Archive Magazine 1995/ARCHIVE95.iso/text/products/volume_06/issue_01

Text File | 1995-02-16 | 17KB | 304 lines

Å   1.6Mb Drives for pre-A5000 computers Ö Arxe Systems have produced an
interface called the Alpha Dual Card. This is a 16 bit SCSI controller
plus a PC standard high density controller. This uses its own filing
system called QuadFS, functionally identical to ADFS. The controller
used also supports 4Mb drives and a future upgrade will provide support
for 3.2Mb ADFS and 2.88Mb DOS discs. The card is available in three
versions with optional external cases for A3000: SCSI Only ú89, High
Density Only (inc 2Mb drive) ú159 (or ú109 without the floppy drive),
Both SCSI and High Density (inc 2Mb drive) ú209. (All prices are ex
VAT.)
6.1
Å A3010/3020/4000 memory upgrades Ö We can now get hold of memory
upgrades for the new computers at the following prices: 1 Ö 2 Mb for the
A3010 is ú50, 1 Ö 4 Mb for the A3010 is ú175, 2 Ö 4 Mb for the A3020 and
A4000 is ú100.
6.1
Å   A4 Trackerballs Ö Those (relatively few!) people who have got hold of
an A4 Notebook may be looking for a trackerball alternative to the
mouse. Two have come to our notice so far. The first is a serial port
mouse from PEP Associates. This comes with special software because it
uses the serial port instead of the mouse port.
6.1
The other is a hardware modified Genius trackerball from Atomwide. Both
types clip onto the side of the A4 and can, with practice, be operated
single-handedly but the Genius one uses the mouse socket and so does not
need special software. It is available from Archive for ú58. See Brian
Cowanæs comments about this on page 65.
6.1
Å   Acorn Ethernet Card III is the new version of the Acorn Ethernet card.
This is improved in various ways and is cheaper! The new price is ú149
+VAT or ú162 through Archive.
6.1
Å   Ancient Egypt Ö Oak Solutions have produced a package to allow
children to investigate life in the time of the Pharaohs. The material
relates to History Key Stage 2 and Technology AT 5. The package costs
ú50 +VAT from Oak Solutions or ú55 through Archive.
6.1
Å   ArcFAX Ö There is a new generation of modems that can connect to fax
machines as well as sending data as normal. David Pilling has capital
ised on this and produced ArcFAX which enables one of these modems to be
used as a computer-controlled fax. The software costs ú23.96 from David
Pilling. (See Price List for Archive price.)
6.1
Å   Archive magazine special deal Ö Most of the back issues of the Archive
magazine are stored on the first floor of 96a Vauxhall Street (i.e.
above my head as I write!) and we are getting concerned about the
structure of the building. As you can see from the picture opposite, we
need to get rid of a few back copies of Archive. Seriously, one or two
cracks are beginning to appear in the walls and it has been suggested
that we should reduce the load on the upper storey. We are therefore
offering special deals on bundles of Archive magazines: Volumes 1 Ö 5
for ú25 and Volumes 1 Ö 4 for ú22. There are one or two issues that we
are getting low on, so we cannot guarantee that you will get every
single issue. None have run out yet but if you want to be sure of a full
set, send your money in straight away. Also, if we do run out of any of
them, we will give a 50p token for each one that is missing.  This is
definitely not Évapourwareæ Ö there will be no waiting Ö I can per
sonally guarantee that they are öin stock nowò!
6.1
Å   Artworks is here!!!! Ö It has been a long time coming but it was most
definitely worth the wait. Artworks is in stock now at ú169 +VAT (or
ú180 through Archive). This would be good value if all you got was the
Artworks program but included in the package are 14 discs full of fonts
and clip-art. This includes a staggering 220 outline fonts. (You can
tell your PC friends that the screen display is five times faster than
CorelDraw on a 486-50 PC!) For a full review, see page 33.
6.1
Å   Battle of the Somme is a multimedia presentation focussing on the
events that occurred around 1st July 1916. The main package is ú95 +VAT
from Oak Solutions and there is a Laservision video disc with 35 minutes
of video and 60 minutes of audio which, if bought at the same time is
ú50 +VAT.
