. The single user version
is £12.73 +VAT.
8.10
Plantwise − Sherston Software have produced an interactive graphical
database designed for 9−14 year olds, similar to their earlier database,
Bodywise, with the addition of an interactive experiment section.
Included in the pack are three discs, a set of experiment cards, a set
of question cards, a user guide, and a booklet showing how to use
Plantwise in the classroom. It costs £44.95 +VAT from Sherston Software
or £50 through Archive.
8.10
Purple Software − A range of products from Purple Software is available
now for the Psion series 3 and Acorn Pocket Book range. There are
currently five products: DataView (£59.95), an enhanced database with
table view, sorting, label printing and mail merge; File Manager
(£39.95), for extra control of files, directories and SSD’s; FloChart
(£49.95), a free-form flow chart designer; OrgChart (£49.95), a free-
form organisation chart designer; DrawIt (£49.95) an object-based
drawing package.
8.10
RecordZ − The database section of FireworkZ pro is now available as a
stand-alone database from Colton Software. The price is £99 +VAT or £110
through Archive.
8.10
Report − This is a program for hard-pressed, report-writing teachers. It
has been designed as a tool to speed up the process of writing reports,
by inserting often used phrases and comments into a sentence. The writer
reckons that the whole report-writing process can be speeded up by a
factor of 10. The price is £14.95 for a single user or £29.95 for a site
licence. Until August, there is a special launch price of £9.95 and
£19.95 respectively. A demo version is available for £1 (refundable on
ordering) or by sending a stamped addressed envelope and disc requesting
it. Report is available from: Robert Lytton, 7 Helmsley Drive, West
Park, Leeds, LS16 5HY. (The demo version is on this month’s program
disc.)
8.10
Sibelius showroom − Sibelius 7 now has a dedicated London high-street
showroom at Turnkey, 114-116 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0DT (0171-379-
5148) (0171-379-0093). The new showroom gives customers the opportunity
to compare Sibelius on the Risc PC with a 486 PC running Windows
software so that they can judge for themselves which is best!
8.10
SOS − Save our Squirrels!! − Denis Bastaple, a former director of
Digital Services Ltd, bought out the rights to Squirrel and other
software when DSL went into voluntary liquidation. Squirrel, Armlock,
Netgain (Econet and Ethernet), Waiter, Digistore and Archway are now all
available from, and fully supported by, DSL Supplies.
8.10
Studio 24 has had some major updates and the new version will be
available very soon. The full price is £199, or £189 through Archive.
The upgrade for existing users will be FOC through Pineapple Software.
8.10
TableMate 3 − Dalriada Data Technology have raised their comprehensive
table-making application to version 3, which incorporates some
worthwhile improvements and is available from Dalriada for £32.50
inclusive. Anyone who bought TableMate 2 on or after 1 March 1995 may
upgrade to version 3 for £2.50, otherwise the upgrade from v2 costs £5.
Send your remittance and original disc to Dalriada. Upgrade from earlier
versions is currently £10-£20, depending on the variant (e.g. as bundled
with Impression). Contact Dalriada for an upgrade price.
8.10
New features include: button bar similar to Style or Publisher, use of
desktop interactive help with button bar, OLE to !Draw, Formulix etc,
simple spreadsheet, right & left justified and centred text, import &
export of CSV files, automatic addition of quotes for headers in CSV
files, vertical ruler, vertical tab (top, middle or bottom of cell),
vertical joining/splitting of cells, multiple rule-offs between columns
and/or rows, reorganised menus, currency character control, £ default,
colour picker RGB, HSV, CMYK, more Impression compatible keystrokes with
the option of using the old TableMate2 ones.
8.10
Technology and Design CD-ROM − NW SEMERC has set up this CD-ROM to make
pupils at Key Stages 2 and 3 think about technology and design in
everyday life. The CD isn’t just confined to the Design and Technology
department, but can be used in Maths, English, Geography and History.
Everything is based on the town of ‘Skegton’, with pupils seeking ways
of improving the daily life of its inhabitants. The Technology and
Design CD-ROM is available from Northwest SEMERC, price £49 +VAT.
8.10
Teletext+ − Octopus Systems, who purchased the remaining stock of Ground
Control Teletext adaptors, have announced a new version of the
controlling software, which incorporates a number of new features.
