Archive Magazine 1995/ARCHIVE95.iso/text/products/volume_02/issue_07

Text File | 1995-02-21 | 10KB | 177 lines

Å  Archimedes A205??? Ö The growing rumours of a new ÉAmiga basheræ are
fueled again this week by a detailed report in the Times Educational
Supple-ment, which largely concurs with other details circulating at the
moment. The main points are:
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Å  Aimed for junior schools who canæt afford current Archimedes prices
(which are going up anyway!)
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Å  1Mb expandable to 2Mb
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Å  Would include a user port, for things like Concept Keyboard
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Å  Around ú500  Ö ú700 (+VAT)
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Å  One box, with a disc drive at the side
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Å  Will run under RISC-OS
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I suspect that by the time this magazine gets into your hands there will
be some more definite news. Give Eureka a ring for the latest news.
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Å  Archimedes Prices Rise Ö The prices of all the Archimedes computers
went up on 1st April. So, anyone wanting to save money by getting RISC-
OS öfreeò by waiting until after 1st April is in for a disappointment.
Instead of paying ú36 for the up-grade, you will have to fork out an
extra ú74 for the basic A310 without a monitor. All the other prices
have gone up too but, at the time of writing (March 27th) we donæt know
all the other prices. (This does point up the importance of Eureka
Bulletin boards. The news of the price rises was given on both Eureka I
and Eureka II in early March.)
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Å  Archive Index Disc Ö Yes, we too have found it a real nuisance not to
be able to find a particular hint or article when we want it, so in
response to a Help plea, Jim Poll, Paul Hobbs and Alex Hopkins have come
up with an Archive Index on disc Ö two in fact Ö one of them is self-
standing and the other is a set of data files that runs under Beebugæs
ArcScan program. (You can get a copy of ArcScan from Beebug by buying
their RISC User special disc which costs ú13.16 or ú12.50 to R.U.
members.) The Archive index is being distributed as Shareware disc N╝7
and costs ú3.
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Å  Computerware hard discs for export? Ö Iæm afraid that, as we said in
the magazine a couple of months ago, we cannot export the Computerware
hard drives because they are imported from the U.S. under a special
licence agreement. We can, however, export the podules and they include
all the metalwork for mounting a standard off-the-shelf ST506 3.5ö hard
drive, which you could buy locally. The cost of the podules without VAT
but including postage and insurance is ú215 to Europe (ú221/ú223/ú224 to
the other areas of the world). If you have a 4-slot backplane as well,
it comes to ú264 for Europe and ú270/ú273/ú275 for the rest of the
world.
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Å  Euclid 3-D graphics package Ö Ace Computing has now produced a new
multi-tasking RISC-OS-only version with several added features, ú70 inc
VAT. Then there is Mogul, a öfilm-makingò add-on allowing Euclidæs 3-D
objects to be added in a animated sequence to Ésceneryæ created in an
artwork package. Mogul is available to registered Euclid users for ú20
inc VAT.
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Å  Hard discs Ö The Archive price of the Computerware 40M internal drive
(with podule) has dropped from ú680 to ú590, inclusive. This is because
the price of drives is very much dependent on the quantity you buy and,
now that the sale of 40M drives is beginning to catch up on 20Mæs,
Computerware have been able to get a better price which they have passed
on to us. (Even at ú590, the price of the internal 40M drive is high
compared to the 40M external. The reason for this is that the external
one is a 5.25ö drive which would not fit inside the computer but which
is rather cheaper to buy than the 3.5ò.)
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 Å  Watford Hard Drives Ö During April, Watford will be selling their
new 40M hard disc plus podule for ú499 + (ú7? carriage) + VAT = ú582
which just beats Computerwareæs price of ú590 inclusive through Archive.
However, after April, their price goes up to ú525 (ú611 inclusive) so
the Computer-ware 40M drive will then be cheaper.
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Å  Image  Processing Ö Wild Visionæs new Hawk V10 system, starting from
ú650 + VAT, provides öaffordable, high-performance image processingò. It
captures, stores and displays four separate images Ö 256x256 by 8-bits
with 256 levels of grey scale Ö in real-time and totally independent of
the host machine, leaving the computer to do the complex calculations
needed for fast image processing. Col-our can be achieved by doing
separate scans for red, green and blue. The board uses a separate
monitor to display the video and the controlling software is in a ROM on
the board. (See picture below.)