6.1
Å   CableNews is Lingenuityæs presentation package. It was used to create
the presentation graphics for the launch of Acornæs new machines in
August. It costs ú149 +VAT for a single user (ú160 through Archive),
ú420 +VAT for a site licence for up to ten users, ú676 +VAT for up to
thirty users and ú575 +VAT for a commercial distribution licence.
6.1
Å   Canon BJ10ex price drop Ö The distribution price of the BJ10ex has
just dropped slightly and CC have echoed that in the retail price of
their Turbo-driven BJ10exæs. The Archive price has dropped from ú275 to
ú260. (Actually, I have just pensioned off the 23(sic)-pin Panasonic
1124 dot matrix printer I was using at home and swapped it for a BJ10ex.
I am very impressed with both the speed and the quality of the new
printer and the reduced size is very helpful with a restricted desk
space. If I was doing work at home, I always used to save it on disc and
bring it to work to print out Ö not any more!)
6.1
Å   Canon Colour Printers in stock Ö The Computer Concepts colour printers
are now available from stock. They are Canon BJC800 printers with CCæs
own Turbo-Driver software that makes them work very effectively with the
Acorn RISC-OS computers. Sadly this is a monochrome magazine but I can
assure you that the output is very impressive Ö see the review on page
45 for more details. The price, including the Turbo Driver software and
lead is ú1895 +VAT (ú2,100 through Archive). The ink cartridges are also
available: cyan, magenta and yellow are ú22 each and black is ú17. The
Turbo Driver software plus printer lead is available separately for ú99
+VAT (ú105 through Archive).
6.1
Å   Chaos is a new game from Matt Black. It is a shoot-æem-up game with
the usual enemy ships and mutants but it has a competitive edge. You can
have player versus player or, with the appropriate interface, you can
have up to four players at once. Chaos is ú25 (no VAT) from Matt Black.
6.1
Å   Chartwell 1.1 Ö Risc Developments have released an updated version of
their graphs and charts pack offering various new features including
negative values in bar charts, more flexible handling of data limits and
easier labelling and titling. The price is still ú29.95 inclusive from
R.D. and the upgrade is free for existing users.
6.1
Å   DeskEdit2 was released on 1st October by Risc Developments. This has
various enhancements including Basic renumber, Basic indenter, program
meræs calculator and throwback. The price is ú31.95 inc VAT and there is
an upgrade for ú9.95 inc VAT.
6.1
Å   DrawPlus version 2╖20 is now available. This supports all of the
objects used by RISC-OSá3 Draw (including transformed text and sprites)
as well as some Vector objects. Text-to-path works under both operating
systems (ROM and disc fonts) and interpolation is available for path
objects. Upgrades are available in the usual way.
6.1
Å   EasiWriter II Ö Icon Technology have upgraded their EasiWriter
document processor with extra features such as mailmerge and single key
case conversion. The price is still the same: It costs ú150 +VAT or ú160
through Archive.
6.1
Å   Freddy Teddy strikes again! Ö In ÉThe Puddle and the Wardrobeæ, Freddy
gets in a muddle and steps in a puddle. While helping him out, pre-
readers and early readers will be encouraged in visual discrimination,
logical thinking, sequencing, comparison and memory Ö and they will have
fun too, I trust. The Puddle and the Wardrobe costs ú29.95 +VAT from
Topologika or ú32 through Archive.
6.1
Å   Fun School 4 has now appeared. (What do you mean, you havenæt finished
Fun School 2 yet?!) It comes in the usual three age levels: Under 5æs,
5æs Ö 7æs and 7æs Ö 11æs. They are ú24.99 each from Database Publi
cations or ú23 through Archive.
6.1
Å   IEEE488 interface Ö Anyone wanting to link an Archimedes to existing
IEEE488 instruments will be interested in Intelligent Interfacesæ
IEEE488 interface which comes, complete with software, for ú299 +VAT or
ú325 through Archive.