Frequently used pages are cached on disc, thereby improving response
times. Sub pages are also cached, so you no longer need to wait for the
page you just missed to come round again. Keywords can also be searched
for to find important information automatically; the search can take
place over all pages or just on likely pages, so you can search for a
particular television programme, for example. Pages can be exported as
teletext, sprite or plain text formats. The software upgrade for
existing Ground Control teletext cards is £39, including p&p and VAT. If
you would like the teletext hardware as well as the software, the
package is £165 inclusive, while stocks last.
8.10
TEX and LATEX for RISC OS − A new implementation of the powerful
typesetting language TEX, complete with the latest version of LATEX and
lots of other goodies is now available for RISC OS computers. It has
been ported from the world of Unix by Mark Sinke in Holland, and is
coordinated in this country by Robin Watts at Oxford University. It is
freely available by ftp from ftp.comlab.ox.ac.uk in the directory /tmp/
Robin.Watts/TeX, or from good PD libraries.
8.10
UK Habitats − This new resource CD-ROM from AVP Picturebase gives
details of a number of habitats in the UK. The aim is to give an
understanding of the variety of living things, and of the way they
survive and compete for resources. Habitats covered include Deciduous
Woodland, Urban, Farm Land, Sand Dune, Fresh Water, Salt Marsh, Sand and
Mud, Roadside and Hedgerow. The single user educational price is £99
+VAT or £150 +VAT including a site licence from AVP.
8.10
World Data for primary schools − The Centre for World Development
Education (CWDE) have now released the World Development Database for
use in primary Schools. This is the result of a collaboration with
Sheffield Hallam University who produced the Database Project book
included with the pack. The book includes ideas for data handling in
English, Geography, Mathematics and Science at Key Stage 2. The User
Handbook contains practical information about the datafiles and fields.
The large amount of data in the original version is retained, but a
SlimWorld file has been added with easy-to-understand field names. Acorn
and PC versions are available, with data in KeyPlus/KeyNote (Anglia),
CSV and Text formats for import into most databases. A single user pack
includes a User Handbook, a Database Project book, the World Bank’s
“Development Data Book”, supplemental 1991 Data Sheet and data disc, and
costs £25 +VAT. A class set containing all the above, reproducible data
disc and two extra Data Books, is available for £45 +VAT from CWDE.
8.10
World Habitats − This is another CD-ROM in the AVP Picturebase series,
containing pictures, written text and spoken word, covering the world’s
major habitats. Comparisons can be made by choosing elements from
different modules. Possible uses include covering impact of human
activities on environmental systems, the occurrence and effects of
natural hazards, and the need for management and conservation of fragile
habitats. Habitats included are Mountain, Alpine, Desert, Mediterranean,
Tropical Mountain, Savanna, Polar and Temperate Forest. The single user
educational price is £99 +VAT or £150 +VAT including a site licence from
AVP.
8.10
Review software received...
8.10
We have received review copies of the following: •CineWorks (pre-
release) (m), •Composition (a), •Graphs & Charts (eu), •Report (e),
•Strike (ge),•Textease Templates (u).
8.10
Products Available
8.11
ARM RISC Chip: A Programmer’s Guide − This book, by Alex van
Someren and Carol Atack, examines the ARM RISC processor, and support
chips, in particular the ARM6 core. It gives details of the instruction
set, both integer and floating point, and covers many other topics
essential for assembly language programming. The price is £24.95 or £25
through Archive (including p&p). More information is available on page 2
8.11
CD-ROMs from Anglia Multimedia − Anglia Multimedia have released
three CD-ROMs aimed at the 11−14 age group. The three titles are:
‘Industrial Revolution’, ‘Understanding Energy’ and ‘Castles’. The CDs
use a full range of multimedia techniques − there are video clips and
animation, hundreds of photographs, vector graphics, scanned images,
text and audio clips.
8.11
The Castles CD contains information on over 150 castles in the
British Isles and Ireland, including all the English Heritage sites.
Building a castle, attacking a castle and defending a castle are all
part of one of the chapters on the disc. Another chapter takes you to
Chirk Castle in the time of Edmund Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, where you
meet castle guides who explain their role and their life. They are
mostly real characters − based on the account rolls of Chirk.
8.11
The principal themes of ‘Industrial Revolution’ are Transport,
Agriculture, Industry and People. The disc allows you to visit the homes
of rich and poor, introduces inventors and industrialists, demonstrates
traditional techniques and explores the highways, railways and canals
which allowed the Industrial Revolution to take place.