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Å  Mornington Crescent Ö Following my comments last month about the
Mornington Crescent game, Mike Cook has sent us what is, admittedly, a
text-only BBC implementation but it runs on the Archimedes. Iæve tried
to play it and have found it to be such a good implementation that I
cannot beat it. However, it does look as if he is playing under the
rather unusual öCringleford Conventionsò and no explanation of these is
given, so anyone not used to playing that particular convention may not
be able to get very far with it. Anyway, for what it is worth, weæve put
it on the program disc for free distribution. Mike is not making any
charge, but if you do find the program useful, perhaps you would give an
appropriate donation to charity. (How about someone combining Mikeæs
algorithm with the Underground map from Shareware N╝3? It would give it
tremendous visual impact. Any offers?)
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Å  Ram upgrade for A305 Ö It has been impossible to get these upgrades
for almost a year now through the official Acorn channels. I heard a
rumour that some were coming available, but when I enquired at the
distributor level, they were pessimistic Ö some even said it was
ödiscontinuedò. I consulted Acorn and was told by an Acorn spokeswoman
that öthis product has been discontinuedò, öSurely not?!?!ò, öI will
check╔ yes, definitelyò, öYou canæt do that!!!ò. Then after a bit of
telephoning and stirring, they decided that I had been misinformed and
that in fact they are in stock at the warehouse ready to go out to
distributors╔ well, there were actually 30 sets of chips available!
Anyway, to cut a long story short, we are still waiting for upgrades we
have ordered through the official channels but have found an alternative
source and I have about 10 sets IN STOCK Ö ú159 each. (I suggest you
telephone to confirm their availability before sending cheques.) Stop
Press!! 4 sets of genuine Acorn 0.5 meg upgrades have just arrived!!
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Å  ScanLight Ö Computer Conceptsæ 200 dots per inch scanner (ú449 + VAT)
(ú490 inc VAT and carriage through Archive) is the scanner part of their
Fax Pack (which wonæt be available before May). If you buy the scanner,
it will enable you to scan pictures for inclusion in your programs as
sprites or in your documents using First Word Plus or whatever or into
PAINT or other art packages. (Or in Impression Ö CCæs DTP package which
is also scheduled for May-ish.)
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The scanner is A4 width and can be supplied with an optional sheet
feeder (ú150 + VAT) (ú165 through Archive) which makes it easier to
avoid a skewed picture. The controlling software, which is included in a
ROM on the controller board, is WIMP based and allows scanning in
monochrome (best for text) and half-tone (best for pictures). The image
can be viewed in mono or 16 level grey scale and the pictures can be
edited a pixel at a time using up to 999% zoom magnification. (We
actually have a Scan Light here in the office. It is very easy to set up
and quite fun to use. Weæll try to do a review in due course.)
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(People have asked about whether the Fax Pack could be used in place of
an ordinary modem since it runs at up to 9600 baud. The bad news is that
the modem is synchronous whereas those used for accessing Prestel or
whatever are asynchronous so they can only talk to similar devices. The
good news is that when the Fax Pack receives a signal, it tries to
interrogate the sender to see if it too is a CC Fax Pack. If it is, it
exchanges a few pleasantries and then it can be used for straight file
transfer between the two computers.
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Å  Scorewriter from EMR, ú499 + VAT provides high quality music output to
a laser printer. You can produce bar lines, multiple staves, clefs,
ties, accidentals and lots of other things I have never even heard of!
The music is transcribed by creating a text file using letters for the
notes and all sorts of symbols for the timings and other marks. It
sounds a bit laborious to create the scores Ö it isnæt WYSIWIG, though
you can do on-screen previewing. The output is very impressive Ö you
would think it was öproperò printed music. We havenæt been able to get a
system to review (not even to borrow one to try on our LaserWriter) but
the sample of output we were sent looked good. (We are not quoting an
Archive price, but if you want one, let us know and we will see what we
can do.)
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Å  Shareware 5 disc is now available which consists of lots of music for
the Welcome disc Music Editor. There is classical, modern and even some
greek music.
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Å  Shareware 6 disc is not going to be far behind. It is specifically a
disc for users of First Word Plus and contains things like printer
drivers etc.
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Å  Teletext Adaptor Ö Solidisk have improved the software for their
Teletext Adaptor and they will send you an up-date if you send your disc
back. Unfortunately, judging by the comments weæve had so far, although
it is a bit better than it was, there are still problems. Solidisk have
been informed of the problems and are, hopefully, looking into them.
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Å  Yes, Chancellor Ö a business simulation program in which you run the
British economy! ú17.50 + 50p p&p from Topologika. Uses the PC emulator.
(Also available from the same stable are ÉCountdown to Doomæ, ÉAchetonæ,
ÉPhilosopheræs Questæ and ÉKingdom of Hamilæ on a single 3.5ö MS-DOS
disc (ú19.95 + ú1 p& p) and ÉGiant Killeræ using BBC emulator (ú19.50)
and ÉReturn to Doomæ (ú17.50) on MS-DOS.)
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