Archive Magazine 1995/ARCHIVE95.iso/text/products/volume_07/issue_04

Text File | 1995-02-16 | 11KB | 206 lines

Å    A5000 special offer extended Ö Archiveæs öChristmas Special Offerò on
the new A5000s has been extended. Until January 31st, you can buy one of
the new 30MHz A5000s and get a ú100 software voucher to use against any
purchase of software from NCS either at the same time as the computer or
in the future. The 2Mb/HD80 is ú1499 (carriage free) and the 4Mb/HD160
is ú1699. Add ú75 if you want an AKF50 monitor instead of an AKF18.
7.4
(N.B. We have unlimited stocks of these computers Ö well, Acorn have Ö
this is not a pre-ARM700 stock clearance but a sales incentive scheme to
encourage you to buy A5000s because the launch of the ARM700 is looking,
I think, more like 3rd or 4th quarter 1994.)
7.4
Å    (Another) A5000 special offer Ö We have got hold of some more of the
older 25MHz A5000s and are selling them without monitors at ú950 (inc
carriage, cf the Beebug price of ú1008.15). These are 2Mb computers with
80Mb hard drives. We only have a limited number available so please ring
to check stocks before ordering.
7.4
Å    Aggressor Ö Macho Edition Ö This is an upgraded version of the
original shoot æem up game from Matt Black although it is now released
as a budget game at ú14.99 +p&p from Matt Black or ú15 through Archive.
(See the review on page 43.)
7.4
Å    Archive monthly program disc Ö On the disc this month, we have some
extra, useful utilities: !Convert by John Winters converts DOS->text and
Text->DOS, which DOSFS doesnæt do; !OnTime by Mark Godwin allows you to
keep track of how long you have spent on line to a BBS; !OpenDir by Mark
Godwin opens application directories by dragging rather than shift-
double-clicking; !SeraPara, again by Mark Godwin, sends incoming data
from the serial port direct to the parallel port so that, for example,
you can print from the Pocket Book to a printer without disconnecting
the printer from the Archimedes, i.e. you only need an A-Link and not a
Parallel Link as well.
7.4
Also, on the disc, in the Psion3 directory, is a Psion Series 3
Emulator. This is not a RISC OS application, and requires the PC
Emulator or a PC Card and there are certain conditions for its use. It
is a Series 3 Emulator not a Pocket Book emulator, therefore there will
be some differences. The OPL Compiler is included so you can write
software without needing to spend ú65 on the compiler Ö although it
rather defeats the object of it being a portable computer! For what it
is worth, it is there for your use.
7.4
Chris Johnson has sent us the latest version of his application called
!Text>Draw which solves the problem noted by Richard Hallasæ last month
(Archive 7.3 p68) of getting kerned text into Draw.
7.4
Finally, there is an Elite cheat Ö see Hints & Tips on page 50. The
Archive monthly discs cost ú2 each (or ú20 for twelve Ö a full year).
7.4
Å    Birds of War Ö 4th Dimensionæs latest release is a flight simuator for
2Mb Archimedes computers. It provides 192 missions with over 50 aircraft
types. There are 10 Mb of data including 86,000 words of briefing text
for the missions. These are compressed onto six discs but they say an
ARM3 hard drive computer is the ideal configuration. Birds of War costs
ú34.95 from 4th Dimension or ú32 through Archive.
7.4
Å    Bitfolio Cartoon Graphics Ö LOOKSystems have done another conversion
for the Archimedes. This time it consists of 100 full colour cartoon
characters. The 3.2Mb of images are in drawfile format, not scanned as
sprites. LOOKSystems sells them for ú30 inc VAT and the Archive price is
ú28.
7.4
(The fun part about it is that the same collection is available for PC
and Mac users but they have to pay ú60 for exactly the same graphics!!)
7.4
Here are some sample cartoons Ö none of them bear any resemblance to any
member of the Norwich Computer Services staff, especially not the
editor!
7.4
Å    Braille tuition Ö The Dorton IT Support Centre have produced a program
called DotTest for those undertaking the Birmingham braille course but
it is equally suitable for those wishing to practise or improve their
braille. It can be used with the standard keyboard configured by the
program to use the six home keys and the space bar to mimic a braille
keyboard or an adapted Perkins Brailler plugged into a user port. The
program costs ú25 from Dorton IT Centre.
7.4
Å    Chemical Modeller Ö SSERCæs molecular modelling software (version 3.3)
is now öfully mouse compatibleò. It has been improved in many of the
ways suggested by David Kent in his review in Archive 6.4 p55. It costs
ú52.50 +VAT from SSERC.
7.4
Å    DP Font Library Ö Dalmation Publications are selling a set of fonts
(101 in all) at öa price nearly everyone can affordò. The cost is ú19.95
inclusive of p&p from Dalmation Publications.
7.4
Å    EasyFont Ö Fabis Computing have produced a font management system
which allows you to choose a selection of fonts simply by clicking in a
window. EasyFont costs ú25 (+ú1 p&p) +VAT from Fabis Computing.
7.4
Å    Fonts Discs Ö Three discs of display fonts (seven families of fonts on
each disc) are now available from Fabis Computing, each disc costing ú5
+VAT.
7.4
Å    Grannyæs Garden goes European Ö 4Mation have produced some modern
language versions of their popular Grannyæs Garden program. It is now
available in French, German and Italian. Each costs ú24.50 +VAT from
4Mation or ú27 through Archive.