8.11
Understanding Energy examines the different sources of energy we
have at our disposal, looking at how they have been used in the past and
how they might be developed in the future. It provides a comprehensive
introduction to the Science, History, Technology and Geography of
energy. It addresses the understanding of energy under four main
headings. ‘What is energy?’ is approached in the first section; the
second answers the question ‘How do we get our energy supplies?’; the
third question is, ‘Who uses what?’ and the fourth deals with, ‘Future
energy decisions’.
8.11
Understanding Energy costs £50 +VAT (£56 through Archive).
Castles costs £40 +VAT (£45 through Archive) and the Industrial
Revolution costs £110 +VAT (£122 through Archive). Schools that already
have licences for the Key Plus database system can purchase this CD for
£90 +VAT from Anglia Multimedia.
8.11
CD-Tracker − This package is a database and playing utility for
(audio) CDs from Werewolf Software. The database facilities are
available on any machine and allow you to make a record of your CDs, and
which tracks are on which disc. The data can also be exported to/from a
wide range of databases (including the ARM Club’s SmartCD). On machines
which have a CD-ROM drive fitted, it is also possible to use the program
to control the drive to play your CDs in a favourite order, shuffled or
just individual tracks. The price is £12.72 + £1 p&p from Werewolf
Software. A demo disc is also available which can be downloaded from
Arcade BBS (file: CDdemo), or by post from Werewolf Software. (Either
send them a jiffy bag, return postage and an 800Kb disc, or £1 to cover
DD disc and postage.)
8.11
Disc repair − LOOKsystems have just launched a free Disc Repair
Advice Service and also a ‘No Fix, No Fee’ Data Recovery Service. These
are based on LOOKsystems’ expertise built up on their Archimedes Disc
Rescue software (£35 inc VAT). Since 1991, this has saved 1000’s of
discs and gigabytes of data.
8.11
The free telephone technical help is offered to all of its
registered users and has talked many anxious customers through the
repair and recovery process. LOOKsystems are now offering their
extensive expertise free of charge by launching a new telephone help
line. If you have just lost some important data or your hard drive has
been taken ill, you can call them on 01603-748253 and they will help you
to diagnose the problem and explain whether it is possible to retrieve
your data or not.
8.11
The ‘no fix, no fee’ data recovery service is a fixed fee
service which costs £10 inc VAT for floppy discs and £50 inc VAT for
hard disc drives. As the name suggests, if the disc cannot be repaired
or any useful data recovered, LOOKsystems will waive their fee and
return the disc. However, this fee does not include carriage in either
direction.
8.11
So, for example, anyone sending floppy discs to be repaired
should also send the same number of blank formatted discs onto which the
data can be recovered, an SAE for all of the discs to be returned and a
separate £10 cheque for each disc − this is so you only pay for the
discs that are recovered. Hard disc owners should call LOOKsystems to
discuss the problem in detail before sending any equipment.
8.11
DMI/PowerWAVE 50 − The Audio Dynamics soundcards are now
available for machines with standard sized podules as well as mini
podules (see Archive 8.8 p4). The DMI 50 (Dual Midi Interface) costs
£85, DMI 50 − S, including sampler costs £164. The PowerWAVE 50 includes
wavetable daughter board with 32 channel Ensoniq general Midi
synthesizer with 128 instrument and 49 percussion sounds, removing the
need to have external sound module. This costs £199, and the PowerWAVE
50−S, with sampler, costs £249. All those prices exclude carriage and
VAT. Archive prices are £97, £187, £227 and £284, respectively,
inclusive.
8.11
Finance Manager − A new accounting application for RISC OS
designed for personal, home or club accounting. It will run on any
machine with RISC OS 3 or later, with at least 2Mb of RAM. Features
include unlimited accounts, transactions, automatic payments (standing
orders etc), drag and drop import/export, and backup/restore facilities,
statement production, transaction analysis, automatic filing, fast data
entry, inter-account transfer, powerful categorization of transactions,
forecasting and budgeting. The price is £29.99 inclusive direct from
Solloway Software, and a demonstration disc is also available.
8.11
FPA11 − Acorn have now released the FPA11 Floating Point
Accelerator chip for use with the A5000 and A540. The chip has a maximum
clock rate of 33MHz (cf the earlier FPA10 which was 25MHz). The new chip
will work in machines with a 25MHz clock rate, although there is no
advantage in doing so, over using the FPA10. For users with 33MHz
versions of the A5000, however, you will gain the 30% performance
increase.
