Unused RISC User Material

Here we provide a number of items that were completed but never published

Features

	Sleuth and OCR A feature by Ian MacDougall which explains how optical character recognition (OCR) works, with reference to Beebug's Sleuth package
	RISC User 11:4: Dave Walker interview (uncut version) After giving this interview, Acorn felt that it may have revealed too many secrets about its new technologies; the company wanted to have a few surprises left when the new products were launched! Therefore, the full version of the interview, as published on the RISC User Disc, was itself slightly chopped down. The document presented here is the uncut original version from which the others were derived, and is around 400 words longer than the "full" version published on the Magazine Disc.
	RISC User 11:4: Final instalment of Toolbox Topics This final article in Tony Howat's Toolbox Topics series was never published because it depended on a software update from Acorn being included on the Magazine Disc, and unfortunately it was not possible to obtain the necessary permission from Acorn in time for the publication deadline.

Reviews

	RISC User volume 6: ART20 A review of Tekoa Graphics' ART20 by Richard Hallas. This was commissioned for use in one of the later issues of volume 6 but was never published.
	RISC User 8:2: WimpGEN A review of Silicon Vision's Wimp interface creator by Nathan Micholey.
	RISC User 9:2: Iomega Zip drive An early review of this removable storage drive by Paul Ashmore.
	RISC User 9:3: Archiboard review An early edition of John Stonier's bulletin board software review, longer than the version we were able to publish.
	RISC User 11:5: Phantasm The original version of Nobilangelo Ceramalus' review, before it was revised to accommodate a STOP PRESS announcement.
	RISC User 11:10: Ever the TWAIN A review of David Pilling's version 2 TWAIN scanner drivers by Nobilangelo Ceramalus. There was insufficient space to accommodate this in the issue for which it was intended, and in the end it was left unpublished.
	RISC User 11:10: Talking from the Inside This is an early version of Mark Moxon's review of Acorn's internal modem for the Risc PC; it was subsequently published in issue 12:1 in a significantly updated form (the unused 11:10 version of the review predates Clares' acquisition of the modems).
	RISC User 12:9: Psion Series 7 screenshots Screenshots from the Psion Series 7 which were taken to accompany the review but which could not be accommodated in the page layout due to lack of space

Regulars

	RISC User 9:2: Technical Queries The second of the two queries in this article was used in a later issue (9:4).
	RISC User 9:7: Editorial column An editorial column by Richard Hallas predicting a major rise in popularity of the World Wide Web along with increased commercial use; written in May 1996, the column may have been considered mildly prophetic had it actually been printed! In the end, a column with greater direct relevance to Acorn was used.
	RISC User 11:3: Editorial column Another unused editorial column by Richard Hallas, dating from February 1998 and concerned mainly with Oracle's poor handling of its NC idea. This editorial was discarded in favour of a column with a stronger message, but with Acorn's subsequent demise and the failure of the NC idea in mind, it makes quite interesting reading.
	RISC User 11:6: Front cover The original plan for this issue was to feature Phantasm on the cover; this is the design that would have been used had it not been supplanted by the Wakefield Show montage. The spinning top graphic was created by Nick van der Walle of Astute Graphics, using ArtWorks and Phantasm.
	RISC User 11:8: News pages The third page of news in this issue was replaced at the last minute by some late details concerning the Acorn Workstations rescue plan. This is the previous incarnation of the News pages, with a few extra stories intact.
	RISC User volume 12: Front cover This cover, created by Jill Regan (aka Wandering Jelly), was designed to mark the arrival of the IMS Peanut laptop computer. Unfortunately the Peanut was never launched, and hence the cover was not used. It is interesting to compare this cover with the one that was designed subsequently for issue 12:8, in which Reversi counters are used instead of peanuts to create the Acorn logo.

Miscellaneous

	RISC User 9:1 (onwards): Page icons OS logos that were considered for use on review and program pages to indicate software compatibility. These logos were created in Draw to represent PC- or ARM-based products, and to denote RISC OS 2, 3 or 3.5 (Risc PC) compatibility, but the decision was eventually taken not to use them.
	RISC User 11:2: Lucky Dip graphic A more visually interestingly version of the Lucky Dip competition than the one printed; it was not used in the magazine due to lack of space.
	General Knowledge Crossword A crossword created by Roger King which was too large to be used easily within RISC User. Here it is provided along with its solution; click the icon on the left to see the puzzle and clues, and the icon on the right for the answers.

Disc items

Click the icon to open a page containing a number of software updates, plus a small selection of previously unpublished items