7.4
Å    ImageMaster from David Pilling is a new image processing program
allowing format conversion and image acquisition from scanners via Twain
(see below). ImageMaster reads and writes TIFF, JPEG, PCX, PBM, Clear,
sprite, BMP, GIF and MTV. It can handle images bigger than memory by
using virtual memory techniques. It works with 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24 and
32-bit per pixel images. ImageMaster has a whole range of facilities for
processing and manipulating images and is supplied with Trace, D2Font
and Snapper (screen capture program). ImageMaster costs ú30 inclusive
from David Pilling or ú28 through Archive.
7.4
Å    Impression II/Publisher special offer Ö Archive are doing a special
offer on Impression II. The normal Archive price is ú180 but öwhile
stocks lastò we are selling them at ú120. If you want to upgrade to
Impression Publisher when it becomes available, the upgrade will cost
just ú29 +ú3 p&p +VAT =ú37.60 from Computer Concepts. The RRP of
Impression Publisher is ú169 +VAT = ú198.58 so by buying a cheap copy of
Impression II you can get a copy of Impression Publisher for ú157.60 Ö
quite a good saving. We only have a limited number of copies at this
price so please do not send a cheque without ringing to reserve a copy
first.
7.4
Å    Lexique / Wortgut Ö These are French to Eng-lish and German to English
dictionaries produced by Fabis Computing. Features include groups and
sub-groups of GCSE topics, search and edit, add your own words, language
lists printed as required. Each dictionary costs ú20 +VAT from Fabis
Computing.
7.4
Å    Night Sky is Clares Microsæ new astronomy program. It allows display
of the night sky at any time from anywhere on earth, gives information
about each star, shows constellation boundaries, sun, moon and planets,
works in real or accelerated time, shows lunar and solar eclipses and
occulations, and deep sky objects can be shown e.g. nebulae, clusters
and galaxies. Night Sky costs ú79.95 inc VAT from Clares or ú74 through
Archive.
7.4
Å    Phaethon Ö A new game from a new software house: System Interrupt.
öDrive your space orb along hazardous terrains at breath-taking
velocity! Take corners and jump gaps at an unwise speed! Employ your
full manual capacity upon the solution of fiendish puzzles! Play the
game!ò, says the System Interrupt press release. Phaethon (apparently
pronounced öfaith-onò) is ú25.95 from System Interrupt or ú24 through
Archive. (Never mind the press release, read the review on page 19 from
which you will gather that Andrew Rawnsley rather likes Phaethon Ö and I
can vouch for the fact that Andrew has no connection, financial or
otherwise, with System Interrupt! Ed.)
7.4
Å    Psion 3A Ö As mentioned last month, we are going to be stocking the
new Psion 3A. The pricing will be ú269 for the 256Kb version and ú329
for the 512Kb. The only problem is that there are only limited supplies.
If you know somewhere that has them in stock then I suggest you buy one
while you have the chance(!) but if not, place an order with us and we
will put you in the queue and hold your cheque until we get supplies.
7.4
Å    Rhapsody 3 is now available. New features include guitar chords, quick
edit panel, hairpins & phrasing, auto bar checking, etc. Stewart Watson
has reported on the extra features in this issue Ö see page 12. Rhapsody
3, which requires 2Mb RAM, costs ú99.95 inc VAT from Clares or ú92
through Archive. There is an upgrade offer from Rhapsody 2 to 3 which
costs ú48 inc VAT from Clares although this offer is limited to 31st
December 1993.
7.4
Å    Scientific Graphics Collection CD-ROM Ö This provides a huge database
of scientific graphics material. It contains all the material from the
15 discs of graphics produced separately by SSERC as well as a Draw
Practical Guide in electronic format. The CD-ROM contains around 9,000
files with a total of 330Mb of data covering chemistry, physics,
biology, technology, IT and computing. It costs ú150 +VAT from SSERC.
7.4
Å    Shareware 21 Ö The Archimedes Image Manager on Shareware 21 has now
been updated to the latest version (AIM3) which includes instant loading
of (grey) sprites, manipulation of selected area, no restriction on
image format, better compliance with RISCáOS, better menu structure,
improved query box and help function, histograms savable as drawfiles.
This is a disc-only version but if you want a version complete with
manual, it is distributed by Lindis International. Shareware 21 is ú2
through Archive.
7.4
Å    Small Ö Another new company on the Archimedes games scene is Virgo
Software. Their first offering is called Small. It is a 3D maze
adventure game in which you have been shrunk to microscopic size and
have to wander the labyrinthine realm of your mind. Small costs ú24.95
from Virgo Software or ú23 through Archive.
7.4
Å    TCP/IP 2 single user Ö Acorn have realised that making TCP/IP 2
available only as a site licence at ú399 was not too user-friendly. They
have therefore decided to make it available with a single-user licence
for ú99 +VAT (ú105 through Archive).
7.4
Å    T-shirts, sweatshirts and mugs Ö If you are interested in putting your
own designs onto T-shirts, sweatshirts and mugs, Tekoa Graphics will
take your designs on Archimedes floppy disc in Artworks, Draw or sprite
format and transfer them to the required medium. Prices depend on
quantity but one-off prices are ú13 for T-shirts, ú16.70 for sweatshirts
and ú6 for mugs dropping to ú6, ú9.70 and ú4 each respectively for 25 or
more. (No VAT as T.G. are not VAT registered.)
7.4
Å    Twain is an image acquisition standard for easy communication between
image capturing devices and software applications. It has been
implemented on Mac and PC and has now been brought to RISCáOS machines
by David Pilling. Basically, Twain does for scanners what RISCáOS
printer drivers do for printers. The only version currently available is
for the HP ScanJet but versions for the Canon scanner (ScanLight
Professional) and the Epson scanners are on their way. The ScanJet
version is ú20 inclusive from David Pilling or ú19 through Archive.
7.4