8.11
Acorn quote a peak throughput of 6Mflops, and an average of
4Mflops for a range of calculations. It conforms with IEEE 754-1985 for
single precision arithmetic and, for double or extended precision, has
an accuracy of ± 2 units in the least significant place of the mantissa.
The price is £99 +VAT. If you require additional technical information,
a 62-page data booklet is available from Acorn Direct/Vector Services
for £10 including p&p.
8.11
Hermes − Base5’s “desktop messenger & interpreter” was reviewed
last month, page 59. It can do so many different things that it is
difficult to know how to describe it, or who might want to buy it. It
got a good review, so we have decided to sell it through Archive even
though Base5 is not VAT registered (i.e. we lose 17½% straight away if
we sell it at the same price they do). Then, again, because it has such
a range of features that might be used in all sorts of different ways,
we didn’t know how to categorise it for the price list, so we put it
under both Productivity Tools and Programming.
8.11
Hermes has facilities for text transfer and file interpretation,
graphic file loading, activity recorder, window capture, desktop
monitor, flexible event timer, automatic paragraph numbering and
features over 300 commands. It is available direct from Base5 for £25
(no VAT) or through Archive at £25 including VAT.
8.11
iSV Font Offer − iSV are currently running a summer offer on
their two RISC OS font packs, totalling over 550 fonts. When purchased
together, the packs cost £36.50 including carriage (£15 less than the
usual price).
8.11
IT in the Primary School − This is a new curriculum planning
resource written by teachers for teachers, governors and parents. As the
new National Curriculum orders come into effect many teachers are asking
the question, “What should my children be doing with IT?” The new orders
seem to be written to hide the answers. This new 24-page booklet (text
also supplied on disc) provides realistic targets at three key primary
school points − the end of KS1, mid KS2 and end of KS2.
8.11
A practical progression through Word Processing, Data Handling,
Control, Modelling and Monitoring, enables teachers to check children’s
performance and plan routes through cross-curricular themes and topics,
while others, who may simply wish to work with IT as a subject in its
own right, will also find the book helpful. The IT in the Primary School
booklet and disc cost £10 (no VAT) from Topologika.
8.11
LjDuplex − Mijas Software have updated their Duplex printing of
Impression booklets on HP duplex laserjets. If you are using this, you
should send a disc direct to Mijas Software to receive the upgrade. If
you have not already registered, you should do so at the same time.
8.11
PicturePoint − Longman Logotron have now launched PicturePoint
on CD. It is a data-handling package for infants, and includes colourful
pictures and talking graphs. A number of projects are included, using
pictures relating to birthdays, journeys, fruit, transport, weather and
pets. An example project is a pet ownership survey, where pupils find
out about which class members own what type of pets, and display graphs
to see the information collected. The graphs are updated live, promoting
an understanding of the relationship between the information and what it
represents. The graphs can also ‘speak’ the data at a click of the
mouse. The program has two sections − the collector enables pupils to
collect and display the information by clicking on one of a number of
images, and the designer application enables teachers to create projects
using their own pictures and sounds.
8.11
PicturePoint will run on any Acorn RISC OS computer with CD-ROM
drive and 2Mb RAM. The cost is £29 +VAT and a site licence costs £90
+VAT (£33 and £100 respectively through Archive).
8.11
PocketBook II price drop − Acorn have dropped the price of the
Pocket Book II palm-top computers. The RRP is now £205 +VAT for the
256Kb version, and £255 +VAT for the 512Kb version. The PocketBook II
class pack, containing ten 256Kb versions, a parallel link for printing,
and a desktop link for connecting Pocket Books to a desktop machine
costs £2049 +VAT. (There is also a special deal of an eleventh Pocket
Book II if a set of 10 is bought before 30th September 1995. Ring NCS
for details of this and deals on 20+ Pocket Books.)
8.11
Postmaster for RISC OS − Rapport Limited have just launched a
new PostScript Level II RIP (Raster Image Processor) called PostMaster.
Like other PostScript RIPs, it is available for DOS and UNIX, but it was
co-developed on Acorn machines and is therefore not just a port of a DOS
application. PostMaster gives PostScript to any RISC OS application, and
allows Acorn machines to drive high end professional printing devices
such as image setters. For more information contact Rapport Limited.
