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Disc World

David Bradforth and Aaron Timbrell on this months DISCWorld

This months DISCWorld roundup

As the summer months commence, the RISC World disc section takes a sort of 50% serious (things you can use to prepare work over the summer) and 50% just plain silly (entertaining and otherwise to keep you occupied whilst it's raining). And whoever said that the editorial team of RISC World had far too little faith in the British weather?

So what've we got? In terms of commercial software, we're delighted to offer the full version of Noticeboard 1, previously priced at �35 as well as an upgrade offer saving you over �15 on the latest version of Noticeboard Professional. What more could you ask for from your friendly bi-monthly magazine?

Top 25...Games

Oh yes... to launch a new section for the RISC World disc, in a new section that's rather similar to a project I have in another publication, we'll be putting a regular selection of twenty five top things. For this first instalment, it's twenty five top games; and my favourite selection is here - ready to play - now. If you have any comments about this, or any other offering please let us know to the usual addresses.

Noticeboard - full version

Full commercial application from The Really Good Software Company, previously priced at £35.

Have you ever found yourself pulling your hair out whilst trying to produce a superb presentation for that important business function? Certainly when it's come to getting ready for exhibitions, I've found myself pretty much doing that - and Powerpoint on the PC and Macintosh does tend to have its faults. With the aid of your RISC World disc, this need never occur again - the NBOARD archive contains the complete Noticeboard package courtesy of Really Good Software Company.

It supports full interactive help - once you've loaded the program, double-click on !Help within the Apps directory - and is incredibly intuitive in use, so I feel confident that we don't actually need to supply a detailed tutorial. (No but I have supplied a copy of the manual - ED).

Upgrade to the latest version

If you find that Noticeboard doesn't offer everything you'd expect, why not consider upgrading to Noticeboard Pro? In the next issue of RISC World, we'll aim to offer a comparative review of OHP2 and Noticeboard Pro, but in the meantime here's what Noticeboard Pro offers above Noticeboard:

• Greater control over frame handling and display
• Pages can be run forwards or backwards
• Easy to use front-end and editor
• More fades
• Higher level of configurability
• Draw, Artworks, Vantage, Sprites, JPEGS and HTML can all be handled
• Sound can be added to frames
• Can be used with electronic projectors for class and exhibition work
• Your NB Pro programs/presentations can be saved and run on other RISC OS machines
• Compatible with RISC OS 3.10 to 4.00
• NoticeBoard 1 to NB Pro converter supplied

To upgrade to the latest version, send a cheque/postal order for �20 (UK add �1.50, ROW add �5) made payable to The Really Good Software Company to:

Alternatively, email sales.rgsc@argonet.co.uk or call 01582 761395 upon which further details should be available.

The Complete DiscWorld list

So in alphabetical order this months DiscWorld contains:

• ARMCODE - Files supporting the ARM Code articles by Brian Pickard.
• BEGINPRG - The examples from the BASIC programming series.
• TOP25 - Our top 25 PD/Freeware/Shareware games.
• KRISALIS - A sample game from the Krisalis CD available from R-COMP.
• NBOARD - Noticeboard, the full version.
• PD - All the latest software from our PD round up.
• POVRAY3 - Complete version of the POV-Ray ray tracing application.
• QA - The lottery generator program from the Q&A article.

Utilities

This CD-ROM contains a number of utilities and pieces of software to accompany the articles in the magazine. The magazine now uses GIF and JPEG images rather than having two versions, one with Sprites and one with GIF. The magazine can be found in the HTML directory from the root of the CD.

There are three utilities to help you read this disc (RISC OS users only). These can be found hidden inside the !RiscWorld application in the UTILITIES directory (The !RiscWorld application automatically uses these utilities if they are required):

• A file-only copy of Fresco, to display the HTML. This will only run if you don't already have a copy of Fresco installed, so that it won't overwrite your cache.
• ArcFS, which can be used to read some of the archived software on the disc.
• SparkPlug, an alternative de-archiver which can also read Zip files.

Usenet archive

Also included on the disc is an archive of the comp.sys.acorn.* newsgroups since early December 2000. These are stored in a special read-only version of Messenger Pro which will allow you to view the messages, but nothing more complicated. The archive is presented 'as is', and RISC World doesn't make any guarantee about the usefulness, relevance or acceptability of any information contained in it.