6.1
Å   Imagery Ö Palette Studio have created a new image-creation tool which
takes over where Paint leaves off. It provides 256 colour painting and
image processing with support for outline fonts. Imagery contains
various tools for creating artwork from scratch or for processing
existing pictures captured by digitisers or scanners. It costs ú89.95
inc VAT from Palette Studio.
6.1
Å   Language and literacy for Special Needs Ö The Xavier Educational
Software Ltd at the Department of Psychology, Bangor University now has
four packages for the Archimedes. Soapbox (ú35 +VAT) links spelling
patterns and vowel sounds by using sampled speech, Punctuate (ú32 +VAT)
helps with punctuation, ThinkLink (ú30 +VAT) aims to help with reading,
memory, classification and sequence and ArcSpell 1 and 2 (ú29.50 +VAT
each) provide a wide range of programs to help the dyslexic pupil.
6.1
Å   Magpie Ö Longman Logotronæs multimedia package, Magpie, now includes
facilities for Acorn Replay and CD audio. The upgrade is free to
registered users and the price remains unchanged at ú59 +VAT from
Longman-Logotron or ú64 through Archive.
6.1
Å   Mapper Series software Ö This has nothing to do with geography but is
edIT Softwareæs name for their new range of topic-based IT software for
primary schools. The packs currently available are Bodymapper, Weather
mapper and Homemapper. These are ú44.95 +VAT each with site licences at
ú89.90 +VAT (up to 5) and ú134.85 +VAT (5+). There are also French
versions of each of these packs, at the same price each, and other
language versions are being developed. (EdIT also sell a range of
measuring equipment to go with the mapper packs.)
6.1
Å   MicroSpell 3 Ö David Pilling has produced a stand-alone desktop
spelling checker with a 200,000 word dictionary for just ú5.99 (or ú6
through Archive). Owners of MicroSpell 1 or 2 can have a free upgrade by
returning their discs to David.
6.1
Å   Network technical support Ö SJ Research have published a technical
support hotline number which people can use if they have technical
questions about networking matters. This line goes straight to the
engineers without going through the SJ Research switchboard. The number
is: 0223Ö414532.
6.1
Å   Oh no! More Lemmings! Ö For those insomniacs who are gluttons for more
punishment, there are now over 100 more Lemmings levels available for
you as ÉOh no, More Lemmingsæ. The price is ú19.95 Krisalis or ú18
through Archive. You need the original Lemmings disc to play the new
levels Ö it is not a stand-alone package.
6.1
Å   PaySYS is a payroll system from KAS Software (also available for BBC/
Master) costing ú75.
6.1
Å   PC Emulator documentation Ö The manual for the 1.8 version of the PC
Emulator is available separately at ú8 through Archive.
6.1
Å   Polyominoes are now part of the National Curriculum and so Topologika
have provided three programs which deal with various aspects such as
tessellation, pentominoes and hexominoes.  Polyominoes costs ú29.95 +VAT
from Topologika or ú32 through Archive.
6.1
Å   Portable is the name of a subscription magazine all about the A4
Notebook and associated products. It costs ú15 for six issues. Contact
Ned Abell, ÉWeatherpostæ, Hollywell Lane, Bayton Common, Kidderminster.
6.1
Å   Printer drivers for Canon LBP printers Ö Ace Computing now have a
printer driver (ú16 +VAT or ú17 through Archive) for the Canon LBP range
of printers working through the standard ports (serial or parallel).
This is important because it makes the Laser Direct HiRes4 printer
usable on the A3010, A3020 and A4000 computers, albeit without the high
speed of the Laser Direct interface which will not fit in these newer
computers. You could, for example, sit an LBP4-LD between an A5000 and
an A4000, the one being connected via the video link and the other by a
parallel port cable, and switch between the two by using the printeræs
front panel.
6.1
Å   ProDrivers are Ace Computingæs enhanced RISC-OS 3 printer drivers.
They provide full 24-bit half-toned and dithered output, an application
to print automatically to file and then from file to printer as a
background task, and a CMYK colour separation package. This can be used,
for example, to provide full colour prints on mono printers (like ICSæs
ColourSep Ö see the article last month on page 34 and the comments this
month on page 17) or to enhance the black output from a Deskjet 500C.