8.11
Risc PC TRM − The Risc PC Technical Reference Manual is now
available for £29.95 (no VAT) or £30 inc p&p through Archive.
8.11
SIMMs for Risc PC − The price of SIMMs for the Risc PC is, shall
we say, variable. Because of this, we have to keep our prices, if
anything, a little on the high side. (The same applies to hard drives.)
So when you are thinking of buying, it may be worth ringing up first and
checking if the pricing can be improved at all at the time of purchase.
8.11
Smudge the Scientist − This is a first science program for 4-8
year olds from Storm Educational Software. It comes on three discs
covering Life and Living, Decay, Electricity, Magnets, The Weather and
Floating and Sinking. Three work books are also included to help the
teacher support the program with classroom activities. The price is
£45.99 inc. VAT from Storm or £44 through Archive.
8.11
SnapHappy − This utility from Dial Solutions enables animations
to be made using any desktop application. An area of an application’s
window can be marked and, at a keypress or mouse click, the next frame
in the animation can be grabbed. Any application can be used to produce
the animation since the frame is grabbed off the screen, although
obviously the most suitable applications are those which allow you to
use graphics, such as Draw, or Paint. SnapHappy costs £20 +VAT or £80
+VAT for a site licence from Dial Solutions.
8.11
SoundLab update − Solent Computer Products, who took over the
Oak Recorder System from Oak Solutions have updated the SoundLab
software. Sound processing now includes a reverse option, which can be
applied to all or part of a sample, and samples can be merged from the
clipboard to another sample, starting at any point. The toolbox buttons
can be displayed in a choice of sizes for easier use by young children,
or when using large screen modes. Two new utilities are also provided,
an oscilloscope program which is written in Basic and demonstrates the
use of the SWIs provided, and a RISC OS application to convert Armadeus
format sound files to or from PC WAV format. Existing users who wish to
upgrade should return their discs to Solent, together with a cheque for
£5 +VAT.
8.11
The Theodore Set − This selection of fonts and clipart from the
Datafile is the first in the Engravers collection by Tony Nash. The
collection aims to allow documents to be produced in the style of 18th
and 19th century engravers. The price is £27.50 including p&p and VAT.
8.11
Topologika catalogue − A new catalogue of Topologika’s
educational software is available free of charge − just write, ring or
fax them for a copy.
8.11
ViVID − iSV have released this high-resolution emulator for
older Acorn machines. ViVID requires a VIDC enhancer and a true
multisync monitor. It offers work areas up to 2048×1234 in 16 colours,
up to 1472×1070 in 256 colours via a mode selection utility similar to a
Risc PC. All resolutions also support 16 level greyscale and extended 4
colour dithering. The price is £11.50 inclusive.
8.11
Products Available
8.12
Archive CD − Jumping unashamedly on the bandwagon, NCS has now released
an Archive CD­ROM! The contents are as follows...
8.12
− Archive Impression Files − all of the Archive magazines from 4.5 (the
first one to be done on Acorn machines rather than Macs) up to and
including this one (8.12).
8.12
− Archive Words discs, again from 4.5 to 8.12 − these are text files of
all the articles in those magazines so you can search through for that
elusive article (or was it just a hint?) that you remember reading in
Archive... somewhere!
8.12
− Archive Products Available file − the text of all the Products
Available columns in all the Archive magazines right back to Volume 1,
Issue 1! (“Did anyone ever produce a program for Acorn machines to count
hen’s teeth?”)
8.12
− Archive Monthly Program Discs right from Volume 1 to the present
issue. It’s quite fun looking back at some of the ‘amazing programs’ we
published nearly eight years ago!
8.12
− Archive Utility Discs all eight discs as detailed in section 28 of the
Price List.
8.12
− Archive Hints & Tips Discs − the text of all the hints and tips ever
published in Archive, right back to the days of good old Arthur (the OS
before RISC OS).
8.12
− Archive Glossary − a glossary of almost 300 technical Acorn-related
words, with over 9,000 words of explanation as to what they all mean.
8.12
− Archive PD Discs − Lots of the old ‘Careware’ and ‘Shareware’ discs
that we used to distribute.
8.12
− Archive Multimedia Swap Shop − Paul Hooper has sent us all the best
multimedia applications/binders that he has collected.
8.12
− PLUS a special guest appearance of the oldest-established Archive
author, who has written articles in every single Archive magazine
(barring about two in the first volume) for eight solid years.
