Get Medieval

Put four irreverent and cheeky little adventurers onto the same screen, give them a dungeon full of bad guys to run around in and you have the best remake of the arcade classic, Gauntlet that you're ever likely to find. Get Medieval is a top-down adventure game where all the players are locked within the same screen - in other words all players have to stick together in order to move around the gaming area. You can take on the role of egotistical Elf, Conan-esque Warrior, feminine Fighter (Valkyrie with attitude) or salacious Sorceror in their mission to defeat the Great Dragon, Daramil.

Forget real-time strategy, roleplaying or problem solving - this is pure arcade fun complete with fast action, high-res graphics, power-ups and more. Mulitplayer options provide you with the normal fare of LAN and Internet options for up to four players. Players can also share the same keyboard and play from the one screen, which is great fun for those without a network. Monolith's DungeonEdit lets you add your own creations to the 40 levels that come as standard. There's also a Random Dungeon Generator that gives you virtually unlimited gameplay. Get mad, get even, GET MEDIEVAL!

Size: 15 Mb

Shareware: $US39.99

Platforms: Win95/98

Where: http://www.getmedieval.com/

Score: ****

Across Lite

Any fan of crossword puzzles will love this little puzzling tool. Across Lite loads crossword puzzles and gives you all the tools to complete the puzzle online. Alternatively you can download the puzzle and complete it on your computer at a later date. The Washington Post, CrosSynergy syndicate and New York Times all use the Across format for distributing their puzzles. If that isn't enough, Across Lite also has a series of plug-ins for converting other electronic crossword formats, such as USA Today.

The Across puzzle format is open so you can even develop your own puzzles and distribute them online. The interface is very intuitive and can be tailored to suit. You can view clues, enter your answers in 'pen' or 'pencil', check for incorrect letters, or even get Across to selectively solve those harder problems. If you're anything like me though, you like to scratch your head over a cup of coffee down the local cafΘ. Thankfully, Across Lite prints the crossword and all its clues perfectly to a single sheet A4. You can print your partially solved puzzle or even the complete solution if you need to. Overall the best way to wax quizically online.

Win95/98 ,Windows3.11, Mac

Size: 371kb Freeware (personal use)

Platforms: Win95/98/NT Mac OS/2 UNIX (Many flavours)

Where: http://www.litsoft.com/

Score: ****1/2

Synergy 1.0

Synergy is an Intranet out-of-the-box product for both the SOHO and enterprise market. It needs an office running an NT file server and the Cold Fusion application server (http://www.coldfusion.com/). The SOHO edition comes complete with five user licenses (you can add more later) with access to a whole range of collaborative features. Applications include contact management, scheduler/calendar, Web based email, document management, project management, discussion forums, notice board and resource tracker. Basically the whole kit and caboodle. Synergy offers complete security with the ability to set user and group permissions. The Synergy application framework lets developers build and drop their own applications directly into the Synergy interface. What makes Synergy different from the raft of other PIM and office products out there is that Synergy runs on a server that workers access using a standard Web browser. Hook up your office with a permanent Internet connection or host your Intranet on an ISP like ZipWorld or Telstra and any body can access their office information, from anywhere, at anytime using a standard dial-up Internet connection. If client-server is really dead then Synergy is evidence of the "thin-client" working like a charm.

Win95/98

Size: 9.73Mb

Shareware: $US500

Platforms: Server - WinNT (running Cold Fusion). Client - Any Platform

Where: http://www.catouzer.com

Score: *****

Coffee Cup DirectFTP

DirectFTP from CoffeeCup offers standard FTP functions like drag 'n drop downloading and uploading, along with multiple FTP server profile support. Beyond the normal features, DirectFTP comes complete with a built-in HTML authoring tool. Those of you using CoffeeCups HTML editor will be familiar with many of the features of this more basic version. The beauty of this, though, is the ability to get in and edit your Web site remotely with a decent set of Web building tools. The HTML editor offers tag colour coding, Web page quick-start wizard, as well as linking, image and font wizards - all very nice for a remote touch-up of your web masterpiece. Veteran Web designers would point out that working on a live site has the distinct disadvantage of leaving you with no backup. Enter the really cool feature of DirectFTP. Navigate to the directory you want to backup on the remote server, and select Archive Current Directory. DirectFTP gathers all your files together, including sub-directories, downloads them to your workstation and creates a zip file of the lot. DirectFTP is a good, basic all-in-one product. Those with existing HTML editing tools, however, would probably find better value in a more sophisticated FTP client like CuteFTP.

Win95/98

Size: 1.2Mb

Shareware $US30

Platforms: Win95/98/NT

Where: http://www.coffeecup.com/

Score: ***