Archive Products
Archive Monthly Discs - Archive Utilities Discs - Archive CD - Special Mousemats - Non Designer's Design Book - Internet information retrieval
Archive Magazine - £25/£38
Obvious, I suppose, but I just thought I'd mention the fact that we've managed to get a better deal from the Post Office, and have now reduced the price of overseas subscriptions. Europe is now £30 instead of £32, and Outside Europe is now £38 (one single rate) instead of £40 or £43 for the different zones.
We need a few more UK subscribers before the Post Office will give us a better rate, but the fact that we've been able to have an increasing number of 96-page Archives, instead of the normal 80 pages, is a reflection of the numbers of new subscribers joining us at the moment.
Back issues - We have back issues of (almost) all Archive magazines, right back to volume 1, and these are available at £2.50 each.
Each month, there is an HD floppy disc available which contains anything that contributors send in that is relevant to that particular issue - data files, programs, sample pictures - anything, in fact, that we can legally include. These can be bought individually for £2 each (to anywhere in the world) or you can prepay annually (UK £20, non-UK £22).
However, these files are also freely available on Archive Publications' website, so you can download it from there at no cost - well, for the cost of the phone call. We try to keep about three months' worth of discs up there, space permitting. The only thing on the disc that is not put on the website is the textfile containing the words of that particular issue. The reason for withholding that from public access should be fairly obvious, I think!
These discs have been published over a number of years, and some are now more relevant than others, but, for completeness, we include them all here. They cost £2 each, but all are on the Archive CD (see below).
- Utilities 1 (monitors) - RiscPC modes design software (!Makemodes), VIDC enhancer software (two versions), iconbar mode number display, modes for Sony CPD-1402, modes for Acorn AKF18, various modes and modules for NEC 3D, mode creation and editing for pre-A5000s with AKF18.
- Utilities 2 (file transfer) - !AiEps->Draw, !BMPSprite, !CGM->Draw, !ChangeFSI, !Draw->CGM, !Draw->EPS, !Draw->Meta, !Draw->WMF, !Draw2spr, !DXF->CGM, !Creator (sprites to GIF, TIFF, AIM, PBM), !WebGIF2, !WMF->Draw, !Tiffin. We try to keep these utilities up to the latest versions available, although the CD only has, of course, the latest available at the point at which it was pressed. For that reason, we've not put the version numbers here since this information would be out of date very quickly.
- Utilities 3 (Archive contents data) - This disc contains the Archive data for use with Beebug's Arcscan database. We provide monthly updates of this data, for the current volume, on the Archive monthly disc, but the full data for back volumes is only available on this disc and on the Archive CD.
- Utilities 4 (JPEG 1) - The two JPEG discs are now somewhat out-dated, but we preserve them for completeness. !ChangeFSI, version 0.90a; !FYEO, 1.02; !Jewel, 0.04; !JFIF, 26th June 1993; !JPEGinst to install !JPEGit, 1.11A, i.e. the PD version; !JView, 0.07; djpeg, 18 Nov 1991; JPEG-FAQ - a text file pulled off Usenet and headed "JPEG image compression: FAQ".
- Utilities 5 (JPEG 2) - !FYEO2 sample NASA images plus a 'thumbnails' file with previews of the other available files.
- Utilities 6 (hard drive) - Hard drive utilities including a fix for using SyQuest 105/270Mb drives on the IDE interfaces of A5000/RiscPC.
- Utilities 7 (!Printers 1.53) - Acorn's printer driver.
- Utilities 8 (RISC OS 3.1 upgrade) - 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.
- Utilities 9 (!PCx86 upgrade) - Version 1.91 of the RiscPC PC card software.
- Utilities 10 (Archive Glossary) - A glossary containing the definitions of almost 600 technical Acorn-related words, with over 20,000 words of explanation as to what they all mean - almost half of the definitions are of internet-related words.
- Utilities 11 (MDFs) - Monitor definition files for RiscPC for a range of different monitors. Also !MakeModes to allow you to edit modes and/or make your own.
The CD is updated every year, at the end of the volume (i.e. around September), and will generally include all that was on the previous year's CD, but updated and with the previous year's magazine contents added.
The Archive CD costs £12, although if you've already got one or more of the older versions of the CD, you only need to pay £8. Please don't send the old CD back - we trust you to be honest.
- Archive Impression Files - All of the Archive magazines from 4.5 to 10.12 in Impression format. Many of the illustrations which, in the magazine itself, are in black and white, are in colour in these files.
- Archive Words Discs, again from 4.5 to 10.12 - textfiles of all the articles in those magazines so that you can search through for that elusive article you've seen somewhere in Archive! (A text search program is also included on the CD.)
- Products Available File - The text of all the Products Available columns in all Archive magazines right back to Volume 1, Issue 1!
Monthly Program Discs - The contents of all the Archive monthly discs from Volume 1 to 10.12.
- Archive Factfile - This contains the names, addresses, fax & phone numbers, web and email addresses (where available) of over 500 Acorn-related companies.
- Archive Utility Discs - The contents of all eleven utilities discs.
- Archive PD Discs - Lots of the old Shareware and PD discs that we used to distribute.
- Archive Multimedia Swap Shop - Paul Hooper has sent us all the best multimedia applications/binders that he has collected.
For a long time, we have been selling the 3M Precise Mousing Surface mousemats and have sold literally hundreds. We reckon that around 25% of all Archive subscribers are now using them, and we have never found anyone who rated them anything other than "Good" to "Excellent - can I have another for a friend, please?" All of the mats have been supplied on money-back guarantee.
Having said that, they are totally useless with the old Acorn mice that had a white plastic ball. This is because 3M very deliberately and cleverly designed the material so that it grips rubber - i.e. the ball - but slips very easily against plastic - i.e. the underside of your mouse.
For a fuller explanation of why these mats are so special, see Archive 10.10 p14.
This is a book that is owned, used and praised by, once again, over 25% of Archive subscribers (well, that's based on the number we've sold and the current number of Archive subscribers.). If you have to use DTP to produce any documents then I guarantee that this book will be of help to you.
There are lots of books on design and layout, so why is this one so successful? The thing is that the principles it gives are simple - therefore you can remember them - therefore you actually put them into practice.
As with the mousemat, there is a 100% money-back guarantee if not completely satisfied. More details are available from Archive 10.10 p15.
We appreciate the frustration that non-internet-connected subscribers must feel when the only means of getting the information they want, whether it be about a product or whatever, is via the net. So we are going to try offering a service whereby we collect the information you require, put it on a floppy disc and send it off to you by return.
There will be a minimum charge of £2, and unless you have a long list of items you want to us retrieve, it shouldn't cost more than that. However, if there are several bits of information you want, the quickest (and therefore the cheapest) way would be to provide the web addresses as a textfile on a floppy disc, so that we don't have to re-type them.
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