8.12
Our very own Gerald Fitton has sent us sample discs for his three disc
subscriptions: Z-Line for users of Fireworkz, PipeLine for users of
PipeDream and I­Line for users of Style, Publisher and P-Plus.
8.12
The Archive CD-ROM costs £15 inc VAT to non-subscribers or £12 to
subscribers.
8.12
As a special launch offer, we will make it available for £8 if purchased
at the same time as renewing your subscription. This is a special offer
strictly until Friday 15th September only. (You may take advantage of
this offer by renewing your subscription now, even if it is not due
until later in the year. You may even avoid an increase in the
subscription rate by doing so!)
8.12
AudioManager − CD Circle have produced an 8-bit mono sound card which
plugs into the parallel port of the Risc PC to offer sound facilities to
the PC card. The kit includes the dongle with through-printer facilities
(which supports all known dongles), combined speaker and microphone with
battery holder input/output/9v power socket and touch button high/low
volume control. Also included is a Windows Voice and Icon enhancement
feature and the Microsoft Home CD Sampler, with previews of over 55
programs and 8 Windows games. Windows and 8Mb of memory allocated to the
PC card, are required to use the package. The price is £85 inclusive, or
£70 to CD Circle members.
8.12
Big Ben Club Open Day − The Dutch Acorn Computer User Society, the Big
Ben Club, will be holding their 13th annual open day on Saturday
September 23rd. The event will be held at the Community Centre, “De
Kiekmure”, Tesselschadelaan 1, at Harderwijk between 10 and 4. Admission
is free to club members, Hfl. 7,50 to non-members. More information can
be obtained by contacting Big Ben Club, P.O.Box 1189, 6801 BD Arnhem,
The Netherlands. A bulletin board is also available on (31) (0)20-
6631849, and a fax machine on (31) (0)70-3663194.
8.12
Canon printers − Canon have changed their range of bubblejet printers by
revising earlier printers and adding of some entirely new products.
8.12
BJC70 − Portable colour and mono printer, 360 dpi in colour, 720 dpi
with smoothing in mono − £310.
8.12
BJ-200ex − Mono, 360 dpi (720 dpi with smoothing) − £260.
8.12
BJC-4000 − Colour and mono, 360 dpi colour, 720 dpi mono with smoothing
− £320.
8.12
BJ-600e − Colour and mono, four separate colour ink wells, 360 dpi in
colour, 720 dpi in mono, with smoothing − £445.
8.12
These printers will work with Acorn !Printers 1.28c, although some
resolutions may not be available (the BJC600 driver does not support the
720×360 dpi mode, for example). For additional speed, the Canon
Turbodriver also supports all the above printers, although again some
resolutions may not be available. Add £45 to the above prices if you
would like a Turbo Driver as well as the printer, which includes a
special printer cable. If you plan to use the Acorn drivers, and do not
have a printer cable, we can supply a standard cable for £10.
8.12
Cross Stitch − iSV Products’ cross-stitch design package allows sprites
to be used as input, to produce a full cross-stitch pattern, using up to
64 colours from 512 named industry-standard thread colours. The design
can be saved as a drawfile for importing into DTP packages, as a colour
or black and white design. It gives support for a wide variety of
materials, and provides automatic conversion of sprite colours to named
colours, automatic calculation of finished design size, definable
background colour and over 10,000 stitches per pattern. The price is
£21.50 including p&p from iSV or £20 through Archive.
8.12
DEC_dATA on WWW − DEC_dATA now have their brochure on the World Wide
Web, including product information and prices of Acorn Clipart and
multimedia products. The URL is ‘http://www.zynet.co.uk/decdata/’. The
DEC_dATA e-mail address is at [e-mail].
8.12
Digital Darkroom 2 − This is a TransGraphic viewer from Desktop
Laminations, supplied with a version of TransPCD which will read Kodak
and all Corel Professional PhotoCD-ROMs. Facilities include variable
size thumbnails and slideshow. It will recognise other Transloaders,
such as TransTiff supplied with Impression. DL also produce a set of
loaders to use with this application − see below. The price is £45
inclusive, or £35 for members of the CD Circle.
8.12
Fire & Ice is a game which has already received good reviews from other
platforms, notably Atari and Amiga. Now it’s been converted for the
Archimedes by Paul Chapman and is available from Renegade at £25.99 (£24
through Archive). For more details, see the review on page 40.