ProDrivers are ú40+VAT from Ace or ú44 through Archive. (Upgrades are
available from Ace for ú25 +VAT.)
6.1
Å   Removable drives prices DOWN again Ö Once again, the prices of
removable drives have dropped. The 42Mb drives have dropped slightly
from ú455 to ú445 but the 84Mb drives have dropped more dramatically
from ú670 to ú590. The 42Mb cartridges have also dropped by ú5 to ú65.
We are selling more and more of these drives and are finding that the
number of drives returned because of faults is getting less despite the
increased numbers so it looks as if some of the earlier unreliability
problems have been overcome. However, donæt be deceived, these are OPEN
hard drives and so CANNOT be as reliable as the fixed hard disc systems.
If portability is important or if you are just using them for backup
purposes, they are, in my view, the best thing since sliced bread!
6.1
Å   RS423 serial interface Ö Intelligent Interfaces produce a dual RS423
serial interface on a single half-width podule for the Archimedes. It
costs ú199 +VAT or ú220 through Archive.
6.1
Å   Saxon Life Ö Oak Solutions have produced a package to allow children
to follow the Saxon invasion of Britain. The material relates to History
Key Stage 2. The cost is ú50 +VAT from Oak Solutions or ú55 through
Archive.
6.1
Å   Sound Lab software Ö Oak Solutions have produced some more advanced
software for use with their Oak Recorder. Sound Lab allows samples to be
turned into relocatable modules and provides a real-time display with a
spectrum analyser and a simple oscilloscope. The price is ú14.95 +VAT or
ú18 through Archive.
6.1
Å   SparkFS Ö David Pilling has produced a full filing system for
compressed files. It reads and writes files compressed in a wide range
of formats: SEAarc, PKarc, Zip, Tar, Spark, BtoA/AtoB, Boo, FCET and
UNIX Compress. In addition, there are nine more formats that it will
read but not write. SparkFS is ú23.96 from David Pilling. (See Price
List for Archive price.) It is also available from David as an upgrade
from Spark and/or ArcFS. You can have ú5.99 off the price for each
program. Send him both discs and you need only pay ú11.98.
6.1
Å   Special Access Pack Ö When you buy an Acorn computer, you can buy, at
the same time, a Special Needs pack for ú99 +VAT (ú105 through Archive).
This includes a hardware expansion card to enable you to link to various
interface units, a disc of special software to provide assistance in
various ways and a copy of a resource book for special needs. For
partially-sighted users, there is a coupon to enable you to get a free
audio tape of the manual.
6.1
Å   StartWrite Ö (nothing to do with childrenæs shoes) Icon Technology
have produced a word processor Éfor the younger generationæ called
StartWrite. The price is ú49 +VAT or ú53 through Archive.
6.1
Å   Text-to-Braille Ö Royal London Society for the Blind has produced an
Archimedes application that converts ASCII text files to a Grade 2
Braille file that can then be output to a suitable Braille printer. The
application costs ú25 from the Dorton IT Centre, Dorton House, Seal,
Sevenoaks  TN15 0ED. (0732Ö61477) (0732Ö63363)
6.1
Å   Tiles is the first offering from a new educational software company
called Brain Games. It is a crossword game which is aimed to teach a
variety of skills: strategy, vocabulary, foreign languages, spelling and
arithmetic. The English version is ú19.75 and extra language discs will
be available in due course, starting with French and German, hopefully
before Christmas.
6.1
Å   TV Fun and Games Ö HS Software have produced a three-game set of
programs aimed at 5Ö9 year olds covering areas of the National Curricu
lum including Maths, English, Science and Geography. The price is ú22.95
from HS or ú21 through Archive.
6.1
Å   VISYS is a video cataloguing system from KAS Software (also available
for IBM PC) costing ú75.
6.1
Å   Whale Facts Ö This is a multimedia database from Topologika about...
whales!  It includes sound samples and pictures for you to print out
yourself. Whale Facts costs ú29.95 +VAT from Topologika or ú32 through
Archive.
6.1
Å   Wortgut is a German/English dictionary from New Era Software costing
ú25 (no VAT).
6.1