8.12
Font Trix PRO − This package from iSV is an enhanced version of the Font
Trix application supplied with their Font Designer’s Toolkit. It will
load RISC OS 2, 3 and Base0 outline fonts, make real outline fonts
(rather than transformed versions), will auto-adjust kern-pairs, make
new styles, load and save transformations, has automatic shifting of
scaffold lines and can repair faulty scaffolding, and can adjust
skeletons and bounding boxes, etc. The price is £25 (+£1.50 p&p) from
iSV (or £24 through Archive), or £15 (+£1.50 p&p) for owners of the Font
Designer’s Toolkit.
8.12
Game On! Release 2 − The ARM Club have released a new version of their
Game On! software, which allows many non-Risc PC compatible programs,
particularly games, to work on the Risc PC. The new version has a
redesigned front end and database for improved speed and ease of use.
New features include support for both RISC OS 3 and 3.1 mode extension
modules, and a method for preventing games reducing the font cache to
zero. Support is included for more games than the earlier releases, as
well as other applications such as 65Host, Satcom, and some music module
players (such as trackers) are also supported. The database has been
updated, with all games tested for compatibility with and without Game
On installed. The price is £15 inclusive from the ARM Club, or £5 to
upgrade from the earlier release.
8.12
Indigo CD-ROM drives − Cumana have dropped the prices on their Dual-
Speed Indigo CD-ROM drives for the Risc PC, the CAA300i is £125 +VAT
+p&p or £150 through Archive, the CAA300iA (with audio mixer) is £175
+VAT +p&p or £205 through Archive. The range has been extended with two
quad-speed variants, the CAA340i (£199 +VAT +p&p − £235 through Archive)
and the CAA340iA (£249 +VAT +p&p − £290 through Archive), which make use
of the IDE/ATAPI interface and do not need an additional controller
card. Alternatively, the CXX441(£199 +VAT +p&p − £235 through Archive)
is a quad-speed SCSI drive − if you do not already have one, you will
also need a SCSI card to use it.
8.12
Loaders/Savers for Impression − This is a set of extensions to Style
(3.06 or later), Publisher (4.04 or later) and Publisher Plus (5.04 and
later). When installed, they give extended facilities for importing and
exporting Rich Text Format (RTF) files (as used by Microsoft Word and
the Acorn PocketBook) and WordPerfect 5.1 files, which will be of great
help to people who regularly need to exchange files with other
platforms. It is important to note that it will only transfer the text,
and most style/effect information, but not graphics or some text
formatting information (such as multiple columns and page size details,
which are handled differently on Impression). Two other utilities are
also included which set up translation tables for fonts and characters,
so you can configure the way in which transferred documents appear. The
RTF Loader/Savers cost £29 +VAT +p&p from CC or £34 through Archive.
8.12
MacroLife − This is an excellent multitasking version of Conway’s Game
of Life that allows for huge life planes which can be viewed at any
scale and scrolled around in a window while it’s running. MacroLife has
now reached version 1.8 and is now RISC OS 2 compatible, faster to load
and even uses a little less memory. The full program can be obtained by
sending a cheque for £8 to Chris Taylor at his new address, 32 Burghley
Court, Great Holm, Milton Keynes, MK8 9EL (01908-569556). Four pounds of
that will be donated to the charity, Motivation. (See the review on page
35.)
8.12
Magpie CD-ROM − Longman Logotron have released a new ‘value added’
version of Magpie, their multimedia application. It is supplied with
ready-to-run projects created by existing users, and a wide range of
samples, clipart, and sound samples. Magpie allows pupils to create
multimedia projects by combining a variety of resources, including
words, pictures, video and sound on the same ‘page’ of an electronic
book, using simple drag and drop techniques. The single user version
costs £59, a primary site licence £190 and a secondary licence £330.
Registered Magpie users can upgrade to this latest version for half
price. All prices are exclusive of VAT and postage. (£69, £215 and £370
respectively through Archive)
8.12
Movie FS − Warm Silence Software have updated and renamed their
extensions to Replay, allowing it to playback films and samples not
normally supported. File formats include Video for Windows (.AVI),
QuickTime (.MOV), Animator Pro (.FLI), and WaveForms (.WAV). The price
is £26.42 (no VAT, including p&p).
8.12
Online Magazine − This is yet another Acorn magazine that is produced
“by enthusiasts for enthusiasts” to refute our claim in the advertising
blurb we have been sending out lately. Online Magazine has been going
for four years now as “a publication for (hopefully) light, humorous and
basically easy reading about Acorn related products. It is a decidedly
‘supplemental’, non-technical publication (as much as is possible with
the subject matter) aimed at teachers and school technicians.” says John
Hughes, Co-Editor. John is co-editing because John Hammell, the Founding
Editor is in and out of hospital for horrific-sounding operations to his
legs following a terrible road accident some years ago. Hope things are
soon improved, John!
8.12
The issues of Online Magazine that John sent to me are all 50 − 60 pages
A5, mostly filled with articles although there are a few adverts. It
seems quite good value at £17 for 12 issues. Send cheques, made out to
‘Online Magazine’ to John Hughes, 74 Kilbagie Street, Kincardine, Fife,
FK10 4QX.
8.12
PickAPic − Hugh Eagle now has an updated version of his PickAPic clipart
viewer and organiser available. It should be available from PD
libraries, including APDL. Textual descriptions can now be included, and
pictures can be displayed much more quickly, by storing thumbnails of
the images in a special directory.
8.12
Portfolio − A new presentation package from Warwickshire Educational
Computing Centre (WECC). The package will produce a slideshow from a
directory of images (including Sprite and Draw, in normal and Squashed
formats) and a number of foreign formats, including Windows BMP and
JPEG. Display is full screen, in whatever screen mode is selected at the
time, and control can be automatic, manual or by script file. To start a
display, simply drag a directory of images to the PortFolio icon on the
iconbar. Sounds can also be associated with screens. A companion
program, Gallery, allows multiple images to be printed eight to a page,
including the full filename if desired. The prices are £25 (Single user
and primary Site Licence) and £29 (secondary Site Licence) for
Portfolio, and £15 (S/U and primary S/L) and £25 (Secondary S/L) for
Gallery.
8.12
Printers 1.28c − We are now able to supply the latest version of Acorn’s
printer manager !Printers. It is supplied with two discs, and paper
documentation, so the price is £5 to cover duplication and p&p.
8.12
Proteus − Cumana have released a combination drive, which integrates a
quad speed CD-ROM drive, and a 650Mb rewritable disc, which can be
formatted and partitioned in the same way as any SCSI hard disc. The
removable discs are housed in a permanent plastic case, like a floppy
disc. The access time is 165ms, and the average transfer rates are
between 518 and 1141 Kb/s. The drive needs a SCSI interface to operate,
and is available in internal (£549 +VAT +p&p, or £635 through Archive)
and external (£699 +VAT +p&p, or £805 through Archive) versions.
8.12
Risc PC 486 cards − At the time of writing, projected availability of
the PC cards for the Risc PC is still set at the end of August. The
special price of £99+VAT will end after 31st August, unless the card is
purchased with a Risc PC. After that time, anybody who is not purchasing
a Risc PC will have to pay the full price of £199+VAT. If you have been
holding off placing an order until the cards are more freely available,
then you need to order as soon as possible, and certainly before 31st
August. (We gather that the new batch of PC cards are the same as
existing cards, i.e. they do not yet have any enhanced capabilities.)
8.12
Technology & Design (NW SEMERC) − This package allows pupils to carry
out a design brief for something within a fictional town, covering the
community, the environment, at home, at play, at school and recreation,
using a large number of Acorn Replay and photographic images. The price
is £59 +VAT +p&p, and the package requires My World 2.
8.12
Three Little Pigs (Tempest Publishing) − For children just starting to
read, this package aims to develop numeracy skills, as well as literacy,
and an awareness of their environment. It comprises an interactive
talking story and the characters and themes appear in a set of related
activities. The price is £25.49 +VAT +p&p, or £31 through Archive.
8.12
Trans-Graphic Loaders − A new set of graphics loaders for use with
Artworks, Style and Publisher, Ovation Pro and Digital Darkroom 2 (see
above). The Trans loaders are produced in conjunction with Computer
Concepts. The pack includes translators for BMP/DIB files, GIF
(including conversion of attached text), Windows ICO files, PCX and WPG
files. The price is £45 inclusive from Desktop Laminations (£35 to
members of the CD Circle).
8.12
Review software received...
8.12
We have received review copies of the following: •extASM assembler and
AOF utility (lu), •Strike (e), •Portfolio (e).
8.12